Late night stargazing.

[theaxeffect]

[there is a girl sitting on a nearby roof, staring up at the sky, with her axe resting across her knees]

...They're different here.

Comments

[myallofme]

[is sitting next to her] That just means we get to name them now!

I call that one "Random Assortment."

[theaxeffect]

It's not going to help if you call them all that.

[myallofme]

Who said I was calling them all that? I just said that one was Random Assortment.

And that one can be "Scattered Salt," next to "Haphazard Dots."

[theaxeffect]

You'll never be able to keep track of which is which, you know that.

[canhascow]

[is several stories taller than the roof :|b]

That is unsurprising, if you are from a different place. The stars' positions change plenty enough throughout the year, and even more so if you cross over the equator into a different hemisphere; being from a different world or a variation of one would make even greater difference. Oh! There is also light pollution: the stars here are not so different from where I am from, but there are some that are not visible because it is too bright down here on the ground.

[theaxeffect]

[trying very hard not to show how unsettled she is by that]

...Too bright?

[canhascow]

[is also almost invisible except for some light from the windows, and his eyes. SAFEST DRAGON.]

It is not so bad here since we are in farmland, but the closer you come to the main camp the more difficult it is to see the dimmer stars; it is like being indoors and trying to look up at the sky, but all you see is darkness or a faint glow instead of individual stars, because the light on the ground is stronger than theirs, except the effect is caused by many lights from many windows and streetlamps. There are some cities, I have read, where you cannot see any stars whatsoever.

[theaxeffect]

[forces herself to relax her hold on her axe... not that it would do any good, anyway]

Any of them? But there are so many! Lamps can't possibly be brighter than the entire sky.

[pieta_au_lait]

[carrying a lit candle]

Different?

[theaxeffect]

The stars are.

[pieta_au_lait]

How so?

[looks up at them]

[theaxeffect]

I don't recognize them.

[hymnandmusicbox]

They don't look right at all.

[theaxeffect]

For you too?

[hymnandmusicbox]

[nods]

I used to know all the star names and their stories. It's the same for you, then. It must be hard for you, being so far from home.

[theaxeffect]

I don't know where home is anymore.

[gayforjustice]

They're clearer here.

[theaxeffect]

...They look less clear to me.

[gayforjustice]

My home city is smoggy and full of artificial light. This is the clearest I've ever seen them.

[theaxeffect]

I was just told there are places like that. I'd never heard of them before.