Haven’t I Given Enough?
A Hermit! Tommy HC x DSMP xover
Chapter 14 | “How do you owe the World? How do you own Disorder?”
Summary: Tommy doesn’t know what he did to deserve this, to have someone fight for him, but at what cost? Lines had begun to be drawn in the sand by people he barely even knew.
Word count: 2718
Fic notes: Title is from “Toxicity” by System of a Down’s
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“What now?” Tommy asked as they stepped outside the residential tower of Pearl’s base. Beneath his foot, the gravel crunched with every step and the smell of fresh flowers dotted the place eased his nerves. It was a lot of information to learn in a short period, not including learning that his mother was alive or that his uncle and mother were watchers. Tommy felt like he needed time to process everything. To fully grasp the severity of his mother’s past and to try and predict any possible bad endings this world could come to. “Where do we go from here?”
“We go one day at a time,” Pearl answered from beside him, in her hands, she had a small bag of wildflower seeds. Now and then, she would take a bit out of the bag and scatter them along the mossy grass surrounding them, carefully picking the spots she thought could use a bit more detail. “I don’t expect you to act a certain way around me, nor do I expect any form of affection just yet. We’re going at your pace Tommy, don’t think you need to rush things if they make you uncomfortable.” Tommy felt his mother tousled his hair a bit. “I am perfectly fine just talking to you if that’s what you wish.”
Tommy gave a silent nod as they continued the tour of the base. It was incredible, he thought. Everything here was a strange and beautiful kind of foreign that he didn’t understand. Plants that never existed outside the Hermitcraft server sprang to life whenever they got near, some opened their petals from above them, letting their spores float around them and taking root in the ground. If someone had told him that this place was an alien settlement from Jupiter, Tommy would believe it, because it’s pretty hard to believe that his mother was the one to make all of this.
Across the cavern, a shimmering castle of sorts stood high atop the hill. The spires reached into the sky, leaving streaks in the clouds, and the foundations dug into the earth below it. Polished quartz glinted and the prismarine twinkled multicolored in the sun, giving the castle an ethereal kind of vibe. It was beautiful. Right below the castle was a kind of intimidating stronghold of deepslate and Blackstone, the copper brought his attention to the gate at the front.
“That is my friend Impulse’s base,” Pearl said and led him down the winding paths to the matching copper and Blackstone bridge that connected the two sides of the gorge. “He’s doing a whole dwarf thing this season and he’s taking on an ambitious project of excavating the mountain on the inside.”
“It’s not as ambitious as rebuilding a whole new biome from scratch,” Tommy nearly jumped at the sudden voice. Behind him was an average-sized man, a bit on the heavier side but he made it work, dressed in shades of black, dark brown, and yellow. His smile was easy to see in the carefully tended beard that jingled from all his little gold accessories braided in. “Hi, I’m Impulse, you must be Tommy, right? I met up with Scar earlier and he told me about you.”
Tommy shook the dwarf’s hand and gazed in wonder at the tour of the base. “I’m still working on the ceiling, the stone and dirt and stuff are coming down soon, but before that, I need to finish the hole.” Below the center platform, an almost empty hole stretched far into the earth. How long had this taken him? It couldn’t have been years, Tommy thinks, they move every other year or so. “This vine right here takes you up to Gem’s base, I’m also working on a better way to her pace that isn’t crimson vines.”
“Pearl! Pearl!” Flying in from the open gate, a woman–petite and thin with large branching antlers atop her head–stumbled onto the platform out of breath and worried. “I think there are some hermits who think Tommy is a glitched player! We need to talk to Xisuma or something.”
“What?” Tommy looked at the mystery lady.
“I overheard Jevin talk about a meeting to discuss what to do about Tommy,” She looked between the Impulse and Pearl. “We need to do something, gather everyone who knows about you and see if there’s a way to explain the truth to them.”
“We need to tell Doc then,” Tommy spoke up. “I don’t think going to the admin would help, something tells me he’s pretty upset about the lies Uncle G kept from him.” The three adults looked at the teen, each one agreeing with him. “I don’t have a communicator, so one of you is gonna have to tell him.”
Tommy knew that peace wasn’t going to last forever, he of all people should know that, but he didn’t know that trouble had already caught up with him. It wasn’t even an hour ago that he and his mother reunited, and here he was, standing once again in the middle of a potential war. He hopes that no one dies because of him.
–
From the bottom of the perimeter, the rest of the world faded from sight, only the large, imposing walls of the giant square-shaped hole could be seen. The bedrock beneath his feet was cold, even with his shoes on. Tommy could feel the never-ending cold from the void, rippling through the immovable blocks, as if it was trying to break it and swallow him whole. Around him, the walls faded into the familiar white blur that happens when things get too far to see, letting him know how big the giant hole was.
They had chosen the bottom of the perimeter to meet up for a few reasons. One, if they built a secret meeting room in one of the walls, it’d be impossible to see unless you were intentionally looking for it. Two, if they were to stand in the middle, those who were flying above or standing on the edges couldn’t hear them. And three, the Perimeter would be the last place people would look if there was a meeting of some kind.
Tommy looked around at the small group that gathered, each of them was there to protect him, to keep him safe from those they considered friends and family. On a small stage were Doc, Xisuma, Grian, and his mother. The admin wore a different helmet than the other one he’s seen, it was more like a face mask than a helmet. The sides stretched to only the edge of his face where two thick bands wrapped around the back of his head, securing it in place. He seemed tense, Tommy thought, a stark difference from the easy-going, and calm admin he’d come to know. (He’s still wary of him, no matter how comfortable he allows himself to be with him.)
Among the small crowd were the other two “Soup Group” members, as his mother called the trio, Impulse and the ginger woman–whom Tommy now knows her name as Gem. Iskall, Scar, and Stress stood to the left of him. Iskall’s arms were crossed as he listened intently to what the admin and Doc were talking about, Scar held a pen and notebook in his hands, taking down notes he deemed important. And though Tommy wasn’t the best when it came to literature, some words were misspelled and dotted in the paragraphs now and then. Stress kept her hand on his back, rubbing circles in the hopes that it would calm Tommy down. And it was working, but the looming anxiety returned when she stopped and paid attention to Xisuma.
There were even people there that Tommy hadn’t met, but were willing to protect him. One guy was tall, not as tall as Xisuma or Doc, but he still had some height to him. His hair was a pristine shade of white with some bits of light gray dotted in, a navy-colored mask covered the lower half of his face as he listened intently to what Grian was saying. Sometimes he would lower his head and whisper something to the guy next to him. The other man was shorter than the first, but so were a lot of people compared to Stretch, Tommy thought. He wore a green fuzzy cloak that bunched at the floor as if it was too long for him, it wrapped around him and just barely covered the white shirt and dark jeans underneath.
A total of ten people showed up to the meeting. Twelve people were willing to hurt their family if things went bad for a kid they barely knew.
“Unfortunately, we don’t know how many people are a part of them,” Doc said. “We know for sure that Cub and Wels are the ones who started it, how they found out about Tommy, we still don’t know, but we know that they think Tommy is a glitched player. We must assume that they’ll do anything to get him off the server.”
“By ‘do anything’ what are you implying Doc?” The white-haired guy spoke up. “Are you saying that Wels would kill the kid to keep us safe? Don’t you think that’s a bit harsh for both the kid and Wels?”
“Wels would because of how he lost his home world,” Grian answered. “I was there when it happened. A glitched player caused the downfall of his world and he almost died with it. Wels wouldn’t want Hermitcraft to end the same way, and so he’d do whatever he thinks is best to protect us.”
Tommy looked around at the group, how could they all be ready to fight for him? What did the admin promise them upon their victory? Wars had been started for less than what he was worth, Tommy knows that for sure, but what was the gain they would have? It confused the poor kid.
Most of his life had been filled with fighting against an enemy whose values and morals were vastly different than his, and usually, that was enough to justify the fight. Their ideas and promises had fallen through and Tommy was caught on the short end of the stick, forced to pick a side and lead troops against the other side. But here, where the whole server was a family, and corruption between them hadn’t torn them apart, Tommy was placed on one side and forced to fight. To fight for himself. (Which he doesn’t think is a good reason to fight.)
“So what’s the plan?” Iskall asked. It seemed like that was the only question left unanswered in the impromptu meeting of Tommy-Protection-Squad. “Do we wait for them to figure out where Tommy is and fight or?”
Xisuma shook his head, “We need to find out how many people believe in Wels and Cub’s agenda, from there we try to make peace with them by introducing Tommy to them. Hopefully, like that, they’ll see that Tommy isn’t a threat.”
“Hey! I can be a threat if I want to!” Tommy pointed at the admin. “And what if that doesn’t work and they try to kill me, eh? What then?”
“Then we fight,” He answered. “You’re a hermit now Tommy, and hermits protect each other. But as of right now, Tommy cannot be left unattended in case they try to hurt him. I have given you all schedules for when it’s your turn to be with Tommy.” Beside the teen, Stress pulled out her paper, names and times were written in order from breakfast to bedtime. His short time of freedom had come to an end. “I’m sorry that you can’t continue to work on your bases for extended periods now, but just think of this as a way to meet our newest hermit!”
The others around him chuckled and sent amusing glances toward him before they took off in different directions; which left Tommy feeling as if he was nothing but a toy being passed around in school. He understood that it was the best way to keep him safe, to make sure the hermits who wanted to hurt him didn’t get a chance, yet he couldn’t help feeling hurt that Xisuma didn’t ask him if it was alright.
He hadn’t known the admin for long, still wary of him especially now that tensions were high between him and Grian, as well as whatever happened with his helmet to make him use a mask instead. But Tommy believed that Xisuma was a better admin than Dream had been. So far the man had yet to ask him for favors, hadn’t yet asked him to do anything he wasn’t comfortable with, but there was still something about him that made Tommy shift in place when he glanced at Grian before he took off.
“Come on, Toms,” Grian hopped off the miniature stage and walked up to him, Pearl beside him. “It seems I have the first watch, you pick where we go.”
“We’re going to church prime.” Nodding his head, Grian grabbed Tommy’s hands and flew him up to the closest nether portal, hoping no one was on the other side when they went through.
–
The sun had begun to set behind them when they left the portal at Stress’s base. Nothing had changed much from when Tommy took up residence in her base, the chest monster was the same as it had been. Shulkers scattered the stone and andesite floors, items left hanging out of the chest and in piles around the wall of storage. Grass had begun to creep its way into the castle, small darts of green cracking through the gray like spiderwebs.
“Stress said you came here through her pond,” Grian asked. The two hadn’t spoken since they left Doc’s perimeter, finding silence better for their awkwardness.
“Yeah,” Tommy led him to it, the two-block deep water feature was as unassuming as ever. Small rocks lined the edges and kept most of the water in the pond and mobs from falling in, at the other end was a little waterfall that trickled softly into the larger body. Little fish took their time to bob and weave through the decorational–and mostly functional–plants that dotted the small area. “Apparently, I had spawned inside the dirt blocks at the bottom of the pond and was drowning when she and Iskall came to help. When they tried to pull me out, they said that there were like magic claws that were trying to pull me back.”
“Magic claws?” Grian stepped closer to the pond. The shorter blond man could feel the lingering magic that had transported Tommy from his other server, it was a cold magic, one he knew all too well. “Whoever did this was a watcher and they did this for a reason.”
“How can you tell?” Tommy asked.
“The magic used here was used by watchers of Lady Death, their magic has like a special signature to them,” Grian explained. “It’s different than Lady Irene’s just slightly, but enough to differentiate the two. But the bigger questions are who and why?”
“Which reminds me!” Tommy pointed to his uncle. “You have some explaining to do! Mum already told me her story, and now I want to know yours, bitch! I have a right to know.”
Sighing, Grian dusted off his pants before looking at his nephew. “Alright. Let’s go inside somewhere before the mobs start spawning.”
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Ok listen…in my defense, I just kept writing and I forgot to actually publish what I was writing. Buuuut on the bright side I have a few chapters already lined up and ready to go, I might upload those soon but who knows!
Thank you so much for reading! Critique and comments are welcome!
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ask game ⭐️
requested by @itzyyyyyydaaaaaa! will be updated as i think of new questions.
moss: what is your guilty pleasure?
cobblestone: what five things would someone put in a summoning circle to summon you?
redstone: what is an essential part of your daily routine?
oak: what's your trademark? (item, gesture, turn of phrase)
coal: what drink do you ask for on a plane?
spruce: how do you deal with loneliness?
gold: what's something people wouldn't expect just from looking at you?
cherry: what motivates you?
emerald: how are you with spicy food?
diamond: show the last photo in your camera roll.
netherite: what's something (a piece of jewelry, accessory, etc.) you always wear?
grass: what is your love language?
iron: what object in the world reminds you of your eye/hair color combination? (ie, pine tree for green eyes and brown hair.)
lapis: tag an under-appreciated mutual.
blackstone: what's a quote/saying you live by?
spawner: ask me anything!
(feel free to rb and have your people ask you some stuff too)
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