Space Noise
"Wish I could go to space. I just want to be FULL of space."
Call it a contract.
A pact.
An accident.
Whatever it is that happened with that otherworldly being, Kitty Scott became something entirely unlike her previous self.
Unbound from the physical limitations of a human being, she can now survive in deep space without assistance. She also seems to have the ability to bend the space-time-gravity connection. And her voice is fucked up.
Anytime she speaks, there is a soft slightly uncomfortable three note harmony to her voice. A very low base and another just a couple notes above it.
When fighting, her entire person vibrates and releases even stranger noises which have various effects on her environment and those around her.
Kitty grew up in a town of around three thousand people and most of them knew her by name.
Her mother Alice was a stay at home mom, her father Kurt a local pastor. Their struggle to have kids was known throughout the town, and when, after ten years of trying, they had Katherine Dorothea Scott, everyone knew the child. A gift from God, they all said. Not.. you know... ten thousand dollars of IVF and counseling and a surrogate carrying the child. It was ... God.
Still, she was their child, made of their parts. Her room was decorated in the traditional pastel pinks and yellows befitting a girlchild. Along with a gift from her mother's brother. Adam was a man of science. He had long ago eschewed the trappings of religious beliefs to give himself over to space, with a degree in cosmology. Upon Katherine's birth, he returned for a visit with a lamp which would project their galaxy's stars on the ceiling in an accurate map.
A point of contention had begun when Katherine was six. She seemed to shy away from any hugs and touch. For a couple who had waited years to have a child, it hurt. Had they done something wrong? Why didn't she love them? They understood later, that she did.. she just didn't care for physical contact. That never stopped them from trying, hoping one day it would change. They loved HER, didn't that help?
She was a relatively easy child to raise otherwise, though with a small temper and a large precocious streak. It was the former that they struggled with. More often than not, her tantrums would begin when she couldn't fully understand something infront of her. She needed concrete answers. She disliked cartoons because they didn't make sense. Why would a guy be in a car that he had to run around with his feet? Why not walk? Didn't his feet hurt? Why was that dinosaur barking? Why was that roadrunner so large? How come it sounds like a car?
"It's just a cartoon, its supposed to be silly" was not a helpful explanation. She would insist more strongly for explanations. And then, inevitably, get angry. Only two things helped. The stars in her bedroom and talking to Uncle Adam. They only learned that Adam could help after a visit when Katherine was five. Able to answer her questions with a tone of voice which let her know he was taking her questions seriously. When he left, he left his phone number.
School proved to be difficult. She eagerly grasped subjects like math and science, but literature and art were way out of her purview. The teachers found her more often than not staring out of the windows instead of paying attention. Katherine has no desire to engage with the other students, and often dismisses the ideas of class as unsound. Her report cards were split between similar criticisms and praise at her ability to grasp maths and sciences, though often finishing her work too fast to stay focused.
She struggled through her entire elementary and middle school, and most of high school. Her sophomore year brought a new teacher who was able to see her struggles for what they were. A combination of autism and boredom. He began to reach out to different resources, contacting the nearby college for advanced science and maths classes she could audit. He helped her find coping mechanisms for the other classes, and encouraged her to be herself.
That year, she left the church. It had been a long time coming. Worshipping an invisible being for making everyone out of nothing made no sense. And killing himself to save everyone ...from himself? If he existed, wouldn't it just be easier if he had decided to simply not punish everyone for failing to uphold his ridiculous standards? Voicing her opinions led to a lot of fights at home, and increased time in her room.
Her reprieve came in the form of a summer trip to her uncle's.
Adam had, for the last fifteen years, been a devoted astrophysicist. The summer she visited, he had just accepted a position as a tenured professor at Berkeley. He had been eager to have Katherine visit, and with her increased defiance against her parents, he had finally gotten his wish. Katherine packed up her night light in the middle of all of her other things her parents insisted she take, and got on the plane.
They spent the summer visiting museums, natural parks, his job. The best, however was the stargazing at night. Adam had bought a piece of property with an old optical reflecting telescope. The joint effort of himself and several colleagues had brought it to working order. The two of them spent hours with the telescope. Showing Katherine how to use it, discussing what they saw, why things in space look how they do. It was the most relaxed she had ever been. And the most excited.
That summer, she read all of his research. Adam seemed to understand her. There were no jokes, no attempts to get her to be silly. Just understanding and the mutual adoration for space and knowledge. She decided to follow his footsteps and become an astrophysicist herself. But.. that could only work if she had access to better schooling.
After much consideration, and a lot of phone fights, the three adults decided that for her Senior year at school she could move in with Adam, taking early courses at Berkeley and transitioning into full time once she completed her necessary high school classes.
To say she was over the moon was not an exaggeration. Getting through her junior year was hard on everyone. Knowing what was coming made her impatient, and made Alice and Kurt more eager to help her behave and spend time with them. Everyone had a difficult time.
The change couldn't come fast enough. Katherine cared for her parents, but things were a lot easier without the pressure to return to the lord or their unending need for physical contact. Living with Adam, she seemed to bloom. She found her own sense of self, and though they may not have understood her entirely, her time at the college gave her friends who were more than happy to talk science and space.
WIP.