Chapter Text
You stumble off the gravity crystal path, momentarily nauseous as gravity reorients itself beneath you. You can’t help but squeeze your eyes tight as you take a few deep, controlled breaths to help quell the feeling.
Once you feel like you’re no longer going to topple over if you take a step forward, you glance around the clearing. Nomai railings line some of the edges of the cliff. A gravity lift pulses up directly in front of you, and to your far right, a triangular crevice in the rock leads out to what seems to be a stable outcropping. You hear the gentle twang of a banjo nearby.
Carefully, you make your way towards the sound, running your hand along the wall as you go. Brittle Hollow’s rock is deceptive- smooth upon first glance, yet porous, and shockingly brittle yet firm. You never would have expected it. Space is so full of wonders, isn’t it?
You find a camp at the outcrop. A few sturdy trees form a ring around it, centered by a stable campfire. You can see a scout leaning against some old Nomai pottery. Sitting by one of the trees, surrounded by half-opened tins of marshmallows, is an old friend. “Hey, Riebeck!” you call out to them.
Riebeck startles, nearly dropping their beloved banjo (how did they not notice you before?). “Oh, it’s you!” they cry. “You launched! That’s great. Great job, you. Wow, I guess that means I’ve been out here a while, huh.” They pluck a few strings on their banjo. “Well, um, this is Brittle Hollow. But you probably knew that. Lots of history here. ...It’s great.” They turn to face you. You can’t see it under their thick helmet, but you know they’re smiling.
You take a seat by their campfire and pull out your marshmallow stick as Riebeck absently fiddles with their tuning pegs. “What are you doing out here?” you ask.
“I’m here to see the Hanging City,” they reply. “It’s always been my dream to see it with my own four eyes, ever since I was a hatchling. An alien race lived in this solar system long before our species even existed! How could I not want to see what their civilization was like?”
You can feel the excitement in their voice as they talk. Riebeck’s always been fascinated by the mystery of the Nomai. Their contagious enthusiasm is what drove you and Hal to first start building the translator in the first place, after all!
Riebeck grips the neck of their banjo even tighter. “Only… You’ve… probably heard the others say it, right? I’m afraid of space. Seriously, I’m more surprised than anybody that I’m out here. Do you want to know how I even got this far? I fell. Tripped over a gravity crystal. It’s dumb luck that I landed somewhere my Little Scout says is halfway stable, instead of being sucked into… what’s below.
I’ve been gauging the stability of the ground around me using my Little Scout, and this seems to be the place with the best surface integrity, so I’m just going to stay here until I’m ready to move on.”
You hear Riebeck take a deep breath in, and then out. “...But that’s enough about me and my problems. You didn’t come all this way to listen to me blather, did you! Heh, that’d be… yeah.”
“No, no, it’s alright! I want to hear what you have to say,” you reassure. Riebeck seems surprised by this, but doesn’t say anything. “So, what do you think you’ll find in the Hanging City?”
They clap their hands together. “So much! The Hanging City was the main settlement of the Nomai on Brittle Hollow. It’s the heart of all the culture and science from their civilization here! Though, why they’d want to build their most advanced settlement so close to a… you-know-what… is beyond me. Maybe it had a purpose?”
Riebeck shakes their head. “No matter. The Hanging City is key to learning about the Nomai! What was their daily life like? What was their community structure? I’ve seen some evidence of Nomai hatchlings living under the direct care of two or more adult Nomai, rather than being raised by the entire village. I wonder how that influenced their culture and beliefs? And what brought them to this solar system in the first place? I’m not convinced they’re natives, yet the complexity and density of their structures imply they settled here for a long time, discrediting the theory that they’re nomadic! Did they find something special here, of all places? What made them stay?”
Oh, you know the answer to that one! “They were looking for something called the Eye of the universe! There’s some writing about it on the Attlerock, inside the planet locator structure.”
It was the first place you’d ever explored! It took you a few loops to work up the courage to go there. The dark of the Attlerock is disorienting, and you weren’t entirely convinced it was safe. You know the Nomai have been dead for thousands of years, but still, you had no idea what would happen when you tried activating the structure. The first time it started moving, you ran all the way to the other side of the Attlerock.
You’re glad you went back, though. You learned a lot about the Nomai, even from only a few sentences, and uncovered a whole bundle of threads you could follow to learn more. That’s why you’re here, now, on Brittle Hollow!
“So that’s what that place was for!” Riebeck shouts in excitement. “I could recognize the symbols for Giant’s Deep, Brittle Hollow, and the Sun, but that’s what the strange fourth signal was, huh… It didn’t seem to be able to align for anything over there. Maybe the thing they were planning to build here had to do with re-calibrating that device? There’s a lot of space inside the Southern Observatory, so it's entirely possible!”
They visibly deflate before continuing. “Except… well, I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but the door is broken. I’d assume there’s an underground entrance somewhere nearby, as is common with all Nomai structures on this planet, but… it’s so icy at the poles, and with Hollow’s Lantern being this abnormally active… and the uh… thing below… yeah. I don’t think I'll be making it there anytime soon. Oh stars above…”
As if on cue, a meteor strikes the surface above the camp. Debris rains down into the campfire. And also onto your marshmallow. You sigh, dropping that one into the flames.
Riebeck starts absently plucking chords on their banjo. “What about you, hatchling? What brings you to Brittle Hollow? Are you going to try making it inside the Southern Observatory?”
You want to! It sounds fascinating. A whole Nomai observatory on the south pole, and one with a massive secret? Who knows what you’ll learn there!
But… the path there seems terrifying. You’d rather not experience death by black hole, thank you very much. You know, logically, you’d just end up back on Timber Hearth after, but you haven’t really gotten used to this whole “dying every half hour ish” thing that you’ve got going on yet. Even though your body goes back perfectly fine, as if nothing happened at all, you can still feel the phantom pains every time you wake up. Noodlification doesn’t seem like a pleasant one to have to remember.
You’re not even sure if you’d survive that, even with a time loop. Hornfels mentioned once that black holes could theoretically warp space and time. What if its strange properties mess with your time loop? What if the black hole is really the end of everything?
You know nothing about the time loop. What’s causing the time loop? Why is it just you who knows? Does that statue back home have anything to do with it? Is there an end? Is there a point to it at all?
There’s so much you still don’t know. It terrifies you.
And yet… you can’t help but want to know more.
In a way, maybe it’s a good thing you ended up in a time loop. There’s no way in Hearth you’d ever have made it past the Attlerock before meeting an untimely (and explosive) demise, even if the sun hadn’t imploded. It’s only been a handful of loops, but so far, not counting the supernova, you’ve been blasted by a meteorite, smacked by the Interloper, asphyxiated twice, flew into the sun, and fallen off a cliff three times. Oh, and that one loop you forgot to put on your suit before leaving your ship.
You shudder. You were terribly unprepared for space. Why did Gossan ever let you launch?
Can you really even do this? You hadn’t set off on that first launch with a goal other than “don’t die”, but you’ve already failed that one. A lot. What makes you think you can solve the mysteries of the universe?
Though… you’re still here, aren’t you? Despite all the times you’ve failed?
Even if it kills you, couldn’t you just try again?
You turn back to Riebeck. “I don’t… I don’t know yet. It sounds fascinating, but I think I’m still too inexperienced to make it over there. That, and I think I might still be nauseous from the gravity crystals. Maybe one day.”
Despite its uncertainty, Riebeck seems pleased by your response. “Promise you’ll tell me about it when you do?” they ask. “Wait, no. Promise… promise you’ll take me with you?”
That takes you by surprise. Riebeck is decidedly not stuck in a time loop. How do they, the most anxious Hearthian to have ever lived, have the courage to explore something so terrifying?
Riebeck is scared of everything. They would cower under the bed during thunderstorms, could barely step foot into the Zero-G cave, and refused to go even near the edge of the launchpad. Riebeck never raised their hand during Hornfels lectures, and despite always knowing the answer, would barely say it above a whisper when called upon. You could hear their screams the entire descent on their first training launch, even over the roar of the thrusters. Once they finally graduated (and it’s a miracle they did), it took them a week to muster up the courage to actually make it up the elevator and launch.
Honestly, Riebeck might be the only person in the entirety of the Ventures that truly understands how terrifying space is. The solar system does not care if you live or die. When you step out there, into the void, there is nothing protecting you except your own wits and a spaceship made of wood and duct tape.
And yet, here they are. In space. On the most hostile planet in the entire solar system (save Dark Bramble, but you have decided to not think about that planet ever). Ready and willing to explore it.
To not only know fear, but to overcome it?
You’ve changed your mind. Riebeck is the bravest astronaut in the history of Outer Wilds Ventures.
Riebeck starts playing the traveler’s tune on their banjo. It’s such a beautiful song, and such a beautiful instrument. Gneiss had made it special for them, a unique instrument only they and their third finger can play. It meant that Riebeck had to teach everything to themself, aside from basic music theory. Riebeck is nothing if not curious, and nothing if not determined. It took them a long while before they gained the confidence to play louder than a whisper, but as their notes started to gain confidence, it was as if the whole village decided to listen in. (Not that they’d ever tell Riebeck that, though. They’d probably develop stage fright if they knew we could hear them.)
They always brought that same curiosity, that same drive, to their studies. Nobody saw the Nomai the way Riebeck did. Whenever Feldspar brought back a Nomai artifact from one of their expeditions, Riebeck was always the first to try and see it. They would piece together the stories, find mysteries and answers among pottery sherds and bones. Looking back, it wasn’t shocking at all that they’d ask to join the Ventures. They were made for this stuff.
Despite their fear, despite the unknown, Riebeck flew out here to discover more.
If they can do it, what’s stopping you?
You’ve decided. Next loop, you’re finding your way in the Southern Observatory. After that, you’ll follow wherever it leads, and after that, wherever that leads. You’ll uncover all the secrets of the universe. Death cannot stop you! You have all the time in the universe! You will find what this solar system has to offer, and then end the time loop, and then show it all to your friends. You will learn, discover, and explore.
You can do this. No, you will do this.
The sky goes dark, and the ground beneath you rumbles.
“Hey, did you hear that?” Riebeck squeaks out.
“Hear what?” you respond, as innocently as you can muster. They don’t need to know what just happened. You’d hate for them to spend the last few moments of this loop in a panic. It’s not like they’d remember, but it seems cruel to not spare them at least this moment.
Riebeck shakes their head. “No, no, something definitely happened. It sounds like something just exploded. Or imploded? And the sky, it’s so dark, and I can’t hear Hollow’s Lantern anymore, and, oh stars, what if something happened to the.. the bl- the black hole…”
“Hey, hey, Riebeck, it’s okay.” You scoot closer to them, trying your best to cut off their rambling. “I’ll fix it, don’t worry. Breathe for me, will you?”
You will find a way to stop the supernova. Even if it kills you (and it probably will, multiple times over). You will learn everything you can about the solar system, and the Nomai, and all the mysteries and wonders surrounding you. It’s terrifying, and strange, but you will do it. You will find a way.
You place a hand on Riebeck’s knee and nod. You feel them inhale slowly, and exhale even slower. In, and out, and in, and out. “Yeah,” they whisper. “Yeah. It’s going to be okay. Yeah.”
The world is illuminated with blue, and then blinding white, and everything gets hot, oh so very hot, and before you know it it’s like your entire body is getting boiled alive, and then-
nothing.
With a gasp, you wake up next to the warmth of a campfire.
It takes only a second to jump out of your sleeping bag and onto the launch pad elevator.
There’s so much to discover in the solar system. There’s not a second to waste!