Ingress 2
#2 of Ingress
Jason sighed and hung up his car keys, pushing the front door closed behind him with a foot. It was midday, and his work day was over. He was tired, and he smelled like fish. Ever since he had moved to Australia, he had been working at the local docks of the small town, packaging fish to be sent to the local city. It was rough work, especially since it all happened in the very early hours of the morning. It was one of three different jobs that he had; just part-time jobs to tide him over until he found something more permanent.
Shoulders slouching, Jason made his way to the kitchen, pulled the fridge open and pulled out a can of coke, pushing the fridge door closed behind him with his heel as he began to fix himself a sandwich. Ham, cheese, barbeque sauce. And then, as he was downing the sandwich, he headed for his room.
Jason put the half a can of coke on his dresser as he rummaged about for some clothes. He was so out of it from getting up so early, and not to mention the utterly strange dream he had had, that he didn't notice his lava lamp lying on the bed, disassembled.
Dragging out a pair of long pants, Jason pushed open the door to the bathroom and stepped inside, flicking the hot water tap on, followed by the cold water.
His toothpaste, toothbrush, comb and razor were all scattered in the sink basic, and his mirror had a smudge on it that definitely hadn't been there that morning when he left. Harrumphing, Jason pushed it out of his mind, stripped off, and then stepped into the shower, sitting himself down under the spray and just allowing the pounding spray to wash away the ache in his muscles and (hopefully) the scent of fish clinging to him.
"Magic," a voice stated from the other side of the shower curtain.
Jason gave a sound of surprise, quickly gripping the shower curtain to tug it about himself protectively, eyes wide. The plastic runners the curtain was on gave way under the weight, and the entire curtain came down. The sound of water hitting plastic filled the bathroom, like rain hitting a taught tarpaulin sheet.
Lyra was standing in the doorway of the bathroom, leaning forwards just slightly and blowing air from her pursed lips, like trying to blow through a straw, watching the way it made the steam in the room twist and curl.
"Definitely magic," Lyra affirmed with a short nod.
"What are you doing in here?!" Jason asked, aghast. This was definitely no dream. Not this time. He was wide awake.
"I opened the door, I walked in. Simple locomotion, really," Lyra said with a single nod and a wry grin.
"You know what I mean!" Jason protested, twitching the shower curtain to get the edge of it away from the edge of the shower, so that the water wasn't streaming onto the tile floor.
"I'm exploring!" Lyra said with an earnest nod and a grin. "You have a very interesting home, human. So much stuff in here. And there's so much shiny stuff! Why do humans put mirrors in everything?"
"Mirrors?" Jason asked blankly, staring at her.
"A reflective surface. You know? If you look really hard, you can see yourself in them," Lyra said with a sage nod.
Jason took a moment to rub his fingertips against his temples, feeling a headache building already. "Look. Just... give me a minute to get dressed. or something."
"Dressed?" Lyra asked, looking him up and down for a moment. "Fine. Hurry up then! I wanna know all about your stuff!"
Jason stared at Lyra for several long, long moment, a brow slowly raising.
"What?" Lyra asked after a moment, shifting uncomfortably.
"Leave!" Jason stated, exasperated. "So I can get dressed!"
"You don't want me to see you without clothes on?" Lyra asked, perplexed.
"Yes tiny pony. Yes." Jason shook his head at her lack of comprehension.
"...Oh." Lyra's ears drooped, as she turned around, stepping out of the bathroom.
Jason snorted, waiting until he was sure Lyra wasn't watching, before he climbed out of the shower, flicked the water off, and grabbed a towel, starting to dry himself off.
It was a minute or so later that a horn appeared around the edge of the doorway, and then a pair of eyes, watching him curiously as he dried himself and then pulled his clothes on. Lyra quickly whipped back out of sight before he turned to the door.
Jason straightened up his toothpaste and toothbrush, dragged the comb through his hair to get it all straight, and then placed the comb itself on the edge of the sink, making sure it was all straight. There was nothing like having someone rummage through your stuff to send you into a fit of OCD.
Jason stepped out of the bathroom, closing the door behind himself. The first thing to greet him was Lyra, holding out a smooth, oblong object filled with red liquid. the glass portion of his lava lamp.
"I think I broke it," Lyra said, pouting, her ears splayed back and her eyes wide. "Can you please fix it, human?"
Jason sighed faintly, debating telling her 'no'. but those big, wide unicorn eyes were utterly irresistible, and he shook his head a moment, taking the lamp from her. "Fine. Fine."
Casting his gaze about, Jason picked up the cap for the top of the lamp, and then slid the entire thing onto the base, plugging it in and switching it on. Instantly, the red light filled the room.
"Broke it," Lyra said with a defeated sigh.
"It's not broken," Jason said with a shake of his head, flicking a fingertip at it. "Just watch."
Lyra tilted her head, and then stared at the lava lamp for a long moment. "Broken."
"Do you have any concept of 'patience'?" Jason asked flatly.
"Nope." Lyra grinned at him over her shoulder a moment, before Jason pointed past her.
"Look," Jason said, motioning with a tilt of his head.
Lyra turned to the lamp, and gave an 'oooo' of happiness, watching as a glob of reddish material rose from the base of the lamp, distorting the light and moving towards the top of the liquid.
Jason rose, and closed the curtains, blocking out the majority of the light so that the lamp would be more visible.
Lyra was staring at it, nose almost touching the lamp, her head tilting to the side, as she tried to peek down to where the red orbs were coming from. "What makes it work?"
Jason pointed at the base of the lamp. "There's a light in there."
"I can see that, idiot," Lyra said flatly.
Jason snuffed a laugh, shaking his head, "You don't have lights where you come from?"
"We have plenty of lights in Equestria!" Lyra protested, brows furrowing as she huffed.
"No, I mean, electric lights," Jason corrected.
"What is electric?" Lyra queried blankly.
Jason gave a faint sigh. "Okay, well... Filament lights like the one in the base of this lamp," he pointed at the base, and then pulled the lamp off the base entirely, showing her the light. "They create warmth. It's what's need to make the lava la-"
Lyra cut him off, her eyes widening as she scrambled backwards away from him. "I-it has lava in it?!" she squeaked fearefully.
Jason laughed at that, chuckling at her misinterpretation.
Lyra scowled, eyes narrowing at him. "What?! You called it a lava lamp!"
"That's just the name," Jason soothed, beckoning the unicorn closer. "Look, it's just wax."
"But... why does the wax rise and fall?" Lyra asked, as she cautiously made her way over closer.
"Well, when the wax is cold, it sinks. But because the light is underneath the base, it makes the wax hot. And when it's hot, the wax melts, and becomes a liquid. It floats to the surface. Once it cools, it hardens, and sinks." Jason placed the lamp back on the base, pointing at the two orbs present in the lamp now. "This one is a liquid at the moment, which is why it's rising," he pointed at the second orb. "That one is a solid. See?"
Lyra stared at the lamp for a long moment, and then peered up at Jason. "Nope. But it's pretty!"
Jason just shook his head slowly.
"Can I have it?" Lyra asked suddenly, reaching for the lamp.
"To keep?" Jason asked, raising a brow.
"No, I thought I'd just hold onto it for a few minutes. Yes to keep!" Lyra stated, huffing.
Jason hesitated at that, pursing his lips.
Lyra splayed her ears backwards, poking out her bottom lip and looking up at him with wide, innocent eyes. "Pweeeeease?"
Jason huffed and pushed on her snout with his hand. "Fine! Just quit making that face!"
"You don't like me being cute?" Lyra asked, mystified.
Jason nodded once. "The urge to hug you when you do is unbearable."
"Then it works!" Lyra declared with a giggle, bouncing in place.
"There is a problem, though," Jason pointed out.
"What kinda problem?" Lyra asked, worry creeping into her tone.
"You need electricity to make it work," Jason pointed out, pulling out the cord to show her. The lamp switched off, and Lyra pouted deeply, bottom lip quivering.
"But... but..." Lyra said, her ears drooping.
"Unless you can plug this into a tree back in Equestria, I doubt it'll work," Jason said with a helpless shrug.
"You should come see Equestria!" Lyra said with an earnest nod, grinning at him.
"You... have really severe ADD, don't you?" Jason asked after a moment.
Lyra tilted her head to the side. "ADD? What's that?"
"Attention deficit... you know what, don't worry about it," he said with a shake of his head.
"Okay!" Lyra said with a happy bounce.
"And I'm not a unicorn. I doubt I can go to Equestria," Jason said with a faint shrug.
"I made a doorway!" Lyra said with a happy bounce. "C'mon, I'll show you!"
Dumping the lava lamp on the bed, Lyra bounded out of the room and down the hallway, heading up the stairs to the upstairs bedrooms. Jason had turned them into storage rooms after his parents had their accident.
Jason sighed faintly and followed after the unicorn, taking the stairs two at a time, and following her into the storage room and to the wardrobe where she had apparently came to his world from. "So this is the Narnia wardrobe, huh?"
Lyra peered back over her shoulder for a moment, raising a brow, and then shaking her head firmly. "No, it's Equestria. Where did you get Narnia from? It doesn't even sound the same!"
Jason just shook his head.
Lyra leaned forwards, and opened the door to the wardrobe with a touch of magic.
Jason frowned, leaning forwards as well and staring at the multicolour portal within the borders of the wardrobe.
"You... were telling the truth," Jason said blankly, blinking once.
"You thought I was lying?" Lyra asked, giving him a bewildered look over her shoulder, before taking a step forwards and then leaping through the portal.
"Wait! Come back!" Jason said, reaching a hand forwards. but Lyra was already gone.
Frowning deeply, Jason reached his fingertips out, stroking over the portal. It felt like water. Except it wasn't wet. It was silky and soft, but it was like the surface tension of water had become so strong that it just rebounded and contorted at his touches rather than parting.
Taking a deep breath, Jason closed his eyes and then pressed against the strange sensation, pushing through it. It felt like trying to push through that one mixture of corn flour and water that science teachers just loved to show their students. It was at once soft, and resistant. But with firm pressure, he managed to push right through to the other side, tumbling onto the wooden floor of the house and sprawling out with his momentum.
"Clumsy," Lyra stated.
Jason blinked up at her for a long moment, looking left, and then right, at the odd surroundings. It looked like pre-electricity furnishes. There were lamps, candles, no real appliances. A fireplace was built into one wall, and there was a bed covered in a neat patchwork quilt.
"Nice place," Jason said, pulling himself to his feet. The ceiling was within easy reach, though he didn't have to stoop to avoid hitting his head on anything.
"Why thankies," Lyra said with a happy bounce. "It doesn't have as much shiny stuff as your place, though."
"This is bizarre," Jason stated, kneeling down to peek out a window, his eyes widening. Ponies of all shapes and colours were in the street. Unicorns, normal ponies, and even pegasi. They were flying!
"That's... not possible," Jason breathed.
"What's not possible?" Lyra asked, peering past him to the street outside.
"Those ponies... They're flying. Their wings are too small," he stated with a shake of his head.
"Well, they live up on the clouds," Lyra said with a shrug.
"They sleep while they're flying?" Jason asked, trying to understand what the unicorn was saying.
Lyra shook her head. "No, they sleep on the clouds."
"...On the clouds? But clouds are water vapour," Jason pointed out. "They can't support any weight at all."
"I dunno what clouds you have, but our clouds are more sturdy, I guess. Well, they are for pegasi, but if an earth pony or a unicorn tries to step on them, they fall right through." Lyra hummed thoughtfully. "I know Twilight Sparkle has a spell for cloudwalking, but I don't know it."
Jason wrinkled his nose at that, rubbing a palm against his temple, feeling the headache coming back with renewed force.
"But what do you think of Ponyville? You probably shouldn't go outside," Lyra stated, frowning deeply. "Celestia would probably lock you up until she found out what you were, and I can't find a single mention of humans anywhere in the library."
"It's... very different," Jason said, rubbing his temple. "You guys haven't discovered penicillin yet, have you?"
"Penicillin?" Lyra asked blankly.
"Too much to hope for, I guess," Jason stated, shaking his head slowly.
Lyra hummed faintly, "You want a cup of tea?" she asked brightly.
"Sure," Jason responded, blinking up at her.
Lyra bounced over to the stove happily, a touch of magic opening the front of it. She used her magic to place a block of wood in the stove, and then lit a match, tossing it in. Another wisp of magic built the fire up, causing the wood to start burning merrily.
All the while, Jason's headache was getting worse. It was like a buzzing in the back of his mind, slowly intensifying to a full-blown migraine.
It was a few seconds later that Jason dropped to one knee, his brows furrowed deeply. "I think I need to go home," he mumbled, squinting towards the wardrobe.
"You don't feel well?" Lyra asked, frowning.
"I really don't," Jason admitted, shaking his head and squinting. He stumbled slightly as he made his way over to the wardrobe, pulled the door open, and then just tumbled through the shifting multicolour portal, sprawling back in his storage room on the floor.
The pain began to slowly recede from his mind, and he panted faintly, rubbing his palm against his temple as though he could grind the pain out of his head.
"You humans are weird," Lyra stated, shaking her head, nudging him with her nose. "You okay?"
Her horn began to glow, and he felt a pressure on his chest, trying to lift him. His hand shot out, unerringly finding her horn, tugging the unicorn close. One eye opened, narrowing at her. "Stop that."
Lyra blinked once, giving a faint squirm at the sensation of the hand around her horn. "Stop what?"
"The magic!" Jason hissed, scowling. "Ever since you got here, I've been getting this terrible migraine, and I'm quite bloody certain that your magic has something to do with it."
Lyra's ears drooped, and her bottom lip poked out.
Jason wacked her on the nose with a fingertip. "The cute face will not help you this time."
Lyra pouted at that, huffing once. "Fine. No magic then."
Jason nodded, and then released her horn, closing his eyes and just laying his head on the floor. "I'm going to lay here for a while."
"Soooo, I can go back to my exploring while you're out?" Lyra asked with a bounce and a grin.
"Knock yourself out," Jason said, waving a hand at her in a dismissive motion.
Lyra scowled, and then nudged his cheek with her hoof a little harder than necessary. "knock yourself out!"
Jason groaned faintly at the unicorn, shaking his head. "It's a figure of speech. It means 'go ahead'."
Lyra blinked, and her ears splayed back, her cheeks flushing faintly. "Oh... right!"
Jason laid his arm over his head, while Lyra turned and slipped out of the room, heading back for the room where the strange people were talking to eachother. She curled up on Jason's couch, and rested her head on her forehooves, staring at the scenes flicking back and forth. The people on it, she found, didn't even notice her. Even when they looked directly at her, they didn't even care. It was very strange, but oddly entertaining. It was kind of like looking through a window into someponies house, really!
Lyra hummed happily, and then picked up a strange black object covered in white protuberances with strange symbols on them. Human stuff was so interesting!