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The wintry resistance that Viatrix's thicker, fluffy coat provided her was something magical, especially in the months of January and February where it seemed like everything in Destiny City was consistently chilly. It was one of the few times that she found that most of her charges didn't quite mind so much the way she preferred to drape around their shoulders like a fancy scarf, and today wasn't much of an exception.

Encke did have that magical resistance, but there was still something unpleasant about the occasional breeze that having Viatrix around his shoulders defended against. He wouldn't tell her that out loud, of course; that would be letting Viatrix know that he actually didn't mind that she treated him like her noble steed half the time, even though it was obvious he didn't quite mind since he kept letting her do it-- "So why are you insisting on accompanying me in my patrol today?"

"Shh, quiet," Viatrix swatted at him with her paw, letting it graze along his cheek. "I'm trying to focus."

Encke couldn't help the small amount of existential dread that bubbled up in his throat when she said she was trying to focus. "Please don't tell me you expect me to chase someone down the street again--"

Viatrix winced. "That might have been a mistake, but it was a necessary one--"

"Was it? Really?"

"Shh!" Viatrix didn't let him finish that argument, partially because she knew she would win, anyway, partially because she was almost positive that the girl across the way talking about not hurting herself because she wasn't a stuffed toy was definitely someone with a starseed begging for awakening. She tapped Encke's shoulder lightly with her paw and pointed in that direction, hissing a, "Go approach them."

Encke did not have the best feeling about this.

He started toward the duo, anyway.

It wasn't really all that subtle, in the end, not with the way she looked at them and suddenly picked up her steps and started talking about full cosplay and League of Legends -- he was pretty sure his sister had referred to that game before, he had never played it though -- and Encke couldn't help the string of curses that ran through his mind as soon as his brain let go of the thoughts about League of Legends that were the first ones to bubble up. "She recognizes us," he hissed, in case Viatrix didn't realize that.

She swatted at him and hushed him once more, and then urged him to also speed up with a few taps to his shoulder. Fortunately for them, it didn't seem like Viatrix's target was necessarily getting faster, even if her sister with her -- because that had to be her sister, right? -- was trying to.

"I am not running after them," Encke was giving quietly distressed energy, and Viatrix wasn't having it, so she shot back with a,

"I'm not letting her go," which Encke responded with,

"Isn't there a better way to get their attention than--"

She cut him off, leaping off his shoulders and hitting the ground with a force that was probably a bit overdramatic before darting after the two of them as quickly as she could, leaping and bounding and forcing the very obvious in glowing pink and purple not-cosplayer to run after her and hope that the reason why the civilian recognized them wasn't because she was a Negaverse agent or something else that might be problematic--

Viatrix skidded to a stop right behind them.

"Hi!"

Encke wished she would stop starting with the whole "being a cat who can talk" thing, but if they were already recognized-- He attempted to scoop her up before anyone else realized the cat was talking--

There was something he could sense in the way that the older sister was talking to him that he sympathized with, and there was something in it that came with either a sense of relief -- she didn't seem hostile, at least, so she likely didn't recognize them because she was a member of the Negaverse -- and a sense of dread in that he wasn't sure what to do with someone that didn't want anything to do with any of this. He rubbed his neck awkwardly with a half-lifted smile that didn't quite seem to make it to his eyes as he said, "Sorry," but it didn't come with anything hinting that they would leave.

Especially not with the way that the younger one rejected it, the way the older one started ranting, and the way that the younger one turned her attention to Viatrix.

And Viatrix was very good at what she did.

When the younger one reached out, Viatrix purred, letting her pet her without any of the dismissiveness her parents' cat might have shown her. Her fur was plenty soft, especially with the winter, and she was very happy to not only be pet but to let her pet her as long as she needed.

"It's nice to meet you!" since she had already broached the speaking and it was acknowledged, she was just going to keep doing it. Honestly, she didn't know why Encke didn't appreciate her methods. It got all the complicated stuff like 'Wait, you can talk?' out of the way right away-- "I'm Viatrix! What's your name?"

Her senshi name was 'Cepheus,' Viatrix was pretty sure, but she wanted to establish some friendliness first. Encke would probably prefer that versus launching straight into the senshi spiel. Probably.

Encke couldn't help wondering what the older sibling was referring to when she was saying, been there, done that. He had gathered she was familiar with senshi considering the way she had reacted when she spotted them. Was determined to get away from them, even if she wasn't hostile. He also had a sense she was probably more than just familiar with how determined she was to get away, and how close she sounded to panicking.

... Could she have been powered herself? It was a guess, one he wasn't really able to confirm without her confirming it and he wasn't about to ask, but it would explain the familiarity. Of course, she could also just see that whatever the senshi or the costumed people were involved with was dangerous and wanted to keep her sister as far away from it as possible. He sympathized. A lot. Especially considering Anser.

But someone had awoken Anser without him even knowing and it was months before they had found each other out. Encke had found Anser out after she had nearly gotten knocked out at The Autumn, of all things. She had only made the connection that Encke was Encke in what was her own concussed delirium.

Gently, cautiously, Encke offered, "Would you like to sit down?"

Viatrix happily ignored whatever was happening between Encke and the elder sibling, wiggling her butt where a tail might have been when she introduced herself as Zinnia or Zee. "Oh, that's a cute nickname, Zee! I'll definitely use that if you'd prefer. Of course, if most people call you Zee but you'd rather something else, I can use that, too," she tapped her chin with her paw, thoughtfully, before pulling herself out of her own thoughts--

"I'm sure you've seen all those reports and rumors of things that wander around in this city, right?" Viatrix tilted her head. "What if I told you that I got a way for you to defend yourself against them? Promise I'm not a door-to-door salesman."

Encke's heart hurt for her. He didn't know what had happened, and if that thing had involved the senshi or if she was a senshi or if she had been attacked or something, but he saw the way her nails pressed into her hands and the way she looked like a scared animal in some ways -- it reminded him of himself in the worst days.

If she'd allow it, he sat down next to her.

"I don't know if it helps at all, but," he glanced toward her, offering a lop-sided smile, "mi hermanita was awoken into this," he gestured to himself, uncertain if he could be more specific than that, "without my even knowing. And she eventually found a way to be protected in a way that's better than just being a civilian in this city."

Unfortunately.

"Well, you don't have to be a good fighter," Viatrix carefully worked with her paws, turning them this way and that as she spoke to Zinnia. "There are other ways to help and defend yourself or the people of the city. I know a few people who don't fight at all and use their abilities to heal who have been hurt or speak to those who are hurting to work on convincing them to stop. This will let you do what you're comfortable with -- or even defend yourself with the use of magic and strength that is boosted, so you can at least hit harder."

She offered out the henshin pen to Zinnia.

"Take this. If you say--or think, I guess," she side-eyed Encke as she said this, clearly seeing more fun in saying the henshin phrase as much as he insisted on keeping his mouth shut and just willing the form instead, "Cepheus Power, make-up, you'll become someone who can do more against them!" Her more pensive, gentle expression had shifted into something bright. Another senshi! "Also, don't say you're not good at things. Everyone can get better with practice."

She seemed very certain of this. Even someone who would never be amazing at something could at least get better with consistency.

He had a feeling that it ultimately wouldn't be helpful, considering the panic that she seemed to be in -- or maybe just the resignation and defeat at this point -- but it was worth a shot, anyway. It had made him nauseous when he first realized Raina was a senshi once the shock and general adrenaline wore off, but it had helped establish one of the things he most sincerely wanted to see.

He wanted to see if he could encourage bonds with homeworlds, with wonders. He wanted their homes in space to be restored. He wanted them all to transcend.

Anser had done so, recently, which had been a huge relief--

"I can understand wanting to move away," Encke leaned forward, pursing his lips in thought. "Do you think you'd be safe elsewhere? Destiny City is ... what it is, of course, unfortunately, but I've never risked powering up elsewhere." The Negaverse kept cropping up here as owning more places than he realized. It led to his paranoia related to new establishments. He couldn't imagine it being any different elsewhere--

Viatrix let Zinnia reach toward her, and bumped her hand affectionately before letting her take the pen. "It won't go away. This is yours, whenever you want to call on it, whenever you need it. Cepheus will always be yours."

Hopefully, Zinnia was the type to love space as much as some of the others she awakened had.

Cepheus, the homeworld, would always be there for her to depend on, too.

"Just think about being Cepheus, and it'll be yours."

Less obvious could be better in some perspectives, worse in others -- easier to be oblivious but harder to fight against an unseen threat. He sympathized, he did, but suddenly everything was happening at once and the hidden suspicion that perhaps she might be powered -- unconfirmed, seemed just as likely that maybe she just had a set of bad run-ins, if not more so, but also she knew too much with the way she spoke at the end -- came to fruition as in front of him was... a squire, of a variety he didn't readily recognize somehow, though when he thought about it he could match up the colors with a couple of other people he had run into before--

Didn't have time to think about that. He stood up.

Viatrix, for her part, looked to Zinnia appreciatively but found herself taking her own strong stance. This squire couldn't threaten her; she seemed more afraid than anything-- "If not me, it's going to be someone else. Her starseed is calling. I won't be the only Mauvian to notice."

Even if Zee's sister wasn't.

"It'll be Chaos, and she'll be stuck in the Negaverse. Or it'll be a youma and-- this keeps her safer." Not safe, because she knew that was a lie, and she didn't want to make things worse, "And this is Zee's."

Encke glanced toward Viatrix for some symbol that maybe he should step in on her behalf, but Viatrix had that determined look of a Mauvian who was already ready to stand her ground.

He did, though, murmur, "I don't think people can ever fully leave this."

If anything, over the years, more and more people he knew seemed to get involved.