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Cybele had learned fairly early on that just because someplace was seemingly abandoned didn't mean it was safe. It was true that she probably found more agents on a night to night basis in alleyways close to people they could drain from. It was also true that some of the nastiest things, the starseedings and the youmafications and the all out brawls happened further out where nobody could hear the screams.

Because of this, Cybele tried to mix up her hunting grounds. She had decent luck hunting youma downtown and better luck in the parks, but sometimes she'd go out to abandoned warehouses and to construction sites, to empty sports fields and to the dark corners of nature reserves. She was doing it more often now that she was an eternal and could cover a decent corner of the city in a single night.

Tonight it paid off and she felt an aura in the distance. It was a basic senshi, not an enemy, but she would have gone towards it anyway. She'd been getting a lot better about the whole networking thing, and she'd found she didn't mind being a mentor.

However, the faint sound of an explosion in the distance sent Cybele's approach into a full sprint. That wasn't good.

It didn't take her too long to find him. She was good at tracking, and he was definitely dressed like a senshi. There were a few trails of settling dust around him, but no other signs of anything dangerous.

She stepped forwards. "Are you all right?"

Once it was clear there was no immediate danger, Cybele took a longer moment to look over the damage. It was mostly just the dust, and a bit of a ring on the ground that indicated the explosion, but she guessed it had been much more interesting over here about a minute ago. She then turned her attention to the man, giving herself a full two seconds to appreciate that his outfit showed off those abs before she met his gaze with a cocked smile.

"You look like a magical boy to me," she said, stepping a bit closer. "Not a disaster." It was a bit strange meeting a new senshi who was her own age. Lately, they'd all seemed so much younger than she was, and she'd almost been expecting to run into another child, but that was all right. She'd still do what she could to help him.

"If you're only a few weeks in, you're brand new to all this. It takes a while to start to understand everything." She settled in, her smile going steadier as she folded her hands in front of her, and she tried to keep her voice a bit quieter, not wanting him to panic. It was true she couldn't quite relate about the magic. Hers had always been an instinct, as he said, but she'd seen something vaguely similar once before.

"If you have any questions, I should be able to answer them, and I can try to help with the magic as well, but perhaps we should start with the basics." She offered a hand. "I'm Cybele, Senshi of the Hunt. It's nice to meet you."

Cybele saw the way he was looking at her and took half a step back, deciding to replace her typical introductory curtsy with a simple introductory nod. “Nice to meet you,” she said. Hercules beetles didn’t give her that much information, as her animal knowledge became a bit sparser when it came to insects, but she could see where his frustration came from as she was fairly certain beetles didn’t explode, although silently she had to admit that explosions might be a bit more interesting than say, crawling on trees.

Then she pursed her lips, trying to think about how to explain magic. It was magic, something that didn’t follow most rules or make complete sense. It was something that had been part of her life for years now, something just came to her whenever she spoke it into being.

“Words,” she said. “Basic senshi magic is all about the words. There are a few other things we can do that you very much have to think through and feel in your heart,” she gave a dramatic little flutter of her hand at that, since it sounded a bit silly and in some ways it was. “But with the magic you mean, I just have to say the words and really put all the focus into that. It’s a bit like powering up but without the pen. For example-”

She held her arms out in front of her and gave a brighter smile than strictly necessary before she called out a carefully articulated, “Cybele Hunter’s Grace!” There was a sudden brightness before a transparent, faintly glowing bow appeared in her hands.

“Now, my magic happens to help people focus,” she said. “I was able to use it to help a knight get to space once,” which was its own story. Would he even know about knights or space at three weeks? “And we could see if it helps you, if you’d like?”

Cybele pressed her lips together. This was supposed to be about the basics. She most likely should not have opened the topic of space.

Time was ticking on her magic, though, and she pushed that thought away for the moment. "Concentration," she said, glancing down at the bow in her hands. "It's for hunting and combat, not soul searching, although some people say it helps clear their head." There was much stronger emotional manipulation magic out there, but that was not what she'd been gifted with. If her magic didn't help him, she could start going through her contacts.

"It's probably easiest to show you," she said, gaze shifting to the ground for a moment. "I'm sorry. I know it looks a bit strange." It was why she'd moved away from using her basic magic after her first upgrade. Shooting allies, even with a boost, could be intimidating and even distracting.

It seemed like the best option here, though, so she drew the string back and loosed the arrow at him, as quick and no-nonsense as possible.

Athalia didn't seem too shaken, and anyway the magic took hold soon enough. The actual enhancement wasn't as flashy as the summoning of the bow, but Cybele thought she could see something subtly different about the look in his eyes. It brought a smile to her face. Just a small one, but it was there. She liked showing people what she could do.

"Not a boomerang, but it's not quite an arrow, either," she said, shrugging. He seemed to be in better spirits and her tone was lighter, too. "I do try to warn people."

Then she tilted her head and raised one eyebrow a few inches. "All right. It's your turn," she said. She took a step back and shifted her weight so that she could spring back again if needed. The beetle on his brooch had pincers that looked sharp enough, so even if all went well she wouldn't be too surprised if some sort of nasty, insect-themed attack came flying at her.

"Let's see if that helped. If not, I can get a look at what the problem is." If he wanted anything beyond generic advice, then she would need something to go off of beyond explosions in the distance.

Cybele stayed on the defensive even as the magic was going seemingly all right. While the shields lasted, she looked over their slight shimmer and the way that they were clearly beetle wings. Cybele's eyes lit up and a bit of a real smile shone through, even as the magic faded much quicker than it was probably meant to.

"You can do it!" she said, finally relaxing a bit. "And shields? I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like that before." The mentor's encouragement wasn't completely gone from her voice, but the excitement was real.

Some forms of magic had become normal to her over time. It had been eight years, after all. She'd been a senshi for a third of her life. She no longer spooked at youma or batted an eyelash at a talking cat, but there was something about seeing another senshi's magic for the first time that was different. It was always so unique, so personal. It brought her back to the very first time she'd summoned her own bow.

The bright smile lasted for a few moments, but then she stepped forwards again with a more serious expression. "So, how was that?" she asked. This wasn't quite like the first time she'd tried her magic. That was the thing. He was obviously still struggling, and she wanted to do what she could to help. "Did that feel different than before? Did the focus help, or was it something else?"

The lack of explosions had probably said something about control.

Cybele pursed her lips. "I'm not sure if there's really a theme or a usual," she said. "It tends to be fairly unique. I see a lot of emotional manipulation, but that's probably just the people I happen to run into." She'd mentored the Senshi of Moods, once, and then Apathy had become one of her closest allies.

"There are all the kinds of boosts you can think of, and sometimes there are proper elemental attacks." Shields certainly fit into the category of things that she might expect senshi magic to do, but it was still different to think about it and to see it in person. It would have been nice to have a bit longer to see exactly how the wings fit together or to see what happened when it was hit with an punch, but that could wait.

The smile slowly shifted back to something more contained. "Sorry," she said, much quieter. "I just find magic so fascinating."

She did squint a bit when he mentioned his age, and especially at the metaphor about marinade. Was that something that happened? She had noticed that most senshi awakened younger than, say, knights, but she'd never given it too much though.

She shook her head when he asked if she'd missed something, glancing towards the sky as if the stars had answers. They did for some people, apparently, but she'd never been one of them. "I don't know very much about rituals or ancient knowledge. I'm a huntress. I fight things," she tilted her head, "But I have been using my powers since I was sixteen."

The stars were silent tonight, too, so she looked back to him. "'Keep trying' probably isn't the answer you're looking for, but if it's some sort of over saturation, or a minor disconnect, that's probably what it will take. Otherwise, we can find another cat."

There was a chance he'd have to live with the volatile magic, but she didn't want to discourage him when he seemed to be making some progress.