#Grian: *talks about Evo* Me immediately: *crying*

[sysig]

I just wanted to rewatch some Buildswaps whyyyyyy

[votederpycausemufins]

@petrichormeraki @strawberrylemonz​ are the obvious influences of this chapter since it’s grian backstory!!! I make mention of the Antarctic empire, Yandere Highschool and Evo, but you probably don’t need to have seen them to know what’s going on (tbh i’ve only seen Evo and not smp earth or YHS)

i’ve uploaded the fic onto my ao3 if y’all want to read it there. 

A castle stood in the middle of frozen plains. Though the wind was cold and harsh, inside was warm and cozy. There was the sound of a few people running through the halls, none of them that old.

“Blood for the Blood God!” A young voice yelled as they tackled someone.

“Hey! Get off me!” A similar voice spoke.

“Come on Techno, you’re taller than me!”

“And you have wings! Get your own blood!”

A third voice spoke up as they ran by. “I’m gonna have the last of the juice!”

“No! That’s my blood!” The young avian jumped up from pinning his one brother down and ran after the other. “Wilburrrrrr!”

By the time Techno reached the kitchen, his brothers were fighting in front of the fridge. As they tustled, he opened the fridge up and pulled out some cherry juice and used the last of the bottle to fill his glass. “Sorry Blood God, my juice now.”

The two kids stopped fighting and the avian pouted. “That’s not fair!”

The three of them ended up arguing until someone new entered the kitchen. A man with raven wings and wearing a crown walked in holding a baby in his arms. “Boys…” he spoke in a tone that made the triplets immediately stop what they were doing.

“It’s Techno’s fault! He stole my blood!”

“Only because you were too busy fighting with Wilbur.”

“Only cause he tried to get the blood first.”

“You weren’t fast enough!”

“I’m super fast! I just didn’t want to use my wings and beat you and make you cry!”

“I wouldn’t cry!”

“Everyone says you would!”

The cheery tone from the arguing children seemed to disappear along with the cost warmth as a chill seemed to find its way into the castle. The king carefully passed the baby to Techno and then kneeled down. “Xelqua, are you hearing the voices again?”

“No.” Xelqua said, obviously lying, making the king sigh.

“You know you need to tell daddy when you start to hear them again.”

Xelqua crosses his arms. “Techno doesn’t always tell you when he hears them!”

“And I don’t like him doing that either.” The king sighed. “Will you promise to always tell me if I get you some more juice?”

“Blood for me!” Xelqua said happily, nodding in agreement.

“Yeah, blood for the Blood God!” Techno’s replied, handing the baby back to his dad.

They were only separated for a moment. Philza has his children holding onto his wings as they went through the market. He heard Xelqua cheer at seeing a stand of music discs. Before Phil could remind his son to stay with them, the child had let go of his wing. 

The king immediately moved to grabbed Xelqua, only to find him missing. He assumed he was just faster and lost in the crowd, but even going on a path to the music stand, his son was missing. 

He started searching in a wider area, some of the crowd started looking too. Philza started to worry about his son being kidnapped with him being a prince and all. He offered a reward, right there in the crowd for whoever found his son. He hoped it would work, but it didn’t.

Phil kept searching even when Wilbur started to complain he was tired and the baby in his arms started wailing. But his son didn’t reappear.

In a distant world, Xelqua put his foot down on the sidewalk, surprised to see it not cobblestone and also barely anyone in sight. “Daddy?” He looked around for his dad, but he wasn’t there. “D-daddy? D-dad?!” He looked around wildly, but still there was no sign of the king. “Dad! T-Techno! Wilbur!” He shouted for his family. But they weren’t there.

A woman spotted the lost Xelqua and took him to the police. When he described his family and home, the officers were left scratching their heads. They listed him as a found person, but no one ever came. 

After a month he was put in the foster system. Compared to his previous life as a prince, Being an orphan was the worst thing ever. He hated being bullied for everything. His wings, which he eventually learned to hide completely. The way he talked, which caused him to try and hide his accent. And his name. That wasn’t something he could easily change, but when he ran away and started a new life on his own, it was easier. And when Sam and Taurus asked for his name. It was Grian.

Part of Grian was glad when the universe went sideways and he couldn’t find Sam or Taurtis. He had done some things that most people would frown upon. But he had to do them. He needed the ransom money, he needed to help his friends escape, he needed to kill YakuzaKaru. And it hadn’t helped when the voices told him he was right.

But suddenly he was in a world that was much simpler and closer to how home had been. He was free to do whatever he pleased. He ended up moving towards an ocean and making a castle in the middle of it. It wasn’t the Antarctic Empire, but it was his empire. His Grian Empire.

And it was so much better here. If he exploded someone or robbed them or trapped them in a box, he wasn’t in danger of getting hurt or arrested. The worst that happened was the Watchers showing up. They liked using clay and Grian needed clay. So he stole every bit he could. Of course, the Watchers didn’t like that, so he was told to burn it or have his items trapped away or something else.

Grian thought it was unfair. What gave them the right to choose what he was doing was wrong? He didn’t see anyone else get in trouble. And the voices agreed with him, it wasn’t his fault.

And then he was taken away by the Watchers. While he was scared by that, the voices assured him it would be fine. The Watchers had just been testing him. And now they were giving him a chance to join. He would have said no, but then he thought about the family he lost. The Watchers were powerful. If he became one, he could find his family again.

He took the power. He became a Watcher. The voices became clearer and he felt complete. At least until he realized he couldn’t find his family, even with all the power being a Watcher gave him. He could see into a million worlds, but it had been years, and when he looked into the world that housed his home, all he saw was an old empty castle. There was no one left.

Grian ended up shutting away his Watcher side in anger. He finally had the chance to see his family and they were gone. And if those voices hadn’t told him to take the power and look, he wouldn’t have learned the truth. Grian preferred the idea that he could see his family again, or at least imagine the possibility, then know for sure that he was truly alone.

So Grian used his powers as a Watcher to hide the voices and the powers away. If he wanted to, he could pull them back, but why bother. He stayed with the Watchers for a while, gazing into the world he had just left before reaching for his powers just a little to look into other worlds. He then met someone who felt like his match. Everyone knew Redstoners and Builders fit perfectly together. And Grian was a builder while this man created redstone masterpieces. 

Grian watched as the man left into a server called Hermitcraft. He followed along and searched for the admin of the world. The admin seemed surprised to see Grian, but allowed him to join them, though not right away as they were going to be moving worlds soon. Grian agreed to wait, and wait he did. The moment the world was open, Grian took himself there. It was empty for a short bit, but then other people started showing up.

Grian followed the redstoner Mumbo around, glad to have a new friend. He didn’t understand half the things Mumbo talked about when it came to redstone, but it was still fun to listen to. It helped distract him from all that came before.

Once or twice, Grian had to use his powers from being a Watcher, and he had to explain to Xisuma what he was. The Voidwalker seemed to understand if be a little put off by how someone like Grian could actually be a Watcher.

When they moved to another world, Grian followed. It was peaceful for the longest time until Mumbo created Hermit Challenges. Well, it wasn’t right when he created them, but later down the line. He was just asked to wear blue. It shouldn’t have been that hard to do. But he always wore red. Blue wasn’t his color, it was his brother’s color. Grian tried arguing with Mumbo, asking him to allow the challenge to be skipped. He didn’t explain why he didn’t want to do it, so Mumbo said he had to.

Eventually, Grian wore blue. And then the mansion exploded. Everyone rushed to the ruined building and saw Grian in front of it, holding TNT. But Grian didn’t look like himself. He had tried to hide the memories away. It was just going to be for a day, but to hide the memories of his part life, he had to be a Watcher. And being a Watcher brought back his voices. And if he hated blue so much, why have a mansion that was all blue?

It took days for everyone to calm him down and get him back to normal. They panicked when he brought out his powers once more though it was just to repair what he had destroyed. Grian refused to meet Mumbo’s eyes for a while, so he went to his second closest friend Iskall to talk with. Despite Iskall’s insistence that he was not a therapist, he agreed to help Grian talk through what was going on in his mind. 

Between talks, Iskall spoke with Xisuma to relay what he had learned and soon all the Hermits were informed about what was going on with Grian. Of course Grian didn’t give out every detail like his life with Sam and Taurtis and the fact that he was a prince. All he said was he lost his family and ended up in a not so great crowd as a teen.

The next time Grian asked to opt out of something, people quickly obliged, both to not have the newest hermit hurting more, and also to make sure the server wasn’t destroyed by a Watcher going haywire.

It was months after the incident of the mansion exploding that Tommy appeared. No one knew where the kid had appeared from but it was obvious that sending him back couldn’t be an option. Mambo and Grian both took a liking to Tommy, Grian also being the newest Hermit and Mumbo being the youngest. Well, obviously now Tommy was both the youngest and newest, but it was the principle of the matter.

Though he was extremely wary of the pair at first, Tommy quickly warmed up to them, especially Grian. The two of them were so similar, people assumed they were siblings at one point. When someone pointed it out, then immediately regretted it because Grian got upset and started yelling at them. He flew off and Tommy followed behind, not knowing what was going on. 

Grian explained how he lost his family and how by the time he finally got home, they were all gone. Tommy told Grian about his own family, how they had slowly all gone a little crazy at the situation Dream had put them in. Slowly, the two of them bonded, just talking about the situation, joking around. Grian told some stories and Tommy replied with his own.

It was when Tommy pretended to be his oldest brother and said ‘blood for the blood god’ when Grian froze and became pale. Neither of them had used names for their family. At least, Tommy hadn’t used anything other than nicknames. Grian asked if the blood god was Xelqua. Tommy asked how Grian could possibly know that name.

When Grian learned Tommy was his brother, he pulled the teen into a crushing hug. He refused to let go for the longest time, terrified that just like last time, the moment he let go, they would end up in separate worlds. Tommy pretended to complain, but he was fine with Grian hugging him. He understood.

Grian made sure everyone was together when he used his Watcher powers again. Tommy had no clue what was going on and why everyone looked ready for war. The Hermits had promised they didn’t do that here, and it was worse that they all seemed ready to specifically fight Grian. Tommy nearly jumped between then, ready to fight every hermit for his brother, when Grian pulled out his Watcher powers. If Tommy had been scared of Dream, he was suddenly even more scared of his brother. 

The moments seemed to stretch out and the Hermits started moving towards Grian, ready to fight a Watcher, when he pushed it back down. Immediately Hermits were shedding armor and putting their elytra back on, glad that no fighting had to occur. Xisuma pulled Tommy aside to fully explain everything to the boy while Mumbo stayed with Grian as a shoulder to cry on. When Tommy returned, Grian once again held him close, this time seeming more worried about losing his brother. Though not in the sense that Tommy could disappear, but in the sense that Tommy could be like his brothers, losing themselves to madness. Just like Grian had nearly done.

While everyone argued, Grian used his Watcher powers more, gazing into the SMP that Tommy had come from. Though no one liked the methods, they were at least glad to get more insight into what had led Tommy to being the way he was. And because of it they were able to help him heal better.

One thing that became obvious was how the time within the world of Hermitcraft passed faster than in other worlds. It helped explain why it was so odd that Grian and Tommy, who once were only around five years apart were now closer to ten. Because of that, there was little worry of the SMP catching them by surprise and trying to find Tommy. Before the next MCC meeting, Tommy hit a growth spurt which made it harder for his old friends to recognize him even before he put on a slight disguise.

Back in Hermittown, Tommy slowly learned to be like his new family. Instead of stealing or hoping for handouts, he used the knowledge from the other Hermits to make farms and get plenty of resources. He didn’t mind spending hours in a mine as the mix of an efficiency five pickaxe and a haste two beacon made the stone break as if it were simply breaking grass. It was peaceful other than the occasional monster showing up and Grian looked proud of him every time so it always seemed worth it. Especially as he always ended up with plenty of diamonds.

When he first started building, the biggest thing Tommy made was a cobble tower up to the build limit, but after mining so much, filling his inventory with cobble, and having an amazing builder for a brother, Tommy built more. He created what looked like a tall wizard tower, which Grian begrudgingly was happy about, though Tommy saw the way Scar smiled smugly at Grian. For the most part the tower was just cobble, but here and there were stone bricks and mossy cobble, spruce and dark oak wood, and other stones to bring some color.

There were different floors and Tommy nearly gave Iskall a heart attack when the redstoner took a tour of the tower and walked in on the floor entirely made of diorite. One floor was filled with yellows and greens and housed a single bee which everyone was pretty sure somehow held part of Tubbo’s soul. It was messy, but at the top of the tower, Mumbo had helped Tommy create a cycling screen. Tommy made half of it the flag of L’Manburg and the other half the flag of the Antarctic Empire. Every few days he would flip a lever and the flag would change. Though certain parts of his past weren’t the greatest, Tommy was glad to have something to remind him of it, and Grian was glad to see the flag of his old family once again.

The last time Grian peeked into the SMP, he saw Dream getting so close to finding a way to Hermitcraft. He warned Xisuma who carefully told other Hermits to prepare, trying to not scare Tommy. Eventually the teen found out, which was probably for the best so when Dream did show up, he didn’t completely panic. Tommy tried to deny Dream could find a way in, and forgetting the time difference between the two worlds, Tommy slowly thought that he really wouldn’t show up.

But when Tubbo appeared and mentioned Dream would be coming, it became very real. Tommy prepared as did Grian. Grian flew to his brother to give him comfort before the battle started. Grian said he would do anything to make sure they couldn’t take Tommy. Tommy asked Grian to promise him not to use his Watcher powers.

Grian hesitated. He had been using the powers more and more. He’d slowly been getting used to them. Surely it would be fine for an emergency. But Tommy wouldn’t listen to Grian’s reasoning and reluctantly Grian promised not to use those powers.

He broke his promise.

[mine-sara-sp]

What they do

Another Shadow People AU fic!  Puzzler gets really close to giving Grian back to the Watchers.

Warning for manipulation and mild violence.

It couldn’t end like this. It couldn’t!! 

Grian knew that if the Watcher’s got a hold of him again he wouldn’t be able to go back anymore. He would never be able to free himself of their grip on his mind.

He felt the pull of the portal under his feet, it was like they were calling him. They probably were,  he hadn’t been so close to them in a year almost.  

Puzzler held him up by the jumper, ready to let him fall. 

A sight far too familiar, as this had already happened once. But that time he was saved. He managed to grab onto the side of the portal, gripping so tight he hurt his hands and scratching the bedrock. His entire life depended on him not going to the other side and he was lucky enough his friends arrived in time to get him out and get rid of Puzzler.

But now he didn’t think anyone could reach him in time. He heard the tower shaking as some of the more aggressive shadows were making their way up the intricate tower. But he didn’t have enough time. Maybe a distraction could buy him some time but he didn’t know what to say. 

The shadow was far too smart to be tricked at this point. He didn’t know what to do. 

He wished he never summoned him, it was all a giant mistake, the worst of his life after joining the watchers. 

Was he such a bad person? His first shadow had turned out to be a living nightmare, hurting people for fun, and the second shadow was just an incarnation of everything he wished he could forget about his time with the watchers. 

What they turned him into.

What- What--

“I GET IT NOW!” Grian yelped as Puzzler’s grip on him started to grow loser. About to drop him in the portal to the watcher’s domain.

“Wha-”

“You-- You picked on the part of me that was scared of the watchers!” 

For an instant, all of Puzzler’s eyes grew wide. 

“You hear them in your head, right? They never shut up about what you should do and-- ” 

The Evo symbols flickered in and out of Puzzler’s eyes. Then anger made it’s way on his face, replacing the first surprise. 

“I’m not scared of them! I’m one of them!” The shadow hissed and almost let go of Grian, but the hermit held on tight to his arm. Looking at him directly in the eyes. 

“That’s what they told me too!!”  Puzzler growled and let his sword appear in his other hand. If Grian wasn’t going to let go he would make him. 

“That’s what they do!! They-They get inside your head!!” Puzzler raised the sword. Grian closed his eyes shut, tears starting to stream down his face.

“They tell you that you’re one of them, that you��re a god and everything you do is justified!! IT’S ALL A LIE!!” 

He was ready to slice Grian across the arm but hesitated-

HURT HIM.

WE WILL HEAL HIM.

WE WANT HIM.

WE WANT HIM. 

GIVE HIM TO US. 

Puzzler’s arm trembled but he didn’t let go of the sword or let it fall down on Grian. Feeling the migraine that came whenever the watchers screamed orders at him in unison. 

Oh? Orders?

He had never questioned it. 

Grian opened his eyes when he didn’t feel the sword hit, he saw something he didn’t expect. 

Doubt.

He kept talking, shouting, with the tears making everything blurry and confused. The only thing clear in his mind were the shadow’s eyes. 

“They make you do horrible things you would never want to and somehow make you feel like you did the right thing!! They pull you away from what you love to have you do things that they want while convincing you that it’s your idea!” 

But he did do the things he wanted. He… he did want all the things he did.

Right? 

He thought about everything he did up to that point. He wanted to rebuild the empire. He wanted to make it grand. He wanted Taurtis, he had even made the summoning platform- he- he-

He hadn’t been able to put more than two flowers there. 

The watchers always called him and put his focus back on Grian. On making a portal for him. On NOT letting him escape.

Puzzler felt his wings grow smaller, with the realization.

Grian kept talking seeing the effect of his words on the shadow.

“They made me do horrible things too and I felt like I had the right to do them!” 

Puzzler’s grip on the hermit grew tighter and the one on the sword grew weaker.

Almost instinctively Grian held tighter to Puzzler’s arm, digging his nails into his skin. Feeling his eyes burn with a long-forgotten sensation. 

Puzzler stared in disbelief as the purple Evo symbol appeared in his summoner’s irises.

How did-- The portal? Was just being this close to the portal awaking Grian’s watcher abilities??

The shadow’s eyes grew wider and scared suddenly, feeling as if Grian’s powers were trying to show him something.

He could fight it, he could let himself fall in the portal as well and avoid it.

But.. he found himself unable to move. Grian was the closest thing to a real watcher. 

He was a real watcher too, wasn’t he? 

WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DROP HIM.

“I WAS HORRIBLE WITH THEM!” Grian shouted. His words piercing inside Puzzler’s mind like a knife.

Tall horrible figures stared down at him. Wide smiles on their faces, pleased as their orders had just been executed. Grian felt proud of himself.

Puzzler let out a shriek as the memories of his summoner’s started making their way in front of his eyes, like multiple videos being played simultaneously. Like he could do with the memories of everyone on the server, but this was different, this was someone else forcing him to watch.

HE NEEDS TO FALL.

“I HURT PEOPLE! ALL BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T OBEY ME AND THE OTHER WATCHERS.”

He saw them, the pitiful players that tried to define the watcher’s rules. They burned to the ground. They cried. Begged. PRAYED FOR FORGIVENESS. THEY WOULDN’T GET A N Y T H I N G.

Why did he do it? why did he?? it- it wasn’t fair. Grian sobbed.

DISOBEDIENCE.

“I COULDN’T TELL ANYMORE IF IT WAS ME OR THEM WANTING THE DESTRUCTION”

Everything at his fingertips. Meteorites falling on who defined him. Kingdoms crumpling at his will.  No one was safe. N o  o n e. 

They laughed.

He laughed. He cried.

He didn’t know. 

Puzzler tried to push away the summoner’s memories, he couldn’t handle all these contrasting feelings, all these images. It was overwhelming. 

DISOBEDIENCE. 

“T-That’s why I was scared..” 

The horrible figures towered over him. He hated them. he loved them. hated them- loved them-

hate-

love--

afraid.

so afraid. 

leave me alone. I don’t want this. 

Puzzler’s grip on the sword grew strong again, his arm still shaking.

LET HIM FALL.

“That’s why I ran away from them!”

“Shut up.” Puzzler hissed. Unsure of who he was talking to. 

He let his sword go down with a quick hit. The stream of memories stopping at the sound of Grian’s pained scream.  His grip on Puzzler’s arm disappeared. 

Puzzler felt the migraine getting so hard he thought his head was splitting in two, his eyes-- Puzzler realized his eyes were closed. All of them. 

He had never closed all his eyes at once.  

“I didn’t know who I was anymore.” Grian managed to say with a shaky and low voice.

he was still talking.

He looked at him, shaking in pain and crying again for the deep wound on his arm. Now the only thing keeping Grian from falling into the Watcher’s hands was, again, only Puzzler’s tight grip on his jumper. 

LET HIM FALL.

Puzzler hissed at the Watcher’s words. Order. 

He stared at his summoner. Let him slightly slip down from his hand.

Grian let out a scared whine and asked one last thing.

“Do you know if- if you’re really you? Do you know who you are?”

He was-

A watcher! He was Puzzler! He--

He--

He wasn’t sure of it..

He didn’t want to let Grian fall into the Watcher’s right now. 

He wanted to put flowers on the summoning platform and nothing else.

“You…” 

Puzzler hissed, his wings spreading and growing bigger. Taking away all the remaining light that wasn’t coming from the portal.

“You make a great Watcher Grian. You went right inside my head! Good job.” A smile appeared on the shadow’s face.

“Look at the bright side! Once you’re on the other side you’ll be able to destroy this whole server out of frustration! Thanks for letting me see what you’re capable of with the right help.”

Grian’s blood ran cold.

“You’re probably right, you know. I’m aware I would be completely different if it wasn’t for the watchers. But you know what?”

The shadow pulled Grian closer, for a moment he felt as he could touch the border of the portal. 

“Unlike you, I don’t know how I should have been. I have no other starting point. Horrible horrible, but I don’t know anything else.”

In an instant, Grian was once again away from the solid blocks that made the border of the portal and suspended at the center of it. 

“So, unless you have the power to show me how I should be… Say hello to the other Watchers for me Grian.”

“O͔͎̯̖̩͕h̵̞͈̝̘,̳̭ ̠̞͖̞̠̝I̲̺̤̖̦ͅͅ ̵̖̮̤̪c͉̣a̹̥͢ņ̥̺ ̻͙̙̱̫͔̖f̮̫̩̱͠i̷x̰̺ ҉̦̣t͈͚͕͎͠h͚a̦̩̲̖̠͇͎t̮̳͇͕̕ ̯ḅ̸̤͔̺̻͚̰i̺̦͔rd̟̦b̗̠ͅr̶̥̳͖̩̩ͅa͝in.̻̲̖̺̹̱”

Puzzler reacted instantly, flying away from Abyss attack and letting Grian fall on the floor. 

Grian gasped for air and crawled as far away from the portal as he could, while the room was engulfed into complete darkness. He didn’t know if it was Abyss’ doing or his senses starting to give out. 

His eyes burned from using the watcher’s powers and he could hear their voices calling him.

Grian come back with us.

We want you.

We miss you. 

Just a few steps away.

“Fuck off..”  He muttered taking as much distance as he could. He could hear other voices coming from the room’s entrance. Other shadows? The hermits?

Then an ear ripping shriek came somewhere behind him, followed by a laugh that made his fear response go immediately to freeze.

“Got you…” 

Grian looked back. The darkness shifting and parting, like Abyss himself, was proud of having Puzzler in his hands now and wanted someone to see.

“Now, let’s see the shadow you were supposed to be.”

Blinding light filled Grian’s vision. The most horrifying scream ever heard made him cover his ears.

And just like that.

Puzzler didn’t exist anymore

Someone else took his place. 

“Welcome to the overworld little shadow.”

[galaxyna]

Short Hippie story

Prompt: Time Travel Hippies

Asked by @aquilacraft

———————————————————————

“That could’ve been a softer landing” Grian sighed as he tried to stand up, Impulse and Ren’s limbs making it hard as they had all fallen on top of each other.

“Man, I think we should’ve just taken the pieces and rebuild it later in the commune...” Ren mumbled as he grabbed his head shaking it to see if the world stopped spinning.

“And miss our little adventure in Alpha?” Grian laughed and he could immediately feel Impulse and Ren’s annoyed stares, to which he offered a laugh as he stood up. “Welp, let’s see where we fell now”

Grian opened the door looking outside, they were in a forest nothing special to point out, so he sighed.

“Eh... Grian man” Impulse laughed a little “What are you wearing?”

“Um?” Grian looked down to himself and immediately a gasp got caught in his throat, he was wearing a badly stitched together green tunic with white leggings and a white undershirt as well as some half fitting half not leather boots.

“Weird, why do you get a Link outfit and we are trapped in the default man?” Ren complained, he wasn’t much of a fashionista nor a fashion fanatic but he missed the outfit Grian had designed for him, it was way cooler and had better colors than the default outfit.

“Yeah, I think we might have traveled a little further into the future but not that much, I’m unsure in which update we are” Impulse commented as he wondered not too far from the rest, seeing a rather large structure in the distance made out of... snow? “Guys there’s something over there!” Impulse pointed the direction of the structure before going ahead.

“Hey! Don’t get too far away!” Ren called laughing, “why’s he even leaving? The time machine’s still operational so we could just try again” He murmured to Grian putting his hand on his shoulder to call his attention, and instantly Grian flicked away coming out of a trance that no one had notice.

“Heh... yeah, aren’t you— aren’t you interested in looking around?” Grian was clearly making an effort to sound normal, but those nervous chuckles weren’t helping him.

“Grian are you—“

“We should probably follow Impulse!” Grian blurted out quickly running in the direction Impulse had gone.

“What’s up with him?” Ren wondered as he followed behind

(Insert here description of Grian’s base and Grian trying to fake that he doesn’t know the place but still knowing a little bit too much and laughing nostalgically at certain things and Ren being suspicious not because Grian might be hiding something but because Grian is clearly upset and is evading his questions. Then Impulse gets distracted or lost or trapped and Ren tries to help him but when they are ready to go back Grian is no longer there. [i would write this myself but I don’t know enough about Evo or Grian’s base to do it owo sowwy~])

“Eh... Grian!” Impulse calls out looking around, they had been looking for a while now and had managed to find their way to a city sort of place, the place was so quiet that it was sending shivers down their spines, the fact that night had fallen wasn’t helping either, more so because their friend had suddenly disappeared.

“There! Near the hole!” Ren exclaims, as he sees Grian dropping in, they quickly ran to the place and look down seeing Grian talking with someone.

“Wait, Grian? But you just... I saw you.. what?” The guy who Grian was talking to said confused squinting his eyes and point back and forth from Grian to the portal.

“It’s hard to explain T-Taurtis” Grian stuttered a bit trying to force a smile.

“Hey... Hey, are you okay buddy?” Taurtis, apparently that was his name, asked coming closer to Grian putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah... yeah I’m just— can I... can I hug you?” Grian spoke softly, his voice cracking a little bit when he asked.

Taurtis didn’t wait to answer and pulled him in, “This is confusing, but you know I’m always here for you” he said in his happy tone as he pat Grian on the back, this made Grian sob a little but he was determined to not cry.

“Who...?” Impulse said before being shushed by Ren, they were looking from above in the ladder.

“Let’s give him a bit more time” Ren commented.

After a few seconds that felt like minutes Grian took a deep breath and separated from Taurtis after giving him one last squeeze.

“Taurtis... I want you to know you are one of my best friend and a very important person to me.” Grian started now very serious holding onto both of Taurtis’ shoulders

“Eh... of course Grian! And you are mine!” He was clearly confused about the suddenness of the statement.

“And that I loved pranking you and making you the major of the town” He chuckled, “and I apologize for my Hermit tendencies” his chuckles were starting to sound more like sobs.

“Grian... why” He gives a nervous laugh, “Why do you sound like you are saying goodbye? You know that when we cross the portal we’ll meet again right?”

“Yes... heh yeah it’s just... I need you to do me some favors” he cleared his throat tears slipping from his eyes, “ Tell Netty that she has the right to mother me” again a laugh, “tell solidarity and pearl that they might be better at building than me”

“Might, huh?” Taurtis laughed

“Yeah might, we don’t want their ego to grow, hahah... and tell the others that they have the right to bother me for a little longer, be it pranks, hang outs or whatever” he sniffed and took a deep breath. “Will you do that for me?” He cleaned his face from tears

“Yeah, I will but, shouldn’t you tell them yourself, I mean, we are going to see them when we cross the portal” he insisted

“You know how I am... heh... so I need you to say it for me, I might even deny that I said this but you need to say it, promise me you’ll do me this favor” Grian’s face was telling enough, his brows were knitted together in a knot and his mouth was crooked in a sad smile, his eye watery blinking rapidly to stop the tears.

Taurtis thought about it but he couldn’t refuse not when his friends was like this “I will, I promise” and the Grian smiled a little bit more sincerely, “Man you know how to scare me” he laughed trying to break the tension and he managed to get a laugh out of Grian, “Let’s go, we don’t want the others to get a heart attack!” Taurtis pulled Grian up the stairs.

This scared Impulse and Ren, they didn’t understand what might be in the other side but if what they had understood correctly from th conversation there should be another Grian there, so Impulse dropped a rock he had picked up accidentally in the way calling Grian’s attention.

“I’m right behind you Taurtis” Grian assures him and pushes him jokingly into the portal Taurtis laughing slightly as he disappeared.

And then Grian stayed there looking at the portal.

“Grian?” Ren finally went down the ladder followed by Impulse.

“Let’s go back home...” he turned around lowering his head, but it was clear that he was crying.

They made their way silently back to the time machine and left without much talking. This time the time machine left them in falsewell, right back at home.

“Look! We are back!” Impulse said trying to lighten up the mood.

“So... what are you going to do with the time machine?” Ren asked a little nervous.

“Well” Grian walked to the side and put down his enderchest “I always carry around some tnt” he tried to say with his normal voice but it was hoarse.

“Are you sure you want to blow it up?” Impulse asked, “you went through a lot to get it back”

“Yeah... Maybe doc was right about some stuff” and then he went inside placing the TNT “No one should have to go through that”

What he was referring was hard to tell but they could understand what he meant in a way.