#frostquake

Currently 4am where I live and I just learned what a "frostquake" is because I was so scared of the loud popping noises in the house.

Apparently it's like an earthquake....except the ground outside expands from the freezing temperatures.

How cold is it you may ask? Currently -17F but feels like -44F with wind chill and only getting colder throughout the day 😨 I'm so thankful the place I work at is closed today, but that's not the case for many others. And honestly screw every business owner who puts their greed over their employees' safety. Who the hell is going to go grocery shopping in this weather? Or eat at a restaurant? Or leave their house in any way unless they're forced to?

Apparently temperatures in Chicago are colder than Siberia, Mt. Everest, and Antarctica right now 🤷‍♀️ So there's that. My deepest respect for every doctor, nurse, pharmacist, mailman/woman, employee of any kind that has to go in to work today.

It took a little longer than he’d like to admit, but he finally got this stupid phone working and figured out how to use it.

   HE pressed a hand against his forehead, a little frustrated. But he had to put himself in Vexen’s shoes. Maybe try to understand why he kept pushing Lauriam away. Maybe he wanted to keep it professional. Which was reasonable, he supposed, but he would much rather Vexen come out and say that he had no interest. To slam the nail in the coffin and tell him there was nothing between the two of them. Lauriam would respect that. He would move on. But running around like this was too much for him to bear. His heart was overflowing, and it was beginning to almost hurt. 

   Perhaps he was being stupid. But it was itching on his tongue for so long. The chest twisting and turning. Against his better judgement reached his hands out. Placing them gently on Vexen’s shoulders. Blue eyes gazing deep into the other’s. “Vexen.” Then it caught on his tongue. Embarrassment. Second thoughts. Oh, he was being so stupid! But what was a heart without such nonsense? “I have a crush on you, and I wish to kiss you.” 

“Don’t think I won’t! You are important to me—and my research!”

FROSTQUAKES

If the just plain **** cold isn’t bad enough, don’t be surprised if you find yourself rolled out of your bed some frigid night in what felt like an earthquake.

Frostquakes may feel like a typical tectonic earthquake – there may be shaking, there may be rattling, books might fall from shelves, there might be things that go boom in the night; most frostquakes occur between midnight and dawn. Frostquakes can reach what feels like a magnitude 4 on the Richter scale, though they are so localized that they fail to show up on seismographs. A bit more technical sounding term for this phenomenon is “Cryoseism” (from the Greek, Kryo for cold, and “seismos” for earthquake).

Frostquakes are caused by the freezing of subsurface water. Water turning to ice is a powerful agent of a geologic process (ice fracturing) that can force (http://tinyurl.com/nsctgau) rocks to crack, mountains to split, and exfoliation of solid stone surfaces. When water that is present in shallow soils and sediments or in cracks and fissures in the ground freezes, it gains ~9% in volume when it becomes ice. This expansion can occur abruptly in extremely frigid temperature conditions, even explosively, and cause fracturing in the shallow subsurface. This sets off shockwaves that act the same as seismic shockwaves.

Cryoseisms are also phenomena that accompany glaciation, but since this cold snap is not expected to last long enough to blanket Ohio with rivers of ice, be thankful that we haven’t got THAT ****ing cold enough yet!

Annie R

Photo: by Anna Batsi with a bit of editing by me.

‘Tomorrow is going to be fantastic.’

Well, he certainly didn’t feel that way now. Vexen didn’t even mention the time he would be coming by for their datenight. Or did he? Had Xemnas forgotten, the spoken hour only being lost within the seemingly infinite other thoughts in his mind?

In the midst of his running around the mansion trying to get ready in time, twenty minutes in to be exact, Xemnas just remembered that clothes were being brought to him, instead of somehow being hidden somewhere here and some way not being able to find them were his blame.

Is this how people acted when in love? So frantic and unthinking? Head and heart filled with blurred shades of pink? How he longed for such a release as this for over a decade, like lovestruck ecstasy he could now feel with his whole being.

He settled for just doing his hair and makeup for now. The knock on the door minutes later startled Xemnas though, mascara wand unfortunately making rough contact with his eye.

But still he answered the door, left eye watering and nearly swollen shut. The pain simply seemed to fade away as he saw Vexen. Somehow, he reminded him of white lilies, devotion and humility having taken on a human form.

And... here was Xemnas. In sweatpants. Looking as if half of his face was pepper sprayed. Oh boy.

   But, there was one memory he kept tucked away, one which he wanted to share and give and reveal to all. And at the same time, keep it to himself, between one and another, not to be published or prodded at as if a creature of science, but seen as something beautiful and magnificent.

   He took his evening tea, sipping it on it gently. Clearing his throat watching Vexen. It still felt dry even if he wanted to call out to the memory and let it spill from his lips for Vexen to hear. There was a quake in his voice. A nervousness. Even if he always wanted to speak of the other part of his heart it still contained too many emotions which could break him. “Vexen,” he began. “I feel as though I haven’t been completely honest with you.”

bad news bears >> accepting selectively

@frostquake

He wishes he could remember the last time he felt nothing.

But what difference would it make now? Remembering the numbness that replaced his old heart? It wouldn’t bring it back, to rip these emotions that weighed him down away.

Xemnas learned very quickly that with a heart came pain, sometimes so unbearable that he wanted to only rip it back out and throw it to the darkness once more. 

It wasn’t long before he also learned how unstable new hearts could be.Or was it just his own?

Hours passed, and Xemnas was still left curled up in his bed, the room around him completely torn apart. Numerous claw marks could be seen struck deep within the wooden walls and floorboards, any of the old decor having been smashed or destroyed. Black gunk stained his chin and his clothes, but he couldn’t even bother to clean himself up.

He felt only rage at his own sadness, pushing him more over the edge until there was only exhaustion left. Exhaustion and tears, laying curled up on a partially destroyed bed.

When Vexen finally arrived, like he initially planned, when he finally found him and placed that gentle hand upon his cheek, his anger was replaced by something unknown. Something mixed between relief and despair. Regret that the only one Xemnas could trust had to see his violent nature once more.