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There was a part of Ignacio's brain that, perhaps subconsciously, noticed a shift near him. It caused his body to stiffen a bit further, unhappily, not pleased with the sudden change to his environment. And yet, he was alone. How could there be anything different?

He was alone.

He was alone, as he should be, as he would always be, as it was easiest for him to be--

The curse caught his ears, and one of his ears perked, but he didn't react much further otherwise, gaze still out-of-focus and distant.

In the process of Richard looking around, whether intentionally or unintentionally, Ignacio ended up getting jostled a bit more. As his breathing calmed, as his body's tenseness began to unravel, Ignacio started to notice. It helped rouse him a bit further out of the deep loneliness in his gut, the deep urge to simply squirrel himself away and never let himself leave, to rot in a corner like he felt he had once deserved and now felt like he deserved once --

The emphatic whisper seemed to fully catch his attention, and suddenly, Ignacio blinked, eyes snapping back into focus.

He wasn't alone.

Nor was he in his old apartment.

He barely recognized his surroundings. How had he gotten here? Why was he on the ground? Hadn't he been standing? There was a part of him that murmured in his mind that he knew what had happened. That was an episode. He had seen himself in the reflection of the ice and had somehow had been taken by something so cripplingly terrifying, something that left him weak in the knees and not remotely able to stand--

The other part of him was having trouble processing much of anything around him.

It definitely couldn't process who was holding him, and instinctively, Ignacio attempted to worm away from him.

"Who are you?"

What did they mean what do you mean? Who were they? It was a pretty easy question, right? It was one Ignacio would have no trouble answering himself. For the most part. He was still Ignacio, right? Vaguely, he glanced down at his hands, checking to make sure that his finger tips weren't glowing.

Yup, still Ignacio...

Who was this in front of Ignacio, and what planet were they a knight of? He could tell fairly quickly this was a knight just due to his own extensive experience, but he was unfamiliar with the symbol. He knew the Neptune symbol, and the Saturn symbol, and the -- why did this person call him Ig? How did they know who he was? Had he said something while he wasn't lucid? He glanced down at his hands once more just to assure himself he was indeed still Ignacio--had he powered down? how had he gotten here--before backing away from the knight just a bit further. He had nothing to fear, and the way the other spoke told him so, but there was a part of him that was still so shaken he wasn't sure what to make of any of this.

Uneasy, Ignacio wrung his hands. "Who is me?"

Why did he look so distressed?

... Wait.

"... Arra?"

Ignacio never quite got used to the way the glamour worked, and there was a moment where he reeled as he attempted to take in what was in front of him. He wasn't alone anymore, but he was also with a knighted Richard. Why was his Arra suddenly a knight? Had he been a knight the whole time? That didn't make any sense, not with the way Richard reacted to Ignacio being Encke. When had this happened? Why had he powered up? Had Ignacio missed something when he was taken away by--

He shuddered.

Quieter, Ignacio ventured, brows knit, "When did you become a knight?"

"A knight. You aren't Arra anymore."

For the moment, Ignacio had forgotten what the real problem was, the fact that he had been put on the ground, the fact that reality around him still felt a bit blurry, the fact that he was having trouble comprehending how he got there or really comprehending much more other than the fact that he wanted to curl into a ball, curl into his own loneliness, perhaps curl against this Arra-not-Arra in front of him...

Richard had no comprehension of what Ignacio was talking about. That meant, at the very least, he hadn't heard himself referred to as a knight before. That either implied this was recent, or he had been unlucky enough to not run into a single Order-side powered person yet. He was going to guess the first one was more likely.

But why--

Ignacio's tension lessened, his shoulders relaxing just slightly. Was it-- "Did this happen just now?"

Well, at least that answered what the symbol was. Uranus. He had never met an Uranus knight before. Well, he guessed that was a lie now...

"That's what you're a knight of, yeah." What was happening today? He had felt like he had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed the whole day. He thought he was coming on this walk to have a chance to relax with Richard and maybe get rid of the dismal sensations, but no. Apparently he had to have a flashback and then apparently his love decided to become a knight while he was off in whatever world his brain decided he deserved to be part of. And he did deserve -- he didn't deserve -- he did but -- he didn't but --

He sighed. "I think knights just, ah, awaken whenever they are needed, I think."

... Did Encke need whoever Richard was--

That was cheesy and definitely not likely to be the reason, but was it--

"Knights are like a counterpart of senshi, what I am as Encke. They don't have as much magic but they generally have better physical abilities at large and can also channel things." Ignacio wrung his hands. What was he supposed to do with this? After all these years of trying to keep Richard safe, and right when Ignacio blanked out, Richard decided he was just going to keep himself safe instead-- "You have a different name now. What is it?"

Basiluzzo. Ignacio guessed he needed to categorize that under 'names he needed to know' now...

s**t. First Raina became Anser, and now Super Anser--though he supposed she was better able to defend herself now, he definitely still didn't want her out there--and now Richard was Basiluzzo. Who was going to awaken next? His mother? Richard's mother? His manager?

All of this was stressing him out, but it felt like a distant stress. He still felt hollow, he still felt alone, even though he clearly was not. Some of this was familiar. Disassociation rung familiar, and everything he felt at the moment--frustration, the distant connection to his environment, the dull way he was taking in what was honestly terrifying news--it all felt accurate to disassociation. And yet, something felt different. He looked to the building, spotted part of his reflection for just a moment, and was sent into shudders all over ******** the ice building.

"You are, just in a different way from me and Anser," replied Ignacio, with a quiet, distant sigh. Part of him felt hopeless. What could he even do?

The other part of him somehow found it warming and fitting that Richard was now a knight and instead of worrying about that, he seemed more concerned about Ignacio and getting Ignacio back home. "If we're going to go back home," it was notable that Ignacio didn't reject, at least, acknowledging that what Basiluzzo said was true. There was no way he hadn't disassociated. Something felt different, something felt wrong, but the symptoms matched up, and he couldn't get rid of the dull, hollow feeling in his chest-- "you need to let go of your knight form. Powered up, we all give off these powerful auras that can let people sense us. Just think about being Richard again, and it'll go away."

After a few crucial seconds, Ignacio's body settled a little further. That was better. "Good. Bet you feel a bit warmer now." And maybe Ignacio could just forget that just happened.

... Who was he kidding. There was no way Richard was going to stay away from this, not when he might have finally had the ability to do something.

Perhaps it was better to word it in a way that said he was too tired for this, too lonely for this, too upset for this, too distant for this, too worn for this. He would deal with it tomorrow. He would deal with it after he rested. He would deal with it when they got home and he felt a little more on-balance, a little more connected, a little more a part of this world where he could breathe the air and not feel instinctively, unnaturally cold.

Because Arra-now-Arra wanted to take Ignacio home.

Uneasily, Ignacio wavered to his feet, another sign of what had just taken him. That had to be what it was, right? Just an episode? "Can we do that? Go home?"