Welcome to Gaia! ::

It could never be exactly the same, and she acknowledged that, and he knew that, as much as sometimes he wondered what it would be like if he could sync up the memories he got with the real-life he lived. The fabric of the people that he had seen in his memories throughout the years -- gone.

But he agreed with her, too. Imagining what this place could become kept him optimistic, "More hands, more time, and this place will become like my wildest dreams come true, right?" and he couldn't help breaking into a smile as she twirled.

He might have twirled, too.

"It seems that way," replied Encke, troubled, as he ran a hand through his hair. "Betrayed, I mean -- but I suspect that many of the younger Velencians that came with the Commodore and the King had no idea of the Commodore's betrayal, either. They screamed at him just as much. Some of them even fought with Order against the Negaverse, and a couple of them even died with us." Viatrix had seen that. "But many of them still went with the Commodore afterward, anyway, and I don't know what to think about it. I don't want to be their enemies. We don't need more enemies in the universe--the Negaverse and Chaos are bad enough--and I feel like they just want the same things we do -- a thriving universe. But Lyndin's handing us over to the Negaverse like that, letting us feel that Chaos and that influence, letting us get attacked, letting some of us get forcefully corrupted, all to try and get Caedus' starseed... I wish they really had aimed at Metallia. I wish our struggle was over. But instead, we got that."

Anser had told him she couldn't ever forgive it. Viatrix thought similarly, not after seeing what that Chaos had done to Ran. Encke wasn't sure he could forgive Lyndin's actions either, though he could understand the place of desperation they likely routed from, especially seeming like the only people in the universe. He didn't want to condemn them for that, either. And yet, after that terrible battle, it seemed like something good had happened. It was complicated.

"You do look a bit like them," his brows knit, "in the sense you have a lighter shade of skin in a bluish tone. They have a lot of pastel tones. I'd say the similarities end there, though." Though he supposed humans had a tendency of grouping the features of everyone together who they weren't as familiar with-- "But -- maybe," his eyes widened, "that'd definitely make sense. It looked like that energy was going everywhere on the map. Even my sister has cited seeing life now, and her homeworld is ... far from here."

Anser was definitely far away from Earth. From what Anser had gathered from her own memories, her people had been remote even back then.

A pause, as he pondered, quietly, "Do you think that means there are others like you?"

He both hoped there was and deeply hoped there were no others that had suffered in the way Dagon clearly had.

It wasn't easy.

"There's still someone I knew more personally that I can't contact," he admitted, quietly, "and I fear the worst for her. And to say I'm not tired of the losses would be a lie. Especially when I was optimistic that maybe something would finally work," because last time, Caedus' help had been what helped them invade the Negaverse, and though they had recovered, the number of starseeds and lives that they had saved-- "but I can't give up. Some day, the people of this planet will be safe, their lives will stop being taken, and the universe will be thriving again. I have to believe that."

He wrung his hands, focusing on that to attempt to bring himself out of the gloom that tempted him with a deep breath. It was easier with someone next to him, easier on the homeworld that helped stabilize him, and he looked out to where he watched the moths dance in the air.

"I'm pretty close to one of the Velencians," he admitted, with a quiet laugh. "Caedus himself, actually. Maybe you'll run into him at some point." At the house, maybe, where Encke had insisted on keeping a room reserved just in case. "He's a good guy. The Velencians in general seem to be good people. Every single one of their people has seemed nice when I've met them so far, actually. There was another, Velyria, who was grateful for the help I gave--"

Stars. He swallowed around the lump in his throat when he had said that name, too.

There was something hopeful in his eyes when she said that it would make more sense for there to be more holdouts than less. Encke had to agree. Though he could hardly remember much of his life before Barren Pines, he did know he had always thought it seemed unlikely they were alone in the universe. Wasn't the universe supposed to be so grand?

"I hope there's more." He glanced out toward the stars. "I hope there are more living planets and more living species, and more life out there. And that we can work on restoring it all."