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Alexa was actually in class when she got the text. Government. At least, that was what it was supposed to be, although it usually just ended up as a big debate. The textbook was all like, the government is perfect, which didn't really go over well, and today, in the last couple minutes of school, the girl who usually roasted the people up in the other DC had moved on to the concept of capitalism as a whole.

That was a pretty common topic here, too, so Alexa turned her attention to her phone, which held much more exciting news. Slate! With a surprise! Alexa was always up for surprises, and this was the time of year when surprises tended to be awesome, and she was really into the whole thing where people were giving her stuff just for upgrading.

So, with a grin and a careful glance up at the teacher, she shot back a quick,



The girl's rant, like always, got cut off just in time for the teacher to give them all a whole load of homework. Alexa didn't really care. That stuff could wait. She had places to be! She shoved her papers into her backpack, crumpling them a bit, then did her best to weave through the crowds towards the door.

Luckily after that she was pretty much there, since it was right next to Meadowview like he'd said, probably to give the cross county team a place to practice or something. Unfortunately, meeting as civilians meant there were no auras to track people down by, and a quick glance didn't show any telltale red hair, so she curled up in the first park bench she found and turned back to her phone.

Alexa was pretty happy when she looked up from her bubble pop game to see Slate coming down one of the paths, yeah, but she was really happy when she saw the drinks he was holding, with cute little straws and everything. She lit up at the sight, but tried to direct her grin, big as ever, more towards the guy than the treats.

"Slate! Hi," she said, waving. She'd been all sprawled out while she waited, but as he came over, she pulled herself into a neat ball, knees tucked up to her chin, and she inspected the gift with wide eyes. This wasn't just a snack or anything. This was something you had to go out of the way for. Plus, it had whipped cream which was really all you could ask for.

"Woah, this is really nice," she said, reaching out to take her frappe. "Thanks." Then, she looked down at her drink. "Okay, you're adorable, but I'm still gonna drink you," she said, and then she did, taking a long sip out of the straw. Her eyes went big again as soon as she tasted it. It was really good! It was like, mint or cinnamon or something, but it was Christmas-y and nice and sweet enough for someone like Alexa who's blood had to be like, half high fructose corn syrup.

"Mmmmm~" she said, the reaction coming out more like an actual hum. Not too weird for Alexa, so she quickly moved on to the Negaverse stuff Slate wanted to talk about. "Captain life's been great. I've got real weapons, I can teleport, all kinds of stuff!" Without really thinking, she hummed again. It was a low, satisfied sound.

While Alexa was really liking this fun Christmas drink and was really, really loving the part where she had a commanding officer who actually, like, thought about her and did nice stuff for here, it was pretty hard to think about serious Negaverse stuff when faced with the sheer amount of deliciousness and whipped cream that was in the cup in front of her.

She took another long sip, and started to chew on the straw a little. It was a bad habit she couldn't quite shake. Hearing Slate's voice crack got her attention, though, and hearing him full on burst into song got her staring. She blinked. Then, she busted out into giggles. Slate wasn't exactly super serious, but he seemed kinda shy. Definitely not the type to randomly sing in public. Was that to cheer her up, too?

"You're a good singeeer~" she said. Sang, actually. She was fully singing too, without even trying to. It was so random that it just sent her giggling harder, although even her laughs had a little too much rhythm to them.

Once she settled down, she sat up straighter. "I did meet a guy,who needed some train-ing, and to get his life to-ge-ther, so I helped him out~" That came out sort of vaguely like Jingle Bells. At least if she sang fast there weren't as many of the weird trills. Thinking back to the lieutenant she'd trained, feeling a little lost the way she had, her smile dropped. "Ooooh~ I should have offereeed~"

Yeah, she couldn't stop singing. It was getting kind of uncomfortable, and, she realized, kinda loud. Luckily the area still looked pretty empty, but still. "This is kindaaa obvious~" she sang, as quietly as she could now.

The drinks?

Alexa took another sip, squinting in concentration this time. It was really sweet and really yummy, but she'd figured out that much already. There was the cinnamon mint Christmas extravaganza flavor, which was different but still worked, and then yeah, there was something else underneath, something kinda subtle. Alexa wasn't exactly a food critic but she did know that this was totally something she would have called a potion a few years ago.

"Yeah, senshi aren't usuallllyy that subtle~" she said, trying to keep her voice down the best that she could, which wasn't that well since she was singing and she was also just Alexa."But maaagic frappes, huh? That's amaaaazing~" That was a particularly high note as she got a bit more excited thinking about the possibilities, which was a bit much and then she laughed again. Somehow she was sounding almost like an opera singer. She grinned down at the plastic cup in her lap.

"I wish, I could make people sing~" she sang. She had a feeling that it would be a lot funnier to be on the other side of things. "It's weeird, though. This, and I saw fairieees~" They'd come and gone without any explanation, too, which looking back sounded like it could maybe be something the space pirate type senshi could be behind? Unless it was something else. "Is something happening?"

Yeah, talking was kinda slow like this, way slower than Alexa's normal attention span to be completely honest, but it was novel enough that right now she was more than willing to stare at Slate with a grin on her face while he did his little sing-song speech like he was straight out of a musical. It didn't hurt that he was saying that the fairies and the magic drinks and stuff were new. Like, at least new enough that nobody really knew what was going on with them.

"Oooooooh~ So it's a mys-ter-y!" She hummed a few notes from the Scooby Doo theme of her own free will for emphasis, then giving a little contented sigh. With her upgrade and branch transfer and everything, doing investigations on senshi was quickly becoming her full time Negaverse job, which was great and all, but it was still great to have backup mysteries for if she got bored. Backup mysteries about fun goofy magic like this got bonus points.

"Soooo yeah, I can investigaaaate~" she sang. "Can we start to how to make this stoooop?" A this point she was still having a good time, but she figured she had about five more minutes before the being impressed wore off and she started getting really annoyed really fast.

Alexa looked over at Slate, then back to the drink, then back to Slate, then back to the drink, her eyebrows squishing together and her her smile edging towards a pout. He was probably right. She knew enough about fairy tales and stuff to know that if she didn't finish the "potion," there was a lot better chance that she'd go back to normal at midnight.

Although there was also the thing where just one bite of something was enough to screw you over forever, especially when actual fairies were involved. Y'know, like right now. And the drink was so pretty and so good and knowing that drinking more wasn't a good idea just made her want to gulp the rest down.

Nope. Her fingers tapped faster and faster against the plastic, but the cup stayed in her lap. She had a little self control. "Yeeeeahhh~" she said, the sigh coming through even with the music and everything.

She looked back to Slate and stayed there finally. The frown stayed, too, 'cause she guessed by his silence that he didn't really know, either. She didn't like him all quiet and overwhelmed, and it wasn't because of the commanding officer thing. Drinks and check-ins were so much better than anything she could've asked for. She just wanted to help him, but there weren't like, people to interview right now, just really weird mystery curses.

She nodded when he started to send her off, and she grinned again, even though it took a little more effort than sometimes. "This was suuuuper duuuper sweet, Slaaate. I'll see yaaaaaaa~"

She waved as she stood up, and she dumped the drink in the nearest trash can as she headed out.