queenoflogs | Well, the weather outside is frightful

Entry tags:

Well, the weather outside is frightful

Characters: Everyone!
Date: Midnight the 16th of December
Summary: The inhabitants of the Garden get their reward for making out beneath the mistletoe, in the form of a lights show in the sky.
Warnings: N/A

In the dead of night, the Garden is dead silent. Without the sound of the city or urban life, only the noises of nature pervade the air. Crickets. Rustling leaves. The occasional footsteps of an animal.

However, tonight, at midnight, the silence is broken by a loud pealing of bells, rousing the people of the garden from their sleep. The bells continue ringing for nearly half a minute before falling silent. For a moment, the peacefulness of night returns to the Gardens.

Then the enormous mistletoe plant begins glowing, with a brilliant white light bright enough to be seen from all corners of the Garden. It fizzes, shooting off heatless sparks, and then bursts, shooting up into the sky and breaking into pieces of glowing light, forming various shapes. Above the Orchard, a series of hearts form, burst like fireworks, and reform. Over the Necessities, nymphs made of sparkling light kiss and dance through the sky, winking down at the people below. Over the ruins, flowers of multicolored light pop into existence and disperse. And above the Viridian Pavilion, fiery red phoenixes swoop through the air, burn out dramatically, and are reborn in a new cascade of light.

The show will continue until morning. Fortunately, now that the mistletoe's light has dispersed, it's not so bright that it should keep people awake.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Even if the ascent wasn't particularly steep or fast, Ryoko couldn't help but grasp Subaru's shoulders a little. She'd never quite entrusted her interface like this before, and being in an area with unknown data... she supposed she had to act carefully. So she let herself down gingerly upon the Wing Road and glance around, touching the light with only half-disguised fascination, glancing up when the other girl introduced herself.

"Subaru-san, then? It's fine, I probably should have introduced myself, too," she smiled, only with a hint of embarrassment. "I'm Ryoko Asakura. It's a pleasure! I really appreciate the lift, it was a very smooth ride."

"Nice to meet you, too, Asakura." She says with a chuckle. "We did what we could to make it smooth. I'm pretty used to bringing passengers along." Lights in the distance distracted her, and she turned her head away.

"Whoa! They must have stocked a lot of fireworks for this. I wonder if there's going to be a big finale..."

She'd liked to have investigated this solid light data further, but perhaps she could also get some information about the other lights in the sky. "I'd have to wonder what kind of finale can outdo this. It's all very impressive already! I take it that fireworks like these doesn't happen too often here, right?"

Subaru shook her head. "It's the first time I've seen them like this since I arrived." Which hasn't been that long, but still. "I wonder what the special occasion is," she wondered aloud, as she missed the initial glowing from the mistletoe, and can't really put 2+2 together in this case.

"A holiday, maybe?" but now that she thought about it, Ryoko couldn't quite seem to recognize the constellations and figure out what date it was supposed to be. How long had it been since she was dismissed? Well, she supposed she could hazard a guess. She'd seen a few of the mistletoe plants, and it was already chilly enough to be winter.

Speaking of... "Are you cold? It's pretty late, isn't it?" not that Ryoko's cardigan was very warm, but she'd be willing to share.

"That's what I was thinking, but in the middle of the night, with no announcement? It's kind of odd." Regardless of the fact that there's no real telling how many of the familiar Earth holidays they celebrate here, it's too early for New Years.

"Hm? Oh, I'm fine. What about you?" Despite wearing shorts and having an exposed midriff, Subaru wasn't chilly or shivering at all. As a matter of fact, Ryoko might have noticed that her body was warmer to the touch than should be expected.

"How mysterious! Well, it can remain a perfectly inexplicable phenomenon for now. I suppose those still happen--we, as human beings, don't know everything, after all."

Though Ryoko didn't check the other girl's temperature, she did recall Subaru being quite warm as she carried her up the Wing road. Ryoko feigned a slight shiver and a shy laugh. "If you say so. And don't worry about me! You're quite a remarkable person, Subaru-san."

"Haha, that's true! And this place does have a lot of mystery to it, too." Which is equally interesting and frustrating.

A headtilt. "What makes you say that?" Because, to her, this situation wasn't all that abnormal.

"But that makes it exciting, doesn't it?" Ryoko gave the other girl an equally puzzled look. "For instance, I've never seen fireworks in the shapes of phoenixes and fairies, and I've never been able to fly on a Wing road made of light. Furthermore, it seems to be at least december, and you're able to stay out in the middle of the night at a height like this without a coat on. I doubt a normal person like me could do anything like that."

"Oh, aheh, well... when I heard the bells I thought something was wrong, so I rushed right out with my Barrier Jacket on. I think I'm still so worked up I didn't notice it was so cold!" Seems legit, right? She smiles oddly. "At least it's not snowing? That would be something I'd change for."

"Oh," Ryoko blinked, then gave an embarrassed laugh. "Well, if it's something like specialized clothing... I didn't consider that. I feel a little silly now. But in any case, flying is still impressive, isn't it? It's certainly my first time meeting a person who could do that."

She laughs a bit, waving her gloved hand. "It's okay! I should've just said so from the start. It protects me from a lot of things, so a little cold's not so bad."

Subaru gives up a thoughtful hum at that. "Well, it's not really flying. I'm one of the few in my unit that doesn't fly at all, so this is how Mach Caliber and I compensate for it."

"Unit? Mach Caliber?" Ryoko quirked an eyebrow. "This sounds like an interesting story already."

She glanced around again to inspect the Wing road. Well, it certainly seemed solid enough, and she could afford to put her interface in some risk. After a quick analysis, Ryoko carefully tried sitting down on the track, playfully kicking her legs over the side. It was a nice view, even if she still couldn't understand the aesthetics.

Ryoko will find it's very solid, and doesn't really glow so much for being what is effectively a ribbon of runed light. Subaru turns away from the display a bit to look at her. "Ah, maybe this will help."

She holds out her hand an, in it, a holographic display flickers to life which shows off her official ID badge (http://i.imgur.com/k3YeN.jpg). (Except her uniform is silver with blue shoulders, and the info reads "Sergeant Subaru Nakajima", Special Duty Section 6", "Rank AA" and her designation is "Swordfish" instead of StarS.)

"I'm with the Time-Space Administration Bureau. Have you heard of it?"

"I can't say I have. Is it a branch of the Japanese military?" Ryoko studied the card with curiosity. It certainly looked impressive, though she had no doubts that the Entity probably held greater knowledge of time-space data than this Bureau. What did humans know?... Well, she supposed she could just play dumb for now.

"No, actually. That's on Earth, but I'm from a planet called Mid-Childa," though she pauses. "I mean, that's not where I was before coming here, but that's where I was stationed. Eheh, things moved kind of quickly before I arrived in the Gardens."

"I've never heard of that planet before..." for once, Ryoko was a little genuinely surprised at the new data. Perhaps the Entity wasn't as all-knowing as it should be.

"Are you saying you're an extra-terrestrial? I never would've guessed!" Ryoko wondered if she was supposed to feel some kind of kinship at this, but she honestly couldn't be bothered with that kind of processing.

"I'm not surprised," she admits, even though she is always hopeful that eventually it will ring a bell with someone besides Vivio. At the other statement, she laughs a bit. "You could say that! I've visited Earth a few times before; Japan, specifically. It's not all that different from some parts of Mid-Childa, even if it's not developed on the same level." Which is said casually and without any hint of looking down on the fact.

"Where are you from, Asakura?"

"I'd love to have an exotic heritage like yours! But I suppose I'm not interesting enough to be an alien, so I'm still from Japan and little old planet earth for now. Perhaps my life story is much less exciting than yours, but if you ever need any help with any vague earth customs, I'll try to be of help!" she gave a light laugh at the irony.

"Development-wise, exactly how far behind are we compared to other planets out there?"

With a faint blush creeping to her cheeks at the compliment, Subaru waves her hand. "I-it's nothing special, really!" And, honestly, it's only the half of it. "Our Captain, Nanoha Takamachi, was from Earth and she is one of the strongest Mages in the entire service! The Ace of Aces!" Okay, simmer down, Subaru. Your inner fangirl is showing.

"...but I visited her home once, and saw her family, while we were there on a mission. She had such a normal life before she discovered her powers, so you could say that the potential is in any one of us."

As for that last part, she chuckles sheepishly and scratches at her cheek. "I don't think I could really put it in perspective really well, in terms of years... but the Earth I know doesn't have a lot of space exploration under its belt yet, or a lot of sanctioned magic users, or things like that."

"Magical abilities, you mean? Well, it's certainly a nice idea." Ryoko hummed thoughtfully, tapping her cheek with a finger. "People find it reassuring to think that there's something special about themselves, but I suppose it's rare for that to be magic. Could you detect the potential? For example, would you be able to tell if I had it?"

It seemed like the earth that the other girl had come from and the earth that Ryoko was familiar with had some stark differences. Perhaps she came from the future, or just from another alternate universe. How peculiar.

Subaru shakes her head again. "No, I can't do anything like that. It's not in the skills I was trained with. That's more of a support role, I think, and I'm what we called a Forward — a front-line Mage."

A bit of a sigh, Subaru slid her legs off of the edge of the Road on her side and looked upward. "It's not even genetic. I don't think any of Nanoha's parents have the ability, and while all my sisters and my brother have it, and my mom had it..." There is a momentary pause. "Dad is normal, but he is in the Ground Forces, as well."

"It'll just be another mystery for now, right? Well, even if you're just one of the fortunate few with these powers, it's nice of you to be able to use them to help others," Ryoko laughed a little and winked. "Even if it's for something as small as watching fireworks with an ordinary human like me. I really do appreciate it!"

She turned a bit in place and smiled right back at the other girl. "You're welcome, Asakura. I'd much rather use my powers for something like this if I can help it." The sad fact is that, back home, she rarely could be so casual and free with it. Subaru won't let those thoughts come to mind right now, though.

"I can't believe it's still going on," she said as she faced forward once more, covering her yawning face with a hand.

"It must be for an amazing cause. Too bad we have no idea what for, hmm?" she feigned a yawn, too--for some reason, humans thought them contagious, right? How odd they are.

"It's nice, but maybe watching until the end isn't worth losing beauty sleep over. What do you think?"

Well, the weather outside is frightful

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