Version 2, electric boogaloo.
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"Stress, Tango... what in Notch's name happened?"

...pause for dramatic effect...

"That's not an easy question to answer..."

Stress breathed out a long sigh, and pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers. She took a couple steps, and plunked down next to Tango in his blanket nest. "...especially considering I only have half the story, less than half counting whatever happened to Grian."

Impulse would've rolled his eyes at her vagueness, but the situation felt too serious for that. He resorted to sitting down on the other side of Tango and waiting patiently for Stress to gather her thoughts. Tango wasn't paying attention to either of them, instead focusing on leaning as close to the fire as possible without tangling the blankets too much.

"Grian came to me panicked," Stress finally started, a far off look in her eyes. "He kept saying Iskall and Tango were in danger, so of course I followed him. He led me into the jungle, deep into the jungle, and there was this clearing by the river..."

She paused, and looked like she was blinking back tears. Impulse reached out and placed a hand on hers. The best he could do right now was be patient... and a little subtle emotion magic.

"When I got there, Iskall was pulling Tango out of the river, and I had to save him. He wasn't breathing Impulse." Stress continued. Impulses eyes widened and he stared at Tango, in a mix of shock, concern, and relief all at once. The pace of her voice picked up as she spoke. "And, Notch, I still don't know what happened between them, but it was all Iskall's fault. They did this, they hurt Tango and then ran off and hurt Grian when I wasn't there, but I don't know why."

Stress threw her hands up, and buried her face in them with a small, distressed squeak. After a second or two, she pulled her hands up like she was smoothing out her hair, but gripped tightly into it instead. "Tango wouldn't tell me what happened. And, and I thought maybe you'd know what to do... of course then Grian showed up, but now that he's okay..."

She trailed off, giving Impulse a hopeless sort of look. He, of course, was still trying to process everything. So Tango had been acting odd because he'd nearly drowned. So it had been a sword wound he'd seen on Grian. So it had been and emergency emergency.

"Tango?" Impulse finally started, tapping the shoulder of the blanket mass next to him. The netherborn in question whipped his head around, and pulled back the blankets a little bit. His eyes were wide and scared, and his eyebrows furrowed. It was clear that Tango was exceptionally distressed.

And, although Impulse didn't exactly understand the ways in which recent events had transpired, he would not stand by while his friends were being tormented by their inner and outer demons. He practically lunged at Tango, pulling him into a hug.

(AggREsSivE aFFecTiOn :>)

The netherborn didn't exactly return the hug, with his arms buried in blankets and all, but he leaned his head into Impulse's shoulder.

"You're safe, you're okay," Impulse mumbled out comforts. "But I'm confused and we need to know what happened between you and Iskall, okay?"

Tango sucked in a small breath and flinched a little, the topic clearly still sensitive on his mind. He took a moment before stuttering a response.

"It- It's hazy, kinda. I- I dunno... He— imeanthey, red. Red eyes, glitched."

Before Tango could be more incoherent, Impulse interrupted. "Hey, whoa whoa whoa. Deep breaths, take your time."

Tango's head was clearly a minefield of anxiety right now, and Impulse wanted to make sure they weren't making it any worse. He slowly pulled away from hugging Tango, looking into the netherborn's eyes. Eyes, the window to the mind as they say.

So Impulse took that window and reached through it with his powers, allowing positivity to wrap around anxiety, and relaxation to surround stress. Tango let out a small sigh, though whether because he felt the effects of Impulse's magic or was just comforted by the sight of his lightly glowing eyes, was anybody's guess.

Impulse blinked and smiled softly. He shifted the magic to a slight, steady flow into both Tango and Stress. It was working well, or keeping them both from having panic attacks at least. Stress didn't seem to notice, clearly in anticipation of what Tango still needed to explain.

Tango shifted his blankets around a bit more before speaking.

"There was a glitch this morning, ran through the world. And- and Xisuma said that it didn't have any affects but I think it did something to Iskall. I could tell something was wrong the second I saw them. Their eyes were red, and they spoke different, called me a, a threat I think. And before I know it, I'm levitated and riverficated."

As soon as he'd finished, Stress' head shot up. "So that's why Grian said they'd gone crazy! Iskall's glitched, we've got to get Xisuma, he'll know how to fix it... right?"

"I dunno Stress," Impulse started. The whole situation felt off somehow. "I've never heard of glitches like that before, never. I don't know if turning evil even counts. Plus, Iskall was the one who pulled Tango out of the river, right? Not you, not Grian."

Stress opened her mouth, before closing it and contemplating carefully, while Tango was first to speak. "That doesn't explain the red eyes Impulse. I saw it, clear as day, and Grian did too. That's not normal."

It didn't make sense, none of it made sense. Impulse was almost certain glitches couldn't do that, but at the same time, people's eyes don't just turn red like that. He would've blamed Tango for having a bad memory, or being traumatized by the ordeal, but Grian had seen the red eyes too, supposedly.

"I don't get it—"

A rapid, loud knocking at Stress' door interrupted Impulse mid confusion. His heart nearly skipped a beat at the jumpscare the noise had given him, and he accidentally turned off the magic he'd still been sending the other two.

Stress, on the other hand, didn't seem scared but rather annoyed and exhausted. She got up to answer the door, mumbling what sounded like "what now?"

As that poor door with its poor hinges opened for the umpteenth time that day, Stress found a distressed Mumbo on the other side.

"Stress please tell me you've seen Tango it has been way more than an hour!" Mumbo started, speaking so rapidly it was barely comprehensible. "Gosh, he was stressed so I said he should go on a walk but he's not back and it's dark already and I've checked by Grian's and Iskall's and Scar's and I can't find him I, I—"

"Mumbo, breathe, good notch please breathe," Stress interrupted, grabbing Mumbo's hand and leading him inside. "Tango's alright, he's here."

Mumbo was somewhat of a disheveled mess, leaves in his hair and mustache, and clothes rumpled. He was jittery and bouncing on his toes. Impulse gave him an awkward little wave from where he still sat beside Tango in The Blanket Nest.

"Oh thank notch you're okay," Mumbo sighed out, rushing towards The Nest and practically melting down into it, wrapping Tango in a hug. "I was so worried..."

"'m sorry." Tango responded, voice dismayed and muffled slightly.

"No, no, don't be sorry," Mumbo reassured. "I just would've liked if you'd let me know that you were having a sleepover with Impulse and Stress. Heck, you coulda invited me."

If the awkward silence that followed was enough to tell Mumbo that this wasn't a sleepover, than the other three glancing between each other waiting for someone to explain was surely enough. Mumbo seemed to catch on quick, responding in a voice halfway between anxious and annoyed.

"Is it not— what happened...?"

Stress looked up from where she was fiddling with her fingers and sucked in a breath. Her voice was rapid and jittery and lacked any pauses when she finally spoke.

"So, long story short, Iskall's glitched and evil and they attacked Tango mid whatever-he-was-doing and threw him in the river but me and Grian and a suddenly non-evil Iskall saved him. Then Iskall ran away and Grian followed him, only for Iskall to turn evil again and attack Grian who came right back to me just when Impulse showed up and Grian's upstairs and now you're here and I don't know where Iskall is and I want to cry, okay that's all."

And somehow that explanation was a whole lot clearer than anything Stress had previously said.

Mumbo, eyes wide in shock, seemed to be taking a moment to process everything. However, instead of questioning any of it, he blurted, in Stress' direction "...Wh-why are you smiling?"

"I've just had a looong day, Mumbo. A long day, okay?" At that, Stress turned her back to the others and started pacing, hands rubbing at her arms and eyes shut tightly.

Everything about Stress was screaming tired and crazed, and that worried Impulse, maybe even upset him. He half scrambled half jumped from his spot in The Blanket Nest to get to her side. (Behind him, Tango and Mumbo just sort of sat there blinking at each other.)

But a blink of Impulse's glowing eyes and he was back in Stress' head, doing his best to shoo away those panicked and distressed thoughts. The air in the room seemed infected with tension. Not a single one of them knew what exactly had happened, or even what to do about it. Without Iskall to explain themselves, or Grian to add any much needed details, they were in the dark.

And Impulse wanted to do his best to comfort his friends that were afraid of the dark.

"Hey, it's gonna be okay Stress—"

Impulse cut off his statement as Stress spun around, her eyes boring into him. Her expression was hard to read, looking somewhat like an ugly mix between depression, disgust, and hopelessness.

"Impulse. Stop. Stop using your powers, I know you're doing it."

Impulse held his mouth open. what? He was trying to help her.

"But Str—"

"I just need to be upset right now, okay? Because no, everything is not fine! Iskall is my best friend, and I don't know what happened to them or where they are, and you're trying to tell me not to be upset?!"

Impulse cut off his magic immediately, taking a couple of steps back. Stress had been hurt, and he didn't like seeing his friends being hurt. But altering without permission was a bad idea, and sure, it had been fine before... but Impulse never should have done any of that in the first place.

"Stress- I'm sorry, I-" Impulse choked on his words. "I didn't think."

It wasn't a good enough apology and he knew it. But there wasn't even a moment of awkward silence between the two, or a moment for him to think, since Mumbo piped up right as Impulse ended his sentence.

"We should probably tell Xisuma. About everything. It was stupid we didn't call him before, so you know what? I'm calling Xisuma now. That seems like a good idea." Mumbo let out a nervous laugh, though what he did was smart, pulling their attention back to the pressing situation at hand. Mumbo didn't waste a second pulling his communicator out, punching in the admin's number, and putting it on speaker. The other three watched, none in disagreement.

The device rang quietly.

Impulse was almost thankful for Mumbo speaking up to break the tension, though guilt still wracked his mind, and he couldn't seem to look at Stress. But he knew the current dilemma was more important than his feelings. Impulse set his focus back towards Mumbo, who Stress was slowly inching towards.

The communicator that Mumbo still held rang a few more times, echoing in the rooms silence, before Xisuma picked up.

  ~ "Hi Mumbo, whats goin on—"

"Iskall's broken and tried to kill Tango." Mumbo interrupted with a voice that was almost completely deadpan, like he was making a joke. Some sort of choking, gasping sound came from the other end of the line.

  ~ "What?"

"They're glitched, X! We don't know what to do," Stress butted in, the same tired panic filling her voice.

  ~ "Hold up hold up hold up! When- where? How? Is Tango okay?"

Hearing his name, Tango leaned into Mumbo's shoulder and mumbled into the phone. "Yeah, I'm alright."

~ "Oh thank goodness, but please, what on earth happened?"

"The glitch from this morning, X, it was that," Tango stopped to stifle a sob. Mumbo wrapped an arm around Tango shoulders, stabilizing him before he continued. "I- I was visiting Mumbo, and Iskall they- they threw me into the river in the jungle. X, they were crazy, they had these bright red eyes..." Tango devolved into quaking in Mumbo's arms as he finished talking. Xisuma didn't respond right away, though the faint click-clacking of typing could be briefly heard on the other end.

~ "That's not good..." Xisuma's voice was just above a murmur. "Did- did Iskall hurt anyone else? And do you know where they are?"

"Yes to the first one, no to the second." Stress responded, taking a deep breath. Xisuma seemed to audibly wince on the other end of the line before Stress continued. "Iskall tried to run off, after it all went down, but- but Grian followed him and..." Stress didn't seem like she could bring herself to complete her sentence.

"Iskall broke Grian's wing and fled to who knows where." Impulse finished for her, still standing a good few Jellies lengths away from the others. He shuddered as he remembered the horrific sight of Grian's owl wing bent in a direction it definitely shouldn't have been in, with the feathers mangled and blood matted in them.

Xisuma pulled in a gasp.

~ "Please tell me Grian's alright..."

"Yeah, he's alright, he's gonna be okay." Tango mumbled. It sounded like a repeat of what Impulse had said to him earlier. Xisuma sighed, though it didn't sound like he was completely relieved.

~ "Okay... I take it none of you are in immediate danger or need help right now?"

"Yeah, we're all okay." Stress replied, though her expression made it look like she was in agony. "We're just worried about Iskall..."

~ "Alright. I'm looking through their code right now. As soon as I find the glitch I'll get rid of it, I'll make sure it's destroyed, promise. And- and I'll send out an announcement in the morning, it's a bit too late right now..."

"Thank you, X, thank you so much." Mumbo practically blubbered, so relieved that the admin was taking leadership and had a decent plan.

~ "No, thank you guys. I should, I should probably go now though."

The others muttered their okay's and their goodbyes, and Xisuma breathed out a sigh before hanging up. The awkward silence came back in full, though it was maybe, just maybe, a little less tense than before.

"I, for one, feel better now after that," Mumbo finally broke the silence with his statement. Next to him, Tango mumbled a quiet "Me too," or something that sounded like that at least.

"But what are we going to do now?" Stress muttered, the tense air still surrounding her. "I mean, I don't even have enough beds for you all to stay the night... but if Iskall's still out there..."

They all stopped, taking careful consideration of what Stress had said. It was a head scratcher, really, but Impulse had an idea. But it was more of a mute point than an idea, and he really didn't want to talk. So he waited, glancing at the others like he was clueless, waiting for them to come to the same conclusion he had. It wasn't like Stress would agree with him if he spoke, and he didn't feel like he should speak, if he was being honest.

But that overbearingly annoying clock that was ticking away behind him needed some company in the noise department.

"We could take the nether hub... back to our bases," Impulse finally mumbled. "I know it doesn't eliminate the chance of- of... Iskall finding us..."

He trailed off, looking to the floor as the sensation of Stress' eyes on him added to the pressure he felt. But, while she didn't say it outright, her gaze seemed to say 'spit it out, Impulse.' So he spat it out.

"But we're all in the server. If X doesn't fix Iskall, they'll do something again, find us, one way or another. And we aren't necessarily hiding."

Impulse turned partially away from the other three, wringing his hands and waiting for someone to respond. It was like some higher force had stolen the words straight from all of their mouths, leaving their heads full of thoughts but the room empty of sentences.

"If- if Iskall really is glitched badly, then I'm sure they're really scared too," Mumbo began, sound filling the space again. "A-and even though Xisuma's gonna fix this, we need to be strong for- for Iskall. And that means not being scared of them."

None of them had ever really been scared of Iskall, but having Mumbo day it made it real.

"So," Mumbo continued while extracting himself from The Blanket Nest, "I think Impulse's idea is a good one."

Impulse would've sworn his wide eyed blink was audible.

"It's probably less likely that Iskall will be in the nether, and if we do see them, just hide and call Xisuma. I- I don't wanna be in your hair too much longer Stress..." At the end of Mumbo's sentence hung a silent 'because you're taking care of Grian,' that was left unsaid.

Stress nodded and made a small hum noise. "You gonna be able to walk, Tango?"

Tango, who'd already shrugged a few blankets off in anticipation of leaving, muttered quietly in return. "Yeah, think so."

The nether born shakily pulled himself to his feet, with one fluffy orange blanket still around his shoulders. Impulse stepped to Tango's side to let him wrap an arm around his shoulders.

"If I fall 'll jus make Impy carry me home!" Tango remarked lightly. It was nice of him, adding humor to the situation. If it were any other circumstance, or if Impulse felt any less awkward, he would've joked right back. Something like, "No! I'm too short to carry you!" or, "Nah, I'll just leave ya where you fell."

But with the guilt of his utter stupidity in using his powers still fresh in his mind, Impulse didn't think he needed to speak. Just smile back.

"Heh, my portal's just outside." Stress motioned for the three to follow.

When Stress opened the door, the cool, sweet smelling night breeze and ambient cricket noises were far too peaceful. The world was frightening, when one glitch could break their friend to what felt like beyond repair.

Tango shivered and pressed himself into Impulse's side. The two walked a tad faster, and finally reached the portal.

Tango waves to Stress, and Stress waved back.

And then there were two.

Mumbo turned to face Stress as she headed back towards the door. She expected him to head through the portal, but Mumbo had one more concern to handle.

"Wait- You... you said Grian's upstairs, right?"

Mumbo wanted to see his best friend, make sure the bird man was okay. If he was being honest, his thoughts were purely constructed of panic when he learned that Grian had been hurt. He motioned towards the staircase that led upwards, trying to signal that he'd like to go up there. He knew Stress would take good care of him, but it would still calm his nerves.

"Yeah, follow me." Stress muttered, thankfully catching on to the things Mumbo had left unsaid. The two of them shuffled up the stairs, with the silence now feeling blessed rather than cursed and awkward.

And maybe Mumbo was being a catastrophiser when he assumed what he was about to see was going to be his worst nightmare. Because somehow it wasn't.

Grian looked peaceful, an almost serene expression gracing his features. His mouth was open and he was quietly snoring. Mumbo could almost imagine that a Grian wasn't hurt, that he was simply sleeping under that cherry pink duvet.

But the scene was bittersweet, because Mumbo could see the top of Grian's wing, splinted and bandaged, stretched out carefully behind him.

"He's strong, Mumbo. He'll be alright." Stress reached (read strained to reach) up, placing a hand on Mumbo's shoulder.

"Yeah, I know." Mumbo whispered back, unable to pull his eyes off Grian.

"You're an incredible healer Stress, he's- he's in good hands."

And when Mumbo finally broke his gaze and they made their way downstairs, Stress still hadn't responded to that.

When Mumbo gave his condolences, saying Iskall was one of his best friends too, and gave his quiet reassurances, as opposed to Impulses loud ones, Stress still hadn't responded.

Because were her hands, good hands? Was she really worthy of the title "Server healer" when blood made her wince and broken bones made her cringe? She couldn't heal Grian, and that was a fact. But she was going to learn how, because Stress was nothing of not determined. Or maybe it just got her mind off of other predicaments.

Tonight was going to be a long night.

(long, just like how one day lasted nine chapters, whats with this author and stretching things out bro?)

There was something wrong. In fact, maybe a lot of things were wrong, and 'a lot' felt more like a million.

Maybe Xisuma was currently bathed in the glow of a screen in the dark, skimming through lines and lines of Iskall's code, trying to find the glitch.  Maybe his eyes hurt from the delicate precision he was using to look for any error like he was looking for needle in a haystack.

Maybe Stress was pulling out all of her books on birds, whether brand new or prehistoric, planning to spend as long reading them as she could. Maybe she blamed herself for not being able to help Grian in the first place, for not learning about bird anatomy the second he joined the server.

Maybe Mumbo was lying awake, staring at his ceiling and wondering if everything was all his fault. Maybe with some luck it wouldn't be, and he wouldn't mess up and nearly send Tango to his death again.

Maybe Impulse was having his least favorite impromptu sleepover, sitting at Tango's bedside and murmuring comforts to him as he tried and failed to fall asleep. Maybe Impulse was forcing his emotions down, talking monotone as if he was a robot, because he knew he'd been in the wrong, and thus didn't deserve to feel.

Maybe Iskall was hiding far away from the others in a distant cave where they couldn't hurt anyone, and they were blaming themselves for the things that they'd done. Maybe they were arguing, yelling, shouting at the persistent voice in their head that wouldn't stop, that wanted violence, and pain.

Maybe all of this was happening because it was. And maybe the reason it was happening was because the universe didn't want anyone to get any sleep that night except Grian.

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(A/N)

hehe so I found this meme...

Etho amiright?
he's not even gonna be in gifted until like chapter 30 or something crazy far away but etho guys. etho.

But what about the chapter, Soe? What about how late (but long) it was, Soe? What about Limited Life, Soe? What about how Cleo has only died to explosions in LL so far and you feel like that should be mentioned, Soe? What about MCC, Soe? What about how this hit 4k, Soe? What about re-mentioning the art book cause it's sad and has got no love, Soe? What about QSMP, Soe? What about apologizing for long author's notes, Soe? What about us, Soe?

shush.

Love ya lots!
Bye.

(Update: there's a song for this chapter tho, it's really good here u go:
Falling Faster - by Dylan Espeseth)

hehe bye >:3