[SM: Chapter 7] Nightly walk

Jan was walking down the hallway, while practicing his ability. He was lighting up fire on his fingers, like they were candles, having the lights float just above, not to burn skin. He wasn't paying much attention to where he was going and almost ran into someone--  

Holly skipped down the building, which was a bit harder to do now that she had bigger heels on her boots, with a book in her hand. She opened her eyes and immediately halted afterwards. "Jan~!" She wanted to run to him and hug him, but at this point she wasn't exactly sure if she was allowed to do that- he had fire in his hand and it wasn't exactly a good idea to hug someone with fire.

Jan put out the fire as soon as he spotted Holly with a book. "Evening," he greeted her calmly and continued walking down-stairs, since it did seem like Holly was heading into the same direction as he did.

Holly giddily followed him down the stairs, pushing her now shortened hair out of her face. "So...are you getting ready to study now?"

"Yes," Jan answered. That was pretty much all he did, when they didn't need to deal with grays.

Holly just nodded, and followed him with her book in hand. It was a science book- entitled 'Metals, Elements, and more' on the front.

Jan glanced at the cover, he had already read a book like that. It was rather good, especially since she was the same type as him. It pleased him to see that she seemed serious about learning.

"So, have you tried strengthening your abilities since the last time?" She asked out of the blue. She was quite curious to know what had happened since the little incident that had happened with the black mass.

"Strengthening... Do you mean training?" Jan wasn't exactly sure what she meant by that. There weren't any opportunities for soul-matching since then.

"Yeah! I mean, I have...but I don't think I'm able to do as much you should, though..." She said it with a hint of dejection, but otherwise she seemed pretty peppy about it.

"Obviously," Jan said and to prove his point built up a clock from thin air - you could see tiny gears appearing one after another in mid-air and quickly make up a whole mechanism - it was ticking, once he finished it and neatly fell in his palm.

"Whoa..." Holly breathed, her hands coming up to her mouth in surprise. "All I can do so far is make glasses and keys and such."

"I can point you to a book about clocks and mechanisms," Jan said. "If you can create metals, you should be able to make clocks, as long as you know how they work."

Holly nodded again, quite grateful that Jan suggested a book to help her out. "If you could, please."

When they got to study room Jan went to a shelf and pulled out a thick book in brown covers and handed it to Holly. It was called: "clocks and automatons". "The book also has information about making traps," Jan mentioned.

Holly studied the cover for a minute. "Traps? Hm...can't say I need that, but hey, it wouldn't hurt to have some stray information running around in my mind."

"I don't know what we might need either," Jan said, seeming way less confident than he was before the encounter with the scary gray.

Holly noticed this a bit. "Is there something wrong, Jan?" She cocked her head to the side, worried a little.

"...It's nothing," he said and picked another book for himself - it was another anatomy book.

Holly was concerned, but didn't say anything- she only balled up her hand and after a few seconds, let it go. "...Alright."

Jan went to sit down and read, immersing himself in the text and only a hour later, he raised his eyes and went to prepare something to drink. "Coffee?" He asked Holly.

She raised her hand, shaking her head. "No thank you." After that, she sat down on the separate couch, reading her own book.

Jan got himself some coffee and sat on a couch in front of her's and returned to reading. This book was heavier in content than most, though and soon his head started to spin a bit and he stood up, thinking it might be good to get a little bit of air. He started heading towards the doors.

Holly looked over at him, still somewhat nervous for him. "Do you want me to come with you?"

"I'm only heading out for a brief walk-- if you want to, you can," he said simply and waited for her to catch up, before heading to the wardrobe to get warmer clothes.

Holly nodded, doing the same. She managed to pick out her own set of clothes in no time, and waited a bit for Jan.

Jan buttoned his coat soon enough and followed Holly to the doors, pushing them open. The sun was shining brightly and Jan squinted at the light and put his hand up to shadow them.

She smiled at the sun, and laughed. "Jan! Let's play in the snow, pleeeassse?" She lightly and childishly tugged on his arm, giggling madly.

"There's not enough snow--" Jan said and that was about right. The grass was frozen and so were puddles, and leaves were covered in frost, but the sky being clear for the past few days - it hadn't been snowing even once.

"Still! That doesn't mean that we can't run around and play~! Right?"

"I didn't come out to play," Jan said and breathed out; he did feel a bit guilty about not agreeing to play, so he thought of something. "But speaking of snow--," he said and lifting his hand made tons of snowflakes appear from nothing and fall down all around them. Snow was, after all, simply water - two hydrogen atoms combined with one oxygen and formed in low temperatures.

Holly squealed and clapped. "Waaaah~! Thank you so much, Jan!"

"--It's nothing," he said, a bit flustered and clearly not used to being thanked, especially about something so small as this.

"It definitely is something! I've only seen snow once and the fact that you're able to make it just mesmerizes me..." Holly wasn't aware of the fact that she was clutching onto Jan's arm, smiling and leaning her head with her eyes wide open in pure awe.

Jan was frozen still with her eyes so sparkling, enchanting him to not move. It took a lot of effort to look away. "In this place it should snow a lot in winter--" he said, trying to convey that it's nothing.

"But it doesn't...but now that you're here...it's even more fun!" She giggled, a light tone in her voice.

"It's still November--" Jan said and started to walk-- he did head out to take a walk.

Holly followed, her vision still clouded by the sight of seeing Jan make the little snowflakes. She skipped along the way, humming to herself like a child- which she was, except a much younger and less focused one.

The snowflakes he made before dispersed and got lost among the frozen grass strands and as they made their way along the house, sun shone brightly on them.

As soon as they disappeared, Holly's smile turned into a sad frown, until she pursed her lips and spoke. "So, how have things been going for you lately?"

Seeing her expression Jan sighed and made more of the snowflakes fall. It wasn't all that hard to do. "In what sense?"

Holly felt guilty after he made them for her. "You know...you don't have to do it for me. I was just a bit sad, that was all. But, in a sense....just casually. Like you know, have you met anymore cumimis or has anything else been going on?"

"Some training," he said simply. "...it's not hard," he added, meaning the snowflakes. "That's also training."

"Ah...I see..." She nodded, still somewhat surprised but happy. "Are you sure it doesn't take a toll on you?"

"It's fine," he said. He'd been using his ability so much lately, it didn't feel too straining and it got easier the more he used it.

"Alright. Just making sure." Holly was just a bit concerned for him, though she was always concerned for everyone...it was just that sometimes Jan was a bit too confident and that worried her cause of that one mission.

He opened his mouth like wishing to say something, but closed it. He continued to walk, leaving a fine trace of snow behind them. It was like they were walking in a fine snow-storm with fluttering snowflakes sparkling in the sun.

"Did you have anything you wanted to say? I saw you open your mouth a bit...but if you don't want to, it's okay!"

Jan glanced at her surprised, not thinking she'd notice something like that. "...Nothing important." He said, he wasn't insensitive enough to complain about his lack ability against grays, especially not if talking with another Creator type, but on the other side-- "It might be good, if I could figure out how to fight against grays..." he choose to say, maybe the girl would have some idea.  

"Fighting against grays, you say? Well...couldn't you just...kill them? I-I don't mean like you know, out of malice but..."

"...That's the obvious thing," Jan sighed lightly. "I mean-- in cases like that black thing. Valen can keep them out with a shield, but it's not good to build tactics depending on others--"

"Oh...I don't think that we as Creators are suited for that. I mean, we can fight back, but sometimes depending on the situation...we just can't. That mission just stretched the whole ideal of that." Holly seemed sad, and her expression was pitiful. "I'm sorry for that. Maybe it's cause I'm just out of it, I'm not that sure." She mumbled sadly.

Holly bit her lip and shrugged. "Maybe it's just me...but it just hit me one day. We all have our strengths and our weaknesses...our weakness is the fact that time and fate isn't on our side as much as we'd like it to be..."

Jan wasn't sure why Holly got so abstract all of a sudden. Time... fate...confusing, he could agree about time, but he didn't believe in fate and both of these seemed very far off from the previous conversation, so he didn't say anything to that and simply continued walking.

Holly didn't notice but she seemed a bit tired from the previous conversation. She didn't like talking about things of that nature, but if they came up, she just braced herself and got through the damn thing. She heaved a sigh and pulled some hair out of her face.

Since they had walked a round around the house, Jan went back in the house to return to studying. His head seemed clearer now - walks had that magic in them.

Holly wanted to go back into the house too since she wanted to go back to studying but also cause her mouth hurt from all of the talking she did. Figures, of course.

Jan took off his coat and went back to studying, sitting in the study room silently after that.

Holly sat down on the opposite couch, getting her book and silently reading to herself. She felt just a bit awkward about the conversation, but shook it off since it hadn't bothered her as much as it did a few seconds ago.

Jan continued reading for the rest of the day, casually conjuring weapons from thin air and making them disappear as soon as he had made them.

***

Holly ran around the hallways, holding a piece of brass and laughing. She had finally learned how to a tiny pocketwatch, which seemed a bit small to someone who was an expert, but to a child like Holly, it was something new. She wanted to show someone....maybe Neo! He might want to see what she had made, after all!

Neo had been sneaking around behind priest to catch him off guard, but then he heard that Holly seemed to be searching for him. Perks of hearing thoughts of everyone: He found out very fast when someone tried to find him. He quit the plan of surprising the priest and turned around his sole to run to the hallway, where Holly was, soon enough spotting her. "Hey!"

"Neo! Neo! Look!" She showed him the piece of copper in her hand and then made it into a pocketwatch. "I started to study and then look what I made~!"

"Whoaaaa-- that's so cool!" He was amazed-- "Can I?" he reached out his hand, wishing to look at it closer.  

She nodded, holding out her hand as she showed him the watch, telling the time perfectly. "I wanted to do the things I saw some of the advanced ones do...and I'm a bit behind, but I'm almost there!"

Neo looked at it with sparkling eyes and listened to it tick. "But-but this is soooo coool! You are amazing, you know!"

Holly laughed sheepishly, blushing at the compliment. "O-oh no! It's basic compared to what I've seen others do...can...can you do anything? I'd like to see what you can do!"

"It's plenty of amazing to me!" Neo said with a warm smile. "I can't do anything that fancy-- or much at all, but--" He put his hands on her cheeks and transfered a memory to her - of a blooming meadow in the middle of a forest and of a lightly transparent beautiful girl walking over it under the moonlight.  

Holly smiled at the image in her head, feeling as if she were in a type of paradise.

He let go of her cheeks. "That's something I saw on my way here, I didn't know anything about grays then, I thought she was just a beautiful girl."

"Really...? She seemed so beautiful. But the fact that you can do that is amazing!"

Neo got a bit flustered, but he smiled brightly right after that. "Thank you! But that's nothing-- really, just a scene I saw up above the crossroads..." Then Neo paled. "Oh...crap-- Need to run!" He said and dashed away, up the stairs, and soon enough Lin appeared out of nowhere and dashed right up the stairs as well, after Neo.

Holly seemed surprised at Neo's sudden run, but laughed afterwards, skipping down to the study room to tell Jan about her newfound ability...and the beautiful memory Neo made her think of.

***

Holly skipped down to the study room to tell Jan about her newfound ability...and the beautiful memory Neo made her think of.

Jan was sitting in the study room like always, but had now gotten up to get himself some coffee. Seeing Holly enter the room, he waved a hello at her lightly.

She waved at him as well, smiling. "Jan! Jan! You won't believe what I just did!"

Jan tilted his head lightly, casting a questioning look at her. "What did you do?"

"I made this!" She showed him the copper pocketwatch happily.

Jan cast a look at it, it was ticking. "Good work." He said and reached out his hand to pat her head-- but stopped in a moment pulling his hand back, like not being sure why he did that in the first place. "...Yes, good work." He said and looked away.

Holly looked downcast for a minute, then perked up. "Oh no....you can pat me if you want to! It's alright!"

"It's fine," Jan said and picked up his cup of coffee from below the dispenser, taking a sip. "Want one too?"

She shook her head. "No, I'm fine. Oh! Also, Neo showed me something with his ability! He made me see this girl in a meadow....but she wasn't a normal human girl...I think she was a gray in a night meadow...?"

"Gray--" his ears perked. "Where?"

"Well, Neo said the meadow...so..are we going to soulmatch, then?"

"Meadow-- which one-- where?" He asked.

Holly was somewhat surprised at Jan's persistent attitude. "If I'm not mistaken it was in the middle of the forest. I saw it like that in my perspective, anyway."

Jan sighed. "No-- which direction, there are many meadows."

"Hmm...I..think it was up north after the crossroads. ."

Jan drank his cup empty and started heading towards the wardrobe to get some clothes.  "Let's go, then."

Holly nodded, the routine all but new to her. She ran to the wardrobe and pulled out her winter clothes.

It didn't take long to get dressed and soon enough they were out on the road, walking up. The forest seemed endless on both sides, only after a while they crossed a bridge going over a fine river and then - trees as far as they could see. The sun was going low, soon enough turning to twilight.

Jan was walking without saying anything, he didn't know how far the crossroads were, but he was keeping a look out at the forest, not to pass anything suspicious.  

Holly didn't dare say a word either, but looked for meadows and hopefully some grays drifting and wandering around.

It took them around two hours to get till the crossroads. The sign telling directions was broken off and was gone. "It was up, right?" Jan asked, glancing at the roads leading left and right.

"Yeah!" Holly replied.

"Okay," Jan said and headed up. The sun disappeared over the horizon completely and it got darker. The full moon came out - illuminating their way ahead, so they didn't need to make a light. And soon they spotted what they were looking for - a streak of light could be seen in-between the trees - there was a blooming flower field there, despite it being November.  

"Whoa...it looks even prettier in real life then it does in my mind..." She whispered, and then turned to Jan. "Should we go over there, now?"

Jan nodded. "But let's be careful-- you can't be too careful, when it comes to grays..."

"I can vouch for that.." She replied nervously- she remembered coming into contact with a gray and the experience was rather taxing (physically and mentally) on her, but since she was stronger, she seemed to be able to face it.

Jan carefully walked through the forest looking over a tree. He spotted a glitching figure sitting on a rock right in the middle of the blooming meadow, it wasn't facing them. "Let's run to her and touch at the same time-- is that fine?" Jan whispered.

"Certainly." Holly whispered back. "Okay...on the count of three, we'll run....one...two...."

On the sound of three they started running and when they touched the girl, the soulmatching process started. Seeing the scene of the girl reaching out to somoene didn't make Jan think much, so he didn't do anything and soon enough it was over and he was back in the meadow-- the flowers were gone and they were standing in a frozen over place, the moon was the only thing casting some light. Jan was surprised to find that this time, he didn't feel too tired.

When Holly saw the scene, she ran up to the girl and told her to call the boy back and as soon as she did that- it was over. She wasn't as tired as before, but she was definitely weak. She stooped down a bit and smiled. "I...I think we're done...now...yes?"

Jan nodded. "I think we are. That was simple." He seemed relieved. "Let's head back?"

"Mhm!" Holly nodded, standing back up and smiling.

They went out on the road. "I should read on moving vehicles--" Jan said. "Walking for two hours is a pain."

"Can't you try out something easy...like a scooter?" Holly suggested.

"I have no idea how internal combustion engines work, so I can't make one," Jan said. "I could make batteries, but I have no idea how electric motors work either."

"Ah, I see. Well, I'm a hunting dog so running or walking is in my genes, so it doesn't exactly bother me...you?"

"I'm the same, the only thing that bothers me is wasting time - you know, if we can get from point A to point B in shorter amount of time, then we can spend more time doing something else," Jan said simply.  

"Like studying?"

"Yes. And sleeping," he looked up at the night sky, it was late after all.

Holly looked up at it as well, not realizing it was this late. "Oh..."

"We might end up sleeping late," Jan said not seeming all that happy about it.

Holly seemed pretty nonchalant- it took her a long time to sleep even when in the bed, so it didn't bother her one bit. But she didn't want to upset Jan, so she didn't say a word.

Jan continued walking without saying anything and started conjuring random things from thin air - thinking he should practice at least... right it was quite chilly-- he might try making something to drink. He conjured a cup, boiling water, added some ethyl propionate (surprised that this time he actually managed to make it). The cup started smelling a bit like pine-apples.  Then Jan conjured some acesulfate potassium to add sweetness. He tasted it, scrunched his nose then added more ethyl propionate to make the taste more fruity. It was still not quite tea-- it tasted too synthetic, but the taste wasn't bad. "Do you want one?" He offered "It's not exactly tea and has no nutritional value, though."

Holly took it and thanked him. Usually, she wasn't the one to drink tea or coffee, but it was quite cold- so she might as well take it and warm herself up while they were out here.

Jan made another one and drank it too. Moonlight did not give warmth, so it felt good to have something warm like this. Jan couldn't wait to be able to properly make organic matter, then he could conjure coffee and more natural things, but for now this would have to do.

"You know...after this soulmatch, will you have the ability to build human tissue?" Holly asked out of the blue. She had studied some things on Creators and how with each soulmatch, their abilities grew stronger and even more fear-striking than the last.

"I don't know," Jan said simply and he really didn't know these things. He could feel himself being stronger after each of them, but he couldn't evaluate just how much stronger he had gotten.

"Do...do you think the morning after this one we can go and study more about that?" She seemed to ask that question quietly, as if there were someone who didn't need to know about this.

"Sure," Jan said simply and since he had finished drinking his sweet chemical miracle of a tea, he made the cup disappear.