One minute they're both sitting, Daniel hesitantly reading out the passage and the air shivering with the strain of the words, and the next they're - not.
Daniel looks up, mouth open, the book almost entirely forgotten. The sunlight gleaming down at them is a welcome contrast to the dark and derelict building, a complete tonal about-face. Melanie's recreated the titular garden, blending the description on the pages with details Daniel assumes came from her own head. The effect is striking, if not strictly botanically accurate.
He closes the book and carefully tucks it under his own arm - it must have traveled with them through kinetic necessity since Daniel had been holding it at the time - and stands to better observe their startlingly beautiful new dream setting. He quickly decides that he vastly prefers it to the building they were in before. Both versions. For a few minutes he can only stand and stare in silent, appreciative wonder. Melanie's enthusiastic reaction returns him to the present.
"You did it," he answers, smiling. "You did this with your mind. Which is really...wow. It's, it's incredible, really."
He's not lying. The attention to detail, while not what Daniel would call conventional, is stunning - and unconventional has never equated to anything bad in his mind. It demonstrates an ability to think beyond common confines, a freedom of imagination Melanie clearly possesses. She's a bright kid, which, as Daniel soon remembers, makes her real world situation all the more sobering. He can't understand why someone with this much intellect and creative energy would be locked up, would want to be locked up. Her potential is astronomical. And she very obviously loves books, only serving to endear to him more.
no subject
Daniel looks up, mouth open, the book almost entirely forgotten. The sunlight gleaming down at them is a welcome contrast to the dark and derelict building, a complete tonal about-face. Melanie's recreated the titular garden, blending the description on the pages with details Daniel assumes came from her own head. The effect is striking, if not strictly botanically accurate.
He closes the book and carefully tucks it under his own arm - it must have traveled with them through kinetic necessity since Daniel had been holding it at the time - and stands to better observe their startlingly beautiful new dream setting. He quickly decides that he vastly prefers it to the building they were in before. Both versions. For a few minutes he can only stand and stare in silent, appreciative wonder. Melanie's enthusiastic reaction returns him to the present.
"You did it," he answers, smiling. "You did this with your mind. Which is really...wow. It's, it's incredible, really."
He's not lying. The attention to detail, while not what Daniel would call conventional, is stunning - and unconventional has never equated to anything bad in his mind. It demonstrates an ability to think beyond common confines, a freedom of imagination Melanie clearly possesses. She's a bright kid, which, as Daniel soon remembers, makes her real world situation all the more sobering. He can't understand why someone with this much intellect and creative energy would be locked up, would want to be locked up. Her potential is astronomical. And she very obviously loves books, only serving to endear to him more.