openmisc | Kent/Feldspar

Kent/Feldspar

"Just once more," they had said when Ellie's team petitioned for it. She was busy with Palmer, falling in love with science while he fell in love with God, and Kent was left to pick up the pieces. He wanted another damn go at it. The Machine had a pricetag in the billions; it was begging to be used again.

But they wouldn't let Ellie go. They wouldn't let just anyone go. They wanted someone who knew how it worked, who had been there from the beginning, but someone who isn't completely taken in by Ellie's words.

That leads them to a dozen people and they end up with Kent. He's blind, but that's not what decides it. They claim that he wouldn't hallucinate the way Ellie did. That he has a unique perspective.

And, he's already proven himself steady and loyal.

He experiences it all the way that Ellie does, but something goes wrong on the other end. Maybe another terrorist attack. Maybe not. All he knows is that he's in the sphere and then, suddenly, he's floating, unable to find his footing until a great crash and he slams into the bottom of the machine.

He groans, pulling his helmet on with a grunt and a wince.

"Fuck this," he mutters, finding the edge of the sphere with his hands. There was a door there somewhere. He just - has to find it.

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"Uh...no. No, I didn't want them to disappear again," they admit in a mutter. "Not yet. They just - they leave."

Leave? There’s nowhere to go here.

Leave. Feldspar can read between the lines.

“They leave every time?”

"Every time," they say, unlocking the next key with a sigh. "Every fucking time."

He adds it in a murmur, trying to hold back every drop of emotion.

“Oh. Yeah. That’s a problem, huh?”

They step back as Lapis moved to the next key.

“No wonder you’ve been so protective of this place, and why you’re so sad.”

Because yeah, Mapa’s noticed.

They don't deny it. They want to, but they don't.

"Once, I wasted a whole loop, just to do this. To come back here and see them," they confess. "It was the last time I did it. It felt too...selfish."

They can understand why it might seem that way, going through a whole loop just for the prisoner to end it all again. Feldspar reaches for Lapis’s arm and holds them steady, not letting them take another step forward.

“It’s not a waste,” they tell them gently. “And you have time now. All the time in the world. Maybe they need to know that too.”

Lapis pauses and looks down to the hand and then back to Feldspar. "I know that, but - "

But do they know that? Is that something that they considered?

No. For them...this was the end again. The final end.

But it didn't have to be.

“Think of all the things that have happened since the last time you saw them and now,” they press, voice gentle but grip still firm. “We’re all living here now. Think of how much they could help us. If you freed them is there somewhere in this place they’d be safe from being locked up again?”

"Yes. They know this place. And the others don't tend to leave their little spots. There's plenty of places for him to go. And...if we need to, we can extinguish their flames."

Not that Lapis wants to do anything like that.

Feldspar nods seriously. They wouldn’t want that for Lapis or the other aliens either. “Then…maybe they won’t leave. Maybe you’ve got more time, Lapis.”

"Maybe," they say with a swallow because it's hard to think about.

Time.

They haven't had that in so long.

"Alright. One last lock."

Feldspar draws their hand back with a nod. “Whatever you decide, I’m here for you.”

They hope they choose to fight though. If they’ve done anything worthy for this hatchling, it’d be instilling the need to fight for what you want in this life.

They sigh and press on until the doors open and they reach out to take Feldspar's hand. "It's....a long walk down," they explain.

The structure opens slowly and they’re met with just inky blacknesses. Feldspar’s not sure what they were anticipating, but it certainly wasn’t this, another long and winding path after a long and winding path.

“Let’s get a move on.” Feldspar takes Lapis’ hand and steps towards the darkness with them.

"Wait," they mutter but follow after their Mapa with a sigh. "It's - it just feels like it goes on forever." And they wander down, carefully picking their way through each step.

“Sure as stars dark anyway,” they mutter, squinting all four eyes. They try to adjust the lantern’s light until it shines into a point, bringing them on through to a wooden structure and a lift of sorts.

“Did you…want me to go with you? I assume they’re down there. Or up there. Wherever.”

They hesitate and then shake their head. "No. No, I should go by myself first until I can explain what's happening. And then you can come in."

Feldspar smiles gently. “Of course,” they tell them. “Go ahead.”

They reach for Lapis’ shoulders but instead bring their hands up to their cheeks to hold them. Their little baby.

“Alright, Pebble. Head on down.”

Lapis hesitates only once and then wraps their arms around Feldspar to give them a big and warm embrace. They breathe them in and steps back, heading down the elevator.

They're gone a while before the elevator returns and Lapis takes Feldspar's hand. "Come on. Your turn."

Feldspar fights back tears as Lapis leaves them. They’re terrified for their young one, and so, so proud. They wait in the darkness with the dim light of their own lantern illuminating the space, occasionally prodding at what looks like some kind of telescope.

When the lift returns they try to scan Lapis’ face for any sort of hint of what occurred down there as they follow after them. During the ride down they don’t ask any questions - if Lapis wants to volunteer information then they will, but in the meantime their heart thunders in their chest.

Lapis's hand in Feldspar's is tight and shaking, but they don't betray any worries otherwise.

Instead, they pull them inside where the Prisoner waits.

"Here," they say. "This...this is...them."

The ride down the lift is a long one, and Feldspar holds onto Lapis’ hand just as tightly as they step on through together.

The Prisoner is tall. Really tall. This shouldn’t be a surprise considering just about everything about the ship they built, but it’s one thing to see them in pictures and the echoes of them in furniture, but it’s another entirely to actually see them with their own four eyes. Feldspar cranes their neck up to meet their curious gaze with one of their own. What did Lapis tell them?

Their hands are slightly folded, their posture bent. Nothing about them seems intimidating beyond their size. Feldspar takes a step forward and extends their hand, unsure of how it would be met.

The Prisoner waits a beat, maybe pondering the gesture, before they take their massive hand in theirs and then cover it with the other. They’re warm. Feldspar smiles.

“Good to meet ‘cha. I’m Feldspar.”

This is absurdly cool.

Lapis watches with wide, hopeful eyes. They don't know how this meeting is going to go, and nor do they want to make a guess. But when it goes perfectly, when those two hands join and another atop it, they nearly fall back against the wall.

"I told them...everything," they explain. "I told them that they can leave now if they want and no one will bother them."

“Everything’s pretty broad,” Feldspar says, voice full of awe. They glance over their shoulder towards Lapis, then again towards the very large alien in front of them. “Do they know you’re my hatchling?”

"Yes," they answer and gesture to the device they carry. "You can talk to them there."

They walk over and hold it up for the Prisoner, as if prompting them to use it. "That way, you can tell your story, too. As much as you want."

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