The Fireflies (6) : In the warm summer nights, little glowing lights begin to bob and dart through the city. Fireflies are mating, so this isn't uncommon in itself; in the past few days you've probably seen hundreds of fireflies. What makes these lights so unique is that they seem to change color; you might see a blue one, a green one, a red one. They flicker randomly, and something just seems off with them. If you come into contact with one, you will find yourself with a strange electric jolt. They cannot be caught, and will flicker away if you pursue too aggressively. This isn't the first time they've appeared in Destiny City, but no one's been able to tell where they came from or where they're going. No matter how quickly you chase them, they always seem to disappear before you can find any answers.
With one's eyes closed there was a good chance that one would miss the important details that spoke of oddities going on. Lysanna had her eyes closed for another reason. Even as she lay out on the grassy hillock that she had stumbled across did she roll over onto her back and force herself to stare up into the sky. The prison of the Calamitous Hallow was still visible. The creature had been defeated by all those that had come together to prevent the destruction of Earth but it still haunted the cadet, knowing that although defeated, the prison was still within striking range of the planet. What would happen if it broke free again? Those who had fought wouldn't have the same time to prepare if that happened.
Rolling back onto her side so that the view of the sky above was not visible Lysanna gave the woods around her a cursory glance before running her fingers through the grass. It had been a clearing, not unlike this one, that she had landed in two years back. Her arrival had been one of a few new faces amongst the Vanguard and while she was happy to be of assistance to her fellow teammates, there was a sense of divide among certain individuals. Yet they still came together in times of need. At least they still had camaraderie to fall back on in dire situations.
Moving to push herself off of the grass Lysanna froze. What was this? Pinpricks of light had begun to emerge from the depths of the eaves of the tree that ringed her clearing; lights that darted back and forth with no discernible pattern. Insects? Lysanna's hand brushed the sleeve of her uniform, activating the tech that all Vanguard members carried with them. A holographic screen materialized and the cadet studied the read out that was provided before pursing her lips in thought. Lampyridae, or fireflies, as they were more commonly known as. Her device beeped again and she rose to her feet before extending her arms as if to try to gently coax said insects to land on her outstretched palm. She'd not harm them but a closer examination was needed.
A secondary beep from the Comtech had Lysanna give the smallest indication of wariness. Someone powered, an Order signature, was beginning to appear on her GPS radar. Maybe it would be someone that she knew .. or maybe it would be someone new. Either way Lysanna's focus was still on trying to coax a firefly onto her outstretched palm.
Honkzilla
Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2025 10:10 pm
Despite the humidity, the night’s softer warmth was a respite from the scalding heat of the day, a mercy for a senshi spending an evening on patrol. Even the rancid chicken monsters seemed to be giving her a break for the day and Tempesti was more than a little bit grateful for that fact, though she experienced the slightest twinge of anxiety about the possibility of jinxing herself in the chicken department. She sighed, stretched, and decided to focus on the fact that for now at least, there were no dire chickens threatening her life or nostrils. Still, she would take the oddities of the past week over the blind terror of that thing flailing around in the sky. And its friends in some horrible distant hungry abyss.
Right.
Stay in the moment. That’s what every one of the thousand things her sisters had sent her said. They were doing their best, no matter how much they disapproved of her situation. Odd as it was to say that they disapproved of cosmic circumstances. So she would stay in the moment in exchange for them doing their best.
No chickens, no snake monsters, no twilight space between life and death.
Her eyes slid closed as she took another deep breath.
Soft lights flickered around her when she opened her eyes and for several seconds she was transported back to Tempesti. The grotto of the Primordial Tower and the colorful lights that buzzed about its lake. Glancing around, she registered another person enjoying the fireflies. One of those…not-senshi aliens? Maybe? Probably? That she’d seen from a distance during the fight against Harold. No one had told her much about them and she had no idea where they stood in terms of the conflict between Order and Chaos. Approaching the stranger cautiously she gave a small wave, “Erm, hello! These fireflies are lovely, aren’t they?” Hopefully the alien spoke English and if not, hopefully she recognized a friendly tone.
Lysanna's hand twitched at the sound of another individual addressing her. The result was that she inadvertently jerked her hand up in surprise. The insect that had been close to landing on her outstretched palm flew away but not before leaving a parting gift behind. The sensation of being shocked from a creature that wasn't supposed to have that ability had Lysanna staring at the remaining fireflies with an expression of disbelief. What the heck had that been? The affected area of her hand twitched as the pain signals finally reached her brain and she tried to hide the visible wince before she turned around to face the one that had brought on this particular unpleasantness.
It was harder than she anticipated to completely wipe away an expression of hurt as an indirect result of the senshi's greeting had generated, but Lysanna did try. The senshi was one that she did not recognize. It wasn't Cernunnos, Urania or Hugbell, but someone completely new. Her lips quirked upwards a little as she replayed back the comment that had been directed at her before she shook her head.
"I don't know. I think the beauty of these fireflies have been stripped away. Now they just seem dangerous. Normal fireflies don't have the ability to emit painful shocks, do they?"
Deciding to err on the side of caution Lysanna moved away from the grouping of insects even as a few began to bob and weave through the clearing, showering any potential witness to flashes of light that were definitely not spoken of in her tech database. "Are they always so colorful," she queried of this senshi as she moved to stand a little closer to her.
Honkzilla
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 9:06 pm
The pained discomfort on the alien’s face evoked a sympathetic reaction in the senshi, who felt more than a little bit guilty for startling her, not to mention the fact that she seemed to have earned her some kind of a shock from the insect. Fireflies weren’t exactly something she thought of as having notable defense mechanisms but she could hardly call herself an expert on any insect. Maybe it was some kind of reaction to something in the stranger’s biology. Cautiously, she held a hand out. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea, but she had never had any great skill at restraining her curiosity. A soft hiss announced the brief contact between her skin and the firefly. OK, it was definitely not something about her being an alien.
The ones on her homeworld were definitely colorful, with all the shifting hues of the setting sun, but she hadn’t touched any so she had no idea if they were as aggressively sparky as this lot was. “I thought something about your biology might have triggered a reaction, but these aren’t regular fireflies. At least none that I’ve met before. I have no idea about the colors though. One sec, let me look it up.” She summoned her phone from her subspace and quickly keyed in her question. “It looks like most of them are yellow, green, or white but there are some that are blue and red. As far as I know there aren’t any of those around here though.”
"All the same, I don't know if I could look at these specific fireflies in the same light anymore," she paused before adding, "no pun intended."
Lysanna's discomfort from the shock had slowly begun to dissipate and now she was more curious about this senshi who had shown up. Given the fact that she was technically a latecomer to the initial Vanguard mission she wouldn't know where this senshi stood on their opinion on things. Heck, maybe she didn't even know who the Vanguard even were. Shrugging a little the cadet fingered the side of her sheathed blade before opting to express the uncertainty over this stranger in a less hostile manner.
"Are strange occurrences like this common here in the city? Fireflies that emit shocks or other weird reports that I've heard. I don't recall things like this happening last year."
Although there were those weird flowers that she and Naeria had tried to study, and the adventures with the kosopods. But that was all the strangeness that she had encountered.
Holding out her hand, Lysanna had learned about the custom of handshakes, she placed her other hand over where a human heart would be located before smiling, "I'm Lysanna by the way."
Honkzilla
Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2025 8:23 pm
Tempesti decided to leave unsaid the fact that she was also prone to zapping people, after all she had no intention of zapping this woman. “You could definitely say that these oddities are common. I went most of my life without encountering any of these things and then last October I ran into a youma and it’s just kind of been…happening ever since. Not just the Order and Chaos stuff, this is pretty tame by comparison. Though, I’ve never met one of your people. I saw a big group from a distance when we fought Har- the Calamitous Hollow but I didn’t talk to anyone.”
Alien etiquette was far beyond her so she could only hope that she didn’t misspeak, but her new acquaintance seemed to know at least about Earth’s, and she took her outstretched hand and shook it. “I’m Sailor Tempesti, nice to meet you.”
She had no idea how many of her species were present on Earth, or if Chaos had destroyed their homeworld like it had so many others. Neither question was of the “ask at first meeting” variety so she held her tongue despite her curiosity.
