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Apparently, while she was off milking cows on the other side of the world, the circus had come to town and stayed. And stayed. And stayed. Keren wouldn't be caught dead here on a school night, but if she claimed that she was out practicing her superhero-ing, she could probably excuse it. Besides, her Megiddo outfit was totally chic! She'd already gotten, like, four compliments on it.

(It hadn't yet clicked to her that walking around in her Saturn Page regalia totally attracted trouble.)

Coming out of the strongman show, Megiddo split off from the crowd and ducked into a narrow space between two tents. It had been so crowded in there - she needed a second or two to breathe and get her bearings. Maybe this would be a shortcut, she decided, pushing ahead.

The alley spat her out at the far end of the midway, between a food tent and a booth with typical carnival games. Megiddo adjusted her hold on her pitcher, wishing for a belt or anything she could slip it to, and set off to explore what sorts of wonders awaited her.

Megiddo whirled around, letting out a little yelp of protest as she spun. The man who'd grabbed her was a good half a foot taller than her, which was in and of itself unusual because Keren was used to being the tallest person present in most situations. To say he was striking was an understatement - between the blue hair, dark skin, orange eyes, and some wicked face paint, Keren would have swooned if she swung that way. Which she did not. So she just sort of tried to put on her most innocent face and said, "Taking a shortcut."

This, as soon as she said it, was probably not the best answer. The harlequin (an SAT word, if there ever was one) definitely worked here, given that this was a circus, and she'd just been... well, trespassing, for lack of a better word. "Was that alleyway employees only?" she asked nervously. There was no reason for him to think she was anything other than a teenaged girl with a penchant for Japanese street fashion and odd accessories, right? "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

She looked pointedly down at the hand on her arm. "I paid my admission! My ticket stub's in my pocket. I'll stick to the main paths from now on! I just - it looked like a way to skip the crowd. I'm sorry. Honestly."

Megiddo frowned and rubbed the place where he'd been holding her arm. There was a lot of stuff about this knight stuff she didn't understand, starting with the etiquette. "I figured I wouldn't look horribly out of place here," she said lowly, seeing that the jig was up. It was true that no one had given her a second look tonight. "I'm just checking the place out."

Which was a shitty excuse. She tried again: "I'm out past curfew, okay? If anyone saw civilian me walking around I'd get in a ton of trouble with pretty much everyone ever, forever." It wasn't true, but she didn't expect the man to catch her in the lie.

"Anyway," she added, narrowing her eyes at him, "What do you mean, protectors? And how do you know what a Saturn knight is?" It wasn't like she expected them to be common! As far as her experience went, she'd never met another one!

Not that she was in any position to be asking questions right now or anything, of course.

Well, now that he mentioned it, Megiddo sure felt it. "It's not like someone gave me a manual," she sighed indignantly, and knew she was only digging herself deeper here. Just her luck that the staff member who accosted her would also be a knight - and one of her same order, to boot. She supposed that it was better than being recognized by a negaverser, though only marginally.

She crossed her arms over her chest. "Seems like everyone else's got a way better handle on all this stuff than I do," she frowned. "Did I miss, like, an orientation meeting?" Because the other option was that Megiddo was just bad at this, and she wasn't going to stand for that, or admit it.

"You want me to leave?" she asked, stung. "I'll leave." It wasn't like she could go back to having a good time now - even if she powered down, the indignity of all this was going to ruin her night. Maybe even her week. Getting called-out hurt, as tough as she tried to present herself.

It sort of sucked about the no manual thing, but at least she hadn't somehow managed to miss a lesson. Knowing she was starting from the same place as everyone else was comforting, and it wasn't exactly like she needed to tell him she'd been slacking off for a year and a half on the other side of the world. Megiddo was still a bit confused, though. Of course she'd expected him to harp on her, and he sort of had! And he'd all but told her to power down right before inviting her out on patrol! Still, it was such an opportunity - think work study - that she decided she could ignore the mixed messages and let him take her by the hand. "Alright," she said, following him.

Although she'd deny it later, the page couldn't help but gawk and gape as they walked through the behind-the-scenes area of the carnival. Despite that she had just been sneaking around, this was nowhere like she had dared imaging seeing before. "Wow," breathed, and tried to reach out with the power senses she hadn't even realized came with this getup. She couldn't really make sense of anything just yet.

"What exactly are we looking for?" she asked, noticing that the older page was looking around intensely. "And - what should I call you? I'm Megiddo." It was just sort of weird to walk around thinking of him as that guy.

"Makes sense," nodded Megiddo seriously. Youma she knew well enough, having dusted one just a few nights previously. The bear demon she and Tortali took down had just about exhausted their strength - hopefully anything lurking around the carnival wouldn't measure up. She could see why a place like the carnival would be attractive to the creatures - with so many distracted people packed into such a tight area, it was practically a buffet line!

She smiled primly at Ys as he kissed her hand, responding to his bow with a curtsey of her own. For someone who had seemed so serious when she first met him, this other page was shaping up to have quite the sense of humor! Perhaps they could be friends after all - and perhaps she'd been overlooking the potential for heraldry and role play that accompanied her fancy costume. It was like high-stakes LARP! "As they say," she said, holding up her pitcher with a flourish, "You have my axe."

She hoped he would get the joke.

Looking towards the abandoned booth, Megiddo nodded once more. "Sounds like fun to me," she said, although she was still getting used to the idea of with great power coming great responsibility being fun. Hitting things was fun, in her humble opinion. "So what do we do?" she asked. "Go over there and kick the canvas until it gets mad and attacks us?" Because, like, hey, it worked with cats.

Not a Lord of the Rings fan, then, thought Megiddo, when Ys made no indication that he'd understood her reference. But, no use crying over wasted pop culture lines - at least she wasn't covered in jingle bells, she thought, shuddering. The more she saw what other people were working with, the more Megiddo thought she'd won the costume lottery.

Nodding, she fell into position a few feet behind the older page. Following directions was fully within her capabilities, and on the odd chance that the thing in the wrecked tent was a) hideous b) angry and c) deadly, she was more than happy to let someone else go right ahead. "Okay," she said. "Be careful."

She thought she'd been prepared for anything, but when the youma sprang from the shadows, Megiddo let out a startled yelp that she immediately pretended she had not let out when the creature resolved itself into nothing larger or more dangerous than a dog.

"Are you ******** kidding me," she deadpanned, pitcher raised. All bark, no bite, she went ahead and evaluated, despite the gross, awful dental situation the youma had going on. With all her might, she lobbed her pitcher at the giant rat. Sort of like bowling.

"Okay, gimme a strike," she urged, watching the pitcher sail through the air.

She hadn't exactly given thought to how she was going to get her pitcher back once she'd thrown it, so the rat taking off was actually a godsend. "Right!" she yelled, taking off behind Ys, scooping up her pitcher by the handle as she raced to follow the youma.

It wasn't that strong and it wasn't that big - this wouldn't possibly be that hard, right? Well, besides the fact that they'd now managed to lose it. Which was a first. How the hell did you lose a youma?

Like this, apparently. Megiddo swore under her breath, following Ys as closely as she could, guided by the sound of his jingling bells whenever he got too far ahead of her in the maze of tents. "How far could it have gone?" she called, but then, it was like chasing a cat in terms of speed.

"If we had sight of it, we could split up and corner it," she suggested. Anything had to work better than just this blind running!