Welcome to Gaia! ::

He imagined it would be hard to comprehend, especially for someone who had been stolen from them and couldn't recall what her planet was.

Had she been to her homeworld before the Negaverse had stolen her name?

Putting the transcendence aside for a moment admittedly made him laugh, because he couldn't help following up with a, "Well, I can't entirely put the transcendence aside. I feel more powerful now. I'm protected from any chest-grabbing nonsense," and at that, he gave her a very hard stare, but on his homecomet, he honestly couldn't stay angry very long, and his form relaxed, "and I have more energy. I feel more peaceful. I can actually heal people, to some degree."

At least, give them some of the energy back that the Negaverse or even the Dark Mirror had taken from them.

"The memories are very interesting, admittedly. I've learned a lot from them. Grown from them. Gotten perspective. It's funny, I think I've kinda matured from seeing them, too." At that, he laughed. "I used to lead this society, apparently. These people were my responsibility."

And he couldn't help thinking that he had failed them.

He supposed the question was a valid one.

Especially from her side, where she could only see the positives of the Negaverse, perhaps. Especially from her side, where she only saw the winning they were doing, the victories they had. Especially from her side, where she still might have been convinced that acting as a judge, jury, and executioner was beneficial to the rest of the planet.

Encke wasn't even silent for more than a few seconds before he replied, "Because I, we, can't give up."

It was such a simple response, really.

And he let that sit for a moment before he turned back to his homecomet around him, to the spires, to the buildings, to the plants, to the paths, to the stars flying above them-- "I can't let what happened to this comet years ago become Earth's fate. Chaos will keep mining at Earth, you know. They'll never stop. They already take the souls of civilians to keep themselves fueled, to give themselves their dark powers. What happens when they run out of civilians?" A pause, before quieter, as he looked back to Stillwaterite, "What happens when they run out of us?"

The implication was obvious. He didn't bother spelling it out.

Instead, he looked back at the small bloom.

"And maybe it seems, to you, we're fighting a useless fight. Chaos will eventually win, the Negaverse will eventually win. We'll get stomped like you could crush this flower if you wanted. But I've suffered at the Negaverse's hands, and I can't let that happen to anyone else. And I can't let evil win. I love Earth too much. I love the people of Earth too much." He loved his sister too much. He loved his friends too much. He loved his chosen family too much. He loved Richard too much. "Maybe it's hopeless, but I can't let myself think that. And I don't think it is, really. Every win is a dent. Every purification is a dent. Every conversation is a dent. And I'll keep at it until I can't anymore."

He stayed silent for another moment, before adding, with yet another one of those laughs that were leaving Stillwaterite baffled, "And I notice you use White Moon. A lot of you Negaverse types do. So far as I can tell, from my memories, we Enckeans had no real associations with whatever the Moon Kingdom was doing. And I don't have any significant interest in relations now." Beyond necessity, like how they had been pulled out of Negaspace those years ago."I prefer 'Order,' personally." And, with a wink, "Also, just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it didn't exist."

Encke offered an almost catty smile, but didn't once say for certain that he had once been a Transcendent Super Senshi himself.

It didn't miss Encke's notice that the only thing he said that she had bothered to verbally reply to was his remark that transcendent supers did exist. He thought about it, for a minute. Should he--

Eh, he had been seen by quite a few agents as a transcendent super. He assumed it was at least relatively common knowledge.

He flicked his wrist, the catty smile turning into something more like a playful smirk, as he remarked, "I know, I'm a very rare specimen." Encke paused and let the smirk fade before continuing, "I'm fairly sure the rarity of transcendent supers and the rarity of transcendents, in general, has to do with the need for a deep connection. I'd like to see more transcendents. It'll just be another thing that could protect us," though not civilians, it couldn't protect Richard, and that would continue to bother him, "more against the people on your side."

He notably didn't say her, this time.

Stillwaterite seemed to be deep in thought about something or other, especially since she responded to so little of what he said. She was usually shooting back with all sorts of questions, needling him, pushing him, trying to get him to snap at her in annoyance, and ... nothing. Nothing except a remark that she hadn't been saying they didn't exist, just that there weren't enough of them to make any difference.

But was something he was saying making a difference?

He couldn't exactly find a penny in this form, or on this planet, but the rocky ground meant that there were plenty of stones around. Encke plucked up a nearby pebble, offering, with a quirked brow, "Pebble for your thoughts?"

At the concept of being full of himself, Encke outright laughed.

Maybe once, before he had been brought into the organ ring, before he could feel the monsters crawling throughout the city, before he had felt himself break, before he had to reform himself piece by piece and had only managed to do so with the help of others, still hadn't actually managed to do so, was only scraping by emotionally in a lot of ways ... but it sure was nice to pretend for a few moments, wasn't it? It was sure nice to be able to be able to grasp onto that old ego, to be able to bring some of that light back for a few moments, and it was easier when he was this, when he was here...

But that wasn't him, anymore.

At most, it was just a playful ego.

Encke quirked a brow when she held out the hand for the pebble and then refused to give him her thoughts nevertheless. At that, he snorted, pulling the pebble back towards himself. "I said pebble for your thoughts, not pebble for a rejection." He gave a bit of a sideways smirk, which in a lot of ways felt weird to be giving Stillwaterite or really anyone of the Negaverse, but if he was going to try to convince someone to consider their side, to consider that their homeworlds were worth it--

With a playful tone in his voice as he turned back towards the flower once more, he replied, "Comets aren't very big, anyway." Especially not his--

His brows raised in interest, but considering she almost immediately followed up by warning that she wasn't looking for counsel or advice, he decided not to pry further.

It certainly backed up some things he had noticed, though.

She was acting different. Something seemed very different about her general demeanor. For once, she wasn't just trying to pick and pry and justify her actions behind the Negaverse's haughty sheen. She was curious. She was fascinated. She was actually holding something akin to a normal conversation with him, and she had snorted as much as he had laughed.

Encke had gotten the sense that she was a forced corruption, especially with the way she talked about the others around her and the way she had seemed to show relatively little concern for what she may have lost in the process, including her own name. That just as much confirmed it. It didn't surprise him that the Negaverse wouldn't tell people they were forced over. If they did, they would probably get more people defecting. Better to let people think they had been there the whole time, or that it had been, on some level, their own choice.

Stillwaterite seemed to be realizing it wasn't.

Did that mean things he was saying were getting through to her?

"Hey, it's something," replied Encke, with a snort, offering the pebble once more. If she actually still wanted a piece of his comet, she was welcome to it. Only a tiny piece, though. Maybe it would help her.

"Besides," he continued, with a shrug, "if you were looking for advice, I don't know you as well as others do. Probably personally not the best to go to I suspect." Honestly, his advice would just be of course, the Negaverse is a monster, purify! to almost anyone who asked. He suspected that wasn't what Stillwaterite was actually looking for...

"But," a pause, and he added, "if you ever do want my input, or want to come back here, or whatever? Same deal. Keep the starseeds off you or hand them over and we can talk."