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There was, once again, something that almost struck a chord about the chipper way that Anser was talking. Pendour might have been able to focus on it a little more if Anser wasn't talking about hurting people with so much profanity that Pendour almost had trouble focusing on what her point was.

She blinked first, just trying to process it. When she did, her brows drew together deeply, deeper than they'd been at the talk of her own injury.

"If he dies, it will still be a tragedy," she said, not really chiding but not quite as soft as she'd been, either. It was something she was sure of, something she knew in her heart. It was also likely an inevitable tragedy if he continued to go around attacking people like a rabid dog. Pendour would not go after him, but there were people who would, and it was not something she could really hold against them. It didn't make it okay.

"And if he goes, it seems very likely that the Negaverse will just infect someone else to take his place." She wasn't sure, but it seemed like that was how it would work with an organization that was both a military and a disease.

"I guess I need to learn more about Chaos itself," she said, musing aloud and finding her softness again. "But I think I want to focus on the center or the edges, cure the root or prevent corruption. Not the people." She paused for a second and smiled a bit sadly. "I don't want to make anyone regret."

Pendour squinted right back, blinking slowly. This wasn't the complete lack of communication she'd experienced before, with officers or that one angry cat, where all words went straight over everybody's heads. She understood Anser, she just coldn't really accept what she was saying.

"I won't ask you to have mercy on the half-youma general," she said, because that was a lot to ask, even of herself with her careful morals, let alone a warrior. "But the fresh-faced ones?" She shook her head at that, concern apparent in her expression. "The cannon fodder? Likely the coerced? I haven't asked, but I can't imagine the Negaverse's recruitment techniques are innocent."

Who would volunteer to have their soul twisted up like that? To lose the part of them that told them tearing people apart piece by piece was wrong? It was a rhetorical question, but then suddenly it wasn't.

She took a moment to think before she answered. "Extreme organizations tend to prey on people who are having a hard life. People who want to be heard, who want power, control." It would be easy here, in this city where so many people lived in fear. That was likely intentional, she realized. Let monsters out on the city, groom people to live in fear, then take the chosen ones and act like you were the solution, not the problem. Thinking about it made her stomach curl.

"To oversimplify, if we make people happy, maybe the chaos will have less to hold onto? If we have our own power, maybe we can use it to build community, to bring people courage." It was just the first whispers of an idea, but it was an interesting one, one she'd have to dig into later.

Anser had actually met someone actively looking for a way out of the Negaverse? They were out there, then. There were people reaching out from that cesspool of darkness who could, with a little support, find themselves free.

Anser's continued anger, even at those people fighting against their own disease was the hardest thing yet for Pendour to take, and although most of her concern went into continuing to twist and spin the beads on the bracelet, almost harshly, now, a bit of it crept into her face. "It's not always easy to have so much courage," she said, careful to keep her voice mild. "But then you're right that it's not excuse to kill people."

It came down a little to justice and mercy, which to be a difficult line to walk. However, in this situation, Pendour found it clear as clear that there was no need for punishment when there was a much simpler way to change someone's behavior. "In that case I don't think making enemies would be much help. I'd support them so that making that brave choice is easier. Make sure they know how to purify, and that a welcome is waiting for them on the other side." She tilted her head and asked, sincerely, "Do you know how purification works?" Information could be hard to come by, she knew.

It all tied together. Lack of knowledge was one of the things that could lead to fear. Lack of connections, too. It was awful to feel alone. "I think if we start by trying to build some community within Order, that could go a long way," she said.

A brother? That made Pendour think of her own brothers, seemingly so mundane, but she wasn't quite so head-in-the-clouds to be sure that they didn't have their secrets, not when it seemed that half the people she met had some family in the war. She still had a few younger siblings living in the city, and that thought made the knot in her chest grow heavier.

"You know, then," she said, "They probably don't. That seems like the kind of information Chaos would keep under lock and key." She paused. "Fight, if you will," that part came slowly, forced over her tongue, but she could only try so hard to change someone's actions. "But if they want to leave, can you at least tell them that much? For when their families don't know to show them the way?"

She was thinking of her baby brother when she spoke, and even though her voice stayed smooth, there was a bit of emotion to it.

Communication and networking was something that was easy to agree on, but a bit harder in practice. Pendour glanced down to the ring on her finger, and for the first time in the conversation gave a deep, frustrated sigh.

"Outside of the bones, my wonder could pass for a beach resort. I'd like to host some socials there once it's cleaner. Getting people is the snag." She slipped the ring off for Anser to see. "I can send out letters with this. One at a time, to people I know already." Her shoulders dropped, and she wondered if the senshi, with her sleek phone, would see the problem.

Fine, Pendour knew, was the closest to an agreement she was going to get, and she didn't push the issue any further. Rather, the crease in her brow smoothed for a moment, and her face relaxed into a small but grateful smile.

She didn't mind meeting people where they were.

She didn't mind talking technology, either, although when it came to technology of the magical sort, she started feeling much more in over her head. "Maybe more the middle ages than the stone ages, but yes. From what I can tell, knights are more tied up in history and legacy than senshi are," she said. It was in their name, knights, the ancestors that walked their wonders, and the rings they wore on their fingers. From what she could tell, senshi were linked to the past, too, but it didn't seem like they carried it with them in quite he same way.

"It's not all bad," she said, something soft creeping into her good eye. "I found some really nice sealing wax on Etsy." She had to take a moment there to think about just how beautiful it was, but she tried to keep more focused for Anser's sake, so she continued, "But it's no use at all for talking to senshi. I've been using my normal phone with one of my senshi friends, but I don't know if that would work for anything with a bigger scale than that."

The ring was still between her fingers, and she fiddled with a pressure point she had found on the side. "I think there is something here, but I can't get it to work. I've heard some knights have figured it out, though. There may be magic communicators around, if you're interested."

Her hint of a smile stayed, as it was a nice thought. It was a shame that the people with the answers were people who had warned her to be careful, before, and the thought of seeing them still made her chest go tight as tight.

Pendour had never much minded the trappings or the legacy, even if it meant she had an ancestor waiting at her wonder that she still had a hard time speaking to. Her oath was something that brought her comfort. Even now she rolled it around idly in her mind, like the beads she rolled between her fingers. I swear my life and loyalty to Pendour, and to Neptune...

The word knight itself gave her pause, and the word king more than that. She knew the histories beyond what made it into bedtime stories and had become even more aware of them since she'd wound up with these powers. It was bloody, and sad, too. It involved rich noble sons trained in nothing but combat sent off to make butcheries of Jerusalem in crusades so that they didn't make butcheries of their own peasants. That was a part of history she didn't want to reflect.

"I like to think of it more like Jedi," she said, although that wasn't perfect either. The metaphor wasn't quite right, and it still was a romanticization of those bloody times. "No king, but we do have to Code, a little like the Force. I could try to talk to it, maybe."

Although something else Anser had said caught her attention, and her brows drew together, more confused than concerned. A brother-in-law, too? "How many of your family members are, um, involved in this?"

Again, her thoughts moved back to her own family.

The more Anser talked about her family, the more that feeling of something being oddly familiar tugged at the back of Pendour’s mind. She let herself think about it for a little, even though it mean a few seconds of silence. She knew she’d heard, recently, about a boyfriend-almost-husband, although that wasn’t such a rare thing. A couple being a senshi and a knight was more unique, and that knight being new was more unique still. Then there was the familiar way that Anser was boldly asking questions about her ring, offering ideas, wanting to see it for herself.

Yes, Pendour had an idea, although there was only one way to be sure as sure.

“Is your brother’s name Encke?” she asked.

It would make sense, she decided. Then there was also the chance that it was not true at all, that there was a completely different family of senshi and knights out there. She understood why the glamors were important, but it made it hard to know things like that for sure.

Still, now that they were talking about something more comfortable, Pendour offered the girl a soft smile. “Either way, if you need to know anything about knights for this brother-in-law, I’ll tell you what I can.”