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Patrols between shifts had a way of feeling terribly lonely.

He knew he couldn't call Tobias. He wasn't willing to do that even before everything blew up--he needed to protect the squishiest of their husbands, after all--but now? He was living in some kind of month-to-month rental and he was probably working. That made it doubly frustrating to pull him away from all of that. Felt wrong.

Imhotep was literally at work, and of the four three ... two of them he was the predominant breadwinner. He was a full-time professor. It was great that he was pursuing his love, but if he was the main money earner of their household, they'd be considerably more uncomfortable than they were. As it were, they had gotten lucky -- Diryas' parents decided they wanted to be globetrotters and left him the house, functionally. But even there...

And, well.

He wasn't going to ask Emain Ablach on patrol.

Would it make dealing with the lieutenant calling out to him any easier if he had the priest with him? Promethei took a deep breath, tried to tell himself that it was just some girl calling him a dude and maybe it would give him a chance to get in front of something worse, and turned toward her.

The smile he gave was very practiced in a lot of ways. Some students were about to ask the silliest question they could. That was ... just part of learning,

"Howdy. Whatcha wanna know?"

The way she tilted her head brought a bit more of a less practiced quirk to his lips. Cute. Kinda reminded him of Diryas in a distant way, when he was trying to get a closer look at one of his jigsaw puzzles--

And then she launched into questions and that impression entirely shattered.

A newbie for sure. Space bros? Did they even tell her what they were supposedly facing other than invaders, or was it just what she had gotten from it? Well, did it matter? If he could get her corrected now it would be less trouble later. Get her out of there before she got in too deep if she was already uncertain. Right? That was what Emain Ablach would encourage him to do, right? Rescued him, rescue another...

Maybe without the threats to her life.

"Yeah. I'm a knight. Not from space," well, "unless you count moving here from Texas. That state can feel like another universe." Promethei snorted.

What had grabbing that knife done?

He glanced her up and down.

Seemed like a fitness buff-- "They probably recruited you because they figured if you drain people at exercise classes, the drained don't realize anything amiss with feeling extra tired and the Negaverse gets more energy out of you." Tracked, if she already was an instructor.

Senshi. He didn't know a whole lot of senshi, in all honesty. He knew Princess Cybele now, of course. Most of the fellows on his side he ran into were knight. Probably was just a factor of where he tended to keep himself...

He was connected to space, though, even if not through a whole damn planet. "Yeah. Mercury are my symbols." He smirked. "Texas is my home though, yeah? We'd welcome you on back."

So long as they got the damn chaos off this full newbie. She wasn't a threat. Just a confused freshman student. He could handle this. Tap into Professor Castaneda.

"Taking energy is fully chaos. Y'all do it, and so do y'all's ... not allies? Whatever your relationship is with the dark mirror. Haven't figured that s**t out. But we don't do that." Promethei also didn't care to. Chaos was chaos was chaos, and chaos was a problem in its entirety. She didn't seem to be, which was a ... start. Ultimately, his husband hadn't been, though Promethei still had issues with how Ransomite treated his draining victims.

That went into deeper issues, though. Not relevant to the current conversation.

Which, he supposed it was important to further clarify, "Order doesn't need fuel. We just are. Awakened like this."

When she said Austin, Promethei's eyes lit up, though he was careful to not say it was because of familiarity with the place. He knew he was probably hard to trace back to himself, but there was a possibility she stayed Chaos, and he didn't want to give them any fuel to work with. "All-you-can-eat brisket is delicious. I love the barbecue places back home. They exist in DC, but not quite the same, ya'know?"

Now he wanted to go back to San Antonio. It had been a long time since he had been to NIOSA. Maybe he could get his husbands to come with him.

... Husband.

Anyway.

He was a professor! That was what he did!

... Wait. No. That wasn't the damn question. "Protect our wonders. That's what the knight moniker came from, I think. In our past lives--yours too, probably--all of us knights were assigned to what we've currently named after. I'm Promethei, Squire of Mercury. Promethei was a place on Mercury." Every part of him that was a scientist wanted to scream that it didn't make any ******** sense because Mercury was both cold as a frosted frog and hotter than blue blazes, but he had seen it. He had seen Promethei University with his own damn eyes.

He glanced out above her, pondering for a moment.

"These days, think it's mostly fighting off your faction so they stop killing people since there are no people on our wonders anymore, but." She wasn't a threat, she wasn't a threat, she wasn't a threat--

Would Tobias be proud?

Promethei's gaze remained above her as she tried to work herself through the concept of them killing people. He caught the moment where perhaps the chaotic influence was already showing itself, where she cited knights like him if they got rowdy. Sure. Perhaps. There was more to it than that, and his gaze finally flicked from the spot beyond her back to her.

"Have they told you what starseeds are, yet?" He tapped on his chest. "The Negaverse collects those. From senshi and knights, from civilians, even from agents if they do things that piss off their uppers." Was he exaggerating on the last one? Maybe. Then again, considering he had seen what Negaverse agents had done to recently former ones-- "They're crystal-looking things that can be withdrawn from people's chests. Also, souls."

He shifted from one leg to the other.

"Y'all take that out, your target dies. Negaverse collects them and gives them to their leaders. No one else can touch them." The Velencians had to enlist the Negaverse to do that s**t, right? Or at least Lyndin had to in order to snatch the starseed of that other Velencian. "Only y'all."

Minyulite could take his if she wanted to. Promethei very suddenly wondered if this was wise.

He was trying. Tobias would want him to. Maybe he'd come back home.

Minyulite sounded doubtful. That was okay. It made sense that she would doubt, especially considering how much work it had taken somebody who should have known better to break out of the bullshit. Doubtful was better than not believing him at all, which would have changed the candor of the conversation.

"Yeah, no problem." Promethei shifted, crossing his arms as he watched her retreat, but not before giving a half-wave back. No reason to attack. She was just trying to learn. The Negaverse would try to poison her brain some more, but perhaps he had said enough to put the concept of continuing to question it in her mind.

Had he tried hard enough?

He supposed he'd know soon enough if he ended up having to face her on a battlefield.