It brought him comfort in a way few things did, like it was a second home for him, a place where he could be safe from all the goings-on in his life or even just safe from a particularly ornery director or a particularly persistent reporter that couldn't take a damn hint. Honestly, it was unfortunate that he couldn't stay there more long term, as much as his heart sometimes ached to, because his heart also ached realizing what he would be leaving behind on the planet that wasn't figuratively his but was all the same, where he was born and where he had established his life -- Earth. That was where his love was, his life was, his career was, hell, even where his fellow senshi were, defending the world against the continued creeping overwhelming evil of the Negaverse.
Still, he loved his comet.
It was the reason why he came to his comet so often. Every time he was able to muster the strength and connection to return to it, he called out to his comet and let himself be teleported to it.
The moment his boots were on the ground, he took in a deep breath of air and let out a heavy, happy sigh.
It was home.
He had spent plenty of time trying to make home look more like a home. The comet had been abandoned and, in theory, killed long ago, but Encke was determined to bring it back to its former glory the best a simple senshi, one person, could. The first few times, he simply explored, but now he dusted, he vacuumed, he rearranged and attempted to put back together broken things that were strewn across the ground. He attempted to restore the pathways between buildings, bit by bit, trying to seal the cracks or at least put it back together similar to a puzzle.
Perhaps it was too bad he could not bring full on construction machines with him, but then, he wasn't sure he wanted gas-guzzling machines to ruin the purity of the air and the unobstructed view of the stars he had every time he looked up at night.
Relatively unobstructed, anyway. He had been going to his comet long enough to pick up which phase of its travels it was in, and sometimes, the sky was lit up in the colors of the comet's tail no matter the time of day, which in itself was glorious to behold.
Encke took off his boots for a moment, letting his feet touch the cool ground of one of the paths he had managed to piece back together. This one lead from the town center to a rather ornate building with tall spires with flat ovals on the top. He had, admittedly, not quite figured out what those decorations were about, as they were not on every building, but perhaps it was just part of the architecture.
Encke picked up his boots and made his way to the tall, spired building, taking his time and not dashing towards it like he might transport himself on Earth. Every few moments, he stopped and took a deep breath, closing his eyes and enveloping himself in the environment.
This was nice.
It had taken a bit for Encke to get the doors back open, initially. They were initially locked, and Encke had to come back with some plyers on a prior trip to nudge them open. Now, as he was the only one who could possibly come to this comet, so far as he knew, he simply left the door slightly ajar when he came and left.
This time, it seemed a bit more ... open, than he left it.
Momentarily alarmed, Encke pushed the door open a bit further and stepped inside, looking around for anything amiss. Nothing seemed to be wrong.
"Hello?"
As usual, his voice echoed. There was no response.
Encke stepped a bit further in.
"Hello?"
Initially, the voices didn't sound ... human, though he guessed that wasn't surprising. But when Encke suddenly found himself sitting down, eyes closed, the voices started to make more sense. He could understand them, at least.
-------------
"Encke! Encke! Oh, thank the stars you're back from your trip! There's a bit of a ... situation?"
"You don't sound certain."
"They may or may not be fighting."
"May or may not?" He paused for a moment, before adding, "They?"
"Your assistants."
"Oh for--"
He gave a long sigh and an eyeroll to the woman who was speaking to him, a tall woman with blue eyes that glowed brightly in her panic. After telling her to be calm about it, he set a hand on her shoulder and pushed ahead, through the entrance foyer and up a set of stairs into what seemed to be some sort of personal space. He pushed open a door to what was perhaps an office, with a desk with a large, formal chair and two chairs facing it. In those two chairs sat two others, glaring at each other, deep frowns on their faces. He quickly noticed that they, too, both had glowing eyes. One had glowing golden eyes that reminded him of his own. The other had eyes that glowed green like a bright neon sign.
"Now what seems to be the problem?"
Encke's voice sounded impatient, at best. He mostly just wanted to go to sleep. It had been a long few days--
"I don't think she's negotiating with the people from our new allies properly. She's not doing her research--"
"I've done my research!" snapped the other woman, lifting up a book with a title he wasn't sure he understood and waving it around. "It's all in here. She just can't accept there's a race that perhaps wouldn't be so open to our advances--"
"And why wouldn't they be! Every type of people in this universe should be so happy to communicate with people like--"
"Because we need to take our time with them and maybe they're a little more stodgy than--"
Encke snapped a, "For the people's sake!", which seemed to quiet both of them down instantly. One of them mumbled a half-hearted apology, which Encke barely seemed to accept, mumbling and swatting in their direction. He looked around for a moment, before taking his place in the room: the large chair at the other side of the desk, facing the two negotiators. "Alright, alright. Take a deep breath and stop arguing. Let's go over this piece by piece..."
-------------
Encke's eyes snapped open to find himself in the same room that he had just seen. His legs must have taken him there by instinct. This wasn't necessarily the first time that had happened, but...
That had surprised him, to say the least.
He set down the boots he had carried up with him, taking a slow look around the room. This was definitely an office, of some sort. His, or the prior Encke's anyway, from what he could tell. Did he use this room often to resolve conflicts? Was that what the prior Encke's formal job was? He wasn't sure, but it finally established that this place was definitely his in some way or fashion, and that brought a bit of a grin to Sailor Encke's face. He had been putting effort into restoring something that was of importance to not only the comet, but to him.
Carefully, Encke ran his hand over the desk, noting that it felt cold under his fingers, and smooth as well. It didn't quite feel like wood, but that didn't surprise him. There didn't seem to be much of the way of trees on his comet, dead or otherwise. Perhaps it was stone, of some sort? There was definitely plenty of that on his planet.
Despite the smoothness of the material, though, he was quickly noticing that there was a gritty material on top of the desk.
Encke lifted his fingers from it in distaste, quickly noticing the dark grey colour that now tainted his fingers.
Dusty. Of course it was.
That was hardly surprising to Encke in itself. A lot of the places on his planet were dusty, especially within the buildings, where wind couldn't sweep the signs of age away. The idea of this particular room being unused to such an extent that there was a thick layer of dust on the furniture bothered him, though. That couldn't be. He couldn't let that stand.
It was easy for him to conclude that this was the location he should work on cleaning up next.
With a nod of determination, Encke bent down and put his boots back on, before exiting the room to go find one of the broom closets he had found before. That was where he had put his cleaning supplies that he had brought up from Earth.
He'd go get them and restore the desk back to its proper glory, so it could be used the way it was meant to be used.
That was the only option.
((WORDCOUNT: 1511))
