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The Lantern Festival (7) : Scientists have been hard at work trying to understand the strange, glowing qualities of the luminescent caterpillars found in the caves by the reservoir. The caterpillars still shrivel up if they are taken out of the caves but their glowing secretions have been processed into an organic paste that can withstand the outside world. The city is selling paper lanterns infused with various seeds. The glow paste is full of minerals to support healthy plant growth without risking damage to the environment; all lantern purchases come with a small packet of activating power that will heat the paste up enough to mimic the effects of a candle without the concerns of flammability. When the glow paste loses its heat, the lantern will return to the Earth and upon the first rain (or any contact with water) the paper will dissolve and the seeds may begin to grow. All proceeds from the lanterns are put right back into the community to support local conservation and environmental protection efforts.
Suni hadn’t really known what to expect when she saw the info packets that went with the paper lanterns. But, she did like that all proceeds were going back into the community. So, even though absolutely no monsters were involved in any way, shape or form, she’d bought half a dozen of the lanterns, intending to send them off from different points in the city. It was a silly idea, but she liked it. The plan, at least so far as she ever planned anything, was to ride out to various points in the city, send up a lantern and then let it travel where it would. The idea behind the plan was that they’d all land in different areas and make their spreading of seed (Suni snickered internally at her own phrasing) a bit more effective. Suni liked the idea of a city covered in flowers. If she could contribute to that in her own chaos gremlin way… Well. She’d do it.
She had considered powering up just to make it a little easier to access rooftops and such, but had ultimately decided against it. What if some senshi or knight thought she was out wreaking havoc and ruined her lanterns? No, she was going to have to do this as regular ol’ Sunira if she wanted things to work as smoothly as possible.
Which was why she’d forked over money to rent out one of those little scooters that could be found in clusters on the busier streets. With the scooter at her disposal, she wouldn’t have to walk as much. So! First stop was out in the park. She had no idea how high or far these things could travel and she wanted to hedge her bets just a little with at least one lantern. Pausing in the middle of some well manicured grass, she opened one of the lanterns and read the instructions on the activating powder. Seemed simple enough. Following directions, she poured the powder where the paste was thickest and waited. Sure enough, within moments, the lantern was floating up and drifting away on the breeze.
“Damn, that’s pretty,” she muttered, pleased with herself. All right, then. One down, five to go. Zipping to and fro across the city, Suni paused and released lantern after lantern, watching with a grin as each lifted off and was carried away by the breeze. By the time she had one lantern left, the night was getting old and she was sleepy. It was a little surprising to be out and about and not see a whisper of anyone powered. If a memo had gone out to declare this a collective night off, she sure as ******** hadn’t gotten it. But she wasn’t complaining. It was kind of nice to be out doing, well… relatively normal things. This last lantern, though. She needed to make it count. And the best place for that was the center of town. Scooting along, she finally got to her destination and frowned a little as the scraps of litter here and there. Maybe the cleaning people didn’t come out until very early in the morning. Whatever, she wouldn’t let it distract her.
She would, however, let a metallic gleam distract her and she prepped the lantern. It was funny how the paste on the lantern was so good at glowing and mimicking a candle once activated. It had been that soft glow as the lantern travelled up and away that had revealed the hint of gleam. Moving bits of discarded paper away with her foot, Suni saw that some festival goer must have dropped one of the star charms that were being passed out this year. Crouching to ick it up, she saw that it was the fuschia charm. Well, it wasn’t all beat up. Might as well take it. The dang things were everywhere anyway. Turning her attention back to the lantern, she watched as it lazily floated up and hovered for a moment before a breeze carried it away.
Nodding with satisfaction, Suni left the scooter where it wouldn’t be in anyone’s way and headed towards home. Benign chaos gremlin was best gremlin, after all.
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