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Encke had been avoiding powering up again.

He had been more than a little spooked by the situation that had occurred within the Negaverse. While they had gotten out okay, mostly due to the wonder that was Cosmos Herself, they almost hadn't, and so many others did not. Despite the souls that the one group of them had saved...

It was enough to make him decide that perhaps he should stay away from things a bit. Well, at least anything involving being a senshi. And maybe he'd stay indoors at night for once.

It was a few weeks before he decided to power up again, and when he did, he just went to the park and sat himself on a swing in the playground area. Normally he'd go for a run, but at this point, he just wanted to enjoy the night. Hopefully away from any figures with dark auras. Being a senshi would help him detect if any dark auras were getting too close, so...

Encke sighed.

Encke sensed the aura growing closer, but didn't pay it much mind initially. After all, it wasn't that oppressive, stinking aura that seemed to belong to the Negaverse. If he had to guess from his years of sensing auras, it was probably a fellow senshi.

Good, maybe they would actually do what he probably should have been doing--

His thoughts slammed to a halt when Kari and her explosion of words burst onto the scene. Oh! He, as well, had a tendency of not running into the same senshi twice, so it was nice to see her, but it was also nice to see her because that meant she hadn't been one of the ones who had lost their souls to the fight within the castle in the Negaverse--

He waited for her to finish talking, chuckling lightly when she did. "Hi." Encke lifted a hand and offered a wave, before gesturing to the swing next to him in case she wanted to sit.

"It is a little warm for scarves now, but I'm sure it'll be useful in a few months." He offered a half-hearted smile. "I'm ... okay, I guess. Better than others." At least he wasn't dead. "How have you been holding up?"

His assumption was that she had probably been at the invasion at well.

Her place? Wouldn't that violate the whole "secret identity" thing?

(Encke had never actually shared his identity with anyone. He liked it that way -- trouble was less likely to find the people that mattered if trouble didn't know who he was. At the same time, though, it would be nice if someone knew who he was, in case something ever actually happened--)

His mind suddenly snapped into focus again when she asked if everything was alright. It wasn't, really, but then he was even more confused by her next statements. Nothing cool had happened but she went on a date with a Guardian Cat? "Whatever works for you, but that sounds awkward," offered Encke, with a laugh. He wouldn't be entirely sure what to do with a cat, honestly, sentient or not...

Get to the point, Encke.

"I'm glad you're doing alright, too. You say you haven't had many run-ins with the Negaverse? Always a good thing, but," he paused, motioning vaguely, "weren't you at the whole invade the Negaverse thing?"

A Guardian Cat had managed to get himself into a Valentine's Dance? How did he avoid detection? He was fairly sure all the Guardian Cats were just that, cats...

"Please, you're not gonna be forever alone. You're too nice for that." He shot her a grin, before letting her move on to what was probably the more pressing topic -- she hadn't heard of the invasion? Well, he guessed there wasn't exactly a formal invite, moreso a strong pull to a location telling them they should probably go there, and there was a portal there--

He cleared his throat. "No, though I'm not really sure anyone won, them or us." He swung his feet back and forth, though didn't actively swing because she had put her hand on his arm. "But a group of people retrieved a lot of, uh," he fumbled over the word mentally, before offering, "starseeds and they gave them to Cosmos for safety, and I think the Knights said something about getting a piece of Code back, whatever that means."

Encke knew very little about the Knights.

"But, uh, some dude named Caedus?" He sounded a little uncertain of the name. "He apparently opened up a portal to the Negaverse and sent out some sort of ... call, I guess, and I was drawn to it and went in because I figured it was a chance. A ... terrifying chance. I went to the Castle, myself. It was daunting. Lots of agents. I ran into one myself who I think was a youma, because her eyes glowed and she had lightbulbs on her head." Encke vaguely gestured to the top of his head as if he could make Kari picture it just by doing that.

He then lowered his hands and frowned. "But there was ... a lot of death. Too much of it. One of their own went crazy and just started drawing starseeds and eating them, and then there were large youma, lots of youma too, and a fire that prevented escape."

Encke fidgeted.

Encke couldn't help the small laugh under his breath when Kari referred to him as brave. That word resonated with him so little he couldn't even process himself and brave in the same sentence, really.

"I'm not sure I'd call me brave. I honestly wanted to run the whole time," he admitted, glancing down at his feet and swinging them awkwardly. Maybe at some point he had been brave. That was long before he became a senshi. "I didn't really do anything, myself, maybe besides knock youma-lady over." He sighed. "I'm kind of glad you weren't there, to be honest. It means you didn't get hurt and you didn't have to," he gestured vaguely, before finishing off, "see all that crap."

He tilted his head back and stared up at the stars.

Or what he could see of them, anyway. It was pretty light polluted.

"Ah, sorry to be a Debbie Downer. Not my intention." Encke glanced back over at Kari and offered a sheepish grin. "It's just been on my mind, a bit."

Encke was about to respond to Kari claiming she wasn't really the most brave when she suddenly hopped off the swings and completely changed gears.

Ice cream? He did like ice cream, though he wasn't sure how people would react to them just showing up in these weird outfits. Then again, maybe they wouldn't really care considering how strange this city could be --

Oh. She discarded her henshin.

Well. That probably meant he should too, right? She trusted him, he should probably trust her. That seemed to make the most sense, but he couldn't help his moments of hesitance. He had never dropped this form in front of someone else before. Ever. What if he was putting people at risk? What if he was putting himself at risk? He was letting this part of his life bleed into his actual life and then there would be no real separation to be found--

He was being silly. Kari--Gale--was harmless. (Or at least she seemed harmless- no, stop it.) And he had observed himself: if he died like this, no one would ever know. He'd just disappear. He didn't like how that sounded.

Encke shook his head after a moment, stood up, and was suddenly just an ordinary freckly redhead with a tank top and sweats on. "Ignacio Araya. Ice cream sounds pretty good. I love ice cream."