Arousal

[LitaAlto]

[Author's note: This is from the same universe as my earlier story, Renewal http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/99092-Renewal ]

What... where am I?

Who am I?

I am... I think... I am because I think? I think.

All I know is that some of me is really warm and some of me is really cold.

Also, there are funny, subtle changes in pressure around some of the edges. Feels nice.

This is kind of boring. Boring boring boring.

I'm not even sure how long I've been here... spinning, I think?

Nothing to do but spin. Boring.

OW! Did--did something just hit me!?

I need some way of figuring out what that was!

But all I can seem to do is pucker and sense heat... well, energy, really.

I got a weird idea. I'm going to make a pucker and sense energy through that.

I AM SMART. IT WORKS.

Oh dear. That is a huge hole. And worse, since it hit, it's got colder. Darker, I guess. That's no good.

CRAP CRAP CRAP INTO THE MORE DENSELY FLUID BITS IT'S FREEZING HERE.

"More densely fluid bits?" I'm going to call it ocean. Why? I don't know.

I hate coming up with names, but I like them a lot more after that so... ocean it is.

And now it's really dark and cold, and the pressure is great.

I can't escape. There is some heat near the bottom, but otherwise it's really harsh.

I don't know if I can make it.

I'm... not thinking good.

Why....

No....

Dying...?

...

Warm. Getting warm.

Is the ice gone?

THE ICE IS GONE. I'M BACK. OH YEAH.

But I gotta come up with a better way to live if things get cold again or I get hit by... one of those... things from... out there.

One of these days I gotta figure out what all is out there. Maybe see if there are more space things, and keep them from hitting me again.

Anyhow. I know I can pucker. Let me see how well I can protrude. Same thing right?

OOH. That works.

Oh hey, I can use protrusions to dig into the soft stuff, and break up the hard stuff, and--

Wait, that is how I've been eating!?

Figures. Just figures. I've been lying on my food this whole time.

I could've been wallowing in it.

Well, gotta keep most of it up above, for the warmth and light I need, but... yeah, this works. Nice.

OK, let's fill some of those protrusion full of nutrients for later... and... TA-DA. Took a lot of rotations to do but it works great.

I'm terrible at names. I'm going to call it a... kerb. I don't know.

I'm kerbin' now. Oh yeah. Kerbin. Hey, that works for a name. Why not?

Hello, warm bright space thing, I'm Kerbin. Nice to never hear from you.

But thank you for helping to keep things warm and bright.

Maybe I should call you "Sun"--nice and short.

Meanwhile I can work on improving my puckering skills.

I'm working on getting more sensitive to pressure changes, too. If I pucker then close over the pucker with just a thin bit of me... I can pick up variations in pressure really well.

Huh. Seeing and hearing. Is there anything puckering can't do?

What if I open and close a pucker fast enough? Sounds like I'm able to change the pressure around that area, that way. Not sure I like how it sounds yet, but maybe I'll need to know how to make sounds some day.

Hee hee, that one was funny. Brrrrrrrrrrrap. Hahahahaha!

Back to protrusions. Can I wrap one around... I dunno, a rock?

I can! And I can move it around.

How fast? Let's find out.

I think I let go of it. Crap.

OW CRAP. That hurt! Not as bad as that space thing... hey, maybe that was just a big rock. Maybe I can find out some day.

Rocks are cool, when they aren't hitting me.

I like eating rocks--very slow, but still. Tasty. Full of minerals.

Very slow. This sucks.

And there are some rocks that are out of reach.

Hmm. If I had a way of taking some of me, breaking it off, and sending it off to gnaw on rocks for me, I can get a lot more nutrients that way.

I'll attach some puckers for vision, a pucker with jaws for gnawing, some protrusions for grabbing and moving, maybe some extra organs to help it keep going...

OK, that attempt failed. Ran out of power before it could get back to me.

I need... a kerb. Keep it away from the other organs for now.

I think I'll call it a kerbal.

Go forth, kerbal! Wander in search of rocks, gnaw on them, then come back to me before your kerb shrinks too small!

...Hey, that works! Better absorb that kerbal and restore its kerb. Oh, hey, check this out, the kerb managed to record everything the kerbal saw and heard and felt!

Hah, this is hilarious.

OK, I got to make more of them, this is the best thing ever. I'm never going to be bored again!

Go forth, kerbals! Explore, let me see myself and this place we call home! Gnaw on many rocks! Do that funny thing where you fall and bounce from great heights! Then come home and let me embrace you and see your sights, and I shall reinvigorate your kerb for another go!

Hmm, if they bounce high enough, maybe they can get a better view.

I wonder how high up I can get a kerbal, anyway?

OOF. I felt that one. Literally. Poor fellow.

Let me take what's left... Wow, what a mess.

But I think I can put it all back together and look over its memories of--

Wait. Its last memory.

What is that thing!?

It's got lots of protrusions on one end and a big protrusion with puckers on the other and... it grabbed the kerbal and...

Why would you do that!? And how!?

It's like the universe... broke or something.

Poor, poor kerbal.

I gotta find out what that... kraken... was.

Lots of things I gotta find out. Lots. I think I need more kerbals still.

And some of them seem to be starting to learn. I mean a couple of them could have passed for clever.

You know what, this one here was one of the more clever ones, and willing to take risks.

Maybe I could remake that kerbal over and over, make it an inspiration to the other kerbals. That might help.

Again, with the naming things. It made a kind of "jebediah" sound when I pulled it from the muck. Jebediah it is.

Hello, Jebediah. Can you hear me? It's me, Kerbin.

...Drat. Try again.

Edited November 26, 2014 by LitaAlto
Fixed formatting.

[LitaAlto]

Kerbin here is both the name of the celestial body and of a massive sentient lifeform that covers most of Kerbin's surface and a good chunk of the oceans. Insofar as Kerbin is the creator of kerbals, Kerbin may be considered a sort of god, although not one in the supernatural sense of the term.

One thing to note is that Kerbin sentience is ancient. Very ancient--several hundred million years old at minimum. And given its size and age, time has a totally different meaning. The above took place over eons.

And yes, I was trying to make Kerbin sound a little like the typical KSP player.

And yes, that was a Judy Bloom reference.

Edited November 26, 2014 by LitaAlto

[KSK]

Hello, Jebediah. Can you hear me? It's me, Kerbin.

I see what you did there.

I'm enjoying this - hope there are more stories to come!

[Whirligig Girl]

I'm pretty sure there are cities, they just haven't been implemented yet. Like Earth in Orbiter 2010, where the land is flat, but it still represents the real Earth.

[KSK]

I'm pretty sure there are cities, they just haven't been implemented yet. Like Earth in Orbiter 2010, where the land is flat, but it still represents the real Earth.

I think so too, but I'm still enjoying this as backstory for the way the game looks right now. Alternatively, if puckers can't build cities, there's no reason kerbals can't - we just haven't got to that point in their history yet.

[LitaAlto]

I think so too, but I'm still enjoying this as backstory for the way the game looks right now. Alternatively, if puckers can't build cities, there's no reason kerbals can't - we just haven't got to that point in their history yet.

That's what I had in mind when I started writing all this up--how to account for the game as it currently stands. I'm sure that Squad will add features that will squash this headcanon like a kerb, but until then....

At this point in the story Kerbin hasn't had any dreams of the Long People yet. (That's us, BTW. And yeah, it's a hand-wavey way of dealing with references to human culture in the game. Deal. )

In the general story arc, Kerbin has a fair number of original ideas, but housing is an alien concept so far. So are rockets, but that will change.