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

[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.

[onemorebounty]

Planets colliding, that's not a fight you win by punching back, or punching first. That's a fight you win by living at all. If you're alive tomorrow, and that planet is cosmic dust? You win. Carry humanity with you, and humanity wins. But what is humanity, Verity? It's not biology, it's not the shape of the continents or the naked ape: humanity is a set of ideas. The ideas are the seed, and you have a chance to carry it out of the fire. That's your fight.

*That said, she offers a sympathetic shrug.*

Does "good and right" ever not suck?

[brave_heart_verity]

She nods, and pulls herself out of the mope she'd been spiraling toward.

"You're right. But they say it's supposed to have a happy ending. I think that's the whole point of the Bible."

[onemorebounty]

Is it? I must've missed that part, but I really only skimmed it. I'll have to ask Jesus next time I see him.

[brave_heart_verity]

Wait. Wait wait wait. "Seriously?"

[onemorebounty]

*She nods.*

He's very friendly.

[brave_heart_verity]

Please excuse Verity while she has an existential crisis.