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Responsibility. The weight of holding a life in her hands and deciding its right to continue. That, at least, was something to pull herself together around, to solidify an iron core and point it, compass-like, true north.

"It's the right thing to do. I have to."

That was certain; that was steel, that was what Aerin could do if she could do nothing else. Do the right thing no matter what, uncompromisingly, unflinchingly.

Still, Aerin dug her nails into Ignacio's chair again. It helped.

"I got into this fighting one of their monsters, and I didn't really expect to survive, so. To stop people like her? Anything."

The admittance that she didn't really expect to be alive right now was brittle, but what followed wasn't; Anything really was anything, and if you had already tried to die for a cause, what was killing for it?

"There are three people dead tonight, and possibly more tommorow. And they wouldn't be, if I had killed her."

It weighed heavily on her hear,t to know what she was going to do. It was not the first time Ophelia had trained children for war; everyone who could hold a weapon among her people had wanted to fight, when the invaders came. Still, it destroyed a little of her every time.

But Aerin was already in this war, and already willing to fight.

"You are brave," she said, "and noble beyond measure. When my people were fighting off those who invaded our planet--we would have been lucky to have one such as you, to fight with us."

It was clear that she meant it.

When Viatrix arrived, Ophelia gave the cat a brief nod, to acknowledge her.

"I was offering to teach Aerin," she said, very carefully, "how to handle monsters like the one she encountered tonight. But we will not begin until the morning. For now, I think you need to rest. You have had a difficult enough day."

There was a part of Viatrix that couldn't wait to reach a point in which she could reach her humanoid form more often, even for just utilizing that civilian guise more often. Like Liryn. There was another part of her that never quite wanted to get rid of her cat form, knowing how much she liked being pet and also, more importantly, how much it seemed to stabilize others.

She settled in Aerin's lap, letting her talk.

"It's lucky you're not more harmed," she murmured, concerned, taking a moment to look over Aerin's face and her arms and poke a little bit at her body to make sure nothing seemed broken. But Ignacio and Ophelia were they. They definitely would have already checked for that. Aerin seemed calm, or at least, relatively calm. So they had reassured her already, hopefully...

She turned her attention toward Ophelia for a moment, to who Ignacio nodded to in support of her idea.

"I think it's a good idea to teach her if you know something that can help. Knowing how to defend yourself is important against some of these people, I think." Her brows knit just a bit, knowing that defend really could mean, especially considering what policies people like Anser had ultimately taken and the realities Encke spoke of; she didn't reinforce it, instead turning toward Ignacio as he let out a short, soft laugh.

"Absolutely. Stay as long as you need, alright? Any time. We have a few bedrooms open here, even, so you don't have to stay on the couch or something. I'll leave Dad and Mom a message so they know someone else is here in the morning," but first, he should probably deal with leaving Raina a message. "Just for reference in case your parents ask, she lives in one of the apartment complexes closer to Destiny City Memorial. My mom works there."

To Raina, he tapped out a quick message. listen, Aerin is at my house, she's pretending she's at yours. roll with it He then tucked the phone back away.

"I doubt she minds. Might be confused, though. Is it cool I go ahead and tell her you're a senshi?"

Verbally, though. He wasn't going to take any risk that the Negaverse could see their transcripts --

"I mean, Aerin knows Raina is Anser--"

Aerin nodded, committing the vauge location to memory. Maybe she'd patrol around there sometime, in case she bumped into Anser.

"Yeah. I was gonna go say hi and introduce myself anyway, but. This came first. Plus, it's only fair." Knowing someone's secret magic identity was a lot of information to have on a person. It seemed that way, anyway. If Aerin met someone who knew hers but was really cagey about returning the favor, it would probably be very uncomfortable, at best.

"Um- speaking of logistics, do you want my name and number and stuff? That way it's easier to reach me. And possibly to make time. I doubt my parents would object to me learning self-defense, after the whole museum thing."

Ophelia blinked, when Vitarix addressed the question to her. She'd started to drift, a little, which was more than slightly embarrassing, butt here was something soothing about being around people talking, when she had been so alone for so long.

"I think I can manage it," she said. She wrinkled her nose, briefly. "It's strange, and not at all what I was used to, but needs must, and I can adapt." And wasn't that the story of her life, these days. Nothing was at all the same, and she was having to adapt to new circumstances at every turn.

But that was alright. At least she was alive to do so.

"Are you going to be alright?" She asked Aerin, gently. "I think I need to try and get myself back to bed, but." She didn't want to walk off when the poor girl was probably still scared and shaken. It just wasn't in her nature.

Ignacio's smile was wry. "That's probably a good idea, honestly. I got myself into a mess of lies with Richard and his family a while back." They had at least a loose idea of what he had been through with Barren Pines -- Richard had a very exacting idea, or as close as Ignacio could believably get -- but as an attempt to keep them away from senshi and knight life, he had resisted telling them anything until it got to the point where Richard had gotten attacked anyway. "Take it from me: the less you have to lie, the better."

Lying was unavoidable when so few people knew the truth of senshi and the truth of Chaos, and it was especially unavoidable when telling the wrong people the wrong thing could lead to deaths, but--

"Sleep is important," agreed Viatrix, nodding firmly to Aerin before turning her attention to Ophelia. "And that means for you too. Get some sleep, okay?" Her brows knit. "It's getting easier, right?" And even if it was, she was still gonna tell Ignacio to go buy some soundproofing--

"I'll--"

Viatrix looked at Ignacio, and he cut himself off, letting Viatrix look back toward Aerin. "I can show you a good place to sleep when you're ready. You're safe here."