Time:Time to change the batteries in that fucking fire detector,
Daily routine:Wake up, eat, Work, eat work, fuck around, sleep.

>What time is it?
3 AM. Witching hour.
>What's your daily routine?
Wake up. Eat. Read newspaper. Go to work. Lunch. Go back to work. Clock out. Check on updates pertaining to and with relevance to your production line of worker drones. Go home. Supper. Go to sleep. Repeat.

Time: There is light around the door-frame.
Routine: Wake up, check radiation badge, check door, check radiation badge, drink vodka, wake up...

It's early. Phone says it's 5 ish, and you can see some of the blue-tinted predawn light shining into your living room down the hall.

You turn the bathroom light on, briefly, only to realize your mistake and immediately shut it off. Too bright, so bright it hurts your eyes. Pain meds definitely haven't taken effect yet. After blinking away the tears, the bathroom is still pretty dark, but not so dark that it's unnavigable, so you settle for showering in the dark. You're feeling kind of hot, so you opt for a cold shower, and it feels really, really good. You soak for a while, letting the meds kick in, and start to really wake up.

It's Friday. You need to be at work in a couple hours. You've got a 'break' over the weekend because the new way your job splits up hours, which means you need overtime today.

You finish showering, towel off, and dress yourself. Plain clothes, easy to wear under your uniform. Back in your bedroom, you grab your keys and wallet and stuff them in your pockets. Forgotten them one too many times to not just have them on you all the time.

Your phone buzzes suddenly, and you pull it out to check, briefly blinding yourself on the bright glow of the screen.

It's a public safety alert. "Solar flare warning. You may experience power outages, GPS outage, and loss of other satelite-based services."

What?

That's, unexpected, for sure. Out of curiosity, you head out to your living room and peak out of the curtains.

There are auroras in the sky. Faint ones, but you can still see them pretty clearly since the sun isn't over the horizon yet.

You are in *Chicago*.

You sit down limply in your living room chair. You aren't really sure how to process this.

Ignorant of your conundrum, your stomach growls, and you realize that you're really hungry. You didn't eat much yesterday, so you suppose that makes sense.

[What do you make for breakfast?]

Ice cream. Your eating habits aren't the best around.

>Solar Flare warning

Turn off power to your place so it doesn't short-circuit when the flare hits. Then eat the frozen food before it goes bad.

Yeah I guess you want to focus on perishables. Doesn't matter what, just enough to fill up on.

Eggs. Hard boil a bunch of eggs in case the power goes out. Have a rasher or two of bacon if you've got any left too.

Egg-and-bacon ice-cream. Your eating habits are a profound insult to all of existence.

Bread toasted on a pan with a thin layer of hot butter, fried nutrient bars that the government tried to force you into eating, and ham.

>>897791
Make sure your computer and stuff are turned off before you go to work, I guess.

Make yourself a hearty breakfast, it's still early. You have time before work.

You can almost feel the gears grinding into motion in your head. You shoot up out of your seat and get to work turning off and unplugging everything in your apartment you don't need to make breakfast. Air conditioning, lights, computer, fridge, et cetera.

That done, you start sorting out the stuff in your fridge. First thing, you move everything into the freezer, since it'll keep cold for longer 'cause of the ice. Second, you grab the eggs and set them aside to hard boil once you start cooking. You also pull out a couple slices of bread to pan toast, some bacon to fry, some milk, and also your last ice cream bar.

You grab your not-as-small pot and your pan from the cabinet, lay the bacon down on the pan and put it on high, fill up the pot with water and dunk half the eggs in it, lid it, and also put it on high. Grab the tongs to flip the bacon. Get a bowl, drop a few icecubes in and fill with water to chill the eggs in a bit. You quickly grab a knife and slice some butter to toast the bread in once the bacon is done. Flip the bacon again, then grab a piece of paper towel, fold it a couple times and set it down on the counter next to the stove. Check the egg pot, and turn the heat off since it's just about a rolling boil.

You're about to flip the bacon again when you hear a high buzz you hadn't even noticed before start to grow lower and quieter before fading away. You think that might have been the power cutting out.

You finish up the bacon and the first batch of eggs not longer after. You put the bacon on the paper towels to dry and pour out the fat into your reserve, move the boiled eggs into the ice bath and pop the other half of the carton into the water and bring it back up to a boil, and slap the butter on the pan, then the slices of bread in the melt. Flip them a couple times to make sure they're just right, pop them on the plate, grab a couple eggs from the ice bath, peel them and cut them up and put them on the toast, grab the bacon and lay it over the eggs.

Don't forget to not overcook the second batch of eggs.

Empty out the pot and rinse it and the pan off. You'll scrub them down after you eat.

Your kitchen smells fantastic, and you are *really* hungry.

Your pour yourself a glass of milk, grab your plate (and your still-wrapped ice cream), sit yourself at your little table, and dig in. God, it's really good. You must have been even hungrier than you thought, since hard boiled eggs aren't really your favorite.

You're finished with the food in just a few minutes, and get to cleaning up right away. Used to have a bad habit of leaving dirty dishes in the sink for too long, but you've managed to mostly kick it. You also take the rest of the eggs out of the ice bath, dry them off, and put them back in your freezer-turned-icebox.

With that, you're back to idleness. It's only half past six, so it's another hour before you need to be at work.

[How do you spend the rest of your morning?]

Squeeze into a tiny cardboard box.

Pratice Opera.

>>898039
Well browsing the internet is out for now.

Do some chores? Maybe exercise?

Practice your psychic. You're psychic, right?

Re-read your operation manuals.

You consider whether there are any chores you get could finish up with your spare time. You just did the dishes, so that's not needed. Can't vacuum or do the laundry with the power out. No paper work to be done at the moment, and certainly no literal work-on-paper you could do without the internet. You could go grocery shopping, you suppose? Stock up on imperishables before the shelves are empty. Going out for a walk in general would be good, since it probably hasn't gotten *too* hot yet.

You quickly check the weather on your phone (Partly cloudy, mid to low eighties), then pocket it again. Don't want to waste charge in case you need it for something. Thinking of it, you also head back to your bedroom to grab your backpack and your back-up battery for your phone. You also grab your folding scooter, since you don't think you'll have quite enough time to walk to work once your back from shopping.

You take a deep breath as you walk down the hall, the staircase, and out into the courtyard of your apartment building. The place has a smell to it, neither pleasant nor unpleasant, that you've never quite been able to source. It's unique, and over the last year and a half it's come to smell a bit like home.

There's some trash lying around on the grass in the courtyard, as seems to always be the case regardless of how often anybody cleans it. On a whim, you decide to pick some of it up yourself, since you're not really in a rush. Just some crushed cans, beer bottles, plastic bags, that sort of thing. Deciding to indulge your inner child for a moment, you pretend you have telekinesis and try to pick up a can with your mind. Nothing happens, of course, even when you redouble your effor--

There's a clean break in your train of thought as, without prompting, your headache comes back suddenly and with full force. The world whites out briefly as your blinded by sunlight. You can feel yourself hit the ground after stumbling for a moment.

You're back to normal the next second, blinking away more tears, but you're disturbed. That, did not feel good.

[What do you do? Where do you go?]

>>898171
Oh geeze, you just collapsed? Go sit down.

-and cry.

Wow can solar flares do that? Actually it's probably just a migraine. You still need to hit up a supermarket, so forget that little episode.

Go somewhere shady.

You quickly push yourself back onto your feet, then head back inside and sit down in the foyer for a bit. Just, need to process what happened for a bit. It was probably a migraine. You guess it was probably going outside once the sun was up, when you'd spent all morning in your dark apartment. You're not sure why it hadn't hit you as soon as you stepped outside, but you can figure it out later.

After calming down a bit, you resolve to head back out and try and get some groceries, if the supermarket isn't already completely packed.

You take a step back out, hand on your forehead to shade your eyes. No headache, no stumbling. All good. Another step. And another. You let your hand down and keep walking. You're back to your normal pace as your exit the gate.

The walk to the supermarket isn't especially eventful. The streets aren't completely empty, but they're definitely not crowded yet. You guess people are still mostly at home.

You've mostly been avoiding looking at the sky, since you don't want to risk causing another migraine. You can see out of the corner of your eye that the aurora's still visible around the horizon, maybe even brighter than it was before, though.

You're glad that you live close to the supermarket. It's a local one, imports from eastern Europe and Mexico mostly, since that's the demographics of the neighborhood.

Stepping inside, you're hit with a pleasant, cool breeze. They must still have their AC working. Maybe they've got a generator in the back. There are definitely a few people in here, running around with shopping carts and pulling stuff off the shelves haphazardly.

[What do you get?]

>>898362
Stock up on what you need, and on necessities that don't spoil quick, in case the power stays off for a while.

Maybe get yourself a treat too.

Anything canned or preserved, but get a good mix of food groups. Enough variety that you aren't staring down the tenth can of beans wishing you were dead. Stock up on spices too. Bottled drinks couldn't hurt either, though that's probably unnecessary, as long as the water stays on.

Pull out a cart of your own from the queue and head to where you remembered most of the canned stuff being. The closest to the exit is where the peanut butter and other bottled condiments are, and they're...mostly gone. The shelves aren't quiet empty yet, which is fortunate, but they're definitely close. Still you grab what you can. In the next aisle over there's the fruit preserves and jams and stuff, and there's next to nothing left. Once again, you grab what you can. Next up, after a near-collision with another shopper who's looking quite distressed, there's the canned meat, a few aisles over, and unsurprisingly is also pretty sparse. There's some canned chicken left, and one or two cans of various fish, and you grab it and keep going. Further down the isle there're also some canned beans, mushrooms, and soup, which you also grab a few of. After that, you head down another couple aisles to where the canned vegetables and pickled stuff is. It's a lot less empty than the others, but at the same time, looking at your cart, you might be running out of arm- and back-strength to carry all of it, so you still only grab a couple cans, not really paying attention to what they are besides different from each other. Finally, you turn around and head over to the other side of the store, to pick up dry seasonings and spices. It's fairly untouched, compared to how barren some of the rest of the store is, and the products are all reasonably small, so grab a few. Salt, peppercorns, bay leaves, cayenne, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, cumin, ginger, mustard, oregano, paprika, turmeric, lots of stuff.

There isn't much of a line at cashiers, even though there's only a couple, since you think nobody's actually gone to check out since you entered the store. Everybody else presumably has a car and doesn't need to worry about how much they're getting. Still, you grab a soda from the little cooler-thing and a chocolate bar from the rack that's attached to the check out lane, and start unloading you smaller haul. The cashier gives you a tired smile, and starts swiping items *crazy* fast. It's *this* guy. You didn't recognize him immediately, since he shaved his beard and was gone for a while, but it's always amusing to have him as your cashier since he apparently has, like, superhuman checkout skills. He's done swiping and bagging your stuff in what feels like no time flat, even though you ended up with two full bags of stuff. As well as a pretty big charge...

You reach around to your back pocket, retrieve your wallet, and open it slowly, dreading the moment. You forgot to grab enough cash. You *really* hope the card reader is working, somehow. You pull out your card, and put in the card reader, filled with agonizing anticipation.

Card could not be read.

Two more times, and that's all it said. I looked up at the cashier forlornly, his face belying his solemn consideration, before waves me off with a quick, quiet, "Take it. I'll pay for you."

You smile, but contain your gratefulness to a likewise quick nod. You grab the bags (both heavy enough to strain your arms and pinch the creases of your palm). You exit the store and walk back home, the world just a little more awake than before. Still, nothing of note really happened up until you got back to the apartment, when you saw a couple of your neighbors, mister and misses Georgiev, packing up there car. You wave at them, and they wave back, faces confused with a mixture of happiness and sadness. They're probably bugging out somewhere. Not an unreasonable response, I guess. They've always seemed like the kind of people who'd have a bunker in the Ozarks or something.

Creaking open the gate and walking back inside, you notice that the inside of the building feels warmer than before. That's going to get really annoying later, you bet. Back up the stairs and down the hall and you're in apartment once again. Now that your eyes had adjusted to daylight, it's definitely dark, so you pull your curtains and open up the windows to let in some sun and a breeze, before unpacking all your groceries.

In the distance, you hear the local church bell ringing, and are about to ignore it when you realize, your oven's clock is off, so you mentally scramble to commit the number of rings to memory. It's seven'o'clock, apparently. Huh. You're kind of surprised your mom hasn't called you yet, you imagine she'd be worried, and she's usually up by now. You think checking on her is probably worth the phone charge, so you dial her up, only to realize that you're an idiot, and are confirmed by the failure to connect message from your phone. The cell towers are probably down. Wouldn't be weird if the phone lines were having trouble too, you guess.

Wait.

You work at a call center.

You...probably don't need to show up for work today.

You sit down, drinking your soda and eating your chocolate. You feel like the last bit of wool's been taken out of your brain. Maybe you had low blood sugar or something. Your headache's back a bit, but it's less than before.

[What's the first thing you do with the rest of your morning?]

Make a note to pay back that cashier. Maybe write an actual letter to mom? Assuming there's stamps around, which is a big assumption. Hopefully USPS works in solar flares too.

Make a note to pay that cashier back, at least, assuming the world doesn't end.

You also don't have a way to call out of work, unfortunately. You might get points for showing up anyways, but if it is an emergency, clogging the streets for non-essential travel isn't helping anyone.

Is there anyone in town you care about, or who's important to you? Maybe we should check up on them.

First thing you do after finishing your soda and chocolate is look around for your post-it notes, and write a reminder to pay the cashier back, once things settle down, and stick it on your fridge door.

You had also looked for any postage stamps you might have had lying around while you were looking for the post-its, but you didn't find any. You don't really send snail-mail anymore, so you've never bothered to pick any up. You're...actually not sure where your nearest post office even is? You'll just have to hope that you're mom's doing okay, and that she isn't worrying about you too much.

Your mind turns to other people you might want to talk to. There's Ed, Harry, and Lloyd, your old roommates before you dropped out. You think they'd be on campus right now? They all stayed for the summer semester the years you were there, so campus is probably a decent shot, especially since classes start soon. That's south of downtown, though, which is a bit of a trip to take on scooter. Maybe once the trains are back online (you assume they're offline right now, anyway).

There's your sister, Caroline, and her all-but-husband Sean. She might actually still be asleep, in which case she'd presumably be in her apartment, a few blocks northeast of yours. That's reachable.

Your dad, Jack, if he's in town. He might have been out to his 'farm' in Michigan when the flare hit, though. His house isn't too far from here either, so you might as well check.

One of your local...'friends' might be a way to phrase it. You don't know their legal name, but they go by Hyacinth on your forum. Your 'friend circle' is pretty sparse, spread far and wide. You and Hyacinth met each other by accident, since you both happened to pick the same spot (Millenium Park, by the bean) to do some activities with the forum at. With the internet down, it'd be good to check in, see if Hyacinth caught word of anything before the flare.

You could also head to work anyway, to see if anybody else is there, and maybe to help coordinate with Sal, your manager (he practically live at the office, so you know he'll be there).

[Who do you go to first?]

Check on your sister first. She's family and pretty close by.

A lot of people will already be on campus, they've probably got their stuff together.

Your sister seems closest, so let's start with her.

Do you actually know where to find Hyacinth irl? You can rely on recreating a chance meeting in a public place.

Sister! What's better than talking with a sibling?

>>898808
Yeah this.

Carry is probably the closest out of all your options, and the most likely to actually need some help, so you decide to head off to her place. You head back out, pull your scooter out of your backpack, fold it open, and get going.

The street isn't much more populated than before, which makes sense since you weren't inside for all that long. There's a nice breeze now that you're at speed, though, which feels good. You pass by the supermarket again, and keep going, passing by a few restaurants, all closed. You pass by your old highschool, and the park next to it. You pass a bunch of churches all right next to each other, which has always confused you. Naturally, none of them of have their lights on. You pass through a few blocks of mostly residential stuff, before passing by the combination laundromat/cornerstore that you always use to tell when to turn, then scoot about half-way up the street to Carry's building, fold your scooter back into your backpack, press the doorbell a couple times.

It takes a minute, but eventually Sean's voice comes through the speaker. "Who is it?"

"It's Fred. I just wanted to--" You're interupted by the buzzer and the gate unlocking, prompting you to enter quickly.

It's been a while since you've been in here. The vestibule still smells a bit like weed, but it mostly just smells old and musty. You head down the half-stairs to your sister's apartment and knock on the door, and Sean pulls it open. There's a little puff of cool air as he does, which you guess is just the benefit of a basement apartment. "Come in, come in" Sean beckons you, as he always does.

The apartment is dark, of course, and cool. You can see a few candles around the apartment lit, to give a little bit of lighting. There's also a mess of Magic cards on the table, which you guess is how Sean's been passing his time without wasting battery charge on his phone or his laptop. "How're you two doing? Anything I can do to help?" You ask.

"We're alright. Caroline's getting some extra sleep since she was off work today anyway. We're probably going to spend today outside. Maybe go and check in on some folks. Might stop by your place later, if you think you'll be there."

Now that you think about it, you're not sure if you're going to be back home tonight, or if you're going to head somewhere with power.

[Where do you want to be by tonight?]

Regardless, you hang out with Sean in the apartment for a while since you're just a bit winded by the trip. You play some Magic to pass the time, and lose handily as usual. Carry wakes up before you leave, and you give her a hug and wish her and Sean luck, before heading back out.

[Where do you go next?]

Kinda want to try meeting Hyacinth if that's possible. If there's no easy way to find them, then check on your dad's house.

>Where do you want to be by tonight?
Unless you plan on grouping up with someone you know for safety / to stay sane while communications infrastructure is down, your own place seems fine. Where could you go that would have power? The solar flare affected the infrastructure. Anything but specifically hardened places are probably down till the grid comes back up.

>Where do you go next?
>>898880 Seems like a good plan.

You're not really sure where you're going to be tonight. Campus is an option, there'll be people there who know you, and it's possible that things will be calmer there with the college to organize things. You could also try your luck looking around downtown for places with power, but you don't know how likely it is you'll find anything, and even if you do, nobody else would know where you are then. You guess, you might as well stay at your place for today, you can always check for places with power tomorrow.

After bidding Carry and Sean good bye, you head back out, get on your scooter, and head out to Hyacinth's place. They live downtown, near the lakefront in one of those huge condominiums. You've never actually visited Hyacinth, though they've visited you. Now that you think about it, it's probably going to be hell climbing all of those stairs to get up to their place. You sigh as you continue rolling down the street, buildings slowly transitioning from residential, to business, to high-rises. You could use the exercize, anyway.

You're already pretty sweaty by the time you're at the building. Walking in, it's not cooler than outside, but it's also not really hotter. They might have some jury-rigged ventilation system. It's nice to be out of the noon sun, though.

The woman at the welcome counter wordlessly greets you, and you tell her where you're headed. "Suite 25051. The tenant might not be expecting me but should be familiar with the name Foxglove."

She nods, pulls up a walkie-talkie and relays the information to, somebody. You wait for a moment, before she gets word back, then she gestures to one of the several elevators in the lobby. They all have their doors open, with those sort of folding criss-cross metal bar doors pulled out to prevent people from walking into the open elevator shaft. Soon enough, an elevator lowers down to ground level, and you hurry over to it, open the door, slide in, and look to the woman at the counter, who proceeds to tell whoever she's talking with to send you up. The elevator shudders a little, then begins to rise, slower than it was going when it lowered into view. Better than having to walk, though, thankfully. You guess they must have back-up motors for the elevators. Makes sense, actually.

The wait is pretty long. You guess they're conserving power. Still, you arrive on the 25th floor all the same, greeted by a short man in a security uniform with a walkie-talkie and a flashlight. "You're...Foxglove?"

You nod, and he opens the elevator door, before guiding you to Hyacinth's room, then leaving, presumably to return to the elevators.

You knock, and the next second hear a couple thuds, like things falling to the floor. Hyacinth must have really not been expecting anybody, if knocking was enough to make them drop stuff. It's a few seconds more, when you hear the lock slowly click open and the doorknob shakily turn before the door pulls into the suite.

Hyacinth, isn't there? Or, they are, but they're not at the door. They're sitting by the window across the room from the door, with a book and a baseball on the floor next to them. They wave to you, smiling like it seems like they always do around you. "Foxglove! My favorite flower. I trust you've had as exciting a day as me?"

"I suppose so, with the flare and all. I've been going around checking on people, making sure they're alright."

They nod. "And? What else have you done today?"

You're not sure how to respond. Was something supposed to happen today? "No? I'm not sure what you're getting at."

They quirk their head and their smile lessens. "Oh? Nothing like this, then?" Their face briefly wrinkles in concentration, and the atmosphere in the room suddenly feels ten times heavier. Hyacinth reaches to the book with their arm, but it's just out of reach. There's a buzzing, except you know you're not hearing anything, and time feels like it slows down. Hyacinth raises their arm, painfully slowly, and the book rises from the floor as though they'd grabbed it by the spine. Even though they still aren't touching it.

[What do you do?]

Fixed grammatical errors.

Laugh! It's a good trick. Can't even see the wire! ... Honestly, you're not worried. You aren't thinking about that headache, or how it spiked when you tried to do exactly what you're looking at. What it looks like you're looking at, it's still just a trick.

"Oh yeah? Well I have super speed. You can't tell because I'm so fast it looks like I'm standing still."

>>899071
Cool! I was wondering about the pronoun in one of the paragraphs, but you fixed it.

Nice magic trick. You saw this done once by a magician in someone kid party when you were 8 or 9.

>>899071
Neat! I don't know how to do anything like that.

You chuckle, but your more nervous than amused. You try to tune out the buzzing that's filling your head. "That's neat! I admit, no, nothing like that. I should show you my invisible jet sometime, though."

Hyacinth giggles and absently flicks their wrist, the book rotating around and openning up towards them, pages briefly flapping wildly before settling down. You can, feel the movements of the book *in* the buzzing. That's not quite right. You can feel, the movement of whatever is moving it? It's disorienting and distracting, and you redouble your effort to ignore it. "Get inside Foxglove! And stop letting all of the hot hallway air in," they command, quickly raising their other arm to you beckoningly. A second buzz joins the first, deeper and louder than the other. You're drawn into the room, physically. You almost trip over yourself. The tugging stops as soon as you're out of the doorway, when Hyacinth moves their arm in a lazy circle and the door creaks shut behind you.

You think you're panicking. You're vision's not swimming but you feel like it could start any second. "How are you doing that?" You manage to stammer out, before heading over and taking a seat on the floor next to Hyacinth.

They set the book down and turn to face you, their expression as serious as you've ever seen it. "Honestly? I don't know. It could be magic for all I can tell. I just woke up today with a killer headache, and managed to pitch my coffee mug across the entire apartment without really trying when I tasted how bad it was. I've been testing it out ever since, but I can't really say how it works yet." Their smile quickly comes back, as they continue. "Isn't it exciting! Real psychic powers. It's practically a dream come true. Too bad there's this blackout dragging it down."

You sigh, and try to keep your breaths deep and steady. Get yourself back under control. "So, it wasn't a trick? You can actually lift and move stuff with your mind?"

They give you a punch on the shoulder. "Of course it's real! Would I lie to you? You're the one who picked Foxglove for their username."

You can't help but chuckle again at that. It's nice to be around Hyacinth, even if you aren't daring to process this all right now.

"I think you can do it, too. I got this sort of...feeling, now that you're here, even before I knew it was you. Especially when I pulled you in. Did you get woken up by a headache too?"

They're pretty excited, but honestly, you're tired, and kind of hungry.

[What do you do?]

>>899203
>What do you do?
Try Hyacinth's trick? You had a killer headache too.

>>899203
You're edging kinda close to panic right now. Say yes, but you need to calm down and eat something first, settle yourself. Then you'll tell them everything in detail.

You think you need to get something to drink, and to eat. "Yeah, I did. I think I need to refresh myself before I go and try whatever you're doing, though."

Hyacinth's smile lessens again, and they nod, lowering the book to the ground, the buzzing likewise dying down. "Let me grab you something," they answer as they stand up, before heading around to their kitchen, opening up a few cabinets and digging around, before retrieving a tray of saltines and a couple glasses. They quickly pull out a big pitcher of ice-water from from their fridge and pour it out before carrying the drinks and snacks back to you and sitting down.

"Thanks," you say as you reach for some saltines with one hand and for one of the glasses with the other. You can't help but relax a little and release a sigh after getting some carbs, salt, and water in you. You sit and rest for a while, snacking quietly and trying to digest what's happened while Hyacinth continues reading their book hands-free. It's probably, like, about an hour or so later that you feel calm and level again. Maybe not the *healthiest* lunch, but it'll do for now. Not like you eat much better than that on average anyway.

You start with when you woke up, doing your best to describe events accurately. Hyacinth notes that they also had both head and chest pain, and sensitivity to light, when they first woke up (which was a little earlier than you, they think). You also mention that your headache mostly cleared away after you had eaten breakfast, which also maps to what Hyacinth experienced. You also mention when you actually tried to use your powers earlier today, and that all you got for it was brief flare up of your headache. It's there that your stories diverged. Neither of you is sure why exactly, but when Hyacinth flung their coffee mug and willed it to go flying, it worked, sort of, and they'd been working on getting a better grasp on it all day.

All in all, it looks like the only thing left to was try and use your power, again.

You're all set up, with the baseball on a cleared spot on the floor, Hyacinth at the ready in case things go off the rails. You take a deep breath, focus, and stare at the ball, reaching out with a hand.

The world goes white, for a moment.

And then the baseball is on fire.

[What do you do?]

Short update, and a different ID, since I'm not posting from my usual location.

>>899333
Should probably put that out. Or at least get Hyacinth to make it float before the floor catches.

Fire department response time is gonna be bad with the power out all over the place!

Either you're doing it wrong, or what you got is different.

"Shit shit shit"

Get Hyacinth to float it before the floor sets on fire. And like, get cups of water to pour over it.

"Shit shit shit" you exclaim as the ball catchs alight. Your focus breaks, naturally, and you withdraw whatever unknown part of yourself that you extended to do this. The flames on the ball dim immediately, and are smothered entirely when Hyancinth grabs their ball with their power.

"That was...unexpected." Hyacinth sighs out. They perk up immediately, though. "Still, that's more information! Pyrokinesis is a thing, and you have it." They nod to theirself with a smirk, before bring the baseball in for closer inspection. They hold it in their hands and look at it closely, picking at the char marks. "It's actually not all that hot anymore. The scorches aren't very deep, either. Looks like it was mostly the strings burning, and maybe some of the stuff inside. Interesting!"

They put the ball down on the counter, and start pace about the room, eyes flitting around, finger on their chin. "What're you thinking about, Hyacinth?"

They turn to you, gaze intense. "Why, Foxglove, just how to test your ability next! I've had all morning to test my own out, and I think I've mostly gotten it figured out. But yours is new! I want to know what it can do. The expectation for pyrokinesis is just, fire, but I wonder whether that's all you can do. What would happen if you tried to use your power on water, for example? Or even on the air? What happens if we *both* use our powers on something at the same time?"

You put aside the mild discomfort you feel as Hyacinth's inquistive eyes lay on you and consider this yourself, trying to sort through the densely tangled sensory mess that you felt as you tried your power just a moment ago. You reached out with your hand, and some other part of your mirrored that motion, stretching out into the ball. What happened after that? You felt something, leave you, it felt heavy, and kind of, moved down this metaphorical limb you had reached out until it stopped at the end, touching the ball. That's when the ball caught fire. Then you pulled your, whatever it is, back into you, including the weight at the end of it.

There's a sort of logic to it, and you relay what you remember about it to Hyacinth. You start brainstorming more experiments together, and eventually, you start trying them.

[What experiments do you think of? What results do you aim for?]

See if you can use the baseball again, and see how hot you can get the fire, and how easily Hyacinth can smother it.
See if things you've set on fire hurt you, or if it's more like you will the flames down before they get a chance to hurt.
Try reaching that invisible force to a space in between you and them, and have them try to grab that with their power, maybe that would create a ball of fire that they could throw or a blast or something.

And think about seeing if you can create explosions with either pressurizing your power somehow or through the more mundane method of lighting up explosive household items, before deciding that's a bad idea.

No update today. I want to give time for more experiments to be proposed, and also want a little break.