Summary: Not everyone adjusts well to being unceremoniously ejected from a collective simulation. Even if it only lasted for approximately 6 months ship time, it certainly felt a lot longer. Some of the adjustments that need to be made are minor in nature. Others… are a bit more serious and require outside assistance which youd think would be hard to come by in space.
Look familiar? Unedited Pt 1, Unedited Pt 2,
Read the edited version on AO3
Tango spread his fingers against the glass his hand flexing absently as he greedily drank in the sights of his friends and family. He couldn’t tell if the relief that he was feeling was from the simple joy that his family were all in fact alive and in, uh, various states of wellness or from the more selfish realization that he hadn’t failed in his quest to blow up the moon. The simulation had ended quite abruptly, moments before moon-fall. If Tango had to guess, the resulting cataclysm had catapulted them back into their bodies and awareness of the real world without so much as a by your leave. From his vantage point it was very obvious that some of them had not handled the transition well at all.
His eyes drifted down the line of Hermits as they all waited, with varying levels of patience, for the Pods to finish draining and equalize to the internal atmosphere of the Hermitheius. Bdubs was pressed up against the glass, as close as he could get to the center of the room and by default the rest of the hermits, eyes wider than normal. Their gazes met and Bdubs’ grin nearly split his face in two, eyes watering. Tango flashed him a quick smirk and a thumbs up. His focus wandered again, this time seeking out the third member of their trio. Keralis was sitting peacefully on the floor of his own pod making faces at XB, but he offered a wave of his own when Tango managed to catch his eye. Basemates accounted for, Tango turned his attention to the rest of his friends. From where he was already looking, it was easiest to find Zedaph, skipping over and noting a few empty pods in the process. He’d been a bit concerned for Zed, isolated as he had been for the entirety of the simulation but there was no way to tell what was going through his buddy’s head normally let alone right now. In fact, Zed was still sitting back to the room and staring out the window closest to his pod into the void of space, just as he had been since Tango had awakened.
A fine mist of condensation floated across the room before dissipating. Tango traced it to its source finding what looked like a joyous cacophony of noise as Bdubs’ upon release from his pod had launched himself into the arms of a mildly surprised Etho. Tango was unsure exactly why as he had spotted the other man hovering near Bdubs pod for as long as he had been aware. Etho hadn't been the only one present either, even if he was the only one currently lingering. Iskall, Stress, Wels and TFC had left the simulation early and Tango had seen all of them as they wandered through, checking in on everyone before wandering off again. Wels had even stopped to chat when Tango had waived him down while waiting for his pod to finish draining.
It was hard to communicate through glass without communicators but luckily his pantomimes and pidgin sign language had been fairly easy to understand. At least Wels had gotten the gist of what Tango wanted to know, and had been fairly obliging in his explanations. The five hermits who had ended up leaving the simulation early had simply opted to remain out of the simulation rather than constantly hopping back in and out again during the long trip to Season 8. He’d also managed to convey that he and Stress had had been working on a project with Iskall. It was when Renbob had wandered through that Wels had left to chase the hippie back to his bed. Tango wasn’t put off by the abrupt ending to their acted out conversation. Earlier Wels had indicated that both Renbob and the Goatfather had worked themselves to exhaustion trying to make sure that Boatem had made it out safely as they had been last group to get booted. It had been a much more complicated and trying process than anyone had been prepared for and none of them were sure exactly where the problem had originated. Something, something, resetting respawns, sleep deprivation and maybe the void but there wasn't much of a chance for any elaboration before Wels darted off to play nurse in shining armor.
Even with the heads up, Tango would have probably been the most concerned about the members of Boatem. Pearl had swum to the top of her half-drained pod and was floating on her back, legs pressed up against the glass and watching the room upside down seemingly giggling at random. Scar seemed entirely unperturbed and unphased as he waited for his pod to drain, not that he was paying any attention to the rest of the group. Instead, he was sitting cattywampus on the floor of his pod, legs stretched out in front of him, cooing at Jelly who was batting ineffectually at his fingers through the glass. Mumbo on the other hand was standing straight up in the dead center of his pod, nervously running his hands through his hair and avoiding all eye contact despite the fact that he couldn’t seem to stop glancing around at all the people in the room with the exception of Grian. Speaking of Grian, he was also standing in the center of his pod, blank and expressionless, seemingly staring through everything but still watching it all. It was rather eerie and reminded Tango uncomfortably of how Grian had been when he had first joined their merry band of misfits. Still, that was a problem for another time and quite possibly another bunch of hermits. Tango was going to have his hands full as it was, trying to help Zed who was still staring out the window; and that didn’t even account for Impulse.
Out of everyone, it was Impulse who was concerning Tango the most not that he could put his finger on what exactly was sending up the alarm bells. He didn’t look worse off than anyone else in Boatem sitting as he was on the far side of his pod. His buddy was slouched slightly with his back against the glass and one arm loosely resting on a bent knee. From where he was across the room, it was impossible to make out any sort of expression on Impulse’s face but from how it rested against the glass, turned upwards and eyes closed it was probably safe to assume that there wasn’t one.
Tango frowned slightly, as he made eye contact with Jevin and gestured over at Impulse. Jevin thankfully, got the picture and after a moment put his hands together on one side of his tilted head in a pantomime of sleep. Tango let out a sigh of relief but his worry did not abate and he continued to stare. While he wanted his buddy to get some much-needed rest, really Mumbo how was sleep deprivation supposed to help prevent Moon Big at all, Devs sometimes Boatem made him despair, something was still wrong. Something just… felt off. He could feel it in his bones, as Impulse would say. Still, he couldn’t put his finger on what exactly it was.
Another puff of condensation due to the release of pressurized air floated through the room. Another Hermit’s pod had finished equalizing. Probably Cub? Tango glanced over, and yep, that was definitely Cub, sharp teeth, tattered wings and overly blue eyes and all, moving as if he was expecting there to be simultaneously more and less gravity than there actually was. That was certainly interesting. Hadn’t Cub also attempted to escape Moon-fall by going to space? Thoughts wandering, Tango jumped when his gaze returned to Impulse only to find one cracked eye blearily peering at him.
Tango couldn’t help himself as he threw his arms up and cheered, “IMPULSE! Hey! There you are!”
There was no response, not that Tango had expected one. He knew Impulse wouldn’t be able to hear him but still a wave or something would have been nice. His arms fell as Impulse continued to stare, not at him but through him, before the heavily lidded eyelid slid shut.
“Impy?” Tango said, mainly for his own benifit.
Both eyes opened this time. Had he not been so worried, Tango would have lost it laughing. Trust Impulse’s hatred of that nickname to cause a reaction even when the other couldn’t hear it. Tango didn’t relish the hilarity of that for very long however, as Impulse’s head dropped ever so slightly, the lights of the room hitting at exactly the right angle for him to catch an unobstructed view of eyeshine from not normally yellow glassy eyes.
Oh.
That.
That was bad.
That was so very very bad.
“Impy?” he tried again mentally cursing the slowness of the tube’s equalization cycle, as he caught his buddy's gaze.
One eye closed, followed by the other before opening again, one after the other in a strange facsimile of a blink. That was weird, even by his standards and the feeling that something was wrong only grew. But Hey! He definitely, somehow, had Impulse’s attention. Because that? That was a response. It had to be. Tango watched as Impulse blinked, once more, this time a lot closer together and looking a lot more like normal. Progress!
“C’mon Impy!” Tango crooned. He’d take Impulse being annoyed with him if he could actually get a coherent response. “Up an attem buddy! You can do it!”
Impulse could not in fact do it, and Tango watched in horror as Impulse’s eyes closed and he listed sideways, sliding down the glass and smashing his face on the floor of his pod.
