Dark Nimbus Storm

Ozera laughed, for it was funny of Pankaa to think that the pair’s twelve year old selves could predict this, or even remotely had the foresight to plan this far ahead. “Oh, honey no. We absolutely did not.” She gently disagreed, shaking her head.

Pankaa once more tried his best at denying his own feelings but he fumbled in quite a big way. He didn’t see how it tied into romance? Oho! Then why was he looking so smug about it? Ozera swiftly brought out a polaroid camera and took a snapshot of Pankaa’s face before suddenly swinging her tail to try and thwack Pankaa in the back of his head! “What’re you looking so chuffed for then? I reckon you’re really into the idea of us as a committed romantic pair actually!” Well of course he was, he would be behaving far differently if he wasn’t and they both knew this. “Plus, I caught you in 4K!” She announced triumphantly, waving the yet-developed photo so it could properly process. “... Just give it a second.”

The Arcosian exhaled sharply, choosing to tug on the scruff of feathers that were protruding from Pankaa’s chin. “Let’s see. There’s these feathers here—” She then cupped his face. “A progressively square jawline—” Suddenly, she had produced a tape measure and quickly measured Pankaa’s facial features. “Proportionately speaking, more defined, indicating growth, multiple patterns on your feathers have changed to indicate as such too,” She would go on and on, listing every single even near infinitesimal comparable change meticulously... Oh, Pankaa was cooked for this one.

---

After witnessing the first ‘memory’ Ozera took a glance at each fount of warped mist that contained similar pinpricks of energy, taking into account size, relative distance and placement amongst each other. With the clues given and now the addition of the brightest light she felt that she had a good idea as to what the true order would be. “Of course, together.” She nodded. The two eventually reached the silhouette with the brightest light, and it was more of a lump of dust on the ground. “Now, let’s see what you’re all about...” She reached out, but waited for Pankaa to do so alongside her.

“Nuh uh, you’re treading a dangerous line here buster!!” Ozera poked her tongue out at Pankaa, who had then scrambled to defend himself. He was doing a really poor job of deflecting anything at this point. Ozera thought he was so comically bad at this that it was basically his own way of admitting what he really felt, but she would still prefer that he said things plainly. “Sounds to me like you are quite into the idea of being official then~”

Pankaa also made an attempt to defend himself against her meticulous and detailed observation of changes, but ultimately conceded to the evidence that she presented. Kind of. “Okay, then watch this.” Without warning, Ozera chose to plant a kiss on one of Pankaa’s cheeks as he examined his jawline. “Mwah~ Take that, doofus.”

---

Viewing this memory, Ozera almost had to lean down to properly take in what it was showing— it seemed as though the subject of the memory, the frame of reference and detail were all quite small. There was no vocalization in this memory, barely even any form of sound in fact. The only sounds that could be heard was the cracking of an eggshell and the vague sensation of voices that were probably watching it at the time. There were however very distinct feelings that permeated the memory. Anticipation, excitement, even concern. Yet, one trumped all of them; and it was love.

Ozera’s eyes sparkled, this memory was honestly so cute that had she been any less of a focused person she may have momentarily forgotten where she was. “Wow..” She chuckled, glancing over to Pankaa. “Yeah, they were really small...” Then it clicked. She immediately moved to grasp Pankaa’s face. “Wait. That’s it! Pankaa, think about it, they were unbelievably small.” She then gestured to the gargantuan size of the darkened Nimbus. “Think about it!! The poem! It has to be related!” Ozera looked around, and none of the other sparks of light lit up. “What if we need to find the order, and the order is based on the poem?”

Pankaa was really trying hard to dig his way out of this conversational hole that Ozera had seemingly backed him into. Of course he didn’t say some things directly, but that wasn’t entirely the point— it was also about how he did or did not say certain things.

Until, of course, he admitted about as bluntly as he possibly could manage right now just who exactly he could find himself being with. The girl he he could kinda be into, perhaps. “Hehe. Smile.” She said, smiling. “Look, I know that I’m beautiful and intellectually challenging, but I’m hardly a distraction~” Besides, sometimes people needed a break from what they were doing, right?

Ozera at least hoped that she had a way of getting Pankaa to just... Not focus on work for at least a few minutes, to relax and recover. She knew well enough just how he could lose himself in his work, and that wasn’t healthy!

Well, it seemed as though her going for a kiss on his cheek worked. Surely he got the message now? “Good.” Ozera said smugly.

---

“Precisely!!” She responded with a unique sort of inquisitive scientific giddiness to the point where she did a little dance. Absentmindedly, she moved to hold Pankaa’s hands when he reached for her wrists to move her hands from his face.

When Pankaa chose to go with her theory, Ozera’s bright smile only grew and her eyes sparkled with anticipation. She truly did have fun with puzzles! “If nothing else lit up, it would be safe to guess that this one was the starting point...” Ozera looked around, thinking about the first one they had stumbled across. “I would have to agree. It is highly possible that the first one we interacted with is third in the order, if not fourth. Let’s look for a silhouette that is smaller than that one but bigger than this one.”