openmisc | Kent/Feldspar

He knows not to move off the lift, but he appreciates the care anyway. He reaches for Feldspar and wraps his hands around their arm, pulling himself close. "I am nervous as hell, but yeah, I'm ready." He's already in his suit, but they said they'd have his helmet waiting for him in the ship.

"How are you feeling?"

They inhale softly, feeling those nerves of his right in their gut. He's relying on him to keep him safe, to deliver him to Brittle Hollow and back in one piece. "You'll be alright, Kent. I'm a good pilot; I'll keep you safe."

They frown and then step away from Kent to step up to the ladder. "I can't wait to get back up there."

Kent leans against them slightly, then lets go so they can get up the ladder. "I know," he tells them, then follows them up and into the ship, bringing his stick along with him.

"I did some time in the zero-g cave," he tells them. "So I hopefully won't float away this time."

“You went into the zero g cave?” Feldspar looks surprised, albeit pleased, and guides Kent up with their hand on his lower back and then on the back of his leg. “Well the belt will help with all that, and then Brittle Hollow’s got some gravity to at least keep us on the surface. I’ll try to get us as close to the crash site as possible though.”

"You're the test pilot," he laughs as he climbs inside and finds the seat Slate had installed for him. "God knows if the belts will hold."

He's nervous still, but not overly so. He's waiting to pass judgement.

“I’m sure they’ll hold,” Feldspar calls up to them. They do one last quick inspection of the ship and then climb in after them, smiling to see Kent’s chair just behind their own. It’s a strange little upgrade, being able to carry someone with them, but they kind of like it.

“Belt looks good,” they say, pulling the ladder up and closing up the hatch. “Slate said they worked on distributing the weight, so we’ll fly just as easy as we would without the second person.”

Feldspar takes their seat in the pilot’s chair, sighing quietly as it all settles into place. This is where they belong, right here. This is the only thing that’s ever made sense to them. They flick a few buttons and bring up the preflight checklist, triple checking it with the kind of care they wouldn’t normally bother with if it was only them in the ship.

“Alright. Let’s start her up. Ground control, you listening?”

“We’ve got you, Feldspar. Kent, comfy?” comes Hornfels voice.

"Okay to go," Kent says automatically, then laughs at himself. "I'm real cozy here, Fels."

He grips the straps of the belt and breathes.

He trusts Feldspar. With his life.

“Good, good. Take it easy up there, Feldspar. Don’t do anything reckless, please.”

Feldspar snorts softly. “Everything’s going to be fine, Hornfels. This is a standard flight - I won’t be trying any crazy stunts.”

“You’d better not,” Gossan shouts. “I’m going up after you and if you delay me again I’m going to beat you up!”

They laugh. “Gonna hafta catch me first, Gossan!”

Feldspar smirks to themselves and turns down the radio so they can focus on the launch. They flick on the engines and listen to them warm up, the ship rattling slightly as it tries to lift. “Alright, Kent, let’s get outta here.”

"Take me for a ride," he smiles, planting his shoes into the bottom of the ship as the ship starts up.

"She sounds perfect."

Feldspar grins from ear-to-ear. “Been waiting to hear you say that, Kent. Let’s get off this rock!”

They grip the controls and the ship raises up from the platform, shaking slightly before settling once they leave the atmosphere. Feldspar can feel their clothes lift slightly from the lack of gravity, and they exhale and turn the ship around to look back at the village in the crater, now growing smaller and smaller.

“Next stop, Brittle Hollow.”

They have to manually punch in the coordinates, but the airspace is clear and soon they have their sights on Brittle Hollow and its glowing, volcanic moon.

Kent had been too worried about his circumstances the last time they had taken this route, but he enjoys it this time. He feels his feet lift from the floor slightly and he laughs, pressing them down again.

He waits until he can hear the instruments settle, the steady breathing of Feldspar, and he unbuckles his seat belt.

"Don't tell Slate," he says, moving closer to Feldspar so he can put a hand on their shoulder. "What do you see?"

They hear the unclicking of the buckle and turns slightly, looking at Kent as his hair rises on end. "Brittle Hollow dead-ahead," they answer. "North and South poles are both snow-capped, and has these flat rocks, almost like plateaus, scattered across the surface. The volcanic moon is on the other side of the planet right now, but it occasionally spews these large ball of flames out towards the surface."

Feldspar pulls their gaze away from the screen and unbuckles their own belt. "Give me your hand, I'm going to give you a twirl."

Kent immediately reaches for their hand. "Yeah, we definitely can't tell them we danced in here," he says, perfectly willing to do it.

Feldspar kicks off the seat and pulls Kent into the center of the ship. “What a pilot does in their own ship is nobody else’s business.”

Even if it’s an innocent little dance in zero gravity. They grab Kent’s other hand and gently kick the interior wall of ship, giving them both enough propulsion to spin about.

Kent follows their lead, though there really isn't much to it. Not here, in zero-g.

This is much better than the cave. He feels his heart rising and falling, his skin flushed for reasons he doesn't want to get into.

He hums softly, then starts to sing a little Celine Dion, laughing all the while.

Feldspar tries to stop them from spinning too much, slowing them with a hand to the short ceiling so they can sort of twirl about lazily. “What’s that? Song of your people?”

"Nah, just a really good singer who is very popular right now," he says, holding on to them so he doesn't go flailing and knocking into instruments.

"We have a lot of songs."

"Well sing me something good. Something about the stars, huh? I bet you've got a lot of songs about the stars."

They try to spin Kent around independently of them, grinning a bit as they bump into the wall behind them.

He laughs, spinning away from them and taking their hand again to pull close. "Okay, well - this one's a classic." And Kent, who had been playing before, croons out Frank Sinatra now.

"Fly me to the moon
Let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like
On Jupiter and Mars
In other words, hold my hand
In other words, baby, kiss me..."

Kent has a nice, deep voice, so Feldspar expects him to have a pretty good signing voice, but it's a lot more melodic and sweet than they could have ever guessed. They grin brightly as he sings, enjoying the clever lyrics as they continue to twirl around with him. If they took out their harmonica they could probably play along...

They're distracted from their own thoughts when Kent starts singing about kissing. Oh. It's that kind of song. They laugh a little, glad Kent's blind and can't see the purple and red blush in their face and on their ears.

"So you humans kiss too, huh?"

He stops abruptly and, flustered, laughs a bit. "Yeah, I didn't know that was something you did, either."

And now that he knows that, it's - hard not to think about.

“Oh, yeah, sure. A hatchling of a certain age’s favorite pastime, aside from stealing the sap wine.”

They’re equally as distracted by the thought - many thoughts, in fact, like just how do humans kiss? Is it similar to the way a Hearthian kisses? Would his lips feel the same? Taste the same?

The ship rumbles slightly and Feldspar slows them down so they can float towards the pilot’s chair. “Ah, strap in, Kent. We need to adjust the course.”

He leaves those thoughts out of his head. They're on a mission. There's no point in getting wrapped up in his head.

He floats back to the chair and pulls himself onto it so he can slide the seatbelt on.

"How far off course did you get?"

“Not too far off, thankfully.” They do grumble a little as they try to punch the coordinates back in, only to be met by a small spark on the exterior of the cockpit and then a fizzling sound in the machinery. Feldspar frowns - that’s probably not great, but everything still seems to be working.

“I think our flight log’s short-circuited. Not a big deal, but Hornfels’ gonna be pissed.”

But so it goes with most Outer Wilds trips - something breaks, someone’s mad, but everyone’s secretly relieved no one died. Hornfels can be as angry as they want, but they’ll bring Kent there and back in one piece, so they can’t really complain.

Kent sucks in a breath, crinkling his nose as the smell.

"I'm sure they'll forgive you for breaking the ship," Kent teases. "But uh - what's in the flight log for you?"

He reaches up and ties his hair back with a bit of string so it doesn't get in his face.

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