Title: Where Stars are Born
Author: Lainx
Rating: /
Warnings: /
Summary:
Humans
have it good. They raise their faces to the darkened sky, and if they are
lucky, they can spot myriads of stars shimmering against the black canvas of
night. Stars seem a constant of their busy life, so busy they barely take the
time to admire them. And yet, somewhere, in another universe, stars die, and
stars must be reborn.
Link to A03: http://archiveofourown.org/works/9701831
Please note!
The neutral singular pronoun “they” is used
here because the creatures depicted in the AU are genderless.
Snow shushes all sounds. The soft white powder
falls, falls, falls, in a never ending shower of big round flakes, and covers
every speck of ground. In this frozen realm, life is slow. At first glance, you
can’t even notice any living signs. All you can see is an endless valley of
night, in which only dimmed stars may find rest to.
But the Snow People do exist. For the longest
time, even when they only were lurking spirits in fertile otherworldly
imaginations, they had been living in the hard underground of this alter
dimensional planet.
Just like their kingdom, the creatures are slow
and ice-covered. Their eyes are big, accustomed to the feeble light of their dwelling,
and their hair is long, often tickling their shins. Their skin tones range from
the pearliest white to the darkest onyx. Some lucky beings sport delicately
colored skin, touched by puffs of blue, red, and even gold shimmers – and those
are called the “Tears of Stars”.
The underground is a very peaceful place.
Glittering caverns are used as public areas, while darker caves serve as
private zones. The walls are covered with diamond-hard stones, whose solidity
and thickness protect their inhabitants from the dangerously cold air of the
outside world. Said inhabitants mostly live in patient harmony, dedicated to
their task in the grand scheme of things; while their hearts are the home of
fallen stars and hopes, great lights linger in their inner frozen depth, ready
to be bestowed on new cosmic children.
Just like us, they experience joy, sadness and
anger. But such is their delicate composition that they are advised against
extreme feelings. Unless, of course, that they do have to send a new star to
the night sky.
Silvery has been living in the underground for
the longest time. They are highly regarded as one of the finer star crafter of
their people. Giving birth to a star is no trouble for Silvery. Many Snow
People do risk their lives when trying to complete the task – but not them.
After years and years of practice, they finally learned exactly how to let the
right amount of their being melt, just enough for the bright light to escape
them and nicely turn into the prettiest star. The process is, in theory,
simple; as you, a Snow person, experience a relatively strong emotion, your
core warms and melts your unstable body, until the light of the dead stars you
have consumed before shines out of you and assembles into a new meteor.
The difficulty in fact lays in the intensity of
the emotion, and in the opening you allow to the light. Let yourself be
consumed by feelings, and your entire being may as well wilt away. Restrain the
light fissure too much, and the star created will be too feeble to survive,
thus wasting the precious stellar light gathered through millenaries by your
kind.
After losing way too many lives to the birthing
of stars, the Snow People had changed their approach. Instead of working as
individuals on their own stars, they would help each other through shows of
graceful movements – and personal birthing was outlawed. The shows were
carefully timed and choreographed to elicit just the right amount of emotions,
simultaneously in the performer and in their audience. Thanks to these leisure
dances, the celestial systems gradually filled with lights, and fewer and fewer
lives were lost.
Silvery had been one of the first Snow people
to master the art of dancing. Their incredibly measured movements, their
expressions as they glided on the freezing ground of the main public area – everything
about them was optimal for secure star birthing. They became parent to millions
of stars. They are as-close to legendary as they, creatures of the mind, can
get.
In the eyes of one Tear of Star, however,
Silvery was so, so much more. As soon as Sunlight Cup had seen Silvery dance,
they had been utterly mesmerized. Centuries were subsequently spent copying their
movements in the privacy of the darkness, the creature fighting all along to
remain unified, while birthing thousands of stars in secret. Sunlight Cup loved
to call them “Silvery’s children” – and they were their deepest secret.
Not all Snow People could perform. The honor
was reserved to the best dancers, in order to ensure the security of the whole
community. It took another several centuries for Sunlight Cup to dare setting
foot as a performer in the Main Area. Before doing so, they spent a long time
rehearsing, and grooming themself. Their long, dark and thick hair were
carefully pushed out of their face, and braided around their left arm. Their gilded
skin had been purified and massaged.
They must have repeated the moves a thousand
times. One of their arms reaches behind their head, the slow arch of the hand
brushing their black hair. They start spinning on themselves, crossing and
extending their arms with gusto, an inspired look on their face. They sink on
one knee and then twirl to another poised position. The dance really begins;
they reach towards the audience, launching themself in a series of stunningly
complex steps which airily brush the floor. Even when they jump, gravity seems
to be working with them, slowing their landings. And they spin, they spin, eyes
half-closed and skin sending glimmers on the walls, until they come to a stop,
arms crossed under their chin, a single tear escaping their huge unblinking
eyes.
A dozen illuminated orbs spirals around the
dancer, who lets their back arch, liberating their own inner light which flies
to rejoice with its siblings. A moment later, they disperse, leaving the Main
Area filled with unconscious Snow People who are gently carried one by one to
their private zones.
As Sunlight Cup feels themself slip as well,
they desperately search for the face of their inspiration, and melt a bit more
when they see them being ushered out of the room, as if severely touched by
their performance. A hint of pride adds to their weakness, and they finally
crumble to the floor, utterly defeated by fatigue.
They meet again, of course. Now that Sunlight
Cup is an appreciated performer, they often find themselves chatting or even
casually rehearsing together. Silvery looks fascinated with the shimmer of
Sunlight Cup’s skin, while Sunlight Cup longs to braid the hair of their idol
themself. Silvery is the first to ask if they could be allowed to style the
heavy tresses of their friend, and Sunlight Cup reciprocate by rubbing the dust
out of Silvery’s skin. If one of them decides to rest, the other follows – and if
only one of them is able to rescue the light of a dying star, they both refrain
from eating.
They do not admit how emotionally close they
have become until they find themselves in Sunlight Cup private zone, whispering
praises at each other while memorizing their bodies and facial expressions with
the tips of their fingers. Sunlight Cup’s fingers leave trails of gold in
Silvery’s thin strands of hair as they rub their faces together, their legs
strongly enclosing their respective hips.
“I could go on forever”, Sunlight Cup sighs,
shivering in pleasure. “Do you feel the same, Silvery?”
“You know I do”, the other coos, mouthing at
their partner’s neck. “I adore you so much, my Gold, I love caressing you and
seeing you dance and hearing you speak…”
They keep moving together in silence for a
moment, until Sunlight Cup starts speaking again, in an infinitely tender tone.
“There is something I need to show you,
Silvery. Promise me you will never speak of it to anyone.”
“I would never betray you, my Gold,” is the
firm answer that Sunlight Cup gets.
Freeing one of their hands from the curls of
their partner, Sunlight Cup vaguely waves toward the ceiling of their private
room. The dark rock waver and tiny specks of light appear. Silvery’s big eyes
widen in surprise at the stellar system he definitely
does not recognize.
“What are those?”
“I call them, ‘Silvery’s children’ ” Sunlight
Cup explains, bashful. “I birthed them all, before I got around performing.”
“ ‘Silvery’s…children…’ “ the other Snow person
repeats, their internal frozen core heating at an alarming rate.
“You have always been my greatest inspiration,”
the other says back, love saturating their voice. “I’ve always, always admired
you. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I birthed my first star watching you.
I’ve been wanting you for so long…”
And Silvery loses it and dives in, their pale
skin blending with the other’s, noises of delight evading them as they try
ravishing their partner. Both of them have never felt so warm, so good before. They
just can’t stop. The feeling is too strong; their inner glows vibrate too fast,
as if an electric current was coursing through their bodies. This is by far the
fastest thing they ever experienced – even jumps and landings are not that
rapid.
The darkness is but an old memory in this tiny
cavern. Both creatures are gloriously glowing, dashes of white and gold
mingling amidst the blinding spectacle. Distraught congeners arrive, sensing a
dangerous raise of temperature, and, dumbfounded before the display, they halt
at the opening. Some quiet sobs can be heard as they witness their two best
performers lose themselves into each other. Fragile Snow people are sluggishly
pushed behind the mob in an attempt to protect them from the aura of love and
passion emanating from the giant orbs of light busting through the low ceiling.
The twin suns leisurely dance around each
other, all the while steadily rising in the skies. Their combined rays of light
explode in millions of colors on the glistening snow covering the ever-frozen domain,
turning falling flakes into iridescent flimsy gems. As if saluting their
audience for the last time, they separate for a moment, stilling the world in
an instant of everlasting magnificence, before joining the firmament, where
they will glow together in Eternity.
Plume de Lynx 