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It was a relaxing day in the Cloudseeker without any problems, Funshine was skateboarding in the halls— again—, Grumpy was polishing the Cloudseeker, Dibble was helping him. Share was baking, and finally Good Luck and Cheer were in the control room. Good Luck was throwing a ball— summoned by his belly badge— up into the air and catching it, and Cheer was reading, when suddenly, the communicator crackled to life. The visuals showed it was, of course, Tenderheart.
“Cloudseeker? Come in, Cloudseeker!”
”Caring Control? We hear you loud and clear.” Cheer replied.
”We’re getting a distress signal from somewhere in The Silver Lining. The whiffles are unhappy. And when the whiffles are unhappy—“
Good Luck finished for him. ”The whiffles don’t work.”
”We’ll check it out.” Cheer nodded.
”Great. Sending you the location now.” A red dot appeared on Good Luck’s navigation screen.
“Good Luck, could you go get everyone? I’ll start up the Cloudseeker.”
“Alrighty.” He dispelled his ball and leapt out of his chair.
”Yo, Funs. We gotta do a thing.” He poked his head into the hallway, clapping his paws together to get Funshine’s attention.
”Dang.” Funshine stopped his skateboard and picked it up, starting to take off his safety equipment.
Good Luck opened the door and looked over to Grumpy, who had since stopped polishing the Cloudseeker because Dibble decided to use his arms as a jungle gym, again. “Grumpy. Mission.”
”Alright. Dibble, please-“
Then came the purr of the engine, signifying it was time to go.
There weren’t many obstacles on the way to their destination, just some bad crowd shenanigans that didn’t work.
”And we’re here!” Cheer announced, easing the Cloudseeker into a stop.
The landscape outside the Cloudseeker was a beautiful rainbowy expanse of flowers, it was truly dazzling. A couple of oohs rang across the group. But despite the beauty, there was work to do.
”Hellooo?” Cheer called out, looking for the whiffles in distress. Everyone went off in different directions looking for the whiffles, leaving Good Luck to trek through the thorny rose bushes.
A couple scratches never hurt anyone, plus he had luck on his side, so he shrugged and carefully stepped inside the brambles. It wasn’t until he was a good way in before he got pricked, his skin breaking.
Momentarily, his head hurt, it felt like his brain had gotten too big for his skull for like five seconds. ”Woah.” He stopped, just staring ahead.
”See? You get so much more done when you work together!” Share clapped her paws together, looking to the water whiffle and soil whiffle, who finally nodded and hugged eachother.
”That took longer than it normally does.” Grumpy complained, but softened up when Dibble hugged his leg.
”You guys notice Good Luck never met back up with us?” Funshine asked.
”Maybe he got into his own adventure.” Cheer offered.
”As long as he doesn’t go missing or something, it’s not a big deal.” Grumpy shrugged, rocking Dibble in his arms.
When they got back to the Cloudseeker, Good Luck was just standing there in the rose brambles, staring out into nothing.
“Yo, Lucky! The mission’s over, we’re done!” Funshine shouted over to the spaced out bear.
”H-huh? Oh. Yeah, ok.” He crept out of the bramble bush. There was blood trailing down his fur from the cut he’d accidentally ignored.
”Yeesh.” Grumpy handed the sleeping Dibble off to Funshine. He leant down to Good Luck’s paw, taking a look. “Does it hurt?” He asked, looking back up at his face.
”Does what hurt? Oh. I guess it stings.” He shrugged, he seemed preoccupied.
Grumpy dabbed a wetted cotton ball against Good Luck’s fur and cut, although the latter was more important.
”Were you standing in that bramble bush the whole time?” Grumpy broke the silence with a question. He didn’t mean to make it sound judgy, but it sounded judgy. Good Luck just shrugged in response, still staring off into space. Grumpy found that… odd, Good Luck was acting strange. He was usually as talkative as Funshine.
—
Good Luck laid in bed, contemplating. He had a bunch of stuff on his mind. What’s his purpose? To spread care, he supposes. Why does he spread care? He’s not sure if he wants to or is doing it out of unrealized obligation. Maybe a bit of both.
But his most important question… who is he?
That one’s easy; he’s Good Luck Bear! But who is Good Luck Bear? He’s not sure anymore.
—
“Oh, hello, Grumpy!” Bedtime greeted through the transmission. It wasn’t often that the bears out in The Silver Lining called him during his natural nocturnal waking hours. “What are you doing up at this time of night? Y’know that’s my job, right?” He chuckled to himself at his own lame joke.
”Hey, Bedtime. Do you have any idea what this is?” He held up a carefully cut sample of the roses Good Luck had been standing in earlier.
”Looks like a rose, why?”
”I think it’s a magic rose. Y’know, Silver Lining plants and stuff are weird.”
”Hmm. Any defining characteristics that separate it from a normal rose?”
”Good Luck got all weird after standing in a patch of em. And he didn’t even notice when he was bleeding down his leg because he got cut by one.”
”That is odd. I’ll look into it.”
”Good.” Grumpy shut off the transmission and trekked back to bed.
Good Luck was still staring at the ceiling, still introspecting. He knew there was something he needed to change about how he was perceived. It wasn’t his name, no, he loved his name. It was something else. He… he…… that’s it. He wasn’t a he. But, not a she either. They. They smiled for the first time since they got pricked in the roses. They were satisfied, and could finally get some shut-eye.
When they woke up, they realized a… problem with their new identity. How would they tell the others? All at once? One at a time? They knew nobody would be unsupportive, but it was still horribly nerve-wracking.
Good Luck ate their breakfast like normal. Usually it was pancakes, but this time it was cereal. Mainly because pancakes are good, but having them for breakfast over and over usually made you get sick of it. They liked this cereal because it had a bunch of little marshmallows in it.
”So uh… Good Luck? How you feelin’?” Cheer asked.
”Eh, same old, same old.” They lied, but Grumpy squinted at Good Luck’s response, he was the type to take note of everything, and he also happened to take note of everyone’s tells.
Cheer’s was turning her paw back and forth on it’s tippy toes, Share put her hands behind her back and tapped one paw, Funshine’s ears flattened, and Good Luck didn’t have a tell until questioned, but theirs was a smile and uncomfortable eye contact.
“You sure?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.
They swallowed their bite of food and smiled with their teeth. “Mhm.”
”Really?”
”Yep.” Their eyes met Grumpy’s, and they felt like they were done for.
”If you say so.” He crossed his arms, still suspicious.
There was a mission in the Weeping Forest that day, some whiffles were having an argument about what they wanted to plant. When they got to the edge of the forest, Funshine put his paw on Good Luck’s shoulder.
”Uh, dude-“ Good Luck cringed internally at the masculine term. “-maybe you should sit this one out?”
”I-.. Yeah, ok bro.” They reluctantly agreed, it’d give them time to figure out how to come out to everyone.
They sat on the steps of the Cloudseeker as the others went into the woods and sighed.
It took a while, but eventually they confessed to everyone.
First Funshine,
”Hey bro..?”
”Yeah?”
”I don’t think I’m a boy.”
”Alright, Dudette-“
”Or a girl.”
”That’s still cool, duuu….dex? Yeah, that sounds like a thing. Dudex.” Good Luck giggled at that.
Then Cheer and Grumpy,
Then Share,
And finally they had Grumpy explain what a nonbinary person was to Dibble, then Grumpy explained Good Luck was nonbinary now.
And finally, they were at peace.
”Grumpy?” Bedtime asked through the transmission.
”Yes?”
”Remember that rose you showed me last week? It’s called a Revelation Rose. Because when the thorn pricks someone, it makes them have a revelation. About themself, about the people around them, etcetera. The whiffles that grow them don’t seem to be affected.”
”Ah.”
”Any idea what Good Luck’s revelation was? Also, is he ok? I know getting such a sudden revelation can be a bit.. stressful.”
”..About that.”