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 Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2023 8:19 am
“I’m Ephesus. And this is Amarynthos. We’re Knight of the Moon,” he finally introduced as they found a quiet area in the park with a good vantage point for everything around them. There was a fountain and benches nearby that made a good place to sit and rest. The trees around the edge of the park helped drown out the sounds of the city.
Ephesus was still sniffling a little, and had to wipe his eyes dry a few times, but he insisted that he was okay and that he was just happy they were both okay, too. The youma had been scary! But it seemed to have some kind of effect that made it scarier than it really was, because thankfully it ended up being relatively harmless. Or at least they were able to get rid of it quickly.
“Um… so, we were told who we are, but I think all knights should be able to, um… feel what their name is…?” he suggested, glancing up at Amarynthos for help with explaining things. They couldn’t just let her wander off without knowing what was going on!
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 5:20 pm
Ekstrom managed to calm down while they walked to a quieter, more secluded area of the park. While the adrenaline had her solely focused on the youma, now that all of that was over she was starting to take in and really process—or try to, anyway—everything in between. There was the obvious thing, about the surge of power and her newfound outfit. But there was also the youma, and the magic, and who these two were supposed to be.
The last question was answered by Ephesus as soon as they found a spot. Glancing around, it seemed like nothing would be able to surprise them from where they stood, so that was a good thing. She wasn’t sure how much more her heart could take in terms of surprises for the night.
“Nice to me—“
A white whisp floated into view right then, which gave her pause. It was more distracting than anything else, floating about just within her peripheral vision, so she willed herself to refocus.
“Sorry, uh. Nice to meet you both. I’m…” She had to think for a long moment, unsure for a time how to answer when it finally came to her. “Ekstrom.” The name was unfamiliar yet, oddly enough, it felt familiar, like coming home after a long, long vacation.
She had thought his explanation was odd, but now it made some kind of sense, so she continued.
“Ekstrom, Page of Mercury. Nice to meet you both. And thank you for saving me from that, uh…” she crinkled her brows together in thought, “thing.”
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Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2023 10:08 pm
“Youma,” Amarynthos grumbled, in the same exasperated, tired tone that he’d picked up from Michael. “Probably. They don’t all look like they, but you can feel it–this nasty, sticky, gross aura about them. They come in all shapes and sizes, and have all different types of magic. But the worst part is that they aren’t even the worst things you can run into in Destiny City.”
He didn’t want to scare her. His introduction to youma had been his house nearly falling down on top of him, so he knew that it could be rattling.
At least they were all still in one piece; tonight could have gone much worse.
He was still worried about Ephesus, and every little sniffle made him want to collect him into his arms and just hold him. He didn’t, that was probably dramatic. But he wanted to.
Instead, he opted for something a bit more discrete and squeezed his hand.
“It’s nice to meet you, though. I’ve never been to Mercury. I’m sorry about earlier, I’m glad you’re okay. Those things come out of nowhere. And they seem to show up everywhere. At least you have a chance to fight them, now. Where did you learn to wield a pan like that?”
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Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2023 8:17 am
Amarynthos might not have wanted to scare Ekstrom, but even though Ephesus knew there were worse things than youma in the city, he still gulped nervously and inched closer to Amarynthos. Just in case.
“You were really cool, getting rid of that youma,” Ephesus chirped in awe as he offered her a small smile of encouragement. “But you’ll have to watch out for people with that same kind of feeling that youma have. Only worse. And they can do horrible things. I mean--,” he paused so he could chew on his lip and glance up at Amarynthos as though wanting to get permission to even suggest what he was going to say, but then cautiously said it anyway.
“I mean… maybe they’re not all bad but…” His chest ached as phantom fingers squeezed inside his chest. He shifted a little to get more comfortable. There were too many people already that he knew had their starseeds taken. He was lucky to get his back. Others were not, or were close to it being too late.
“Um… they call themselves the Negaverse. They take energy and starseeds which…” He paused again to lift his free hand to his chest. “They’re what make you you.”
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Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2023 2:31 am
Realization seemed to dawn on the newly minted page when Amarynthos described the aura, and immediately afterwards she sort of made a face like she’d just stepped in something not unlike her neighbor’s senior dog’s smelly, not-so-little presents in the dog run at their complex. ‘That’s what that was?’ she thought, though kept silent so as not to interrupt. Based on how they both sounded she imagined they came across these unpleasant things often. The fact that she was now able to sense such a thing was...unnerving.
Their encouragement helped, though.
“Thanks,” she smiled shyly, a light blush having crept onto her cheeks as she was clearly a bit embarrassed about her display earlier. “I do know my way around a kitchen tools and appliances, not that this is how I would normally use a pan..." She looked honestly amused at the idea of wielding a pan like this in her own kitchen just for fun. "I kinda just reacted, so I don’t know about it being ‘cool' or anything like that. Cliché, maybe, but definitely effective.”
"Alright, so a lot of that is pretty foreign to me. You mentioned starseeds, the Negaverse, youma…” Ekstrom paused to look over the two again and…her first question sort of just tumbled out of her mouth.
“How old are you two?”
She looked mortified, then immediately apologetic as soon as the words came out. “I’m sorry! I don’t mean anything by it. Just…this seems like a lot already, and I get the feeling there’s way more to it, and it seems pretty dangerous, and you both look younger than me…”
Her voice got quieter and quieter as she spoke, as though she suddenly felt quite a bit smaller for asking what was likely just an arbitrary, not to mention possibly inconsiderate, question. Regardless of age, she had a feeling they had very little say in the matter when they first got their powers, too. But there was genuine concern there, and she hoped they didn’t feel insulted by the question.
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Posted: Sun Aug 13, 2023 10:20 pm
Amarynthos considered her question for a moment but it seemed pretty obvious that she hadn’t meant anything cruel when she asked, and she didn’t seem as if she were criticizing them. “No, it’s okay. We’re just starting high school. We’ve only been doing this for a year or so. There are a lot of Knights who are older than us, and a lot that started much older than we did, too. We got stuck in a weird circumstance, though. We had a problem with the Negaverse, and some youma. So we got offered the chance to have magical powers to help keep each other and Destiny City safe.”
He wasn’t ashamed of his youth. He didn’t want to be judged for it, but she hadn’t done anything to make him like he needed to defend himself.
“But you’re right. It is dangerous. We’re not doing this for fun. I almost lost people really important to me because the Negaverse doesn’t care who they hurt, as long as they get what they want. So we want to make sure no one else has to go through that. We just want to keep the City a little safer. And we’ve had some really good mentors, so we’ve been learning how to fight. Effie’s got healing magic, too. Do you know how to fight or anything? I mean, I know that’s a weird question, but it could save your life. Although, I don’t know any kitchenware-based fighting techniques to recommend.”
He flashed a smile, because even if this was a difficult conversation, he didn’t want her to think it was all bad.
He just wasn’t sure if he should start telling her about how amazing the Moon was, or all the neat powers that came with being a Knight.
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Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2023 6:11 pm
Ephesus didn’t seem upset by the question. He glanced up at Amarynthos to make sure he didn’t feel upset either, and when he didn’t, he was able to settle a bit more.
“We’re not the youngest doing stuff like this, either,” he said, a little sheepishly. He knew that there were Chibi Senshi, and he knew Devyn had been really young when he first became a Senshi, too.
He chewed on his lip a little as he tried to decide what else to say. He didn’t want to make Ekstrom shouldn’t be careful, but…
“Well… some of this is fun,” he said, clearly reading Amarynthos’s mind. Or just having very similar thoughts.
“Not people getting hurt. But, um… our Wonders are on the Moon. And it’s so beautiful there. We’ve spent a lot of time working on fixing things up since… it’s been over a thousand years since anyone has been there. Oh, yeah there’s places on planets and other space stuff where people used to live, but not any more. I think something really bad happened, so everyone lives on Earth now.”
Well, most everyone, but he thought getting into aliens was a bit much to start off with.
“But that probably means there’s a place on Mercury that shares your name. It’s what Knights are supposed to protect. Why we exist.”
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2023 9:45 pm
The grace with which they took her question was quite a relief, Ekstrom found, to the point that she was actually on the verge of tears as she listened to them expand on her concern. Her expressions gave away her feelings on each topic they touched on, though she was watery-eyed regardless of the worry, concern, amusement, or excitement on her face. There was a lot to unpack by the end, so she decided to take a somewhat methodical approach.
“Considering all this, that’s not a weird question at all. Luckily I started kickboxing when I started college,” she recalled that time in her life with an almost melancholy smile. “That was when I started living alone. Thankfully I haven’t had to use any of the skills in a practical sense, but maybe it’ll come in handy moving forward? As for kitchen-fu…” She chuckled at the idea. “I don’t know about that. Makes me think softball or baseball might be a good thing to learn, though. Or at least how to properly swing a bat so I don’t hurt myself.” Form was everything, after all.
“As for these places in space, you mentioned that earlier,” she said, looking to Amarynthos for a second before shifting her gaze to Effie, “about having never been to Mercury before. I didn’t miss it, I just…didn’t really know what to do with it? But it makes sense now, if we all have these places somewhere out in space like you said.” She furrowed her brows as she recalled the dreams from not too long ago, and before she could think to stop herself from potentially oversharing she cleared her throat.
“I…I've actually had a number of…weird…dreams recently. I was someone else but I was also me, somehow? I was always in some kind of…facility. Lots of metal, lots of ice, very cold. It always felt familiar to me, like home almost, and whenever I woke up it always just felt so real. The longing, I mean. To be there instead of in my room here. I haven’t been able to shake that feeling since, but if that place is why we exist, then…”
She regarded the two almost nervously. Despite the three of them sharing this most recent experience with the youma, and the powering up, and now their sharing their knowledge with her, she still couldn’t help but wonder if she sounded absolutely insane.
“I mean, I don’t know. It could just be some weird coincidence, but maybe it's related somehow? To my wonder, I mean.”
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Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2023 1:42 pm
Though it did sound a bit peculiar, it didn’t sound odd. Not compared to the things he’d seen already, anyway.
If she was kickboxing then she already had an advantage; he had been learning how to fight only in this past year since he’d become a Knight.
He’d been eager to tell her that he played baseball and had some recommendations–or maybe they could plan some time to hang out or something so he could teach her–but the whole matter with her dreams was quite a bit more important.
“It could be a weird coincidence,” he agreed, “But I’m sort of more inclined to think that there must have been something to it. With all of the strange, magical things we’ve seen,” he shrugged. “It’s kind of easy to think that it might have been related. Maybe it was your Wonder calling to you, trying to get you to awaken on your own. I’ve heard that for Knights they used to have this whole Academy, or people to train them to pass on the mantle or something? But these days they don’t have any of that, so something just has to like, flip on inside of you. Maybe your life being in danger was the switch you needed to get in tune with that?”
He and Ephesus had been in danger when the Moon pulled them up to give them the chance to be Knights, and though their situation was a bit different, it was easy to imagine that all of the extra adrenaline might fine tune something inside of a Knight to make them more receptive to the power.
…Or, maybe they were just so distracted by being in danger that they might not immediately question all the magic around them.
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Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2023 8:20 am
Ephesus didn’t want to blurt out about how amazing Amarynthos was at playing baseball, or how he had relatives who were also really good at baseball, but he did wiggle in place a little, and glanced excitedly up at Amarynthos a couple times. He didn’t say anything though. He didn’t want to interrupt either of them.
“I kinda knew about Senshi and Knights before I became a Knight myself,” Ephesus shared, a bit sheepishly because he knew it had come as a surprise to Amarynthos. Mostly because he was trying to keep things a secret as much as possible. In the end, it was because of magic that Elliot had his house destroyed. But now he lived across their backyard, so that was a good thing!
“Well, I mean, I ran into one of those youma before. It looked different. But, um, a Senshi saved me. They’re kind of like Knights, like us, but different. They have different magic. And they have whole Worlds that they protect,” he tried to explain, because there was a lot to explain to someone new, while also trying not to overwhelm them.
“If you’re wondering if someone is on our side or not, just try to feel their aura. If they feel like that youma, then they’re definitely dangerous,” he said with a shiver. But he had no doubt that there was magic all around them. He wasn’t sure if dreams were coincidences or a means of leading up to something, but he was glad to have another ally in all of this!
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Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2023 6:29 pm
Ekstrom bobbled her head as each spoke in turn, relieved that neither dismissed any of her concerns while at the same time continued to apprise her of various things in this new, magical world she was now a part of. On top of what they already shared, now there was a Knight Academy and allies called Senshi. She had a feeling no matter how many questions they answered tonight she would still walk away with a dozen more. Obviously that was no fault of theirs, and in fact she was extremely grateful that they were there and willing to help her in the first place. It was hard to imagine having to navigate all of this on her own.
“Maybe,” she said, regarding Amarynthos and his theory on why she might have powered up that night. “I mean, that makes sense to me. Being given a choice might have been nice, but considering the youma…” She doubted she would have picked differently regardless, if she were being honest. A floating, pan-looking object would have been enough to get her attention, and if nothing else it would likely make her want to reach for it to see if it was worth using in the kitchen.
That wasn’t really the case since she’d whacked a youma with it, but it was magical. Maybe it magically cleaned itself, too?
“Thanks for the tip,” she said, turning to Ephesus this time. “That’s definitely not a feeling I’ll forget anytime soon. Mm. If you don’t mind me asking, did knowing about all of this, before you became a knight, help at all? With adjusting to it and everything, I mean.”
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Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2023 11:05 am
This wasn’t really a question Amarynthos could answer; he hadn’t really known about any of it before becoming a Knight. Not in any great capacity. A monster attacked his house, they fled, they got magic.
If he’d known more back then, would it have mattered?
He wouldn't have fought the youma without power. Maybe he would have pressed his parents to run instead of trying to fight it. It turned out alright in the end, though.
He could imagine what it was like, but he couldn’t say, so he figured it was Ephesus’ time to shine. Having his house destroyed meant that there was already a lot of big changes, so it sort of just fell into place as he went along. And, having experienced Senshi and Knights to help had guided him.
Or, maybe just being on the Moon had sort of sealed the deal.
He didn’t know, but he smiled encouragingly at Ephesus.
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Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2023 6:41 am
Oh. Oh, she was asking him. Ephesus felt his cheeks flush, and he glanced up at Amarynthos to make sure it was okay that he said anything. Should he have said anything in the first place?
“Um, I mean,” he squeaked, not really sure if it did matter or not. He kicked his feet anxiously as they sat, hoping he didn’t say the wrong thing.
“It was kind of nice knowing that there were people trying to make things better. And that there was more than just Earth with life. I don’t understand the science of it all, or maybe there’s a lot more magic involved than what we know. I’m not sure,” he said, looking with uncertainty up at Amarynthos again.
“But, um… I also knew it was really important for people like us to keep our identities secret. If the Negaverse found out. Or other people who could hurt us… it would be really bad. So try to make sure your identity is as safe as possible. Only tell people you trust. But… that could be dangerous, too. I don’t know. It’s very dangerous, but I’m glad we were able to meet. I wouldn’t want anyone having to do this kind of thing alone.”
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Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2023 9:14 pm
Ekstrom gave him a soft, hopefully encouraging smile as Ephesus began to speak. He had an air about him that reminded her of her younger brother, actually. That was maybe one of the reasons she had really wanted to go back and help even before she had powered up. And she listened intently to his answer, nodding along at appropriate times as he spoke.
Everything he said made sense to her, and based on that it sounded like it did help that he’d known a little bit about all of this ahead of time, so his answer didn’t make her think of more questions. By the end she was nodding her head again.
“Yeah, I’m honestly not sure what I would have done if that thing had spotted me before you guys did, whether I powered up or not. Just seems like there’s so much to it, I can’t imagine starting this without someone to answer at least a few questions.” The new page sighed softly and glanced down at her outfit, then at her weapon.
“In any case, I’m also really glad to have met you both when I did,” she said, eventually looking back up and between the two of them. “I’m not sure how I could ever thank you for tonight. Mm…I mean, I bake a mean cake, whatever that’s worth, if you guys are ever in this area of the city again.” She very subtly looked toward the apartment community just beyond the park, hoping they might get the hint, then flushed a light pink, slightly embarrassed by the fact that the best she could offer was potentially cake after they probably saved her life.
“I’m…not really sure how else I would find you except maybe by pre-arranging a meeting or something.”
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Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2023 6:27 pm
As Ephesus spoke, Mary never released his hand. Sometimes, he'd give gentle squeezes, or more encouraging smiles. He could tell that there were parts that Ephesus paused to make sure he was saying the right thing, and even when he was nervous he was still doing a good job. Amarynthos was proud of him--and he thought he could like Ekstrom very much.
He noticed her smiling at Ephesus to encourage him, and took note of her supportive nods. She seemed to be making an effort to listen seriously and make sure Ephesus was comfortable--and anyone who was willing to take a little extra time to make sure Ephesus was getting the attention and kindness he deserved was more than all right in his book.
He was in a good mood just from her general demeanor, but then she had to mention cake. "Oh, you can bake? I love cake, we should definitely do that some time. If you make your favorite, we can meet up and eat it together. Effie and I aren't picky. And I think we'd like to spend more time with you, if you want. Just so we can have each other's backs, and maybe we can answer any more questions that you have. Technically Effie and I have these rings that will let us contact people--we can send messages that just magically get delivered--but we had to get rings off of our Wonders first. You'll probably have to head to yours to get a ring too, but it's really useful."
Oh, but travelling up to a Wonder could be a lot of information, too. He wasn't sure if they should try to deep dive into that right off the bat, but he didn't want her to miss out on something important. "But--you know? We sort of have an unfair advantage, I think. We saw you before you became a Knight, so we kind of already know who you are." At least by appearances. He considered for a moment and looked at Ephesus, trying to decide how he wanted to proceed with that in mind.
When he looked into Ephesus' mind, he imagined that the other Moon Knight could tell what he was thinking, and when he offered no resistance to the idea, Amarynthos looked back at Ekstrom. "Why don't I give you my phone number? That way you can text if you want to go out, and we can try to meet up to patrol together. Or if you need to talk to someone about anything, you'll be able to reach us?"
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