Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was important to know that Jada's entire life, she'd been at her worst- and her best- under pressure. Whining, crying, giving in to her feelings, and finally that clear path that couldn't be ignored. What needed to be done. It was possibly why she thrived on youma hunting- there was a set goal. Kill the youma, save the people, don't get caught by the nice policemen who want to throw you in a padded cell. Pressure was most definitely a part of that equation. Yet with everything she'd seen and fought- people, youma, anything!- nothing had given her the feeling of utter terror as when this almost comically large reptile had flung itself from the snow.

Sometimes it was hard to see the path to a goal, no matter how familiar, with one of your greatest fears staring you in the face hungrily and angrily. But as the other senshi stunned it, that focus briefly, and possibly temporarily, came back online.

She had the damn thing in a strangle hold, Scylla briefly reflected. Why hadn't she put it down yet like the rabid, man-eating beast it was? So, like Boreas was yelling at her to do from the sidelines, she tore the 'side show attraction' apart. Tentacles writhed and gripped, pulling at the frozen and stunned youma's flesh. Yank, pull, strain- and youma dust went everywhere.

"Why are you laughing?" Scylla sounded unusually discomposed by Boreas' laughter. Normally one did not sweat the small stuff, but this was not small stuff, and there was a dead reptile, and Boreas was laughing, why was he laughing? And then she relaxed, realizing that this was probably a stress reaction. It took a moment before she gave a half-hysterical little snicker and straightened. "I'll take that win," she agreed with him, "Because I didn't wake up the youma."

She was uninjured, as she had been standing in the back whining like a baby the entire time. The other senshi didn't appear to be bleeding, as the snow looked unstained, so she gave him a smile and stayed firmly right where she was. "I think they'd take it fairly well. Surround the building in officers of the law, send in SWAT, and investigate us for possible connections to al-Q'aida, the Philippines, Korea... We may even be tasered by a concerned citizen or two." Her tone was mild, borderline thoughtful. Could he tell she was teasing him?

"So, where do you think would have the best hot chocolate in town?"

"I will look good no matter the angle they take my picture at." Scylla informed the other senshi, tossing her head in a preen. Given the jokes that had been flying around, Boreas might take it as another joke... but no... Scylla was completely serious, Jada's natural ego shining through the disguise at last. Boreas looked himself over, and then was talking about hiding, and Scylla was too busy thinking about how they were going to pay, to pay much of a mind to whatever it was he was saying. "Hey, I-" she started to say, but the other senshi was already zooming off, enthusiastic as a puppy.

With a sigh, she looked around the park and stepped into a small group of concealing trees, stepping out the other side as Jada Chamberlyn. With her was her purse, and inside it, her credit card and digital book reader. A few steps took her to a bench near the scene of the battle, and she settled herself on it, waiting for the boy's return. When boreas finally came back, it would seem that Scylla had disappeared, and this girl was in her place.

Hopefully, Boreas would get it.

"Ready?" he asked when he came back, and she put her reader away, standing and tossing her purse over her shoulder.

"When you are." she told him, a girl he'd probably never seen before.

Her eyes crinkled at the corners as the other senshi 'got it.' She didn't think anything of the fact it had taken him a moment- there was such a thing as 'magic' after all, hiding people from making such a connection. She would have been worried if he had gotten it right off the 'bat', actually. Her purse was over her shoulder, and the warm black dress pants she wore were topped with an almost military-style back jacket and the faint hint of the red top underneath. There was a scarf wrapped around her neck, and a pair of black lambskin gloves on her hands.

"Nice to meet you, Noel." she tapped the toe of a boot against the snow, feeling the chill of the air already seeping through any gaps it could find in her clothing. His piercing made her unconsciously lift her hand toward her own eyebrow, which she tried to cover by brushing a strand of hair out of her face. "I'm Jada." She let the stranger- Boreas- take her arm and move her in the direction of the cafe. It was kind of strange, making plans to go somewhere with a person that she barely knew. Then again, it happened pretty frequently, it seemed.

It only took a few minutes to cross to the small cafe and push open the door. In contrast to the chill outside, inside it was toasty, almost scorching hot after the cold. She held it for the other senshi, shutting it with her foot once he was inside and peeling off the gloves. "Table or booth?" asked the waitress, and Jada looked at Bo- Noel- to make the decision on that.

"Booth is fine." she agreed with the boy breezily, and followed the waitress and Bor- Noel- to the window seat. She slid into her chosen side first, sinking into the red plastic coverlet on the bench and making certain that her knees did not bump the underside of the table. One never knew what might be stuck under there. The other senshi slid into the booth across from her, and she took a moment to look him over as he rubbed the piercings in his ear. So many piercings, she couldn't imagine. His hair was almost white, it was that pure a blonde. Maybe he dyed it, she wondered. And he was taller than she was by almost a full foot; he'd towered over her as they walked. It was odd how she felt so much more.. equal to him when she was wrapped in Scylla's skin than in her own.

It was a state of mind, she decided, eyes sliding down from his face to his clothing. His voice brought her eyes snapping back to his face, and she gave him a businesslike smile, the opposite of the warmth she had as a senshi. Eyes were on her, in public. And out with a strange male of unknown social cla- oh god. Her face suddenly burned as she realized her own thoughts. Snotty, snobbish, and cruel. She was letting herself slide backwards into the skin of a girl she didn't want to be. Her hands clenched, and as they relaxed, so did her smile. "No, you didn't date my brother. He's ten. And I'll assume by you asking that question first, you never dated my sisters either."

She knew how they had first met, but she knew many people wouldn't recognize the Dream for what it was. She was special, she supposed, being friends enough with Johnny, and Fallon, and- oh, god, Dylan... "We met in the Cave of Wonders." her eyes were on the waitress moving back toward their table. Hopefully Noel would get the joke, or the waitress would think they were LARPers, or something. "What do you remember, about me?" she supposed it would be a good place to start. "About everyone else who was there?"

She grinned at him, glad to hear that ten year olds weren't any more his cup of tea than girls. "I can definitely agree about an attractive men." she raised her hand, as if she were toasting, and gave a graceful little shrug. "They are uncommonly common here in DC. And yet not a single one is... single." At least not that she'd found. Her mother had effectively ruined most of her chances with a man her own age, and Jada wasn't as interested in widowers and being a grave-robber as her mother would have had her be. Jada hadn't given up hope though; she was only eighteen-- there were plenty of other places to look besides Deathtrap, America.

As the waitress set down the cocoa, Jada smiled at her. "Go ahead and get another cup ready." she told her, inadvertently confessing to one of her weaknesses. "You do those pots here, right, like the carafes of coffee?" The woman nodded, and Jada waved her off. It would keep them well-supplied with liquid heat, and get the waitress out of the way.

Jada let a smile cross her lips at the mention of the only Negaverse agent she'd almost liked. He hadn't been like so many of the little snots these days, acting like they were aliens or like they were something foul coming to stink up the City Water. It was all the more touching when it was considered that it had been a dream, but no one had known that it wasn't the end of their young lives. "I recall," she said finally. She recalled very well. "I still dream of it, sometimes. Like part of my mind was left behind there, a little part of it still trapped in a puzzle box, each room a different part of the memory."

She knew, intellectually, that they had all been set free. Everyone except those who had died with Dylan. Tartaros was now gone, only a prison for Wiseman and others. If the death of Alexandros had really stopped it all, there would be no way to go back in and solve the riddles that haunted her. No way to save the prince who had been so close to being a friend. Dylan had reminded her of Lucas, with his slim arms and ethereal looks. She'd always enjoyed him-- he'd been literate, and beautiful, and she only wished that she could have done something for the boy who had saved her life. All that she could do now for the Prince and his Queen was stay with the ones they had left behind. Ares, Laocoon, Zirconia and Gaia. All of them were members of the Blood Moon Court, and though she could not profess to knowing Zirconia and Gaia, she supported them all as best she could.

"I don't really know what I can tell you," she said finally, and her sorrow wasn't being hidden when she looked up at Noel. It wasn't what she could tell him so much as what she should. "I don't know that I have the right." Some things weren't her secret to share. "But that place, that dream... that was where we met."