Welcome to Gaia! ::

Cybele had found herself continuing to gravitate towards the woods. Part of it was for practicality's sake. Over the past few days, she had learned the best places to look for fruits and berries. It far easier than digging through the crates of house after house, and it was far less dusty. Also, if she found herself in need of firewood or building materials, it was easy enough to break some branches off of the trees when she made her way back towards the village.

There was something deeper to it, though. After a lot of experimentation, she was finding that there was no spark of familiarity at all when she walked through the forest, the way there was with a few other things, but she was enjoying it now that she was here. There was little to do after the day's chores, anyway, so she'd taken to taking walks. She was no longer tripping over rocks. She was gracefully making her way over bumps and tree roots, and she'd even started to recognize a few landmarks up before the point where the path began to twist and send her back towards the town.

The river was one of these, and it was probably her favorite. There was something calming about the sounds it made, and it was also often a less crowded water source than the well. Although today, it seemed that there was somebody else here.

Not just anyone, either. It was another corrupt. At that realization, Cybele found herself staring for a bit longer than was socially acceptable. The woman had hair that was as long as hers, and the same aura, and there was something else, something that Cybele couldn't quite put her finger on.

In any case, she stepped forward, a bucket in her hand and a polite smile on her face. "Good morning," she said.

There was something about this woman's tone that made Cybele's smile soften, just a bit.

"I'm the Senshi of the Hunt," she said as she stepped forward, her tone almost playful to match that of the other senshi's. "I'm good at finding people. It's my specialty."

At least, that was one of the things that felt like it should be true. There were reports on paper, in the database, of her chasing around various agents as an Order senshi, but there was no way for her to remember that herself, or what techniques she'd used. She felt like she could have tracked someone, given half a chance, but there hadn't been much opportunity for hunting between her introduction to the Negaverse and her introduction to the strange mist that had brought her here.

Perhaps it meant something that she'd found someone in the woods without even really trying.

Perhaps it meant that people tended to spend time near water. Cybele knelt and put her bucket in the water, watching as the current trickled and swirled and began to fill it up. "I don't have to stay for long if you're looking for alone time," she said. "I understand. I enjoy getting away to the forest, too."

Between the water burbling and the wind rattling through the branches, it was quite the pleasant place.

If recent events had affected Adorea's filter, they had certainly affected Cybele's ability to care about something so small as the sound of someone's voice. She pressed her lips together as she considered the question.

"With the monster, dead or alive," she said with a small shrug. That much had been obvious to her from nearly the beginning. People weren't just vanishing into the woods in the middle of the afternoon. It always happened late at night, when it was easy to hear the monster prowling through the streets and clawing at buildings. "Perhaps there is another pocket dimension like this one where it is keeping them," she said. "Perhaps it ate them. There is a small chance they found their way back to the city, although in that case I believe the beast guards the exit."

She wasn't sure why people struggled so much with the most obvious explanation and kept looking for the missing people in the attics or behind trees. Then again, she wasn't sure about a lot of things. Everyone was acting like this place was so strange, but compared to Negaspace, with the giant castle and prowling youma, this was tame.

Did that make it boring? That was something to think about.

She knelt down to look at the rocks at her feet until she found one that was properly flat and smooth. "I would like to get out of here sooner rather than later," she said, and her tone was still cool and logical. "It would be much nicer to see a forest that actually goes somewhere."

Although she was very aware that her desires did not matter much in the scheme of things.

Cybele continued to look out over the water, her expression impassive. "An educated guess. That's why everyone is talking about it."

She wasn't offended, although as she stared into the distance, she did have to wonder about her offhand comment. She should have been good at finding people. She was the Senshi of the Hunt, and the information she'd gotten from Sylvite suggested that she had been a decent tracker, once, but the other senshi was correct in that she'd been coming up empty handed since she'd arrived here. Her eyes narrowed slightly.

How much had she lost?

"No, I'm not doing better than anyone else here," she said with a small shrug. "I might actually be worse off." She glanced over, rocking back onto her heels. "I lost my memory recently when I was brought to the Negaverse. I've begun to realize that my perception of normal is off, and that has me wondering if I'm forgetting something that would help me put all these clues together."

She tossed the stone into the river, where it made a satisfying splash. "In theory, I am good at hunting, though. I am going to go after the beast if nothing else turns up soon."

"I have some idea of who I used to be," said Cybele, kneeling again to run her fingers over the nearby rocks. She wasn't looking for any shape in particular, just one that was especially different or satisfying. "Not because I regained any memories. There was an ID on me when I woke up. I did some research and found some social media pages."

Most of the stones here were somewhat worn, but after looking for a few moments, she found one that was nearly spherical and smooth to the touch. She picked it up, running her thumb across it.

"She was into theater. Lots of acting, possibly some promotional work. She was always posting advertisements for shows." Cybele rolled her shoulders back in something that might have been a shrug. "I suppose it's worth a try, if there are any scripts lying around the village."

She'd found a few packs of playing cards, so perhaps there were some old books. "Although even looking at the pictures feels like I'm looking at someone else's life. It's interesting. It's not me. I'm not sure if reading-"
There was a long pause where she squinted, clearly looking for a word. "-Shakespeare would help any more than that."

She rolled the river rock around in her hand one last time and then threw it into the river with the other. "On the other hand, I know I was and am the Senshi of the Hunt, and when I'm like this, every once in a while, I'll know just a bit more." She glanced over. "For example, I think I may have met you before."

She made no comment on any promises. This girl might not have believed her, but she was going to find the missing ones.

Cybele gave a small shrug, not seeming entirely convinced. "Perhaps," she said. Of course she'd looked into the acting thing to some extent. She hadn't spent as much time as it on she'd spent on the hunting, or anything that connected to her Negaverse duties, but she only had so many hints as to who she even was. Of course she was going to follow up on those hints when she had the time. It hadn't managed to spark much familiarity yet, but perhaps Adorea was onto something.

She hadn't tried looking through scripts yet. There was time before nightfall to see what she could find in this place.

That train of thought was cut off when Adorea made some noncommittal response to whether or not she'd seen her before. Cybele whirled away from the river to look at her, brows pressing together in mild confusion.

"Have you met me before, or haven't you? That shouldn't be a difficult question." She was the one who couldn't remember these things. It had become reasonably common for people to come up to her, speak to her by name, and comment on the new color of her clothing, all with her staring rather blankly at them.

Still, the words had come out a bit harshly and she knew it, so she gave a half-smile and added, "I'm the one with no memory, remember?"

Cybele's gaze settled on the crack in Adorea's forehead. Perhaps it symbolized more than it let on. There were obviously things in the world that could damage someone's memory, Chaos being one of them.

She was now very curious if this other senshi had had a similar party to her own, but she did not push the issue, as that seemed like it would be getting to the point where it was impolite.

"Perhaps in time," she agreed, although unlike Adorea she was not going to wait for epiphanies to come to her. She was Senshi of the Hunt, and she could look for things, including information. If they ever got back to the city, she could look through the records in the databases. There would be information about corruption, there, and perhaps even something about who this oddly familiar woman had been before.

"Anyway, you've got me a bit curious about what I can find in town," she said, straightening. "Shakespeare or not- perhaps there's something. Enough to look through to kill a few hours, at least." She gave the river one last look before turning away.

"I'm going to head back," she said.