Kent Clark (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
videointhenoise) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
openmisc2024-12-13 07:37 pm
videointhenoise) wrote in openmisc2024-12-13 07:37 pm
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.
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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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."
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"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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They can feel their thoughts leave their body and float into the alien’s mind, and with this focus on them they share the story of them and Kent. They were two different species from two vastly different universes, but they loved in the same way. That’s what they want the prisoner to know - their hatchling was a child of the universe, and from a species that dreamed big. They were taught to be infinitely curious by the two that raised them, and loved them, and hoped for the entire world for them.
They wait for the alien’s response, if there is any.
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The creature seems to consider responding and then, with a particularly birdlike tilt of their head, places a hand on Feldspar's shoulder in understanding. They look back to Lapis and then gestures up for them.
It's time for them to go.
It's been - a lot to take in.
But the Prisoner, no longer as such, is content to stay a while here. They aren't making their escape.
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“I’m sure you’ll figure out how to use that,” they say, winking two eyes. “Alright, Lapis, let’s head back to your dad.”
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Lapis blinks once and then looks at his Mapa. "Yeah," they agree. "Are you sure?"
They look back over their shoulder to see the prisoner, former prisoner, staring at the harmonica and then watching them leave with hawk-like determination.
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And they’ve seen enough for now. They need to report back to Kent with all that they’ve experienced and learned about their hatchling - and with all of this tragic romance and literal star-crossed lovers on the brain they’re missing him fiercely.