006

[contract_star]

[Hei appears a ways away from where the normal crowd gathers, carrying a brand new Satake telescope. He sets it up carefully on its tripod and settles in for some quiet time with the stars. He'll talk to anyone who comes by, though.]

Comments

[contract_star]

[Grinning,] I did. It's going to set me back awhile, but it was worth it.

[didorothy]

[looks around] Wish I knew some astronomy. I don't think I can name most of these.

[contract_star]

[Chuckles.] I only know about half of these. And some of the constellations aren't where you'd expect them to be. [Looking around and pointing to ones he recognizes,] There's the Big Dipper...no Little Dipper, though. Cassiopeia over there...Leo...and that's Lyra, down under our feet...[Trails off, totally lost in all the stars.] Ah, the scope is on Subaru, if you want to see them. But I suppose it's called the Pleiades in England.

[didorothy]

[looks through the cope, smiling, and then looks back to Hei] You really do love the stars, don't you?

[contract_star]

[Soft smile.] I do. I have a lot of good memories of them--the real ones, anyway.

[didorothy]

Shame they disappeared.

[contract_star]

Yeah...but I feel lucky that I've sort of managed to get them back, whether or not this place is actually real. I wish other people in my world could see this...

[didorothy]

[glances at him] You've got to run on the assumption that it is real, don't you? That you're not mad, even if no one else from your world can see it. Only way to get through.

[contract_star]

[Smiles rather mirthlessly.] The alternative for me is that I'm somehow inside the Gate, hallucinating all of this.

But...this place does seem real. At least the people do. But all the stars...the fact that most of them aren't where they're supposed to be...[Shrugs.] The Astral Plane itself might just be a construct of some kind. [Looking up.] The stars might not be real, but at least they're more real than the ones at home.

[didorothy]

[a pause] The stars here look a lot like my blood does, now.

[contract_star]

[Taken aback,] What do you mean?

[didorothy]

After [another pause] after I died, when I came back, my blood was different. Guv's was too, and I'd reckon Akito and Agito's is. Twins said it was part of the revival process. It looks kind of like this place.

[contract_star]

Like...[Trying to wrap his head around it.]...like stars?

[Pause, and then a whispered, half-awed, half-unhappy,] Damn.

[didorothy]

[nods] Like stars.

...Or glitter glue.

[contract_star]

[And Hei starts laughing, really laughing because oh man, what an image.]

I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh...[Can't help it, he starts laughing again.]

[didorothy]

[is also laughing] Well, it does! Not that I'd ever say that to the Guv, but god, it does.

[contract_star]

[Still laughing,] Weird and disturbing but also rather romantic, I think.

[didorothy]

Only the last one if you're going by the 'stars' description.

[contract_star]

[Laughs again.] True. I couldn't imagine the line "and blood like glitter glue" showing up in a poem. Then again I'm hardly a poet.

[didorothy]

I don't know; some of this modern poetry seems to go for that.

[contract_star]

"That" being complete randomness?

[didorothy]

I think they prefer to call it 'post-modernism.'

[contract_star]

[Just laughs. He's in a good mood today :D]