Floral and Nope

As long as you have the nose for it, pheromones are a fairly fast means of communication. Floral gets a 'response' from the plants around the Magro household within seconds of 'asking' them. The result is simple: a resounding "no". No humanoid plants, no moving plants, no strange plants of any kind have arrived. The tree in the front yard is new, but it hasn't moved.

(It takes a glance to see that "new" is a relative term for the plants in the yard. The small tree, a little decorative Japanese Maple tree that's about as tall as Lily's waist, has been growing there for at least two years.)

That would be all... but there is a little thread of something. The plants haven't been cared for in the same way as usual, and their 'complaints' about this color in their response to Lily's question. It's a brand new thing, to a plant--so at most a few months old--and it it's a bit hard to parse, but eventually Lily gathers that the yardwork used to be a two-person activity, but lately only one and a half people have been doing it.

No, that isn't right; two people are still doing it, but one of them is missing something that the plants seem to think that they used to have, and so is doing a worse job. Either way, something changed a few months ago, around when the Dome came into being.

Ariadne and Helios

"I-I don't see how that's your business," Zephyr snaps at Ariadne, falling back to hostility as his old standby. "And he was--how would I know? I haven't seen him since--"

"Get out."

Talia has pulled a small handgun from a locked drawer near the front door; the key is in her other hand. Her eyes are on Zephyr, who is staring at her in shock. The barrel is pointed downwards and her finger is off the trigger, but the tension in the room still jumps several notches. "I couldn't believe it. I blamed it all, forgetting your work stuff, the strange comments, your roughness with Nat, on the Dome. It's driven everything crazy."

"Tal, baby, I'm not--" The gun twitches up in Talia's hand, stopping Zephyr's words as efficiently as a fist to the gut. She still doesn't point it directly at him, and her hand is shaking.

"You're not Zephyr. Get out of my house." Talia seems to have almost forgotten the two costumed, superpowered people in her midst, so intent is she on facing down a growing nightmare.