Welcome to Gaia! ::

Giulia had not looked at the wish that she had pulled from the Wishing Tree on the day she put up her own wish. Her siblings had been ready to go, and she had been in a rush while agonizing over her own wish, and it wasn’t like granting a wish would be hard, would it? If it was money or something, that was easy; and sometimes volunteering was too, and volunteering was a great way to make friends and stuff. She loved volunteer days at the animal shelter, with all the cute puppers, and the kitters, and all the kids and parents who came in looking for a new member of their family! Most the time Giulia only got to help clean out pens while the animals were outside, because she was so young. It was dangerous, and stuff. And of course she liked helping at the hospital. Not that she got to do much there other than go and spend time with people, read books and stuff to people who couldn’t do it themselves, and keep people company who weren’t infectious or were gonna get sicker easy.

When she finally looked at the wish that she needed to grant, Giulia was baffled. ‘Please clean up at least 3 30-gallon black garbage bags full of litter and other trash from the public areas of Destiny City parks and wildlife areas, and sort it into the appropriate recycling bins or arrange for it to be properly disposed of.’ It was an incredibly specific and multi-tasked wish. Which was… nice, because it was so clear, but a 30-gallon black garbage bag was like… one of the ones that they shoved her toys and clothes in, and that was a garbage bag that would frequently get larger than Giulia herself, with the way stuff could get crushed down into it, and the way the sides could be all bulgy and stuff. There was no way someone like Giulia could grant this kind of wish on her own!

Buuuuuut… Giulia was not necessarily on her own. She was allowed to work with other people to grant the wish, but wasn’t that kind of cheating? So that left the ten year old with one other option in order to make sure that she could manage this: Giulia would, over the course of several days, need to power up to Charybdis and use her super strength and speed to rush around the park, holding her black bag of TRASH. She doubted she could manage more than one trash bag all by herself, plus calculating in the time needed to sort things out into recycling bins? And she would need to find recycling bins…

It was almost 6 in the morning the first day that Charybdis stood in the park, a black plastic bag dangling at her side. Since it wasn’t late at night, she was going to be allowed to henshin at the park while Jada would do her morning run. If trouble hit, Scylla would be near enough, and if it didn’t hit, they would use Jada’s car to hunt down recycling bins. Not Giulia’s ideal, but it would do as far as bartering for time to be powered up and not holding hands with a guardian would go; and technically driving wasn’t really getting help.

So pulling off her white gloves and her grey spotted cloak, Charybdis began to make her way through the park, dancing happily around the area at top chibi-speed, the big trash bag floating behind her like an unhappy parachute.

Cleaning up trash, Giulia noted with delight, was actually a delightful way to warm up her side muscles, and her legs. The young senshi used this as an opportunity to practice some of her ballet bends and stretches as she worked, slowly and excitedly adding more and more to her routine until she was comfortable. Rush up upon a piece of trash, bend, lift, spin with enthusiasm, and deposit into the bag thrown over her shoulder. Wash, rinse, repeat- and she made her way to more and more pieces of trash like that.

The feeling of an aura coming upon her wasn't necessarily a bad thing- and when the owner came in sight, the pre-teen absolutely glowed with delight to see that someone else had her idea as well.

"Hello!" she greeted the stranger with a wave. "Yes! I am out collecting trash for my Wishing Tree wish! It's early, and not rainy yet, so that means it is perfect to not be all that hot while I work." she gestured to the seal capelet covering her narrow shoulders. "I'm Charybdis! Are you out here to grant a wish too?"

He called her clever, and had such a lovely smile- were those dimples, or was Giulia simply blinded by the rising sun and seeing such a cute feature? Ahhh, she couldn't wait to be even taller so she could see! "I have to be careful too," she admitted, "But my sister is around jogging while I work, so if anything happened I was just run over and find her, and she will crush their bones."

Giulia said it all with a bright smile and a pleased nod.

"I think working with you will be fine." A moment of deliberation was all it took. "Since we have the same wish and all. I didn't want any of my family to help since they all had wishes of their own to grant and it felt like double duty for them, but since you and I have the same wish, it's sharing the work!"

Her gloved hands clapped together in delight. "I look forward to working with you, Mycenae! Do we want to fill up one bag at a time, or do you want to hold the bag while I gather trash?"

When Mycenae said he was a knight, Charybdis couldn't help but cover her mouth with her hand, giggling. "I was always told I was a real Princess," she confided, "Because my brother is a Prince. So I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that I keep meeting valiant knights." her nose and chin lifted proudly before she dissolved back into giggles again.

Yet, the giggles faded into a sigh. "My sister is pretty good about trying to keep me safe. She's not very happy that I'm Charybdis. Mr. Kitty is in big trouble if she gets her hands on him, and I keep getting grounded." Mostly because she kept breaking all the rules about going out without a partner. Pulling out her (senshi) phone, Charybdis shot off a text to let Jada know a Nice Person had been found, and not to freak out if she saw Charybdis with a stranger.

Task complere, Charybdis nodded her head resolutely and held out her bags to Mycenae. "Since you're a knight, you can do the bag carrying. We can really load the bags down then, since you look pretty strong. I'll go around collecting the trash!"

She proceeded to rush over to a bag of fast food, hauling it up and peeking through it to yank out an Amber star charm before chucking the rest in the trash. "I have all the other colors, so I'm gonna keep this one. I'm not just digging through trash. These are collectible items, you know!"

"When I get married I'm gonna wear a crown~" Charybdis sang, "It's a shame I am 3 years and 2 days older than Prince George of Cambridge or I'd think about marrying him." He was only almost eight, and by the time he was old enough to get married she would be far more experienced with life. "Prince Vincent of Denmark is pretty close to my age though." He was only about 6 months older than she was! It was almost perfect.

"The Sapphire charm is lovely," Charybdis nodded her head sagely, "I have one of those. I think I'm only missing one last color after this one." she pinned the charm to her cloak before dancing off again to grab up more trash. "You should collect them all. I know it is silly, but sometimes things have memories. My mother died when I was really little, but sometimes I'll get to see pictures, or see things Jada says she used a lot, and it's like I can remember her."

She dumped the trash into the bag, and her chin scrunched up thoughtfully. "I think I used to remember her a lot better when I was a baby. Memories get old, but things are important because they can help you think of things." Digging through the bags again, the girl pulled out a bright fuchsia pink star charm. "So this one, you can keep and think of me, and how much fun we're gonna have filling up these bags with trash!!"

Giulia beamed. "You have to have a plan! If it goes wrong, that's fine, but vision is important. Like they say, you can shoot for the moon but land on a star? Or something." Oh! And there were his dimples again!

Mycenae seemed to grow sad as he mentioned his sister, and as Charybdis returned with an arm full of plastic bottles and wrappers, she paused to take off one trash-touched white glove and hold out a small, pale hand with a bright rainbow manicure. "When Mother died, my sister Kayley was killed too. They lost their starseeds. I'm sorry you lost your sister. Did- was it the Negaverse for your sister too?"

Her head nodded, and she admitted, "I got lucky. I still have two sisters, and a brother, all old enough to remember them both real well. And pictures, and video. It helps me piece together what I think were memories from when I was a baby. Aidan and I weren't even three yet."

A small shoulder lifted, then dropped. "So we keep things. Records. Even when we're all old and gray and wrinkly like a tree, and our brains don't work so good, you can look at that ribbon and maybe you'll remember something about me- maybe my hair, or you'll think of a sunrise when you look at it. Maybe you'll look at it and remember your sister, because we talked about her, and that's okay too."

It made Charybdis was sad to see such a nice knight as Mycenae also had so many reasons to be sad. "My brother's in school to be a doctor," she said with a smile, "Maybe you know each other." It would be easier for them both to turn the conversation away from the past, and the people that they had lost, to instead focus on the present. What they still had.

Putting her youthful energy and speed to work, the duo was soon bulging with bags. Well. Mycenae was bulging; Charybdis was there for moral support. Task complete, she led him to a car, powering down to dig car keys out of lime green denims. "We'll take them to get sorted and recycled." she explained. "Thank you for your help, sir Knight; don't forget to think of me when you see the Charm, okay? Let's meet again!"