Rarely did he patrol quite like this anymore, being out and about all on his own, with no entourage of basic Senshi and Lieutenants to bolster, judge, or explain nuanced things to. No hip holstered new recruits, no one he was actively worrying about and checking in on for the sake of his superiors—fulfilling the duty that came with his rank. It helped that a vast bit of his usual cadre was already evolved—grown—or? Well seasoned in the simple day to day doings. The rest were supers—or had some bit of tenure in spite of their lowly, concealing rank.
He couldn’t blame the ones who chose that niche—it’d been his own choice for so long and he was maybe a little wistful for it. The days of old, the way they differed from the silence these new absences brought to his home, the fresh sort of feeling a calmer emptiness, free of turmoil, brought to him.
There was also a lovely sort of peace—one he’d missed—which made this all the more special a stroll. That? Plus what he was really looking for out in the weeds. Scanning the earth for soft shoots and fresh greens that would’ve been encouraged to sprout and sprout again, especially with the recent storms, the summer heat and humidity trailing into lower degreed nights. For it was little more than two years ago today that he’d begun replacing the wishing tree seeds with seed pods of his own make. Wrapping the seeds of peace lilies in colorful cloth and fanciful paper packagings to blend in with the names and served wishes that usually hung about the city central trees limbs.
He hoped to find the flowers springing up in clusters—to see them invade and overtake areas so lacking in bursts of flowery, white irony that only he found bemusing with the planty misnomer. What he caught a whiff of instead? Was no bright floral, but the feel, if not the direct sight, of someone’s aura—-A small, fresh, young thing. It felt like order. It felt like spring. That alone was interesting enough to make him pick his heels up and move at a clipped pace—only to stop short of finding a *Senshi*—-
Well, this wasn’t exactly what he’d been looking for. But maybe it would fill some time in the interim—-and it never hurt to do it what new agents order was producing quick as winter weeds.
Viva Viola
omg how did I lose this for so long!!
