Room 302 [Friday late afternoon]
Celia had never been one for Christmas, really. It didn't hold much weight for her father aside from increased ticket prices for the month of December, and for Celia, all that had meant was more time spent on her own in hotels and dressing rooms. She had vague memories of attending midnight mass with her mother as a child, of candles and wishes and a distant sort of warmth -- but as with all things from that time in her life, even Celia didn't know how many of those memories were real, versus a retroactive hope for what she'd wanted it to be.
In any case, this year had been somewhat different. For one thing, it was the first time she could remember receiving gifts (in the plural, even!) For another, and much more importantly -- it was the first time she'd spent it amongst people who made her understand why the whole world fell in love with holly and tinsel for a month. Staying on the island had absolutely been the best choice, especially considering her father hadn't so much as written for her to join him, anyway. She'd delighted herself with the picking out and wrapping of gifts, and yesterday had been everything she'd imagined Christmas could be -- she'd spent the day with Ichabod, to whom she had given a smartphone after a few weeks of agonizing endlessly over her choices. (And she would be forever grateful to Ms. Pryde for teaching her enough to know what to look for, and not to be overwhelmed by her many, many options.)
Friday, meanwhile, found her playing with her own gift from him -- though 'playing,' perhaps, was not exactly the right word. She'd started the assembly process for her new telescope while daylight was still filtering through the window, though of course it wouldn't be especially useful until the sun set. (Celia had not yet realized that she could use it to spy on people during the day, of course -- possibly because the idea didn't actually hold all that much appeal. The radio did that anyway, after all.) And in an effort to enjoy it as it was meant to be enjoyed, she was thus far refraining from using her magic to put it together, and instead carefully following the directions.
"Attach telescope main body, H, by aligning the hole in the telescope saddle with that in the yoke. Screw yoke locking knobs, L, through both holes and tighten the knob," she read aloud, then looked at the pieces she had spread out before her on the floor. "...saddle? Which one's the saddle?"
Magic, honestly, probably wouldn't really help, anyway.
[for the boy, please! edit: and maybe not the safest thing for work, now?]
In any case, this year had been somewhat different. For one thing, it was the first time she could remember receiving gifts (in the plural, even!) For another, and much more importantly -- it was the first time she'd spent it amongst people who made her understand why the whole world fell in love with holly and tinsel for a month. Staying on the island had absolutely been the best choice, especially considering her father hadn't so much as written for her to join him, anyway. She'd delighted herself with the picking out and wrapping of gifts, and yesterday had been everything she'd imagined Christmas could be -- she'd spent the day with Ichabod, to whom she had given a smartphone after a few weeks of agonizing endlessly over her choices. (And she would be forever grateful to Ms. Pryde for teaching her enough to know what to look for, and not to be overwhelmed by her many, many options.)
Friday, meanwhile, found her playing with her own gift from him -- though 'playing,' perhaps, was not exactly the right word. She'd started the assembly process for her new telescope while daylight was still filtering through the window, though of course it wouldn't be especially useful until the sun set. (Celia had not yet realized that she could use it to spy on people during the day, of course -- possibly because the idea didn't actually hold all that much appeal. The radio did that anyway, after all.) And in an effort to enjoy it as it was meant to be enjoyed, she was thus far refraining from using her magic to put it together, and instead carefully following the directions.
"Attach telescope main body, H, by aligning the hole in the telescope saddle with that in the yoke. Screw yoke locking knobs, L, through both holes and tighten the knob," she read aloud, then looked at the pieces she had spread out before her on the floor. "...saddle? Which one's the saddle?"
Magic, honestly, probably wouldn't really help, anyway.
[for the boy, please! edit: and maybe not the safest thing for work, now?]