#the legend of outer wilds | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

poisonhemloc · 9 months

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not stuck in [REDACTED] overnight but i will be spending the night in a different, closer airport so uh

i didn't edit this here's how i worked Feldspar goes missing/Gossan loses an eye into the taco truck au if you're confused message me/hunt through the unorganized tag i'm using for this its probably somewhere

Gabbro ignored their phone going off. Not even halfway through this pile of tests, they just couldn’t make themself focus on it but they’d said it would be in the gradebook tomorrow.

The phone went off again. It was… late. Too late for someone to be calling them.

Third time.

It was Hornfels? Why was Hornfels calling them. They didn’t have a class heading up into the mountains to stargaze, Feldspar and Gossan were working- had been working, they’d probably packed up for the night- Chert was at their normal job, Esker and Slate didn’t work this late. What was going on.

Gabbro gently let themself rest their forehead on the test, reached up and turned on their hearing aid, then reached over and grabbed the phone. At least this was a minor distraction.

“Hey Hornfels, I’m grading tests, what’s-” Hornfels was crying, sobbing, it was hard to make out; but Gabbro heard ‘crash’ and ‘truck’ and was already getting up and grabbing their keys.

“I’m coming, I’m on my way, where?”

“Bramble district, that big hill outside the park area. T-they don’t know what happened, so they’re taking the truck in, and, Gossan and Feldspar are in the hospital-”

“Do you have a ride.”

“N-no, I got a taxi-”

“Stay put, I’ll get you and we can go to the hospital.”

Hornfels was pacing near a tree that had a big chunk of bark missing, bits of metal and similar scattered around, as Gabbro pulled up. They weren’t crying anymore, but they still looked like they had been. Gabbro offered the water bottle that lived in the car.

“Thank you.”

“What happened, do you know?”

“I just got a call, I’m the emergency response for the truck. They were already, the ambulances took them before I got here, and I couldn’t tell anyone anything useful-”

“Hey, deep breaths, it’ll be okay. Feldspar’s been in worse, Gossan’s just as tough as they are.”

“You didn’t see the truck before they peeled it off the tree.” ~

“Let me check.” The receptionist started typing into their computer, Hornfels and Gabbro watching, more and more nervously the longer they took.

“Gossan is in surgery. If you wait in here, we’ll get you once they’re in recovery.”

“And Feldspar?”

“...I’ve double checked, I don’t see that name at all. They may have gone straight to surgery, if it was a serious crash. Or they may have gone to a different hospital. I’ll call around for you, it’s a slow night.”

“They’re gonna be fine, Hornfels.”

“I- I know, just-” Their phone started vibrating. “Slate.”

“Stay here, it’s not like anyone else is here.” Gabbro listened to the half conversation, watching the few people walking around. It was a quiet night, it looked like, why would Feldspar have been sent to a different hospital?

“Slate’s on their way. They were busy and didn’t hear my call earlier.”

Slate showed up before any nurses came. “They crashed?”

“Right into a tree. Gossan’s still in surgery, they haven’t come to get us yet. Receptionist doesn’t know where Feldspar is. They called a couple different hospitals, nothing.”

“How do you not know where someone is.”

One of the doors opened, and a nurse walked directly up to the group. “Gossan’s people, right?”

“Yeah.”

“They’re doing well, out of surgery. They probably won’t wake up today.” They paused, just for a second. “Come on, I’ll walk you to their room.”

Gossan was still asleep, left arm in a sling- their upper left eye had a patch over it, and they were bruised up, but nothing else was immediately obvious.

“Careful, they have two broken ribs.” Hornfels drew their hand away, looking back at the nurse. Gabbro looked up and over from the chart.

“The chart says their eye was-”

“Too damaged to be saved, yes. If you have other questions, the surgeon will be checking on them in a few hours.”

“You got another person in at the same time, right?” Slate was also watching the nurse. “From the accident?”

“I’m not sure, I’ve been helping the surgeon with them. If you’ll excuse me.”

Hornfels was in the chair next to them, hand on their shoulder. Slate crouched uncomfortably on the other side.

Gabbro went to perch on the window sill, and saw the sun peaking over the horizon.

They didn’t have those tests graded.

“Hornfels, what’s your- nevermind, I found it.” They hadn’t changed their password for the university portal since the last time Gabbro had borrowed it.

“What do you need?”

“Nothing from you, I’m letting your class today know it’s canceled.” A slow look. “You probably shoulda changed your password.”

“Later. Thank you.” They sent out the same email to their classes- ‘won’t be in, emergency, no the tests aren’t in, i’ll figure out an apology later’ and looked out, blankly. The constant beep of Gossan’s heart monitor was a little comforting despite starting to play poorly with their hearing aids, but it was also a reminder that there should have been two monitors in here.

“I’m gonna go check again, maybe they figured out their system.” Hornfels nodded. Slate got up and followed wordlessly.

Still no record of Feldspar, and a description to a nurse got them nowhere. Slate had barely spoken with the search, but spoke up as they walked back.

“The car had a mechanical issue.”

“And you just, know that how?”

“Feldspar would have been driving, they’re not the type to stop focusing when they’re driving for anything. Hornfels said they hit a tree, that’s not like them. And no one else involved. If it was a problem with something in the back of the truck or Gossan they would have stopped first. But they hit a tree. Mechanical issue.”

“First time for everything.”

“First time for me to miss that kinda thing.” Gabbro looked over. Slate wasn’t meeting their eyes.

“It’s not your fault.”

“That’s what they say about, struck by lightning. It was a car crash. I saw that truck recently. Whatever failed, I didn’t catch. That makes it my fault.”

“We’ll ask when they wake up.”

“Feldspar’s probably in the morgue.”

“Don’t talk like that.” This time they met Gabbro’s eyes. “At least not to Hornfels.”

The surgeon’s check was uneventful- they were recovering, it had been a rough crash by the look of it, they’d removed all the foreign debris they could find but there might be some left around where their eye had been so they would do another check in a week- and they left. Gossan hadn’t woken up.

Gossan started waking up closer to noon.

“Gossan? How are you feeling?”

“Hornfels? I’m- Ow.” They started to sit up, winced, and let themself lay back down, then look around. “Why am I in the hospital.”

“Well-”

“The truck crashed.” Hornfels glared at Slate, who was staring at nothing. Gossan looked at them, and then started looking around the room with a little more urgency.

“The truck- Feldspar’s not in here. They would have been driving-”

“We don’t know where they are.”

“How do we not know where they are?”

“Hey, deep- well, shallow breath. If you start shouting someone’s gonna come knock you back out.” That got Gabbro a glare, but they did settle again. “We’ve been all over this hospital, where they’ll let us, we’ve called others, we asked the ambulance people, and two of you were brought here and then Feldspar vanished.”

“...The truck crashed?”

“They took it in, and Esker told me they were in the shop this morning looking at the other truck and everything else we had there overnight.”

“Why did Esker have to tell you?”

“...None of us have left since we got here, except to check if they found Feldspar.” Slate was still staring at the opposite wall. Gossan leaned back. Gabbro was the newcomer in the room- only with the trucks for a couple years, not since it started- but from the way Gossan kept reflexively grabbing their blankets, they were mad and trying not to show it.

Slate must have guessed.

“I’ll go, see what they didn’t destroy. Tell Esker to get the other truck back in order so you can get them and Chert out on it. Or… Riebeck’s the new kid, right?”

“I can rearrange the schedule. But I cleared everything for the next few days.”

“When?”

“After you emailed my classes.”

Slate got up and left. Gabbro saw the glance.

“Text me when you need a ride? 102 is going to kill me for not having their tests done today. Don’t call, my ears are done.” Hornfels nodded, Gossan waved tiredly, and Gabbro left.

They turned the hearing aids off as soon as they were inside their door.

And someone was texting them.

Porphy. ‘hey the truck cancelled everything ok?’ They stared at it for a second then video called Porphy back.

Porphy started talking, until Gabbro started signing back. “Ears are done. Hearing aids are almost dead. Gossan’s still alive but in the hospital. The truck crashed.”

“Hearth.” Porphy paced out of screen, then back. “Who else was in the truck? You said you were teaching yesterday?”

“Feldspar.” They sighed. “We don’t know where they went.”

“They vanished?”

“Yeah.”

Gossan was quiet for a few minutes after Gabbro left. Hornfels knew better than to say anything no matter how much they wanted to.

“They- no, but…-“

“I don’t know how they lost a patient.”

“Slate just checked that truck. Two months ago. And you’re telling me it crashed?”

“You don’t remember?”

“No, just calling it for the night at Red Nest.”

“You hit that old tree at the base of the hill next to the old fishing building.”

“That thing is huge.”

“Yeah. It won.”

Slate and Esker still had to run the shop. Porphy had taken time off from their brewery but they had a new batch they had to deal with this week. Hornfels and Gabbro taught. Chert had their observatory job. Riebeck was in school. So Gossan was alone, most of the days after they woke up.

They’d seen the incident report. Feldspar had apparently been thrown out of the truck, and vanished.

One of the nurses was going to come up, later today, two weeks after they’d been brought here, and they were going to check the morgue. There were a few unidentified bodies, and Hornfels was too busy and Slate hadn’t looked at them and Gossan refused to let themself be the bigger person right now, Slate had just lost their best friend but Gossan had just lost their older sibling that they’d been with and helped and been helped by for years they’d gotten an EMT license, they’d said for money for the trucks but to patch up Feldspar after a race, they’d worked to make this happen because Feldspar had always wanted to but they didn’t have the head for long term planning and now they were…

Gossan’s phone buzzed.

Hornfels, in the group message for the trucks.

There was a recall, on every brand of truck that their truck had been built out of.

The brake lines were poorly made, and they broke in a weird way after several thousand miles.

It hadn’t been, Slate missing something. If anything they were the reason the truck hadn’t failed yet. There’d been cases, many cases, but this was the most severe crash associated and now there was a recall.

…They could be a bigger person now, and apologize.

Tomorrow, maybe. Gossan looked up as a nurse came in with a wheelchair.

“I can walk.”

“Sorry, it’s policy. I…” They bit their lip, and moved the wheelchair closer and started helping Gossan into it. “I’m hoping we don’t find them down there.”

“I don’t know where else they could be.” ~

Gossan looked around as they were pushed. This was a coma ward, it looked like, but windows were open and blinds were up and it felt too cheerful except for the handful of unmoving bodies in rooms.

Wait.

“Can you, stop-”

“What’s wrong?”

“That, person, in the last room, they had, a burn scar on their arm? Shaped like a pine tree, and, Feldspar, my sibling, they had the same thing from a cr-accident.” The nurse backed them up, and there was a someone, unconscious, with a lot of wires and tubes and splints around them…

And the one arm visible, with that pine tree shaped burn they’d gotten after winning their first race and immediately bailing out of the car that had gotten hot enough the doorframe had left that.

“This is… Carbon? No, that’s… Placeholder name. We don’t know who this is.” They looked up, slightly hopeful, and saw Gossan’s expression. “Do you have anything else that can help, that we can be sure of? I’ll ask one of the nurses in this section to check.”

“They have… I didn’t say this cause they’ll get mad, it’s freckles that’re kinda shaped like a star system? One big one and concentricish rings with individual freckles breaking it up, just, it’s on their butt.”

The nurse snorted, and nodded. “I’ll pass that along. But, sorry, until we’re sure-”

“I understand. But, if we don’t have to go down-” “No, we don’t. Not today.”

Not an hour after the nurse had brought them back, another one practically ran in.

“It’s Feldspar.” Gossan let out the breath they didn’t realize they were holding and laughed in relief and then started crying when they actually realized. “It’s, I can bring you back down to them.”

“Please, yeah.” ~

The chart was a laundry list of issues- they’d been, fully ejected from the truck. This was, no driving for… a long time, probably, no parkour for nearly as long, the risk of serious issues even following the serious issues was high enough even when they woke up they weren’t going to be able to live by themself for a while.

Feldspar was sleeping more peacefully than they had in their entire life, usually they were moving around everywhere. They had some new scars crossing their face, but hadn’t had a tree branch take out their eye directly like Gossan had. They had splints on their neck, their far arm, a leg, it looked like their back, stitches in a bunch of places, but they were still alive.

Gossan wasn’t going to let themself think about, they’d been unconscious for the better part of two weeks now. The doctor in charge was keeping them in the coma; they could bring them out once it was safe.

Something left to do, what was it…

Oh. Gossan dug their newly cracked phone out of the shallow pocket in the gown.

‘Found Feldspar. medically induced coma. didnt have any id on them- probably was in the console, so they’ve been ‘carbon’ in the coma ward.’

‘Oh thank hearth’ Chert was looking at their phone apparently. Everyone started texting in, relieved; Riebeck might have been crying, they had a lot of spelling errors.

…Slate wasn’t responding.

Gossan called.

“Gossan? You okay?” They sounded like they just woke up.

“Feldspar’s alive. They’re in a coma. Doctor thinks they can wake them up in a week.” They heard Slate breath out, shakily. “Sorry I was, well. Like that.”

“This happened because of m-”

“Have you been asleep all day? There’s a recall on the trucks now. The brake line is bad. If anything it took so long to crash because of the maintenance you’ve been doing.” Slate didn’t respond to that. “Do you wanna come down? They’re not awake, but they’re here.”

“Yea-yeah, I wanna come down. Sho-can I grab Hornfels? And Esker? Is that too-“

“If you want to grab them, yes. I’ll be here.” ~

Despite all four of them being clustered around Feldspar’s bed it was quiet. The constant beeping from the heart monitor was reassuring, but everything else was a glowing neon sign saying ‘nothing is going to be the same.’

“Doctor’s notes say they’re gonna need help once they’re out of the hospital.” The real chance that they wouldn’t leave even after all this was taboo to mention.

“I’m being discharged in a few days, once they’re happy about my eye. I can get my apartment rearranged to move them in.”

“I can help.” Esker was nodding as well; after a second Slate leaned forward and into their field of view, also nodding.

“They’re gonna be mad.”

“They’re here to be mad.”

Gossan settled into their chair, watching their sibling. Their apartment was ready, but, despite how much easier it would be the four of them had agreed they weren’t moving Feldspar’s things until they were awake and out of the hospital.

And hopefully, the first part of that would be today. The doctor had eased off the meds keeping them sleeping, they could breath on their own so that was out, so now it was just a matter of waiting.

Footsteps- Slate.

“I thought you wouldn’t get here in time.”

“Would’ve been earlier, Mica was in trouble at school, I had to grab them.”

“Aren’t they-“

“Still in the hatchling house? Sure, but I know them better than the caretakers. Esker’ll keep an eye on them this afternoon, they’re practicing welding.”

“Still making those fish?”

“Yeah.” They settled on Feldspar’s other side.

Feldspar was just sleeping, still.

They should have started to wake up. One of the nurses was checking every few minutes, and they were starting to frown.

“How’d you find them down here? You were going to the- going to look at some people and then you just, went here instead?”

“Yeah. Recognized the burn on their arm.”

“And that was all we have to go on?”

“There’s something else I had the nurses check but I’m not gonna be that person if they haven’t told you about it.”

“I guarantee they’ve told me.”

“Then you can ask them once they’re up about what I could’ve used. If I just tell you they’ll kill me.”

They both stayed quiet for a while, trying to ignore the nurses starting to check more frequently.

Gossan noticed the movement first.

“Feldspar? You there?” Only one eye was open; Slate leaned forward, silent. “Feldspar?”

“Where’d that snake thing go, we almost had it.”

“Snake thing?”

“The- Gossan? That you?” All four eyes opened, the upper left one only halfway. “Slate?”

“Hey, there you are. We’re here.” Feldspar was quiet for a minute, looking around.

“Last I remember was leaving the Red Nest for the night. Did we get hit or did I get into an accident next day?”

“Brake lines failed. The trucks’ under recall, it’s a manufacturer issue.”

“Your eye…”

“You’ve been out for three weeks. I got discharged last week. You got thrown from the truck, I just got stabbed by a tree.”

Feldspar was uncharacteristically quiet for a few minutes, then groaned. “I have won a ton of races in whatever wheeled thing Slate throws together-“

“Wow, really feeling the respect for my craft there-“

“-and I’ve competed in even more and never had anything you could splint or stitch up but my day job is what puts me in the hospital! I’m never hearing the end of this.”

“At least we found you to keep reminding you. Where was your ID, do you know?”

“Console. Probably. Why?”

“First two weeks you were ‘Carbon’ cause they didn’t know who you were and we thought you vanished.” A nurse checked again, and smiled, relaxing, to see Feldspar moving a little.

“Oof. Wait, first two weeks?”

“You’ve been out for three.”

“That explains why I’ve got stuff holding me in place.” Then they groaned. “I forfeited that race, didn’t I, it was… two weeks ago now.”

“I found Supernova a few days before and told them you couldn’t make it due to your day job. Got her phone number too so we’ll see how long it is before she’s asking me to work on that ugly vehicle of hers.”

“You have her number? Good, text her that I’ll defend my title once I'm walking.”

“Once the doctor lets you.”

“That’s probably not gonna be for a while though.”

“Nope.” Slate leaned back and snapped a picture, then showed it to the siblings. Feldspar was giving a thumbs up with the one hand they could move, Gossan was smiling slightly but trying not to crease the eye socket still covered with a patch.

“Race is on once the doctor clears them.” Slate tucked their phone back in a pocket, grinning.

~~~

“There’s a race on tonight.” Feldspar didn’t respond, sunk into the chair they’d claimed. “You wanna go watch?”

“Why? I can’t race. I can barely walk without help.” They'd been mad since they’d woken up enough to understand what had happened and just how badly they’d been hurt.

“But you like watching the races you’re not in? Supernova’s taking on that Owlk tonight.”

“I’m not going.”

“Alright.” Gossan started digging through their box of gear. Suit, gloves, helmet, the med kit was somewhere… they wandered out into the main room in the suit.

“Hey.” Feldspar was leaning forward in their chair, glaring. “I said-“

“You’re not going but I can. Some idiot is gonna flip their car trying to speed through that second turn and someone has to stabilize them before the ambulance shows up.” No response; Gossan found the box their other supplies were in and dragged it down.

Feldspar was staring at the wall. Gossan debated pulling their suit out, but if they didn’t think it was totally their idea that Gossan hadn’t anticipated they wouldn’t go.

“…you know what, yeah. I shouldn’t stay cooped up in here anyway. Did my suit make it over here or is it in the storage unit?” Gossan grinned and pulled out the other box.

“Got all your stuff.” It took a little longer than they’d thought to help Feldspar into the heavy suit- they were getting irritated, but, they’d calm down once they were at the race.

Helmets, gloves, and Gossan’s med kit all went into a bag and they got into Gossan’s sturdy old car.

“Feels weird to be taking this.”

“And not riding with Slate towing their new project?”

“Yeah.” ~

They both pulled their helmets on before getting out of the car, and Feldspar stood up and grabbed the crutches they were going to keep needing for a few months.

“We- no. I should just, wait in the car, I can’t crutch over like-“

“You are already here and we’re gonna go.”

“Gossan.” They held the eye contact through the helmets, Feldspar’s half open eye meeting Gossan’s remaining upper eye. “They’re gonna be expecting The Astronaut, not. Me on crutches. A big dramatic reappearance and I take to the track with a car we just towed in and join whatever this first race is. Like after I flipped it last year and was out a week. I can’t just show up on crutches and sit in the bleachers and wave.”

“It’s been two solid months with neither of us showing up. You showing up on crutches is gonna be more than they’re expecting now, people probably think you’re dead.” They breathed out, and nodded.

“Yeah, you’re right, let’s. Just get this over with.” Gossan stayed by their side, crutching in to the little ramshackle stands.

There was a bit of a crowd, two racers making sure their cars were ready, a couple more people looking out for authorities.

Someone- Gossan had seen this hatchling around, the unmatching plaid kilt and scarf were distinctive- looked, did a double take, and-

“It’s the Astronaut!” Just for a moment, all the chatter died, and people turned to look, to see Gossan and Feldspar on crutches.

Feldspar was standing as tall as they could, but Gossan knew the only reason they hadn’t flinched was the racer persona they had for this, but this was a rare time they weren’t happy to be the center of attention.

And then, everyone started yelling at once.

It was hard to make sense of most of it, but it sounded positive.

Gossan helped Feldspar sit, and the noise quieted again- Supernova had vaulted a fence and raised her arms for silence, green racing suit glinting from the gold thread she’d quietly told Feldspar a few years back she’d embroidered with to make it flashy.

“You’re not supposed to crash at your day job.”

“You tell that to the faulty brake lines they shipped the truck with.” And she leaned back and laughed.

“Our race is on as soon as you’re cleared to drive, unless you want to forfeit now and not lose on your first race back.”

“Are you kidding? You need this time to learn what you’re doing, and I’ll still win!” She laughed again and jumped the railing to get back to her car.

Gossan stayed nearby, watching for injuries, as Feldspar relaxed and talked with the rest of the audience.

“I think I’m gonna start going back to the gym tomorrow.” Gossan pulled off their helmet and started driving.

“If you slip or-“

“I’m not gonna be doing stuff calm down. But they always needed another set of eyes on the newbies. And the newbies who don’t think they’re newbies. It’ll get me out of your apartment, which is the important point, I think. Get me to start actually trying to recover.”

“Good.”

“Gossan?”

“Hm?”

“Thank you.”

#Poisonhemloc's rambles #outer wilds taco truck au #'supernova' is pye's racing name. and the snake feldspar is talking about is Giratina from pokemon legends arceus for joke reasons

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