Welcome to Gaia! ::

Encke's eyebrows lifted as he felt the approach of another aura, and his steps slowed down -- it was Order, so he wasn't necessarily worried about them following him anywhere, but he did want to make sure he didn't accidentally take off on someone who wanted to talk--

Especially about what she brought up.

He shook his head immediately to say she wasn't offending him at all, lifting his hands and holding them out toward -- this was Dagon, right? Viatrix had mentioned what her powered form looked like to him, and considering her clearly alien appearance that would match up -- maybe he shouldn't make assumptions, though -- "The glow. Transcendence, actually." He offered a friendly grin, leaving his arms out for her to look at them as she pleased.

"It's something you gain by helping your homeworld, so far as I've learned. Bonding with it. It's something I try to encourage others to do, too, because it helps protect your starseed from Chaos--"

From the Negaverse, especially.

Encke would have made a remark about the fact that she could look as much as she wanted, not even minding if that edged out of respectfulness, considering his career as an actor meant that he was used to a lot of people looking-- but it didn't make it out of his lips, the priority quickly becoming telling her more about the thing she was curious about -- she, Dagon --

Oh, this was Dagon. His positioning relaxed even further.

"Oh, we live together." He laughed, quietly, before continuing with a, "yes, transcendence first -- the glowing isn't the only thing it confers. I've had two people attempt to take my starseed since I transcended, and both of them found themselves blown back." One of the people who tried was purified now, and it always made his lips lift in amusement when he thought about it -- at the time, neither of them would have thought it possible, though he kept trying at it despite -- "I can transfer my energy to people to either bolster them or help recover some of the energy that the forces of Chaos have taken, too."

Finally, he lowered his hands to his side, in part because he had the instinct to fidget he couldn't quite bury. "I know a couple of others who have gained boosts to their abilities. My little sister, Anser, can use her abilities an additional time, for example. And everyone who I've known who has gained it -- it was by bonding with their planet. And helping it. Anser did the traditional ritual to show her closeness to her role. Pendour cleared out her wonder. I turned on the electricity."

A pause, before he added, "And, oh. Ignacio. Or Encke in this form."

That was probably important context.

Had he achieved it in his last life? He might have -- his people were already bioluminescent, and Encke of the past didn't seem quite as concerned about the concept of senshidom in general so much as he was concerned for his people and his world, so he probably didn't speak of it much. That bond was still there, though, so perhaps it was--

"I'm not sure how frequent it was back then," he admitted, staying still and letting Dagon walk around him. He might have started posing if given the chance, remembering some of those cameras on the red carpet that purposefully swirled around someone to give a full body and full outfit view--

Why did she sound so surprised when she said his name?

It was something of a record scratch when she said she had known him before. He paused, took a second to think about it, and his eyes were wide once he moved to look her more directly in the face even if it disturbed her circular observations. "Huh. When Vi said someone named Dagon was living with us, I thought the name was vaguely familiar but I didn't think anything of it." Honestly, he had thought it might have been due to a movie he had watched or been in-- He ran his hand through his hair. "I get memories when I go back to my world, but..."

He paused, looked at his hands, and then looked back to her.

"By the stars," that sounded like the Sailor Encke of the past, at least, "I must look so different than The People you're used to. Really? You knew me back when I wasn't, well," he gestured to himself, "human?"

Encke was rapt.

It was something he hadn't ever expected to happen, really; to meet someone who had known him before, someone who had known him in this life who had known him in his last life was fascinating on its own. Encke being a place she visited -- so she had seen the images he saw in his mind in reality. She had seen when the Fountain was populated with people from all places. She had seen The People in the city, in the Ruling House, she had known him.

"Most worlds are very different, even in this life," Encke murmured, something in his expression admiring as he glanced up toward the sky. "It's part of why space fascinates me so much. To think all of these worlds used to be..." populated. The amount of senshi he had met over the years, the number of worlds he had been permitted to see and even permitted to help with overtime, the amount of knights' wonders, too--

Something felt good about reminding Dagon of his prior self. He didn't know quite why -- perhaps it resonated with the starseed in his chest --

"Oh!" He held out his hand, offering a grin. "I think Arra'll be fine if I'm out a bit longer. I could show you my world. Hope you'll approve of the job I've done over the years."

Honestly, probably the first person who could tell him if it really felt the same as it had...

Just, minus the people.

"My world was one of the few things that brought me comfort, earlier on, once I could go to it." Encke's brows knit, floating near the topics that still weighed on him even if it had grown considerably easier to talk about them before he continued onward without those topics. "I do know some of the senshi and knights who were born on this world are more concerned with Earth than their prior homes in space. And I can understand it, considering the threats here, but..."

But focusing on space opened up a literal universe of possibilities.

Encke grasped onto Dagon's hand, fishing out his senshi phone so he could take the two of them to his world.

"I'd like to see your world, too. I honestly like to see everyone's worlds, but," his laugh was warm, and the curiosity might have rang familiar, too, "I've made it a mission of mine to help with homeworlds. Part of my drive to get more people transcended. Maybe looking around can help give an idea of where I can help with yours."

He glanced down at his phone, and in another moment, they were gone.

The teleportation landed them on the surface of his world.

Dagon might find that things looked familiar, if ... emptier than they might have been in the Enckean Capitol's heyday. Looking up, the stars above -- very visible as the comet was in the aphelion, all of the ice and dust from the perihelion long discarded from the sky -- still seemed to be moving with the speed that Encke flew across the system. Looking up toward the tops of the buildings of the city, the lightning flew between them, powering the electronics and the luminescence below. The paths showed signs of repair throughout, and Encke's work was clear and obvious in just how new some of those repairs looked.

It had been years since he started, though; some of those repairs also showed signs of solidifying, and they looked less new and more as they had always been there.

Signs of more recent developments were in the air. Encke was delighted to see a few of the soul moths dancing nearby, and even more delighted when he saw a small group of the mice he had spotted last time he had visited scurrying between small plants that burst through the rockier grounds of Encke's Comet. He wasn't able to help the ridiculous grin on his face.

He wasn't sure he wanted to.

The only thing that felt missing was more of the animals, and more of the different peoples that had filtered in and out. But there hadn't ever been a part of him that had expected to even get this far-- "Well. We're here," he offered, with a quiet laugh, turning toward Dagon.

He hadn't let go of her hand yet, though he'd drop her hand if she dropped his.

Encke was looking forward to experiencing Dagon, even in the state it was in, especially if she wanted to share it with him. For now, though, he was happy to show her around her world, let her experience it, see for herself what it was like now and if it was suited to what she remembered--

And he watched her as she looked up and looked around, and something was affectionate on his face as he heard her talk.

"Fog has a way of making everything feel eerily quiet and still, I think," Encke knit his brows, getting the sense that the fog Dagon referred to hadn't been there a thousand years ago. "Encke's still quieter than it was in my memories," at least, in this area -- upon the peaks that he had occasionally climbed it had always been quieter, but in his memories, he could hear the ringing of voices all around him -- "but it's gotten noisier over the years."

The electricity. The fountains. The running water and irrigation in the gardens. The machinery and the screens that had kicked back on due to the power running through the buildings. And, most importantly--

The little moth that landed on Dagon's hand.

Encke kept his grip on Dagon's hand, light but present, as he watched the moth and then watched her face. The affectionate grin for his world seemed ever-present, even as his eyes slid away from her face and then back to the little moth.

"The plants I've been growing for several years now," he admitted, glancing back toward where the most prominent gardens sat, "but these?" Back to the little moth, then. "First started appearing a few months ago. I saw them dancing over the gardens after a bad battle on Earth. And after years I thought there would never be anything in my lifetime, but--"

As if to punctuate his statement, a few small birds swept by in the distance.

Encke's eyes caught them and followed them, and they looked so very new, too--

"I'm happy to hear you remember these. Makes me feel like I've really done something, here."

Encke's Comet was getting restored.

Being told that his people -- The People -- would have been proud to have his world stewarded by him warmed his heart. There was a small part of his thoughts that had the very past Encke thought of I'd hope so, but the rest of his thoughts were generally thrilled. This was someone who had actually seen his world in its heyday, back when it was fully alive, back before whatever had wiped it out and removed all the life a thousand years ago--

He might have wiggled in his delight.

"Thank you," Encke's voice was warm and quiet, careful to not disturb the moth himself. "That really means a lot to me. I've been hoping I've been getting it right, yeah? Making this what it feels like it should be, and what it can be. Because our needs are different these days -- we're not necessarily a place for a still-living people," as much as he wondered what it might be like if Encke's Comet could still be populated with Enckeans, "but we can be a place for currently-living people."

But he was getting distracted, "But, yes, the battle." His gaze went somewhere more distant as he tracked some of the nearby mice, easier to focus on something else as he tapped back into that space. He felt the tension sing in his body as he remembered what had happened-- "There is another alien species on Earth. Their name is the Velencians -- they were once known as the Velenians if you recognize that name -- and they returned to Earth with their King, Caedus, who had escaped from the Negaverse's Rift after a thousand years of imprisonment, and their Commodore, Lyndin. They arrived with a proposal; they would put together a machine that would harness the energy of their comet fragment, Archideus, to blast into the Negaverse and aim at their leader, Metallia."

He shifted uncomfortably.

"The day that was supposed to happen, when the machine and its generators turned on, the general-sovereigns of the Negaverse appeared, and the Negaverse brought in their forces and ambushed us. There was a massive push of Chaos -- many wavered toward the Negaverse or were outright forcefully corrupted into their forces, losing themselves." There was still someone he hadn't been able to contact since. Mizuki bubbled to mind; the endless unanswered texts he sent surely would have at least had an answer to stop by now if she was still seeing them. He hoped that she had simply not powered up. He feared much worse.

"At the same time, the Velencian Commodore took the King's starseed and attempted to leave with it. A majority of our forces focused our attention on destroying the machines and generators that were now corrupting us, no matter what we had been told they were supposed to do, while the Negaverse attacked us," he hadn't, quite, and though he had attacked the center console his attention had also been wrapped up with the Velencians, "and the machine exploded, sending out a blast at Archideus."

His gaze turned toward her.

"... And then we were transported to the Moon, where we watched some kind of pulse go over the worlds on this map above us."