SOLAR FLARE: The Magical Blackout

[marloww]

A flare is defined as a sudden, rapid, and intense variation in brightness. A solar flare occurs when magnetic energy that has built up in the solar atmosphere is suddenly released. Radiation is emitted across virtually the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves at the long wavelength end, through optical emission to x-rays and gamma

Comments

[george_goesboom]

George had been using the rare lull in clientele (there was always a bit of a reprieve between the morning rush of children that were left here by errand-running mothers (they really should be looking into charging for babysitting services, that alone would be enough to bust through their monthly sales goals in less than a week) and the afternoon buzz of after-work parents dropping in for gifts or younger professionals looking to forget about their adult lives) to sort through the bin of misplaced or escaped items his employees had taken to keeping beneath the registers.

He was in the process of risking the sacrifice of finger tips for the sake of separating two dueling Pigmy Puffs (one was of the Oober Fluff variety, the other from the Exploding line of color-spewing Puffs, and those two were kept in separate crates for a reason-) when a strange wave of uneasiness passed over him, followed by an eerie sort of quiet and the sudden unanticipated stillness of the buzzing, chirping, and snapping items inside the crate he was elbow-deep in.

He hadn't quite noticed his old schoolmate poking around the store until she spoke up, her voice weirdly echoing around the hollow-sounding store - until a loud, creaking and cracking noise echoed right over her, made that much louder for how quiet everything else had gone still and silent.

What the bloody hell even-

"Did I- what- no?" he answered, his answer somehow losing itself into another question as he glanced up at the ceiling, which seemed to be the source of the noise-

Which was when he noticed a very distinct and unnerving bend in the rafters, which seemed to only get deeper as the echoing groan of the building grew louder, and the shaking coming from overhead reached down and all around to rattle the floorboards beneath his feet.

"Bloody- what the-" George's eyes widened and he quickly reached into the inner pocket of his brightly-colored Wheezes robes for his wand, wordlessly flicking it up towards the rafters with a commonly used reinforcement spell-

-Nothing. If anything, the creaking only got louder.

-And louder, until creaking and cracking combined into one ear-splitting snap, and splinters of wood rained down on the middle of the floor as the top-most tier of the precariously balanced and tilted shop seemed to sink in on itself.

George's mind skipped from confusion to horror to panic, then right into adrenaline-fueled action-mode in a split second, the crate of motionless, spark-less misplaced gadgets and toys all but forgotten as he scrambled out from behind the counter, scanning the upper levels of the shop for lingering customers.

"Fucking- fuck- out, out, everyone out-"

[zoeyday]

Zoey was watching George try to fix the distressingly bowing ceiling with half amusement - hadn't they all been in a place that was likely to collapse without a charm or thirty? Except it wasn't working?

Her eyes narrowed as she watched. As the sounds got louder, she'd started backing toward the door. Then the creaks seemed to take on a deafening life of their own and it didn't seem like George needed to say everything, since everyone was already rushing toward the exit.

It was a bit backed up, leaving Zoey spilling out through the doors at the back of the crowd. Something felt off and that something wasn't panic over the building they'd just vacated. There was this cold feeling in the pit of her stomach. As she reached for her wand, more for comfort than anything, it felt strange in her hand, stranger than even when she'd first held it at eleven, her brother proudly showing off how much more he knew about magic after being in school for a few years without her.

She flicked her wand toward the collapsing building, when nothing happened, she tried again. Still nothing.

The general disarray, panic, and shouts of everyone else in the street started to filter in. Every word she pulled out of the chaos was more distressing than the last.

She whipped back around, shoulder bumping into George to look at the quickly crumbling building that seemed to match most of those around it.

"We should all be backing up way farther than this, I think. What in hell is happening?" She wasn't asking anyone in particular, but if she got an answer, that would be fantastic.