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Surreal year anyways, I'm in.
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Jun 24, 2020 23:04
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| # ¿ Jan 26, 2025 01:44 |
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I am in.
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Oct 16, 2020 10:24
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On the Rim Word count: 499 “That is not a small crater.” Roberts kicked a rock and watched as it tumbled down the crater’s edge, bouncing and skipping across the freshly upended dirt. “No. No that is not.” Jane stood beside Roberts, her eyes fixed upon the crater’s far edge. There was a moment of silence that was as uncomfortable as the crater itself. An empty void where Roberts felt something should be. He wiped his brow nervously and spoke. “I guess the engine went critical.” “Yeah.” “After the entire compartment crashed down? Otherwise I think we’d have noticed?” “Yah.” “I mean, we were crashing down from orbit ourselves.” “Mmhmm.” “So we can’t blame ourselves for walking out here.” There was another void of silence as Jane slowly sat down on the ground. Roberts continued to fill the air with his words. “I mean. I don’t blame myself. Why should I? Not that you should blame yourself either! That’s not what I’m saying at all!” Roberts let out an exasperated curse and finally fell silent. It was getting late, the planet’s sun was slowly settling down behind the horizon, causing the pair to cast long shadows into the depths of the crater. He made a few more abortive attempts at bridging the silence before kicking another rock into the crater instead. Jane ruffled through her supply pack as she took inventory of its contents. The ruffling and clattering filled the air with sound, and somehow made it feel even more empty to Roberts. He sighed and opened his mouth to speak once more before Jane closed her pack and spoke instead. “Well we have other options. There should be pieces scattered for miles down range from here, and I don’t think there was anything as volatile as the stardrive in them.” “Yeah.” Roberts said, before finding the response awkward and insufficient. “Right! Yes!” He said a few more useless words before trailing off into silence again. He sent another rock skipping into the void out of frustration. “So. We just make camp for the night, and then follow the debris.” Roberts grunted. The shadows had gotten long enough that he couldn’t even follow the rocks he kicked all the way to the bottom of the crater with his eyes. “I’m sure some useful stuff survived the crash. I mean, we did.” “With a little hope, at least.” Jane nodded. “Hope enough for the both of us, right?” Jane stood up and dusted the soil off her jumpsuit. “Yeah, no, not really. I’m mostly running on being too stubborn.” “Oh.” Roberts thought about their chances, and grimaced. “I mean, I don’t think we’re going to die here. I’m sure we’ll live a long life stranded on this rock.” Roberts slumped visibly as his mental assessment of the future shot past five levels of despair and landed in line with Jane’s take on the situation. Jane kicked a rock towards the crater and turned around. “C’mon, let’s go make camp while you learn to be stubborn too.”
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Oct 19, 2020 05:23
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