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Abzu typically looked for a few things on patrols.

He was less bold than he had been as a page, but they didn't stop him from approaching people. As long as the aura felt as if they were about equivalent or lesser, It didn't hurt to see if he can convince them to stop. In this case, the aura felt a little bit lesser.

Perhaps, in some ways, that would make this all easier.

It was his hope with the return of energy, or even worse, the starseed, the person he was speaking with might be convinced could stop entirely, or just reconsider the fact that withdrawing these things was not a good idea. Even a few seconds of reflection could make all a difference. It couldn't hurt.

And this woman, as she tucked a small ball away?

She looked a bit hesitant.

"Ma'am?" offered Abzu, cautiously, as he placed the reed to his lips. "There are other options."

The music slipped from his saxophone, along with the magic to urge her to give the energy back to its source.

"Chaos has a way of making people feel trapped, like they have to feed on people for a machine that doesn't deserve it," he murmured, the mouthpiece remaining near his lips. "You don't have to feed this mysterious force. You can leave. There are ways out, and we have a support system."

It was an easy enough pitch. He knew it was hard on the other side. He had seen people purify.

He knew a couple of them personally, at this point. But time and time again, he thought it was worth it. He wasn't sure if she was at that stage yet, but he might as well start with the basic pitch. He could go from there.

And if she was going to say that she wasn't going to return it, maybe he could work on that.

Didn't hurt.

He pressed the mouthpiece inside his lips, and that attempt would come from the music of the horn.

Once he lowered the saxophone from his lips, he offered her a grin. "Thanks. I spend a lot of time practicing, so I do appreciate the compliments." He was, after all, a seasoned pro, but he wasn't going to mention that part.

He was just going to lavish in the praise, and also in the fact that she did actually give him the energy back.

Abzu took it, making the mental note to return it to the woman he saw who had been exiting the alleyway nearby, looking a little sleepy. He was fairly sure that was the woman this agent had been draining before he had seen her. It wouldn't take much effort, and in fact he had made some moves to start heading in her direction to just push it in her direction.

That was the point of getting the energy back after all.

It seemed like she actually wanted to get out of there. If he knew how to get out, if he knew how to get away from the chaos, she wanted to know the details. And he actually knew the details.

"The tl;dr of it is that it usually involves finding a princess or Cosmos, I believe. Cosmos is a force that watches over all the starseeds somewhere in the Galaxy. I wouldn't worry too much about that. The princesses are people with great power in the world of the senshi. So not knights like we would be."

Abzu didn't really know anything about the reality of Royal Knights, so he couldn't necessarily give context about those. But he did know that princesses could purify, and he had seen that.

"Their magic allows them to push the chaos out of your starseed, AKA your soul, and that pulls what's covering you and forcing you to stay in that Negaverse that you're in, forcing you to give energy to strange source we don't understand. Leaving does come with its own complications, but it is worth it to get away from having to mine from civilians."

He felt like Pendour right then and there--

Abzu's laugh was gentle after she cited, the fact that naming a princess seemed a little silly. He recognized what okay bro in that tone likely meant. "I know, it took me by surprise too."

"But yeah, they're just people, not like. Cosmic space forces." He had no real idea how Cosmos worked, honestly. "I actually know a couple of them." He would call one of them down right now if she were in a situation where she needed to get out now, but he knew the reality of purification. He wouldn't necessarily recommend rushing out if she didn't have to. And that mostly came down to the complications.

For a purification, he would actually recommend preparing.

"For the Negaverse specifically, Metallia seems to keep some kind of hold on your memories. When you purify, you actually lose some part of your memories. It usually seems to be like half of your life, so either they have of your life where you're an agent, or the half of your life where you were a civilian." He rubbed his neck. "Sometimes all of it, but I think that only happens in traumatizing purifications where it happens in a rush. If you're looking to get out in a more measured fashion, I don't think that would happen to you."

He was doing his best to be fully honest, but he hoped that didn't freak her out too much.

"Since you would have more time, if you were to pursue this," he hoped he had sold this right and hadn't immediately scared her off, "I would recommend starting to document things. I actually know a few people who have been through this. They might be able to help that process."

He sighed.

"And with that memory loss, you would lose your current identity. But we do have a good system for rebuilding that identity on this side."

Abzu couldn't help his outright snort. He supposed they were living in something of a Disney movie. It felt like less of one once he had started digging in deeper and people started legitimately dying, and he started meeting people like Ibirapitá, and there were attempts on his life, but a lot of the surface level things and names and things like princesses? "That castle name is very Disney."

Also, felt like the opposite of Magic Kingdom...

Abzu let her have her time to think, because bruh was right. It sucked that there was no way to predict it. Obviously, in her case, it would be a lot better if she lost her agent half. She really wouldn't be losing much. "No real way to predict it at all from what I can tell. A friend of mine, Emain Ablach, was convinced he'd lose his entire civilian life and planned accordingly." He snickered. "He was pleasantly surprised when he lost the agent half instead."

It did make all of his plans to perhaps give some details about the Negaverse once he moved over a little more difficult, but...

Mentioning one of the purified people he knew hopefully gave some backup to the fact he wasn't talking out of his a**. He could mention Nectaris too, if she needed more. But for now, he would give her the silence, shifting from foot to foot and giving her a bit of distance--murmuring a brb of course--to fully pass off the energy ball in the interim, returning fully by the time she talked.

His expression shifted to a grin when she agreed. Also, villain cult pyramid scheme was not only the best description he had heard of the Negaverse, it was also one he was keeping in his back pocket for any counter propaganda they might have needed to make... "Yeah, absolutely. Like I said, I know some princesses. But the Evil Incorporated iPad won't get you in touch with me, no..."

How to move forward from here?

Honestly, in his opinion, he clearly had her. She was talking about how she wanted to get out, and she just wanted a couple weeks. And that was fine! Did he give her his own number, or did he mention that he had a way to get a hold of her himself with his own knight ring? That was only a one-way ticket though...

Wait. Luke had urged him to get a burner phone. He had one of those. This was easy. He dug that out of his subspace, turning it toward her.

"I can get a hold of you myself. Our knight rings actually let us get a hold of anyone from any side. But! For the opposite, just text me at the number in here, and I'll get the ball rolling. Just put your details in there, and I'm sure you know how to find mine."

Without his actual name, of course. If she was legitimately leaving, she'd know that soon enough, anyway.