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Chert watched anxiously while Gossan tapped their helmet. There was a chance, Gossan didn't seem like they were stuck thinking about Chert as a sick hatchling, but maybe they were-
"I shoulda known you'd ask eventually. Gabbro called it before they launched." Just a few weeks ago, and that hadn't been an answer. "You've never really looked around in the crater since you could look up and see the stars, too."
"Gossan?"
"Welcome to Outer Wilds Ventures, Chert." Gossan was grinning, widening into a proper smile to mirror Chert's. "Listen, you go tell Slate, okay? I know they have plans already for another ship. I'll let Hornfels know-"
"They know already. Or, they knew I was planning on asking." That got a snort; Hornfels was the adult Chert had attached themself too the most out of the village, since Hornfels hadn't actively tried to attach themself to Chert; Gneiss, and Rutile, even Ol' Jasper a little bit, had kept following Chert around in the hopes Chert would stop trying to avoid them.
"Of course they knew. I'll- actually, you go talk to Hornfels, I'll go tell Slate." Gossan took off down the waterfall ramp, parts of it gleaming fresh wood following Gabbro's final practice flight and their most recent burning-down-buildings incident.
Chert started towards the observatory before remembering- Hornfels wasn't there this morning, were they? They'd been planning on… some other task they'd been asked to do. Teaching the younger hatchlings something?
They might be in the observatory, or, they were near the hatchling house, and if Chert checked the much closer hatchling house first, they'd be able to retrieve their sketched star charts from a few nights ago. Hornfels hadn't had a chance to look at them yet, and they'd stayed hidden in the hatchling house where they were unlikely to be found and 'tidied away' by some well meaning adult who still thought Chert shouldn't be awake all night for observations.
They glanced around as they reached the porch- no one around, though it sounded like something was starting in the center of the village. No one was inside, and they glanced quickly- other hatchlings would have been fine, Jasper poking around was not- before hurrying to their disused spot. Tuff had the new bed despite only being the second oldest hatchling currently; Chert rarely slept here and was never surprised to find whichever bed was currently considered the worst was the one shoved into their corner.
Riebeck's bed- older but extended, they were taller than Tuff already- and Marl's bed were crammed into the other corners; since Riebeck was… different than a normal hatchling, but not in an unhealthy way, they were usually allowed to sleep here. Oh, and the crib that usually was in pieces outside had been dragged in, mostly cleaned, and put back together; Hal must have been moved in recently, and since they appeared rather healthy, they weren't being coddled at all.
Onto Chert's bed, and their feet didn't sink as far as they expected. Probably the other hatchlings stealing blankets, but, it wasn't like Chert used them. They'd rather sleep here than at Gneiss's or down in the hatching room again, but somehow usually ended up at Hornfel's cabin.
There was a loose board up here and… nothing.
Their star charts, carefully hidden, were gone.
Who had noticed them hiding these? They'd thought they'd been careful enough, that Jasper or Rutile or Gneiss probably wouldn't pull apart the walls.
Tuff must have hidden them. Tuff was like that. But! Tuff wouldn't have gotten on another bed to put things way out of Chert's reach. They would have- this part of the bed, that didn't sound like fabric under Chert's feet.
The star charts were all here, not doodled on- that was a little surprising, Tuff had destroyed a number of older ones- flattened and flatter, actually, than Chert had stored them, probably from the blanket.
They were sitting on the bed, checking everything, when the door opened and slammed closed and Tuff stormed in and glared.
"Tha-"
"They're all out talking about you, like usual. Gossan must have suggested you're not a fragile little hatchling who can maybe pull a little bit of weight around here."
"I asked Gossan if I can be an astronaut and they said yes." No response; they glanced up and Tuff was pretending to gag, but their ears were folded back like they were scared. "I'm going to talk to Hornfels-"
"All you ever do is talk to Hornfels-"
"-And I needed to get my star charts first. Thank you for putting them under the blanket, they're staying flat."
Tuff didn't respond, stomping to their bed and unlacing their boots. There was no need to say bye; Chert had everything they wanted and let themself out, careful to fully close the door behind them.
Now they could head to the observatory. The conversation in the center of the village was loud enough to hear but not loud enough they could make anything out. They didn't pause or creep closer to eavesdrop; they knew exactly which argument it was and had no interest in hearing any variant of it again.
Hornfels was in the makeshift observatory; Chert hurried up the ramp. "Hornfels!"
Hornfels looked up from the telescope pieces scattered around the observatory, excited. "Chert! Did you ask Gossan?"
"They said yes! They were going to tell Slate, and I believe they were distracted arguing with whoever was in near the center of the village."
Hornfels sighed, making a face. "Yes, they probably are. They- not Gossan- will eventually have to realize you're no longer a sick hatchling."
"Once I launch. Or once Tuff finally does something to force everyone to pay attention to them for once." Chert bit their tongue rather than continue that thought, and began laying out their star charts on the tree stump the observatory was built around. "They did flatten these for me, and I don't believe I showed you these?"
Hornfels left their telescope, leaning over the sketches, all other thoughts on pause while they began going over everything Chert had brought.
"Okay, first up, the Attlerock!"
"But that's our moon."
"Yep! And if you're lucky we'll land up there to bring Esker supplies and patch up whatever breaks in their cabin while they're breaking it in." Gossan carefully rested an edge of their guitar on one side of the map, forcing it to stay flat with their other hand. "So, they're on the side that's always facing us."
"Hornfels said that was called tidally locked?"
"Yeah. Don't ask me where they came up with that name. But over here, this half, this is the other side of it." The map was sketchy, and it was easy to guess that Feldspar had stopped wanting to draw this halfway through and had decided to just hurry up and get something down to finish it.
"That looks…"
"Like something big hit it really hard? Yeah. We're not really sure what, there's just a ton of ice around there."
"Hmm." Chert leaned forward, staring at the pencils lines that grew less accurate the further north they looked. A huge crater, surrounded by ice, missing from their own moon, and even with stargazing with Hornfels they had never realized this was there… "Something huge hit it, but, what?"
"Maybe you'll get to figure that out, when you launch. Which, next, I have a more interesting planet for you, but the Attlerock is our best looking map right now. And, uh, will still be the best map, when we get an updated one from Esker, because they're not gonna go map out other planets, they're just up there for repair work. But, here we go!" Gossan pulled another loosely rolled sheet out of the box next to them, unrolled it, and kept unrolling it.
Two planets, one covered in tall structures, one covered in canyons. "Are these the Hourglass Twins?"
"Yeah! I did these maps, Feldspar wouldn't sit still over there long enough. Both of these are without the sand, mind you, that's a big hazard to avoid no matter how pretty it is. I didn't go spelunking, also, there's nothing down in those caves I wanted to risk getting buried for. Hey, Rutile, we're busy." Gossan had sat up a little, ears folding back, as Rutile walked up.
"Gneiss wanted to talk to Chert. Nowish."
"They're gonna have to ask Tuff for whatever chore they have, Chert's busy."
"Don't-" Gossan and Rutile both looked down at Chert. "I'll go help Gneiss, but, after we're done for today. It's not going to be something really urgent if they were asking for me."
"They just said they wanted to talk to you." Rutile sounded disapproving, but, they'd been against Chert potentially leaving the planet, just like Gneiss.
"Then you, Tuff or-"
"I'll go help! Later." Chert felt their ears start folding back and wished they could stop that. Even with Rutile trying to keep them busy not learning from Gossan and Hornfels, and Gneiss sending them on errands and Spinel trying to always get help fishing when they hadn't ever wanted Chert's help before-
Gossan didn't look at Chert, staring down Rutile. "They said they'll go help Gneiss later."
Rutile backed down first, leaving with a stern "Make sure of it."
Gossan watched until they were out of earshot, then sighed. "I can go handle whatever Gneiss needs. We don't really have a map of Giant's Deep or Dark Bramble and the Brittle Hollow map is currently on Brittle Hollow with Feldspar who's supposed to be working on it."
"I can go help Gneiss."
Gossan was staring at them, almost like they'd stared down Rutile, but conceded first. "If you're sure. Don't listen to them trying to talk you out of Outer Wilds Ventures, though, Slate's already making the ship for you."
"I won't."
Chert sighed before they climbed the stairs and knocked on Gneiss' door as they walked inside. "Gneiss? Rutile said you wanted to talk to me."
"I did." They were settled at their table, teasing Hal into opening their mouth. "Can you grab the other bowl of fish from the icebox for me? That's not what I wanted to talk to you about, I just forgot to grab it before I sat down."
Chert climbed the step stool, pushed the lid up and pulled the wooden bowl out, careful not to get fish juice from the shreds on their hand. "What did you want to talk to me about?" Probably following the new track Rutile had taken, trying to talk them into staying on planet to observe the stars.
"What instrument d'you want to play."
Chert frowned, brain reversing and trying to get back on whatever unexpected track Gneiss was taking. "Instrument?"
"Yeah. Feldspar has that harmonica, has had it since right before they decided to go into space. Gossan has their guitar, even if they usually only play at a campfire here. Gabbro I got started on that flute as soon as I thought they could play the notes." They'd been watching Hal eat, but looked up at Chert, questioning. "Never could shake you out of a plan once you'd decided on it, and I shouldn't have kept trying for this long. So. When you're out there in the outer wilds, we need to hear something from you to know you're thriving out there, just like we need Feldspar's harmonica to know they haven't been abducted by aliens or flown into Hollow's Lantern or anything."
"I…" Chert was still trying to wrap their head around this new, weird feeling, that an adult who wasn't part of Outer Wilds Ventures already wasn't trying to talk them out of it; some little part of them was wondering if they wouldn't get an actual instrument, just something to lower their guard. "I haven't really thought about it, Gneiss."
"Alright, well, I will. I'll figure something out for you, don't worry, and we'll make sure you know how to play when you launch." Gneiss went back to offering fish shreds to Hal. "Go on, I know you're busy with Gossan, I just wanted to ask."
One way or another… at least they'd end up with something to play. "Thank you, Gneiss."
Chert walked through the open door into Rutile's house, basket of processed plant fibers in one hand and the smaller handful of bright blue flowers they'd been asked for in the other. Rutile wasn't immediately visible, but they knew where these went.
There was a pile of mending untidily resting in a basket; Chert didn't have anything to do for the next few hours, since Gossan was out checking in with Esker and Gabbro and finding out if Feldspar was dead, stranded, badly injured, or, most likely, had forgotten to charge their radio while they were out actively exploring and hadn't noticed that no one was trying to call them.
Chert grabbed the piece of felt the mending needles lived on, browsed through the pile quickly to decide on a thread color, grabbed the smaller basket that had rags still good enough to be patches, and pulled themself onto the chair next to it all.
This shirt had holes in the armpits and hems, they shouldn't start there, what else… pants with a rip on the knee, perfect. Chert dug for a large enough piece of cloth, tucked the edges as much as they could without getting up to heat the iron, pinned it quickly, and started sewing, small methodical stitches right where they needed to be to keep the patch neat and stabilize the rip… they probably should do more stitches through the rest of it to be sure.
Someone was on the porch, but Chert was trying to keep the corner from unfolding and ignored them walking in. Rutile probably, it was their house, that saved Chert from hunting them down so they knew the plants they'd asked for were here-
They heard the snort, and it wasn't Rutile, it was Tuff. They could safely keep sewing then, Tuff was spending more and more time in the mines under the village, same as Chert was spending more time with Outer Wilds Ventures.
"Does that really need that big of a patch?"
Chert glanced up, pale blue eyes meeting Tuff's bright cyan. "The rip is longer than my hand. I'm pretty sure these are Slate's and they caught it on the solar panels on Gneiss's roof."
Tuff rolled their eyes and nodded. "Yeah, fair. I know I heard Gossan telling them they needed chaps to poke around up there. When'd you learn to sew between Gneiss's cabin and spa-Hornfels?"
"From Gneiss and Hornfels. There's only so many things they'll let you do when the adults think you'll break if you cough."
Tuff frowned at them, but surprisingly didn't press. "Thanks for handling the mending, that is what I came in here to do. I guess I'll… go help, Spinel? Or Jasper."
"Good luck with either, I'd rather sew."
Tuff nodded, turned, and paused. "You may want to find a better hiding place for your star charts." Chert looked back up at them, their turn to frown. "Rutile was asking about them earlier. If they actually go looking, they'll find the spot above your bed and I know you're always worried about them getting tidied away into a burn pile."
Chert made a face. They should probably give up and just hide them at Hornfels' cabin. "Thank you."
Chert detoured on their way back to Hornfels' cabin. Hornfels was fairly certain they'd corrected the issues with their new telescope and the focus should actually be focusing, but it still needed to be night to see anything more interesting than the immediate solar system, so they had a few free hours.
And, Gneiss had let them know early this morning that Chert needed to stop by, because they had a possible instrument.
Chert knocked on the door and walked inside when they heard Gneiss faintly; they were… not in the kitchen, surprisingly. There hadn't been any fires, or more serious burns than a campfire would give, since Chert had joined Outer Wilds Ventures, but Slate almost had the ship ready for testing and Chert had been expecting that Gneiss wanted to be prepared.
They heard a muffled voice again, and realized Gneiss must have been in their workshop basement. Chert made sure to close the door behind them as they walked around, dropped off the porch- it wasn't a large drop for them, even if they weren't going to grow anymore, it just made their knees and feet submit temporary complaints- and felt a stare on the back of their neck.
But there was no shout of their name or scolding, so they weren't going to care right now. Chert walked around to Gneiss' basement.
"Chert! Good timing, the glue finally dried." Gneiss was holding a small cylinder; they shook it, and Chert could hear something rattling inside of it. "Try this, does it feel right when you're holding it?"
"…Yes." It was palm sized for Chert, unfinished wood, very light. A hatchling's first instrument, just like they'd been worried about.
They could tell themself it was like Feldspar's harmonica, easy to carry, quick to begin playing, but, Gossan's guitar and Gabbro's flute weren't, and while Feldspar had faced as much trouble as Chert was right now trying to get to space, Chert wasn't facing an unknown solar system in the same way-
"Chert?" They jolted when Gneiss put a hand on their shoulder, leaning down a little. "Caught in your thoughts?"
"Y-yes, Gneiss, sorry."
"Don't be, I shouldn't have led with the shaker. It's all one piece finally, but there's work to do on it still. This is what I wanted to you really look at." On a different messy table, a rough cylinder of wood with fabric stretched over it, also unfinished; Gneiss placed it on the ground next to Chert, and sat on the ground. "Go ahead, I want to know how this sounds."
Chert settled next to the drum. It didn't share much beyond a shape with Slate's drumset, several drums together that they played with sticks that needed to be replaced periodically when they broke; the top of Chert's drum looked like they could play it with their hands. They bopped it, listening to the sound. Then again in a different spot, pause to listen, and the shaker rattled when they moved the hand still holding it, and Chert played a few beats, shaker accompanying the drum, and they looked up, thinking, hand still tapping the drum, they could maybe find Feldspar or Gabbro or Esker, Esker was on the Attlerock right now and the easiest to hear, and have something they could drum along to-
Gneiss was smiling, watching them. "Think you like this? Hand drum and a shaker."
"Y-yes, I do, Gneiss. Thank you." Chert waited as Gneiss pulled themself to their feet, then offered the shaker and drum back. "What do you have left to do to finish them?"
"Well, I need to sand the shaker down and finish it, it'll give you splinters if you use it too much right now. I'll finish staining the drum itself, get better metal hoops from Slate to hold it all together, bother Rutile again to get something that'll seal the top better against whatever you'll run into when you launch. It's a few weeks of work, probably, before I'm adding music lessons to everything else you're learning from Gossan." Gneiss pulled a tin of something that reeked off a shelf, and a handful of rags. "Go, go on, I'll get the first coat on this and get that shaker sanded before tonight."
Chert left, feeling light enough to fly out of the crater without a ship. An actual instrument, and Gneiss hadn't tried to talk them out of it at all.
"Chert." And now they landed back on Timber Hearth. Rutile, and it looked like they may have been waiting for a few minutes.
"Do you need something?" Not polite, but, Gneiss had given up talking them out of going to space so why wouldn't Rutile-
"Gneiss said they were having you try your new instrument for the first time today." Not a question, but Chert nodded. And Rutile sighed. "Should've known you wouldn't stay here forever. Here, if you're not gonna change your mind." And offered… a bandanna.
Chert took it, carefully, and inspected it. Bright, dazzling blue, and, picked out with careful embroidery, the constellations visible from the crater. A pattern Chert knew well, because this was one of their star charts, the same lines, the same stars, the same variation in size to reflect luminosity-
"How long have you been making this?" Chert frowned up at Rutile. "This is a lot of work."
"A bit. Once Gneiss announced they were making you an instrument." Rutile clapped their shoulder and picked up a tin of something that had been resting next to them. "Had to get the starcharts from Hornfels and finally got Porphy to dye some thread. No one had the heart to keep arguing once we lost Gneiss." And left towards Gneiss's workshop.
Chert inspected the bandanna again, its small, careful stitches and an almost uniform shade of blue, brighter than any other clothing in the village. They tied it around their neck, felt themself start smiling, and went to find Hornfels.