Stars in your multitudes, scarce to be counted, filling the darkness with order and light.

[tookashirototheknee]

[Matt might be good at the network, but that doesn't mean he has complete control over his thoughts. Sometimes things slip through. But in this case, it's probably for the better.]

Oh, for the love of space peas, that's it!

[He pauses, and then sets out to make slightly more coherent comments. Standing in front of a mirror, at first all people can see is a detailed star chart. Anyone who is familiar with stars from earth would know this isn't exactly a view from Earth, but it's similar.]

So, I totally forgot that I got blessed with visions or hallucinations or something like that, but I had a... something of a star field. I don't know if I was there or in a planetarium or what, but I drew it out.

And then I realized. This is the star field as seen from Mars. I'd be a crap Garrison graduate if I couldn't figure that one out. So, uh, on top of everything else that's going on, we're going to Mars.

I haven't been there myself, but my dad's told me a lot about it, so I can help. I hope.

Comments

[helborn]

We're going to space?!

[Casper sounds positively delighted.]

[tookashirototheknee]

Well, technically, we're going to Mars. I don't know if it's the Mars base that I know or something else, but still.

I wonder if there'll be a ship that I could make Shiro hijack.

[vrepit_no]

A small one - we don't want to strand anyone. I'll have to work on my portals and see if we can get one big enough to bring it to liminal without shearing the wings!

[He's also excited ok]

[helborn]

... I'm incredibly jealous. I've never been to space - we've only barely been to the moon. I've been to the underworld, but not space! This is great!

... Could you even fit a ship in liminal space? I mean maybe if you have enough room creation like I do... I don't know.

[truerevelation]

...Man, that's a hell of a thing to catch!

[tookashirototheknee]

Hey, Dad took me out to show me constellations when I was three. I know my stars.

[truerevelation]

Heh. Nice. But even with that, somethin' like that... Good eye. Seriously. Beats all those spooky visions people get, huh?

[butthemiracleneverhappen]

An excellent catch. Along with premonitions of driving cattle...

Do you know the origin of the term "Space Opera?"

[tookashirototheknee]

Oh! Yeah. That's an easy one.

It comes from the term 'soap opera' which is an over-the-top show on television that's basically people dying, people sleeping with each other, and realizing they're someone's long-lost relative.

Space Opera came about when that kind of TV show was set in space. Very episodic, and very... dramatic in its way.

[butthemiracleneverhappen]

And a complaint about transposing the plots of "horse operas" - that is to say, westerns - into space, with a thin veneer of advanced technology.

One might suppose a Jaunt to a final frontier town on Mars.

[carbonatedscientist]

Mars?

[Give him a moment, he'll be alright, he'll be alright...]

Where I come from...the Martian civilization was destroyed in some sort of terrible cataclysm. I've seen it. Or at least...footage of it.

[tookashirototheknee]

Oh...

[Matt's torn between excitement for a new culture and sympathy for the rest of the universe.]

I'm sorry. Hopefully this isn't that universe. Back home for me Mars is just... dusty.

[carbonatedscientist]

Just...

...if anyone finds any strange boxes, don't open the boxes.

[Though he hasn't been here that long, he figures that with this group, they're doomed in that scenario.]

[rustyhonesty]

Mars is ... a planet? Like Earth?

[Excuse his lack of astrology knowledge.]

[tookashirototheknee]

Yeah! Our solar system has nine planets... [It may not be technically correct, but you can fite him. Pluto is a planet.] and Mars is the one closest to the Earth.

You wouldn't want to live there outside of the base, and, really, it's not that interesting, but, well. It is another planet.

[rustyhonesty]

Do they all have life?

[How big is your world. Jean's only known his wall surrounded one mostly so the thought of different planets among your own one is weird.]

[reallymean]

[Everyone else has covered most of the important bits, but:]

Space peas?

[tookashirototheknee]

Oh... uh.

Dad has a deep and abiding love for freeze-dried peas, which are a staple on Earth-based space missions.

I've just, um, always tried to come up with creative swears.

[reallymean]

Ah, so it isn't some native Earth vulgarity.

[Is she relieved or disappointed? Even she doesn't know.]

What can you tell us about the conditions on Mars? Or the conditions on the Mars of our reality, I suppose I should say - given the range realities we've visited, I suppose we shouldn't simply assume it will match.

[starshaper]

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow, really??!! Really really really???!!! Are we really going to Mars??!!!!???

[tookashirototheknee]

Well, if the stars are right, yeah.

I can't wait. It's the closest I've been to home in quite a while.

[hiddensword]

Nobody loves space peas.

I just hope we can keep our own suits and don't get forced in to those bulky old fashioned ones.

[tookashirototheknee]

Hey! Dad loves space peas. Granted, I never really got his obsession with them, but. He's not nobody.

Ew. Yeah. I really don't want to have to be in one of the old suits. How in the world did anyone get anything done with those clunky boots and gloves?! And the breathing and cooling systems were completely archaic.

[willyousee]

It speaks to... something, I suppose, that my first thought was to question why the God of War would wish peas from beyond Earth's limits.

But it is the next furthest planet out from the sun, yes? Forgive me, but I am not as familiar with the history of the solar system of Earth as perhaps I ought, given the number of times we have journeyed into space. May I ask, what is its significance?

[levelthreehooligan]

A voice pipes up on the Network

Mars?? What is a 'Mars'?

Wait this is... SpacE??!! You're talking about outside of the Planet!!!???

[No one in Hydaelyn has gone off-planet before, The Allegans managed to launch a satellite, but that was it. She's incredibly excited about this.]