all these fake spooky guys try'na be me

While he was hardly a decrepit old man, Deion had seen his fair share of weird shit in his life. However, he had yet to encounter anything quite this strange. Evenings seemed to stretch longer than they had any other winter, and as the sun took its time setting, fireflies winked into existence. Unlike your typical variety of glowbugs, these ones didn't take flight from the foliage and flit about throughout the sunset hours. No, these ones mysteriously apparated in the air and hung there until the sun rose. At least, he assumed they did, since he'd never seen them settle down to sleep. Tonight, he'd decided to stay up for the entire night and watch the strange goings-on. With a bottle of purloined whiskey from the cellar and a ceramic bowl balanced on the crumbling ledge of one of the watchtowers, the cosmic male had arranged himself comfortably on a sheepskin. Legs sprawled out, brilliant amethyst eyes fixed on the castle grounds, he poured himself his first bowl of whiskey. The sun had just begun to set, and with its departure came the arrival of a few blue-purple bodies floating over the ground below. He took a few small drinks, bright eyes scanning over the courtyard. As the minutes passed, nothing new seemed to appear. The first few mystery fireflies lingered where they'd winked to life, hardly moving. It they were moving about, he couldn't tell from his vantage point.

Minutes ranged into the hour mark, and a few more of the strange visitors had blinked into existence since the sun had begun to set. No more than a handful, that he could see. Most of them were lingering near the ground, where the suns rays were notably absent. The ruddy-gold light was steadily climbing over the walls of the castle, and with each scant inch of shadow that ate away at the walls from the ground up, he watched one or two more of the cool blue lights flicker to life. When he'd expected the stars to begin to appear in the sky, they almost seemed to mirror the waking of the ghostly fireflies. By the time the sun was grasping at the tallest spires of the castle, the little wisps of light were beginning to appear higher and higher in the air. Were they following the encroaching shadows of night? The celestial titan poured himself another bowl of whiskey, letting the familiar warmth settle in his core while he surveyed the slow creeping of night over the lands. The sun disappeared behind the horizon, leaving the last dregs of riotous orange/crimson/violet lingering low over the treeline beyond the castle courtyard. Only then did the little blue fireflies begin to increase their numbers in earnest, winking to life all over the place. In fact, he watched their ascent to the great heights of the castle's towers and spires. A few of their eerie floating bodies winked to life around the hole in the tower wall where he'd settled for the night.

The giant frowned at the little blue wisp that was slowly floating closer from outside, pulled by invisible strings towards his warm body and open bottle of alcohol. He was buzzed enough that he couldn't dredge up the concern to move away from the strange non-bug as it closed the gap. Holding his breath so as not to scare it away, his eyes began to cross as he tracked its approach. When he might have expected to be able to see the dark carapace of a normal firefly, this one remained a ghostly apparition of bluish light. He thought he could feel the phantom touch of a few invisible legs on the leathery pad of his cool, wet nose. Perhaps he was too drunk, and he was simply imagining it all- his brain struggling to create a semblance of normalcy during this ghostly encounter. The tickle was persistent enough that he fought off a sneeze, dark tongue sneaking slowly from between his lips to smooth over his itching nose without scaring away his visitor. It danced an inch or two away at the movement, but didn't float away entirely. He could almost feel an unearthly chill at the end of his nose where the little wisp was about to land, but it was so faint, he could easily have been imagining that too. Just when he braced for whatever would happen if it touched him, the little firefly ghost vanished.

Suddenly alone again in his chilly stone tower, Deion let out a soft sigh. "You're too drunk, Aeris." he grunted quietly, and replaced the top of the whiskey bottle. By the time dawn lit up the courtyard, he'd probably be sober enough to navigate the narrow stairwell back down to his room. Probably. When he lifted his gaze skyward, the man found himself sucking in a soft gasp of surprise. The stars had changed dramatically in that short period of inattention. Short streaks of cool light tracked the progress of their movement across the night sky. A far more talented navigator than himself had once explained the way constellations moved throughout the seasons, allowing a wolf to chart the progress of seasons even in periods of strange weather. This? This was something extremely unsettling. Deion had witnessed a few meteor showers in his day, but they had been fleeting flashes of light across the night sky. Tonight, the thin, blurry streaks of light remained in place. Had he been any later in noticing this, the impossibly bright moon overhead might have drowned out the minute shifts, but now he couldn't deny that something very strange was happening in the heavens. What did it mean? Were these the actions of the gods, threatening of disaster or doom in the coming months? Perhaps he ought to seek out one of his more spiritually attuned family members, and ask what they had heard from the spirits.

The longer he sat, he found more of the ghostly fireflies were lingering around the opening of the tower wall. Were they watching him? Did they serve some invisible master, acting as the eyes of some unseen force and bringing home their observations each time the sun rose again? The slightest narrowing of his eyes betrayed the suspicion of the starry coated man, though he didn't move from his post high above the castle grounds. None of the little spectral creatures seemed malicious or dangerous, so he would simply keep an eye on their numbers as the night progressed into day. Tucking his thick banner against one thigh, he lifted his gaze once more to the strangely tracking stars overhead. As the moon rose behind the castle, it cast the jagged silhouette in shades of black and cool grey over the courtyard and surrounding plains. In the shadow of the ominous structure, even more of the little fireflies seemed to wink into existence.

(FINAL WC: 1149)