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"We're meeting Alastor today, right?"

Viatrix might have teased Encke if she thought it would be received better. As it was, he was nursing a few different types of injuries--ones Viatrix couldn't help but wonder if she could have prevented by just not wandering off--and she didn't feel like doing anything that might tear a scab off. "Yeah. Cybele says he could use some help with some homeworld stuff, I think." She booshed his head lightly with hers from where she sat on his shoulder. "You're kinda an expert in that stuff."

Encke was a bit sheepish when he replied, "I'm not sure I'd use the word expert. I just take good care of her, and she takes care of me." She was why he was still alive. The People's Home had prevented his starseed from being taken or consumed more times than once. Was it thrice, now?

More than that?

"Take the compliment." Viatrix scoffed. "Anyway, he should be around here somewhere. Eternal senshi, dark long hair--not Basi long, but longer than yours, anyway." She paused, as she glanced over her shoulder to look at his hair closer. "Well, probably. I've never seen him, but you have been letting your hair grow out--"

Had he? He supposed it was longer than it used to be. It felt pretty natural, though. Like it was supposed to be that long anyway... "I think that's him over there?"

"Hm?" Viatrix glanced in the direction Encke pointed. "Ah! Alastor!"

"Yup, I'm Viatrix!" She winked at him from Encke's shoulder, taking the time afterwards to press her head against the side of Encke's as an encouragement. Her bonded stood a little bit straighter in response. "I've been looking forward to meeting you too! I've adopted a few of you senshi from deeper space, and I love helping you guys out."

This was said with a fondness as she thought of Dagon, first, one of her roommates. And she thought of Roka, too, who Basiluzzo and Encke had found--

"Same," Encke picked it up from there, offering his hand in case that was the preferred greeting, but nodding otherwise. "Restoring space to its former glory is an important mission of mine, and if I can help you do so I'd love to."

Every planet that they got to thrive again against chaos was a turn of the tides. Every person they connected back to their planet was another person that could not be corrupted or turned into a youma or killed. Every place in space that thrived was another place that they could all thrive in.

"You're not an inconvenience. I've been helping people with their planets and wonders for a while. If there's any way I can help you, let me know where I can start."

Encke watched Alastor for a moment, but noticed the easy shift and opted to let him keep his privacy. Viatrix was speaking anyway, with a delighted chirp of, "You couldn't disappoint! I have no expectations. What you all have been through is..." Hard to comprehend. Massive. Heart-wrenching. "A lot. I just want to do what I can."

Encke picked up with a grateful, "I appreciate your willingness to help Earth, too." That was true of Dagon too, and it warmed his heart to see. They didn't have to! Their missions were arguably deeply important and vital and in their own ways all-consuming. That they'd take the time to help with their present threats, though -- Encke had a tendency to like their alien guests and each one made him more fascinated, not less. "We welcome anyone willing to help us fight, I think--"

"For sure!"

"But to answer your question..." He thought carefully, of the blight, of the infestation that tried to take Kerberos' world, of the times he had gone with people to their homeworlds and helped study problems-- "I have, actually." Encke shifted, taking a more open position as Viatrix hopped off his shoulder and leaped instead onto a table. "Is there anything you'd like to know?"

Viatrix padded her way toward Alastor. She couldn't help much with this part, but she was a Mauvian, which meant she could be a cat (as much as she preferred being bipedal now that she could be). And if cats were one thing? They were comforting.

And if she could do that, at least?

She bumped Alastor's leg with her head if allowed, purring.

Encke nodded as he listened. His experience with chaos was extensive, both personal and beyond, but in space was still a rarer thing that he had seen. He was right -- thus far, at least, he hadn't seen a situation in which the infection could be purified. The blight had to be defeated. What was attempting to sap from Kerberos' moon had to be defeated.

"I agree. I usually try to promote purification wherever I can, but it doesn't seem like the chaos that has made it to homeworlds is really something we can recruit a princess to fix."

And he wasn't sure if there even was a royal senshi to recruit to try it.

He decided to zone in on one situation--

"The chaos on one world we went to -- it tied itself to the source flower of the world. Once he found the source, he found some of us to help. A knight, a few senshi -- we were all eternal or knight except for one." He figured that backed up how much power it had taken to actually take it down.

"We went there together. When the senshi let us into the area with something his people had called the First Flower, there was a monstrous plant growing around it and rooting itself into it. To defeat the chaos, we had to defeat that. And we did -- magic, physical, and teamwork as a unit because none of us could have done that alone."

He couldn't imagine how much deeper it had rooted itself to have lasted for a thousand years.

Surprise bur not rejection was good enough for her, and Viatrix continued to show him affection in hopes of at least giving him a few minutes to relax. It had helped Dagon and Daphne too. Perhaps it could help all of their interstellar guests.

Though she did snicker when Alastor suggested that purification was too much work. "You sound like his sister."

"I think she calls it Cauldron Bath. They failed, let them try again in another life."

She snickered again. "Yeah, exactly. Anser's pretty feisty, but you might like her."

Encke would have rolled his eyes at his bonded trying to create more connections, but that was definitely one of the things she had proven good at. He knew a lot of senshi. He supported them all. Some of those, he could absolutely blame on his bonded.

But maybe Alastor wanted some more assistants, anyway. He listened to how the chaos on his world manifested. In the shadows, or the shadows. Chased away before he realized what it was, and he offered a, "You couldn't have known," of support. Did it make it better? Of course not. But it sometimes helped to have it reaffirmed.

"Well, you can count on us." He gestured to himself and Viatrix. "Not many people on this planet have dealt with Chaos infections outside of Earth. I want to see space alright again, and I can apply my experience in that way or however you need."

"Same," Viatrix purred. "I have a humanoid form too, so I can help however you might need a Mauvian-with-thumbs."

Viatrix tapped her chest with a paw, letting out an eager, "You can count on me!" before turning back to Encke. He looked at her. She looked at him. He looked at her a little harder, and she said, without another beat, "Told you."

She might have looked a bit smug while he rolled his eyes right away from Viatrix and back to Alastor. "I appreciate that. I want it to be what it was, and also something new. I want our homeworlds and wonders to be our homes again someday. I want them to be sanctuaries, too."

His freckled cheeks were a bit rosy as he grinned at the compliment to his as-of-yet unseen by Alastor homeworld.

"It is," he murmured, and he sounded almost reverent.

"He's put the better part of his senshi career into it."

Encke's smile was sheepish. "Not wrong. At first, it was an escape, but it soon became my home, too. There's electricity in the air, running water, restored paths, insects, animals -- saw a small cat creature recently." His eyes were a bit misty. "Once we get your homeworld cleared of chaos, I'd like to show you, if you'd want."

Encke snickered quietly, though without any malice, as he ventured a gentle tease, "Well, you seem respectable enough to me."

"Same!" And Viatrix would like to think that she was a good judge of people. Order was for the most part good or at least neutral and Chaos was bad, of course, though some people could be pulled out of that s**t--

"We'd love to see your world without the Chaos, too. We'll help when there is Chaos there, of course, but," Encke took the moment to flex, much to Viatrix's eyerolling, "I can assist too in getting it more ready for visitors, if you need."

"He's always like this." Well, not always, but recent events had offset him and had him acting more anxious and off-kilter than his usual. It was nice to see him joking around a bit...

Viatrix shook her head and turned her attention fully to Alastor.

"Just let us know when we're needed!"

Viatrix winked at Alastor in turn. "I mean, if I can help with enthusiasm," she had a lot of it, honestly. It was an infinite well she was able to pull from, and even when everyone else around her was low on enthusiasm, she was usually still able to find something.

And this was related to the restoration of space.

No doubt Encke could have his own enthusiasm.

Said Encke offered a friendly nod to Alastor. "We'll be there, Alastor. You have my word."