There's a rise, there's a fall, where the light hits the wall, spins a shadow...

[evengodsdo]

((OOC: Backdated to earlier today. Julia can now hear and will be very aware of other people's surface thoughts, so just know that if you tag her now.))

Julia stopped paying attention to her birthdays a long time ago. She knows vaguely how old she is, but the exact date just stops being important after so long. Except, apparently, this one day,

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[radiantsoldier]

Elena's heading to the training room for a workout, when Julia catches her eye. She starts to grin, still a little shy (and she's never fuckin' shy... seriously, this is getting pathetic), and then stops. And doubletakes.

Three years with Romana, and she knows that faint glow, and...

Madre de Dios...

Okay, she needs to not think about all the stuff she usually thinks of when she sees Julia... which is like trying not to think of a white elephant. Fuck.

Her thoughts for the next few minutes are a frantic mix of apologies and mortification, and some truly impressive cursing in Spanish in which donkeys and the Virgin Mary feature prominently.

¡Diga algo, idiota!

"Um. Hey."

Smooth. Real smooth. Maybe she can talk Vincent into transfering her somewhere far, far away, porque toda esta mierda es ridícula.

The fact that she still thinks Julia is about a hundred different kinds of hot is not helping. And she's not thinking of that.

"...'scuse me. I gotta go beat my head into that wall over there until the stupid goes away."

[evengodsdo]

Being slightly drunk muffles other people's thoughts, doesn't drown them out altogether, and particularly when it's someone right in front of her, someone she's interested in... Elena's thoughts, to Julia's slight dismay, are clear as a bell. She never wanted that, it's intrusive and wrong, and okay, some of those thoughts are more than interesting but that is entirely beside every point...

"Hi," Julia says slowly. Words. She's focusing on words now, and none of the things that are in her head or Elena's and this would be much fucking easier if she could work out which is which. "If you'd prefer, I could beat my head against something instead. I'm sure it would save everyone down here a lot of trouble - myself included."

She always thought she'd be dead by now, and never really thought to plan for it and dear fucking God, how is she nine hundred already?

[radiantsoldier]

"Hey, don't do that." Elena smiles a bit, despite herself. "I kinda like your head the way it is." There's a sudden, irrational urge to throw in a 'ma'am' after that, and she stifles that, despite her time dealing with Romana telling her that this is a goddamn First, and she should show some respect. Somehow, she gets the feeling that Julia wouldn't be too thrilled with the whole respectful subordinate act.

And it's not like she's ancient and big on dignity like Romana was. That and Elena's pretty sure that becoming a First doesn't automatically give you a stick up your ass. Not that Romana had one, but that was different.

...Her mind's running in fuckin' circles, and she doesn't quite like it. Especially not when Julia can read her mind now, and that's got to be annoying.

[evengodsdo]

"God, don't call me ma'am," Julia says quickly, and then realizes that Elena said nothing of the sort aloud, and winces. "Sorry. Sorry. I'm not... this is why I need to be drinking right now." Like that's helping at all. Jesus fuck.

She rubs at the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes for a moment. That really doesn't help either, and she keeps thinking about her mother... though at least the comparisons seem somewhat favorable. She smiles a little, without opening her eyes. "If you'd like to go anywhere I'm not, I swear I won't be offended. I'm not sure I can turn this off."

[thrillofthekill]

Vincent's in the kitchen, making a sandwich, because today is not exactly a day he expects weirdness to happen. Today is a day for sandwiches with probably way more meat than is absolutely necessary.

Sandwich accomplished, he wanders out of the kitchen and gets a faceful of Julia, which he does not, at first, think is any sort of indication of where his day is about to go.

...Until he notices the glow. And that weird feeling of awe he always got in the pit of his stomach when he was around Romana.

Julia, we're sure you didn't want the current head of the Archangel Army gawking at you with a hunk of sandwich dangling unceremoniously from his mouth. You get one anyway. He'll remember his manners in a moment.

[evengodsdo]

Julia hates today already. She does not need Vincent fucking Sterling staring at her like that. ...she can't decide if the sandwich makes it better or worse, and so decides to disregard it altogether.

"Oh, for the love of God, do you have to do that? Yes, I'm glowing. So what?" ...okay, a little more belligerent than he really deserves. In her defense, she's both grumpy and drunk.

[thrillofthekill]

Vincent tries to swallow, which turns into a lot of choking and sputtering and balancing his sandwich in one hand while he pounds his chest to make sure THAT BREATHING CAN CONTINUE.

"Sorry," he finally manages to choke out, looking a bit red which could be from embarrassment or because he just nearly choked to death. "Just... Wasn't expectin' that."

He considers taking another bite of the sandwich and have some more of the hair of the dog, but figures that... Avoiding speaking is not the way to go hear.

"Guessin' you weren't either, huh?"

[evengodsdo]

Julia actually laughs at that, though it's a slightly sharp-edged, bitter laugh. It figures that she'd run into the one person who can't stop seeing her mother in her - and she'd had her suspicions about that before, but now she has them so neatly confirmed. Of course.

"No, I really wasn't. The plan was that I'd be dead before I had to deal with this. You'd think someone would give you a choice about all of this, but no." She prowls toward him, but it's just to get to the fridge. Food. Alcohol. Either one would be good.

[please_see_me]

Dusty doesn't really know Miss Julia, though she's spoken to her once or twice. But really, for the most part, she's just another grown-up that Dusty doesn't really think twice about.

However, just know, passing by her as she steps out of the training room, Dusty suddenly has a faint feeling of... she's not sure. It's not quite inferiority, it's just... a strange knowledge that Julia is the alpha dog, so to speak. So she stops and frowns at her absently, though she's still mostly thinking thoughts about her girlfriend that most people don't think Children's Angels even have.

...Sorry, Julia.

[evengodsdo]

Most of the thoughts have become background noise at this point - the people who are thinking them are far enough away from Julia that she doesn't have to really listen to them - but Dusty passes close enough that overhearing is really, really unavoidable.

She twitches, and whirls to face Dusty. "You might... want to try thinking about something else. Unless you're really interested in sharing the details of your hypothetical sex life with every psychic in the building, in which case, carry on." Okay, so that's probably an exaggeration. Julia's probably the only psychic in the building who's unshielded, but still.

[please_see_me]

Dusty's eyes go epic wide and suddenly she's trying to think of anything but what she was just thinking about and (as per the law of the White Elephant) her mind keeps going worse and worse places and she turns bright red.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry I really didn't know you could do that and I'm trying to stop and I can't stop and oh god oh god oh god..."

[evengodsdo]

Julia should not have to choke back a laugh right now, because it's kind of... well... mean to the poor children's angel, but something about this is just vaguely hilarious.

"I didn't know I could either. Until this morning. You don't have to apologize, just thought I'd... warn you..." And dear God, she has a filthy mind for a children's angel.

[clanoftheswords]

Oh, this is so not what Farley had planned for today. After finding Appointment with Death and meeting Romana (the Time Lady, not the First among Fruitcakes), he's been in a better mood, or at least to the point where his self-imposed quarantine wasn't so annoying. He'd reached the point where Poirot was about to explain Whodunnit, How, And Why, and was on his way to the kitchen to see if there were doughnuts and if there might be any other Christie books in the common room.

Then along comes this tall blond dish, possibly soused and definitely... bleeding? Infected? (This is the Conrad, so he isn't going to rule out the possibility that she isn't quite human.) And is it just him, or is she - he squints - glowing?

He gives her a once over, eyes lingering briefly in places they probably shouldn't (hips, the torn-up knuckles, chest, and her head.)

Yep. Definitely glowing.

"Um... hi."

[evengodsdo]

Julia's eyes narrow just a little. Farley isn't someone she recognizes, but she doesn't have to recognize him - it only takes a moment and she knows his name, what he is, and all of what he's thinking. Just fucking wonderful.

"This cannot be the strangest thing you people have seen. You live in the fucking Conrad basement and suddenly someone glowing just a little is weird?" Well... yeah, Julia. It's not like they've had a First around in more than a year.

[clanoftheswords]

Farley doesn't jump. Even though this is the Conrad, the place where he's supposed to be safe, dammit, he knows that threats can still hide down here and he's not gonna let Julia see him scared.

He does twitch, just a teense, but it passes quickly enough.

"...Maybe, maybe not, but I prefer to be careful around... new things..." Especially since "new things" were how he got himself into this mess in the first place. Psychics, magic knives, and the Shadow, oh my!

And he doesn't even know her name yet. Hoo boy.

[evengodsdo]

Julia almost smirks. You can refuse to let fear show all you want, Farley - Julia can sense that wariness. He's not a demon, or a fellow angel, or anyone she knows, so her interest at the moment is pretty limited, but she makes note of it anyway, in the back of her mind.

"People, I think, is the word you're looking for, darling," she drawls sardonically. Julia is not a thing, thank you, glowy or not.

[threetowonder]

There are certain things that a skilled psychic can't help but notice. Especially if that psychic is also a Time Lord.

:: Pardon me, :: comes the thought. :: But this is a bit new to you, isn't it? ::

A few moments later, a man in black makes his way down the hall, one eyebrow raised slightly. "I was wondering if I could be of some help."

Here, Julia. Have someone who isn't thinking all over the place.