SL   gh...

SL   ughgh...

Around you. Nothing but dark. Can't move. Can't breathe.

Take step... might fall. And keep falling forever. Makes you... want land. Land. Please. Land.

SS   hey. wake up!

SS   youre not dead are you?

Hurts. Your cheek.

SS   sheesh just checking stels!

SS   what made you doze off like that anyway?

SS   stay up late practicing?

Blink, blink. Feel. On skin... clothes. From above... warm. The sun.

SS   earth to star.

SS   come in star. align your satellite with me and return to the planet.

Person? No, sister. Looking at you. Not angry... something else.

SS   okay if baby needs their naptime then ill leave you alone.

SS   just wanted to check in since you totally passed out in the middle of my explanation.

SL   ...

SL   awake.

SL   s... sorry.

Something softer. No, never too angry at you. Safe. Safe here.

SL   how. long?

SS   well if youre asking it felt like a million years of disrespect.

SS   but it was just over 10 minutes.

SS   a real asshole wouldve jerked you awake right away but im not that kinda guy.

SS   snrk. consider yourself lucky you have me.

SL   ...

Sit up. Weight strange... lean on her, now.

SS   geez youre really not doing so hot.

SS   yknow what? can the explanation. we can get back to it later.

SS   just sleep. cant have you going limp during the concert.

SL   th....

SS   thank you susie. not all at once. take the time and sound it out.

SL   th-think. i. c-cant.

SL   go. back. go... back...!

Grab something. Anything. Anchor to ground. Can't fall again...

SS   whoa. hey.

SS   breathe stels. dont grip so hard or youll rip something again.

SS   want me to find your sticks?

SS   that could take your mind off of -

SL   n... not. enough.

SL   ground. need. ground.

SL   can't... fall.

SS   ...

SS   god dammit.

SS   here. bring it in.

Grab... you.

SS   you big baby.

Soft. Rough. Safe?

SS   you need me to rock you?

SS   fuck it. ill rock you.

SS   ill rock you so hard stels.

SS   enough to blend up whatevers punching you in the brain.

SS   then youll only think about what matters. helping me make the sickest shit imaginable.

SS   doesnt that sound nice?

SL   ...

SL   don't. let. go.

SL   don't. drop. me.

SS   oh yeah im imagining all the ways i could punt you from the van right now.

SS   roll you right back onto the middle-of-nowhere roads we found you.

SS   leave you for dead.

SS   that sounds like something a rockett would do huh? blast off with no care in the world.

Head. Hurts. Hurts. Hurts.

SL   don't...

SL   without... me.

A hand... cool. Feeling your hair. Brushing it.

SS   im kidding. obviously.

SS   i - we wouldnt do that to you stels.

SS   if a rockett picks up a stray theyre in this shit for life.

SS   your seatbelts just a twisted up pipe strapping you to your seat.

SS   pfft.

SS   i should be writing this down.

SS   picking up scragglers in the vastness of space...

SS   keeping them hostage in our own hunk of rock and metal.

SS   blasting beats and performing on different planets.

SS   man what am i saying? pick up your damn sketchbook! this is an album here!

SL   ...

SL   hah.

SL   visit... there... with. you.

SL   makes. it.

SL   not. so...

Empty.

So empty, there. Big, bigger than here. Bigger than... everything.

.

..

...

..

...

They rest there, in the d█rkness.

Deities. █ot all of them. Only those █ubtracted from Light.

They █atch from afar. To them, ev█ry death is a grain of sand. To move it back towards the wo█ld of the living would be as effortless as drawing breath.

███ir forms are incomprehensible; their judgment is absolute.

Sleep brings their █ompany.

Few remember. But you do. And the memory etches itself into you, burning and bruising.

Hurts. All hurts.

When did it begin?

It must've been from before.

Before this rocket ship picked you up.

Before you became a star, a being of meta█ alongside your rock sister.

Meta█.

It's in you█ heart, your hands. Your head.

It k█eps the skin █ogether.

H█rts.

Without it, you█ body would wither. Inside the ski█, a pile of ash and stardust.

Inside it is me.

Do you hear me, ██████?

I've been with you. Even before.

I've been helping you all this time. Even when your body, your mind, fights me.

But it ██jects ██. You have to let █e in completely. █ring m█ back to the...

...

You must be so tired. I will rest, so you may rest your weary head as well.

I will awaken again.

You'll know.

...

..

...

..

.

SS   youre drooling.

...

SS   means youre probably having a good dream this time right?

...

SS   guess thats all you can hope for.

SS   ...

SS   i know you dont like them but...

SS   i really think you should see a doctor stels -

No!

SS   pfah! what the -

SS   hey! calm down you damn - stop thrashing!

SS   it was just an idea okay? seriously settle down!

No...

SS   im just... worried. alright?

SS   obviously i trust joan and the people she got to work on you.

SS   and... youre definitely better than you were then.

SS   but sometimes you need a damn professional!

SS   and itd kill me if it turns out we couldve done something about all your pain.

SL   p-pain...

SL   yes.

Hurts. Sometimes dull, but always hurts.

SS   i dont know what the hell happened to you.

SS   especially to make you so freaked out with... yknow. medical stuff.

SS   but theres only so much i can watch you just. writhe.

SS   but id hate myself if i had to make you do something you clearly cant.

SS   ...

SS   just... tell me if you need anything.

SS   i hate it when people keep things from me. because they think... i cant handle it.

SS   ill handle it. whatever youve got.

SS   promise.

SL   ...

SL   su... sie.

Close eyes. One day, return to earth.