( canon is maureen johnson's "shades of london" series )

[termini]

I don't get why you're the one pouting. I'm the one who is alone here.

Just give it up already, we're not going to find any castmates okay. And it's not like I can even hang out with ghosts, that would be even worse. For everyone. So just let me go, so I don't have to be alone anymore.

Comments

[hedgewitch]

Hang out with ghosts? [ Pru is interested. ]

[termini]

[ oops? ]

Yeah. I can see ghosts. I just... shouldn't be around them.

[hedgewitch]

[ Prudence blinks, mouth opening, a look of astonishment on her face. As well as…eagerness? ] Are you a Hedge Witch?

[termini]

A Hedge Witch? No. [ rory shakes her head. ] No ...I don't think so.

[ hey, if people like her who can see ghosts can exist. if people like her who can make ghosts explode and send them to wherever it is that ghosts go can exist - why not witches. or hedge witches. why do people never tell her about these things? ]

I almost died. After that I started seeing ghosts.

[hedgewitch]

[ Pru's shoulders droop. ] Oh. [ It's okay. ] I'm a Hedge Witch. I can see ghosts, too.

[termini]

Oh. Can you make them... explode?

[hedgewitch]

I don't know. I've never thought about something like it since now.

[termini]

I couldn't always do it. Where I come from we used to have these things we called terminus, to send ghosts to the other side.

[ at least rory hopes that's where they go. she pauses, unsure how to even continue. how can she even begin to explain everything that happened? everything that led up to her becoming a human terminus? ]

It's really complicated but basically I'm a human terminus... I can do that with a single touch.

[hedgewitch]

That's pretty cool. [ She just has one little qualm about it. ] …these are bad ghosts, right? BEcause there are good ghosts out there.

[termini]

What?! Yes! [ she's feeling kind of flustered suddenly, because actually being able to talk about this to someone is so foreign to her. ] I've met a few nice ghosts, but there are some who aren't, and some who are just...stuck.