Chapter Text
"Thanks, man!" Impulse said, thanking the moustached brit for un-oxidizing the copper on his starter base. "I probably gotta get some - honey comb, right? - to wax it."
"Yeah, yeah." Mumbo nodded in confirmation. "And then it'll stay."
Two of the boatem members were just chatting between their base, exchanging casual laughs and giggles.
"Very cool, good to know," the brunet stated lightheartedly.
"Yep- Tips with Mumbo." The other man laughed.
"Yeah, exactly." Impulse smiled. "Nice 1.17 tutorial, I needed it-"
"WELL I'M SORRY THEN! WHAT DID YOU WANT ME TO DO? JUST SOMEHOW HELP YOU ALL OUT EVEN THOUGH I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHERE I WAS MYSELF?"
Both jumped as they heard distant shouting. They turned to see two other boatem members, screaming at each other at the top of their lungs, near Grian's base.
"I don't kNOW?" Pearl argued back, her voice sounding uncharastically loud. "MAYBE AT LEAST TRY TO SEE WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WORLD? YOU KNOW, SINCE YOU WERE LITERALLY THE OWNER OF IT?"
Mumbo and Impulse glanced at each other, hesitant on whether or not they should try to intervene.
"OH YES, BECAUSE I WAS ALWAYS THE GREATEST OWNER, WASN'T I?! DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY DID TO ME AFTER?"
"OH I DON'T KNOW, BUT CAN IT BE ANY WORSE THAN WHAT THEY DID TO THE WORLD!?"
"YES PEARL, IT CAN!" There was silence for a few seconds, while Pearl and Grian stared at each other for a moment. Then, Grian averted his gaze.
"...So you value the world above me, huh? You don't care about me, I get it."
"I- Grian, that's not what I meant-"
"Forget it, you wouldn't understand anyways. You don't care about me, that's fine."
Pearl looked somewhere between wanting to cry or retort, but was struggling to find what to say. Grian, on the other hand, had a blank expression, but from the tone of his voice you'd think he felt hurt.
Something sounded slightly off to Impulse, but he put it down to the heightened emotions in the situation. He didn't know what the two were arguing about, but it seemed pretty crucial and important to the both, and yet, he knew he needed to break it off before it escalated.
"Heyyy!! G-man!" Impulse said as cheerily as he possibly could, deciding to intervene and pull Grian out of that situation. "Am I allowed to show you something-? I just finished the skeleton spawner earlier, maybe you want to check that out?"
Grian nodded eagerly, glad to be out of that conversation, and approached the brunet, now ignoring the obviously also shaken up Pearl. Pearl had only just joined, and Impulse didn't really know much about her except that she was stubborn and clumsy, but for now, he just wanted to make sure that the first day of the new server wasn't immediately going to be the end of it, he didn't want it going downhill that fast.
He briefly glanced to Mumbo, silently telling him to maybe check up on Pearl, before turning to go with Grian to the spawner.
The second Grian was out of Pearl's view, he seemed slightly more relieved, although his breathing was still shaky.
"You okay, G?" Impulse asked once they neared the spawner.
"Yeah... I'm fine." Impulse wasn't convinced by the statement, and Grian didn't seem too sure in his words himself.
"If you say so, I guess... but I just want you to know that, whatever happened, I'm here to listen if you ever want to talk about it."
The other stayed silent for a little, but eventually nodded. "...Thanks."
Impulse faintly smiled. "Anytime."
He glanced over the shorter hermit, before realising that there were hints of blood seeping onto his jumper - which admittedly was harder to notice due to its colour. It was even more evident on the backside, where it was trickling down to his trousers.
He froze. "Hang on- are you injured?"
Grian shrugged in response, not seeming to care that much.
"Can I see-? I won't if you don't want me to, though, I just want to make sure you're alright."
Grian hesitated for a second, before reluctantly nodding. "Fine- but not here."
Impulse nodded in agreement and continued walking, his concern only slightly eased by Grian's willingness.
"How's the season going so far for you?" He asked in an effort to break the silence.
"It's going alright, I guess. I just really wasn't expecting-" Grian suddenly cut himself off mid sentence.
"Expecting what?"
"...I just didn't think Pearl would be here, not after what she-" Grian cut himself off again. "...Nevermind."
Impulse was tempted to push further, but after the amount Grian had already divulged (intentionally or not), he thought it's best not to pry any further. The silence continued until they finally reached the spawner.
"Did you hear about last season, when I made that spawner under Scar's snail?" Grian sniggered to start another conversation as they walked down to the skeleton spawning area.
"The story was all over the server, Scar insisted that the spawner wasn't there before, but it clearly was if you found it." He hummed.
"I mean, it's not as if it just magically appeared out of nowhere - plus it's Scar we're talking about, he probably just missed it." Grian laughed.
"Do you think magic's even real?" He randomly asked to keep the casual talk going.
Grian seemed to hesitate for a brief second, but then talked again in a light-hearted tone. "Nope, but Scar thinks so. Admins don't use magic, they use coding, which is like, 90% of his argument. But even if admins did use magic, I doubt his so-called 'Magic crystals' would suddenly work."
Impulse held back a laugh. "Scar believes in tons of old myths, doesn't he? Like the seers or something."
Grian's expression flashed for less than a second, whether it was out of recognition or trying to hold back a laugh, Impulse couldn't tell.
"Literally, every story like that is just to keep young children from wandering too far away, he probably would still believe it. He's so gullible." This time, Impulse didn't laugh. Maybe it was the slight hint of malicion in Grian's voice, but that was probably just his imagination. He forced out a nervous chuckle.
"Can I just check your wound? Mostly for peace of mind really," Impulse said, changing the subject as they reached the spawner area.
Grian hesitated, his eyes flicking around uncertainly, as if for reassurance. "Fine, whatever."
His breath coughed when Impulse pulled up the jumper. Impulse's eyes widened as he took in the amount of blood, cuts, and bruises just barely hidden underneath the clothing, some were even moderately deep wounds. All of them were bleeding.
"What the hell-? What happened-?" Pure panic evident in his voice. "And wait- how did you even do that-? How could you just walk around normally, 'cause that's gotta really hurt!"
Grian shrugged again, but this time, he winced slightly. "Ender Dragon fight happened- and it does hurt, I'm just a good actor."
"Were you just planning on walking around with these-? Why didn't you try healing up or treating these?"
"Well- I was gonna," The shorter muttered. "But then Pearl said she needed to talk with me - and she 'needed to talk now', so I just quickly changed clothes so it wouldn't look like I just came from a warzone."
Impulse just shook his head, sighing. "We need to get you healed up, like- right now, before you lose too much blood."
"Now-?" Grian repeated, blinking. "But, you said you wanted me to take a look at the spawner-"
"Your wellbeing is more important than the spawner!" Impulse stressed. "Just- let's go to my starter base real quick, I'll patch you up."
"I'm fine!" He hissed as Impulse started lightly dragging him by the arm.
"No you're not! You're my friend, and I am not going to just leave you to bleed to death."
After he said that, Grian tensed up for a second, but stopped struggling. With a sigh, he just quietly nodded.