It's an effective topic change for sure, serving to distract Glacius through sheer surprise. He pulls his head back just enough to look his partner in the eyes, a smile spreading across his features--tentative at first, but growing brighter. "You want to contemplate interstellar travel?" He knows big open spaces aren't exactly Carlisle's thing, and there's nothing quite as vast as the void of space. He's not going to protest the request, however, nor is he going to give the timid clergyman a chance to second-guess himself.
"Well, it's... beautiful," the ice alien murmurs, folding his hands over top one another on Carlisle's chest so that he can rest his head on them--allowing him to maintain eye contact with his partner without keeping his neck craned back. "Of course, any travel through space is done inside a ship, but once you've plotted a course and the vessel's navigational systems have taken over, you're free to get up and walk to any of the viewports or observatory windows. At that point... words do not do it justice, but I will try. It..."
Glacius pauses, his brows furrowing as he tries to come up with a good way of describing it. Given where they are, it calls to mind another memory that they had shared together quite easily. "... It is like that night we spent out on the ocean together. Do you remember that? How the darkness spread across the sky and the water, the light of the stars reflected across the surface of the ocean? It is like that, but you are far closer to it; you are surrounded and encompassed in beauty, comprised of constellations and nebulae and other astral phenomenon. Glittering lights and broad, swirling strokes of whatever colors you can imagine... and the quiet! It is magnificent. No distractions, no clutter... nothing but you and the raw beauty of that from which we all emerged... it is an almost transcendental experience."
The ice alien pauses to take a breath, wistfulness and appreciation and longing all shining in his eyes. Will he ever see such a sight again? He is afraid to consider the answer, knowing that it may leave him weak and lost. He pushes on: "... Of course... things are a little bit different in you are in the process of folding space. At that point any viewpoints are usually closed due to safety precautions, but even if you left them open there wouldn't be much to see in the plane between dimensions. Some of my people theorize that puts you closer to the Astral Plane, the dimension that links all universes, as folding space allows us to travel between them with unparalleled speed... but we have never been able to access it. We suspect that it has been intentionally sealed by the beings that inhabited it..." And now Glacius finally stops again, averting his eyes sheepishly. "Ah, but that is getting off topic. I hope I painted a decent enough picture of what traveling through space is like. It really is awe-inspiring... and it never stops being so, no matter how many times you have done it."
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"Well, it's... beautiful," the ice alien murmurs, folding his hands over top one another on Carlisle's chest so that he can rest his head on them--allowing him to maintain eye contact with his partner without keeping his neck craned back. "Of course, any travel through space is done inside a ship, but once you've plotted a course and the vessel's navigational systems have taken over, you're free to get up and walk to any of the viewports or observatory windows. At that point... words do not do it justice, but I will try. It..."
Glacius pauses, his brows furrowing as he tries to come up with a good way of describing it. Given where they are, it calls to mind another memory that they had shared together quite easily. "... It is like that night we spent out on the ocean together. Do you remember that? How the darkness spread across the sky and the water, the light of the stars reflected across the surface of the ocean? It is like that, but you are far closer to it; you are surrounded and encompassed in beauty, comprised of constellations and nebulae and other astral phenomenon. Glittering lights and broad, swirling strokes of whatever colors you can imagine... and the quiet! It is magnificent. No distractions, no clutter... nothing but you and the raw beauty of that from which we all emerged... it is an almost transcendental experience."
The ice alien pauses to take a breath, wistfulness and appreciation and longing all shining in his eyes. Will he ever see such a sight again? He is afraid to consider the answer, knowing that it may leave him weak and lost. He pushes on: "... Of course... things are a little bit different in you are in the process of folding space. At that point any viewpoints are usually closed due to safety precautions, but even if you left them open there wouldn't be much to see in the plane between dimensions. Some of my people theorize that puts you closer to the Astral Plane, the dimension that links all universes, as folding space allows us to travel between them with unparalleled speed... but we have never been able to access it. We suspect that it has been intentionally sealed by the beings that inhabited it..." And now Glacius finally stops again, averting his eyes sheepishly. "Ah, but that is getting off topic. I hope I painted a decent enough picture of what traveling through space is like. It really is awe-inspiring... and it never stops being so, no matter how many times you have done it."