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There were fewer stars in the sky around Las Nevadas than Slime remembered.
He knows the stars move around sometimes, it’s been happening his whole lifetime. But he’s never noticed them fully disappearing. Not several at once. Despite the apparent lack of stars in the sky, the lights of Las Nevadas were still as bright as ever. Quackity always liked it that way. Slime could never understand it. Quackity did a lot of things Slime didn’t understand, like when Quackity gave Slime a bed, even though slimes don’t sleep, or laughed every time Slime pointed out the coke falling from the sky, or call everyone ‘he’ or ‘she’ or occasionally ‘they’. Slime didn’t understand why the words felt so… weird.
“There you are, Slime! I was looking for you.”
Slime perks up, turning to see Quackity stepping out onto the needle’s balcony. Slime was sitting near the railing, and Quackity sat down next to him.
“Sometimes I’m jealous of the view you get every night. Maybe I should get Foolish to build me a better view in the casino,” Quackity said with a chuckle.
Slime liked their little routine. Once Quackity was finished with everything for the day, he would come find the slime and the pair would be free to talk about whatever. At least until Quackity got tired. Questions sat at the tip of his not-tongue, as Slime was afraid to say anything that would ruin the moment. Slime would say something to ruin it anyway.
“Slimes don’t actually need to speak the way humans do to communicate.”
“Really?”
“Yeah! When we look like slimes, we jiggle! But sometimes we can just look at each other and understand each other. I think figuring out how mouths and vocal cords work was the hardest part of becoming human.”
“Huh. I never knew that. Most other mobs can make sounds now that I think about it, I always assumed slimes were the same.”
Slime considered sharing more about the whole vocal cord situation. It took so long to finally get them right! Though the story would include talking about the horny guy, which Slime knows Quackity doesn’t like talking about. Slime just chalked up the missing human bits to nearby mobs. Zombies and wolves and skeletons were ruthless sometimes. Slime has had his own fair share of encounters with them. They were generally unpleasant, really territorial, and getting near them more often than not resulted in some kind of injury.
As Slime got lost in thought, a faint glow appeared in front of Quackity. His eyes scanned what Slime knew to be a screen in front of him. Quackity typed something, then swiped his hands across the screen to get rid of it. Slime was used to something popping up and cutting their meetings short. But Quackity didn’t make any move to get up and leave, instead turning back to the sky and enjoying the stars.
“Did something happen?” Slime asked.
“Nothing too important, Foolish was just asking for an ok on some building stuff. Usually he doesn’t ask about what blocks he should use, I trust his judgement. Dunno why it was so important this time.”
Slime supposed now was as good a time as any to ask.
“What is that?”
“Huh? What is what?”
“When you say he all the time. You call everyone that. Is it like a nickname or something?”
Quackity pauses. The expression on his face is unreadable, as it usually is. Slime remembers a time when Quackity showed more expressions, was more passionate. Sure, the slime has seen practically everything around the server, but he could never understand why people reacted to things the way they did. Humans were so weird.
“You’re.. talking about pronouns?” Quackity asked. He sounded surprised, maybe?
“What are pronouns?”
“Well..” Another pause. Quackity from Las Nevadas was calculated. Quackity from Las Nevadas thought out every word. Quackity from Las Nevadas was different from Quackity from Manberg. It makes Slime wish he saw more of what happened in that too thin ravine deep in the ground. “Pronouns are kind of like nicknames? It’s usually based on your gender-”
“I don’t know what gender is either.”
“Yeah, I’m probably not the best person to ask about this kind of stuff. It’s something that humans use, mostly. You don’t really need a gender. I’m pretty sure Punz doesn’t have one.”
The slime hums in response, wondering if Quackity could help with the dilemma of.. discomfort, maybe? Slime is still struggling somewhat with all the weird feelings and giving them names. “What if I don’t.. like them?” Slime asks, wringing his hands together.
“I mean, we don’t have to use ‘em for you. There’s other options than just he.”
“Like what?”
“There’s.. she, they… it, xe, I think there’s a lot more but I don’t remember most of them.”
“When I looked more like a slime, sometimes people would call me it.. Maybe I can use that instead?”
Quackity’s expression softened, a small smile appearing on his face. “Yeah, we can call you it from now on if you want.”
The slime returned the smile. “I think I’d like that.”
They went back to staring at the stars and at Las Nevadas, talking about anything and everything that may come to mind.
The next day, Quackity starts using it as much as possible for the slime. And, weirdly enough, it feels a warmth in its chest when the rest of Las Nevadas quietly follows suit.