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October fogs, while spooky, weren't exactly uncommon. And so, when Acubens stepped out on patrol that night, she wasn't overly concerned with the thick layer of haze on the ground. What she was concerned, with, however, were the reports of a horned figure lurking in the fog. Nothing substantial, nothing really beyond a few whispers here and there over the course of the evening, but enough. Enough to pique Acubens' interest and concern. Enough to have her texting her wife a quick "gotta check something out in town," and powering up.

As she walked, the fog slipped and swirled around her ankles and shoulders, covering her in a cool, damp shroud. It felt, she thought with a smile, a bit like mirrorwalking. It was comforting, for a moment, feeling like that. Some senshi shivered when the passed through mirrors, but Acubens loved it. Loved the feeling.

The comfortable feeling of familiarity, however, vanishes when something swirls behind her. The fog itself, it seemed, coalesced into one figure and then slipped away and back into the mists. Lingered just on Acubens' periphery. she tried to shrug it off, tried to move further into the fog instead of wondering what it was, but the further she got into the fog, the more persistent the feeling of being watched... of being followed got. Shapes became shadows became footsteps until Acubens was certain she could see something just out of the corner of her eye.

Acubens

Acubens

Rhona

Micah

"Acubens?"

Acubens whirled at the sound of her name as more than just a whisper in her ear, her eyes wide and searching. To be honest, she wasn't sure what she was going to find, but she wasn't expecting...

"Lenka?"

She wanted to be happy to see Lenka, she really did... I was just that she was very... distracted. Another swirl off to her side made her glance away from the other senshi.

"Um... Maybe? Sometimes I swear this place is sentient. Just kinda wish it would... I dunno... throw up a magical cafe or something... serve up cups of warm fuzzies instead of..." she cast her arm out. "Whatever this is."

She laughed nervously, her arms coming up to cover her core in a measure of protection that she didn't need to take.

"Um... How... how are you? If you... I mean... if you want to tell me, that is. Or I could just get lost, you know. Wouldn't be hard in this fog."

Another nervous laugh that died on her tongue.

Acubens tried not to let hope swirl in her chest as Lenka asked her not to leave. She needed to be realistic. Lenka didn't want anything that would happen to Acubens to be on her shoulders. And she would take it onto her shoulders. Acubens didn't learn that from nowhere, after all. It wasn't a hand of friendship, and Acubens needed to remember that.

"I mean... Realms won't necessarily be better than homeworlds... I barely knew mine, so I can't say one way or another... but they can are certainly different. They have pros and cons to weigh against Homeworlds..." Even if Acubens would consider them better, that was wholly objective.

We should like, get out if it?

Find somewhere less creepy to talk?

If you want to keep talking...

Acubens tried, and subsequently failed, to keep the enthusiasm out of her voice, the sound of it ringing perhaps a bit too loud in the silence around them. She cleared her throat after a moment and tried to find her normal speaking voice before she went on, "a cafe, if you want. We can power down and sit where it's warm and light. Or, if you want to know more, I can show you my realm? It's fully formed so you'd be able to get a better idea of what can be done. I'm also almost certain I have a small collection of Acuben crystals you can have to start yourself off..."

At the mention of crops, Acubens visibly perked. Did they… does she know… the smile that grew on Acubens’ face nearly split it in two as she leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, “Honestly, all of the produce sold in the Farmer’s Daughter is grown on my realm. It’s how I keep summer produce on the shelves out of season.” And while the mention of Lenkan crops piqued Acubens interest even more, she knew better than to press her luck. It was a small miracle that Lenka was talking to her at all, she didn’t want to demand too much from her old friend… New friend? New acquaintance? From Lenka. Lenka who was here and talking to her and asking about realms and accepting Acubens’ offering of crystals.

She even bowed graciously as Lenka told her she was paying. In truth, Acubens would pay for anything Lenka wanted if it kept them hanging out. But, again, Acubens was trying not to be weird and so she kept that to herself.

“Of course,” she said instead, gesturing in the direction of the cafe, and thereby, out of the fog. “Whatever you want, Lenka.”

“Of course,” Acubens grinned mischievously as Jaina turned and began walking away. She knew better, and she was sucking up a little bit to stay on the other woman’s good side, but Acubens was still very much herself, and she couldn’t resist tugging on Lenka’s chain just a little. Acubens followed suit a moment later, releasing her power and falling back into her skirts and bangles. Her arms jangled loudly as she mussed her hair back to satisfactory volume.

“No, it’s normal fruit. I ate it first, regularly, for about a month before I put it on sale. As far as we can tell, unless they are from homeworlds, the plants grown on Realms are just plants. They do all the same things that earth plants do. Nothing more and nothing less.” But that didn’t mean that Rhona wasn’t keeping an eye on things. She’d long since stopped being worried about something dormant waking but… a little vigilance never hurt anyone.

“And, of course, I don’t put any homeworld plants on sale. I may be unhinged, but that feels like a step too far. Are these melons just regular watermelons or…” Even with no one around, Rhona fell back into caution after her initial tease. “Either way, they’re easy to grow.”

Rhona laughed, her head tossed back and her eyes squeezed shut. It almost felt like old times. Almost. But where it didn’t feel as familiar it at least felt… hopeful. This wasn’t old times, and it never would be. And that was okay. Micah and Millie were gone now, and in their places stood Rhona and Jaina. Two different people who, for all intents and purposes, were strangers.

It wasn’t old times, but it held the promise of new times.

“I’m going to hold you to that, you know,” she sighed, the fog around them finally clearing. “You’ll be part of a chorus calling me out. Somehow I think you and my wife will be the loudest voices among them.” She laughed again, able to count off on one hand that Lav had set her back on the straight and narrow that week alone.

“Cross my heart, though,” she drew a small X over her chest. “I’m keeping an eye out. The first sign of anything strange, everything gets pulled.” Even if that would probably damage her bottom line… maybe she could stage some kind of break in an vandalism. Insurance would cover that… right? Probably.

“I’ve heard of chibi growth rituals. What was yours like?”

Rhona let herself be pushed, stumbling slightly to the side before bumping back into Jaina with a grin.

“I listen! I heard you! I was just… I dunno, was wondering if there was more. Like… you just had a homeworld picnic and big bang boom, full grown senshi?” Maybe it was the mystery surrounding it, or maybe it was the word “ritual” but Rhona had expected… a little more pomp and circumstance. Lenka had deserved a little more pomp and circumstance.

“Normal seeds can keep pretty much indefinitely if they are kept airtight and dry. That’s what seed banks are. If you want to check for germination, though, that’s easy. Just put them into a damp paper towel and keep them in a plastic bag. Mist them every few days and wait for sprouts. When those happen just… slam dunk them into dirt.”

She glanced around then, checking to make sure they were far enough away from anyone else before she offered softly, “or else, on Realms, a green crystal will force them to maturity immediately. I’ve found mystery seeds in Mirrorspace that reacted just find to that.”

Rhona may have been away from Jaina for a while, but she knew when the other woman was uncomfortable. She’d touched a nerve, and that was the last thing Rhona wanted to do. They were having a good time. A nice time. She needed to recover it.

Thankfully, Jaina gave her exactly that kind of out. Her exclamation drew a good-natured laugh out of Rhona as she nodded.

“I mean, yes. They primarily grow meadow land. But if used on an existing plant it makes it… bigger. Ripens it right away. The crystals are… mysterious. We only know the basics of how they are used. I think… I think they could be used for so much more, if we could just figure out what they are, exactly. Where they come front, where that power comes from. Like that crystal above the citadel.”

Forever hovering… forever taunting… so close, and yet still so untouchable. Rhona just knew that held at least a part of the key to stabalizing Mirrorspace and Scape. If she could just get her hands on it. Turn it over in her fingers and investigate it. All jokes about her infatuation with the thing aside… Rhona could feel deep down in her bones that it was more important that they could all ever possibly imagine.

“I’d be happy to show you sometime. We can have lunch there sometime. I’ve got a little house there and everything.”