[ When the lights come back on across the whole town, to say it comes to Barbie as something of a surprise would be an understatement. In her thick winter coat still zipped up to her neck, she'd just returned to the Snowjo Dojo Casa Dreamhouse she shares with Ken and the other fellow who looks so much like Ken but isn't Ken, and now to investigate the commotion, she steps right back out again.
It isn't just the house, which admittedly could use more than a few fixes than just the electricity and proper heating, but everything else in the streets and in neighbouring buildings seems to come alive.
She breathes out an exhale of relief and surprise, and then finds you wandering out as well. ]
Can you believe this?
[ And oh, as she tilts her head up towards the crisp wintry sky, the lights that dance and shimmer above them seem so incredibly beautiful too. She's never seen such a thing before, and it shows in the awe in her expression.]
ii. later in the month ;
[ Of course, some weeks later as the month starts to draw to a close, and after becoming rather comfortable with having all of the familiar electronics again, she'll be watching the Aurora Borealis (she's since learned what it is) when she starts to see horrifying visions start to appear through the lights in the sky.
Barbie can't seem to pull her gaze away from them no matter how hard she tries, like watching a horrible trainwreck and having to know how it ends just to appease some deeply anxious part of her — even knowing that seeing it all will only make her feel just that much more anxious. ]
What —
[ Families being pulled apart; children terrified and alone in their rooms, curled up on their beds. A woman calling for her father to come with her. And there is so much ... death. So much loss.
It seizes something cold and harsh in Barbie's chest, makes her suddenly shiver with the emotional weight of what she's witnessed. Her eyes fill with tears before she is interrupted by something — or perhaps someone: you. ]
Oh!
[ She swallows as a cold heavy tear slips down her cheek. ]
I'm sorry. That was — you didn't happen to see all of that too, did you?
( open ) the aurora — ;
ii. later in the month ;