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Sylvite couldn't help a little giggle when the other girl got all blushy and flustered. It was just, like, fun being around someone who didn't think she was stupid for getting really into her investigations and for trying to be nice.

Aletheia was probably right about the fairy queen getting hidden, too. Although she had shown up before. Huh. Sylvite nodded, although a little slower this time. "Yeah, or she might have gone home," she said, gesturing into the empty depths of the darkened garden. "Like I said, the super supernatural stuff doesn't usually stick around too long."

She had a theory brewing about parallel universes and times when the walls between worlds got thin, also inspired by the books she'd used to read, but she kept that one to herself for now. It needed more evidence before she could prove anything. She started chewing her lip. "Unless that just means they don't wanna deal with people and they're really, really well hidden?" Aletheia was smart! That would probably be easier than going to a whole other universe.

She got really quiet for a second when asked about her wish. "I was thinking magic," she said. "Like, real magic, not just what the officers get. Senshi magic, or maybe even something stronger." She loved her magic knives, she did, but sometimes she wanted something a little more special.

"But yeah. Money would be really nice, too." If she could get through college without tons of debt and move her family out of their crappy apartment, that might be worth trading magic for.

Sylvite straightened to her full five feet, trying to look a little bit more like a professional Captain. "Don't worry. You're not missing out. Lieutenant weapons are kinda crap at first too. They're toys, or like, lollipops." She summoned her knives and turned one around so the other girl could see where the handles were still swirled like candy. "That was mine. Cute, but not the best when someone's trying to hurt you."

She flipped it back so that the blades glinted in the low light. "Now I have these, which are super nice in a fight, I don't wanna trade them or anything, but like," she cut off and chewed on her cheeks some more as she tried to figure out how to phrase it, which brought the attempt to look professional to a halt. The senshi never seemed to understand how cool they were, or how good they got it.

"You know who else has knives? Like, half of the Captains in the Negaverse. You guys get to have like, rumors," she glanced back over at Aletheia's gorgeous outfit, with the swirls and flowers, a weirdly wistful look in her eyes. "Or like, mood swings, or flowers that can stick people in place. It's always something different and awesome."

It was always something special.

Sylvite caught herself starting to sigh, realized she was starting to sound jealous, and then shrugged instead and smiled a little too hard.

"I guess the knives are already magic, though. It'd probably be more useful to get out of debt if I had a wish to spend." She leaned in towards the other girl again. "Okay, I approve, but like, how are you gonna eat twenty cakes in a day?" The grin softened into something more natural. "Can I help, or are they all gonna be for the fairies?"

Aletheia had a point about luring the fairies back out. If they liked festivals, it probably meant they liked food, right? Luckily, Sylvite also liked sweets. She gave the pockets in her shorts a quick search before frowning and looking back up. "Yeah, we might have to make something. I think I ate all my Oreos."

Sylvite nodded just as intensely as she had when she'd been talking about the fairies. "Yeah. Chrysocolla. She's the Senshi of Moods. She's really cool," she said. "She did a bunch of my training when I was new because my first general was kinda a deadbeat."

The intensity that Sylvite had shown towards everything so far that night was gone, just for a couple seconds, as she thought about her old friend. She was quiet, and she looked out into the distance even though she wasn't really searching too hard anymore. It had been a good time, back between when she'd gotten her powers and when everything had fallen apart and she'd realized she was kinda just a kid in a full-on war.

"She got busy with some new team eventually, but yeah, her magic's awesome. Scary, but awesome." Back in the day, Sylvite had always wanted to see what senshi magic did for herself, even if it did something bad, but at this point she was very okay with the nasty stuff being kept for the bad guys.

After patting down just about every little place in her uniform that could possibly hide snacks and checking their surroundings again, there was a dark shimmer and then the dark coat and boots were replaced by an outfit featuring a tank top, mismatched converse, and a lot of handmade bracelets. She reached into the pockets of her new jean shorts, and that was when she found it.

It was a very sad, very crumpled up Oreo wrapper. "There we go," she said, showing it to Aletheia before kinda shaking it at the shadows in the distance. If there were fairies there, they didn't seem too impressed. Alexa peeked inside the package. One crushed up Oreo remained. Yeah, she wouldn't be too impressed either.

"You're a professional baker?" she asked, the excitement coming back. "Woah. Okay, one, now I really wanna help you eat twenty cakes. I mean, even if I have to pay you." That was only fair, right? "Two, you can probably do a lot better than this with making something to get the fairies out." She put the sad, sad Oreo back in her pocket where it belonged. "But I can try to help! Do some research, get some ingredients," her grin got bigger, "and then we'll have the ultimate fairy feast!"

Alexa lifted up her arms to show off the bracelets, beaming under the compliments. Today she was mostly just wearing standard issue friendship bracelets, but they were all made in nicely coordinated colors. "Yeah!" she said. "I make them in class if I start getting fidgety. I'm learning to do some with fancy beads, too, but I don't wear those all the time."

"Oh, a blog is cool, too! The internet is the future of business or whatever." She was still smiling, but she gave a tiny shrug. The concept of sweets, no matter the format, was way more interesting than the concept of work or economics.

Either way, she moved on quickly enough to take the offered phone, where she tapped in her real name, Alexa Dewey, her number, and a couple of sparkle emojis for good measure because obviously. Then, she pulled out a somewhat dated smartphone of her own and handed it over. "Here's mine," she said.

Part of her wondered if it was the fairies who were messing up the cell signals, since they weren't that far out of town or anything. Unless some youma was chewing on the tower. That was also always a possibility. "Yeah, I can't afford infinite ingredients, either," she said. "Flour and butter, yeah, but hopefully we don't get into any weird stuff. But I'll do some research and see what looks like it's worth a try."

She squinted, now a bit annoyed, at whatever might be lurking in the distance. "Which means I'm gonna need my computer, I guess. So, uh, see you later?"

She had already mentally switched tasks, and was looking towards home, because if there was something she liked as much as friends and sweets, it was mysteries.