openmisc | Kent/Feldspar

“Good.”

They could spare a little of theirs for Kent if he does need it, but over halfway is a good sign.

Feldspar carries on, hopping them both from platform to platform, trying to find those structures they’d spotted on multiple flyovers. They see the trees first - sad-looking things, obviously not native to the planet, as they explain to Kent - and then the crumbling buildings. “Just four or so buildings.”

They pull Kent further along for more inspection, describing the scattered remains of a few Nomai skeletons and some of the artifacts they’d left behind - including some glowing crystals.

"Glowing crystals?" he murmurs. "What color?"

Because if they're radioactive, he's going to pull Feldspar bodily back to the ship on his own.

“Green and eerie,” Feldspar teases, pulling a very rudimentary scope for measuring radiation. “We should try to lick them, don’t you think?”

Their tool beeps and boops and Feldspar squints at the panel. “They’re purplish-blue. No radiation detected aside from the typical background specs.”

"Asshole," he mutters playfully. "You're such a dick."

He moves in closer. "Are they just - out in the open?"

They don’t know either of those words, but they’re obviously not compliments. Typically, they imagine.

“They look like they’re being worked on. Shaped, I guess. Someone was cutting and refining them for some purpose, there are metal bands around them, like you could attach them to something.”

"And you haven't touched them yet?" he laughs. "That's not the Feldspar I know."

“The Feldspar you know needed to make sure they weren’t going to blister their fingers!”

But to Kent’s credit they are walking quickly to inspect the crystals. They pick one up and feel…heavy. Really heavy. “Hey, hold this. Tell me what you feel.”

"Youre wearing gloves, aren't you?"

He holds out his hands and whistles a little as it weighs him down considerably.

"It's dense. Wow."

He lifts and drops it slightly, testing the weight.

“Of course I’m wearing gloves,” Feldspar snorts. “Yeah, like I said, but don’t you feel heavier too? Like weighted down?”

"No, but..."

He hums, reconsidering his answer. "Yeah, actually. I do. I just didn't notice before."

He lifts it again. "Huh. Can you still feel it now?"

“When I’m standing near you. Hold on, let me move a few steps away…hm. The same…the same…the sa-no, normal!”

"This thing must alter gravity in some way. Be careful if you want to take this back. You might need to get Slate to make adjustments or you might fly too heavy."

He sets it back down and steps back. "I can't believe this..."

A crystal that alters gravity - what a find! “Maybe. I’ll radio to Slate and see what they think. We can leave it there for now and keep looking for a way down. The Nomai must have built a shelter underground to hide from that lava-filled moon.”

"I don't want to talk about that moon," Kent teases, but walls back until he feels the gravity return to normal.

"Alright. Let's go. Keep going down."

Feldspar eagerly grabs for Kent’s hand, forgetting in the moment to properly guide him by the elbow, and moves them through the ruins in the hopes of finding some kind of staircase or elevator or something. They describe what they’re seeing as they explore with him, all the swirled Nomai writing and the skeletons that look like the Nomai just died where they last sitting or standing, the strange little plants that somehow, above all rationale, put out enough oxygen to register on their HUD. Finally they come across a set of stairs, more of those crystals lining the path up ahead.

“Two things - found the stairs. Some of them. They sort of disappear into the dark.”

Kent follows along as best he can, also too enthused to correct him. He's able to move well enough and feels steady on his feet.

He does knock Feldspar in the leg with his stick when they stop, though.

"Don't you have a flashlight?" he deadpans.

“I have a flashlight!” they argue. “It’s just…the stairs are gone. Like they didn’t exist. I don’t see anything! Except….huh. Those crystals on the wall.”

Kent tilts his head, mulling it over for a minute.

He has to twist the logic in a way that would make his professors at school scratch their heads, but things don't follow the same laws any longer.

He gives Feldspar a nudge.

"Put your foot on the wall near the crystals."

Put their foot on the wall near the crystals. It’s a very Feldspar Solution to a puzzle, and for once they don’t follow the logic. If the crystal makes everything heavier -

Except it doesn’t, does it?

They grin so wide their face starts to hurt. Of course that’s how it works, of course! They walk down the steps and take a step forward, immediately twisting as the crystal yanks their center of gravity towards the wall. They wobble a little, off-balance and feeling like they’ve just done a spin in their ship, but finally right themselves with both feet on the wall.

The awe is overwhelming, but so is the exhilaration. They whoop loudly. “Kent, it holds! It holds! They built a path on the wall with the crystals! I can see it, it goes all the way down!”

"No way."

He laughs along with them. "Well, go! See where it leads!"

He doesn't think he would be able to walk that path. He's just not built for the sort of death defying gravitational stunts that Feldspar is. "Hurry, while you still have some oxygen."

Normally when someone says “go” Feldspar is the first one to run out to the front, but they hesitate this time. They’re a solo traveler, they’d rather be up in the sky than on Timber Hearth -

So why do they hear it in the back of their mind a whisper that they don’t want to go without him?

They’re quick to shake it off though and salutes Kent even if they can’t see it. “Yep, heading down!”

Because they can’t resist the call of the unknown, and they know it. They walk down confidently, pausing the first time when the radius of the first crystal’s pull ended and where the next one began but only that once. The path curves and twists and ends at a…a depot, of sorts. The convergence of some kind of road system. They whistle low.

“Kent, this is amazing. There’s a whole underground city down here.”

Kent sites down at the base of the trail, draping his hands on his knees. He can hear their breathing, each step in their breath, and wishes them the safest trip.

He smiles, imagining what he might find -

"A city?! I - okay. What did you find? What's there?"

They wish Kent was down here with them. They can describe it, but it feels wrong that Kent isn’t standing down there with them.

“We didn’t realize there was a whole city…we only ever saw a few buildings here and there. There’s a place on the Attleboro, and one up north on Timber Hearth.”

Feldspar talks and talks as they explore the area, snapping a picture of the mural on the wall. They grab a few artifacts, pausing when they realize that one of them looks like a toy a hatchling might play with. They had little ones here.

They laugh quietly to themselves, almost sadly, and then head back to the path.

“Coming back up, Kent.”

Kent doesn't mind waiting; he's had a lot of adventure and now he wants to go home.

Home. Timber Hearth. How strangely it starts to feel familiar enough for Kent to miss it. "I didn't move," he promises them and stands up, brushing off the bottoms of his suit.

Feldspar half expects to find Kent on the ceiling or on top of another building when they emerge from the stairwell, but Kent is exactly where they left him. They snag one of the gravity crystals, feeling like the trek back to the ship is going to be interesting albeit a little weird.

"You didn't move!"

They check their tank with a hum. Less than half. Better get going.

"I think this was a successful trip, don't you think?"

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