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Encke had to get a few things done this morning before Richard got any inkling that Encke was running off doing them.

First, he needed to get a patrol in, because that was important. Chaos was always lurking about, as unfortunate as that was, and it wasn't about to skip his birthday. At the very least, he needed to try to do his duty for the day, even if it was before noon.

Second, he needed to convince his favorite bakery to give him some things for his birthday. Because he loved sweets. And it was his birthday. And his birthday was by default a cheat day. Because ... of course it was. Not that he really cared too much about what he ate. Admittedly, part of the advantage of doing all this patrolling and gym work and acting was that he didn't exactly have the stomach space to eat enough to put on any significant non-muscle weight.

He wasn't going to do it in that order, though.

Encke was perched on a couple story building, a box of cupcakes sitting next to him. He had a cupcake in his hand, wrapper already peeled, and he was definitely eating it.

Which wasn't exactly patrolling.

But he was powered.

And it was his birthday.

And he didn't feel any Chaos signatures.

... Close enough.

Encke had felt some vague Order signatures floating about, but too involved in his cupcake eating, he hadn't exactly been paying attention to any of them.

That was, until there was suddenly a catgirl on the roof, accusing him of cupcake thievery.

He jumped, just a bit, turning towards her with a piece of cupcake still partially hanging out of his mouth. He opened his mouth and sucked the rest of the cupcake in, chewing it. After a second, he offered a very graceful, "Uhm." s**t, the catgirl wanted a cupcake? But these were his birthday cupcakes. He glanced down at his cupcakes with a bit of a pout, before turning towards her and starting, "See, it's my birthday, so this is my birthday ca-- What?" What was she staring at him for?

Suddenly, the catgirl was back to being a -- guardian cat. Oh. He hadn't actually seen any guardian cats do that before, but he didn't exactly know many guardian cats. He didn't run into them particularly often--

Still, she was purring at him, and Encke couldn't help reaching down and giving her a nice chin scratch. "Aren't you a cutie," hummed Encke, temporarily forgetting the fact that she was implying that he might be finally ready to join most of the senshi that had awakened as long ago as he had. Cats were distracting. (So were dogs. So were adorable animals in general, honestly.)

It took a few moments before his brain came back into the actual substance of their conversation.

"Wait, what do you mean become stronger?"

Sometimes, having larger hands was handy. For one, it seemed that the guardian cat was enjoying his chin scritches. It was actually kind of nice to hear that enjoyment in words -- he didn't have to guess he was doing it right...

His starseed was brimming with power and, wait, Eternal Senshi?

Encke let her finish talking, because he wasn't rude, but the moment she stopped talking, he nearly shouted a perhaps a bit overexcited, "Wait, you're serious?!" He took a moment, gathered himself, and then continued, "I've been a senshi since, uh," he squinted, "2011. So it's been seven years. I honestly thought I could never be an eternal senshi. You're saying I can be? Wait, hang on."

He closed his eyes for a moment, melting back into Ignacio, with a henshin pen in his hand. Ignacio casually rolled the pen to the cat, pulling his hand away from the chin scratches to let the guardian cat do her work. He was clearly excited, body vibrating just a bit as he watched her.

Ignacio hadn't forgotten about the cupcakes, though.

Or how cute the cat was.

He glanced at the cupcakes forlornly, before turning his attention to her once again. "Well, since you're so nice to power me up on my birthday, I could maybe spare one..."

"Your guess is as good as mine, guardian cat," offered Ignacio, picking up the pen that was offered to him. Honestly, Ignacio wished he knew why it had taken this long. And, honestly, he didn't really have a good answer as to why he didn't seek out any guardian cats other than the fact that he really didn't know any. All of his prior few-and-far-between experiences with the magical felines had been by happenstance. Even this one had been. He just happened to buy the cupcakes that apparently this guardian cat had wanted...

He twirled the pen in his fingers. It looked different now, for sure. There were wings coming off it. That was probably meant to represent the ridiculous butt wings that the guardian cat had mentioned. Hopefully his would be small. And out of the way. And also generally not wings.

(A man could dream, okay?)

"I wouldn't be transcended if I didn't power much, though," reminded Ignacio, with a wink, before lifting his pen. "Carlee? Noted. Who should I say referred me, anyway? Don't think I have a name from you yet..."

Probably would be best to stop calling her guardian cat.

He wanted to try out his new henshin, but the guardian cat was rubbing up against him, definitely eyeing his cupcakes. This seemed like cuteness bribery. If Ignacio wasn't falling for it, he probably would have been offended. Instead, he gave her another chin scratch, before reaching over and grabbing one of his cupcakes.

Ignacio took in a long sigh.

Then he handed it over.

"Just this once, for making me an Eternal Senshi," even though his tone sounded slightly dejected, it was likely an act, as he was also offering a smile. His eyes wandered over to his pen again. "Now if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to give the new henshin a try..."

"Encke Eternal, eh?" Ignacio glanced at his pen. It was nice that the 'power' bit was dropped. Less words. Made life a bit easier if he sensed something nearby (or just saw it).

It seemed that Julienne no longer wanted the cupcake. He certainly wasn't going to complain if she just gave it back to him, but he'd give her a moment to think about that. Right now, he needed to try to become the new him, the new Encke. The finally Eternal Encke. Ignacio could hardly believe it was actually finally happening.

(Maybe next time some of the other eternal senshi would actually believe that he had been awake as long as he had been...)

He twirled the pen around in his fingers and threw his arm up in the sky, declaring, "Encke Eternal, Make-Up!"



Sure enough, he definitely felt more weight behind him. He glanced over his shoulder, catching set of the aforementioned, Eternally Infamous Butt Wings. At first, there was a small part of him that was bummed. Of course, now he had a** wings. Why did he need those--

But that was quickly overtaken by the realization that it had worked. The guardian cat really had made him an eternal senshi. He was standing there, changed, Transcended Eternal Sailor Encke. His outfit had changed, in some cases significantly. There seemed to be more references to his cometary origins -- he didn't miss the way that both his collar and his sash now had tails that, in layers, flared out in a way reminded him of a comet tail. He saw the stripes that ran up his pants legs, up his collar, around his waist, even in his boots. His boots seemed longer now, and they also seemed a lot fancier.

He had even gained another transcendence marking, where those armbands used to be.

Encke couldn't stop himself from grinning from ear to ear.

"s**t, I really am Eternal."

He glanced over at Julienne, and couldn't help his bright laughter. "Thank you. I'm glad it's my birthday too, but I have to admit, I might be happier about this."

Finally, it felt like all the s**t he had been through might have actually been paying off.

Figuring he had left enough time for Julienne to stare at the cupcake and decide if she actually wanted it, Encke asked cautiously, "Are you sure you don't want the cupcake?"

She really was going to let him have the cupcake! It wasn't necessary, really; considering she had just given him the best present he could have gotten (from anyone not named Richard, he supposed) she deserved the cupcake as a reward. But if she was going to let him have it --

And plus, if she knew the bakers, she could definitely just have her own made.

In that case, Encke went ahead and plucked up the cupcake, peeling off the wrapper. "If you insist," offered Encke, with a laugh, before biting into the frosting. Mm...

Admittedly, his prior encounters with cats had been brief, and he was fairly certain he had never seen a single one of them again. If the cat had upgraded him to eternal was claiming him as hers and promised to come find him again, well, Encke was looking forward to it. He didn't really have any Mauvian connections, and they seemed to be quite useful to have. Especially considering their whole tech thing. Maybe they could help him figure out a few more of the systems on--

Focus.

"I'll try," Encke said, with a laugh. "It's hard to be entirely safe." Unfortunately. "But I've lived this long, right?"

Hell, he had practically been to hell and back.

He'd be fine.

Especially with this new upgrade.

He lifted a hand to wave as she made her way away from him. "I'll be sure to check in on your Carlee! Especially if there's more cupcakes there." He paused, before adding, with a friendly laugh, "Though I'll make sure not to buy them all out next time!"