As she picked her way down to the coast to head towards Auster for the winter, a little glitter caught her eye. The first time she noticed the luminous bacteria, she'd thought it was a fluke and ignored it. But the next day she saw it again. And again. Glimmering in puddles, on the seashore. Her interest was piqued. She had one last major stop before heading for the bifrost - the Fern Gulley, where she'd spent most of the summer, and had hid most of her painting supplies. There was no telling if the shimmering color present in the water would still be there when she reached the gulley. Siobhan pulled to a short stop in front of a wide, shallow puddle that shone with light. She admired it, her eyes shining with inspiration in return. Maybe a short break wouldn't delay her too long... what would this look like on a canvas?

With the changes that the world was experiencing, Spirit found himself growing more and more anxious. His nervous soul was best kept calm with regularity and repetition, and lately he was having trouble finding much of that at all. The sun never seemed to fully rise now, casting the skies a brighter shade of blue but never the crisp daytime blue he was so used to. The moon and stars in all their strange, streaking glory were now permanent residences overhead. Another long glance upward told him that they had made no effort to retreat, and the thought made him shiver. When he finally looked done, after taking another step, he realized he'd very nearly walked into someone. "O-oh! Sorry!" He stammered out, taking a step back quickly. Only briefly did he focus on the shimmering bacteria that were floating in the puddle at her paws, instead distracted by nearly walking into her.

Her reflection peered back at her intently in the silver pool. Blue flecks sparkled and spun on the still surface of the water, shimmering invitingly. Siobhan had just reached out a paw to cup some and try to capture the glow on her toes when Spirit stammered his apology. "Ah!" she said, teetering forward towards the puddle. Sio scrambled back and tried to unstop her heart. She felt lightheaded briefly and thought she might enter a spell of cataplexy, but her muscles held true and she remained seated upright. "Th-that's alright!" she replied, equally as stammering. Siobhan laughed and shook her head. He wasn't an intimidating figure - after all, he'd apologized first - so there was no need to be on edge. "I just... isn't it enchanting? I've never seen something quite so blue," she said admiringly, gesturing towards the pool. Colors were catalogued in her head like a second language and she'd never seen anything like this one before.

He looked momentarily startled, as if he was interrupting something terribly important. The stranger looked just as surprised as he was, and for a second he feared she might fall completely. Spirit froze, eyes wide as he stared and waited for her to collapse - and then she didn't, and he felt relief wash over him all at once. That did little to ease his nerves though. "I-I've... never seen anything like it," he admitted quietly. Warily he turned his attention back to the pool of water at her paws. The bacteria that floated around looked almost like they were dancing, and around the edge of the pool he spotted a lone mushroom, reaching out from the water - but just barely. "S-sorry. M-my name's Spirit," he introduced himself timidly. Glancing back at the pool of colorful water, he became acutely aware of how his paw twitched, his brain urging him to touch the mushroom there despite fully knowing better.