Scar had been prepared to gloat. Really, he had! He’d been planning on going into the Barge and gloating to Grian about his recent mycelium-killing endeavors, and about finding a way to find the Mycelium Resistance headquarters, and basically about everything, because gloating really is fun sometimes, you know?
It’s just that…
“Uh, you’ve got something…” he trails off.
“…yes, Scar?” says Grian. “Are you just here to bother me? Because the Barge is busy as usual, and I have a lot of sand and gravel to restock.”
“Oh yes I absolutely am,” Scar says.
“I didn’t have a response for that,” Grian says after a moment, incredulous. “Scar, you’re the mayor. Do you have time to be messing with perfectly law-abiding shopkeepers, who definitely aren’t undermining your regime with mycelium-based ecoterrorism? Because, as I am that -”
“Oh absolutely. I just make Bdubs do my paperwork. Anyway, you’ve got something, you know, on…”
Scar gives up and gestures to his entire body.
“…my clothes?” Grian says.
“No, it’s the mushrooms. Yeah, that,” Scar says.
“The what? Scar, are you getting enough sleep? Clearly this resistance - which, once again, I have nothing to do with - is getting to you.”
Scar opens his mouth. Scar closes it.
“Do you not… know? Here, hold on, do you have a mirror in your shop? Let me get a mirror,” Scar says, pushing past Grian to go inside the Barge. The floating shop’s floorboards creak as Scar walks through it, the planks ominously laced with white algae - or, Scar thinks, more fungi. That can’t be good for the boat. Now, grass - that clearly would have more structural integrity! After all, shipwrecks have weird moss growing on them all the time, right? And those are boats, and grass is basically the same thing as moss.
Scar doesn’t know how boats work.
Anyway, it takes him getting to the part of the barge where Grian sticks random sale items to find a mirror, which is really quite an oversight on Grian’s part. “You know, you do sell some basic home amenities here. You should really add mirrors to the lineup! Anyway, here, you clearly haven’t had time to look at yourself lately, come on, come on…”
“Scar, if this is some new psychological warfare tactic, it doesn’t work on me, I’ll have you know,” Grian says.
“No, Grian, you need to look,” Scar says. He tries to make it clear from his voice how serious he’s being. He can feel some blue leeching into it. He hopes it gets his point across.
“Fine, fine,” Grian says. He picks up the mirror and looks in it. After a moment, he looks back at Scar with a raised eyebrow. “I look like I always have. What’s got you all upset, huh, Mr. Mayor?”
Scar stares at Grian, whose skin is grey. Who has purple and brown and red mushrooms painted across his skin, white mycelium laced in and out of the skin. Who has blackened eyes, and deep bags under them, and his hair is ragged, and there are mushrooms growing out of his throat, Scar had been trying not to look at it, and there’s something wrong with his nails, and -
Scar swallows.
“Are you, uh, sure about that?”
“Yeah? Honestly, Scar, maybe you need more sleep. Clearly, making Bdubs do all of your work for you is a lot harder on you than you’d think it would be.”
He can see the places where the mushrooms have dug into Grian’s skin. He looks dead.
“Right,” Scar says. “Okay. Right. Right.”
Grian stares at him a moment longer. “You aren’t going to lose to the Mycelium Resistance any faster if you stand here.”
“You’re right, I won’t,” Scar says, after a moment. “I need to go talk to Cub, actually. Now, continue being… law-abiding. Actually, Grian, do me a favor. Stay in the Barge for a bit. HEP will be here to… decontaminate… soon, but we need to make sure you aren’t contaminated either! If you look over here, you see an infection.”
“You have no authority here,” Grian says. “I’m an independent -”
“Grian, please.”
Grian falls silent.
“Scar?”
“I’ll be back soon.”
Scar leaves the Barge with the horrible sinking feeling that Grian absolutely will not be staying in place when asked. That Grian thinks this is all a part of the game. That Grian doesn’t…
Well, Scar thinks. This certainly isn’t gloating! He didn’t get to gloat. How horrible! He better solve this soon, so he can go back to the proper game. That’s how this ought to go.