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go_exchange2021-12-20 05:34 am
goe_mod) wrote in go_exchange2021-12-20 05:34 am
Entry tags:
Happy Holidays, irisbleufic!
Title: It Is Not In The Stars
Author: Sekret
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 1300
Recipient: Irisbleufic
Summary: The Them spend a Sunday afternoon together, shortly post-Apocalypsn’t, being themselves. Wensleydale doesn’t want to be the astronaut.
A/N: I hope you enjoy it! Thanks to Saviobriion for beta.
“What if I don’t want to go to space?” Wensleydale said, trying the idea on for size. He poked at the buttons that Brian’s brother had helped them rig with batteries so they lit up when pushed. Adam was very clear that rocketships ought to have light-up buttons.
Adam looked up from the paint pot he was using to add stars to the nose of the rocketship. “Why not?” he demanded, “Space is brilliant!”
“It’s awfully far though, and I haven’t got a proper spacesuit.”
“It’s nearly a spacesuit,” Adam said reassuringly. “Like, it’s all big and orange and everything. And Pepper did a really good job on the helmet.” The helmet was a goldfish bowl that she’d duct-taped to Adam’s sister’s orange puffy jacket, with a walkie-talkie shoved inside so he could press the button with his chin.
“Yeah, but why isn’t Pepper the astronaut?” he asked, fidgeting. “I could be Mission Control and do maths.”
The answer to that was, unfortunately, that Pepper’s mum had taken her and her little sister to the Handfasting (apparently hippie for ‘wedding’) of a family friend and they weren’t due home for hours.
“Because she’s not here,” Adam said, “And I want to be Mission Control and shout into the radio, and you can be a science astronaut like Mister Spock.”
None of them were entirely clear what that consisted of, but Mister Spock did go around looking seriously at scanners and saying things like “Hm,” and “Fascinating,” so that wasn’t too bad.
“What about Brian, though?”
“I bagsied engineer!” Brian said in an accent that might have been Scottish if somebody had knocked the Scot over the head. He rolled out from under the rocketship on Adam’s skateboard, which had been pressed into service as a mechanic’s creeper. Brian was wearing a girls’ hairband over his eyes like sunglasses and running into things a lot, so when he brandished a wrench gleefully, it wasn’t a massive surprise when he smacked Adam in the leg.
“Ow!”
“Oops! Sorry.”
Wensley fidgeted. The rocketship was on wheels, which didn’t seem ideal, but was at least safer than explosions. The steep hill, even with the bump at the end that was supposed to launch him into space, didn’t really look tall enough. “Adam, I don’t want to crash.”
Adam looked up from rubbing his leg, offended. “You’re not going to crash!”
“But it’s...remember how we learned about gravity?”
“With the apple and Fig Newton.”
“Isaac. Yeah. It just takes a lot of speed to go into space because gravity’s so strong. Like. More than even a really, really fast car.” Wensley poked the buttons again. Light on, light off. His leg jiggled nervously. “I don’t think the rocketship will go fast enough.”
Adam put down the paint pot. “We could go ask Anathema and Newt about it. I reckon they’d know. There’s loads of aliens in her magazines and he knows about computers!”
Wensley climbed out of the rocketship much quicker than he’d climbed in and started trying to disentangle himself from the spacesuit. It remained pretty thoroughly attached and all he really managed was bashing himself in the jaw with the walkie-talkie a few times.
“Can I get this off?”
“Aw, just leave it, it’ll be a lot of trouble to redo it all.”
“I’m hot, though.”
Adam relented somewhat, and they unzipped him from the bottom up, leaving the coat to flap down his back like a bulky cape from the helmet. It was steaming up inside a little.
Dog led the way toward Jasmine Cottage. Brian had to push the hairband up after the third time he fell over something, and it smooshed his hair straight up in a line across the top of his head. They’d got almost to the turning when Wensley heard racing footsteps behind them and turned to see Pepper running after them. She frisbeed a flower crown off into the ditch as she came jogging up to them, freckles beaming. “I escaped!”
“Escaped?” Wensley asked, as Brian high-fived her and Dog did his best to trip all of them.
“Yeah! Turns out my Aunt Maggie’s ex was being the best man or whatever and my mum hates him and hates showing it, so when I told her I had a stomach ache, she said of course we had to leave and she didn’t even mind when I was feeling fine as soon as we got back to Tadfield.”
“Good, you can be the astronaut,” Wensley said, greatly relieved. “Come on, help me get the helmet off. I’ll be the scientist who doesn’t go to space.”
“Yeah, all right,” Adam agreed. “Want to be our test pilot, Pep?”
“Definitely!” Pepper ripped the tape loose and freed Wensley, who took a big gulp of unrestricted air when the helmet came off. She plopped it on her own head and then shook, making it wobble around. “So why’re we going to Anathema’s house?”
“Oh, Wens was scared of the rocket crashing.”
“I wasn’t scared,” Wensleydale objected. “I was just saying I don’t think it’d go fast enough.”
Adam humphed. “Anyway, we’re going to ask them about rockets and space and that.”
“She’s not there,” Pepper said. “Neither of them, I don’t think. She came round the post office yesterday and asked my da to hold the mail for a week while they went on holiday. I think they’re up in Scotland.”
Adam’s disappointment melted instantly. “Do you reckon they’ll see a loch ness monster? That’d be wicked.”
“I heard it was prob’ly a dinosaur. One of the swimming ones,” Brian said.
“How would a dinosaur last all that time?” Pepper said.
“Not the same one. Like one had babies and then the babies had babies, like rabbits.”
“Are there enough fish in Loch Ness for a bunch of baby dinosaurs to eat?” Wensley wondered.
“That’d be why there’s only one left, I guess.” Brian shrugged. “‘Less they ate each other.”
“I reckon,” Adam said confidently, “that there’s loads of fish in there. Lakes always have loads of good fish¹. Why else would a lot of grown-ups go poking around where there’s supposed to be a monster?”
“To look at the monster or dinosaur or whatever it is,” Pepper said. “Like, maybe not grown-ups like our parents, but I bet ones like Anathema and Newt and David Attenborough would.”
Adam nodded, consideringly.
That was fair. David Attenborough would absolutely go try to see a loch ness dinosaur and talk about it in a calm voice for a BBC programme.
“Anyway, Anathema’s not home, she’s off looking for loch ness monsters, so can we go try out the rocketship?” Pepper asked.
“Right, let’s go!” Adam said. “Wens, get a scanning thing ready. We’re sending Pepper to space!”
Wensleydale pelted after his friends as they raced back toward the hill, Dog barking at their heels, and all his trepidation blasted clear into the blue sky. Adam was probably right and Pepper wouldn’t crash, or at least not badly enough to get hurt. He would get to be the scientist and that’d be good fun. Science always had nice graphs and complicated numbers and solid things like that. Pinning an alien world down on paper sounded like a grand way to spend the rest of the afternoon and tonight…
“There’s a meteor shower tonight,” he panted when they stopped at the still-waiting rocketship. “Want to watch it after we’re done with astronauts and supper?”
“Yeah!” Brian said.
“Real meteors? Think we can find one after?” Pepper asked speculatively.
Adam smiled at him like the sun. “Worth looking!”
Wensleydale’s cheeks warmed and he grinned back at them. “I’ll bring my binoculars.”
¹ There were a number of fish conservationists who were going to start crying with joy when they looked at this week’s data.
Author: Sekret
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 1300
Recipient: Irisbleufic
Summary: The Them spend a Sunday afternoon together, shortly post-Apocalypsn’t, being themselves. Wensleydale doesn’t want to be the astronaut.
A/N: I hope you enjoy it! Thanks to Saviobriion for beta.
“What if I don’t want to go to space?” Wensleydale said, trying the idea on for size. He poked at the buttons that Brian’s brother had helped them rig with batteries so they lit up when pushed. Adam was very clear that rocketships ought to have light-up buttons.
Adam looked up from the paint pot he was using to add stars to the nose of the rocketship. “Why not?” he demanded, “Space is brilliant!”
“It’s awfully far though, and I haven’t got a proper spacesuit.”
“It’s nearly a spacesuit,” Adam said reassuringly. “Like, it’s all big and orange and everything. And Pepper did a really good job on the helmet.” The helmet was a goldfish bowl that she’d duct-taped to Adam’s sister’s orange puffy jacket, with a walkie-talkie shoved inside so he could press the button with his chin.
“Yeah, but why isn’t Pepper the astronaut?” he asked, fidgeting. “I could be Mission Control and do maths.”
The answer to that was, unfortunately, that Pepper’s mum had taken her and her little sister to the Handfasting (apparently hippie for ‘wedding’) of a family friend and they weren’t due home for hours.
“Because she’s not here,” Adam said, “And I want to be Mission Control and shout into the radio, and you can be a science astronaut like Mister Spock.”
None of them were entirely clear what that consisted of, but Mister Spock did go around looking seriously at scanners and saying things like “Hm,” and “Fascinating,” so that wasn’t too bad.
“What about Brian, though?”
“I bagsied engineer!” Brian said in an accent that might have been Scottish if somebody had knocked the Scot over the head. He rolled out from under the rocketship on Adam’s skateboard, which had been pressed into service as a mechanic’s creeper. Brian was wearing a girls’ hairband over his eyes like sunglasses and running into things a lot, so when he brandished a wrench gleefully, it wasn’t a massive surprise when he smacked Adam in the leg.
“Ow!”
“Oops! Sorry.”
Wensley fidgeted. The rocketship was on wheels, which didn’t seem ideal, but was at least safer than explosions. The steep hill, even with the bump at the end that was supposed to launch him into space, didn’t really look tall enough. “Adam, I don’t want to crash.”
Adam looked up from rubbing his leg, offended. “You’re not going to crash!”
“But it’s...remember how we learned about gravity?”
“With the apple and Fig Newton.”
“Isaac. Yeah. It just takes a lot of speed to go into space because gravity’s so strong. Like. More than even a really, really fast car.” Wensley poked the buttons again. Light on, light off. His leg jiggled nervously. “I don’t think the rocketship will go fast enough.”
Adam put down the paint pot. “We could go ask Anathema and Newt about it. I reckon they’d know. There’s loads of aliens in her magazines and he knows about computers!”
Wensley climbed out of the rocketship much quicker than he’d climbed in and started trying to disentangle himself from the spacesuit. It remained pretty thoroughly attached and all he really managed was bashing himself in the jaw with the walkie-talkie a few times.
“Can I get this off?”
“Aw, just leave it, it’ll be a lot of trouble to redo it all.”
“I’m hot, though.”
Adam relented somewhat, and they unzipped him from the bottom up, leaving the coat to flap down his back like a bulky cape from the helmet. It was steaming up inside a little.
Dog led the way toward Jasmine Cottage. Brian had to push the hairband up after the third time he fell over something, and it smooshed his hair straight up in a line across the top of his head. They’d got almost to the turning when Wensley heard racing footsteps behind them and turned to see Pepper running after them. She frisbeed a flower crown off into the ditch as she came jogging up to them, freckles beaming. “I escaped!”
“Escaped?” Wensley asked, as Brian high-fived her and Dog did his best to trip all of them.
“Yeah! Turns out my Aunt Maggie’s ex was being the best man or whatever and my mum hates him and hates showing it, so when I told her I had a stomach ache, she said of course we had to leave and she didn’t even mind when I was feeling fine as soon as we got back to Tadfield.”
“Good, you can be the astronaut,” Wensley said, greatly relieved. “Come on, help me get the helmet off. I’ll be the scientist who doesn’t go to space.”
“Yeah, all right,” Adam agreed. “Want to be our test pilot, Pep?”
“Definitely!” Pepper ripped the tape loose and freed Wensley, who took a big gulp of unrestricted air when the helmet came off. She plopped it on her own head and then shook, making it wobble around. “So why’re we going to Anathema’s house?”
“Oh, Wens was scared of the rocket crashing.”
“I wasn’t scared,” Wensleydale objected. “I was just saying I don’t think it’d go fast enough.”
Adam humphed. “Anyway, we’re going to ask them about rockets and space and that.”
“She’s not there,” Pepper said. “Neither of them, I don’t think. She came round the post office yesterday and asked my da to hold the mail for a week while they went on holiday. I think they’re up in Scotland.”
Adam’s disappointment melted instantly. “Do you reckon they’ll see a loch ness monster? That’d be wicked.”
“I heard it was prob’ly a dinosaur. One of the swimming ones,” Brian said.
“How would a dinosaur last all that time?” Pepper said.
“Not the same one. Like one had babies and then the babies had babies, like rabbits.”
“Are there enough fish in Loch Ness for a bunch of baby dinosaurs to eat?” Wensley wondered.
“That’d be why there’s only one left, I guess.” Brian shrugged. “‘Less they ate each other.”
“I reckon,” Adam said confidently, “that there’s loads of fish in there. Lakes always have loads of good fish¹. Why else would a lot of grown-ups go poking around where there’s supposed to be a monster?”
“To look at the monster or dinosaur or whatever it is,” Pepper said. “Like, maybe not grown-ups like our parents, but I bet ones like Anathema and Newt and David Attenborough would.”
Adam nodded, consideringly.
That was fair. David Attenborough would absolutely go try to see a loch ness dinosaur and talk about it in a calm voice for a BBC programme.
“Anyway, Anathema’s not home, she’s off looking for loch ness monsters, so can we go try out the rocketship?” Pepper asked.
“Right, let’s go!” Adam said. “Wens, get a scanning thing ready. We’re sending Pepper to space!”
Wensleydale pelted after his friends as they raced back toward the hill, Dog barking at their heels, and all his trepidation blasted clear into the blue sky. Adam was probably right and Pepper wouldn’t crash, or at least not badly enough to get hurt. He would get to be the scientist and that’d be good fun. Science always had nice graphs and complicated numbers and solid things like that. Pinning an alien world down on paper sounded like a grand way to spend the rest of the afternoon and tonight…
“There’s a meteor shower tonight,” he panted when they stopped at the still-waiting rocketship. “Want to watch it after we’re done with astronauts and supper?”
“Yeah!” Brian said.
“Real meteors? Think we can find one after?” Pepper asked speculatively.
Adam smiled at him like the sun. “Worth looking!”
Wensleydale’s cheeks warmed and he grinned back at them. “I’ll bring my binoculars.”
¹ There were a number of fish conservationists who were going to start crying with joy when they looked at this week’s data.