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Hey Gaz!
Sorry it’s been a while, things have been kinda hectic lately. But that’s just life in space, you know?
I like it here, I really do. Sometimes there’s only inky blackness outside the windows and I think me and Zim are going to drive each other to murder, but a lot of the time it’s just one big adventure. I’ve seen alien planets, Gaz! We’ve explored some, Zim was acting like he was the perfect tour guide because he’d been there before, but then he not only got us horribly lost, but also managed to piss the locals off so bad we had to hightail it out of there for fear of being eaten alive. Literally!
Traveling with Zim has been… interesting. We already spent all our time together back home, but we would always go our separate ways at the end of the day, or the day after. There’s no chance to do that now, not in a cramped space ship in the middle of literally nowhere. Of course we both knew already that we have different needs, but it becomes obvious in a whole new way when you live together like this. There’s no real day or night out here so I’ll forget to eat or sleep sometimes, which Zim gets oddly annoyed with, and he often gets fed up with how many pit stops we have make to eat or stock up on more supplies because I burn through them 10x faster than him. We’ve had more than a few arguments about it, and it’s been taxing, to say the least. He also has these weird rituals around passing time in dead space that are so interesting to witness. Part of it includes counting stars, or zoning out while staring at a particular star or planet in the distance and I’m not allowed to bother him while he does this and it’s really stupid. He also gets pissy if I sing along to songs to kill the boredom, even though he joins in himself more than half the time. He’s such a hypocrite! But I guess I get pissy about silly things that wouldn’t have bothered me as much before too, like Gir’s antics or Zim’s mood swings.
It’s not all bad, though! We do have a lot of fun. We play games, or make up completely new ones, and we play with Gir when he’s not being too fussy or screamy. We can pass hours watching dumb movies together, too, and he’ll remind me to eat or go to bed when I neglect myself for too long. Sometimes he’ll join me, even though he doesn’t need to sleep. I never thought sleeping near someone could be so… nice? It’s really comforting. Have you ever tried it?
We talk a lot. About anything, everything. Places we’ve been, where we wish we could go, memories from school and back home. We talk about you and Dad sometimes, too. I miss you. I’m really sorry I left on such short notice, and I’m especially sorry for promising to contact you and letting you know I’m not dead and then didn’t get around to it until now. Clearly, I’m not dead, at least? Not that I’d wind up dead anyway, I’m too cool for that.
We’ll be stopping at one of Irk’s planets soon. Zim doesn’t remember what it was originally, but it was converted into a theme park with AMAZING rides literally out of this world, and we managed to get super exclusive tickets (through not entirely legal means, best not to ask) and I’m honestly really excited! I don’t think I’ve been to a theme park since Dad took us to Science Land way back. Remember that? It was pretty fun, even if Dad got called away by the scientists there like literally ten minutes in. Zim would have loved that place, I bet. I wonder if there’s something similar out in space. It’s so big and vast, there’s gotta be, right? Can’t just be little insignificant Earth that had that idea.
I think the best part about traveling with Zim is the adventure, if I’m honest. We might drive each other crazy wild in close quarters, but we work so well as a team. We always have, thinking back on it, and that’s why we had so much fun on Earth after we stopped fighting, but it’s really different out here. We’re in entirely new environments with strange alien threats and the Irken empire looming over all of it. Lots of people don’t like that Zim is an Irken, which I get, and he acts like it doesn’t faze him but I think it does. I won’t let anything happen to him though. I’ve got his back as much as I know he’s got mine. That’s even happened literally a few times! We were in the middle of being mugged by a whole gang of tiny but surprisingly violent aliens with funky space guns, and they had us surrounded, so we covered each other’s backs and got ready to fight back, and Gaz! Let me tell you! We. Kicked. ASS! I haven’t felt that kind of adrenaline rush since we were kids and still fighting each other, and the fact I got to feel that because I knew I had a partner I could trust, who knew how to read me and my cues… It’s the best feeling in the world.
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I’m starting to really realize how important Zim is to me, Gaz. I’m really glad I left with him, even if I hurt you and Dad (though I’m sure he barely notices I’m gone).
I… I don’t know if he feels I’m important or special to him. He must at some level, or he wouldn’t have asked me to come. He would have just dumped me on the nearest planet or space station, no remorse about it whatsoever. But I’m still here, and so is he. I don’t know if it means anything, but… Well, we’ll have to wait and see, I guess.
Whenever I make it back home, you’re getting the COOLEST space games you could possibly imagine as souvenirs! Hopefully that’ll stop you from killing me straight away for being gone too long. We’re very far from Earth so I don’t know when that will be, but look forward to it, okay?
I love you, Gaz.
Dib Membrane, signing off from the stars ✩