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10 July, 2012

Out of Sync (This is why no one can see me.)

Neffydd had been noticing a disturbing recurrence of events, lately.

Occasionally people had difficulties finding her, no matter how glaringly obvious she was. Some of those times, despite deductive evidence that it was completely impossible to miss her, people just couldn't find her... and she would never see them looking.

It's not uncommon for one of her children to go looking for her and completely miss her. They're not very good at paying any type of attention to any type of thing at all.

However, when Warder Sullens was having a procedure at the local medical facility Neffydd sat in the only waiting room, in front of the only door, next to the only lifter reading her book for almost five hours before someone came to get her.

The elderly wood elf cast her gaze across the room, "Neffydd?" She looked confused.

"Yes...?" Neffydd was concerned that the two hour procedure had taken so long. Her mind was making up all manner of horrid things that could have happened.

"Where have you been?" The nurse sounded testy. "We've been looking for you. Sullens is getting ready to leave."

"What?" It was Neffydd's turn to be confused. "I've been sitting here the entire time."

"We sent someone to get you almost two hours ago." The older elf guided them to a lower floor and toward Sullens chamber, "It must have been while you were in the latrine or something."

"I've been 'holding it' so I wouldn't miss him." Neffydd replied darkly. "I was in that room the entire time."

"Well, I don't know then. There's only one entrance and exit to that department." The nurse parted the curtain to Sullens room and reunited them.

Neffydd mulled over how she could have missed seeing Sullens, on a padded gurney, attached to an IV bag and beeping monitors, in the company of a nurse, a technician and an orderly who were all actively looking for her.

Later that week, and again a few weeks later, she waited for public transit a extra ordinary amount of time before using her telecom to call for information. Both times she was told that her transport had come and gone, without seeing her at all.

Now, Neffydd is not reclusive, she doesn't wear washed out dark colors or pastels, she doesn't ignore things or people who pass by, she is not deaf or blind... Quite the opposite, in fact. Her wardrobe is of bright and often primary colors, she talks to random people for entertainment, she can hear a pin drop in a party and she only needs corrective lenses for reading.

How, then, is it possible to miss her standing on the side of the road, waiting patiently, bored out of her ever-loving mind? Sullens was even with her one of the times! A six-and-a-half foot demon, for goodness sake! The public transit workers have a lot to take care of while guiding a large caravan down busy streets. Sometimes they don't see the people waiting. But when Neffydd never sees, (or hears,) the transport pass, it means something is amiss.

These events seem to be recurring more frequently over the past few years. As a child, Neffydd was always good at finding places to hide and read a favorite novel. Children often are. As a young teen, she was shy and attributed her seeming invisibility to a lack of people who wanted to find her. In her later teens and early twenties Neffydd decided that the only reason she had for not having many friends was her lack of effort; so she changed her attitude. Now she literally knew hundreds of people, but even her closest friends, family and lovers occasionally lost her in plain sight.

Neffydd's working theory is that she has to make the effort to stay in sync with the rest of society. If she's not paying strict attention to being able to be found, she can't be. Unfortunately, just like Arthur Dent's ability to fly, if she's thinking about it even in the slightest, she re-syncs. Even if she's thinking about how to stay invisible.

She's been sat on while reading, stepped on in a theater, channel-changed while watching a telecast, jumped on while sleeping, glanced-through while working, bumped, banged, shoved, gossiped about, discussed, and so on. The only other remedy seems to be if someone knows exactly where she is, and she doesn't move an inch.

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