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fromthedeskoftheminister · 10 months

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Simulated doesnt mean without Consequence pt 2.

Its a quarter past midnight and we tumbl down the site, yeah yeah yeah, the feeds are finally resting, good times bad decisions. yeah yeah yea, Its a quarter past midnight, and fic is getting posted.

Part 1 can be found HERE

Part 2: Coming Soon to an Ao3 Series near you! Simulated dosent mean without Consequence It’s a stinging ache in his hand that brings him back to himself. Tango blinks, absently notices the taste of ash in his mouth, a sharp pain in his throat, a slight ache in his wrist, a stinging pain in his knuckles and a mild headache. He blinks again. He’s lost time, but he doesn't know how much or why but there are more empty tubes than there were before and no one is around in the central bay which means getting everyone else out has been put on pause for a moment because....

He goes down the line. Ah. Doc's out. And given the number of prosthetics and other cybernetics the man has? Well, the hermits on welcoming duty are probably having a time of it wrangling the good doctor away from his lab and or into medical. Depending. Ok. So, he's lost some time, but not as much as he thought but why did he?

Frantic motion from the corner draws his eye and he turns slightly to see Jevin waving at him. Confused he waves back. Jevin goes formless for a moment, slumping slightly before literally pulling himself back together. It’s... relief? Tango thinks as he watches Jev pantomime breathing at him. Which is good if a bit weird, given that Jevin is quite literally a slime and breaths through diffusion and not with lungs on account of not having any? Tango himself is breathing normally, despite the weird taste in his mouth and the pain in his throat.

He sees the moment that Jevin realizes that he’s not comprehending. The slime pulls in on himself shrinking ever so slightly before wibbling and pointing to the pod kitty-cornered from him. The pod where all Tango can see is someone’s back from where they're splayed-out face down on the floor.

Short term memory kicks in. It hits him.

Impulse.

Impulse collapsed.

Impulse collapsed and Tango is trapped. He's stuck waiting for his tube to depressurize and THERE ARE NO HERMITS OUTSIDE THE PODS IN THE MAIN BAY.

He breaths in, breaths out, ignores the little jet of flame that escapes through his clenched teeth. Jevin clearly sees it and pushes himself closer to the glass, watching unblinking with unmistakable worry.

Ah. Ok. That's what happened last time. He lost his cool, lost control, and probably burned off the extra oxygen in his pod. Right. That tracks. It also explains his sore throat and mild headache. He breaths in again, holds it, and exhales a long steady stream that this time, thankfully, comes out flameless.

He points at Impulse’s pod, cocks his head in question, and makes exaggerated breathing motions. Jevin nods and flashes him a thumbs up.

Right. Ok. He runs his clawed through filamentous blond hair, before tugging slightly on the strands as he thinks. Impulse will be fine, he tells himself. He's breathing normally, or so Tango is choosing to believe. Jevin would...well…probably notice if he wasn't. Hopefully. Maybe? Dang it, there has got to be something that he can do other than just waiting.

Staring vacantly across the room Tango starts mentally running through his options, discarding most of them just as quickly as he thinks of them. His eyes suddenly refocus on Impulse's Pod. Had Impulse moved? Tango couldn’t be sure. Was what he thought he saw just the product of wishful thinking? No. There it was again. There was definitely movement in Impulse's Pod. Tango held his breath and leaned forward, hoping that it was Impulse pushing himself upright before jumping back as far as the pod would allow as the back of Impulse's shirt started writhing and roiling. As if something was trapped and trying to escape. Had Impulse somehow managed to pick up a bit of the void? Was that even possible?

He waved at Jevin and pointed at Impulses pod, head cocked in a questioning matter. The shrug and mildly disturbed look he got in response did not fill him with confidence in the slightest.

As suddenly as it started, the movement stopped. Tango held his breath. One, two, three... And when nothing happened, he let it out. Clearly whatever that had been, it was over. Unfortunately, it being over didn't seem to be bringing Impulse any relief however. Tango winced in sympathy as Impulse let out a full body shudder before rolling over, seemingly curled over his knees in discomfort or pain. The entire thing was hard to watch and Tango laid his hand upon the glass wishing yet again that he could do something.

Another spasm from Impulse, this one accompanied by a visible wet patch on the shirt had him throwing himself violently against the glass. A wet, glossy black mass oozed out from under the shirt erupted from Impulse's back. It collided against the walls of the glass tube with what was probably audible in the main bay, with a wet squelchy thud. The mass rose up and strained against the glass and hung suspended for a moment before collapsing inwards completely hiding Impulse from view.

Startled red eyes met shocked black ones and Tango didn't need to be able to hear to hear Jevin's startled exclamation of "What in the Hels?"

The black mass obscuring Impulse from view surged upwards yet again, this time punching through the glass as if it were mere paper. Glass and warped copper framing seemed to hang suspended in the air as time seem to crawl to a stop. Tango was frozen in place as the scene advanced in fits and starts like bad stop-motion animation. The dark mass continued to expand upwards. Flashes of light caught and rebounded off of the slowly falling shards reminiscent of torchlight on deepslate diamond ore or nether stars on black concrete. Despite being unable to hear through the tube Tango’s mind conjured the distorted chimes as fragmented metal and glass hit the grating on the floor one by one.

Jerkily the darkness seemed to reach its fullest extent. Instead of an amorphous mass it unfurled to reveal not some sort of void parasite but instead massive wings. The wings flexed slightly, a stretch of some sort. The odd angle and lighting of the room highlighted bones of gold, gilded claws and dark purple swirling patterns within the wing membrane. Tango can only stare in awe. While he knew Impulse had wings, he’d never seen them like this. In fact, he can’t recall when he had last seen Impulse's wings at all, let alone shown off to their fullest extent like this.

And then just like that, time snaps back to normal like a broken tripwire. Everything comes crashing down to the floor, glass, metal, wings and all. Tango stares, uncomprehending as he watches the wings fall, heading straight for the jagged edges of the pod and there's no visible attempt at all from Impulse to control their descent.

He’s distantly aware of a shattering noise, a new ache across his knuckles and a momentary sharper pain in his foot as he scrambles across the room. Tango detours slightly by the central console on the way and slams his hand down on the very obvious emergency release button. That takes care of the immediate danger to Impulse's wings. It also has the side effect of releasing everyone else and the room is full of hissing as all the remaining active pods start to decompress, their glass enclosures starting to slide into the floor. He’s got no time to check on everyone else, as he rushes over to Impulse's pod as his friend’s wings crash to the floor. Hopefully, the glass had retracted enough so that they won’t be cut by the jagged edges. Tango stumbles slightly over the lip of the pod and only a quick twist prevents him from landing atop his buddy. It’s the work of a moment to brace Impulse's head with his legs while using his clawed fingers to press themselves against Impulse’s neck, just below his pointier than normal ears.

He waits, a moment, two, and there is nothing, nothing at all. But despite the lack of pulse Impulse lets out an audible whimper. He pushes his head into Tango's hand and Tango almost smacks himself in the face. Right. Ok. Nonstandard biology. He shifts Impulse slightly before his other hand moves to the middle of Impulse's back, right between the wings and he tries again. He waits, steadying his own breathing as he focuses on the movement under his hands. There. Thud-bump. Thud-bump. Thud-bump. Heartbeat. Faster than normal, but steady. Breathing itself is also shallow, but unobstructed and regular and Tango hisses out a sigh of relief. Right. Now that he’s found it he can monitor the pattern.

"That sounds promising, dude." Comes Jevin's voice from right beside him and Tango jumps. Or well as much as he can situated as he is letting out a splutter of sounds. He twists slightly, and there Jevin is, standing at the lip of the pod. "Sorry, dude. Impulse alright?"

Tango shrugs and moves his hand, sketching a couple of glyphs into the air. "Probably not?" he offers as orange and blue sparks follow his fingertips forming two disconnected corners that he separates with a quick flick. He waits for the parallel lines to start to form between them before he continues. "I mean, he’s breathing and his heart rate is steady even if it’s faster than a one tick pulse but I mean this really isn't normal so clearly somethings wrong"

"No kidding."

There's a pause and when nothing more seems forthcoming Tango's attention returns to the floating design in front of him and the words spilling across it, scrolling almost faster than he can read them.

"...thought he was human." someone else murmurs from behind him and Tango snorts at that.

"Impy? Human? Well he does like his glamours." He says offhandedly then freezes. Glamours. Shit. Maybe? And scrolls back several lines. "Someone call Skizz." he demands, frantically scanning the code in front of him, all humor gone from his voice.

"I got it" another voice says.

Tango makes a noise in response, uncaring of who exactly is doing that as he rereads that last line of code. He vaguely notices a gentle be-doo-do be-doo-do comes from behind him, getting closer. Tango still isn’t really paying attention, focusing instead on Impulse's spine as he gently taps down it. He swears slightly as pale lavender and gold glyphs glimmer into existence. They look ragged and worn down. None of them appear to be at full strength with a few only barely visible. Some of the glyphs that Tango knows Impulse should have are either shattered or have disappeared entirely. That’s clearly not good. As he watches, another fades out, then breaks with a sort of audible snap, and Tango can feel Impulse's jaw start to rearrange itself from where its pressed against his leg. Crap.

He breaths in, breaths out a steady stream of white blue flame. Tango reaches into the conflagration and twists a thread free. Tango looks at it for a moment "Devs beyond I hope this works" he mutters and brings it down, touching it to the weakest of the glyphs. Blue white meets gold, and the entire line flares. It pulses, once, twice as the lilac that should be royal purple is overwhelmed and replaced but now a regularly flickering blue as Tango feeds more of the fire woven thread into it.

And just in time too, as a number on the display ticks over to zero, and an excited "PERALIEPOP" sounds right next to his ear. "Whazzup Buddeh?"

"Skizz." Tango all but growls cutting off any response Pearl, of course its Pearl, might give.

"Top?" comes the confused voice of Skizzleman from the comm next to him.

"Can you call Impulse?" He asks, watching the depleted number, waiting, hoping that it'll tick up.

"Dippledop? Sure, why? Isn't he with you?"

"Nonono, I mean Call Impulse," he says, emphasizing the last two words. He can almost hear Skizzleman's blink before what he has asked for clicks, "OH! Oh. Yeah. What's wrong with Professor Dippledop?"

"Best guess? Cascading Glamour failure? With," he squints at the lines he'd highlighted, "Aural exhaustion and a compounding geas? I think? I'm not fluent in this, man. His glyphs and mine are very, very different things."

"But are they holding?" Skizz asks over what sounds like chests or shulkers being flung open.

"No. I'm holding them for him. He's out, Skizz," Tango mutters. He breathes a sigh as the number he’s been watching finally starts to tick upwards.

"Right." The sounds of more shuffling comes over the line. "Ok. I’ve got everything. Give me 5 minutes to set up then drop your hold, unless you wanna come with him."

"Cant. Someone's gonna have to summonificate him to season 9 when we get there."

"Gotcha, gotcha buddy. Right, set a timer, I'm doing this on the dot, Catch ya later Pop n Top."

There was a click as the call disconnected and Tango took another glance at the glyphs on Impulse's back. They were pulsing now, in time with to the slowing heartbeat.

"Ok." he announced to the room at large, "Now he'll be Ok." he looked up at the crowd of hermits who had gathered around him. "Or he will in 5 minutes. No one suffering decomp sickness? I didn’t bother to check what the levels were at before I hit the release."

Theres a general murmmer of all goods, and a couple of doing fines and he nods, attention dragged back down to Impulse who still isnt.

"I've set a timer," Said Pearl. "And we're fine, but you need some bandages, mate"

Tango blinked at her, "What?"

"I got it," said Zed, pushing through a group of hermits, carrying a small white box.

"But I'm fine?" Tango protested as Jevin gestured towards his foot.

"You're really not dude, you left a trail."

"I left a what?"

Jevin doesn’t answer, just gestures. Tango looks back at the rest of the bay. It’s more of a mess than he realized. Shards of metal and glass are scattered across the room, radiating outwards not only from Impulse's pod but also from his own. A strange colored goopy trail of footprints appears on the concrete by the central console and then disappears again on the grating. He squints at it, confused to see what looks like blood mixed with suspension fluid. "Who's bleeding?"

"You, Tango. Foot. Now!" Zed says.

Well that answers that question Tango thought. "Kinda attached to those Zed."

"And we're kinda attached to you. Foot. Now."

Tango's prevented from answering as Pearl states, "Tango, let go whatever it is you’re holding for Impulse in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1" and an alarm goes off, shrill and right in his ear. Tango winces and pulls his hands back, swiping through the thread that’s now trailing off into nothing and it fades. The glyphs on Impulses back fade slightly, but no one gets a chance to see by how much because moments after he's let go, there’s a “vworp” and all that’s left where Impulse was is a shower of purple particles, redstone dust and a few gold nuggets.

There’s a moment of stunned disbelief, and Tango can feel everyone’s eyes on him as he stands, scooping up the redstone and gold which he pockets. He'll figure out the enscryption on the gold later so that he knows where he’s gonna have to summon Impulse from, but his job is done now and he is very aware that his foot hurts. "Ow!" he says looking down at it, and at the smear of blood that is oozing out from under his right foot.

It’s his ow that breaks the spell apparently, as the hermits around him start clamoring for answers as Zedaph tugs him to sit grabbing his foot and holding it hostage. Looking at this crowd of goofs that he calls family it’s all Tango can do to not laugh as most of them try to reign in their curiosity as they take turns making sure everyone else is all right some of them clearly itching to address the winged elephant which is no longer in the room. He knows he needs have to give some sort of answer for them eventually but it can wait, he thinks with a wince as Zedaph removes a piece of glass from his foot. He just hopes he can come up with something reasonable explanation wise until he has a chance to talk with Impulse and figure out just how much his buddy is o.k. with the other hermits knowing.

#hermitcraft fanfic #tango of the tek variety #impulseSV #iJevin #pearlescentmoon #zedaph #Skizzleman #and now we return to your regularly scheduled content warnings #non human hermits #of an undescribed plethora of origins and species #unreality #ala matrix style shenanigans #space horror #theyre still in space and this is absolutely a result of moon big #sickfic #hurt comfort #ish? i mean he gets help but theres not a lot of active on screen comfort #body horror probably #And now for something completely different: a disclaimer #the characters you see before you are intended to be the block people personas/characters and not the creators themselves #i make no profit off of the work presented before you #im simply playing with the characters and caricatures for my and hopefully your amusement #crossposted to ao3 #part of a collection

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