{✺}

[righteousindignation]

humanity changes over time, builds miracles and breaks the laws of science to reform them in new arrangements. they watch, and they are fascinated, feeding into each other's excitement in a neverending loop. there is not just this planet to love. there are others, there are many others, and they've spent so long on this planet that why not go and see another, right? or dozens. there is nothing but time for them to spend however they choose.

he doesn't like the idea of being out there without something of the nature he's known for, so before they leave, they rework a few things and make space for cuttings they can grow without soil. ("it's nature being helped along by the artificial rather than crushed! isn't it wonderful?")

the stars have never looked so beautiful in their number as they do on the first day out, and it makes them both feel small until they realize that they are crossing boundaries between worlds, and it makes them feel big. too big. time for tea and not thinking about size in relation to the universe. the same thing happens every time they take off from a new place.

it becomes one of their traditions to take these trips, admiring other places' forms of nature, collecting new books, new cuttings of plants (they weren't using a few of those rooms anyway), new stories. hopping from place to place, never forgetting to go back to the ones they loved (even if she said she didn't love them, they were colleagues), never forgetting what they endured all those years ago.

she braids his hair while they cross the stars and he sings new melodies he picked up the corner of a desert. it is, all told, a better life than staying only on earth.