#but Maxo's a good Tio

[royalarchivist]

Maximus: Amigo, amiga, amigue, amongus?

Maximus being a supportive Tio and asking Leonard@ (Foolish and Vegetta's egg) their pronouns, then celebrating with a song when they say they're genderfluid!

[pixiecaps]

Context: Bagi explains to Richas that Empanada is feeling that she’s not part of the group and struggling to make friends so he agrees to be a good brother and gives her advice. Had to transcribe this conversation.

Richas: My tip! I always wanted to feel like my dads are connecting with others, and at the beginning, it was hard Empanada. We were like the first in a bunch of things! The first Brazilians, the first to not speak Spanish or English, the first to clash (crash) in accidentally. I was even the first egg to even come without a certificate! (Laughs) And my dads used to stay alone or only talk among themselves that’s why we were a family. Then >:D. There was a star (Bobby)! This star came crashing in and brought me and dad Cellbit together with pa Roier! Then we started to befriend everyone. Vô Foolish, Tio Maxo, Tio Bad even! And it took me even a month to talk to Dapper!

Empanada: Thank you for telling me this :D.

Richas: So. (Laughs) It’s okay to feel like that, these days we have a lot less people to go running. And back (then) we had different tasks. “GO PLAY HIDE AND SEEK WITH A FRIEND >:D” And then both me and my dads both being oddly timid to go and speak another language with another person, sitting there thinking, “Oh god.” At the end, it might not feel EVERYONE like family (it might not feel like everyone is family) but with time, you kinda fit in >:D. Even if it’s you and your dad against the world!

Bagi: That was very kind Richas. Thank you for your words.

(Richas hands Empanada an Orange Daisy, his favorite flower)

Empanada: Thank you little brother <3

Richas: You’re welcome >:D

[factorialsotherfandoms]

I wasn't going to come back to this au, I might not do so again, but... Happy Ending AU, bitches. These scenes are kinda short for the au, half way between notes and actual scenes, but I hope they still bring you joy.

And then, one day, they are just... ready. Months of work and research and sneaking around and now... Well, here it is. Most people were only told once summoned to the meeting room - thirty minutes to pack a backpack of everything you want to save, give it to Philza, and be back here on time.

They expected resistance, or blame, or... Or Fit is not sure, but not the way Jaiden just broke, laughing and sobbing, or Foolish's sharp "finally!".

Fit's known this was coming for a while, and so have the people he loves. Even Ramón's is already packed and safely with Philza, filled with gears and cogs and the giant sniffer toy that Pac had made him.

Pac and Mike are also ready, Richarlyson already sat inside the train and they and Aypierre make the final adjustments. In the interests of information security only those three and Philza himself know exactly where they are going; Fit is here to protect them if the Feds do catch on at this most delicate of times.

Slowly everyone makes it back, the first time everyone has been punctual for a while, every surviving egg and islander bundled into the train.

Everyone except for Philza.

"Be good for papa Missa, your tios and tias, okay?" Philza tells his children as he hugs them both. "Hey, hey, no, fuck- don't cry, kids, don't cry. You'll make me tear up too."

"You sure you aren't coming with us?" Cellbit calls to him, eyes strained as he bundles against Roier, Richarlyson in his lap. There's life in them, though, life that Fit hasn't seen in weeks.

"Nah mate," Philza stands, one egg on each hip as he walks them the last few steps to the train. "Someone's got to open the portals, yeah? Couldn't risk pre-building them, and I'm the one who won't die from this."

Frankly, it's a fucking miracle they have anyone who can touch the void, but Fit's known Philza's secret for decades.

It doesn't stop him from grabbing his arm and pulling him into a rough hug.

"You be careful," Fit tells him. "Don't wanna come out the other side to see my babygirl all burnt up again."

Philza cackles despite the scars, "won't be making that mistake again, big boy. Come on now, what's gotten into you, Fit? It's just a little hike, yeah?"

Fit lets him go; they both know it isn't just a hike, "I'll see you on the other side."

"The other side."

Philza steps away, inventory full of backpacks and their lives. You don't bring things across the nether-borders, but a god-touched elytran... Well, despite everything, Philza has his contacts.

Just as Fit has his.

Tazercraft's train is the same of any of their trains in design, just with a little more care taken to have enough seats. Fit checks Ramón's seatbelt, before leaning over to help Cellbit with Richarlyson's; some of the eggs are good about these things, but his boyfriend's son is certainly not one of them.

After everything, after everything, they refuse to lose any more children now.

Not right now, not at the last hurdle, not when at the end of this train journey they will be as immortal as any player.

And fuck, it hurts how many didn't get here - Fit sees it in Jaiden and Roier's eyes most of all, but in Slime and Mariana where they hide on the upper level... Maxo and Dan are dead, and Quackity does not remember today, but... Well all four are griefs, are they not?

Fit watches Pac and Mike as they turn the engine over - once, twice, before the Creation shudders into life. Aypierre is in the driver's seat first, the three of them taking shifts for the long trip. This train, unlike the rest, is designed to take up the tracks as it passes them, leaving no trail to follow.

Philza will blow up the portal on his way out.

The train crawls into picking up speed; Fit holds Ramón's hands at the familiar sensation of a portal.

Just a few seconds, and then they are in hell.

The portal shatters, trapping them there.

It's still a better, more hopeful prison than any other before it.

---

Philza blows up the portal, and runs. The Feds will already know something is up, so he's got just minutes to get from A to B. Cannot warp, has to run - too easy to interrupt a warp, even if his inventory had space for one with everyone's bags hidden deep within.

One bag each, don't take the piss stacking them, he's still got to sustain the things with his own reality until he makes it to the landing spot.

Up the stairs, into the light of the Favela. There is already one security guard out by the time he makes it there, but he is Philza Fucking Minecraft and he can outrun one asshole in a bear suit.

Around the corner, up to the football field, and down at a right angle. Across the traintracks - they're firing guns at him now - duck through the trees and into the open expanse of Felps Square.

It is more dangerous here, with nowhere to hide. Philza keeps up a zigzag as he finds his way to the centre. He knows what is hidden here, but the Feds? Do they?

He doubts it.

Philza steps through the ghost blocks, letting gravity take him. He twists to have his back facing downwards, unfurling his wings - beautiful, repaired wings - out behind him, trips scraping the edges of the three-by-three hole. The Feds do not follow him.

At -64 Philza does not die on the bedrock, a hole blown wide - he keeps falling, and falling, and falling, and-

Ph1LzA fell out of the world

---

It is a four days across the Nether by rail. Established worlds have their shortcuts between one another, but that is not the sort of place they are heading for.

By the end of it they are tired, and thirsty, and hungry, and the portal does not yet exist.

"We made good time," Aypierre tells them. "It will be fine."

They have food and water for six days, and no idea if the Federation will catch them up. Worse, they have no idea as to if Philza even made it - if he got out of the world, and to the right place. Nobody mentions as much, but Missa can hear the sympathies in every pair of eyes that turn his way.

From the Nether, someone will take them in. From the Void...

Not even players always survive dying in the void intact.

The first night, Chayanne and Tallulah stay awake, waiting for their dad, entertained by BadBoyHalo as Missa gets some sleep.

The second night the children sleep, as Missa holds a private wake. One only in his heart, but one he knows the others see.

The third night...

The third night Missa is nudged awake by Pomme, and shown a portal finally alight.

They abandon the train.

Pac and Mike dismantle it, scattering its parts to the wind; with a change in world, it would be destroyed anyway, so better just to hide the evidence and finish on foot. Missa... Missa doesn't quite understand the intricacies, but he knows enough. Last time he crossed a world border, it was with his brother.

This time... this time he has children, and nieces and nephews and friends, but he knows that Spreen is never coming back.

A world portal is not quite like a Nether portal, for all they are in principle the same; no matter where you are the Nether is the Nether just as the Void is the Void, both just infinitely dangerous to navigate. Most people make use of short portals and hub worlds to travel, never daring risk interdimensional hiking. Even those that do travel well known routes; it is testament to everyone else's skills, but especially the Creatists, that they made it here alive.

Missa... he does not know how to explain it to Chayanne and Tallulah, so he doesn't. He just waits their turn - Etoiles and Roier went first, just in case of danger - and steps through with both children in hand.

He has never been here before; it tastes like coming home.

His husband's arms catch him as he stumbles from the portal, laughter echoing as a family of four tumbles down and to the grassy floor. Missa does not have time to look around, not when he is being held, not when Philza looks the healthiest he has ever seen him, laughing and bright beneath the stars.

"How was the trip?" Philza asks him.

Missa bats his arm, "fine until you- you-"

He will not cry, he will not cry!

Philza kisses the tears from his cheeks.

"Sorry," Philza looks slightly cowed. "Had to stop at one of the hubs to get something to eat. Thought I'd be clever and register this place while I was there - queues were a fucking nightmare, but there's a link to the network out on one of the further islands."

"Already?"

"Didn't want anyone to feel trapped. Would have thought of it sooner if not for the birdbrain."

Missa understands; Maxo's death had rattled them all.

The family cling to each other as everyone else makes their way through the portal, a careful headcount being done before dismantling it. From there Philza leads the group down into a valley, chattering with everyone even as his hand stays firmly in Missa's. They all keep an eye on each other for another long trek, a winding path through the undergrowth and to...

To a wide open area with a beach in the distance, and a single large, wooden and windowed building in the centre. The whole place is brightly lit - the entire path down had been - and styled like some sort of town hall.

"I didn't think you'd want to be building houses tonight," Philza tells them. "So I put together some dormitories. Be sure to set spawns at least, and get properly bound here. Your shit should all be in the main room."

Inside is not luxurious, but it reminds Missa of home. There are couches and rugs and an extensive kitchen, with enough rooms for each family to take their own. Lanterns hang cheerfully from the ceiling, supplemented by sealights and candles in a beautiful glow.

He leaves the children to explore under other parents' watchful gazes as Philza steals him away, and to their room. The beds are marked for each member of their family, almost like a ship's cabin. It won't be home long, not if Missa knows his family, but... but once again Philza has built them safety from nothing.

Philza, who pulls him to the bed, and wraps himself around him and says "I love you" as though those words do not shatter entire worlds.