#also no I didn’t want to figure out Grian’s eyes so I did the vaguely anime shading thing

[watcheraurora]

The Listener’s Agent and the Watcher

Sooo… this was mostly meant as an attempt to practice a more dynamic pose. I am a writer. I’ve been teaching myself how to draw for two years and it’s not consistent and it’s a slow process so obviously it’s not that great. But I’m still super proud of it despite that. And I didn’t bother with a background because IbisPaint had this one pre-loaded and it was 1:30AM by the time I finished this

[frozenjokes]

Finished (probably) Chapter 2/2 (19k words)

Summary: Jimmy is violently woken after his discussion with Scar by Martyn at the front door, demanding he be let in. Jimmy wants to mend Martyn and Scar’s relationship, and he thinks he might be able to do it, but admitting to Martyn that he can also Listen is so much harder than he anticipated. Meanwhile, the rest of the server realizes they can no longer log out; that they are trapped in the Third Life world. Jimmy has a feeling he knows who is responsible, but Scar refuses to give any information up easily.

snippet time

***

Martyn gave Jimmy a long look, but the gentle kind, the one that wanted to ask a question but didn’t know how. It was like the second Scar was gone from the picture, every part of him relaxed enough to be a person again, rather than a soldier. Martyn was afraid. Of Scar and for Grian.

Martyn wasn’t going to ask, giving Jimmy the gift of revealing as much as what was comfortable. All or nothing. He settled somewhere in between.

“I know.”

“Ah. Okay.”

The silence between them wasn’t uncomfortable, but the kind of ‘not uncomfortable’ where you have to say ‘not uncomfortable’ because it's not comfortable either, and in fact, it’s quite awkward, but ‘uncomfortable’ is a little harsh, yeah? Jimmy was not about to break it though, and Martyn seemed to understand after a while, speaking for him.

“Did he.. Hurt..” Martyn struggled with the words, but was unable to find something better, “You look really tired, Jimmy. You’ve been so quiet. It’s hard to know what you’re thinking.”

Jimmy took a deep breath. “Scar was in bad shape after he died in the ravine. He, uh,” Jimmy gestured vaguely with his hand, but still couldn’t force the confession forward, couldn’t tell the truth to the only other person on the server who knew exactly what he’d been going through, “His back was gone. It was full of eyes.”

Martyn blinked, then again, rapidly, “Oh,” he said, a smile forming at his own awkwardness, “Yikes.” Jimmy couldn’t help but laugh, and Martyn joined him, a mostly silent thing, but a hint of joy all the same. The moment was killed for Jimmy when the Watchers began relaying every word of their conversation back to Scar, but Martyn gave no indication he noticed. Maybe he was used to it?

“It was freaky.”

“I bet.”

“I think that’s how Grian found him.”

Silence. A long silence, long and certifiably uncomfortable this time, yup, Jimmy didn’t like this one at all. He’d go as far as to say it was unpleasant actually, the way it kept going and going and-

“He didn’t hurt me, Martyn,” Jimmy breathed, his chest tight, “I offered to.. he’s starving. Maybe not as bad now as he was on Hermitcraft, but he needed help. He needed to eat. He won’t- he won’t tell anyone he’s starving! If he was just honest with his needs, he wouldn’t have to suffer like this! He just won’t. He just won’t.”

Martyn stared, gaping.

“You let him.. shit, Jimmy, you really shouldn’t- that’s really dangerous, I don’t think you understand how dangerous that could be.” Martyn didn’t comment on the last sentiment, but Jimmy got the sense he knew what Martyn would say, and honestly, Jimmy didn’t really want to hear it.

“He’s not an animal, Martyn.”

“Did he tell you that?”

“I’m serious. If he didn’t have any self control, he’d have done a lot more damage to me and everyone else he’s befriended over the course of his life. He’s trying as hard as he can to keep the people around him as comfortable as possible at his own expense. This whole thing only happened because he isn’t taking care of himself. He needs to understand people won’t hate him if they know what he is.”

Martyn frowned. “I wouldn’t say that. I’m sorry, Jimmy, but you don’t have the full story. Scar has been nothing but hostile, even to Ren! He completely bit his head off the other day when Ren was being nothing but kind, trying to help just like you were, and Ren’s still upset. He’s spying on me 24/7, threatening me, he lies constantly about Grian’s condition to us AND Grian, and he’s planning on turning the entire server against me if I do anything about it! I heard what he did to Grian, Jimmy. The Watchers tortured him for over an hour by the time Scar was finished with him. You saw what shape Grian was in. It’s bad. And we don’t know what else Scar’s doing behind the scenes. I need help getting Grian out of there so we can help him properly and get him away from the person who did that to him. He might not remember what happened, but he clearly has some sort of unconscious fear of Scar. He looked like he was on the verge of panicking for a minute there! Did that entire thing really not phase you?”

“I know I don’t know everything, Martyn, but I just don’t think it’s as simple as ‘Scar is evil and bad period.’ If we’re going to figure this out peacefully, Scar can’t feel like the entire world is against him. I agree that he’s done some bad things and I really don’t like the way he talks to you, but I don’t think the solution is to ostracize him completely!”

“You have no idea how much power Scar has over me. Over all of us.”

Jimmy thought he had a pretty good idea, but Scar’s return from over the hill silenced any more conversation. The Watchers were still speaking, but Martyn gave no sign he cared, focus zeroed in on Scar. The Watchers used both of their voices to signify who was speaking, and Jimmy didn’t think he’d ever get used to them using his. Miserably, he wondered if they would stop if they asked him to. They’d be following him now, surely, reporting on his every move just like they did for Martyn. His stomach turned.

[halorocks1214]

i was difficult to reach (but you picked me)

Fandom: Double Life SMP

Pairing: Pearl & Jimmy, Jimmy and Tango, Tango & Pearl can be seen as either Team Rancher or Solidaritek

AO3 Link in a self-reblog

Word Count: 4855

“At least the people I don’t wanna be with leave me alone before I even have to worry about them bugging me,'' Jimmy laughed. It didn’t sound all that funny, “One of the first things Joel did with me was say he hoped I wasn’t his soulmate, so…”

Pearl just stared at him, a voice ringing in the back of her head. There’s something wicked within you! “That’s not very nice of them to turn you away before you even did anything.” Unlike her. "Maybe you aren't the 'cursed' one anymore, how would they know?"

Pearl's not the first one in these games to be stuck with the worst luck imaginable.

She let out a deep sigh.

This sucked.

Where did Pearl even start? Her literal soulmate found her so reprehensible he didn’t want her, the first person she made a real connection with dumped her, and then when she reluctantly tried again, she got them killed! Now she was stuck in a hole, her leg injured from her idiot self trying to climb a tree earlier and failing spectacularly, and about to be shot dead by skeletons. Closing her eyes, Pearl gripped the random bow she picked up from one of the skeletons she managed to take out at her chest, making her knuckles white in a vague attempt at getting rid of frustration.

The worst part of the whole thing was that she was somehow still concerned about how Scott was taking it. How pitiful. She was the one dying and she had to be concerned for a guy who didn’t even care outside of the fact that he would have to die too.

Maybe Ren was right; maybe she really is cursed.

But when the sound of dying did not come from her and instead the skeletons that were about to encroach on her potential grave, her brain was so shocked she managed to release her death grip on the weapon and sit up a little. Peering at the edge of the hole, she watched as none other than Jimmy Solidarity stepped over to look down at her. “Pearl?!”

She grinned pathetically, happy she was no longer in immediate danger but still in pain from her injuries, “Hey Jimmy.”

Jimmy moved back and forward rapidly like he wasn’t sure whether to help Pearl directly or sprint off to find someone else for backup. In the end, he slid down the hole by himself, his wings fluttering anxiously, “Oh my gods oh my gods oh my gods-” His hands hovered above Pearl, unsure of where to start or even if he should at all, “What hurts? What’s your health look like? Do you need-”

“I’m okay outside of my leg, really,” Pearl finished for him. At some point, she went back to laying completely flat on her back. “I think Scott’s still awake and eating, so my health hasn’t entered any danger zone levels yet. You should probably get back to your soulmate; I can figure out how to handle myself.”

Jimmy reached into his inventory, pulling out some bandages and chuckling weirdly. Like he has a very obvious secret he’s not telling her, “Don’t worry about that, fair lady, I think your predicament should take a little precedent right now.”

He also pulled a stick out to gently place against her injured limb, apologizing when she hissed at the contact. Otherwise, she mostly stayed silent as he wrapped her up, focusing on his determined face. The way his brow was furrowed suggested that he was a little too into focusing on her leg, meaning he was finding excuses not to think about something else. Pearl could spot that expression from a mile away; she was very familiar with it on herself and Grian as well.

She wondered how Grian was doing occasionally. They never really got the chance to meet up all that often during these games. Though maybe she dodged a bullet with that, she noticed that he tended to get… a little bit frightening in these servers.

“Aaaand there we go!” Jimmy suddenly spoke, placing his hands on his hips triumphantly. “Sorry I don’t have any potions on me right now, but your leg should be okay to go for the time being.”

Pearl took this time to fully sit up and examine his handiwork, finally putting the random bow away into her inventory. The splint was nicely secured on the outer side of her leg, the bandages wrapped not too tight but not too loose either. Pearl even poked it a little like a curious small child and promptly winced at how tender it felt. She supposed that was to be expected.

She looked up and gave Jimmy a genuine smile, “Thank you for doing this, it’s a great patch job. Probably better than anything I could have done, ha.” She rubbed the back of her neck nervously, unsure of how to continue, “Seriously, you can go back to Tango. I bet he’s worried about you right now.”

Jimmy waved her off with an air of faux confidence, “Don’t worry about us, Pearl! We’re two big boys who can handle a little alone time, and I would prefer helping you get to safety. I highly doubt you’ll be able to walk properly, and doing so at night is an absolute recipe for disaster.”

Okay, now this was getting weird.

Jimmy has so far dodged two mentions of his soulmate, someone Pearl had seen him be very happy with. Had something happened since the last time she last hung out with them to split them up? She heard about The Ranch burning down, but she was pretty sure neither of them caused that, so there was no reason for them to feel animosity toward each other in that regard.

“Welp, the night’s not getting any darker!” Jimmy proclaimed, pushing himself up on his knees to stand before reaching down to grab Pearl from under her shoulders, lifting her to be standing as well. Once she was up, he adjusted her so she only needed to have an arm around his shoulders to be able to walk with minimal support. He was extra careful not to touch her leg in any way, and she could hear his wings readjust constantly to counteract the changes in weight as they occurred.

Pearl didn’t feel good about this, “Are you sure you wanna spend your night with me? I can figure it out if you want to get back home.”

Jimmy nodded his head a little too enthusiastically, “Never been more sure-rier in my life! Besides, we all know the best feeling in the world is a freshly made bed, and I don’t know about you, but after a crappy day like this, I want nothing more than to soak in the cushy goodness of those sheets.”

As they trekked forward, she heard in the distance the sound of Tango’s unique horn. She almost opened her mouth to ask him if he was going to respond but decided against it. Jimmy would probably answer with some excuse about needing both hands to make sure she didn’t fall. She could ask later when they weren’t in the middle of heavy mob territory.

She did have all night to figure it out, and that bed sounded really nice.

---

Pearl watched from the sidelines as Jimmy made a fire for them.

She couldn’t shake the feeling that he was jittery about something. His movements appeared to stutter like he was double and triple-checking in his mind whether or not what he was doing was a good thing. It was like how Grian got when he was failing at hiding the fact that he set up a prank on someone except with an air of negativity around it.

She didn’t have too long to worry about it when the sound of a flint and steel creating sparks broke her out of her thoughts, followed by a bright albeit still kind of small light appearing in front of her. Jimmy stood up from where he was kneeling, depositing the tools back into his inventory and brushing his hands free of soot and dirt, “That should do it! In just a few minutes, that’ll become a hearty fire hot enough to keep the entire server warm!”

Pearl nodded her head, still playing along, “Thanks, the nights do tend to get cold around here.” She would know.

Jimmy nodded just as enthusiastically, sitting down on the opposite side of the flames to her. He aggressively rubbed his hands against his sides in his armpits, exhaling some air that was somewhat visible due to the chilly night, “Of course.”

Then it was silent again, no noise outside the eerie whistles of the wind and the crackling of the slowly growing fire. Jimmy kept his line of sight toward the ground, his irises flickering about nervously. Pearl squinted at him ever so slightly so you could barely see she was doing so, just in case he randomly looked up and saw her staring him down. She noticed that his foot was tapping and that his hands never seemed to stop fidgeting.

That’s it; she was getting to the bottom of this.

She started speaking, “Are you okay?”

“Martyn said you had a golden apple!” Jimmy blurted his interruption.

Which took Pearl back by a little. She promptly clicked her mouth shut, her original imaginary alarm bells dying off but brand new ones ringing just as loudly in her head taking their place, “Why are you asking?”

Jimmy shrugged his shoulders jovially, like asking for one of the only forbidden things on the server was something completely and totally nonconsequential. He started wrapping his wings around him for extra warmth, “Just curious. Thought you would have used it by now considering your… predicament.”

At that comment, part of Pearl’s brain short-circuited. Why hadn’t she used it? There was no losing if she took it out and bit a chunk off right now. Not only would she not have to be connected to Scott anymore, thus not having to worry about taking damage for no reason, Scott could no longer show up out of nowhere to get on her case when her damage hurt him. Jimmy had every right to question why she was holding onto it…

“Jimmy, do you want to use the apple?” The idea hit Pearl so hard that she almost fell over.

At Jimmy’s sputtering and his wings shooting out behind him in surprise, she knew she hit it right on the nose. He flailed his arms around like he was trying to stop a ravager from charging at him, “W-What?! What brings you to that conclusion?!”

Pearl could only look at him with a blank stare, “Every time I’ve asked if you want to go back to Tango, you avoid it, you haven’t even touched your horn once while we have been together, and now you’re suddenly wondering if I still have the one thing that can break our soul-bonds.” It was hard to imagine Jimmy wanting to get away from Tango, but then again, Pearl and Scott had a decent relationship last game. It wasn’t that hard for people to turn on each other in the blink of an eye here, “I’m not going to stop you if that’s what you want, I just want you to know why you’re so avoidant of admitting that’s what it is. Did… did Tango do something-”

“Gods no, it’s not him, it’s always been me!” Jimmy rapidly stood up, furious at the mere suggestion of Tango doing something wrong. As soon as the confession left his lips, though, he covered his mouth with both hands, and his wings slightly wrapped around himself again, like those actions could make Pearl forget what he just said.

Pearl could only blink at her friend, “What do you mean by that?”

Jimmy’s expression suddenly became downtrodden. He brought his hands back to his sides so he could use one to rub the back of his neck. As he sat down once more, he deeply inhaled through his nose, “I’m not… People can’t be around me. Time and time again it’s been proven that I’m not… good. I think it would be best for us if Tango had the option to… get away.”

But that didn’t make any sense, “Jimmy, you’re one of the sweetest people I know. Sure, you’re a little mischievous, but so is everyone else on this server. This place is awful, it makes sense if you needed to do some shady stuff to survive, so I wouldn’t say you’re bad for that either.”

Jimmy shook his head vehemently, “I mean, I’m an okay person, my skill level notwithstanding, but there’s this… aura around me. It hurts people.”

Pearl was in no way qualified to handle at least three-fourths of that sentence, so she decided to focus on the one-fourth she managed to parse, “‘Aura’?’”

Jimmy leaned back on his log, “I tend to bring bad luck wherever I go. It’s such a problem that no one wants to be near me. It’s like a deadly version of cooties, in a way.”

A faint ringing began in Pearl’s ears.

“At least the people I don’t wanna be with leave me alone before I even have to worry about them bugging me,'' Jimmy laughed. It didn’t sound all that funny, “One of the first things Joel did with me was say he hoped I wasn’t his soulmate, so…”

Pearl just stared at him, a voice yelling in the back of her head. There’s something wicked within you! “That’s not very nice of them to turn you away before you even did anything.” Unlike her. “Maybe you aren’t the ‘cursed’ one anymore, how would they know?”

Jimmy paused for a second. “Haven’t you noticed that when I die,” Jimmy spoke carefully, “everything goes to shit?”

She opened her mouth to respond, then slowly closed it when she started thinking more about his question. She was not there for the first game, but she remembered back in the second one when Scott, tipsy off half-brewed potions and so very tired dealing with all of the chaos, mentioned being close to Jimmy in the first one, and that when he died, Scott was not the only thing that fell apart. It was almost like a domino effect, as Scott described it as.

Then, the second game came and went, which she was there for, and she got to see Jimmy’s death pop up in chat personally. Scott’s admission never came to mind during the battle of the Reds where they all went to town on one another, but looking back on it now, it horrifically came together. Jimmy’s death occurred immediately before they all became wild animals on the prowl for blood and murder.

“You understand it now,” Jimmy broke her out from her thoughts. “Everyone knows what kind of menace I am. All except for Tango. It would be selfish of me to hold onto our connection when it could cause him grief at any moment. I mean, look what happened today! I stole Scar’s horse like an idiot and got our home burned down!”

Pearl thinned her lips at that statement, “It sounds like you just picked a fight with the wrong person at the wrong time. That’s not indicative of any sort of evil magic surrounding you.”

Jimmy wasn’t done, “That’s not necessarily my point. Tango saw me stealing the horse and went along with it, even cheering me on. Would he have done that if I wasn’t there? Was I just influencing him somehow? I don’t think I should stick around long enough to find out.”

It sounds like you two just need to talk, Pearl thought to herself. They should talk not just because it looked like their life was going to shit, but because Jimmy didn’t seem to know Tango very well. Tango loved pulling those kinds of pranks, even without the threat of a death game looming over their heads.

And yet Pearl still could not make an argument. It was hard to think past her own experiences in this game so far. Her experiences that involved getting people and things killed just by being in the vicinity. She could sympathize with Jimmy for wanting some kind of connection but knowing that it was ultimately selfish when it only brought hurt into someone’s life. With those spiraling thoughts, Pearl reached into her inventory, confusing Jimmy a whole lot before a shiny golden apple was suddenly in her hands.

“If you take a bite,” Pearl proposed, “then I will too.”

Jimmy blinked, shocked that Pearl had given up so easily. Like a lightning strike, Jimmy held his hands out and made “gimme” motions with his fingers. When Pearl threw it across to him, he caught it and began rotating it around like he couldn’t believe this was real. Pearl held her breath as he slowly brought it up to his mouth, getting ready to do the unthinkable before a sudden flash of purple particles appeared behind him, a familiar vwoop hitting Pearl’s ears like a brick to the face.

“JIMMY STOP!” Pearl shrieked, holding a hand out like she could telepathically pull him away. No, not again, please not again. He did as told, probably hearing the same thing Pearl did, and his open-mouth, slouched-over-an-apple pose would be funny if what was causing it wasn’t so terrifying. “Put the apple away for right now and come next to me.”

Jimmy swallowed the spit in his mouth, securing the apple safely into his inventory and slowly standing up. He was doing everything right, being absolutely perfect, and it was Pearl that fucked it all up. Tried taking just one measly second to peek at the enderman to see if it was about to leave, only to have her line of sight land directly on its eyes. She closed her own, biting her lip so hard she tasted iron. Her hoping was futile.

The angry, demonic growling sounded at the same time Jimmy bit out a whispered, “Pearl!”

Before she could even breathe, she was being slammed to the ground onto her back, her head hitting the dirt so hard the stars in the night sky weren’t the only ones she was seeing. In her blurry vision, she could barely make out the dark silhouette of the enderman’s clawed hand stretching as it primed itself to rip her heart out. Or claw her face off. A sad part of her mind was glad the enderman she angered this time was at least killing her, and a twisted part of it hoped the experience was going to hurt if only so it would annoy Scott.

Except the only thing that started hurting was her ears when the enderman shrieked in pain, its grip on her chest loosening when Jimmy shrieked just as loudly, “GET AWAY FROM HER!”

If she wasn’t so busy trying to stop her brain from bouncing around in her head, she would have told him to shut up. This was a problem she created, and she needed to reap the punishment fair and square. And if she were to be honest, for more reasons than one.

Yet when she managed to sit up to survey what was happening while she was a pancake, she found that Jimmy was doing nothing to run away like he rightfully should. He had his shield and iron sword out, his face sporting an expression of pure fury directed at the enderman. As if the mob had no right to attack Pearl the way it did.

As she expected, though—the enderman won before, there was no reason it wouldn’t now—Jimmy was quickly overwhelmed. In a flash, the enderman was back behind him, grabbing his shield and flinging it out of his hands. The force turned him around just in time for the enderman to grab his shoulder and stab him with its sharp claws. Jimmy let out an ear-piercing scream of pain as he was also pushed to the floor, albeit much nicer than Pearl was.

As she tried standing up, she let out her own noise of pain. Right, shit, her stupid leg! As if she wasn’t useless enough as it was. Looking back at the fight, she almost let out a sob when she saw the enderman digging the claw that was in Jimmy’s shoulder even further in while it used its other one to grab the front of his face. Gods, she was going to watch it break Jimmy’s neck and there was nothing she could do about it-

Wait, she had a projectile weapon. That bow she swiped from the skeletons that nearly took her out in a vague attempt at turning the tide of the fight to her side. Pulling it out from her inventory, she noticed that she also had exactly one arrow. Loading the weapon and aiming at the mob, she took a deep breath, absorbing the fact that if she missed, Jimmy and Tango would already lose their second life.

She released the bowstring at the same time she released her breath.

She almost couldn’t believe the sound of the arrow nailing the enderman in the forehead was real, nor the sound of it poofing out of existence and its XP getting absorbed by Jimmy.

Jimmy.

Throwing the bow to the side, she proceeded to crawl over to Jimmy’s prone form on the ground. Through much agony, she eventually made her way over to sit at Jimmy’s side, examining his damage. He was breathing heavily, the few scratches on his face where the tips of the enderman’s claws reached not even coming close to the damage on his shoulder. The blood rushing from the wounds was endless, and if she didn’t come up with another miracle like she did previously, all her efforts would be for naught.

She needed Tango over here. She needed him now. But what would achieve that? Neither she nor Jimmy was in a state that could safely achieve that. She didn’t even know what Tango’s state was after all of this, he might be just as incapacitated as-

The boys’ unique horn sound burst through the air like an angel, causing some tears to leak happily from the corners of Pearl's eyes. Thank gods, Tango was coherent enough to use his horn, and because of it, Pearl knew exactly how to get him to their location.

“Jimmy, I’m so sorry, I know you’re in pain,” she lightly grabbed his non-injured shoulder to get his attention, “but I need your horn for now. It’ll help me fix you up, okay? That’s all you need to do. Get your horn from your inventory and then you can rest.”

For a second, she worried he was so far gone that he couldn’t even do that, but eventually, with shaky hands, he carefully reached into his inventory to grab his horn and set it on his stomach with not much energy for anything else. That was fine, though, because all Pearl needed to do was grab that horn and send out the loudest possible blare she could muster.

Sitting there anxiously, the night sounds threatening to fill the air once more, she felt immense relief at hearing Tango’s reply to her reply. It was ever so slightly louder than his last call, and with that reassurance, she sent out another one. The two went back and forth until Pearl was met with the sight of Tango bursting through the bushes to meet them. Pearl noticed out of the corner of her eye that the red splotches on his shoulder perfectly mirrored Jimmy’s.

Tango went from fearful to horrified in the span of half a second, “Oh gods-”

“Tango, I’m sorry,” Pearl interrupted to get straight to the point, “but please help.”

Tango wasn’t even listening to her as he jumped onto his knees, sliding over to Jimmy. He immediately pulled out an iron axe, a bottle of water, and some bandages from his inventory, ripping Jimmy’s shirt apart to get to cleaning the wound. “It’s bleeding too much, we have to cauterize it directly,” Tango explained. Pearl knew what was coming, so she sat forward to firmly push down on the side of Jimmy that Tango wasn’t on. She also pulled out a stick from her inventory and nudged it into Jimmy’s mouth until Jimmy was biting on it.

She flinched a little when Tango heated his axe with his powers before placing it against Jimmy's shoulder. Jimmy attempted to shoot up away from the pain, crying in agony, but both Tango and Pearl kept him in place. Despite what was happening, Tango managed to reach up to run his hand through Jimmy’s hair comfortingly and shush him, “I know, I know, I’m sorry. Just a few more seconds, shh, I’m sorry-”

It was hard for Pearl to watch, so she shamefully turned her head away while Tango finished up. Eventually, with Jimmy’s wound cleaned and bandaged and everyone with full stomachs, they all sat silently around the fire, unsure of what to say. Pearl watched from the other side as Tango was deep in thought, Jimmy sitting next to him so he could rest his head on Tango’s shoulder.

“This is all my fault,” Tango eventually admitted.

Well, Pearl wasn’t sure where the night was going to go before but it certainly wasn’t that, “Why?”

Tango let out a depressed sigh, turning his head so he could look over at his soulmate, “While The Ranch was burning down, I didn’t even pay attention to him. I can stand in fire, but he can’t, so while I was fuming about killing some stupid pandas, he was over there trying to get me to calm down and was injured while doing so. We cleaned and fixed ‘em up but… I don’t blame him for wanting to get away from me.”

Pearl was starting to think that whatever those two were going through was way out of her ballpark of capabilities, “That’s not… why he wanted to leave.”

Tango blinked like his worldview got flipped upside down while Jimmy suddenly made a noise of displeasure, reaching over to grab one of Tango’s hands. He didn’t open his eyes as he turned his face to nuzzle it into Tango’s shoulder, “It’s not you, it’s me… ‘m bad for people. Didn’ want you to haf’ to deal with that.”

Tango’s eyes flashed a violent red for a brief second, making Pearl worry that their campfire was about to be a lot bigger, but then Tango calmed down and instead gently wrapped Jimmy in a gentle hug, placing his nose into Jimmy’s hair, “I knew I should have talked to you more after you got back from Grian’s place. How many times do I gotta say that you’re fine just the way you are, okay? We make a bomb-ass team. How many of those idiot Horn Club members got sweet unique horns, huh? It’s the two of us for the long haul whether you like it or not.”

And just like that, Jimmy was gripping Tango back as tight as he could despite his aches and pains, using his wings as an extra set of arms to also wrap around Tango, and releasing all his emotions, not just from the day’s events, but also from all that happened in each and every game. From being labeled the stupid and weak one, from feeling like he’s the reason everything has constantly gone to shit, he was finally able to let it go in the arms of the one person who attempted to understand him as his own person.

Watching the scene, Pearl figured she would ask for the golden apple back later. Asking for it now would open a can of worms, and besides, it seemed like she didn’t need to worry about Jimmy using it any time soon. Those two clearly got the soul-bond thing down locked. Maybe they would need to talk about it at some point because it was a pretty big thing Jimmy was about to commit to, but for right now, all was well.

Pearl was thinking about the best way to fall asleep tonight when Tango spoke to her again, “Hey, Pearl?”

Looking back at the guys, she noticed Jimmy had passed out in Tango’s arms. Probably tuckered out from all that happened plus all of the sobbing uncontrollably he just did, poor guy. His wings were tucked safely behind him now, but they did hang a little loosely because he wasn't actively awake to keep them up. After noticing that, Pearl finally acknowledged Tango, “Yeah?”

Tango had a tiny grin on his face, “I just wanted to say thank you. If it weren’t for you, we’d be in a lot of deep shit right about now.”

Pearl couldn’t help but object to that, “U-Uh, thanks, but I don’t think you should be giving me your gratitude. I’m, like, at least eighty-five percent of the reason Jimmy was in the position he was in tonight. It was really luck that saved us, I’m kinda terrible at doing that otherwise.”

“Well, I think it’s unfair to say you’re completely terrible,” Tango said honestly. “You got me and Jimmy our special horns when we weren’t able to. Horns which now are also responsible for saving our lives, so… You’re free to stay at The Ranch whenever you want. When it’s rebuilt, of course. It’s the least we can give back for all you’ve done.”

Pearl… never thought of it that way.

Turning to look up at the stars, Pearl felt a small smile tug at her lips.

(A canary and its miner weren’t complete without a mine, after all.)

[give-grian-rights]

CHAPTER TWO HOUR. CHAPTER TWO HOUR. I AM SO TIRED. IT IS 6AM. TELL ME IF HTERE’S TYPOS AND THAT NORMAL STUFF

Bets Against The Void, Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Chapter 3

Whitelist au from @petrichormeraki

Crossposted on AO3

Tubbo quietly chuckled, smiling fondly as their friend squawked indignantly. “Tubbo! I’m serious, explain some shit, fuckin’ nerd!” Tommy scoffed, prodding at their side with his elbow. Tubbo hushed him, their smirk still lingering.

  “Hermitcraft is a super crazy popular server. If you’ve ever searched for examples of builds on your tablet, chances are, they’re from one of the Hermits. Or if you looked up something about redstone! Anything! You’ll find one of their instructions. They’re geniuses- just, complete geniuses. Grian’s one of them-”

  “Grian’s one of them!?” Tommy exclaimed, his eyes shooting open. Tubbo’s grin widened, nodding vigorously. “Yes! He’s the newest Hermit, last I heard.. Most of the guys he’s teammates with every MCC, they’re usually other Hermits!” They’d continue explaining to the best of their ability.

  “Should’ve fuckin’ started with the fact that Grian’s here! That fuckin’ dude! He killed Dream three times! Three times, Tubbo!” The blond continued with his excited shouting. Well, that certainly fixed the situation, Tubbo mused.

  The brunett nodded along, chuckling. “Yeah! He, and most of the others, really- post all that much right now. The new World Client, with the axolotls and caves ‘n stuff? They’ve started posting and sharing discoveries about that.  I know Grian did, at least. But considering they call themselves the ‘Hermits’ it makes sense to be a bit inactive, yeah?” Tubbo shrugged, tapping the chilly cool sandstone beneath them.

  Tommy nodded dumbly, glancing around the room for a moment. Tubbo, meanwhile, had pulled their tablet up. The holographic comm system was displayed infront of them, everything on the screen they touched being read aloud to them.

  Launching an accessibility app, the tablet began describing aloud the block palette, dimensions, and colors. As the tablet’s robotic voice played in his com system, reading aloud the details of his surrounding, Tubbo nodded along to an incoherent rant from Tommy.

Tubbo wasn’t too sure what Tommy was ranting about- likely MCC, and Grian. Grian got a kill on Tommy, last MCC, if they remember correctly.  The brunnett wouldn’t be surprised if that was the target of the blond’s current tangent. Tommy hadn’t even been able to get a word out, when Grian began shouting vigorous apologises between matches.

  The descriptions from the tablet were long, and boring. The robotic voice drawing on and on, as it attempted to describe the intricate room. Shutting down the program, Tubbo tuned back into Tommy. 

  “Fuckin’ am..So fucking tired. Of course we ended up here. It’d be to easy if we’d just be let back into Dream SMP, huh? Think Dream even knew we were out? I bet not. Even if he does, probably didn’t even care, fuckin’ dick. Bet that green asshole’s just sitting over his code and shit, simping over Gogy-” The blond ranted heatedly. The blind teen could hear the shifting and chustling of fabric, before the boy’s voice became muffled.

  With his head pressed against his knees, legs drawn to his chest, Tommy sat there practically panting. His chest heaved, the rage draining from him. “Why is all- all of this, always so complicated, Tubbo?” Blue eyes turned to meet the scarred, burnt front of the other.

  Tubbo picked at faded and torn tennis shoes, tentatively listening. The rymnatic pattern of the boy’s breathing, and the crashing overhead, offered some vague comfort. “All of what?” They’d tilt their head.

  The younger of the two quietly sighed, his mouth pressed in a thin line. His hand clutched the bottom of his torn, tan cargo pants, fidgetting with the frayed ends. “Us. Shit with us, it always gets so fuckin’ complicated. Big Man, you’re president. You’re- you’re the fucking president, now, Tubbo.”

  The bunnett’s brows furrowed together, as they inched closer to their friend. “Yeah. But it’s- it’s still us, y’know? If- if life was easy, then we’d be missing out on a lot of things. What if we had just never met-”

“We’d always meet eachother, Tubbo. There’s no fuckin’ getting rid of me, even in your fantasy world.” The blond nudged the teen’s shoulder, a wolfish grin evident in his tone.

  That made the other crack a smile, shaking their head. “I hope so, Tommy.” They’d chuckle, shaking their head. The weight of the day came crashing down all again. Before the rushing thoughts could boggle down their mind, Tubbo slumped against Tommy’s side sigh an exhausted sigh.

  “This is just, livin’ the fucking life, huh?” Tommy remarked, looking over his friend. The tall boy already shifted himself, his long legs sprawled out on the floor with his back leaned against sandstone walls.

  His head leaned against that of his compaignian, half-lidded blue eyes giving one last surveillance of the room. “We’ll figure this shit out tomorrow..” Tommy mumbled, glancing down at the brunette.

  Tubbo was already asleep, their expression finally one of peace. Tommy wasn’t given a moment more to appreciate the serenity of the quiet room, before he’d be pulled into slumber as well.

  Both of the teens were stirred awake by the whirring noises of an active portal- the Netherportal beside them, with particles flying, gaveway to two players. Tommy kicked himself up to his feet, defensively. Tubbo stumbled along with him, pulling back away from the strangers.

Though two stepped out, only one immediately caught Tommy’s eyes.

  “W- Holy shit!  You’re Grian!” Tommy squawked indignantly.

  Tubbo’s head immediately shot up, excitably breaking into a grin. Any exhaustion the two held was wiped away- neither was sure how long their unrestful sleep had been, but it was far more than other nights. 

  The target of the excitement, Grian, sheepishly stood there, nodding. “Uh, yeah! You guys are Tommy and Tubbo, yeah?  I’ve seen you at most of the MCC’s I’ve been to. You both did really good last time, by the way! I’m really looking forward to the next one!” 

This was easily the closest they probably ever were to the dirty blond. He also looked far more at ease, on this server. The iconic figure, ever-present in the community, had his wild mop of a fringe frazzled and framing his face.

  Poking under the bangs, Tommy could now see faint, ragged lines from a scar, along with other various healed-over wounds. Another contrary to how either of them had seen Grian, at MCC, was the large circular glasses loosely sat on his face.

Seeing one of his heroes like this (The only one that hadn’t betrayed, killed him, turned against him, despised him-) in such a..Domestic state, was bizarre. Tommy was scrambling for words, starting and giving up on getting his tongue around what to say.

  “This is so cool! Hi! I used to watch and- and listen, to a lot of your old build tutorials! A lot of people on our server would always say how we learned building from you!” Tubbo would blurt out, practically bouncing on their heel. Grian turned to the teen, slightly shocked but amused. 

  “Oh! I- well thank you! I’m glad I could be any help at all- my builds are nothing compared to some of what the other Hermits have going on..Speaking of others- this is Stress!” He’d take the opportunity to escape the small spotlight, glancing towards the brunette woman next to him sheepishly.

  The woman- Stress, apparently, quietly chuckled. A fond smile grazed her face, as she looked over towards the two teenagers. “Ello there, Loves! Sorry to interrupt your fan meetup,” She teased, side-eyeing the dirty blond beside her.  “We just wanted to come and check in, is all! X told us two to come visit, yeah?”

  Tommy quietly hummed skeptically,  surveying her. Short brown hair hung barely as low as her shoulder, a neat, white, blue, and pink flower-crown sat upon her head. The colors must’ve been very purposeful, considering they matched with her colorful outfit of the same color.

  “Fine, sure..Well, we’re still fuckin’ breathing, and we’re here. So you don’t really need to be here any longer, yeah?” Tommy scoffed, slumping back against the wall. Tubbo was already standing, nudging at his side. 

  “Thank you, for checking in. I- I’m sure this is a bit of a strange situation. That- Yeah, that’s my bad.” They chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of their neck. This caught Stress’ attention, turning towards the tene.

  “Oh, no! This isn’t a problem at all. Dear, this happens all the time. Grian just- just appeared, one day, in our previous server. We walk out the portal for the first time- and boom! There that weirdo is!” Stress chuckled, her grin unwavering as she gave a playful nudge to the dirty blond beside her.

  Grian scoffed, a smirk edging at his lips as he rolled his eyes. “Okay, but I’m not the only example of that happening- you didn’t have to pick me out specifically!”

  “Sure I do, Love! You’re the first new Hermit to join, after me and Zed! I get to bully you, lovingly!” She cheered. Stress’ energy was absolutely efficacious, Tubbo couldn’t help but smile and cackle at her and Grian’s banter.

“Uh huh,” Grian scoffed, dramatically crossing his arms. “Last I checked, that was Iskall’s job to bully newcomers- oh, Gord, when you all walked out of the portal and they just decked me ? I mean, it didn’t really hurt all that bad, but it’s a matter of the principle!”

  Stress seemed like she was almost gonna break down with laughter, clutching her stomach. “I forgot they did that with you, too! Iskall certainly is one that needs work with their introduction, that absolute weirdo!” She chostled, shaking her head fondly.

  She then turned towards the two teens, reassuringly smiling. “They won’t give you any hard time, they’re just like that sometimes, especially in the beginning of a new season..They’re usually just incomprehensible in the beginning, I learnt!” She giggled, covering her mouth.

  Tubbo awkwardly laughed, nodding. “Yeah- they, they sound like something.” It was..A strange environment, to be sure.

  Sure, they knew of the Hermits, their reputation impossible to avoid- but most outsiders didn’t know much about the actual Hermits. They went by that title for a reason.

  Tommy was having similar thoughts, he felt as if he was completely imposing on, everything. But he couldn’t find it in himself to care- it frankly was..Warming, almost, to see this. He missed being able to have that, on Dream’s server. 

  The blond in particular seemed to have tuned out, because by the time he snapped out of those thoughts, Grian was speaking again.

  “We’re glad to see you’re both alright, but, I don’t think we’ve been exactly great hosts. You both have gotta be hungry- I know the last thing you two seem to want is help, but..We’d be happy to help you however we can.  We can go get you fresh, real food. Or- you both come with us, and we take you to our central area, the Cowmercial district.”

  Tommy stared blankly at Grian for a moment, brows knitted together in bewilderment. “The… Cow..merical district?” He’d repeat, squinting.

  Grian snickered, nodding. “Yeah! The name just stuck. It’s our shopping district. We have a bakery- it’s never, ever too early for cake. There’s Doc’s shop, but that’s all villager-bought, if it’s the rare occasion that it’s stocked at all- so the Bakery may be the only option, for today.” He glanced back at Stress, who nodded in agreement.

  “Only if you’d want to,” Stress would interject. “Either of us could come bring you food here- but, we figured you might want to just..Get out. You’re allowed to leave here whenever you want- but, navigating our server by yourself, for the first time? Not the easiest.”

  The two teens glanced towards eachother. Tubbo looked like they were practically buzzing in place, at the idea of exploring the Hermits’ world. Tommy watched them for a moment, before quietly scoffing.

  “..Yeah, okay, sure- how the hell do we even get out of here though, for starters?” Tommy crossed his arms, inching closer towards Tubbo. He, for one, was really not a fan of having to fly out.

  Stress cheered excitably, pulling open her inventory. The woman promptly dropped a stack each to the two teens. “I came prepared, just in-case!” She grinned. With a swipe of her arm, the digital screen dissipated.

  “If you know how to use elytras, X already said he’s more than happy to lend out two from the back-up system. I have some to spare, as well.  But- you two never seemed the most comfortable in the air, during flight-based games.” Grian would add awkwardly, adjusting his own wings behind him. 

  Tommy didn’t pay much attention to the words- instead, he promptly threw open his inventory, gawking at the full stack of pearls. “What! I don’t think i’ve ever had this many pearls! Holy shit!” He pulled out the stack of sixteen.

  One pearl manifested in his hand, while a holographic icon hovered beside him. The pixel-image of an enderpearl, with a large 15x in the corner in white font was projected for only his vision. The blond couldn’t remember a time he had so many enderpearls.

  “Thank you! Wow- yeah, pearls aren’t really common in our server!  This- this is really nice!” They felt giddy, as they pulled their’s out as well, the action muscle-memory.

  “Well, I’m glad you two can put them to good-use, then!” She chuckled. The idle question of how can a server lack pearls skimming through her head for a moment.

  Within seconds of her saying that, Tommy had already blindly tossed one of his pearls- promptly falling down from the ceiling, and landing on the floor with a short shriek. Tubbo straightened up from the sidelines, tilting their head.

  “Tommy! What did you do?” Tubbo called out accusatorily, as they quickly popped their surrounding descriptor back on.

  “Nothing!” Tommy quickly yelled back, lunging to their feet with a stumble as they dusted themselves off.

  At the sidelines, Stress and Grian cackled, watching in lighthearted amusement. Tommy could feel his face flushed red with brief embarrassment, quickly attempting to play it off.

  “Truer answer; I was being awesome. That was what, Tubbo. Are we eating or what? I want to throw pearls and go places. And eat, that too.” He quickly turned towards the two Hermits expectantly, narrowing his eyes at them.

  Grian grinned, nodding. “Yes, yes we are! I have boats. Go ahead and pop up with your pearls, and we’ll fly out to you.” He explained briefly, pulling the boats from his inventory. The thin, digitized object manifesting in his hand. 

  Tommy turned expectantly to Tubbo. “You got this, Toob?” He tilted his head, watching his friend. Tubbo had immediately nodded vigoriously, running over towards the center of the room, the ceiling above open to the water. 

  “Yeah! I’ve got this, Big Man! No sweat!” They gave a toothy grin, shifting the enderpearl in their hand. Arching their arm back, the teen cautiously stepped back.

  Their communicator had continued reading off the details of the room into their thin earpiece,  primarily the dimensions. All they had to do was hit the wall leading up to the surface to get out. They could do that, surely.

  With a huff of effort, they chucked the pearl. They heard it  break through the under-surface of the water, and then they were submerged. Breaching the surface, they gasped for a moment. The ocean rippled, clothes heavy and soaked. They were certainly glad they had been in their casual clothes, rather than their presidential outfit.

  Within a moment, Tommy was up beside them, quietly gasping as well. The blond pushed his hair back, lightly nudging Tubbo away from the gaping hole in the water beneath them- and then Grian and Stress flew out.

  The sound from the rockets were deafened from beneath the ocean, thankfully. Only a thin trail of smoke followed them, the sight certainly unfamiliar to the fireworks the two teens had been accustomed to.

  Both Hermits had dived straight into the shallow water with a splash, before the dirty-blond dropped down two boats.

“I want to drive! Tommy, i’m driving us!” Tubbo cried out, at the sound of the wood hitting the water. Beside them, Tommy scoffed.

“Tubbo! I’m not gettin’ motion sickness! We just woke up, no way. Your idea of ‘driving’ is no one elses, my friend.” He rolled his eyes, crossing his arms as he pulled himself into the boat. Beside him, Tubbo whined.

  “C’mon, man! Nothing like a bit of motion-sickness to get the day started!” They playfully remarked. Despite that, they had already accepted their defeat, pulling up into the boat.

  Stress and Grian watched the teens carefully, with Stress laughing lightheartedly at the banter between them as she pulled herself into the boat, behind Grian.

  Grian, on the otherhand, was mostly quiet. A thin wisp of a smile was present, conveying one of bemusement. Tommy didn’t get a good look, but, he couldn’t quite pinpoint the look from Grian. He didn’t like it.

  “Alright,” The older Brit at hand started. “We’re real close. No one should be at Looky Looky At My Cookie- and it should be early enough that there aren’t any real occupants at the Cowmerical District.” He explained, turning the boat as he got a small start ahead of the teens.

  “Sure, then! That sounds g- wait, what’s that name?”

“C’mon, then!” Grian wouldn't answer Tubbo’s valid question, before boating off. Tommy quickly following behind, shouting indignantly after them.

  It certainly was odd. It felt..Comforting, here. Certainly not relaxing. The opposite of cf relaxing- Tubbo had nothing but the craving to do something. But it was..Welcoming. It was strange. They hadn’t felt so- so unbothered, since..Ever, really. They liked it.

  Tubbo wondered if it could stay this way.

  Tommy wondered what the hell they were about to get themselves into.

[historianroo]

Are you the same HistorianRoo that’s on spotify? I was searching for Double Life playlists and I love yours! The vibes are fantastic. Are you the kind of person who like to talk about the breakdowns of why certain songs were chosen? I’d love to hear what your thought process was.

 I am!!! That’s actually a playlist for my oneshot series on ao3!!

Link to the series is here.

Link to the playlist is here.

And I do have a breakdown for why which songs!!! I’ll go in order of the playlist, and also this is going to be two parts cause I forgot the playlist is twenty-five songs long:

1. “Hell’s Comin’ With Me” by Poor Mans Poison

- So main reason is because of the line: “There is a hill at the bottom of the valley/ Where all the poor souls go when they die/ And if you listen real close/ You can hear em' like a ghost/ Saying you're never gonna make it out alive.”

- I really felt as though this lyric was really important given the fact that all of the bases were centered around that water ravine, and I knew there were going to be deaths associated with it. And there were!!!

2. “Sky” by Birds of Bellwood

- I picked this song because it talks about grief and first loves and feeling emotions deeply while also not being sure how to deal with the emotions and I felt as though this really fit the vibe of Grian not wanting Scar to be his soulmate.

- But also! In my fic, I had the reasoning be a little different: Grian didn’t want Scar to be his soulmate because he didn’t want to be the reason that Scar died (because his wings were damaged due to this being a world that he shouldn’t be able to fly).

- Important Lyric: “Oh God, can it be true?/ Why me, but more why you?/ When did it fall apart, when did we change?”

3. “Don’t Look Back” by Birds of Bellwood

- This felt like a song that really fit into the “I guess you’re my soulmate now, we need to work together.” And also the vibes are just immaculate.

- Important Lyric: “I'm spending more than I can make/ On empty things to fill the space/ And I've been waiting/ But I can't stay.”

4. “TrusT” by Half-Alive

- Okay so this is the song that started the one-shot series, and it talks about how Trust is something difficult and confusing and hard to place.

- I felt like this really worked given the premise of “They have to figure out who their soulmates are and have no say in who it is.”

- Pearl and Scott are a really good example of how it could have gone: the both of them did not want to be each others soulmates which just caused problems overall.

- Important Lyric: “Trust is like a pond of murky water/ Too dark to see, mysteriously undercover/ I can't jump off the high dive even though I really want to/ My toes are hanging off the ledge.”

5. “Ribs” by The Crane Wives

- This really felt like a Watcher!Grian song and I was obsessed with the concept. 

- But the thing is, I know nothing about the concept of Watcher!Grian beyond like, the vagues of EvoSMP and some other stuff but I am still in love with the idea and created my own headcanons/canon stuff for Watcher!Grian.

- Important Lyric: “The dark doesn't frighten me/ I chose to close my eyes/ It is mine, it is mine/ The night doesn't frighten me/ I chose to let it thrive/ It is mine, it is mine.”

6. “Still Feel” by Half-Alive

- I picked this song before I even knew about Grian and Scar’s deaths, but this really felt like a “I can’t believe we are still here, we still feel, we are still alive” song. It fit into the vibes of the series for the first few episodes, and I loved the lyrics as a whole.

- Important Lyric: “I still feel alive/ When it is hopeless, I start to notice/ And I still feel alive/ Falling forward, back into orbit.”

7. “Home to Me” by Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

- I just adore this song so much and wanted more people to see and appreciate it. It also fit into my fics more than anything. In my writing Grian and Scar relied on each other a lot and Grian always wanted to be sure that Scar was safe.

- Important Lyric: “How dare you love me like you've never known fear/ You've got more troubles than minutes in the year.”

8. “Plans” by Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

- Okay this was kinda just a toss in song, but the vibes are there and the guy singing has a really pretty voice. But then also it does fit with the whole: “I had plans but now they aren’t working out.”

- Important Lyric: “I should care/ About the latest world affair/ Instead I missed it there/ 'Cause I'm here with you”

9. “Shrike” by Hozier

- Yeah main reason this is on there is cause thats the wings I imagined Grian having for the series. I am a big fan of the idea of Grian’s wings changing depending on the series/season of whatever he is working on, so I decided he had Shrike wings for Double Life.

- Important Lyric: “The words hung above/ But never would form/ Like a cry at the final/ Breath that is drawn/ Remember me, love/ When I'm reborn.”

10. “Parners In Crime” by FINNEAS

- Okay so I definetly didn’t listen to the entire song before putting it on the playlist, but like, I really liked the title and thats the main reason it went on there.

- Important Lyric: “But isn't that what friends are for/ Even if we used to be more?/ Like lovers or partners in crime.”

OKAY!!! That is the first half of the playlist! I’ll post the second half at some point!!!

[melon-wing]

Chase Me [Grian x Doc]

[Fanfiction Masterlist] Happy Birthday @gridoc I can finally share this! Thank you for spreading the gridoc love. This day should totally be the unofficial official Gridoc-Day ;) I commissioned a picture and wrote this story for the picture! (maybe you are lucky and get to see it ;D) Also there’ll be another Birthday story later today!!! ~

Doc sat straight up, when sirens blared all around him, red lights flashing. It took him a moment to gather his surroundings. He was still in one of the Area 77 labs, his equipment right in front of him on the table. One of the glass vials had spilled, leaving the whole table covered in a brownish liquid. He must have fallen asleep in the middle of his experiment. Damn. That meant he'd have to start the whole thing all over again. Why hadn't Scar woken him up? He usually did when something like this happened and then scolded him for not going to bed.

Doc rubbed his eyes, trying to chase his tiredness away. The alarm was still going. It took unusually long. Why wasn't Scar...?

Oh, right. He remembered. Scar wasn't here, because he had left the day before to get together with Cub. Something about a meeting, that Scar had postponed one too many times and him 'having to make it up to his husband‘. He wouldn't be here for the next few days.

Doc sighed. He felt a pang in his chest when he thought of the Convex. Those two were truly made for one another. Even when he would never admit it out loud, hearing Scar talk about Cub as if the whole universe revolved around him, made Doc feel a longing ache. He had been happy on his own for so long. He'd been alone ever since the disastrous end of his engagement to Bdubs back in their old world. He had thought he'd be done with love and relationships. He had thought that no relationship was made to truly last.

Seeing Cub and Scar, hearing Scar... He wanted that.

Doc shook his head to rid himself of that line of thought as he hurriedly walked through the corridors. He didn't have time to go all sentimental now. He blamed the dream he just had awoken from. The dream that kept repeating over and over again.Though he couldn't quite remember the details, only being locked in a heated embrace with someone, lips pressed together. A small giggle, fleeting touches, sky blue eyes, but when he tried to remember the face of the person, his mind drew a blank.

"Oh god damn it! Concentrate, Doc!", he scolded himself, voice echoing off the walls. This situation needed his full attention now. It wasn't the first time the alarm had been triggered, but most of the time it had just been large animals wandering past their body. It was probably some stupid cow again. Or one of those overly annoying traders with their idiotic lamas, trying to sell him some trash for ridiculously high prices.

Doc yawned, grabbing a few emeralds and wheat from one of the chests before finally getting to the lever that turned off the alarms. The silence after helped him to clear his head a bit faster. The lights stopped flashing and with one last sigh he stepped outside, following their main path through flower filled grass and... wait.

Flowers?!

Those hadn't been there before... And Scar couldn't have been the one to plant them, which meant somebody else had been here. But what kind of intruder would just run around and plant flowers?

And then he heard a giggle.

A giggle that felt so familiar, as if he had just heard it a few minutes ago. A giggle that made his chest ache in a weird way. The same way it felt when he looked at Scar and Cub.

"Who's there? Show yourself!", he shouted, taking his trident out and scanning his surroundings. His foxes had also risen from their sleep at the entrance and were now jumping in between his legs in nervous excitement. There was a flash of red in between the trees next to the border and another giggle from the same direction that seemed to echo over the flowery field. Doc let his trident soar through the air with perfect accuracy. There was a loud high pitched sound of surprise, and then more giggling as the intruder kept running in between the trees. The trident must have barely missed them.

Doc made a gesture with his hand and the trident came flying right back into it.

"Go get them, boys.", he growled and the foxes darted forward, Doc right on their heel.

Who was it?

He swore he knew that voice.

He had heard it before.

His foxes easily darted between the trees, leaving Doc a bit further behind, but he was still running. There was a loud shout and a heavy thud and Doc grinned. He put on another burst of speed and when he passed between the next row of trees he stopped. There on the floor right in front of him lay the intruder, his foxes had their claws and mouths all over their legs, clawing and biting into the fabric. Doc whistled and the foxes let go, returning to his side.

Doc looked at the figure on the ground for a few seconds and suddenly his eyes went wide, when he recognized them - him.

“Grian?”

There was a groan and Grian turned onto his back before sitting up.

Doc’s breath hitched as Grian looked up at him, eyes wide, cheeks flushed from running away. His hair was a bit messy and a crown of flowers sat a bit tilted on his head. He looked… adorable. Like some otherworldly being. Doc almost expected to see pointy ears. He couldn‘t believe how attractive Grian was.

Doc felt heat rushing to his cheeks at that sudden thought popping up in his mind and he cursed his own mind.

“Well, looks like you caught me, Agent Doc.”

Doc felt more heat rising to his cheeks, when Grian all but purred the greeting and especially his name. Going by the sudden gleam in Grian’s eyes and his lop-sided grin, he knew exactly what he was doing to Doc‘s head.

When had that happened? When had Grian been able to get to him like that?

Certainly not during the Civil War.

“What’s wrong, Agent Doc. Fox got your tongue?”

There it was again. That teasing tone of his and finally Doc was able to get at least a part of his composure back. Enough at least to stop standing around like a statue.

“What the heck are you doing here? And what‘s up with the flowery get up? Were you the one planting those flowers?”

The way Grian’s smile widened already gave Doc the answer to his last question. Only Grian could manage to look so innocent, yet quilty at the same time.

“Well. A certain someone stole my time machine, so I‘m here to get it back.”

“That really doesn‘t explain the flowers.”

“Oh, that. I thought who better to fight a secret government facility than some Hippies? I thought you might appreciate a little gift to celebrate getting new neighbours.”

Grian kept smiling, even when Doc stepped closer, the trident pointed right at the center of his chest.

Doc was torn between feeling flustered, frustrated and completely enraged.

“Well, good to know”, he growled low in his throat. “Means I gotta build a nice prison cell for you.”

Grian‘s smile turned into a smirk, his eyebrows rising slightly. “Yeah. You really should. Might wanna invest in a better security system as well.”

Doc looked at Grian in confusion. His security system had worked pretty well in catching Grian after all. But just as he was about to voice this thought, a loud explosion shook the ground, the sound coming from the direction of the main building. He stared at Grian open mouthed for a second, as a satisfied grin spread on the other’s face.

“So… Do you wanna take care of that or do you wanna have me as your prisoner? I do think I‘d look pretty out of place in a cell.“

“Stay there. I am not done with you!“

Doc cursed under his breath and then turned around, sprinting off towards the explosion. With a loud whistle the foxes ran alongside him. A light giggle faded into the distance as he kept running and he knew that Grian wouldn‘t be there when he came back.

When he reached the site of the explosion, he saw Ren running off in the distance. So those two were working together now? Damn. He hated fighting Ren… And fighting Grian? Well that was frustrating and kind of exhilarating at the same time. Things always got exciting when Grian got involved.

Doc stood in between the flowers, smoke rising from the slightly damaged wall, a smirk slowly forming on his lips. He was really looking forward to this.

~*~

Doc awoke with a start, sitting straight up in his bed, his brow drenched in sweat. He kept having those dreams. The body pressed against his no longer some vague figure. It was weird. He just couldn‘t get Grian off his mind and he followed him into his deepest dreams.

Doc groaned, burying his head in his hands. This was so annoying. The things they had done in his dream last night... Dear Lord. It was getting worse and worse each time he and Grian interacted. Which they did quite often recently.

The things he wanted to do to Grian every time he looked at him with those sparkling blue eyes. Every time it got harder to resist, harder to hold himself back. But he had enough restraint. He wouldn’t act on these thoughts. It wasn’t like Grian ever showed any interest anyway. He was just into it for the fun and the time machine. Doc sure as hell wouldn‘t push his affections onto someone who was unwilling.

With a yawn Doc walked into the lab. Scar took one look at him and sighed, pointing to a table by the side.

“Coffee is ready. You look like shit. Did you dream of your sweet little angel boy again?”

Doc grumbled in annoyance and went in a beeline to the coffee, pouring himself a cup and immediately draining it. He would need more than a few cups of coffee to get this night‘s dreams off his mind. He also regretted telling Scar about them that one drunken night. The teasing never stopped.

“Must have been a lot of fun. I heard some rather interesting sounds coming from your room when I got up.”

Doc whipped around so fast he almost spilled his coffee all over his suit. “Sounds? What sounds? There were no sounds! I didn’t…” The way Scar was grinning at him made him glare. He had really fallen for that one.

“So I was right after all. Thanks for confirming. You should really go get him and tell him how you feel.”

Doc sighed, leaning against the table and letting his head hang, staring into the black shining surface of his coffee. “He’s not interested, Scar. Have you seen the way he looks at Impulse like a lovestruck puppy? Ever since Impulse joined all I ever hear him talk about is how amazing Impulse is and how glad he is that Impulse joined. He keeps complimenting Impulse on his redstone skills. Did he ever once stop to look at the redstone circuits I‘m building?! Do I have to challenge Impulse to a redstone competition to have him talk about me like that?”

Scar‘s smirk faded, but the look of pity he had on his face now was even worse. “Doc… You’re seeing things, mate. I told you before when you thought he was so into Ren. It wasn’t true then and it isn’t true now. I was right about Ren having the hots for Iskall… But the moment those two started dating you thought Grian was after Impulse. Why can’t you just spare us both the discussions this time and believe me when I tell you that Impulse has an enormous crush on False?”

Doc rolled his eyes a bit. Sure Scar had been right about Ren and maybe he was right about Impulse, but why would that matter. “Well I didn‘t say they were in a relationship this time. Impulse going after False doesn’t mean that Grian can‘t fall in love with him.”

Scar shook his head, throwing his hands up. “I give up. You’re too stubborn for your own good. Mope around in self pity if you want to. But I swear the next time Grian crashes our base because he wants your attention, I won‘t throw his sorry ass off our property again. You can do that all on your own. I swear the next time those sirens go off, your ass can go out there and get rid of all of those hundreds of flowers. He leaves them for you anyways!”

Doc took a deep breath. He hadn’t meant to piss off his partner, but talking about Grian had just become a really sensitive and annoying topic for him.

“Scar I’m-”

He never got to finish his apology. As if some divine being was making fun of him, the sirens started going off, red lights flashing in their laboratory. Doc prayed. As he turned at the screen on the wall he was begging the fates, that it was just a trader or maybe Ren or Impulse. Please, anything but Grian. His eyes scanned all the small tiny camera images until they landed on camera 5. Grian’s red sweater stood out glaringly among the greenery. The fates must really hate him.

“I’m going to get rid of that hippie. And no. I‘m not talking about any unnecessary feelings with him, don’t get your hopes up.”

“I bet if you two would just get it on, we’d have no more Hippies to fight.”

Doc threw Scar one more annoyed look before grabbing his trident and rushing through the halls to get outside. There were flowers all around, a huge bouquet of red tulips lying right in front of the main entrance. He didn‘t know why, but he made sure to take a big step as not to trample them, but didn’t have enough time to think about the meaning behind those flowers. Going by the surveillance Grian had been east of the facility.

Doc ran through the trees, jumping over roots and rocks. He cursed the fact that he had thought a suit was the appropriate attire for this job. Well, in his defense, he hadn’t planned to be chasing Hippies through a thick forest when all of this had started. He really should have changed his working clothes when this had begun… but there had been that one time Grian had complimented him on it and ever since that day… gosh, Doc really had it bad.

Grian’s delighted giggle seemed to bounce off all the surrounding trees, echoing through Doc’s head, taking hold of every part of his mind. This time Doc wouldn’t let him get away. This time he’d end it once and for all. No more Hippie shenanigans driving him to the brink of insanity. Maybe if he locked Grian up, he‘d get at least one night of peaceful sleep.

He saw a flash of red between the trees and let his trident fly. There was a shout and when the trident came back, a small piece of red fabric was pierced by it. So close. It was always so close. He always had Grian almost in his grasp and somehow every time Grian managed to slip past their border back to the Camp.

That’s when it hit Doc. He needed to get to the border. Quick. Grian was moving all over the place, no predictable route, but they were gradually getting closer to the border. If Doc just ran straight ahead he could get him.

Doc whistled and his foxes sprinted after Grian, while Doc himself turned a different way. Hopefully Grian would hear and see the foxes and think Doc was a bit behind them, still chasing.

Doc rushed straight to the border and grinned when he reached it. No sign of Grian. No sign of red in the forest, except for a few of the flowers that were planted everywhere around the border. Doc had given up getting rid of them around the edge of their property. They just kept popping up.

His eyes kept scanning the tree line. And then he smirked when he heard his foxes yipping in the distance, chasing Grian his way. He was really happy that they were so smart and knew what he wanted them to do with just one whistle.

Doc walked over to one of the trees, hiding behind one of the thicker ones. The rushed steps were getting closer and closer. He counted the estimated seconds down in his head. And when he hit zero he let his arm fly out, just in time to grab Grian around the waist as he ran past the tree.

Grian gave a surprised scream and fell to the floor from the sudden impact, taking Doc with him. But that didn’t matter. Doc was on top of him. There was no getting away now. He’d just need to get some cuffs on Grian and all of this would be over.

Before Grian could snap out of his confused daze, Doc grabbed his hands and pressed them above his head with both hands, putting his weight behind the grip. He would not let Grian get away this time.

“Look at what I caught. Things didn’t go as planned this time, did they? You really should have stopped coming here without backup.”

Grian finally blinked and looked at Doc, the look of confusion fading and turning into a smirk. But Doc could see the insecurity hidden beneath it. Grian smirked and smiled at him so often, he could tell the smallest differences in those expressions.

“Who says I don‘t have any backup? Who says I’m not just a distraction so Ren and Impulse can get into your facility.”

“Scar”, Doc just replied flatly “You know we have cameras. He would let me know if there was anyone else. And if there was you sure as hell wouldn’t have mentioned the possibility. You are way too predictable Grian. Fighting you has almost become boring. Just a routine now.”

The smirk fell and Grian huffed in annoyance. “Well took you long enough to catch me then if I am this predictable, agent Doc.”

Before he could stop himself, Doc let out a low growl at the way Grian said his name. Grian seemed startled, eyes widening, breath hitching. Doc only now noticed the slight flush on his face, the way he was out of breath from the running. They were so close. Doc could feel the heat of Grian’s body even through the suit. So close… Doc leaned in a bit, his body moving on its own accord.

Doc felt his own breath stop for a few seconds. The light shining through the leaves of the trees made Grian’s eyes sparkle as if they were a pair of blue gems.

Damn. ‘Self restraint’, Doc reminded himself. He needed to resist the temptation. He was too close.

Grian’s look of annoyance went away and he was staring at Doc in confusion, his lips slightly parted. Doc’s eyes kept being drawn to those lips, pink and oh so soft. He wanted to kiss them. He wanted to touch Grian, to claim him, to make sure he‘d make him his own, before Impulse got a chance.

“Doc?”

The quiet question ripped him out of his thoughts and he suddenly felt disgusted at himself and his train of thought. Grian was a human being, and here he was, thinking of him like some piece of meat. He should be ashamed.

“Sorry. I…”

Doc stopped. Grian wouldn’t know what he was apologizing for. Grian was always so oblivious to his advances. There had never been even the sliver of a chance for him, and Impulse joining the hippies had lowered them even further.

Doc moved back a bit with a sigh, almost ready to let Grian go altogether, just to get out of this awkward situation.

“Don‘t stop”, Grian said, his voice sounding soft, but commanding at the same time and Doc raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“I am not supposed to stop arresting you…? Did I hit your head a bit too hard?”, he tried to joke, almost desperate to return to their usual mood, but Grian didn’t seem up for the bickering and just shook his head.

“Kiss me.”

Those two small words… Doc swore those simple words shut down his brain completely. It seemed like it took forever for those words to process and only when Grian let out one of his small giggles, he snapped out of it.

“Come on, Agent. I know you wanna do it. I’ve noticed the way you always look at me. Don’t tell me you are too scared of a kiss.”

Doc growled, but a small smile crept onto his face as he moved down again.

“You wish.”

Doc moved down, only stopping a breath away from Grian’s lips, hesitating for a split second before pressing their lips together. He had never imagined their first kiss to be so soft. He let one of his hands wander from Grian’s wrist down his side and in return Grian took a hold of his cheek, gently pulling him in more, leaning up a bit into the touch.

Doc took hold of one of Grian’s legs, pulling it up a bit and leaning into the other’s body even more. He needed this. He needed to feel Grian. He needed to feel the heat to know that it was real, that it was not just another one of his dreams.

After what felt like an eternity, Doc finally moved back, opening his eyes to look at Grian, whose eyes were still closed, blushing, lips shining wet and slightly red. And the knowledge that it had been Doc who had put him into this state, made him feel so warm inside.

When he didn’t resume the kissing within a few seconds, Grian let out a needy whine, opening his eyes, looking back at Doc. He smiled softly, but didn‘t say anything, slipping his other hand out of Doc’s weak grasp and putting it on the back of Doc’s head to pull him into another kiss, this one less soft and more passionate.

They broke apart again, when one of Doc‘s foxes made a little noise. Doc turned in its direction, noticing the way the animal looked up into the tree. Doc followed his gaze and stopped when he looked straight into the lense of one of their cameras. Fuck. Scar. He was never going to live this one down.

“You do know Scar is probably watching us right now?”

Grian giggled.

“Nope. I didn‘t know that. But if that‘s the case… Let‘s give him a real show.”

And before Doc could say another word, Grian’s lips were pressed against his once more, their bodies so close together, that Doc felt as if not even a sheet of paper could fit in between them anymore. It was nothing like he had imagined this confrontation ending, but he sure as hell wouldn‘t complain.

[justletmeplayminecraft]

Okay but,,,, nonverbal Etho,,, he’s been alone for so long and hermitcraft is scary and l o u d omg I didnt know I needed this

Ooooo this is such a cool idea! I'm gonna put my thoughts under the cut because there's... a lot. It's half thoughts, half a mini-fic, haha.

Warning for vague overstimulation and anxiety attack!

Etho's had his single-player world now for ten years. His achievements and inventions often precede the player behind them. He... didn't really know what to expect upon joining hermitcraft. He probably wouldn't have joined if he didn't already have friends there who understood him. That didn't make it any less terrifying when he joined for the first time.

But, if the hermits are anything, it's accommodating.

Etho communicates in a few ways. He had to learn to adapt quickly, going from not needing to talk, to being around so many people. Most commonly, he uses the text to speech on his communicator. It takes a little while to type in what he wants to say, and it works best when he's one to one with someone. The hermits quickly learn to slow down and give him time to type. Sure, the back and forth isn't the fastest, but Etho can get a few good quips in. He'd argue the robotic voice makes it better.

He also learns sign. He's pretty fluent in it. If he wants to learn something, he puts his mind to it, and that's exactly what he did. Late nights studying, watching videos until he can replicate the signs himself. It's not perfect, he doesn't know other sign users to get feedback from, but it works for his purposes.

Xisuma finds it a little frustrating at first. Not Etho's fault, no! Just, his helmet has an automatic translator, and he didn't realise its limitations when it came to nonverbal languages until now. So, he sets upon learning sign himself. He fits in sessions when he has free time, and asked Etho to send him the courses he used, just to make sure he's learning the right stuff. He takes his duties as an admin very seriously, and that means being able to help all the hermits. Plus, he just wants Etho to feel comfortable around him. He never wants him to be in a position where he feels like he can't ask for help.

The members of the NHO vary in their skill. Doc is determined, and absolutely doesn't overwork himself trying to learn a full language in a week (he fails, and gets dragged to bed.) Beef isn't the strongest, but he's got fingerspelling down and Etho can generally get what he means across. Bdubs struggles, but he does his best. It often becomes a game of charades between the two of them and Etho finds himself laughing at his antics, shoulders shaking and head ducked.

Tango also learns sign once they start spending more time together. Communication is his thing, and he doesn't want one of his friends to feel like they can't talk to him! It's not easy for him to learn, but he perseveres. He adapts in other ways too, avoids complicated questions, gives Etho time to type. It's what helps Etho feel comfortable enough to tackle the minigame district with him.

This doesn't mean accidents don't happen.

Getting involved in the mycelium resistance was a big step for Etho. He hadn't talked much with Grian, and he was nervous. Grian was loud, and energetic, at least, that's how he seemed from the outside. Instead, Grian was pretty chilled out. They figure things out easily, and he falls into messaging Etho back and forth, even when they're sat next to each other (it often amuses Etho when people do that.)

But, then the emergency meetings happen. It's disorientating being suddenly teleported, even if he designed the system. It's okay the first few times. He barely managed when HEP broke in, trying to deal with the explosions, the shouting, feeling like his breath is caught in his throat. Placing the mycelium with the others afterwards is fairly relaxing, though. Helps him calm down.

The jail is a different matter.

People are shouting around him, there's lava falling from the ceiling, they're all trapped in a small space. Scar is monologuing, and he doesn't have time to speak whilst being surrounded by everyone else. Doc is looking away, so he can't sign to him. He's afraid of taking his communicator out, that the lava will drop whilst he's typing. The other members' attempts at escape fail, and he doesn't want to ruin the plotline. He panics. Presses into the corner and covers his ears, squeezing his eyes shut.

He doesn't realise the world around him has gone quiet. Not until there's the lightest tap of cold metal on his hand. Etho flinches before he recognises Doc's touch. Raising his head slightly, he realises the room is empty now. Doc is crouching in front of him.

"Etho," and his voice is soft, rumbles in Etho's chest. It doesn't hurt his ears, even if Etho doesn't remove his hands. "Are you with me?" Etho sticks to nodding. The effort it would take to uncurl feels monumental. "Good, good, is this alright for you?" Etho blinks as he looks at the rest of the room. It's not too loud. It's not too bright. It's only them. He nods again. "Alright. Do you want to stay here until you feel a bit better? Or go back to your base? One or two." Etho has to think about it, but the thought of moving sends a spike of fear through his chest. He taps a one onto his own skin.

Doc nods, sitting fully on the ground. There's no pressure. The two sit in the quiet, with only dripping echoing through the room. Etho eventually moves from holding his ears to holding his knees. He rests his head there as his breathing evens out. He feels exhausted. It takes some effort, but he holds a hand up with two fingers.

"Alright, man, let's get you home." Etho nods, accepting Doc's hand when it's offered to him. He squeezes it in a silent thanks. Some of the lingering stress falls from his shoulders when Doc squeezes back.

When it comes up, nobody pressures him. They discuss it in their weekly meeting, finding ways to make sure Etho has a voice even in chaotic discussions. They put together a sheet of essential signs and gestures for all the hermits to learn. And Etho thinks about how lucky he got to find himself a family like this.

[votederpycausemufins]

we got so much snow, why do i still have class today? I mean it was short, but why have it at all?

oh and you’ll like this one today @petrichormeraki

:)))))))))

“Holy fuck you’re my dad. The captain is my dad.” Tubbo was stunned, still trying to comprehend it. Crumb on the other hand already accepted it. 

“I’ve got a big brudder! Tubbox is my brudder!” She was running around happily and eventually decided to just sit on Tubbo’s shoulder.

“You’re the kid of a celebrity Tubbo!” Tommy slapped a hand on Tubbo’s back in celebration. “Does this mean I can be your plus one to fancy events and shit?”

“I’m not really that kind of celebrity.” Sparklez rubbed the back of his head. “I mean I’m well known, but that’s mainly because I travel a lot.”

“Sprinklez is definitely a celebrity!” Crumb said happily, her tail flicking about. “Millions of people know him! He’s been so myany places!”

“Wonder how Kara’s going to react to all this. ‘Oh hey Kara, remember how I wouldn’t be available for a few days and now it’s been longer than that? Well found my long lost kid!’ I mean it works, but that doesn’t feel right.”

“Is Kara my mom?”

Crumb, feeling a bit chaotic at the moment, answered the question for Tubbo. “Ye!”

“No! No she is not!” Jordan immediately shouted. “That proposal was for being her thousandth kill or something, not for getting married!”

“Honorary mom!”

Sparklez inhaled sharply before sighing to calm himself. “Yes, fine. If you want to think of her like that, sure. Don’t know how she’d react if you call her that though, so maybe don’t actually say it aloud.”

“How’d you even lose him?” Tommy spoke up. He knew Tubbo’s side of the story, but he was a child at the time and it was around ten years ago, so the details might not be accurate anymore.

“Tubbo was really curious as a kid. Always following me around everywhere no matter how much I tried to get him to sit still. He got interested in almost everything I did. We were visiting one world, Univcraft, and I was just driving around.” Grian’s feathers puffed up at the name of the world. “Tubbo was in the back in his seat, but was getting restless. Next thing I know, he had managed to unlock and open the door.”

“Did you keep driving?”

“No! Of course not! I slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the car. Forgot to put park on at first and it started to roll away on its own before I could jump back in to fix it. Tubbo wasn’t in his seat so I assumed he fell out when the door opened but he was nowhere in sight. There seemed to be no evidence and the weirdest part was that he would have had to unbuckle himself from his booster seat and they were all still done up.”

Tubbo’s eyes widened. “I remember that! I… I think when I first realized I wasn’t in the car anymore, the first thing I was upset about was not being in my cool racing harness.” Tommy started laughing. “Hey! I was five!”

Sparklez couldn’t help but chuckle along with Tommy before pulling Crumb and Tubbo into a hug. “Both my ducklings are finally with me.”

“Duckling?” Tommy asked with a mischievous grin.

“I said Tubbo followed me everywhere. He also liked bees a lot so wore yellow half the time. He reminded me of a little duckling.”

“I remember wen Sprinklez cried wen we went to space an I followed him around in my yellow space suit!”

“Okay Crumb, don’t need to bring that up.”

“Hey, if you can say embarrassing shit about me, let her say embarrassing shit about you.”

Jordan winced slightly. “I guess that’s fair. So, what’s your life been like? I can tell you’ve been… active.” He vaguely gestured to a visible burn scar on Tubbo, which made the teen slump their shoulders a little. Tommy pulled Tubbo away into a protective hug and Grian put a hand on Sparklez’s shoulder.

“To put it lightly, they’ve been through hell. I’m pretty sure the only reason he’s doing as good as he is right now is because of Tommy. Don’t expect him to open up about everything right away. Give him space before you start asking questions.” Grian glanced over to the duo and Tommy gave him a quick thumbs up. “Trauma sucks, but having someone there to be supportive, even if you don’t know them as well as you should, is really helpful.”

“Thanks.” Sparklez gave Grian a short nod. 

“Well, I’m sure you guys will have a wonderful time together, but I still need to go see Xisuma and give him updates on… well, everything.”

“See ya Big G.” Tommy said to Grian before the avian was flying off.

Mumbo was trying his best not to completely panic, but he was slowly failing. “No no no no no. It has to be there! Why isn’t it there? Is it because of the ice? Is there something with ice?” Mumbo looked down at himself and still saw no symbol. “Maybe it was whatever Dream did. That’s surely something that wouldn’t be accounted for.”

“It wasn’t him, idiot.” Mumbo’s blood ran cold and he turned around to see Drista sitting on a chest. “Obviously it was you. I thought you knew VG and Watcher magic doesn’t mix.”

“This is. No. I, I’m not a Vault God. I refuse.”

“Again with the refusing. It worked before but it won’t now. I told you it was only a matter of time.”

Mumbo was in a state of complete disbelief, trying to find some excuse. Then his disbelief turned to anger as he thought of something. “No, this is your fault. You were keeping in contact with Dream. He said you were. You didn’t do anything.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t do anything. But you did instead. And how did you do that? Became a Vault God.”

“Well tell me how to unbecome one.” Mumbo demanded. 

“You pretty much don’t. That’s why Dream was able to do what he did. Even exiled, he was still a Vault God.”

“Please, there has to be something.” Now he was starting to plead with Drista, hoping for some glimmer of hope for him.

She tilted her head from side to side as she thought about the question. “Well, technically you’re not completely official. In fact I’m here to bring you to that. Maaaaybe if you say something to them, you can get some exception.” She paused to shrug. “Who knows. They may just force you to be one.”

“And if I don’t go?”

“You’ll still be a Vault God, just unstable. Though I will say, you’re doing pretty well on your own.”

Mumbo didn’t care to ask what she meant. He had to go. If he went there was at least some percentage of a chance that he could go back to normal. If he didn’t, he would absolutely end up hurting Grian. “Alright fine. Where do you need to take me?”

Drista smiled and pulled on a mask that was almost identical to the one Dream had worn. “Just follow me.”

Grian spun the chicken feather that was his quill on the table as Xisuma talked. Sure, this was all very important, but the avian was already bored. He kept asking more questions that should have been answered already, but the admin was too focused on the answers themselves to think about the entire context. “I said that it’s going to be like another dimension already. You can’t get to other dimensions without a portal. Think of it like a third being tacked on. And fourth since they have their own nether.”

“What about their end?”

“Again, they haven’t seen it because Dream destroyed all connections to it.”

“And the Watchers?”

“Are combining groups and are adding in two new Watchers to keep things running smoothly.”

“Any previous relation with Zoy and Riffed?”

“Zloy and Pixlriffs, and no. Petrichor and Meraki are just helpful with world crosses. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Can I go yet?”

Xisuma paused, tapping his helmet where his chin would be. “Alright, but I’ll be sending messages to you, so look out for those and try to respond quickly.”

Grian nodded and passed the book and quill over to Xisuma with the notes he had taken. He then got up from his chair and stretched before flying into the air. Now that Xisuma was dealt with and Tommy was occupied, next was getting the kids from Stress.

The avian flew over the desert between Xisuma’s jungle and the one that he, Stress and others lived in. He smiled as he passed Mumbo’s base, though he had to steady himself when his flying became a little wobbly. He brushed it off as him just getting distracted and then landed near where Stress said she would be.

“Dad!” Jrumbot was running up to Grian and the avian picked up his robot son in a hug. “You’re okay again! Daddy was really worried about you.”

Grian quickly gave Stress a thankful nod for her looking after the bots. “Well it wasn’t the best situation, but he figured it out like the smart man he is. Now speaking of him, we should go see him. He needs some more cheering up and love. Think you can help with that?”

Jrumbot nodded and then Grian helped him onto his own back, right between his wings. As the younger of the robots held tightly to Grian, the avian picked up Grumbot and then thanked Stress before flying towards Mumbo’s base. As they approached, Grian suddenly felt much more tired than he had moments before, so much so that Jrumbot slapped his face slightly to wake him up so he didn’t crash.

“What?! Huh? Oh right, I’m flying! Sorry boys, guess the meeting with Xisuma took more out of me that I realized. At least we’re almost there.” And he landed at Mumbo’s base, only stumbling slightly.

“Are you alright dad?” Grumbot asked Grian, who gave a nod.

“Yeah, ‘m fine. Oh, that reminds me. Thanks for your help. We found Tubbo’s dad.”

“While I’m glad I helped, you shouldn’t be trying to change the subject.”

Grian sighed, having forgotten how well Grumbot could read him. “I’m fine. I just want to find Mumbo and then we can all go to the big bedroom and hang out there.” He helped Jrumbot down off his back and ruffled his wings before folding them “Mumbo! I’m here with the kids!”

There was no answer making Grian frown. “Maybe he’s tired like you and went to sleep?” Jrumbot suggested.

“Yeah, might be.” Grian then pulled out his communicator to send random messages to Mumbo to either follow the hum of the vibration of a message or to wake Mumbo up with the sound. He sent off one message and was just starting to type another when he got the error message. “Wh- Mumbo’s not here.”

“What do you mean not here?” Grumbot asked, worried by how worried Grian looked.

“I… maybe he went back to the other world? But everything’s connected now, that shouldn’t be an issue.” Grian continued to worriedly ramble. The bots looked at each other and then took Grian’s hands, pulling him to where Mumbo’s bedroom was and got him to lay down on the bed.

“Do we need to get anyone?” Grumbot asked. “Iskall or Stress? Possibly Xisuma?”

Grian shook his head. “We just left Stress’ place. She’s helped plenty. And Xisuma is busy with the world merge. Iskall… they might be available, but message them first.”

Jrumbot’s screen face changed briefly. “Okay! I did it!”

Grian nodded then curled up in the blankets. He really felt tired now and a bit woozy. He gave a groan. “Ugh… Dream was a Vault God and I was around him for who knows how long. Plus I went to visit again… maybe there’s magic sticking to me or around here.”

“Are you sick again?”

Grian gave a half hearted nod. “Yeah, now both of you come here so I can cuddle you. That’s the best kind of medicine right now.”

Jrumbot immediately jumped into the bed and curled up in Grian’s arms. Grumbot on the other hand, wasn’t as fast. “Contact with people is usually not a type of medicine and I’m sure us not being humans makes it even less effective.” But despite his comments, he also joined his brother in Grian’s arms.

[ceaderblocks]

The Devil’s in the Details Ch. 6

Chapter One // Chapter Two // Chapter Three // Chapter Four // Chapter Five //

Read on A03

Created alongside @thematrixmutual

Join the discord here!

Cub knew it was wrong. He <em>knew</em> helping Scar carry the AFK Xisuma to the End was wrong (was he really AFK?), and he knew Scar shooing him away to hide Xisuma screamed bad. But he did it anyways, because Scar was his best friend.

Except Xisuma had been missing for three days now, and Scar was adamant he didn’t remember helping with the prank. Scar was also avoiding everyone, working at night and skipping social activities to work on the strange black tower in the shopping district.

He was still working on the large black pillar in the shopping district when Cub flew by, determined to catch him in person. It looked almost finished, imposing and dark against the other shops. Scar was at the base, humming as he dug through some chests. The sun was setting, and the torches began to let off some light.

“Scar,” Cub said, and the other builder jumped, smacking his head against the chest lid.

“Oh! Cub!” Scar said nervously, rubbing his head. He avoided eye contact, choosing to look at his scuffed shoes instead.

“I haven’t seen you in a while.” Cub said softly, placing a hand on Scar’s shoulder. He wasn’t wearing his jacket. “How’re you?”

“Busy as always,” Scar said, gesturing vaguely to the tower and still avoiding looking Cub in the eyes. Cub frowned.

“Are you okay, though?” Cub asked, concerned. Scar’s behavior was off.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Scar said, tugging on a pigtail nervously.

“You aren’t, though.” Cub said softly. “Scar, you’ve been acting strange lately.”

“Have I?” Scar frowned, looking concerned. “Guess I’m just tired.”

“Grian and False found both their bases aggressively terraformed, and they both said they hadn’t requested or paid for it. Black pillars have popped up all over the map. Jellie’s been sleeping at ConCorp. With me.” Cub said. Scar looked surprised at that final note, and finally looked at Cub.

Green eyes. Cub thought. Not blue.

“Is that where she’s been?” He asked, ignoring all the other points. “I was worried, I haven’t seen her in a while.”

“Jellie never sleeps with me.” Cub continued. “Please Scar, tell me what’s wrong.”

Scar looked away again. “I can’t. I’m sorry, Cub.”

“Three days ago, you and I moved an AFK Xisuma from here to the End. He hasn’t returned, and you refused to let me know where you put him.” Cub said, and watched Scar turn from sadness to confusion to horror.

“Scar, something has been seriously wrong for a while, hasn’t it? Since we both fell into the Void a week ago?”

Scar bit his lip, on the verge of tears. He wiped at his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt and nodded.

No jacket. Green eyes. Pigtails. Cub noted to himself.

“I’m really sorry Cub. Once I finish this build it’ll all go back to normal, I swear!” He said, and turned away, kneeling on the ground and re-opening the chest.

“Scar! Please!” Cub begged. He was so damn worried.

“Cub, I can’t-“ Scar suddenly fell quiet, doubling over and clutching his head for a moment before blinking rapidly and jerking upright, slamming the chest lid shut.

“Scar?” Cub asked, concerned. Scar turned to him, looking forlorn.

“Can we not talk about this?” He asked, an annoyed tone to his voice. He put a hand on Cub’s shoulder, leading him away from the tower. “Let’s do something else. Golf, maybe? We haven’t played golf in a while.”

“Scar-“ The grip on his shoulder tightened, and Cub fell silent, looking at his friend, panic leaping in his chest.

Blue eyes? Scar just had green eyes. What is going on?

“… Golf sounds great.” Cub finished, and Scar (this isn’t Scar) smiled, pulling his pigtails from his hair and re-arranging it into a ponytail.

“Super,” Scar said enthusiastically, pulling a rocket from his inventory. “Race you there?”

“Sure.” Cub said, hesitantly grabbing his own. “Should we invite some people to join us?”

“I think it’ll be a fun game between just you and I,” Scar said. “Besides, we haven’t gotten to have some quality time together in a while.”

“Right,” Cub said. “Of course.”

He needed to find out what was going on, and if he had to do it by being close to the enemy, so be it.

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

The End was cold, as it usually was. Xisuma could usually spend lots of time in it just fine, but extended periods would even make the most well weathered Hermit a little chilly.

Xisuma was freezing.

Oscar had put him in Adventure mode, able to survive but not interact with most things. Xisuma had paced around the small cell, trying to get warm before realizing he was getting hungry and the Oscar hadn’t left him with food. He had then taken a few moments to figure out where he was. Xisuma came to the conclusion he was under an End Island, iron bars confining him to the small seven by seven block area. Oscar hadn’t left any food or water. Just Xisuma, his helmet and the emptiness of the Void. The doppelgänger had even taken his comm box.

“Bastard.” Xisuma had snarled, kicking an end stone through the bars and retreating to a corner to try and huddle and save body warmth.

That was a few days ago, now. Well, Xisuma thought it was a few days ago. Keeping track of time had never been a strong suit of his, and it was harder when there were no day cycles. It was also hard to focus when you were starving and freezing to death. He had stopped being nauseous from hunger a while back, the gnawing at the inside of his stomach taking second place to the violent shivers that wracked his body. He was exhausted but refused to fall asleep. Death had never bothered the Hermits before, but Xisuma was confident he wouldn’t wake up if he let his eyes shut.

A bright flash of white made Xisuma wince and weakly covered his eyes. Great. He was having hallucinations now. That’s cool.

“Finally.” A familiar voice said, and Xisuma uncovered his eyes, struggling to sit up. “It was terrible being banned. Nice of you to let me back.”

“Evil Xisuma?” Xisuma whispered, not willing to believe his eyes. There was his counterpart, dressed in red and stretching, seeming to not have taken notice of Xisuma quite yet.

“The one and only. Hey, where the fuck are we? The End??? God, you really didn’t want me to destroy the server if we’re all the way out here, huh.” EX said, touching his toes.

Xisuma was speechless. Evil X was banned. He shouldn’t be able to come back, let alone be summoned to him in this prison cell. This was definitely a hallucination. It had to be.

“Speechless, Xisuma?  I know, it’s cause- oh shit,” EX said, finally looking at his counterpart. “Dude, you look terrible.”

Rushing to his side, EX helped Xisuma sit up and lean against him. Xisuma shut his eyes, dizzy from the lack of food and water.

“Fuck, Xisuma.” EX said. “You didn’t unban me, did you?”

“No,” Xisuma said. Evil X dug through his inventory for a moment before pulling out a water bottle and some bread.

“Here, start with this. Slowly.” EX cautioned. Xisuma tore a small chunk off the bread and nibbled on it. His stomach growled. He felt sick from eating.

“If you didn’t bring me here, who did?” EX frowned, looking around. “Are we in a prison cell?”

“I don’t know who brought you,” Xisuma admitted, swallowing some water. “And we are. Scar’s evil counterpart put me here.”

“Hey, he’s stealing my style.” EX said. “I’m supposed to be the only evil twin here.”

“He’s dangerous.” Xisuma cautioned.

“And I’m not?” EX said. Xisuma chose to take another bite of bread instead of answering.

“If you’re here, you’re probably stuck in adventure mode with me.” Xisuma said.

EX frowned, opening his inventory. “Uh, no. I’m in survival. I have some stuff from last time and- holy shit Xisuma!”

“What?”

“I have admin controls!” EX said, thrilled. Xisuma perked up.

“You do?”

“Yeah, look!”

Evil Xisuma threw open a command screen. Xisuma was shocked. How was this happening?

“I haven’t been able to access this shit since season one.” EX said, typing in some commands. /give <Xisuma> golden carrots [64].

Xisuma gaped in surprise as 64 golden carrots popped into his otherwise empty inventory.

“Hell yeah,” EX said. “Now I can do whatever the fuck I want.”

“You need to help me,” Xisuma pleaded, grabbing onto Evil Xisuma’s arms. “Please, EX, the whole server is in danger.”

“You always say that when I’m around too,” EX snarled, looking unhappy.

“This is different.”

“How so?” EX asked.

“This evil version of Scar-“

“Oscar.” EX said.

“- right, Oscar, he's taking over the server by replacing Scar. He’s building towers everywhere and forcing the land in unnatural ways. You didn’t replace me, so- wait.” Xisuma stopped his explanation and struggled backwards, EX cocking an eyebrow.

“How do you know his name?”

“Because he spoke to me in the Void? Dude, we’re both results of Void death mis-happenings. He promised me admin powers if I came and helped him.”

Xisuma clenched his jaw. “And here you are with admin powers.”

“Yeah,” EX agreed, but he looked confused. “But I told him no. I thought you brought me back to help fuck him over or something. I’m not sure why I have admin abilities.”

“You gave that up?” Xisuma was rendered speechless for the second time.

“Hm?”

“You gave up being an admin and getting revenge on the server?”

“I’m not a dick,” EX snorted. “I just want a bit of mischief. Y'all are to uptight for your own good. Oscar’s a full-blown asshole. He wanted to ‘ruin everyones lives’ and ‘replace everything with death’ or whatever. Not my style. Anyways,” EX pulled up his command screens again.

/set gamemode creative <Xisuma> /give cheats <Xisuma>

Xisuma felt better instantly. The cold that had frozen his limbs dissipated, and the hunger gnawing at his insides left. He felt energized and alive for the first time in many days.

“Thank you,” Xisuma said. “Really, I mean it.”

“Can I ask a favour from you?” EX asked, suddenly looking very serious. Xisuma nodded, unsure once more.

“Let me live with you all- peacefully. And also let me kick Oscar’s ass.”

Xisuma snorted in laughter and smiled, sticking out his hand. Evil Xisuma took it, shaking it.

“Deal.”

[spruceplank]

Glitch06

First // Previous //Current // Next >> --------- Also on ao3!

At first it wasn’t noticeable. Maybe the blocks you just broke would suddenly go back to where they had been. Maybe your hits wouldn’t connect with the mob you were hitting. Then it slowly got worse and worse. And then the world around them started to vanish.

And that was only the beginning.

“Falsie?” someone was calling her name, who was it? They sounded familiar, “You back with us Falsie?”

Groaning she rubbed at her head. What an awful headache, “Ugghhhh what happened?” 

Blinking against the light she tried to adjust to the seething brightness and searing pain in her head. Good lord had someone dropped an anvil on her head?

“Hey False look at me please?” Xisuma, that was Xisuma’s voice to her left. She turned to look at him and was taken aback because his visor was off? Xisuma rarely took that off. She could count the number of times it had happened on her two hands. “Whatever is was seems to be gone now, how do you feel Falsie?”

“I, I feel like someone dropped an anvil on my head.” she rasped out slowly looking around the room. Xisuma, Ren, Wels, and Joe took up most of her field of vision. They were in her bedroom, and there were a lot of people in here. 

“Is Falsie good?” Iskall walked up and peered over Joe’s shoulder. 

“Yeah aside from a bad headache,” Xisuma explained, “how’s Grian?”

“Still unconscious,” Iskall looks worriedly over his shoulder, between him and Joe she could see Grian slumped against the wall with purple wisps flying around him. Mumbo and Zedaph were frantically talking to Cub and Scar. Off to the side Doc stood with Tango and Impulse who were speaking between themselves. “No one can really figure out what happened.”

She looked around at all the other hermits worriedly, “Guys what happened?” 

None of them looked at her, except Ren who had yet to stop staring at her face since she had woken up. 

“Falsie, is it really you this time?” He stared at her in disbelief, voice quiet in a way that she cannot remember ever hearing before. 

“Of course it’s me, what are you -”

Shes immediately cut off by a body slamming into hers and a loud wail. She barely stops the back of her head from hitting the wall. She awkwardly starts to rub his back as he sobs into her shoulder. What, what happened? She forgets to breathe as her eyes catch up to her brain and she remembers how he looked. Red angry scabs cover most of his face and neck. What had happened? 

The others startle at the sound and turn to look at her. Across all her friends faces she can just see the instant they see her they all seem to calm down. Ren continues to sob and there’s nothing she can do but stare blankly at the air and worry for her friend.

She looks up at X and meets his eyes, “X, what, what happened?”

X only looks sadly at Ren before looking back at her, visior gone she’s able to clearly see the exhaustion on his face and the worry in his eyes. She can hear it in his voice, the tired defeat, when he speaks quietly, “Actually, we don’t really know what happened. We were hopping you could tell us.”  

And so she does, once Ren calms down a little at least. She had started her day out like any other. Getting up, checking her messages, gathering things she would need for that days project. She’d set off down to her mines and was messaging Ren about plans they had made for later in the day. She’d mined for a while and got an inventory full of goods and decided to head back up. She had stopped responding to Ren because trying to type with a full inventory was a struggle and he could wait for a response until she walked back up out of the mines. Yet on the way back towards the stairs she saw a diamond sword laying on the ground. Tossing some coal out of her inventory she picked it up. The second she grabbed the hilt a voice seemed to echo inside her head. Though it was quiet, it was all she could hear in a strange voice that didn’t sound like anything she had ever heard before, “ᴡᴀᴋᴇ ᴜᴘ”. 

“Then the next thing I knew, I woke up with a splitting headache and everyone gathered around worrying.” she explained. 

“A sword, just lying there?” X repeated back to her, baffled. 

She nodded, “Yeah it was really strange.”

“Did it look enchanted or anything?” Impulse asked.

She thought about it for a moment and then shook her head,“Not that I could tell, what happened to the sword?”

“It’s vanished.” Tango cut in from where he was leaned up against the wall, “When Grian killed you it didn’t drop with the rest of your items, it just vanished.”

“When Grian? Why did Grian kill me!” 

Tango looked over at Grian as he spoke, “We just had pinned you down and then we managed to tie you up so you couldn’t maneuver the sword. Then once Grian and X showed up, Grian just… something happened.”

“What does that mean?” 

Zedaph shuffled and looked at the ground, “Itw… it was like he wasn’t even Grian anymore…” 

There was a pause. Everyone seemed to shuffle around unsure of what to do now. X, ever the leader, spoke up, “Well I don’t think we can really get answers on that front until he wakes up, so-”

“What did the voice sound like?” Scar interrupted. She looked over at him and he was staring directly at her. She knew, only from that look in his eyes, that somehow he had heard the exact same face.  

“What was that Scar?” X asked. 

“The voice that said wake up, what did it sound like?” Scar repeated, searching her face for the answer they both already knew. 

Maybe for the others in the room or maybe just so they would both know for sure she answered, “Distorted. Glitchy. Ominous. Creepy.” 

“I think I heard that voice too.” Scar admitted softly. 

Cub looked worriedly at Scar, “When you were stuck in that chunk?” 

“Wait, when what happened?” Joe asked. 

Everyone looked to him to explain. He really didn’t want to. He didn’t want to relive that for even a second. But they had to figure out what was going on. And now that voice had spoken to False as well. Jellie purred in his arms and curled up closer to him if that was even possible. Jellie was here with him, he could do this. So he took a deep breath and explained what had happened.

He’d stopped along the way to Hermitville to renovate another village he had found. He had wanted to try out some ideas and after renovating the village in a futuristic modern style. He finally felt all set to head out to Hermitville. Him and Jellie were just walking through the taiga, enjoying nature and taking it slow. It was nice out and it was nice to just walk for once, but something happened. 

He took a step and the ground beneath him vanished in a flash. The entire chunk he had just stepped into became just empty space. .For a minute he was just frozen there in midair. He couldn’t see anything. He assumed he was floating, he didn’t feel like he was falling. But without sight he couldn’t be sure. And then the noise started. It was a horrible buzzing noise that was just at the end of his hearing range. His ears were ringing within seconds. After a few minutes it started to become painful. He thought he’d lose his hearing at the rate things were going. But the buzzing ended after what felt like an eternity, and something much much worse took its place. 

He could hear everything. The animals in the distance, cows mooing, wolfs barking, and sheep baaing. He could hear the wind in the leaves, the sound of things walking over the grass and dirt, and worst of all, he could hear Jellie. Jellie who walked in circles, back and forth, back and forth meowing sadly at where he probably was. Then that would fade and the buzzing would return.

It felt like an eternity. That he was stuck there. In pitch black darkness. Unable to move or even scream. Just the sound of his ears ringing or the world he had vanished from around him. He didn’t even hear Cub or Xisuma arrive, the ringing in his ears too loud to even think. One second he had been trapped in stasis. Cold, alone, and terrified, and the next he was on the ground. Cub reaching out to him. As the ringing in his ears faded out, and Cub’s voice started to flow in, there was a voice from what felt like everywhere, the universe itself, “I sᴇᴇ ʏᴏᴜ”

There’s a heavy silence as he finishes his story. He’s only grounded in reality by Jellie’s soft purrs against his chest and Cub’s hand on his shoulder. Anything that would’ve been said though is quickly pushed aside when theres a soft groan from behind him. He shifts and sees Grian’s eyes blink open. 

However, no one even gets a word out before Grian’s eyes fly open and Scar can see the panic in them. Before he can even speak Grian has already thrown his hands out and the strange wisps of purple magic that had been in the air around him while he slept gather in his palms and pulse outwards. 

He doesn’t even have time to react as he’s thrown from his feet. It’s only years of stumbling while holding Jellie that he manages to maneuver so he falls backwards instead of forward onto Jellie. The breath in his lungs is knocked out as he hits the ground hard. Jellie jolts awake and meows loudly. Across from him he sees Mumbo, who landed less gracefully, face down and was slowly sitting up rubbing his head. In a cascade effect they have all seemed to have been knocked over. Those like him and Mumbo, closest to Grian, had fallen over completely, while those like False, across the room, only seemed started by the pulse of magic. 

He feels different when he starts to come to. Someone nearby is talking but he can’t understand what they’re saying. What he does understand is the magic in the air around him. It’s mad at him for forgetting about it for so long. It seems to dance in the air around him agitated about something. Its trying to talk to him but he doesn’t remember how to speak that language. He can feel it around him though. He tries to listen to it but he can’t really quiet get it. Blearily he tries to open his eyes. He can make out vague shapes in front of him and in his half awake state he can clearly see the magic that’s dancing around him. Then like he’s known the language his entire life, he can hear what the magic has been trying to tell him. In an urgency he can only recall fear from it calls to him, “wake up”

Maybe its the confusion, the abundant magic, forgotten things he can only recall echoes of, but something in his gut is terrified. And without even thinking about it, he sends the magic around him pulsing outwards. 

The loss of energy that comes from it brings him back to his senses as he hears several grunts and yelps as people fall over around him. Truly opening his eyes this time he finds himself sitting in a room full of his fellow hermits, most of which are on the ground in some form due to the magic that just bowled them over like sticks. 

“Uh… hi?” he greets awkwardly, not really knowing whats going on. He wants to say more but his and every other hermit’s communicators ding simultaneously, the way the only do when someones died. Pushing down the chilling fear that still has yet to release its grip on him, he pulls out his communicator only to be hit with a awful sense of deja vu. 

iJevin was finished off by Biffa2001 using [¡!フㄣㄣĿㄣㄣ:フリ]

[3d-blocks]

AU Time!

I made an AU a while back: info and fic (that will eventually change). I haven't talked about it in forever, and I'm about to combust if I dont. No plot stuff, but plenty to keep you entertained. Here we go!

Xisuma:

Dressed like this for small bits of the AU, that's fun

He kinda dresses how he wants, he's a bit limited because of the helmet, but he does his best

Yeah, he kinda can't breathe without the helmet?? The only times he can take it off is when it's raining or snowing. Sometimes, if he feels he's doing okay, he'll take it off wherever but that's pretty rare

The Void isn't really talking to him right now? He hasn't been walking and been suddenly pulled into a meeting in the End

Evil Xisuma:

A lot calmer now, but still easily angered

Tired and just wants to talk

Doesn't seem to have a connection to the Void

Cleo:

Formally somewhere where she was torn apart and attacked a lot, big unfun

As a result, she can build surprisingly fast and sew pretty well

Vaugly remembers building an apartment complex with Joe, he does not remember this

Joe:

He's just, so versatile????

Who knows what little bit of experience in something he has next

He and Scar went to the same place but had very different reactions. It left Joe with a strong appreciation for trees and how good they are as an escape route

There's a bunch of notes in the old buildings in his writing, it's assumed that Joe got there first (he usually does) but he doesn't remember making most of the notes

Grian:

Knows a bunch of weird science ("How do you know all this stuff?" "Oh, I'm a biology major!")

He and TFC get along really well? They also look a lot alike, to the point you might think they're related

(Note: They are not related. They give off a similar energy, carry themselves in a similar way, similar hair texture. Anyone who didn't know would be like, "Grandfather and grandson???")

Cub and Scar:

Very connected to the Vex

Like, you'll just find them frozen, eyes white, in a meeting with the Vex because there is no scheduling or preparation with the Vex

True Chaotic is their alignment and that's it

Cub barely remembers his previous world, something about being on the run?

Scar went to a giant savanna/desert area like Joe, but he was a lot more reckless back then. His last memory there was being cornered by the h o g s

Doc:

Listen, I've got him down in my notes as "vaguely scientist shaped milf", if that doesn't say something to you, I don't know what will

Was in a really rough area before Hermitcraft, lost his arm there

Actually learned a lot of what he knows about tech from some friends he made there, wants to go back but is still trying to figure that out

Doesn't really put trust in the gods, would rather do it himself

Mumbo:

Really likes working with other people, it makes him feel like he's not going to mess it up

His previous world was full of tech masters, but it was extremely high up in the sky

He couldn't breathe for the longest time, and had to use effectively a gas mask for ages

Iskall:

He's just trying to enjoy life

He went to the same place as Mumbo, except he wasn't as high up

Holds the current record for adjusting to Hermitcraft

Is, and rightfully should be, worried about Xisuma

Likes working with Mumbo, it's always such a fun experience for both of them

TFC:

OLD man

He's the ultimate comforting presence

He and Xisuma are surprisingly close, and TFC tends to offer him advice, though he's kinda like this with everyone

Stress:

Not super sure on how she has her ice powers, the current theory is that she draws them from goddess of cold and death, but there isn't exactly a way to confirm it

Was previously in a pretty idealistic world, someone caused chaos for a bit though. That was... interesting

She's mostly self taught when it comes to building and redstone, but she did learn a few tricks

And that's all for now! Here's that second part! If you got questions, slide on through the ask box or DM me. Anyway, enjoy life!

[vexsoviet-blog]

[Crumpled Wings and Bitter Omens] - Chapter 1

New people don’t randomly appear on the island. It isn’t a thing that happens - ever. Sure, when the world regenerates, new people sometimes appear, and old ones disappear, but it only happens when the hermits wake up to new surroundings and nothing in their pockets. Or, when they go through portals to their new, young world. However, when someone washes up on the shore of the main island with crumpled wings, torn clothes, and messy hair, the hermits aren’t sure who they are or what’s going on - especially when misfortune comes to everyone who this new person visits.

Chapter 1 is finished! I’ll be posting it to Ao3 in the next few days, but for now? Here you go!

Wordcount -  1527 words

People - Grian, Iskall85, Rendog, Mumbo Jumbo, Minesona

Rating - T

They awoke to someone gently nudging them, accompanied by soft, incomprehensible whispers and words they figured were directed to them. Slowly, their eyes blinked open - or, in the case of their cybernetic left eye, blink on. It took a long moment for them to realize that the fuzziness in their eyesight on their right side wasn’t from just disorientation, especially as they used their hand to push the plume of bright purple hair from in front of their eyes, and heard a soft,

“That’s a pretty nasty scar…” It was a male’s voice, slightly on the higher side, but clearly male, and carrying an accent. They didn’t quite know the accent.

Slowly, they looked up, surveying the few people that surrounded them. Vaguely, they could make out three forms. Two of these people stood a little ways away, quietly arguing, while a third knelt down to their level, his head tilted, brown hair wet with what they could only assume was seawater - after all, they could notice the taste of salt in their mouth, and could hear the sound of waves behind them.

The one thing that startled them about these three was how heavily armored all of them were, and it caused them to recoil when the first man reached out his hand. Immediately, he seemed to notice their fright, and drew back his hand. Quietly, he hushed them, slowly rising from his kneeling position.

“Ren, you said you have no idea how…” the man trailed off as he turned to face one of the others, who were quietly arguing. “Ren. You don’t have any idea how… They got here?” He gestured to them, causing them to tilt their head.

One of the men, who they figured was Ren, shook his head, replying with, “No, you were the first one who saw them. When I went mining…" He trailed off, shaking his head.

"... Alright." The first man shifted his weight back, softly frowning as he settled his hands on his hips. "Well, we should probably try to get the other hermits together, and… See if we can get them cleaned up!"

Turning back around, he started back towards them, slipping off his armor and replacing it with what seemed to be wings. Frowning, they said nothing, watching as the man extended his hand. 

"I'm Grian. Let's get you some food and healing potions so you can start regenerating, yeah?" he said, voice kind. Even with their blurry eyesight, they could make out a vague, but bright smile.

Hesitantly, they nodded, taking his hand and standing slowly. Looking around, they frowned a bit as they attempted to make sense of their surroundings. Even through the hazy fog that obscured part of their vision, they could make out trees, flowers, and grass that faded into sand around them. Slightly tightening their grip on Grian’s hand, they took a deep breath, but a movement from one of the other men caused their head to whip over to him.

“You know that we’ll have to carry them,” came the slightly deeper voice. That wasn’t Ren - that was the guy that Ren had been talking (arguing?) to. “Or, at least, one of us will, and another will have to get all the hermits together.”

“I’ll do it. If all else fails, we can have them live in my ship in a bottle, anyways,” Grian offered, shrugging. There was a pause, before he glanced over to the new person, watching for a moment as they stared quietly over the ocean.

They jumped when he settled his hand on their shoulder, and looked over at him. He smiled brightly, head tilting a bit. For a second, they opened their mouth a bit, before shaking their head and closing it again.

“... Come on, I’ll be careful, despite what Iskall must think. You ready to set off?” he asked, waiting until he got a nod from them, before moving to stand behind them. Hooking his arms under their armpits, it took him a few tries before he could take off.

He was, indeed, careful, taking it slow from him - he quickly realized that they would flinch and faintly whimper if they felt like the two of them would be going too fast. They also would squirm from the sound of fireworks going off too quickly in succession, so that slowed their pace.

It didn’t matter, though, as he carefully lead them through Mumbo’s base, into the ship in the bottle - thankfully he was mining, so it was safe for the duo to go through the tunnel that connects the two buildings.

“Well, what we’ll need to do… Is end up getting you a bed, for one,” they heard Grian mumble to himself as they quietly explored the small area. Whenever they would glance at him, he had his head shoved in another chest, still talking to himself, but the wood stifled his words, making it difficult for them to hear him.

However, this must be where they were staying - for a while, most likely. Knowing that, they took some time to themselves so they could acquaint themself with the area. It wasn’t a large area in any stretch of the idea, but they did enjoy how small it was, and how, when they looked through the glass that surrounded them, they could see the faint forms of fish swim by. Smiling softly, they tilted their head, a hand against the glass.

“Hey, uh… I’m gonna see if I can get you a bed, alright?” Grian asked, glancing over to them. He grinned when they nodded. “Alright, then I’ll see you in a little while!” He exited the bottle, leaving them alone.

--

They could faintly make out the sun setting through the water above them when they heard an unfamiliar voice cursing from inside the ship. Sitting up quickly, they looked towards the entrance, before clambering on top the best they could and hiding there.

Watching as a black haired head poked its way out of the ship, before a lanky body followed it, they shook a bit. Vaguely, they could see red splotches on the man’s dress shirt, and they couldn’t quite tell what it was - it could basically be anything, they figured. Dye, blood… Something else. Scanning over him, they could vaguely make out a suit jacket hanging off of his arm, but it didn’t seem like he was holding anything else. That allowed them to relax a little bit, and they sunk down to their knees as they watched the man quietly.

He settled down after a few minutes, taking a deep breath. This gave them the chance to slip down from their hiding spot in order to investigate this new person better. Unfortunately, the movement made the boards under their feet creak, and they tensed as the man quickly perked up, standing and looking around.

“Who are you?” he asked, gaze finally settling on them. With the silence that they offered, tension came, and this dark haired man shifted uncomfortably, swallowing hard. “I asked-” he cut himself off there, shaking his head. “I’m Mumbo, are you… Able to speak?”

They simply shrugged, looking over him. All they knew was that their throat felt harsh, dry - sorta like they’d swallowed a handful of sand. There was a chance that they did, in all honesty, but they pushed it out of their mind as they looked for something to write with and on. Heading into the ship, they pulled a sign from off the wall and scrubbed the writing off of it with their jacket sleeve. Scribbling something out on the sign, they set it down in front of Mumbo.

I dunno yet. They wrote simply, then frowned. For a second, they tried to say something, but it only escaped their mouth as a wheezing squeak - nothing more.

“Alright. You… Uh, you don’t need to try to speak just yet, but…” Mumbo hesitated, looking down as he frowned and attempted to think of a few yes/no questions for them to answer. “Did Grian bring you here..?” He watched as they nodded at that, and he smiled - it made sense. “Are you hungry?” Hesitantly, they shrugged, a frown twitching at the corners of their mouth. “Do you want me to get you food?” Quickly, they nodded, smiling brightly.

That was the first time they actually, truly smiled that day, and they felt a bit better. A small shudder of happiness went through their body as an involuntary light cooing sound rumbled from someplace in the base of their throat, and they clasped their hands together.

He chuckled lightly, before pausing. “One more question…” he started, causing them to look to him. “Can you.. See well, by any chance? I noticed you-” They cut him off with a quick shake of their head. “Alright… Then we’ll get you glasses or something to help. I’ll be back soon enough.”

With that, he started back into the ship and down, disappearing into the tunnel system that lead to his base. Once again, they were left alone, but this time, they settled down on the ground, quietly looking up at the sky through the glass of the bottle.