Welcome to Gaia! ::

Blarney had sensed the Page’s presence and had actually been on the way to track them down; if nobody else would act as welcome wagon for younger Knights, he’d have to do it himself. Plus, Pages shouldn’t be on their own; he shuddered at the memory of what had happened to that Page that Borax had…

The appearance of this Page, this living Page, distracted him. He was opening his mouth to say hello, but she beat him to first contact, though it - didn’t make much sense, at least not to him.

“What’s a Necro?” Blarney asked, brow knitting in confusion. “Do you mean Nega? Like Negaverse, the bad guys?” Blarney couldn’t blame her if it was - there was a lot of jargon to keep track of, and half the time Blarney himself still got it wrong.

“I’m Blarney,” he added belatedly, holding out a gloved hand to shake her hand. “Squire of Earth. You’re…” he paused to glance at her dress, searching for sigils he recognized. “Saturn, right?”

“That’s an excellent instinct!” Blarney said, giving her a wide beam of a smile, one that was absolutely genuine. “And it’s a good instinct to go toward friendly auras when you’re alone…but you should really try not being alone any more than you absolutely have to, at least until–” Blarney paused, caught himself.

“I only became a Squire, like…not that long ago. It made me so mad every time people were like ‘once you have your magic you can blah blah blah’, but also…” he gave her another once-over, looking more closely this time.

“What’s your weapon? Have you found your Signet Ring?” Blarney asked, tilting his head slightly. “If you don’t mind me asking. Do you–like, want advice and stuff right now, or do you want me to just, like, shut up? Or do you have questions? I had a million questions. I still have a million questions, honestly, but–look. If you want to become a better, stronger version of yourself, even here in the dregs of winter, I would be absolutely happy to help you however I can.” Blarney smiled again, doing his best to be reassuring and not incredibly overwhelming.

Blarney laughed, but not unkindly. “Careful, you could put an eye out,” he teased, shaking his head. “C’mon, let’s walk and talk. It’s not smart to stay in one place for so long, if you can help it.” He started walking, turning over her question as he moved.

“My questions were a lot to do with what I could–what was I supposed to do. How I could help. A lot of questions that started with ‘why’ and ‘how’.” Blarney paused. “Has anyone explained about The Code to you yet? I feel like I learned about it, like, way too late. How long have you been–when did you awaken? You said you had a friend, this Necro guy? He’s a Squire too? I’ve never heard of him, I’m sure he’s great, but how long has he been doing this? I’m sorry to ask all these questions–I told you I had a lot of them–I’m just trying to figure out, like, what you already know, if that makes sense?”

Blarney raised his eyebrows slightly, but otherwise kept his expression as neutral as he could. “Okay,” he said. “Thank you.” He fell silent for a moment or two, mentally sorting things into piles - now, later. Big, small.

“The Code is where we get our magic from,” he said. “The Code is both what makes our Wonders–Wonders. Every Wonder has a tiny little physical piece of the Code at it, somewhere. Our whole–the reason Knights exist is to protect those tiny pieces of The Code. There is also a bigger piece of The Code on the moon.” Blarney pointed up, in the vaguely moonward direction. “It used to be on Earth, and then the bad guys got it for a while, but it’s back now. It’s sorta–like God? Kinda? But not actually all-knowing. I used to think it had to be, because it–it sort of picks or responds to our–souls, or the thing that makes us–Knights. But it’s not actually a deity. At least the one on the moon isn’t. That one’s kinda mouthy, actually,” Blarney explained, but he said it affectionately, with a little bit of a smile on his face. “If you ever feel–like, really overwhelmed and need some stuff answered right away, we can talk about how you can go there.” Blarney was not exactly sure if he could do what Valhalla had done for him, and go with her, take her there himself, but he could at least explain the mechanics of how it was done.

Another thing for the ‘later’ pile - introduce her to Valhalla, if she wanted.

“It sounds like your friend was…” Blarney let out a long, slow breath as he considered how much he could - how much he should - say. But it sounded like Necro had told her everything already, just without the background information to make it sound…sane. Or at least…plausible.

“So…okay. There’s us, right? Knights. And Senshi, and the Mauvians. The little magical talking cats. That’s basically the ‘good guys’. Then there’s the…bad guys, but they’re not…” Blarney sighed. “Okay. So. You know that the bad guys can steal energy and kill people. I hope you know that already,” he added, grimly. “But–they can also…corrupt people. You or me, if a bad guy really wanted to and we weren’t able to defend ourselves or run away–you know running away is okay, right?--we could get ourselves corrupted and go over to that side. We wouldn’t be…us…anymore. But that’s a different conversation. Point is, sometimes people get corrupted before they–before they become a Knight or a Senshi. So instead of awakening into a Knight like you or me, they awake into…” Blarney trailed off, realizing he didn’t actually know what they awoke into, or at least not what it was called.

“I guess sometimes they can awaken into something that has teeth and claws and–everything your friend said. He wasn’t drunk. He wasn’t lying, or making stuff up. He probably…was that thing. At some point.” Blarney sighed, and shook his head. “BUT. But the good news! The good news is that just like how people can be corrupted, people can be–uncorrupted. Brought, or brought back, to the good side. The only difference is that–bad guys can force it on you. Good guys can’t. You have to want to be good in order to–come over to this side. And it’s still a whole production after that,” he added with a wave of his hand. “That means that your friend probably has a better understanding and a deeper commitment to this whole thing than most people, because he knows the alternative. Or at least one of the alternatives.”

Blarney let out another long breath. “So like–that’s a lot, and I’m speaking really generally here, when I say good guys and bad guys. Not all of us on the side of the angels are actually good people, and not–I really think not all of the people on their side are evil to their core.” Blarney’s jaw clenched slightly; he had to believe that. “Despite what some folks would have you believe, there are shades of gray in this mess of a world we live in. You just - have to be really, really careful about it, because it’s much, much safer to assume that if they’re–if they look like they’re on their way to some kinda messed up military function, they’re bad. If they have these big horrifying cracks in their foreheads and chest, they’re…probably also bad but I’d put them more in the category of ‘complicated’ than ‘evil’, myself, but they do definitely still…do the bad guy thing. Like probably they still will fight you if they meet you in the street, or hurt civilians. Gosh, sorry, I’m rambling. Anyway, the point is, your friend was that thing. He might very well be in love with someone over there, which is…I’m so sorry for him,” he said, voice going soft and eyes going far away. “I can’t even imagine that kind of pain. I hope he–I hope he’s able to find peace about that.”

Blarney let that rest a moment or two, then continued. “Anyway. The best thing you can do to protect yourself - and others - is connect with your Wonder. You should be going there as often as you can, getting to know it. Find your Signet Ring, as soon as you can.” He held up his own hand, where his ring rested. “And then you’ll need to find a Mauvian–I can help you with that, I know a couple of them–to upgrade it, so you can–basically use it to send texts. And also monitor your heartrate and other cool stuff,” he added. “Your Signet Ring and your Wonder. There’s no one way to become Squire, but those are the safest ways. Your ring because it connects you with the rest of us, and I cannot emphasize this enough: there is safety in numbers, just as much as there’s danger in numbers because you make yourself a bigger target, but I’m being so for real when I say that until you get your bearings, please don’t go out on your own. I’ll go out with you any time you like, pretty much - just please don’t go alone.” He turned to look at her so she could see his face, pleading and genuine in his concern for her safety.

“Anyway, Squire and Knight…It’s just–you hit it when you–and your Wonder–need you to have more power and more ability. You won’t hit it by staying home all the time, even when it’s freezing cold,” he said with a chuckle. “You get it by testing yourself, by helping people, by learning everything you can and pouring yourself into your Wonder as much as you can. Does…did that answer your question?”

Blarney winced. “Okay. Sorry. That was too much. I get that. Sorry. I just–all of that was stuff that took me, like, months to learn, so I just–want to save you some time. Sorry.” He took a breath. And another one, to be sure.

When he spoke again, his voice was firm. “You would not be fine continuing on your own. And that’s not a slight on you, or doubting your abilities in any way, it’s just–I saw a Page get–” Blarney swallowed. Shook his head. He didn’t want to scare her, or add something else for her to be overwhelmed about.

“Sorry. Okay. You should get a disposable phone, at least until you get your ring, for magic stuff. Have you been to your own Wonder yet?”

Oh no. Ohhhhh no. Blarney blinked and tried to keep his expression neutral - he didn’t want her to think she’d done anything wrong.

“So…okay. First things first. Your identity is the most precious secret you have, now. If someone finds out who you are, a bad guy, not only could you get corrupted or die or have your memory wiped, but you’d be putting your family in danger, potentially. Those little siblings you mentioned? At risk. So. It’s not that I don’t want to know you, because I do! I really do. You seem fascinating! I, personally, hate that I can’t, or shouldn’t I guess, tell you my real name. It’d make everything so much easier.” He hesitated. “I guess–it’s not that you can’t. Some people’s identities you’ll–figure out. That’s okay. It’s just–it’s for safety,” he finished, a little lamely.

“If you can’t afford a disposable, I’ll get it for you,” Blarney said quickly, waving a hand to dismiss any objection she might have. And also to move on from what exactly he’d seen happen to that Page, shh. “You need to be able to talk to people until you find your ring, and you have to go to your Wonder. It’s–it’s the whole point of being a Knight. Your Wonder needs you.”

“Wait–no don’t go I’m sorry I–” Blarney held his hand out to catch her, but he didn’t chase her, didn’t lay a finger on her. He closed his eyes and just - felt. So. Stupid. He was supposed to help younger Knights, not chase them off and make them angry and overwhelmed. Oh God. He shouldn’t be anyone’s mentor! He clearly had no idea what he was doing. How had Joy and Valhalla taught him anything at all? Or even Halle? Oh, God. Halle and Joy and Valhalla would all be so -

Disappointed in him. He had the chance to help a younger Knight and he biffed it so hard she noped out of the entire conversation. He didn’t even know if she’d heard anything he said. How had Aruna explained it all to him that night after he’d been attacked? It had been so long ago, but she’d done it in a way that made sense!! And when he needed to explain it to someone else, carry on the tradition, he’d gone and messed it up. He’d gone and messed it up real bad.

It was too freaking cold in Destiny City, he decided bitterly. It was too cold to be Blarney right now. Trier was long gone, her aura barely tickling the edges of his internal sensor, and he might never see her again. He couldn’t follow her, that was insane, so he started off in the opposite direction, feeling lower than the gray, beat up, driven-over sludgy ‘snow’ beneath his boots.

He could only hope that in the midst of all his rambling, all his stupid overwhelm of words and ideas and not actually explaining anything God he was such an idiot--he could only hope that she’d heard him on some things. On the most important things: her Wonder and her identity. If that was all she took away…maybe that was a victory. Sort of. Somehow.

Or maybe not. Maybe it had been a total wash, and he just needed a hot shower and a warm bed and absolutely, definitely, positively, no more advice. Maybe ever, but certainly not tonight. He was putting himself in timeout, because that was where people who messed up as badly as he had went.

Just let her be safe, Blarney thought, as hard as he could, to the Code or to Cosmos or the Cauldron or the Universe or whatever it was out there. Please just let her be safe.

In the end, that was all that really mattered.