Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was kind of funny. The previous evening, she had seen a sign that said WANTED with a picture of a gaseous little ball; and now this afternoon they had been almost everywhere. There was not quite enough of them to be invasive or ridiculously obvious, however having seen the sign made her hyper-aware of the presence of wispy, round forms. “Will reward handsomely.” Jada Chamberlyn rolled the words thoughtfully in her mouth as she tapped a manicured nail against the café table, before sipping on her coffee and watching an orb drift and bobble past the window.

She hadn’t heard anything about their existence on the news so far, so were they not being noticed by everyone? Were they only noticed by people who knew they were being sought? Or were they, perhaps, only being seen and identified by people with Powered potential? No, surely not- if the glamours which protected their identities let something slip through so easily, that would be… a flaw, to say the least. Dangerous for everyone who touched them, certainly. Just because it didn’t seem like a Negaverse trick didn’t mean it wasn’t risky. And yet she was not a cat; curiosity had not yet killed her, even though she indulged it frequently.

How long would that little sign say it was closed for business? How many of these mischievous little balls were being sought by whatever alien entity was behind the shield? And who (or what), too, was the entity seeking them? This entity was powerful enough to be able to shield a relatively large area from detection, and powerful enough to distort the space around the area so that things went passing right through. Yet it wasn’t a perfect glamour, as if they wanted to be seen and known of. The news only said it was a meteor strike. A 100 foot hemisphere- possibly a full sphere, though Jada didn’t want to think about why they would bother to shield under the ground- was no small area. And, frankly, the news was suspect enough after some of the things she had seen over the years. But if it was a proper cover-up, wouldn’t there be more people trying to keep civilians out of the area?

More important than almost all of those questions was the major concern: Why were the little orbs being sought? Were they a power source, like the crystals Caedus had used for energy? Were they an alien species that had escaped containment? (Hah! Escaped containment, like she was living in some science fantasy novel.) Or were they something even more dangerous? Having them wander around the area was bad enough, not knowing if they were being sought after to cause trouble… was an even greater concern.

She rose to her feet, catching the waiter’s eye and sliding a bill across the table to handle her tab. “Keep the change,” she said with an easy smile, “and enjoy the rest of your night, okay?” Accepting a Crimson star charm from the beaming waiter and adding it to her keychain where the others lay (it made her think of Kallichore and her smile was soft and lonely), Jada discreetly palmed her henshin pen inside her purse, tucking it into a loop secreted in the sleeve of her summery cardigan before she headed to the restroom to wash her hands.

It was Sailor Scylla who wandered out the employee exit carrying an empty to-go coffee cup and lid. Bouncing from the alleyway to the roof she stared around the area seeking her wispy little target. In the early evening it was much easier to see the small orbs bouncing about, little light flickering. She paced across the roofs, keeping an eye on one that was in a fairly out of the way location before dropping down to the sidewalk and reaching out for it with a bare hand.

Somehow it almost felt like she was holding one of those fluffy white dandelions. It was wispy and soft, warm as though it had spent all day in the sun, and yet felt incredibly fragile; Scylla thought if she closed her fist on the orb it would burst, and only crushed and ruined petals would be left to drift away. The wisp rolled over her hand, blinking out of sight, so fingers closed on it before it could be lost, and she opened the cup with her teeth. Carefully, the senshi loosed the wisp into the cup and lowered the lid on over the wisp. After a few minutes of rolling the cup to and fro it didn’t seem to be blinking its way out of the enclosure, so she sighed, taking a seat on a bench and stretching out her legs.

One wisp. It might get her in to see whatever was on the other side of that barrier, so she would take a risk and take her small prisoner with her when she returned to the ‘crash’ site. Perhaps her curiosity would be assuaged? Perhaps she would find out who or what had landed, why they had come, and why they wanted these little orbs. And, perhaps, she would even get a handsome reward out of the visit as well.