Light of emotion

7 months later)

SUN SKY

Year 9974-month 7 day 25

Snow was sitting at his desk next to the largest window in his apartment. His desk had nearly 20 books scattered across it. And his narrow glasses hung at the tip of his nose. He looked tired, he was tired…

He’d been sitting at the desk reading books and writing notes for the past 5 hours. Every book was of a different topic, language, mythology, history, magic and the Muse’s.

He was a picture of the perfect scholar. He leaned back in his chair, letting the glasses fall back onto his face, and felt the sun caress his skin from the window.

Looking back at the window, he couldn’t help but catch his reflection in it. The Reflection that had been the annoying Bain of his existence since he arrived here all those 7 months ago, really since he’d been born. Snow was… well, not the most masculine looking man.

His face was highly feminine in almost every way possible, and his straight, loose curls did nothing to dismantle that. He’d tied it back into a makeshift ponytail, some hair still falling around his head. But his somewhat stoic demeanor could offset all that, you could say.

His eyes were the real problem… back home, Snow had worn black contacts since he was small, but those got destroyed a long time ago in the end of everything…

So for 3 months he had to deal with the irritating, degrading, stupid, gawking stairs from people…

Snow had received a dominant trait from his father. His father’s eyes would change color from the most significant emotion in his heart, and he always had nearly perfect control over his emotions, so his eyes were normally the same color all the time.

But for some reason, that gene had mutated in Snow, leading him to have pretty much no control over this trait in himself whatsoever.

And so his eyes shone iridescent at all times unless he felt an emotion strong enough that it settled in one color. As annoying as it had been for those 3 months, he didn’t… fully hate it. The attention was sometimes nice.

He never experienced much interest in his eyes, hiding them all the time.

This world was eerily the same as his home but also completely different.

They spoke the same verbal language but it was written completely different. On top of the vast cultural differences that somehow mirrored his own in ways.

But what had truly shaken him about all that was not the vast amounts of knowledge he was taking in about this world but how little he had really known about his own. Snow had been dirt poor, really. And so the deep lore and knowledge of history, mythology, and science of his world. Were unknown to him beyond the most basic of understandings.

And not even because he wasn’t interested but because his societal status simply barred that knowledge from him.

But that was different here Snow was magically awakened , and also underhandedly funded by the church, due to his unique situation.

Lifting his hand, Snow twirled the sunlight from the window, shaping it into a teacup the size of his palm. The bulk of the past 7 months had been largely a study of language, culture and history, but he would be a fool to neglect his powers or rather his “muse”

He was barred from publicly using his muse since an awakened who hadn’t passed the final exam and joined the military wasn’t supposed to have one.

Snow was a craftsman all in all, he’d spent the bulk of his life thus far building that skill and his muse only added to that aspect of himself allowing him to shape and alter the light or darkness around him, that aspect of his ability was endless in its potential uses.

But as snow had studied the history and even worship of those who possessed muses. He understood that, like almost anything in the world, it was an art. And art, by its definition, was “the expression of creativity and skill and imagination”

So, one’s muse had to be looked at like art that was expressed by its artist. So Snow had studied various things to do with the light and dark and also himself…

And this last one had been a problem. He stood and circled his desk trailing its, wood he could see his shadow seep under the desk as it was hovering over the floor.

He stopped as he reached a black box and lifted it open. Inside was a set of jewelry he had crafted: a necklace, a ring, and a charm insignia. Research in all fields, fact or mythical, were vital to creating an art that not only spoke to people but also spoke of one’s self. And snow in many ways was… broken… shattered.

When he’d first arrived here, he’d declared himself a king crowned by night itself, for both itself and the light.

His belief in that fact hadn’t withered, but his self perception was… lacking. Snow found himself confused, desperate, stuck in a loop of derealization. He had witnessed and felt the end of an entire world. And found himself alive in another just as quick, nothing of substance to truly identify himself with, no mother, no father, no culture…

“ah I’m spiralling again”

He palmed his face and shoveled his hair, Snow had poured all the things he could identify in himself into this set of jewelry before him.

The necklace was in the shape of 2 swirling black and white interlocking lines, leading to two hands curtailing a gray ball, one was strong and colorful, thee other was soft and gold.

A symbol of the love, protection and reverence he felt from and for his parents. The charm was in the shape of a star made of pure white stone with a small red diamond in the middle, symbolizing himself embodying the last pure life to come from the night.

And lastly, the ring was completely black and white, its shape swirling around and leading up to jagged edges to form the subtle shape of a crown.

Signifying his declaration of kingship.

With a tentacle of darkness, he brought the cloth trench coat to himself and put it on, whilst also grabbing all the jewelry and putting them on, pinning the charm to his coat collar last.

His apartment was mostly filled with darkness for his comfort, and, this being the only true place he could freely use his powers, he practiced constantly here, making it almost second nature. So, grabbing his coat took little effort.

After checking his pockets for 2 golden cards, he made a pace to his apartment door, waving a hand for it to open. And headed down, when he stepped out onto the street, he sucked in air trying to find the breath that opened up his chest.

The sun was sitting on the horizon; the world was orange pink. It would stay like this until morning when the sun slowly rose back up to the middle of the sky.

It was early, so not many people walked the streets. He lived in a pretty rural area, a small pocket right on line to the exit of the inner city. He walked, not looking at anything in particular he was used to the view by now.

He was headed somewhere to calm his mind, passing floating benches, shops, and projected advertisements, as well as tall buildings, some jagged and some sleek. A small building about a mile and half away. He entered, holding up one of the cards he’d grabbed.

[welcome back “Snowfall”]

A training simulation building.

Early on, Snow decided it wasn’t in his best interest to attend the academy yet, he couldn’t risk exposing himself. But the need for combat training was evident since he was joining the military. And this place was built for such training.

Walking and turning through a few different halls; he entered a room completely white, about 10 meters in length and width.

Holding up the gold card again, the room’s lights and floor changed to the preferred settings he’d created over the months. Everything dimmed to darkness, and the lines in between the floor tiles glowed a yellow hue.

[beginning martial art and strength training in T-minus 5 mins]

This room would not only train him in martial arts but also keep tabs on his performance and improvement. The best way to make this information as accurate as possible was to be nude.

There were other practical reasons for this as well. Core strength, balance, subtle movement awareness, and most importantly confidence.

It was the same when he learned to sculpt and forge, minus the naked part. He needed confidence in not only his hands but his entire body. Standing in the middle of the room, he got into a stance

[beginning in T-minus 1…2…3]

After the last number,7 yellow cubes of light shot out in a blur from all around him.

Snow made 4 movements; 3 kicks in tandem with each destroying 4 of 7 the cubs and finishing with one slash from the edge of his open hand destroying the last 3. more cubs continued to come and he repeated this action with only Subtle differences and changes to the type of slash, jab or kick he threw.

The speed increased with every 30 cubes he destroyed, his first weeks here, he could barely get past the first 2 stages, but now he could reach at least 20 before the speed became too much for him. But today he’d reach 25.

Training was like therapy sometimes. With every motion, he could intake and expel stress and emotion within himself. He repeated the cycle 2 more times before he froze… missing the last two cubs.

“That’s it”

Snow had read a mythology novel a while back, it was mostly a religious tale, so he wrote it off without even finishing it. But now he suddenly remembered it. In it they worshipped the sun and spoke of the sun god’s control over the emotions of the universe. And how he’d taught this power to his creations so that they could use this power to understand the world’s emotions and nurture it.

“The sun emits electromagnetic waves… if I were to take this fact and apply in a spiritual sense… It’d make sense that a person gifted with control over light could interact with the emotional spectrum through wavelen-“

Snow stood in the middle of the room completely mesmerized by his discovery. For once he felt… excited. No one was around, and this room was completely locked from the inside.

“Pause session”

The lights turned back up revealing the white interior of the room. He didn’t waste a moment, closing his eyes and activating his muse, feeling the light and shadows all around him.

Light had its own wavelength; he could feel this truth whenever he used his ability. But he wanted to reach out and connect to something deeper, different. As he did, he could feel something coming in, seeping through and within the light.

A wave from himself. Interest, curiosity, confusion, excitement — his emotions.

It was… odd, interacting with his own emotions, feeling them from an external source. Completely different from feeling them within himself.

Snow opened his eyes, maintaining his new ability.

“He-hehe this… this is amazing”

He couldn’t help smiling and laughing, he had done it.

“Finally”

Snow grabbed his clothes and dressed himself absent-mindedly, There was even more to this ability as he searched within it.

His mind felt weightless, open like he could take in so much more.

Waving his hand and stepping out of the door, and he dropped to his knees…

His brain was pierced with an overwhelming amount of information… Anger, frustration, happiness, excitement, sadness… there was… so much sadness…. too much.