Welcome to Gaia! ::

The remnants of frost and cold were gone, and had been replaced almost instantly by summery weather this year. Although it seemed unnatural for this sort of heat wave to last for more than a few days, to Cybele, it wasn't unnerving. It was just nice to temperatures better suited to her very light fuku.

For once, she wasn't hunting. She had found a place hopefully further away from the center of the city than most people were willing to wander, and well lit enough that it would be difficult to hide. It was called a park, although in reality it was just a monument to some former mayor, a sign, a few flowers, and a single park bench squeezed in between two buildings on a street of small, classy businesses. It was a safe place, hopefully, and hopefully a place to talk.

She was staring at her phone. Megrez was probably the best one for her to talk to, since she'd been to training events and knew how they worked, but their previous meeting hadn't been... the best. Although she wasn't thinking so much about that future she'd seen anymore, but there was a chance it would come up again, bitterly, or some other disagreement they had. Still, she didn't want those memories to ruin their friendship, and she did need some advice, so after awhile she typed up a text.



She pressed send.

Cybele read the text, so casually worded, and felt a little silly for being so nervous about this. She didn't really relax, though. To pass the time, she experimented a bit with the features of her phone, found the primer, and read a bit of it. There wasn't anything in it that she didn't know at this point, but it did a decent job of keeping her mind occupied. She noticed the very bright Eternal aura slowly coming towards her, but didn't really register what it actually meant until Megrez was right there, waving at her. Cybele waved back, breaking into a smile. "Megrez! It really has been. It's nice to finally see you again."

She then spent several seconds taking in Megrez's outfit and markings in a way that probably bordered on impolite staring. "You're glowing," she finally pointed out, a little surprised, although now that she thought about it, she remembered seeing Ganymede glowing on the moon. Immediately, she internally winced for stating the obvious. "...And Eternal. Congratulations!" Honestly, that was the more surprising thing, even though it shouldn't have been. Megrez was the better senshi, after all, and it had been a year since they'd first met. Even though she was impressed, she couldn't help but feel a little jealous.

She did her best to shake those feelings off as she brushed off the seat beside her, and smiled. "You can sit down, if you'd like."

"You say that like it's not a big deal," said Cybele, who always got a little nervous when she got within arm's reach of someone who could reach into her chest. Then, she totally lost her train of thought because tiny fluffy things.

Her surprised grin widened further as she turned to the small creatures. "Hello," she cooed, reaching down to the nearest one, not really expecting it to sniff her fingers but not sure what else to do. "Aren't you a cutie? Yes you are!" she cooed, then looked up at Megrez. "They're adorable."

She needed to get back to business, though. "I'm sort of trying to plan a training event. That's what I'd like your input on, because I know you went to some when we first met."

"That's great, " said Cybele, not necessarily jealous, just suddenly aware and vaguely unhappy about the fact that there was nothing like that protecting her from corruption. She was too distracted by the puffskis to really care at the moment, however. Gushing out loud didn't seem like a good idea, as she was, after all, here on business, but she grinned as the little thing bumped her hand and practically squealed internally. Then, she picked it up, so she could sit up and talk properly to Megrez. "I think they're adorable."

"I never went to any of the Boot Camps," she admitted, and she'd had no desire to. The news that Gunn was gone was a bit of a relief, honestly. "That's not necessarily what this is going to be. The main event will be group sparring, and maybe we'll go over some combat techniques, some basic strategies? I'm not sure. The things I know about fighting come from trial and error. I have no idea if they're right, let alone how to teach them to a group of people."

Cybele's admiration of the puffski had gone from gushing to that point of internal squealing and more or less bathing it in pats and really wishing she had a little treat to feed it because that would be the most adorable thing ever.

However, she did not, and while that was disappointing, it was also good in a way because it meant she could focus at least a little on the discussion. "Strategy is important, yes, especially for the large scale battles. Those are the ones where the most people end up dead. The Negaverse always seems to know exactly what they're doing, and we never do. We have enough people that we could use military tactics, maybe... Not that even the most experienced senshi probably know much about them, but... I could do some research."

She paused for a moment to coo at the puffski. "Healing and defense are actually where we have the advantage. Everyone's magic is so different, though. It would be hard to plan for that before we meet people..."

"The Negaverse's tactics aren't hard to predict, honestly. They tend to lure people somewhere under a pretense, usually a public event, and then they attack from all sides. Well, sometimes they'll try something a bit different, but that would be the best thing to prepare group strategies for, I think. I'll do some research, and maybe see if I can find someone who knows about strategy.
I think what we've figured out so far is a good start, though. So, thank you."

She was still shamelessly snuggling the puffski with a slightly goofy grin on her face.