Gem is learning a lot of things about the Celestial Ascendancy.
She knew they were racist, mobist bastards, of course, EVERYONE knew that, but their dedication to a millennia-long genocidal master plan is somehow admirable. Deranged and Very Bad for everyone she knows and loves, but admirable all the same.
"You do realize," she tells the two headed angelic being who is currently moving through glowing menus she doesn't quite understand, "that once everyone else on our server realizes we're gone you're fucked, right?"
Beside her Joe Hills remains too still. Whatever they'd hit him with, it had scrambled him- she'd never seen him untangle like that and she doesn't know if he's knitting himself back together, if it's even possible for him to do without saturation.
He needs Keralis, she thinks, and then pushes the thought away. Wherever they are now, Joe's fellow Old One probably can't feel them. It's her, and this room, and this Celestial Envoy prick with too many floating disembodied limbs and halos that are frankly ostentatious.
"Don't know, don't ca-" one of the heads says as another tilts towards the screen.
Then the entire pale stone room shakes.
Which is both good and bad, because Gem knows for certain they are underground, so the shaking has to be from above them.
"What the-" one head turns to the door. "We shouldn't be firing up the beacon until-"
The room shakes again and Gem hears a faint, frighteningly familiar roar.
"SNUGINS!" the angel exclaims.
Gem stares at him. It had been said with all the grit of a swear.
"What?" She asks, the word half-laughter. "I'm sorry WHAT?"
"Shut up you miserable little- nooch. No alarms why do we even HAVE this system if-nooch nooch nooch WHERE-"
Gem can't help it. She falls on her back, cackling.
Then the words, and how easily he says them, permeate.
Her eyes snap open in horror as the door to the room is pulled off its hinges by a massive black hand with thick purple claws, the mineral crumbling and the iron hinges rusting into nothing.
Impulse would have to stoop to fit in the room.
His companion, on the other hand, does not.
"Hello, Raziel," the three faced, six armed, nine winged angel says. He glows as brightly as the other angel- brighter. His halos spin tighter, with more filigree. His empty eyes are filled with light.
He's wearing a suit with the sleeves ripped off, and a red tie pulled loose.
Raziel- their jailer, apparently- turns both faces to look at the intruder.
"Goodbye, Raziel," the angel says, and two arms flash, and the room is filled with brilliant blue shards of crystal that tear Raziel into a thousand bloody bits.
Gem watches as half the doorframe is ripped off to allow Impulse to stoop into the room.
<ImpulseSV, Demon Prince Of Corrosion>, his full tag helpfully reminds her.
Gem slowly, slowly, looks at the approaching angel.
<Skizriel, Ascendant Envoy Of The Celestial Choir, Spear of Wrath>, reads the tag.
Which is interesting. Because, much like Impulse's day to day tag just says 'ImpulseSV', this one should read 'Skizzleman'.
Like this, it's hard to read his facial expressions- they move fluidly from head to head, and reading a being made of light is not like reading the awkward grins of a man with crows' feet and silver feathering, despite his immortality.
"Give us a second, Gem," Impulse says, "we'll get you out. How's Joe?"
"They hit him with something," she tells them, though she keeps half an eye on the unsually silent Skizz. "It- it unravelled him."
"But he's breathing?" Skizz asks. His voice echoes six times over, and there's a casual, goofy edge that should be there that just..isn't.
Gem nods, gently touches Joe's shoulder. "Didn't even lose his primary form. I think they expected him to transubstantiate and when he didn't they just picked me up because I was closest."
"Yeah that's how it usually works. Hang on, Gem." Skizz crosses to where the strange menus had been and pulls them back up with a few practiced wrist flicks of one of his lower arms.
Not Gemmy Bemmy. Not Gemstone.
Gem looks from Impulse, his huge yellow eyes concerned, and back to the Ascendant Envoy of the Celestial Choir.
She remembers a conversation she'd stumbled on years ago, Impulse and Grian fishing in the rain.
"I'm serious, Grian. It's a sore subject. It's the ONLY sore subject. We both know how you are, man. Just- don't hassle him over it."
"No asking the new guy where he's from I got it. Anything else off limits?"
"No. I'm sorry, G, it's just..this one hurts. And I know you know how that feels."
"I do. But it hardly makes him unique, Impulse."
"Hah. I wish that were true, Grian. I really do."
a moment of hesitation, and then, "Yes?"
"I take no responsibility for what happens when Grian finds out that nootch and snuugins are angelic swearwords. I will be telling him immediately."
There's a ripple of gold through the silverwhite light that currently makes up her friend and Skizz's laughter, always warm and encompassing, is so much more when he's wearing his original skin.
"Once we get out of here, Gemmy," and she knows she doesn't imagine the way Skizz's voice has changed, become a little wet and tight, like he's holding back tears of relief that she can't see, "you can tell him whatever you want."
A click, a 'vrrrnn' noise, and the brilliant white laser grid that had been holding Gem and Joe hostage dies. Impulse carefully gathers Joe up in one arm, offers his other to Gem who climbs immediately up to his shoulder.
"You're gonna have to hang off my neck," Impulse warns her. "I bashed through more than a couple walls to get here. Skizz?"
More blue crystals- spears, Gem realizes- materialize around them, floating casually.
Skizz looks up at Impulse, at Gem. She can't see him smiling but she can sense it.
"Hey Gemstone. Ever fought in a demonic revolution?"
"Not as of yet," Gem says.
"Well," Skizz says, shining even brighter as the echoing in his voice becomes wordless music, "first time for everything!"
A/N: Don't fucking ask me you all know better by now
