driftfleet | can you spot the drama queen

Entry tags:

can you spot the drama queen

Who: Mattias Larnaca
Broadcast: video; fleet-wide
Action: marsiva so NO ONE
When: 2/17

I don't understand. [The screen is black, the voice is ragged, raw. Wet with sobs that gasp and hiccup out of him. The comm scrapes against the floor of the ship and a glimpse of space can be seen ] I-it's dark. She-[He chokes, splutters, coughs.]-She's gone. Is this... [A deep, bedraggled breath. The screen brightens, adjusting to the color of fluorescent lights and a young man's weary face, wet with tears. Despite his appearance, he's smiling. The kind of smile seen at births, marriages, a baby's first step. He's overcome with emotion, excited and battling it, fighting disbelief in order to confirm that this, any of this is real.]

This is a communication system. I don't-[He swipes a hand across his face, wiping his eyes clear.]-I don't know how I know that but... [muttering:]... it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Whoever's out there-[He chokes again, this time laughing.]-Goddess. I really am. Above the clouds. In her domain. I never-[He swallows, trying to contain his excitement again.]-I never thought this would happen. I could never even imagine it. Not like this. Not-Goddess.

[Falling back to one hand he sighs, pulling a hand through his tired hair, loose waves spilling between his fingertips. After a few minutes, he seems to remember that he's broadcasting. Eyes glimmering with elation, he leans forward, unable to stop the smile from spreading across his face.]

Please. Anyone. Tell me. [He turns the comm quickly and presses it against the glass. The screen fills with the void of space, stars glittering in their myriad.] Has night finally come?

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A long time? [He laughs out another sob.] My life. Everything I've done. It's all been for this.

[He tries to dry his tears but more come. His hands are trembling, you can see it from how the communicator shakes.] Truly, I was starting to believe I'd never see it.

[he cants his head a little. surely he must be misunderstanding this situation somehow, because it really seems like...]

Nighttime? ...Is that really what all this excitement is about?

[He laughs again. Really, what is with all these questions?]

Well, it certainly wouldn't be about the light! Is it really a surprise?

...Yes.

As something that comes after the end of every day, ending the light that most creatures tend to love so very much, I can't remember the last time that I've seen anyone excited about it.

Ah. [His face falls, toeing something more bitter. Disgusted.] You're of that opinion, are you? Night is something to be feared? To be dreaded?

Such gullibility. [He nearly spits it out.] Life comes as life does. It goes on with or without that cursed sun. [He assumes.] It's juvenile to fear something simply because it's the end of something else.

[he tries not to, but after a moment... he just quietly grins. as if the man has passed some unannounced test, or seen through some joke. and his voice softens, just a bit.]

...On the contrary, I couldn't agree with you more.

It has just been a very long time since I've met anyone who has felt the same.

[Record scratch. Time slows down. Had he misheard.] You agree?

[Oh, be still his heart.] Truly? This... that's remarkable. Forgive me, I-I'm not used to people agreeing.

[ah, and that visible surprise only delights him more. ...this guy is just precious.]

Mm, it seems that the night has similar stigmas across the worlds. Isn't that interesting?

...Where I'm from, she has always been feared by the population at large, along with all of her children and her creatures. It's quite unfair.

[Oh my god. He gets it! Someone else finally gets it! Mattias surges forward.]

Yes! Yes! Exactly! She's been stigmatized through stories, beliefs, that have no real basis! They were just lies that sought to twist our understanding! No one's truly seen her, seen this-but when they do they'll understand. They must. Oh, it feels so good to finally meet someone who gets it. And not just for religion's sake, either. I-this is momentous. I must know your name.

[He even called it a her!!! Excitement!!]

You may call me Tek.

[gosh, this guys is just a little night-loving puppy, isn't he?]

And you say that you've been... waiting for night? Surely, you can't mean that literally?

[Tek. Wonderful. Great name.]

Well, no, I've been quite active. [He laughs lightly.] If I were simply waiting, Nocta would never come. I had to save her.

[...hmm. he's got to go at this from a different angle, clearly.]

What I mean to say is... night isn't something that happens at the end of each day, as it should? It's somehow elusive, where you're from?

Ah, no. [He seems puzzled by the question but... no harm done. Just a bit of... blatant ignorance.] No, it hasn't happened in centuries. Only the old records hold accounts of it. Orphoros banished her quite long ago.

[sorry to burst your bubble, kid.]

Ah... well. You might be in for quite a shock, in that case.

[That troubles him. Still, he struggles to smile.]

A shock? How so?

If your night has had such a problem where you're from... she hasn't elsewhere.

As far as I've seen, all the worlds I've visited... night happens just as often as every day does. Common enough for most people to never give it a second thought.

["A shock". This is far more than a simple shock. This is an earthquake, shifting plates, a movement of continents. This is the destruction of a world. Of his world.

The concept of multiple earths had already been explained to him. He understood, if just barely. But on those earths it had made sense to keep the same rules. The same structure. Two deities, one ruling, one exiled. The absence of night. The endless desert. The lack of trees, of oceans, of civilization-all of it had to be a constant. For it to not would mean futility. It would mean his world had been rejected. Punished. For what? What had they done to live in squalor, in a dying world, while others lived on in bounty?]

That-that can't be. [And yet, the answer fits. It explains the skepticism of the other responses. The disbelief, the mocking in their tones. They had lived with night, known it, felt the caress of cool air-what? Daily?

The mere thought makes him sick. Makes his skin crawl and his stomach shrink. He feels bile rise and shoves it down. Breathes in deep only to find he's short of breath.]

It can't be. Then why... [Why had they been forsaken? And how could night even exist outside of Nocta? It was her realm, it was what he believed. And now... He claps a hand over his mouth, falling back against the glass.] Then what I did... What I've done...

[Did any of it matter?]

[being the creature that he is, he can feel sorrow and horror as something tangible. and if he'd been standing there, he knows he'd be able to feel it washing off this man in whitecapped waves. he can practically see it welling out of him, like blood from a nicked artery.

...and he shouldn't care. he never cares.

but this primal upset, the feeling of bedrock cracking somewhere deep, is too close to his own quick and nerves for him not to feel something.

so, he breathes a small, pitying sigh, and begins to explain.]

...Goodness, don't go unraveling that easily. If you let yourself despair already, you'll be claiming that you understand the complicated workings of the highest gods, and that is always folly.

[He can't even apologize for his reaction. His tongue feels thick and heavy, a burden in his mouth. Tek's words feel like echoes, dimly ringing until one, finally, breaks through.]

Highest-? [A sob breaks loose disguised as a laugh. The hand falls from his mouth as his head tips back, banging against the glass. Pain shoots through his head but it feels numb. Everything does.] They weren't high enough. [He laughs again, dry and hollow. Tipping his head back, he covers his eyes with a palm.] Of course.

[The goddess he risked everything for, the god he spent his life hating and they weren't even the "highest"? He laughs again, shoulders trembling.]

[he frowns, finally, just a bit. it always bothers him when he sees someone who shows signs of deep dedication and resolve continue to spiral down, threatening to fall beyond the reaches of reason. it's always such a waste, and he'd hate to see someone as promising as this man head that way so soon.]

Yes, highest. ...Higher than those they've created, at any rate.

So, if you claim that you comprehend the entirety of their realms and reaches, and despair when that limited understanding is shaken, that makes you a fool.

[it also makes Tek a huge hypocrite, but whatever.]

Just because the night is not conquered by day in other worlds doesn't mean that she no longer needs your help in your own. ...And it certainly doesn't mean that there doesn't still exist a constant struggle between darkness and light.

Understand?

A fool... [He whispers it, testing it on his tongue. It's not the first time he's been called it but it might be the first moment he considers it true.] Yes, I might still be one.

[Yet his words reach him, even if they hit hollow. He tries not to dwell on helping her. That path only leads to what's missing. How she's not there, swimming under his skin, wrapping him in her cool embrace. No, better to focus on the constant. Take comfort in the similarities then dwell on what's empty.

Taking a deep, wavering breath, he levels his gaze with the calm, eyes oddly firm.] But, I understand.

[yes, good. that is what he wants, and the smile returns. if the man can manage that small but heavy step forward, he might still be worth the dragon's time and attention.]

We've all seen the faces of our gods, but I'm now sure that those are only single facets of much more complicated creatures than we've ever given them credit for.

They may look differently out here, go by different names, are known by different stories, but the things that matter are still the same. Maybe we should count ourselves lucky that we're able to learn of them now.

[which is deviating farther from his personal less-than-favorable opinions of the gods, but he's not above offering the reassurance anyway, in this case.]

...Did you know, there are tales of a time without darkness in the ancient histories of my home? Perhaps it's a story that has repeated itself in various forms throughout the worlds.

[Mattias' eyes widen.] A time without darkness. [He repeats the words as if they were holy. The more Tek speaks the more likely things become. A proper explanation to the madness just unleashed on his mind. He uses it as structure, cogs turning to forge theories. Excitement, slowly, returns.]

Then it's a pattern. Or a cycle. Or-[He's sitting upright again, eyes wild with the possibilities. He gulps.]-even time. A disparity.

[He snaps his fingers.] Like what happens in a Joining! The slowing of time. Your world could be my future.

[He laughs, not only at the thought, but at the return, however slight, of hope.]

[there we go! he watches the chain reaction of wheels, finally catching and spinning under their own power once he gives it a push. it's the same jump-start that kicked off the readjustment of his own worldview several years ago.]

There isn't anything saying that it can't be. Or it could be one more illustration of a grand design that repeats itself across every variant of creation.

Not everyone will know of a time when light so completely conquered darkness... but ask around. The notion that there is a war between the two will still be familiar. It's universal.

Maybe our nights are the very same beings, with different names. Maybe they are sisters. The details hardly matter. ...The fact remains that there will always be day, there will always be night, and one will always be trying to burn the other out.

Sisters. [His voice trembles, a smile wavering from pure elation. He wants to see all of them. Trace the similarities, note the differences, too excited by the potential future to be deterred by the possibility it's a false assumption. Astonished, he laughs again, clutching the communicator with both hands as he scrambles to his feet.]

Marvelous. Simply wonderful. Well, not the conflict but-the possibilities. To think, there could be a world-multiple, even!-where she reigns. [He sighs, his smile only broadening.] It's all I could ever dream of.

video forever and foralways

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THANKS TEK

he's a helper

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