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There once was a story, a story of a little star boy. With eyes filled with wonder and a heart so full of pride he became the first boy to reach Mars. With a family by his side they set up a place, the future for all Mars born citizens to come.
But it wasn’t enough for our little star boy, no, he wanted more. More planets, more galaxies, more stars .
Poor little star boy grew angry with the worlds. How can he be happy if none of them were his? He deserved it, he was a great little star boy after all. And so one night he stole a ship and sailed across dark matter, across the emptiness of space.
Little star boy saw things, crazy and unreal things. Creatures of scales who ran markets, ones who had gills on their sides and ones who spoke a language he’d never known. But the creatures soon saw him also and were interested in him. They’ve never seen such an alien before and so grew closer.
Little star boy was scared and so he took out a dagger his pop gave him for his birthday that year. Little star boy hurt what was innocent and humanity paid the price.
There once was a little star boy, a human to doom the rest, with eyes filled with horror at things he’d never seen; he had died with all the rest.
So thanks little star boy for your adventurous ways, but before you go killing, think of the orphaned aliens you leave laying in wait.
The time read 8:34, but he could never really tell.
With the soft creaking of metal and the unnatural gravity of living on a spaceship you get used to not actually knowing the time. This was just the time he and the rest of his crew mates have settled their sleep schedule around.
So Ranboo was up at 8:34 walking the halls of the shuttle. There wasn’t much to do right now as they were between planet hopping at the moment. It’s what he would call calm or slow days. He appreciated them, more so after the last planet they had to travel to for a supply run.
A shiver runs down his spine at the thought. If he saw cheese it would be too soon. Ranboo shakes the evil thoughts out of his head as he lets out a yawn into his hand. With it being a slow day that meant he could do anything he wanted. And today that meant cutting his unruly and now long hair.
Ranboo doesn’t even remember the last time he had a hair cut was, probably before he even met the Lapetus crew. He smiles to himself as he turns down hall after hall. He’s stopped on his way down to the common room by growling, which would have been alarming if it wasn’t for the fact he hadn’t had breakfast yet.
Okay so a slight detour, hair cutting will have to wait. Ranboo instead of going right turned left down another hall. His stomach was making a fuss the whole time. He soon came across a plated door, a symbol he still doesn’t fully understand the meaning of painted onto the light grey metal.
On the side of it sat a hand pad. It was big even for his large hand size. He raises his palm, pressing it gently to the cold surface. A blue light emits from it and begins to scan his hand. After around ten seconds it shuts off, the gears and mechanics within the door clicking and snapping. The door slides open.
Ranboo moves forward without thought, the almost silent door closing behind him. He stops mid walk though, eyes catching onto a tall figure sat at the table. “Hello.” He waved, continuing to head over to the cupboards.
Sam looks up from his mug of- actually, he has no idea what the other was drinking. Instead of a deep or light brown he would suspect from morning drinks it was a dark pink liquid. Sam doesn’t mention the confusion lacing his face as he swings open a cupboard. They're all used to confusion now. “Morning Ranboo.”
The creeper waves with his two bottom hands. The other two being used to cradle his steaming drink. “Did you sleep well youngling?” The alien asks as he pulls out a box of cereal. His name scribbled down it multiple times in multiple languages. Human foods were hard to come by, nothing much of humans reached out here. His kind kept to themselves, masking in a way that could only spell trouble.
So anything that’s actually human was Ranboo’s so that included this very high in sugar cereal Phil always made weird faces at when he eats. “Yea, no nightmares.” Ranboo replies to the other as he gets a bowl, fork and milk. It’s not necessarily the truth, he did have a nightmare, it’s just he wasn’t scared of it.
Something can only play so many times until you become unseated to it. After getting his breakfast Ranboo quickly puts everything away and heads over to sit across from the other. “That’s good.” Sam says after he gets settled, bringing his drink up to sip at it. It smells like flowers, was it some kind of tea?
Sam wasn’t one for conversations in the mornings, he was more of a night person. Which on a spaceship never really made sense, but Ranboo didn’t feel a reason to point it out. If he wanted an excuse to not socialize he wasn’t going to stop the man. Silence forms between the two, like a soft mist. It wasn’t awkward, the opposite really. Not even in space does anyone really have time to sit down and relax.
If it wasn’t a mission then something was wrong, if something wasn’t wrong something needed to be fixed or cleaned and if all of that wasn’t in play then their sister ship with the Mimas crew was visiting. And the Mimas crew had Tommy and Tubbo on board, so any plans for the day would have gone out the window instantly.
But nothing was happening today, a weird sort of boredom falling upon his shoulders. So Ranboo ate in the rare silence, the taste of artificial fruits on his tongue. After he was finished he stood up and rinsed out his dishes in the sink. The cluttering of bowls and forks caused Sam to look over at him. “You're in a rush.” He notes, mug now placed back on the table, empty.
“I have things to do.” Ranboo shrugs as he wipes his hands on his pants. Sam stares at him for a couple seconds, blinking slowly. That was the thing with Sam, he wasn’t in any rush if he didn’t need to be. With the job of being the ship's engineer he spent most time lounging around when no one needed him. With the many scars cutting through his scaled and hardened skin showing past Battles he thinks that this is some kind of retirement for the alien.
Ranboo never asked about the scars, but Sam never really hid them either. He was a strange man, that’s for sure. “What kind of things?” He asks as he makes his way over to the door.
“Just some self hygiene.” He shrugs, palm pressing against the door's lock. Sam tilts his head, black void like eyes staring back at him.
“Alright.” The older hums as the door slides open. “Have fun.” Ranboo nods to that as he waved goodbye to the other. The door slides shut behind him as he walks back down the hall. Now with his stomach full Ranboo heads right to the common room. Scissors shouldn’t be too hard to find…right?
There's a bunch of junk shoved in the corner of the large room that’s bound to have something. Ranboo makes it to the common room, this particular room didn’t have a door and so he just walked in. A couple heads turned to him as he entered, all expressions varying.
Phil was on this oval shaped couch, hands stilling on his wings as he peers up at him. He recognizes the pillow and blanket stuffed space as one of Phil’s many nests littered around the ship. The very owl-like alien smiled at him, letting out a soft whistle sound. Ranboo’s quick to remember the direct meaning of the sound.
It’s something on the lines of “ This is a good morning ” which he just thinks is just a hello in English but with extra steps. Ranboo does a very poor imitation of the whistle, not being able to go as high as he needs to for it to sound anything close to Phil’s. The elytrian grins anyways, wings bobbing in satisfaction.
Techno was reading on one of the more normal couches. Who only glanced up for a second to see who had come in. Once seeing it was Ranboo the other man grunted in greeting. He didn’t care for one back and so went back to his book. Which might he add was a funny scene to look at considering how large the older was holding such a small book.
The last crew mate that was in the common room was Puffy. Who had scrolls littered across the table. Ranboo didn’t bother to see what they were about, there was no way they were in English or Space Common. It was clear by the way the words were cured to hell and back, blending together in a sort of art piece. “Hello Ranboo.” She waved, looking up from her work.
“Hey.” He waved back, eyes scanning the room for the pile of junk they seem to keep in here. Puffy seemed to see he was occupied and so went back to what she was doing before. After the greetings were out of the way he crossed the room and to the many boxes piled on top of each other.
With a sigh he got to work looking through the boxes. It was easier said than done with how much was in here. The whole time his hair was tickling the back of his neck like it was mocking him. It was long enough to put into a ponytail, which he hated . Ranboo had always hated having long hair, he didn’t care for it and all it did was give him more to brush.
It’s weird that he hasn’t done this sooner. After around twenty minutes of rummaging he caught sight of what looked like scissors. Ranboo took it out of the box he was just in, turning it around in his hand. “Hey uh, are these scissors?” He speaks up, looking over at the others.
Puffy looked up from her work, scanning what he had before turning back to her scrolls. “Yep.” Is all she said, seemingly distracted. He hummed as he looked at them once more, trying to see if they were sharp enough to get the job he needed done.
The handles were black, two holes in the middle of a flat surface presumably for his fingers. The blade itself wasn’t anything he’s seen back on Mars. It was rectangular shaped, sleek red blades. The weirdly coloured metal he was used to seeing. Sam would sometimes show him the pipes and cooling systems of the ship when he was doing checks over their systems.
A lot of things in space were made out of this dark red metal, something about abundancy. “Mind I ask what you're doing?” Phil speaks up from his nest. Ranboo looks over, watching as Phil flexes his wings behind him.
“Oh I’m just going to cut my hair.” He says while gesturing to the long brownish blondish mess that was his hair with his new found scissors. The room stills at his sentence, Phil’s wings stopping mid flex, Techno’s fingers stopping in turning his pages and Puffy’s hand having stopped writing on her papers.
Ranboo furrows his brows for a second as the three adults all look at him. The scene was like a horror movie, his friends having been possessed by some ghost bent on causing havoc for the crew. Phil makes a low crooning sound, clicking cracking between the drawn out call. His once and laid down feathers puff up as all four of his eyes widen.
The sound was one of those Ranboo hadn’t been taught yet, like many of Phil’s whistles, calls and clicks. But he can guess it wasn’t a good sound by the way the other two straightened up in their seats. The once calm Techno was now tense, ears flicked upwards to hear things better from long ranges.
Even Puffy who had once been distracted was alirt, eyes seemingly also on him. He couldn’t really tell by the fact she didn’t have eyes that were visible to him. Her face was a brown hard surface that at two points grew up into goat-like horns. It was blank, unreadable. “Pardon?” She says, hand twisting the pencil she was holding.
Ranboo looks at all three, lowering the scissors to his side. “Uh, I’m going to cut my hair?” He questions himself, wondering what part of his sentence before has them so on edge. “…with the scissors.” He adds on, just in case he was going to cut it with something else. He knows these might not be the right tools but it’s all he could find-
“Why on the nine gods would you do that!?” Phil practically squawks as he leaps to his tallened feat. He’s so worked up he looks like a big fluff ball, and Ranboo would have chuckled at the display if it wasn’t for the context. He doesn’t get time to explain before Puffy gets to her hooves and runs over, her hands taking his, being mindful at the sharp scissors he has in his left one.
Phil’s by her side in seconds, hands reaching over to cup both of his cheeks. “Oh I’m sorry I haven’t noticed, but you don’t need to do this!” Puffy yells, and if she had eyes he thinks they would be watering. “You could have come and talked to me about this.” She adds on.
Phil nods, rubbing his feathered thumb across his cheek in a soothing gesture. “If you were unhappy with your down you could have said something mate. But hurting yourself isn’t the answer.” What…
“I’m not going to-“ Ranboo’s cut off by Techno walking over, who stops just behind Phil. He’s easy to see as he was the tallest out of everyone here.
His eyes are scanning his in seconds, a loud chuff-chuff-chuff sound coming deep from the piglin’s chest. “Let’s just let go of the scissors piglet and we can talk about this.” Techno says, sounding way too scared for Ranboo just wanting short hair.
He stares at all three of them with wide eyes, wondering when things have gone wrong. He usually chalks it up to the moment his pod got captured by a bunch of alien criminals, but he doesn’t think that’s the case here. They were acting like he was holding a gun! “There’s nothing to talk about?” He says, which with three adult aliens talking nonsense around him might not have been the best idea.
All three of them start talking, calls being let out by Phil, Puffy’s hooves thumping against the ground and Techno’s chuff-chuff-chuff rising in loudness. Ranboo catches a few words like “There’s definitely something to talk about.” And “If I knew you felt this way I would have come to you.”
His mind blurs with trying to understand all of them, head reeling as Puffy slips the scissors out of his hand and as Phil uses one of his wings to cover his back as he’s pulled towards his nest. “Okay wait!” Ranboo yells, pulling out of the other's grip. He’s trapped by the wings behind him, but at least he’s not being held. “What’s going on!?”
The three pause in there panic, now all staring at him. Phil looks like he’s about to cry, Puffy looks like she’s already crying with her shaking shoulders and Techno looks like he’s about to commit solar crimes. “…you were going to cut your hair.” Techno says, sounding pained.
“Ya? It’s gotten too long.” He says bluntly, going up to tug at it. The strands are easy to grab and show them. At their puzzled looks, something clicks in his mind. “I think you guys have the wrong idea.” Which to them means this is totally normal and or safe for me but no one else understands.
Puffy’s the first one to clue in, shoulders untensing as she takes a step back. “Is humans…cutting their hair normal?” She asks hesitantly, silently clueing the others in on the misunderstanding. Ranboo just nods, not knowing what else to say. Do they not cut their hair?
“Isn't it painful?” Phil asks, wing holding him close in nervousness. He lets out a short and deep voiced chirp. It basically translates to “ worried for chick. ” Or “ scared for chick. ” Ranboo guesses it doesn’t matter which one it is.
“No.” He says, looking as all three of them finally relaxe. “Human hair grows back, it never really stops growing until you get older. I just don’t like mine long so I cut it.” He explains, to which they all nod.
“So it just doesn’t stop growing?” Techno asks, looking just about mortified.
“Nope.” Ranboo replies. He pops the ‘p’ for extra pzazz . “So can I have my scissors back?” Puffy reluctantly hands them over, the three adults going back to where they were before. The morning drowsiness had gone sometime searing the whole event, leaving them fiddling and fidgety.
Ranboo goes to head to a washroom to start cutting his hair when a quick grunt catches his attention. He turns to see Techno staring at him, hand resting off on the spot beside him and Puffy. No words need to be said to get the olders point across and so he walks over, sitting down beside the two. “Cut your hair here.” He says.
It was said with a deep warning grumble, mostly used when Techno doesn’t want to repeat himself. But with the way his book was closed and he nudged himself closer to Ranboo, he thinks the other was still worried. “It’ll get everywhere.” He notes, to make sure they want to deal with that.
“I don’t care.” Techno says as he turns back to his book. Ranboo can feel his long whip-like tail move around his stomach. The tuff part at the end rubbing his leg in a soothing motion. He smiles as he holds up the scissors.
Everyone in the room seems to hold their breath as Ranboo gathers his hair into one fist. He lifts the scissors and lines it up around the length he wants before he has to clean it up in front of a mirror. Footsteps make someone known and they all turn there’s heads over to the entrance way.
There walks in Sam, a smile on his face. Ranboo makes eye contact with him, Sam looking confused as to the silent staring. Then his eyes widen in horror, mouth opening to say something then-
Snip
A piece of Ranboo’s hair falls. The hissing sound of a panicking creeper in the only thing that warns them before-
BOOM
The common room is filled with smoke and the coughing fits start. Ranboo is left covering his mouth as Phil shoves all of them out of the room, faces covered in soot and gunpowder.
Sam is left past-out on the floor. Later they end up explaining humans and cutting their hair to the explosive alien, but for now they cough and cover their faces to try and not breach any of the smoke in, running down the hall and away from the ash that covers their common room.