Abstract thoughts, concrete hangs

“Do you ever think about what could be out there…?” Lune trailed off after he asked the question, gazing at the stars above with a bit more intensity. The night was quiet, but it took a nudge from Kepler beside him for Lune to be able to focus and actually hear what the other Paralogos was saying. “Sorry, what?” Lune asked, embarrassed that he had asked a question and then promptly got so distracted by endless possibilities that he had stopped listening for the answer. The two had been laying on the top of the roof of the University, doing some stargazing, but now Lune sat up a bit, turning to face Kepler in order to ground himself a bit more in the conversation.

Kepler sat up as well and smiled, he was used to Lune having his head in the clouds, especially when it came to space related stuff. Even though his boyfriend was a Level 1 Paralogos, firmly in the concrete, Lune did have a tendency of wandering towards the abstract in a way Kepler never really did. Kepler leaned back slightly, looking towards the stars above as he repeated what he had said before, “What I said was, it could be anything out there… you could drive yourself crazy trying to run through all the possibilities, and knowing you, I’m sure you’ve done that at least once.” It was a bit of teasing towards Lune’s way of thinking, but Kepler meant it with love. 

“Oh, I certainly have…” Lune responded, laughing lightheartedly. He definitely took the teasing in stride, especially since he knew it was true. Kepler knew him quite well, and loved him all the same. “You know how I can be.” He leaned over towards Kepler, careful of the other paralogos’ wing feathers, before leaning his head on Kepler’s shoulder. The two often spent time like this up on the roof, where they could get a nice view of the stars and the moon above.

Kepler placed his arm around Lune’s shoulders, “Oh, I know,” he responded as the two gazed out onto the town below. The windows that were lit up in the homes and buildings were sort of like the stars they had just been looking at, closer but still far enough to be out of reach from where they were now. Kepler couldn’t help but think that they were like the grounded version of the stars. Maybe it was silly, but talking about all this abstraction versus the concrete was making him think about it that way. “But I also know that you always come back after your thoughts get so far away like that, and you know that I’ll always be back here on Lingua when you get back.” He gave Lune a quick squeeze as they sat under the night sky.

Lune was quiet for a few moments. Though his mind did like to wander, he knew that he did belong down here with his feet on the ground. That was the trouble with having a word focus that was so far away, it was so concrete, and yet he couldn’t touch it. It was the concrete things that he did have here that made all it more bearable. He had telescopes, star charts, space models, museums, and most of all he had Kepler. “I do always come back…” Lune said, smiling, “It’s nice to think about that kind of abstract, far away stuff, but I know this is where I’ll always come back to.”