Hi! So here is the first part of my space wizards story that I definitely did not write instead of taking notes.
Warnings: Difficulty breathing, coughing fits, pain, brief mention of vomit, death mention, implied coma, and also the plotline of the entire story revolves around memory loss/alteration, so don’t read if that’s an issue.
Tagging: @jolieharkness, @della-vacker-supremacy, @gay-otlc, lmk if you want to be added or removed
Part One
Darkness. Darkness and pain.
She couldn’t breathe.
Why couldn’t she breathe?
That was probably bad, wasn’t it?
She lingered in the darkness for a moment longer-
No. To stay there was death…
She inhaled suddenly and choked, eyes streaming as she coughed like a swimmer surfacing from being underwater for far too long.
“Easy,” a voice said, and a hand grabbed hers, pulling her up to a sitting position. “Breathe.”
She coughed some more, nearly vomited, and then spluttered, “Wha-”
“Don’t try to talk,” the voice continued. “Focus on breathing.”
She nodded, an action that sent needles through her skull. “Ah- ow-”
“Shut it,” the voice said, though it didn’t sound mad, exactly. More… exasperated. “That hurt, didn’t it? I wouldn’t move either, if I were you.”
This time, she listened. She breathed in and out, not speaking, her only movement the up-and-down of her chest.
“That’s better,” the voice told her after a while. “Try talking now.”
She opened her mouth, but no words came out.
“Something easy,” the voice urged. “Like your name.”
Her name? Something flickered in the back of her mind. “A… A…”
A note on Elnor’s pronouns: Elnor’s pronouns are kie/kir/kir/kirs/kirself. Conjugation examples will be after the story.
Warnings: Food mention, coughing, slime, a short flashback (though it isn’t scary or violent, just surprising) and also the plotline of the entire story revolves around memory loss/alteration, so don’t read if that’s an issue.
Taglist: @jolieharkness, @della-vacker-supremacy, @gay-otlc, @raiinyrxse, @pencilwritesshiz47, lmk if you want to be added or removed!
Part Two
“Arli,” the voice echoed. “Nice name.”
Slowly, Arli’s vision cleared, and she was able to see the person speaking for the first time. They were tall, that was clear even though they were kneeling, with frizzy red hair and a scar reaching from their forehead to their jawline. They had a nose piercing and were wearing mostly casual, practical clothes; a knee-length pleated green skirt, a belt, work boots, and black leggings. But their dark gray jacket with several colorful pins on the chest looked to be part of a uniform the rest of their clothes were not from. The pins themselves were either various wing symbols she didn’t know the meaning of or buttons etched with swirly glyphs she couldn’t read.
Why couldn’t she read them?
Should she be able to?
The person cleared their throat, having noticed Arli staring. “You’re awake now,” they said. “So let’s get you out of that pod.” They reached into the transport pod Arli hadn’t even registered she was in until now, and lifted her out. Sticky slime dripped from Arli’s clothes and hair and onto their once-pristine jacket. Why was it sticky? Was transport pod gel normally sticky?
“Your pins-”
“Just name and pronoun pins.”
“What do they say?”
“Elnor, kie/kir.”
“Hmm,” Arli replied. “Where are-” she was interrupted by another coughing fit.
Elnor sighed. “Look, I promise you’ll get answers soon, but right now, you can barely ask your questions. You need rest, and a lot of it.”
Arli would have protested, but she couldn’t stop coughing long enough to get the words out. Besides, deep down, she knew kie was right. Long periods spent in transportation pods weakened passengers substantially.
How long had she been in the pod for?
It took Arli a moment to realize Elnor was still talking. “The ship has an extra room,” kie was saying. “So that’s where you’ll stay until we can get to Europa.”
Arli’s coughing finally subsided. “Why Europa?” she asked.
“We won’t be there long,” Elnor said, which didn’t really answer her question. “Here’s your room,” kie added, ducking beneath the doorframe and setting Arli down on the bunk built into the wall of the small space. “Rest for now, and I’ll show you around later.”
Arli laid down, closed her eyes, and was asleep in minutes.
She woke up an unknown time later, feeling more alert and in far less pain. Arli swung herself out of the bunk and stood on still-unsteady legs. Right. Time to figure out what was going on.
She made her way down the corridor, leaning on the wall most of the way, and found what seemed to be the kitchen. She peeked inside and saw Elnor sitting at the table, reading a book and occasionally taking bites of toast.
“Ah,” kie said, getting to kir feet, “you’re up! Hungry?”
Arli shook her head. Now that she was fully aware of her surroundings, she found it hard to talk to Elnor, and especially since she knew nothing about kir.
“Well, we take off in an hour.” Elnor finished the rest of kir toast in one bite and brushed crumbs off kir skirt. “So you should probably shower while we still have gravity.”
“Shower?”
“I assume you don’t want to leave that pod slime in your hair.”
Arli was suddenly very aware of the sticky gel still in her hair and clinging to her clothes. “Oh my god!” She swiped at the congealing patches of slime on her sleeves.
Elnor watched with mild amusement. “You’ll probably want to throw those clothes out.”
She stopped violently scrubbing her cheek with her sleeve. “Through my clothes out?”
“There’s spare clothes in the hall closet.” Elnor set kir plate in the sink. “And we can buy you some more on Europa if we have time.”
Arli stared at Elnor. “You don’t get it, do you?”
Kie arched an eyebrow. “I don’t get what?”
“I can’t throw these out!” The words burst from her with an urgency even she didn’t understand. “I- they’re too important.”
“Do not lose this.”
“Yes, Commander,” Arli says, giving a small, facetious salute and sliding the box onto her belt.
Zyla laughs. “No need for that.”
“Arli?” Elnor snapped kir fingers. “Arli.”
She shook her head to clear it. “Uh- what?”
“You just spaced out on me,” Elnor said, sounding concerned. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, sure.” Arli tugged at her sticky sleeve. “I’ll shower, but I’m not getting rid of these clothes.”
Elnor seemed like kie was about to protest, but just replied, “Okay. Be quick, I need to turn off the water soon.”
Arli nodded and left the kitchen, turning right on instinct.
“The bathroom’s the other way,” Elnor called.
Arli sighed and turned around.
—————
Pronoun conjugation:
They went to the park -> Kie went to the park.
I talked to them -> I talked to kir.
That is their pencil -> That is kir pencil.
The fries are theirs -> The fries are kirs.
They laughed at themself -> Kie laughed at kirself.
As someone who is way too obsessed with names, both for aer characters and hirself, how did you choose Arli's name? It's a really pretty name and I'm curious, does it have any cool meanings?
Arli was the name of a genderqueer character in a book I read when I was eleven(?), who used neopronouns (vo/vem/ver) came up with great nicknames, and was generally awesome. I both loved vem and wanted to be vem (foreshadowing??), and I‘ve kinda hoarded ver name in my mind since I read the book.
According to google, it might mean defender.
(also space wizard Arli isn’t cis. Won’t say anymore but yeah.)
Hey look it’s actually pretty long (1,576 words to be exact). So! The Skyhook discussed here is a very possible piece of future technology to help with space travel. The link takes you to a video explaining it. It’s explained in the story, but the video is also very interesting and helps explain a lot about the space wizards world in general.
Warnings: Flashbacks (though not violent or scary, just surprising), mentions of a weapon, and also the entire plot revolves around memory loss/alteration, so don’t read if that’s an issue.
Taglist: @jolieharkness, @della-vacker-supremacy, @gay-otlc, @raiinyrxse, @pencilwritesshiz47, lmk if you want to be added or removed!
Part Three
Arli emerged from the bathroom in black leggings and a hoodie that was slightly too small. Her hair was pulled back and she carried her slime-stained clothes under one arm. Now, where was Elnor?
A shout of “OW!” answered her question. Elnor emerged from a side room glaring at a burn on kir hand. “Fu- Oh, hey, Arli.”
“Hey.” Arli smiled awkwardly. “Uh… having trouble?”
“Nothing we can’t survive,” Elnor said, which wasn’t reassuring. “The clothes fit?”
“Sweatshirt’s a little small.”
“Ah, makes sense. I’m smaller than you.” Elnor straightened kir skirt. “Right. Suits are this way.” Kie led Arli down the corridor. “Sure I can’t convince you to toss those?” kie asked, nodding at the clothes Arli was carrying.
“Nope,” Arli said, clutching them tighter and hoping the weapon was covered.
“Let’s get into our suits.” Elnor opened a door to a room with three space suits in it.
“Only three?”
“I don’t usually have more than two passengers.”
“Hmm.” That probably said something about Elnor, but Arli had other things on her mind. Again, she felt for the weapon hidden in the bundle she carried, feeling its cold, reassuring weight in her arms. “This one should fit me.”
Elnor nodded in distracted agreement, preoccupied with getting kir own suit on. “Well, if everything goes right, “should fit” will be enough. We’ve only got these on so we don’t die if something goes wrong during the launch.”
“I know.” Arli glared at kir. “I’m not stupid.”
“I never said you were. But, and don’t lie to me, you don’t actually know much about spaceships, do you?”
Arli was silent, struggling with the space suit’s gloves for a few moments, before admitting, “No. That was… never my department.”
“Well,” Sona says, spinning in xyr chair, “why don’t you leave the flight plans to me and stop backseat piloting.”
“I am not-” Arli makes finger quotes- “‘backseat piloting”, I’d just like to survive takeoff.”
“Such little faith,” Sona teases. “Strapped in?”
“Yeah.”
“Then hang on. You’re out of your element now, scout, so this’ll be especially jarring.”
Arli opens their mouth to retort, but thinks better of it. Sona usually knows what xe’s talking about…
“This way.” Elnor didn’t seem to have noticed that she had zoned out again.
“Coming.” Arli shook her head. Scout. Sona had called her a scout. That meant… something. And was important.
So why couldn’t she think of it?
And who was Sona?
Sona…
No. Nothing.
Sighing, she followed Elnor into a tiny room with three seats and an entire wall covered in control panels. “Take a seat,” Elnor said. “And strap in. This’ll be a rough takeoff.”
“Why?” she asked, doing as kie suggested.
“No reason.” Elnor didn’t meet her eyes, instead examining a bright blue headset with a swirly moon and stars insignia on the side. “Nothing we can’t fix on Europa, anyway.”
“Yes, that reminds me, where are we?”
“Selene. Northern Hub.”
Selene was Earth’s only moon. Back in the early 2100s, humans realized that if they were going to continue their expansion into the larger solar system, they needed a much better name for their natural satellite than just “the moon”. So they choose the name Selene, after an ancient Greek moon goddess. It was fitting, in a way. Project Artemis (named after another Greek moon goddess) had been the name for the building of the first true settlement on Earth’s moon, and in the mythology, Selene had come before Artemis.
Hubs were ports where ships could catch the Skyhooks in orbit around just about every inhabited planet and moon. The Skyhooks themselves were massive rotating tethers that allowed ships to catch onto them and use their momentum to boost themselves into space. Incoming ships could catch the opposite end in order to swing themselves down to the surface, which gave the Skyhook more momentum to pass onto departing ships. It was an ingenious and simple piece of technology that nicely solved the problem of the massive amounts of fuel previously needed to launch rockets.
Selene had several hubs, each quite different from the other. The Northern Hub was the oldest and busiest of them. It was mostly used for public transportation; huge passenger ships owned by the hub and packed with people. Personal spacecrafts like Elnor’s were rare here, and it was notoriously difficult to book a time slot for them. Arli wondered how far in advance kie had planned for this.
Elnor seemed completely unbothered by the difficult task ahead of kir. While it was true that launches were much easier now, there was still the risk of missing the Skyhook. But kie moved easily about the small room, flipping switches and adjusting dials with an easy confidence that could only come with years of practice. And yet kie looked so young…
Arli didn’t know much about spacecraft, as Elnor had pointed out, but she was fairly certain kie shouldn’t be able to control the ship so easily. Something was off, but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was.
“Ready?” Elnor asked, settling into kir seat at last and putting on the headset. Now, Arli recognized the mark on the side as the Northern Hub’s logo. These headsets allowed the launch tower to communicate with departing ships. They were standard issue on all hub-owned spacecraft, but personal ships had to borrow one.
A voice crackled through the headset. “Control tower to Spacecraft 33116. Do you copy?”
“Yes, we copy.”
“Good. 33116, you are in position and cleared for take off.”
“Copy that. Initiating launch sequence in 3… 2… 1.” Elnor flipped a few more switches. Looking out the window to her side for the first time, Arli could see that they were on a launchpad, but her view was quickly obscured by smoke from the ship’s rockets as it began to lift off.
Arli let out a shout of surprise as she was thrown back against her seat with the force of the takeoff, and Elnor laughed, even though kie kirself had almost had the wind knocked out of kir. Higher and higher the ship rose, until the end of a tether came into view. The Skyhook.
“We’re going to miss it!” Arli shouted. “We’re not fast enough!”
“I won’t miss!” Elnor pulled back a lever on one of the control panels. The Skyhook’s end grew larger and larger in the window-
There was a massive jolt that shook the ship and sent Elnor and Arli falling forward this time as it connected with the tether’s end. “See?” Elnor gasped, as though kie had forgotten to breathe for the past minute or so. “We made it.”
Arli nodded- then screamed as the tether swung them up and around and into outer space.
Elnor was laughing again. “Been a while since your last takeoff?”
“Yeah,” she said without thinking. It had been a while.
“...and then once you get there, you’ll be staying on-base for at least a month,” Tonell says.
Zyla nudges Arli. “Last flight for a while then, huh?”
Arli laughs. “You’ll just have to take me everywhere when I get back, to make up for all the flying I’ll miss.”
“I can’t wait.” Zyla smiles.
“I think you’re looking forward to it more than me.”
“Ah, you know you love it too.”
Arli slips ver hand into Zyla’s. “You got me.”
Tonell coughs. “Now, once you get to the base…”
Arli blinked. She was back on Elnor’s ship, staring out her window at Selene, which was growing ever smaller in the distance. More names. Zyla she knew from earlier, but Tonell was new. Something told her both of them were important to her, or had been. And now… now they were… somewhere else.
“You okay?” Elnor asked, fiddling with one of the control panels.
She nodded and turned away from the window. “Fine. How long until we get there?”
“A week.”
“A week,” she echoed. A week onboard a tiny ship with someone she barely knew.
Elnor sensed her discomfort. “I won’t bother you. I’ll mostly be in here.” Kie gestured around at the control room. “The autopilot’s only meant to be on for a couple of hours at a time, no longer. It’s supposed to allow the crew to rest, not to actually steer the ship, so I’ll need to keep an eye on things.”
“Isn’t this ship meant to be crewed by two people?” Arli blurted, having finally realized what had been bothering her about Elnor being so in control of the ship. Kie shouldn’t have been able to take off so easily.
Something in Elnor’s expression shifted, just for a moment, and when kie spoke again, kir voice was different, too. Sadder. “Yes. But I’ve had quite a lot of practice.”
“Oh.” Arli didn’t know what to say to that.
“You can take the suit off now,” Elnor said, changing the subject. “And you can get out of your seat.”
She unstrapped herself and removed her helmet- and it immediately floated out of her hands. She laughed and snatched it back.
Elnor removed kir own helmet and got out of kir seat to float up to a control panel on the ceiling that Arli hadn’t even noticed was there.
“Well,” she said after a moment, “I guess I’ll leave…”
Elnor didn’t respond, only twisted a few dials.
Arli floated away down the corridor, feeling she had done something wrong, but not quite sure what it was.
