Living with a decreased power supply was a strange adjustment, but it did mean that there was substantially less light to pollute the sky - and with the absence of the fog, the night sky was visible in all of its brilliance. Considering the fact that this had been a rare occurrence before now, it was not easy to miss.
Near the dark shore of the island stood what appeared to be an awed Mimsy, her head tilted up towards the stars. She was entirely silent and completely still, and the only evidence of her presence was her silhouette illuminated by the moonlight.
Her eyes found each constellation, followed each streak of light from one to the other, wearing a smile that seemed to hold concentrated happiness. Observing the cosmos was one of her most treasured hobbies, but Deus and the fog were very quick to change that. There was really nothing to see except darkness before now, and they all had enough of that during the daytime anyway.
But now it was all working out, and this was yet another spoil among the rewards.
It was after 2 a.m. and the Perseid meteor shower was at its peak, dusting the sky with shooting stars that darted towards the horizon.
Nevada: "What meteor shower is this?" Mimsy: "The Perseids, radiant of the constellation Pegasus."
Shiloh: "Beautiful, huh?" Mimsy: "Its Zenithal Hourly Rate indicates that we will be seeing an estimated eighty meteors per hour."
Nevada:"Do any of the meteors hit earth? Where do they all come from?" Mimsy: "I would estimate of all of the meteors that you see tonight, you could count the number that strike Earth on one hand. Most disintegrate before they pass through the atmosphere, because most of them are..." She held her fingers so closely together that they almost touched. "Smaller than this. And they are the result of debris being vaporized in our atmosphere - this particular shower is from the debris left behind by the Swift-Tuttle comet."
Shiloh: "So is the uh, Swift-Turtle comet gone now? Like, is it just dust? Or the shooting stars we’re seeing?" Mimsy: "Oh, no! It just left a mess when it passed us. It's a periodic comet, which means that it passes our orbit more frequently than once every two-hundred years. Swift-Tuttle passes every one-hundred and thirty-three. If I remember correctly, we would be able to see it again in 2126."
Nevada: "So they are super small, just dust from a comet? How often does this happen Mimsy?" Mimsy: "Yes, like comet dust. They happen with a fairly decent frequency! There were seven this year, and there will be even more next year, but the Perseides happen annually. The Perseids are widely accepted as the best, if you are someone who plays favorites with the cosmos. It is inarguably the most brilliant of them all, so it steals the show."
Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 12:30 am
Power, when taken away, in any of its forms always left humans to struggle without it. Power, when it fueled everything they lived by, taken away worried and awed Nevada. She had never dependent on something, or so she had thought until there was a limited amount of electricity to power most of the activities that got her through the days. Since there was limited computers, she couldn't do active Mist/Life work.
And since she was pretty sure her and stormy killed the runic portable dvd player, watching movies was out. Reading books would be nice.
Instead, she decided on a walk around the Island. The fog had slowly disappeared after all, and for the first time on the Island since she had come, there was a sky. A beautiful star filled sky.
And within that star sky was a shower that delighted and startled her. Part of her wondered if it was a consequence of the Tear they had all come back from, the other was more enchanted with its magic.
And it looked like it wasn't her just watching either.
"Hey there Mimsy..." Nevada knew the girl from twitter, coming to stand next to her. "What meteor shower is this?" She figured the girl knew since Life, plus smart on Twitter plus, man look at her cute leggings.
Shiloh was okay without power. It hadn’t been that long since he’d found himself laid out in the backfield at home, nestled amongst the long grass and staring at the same starry sky. To be honest, it was comforting, a sight for sore eyes to know that at least the same stars still shone here, even if they were usually hidden by fog and cloud. He spent most of his time back on the beaches, with the power being out there wasn’t much to do, and for a trainee like himself, in times of emergency, he was best to just stay out of the way of those who were competent enough to run things, and help where he could.
He wandered along the shoreline, and he was nearly level with Mimsy and the other hunter before he noticed them, smiling as he did and ambling their way. He lifted his hand in greeting, and then followed their awed gazes back towards the sky, falling into line next to them.
“Beautiful, huh?”
Nothing Yet
Nyxtsuki Moon
Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 1:38 am
"The Perseids, radiant of the constellation Pegasus." Mimsy pointed into the sky, presumably towards Pegasus, and dropped her hand back down to her side without another word. With that information out of the way, she fell silent again, still staring up at the stars, until Shiloh spoke.
"Mathematically incredible," she began, removing her attention from the sky just long enough to look at him. "Its Zenithal Hourly Rate indicates that we will be seeing an estimated eighty meteors per hour."
So, beautiful, in her own words.
"If you would like to stay, I could answer any other questions that you might have." There was a brief pause as she considered something. "Or we could just watch." With a small, practiced smile to each of them, she shrugged her coat off and spread it on the ground, plopping down onto it once it was flattened out.
Maybe they had never allowed her to participate in any interpersonal teaching activities while she was an Astronomy TA (and they had been right not to, really), but she could try now. There were no handouts to copy anyway.
Quote:
If anyone is late arriving and wants to know this info without asking again, it's okay to assume you heard it! <3
"Us or the Sky handsome?" Nevada turned her eye to Shiloh for a brief second before back to the sky, looking to where Mimsy pointed. Unlike the other girl though, her eye wasn't long distance, and the more she focused, the more it hurt.
Taking her coat off, she joined the girl down on the ground.
"Do any of the meteors hit earth?" Nevada brought her legs up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them and setting her chin on the top. "Where do they all come from?"
Nothing Yet
Sammpai
Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 7:32 am
Fortunately for one Ian Rahal-Nazari, he was entirely unaffected from the power outage and really wasn't bothered by it at all, except that he'd had to shower in the dark (which was less of an annoyance and more of a tricky challenge to overcome). Having no power just meant less light, but considering that the fog was now mostly gone, this hardly made a difference during the daytime.
At night, however, the darkness fell across the island in leaps and bounds, drenching everything in its path. Ian found this oddly comforting, and most of the time could be found outside enjoying it rather than staying in his dorm.
And this just happened to be one of those times.
Wandering along aimlessly with his hands in his pockets, dressed in a pair of jeans and a dark red shirt, Ian ambled down towards the edge of the island, his eyes flickering upwards every so often to catch sight of the night sky. Ahead of him, he could hear muted voices, soft and mumbling against the tide of the ocean, and he caught sight of figures ahead, silhouetted against the moonlit sky. Two he recognized, but one was unfamiliar, and as he moved closer he caught the tail end of the conversation.
"Perseids, radiant of the constellation Pegasus." Ian's eyes moved upwards once more, tilting his head in a small gesture of curiosity before his steps drew him level with the other three.
"Good evening," said Ian lightly, stepping beside Shiloh and giving him an easy smile. He lifted his hand towards Nevada, giving her a little wave and a cheerful wink before glancing at Mimsy.
"We having a party over here or something?" he asked mildly.
The fog hadn't totally disappeared until evening and Bix had been rushing around all day with the craziness that had occurred. Perimeters were checked and towns were patrolled and there had been a bit of minipet wrangling until the power had been routed properly. Dorms without power weren't much different, to be honest, just more dark. A glance out his window had brought him outside.
The island had never seemed as properly tropical as it did right this moment.
"These constellations are different than the ones back home." The albino's voice crept in from behind the crowd. With the clear sky and bright moon, his pale skin and hair pretty much glowed. "But it's nice to see the night sky again."
Too many ppl to tag hur hur
Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 9:26 am
Lawrence was getting accustomed to disasters, they seemed to pursue him incessantly. The more time that passed, the more mired he became in the perception that everything after Wonderpark - and possibly even the disaster itself - was some form of spiritual purgatory. He had done some truly, truly heinous things in his life, and it was warranted in a sense he thought. But he hadn't really wanted to die, he'd been in his prime. He was sure he could con even whatever deity or being controlled this realm if he could only get them in a one-on-one discussion.
The rolex that was the twisted resting place of the creature he'd come to think of as his familiar set its own alarm regularly, heralding what the beast termed walkies. It would beep until he surrendered to it and went out.
Getting up he stretched, his body protesting stiffly to leaving the safety of his bed. His dreams had been troubled, deeply, and he remembered wandering in a place without time or definition, scavenging for scraps of glitter from the competent. It had been depressing.
Outside the stars were out, brilliant and beautiful overhead. Beautiful and without value, it left him feeling like he was missing out on a scam. Just fifty dollars to look at nature's majesty, payable by cheque or card, join today.
He moved closer, hovering on the edge of the group, as always aware that there was that age disparity and awkward that he was somehow intruding on something that was in with the kids these days.
But the thing that was not quite a dog needed walked.
"Sky's free." Bix grinned at Lawr despite not knowing him. It even took the young man a second to scrape through his brain. ... ... ... Nope he didn't know him. The sun hunter had no idea that this was the guy on twitter who'd tried to lie about his name and also had no picture at the time.
After another silent pause with nothing but the group and the sky, Bix stepped to him and smiled again. He offered his hand with the open ended expectation of a returned introduction. "I'm Bix.."
Baneful
Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 10:10 am
"Nice to meet you pardner." he replied smoothy, something not right about his accent, like a flat note in a song. He shook the other man's hand eagerly and gave him a broad grin. "I'm Diego." As if to explain his initial awkwardness away he volunteered. "I'm new here."
In his head the toxic, oppressive voice panted eagerly. He tried to ignore it.
Nevada tilted her head back, looking up at Ian and smiling. Mist brother.
"Get bored in your room Handsome?" Well who wouldn't but, she patted the seat next to her and Mimsy, because let's admit, suddenly they were surrounded by handsome men. Also it was hard to crane neck up ALL THE WAY UP to meet eyes to talk to any of them. COME JOIN AT HER LEVEL BRO'S.
Kurotomato
Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 10:59 am
"What a time to be new." Bix laughed softly, being careful not to disturb those who were enjoying the silence.
"Diego..." This guy 1) didn't look like a Diego and 2) sounded like his accent was something he was trying out. Bix then immediately admonished himself mentally for the doubt. "Well nice to meet you. Look for me if you need anything. I'll be happy to help."
Perhaps a bit of the paranoia goddess had seeped in, the way his thoughts had spiraled towards distrust. Of course thoughts of the Goddess, then led to thoughts of Clarice and he once more got quiet.
"Woooooooooow~!" Dylon beamed. The night sky on this island was amazing! He'd never seen anything like it in the city. The young man wandered up the beach, not having been able to sleep since things got weird(er) this week at Deus.
He caught sight of the crowd, smiling widely and trotting closer. Oh hey! A Nevada! That was a face he knew.
"Nevadaaaa! Hi!" He called out, waving as he jogged closer.
Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 11:11 am
"I certainly will. I feel like I need all the help I can get." he still wasn't even sure what the crossed scythes on his coat meant. He felt like they were simply some sort of signifier that he had almost died multiple times. It was different from the trees the people on the boat at wonder park had possessed. Maybe it was related to his sins in life, outside this bizarre purgatory.
"And yes its...certainly a time to be new, I tell you what. I was on the boat that sank so far already. And my dreams lately have been really strange. Men in armour, world ending. It's quite the place."
Baneful Crew
Dramatic Hunter
Offline
Saliru
Cluttered Hunter
Offline
Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 11:12 am
Al was out wandering in hopes of catching fireflies, but of course since bugs don't last long on the island... well, his efforts were not entirely fruitful.
He did however notice the ever growing group on the beach and attempted to join them, hovering a good distance away as he tried to figure out if he knew anyone.
