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[heartofthestar]

Hear.
Feel.
Think.
Call.
Message.

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[heartofthestar]

Do romantic partners in your experience not eventually begin living together?

[That would be unusual, but hardly unheard of.]

[purrsonality]

I don't really pay attention to that stuff.

It's not like I'll ever have one.

[heartofthestar]

I thought the same once, myself. [Though Venat hastens, still smiling, to add:] Though if you do not wish one, I certainly do not mean to imply your mind will inevitably change. I more meant to express that I have been wandering fairly blindly through this whole process as well, owing to a lack of experience or expectation, stemming from that thought.

[purrsonality]

[ izutsumi cocks her head at venat, curious. ]

Aren't you a billion years old? Shouldn't you know more?

[heartofthestar]

You must understand first of all that my people were not particularly expressive. The custom was to remain masked at almost all times. [She touches her mask, unworn in countless ages, where it hangs like an amulet just below her neck.] Standing out was discouraged, and strong displays of emotion rare. Then too, I was set apart from my people as well, for many reasons.

But to speak more generally, it is a vast world, is it not? Even an eternity of life is insufficient to experience more than a mere fraction of everything it has to offer.

[purrsonality]

I guess but . . .

[ izutsumi pauses, not sure how to phrase this. ]

I don't know. Romantic feelings are a big deal. Everyone has them. They value them a lot.

[heartofthestar]

I do not think everyone has them, although many if not most do. But that does not mean everyone with them expresses them in the same way. Nor is hearing about them secondhand to be compared with experiencing them for yourself.

[purrsonality]

They don't?

[ she thought it was the same for everyone. how was it different? ]

[heartofthestar]

Did you not just say you've no intention of finding a partner?

[Are they having two different conversations here?]

[purrsonality]

I'm different. I'm a monster.

Monsters don't have partners. They don't feel that kind of thing.

[heartofthestar]

Ah, I see. You did say everyone had them, so I'd not known you excluded yourself.

[purrsonality]

Of course I did. That's how it is.

[heartofthestar]

And yet I fear I find it less than obvious. If in the future I should use the word 'everyone', pray understand it includes you as well.

['Let's get Maruki to make sushi for everyone' would be a horrible thing to misunderstand, for example.]

[purrsonality]

[ she shakes her head. ]

It's fine. It doesn't have to.

[heartofthestar]

I meant not that I intended it to specifically include you, but rather than it would not occur to me to not include you when using it. Not a promise, but rather an explanation, for when that should happen in the future.

[purrsonality]

[ hmm. ]

I guess you can if you really want to.

[heartofthestar]

Rather than 'really want to', it is simply that using it otherwise would not occur to me. A consequence of what we have discussed at other times. But pray, setting that aside, what brings you here?

[purrsonality]

Food. Akechi. Kotatsu. Stuff.

I'm allowed. They said so.

[heartofthestar]

I never doubted that you were. I'd insist were it otherwise.

[Akechi? That seems... unlikely. How those two interact, she can only imagine.]

And certainly good reasons. Particularly the food.

[purrsonality]

Maruki and I make sushi together.

[ since she knows how to do it now. ]

Are you here for food?

[heartofthestar]

Among other things. I dwell here now, with Maruki.

[Venat perpetually has a bright smile, of course. But in this moment it is particularly so.]

[purrsonality]

[ hmm. ]

You look really happy about that.

[heartofthestar]

I admit I am. This whole path of events is delightful, and entirely unexpected.

[purrsonality]

Because you've never been in love before?

[ maruki has. that much she knows, even if she doesn't know all the details. ]

[heartofthestar]

Nor did I ever expect to be, for a number of reasons. The notion that I would find such a partner is... well, very unlikely, if I may.