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Encke couldn't help but appreciate her determination. The Code was right to choose her if this was what It was looking for. If she could find a way to expand transcendence just that bit more -- if she could figure out a way to protect civilians from the Negaverse's starseed-based machinations -- well, Encke was absolutely cheering her on. "I'll be watching."

He couldn't help the way his face lit up at the concept of her wanting to understand what he was, first, and perhaps find a way to mimic it herself. When people actively embraced that hope that perhaps they could find that relationship with their world and wonder, too, it made Encke nearly giddy.

It felt like something he was doing was actually working, was actually making an impact, and the more of them there were, the safer they all were--

"Don't be too hard on yourself," offered Encke, shaking his head lightly when she said she needed to be more reliable. "You awoke, what? Less than a week ago? You have a long time to get to a place where you feel like you're better at this. I've been at least aware of this war since," he thought about it for a moment, muttered a few curses under his breath, and emphasized, "2009." Two thousand and nine, the year that arguably ruined his life as he knew it. "It's not really something I expect most people to understand overnight, nor would I want them to have to. It's a lot.

But you're determined. I think you'll get there."

He was practically bouncing in his excitement when he said, "And I'll absolutely introduce you to Encke's Comet. It'll show you something of what these places can be, right?"

That settled, though, as he returned to the priority of asking, "You mentioned you were looking for a specific starseed, right? Did you happen to see who had taken it?"

No.

The phrase was more damning than Serentatis might have realized, and it was only tapping into the finely practiced acting skills that prevented him from wincing when she mentioned it. There had been very few situations in which he had seen starseeds successfully rescued after the agent vanished. Most of his luck rescuing starseeds hadn't been rescuing specific starseeds -- there were rare exceptions, his husband's bubbling to mind -- but rather whatever starseeds the agent or senshi happened to have on them. And sometimes they still belonged to those whose bodies still lived on in the hospital, but it was such a rare situation overall--

Encke swallowed minutely, and he stopped himself from visualizing the notion as the notion of what some of the Negaverse would do, what some youma would do--

What she said sounded right. Nothing was there. They were in a vegetative state, kept alive by machines but only just. There would continue to be no person within, so long as what was within the person remained missing. He hoped with his heart that the starseed was still alive, that it hadn't been used as a part of the Negaverse machine or as a temporary energy boost.

But he needed to be realistic.

His eyes followed hers to the hospital. "I understand why it didn't sound terribly confident. My experience with rescuing starseeds hadn't been particularly ideal." Encke's voice was gentle, despite what he was saying. "I've saved starseeds. Over the years, enough that I can't quite count them, but... it's been rare that I've saved a starseed that I was specifically looking for unless I was there when it happened. It's mostly been whatever starseeds have been on agents or corrupted senshi that I've found, and even then, it's if I can get them back from them. They vanish them into subspace, they eat them--"

At that, he wrung his hands.

"But if he's still alive, you still have a chance. It's worth saving whatever starseed you can. It might be his. It might be someone else's. But it is life -- and if it's truly not a life that still has a living body, rescuing that starseed lets it go back to the Cauldron instead of going toward whatever disgusting nonsense the Negaverse is cooking up next."

He finally looked back toward her, something sad in his eyes when he followed up with, "My husband's starseed was recently taken. I only got it back because of a combination of a civilian and my guardian cat and the general still being there when I got there. It's -- it's hard."

The news that some of them ate the starseeds was quite possibly the most alarming thing they had done with the starseeds overall. Really, in some ways, it was all eating -- using the souls for their plans was just as galling as anything else -- but something felt so intensely personal and awful about the concept of seeing a soul and simply popping it into one's mouth for a quick, fleeting energy boost.

All of that soul's life, all of its history, all of its--

He nodded in affirmation when she said all she could do was try. It was good to see she hadn't entirely lost hope with what he had said, even if he had just reinforced how hopeless it was. And in some ways, it did feel hopeless -- how could they fairly fight an enemy that could just freely take the souls of the citizens of Earth?

He appreciated the attempts to make the atmosphere lighter, even despite the very serious and grim news he had just delivered. The smile he offered was grateful, even if he seemed a little subdued. "Exactly. From the starseeds I've seen, though -- generally in a variety of colors. Shaped a bit like a diamond. Small. Very small, considering what they hold within them." His smile lost the gratefulness and morphed into something wrier. "Generally they shine like them, too, if they're relatively recently taken."

The grade she gave herself drew a smile on his face, and the echo of something he had heard from others -- if it was between herself and them -- "Just make sure it doesn't turn into both of you," he warned, careful, a worry he had been trying to hold back a bit more with Basiluzzo's own insistences but one he couldn't quite get out of his mind. "I think care is something you learn over time, too. Learn where to interfere. Learn when to call in -- do you have your signet ring yet?"

He pulled out his senshi phone again.

"You don't have one of these, necessarily, but I believe a signet ring can mimic most of the functions with an upgrade. Basiluzzo and Pendour found theirs at their wonders," he knit his brows, "not quite sure how it works for you, considering you wouldn't have had a past life to leave one, though."

She sounded a bit incredulous at the past life thing, which was very fair. Alright. He'd shelve that for a moment. One thing at a time.

Namely, how to make it so she could actually communicate with people--

The wisp never gave her a ring. Alright. He was very uncertain how that worked, then. Would one just appear? Would she need to make it herself? He knew how the ring worked, at least; he had enough experience with people who had them in hand that he had a pretty good idea. It was the how she'd obtain one that he found himself pondering over-- "Ah, in some ways, you go for both. It's not as obviously function as a phone is, but."

The phone was tucked away.

"It's a ring that has a symbol on it -- usually of your planet, or of your wonder in particular? And you can use it to stamp pieces of paper or anything similar you can write on. Once it's addressed and stamped, it can go anywhere and they'll get it almost right away. Pretty efficient. So if you addressed something to Encke and stamped it, I'd get it in a couple of moments or so." Encke shot her a grin. "And it can be upgraded too, from what I understand, to interface with the same networks ours do. Mostly through holograms and other Mauvian nonsense..."

He had heard the upgrades could be pretty extensive, but he hadn't actually ever seen all of them in action. Maybe Basiluzzo would figure them out and show them off at some point... He took out his phone again, though -- probably should have kept it out -- and pulled up his contacts before showing it to Serentatis.

"See? I could call any of the knights here right now if I wanted to. And it'd come over their ring."

His brows knit.

"Don't know how you'd obtain it, though. Everyone else I knew who has been a knight has, ah, come with their wonder, if you will."

"You should be able to get back to your wonder. If it's anything like my experience," admittedly, considering her origins, he wasn't sure if the timing was going to be exactly the same. He presumed so, but, "you should be able to get back there once every three weeks or so? When I was at your level, I actually started marking it on my phone calendar whenever I could go. My homeworld was pretty important to me."

He chuckled quietly.

"Is important to me."

He didn't think the Code would have intentionally deluded her or kept things from her. If anything, probably just wanted her to look around and seek it out. Honestly, he wasn't sure what else he would have expected out of an apparently sentient energy that powered all of the knights to some degree. Having her talk to others and come back and get her ring and restore her wonder would sound like something he would have expected out of old ancient beings in fantasy scripts he read-- "I hope it is. I honestly have no idea about how you'd go about making one if it isn't, but if you do have contact with the Code, things might be a bit easier--"

Encke shot her a grin. "Oh, and Mauvians are otherwise known as guardian cats. They're the ones who can awaken senshi on Earth. They also have a lot of technical knowledge and are able to produce a bunch of technology on the fly, basically. Some of them bond to senshi directly -- like my own, Viatrix -- others work with everyone without a direct bond. If you see a cat with a star on their head," he tapped his forehead to signal what he meant, over his own comet symbol, "they're probably a Mauvian. Some of them can take human forms too, but they give off a bunch of energy so you're more likely to see them as a cat."

He paused, before adding, "though be careful. The Negaverse has their own Mauvians too, and telling the difference isn't necessarily as obvious as it is with us."

It was fascinating to speak to someone who had such a close relationship with something like the Code. Well -- close was relative, he supposed, but he didn't recall Pendour or Basiluzzo ever talking about anything like being able to call on the Code whenever they needed it. It was good, though, that she could have that backup, considering he hadn't really heard of any other knights that had been awoken in this life without something that would teach them on their wonder...

"Hopefully it's just," he rubbed his neck, "there, but I'm sure the Code can help walk you through it if needed. Even if you have to make a new one."

Angry monsters, soul-stealing beings, and talking cats.

Well.

That was a good summary, honestly.

"Yes! Exactly like that, honestly. But it'll probably feel weaker than it does when you're facing an agent or one of their senshi. That unsafe vibe tends to grow stronger the higher in rank that person is -- same with the vibe that does feel safe. General-sovereigns and generals will have the strongest and most dangerous sense to them. Guardian cats of Chaos, while they're in their cat form, aren't super noticeable, but they will have that 'not safe' vibe you mentioned."

He chuckled. "It's not as easy to clock as seeing someone in dark garb heading toward you, but it should be good enough to get a sense provided that their auras aren't otherwise being masked."

Encke watched as she seemed to puzzle it all over in her mind, smiling mildly when she said she could at least pick out the strong ones. That was a good thing and a good place to start -- knew who to keep a wide berth from, knew who she might be able to go to for help and advise, like how she had come across him (and how he had rescued her from a lieutenant that thought to take her life). "You'll get better with it as time goes on. I've gotten good enough at it that I can usually pick out the finer details of the auras near me at this point. Not necessarily who they are, but I know a general from a corrupted eternal pretty easily, for example."

There were exceptions to that necessarily, of course. The auras of people like Basiluzzo, Pendour, and Anser were familiar enough to outright be comforting.

He snorted at the concept of cats, but angrier of all things--

"I imagine their function is pretty similar to our Mauvians. Awaken senshi, technical knowledge, bond to senshi and teams -- or courts, but I don't think the Negaverse has courts as we do--," at least, all he had ever heard in association with their organizations was 'teams'. "They can shoot beams from their foreheads. Our cats can too, but it's something you'd actually need to worry about from Chaos Mauvians."

He thought about it, before adding, "They might have Chaos-specific roles I don't know about, but basically: yeah, like our Mauvians, but angrier."