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It was like any other light, winter snow. It was chilly and clouds hung in the sky but if you looked up you could swear you could still see the stars. The snow falls gently and coats the ground in a light layer--but these aren't normal snowflakes. Mixed in with the regular snow, crystalized snowflakes seem to be falling. These are roughly the size of a quarter and are light and hollow. They are fragile, like glass, but glisten like a fine cut gem. No one can explain this anomaly, but these small snowflakes won't melt. And they are all over Destiny City. You can find them gently falling to the ground, or lying in the fresh fallen snow. They don't seem evil--but they do make for some cute keepsakes!
The house behind her was dark and silent, the twins in bed, and the rest still empty and still. Most of the bedrooms were still being cleared out, what with her "startling" decision to come back to Destiny City-- and bring the twins with her. The art gallery was empty, the music room had no instruments, the pool was justifiably shut down, the library had been packed up and sent to New York, and hadn't arrived back yet. As far as entertainment went, there was nothing but possibly staring at her phone.
Yet why would she stare at her phone when it was such a clear, perfect night? Pulling a blanket off her bed and wrapping it around her like a cloak, she wondered if she should swap out of her pajamas before stepping outside- but damn it all, there should be no one for half a mile in any direction except her siblings, and if she wanted to catch a cold, that was on her. She tugged at the ends of her gown, prepared herself for a rush of pain against her bare legs, and gripped the handle of the french doors.
Jada pushed open the door to her balcony, listening to the familiar crack of the seal, feeling the breeze that slid through the trees, the sound of the leaves rustling in the garden. Her cat slipped out the door behind her, the toyger leaping up to the balcony and pressing himself against her bare arm, mewing in what she imagined to be concern and licking at her goosebumped flesh. “I won't be out long,” she promised him, curling her toes against the cold. She should have found slippers, at least, but it didn't seem quite as bad as she had prepared herself for. With the blanket-cloak, she barely noticed it.
An actual cloak might be in order, she mused, tilting her head back and staring upwards. Not actual fur- that simply wasn't done, but something long, thick and warm. To her ankles, at least. Maybe a hood? There may be some such coats in one of the closets still, but such luxuries were most likely packed up and sold, or some on the way back here. She'd not paid attention to things like that when the house was being packed, before, so she wouldn't be able to say without an exploration of the full mansion.
It would be something to consider. Aidan and Giulia might not appreciate a traipse through their mother's home, but perhaps they would find some small memory of the mother they had never known. Szelem had died when they were so young... Jada was the only mother figure they knew. She closed her eyes against the bright, starry sky with a sigh, lifting her hand to her throat and feeling the long, warm column, burning against the cold.
Something faintly hard, but not particularly heavy thumped against her forehead, and her brow furrowed, eyes opening just in time to see something large and crystalline starting to roll down her face. “s**t,” she squawked, eyelids clamping shut again to try and avoid getting some strange snowthing in the peeper. Her head jerked up and Castor hissed, startled by her verbal expulsion. “It's fine,” she assured the cat, but he was in quite a form, head jerking side to side, back arched. “You overdramatic feline.”
Against the ground, for the first time, she noticed that there was something... sparkling. And not just regular, shimmering snow. She bent down, lifting the small object, considering it. It was beautiful. A large, perfect snowflake, firm enough that she didn't crush it with her touch, and glittering like... crystal, or glass. No... it was too shimmering to be simple glass. Jada had never seen anything like it, and she had collected knick-knacks like they were going out of style for half her life. Setting it down, she moved for the next, lifting it, considering the shape.
They all seemed vaguely unique in shape, like proper snowflakes. Jada made her way around the balcony, ignoring her cold toes as she lifted those objects that caught her eye, considering them carefully, setting some aside and freeing others back to the wild. None of them seemed to melt in her hand, so she might take them inside and poke at them a little. They were lovely, and would be excellent additions to her collection of oddities, at least. To go with her formerly magical snowglobes.
It was, eventually, the call of threatening frostbite that pulled her back into the house; Jada had shopping to do tomorrow, and if her toes fell off because she spent the whole night barefoot in the snow hunting snowflakes, she would be infinitely less productive. Not to mention, she would be horrible at hide and seek if she couldn't seek.
Nudging her cat into her room with a foot, she dropped the freezing cloak by the door and scurried over to the fire, setting the dozen baubles she had collected on the mantle. She may collect more of the baubles tomorrow, depending on what happened with this bunch. A variety of shapes and options would never go amiss. If they didn't melt overnight, there would certainly be more to uncover of their mystery. A thought for another night, because right now warm socks were calling her name; or at the least a new pair of jammies.
Maybe with leggings this time.
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