Skoll wasn't exactly wrong when she described Encke as having been thirty seconds away from a panic attack.
Something about the circumstances had set him off. Perhaps to most people it looked like he was just taking the failure of their mission hard, or perhaps it was because he hadn't wanted to see Faustite turn like that, or perhaps it was the fact he was turning at all. None of these would have been incorrect assumptions because they were all
true. What they lacked, though, was the nuance, the reason why he found himself staring at walls and ceilings and even losing focus in the middle of a final take of a scene so they all had to redo it in a moment of lack of focus that wasn't even quite worthy of a blooper reel.
His excuse in civilian life had become that a relative died; he refused to explain which relative or accept any help if it was offered. To those that knew about powered life, it was a bit easier to explain with at least failed purification mission. It had gotten a bit easier to get back on balance with the help of people like Basiluzzo and Pendour, and Viatrix helping get some of the facts out of his head so he could focus on other pieces, but everything was still--
A grim reminder.
He wasn't necessarily powering up too often at the moment, but he was powering up enough. Something felt wrong with the lack of connection to his world, anyway, and powering up brought some of that relief back.
And it brought some text messages, too.
He hadn't expected the text from Skoll, but he did realize he was very nearly late to her proposed time. Encke took out his civilian phone to send a,
bbl, anna's asking for homeworld help to Basiluzzo--an easy enough excuse and also at least mostly true--and started off in Skoll's direction.
When he spotted her, he lifted a hand and offered, "Hey," which carried less enthusiasm than his normal projection, but at least he didn't seem two gusts away from losing balance and falling down. "You mentioned lightning bugs?"
He was, after all, a man of lightning.
