Chapter Text
The hiss of a bursting pipe drowns out his frustrated sigh as he brushes sweat off of his brow. His limbs feel as heavy as the wrench in his hands, straining as he tightens the nut of the pipe he just replaced. He sucks in his gut as he turns over, glaring up at the steam escaping as though it had burst just to spite him. It’s one of the back ones, one he has to carefully maneuver his arms around so he doesn’t risk touching a boiling pipe. He swears under his breath, still annoyed that he has to do all this maintenance by himself, since someone was too busy flirting- excuse him- being sick, to pull his weight.
He understands the appeal. it’d been, what, months at least since they passed close enough to anyone to be able to contact them. He doesn’t even want to try to remember the last time they encountered anyone friendly. It was the same group too, which would be enough to make him suspicious if it wasn’t clear that the leader lacked the malice to try and take advantage of their small group. So he knows that Keralis is safe, flirting with the friendly enough voice of xB, even if the other voice they’ve heard made him feel a bit more nervous. He still wishes he wasn’t working by himself though, sweating buckets and contorting to fix the numerous pipes that need repair today.
He tightens the nut of the pipe in place and after a moment he feels comfortable with getting ready to go to another one of his duties for the day. The inner workings of pipes and gears only make noises that should be happening. Walking over to the intercom on the wall, he’s almost scared to push the big red button, but he should double check before his laziness gets them all killed. It takes three buzzes before he finally gets an answer, making a mental note to mess with the circuitry later.
“Whaddya want??” Tango rolls his eyes affectionately at Bdubs’ booming voice over the crackly speaker.
“Yeah, yeah, do me a favor and look over all the sensors. I got other things I wanna get done today.”
“Let me check, I’m pretty sure you should be good…” Bdubs clicks his tongue as he looks everything over on his end. “The sonar’s a bit off I think, but only by like 10%. You can futz with it later though. Or, we could make Keralis pull his weight.”
“Ha! Good luck with that, he’s still on call, isn’t he?” Once he gets everything packed away in his toolbox he doesn’t waste a second, not wanting to stay down here. The last thing he wants is another pipe breaking while it’s still his responsibility to fix it. He skips steps as he heads back to sea level, something dangerous to do even on a good day, but he wants to see the sky again, yesterday was so cloudy he barely wanted to move.
He throws his arms out as he kicks open the hatch, basking in the sun like a cat. The water is calm, the calmest it’s been for a week, and he can barely handle looking at where the sun glints on the horizon. If he wasn’t already unbelievably busy, he would curl up under the sun, to hell with responsibility and to hell with his own personal projects. But, alas, if he doesn’t take advantage of the quiet, he’ll never get an opportunity to fix things up a bit. Bdubs said that the sonar is off, not to mention the leak in the window of Keralis’ room, and his scoopificator stopped scooping scrap last week and he never got a chance to fix that either. He’s practically drowning in projects, each one equally important, and not for the first time he wishes there were more than just the three of them onboard.
An entire town seems pretty small when they keep losing people at such a steady rate, more and more of their buildings getting closed off and stripped for valuables. He still misses Gem, although probably not as much as the others, but he can’t blame her for leaving for an exciting life as a pirate as opposed to struggling to keep Big Eyes afloat. They still haven’t taken her home apart yet, but if things keep going the way they are, whatever parts they get out of it won’t be enough.
There’s been too much damage, too much rust. Nothing is lasting as long as it should; they’re basically an iceberg away from that being the end of Big Eyes. Maybe the others realize it too, maybe that’s why Keralis is flirting so hard, and why Bdubs seems even more grumpy than normal. But he’ll keep this sinking town afloat as long as he can. He shakes his head, patting his cheeks, trying to get himself out of his mind and back into the game.
Off in the distance, he can barely make out the smoke that Keralis' beau must be in; he wonders how many people are there. It's a farm supposedly, nothing like their cityship, and he wishes it was safe enough for them to visit- they even claim to have animals other than fish. There has to be a lot of people to maintain something like that, or they're just more capable than his crew. Definitely enough to outpower the three of them if they want to. He pulls his spyglass up to his face, barely able to make out the shape.
“Tango!” The noise he makes upon hearing Keralis should never be spoken of; he knows that Keralis will recreate it at dinner. “Tango, sweet face, I’ve been trying to get your attention for five minutes now! That mesmerized by my princess’ home, mmhm?”
“Ahah, not quite…” He runs a hand through his hair, not quite sure how to explain his line of thought. “Just, thinking, I guess.”
“Ah yes, Tango, always our big thinker. You know what I have been thinking about? I brought it up when I was on the comms too…” Keralis trails off, watching him expectantly, and Tango hates how his mind immediately goes to how he and Bdubs are going to have to divy up duties between the two of them. “I was thinking about how we should grow more plants! We have more freshwater than we need now that Gem is no longer with us, so we shouldn’t have to only grow fruits and veggies. We can grow bushes, and trees! XB said that he would give us some saplings and he wouldn’t even charge us anything for them! Well, he wanted two pounds of scrap, but I managed to talk him into giving us plants for free because it’s not like we would be able to use them!”
“Oh. Oh, wait! Keralis! You’re amazing, he doesn’t even want anything for them?”
“Well, not quite. He wants a little kissy kissy, from me, not you. Not that you are not a very pretty face, but well, it’s nothing compared to mine.” His smile is infectious, Tango’s cheeks hurt from how excited he is. Multiple plant cuttings in exchange for a kiss. “Of course, we need to go over to them to get the cuttings. As much as my princess likes talking to me, he has no reason to trust us to let them go if they come over here.”
The smile vanishes instantly. There it is, the catch.
“How do we know that they’ll let us leave?”
“I guess we don’t, but I’m feeling lucky enough today, aren’t you? The sun is finally shining, after all, and then we ran into another ship.” It’s hard enough to resist Keralis’ optimism on a bad day, and today just keeps looking up. Still, he has a reputation to maintain, so he sighs heavily, putting on a show of thinking before he replies.
“Alright, but you can’t get too distracted when we get there. I don’t want to make poor old Bdubs take care of Big Eyes by himself for too long.”
“I knew you would see it my way! Don’t even worry about Bubbles, I’m sure he would more than forgive us if we brought him a pretty plant for him to add to his greenhouse.” Keralis corrals him towards one of the few small boats they have left, barely giving him time to process the fact that he’s about to cross a significant stretch of ocean in such a tiny little boat. He feels himself puff up, his hair standing on end and his tail flicking angrily. Keralis just laughs when he notices, no doubt enjoying his reaction far more than he should be. “Relax my friend! We will be over and back before you can even think of getting your little toesies wet. Aren’t you excited? I’ve only been on another ship once, and that was quite the experience.”
“Thrilled.” His voice suggests anything but, the ocean seems to get larger and larger the more he thinks about crossing it. It’s amazing how small it seems when it’s limited to the space around Big Eyes. “Keralis, I really don’t think-”
He’s cut off with a shove as Keralis jumps in the ship behind him and drops the line. His stomach leaves his body with a scream, hanging on for dear life and hating the feeling of water splashing onto his hands with a quiet hiss. Keralis laughs, ignoring Tango’s glare in favor of kicking on the generator. “Oh don’t look at me like that! You were about to try and back out; you would have regretted it later if I did not give you some… encouragement.”
He won’t admit, aloud anyways, that Keralis is right. The open water makes him uneasy, the darkness scares the life out of him. He wishes that he was still back on Big Eyes, the size of it gives more of an illusion of safety. Instead, all he can do is clutch a life-float and stare up at the blue sky. Keralis, for once, is taking mercy on him, focusing on sailing them to their destination. He does enjoy the way the breeze is blowing through his hair, the speed of a small generator boat is unmatched with cityships. His eyes droop closed again, almost managing to fall asleep before another spray of ocean mist hits him and his eyes fly open again.
It only takes half an hour before they reach xB’s ship. He still doesn’t know the name of it, he realizes, as he looks up at their banner. Four horses seem to stare back at him and he can’t help the slightly unnerved shiver that goes down his spine. Someone, presumably xB, calls down at them, hitching their boat and pulling them up to ground level. Keralis immediately goes off to talk to him, leaving Tango to cautiously hop onto the ship and he’s startled to realize what he’s standing on.
It’s grass.
Real life grass, lush and green and brushing his ankles. He sees specks of color that he thinks must be flowers, and he can’t help the way he hurries over to them. There’s a buzzing in his ears that he zeros in on, a small fuzzy insect floating back and forth between flowers. He can’t help cooing over it, the way its fat little body seems to be dripping with pollen.
“It’s a bee.” A voice he doesn’t recognize startles him out of his mesmerized staring. “You probably haven’t seen any before, right? XB made it sound like you didn’t have a lot of plants. You pollinate everything by hand?”
“I, uh, yeah. I mean, I don’t have a lot to do with it so if you’re looking for details I’m the wrong guy to ask. Do you really have enough plants for bees?”
The man laughs, not in a mean way, and Tango finds himself relaxing more than he would imagine in the presence of a stranger. “Obviously, considering they’re here. It took a lot of work though, don’t think you’ll be able to make them out of thin air. And it’s hard to keep them maintained too. If they don’t like their conditions they’ll leave.”
It feels strangely pointed, and he can’t help but wonder if that’s a hint about Keralis. “It’s still amazing, though. I thought they would have gone extinct.”
“Not quite.” His voice is brimming with pride as he talks, grinning widely. “You’re looking at one of the last, if not the last, colony of bees on the planet. Anyways, xB sent me to help you get some plant cuttings. He and your guy are going to be busy for a bit, I think.”
He starts walking away, only stopping when he realizes that Tango isn’t following behind him. “Come on, you guys shouldn’t stay longer than you have to, given how the weather’s been. I have a couple of ideas for what you should take. Since you’re hand pollinating, larger flowers would probably be easier for you, unless you’re up for a challenge. I was thinking maybe some azalea or hibiscus. Or maybe hyacinths… Holly and virginia creeper also look nice, you can’t eat the berries though, unless you want to die.” He starts talking mostly to himself, giving Tango a chance to scamper behind him. As they walk, Tango realizes that most of the buildings are modified greenhouses, specialized in a way that would make Bdubs jealous.
Each one is full of color, more shades of greens and reds and everything than Tango has ever seen before. He doesn’t even recognize one plant per greenhouse, getting lucky enough to catch one every couple of buildings he recognizes. A squash plant, tomatoes, and he’s sure there are others that he’s just missing, it's unbelievable that there are this many plants still alive. And in every building he notices bees, dozens of them buzzing around.
“Okay, here. Let’s get you sorted.” He barely avoids running into the man, and he realizes that he still doesn’t know his name. “If you had anything valuable, I would offer something better than what you’re getting out of this. You’re really just getting some pretty flowers that you have to spend the time taking care of.”
“That’s fine, do you have any moss? It’s fine if you don’t want to give any away, it’s just one of our guys loves the stuff- has a whole mini ecosystem that he keeps in his place.”
“Oh, yeah, I have a bit. Can give you some peat moss, I guess. Tell you what, I’ll give you a couple of seeds for stuff too. For your moss guy. He’s the one who grows everything, huh?”
“Yeah, I’m really more of the engineer type. You’re the plant guy here?”
There’s the look of pride again, and having seen more of the area, Tango really understands why. “Yep, taught xB everything he knows. He does most of the general upkeep, though, leaving me to monitor all of my bees and plants.”
He guides Tango into the nearest greenhouse, full of flowers and bees and Tango instantly starts sneezing. His guide laughs, mostly ignoring his sniffles in favor of picking up a pair of gardening shears and going to a couple of different plants, taking a cutting here and there. Tango watches him through watery eyes, greatly enjoying the variety of colors being collected. The man places them all down on a work table, sticking each of them in their own water holders before packing all the cuttings away into a large satchel.
“We have to go to another greenhouse for the moss, but I packed you up with some azalea, hibiscus, holly, and hyacinth. Did your plant guy have any requests other than moss?”
“Ah, no, the moss is more of a surprise to be honest.”
“Cute. Alright, I got two more things I want to grab, you can head back towards your boat and I’ll meet you over there. I’ll call xB over the comms so he knows to hurry up. Hopefully we’ll be all wrapped up soon enough, I think the weather might change again soon.”
There isn’t a cloud in the sky but just the statement is enough to make him nervous. He’s never been good at telling the weather, at least not before it’s already ruining his day. He nods, watching as the man walks off before quickly retracing his steps back to the boat.
He pulls out his comms, knowing they’re barely in range for Bdubs to hear him talk. “Hey buddy, are you there?”
“Tango! Finally, been trying to contact you for at least twenty minutes!”
“Why? What’s wrong?” He tries to sound casual and fails. He really doesn’t want to be on a generator boat when the water is rough.
“There’s something on the sensor. I don’t know what it is, but it’s big enough to ping. It should be fine, it’s probably a whale or something, but I don’t know where exactly it is. Don’t forget the sensor-”
“The sensor is 10% off, I remember. Don’t worry, we’re almost done. Just waiting for one last bit and for Keralis to finish.”
“Ah, well, if you’re waiting for Keralis to finish we’ll be waiting all day!”
A gasp makes him turn his head, a grin breaking out on his face as he holds the comms for Keralis. “Bubbles! How dare you! I always finish exactly when I need to!”
“You see! If I didn’t poke fun at him you would still be waiting! Hurry up and come back already!” The comms clicks as Bdubs disconnects.
Keralis is mostly ignoring him in favor of xB, but Tango sees the man who was helping him head over towards the group.
“Ah, Hypno, I hope you didn’t have any trouble with… Tango, right?” He nods at xB as the man, Hypno apparently, shakes his head.
“I think he was too busy being entranced by the bees to even think about causing trouble. Alright, so other than what we already mentioned, I got some of that Warnstorf’s peat moss I mentioned, wrote the name down in case your moss guy cares, and I tossed in a couple of strawberry seeds. I don’t know if they’ll take though, so don’t get mad at us if they don’t grow.”
It’s extremely generous, potential food for absolutely nothing in return. Keralis thanks them enthusiastically, but Tango can do little more than nod. They’re corralled onto their boat soon after, Hypno once again alluding to the imminent changing of weather.
He holds the satchel to his chest, making sure the straps are nicely tightened. He wants to look inside, but he’s scared to even risk seawater splashing in and killing the cuttings. He watches as the smoke of Big Eyes gradually grows closer, only glancing back at xB’s cityship once.