Kent/Feldspar

[videointhenoise]

"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.

Comments

[videointhenoise]

Planted the flag.

Kent isn't surprised to hear that, and he also isn't surprised that Feldspar hadn't mentioned it. He chooses to be impressed, but not bring it up.

The ladder is easy to find, and Kent scrambles up, eager to be back home. Sitting at the camp with the hatchlings.

[getfeldsparred]

Feldspar follows Kent, saying their goodbyes to Esker and doing all the pre-launch securing of the ladder and hatch. They brush by Kent as they sit back in their chair, smiling slightly to see Esker already back in the crater waving them off with their signature hat in hand.

“The village’s on the other side of the planet right now, so this might take a little longer than normal. Hold tight-”

Feldspar grabs their radio while the other hand reaches for their belt. “Feldspar to ground control.”

“Ground control here. Hey, Feldspar!”

Feldspar grins. “Gossan! Putting in a shift as Hornfels, huh?”

“You bet. Need the conditions report?”

“Uh huh. We’re ready to come back. Wait until you see what we found.”

“Can’t wait, Felds. Well you’re all clear down here, so get your butt down here before Hornfels has a fit. They’ve been worrying about Kent all night.”

“Pfft, he’s fine. Tell ‘em, Kent!”

Feldspar holds out the radio to him.

[videointhenoise]

"Help, I'm being kidnapped," Kent says with a laugh as he leans in closer towards the radio. He snickers a bit. "I'm fine. Everyone's fine. It's been an adventure."

He does like to hear that someone was missing him, though. It gives him a bit of a thrill to know that he's...wanted. Accepted.

Not that the Heartheans have ever given him reason to think otherwise!

[getfeldsparred]

“A safe adventure,” Feldspar adds. “Tell Hornfels that, it was safe.”

It was not.

“Oh, and uh, let them know my ship log is broken, okay, bye!”

They hang up quickly and lift the ship off the moon’s surface with a grin.

[videointhenoise]

"But it wasn't safe," he points out to them as they ascend. "It was the opposite of safe. It was safer than what you usually do, you maniac," he teases.

[getfeldsparred]

“Nothing safe about exploring a new place for the first time,” replies Feldspar casually. “But there’s nothing safe about getting into an alien craft without knowing what it’d do either, is there?”

Kettle, pot, etc.

Feldspar has to mostly eyeball their landings, hence why Rutile won’t let them install a launch pad in the crater yet. Maybe one day, when they cause less fires than lightning strikes, but for now landing outside of the village is fine too. There’s no crowd waiting for them on this return, just Hornfels and Slate, with Gossan presumably still inside ground control.

It’s Hornfels that runs over to the ship when the engine’s off and pops open the latch. “Feldspar, Kent! Great news!” they call up breathlessly. “We’re going to build a proper observatory!”

[videointhenoise]

Kent smirks. "Led me here, didn't it?"

But he doesn't have time to enjoy that moment because Hornfels is giving the good news. Kent takes off his helmet and scrambles down the hatch with them, grabbing the pack and briefcase as he goes. "Tell me about it!" he demands breathlessly.

[getfeldsparred]

And off they go! Feldspar doesn’t even get to enjoy the little moment they were sharing, because Slate comes bounding in asking about the discoveries on Brittle Hollow and how the new thruster was working.

“I’m going to change your life, Slate.”

They pull off their helmet and hand Slate the gravity crystal with a grin.

The rest of the day is spent recounting their stories and sharing the artifacts collected on Brittle Hollow. The five of them are practically stuffed into the small cabin that serves as ground control, but no one really seems to mind.

“What was it that you had to get, Kent?” Hornfels finally asks.

[videointhenoise]

Kent is happy enough to take over talking when Feldspar falters or pauses, and he helps to take out the artifacts for them all to pass around.

Only when there's a lull does Hornfels ask the question and Kent laughs, shaking his head. "One part is for later," he says to them. "There's something I have to make first. That's from the officials. But the other part is from Ellie and me. It's less official."

He reaches into his backpack and takes out a large, heavy book - a scrapbook Ellie had picked up at a craft store. Something simple. He brings it up and he can almost smell the lotion from her hands. "We have pictures of Earth."

[getfeldsparred]

The room holds its collective breath as Kent pulls the book out from his bag.

“Pictures from Earth,” Hornfels gasps, immediately moving to sit right beside Kent as close as they can. The rest of Outer Wilds seems too stunned to move, including Feldspar, who almost doesn’t want to see these things.

What if it makes Kent sad to talk about it?

“Open the book, Kent! We want to see!” Gossan finally exclaims, leaning forward with their hands on their knees.

[videointhenoise]

Kent is nothing but smiles as he turns it around for them to see. He opens the front page, to a picture of Ellie and himself and the Braille above their names. There are also pictures of his friends, the radars, and Ellie insisted on one of Palmer.

Kent slides his fingers under the pictures, explaining them as he does.

"This is Ellie. And me. And the people we worked with. Fish is there." He smiles. "These are our radars, what we used to listen to the stars."

[getfeldsparred]

“Woah, look at those radios! You have so many of them!”

“He has yellow fur - I mean…hair. Right? Hair. Wow.”

“I think it’s ‘she’.”

“Oh, oh right, she. That doesn’t look like a fish though.”

“Fish is their name, Gossan.”

“Oh - weird?”

“Nickname!”

“Right! Okay! What’s this though, these bumps? Your language?”

The chatter continues, with Feldspar staying quiet as they look at Kent standing with his friends in the color picture.

[videointhenoise]

"That's how I read. It's not our written language. That's - I'll show you that some other time."

He turns the page. "We organized this into biomes. Earth is huge. We have deserts, here..." He shows them a cutout from a NatGeo magazine, though most of what they have are NatGeos. "Oceans with so many different animals." He turns the page and reads the words. "Oh, jungles. Savannah. Tundra." He pauses to let them see.

[getfeldsparred]

More excited, albeit confused, chatter. Feldspar looks at the biomes a little closer and feels a sudden pang of regret - they’d never get to see these places for themselves.

“Your planet is beautiful,” Hornfels says, voice awed and slightly hushed.

[videointhenoise]

Kent smiles. "I've always thought so. We'd go fishing in the ocean sometimes. Swimming, too."

He turns the page again. "We have billions of people on Earth. They all live in different places and each place has their own culture. It's like - having different species sometimes. That's how different we are."

[getfeldsparred]

“Billions,” Feldspar finally says, though it’s under their breath. Billions of humans!

“I can’t even imagine that number,” Gossan admits. “A hundred Hearthians would seem like a crowd, let alone…let alone anything that big.”

“Is that where you live? In these tall buildings?” Slate asks, pointing to a picture of a large clump of densely-packed buildings. “They look huge!”

[videointhenoise]

"God no. That's too many people. I like living away from people, but I didn't really have a home. Ellie and I would travel all over the country, so we didn't really buy anything," he explains.

"And buy as in...we didn't trade or barter. We used money to exchange for things. I'll explain the concept better later but - that's it, yeah."

[getfeldsparred]

The concept of a country isn’t one Feldspar understands, neither is money, and it’s hard to really get a sense of the scope of Kent’s people or their planet without their head hurting. So many of them, so many of them and it was Kent who was sent onto the ship…

“Show us more pictures,” they say quietly, interrupting the questions and talk between the others.

[videointhenoise]

Kent smiles and turns the pages. "This is the shuttle we took to our moon. The different kinds of crafts. This is the space station that we will start launching next year."

[getfeldsparred]

Slate starts oohing and aaaahing the designs, the rockets, the other visual components they can identify by sight alone. Gossan admires how sleek the designs are, then asks Kent cheekily if there are restraints aboard.

[videointhenoise]

"Tons," he snickers. "Restraints so tight, you need another person to do it for you."

He laughs, turning the page. "Okay, here are some animals." He names them as he goes, from jungle creatures to farm animals, and describes each one as best he can. The plants are next, and he can only show their pictures, and he and Ellie are not plant experts.

[getfeldsparred]

They’re all interested in the pictures of the unusual plants and animals, and Feldspar finds themselves moving closer and closer to Kent as he continues to show off his photo album.

“So much diversity,” Hornfels mumbles. “We should turn this into an exhibit or something, for all of the village to enjoy. Uh. That is if you don’t mind, Kent.”

[videointhenoise]

"Not at all. That's why I brought it."

The last few pages are about the scientific discoveries they've created. Telephones and light bulbs and cars. "A truck," Kent mutters to Feldspar, then lets the others look at it.

He moves back and digs into the pack to take out a few other trinkets for himself. His pajamas are placed on his bed, his adapted watch on the nightstand, and...a small tape and player.

[getfeldsparred]

As the rest of Outer Wilds Ventures discuss the inventions, Slate in particular (”I’m going to build that, and then I’m going to try that), Feldspar follows Kent to his bed and looks over his personal items.

“What’s all this?” they murmur, standing close enough just for Kent to hear.

[videointhenoise]

He starts a little, not expecting anyone to follow. He'd think Feldspar would be too occupied with the photos, but - he's comforted by them here.

"Uh, pajamas. My favorite ones. My dad's watch and his ring. There's some candy here that I think I'll let the hatchlings try. And - uh, this. I don't know what it is. Ellie probably put it there."