Dark Nimbus Storm

Ozera sat calmly as she observed the phenomenon in the distance. Thinking on what she had seen so far today, she supposed that most would be a little disturbed by this. As far as she could tell, it certainly explained why so many people were acting weird today.

Still, since she was so unlike everyone else anyway, Ozera found herself wondering why it had caused most others to react the way that they did. Why did they all get antsy and fearful? She didn’t see anything worth fearing as she watched the giant grumbling storm cloud from afar... Was that because she happened to be far away from it? She considered getting closer, but she had sent Pankaa a message telling him exactly where she was. Considering that, running off would be rude even if it was for the pursuit of knowledge, as much as Pankaa would understand..

Speaking of the golden genius, he had arrived atop his Nimbus— it was one of those rare ones, classified as a ‘Jack-O-Nimbus’ in the Nimbus fanbase. “Hello, Pankaa.” Ozera waved politely before being scooped up by Pankaa. “Now aren’t you a gentleman?” She chuckled, gently ruffling the feathers on Pankaa’s head. “Prompt as always!”

The Arcosian tilted her head in a curious and confused manner. “You too huh? I don’t quite understand why everyone is so unnerved by the cloud formation. To me, it seems... Sad? If that makes sense?”

“Of course, I know this for a fact.” While Ozera wasn’t the inherently reckless type of person, she had a near insatiable curiosity when something ever managed to catch her interest. Most things weren’t a danger to her anyway due to the natural strength of an Arcosian, but it was always nice to not ever even need to use that strength; it was a calming and humbling feeling in her opinion. Not many Arcosians, haughty and prideful as they are, would ever feel the same as she did but she wasn’t exactly a typical Arcosian.

“Don’t feel what?” Ozera tilted her head and lazily looked in the direction of the strange cloud-like phenomenon. “I can only really describe how I see and hear it— while using scientific logic through experience of course. Now, I will not say that anyone else’s reactions are invalid, I just don’t think they paint the whole picture.”

The true scientific way to go about this was to investigate, and Pankaa seemed to agree in that regard since he eventually instructed his Nimbus to make a u-turn. “Careful and methodical works for me.” Ozera gave a nod. “I have no reason to worry. This mystery has no chance with the pair of us on the case.” She added with an exaggerated flex of one of her arms. “We are simply too good.”

“Hrrrm.” Ozera sat down on the Nimbus quietly and tapped her chin as she focused on the ominous cloud in the distance. She brought out a small magic pen out from the easily accessed side of her bag and began to twirl it around between her fingers with her other hand. Ozera closed her eyes as Pankaa advised, she figured that he had a point to make with what he was saying. Soon after, she opened her eyes and put away the pen she was twirling. “I guess I can kind of see it that way, but it isn’t as prevalent as the sadness in my opinion. What do you think?”

The whole point of getting closer at all was to get a better sense of what was happening after all. As fierce and ominous as things seemed on the surface, there had to be more to it with this phenomenon. “Precisely, and in my mind I would say others have judged a tad too harshly, though perhaps not without reason. Still, harshly all the same.”

Ozera nodded as Pankaa also made a confident pose, only to exaggerate hers more. Before long, actual clouds rattled Pankaa and distracted him, at which point began snorting and laughing only to also have some real clouds wash over her face and comically stick to her, which gave her the illusion of long flowing hair. “Pff..! Kehehehehehe! Karma, I see.”

“Indeed, it would make perfect sense to examine this more closely— if only to satiate our curiosity regarding the ‘true mood’ of the phenomenon, so to speak.” The meticulously scientific approach suited Ozera just fine if only to obtain something as close as possible to an undeniable fact. It was a lot easier to do with inanimate and non-living objects like rocks though, she had to admit.

“Probably! The thing is, we’ll have to wait and see if I am. That’s half the fun, isn’t it~?” She wasn’t fully out to change anyone’s mind necessarily. Even with scientific facts, some people out there denied them all the same. However, if she could broaden the perspective of other people with her findings at the very least then she would consider it a win.

Ozera noticed that even Pankaa’s rare Nimbus joined in on the laughter. Given the type that it was, she wasn’t surprised; and cloud fashion was quite funny. The loop-de-loops and all sorts of aviation tricks were similarly entertaining. In a moment where they were flying normally, Ozera gave the Nimbus a little pat on the head as if it was a cat. “You know, I might be interested in finding a Nimbus of my own soon. I wonder what their lifestyle in the wild is like.” Certainly something to look into during her free time!

Soon after, Pankaa showed off even more tricks— cloud sculpting, and not with any sort of technological assistance, he was straight up just doing it himself! “Aha! Now isn’t that marvellous?”

“Because I’m aaaaaaalways right, surely and obviously.” Ozera snickered, it was a joke of course as scientifically she knew that was not possible. Probably. Maybe. It would have to be scientifically proven first.

A project for later, some other day.

Ozera smiled at Pankaa’s Nimbus, even though this particular type was known to be naturally carefree and habitually a form of prankster, the individual Nimbus in the Avali’s care had very solid vibes— appreciative and loyal. “You’ve got some good luck with this one. As for me, I think I’d prefer the naturally quiet and observant type of Nimbus. I’ve heard that there is a rare subspecies of one of the pinkish-red type, though I’ve only read about them and seen pictures.”

Pankaa was even gracious enough to offer showing Ozera where some of these lovely little cloud entities could be found. Ozera understood that Namek had a few secret locations that various types of Nimbus would frequent, but she never really had any personal reason or incentive to seek such places herself. At least, until now. “Oh, that would be wonderful, it’s a date then~!” She chirped without any semblance of hesitation, gently holding her hands together.

Eventually, Pankaa would guide his Nimbus back downward as the group was now nearing their destination. “Oh pfft, experimentation in science is all about being side-tracked.” As far as the investigation in question, Ozera tried to get a good look at the general area as soon as she was able. “Hmm. Everything looks reasonably normal within a good mile of our intended target bar a lack of local wildlife...” She had better eyesight than Pankaa, but Pankaa’s ears were far superior to her own. “Hear anything strange?” It was hard not to hear the ominous rumbling in a general sense, but Pankaa would be more than capable of discerning specific tones and pitches.

“Aww, that’s sweet. Honestly, even better!” Ozera smiled at the Nimbus. As far as choosing Pankaa was concerned, well, she simply had to agree! “Like me, this here Nimbus clearly has good taste.”

Hopefully someday soon, she would have her own quirky little cloud friend as well. Until such a day came, she would have to wait patiently in anticipation.

“Ah, silly me. A date needs a date on which it occurs, you’re so right.” Ozera chuckled watching Pankaa shoot up and start pacing around. Eventually this would cause him to fall off the side of the Nimbus. Ozera half expected that. Sighing and shaking her head lightly, she leaned over the side to see what was going on. “Well. I better catch him.” She shrugged, leaping off of the cloud into a forward roll that sped up her descent in order to be just past Pankaa while also momentarily transforming into her Parancauldron state. “Now isn’t this a funny place for a trust fall exercise~?” Using her size, she opened her arms to scoop up Pankaa from mid air and hold onto him until they landed either on the planet below with a calculated thud or were potentially scooped up by the Nimbus again. In either case she would return to her Sealed Sauria state.

Eventually the two could return to their investigation. Pankaa caught Ozera’s question and chose to closely examine the sounds as she had suggested. “... Like something is missing?” She followed up Pankaa’s assessment with another question, guessing that he could hear this feeling. “All of what you said you can hear is being displayed in body language that I can see.” Strange, given that they were talking about a magic cloud, what body language did a cloud possess? Still, it took a strange person to recognize such things, and Ozera was certainly a strange individual. “Of course, curious, but careful.”