Actions

Work Header

Time and Dirt

Summary:

After a workplace accident that Cal blames himself for, he waits every day for you to wake up from a coma... alone, no one else ever coming to visit you in medbay.

He doesn't understand why, or why he's almost alone resisting the destruction of Vertumna's ecology as well. Unless there is someone else who could help him?

Notes:

An idea in early August 2025 overwhelmed me and wouldn't let me go in a way that had never happened to me before! Since then I have spent every day thinking about it and more than half of the days working on it. The setting may be fantastical, but the feelings are real.

Also, I had just finished horticulture school when I started the game, so I put in as much of my experiences and knowledge as I could :D
Everything else, especially anything medical, was researched. I am planning to add a literature list at the end of it.

This story diverges in Late Dust of Year 16, and can be read by people with no knowledge of the game as well! I have the first part of it written out and will publish it chapter by chapter about twice a week until I'm out of pre-written chapters. The initial chapters are short, later ones will be longer.

Chapter 1: Day 1

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Year 6 on Planet Vertumna

Month 9 (Late Dust), Week 4


Day 1

Heliopause Colony, Geoponics Department

...

“Solane? Solane! Can you hear me? ... Please, be still in there... Don’t leave me here. ... Someone tell the medbay!”


***

Day 1

Heliopause Colony on Planet Vertumna, Medbay

“Solane, please wake up. You’re strong, I know it. You’re even tougher than me... don’t let a single bag of fertilizer defeat you... ”


Notes:

Did you know fertilizer bags can weigh 600 kg (over 1322 lb) or more?