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The last two times Pendour had gone out at night, she'd run directly into Negaverse agents. She'd come back in one piece, but it had still sent her heart racing butterfly-fast for days and she'd hesitated before powering up again.

Well, that courage she'd been trying to cultivate seemed to be growing, because after only about a week of comfort food and movie nights, she was back walking through the park in the full regalia of a Squire of Neptune. Her pulse was still quick, and she was still half-waiting for something truly terrible to happen, but she was there. Deep down, she was hoping for a quiet night, or to meet someone who wasn't broken by Chaos, but she would take what came.

In the meantime, she was enjoying the spring weather. It was a little cloudier tonight, which meant no stargazing, but it was getting to the time of year when the flowers were really starting to flourish. The pansies especially were in full bloom and she knelt down beside a bed of them, ones that were lavender edged with palest yellow. "Hello, lovelies," she whispered, and smiled a little.

Now that she was close enough, she could see these weren't actually pansies. They were violas, the daintier cousins. They were smaller and closer to wildflowers, and just perfect for lighting up a little patch of land.

She blinked at the voice. She still didn't love things coming up on her blind side, but she was distracted enough that it didn't quite register. "I like to think so," she said in a voice that was whisper-soft and dreamy. "The studies aren't really sure one way or another."

That was when she turned over her shoulder to take a look, although she didn't see anything until she looked down.

A gasp caught in her throat. She shot up stark straight and took a stumbling step back.

She took a few seconds to look him over, just to make sure her vision wasn't playing any tricks on her, but there was no mistake. He was a white, fluffy cat with glasses and one of those stars.

"Oh. Um, you're a guardian," she mumbled, bringing her hands together so she could spin and spin her signet ring.

Pendour blinked twice before she nodded, slow as slow, keeping eye contact with the strange white cat. Her brows knit. "I'm Pendour. I'm a Squire of Neptune. Yes," she said.

There was a too-long pause before she added, "It's nice to, um, meet you."

When Soleyiu stayed where he was for a few seconds more, she exhaled, although her shoulders were still stone-tense. "Oh, no, no. It's not like that. I was out looking for someone to talk to." She looked down and caught a glimpse of the violas. "More than the flowers, I mean. It's just, um," she swallowed. "You're not here to fight?"

She stopped spinning her rings and lowered her hand, which was crisscrossed with tiny claw scars that mirrored the larger ones on her face. "The other guardians I've met were very insistent on the violence." She'd thought it might be a cat thing, as in the videos she'd seen they were always hissing and knocking things over.

Slow as slow, Pendour nodded. "Oh. Um, okay," she said. She still found a lock of hair and fiddled with it, but the better part of the tension finally seemed to relax away. After all, he was hardly attacking her or shaping up to be the small, fluffy ball of rage that she'd been expecting.

"I like hearing perspectives on the war, learning people's stories, learning about space most of all." She shot a brief, wistful glance up at the sky before pulling her attention down to the cat in front of her. "But you've got me thinking about cats."

She twisted her hair faster and narrowed her eyes in concentration. "Or, well, um, is that even right? Are you a cat?" She squinted even more, until her nose started to wrinkle, and she focused on a point just over his head. "Would you even chase your tail, or a lazer beam, or scratch up curtains, or carpets, or something like that?

She wasn't very sure what cats did, other than scratching things. That was mostly what she'd seen them doing in the YouTube videos her friends seemed to like.

The last of the tension was replaced by something else when he mentioned this Mau. Her eyes went as wide and soft as they'd been when she'd been talking to the flowers.

"You're from another planet?" In her excitement of trying to imagine what kind of world Soleiyu could be from, she momentarily forgot that it would presumably be crawling with these Mauvians. She would have traveled there that instant if he'd had that magic, but it seemed he didn't even know what it was like there.

Pendour' face darkened again at that, although in a gentler, sadder way. "You don't remember the place that you came from?" It sent a cold lump to her chest just to imagine that. Neptune was hers, it was true, but it wasn't her home, not really, and yet the thought of being separated or forgetting it made that lump go even colder. Maybe that was why so many of them seemed so upset all the time.

"Do you think if you heard someone talking about it that you could remember?" she asked. "I've been to a few planets. I could tell you about them, to see if they're the one, if Mau was just a nickname." As she talked, she lowered herself down into a seat on the pavement. There was still a little distance between them, but she was closer to his level. "If it's an old planet, I could, um, ask my ancestor," she said. She pursed her lips a little at that thought, but continued anyway. "I think people from the entire galaxy used to stop at my wonder, sometimes."

He was not a cat. He didn't have a cat's instincts. Okay. That was fine. She was repeating that to herself a few times so that she would maybe remember and not insult the next Mauvian she came across, and he was at the point of comparing cats to monkeys when she felt something bump her hand.

He was rubbing up against her the way a cat would.

Pendour froze like a computer that was missing some of the code. She stared for a second before she caught herself, and even then her eyes asked the question that it seemed rude to voice.

Another moment passed, and she still couldn't think of anything to say about it, so instead she gingerly reached down with two fingers to scratch behind his ears with two fingers.

"Oh, um, my wonder is beautiful," she said, smiling again as she let herself look back at the sky. "There was a cove, and a pavillion for music, and gardens surrounding it all. It was supposed to be a peaceful place, a place to get away to." Her voice was edging towards dreamy until she stole a glance back at him to make sure he wasn't angry. "Although I haven't asked my ancestor about the people who stopped by. We don't really have the same perspectives on the past or the present, so talking to him can be difficult."

The Mauvian remained at arm's length, but Pendour relaxed into petting him a little more, using her whole hand to rub around his ears.

"It is lovely," she said, and then added, with something like excitement, "Do you want to come? Tonight, even? I love showing people." She looked down at him. Person was the right word, wasn't it? He certainly wasn't human but she didn't think that changed things so much.

The excitement didn't reach her eyes, though, not while she talked about her ancestor. She just stroked Solieyu's soft fur for a moment. "Irving won't bother you," she said. "It's okay these days, mostly because we don't talk much. It got," she paused to take a deep breath and search for a word, "Intense. Um, back when I got hurt."

She started spinning her signet ring around and around on her free hand. "Do you know about sirens? He was a little like that. He would be beautiful and gain his enemy's trust, and then, um, drown them." She'd spent a lot of time grappling with the thought of it, but it still made her stomach churn. "He thought this would make it harder to follow in his footsteps."

The bitterness sneaked into her voice, even as she turned so her scars were obvious.

"I'll take you," she said, her voice edging towards something almost dreamy, but she didn't make any move to whisk the two of them away.

Not yet. Not if he still had questions about her ancestor. Also, she was getting too comfortable, sitting here next to him while he nuzzled her fingers. She even leaned down down on her other elbow so that she was a little closer to him.

She tried scratching under his chin. "I don't mind talking about it," she said. The questions had become almost normal. It still wasn't quite a comfortable topic, but it was better in times like these when she could tell the truth. "I was just a page. He was a half-youma general. By the time he found me, I didn't think running would help much. I tried to talk to him instead, but," she swallowed hard and reached up with her free hand to pop out the prosthetic eye, just for long enough that Soleiyu could see the extent of the damage. That was easier than saying the words, somehow. "I think I annoyed him."

A moment passed, and Pendour's brows knit together even tighter. "Irving was half-right," she said. "Not about the siren business. I'm not even one for the regular type of seduction, but-" her voice caught in her throat, and she took a breath to steady herself. This was somehow the harder topic. "I do want to gain the trust of those who have been trapped by the Negaverse, and to calm and heal anyone who's been hurt by the war." Her hand was still on her face, where she could feel how bumpy the scars were, even now.

"I hate that it makes me intimidating," she said. The tears were building up despite her efforts.