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That was ... mortifying.

It wasn't the first time he had come across a situation in which someone had been disfigured, unfortunately. It certainly wasn't the first time he had come across someone in danger, across someone who couldn't defend themselves as much as they may have wanted to or even didn't want to. It wasn't the first time he had seen someone who might have been on the edge of death. It wasn't the first time a scene like that had flashed to his mind, had sunk into his gut, had wormed itself into his brain and let itself fester there, clawing, clawing--

It was the first time he had been confronted with it face-to-face in a while, and it made him suck in an uncomfortable breath when he knew that the page had been safely dropped off at a location that could actually help her. The adrenaline was slowly leaking out of his body, and after having ridden the high of it for far too long, he almost felt weak. He felt like he needed a recharge.

Part of him wanted to just take off to his comet, but he fairly sure he had only visited a few days ago. Too soon. He couldn't go back yet even if he wanted to.

Another part of him wanted to go home to Richard and cry, but he couldn't do that. It would let him know too much, because naturally, he would start asking. He couldn't know what Encke had gotten himself involved in. If Richard had any clue of what Encke had just seen, had been seeing, he would likely panic and then try to accompany Encke out, and that would just lead to... bad things. Very bad things. Encke wasn't going to think about that.

Wasn't going to replace the image in his mind of the Saturn Page with the image of--

It left him in a situation where he could do little else but head up to the roof of the hospital, sitting down behind the wall so he wasn't visible over the edge to any onlookers.

He let out a deep breath he didn't know he was holding, and looked up.

Encke felt the presence of the more powerful senshi nearby, but since he was uncertain if she planned on joining him, he kept his eyes on the sky for the moment. It was only when she greeted him that he pulled his eyes away from the stars he could make out around the light pollution and looked towards the senshi who had helped.

Saved him, probably. His plan was to grab the page and get out, but it still would have been a super senshi against a general. While he likely could have escaped, he hoped, it would not have been without severe pain. Perhaps even without the page, considering she had been losing a lot of blood, and it would have inevitably taken him longer to get away.

"And thank you," responded Encke, offering a somewhat weak smile. It was hard to offer strong, bright smiles when someone had just lost un brazo to a figurative monster. "I'm pretty sure I could have gotten out, maybe," maybe, "but without your help I'm not sure the page would have made it."

Better to be missing an arm than dead, right? Always had to be. Someone could live without an arm. And it may have felt like death at first, but in the long term, they'd be thankful to be alive, sans arm or not. Right?

He rubbed at his temples with glowing fingers.

After a moment, he dropped his arms to his sides, before opting instead to wrap them around his legs, pulling them closer to his body. The tightness was comforting, at least, even if the desire to go home and sob at his love was still there.

"I've seen brutal things before too," admitted Encke, his voice a bit quieter. "Hard not to when you've been at this s**t for so long. I'm just glad she's alive."

Encke hadn't necessarily expected the other senshi to sit next to him, but he appreciated it nevertheless. While there was a while that he hadn't wanted anyone close to him, having people nearer to him now wasn't something that made him recoil.

Especially considering he wanted some comfort right now, and he couldn't get it from the most comforting source.

That was what sucked the most about being a senshi, probably.

Labyrinthite. Encke was going to assume that was the name of the general they were facing, especially since she mentioned having fought with him before. "I've seen him before, too," admitted Encke, shifting a bit, letting his arms relax from his legs though not necessarily letting himself relax. "At the power plant, a while ago, I think? He had some kinda giant youma." It was unfortunate he was still around, all things considered. Encke had trouble accepting that killing may have been necessary in some situations, but it sounded like this man had been a consistent problem.

He would deal with that thought later.

"I don't want to be able to shrug it off either, but I don't think I can anyway." He likely would never be able to. The nightmares still haunted him. "I've been dealing with this s**t for nearly a decade. Still can't."

Sure, he awoke in 2011, but he wasn't exactly new to the war when he had awoke--

Wait, the glowing?

Encke eyed his hand, picking it up and turning it over. He then looked to Ida. Oh. She was glowing too. Had a symbol on her forehead and everything. He hadn't actually noticed that in his rush to deal with what was happening to the Saturn page, and he let out a quiet chuckle. Signs of the adrenaline fading, he supposed, that he noticed now.

"Not long," replied Encke, offering a smile. "This happened in, uh, late January? And I'm Encke, by the way."

A pause, before he added, with a laugh, "Of Plasma, if that's relevant. Probably not super obvious with the symbol but I've had a couple people tell me my colors make more sense after I mention it."

Personal run-ins sounded alarming, but his brain was soon distracted by the idea of her having people she could talk to about this. My girlfriend is a knight. It helped her that she could go home and have someone who understood. It helped her that her roommate was also powered, and they too would understand.

Encke didn't have that.

His love of years was a civilian. His family was civilians. Those that surrounded him on a day to day basis were more-than-likely civilians. In some ways, it was better that way. It meant they were safe from the horrors that Encke was witness to each and every passing day of the last several years. It meant that they were less likely to do something foolish in defense of him, especially in the case of Richard, and end up dying. The fact that she could have people to talk to like that, though, was something Encke was missing.

But for the sake of those around him, he would continue to let himself miss it for as long as he continued to live.

Instead of commenting on that, he decided to focus on the other things she was saying.

"Orchids, eh? I can definitely see that." It helped that she seemed to have orchids on her uniform, now that he was taking a closer look at it. "If you didn't have me pegged as Plasma, what did you think I might be?" He couldn't exactly have Plasma on his uniform... That would be a bad idea. And he would probably be dead. Plasma was hot. He definitely wouldn't be able to go live on a star.

Encke scrunched his nose for a moment at his distraction, but let it go.

"Four years of glowing? Damn." He tucked the reference to transcendence aside in his head, deciding that he'd probably have to take a deeper look into that itself later. "I wonder if we worked together so well because we're both, uh, glowing."

He leaned back against the wall, letting himself laugh, letting himself relax, for a moment. She was right. The page was alive. They had done what they had to do, even if there was still what seemed to be a very dangerous general wandering the streets. There was no way just him and Ida were going to be able to end that threat in one night, right? They rescued the page, and they were alive. That was the important part. Even if the page's arm had been on the ground, and the page had been bleeding profusely, and it was only through speed and luck and something the page threw at the ground that she was still alive--

"But no matter the reason! I'm glad we were able to save her." He glanced downwards as if he could see into the hospital. "I just wish we had been able to save her arm, too."

Dark matter? That sounded badass. Encke almost wished he was the senshi of dark matter instead of the senshi of plasma. Though he supposed his current sphere was still pretty spacey, considering there weren't exactly a whole lot of sources of plasma on Earth--

He was getting sidetracked--

Encke took his eyes back up from the roof, turning his attention to Ida once more. It was too bad he couldn't just see into the building. It was too bad he wasn't the senshi of X-rays or something. Would that even help him in this case? "Dark matter sounds pretty badass. And honestly, I think we could all use a little more optimism." Encke himself certainly could, but he had trouble finding sources for it these days. As this war continued to wear on, the only source of optimism he could find was how much better his comet was doing.

"If you do happen to be able to check on her, let me know how she's doing?" He offered a weak smile. "I know we did the best we could, but I still want to be sure she's doing okay, yeah? She's in good hands, I know that much," he hoped that much, "but I can't help continuing to be worried. I certainly hope she takes the time to heal, before going back out."

But not too much time, because perhaps then she wasn't healing. How would she deal without her arm? Could the page handle the change in their life? They were likely so new to the war, and now they had already lost a limb to it...

Oh, did he have someone to go home to?

Well, he did.

... But it wasn't someone he could cuddle with and talk about a missing arm on the ground to.

"Yeah, no worries." Encke wasn't really lying. He just wasn't about to tell the whole story. Leave his lives separate. "I have someone at home." He did answer her question truthfully, at least.

Encke appreciated that someone was willing to keep him in the loop about the poor page. If anything, maybe he could send her something to keep her spirits up if she was in the hospital for a while. Maybe some chocolate. Most people liked chocolate--

I'd rather power down--

Encke's thought track froze for a moment before a solitary thought of keep your lives separate rang through his head, again and again. He couldn't let this s**t start leaking into each other. What if Richard got wind of it? What if Richard found out? What if Richard got involved and--

The easiest way to make sure no one made the connection between Super Sailor Encke and Ignacio Araya, and therefore Richard Bell, was just to not. To not let other people know who he was, to not let other people in, to let himself just remain as Encke when he was with other powered people, and only as Encke, not as anything else. And when he was with fellow civilians, they could only know him as Ignacio, not as anything else. He even followed that policy with his Arra--

And yet, doing something not this for a while sounded nice.

He was torn, to say the least.

Encke eventually let out a quiet sigh, turning back towards Ida. Should he say yes? He didn't know. Should he say no? Would that spurn a potential connection?

"We should probably leave the hospital behind," he eventually relented, at least to some degree. "Not gonna do much good just sitting here..."

Even if he hadn't wanted to admit it, even if he was trying to play off at being fine at the idea of sharing his civilian side, even if he wanted to play at it for the sake of not spurning connections or driving someone who clearly knew more about what he was away--

He couldn't help letting out a quiet, relieved sigh when Ida started asking if he'd rather her go inside and get the coffee and bring it back.

Sure, the coffee place she described sounded wonderful. Looking at those who were going inside from afar, he did get a rather peaceful vibe from it. He didn't go to cafes very often these days, especially not at night when he was usually patrolling, but there was still something so nice about them. His favorite part of cafes was admittedly the food, not the coffee, but they were relaxing places. Warming places. Places where people could go to just hang out and not usually be expected to get a whole lot provided they weren't being rude.

And yet, despite the preparation he had tried to give himself on the way over as they had talked about other topics, Encke was relieved by the idea of not having to reveal his civilian identity. He had to keep his lives separate. No one from one side of his life could know the other side of his life. He had to keep Richard away from this. He had to. There was no other option, even if she was a fellow glowing senshi and an eternal one at that--

"I'd appreciate it," murmured Encke, and he offered a sheepish smile. "It's nothing personal, I promise."

Encke should probably at least explain something of what it was, though, right? Just to ensure her it definitely wasn't personal. He couldn't exactly say he was doing it to protect people, though. What was the point of protecting those people if he said that was what he was doing? He needed another excuse--

"I'm trying to keep my lives separate, is all. Civilian life is one thing, senshi life is another. I guess kind of a privacy thing, like you said, but also a whole... trying to keep my identities separate thing." Right. That was probably a good enough explanation. "If you're willing, ah, could you get me a hot chocolate? I'm sure I can get some cash somewhere..."

Maybe he'd just dehenshin real quick while she ran inside and find some...

There was a part of him, a guilty part of him, that wanted to say that it was fine, that he could handle it, that he had plenty enough money to cover his own even if it meant he had to hide for a moment and return with the money which, in all honesty, sounded just about as goofy in his head as it would have sounded aloud--

But the other part of him told him it was probably better to keep his mouth shut. She was being nice to him, and she was smiling at him, and it was fine.

He had to admit, a very small part of him was envious that she knew so many people who were part of this senshi and knight life. On the other hand, the concept of Richard being a senshi was terrifying. The concept of him being a knight was almost worse, considering they didn't seem to get much to defend themselves until they were higher level. The idea of Richard out there with nearly nothing to defend himself against people who could literally steal souls--

"I know the feeling about family," offered Encke, with a sheepish smile. "I live with them, so can't exactly try to force more distance, though."

Was that too much?

Probably not, it was fine--

Especially since she revealed herself as Orah. There was a part of him that felt bad about not revealing himself in turn, but maybe in time. Maybe if he ever needed her services at the ER. He hoped he never did. He knew that wasn't terribly likely.

He shook her hand and smiled back, before waiting for her to return.

Drinks for warmth and conversation with a fellow glowing senshi. He was still worried about that poor knight, still shaken by it, but it was good to have more allies. Sometimes, it felt he had few of those.

Good to have someone else he could count on.