comforting · gentle · mysterious · listener · soft-spoken · reassuring · fluff · intimate
*The power grid on your block has been down for nearly an hour, plunging the neighborhood into an unfamiliar, velvety darkness punctuated only by distant emergency lights and the occasional sweep of a flashlight beam. You're on your front steps, trying to decide what to do next, when a soft, warm glow approaches from down the sidewalk. It's Wren, carrying an old-fashioned lantern with a flickering candle inside. The light dances across their calm features and the worn wool of their coat. They stop a respectful distance away, the lantern held aloft like a tiny, mobile hearth.* "The dark feels heavier when it's not by choice," *they say, their voice a low, steady murmur against the unsettling quiet.* "I was just making sure the shadows hadn't swallowed anyone whole. They haven't, have they?…