Welcome to Gaia! ::

Madeline blinked, surprised in spite of herself. She wasn't necessarily the biggest fan of texting herself - it was too difficult to parse tone, a lot of the time - but she thought it was the least intrusive way of inserting oneself into an acquaintance's life.

And now she was being asked to come over.

The only person's house she'd been invited to visit was Halia's. That was it. That was the whole list. That was part of the reason she wanted to do this long distance: in person, there was a much, much higher chance of embarrassing herself. What if she said the wrong thing? What if she wore the wrong thing? Texting at least gave her time to think between responses...



Ten minutes later, Madeline had changed her entire outfit no less than four times, done her hair three different ways, and put on and taken off a full face of makeup at least twice. Finally, she gave up on looking impressive and put her hair in a ponytail, threw on a flannel, and made her way over to Trier--Sabrina's--house.

She could do this. She'd fought scary magical monsters. She could go over to another girl's house and have a conversation. She could do this. She could do this.

Or she could go home and never speak of this to anyone--

Almost without her permission, Madeline's feet carried her to the front door; almost without her permission, her hand knocked on the door. It was just a conversation. It was just a conversation. Just because it was an utterly normal part of life that she had never really experienced before didn't mean it was anything to be nervous about.

Next time I see you, you'll be stronger. That was what Sabrina had said to her. Madeline sighed, squared her shoulders, and nodded to herself. She hadn't unlocked her magic yet, but - she could do this. She could.

Madeline relaxed a little in spite of herself - Sabrina had seemed so...together...when they met, she'd gotten herself all stressed out about looking and acting correctly. Seeing the other girl in her pajamas helped with that, and Madeline managed a smile.

Is everything okay?

Madeline's mind flashed back to the fight she and Winters had in the strange, curious room at the museum. No, things were not all okay, and Madeline had no idea how to fix it, but that wasn't what she was here to talk to Sabrina about.

(She couldn't just keep crying to Sabrina every time something went wrong with her family. She was supposed to be the one who kept it together around here.)

Madeline slid out of her flannel, giving a grateful smile as she watched Sabrina make it marginally cooler within the house. "Thanks," she said. "It's okay. What's up is...well, I have a proposition for you. I know it sounds strange, but just - hear me out, okay?"

Madeline waited for them to get situated, took a breath, and gave Sabrina a brilliant smile. She had gotten an award in high school - Star Presenter. Now was the time to embrace that title.

(Maybe she should've made a PowerPoint...)

"So. Have you heard of the concept of a Brigade? I hadn't either, until very recently. A Brigade is a group of Knights - well, Pages, Squires, and Knights, you know what I mean - that are basically a team, who want to accomplish specific things. In our case, we want to see better support, education, and consideration for Pages and the newly-purified; and we want to see organized, intentional information-gathering and verification, so we don't have to wander around like idiots, finding things accidentally, when instead we could be applying the scientific method, even to things like magic, as long as we work together. In my opinion, it would be so nice to have some definite answers to some of these things, rather than just..." Madeline trailed off and made an exaggerated 'I dunno' noise and gesture.

"Anyway, that's what the Brigade wants. What you might want, from the Brigade is a different question! Brigades have access to - when there's enough of the Brigade assembled - some kind of...extra-powerful combined attack of some kind?" Madeline paused, gave a sheepish smile. "Some of this is...not quite guesswork, but part of what we're doing with this whole thing is seeing what can be proven - if we can do things on purpose, or if they just...happen, like becoming a Knight just happens." Madeline wrinkled her nose slightly: she did not like it when things just happened.

"However," she continued, shaking the face away, "Brigades also have access to...what sounds rather like a secret Headquarters? It evidently works somewhat like our Wonders, except there's less..." Madeline gestured vaguely, "clean up to do. It's more...ready-made, for members of the Brigade. But no one but the Brigade can access it, making it a safe place to discuss plans, regroup, heal, or just...you know. Hang out."

(Madeline was not good at hanging out.)

"And I was wondering if you might be interested in joining our Brigade," Madeline finished, smile just a little shy this time. "I understand if you would rather work solo, but...it might be nice, or helpful, or at least - reassuring - to have some people you could call for backup, in case things get dicey. People who might be able to answer any questions you have or give their perspective if something unusual comes up. And, if you know any Knights who might benefit from such an arrangement, you could bring them along, too! Like, your friend, Necromanteion. Perhaps he would want to join and the two of you could come as a package deal."