The thing is, right, Tango knew Impulse was a hugger. Impulse had been a hugger as long as Tango had known the man. Impulse was a huge fan of physical affection, and while Tango himself wasn't that much into giving it away so freely, he'd learned to love it as part of the package deal that came with being friends with people like Impulse.

So when Impulse suddenly hugged Tango from behind after a week of being away, Tango let himself ragdoll into the embrace, basking in Impulse's warmth. One thing was definitely for certain – Impulse was a great hugger.

At least, he was normally a great hugger. Today, he suddenly bashed his head into Tango's skull.

"Ow!" Tango yelled, worming out of Impulse's arms. "What the hell!?"

Impulse stepped back, hands covering his mouth.

"I'm so sorry, Tango," he mumbled through his fingers, "I wasn't thinking – it was affectionate, I swear!"

It was only then that Tango took in the other changes that Impulse had apparently undergone while he was away. Impulse's eyes, instead of their usual warm brown, were bright yellow and slit sideways, like those of a goat, and a pair of shiny new horns grew out from his brow.

"Just... warn me next time, okay?" Tango couldn't really fault Impulse – he knew just how bad hybrid instincts could get sometimes, especially if they fed into people's pre-existing love languages, or whatever.

"Sorry."

☄︎⚱︎♈︎☇♈︎⚱︎☄︎

Pearlescentmoon didn't know what to make of Impulse, really. The two definitely clicked as friends – they had senses of humour that perfectly complemented the other such that they were always enablers to each others' shenanigans – but the headbutting was getting to her just a little bit.

It was fine, she had known that Impulse showed love through physical affection. Unfortunately, they were both getting used to him being a goat hybrid at the same time, and that came with certain teething problems. Like the headbutting. Which Impulse was currently doing.

He'd quickly learned after the Tango incident that suddenly violently bashing his skull into someone out of the blue was probably not the best of ideas, but instead of stopping entirely, Impulse had instead opted to go with several more gentle headbutts over the course of a couple minutes. It was sweet, really, but he was doing it practically 24/7, and Pearl just wished he'd do it a bit less.

It couldn't be good for his skull either, mashing it into her shoulder the way he was. Pearl had always been told that she had particularly bony shoulders.

"Impulse," she cautioned, "You're doing the thing again."

"Wha-?" Impulse gave a start. Apparently the reason why he'd been doing it for nearly a minute this time around was that he'd completely zoned out. "Oh, sorry!" he sat up straight giving a start.

"No, no, it's fine!" Pearl gently bumped her shoulder into his, "I was just worried about your skull."

"Yeah, this..." Impulse rubbed his head, "This probably isn't good for me."

"We're gonna have to get you teething things for your horns or something," Pearl observed, laughing.

"Oh no," Impulse laughed, slowly turning bright red.

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Gem was startled out of her concentration by the awareness that another ungulate hybrid was trying to charge her. Casually, she turned her head so her antlers interlocked with their horns, then swung her body around to slam them to the ground. Their centre of balance was different to the people she was used to tussling with – so it wasn't Doc or Zedaph – and she nearly overbalanced. Still, she succeeded in throwing them to the ground, and they hit it hard, with a grunt and a thud.

Now, who exactly had Gem just yeeted? Impulse had recently got goat horns, Gem remembered. Maybe it was him? Oh dear, had she thrown someone to the ground before discussing the etiquette of tussling with them? Now she felt kinda bad.

"Ow," Impulse groaned from the ground behind her.

"Has anyone explained the etiquette of tussling to you?" she asked.

"Zed said... something about that?" Impulse sounded confused. Zedaph had probably delivered him a concussion immediately after. Zed had a really bad habit of accidentally doing that.

"Well, rule number one is that if you try to tussle someone who's concentrating, you deserve all of the consequences you receive."

"That's... fair, actually," Impulse admitted. "I'm staying on the ground, though."

"Alright!" Gem smiled, and went back to building.

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BDoubleO100 was a man of many talents. One of these talents was being a squishy pile of moss. An unfortunate side effect of this specific talent was that one ImpulseSV had a really bad habit of headbutting BDubs, only for BDubs to get caught on his horns. This had, somehow, happened for the third time this week, and BDubs was starting to get just a little bit sick of it.

"Impulse!" he yelled, dangling about a foot off the ground – Impulse didn't even have a right to be this tall, in his opinion, let alone dangle BDubs from this height. "Put me down, right now, or – or I'll stick some of those child-safety-foam-cap things on your horns!"

"Alright," Impulse grunted out, already invested in the task of trying to untangle BDubs from his skull. After a few moments more of effort, BDubs was free, and he fell gently to the ground. Staggering to his feet, BDubs turned on his heel to face Impulse, folding his arms and shaping his face into the best approximation of anger he could manage.

"If you don't stop engaging in these – in these shenanigans," BDubs warned, "I might have to resort to consequences! Classic BDubs consequences! And you don't want to see the classic BDubs consequences!"

"What are the classic BDubs consequences?" Impulse asked, tilting his head. Void below, why were those big goat eyes of Impulse's so endearing? It was unfairly difficult to stay mad.

"You know!" BDubs huffed, keeping up the charade as long as possible. "Consequential ones!" After Impulse gave him a disbelieving look, BDubs let out a sigh. "Look, just... please stop with the headbutting, alright? Neither of us like going through this charade."

"Alright," Impulse nodded, "You still okay with hugs?"

"Yeah!" BDubs nodded. "Of course I'm okay with hugs! You give the best hugs!"

"Alright, then I'll try my best to hug instead of headbutting," Impulse agreed.

"...Thanks."

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One thing Impulse learned very quickly was that Doc's metal goat horn had an innate advantage over everything else, and tussling with Doc was a quick and easy ticket to concussion city. This, of course, did not stop Impulse (or Doc, for that matter) from trying to engage in a tussling match whenever the two encountered each other.

In the case of this particular incident, Ren found himself watching from the sidelines, mildly horrified, as Doc and Impulse butted each other's heads, each getting a feel for the other's strength, speed, size, and centre of balance. Impulse definitely had the balance advantage over Doc – Doc was a beanpole on shaggy green goat hooves, while Impulse had retained his human legs when he'd transformed. However, as previously mentioned, Doc had a massive strength advantage, in the form of a giant lump of metal attached to his skull.

As such, it was entirely a losing battle on Impulse's part. Within seconds, Doc moved his head violently to the left, sending Impulse staggering away with a soft cry of pain.

"You alright, man?" Doc asked, after Impulse regained his balance.

"Fine, yeah." Impulse touched the skin at the base of the horn Doc had applied pressure too, and looked surprised when he realised it wasn't bleeding.

"Got it out of your system?" Doc asked.

"Yeah, that... I needed that. Too many people around here I can hurt if I get too excited."

"Yeah, I know the feeling," Doc nodded. "Best of luck!"

With that, Impulse bade Doc farewell, flying back to Boatem.

"How often do you do that?" Ren asked, mildly concerned.

"Not enough," Doc grinned.

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"Three!" Zed yelled, "Two! One! Charge!"

With that, Zed and Impulse ran at each other, their horns interlocking. They grinned, going at each other, perfectly matched in their skill.

"I'll get you this time!" Zed grunted.

"No you won't" Impulse retorted, grinning. The two struggled for a couple minutes, before breaking apart, out of breath.

"Dammit!" Zed yelled. "Why are you such a good fighter already!?"

"I think you're just out of practice," Impulse teased, lightly bumping his forehead into Zed's shoulder. Zed did the same in return, a mark of respect.

"Should we go get lunch?" Zed asked.

"Sure, then a rematch?"

"Oh, it's on!"

☄︎⚱︎♈︎☇♈︎⚱︎☄︎

AAAAAAA I FORGOT TO CROSSPOST

I've been Entropy, peace out from the present!