- Username: vivika
Cat Name: thorne
Gender: male
Rank: starship captain
Clan: azeryn
Age: twenty-three moons
Kitty trying out for: #2156
Prompt:
silver dust and gosammer coated the old photo album.
the fragrance of cedarwood, earth and vanilla enfolded him as he curled up against the creaking floorboards of the attic, resting the album before him. tucking it closer, he blew on the cover, sending a spray of dust taking flight like a flock of moths. he placed a paw on the star-studded cover imprinted with a pawprint. his pawprint. a smaller, younger version.
a faint smile lilted on his lips as he flipped through the pages.
films of sun-faded strokes of color unfurled in tandem to the warble of pages. him, sporting a toothy grin, the worn redwood of a treehouse-turned-spaceship at his back. him, moments before disaster struck, wadding a ball of spinach on a silver spoon perfectly poised towards his darling sister. him, gaze starry under the spinning, full-scale planetarium at the hall of flight.
and perhaps all those sols and lunes ago, his destiny had already been written. perhaps the truth had always been there hidden in fleeting moments of reality.
more pictures. the firsts of many. his first broken bone, his first model of the solar system, his first telescope, his first trip under the seven seas, his first gondola ride where he’d proclaimed himself navigator, vowing to lead only through star charts.
pages turned, chapter after chapter, annum after annum. a lifetime of memories, a collage of a journey, a collection of split-second tales frozen in snapshots.
one picture came loose, making him pause. the smooth backing hinted that it’d never been glued, never been properly set into the album. frowning, he flipped it over.
him, grinning wide at a model spacecraft booth, spaceships and drones of all sizes all arrayed in neat shining rows of silver and gold behind him. a small podship to simulate zero-gravity perched behind him, the sleek door ajar. his turn was next.
his heart squeezed as he touched the photo. as if a mere touch could resurrect the memory in full-bloom with all its vivid colors and aromatic scents and the heart-stopping moment when all gravity ceased to exist.
but it was the smile that caught him.
that smile, so carefree and light, unburdened and blissfully naive. that younger kit had no idea of what this path would hold. he didn’t know of the peças it’d cost, the sleepless nights in-store, the grueling regimes, the backstabbers, the saboteurs, the competition just for a spot at the academies. if he could talk to that younger version of himself, he’d hold him so, so tight. a crushing, warm embrace. he’d look him in the eye and lasso the stars down to fashion a good luck charm━a reminder to never ever give up even when the nights grew so cold.
that smile was everything. stars, that smile was passion. pure, unrestrained, undiluted, genuine passion bottled into one broad grin and captured in a flicker of lights. but perhaps it was all he’d ever needed for his journey, because that younger version never knew what he did now.
a small droplet splashed onto the photo.
he blinked, raising a paw to scrub the damp kiss of tears from his cheeks. a short laugh caught in his throat as he flicked the photo to chase the moisture from it. stars, he was getting sentimental about a picture? a picture of himself? now, that seemed awfully self-centered and just plain━
“thorne?” his sister’s scarlet curls popped out from the hatch in the attic. a wink gleamed in her eyes, the stars all captured in that one simple gesture. “or should i say captain thorne now? are you- wow, i didn’t think you missed me that much.”
“shove off, nattie.” he groaned. “you haven’t changed one bit.”
her smile was all roses and daylight twined with an eyeroll. “sorry to disappoint, captain, but you haven’t changed much either.” her steps danced, light and leaping, across the creaking wood to curl up beside him. “one, i knew you’d be here. two, i knew you’d want to add to the album. and three, to prove it, i brought you this.”
she slid a glossy picture to him, the colors vibrant and bold, foreground and background perfectly crystallized. nattie and him, the sun freckling their cheeks as they stood in the apple orchard, the faint outlines of their treehouse-turned-spaceship cresting above a large sleek lunarcraft. his lunarcraft. still new and shining even after his first flight from today’s graduation.
with a grin, he set the picture into an empty page of the album. the creamy pages framed the freshly-minted picture, the empty space so large that it seemed to almost consume the photo. with a tilt of his head, he found the other picture, still damp, but intact, setting it right beside the new one.
two faces smiled right back at him.
one of the past and one of the present, a mirror image of a dream to-be and a dream fulfilled.
