Snow Glow (15) : On especially cold nights, strange puffs of light rise from the snow like warm steam--only this 'steam' glows in soft, sparkling colors and moves in slow, liquid shapes, like wax escaped a lava lamp and is rising towards the sky. Scientists insist it’s an unusual, but natural, phenomenon caused by pressure and temperature changes, but that doesn’t explain how the lights react when you reach for them--swirling around your fingers like playful, weightless ribbons. Sometimes, around these strange pockets, the snow beneath your feet glimmers when you step near the lights, and coming into contact with the glow results in it clinging to your skin or clothes in faint, shimmering patches. The luminescent residue fades after a few hours and has no lasting effects.
"And you're saying it was..."
"Resisting me," she said again, her eyes not wandering away from the strange light she was currently swirling around her fingers.
Ashur raised a brow and gave her a skeptical look, taking his eyes away from his own bit of light that he'd taken to playing with. Destiny City had some of the strangest things happen within its boundaries, and this certainly was up there, but he could hardly complain about something so pretty. A part of him wanted to take some of the light home to show Dani and the girls, but also he knew that bringing something like this into their home fell under the "absolutely not" column because who really knew what was behind it.
She could feel the look and sighed. "I'd demonstrate but my presentation is coming up and I'd rather not risk being half-conscious for it, or worse–miss it entirely because I couldn't wake up."
He snorted and twirled his hand. The light followed without touching him at all, and he turned his focus back to it and tried to touch it as a result. It seeemed to duck and dodge out of the way of his fingers, bringing a small and brief smile to his lips.
"Wouldn't do much good anyway," he said, raising his other hand to join in playing with the light. "It's not like I can tell from out here that you're having a hard time using it." He tried punching it next. It turned itself into a donut before reforming and floating weightlessly just in front of him when he took his hand back.
"Don't be mean to it," she snapped lightly as she gently reached for her own bit of light and traced the shape of Boo around it. It followed her fingers and soon looked like a lit form of her little companion.
"It doesn't have feelings," he replied dully as he moved his hand close again. The light closed in and began to swirl around his fingers again.
"Still," was all she could think of in reply. She spread both her hands out and welcomed the light to dance around her fingers as well, which it seemed to happily do after a long moment.
Ekstrom turned her focus back to the Uranus Knight, her serious expression softened somewhat by the calm she was finding in playing with the light. "I guess you have a point," she eventually said through another little sigh. "Have you ever heard of anyone else having this kind of trouble?"
He shook his head.
"Or had trouble yourself?"
He shook his head again.
A less than flattering groan escaped her as she dropped her head back. Her cap slipped and she quickly, instinctively, reached up to hold it in place while she straightened out her head. The light focused on her remaining outstretched hand. Clearly it wasn't intimated by whatever kind of sounds they made. Considering it was light it probably didn't even have ears, so that made sense.
Silence fell over the two of them as they enjoyed the company of the light, their thoughts wandering off into two entirely different directions.
Ashur's mind was filled with thoughts of his family. The usual holiday things like buying gifts and decorating the house and celebrating as a family were constantly on his mind, of course. It was their first holiday with the girls. He was still on paternity leave—it helped that he owned his own business and was more than able to balance what little work had to be done to keep things maintained while still being primarily away and supporting his wife as they journeyed through a very challenging time of their lives together. So his days were mostly spent focusing on doing everything he could possibly do to be a good husband and father. Occasionally, with Dani's permission and only after ensuring someone could be there to help her while he was away (usually it was his cousin, but sometimes it was his sister), he slipped away if someone called for him, such as a friend in need. But for the most part, the focus of his life was currently very simple and straightforward. He had a single goal, and he was working very hard to reach that goal every day. Things were good, and he had plenty to be grateful for.
Ekstrom, on the other hand, was split between finishing up her final project for her graduate program and sorting out something in her knight life that had somehow gotten its wires crossed for no reason she could easily identify. Nothing had preceded it really. No special event, hazardous or otherwise, that would have hinted that her magic would start to act out a little bit. No word or warning from her Code Piece—which, come to think, she actually hadn't asked it yet so she made a mental note to do that when she next visited her Wonder. That probably wouldn't be until after her presentation, she thought, which meant that she still had time to ask around a little bit more.
She sighed, wondering if maybe the Code Piece was starting to change its mind about her. Was she taking too long to save her ancestor? Or maybe she wasn't working fast enough to fix and clean up the space? Was she taking her responsibilities as a knight too lightly? Was she too aimless and without a goal? Was she too isolated? Was she meant to continue adding to that database on the data stick that she had bartered for?
Was she too weak?
As if on cue, she felt someone nudge her shoulder, and she glanced toward Ashur, who was looking at her with his brows furrowed and eyes brimming with concern.
"Don't," he said simply, as if he knew exactly what she was starting to think about.
"Don't what?" she asked, frowning.
"Overthink it."
"Easy for you to say. It's not happening to you."
"Even if it were," he started, wriggling his fingers and watching the light as it swirled playfully around them still. It didn't seem to get bored even though this was all he'd been doing for the past few minutes. "I would hope that you'd tell me the same thing. Nothing good happens when you freak out about this kinda thing. If anything, it just makes it worse."
Ekstrom sighed at that, her lower lip sticking out in a little pout as she violently poked at the light. It instantly became a donut and dodged the "attack" before then starting to swirl around her outstretched finger.
"Yeah, you're probably right."
"I know I am."
She snorted. He smirked.
"Any suggestions, then?" she asked after another beat of silence.
"Just keep asking around. Eventually you'll ask the right person the right question, and then you'll get your answer."
"So just keep asking, huh?"
"Yep. I know it's probably not what you wanna hear, but–"
"It's not, but I probably still need to hear it." She sighed again, and then made a grab for the light this time. It dodged out of her reach again, and this time stayed out of her reach. It seemed like it was winking as it floated slowly away, soon joined by Ashur's light until both faded into the distance.
"I knew you had a good head on your shoulders," the Uranus Knight said, giving her an encouraging pat on the shoulder. "Look.I'm sorry this is the best that I can do, but if you need to bounce ideas after you ask a few more people, don't hesitate to reach out."
She looked up at him, uncertainty clear in her features.
He offered her as reassuring a smile as he could muster.
"I know it's frustrating," he said, at which point she let slip another sigh and waved as if to stop him from continuing. If he kept going she had a feeling she'd hear a lot more of the same words she would hear from one of her older brothers. Lectures about not giving up and believing in yourself and that kind of talk. It helped that she had someone who could say those kinds of words within the context of her knight life, but she knew them by heart by now.
And she honestly also didn't wanna hear it right then.
"Yeah, okay," she said, trying not to sound quite so defeated. "I'll keep asking around. I think I could ask my Code Piece, too."
"There you go!" he said, cheerfully. It wasn't as contagious as he hoped it would be, but he figured it couldn't hurt if at least one of them tried to stay upbeat about the situation. "When do you think you'll be able to go?"
"Not until after next week. I'm trying to focus on my presentation."
"Alright." He summoned his phone from his subspace and checked on his messages. Seeing one from Dani, he opened it and read it quickly before swiping to his calendar app and checking his schedule the following week. He could feel Ekstrom watching him closely, and sensed that she could tell their time was up.
"Shoot me a message with what it tells you," he went on as he sent his phone back into his subspace, "and whatever else you find from anyone else you talk to about it. If you don't mind, I kinda wanna include Themi in the conversation in case something similar happens with either of us."
"Alright, I'll keep you posted," she replied, already waving him off. He was half-turned to go even as she continued. "Go. Good night. And thanks for coming out."
"Anytime," he said, offering her a smile and one more pat on the shoulder before touching his ring. "Get home safe, alright?"
And with that he zoomed off, leaving a cloud of snow dust in his wake.
Ekstrom stood silently as she watched him go, knowing that it had been a productive conversation even if she hadn't found any actual answers. Between the stress of school and work and now this... At the very least she could see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel that represented her time in school. She'd get a proper night's rest once she finished presenting and heard back about whether or not she passed, and maybe then she'd be able to think straight and could come up with more of an idea about what was happening with her magic.
Hopefully.
Probably.
Maybe.
She heaved another sigh, turned, and started going over the to-do list as she made her way home.
"Ask around, ask my Code Piece, don't overthink."
