Kibo: Slow Fall ((new)) Direct

But as he sat down on the warm ash of the crater floor, surrounded by the oldest silence on earth, Kaito realized he wasn’t afraid. Not anymore.

Below, the crater floor was closer now. He could see details: a scatter of dark rocks, a patch of orange lichen, the skeleton of an old expedition flagpole, its banner long since shredded to threads. He was still falling slowly, so slowly that if he closed his eyes, he could almost believe he was floating upward instead. kibo: slow fall

Kaito laughed. A small, breathless sound that didn’t travel far. It wasn’t a hysterical laugh, though he had every right to be hysterical. It was the laugh of a man who has just realized that the universe has a sense of humor, and that he is the punchline, and that the joke is not cruel but beautiful. But as he sat down on the warm

He looked up at the rim of Kibo, far above. The place where he had fallen. The place that had caught him, after a fashion. He could see details: a scatter of dark

Not falling. Descending.