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SATURN, EPISODE FIVE - "i have only the highest ambitions for us"/Becoming stars
"Prevent theft of entire colony" wait what
>lmao indeed
New missions accepted (?), but first we have emails and comms to read.
Day 5 emails:
Day 5 Comms:
quote:
hey mercury
why are you still with celestial mechanics
Why are you? If you still are, that is!
You're the one who can choose.
...mercury
Oh, don't. If you hadn't hijacked String of Pearls, you'd be here like me, waiting.
To see if it's true, that we can be what comes after being human.
I don't want that for you.
I certainly don't trust or believe in Celestial Mechanics or Iapetus, but wasn't that the worst part?
Even after he decided we weren't good enough to be the chosen pilots, neither of us left.
He knew we wouldn't leave, because we already wanted it too much.
do you still want that more than anything else?
I don't know. I know what I DON'T want, and it's to have nothing to show for it.
nothing to show for what
Coming to space, going to the Academy, never having a chance to fight in the Cold War, not having a say either way, falling stupidly for the worst man alive.
I'm counting on you, Saturn, to give me something better than just the same Earth we left.
you never have to worry about that
i have only the highest ambitions for us
Those girls you're flirting with better have a decent future for us, is all that I'm saying.
...
sure fine okay
only if it's a really good one
if nothing else
Alright, let’s get started on that new future!
>LAUNCH
"It's so refreshing to see you surprised for once, Saturn."
"I'm soaking it in."
"Ha ha ha Mercury, but seriously? He wants me to stop Cradle's Graces from taking the entire colony out of the Lagrange Point?
"Why? Why would they do that? Why would we care enough to stop them from trying?"
"The colony should just rot, it's over. There's nothing left there."
"Cradle's Graces wants those memories to live again."
"We need to discard Earth completely, and start something new. It's an anchor pulling us back home."
"The success of opening the Gravity Well on the Moon will depend completely on how much is holding us down. Even weak gravity like that."
"That's more than just stopping her, then."
"That's the mission, yes."
"Not that I'm not the greatest, but isn't that basically impossible for me?"
"It's huge. There are smaller moons."
"Do your best, then."
"The less memories, the better."
Interesting how drastically different their reaction to the old colony is from Luna-Terra's in the last route.
"I thought you didn't have any problems, that the colony should just rot?"
"Ha. That's a funny joke. We both went through the same shit, don't ask me that."
"Every happy memory is made retroactively disgusting by the sort of person Iapetus turned out to be."
"I hate him so much! I will never get over how much."
"Saturn."
"Yes Mercury?"
"Why are YOU doing this is the real question, Mercury."
"You know him like I do, so why are you still here?"
"I apparently have enough power to destroy a colony, and I can ditch him whenever I want."
"Leave Celestial Mechanics, take Ganymede. I'll protect you. I'll make sure there's a good future in the end."
"You absolutely will not be fine if I leave."
"Of course I don't trust him at all, but he wants what I want."
"It's what you want, too. I can't trust him on anything else, but I can trust him on that."
"Even if he's just doing this for his own gain, with some other agenda in mind, he's truly going to give us this."
"Ugh, disgusting. That's what I fell for, so stop reminding me."
"That's why I trust you too, of course. Even though I shouldn't."
"I know you won't accept anything less than what you want."
"If you can get even half of that, it'll be more than enough for me."
There is voting this time! Should we battle in physical space or narrative space?
--
EPISODE FIVE CONCLUSION
Another tie, so gravity decrees: the battle will be in physical space.
I was wrong, it turns out the song Joyride does play in a non-obscure scene. This one in fact!
Music - Joyride
Pluto drifts slowly in orbit around the colony, waiting.
"I'm kind of stumped too, if I'm being honest, but sorry, destroying it sounds way easier than whatever they're trying to make you do."
"Oh yeah? Ahaha! What made you think that?"
"For the same reason you thought you could convince me."
"Cause you like me? Or because you don't care for your side that much either?"
"I care about all of us left here in space."
"It's amazing that you actually honestly do, but that's not what I asked, huh."
"There's a lot of ways to care about everyone up in space. Dragging a colony out of the Lagrange Point yourself is one way to do it."
"There's another way to care about everyone up in space."
"You're saying that would free us from the past?"
"But it won't make those memories go away."
"We're making something out of them, so that time and pain won't be wasted."
"This is important to me, and I'll fight for real over it."
"Don't look at me like that. You'll make me sad. You really don't need to be the one to tell me, because I already know I'm doing something super dumb!"
"I wonder, what do you want, and why do you think you can get it from me?"
"It's just going to be a fight. Is that what you're after?"
"Yes. Even more so now."
"Didn't they teach you about sunk cost fallacies in the Academy?"
"Memories should just be memories."
"That's why you kinda make me mad sometimes."
"I've been having this feeling you're going to do something way dumber and scarier than just fight me."
"Am I right?"
"Because after I already said that there wasn't anything you could do, after you were shaking and afraid from just being close enough to see me."
"It looks like I can trust you to come right back no matter how much I try to warn you."
"...and trust you to come back twice as much."
"Whoever is ordering you around has no idea what they're doing."
"Ha ha."
"You're so right."
"But I'm still not going to let you through."
"You're wasted on Cradle's Graces in general."
"And the rest of humanity too."
"...don't try to push my buttons like that. I won't think it's cute."
"It's a lot of work to be a human."
"I'm not trying to be cute, I mean it."
"It's more for some humans than for others."
"You're not mad at the humans who got to be human for free?"
"It's a privilege to be human."
"Have you forgotten why we're here."
"Because humans, who wanted to be more human--"
"Took the least human of us up here, to see how much more human they could be."
"And now they want to throw you away, after they learned everything they could from you."
"Don't you resent humanity?"
"I do."
"What do you do when someone says you can't have something?"
"Do you think you should work twice as hard until you earn it?"
"I don't. I want to smash it until no one can have it."
"You know, you're just like Luna-Terra."
"Urk... please don't say that, you're merciless."
"Haha, it's in a good way."
"Not even then. Don't get me wrong, it just depresses me to see you wasted on all them."
"You should be having fun."
"Ahaha. You know, I wish I would come here just for that."
"Just to have fun."
"Good! Have fun with me!"
"I know you want to show me mercy, lab rat to lab rat."
"Mutant bitch to mutant bitch."
"That's not what we need though, is it?"
"I wanna see the you that's having nothing but fun."
"I'm still getting used to this body, but I think I can still surprise you with it."
"And you'd like that, right? Cutting loose with no gravity to tie you down?"
"You've got to be ginger with the universe, you know, Saturn."
"Now that you're this strong, you've got to be careful. So much can go wrong."
"I'll make sure to be very careful with the universe you love."
"You don't have to hold back with me, though."
"Aren't I the only person you can go tide to tide with, holding nothing back?"
"That's a big promise."
"I don't want to come off as full of myself, but I don't want you to underestimate me either."
"Plastic girl to plastic girl, I wouldn't patronize you like that."
"It's tempting."
"But I wonder if you're really ready?"
"You wouldn't mind getting your Ship-Self broken and dragged back for the Cradle's Graces dream to do who knows what to?"
"What, is that supposed to sound bad?"
"You really are... oh fine. I'm going to start easy, okay?"
Others would shatter under the pressure, but String of Pearls bulges and squishes. Pluto pulls and pushes, trying to force her in a space that will sit still long enough she can deal with it.
Saturn squeals in excitement, until she can stop giggling long enough to push Pluto off with an electric burn.
Pluto can't help but laugh too. It's funny how much nothing is working even though she's trying as hard as she can. That makes her want to work as hard as she can.
"Me neither."
"I really thought I'd actually be the one beating you."
"You didn't lie though. You really could endure it, all of it."
The Colony is much worse for wear. Saturn shattered against it many, many times. Pluto broke across it a few times too. It's shaking in the Lagrange Point.
"You won, even though you lost. I had a lot of fun. I wouldn't have been able to have it with anyone else."
"I'm glad I trusted you to not lose."
"Haha, told you."
"Good girl. I should never have doubted one of us."
"Thank you, thank you."
"We did our best, had the most fun we could have."
"...when we get to the Moon, don't forget."
"You could keep having fun just like this."
--
