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Curious Findings (17) : Maybe it’s got something to do with the weather, or the construction, or all the other general oddities that seem to occur in Destiny City, but for the first time in nearly fifty years, the historic tree in one of Downtown Destiny City’s parks has woken up. While the tree was known for being alive and growing despite a lengthy hibernation, this is the first year that it’s sprouted leaves–but that’s not all! The unique tree has now also started growing strange pods.

Because of the tree’s legacy–and not at all because of the oddity–the area has been taped off, but that really hasn’t been enough to stop anyone curious enough to investigate. The tree itself is several feet wide and stands roughly fifty feet tall; its branches spread significantly and seem like they can hold a lot of weight–which is good, because the pods growing on it have a hard brown shell and can grow up to the size of a soccer ball.

Sometimes, the larger ones seem to tremble and shake in place. Maybe it's an animal trying to nibble? Maybe it’s just the wind? Maybe it’s something else. The pods can be pulled from the tree or collected from the ground; the shells are incredibly difficult to crack open, and some of them leak a strange, acidic sap that is strong enough to cause skin agitation–and in some cases there are even reports that it’s burned through wood or fabric. Sometimes, the healthier looking pods that aren’t leaking anything even seem to shake on their own, which is a mystery in itself. Another mystery is why Almadel seems so keen to trade for them…


Lete had seen the weird dragon-man and his setup first. More specifically, she’d seen Murikabushi—apparently lost in some kind of daze, or all wrapped up in his own head, or who even knew what the Hell went on in that perpetually overthinking, philosophically inclined noggin of his—wander in and start chatting up a dragon-man who seemed significantly nicer than the dragon-man who’d come at Lete in the park a few weeks ago. At least this dragon-man didn’t seem hostile to honest, hard-working Dark Mirror senshi who just wanted to do their jobs and gather energy for the Mirror like they were supposed to do.

On top of that, he had stuff.

All kinds of stuff, all splayed out across the table that he’d set up. From the distance she’d held while observing, Lete hadn’t been able to tell much about the specific nature of the stuff that this nice dragon-man was trying to sell or whatever……but what she had seen had led her to the conclusion that said stuff was probably very cool. If she missed out on getting some for herself, then she would surely regret it. Plus, maybe he had some kind of potion that made you irresistible to the only White Moon senshi who wasn’t a slobbering, mangy, overly aggressive jerk who’d attack on-sight when a hardworking Dark Mirror senshi only wanted to read a book and let her Mirrorwraiths du jour go extract some very kind donations of energy.

Then again, Lete didn’t really seem to have any problem wooing Demeter with baked goods. Strawberry season was going to get into full swing soon, and Lete was excited to get cracking on some new recipes to try that maybe Demeter would like. For a brief, wonderful moment, Lete wondered if she could offer the dragon-man brownies or something in exchange for some of the really cool stuff he was selling……but then Lete saw the sign.

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Looking for: Fresh fruit. Hard shelled, brown in color. Preferably large, and just ripening. Notable for their slight leakage near the stem. Ideally picked from the tree and not bruised from fall or nibbled by wildlife. Should not rattle when shaken. I will be picky. Will reward handsomely.


……So, that sounded like a pretty solid “No” on the brownies idea.

Shame, really. Lete liked to think that her brownies were pretty good. But oh well, first and most importantly, more for Demeter, if the dragon-man with the collection of really cool stuff didn’t want any (and more for Leandro too; frankly, Lete needed to kidnap her cousin for a Treat Yo’self Day sometime soon). Secondly as well, maybe his people couldn’t even eat brownies and offering them would’ve gotten him all offended. Then, for a third thing, at least Lete had an idea of what to do instead of baking—and truly, it sounded so much easier.

After a quick mirror-walk to the right corner of town, it didn’t take Lete long to find the tree with the fruit that the mysterious dragon-man wanted so badly. Lete had heard rumors about this tree. Nothing she could personally verify or not—though several of them sounded like they could be good bases for podcast episodes; she’d really need to reach out to more Mirror babes about that idea—but really, it didn’t matter, as long as she got what she’d come here for. Sure, people had taped off the area because the tree had some kind of important legacy or whatever, but if a legacy-having tree abruptly began growing pods like these, then wasn’t that a good reason to figure out what the ******** was up with them?

(Lete paused in her advance on the tree, but only long enough to collect the glittering, golden star charm that she spotted on the sidewalk. If that wasn’t a lucky omen about this adventure, then truly, she didn’t know what was.)

Swishing toward the tree with a confidence that screamed “This sign can’t stop me because I can’t read,” Lete only paused to lift the tape so she could wander beneath it. From there, it was a quick jaunt to some of the branches she could more easily reach. She didn’t know how many pods to get, nor exactly how many she could comfortably stash in her subspace, but she also figured that what mattered most was following the dragon-man’s instructions from the size: fruits needed to be picked from the tree rather than picked up off the ground, un-nibbled by any critters, and not rattling. As long as she stuck to those guidelines, and grabbed some extra fruits in case any of the ones she found somehow disappointed, Lete figured that she’d be fine.

The first two she plucked were about the size of her Mama’s favorite farmer’s market grapefruits. Aside from the color being wrong and the shell distinctly not being a rind, they even felt similar in Lete’s hands. Not the exact same as Mama’s favorite grapefruits—heavier, for one thing, probably thanks to the shell—but still. Maybe these weren’t the biggest ones available, but they looked like they might satisfy in terms of quality.

Following the branches out toward where they sagged the most, Lete next came to a quartet of fruits the size of cantaloupe—a fortuitous find, for sure, until Lete had picked the first three and the remaining one started rattling. Cringing, she recoiled from it and slowly backed away from the one that seemed somewhat less than thrilled with some aspect of its existence. The other three, she’d safely put into her subspace pocket and none of them had rattled, so they’d probably be fine, right? Best to let somebody else deal with the one fruit that apparently had some complaints to register.

(Maybe it wasn’t very kind of her, but Lete really hoped that either that lunatic Saturn Knight or the unfriendly dragon-senshi he was friends with got into trouble with the vibrating. Both of them had been massive jerks to her, and if anybody deserved to deal with some unpredictable and probably dangerous magical nonsense that could almost certainly harm them, it was a pair of massive jerks.)

Finally, at the end of one branch, Lete came to the greatest find that she could have hoped for (insofar as she was aware). About the size of a soccer ball, this fruit hung by itself, no others close by at all. Heavy with potential and quality both, it pulled the branch down so close to the ground, Lete had to marvel at the fact that it hadn’t fallen off. If that wasn’t a miracle, she didn’t know what was.

Best of all: the soccer-fruit wasn’t rattling. It barely even wobbled as a breeze blew through.

Grinning with triumph, Lete jumped up to get her hands on the prize. As her feet found solid ground once more, she hugged it to her chest as if she would’ve hissed at anybody who got too close, then slapped their hands away and told them, “Mine!!!” Honestly, the idea sounded pretty tempting.

But it also sounded like a bad way to get this prize back to where it needed to be. The longer Lete left it out in the open, the likelier it was that somebody might see what she had and try to take it. So, with a deep breath, Lete gently placed the soccer-fruit into her subspace pocket. Once she’d wormed back beneath the caution tape, she took off like a shot, heading for the nearest mirror. She had to get these babies back to the dragon-man, before all of his really cool stuff wound up sold to other people.

wc: 1,220.