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"Feels unreal this place is here."

It was said offhandedly, gathered from the memories that were unsurfaced when he heard reference to the name Astraya by one of the apparently sapient robots. Androids? Was there a better word? Was there something they preferred? Kurma had said this place was dangerous. He was inclined to believe him. But Almadel was there too, and eager. Was he to be trusted?

Could he be trusted? He had always been trading--

He had trusted him previously, but the conflict in information made him wobbly. Every nerve in Encke's body was uneasy, but the opportunity they had was just as strong -- "Majesty, achieving an alliance with Astraya would be miraculous." "Do you understand what they may be capable of? We would never fear the spectre of death again. The People would be able to reach what we've always dreamed." -- and the sky was beautiful.

Encke couldn't deny that.

He sat with Pendour and Basiluzzo--Viatrix had insisted she wanted to know more about this sapient machine life and insisted on separating to get a closer look, and that had him nervous too--and gazed at the stars above, almost as much as he gazed to where they had come from and assuredly where the mechanical life still remained--was that appropriate?

They used organics to refer to them. What was the right word for them? Mechanics? Silicates?

"What do you guys think of this?" He asked, quietly, yanking his eyes back to the sky above. "Kurma said this place is dangerous."

"I agree," said Pendour with a slight incline of her head to Basiluzzo before she turned back to the task at hand, which was trying to adjust the settings on her civilian phone so that she could properly capture the breathtaking, exotic stars above.

It didn't have the same focus that a better camera would, or a lens designed to let in starlight, but she could at least adjust the lighting a little.

"There are people here. Of course it's dangerous. People seem addicted to hurting each other. I don't understand."

There was a slight pause as Pendour's gaze flicked away from her phone and towards the figures that she could see milling around in the distance.

"Well, I understand some of the cycles, some of the motivations, but still." Pendour let out a little sigh, and she swallowed, and subconsciously she reached over to rub at her arm scars.

The robots, though, she had even less idea about what to predict from them. They must have been programmed for something, she thought. If they'd been meant to be weapons, or guardians, then she could see things turning badly in the blink of an eye, but that didn't seem to be the case so far.

"I just don't... think that someone who meant us well would've done this without warning if they could have avoided it." Basiluzzo watched Encke try, fail with the button, watched Pendour try to take pictures of the sky. "I mean, maybe I'm being pessimistic. I don't know." He didn't like being pessimistic. He usually tried to find the best in situations, in people.

But if this were a truly random summoning, where was Lyndin? Not that he wanted to see them, but where were the Chaos leaders Lyndin had allied himself with? What about anyone else? No, it was just... an assortment of them, out on a strange planet under a strange sky, greeted by strange robots and invited to eat strange food. A truly random summoning would have caught at least one of them, right? And a summoning done fully intentionally should probably include at least one of them... right?

"Maybe we're both being pessimistic," Encke noted, softly, as he let his hand slide toward Basiluzzo's. They were far enough away from the chaotic presences. Some comfort would be nice. At least there was something in their closeness.

Pendour's soft smile and her even softer words caught him immediately. Before she even finished, he felt the edges of a smile pulling at his face.

No, she was right. They'd always made it. Together. This would be fine.

Encke took a deep breath, leaning back against Pendour too, leaving his hand out for Basiluzzo. "You're right. We've already gotten through so much together, right? Something dangerous is here, but we'll figure it out."

With an affectionate laugh, he added, "And then our space parties can stop having a hidden layer of doom."

One of the things that weren't dangerous had gathered a small plate of food from the party, piling it high and balancing it carefully. So far as it remembered, the organics liked when they were brought food. It believed that bringing them food would not only make them feel better, but may also put it in an even better light for their eyes.

Clearly, there was no way to lose, and they would know the completion of the trial was known by these organics soon enough.

It started wheeling its way over to the small group of three, currently yet unnoticed by Encke, who closed his eyes for a moment as he breathed.

"Hey," murmured Pendour, giving Encke's shoulder a teasing bump with her own. "My tea party wasn't all full of gloom, and anxiety, and all that, was it?"

It had been meant to be the opposite of that, and she thought it had succeeded. It had been meant to foster hope, and connection, and all of the feelings of positivity that could counter the feelings of doom and hopelessness that the Negaverse tried to plant in everyone's lives.

"I know you were there," she said, still a little teasing, and she glanced around Encke to make sure she could see Basi, too, "Even if you two were just off in the corner flirting for all of it."

Although she didn't have time to go on for two long about that, because Basi had noticed something and she turned her head to look at it, too.

"Oh, there's hours d'oeuvres," she said, giving a wave to the little robot before she reached down without hesitation to pick up a piece of cheese and put it in her mouth. "Good ones," she added after chewing.

"Thank you," she said to the helpful robot.

…Oh, well, Pendour hadn’t immediately died, so Basiluzzo supposed the food was safe. Reaching for a piece of cheese himself, he at first missed the way Encke had frozen. But the tone in Encke’s voice was much harder to miss, and the words, harder still.

Enckean? He paused, looking first to his husband and then to the robot. Home Helper, it had called itself, right? He’d heard Encke mention ‘The People’ before, so Basiluzzo supposed that tracked. There weren’t any markings on the robot that Basiluzzo could place, but he supposed he wouldn’t be able to identify them anyway.

—a quiet whirring noise that disturbed the light, but peaceful, doze he’d been starting to fall into. One eye cracked open, peering over someone’s chest rising and falling, seeing a little many-armed robot scuttling around. It picked up clothing from the floor, and he realized he should be embarrassed—

Basiluzzo shook himself out of it. He’d… think about that later, probably. But the robot did… he guessed… look the vaguest bit familiar.

And it being ‘Enckean’ seemed correct.

But what was most important were the tears on Encke’s face, though Basiluzzo didn’t know quite what to do about them. So he did what he’d done before, which was reach out and carefully, gently place a hand on Encke’s shoulder. At the same time, he glanced over to Pendour, though he wasn’t sure if he was trying to reassure her or himself.

There was a lot happening all at once, and it was a little bit overwhelming, because Encke had fifty thoughts all at once and he could barely parse any of them.

The most prominent, initially, was the fact that he was facing what might have been and likely was the only living resident of Encke before he had restored it. And there was still nothing quite like this, nothing with sentience, nothing with sapience, nothing that he could communicate with in this level, and nothing that might have known what the world was like that was outside of just what he remembered of it.

The second thought was brought to prominence by the feeling of Basiluzzo's hand on his shoulder and the feeling of Pendour burying her face into his body, a reaction he was familiar with, a reaction he was familiar with from when she was trying to hide her eye, and he found himself shifting so she could make herself more comfortable if she wanted to, careful to not jostle her.

But in front of him still stood something sincerely Enckean of the Silver Millennium as they called it--

Home Helper might have been looking at all three of them at a rapid rate if it had eyes. As it was, the lights under its surface were dancing at an excessive rate as it tried to figure out what had happened in front of it and what had perhaps gone wrong. One of the organics had said that food was good, and then clarified that people could break too, but it wasn't the organic that it had been referring to when it had asked if organics could break too.

It reached out with a tentacle, and then two, and then three, and attempted to pat each one of the organics on some part of the body. "Did I cause a situation? Did I say an incorrect thing? Is my being Enckean a problem?"

Encke was both scrambling to take his phone out of his subspace pocket because this opportunity was not one that he could let pass him by, and wondering how he could alleviate how intense the emotions had gotten in just a few minutes, and maybe also trying not to cry even more, because the concept of what he was facing was so incredibly overwhelming that he wasn't really sure what to ask or do about it.

"No," he finally managed, thickly, as he swallowed. "At least, you being Enckean is fine. Uh." Another swallow. "I'm Sailor Encke, and I'm honored to meet any member of The People that is still alive after this long."

He tried to reach so he could rub Pendour's arm supportively, even if he felt like he was pretzeling himself. She needed that comfort, and he wanted to give it, and he also didn't want to let his eyes leave an absolute wonder if the universe that lived in this strange, dangerous place--

Oh no. They were worrying about her.

There was a miracle in front of them. Pendour might have been out of it, but she understood that much. There was something sentient here, something from Encke, one of his people. It was like a ghost had been brought back from the dead, or like a legend had been made flesh, or something in between.

They should have been focused on that, trying to figure out the what, the why, the how. Or, if they didn't want to be so analytical, if Encke just wanted to cry happy tears for a while, Pendour could support that, too.

At least, she wanted to support that. Instead she'd been triggered by an innocent phrase, and now she was trying to take normal breaths against Encke's shoulder, even as her heart beat fast as hummingbird wings against her ribs, even as her thoughts swirled.

She could feel their worry in way that their hands laid against her, and they didn't need to be dealing with that right now. They had enough to think about. It was going to get worse, too, she knew. She was about to start crying. There was no holding that back, as their attempts at comfort only made her breath come faster, given the fact that she was ruining their moment.

"I. I need to go to the bathroom," she gasped, and then she pulled away from Encke's embrace and Basiluzzo's support, and she ran towards the closest pillar that she could throw herself behind until everything stopped.