#not rly shippy but could be perceived as such idk

[dmwrites]

The first few days back after finishing the life series was always a bit jarring. Impulse had been through this three times now, but this last time had been especially… odd. He didn’t like feeling odd. So he went back to old habits, and threw himself into his work. Spent two full days digging at his diggy diggy hole, reinstalled the entire storage system three blocks to the left, polished the sea lanterns until they shined.

“Impulse…”

It took Gem literally waving a hand in front of his face for him to notice her presence.

“Oh! Hi Gem! What’s up bud?” Impulse smiled at her, moving and realizing just how sore he was- how long had he been leaning against his shovel and staring at the opposite wall?

“When is the last time you slept?” Gem crossed her arms.

Impulse frowned, trying to remember the number of times he’d seen the moon come up. “Dunno… a couple of days?”

“It’s been a week, Impulse.”

“Oh.” Impulse put a hand to his chest. “Well, you know how server travel goes.”

“yoU KnOw hOW serVEr TRaVeL gOeS.” Gem mimicked him, rolling her eyes. “I can excuse a couple days of confusion, I mean you just got back from dying in the Life series, and that’s what I told myself, but you and Pearl have both been handling it badly! Maybe if you two talked to each other you could, like, get over the fact that she killed you or whatever.”

Impulse’s fingers wandered absentmindedly across his chest, just kind of playing with the fabric of his shirt. “It wasn’t Pearl who killed me.”

“Well then go talk to whoever did.” Gem retorted. “Get your closure and then go to sleep. I miss soup group shenanigans.” Without another word she took off, maybe to avoid Impulse’s story of his death, which he had just been about to tell. Ah well.

Impulse went back to digging, hacking away at a gold ore, fully intending on ignoring Gem’s suggestion, but, just as annoying as she was, he kept thinking about the axe buried in his chest, the shock of who had put it there, and the darkness.

It was approaching another night, and Impulse put down his pickaxe and flew out of the hole. He flew past Pearl’s alien landscape, saw a huddled figure in blankets sitting under a mushroom. He’d talk to her too, after this perhaps. He held nothing against Pearl, never had and never would. So proud of the champion.

Impulse landed on the stairs of Bdubs’ diorite tower, which was alive with activity. He could hear someone, Etho he was sure, hitting something with a hammer in the basement. Far above was Ren’s doghouse castle thing- Impulse could see lights on.

“Impulse?”

Impulse turned to find the very man he’d been looking for standing on the staircase right inside, dressed in literal striped pajamas and a nightcap.

“Hey Bdubs.” Impulse felt for his chest on instinct.

“What on earth are you doing here so late?” Bdubs’ eyes flicked to Impulse’s hand and then up to his eyes. “I was about to go to sleep.”

“Can we talk?” Impulse asked.

“For a bit, but I really gotta get to sleep.” Bdubs gestured for Impulse to follow him up the stairs. Impulse climbed in silence, just kind of looking at the back of Bdubs’ head and that stupid nightcap. He’d been putting off seeing Bdubs ever since he got back, and it was almost odd to see him like this, all normal and whole again.

“So, whatcha wanna talk about?” Bdubs gestured to a chair in the corner of his bedroom.

Impulse sat. “Well, about double life, honestly. It’s kinda weird to be back, isn’t it?”

“Kind of.” Bdubs sat on top of his bed. “I just got so much to do here, it’s more been a matter of oh yeah that happened anyways. You probably feel the same way, you little dwarf guy.”

“So you’re adjusting well then?” Impulse asked, wondering why he was talking like this, like Bdubs was a simple causal acquaintance.

“Oh yeah, it’s been the easiest adjustment yet.” Bdubs said. “Just keep thinking I’m gonna get phantom damage every once in a while, which is weird to get un-used to. What about you?”

Impulse played with his shirt. “Oh yeah, well, it’s been-”

“Why do you keep doing that?” Bdubs interrupted, mimicking Impulse’s hand on his chest. “What’s that about?”

“I- I don’t know. I guess its kind of involuntary, in a way. It’s where the axe was buried into me.” Impulse let out a long breath.

Bdubs frowned, kind of looking up towards the ceiling in deep thought. “What do you mean? Pearl killed me, she never touched you.”

Impulse’s hand rubbed quicker against his chest. “It was a weird and confusing fight, but, uh, you accidentally hit me with your axe instead of Pearl. My death message said you killed me.” Impulse pointed at his chest.

“Oh.” Bdubs frowned. “Dang. Really?”

“Yeah.” Impulse leaned forward slightly.

“Well, sounds about on brand for me, jeez lewis.” Bdubs laughed. “Impulse, we really were a couple of dunces, weren’t we? I can’t believe I killed you! Whoops! Lol.”

Impulse smiled, and it felt like paper folding into unpleasant shapes. “Yeah. Whoops.”

“Well, I’m glad you told me.” Bdubs shifted, getting under his blankets. “That sure is something huh? Now, Impulse, love ya to death and all that, but a beauty needs his beauty sleep. Do you mind blowing out the candles as you’re leaving?”

“Oh. Oh! Yeah, sure.” Impulse stood up, kind of thrown by the abrupt end of the conversation. He moved to the door as he’d been asked, blew out the candle, then stopped dead, turning back around. His mouth worked out several different phrases, none of which ended up leaving his throat. “It’s nice to see you again, Bdubs.”

“You too Impulse. We’ll have to go out for a horse ride sometime soon.”

“Yeah, I’d like that.”

Impulse closed the door behind him and started down the stairs. He felt heavier then when he’d came in, somehow. He grasped as his chest as if he could stop the gaping hole from swallowing him whole.

It didn’t register with Impulse until he was at the ground floor of the monolith, perhaps too distracted before, but the racket Etho had been making had ceased at some point. And there was the man himself, leaning against the door leading down to the basement.

“Hi Etho.” Impulse tried to smile at him.

“Hey there, lover boy. Still got double life on the mind?” Etho’s voice almost held a chuckle in it, and something else Impulse couldn’t put a finger on.

“You called me that name in the games, Etho. I’m back to regular old Impulse again. The games are over.” Impulse told him.

“You sure about that? They don’t seem to quite be over for you just yet, lover boy.” Etho walked forward and gently, more gentle then Impulse had ever seen him, pulled Impulse’s hand away from his chest. It hurt. It all hurt.

[hugduckhesgay]

About Fluffybird, what do you think about the ship? What is your opinion and analysis about the relationships between the two?

righto heheh let's crack into these chuddy Ds--

tldr; fluffybird is the purest ship and it would be great if it became explicitly canon

first of all, I think the creators shipped fluffybird before they saw all the fanart! Duck and Red Guy's interactions even in the webseries have sweetness, and can be perceived as a suggestion of romance. Though these interactions could be platonic as well, the possibility of romance is there, and that's all any slow-burn romantic storyline starts as. maybe one day i'll list those telling moments, but that's a lot of work. lol. Back to the creator's shipping, idk, that's just speculation, but I think they easily had a fondness for red guy and duck's brand of affection for each other.

There are random moments that are just so shippy. I think these have all been pointed out by other ppl. Duck painting Red Guy as Red Guy stands like that?

c'mon. The fact that they both want to be the dads? why put that idea in our heads? When red guy says his fav color is medium brown and duck's eyes are MEDIUM BROWN? I like to think that everything the creators have chosen to do is intentional and serves some kind of purpose other than comedic value... could be wrong there, but it's what I'd like to think. oftentimes the jokes have meaning behind them after all.

As for their dynamic, it is really interesting and nuanced! I don't rly see any hate between them, tho there ain't nothin wrong with liking the "divorced" dynamic. what I think is that they are made unaware of the feelings they have for each other. The 3 are constantly in a state of disorientation. I've seen people say that the fridge scene is one of the only times they get close to voicing their genuine thoughts and feelings without being controlled in some way, and I agree. however, when it comes down to it, duck displays great attachment to red guy, always looking at him for protection or initiative, wanting to be a family with him, etc. for red guy, well, we all saw what happened when duck died. he lost his damn mind, and he didn't expect to. it's like, as I said, he has feelings for duck that he isn't conscious of.

i have a bad silly theory that duck and red guy were in love and together before they became puppets or something lol. i dunno, it's possible for all we know.

now i want to address the arguments against having red guy and duck having a canon romantic relationship ((and it seems like very few people seem to have arguments! this fandom is fluffybird all over<3). it sucks, but i feel like most of these arguments are charged with homophobia or just romance shaming. romance is already present in the show, and it's all been cishet (superficially. B nice if chars came out as trans canonically? Lol). Yellow and Speshul One, Yellow and Clair. Regardless of context, romance is already present, and why does no one get upset about it? Because it's cishet, i'd argue. no one even notices it. now these are obviously satirical presentations which i thank god for, but it's still there.

we also already have tender moments between the three main guys. people might argue that 'why can't two guys just be friends?!?!' yeah, they can, and they are across 99% of media. is 99% of portrayals not enough? there is so little lgbtqia+ content that this argument is just ridiculous.

there's the argument that romance would 'ruin' the show somehow. sounds like an internalized problem to me tbh. adding romance wouldn't detract from the existing elements of friendship; it would embellish that, presenting a unique relationship that does not conform to the restrictive standards of society. (this would not be the case for a cishet romance, though I won't go into that.)

if people have a problem with fluffybird, I think they really gotta ask themselves why, really question where those feelings of discomfort are coming from. it's not like i'm asking for a nsfw scene. i think red guy and duck would have a romantic love language that is completely unique, like their confession to each other in the fridge scene. The way this show subverts tropes and makes things so weird, it would be so cool to see how it handles a genuine romance. I imagine it would be cuddly and lots of sweet words to each other, like what they do now but more explicit in that it is romantic love.

Anyway fluffybird is the purest ship I ever