Chapter Text
Hatchling woke up, their eyes sliding open as consciousness entered their body. They stared up at Giants Deep and the beautiful green shades of its atmosphere. As the orbital probe cannon fired, a flash of blue was added into the mix, it all went blurry. After pooling in their eyes and making them sting, tears streamed down Hatchling’s face. They didn’t really mind.
Slate stared up at the flash from giants deep. When they looked back down they saw that Hatchling was awake, and crying?
“I know it’s tradition to sleep out under the stars the night before a launch. But you know it’s not just you and the stars, you can always come back home to the village. Really this first flight is just to test out your skills in the big ship we expect you to come back soon enough.”
Hatchling just continued to lie there crying. They didn’t particularly know why they cried, they weren’t particularly sad or anything like that. It’s just that hundreds of loops waking up in the same day every single time was just exhausting. Hatchling couldn’t do anything but cry, they didn’t feel like doing anything else. What even was the point anyway?
Hatchling knew Slate would wait. They’d been able to just lie here for about a full twelve minutes before Slate had rolled them out of their bedroll. No arguments worked either, if they just tried to lie there they’d get carried all the way up to Gossan and the whole village would pitch in for a pity party.
It seemed such a distant memory, their actual first flight. Excitement, burning as bright as a star. Hatchling had run right up to the zero g cave and taken a victory lap practice session before running circles around Hal and hopping in their ship. Sure they were weirded a bit out by the statue at the time (maybe a lot actually), but nothing could prepare them for how bad it actually would turn out. Perfect precision, Hatchling had visited Esker, Chert, Riebeck and Gabbro without sustaining any damage to the ship. As well as reading some intriguing info on the Nomai with their translator tool. Then on their way to check out the comet…by stars above the sun had exploded.
By now Hatchling was just done with things, not even being burned alive by a supernova fazed them at this point. Though they vividly remember waking up screaming at the top of their lungs on their first actual loop. That trauma had been enough to ground them for a few more loops. Moral qualms gone, Hatchling had flew out of the solar system in a desperate attempt to escape incineration. Which they guess worked because that loop they kind of just woke up again at some point.
Sure for a few loops after that they tried to distract themselves by delving deep into the planets and discovering some secrets of the Nomai. But it just became too much and now here they were.
Some would find it difficult to go on in this state because they had to watch their loved ones die every day…it’s not like Hatchling didn’t care, but they were equally close with everyone and two steps away from anyone. It was definitely a factor in their exhaustion but not the main course.
Hatchling also felt stuck between just one possibility and infinite possibilities. So so many things were exactly the same every single loop, repetitive and exhausting. But then there were other things that seemed to change significantly due to even the slightest change in how Hatchling acted. It was actually so tiring because Hal or Gossan or Slate would just end up saying the same thing over and over and over in infinitesimally different ways.
“That’s enough brooding for you. You’ll regret it if you don’t go do something.” Slate gently poked Hatchling with their marshmallow stick.
Hatchling pouts and rolls over.
“Whatever is bothering you I’m sure can at least be alleviated by paying a visit to the other travellers. It’ll be good for you.” Slate continues under their breath but deliberately loud enough that Hatchling could hear “I also need to see if the retro-thrusters blow up”
Hatchling considers making the retro-thrusters blow up. Then they stand up and enter the launch codes into the terminal.
“See, that’s what I’m…” Hatchling glares at Slate before the lift activates and moves them upwards.
Esker is calmly (and in a slightly lonely manner) whistling the outer wilds travellers tune, enjoying the warmth of their fire. When an outer wilds ship comes crashing into their home crater, sideways! The new astronaut nonchalantly climbs out of the ship and sits opposite Esker at the fire.
Esker’s eyes dart back and forth between Hatchling and the Ship. “Good stars you gave me a fright! I know the modern ships are resilient but at least land properly.”
Resilient would not begin to describe it. That one ship had been through everything Hatchling had and survived a majority of the loops. The same could of course not be said of Hatchling, who was now well versed in the many ways the Hearthian body could be destroyed.
“Well I figured you might be lonely up here and instead of just simply visiting I’m helping by giving you a job to do. How do you feel about fixing the ship with me?” Hatchling extended their suited hand to Esker.
“I really feel like this is unnecessary, but you do know I’ve been aching to fix a ship again.” Esker takes Hatchling’s hand and stands up. Really the hand was unnecessary because of how low Attlerock’s gravity is, but Hatchling is sure the gesture was appreciated.
“Tell slate that they did a good job on this one next time you see them, any of the older models would be much worse off after that crash.” Esker excitedly inspects the ship, taking note of the scratches on the surface and the cracks in the hull. “Ooh, your starboard thruster is not doing so well.”
Hatchling helps where they can with Esker’s work, but slowly they start to really understand the excitement that Esker feels towards the work. Esker may be on the Attlerock with no one to talk to for weeks at a time but they can still get joy out of the small things. It inspires Hatchling just a little about their own situation. They might only have a small time to explore, but they have a large space to explore.
The last thing Hatchling felt like doing with their time was fixing ships, but they genuinely considered that maybe one of the other travellers would be able to inspire them as to what they wanted to do. Through a sea of demotivation a part of Hatchling knew that with infinite time they could do something really special.
“It’s good as new Hatchling, didn’t really need much work anyway but just try not to crash it next time.” Esker grinned at Hatchling in satisfaction at their work.
“I promise that today the ship won’t take any more damage.” Hatchling offers
“Good enough. You know you remind me a lot of feldspar.”
Hatchling knows that in the past they would have had some joke to say with a little jab but instead they answer “That can’t be true, I couldn’t even compare to their skills.”
“I’m sure some of the stories they’ll tell you about Feldspar are completely inflated, but it’s true they were a skilled pilot and a reckless, but smart one. They’d take risks for sure but not risks they knew they couldn’t take.”
“Just cause I crashed my ship into your crater so you could fix It doe-”
Esker interjects
“I see it in your eyes, the same glint. And I’ll tell you something not many other Hearthains know. Feldspar has a heart as soft as marshmallow. I tell you for all their stunts and adventures, sometimes just the beauty of the stars would make them cry. And you know that anglerfish we have at the museum? They insisted we keep it, they loved the creature to bits, made sure to feed it every day and all. Wouldn’t roast a marshmallow without giving some to ‘little Ernesto’.” Esker sits in their chair and rocks back and forth. “You still sure you aren’t like them Hatchling?”
Hatchling casts their eyes down and to the side. “You’re probably right.”
“No need to feel bad that I read you well, you’re a good Hearthian and it’s an honour to have you join the travellers.”
“Thanks Esker, I really do appreciate it.” Hatchling says looking into Esker’s eyes
“It’s all good Hatchling, pay me off by getting the other travellers to say hi some time. Or telling Porphy and Gossan that they need to confess to each other.”
Hatchling flushes. Moments later Hatchling’s ears stand on end just a bit. A two minute warning from the Ash Twin Project
“You good Hatchling?”
“It’s nothing.” Hatchling replied, instinctively turning their head to look at the sun.
“Don’t worry you don’t have to really worry about Porphy and Gossan, it only gets to me that neither of them seem to realise they have feelings for each other.”
“Hey Esker, did you want to see the inside of the ship? Might have changed since you last were in one.” Hatchling asked, eyeing the sun and feeling the warning pulse more insistently.
“I’m glad you asked, I’m quite curious what Slate added to this one.”
Esker and Hatchling enter the ship, predictably Esker goes to the cockpit to inspect the flight controls.
“These are classic, but oh wow, these are silenced gyroscopic look controls! So you can adjust where the ship is facing without using any fuel or changing your velocity.”
“Yeah, they’re very useful especially if I need to check my surroundings.”
Hatchling senses the warning stop. They reach to turn the aircon to full blast. “It’s a bit warm in here isn’t it.”
“I wouldn’t say it’s particularly warm but I don’t mind it cooling down a bit.” Esker smiles
“Ooh you should look at this!” Hatchling leads Esker to the ship log, watching behind them as the sun begins to implode.
“This seems very complex.” Esker notes as they inspect it. “What is it?”
“This is the ship log, they took some stone out of the Nomai statue and it can store info on it.” Hatchling explains
“I don’t exactly see how this is much better than taking a notebook, but it’s a very cool concept. So you just have like notes in here right?”
Hatchling helps esker control the ship log but just before they enter rumour mode…
Hatchling wakes up back on timber hearth, this time they cry at the hopelessness of it all. But in the back of their mind there’s a spark of hope.