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It was a beautiful night.

Early spring was one of Abzu's favorite times of the year. People emerged out of their homes like they were breaking out of hibernation and acted about the same. The freedom he found in people's behaviours was immense, and for someone who was decidedly a lush, more people to find that freedom with, the better. It was also generally nice weather -- and while his Neptunian-granted outfit wasn't one that caused him to be cold, it did feel more comfortable in these middling temperatures.

He held his saxophone in both hands, idly fingering a tune as he wandered through the streets. He was supposed to be looking for auras, he presumed, but he wasn't sure he overly cared about that. The last time he had found an excessive amount of them, all it had led to was injuries and getting teleported to what was apparently the ******** Moon.

There were a few moments that night where he thought that perhaps he might have partaken a bit too much. Usually knew how to hold himself, but--

Alas, he had not partaken, and it was all, indeed, real.

At least it felt more real than being literally on a supposedly gaseous planet.

Abzu probably felt the other aura nearby, but he hadn't really acknowledged it, too involved in his thoughts and in whatever thing he was idly playing on the saxophone--to be honest, if he was asked, he wasn't sure--not until he heard the voice saying you're Neptune. There was that planet again. The Negaverse agent had mentioned it as a sign he was devoted to serving Neptune, not Earth.

And yet, there were more of them there. Her outfit was in the same color tone as his, and while he hadn't met many knights, he had seen enough of them on the Moon that he was able to put together that knights of the same part of the color wheel were probably of the same planet. There was that bearded bear with the tiny one with long red hair that looked like they wore the same colors, for example. Darker blue, not quite the same as his--

That explained why she was excited and rushing toward him in the first place, and that smile was wide and sweet and it delighted Abzu on the onset. Honestly, he liked the little wiggle of her fingers even more. He liked other happy people. "Hey!" It was his preference, and he preferred to do everything he could to just drive more of that.

"You know, I've never met another Neptune knight," he hadn't really one-on-one met any other knights at all -- except for a former one, anyway -- but that was beside the point. He took a chance to glance over her outfit in more detail and saw the shells, matching them up with the shells on his own outfit, before looking back up at her eyes. "And here I was wondering if there were any other knights like me. Abzu."

He lifted his hand in a wave as well, before offering it in case she was one of the types who preferred shaking hands.

It was an odd question, but just to confirm, "You were born here, right? On Earth, I mean?"

Pendour. He'd have to keep that name in mind. He wondered, briefly, if it had the same sorts of mythological origins as his own seemed to have. When he had realized the name that sounded right was "Abzu," of all things, he had taken a few moments to search it. The first result was the video game, of course, but the second one had a mythological bend--

Her grip was surprisingly firm, but his was even, confident. It was a hint at his business background -- or, at least, the background he was forced to have, something he wasn't terribly fond of but his grandparents had insisted on -- "Good," he muttered, primarily to himself, without interrupting her. That reaffirmed some things for him. How could they be invading if they already lived there? When was that flip? Was there a flip, or was it just Negaverse propaganda?

He'd have to listen to her talk, for sure--

"Oh, yeah, I've seen them. The pastel people." He ran his tongue over his lip, shifting from one foot to the other. "Those were the guys partially behind that whole generator s**t." And an invasion of the Negaverse. And maybe actually invading? They sounded like trouble.

His smile was a bit more genial after that. "The question probably made that obvious. Was just trying to confirm something. Talked to a former knight who's now in the Negaverse recently, and she said we were invading. Been Abzu for a few months, I think?" ... s**t, was that October? How was it already March? Wasn't that five months? "Or several. I don't know. I awoke shortly before the generator thing.

"That seemed like a lot of trouble. And I'm not, ah, fond of trouble." At least, not that kind.

That's one of the main ones.

It made sense with what he had heard. While the agent had admitted that perhaps she hadn't had all the answers, she seemed certain in her convictions. She had believed sincerely that the senshi and the knights who "did not know better" were invading. Her opinion seemed complicated -- perhaps both sides had done some bad things, but she was on the right one -- but it did confirm a few things. "Thought that might have been the case. There's definitely dissonance with the we were born here, though aspect. She seems to think we might become invaders once we gain memories of our past lives, though. Maybe that's one of the twists?"

He had thought about the past life thing for a couple of hours and decided that perhaps that new age bullshit being real was one of the least bizarre things about all of this.

"Oh, that's what the pastel people are called? Velencians?" He tried it out once more on his tongue before continuing with, "I think aligning with space elves probably dampens the 'we don't like invaders' aspect. Unless they change it into saying some aliens are beneficial, just not us."

There were always new arguments in propaganda to keep the machine running. That was how war machines had gotten themselves started, and if this war was really going on as long as it seemed, then that particular machine probably had deep experience in spinning new stories and refreshing ones that didn't make sense anymore.

She seemed to be begging him to believe that she wasn't a fighter, with that look on her face. He would have believed her in the first place -- she seemed sincere enough, sincere enough for him to take her at face value -- but it wasn't like the expression hurt anything. "I don't think I've fought for anything in my whole life." Well. Except for maybe... "Nice to know that not everyone in this apparent war is out for blood. The Negaverse agent I spoke with didn't seem to be either. Just thought everything she did was necessary. That battle gave other impressions, though."

He ran his hand over his hair.

"Do you know how this all started? Why is everyone out for blood, anyway?"

Legends. To believe there was a whole war over a legend, of all things -- though he supposed a legend of interstellar betrayal was a less ridiculous reason to fight than some things he heard. Moon Princess -- okay, so that nonsense they saw on the Moon was the remnants of a kingdom, and he wasn't sure if he made that more alarming or if he thought that it might as well have been the remnants of a kingdom -- and Earth Princess got into a fight, Earth Princess drank the chaos poison...

Well, that would explain why they thought they were fighting for Earth, at least, even if they clearly weren't.

Chaos takes, and takes, and people in Order fought against them to end it, which became a cycle that fed into itself. Honestly, it made a lot of sense and might explain why some people couldn't quite connect how this all started. If it was a cycle, maybe there was no longer a clear-cut point. Of course, he couldn't blame anyone who fought against it if Chaos was taking people and souls--

"So a princess drinks Chaos' bullshit and corrupts a bunch of people on Earth who steal people and the people on our side get upset with them and react in ways that they hope will end the threat. It makes sense." Abzu tapped his chin, glancing down at the ground as he mused over it. "I suppose they also take memories? The person I spoke to from the Negaverse said she couldn't remember anything from when she was a knight. I suppose other than the fact she must have been one. Is that normal?"

He couldn't see anything that wiped the self as innately good, though he definitely wanted to know more about the history of all of this, what drove this, and understand what he had gotten into just by being born with a Neptunian soul.

Apparently.

"What do you plan on doing to break the cycle?" He glanced back up to Pendour, eyes curious. "It sounds like this has been going on for longer than we've been alive, for sure. She said something about a decade in this life, and you mention a legend which makes this sound ancient." Abzu paused, before adding, "No offense intended, by the way. I'm interested in hearing how this could be broken."

His smile was as charming as ever.

"s**t. That's ******** up."

Well, it was. If he had somehow been thrown onto the wrong side of this -- that he was born with an invader's soul and he needed to align himself to Earth -- well, he would just stop stepping into this form, then. Wouldn't be hard. The concept of throwing his whole life away, memories and all, was something that instinctually felt wrong in his stomach. And the side that made habits of stealing people's identities couldn't possibly be a good one, right?

It was starting to add up, and he was admittedly glad some of the ways that made this add up had approached him on their own--

If the people on his side didn't like the methods that the other side took, maybe it made sense in that light. He wondered if that might have explained the reason why they had invaded their base. If they were doing things like that, maybe a hit at the base was in hopes of ending that--

He shook his head out of the thoughts -- damn, this definitely was sounding like work -- and listened to what she was offering. She wasn't wrong. Ancient troubles did have a way of circling back again, and he supposed ancient legends that might have some root in truth weren't really an exception. "So you're hoping to pull away their forces so Chaos loses people to fight with."

His eyes traced her ocarina -- so apparently all Neptunian souls got instruments? "Oh, that is handy. I imagine making people less inclined to go out for blood might--"

Abzu paused.

"Wait, we get magic?" That probably should have been his first question. He glanced from her ocarina to his saxophone, his lips pursing in curiosity. "When do we get that?"

Calming? That actually sounded useful.

And if he just had to play his magic instrument for it, that wouldn't be so much.

He noticed the way she shifted and immediately tuned in to it, wondering why then was the moment that she murmured and changed position. She clearly had some knowledge of it, mentioning someone she had lost to the other side. Was that connected?

Abzu was curious, but he had long learned in situations dealing with personal pain it was often better to learn by observation or wait for the other party to mention it themselves. He didn't ask, instead focusing on what she said next. Break their propaganda machine. Convince some of the more vengeful people on their side to maybe not be so much so. A generalized de-escalation. He wasn't sure if Chaos could be convinced if their solution was to simply wipe memories, but by the same time, all conflicts ebbed and flowed.

Perhaps she could assist an ebb.

"Not a bad idea. If propaganda could be stopped, for example," Abzu frowned, "might give a chance for that agent to think about the pieces of what she was saying that don't quite match up without the pressing influence of that."

That woman was clearly smart as hell. But that didn't quite stop propaganda from taking root.

He was about to comment on the magic coming later -- damn, more ******** work -- when she inflated his ego a bit by mentioning his music. The attempts to comment on the magic was momentarily derailed as he shot her a wide grin, his chest puffing out a bit. He wasn't proud of much. "Thank you! I try." She had hit on something he was proud of. "I guess Neptune must've known something. I'm actually a saxophonist outside of," he gestured, "this. Took to it as a child. Usually, play the soprano - alto - tenor range."

He twirled the saxophone idly. "Honestly, I wish musical skill gave me some early magic. Calming people down at the onset would be nice."

Encouraging his pride did nothing but make him puff out his chest just that much more, and he winked when she said he should be proud. There were the competing thoughts of damn right he should be proud and wanting to thank her again -- just because he was self-assured and knew he was good didn't mean he didn't appreciate it anyway.

Instead, he settled on the concept of using his musical talent as an advantage.

Huh.

"I know how to play those slower, smoother songs. I mean, a lot of people associate them with sensual activities, but," he snorted at that, "there are slower sax tunes that don't appeal to that interest. Maybe I can give that a shot if someone comes at me. Bit stressful, but playing the sax is an instinct at this point." Probably easy enough to summon during a stressful situation. Maybe. Hopefully.

He smirked. "And wailing? I can definitely do that." That wouldn't even take much effort.

He found himself looking back to the instrument she held. An ocarina. He didn't see them particularly often in the West, though he knew they had resurged in popularity to a degree ever since featuring in a particular video game series. Its ancient origins were hinted at in the fact she held one. "Do all Neptunians have instruments? And are they naturally drawn to them?"