Welcome to Gaia! ::

The patrol thus far that evening had been rather uneventful.

Fortunate. Richard was coming home from competition that night, and Encke was quite eager to greet him when he got back. Not finding anyone he needed to intercept helped with that; made it easier for him to believe after about a half-hour that perhaps the area he was circling was at least safe enough until someone else could come to pick up the slack. Might have been a lie he was telling himself; there was always a small part of him that felt odd when leaving the streets as if he was worried he would miss something or someone vital that he could have had the ability to save if he just stayed out.

He sipped from a refresher he had picked up before he henshined - realized dully he hadn't eaten that day and probably should put something in his stomach, especially if he was going to potentially be fighting anyone - as he made his way down a side street, glancing down alleyways and toward a nearby park with a playground as he kept his senses open for anything that felt wrong.

Encke stopped mid-sip when he noticed something.

Ah.

Strong. Chaotic. More than likely not friendly.

Best he go to check it out, he supposed; a general aura usually meant nothing good, and the still sore spot on his shoulder reminded him that a general usually meant something violent. He'd apologize to Basiluzzo later if necessary. Encke took a much longer sip of his refresher until it was drained, chucked the cup into a nearby recycling bin, and headed toward it to see if he could intercept whoever was behind the sense before they did anything like attempt to collect starseeds.

Of all the things he was expecting, the scene in front of him was probably near the bottom of the list.

One general, already with hair disheveled and looking tired like she had perhaps already gotten in a fight tonight, voice tired and level at a simple Hi. Didn't strike him as a threat, necessarily, but if her exhaustion was from a prior fight he didn't want to let his guard down just yet. Plus if he was an actor, the Negaverse almost assuredly had actors in their own ranks, probably more considering the circumstances...

"Hi," was Encke's response, awkward as he shifted in place and attempted to figure out what the right approach was, here.

No reason to be hostile, but he didn't see any reason to be friendly, either; never really did with the Negaverse with rare exception, but as a result that left him on edge no matter what he did. Found himself crossing his arms, adopting a position similar to the one he had taken with the half-youma who had approached him. Cordial. Faintly defensive.

He reached up, ran a hand through his hair, and then crossed it again.

"What brings you out here tonight?"

That was a fascinating admission to make to someone like a transcendent eternal senshi of Order, at all, and it disarmed Encke in a way he hadn't quite expected. At the very least, the fact that she apparently didn't know what she was doing was enough to make him drop his arms from their tightly crossed position, taking a stance that was slightly less defensive.

It didn't necessarily make his position particularly friendly or open; she was still a general, overall, and there was nothing yet saying that she wasn't doing this as a way to mollify him.

But she was currently not attacking or harming anyone else, and she was venting. It might not have been a bad idea to encourage that.

"I get it. Going through the motions. Not sure why you're doing something, but sure you need to keep doing it." He wasn't lying. He knew why he kept going out at night, he knew why he kept going to his planet, he knew why he kept encouraging transcendence, he knew why he kept helping everyone he could. There were times that the endless war threatened to consume him, but he mostly understood from a more civilian perspective -- schooling, auditions, living, when he had been in the throes of his depression after the events of Barren Pines--

He watched her, shifting his weight from one foot to the other and then back again. "I'm sorry your friends have died." And that was true, too. He would have rather heard about purifications than deaths. "Do you know why others are betraying you?"

I hate everything didn't sound like the words of someone who had an interest in remaining in the Negaverse, and it was something Encke immediately zoned in on. His posture relaxed further to the point where the tenseness of defensive behaviors started to fall from his body, and he watched her and let her talk in the way he might have let Stillwaterite talk a few years ago.

The insistence that the Negaverse had to be right felt familiar.

Cut off his head before he could get very far. Encke had been so very focused on what was happening with Lyndin and Caedus during the events of the ambush, but what she was talking about was faintly familiar in the sense that he was fairly sure he had heard a commotion off in the distance. Couldn't put a face to the name, but could place some context. His smile was faint when she pointed out his transcendence glow and the wings that showed what he had accomplished, but he tried his best to focus on what she was saying.

"It's hard for me not to agree the Negaverse is bad. They've done a lot of bad things to me and the people I know." And the people he had lost over the years, starting from the loss of so many classmates of his from a school that never was. They took souls and energy too, but he wasn't sure if reinforcing that was necessarily the best move here. "If you keep befriending people who are leaving -- if the people you tend to get along with are people who tend to think the Negaverse is bad -- is that a sort of sign? It sounds like signs of a pattern."

He bounced on his feet, further expanding with, "if you hate what it's resulted in, maybe it's time for a change?"

Oh, oh, perhaps he had stepped a bit too far there. All relaxation that had entered Encke's form immediately sapped away, and his body sung with a tenseness that would need a masseuse to unwind.

It wasn't necessarily what she said. The defensiveness that she wasn't a traitor actually backed up his point and his suspicions. It also sounded like he wasn't the only person who had told her that, recently. Maybe he should figure out if she had crossed paths with anyone he knew. It had helped Encke when he realized Methone was also working with Stillwaterite--

They were thoughts he yanked himself out of as instinct pulled his hands up as a signal to show he didn't mean any harm. "I promise, I don't want a fight."

He'd rather just go back to talking. That felt like a good start.

Two steps forward, one step back.

"I'm not here to question your loyalty to the Negaverse. I'm sorry. That was a bad question." Encke swallowed as he prepared himself to have to retaliate at a moment's notice if he needed to. "Suppose a better question is: do you know their reasons? It doesn't seem personal."

He did know Cybele, which complicated some matters. This was the person who had taken the person Cybele was away from her, stole her memories, stole her life, and he knew if Anser had heard that she would have cut off all attempts at conversation and launched at her immediately. It was very possible it wouldn't have even gotten this far with Anser. There was something in him that tensed a bit further at the knowledge of what she was capable of and worried that perhaps this was just a trap to ease him, but she also couldn't do that to him even if she tried.

They'd just have to kill him, and there was an odd comfort in that.

The second case was a little easier to level with and didn't sound personal, either. For one, Encke didn't know who 'he' was. For another, 'sin' was a religious thing which made it personal, and, admittedly, probably also correct. "In some religions, sanctity of the body is tantamount. Energy-taking could be a violation of that." He paused, and couldn't help a snort even despite the pressure he was under, "that sounds fancy -- uh, point is. It might be a sin? Not like I'm an expert though."

His parents had been more religious than he was, in any case, and the more of his past life he knew--

Encke's eyes darted to the daggers, but he tried his best to just keep talking. Avoid mentioning her directly. Keep the attention on the people she knew who went to Order.

"Maybe what you were offering him at the time was enough to cancel that out, but his morals didn't allow him to keep staying there. I've noticed that is true of some of the people I've met who have come back to the side of Order, too." Like Cybele. "Something in them won't let them stay with the Negaverse, because something in them still doesn't agree with it." Even if it was something like they had been betrayed, like Sedna--

She was definitely generally displeased with her current predicament, and he could tell by the way she kept huffing and sighing and falling back to answering his questions despite the fact it also seemed she wanted to dismiss them just as quickly. There was a part of him that wanted to say that the solution to her woes was right there. He knew how to get a hold of someone who could let her escape those worries and she could just join her friends.

But he knew he couldn't.

If he tried again, she would just attempt to stab him. If he tried again, maybe she'd attempt to go for his starseed as Stillwaterite had. (It hadn't succeeded, but it was the principle of the matter, honestly--) That hadn't burned their connection, but he wasn't entirely convinced it had helped anything. Two steps forward, one step back.

And then she mentioned draining.

Two steps forward, one step back.

At least it wasn't starseeds. He didn't concern the energy-draining any less of a problem, but at least it wasn't often a deadly one.

His answer would typically be yes, but she hadn't done anything yet. "I avoid striking first," he replied, shaking his head. "You've done nothing yet to show that I should act other than showing your daggers. I'm not going to fight you over a threat."

Encke chuckled quietly in an attempt to disarm. "Like I said. Don't want to fight."

She clearly hadn't been expecting that response with the way she blinked at him, but he stayed where he was, still attempting to keep that disarming smile on his face, still holding himself defensively though not aggressively. Encke waited.

He presumed she wouldn't really go back to talking, and either he would end up needing to pursue her, or she would simply drop it and do something else.

Or vanish. That was the third option, he supposed.

The tenseness that had pulled his body taut finally relaxed and he looked at where the general was, letting out a quiet sigh. She probably was going somewhere to drain energy where he wouldn't bother her. He could attempt to figure out if he could find a general aura in the vicinity, but it felt pointless. She could have also just been trying to get away from him. Still seemed a bit unsettled.

In some ways, Encke was relieved he managed to end that without a fight, even if it did potentially mean that a few more people would be absent some energy that night. In the long run, maybe this was the type of person that could be talked away from doing that ever again. Might be easier to do that without hostilities.

He shook his body out, committed the face to his memory as well as he could--or at least the outfit, that was distinctive--and left to go intercept Richard before he made it home.