Welcome to Gaia! ::

Glitnir heard erratic footsteps from some distance away.

If the loudness and pattern of the footsteps weren't enough to draw attention, there was a Page aura in roughly the same direction the sounds were coming from. Either the Page was trying to draw attention for some reason or they didn't know any better than to not draw attention. He made haste towards the Page's position, hoping to catch him or her before someone else did. When he got close enough to see the Mercury Page, he said a quick "Wait up!" to get her attention.

"Can I help you, Tron Lines?" It was intended as a friendly jab, and Glitnir kept his tone light. "Anyway, what are you up to? If you're not careful, you'll draw attention from the wrong kind of people. Not everyone who's like us is helpful. There's a lot of powered people who would hurt you just for prancing around like that." He was trying to keep his words simple, because he had a feeling he knew the answer to his next question. "Are you new to this? The whole powered thing? I mean, the getting-a-magical-costume-and-weapon thing." There were so many terms he now took for granted that she would know nothing about.

Oh boy, that look. Glitnir knew that look. He once wore it himself. It was a relief that this new Knight didn't immediately scoff and call him and the world crazy; that would make the explanation a bit easier. "Yes, there's a lot more of us! There's a lot of Batmans out there, and we are kind of like a sentai team, if one that's really spread out.. And that's no 'weird record.' That's your weapon. Get ready for an explanation."

He shifted his position a bit and launched into his tutorial. "You and I are called Knights. We gain power from our weapons and our Wonders, which are important locations in space that we can go to. I'll tell you more about that later. Not every powered person is a Knight. There are people called Senshi, who are like us but draw power from a whole planet and have stronger magic. There are also the Negaverse, who are like Knights but get power from Chaos, and the Dark Mirror, who are Chaos-powered senshi. I said we were Batman, but there are a lot of Jokers out there too, mostly from the Negaverse. They're the ones who would snap you up just for walking around. The Dark Mirror has no use for Knights, so I wouldn't worry too much about them."

Glitnir held out his hand for a handshake. "Now... what's your name? Not your civilian name, your Knight name. If you think for a bit, you'll hear something like 'I pledge myself to a planet, and to a Wonder' in your head. The planet comes first, the Wonder that you take your name from comes second in that phrase. So, I'm Glitnir, Squire of Mars. You are someone, a Page of a planet."

Glitnir shook his head. Ah, another one of these. Sometimes it was better to meet someone who had heard nothing at all (yes, some people knew even less than Cordoba). "The Mercurians had their ways of surviving, I'm sure. Lots of questions are answered by 'it's just magic,' and you shouldn't worry too much about the details. And senshi... you can't believe everything that you hear. They fight on the same side we Knights do, that of Order. The Negaverse is our enemy. It's possible that they've figured out how to slant the news against us." He knew that they could do that. He had seen the dark future in which every piece of news was slanted against Order. "Anyway, it's nice to meet you, Cordoba. Get used to that name, because you can't use your civilian name when powered up."

"Yes, magic. You'd be surprised how much the ancient space civilizations used it and what they did with it. Survival on planets, making devices, all kinds of things." Glitnir pursed his lips; while it was good to see someone getting used to their new name quickly, the reasoning had to be right, or something could go awry. "Some people take a while to get used to their new name. If someone reveals their true name to the wrong person, they could get into danger. But if you're already getting used to being Cordoba, you're a step ahead of a bunch of others."

That look of disbelief... this poor, fresh Page. Glitnir sighed. "This is all real. Real as your new uniform. By the way, if you want to get out of it, all you have to do is concentrate on the idea of powering down. A lot of magic is willpower." Hadn't someone told him that once? Maybe? "You can even go to your own space civilization, the one you're named for. You just focus on your weapon, say your pledge, and fwoosh! You'll be up there. You'll be able to breathe and everything. Do it when you have a day or so to explore. You get home in a similar way."

"Maybe not for most people. But on Wonders and senshi planets, you'll be just fine." She wasn't going to buy it, was she? Glitnir couldn't take her up to his Wonder to immerse her directly in proof. "Look, you touched a strange object and suddenly gained a new form and new powers. Shouldn't that be proof enough that there's more to the world than you think?"