#HHHHHOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHGGG MY GOD

[doodledrawsthings]

From the Horizon

(spits on hands then grabs the control rod) Someone needs to derail this angst train, and it looks like it’s going to be me!

  It observes the world quietly, serenely, as all in the Horizon do. There are many things to see, after all, for the Horizon is a place everywhere and nowhere, ever-present and utterly unreachable, visible yet never attainable by things not already there. So it watches, distant and close in a way the Solid Things cannot understand (would find upsetting if they tried to understand).

The fragment-thought gives it pause. Where had that come from? ‘Upset,’ a curious word, unnatural, alien, incomprehensible. So why does it know it…?

Ah, yes, from the Solid World. A tear had appeared in the Horizon and it had slipped through, to view the Solid World more closely. The tear is mended now, neat red stitches returning things to as they should be. It had checked when it first returned to the Horizon, so it knows for sure.

…why had it checked? It is where it should be, all is well. Perhaps it has to do with the strange things it had noticed in itself when it returned. Shapes it should not have, sounds that do not belong, phrases that jar the silver and red serenity, and that it leaves alone. Things from its time in the Solid World that have no purpose or place here. Likely they will fade to nothing in time (No no nono-).

It shakes away the edge of the wrong-concept lingering from its time in the Solid World and returns to observing the Solid Creatures. Strange things, a pair of small blobs – brown-and-blue, purple-and-peach – and a long gangle thing as much Shadow as Being. Nonsense beings, all of them, as all Solid Creatures are. It watches vaguely, far and close and many and no places. Wander they do, wander and commune with other Solid Creatures, old things, strange things, candle flames and books and red thread-

…perhaps it should stop watching. Why is it watching these? No reason. The Horizon lulls it (comforts it-) another wrong-concept, it has too many of them now, perhaps these Solid Creatures are causing them, it will find others to fol-

(NO NO NO NO NO- -ATCH- -AT KI- BO- HEL-!)

-it will continue to follow them-

-no it will not, they make the wrong-concepts strong, it will leave-

(-Y FRI- -DS!)

-yes, it will leave, it will look at other-

-it cannot. It tries, but it cannot. But it is not a Solid Creature, it is of the Horizon. There are no bonds, no bounds, it simply is, it is here, it is there, except it is not there, it is here, it is growing more and more Here, except Here is now There, and the Horizon, the Horizon is tearing right before it, the threads are screaming, this is Wrong, it is- (afraid) it is- (not like the others anymore) it is-

-dark, there is dark, there is Shadow where there is only red and silver, a Solid Creature, the Shadow-as-Being one, not here, should not be here, must get away, wrong-

“FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL~!!!!”

Silence splits and wrong-concepts jangle and scream in it and it cannot escape the grasping claws, the yanking grasp, pulled from its place, out of the Horizon, in the Solid World again, rushing, thrusting, a shape the wrong-concepts know-

  OoOoOoOoO

  -Moonjumper comes to with a shriek. The last thing he remembers- he remembers- Her- or, no. No, worse, he remembers the Horizon, he had been back in the Horizon, he doesn’t want to be back in the Horizon-!

“Don’t think this means I’m grateful or anything!”

The familiar voice pulls him from his thoughts, lets him look up to find Snatcher inches away from his face and glaring at him, and that’s definitely a good reason to shriek again.

“Snatcher, be nice! He’s been through a very traumatic experience!”

Another familiar voice- Bow Kid, Bow Kid coming to help him sit up while Hat Kid shakes her fist at Snatcher.

“You were as worried as we were, you big pool noodle, don’t act like you don’t care!”

“I don’t,” the ghost grumps, folding his arms in an over-dramatic sulk that Moonjumper is far too familiar with, “I didn’t tell him to go fight Her, he did it on his own, and he got what he deserved, so there.”

“Uh-huh,” the purple-clad alien’s look is appropriately skeptical as she folds her arms right back at him, “And that’s why as soon as you found out about it you insisted on going all noodly again and on helping us get his body back and looking through all those super-boring books about how to get to the Horizon anyway-”

“You! Stop talking!” the ghost cuts her off, obviously flustered, turning his attention to Moonjumper, “And you start talking – if I grabbed the wrong stupid wispy Horizon thing, I wanna know now so I can go get the right one!”

“See? You do care!”

“Shut up, kiddo!”

“…you’re a ghost again.” Moonjumper blinks and- no, that wasn’t why- “You’re not supposed to be a ghost anymore, I went to fight… Her so you could stay human- why are you- I thought you wanted to-?” he had gotten himself sent back to the Horizon, almost stuck there again forever, for nothing-?

Snatcher huffs and folds in on himself, mumbling something he can’t quite hear.

“I- I’m sorry, what was that?”

“WE COULDN’T GET YOU BACK IF I HAD!” Snatcher bellows, glaring, “There, happy? Being human again made me go all mushy and do stupid things like thinking I’d miss you if you were gone or something, it’s disgusting, and the space brats were worried about you and it affected me, yuck!” he sticks out his tongue, then dives into a shadow with a last call of, “And that’s my old body you’re using, so you better take better care of yourself in the future or else!”

Moonjumper blinks at where the ghost had been, then down at where Bow’s still supporting him and Hat Kid is rocking on her heels, grinning, “He… helped you get me back?”

“He instigated it,” Bow informs him.

“He’s just too big a soon-dey-reh to admit it,” Hat Kid adds, hopping over to give him a hug, “Welcome home, Moonjumper!”

“Welcome home!” Bow Kid joins in the hug as well.

…they’d come for him. He’d done something incredibly stupid, then started- started forgetting them and himself and everything he’d learned and loved since he first found the Prince’s body all those years ago and- and he just-

With a lump in his throat, tears in his eyes, and an almost overwhelming sense of relief, he hugs the kids back. “Thank-you.”