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An object in motion tended to stay in motion.

Encke was back on his comet with no one but the person he was gripping onto, legs still carrying him as if he was running from something. The air tasted different, the ground felt different, but it was hard to say he quite noticed until after a few moments and a cat-creature he hadn't yet named yowled at him in a warning.

He quite nearly skidded to a stop.

Oh. Right.

Carefully, he set Nectaris down and dismissed his aura before bending down to scratch the creature behind its ears. They weren't exactly a cat, but they responded close enough to one, and they seemed placated. "Ah, sorry about that. Wanted to make sure we were definitely away and wasn't really thinking--"

Despite not feeling any auras outside of hers, he still glanced behind him.

No youma.

No Faustite.

No flames or fire or--

"Think we're clear now." He glanced back up to Nectaris. "We can stay here as long as you need. Lots of stuff here now, and it'll give time for Faustite to burn himself up with rage."

... Honestly? He wished.

The glowing cat-adjacent creature seemed the opposite of spooked, trilling first and then curling a bit closer to the mutual attention second, letting both the senshi and knight pet and scratch her as much as they wanted.

The cat-creatures seemed rather friendly to humans, and Encke was suspicious they might have been one of the domesticated animals that the Enckeans kept. Probably an animal that had been domesticated to keep pests out of houses. Encke considered none of them pests, of course, but things were probably a lot different thousands of years ago when his people were actually alive--

He pulled himself out of his distracting thoughts when she spoke to him, and petting the cat became more of an idle fidget than something he was actively observing.

... Good. The good. She had gotten to know what Faustite was. Maybe she'd stay away from him. Maybe she'd stay away from his husband.

He hoped.

But she was curling in on herself, and looking at the ground, and that wasn't good.

"No," because it was true, he wasn't mad. Why would he be mad? He offered a cute affectionate noise to the cat much like he would to Luz before pulling himself entirely in Nectaris' direction, opening his arms for a hug if she wanted it. "I'm not mad at you. Faustite sucks. You did what you should do in response: defend yourself, try to create distance, call for backup when you needed it."

And even if she hadn't, mad would never be the right word. Scared, maybe.

Seeing her unfold just a bit from the way she was curled up for even a brief hug was a relief. One of his comet's newest creatures seemed to be helping, and he was quite happy to let the glowkitty--was that the right name for the creature? glowkitty? he felt like there was probably something better--keep purring and trilling and nuzzling as they pleased.

Maybe it sounded silly, the concept of Faustite purifying against what she had learned from the database and had learned from him, but he did also remember what she had pulled up on her phone to insist that she had to try. She gave Faustite his chance.

And she was alive, and they had gotten her out, and she was bringing up Albite in a positive light and that dashed a small hope of his fairly fast -- "Don't get the impression he'd be a fan of a so-called traitor dating his husband," his smile was a bit lop-sided. "I'm sorry bringing that up just sent him nuclear instead of maybe allowing him to see some commonalities."

When he got the signal, all he thought about was getting to Nectaris and getting her out. Maybe retrieving her starseed if necessary. Keeping her starseed away from him if not. Keeping her neck away from his boot and her body away from his fire. He let her have her space, but he was glad she stayed nearby. Confirmed that he had done the Right Thing this time, and he wasn't leaned over her in a hospital bed for a few days.

"What did he do?" Encke's voice was careful, quiet, not wanting to upset her further. "Or what did he say? I mean, I guess beside cursing us both out and summoning youma."

And chasing her down an alleyway--

The first thing that Encke keyed into was her movements, the fact she kept touching her wrists, the fact that she wasn't quite staying still anymore--which was good--but it was being replaced with other motions and ways to comfort herself. The glowkitty seemed to appreciate her pets, at least, and curled in a bit closer to get more of them from Nectaris specifically.

Encke listened to her words, forcing his mind to stay on the topic and not wander into a pile of worry. She was there in front of him, and she had just been called unintelligent at best by Faustite which was honestly rude--

And then there was the case of purification, and the lack of hatred--honestly, Encke wasn't sure he agreed--and the fact that Faustite didn't want her with Albite which made sense considering everything else but was also worth consideration. Was it an affair? ... Probably, but one thing at a time.

"They're judging you for holes in your memory, not your brain, that are beyond your control and are just a side effect of doing the right thing." He huffed in an unconscious mimic of his sister. "Not worth listening to those comments. He's angry. He's outraged about some betrayal to a chaotic energy. He's going for the pain, maybe trying to pain you in return." Why was he talking about her needing to have a reason to hate him otherwise?

And now for the bigger problem--

Albite.

The cat trilled at her when looked at, and Encke tilted his head as he considered-- "Honestly, it might be." And he wasn't speaking from a desire to get her away from Albite! He did desire that! But while he wasn't polyam himself, he knew those arrangements came with a consent and understanding from all involved. If one party wasn't consenting-- "If his husband doesn't want you dating him, then one member of the arrangement isn't consenting to it."

And that sounded like an affair.

"Point taken."

As she had reminded him before, she had been in pretty deep with the Negaverse at least at some point. Her having at least some kind of report with Faustite previously wasn't exactly out of the question. Might explain another layer to why he was acting the way he was; Encke was willing to chalk it up to Faustite was an a*****e, but he did seem to be going for a mutual pain for some reason.

If Nectaris had to hate him for whatever reason--

Not as important as the way she was rubbing at her arms, not the way that she started with a weak excuse and then in short order agreed. While the glowing cat settled herself and chose to stay nearby the interesting humanoids even as they chatted with each other, Encke reached into his subspace pocket to check for something that might help with burns.

"No, it's fair to want to respect his wishes. Or ... not want to, clearly the wrong word, but at least to be the bigger person." Aloe. Aloe would probably help half-youma anger burns. He pulled a bottle of aloe vera out and set it in front of him for now. "Just because he wants to set us all aflame doesn't mean we can't stick to our principles."

It spoke to the core of why he tried his hardest to keep to a mantra of acting only in defense, even if he was moving a couple in his mental list to a category where he could likely assume they were doing something wrong. Just because some of the Negaverse would act without mercy didn't mean Order should do the same. It helped make the case to Chaos that they were the "correct side" if Chaos couldn't easily point to them being just as bad.

This was a consent and love question, but it came from the same place.

"And Faustite is a murderous d**k. But he's also not really consenting to the arrangement, and he means enough to Albite for Albite to full-on marry him." Which made Encke strongly wonder about Albite himself, no matter how cute Nectaris thought he was. It was part of what triggered his worry the last time they were talking about her love life, and what threatened at the edges of his psyche to make him anxious again as much as he tried to keep it at bay. "Honestly, I'd be wondering about Albite if he doesn't care that his own husband is upset about it."

And that was also true, even ignoring the whole ... everything else.

Honestly? The whole thing was unfair, and he couldn't blame her for the frustration that she felt. It probably seemed easier to be chaos. She'd still have her family, still would have her boyfriend, wouldn't be dealing with big moral conundrums...

Encke appreciated when she glanced toward him and offered her a small smile, "Try to be," because he did want to be someone she could lean on and depend on and not replace her original family but be part of a new found one, and he knew his husband and his husband's family felt the same way. But he knew she loved them, and he knew she knew she'd be able to find someone else, but that wasn't the center of the problem.

Not right now.

As she started to write on a post-it, he bit on the inside of his lip. He should be happy--and in a lot of ways he was, if she wasn't dating a chaos boy that was married to Faustite she'd stay a bit safer--but he didn't necessarily want that to happen this way. "I wish it was easier, honestly. It's not fair that you lost so much once you let go of chaos, and it's not fair that chaos is still taking. Chaos is hungry like that. Doesn't seem to stop."

Encke leaned forward to give their trilling cat companion a few more pets. "I think some of those you love from your days in chaos' influence will stick around. It's just...," he shifted, "these things take time. It sounds like you might have a few promising leads on potential purification prospects from your database entries."

Fulgurite. Ransomite. Hopefully that was just the start.

He glanced toward her.

"And for what it's worth, I'm not going anywhere."

Encke could tell she knew that, but he hoped the reinforcement helped.

Encke couldn't help a chuckle under his breath at the concept of her stopping that consent for that part of the relationship-- "Wouldn't that be ideal," and honestly, it would be if it could be so simple to get Albite out of his marriage with Faustite. Maybe he'd be easier to convince to purify, then.

Somehow, he still doubted it.

Albite learned his name from before and embraced it and still seemed to think it wasn't him now from the way Ganymede wrote--

He wasn't getting the impression she was going to drop the case with him, though; he recognized the determination on her face and that concerned him. Still put her in range of Faustite. Still put her in range of someone who would likely rather take her starseed for being a traitor than tolerate her continued presence. Still put her in range of someone who would sooner turn her in and take her away from herself again-- And Albite was part of that risk, especially if he was married to it.

He did his best not to project that. She was sad; she didn't need it right now, even as he was fidgeting in his worry and in the fact he couldn't stay still.

That calmed a bit when she whispered to him, and he settled, just a smidge.

"It makes me happy to hear that," in spite of everything, in spite of her relations with Chaos boys bringing him stress, in spite of how much he worried for her safety, "and I'm glad you're here too. It feels like we're both in the right place, eh Sis?"

He chuckled lightly.

"Invested in it staying that way."

Encke couldn't help a quiet laugh, knowing that she was trying to make the situation lighter but it was perhaps working from that perspective-- "Would be kinda awkward, huh."

Good thing he had no plan on doing that. Worry that she was going to get herself killed somehow, yes. But--

The cat trilled at Nectaris' continued attentions, while Encke shimmied his shoulders and straightened her back. She was trying to change the subject, sure, and he could tell, but maybe they both needed to distance themselves from Faustite trying to set Nectaris on fire because she was a traitor who was also trying to get with his husband-- Man, he didn't want to be his sister's matchmaker, but maybe...

Anser's aromanticism made that all a bit easier, he'd admit.

"I agree," Encke grinned, pulling out his phone and opening the photos, scrolling far back in the history to show what it used to look like. A gravelly place with no life, no grass, no little kittens, no electricity in the air, no light in the buildings, cracked pavement, and no water in the fountain-- "It's come a long way," he tilted the screen toward her. "This has been a project of love for a while."

And it had rewarded him for it.

Even when he couldn't reach it--

With his free hand, he rubbed at his chest.

"I can definitely show you around some places. Anything you're interested to see?" He glanced down at the cat, who looked up at him and trilled. "She can come along."