And the stars look very different today...

[zunesareawesome]

It was a way out. But it wasn't home.

Truthfully, after Norfinbury, anything would be better than that place, but the cold truth was--there was no way to find his own universe out of the endless multiverse, even if Norfinbury's busted technology had worked properly. He was stuck, here, with a megalomaniac Flynn--granted, a Flynn that managed to open up a portal out of there. Maybe that's what it took to get out of Norfinbury.

Or, Peter thought sometimes on bad days, Norfinbury only released you once you became the twisted version of yourself it wanted you to be. A specially-designed virus inflicted on countless worlds.

Besides, he ought to know something about that.

He didn't stay long on earth, he couldn't. Maybe it had something to do with the mystery of how they were revived in Norfinbury, their bodies recreated or cloned or healed, or maybe it was something that was gonna happen to him anyway, but he could feel the Light burning inside him, inside his head almost as soon as he landed. A desperate need to take to the stars. He'd managed to create a ship and took off.

Time passes, and scientists notice something odd about several exoplanets they're monitoring, especially ones marked as 'earth-like' or other planets in zones that could make them potentially habitable. Bright bursts of light and changes in the composition of the atmosphere or surface, it was inexplicable. Possible evidence of intelligent life? If they didn't know any better, especially with the rocky planets that now somehow boasted extreme changes, it was like something was terraforming them.

There was cause for alarm when Mars suddenly turned blue and green a few months later.

Meanwhile, a small blue-and-orange ship that looked suspiciously like a slightly more organic-looking Milano was racing towards the earth.

Comments

[lonebrarian]

"Yet."

If he's insulted by the notion of insanity, it doesn't show. Instead he scoffs, shaking his head.

"Would be interesting to know how you two would have fared in Norfinbury. I almost wish I could see it."

[bookbrawler]

Well, that's not worrisome at all.

And Stone has some inkling of what it must have been like, after seeing his memories, there's a twinge of a mix of fear and anger when he says that.

"How could you even wish that on anybody when you've lived through something that horrible!?" It's more of a redundant question than anything. He doesn't expect Flynn's answer to be anything other than horrible.

[lonebrarian]

"Because that's how you survive."

He doesn't know why he says it or where it's coming from. Maybe it's the distraction of thinking about Norfinbury and what it was like; the memories of his--

No, the memories of the other Flynn's time there.

Because they're not the same person and all of this didn't happen to him. It didn't. Which is why he helped so actively to destroy that other, weak, pathetic version of himself.

Because they're not the same.

Because he can't have them be the same.

[bookbrawler]

"No." Jacob frowns, too wrapped up in his righteous indignation to notice that might be more of an admission than he realized.

"That's not how you survive, by twisting every single moral you've ever had, by becoming a monster. You survive by protecting who you are, protecting the good, protecting other people!"

[lonebrarian]

"You think I didn't try!?"

His tone shifts, he's almost yelling with a rage that flares up with a sudden, unspeakable intensity. "You have no concept of--"

His voice snaps shut, eyes burning with a startled fury and he turns away abruptly. "Go get some rest, Stone. Believe me, you're gonna need it."

[bookbrawler]

That gives Jacob pause. He frowns, trying to study Flynn's face.

He wasn't expecting that. That was the first time he'd encountered any kind of...goodness...he supposed, in Flynn. Maybe that was the old Flynn's memories leaking through.

Maybe there was a way to break through to him? Or maybe this was just the last vestiges of a man lost to...to whatever Norfinbury had been.

"...yeah." He says slowly. "Yeah, I'm tired anyway." And with that, he turns away as well, heart and mind heavy with a...lot to think about.

[lonebrarian]

Flynn grits his teeth while he's stomping off.

protecting the good, protecting other people

And how dare he, how DARE he after he tried so hard, he tried SO hard, months and years of trying and--

And it doesn't matter. He shakes his head in confused fury, burying whatever-- this was back deep down inside.