#IACBHAH

[a-plethora-of-peters]

I might've asked this before, but how did you come up with everyone's species/powers??

You have not asked this before and I welcome this question!

Initially, I took a look at what the Hermits say they are/what they look like on the server

So that's how Creeper Hybrid Doc, Attempted Flesh Construct Cleo, and Slime Hybrid Jevin immediately come to mind

Then I looked at popular headcanons in the fandom and went "Okay what does the fanbase like? What do I like that they like?"

Which is how we got people like Parrot/Watcher Grian, Vampire Mumbo, Werewolf Ren, Nature Spirit Gem, and Voidwalkers X & Ex

Then I went in farther and went "Okay what are the vibes that these guys personally give me?"

That's how I ended up with God of Inspiration Joe, Shadow Cryptid Etho, Demon Impulse (this was before there was that huge wave of fans making Impulse a Demon btw), and Siren Hypno.

Keralis has always vibed to me as a human but why have people insist on looking into his eyes all the time? What's so special about that? And I'm always weak for empathic bonds whether temporary or permanent. So that's how that happened.

TFC surprisingly gave me very little trouble when it came to figuring him out. I knew he was the oldest person on the Hermitcraft server and I had heard the now infamous "Philza made Minecraft" joke by this time. So I just patted TFC gently and said "This Minecraft Grandpa can hold so much love inside him!" and made him a God too lol

After that I sort of blended other people's takes with my own for everyone else.

Like I love how people make Tango have Nether Origins, but I see him being made a Blaze so much it's kinda boring to me. But a Magma Cube? Now that's cool!

Or like how after I read a series on AO3 called The Meteor Effect where a magic meteor causes the Hermits to physically change forms/give them powers, I ended up hooked on Phantom Hybrid Bdubs and Dragon Hybrid Wels. So I gave them my own little twists and boop! There ya go!

I had to do a bit of research but I pretty quickly found out ConVex/ConCorp, and all the related Vex shenanigans. But Scar and Cub don't look like Vex all the time, in fact they wear masks to show when they are Vex. So if they aren't Vex completely what are they? Well maybe they're Changelings, half-human and half-fae and they'll become full Vex when they permadie.

Sheep Hybrid Zed is a pretty popular headcanon, but I then went "Huh. What if that's just like... a suit that Zed wears?" And since Zed is one of the crazy redstone guys of the server, I figured making him a Gremlin that powers/controls a robot body would be fun!

Iskall & False were also mostly gathered from fanbase ideas that I then added my own spin on later. Like Iskall being a bit more cybernetic than the fandom usually makes him and False having the Blessing of the Blood God.

You did ask me before about how I came up with Cryptid Beef and here's a bit of extra knowledge to add to that.

So as previously explained, I had already had the idea of Beef eventually transforming into a Cryptid because of his physical changes in S8, but no thoughts on what the end result would look like beyond the Prawn from District 9 which was his original intent.

Then I saw the mantis that Doc made in s8 and my insect loving heart went 😍 AWOOOGAAAA! 😍 over it and I knew what I had to do.

I had to make Beef that Mantis.

But why would he change into a Mantis specifically? Well I already had it that being around Cryptids for too long kinda makes you a bit... not quite human yourself. So obviously Moon Big messed with him and triggered him to change into a Mantis. And that, in combination with me loving alliterative names, made them Moon Mantises.

And yeah that's sort of how my thought processes go

... actually do you want the full list of everyone? May have to censor it slightly for future spoilers but I can share it here if you'd like?

[kingeden]

Hi, hello, this is the first fix I have every written and I made it for one of @a-plethora-of-peters aus.

It is in second person and death is brought up alot, so fair warning for some.

And the character does not have a name, yet (hopefully)

Enjoy.

-----------------------

You’re supposed to be dead.

You know this, but you woke up.

You’re sitting on the grass of a hill, covered with low branches of oak trees and bushes. The light streams through the leaves, deep green turns into sickly yellows. A pillar of stone is built on the hill, a little dish set aside for the little offerings the village would give to the dead to thank them for their work.

You forgot how you knew that till you remembered, that yeah, you lived here.

Lived? Right you’re dead, or are supposed to.

You inch forward on your knees, the family would etch the name of the dead themselves to the stone. And as you read the stone you realize…

That’s you.

That was you, yet you can’t say your name, so is it really you?

Is the body in the dirt yours then?

Do you even have a body?

Huh… is this town really your old home? Probably, but your name is there in the stone, better to let them think you're dead then try to explain what happened. 

“Evan!” you hear a shout, a voice made of sweet honey who seems bitter with protection and anger. A child runs by, far away yet so close that they could see you, and you hope they don't. The child opens a gate far from the trees and grass you lay, the elder talks with the child while you scoot closer to the roots of the trees.

They don’t see you as the sun slowly sets, they leave for a village, into a house near the edges of the town. 

The yellows and light green of the leaves soon turn dark blues and deep forest greens.

You realize as you look for your hand, that they are a swirl of stars and deep blues turning into black.

For all you know, and all you remember, you’re now a myth.

You aren’t supposed to exist. 

—-------------------------------------

How long have you been walking? No idea, it doesn't matter when you find clothes that fit you. 

Did you have clothes before? No idea, no one else was around so it doesn’t matter.

At some point you arrive at a town, time wasn’t on your side so you have no idea how long it had been. Passing through you realize that maybe, just maybe, you should find some way to stay here.

The way you found you could stay and settle down was working for hybrid hunters. You had done this before. Or at least you think you did?They let you stay though, they let you work and you get paid. 

At some point you get promoted, 

“Evan!” An aging man with blue eyes walks towards you. You needed a name, you can’t use the old one so you use a new one. The man's name evades you, you hear people call his name as he walks towards you but you can’t hear them. 

You're afraid of what the boss could want. A hybrid had escaped at some point and watching the orders he barked at the guards during the event was terrifying. The threats made upon many lives when one escapes evades you, but you don’t want to get hurt. You decide to follow orders, better to be on his good side. 

“Evan, I need your help. I know you haven’t been here for more than a year, but we have a hybrid transfer happening in a week. I want you to come with me, get some experience alright?”

You agreed, you ended up helping with a full supply train a month later instead of just a hybrid transfer. You and your boss stop in the town just for a day before heading back home with the supplies, some other hunters from the town you stayed in came along too. 

You realize that it was your old town, well you think it was the town you grew up in. Some of the hunters from that town are following you back and say you look familiar. It all feels weird, you know they remember a body and not you, you aren’t that person yet you have their memories. 

Are you them? Are they you?

You let it flow in your head, letting it stay and leave, just the same that those hunters leave. 

You get promoted again at the end of the month… How long has it been since you arrived in this town?

You know what, who cares? You live here, you work here… isn’t the best work but it is work.

—-------------------------------------

You're working at night when you overhear a story, some of the other guards are talking with each other about myths.

About you, even if they don’t realize it. 

Creatures that can act like shulkers but able to walk and talk, they could understand what you wanted and when. Some believed that it was just a myth, that there wasn’t a way to die in the void, while others believed such stories with their lives. 

“They're better than shulkers!” one says as the others look on with skepticism. 

They continue to talk, but you walk the halls. That was your job, that was your duty, even as others talk of you as a tool. You walk the halls and ignore the looks of hybrids as you continue, as the others guards bark laughter at each other.

“Don’t look at me like that! I’m right! You have to carry shulkers everywhere you go if you want to transport something. And hybrids! You know how fucking annoying they get! Don’t do shit to help you. Voidlings can carry as much as you want for as long as you want. They’re bags of holding that can give you whatever you need whenever you need it! It is so much more helpful.” They boast with glee about their knowledge, but the other guards just start laughing again.

The Hybrids stare at you from their cages. Do they stare at you with fear? You hope so, because the only other option is that they know. The hybrids know you aren’t human, they know you are what the guards talk about tonight.

You're tired, and you don’t really like this town anymore.

—-------------------------------------

You left, you ran. When? Doesn’t matter, never mattered.

You felt terrible as you left hybrids behind who would be killed for the rest of their life because they gave a peaceful server items the greedy humans wanted. You left people that had called you a friend, but were they ever your friends? If they found out you were the walking, talking bag of holding, they would probably use you the same way they use the hybrids. 

Did you leave out of fear? Or out of a selfish need? 

You took all you could, mostly just food and clothes. You did take the weapons you were given when you first became a hunter. You wish you could take anything else, because all that you took just reminds you of what you left.

You're tired, yet you keep walking.

You have no idea how long it has been, you have no idea if you even need to eat but you do.

At some point you find a worn old path, roses grow near the trees swallowing up old walls of a wall…

Wait, a wall? An old wall that crumbles in areas, showing old dusty houses that could fall over with the slightest rush of wind. You found an old village filled with dust…

You wonder if now you could find a way out.

You wonder about a lot of things. 

You wonder who you are now.

[a-plethora-of-peters]

Pearlescent of the Moon :D

Pearl is admittedly one of the ones I don't have too solid a backstory for so instead I will infodump about what she is!

Pearl is a lovely Water Dragon

She usually travels around in human form for convenience sake but she does have a dragon form as well. In that form she's approximately 24 feet long and she only has two limbs outside of her tail. Her scales are a dark blue to ultramarine blue gradient with silver fins and rather than horns she has what looks like a long silky blue-green mane but is in fact gill strands. There is a pair of eyespots on her tail fin that changes looks with the phases of the moon.

Pearl carries her soul around with her in the form of a pearl that she keeps in a small silver cage on a necklace. Despite this she still frequently loses said pearl. She will do favors for people that find it for her and people that knowingly steal it from her to try an exploit her are severely punished.

When she first joined the Hermitcraft server both Wels and Hels were very hissy and tried to be intimidating to her because this is a strange dragon in their territory. Pearl didn't care much about their posturing tho as her own territory is in the waters of the server, not the land.

Pearl can fly outside of the water by using water vapor to "swim" through but she usually doesn't because it does take up a good chunk of magic to do so.

That's all I can really think of at the moment but I'm sure there's more.

[a-plethora-of-peters]

Hi hi hello sorry for not doing this yesterday >_< Anyways, your opinions on Joe Hills?

No worries my dude!

Anyways, Joe IRL? I love this quirky enby with an obsession with pinball dearly. I cherish every poem she writes and all the shenanigans that they pull on the server, and don't get me started on his whole dynamic with Cleo!

For my AUs? Well... let me tell you a story of when he and TFC first met...

~0.0~

Joseph Hills had a pretty normal life growing up.

Loving parents, various pet dogs, loads of friends, encouraging teachers, and a cozy job as the town librarian when he was old enough to hold a job.

Completely normal if a bit boring and repetitive.

Then the Miner came into town when he was 26.

Being the librarian meant that Joe had heard the gossip whispered behind books by the college students who were supposed to be studying, spoken in matter of fact statements from the children who came to the arts & crafts events every Thursday, spoken at him from the chatty spouses that came to borrow or return books for their significant others, from the warnings that his fellow librarians who would leave the building in their off hours rather than stay amongst the books and read like him gave each other.

The Miner has a prosthetic right leg and a brace on the opposite arm, but never gives the same answer on why they are like that to anyone that asks. The Miner speaks to himself when he walks around town, gesturing and turning his head to the sides as if someone walks with him on either side. The Miner can walk right up to a creeper and not have it blow up in his face and the skeletons and zombies from the woods avoid him. The Miner automatically knows your name even if you have never met him face to face before.

Rather than repulsed by this gossip, however, Joe was intrigued.

So many secrets, so much knowledge could be learned from this stranger.

So he sought out the small cabin that the Miner was renting out on the edge of town.

To his surprise, the Miner was waiting for him.

"Why have you come here?" Joe was asked.

"You are well traveled, and I would like to hear some tales from you about the world outside the boundaries of our little village." The Miner received in reply.

"And what will you do with the knowledge that I could give you, Joseph Hills?" The Miner inquired, tilting his shaggy head with hair the color of iron wires curiously.

"I would compile it into a book to add to our library so that even when you leave our town, whether by the grace of Lady Death or the blessing of Lord Life, the memories you have will not be forgotten." Joe bowed his own head respectfully, hair the color of spruce bark falling in a curtain around his head.

He looked up when the Miner laughs.

Blue eyes sparkled with mirth and he smiled warmly at Joe as he steps to the side to let the younger man into his home.

"Then come in and make yourself right at home! I have a kettle of water boiling for tea or coffee if you would prefer that and fresh beef stew to eat!"

And that was the start of when Joe's boring life became one of excitement.

[a-plethora-of-peters]

*CRASH* *BANG* *CAT YOWL* *FACEPLANTS INTO YOUR ASK BOX* HIIIII PETERRR! In regards to your headcanons; in your version of Hermitcraft, only three people are human, yeah? Who are they, and what is everyone else? What can all the non-humans do? Was there an event that caused them to become nonhuman or were they born that way?

Well @felicityphoenix5 I can't reveal exactly what *everyone* is because that would make this post longer than it already is. Not to mention give everyone some spoilers lol

That said, here are some spoiler free things about the humans/past humans of the server that I can share: (More under the cut)

Human is a fairly subjective term in this universe. Arguments can be made that beings that look like humans completely but have powers (like Keralis) aren't human but compared to most non-humans, powered humans aren't that... well powerful.

In "I Am Creation" there are 5 humans among the Hermits at the start of Season 8. They are/were: Beef, xB, Iskall, False, and Keralis.

Mumbo was counted among the humans until due to unforeseen circumstances between Seasons 4 & 5, he got Turned into a Vampire. Every Season since then he has been slowly discovering a new ability or aspect to him being a Vampire. In Season 5 he discovered that drinking human Player blood worked best for him in terms of healing/feeding and that if he drinks blood from non-humans, he temporarily gains powers based on their species/powerset. Thanks to Demise in Season 6, he learned that he has an alternative form that looks like a massive black bat creature that has a white/grey pattern on his furry underbelly that makes it look like he's still wearing a formal suit. During Hermit Challenges in Season 7 he found that as long as he was confident in what he was saying he could Charm people and influence their actions. Recently in Season 8, he figured out how to shapeshift though his moustache always gives him away lol.

Cub and Scar arrived on the Season 4 server as humans but left Season 5 as Changelings (half-Fae beings that will turn into full Vex upon their permadeaths). Cub before joining Hermitcraft, had been cursed to physically be a few decades older than he actually is. Long story short, an event happens at the end of Season 7 that breaks the curse on him, resulting in his change from Old Cub to Young Cub in Season 8.

There are many joking debates among the Hermits if Iskall counts as human because they are a cyborg with a cybernetic right forearm, left eye, and various internal enhancements to help him power said cybernetic parts.

False is Blessed by the Blood God. Which is a fancy way of saying that Techno congratulated her after her second MCC win and accidentally made her his Champion since he's still relatively new to this whole Blood God business. This means if she’s in trouble, she can call upon his aid a’la the God Boons in the Hades videogame.

xB is the most human human to ever human on Hermitcraft until [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS] and becomes [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS] in Season 9. A small spoiler that I will give for the above is that the in-universe reason for Mumbo’s absence in Season 9 is that he needs to find an entirely new source of food since xB was his primary source due to the others becoming other beings or just being a bit much for him normally.

Keralis' whole family is full of Empaths who can read your emotions and surface level thoughts as well as show you their own. Accidental connections are considered okay by his family but purposeful connections must have some form of indicated consent before being initiated. The ways they are viewed is like the differences between knocking to see if someone is in the bathroom vs trying the doorknob to see if it's locked before asking vs breaking into the bathroom while someone is actively in there.

There have been other humans on the Hermitcraft server (please don't ask who, I am not familiar enough with most of the old guard so to speak to make any solid calls about them) but time and circumstance has whittled the humans on the server down to their current numbers.

[a-plethora-of-peters]

*vibrates into your ask box* Is there, like, a database of all known Cryptids? What kind of Cryptids are Etho and Pause?

Is there a database of Cryptids? Kinda?

Like there are plenty of books and stuff about various species of Cryptids but it's hard to tell what is real and fake about them unless the books were written by Cryptids themselves.

And even then you have the pervasive problem of biased sources since most Cryptids are very territorial and don't tend to get along too well unless they have been aquainted for a while. (See Pause & Etho)

There’s also the problem that pretty much everyone has varying ideas on what counts as a Cryptid from server to server.

Is this super rare creature that we're pretty sure only one of its kind exists across all servers a Cryptid? Is this being that we have dozens of eyewitness accounts of but no physical photos of a Cryptid? Is this race of super specific beings that mingle with other beings odd enough to be considered Cryptids?

The only surefire way to tell nowadays is the inherent ability to speak The Language of The Ancients, a language that to humans sounds like weird echoing gibberish that gives people that are not magically inclined headaches if they listen for too long.

With this in mind, in the modern day, attempts at categorizing and determining the species of Cryptid are whittled down according to their relationships with humanity.

Beef, for example, is a Guardian type of Cryptid. Guardians have a mostly positive relationship with humanity where they pick Charges (beings/places/items that they choose to protect) to watch over. In Beef's case though, being a Moon Mantis, his natural preference of beings to Protect outside his Kin tends to be beings from The End/The Expanse (The Deep End as it is colloquially called) hence his decision that X, Ex, and all of the Evil Empire are his Charges.

Other categories of Cryptids includes:

Malevolent/Malicious (actively seeks to harm humans)

Neutral (can be persuaded to help or harm humans either way)

Benevolent/Beneficial (actively seeks to be helpful to humans)

Tricksters (Neutral but leans towards malevolent/malicious at times as sometimes the tricks they pull can result in humans dying)

Obstructive/Destructive (they don't hurt humans directly instead targeting things important to humans such as their farms, livestock, and homes)

I'll put what Etho & Pause are under a cut for Spoilers reasons (also cause this post is getting long as fuck lol)

Etho is a Trickster type of Cryptid called a Shadowling. He is essentially a sapient shadow that feeds on people's anger, fear and surprise when they fall for his tricks. The three-dimensional version of his True Form is a 8 foot tall androgynous humanoid that is pitch black in color with wisps of shadow coming off of him. He also has a two-dimensional version of his True Form which can be any size he wants but cannot interact with items directly, only their shadows. The only visible features that he has in both versions of his True Form are his eyes (which are just two large glowing orbs, the right one silver and the left one red) and a Cheshire Cat-like grin that spreads from what would be ear to ear if he still had visible ears. 

He can shapeshift at will but to help reduce the amount he needs to change, he shapeshifts clothes onto him to hide shadows underneath. It’s also just hilarious to see people’s expressions when he pulls down his mask to reveal that he has no nose and his mouth is a gash of white in a black void lol 

Pause meanwhile is a Neutral type of Cryptid called a Sandman. They produce a fine sand from their bodies which they collect in their pockets. They sprinkle this sand on people to put them to sleep so that they can feed on their dreams, nightmares, or both. People tend to be very wary of Sandmen because nothing can wake a being from a Sandman induced sleep aside from another Sandman. 

The way that a Sandman looks are extremely varied as they can look like any being so that they can blend in amongst them in order to feed. They cannot actively shapeshift but give them enough time and they will slowly change form to look more like the beings that surround them. The only way to tell them apart from most beings that they mimic is by their vertical hourglass shaped pupils and the traces of sand that they leave behind. 

There is another Cryptid on the server buuuuut I think I've scattered enough crumbs for people to be able to guess who it is lol

I will tell you this: [REDACTED] is considered an Obstructive/Destructive type of Cryptid

[a-plethora-of-peters]

Any traditions that the hermits have with each other? -👑

The Kingdomcraft guys (Ren, Stress, Scar, Cub, Wels, and Iskall) will spend the first full moon of the season together so that Ren doesn't feel alone at the beginning when everything is still a bit off kilter

Grian collects his shed feathers from his first molt of a season and gifts them to Mumbo and whoever his closest starter basemate(s) are that season

Xisuma and Ex have taught the other Hermits/Helsmits the Expanse tradition of dropping a small but interesting item into the Void for good luck before you go on an End raid

TFC and Joe have a monthly meet-up where they both just sit and vibe, occasionally talking about news that some Watcher or another has shared with one or both of them

It's less a tradition and more of a cute way to shut him up, but the rest of the NHO will kiss Bdubs' forehead if he starts to get too worked up while building. He mentally bluescreens every single time, blushing furiously.

Ever since Gem joined the server, she has been invited to join in on Fanta-tea Time aka all the Fae beings on the server (Stress, Cub, & Scar) having tea time with each other!

Pearl meanwhile takes great joy in swimming biweekly with Hypno because water beings gotta swim :)

Cleo, Mumbo, Iskall (honorary member because they joke if being a cyborg counts as being a modified human or not), Scar, Cub, and (most recently) Beef participate in what they call the Human No More club where if you were human at one time you can join them once a week to get together and jokingly complain about what a hassle your new species is compared to being human or visa versa

That's all I can think of at the moment but I'm sure there are other traditions!

[a-plethora-of-peters]

Would you say that Mantis Beef's head is more circular/ovalish like a humanoids or triangular like a mantis's? (This is so i can daydream about fanart more accuratly)

I AM BEHOLDING THE IDEA OF RECEIVING FANART INTENSELY

But to answer your question, in full Moon Mantis form, his head is triangular because yeah he is just a big like 9 foot tall mantis lol

In a more hybrid form, like what he looked like when he went to see Zed before changing into his mantis form for the first time, Beef's head is a bit more... trapezoidal?

Like there's the obvious sort of triangular aspect towards his eyes that being part mantis gives him but there's also a squareness to his head towards the bottom since I imagine Beef with a very squareish jawline

There's also the Prawn from District 9 inspiration to keep in mind which is primarily how his mouth parts look I suppose?

Admittedly even I'm a bit vague on how he looks in a more hybrid form tho I will say that wasyago's more buggy looking Tango is definitely an inspiration for how his extra arms/wings are arranged in hybrid form!

[a-plethora-of-peters]

You talked about peaceful worlds (/derogatory), but what about hardcore worlds?

Ah yes... Hardcore servers. They're fun and (usually safe) though sometimes... well let me tell you what sometimes happens with hardcore servers...

(Warning for discussion about death, and a bit of unreality regarding said death)

~0.0~

Hardcore worlds aren't supposed to end in permadeath.

They are specially coded so that when you die there, you return to your private server, a friend's server, or even just the general server hub.

Some skilled admins are capable of altering the coding of hardcore worlds to make special rules outside of the usual "you only get one life" rule. Things like giving you extra lives or temporarily making you a hybrid upon your death or tying your life to another person so that if one of you dies, you both die or even letting you gift your life to another person.

Sometimes though, unexpected things happen.

A natural disaster happens to destroy not just your spawn but your whole hardcore server. A pair of hands, one pair the pale blue of a drowned corpse and the other pair the brilliant red of a fresh apple gently hold onto you as they help you from the shattered remains of your server. Pure green eyes the color of emeralds and new leaves glow and pure orange eyes the color of nautilus shells and autumn leaves shimmer as the pair of Demons laugh and congratulate you on your good run this time around. The Lava King and The Ice Queen tell you that you'll just have to try again next time and they'll be rooting for you.

The code to older hardcore worlds sometimes glitch, fragmenting these lost servers into nothing. He looks fairly plain, in his blue and tan clothes, his brown hair cut short and his blue eyes clear like a summer's day sky. He holds a copper lantern with a lit candle inside in his one hand and he offers the other to you with a kind smile. The Copper King assures you that you will not be forgotten, that he will light a Vigil candle for you.

Sometimes something happens to entrap you in a deathloop in the ocean. You're hauled onto the deck of a ship where an Anthro Sheep hybrid with rainbow dyed fur and a captain's hat waits. She hauls you to your feet and pushes you towards the rigging, tells you to help out. Davy Jones smirks at you and tells you that everyone that sets foot on her vessel needs to help steer the ship back to port.

Occasionally, you're fighting off 5 different mobs at once and a creeper blows all of you up at the same time confusing the coding of your server. Massive wings of night black feathers that shimmer with a rainbow sheen surround you like a guardian's embrace. Golden hair and bight blue eyes gleam alongside a mischievous smile from under the brim of a green and white striped bucket hat. The Passing Crow hybrid bumps his shoulders with yours and grins. His words are warm and full of love as The Angel of Death tells you that you're going to love meeting his wife.

Sometimes things go wrong.

But that's not always a bad thing.

[a-plethora-of-peters]

Since you asked, ZITS :D

*inhales deeply before yelling* ZITS MY BELOVED!

THESE BOYS! THESE BOYS! I LOVE THEM!

So to set the vibes for them all we have:

A Gremlin that was found eating the electricity in an iron farm by an Anthro Magma Cube hybrid on one server and said hybrid takes the Gremlin away with him

And far far away on another server, a Centaur Enderman hybrid is being bugged by an Electricity Demon to make a Contract with him

Vibes secure in your head? Good cause I'm gonna pop off about Impulse and Skizz meeting and officially becoming friends now because I have Skizz brainrot and I love he!

~0.0~

At first, Skizz thought that Demons were just myths.

Stories told to keep wandering children close to home during the day when most mobs can't venture out.

Don't wander too far or a Demon will snatch you away!

Keep close to home unless you want a Demon to eat your soul!

When he was a teen and moved out on his own, he started doubting the stories about Demons being ready to snatch him up and suck out his soul.

He probably still would've doubted their existence if it wasn't for Impulse.

Well, he didn't go by Impulse then. Skizz was the one to call him Impulse after the Demon had given him an awkward English translation of his name from Infernal.

("I'm named qui agit in instinctu-masculina praesentia-odorem ozonis et sonum longinquum tonitrui. I use he/him pronouns. I don't have any Contracts yet, but I'm definitely in the market to make one if you want." The brown haired and golden eyed being - apparently a Demon - tells him with a polite smile and a wink.

Skizz appreciates that he doesn't even try to make direct eye contact with him.

Skizz blankly stares at him for a few moments. "Can you uh... can you translate that first part into something I can understand, buddy?"

The Demon blushes - Oh! He blushes red like a human does, that's neat! - electricity sparking between his tall black and yellow striped horns. His tail curls around his leg, yellow fluff on the end sparking like sheep's wool.

"I suppose the closest I can get in English is... he who acts on instinct-a masculine presence-the scent of ozone and the distant sound of thunder. More or less." He hazards cautiously.

"Acts on instinct?" Skizz snickers. "So your name is literally that you're impulsive?"

"Wha- I-... okay that's not entirely untrue..."

"Alrighty then, Impulse!" He claps his hands before offering one to the startled Demon.

"Wait wha-?"

"You can call me Purpur, I use he/him pronouns too, and I'm not interested in getting a Contract - whatever that is - right now!")

Impulse took to his new name surprisingly fast and lurked around Skizz's home for a number of months afterwards.

Skizz would leave to go mining for the day and Impulse would be leaning on his mailbox with a friendly smile and offer him something in exchange for a Contract.

("What if I made you look like a Passing Hybrid? I can do that, you know. Make you look more human so you don't stand out so much?"

"Nice try. I'm pret-ty good with how I look thank you very much."

"Oh well, worth a shot right?"

"Yeah that was a good try!"

"Hey! Leave my hair alone!")

Skizz would come home from grocery shopping and Impulse would be perched on his fence, munching on an apple before making Skizz a different offer.

("Okay, I think I got something for sure that you'll be interested in!"

"Is that so, 'pulse?"

"Oh yeah! You get to keep your Centaur form, but! But! I give you two complete enderpearls in your body rather than just the halves that you have! Huh? Huh!? How's that sound?"

"Mmmm tempting but no thanks. I don't mind being unable to teleport as frequently as other Enderman hybrids."

"Oh you're no fun!"

"I mean if you want fun, you can always go to like Hipixel or a server like that?"

"What is with you and your addiction to messing up my hair?!")

Skizz got used to the offers, got used to Impulse hanging around his place whenever he left to do things, got used to messing with Impulse's hair everytime an offer fell flat.

Then one day he came outside (he had to thin his carrot bed out, so that they could grow properly) and Impulse was sitting on the edge of Skizz's porch looking... not quite sad or upset, a bit melancholy perhaps?

"Hey buddy. Something the matter?" Skizz asks, kneeling next to him.

A stifled curse in Infernal comes from Impulse as he jumps before he looks up at Skizz and plasters on a stiff smile. "Hey Purps! I got a new offer today! It's-"

"Lemme stop you there, Impulse."

Something seems to crack, his smile falling and becoming resigned.

"Oh... so is this it?"

"Huh? Is this what?" Skizz looks at him confused.

Impulse shrugs and looks at his clawed hands in his lap. He speaks softly as if he's scared that Skizz is going to yell at him.

"Where you get fed up with me and tell me to leave because you're tired of me trying to make a Contract with you?"

Skizz frowns. "Where'd you get that idea from?"

"I just figured..." Impulse shrugs. "It's been... almost 2 years now? And I've offered you so many things and you always turn me down-."

"Cause you always talk about making a Contract with me-"

"Cause I need to make a Contract!" Impulse bursts out loudly. He flushes and says quieter. "Cause without a Contract, no one will want me."

"Hey that's not true!" Skizz frowns. "We don't have a Contract and I still want you to stick around!"

Impulse freezes and looks at Skizz's collarbone to avoid looking in his eyes.

"You don't... You don't mean that... do you?"

Skizz huffs and takes Impulse's face in his hands and tilts his face up towards his own. He croons softly - sad-dont fear-friend - when Impulse immediately closes his eyes. He gently rubs under his eyes with his thumbs.

"I like our exchanges. If I didn't I would have said so sooner." Skizz gently says. "Not to mention... well open your eyes. Please?"

Impulse is trembling in Skizz's hands but he opens his eyes.

Glowing gold meets blue that is verging on purple.

There's no burning urge to fight, to destroy whoever meets his gaze.

He smiles and says "You're Haunting now. You're not gonna be alone, not while I'm around."

Impulse swallows and nods, tearing up. He really starts crying when Skizz leans in to rest their foreheads together and whispers. "Most people call me Purpur but my name is Skizz."

They didn't move from the porch for a while after that. When they did though? It was so that Skizz could invite Impulse into his home for the first time since they met.

[a-plethora-of-peters]

Soup trio my beloveds

Soup Trio... that's Impulse, Pearl, and Gem right?

Impulse backstory involves the rest of ZITS so I think I'll just stick to miscellaneous Impulse facts for this. If you want to get technical, Impulse is only properly called a Demon because he's roughly the Demonic equivalent of middle aged. If he was a bit younger, he would be called a Devil, and if he was a bit older, he'd be an Elder. When he was a kid, he was called an Imp and only the Demon Gods are called Ancients. Impulse's vertical horns act as lightning rods during storms, drawing lightning down to him to help give him a power boost. In his human shape, his irises are gold with starburst shaped pupils

Onto the gals!

Pearl is a Water Dragon and is 24 feet long in her true form. She only has two limbs (her front legs/arms), has dappled blue scales with silver webbing/fins and the fins at the end of her tail have eyespots that change with the phases of the moon. She and Grian met before EVO happened and she claimed him as part of her Thunder, her family along with the rest of the EVO people. When she first met Wels and Hels, both of the knights instinctively hissed at her and tried to stretch out their wings to try and look bigger because dragon instincts said that she was an invader encroaching on their territory. Fortunately, she just found their posturing cute rather than threatening and they were easily bribed into leaving her alone with some riches from her hoard.

As for Gem, she is a cervitaur Faun, a deer-like nature spirit with a specialty in plant magic. She and Pearl met through Martyn because Martyn knew Pearl from EVO and he's an Ent so ofc he and Gem have met a few times to exchange news and magic tips. She is easily distracted by listening to the plants of a world speak so she is very prone to being snuck up on and shot at/blown up/eaten.

[a-plethora-of-peters]

Question of the day: How long do you think IAC will run for?

This particular part of the universe that IAC takes part in? Probably about... 3 or 4 more chapters? More or less?

Just a little something to complete the plot, tie up loose ends and set things up for S9 ya know?

Which at the rate I usually write at may last until the middle of summer IDK

After that I have a few other scattered stories in mind:

A multi-chapter fic that details Jevin & xB's connected backstory

A trio of stories about Beef adjusting to being a Cryptid away from the Hermits, being introduced to Moon Mantises in the Expanse, and the reintroduction of Zed to Beef because [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS]

The long story of how ZITS came together in the first place

A multichapter fic that covers the circumstances that lead to Scar and Cub becoming Changelings

How Grian came to be the Watcher of Hermitcraft and the origins of Doc and Grian's rivalry

Some fics about my own personal take on 3L/LL

A couple of ficlets where Impulse tells Demon folk tales to Skizz, Tango and Zed

A fun fic where xB [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS] in S9 ;)

And that's just in the same universe as IAC!

I have a few other fics in the works that take place in other AUs, namely a couple AUs that a friend of mine has made and I got inspired into writing for that friend and another one, an Alien AU, that is a collab between me and @lindentree (my beloved /platonic)

So yeah, I'm not gonna be stopping writing any time soon lol

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NHO :D

Sorry I didn't see this until this morning but yes NHO the beloveds 💙

*digs into my bag for NHO Lore*

I will admit I don't have too much about Etho or Beef's pasts outside of them being friends for a very long time along with Pause and the rest of the NHO

Extended info under the cut

Uhhh warnings for kidnapping, child abuse, illegal experimentation, implied drugging, grevious injury, altered mental states (Doc did not have a happy childhood for the most part), bullying mention, blood, & mild violence (Bdubs is a good older bro that protects his baby bro)

Doc

Doc is an Anthro Creeper Hybrid. This means that in appearance he looks a lot like a bipedal Creeper. He's got digigrade legs and large clawed hands tho one is inorganic now. He's covered in short to medium length mossy fur (depending upon the time of year) that he can photosynthesize as an extra source of energy and can produce flowers if he feels safe and happy enough. He has no external nose and uses his tongue to smell instead like a lizard (usually licks his lips to hide this). His ears are large and mobile, capable of independently shifting positions to help him hear things better.

Something to note is that Creeper Hybrids are among the rarest of hostile mob hybrids. So because of this he was kidnapped as a very young child and sold to a facility that ran experiments on hybrids.

Doc - known as Creeper-Male-77 or just 77 for short back then - was raised isolated from the other hybrids in the facility which is why many hybrid traditions and cultural things are unknown to him. Most experiments preformed on him had to do with the limits of his physiology and his instincts as a Creeper hybrid. To help keep him from lashing out at them when he grew older, a thick iron collar with a reservoir filled with a potion of weakness was fastened around his neck.

When 77 was 13, they started tests to see how his Creeper instincts made him react to hybrids of other mobs. For the most part he ignored and was ignored in turn by various hybrids unless he or they were deliberately provoked.

And then they introduced a Passing Panther Hybrid into the test chamber.

77 immediately went on the defense while the stranger lashed out at him. 77 ended up losing his left eye to the Panther hybrid's claws and his right arm was ripped nearly fully from it's socket, held in by only a few ligaments. The damage was to the point that the people in charge thought that if he tried respawning it may glitch and he'd end up permadead.

So they gave him rudimentary prosthetics to replace the parts that they had to remove from him and retired him from physical experimentation. They didn't let him go however since again, Creeper hybrids of any type were rare and they could still run tests on his mind.

So they taught him advanced technology and in doing so gave him the keys to launch an escape that freed all the hybrids that they had imprisoned when he was 16.

In the process of fleeing though, 77 took enough damage both physically and mentally to make him go Feral.

Bdubs

He lived in a Feral state for 2 years before Etho found him. Etho is the one to give him the name Doc after seeing how intelligent he is and helped him out of his Feral mindset, and gradually helped him adjust to living amongst humans and other hybrids.

Hybrids that included...

Bdubs is a Passing Phantom Hybrid. This means that he looks human aside from having a pair of large bat-like wings coming from his back, a long bony tail, and sharp fangs. His wings can be folded around his shoulders and the thumb claws hooked together to make it look like he's wearing a weird shaped cloak. His brown eyes turn pure green when he's around people that haven't slept in 3 days or more. He can and will deafen people with his shrieking.

Being a Passing Hybrid, Bdubs looked human until he reached puberty. Then his instincts and internal structures changed first before his outsides shifted to match his new instincts/insides.

One time while he was in the process of changing, he stood up to some bullies for Pungence - also a Phantom hybrid though he's a Centaur and not Passing like Bdubs - and one of them punched Bdubs in the mouth. He had already been losing his human teeth to get ready for his fangs, so he just spat out a mouthful of blood, and 3 human teeth before baring a bloody smile which was a mix of Phantom fangs and human teeth at the bully and beating the tar outta them.

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IAC: What are you most proud of?

That I managed to bullshit 7 and a half chapters of a fic that you guys seem to like /lh

No but seriously, I'm really proud of how far I've come with this idea

Like the initial thoughts for it were in like... December of last year when Doc had just built his giant mantis last season

So the fact that I stuck with this idea and pounded out as many chapters as I have delights me!

(Shout out to @mawofthemagnetar for helping me with plot ideas/proofreading exchange for me acting as their soundboard/proofreader for EHK! Love your sweet face Snake!)

[a-plethora-of-peters]

Dunno if i've asked this already, but what are you least proud of in IAC?

Ooo you asked me before about what I'm most proud of so this is an Uno reverse of that one /gen /lh

That said if there's one thing I'm least proud of, it's my inability to properly articulate what I envision sometimes or sometimes I go too far into detail because I have what I want to share in my head for once so I must put every last detail in when I don't need to

Besides that, I'm pretty proud of what I put out

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Whats something that will never be mentioned/isnt important, but will always have a small place in your heart because its just so c o o l

Man this one is actually hard

Cause there are loads of little things but just because I haven't mentioned them yet doesn't mean I won't mention them at all, and so many of them are very important

I guess if I had to pick one thing that I am very very fond of though...

The Red King was once a God of Protection which was "born" a bit before Eret (Herobrine) was, but over time its purpose had corrupted from Protection to Bloodshed. It used to be a being of Spring instead of Winter and any water it touched could heal whoever touched/drank the water rather than RK having a killing frost touch.