Author's Note: Merry Christmas! I've finished my undergrad and am going to get quite some time off before continuing to my PhD, so I'll have much more time to work on the story :)
Solstice
Click, clack, click, clack…
The tapping of the Gardevoir doll's feet onto the dollhouse floor rang out into the nothingness which surrounded the blank patch of carpet Symphonia knelt on. She walked the doll to the front door as the house swung open from the back, revealing a layout exactly like the one she'd lived in most of her life- and furnished about the same. She giggled, and hopped over the dollhouse to take a seat behind it.
Tap.
She moved the doll's right hand to the front door, which opened to reveal a second doll of a human boy with black hair, standing upright on its own. Her curiosity piqued, Symphonia walked it into the living room, and sat it onto the sofa as she closed the front door.
Clickclack, clickclack…
Symphonia walked the Gardevoir doll toward the dining room, but the front door creaked open after a few steps. She shut the door again, and then guided the doll to the front of the miniature porcelain cabinet by the dining table.
"I wasn't expecting company. I'll need a moment to get things ready," she spoke in a softer than typical voice.
She tried to open the porcelain cabinet's left door, but it came straight off the hinges.
"Would you like something to drink?"
Clickclickclickclick…
The Gardevoir doll tip tapped into the kitchen, and Symphonia opened the refrigerator…only to find that the shelves were empty.
"You'd like to see more of my house?"
She brought the human doll back to its feet, and the Gardevoir doll levitated to its side a moment after. By now, Symphonia was actively struggling to ignore the fluttering of uneasiness that had been building in her chest, but nevertheless she persisted in giving her tour.
"Upstairs is where my study and bedroom are…"
As soon as the two dolls reached the top of the stairs, the small chandelier hanging from the ceiling directly above broke off and fell right on them.
"Oh! Uh…here's the study."
She moved the dolls to the entrance of the room on their right, and in the process of opening the door, ripped it off the frame. Inside the room were two floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lining the walls with a desk against a bare wall that had a window.
"I have books on every subject, it's hard to pick a favorite. There's this one I read recently about the monarchs of Kalos that I liked a lot."
As Symphonia trotted the Gardevoir doll into the study to retrieve a book, the floor seemed to creak where it was being stepped on- and when she plucked what she was looking for from a row on the farthest shelf, the bookcase separated from the wall and tipped over, spilling its contents all over the room. The fluttering in her stomach had become twice as intense, and was spreading to her chest. She swallowed hard, and moved the Gardevoir doll frantically to the other side of the second floor. Its right arm snagged on a curtain, pulling the blue drapes from the railing as the doll drifted down the hallway.
It came to a stop in front of the door on the other end of the hall from the study, followed shortly by the human doll.
"This is my room," Symphonia began uneasily. "I've never had a guest here before."
Squeak!
The door creaked open with great resistance, but as Symphonia prepared to move the human doll in, she noticed that its left leg had fallen off.
"Hm…"
She attempted to snap it back onto the pelvis.
Crack!
Symphonia gasped as the pelvis broke off of the torso, and as she frantically tried to put the doll back together, the right hand broke off too…and then the left forearm, right leg, and finally the head. As hard as she tried to, she couldn't fight back the grating anxiety she felt, and right as it seemed her guts were about to come spilling out her mouth Symphonia jolted sharply awake.
"Aah!" the Gardevoir panted as she regained her senses.
She started to grasp at the blanket and sheets under her, and upon feeling that they were indeed not the ones she'd gotten used to at her house, exhaled a massive sigh of relief.
I'm still…Alan's apartment…
The light switch clicked on and Symphonia stretched her arms up and out before sliding out of bed.
Ugh, I don't even want to sleep anymore.
She shuffled to the door to the living room and, with a yawn, twisted the knob as she pressed on it with her right forearm…
"Huh?" Alan mumbled, craning his head back at her.
Symphonia looked back over to the desk Alan was sitting at. In the dim light coming from the fixture above the dining table in the kitchen, she could make out that he was wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a dark yellow long sleeved shirt, hair messy and unkempt.
"You can't sleep either?" the boy inquired in a sympathetic tone.
"No," Symphonia shook her head, "I had a nightmare."
She sauntered toward the kitchen, but stopped halfway.
"Can I have some water?"
"Yeah, you don't have to ask though," Alan replied casually, leaning back in his chair.
Symphonia nodded awkwardly and continued toward the refrigerator. She scanned the black granite kitchen counter for a glass, and upon finding none, looked above at the white vinyl-wrapped cabinet before opening it and producing a plain straight drinking glass. Her attention turned back over to Alan, and the glass started levitating toward the fridge.
"So how exactly does that work?" Alan began as he watched the glass float under the water dispenser on the fridge. "I know telekinesis is manipulating psychic energy, but I notice you don't even have to look at what you're moving, or be in the same room."
"I need to know where what I'm moving is, somewhat precisely. Like I know where the cup is but if I haven't seen the position before I can't exactly guess and take it out the cabinet."
"What would happen if you guessed?"
"I'd probably drop it," Symphonia smirked. "The psychic energy would act on the glass, but since I can't focus it exactly, it'd be very weak and it probably couldn't hold the weight. Or maybe I'd partially act on two glasses, and fail to move either."
"Mm, that's really interesting," Alan responded, sitting back up. "So you can't like, feel it out, or anything like that?"
"Nope," Symphonia shook her head. "It doesn't feel like anything tangible, not like when you're touching things. Even if I kept trying it'd be pure trial and error. No matter how much weight it is, there's no sensation, but I can notice I'm starting to lose control of something if it's too heavy or too far or I'm losing my concentration."
The glass of water Symphonia had been filling was now full, and she brought it to her lips and began sipping from it. Some droplets fell from the corners of her mouth, and Alan began to scratch his head.
"I noticed you used utensils when we were eating. And you spilled a little bit of water just now. You can't move anything but solids?"
"Oh, sorry about that…and no, it doesn't work well. This happens when I try."
She attempted to lift the water- and at first a small, oblong globule of it levitated several centimeters up from the glass, but less than a second later it had begun to lose its form. A couple more seconds and then the whole blob cascaded back into the cup.
"I think it's because liquids don't have a definite shape," Symphonia continued. Maybe if I practiced, and it was a small enough amount, I could do it."
"Mhm. What about living things then?"
"Plants, insects, things like that, sure. It depends on how powerful their mind is. Some animals, I could move a bit. The great majority of aliumans and humans, I definitely don't think so. It's very easy for them to resist because they can move their body, but the psychic waves their brains give off also interferes. Their weight factors in as well, so it's…"
Symphonia's eyes lit up and she looked straight at Alan.
"I can try it on you if you'd like!"
"Oh, uh, sure!" he answered enthusiastically.
Symphonia furrowed her brow, shut her eyes and focused her telekinesis on the boy's right arm. Immediately, Alan noticed a jerking sensation which he responded to by reflexively pulling in the opposite direction. The sensation increased, and he found himself clenching his arm slightly in resistance. He glanced back over at Symphonia, and noted that she was visibly straining. The pulling intensified, and so did the tension in his arm.
Damn, this is stronger than I imagined! he thought to himself as he flexed harder and harder.
Suddenly, the strange sensation in his arm ceased, and the muscles relaxed.
"That's fucking amazing," Alan exclaimed with joy. "I wasn't trying that hard mentally, other than trying to stop my arm from moving. I noticed the more I concentrated though, the more you seemed to struggle. That must be the brain wave interference you mentioned, right?"
"Exactly," Symphonia nodded with a grin. "You're very observant. I like that."
"Thanks, I try to be."
Alan looked back over to the laptop he sat before and began to type; Symphonia walked over to check out what he was working on. On the screen was an official website for a video game- she could see a stylized banner across the top of the page which read 'Legends of Ransei,' and on the main body paragraphs of text broken up by images of what could only assume were characters in the game.
"You know when we were having lunch at that noodle place," Symphonia started as she watched Alan scroll through the text. "And you said you've never had any friends? I have a hard time imagining that."
"Why not?" Alan inquired. "You see what I'm doing now, right? Staying up to read patch notes for a game I like, during winter break when I'm sure most people my age who are up at this time are hanging out with their friends. I'm basically a nerd."
"That's nothing bad!" the Gardevoir exclaimed. "I think video games are cool. That's that really big E-sport game, isn't it? Where the best teams are in Kanto-Johto? Lots of people play that."
The boy nodded.
"Yeah, funny thing about that. I got into the game because it was popular- good amount of my classmates in school played it."
He recalled a moment where he was sitting in the school cafeteria where the group of older boys that sat near him were discussing strategy among themselves. Alan ate silently, feeling equally smug and determined as he eavesdropped on their conversation.
"I wanted to be better than them. Outranked all of the people I knew in like a year and a half and…ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would so I stuck to it."
"I like that," Symphonia giggled. "What made you so competitive?"
"I didn't like them," Alan laughed. "They didn't like me either. I got made fun of for being awkward. They said I act like a know-it-all, and I was weird. Guess it was my way of telling them 'fuck you.'"
"This is all a bit strange to me. You don't seem like those things. From what you've told me about yourself, you seem just like the type of person I'd want to be friends with," Symphonia answered, smiling.
"Now that's a surprise to me. I know you told me about how you think we humans are interesting and all, but I figured the type of person you'd be interested in would be more…intellectual, smarter…"
"What do you mean by that? And you seem smart, given the conversations we've had, and how you finished high school so early with high grades."
Alan paused for a few seconds.
"I don't know. I'm thinking of like, scientists and professors and those types of people."
Symphonia thought to the conversations she'd had before with the researchers at her home on the island, and how emotionless and almost robotic they seemed.
"I've spoken to scientists before, from various subjects like infinity energetics or aliuman biotech. It was fascinating the things they studied, but they weren't enjoyable to talk to. So dry and stiff…you come off as someone who gets excited and passionate about stuff they care about, and I like that," she responded cheerily.
"That…means a lot, thanks," Alan stammered. "By the way, take a look at this theater I found. They have a Wishmaker's Festival special; tickets are discounted if you buy three or more. You want to go in the morning? I've never been to something like this."
He changed the tab on the page to the website for a traditional kabuki theater. Cherry blossoms ran along the sides of the webpage, which was decorated with images of the authentic looking interior.
"Yeah, definitely," Symphonia responded eagerly.
Alan could make out the excitement in her body language, and returned a massive grin. He stood up from his chair and rolled up the blinds behind the table he was sitting at.
"This is shaping up to be one of the best Wishmaker's I've ever had."
"Same for me," Symphonia agreed.
The pair stared out the window, watching snowflakes fluttering from above in the dim glow of the lights around the condominium complex.