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"No, you wouldn't."

It was a confirmation Encke didn't like giving, but it was the truth. Perhaps giving that kind of truth would make Takamizawa realize that he needed to take this concept of transcendence seriously.

Every person he could convince to take it more seriously--

"None other that I know of," clarified Encke, unwilling to flat say there were none. He didn't know of any, really. He hadn't felt as good as he felt transcendent since ... well, since a long time ago, really. He felt more connected to his comet. Here, he truly felt at home. He could help. He felt, personally, more powerful, stronger, more secure -- and he knew that was an individual experience, but. That didn't mean there wasn't some kind of drawback beyond what he had noticed.

Encke just assumed there wasn't.

"But yes, I would recommend trying to put effort into your homeworld. It may reward you." Encke quirked a brow with a bit of a smirk. "And it may take a lot of effort. I've cleaned the place up. Brought up standard cleaning supplies from Earth and just gotten down and vacuumed, scrubbed, dusted. I've created a garden and I tend to some of the native plants that are growing. I've put things back in their places that were left in disarray long ago. Lots of things, honestly."

"Probably," snorted Encke in response, "but I didn't have electricity for most of my time working, so I know how it is both ways. The electricity definitely helps with some things, but we don't exactly have electricity in the exact same way Earth does..."

He had found an interesting conundrum when it came to outlets, for one...

Finally, Encke got up off the fountain, brushing off his pants legs.

"Was there anything, in particular, you'd like to see next? I've mentioned a few things now." Encke took a sweeping glance of where they were, smiling when his eyes fell upon some of the nearby plants. It was always so nice to see the signs of life continuing to thrive-- "I've taken a couple people up the hills before, to get a view of the city from above, if you're up for a small hike. There are paths."

"Up the hill we go, then," offered Encke, with a laugh, as he gestured for Takamizawa to follow him.

It was a bit of a distance away, but it would give Takamizawa a better idea of the amount of people who had been there, the true size of a society that had been quieted and vanished by ... something. He hadn't really figured that part out yet. He wasn't sure if he ever would, considering the lack of bodies he had found (though considering the state of a couple wonders he had seen, perhaps that was for the best)--

"A lot of the buildings around here are houses," remarked Encke, gesturing to a few as he went by them. "Places where those of Encke's Comet used to live. There's also been some stores around of sorts," though he didn't recall much exchange of money, so that couldn't have been exactly what they could be described as, "some businesses, some places to relax. A lot of what you'd expect in a big city."

He glanced over his shoulder to Takamizawa for a moment. "Often, I just restore a place to a clean state and leave it. It feels wrong to," he scrunched his nose, "mess with things, I guess."

So much of it seemed like it had just been abandoned.

"Yeah, exactly."

Houses that sometimes belonged to people he saw in his mind, in what he remembered, which made it even weirder. It felt like he was invading the house of someone tangible, even if they had long been lost however long ago their worlds had been wiped out by... whatever it had been.

"So I try to leave it alone unless something suggests I shouldn't." Like a memory, or maybe an emergency, if he thought he might need some housing for people on Earth...

Hm.

"We were a self-contained society, I think." Encke chuckled, as he gestured to a few more buildings as they headed out of the city. "We definitely had connections to other places, but we had our own food, water, shelter, businesses, people, technology, all the basics you really needed. And I suspect we evolved here, anyway."

"Maybe you'll get to see your own version of it on your own comet," offered Encke, as they moved from the city towards the paths he had mentioned. It wasn't a terribly steep hike, but it definitely was a hike. They were making their way up one of the hills outside of the city, looking over the city itself. The buildings definitely thinned out up here, though they hadn't thinned out enough for the electricity not to reach, lightning still flying over their heads.

Of course, it did seem a little closer to their heads, up here.

Had they ever been attacked? Encke blinked at the thought. He guessed they probably had to have been at some point, but he couldn't recall ever hearing about an attack. He definitely hadn't seen one in his memories. His people seemed much more interested in, ah, different ways of conquering.

"Not in my memories, no." Encke shrugged. "We were pretty peaceful in our relations, honestly. Mostly seemed interested in the exchange of culture and ideas and occasionally technology versus, uh, fighting or being fought. And I think people left us alone for the most part because of it."

"It was nice," replied Encke, empathically, before his voice grew a bit quieter. "It's sometimes odd to feel nostalgic for a place you hadn't ever experienced."

Memories from another life were strange.

He shrugged it off, unwilling to let himself reflect on that for terribly long, especially with someone he barely knew, instead focusing his attention on their surroundings as they made their summit. He didn't talk much further unless prompted, letting Takamizawa listen to the sounds of the comet, observe the rocks as he wished to, the plants, the sky.

When they arrived, he turned back, gesturing to the city down below.

They were significantly above the city now. From up this high, they could see how the city was roughly shaped, with the governmental seat towards the center of the city. From here, it was easy to see the sparks flying and how all the electricity connected. From here, the city seemed alive, minus the lack of people wandering around below.

"And this is what I wanted to show you."

Encke couldn't help a grin from ear to ear when Takamizawa remarked that he was jealous.

There was always a small surge of pride he felt when other people complimented the work he did. He had spent so much time on his comet, for years, fixing each little thing that he could, restoring it to what it had been, making it what it could be. He hoped it could be what it was, one day.

There was another, smaller surge of pride that came with the memories he had, what Encke's Comet had been in the past, and what he could see down below in his mind's eye.

"I mean, it might look awesome in its own way. Besides," laughed Encke, shooting Takamizawa a grin, "not sure the whole comet has to be centered around surgery. Not everyone on Encke spent their lives obsessed with plasma, after all."

Though the state of the comet certainly fit his sphere, he thought.

"You should definitely go to your own, and tell me when you do," offered Encke, winking. "I'd like to see it."

The idea of being invited to Takamizawa's comet, formally, brought a grin to his face.

He hadn't actually been to another comet before. It had just been moons, planets, and asteroids so far. What was another cometary world like? How had they evolved to adapt? What had lived there years ago? Who had lived there?

Perhaps it was a question he would get the answers to in the future.

"Of course it wouldn't be, I've had years to work on this," remarked Encke, with a teasing wink. "But yes! I'd love to come with when you're ready. Just let me know when you are."