#I know this ask probably wanted me to draw Xisuma but I just kept thinking of this

[ghosted-jazz]

xisuma

[quaranmine]

New World, New Faces

When the hermits moved to their new world, they were excited to welcome two new members. But maybe one is an old friend instead . . .

Grian hasn't seen Pearl since Evo. It's a shock.

No romantic relationships or content warnings. Mainly emotional hurt/comfort, but probably more emphasis on comfort. Hermits: Grian, Pearl, and Mumbo primarily with a little bit of Scar and Xisuma as well. Reblogs appreciated and AO3 link in reblog!

Words: 3893

◑ ━━━━━ ▣ ━━━━━ ◐

These days, Grian was pleased to say that the Watcher’s didn’t occupy his mind nearly as often as they used to. Except on certain late nights where he lay in bed and thought of before, his time was mostly spent having fun--scheming, pranking, building, planning, mining, laughing with friends. It wasn’t something he could forget, but the hermits had become his new home, and as years passed the edges of those memories had dulled a bit.

The other times where the Watchers occupied his mind were update days. Since joining hermitcraft, Grian had gone through several updates with the rest of the server. Sometimes they moved to a new world, and sometimes they stayed in their old one. No portals of bedrock ever appeared, but Grian always thought of them just the same. It always felt like maybe, just maybe, one day he’d turn around and see their signature portals once again.

Watchers didn’t always leave portals to update worlds. Grian hadn’t known that until he’d been put to work as a Watcher himself. Oh, the Watchers were still in charge of updating worlds, but they often did it more subtly, without grand towers and quests for portals. It’s hard to retain status as a myth when everyone knows your calling card, afterall. Admins always knew when it was time to update. Grian hadn't, back on Evo, because he’s always been told.

It turned out Evo had been different, and Grian didn’t know how to feel about that. Evo wasn’t the only world to receive special attention from the Watchers, but it was one of their favorites. Why them, though? Why did the Watchers keep such a close eye on their world in particular? Why were they left towers and clues and prizes and punishments, when other servers were mostly left alone?

Why did they kill everyone and kidnap Grian?

◑ ━━━━━ ▣ ━━━━━ ◐

Grian stood in a group with the other hermits, eagerly waiting for the move to the new world. He bounced a little in anticipation. He was excited for the new update--he knew very little about its contents, but it seemed like there would be some new building blocks to play with, according to Xisuma.

He already had plans for the new world--new bases and new shenanigans. Grian was excited to build close to his friends. Xisuma had informed them that another update would come in a few months, and for the hermits to stick close in the time being so that new land would be freed up for the coming update. Grian had already known about the second update for a while, as all Watchers do, but he let Xisuma handle all of this as admin. Those days were behind him, now, and there was no reason to start exercising Watcher powers in a world that was carrying on just fine on its own.

“Is everyone ready?” Xisuma shouted over the chatter, trying to do a headcount. “Hey!” he shouted, trying to get everyone’s attention. Slowly, the chatter quieted.

“Looks like it,” said Iskall.

“Good,” Xisuma said. “Now, before we go, I wanted to remind you that we have two new people joining us this time. I’ve already made arrangements with them prior so they’re gonna be waitin’ for us when we go through.” He grinned. “Be on your best behavior for me, alright?”

“I’m always on my best behavior,” Keralis replied, and Xisuma rolled his eyes fondly.

Grian smiled, remembering his welcome to hermitcraft a few years ago. Unlike this time, nobody had been expecting him. Grian hadn’t been invited like these two new hermits had been, he had just been there when the hermits arrived on their new world. None of the other hermits knew quite why he was there, but they’d all accepted him graciously nonetheless.

Grian liked that memory. The truth is, he’d fled the Watchers and picked an uninhabited world at random, not realizing it had already been reserved by Xisuma. That was a failure on his part as a Watcher, because he was supposed to know about stuff like that. But he had been too busy running to worry about it and besides, there was nobody on hermitcraft to punish him.

The hermits had welcomed him with kindness and made him part of their family. Now he’d gladly do the same for these new soon-to-be hermits.

“Okay . . .” Xisuma said, typing something into his admin panel. “I’m just setting up the portal now.”

They were all gathered in the shopping district, right in front of the Town Hall. Grian took his chance to take one last glance around at the world. The diamonds in the trees glittered in the morning light, sending little reflective shards of light scattered on the ground. Moving worlds was always bittersweet, because it meant parting with the things he’d worked hard on and the places he’d made memories at. But it was also one of his favorite things to do, because it gave everyone a blank slate to work with, sparking endless new creativity.

“I wish I could take some of those with me,” chuckled Scar, as he walked up next to where Grian was standing. He pointed at the diamonds.

“Well of course you want them, Mr Mayor!”

“Uh-uh,” Scar said. “I’m not the Mayor anymore! This is a new world.”

“Well, I guess we’ll have to see what we get up to in the next one, huh?” Grian asked. “Do you have any plans?”

“You’ll just have to wait and see,” Scar teased.

“I guess I will.”

“Do you have any plans?”

“I don’t know,” said Grian. He thought for a moment. “I might make a cave base. I guess I’m waiting to see what’s out there for inspiration before I start.”

“Well, I look forward to seeing it,” Scar replied. “Oh! It looks like Xisuma is ready.”

Grian looked up, to see X opening a portal. It wasn’t a nether portal, nor was it like an End portal. It wasn’t a Watcher portal either, but an Admin one. Grian had come to realize that Watchers supplied Admins with the means to move into updates on their own when they wanted to. The bedrock portals and scavenger hunts were reserved for their favorite worlds--their toys.

Sometimes the Watchers liked to flex their powers, but the universe is not kept running smoothly if all your time is spent flexing. Grian brushed away the thought, choosing to focus on his friends in front of him instead.

One by one, the hermits stepped through the portal, which swirled light blue and hovered just slightly off the ground. Grian hung back, wanting to be one of the last ones through. He wanted to make sure everyone made it through alright, but Xisuma had to be the very last person, since he needed to close the portal. When it was finally his turn, he gave Xisuma a smile and walked forward.

Grian stepped through, into the bright sunlight of a village, and was surrounded by the voices of his friends.

◑ ━━━━━ ▣ ━━━━━ ◐

Spawn was a village in a grassland, next to a swamp and overlooking the ocean. It looked a little plain, but the hermits hadn’t left their mark on the world yet. Behind Grian, Xisuma stepped out into the new world and the portal vanished behind him.

Everybody was crowded around a ditch chattering, apparently exchanging greetings with the two new hermits that stood inside it. Grian held back for a moment, taking it in and basking in the sounds of his friends’ voices. Finally, he wasn’t the new one anymore--a few people had rejoined the server in the last world, but they’d all been old friends, not new ones. That had left him being the most recent addition, not that anything felt like it was recent anymore.

Grian was already thinking of ways to prank the new hermits and draw them into the life of the server.

“Alright Mumbo!” Xisuma said. Grian grinned. Mumbo was supposed to introduce them. Mumbo, of course, didn’t know this, because where’s the fun in that?

“Oh-oh me?”

“It’s go time!” Cleo said.

“This is it!” said Xisuma.

“I’ve clearly very obviously been put up to this,” Mumbo started. “And because everyone thought it’d be much funnier to have me bumble through it without really knowing what I’m talking about, and that is definitely going to be the case!”

The hermits chuckled. Grian walked around the back of the group to try to catch a glimpse of the new people below.

“We do have two new hermits,” Mumbo said, “down in this crevice.”

Grian caught a glimpse of red and brown hair.

“GeminiTay-”

Grian’s world stopped and he felt his breath catch in his throat. She had her back to him, but he’d recognize her anywhere. Her brown hair spilled out from behind a black hoodie.

But she’s dead.

Was this some sort of cruel trick from the universe?

“-and PearlescentMoon.” The rest of the hermits cheered at the announcement, giving the new members a warm welcome. Grian said nothing, his mind spinning a mile a minute.

There was no way it was actually her. The Watchers . . . the Watchers had killed her, and every other Evolutionist. Grian didn’t know why. He would never know why, because with the Watchers it was always “you can’t possibly understand.”And Grian couldn’t. When Grian had finally escaped them, he tried to go back to Evo. It was a foolish attempt, one that would certainly have endangered the lives of anyone there, but nobody had been left there and the buildings were all destroyed and overgrown with vines and Grian had been forced to conclude the heavy truth that all of his old friends were gone.

He didn’t remember what he did after that. He just ran.

Before he could stop himself, the words came tumbling out of his mouth. “Pearl? Is that really you?”

She turned, hearing her name and--it was. It was her. Her hair had blonde highlights around the bangs now, but he’d recognize her anywhere, like her face and the faces of all the other Evolutionists were seared into his brain.

“. . . Grian?”

Grian just stared.

The other hermits had caught onto their mini debacle, and were watching them. “Grian, do you know her?” Mumbo asked.

“Y-yeah, I do,” he stammered.

“Grian?” Pearl shouted, and in an instant had scrambled up the ditch. She stopped in front of him, face pale and eyes wide, like she’d seen a ghost. Maybe he was a ghost, maybe he’d died the day they took him from Evo.

“Pearl,” he whispered.

Suddenly she threw her arms around Grian in a hug and squeezed. “Oh, it’s been so long,” she said, voice muffled.

Grian froze, but slowly reciprocated the hug. He felt numb and like he wanted to cry and scream at the same time, hands shaking, but Pearl’s warm embrace drew him back down to reality.

Pearl pulled away, blinked tears from her eyes and met Grian’s stare. Then, her gaze drifted further down, landing on his folded wings that peaked out just above his shoulders. Tentatively, she reached out to stroke a feather. “What happened to you?” she asked softly.

“I thought you were dead,” Grian said by way of answer.

“Well, I’m not,” Pearl said, and for a moment Grian almost didn’t believe her, and grabbed her wrist tightly, just to see if it was real. Pearl let him. “They took you,” she said.

Grian just looked at the ground, uncomfortably aware of how many people were watching him. Ironic, almost--he didn’t want them watching him so that they wouldn’t know about the Watchers. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the hermits. He did. He’d trust them all with his life a thousand times. He just . . . didn’t want to explain. The hermits were a good bunch. The unspoken rule was that you didn’t ask about anyone’s past unless they spoke first, and Grian knew they’d abide by that for him as well. But he could do without the turned heads.

“Alright everyone!” Xisuma shouted suddenly, startling Grian. “Let’s go, let’s get to work, this season won’t start itself!” Slowly, the hermits began to disperse, branching off into groups. “How’re ya gonna start the season if you don't chop down a tree? I’ll get to work protecting these villagers.”

Xisuma threw a glance over to them, and Grian mouthed a thank you. Xisuma just nodded, and left them alone. Grian was overwhelmed with relief at the admin’s gesture.

He turned back to Pearl.

“I-I can’t believe you’re actually here,”Grian said. He smiled and the moment he met her gaze, his eyes began to blur with tears.

“I can’t believe you’re here!” she cried. “When we got back from fighting the enderdragon you . . . you were just gone. They left a note for us . . . said it was necessary for you to be taken. All in rhyme, of course.”

“Of course it was in rhyme . . .'' Grian muttered, suddenly very angry. All the Watchers and their unknowable ways, always distilled down to some pithy saying. A life-changing event relayed to his friends in another stupid little poem. He’d written a few himself and despised it.

“I didn’t think I was ever going to see you again. Do you . . . do you mind if I ask what happened?” Pearl asked. “I’m just happy to see you here but I-”

“No, it’s alright,” Grian said with a sigh. “They took me after I fought the enderdragon, and said I was going to be one of them. I didn’t want to go but-well what could I do? So I went with them, and they promised to let me hang around the server. They lied to me, they never let me Watch Evo.” Grian paused, and felt the cool trail of a tear dripping down his cheek. “They later told me you were all dead.”

“Oh, Grian,” Pearl said, and pulled him into another hug, and that was it for him. He began to sob.

“I’m sorry,” he choked out. “It’s just a lot-”

“I know, I know,” she whispered.

“They-they . . . I didn’t enjoy it there. So I, I ran away. I tried to visit Evo but--there was nobody there. I figured they told the truth then, that you really were dead. I ran and found the hermits and I’ve been living with them every since, and oh they’re so wonderful but I could never forget-”

“It’s okay.” Pearl comforted. “I know, I know. We came home after finding the dragon and our place was ransacked, and we were given instructions to leave. And . . . eventually after we left, the group disbanded and we went our separate ways. But, we’re all alive.”

“Really?” Grian asked.

“Yes.”

“Everyone?”

“Yes.”

“Can I- can I see them?” he whispered. It felt forbidden.

“Of course!” Pearl exclaimed. “I’ve kept in touch with everyone, I’m sure Xisuma could help you visit if you asked.”

“Xisuma . . .” Grian thought aloud. “I haven’t told him,” Grian admitted. The admin certainly knew something was up with Grian, because players didn’t normally randomly appear in worlds they weren’t supposed to, but he’d welcomed Grian with open arms to the server and never asked a single question.

“I’m sure he would understand.”

“He would, but Pearl, I don’t want to put anyone in danger! I’m not supposed to be here!” Grian hissed.

“So then don’t tell him everything. Just say you want to visit some people. He’ll understand, I know he will,” she replied. Grian pondered it for a moment. She was right--he could just ask to visit someone. Other hermits did it all the time. Maybe--maybe a few server hops wouldn’t cause a problem. Maybe this was something within his reach, after all this time. The thought exhilarated him.

“But please,” Pearl added. “Please tell someone else, not just me. How long have you been hiding?”

Too long.

Grian didn’t answer, and the two of them stood there and listened to the crash of the waves on the nearby shoreline. The air was hot and salty, and in the distance he could hear Xisuma opening and closing doors in the village.

He didn’t know what he felt, it was like too many emotions had happened in too short of a period of time and left him burned out like a forest after a wildfire. His hands had stopped trembling, but he felt deeply tired.

Happy. You feel happy.

Grian’s communicator chimed from within his pocket. He withdrew it.

GoodTimeWithScar > Grian: are you okay

Grian smiled, and typed a response.

Grian > GoodTimeWithScar: yes

“Who was that?” Pearl asked.

“Scar. He wanted to know if I was okay.”

“Are you?”

Grian met her eyes. “I am now.” It was close enough to the truth. Grian shifted his weight between his feet, suddenly restless and tired from trying to process all this new information. “Speaking of other hermits, we should get going, yeah? We can’t let them get all the resources without us!”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” she chuckled. The hermits had already spread out seeking resources, but not too far yet; Grian and Pearl could still see several of them talking to each other across the field.

“Pearl, before you go--” Grian started, looking serious. “Build next to me, alright? I...I want you to be around.”

“I promise,” she replied.

◑ ━━━━━ ▣ ━━━━━ ◐

“Why are you following me?” Grian knew why, but he wanted Mumbo to bring it up. He was torn--on one hand, he truly appreciated his friend’s concern. It was nice that others were looking out for him, a warm reminder of what their little community stood for. On the other hand . . . he’d really have just appreciated being left alone.

“You look like you have a purpose!” Mumbo exclaimed instead.

Huh.

Grian shook his head. “I’m just heading north,” he replied, shielding his eyes and looking up to see the position of the sun.

“I was just like, ‘Man, it looks like he knows where he’s going,’” Mumbo continued and Grian laughed.

They walked to the edge of the swamp, and began to cut down the trees. Starter tools were a necessity in a new world, and they had no stone.

“Ugh, I have to take down this whole tree, and then I have to replant it,” complained Mumbo.

“Wait-why have you got to replant it?” asked Grian incredulously, while getting wood for himself and not replanting the tree.

“Well I-I can’t just deforest things!”

This is going to be SO much fun to tease Mumbo with.

“Whatever you say, tree boy.”

They continued to work, getting wood, and then venturing into a shallow cave to get stone. The whole time their coms kept buzzing, buzzing, buzzing with combat death messages. Just another day in the hermitcraft world, thought Grian. Have they declared a spontaneous war up there? Either way, Pearl and Gem were getting the full introduction today, he thought with a chuckle.

Exiting the cave, they spotted a shipwreck not too far away, and decided to explore it. Grian pulled out a soggy buried treasure map, and they decided to go after it in a boat. Grian wanted to relax in the boat, to just breathe in the sea spray and try to calm his still-racing thoughts, but unfortunately Mumbo was the driver, and he was not a very good driver if you asked Grian. Grian had been tasked with navigation, which was a difficult thing when the driver couldn’t see the map you were describing.

The loot was good, and they divided it between themselves and then struck onward in the boat, this time with Grian commandeering the vessel. They looped back around to the shipwreck only to find a group of hermits that were a little too late to the prize. Pearl, Ren, and Doc were gathered around the boat looking a bit disappointed.

Mumbo and Grian decided to taunt them.

“Who got the loot?” shouted Ren.

“We got the loot!” Grian shouted back.

“Oh it was you guys,” said Pearl. Grian stuck his tongue out at her and cackled.

They looped back around to show off the Heart of the Sea, but Mumbo dropped their only diamond by accident and that was when Grian decided to steer the boat away before they lost any more valuables.

“I can’t believe you dropped the diamond,” Grian sighed.

“I was flexing too hard, I’m sorry!” cried Mumbo.

It was too comical, and Grian couldn’t be mad at his friend. They rowed on, closely following the coastline. After a few minutes, however, Mumbo asked a question.

“The new hermit, who we just saw with Doc and Ren--Pearl--is it. . . is it okay if I ask how you know her?” Mumbo spoke gently, knowing he was treading around a potentially sensitive topic. Grian knew the topic would have come up eventually, after he’d basically had a breakdown in public when he saw her.

Grian stopped the boat, and looked into the water, not at Mumbo’s face. “Yeah, I figured you’d ask. We used to be on a world together. The . . . the world I was at before I came here, actually.” It wasn’t the full truth, since he’d been to many worlds as a Watcher and had lived on the Watchers’ world for a while. But Evo had been his last home.

“Oh,” said Mumbo.

“We were friends,” continued Grian. “We were close. But I was told she was dead. Clearly, though,” he just simply gestured instead of finishing the sentence.

“Clearly she’s not dead,” Mumbo finished. “I see. Who told you she was dead?”

“Someone who didn’t have my best interests at heart.” Grian had never fully told his friend about what had happened before he joined hermitcraft, but the other man knew that it was a difficult past and had comforted him on more than one occasion--mostly after he’d first joined and the pain was still fresh. It had dulled with time and Grian had become more and more adjusted to his new life.

Seeing Pearl again was a miracle, but it sure sharpened the pain.

Grian rested his elbows on the side of the boat and pressed the heels of his palm into his eyes. “It wasn’t just her, either, they told me everyone on the server was dead. And-they’re all alive. All of them. It’s fantastic news, brilliant news, I’m just-”

“Thinking of the people who didn’t have your best interests at heart?”

“Yeah.”

Mumbo laid a hand on Grian’s shoulder. “I don’t know who they are,” he began, “but I know they’re not here now. You have us now, and you have Pearl here too. That all is in the past.”

Grian stared out over the water, watching as the sunlight sparkled and danced over the waves. “You’re a good friend, you know that right?”

“Well, I do try to be,” Mumbo chuckled. “Now-I think we should probably go pick up Scar over there, I think the poor man is going to drown!”

“Oh no!” Grian said, and scrambled for the oars, and then they were off.

◑ ━━━━━ ▣ ━━━━━ ◐

When Grian, Impulse, Scar, and Mumbo created the Boatem Pole, Pearl was there to join them.

When Grian woke up in his makeshift camp the next morning, he was happy to see Pearl setting up her own starter base on the other side of the Boatem Pole.

When Grian showed up at Xisuma’s base two days later, he asked for permission to visit other servers.

[callmecyan]

First time doing something like this so here we go I guess?

Hermittober Day 1 - Wings

List by @/ink-ghoul

Since I don’t know how to draw I decided to write! I have some headcanons at the end so ye :D

 It was the start of a new season, season 7, saying he was excited wouldn't even be close to describe how he was feeling. Grian was so, so happy and excited, it's like the last season was all a dream he had, a good dream, he couldn't believe it was real. He was here, he's part of hermitcraft, he is a hermit. And it's awesome, just like when Mumbo told him that Xisuma wanted to talk to him, that he got invited there.

 He was so nervous the first season, even when he was at the war, even when he was the one who started it, he was so scared that he could be stepping over a line. But god it was so much fun, and everyone was so nice.

 He was living in the jungle now, with other hermits as his neighbors, Scar, Mumbo, Stress and Iskall. And it was amazing, as much as he had to get used to mining and grinding again, he loved it, he felt like as the season kept going everyone would focus more and more on their own individual big projects, that this beginning was nice, he would see the others quite a lot and they would chat and help each other and it was just amazing.

 Something he found out is that the meetings they would have, that he thought were monthly meetings just so X could see how everyone was doing, were way more frequent at the beginning of the seasons. So everyone could talk about their plans, if they needed help with anything, plan mining sessions together, or even to just chat about anything, and of course for X to check on them. At first he thought it would be a bit awkward since he really didn't really knew much about all the things they had on hermitcraft or even knew anyone besides Mumbo, but they proved him wrong once again, everyone was so nice to him and he even remember the hermits ‘fighting’ to see who would get introduced first, who would show him around etc.

 They decided to meet up where the shopping district would be, he directed himself to the center of the island where he could already hear some of the voices. As he got closer Mumbo and Scar were the first one to notice him and they started waving at him, he wasn't the last one to appear, some people were still missing from the messages he saw on the communicator.

 He placed himself between Mumbo and Scar as he greeted everyone. He could feel Scar looking at him, so he looked up with a questioning look

 ‘'What's up?’’ Scar seemed a bit embarrassed, and he could feel some of the hermits looking at him too.

 ‘‘Uh- just- uh your wings? They- it's not purple anymore?’’ and he finally realised ‘oh’.

 He could feel Mumbo holding a laugh at his side and he could feel himself blushing a bit out of embarrassment, he put a hand on his neck

 ‘‘Yeah, I- uh I kinda forgot to tell you guys this is actually my bad. But my wings change whenever I’m in a new smp, world or somewhere that I wasn't before. You can say they kinda ‘adapt’ themselves into what I’m doing and working on basically, its weird really, not even I understand much of it I just got used to it’’

 ‘‘So’’ - False started, and he could see how the others were curious but probably afraid to ask, maybe scared of offending him accidentally?- ‘‘Do you know why they were purple before? Or you like- you don't know the reasons?’’

 ‘‘Uh it depends really, like how I said most of it I can try and break it down to why they would look like that, but it's never something certain’’ - he was trying to figure out how to explain things in a way that, hopefully, would help the others understand- ‘‘I think they were that purple color so it could look like an Elytra, I mean it was basically the first time I found out and even had contact with one, and I don't know, maybe because i really didn't know any of you guys? So it was kinda the way my wings found to ‘fit in’ I guess? So they would be similar to everyone else?’’ - as he looked at the others he could see how they were thinking about it, probably processing everything he said or trying to understand his explanation.

 ‘‘Knew’’ He heard Xisuma saying, he looked over to the admin and he could tell he was smiling.

 Grian made a confused sound, he heard other hermits laughing a bit and he heard Mumbo saying under his breath ‘‘oh my god’’

 ‘‘You said you didn't know any of us, but you do now. You’re part of the hermits, you are part of the family now’’

 ‘‘Yeah’’ he felt Scar putting a arm over his shoulders and basically giving him a side hug ‘‘you dont troll someone with a zombie spawner on the first day of the season if you ‘dont know’ them’’

 He couldn't help but laugh ‘‘aw c'mon Scar it was funny, you can't hold that against me the entire season’’.

 He saw Scar putting his other hand under his chin as he pretended like he was considering this possibility ‘‘hmmmm nope! I think i can do that’’

 After that everyone started laughing and the meeting continued, with a lot of them asking about his wings, how they look in other places, and it was fun, it was home, and he's so happy to be part of this family.

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Some of my headcanons around the wings

Grian - his wings, as said, change depending on where he is. For example if he goes on somewhere his wings already ‘adapted’ themselves then they change to that.

Season 6: light purple wings, similar to the elytra color.

Season 7: parrot wings, the red ones with the yellow and blue details.

Season 8: a very dark blue very similar to black.

Creative worlds: white fluffy wings.

Watchers: he had two pairs of wings, in a darker purple.

Stress - unlike Grian, she can't ‘carry�� the wings outside of Hermitcraft, its a specific thing from Hermitcraft. Like when players have specific skins to specific smps? If that makes sense?

Stress wings are bug themed unlike Grian who has bird ones.

Season 6: dragonfly wins, with very soft light blue and pink.

Season 7: blue morpho butterfly.

Season 8: cicada wings with green and the golden-ish color.

[melon-wing]

A Confession of Love 3/3

[Fanfiction Masterlist] It took Grian a few days and he felt emotionally drained each time he was done. He felt like he was pouring all of his feelings and emotions into this and maybe it wasn‘t really healthy. Mumbo and Iskall would probably frown at him if they knew how much sleep he missed over getting everything done. Impulse had dropped by a few times, cheering Grian on, making him believe that this might really work out.

To say Grian was nervous would be an understatement. He had the coordinates already typed into his communicator in a private chat with Ren, but he kept pulling his finger from the send button.

“Oh come on! Just do it! You really need to know! Or should I press it for you?“ Grian turned to look at Impulse, who was still with him, just in case he needed some mental support. And Grian was kind of glad he was here. Especially when he realised that while turning around to Impulse he had accidentally hit the send button. Well, that gave him one less thing to worry about…

Wait! Fuck! He had sent it and Ren was going to come over and that meant he‘d know, which meant Grian was maybe minutes or hours away from being gently let down. Oh god, he wasn‘t ready. He really wasn‘t ready. Impulse started laughing at Grian’s panicked face and when Grian glared at him that laugh made room for a fond smile. “It’ll be alright, Grian. And I’ll be here with you all the way, okay? No matter what happens tonight, you still got me, don't forget that. I might not be as cuddly as Ren, but Zed always tells me I give one hell of a hug."

Grian looked at Impulse and just like that his heart seemed to calm down at least a bit and he felt like he could actually do this. So what if Ren wasn't feeling the same way? What if Ren only liked him as a friend. He liked his friendship with Ren. Staying friends wouldn't be the end of the world and he'd be finally able to move on from those feelings that had been getting him down lately. He'd be able to go back to his comfortable single life that he had never wanted to leave anyways.

"Yeah I guess it's alright. I'm just... nervous. This isn't some romance novel. Stupid grand romantic gestures never work in real life." Grian laughed joylessly and pushed a few loose strands of hair out of his face. "But that's alright. And I won't be here forever anyways. The season is coming to an end soon, I can tell. I don't have much longer with you guys."

"You know you could ask Xisuma to-"

"I know. I could. I won't. I've got friends waiting for me to return. I can't just stay here. And if he's saying no there's no reason for me to stay here anyways. Not that I don't like all of you guys... But yeah. I think I'm not ready to fully commit yet. And moving on will definitely be easier once I'm off world."

Impulse looked at him sadly and Grian avoided his gaze. Mumbo and Iskall had already tried to convince him to stay as well. Heck, even Taurtis - who he was supposed to return to after Hermitcraft was done - kept urging him on to stay, to find happiness.

"Can we not talk about this while I'm freaking out about getting my heart broken?"

Impulse sighed once more and put an arm over Grian's shoulder, pulling him into a half hug. "I'm sure it’ll work out. Don't worry too much. It doesn't help anyways."

Grian nodded and, taking a deep breath stepped back once more. "So you saw what I did, right? You think he'll get it?"

Impulse laughed again, shaking his head. "Grian. He will know. Dude. You practically turned your Infinity room into a love confession."

Grian blushed a little as his mind went to the small room below his base, thousands of blocks away. It had taken him forever, but armed with some black dye and a brush he'd poured out his love over the walls. The room had been turned into a corridor, and with the help of a few armour stands (Cleo had luckily agreed to teach him a few things about creating them) it now told their story and the way Grian had fallen. Or well... He'd put it more in terms of Red Riding Hood falling for the Wolf. He would have felt weird putting his own face onto those armour stands and his own name into the story.

But he was sure Ren would get it. Hell, there were lines out of their private conversations written over the wall. He would get it... wouldn't he?

A loud beep rang from his communicator and Grian almost dropped it in a hurry to get it out.

<Ren> I'm there now! I'm very excited for the surprise!

"Oh... Oh fuck. I don't know if I'm ready for this", Grian mumbled and then kept walking in circles around the campfire, Impulse's eyes following him. He couldn't handle this. Minutes passed and every noise made him jump as he anticipated the communicator going off.

The longer it went on, the more nervous Grian got. After ten minutes he had taken off his flower crown and started fidgeting around with it, leaves and pallets dropping to the ground. His hands were shaking, he needed to keep them busy. Ren sure as hell must have finished by now, right? He couldn't still be in the room. Why was it taking so long? Maybe he wasn't getting the message after all? No, if that was the case he would have messaged Grian by now. That left only two options. Either Ren was still down there and looking at Grian's work or he knew exactly what it was about and didn't know how to let Grian down gently. The last option was way more likely.

Another ten minutes seemed to pass by agonizingly slow and Grian knew he was a nervous mess. He couldn't handle this pressure. He just couldn't. 

Finally, his communicator beeped. A message. He just knew it was from Ren without even having to look at the display. A second ago he had thought he wanted nothing more than to see a message, now he was frozen, unable to even look at the tiny screen. His heart was racing, he was sweating and he had the urge to vomit.

It took him a minute or two to calm down enough, but his fingers were still shaking when he opened up the communicator and then Ren‘s message.

<Ren> Grian? You there?

Grian was pretty sure by now he was going to vomit. Why had he thought again this might be a good idea? It wasn‘t. It had never been. Ren surely had gotten the message going from just those two sentences. And now? Was he really ready for this?

He just knew what was coming. Ren would let him down, trying to be gentle, but still crushing his heart in the progress. It had always been like this. Sam, Taurtis, Mumbo… It had always been the same. He had fallen hard and thought he might have a chance only to be disappointed once more. Only for them to tell him that he was such a nice guy and a good friend, but really, there was nothing there. No feelings.

Despite that, Grian replied. He still had Impulse to cry to later. He needed to get this done - rip it off like a bandaid.

<Grian> Yeah.

<Ren> You know I‘m a coward sometimes and a bit dumb…

Grian had to giggle a bit at that though he felt like sobbing even more, his heart racing. 

<Ren> But I was really wondering if this thing you made for me… Is it based on real life?

Grian‘s hands were shaking so much he could barely type a reply. He settled on something short instead of some long winded explanation.

<Grian> Yes. Sorry.

Grian put the communicator down again, closing his eyes, taking a few deep and shaking breaths. He wanted to turn back time. He didn‘t want to be in this situation he had put himself in. It was frightening. It was all too much. Why had he done this to himself? He wasn‘t brave enough to face the disappointment. He wasn‘t ready to have his heart broken once more and watch Ren be happy with someone else. He couldn‘t bear it. Not again. Especially not with Ren.

There was no reply. No beeping noise. Nothing.

Grian knew what that meant. After all, there was only one logical explanation. Ren didn‘t return his feelings. He had put Ren into a corner, pressured him to reply to his feelings and now Ren opted to not say anything at all. Minutes passed without anything at all happening.

Grian gave a sigh, feeling his heart rate return to normal, a cold feeling spreading in his chest as he typed the next message. 

<Grian> I like you. A lot. More than a friend should. But if you don‘t, that is totally fine and I‘m totally chill with that. No worries, really. No pressure.

His communicator stayed silent again for a long time. Grian kept staring at it, tears forming in his eyes and then slowly dropping down onto his hands. This had been so stupid. He didn‘t deserve to be loved by someone as bright and amazing as Ren. Ren could have anyone on the server, so why should he even settle for Grian. It had been dumb to think all those love declarations meant something special. They never did. He had been delusional, blinded by his love.

The communicator beeped and knowing that it would be something to let him down gently, Grian steeled himself to read the message.

<Ren> Goibve mee a mimute. Flyng rn.

Grian looked at the jumbled message for a few times, blinking in confusion. Ren was… flying? What was that supposed to even mean?

And just when it slowly dawned on Grian what it meant, there was already the sound of exploding rockets fired in a far quicker succession than absolutely necessary drawing closer. Nobody would waste resources like that unless it was an absolute emergency.

Grian raised his head and the moment he did something or rather someone collided with him at such a high speed they both fell to the floor. Luckily enough, the landing was rather soft with the grass below them. Warm arms wrapped around Grian, his face buried in someone neck and just taking a short breath he felt a familiar scent filling him.

Still, Grian felt hesitant about returning the hug until Ren drew back a little, arms staying around Grian, but now able to look at him. And his eyes were shining brighter than Grian had ever seen them.

“Ren, what- Why did you come?”

“Of course I’d come.” Ren let out a laugh and the way it made his eyes just sparkle more made Grian’s heart skip a beat. “After what you did - what you said.”

“Does that mean-” Grian started, but broke off, his throat suddenly feeling tight, his heart only racing faster as all the hope he’d constantly pushed down rose up all at once, overwhelming him. This was it. This was the moment of truth and he was more hopeful than he‘d ever been before. Surely Ren wouldn‘t have come over if he wanted to let Grian down, right?

“I’m feeling the same way. I love you. I want to be with you.”

Grian couldn’t help it. All his emotions came out all at once and with a small giggle a tear slipped down his face as well. He was just too happy.

“I love you too, Ren. So very much. I’ve loved you for so long. I just… I didn’t think this would happen. I don’t even know where to go from here. Can I-” Grian stopped, licking his lips and looking up at Ren. “Can I kiss you?” And when their lips met Grian was glad he had stopped hiding how he truly felt, glad that he hadn’t kept on pretending until it was too late. This was perfect. This was what he had always dreamed off and he wanted this moment to go on forever.

[sweetest-honeybee]

To Hell and Back

Chapter 30

Summary: Xisuma isn’t doing all that great to say the least and neither is Keralis

Characters: Xisuma, Keralis, Evil X, Hels

TW: Fighting (not an overly violent or gorey chapter or anything)

Notes: Don’t really like how this chapter was written but I rewrote it like 4 times ;v; Also, I’m like 99% Keralis’s name doesn’t pop up as just Keralis in the chat but I’m too lazy to see what the hermits usernames are in the game lol

———————

“What do you mean I’m being affected?! I’m fine!” Xisuma yelled, quite obviously proving Evil X’s point.

After what Ex said, the admin snapped at him repeatedly while he tried to explain what was happening. How Hels’s hateful personality was being used as fuel for Wels’s outbursts and if Xisuma let his anger get to him much longer, Evil X would be reaching the sickly state Hels was currently in. Hours ago when the knight was sleeping- it was probably nighttime in the overworld- he woke up suddenly complaining about pains he was having in his head.

In tears, might he add.

Obsessed with what Xisuma said to him, Ex took it as that he needed to help Hels. Unfortunately, that meant that he needed to get back to the overworld somehow and one elytra certainly wouldn’t carry both of them, he didn’t think. It would just break faster with the added weight. So, not wanting to ask the other Hermits for assistance since that didn’t count to him as ‘cleaning up his own mess’, he soothed Hels back to an uncomfortable sleep.

Throughout the next passing hours, Ex stayed awake. He had no problem with sleep, weirdly, he didn’t really feel tired even after being up for more than a full day. He watched as Hels slowly lost the color in his face and how he would start to shiver from The End’s everlasting breeze. That in itself was concerning since the knight never really was cold- radiating over 100 degree body heat had its pros for sure. Nonetheless, Hels had to prop himself up on the side of the mast to sit up and overall, he just felt awful. Every movement threw the world around him into a spin and something was mumbling annoyingly in the back of his mind. The Lord was probably punishing him with uncontrollable voices again. He was sluggish, for lack of a better word, because his counterpart was draining him of everything he had left in this vessel.

“Xisuma, take off your helmet,” Hels commanded hoarsely, giving the other his best glare he could muster. Unsurprisingly, Xisuma didn’t comply and only further made concerningly aggressive remarks about the situation. Mostly just saying how he got only a couple hours of sleep the night before and that he was just tired. Yet, none of them, not even Keralis, believed it for a second.

“Shashwamy, you’ve been acting weird the entire time on over here,” Keralis decided to comment. “I think they’re right.”

“Xisuma, if you keep yelling at everyone, I’m gonna end up just like Hels.” Ex stared at Xisuma, awaiting an answer. Growling- growling- at Ex, Xisuma popped the seal around his neck and lifted the helmet, intending to show off that he was just tired and irritated and didn’t, in fact, have red eyes.

Only he did. Very, very red eyes startled both Ex and Hels, the two crawling backwards away from the admin and drawing Hels drawing his sword. It nearly fell from his less than solid grip but he didn’t plan on dying yet. Keralis stepped back a few steps, not wanting to provoke whatever they saw. Xisuma turned to look at him over his shoulder and the man gasped at the sight, drawing his own sword as well.

“Sh….Shashwamy?” The blade wavered in his own grip as well.

Weirdly, it was so unnatural to see slitted crimson irises on the admin. His short, earthy brown hair, minimal stubble, and freckles crossed with an ‘X’ shaped scar across his face oddly supported his usually friendly demeanor. Now, he simply looked possessed and instead of being scared of how the trio fumbled to get away from him, Xisuma chuckled, a deep, sickening chuckle, at the reaction.

“Oh, this will be fun,” he said.

“Xisuma….” Ex muttered, making Xisuma’s head snap towards him. “Xisuma, you need to snap out of it!”

The admin stood, towering over the two still on the ground. Keralis crouched, awaiting some kind of attack or, if their luck happened to be any worse, The Lord of Darkness to appear and kill them all as well. Instead, he unfurled his elytra, speckled grey and white feathers stood out against the ship and he gripped his sword tight, firework rockets in his other hand. He had no intentions to hurt his friend, mostly since he didn’t want to lose him with respawn, but also that whatever it was in front of him, it wasn’t Xisuma.

“Xisuma,” he started, pulling the admin’s attention away from the pair on the other end of the deck. He swallowed the bitter lack of using the endearing nickname, but again, this wasn’t Xisuma. “You can take me on, but we leave the ship and we leave them alone.” He eyed the pair behind the admin.

Xisuma thought for a second. “And if I win?”

“If I die, you’ll be the one left with them here. But I can get you help, Shashwamy. You need to fight it.” The builder kept his voice even, softer than what he would’ve liked.

The admin’s gaze dropped briefly. With a blink, violet eyes were looking at him, but with another blink, they were gone. “You’ll regret trying this. Remember what happened to Tango, Keralis.”

Keralis swallowed thickly. “Yes, I know about Tango. Shashwamy, don’t let it get to you, you’re better than this.”

Xisuma then put his helmet back on, the redness of his eyes glowing through the visor. This time Keralis’s attempts had no effect on the admin. It made his stomach twist, but he stood his ground.

“Fine then. If I die, I come back for you, Keralis.”

The builder shuddered but both were in fully enchanted armor, thankfully, so he would take a few hits if it came to it and so would Xisuma….hopefully. He wouldn’t suffer Tango’s fate at least- Doc had told him and Impulse about it the day before.

Summoning his sword and spreading his elytra- deep green and black spotted pterodactyl wings- Xisuma pulled out his rockets, the pensive glare never leaving Keralis’s unusually large eyes. With that, he stood at the edge of the boat, falling backwards off of it, probably intending for Keralis to follow. He pulled himself up with a few flaps, the smoke of the rockets trailing behind him, and hovered directly over The Void. Keralis thanked everything that Xisuma was bad at PvP. Well, unless the weird evil force had more skill but he doubted that.

With a last glance at the pair on the deck, he fired off his rockets and flew off into the sky. He flew a bit lower than the admin, circling around him. Though, that hadn’t lasted long when Xisuma dived into his direction, already beginning to swing his sword.

He dodged the attack, maneuvering himself around the admin, taking a swing at his elytra to catch him off guard. Not enough to tear his wings, but enough to give him some fright. Keralis fired off more rockets and shot off into one direction. When he turned back around, the admin was coming at him with a speed he would swear was faster than an arrow. Xisuma successfully tackled the other and moved quickly to push his sword upwards into Keralis’s back but his hand was caught and before he knew it, a kick to the chest later and Keralis was flying off again towards the End City.

With yet another growl, the admin sped off towards him. They flew up and around the structure, some shulkers firing at them but the two weaved through the small attacks easily. Keralis flew off over The Void again, letting the admin follow him. Thankfully, the fight was more chasing than attacking and he was perfectly fine with that. Stopping just briefly, he fired off more rockets, flying back towards the city with a much faster speed than he had before. The builder didn’t look like he planned to stop, and Xisuma saw that the idiot was about to fly right into the side of one of the towers. The two were speeding up more and more and even Hels and Ex had no clue what Keralis was planning to do.

But that question was quickly answered when Keralis pulled up just before hitting the building and Xisuma was sent flying right into the side of it. Unfortunately, his armor must’ve given out at some point during the impact because the trio’s communicators buzzed as the admin turned to a puff of green, blue, and purple smoke.

Xisuma experienced kinetic energy

All of the items in Xisuma’s inventory fell meters down onto the endstone and Keralis tore his communicator from his pocket, typing furiously.

<Keralis> Nobody go see xisuma

<Keralis> You dont know whats happening but he and wels are being possessed and will kill you on sight

<Tango> Guessing you were attacked too

<Keralis> Yeah

Pocketing his communicator, and ignoring the various additional buzzes from it from what he assumed were the other Hermits, he flew down to the island. Sure, Xisuma had literally almost tried to kill him, but that didn’t mean the admin wouldn’t at least have his stuff saved. With a sigh, Keralis turned to the ship. Well, Xisuma did drop his elytra in the crash and it wasn’t hardly half broken by any means so Hels would use it to get back to the overworld. Agreeing to this thought, he fired off more rockets and made his way up to the ship.

For a second, Keralis wondered if either Evil Hermit was okay to fly such a long distance. Evil X was already beginning to lose his own color, but the knight was so far along in that process that Keralis didn’t even know if he was awake at the moment. Hels leaned against Ex’s side with a tired frown, breaths leaving in shallow heaves, and beads of sweat pooling over his face. He definitely wouldn’t be flying anytime soon.

Keralis debated with himself. He could see if Ex could carry him back to the overworld and just give him Xisuma’s elytra since they were a stronger set that could handle more weight. On the other hand, both Hels and Ex were probably at more risk of being attacked than the other Hermits but that could be prevented. Nonetheless, Hels needed help and Keralis didn’t want to leave the two to gather health potions….or harm potions. Poison? Did they work like zombie villagers?

He shook his head. Off topic, off topic. Right, well he could just contact the other Hermits, kind of explain what’s going on from what he knew. Though, Wels replied in chat earlier on so any plans would be watched and taken advantage of. He dragged a hand down his face with a groan, grabbing Ex’s attention. This was hard. He just wanted Doc and Impulse back here safely, too. And he wanted Xisuma as well, but that only brought on more worrying thoughts. Hopefully, when he respawned he snapped out of his weird trance. But that was a very iffy hope.

“I don’t know how to help,” he muttered, sending the pair a sad expression. “What do I do?” Ex, nor unconscious Hels, probably knew, but feedback was nice, he guessed. Even if it was the same statement repeated back to him.

Ex only mirrored his expression, turning to glance at Hels. “I….just want to help him. But I don’t know how to stop The Lord of Darkness. This just happens and I don’t think we can prevent it.” He turned back to Keralis. “There’s some people who can probably help but they’re not exactly….nice.”

Keralis perked up, interested in the possible solution. “Who?”

Ex rubbed at his neck, hanging his arm there. “The Evil Hermits. Mostly NPC Grian.”

Then, Keralis deflated. “Oh. There’s not like, a way we can convince them or….?”

The other shrugged. “That’s what I’m hoping Doc and Impulse can do.”

Well wasn’t that certainly news to Keralis. His eyes, already incredibly large as they were, widened at his statement. The fact that Ex said the very thing he was trying to figure out for more than an hour now so casually simply just annoyed him. Ex only rose a brow at Keralis’s increasingly ridiculous vague gestures while he stuttered to get his reply pieced together in his head.

“Wha- They’re in HelsCraft?! And you didn’t think to tell me this before?!” he finally yelled.

“You didn’t ask. You guys said The Lord of Darkness killed them and that they weren’t answering their communicators, so they’re probably in Hels. If we’re lucky, they’re not being tortured.”

Keralis rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t help but to worry at the thought of his friends being hurt by whatever kinds of creatures were in Hels. He could only think by what Doc said that Hels told him that everything there was so bent on the idea of killing. Though, if Doc and Impulse were there for a reason, they wouldn’t simply be killed. It made, unfortunately, a bit of sense that the people there would have their own fun with a couple of people from the overworld. And Hermitcraft at that.

He crossed his arms, deciding now Ex would be good enough to drag Hels back to the overworld. The man was still his blunt, questionable self and that was enough for Keralis.

“Right, right. Well, we need to get back to the overworld. You can carry him,” he pointed a twirling finger at Hels, ”back there.”

Ex only replied with a huff, then thinking for a second. “Keralis, where did he respawn? Because if I know anything about Xisuma, it wasn’t at his base.”

“Ah….Well, it was in his base but it was….” His eyes widened at the realization. “Down the hall from Wels’s cell. That’s where The Lord of Darkness was, in the cell I mean. I dunno if he’s still there.” He facepalmed internally. They really were just better off keeping him on the boat.

Hastily, Ex pulled Hels and himself up, keeping the knight leaned against his shoulder.

“Let’s go.”