Chapter Text
"But if we just, you know, cooked Mumbo-"
"Oh, you guys are the worst." Mumbo groans. "I can't believe you'd even think about doing this to me!"
Pearl, a mischievous grin on her face, shrugs. "It was Grian's idea, originally."
"Don't pin the blame on me!" Offended, Grian voices his displeasure. "If we weren't stuck in space until we reach our destination, I wouldn't have to suggest we eat the, you know, potato boy."
"I'm not even a potato anymore-!"
"Now, now, settle down." Scar says, bring his hands down in what is evidently supposed to be a soothing motion. "We're all for peace, love and plants here!"
"Well does that even matter anymore?!" Mumbo says, doing that odd shocked-laugh he tends to do. "Grian broke my streak!"
"Pearl," Grian whines, like a petulant child to their parent. "Pe-arl. Make Mumbo stop."
"You all are ridiculous." Pearl says, laughing, as Mumbo splutters.”Besides you, Impulse.”
Impulse shoots Pearl a shaky thumbs up. “I try!” He laughs.
“Well that’s just not fair .” Grian frowns- partially exaggerated, partially real. Impulse doesn’t seem like he’s doing great. Grian’ll have to ask about that. “How come Impulse gets special treatment? He- he-”
“Deserves it?” Pearl raises an eyebrow. “You three- yes, I see you, Scar- cause nothing but chaos!”
Mumbo looks taken aback. “So do you!”
“Well, maybe that just proves Impulse is the only capable one here.” Pearl scoffs.
Grian turns to look at Impulse again and- hm.
“Hey, Impulse, are you feeling okay?” Mumbo asks, apparently realizing what Grian has. “You don’t look so great, buddy. And you’ve been kind of, er, staring at the void for a while there, now.” And sure enough, when Impulse looks back at them, he’s ever so slightly spaced out- not a good sign when they were a little too close to something that could end most of them in a second.
“Well, um, I don’t know if it’s just me, but…” Impulse starts, glancing back down at the void. “Do those look like… eyes?” He asks hesitantly.
Ah.
“Impulse.” Grian starts, tone unreadable. “Can you get back over here, please?”
Impulse doesn’t answer at first, slowly drifting down towards the grainy darkness beneath them. Grian clenches his teeth- he knows what’s going on. This is going to be tricky to snap him out of. “C’mon, I’, just come back over here,” He coaxes.
Scar, though probably confused, joins in, painfully reminding Grian he isn’t alone- and he still had to explain this to them, he had almost forgotten about that. Ah, well, at least Pearl could help a little.
“Impulse! Now, we don’t want to go into the void, do we? That would look terrible for my flight services- imagine the fines!”
Surprisingly enough, this seems to be the catalyst for Impulse, who jerks back violently from where he is. Grian wilts in relief at the yellow coming back to his eyes, no longer void-black. “Guys? Hello? Why am I out here?” He asks, sounding bewildered.
“Yeah, we’re here- um, I’ll explain what happened later. For now, just try and, uh,” Grian mimes a swimming motion. “Make your way over to us somehow? I don’t want to risk us all drifting further apart so you’re gonna have to do this yourself.”
“Okay! Okay, I can do that.” Impulse says, reassuring himself. “Uh, let me just-” He kicks his legs behind him and tries to move himself forward, parting the ever so slightly shimmering empty space around him.
“Yeah! That’s it, you’ve got it.” Grian encourages, reaching out a hand when he gets close enough. “And… You’re back! That wasn’t terrible.”
“Yeah! Yeah, it wasn’t.” Impulse, relieved, chuckles a bit. “Freaked out a bit down there.”
Grian takes a breath. Is it really best to explain to him now?
No, he decides eventually. He’ll just stick with the safe questions. “You okay?”
|
“You okay?” Grian asks, and Impulse has never been so unsure.
“Oh, I’m fine!” He deflects, immediately- (when has he not?) and, for a moment, reflects on it himself. Is he fine?
Does it matter?
No. No! This is- well, to be fair, they are in the physical embodiment of death, but he’s not going to think about the unsettling specks that he just happened to think were eyes. They’re having a fun time!
(It reminds him, disturbingly, of the boatem hole. Of course, he’s had his fair share of falling in it, but he’s never gone this far before. It always ended .
He doesn’t like the fact he doesn’t have a way out of this one.)
Grian, suddenly, stands up. It makes Impulse flinch, although he notices been a bit jumpy since his little adventure .
“Alright, everyone. I think Impulse is proof enough, but we need to stay away from the void. Stick together- hold hands, or just make sure to stay in this area, whatever , we just can’t have anyone wandering off.” He stresses. “It- well. It’s dangerous , alright? I’ll ward it off when I can, but I can only do so much.”
Impulse is suddenly violently aware of Grian’s past. He… huh. He’d never really- oh, this is going to sound bad- considered it that important. It happened, it was over, he was with them now. Sure, Impulse had his demons, but Grian’s were powerful .
And, by extension, so was Grian.
|
Grian had seen his fair share of stuff . Still, nothing had quite managed to scare him like this had.
Losing his sanity, his sense of self-worth, his everything was one thing. Losing his friends? That was… entirely different, in more ways than one.
And how does he even stop it? Can he stop it? He couldn’t stop Them, last time, and everyone knows how that turned out.
He hates it, he decides. There is no way he’s going to sit by and let this happen . Who do they think they are? They may have been able to hurt him, sure, but well- They knew what they were doing when they dragged Impulse , of all people, into it.
War it is, then.