#like how grian planned around what Etho was just gonna leave for the moment

[teddy-bear-d]

I think what we can gather from this gritho team up (finally) is that they are essentially efficient and coordinated chaos

[wren-kitchens]

well who’d have thought? (ch.2)

okay it’s been like 3 weeks but I did chapter 2 lmao

it’s. not awful

pls reblog!

they make it to the shopping district, and crash-land into a dark oak tree, laughing. grian almost falls out as he rolls sideways, and scar has to grab him before he does. after they’ve composed themselves, they brush the leaves out of their hair and the twigs off their clothes.

they sit in silence for a while, watching out for anyone who might be coming, but there’s no one.

“so.. what now?” grian asks. “we just wait?”

“I suppose.” scar says. “should we like.. cuddle or something? in case someone turns up.”

“sure.” grian budges closer to scar, glad for the thick foliage, and leans against him. he can’t help but smile shyly as he feels scar’s arms around his waist.

grian looks up at him. “how long do you think we’re gonna be here before someone sees?” 

“well, depends.” scar says. “we don’t know if someone’s using a spyglass right now.”

“that’s a good point, actually.” grian says. “i’d say we look pretty coupley.”

scar bends down and kisses grian’s forehead. “that probably helped.”

grian can feel himself blush a little as he feels scar’s arms wrap around his waist. it kind of reminds him of when they were in the desert. the first few nights were cold, and the only way they could stay somewhat warm was by huddling together.

“maybe we should try to come up with pet names.” scar remarks. “you know, like in advance.”

“that’s a good idea.” grian says. “can you think of any?”

“honey, sweetheart, darling.” scar lists. 

“love.” grian adds. 

“that one’s sweet.” scar says. “love.” he kisses the top of grian’s head again.

grian finds himself blushing. “darling.” he grins.

“aw, you’ve gone pink.” scar laughs. “you don’t have to be embarrassed.”

“i’m just not used to it.” grian says. “honey.”

“are you just gonna call me random pet names after everything you say to me?” scar says.

“I would if I could think of any more.” grian says.

“i’ve got one for you: songbird.” scar says, sounding proud. “‘cause you’re an avian.” he adds, in case grian didn’t know.

“I like that one.” grian says. “it’s cute.” 

“I know.” scar says smugly.

 grian gives a huff of laughter. “you’re an idiot.”

“I know.” scar repeats, nuzzling his nose into the crook of grian’s neck. “songbird.”

grian feels a weird fuzzy feeling in his stomach and blushes again. “shut up.” he mumbles.

scar laughs against grian’s neck, and the fuzziness amplifies. “you’re adorable.” 

“oh- um. am I interrupting something?” 

they both jump, looking up to see bdubs. he seems quite embarrassed.

“bdubs!” scar says. “hello!”

grian is slightly speechless, thankful for scar speaking first.

“so, the rumours are true.” bdubs grins. 

“ah, rumours?” scar is a pretty good actor, grian has to admit. 

“that you two are finally together.” bdubs says.

“oh, um. there are rumours?” grian’s voice squeaks. it’s just cause he’s nervous, that’s all. he’s never done this kind of thing before.

“yup.” bdubs says. “are they true?”

grian feels his face burning. why is he so embarrassed by this? this was the whole goal of their plan. “yes.” he says.

“ha! I knew it!” bdubs punches the air. “oh, etho owes me so many diamonds. i’ll see you guys later!” he opens his elytra and rockets off, waving.

grian and scar sit in silence for a moment.

“they made bets on us?!” grian exclaims suddenly, causing scar to burst out laughing.

-

“so you found out people made bets on you now?” cleo says when they get back.

“yes! when was I supposed to find out?” grian says. 

“uh, like a year ago.” cleo says. “that’s when they started up again.”

“sorry, again?” scar asks.

“i’m just saying, but that whole turf war thing did seem a little suspicious.” cleo shrugs. 

“I can’t believe we’re only finding out about this now.” grian says. “is there anything else?”

“oh, there’s a lot else.” cleo grins. “but that’s not important right now. did anyone else see you? of course, bdubs will be telling everyone he sees, but it’s better to have more.”

“tango flew by at one point.” scar remembers, chuckling at the thought. “he didn’t stop to talk to us, but i’m pretty sure he saw, cause he looked in our direction then flew into the Entity.”

cleo snorts. “I have to see that.”

“perks of fake dating, apparently.” grian grins. “people fly into things around you.”

“next time we’ll try to film it.” scar assures her. he glances down at grian and can’t help smiling when he sees his grin.

“okay, well, you two lovebirds best be off — i’ve got a base to build.” cleo tells them. the way she smirks at scar makes him think she didn’t miss the way he looked at grian.

“yeah, I have to finish the blueprints for my buildings.” grian says. “i’ll see you later, scar!”

“see you, songbird!” scar calls as grian flies off, laughing as grian falters slightly in the air and flips scar off. 

-

it’s two in the morning, and grian is hunched over the blueprints for the buildings that will eventually be added to the rocks. he’s switched from contacts to his glasses, and regretting that every time they fall down his nose. 

he just can’t seem to get the design right. it doesn’t curve properly around like he wants it to, and he can’t find a good way of supporting it whilst keeping the magical illusion. 

grian knows that, logically, staying up later and later will not help, and sleep deprivation will only make matters worse, but he just can’t tear himself away. 

“g, please go to sleep.”

grian makes a noise between a yelp and a squawk and jumps backwards, his wings puffing up. he whips around to see a very tired looking scar, his long hair tied back and messy.

“jesus scar.” grian breathes, hand on his chest. “you nearly gave me a heart attack.”

scar grins sheepishly. “sorry. I can’t fall asleep until you do; the server sleep thing is glitchy right now.”

grian winces. “ah, sorry. I just- I needed to finish this, but — I don’t know why — but I can’t get it right.”

scar rolls his eyes. “it’s ‘cause you’re awake at 2am.” but he sits down next to grian and pulls the blueprints close to him.

“what’s wrong with it?” scar asks. “this looks amazing.”

“i can’t find a way to support it.” grian says. “not without ruining the affect.”

“you need to support it?” scar asks. “your base is flying rocks.”

grian opens his mouth. then closes it. 

“oh my god.” he mutters. “I forgot. how did I forget my base is magic?!”

scar laughs. “gri, you really have to go to sleep.”

“I will, I will, I just have to finish-“

“nope.” scar interrupts him.

“scar, it’ll just- scar!” grian feels his wings puff up again as scar picks him up bridal style. he flushes, the same weird fuzziness from earlier resurfacing.

“you are going to sleep.” scar tells him, carrying him towards his bed. 

well, it’s more of a nest made out of all the blankets and pillows he could find and borrow (read, steal) from the other hermits. it’s very comfortable.

“i’ll just finish it and i’ll go straight to sleep!” grian says, trying to wriggle free (unsuccessfully).

“nuh, uh, you’re going to sleep right now.” scar tells him.

“i’m breaking up with you.” grian folds his arms as scar sets him down in his nest-bed. 

“yeah, yeah.” scar waves him off, and gets in next to him.

grian’s already warm face heats up even more. “what- what’re you doing?” 

“i’m making sure you actually sleep.” scar says. “because I know that as soon as I leave, you’re gonna go and pass out in the middle of your floor with the blueprints stuck to your head.”

grian sighs. “you know me too well. fine, i’ll sleep.”

scar wraps his arms around grian’s waist, pulling him close. grian finds himself relaxing into it, eyes already closing. 

just as grian starts to drift off, he vaguely hears scar murmur something. he can’t make it out, but a second later he feels a kiss pressed to his forehead. he smiles as he falls asleep, chest warm.

[blocksruinedme]

Hello, hi, I would like to submit another word for the wip ask game thingy, how about "hands"?

[well i was going through old drafts, just gonna publish this one as is.]

(1a) Etho had been looking at… he couldn’t remember what, just that he was looking at something in his hands. (1b) <i can make it sfw by just using the part between dialogue> Joel waved his hands with no clear intent (2a) He was sitting cross legged in the grass, leaning forward and rocking back and forth a little, face down and eyes pressed into the palms of his hands. (2b) Scott gently placed his hands on Jimmy’s cheeks, gave him one last (for now) lingering kiss, and pulled back. (3) <nsfw but the doc title is "don't play gay chicken with smalletho", larper au> (4) <yeah this is just more larper smalletho smut it's just smut> (5) <there are TWELVE but even the ones that are sfw are just too suggestive i can't here's one> Etho took one of Joel’s hands and gave it two tight squeezes. (6a) <there's 8 but... here's 2> They could figure out the rest once Jimmy finally got his hands on Grian,  Grian, clever sassy Grian, Grian who you could always rely on to come up with a plan instantly, even if it might not be the safest plan. (6b) “A fair bit, yeah, seems like.” Joel's grip lightened as one of his hands gently traced lines down Jimmy’s arm.

an interjection - apparently @that-tall-queer-bassist knows i write about hands a lot (i don't think that's notable!) and might just be trying to torment me. the ones where there's nothing sfw i am just skipping, not mentioning, no word count, ask on the other damn account next time! (@blocksruinedmeafterdark)

(7) Etho paused for a moment to decide how to answer, and Joel started waving his hands around. “Nevermind! Forget I asked! I’m going… out!” Etho took pity on Joel, or just was ready to move on, because next thing Joel knew Etho’s hands were on his waist.

() <i'm just off the rails now, i'm doing a whole snippet>

fWhip to gem: they are all over each other, i’m going to puke

Gem: they are holding hands. they are dating. This is actually normal, you’re the weird one

Gem: do you need fake a stroke or something? No, something where i don’t have to leave, cause i’m having lots of fun

Fwhip: if they kiss i’ll puke

Gem: fine, you can leave with food poisoning. Again, without me. 

Gem: you’re up, try to actually hit a pin this time

#1 - 8.8k limited life ep 3 smalletho fic. who knows if i'll finish it #2 - jimmy gets left alone between SMPs and loses his shit #3 - messy notes of "oops i made a joke and now joel is doubling down on something i didn't really mean and it's getting very gay" #4 - new larper smalletho doc #5 - that 13k larper smalletho first time #6 - 8k - whatcha gonna do ch 2

[arospecsyourblockdudes]

The Unwanted Dead

Last Life Session 8 spoilers below the cut ! 

Scar’s burial took more effort than it was worth, in Joel’s opinion.

Grian had at least agreed to help. So the two of them had to go to the bedrock circle in the middle and haul his dead self up the mountain.

(Joel remembers the day they decided to steal the enchanting table. The day they teamed up, unlikely as he had thought having a teammate was. That same scheming light in his eyes and his laughter. He’d been so full of life, hard to realize he was dead)

“There’s no way we’re putting him on the top of the mountain.” Joel dropped his end of the corpse to rest a moment. “It’s not worth it. Bloody maniac, building so high up.”

But they did bring him to the top. It only felt right.

There was already a hole from an explosion where the wheat used to be, so they buried him in there. Grian covered him up while Joel grabbed some of the crystals from Scar’s chest. Crystals, Joel knew it was just glass. Turned a decent profit though, so he can’t be too mad.

“You can head back down.” He told Grian once the makeshift grave was filled in. “I’m just gonna see if he had anything half decent in his chests.”

Grian picked up on the hint and left without protest. He knows what it’s like, loss.

Once Grian was out of sight, Joel crouched by the grave and encircled it with the crystals. Then he just sat there a moment. God, he didn’t want to leave just yet.

“I’m glad we had Magic Mountain, for a bit at least. Selling enchanting and souls. The dream.” He stared blankly at the empty hut. “I wish we could’ve done it together like we planned. Could’ve made my cave all nice for the enchanter. But I guess that’s just how it goes.”

He stays until the sun starts to go down. Grian wasn’t going to come save him if he died to something lame like a zombie.

—————————

Tango was already buried when Etho went to check. Saved him time at least.

“Rest in peace, love, and plants.” Etho laughed quietly as he read the sign. It was a crude grave, just some rocks piled on top of each other, but looks aren’t everything.

Etho was just happy that Tango had been with people who cared enough to bury him and put a little sign on, at least. That was nice to think about.

“That was such a stupid death.” Etho shook his head and pat the gravestone. “Taking the fall for BEST yet again. I might’ve blown myself up on that of you hadn’t. Thanks buddy.”

Well. What he’d come to do was done already. He took a last look around at what used to be a nice fortress and left through a hole in the wall. Could be more traps Tango hasn’t exploded himself on.

—————————

“I know your answer, but I figured I’d ask. I’m going to bury Big B, if you wanted to come along.”

Cleo stared at him like he was the stupidest man alive. He might be, asking that. “No. I wouldn’t have minded if we left him to rot out there.”

Ren shrugged, unsurprised. “Well, I thought I might as well ask. You’ll see me, I’m going to bring him to the Fairy Fort.”

It was easier than expected to carry the man the whole way. He went when it was still day, so no mobs were going to get him. And the last red names had their own burial to do. He wasn’t worried.

And Big B’s body was lighter than he thought it would be. Ren had thought the man had looked sickly, even with that “red life energy”. Big B had always been the most human of them, so of course dying would just make him more dead. The poor man.

It was still a bit of a walk and by the time he made it to the remains of the Fairy Fort, he had to sit down and rest a bit.

“Couldn’t have died any closer, huh?” Ren forced a laugh and looked at the setting sun. “Man. I wish it hadn’t been you that snuck up on our trap. Big B, you caused us some problems but I could never call you a bad man.”

He got to digging, putting his grave right next to Lizzie’s. Easy enough to do it all the second time around. He glanced back at the Shadow Tower once, and caught a glimpse of Cleo in the window. Watching. Poor lady. Ren knows revenge is rarely as satisfying as you think, but he hopes this time it was. For her sake.

Once Big B was buried and a marker set in place (just a stone, he didn’t have anything to carve a name out with), Ren sat down between the two graves to just rest a moment. Very rarely is he able to relax, and he might as well take advantage of the burial truce to get himself together somewhat.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered. “I should’ve done something. I should’ve protected you both better or been quicker or given a life or….I don’t know. I’ve not been a very good knight, have I? I’m not sure what I ever brought to the table besides netherwart and dramatics, really.”

Once it started getting dark, Ren made his way back across the river. Cleo was still at the window when he reached the walls. He wasn’t going to bring it up to her. She’s earned some privacy in her life.

[frombeyondtheblackhole]

Hermit DSMP Swap AU: Part 4

... Skeppies- not in his house... he was in his mansion. Now he is in a mine. That’s not normal, or shouldn't be normal. Who knows what’s normal really. “I reject normal,” He muttered to himself before turning and yelling down the mineshaft “Baaaaaad... Very funny Bad!” He started back down the mine shaft, Bad had to be hiding around a corner up here somewhere. “How did you do it?... Bad?” No response “Bad! Stop hiding already, I know you’re there.” 

Wait, what was this. Skeppy stopped and squinted at the mineshaft walls. He’s a literal diamond, Skeppy knows a thing or two about rocks, and this was a rock he had never seen before. The whole wall was made up of large patches of this dark scaly stone. He knocked his knuckles against it, his diamond skin barely scratching it. “What the hell?” He said and was disappointed when Bad didn't interrupt with his typical ‘language.’ This gave him an idea. He cursed louder. Still silence. Skeppy frowned. Maybe Bad really wasn’t there. 

“Well, I'm leaving now. Last chance.” Still nothing. There was a sinking feeling in Skeppy’s chest. Bad wasn’t there. If this wasn’t a prank then what was this. Skeppy hurried down the mineshaft wasting no time in finding the ladder and climbing out into the sunlight. He exited the little house at the top only glancing back down the mine shaft once through the glass floor. He came out on the edge of a bay, mountains and trees behind him. There was some dirt scaffolding laid out in a massive square across the water, and a nether portal and some chests could be seen on a tiny island in the distance.  

He blinked at it for a minute and then Skeppy did what he always did when he didn’t know what to do. He started yelling.

“Hey yooo! Anyone, there!? Anyone out there?! Hellooooo, I’m talking to you!?” His voice echoed back to him and the water lapped softly against the beach. Skeppy scowled “Well, if you don’t want to be friendly then I’ll just leave. How about that? You hear me? I’m leaving, never returning. Not coming back.” He shouted for the benefit of any hypothetical hiding onlookers as he marched into the forest and started climbing the hill. 

The forest quickly thinned and the hill became more of a cliff, and soon he was climbing over rocky boulders and through flat patches of blue-green grass with the occasional grazing sheep. He came over the next hill and stopped short. The mountain dropped off in front of him and in the plain below looked to be some kind of a village. He squinted; a collective of houses built around what looked to be some kind of pole. 

He heard a bleating sound behind him and turned just as something white with horns rammed into him, knocking him off the cliff and sending him tumbling down the rocky slope, head over heels, till he slid to a stop at the bottom. He looked up at the blue sky and groaned. If he wasn’t a literal rock, he would have been covered in bruises. As it was he still felt like shit.    

“Well look at what the goat dropped in.” Someone laughed. Skeppy tilted his head back to look behind him, everything upside down. A man in a red sweater cast his shadow over him. 

He smiled and the corners of his eyes creased, his shadow growing as a pair of wings spread slightly behind him “Hey there, you seem new, welcome to Boatem town.” 

“Uuuuu... hey there?” 

“You just gonna to lie there, buddy?” He laughed again, reaching out a hand. 

Skeppy blinked and shook his head rolling over and taking the offered hand as the man helped him up. 

“By the way, I’m Grian, whatcha doing out here?” 

“Skeppy, and I, with my excellent sense of direction, was exploring and definitely not lost in any way. I know exactly where I am. And I’m definitely not the victim of some unnamed prankster” He said, starting to walk towards the village and looking around. They were behind a big mossy house.

“Oooh, a prank you say, I’ve got to hear this.” Grian said, following. They walked around the house into the village center, a tower of boats hovered in the middle over an ominous pit. 

“Naaah it’s boring really,” Skeppy waved his hand dismissively as he stopped near the edge of the Boatem hole and peered over. It went all the way down to bedrock, like L’manburg. “Huh... interesting...”

“Ah, yes. That is the Boatem hole, we're planning on opening it up to the void at some point.” Grian explained.

“The void? Wait, you can do that? That sounds awesome. Imagine the pranks you could pull with that” Skeppy said his curiosity getting the better of his caution.

“I know right, Scar’s already fallen down there several times,”

“Hey Grian, who’s your friend there?” A man with in a maroon coat and a tinny hat said coming over. When he came closer Skeppy noticed a long scar running diagonally across his nose and face. 

“Hey Scar! Speak of the devil,” Grian called out to the aptly named man. “This is Skeppy, he’s absolutely not lost.” Grian quipped, smiling, his voice full of sarcasm. 

“You’re lost you say,” Scar said his voice full of all the honey of a car salesman. Skeppy would know, he used the same honeyed tone when trying to talk Bad or Techno into something that probably wasn’t going to end all that well for them but would be absolutely hilarious to watch. 

“Not lost,” Skeppy quickly corrected. 

“Well even those who aren’t lost are trying to get somewhere. I’m sure you wouldn’t object to us sharing a shortcut or too.”

This man was good. Skeppy didn’t want to look too desperate though. Just add a bit of hesitation sprinkled with some skepticism, that should do it “Well... I suppose a shortcut sounds like a good idea. I am heading for the Badlands, know a faster way to get there?”

Skeppy was met with vacant looks, the car salesman gone. “Actually I have no idea where that is,” Scar shrugged sheepishly “How about you Grian,” 

Grian shook his head “Nope... now that I think about it, how did you get on the server anyway,”

“Um... I... I think, I think I just spawned... It’s hard to remember honestly, it’s been so long.” Skeppy frowned at the strange question. 

Grian and Scare glanced at each other in shock. New players weren't born, they were spawned, but it was very rare for players to spawn for the first time in a community server. Usually they spawned in a private server and then moved into a community when they found one that worked for them. 

“Oh!” Skeppies eyes went wide with realization then horror. If a diamond could blanch, Skeppy was the closest thing to that. “...This isn’t the Dream SMP, is it?” 

“Oh dear...” Grian Muttered, “That’s not good.”

---

TFC had been mining. Now he was standing in the middle of a quartz building. That wasn’t normal. His connection to the server had always been a bit glitchy. Maybe this was just another instance of server glitch. He had been frozen in place for days, lagged out, and even defended. Teleportation could just be added to that list. And it wasn’t all that bad, it’s not like it dumped him in the middle of the ocean or lava. As it was, it seemed like he was in someone's starter base. 

He walked down the stairs and out the glass front doors. There were pools of water to either side of a walkway and the yard was cluttered with large colorful statues. A muffin, a duck. Goodness the hermits were already at it with the pranks this season. 

He walked around the statues and came to the front gate of the grounds. A long wooden path lead off in one direction, and wrapped around behind the mansion in the other. A large red multi story building loomed in the distance. The hermits really had gotten busy. 

It was always nice to see what other people were making but he needed to get back to his mine. He took the path following it around the back of the mansion. The path dropped off suddenly. He jumped down and landed with a grunt before taking some bread out of his pocket and munching on it as he rounded the corner of the quartz building's foundation. 

He faltered as his eyes fell on a massive blackstone building looming out of the sea, two imposing lava infused towers book ending the walls at either side... And he had thought the Red build had been big for early game. This was definitely too big for early game... even by hermit standards. 

He slowly walked closer. Beyond the Quartz house was mostly just an open field until it reached the water. As he got closer he noticed his pickaxe suddenly become unnaturally heavy. It felt strangely like Mining Fatigue. What would a Guardian be doing out here? He returned his pick to his inventory. TFC had seen a lot of things in his time, and this thing felt off. 

“Pst..” 

TFC jumped and looked around for the source of the noise. 

“Over here,” 

Now he noticed the footprints in the ground and a floating potion bottle. That sounded like Etho. 

“Etho?” TFC queried.

“Yeah, it’s me. Here drink this, I can explain later,” Etho said, shoving the potion into TFC’s work calloused hands. 

TFC looked down at the bottle of bubbling silver liquid for a moment before uncorking it and downing the liquid. He trusted the young man with his life. 

--- 

Sam started up from his chair in the dark room where he had been flipping through the prison's security camera feeds, lit only by the glow of the computer screens. He expanded the outside front camera feed to full screen and rewound the feed. A strange old man he had never seen before slowly approached the beach by the prison then just disappeared. Who the hell was that and why did he take an invis potion. 

Sam scowled. “Not on my watch,” he muttered, summoning his trident from his inventory and marching for the exit.

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

3rd life Villain!Impulse perhaps? Reasoning because he's been so nice to all factions and appears very harmless...until he kills Tango in the firing squad scenario. Do with that as you will :3

honestly i think the villain 3rd Life AUs are some of my best writing. also i’m pretty sure i’m gonna end up writing everyone as a villain at some point lol (villains so far: Scar, Etho, Tango, Grian, Ren, Martyn, now Impulse. Joel too if you count that fic where he kills Jimmy)

…

A feeling of dread hangs over Impulse as he makes his way up to Tango’s base. Getting a private message from his best friend, simply saying “we need to talk”, has highly unsettled him. He has absolutely no idea what Tango could want to talk to him about.”

As he gets to the hill Tango calls home, he spots Tango himself standing at the top, arms folded, clearly watching him. A shiver running down his spine, Impulse slowly climbs up the hill. Tango watches him all the way.

Finally, he gets to the top. Keeping an eye on the sun, which must be about an hour away from setting, he gives his friend a wave. “Hi, Tango. What’s… What’s going on?”

Tango’s looking at him with a narrow-eyed expression of distrust. “I know your game, Impulse.”

“Huh?” Impulse blinks. That’s not what he was expecting. “What?”

“Your little game of pretending to be allies with everyone so nobody will ever turn against you. Etho, Dogwarts, the crastle folk. You’ve got them all wrapped round your little finger.”

Impulse frowns. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Tango rolls his eyes. “Uh huh, ‘course you don’t. You change the sheet music for everyone, don’t you? Everyone believes they’re the only one getting your support. Well, not me. I know what you’re up to and I’m gonna make sure you stop getting away with it, starting today.”

As Tango turns to start walking away, Impulse grabs his wrist, stopping him from leaving. “Please don’t, Tango,” he says calmly.

Tango scoffs. “Let go of me, Impulse. I’m gonna expose you whether you like it or not.”

Impulse hangs on to Tango’s wrist. “I’m giving you one last chance to back down. You’re red; if something happens to you, you won’t come back.”

“You’re not gonna stop me,” Tango retorts. “I know you. Your niceness has always been your biggest weakness, and in this case, it’s gonna be your downfall.”

“You’ve misjudged me.”

Impulse abruptly seizes Tango’s lapels and roughly swings him closer to the edge of the cliff, holding him dangerously close to the precipice. “I‘ll do anything to survive,” Impulse says coldly. “Anything.”

Tango’s eyes widen with shock. “Impulse-!”

But Impulse shoves him off the top of the cliff.

He waits for a few seconds, listening to Tango’s screams get quieter and quieter, until they’re abruptly cut off.

Tango fell from a high place

Taking a deep breath, Impulse takes off running. He doesn’t know if there’s anyone nearby but he can’t risk it. If anyone sees him here, he’s done for. Absolutely done for.

The chat is filling up with confused and concerned messages but it doesn’t matter now. Tango is gone forever. Nobody ever needs to know what happened.

Impulse dashes back towards the wool castle but as he passes Tango’s still-gushing lava minigame, he bumps into Etho, who’s running the other way.

“Impulse!” Etho breathes. “Gosh, you scared me. What happened?”

Despite internally panicking quite hard, Impulse manages to stammer, “I-I dunno, I was just going to Tango’s base to talk to him when I saw the message. I thought he might have been somewhere around here but I couldn’t find any dropped items or anything. He must’ve been somewhere else when he died.”

“Tango doesn’t just fall from a high place like that,” Etho says. “He’s careful. Impulse, I’m worried that someone might have murdered him.”

“What?!” Impulse gasps. “Who would do that?!”

“I don’t know for sure, but my prime suspect is the crastle alliance. Bdubs had it out for Tango for some reason so I’m sure he knows something.”

“Oh no…” Impulse stares at his friend with wide, innocent eyes. “Bdubs wouldn’t have taken TWO of Tango’s lives… would he?”

Etho slowly shakes his head. “I don’t know. I thought I knew our friends really well but lately, I…” He sighs quietly. “Let’s just say I wouldn’t put it past him. But it’s getting late; I’ll go talk to him tomorrow.”

He turns back towards the castle. “You coming?”

“I‘ll be there later. I’m just gonna go check on my villagers.”

“Gotcha. And Impulse…”

Impulse pauses as Etho glances back at him. “Thanks for being the only person on this server I can really trust.”

Impulse smiles back. “No problem.”

…

Under the cover of darkness, Impulse makes his way to the crastle. He can see Cleo up on the roof, aiming a crossbow at him, but thankfully, she lowers it when he gets close enough for her to see who he is.

Cleo and Bdubs let Impulse into the crastle. “What’s going on, Impulse?” Bdubs demands. “Nobody seems to know what happened to Tango!”

“Nobody’s owning up to knowing, anyway,” Cleo adds. “I don’t suppose you do?”

Impulse shakes his head. “I’ve no idea. But I’ve heard rumours going round the server and I thought I should come to you directly to let you know.”

“Let us know what?” Bdubs says.

“That Etho suspects you guys had something to do with Tango’s death.”

“What?!”

Bdubs and Cleo exchange a shocked look.

“Why would he think that?!” Bdubs snaps. “He has no evidence!”

“That’s why I thought I should come over and warn you,” says Impulse. “He’s gonna come over here tomorrow to confront you about it.”

“Oh gawsh…” Bdubs groans. “Thanks for telling us.”

“Oh, but this is just to give you some warning to prepare. You can’t let Etho know I told you, okay? Otherwise he might not tell me other stuff that concerns you guys.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t,” Cleo says. “If we’re your secret girlfriend, does that mean Etho’s your… uh… spouse?”

“I don’t really have a singular “spouse”,” responds Impulse, making air quotes over the word “spouse”. “More like the rest of the server is my “spouse” and I can’t let them know that I favour you over them.”

“Riiiight, gotcha. Guess you’d better head home before your “spouse” misses you.”

Impulse nods. “Yeah, I gotta go back to Etho. See you guys later.”

As he leaves the crastle and starts to head for home, he spots a figure watching him from next to one of Bdubs’s tall spruce trees. When the figure comes forward, Impulse recognises the person as Joel.

“Hi,” he says, giving a friendly smile. Joel isn’t one of his official allies at the moment but that doesn’t mean he can’t be nice to him. “What’s up?”

“I heard Tango died,” Joel says, eyes sparking with interest. “Do you know what happened?”

“No, I don’t. I just saw it in chat.”

“I think you’re lying.”

Impulse blinks. “What?”

Joel grins as he senses he’s caught Impulse off guard. “I said I think you’re lying. I think you’re manipulating everyone into believing you’re their friend when in actuality, you don’t care about any of them. And I think you killed Tango when he confronted you about it. Am I wrong?”

Impulse stares at him, unable to say anything in his defence.

In the ensuing pause, Joel takes a sudden step towards Impulse, who backs up a few steps, his hand automatically flying to the hilt of his sword. But he pauses. He has to be extremely careful here; Bdubs and Cleo may be watching him. If they see him put a single foot wrong here, it’s over. He has to let Joel make the first move.

“Would you kill me?” says Joel challengingly. “Would you kill me as callously as you killed Tango?”

Impulse carefully turns his back to the crastle and narrows his eyes. “Come and find out. Or would you rather die stupidly and pointlessly because you forgot about FIRE DAMAGE?”

That does it. Impulse knew exactly how to rile Joel up and it works. Eyes flashing red, Joel growls and lashes out with his fist.

Impulse allows himself to be hit in the chin, narrowly avoiding biting his tongue. Joel’s second blow, this time to the stomach, winds him and causes him to drop to his knees, vulnerable. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Joel drawing his sword. This is it; this is the moment. Either his position on the server will elevate… or he will simply die.

He holds his breath and squeezes his eyes shut.

“GET AWAY FROM HIM!”

An arrow flies out of nowhere and buries itself in Joel’s chest, causing him to stagger back a step. A split second later, a second arrow hits Joel in the neck, and that’s all it takes.

SmallishBeans was shot by BdoubleO100

Impulse stares at the ground where Joel had landed, a second before he died. He can’t believe his plan worked so well.

“Impulse, are you okay?” Bdubs appears at Impulse’s side, discarding his crossbow. “What happened?”

“He… He was gonna kill me,” Impulse chokes out. This isn’t entirely an act; Joel’s unexpected hit to his stomach has completely snatched the wind from his sails.

“Why? Why did he wanna kill you?”

“Did he really need a reason?” Cleo says. “He was red and Impulse is green. Nuff said.”

“Wh-Whatever it was, you guys saved my life.” Impulse gives them a smile. “Thanks. If Etho or anyone else asks what happened, you guys spotted me getting attacked by Joel on my way back from checking on my villagers. Okay?”

“Ooh, good story,” Bdubs says approvingly. “But are you sure you’re okay? You’re not hurt, are you?”

“No, no, I’m fine. Thanks to you guys. I should probably head home, though.”

Bdubs pats him on the shoulder. “Yeah, go get some rest. Thanks again for… um… coming past and not visiting.”

Impulse nods, knowing exactly what Bdubs means. “No worries.”

…

“Joel just attacked you?” Etho frowns. “Why would he do that?”

“He doesn’t need a reason,” responds Impulse, recalling what Cleo said earlier. “He was red. I guess he just saw an easy target and couldn’t resist.”

“So he attacked you on your way back from the villagers, huh. And you’re okay, right? You’re not hurt.”

“No, I’m fine,” says Impulse. “A little shaken and tired from everything that’s happened, though.”

“Oh yeah, you should get some sleep.” Etho smiles at his friend. “See you tomorrow.”

“Night, Etho.”

As Impulse gets into bed in his room, he can’t help a small smile. He took a big risk today but it has really paid off. Getting rid of two red lifers in one day is enough of an accomplishment in of itself, but doing it without arousing suspicion on himself AND managing to turn Etho and Bdubs further against each other? That’s something he can be proud of.

All he needs to do now is make sure he’s in the right place at the right time for Etho’s confrontation with Bdubs tomorrow and perhaps he can be there for another red life death. Bdubs may be one of his strongest allies but if Impulse sees a chance to get another player out of the game, well…

He’s going to take it.

[starcrossedkaiju]

Kingslayer AU: Chapter 11

The big one! This literally took weeks to complete. I wanted it to be done.

We are inching ever closer to the end of this arc. Two more chapters I think.

This one is much longer than the recent ones, but don’t worry. That theme most likely won’t continue.

Warnings: // non-explicit blood, violence, and injury, Major Character Death(s) \\

Scar called upon all of his allies on an exceptionally cold evening, a wicked blizzard was blowing through the server as Scott walked hand in hand with Jimmy through the white-out. Even the desert wasn’t spared from the stirring storm.

A broken line of lights were ascending up Monopoly Mountain, all headed to the same meeting.

When everyone had arrived, warm drinks were passed around. Cleo, Bdubs, Tango, Scott, Jimmy, Grian, and the resident Enderman were huddled in the living area.

Scott was biting his nails, so to speak. He was pretty sure he knew what they were there for; and he was not excited. He sat next to Jimmy and begged that the Red Desert wasn’t going to start a war with Dogwarts. It was going to happen sooner or later, everyone knew that, but Scott felt an ounce of selfishness.

Things were going so well.

He was starting to feel like he was on the wrong side of history. Sitting in that room, Scott had been to Dogwarts after Grain and Scar had tried to burn Skiz’s banner. He was in the room when they started talking about war; and here he was again. In a room talking about war.

He was there for quiet conversations about nonstop threats from Scar and Grian, how they were going to protect themselves, and questioning why it had to be them.

Pizza was dead. The air was unstable, everyone could feel it.

Scar began talking about a plan to trap the Sand Castle. Grian was confident that their new bunker would protect them well enough and had even started moving their things out. Dogwarts was to be baited into the castle where Scar would be waiting for them, to pull the trigger and blow the entire building to smithereens with the Red Army inside.

The thought of it made Scott’s insides turn. He’d already jeopardized his entire mission by falling for Dogwarts, becoming their friend when he was supposed to hate them, he kicked up the dirt when he suggested that Etho’s house was flammable, another slip up and the house of cards he’d built could be pulled down around him.

The whole meeting Scott just sat on the couch feeling sick. Too cowardly to say it was wrong. When he knew it was wrong. Like always, he let someone else steer his life for him. Scott watched as everyone agreed and started leaving. A feeling of distance fell upon him as he walked back home, Jimmy in the lead this time.

Tomorrow. He only had until tomorrow to decide whose side he was on. Scott stared at the ceiling in bed, he knew he wouldn’t be seeing a second of sleep when his pager started beeping. Already knowing who it was, Scott quietly left the house once more.

Dogwarts was eerily silent on top, but a quiet conversation emitted from the living quarters. Every member was sat around the room conversing with each other about their plan of attack. Tango shot him a glance when he entered the room, his eyes went wide and he excused himself from his conversation with Joel.

“Scott?” He whispered scoldingly when he was close enough, shoving the other to the most empty side of the room.

“I can’t do this Tango, I’m telling them,” Scott whispered.

“What? No, no, no, you can’t back out now! My god- Scott how could you even come here?” Tango hissed through his teeth.

“This is wrong! You know it’s wrong! I can’t just stand by anymore, I can’t do this to them,” Scott tried to keep his composure. He pleaded.

“And what about the others? What about you? Us?” Tango asked, his face was pale.

Scott closed his eyes, he’d done everything in his power to give as little information as he could about the Red Desert Alliance to Dogwarts. He wanted to protect people, of course, but he knew there was no escaping the war. Even if he didn’t say anything tonight. Something would happen tomorrow.

His friends were wrong, he’d grown enough to see that.

“I’m sorry,” he said, drowning out the lump in his throat and turning away from Tango, who yanked his sleeve in a last ditch effort. It was too late.

Scott strode over to Ren, tapping him on the shoulder. The Red King looked down, dismissing Etho and addressing Scott.

“Hey dude,” he greeted.

Scott’s hands shook as he formulated his admission, “The Red Desert is going to war with you tomorrow,” he said. Plain and simple.

The horrific shock on Tango and Impulse’s faces could easily be read as concern for the Red Army.

Scott felt like he shrunk to the size of an atom as everyone took turns looking at each other. Ren brought a steady hand to his chin, resting it on his knuckles in thought. The lights glared pure white off his glasses.

He walked to the table in the middle of the room and gazed upon the map, leaning over it to ponder. Scott fell back against the wall, his heart was pounding in his ears. He wasn’t even paying attention when Ren started firing off about their plan of action.

He wasn’t listening when Tango yelled at him on the way home. All he could think about was what the hell he was going to do now.

The jig was certainly going to be up tomorrow. Someone was going to be accused of spying, and when one of them went down, so would the rest.

What would Jimmy think of him? Should he just come clean? Admit to joining the Red Army on accident and let him figure out how he felt about it?

It didn’t matter. Scott had three hours to rest his eyes, and spend possibly the last peaceful night he would ever have with his husband.

The morning was spent mostly in silence. Scott gathered his weapons and stocked his arsenal with potions. He stared at the wall and went over the situation in his head. Preparing goodbyes, apology speeches, everything he could think of that might go wrong.

“Hey,” Jimmy came up behind him, taking a fire resistant potion out of his hand, “I was scared you were gonna drop it if you floated away any further,” he sat down on the workbench.

“Are you scared?” he asked, taking Scott’s hand and interlocking their fingers.

Scott closed his eyes, leaning his head on Jimmy’s shoulder. He nodded his head, not in the mood to lie.

“So am I,” Jimmy confessed, “just promise me something?” he tucked Scott’s stray hairs behind his ears.

“No goodbyes,” he said. As if he was swearing it into existence.

Scott nodded, doing his best to smile optimistically. He held out his pinkie finger in a gesture of promise. Jimmy hooked his own pinkie around it and shook it a bit, leaning forwards to touch foreheads with the other before leaving to get his armor.

They left at dawn and shivered all the way to the Red Desert. It was exceptionally cold that morning. Like the weather was also fighting in their war. A small group of people was gathered at the bottom of Monopoly Mountain. Most of them were sat sharpening their weapons and counting their arrows. Scott spotted Tango and shot him the most apologetic look he could manage before excusing himself to talk to him.

“Tango,” Scott started.

“You know they’re going to be here any second,” Tango said, “so why don’t you tell us about the plan like you did for them?”

Scott was making his mind up about what he should say when an arrow shot into the sand near his feet. He looked up, scanning the tree line.

It was too late.

Everyone gathered on the sand snapped to attention, drawing their weapons and forming a group opposite to the Red Army. Scar was shaking his head, asking himself how this could happen. Scott walked wearily to the frontlines, his free hand was taken by Jimmy.

Everyone in the Red Desert looked at each other, then Scar raised his bow, and that was it.

Scott was jumped by Impulse. Better him than anyone else, even if his blows were a bit harder due to bitterness. They went back and forth stealing glances at the rest of the battle where a few mounds had been constructed to hide behind.

Impulse kicked Scott onto his back and kneeled on his stomach, taking his air. He leaned in, sparing nervous glances to their surroundings.

“I hope you got your fill of righteousness,” he hissed.

Scott gasped for air, “this was going to happen whether I had a part in it or not,” he said.

“How could you?!” Impulse shouted, but whatever else he was going to say was stolen when Bdubs rushed him from the side, throwing both of them off of Scott and into their own cloud of dust.

Scott breathed in a lung full of dust and rolled over, stumbling to his feet and spinning around to gauge the battle. It was a blur. His mind flew to looking for Jimmy. Someone grabbed his wrist and pulled him behind a shield, where a stray arrow plunged into the wood.

“Where is Grian?” Tango shook Scott’s arm, sweat was rolling down his face through a coat of brown dust.

“I don’t know! I haven’t seen him since..” Scott froze.

Tango seemed to read the pallid expression on his face and nodded encouragingly.

Scott didn’t finish his sentence. He threw himself to his feet and sprinted across the battlefield, towards the border of the desert. A series of blueprints he’d seen all those weeks ago flashed through his head as he ran. Dodging arrows and slamming into his fellow server mates.

Finally, he rounded a barricade and saw what he was hoping not to see. A few hundred yards away, Scar was taking Ren and Martyn in battle. Inching ever closer to a disarmingly empty plot of land. Scott knew that if you weren’t aware, you’d barely be able to see the tiny windows sticking out of the sand.

“Scar!” he called out.

Nobody heard him.

Even if they did, there was no time.

The ground under his feet rumbled, causing him to drop his weapon before a flash of pure light pierced the air. He heard screams for a moment, but they were quickly drowned out by a wall of fire ejecting itself from the ground. Scott was knocked off his feet and launched through the air.

He hit the ground with a painful thud, but he didn’t come to a stop until he’d bounced head over heels a few feet further.

Scott’s nose was pressed into the ground as he rolled around in pain. He pushed himself to his knees with shaking arms.

In front of him was a gigantic, jagged crater carved into the ground. Smoke and fire billowed from its crude maw. Scott coughed and tried to wave away the suffocating ash to no avail. It permeated his eyes and throat.

Scott realized he had been rendered deaf for the moment, and partially blind for that matter. He struggled to his feet and outstretched his arms for balance, falling over twice before his purchase returned to him.

Someone grabbed his arms from behind and spun him around, touching his face and holding him up steadily.

“I can’t hear!” Scott shouted, pointing to his ears in case whoever it was didn’t understand him.

“Can’t see you,” he pointed at his eyes and then at where he assumed the person was.

The person took his hand and formed it into a fist, then interlocked their pinkie with his own.

“Jimmy?” Scott asked, he rubbed his eyes but his hands were taken away. Jimmy positioned his face gently and he felt water in his eyes, washing away the charred debris.

His vision returned to him as the stinging in his eyes subsided. Not so much the same for his hearing, but that was okay. Jimmy hugged him close and looked him over one more time, before tracing the word “stay” on Scott’s palm.

Scott nodded, watching the other go off into the smoke. Probably to help people.

Something moved in his peripheral vision. Through the black smoke came a figure. Scott recognized it as Scar. He was climbing out of the crater. His movements looked painful, he was dragging something behind him.

It became apparent when he hoisted the object over the edge of the crater that Scar was dragging a limp Grian behind him. He laid the other out on the sand, hovering over him with concern etched on his face.

Scott crawled over, shouting to see if Scar could hear him. He pointed at his ears and shook his head. Scott wished he knew human sign language.

Scar turned his attention back to attempting to wake Grian, who wasn’t moving. He didn’t even seem to be breathing. Sensing that Scar was beginning to get very upset, Scott told him to sit back.

First he tried patting Grian on the chest, tapping his forehead, then observing him for any sign of breathing. His lips weren’t blue yet, he was still alive. Scott took his fist and pressed it deeply into Grian’s sternum, then firmly rubbed up and down.

Grian didn’t move at first, then his eyes flew open under his cracked glasses. His arms shot up to cover his chest and he cursed profusely at how he’d been woken up. He’d probably have a bruise for a while.

Scott motioned for him to calm down and breathe. Count to ten and back, and so on. Grian followed his instructions, wiping the dirt from his face and off his probably useless glasses.

Once he was sure Grian and Scar were fine, he quietly excused himself. The dust has started to clear now and the silhouettes of Dogwarts and the Red Desert alike were milling around, nobody seemed to be fighting anymore. Presumably lost without their respective captains. Scott’s ears has started ringing, and behind the din he could hear the ghosts of people shouting.

Scott idly counted the people around him. Some were huddled over a hastily constructed furnace attempting to brew last minute healing potions. As he counted, he kept coming up short. He counted again, and again. Every time there were two people missing.

He turned back to the crater. Whose smoke had started dissipating into the sky. He knew who was missing, and as he stared into the gaping wound of the earth, a hand reached up to the sky. Then came down on the jagged cliff, pulling the rest of the body to the surface.

Ren fell in a heap at the edge of the hole. Breathing hard from his journey to the top. Scott didn’t know whether or not to offer him help. His sunglasses were nowhere to be found, probably crunched beneath the debris of the bunker and the rest of the desert, and he was covered in a layer of collateral grime. It painted his clothes black and made his yellow eyes stand out.

He pushed himself to his knees with a lot of trouble, scanning the destroyed battle field with a mirthful expression until his gaze fell on Scott. The way in which they locked eyes made Scott flinch, he was in big trouble.

His mind told him he needed to diffuse the situation, but he was still without most of his hearing. It would be even harder if Ren had also been deafened. A familiar “why me” rang through his head. The urge to just leave and call everything quits nagged at him.

Ren stood on shaking legs and made his way, as quick as he could manage, into Scott’s personal space, who backed away; but he yanked his arm.

He stared talking very fast. Scott saw his mouth move but barely any noise actually processed in his mind. Scott shouted as clearly as he could that he couldn’t hear. Throwing in a few sorry’s as he went.

Ren dragged his hands from the tips of his ears down his face in frustration, his fingertips left smudges on his cheeks and over his eyes. He began doing sign language, but Scott shook his head.

By now a small congregation of people had started observing the argument from a distance. All of them more privy to what Ren was mad about than Scott was. Heat rose to his face in embarrassment as he tried to talk over Ren, trying to explain himself. Ren had started yelling as if it would help, and the argument was getting visibly heated when Jimmy stepped in.

He pushed Ren back with force so that he stumbled. This seemed to cause a chain reaction. Ren shoved Jimmy back, and they went back and forth until Jimmy threw a punch.

Scott attempt to make them stop, he came between them and ordered them to calm down, but tensions were far too high for any de-escalating. His emotions were verging on a serious breakdown, frantically begging the fight to stop. To let him explain.

Nobody heard him. If they did, they didn’t care.

Ren had taken out his damaged axe and started swinging.

Jimmy kicked Ren in the stomach, the ladder fell on his back and Jimmy kicked him again.

“Jimmy stop it!” Scott shouted, and he could almost hear himself.

Jimmy looked up at him, still standing over the Red King. His eyes were furious.

Something passed quickly in Scott’s periphery, so he turned around.

Behind him, one foot still propping himself out of the crater, was Martyn. A freshly shot bow still aimed in front of him. His eyes were dark and angry as he stared right past Scott.

Scott turned back to Jimmy, whose eyes were fixed and frozen on Martyn. He staggered back, looking down at his chest where a poisoned arrow had pierced his battle-worn chest plate. His hand wrapped around the projectile, and as if he weren’t even thinking, he wrenched it from his flesh.

Jimmy’s expression read as shock. Right before his eyes rolled into his head and he fell like a load of bricks onto his knees, then his back. His fingers were still wrapped tightly around the arrow. Covered in a mixture of blood and sickly green poison.

He fell, and he stayed.

Scott didn’t have a second to process. Not even the thought to scream, reach out, or run came to him. A blanket of nauseating numbness draped itself around him. His mind left him as he stared helplessly. He watched as Jimmy’s lifeless body grew tendrils of thorny vines until it was consumed indefinitely. Only an arrow wrapped in rose vines remained. Light green flowers bloomed and waved in the wind.

And as if he were watching himself on a screen, Scott did something that he didn’t know he could do. That he had forgotten he could do.

A flash of light illuminated the livid grey sky.

Just as fast, Scott had approached Martyn, who didn’t have time to run. He didn’t have time to put his arms in front of his face as Scott’s hand curled into a fist.

He brought his knuckles down on the center of Martyn’s face, an audible crunch sounded out as he was knocked off his feet. A horrified expression painted itself on his face as he held his bleeding nose.

Scott raised his fist again, and as he did a string of dry lighting spread across the sky. He aimed again, and when his fist met Martyn’s face, a bolt of light shot down from the sky. It turned the world into a pure white canvas with an ear piercing roar.

In its wake was a blackened patch of burning sand. Scott and Martyn sat just as they had been before, but Martyn would not get up.

His body lay bruised and burnt, eyes closed tightly in pain. The rose vines claimed his remains quickly, wrapping around a pair of bloodied hands instead of an arrow this time.

Scott stayed bent over where his friend had been. Tears streamed down his face as the static disappeared from his ears. He ripped his arms out of the thorns which tore at his bandages. Blood permeated the wrappings, but he didn’t know how much was his.

He pushed himself away, kneeling in the grave he’d created.

“Major,” someone said, cold and angry.

A hand planted itself firmly on his shoulder, spinning him around forcefully. Scott had only a second to see that it was Ren, before he was hoisted up by the front of his shirt and thrown across creation. Landing hard on his ass for the second time that day. His shoulder made a nauseating POP, hanging limply and awkwardly at his side when he pushed himself up.

Ren placed his foot on his chest to keep him down.

Behind Ren, the greater alliance of Dogwarts had gathered. Confusion and betrayal was etched on their faces.

“Not a word, Major,” Ren said. Low and forced, his eyes were blown wide with something like fear.

Then he raised the handle of his broken axe over his head, the hilt made contact with Scott’s skull.

Lights out.

[votederpycausemufins]

no, you know what, next chapter now! remember this is chapter 3 of this war arc thing so if you didn’t read chapter 2 since i posted it like 5ish hours ago, go read that first. look! here’s some links!

Chap 1   Chap 2

Hey, can you tell I like grian? cause today i’m using Avian!Grian, Watcher!Grian and Triplet!Grian all together. 

Next chapter is gonna be a flashback based loosely on the fic @strawberrylemonz wrote of the triplets in the Antarctic empire.

but for now, have a sprinkling of angst. or maybe more than just a sprinkling.

When Tommy opened his eyes again, he found himself with all the Hermits in the town hall. A few Hermits that were already there like Zedaph brought out potions and food and other items for everyone to recover. Nearby Grian was shaking out the water that got on his wings from the emergency button being used.

“How’re ya doing Big G?” Tommy asked as he walked over, grabbing another mask of his own face from the table.

“Fine, what about you Tommy?”

“Dream kinda saw me right before the button got pressed. But he didn’t get a chance to hit me.” Immediately Grian was acting like a mother hen towards him and Tommy had to push the avian away. “Grian! I’m fine!”

“Are you sure? Because Techno and d- Philza were also there.”

“Yeah, I heard you confronted them.” Tommy softened his voice, noticing the look of pain on Grian’s face.

“Neither of them recognized me. I mean, it makes sense since it’s been so long for me and I look so… different.”

Tommy hugged Grian. He didn’t believe it when he learned that this was his missing older brother, but when Grian used his real name, something he shouldn’t have known, Tommy changed his mind. “Hey, c’mon, once this is all over you can brag about being the oldest now.”

Grian laughed and ruffled Tommy’s hair. “Yeah, and you look as old as Techno did out there.”

“No I don’t, he’s an old fart!” Tommy complained. “I’m still a teen!”

“You’re twenty-one!”

“I’m a child!”

Grian laughed. When Tommy had first shown up, he did everything to seem older than he was, now he refused to admit he’d grown up. “C’mon, let’s just-” He was cut off by a buzzing from their communicators. The two of them looked around and noticed the other hermits were doing the same. Everyone was here, so it couldn’t be a death message.

Xisuma tapped his helmet and everyone saw the glow of him looking at the communications chat. “Iskall, someone named Fundy is saying they’re at your tree.”

The redstoner immediately messed with his robotic eye to look at his own chat. His other eye widened and he equipped his elytra. “I’m going to go after him. I doubt it would be an ambush, there’s no way they could have gotten a whole group there while we were fighting.”

Rendog also put his elytra on. He said he would go with Iskall as some extra muscle just to be safe. The two of them flew off, careful to stay out of range of anyone in Dream’s army before heading toward the Omega Tree.

“Hey, now that they know I’m here, should we use me more as bait?” Tommy spoke up, causing Grian to pull him closer.

“Absolutely not. Any mistake and you could be captured!”

Before Tommy could complain, False spoke up. “Actually, it’s a good plan. You helped him learn to fly so he’s great at it. He’ll have no trouble escaping into the air. And he can also set up another pearl if they do capture him. Someone can watch in the sky and send word if he needs rescue.”

“But what if he-” Grian tried to speak up, but Tommy stopped him.

“Grian, I know these people. It would work. And I know how to get out of tough situations. And I’m not going to be the only one down there. Doesn’t make sense to send me there alone.

Reluctantly, Grian let Tommy go. The blond smiled and then gave his brother one last hug before pulling his mask on and leaving with a group of Hermits. All of them placed ender pearls in the emergency button and then left the town hall through bubble columns. Grian watched them go before following behind to be their eyes in the sky. Cub came with him, his vex wings still there from his earlier confrontation with Dream.

When the Hermits suddenly reappeared, Dream was ready for them. Instead of an axe, he held a sword. Whenever a Hermit got close, he would injure them and then use the long blade to pull off or break their mask. Tommy was going to be there, under one of those masks. And when Dream saw his sorry face next, he would drag the teen back home.

Dream heard a grunt from behind him and glanced back to see Philza with his weapon clashing with a hermit’s sword. Even with the mask, Dream could see the silver hair of said hermit. Dream may not have been familiar with their enemy as much as he wished, but there was one well known name he recognized. Etho. While Philza was a man who had lived years on hardcore, Etho had been living on a single world for longer. Both were very experienced men. 

In his distraction, a hermit attacked Dream. He deflected their attack but in the process managed to hinder his teammate and suddenly Philza was killed. Dream attacked back, and while the Hermit who attacked him got away, Etho did not, having been left on a single heart when Phil died, only being alive from Dream’s mistake.

But he didn’t have time to dwell as more attacks came from the hermits. Once they had defeated these people, he could take over as admin and bring them back.

Philza gasped as he woke up on the bed, energy flowing through him from respawning. It wasn’t something he was used to, and before he almost didn’t link with the bed. When he started to get up, he heard rustling and immediately turned to fight. But no one was there, which was fine as his death had left him with no gear. Phil could hear fighting from outside the building and he quickly looked in the various chests for anything.

Philza ended up breaking part of the building for sticks and made himself a sword with the diamonds they found earlier, even finding more of the gem in chests they hadn’t bothered to check before. It wasn’t enough for a full set of gear, but it was enough. The only problem was trying to put on his chestplate, Phil finally noticed what happened. 

It was impossible. They had been too damaged and the last time he had to respawn, nothing had happened. But there, right on his back were his wings, undamaged. Not a single feather was harmed or scorched or missing. 

A shout from outside drew Philza’s attention back to the battle. He nearly put his wings away to put on his chest plate when he remembered how their enemy had elytra. He was the only one on their side who could fly. Phil stored the chest plate in a nearby barrel for later and left the building through the open roof. None of the hermits seemed to notice him until it was too late and his weapon cut into them. There were one or two of those from the smp who attacked him before realizing who exactly they were seeing, but otherwise, the reappearance of his wings was appreciated.

When Tommy saw his dad in the air, he couldn’t help but stare for a moment. He had told Xisuma about the situation of his dad. At first he thought that Philza had completely lost his wings, which would make sense why a respawn couldn’t help. But since he still had them, the admin was able to set a trigger for the avian’s wings to heal when he respawned. It was a risk that could help Dream, but Tommy hoped that the return of Phil’s wings would help him switch sides.

The sight invigorated Tommy and he was slashing at his old friends left and right. He managed to catch sight of False nearby and Techno fighting so he moved over to assist her. It was perfect timing as False managed to be cornered and Techno proclaimed the kill for the blood god just before Tommy could manage to remove the weapon from his brother’s hand.

“Leave her alone.” Tommy said as Techno glared up at him. He had hit a growth spurt while in hermitcraft and his voice deepened, so Tommy wasn’t surprised that his brother didn’t recognise him. Behind him False got up and ate a gold apple as well as splashing a potion over her own head, a bit of the liquid managing to splash onto Tommy, giving him a few seconds of healing.

But as Tommy stood to cover his head, Dream joined next to Techo and sliced the mask off Tommy’s face. When it fell, Tommy could clearly see the slight surprise on Techno’s face. While the warrior wasn’t that expressive, growing up with him made it easier for Tommy to read his face. Dream on the other hand grinned so large his smile could be seen out the sides of his mask.

Before Tommy could react, his arm was grabbed in a crushing grip from Dream. False in a panic simply yelled Tommy’s name, which ended up bringing the attention of the rest of the SMP members.

False swung her sword at Dream, giving Tommy just enough of a gap to use a firework and launch himself into the air. Dream called for the smp members to focus on Tommy and suddenly arrows were flying at him. With another rocket he flew further into the air. Looking down, Tommy saw an arrow coming towards him. He attempted to dodge, but it clipped his elytra, leaving a small tear in one wing. 

A few more arrows also managed to reach him. When he wasn’t sure he could dodge them, the blond tried to make sure they directly hit him. Tommy had plenty of healing items and had nice armor, but if his elytra were too damaged, no amount of armor would help a fall like that.

Then, the thing he feared most happened. As he flew, rain started to fall. A few moments later there was the sound of a riptide trident being used. He turned to see Punz, having used his trident to get just close enough then he pulled out a crossbow and shot it. There was no time for Tommy to react and it went through one wing of his elytra. As Punz descended, Tommy tried to use fireworks to push him towards the ocean, but in his panic, all he did was push himself further up into the air. And then the elytra gave up on him and Tommy started to fall. 

Philza heard the noise of a trident as the rain started to fall. He looked around in the air just in time to see Punz’s arrow destroy Tommy’s elytra followed by what sounded like Tommy calling for help. While he had trouble getting used to flying again after months of being grounded, Phil immediately flapped his wings as hard and as fast as he could. He refused to lose another child. So he pushed himself to get to Tommy before the worst could happen.

Grian wasn’t sure how he missed Tommy flying into the air, but he didn’t miss his brother screaming his name. He looked down to see Tommy falling, his elytra in shreds. He saw another avian flying towards his fallen brother. Grian knew that he was the only avian of the hermits so this other person had to be working with Dream. 

As Grian pulled his wings in to dive towards Tommy, he realized he wouldn’t be able to make it. Sure there was enough time to reach Tommy before he hit the ground, but not enough before Tommy was grabbed by the other avian. As he continued to fall, Grian closed his eyes. He searched for something he buried deep inside himself. The red, yellow and blue feathers on his wings changed to purple, black and salt & pepper. When he next opened his eyes, there were 6 of them, all glowing a purple color. He opened his wings once more and gave a mighty flap, sending magical energy out through them and creating what sounded like thunder as the expelled energy propelled him faster towards Tommy. 

Just before the other avian could reach his brother, Grian’s arms wrapped around Tommy and the wings wrapped around both of them. He didn’t have enough time to use more energy and teleport them away or slow them down, so he just braced himself. Then they hit the ground, all the force going into Grian’s wings. It was painful, but right now he didn’t care. The adrenalin from nearly losing Tommy was kicking in and the pain made his mind hazy. 

The powers he had gained from being a watcher were dangerous and something he usually kept blocked off so he wouldn’t lose himself in it, but right now, with his current state, he wasn’t thinking of that, and slowly the previously locked away powers grew more dangerous and tempting.

Dream held his breath as Tommy fell. He didn’t want them to have come all this way for Tommy to lose his last life here. Luckily Phil was in the air, racing towards his son. He was sure that the Avian would reach Tommy until there was the sound of thunder and the sky lit up with a purple light. The figure that was lit up made his blood run cold. No. It wasn’t possible. A watcher. And not just any watcher. The Dreamslayer himself was a watcher. In a way it made sense how this would be the one person who seemed to be able to kill him, but knowing the full power he held was not a happy thought.

Dream managed to get his army to retreat just far enough in time that no one ended up in the destruction of Grian crash landing. Everyone stared, no one moved. Even the Hermits looked terrified of their own ally. Phil landed safely and tried to move to the crater, but Dream grabbed him. Techno was the next to move as The wings parted revealing Tommy hidden beneath them. Again, Dream tried to stop him, but Techno was further than Phil had been. While Techno had recently been staying out of things, Dream didn’t want to lose someone who was so good at making his stories perfect.

Techno held out his axe, ready to strike Grian, but the avian watcher just grabbed the blade of the axe. His head looked up and all six eyes focused on the weapon, each of them blinking out of sync. He only stopped looking when Tommy groaned, while he was physically uninjured, the rush of falling and the rapid pressure changes as well as the energy from Grian had caused him to pass out.

Techno pulled his weapon back, unsure if he should strike again. Half of the voices were telling him to attack and kill this person who took his brother, but the other half seemed to actually want him to stop. But the first half was louder and he swung the axe down again. Time seemed to slow down as he saw the supposed avian look back up and smile hauntingly. He resolved himself and cried out, “Blood for the Blood God!” as he put more force into the swing.

The moment the axe blade hit Grian’s skull, it shattered. Around them people started moving. A quick glance let Techno see the Hermits moving the smp army away, trying to protect their enemies. Looking back at his own enemy, Techno was met with Grian standing up. He spoke, but instead of his own voice, Grian spoke in Techno’s voice. He parroted the line the pvper had just spoken, only saying it louder and louder.

“Blood for the Blood God! Blood for the Blood God!!! Blood for the Blood God!!!” And then, in his normal voice, he shouted once more. “BLOOD FOR ME!!!”

[getgoodlol]

An Unwelcome Meeting

part 3 of my Bdubs' Betrayal fanfic!

heyo! disclaimer before u read; i never claimed to be good at writing. this is purely for fun! i am aware that the hermits are all great people and they're all good friends. i am just playing on the roleplay and the characters they play within the storyline.

please do not tag this as ship. thank you and enjoy!

Grian rocked back and fourth on his feet, his hand in an L shape resting on his chin. His eyes were narrowed, staring at one of the chests in the Barge. He was pondering a price change on dirt; it wasn't selling particularly well. However, there were a few diamonds in the chest, so he took them out and eagerly went to his profit box to deposit his earnings.

Upon opening it, he noticed a thin leather book placed gingerly inside. He recognized it immediately- it had once graced his hands, after all. He dropped the diamonds carelessly, now focused on the presumed response from Bdubs. Grian gripped the book with two hands, excitement pulsing through him. A risky offer was always a rush.

He closed the shulker with his gaze still glued to the book. Swiftly, he opened it and flipped past his note. A few pages in, he noticed more writing that looked shaky and wobbly.

Grian scoffed with a smirk. He tried real hard to make it secret, didn't he?

He read each line with an eyebrow raised. Seemed as though Bdubs had turned him down. He was in denial, of course- nobody would want to be a mayor's doormat.

Then his eyes grazed the final scentence. The word accept looked like it was written slowly, the ink was heavier and it was smudged a little bit.

The pure excitement that beamed on Grian's face was priceless. Luckily there were no shoppers to be blinded at the time.

Quickly, he whispered a message in chat to Bdubs. Perhaps he could've sent everything like this from the start. That wouldn't have been as dramatic, though.

Hey Bdubs. Got your message. Meet me at Stress' potion shop.

Almost immediately, he got a response.

Alright, G. Scar's not around, is he?

Grian sighed. So what if he is? You won't get caught. And no, he's not even online.

A few minutes later, Bdubs popped into view, his elytra making a shadow across the shopping district. He folded his wings and landed not-so-gracefully in front of Grian with a nervous grin on his face.

Grian let the previous goofy excitement die down within him. Despite it all, this was still serious, at least for Bdubs. He expected the Mycelium Resistance to be light hearted, but he had to admit, Scar was taking advantage of his power quite ruthlessly. Although G's attitude was normally jokey, he felt maybe he should tone it down for now. A little bit.

Bdubs opened his mouth to speak- man, when did he ever stop rambling? Grian shushed him before he could say anything. The base had to be kept a secret away from all the other Hermits.

Swiftly, Grian showed him the way in through the shulker box.

"Ohhhhhh," Bdubs murmured, earning a glare.

Once they were inside, Grian led the newcomer to the table and had him sit down. "How does it feel?"

"Different," Bdubs sat awkwardly, clearly feeling out of place.

"Different as in: you're not literally sat on the floor."

"I guess you could say that."

He wasn't talking as much now. Had Grian been too harsh?

"I'm gonna call the other guys, okay? I haven't told them I recruited you."

Visible fear washed over the taller man's face. "I'm the mayor's second in command. There's no way they trust me."

"And I'm Mother Spore, founder of the resistance. What difference does it make? If you really care about the environment, you'll make them trust you. Plus, they trust me. And I recruited you."

"...M'kay. You'll introduce me?"

Grian nodded. He was afraid he was going to fast, but he needed to act quickly. He knew this really wasn't about the environment to Bdubs, of course it wasn't!

It really wasn't to him, either. It was about the principal.

Grian pressed the button with a firm press, eyes staying on Bdubs. His gaze was aligned with the table in front of him

"Y'know, G, you did a really great job with this table, the whole place is really cool! You say you're not great at interiors, b-"

Though Grian would have loved to sit and gloat about his builds, Bdubs' scentence was cut short by six ender-porters being activated, and six servermates finding their way into their respective chairs, looking frazzled.

"Grian?? Did you call this meeting?" Impulse asked, fixing his hair. He looked like he had been working on something.

Most of them did; Beef was covered in paint. Or blood. Could have been blood, knowing VintageBeef, but Grian assumed he was working on another album cover.

Stress' hair was full of nether-y bits, twigs, even flowers that were seperate from her regular head piece. She must've been working on her base.

Jevin was holding endstone, which was a surprise to no one.

Ren was quickly putting on his lab coat, brushing off ash from his shoulders.

Etho looked unfazed, but curious, his eyes locked on the new member.

Bdubs, on the other hand, sat quietly, eyes wide. He didn't really know where to rest his gaze, his pupils darting back and fourth. His neatly folded hands came undone, his fingers tapping on his palms.

"Yes," Grian answered simply, "Don't worry, everyone, everything is fine."

Before Grian could explain further, Etho pointed at Bdubs. "Uh, Grian? You sure everything is fine?"

Impulse gasped. "An infiltrator? We have to get out of here!"

Anxious chatter broke out amongst the crowd, everyone starting to get up from their seats. Bdubs looked over at Grian with a bewildered face.

"Everyone! Sit down! He's supposed to be here."

Everyone obeyed him. He held back a smile; it was nice to be in charge.

"So you've captured him, then?" Jevin asked, folding his arms.

"He doesn't look very captured..." Stress pointed out.

"No, I've recruited him."

Silence blanketed the table.

After a moment, Grian continued. "Bdubs has had a change of heart. He's on our side now."

Everyone exchanged looks.

"... He's literally Scar's second hand." Impulse gestured towards the silent man at the foot of the table.

"His lackey," Said Beef, leaning on the table.

"Hey! Am not!" Bdubs exclaimed defensively.

"Bdubs," Grian silenced him. He paused for a moment, looking around at his resistance. "Welcome, Bdubs, to the Mycelium Resistance. We have many things in store for you."

"So, what, you're just gonna tell Scar that you're with us now? He's gonna like... blow up the shopping district!" Ren straightened his goggles, as if he hadn't put them on correctly.

"I was planning on it, tonight, actually. He's expecting a note from me, about the shops or whatever, and instead, I was gonna just leave him a goodbye note."

Grian shook his head. "No, no, you're not doing that. You're now named the Head of Secret Angency."

"You really couldn't come up with a better name?" Etho muttered.

"Hey, mine is 'Head of Farming'. You take what you can get." Jevin laughed.

"Enough about the names. Bdubs, you're a secret agent now. You will be sticking by Scar's side, and reporting everything he does back to us." Grian explained.

Bdubs looked as if he had been put under a hydraulic press. Was he up for the job? Sure, Grian could manage the resistance on his own, but ... something about morals? Taking Bdubs away from the capitalist power? Something like that.

"I dunno about this, G, what if he just... double-agents us? Feeds us false information and tells Scar our plans..." Impulse suggested wearily.

Bdubs took a deep breath, then a long exhale escaped his nose. "Look, fellas, I get it if you can't trust me. I'm Scar's... 'lackey'! I wouldn't trust me either... but you'd wanna join the other side, too, if you were under Scar's command all the time."

He got stares from everyone around the table. Grian almost laughed. He knew it.

As soon as Bdubs realized what he had said, he added swiftly, "He's just so prominent about putting all the grass down! H-he really doesn't realize that the mycelium is the natural land..."

"I think I trust him." Stress offered, making Bdubs smile.

The rest of the table stayed silent.

"You're dismissed." Grian said after a moment of quiet. "Bdubs, go to Scar tonight. Find out anything you can about his plans, and report back at the next meeting tomorrow."

Bdubs nodded.

As everyone started to leave, Grian could see Bdubs gingerly grab Impulse's shoulder.

"Impulse? Can I talk to you after we get out of here?"

[melon-wing]

Dread Part 7/7

[Pirate Au Masterlist] Thanks once again to my awesome beta reader @aaronampora-ao3

Enjoy! ~*~

“No! Stop!” A loud voice echoed through the throneroom.

Doc's eyes were shut tightly. He felt like he couldn't breathe. He expected pain to come, but other than the burning wound in his abdomen nothing hurt. Why wasn’t he hurting more? Was he in too much shock to feel the gunshot? He slowly opened his eyes again, looking down. He was expecting to see a gaping hole in his own chest, blood flowing everywhere, but he didn't. The gun was still pressed against his shirt, no smoke was coming from the muzzle. It couldn't have fired a shot. He slowly raised his head, looking at Grian, whose face was as white as a sheet, drenched in cold sweat, eyes unbelievably wide.

"You didn't...?", Doc asked in confusion and Grian's hand started trembling slightly. Oh, right. That voice shouting for Grian to stop had been Bdubs’... But if the shot hadn't been fired by Grian, then who? And why would Bdubs order Grian to stop?

Doc looked up and finally noticed the chaos in the throne room around him and Grian. Bdubs had jumped from his throne, fury written all over his face, Sam was on the floor beside it and above him...

"False?"

The blonde gave him a tight smile, but didn't pay him much attention, keeping her knee on Sam's back and her sword at his neck. And then Doc's eyes snapped over to Ren, scared that Bdubs might have killed him when False had attacked. That was when he realised where the gunshot had come from. Ren was still lying on the floor, but there was no longer a sword at his neck. The sword was lying on the floor and the hand that had just held it was bleeding, a hole right in the middle. Keralis looked just as furious if not even more so than Bdubs, holding his bleeding hand, but otherwise unmoving. Behind him stood Etho, still smoking gun raised to Keralis' head. Even with the mask on, Doc saw that he was smiling.

"Etho... How...?"

"I always know when you’re in danger, Doc, you know that. I'm always here to save your sorry ass", Etho said tightly, his eyes moved to Bdubs. "Now tell Grian to drop the gun or I will shoot your lover. You wouldn't want to see his brain all over the floor, would you?"

Bdubs shrugged and Doc realised he seemed furious, but still too relaxed to give off the impression that he had just been defeated. "You are forgetting that there still is a gun pointed at your Captain's heart. I don't think you are in a place to negotiate. Keralis is…” Bdubs hesitated for a second, his eyes meeting Keralis’ before he continued, “replaceable. Is your Captain? And will you be able to react after watching Doc's dying body fall to the floor?" Bdubs smirked, eyes holding Doc's gaze. "You can have your First Mate back, if you leave Keralis alone, you can even have the little navy lap dog, I have no use for him afterwards anyways, but I won't give you Doc."

Doc hung his head a little, staring at the weapon pressed against his chest. Well wasn't that the deal he had hoped for in the first place? For everyone to walk out of here unharmed?

"As if we would ever agree to-"

"Etho", Doc interrupted, looking at Etho with a stern glare, "Stop it."

He then turned back to Bdubs and smiled. "I accept, B. Tell Grian to kill me now and everyone else walks free in exchange for Keralis' life. Nobody else will be harmed. Do you promise?"

Bdubs grin widened and there was an excited gleam in his eyes. It seemed like both of them were happy with this outcome. "I promise. You’re the only one I want after all."

"Doc, no!", Ren shouted, looking up at him, his whole face so devastated. Doc had seen that face before, the moment Ren had told him about their dad’s death.

Doc smiled at Ren sadly. It hurt to know that he'd be causing his brother and friends so much pain, but it was the only way out of this situation. He would gladly take the fall if it meant everyone else would be safe. He turned back to Grian and smiled. "Do your worst, love."

Everything should have been over then and there, but Etho didn't seem to be in the mood to follow his Captain's orders today. 

"No. There will be no deals between the two of you when I'm the one holding the gun. If Doc dies so will Keralis. Also, Captain Bdubs, you might want to reconsider. Because I have no qualms to shoot, but your little dog doesn't seem like he will go through with it."

Bdubs’ eyes snapped to Grian, who still stood there, frozen completely.

"Pet..." Grian flinched and the shaking started again, only slightly and probably only really noticeable from as close up as Doc was. "Shoot him, pet. Do it now."

Doc looked at Grian and then their eyes met and Doc smiled softly. “I‘m really sorry you got dragged into this“, he whispered sadly. And he really meant it. He felt bad. Not because he was going to die, but because he was the one to blame that Grian suffered through all of this.

“Doc…” Grian’s voice was quiet, but Doc could still hear it and his breath hitched at the tone of just that one word. The voice was no longer distant and hollow, but fearful. Maybe Etho had been right after all. Maybe Grian wouldn‘t shoot. Doc‘s eyes darted to the gun. If he was fast enough, could he disarm Grian in this state? It wouldn‘t take much to just break his wrist. Even in this state Doc was pretty sure he could do it. He had been in tougher battles.

But he didn‘t move. He couldn’t hurt Grian anymore than he already had. He just looked up at Grian and smiled sadly.

“Grian… Let me take you home.”

And to Doc‘s surprise he felt the gun slowly move downwards on his chest. He watched with wide eyes as Grian lowered his arm, bit by bit.

“Don‘t you dare, pet.” Bdubs hissed from the throne and the gun snapped back up into position, but Doc could still feel it shaking.

And Doc knew in that moment that Etho had been right. There was a high possibility that Grian wouldn‘t shoot. No… Doc knew that Grian wouldn’t shoot.

Slowly, as not to startle him, Doc raised his hand and softly placed it on Grian‘s cheek. “I’m here. He can‘t hurt you anymore. I won‘t let anybody hurt you anymore. Not Bdubs, nor anyone else. I promise.”

There was the sound of rustling fabric and the pressure from Doc‘s chest was gone. He didn‘t have to look down to know that Grian had lowered the gun. He kept looking right into Grian‘s eyes, so wide and full of fear and it hurt, but he couldn’t avert his gaze.

“That‘s it. We’re getting out of here, alright Grian?”

Grian gave a slight nod and the movement made Doc feel relief. Grian wasn‘t broken. He was just hurt and Doc could work with that.

“Pet.”

Doc smiled softly and then took ahold of Grian‘s hand as he tried to move the gun up again, only putting enough pressure on it, to stop the movement. He wouldn‘t let Grian sink back under Bdubs‘ control. And Grian let him. He let Doc guide his hand, his breath hitching slightly as Doc‘s hand moved to hold his. And then they held the gun together, pointing it straight at Bdubs. Doc could feel Grian shaking under his grasp, but he didn‘t move away.

“I‘m here. I‘ll always be here”, he whispered quietly into Grian‘s ear, before raising his eyes to look at Bdubs, a smirk on his lips. Bdubs didn‘t look amused at all. The situation had just turned on him completely and he probably knew he had lost.

“So, B. What do you say. You ready to beg for your life?”

Bdubs face twisted into an angry grimace, but he still stood tall, not letting the defeat get to him. “We both know that all my men will be on you in an instant if you shoot now. Just…”

Bdubs looked at Keralis and Doc followed his eyes. Keralis was still looking furious, but his face had become pale as more blood kept flowing from the gun shot wound. He shook his head slightly at Bdubs, seemingly knowing what Bdubs was about to do and not happy with it. But Bdubs’ gaze was already back to Doc and he just gave a sigh.

“Leave, Doc. You won this time. I won‘t send my men after you.”

Doc felt light all of the sudden as if a giant weight had dropped from his shoulders. 

“Etho, take Keralis.”

Bdubs stepped towards Etho, but a clicking sound from the gun pointed at Keralis’ head made him freeze.

“If you try to take him-”

“Oh, don‘t worry. I‘m no monster and I‘d like to have some peace and quiet. We‘ll let him go once we leave this island. He’s just accompanying us to make sure no one stops us. Etho, False…“

False looked at him, and Doc could tell she wasn‘t happy with Doc‘s decision. But killing Bdubs now would be more trouble than it was worth. Grian and Ren weren‘t in any condition to fight. Ren was injured and Doc wasn‘t sure how damaged Grian‘s mind had become. And then there was the wound in Doc‘s stomach he kept trying to ignore. They all needed medical attention as soon as possible and a prolonged fight with Bdubs‘ men wouldn‘t let them get that.

As badly as he wanted his revenge, he knew this wasn‘t the right time. All of them getting out alive was already a far better outcome than he had planned for.

After a stern look False sighed. She grabed Sam‘s head and bashed it hard against the stone floor. Probably to make sure that guy wouldn‘t give them any trouble while they were escaping.

She walked over to Ren, leaving Sam lying bloody and unconscious on the floor. “Heya Ren. I‘m gonna pick you up, alright, buddy?”

Ren looked at her out of dazed eyes. He had become awfully quiet during the whole exchange and Doc was seriously worried for his health.

“Carry the princess off in your strong arms, Knight Falsie“, Ren replied with a small smile. Then again. Maybe Ren would be okay after everything was said and done.

False put her sword away and carefully put her arms under Ren‘s knees and back, picking him up bridal style. She didn‘t even look like Ren‘s weight bothered her, just striding over to Doc‘s side. Etho walked over as well. He had Keralis‘ uninjured arm twisted behind his back, pushing him forward, gun still pointed at his head.

Doc heaved a sigh of relief and finally lowered the gun, gently prying it from Grian‘s hand to put it on his own belt. He sure as hell didn‘t trust Grian with a weapon right now. As he started walking he picked up his sword and gave Bdubs one last withering glare.

“If you ever dare to touch Grian again, I will kill you and everything you hold dear, no matter the cost”, Doc said, his voice almost a growl “Take out your unhealthy obsession on me, not him. Next time don’t be a coward and fight me one on one… If you think you can take me.”

Doc felt a strange satisfaction at the angry look on Bdubs’ face. That satisfaction was gone pretty fast when he turned around to walk again and realised that he was pulling Grian along more, than he was walking by himself. It only made him hate Bdubs more.

He wanted to assure Grian, tell him something that would help. He didn’t want to pull Grian around like some… pet. Bdubs had probably done enough of that during the last few days. Once they returned to the ship he needed to make sure they gave Grian everything he needed to be able to heal.

Doc took the lead through the maze of tunnels, followed by Etho pushing Keralis, False carrying Ren right behind them. The way out seemed so much longer than it had felt on the way in. He knew they wouldn’t be attacked with Keralis as a hostage. But still his heart was racing and he had started sweating more and more. He was already out of breath and they hadn’t even gotten out of the cave yet. He felt his grip on Grian getting a little lighter as his vision started to swim.

And then he realised it. Those weren’t signs that he was nervous. The adrenaline that had kept him going was starting to fade and he had lost a lot of blood. The wound was still bleeding as he pressed on it with his free hand. He blinked a few times and tightened his grip on Grian’s shaking hand. He couldn’t falter now. Grian needed him to stay strong. 

“Doc, are you…”, Etho‘s voice sounded so worried, but Doc only shook his head.

“I’m alright. It looks worse than it is. I just got… grazed lightly by a knife. Nothing major.”

Doc could imagine the way Etho looked at his back right now. Etho always seemed to know when Doc was lying about his condition, but there was nothing they could do about it right now anyways. Now, his only goal was to get his family to safety.

They left the corridors, exiting into the forest and Doc stopped, trying to catch his breath, while at the same time trying to hide how tired he suddenly felt.

“Where‘s your boat? I don‘t think I‘m up for climbing down a cliff”, he confessed. Etho didn‘t answer at once, searching his face and Doc tried his best to keep focused on his friend‘s eyes, but it was hard, when the world felt as if it was tilting.

“Doc…”

“Where is the boat, Etho?” Doc asked again, his voice taking on a more commanding tone and Etho‘s mouth snapped shut. They all knew that it was better not to protest sometimes.

“It‘s down by the beach to the south. Not far from here.”

Doc nodded and turned back again. He took a few steps and stopped, hoping that Grian would follow. It sent a pang to his heart when he didn‘t until Doc pulled on his hand once more. He heard a small giggle from behind him.

“How does it feel to get a broken toy, Doc, hm?”, Keralis said with a small smile and Doc threw him a glare but didn‘t stoop so low as to get into a fight with their hostage now. Etho just pressed the gun harder against his temple and from the way Keralis winced, Etho must have also twisted his arm a bit more.

“Shut up and keep walking.”

They continued on in silence through the trees and it was getting harder and harder for Doc to keep going. Only his determination kept him from slowing down or taking a break. And then the forest finally ended and Doc could see the ocean again. He felt happy every time he saw the ocean, but never had he felt so relieved and happy enough to almost cry. Once they were out on the sea nothing could stop them. They would be safe. 

He kept going, out over a rocky plain and suddenly his feet got caught on a small pile of rocks. He tried to keep his balance, but his head decided that this would be a good moment to make the whole world spin around. He felt sick again and then he was falling, closing his eyes, expecting to plant face first into the ground. Suddenly a strong hand wrapped around his waist and he was pulled against a broad chest. He took a few shaking breaths, trying to get his body to obey him again, trying to stop the world from spinning. And then realisation dawned on him. Etho must have let go of Keralis to catch him and if their hostage was gone they could be attacked any second, and…

Doc opened his eyes,slowly raising his head, only to look at Grian, who looked at him with wide, worried eyes, just as breathless as Doc. And that was when Doc realised that the hand around his waist was shaking slightly and it dawned on him. Grian had caught him. Grian, who he had needed to pull along the whole way, who Doc thought was barely able to take action without anyone telling him to, had just caught him. Nobody here was telling him to do that.

“Grian…?”

Grian flinched a little, his hand twitching, moving away a little before moving back into position, never once really letting go of Doc. 

“Step… away… please.“ His voice was so small that Doc almost didn‘t catch it, but when the words hit his brain, he realised why Grian was twitching and shaking so much. They were standing here in full-on body contact, when all the physical touches Grian had gotten the last few days must have been painful or - the way he knew Bdubs - mockingly gentle.

Doc nodded and took another deep breath. He really didn‘t feel all that steady yet, but he could do this. No need to stay longer than necessary - even if it felt kind of nice to have Grian‘s strong arm around him.

Doc finally stepped away and Grian gasped, sucking in air, his body shaking, but when he raised his head to look at Doc, there was the ghost of a smile on his face, beneath the uncertainty and fear.

“Grian. Are you alright? Can you-”

“Oh fuck this drama“, Keralis voice interrupted him with a snarl, “You should have let him drop, pet.“

And at the last word, Grian froze up, every hint of the smile gone, Grian‘s mouth snapping shut, no other word leaving his lips, not even answering Doc‘s question.

And Doc turned from Grian to Keralis, his hands balled into fists and his body shaking in fury. 

“I swear to the gods, Keralis. If I hear one more word out of you I will return you to Bdubs in pieces. I will take my time, keeping you alive as I let him stumble upon your body… Bit. By. Bit“

Keralis just glared right back at him, his enraged expression not even faltering.

“I don‘t think you‘d want to make Bdubs go through that, would you?“

And finally Keralis growled and nodded, averting his still angry eyes to the side.

“Good. Let‘s keep going.“ Doc sighed heavily, looking at Grian‘s still frozen from. “I‘m going to take your hand again. Sorry.“

He tried to keep his touch light, as he took Grian‘s hand into his own, but it still hurt him how Grian flinched a little.

“You are safe, remember? Bdubs can‘t hurt you here.” 

There was no sign that Grian had even heard him, but Doc thought he could feel Grian‘s hand press slightly against his. He started walking, pulling the other along, Etho and False following them once again. It didn‘t take them long to reach the boat and Doc carefully guided Grian inside, before motioning False to get inside with Ren. Only when he was sure all of them were safe inside he turned to Etho.

“Knock him out.“

Keralis opened his mouth, his muscles tensing, about to struggle, but before he could even react there was a loud thud, the gun hitting the back of his head. His eyes widened and he let out a small breathless “Oh“, before his body crumbled, falling into the sand. Doc really needed to resist the urge to kick him while he was down. And then Etho‘s boot suddenly hit Keralis‘ stomach. Hard.

“Etho?!“

“What? Can‘t tell me you didn‘t want to do that. I just took care of it for you. And now”- Etho moved forward, putting one arm around Doc and slinging one of Doc‘s arms over his shoulder - “I can finally take care of you, Captain dumbass.”

Doc smiled slightly, not even trying to reprimand him for the insult. He deserved that one for the stunt he had pulled tonight.

He let Etho hoist him into the boat, slumping down on the seat a little. He made a move to grab onto the paddles, but stopped, when Etho gave him a warning look.

“Yeah, yeah alright. You and False do the rowing then. But don‘t complain about your arms hurting tomorrow.”

They both knew Etho would so complain about it, just to annoy Doc.

The boat was shaking on the waves and Doc could feel his eyelids drop a few times. He dug his fingernails into his hands, trying to stay awake and alert. They still weren‘t out of the enemy‘s territory. He wouldn't let his guard down. He just couldn‘t.  

He kept staring at the island as it got smaller and smaller. He wanted to look at Grian and to never let him out of his sight, but he resisted the urge, still looking out for potential dangers. He could still see Keralis’ unconscious body on the ground. He startled as he saw movement. Someone was running up to Keralis. They were already too far to recognize who it was. But Doc just had the feeling that it might be Bdubs, from the way the person moved. And if it was really Bdubs it was a good sign. If Bdubs wanted to follow them he’d be on his ship by now for sure. 

They spent the next 15 minutes in solemn silence. Ren was slipping in and out of consciousness now and it had Doc worried. He knew he probably should be worried about himself as he was still pressing onto his wet shirt, drenched in blood. But Ren was more important than his own health - his family always had been.

When they finally got to the ship ropes were lowered and their boat pulled up. Everybody on the ship seemed to be awake again, working in almost perfect synch to get them up. As soon as they were all aboard, Etho turned to Doc, looking at him with a stern expression.

“Take off your shirt”, he said.

“Well, Etho, dear. You could take me out to dinner first. And not in front of my maybe future boyfriend”, Doc replied in a teasing tone, trying to lighten the mood, but the expression on Etho’s face didn’t change.

“You did enough stupid things for one night. Stop it now and let me look at your wound.”

Doc sighed and took his shirt off, turning to look at False, who had put Ren down on deck carefully. He really wanted to force Etho to have a look at Ren first, but he knew that his own wounds were probably more pressing. Even he didn’t know how he was still standing. Grian was sitting on some box at the side of the deck and it warmed Doc’s heart when he realised that someone from his crew had draped a jacket over his shoulders. He still looked so lost, eyes glazed, looking back to the island.

“Hurry it up, alright, Etho?”

Etho followed his gaze to Grian and grumbled a little. “He won’t disappear if I take a few minutes”, he said while looking at the wound, carefully touching the skin around it. “I’m gonna have to stitch you up until we get to a real doctor.” Doc made a grimace but nodded. Soon someone handed him a clean rag and Etho a bottle of alcohol, some thread and a needle. Doc took the rag into his mouth without being told. This wasn’t his first time after all. 

Etho opened the bottle and tilted it a little, before looking at Doc. “On three. One…” Etho poured the contents of the bottle out right after the first number and Doc bit down on the rag hard, letting out a loud pained noise. It burnt. It felt like the wound was on fire. He was breathing heavily through his nose now, fingers digging into the railing he was leaning against.

It burnt so much he barely noticed when the needle went into his skin. But soon the sensation of the needle piercing became more and more painful.

Etho kept talking to him in that calm voice of his, but Doc was  too far gone to hear anything he was saying. And then the pain was fading a little again as some cold paste was put on it and fabric was wrapped around his lower abdomen.

Doc was sweating heavily, still out of breath. There was a hand, gently caressing his cheek and only then did he realise he was still biting hard onto the rag. He slowly relaxed his jaw and took the fabric out with a shaking hand. “Don’t move too much, alright?”

Doc nodded, looking over the deck, his crew looking expectantly at him.

“Raise the anchor, we set sail. We’re heading…” He felt a little hazy, unable to think about where to go next. He hadn’t expected to make anymore decisions when he had set out to save Grian. “Let’s head to the nearest pirate friendly town to get Ren fixed up”, he finally finished.

Etho had already hurried over to Ren and Doc searched for Grian again as the ship started to move. He was no longer sitting on the wooden crate and Doc had a sudden moment of panic until his eyes landed on Grian again, standing at the front of the ship, the wind blowing his hair around. Doc felt a pang of guilt at seeing those shortened uneven strands of hair.

He walked over to Grian and stopped next to him. Carefully he took off the locket from his own neck and then held out his hand, the silver resting on his palm. And Grian’s gaze slowly moved down to the locket. His hand was shaking as he gingerly touched it, carefully opening it, leaving it in Doc’s palm Doc looked at it curiously. There was a picture of two boys, one of them most likely Grian. Grian started shaking more and more and then something wet fell onto Doc’s hand right next to the locket.

Doc’s head snapped back to Grian’s face and just as he had thought, there were tears running down Grian’s face. Doc wanted to hug him so badly. He wanted to make all of the pain go away. But he also knew that healing would take its time and he wouldn’t push Grian now. Instead he gently put his other hand over Grian’s, making him close the locket once more.

He carefully slid the locket over Grian’s head so that it was resting against his chest once again. Grian looked from the locket up to Doc’s face, his eyes still watery.

“Doc…”, he whispered and Doc smiled and nodded before turning towards the sea and the horizon where he could see the first rays of the morning sun. 

“You’re safe now, Grian.”

As the waves crashed against the side of his ships and the wind blew into his face once again, Doc knew, this was the dawn of a new day.

And they’d be alright.

[writing-the-end]

LoL Chapter 27- Hermits

Masterpost

A Wizard Hermits tale (AU, designs, ideas belongs to @theguardiansofredland)

Its not often the hermits get a chance to all be together. And while they know battles lie ahead of them, they take this moment to enjoy being a family again. 

______________________________________

Etho appears beside TFC, causing the mineral mage to sputter out the coffee he was sipping. “I caught sight of xB a few islands down!” 

The hermits murmur with excitement and follow Etho to the shoreline. Sure enough, xB is hauling Hypno and Beef onto the warm sand. Hypno thumps his hand against his head, an attempt to escape his clogged ears which only fails for him. “Can’t we take a sky turtle next time?” 

“But it’s more fun to swim!” xB chuckles, and with a flick of his finned ears and his grey tail he runs to hug the hermits. “It’s so good to be back, guys! I can’t remember the last time all of us were on the island together.”

“You guys said something about taking back Lairyon?” Beef raises an eyebrow, looking over at Doc. “This isn’t your rebellious phase coming back, is it?”

“We’ll explain everything on the way. TFC has a lot to tell.” Etho wraps his arms around Hypno and xB, before disappearing into their shared shadow. 

The kipling laughs, shaking his head and looking around the island. “Some things never change. I see you haven’t fixed the hole in False’s forge either.” 

The hermits laugh, the entire group filled with life as they return to the guild hall. Joe and Cleo regale the missing hermits with the story of their victory at the Chimaera’s Championship. Their battles and challenges in the arena, facing off against the best guilds and winning the cup. They also tell Hypno, xB, and Beef about the heist, the discovery. 

“Why am I not surprised?” Hypno hums, tapping his fingers against the wood of the table that he sits down at. TFC pats the boys on the head, grabbing at Beef’s face and tapping his finger on a scar he sees. Beef shrinks away, concerned for a second, but the guildmaster only chuckles in response.

“I can’t wait to hear that story. It’s good to have you guys back.” TFC pats him on the back. “Treat you to a pint of beer next time we go to town.” 

“Let’s hear about this big job you’ve got planned for us first.” xB raises an eyebrow. In response, TFC rolls out his map.

The paper has changed since they first decided to go after Dolios and his creepy crystals. If there’s one thing an outlaw guild knows how to do, it’s to find new jobs through the grapevine. “Dolios has these tales silenced. I’ve heard of at least six other guilds being attacked or wiped out by unknown magic. Unfortunately, we’re too late to help them.” Team ZIT glance at one another, but focus on the here and now. “But there are places we can make a difference, as well as get information and better ourselves as a group.”

TFC motions to the Evernight forest. “An old friend of mine said there has been stories of familiars and companion animals going missing. No trace of where they went, except for a few patches of charred grass.”

“Charred, or drained?” Mumbo muses. To anyone, that sounds like the signs of a dragon ravaging Foresta, but after Mumbo’s duel with a draconic mage he knows dragons aren’t that dastardly. Nothing is as dastardly as Dolios. 

TFC grins, the newest member and the guildmaster sharing a knowing glint. “There’s also Shellor- which, I believe one of our hermits here knows quite intimately.” Etho gives a two fingered salute, rocking on the back legs of his chair until they fall out from under him, dumping him on the floor. Doc, Beef, and BDubs laugh at him. “There’s a few spies who’ve seen things Dolios has done, but the hard part will be earning their trust.” 

“Hmm, yeah. I don’t think I really left Shellor on a good note.” Etho grimaces. 

“That’ll be you, Keralis, and Grian’s problem. Meanwhile, we also need some help in the magical beings department. And if there’s one group that has mysterious, arcane magic on lock, it’s-”

“The fae!” Stress slams down her hands, a bright smile on her face. Iskall jolts upright and nearly hits the table again on the way down. “But where will we go? The fjords? The mountains? Heartbreak Trench?” 

“The flowerfruit fields. While you’re there, you and BDubs can gather ingredients that we’ve been running low on.” TFC glances at the map, running a finger over the lime green patch on the map. “We do have two confirmed crystal sightings, as well as Gildara. Edenswell seems to be falling ill to dark magic, and there’s reasonable belief that Dolios isn’t getting these massive rocks from nowhere- he’s using gems from the mines.” 

Heads peek over one another in an attempt to see the map. The charcoal diamonds and swirls. Gildara still sits untouched, and every hermit looks at one another. Do any of them want to return to the beginning of this all? Even to put an end to the dark magic plaguing the land, the memories of what they saw, what they experienced, still remain. 

Except for those that weren’t there. “I don’t think I’d mind checking out this hokey little town you guys keep talking about.” Beef grins, glancing over at Hypno and Wels. “We’ll have that place brimming with flaxen fields and green gardens all over again.” 

TFC grins, dipping his head in thanks to the returning hermits. He leans back, looking at the filled guild hall. “It’s been so long since we’ve all been together. If only it were on good terms.” 

“It feels good to return home.” xB ruffles his hair with a scaled hand, looking around for a second, then returning to speaking. “Even if it’s just for a short time, we should enjoy everyone being together again.” 

“What I’m hearing is we need to have our signature hermit celebrations.” Tango’s face splits into a devious smile. All around him, other hermits get a similar smirk on their face. Before TFC can agree to the idea, the hermits are gone. Cleo rushes to her wrecked pirate ship, hefting kegs of ale with the aid of Stress. Wels commandeers False’s forge to begin baking his favorite sweets, while Mumbo, Grian, and Iskall work together to fix the pennants, lanterns, and flags that decorate the guild hall in a myriad of colors. 

Tango snaps his fingers, and a small flame dances at his fingertips, jumping from his nails to the wicks of the lanterns. He ducks out of the way just in time to avoid being smacked in the face by a massive fish, tossed from the sea by xB and grabbed by Grian midair. The whirlpool mage disappears back underwater, back to hunting in the realm he was born in. 

The sun begins to inch towards the western horizon, turning the sky ablaze in a mosaic of pinks, oranges, yellows, and reds. A blue flag flutters against the ancient oak tree, catching on a branch. BDubs reaches out from his seat near the food platters, hardly even glancing away from the fresh baked goods, and with a flick of his wrist the branch bends away and the flag flies free again. 

False appears beside Wels, grabbing a brownie from the hot pan and sticking her tongue out at him as she passes. When Wels objects she’s quick to retort. “You used my forge. It’s rental payment, paladin.” 

Beef sets out plates, which are promptly ignored once Impulse and Zedaph have finished cooking the tuna xB caught. Music swells from a music box the creation of Ren, with the help of Mumbo, the upbeat songs written and composed with Joe and requests from the other hermits for their favorite tunes. 

The music thrums against the low roar of talking, the sound only broken by the common lilt of laughter. Hermits tell their stories, whether they be heard for the thousandth time or a new tale to tell. Beef causes Hypno to flush as he recounts the prank he pulled on the dream mage. Hypno turns bright red, quiet voice cracking over the tale. “I smelled like centaur shit for a week! It was awful, I’ll tell you that.” 

A raucous laugh erupts from that table, overshadowing the story of Mumbo’s duel to xB. “I swear on my life, I thought she was gonna swallow me whole. Or burn me like coal.” Mumbo shakes his head. “I don’t think I ever want to go up against a draconic mage ever again in my life.” 

“I’m surprised a kipling, a draconic mage, and a desert wizard were one team. That’s a strange group. I don’t think I’ve even met each of the others.” xB takes a bite of his fish, marinated in fresh fruits that Cub plucked from nearby islands. “But I’m sure that kipling gave you guys a run for your money. That magic she had… it’s rare beyond imagination. In kipling legend, it means a legendary hero is about to arise.” 

“He definitely kicked Ren’s ass. I don’t think I ever saw so much water moved at once.” Mumbo shakes his head, and stuffs a red jelly tart into his mouth. 

Keralis stands, tossing his woven hat from the brown curls of his hair, and inviting himself onto the open floor. “I love this song! Come on, my wonderful friends, let’s dance!” 

The setting sun casts a golden glow, bouncing off verdant leaves, twisting along the waves of the Ashioll sea. Laughter and music dance in the gilded light, playing in the curls of Zedaph’s hair as he joins Keralis. The two bumble around, drunk from Cleo’s ale but enjoying themselves immensely. 

Only one hermit wasn’t taking part in the festivities. Atop the canopy that protects the guild hall below, Xisuma watches as the stars appear in the sky. For a few moments in the day, the void and the sun share the space above. And he always thinks of the one person he knows he should forget by now. But he would’ve loved this, even if he’s constantly worrying about being caught doing something wrong. 

“Hey X, you gonna mope up there all day or join us?” Jevin grins below, one hand placed on his hip and the other waving Xisuma down. “Just because you’re a void mage doesn’t mean you have to a-void everything!” 

Xisuma rolls his eyes, but smiles beneath his mask. “After that terrible pun, how can I say no?”

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Among Us idea: Because I'm a little bit obsessed with game mechanics and glitches in fic...how about a round where one of the Hermits gets left behind? The game ends, and everyone but them is transported to the lobby, but they're just left on an empty ship flying eternally to some destination it will never reach... All the tasks are done. There's nothing left to do. So why is the game still keeping them there? And how do they escape? (It could also be two people left, if writing just one alone would be boring. Your choice who!)

SKSKSKSKSK HOW DO YOU DO THIS I’VE BEEN PLANNING OUT AN IDEA IN MY HEAD FOR THE LAST FEW DAYS IN WHICH TWO PLAYERS ACCIDENTALLY GET LEFT BEHIND HOW DO YOU KEEP READING MY MIND (/lh)

also i had a kind of idea to expand the concept a little bit and i hope that’s okay :)

also also i too love the ideas that utilise glitches or kinda ignore game mechanics; they're always so interesting to write! :D

…

Having finished his tasks a long time ago and not being teleported to any meetings lately, Skizz wanders around the whole ship, trying to find a friend. A buddy. Or literally anyone. But the ship seems deserted.

Finally, Skizz wanders into admin and checks the special table.

To his shock, he finds only two yellow faces on the screen: one in admin and one in cafeteria. So he rushes into the cafeteria and literally bumps into someone coming the other way.

“Oh my gosh, FINALLY,” Impulse breathes. “Where IS everyone?”

Skizz glances away, unable to meet his best friend’s gaze. “We have a problem.”

Impulse frowns. “What?” he asks warily.

“Um…” Skizz rubs the back of his neck. “So… it seems we’re the only two people on the ship.”

It takes a moment for Impulse’s brain to process what his friend just said. “...what?”

“I looked around the whole ship and then went to the admin table. There were only two yellow dots: me and you. There’s literally nobody else anywhere on the ship, dude.”

“But… I…” Impulse blinks. “How is that possible? Did the game end and leave us behind, somehow?”

“I feel like that’s the only possible explanation, but at the same time, it makes no sense.”

“Well, if this IS what happened, it’s gotta be a glitch, right?” says Impulse.

Skizz nods. “Gotta be. But now the question is… how do we get outta here?”

Impulse gazes around the room. “The game always automatically puts us back in the lobby when we’re done, so… I don’t think there’s a way of manually doing it.”

Skizz stares back at him with wide eyes. “You mean we’re stuck in THIS particular ship forever?!”

“W-Well, hopefully not FOREVER,” Impulse responds nervously. “I’m sure they’ll have realised we’re missing by now and they’ll be trying to get us back.”

“But what if they can’t?!” Skizz yelps. “We’ll be trapped in this purgatory forever!”

“Not helping, Skizz,” snaps Impulse. “We’ll be totally fine. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“Yeah, like I can have ANY faith in your words anymore,” mutters Skizz, turning away.

Impulse glances sharply at him, sensing that his best friend’s words aren’t about Among Us. Not entirely. “What do you mean?”

Skizz just rolls his eyes and walks off.

Impulse watches him go. Looks like Skizz hasn’t been so quick to forgive and forget after all. Now the way Skizz was acting around him earlier makes sense.

After making a quick trip around the ship, Impulse discovers Skizz sitting leaning against the wall in admin, tossing a stack of ID cards at the wall one at a time.

“Still no way off,” Impulse reports. “Looks like we’re stuck here until they rescue us. Flying through space. On a ship heading to nowhere. An endless journey. With nothing except-.”

“Yes, okay, I get it!” Skizz snaps at him.

After a moment, Impulse leans against the admin table. “Skizz, you’ve been acting weird around me all night. I think we need to talk.”

“I don’t wanna talk.”

“C’mon. We’re stuck here on a ship on our own for the foreseeable future. There’s no better time to talk than now.”

“Okay!” snaps Skizz unexpectedly, jumping to his feet. “FINE! You wanna talk?! I don’t care! You did a LOT of talking back there on 3rd Life and not a word of it was true!”

Impulse frowns. “Is that what this is about?”

Skizz’s eyes nearly pop out of his head. “WH- WHAT DO YOU MEAN “is that what this is about”?! You say that like I’m mad at you for stealing my sandwich! Impulse, you LIED to me, BETRAYED me, and then watched Grian KILL me! You told me over and over again that you were on my side and you were loyal to us but you planned to betray us from the start! Y-You planned to betray ME. Do you-” He breaks off with a bitter laugh. “You know what, I was gonna say “do you have any idea how much that hurts?” but you DO, don’t you? Because your own ally turned on you. And murdered you. And you know what? YOU DESERVED IT!”

Impulse can only stare at his best friend with an expression of guilt and sadness.

“I wanted you to go far, dude! I wanted you to win at one point!” Skizz’s voice cracks. “I thought you were the best of us but it turns out you were nothing but a dirty liar and a traitor! I thought “oh, his strategy of playing all sides is pretty smart, actually, but he’s gonna have to pick a side at some point” but I didn’t realise that meant pretending to pick a side and then STABBING THEM IN THE BACK! Of all the- the jerky things to do! You pick the worst one! I-I just don’t understand how you could do that to someone you’ve been a brother to for A QUARTER OF A CENTURY! GOD, you SO deserved to die and the biggest regret of my life is that I didn’t get imposter tonight so I could stab you in the FACE!”

Skizz finally stops talking, breathing heavily. He takes in a deep breath, rubbing his eyes tiredly. “Wow… I did not expect to yell that much…”

“I…” Impulse searches for something to say. But he can’t find anything. “I don’t…”

“You don’t have to say anything, Impulse.” Skizz gives a weak smile. “I-I think I just needed to… to let my feelings out.”

“You just needed to yell at me, huh? I get that.”

“Haha, yeah. Remember that time I snuck onto Hermitcraft and did a bunch of reckless things and then died, and you didn’t know if I was gonna respawn or not?”

Impulse nods, a small smile appearing on his face. “That’s what I was indirectly referring to. I think my throat hurt from yelling at you for, like, two weeks after that.”

“Are we even now, then?” asks Skizz.

“Well, I mean… Probably not. I still have a lot to make up for.”

Skizz shakes his head. “No, it… it’s okay. We all did things in that place that we’re not proud of.”

“Even the great Skizzleman?” teases Impulse weakly.

“Oh heck yeah. I still have nightmares about how I violently murdered two of my friends and how bloodthirsty I felt for so long. It freaks me out that I got to that point, man. Even in Among Us when I murder people, even you, I never got THAT bad.”

“Yeah, 3rd Life was…” Again, Impulse searches for the right word. “...an experience. In more ways than one.”

“It really was,” Skizz murmurs, letting out a long breath. “I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have let it affect Among Us so much.”

“No, it’s okay. And we can-.”

Impulse breaks off Skizz suddenly disappears in front of him. Blinking, he just has time to take a step forward before the admin room vanishes and he finds himself back in the lobby.

With eight people staring at him.

“Oh my gosh, finally!” Tango gasps, grabbing both Impulse and Skizz in a hug. “Are you guys okay?”

“We’re fine, dude,” laughs Skizz quietly. “We just yelled at each other a bit, that’s all.”

Impulse chuckles. “Well, it was mostly Skizz doing the yelling.”

“Yeah, true. How did you guys even manage to get us out?”

“The insane genius that is Etho hacked into the code and managed to force the round to end again,” Tango responds. “Somehow. I dunno how. Took us a while to figure out what’d happened, though.”

“Yeah, I’ve never seen that glitch before,” Etho chimes in. “There was six left, Grian and Ren double-killed me and Pungence to win, and that should’ve been it. The rest of us respawned in the lobby but we realised you two were missing.”

“Whoa, that’s so weird.” Skizz exchanges a look with Impulse. “Cuz for us, it was like the round just hadn’t ended.”

“Yeah, we’d both done all our tasks and we had no idea anything had happened.”

“What did you guys do?”

Impulse and Skizz shoot each other another look, silently making a mutual decision. “Just talked a bit and tried to look for a way out,” Impulse replies. “That’s all.”

Tango frowns, clearly picking up on the slight tension between them, but he doesn’t mention it. “Okay. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen again.”

“Yeah.”

Skizz thinks back to the way he’d exploded at Impulse, and the way Impulse had looked at him with fear in his eyes. All the fury, the despair, the hurt… It had all spilled out at once. Skizz never wants to feel that way again.

“Let’s hope not.”

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

That last one was just amazing- by the way, if you ever want to directly address me for whatever reason, call me Raven!

Now, from the two among us Zed oneshots you’ve written, I think I can draw a conclusion. Zedaph is a hacker. His next hack would probably be a more wholesome one, just to balance the horror his friends have witnessed recently. Maybe he gives himself the jester role, or makes the impostor role different. Maybe he switches it to the werewolf impostor, and who else to have fun as a werewolf with than Rendog himself? :D

Thanks for being my best requester Raven! I love your ideas :D Also I couldn’t choose between the jester and werewolf mods so I went with both :)

…

  When Zedaph first arrived on this ship for his first ever round of Among Us with his friends, he had assumed that his ability to hack into a game’s code would be utterly useless here. Or, at the very least, that it would take a long time for him to gain access to all the different modifications he knows exist within the game.

  Now he knows how wrong he was. 

  He senses after a while that the others might be getting bored of the same old routine. Sure, every round is unpredictable. But perhaps it might be time for a slight deviation to make things more exciting and bring back the spark that his friends have for the game.

  When the last round ends, Zedaph dives into the library of mods, looking for some roles that might make a fun combination. He immediately spots a role he desperately wants, along with an imposter modification that will definitely make the game more interesting. Already grinning at the possibilities, he selects them and leaves the game’s code.

  There Is One Werewolf and One Jester Among Us

  Everyone stands around the table, staring at each other in confusion over the different and rather worrying message. 

  Grian is the first to speak up. “Wh-What is going on? What’s with the werewolf? And what the hell does jester mean?”

  “The jester is the officially assigned third imposter,” replies Zedaph, grinning. “Their job is to act sus and get voted off. If they do, they automatically win.” 

  Luckily, nobody questions how Zedaph knows this. He figures they put it down to his enthusiasm for the game. 

  “And the imposter is actually a werewolf,” he adds. “They- Well, I guess we’ll see what they do, huh?”

  “This is gonna end badly,” groans Skizzleman, “This is gonna end SO badly.”

  “Let’s get on with our tasks,” Grian says. “There’s only one imposter, apparently, so they should have a harder time than usual.”

  Zedaph watches his friends split up to do their tasks. He smiles; already, there seems to be more of an air of anticipation surrounding the group than at the start of the previous round. His plan to make things more exciting seems to be working already. He’s very happy that somehow, the randomised game has given him the role of jester right off the bat.

  However, unbeknownst to Zedaph, the game sensed how much he wanted to be the jester and assigned him the role accordingly. He also doesn’t know that the game has a sense of humour in who it chose for the werewolf role.

  Ren finds a new option alongside “kill” and “sabotage”. Surely an option with this long a cooldown can only be something spectacular. 

  So he risks it and waits.

  He kills Scar in communications and quickly leaves, passing Bdubs in shields on the way, before activating the werewolf option.

  Immediately, his vision increases; he can see way further than he ever could. When he runs, he’s extremely fast, zooming at least three times as fast as he could before. Some unknown energy is fueling him. 

  He makes it all the way around the right side of the ship and over to medbay without meeting anyone before his werewolf boost runs out. The cooldown is painfully long, but at least his kill cooldown is almost over. 

  Spotting movement in medbay, he heads inside and finds Etho and Skizzleman inside. He senses an opportunity here. 

  He kills Skizzleman as the latter is standing on the scanner.

  Just as he expects, Etho reports. “I just saw Ren kill Skizz right in front of me.” 

  “Hey, I was nowhere near you,” Ren retorts. “He’s self-reporting.”

  “Can anyone vouch for your movements, Ren?” asks Grian.

  “I saw him in shields not that long ago,” Bdubs says. “And he was heading up to nav. I highly doubt he could get all the way from there to medbay in that amount of time.”

  Ren frowns, wondering how Bdubs had not discovered Scar’s body. Then he realises. His vision had increased, so the crewmates’ must have decreased. 

  “Nice try, Etho,” Bdubs snickers. “Next time, pick someone who wasn’t halfway across the ship when you murder.”

  Etho starts to protest but he makes eye contact with Ren and stops. 

  “When the game doesn’t end, you’d better vote Ren out next,” he says. 

  Bdubs shakes his head. “It literally COULDN’T be him. He was on the other side of the ship.”

  Ren grins to himself as Etho is ejected. He has this round in the bag, he thinks.

  But he has forgotten about the jester. 

  Zedaph decides to follow Ren this round. He knows the powers of the werewolf almost as well as he knows Etho; the cyan crewmate wouldn’t make up such an obvious lie, especially when he’s already known as a self-reporter. 

  And if the game’s sense of humour made a joker like Zedaph the jester, why wouldn’t it make Rendog the werewolf?

  He follows Ren discreetly to electrical and watches him kill Tango inside. As Ren leaves the room again and heads for storage, Zedaph ducks inside electrical and waits for a few seconds before leaving.

  As he hoped, he passes Grian just heading into storage, moments before their vision decreases again. Ren has activated werewolf mode. Zedaph can no longer see Grian; he can only hope that the red crewmate is heading for electrical. 

  Sure enough, the body is reported a few seconds later. 

  Before Grian can speak, Zedaph blurts out, “I saw Ren vent.”

  “Wait, what?” Ren blinks at him. “I didn’t vent!”

  “I saw you vent into shields while I was doing my task,” Zedaph says calmly. “I ran off towards the button but the body was reported before I could get there. You guys need to vote him off; Etho was right about him.” 

  Ren doesn’t understand. He’s the only imposter; why is Zedaph accusing him of venting when he didn’t? 

  “I didn’t vent into shields!” Ren protests. “I didn’t vent anywhere. I wasn’t even near shields; I was in reactor. I don’t understand why you-.”

  He breaks off as Zedaph makes eye contact with him, and that’s when Ren realises what is happening. His friend is the jester and he’s in control of the situation completely. If the crewmates believe Zedaph and vote Ren out, he loses. If they don’t believe Zedaph and HE is voted out, he wins. 

  Zedaph has created an unwinnable scenario for Ren. 

  Now the question becomes… which ending is preferable?

  After less than a second of thought, Ren decides to fight. If he’s going to lose either way, he’d rather Zedaph win through his own intelligence than the crewmates receive a victory they didn’t earn. 

  “Ren?” Grian prompts.

  “Zedaph is lying,” Ren says. “He’s trying to frame me. Where’s the body, Grian?”

  “Electrical,” Grian replies slowly, eyes flickering from Zedaph to Ren. 

  “Did you see anyone around?”

  “Yeah…” Grian hesitates. “I saw Zedaph around the area.”

  “There, see?” It pains Ren to do this, but he knows it’s the best option. “He knows you saw him around the spot where the body was found and he decided to cover his tracks by accusing me of venting.”

  “Nuh uh!” The slightest hint of a grin is visible on Zedaph’s face. “Don’t try and throw me under the bus, Mr Werewolf. Just look at those furry little ears on his head!” 

  “That’s a coincidence and you know it,” says Ren, internally sighing as he finally realises the irony. “Guys, you have to believe me; I’m not the imposter. Zedaph was literally seen around the area the body was discovered AND he’s trying to claim he saw me vent when I was nowhere near him. It’s obvious he’s the imposter.”

  Zedaph shakes his head. “No, it’s Ren. I saw him vent.”

  Grian, Bdubs, and Impulse exchange looks. 

  Zedaph watches them make their minds. He’s not worried. If Tango was there, he would be; Tango knows him far too well. But Impulse, despite their long history, isn’t quite as familiar with the inner workings of Zedaph’s mind as Tango is. 

  Finally, Grian says, “I think it’s Zedaph.”

  “No!” Zedaph protests immediately. “I literally saw Ren vent! It’s not me.”

  Impulse doesn’t seem quite as convinced. “I dunno, guys. Zed might be the jester, remember.”

  “If he was the jester, surely he wouldn’t be fighting so hard to make us believe that Ren is the imposter,” Grian responds. “Plus, we already established Ren couldn’t have killed Skizzleman like Etho said he did.”

  Zedaph snickers internally. He can almost hear Tango’s groan from the afterlife. 

  The timer is running out. Everyone locks in their votes. 

  Zedaph and Impulse have voted for Ren. Grian, Bdubs, and Ren have voted for Zedaph.

  Frowning, Impulse turns to Zedaph. “Zed, I’m sorry.”

  Zedaph pats his friend on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it.”

  He waits until they’ve put him in the airlock before he grins and says, “Thank you for your help, Ren. That was so much fun.”

  Ren chuckles and shakes his head. “You deserve this, man. Well done.”

  Grian and Bdubs exchange confused frowns but Impulse nods, turning away so he doesn’t have to see his friend being ejected. Their exchange can only mean one thing: a rare scenario has occurred. 

  The imposter AND the crewmates have lost.

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

You said you wanted to write more among us Zed? Well, what’s keeping you? Go haywire, friend! If you need a prompt for motivation, here ya go!

So we all know how if you kill Skizz early game, you have signed the papers and he has all the rights to haunt you and sing high-pitched songs at the top of his lungs. Well, what happens if you kill Zedaph early game? You get experimented on, by a ghost. It’s never actually happened before, but Pungence is too scared that if he tells anyone what happened, he won’t make it out respawned.

Okay, now THIS was a challenge. This one is a lot more abstract and a deviation from a normal Among Us game, and I’m not entirely sure if this is what you visualised with your prompt but I think it’s still good. Hope you enjoy!

...

  Zedaph opens his eyes and finds himself lying on the floor. He sits up, an image of a gun in his face flashing in front of his vision. Something tells him he didn’t survive that encounter. 

  He looks down at his hand and finds it transparent. When he gets to his feet, he perpetually hovers a few inches off the ground. He knows now: he’s dead. He’s a ghost. 

  “Well,” he says aloud, “this is inconvenient.”

  “That is the calmest reaction for someone discovering they’re dead that I have ever seen,” remarks a voice. 

  Zedaph turns. 

  Skizzleman is across the room, downloading data at the panel. He gives Zedaph a resigned smile. “Hey. We got double killed.”

  “Already?” Zedaph frowns. “We only just came in here.”

  “That’s what happens when two people who know each other well are imposters together,” says Skizzleman. “Impulse and Tango. Impulse and me. Grian and Etho. Or, in this case, the imposter bros. They kill early and they kill fast. Figures they’d go for us, huh? Easy pickings.”

  Zedaph thinks about this for a moment. “So… what do we do now?”

  Skizzleman shrugs. “Just keep doing our tasks. The only people who’ll hear us now are the imposters.”

  “The imposters can hear us as ghosts?”

  “And see us, yeah.” Skizzleman laughs. “I like to go haunt the imposter who killed me with high pitched songs to see if they’ll go crazy. They don’t usually, but hey. It makes me feel bett- Wait, where are you going?”

  Zedaph is already halfway out of the room when he stops and turns. “I’m going to find Pungence and make him regret killing me.”

  “Ahh, you gonna adopt my high-pitched singing approach?” Skizzleman asks with a grin. 

  “No,” says Zedaph simply.

  Skizzleman watches him leave, frowning in confusion. He isn’t sure what Zedaph is planning but he does know he’s worried about his newest friend. But he decides to leave Zedaph alone and do his tasks. Whatever Zedaph is up to, Skizzleman doesn’t need to get involved.  

  Zedaph finds Pungence in medbay, standing at the sample task. He turns to leave and spots the ghost, and his face settles in a scowl. “Go away,” he mutters.

  Zedaph holds out his hand. The medbay door closes behind him.

  Pungence jumps, his eyes slowly widening. “Wait, how did you do that?”

  “Let’s have a little chat, shall we?” Zedaph smiles pleasantly. “Pungence, I don’t know you. I know Bdubs, but not you. Why did you kill me?”

  “You and Skizzle were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, alright?” snaps Pungence. “Bdubs and I were going round looking for a pair of crewmates to kill and we happened to see both of you alone together in navigation. That’s all.”

  Zedaph nods. This is the answer he was expecting. “I see. Are you just evil or is something evil controlling you?”

  Pungence blinks. “What?”

  “You’re an “imposter”. Does that mean you’re an actual physical copy of Pungence - as in, you’re not the real Pungence at all - or are you actually him but being controlled by some kind of evil parasite?”

  “I…” Pungence just stares at him in confusion. “How am I supposed to know? I just know I have to kill people.”

  “Interesting.”

  Zedaph slowly moves towards Pungence, who backs away rapidly into the wall. “No, no, get away from me. Why haven’t your bodies been reported yet?!”

  “Oh, they have,” says Zedaph. “The others are having a meeting as we speak.”

  Realisation dawns on Pungence’s face. “You’re trapping me in this room! But- But how?! How did you shut that door? How did you rig it so that I wouldn’t appear at the meeting?”

  Zedaph continues floating towards Pungence, who strains to get away from him. “Stay away from me!”

  But Zedaph doesn’t listen. He reaches out and phases his ghostly hand into Pungence’s chest. 

  Pain shoots through Pungence like electricity in water. He screams, but Zedaph waves his hand and his voice is silenced. Zedaph is looking deep into Pungence’s heart and mind, and it’s absolute agony for him. 

  Finally, Zedaph retracts his hand and Pungence drops to his knees, clutching his chest in pain. 

  “Whatever you are, your soul is well hidden,” says Zedaph, as if nothing particularly extraordinary is going on. “And if you yourself don’t even know what you are, then maybe your memories prior to landing on this ship have been removed. Maybe you’re a physical clone of the real Pungence with his memories installed in your brain.”

  “What are you talking about?!” shrieks Pungence, disoriented from the pain. “Get away from me!” 

  Zedaph ignores him. “Let’s see if I can possess you. That’s a thing ghosts can do, right?”

  Before Pungence can stop him, Zedaph takes hold of his head, one hand on either side. He can’t stop himself from screaming again as he feels Zedaph’s powerful soul attempting to take over his own. He pushes back, resisting as hard as he can. His soul is powerful too. 

  Zedaph cries out as he feels the backlash, and with it, the overwhelming hunger for death fuelling an imposter. 

  “Zedaph!” yells Skizzleman’s voice behind him.

  Zedaph stumbles back into Skizzleman, clutching his head. He stares at Pungence, who is breathing heavily and warily glaring back at him. “You… You enjoy killing. It fuels you, gives you life. You tear through flesh and bone like they’re made of paper, and you do it without regret or remorse. Whatever you are, you… you’re not human.”

  Still holding Zedaph upright, Skizzleman started to back away. “Zed, let’s go. Quickly.”

  “No.” Zedaph shook Skizzleman’s hands off him and walks towards Pungence. “You need to be eliminated as soon as possible.”

  Pungence reaches for his weapon but stops, remembering it won’t do any good on a ghost. He tries to get away but Zedaph catches him - literally. Eyes wide, he stares down at Zedaph’s transparent hand closed around his wrist. “How are you t-touching me?! You’re dead!”

  Zedaph wordlessly reaches for Pungence again, but instead of his chest, this time he goes for his head. 

  Skizzleman turns away, flinching at the sound of Pungence’s screams. He’s terrified; not for Pungence’s life but for Zedaph’s soul. Zedaph mentioned how Pungence isn’t human but surely he himself can’t be either, to have this kind of power. Skizzleman may not be very spiritual but even he can feel the power of Zedaph’s soul and he somehow knows his newest friend is special. But all this violence and rage… cannot be good for a soul such as Zedaph’s. 

  Zedaph himself, meanwhile, can feel his entire body heating up as it starts glowing with bright white light. He focuses on what he’s doing, unaware of his eyes glowing bright red. The sound of Pungence screaming slowly fades until he can’t hear it anymore; all he can hear is a faint ringing in his ears and the sound of footsteps coming closer and closer until-

  Nothing.

...

  Pungence opens his eyes and finds himself standing at the meeting table alongside everybody else. He lets himself breathe out, his hands still trembling. Even though the pain itself is long gone, he can still feel Zedaph’s eyes boring into his soul as he tries to destroy his spirit forever.

  His gaze fixes on Zedaph, who is chatting happily with Tango as the two head off towards admin. On the other side, Skizzleman is just disappearing into medbay. Neither of them seem to recall what happened last round. Or if they do, they’re not affected by it at all. Not as much as Pungence is.

  “Pungey?” Bdubs appears at his side and places a concerned hand on his brother’s shoulder. “You okay?”

  Pungence wordlessly nods. He gets the feeling that he should never tell anyone about what happened. Zedaph, who somehow has the power to kill an imposter and immediately end the whole round, spared his life this time. Now he can simply be another crewmate again and do his tasks with his brother.

  Next time, he might not be so lucky.

[writing-the-end]

LoL Chapter 23- the Labyrinth

Masterpost

A Wizard Hermits tale (AU and Red belongs to @theguardiansofredland )

So close to the end, so close to winning the entire championship. Only one more challenge, one more maze- and one more corrupted beast to prove themselves as the best in the entire kingdom. 

________________________________________________

“Are you sure Magistrate Dolios is the dark wizard?” Keralis questions, tilting his head. “I mean, what he did was pretty mean, but...to practice dark magic?” 

“It’s him.” Zedaph hisses, his fingers curling in the fabric set on his lap. “He had a crystal in the antichamber, he had a horrible collection of parts used for spells.” Zed clenches his fists and jaw, struggling not to burst out. Tango and Impulse try to ease their friend’s worries. “He… I read through his log. He killed our guild. We were just the first, the opening act. He used our friends, our family, to start his path of destruction.” 

“But why? Why would he need dark magic? He’s the godsdamned Magistrate of Lairyon!” False looks around, leaning forward in the tavern they’re huddled in. It’s not the inn, but one closer to the stadium. They have a labyrinth to defeat soon. 

“Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Doc growls, tapping his fingers together into a triangle shape. “Regular magic just wasn’t enough. Regular power just wasn’t enough.” 

“So he’s using the crystals to gather energy. Like what we saw in Gildara, with the grey landscape. And when the crystals sap energy for him to steal, it leaves those husk monsters behind.” Cub is slowly piecing together the puzzle, coming to understand everything he saw with the others in the heist. 

“And he’s using the Chimaera’s championship to sap more energy. That’s why we feel so tired when we finish an event. He’s stealing our power, my dudes.” Ren shivers at the thought. His energy being drained, taken by some creepy crystal and fueling Dolios’s insatiable thirst. 

“And we’re going back in soon.” TFC hums. “We have the labyrinth challenge.” 

“We don’t have to go in- we got what we needed. We can leave, make a plan with this knowledge we have. Tell the king, tell the people. They’ll take care of it.” Etho leans back in a chair, tipping till it nearly dumps him backwards. 

“But we’ve come so far!” Grian whines. “We could win the whole games, prove to Dolios that he never should have messed with us! Wouldn’t you love to see that smug smile of his wiped off when we win?” 

Agreements rise around Grian, and even Etho can’t help but want to prove that bastard wrong. Xisuma steps in. “At least we know why we’re getting so exhausted. We’ll know to rest, calm down while we’re in the labyrinth. And...we can warn Team Crafted.” 

“And then we’ll tell the king, tell the people. They’ll have to listen to us, we’ll be the champions!” Iskall grins. They’ve got this labyrinth challenge in the bag. 

The group rises, walking out of the tavern and back to the stadium. All around them, Milliara is buzzing with excitement. The final challenge of the Chimaera’s championship, the end of the games, has come. A river of people flow along the raised streets, flowing like the canals beside them. Rushing towards the stadium. They pass by other guilds, who sneer and turn away. Angry they lost, especially to a team. Do any of them know that the Magistrate practices dark magic? That he’s killed entire guilds in his search for power? For what? Surely he doesn’t keep all of it. 

It’s no matter to the hermits. They found the truth, and once they pass on this knowledge, it’ll be out of their hands. Entering into the bowels of the stadium, the locker room they sit in is empty. Once full of dozens more teams, now only two teams remain.

The entire guild sneers at the sound of Dolios’s voice welcoming the crowd. It’s muffled by the thick stone walls, but they can hear him tell of the harrowing journey ahead. And the grand prize that awaits for the team that defeats the labyrinth. All they need to do is pour a single bowl of water over the statue at the center of the labyrinth. 

But between that and both teams were beasts, traps, and spells designed to slow them down. Perhaps even kill them, if they aren’t prepared. Across the way, Grian can see nerves crease across Quentin and Jerome’s faces. He can hear Mumbo muttering next to him. Anyone can walk into the labyrinth, but only the best teams can walk out. Grian isn’t going to let anyone die- not on his oath as a healer. Not from the hermits, and not from Team Crafted either. 

Grian stands, walking across the locker room and coming face to face with Sky. The leader looks up, an easy and golden grin meeting Grian. “Hey, you here to wish us luck?” 

“Not exactly.” Grian wrings his hands, looking over his shoulder, before dropping his voice. “Listen, Sky, we hermits discovered something… the reason we’re always exhausted?” Sky leans forward, his eyes looking out over the rim of his sunglasses. “The magistrate is doing something dark, and he’s taking our power for his own. If you see a crystal that’s pitch black, or a creature with soulless white eyes and ash grey bodies- run. It’s dark magic.” 

Sky’s eyes widen, and behind him Grian sees Jerome and Mitch coil and look out at where Dolios’s voice can be heard. But Jason looks less convinced. “Why should we trust you? You’re trying to get us to fail, huh?” 

Grian’s sighs, collapsing his head into his hands. “No, we’re trying to help you. Us illegal guilds have to stick together.” 

Team Crafted’s faces all exhibit a mix of shock, surprise, and hints of defiance at Grian’s suggestion. But he’s smarter than he lets on. Jerome is the first to speak up. “Thank you for the warning, I knew that man wasn’t to be trusted. Good luck, hermits.” 

With that, the stadium erupts in a roar. Team Crafted stands, and disappears into the field, disappears from view. A few moments later, the hermits are called into the spotlight. Just like the opening ceremony, TFC leads them out onto the pitch. 

Or, what was the pitch. Massive hedges of writhing vines and ivy twist around the guild, engulfing them into a thicket that fills the once open arena. A dark, misty haze swirls, thickening where the hermits know the crowd is watching. Despite no eyes, no bodies visible, they can feel being observed. And yet the entire field is eerily quiet. They feel alone, no voices or light, only the sensation of sight. 

In the distance, a grumbling roar pierces the mist. Captured by the damp air, it hangs and echoes around the hermits. Iskall hides behind Stress while False, Wels, and Etho draw their blades. But TFC is the one to break the silence. “No use standing here. Team Crafted already has a headstart, and I’m not letting them get any further. Cleo and Jevin, take point. If anything looks suspicious, or even if it doesn’t, Cleo can search for a soul. Jevin, can you whip up slime warriors to be our...ahem, bait?”

“You got it boss.” Jevin draws his circle, blue light dappling the misty grey and green. Blue bodies of slime morph to shape, awkward steps pushing the hermits forward. Deep into the maze. The mist engulfs the comforting stone wall of the stadium, and they were only among hedge and haze. 

They push past traps set off by the slime warriors, around chimaeras and banshees soothed by Zedaph and Cleo, and over illusionary spells meant to turn them back. At each intersection, Scar marks off the way they came by plowing a giant X in the ground. When they reach a dead end and turn around, he blocks it off completely. 

“I don’t remember the field being this big.” Impulse groans, feeling his body ache at the feeling he now knows to be the work of dark magic. They haven’t seen a crystal or a husk, which only makes the feeling worse. It’s coming from everywhere. 

“They must’ve used expansion magic to make this place bigger.” Xisuma hums, kicking his boot at the feeling of something on his head. And again. He turns around, glaring at BDubs. “Would you quit trying to flat-tire me? It doesn’t work on boot, ya know.” 

BDubs’s face causes X’s head to spin and his heart to drop. His eyes are wide, confused as to why X is yelling at him. “Tha-that wasn’t me, X. That was-” 

One moment, BDubs is clear in Xisuma’s vision through his mask. The next, he’s disappeared. However, it’s not hard to find him with all the screaming. Writhing on the ground, mist and vines wrapping struggling in a fight with the plant mage. No matter how many times he casts his magic, it doesn’t shake off the ivy that crawls and drags him towards the hedges. 

“Help! Help it’s got me!” BDubs screams, digging his fingers into the ground and rooting himself there He groans, the vines still pulling on him despite being an immovable object. “It’s gonna rip me in half!” 

False swings her sword, the sharp steel biting into the vines and severing it from the briars snaked around BDubs. From the split branches, a red ochre spills out. Blood. The entire hedge rumbles to life, two eyes appearing in the mist. A branch breaks through the fog, colliding with a shield held aloft by Wels. The limb of the plant monster crushes the steel, tossing the shield aside and depositing the paladin onto his rear. 

Glowing white eyes draw closer, and the twisted grey vines of the plant monster’s face appears in the dark mist. Vines grab for any limb the hermits aren’t watching, engulfing arms, pulling on tails, wrapping around heads. Xisuma traps a few of the thousand limbs in a blackhole, rolling away from the beast. Grian takes to the sky, dodging around the shoots that threaten to skewer him. He whips a blast of air, clearing the fog to get a better view below.

It’s not the whole labyrinth, but the beast has spread it’s vines in an intricate system among it. All which are slithering over the ivy, like snakes in search of the hermits. What he also sees in the sky, beneath the plant monster’s perch and dug into the ground beneath the pitch, was the one thing he’s learned to despise. 

A dark crystal. It’s controlling the plant monster, black smog wrapping around the roots of the beast like chains. It’s practically bursting with energy, all the power and strength taken by the crystal during the entire course of the games. Even flying this high, he can feel the effects of his magic being siphoned from his body. “There’s one of those-” 

Swatted from the sky like a bug, Grian crashes into the ground with a sickening thud. Scar and Mumbo race to help him up. Mumbo nearly throws up, hearing the sound of bones cracking under Grian’s feathers and skin. But nothing can keep the sky angel quiet. “The plant thing...it’s protecting the crystal, or powered by the crystal, I dunno.”

“Where is it?” TFC questions, eyes flicking across the battling guild. Stress freezes the blood and vines solid, while Cub severs the limbs with portal after portal opening and closing. 

Grian grabs his head, trying to steady the spinning sensation. The moving hedges of the false maze, the limbs of the beast, don’t help to ease his confusion. He points a shaking finger at about 2 o’clock, relieved to have support from Mumbo and Iskall back to his feet. 

“Should we run away from it? Obviously it’s going to try and take our energy- shouldn’t we stay as far away as possible?” Joe raises an eyebrow. His quill rushes across the pages beneath the tip, a rushed spell spouting forth. A million beetles emerge from the aged paper, tiny pincers digging into the plant monster and ripping it apart. Keralis plucks one from the sky, swallowing the beetle whole and feeling reinvigorated by the bug.

“If Dolios placed that there, he obviously intended for us to get close to it. If he knew we’d be going that way, that means the statue must be this direction.” Xisuma proposes, sending a ball of void into the chest of the many limbed vine creature. 

“We should...we should destroy the crystal.” Grian hisses, grasping at his ribs and gasping for air. “So he can’t steal any more magic from here.” 

“How?” Doc growls, despite plowing ahead. Towards the monster. Towards the crystal. “We could hardly put a dent in it last time!”

“We’ll figure it out. We’re pretty clever.” TFC hums, hopping over a whipping vine. He grasps a thin rod of corundum, steeling himself when another attempts to toss him into oblivion. The hermits battle their way through the shifting maze, but with each vine they cut down, more seem to spring from the bloody limbs and misty air. The attacks only grow more aggressive as they near the body of the beast, near the dark crystal controlling it. The air grows thick, hard to breathe and pressing down on the team. In the distance, they can hear the roar of a chimaera. Team Crafted. Hopefully they’re safe, as far away from this beast as possible. 

The crystal comes into view. Ashen roots are planted firm around the massive crystalline structure, the gem pulsing with energy. Energy it’s stealing from the hermits and Team Crafted. Right on cue, black mist swirls around the opaque crystal, natural defenses going up. The hermits leap aside, avoiding the crushing blow from a twisted cable of vines by a narrow margin of time and air. From across the writhing greenery, TFC’s voice booms out commands. “You guys on the other side distract the monster- or better yet, try to kill it! Us over here will do our best to break the crystal.” 

A cacophony of acknowledgements lets the guildmaster know they heard him, and he wastes no time scrabbling to his feet. He ignores the sound of fighting behind him, the cracks and groans of the beast or the screams of his guildmembers. He needs to focus on this crystal first and foremost. 

TFC is a mineral mage. He knows gemstones- but not corrupted gems. His stomach clenches as his fingers brush against the smooth surface, and his head aches at the mere thought of how it controlled him before. He still feels horrible, snapping at his friends. It’s too dangerous to use, even in regular magic. This twisted, barbaric magical conduit needs to be destroyed. 

But if there’s one thing he knows, all gems can only take so much energy before they cleave. And this crystal is practically brimming with stolen magic. “Let’s feed the beast then.” 

“Have a snack, you mega crystal of doom!” Iskall shouts, bolts of radioactive energy crackling from his magic circle to the crystal. He doesn’t stop, doesn’t slow his attack until he can hardly stand. The gemstone remains standing, half buried in the dirt. But then False steps up, the multitude of cinquedeas summoned around her imbued with magic by Wels. A flick of the wrist, and the blades dig into the crystal. Rusted, but protruding from the gem like spines from a dragon. 

“Yes! Focus the strikes on False’s swords! Use them like conduits!” TFC grins, leaping free as a rooted foot rips from the ground beside him. For a brief moment, he turns his attention back to the fighting hermits. He clasps his hands over his ears, the telltale shriek of Cleo’s banshee scream almost rupturing his eardrums. Impulse is on his back, protected by a weak bolt of lightning shot from Mumbo’s stuttering magic. But otherwise, they’re holding their own just fine. 

“We’ve almost got it!” Wels cheers, noticing the cracks forming along the gem’s surface. Black smoke pours from the fractures, grasping at their feet and attempting to steal their magic. Attempting to keep control of the plant monster that protects it. 

The ground beneath their feet rolls and rumbles, the dirt and hedges shivering and bucking against the hermits’ feet. Wels turns around, grinning when he sees what- or who- is the cause of the earthquake. Like a geyser of stone, a spike of rock pierces through the heart of the dark crystal. The mist around the hermits’ dissipates like morning fog chased off by the sun. Above the team, the plant monster erupts into ash, raining flakes of the husked creature with one final creak of wood and vine. 

And the dark crystal shatters. It blows the hermits back, sending them tumbling among the shards of gemstone. The black aura fades with the color- it’s just a regular quartz crystal, albeit destroyed into a million tiny conchoidal pieces. The depressing weight on their bodies, that left them struggling to breathe and their magic weak, falls away like shed skin of a snake. None of them have felt this invigorated since the start of the games. 

“Guys, there’s the statue!” Grian prods Mumbo in the back, both wincing as pain ricochets through both wounded hermits. A lush garden at the center of the labyrinth, gardenia and lilac flowers growing around a tall statue rising from a fresh, crystal clear spring. Carved in stone from the Lionheart mountains, the statue features each and every god in the main pantheon of Lairyon. From Echol to Limal, and Artyne- god of water.

Water, the symbol of life and magic in Lairyon. Water flows fresh, clean, and pure from the spring surrounding the stone gods. Two bowls rest untouched at the spring’s edge, carved from the very cyprus trees that inspired Milliara to be founded. Ren steps up, pausing and looking back at his teammates. Bruised, battered, broken. But urging him not to waste another second. This is it. 

Ren dips the bowl in the spring. He swears he can feel energy, deep ancient magic within the cool water, chasing away the aftereffects of the crystal. In the distance, he can hear shouts of encouragement from vaguely familiar voices. Team Crafted is almost here. He doesn’t waste a second, wading across the water and pouring the bowl over the stone statue. 

The mist disappears, and the statues move, as if brought to life by the mystical spring. Merkal, the god of mischief, moves his cloak to the side. Deliss brushes away the lilacs and gardenia. And the stone rendition of Artyne smiles, revealing the chalice. Crowning the hermits as victors of the Chimaera’s Championship.