#grian in the corner: you guys have problems (also has problems)

[red-lives]

The talk about the winners lobby has made me realize that IMMEDIATELY after the finale of double life Pearl and Scott were stuck in a room together indefinitely

That must have been so awkward

[seriouslycalamitous]

About CWTT and future stories

I'm so curious about Grian's powers in CWTT and more importantly, its limitations. You've mentioned in the fic that human is his most standard form is his human form, being transformed drains energy and something like a dragon takes a lot out of him, but what dictates those limitations? Is it the size of the creature? Do magic creatures take more energy than "normal ones"? What are the consequences to overusing his power?

You also mentioned that you're working on some new stories, other than CWTT. Could we get any teasers about what is to come in the future?

Exciting I get to talk about all this stuff!!

I’m going to start with teasers for the future, and then move into lore!

There’s a couple fics that are in my WIPs at the moment, and some of them have been stagnant for a little while. Currently, my plan is to pick back up on my Ranchers Deity AU so I can finally get these silly little guys out of my head, but I am so busy that I haven’t had time to just sit down and DO IT y’know?

As for my other possible future stories, here’s a list of my WIPs that are most likely to one day see the light of day:

These would’ve been the options:

- Ranchers Deity AU (MULTI-CHAPTER)

- Ethubs Deity AU (PROBABLY ONESHOT)

- Centaur AU (ONESHOT)

- Childhood Friends to Lovers AU (ONESHOT)

- Superhero Fake-Dating (MULTI-CHAPTER)

- Scar POV of BTDOM (MULTI-CHAPTER)

- Maybe Phasmophobia AU (ONESHOT)

- And then I’m also prone to writing anything Julie @muftiys asks me to write because I’m a pushover and her art is good. So there is a nonzero chance at any point that I will write for her aus or silly ideas they give me.

The list is also ever-changing and not particularly in order of the things i want to write most of all, so take it with a grain of salt!

Alright, on to lore!

So yes, Grian is a shapeshifter with a standard human form as his default. Not every shapeshifter is like this, there are all different kinds of default forms, but human is the most common.

Shapeshifters with human base forms usually can manage their powers better than others, since the amount of energy it takes for a shifter to transform is dependent on the difference in size compared to their base form. It’s easier to become smaller than it is to become large, but not by much. Humans are a solid middle-ground when it comes to size.

Shifting difficulty can also be affected by the magical anatomy of certain creatures, like, for example, dragons! A dragon is big, so that’s already a problem, but they also come pre-installed with an anatomical part of their bodies that can produce flames from their mouth, something very few other creatures have. Quite a large amount of reality magic mixed with shifting powers must go into making it possible for shifter to also possess this.

The most common side effects of shifting without the proper energy are immense strain, migraines, nausea, long-term residual fatigue, magic instability, and in terrible scenarios, a crack in one’s own ability to regain magic within themselves, or even death.

But, if a shifter finds themselves in a life-threatening situation, any of these options are better than the alternative.

Shapeshifters are wary creatures, known for their solitary nature - though no often of their own accord. There are very few of them in the world, and given their ability to transform into anything, hunters find them to be more valuable than anything else.

Oh, you were looking for the voice box of a siren? Well a shapeshifter in the form of a siren is practically indistinguishable! Oh, you thought this species was extinct but this shifter has the ability to change into it? Looks like someone could be making some crazy money today!

Hunters would first, of course, have to find a way to corner the shifter into situations where they feel they need to transform into the wanted creature, which isn’t always possible, but a good way to do that is to force them to shift to accommodate the size of their restraints. Similar to what happened to Grian when he was under threat of changing back while inside a bird cage, it easily drains them of all strength and ability to fight back.

Should a hunter continuously keep them in this state, and only offer relief if they turn into one specific form, then the shifter would likely give in - wanting for any way to make the pain stop.

A phrase passed down between generations of their species is “a shifter without their powers is practically already dead.” Drained and helpless is no better than death to them.

Hopefully that answered your question!! It’s early in the morning for me so i’m not sure if it’s coherent lol! Let me know if you have any other curiosities!

[alittlebitofwonk]

Notes for a fic I don’t know if I’ll write:

Mostly follows Grian, who is secretly world renowned pop star Ari, trying to live a fairly normal life while also balancing the ups and downs that come with fame.

Only a few people know that Ari and Grian are the same person, and that’s Etho who is Ari’s bodyguard, Ari’s agent, and Gem who is Ari’s makeup artist and hair stylist.

Other people on Ari’s team include Bdubs, her backup vocalist and head of the dance team (who Etho totally isn’t crushing on), and Impulse, the lead tech guy.

On Grian’s side you have Scar and Mumbo, two of his oldest friends, and Jimmy and Pearl, Grian’s siblings. None of them know that Grian is Ari, but Pearl and Jimmy are beginning to have their suspicions. Etho also spends time with Grian.

Anyways, basic overview is that Grian does not want anyone finding out he’s Ari— he enjoys having a semi peaceful life where he can.

The problem is, Grian kinda hates being a popstar? It was fun at first, but it’s gotten so out of hand that he just wants to go back into hiding, back to making covers on a quiet corner of YouTube.

But his asshole agent keeps pushing him to keep up this image of the somewhat spoiled, confident, pink-loving Ari, the media sweetheart and pop music heartthrob.

Grian’s forced to try to work his way out of this situation, while also trying to maintain his cover and his changing relationship with Scar, who has no idea what his crush? Date?? Situationship??? Is actually dealing with.

A lot of shenanigans, too. Because shenanigans are fun.

[zabo-writes]

Bad Boys Fae Bakery Part 1

Tango was feeling tired and sluggish and overall terrible. He was far due for some caffeine. After all, it was only 10 AM. He’d been up all night doing redstone, and he couldn’t very well stop when he was on a roll! This seemed like a good time to check out that cafe Etho was always going on about…

What was it he had said again? “It’s a pretty good cafe, but watch out for those baristas! There’s something going on with them, if you know what I mean.”

Tango nodded solemnly at the cheeky vision of Etho that appeared in his brain.

The “Bad Boys Bakery and Cafe” was quite a sight. The sign appeared to be hand-painted. In a rush. By a blindfolded second grader. Respectfully. The inside was warm and inviting, decorated with some nice lanterns. It seemed nice ish. Tango wasn’t really a decorations type of guy. There was an Etho seated in the corner, Tango gave him a wave.

“Welcome to the Bad Boys Bakery! We’re the Bad Boys, and we make a mean cup of coffee, or whatever you fancy!”

The barista at the counter had fluffy blonde hair and big brown puppy dog eyes. He wore a black leather jacket and dark sunglasses — that was certainly a choice, but Tango thought he pulled it off pretty well. He was pretty cute. Maybe that’s what Etho had been talking about, the thing going on with the baristas. Too charming for their own good.

“Hey there! I’d like whatever has the most caffeine, please and thank you.”

The barista— “Jimmy” according to his name tag— laughed and pulled out a cup and a sharpie. “Okay, okay! I’m picking up what you’re putting down. How’s an iced coffee?”

Tango pretended to think for a second, “Hmmm, I suppose! You’re the expert.”

Jimmy gave him a shy smile. Now, maybe it was the 18 hour fugue state talking, but Tango was starting to think this guy was into him.

“You got it, boss! And can I get your name?”

Already on a name basis? Total score! Or not. Maybe that’s just how coffee shops worked. “The name’s Tango!” He paused, winked, and continued, “of the ‘Tek’ variety.”

The barista looked far too ecstatic for someone taking a name for a coffee order. “TangoTek? Is your name TangoTek?!”

Tango laughed. Maybe his sleep-deprived charms were more effective than he’d thought. “You got it, buddy!”

“Oh my god. Yes! Okay! Thank you. Thank you so much, you have no idea. Uh, your coffee will be right out.” The barista practically ran into the back of the cafe shouting, “JOEL, GRIAN!! You aren’t going to believe this, but it WORKED!”

Tango shook his head fondly, and walked over to sit across from Etho.

“Did you see that, dude? That barista was totally into me.”

Etho peeked an eye out from between his fingers— his face had been buried in his hands for some reason. “I dunno Tango, but I think you’ve definitely made his day.” Etho responded, holding back breathy laughter.

“What? What do you mean? Why are you laughing at me, huh?!”

Etho smiled his stupid smug grin that he did when he knows something you don’t. Jerk. “Oh nothing, nothing! You’ve just given me some… interesting data for a theory I’m testing.”

Tango groaned, “Ugh, fine, fine, spare me! ! I can barely understand your wack job social experiments when my brain isn’t spaghetti.”

After a few minutes, Jimmy called his name at the counter.

“There you go! Uh, just a sec though, I have a bit of a request for you Mr. Tan-go-tek, is that okay?” Jimmy seemed nervous. No clue why, though. Also, Tango liked the way he said his name. Made him feel like he’d do anything in the world for this guy he just met.

“For you? Anything. What’s up?”

Jimmy looked at him intently, “when you come back some time, do you think you bring some wheat seeds? I know it’s a bit of weird ask, but it would help me out enormously.”

Tango grinned reassuringly. Wheat seeds. That was easy! He could do that next time he stopped by, no problem. “You got it! A stack of wheat seeds, coming right up.”

He tried to wave at Etho as he left, but Etho was currently shaking from a fit of uncontrollable laughter. What a weirdo. Tango picked up some wheat seeds on the way home.

[all54321]

After seeing so much Limited Life Scarian angst, I wanted to write something happy with them. So, an AU where the life series is a bunch of games these guys play for fun and nothing serious or traumatic comes from them.

After each session there is a break for everyone to cool down and relax. Just so no one gets too worked up over it and to make sure this all stays a friendly game. During these breaks there is also a discussion to make sure everyone is doing okay and no one has any serious problems with something that happened.

This takes place after session 7.

—————

Grian peers out of the Nosey Neighbor’s tower at the sound of a horn. He startles when he sees Scar perched on the wall, smiling brightly, horn clutched in his hand. Grian isn’t sure if he’s amused or concerned.

“What is he doing?” Pearl says, mirth in her voice.

“I have no idea, I’m just glad he didn’t enter and trigger the trap.”

“What would happen then?” BigB asks joining them.

“With the timers paused? It should do nothing to him. Hopefully.”

“Hopefully?”

“Not like we tested that scenario out. I’ll go see what he wants.” Grian descends the tower, knowing exactly what Scar wants. He approaches his partner, careful of the pressure plates. “What are you even doing?”

“I wanted to see you!” He says cheerily.

“There’s an opening?” Grian replies, humor and confusion mixing in his voice.

Scar studies where Grian stands, in the center of a cluster of pressure plates, “and step on one of those? I don’t know what’s under any of them.”

“I wouldn’t invite you in if there was a trap,” Grian bluffs. The trap is hidden for a reason, a temporary ruce won’t change that.

“Doesn’t matter now, let’s go!”

Before Scar can move, Pearl exits the tower, “bring him back by sundown!”

Grian shoots her a glare, but Scar chuckles, “will do!” Grian quickly heads to the entrance in the wall, stepping around the trapped pressure plate.

Scar meets him on the ground on the other side, “where to?”

“Down here, unless you want to go somewhere more secluded,” Grian replies, heading towards the drop-down to the river.

“Nah, it’s good, we only have a little time after all.”

Grian nods, sliding down the edge to sit by the waters edge. Scar joins him after a moment, leaning back against the stone. “Things are getting crazy,” he murmurs after a moment.

Scar hums, “yeah, the end is near, huh?” He stares down at his arm, the red timer blinking.

Grian glances at it, only a couple days remain for Scar. He quickly tears his eyes away, focusing on the water. He picks up a stone and skips it, eventually saying quietly, “yeah, I don’t think we’ll have another chat here.”

Scar doesn’t respond for a moment, Grian doesn’t meet his eyes, choosing to skip another stone. “Are you okay?”

Grian looks over in surprise, “huh?”

“With Jimmy and Joel dying, I mean.”

“Ah, yeah,” he replies after a moment, looking away again, “kinda jarring, but this is just a game, y’know?”

“Doesn’t change anything.”

Grian slumps back, unable to hide from his partner, “okay, yeah, I’m bothered.” He glances over, “maybe it has something to do with them not being on Hermitcraft. I mean, most of us here we’ll see each other again just a few days after someone dies. But with them… I guess I can talk to them when we get out, but I don’t see them in person all too often.”

Scar bumps their shoulders together before leaning against Grian, “maybe you should do that when we get back.”

“Maybe,” he sighs, skipping a stone. Grian shakes his head, “anyway, how are you doing with… everything you have going on.”

Scar bursts into laughter, “oh, the usual. I killed dad, dad killed me, Bdubs tried to stop me. You know how it is.”

Grian opens and closes his mouth a few times, “I- I really don’t.” He lets out a surprised laugh, “I still don’t understand what you guys have going on.”

“Gotta be creative in how we have allies,” Scar gives him a look from the corner of his eye, “you know how it is, I’m sure.”

Grian huffs goodnatured-ly, “I guess.”

Scar leans closer, throwing an arm over Grian’s shoulders, “how are you feeling about the rest of this game?”

Grian glances at him to see him looking down, he follows the gaze to his arm. Grian traces the red numbers, the time he has left. “In terms of winning, hopeful. Worried about Scott, though.”

Scar gasps, mock-offended, “not me?”

“Nah,” Grian gives him a cheeky grin, “you’re not that scary.”

Scar sits up, pulling his arm back and leaning over Grian. He his hands on either side of him, pinning him against the stone, his voice drops when he speaks, “oh yeah?”

They stare at each other silently for a minute before Grian laughs, pushing Scar back. “Fine, you’re just not scary to me. There’s no way you could be, anymore.” Scar hums, but a beeping stops him from responding. Grian pulls out his communicator, “we only have a few more minutes before the game continues.”

“Ah, I guess this is it then,” Scar stands up, reaching down a hand to assist Grian up.

Grian nods as he stands up, “we’ll probably talk next like this back home.”

Instead of a reply, Scar leans down and pulls Grian into a kiss. It only lasts a couple of seconds before he pulls back. Grian tries to follow, but Scar just grins. “I’ll see you on the battlefield, then.”

“Yeah,” Grian murmurs, not able to hide his disappointment.

They climb back up the river bank and bid each other goodbye before returning back to their allies. They need to prepare for the final session, after all.

~~Bonus~~

Pearl watches the pair run off, “they act like teenagers sneaking out to meet together in the middle of the night.”

BigB laughs, “except there was nothing sneaky about that.”

[bluiex]

After seeing so much Limited Life angst, I decided to make some fluff. Especially for Scarian. In this the life series is just a game they play for fun where no trauma is had and no problems are gained. After each session there’s a small break for everyone to relax for a bit. This takes place after session 7.

(Also it seems that Tumblr fixed the issue with the text not changing color)

—————

Grian peers out of the Nosey Neighbor’s tower at the sound of a horn. He startles when he sees Scar perched on the wall, smiling brightly, horn clutched in his hand. Grian isn’t sure if he’s amused or concerned.

“What is he doing?” Pearl says, mirth in her voice.

“I have no idea, I’m just glad he didn’t enter and trigger the trap.”

“What would happen then?” BigB asks joining them.

“With the timers paused? It should do nothing to him. Hopefully.”

“Hopefully?”

“Not like we tested that scenario out. I’ll go see what he wants.” Grian descends the tower, knowing exactly what Scar wants. He approaches his partner, careful of the pressure plates. “What are you even doing?”

“I wanted to see you!” He says cheerily.

“There’s an opening?” Grian replies, humor and confusion mixing in his voice.

Scar studies where Grian stands, in the center of a cluster of pressure plates, “and step on one of those? I don’t know what’s under any of them.”

“I wouldn’t invite you in if there was a trap,” Grian bluffs. The trap is hidden for a reason, a temporary truce won’t change that.

“Doesn’t matter now, let’s go!”

Before Scar can move, Pearl exits the tower, “bring him back by sundown!”

Grian shoots her a glare, but Scar chuckles, “will do!” Grian quickly heads to the entrance in the wall, stepping around the trapped pressure plate.

Scar meets him on the ground on the other side, “where to?”

“Down here, unless you want to go somewhere more secluded,” Grian replies, heading towards the drop-down to the river.

“Nah, it’s good, we only have a little time after all.”

Grian nods, sliding down the edge to sit by the waters edge. Scar joins him after a moment, leaning back against the stone. “Things are getting crazy,” he murmurs after a moment.

Scar hums, “yeah, the end is near, huh?” He stares down at his arm, the red timer blinking.

Grian glances at it, only a couple days remain for Scar. He quickly tears his eyes away, focusing on the water. He picks up a stone and skips it, eventually saying quietly, “yeah, I don’t think we’ll have another chat here.”

Scar doesn’t respond for a moment, Grian doesn’t meet his eyes, choosing to skip another stone. “Are you okay?”

Grian looks over in surprise, “huh?”

“With Jimmy and Joel dying, I mean.”

“Ah, yeah,” he replies after a moment, looking away again, “kinda jarring, but this is just a game, y’know?”

“Doesn’t change anything.”

Grian slumps back, unable to hide from his partner, “okay, yeah, I’m bothered.” He glances over, “maybe it has something to do with them not being on Hermitcraft. I mean, most of us here will see each other again just a few days after someone dies. But with them… I guess I can talk to them when we get out, but I don’t see them in person all too often.”

Scar bumps their shoulders together before leaning against Grian, “maybe you should do that when we get back.”

“Maybe,” he sighs, skipping a stone. Grian shakes his head, “anyway, how are you doing with… everything you have going on.”

Scar laughs, “oh, the usual. I killed dad, dad killed me, Bdubs tried to stop me. You know how it is.”

Grian opens and closes his mouth a few times, “I- I really don’t.” He lets out a surprised laugh, “I still don’t understand what you guys have going on.”

“Gotta be creative in how we have allies,” Scar gives him a look from the corner of his eye, “you know how it is, I’m sure.”

Grian huffs goodnatured-ly, “I guess.”

Scar leans closer, throwing an arm over Grian’s shoulders, “how are you feeling about the rest of this game?”

Grian glances at him to see him looking down, he follows the gaze to his arm. Grian traces the red numbers, the time he has left. “In terms of winning, hopeful. Worried about Scott, though.”

Scar gasps, mock-offended, “not me?”

“Nah,” Grian gives him a cheeky grin, “you’re not that scary.”

Scar sits up, pulling his arm back and leaning over Grian. He his hands on either side of him, pinning him against the stone, his voice drops when he speaks, “oh yeah?”

They stare at each other silently for a minute before Grian laughs, pushing Scar back. “Fine, you’re just not scary to me. There’s no way you could be, anymore.” Scar hums, but a beeping stops him from responding. Grian pulls out his communicator, “we only have a few more minutes before the game continues.”

“Ah, I guess this is it then,” Scar stands up, reaching down a hand to assist Grian up.

Grian nods as he stands up, “we’ll probably talk next like this back home.”

Instead of a reply, Scar leans down and pulls Grian into a kiss. It only lasts a couple of seconds before he pulls back. Grian tries to follow, but Scar just grins. “I’ll see you on the battlefield, then.”

“Yeah,” Grian murmurs, not able to hide his disappointment.

They climb back up the river bank and bid each other goodbye before returning back to their allies. They need to prepare for the final session, after all.

~ ~ ~ Bonus ~ ~ ~

Pearl watches the pair run off, “they act like teenagers sneaking out to meet together in the middle of the night.”

BigB laughs, “except there was nothing sneaky about that.”

YEEES FLUFF- we desperately need fluff for traffic Scarian. And this is just AMAZING. Hanging out on break, Scar checking in on Grian making sure he's fine.. I love them qoq

Imagine this- once Grian gets back to the tower both Pearl and BigB ask how his date went. And Grian just stutter and punches Pearl in the arm(lovingly) before saying it was nice

[writer-room]

I have updates to the Lost AU! I really just like this one I think it’s fun. Tempted to write something for it not gonna lie.

This one is mainly focused on some of the Hermits coming across each other in the Vast World

more under the cut

Joe is not actually the one to find Cleo in the End. No, that credit goes to Doc, who had Ren’s help to find all the items, and also came across one of TFC’s strip mines with no TFC, and ventured in to get some elytra (and see if it had an Enderdragon) because if anything was going to attract Grian like a magnet, it was elytra. If he can find that guy, he’s bound to find quite a few more. He instead found Cleo stealing her 12th elytra. They just kinda stared at each other for a bit before Doc asked if she wanted to come back 

Joe appears in the End about ten minutes after they leave and almost immediately is like “something,,,,is Not Right” and finds Cleo’s abandoned farm. He knows very well that Cleo can handle herself but he’s still worried bc if she’s not here...oh god she’s in the Overworld isn’t she. Cue cat and mouse game where they only JUST miss each other

Xisuma’s been running around trying to kickstart his admin abilities again while going on a Search for his Hermits. He eventually comes across Wels doing the exact same thing. Difference is that Xisuma’s Hardcore Adventurer façade immediately dropped when seeing one of his other Hermits alive and well and was resulted to an emotional mess. Many hugs were given. Wels brought him back to Stress and Jevin and the process repeated. On god they gotta give this guy a break

Tango eventually found where Etho and Beef resided and stuck around in the area to find the ‘elusive’ creatures. Beef found Adequate and that led to him finding Tango. There was absolutely zero way to convince him that he wasn’t an alien lizard man, so he just. Kept Tango in his house. No, he is not a prisoner, this is for his own safety

Impulse came across Keralis on one of his searches. Problem is that Impulse is quite actually a demon, and Keralis is already on Edge. Keralis takes one look at him and bolts. Impulse is now trying to find the guy and coax him out with pspspsps

Gem and xB went on an ocean expedition and came across Cub’s base. They thought it was some strange new spawned ocean structure and were met with a very beardy, very scatterbrained Cub wielding a sword. xB was wary, but Gem immediately hugged Cub and started talking nonstop about “oh your HERE! if your here and xB is here then the others must be, too!” and Cub is just so bewildered and starved for human contact he just lets her ramble. none of them have realized Ren and Doc are in the distance

Bdubs found one of TFC’s strip mines by falling in it. Hypno also happened to be lurking around and Bdubs just saw a pair of fucked up looking eyes in the darkness that made him feel like he was staring into the abyss and immediately turned and left. Is now wondering if this is a very deceptive hell instead of heaven

Iskall came across False and Zed by False’s bird also trying to eat him. Was made even more paranoid by it all, but Zed refused to let him leave because “PLEASE I need someone sensible who also won’t talk about MCC nonstop” so now he’s here. False is very much the hunter of the triad while Zed and Iskall are the gatherers.

By this point there’s already a bunch of rumors/known Rules of sorts circulating around because the Hermits almost have a hive mind. 1) be VERY careful when mining because there’s something really fucked up lurking down there. 2) don’t mind the humanoid-shaped figures at the corner of your eyes, they won’t be there when you turn around 3) mostly every biome has SOMETHING weird going on in the middle of it but we don’t know what and 4) you’ll never know if you’re alone or not 

Basically, all the Hermits are scaring the shit out of each other because they keep acting like cryptids, and then making up more cryptid stories about them, and it’s a whole echo chamber that keeps goin’ round and round until everyone’s convinced they’re on a haunted, cursed, or already inhabited world

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

3rd life Villain!Impulse perhaps? Reasoning because he's been so nice to all factions and appears very harmless...until he kills Tango in the firing squad scenario. Do with that as you will :3

honestly i think the villain 3rd Life AUs are some of my best writing. also i’m pretty sure i’m gonna end up writing everyone as a villain at some point lol (villains so far: Scar, Etho, Tango, Grian, Ren, Martyn, now Impulse. Joel too if you count that fic where he kills Jimmy)

…

A feeling of dread hangs over Impulse as he makes his way up to Tango’s base. Getting a private message from his best friend, simply saying “we need to talk”, has highly unsettled him. He has absolutely no idea what Tango could want to talk to him about.”

As he gets to the hill Tango calls home, he spots Tango himself standing at the top, arms folded, clearly watching him. A shiver running down his spine, Impulse slowly climbs up the hill. Tango watches him all the way.

Finally, he gets to the top. Keeping an eye on the sun, which must be about an hour away from setting, he gives his friend a wave. “Hi, Tango. What’s… What’s going on?”

Tango’s looking at him with a narrow-eyed expression of distrust. “I know your game, Impulse.”

“Huh?” Impulse blinks. That’s not what he was expecting. “What?”

“Your little game of pretending to be allies with everyone so nobody will ever turn against you. Etho, Dogwarts, the crastle folk. You’ve got them all wrapped round your little finger.”

Impulse frowns. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Tango rolls his eyes. “Uh huh, ‘course you don’t. You change the sheet music for everyone, don’t you? Everyone believes they’re the only one getting your support. Well, not me. I know what you’re up to and I’m gonna make sure you stop getting away with it, starting today.”

As Tango turns to start walking away, Impulse grabs his wrist, stopping him from leaving. “Please don’t, Tango,” he says calmly.

Tango scoffs. “Let go of me, Impulse. I’m gonna expose you whether you like it or not.”

Impulse hangs on to Tango’s wrist. “I’m giving you one last chance to back down. You’re red; if something happens to you, you won’t come back.”

“You’re not gonna stop me,” Tango retorts. “I know you. Your niceness has always been your biggest weakness, and in this case, it’s gonna be your downfall.”

“You’ve misjudged me.”

Impulse abruptly seizes Tango’s lapels and roughly swings him closer to the edge of the cliff, holding him dangerously close to the precipice. “I‘ll do anything to survive,” Impulse says coldly. “Anything.”

Tango’s eyes widen with shock. “Impulse-!”

But Impulse shoves him off the top of the cliff.

He waits for a few seconds, listening to Tango’s screams get quieter and quieter, until they’re abruptly cut off.

Tango fell from a high place

Taking a deep breath, Impulse takes off running. He doesn’t know if there’s anyone nearby but he can’t risk it. If anyone sees him here, he’s done for. Absolutely done for.

The chat is filling up with confused and concerned messages but it doesn’t matter now. Tango is gone forever. Nobody ever needs to know what happened.

Impulse dashes back towards the wool castle but as he passes Tango’s still-gushing lava minigame, he bumps into Etho, who’s running the other way.

“Impulse!” Etho breathes. “Gosh, you scared me. What happened?”

Despite internally panicking quite hard, Impulse manages to stammer, “I-I dunno, I was just going to Tango’s base to talk to him when I saw the message. I thought he might have been somewhere around here but I couldn’t find any dropped items or anything. He must’ve been somewhere else when he died.”

“Tango doesn’t just fall from a high place like that,” Etho says. “He’s careful. Impulse, I’m worried that someone might have murdered him.”

“What?!” Impulse gasps. “Who would do that?!”

“I don’t know for sure, but my prime suspect is the crastle alliance. Bdubs had it out for Tango for some reason so I’m sure he knows something.”

“Oh no…” Impulse stares at his friend with wide, innocent eyes. “Bdubs wouldn’t have taken TWO of Tango’s lives… would he?”

Etho slowly shakes his head. “I don’t know. I thought I knew our friends really well but lately, I…” He sighs quietly. “Let’s just say I wouldn’t put it past him. But it’s getting late; I’ll go talk to him tomorrow.”

He turns back towards the castle. “You coming?”

“I‘ll be there later. I’m just gonna go check on my villagers.”

“Gotcha. And Impulse…”

Impulse pauses as Etho glances back at him. “Thanks for being the only person on this server I can really trust.”

Impulse smiles back. “No problem.”

…

Under the cover of darkness, Impulse makes his way to the crastle. He can see Cleo up on the roof, aiming a crossbow at him, but thankfully, she lowers it when he gets close enough for her to see who he is.

Cleo and Bdubs let Impulse into the crastle. “What’s going on, Impulse?” Bdubs demands. “Nobody seems to know what happened to Tango!”

“Nobody’s owning up to knowing, anyway,” Cleo adds. “I don’t suppose you do?”

Impulse shakes his head. “I’ve no idea. But I’ve heard rumours going round the server and I thought I should come to you directly to let you know.”

“Let us know what?” Bdubs says.

“That Etho suspects you guys had something to do with Tango’s death.”

“What?!”

Bdubs and Cleo exchange a shocked look.

“Why would he think that?!” Bdubs snaps. “He has no evidence!”

“That’s why I thought I should come over and warn you,” says Impulse. “He’s gonna come over here tomorrow to confront you about it.”

“Oh gawsh…” Bdubs groans. “Thanks for telling us.”

“Oh, but this is just to give you some warning to prepare. You can’t let Etho know I told you, okay? Otherwise he might not tell me other stuff that concerns you guys.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t,” Cleo says. “If we’re your secret girlfriend, does that mean Etho’s your… uh… spouse?”

“I don’t really have a singular “spouse”,” responds Impulse, making air quotes over the word “spouse”. “More like the rest of the server is my “spouse” and I can’t let them know that I favour you over them.”

“Riiiight, gotcha. Guess you’d better head home before your “spouse” misses you.”

Impulse nods. “Yeah, I gotta go back to Etho. See you guys later.”

As he leaves the crastle and starts to head for home, he spots a figure watching him from next to one of Bdubs’s tall spruce trees. When the figure comes forward, Impulse recognises the person as Joel.

“Hi,” he says, giving a friendly smile. Joel isn’t one of his official allies at the moment but that doesn’t mean he can’t be nice to him. “What’s up?”

“I heard Tango died,” Joel says, eyes sparking with interest. “Do you know what happened?”

“No, I don’t. I just saw it in chat.”

“I think you’re lying.”

Impulse blinks. “What?”

Joel grins as he senses he’s caught Impulse off guard. “I said I think you’re lying. I think you’re manipulating everyone into believing you’re their friend when in actuality, you don’t care about any of them. And I think you killed Tango when he confronted you about it. Am I wrong?”

Impulse stares at him, unable to say anything in his defence.

In the ensuing pause, Joel takes a sudden step towards Impulse, who backs up a few steps, his hand automatically flying to the hilt of his sword. But he pauses. He has to be extremely careful here; Bdubs and Cleo may be watching him. If they see him put a single foot wrong here, it’s over. He has to let Joel make the first move.

“Would you kill me?” says Joel challengingly. “Would you kill me as callously as you killed Tango?”

Impulse carefully turns his back to the crastle and narrows his eyes. “Come and find out. Or would you rather die stupidly and pointlessly because you forgot about FIRE DAMAGE?”

That does it. Impulse knew exactly how to rile Joel up and it works. Eyes flashing red, Joel growls and lashes out with his fist.

Impulse allows himself to be hit in the chin, narrowly avoiding biting his tongue. Joel’s second blow, this time to the stomach, winds him and causes him to drop to his knees, vulnerable. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Joel drawing his sword. This is it; this is the moment. Either his position on the server will elevate… or he will simply die.

He holds his breath and squeezes his eyes shut.

“GET AWAY FROM HIM!”

An arrow flies out of nowhere and buries itself in Joel’s chest, causing him to stagger back a step. A split second later, a second arrow hits Joel in the neck, and that’s all it takes.

SmallishBeans was shot by BdoubleO100

Impulse stares at the ground where Joel had landed, a second before he died. He can’t believe his plan worked so well.

“Impulse, are you okay?” Bdubs appears at Impulse’s side, discarding his crossbow. “What happened?”

“He… He was gonna kill me,” Impulse chokes out. This isn’t entirely an act; Joel’s unexpected hit to his stomach has completely snatched the wind from his sails.

“Why? Why did he wanna kill you?”

“Did he really need a reason?” Cleo says. “He was red and Impulse is green. Nuff said.”

“Wh-Whatever it was, you guys saved my life.” Impulse gives them a smile. “Thanks. If Etho or anyone else asks what happened, you guys spotted me getting attacked by Joel on my way back from checking on my villagers. Okay?”

“Ooh, good story,” Bdubs says approvingly. “But are you sure you’re okay? You’re not hurt, are you?”

“No, no, I’m fine. Thanks to you guys. I should probably head home, though.”

Bdubs pats him on the shoulder. “Yeah, go get some rest. Thanks again for… um… coming past and not visiting.”

Impulse nods, knowing exactly what Bdubs means. “No worries.”

…

“Joel just attacked you?” Etho frowns. “Why would he do that?”

“He doesn’t need a reason,” responds Impulse, recalling what Cleo said earlier. “He was red. I guess he just saw an easy target and couldn’t resist.”

“So he attacked you on your way back from the villagers, huh. And you’re okay, right? You’re not hurt.”

“No, I’m fine,” says Impulse. “A little shaken and tired from everything that’s happened, though.”

“Oh yeah, you should get some sleep.” Etho smiles at his friend. “See you tomorrow.”

“Night, Etho.”

As Impulse gets into bed in his room, he can’t help a small smile. He took a big risk today but it has really paid off. Getting rid of two red lifers in one day is enough of an accomplishment in of itself, but doing it without arousing suspicion on himself AND managing to turn Etho and Bdubs further against each other? That’s something he can be proud of.

All he needs to do now is make sure he’s in the right place at the right time for Etho’s confrontation with Bdubs tomorrow and perhaps he can be there for another red life death. Bdubs may be one of his strongest allies but if Impulse sees a chance to get another player out of the game, well…

He’s going to take it.

[votederpycausemufins]

idk how to continue this one but i also don’t want to leave it just sitting forever so it may be a mess but i’m posting it anyway. think up your own endings or continue it or something.

it’s essentially a timeline divergence from War in Hermittown, so its again watcher!grian, avian!grian, hermit!tommy and triplet au.

hermit!tommy is from @petrichormeraki and this triplet au is mainly based on @strawberrylemonz ’s work.

For the first time since Tommy’s death, Tubbo finally had something to hope for. After some begging and pleading and proving he wasn’t going to do anything bad, Techno agreed to help the teen out with attempting to summon Tommy’s ghost.

Ghostbur was there as they worked as Tubbo thought having a ghost helping out would make things more likely to work. They set up a type of summoning platform, not quite sure how it would work and troubleshooting as they went. They all froze as Philza walked in, just coming to visit Techno. “What’s going on here?”

“Uh, we’re trying to summon Tommy’s ghost.” Tubbo answered feebly under Phil’s gaze.

He looked around at the mess they had made and the summoning platform they had created. “Really? Did you think this was going to work?” Philza asked, making Tubbo look away, feeling ashamed. “Obviously you need soul torches instead of regular ones. And the center should be cobble since it’s his favorite block.”

With the four of them working together, then managed to complete the platform and Tubbo activated it. The torches suddenly blazed taller, the blue flames nearly turning white. Energy filled the air and in the center of the platform, purple magic swirled until Tommy was there, curled up in a ball in the middle.

Before any of them could get out of the shock of Tommy being there, he shifted and grumbled. “Ugh… fucking put your wing back G. this place has no fucking insulation.” His hand blindly grabbed the air before he finally sat up. “Wait, what the fuck?”

Tubbo was the first to break the silence. “Tommy!”

Tommy looked over and his eyes lit up seeing his friend. “Tubbo?” He was hugged by his friend. “Where the hell are we?”

“We summoned you back! And I guess it went pretty well since it also brought you back to life.”

“Back to life? Tubbo I didn’t di- wait we?” Tommy pulled away from the hug and saw Ghostbur, Techno and Philza. “Oh. Tubbo, did you bring me back to the smp?” Tubbo nodded. “And do you have a way to send me back?”

“What? No! Why would you want to go back?”

“Tubbo, I didn’t die, I ran off. Some people found me and took me in. Fuck, when G realizes I’m missing things aren’t gonna go well.”

“Tommy.” Philza started to speak but Tommy stopped him.

“No, you don’t get it. If he realizes I’m gone, he might come here and overreact and might hurt you guys.”

Tommy watched as they all glanced at each other. “Tommy, what kind of person did you end up with?” It was Techno that spoke. And before Tommy could answer his oldest brother, more purple magic swirled, though not at the summoning platform. 

Tommy gave out a slight curse and Philza spread his damaged wings to protect Techno and Tubbo as someone appeared. Philza immediately recognized the signs of a Watcher, though the lack of a mask was different. “Tommy.”

“Heeeey Grian. Let me explain. No one’s at fault. I’m fine.”

“You disappeared.”

“Yep, just some people worried about me. Thought I was dead or something.”

Philza readied a weapon the moment the Watcher moved but wasn’t able to do more. Tommy was suddenly captured by the Watcher and he didn’t even try to escape which worried Phil even more.

“And you think I wouldn’t assume the same when you were suddenly gone?” The Watcher then looked down at the summoning platform and broke it. “Now let’s go home, ‘dad’ is going to be worried when he notices we’re both gone.”

“You’re not taking him anywhere Watcher.” Philza spoke, now ready to fight and not just protect. Techno also looked prepared for battle though his dad still tried to keep him back. “Tommy’s my son and he’s going to stay here.”

The Watcher looked over at Philza and the three behind him. They looked familiar. Possibly from the MCC tournaments. “Ah, so you’re the ones Tommy has mentioned. Well, even more of a reason to take him away.”

“Please, don’t take Tommy!” Tubbo managed to push past Philza. The hardcore player tried to stop them, but the teen managed to dodge his hands. “He’s my best friend. I don’t want to lose him again.”

The Watcher looked down at Tubbo, tilting his head slightly. “Tommy?”

“Yeah, he’s telling the truth. He’s big T.”

Philza managed to pull Tubbo back when he saw the Watcher’s eyes glint. “Don’t you dare try to take anyone else. I know what you Watchers do.”

The Watcher frowned. “I don’t think you do. Or you do and you deserve what’s happening to you. Based on the horror stories Tommy has told, I think it’s the latter.” Tommy tried to complain about what the Watcher said but was shushed. “Now, we can always change things, but it looks like Tubbo should be coming with me. You’ve lost your rights to children.”

Philza could do nothing as magic pulled Tubbo next to the Watcher. But he was still able to attack. It was timed just right and as the Watcher tried to leave, he was right there and it pulled him along.

Techno tried to follow along but was too late and just stood where the four now missing people had just been.

When they arrived on the other side, Grian was the only one with a graceful landing. Tommy did okay, but wasn’t used to it. Tubbo and Philza ended up completely face planting on the ground though.

“I didn’t mean to bring you along.” Grian addressed Philza. “I’ll have to take you back before-“ his communicator started ringing. “Nevermind. Hiiii X. No everything’s fine. Tommy just got vaguely kidnapped back to his old world. Yeah. Well I brought a friend of Tommy’s with me. Well they just managed to come along. Yes of course I’ll take him back. Xisuma are you actually asking me to abuse my Watcher powers?”

Before Grian could say anything more, Philza grabbed onto Tommy and Tubbo and started pulling them into the nearby jungle. He gave a shout and started to run after them, but was distracted by the call he was on and was easily tripped up.

“Phil Phil Phil Phil Phil!” Tommy repeated as he tried to pull away. “Phil c’mon we can’t just wander through the jungle! I’m sure if you just talk with Grian he won’t take you back, though X might need convincing.”

“No Tommy. That’s a Watcher. I don’t know how much it’s told you, but they’re dangerous and-”

Tommy dug his heels into the ground. “Dangerous? What? No Grian is, well he’s maybe a bit more dangerous because he’s a Watcher but he’s a pretty chill dude. He doesn’t really use his powers or anything even though he probably could.”

“And what about the other Watcher? You said it was named X?” Philza managed to tug Tommy along a bit further.

“X isn’t a Watcher, he’s an admin. Grian’s the only- look can we just go back and explain it when we’re not running?!” This time Tommy stopped harshly enough and pulled back enough that the avian lost his grip and Tommy was able to get away. He started back towards where they had come from, causing Tubbo to also pull away from Philza.

Phil attempted to grab Tubbo, but he was already running off. He tried to follow along, but ended up moving too fast and tangling himself up in vines. By the time he was free, neither of the teens were anywhere in sight and the hardcore player had to wander aimlessly in the jungle.

He was in a place with absolutely no landmarks and at this point Philza was sure he was just going in circles. The place also had enough shade that some mobs spawned, and dealing with them made him feel even more lost as the small fights left him turned around. Finally, he started going perfectly straight, ignoring any mob he saw and mining away anything in his way. There was no way he could get lost doing that.

It worked perfectly until he broke through a hill instead of going over it. Phil mined right into a cave and there was the surprised shriek of someone who seemed to be hiding there. The hardcore player’s eyes met with the screen of a computer monitor, a face displayed on it. Before he could really react to that, it moved away, making him notice it was attached to a body. It turned a corner and there was the sound of it colliding with something out of Phil’s view.

“What’s going on?”

“Someone broke in!”

Philza paused at the young voices. The first sounded like they could be around Tommy or Tubbo’s age, but the second one sounded much younger.

“Who was it? Scar? If so he probably just crashed a few too many times and needs a place to rest.”

“No! That’s the problem! I don’t know who it is!”

Philza paused, having been slowly approaching the voices. He reached the corner but didn’t look around it just yet. “Then perhaps they are dressed up. I’m sure there is a reasonable ex-” they stopped speaking as they turned the corner and saw Philza. Phil blinked upon seeing another screen faced being and it responded similarly. “Oh, I see. This really is someone new.”

The first one came around the corner and immediately clung to the second. “Who are you!” It spoke, seeming much more confident while next to its larger twin.

Philza stared at the two of them, thoughts about why they were here, what they were and what they knew ran through his head. But he did eventually answer them. “My name is Philza. What about you two?”

“My name is Grumbot and this is Jrumbot.” The taller- by their names Phil assumed they were robots -spoke. “May I ask what you are doing in here now?”

“Well, got a bit lost. Me and my family were kidnapped and brought here and I’m trying to find them again so we can go home.”

“Kidnapped?” The smaller robot asked before he lit up with an idea. “Evil X! He probably did it!”

The hardcore player gave a small sigh of relief. It seemed these two were against the Watchers in this world. “Yeah, I remember that name. Now we got split up in this jungle. There were three of us. Tommy ran off first and Tubbo went after him.”

“Wait, Tommy and Tubbee?” Jrumbot asked, now looking very confused. “But Tubbee’s here and Tommy’s with dad.”

Before Phil could ask more questions, Grumbot made a sound akin to clearing his throat. “Jrumbot, a diamond if you would? It should help us.” the hardcore player watches as a diamond was handed to the taller robot and he placed it into a slot on his monitor. “I see. You are Philza, a former king and father to a total of four sons, adopted a fifth, and have three grandsons.”

“I- wait three? Wait no how do you know this?” Philza asked, stunned, but he got no answer as Grumbot turned to Jrumbot.

“Can you call dad? I’m sure this is much more important than whatever he’s doing.”

Jrumbot nodded and pulled out a communicator. Philza wanted to move or speak but he just felt frozen. Was their information wrong? They didn’t know who he was a minute ago and suddenly they claimed to know more than he did. Or were they really right and- his thoughts were cut off as Jrumbot started to speak.

“Daaaad. Grum and me were playing and someone broke into our cave and we’ve never seen him before but Grum knows stuff about him and says you need to come here cause it’s really really really important.”

“Oh! Perfect! I’m actually looking for some new people!” Philza recognized Grian’s voice coming through the phone. It shocked him and he almost yelled at the phone but then a second voice came through it.

“What do they look like? And don’t say they’re wearing green since they both wear green. Do they look old or young, what color’s their hair, tell me stuff like that?”

“Tommy?” Philza spoke and the phone was quiet for a few seconds.

“Okay, Grian, you head there, I’ll keep looking for Tubbo.”

“Tubbee is here!” Jrumbot spoke into the phone, earning a laugh from Tommy.

“I’m sure he is, but someone else named Tubbo instead of Tubbee is lost in the jungle.”

“Oh, okay!” the small robot said happily before hanging up the phone.

Philza suddenly grabbed the two robots and pulled them towards the opening he had made. “Come on, we can’t stay here. The person you just called is the one who kidnapped us and for some reason Tommy thinks they’re safe to be around. It seems like you two think the same.”

“But he is safe.” Jrumbot said, letting himself be dragged, though he did pull away briefly to untie a lead and hold it, a bee now following behind them. “He’s our dad! And he didn’t kidnap Tommy!”

“I’m sure that’s what he wants you to think.” Phil continued to pull them along, glad at least for the lack of resistance from the two of them. “He’s a Watcher, and those are dangerous. They mess with worlds and-”

He wasn’t able to say more as Grian landed in front of him. He was surprised to see the Watcher wings looked more natural like an avian’s wings, but the rest of him looked similar enough for Phil to recognize him. “Dad!” Jrumbot pulled his arm away, leaving Phil trying to grab him again, but instead he grabbed the lead holding the bee that was being pulled along. The sudden tension made the small robot fall over.

Philza pulled Jrumbot back to him and pushed both him and Grumbot behind them, once more using his damaged wings as a shield.

“What are you doing with my kids?” Grian spoke, sounding serious.

“Protecting them from you.” Philza spat out.

“Prote- You’re the one they should be protected from. Tommy didn’t mention a lot of people he thought he could trust. And I’m sure you’re not one of those people.”

“Then he forgot or was scared to tell you.”

“No, you’re just one of the people he wanted to trust but instead hurt him so much none of us could approach him for the longest time without terrifying him.”

It looked like the two avians were going to argue more, but Jrumbot managed to sneak under one of Phil’s damaged wings and run to Grian. “Dad, he doesn’t seem that mean. He just thinks Watchers are bad or something.”

Grian glared once more at Philza before sighing and looking down at Jrumbot. “Well you’ve seen how Tommy can get sometimes. In fact, he might really need Tubbee for a bit soon.” Jrumbot frowned and crossed his arms, making Grian laugh a little bit.

“Dad, I believe there more-” Grumbot started to speak, but there was suddenly a shout from the trees nearby.

“Grian! I found Tubbo again!” Tommy emerged from the trees pulling Tubbo along. “I explained the gist of things to him and he seems okay with it.”

“Dad really this is-”

“Great. Meanwhile I caught up with the bots and this guy. He was trying to take them away from me.”

“Dad please his name-”

“What the fuck?! Phil these are his kids!”

“Da-”

“Do you want Tubbee now?”

“DAD THIS IS PHILZA MINECRAFT!” Grumbot finally had enough and turned his speech volume to its highest level. Tubbee flew around in shocked circles, Tubbo pulled themself closer to Tommy and Grian and Philza’s feathers ruffled in shock. “As I’m sure you’re aware he is also the king of the former Antarctic Empire.”

“Oh, well that changes things.” Grian said in a matter of fact tone before pulling his sword out. “Now I’m even more upset. This is what you became?!”

Philza drew a weapon of his own. “Oh, so you’ve been watching me for a while, have you?”

The three others looked at Grumbot with a range of expressions from concerned to confused. “Grum what the fuck is going on?”

The older robot just gestured to the two avians staring each other down, each waiting for the other to make a move or let their guard down. “Dad is upset at learning that this is Philza.”

“And what does that have to do with anything?” Tubbo asked, not sure how much of this was brand new and how much of this he didn’t know from not being with Tommy.

“Oh, because Grian is one of Philza’s sons.”

“G’s what?!” Tommy yelled, surprised. At the same time, Philza looked over in shock at Grumbot, having heard what was said. Grian took that as a chance to knock Philza down to the ground.

For a full minute, everything was quiet and no one, except Tubbee, moved. Then, Jrumbot seemed to process the information. “Yay! A grandpa!” And he jumped on top of Phil, easily winding him from the weight of simply being a robot.

Grian pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay, fine. Let’s go to my mansion and talk this out. We can get X and Mumbo to come too.”

[melon-wing]

Dread

I think this one needs a little explanation first. The story was written for @gridoc ‘s amazing Pirate AU wherein Grian is part of the Navy and Doc is a pirate captain. And make sure to also check out @authorforhire ‘s ongoing story, which sounds amazing so far!

I just wanted to write a little snippet set in this universe after the idea kept me awake last night. I hope I did it justice :)

______________________

Grian sat at the bar, finger tracing the rim of his half empty glass, lost in thought. He just couldn’t get his last meeting with Captain Doc out of his head. They had been flirting… hadn’t they? Had he maybe imagined how soft the pirate’s smile had looked? This whole situation was so fucked up. Doc was a pirate and he part of the Navy after all. There was no way they could even dare to have feelings for one another. But… Grian’s heart seemed to disagree with that notion lately. It jumped in joy every time they encountered the ruthless pirate captain out on the sea.

Someone slid up next to Grian at the bar, but he didn’t pay it much attention. It wasn’t like it could be anyone he knew. Their last encounter with Doc’s crew had left their ship damaged and until it was repaired again they were stranded in this town. Most of his mates were already getting their well earned rest, but sleep eluded Grian. Thoughts of a certain captain kept him wide awake.

“Hey, mate. You look like you are searching for the meaning of life at the bottom of that glass.”

Grian startled, finger stopping their circling motion as he looked up at his neighbour. It was a young man with huge innocent eyes and brown hair, wearing a simple light blue shirt. He was holding his own glass of alcohol, so he was probably older than he appeared to be with his bright smile and boyish looks.

“Just a lot to think about.”

“I bet you have. Being in the navy must be one hell of a stressful job.”

Grian tensed at the mention of his occupation, but relaxed when he remembered that he was still wearing his uniform. It wouldn’t take much thinking to know he worked for the navy. And this wasn’t a huge town. News about a navy crew being stranded here had most likely already made the rounds.

“It can be sometimes. You see a lot of things out there at sea…” Grian looked off into the distance, but then shrugged.

“I bet it’s exciting. When I was a child I always dreamt of joining the navy.”, the guy replied, eyes sparkling and an infectious smile on his face.

Grian just had to smile as well and finally turned a little towards the other man, open to a little conversation to stop his mind from wandering.

“Well it’s never too late to join then. I’m Grian by the way. Lieutenant of the Architech.” He held out his hands and the stranger looked at it for a second before shaking it.

“I’m Keralis. I work here as a fisherman. Not as glorious as the navy, but I still get to go out to the sea a lot. So what has you looking into the glass like that, Mr. Grian?”

“Grian’s enough. Not old enough to be a Mister yet”, Grian replied with a chuckle and took a sip from his glass. “And it’s nothing much. Just…” He hesitated. Why did he feel like telling this stranger about some of his problems when he didn’t even talk to his friends about it? But that open smile on Keralis’ face just made him want to talk. And who could be better than a stranger he would never see again? He wouldn’t have to live with any nagging questions or judgement that way. Of course he couldn’t go into too much detail. The guy knew he was navy after all. But maybe it’d help to talk about it.

“Just feelings and stuff. There is this… person. And I’m not sure how I feel about them. We keep on meeting over and over again and we are flirting… At least I think we are. I’m never sure about that to be quite honest. It’s… weird.”

“Why don’t you just ask them?”, Keralis simply asked and Grian had to hold back his laughter at that. The question was asked so innocently. It was sure easy when you didn’t have such a heavy burden to carry.

“’m scared of the answer I think. I’m not sure whether I want them to be seriously interested in me or not. I’m not even sure if I really have deeper feelings for him or if it’s just… just nothing.”

“Him?” Keralis looked at him curiously and Grian blushed at the slip up with the pronouns, but he couldn’t even start worrying when Keralis already calmed his nerves again. “Oh no judging here, don’t worry. I’m on your team as well, so to say.”

Grian smiled at that, already feeling a bond forming with this young stranger he had just met. Sure he wouldn’t be able to talk about every aspect of his problem, but it felt good to talk about some of it.

“So, Mr…. Grian. I think if your problem brings you alone to a bar, sulking over a drink, he probably means something to you. You should talk to him about it.”

Grian chuckled and raised his glass, finishing his beverage in one go. It was weird. Hearing it from some stranger made it sound so much more true than his own mind trying to tell him.

“Maybe… Maybe I should talk to him when we meet next time.” Grian smiled a little, trying to imagine how the proud Captain Doc would react. They’d probably be in the middle of another one of their sword fights, their blades clashing together. And then what? Grian would just tell Doc he liked him there and then? Yeah sure… There was a huge possibility of that ending with Grian being impaled by Doc’s blade.

They kept talking for a while about life out at sea. He told a few stories about his life in the navy and how he got to the position he was in. It was kind of cute the way Keralis looked at him with huge adoring eyes. Maybe he should put in a good word for him back at the navy. Someone who could steer a boat to go fishing for a living could just as well work on one of their ships.

As he finished his final drink, Grian stood up slowly, not really in a hurry to leave his new drinking buddy. He had enjoyed his evening off and the conversation had kept his mind away from other things

“It’s been nice to talk to you, Keralis. And you know, thanks for the help earlier. It’s a pity I have to leave so soon. But I have to check on our ship early tomorrow morning.

Keralis smiled, downing his drink as well and putting the empty glass onto the bar before he hopped off his chair.

“Let my accompany you. Maybe on the way to the inn you could tell me some cool story of life in the navy.”

Grian smiled at the eagerness of his drinking companion and nodded. He tossed a few coins to the bartender before they left the bar together. It was already dark outside. The sky was cloudy and not even the moon was illuminating the streets. But Grian didn’t care much for the darkness. He had spent most of his live on the sea and there had been a lot dark nights out there.

“Oh!” Grian looked to Keralis in confusion at his little exclamation. “I know a shortcut we can take. That way we don’t have to walk past all those bars. There are a lot of drunken people hanging around on the main streets. Wouldn’t want to get into a fight.”

Grian just nodded, following Keralis into a maze of small back alleys. He was just telling a story about the one time their ship was caught in the middle of a massive storm when they turned another corner and walked straight into a dead end. He stopped in the middle of his sentence, looking at the wall in confusion and then back at Keralis.

“I think we made a wrong turn somewhere along the way.”

Keralis laughed a little and scratched his head, looking at Grian apologetically. “Yeah. Damn, I’m sorry. I was so lost in your story. We should have taken a left turn back there. Let’s just…”

The moment they turned around, Keralis’ words died on the tip of his tongue. At the entrance of the alley were two men, swords drawn in front of them, grim looks on their faces. Grian cursed himself internally and took out his own weapon, pushing Keralis behind himself with his free hand.

“Stay back. I’ll handle this…”, he whispered, before raising his voice. “Good evening, gentleman. If you plan to rob us, I’d advice you against it. We just spent all of our money in the bar. We don’t have anything of value.”

One of the guys laughed. A cold laugh that chilled Grian to his bone,

“Oh… But it’s not money we came to steal. It is something far more valuable. Someone more valuable.”

Grian threw a short glance over his shoulder at Keralis and then back to their attackers. The guy who had just spoken shook his head.

“No. Not that boy. It’s you we are after, Grian, rising star of the navy, youngest one to be promoted to first mate. They say in a few years you’ll probably have your own fleet under you.”

Grian tightened the grip on his sword. He was pretty sure those guys were pirates. Nobody else would dare to attack the navy so openly. He had no clue how they knew who he was, but there were a lot of pirates who wanted to get revenge on him or his fellow crew mates out there.

One thing was for sure. Those were not Doc’s crew. They had met so many times now, he was almost on first name basis with all of them. That also meant this was not just another attempt to make him join their pirate crew. The reason they were after him would be far more sinister.

“Well. Nice to hear that you heard of me. I hope you also heard that I haven’t been promoted without a reason.”

Grian didn’t wait for them to attack. He jumped forward, sword clashing with the first pirate, making him stumble back in surprise from the fast attack. A second later he was ducking under the blade of the other guy. He needed to be fast. He needed to get rid of one of them. Their swords clashed again and again. Grian had the upper hand at the moment, but just barely.

Then one of them stumbled and he used the opportunity to disarm him, sword flying away into the darkness. He didn’t give the guy any opportunity to pick up his weapon again, hitting him with the blunt edge of his sword and watching him crumble to the floor.

He raised his blade just in time to parry a hit from the pirate still standing. But looking at the other’s face they both knew that the battle had already been decided. They still kept going. It took Grian another minute to have his opponents blade flying through the air again. His blade sat at the pirates neck, threateningly close to a killing blow.

“So who send you guys?”

“That would be me.” Grian’s head whipped around in shock. He hadn’t heard anyone else coming. And that guy had managed to sneak past him into the dead-end.

Grian’s eyes widened as he saw the newcomer holding Keralis in an iron grip in front of him, a sword pressed under his chin.

“Captain Bdubs. Nice to meet you. Now… Drop your weapon, boy. Or I will kill your little friend.”

Grian hesitated. He knew the moment he dropped his weapon he was done for. Sure, he had a hidden blade on him, but that wouldn’t do him any good in a sword fight

Keralis whimpered quietly and Grian could see tears starting to run down his face.

“Please, Mr. Grian… I don’t want to die…” His voice was nothing more than a whisper, but it still sounded absolutely terrified.

Grian couldn’t do it. He couldn’t sacrifice this guy for his own life. He joined the navy to do good, to protect the people. Slowly he lowered his sword, dropping it to the floor. The clang of the metal echoed through the alley, cementing Grian’s defeat. Slowly he raised his hands and Bdubs grinned menacingly.

His underling quickly picked up Grian’s sword. Bdubs pushed Keralis over to the other pirate, walking up to Grian confidently. With a forceful push Grian’s back hit the wall painfully. Bdubs hands were pressing against his shoulders, keeping him were he was as he leaned forwards. Grian could feel warm breath ghosting over his ear.

“Be happy, navy boy. With your help I will be able to bring an end to Captain Doc’s reign.”

A jolt went through Grian’s body and his eyes widened in shock. He began to struggle, but heard a pained whimper from Keralis to his right and immediately stopped his resistance.

“I won’t help pirate scum like you.”

Bdubs chuckled darkly, one hand caressing Grian’s cheek, the gentleness making Grian feel even more uncomfortable.

“Oh you don’t need to do anything. Just having you in my possession will be his downfall. He’ll come to get his little navy pet.”

“I’m not… I’m not his pet. We are enemies.”

Another laugh passed Bdubs lips as he shook his head, patting Grian’s cheek.

“Grian, Grian, Grian… You and I both know that isn’t true. I have my eyes and ears everywhere. Rumour has it that Captain Doc has a soft spot for you… And I know my Ex-Crewmember better than most. He will come running when word gets out that you are my prisoner. Now,” Bdubs retreated a few steps, his sword pointed in Grian’s direction, “be a good boy and come with us. And no funny business or your friend dies.”

Grian clenched his fists, body trembling. He wanted to fight so badly. He’d never imagined he could be caught in a situation like that. To be used as leverage in a fight between two pirate captains. And while Bdubs had seemed pretty sure that Doc would come to try and rescue him, Grian wasn’t. One thing was for sure. Once Keralis contacted the navy, they at least would come to save him.

Slowly Grian walked through a few more alleys. It didn’t take long for them to come to a bay were a massive ship was sitting. The distance they had walked hadn’t been long enough for Grian to find any opening to escape. He stopped just in front of the ramp going up.

“Up you go, navy boy. No point in turning back now. You won’t make it far.”

“Release your hostage.”

“I promise, once we are up there, we’ll let him go.”

Grian could here the amusement in Bdubs voice. He knew he couldn’t trust a pirate to keep his word. But if he refused Keralis would die. If he complied he’d at least have a chance to survive.

And so he walked up. Each step felt like he was hammering a nail into his own coffin. He could feel the point of the Captain’s blade at his back. As he stepped aboard the ship there was cheering and a lot of sneers directed at him. They looked like they had been expecting him.

“Put some handcuffs on our prisoner! We are setting sail!”

“Wait! Let him go first!”

Grian turned around to glare at Bdubs, who smiled at him and nodded to the guy still holding Keralis. And to Grian’s great relieve he really let go of the hostage, handing Grian’s sword off to his Captain.

“Keralis. Run!”

But he didn’t. Keralis kept standing there and for a second Grian thought he was frozen in fear. That was until he saw the innocent grin from earlier return to his face.

“Oh but why should I? They wouldn’t hurt me.” As he spoke, he walked up to Grian and Bdubs, stopping right next to the captain and leaning against him. “I’m Bubbles’ first mate after all. You know, my lover I told you about earlier? That’s him.”

Grian’s face fell. He had been tricked. This hadn’t been some random encounter. Keralis had started their conversation with the intention of capturing him.

Something in Grian flicked. His arm was grabbed to put him into handcuffs, but he was quicker, He pulled the dagger from his boot and slashed his attacker’s arm who let him go, howling in pain. He sent another pirate close to him stumbling back with a punch to the face, desperately sprinting towards the railing. He needed to get into the water. It was dark. He’d dive a short distance and they’d lose sight of him. He still had a chance. He could…

Bang!

Searing hot pain shot through Grian’s shoulder and the blade fell from his hand as he almost tripped over his feet. The second of delay was enough for multiple hands to grab him. He struggled as hard as he could, scratching and kicking at everyone in range. A hand pressed against the shot wound and he doubled over in pain.

With a click cold Iron shackles snapped close around his wrists. Someone kicked him in the back and he fell forward onto his knees, looking up right into Bdubs grinning face. Keralis was standing right next to him, smiling innocently, the pistol in his hand still smoking a little from the shot.

“Don’t worry, Grian. You won’t be imprisoned for too long. Once Doc walks into our trap you’ll become useless…” Bdubs knelt down, grabbing Grian’s hair and pulling his head backwards. “I want to see the look in his eyes when I put a bullet through your brain right in front of him.”

Pushing Grian away from him and onto the floor, Bdubs stood up again, looking around at his crew.

“Get the prisoner under deck! We are setting sail! Victory…”, He paused a second, smirking at Grian. “...is ours!”

[autisticlalna]

detonator (part 1)

MORE SHADOW PEOPLE AU STUFF OH GOD @mine-sara-sp has no idea what theyve set in motion

previous fics about doc’s shadow: how to kill a shadow / power surge

I KEEP TRYING TO WRITE SOMETHING BESIDES ANGST, I SWEAR. I SWEAR. PART 2 IS GONNA FINALLY PUT THE “COMFORT” IN “HURT/COMFORT”. i just....... had to split this up bc it was getting reALLY LONG compared to the others BMFGNBXDBGFD OH GOD (i have no idea when part 2′ll be done though orz)

this takes place, like, Directly after power surge and goes into detail more about shadoc’s powers, and also has keralis in it! AND GRIAN. I FINALLY WROTE GRIAN, GUYS (theyre only in here for a little bit though. f. it’s Doc Time, babey)

content warnings: more panic attacks (not as severe as last time), mentions of large-scale danger

-

    He knows he’s in trouble. Sooner or later, the Architechs are going to put two and two together. Sooner or later, they’re going to realize that it wasn’t just an overclocked circuit or a damaged comparator that started the chain reaction that wiped out all of Sahara’s redstone in less than an hour. Sooner or later, the Architechs are going to find out it was him.

    Doc’s shadow found a corner of the New Village, as far away from any redstone as he could manage, and huddled up out of sight while he awaited for the inevitable moment where everything would go wrong.

    Thousands of blocks away, on the main island, Doc checked the chat messages with a frown. Something had happened at Sahara. It wasn’t too unusual, really; Sahara was famous for being buggy or broken or delayed, no matter how hard the redstone-inclined members of the Architechs tried to keep it operational. Still, Iskall had sent him a message asking him to come by and survey the damage. He’d promised to explain more as soon as Doc arrived, and hadn’t responded to Doc pressing him for more details.

    The entire situation was giving him bad vibes. Why would Iskall single him out? Sure, he was a capable redstoner and could certainly help debug if given a good enough reason to, but the phrasing Iskall used suggested far more than just needing a second opinion. Doc opened his elytra and rocketed up into the sky, then eased into a glide as the shopping district came into view.

    Oh.

    Even from the air, it was easy to see what the problem was. The building was badly damaged; part of it had outright collapsed, and Grian was in the middle of building a “do not cross” line out of yellow and black wool to cordon off the area. It didn’t do much to stop Doc as he flew over it and landed near Sahara’s entrance. “Wow, Grian, I never thought you’d stoop so low.”

    “I didn’t do it!” Grian sputtered. The notorious prankster spun around to glare at him; Doc responded with a deep chuckle, not in the least fazed by Grian’s anger. “I wasn’t even here! I had a day off and was in Hermitland when suddenly Iskall and Mumbo are messaging me and telling me Sahara blew up!” The teasing grin vanished from Doc’s face.

    “So… who did it, then? Was it sabotage?” He crossed his arms. “I thought you were a detective.”

    Grian shook his head. “Now’s not the time for that, Docson, I don’t even have my scarf. Here, you’d better talk to Iskall, he’s inside. Go on, shoo! I’m building a perimeter!”

    Doc obliged, and left Grian to his work. The thought of Grian’s shadow being behind Sahara’s destruction crossed his mind, if Grian himself wasn’t, but he waved it off; as much as the sadistic little bastard would no doubt find a lot of joy in destroying something his summoner had worked so hard on, Grian hadn’t summoned it in a while. Grian may not be the best at decisions all the time, but even he knew his shadow was too dangerous to let run free.

    Something grabbed him by the lapels of his lab coat and yanked him through the doorway. “Gah--!” Oh, great, it was Mumbo’s shadow. The mob, silent as always, looked at him with relief that switched to an angry glare as soon as it recognized him. “Mumbo! Make him let go of me!”

    “Murmur! Did you find him?” Mumbo’s voice called out, followed quickly by footsteps. The other two members of Architechs both skidded into the room, only for Mumbo to deflate. “Oh, it’s just Doc.”

    “Do you mind telling me what happened here?” If Sahara looked bad from the outside, it looked even worse on the inside. Anywhere there had been a redstone component looked like it had been hit with TNT; the sheer scope of the disaster was far more than one of Grian’s pranks gone wrong. “If you called me here to ask me to fix it, uh, I’m not sure where to start.”

    Iskall shook his head. “No, see, about that… We’re still questioning Grian’s alibi, but there was a malfunction in Sahara’s redstone. But that’s not why I called you here.” He shot Mumbo a pointed look. Doc noted that Iskall was favouring one of his shoulders; the side of his face was red and scratched up, like he’d been hit by shrapnel, and his suit was still faintly smoking at the hem. Mumbo himself looked rather disheveled, although not on the same level as Iskall; they must’ve been trying to fix the issue when the explosions happened.

    Mumbo avoided Iskall’s look. “There weren’t any customers in Sahara at the time, but...” He wrung his hands. “Your shadow was here.”

    Doc’s blood ran cold. His shadow? In Sahara? In maybe the most redstone-intensive build on the entire server? “Why?” Mumbo’s shadow had let go of him, but he couldn’t miss it shooting Mumbo a glare on the same level as the one he’d received. Doc shook his head. “Is-- Is it okay? Where is it now?” No response. This time, it was Iskall’s time to look guilty as Doc rounded on him. “Where is it?”

    “We don’t know,” Iskall admitted. “Murmur found him having a panic attack. We got him out of here, but after we turned our backs on him he was gone.” Murmur illustrated Iskall’s point by vanishing; Doc looked down to see the shadow mob doing a good job imitating the natural shadow he was casting thanks to the sunlight streaming in through the broken ceiling. “We thought you should know.”

    Doc exhaled hard. Great. Now his shadow was missing. As if things couldn’t get any worse. “Anything else?” he said after a long, uncomfortable silence. Murmur rose back up out of the floor and beckoned for Doc to follow it. Confused, he looked to Mumbo; Mumbo cleared his throat, then kept pace with his shadow as the other two trailed along behind them.

    What had once held Sahara’s high-tech redstone circuitry was now empty save for rubble and some remaining components. Doc passed by a bit of wool still burning and nearly tripped over a half-dismantled observer before the Architechs came to a stop at the center of the blast zone.

    “The thing is,” Mumbo said cautiously, “he was, uh… He was in here. Like Iskall said, he was having a panic attack before we got to him, and then suddenly everything started going wrong… Murmur was able to calm him down when all the explosions stopped, thankfully, but by then, well.” He gestured at the scenery. “I’ve already asked a few other hermits to be on the lookout for him while we get to rebuilding, but… Doc? Doc, hello? Are you listening?”

    Doc stared at the destruction around him with a blank thousand-yard stare. Mumbo’s words faded into background noise as gears started turning in his head. A memory surfaced, fished out by the Architechs’ accounts of the disaster: the first time he’d seen his shadow since he’d discovered he was sapient. The first time he’d begun to fully comprehend the damage he’d done. The first time he’d begun to comprehend the damage his shadow could do.

    [ Doc wasn’t allowed around his shadow anymore. He accepted that. He avoided places he knew his shadow might be, kept a respectful distance from the hermits looking after it at the time, withstood the glares and stares and distrust from his friends that couldn’t believe he could do such a thing.

Some of them understood the situation. None of them had expected the shadows to be intelligent; everyone had assumed the shadows were just another hostile mob, that their anger and evolved combat from being resummoned was just the mobs learning tactics, not a sign of something deeper. Doc hadn’t been the only one building deathtraps, either; this had all started because of Tango’s failed farm, although none of them had gone as far as he had.

    He’d killed his shadow, over and over, without reprieve. He’d found every limit, every weakness, every way to dispatch of a shadow as easily and efficiently as possible; he’d spent hours, maybe even days, building and testing traps. It was just the same as when the hermits had learned how to build iron farms, or guardian farms-- exchanging blueprints, testing mechanisms, getting wrapped up so tight in it that they forgot to take breaks, some of them even forgetting to eat or sleep until they were done. Doc had laughed at the first message saying a fellow hermit had been killed by phantoms, then fled underground once his own flock of physical nightmares started dive-bombing him.

    He couldn’t go to that corner of Area 77 anymore. He could, physically: it wasn’t blocked off, even though he’d considered the idea, and no doubt Keralis had taken a peek at it before. But even looking in the direction of where he’d spent so long building and designing and testing on a mob that he never gave a chance to run, to tell him to stop, dragged him down into a deep pit of self-hate he’d struggle to climb back out of.

One day, Doc had made up his mind that he was going to tear everything down, make sure they could never be used again. There was no point in having dark reminders laying around.

He hadn’t expected to find his own shadow standing there. ]

    “I need to go,” Doc said, slapping away the hand Mumbo had been waving in front of his face. “I’m sorry about your redstone; I’ll see if I can spare anything to help rebuild. It’s... it’s my fault.” Mumbo and Iskall exchanged startled looks. “Uh-- bye.”

    “Wait--” Mumbo went to grab him, but Doc fired a rocket and shot himself straight up, out through the hole in Sahara’s roof, and soared off into the distance, leaving the Architechs stunned and confused. There was more he should have said, more he should have explained, but there was no time. He told himself he’d tell the others later, after he’d worked all of this out. There was no point in causing more panic than there already was.

    He didn’t want it to be true. Every part of him was wishing that maybe the Architechs had made a mistake, had mistaken someone else’s shadow for his, but he knew it was futile. The way Murmur had grabbed him like it’d been expecting someone else that looked like him, the way Mumbo and Iskall had reacted to his arrival-- there was no other picture that could be painted from that. Like it or not, his shadow was involved. The pieces kept lining up.

    Would his shadow be at Area 77 again? He doubted it. Doc made the trip anyway; if nothing else, it was a good starting point. There were a lot of places on the server where a shadow could hide. Even with hermits scouring the server from top to bottom, it could be forever until they finally found him. Xisuma could help, maybe, but the shadows were mobs rather than players; teleports or pin-pointing coordinates didn’t really work when there were several shadows roaming the server at any given time.

    He’d just have to trust his instincts.

[     His shadow stood still. For a moment, Doc couldn’t really believe it was really there; there was no explanation in his head for why his shadow would be back here, and it hadn’t tripped any of the proximity alarms. But, unmistakably, it was his shadow: a perfect copy of him, solid black, surrounded by glittering yellow particles that drifted about like motes of dust in a shaft of sunlight.

    It wasn’t really a perfect copy, though. Its hair was messier, its lab coat in worse shape; the few times he’d glimpsed it before now, it had a permanently terrified expression on its face, and he’d heard the other hermits talk about it in quiet tones, like they were afraid of scaring it. The shadows were a reflection of their summoners, in one way or another. Doc didn’t want to think about what side of him his shadow was supposed to be.

    The two stood there, silent. Doc waited for his shadow to do something, anything, to give him a reason or an explanation. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what was going through his shadow’s head right now. It wasn’t even crying, this time. It just… stood there.

“What are you doing here?”

His shadow’s reaction was instant. It flinched like he’d struck it and turned around to face him with the deer-in-headlights expression he was now familiar with; it would never stop being uncanny seeing those emotions on his own face. “Doc--!”

“What are you doing here?” he repeated. “It’s not safe. You know that,” he added in a strict tone.

    “I-- I was--” His shadow fumbled for words, tears already starting to sting at the corner of its eyes. Worried, Doc took a step forward. His shadow reacted by stumbling away. “I’m not doing anything wrong! Please!”

    “I’m not going to hurt you.” He needed to get it out of here. “How did you get here? Who let you in?” Was it Scar? No, there was no way Scar would allow Doc’s shadow to even come near Area 77, especially if Doc himself was on the premises. Neither would any other hermit. “Unless-- did you let yourself in?”

    His shadow backed up further and raised its arms over its head. “Don’t-- don’t-- don’t come any closer! Please! Don’t hurt me!”

    “I’m not going to hurt you!” Doc barked. His shadow flinched at the anger in his tone, and he immediately regretted it. He took another step, then another, arms out to try and placate the terrified mob in front of him. “Listen, it’s not safe here. Let’s go.”

    His shadow shook its head and kept backing away. Doc’s eyes widened in horror as it drew close to one of the contraptions; there was a worrying noise, like a high-pitched whine, coming from the redstone around them and under their feet. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see one of the above-ground repeaters from a nearby mechanism start to spark. His shadow didn’t react, instead drawing in on itself and shutting its eyes as if he’d go away if it just didn’t look at him. The mantra started up, words repeating, a single phrase Doc had wished he’d never hear again, the same phrase he’d heard from the inside of the trap: I don’t want to die.

    It smelled like something was burning. Lines of redstone blazed white-hot, as if in response to his shadow’s rising panic; Doc froze, unable to do anything but watch as his shadow sank down to its knees and the noise got louder.

    With a crack like a gunshot, the repeater exploded in a shower of sparks. The overcharged signal raced along through the circuitry; as Doc watched in horror, the chain reaction spread, contraptions misfiring and malfunctioning before breaking down. One of the more intensive machines blasted apart, leaving a deep crater and a shockwave that Doc could feel in his bones as the ground shook.

    In the center of it all, oblivious to the destruction around it, was his shadow. ]

    Doc stood in the same spot as in his memory, staring blankly at the wreckage he’d never bothered to patch up. It wasn’t the redstone that had malfunctioned. Not here, and not at Sahara. The Architechs seemed to think it was an accident, and it was-- just not the type of accident they were thinking of.

    His shadow was a living redstone EMP.

    The stories lined up: his shadow had been around complex redstone, had panicked, and suddenly it had all been destroyed. It was like his shadow was trying to protect itself: redstone was a threat, so it had evolved to break it. It raised a lot of questions, many of which Doc would’ve loved to get the answers to, but there was no way to investigate it with it being safe for both himself and his shadow.

    What was he going to do with this information? Doc had no idea. His shadow, as much as it pained him to think, was dangerous. What would happen if it panicked again? It’d been lucky that no one had been in Sahara… but, no, the Architechs had been there. Iskall had gotten badly injured, even if he had been downplaying it. What would happen if it panicked at Mumbo’s base, or somewhere where there were a lot of hermits? Sure, death was never permanent, but the omen of a potential disaster weighed heavy on his shoulders.

    Doc tore himself away from the sight. His shadow wasn’t here. Surely, after Sahara, it must have had the same realization he was having now. He doubted it would be on the main island, or near Hermitland-- too much redstone, too many people. That left his options rather vague. He’d just have to fly around and see if he could catch a glimpse of his shadow… or, potentially, any more craters.

    It wasn’t long before his search took him to the New Village. Doc glided over it a few times, admiring the large skeleton Bdubbs had constructed, before a voice rang out from below. “HEY! This is a no-fly zone!”

    Oh, right. “Hi, Keralis,” Doc deadpanned as he dropped out of the sky to land near the gates. The wide-eyed man crossed his arms and tried to look mad; Doc cut him off before Keralis could get a word in. “Have you seen my shadow around here?”

    “Your shadow? Hmm…” Keralis tilted his head back. “It depends~”

    “I’m not fueling your RUN addiction, Keralis.”

    “What?! No! Why would I ever be using my diamonds for that?” Keralis gave him an offended look. Doc didn’t budge. After far too long a standoff, Keralis sighed and relented. “Okay, okay. I saw Shadoc run in and hide in the blacksmith’s. I don’t think he wants to see you, though!”

    Doc raised his eyebrows. “Shadoc..?”

    “You know, like Shadow Doc! He’s your shadow!” He’d forgotten that Keralis was a serial nicknamer. Doc couldn’t fault him, in this instance; he’d never had a name to address his shadow by, and if it had a name it preferred it hadn’t told anyone. Naming your shadow was still unusual, but Joekills-- er, Killjoy-- had started a trend. “Are you sure you’re not going to pay me…?”

    Doc sighed, felt around in his inventory, and threw a diamond over Keralis’s head. The other hermit gave him an unimpressed look. “...Welp, gotta go. Bye.”

    It took him a bit to find where the blacksmith’s was. Even then, Doc passed by it several times before finally spotting yellow particles. His shadow-- Shadoc-- had its head on its knees; the flickering light from a nearby blast furnace cast dancing shadows that the mob blended into save for the glowing lines on its arm. Doc lingered, hesitant. Keralis was right: there was no way his shadow would want to see him. No doubt it was terrified that he was going to kill it, or imprison it again, or worse.

    Doc knocked on the wall. Shadoc jolted upright and looked around; Doc held his breath and stepped out into view as those glowing yellow eyes settled on him. There it was: that deer-in-headlights expression as Shadoc locked up. Doc held up his hands and looked away, unable to meet his shadow’s gaze.

    “We…” His voice cracked, making him sound far too much like the shadow in front of him. He tried it again, forced out the words, unsure of when he would get another chance. “We need to talk.”

[betweenlands]

? ? ?

[ a fic written for @mine-sara-sp‘s shadow people au, specifically the “season 7 shadows” au-of-an-au. fun fact, simplysarc did a series with zedaph once. ]

content warnings: possession.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 00

Okay, so they’re still working out all the issues with the shadow mob - apparently it wasn’t supposed to become a new form of artificial intelligence, who’d have thunk it? X managed to do some admin stuff and port the old shadows over, though, so I’ve still got Merino.

A lot of the new shadows have turned out, uh, concerning though? Bdubs got a plant monster even though the whole nHo plotline was two entire seasons ago, Grian’s is - well I don’t know what Grian’s is, but it’s got wings and eyes on it. Honestly, even Joe’s new one seems sort of off-putting for some reason. Keeps staring at me.

Or maybe there was just something on my face that day and he was too polite to point it out?

Whatever the case, I kind of want to get my hands on some shadow equipment as soon as possible, mostly so I can fend off Grian’s double-trouble shadows. Which means I’ve gotta head into the shadowlands as soon as possible, and I figure I’m gonna do it right now before my new shadow ends up sentient and has back pain from me trying to get a full armor set.

Also, I’m taking notes, because that’s the difference between science and screwing around.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 01

I have to admit, I was really worried about going into the shadow temple and doing the whole summoning thing considering that so many people have gotten big spooky monsters as their shadows. I guess the devs wanted to buff them because some of the stuff that happened with people’s shadows, like Shadoc and Murmur?

But, you know what? Everything went great! Sort of. Okay, so I didn’t actually see my shadow because I double-summoned it as quickly as possible and then leapt right on into the shadowlands. I’m sure it’ll be fine - it seems like you can hit any yellow-colored shadow with the scythe to get out, and guess what I got on my first run of the shadow boss! And… the second one. And the third one.

I think it’s probably a guaranteed drop.

I had to leave after three fights, though, because it turns out they definitely nerfed the livability of this dimension when they updated the Nether to be more homey. If you stick around for too long, you start getting slowness; stick around even longer, you get a really slow version of wither. Supposedly there’s a third drawback, something about the bottom of the shadowlands. I didn’t read the update notes too closely.

Anyway, I’ll have to go back soon, I want a full armor set and I only managed to get the chestplate - you know, the piece of armor I probably won’t use most of the time. Oh well, having spare scythes isn’t that bad.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 03

Full armor set obtained. Also, I think the third consequence for staying in the shadowlands too long is bugged. I got the slowness and wither effects in the middle of finishing off the last boss, and when I headed back to leave, it looked like something was rising from the bottom of the abyss?

But the animation sort of… looped, glitchily, like the amorphous blob of shadow was only consuming the bottom layers of the shadowlands repeatedly and not actually advancing upwards. So, yeah, it might be bugged.

I did get hit with a killer headache when I left the shadowlands this time, though. But hey, I don’t actually have to go back there for a good amount of time when I have the full set of gear, so I don’t have to worry about getting a post-shadowlands-exploration headache for a little while.

Merino’s been staring at me like there’s something wrong, recently, I’m not sure what’s going on. I tried to ask them and they just said it was nothing.

I guess it’s nothing to worry about, then. Maybe they just want me to get back to herding sheep so they can kill them again, like old times. I’ll do that.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 04

Okay, maybe there’s something to worry about. Thing is, Merino’s not the only shadow that’s been staring at me. Now it’s Joe’s new shadow - Joyful - tailing me, and Puzzler - Grian’s brand-new bastard - is always watching me specifically when it’s not being creepy at Grian.

I’d assume they’re jealous of my really cool clothing, but the shadowvex are normally all over that kind of thing and both the old and new ones are… I think they might be avoiding me? Which would be super convenient if not for the fact that it’s very out-of-character for them to outright avoid people.

The other thing is that… I still have that headache from exiting the shadowlands. Maybe that’s the third consequence, is a really long-lasting headache that can’t be cancelled out by milk? Either way… ugh. Just, ugh, I’ll start seeing what might cure it.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 05

I’m going to talk about the not-interesting part of today first, because I know someone’s reading these notes and I think it’s more fun if I add narrative spice to their poking and prodding.

Yeah, that’s right, buddy, I’m talking about you. I don’t know who you are but I know you’re reading this. (Are you Joyful? I think you’re probably Joyful.)

Anyway, boring parts first! I went into the shadowlands again to test something - turns out, the headache debuff might be a thing that happens when I’m not in that dimension, because the moment I teleported there, it went away. That was a real relief, honestly, because I’d had a rough morning. The glitchy stuff at the bottom of the abyss was still glitching, everything seemed as normal as a weird dark hellscape could be.

So, about the rough morning…

I was heading out to the shadow temple to do more shadowlands testing when someone grabbed me by the back of the collar. Biffa’s old shadow, Apex - I could tell it was him and not the nearly identical new one, on account of his visor being up and his eyes being blue. And, y’know, him lifting me up by the collar.

Basically, we had a talk - apparently, according to him, there’s something very bad in the bottom of the shadowlands. He called it the “old shadows” and told me that since I was there so often, I should be extremely careful.

He said even the Vex were scared of it. I told him that the old shadows seemed to be glitched, because last time I saw them they were only rising up to a certain point (and my trip inside later proved it). Apex just dropped me, and shook his head, told me to be careful again.

So yeah, Joyful, there’s your juicy tidbits for the day. While you’re reading these, d’you mind helping me clean my desk? It’s the least you could do in exchange for me letting you snoop around my stuff.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 06

Something really weird happened.

Grian’s been menaced by Puzzler a lot lately, and I sort of ended up running into one of those menacement sessions? I figured I should chip in and help out, so I butted into the conversation and tried to be obnoxiously cheerful, as Puzzler plays nice around anyone that isn’t Grian.

The second I popped out of the bushes with a “he-LLO guys!” though, purple shadow jerk’s eyes widened - all of them, even the ones on its wings - and it took a step back. Eyes flicked from me to Grian and then back again.

“He’s dangerous,” it told Grian, and then flew off.

I have no idea what that was about, because it’s not like I’m particularly skilled at PvP or even PvE, and I don’t have a special creepy shadow like Joe (or any shadow besides Merino, actually). Grian didn’t seem to know what was going on, either, but he thanked me for the help.

My headache flared up as soon as he approached… went from background annoyance to full-on migraine. Grian seemed worried, but I told him it was really just a me problem and that I’d be fine.

After that, I headed out to the shadowlands for a bit, because my head just wouldn’t stop pounding and I needed a break from it. I didn’t do any dungeon-crawling this time, just sat on the uppermost layer and stared into the abyss.

It didn’t stare back because, y’know, it’s a pit, pits don’t have eyes, but the cool air made me feel a lot better and when I returned my headache was less bad.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 07

So apparently the person reading my notes isn’t Joyful, because I confronted him today and he seemed… super, super on edge, but about something entirely else. Apparently, he’s got some sort of outcome-controlling power, except he can’t use it on me. He says that he blanks on the words whenever it comes to me.

He said I should be careful. And then my headache flared up again, particularly badly this time, and Joyful got concerned and said he’d leave me alone for the time being.

I tried to track down Puzzler again, since it seemed to actually know what was going on with me, but nobody’s seen Grian’s shadow around in a while, even Grian himself. From what Grian says, Puzzler might have gotten desummoned somehow, and nobody really wants him resummoned except for the shadowvex.

I really hope I don’t run into desummoned Puzzler in the shadowlands next time I go, because that would be even worse.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 07.1

Maybe the old shadows are rising. The glitchy abyss seemed to have risen up a little more than before - I was going to leave off the week’s entry before, but I wanted to make note of this before I forgot to do so.

I didn’t see Puzzler anywhere, though.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 08

Still no sign of Puzzler. Good riddance, Grian says. But now, in addition to the other shadows, even the jerks like Apex and Jigsaw are starting to avoid me, and I’m really not sure why. I don’t think I’ve changed much as a person, and none of the other hermits have come up with anything.

Joyful used to sort of watch me from around corners, and now he’s intensified that activity. If he wasn’t reading my notes before, then he definitely is now. So, uh, hi - please stop staring at me, and actually talk to me? I promise I’m not going to start a fight.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 09

I woke up and my mouth tasted like oil.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 09.1

Okay, I don’t remember writing the first part of this entry, so I guess I must have woken up really early, written it, and then immediately fallen asleep again? Best guess, I might actually be sick - between the headaches and now me feeling a little woozy while in the overworld, I’ve probably gotten a very mild version of the bends.

So I stayed in bed today, drifted in and out of sleep as a couple of the other hermits stopped in. One of them - the guy that stuck around the longest - was Joe.

Apparently nobody’s seen Joyful around for a few days…

I’m not an idiot. Something’s wrong.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 09.2

Snuck out of bed to check the shadowlands. The old shadows rose another few blocks. I watched the abyss for a few minutes, glad to be rid of all the weird illness symptoms, and then I felt a hand rest on my shoulder. They didn’t push me, so I just let them leave it there for a minute more…

And then I turned to look up at them, and there was nobody there. The hand still felt like it was on my shoulder, but nobody was actually there.

I should probably not go to the shadowlands again.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 10

So, I’ve abstained from going to the shadowlands for a while now, but shadows keep vanishing, and my bends keep getting worse and worse. It’s the new shadowvex, this time, they’re just straight up gone-gone. Can’t be summoned even to go into the shadowlands.

Man, this new mechanic is really buggy.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 10.1

I caved.

The abyss has risen higher.

It’s not staring back yet.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 11

I keep waking up places that I don’t remember going to sleep. I’ve decided this is way too dangerous, because I’m pretty sure I’m the reason that shadows keep vanishing. So far it’s been mostly the mean ones. I don’t want them to get at anyone else, either one of the nice shadows or one of the actual hermits.

I also don’t remember writing the entry for 10.1, so it’s safe to say that something is horribly, awfully wrong. And it’s probably my fault…

I have a dumb idea - I’m gonna see if jumping into the abyss does anything. Maybe it’ll reverse all this if I die to the mechanic? Also, it’d be my first death on this new server, and that’d be a pretty neat way to go out.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 11.1

So I’m standing there, fully prepared to yeet myself into the abyss, when I feel a hand on my shoulder again. And this time, when I turned around, there was something there.

I’m pretty sure it was my shadow, because it had the same proportions as me, only it was absolutely as pitch-black as the abyss below. I couldn’t make out any details besides yellow eyes and the glint of sharp white teeth when it spoke.

“Not yet,” it told me.

And now I’m back in the overworld somehow. My mouth tastes like oil again.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 12

Xisuma’s gone.

...My eyes have always been yellow, right?

ZEDAPH - S7 - 13

It told me, one last thing, the place I should go when it’s all done.

Craterville.

I’m going to see an old friend.

[triple-a-enderdragon]

Hey, guys, I’m just itching to tell you

First | Previous | Next

It was a crisp, bright day. Stress was out on her castle wall, gazing south. Visibility was good enough she could swear a hint of green was just noticeable. Usually seeing the shared lab brought her joy— as did the man she shared it with— but now it just worried her. She knew Iskall's role was demanding and he handled it well, but she also knew his track record with the Nether all too well. Thinking of Iskall made her think of Python, also trapped in the oppressive hell-scape. As far as Stress knew, no one spent more than a day straight in the Nether, with good reason. Well, except Tango, but he was an exception.

Stress looked at her hands. They were always edged with frost, but lately they'd been feeling itchy. It was uncomfortable and persistent; the only thing she found to soothe the itch was to make ice, so whenever it got unbearable, that's what she did. So far she had made almost two shulker boxes worth of packed ice made straight from water, and it scared her. Making packed ice straight from water was exhausting. Or, at least, it used to be.

Lately, Stress was full of nervous energy to the point where she couldn't sleep. Tonight the phantoms would start spawning, and if she wasn't careful, she would join Xisuma and Cub. She absentmindedly scratched her hands.

Barking echoed behind her, getting louder. Three of her samoyeds, followed by two huskies, turned the corner and blazed past her before disappearing out of sight. Brought back to the present, Stress sighed. Everything would be fine in the end. It had to be. Besides, wings of the castle were still unfinished, and that she could do something about.

Oh, how her hands itched.

~~~

Grian loved flying. He had loved it before, with the elytra, and he'd gotten ridiculously good at it. But with wings? It was a whole new world! There was so much more control, so much more finesse. One of the first things he did once he was used to them was the elytra course. Unsurprisingly, he crushed it.

But as the days wore on, from all the news surrounding the Nether, Grian started to feel agitated. He tried to keep his hands busy working on his base, the Infinity Room, anything. But inevitably, he would find himself in the air, flying aimlessly over the main island and beyond.

He had so much restless energy he had gotten little sleep over the past few days, little enough he was worried about phantoms. And since he was in the air at seemingly every opportunity, it was only a matter of time before one caught up with him.

Why did his wings itch so much?

~~~

Staring at TFC, Impulse was the first to recover. "Are we looking for you?"

TCF gave a snort of laughter. "Well, I certainly was looking for you. Do you know how long that took? I assumed you were at Xisuma's base, so I took the rail system there." He nodded at Ren. "Fantastic system, by the way, even if it's not fully functional. But I didn't find you there. So I had to travel back. I don't think you understand how long it takes to travel on foot." Seeing the others' faces, TFC laughed. "Not that it matters, I got here eventually. Though I was a bit surprised to find you in Ren's base."

"How did you know to look here?" Impulse asked.

"I was going towards Tango's base first hoping to catch you there, but—" TFC looked at Tango. "—I could tell you were here."

Tango was confused. "Why would you be looking for me?"

The change in TFC's demeanor was subtle, but if the others somehow missed it, the change in his voice was unmistakable; softer, yet no less gruff. "Because we're the last piece to your puzzle. I am Earth, and this is my avatar."

~~~

False was trying to find Impulse. So far he'd not been at his base, so she was headed toward the next best location. Landing in Xisuma's base, she could tell it was empty. Where was Impulse? Probably tending to something else, he doesn't live in X's base, False. Nevertheless, she headed to the admin room; maybe he left her a note saying where he'd gone.

Entering the room, she scanned the monitors. There wasn't much of it she understood, but there was one thing she did; the red dot of an unauthorized spawn. Somehow, while everyone was distracted by the Nether, an intruder had slipped in. While her two flankers were preoccupied elsewhere.

Think, False, think! There wasn't much she could do about the Nether situation, but this was right up her alley. With her tracker currently unavailable, she had to fall on her backup.

Now finally with a clear purpose, False left X's base and flew west. A gliding silhouette greeted her as she neared her destination; Grian absentmindedly riding the thermals. False got his attention and followed him as he dived into his base.

Once on the floor, Grian asked, "So, what do you need? Is it the Nether again?"

"No, I need your help finding someone. An intrusion has been detected and I need to deal with it as soon as possible."

"My help? Don't you usually— oh. Right."

False sighed. "Sorry. Until this Nether problem's solved, I need you to do Iskall's job since you are quite good at finding people."

"No, no! It's no problem at all! I just hope you don't expect me to fight, as that's not exactly my strong suit."

"Oh don't worry. With our third party member, you won't be able to fight even if you wanted to."

With that, False sent out a message:

[falsesymmetry to: Biffa2001] You busy?

[Biffa2001 to: falsesymmetry] nothing that can't be interrupted

[flasesymmetry to: Biffa2001] Meet outside of iTrade?

[Biffa2001 to: falsesymmetry] o/

False turned to Grian, who was waiting expectantly. "Well, time to go to the shopping district."

~~~

As Grian and False landed in front of iTrade, they could see Biffa flying in from the east. As he landed, he didn't waste time on pleasantries.

"Who do you need dead? I'm ready."

Grian smothered a laugh as False sighed.

"Well, you're straight to the point. You don't even know if that's why I called you here."

"Why else would you need me? Unless you need something built? A cup of tea? Hm?"

False gave a small laugh. "Fine, you're right. A hopper has managed to slip in and I need you in case they're hostile."

Biffa lit up. "Finally! Is this Nether business what it takes for me to get in on the action?"

"Biffa, you've been 'in on the action'. Anyway, we shouldn't waste time. Stay close, you two."

False took to the air, with Biffa and Grian close behind.

~~~

"Wait, what?"

In a deathly silent room, Impulse was the first to speak. TFC— Earth? turned to him, scrutinizing every inch of the man.

"All right, I have some explaining to do. But that's for a later time, as time is something you don't have much of. For now, you have to stop Fire before he commits a grave mistake."

"Wait, was I right? About the other avatars?" asked Tango. "Stress and Grian?"

"Yes, wasn't it obvious? It was about time Air committed." Earth looked at Tango, concerned. "You must find them both before you confront your Element, and quickly."

"What happens if we don't stop him in time?"

But the man they were talking to was TFC once again.

"Sorry, he's cryptic like that. I don't know any more than you do." He gave a short laugh. "Anyway, good luck finding the others; I'll only slow you down. I'll be in my bunker when you need me."

~~~

Python was getting tired of the Nether. No matter what he and Iskall tried, no progress was made; he was starting to think they were well and truly stuck. Normally that would be fine, as he knew people who had survived in the Nether for weeks on end; but that was with proper preparation. Between the fluctuating heat and their dwindling water, the two Strikers were woefully unprepared.

Speaking of the heat, the temperature had risen again, to the point where it was dangerous for Python and downright deadly for Iskall. With the strangely hostile pigmen, they were content to stay in their cave anyway. Or, at least Python was.

He watched helplessly as Iskall became increasingly agitated as the two of them tried to work through their situation. When trying to create a new portal had failed, he'd injured his foot kicking it. He'd almost broken his flint and steel trying to relight portals, only stopping because one blew up, almost killing him.

The only thing Python could think to do was to keep Iskall confined to the cave. Being surrounded by the ice seemed to help cool his temperament as well as the air, but there was only so much of this confinement that either of them could take.

Hearing feverish muttering, Python turned to where Iskall was sitting. Something seemed to be wrong with his left eye, he was scratching at it, as if something was wrong.

Something was wrong; Iskall's eye was itchy as hell, to the point where he wanted to take the damn thing out. Every time he went to rip it out, something stopped him. But nothing was stopping the itching, the damn itching, get it out get it out—

"Iskall?"

He looked up to see Python incredibly concerned, so much so he momentarily forgot about the itch.

"What?"

"You okay?"

"No."

Silence, then; "You want to talk about it?"

"...it's my eye. It's bad enough we're stuck here for the time being, but the dang thing won't stop itching. It's driving me crazy, dude!"

"Has it done this before? I remember when I had a similar eyepiece, it would get irritated sometimes. Glad I got rid of it."

"No, that's the thing. It hasn't done this before." Muttering half to himself, Iskall continued, "And what does—" Diamond? He looked at Python. "You're not wearing your gear, are you? But you have your tools."

"Uh, yeah. It was getting a bit cumbersome, so I took it off. You could tell?"

"Yeah, that's part of what this thing does." Iskall paused, mind miles away. "I need to think." For him, the best way to think was to sleep; so that's precisely what he did.

~~~

Not far under the gardens of the Stock Exchange, Doc was working on his HRN station. He was working on a vending machine; something he'd wanted to put in for a while. Now that the war was over, he could finally return fully to his own projects. He felt he should be glad to work undistracted, but frustrations were mounting.

It was a simple circuit for him to work with, but novice mistakes were constantly popping up. Timings were off, a repeater would lock, a comparator would be wrongly set. He could tell from the flow of the redstone what was wrong and where, but with every fixed mistake another would pop up.

And his arm. What was up with his arm? Every time Doc stopped working, the metallic arm felt as if it was full of electricity; he was not sure how to describe it. He'd taken it apart more than once to check the wiring, the circuits, anything he could see for a hint as to what was wrong. As far as he could tell, everything was on order; from the redstone tubing to the circuitry. But every once and a while he would find himself scratching at it. An itch, that was it. His arm itched.

Between his arm and the vending machine circuit, Doc had not gotten much sleep. The constant flow of the red dust through its own tubing gave him the energy to work, so he wasn't worried. However, there was one night terror he would do well to remember, and tonight it would start spawning.

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Writting request!

Hels!Impulse taking regular impulses place n stuffing him in like a closet or somethin-

N someone who's sus of him (maybe iskall?) Finds the real impulse.

Now to unmask the fake.

okay so a few quick things:

1) this ended up a LOT longer than i expected lol so i apologise for that, it’s over 2k words

2) i also didn’t entirely stick to every detail in the prompt because i had an idea i rly liked and i wanted to roll with it, so i’m rly sorry if it’s not as good as you were expecting

3) anyway i hope it’s good! it was a lot of fun to work on

...

  Impulse is working on the redstone of his pumpkin and melon farm in his base when he spots a shadow moving around right at the corner of his vision. Frowning, he leaves his task and heads out into the main part of the base, looking around. “Hello?” he calls cautiously. “Grian, if this is you again…”

  He gets no response. 

  Just as he starts to turn back, thinking he just imagined it, something slams into him and knocks him into the wall, stunning him. He looks sharply up to find…

  ...himself. 

  Impulse’s eyes widen. “Wh-Who are you?!”

  The new Impulse has his arms crossed and a malicious grin on his face. “My name is Impulstor. I’m your Hels counterpart. And I’m going to take over your life as my own.”

  “W-Wait, what?!” 

  Before Impulse can move, Impulstor seizes his lapels and drags him across the base. Impulse struggles as hard as he can but he’s still winded from being hit against the wall. 

  Impulstor takes him to one of the support pillars at the very edge of the base, which has a two by one block hole in it, left over from Grian’s secret base shenanigans a few weeks ago. Weakened, he’s unable to stop Impulstor from shoving him roughly through the gap. 

  Since the floor is a block lower than the bottom of the hole, Impulse’s foot slips and he falls heavily against the wall, hitting his head and stunning him even more. The space inside the pillar is only one block by one block, with two or three more blocks of space above his head, so as Impulse collapses, he’s forced into an uncomfortable sitting position. 

  Blinking back tears of pain and fear, Impulse tries sluggishly to escape but Impulstor bashes him on the head with his own pickaxe. 

  The last thing Impulse sees before he passes out is Impulstor blocking the gap with white concrete, trapping him in this prison.

…

  Zedaph flies over the shopping district and lands a little way off from Impulse and Tango, who are sitting on one of the benches outside town hall, chatting. As he approaches, the two look up and spot him. “Hey, Zed!” Tango calls, beaming. “Wanna join me and Impy hanging out?”

  “Yeah, sure! What do you have in mind?”

  “Well, I thought we might go give Decked Out a group run,” Tango says. “I’d have to fix things up a little bit but that shouldn’t take more than ten minutes. I think it’d be epic to go in as a team.”

  “Ooh, yeah!” Impulse grins. “I always loved that game. It terrifies me, but I loved it. Those ravagers, man. I’m always on the lookout for them and it’s terrifying with the heartbeat and everything.” 

  “That was the idea,” snickers Tango.

  “I know, I know. Doesn’t make it any less terrifying, though.” Impulse grins. “Going in as a group would be great! I’d really like to do that.”

  Zedaph involuntarily takes a step back. He doesn’t know what, but there’s something off about Impulse today. There’s something different, something he can’t quite put his finger on. He’s known Impulse a long time, but not as long as Tango, who doesn’t seem to share his doubts. Is he misreading the situation?

  “Yeah, me too!” Tango enthuses. “You up for it, Zed?”

  “Um, actually…” Zedaph forces a convincing cough and rubs his stomach. “I feel kinda sick all of a sudden. I think the flight over here churned my insides.”

  “Oh.” Tango frowns sympathetically. “You’d better rest, then.”

  “Yeah, sorry. I need to go home.”

  “No problem, man. Hope you feel better.”

  Zedaph slowly walks away, keeping up his charade in case the others are watching. Over his shoulder, he hears Impulse say something about his ice farm, then a few seconds later, the sound of rockets are heard as the two take off with their elytras. 

  He keeps going for about a minute longer, just in case, before deeming it safe and taking off with his rockets. His heart pounding, he shoots over to Impulse’s base and after crashing through the water curtain, lands neatly on the ground inside. “Impulse?” Zedaph calls, starting to rush through the pyramid base. “Impulse, are you here?”

  Zedaph’s voice awakens Impulse. Blinking against the throbbing in his head, he bashes his fist against the wall of the pillar as hard as he can. “Ze-Zedaph! ZED!”

  Following the sound of Impulse’s voice, Zedaph locates the pillar and slices a hole in it with his pickaxe. 

  To his horror, he finds Impulse squeezed inside the narrow gap, blood still dripping from the wound in his head. 

  “Oh my god…!”

  Zedaph drags Impulse out of the pillar and lets him lie flat on the ground for a moment while he tends to his wound. Impulse doesn’t even have the strength to wince at the stinging of antiseptic. 

  “Are you okay?” asks Zedaph quietly. “How long have you been stuck in there?”

  “A-A few hours at most, I don’t really know. What’s going on?”

  “Well, fake you is cosying up to Tango. I don’t think Tango suspects anything.”

  Impulse swallows back a pang of hurt. “Oh… I-I thought he knew me better than that…”

  “To be fair, whoever’s masquerading as you is really, really good,” says Zedaph slowly. “I hate to say this, but even I barely noticed.”

  “Really? What made you catch on?”

  Zedaph hesitates. “It was more of a gut feeling than solid evidence. I dunno, there was just something about the way he talked that seemed off. It didn’t seem like you. I thought either there was something wrong with you or it wasn’t you at all.”

  “And you came to the conclusion that an imposter posing as me was more likely than me having an off day?” chuckles Impulse weakly. 

  Zedaph matches his chuckle as he starts to wind a bandage around Impulse’s head. “Again, it was just a gut feeling.”

  “Well, your gut feeling was right. Now what do we do about Impulstor?”

  Zedaph immediately bursts out a laugh. “Impulstor!” 

  Impulse gives him a look.

  Zedaph clears his throat awkwardly. “S-Sorry. Anyway, we should go and save Tango from, uh… Impulstor.”

  “Shouldn’t that be easy?” remarks Impulse. “I mean, I’M me. He’s not.”

  “Man, you didn’t see the way he was with Tango. He has to be some kind of clone of you or something; there’s no way he’s just a guy who’s studied the way you behave. It’s not about us not knowing you well enough; it’s him knowing every mannerism, every quirk, every facial tick. If it wasn’t for my random gut feeling, I doubt we’d have noticed for a really long time.”

  Impulse’s worry increases. If Tango, someone he’s known for over a decade, couldn’t even tell the difference between him and the imposter, his clone could have the whole server fooled within hours. 

  “We have to get to him away from the other hermits,” Impulse says. “The longer this goes on, the harder it’ll be to convince them I’m the real Impulse. What were him and Tango doing when you left?”

  “I think they were taking a look at your ice farm,” responds Zedaph. 

  Impulse shoots bolt upright. “Oh no! I spent ages getting that farm the exact way I wanted; he better not ruin anything!”

  Zedaph grips him by the shoulders. “Hey, easy, man. You might have a concussion.”

  “I don’t care! Tango is in real danger and so is everything I’ve ever built! I’m going over to my ice farm right now and you can’t stop me.”

  Zedaph hesitates. He knows his friend well enough to know that he really can’t stop him. “Okay, then. I’ll come with you.”

…

  “-really like this pattern,” Tango is saying, looking down at the floor underneath the ice farm. “How’d you think of it?”

  “Oh, it just came to me,” says Impulstor. “Took me a while to turn all the powder to concrete.”

  “I bet. Nice farm, dude!”

  “Thanks!” 

  Impulstor watches Tango move over to the side of the farm and look down. Tango clearly suspects nothing; if he has any doubts, he’s doing an amazing job hiding them. But Impulstor isn’t worried. From his (no, not his. Impulse’s) memories of Tango, he should be fairly easy to take down if the need arises. 

  But what he doesn’t anticipate is his ruse falling apart so soon.

  “TANGO!”

  Tango jerks and snaps his head upwards to find two figures flying towards him. He blinks in shock; one of them is clearly Zedaph but the other… It can’t be…

  Impulstor lets out a very quiet growl, before rearranging his face into an expression of shock. “Wait a sec…”

  Impulse nearly falls over in his haste as he lands, him and Zedaph getting between Tango and Impulstor. 

  “What the hell is going on?!” Tango demands. “Why are there two Impulses?!”

  “He’s an imposter,” declares Impulse, jabbing a finger at Impulstor. “He’s a fake Impulse.”

  “No, HE’s the fake!” Impulstor snaps back. “I don’t know what’s going on here but I’m the real Impulse!”

  “Oh god, this is my worst nightmare,” Tango groans. “How are we supposed to know who the real one is?”

  “Look, ask me anything,” says Impulse. “I’ll answer any question you ask.”

  “What was your first build when you joined Hermitcraft?” Zedaph asks.

  “The witch huts in season three,” say both Impulse and Impulstor at the same time, causing the former to stare at the latter in shock. 

  “Who did you team up with to do the pirate ship prank in season six?” Tango asks slowly.

  “Ren and Doc,” both Impulses say, again at the same time. 

  “What did you call your season five base?” Zedaph says.

  Again, the answer comes simultaneously from both Impulse and Impulstor: “Atlantis.” 

  “Okay, stop, stop.” Tango waves his hands. “This is going nowhere. I don’t know HOW you two have the exact same memory but clearly, we’re not gonna make any progress this way.” 

  “Hey, Impulse.” Zedaph turns pointedly to the real Impulse. “How did you get that scar on your thigh?”

  “From an arrow wound during the season six civil war,” Impulse and Impulstor reply.

  A split second later, Impulse realises what his friend is doing. He lifts his shorts leg just enough for the small scar to become visible. “This one.”

  The other three turn to Impulstor, who realises he’s in trouble here. He may have Impulse’s memories but they don’t share a body. Impulstor remembers the exact moment Impulse got that injury but he wasn’t actually there. He didn’t live it; Impulse did. 

  “Impulse, if you’re the real one, show us the scar,” Tango says sternly. 

  Impulstor hesitates, his slightly narrowed eyes flickering from Tango to Impulse. 

  Suddenly, Impulstor takes off running, deliberately slamming into Tango as he does. Tango tumbles to the ground and slides right over the edge of the farm with a terrified yell. 

  Luckily, Zedaph reacts quickly and grabs his friend’s wrist. This stops Tango from falling long enough for Impulse to take hold of his friend’s other hand, and the two pull Tango back to safety. 

  “Oh my gosh, are you okay?!” gasps Impulse. “You almost went over!” 

  Breathing heavily, Tango starts to speak but cuts himself off as he finally registers the bandage around Impulse’s head. “I-Impulse, did he hurt you?”

  “What?” Impulse frowns, before remembering his head injury, which is already mostly healed. “Oh, yeah. He ambushed me in my base and knocked me out and stuffed me in the hollow space in one of my pillars for like five hours or so.”

  “Oh my god...” Tango squeezes his eyes shut. “I-I’m so sorry…”

  “Wh-What?” Impulse stares at him. What for?”

  “For not realising he wasn’t you. I should have seen it; I can’t believe I was so blind.”

  Impulse blinks. “Oh, Tango, no. Please, please don’t feel guilty. It’s not your fault at all.”

  “But…” Tango’s eyes glisten with tears. “I… I’ve known you for at least ten years. Surely I…”

  “No,” says Impulse firmly. “Don’t blame yourself, Tango. Impulstor is… He’s me. Essentially.”

  “What do you mean, Impusle?” asks Zedaph quietly. 

  Impulse hesitates. “Impulstor is my Hels counterpart. He looks like me, talks like me, he has all my memories. Tango, nobody can really blame you for not noticing. Dude, I know I’m the real Impulse and even I did a double take. You know I’m not observant at all but that was taking it to a whole new level.”

  Tango gives a quiet laugh. “Yeah, you’re really not super observant. But still…”

  “And hey, at least we now have a fairly easy way to tell us apart,” Impulse adds. “He won’t be able to fool you two again. But the rest of the server needs to be warned and briefed on how to tell us apart. Will you help me do that, both of you?”

  “Of course I will,” says Zedaph immediately, putting his arm over Impulse’s shoulders. “We’re a team.”

  Tango meets Impulse’s gaze.

  Finally, he says, “I always knew you’d have an evil twin but I didn’t expect him to be LESS annoying than you.” 

  “Hey,” complains Impulse mildly. “Give me some credit for not trying to murder you.”

  Tango laughs and grabs his friend in a hug. “Don’t worry, you’re still my favourite Impulse.”

  Impulse hugs him back. “Good. Now, let’s find Xisuma and warn him about Impulstor.”

  Tango pulls sharply away from Impulse and stares at him. “Wait… Is that his NAME? Impulse plus imposter?”

  “Uh huh. Trust me, I didn’t choose it.”

  His friend bursts out laughing. “That’s GREAT! Oh my god. That sounds like something Zed would come up with.”

  “I know, right!” Zedaph laughs. 

  Impulse can’t help a laugh too. The tension and fear that’s been controlling him for the last few hours has mostly melted away now that his best friends are safe. Impulstor might still be out there but with a little luck, he won’t be able to fool the rest of the server the way he fooled Tango. He’s sure he’ll see Impulstor again, though. 

  But the real question is: how soon?

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Hello! I love your writing sm. Can I request a third life smp with scar and Ren? Smth like Ren gets cornered by scar and has to escape? Either funny shenanigans or angst or both lol. Thaaaannnkkkssss

ohohohohoho if given the choice i will ALWAYS choose angst lmfao

also thank you!!

…

  At around noon one warm day, Ren is organising the bookshelves around the enchanting table inside Renchanting. Business has been slow today, but perhaps that’s just as well. There haven’t been any deaths in the last couple of days, so the only traffic Renchanting has seen is Impulse coming to enchant another set of diamond armour as a backup. Ren is starting to feel a little lonely; as great as Martyn is to have around, he’s often so focused on his work that he’s not great for conversation. 

  Eventually, he gets bored with his task and wanders outside. To his shock, he spots Scar coming in through the door and automatically reaches for his sword. 

  “Hi, Ren!” chirps Scar, approaching him. “How’s it going?”

  “What do you want?” Ren demands. 

  Scar pouts. “That’s not a nice hello.”

  “You’re not a nice person at the moment,” retorts Ren, before raising his voice to call over his shoulder. “Martyn!”

  “Oh, he’s not here.”

  Ren tightens his grip on his sword. “Where’s Martyn?”

  “Grian’s taken him to the desert to discuss a “business deal”.” Scar makes air quotes over the last two words. “So it’s just the two of us.”

  “Okay… What do you want? A truce?”   “Oh, I’m here to kill you.” 

  Scar’s words strike fear into Ren, who immediately backs away a few steps. “Wh-What? 

  “I’m just kidding!” laughs Scar. “Just kidding.”

  Ren maintains eye contact, ready to run at any moment. “I’m not so sure you are. You ARE unstable enough to just walk in here and slice me in half, though.”

  “Aw, no, Ren. I would never hurt you.”

  “You’re holding a lava bucket in one hand and a diamond sword in the other.”

  “Oh.” Scar glances down at his hands. “So I am. What are you gonna do about it? I’ll remind you that I’m the red name here so you can’t hit me if I don’t hit you first.”

  Ren grips his sword with both hands, holding it in front of him. “Scar, get out. I have the right to defend what’s mine, whether it be my life or my business.”

  “Not if I don’t attack first,” says Scar, grinning maliciously. “Put your sword down and I’ll consider mercy.”

  “No! You’re crazy!”

  “Put the sword down,” Scar repeats. “It’s better for you in the long run.”

  Ren hesitates. He doesn’t trust Scar as far as he can throw him, so anything Scar says is worthless to him. Except his threats. Those are very real. 

  “Will you be happy if you kill me?” he snaps. “Will you finally be happy? Will that finally be enough?”

  “Nothing’s ever enough for a red lifer. I won’t be happy until you’re on red, just like me. You and your employee Martyn of course, but he’s too smart for me. That’s why I had to split you guys up. He’ll be much easier to kill on his own.”

  Ren’s blood runs cold. “No…! G-Grian’s green; he can’t just murder Martyn!”

  “He’ll do anything I tell him to,” responds Scar casually. “He has to.”

  Ren is still slightly doubtful but he wouldn’t put anything past Scar. He knows he and Martyn are in terrible danger and he has to go save his friend.

  If Scar lets him out of here alive.

  “You… um… You mentioned mercy?” he says hesitantly.

  “I did!” Scar beams innocently. “Just put down your sword.”

  After a long hesitation, Ren lowers his sword and tosses it away.

  Scar’s smile turns dark. “Excellent. Let’s shake on it.”

  He holds out his hand. Ren automatically reaches for it, but Scar abruptly snatches it away and strikes his flint and steel, creating a burst of flame that burns Ren’s hand. 

  Crying out in pain, Ren takes off running towards the door. Scar doesn’t follow him, and when Ren flings open the doors, he sees why.

  Four blocks of obsidian block the double doors. With his iron pickaxe, there’s no way Ren can mine them in time. 

  Heart now pounding out of his chest, Ren turns and flees towards the back door. He hears Scar curse and some hope returns to him; clearly, Scar hadn’t known about the other door. 

  Ren bursts out of Renchanting and dashes towards the desert. He doesn’t care that he’s running right towards Scar’s domain; he has to get to Martyn and make sure he’s okay. 

  Out the corner of his eye, he spots an ender pearl land just in front of him. A second later, Scar appears and drops lava directly in front of him. 

  Ren skids to a halt and scrambles back, but the lava has already set the tree behind him on fire, causing the flames to burn his entire right side. 

  “Give it up, Ren!” comes Scar’s thundering voice through the flames. “Come to me and die quickly.”

  Ren doesn’t reply. Forcing back tears and cries of agony, he continues running away from Scar, but his progress is slower now; his right leg feels like it’s on fire. He won’t make it to the desert now, but the village is fairly close. Maybe he can seek refuge there. 

  Soon, he spots the top of Bdubs and Cleo’s castle and realises he’s nearly there, though he’s taken an odd path. His limbs all either ache or burn; he can’t keep going much longer. The pain is starting to overwhelm him. 

  He slows as he reaches the drawbridge, his vision growing fuzzy. 

  “Who’s out there?!” comes Bdubs’s voice distantly.

  “It’s Ren!” Cleo’s voice calls back. “He looks hurt, Bdubs!”

  As soon as Ren takes one more step towards the drawbridge, his knee buckles under him and he collapses.

  He’s unconscious before he hits the ground.

…

  “-at happened?!” 

  “We don’t know, dude! All we saw is him running towards the castle and collapsing right in front of the drawbridge. There didn’t seem to be anyone chasing him but he’s burnt pretty badly.”

  “Oh my god…”

  Ren groans softly as he forces his eyes open. Blinking against the light and his still-fuzzy vision, he struggles to sit up.

  “Whoa, hey, what d’you think you’re doing?” comes Cleo’s voice. 

  “Martyn!” cries Ren, reaching out blindly. “Martyn, are you here?”

  Two hands clasp his. “I’m here, boss,” comes Martyn’s reassuring voice. “Are you okay? What happened?”

  “I…” Ren hesitates. “I don’t…”

  “You got attacked, right?” Martyn grasps his shoulder. “You remember? You got attacked. Tell me who attacked you.”

  “S-Scar.”

  Martyn nods slowly. “I knew it. Grian spilled everything to me.”

  “If you knew what happened all along, why did you yell at us?” snaps Bdubs.

  “I just wanted to make sure you weren’t involved,” Martyn responds. “I’m sorry. All jokes aside, Ren is my strongest ally on this server and I need to make sure I understand what’s going on with him at all times.”

  After a moment, Bdubs nods. “Okay, fine. I’m gonna go keep watch.”

  “Martyn, are you alright?” Ren asks, as Bdubs leaves the room. “Grian didn’t hurt you, did he?”

  “No, don’t worry,” Martyn assures him. “He eventually straight-up admitted he was just distracting me so Scar could go kill you, but by the time I got back home, you’d already gone. I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have let him take me away from you for so long.”

  Ren shakes his head. “It’s not your fault. I’m just glad you’re okay.” 

  Martyn smiles back. “Same, boss. I think we may need some better defences, though.”

  “Yeah,” Ren chuckles, before spotting Cleo hanging around in the background, watching them with her arms folded. “Oh, Cleo, um… Thanks for saving me. Sorry for all the trouble.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” replies Cleo kindly. “It was actually really scary to see you collapse out there; we had no idea what had happened.”

  “Scar didn’t turn up, did he? He was chasing me for a while there.”

  “No, we never saw him.”

  “Okay, good.” Ren shivers. “It was terrifying, Martyn. He tried to make a deal with me, then he burned my hand and-.”

  He breaks off as he lifts said hand and finds it wrapped in bandages. “Wait…”

  “Bdubs patched you up,” Cleo explains. “I helped a bit but it was mostly Bdubs.”

  “Oh. I really need to thank him too. And I hope Scar doesn’t make trouble for you two for helping me.” 

  “Hey, don’t worry. We can take him. In the meantime, Bdubs and I agreed you can stay here while you recover. We can defend you from Scar if he comes to try and finish the job.”

  “Are you sure?” Martyn asks. “I’m happy to take Ren home.”

  “After an attempt on his life?” responds Cleo. “It’d be wiser not to move him.”

  “I guess so.”

  “Thanks, Cleo,” says Ren gratefully. “I really appreciate everything you’ve done for me.”

  Cleo smiles back. “No problem.”

[votederpycausemufins]

The next chapter is going to be the last chapter. It’ll mostly end on a happy note, though there will be something at the end :3

@petrichormeraki @helleborusangel

Grian was glad to finally finish sorting through all the paperwork, narrowly missing Lynn arriving with another Watcher to discuss his kids. He dragged Grifter along with him and made a portal back to his base, glad that it seemed everything would be calm for a while. Until Grifter screamed.

Grian was sure it was just going to be a chicken left over from Hermit Challenges since those always seemed to appear at the worst times. Maybe someone wearing a chicken head who happened to be around. But instead, there was actually someone standing there. Someone Grian ever so vaguely recognized.

“H-hi there person I haven’t seen before. I’m Grian and that’s Grian and we cloned oursel-” Grifter quickly tried to say, but then freaked out as a chicken appeared next to him.

“Don’t lie. I already know what’s going on. I don’t like it, but you’ll get out mostly scott free. This time.”

“Ha ha ha... “ Grifter weakly laughed, glancing at the chicken to his side. “Hey, so is Mini-”

“Go home before I change my mind Ze.”

“Um, I actually changed it to-” Grifter started to speak before the chicken next to him hissed, making him jump and then make a portal back to helscraft.

Grian looked away from where his copy stood to where Punch was floating. As a Watcher, Grian could feel the death magic radiating off of the man. The man signaled to the chicken which hopped over to him and fluttered its way up to his lap where he pet it like a villain would their cat. “So. Xel I presume?”

After seeing how Punch had responded to Grifter correcting him, Grian just nodded. “Yeah.”

For a moment, the man just stared at Grian before smiling. “Well I’m sure you’re much better than my nephew. It’s a shame that your guide ignored you all those years ago.”

Grian had no clue what was being talked about. “Guide? What guide?”

“Something that could be discussed another time. You have more things to worry about. I’m sure your mother won’t be happy about me sticking around here too long, so I’ll leave you with a gift.” The man looked down to his chicken. “Kokatori, why not stay with Xelqua for a bit?” The chicken clucked once before hopping back down to the ground and standing next to Grian. “If anyone asks, you got it from a guy named Pablo.”

Punch looked like he was about to leave, but then at the last moment to turn back. “Oh, and by the way, I’d check your calendar if I were you. It’s currently May.”

Grian was left puzzled for a few moments as Punch disappeared. May? What did it currently being May have to do with anything. The only thing going on was closer to the end and- Grian pulled his comm out and checked the date. They had been so focused on the mess of the past week that Grian barely registered the days were actually passing. “I NEED TO FIND MUMBO!”

.

.

.

Mumbo watched as Grian was using Watcher magic to multitask. He had explained everything that happened while Grian was gone to him, and the builder was glad to be filled in, but before Mumbo could ask much, Grian pulled out a calendar, his communicator, a book, and also a lead which he put his new chicken on. “Grian, are you doing okay?”

“NO!” Grian stressfully shouted at Mumbo, making him take a step back. Had something happened? Was someone hurt again? Was it the boys? “I DON’T EVEN KNOW IF GRUM CAN EAT CAKE!”

“I’m… sorry what are you talking about?” Mumbo asked, a bit calmer but much more confused.

Grian thrust the calendar into Mumbo’s face. “It’s currently May 21st! We have less than a week to get everything ready!”

“Ready for…?”

“Are you- GRUM’S FIRST BIRTHDAY!”

Mumbo’s eyes widened at Grian answer. “Oh my word! That really is just around the corner, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I already had some plans in place of course but now it’s basically all out the window since there’s more family and friends involved to invite. Right now the only thing taken care of is presents!”

“Right, and did it get delivered?”

“Of course it did! I hid it in a por- I HID IT IN A PORTAL! THE BOYS COULD ACTUALLY GET THERE NOW!” Grian yelled, freaking out.

“Okay, calm down. It’s going to be fine. If we need to, we can hide it somewhere else. And I’m sure even if we don’t move it, it’s going to be perfectly fine. I doubt either of the boys will manage to get in there.” Mumbo did his best to calm Grian. “I know the boys wanted some people to visit today. Possibly you can get those people to come and we can find time to ask them more about who else the boys might have gotten close to and get a guest list that way.”

Grian was glad to finally finish sorting through all the paperwork, narrowly missing Lynn arriving with another Watcher to discuss his kids

Grian snapped his fingers at the idea before putting almost everything away. “That’s a great idea. Let me message Tommy on the change of plans. You said they wanted Fundy and Michael?”

“And Michael’s parent since he’s young. Parents? I’m not completely sure, I’m sure all those time problems didn’t help.”

“I’m sure they didn’t.” Grian remarked as he finished sending a message. “There. Now I guess we wait for Tommy to respond.” And he didn’t need to wait long as a message arrived. “Okay! He says I can pick them all up, though I might need to search a little for Fundy. But I’m sure he’ll want to visit Iskall at the very least.”

“Oh, that’s right! There’s one thing I forgot to mention.” Mumbo spoke up, making Grian’s head whip in his direction. “It’s maybe a little concerning, but I’m sure it will be fine. It… it just looks like Grum might be skittish around Iskall again. It makes sense after everything that happened of course, but better I remember to tell you now and not let you find out yourself.”

“I guess you’re right about it making sense. It sort of was like he got… void he got brainwashed again.”

“Hey, he managed to do well on his own. Might not be the best way to take after you, but it’s still good he took after your survival skills.”

“Oh ha ha. I don’t have survival skills.” Grian rolled his eyes. “The amount of times I’ve dive bombed or exploded myself. I mean, You know how many times I died testing my minigame mister ‘Watch This’.”

Mumbo chuckled for a moment. “Not one of my finer moments. But I meant about when you were growing up. I know it’s not your favorite time, but you made it through that part of your life. Grum was able to do the same.”

“I wish he didn’t have to. I wish neither of them got stuck there.”

“I’m sure no one did. But they did and got through it, and that’s what matters. So let’s just work on making sure they know everything’s fine now. Go pick up Tommy and the others.”

“Alright. And thanks for the talk Mumbo.”

“Always.”

.

.

.

Jrum was practically bouncing off the walls when he saw Michael. Grum was a bit more reserved, but was also pretty excited. It seemed Michael was a little nervous being in such a new place, but Jrum was quickly at the ziglin’s side to reassure him. To the side, Fundy was currently admiring the marvel that was the spawn area. Since Jrum had gone with their friend, Grum made his way to the hybrid. “Um, hi Fundy.”

“Wh- Oh hey Grum! How’re you doing?”

Grum rubbed his arm. “Better. Thank you for helping me out when everything was happening. You didn’t need to.”

“Of course I did. You’re a kid and what Dream was doing was seriously fucked up.” He got a look from Grum. “Well, okay. Maybe I wouldn’t have normally, but he kept getting me involved and Iskall knew you, so it was kind of different.”

“Well, thank you very much for that.” Grum said, hugging Fundy. “Well, I bet you want to see Iskall’s tree.”

“Oh hell yeah! Where’s the Omega Tree?”

Immediately Jrum was back next to them. “I can take him there! I’ll also see if Iskall is there or can get there soon! You can play with Michael while we’re gone!”

Grum nodded and looked to Michael. “Do you think that your parents will let you follow me through the nether to a place to play? I know a safe path and Dad assured me if something were to happen, you would absolutely safely respawn.”

Michael snorted before running over to Tubbo and Ranboo, interrupting their conversation with Tommy. Grum followed him over to elaborate on whatever he would say, or just translate in general. When they were told of the idea, Ranboo and Tubbo weren’t entirely sure about it, but Tommy put in a good word. “C’mon, Grian and Mumbo let the bots run around on their own all the time. This place is safe, so he’ll be fine.”

“I guess… but only if you two stick to the overworld. The nether might be faster, but it’s also dangerous.” Tubbo relented.

Grum thought it over. They would need to take a boat over to where they were going, and there would be a bit of a trek through the jungle, but there was a path they could take. “Of course! We will do what we can to stay as safe as possible. Now…” Grum pointed to the bubble elevator. “Up the tube!”

Michael followed behind Grum to get to the surface and the bot crafted up a boat for the two of them. As Grum rowed, Michael looked around at everything around them. Though there wasn’t too terribly much in the ocean in the direction they were headed, there were enough large builds that could still be seen to keep Michael in awe.

Eventually they landed and Grum led them through the jungle. “The best place to play is in Uncle Scar’s village. It's got plenty of buildings to work with and the style is perfect for games! And then nearbyish is Larry the snail and the magic arrow.”

Michael oinked a quick question and Grum elaborated as they walked. When they finally reached the village, Michael quickly ran into it and started exploring, Grum quickly following behind the ziglin. Though the buildings themselves were interesting, Michael decided the best thing were the small mushrooms that had built along the path.

“Yeah! My Daddy really likes those too. He also found a haunted bed when he owned the place for a bit. I wonder if it’s still haunted. Ooo!” Michael pretended to be scared before laughing, and then the two went off to play in the village together.

Back at spawn, Tommy was still chatting with Tubbo and Ranboo when Grian arrived. “Hey, have you guys seen my boys?”

“Yeah, Jrum took Fundy to Iskall’s and Grum went with Michael to play.” Tommy answered. “Why, is something wrong?”

“No, I was actually making sure they weren’t around.” Grian looked to Ranboo and Tubbo. “Are you two willing to come back with Michael in like five days? It’s going to be Grum’s birthday and maybe Michael can be one of the guests?”

“Oh hell yeah, you two need to come. It’ll be so pog!” Tommy said, hoping they would agree to visiting again.

“I guess we probably can, but it’ll also depend on how today goes.” Ranboo answered, Tubbo agreeing with him.

“Okay good.” Grian nodded, writing something down. He then looked over to Ranboo. “Do you have any idea some of the people the boys were close to when they were stuck over there?”

“Sometimes I barely remember my name.”

“Hmm, alright I guess I’ll have to ask Fundy.”

“Hey, I do know one thing.” Tommy piped up. “Or maybe two. Wil’s also a big music lover, so there might be something there. The other bit you probably aren’t going to like though.”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine. What is it?”

“Pretty sure Grum’s favorite uncle is Techno now.”

Grian was just silent as he contemplated the answer. Tommy nervously glanced at his friends before taking a slight step back, worried about how exactly Grian would react. When the avian’s wings started puffing up, Tommy was sure they would need to run, but instead Grian just took a deep breath. “Alright. Fine. I was already planning to invite him since he’s family and all. Yep. It’s fine. Totally fine.”

“It doesn’t sound fine.” Tubbo spoke up, and Grian quickly looked at them with a glare, though he was still smiling.

“Nope. It’s absolutely completely fine.” Then Grian sighed. “Well, I guess I’m going to find Fundy and ask him some questions. If you think of anything else, just message me.”

Tommy agreed before the avian flew off and then looked to his friends. “Alright, so this is probably the best excuse to show you around the shopping district since I’m going to need to pick something up. And if you guys want to buy something, just say the word, I can spare some diamonds.”

“Are you sure? We could get our own-” Ranboo started to speak up, but got stopped by Tommy.

“Nah, don’t worry. I’ll probably earn back whatever I spend in like a week. Probably from one of the redstoners.” Then Tommy led them to the bubble column. “Now let’s go. Oh, and Ranboo, if you need some armor to help with the water, just grab one from one of the stands. That’s what they’re there for.”

“You mean… the full netherite armor?”

“Yep.”

“Something tells me even I won’t have trouble forgetting all of this.”