Welcome to Gaia! ::

Edam did not enjoy being out in the cold. Even with her puffiest jacket and her warmest gloves, it was still too dang cold. But Mason had gotten all worked up about some Page not listening to him, so Mads had offered to take a tour around the city and keep an eye out for her or any other wayward Knight that needed an education. Mason had wanted to come with, but Madeline had reminded him that if this Trier hadn't listened to him the first time, she probably wouldn't listen to him a second time, so maybe he should leave the advice-giving to the professionals (namely, Madeline herself, who was an expert at other people's problems, and believed firmly that if everyone just shut up and did what she told them to do, the world would be a happier place).

But there were an awful lot of magical people running around Destiny City, and after lightly stalking a couple of Page energy auras that turned out to be people other than the specific Page she was looking for, she'd decided to hold still, on the logic that when you're lost and someone's looking for you, if you're both moving around you could chase each other in circles. If you're lost, stay put, and the people who need you will find you.

Edam turned her head at the sound of a voice approaching, and she gave the other girl a quick once-over. Poofy purple dress. As she came closer, she saw the Saturn symbol ringing the skirt, and the pin held in her hand.

Huh. She'd actually found her. Or…let herself be found by her. Whatever.

Got her, Edam thought to her brother by way of their telepathic earrings, and then smiled at the approaching Page, doing her best to appear casual and approachable–to keep from making Mason's mistakes.

“And you're a Saturn Page, right?” Edam asked, nodding her head in response to her question. “I'm Edam. Nice to meet you.”

“I have a slingshot,” Edam said, producing the item from the pocket of her jacket to show her. “But it doesn’t come with anything to shoot with, so I have to do what I can with what’s around. If I ever wind up fighting something while inside a perfectly smooth, unbreakable marble, I will be in trouble.” Edam chuckled slightly and shook her head. “But I also have been taking self-defense classes, because I can’t imagine that everything will always be able to get knocked upside the head with a rock, or whatever I have on hand.”

Edam shrugged slightly and tucked her slingshot back in her pocket, fixing her with a curious expression. “I haven’t met many other Cybele Knights,” she said thoughtfully. “Or…any, actually, yet, except for our Princess.” At this, Edam’s face took on a slightly dreamy expression, but it only lasted a moment or two before she shook her head and refocused.

“To answer your first question, I am eighteen years old, and I am not ‘pretending to play hero’. I was awoken as a Knight.” Edam shrugged slightly. “May I ask the same question to you? How old are you, and just out of curiosity, what do you think the minimum-allowed age to ‘pretend to be a hero’ is?” Clearly this girl did not know about the young Senshi, like the one Edam had met at Joy’s Tournament - and she wasn’t inclined to give her any information she hadn’t explicitly asked for. She wasn’t sure she loved this girl’s tone, however, but she was reserving judgement, if only for Mason’s sake, whose anxious chattering in her mental ear, over their telepathy earring, Edam was doing her very best to ignore.

“Happy birthday,” Edam said, genuinely, giving her a little smile. She also made a mental note to see if she could contact this Waipoua - just in case she was as supposedly-clueless as her friend Trier was. But, admittedly, also because Edam did find she was curious about other Cybele Knights. They were ‘new’, galactically speaking, and that meant they were special, and Edam was curious to find out more about them - and herself, and her abilities. Maybe she could even arrange a meetup with their Princess again, and get some guidance…

Edam refocused. “I’ve tried to pre-stock,” Edam continued with a sigh. “I’ve gone rock hunting in my civilian self, but anything just goes - poof - when I power up.” Edam shook her head. “I’ve even tried to collect while powered up, but it disappears between powering down and powering up. Maybe it will change later, as you say, as I believe the ‘weapon’ we are given,” she said, using the air quotes, “evolves as we do.”

“I’m glad that you haven’t run into any serious problems yet,” Edam said, careful to include that ‘yet’. “Do you have a plan for when you do?”

“I know what you mean,” Edam said wryly. “I…became aware of the magical world before I myself awoke. I thought it seemed…sure, amusing, that’s a fine word, I guess, but also very dangerous. I must admit that I have only found it less and less amusing and more and more dangerous the longer I do this.” Edam shook her head. “I’m in college, and that is my number one priority, magic or no magic. I’m doing this because I’m on break right now, so…I suppose having some knowledge and a weapon of sorts means I’m at least a little obligated to use that knowledge and this weapon to protect people who don’t know any better.”

Edam considered the girl. The young woman. “Why do you power up? You don’t have to. No one will know if you don’t, you know. No one’s checking on you, making sure you clock in on time for your designated shift.”

Edam made a wiggly hand gesture. “Yes and no. I’ve definitely been doing some–well, I don’t cower, but as Pages, we’re meant to be…not on the front lines, so to speak. With assistance, I have fought off two Youma, several alien regenerating skeletons and their…mother or controller or something which was about the size of a small skyscraper on an alien planet, an agent of the Negaverse that was bothering students during finals,” she said, as if that made the wrong committed extra evil, “and…” Edam hesitated for a moment, face going slightly pale at even the mere memory.

“And I had…an experience with…a General. Of the Negaverse. He…he would have killed me, and the Squire I was with, if not for an extremely powerful Senshi responding to the call for immediate emergency assistance the Squire sent out.” Edam held up her own bare hands - by way of explanation for why she hadn’t been the one to call for help. “I haven’t found my Signet Ring yet. But if the Squire I was with hadn’t had his, we would be just another of the unclaimed bodies in the Potter’s Field, victims of ‘gang violence in the city’,” she said, sourly, and again with the air quotes. “But…the General…he was attacking another Page. One who was on her own. We had to–we had to try.” Edam swallowed thickly, around the lump in her throat; she was doing her best to speak as matter-of-factly as she could, but in truth, it was the most traumatizing thing that had happened to her, maybe ever.

“So. As if the giant self-reassembling skeleton wasn’t dangerous enough. But, as I said, someone was in danger. If we didn’t at least try…” Edam sighed. “If we didn’t try, I don’t know how I would look in the mirror every day. That’s why I do it. I just need to do it on my terms, on my schedule, not on anyone else’s.”

“I hope so too,” Edam said, surprised to find she more or less meant it. “Stay safe out there. Good luck at your Wonder, and–happy birthday, again.”

Edam gave her a little smile and a wave, then turned to continue her patrol–or at least to look like she was going to continue her patrol. She was, in fact, actually going to power down as soon as she was around enough corners and go straight home, because she had found her quarry, gotten enough information to reassure her overly-anxious, big-hearted, big dumb brother, and also, it was freezing out, and Edam didn’t want to spend a single minute longer out in the snow than she absolutely had to.