#BUT LIAU HAS SEIZED ME WITH INSANITY

[dunmanticarchivistsmain]

@liauditore Liau I blame you for this my hand slipped and I lost consciousness and when I woke up I have these hamfisted words to bludgeon you with (ilu and your galaxyduo brain)

"Go on get you all out of here!" Pearl exclaimed, politely but insistently shoving people towards the exit. With a lot of mumbling and bumbling, and plenty of stumbling, Mumbo, Bdubs and Pearl managed to usher out the entire mess of people who have gathered for a sleepover at Pearl's. There was to be no sleeping over, since the day had consumed all of them with the sillies and Pearl had a task to complete tomorrow. So much to unpack from the day's activities; she felt completely drained but her heart was full… of something.

The distant slam of Bdubs' awkward trapdoors seemed to provoke a soft bork from Mailbox, interrupting Pearl's relaxing chore of tidying up after the visitors. She had to give him his nightly cuddles, stuffing him full of nonsensical coos and affection to last the lonely night on watch outside.

But it seems someone else was giving Mailbox a fair bit of attention already.

"Hi Scott, still here?"

Scott did not look up from his giving of scritches to Mailbox, who was quite content to sit at attention, looking curiously at this last overstaying visitor.

“I like your new home” he said at last.

Pearl turned around, taking in her measly mound. It was a very well shaped, perfectly-spherical-thank-you-very-much, mound of dirt. Half sunk into the ground with a cherry door. Mumbo seems really proud of her for it.

It wasn't much of a house at all really, by Pearl's critical builder eye. Not safe, whispered the ghost of a girl who built a tower in the sky.

And yet in this mound, in this home dug from the ground, Pearl's ears still rang with the echos of laughter, her eyes had run rivers of mirth, and her heart was full of something.

"It's al'right, I'm working on it" The lilt of her voice seemed to catch, in a throat once hoarse from unuse.

"Lookin' forward to what you'd build here Pearl, I'm sure it'll be something."

"Quite something indeed."

The silence seemed to stretch, like the gulf between the moon and stars, where the void sparkled with an infinite something.

And then, with a quirk of her lips and a tilt of her head, Pearl said "Go on home Scott its getting dark and late", indicating the silhoulette of the cherry canopy in the distance where Gem and the Scotts have made their base; the cherry wood staircases and the homey cottages drenched in the light of the moon's face.

Scott brightened as the tension snapped, straightened and with a laugh off he set,

"It’ll be alright, the moon is full tonight."