Welcome to Gaia! ::

Encke took in a deep breath and let it out, evening his heartbeat after having chased off a Negaverse captain. A starseed was returned, a civilian left in front of the hospital his mother worked at, and hopefully things would be a little less chaotic this evening.

The sensation of an Order aura was certainly promising for that.

When he felt it -- a knight, the level of Pendour -- he pulled himself to the side so he was in an appropriate place for talking and waited for it to just get a little bit closer. And then they came around the corner, and there was a momentary whiplash as Encke tried to process where he recognized her from -- Moon Knight, he knew that, the colors and the general vibe matched up with Serenitatis --

Oh.

She sounded nervous, but he couldn't quite help the way his face entirely cracked into a grin. What had happened? How had she gotten out after she had been chased away by Cybele and his oft overzealous sister? Was everything going alright? Who did she know? What did she go by now, and had she met any other knights because he had the hookup if she hadn't--

"Anything," Encke offered, with a gentle chuckle. "Welcome to the right side, by the way."

Scary?

The question took him by surprise, and his enthusiasm tempered just a tad as he realized there might have been something deeper going on here. He tapped his fingers against his leg as he watched her twirl her staff, his eyes returning to look at hers once she continued her question. And the answer was, admittedly, complicated. He didn't find her scary. By the time he had met her, she was sad and looking for proof that the Negaverse perhaps wasn't evil, and even by the second meeting willing to leave it all behind--

And as a consequence, it sounded like she had left it all behind. Her memory was missing, she couldn't go home -- sounded like she remembered her civilian life and not her powered life, which was complicated --

"You're not scary, no," which was how he started. "When I talked to you, you were mainly just," he fidgeted, "sad." And defensive, at first, enough that he wanted to make sure she wouldn't stab him, but that had faded by the later meeting-- "I think some people have some history with what you were that may have altered their perception of you. Things that might be hard for them to forgive even if you don't remember."

He remembered what Cybele said, too. Convinced Sylvite had been lying to him. She was information, anyway, that was her job to try and worm information out of him--

"Do you know what the other senshi looked like? Maybe I can give some context if I know the situation there. I know navigating the memory loss isn't easy. You're not the first person I've met who has lost those memories."

Fairly sure she was the first he met who lost the powered side, though.

Antlers and flowers and was super pretty-- Ah. He was fairly sure he knew who this was, considering all the other context around it. That was definitely a heavy topic, but also one she deserved to know. At the very least, it would make Cybele's behavior seem a bit less out of the blue even if the new Sylvite had no idea what that context was.

Or -- Nectaris. That was a sweet name. He bounced on his heels for a moment.

"Nectaris is a pretty name! I've met another moon knight before -- or page, anyway. I'll have to see if I can get you two introduced. I know you're a smaller group." Maybe he'd snatch Basiluzzo's signet ring for a moment. Or get him to stamp a letter to Serentatis, anyway-- "My name is Encke, Transcendent Eternal Senshi of Plasma. The transcendent is where the glowing comes from."

He figured holding out his arm and letting her look at the markings on his fingers and arm would be a good distraction from the other part. Maybe. Maybe he also just liked showing them off--

For good measure, he wiggled his fingers.

Encke bit his lip lightly -- how did he explain the evil things the Negaverse had influenced her to do -- before continuing with, "I think I know who that is, actually, considering the context. Her name is Cybele. She is part of the history you can't remember, and I think at least a part of the reason why you ultimately decided to leave the Negaverse."

He remembered her agreement that what she had done to Cybele had been wrong, and that forcible corruption shouldn't be done--

"I can explain that, if you want."

"I can definitely try to do that," Encke replied, with a gentle laugh. "No promises I know everyone who might try, but," he at least knew who should definitely be avoided in the sense of Cybele-- "I know plenty of friendly knights, at least."

He was already running through a quick list in his mind of the knights he could start with. Pendour seemed like an easy choice. Basiluzzo could likely match the same enthusiasm if given a few minutes. And maybe some non-knights too, considering. He bet with her enthusiasm, she'd get along pretty well with Keiko, too--

Oh, good.

It felt especially important to spread the good word about bonding with wonders and homeworlds considering she was not only ex-Negaverse, but ex-Negaverse with considerable history. It was almost guaranteed there would be people trying to hunt her down. The best protection against being forced back would be the protection of transcendence--

He was perfectly happy with the personal space invasion, letting her take a look at the markings as he responded, "Right? I love the markings. Woke up with them after helping my homeworld and I honestly can't remember what my powered outfit looked like without them." He did know he used to have armbands where some of the transcendence markings now sat-- "And no, it has nothing to do with you being former Negaverse and me not. I know another senshi, Kerberos, who is former Negaverse and transcendent now."

... Maybe add him to the list of people to get Nectaris in touch with ...

"You gain this glow by forging a bond with your place in space. In your case, it'd be your wonder on the Moon, the place called Nectaris that you take your name from. Likely a place that was important to the people of the Moon in the past." Usually, he'd say in your past life, but to be honest, he still didn't quite know how that worked for Moon Knights. He knew Serentatis was the first of her name. He imagined that meant Nectaris was, too-- "I got this by helping restore my homeworld to some of its former glory. Restoring buildings, paths, electricity, water."

He sighed, almost like he was dreamily watching a romantic movie.

"And it rewarded me. The place feels like a legit home where people could live, now, and I can donate energy to people who need it in turn. And the Negaverse can't touch the starseed in here," he tapped his chest.

Just for good measure.

"You should," Encke was, of course, going to encourage all homeworld and wonder visiting. It was his thing in a lot of ways, and every time he saw someone grow closer to their planet because of it, he felt his heart flutter. "I'd be interested to see what a Moon Wonder was like myself if you ever need help or company up there."

Of course, he had to slide that in there, too.

He didn't mind the reason why Nectaris was focused on visiting her wonder, admittedly. Any part of being fascinated by it was a way to get them to their place in space and get to know it, and that was the first step to anything when it came to restoring space. "Honestly, it does look pretty magic, right? Bioluminescence isn't something any of us naturally have, and yet--"

And yet, once he had it, he had felt closer to the Enckeans of the past.

Encke's fingers had glowed then, too. As had his toes. As had his eyes, even if it was only around his eyes that glowed now--

"Honestly, it is a lot of DIY. I knew s**t at first about actually doing it, but," he ran a hand through his hair, "I looked up tutorials on things like house restoration and flipping. Path repair. Got real good at cement. And some stuff might just come to you while you're there."

Well. He wasn't sure how that'd work for Nectaris, but maybe inspiration would work the same as the memory boost did--

"It gets easier, especially if you find you love the place and you'd like it to thrive again."

Seeing her enthusiasm about it just increased his own, and he bounced on the balls of his feet as it seemed she was embracing the concept with enthusiasm. Going on her own first made sense; that was what he did, too, even if he had been rather isolated when he had started visiting his homeworld. He kept to himself, cleared out youma, and visited the one place every three weeks that felt like it pulled him out of the--

He snickered affectionately at the big eyes she gave him, teasingly responding with a, "Alright, alright," as if he was getting dragged into it. The voice disappeared, replaced with the same enthusiasm when he finished that with a, "Let me know when you're ready, alright? I get going by yourself at first. I did the same. But honestly, if you're anything like me, easily impressed aside, you're gonna love it."

Encke had become his home, really. Just as much as his home with Richard, Luke, Safira, Viatrix, Ophelia, and Luz.

Sometimes Caedus. There was space for him, at least.

But the serious topic was bound to come back, and he took a deep breath as he once again found himself trying to figure out how to navigate it. Telling her that she had been the reason why someone had lost themself wouldn't really be something he could easily lessen the blow of. Just had to be gentle about it.

"Eternal Cybele of the Hunt. She's passionate and determined, and a good person if a bit stressed," Anser had implied she was stressed out, at least, considering... "She's familiar with you because, before you were Nectaris, you brought her into the Negaverse. It wasn't what she wanted and she lost her memories and identity because of it. Similar to what you're feeling, with not knowing what you did in the Negaverse, except all of it."

Encke let out a deep breath, trying to relax the urge to bounce faster.

"You told me, before, that you thought that you shouldn't have done it. And that you think that kind of corruption is bad. I think it just might take a long time for her to forgive that, and seeing you, even away from that, probably brought back a bunch of emotions." And, to be entirely fair to her, he would understand why Cybele might be inclined to never forgive that action.

But this was heavy enough on its own.

She was getting nervous, or scared, or upset, or some combination of the three -- hadn't lost the fast-talking or the fidgeting or the way she showed her nerves in the memory loss. He wanted to reach out and hug her, but had the same conflicting emotions of wanting to make sure she got the space she needed to process and fidget if she needed that. He did shift his weight from one leg to the other as he watched, debating the right response and the right way to take this.

Missing seven years was... rough. He wouldn't wish it or any kind of memory loss on anyone. And he imagined it'd be particularly alarming going from being a teenager with superhero aspirations to being a full-blown adult with no knowledge as to otherwise. Maybe he should see if she'd want to take some GED classes--

That was a problem for later, Encke.

"Chaos has a way of ... blinding people. It's a deep, sickening influence that can make people do some truly heinous things because it makes it feel alright. Some people regularly do things like take souls. Starseeds. That wasn't you, but," he sincerely believed that now. "I do truly believe you wanted to help people. And have fun powers. You were saying things about finding ways to change it from the inside but maybe the whole machine is broken, and you'd be able to help more outside of it."

He wrung his hands.

"I know what it's like, in a way," sort of, not in the same way, the way being a youma changed the psyche had its own problems, but it had convinced him that he deeply wanted to taste things and destroy things that he would never want to in reality, and the thoughts still tempted nausea on the right occasion, "and it'll convince you those things are alright. That things like taking someone to save them in Chaos is the right thing to do. But you broke through that and figured out they weren't. And you got out of your own volition. And you have an opportunity to have fun powers now."

His smile was gentle.

"And maybe help people, right?"

Encke spread out his arms a bit in case a hug would help.