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I did it! Oh my stars I can't believe I did it!!
Getting to the sixth location, in hindsight, was easy. Just a little casual, quantum fandangling and you made it to the northern hemisphere no problemo! It looks epic here too, you note in your head, doubtful that it will show up in the ship’s logs even if you want it to. Everything is sharp and warped, and the formations in the stone (?) are truly a sight to behold! The closest comparison to this typography would be the rock bridges on Ember Twin, you guess, but it's really nothing like this.
Anyway, it was actually super frustrating to try and get all the way over here and you're sure you've missed something. Some clue the kind nomai have left somewhere about the strategy that you, instead, just brute forced. Really the only reason you even came back to find the sixth location is because there's a warp thingymajig in the Vessel that is unlike all previous warp thingies you've come across.
Ouph, there's so many fake words you need to keep track of now, “warp” “quantum” “vessel” what even is any of that! You'd bet Gabbro doesn't have to think about any of this junk. Ughh, you try not to be jealous of Gabbro, since if you were in their situation instead of yours, you probably would've gone fully mad by now, but you can't help it. Sometimes you just want to chill out and wait for someone else to fix it. Sometimes you wake up and face Giant's Deep and the stupid cannon exploding into bits and you just roll over and close your eyes.
22 minutes is 22 minutes, and 22 minutes can sometimes be enough for some rest. Sometimes 22 minutes can be 44 minutes, or 66 minutes, or 88 or 154 or 286 or…well. You try not to do that too often because you get anxious about missing your chance to change it.
You don't even know what your end goal is, you haven't figured it out yet. The thing in the sun station said the sun was gonna die anyway. It's not like figuring out what the nomai were up to is going to save you, or anyone you love. But you assume that getting to the bottom of it will…change something.
You sigh loudly in your helmet and try to refocus on the cool rocks. It's times like these when you wish you had an instrument. You'd kill for a kazoo or something.
You pull out the signalscope but there's obviously no signal to scope because you're on the Quantum Moon, far away from any known place in your solar system.
Ughhh, you sigh again. Starting to feel a little existential here!! Let's just see what's so special about this fancytown ~sixth location~ how about that?
You're walking through a valley with steep walls on either side of you. You would try to climb them but you know there's nothing over them and launching yourself out of the atmosphere in an unknown corner of the universe is such a bad idea that you only consider it for a second or two. The clouds (?) above you are moving swiftly, more like the river back home than clouds to be honest. They flow with purpose in the direction you're walking, and you can see that they seem to be…what, getting sucked up? It looks like there's a giant straw or something pulling the clouds way up into the sky. And you're walking right towards it.
The space suit makes it hard to feel things like wind, but you can see the loose fabric start to blow in the same direction. Mmm…getting a little nervous now! This suddenly seems dangerous. What's over there? You do want to know, but…maybe it could wait til next loop?
No, no, come on. You can do it, you're already here, you might as well.
The curvature of the moon obfuscates your view until it's too late. If you had known that there would be someone else here, you probably would have turned right back around and went straight home to Timber Hearth after all.
The nomai turns and looks at you. Their mask pins you in place, you've always thought the design was creepy and now that it's looking at you…
You're frozen, one hand on the trigger of your thrusters to run and one hand on the translator. This is an opportunity you can't waste, but looking at them, the way they stand, the way they are is all so…alien. This being of such greater knowledge, a species now extinct, you're sure that you could learn so much from them, if only you could get yourself to approach.
The unpredictability of another life form is something you haven't had to deal with in years, relatively. You know what everyone is like back home, even before the loops you could generally guess at how everyone would act or respond to any given situation. The jellyfish are easy enough to understand and don't seem to think very much at all, and the anglerfish are even simpler! But this nomai, this new variable in the equation, oh stars what if they're aggressive?
No, that would be entirely out of character, in all your discoveries the nomai are a kind, caring species. They value community nearly over scientific discovery, and even in times of tragedy or great peril they stay calm and rational.
They've been staring at you for a while now, or more aptly put, you've been staring at them for a while now. You're still a little nervous, a lot nervous actually, but you know you're running out of time.
You don't approach directly, instead you slowly make your way over in an arch, so that you approach them from an angle instead of head on. it makes you feel more secure, you hope you don't cause them any offence because you're so obviously treating them with great weariness.
They raise their hand when you get close enough, seemingly in greeting, before looking expectantly at you. Oh no, the translator you have isn't two way. It's not even for spoken words!! Stars, how are you supposed to get all that across??
“Uh- mm. Wh- uh, who are you..?” WOW could you BE any more awkward??? “Sorry- uh, sorry. What's-- what's your name?”
The nomai holds their hand to their chin for a moment, telegraphing “I'm thinking” very clearly, before fiddling with their staff and pressing it to the stone outcropping to their right.
“Oh! Oh, wow..” when the staff makes contact with the stone, images appear out of nowhere! If only Hornfels or Hal could see this! The pictures are familiar, the Eye and a portrait of yourself especially, but there's also portraits of nomai and the moon and of their mask…and…oh no they've gone back to starin expectantly at you. Oh no. Ohhh no, you're supposed to know what to do with these.
“uh…ok. Ok, ok. I'll figure it out..I'll figure it out.” You mutter to yourself. Hopefully this particular individual is especially kind and patient because you were not built for this.
You can remove the pictures easily, each of them on their own little tablet of stone, so you take the portrait of yourself and flip it over. Nothing. Looking around, there's nowhere to place it except back on the wall it came from. Maybe you need to rearrange them in a way that could form a sentence?
You take the picture of you, then the portrait of a nomai speaking, and arrange them next to each other. You're trying to convey “yes I would like to talk to you.” You look at your companion and while they do seem interested in what you're up to, it's obviously not the answer.
That's ok, you can try again! This time, you take your desired sentence and place it on the ground. The nomai bends a little to watch, but when you stand up they just go back to looking.
You make a helpless sort of noise that is usually reserved for pouty hatchlings and replace all the pictures to the original wall. The nomai’s shoulders shake a little in what you can only assume to be laughter.
You make another pathetic little chirp and get back to it.
You remove all the stones from the wall, glancing at the nomai who simply gestures with their hand, and stack them on top of each other.
…?
Wrong again.
You feel like crying.
“What do I do?? Help, please? I need a hint…” you jump a little in place and do a lap around the nomai and the two rock walls around you both.
You wring your hands together and try not to whine, looking desperately at the nomai. You're speaking to, possibly, the last remaining individual of a highly intelligent species who may hold the answers to saving the universe, so you need to pull yourself together. But you're also only barely old enough to drink sap wine, and you were only supposed to go to the Atterlock, and you're really, really scared all the time, and the sun is dying and everyone is gonna die too if you can't figure it out, and everyone might die anyway and you just want to go home and take a nap and…
And now you're crying in your helmet, ages away from anything familiar, unable to figure out how to talk to the nomai.
You take a deep breath. It's ok to cry in front of strangers. Especially when neither of you know how to communicate.
You look at the pictures again and take the picture of the moon. Still holding it, you step back and-- and a pillar of rocks moves next to you, stacking itself neatly with a concave space perfectly sized for the picture you're holding.
….agh.
You place the stone in it's place. Stare at it for a while. You feel defeated.
Before you can turn to get another, the nomai places a hand on your shoulder. It startles you briefly, and they really are so much larger than you, but they just pat you sympathetically before stepping back and allowing you to choose another stone.
“..thank you. sorry I took so long..”
You hope they don't mind.