#nobody warned me about the ghost pirate plotline jesus CHRIST that was something

[starpirateee]

hey, nova, how would you feel about writing some of Anna Hanover and John Herschel being The Besties Ever?

Which one of you found out I'd listened to Pulp, c'mon who was it? 🤣 I can't believe I got found out immediately.... But yes I will absolutely write Anna and John being besties because I love them and they deserve it very much

"Thank you!" Anna called over her shoulder, waving in the direction of the builder that had just spent the last half an hour convincing her to take a break. She grabbed herself some lunch, and then wandered a little into the jungle, towards their spot.

She and John Herschel had one thing in common that stood out among everything else they had in common. They were both notoriously bad at taking breaks when they were absorbed in work. John had built his telescope himself, and spent hours looking through it on a night, trying to work out a map of the stars.

They had their own spot in the jungle, for when one of them needed to take a break. Sometimes, they'd sit there on their own, catching their breath or taking in the flywheels that had just been erected. That wasn't very often, though… More times than not, the two of them had been scolded into taking a break at the same time, and that was where they always ended up going. Sure enough, as Anna pushed through the bracken that made their spot so personal, she found John muttering to himself under the tree, and it took her getting close enough to realise that he was reading something— an article of a newspaper, by the looks of things…

"Heya, Hershey!" She liked to announce her presence as obviously as possible, so she didn't end up sneaking up on him and startling the life out of him. "What're you reading?"

Even still, he started a little, and his breath did manage to hitch. Every time…

He knew that only one other person knew about their spot in the jungle, but still, his eyes drifted from the newspaper, and he managed to catch Anna as she sat down beside him. He looked distracted, but he still managed something of a smile in her direction.

"Oh! Nova… I didn't hear you come in…"

"Really? That article really that interesting?" She tried to peer over his shoulder, but couldn't really get a good enough angle to see the words so neatly organised on that sheet in front of him. Though, the way his brow was drawn, and the fact that she'd heard him muttering to himself in what sounded like discontent made her think it wasn't good.

"Well," he scoffed, shooting what almost looked like a glare at the words. "Interesting is certainly one word for it…"

"Why? What is it?" Curiosity had taken over at this point, especially given John's very evident disdain, so she slid the sheet over the grass, closer to her line of sight, and started to skim the words. The title printed at the top— clear as day and all the more appealing for it— read, Great Astronomical Discoveries, and if that wasn't enough to draw her in, then the fact that John's name was mentioned within the first three lines certainly was.

"Oh."

"Tell me about it." John really did look like he'd seen a ghost, and then was trying to cover that up with very obvious discontent. Anna could see why, of course. It wasn't very often he was name dropped in the middle of a mainstream newspaper. A scientific journal, sure, but never normally a mass produced New York based newspaper.

"Where'd you get this?"

"Someone dropped it off earlier this morning. Great Astronomical Discoveries… Frankly, I don't know whether to be offended or appraised. For all it's worth… No, no I won't."

"It's… What, Hershey?"

John sighed deeply. "It's brilliant." And he really hadn't wanted to admit that, not even to himself. He heard Anna try to hold in a laugh of surprise by his side, and pulled the paper back. It was in his best interests to neverr say anything about this absolute travesty that was this work of very obvious fiction using his name for benefit and to attract the attention of the public. And of course, he was a public figure, in a way. People knew his name, at the very least. They knew what he did, why he received the knighthood… But for them to believe this work as something legitimate… It was beyond his comprehension. "It's accurate, and clearly well researched… Whoever wrote this— whoever… Samuel and Rose Stratford are— they know how to make a lie very believable."

Anna started to read it over his shoulder while he talked. He didn't try to stop her. She understood the sciences, and she had every right to his curiosity now that he had professed that it was actually something of a work of art.

"Would it be a different story if they didn't use your name?" She asked absently, skimming over this story about the moon and seeing that, actually, it did make sense, and it did seem like the authors knew what they were talking about. There were enough mentions of actual happenings in space— things that people like John had catalogued and discovered— that it was almost believable, but then— "Hold on, bat people?"

"And buffalo…"

"On the moon?"

"Apparently so."

"So, John, when were you gonna tell me about the bat people? That's something they don't put in your editorials…" she stared at him for long enough that he started laughing, partly out of her insistence and partly through how ridiculous it sounded when she put it like that. "You leave all the most interesting stuff out for these two people in New York…"

"Would you rather I told you about the buffalo and the river on the moon?"

"Yes! Are you kidding? That'd make an incredible story!"

John laughed again, shaking his head. "God, Nova, I didn't think they'd get you too… This newspaper circulated who knows how far around New York, and now there are probably numbers of people who genuinely believe that I saw any of this on the lunar surface." One more glance, then he folded the front page over the words and sighed, leaning back further against the tree.

"Don't you think it'd be interesting if that was the case, though?"

"Undoubtedly. But, unfortunately, it's not. That's not possible, for a start. The moon doesn't have an atmosphere! It's a rock! Nothing could live up there!"

"Hey… This planet was just a rock once, too…" Anna reminded.

John tilted his head. "Who's side are you on here?"

This time, it was her who laughed. "Rose and Samuel Stratford… That's what they were called, right? Stratford?"

"Stratford, yes. I should like to meet them, I think. To see what's going on in their heads."

That sparked a bit of an idea in Anna's mind, and a curious expression crossed her face. she studied the newspaper's front cover for a while, and then thought about her satellite, some seventeen thousand bricks into it's development of a twelve million strong plan. Then she looked to John, and thought about all he'd done to help her build her little dream, from helping with the plans to helping the team develop just the right mix to make the bricks. "Well… Why don't you?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Why don't you go to New York and find out for yourself! Talk to Rose and Samuel, see what the big deal is!"

He genuinely considered this, if for a moment. The chance to meet the two names behind this sudden spike driven through his nerves. On one hand, he would love to find these two and give them a piece of whatever was on his mind about their fantasy… But that was the other hand. What was currently on his mind was how well done it was, and how much imagination the two of them had to have to produce something of that caliber… There was a part of him that wanted to try and think of something to say to them that translated into the annoyance that he felt over knowing that they were using his name for their gain, but really, he couldn't think about it for long enough to outweigh the good with the bad.

"Go on, John! You know you want to—"

"It is tempting…"

"Then what's stopping you? Go on! The township's gonna miss you, but hell, if you're going for New York and back you shouldn't be longer than a couple weeks, right?"

"You do know how to tempt a man, Nova."

She grinned at him. "That's what I'm here for! Now, are you gonna go or not?"

"I suppose I will."