Auric Phenomena

After auditions for our spring show the night before last, a couple of my friends and I went out for dinner.  We hit a little mexican place a few blocks from campus.  What we ordered or talked about is immaterial (though it was a rather enjoyable evening).  When we walked in, I noticed a couple having a hushed conversation in the corner.  Their eyes were locked and he reached over to take her hand.  I like to think he was talking about their future together or something sweet like that.  Anyway, once they touched their silverware rose a few inches off the table.  Their forks and spoons actually floated upward a bit.  It wasn't particularly noticeable if you aren't normally looking for the unusual, but that's kind of what I do.  As soon as he pulled back so they could get up and pay their bill the silver fell but they just dismissed it as one of them bumping the table while rising.  I love how people do that.

It was an auric reaction.  Don't get me wrong.  I don't buy all the new-agey aura of divine energy crap.  But it's actually reasonably well established that most if not all living creatures have some kind of electromagnetic field or "aura" surrounding them.  Normally they're not visible though their effects can be seen; like the reaction between the lovers' auras in the restaurant.  Most people ignore them.  We can photograph them now, using Kirlian photography.  Under normal circumstances, they're not visible.

Under metanormal circumstances on the other hand, they are.  In particular, when someone us actively using magic their aura becomes a luminescent nimbus around their body.  The color is individual to each person though different people can have different or even same-colored auras.  Auras also include an olfactory component.  This is individual, often requiring a rarified sense of smell to distinguish.  They're even perceptible when the aura isn't visible as the person's "natural scent".  For instance, my aura manifests as a deep forest green accompanied by the scent of woodsmoke.  If one knows how to distinguish however, they'll find it smells like burning cedar.

So y'know that really smelly guy in you pass by every day?  Just be glad he isn't a magic user.