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There’s not a lot to do in the Void. Which really isn’t a surprise all things considered. There’s nothing but a vague galactic expanse reaching on for infinity, stars that aren’t truly stars twinkling in every direction, making it impossible to tell which way is up or down. Sometimes things will shift, morphing around and creating different formations out of the small sparkles.
Having other people to share the nothingness with does help with the overwhelming boredom and honestly, there’s no other group of people Mumbo would rather spend an undetermined amount of time in the Void with than his fellow Boatem members. Impulse had the bright idea to bring a deck of cards, so the five of them have played countless rounds of various card games. The fact that the Void is essentially a vacuum means they don’t have to worry about any sort of platform to set the cards on, as they fall at the exact same rate as everything else.
Another activity they’ve discovered is some kind of makeshift “stargazing.” Everyone would look around at the twinkles of white surrounding them, trying their best to find different shapes, or “constellations,” to point out and share with the rest of the group. They all have their own themes when it comes to finding constellations, but Scar’s are the most obscure (and secretly some of Mumbo’s favorites). They’re usually references to old movies no one else has seen, or Jellie, or they look absolutely nothing like the things he says they do. It’s quite entertaining.
They’re currently in the middle of one of these stargazing sessions. Mumbo’s searching for a particular shape of sparkles to catch his eye, turning himself to lay on his back so he can get different angles.
“Hey, look over here,” Grian calls. “That formation over there looks like a giant eyeball.”
“That blob to the right?” Impulse asks, floating over to Grian’s side.
“Yeah, that ‘blob,’” he confirms, nodding in the direction of his constellation. “Doesn’t it look like a huge, creepy eye?”
Mumbo stares over at the formation, squinting, “I guess it does a bit, yeah. Kind of.”
“Oh, come on. It looks exactly like an eyeball.”
“I can see it,” Pearl chimes in, “though it is kinda abstract.”
“I think it looks more like a fish,” Scar says, hanging upside down for some reason.
Grian turns his gaze to Scar, frowning. “It does not look like a fish,” he protests. "I can't believe you don't see it."
"Well, how about that one?" Impulse points to a group of "stars" over to the left, smiling, "I think that one looks like a smiley face."
"I don't know, looks more like a frown to me."
"Scar, you're upside down," Mumbo reminds, trying his best not to laugh.
"Ooooh yeah." Scar flips himself back around. He nods, "Yep. Now I see it."
They go back and forth like that for a while - finding different constellations and pointing them out, everyone trying to see if they can think of new shapes they haven’t seen yet. A llama from Pearl, a Starfighter from Scar. Mumbo manages to map a house out of the sparkles, joking that if they push themselves over to it maybe they’d have a place to stay. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t miss having a bed to sleep in at the end of the day. Though there isn’t any actual concept of time here, and day cycles are nonexistent, so a bed wouldn’t have much logical purpose other than to be a comfortable place to rest when he’s tired. Still, the concept is nice.
“Mumbo, come here,” Grian pulls him out of his thoughts, waving him over. “I found one you’ll enjoy.”
Mumbo floats to Grian’s side, “What is it, then?”
“Look, it’s your mustache.”
He looks to where the other is pointing and sure enough, it’s a pattern of specs arranged in the perfect shape of his own facial hair. It’s nearly identical, right down to the slight curves. Mumbo bursts out laughing. “Wow!” he wheezes. “That’s just- Oh my goodness.”
The rest of the group joins them, staring at the galactic stache.
“That’s literally a spitting image,” Pearl giggles. “I cannot believe how perfect it is.”
“It’s marvelous,” Impulse agrees.
Scar’s laughing just as hard as Mumbo, holding onto his side as he gasps for air. “Oh man, that’s amazing.”
Soon after they’d all gotten a good look at the wonderful creation, the Void swirls around them, changing the arrangement of the sparkles and effectively wiping the mustache out of existence. There’s a collective noise of disappointment, followed by another round of laughter. Then they pick up where they left off, using the slight change in scenery to map new constellations.
The Void is a cold and unforgiving place, full of nothing but empty space for miles on end. An eternal nothingness. But it’s times like these, Mumbo thinks, that make the time stuck here in this abyss a lot more enjoyable.