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

[bookbrawler]

It was hope. It was real, tangible hope.

It's like a lighthouse in the fog.

A key to the locked cage.

There's a part of him that's wary, this is Flynn, but who else is going to help him? They're all gone. He failed them. And Flynn's the one who's here, wanting to help him. Comforting him.

Please help me. I need a way out of this. Please.

[lonebrarian]

I know. It'll be fine. I'll help you.

This next move is risky and he isn't particularly fond of it but he knows it will be worth it. Flynn focuses and then shows him some memories in return.

Of his former self, a long, a very long time ago. Before everything. Before the Library. Wide-eyed and friendly and sweet and--

--so very lonely and everything he knows is from books--

--and even the students at university call him a 'freak', not even here at the center of learning will he fit in--

He understands, Stone. He knows exactly what you're going through. And he made it out of that deep, lonely pit. And so can you.

You can be just like him.

I'll teach you how to leave the loneliness behind.

[bookbrawler]

He was like him.

No matter what he did he was alone.

Jacob went to great lengths so that he could be accepted, so nobody would call him a freak, going to bars and parties and pretending he was nothing more than a regular guy--and he was still lonely. He couldn't just talk to anyone about medieval tapestries or Picasso or Yeats and he was so very, very alone. Even around people he was alone.

He needs to find a way out.

He needs to leave the loneliness behind.

Teach me. Please. I can't stand it anymore.

[lonebrarian]

Flynn smiles. There we go.

You don't need them. You're better than them. They think you don't deserve them? They're wrong, they don't deserve YOU.

Come on.

He holds up his hand for Jacob to take.

[bookbrawler]

...they didn't deserve him.

All the people he knew back home, his father--oh man, especially his father--he didn't need them. None of them deserved him. He's a genius and why did he have to hide it for so long?

...okay.

Jacob looks up at Flynn, his brows furrowed, and reaches to take his hand.

[lonebrarian]

Flynn grabs the hand, pulling him up to his feet and lifts some of that sorrow away from him, just another flash of encouragement, of it getting better.

A successful first step.

You can do this, Stone.

[bookbrawler]

I can do this.

The encouragement helps and he clings to it, desperately, as much as he's being helped by Flynn up at the moment.

A tentative smile flickers on his face and he clasps a hand on Flynn's shoulder.

Thanks, man.

[lonebrarian]

Flynn's smile broadens and he winks, good-humoredly before he pats his arm amiably in return.

Anytime.