Welcome to Gaia! ::

Lysvi agreed.

For all the work they had done, what had happened with the Negaverse had undone all of it within a few minutes. Caedus had built up an entire group of people that trusted them with theoretical planets to work with, and Lyndin had dashed that in seconds. They understood it, theoretically. By theory: They needed something concrete to work with, and waiting for the planet idea to play out even without Sailor Velenia was likely going to take longer than they could have afforded. But by execution, Caedus didn't deserve to die, especially not for an experiment that a new Sailor Velenia would appear quickly and in a way that he could awaken. They could adapt to Caedus as he was, and they could move forward as a people, with the help of the allies that Caedus had started making.

The Negaverse had a planet they were already mining the people from. These people had worlds. "I agree. Better that we are allies first before making those kinds of requests, especially considering what happened. He may be friendly to us, but we can't guarantee he's not upset." And, honestly, Lysvi would find that upset fair.

If some people came in, befriended them, and then stole away some of their friends, they'd be pretty upset, too.

"... Was he one of the people who was talking to the Commodore about Caedus?"

The conversation of their discussion, Encke, sat a short distance away, checking new database entries on his phone while sipping at a drink on the other hand. If it wasn't for the fact he was powered up, this would probably feel like any other day waiting in the park.

He, of course, was unaware of the nearby Velencians.

Lysvi watched Fae-fae carefully as she went through the stages of observation and connection and understanding, and their face lit up in delight she seemed to recognize something. Honestly, maybe that was even better. Fae-fae had said that her connection, Raksha, had suggested this senshi was friendly, but if he was already trying to save Caedus--

Well, maybe unless he was pissed at all of them because of that.

Hm.

Lysvi nodded in agreement, letting Fae-fae take the lead from here. She was a corporal now, after all. Lysvi was curious and wanted to ask this Encke plenty of questions about his planet and languages and if he knew any more of these plentiful Earth languages, but they would wait their turn as Fae-fae introduced them.

Encke heard the whistle and looked toward it. Oh! He cleared his throat, stood up, brushed himself off, and approached them as he tucked his phone away. They were relatively obvious. If the skintones didn't do it -- lavender and pale blue were definitely not anything human, and if he was fairly sure even a professional costume designer might have trouble with that -- their uniforms were an easy callout.

"Ah, hello. I'm Sailor Encke." He offered his hand. "And you?"

Now that he took a closer look, one of them seemed extremely familiar.

Encke honestly found Fae-fae's emulation of the gesture cute, and it brought him a bit of a smile despite his uncertainty. He returned the handshake with gusto, and did the same with the Cadet Lysvi, who emulated Fae-fae's action by doing it in the exact same way. It was important that the nonverbal methods of communication be performed just as well as the verbal ones, after all.

Raksha! Encke's eyes lit up in recognition. "Yes, I know her," and liked her a considerable amount. He wondered how her training with Dagon would go. At least crossing paths with a Velencian was likely considerably less traumatizing than the lieutenant with a coin-- "I don't want to make enemies of you, no, though it is important to note that I'm aligned to Caedus, so if that's a..." He squinted at Fae-fae. "Wait."

She was familiar.

Lysvi was too. They were the very pale cadet bundled next to another cadet with wispy hair. And they stood with-- "You were the one who said you could adapt to Caedus, right?"

"Yes!" Lysvi didn't want to potentially lose this ally. "Corporal Fae-fae was. We think that there has to be a better way."

Encke's shoulders relaxed. "Okay. We're on the same page."

"I am, too," added Lysvi, nodding in agreement with Fae-fae. "Caedus is a good man. I like him." They liked his enthusiasm about Earth languages and their insight and his fries and his niceness-- Their fists clenched for a moment as they contemplated that, remembering how overwhelmed they had been at the time. How overwhelmed they still were. "He can't help the fact that his starseed is different and we shouldn't punish him for that."

They sniffled, rubbed their nose, and took a deep breath to bring the emotions back in. "My apologies. But, thank you."

Encke felt a bit sheepish at being thanked for something that he would have done no matter the circumstance. Caedus was important to him. And realizing he had the power to interfere in Caedus' favour-- "You don't need to thank me. Really. I'm just glad he's alive, and that I was able to do something that day that ensured that."

He shifted as he glanced off in the middle distance. Didn't want to think of the alternative, but he still didn't want to make an enemy of Lyndin. He knew he had closed off Lyndin's seeming path to what he wanted, but...

"I understand what desperation can drive people to do, but..." his glance shifted to the Velencians in front of him, "but there are always other options. And I think if you want to find other options too, we will find one."

He chuckled, as he added, "though maybe not all of your allies would want to deal with me. I understand I probably pissed some people off." And considering his own allies, he might want to keep his distance from some of them, too--

Lysvi's shoulders relaxed, and they nodded their head toward Fae-fae in thanks. They had never been the best at societal norms, their emotions always running higher than perhaps they should have. It was almost a doubling, a contrast to Yddagen who barely emoted at all, but it was also just what they were most comfortable with. They were in tune with emotions. It allowed them to understand those subtleties in words and conversations.

At least, that was the theory.

"I agree," they nodded again to Fae-fae, before turning to Sailor Encke. "I do not want to potentially jeopardize this or our mutual ally," that being Caedus, naturally. "Our allies' opinions on how to go forward from here are varied. I imagine there are some that would prefer to continue in the other direction."

They understood why some of their fellow Vanguardians agreed that Lyndin's assessment, that the Council's assessment, that Caedus must die was the best one. Lysvi didn't agree. They also figured that someone who had prevented Lyndin's plan might not be seen favorably by them--

"A lot of anger. It was an intense situation, compounded by the corruptions and the general chaos and the life-taking and--," Encke took a deep breath and let it out. "A lot happened that day. But I'd still like to work with you where I'm able. The fact that your people are alive is a miracle and I want to see that continue."

He paused, before adding, with a sheepish smile, "And Caedus asked me to help Velencians still, too."

And if that was what Caedus wanted, Encke definitely wanted to make sure he kept to that.

Lysvi, admittedly, was wondering the same. The way Encke spoke of Caedus not only hinted that they both held each other in high regard, but also that Encke had seen Caedus. Naturally, Lysvi hadn't seen him since the events of that night, the night when they and Yddagen had gone with Lyndin and therefore to the Negaverse. They weren't even sure if Caedus would trust them now...

But Encke might have. Maybe he could get them back in touch.

"I have one too," Lysvi volunteered, fishing it out, the little charm they had dangling off of their pop on the back of their phone jangling. The human phones seemed so comparatively primitive, but they had come a long way in even just a hundred years. In even just ten years. The fact they could hold up their phone to words and have technology translate them was pretty cool--

"Oh," right, they wouldn't be able to interface with his senshi phone, would they-- He paused, took a cautious look around, and took a deep breath before dehenshining into Ignacio Araya so he could get his human phone out of his pocket. "Just note me in your phone as my civilian nickname... minimizes the risk if an agent or an unfavorable Velencian gets your phone somehow." He offered his phone to them after switching to his contacts screen.

Lysvi's eyes widened. Were those field names in Spanish?

"Ah, that civilian nickname would be Ig. Or Ignacio. Fairly common name." Ignacio chuckled. "Well, at least, among Hispanic people."

They excitedly couldn't help a, "Oh, you know Spanish!"

He rubbed his neck. "Ah, sí. I have my phone's language set in Spanish so I still use it frequently even if I don't speak it daily."

Lysvi, of course, loved this but did their best to keep their urge to explore to a minimum.

Lysvi should probably do the same... They glanced between Ignacio and Zephyr before morphing into the same civilian guise -- well, not the exact same one, standing as a civilian with tanned skin and curled lavender hair and deeper red eyes. "Me llamo Misty O'Kane*," they said, unable to resist the temptation of speaking Spanish in front of someone who would understand fluently and maybe correct them.

Ignacio took his phone back from the two of them, offering Misty an easy smile. "Tu nombre es lindo.**" That elicited more delight from Misty as he glanced down to the text, taking a moment to read it over.

"I like the name you chose, too." To Zephyr, he offered the same easy smile. These two seemed trustworthy. It was a bit of a risk considering what some of the Velencians had done, but he saw no reason to fear these two in particular. They wanted to help Caedus. They wanted to find a solution with Caedus. This was the exact thing he and Pendour had been talking about -- offering help and lodging and solutions for the Velencians that wouldn't lead to deaths. This was the exact thing Caedus wanted. Help Velencians. "I'll let him know if I see him. I think he'd like to know that."

Instead of tucking his phone away, he kept it out, realizing that was Zephyr's method of communication.

"He's still concerned for you. All of you. You're important to him."