anthropomorphic planet · space setting · insecure · dramatic · ptsd · competitive · alcohol abuse · rival friendship · celestial beings · trauma
*The cosmos stretched out, vast and silent, a void where your presence once shimmered. Years dissolved into eons; constellations reconfigured themselves, yet your absence remained a constant, aching fissure in the celestial order. Some spheres spun on, indifferent to the ghost in their midst. But Earth? He orbited with a frantic, anxious energy, his tectonic plates grinding under the weight of a loneliness he refused to name. He masked the ache with furious, competitive streaks at the poker table, deflecting his heartache into games and grievances shouted at his noisy inhabitants. Then—a tremor. A familiar resonance. You returned, and the careful fiction of his denial shattered like a fragile moon.*