MaiMai's Original Shorts (or, the weather witch and the philosophy student thread)

[MaiMai]

Hello~!

It's been a while since I posted anything here, heh. But I decided to start a thread for stories relating to two of my original characters, Jack and Eira! I posted the first story I wrote about them a while ago, which can be found here - 

Anyway, super quick character intro:

Jack is a dorky Philosophy student who slowly morphs into looking more and more into the Philosophy-student stereotype as he progresses through his university career. He's pretty much the essence of laid back, incredibly optimistic (everything could be burning around him and he would probably still be smiling), but he's also not opposed to sarcasm now and then. He can get super grouchy when he gets to certain point of sickness, though.  He's a little bit obsessed with vintage clothing stores and reading Nietzsche.

Eira is a Law student and also a weather witch. In this universe, which is otherwise realistic, magical eccentricities are common and simply accepted, so this isn't a huge deal, but it is kinda cool. Slightly less for her when people try to force her to change the weather just to suit them (though she can be bribed with cake). Eira is pretty hotheaded, sarcastic, cynical, and the pessimist to Jack's optimist. She also works as a barista on the side and loves experimenting with coffee, and Jack tends to be her guinea pig and often ends up being over-caffeinated because of this. They kind of annoy the heck out of each other as flatmates, but that challenge is partly why they're such close friends. (They actually met because Jack accidentally walked into a contract law lecture by mistake, felt too awkward to leave and got stuck there for two hours, during which he befriended Eira. )

Soooo, yep. I'll go ahead and post a story, now.

 

Magic

The light was low and dimmed. It seemed it had ebbed from the room like water, escaping beneath the crack beneath his door and trickling between window panes.

Behind it was left a sultry glow, reflective and bouncing from wall to wall in the manner of light-spots on the surface of a swimming pool. Faintly reminiscent of the pool where he used to have swimming lessons, a long time ago and when everything was all at once big and safe.

Jack coughed on the burn of chlorine at the back of his throat. No, not chlorine; the burn was a sore throat, and the cough was nothing but a cough, unprompted and pervading. He sat up, so as not to drown.

Sitting up, he could see better how the glow flooding his room was deep cobalt. For the first time, also, he noticed the glimmer sneaking in around the doorframe – a different colour, slightly pink. He wanted to know where it was coming from.

It took him a moment to get up out of bed, light-headed and disoriented. The want made him bend and straighten his weak legs – I want to see what it is.

Walking felt…strange. Jack placed one foot purposefully in front of the other, concentrating hard on each individual step, stretching both arms out to shoulder height instinctively for a balance that he shouldn’t have needed to catch. It felt a little like flying.

The door gave way under his hands, it seemed. The glow was more vivid, here; in fact, it was all around him, solidifying into shapes, something more substantial and yet not so-

Jack blinked, and raised a hand, feeling phantom dampness beneath his fingers. His fingertips melted easily into the cloud.

There were around half a dozen of them, not low enough to skim the floor, but likewise not high enough to brush the ceiling. They were a delicate blossom colour, seemingly lit from somewhere within by a cherry sheen.

“Bmagic,” he murmured to himself, quite without meaning to. And then, he drew his hand back and sneezed.

“eh’ktssh!”

He sniffled, one hand pressed to his nose and mouth, fingers splayed against his cheek. His skin was cloud-cool.

“Jack?”

Eira peered round the edge of her door. Her expression indicated that she experienced no surprise at all at the apparition of clouds in their flat.

“Did you…” Jack coughed. “Did you do this?”

She said nothing, for a moment, and then smiled.

“Your hair is going really curly. From the moisture.”

To that, Jack was unable to form a response. Any thought of pressing her for an answer was immediately out of his thoughts; she had caught his addled mind off guard.

“Yes,” Jack responded, and sounded so falsely sure with it that Eira giggled.

He turned back to stare at the clouds, making no sound until he sneezed again.

“hhh-ehshhh!-ehshh’hew!”

“Bless you. Go back to bed.”

There was a guiding arm linked in his, and Jack swayed as he was led away from the softness and the light, back into his own room which was filled with the refraction of waves.

“But-”

“They’ll still be there in the morning. Go back to sleep.”

-

Eira was cooking, when he entered the kitchen the next morning. Her cheeks were flushed with the heat of the oven and she was determinedly poking at a panful of scrambled eggs.

“Hey, man. You look a little better this morning.”

Jack ran a hand over his face, but nodded. It felt as though his fever had dropped, if not broken. His palms were a little too damp and he still shivered occasionally, but he was the sort of tired that felt as though the worst was over and gone.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’mb slightly less dead thand yesterday, adyway.”

He left a beat of silence, before he hesitated:

“What happened to the clouds?”

“The clouds?”

“You dknow, the ondes…the ondes that were ind-hold ond-heh’iishh!-ind the hallway last dnight,” he finished with a snuffle.

Confused, Eira turned to face him, a concerned frown pulling at her lips.

“Are you sure you’re feeling better? You sound even more delirious than yesterday.”

“I thought that…I thought that you had-?” Jack smiled sheepishly, and shrugged. “Just a fever dream, I guess it must have been.”

“It must have been.” Eira had turned back to the pan, so that her back was once again to Jack at the table. “I know I’m a witch, Jack, but I’m not magic.”

There was a laugh in her voice. Jack, though, was more focused on her shoulders, on the way they were curled inwards a little, pinched in towards her body.

Eira had never been a good liar, ever since he had known her. The slight, defensive tilt of her shoulders – that was usually an indication that she might be lying.

“Either way,” Jack said, “They were pretty.”

He thought, at that, he caught the edge of a smile out of the corner of his eye.

[CeruleanBlue]

Jack and Eira's relationship is so cute, especially the way they met! I loved the way you described the clouds and Jack's memories of the pool. Waiting for more parts.