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"Deprogramming is better than fighting when it works," said Cybele, "Although I won't lie to you. They can be quite hostile."

It was a fine line between crushing a new senshi's hope and giving her a proper warning, and Cybele knew there was only so much she could say. The rest Limosa would have to learn for herself.

"The logistics start getting tricky on that," said instead, finding it easier to talk about the posters. "I might be able to run off a few posters after work," although that edged towards a moral line as well as the printing costs started to add up, "But outsourcing gets difficult when our identities are on the line. I don't think I could ask a designer for that sort of thing. We can try asking around on the powered side?" Thinking back, Cybele realized that even though she'd met a decent amount of people at this point, she didn't think she knew any of their day jobs. It might be worth looking into.

It wasn't too strange that she'd never met an Eternal. "It takes a while to meet all of the levels and factions." She tilted her head, although she kept that same smile. "How long have you been a senshi, Limosa?"

Cybele didn't push the issue of the Negaverse any further. As long as she'd been warned that they were dangerous, she could puzzle out the rest in her own time.

Instead, Cybele summoned her phone. "I understand. I think after I awakened I didn't touch my henshin pen for a full year." She'd loved the idea of magic, but when the schoolwork had piled on, it had seemed like too much, and back then she hadn't fully understood the seriousness of it all. "I'm sorry about your friend, but I'm serious about not having to do this alone."

She pressed the contact button and watched Limosa automatically pop onto the list. "If you'd like someone to patrol with, feel free to reach out." She kept squinting at the phone and flipping through the various menus. "I think there's a way to send out mass messages, too, if you want to try to recruit people for you poster project."

Cybele frowned. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said. "Family drama is the worst." Her eyes were sympathetic, but there was something in her tone that suggested she was one of those people to whom family drama meant getting grounded back in high school.

She turned back to the phone, which strangely was more in her comfort zone. "There's a connections app, too, if you want to try chatting with people instead of just seeing who you run into on a given night." Cybele would never be a technology expert, but after many, many talks with guardian cats and senshi, she at least new what all the apps on her senshi phone did. "There's no need to be lonely."

Cybele gave her phone a sidelong glance before she finally let it vanish again.

"There's probably chatspeak on there, yes," she said. "To be honest, I don't use that app very much, either." It was partially because of the way people talked. She was getting better at writing formal emails, but she started to balk when people gave up on proper grammar, and especially when they stopped using vowels.

"I'm just trying to make sure you know all your options."

"I know," said Cybele with a deep and genuine sigh. "Chatspeak really shouldn't be an option. Vowels are not that difficult!"

She rolled her shoulders back, trying to shake the thought of incomplete words from her body.

"Is there anything else that you're not sure about?" she asked, and then rocked forwards on her heels as a thought crossed her mind. "Have you heard of the Dark Mirror Court?"

That comment was enough to actually get a giggle out of Cybele. "I agree," she said, having to take a breath to compose herself.

It was easier to be serious when thinking about the Dark Mirror Court, although she didn't get the same dark look in her eyes that she'd had when talking about the Negaverse.

"They're senshi, but they're a separate court that's not aligned with us or the Negaverse. There are fewer of them, I think, but you still may run into one." She squinted again, trying to remember what the exact state of the politics had been the last time she'd managed to talk to one of them. "They drain energy, too, but they don't do nearly as much of the really terrible stuff as the Negaverse. I think we've managed truces with them a few times."

Or had that always just been wishful thinking on her part?

"They were trying to get to space for a while, but I think eventually they realized it was counter intuitive. Now I'm not so sure."


She squinted at that. There were still the false memories of being part of that Court, of hiding in the mirrors and trying desperately to find a way off the planet before it had all fallen apart. It made it hard for her to pick apart what the real Court was doing now, especially as she barely ever seemed to run into any of them who had answers.

She rolled her shoulders back. "If you already know about knights, then that should be all of the groups in the city in a very tight nutshell."

Cybele nodded. "Knights are allies," she said. "I don't think there's ever been an argument about that." At least not a large one, although even with all her years as a senshi, she there were many things in Destiny City that had happened before her time, and that was ignoring the longer history that she paid little attention to. Still, she thought she remembered knights and senshi being allies even back then.

"There are still plenty of people who don't have magic powers," she added, "But once you start looking, there's a bit of magic almost everywhere." She glanced down the street where she'd chased down a youma a few weeks ago. "And we keep discovering more and more."