Chapter X05.IV.2024
"Sorry to disappoint, Lana... but I have bad news," - Tayne said as soon as she finished with the letter. - "We do have a deadline."
"Oh? And when that is?" - Lana seemed more surprised than disappointed... though it wasn't a happy surprise for sure.
"I still have to calculate that. Listen, my mother's writing. They're leaving for the Origin and already got tickets, and they're asking if I can come as well. And how can I refuse!"
After all the opening "oh stars dearie I'm so glad you're still here, I thought I'll never see you alive again, why haven't you mailed me earlier" - which was a perfectly valid point making Tayne feel ashamed, she should've looked for a public computer to write that letter yesterday after the visit to the department instead of immediately hitting the pillow... or at least asked Wiktori to tell Komi she's alive... though she was really tired so maybe she's justified?... - Komi was letting her know about their plans. The rescue group sent after Caithe was to return back to the Cosmos at the Origin, which is why they wanted to get there. They also planned to file revival requests for Naia and Tayne there the long way - which was thankfully now made obsolete for both of them.
"Yooo, you're going to welcome your sister back!" - Lana enthusiastically said after Tayne unrolled all that to her. - "And at the Origin of all places! That's like... so much cultural activities you can go through together, so many cities to stop at, a perfect family vacation!"
"Yeah... looking forward to that." - Tayne wasn't sure if she was, though. Lana's words sounded nice, but something was still off. - "We're from a far sector. Komi said they'll get to the Origin in about four standard days, and that's on an express from the sectoral center. Honestly, if I wrote any later, they could've missed the letter for many hours. We, if I'm not mistaken, are much closer, right?"
"Yup. Origin's right next door in a neighbouring sector. Less than a day outer time to get there. So we still have time!"
"Not a lot of it, though..." - as if Tayne could be satiated with any reasonable amount of it. She only just started getting accustomed to this new place, but the initial repulsion already got replaced by strong curiosity.
Lana looked at her directly with the most playful expression in her eyes Tayne ever saw.
"Then let's make it count, dork," - she lovingly said.
And making it count they did - right after taking a couple hours to finally file that revival request.
After all the time calculations, Tayne got a ticket on a commuter train which was stopping by Vatravishna Yadi tomorrow at twelve. Which was a giant heap of time given Vatravishna Yadi's luducrous daylength. Two "nights" and almost two whole "days". And surprisingly, Lana was willing to stick around for all that time.
They made Tayne's backpack so full of second-hand clothes she could use it as a pillow - and these were good-looking clothes which Tayne would've took even if she had her old garb as an option (that garb desperately needed replacement anyway). They got Tayne a new scroll of her own from Lana's recommendations, new headphones to go with it, a bunch of essential backpack items - deodorant, two hairbrushes, tooth-brushing appliances, earplugs and a blindfold ("oooh, you into that?" - "into sleeping in peace? yes, I am!"), a couple syringes as Tayne forgot them last time she visited the pharmacy, and the traveller's clock - an item to keep track of organism's local time during train commutes to not have to calculate when to take medications.
Lana got Tayne accustomed with more of the local cuisine (none of it had the slimy sauce, thank the stars). Showed her more of the local parks, with Tayne grabbing seeds and acorns for all unusual plants she saw, putting them in small paper bags. Together they went to the historic stellar garden made by the first settlers of the planet fifty five thousand years ago - where Tayne meditated for over an hour. They browsed university courses, and Lana even toured Tayne over the laboratory she wanted to work at herself, a biophysics one with, against all stereotypes, way more computers than living mice. And, of course, they shared the bed for the midday - and this time it was a good ten-hour sleep with no "morning" surprises.
And towards the end of the day Lana convinced Tayne to try the ocean out. In a far-away place, at night, when nobody would see her body (which was the culprit of Tayne rejecting the public beach). This was an exciting adventure which Tayne gladly agreed on, and after getting her some swimwear, they hit the Nexus and exited four hours into the dark future (oh the almighty time zones) into what turned out to be Lana's home village ("hey, you're a village kid as well!" - "oh, shut up!") where she knew a relatively close very secluded calm bay. That was looking breathtakingly magical in the light of three moons.
The water here was very warm after a long summer day (Tayne fully understood why local people sleep through the middle of it - even if it wasn't for the length of the day, she still would've done so due to unbearable heat) and almost fresh in taste, unlike her home planet's way saltier ocean. According to Lana it apparently was easily filterable to a fully safe to drink state, with most of the planet doing so.
Tayne was a terrible swimmer - no wonder with her little experience. She was barely able to flounder like a dog, remembering her parents' lessons from years ago. Thankfully, Lana brought an air mattress for that. And after they had their fun splashing in the water, they laid on that mattress together, holding hands and watching the stars - alien-looking to Tayne by their pattern, but still the same stars of the Cosmos - and Lana was naming them from memory (Tayne heard half of these names - the brightest stars of the Cosmos shined for the entire universe) together with traditional names for their constellations people of Vatravishna Yadi used since they settled.
Some would call that romantic. Some would call their entire pastime with Lana romantic, even. But Tayne... she knew full well she had nothing to do with romantic in the very essence of her soul. And knew she should probably talk about that.
"...this bright one at the nose of the Tiger," - Lana was pitching, - "that's Medrano, the original power plant. And just immediately to the left of them is where the Luz are. You won't see them from here without a telescope, but just imagine, that's where you will go next..."
"Hey, Lana..." - Tayne lightly booped her, - "can we cut the going-further part? I want to be here for now..."
"Oh! Sure. Sorry..."
They laid in silence for a few minutes looking at each other. No wind, no waves even, and the warmth of the night for the blanket. Tayne could've closed her eyes and imagined them laying in bed.
"...you know," - Tayne started quietly, almost whispering, - "it's all very romantic and all that... but... I feel like I need to say..." - she took a long pause to assemble her inner jumble of thoughts into a somewhat-coherent word stream, - "I'm feeling things right now. For you. But these probably aren't things i'm expected to feel in the situation."
"Hey," - Lana said gently, - "nobody's expecting you to feel anything. That's, like, entirely up to you to figure out."
"I know! It's just... I've been watching a lot of picture shows, and they are always just so romantic about everything! And both imagining myself in these situations then, and here right now... I don't know... I just don't think I understand these feelings. At all. I don't think I'm even able to do them, and I don't think I relate to the rituals around them. That's strange, isn't it?"
"Not at all! Maybe not common, but surely not unheard of. Everyone treats attraction differently, you know? Romance is not the only love language, and that's okay," - Lana assured. - "Even romance itself is... uhm... a very broad thing. Folks can do it a million different ways. Or do other things two million other ways. Or do things in the blurry lines between them. Or do like four things at once with three different people. Nobody's ever going to judge you for any of that"
"Well, I still feel... things," - Tayne was even more confused now. - "Like. I'm fascinated by you, a lot, I'm so thankful for you being with me for all that time, I'm... nobody, ever, looked at me like that before. I haven't had friends so close since... never, really. Can friendship be a feeling that's like... somewhere way out of silly child bounds for that word, or am I just enamoured and not seeing it?"
"You may be," - Lana shrugged, - "or you may be looking for the word platonic. Or you may not be! Labels and bounds are for losers anyway. You can just... uhm, be yourself without comparing it to anything, if you so want. Anyway, I'm flattered you're seeing me like that!"
Platonic. Tayne haven't encountered that word for quite a while and wasn't really sure what it fully meant. But the things she remembered honestly kind of vibed.
"Maybe I just haven't watched the right shows."
"Oh, I can recommend you some! You should definitely try Just Friends of year thirty four thousand twenty nine. Classic, timeless classic, and has some of the best aromantic characters I ever saw. And polyamorous characters as well for that matter. "Just" is a pun, by the way, they're working in the justice department and are waaay more than friends..."
"Sounds awesome," - Tayne smiled. - "Wish we could watch that together."
"How about a couple episodes tomorrow before the train?"
"Maybe..." - Tayne almost started thinking about tomorrow again, but Lana, who probably realised, interrupted:
"If you want, I can share my view. On romance and all that stuff. Not stating it will suit for you, just... maybe you'll find individual ideas to pick. Or to test. Or to acknowledge and cross off your mind immediately."
"I'll gladly listen to that," - Tayne would be happy to know more about her friend regardless of whether or not she'll be able to draw worldview from it.
"I... did romance before," - Lana started, - "in college. Got quickly burnt on it, though. I don't like commitement, or dependency, or exclusivity, and that girl was into all that. And her obsession over me was just too much. Took me a while to notice the mismatch, but I did, and we peacefully talked out of it. She quickly found a new partner despite her fears, and I... well, I don't think I'll be willing to touch romance for a while. Now I'm just freely going around and having fun with no obligations - and I feel like that was the best decision of my life. Met amazing folks that way that I don't want to reduce to just objects of passion. Like you! For me it was a choice, a preference, for you... well... you're the only one who can decide."
Having fun with no obligations sounded quite nice, thought Tayne. Oh just you wait until she finalizes her form...
"Don't have much choosing to do with so little actual experience," - smiled Tayne. - "Shows might be nice, but they're just theoretical knowledge."
"It'll come with time! And you already tried things on me a bit, that's experience. You can experiment all you want!"
"On you?"
"I was speaking in general, but yeah, on me as well. Go nuts, girl."
Tayne wasn't willing to go nuts right now, though. She would've much preferred to fall asleep right here in Lana's hands without thinking about what sort of label would that put on her. She already was kind of falling asleep, actually.
Lana was enthralled with that idea once Tayne pitched it. They quickly pulled the mattress out of the water - apparently, on this planet tides were a thing that can slowly pull you away from the shore, who might've guessed - and took it further inland into the area where grass started to peek through gravel. A towel for the bedsheet, a towel for the blanket and not an insect on the entire planet to bite in their sleep. Of which fourteen hours awaited by local customs. This already promised to be the best night Tayne ever had.
"You know," - Lana whispered, lazily playing with Tayne's still moderately wet hair again, - "we dreamwalkers have a little thing to help newcomers get accustomed to the Metacosmos. By sharing a dream together. It doesn't always work, but if you want to, we can maybe try?"
"Oh stars, you really can't get enough time with me, can you?" - Tayne smiled.
"Like you can."
Fair point. As for the idea...
"Metacosmos's been thorougly rejecting me all my life. Stars, I don't even have dreams to begin with. It's nightmares or nothing. Usually nothing," - sighed Tayne. - "Are you sure it's worth trying?"
"Is there anything at risk?" - smiled Lana.
"I don't know, you haven't pitched the method yet. Who knows, maybe you'll need virginal blood or something."
Lana quietly lauged. "Don't worry, your blood is safe. We just need to be touching while we fall asleep, desiring and believing we can do this, and the rest is on my part. No big deal for me."
Tayne embraced Lana tighter. "Having a dream at all is already a... dream for me, sorry for the pun. Having one where I can do something is a dream squared, and sharing it with you is a dream cubed. As for believing... if it involves you, I can believe in anything."
"You're flattering me," - whispered Lana, - "but that's the right spirit."
They said nothing for the rest of the falling-asleep part. Tayne was just slowly breathing in the mixture of the lightly-salty odor of the local ocean with Lana's wonderful scent impervious to that ocean's water and thought how lucky she was to meet this girl right here.