Cafe du Harpe Stellar

[onemorebounty]

*On the fringe of the forum district of the Nexus, a small sidewalk cafe abuts the green space, its sign a cup of coffee whose steam twines through the strings of a harp that also seems to have caught several stars. The service is brisk, but it's almost always possible to find a table. There are even times, like now, when it's fairly quiet. Samus claims a chair and invites Verity to do the same.*

Comments

[brave_heart_verity]

Verity listens with her usual quiet attention, studying face and hands as much as tone and words. It's not a good story, but she wasn't expecting one.

"And then you started getting sick?"

[onemorebounty]

Hah! Sick, we could've dealt with. I wish we'd just gotten sick.

*Her hands flex around her cup, before she forces them to relax. Time for another cricket.*

I mentioned this stuff was part life-form? Well, it has a mind of its own, and when it's in you, it starts trying to influence you. We got hit, I woke up a month later with someone explaining to me how they'd given me a shiny new way to run my armor off of my blood, and could I please go see what had happened to the other three Hunters, who'd all been out of contact.

*She makes no attempt to hide the bitterness in her voice, or her disdain for the inability of Fleet Command to connect what she considered some pretty damn obvious dots.*

Oh, also, this stuff was poisoning three planets, could I do something about that if I wasn't too busy?

[brave_heart_verity]

"I'm sorry." It seems like not enough. What could be enough? "I hope... there weren't too many casualties?"

[onemorebounty]

Thank you. One of the planets was mostly automated refineries and feral indigenes, casualties were fortunately low there; another, the people were all data intelligences in the central system, most of them survived; and the third was a Space Pirate outpost--the only thing sad about those casualties is that I didn't get to cause them.

*Not a lie. She really hates those Space Pirates.*

But my missing colleagues... they turned, all of them. Rundas, who'd saved me from a probably-fatal fall the day we all got hit. Ghor, who spent most of his bounties on the people his prey had hurt. Gandrayda, who was still practically a kid.

*She sighs, looking down into her cup. She finds no answers in the thick, cinnamony drink.*

I killed them, one at a time. With the corruption growing in me, every step of the way.

[brave_heart_verity]

There's a brief touch, hand to hand. "You would have brought them for treatment if there was anything to offer, right?"

[onemorebounty]

*Samus glances up, but the touch is appreciated.*

I tell myself I would. That they only died because they were so determined to fight me, put themselves between me and the things making the poison. When I killed the planet it came from, though, all the phazon we know of went inert. I wonder if they woudl've survived, or if they were too far gone. If I hadn't killed them...

[brave_heart_verity]

"Maybe they would have survived. Or maybe while you were dealing with the source, they would have gone on to hurt a lot of innocent people. You can't know. You did the best you could at the time."

[onemorebounty]

*She nods slowly. It's one side of the argument she's had with herself on the subject, but it helps to hear someone else say it.*

They would have. I felt those same influences--they would have spread the corruption as far and wide as they could. And when the fleet struck at the source, they would have torn into its flank and cost far more lives. I... hope that's the truth.

*She takes another cricket, and drains her cup, before giving Verity a level look.*

You're good at this.

[brave_heart_verity]

Well, that's a surprise. It's a good thing she'd not been eating or drinking while Samus was talking. "I am?"

[onemorebounty]

To be honest with you, I have to be honest with myself. And knowing your nose for truth, it's easier to believe something I've told myself before if I hear you saying the same thing. It isn't some act of self-deception for the sake of comfort.

[brave_heart_verity]

Verity smiles a little self-consciously. "I can tell lies if I need to. But I'm not too good at hiding my reaction when I'm hearing one."

[onemorebounty]

Sometimes people just need to know whether they're lying to themselves--either because they are, or because they aren't. Thank you.

*She gestures to her plate--there's one cricket left.*

Want to try one?

[brave_heart_verity]

"You're welcome."

She glances down at the cricket, then shrugs. "Sure. Thanks." Munch munch. "Mm. Surprisingly sweet."

[onemorebounty]

Aren't they?

*She gives a lopsided smile.*

So what do you want to try next? My treat.

[brave_heart_verity]

"Oh, thank you." She smiles as well. "I'm not really sure what most of this stuff is? Um... the cheese-crusted ferns sound good. What do you usually get?"

[onemorebounty]

I'm fond of the smolderbracken tarts, or the djekul fondue, myself.

[brave_heart_verity]

"Those both sound good," she admits. It may end up being a very long meal, between wanting to try everything and having so much to talk about.

[onemorebounty]

*A long meal and a long talk is a good way to cement a new friendship. And Samus has the feeling that Verity may want to come back to the subject of her own problem. It's natural to worry at a problem. And perhaps she can tell a few more I-can-empathize-with-an-apocalypse stories. She has plenty.*

Both it is, then.

[brave_heart_verity]

It'll be a while before she comes around to it again. "I hate feeling helpless," she admits after having a particularly difficult time with this one shell. It's not about the shell.

[onemorebounty]

*Samus nods.*

It's a terrible feeling. But you aren't helpless, you just need to find what you can do in the situation. That you'd want to.

[brave_heart_verity]

"Right. I can run away and save some books." Sigh.

[onemorebounty]

Verity, running away is one of the most important skills a Warrior has to master.

*It's not a lie.*

Running is how you fight something like this.

[brave_heart_verity]

She tries to make sense of that, but she comes from a world where the great and the good run head-first at this kind of thing.

"I don't understand."

[onemorebounty]

You're looking at that planet in the sky, coming down like a fist, and some part of your brain is wondering how to block it. Battle is my life, and I'll tell you: the best way to block a shot is to not be where it lands. Let it miss. A step to the side costs so much less than standing there and taking it--for no good reason.

*She pauses for a sip of something, to break her rhythm--she doesn't want to work up to a full-blown lecture on Verity, the woman doesn't deserve that.*

What you're doing is good, and it's right.

[brave_heart_verity]

"Maybe, but nothing in 'it's good and it's right' means it doesn't suck." Still, she appreciates hearing it, especially since it's all true.