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[heartofthestar]

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text; un: luckyseven

[tantailizing]

[At some point, at some time, during the month of June! Venat gets a message in her inbox.]

Yo, it's Zidane! Still on for lunch and a story?

[heartofthestar]

Ever and always! Have you a place and time in mind? I can suggest one, elsewise.

[tantailizing]

Around noon sounds good. Also, I'm open to suggestions for places.

[heartofthestar]

If you are fond of light food, I know a café that does splendid sandwiches. If heartier fare, one that does steaks and ribs.

[tantailizing]

Decisions. Maybe the café this time, but we should totally go for steaks and ribs another time!

[heartofthestar]

Oh, how forward, already planning to ask me out again.

[She's teasing, honest!]

Today, then?

[tantailizing]

And if I am?

[He gets the implications, but friends can go hang out too.]

Oh yeah, meet ya there.

->Action!

[heartofthestar]

[Helping matters along, Venat sends the address over in her next text, and then sets out. It isn't far, so arriving only takes her a few minutes... though if Zidane beats her there through greater willingness to take shortcuts, she won't be surprised in the least.]

Awe, yeah, Action!

[tantailizing]

[Actually, she would be there first. Considering he didn't reside in Camelot, he has to burn up a totem to travel before heading on over to the address she's sent. At least he gets there in a decent time - maybe.]

Hey! Didn't make you wait too long, did I?

[heartofthestar]

[The question makes her laugh; how could it not? He likely couldn't live long enough to make her wait too long, but that would be a little callous to point out!]

You needn't worry about me. It gave me time to think about food.

[tantailizing]

Ha, that's fair! Though, dang, now I guess I'll need another minute to think about what to eat...

[How rude of him making a lady wait longer...]

[heartofthestar]

To think I'd pictured you as the sort who'd have no hesitation in making a selection. Truly, I am learning much this day, and your story has not even begun!

[tantailizing]

You'd be surprised. I'll eat about anything so if I haven't been somewhere before that's not just a tavern, it can be hard to pick.

[heartofthestar]

Then start with the first thing that appeals, and plan to come back for more, of course.

[Perhaps they never will. Perhaps Avalon will end tomorrow. But why fret over the future when you can enjoy the now, for one second? The future will still be here to fret over once the meal is done.]

[tantailizing]

'First thing'? Hm... alright, then I know which one that is.

[Leapt out to him before he started reading the rest of it.]

[heartofthestar]

There, you see? Not at all difficult and I certainly shan't fall asleep waiting.

[The longer Venat dwells in Avalon, the more her gentle warmth becomes tempered with the mischievousness she'd had in her youth, given new life with her -- well, new life. Being a force in the world again, rather than an observer... it's delightful so long as she ignores how exhausting it is!]

[tantailizing]

You say that like sneaking a nap is a bad thing.

[He's almost always ready to goof off and have a bit of fun.]

Speaking about naps, today's not all that bad for lying out in the grass.

[heartofthestar]

[That comment... actually makes Venat pause, one hand curled in front of her chin as she thinks on it.]

There was a time when I moved slowly and at ease, after I stepped down from the seat of Azem but before the End Days came to pass. I was waiting, then, though for what specifically I never knew. Now I find myself ever active, driven forward, because I know not what the future holds. Without warning, I could find this all taken away, and yet I have so much here left unseen and undone.

[tantailizing]

[He nods, getting it because, for the longest time, being on the move was pretty much all he ever did. Also, throwing himself into other people's business.]

True as that is, don't overdo it, okay? You're not alone trying to save the worlds here.

[heartofthestar]

[True enough, and Venat acknowledges that with a smile and an upturned hand.] But I am the only one who can experience it for myself. And even more so, the people, some of whom may disappear, as happens here.

But speaking of that, in the here and now you have my full attention. Provided, of course, that you've a story to tell me!

[tantailizing]

Hm... true. Still...

Oh right, guess I'm off topic. [Kinda.] It's a long one, but if you wanna hear, it's about two planets - or stars - and how they came together.

[heartofthestar]

Well, this is a bit on-the-nose for me, isn't it. [She, who had sundered the star, now will hear about a rejoining?] Length is no object. In fact, I daresay it improves the tale.

[tantailizing]

Aha, hopefully it does.

[Honestly, he had mixed feelings hearing about the Sundering... and then math happened.]

So, the tale of these stars begins with one named Terra. Thousands of years, it thrived and its people advanced in both magic and technology; so much that they had found a way to pretty much live forever. Now that always sounds awesome in theory, but I don't think people think about the cost it comes at.

In the case of Terra, it was their planet.

[heartofthestar]

They drank too deeply of its aether to sustain themselves. [That makes perfect sense. Even in the old times, the Ancients knew to return themselves to the aetherial sea after their life's purpose had been met. To not do so would be to break the cycle. No doubt this world Terra understood it differently, but the principle remains the same.]

[tantailizing]

Yes! Gods, I'm so glad I don't have to explain that part... [Because it can be really confusing to some people and he's not sure how to make it clearer.]

So Terra, as you guessed, began to die. Their core - a crystal controlling the cycle - dimmed. Now, the solution is obvious to us, but things like 'death' and 'mortality' are pretty scary despite them being natural and needing to happen. Terra, not wanting to give up their immortality, decided they would feed into the cycle another way. By finding young, uninhabited planets, they would use fusion, taking over the planet and its cycle, and have it continue their own.