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Encke was excited.

He had known why Keiko wanted to wait to show him -- and Viatrix now, evidently -- her homeworld, wanting it to be at least in a state where she felt like she could welcome guests before she brought anyone else along. And he respected that! While Encke had been eager to show off his comet the moment he realized it was his space, he also understood he became more eager to show it off as it had burst back to life.

But today, Keiko had reached out. Keiko had asked if they wanted to come to her homeworld.

They, of course.

Viatrix wouldn't have let Encke forget her even if he wanted to, though he certainly teased at wanting to, especially as she happily made herself right at home on his shoulders as if he was some sort of steed. She did give him a slight headbutt of thanks, truly appreciating being carried, even though she followed that up with, "If you don't straighten yourself out a bit, you're going to drop me."

"Maybe I want to drop you."

"Hey! You do not!" She narrowed her eyes at him and stuck out her tongue.

Encke rolled his eyes playfully as Viatrix's gaze slipped away, her pupils dilating as she realized what she saw. "Keiko!" A paw was lifted and she waved, and she nearly dropped herself from Encke's shoulders--

"You wouldn't!" Encke's laugh was light even as his voice pulled off the appalled impression perfectly, even factoring in the way he pulled back just slightly -- and only just slightly, he didn't actually want to jostle Viatrix -- and pressed his hand to his chest. Abandoned for his cat, of all things!

Of course, Viatrix didn't complain for a single moment when she found herself plucked off Encke and enveloped in Keiko's grasp instead, immediately tucking her legs in and making herself right at home in her arms. It was perfect. Having someone who was so willing to offer her cuddles made her quite happy to keep meeting up with her, honestly--

"I was being perfectly nice!"

"He was teasing me," Viatrix stuck out her tongue at him. "Very mean, being bipedal and all."

"You're the one who climbed on my shoulders--" Encke was not getting into an argument with his cat, even a joking one, and let out a snort as he focused his attention on the most important part -- space. Keiko was taking them to Keiko's World, her asteroid, the place her people once lived back hundreds of years ago-- "Look, I think every world is amazing. It's a place in space, right? A place that belongs to us and our people. I'm sure it's amazing."

"And we can definitely help you rebuild!" Viatrix seemed quite excited about this prospect. "Encke's like, an expert at that stuff. And I'd like to think I have a good eye too!"

It was very, very easy to tell when they had left earth and landed on the world of the senshi of yuki-onna.

For one, it was snowing. It was snowing quite a bit on top of that, and while Viatrix's ears flattened to her head, Encke found himself lifting his free hand up to his eyes to squint and attempt to take a look around. His steps staggered for a moment, but he steadied himself as he tried to make out something in the near whiteout conditions--

Keiko had the right idea, though, tugging on his arm and convincing him to follow her and Viatrix, who definitely wanted to get herself inside.

Viatrix was able to relax once they were no longer in the immediate bluster, her ears perking up once more as she let herself take a look around the room. It wasn't exactly a tour of the asteroid, but this was okay too! "Well, now we can see how your little home base is coming along, right? And have immediate proof if things are working right."

Encke brushed a bit of snow off the top of his head. "Honestly, your world lives up to its senshi's sphere and that's pretty cool. I wonder if the Keikians--is that what your people were called?--of the past were more equipped for this weather--," he found himself wandering toward one of the cracks in the walls, taking a brief look around him to see if there was something they could patch that up with. "We can just work inside, honestly, if you still want our help."

"Maybe your planet was just nice enough to not stomp on your little shelter," giggled Viatrix, though she wasn't entirely sure that homeworlds worked like that. They'd have to figure out some way to make this place more sturdy if blizzards were a thing that happened here, though from the sounds of it they were infrequent...

Encke was already pondering on the wooden ruins, was wondering if the wood that was used was particularly strong against this type of weather. There were people on Earth that used wood for their construction that lived in colder places. One of the first things he thought of was the long cabins that peoples like the Vikings and Iroquois were known for, though this definitely wasn't one of those. Felt more like a hut-- "Hey, nothing wrong with wood construction! Anser's planet has a lot of that." He snickered. "Enckeans primarily used stone structures, but that was also what was available. Didn't really have a whole lot of trees to work with..."

"Do you have forests?" Viatrix's eyes shined at the possibility of trees to climb, primarily-- "Could explain all the woody ruins."

Encke's eyes lit up at the concept of a marshmallow party -- he loved marshmallows, honestly, especially over a campfire, and it reminded him of summer nights in the Bells' backyard -- but perhaps his first priority should be seeing if any of that drywall putty might help seal up some of these holes... "Look, I won't say no to marshmallows--"

"Same!" Gooey marshmallows over a fire seemed like a cozy way to spend the evening, and Viatrix was definitely a fan of that idea.

He grinned. "Let me see the drywall putty first, maybe we can make it at least a little less drafty in here."

Encke happily took the drywall putty, marching his way right over to where he felt a particularly sharp breeze come from. This seemed like as good of a place as any to start! Plucked out the applicator, grabbed a bit of the putty, and began to spread it across the perimeter of the hole so he had a base to work with when he got to the center-- "Look, I found out I could go to space and that space was like this and I don't think my life was ever the same."

It had given him a goal when his life had been so dark.

Viatrix giggled. "I didn't even need to convince you that maybe you should go check out your comet. By the time I found you, you were already a transcended senshi." There were times that she was horribly jealous that she hadn't gotten to him until she was, arguably, not really needed, but they had found a way to make their arrangement work and flow easily. In some ways, it was nice. It meant when she found senshi, she came with an in-built person to coach them that wasn't herself! Win-win.

Encke hummed to himself as Keiko wandered off to another part of the room, working on the hole, as Viatrix padded after her with wide, excited eyes. "Did ya see--" Oh. Her eyes widened, and pupils dilated, as she resisted the temptation to reach up and swat at the very shiny thing. And very bug-like thing.

For Encke's part, he found himself rapidly torn between immediately checking out the spider and finishing what he was doing. "Your asteroid has life too?" The excitement wasn't something he could hold back, though. "Hang on, hang on--"

He quickly finished slathering some drywall putty over the hole -- he'd do a better job of fixing that later -- and quickly took himself and the drywall putty over to get a look at what Keiko and Viatrix were looking at.

Those eyes shined in the light and Viatrix was stuck between the horrible cat instinct to swat at the puffball spider and smack it out of the web and the amazed Mauvian instinct of wanting to find out more about it. It left her where she was, staring at it with dilated pupils as her body vibrated just the tiniest bit. "It's such a pretty spider! Kinda reminds me of snow, honestly--"

They were in a very snowy world. That made sense--

Encke had walked up behind them in the interim, chuckling under his breath when he noticed Keiko seemed to have given herself neck pain. He lifted a hand to rub her shoulder for just a moment supportively, before leaning in to get a better look at what they were both looking at. "Not scary in the slightest," he remarked, with a quiet laugh. "Just a small spider, probably here for a bit of pest control."

It was fuzzy enough that Encke was tempted to reach out and try to brush a hand over it, but he didn't know if it would take kindly to such a thing or if it was somehow poisonous. Better to not give in to the urge-- "Ah, remember what I mentioned the other week, with the ambush? When the generators exploded, when we got sent to the moon -- there was a wave of energy we saw go across the galaxy map. And since then I've had a couple of other people now tell me they've also seen life... That's when mine showed up, too."

Viatrix bounced in her excitement, this time, though her eyes kept tracking the spider despite. "There's not like, people, but it seems some people are starting to notice some animal life!" She glanced up to Keiko, briefly, but only briefly, her eyes practically magnetizing back to the spider. "And I guess that means you too!"

The spider was important. The spider was cute. The spider was not something to be swatted at.

Encke snickered quietly, noting, "I've seen eels and a small mouse on my comet recently. I think the things get a bit less creepy and legged as time goes on." Evidently, considering eels had exactly no legs. Of course, he was beginning to wonder if there were other bugs he hadn't seen with fewer legs. He felt almost positive that there had to be worms scooting along in the soils by now, right? Did Encke's Comet have anything like that?

Viatrix was watching Keiko perhaps a bit too closely when she pet the spider, and found herself stuck somewhere between finding the way it relaxed into the petting, of all things, adorable and still wanting to swat at it. That urge only grew stronger when Keiko looked back at her, but she swallowed it down when she acknowledged that it wouldn't be particularly fair to Keiko or the spider.

This was life on her planet, and she loved it, and Encke would also be disappointed, and now she was telling her not to eat her and squishing her against her chest--

"Okay, okay," Viatrix was muffled, "I'll leave the spider alone! He is kinda cute."

Encke quite happily took out another bit of drywall putty. "I agree! We should make this place nice for him and any other animals that might want to start staying in these shelters." He found a small hole in the walls nearby the spider and started his work there. "I might also want to pet the spider when we're done. That was adorable."

"I've never seen a spider relax like that when pet--"

"You also don't usually pet spiders, Vi."

Viatrix attempted to shush him.