Astral

The outside world was unknown to her— but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room. His singular pain. Concentrated unbroken light. The Emerald city doesn't have that. Her world doesn't have that.

All light comes in fractured to some degree, and it has affect on the community in such interesting ways. You really should see it, though I wouldn't recommend spending too much time there.

It’s important to recognize, in the wrong hands the best of interventions can become tools for destruction. It’s very easy to get distracted with the best intentions; however, in recent years it has gone too far.

That’s why today is different.

It looked different than her sky back home so she naturally wondered if it felt any different.

How nice it would be to feel— and, freely of all things too. She imagined, finding little comfort in knowing that dreams are only ever that.

But if she knew that place really does exist. And she’s been there hundreds of times, and will be hundreds more.

I can’t say for certain how long she’s been there— not without knowing first which way you are hearing this story. Either way, I digress.

It's-- of no consequence, she usually stays but only a few hours. Except today is a special day. Today welcomes a blood moon and the solstice of the winter, and this is the day when Amaranth meets Adrien for the very first time.

She stood with her back away from him as if he knew she was there, creeping slowly, hoping to get a better vantage point. But this wasn't her world, after all, she was only dreaming and so her body was subject to the laws of astral physics. Her body felt lighter than helium, she was sure she was floating, being carried back by gravity. But she had to-- she needed to see the outside. This red light seems to be different than when she's awake too.

The government started controlling the brightness, hue, and saturation of the light that reaches all citizens in order to manipulate productivity in the various regions of our great world.

Angele Emerald was known as the green city with maximum brightness. Everyone there seemed to live abundantly. The city's motto is "Peace, Rest, and Security".

She inched closer to the window, sure of it now.

This red moonlight feels-- warm--

"Hello?" He doesn't see her as he moves over to shut the window recalling a conversation he had in his AP Natural Systems class.

You'll find in the natural world that for almost everything we think we know anything about, we almost know nothing, and in fact, for those things we are sure we know very little about we know near to everything we need to. Life is peculiar like that and so we must operate peculiarly ourselves.

"I guess this is peculiar enough" He started walking back to the computer to finish off the last of his state-sanctioned improvement exam, SSImp, before the winter break.

"I need a better look at that blood moon. Something brought me here for a reason and I'm not leaving until I know what it is." She moved quickly back towards the window this time a little more carelessly tripping over the coffee table and startling Adrien.

Poor Adrien jumped out of his skin so quickly, terrified it was all of the horror movies that finally caught up to him. He ran fast to find an adult before remembering both of his parents were taken from him young. And he's certain not to meet them just yet.