Welcome to Gaia! ::

“Everything about this war is sketchy as all ******** hell,” Ganymede argued gently with Alexandria. She understood his concern all too well. She didn't like it either, but she was also overcome with enthusiasm for being given the chance to hit the Negaverse where it hurt.

If Caedus was telling the truth. That still remained to be seen. But the chance seemed worth the risk in her mind. If it turned out Caedus was deceiving them and had other plans for the energy, they could take care of him then.

One thing was for sure, he didn't want to make an enemy out of this many people.

Ganymede glanced toward Themiscyra and looked pensive. It did seem rather strange that the Code would be acting odd around the same time a mysterious stranger came into town. It could all be one big coincidence, but after five years as a Senshi, Ganymede wasn't sure she believed in coincidences anymore.

“You think this might be related somehow?” she wondered.

Caedus began passing around crystals, and Ganymede suddenly found one being handed to her. She removed her hand from Venice's shoulder to take it, staring at it suspiciously as it began to glow in her palm.

“I didn't say I wanted one,” she mumbled. She'd only been looking for a demonstration, but now that she had one of the crystals in her hand she figured she might as well see what it could do for herself. For a moment she thought of dropping it. She hesitated and inevitably decided against it. She had no intention of using it on anyone but herself, in any case.

Ganymede heard questions being posed—how much energy Caedus required; how much could be held in a single crystal; how he meant to receive the energy from them; how they differed from Negaverse crystals. Ganymede eyed him to see how he might answer. She thought it might give them a clue as to what he was really after. Every time he spoke, she looked for cues that might tell he wasn't being truthful. So far she didn't have much to go on other than her own natural distrust.

Soon, when she felt she'd gotten a sufficient enough demonstration to reassure her that the crystals would do no harm, Ganymede tried to find a way to keep it from coming into contact with her bare skin. Unfortunately she had quite a bit of skin on display, and nowhere to store anything, even something that could easily fit in the palm of her hand. Eventually she stuck one hand under a ruffled layer of her dress and held the stone through it.

“So,” she began, still watching Caedus suspiciously, “are you going to be joining us on this little trip to the Negaverse's castle or do you expect us to do all your dirty work for you?”

Valhalla held his hand open when Caedus began passing the crystals out, glancing down at Ganymede with fondness when she mumbled about not saying she actually wanted one. “It’ll be okay,” he promised with a small smile, taking hold of the one he’d been given and held it tight. In any case, this wasn’t the first time he’d given up his own energy. It was better than the alternative of forcing people who didn’t want to.

“Besides, I know I could use a sleep aid,” he added softly, obviously intending it as a joke. He was worried that they were getting in over their heads. There were many who were offering, but he was also glad that there were those not willing to give up their energy so easily. At least this way, if something actually were to happen to them, they would have others still there to keep the city safe.

There were a lot of things about this that concerned Oberon. Things that could go wrong, things that could easily be played right into the Negaverse’s hands… But there was also the potential for good things. If they were able to pull one over on the Negaverse, that would be good for them, of course.

”Me, too,” he said as Caedus continued handing out the crystals, following Perdita’s choice not to bombard him. There was still something strange about the man, but seeing as he’d been doing dangerous things for the past several years, figured one more thing was just the same roll of the dice. If he died, he died. If he survived, then he can make another sketchy choice later.

“He seems nervous,” he said to Perdita, although making note of Hugbell nearby who was also offering food to the mysterious man. “I’ve never felt that aura before. And these crystals… I kind of want to ask for another one so I can put it through my chemistry set… you know?” he said, wondering if Caedus would allow him more than one.

If she was honest with herself, Varuna didn’t know what to think about the whole situation. She didn’t necessarily want to risk herself, or have others risk themselves, for something that they didn’t know the outcome. But she was also there. Powered up. Obviously wanting to do something to help the city and the people who lived there. But this man, she couldn’t manage to get a decent feel on him. He could be a very good actor, know how to lure in enough people with his charms. Wasn’t that how many cults started? A charismatic leader type luring people in with promises of something better?

Varuna stood closer to Palatine and the knight, Sessrumnir whom she’d met once a long time ago. Neither of them seemed too enthusiastic about the prospect of jumping into potentially throwing their lives away. So while she waited to see what would happen, Varuna stayed on guard, ready to use her magic at a moment’s notice.

SAILOR EROS

Puck began to speak and suddenly the cloaked figure at the top of the hill was the most fascinating thing Eros had ever seen. She stared intently at him, if it was a him, and tried very hard not to look like she was trying not to look at her estranged flatmate. Whatever he had to say, she really, really didn’t want to hear it right now. This was the worst of places to pick their fight back up and she just plain wasn’t ready to deal with it either. A few days hadn’t made that it any easier, which was why she’d been sneaking into the house to all but steal changes of clothes when Rob wasn’t home. She hadn’t packed up anything, but she hadn’t quite convinced herself yet that she needed to move out. Even if Rob probably wanted her to and that’s what he wanted to talk about. All the more reason she didn’t want to deal with him right now…

But she was saved from that awkwardness. The goings on in front of them was a good distraction and despite the major distraction Puck himself was, she was catching some of it. And she honestly had no idea what to do with any of it. Queens? Alliances? The Rift? What was all of this? Admittedly, she knew even less than Puck did about the history of the war or even all that much about the different factions themselves and this was all far over her head. The best she could do was collect it and tuck it away to think about later, see if she could make sense out of the pieces. It was like walking in on a couple having a conversation about something in their shared past… with as much context for you.

“He’s standing alone in the middle of a huge group of senshi and stuff. What is he gonna do? That dude with the wings would crush him before he’d made it two steps, I bet. And if he wants our help, its in his best interest to tell us whatever we need to hear to get us to do as he wants, so you can be sure if he’d not lying, he’s definitely spinning things to put himself in a better light.” She shrugged loosely. Its what she would do. As long as it wasn’t outright lying that you could get caught doing, why not phrase things a little better if it was really important people get on your side?

“Its not like he’s forcing us to do anything…” She said as the figure showed off a bag of something and began passing out little somethings it was hard to see past people taller than she was. “If you don’t like it, don’t take one. I don’t plan on getting roped into anything I don’t understand, that’s for sure.”

Smol Spacewatch

The other girl seemed to be pretty chill, and Spacewatch was down with being chill. Well, as chill as one could be given that holy moley the dude who'd call them to this after dark roast of all things bad and whatnot was some magical alien that wasn't even alive. How that even worked Spacewatch had no idea but dang if that didn't grab her attention. And by her attention, she meant her wanting one of those dang crystals.

Invasion? Rift? Who gave a darn those crystals were just flat out neat-o, and she was all over free swag. What kid of adult was she if she didn't go for the good stuff. Plus, everyone else was doing it so how unsafe could it be?

The second she took it however, she jumped, dropping it as if it had burned her. It hadn't done anything at all. She was just a bit taken back by how normal it felt.
Could have at least felt more... alien-y.

Tomlin, Guardian Cat

Tomlin shrugged, a long-drawn stretch of his shoulders and front paws. He didn’t find Order’s behaviour difficult. Then, he was on the difficult side himself. There was a part of him that knew the only reason he hadn’t sprung to the front to offer aid was because the senshi had done it for him. It might be worrying Miss Kitty, but Tomlin approved of her senshi already.

“Not so easy to balance caution and kindness,” he said softly.

The figure on the hill sounded very sure of his homeworld’s survival, and Tomlin hoped for the alien’s sake that he was right. A world of research would be worth investigating. With so many accepting the crystals, maybe the cats could borrow one for examination back at HQ?

Then he shot another surprised sidelong look at the white mauvian. “You have an ‘owner’?” he asked, in a tone that suggested finger-quotes were only missing because he lacked the digits.

He shook his head, scanning the crowd again. No, he hadn’t spotted Sailor Callisto’s uniform amongst the others, or caught her voice. Of course, she probably wouldn’t be calling out. Miss Kitty would like her.

“No owner. But my senshi? Haven’t seen her tonight. Her team might be here, though,” he added.

Sintashta looked down at the new weight on his leg, a moment of trepidation in the back of his mind. All of this was kind of getting to him. When he looked down, he saw the fluffy mass of another cat, although this one actually meowed.

Before he knew it, he asked, "I don't suppose you talk too, right?"

Considering his first interaction with a talking cat had been...just a few minutes ago - and where did that bugger go anyway? - he was....well he didn't know what he was anymore.