Prompt 1 (Diamond Dust): This time of year, snow is common. What’s uncommon is the single, strange snowfall where each snowflake that fell glistened like tiny diamonds. For the most part, the snow seems fairly normal—it’s cold, wet, and melts just like any other snow, it just also happens to look like tiny little gems are falling from the sky. Depending on who you’re with, it’s either incredibly strange, or incredibly romantic.

When the snow is coming down at its strongest, crystalized snowflakes trickle down with the rest of the snow. 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. There doesn’t seem to be anything particularly magical about them, but they are beautiful and make pretty keepsakes.


Lysanna had been on Earth for approximately seven months now and nowhere else in the universe that she knew of could she sum up the value of one such planet as simply as weird. Oh, it was not weird in a bad sense but simply weird as in one never knew what to expect on Earth. There had been tales told among her fellow Vanguard of snow that caused you to get stuck and tasted of the gooey Earth confectionery known as marshmallows. There had been shooting stars that left trails of rainbows in the sky and various other multitude of often odd sightings of things during the year. It had been a wish of her own to at least lay witness to such an oddity but Lysanna had been much too busy to even deign to venture outside as of late.

Her garden had been successfully laid to rest until the spring and there was hope that she could perhaps find time to once more cultivate fresh vegetables and fruits for a second year before that silent wish felt like a small stab of betrayal. The research she was trying to accomplish would see her off of Earth and trying to help Velenia and Velencya, not benefit the residents of this planet. At the same time though, even as she donned a garment called a coat, did Lysanna slip outside of the communal dwelling she shared with her fellow Vanguard before simply breathing in deeply of the cold, crisp air.

Her breath escaped in tiny white vapors and Lysanna was soon enthralled by the beauty of the winter landscape that lay beyond her as her boots gently crunched through what seemed to be a freshly fallen snow. It was only when the crunching of snow was accompanied by the gentle sound of an object imploding, much like a lightbulb could, that the purpled-hued femme made the effort to crouch down and examine whatever it was that she had stepped on. The sight of shards of what appeared to be glass had Lysanna stare at the ground in puzzlement. Why where there glass objects embedded into the snow? That didn't make any sense whatsoever, did it? Scanning the ground in front of her even more carefully did several odd shapes catch her eye and soon Lysanna found herself slowly moving forward at a snail's pace, cautious not to step on these strange deposits of oddly made snowflakes.

There were so many of them. Lysanna gently plucked a new specimen from the snow where it lay to examine it more carefully before her comtech beeped as she tried to analyze the object. Insufficient data flashed into her gaze before she sighed and moved forward once more. Everywhere she looked the sight of these tiny crystalline objects from the sky greeted her and soon she had to keep shifting the fragile items into her little pocket of subspace as more and more of them were picked up. She wanted at least enough to provide to each of her fellow Vanguard as a small souvenir, but also she wanted a few of these seasonal mementos for herself as well. Would those back on Velencya care for these crystals as well? Could she run further experiments on them to really determine if they had more than just visual value to the Vanguard?

Losing track of time did Lysanna continue to collect the crystalline wonders from the sky ... entranced by the simple beauty of each plucked snowflake from the ground, marking yet another timeless oddity of her time spent here on Earth.

(597 words)