"John's on the roof again."
Rose does not immediately look up from her work. She allows herself another three or four lines (she had just found the perfect tail end of a stubborn sentence that had been taunting her for the better part of ten minutes), a half-glance of the window pane glossy with rainwater, and a quiet sigh before she swivels to face the door.
Jade and Dave stand in the frame, Dave suspiciously casual and Jade uncharacteristically uneasy looking, ears flat against her head and teeth dug into her bottom lip. Ever the patient one, Dave repeats himself: "Egbert's on the roof."
"So I've heard," Rose says mildly, and as if on cue the sound of two feet hitting the roof sounds out against the gentle patter of rain. "I fail to see..." Rose's words are swallowed by the sudden increase of that now-not-so-gentle rainfall. She raises her voice slightly. "I fail to see why this automatically concerns me."
"Shit Rose, isn't seeing supposed to be your job or something?" The flat joke combined with a hand through his hair tells Rose that this isn't just an attempt at trying to get her goat. "In case you haven't noticed, John tends to be kind of weird when you get him around storms, and according to news-"
A large burst of light from outside makes all three of them start (a little gasp escaping Jade's lips) and turns Dave's gaze an unearthly white for a moment. As they all catch their breath, a faint "yeeaa-aaahhhhh!" drifts down from the ceiling.
"...according to the news," Dave states, "the storm is closing in on us like a WoW nerd on the last bag of Cheetos. Not to mention something to the tune of 50mph gales and a shitload of lightning. I might not have been the best at school, but I know enough math to figure out that lightning plus idiot, multiplied by the fucking power of flight, does not equal sunshine and kitten giggles."
Rose clenches her fists, looking up as if she hoped to aim a razor-edged glare though a few yards of brick and plaster at the oblivious boy. "I see. And neither of you thought you could do anything about it without me to provide charmingly snippy commentary from the sidelines?"
Jade and Dave look at each other, and Jade sighs. "Look...believe me," and a bit of a growl enters her voice, "I want nothing better than to pop right up there and knock some sense into his stupid head! It's just-." Her words break off in a small yelp as a crash of thunder sounds out much too close to comfort. She staggers slightly in the spot, before hastily gathering up her composure. "I just...rather not get wet."
The flat white ears on her head tell a different story, but Rose knows better than to press-Jade's new found nerves around thunderstorms were a bit of a sore spot. Rose looks to her brother, eyebrow quirked. "So I suppose it's left to us to 'duke it out' over who gets to sit out of informing John that his rendezvous with Mother Nature has been canceled."
Dave smirks. "Well, we could Rock-Paper-Scissors over it, and enter some wickedass Ouroboros of awesome, with me going forward in time and seeing how to win, and you scoping out which is the best choice to win, over, and over, and over until one of us gives...but John will be Kentucky Friedleader by then, and you, of course, would eat your diary before you let that happen."
Silence. Another streak of lightning cracks the sky, followed by a peal of laughter from above.
Rose sighs. "Get my coat."
In the end, it wasn't that much of a surprise that they had all become a little...a little less human after the game. Besides all the trials Sburb had thrown at them, becoming what amounted to living gods had changed something. When each of them had risen from their questbeds, they did so with a little something more than when they had laid down.
It was in the little details. Dave was essentially a human eggtimer, able to tell you what time it was and what time it will be on any spot in the world, despite not wearing a watch since he turned 14. If you looked closely at Jade, if you could hold from blinking at just the right second, you could occasionally catch her flickering between steps.
(there was also the matter of the adorable dog ears, but by whatever Godgiven grace had allowed them a home to return to, no one ever seemed to notice. probably the same rule that shied away questions of oddly-colored eyes and oddly colored friends.)
As for Rose herself, she still saw the paths. Flickering, fleeting, but still very much there in her mind. Jade had teasingly compared it to "a dating-sim cheat guide" once, but it seemed more like a teasing older brother-able to give her the right way, but only occasionally coughing a hint behind an amused fist. Still, she couldn't complain about the added edge at gambling.
(maybe 'less human' was the wrong way to put it. they were different, of course, but 'less' implied something wrong. Incomplete. but 'more' wasn't the right word either-nobody would have dared tell Dave his nightmares were some sort of gift.)
(not less human. not more than.)
(they were...)
"Whoooooooooo!"
(other than.)
"John?" She calls, as loud as she can above the roaring winds whipping her umbrella and coat on dizzy gales. "John, where are you?"
The slick footing and harsh storm worries her, deep in the back of her mind, but she can live with it. At the very least, slipping and breaking her neck would be more of an embarrassment than anything close to just or heroic.
"Come on Rose, can't you trying...seeing me?" John's laughter is all around her, wild and spiraling-it almost makes her head spin.
Rose rolls her eyes. "Really, John? That's the best you could come up with? As far as wordplay goes, a Seer pun barely meets the mark."
"Easy for you to say, Miss Wordypants! You're the smart one, jokes and puns are a..." She knows it's coming a second before it happens, but the suddenly playful lick of air against her cheek nearly makes her jump. "...breeze for you!
Despite herself, she can't help the small smirk. "Better. But you still haven't answered my question. And I'm a little hurt John: not only did I throw caution to the wind in coming up here, I fought off the compulsion to storm up to you and thunder on about your blatant disregard of your own safety. So can't you at least allow me this one small mercy and clear the air on this mystery?"
There is nothing but the rumble of thunder and this hiss of rain for a while. Then: "Okay, there is no way you didn't write that down beforehand or something."
"One can't earn the esteemed title of 'Miss Wordypants' without having the foresight to have some material in reserve. Anything else and I'd just be an airhead."
"The sheer gale!"
"John. Admit defeat."
The air seems to groan around her ears, and slowly, out of all the gray and rain, a bright blue haze curls before her eyes. Tendrils find tendrils, and out of the wind a boy bleeds back into existence.
His hair is wind-tousled, even wilder than usual. His glasses are crooked and his breath comes in exhilarated pants, his face split with a dizzy grin. Interestingly (worryingly), he didn't leave his lovely azure hue behind completely-he's wearing his God Tier outfit.
"Haven't seen that ensemble in a while," she tries, casual.
"Huh?" He blinks at her a few times, as if he just woke up. "Oh, yeah, I dunno, it just felt right or something. Man, look at this weather!" He raises his arms to the heavens and a harsh wind follows. His hood lashes around wildly. "It's amazing!
"It's certainly impressive, but I don't see why storms can't be observed from a point of safety. Inside."
A bolt of lighting spiderwebs the sky in perfect time with his laughter, and she can swear she feels it-feel him in the static that buzzes up and down her skin. "Rose, you have no idea what it's like to be...you know, to actually BE in the storm. To feel the rain fall through you, to feel static in you..." And wind begins to spiral around him, his feet leaving the roof by a hair's breadth. "To feel the air mix with the air you actually are! And seeing the storm from inside the clouds...being in them..."
Her hand lifts to suddenly grasp his. "That sounds fascinating John, but maybe we should take this inside."
"No, wait Rose, just wait a sec!" He moves higher, tugging her as if trying to lift her by mangrit alone. "You need to try-come on, you haven't flown in ages!" Thunder rumbles ominously around them. "Come on, come up with me! I'll even leave my body on for you!"
The rain is starting to sting her skin, and it isn't just the static making her hair begin to stand on end. "I am not going to risk you being electrocuted just you can show me the inside of a puff of water and air."
John laughs, and the wind blows harder and harder. "Oh man, I haven't even thought about the lightning!" He looks up, and the bright blue in his eyes makes her shiver in something between awe and alarm. "Man, it must be amazing to have it go through you!"
Alarm wins. "John."
"Oh come on, it wouldn't be heroic or anything, what's wrong with a quick little death to-?"
"John."
She meant to raise her voice, but it ends up coming quiet as a drop of rain. Still, he hears it, and he pauses. Rose tightens her grasp and lifts her gaze to meet his, looking past the wild delirium to look at him.
"John," she says softly. "Please. Come back down to Earth."
The rain pours, hard and cold. Lighting licks the sky once.
A pair of yellow shoes returns to the roof.
The power is off when they come back inside. Jade and Dave are huddled on the couch, Jade plucking at her spare acoustic absentmindedly. Their heads lift as Rose shuts the door behind them. "Check it out Jade," Dave calls. "Look who got their head out of the clouds."
"Booooo," say three voices.
"Oh yeah, it's cute and quirky when THEY do it..."
Dave goes on muttering as Rose sneezes. It's suddenly much colder inside than she remembers. John frowns. "Hey, are you alright? Where did your umbrella go?"
She looks down idly at her clothes, heavy with rainwater. "If I'm remembering correctly, it was just a bit windy outside."
"O...oh." He runs his hand through his hair, blushing a bit. "Sorry about that...h-here"
There's a fwump of fabric, and all of a sudden her vision is blue. He's taken his hood and draped it over her head, using it as a makeshift towel. "I'm really sorry," he half-chuckles, half-mumbles, as he clumsily works her fingers over her scalp. "I didn't mean to make you get wet..."
Rose mentally facepalms-she can practically hear Jade and Dave lifting their eyebrows. "It's fine, John, no harm done. Just...no more storm-chasing, alright?"
"Yeah...thanks, Rose."
"Hmm." As he massages her scalp, she idly wonders about reminding him he could dry her in an instant with a quick gale. After thinking a moment, she simply closes her eyes under his touch. No harm done.