02 | video

[oceanthief]

[it's perhaps one or two in the morning on Thursday when this post goes up. Lapis is nowhere to be seen in the video, having opted to tilt the communicator upwards so it has a fantastic view of the sky. judging by how many stars are visible, it's somewhere remote.

just as Lapis begins to speak, a few meteors suddenly flash across the sky. it's pretty clear why she's out here now, at least. the show continues with increasing frequency as she goes on.]

I've never seen a meteor shower from earth before. [for once she doesn't sound bitter when speaking about the planet, just thoughtful.] I mean, we charted everything, but it was just for transport routes and optimal warp points. We never really...looked at it.

[there's a shifting sound near the comm, like Lapis is either pulling her legs up or spreading them out. even gems can cramp if they're in a position for too long, ok.]

You'd never be able to tell this place is in another universe just from the stars; it feels like I could go up there right now and nothing would have changed. But I know that's wrong - there isn't anything in the world that waits for you, even in space.

[she's reminded of her journey back to Homeworld, the little changes to her once familiar route that she'd noticed only too late thanks to her exuberance. maybe if she'd just been paying a little more attention she wouldn't have been so surprised by the planet she'd returned to. but what would that have done for her? things would have played out the same way.

there's rising emotion in Lapis' voice when she speaks again. when you're carrying so much weight around with you, there aren't many nice things you can enjoy for long before accidentally upsetting yourself.]

...this is stupid.

[coming out here, making this post, everything. the camera jerks suddenly, and there's a flash of little blue alien and watery wings before it's abruptly turned off.

don't expect any answer from her until maybe half an hour after this goes up - she's shot up into space for a little bit to get up close and personal with the meteor shower...and to think.]

Comments

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[neatniks]

It's a thought that a lot of people probably haven't considered, what a parallel universe means for the entire universe, not just the Earth.

All right?

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[oceanthief]

I'm fine.

[and she looks it, once she finally starts answering things. of course, it's impossible to tell with Lapis if that actually extends beyond her expression, but the most anyone can do on that front is hope for the best.]

It's mostly humans here, so that doesn't surprise me. I haven't stopped thinking about it since I arrived.

video

[neatniks]

Can you go and see? I know we're tracked here, right? But there's only so far that signal could reach.

[resipiscent]

Did you like the shower?

[He's out on the Cape Canaveral beach. He's got his cat on a harness in his lap, and he's sitting on a rock, apparently.]

I came out to the beach to see it.

[oceanthief]

[why is that animal restrained like that? Lapis tilts her head to the side and looks mildly perplexed for a moment, before shaking herself out of it and actually answering his question. she doesn't even want to know about the cat.]

It was nice, I guess. It's a lot quieter than some of the others I've seen elsewhere.

[resipiscent]

[He can see her eyes directed down toward Atoli and he lifts her gently, curling his arm around her. He's about to explain, but then what she says makes him interested.]

Quieter?

voice; in the morning!

[sassguard]

I didn't even realize there was going to be a meteor shower last night. Thanks for sharing that.

[ A pause. He doesn't really know her well enough to address the rest of it, but... ]

Speaking from experience, space changes all the time. Nothing's ever really still -- the stars we see from here might already be gone, but their light's still there.

voice;

[oceanthief]

[Lapis sounds a lot more together when she answers in the morning. she also answers pretty promptly, because gems don't actually need sleep so she's been doing whatever this whole time.]

I know that there really isn't anything that will stay the same forever, but I thought that once I got up there-

[she cuts herself off. now isn't the time to slide back immediately into all that emotional bullshit.]

I should have known better. But the shower was pretty nice, so...there's that, I guess.

voice;

[sassguard]

You can go up to space here?

[ He sounds almost wistful. ]

Now that makes me kinda jealous.

( audio )

[abadidea]

You know I sort of...get what you mean.

[Isaac was born of Earth, but he's spent the majority of his life among the stars.]

The sky looks the same, like...home, I guess, but it's not my Earth, you know?

( audio )

[oceanthief]

Yeah, I do. Sometimes I wonder if some version of Homeworld is up there too, but I'm afraid to find out.

[mostly because she suspects that it doesn't exist, and even with all her conflicted feelings Lapis isn't certain she can cope with a universe that lacks her 'home'. at least the way things are now she can pretend there's still a chance it's out there.]

( audio )

[abadidea]

Homeworld? I don't think I follow. [Humans are the only species left where Isaac comes from, so it's still really new to think about other races.]

[orions_shadow]

I was watchin' that on the roof the other night. Pretty.

What's this warp point you're talkin' about?

[oceanthief]

Gems have warp technology at home; it's kind of like what the Porter does, but better.

[this is a blunt statement of fact rather than any sort of speciesist bragging. warp pads were way more fucking practical than whatever Lachesis was doing.]

You need to check the warp routes for pads that go between planets, though, so you don't run into anything bad while you're transporting. That's all.

[orions_shadow]

Whoa. That means you've done interstellar travel?

Bet this is gonna come off like the question you heard a thousand times, but what's a gem?

[ Video ]

[enucleation]

I don't think it's stupid.

Are you alright, Lapis?

[ Video ]

[oceanthief]

I'm a little better now.

[she doesn't quite smile, but she doesn't seem to be on the verge of an emotional breakdown anymore. that's about the best that Lapis can hope for most of the time.]

I guess I wasn't expecting it to make me feel that lonely after all this time.

video;

[worldeater]

Most lack the vision to look beyond the horizon, much less the stars.

[How small they all were, here on this planet -- how small he could feel, as well, if he allowed himself to. In a mortal body, both feet firmly planted to the ground at all times.

How annoying.]

video;

[oceanthief]

Then they're missing out on the only view worth seeing.

[beyond the stars is the only place that Lapis had been looking during those thousand years of entrapment, and even now she can't say that's entirely untrue. the possibility of what may lie in this universe's outermost reaches is more appealing than most of the things earth had to offer.]

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[logicunlocked]

[ York's cruising the network, suffering from his usual insomnia, when this comes across, and he turns the video feed on holding the comm unit up above him, still lying in bed. ]

It's easy to get caught up in it when space is your job. I don't know the last time I looked at stars just to look at 'em myself.

Video

[oceanthief]

The last time I was up there I wasn't looking at anything. I just wanted to get home as fast as I could.

[and what a fucking joke that had turned out to be. but this isn't the time for that, not after she'd nearly had a breakdown so recently in the past.]

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[kinesia]

[ Grey is sitting on top of April's roof. He hadn't known what it was lighting up the sky. He still tends to get a bit fascinated by stars, by those little glowing orbs that still feel new to him. The flashing lines that appear for only a second and then fade, they're something even more new. ]

is that what it is

a meteor shower ? i didnt know

where are you from ???

[ Because it's clearly not from Earth. Grey doesn't really know how to visualise another world, but then he hadn't known how to visualise Earth before he was here, either. It's strange to think that even here, there's many things he isn't seeing. ]

video;

[oceanthief]

I think humans call this one the Perseids? Most of them happen pretty regularly over time.

[she shrugs a little, uncertain about her information and honestly not interested enough in it to correct herself. Lapis doesn't care what humans call most things, so long as she can look them up should they prove relevant to her.

the other question doesn't surprise her after all this time here. people just weren't used to gems the way they'd seemed to be on her own earth.]

I'm from a planet called Homeworld. It's...pretty far out.

audio;

[bestever]

Maaaaan, I can never tell the difference, even between those different little... Connect the dot zodiac shapes. [constellation, church. the word is constellation.] How can you tell that they're the same as what you saw back home?

audio;

[oceanthief]

We mapped and charted all of them when we first landed on earth. It's pretty easy to remember.

[no it's not, Lapis. gems are just freaks.]