Cross gazed through the domed glass of the space station's observatory and into space, drawing his thoughts in the lines between stars.
The longer he looked, the less he perceived the universe for the distances between him and infinity. The black, immeasurable expanse yawning before him seemed to compress upon itself, forgetting its dimensions and smoothing to a flat ceiling overhead. As though he drew a woven blanket over himself, he saw the stars as the peeking lights of a higher sun filtering through the holes between the fabric's stitching--no wonder to feel, just a place to hide. He blinked and rubbed the bridge of his nose to reorient himself, and when he returned his gaze to the stars, his mind had restored the dimensions between and beyond them. But his glimpse at the flat fabric could not be undone. Numb distress preyed on the things his mind called shelter, starving him of even space's vast potential. The stars ceased being constellations.
Releasing a near-inaudible sigh, he rubbed around his eyes again. Thoughts weakly tethered to his mind's gravity orbited his consciousness, listless and meandering. He wondered if he ought to return to the forest, to the kiln he built to recreate examples of Rumel's pottery before he could forget what his culture looked like. He considered that he ought to sleep instead, before the mental detritus of his long, uneasy hours awake poisoned him further. He then thought that both could wait until after he had a chance to talk to Maru.
His third eye bulged open before the other two did, his brain resonating with the proximate tingle of Harmony. Cross glanced about the lowlit observatory, first by his sides, then behind him. At the open entrance to the room, weak starlight diffused across the curves of the ship and obscured down the hallway's long shadows. Searching the dark for signs of movement, his heart palpitated with the uncertainty that, like the flat universe, his mind had devised a world meant to hurt.
Yet the familial thrumming of his shared Rolloluca within his third eye anchored him, reminded him of what was real. A heart in hope knew only to dare. 「Are you here, Maru?」 / @eidyllon