Chapter Text
Earth was quietly floating in his atmosphere, desperately trying to radiate the calmness he knew the others would want to feel from him. However, inside, he was spiraling. He knew that the reason was stupid; Venus, Luna, and Mars had already forgiven him! However, he couldn’t help but wonder, what if he screwed up? What if he said something wrong that he didn’t mean again, and ruined his friendships for good? Earth attempted to take a deep breath, struggling to calm his racing heart rate. Just as he calmed down, extracting his nails from his arm, (When had he done that? Sure, he did it all the time on purpose, but it wasn’t that often. That was a lie; he deserved to do it endlessly, over and over. He ignored how it made him feel good) the world split into static. He covered his ears, the static splitting through his skull and making his head feel like it was about to explode- oh. The noise had finally stopped, and Earth opened its eyes. (When had he closed his eyes? He did a lot of things without noticing these days.) He shook away the thoughts, attributed it to lack of sleep, before taking in his surroundings. He jumped up, shocked. It was a room. Like his human rooms. But that was impossible! He was their planet; he couldn’t be in one of their rooms!
“Don’t be alarmed,” A voice crooned, as wisps of light but dark lilac smoke weaved around him.
‘Really?’ Earth thought, biting back the sarcastic comment from coming out of his mouth. ‘Not now, Earth, you have to be nicer, remember? You have to be better. Better, better, better-’
“Yes,” the voice chuckled, “I suppose that is a rather foolish statement to make.”
“I'm sorry-”
“No need, my dear, I know what you meant. I am the String Holder, or as others call me, the Portal Master. It means, well, the title is "self-explanatory." Don’t worry, I simply wish to have you meet some others.”
“What? And who? And how did you teleport me? Wait, no, that’s a stupid question; your title answers that.”
The voice chuckled, “No, no dear; the questions are understandable. As for who, people from other multiverses.”
Earth short-circuited. “WHAT! Other multiverses? But how? And how can you- No, the title answers that to…”
She, Earth realized, as the wispy tendrils informed his mind, (somehow, Earth wasn’t going to try to figure out how that happened out of the crazy things that had happened so far.) simply bopped him on the nose. Earth spluttered indignantly, as the String Holder floated in the air in the form of now royal purple colored smoke. “Don’t worry about it!” She giggled, twirling around, “Now, I'm going to need you to tell your friends about this, and what you guys are going to do! Don’t worry, your universe will be paused when all of you will come down, so the Sun won’t get pissy about all of you disappearing. Be prepared to meet new people!” And with that, her smoke puppet disappeared; the tendrils poofing out of existence around him. He blinked, his brain still overloading and processing the information that was just dumped on him. As his mind raced, Earth took in the room fully this time, noticing the various sections of chairs and couches. Each sectioned off into a specific number, large, empty signs floating above them, barely touching the ceiling. He sighed, “Guess this is happening.” He was then promptly pushed by a tendril towards a specific section. “Ok! OK! I’m going!” He yelped, striding towards the section his universe (He was still processing that) was apparently assigned.
---Luna and Rocky planets--
Luna grinned, staring at the scoreboard. While he didn’t get first, second was a welcome outcome, considering how he just started playing. He just wished Earth had been here to see it, considering how much Earth had encouraged him to do what he wanted to. Luna felt a pang in his core, thinking about how bad Earth had been he had come back to alert him. At how he was ready to end himself because he thought they would be happier again. Thankfully, he had agreed to go to therapy, but Luna had a suspicion that he had only agreed to appease Mercury and him. Thinking of Earth though, he turned to Venus, Mars, and Mercury (Who sun had been a lenient on after the Earth incident, probably trying not to pressure the other planets. “I got to go now guys; Earth is probably waiting for me.”
“I’ll come!” Mercury quickly said, jumping up to follow Luna.
“Why don’t we all go?” Mars questioned, smacking Venus on the head when he got a grumble in response. “Sure!” Luna chirped, glad that the rocky planets were slowly but surely mending their relationships. They walked towards earth’s orbit, Luna fiddling with his Earth pendant, a pair with the Moon earrings that Earth had been wearing for decades, most likely more at this point. Despite what Earth thought, Luna had noticed how sometimes he would dig his nails into his thighs or arm. To say he worried about his brother was an understatement, so could anyone really be surprised at his freakout when Earth wasn’t in his orbit?
Mars:
While Mars himself worried about Earth, after all, they were best friends, despite the issues they were now working through. (Proto would be proud), Mars thought, before shaking the thought away. However, he couldn't help but worry also about the fact that Luna was close to tearing apart the solar system to find his brother. “WHERE IS HE???!!!” The moon shrieked, clutching his hair. “Oh my god, he was just here, did I really leave him alone that long?” To Mars and Venus's surprise, Mercury also looked worried, but less panicked and more fearful. Before Mars or Venus could question why they were so scared, a shrill static sound erupted, and they weren’t in the solar system anymore.