openmisc | Kent/Feldspar

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?"

"You're not bringing the crystal, are you?" he laughs because he knows what the answer is. He reaches for their arm. "Did you bring any other artifacts? I can hold a few."

Of course Kent knows the answer! "I have a few things. Hold still and I'll redistribute the weight."

They keep the crystal for themselves though and take Kent's arm back. They can't exactly bounce along with the crystal in their pack, but it does mean they can walk along some of the steeper cliffs without incident.

He takes the little artifacts, but truthfully, he's waiting to return to the ship so that he can touch and hold them properly. He wants to feel what they're like without the gloves on his hands.

By the time they reach the ship, after taking the strange cliffs and crossing around the line in the middle of the equator, his oxygen meter is beeping a warning in his ear.

"Maybe we stayed out too far," he laughs.

Kent's not wrong, they're really cutting it close. "I see the ship, just hold your breath," they chuckle, moving a little faster to get to the hatch. It's not a simple process to get into the ship while they're in the vacuum of space - there's an airlock involved and clambering up a ladder, but they should have just enough oxygen to make it.

Once they're back in the cockpit and the hatch is secured behind them they pull off their helmet and hand the bag to Kent. "Have a look. I'm going to check on the fuel."

They might have to make a stop at the lunar outpost.

Kent takes the bag and sits in his chair, making sure he has the briefcase and the pack with him as he does. "Maybe you should turn it off next time after you get out," he teases. "Might save you on fuel."

"Oh, so you're the expert now, huh?" Feldspar calls back over their shoulder, still grinning like an idiot. They start up the twin engines and feel the familiar rumble underneath their fingertips.

"We'll stop by the Attlerock and see Esker. They'll like that."

Kent's stomach grumbles.

"And can we get something to eat? You don't even have astronaut food in here. And don't tell me your canned marshmallows are food."

"I have food! Some tinned veggies and fish." In case they crashed and were stranded. As rudimentary as anything else they have, but Feldspar is still kind of new at this.

"But yeah, Esker will have the good stuff. Gossan just shuttled some supplies to them last week."

"I'll spare you the olfactory offense at canned fish inside a different can," he smiles. "And I can wait until we aren't moving." He wraps his hands around the straps again as he feels the ship rumbling to life.

Feldspar waits until they hear the telltale clicking of the belt being secured into place before they even try to move the ship. They lift off without any incident, careful to swerve around Hollow's Lantern and aim for the Attlerock.

"I don't mind the smell if you're really that hungry. Are you sure you don't want a mallow? I mean, no one likes 'em raw, but they hit the spot."

He takes off his helmet and breathes in deeply, working on his gloves next. "No one eats them raw?" He snorts. "Feldspar, plenty of people eat them raw. At least my people."

"No one sane eats them raw," they snort. "They're best toasted, duh."

Though focused on steering the ship, they can't help but sneak a quick look over their shoulder at Kent as he removes his helmet. His hair's all askew and his face is a little red. It's cute.

Kent runs his fingers through his hair, pushing it back from his face.

He really should cut it. And shave his face.

He works on his gloves next, taking them off and setting them to the side so he can reach out and dig into the pack and feel what Feldspar brought.

Inside his pack will be all sorts of little artifacts and samples of the rocks and soil, and of course that crystal. “There’s a weird little toy in there - well, I think it’s a toy. What do you think? Hatchlings would love to see something like that.”

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