Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hummed something offkey - checked - checked again - all the little things he'd shoved into a satchel. What amounted to a canvas bag that one often got from a grocery store to carry all their stuff in 'economically friendly' type of thing. Hot little containers, and a jug of something else. Albite was excited, reverberated with fresh joy for it.

Thought space - thrilled for the whole notion and wondered what it'd be like. The culmination of everything. Would it be cold? Was there air there? Would they die instantly!!? The swan had said 'dead' dead planet, dead space, and maybe it'd be full of zombies - ohgod did he want to punch a space zombie - into space, watch its corpsy body float off into a distant star, making silent zombie noises because supposedly no one could hear you scream in space, something to do with air, too much, the lack of it? Whatever....

"Hey swan song!! I brought treats, n' eats, all ya gotta supply me with is the space feats and we're golden." careful for once in his approach, despite his eagerness. Didn't wanna ruin the food by bounding in like a freight train, wasn't rude like that with company. Drifted along the lakes edge in search of her downy white glow aura - pretty powerful thing despite looking like little more than a ballerina.

"Course I did! No way I was gonna ruin a chance at this." he'd behaved even, no star seed plucking, but also like, who needed to do that anymore yeah? Changing rules with the changing times, but he'd even put off snatching for his quota, and he could be allowed some leniency. Would tell the first person who bugged him about it where they could shove their questions - exactly how far up to shove them..

"Oh, this is gonna be so good. Are we talking graveyard gloomy, or like, horror story gloomy? Whatever, between you n' me starshine? We're gonna light the whole place up." such a question, and he hardly had to think about it, whether her was ready or not? He was born ready, made ready. Felt the want of it sing in his veins and buzz through his skin, because - s p a c e

How could he say no? Even if it was pitch black and under water, shark infested, full of flying spaghettie monster's, he wouldn't have backed out.

"M'ready" eagerly took her hand in his, held it like she was a princess, a dignitary. Grinned like fire in the face of her soft sigh of worry. Sought to quell her nerves just a touch, because it must've sucked to be nervous about going home. Was a shame that she felt that way about something that should've been, by blood, and name, and birthright, hers. Her planet. "We'll be alright, it's like, your home, yeah? It'll be okay. N' if it isn't, we can just pop out. There's a whole worlda places to have picnics."

In a way he kind of wished it was. To have popped onto a world and witnessed the tail end of an apocalypse. A world gone out with a scream of fire, rather than a quiet breath and whimper.

Instead it was just -- quiet.

Lasting, lingering, silence. Barely even a breeze, whisper of grass and overgrown plant life as they popped into existence there - headrush for that feeling - and he was almost glad he didn't have the option to do it himself. Didn't really want that power at his fingertips, at the press of a button.

"Huh...it's really just." frown that overtook his features, dead as he stared up into the vastness - silent void that swallowed all - that made the sweet little planet of Albiero equally as silent. "C'mon..." reached out to take her hand, offered to lace his fingers through her own and tug her along. Offered her a semblance of a smile, because he couldn't stand to see her cry. Like she was staring at a graveyard - like she was surrounded by ghosts of nothingness.

Lifeless thing and it hurt to see how much it hurt her to be there.

"C'mon swan song - it's not that bad. Lets - find a picnic spot, yeah? Can't hurt to look around, admire the plant life. It's something right? So long as there's plants, then maybe.." reached for cheer like he reached for her. Figured that there wouldn't be people suddenly from nothing, but maybe there was something there, something pretty, something hidden in all the weeds n' underbrush of the place. Maybe that was just how space was supposed to be? How Albiero was supposed to be?

The instinct to soothe - little lance of pain that made him want to hug her, because yeah - he got that feeling. All the way deep down, viscerally, like he'd lost the coin toss - like the cats had ******** up even if they had no more control over who pulled the short straw then they did. Wasn't the cats fault, wasn't his fault, was just the way it all was. The only option that remained in the aftermath of realizing it wasn't something that could be undone, of realizing that it was eternal and out of his own hands?

Was to pick a side. Make a choice about the choice that was taken from him.

To be satisfied with that choice, because they were living redo buttons. A remnant of a cycle that would continue on for a thousand years, and as thousand different versions of himself making a thousand different choices until the epochs of time corroded in on themselves...

Not the sort of s**t he thought about, for reasons. Too much, to big, to vast, and he was a grain of sand at the base of a mountain - part of a part of a much larger whole that maybe, just maybe? He shouldn't have been privy to at all.

None of that knowledge changed the fact that he was sitting next to a very sweet swan; on a dead quiet planet, in a lightly weedless patch of dirt, next to a very still lake - in mother ******** space.

Nothing he could've said to her likely would've changed anything at all, but...

"Hey, hey, hey! None of that yeah? Like, jeezus...swan song? We're human right? Cosmos n' stardust, n' all that s**t - but like - you didn't spring up outa Albiero's dirt yesterday - Didn't choose to be a Senshi -- it's like - things thrust upon you, yeah? Power, thrust upon you, and what are you gonna do with it afterwards, and what can you do with it afterwards?" set his things aside, stared out over the vastness of the lake, still as the air, still as the plants. Slow gloss of a still-life painting, s**t frozen in time and grown over with age. Pretty in its placidity.

"We've got a whole helluva lotta people on Earth right, who were born there even, n' they can barely keep from ******** it up. You're just one girl - on one little planet - pretty as it is, the fact that it's not like, actively on fire? It kinda seems like you might be doing just a bit better than the sad saps down in the dirt. Kinda seems like you inherited it like this, not like you did it on purpose from the start...uh, sins of our past-selves-fathers, or some s**t like that?" offered up a stilted grin, had to check himself, because ohgod he was going to cry, she was crying and he couldn't be crying, but she was to damned pretty to be crying over a rock. To be upset by something some edgy mineral had spouted at her. Tried to firm his smile up a little, to keep the watery sound outta his voice for her.

"N'besides - who better than an agent of chaos to deal with spooky s**t on a maybe deadish planet. If anything pops out at us, I promise to kill it for you? Stomp a skeleton, punch a space zombie. I can do that all day long."

Maybe if he promised her that - maybe if he reassured her that he could be useful. Was grateful for her gift and how much it pained her, for all the things it reaffirmed for him - her willingness to put herself through the thick of it - ring of ache and it was clear how much it hurt her to do it. He just, had to show it somehow..

Thought about the one she'd mentioned, and he didn't know what or who the actual ******** a Zinkenite was - but ---

"Leme ask - Zinkenite yeah? Like - whatever he said...do you really believe it? One current agent of chaos to a reformed one. I don't see why you should take any stock in 'em. You can still..yanno..even if you brought some chaos in, you can cast it out, right? The words, n' the people, ********, kick me around a little on your cute a** planet if it'll help...You made a choice though, right? You're happy with it?" chose herself in the end, chose what felt right to her in the end, and it'd never be for him, but he was all for free agency.

For exertion of will over the vast uncontrolableness of all else. Did half of what he did because *that*; because then it was him doing things and making choices, eeking out measures of control over what he could, over himself if nothing else, and shoring that up against the vast ocean of things that he couldn't.

"Trust me swan song, anywhere you are? It's a party, couldn't pity you if I tried, you're too pretty for it." laughed as she smacked his cheeks, light and buzzy for it, could only compliment her. Dredge up a smile to burry those sniffles with. She shouldn't have been crying over this place - degraded and deadly quiet - shouldn't have been bothered by people who she'd left behind; didn't matter enough to stay for, so they shouldn't have mattered enough for her to cry over either.

"Oh, absolutely. Dangers, like, in my name? My middle name maybe? Albite the Danger Senshi, nice until he's not." snickered along with her, because she was right. He'd come for a picnkick, come to murder zombies - and for lack of zombies - he'd come to murder the food. To dig it out of packed bags, to get going on arranging it all into something presentable.

"I'm sure, it's like...It's the choices thing? Talked with a deer about it all - recently actually- or like, before this? She made a really good point about people making choices. Seemed like she was happy for the ones she made - ah - to be all 'for the greater good'. N' I'm for good, I am, it's just 'my version' of it?" and he wasn't sure if that made any sort of sense at all. Except there were all the people on his side of it who it made sense to stay for, to care for, to offer up himself for.

"I didn't quite walk into this blind - didn't choose to be a senshi - but I'm gonna make good on what I've got to work with, yanno? S'all I can do. Mm, like your little planet...you can make it good...I mean, it's space?! We are in space, can you even believe that? Maybe it's just quiet cause no one is supposed to hear you scream in space - that's a thing right. Oh, what if your planets all 'a trope' or..." it was empty, yes, barren of life except for them, how their presence echoed on it. It was also ******** s p a c e. The swan was smart, she cared, she was lovely, she could make it work.

It was pretty at least, had a lake, had greenery. She could fill it with things, bring it back.

He believed in her.

"Hell yes, Swans, now you're seeing it. We're in space - picnicking in space? You name one boring earth person who can lay claim to that? One dank a** dark-sider? You can't. You've got it good..just like...buy some paint..dig a moat? Ooh - get a boat up on this b***h!!" Albite didn't know how any of that would be made to happen, didn't care.

Entertained the idea of jet skis on a wonder across space time and just - laughed for it. Seeing her smile, seeing her hungry with it. It made his night. "S'food, mkay - listn? I brought a spread of like - all the things! Who knows what you like, right?" Tote out and Albite was just - picknics needed blankets.

Set the rough hewn bag down in front of her, laden heavy with steaming takeout boxes from an Asian restaurant. Tofu, chow mein, green and red curries. Thai spiced scents that wafted out from that while he dug out what looked like a woolen knockoff of an Indian blanket and had the texture of a tarp. Something to keep the grass and ants from itching - no ants to worry about maybe - but who wanted grass up on them while they ate?

"You think we'll see any shooting stars from here? I want pictures of that - with my eyes - eye pictures for all the memories, yanno? Everyone's with their phones and I love that, but sometimes you just wanna see something without the filter." rambled on nonsensical as he unrolled the pack blanket and worked to lay it out in some semblance of nice.

The way the swan said Alb - and she deserved to be well fed for giving him the gift of her world. Food as thanks was almost nothing compared to that. Energy spent and the chance to admire all that Albiero had in all its grassy, peaceful glory. He couldn't find a thing worth complaining for.

"Heh - Alb - ohshit. We'd have the same initials wouldn't we? Albiero - Albite? We're both a pair of albatross almost! Sept - yanno, you're way more swan than Albatross, but Sister Senshi of a feather flocking together n all that jazz?" snickered at himself as he admired her admiring the spread. Liked a girl that knew what she wanted and would just - dig in.

Was a little more picky himself, plucked plastic utensils and a container that screamed spice and sea, heady thing that wafted and out and how the smell of freshly hot food filled the space. Overode his sense, sound of food slurped greedily, that overrode the gentle lapping of waters against a still shore. How albite hummed around a mouthful and nodded along, considered how complex it was, staying on a planet not Earth.

"Foods good fuel for thought. N this is the most I've thought about anything in a minute, so its totally fair. If I've gotta be eating and thinking? Then you do too." careless words that fell freely from an open mind. Fell to considerations..

The idea of acclimating to Albiero -- to its everything -- its seasons its cycle its days and nights and -- "We should." sucked oil slick orange sauce from a fork unabashedly. Little shame in how he picked out the dark meat and chewed the gristle on its ends. "Or -- you should? Life needs things - start making the things - you should totally throw a sleepover here, yanno? See if it's different when its dark...or like..if it has two days, or twelve nights?" twirled the thoughts in his mind like spaghetti - like lo'mein on the end of a plastic prong.

"Places are always less lonely with friends Albs~" and Albite would've been stunned dead and dumb if Albiero wasn't the type of girl that didn't have friends. Surely she deserved some.

Flush that scalded his features for that quick little hug. The way his eyes softened infinitesimally, barest twitch of a thing as his glittered beside her, tried to will away the soft heat there...the roughness he knew would leak out if he spoke yet more words, because it felt good to do good.

Felt better to watch the picnic sprawl on and out and....To watch them spiral up above against the backdrop of the impossible size of the sun itself. Of the galaxies beyond.

"Always...I believe in you swan-song. Go make those friends and show 'em how to make this all...to make it better, yeah? Someplace worth living on, for all our Senshi sisters n such." coughed a little over the tumult of words picked ever so carefully, because he believed in her. If anyone could've done it? Why not a swan...

Oh, how he wanted ******** endlessly, for the stars to have been *theirs* - a thing worthy of reclamation on a whole. Why wait on the asphalt ends of a shitty Earth when the stars were open at the beck and call of those who could do better with them?

Better than him, better than...

"Hmm? Of course I'll come back n' picnic with you! I'll....I'll remember this, yeah? I promise." said it. Threw meaning behind the words that were nearly brusque, and if he pretended a bit of spicy chili was the reason for the way his eyes felt almost wet at the edges. Sniffled over something like a laugh. For all the choices he knew he'd make - was making - would keep on making -- didn't mean hers had to be any less brilliant for all that his would be other then that.

"Someday swan song -- someday you n' me, yeah? Star party with all of your pals. We'll make a whole thing of it."