Chapter Text
[LOG 10.1 BEGINS.]
Tommy: Hi! Hello, Welcome back to Tommy talks-
Purpled: Is that a new name?
Tommy: Yeah! I mean I talk to it anyways all the time, so I might as well give it a brand. Like a name. A name to the face.
Purpled: It’s a recorder. It can’t see your face.
Tommy: Okay, hater.
Hannah: Yeah Purpled. You’re being a hater.
Purpled: You don’t even know what I was talking about!
Hannah: I don’t need to know. You’re just a hater. It’s like your default state. You’re programmed to be a hater.
Purpled: This hater isn’t making dinner tonight.
Tommy: Fine! We’ll do it ourselves. We could make it ourselves Hannah.
Hannah: Yeah. It’s not even that hard. Half of them are premade anyways, right?
[LOG 10.1 ENDS.]
[LOG 10.2 BEGINS.]
Hannah: I’m never doubting Purpled’s cooking abilities again. This is so bad.
Tommy: What did we even do? We followed the instructions!
Purpled: Programmed to be bad at cooking. You default to not knowing how to make instant noodles.
Hannah: They’re instant noodles. How are they this hard to make.
Purpled: You think we’ve just been eating noodles this entire time? Just plain old out-of-the-pack noodles?
Hannah: I mean- yeah?
Tommy: There’s… other ways to do it?
Purpled: You sweet, sweet summer children.
Tommy: We’re in space. There is no summer.
Purpled: It’s a book expression. Idiot.
Hannah: No, I’m on board with Tommy on this one. There is no summer.
Purpled: You’re on board with Tommy on every one. There’s a reason you guys are eating those. I have a sense of dignity for myself.
Hannah: Share some.
Purpled: No.
Hannah: Hey, remember when you gave up your co-pilot seat for Tommy because-
Purpled: You’re such a bully. Take the stupid noodles.
Tommy: I still don’t get the chair thing.
[There’s the sound of a bowl scraping against the table as Purpled hands over the leftovers of his noodles to Hannah.]
Hannah: You don’t need to. It’s effective enough as it is.
Purpled: You’re just using the same fork. That’s disgusting.
Hannah: I watched you drool in your sleep for three years. You’ve done things nastier than sharing a fork.
Purpled: I was seven-
Hannah: My point stands.
Tommy: What's drooling?
[Silence.]
Purpled: Do avians not drool when they sleep?
Tommy: I- I don’t know what that is. Maybe?
Purpled: Do you know what saliva is?
Tommy: No?
Hannah: The clear stuff in your mouth.
Tommy: Oh yeah! You don’t?
Hannah: No- we do. Sometimes when you sleep it- falls out.
Tommy: It falls OUT?!
Purpled: That makes it sound so much worse Hannah-
Hannah: Shut Purpled-
Tommy: It’s just been falling?! Every night?!
Hannah: When you’re little! When you’re little, you drool a lot while you sleep. When you grow up… it. It depends.
Tommy: It DEPENDS?!
Purpled: This conversation is gonna be the bane of my existence. I feel like someone is explaining the birds and the bees to me again.
Hannah: I am not explaining that.
Tommy: My mouth water leaks?!
Purpled: I’m turning the recorder off.
[The audio cuts out to sounds of Tommy frantically panicking, still over drool, and Purpled’s exasperated sigh. It sounds exasperated, but really, it’s fond. It’s more fond than it’s ever been.]
[LOG 10.2 ENDS.]
[LOG 10.3 BEGINS.]
[The audio opens with childhood mischief in quiet, hushed tones.]
Purpled: You will not tell Hannah I showed you this. This is between us.
Tommy: For sure. Totally. Without a doubt.
Purpled: I’m having a lot of doubts.
Tommy: Come on Purpled, just tell me what it is.
Purpled: Fine. It means I love you.
Tommy: It means I love you?!
Purpled: Stop shouting. It does. That’s why I show it to Hannah so often.
Tommy: Awww you’re a sap.
Purpled: Alright Tommy ‘I make things out of leaves to show my appreciation’ Innes.
Tommy: Those were beautiful swans. I don’t want to hear a word.
Purpled: Tommy, they looked like dying ristericals.
Tommy: They did not!
Purpled: They did! You know when risterical dies they get all droopy like that-
Tommy: Okay, now you’re just being mean-
Purpled: I’m being realistic.
Tommy: They were beautiful swans.
Purpled: Have you ever even seen a picture of a swan?
Tommy: …No. But there was a book that was talking about them! It was called- the ugly- duckling? I think?
Purpled: No way is my life real.
Tommy: I didn’t even do anything!
Purpled: You found out what a swan was through reading the ugly duckling.
Tommy: And? Aren’t those what books are for?
Purpled: Forget it. Have you read The Thing About Jellyfish yet?
Tommy: Not yet. I think it’s next on my list.
[Purpled smiles, rare and excited.]
Purpled: Let me know how you like it.
[The audio cuts out.]
[LOG 10.3 ENDS.]
[LOG 10.4 BEGINS.]
Tommy: I miss them sometimes.
Hannah: Your blood flock?
Tommy: Yeah. Them and my flock, too.
Hannah: I guess they’re easy to miss, aren’t they? Knowing there’s a gap there.
Tommy: Do you ever miss your family?
Hannah: Sometimes. I wonder what it’d be like to live with them, to know all my little siblings and talk to them.
Tommy: Do you regret it? Taking everything and leaving with Purpled.
[There’s a sudden laugh, and Hannah shook her head. It was kind. Hannah was kind.]
Hannah: Stars, no. I miss them sometimes, but I don’t regret any of it. I’d do it all again. I’d it all for Purpled.
Tommy: He’s lucky to have you, y’know?
Hannah: Yeah. I’m lucky to have him too.
[Tommy exhales a little happily. He flips Hannah off.]
Hannah: Tommy, what the hell? We were having a moment!
Tommy: I know! That’s why I did it! ‘Cause we’re having a moment! It means I love you!
[Hannah broke into a fit of laughter, Tommy laughing along with her.]
Hannah: Purpled!
[LOG 10.4 ENDS.]
[LOG 10.5 BEGINS.]
Tommy: PURPLED WHAT IN THE RIFT?!
Purpled: WHAT!
Tommy: THAT WAS SO SAD! THAT WAS SUCH A TRAGIC BOOK! WHY WOULD YOU GIVE THAT TO ME TO READ?!
[There’s a dull thump as the book supposedly hits Purpled on the head. Purpled is too busy cackling hard enough to have trouble breathing to really care.]
Tommy: Now you’re laughing at me you treebiter-
Hannah: Woah! No swear words in this household!
Tommy: We’re in space! You don’t even know what that means!
Hannah: It sounds like an insult.
Tommy: It could’ve been a compliment. Like the finger thing.
Hannah: I’m gonna kill Purpled for that.
[Purpled was still gasping for breath on the floor. He held a thumbs up from his trembling figure, laughing racking his entire body. He hadn’t laughed like that in a long time.]
Hannah: You are not allowed to laugh. What even happened?
Tommy: That treebiter- you don’t even know what it means, Hannah- gave me a sad book to read! And he said it was funny!
Purpled: In my defense, it was funny. To me.
Tommy: It’s gonna be funny when I feed your bone marrow to the roots of a washel everblue-
Hannah: We do not need attempted murder on the tape-
[The audio cuts out.]
[LOG 10.5 ENDS.]
[LOG 10.6 BEGINS.]
[The silence is quiet. It's not like any of the other silences that have happened yet. This one is different. This one is familiar and foreign, it’s new and old. It’s the silence of a home amongst the stars.]
Tommy: Do you ever still think about it? Being a child of the stars and sky.
Purpled: God. Every day. It’s an honour to think about. Like stars, I belong to the galaxy. I’m gonna die, and I’ll return to the stardust I was made of.
Tommy: We’re made of stardust?
Purpled: In one way or another.
Tommy: Doesn’t that make us all children of the stars? We’re made of them.
Purpled: I guess it does.
Tommy: Huh.
Purpled: What’re you thinking about?
Tommy: I… I don’t know. Nothing, I guess.
Purpled: Nothing at all?
Tommy: Nothing at all.
[There’s a long silence. It’s comfortable. It’s familiar. It’s everything that Tommy never had, it’s everything that Purpled didn’t realize he was waiting to give.]
Purpled: The stars are pretty tonight.
Tommy: Yeah. They are.
[The silence comes back like a crashing wave, receding and crashing on the sand like the sound of laughter and youth. After everything, Tommy was only thirteen. Purpled was only fifteen. Hannah was only nineteen, freshly turned legal. They were still children in every right of the word. There was laughter, laughter and arguments and crying and screaming and anger and forgiveness and grudges that never lasted long. But there was a family beneath it all, forged of choice and will.]
Tommy: If we all have stardust, doesn’t that make us bloodflock?
Purpled: How?
Tommy: Well- we share a part of each other. As whittled down and small as it is, we have to share something.
Purpled: I guess we do.
Tommy: So blood flock?
Purpled: Sure, Tommy. Blood flock.
[There’s a contented sigh, and Tommy leans back. He picked up the recorder.]
Tommy: This is all I have of my parents. And- I don’t know. But, at first, there was only my parent’s voices. That’s it. That’s all there was on here. And then I kept on using it, and… God, I don’t know where I was going with this.
Purpled: I see it. You kept using it. It used to be your parents, but now you’ve used it. It’s like they’re still here, in a way. Everyone is still there.
Tommy: Yeah. I still listen to mine and Tubbo’s talks on here sometimes, when it’s later at night.
Purpled: I know. I sleep next door, Tommy. I can hear you.
Tommy: Oh. Sorry.
Purpled: It’s fine. It probably puts me back to sleep faster than it wakes me up.
Tommy: Yeah. Somehow, listening to someone talk feels… easier, somehow. Then sleep alone. It’s like someone is falling asleep with you.
Purpled: Yeah. It’s nice.
Tommy: It is nice.
[The audio cuts out.]
[LOG 10.6 ENDS.]
[LOG 10.7 BEGINS.]
Purpled: You stole my flurflog figurine?
Tommy: I didn’t steal it! I borrowed it! I was gonna bring it back!
Purpled: You were telling me off for stealing when we first met! Am I really that bad of an influence?
Tommy: I’m giving it back! It’s not stealing if I’m giving it back!
Purpled: It is still stealing.
Tommy: Well, I mean I can keep it-
Purpled: Nope! You offered it, it’s mine now.
[He paused, inspecting it.]
Purpled: Huh.
Tommy: You are so vague.
Purpled: This is really well done. Where’d you learn to fix this?
Tommy: I didn’t. Phil did.
Purpled: Oh. Well- Uh, tell him thanks, next time you see him.
Tommy: I will.
[There’s a movement to turn off the recorder.]
Purpled: Oh, and Tommy?
Tommy: Yeah?
Purpled: Thank you. For- fixing it. For bringing it back.
[And Tommy smiles, smiles so human it almost hurts. His smile is the same as his dad’s, the way his eyes are his mother’s.]
[He will never know either.]
[But you will.]
[And you will carry that knowledge deep in your chest, settling next to your gut. Know that Tommy’s eyes were the same as his mother’s, his smile the same as his father's, his hair the same as his forever unborn little sister. Carry the knowledge, and live with it.]
Tommy: No worries, Purpled.
[The audio cuts off.]
[LOG 10.7 ENDS.]
[LOG 10.8 BEGINS.]
Tommy: We should take a picture! Of us!
Hannah: What?
Tommy: Because you take pictures when it’s a special time, right? This seems pretty special. You guys just found each other again. And, y’know, I’m not kidnapped. Seems pretty special to me.
[There’s a light snort from Purpled.]
Purpled: I mean, he’s got a point. We do take pictures on special occasions. Seems pretty special.
Hannah: That was two months ago. This is kind of late.
Tommy: You’re being a hater, Hannah. Don’t be a hater.
Purpled: Yeah Hannah.
Hannah: Since when do you two team up?
Purpled: Tommy bribed me.
Tommy: I did not. I just strategically left small trinkets outside his door. Like a cat. And it worked.
Purpled: I never thought I’d be compared to a human cat by someone raised by Avians. How do you even know what that is?
Tommy: I found a seventeen-hour long compilation on them.
Purpled: You watched the entire thing?!
Tommy: Not the point! Are we taking the photo or not?
Purpled: C’mon Hannah. That garners a photo at least. He lost seventeen hours to make that reference.
Tommy: It was not lost.
Hannah: It was totally lost. And fine.
[There’s a whoop of celebration and a sigh of fond exasperation.]
Tommy: Wait! Wait, let’s get the recorder in it too.
Hannah: What, an unofficial family member?
Purpled: The way it’s part of our lives, it might as well be.
[There’s a click of a camera and a silence as they waited for the polaroid to dispense.]
Tommy: It’s black.
Hannah: You gotta shake it. That's how you see it.
Tommy: All that work for a photo?
Purpled: We only take them sometimes for a reason. It’s impossible to find the film.
Tommy: The what?
Purpled: The part that dispenses the pictures. How many do we have left?
Hannah: I think that was the last one. We’ll get some more on Freferia next time we visit.
Tommy: Where are we going right now?
Purpled: You’ll see. I think you’ll like it.
Tommy: That is so ominous.
Hannah: It’s a surprise.
Tommy: I still don’t get the concept of that. A surprise. It’s so human. What’s the point of not knowing something?
Purpled: Suspense? It’s fun to not know something and get it anyway.
Hannah: Purpled, you don’t even like surprises.
Purpled: I mean, most people do.
Tommy: How long ‘til we get there? To the ‘surprise.’
Hannah: I think we’ve got a couple hours to kill. D’you wanna play Monopoly?
Tommy: What’s that?
Purpled: This is gonna be the biggest mistake we’re ever gonna make.
Hannah: Oh, without a doubt.
[The audio cuts off.]
[LOG 10.8 ENDS.]
[LOG 10.9 BEGINS.]
[The audio restarts. There’s the sound of Tommy’s footsteps, more confident than ever.]
Tommy: Hey, Phil.
Phil: Stars, Tommy. You’ve grown.
Tommy: I guess I have. It’s been a while.
Phil: four rotations, thirty seven cycles, and fourteen hours. I’ve kept count.
Tommy: God, yeah. I forgot you guys could do that. Crazy memory, right?
Phil: Always. You’ve changed.
Tommy: For the good, I hope. You have to. You’ve gotten old, Phil.
Phil: I’m not that old.
Tommy: Your wing is twitching.
Phil: Stars, I know you can tell that, but it still freaks me out.
[Tommy lets out a half laugh to Phil’s little chirp.]
Tommy: Sorry about that. How’s everyone back on Alia? That’s what it's called, right?
Phil: Yeah. Everyone’s okay. It took a couple rotations to adjust, really, but after that everyone kind of mellowed out.
Tommy: How’s Tubbo?
Phil: He became a flight instructor, believe it or not. When he was younger he’d always be-
Tommy: -running into trees and branches. I remember. Does he like it? Being a flight instructor.
Phil: Yeah. He does. Tubbo became really close friends with an Enderian named Ranboo.
Tommy: Enderian? I thought you guys hated Enderians.
Phil: Ever since you left, Alia is a lot more diverse than Pluamea was. There’s a dozen species that have settled there. We’ve adapted, I… I guess. They’re not as bad as everyone thought. [There’s a light scoff, and Tommy shook his head.]
Phil: Tommy?
Tommy: I’m glad you guys gained a new perspective. It’s nice. I’m glad Tubbo found new friends.
Phil: You still holding onto that recorder?
Tommy: Yeah. I don’t think I’ll ever let it go.
Phil: I guess you won’t.
[The audio cuts out.]
[LOG 10.9 ENDS.]
[LOG 10.10 BEGINS.]
Purpled: How’d it go? Your talk with Phil.
Tommy: I don’t wanna talk about it.
Purpled: That badly?
Tommy: I don’t wanna talk about it, Purpled.
[The audio cuts out half through Purpled’s words.]
[LOG 10.10 ENDS.]
[LOG 10.11 BEGINS]
Tommy: I’m sorry.
Purpled: Yeah, you better be. Just ‘cause you had a bad reunion doesn’t make it better.
Tommy: I know. I brought noodles. If you want some.
[There’s a little stunned silence, and then Purpled laughs, light and quiet.]
Purpled: God. You’re atrocious. Sit down.
[There’s the sound of Purpled shifting over and Tommy sat down next to him, setting the recorder on the floor. There’s the quiet sound of slurping noodles.]
Purpled: What happened? With your thing with Phil.
[There’s a long sigh, and the sound like the bowl being put aside.]
Tommy: They’re doing okay. Tubbo found a new friend, an Enderian.
Purpled: Enderian?
Tommy: Yeah. Apparently on Alia, the air supports a much larger range of species. Just… not humans.
Purpled: They share the planet?
Tommy: Kind of. They’ve gotten a lot more accepting of different species. Non-Avians.
Purpled: And?
Tommy: And I’m just thinking because- they learnt how to. How to get along with other species. To learn to live with them. They were capable of it. Just… not for me.
[There’s a long silence, that follows Tommy’s words. They sit there for hours, in tandem breath and tandem silence. The recorder continues to whirl quietly. When the silence breaks, it’s to the sound of soft, quiet words.]
Purpled: The stars are beautiful tonight, aren’t they?
Tommy: Yeah.
[The silence spans for several hours after as well, until Hannah, who finds both of them asleep, turns it off with a soft smile tugging at her lips.]
[LOG 10.11 ENDS.]
[LOG 10.12 BEGINS.]
Tommy: I have one more recording of them.
Hannah: Of who?
Tommy: My blood- parents. My parents.
Purpled: What are you waiting for?
Tommy: I dunno. A special occasion, I guess.
Hannah: Isn’t now not special enough?
Tommy: I…. I don’t know.
[Purpled sighs, a small snort gets picked up by the audio.]
Purpled: Living is as special as it gets, Tommy. If you keep waiting for ‘the special occasion’ we’re all gonna die before we get there.
[There’s a lapse of silence.]
Hannah: Well you’re morbid.
Purpled: You were kidnapped for like four months. I’m allowed to be morbid. I thought you were dead.
Hannah: I was fine. But Purpled’s right. There’s never a wrong time. Being alive is as right as it gets.
Tommy: I guess it is. Will you stay? Stay and listen?
Hannah: Of course.
Tommy: Purpled?
Purpled: Sure, Tommy.
[There’s a long inhale.]
[The audio cuts out.]
[LOG 10.12 ENDS.]
[LOG 1.5 BEGINS.]
Clem: Hey, Tommy.
Innes 2: Hey kid. I hope you’re doing okay.
Clem: This is gonna be the last recording you’re gonna hear from us. I’m really, really sorry for this, Tommy.
Innes 2: But we love you. We love you so much. Don’t forget that.
Clem: Pluamea is the closest planet to here that supports human life. You’ll be okay, Tommy.
Innes 2: You will. Our little survivor. You’ll make it.
Clem: Child of the stars, and sky, right? You’ll find your way back to them. I don’t doubt it.
[There’s the sound of crying, babbling tears, the sound of a baby.]
Clem: That’s you. You’re so bright. You’ve got the biggest, bluest eyes we’ve ever seen.
Innes 2: We’ll always love you, kid. I’m sorry we won’t be here for you to grow up. We wanted to so bad.
Clem: You’ll find a family that loves you just as much as us one day. I love you, Tommy.
[The audio cuts out.]
[LOG 1.5 ENDS.]
[LOG 10.13 BEGINS.]
Tommy: That’s it. That’s all that was left. I don’t even know what happened to them.
Hannah: Tommy…
[There’s a sniffle.]
Tommy: They just gave me up. To a planet they didn’t even know- they didn’t know what would’ve happened to me. They just sent me away like that.
Purpled: They loved you.
Tommy: W-what?
Purpled: In the recording. They said they loved you. There was a reason, Tommy. They wouldn’t have let you go like that.
Tommy: I miss them. I don’t even know them, and I miss them.
Hannah: That’s what being human is like. You’ll never know someone, you’ll hate them, you’ll love them, and then you’ll miss them. It’s the ephemerality of life.
Tommy: It feels like betrayal. I feel like I’m betraying them, by being with you guys. By making a new family.
Purpled: They would’ve wanted you to.
Tommy: How would you know?
Purpled: They said it themselves. ‘You’ll find a family that loves you just as much as us.’
Tommy: They did love me, didn’t they?
Hannah: More than you could imagine. A mother’s love is one of the strongest things in the galaxy, Tommy. You heard her voice.
Tommy: Don’t you miss your blood flocks?
Purpled: I never knew mine.
Hannah: Sometimes. But I’ll always miss them. It doesn’t mean we don’t move on. We all move on, Tommy.
Tommy: Do I have to? Tonight?
Hannah: Not tonight. It’ll come eventually. You just have to give it time.
Purpled: And we’ve got all the time in the stars.
[The audio cuts off. They go on to play Uno later on that evening, Tommy yelling at unfair rules and Purpled cackling in victory. Tommy proceeded to win seven rounds in a row, to which Purpled tackled him and Hannah watched in glee at the superficial hate she’d instigated between them. But none of this would make it to the audio of the recorder. The recorder was off. The story of them playing Uno and a million others will never be recorded, never be known, never be heard or seen or talked of ever again.]
[For that is space, in every finite way it's not. It is an infinite graveyard of memories, of people, of friendships and lovers and family and everything else. It is an archive of children and adults, of fledglings and the Soaring and the Fallen. It is everything and nothing, it is the infinite and the nearness.]
[It is space, and it is the sky.]
[And it will never end.]
[LOG 10.13 ENDS.]
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[Somewhere in the galaxy, someone finds the recorder. Someone picks it up.]
[The mantel is passed on.]
[The story is shared amongst the stars.]
[FIN.]