depollute me, pretty baby (short, soft mcyt oneshots)

hot chocolate and a talk

soup group hurt/comfort (but mostly comfort) after limlife requested by @JadedSundragon

tws: death and talk of murder (aka your typical life series stuff lol)

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it's midnight when they come back.

gem has her communicator set on her bedside table, the notification volume on it turned up to the highest level. it's been like that ever since the group of eight hermits involved in the latest edition of the life games had disappeared. 

(well, techincally there had been nine hermits in this game, but gem had vanished later on and for less time.)

anyways, gem's communicator buzzes loudly, startling her, and she ends up almost stabbing herself with one of her knitting needles. she sets her knitting project down on the bed, overtop the blanket covering her legs, and picks up the communicator, wishing, hoping . . . and sure enough, eight hermits had just rejoined the server after being away for weeks.

gem's quick to navigate to the soup group chat and send a message:

the slayer: you're back! want to come over for hot chocolate and a talk?

now, she just has to wait. she'd promised her friends hot chocolate, so she busies herself with preparing it to keep herself from staring at the chat until someone replies. thankfully, it doesn't take too long for impulse and pearl to get back to her.

i dwarf: omw

ruessionnoc puos: okay! be there soon

gem finishes up the hot chocolate as quickly as she can, and she's just setting the first few mugs down in her library when she hears rockets being fired outside. a few seconds later, her communicator buzzes again.

ruessionnoc puos: where you at gem?

the slayer: library

gem tucks her communicator away and goes to fetch the last hot chocolate mug. when she returns to the libary, pearl is already sitting inside, warming her hands on her mug.

"hey!" she says as gem sets down the last mug. "do you have any marshmallows?"

and it's this moment when impulse enters, a bag of marshmallows in his hand. "i heard someone wanted marshmallows?"

"impulse, you're the best!" pearl cheers. she grabs the bag from impulse's hands, tears it open, and pours about half of the package into her hot chocolate.

honestly, gem's surprised she didn't pour the whole thing in.

they're all silent for a bit, too busy blowing on and drinking their hot chocolate to speak. pearl gains a marshmallow mustache when she takes her first sip and gem almost spits her hot chocolate out when she sees it. she and impulse both take plenty of photos to possibly use as blackmail later.

"alright," gem finally says, since her friends don't seem to want to be the ones to brooch the subject on hand, "how'd you guys do in the game?"

"i got fourth." pearl gives a careless shrug, which is a big relief. after what happened after last game, gem couldn't help but be a little scared to bring the subject up. "i chased martyn into the ocean, but he got away before i could kill him. scott followed me and, well, he had the biological advantage, with his gills and fins and stuff."

gem nodded. she'd seen them for herself during her short time in the game. "i see. fourth is pretty good, though! impy, what about you?"

"second," he delivers grimly.

"what?! that's so good!"

impulse looks down at his hot chocolate. "we were supposed to have a fair fight: scott, martyn, and i, but martyn betrayed us. i know scott didn't really care much— he didn't want to win again, and he'd rather his teammate win than me— but i still wish we could've fought it out like we'd promised. i probably wouldn't've won, but at least i'd have had a chance, y'know?"

"oh, impulse . . ." gem sighs. she goes over and gives him a hug, and before long, pearl's joining in as well.

"at least i made it to the final three," impulse says. "that was skizz's dying wish: that one of us in ties made it."

they all hug silently for a while, and then impulse complains that he needs to finish his hot chocolate before it goes cold, so gem and pearl make their way back to their seats. the hot chocolate is lukewarm now, but it still tastes pretty good.

"so, gem, how'd you like the little bit of the game you got to experience?" pearl asks once everyone's finished with their drinks. "i heard you were in for cleo while lizzie was in for me."

"it was fun," gem chirps, "especially the part where i destroyed etho."

impulse laughs. "yeah, he sulked around the base for a while after that. poor guy, he had an awful day."

"serves him right," gem says with a shrug. "it's payback for getting his kids killed."

pearl leans forward eagerly. "so, d'you think you're gonna come with us for the next game?"

"maybe?"

"c'mon, you're trying not to smile!"

"okay, okay," gem relents, "probably."

impulse and pearl cheer and high five, and gem can't help but watch on, grinning so wide it hurts. she has the best friends ever, she decides, and nothing will ever change that. 

***

author's note

word count: 837

this mayyyyyy have gotten away from me a little bit lol. i meant for this to be like 500-600 words instead of over 800. it's fine though; i love passing the little wc goals i set for myself without meaning to. it's a pretty sweet feeling :]

for anyone who's wondering, "ruessionnoc puos" is soup connoisseur spelled backwards :D

jade, i hope you enjoyed this! it's made me realize i need to write soup group stuff more than i do lol

anyways, this'll probably be the last update for a little while unless i get more requests. i want to make sure i get the fic i'm working on fully written before my family goes on a trip in may. after i get back, though, i'll probably only be editing for a while, so you'll get a bunch of oneshots then. i've just recently started listening to the arcadian wild, soooo . . . expect a lot of stuff inspired from their music.

have a great day!

-blu