somethingwithturquoise | Gaia; Galaxy Unknown; Dimension FH-001. ????? [05/30 FT].

"Ohmygod," said Summer, arms tight around herself although it did very little to stave off the cold; where they'd wound up was nothing like where they'd come from, the forests having grown dark and gloomy with fog, blocking out the sunlight, and giving them very little concept of how long they'd been there, how much time had passed, or where they might even be in relation to wherever Jerry had gone or Gaia's childbearing site. She slumped against a tree for a moment, then let her exhaustion and Gaia's gravity pull her to the damp forest floor.

"If Grampa Rick was gonna knock up a whole planet, why couldn't he have knocked up a smaller one? We're never going to find him now. Or Mom. Or Dad."

Morty	If Summer was worried that mentioning their dad would set Morty off again on how poorly she'd treated him, then rest assured, Summer. Morty just didn't have it in him anymore. "I've definitely drank more pee than I care to remember," he admitted, shaking his head and then turning a worried, imploring look at Summer. "What about...what about Barry? Doesn't he...doesn't he have a tracker on you, or something? Couldn't you let him know somehow that we're in trouble, and...and he can come help us out, and find Dad, and we can all go home, and--"
Summer	"No way, Morty!" Summer scoffed with offense that he would even suggest that. "I can't do that. And then what? He winds up realizing I can't even handle camping and I never hear the end of it for the rest of our lives? Screw that. We're not calling Barry unless it's absolutely necessary. Like...having eat each other's limbs to survive level of desperate, that's the line. As far as he's concerned, we're all still roasting marshmallows over the fire and singing fucking 'Kumbaya' right now."
Morty	Morty felt oddly reassured by the fact that neither of them would probably have to be that desperate to get to that level (they certainly hadn't in the past!), so maybe he just had to wait it out a little longer before Summer would reconsider. In the meantime, though, he was going to go ahead and let her rest for a moment, while he ventured forward a little more.
Summer	"If I die," Summer informed him, "don't eat my ass. That'd be weird."
Morty	Morty was pretty sure her mentioning it was even weirder, but that didn't really matter much as he pushed back a large leaf and saw something up ahead, dangled in the dense forest. "Uh...Summer?"
Summer	Curious, Summer pushed herself back up to her feet and drifted over to see what Morty had called her about, squinting a little in the gloom, although shafts of light broke from the canopy overhead to illuminate the unmistakable outline of a large crashed spaceship. A surge of excitement raced through her, inspiring even the energy to sprint forward to start looking for a way inside. It looked like the crash was pretty rough, and the ship had probably been there for a long time, but maybe it was still in good enough shape that they could use it to their advantage somehow. Finally, she found a latch on the hull that clearly opened up into the belly of the ship, and she called Morty over to help her with it, since it seemed a bit stuck. Finally, it opened with a groaning squeak of protest, and they climbed up inside. "Damn," Summer breathed out, looking around in mild awe, trying to find some aspect of the ship that might be a little familiar to her, "you think they got infected by a mind slug or something?"
Morty	"Probably drove through a nebula that made them see their own fears?" suggested Morty, as they felt their way along the ship's corridors in the dark.
Summer	Finally, a little bit of light from the front windshield of the cockpit, and Summer's hands fell on what was clearly some sort of pilot's chair. She moved her hands over to the one beside it, poking at the squishy head of a long deceased corpse. A squishy head that promptly fell off the corpse and splattered to the ground.
Morty	"Whoa," Morty breathed out, moving forward still. "These controls." They were surprisingly intact for the state of the ship and its crew, and the twisting roots and branches of the forest encroaching in on the interior of the ship. He slipped into the seat in front of them. "It's just like my video game controllers! I just wish I could....read these symbols..."
Summer	Summer, meanwhile, had found herself at a wall, facing a complicated and tangled mess of tubes and vines, and...once she cleared away the vines, she revealed oblong containers filled with a churning mist of some sort of purple vapor. "This looks just like Tricia's bong," she realized, the familiarity of it giving her a burst of confidence, the reassurance that came with being in solid ground again, so to speak. With a spark of inpiration, she tentatively leaned forward, placing her mouth on the contraption and breathing in deep. "Morty," she grinned over at him with a thrill of excitement. "I think these tubes might contain all of their collective knowledge!" Experimentally, she reached up, detatching one of the tubes and considering it a moment before she placed that in her mouth next and breathed in deeply again. And then, she tried another one. Held in in while closing her eyes and letting out a small moan of unprecidented pleasure.

"Well?" asked Morty.

But Summer held onto that in her lungs for a moment longer before she exhaled out a puff of purple smoke.

Summer's voice was strained as the vapor worked its way through her.

"I think we got this, bro."

[[ and my litte side saga from S04;E09 of Rick & Morty, "Childrick of Mort" continues! Which should break down into four parts today, NFB, NFI, BBQ. OOC always welcome, so on and so forth! ]]