#old feathers

[fridurwrites]

I don't know if you really answer questions or talk about Old Feathers Among Young Pine Trees, or if it's something you're still working on, but I wanted to ask something, as I'm going through my second read of it.

If Olive, Kaepora, and Ideas nowhere to return to the casket, what would they find? Would Kaepora still be there, blissfully ignorant to the loops? Would all three remain in one body when they enter the simulation, or be rendered seperate, as themselves?

Old Feathers is still a work in progress, I have no intention of abandoning it, life has just been kicking my ass upside down and sideways for a couple years. I feel like some of that's a spoiler! But just for kicks: Kaepora's body is no longer present in the casket.

[fridurwrites]

Old Feathers Among Young Pine Trees - Chapter 26 (Overwhelm)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/54818815/chapters/167871511

You’d been down that road. You’d shut Pye out, interpreting her flippancy as arrogance when you now understood it to have been her way of coping with the immense pressure you were both under. You’d risen to her stress-driven antagonism with invective of your own, and by the time you’d been left alone long enough to realize just how badly you’d both handled things, she had left to visit the newly discovered comet. After she left, you spent more than one sleepless ‘night’ aboard the station alone, replaying every argument, guilt and regret warring with each other deep inside you. You’d resolved to do better, be better, be the one to extend a hand and try to make things right. You wanted so badly to fix what you and Pye had broken, to let her know that you wanted to try again, to work together once more. Somehow, your entire clan had died before you had the chance. You hadn’t even told her goodbye properly, simply encouraging her to take the comet expedition to clear her head and give you a chance to clear yours.

[fridurwrites]

*shaking with the effort of restraining myself from sending the whole damn list of hatchling oc questions*

what about 20, 21, 26, 29, and 50 for my beloved olivine-kaepora-idaea? feel free to answer whichever ones you like, for just olive or all 3, whatever would be more fun for you ::]

your handle kills me every single fucking time

20) Olive prefers Timber Hearth, while Kaepora is fond of Giant's Deep (Olive likes the trees; Kaepora likes the rain)! Idaea will never not love his homeworld of Brittle Hollow, even once he sees its current state.

21) I think the Interloper is cheating, but if it wasn't, that would be the answer for all three of them. Olive and Kaepora are currently pretty pissed off at Ember Twin because of their little adventure there. Idaea thinks Giant's Deep is too heavy and too wet and has bad memories of having enough fur for saltwater to be a real pain.

26) Olivine joined OWV because of the Quantum Moon, actually. Sure, the Nomai and the translator tool became big parts of their motivation, but as a very young hatchling they once watched the Quantum Moon cross the sky halfway only to disappear when they blinked while on a camping trip. They've been quietly and furiously obsessed ever since.

29) Without the time loop Olivine would've probably been lonely, actually, but they would probably have learned enough to land on the Quantum Moon. They wouldn't have found the sixth location, mind you, but even landing on it at all would've been the achievement of a lifetime for them. They'd have become somewhat reclusive about it, landing on it and studying it but never quite unlocking its true secret due to the hazardous nature of learning the sixth location rule on Brittle Hollow.

50) Comedy headcanon that's true: Olive would not like the taste of olives, but Idaea would, and Kaepora would have to distract Olive so Idaea could get his fix. True headcanon that's less funny: Despite the length of the time loops, Olive didn't sleep much before their current predicament. This is because they would regularly have nightmares about the Interloper and what they found there. Since Kaepora came around things are better, and with Idaea in the mix, their actual dreams (not the ones in the mental 'prison') are likely to be far more diverse. Bonus headcanon: Olive, Kaepora, and Idaea, if ever separated after all this, would develop horrendous anxiety and constantly need to be around each other due to the blending being undone causing the feeling of losing parts of themselves.

[fridurwrites]

Old Feathers Among Young Pine Trees - Chapter 25 (Causality)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/54818815/chapters/160319533

You were grateful, in some ways, that this meeting could happen in a space where you could see the face of the one you were speaking to. In others, well. You had been somewhat relieved at the thought you’d never have to have this conversation with one of the Nomai, so of course, the universe had been laid out in such a way to force the issue. When had your life, what of it you could remember, ever missed an opportunity to- as Olivine would put it- screw with you? You cradled Olive against your body, staring at Idaea, trying to settle your thoughts. You needed to explain the situation, and that meant explaining what you had done, and the Nomai was certainly smart enough to put the rest of those particular pieces together even if you didn’t elaborate on what Olive had showed you. Was being able to see the moment those kind eyes would inevitably harden against you a blessing or a curse?

[fridurwrites]

Old Feathers Among Young Pine Trees - Chapter 1 (Casket)

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

You were restrained, but you didn’t try to struggle. There would be nowhere to run to, even if you escaped. For this greatest of sins, you were given the greatest of punishments. You still remembered, faintly, the warmth upon your face disappearing when the torturous casket closed. These memories, the memories of failure, of regret, of betrayal, somehow they never faded. They still bled in you, wounds in your heart every bit as raw as the day they were carved. Whether your people intended it or not, it was just one last agony the infinite loneliness inflicted upon you.

[fridurwrites]

Old Feathers Among Young Pine Trees - Chapter 8 (Buddies)

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

You and Kaepora both tried to say ‘thank you’ simultaneously, and you wound up just kind of making an odd ‘haank ya’ noise. You wanted to be mortified, but you heard something so extraordinarily rare you couldn’t even try to correct yourself. Gabbro laughed. A proper laugh, the kind of laugh that you weren’t sure you’d ever heard from them, not really. Stars-and-Rings, you could deal with sounding like an idiot if it meant Gabbro got a little bit of happiness for a moment, you decided. Because wasn’t that what it meant to be someone’s best friend, in a way? Or, at least, to be someone’s Time Buddy?

[fridurwrites]

Old Feathers Among Young Pine Trees - Chapter 7 (Meditate)

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

“What do you mean, gone?” They asked. You grimaced. “Not with.” Rings and Hearth, you felt like a hatchling. No, like a faun? You weren’t sure anymore. Either way, you felt like your thoughts rolled through wet clay to reach your mouth, and whether they picked up enough words to make sense was completely up to chance.

[fridurwrites]

Old Feathers Among Young Pine Trees - Chapter 12 (Forgotten)

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

You reached out with your talons and turned the wheel, and consigned countless souls to die stranded for your bravery. You reached out to Olivine and infested them with the terror of your consciousnesses starting to mingle and fray, their body becoming something wholly new and alien to you both. You reached out to Gabbro and terrified them with the damage you’d done to Olivine’s eyes. And now, what had you done to Esker, who was just worried about the hatchling you shared a body with? Could you go any length of time whatsoever without hurting someone?