Chapter Text
Ghost stands on their toes, staring into Impulse’s mirror. They straighten their cloak and brush their mask clean. They must look nice for when they meet these new friends! Otherwise they’ll be all wrong and messy. Usually Mama washes them up, but they’re an entire world away from her, so they’ll have to do it themself.
“Ghost?” Impulse says, opening the door. “What are you doing?”
Ghost turns their head, staring at him in confusion. They then remember that Impulse told them that he wasn’t a bug so he probably doesn’t clean up like this. They brush their arm across their mask, showing Impulse the tiny bristles.
“Oh, you’re grooming yourself, like Jellie!”
Ghost makes a curious sound. What’s a Jellie :o?
“Jellie is Scar’s cat, you’ll like her!”
What’s a cat? Ghost is sure it’ll be explained to them. If Impulse thinks it’s good, Ghost will like it too. Ghost trusts him :D!
Ghost stretches, brushing their cloak off. They give themself a thumbs up in the mirror. They hop down from the stool and follow Impulse out of the house. Tango had to go do something else, which makes Ghost both sad and curious, but Zedaph has stuck around to keep Ghost and Impulse company! Ghost likes Zedaph! With his pencil and paper and notes, he reminds them of Quirrel or Papa!
Ghost holds Impulse's hand as they walk toward the hole that Ghost came out of. Ghost can't get out of that! They tried! They can get out of the Void, but not the hole!
Three people are around the hole, chatting. One has feather wings, big bright colorful! Another has a fancy hat in a chair with wheels. Ghost has seen chairs with wheels before. They were in places in the City of Tears near some of the elevators. The last has long hair and a blue covering. Ghost recognizes them! That one is Pearl. They were there last night.
“Where's Mumbo?” Impulse asks.
“He's still in his base,” says the person with colorful feather wings. “Hopefully he'll come to properly meet the kid!” The person looks at Ghost and smiles. “Hello, I'm Grian! What's your name?”
Ghost chitters and signs their name.
Silence. “Sorry,” Grian says apologetically. “I don't know that kind of sign language.”
Ghost huffs, crossing their arms. "I don't want to speak Wastes’ Common,” they mutter in Voidtongue. "I want to sign or speak Voidtongue.”
Grian whistles in response. “That's… Certainly a language.”
“You can't speak it?” the person in the wheelchair says. “I thought Watchers knew everything.”
“That's a bit of an overstatement, as a collective group we know a lot, individually I just know a bit more than the average Player.”
Watcher? Like Lurien? But there's only one Watcher. That's silly. These guys make no sense!
“This is Ghost,” Impulse says. “They're the child that climbed out of the Boatem Hole.” Impulse rubs his hand between Ghost's horns. “Ghost, this is Grian, he lives in that house over there.” Grian bows, wings ruffling behind him. “That's Pearl, she lives next to the ocean.” Pearl beams, waving slightly. “That's Scar, he-”
:O!!! Scar! The crutches! Ghost chirps, hopping over to him. They reach into their Void Storage and Scar jerks back for just a second. They pull the crutches out and hold them out to him, a happy chitter rolling in their Void.
“Oh, you have my…! Crutches…?” Scar's eyes narrow in confusion. “Where on earth did you get these?”
Ghost doesn't say words, but they make the same noise as the Void tendrils. That should suffice, right? Clearly that's a Void noise.
“That's interesting!” Scar says. “Don't know what that means.”
“Void,” they say simply. It would make sense that these people have never seen a Void tendril if they aren't made of Void. They wouldn't get close enough to the Void Sea without getting sick.
“Void,” Scar repeats. “At the bottom of the Boatem Hole?”
Is that what this big hole to the Void is called? Ghost nods and gives Scar a thumbs up.
“Should that be possible?” Scar asks Grian.
“How should I know that? I don't specialize in Player types.” At Scar's pout, Grian sighs. “Only if they're Voidkind. But rescuing items is not something they should be able to do.”
These guys are so silly. Of course you can rescue items from the Void! They're usually just icky and covered with Void and need to be cleaned. These things were really clean though, not a speck of Void on them. Which Ghost was a little sad about. Void is tasty :]! Tiso says if they eat enough they'll grow big and strong like Dusk.
“Where's Mumbo? I want to properly introduce them to each other.”
There is silence for a moment. A new song starts. Ghost thinks the music of this world is pretty. They wonder if anyone else can hear it or if it's still only them.
A person swoops in, wings closing as they land. Their wings are more like a beetle’s, clear with a covering, than Grian's, Zedaph's, or Impulse's. The person is yellow and lumpy, like the mushroom people. He is wearing blue and red. This is Mumbo! He was there last night. Ghost remembers. His feelers are all bushy and thick and short, how can he use those for anything? :/ So silly, these “players”.
Mumbo removes his wings and Ghost shrieks in alarm. D:!!! They dash to him, looking up at him in alarm. Is he okay?! Wings don't usually shed unless it's molting time! He just removed them! Void pools at the edge of their eyeholes as they gingerly hold his hands and his wings.
“Erm, hello,” Mumbo says awkwardly. “Are you alright?”
Is Ghost alright?! Mumbo's wings were the ones that fell off!!! They keen, holding the wings up.
“My elytra? What about it?”
His elytra, why use the fancy name for them? His wings fell off and he's not even worried about it! Is he in shock?! Ghost wraps their arms around him, patting his back gingerly.
“...Oh, thank you?” Mumbo rubs Ghost's head. With that Player magic, he makes his wings disappear. “I don't understand but thank you anyway!”
A short awkward silence. “Ghost,” Impulse says. “This is Mumbo. He lives in that giant mountain with the statue on top.”
“You could have finished it correctly,” Grian complains. “You didn't even use all the correct blocks.”
“At the least the back is finished,” Mumbo says back.
Ghost is distraught. Why is this not a problem?! Did Mumbo never have wings? Why did he have these if they weren't his wings?
Mumbo awkwardly kneels, wrapping his arms around Ghost. He's very tall. Not as tall as Dusk or Grimm, but maybe as tall as Uncle Ogrim (but not as round). “Um, I'm very sorry if anything I did upset you? If there's anything I can do to make you feel better, just let me know?”
Ghost imitates a sniffle (it's what Myla does after she has a cry) and gives Mumbo a hug as well. If Mumbo is okay with no wings, Ghost will try to be okay with it too.
Behind them, the adults are talking about something but they don't really care what it is.
“Zed, don't write ‘Mumbo is so pathetic Ghost cried at the sight of him,’ that is NOT the reason.”
“Okay but do you know the reason?”
“It's not because he's pathetic!”
“He is pathetic though.”
“Grian!”
Mumbo releases Ghost from the hug, patting them on the head. “I would like to argue that I'm not pathetic but I don't think it would go over well.”
Ghost goes to stand next to Zedaph, holding onto his wing loosely. Zedaph smiles and pats Ghost's head, tucking his clipboard beneath one arm. “I guess you'll just have to tell us later, huh?”
Ghost chitters in agreement, nodding sagely. They hope Zedaph can't take off his wings! That would be sad!
Scar gestures at himself, rolling his chair forward. “Well, I would like to give you a wonderful welcome to Boatem, Ghost! Enjoy your stay here! The Swaggon is always here to help you!”
Grian laughs, folding his arms. “Don't try to scam a child!”
Ghost doesn't know what scam means. That's a fun word though :D! Scam. Scam scam scam! Fun sounds! They gently brush their mitten fingers through Zedaph's wings.
Then something screams.
Something ripples through Ghost's Shade, a sound more felt than heard. They whip their head around, turning towards it. The sound ripples through the Void again, scraping at the inside of their shell like a baldur.
It's the same sound that Dusk made when they were finally falling to the Radiance. A sibling’s call of pain that ricochets through the Void, a call for aid.
There's a sibling out there in pain. A sibling Ghost needs to find. Ghost turns away from the group of adults who can't hear the Void's call.
“Ghost?” Zedaph says. “What's wrong?”
Ghost croons “Sibling” in Voidtongue. Then they charge up their crystals and take off. The adults call after them but they do not answer.
They climb over a mountain, dashing through orange sand and past brown spikes. Something goes fwee! overhead but Ghost does not look up. They are focused on the call of a sibling.
Ghost enters a town made of dark rocks and dashes down the paths, looking around for the sibling. Xisuma is nearby, talking to someone in armor like his, except they don't have a full head mask, only a mask covering the bottom half of their face. They have hair, long white stringy, tied up in a squitstail.
Ghost is confused. The new sibling is the one that called for help. But they look fine? Why are they just standing? Ghost squints their Shade’s eyes, staring at the new sibling.
Xisuma notices them. “Ah, hello Ghost!” he says cheerfully, a tad confused. “What are you doing here?”
The other sibling turns and Ghost flinches back only slightly. Their head is surrounded by Nightmare Essence and their eyes glow a slightly sickly green. “This is the new Player?” they say smoothly.
Whoever that is is NOT supposed to be there!!!
“Yes! Ex, this is Ghost. Ghost, this is my sibling, Evil Xisuma.”
Not-Evil Xisuma smiles behind their mask. “Pleasure to meet you.”