Welcome to Gaia! ::

Mason laughed, Madeline scowled. “Oh trust me, we’re definitely magical too,” he promised. Even when it was annoying. Even when Madeline would prefer neither of them were. He had a freaking ghost, for crying out loud, but all things in good time. He didn’t entirely blame her for being dubious, honestly - it made sense that an announcement like ‘I’m magical!’ being met with ‘Us too!’ might be a little hard to believe, but…well, no harder to believe than being magical in the first place, right?

“Here,” Mason said, leading them into the park and to the little copse of trees he considered his personal magical changing room. He gave one more cursory glance around, to make sure they were really alone, and then closed his eyes and powered up.

His shillelagh generated in his hand and he tightened his grip on it, a grin on his face as he opened his eyes again. “Blarney, Squire of Earth, at your service,” he said, with a playful bow.

Madeline rolled her eyes, but Mason caught her glance and the message was clear, even without their telepathy earrings: get with the program or go home. Madeline nodded - she apparently had something to prove, to her own little baby cousin, but whatever.

Madeline closed her eyes and powered up as well. She smirked a little as she twirled her slingshot between her fingers, resting her free hand on her hip.

“You’re not the only one with an outfit,” she said. “I’m Edam of Cybele, thank you very much. You’ll have to be careful with that skirt of yours, by the way - anyone could step on that.” Every day, she was relieved that her own outfit was sensible. No heels, no skirt, just what she needed to get down to business.

“Now, we will need to be a little cautious,” Madeline said, “since the bad guys can sense our auras when we’re powered up, and together we’ll be a bigger target.”

Blarney nodded, but there was an impish smile on his face. “She’s right, buuut…watch this!” Blarney took off at a run, zooming from the pair of girls to a far tree and back again, far faster than he should have been able to move. He gave her a big grin as he came to a stop again - he couldn’t wait to show her how to jump from building to building!

Blarney flinched slightly at the mention of a girlfriend - as a matter of fact, he had had two partners in quick succession, but one of them was not a girl, and the other was just a friend, and neither of them were something he wanted to get into with his baby cousin.

“None of your beeswax,” Blarney said, sticking his tongue out at her. “C’mon, that doesn’t matter right now. What matters…” Blarney said, starting out of the park and toward the nearest tall buildings - he knew them well, as they were his usual departure point, “is that we, all three of us, can do….”

Without even taking a running leap, Blarney leapt to the nearest roof. He made sure to pick one short enough that Winters and Edam could reach, even though he knew he could go a little higher. He didn’t want to discourage either of them, which he thought was very magnanimous of him, if he did say so himself.

“This!”

“He’s sensitive about that,” Edam whispered as Blarney took off toward the building. “It’s a whole dramatic thing, don’t even start,” she advised with a roll of her eyes. She took her time, not feeling the need to expend the energy running like her brother; they’d be burning enough calories tonight without rushing it.

“What about you? Any cute boys - or girls! - caught your eye in Destiny City yet?” Edam wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at Winters. She was a teenager, sure, and should not be worrying about relationships, but…evidently Tiffany–Winters, now–was more like a typical teenager than either she or Mason had been, which meant that probably all she wanted to talk about was cute boys and makeup and, what, boy bands or something? Edam had no idea, but - Winters was her family, and it was important to try and maintain positive bonds with family.

Well. With this member of the family, anyway…

Edam and Blarney broke into wide grins as the laughter escaped their cousin’s lips. So she was buried in there somewhere: the old Tiffany, the one that had worshipped Madeline, the one who was pure and innocent and adorable and good–

…Aaand then the teenager was back. Ugh. Blarney was already jumping to the next roof, absolutely showing off now, and Edam shrugged. Blarney had always been cooler than she was, if she was being honest with herself, but to hear it out loud was…

Well. It didn’t matter. Blarney was what he was, and she was what she was, and it was what it was.

“I’m not interested in that right now,” Edam said, because it was true. “But thank you for the kind thought. Truthfully, nobody has…” she gestured vaguely, “...met my standards. They are exacting,” she said with a wry chuckle. She was going to say more, but Blarney called to them, and she shook her head. “C’mon, before he starts lighting his hair on fire to get our attention.”

What was taking them so long? Blarney paced back and forth, giving them a minute or two before he let out a whoop. They had things to do! Namely, find something scary but not life-threatening to show Ti–Winters that they weren’t talking nonsense.

Or at least, show off his magic, and see what she could do in return. He hopped another roof or two, until they were in a relatively deserted part of town, nothing but old factories and abandoned apartment buildings as far as the eye could see. Definitely primo bad-guy lurk-zone, but Blarney hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

“Okay,” he said, when the girls finally caught up to him. “Okay. Winters,” he said, making a ‘bring it on’ gesture with one hand. “Show me what you got. Try to attack me. Magically.” Maybe she had defensive powers, or maybe she had something that improved other people’s powers - but better to start with the most straightforward option.

Edam raised an eyebrow at Blarney and stepped away from Winters, just in case whatever was about to happen had a radius to worry about. “Focus on your magic. You’ll know how to do it,” she said, though she was not actually one hundred percent sure of that fact - she didn’t know how Senshi worked, not really; she just knew how she’d known to go to Edam, and figured it couldn’t be that different for Senshi attacks.

“You got this.”

Edam’s attention was on Blarney - that was why she missed it, when Winters attacked her. Was attacked the right word? Edam had no idea, because she was a million miles away.

Or, well, less than that. Less than a mile away, probably, but a dozen years or so in the past.

Her parents were home. There were actually here. She remembered being so elated; she was more excited for that than for anything under the Christmas tree. She remembered her mother lifting her into her arms - the scent of her perfume, the sound of her laughter echoing in the big tall front hallway…

She remembered the piano. They didn’t have the piano anymore, but she could see it so clearly it was like the thing was three inches in front of her face and solid as it had ever been. She remembered her parents; they were wearing ugly sweaters and had gotten matching ones for the twins. She remembered how itchy her sweater had been. She remembered sitting in her mother’s lap and watching, transfixed, as her mother’s fingers flew gracefully over the keys…

She remembered her parents’ voices, singing some holiday song, in perfect harmony. She remembered herself and Mason trying to sing along and messing it up and her parents weren’t even angry, they just laughed and laughed…

She remembered the next year, and the year after that. She remembered climbing up to the piano bench herself and trying to plunk out the same song with the same ease and grace and poise that her mother had, to no avail. She remembered dragging Mason into a two-sizes-too-small matching ugly sweater and forcing him to sing holiday songs with her.

She remembered every holiday after that - every birthday, every special occasion - nothing. Nothing but a postcard. If they were lucky.

It was the rage that brought her back, blinking away tears of fury as the rooftop came back into focus. She had dropped to one knee at some point and was staring fixedly at the ground as the sheet of ice finally began to melt away.

How dare they leave her. How dare they leave Mason. How dare Tiffany make her remember one of the precious few good memories she had of her parents. Rage coursed through her veins like fire, and she didn’t even think about it as she pulled the slingshot out from her make-shift belt, grabbed the nearest pebble - not small enough to really do damage, she’d try and justify it later - and slotted it in, pulled the sling back, and let the small stone fly, aimed directly for Sailor Winters.

How dare she.

Stupid boys. That, somehow, was what jogged her out of her incandescent fury - or at least, what dropped it down from murderous to simply very very mad.

“Put that wall down this instant, Blarney!” Edam shouted, and after a moment - too long a moment - Blarney obeyed, but she didn’t like the way he was looking at her. Almost afraid? No, impossible.

“You,” she said, returning her attention to the problem child in this situation, “are mean. And rude. And you are forbidden to ever use that power on me ever again.” Edam was almost trembling, and she hoped they couldn’t see the tears in her eyes. It was just because she was mad, she told herself, not because thinking about that had opened up a yawning pit of hurt and angst that she spent an awful lot of time keeping locked away in some box in the back of her heart. Definitely just because she was mad.

“And you!” Edam said, wheeling on Blarney, who had started to approach her, hands out in a soothing gesture that just made Edam even more angry. “Why are you taking her side?”

“Side?” Blarney repeated blankly. “M–Edam,” he said, trying to keep his voice calm and level. “You just attacked our baby cousin. I–I don’t know what you…what Winters made you see, but…” Blarney glanced back at Winters, to see if she had any idea why Edam was reacting this way, but it certainly didn’t seem like she had any more idea than he did.

“But whatever it is, it wasn’t–it wasn’t real, okay? It was just–just a memory, or something. I–I saw something too, but–but a good thing. I saw our birthdays,” he spoke as soothingly as he could, edging closer to her as she did, and when he finally reached her, he wrapped his arms firmly around her. She tensed for a moment, and then sagged in his arms, burying her face in his chest. She wasn’t crying, but it was a near thing, and Blarney didn’t even want to know what memory she’d visited.

Over the top of Edam’s head, Blarney looked at Winters. “She’s going to be really sorry in a few hours,” Blarney promised with a sheepish smile. “And I think that power is a good one, but I’m not sure how well it will work on non-humans. Can we–maybe just you and me–meet up for some self-defense training this week? Just in case you run into something that doesn’t have any memories like that?”

Oh, no. Blarney bit back a groan, gave his sister another squeeze, and guided her to a small cement block that was probably part of an A/C unit or something. “I’ll be right back,” he promised her softly, kissing the top of her head (ever mindful of the clip-on horns) before he made his way back to Winters.

“Okay, so, that was more than just ice,” he said. He had some experience with not knowing what his own powers did; this was, after all, the point of coming out here. To see what she could do. “So…when you did that, Ma–Edam and I…we were sort of shunted back, in our minds, to…well, I guess, traditions from our past. Mine was–mine was good, mine was nice. Felt a little weird, coming out of it, but like, the memory itself was fine.

“I think…I think Edam’s memory wasn’t so nice. We–I mean…you know. Our parents travel a lot. Basically all the time. The–the only thing I can think of that would get her so angry is something to do with them, from when we were little little kids. But–even so, she should never have attacked you.” Blarney’s face was set grimly as he tilted her head slightly with two fingers, to examine the injury left behind by Edam’s small stone. It was bleeding, but head wounds tended to bleed a lot. He should know…

From one of his pouches, Blarney withdrew some rubbing alcohol, some neosporin and some bandaids. “It’s not deep, I don’t think,” Blarney said. “I can clean it up for you, if you want. There are some people - I’m sure some Senshi have the ability too, but I know at least one Knight that for sure does - whose magic is healing. I had one help me out when this demon chicken thing tried to take my head off last summer.” Blarney smiled wryly and held up the medical goods again. “Once I get you patched up, Edam will be calmer, and we can–talk it out. Is that okay?”