Welcome to Gaia! ::

Things had been pretty quiet tonight. A good thing, really. Training was fine, patrolling was fine, but there had been something Andromeda had been wanting to do for a bit. She had been wanting to practice. She wanted to relive that feeling of joy from the night she had danced with herself. Since things seemed so chill, now was as good a time as ever to take a break! Andromeda had swapped out her usual heels for the pointe shoes she had started carrying around, and had stopped at--well. In a fountain. A rather large monumentally sized fountain that was big enough for her to dance in without much disturbance. Her eyes were half-lidded with concentration as she moved, gliding through the water and occasionally moving her arms or her legs in a way which kicked and splashed the water up in an arc over her, almost like a collapsing bubble. She twirled, she bent, she collapsed. She moved very much like a jellyfish drifting through water, if a jellyfish was a woman dancing. Like a dancing fairy moving with the currents and tides of the ocean.

Maybe that was the problem with her practicing before. She was trying to recreate the exact dance. Maybe if instead, she just... let it happen...

Distracted as she was, it was the first time since she had begun her time as a senshi she had let her guard down off her homeworld. She would miss the approaching presence of another, a mistake she hopefully wouldn't end up regretting.

Andromeda was just starting to find her flow when she felt it. A twitch of something approaching. It was with one more bend and toss of her arms behind her to bring another arc of water over her that she then ducked behind the fall of the fountain, her eyes darting around sharply in search of the source. They were already too close. She'd let her guard down. She took this moment to slowly pull her gloves off and tuck them away behind her when she heard a voice call out. She was mostly knelt in the water, her legs not touching the floor in anticipation of needing to literally spring to action.

Oh, he was completely covered except for his face. She'd have to really work for this. "Then you've lost your whimsy if you're going after girls just having a bit of fun," she called out, her tone light. Her brow furrowed. He looked oddly relaxed. Too relaxed. Was he the only one here? Her eyes darted left and right, and she strained to figure out if anyone else was here.

Was it truly just them? Or was there an ally in the wings simply hiding, waiting to power up at the right moment?

No, no... maybe it really was just him..?

"Then they'd be stupid to underestimate someone," she said with all the bluffing power in her body. Yeah, totally. Don't underestimate her. She was so well-trained, and so super mega experienced. Totally a seasoned senshi. But then he dropped his weapon and kicked it away, and she was really confused.

Whaaaaaaat? Research? Questions? A truce? Was he being serious? Andromeda still looked skeptical as she slowly rose from her kneeling position, her arms still raised somewhat defensively and ready to snap back at any second if he tried anything. She wasn't attacking, but she also wasn't going to let him just outright trick her. "What... kind of research?" Her eyes darted briefly to his cast aside weapon, not as if plotting anything, just trying to figure out what his angle here was more than anything. She was open to the idea if he was genuine, and if it wasn't something like 'haHA I got you my research is if confused people make better victims!' or something like that. "You try anything funny and I'll kick your a**," she said with all the threatening aura of a cotton ball still dripping water from all the dancing and splashing she had been doing in the fountain. She slowly stepped up and out of the fountain. "What's your name?"

Wait, what? Andromeda's head tilted to one side as he explained himself, her gaze following him as he moved to sit at the edge of the fountain. For a moment she hesitated, studying his posture and if he looked ready to trick her. Again she looked around, searching for someone waiting in the wings, before she slowly sat down. She wanted to trust him, but she wasn't about to let her guard down right away. What would Creedence think right now? Space was left between the two of them, Andromeda was willing to hear him out but she was still going to keep her guard up for her own safety. He wanted to know what happened a thousand years ago? But why? Wasn't he part of the organization that caused it all?

She watched him, looking curious and attentive, and then confused as he said he'd been speaking with 'aliens'. He didn't mean her, did he? "Uh. Andromeda, senshi of jellyfish." Her brow furrowed a moment. Vesuvianite. Okay. "So you're... trying to figure out what happened? Why? Are you wanting to fix it?"

What an interesting take. He wasn't mocking her or throwing stuff at her or anything yet. Andromeda wasn't yet completely relaxed, but she did fold her hands neatly on her lap. Her eyes widened slightly as his question, her brow raising with it. Was that meant to be secret? She actually wasn't sure. "I've only visited it a couple times so far..." Her gaze turned away, eyes moving just slightly in that way that she was picturing the place and thinking up what she'd seen. "Something big happened there before even the fall of everything. It has a giant bridge on it to a second island that doesn't quite match everything else. But... so far, other than that... I'm still kind of trying to figure it out. I think it was just..." Suddenly she frowned, her shoulders sagging. "Like, you know Pompeii? How everything is destroyed, but also frozen in time? Something like that. Nothing looks... placed, if that makes sense. Like it was really sudden. I found bones during my last venture, and I'm no expert but they looked like they were of multiple people holding each other or something. That or the bones got all jostled around for whatever reason, but given how still the air and water was when I got there, I don't think that was the case. The waves didn't even start moving until I did."

She shrugged a bit. It is what it is, right? Those bones were at least a thousand years old, right? It's not as if there was anything she could do about that. What she needed to fix was what she could do things about now. But their question startled her. See it?

Andromeda hesitated then. Bring an agent of the Negaverse to her already hurt and slowly recovering homeworld? "I... how about we get to know each other a bit more before I do that. No offense, but it's only been like three seconds. You're not attacking me or anything, but I hope you understand that... you're still one of them, and my home world is my heart. I don't mind showing it, but I need to be sure I'm not inviting a trap or something, you know?" There was no cruelty in her words, and her tone was still kind and patient. She hoped she didn't seem unreasonable, or that she offended Vesuvianite by not just springing up like 'yeah buddy let's go!'

Oh. That was it? She blinked, looking at the hand being offered to her. That was it? Well... okay. "Oh... okay. You.. don't have any other questions?" She asked as she accepted the offered hand to give it a shake. "I guess, uh... until next time?"