Cub is starting to feel like he isn’t a very popular person at the moment.
It’s odd. People give him wary looks, and step back when he steps closer, and politely end conversations with him. But everyone seems very hesitant to actually say anything about whatever it is that’s bothering them so much.
It's true that it is, on occasion, a little difficult to concentrate on what people are saying. His hearing has been a lot sharper recently, especially with the extensions of himself that he’s placed around the server to help spread the skulk. But unfortunately, given how widespread they are now, it has become quite difficult to concentrate on any specific sounds – even, on occasion, those being made right in front of him.
Still, even without any specifics, he’s been starting to get the feeling that he isn’t exactly… welcome, here.
He’d seen False, the other day, in Hermitopia. As far as he can tell, she’s appointed herself as protector of the hermits. He doesn’t think she’s consulted anyone else about this.
Not that he needs any protecting, obviously. Why would he? He can take care of himself.
But that… look that she’d given him. He’d almost turned around, at first, as though she might be looking at someone behind him.
There was no need for that, though. If there was someone behind him, he’d have heard them.
False, though. Back to False.
He’d never seen her look at him like that before. Not even in the worst moments of the Convex.
It was a calculating look. As though every moment, she was considering the best way to strike, and weighing it against the danger of overextending herself. The kind of look you might give an unnervingly powerful mob, perhaps. But one he'd never seen her give to Doc, or to Cleo. The kind of look you give to something other.
“Hey, False!” He called, and smiled.
Her eyes narrowed. “Hey Cub.” Her voice was controlled and level. “What’s up?”
“Oh not much, not much. Just the usual – spread the souls, spread the skulk, you know how it is.” He held out a few skulk catalysts. “Care to join me?”
“I… No. No, I’ve got- other plans, sorry.” She took a step back, but kept her eyes fixed on him. “Why don’t you… go do that, then.”
He shrugged. “Sure. Let me know if you change your mind.”
“I won’t.” It was harsh. Sharp. After a moment, she seemed to realise this. “I mean- fine. I’ll let you know.” It was less a peace offering to a friend than it was a deliberate concession to an enemy. He knows how to tell the difference.
“Good, good. That’s good to know.” Just because she’d decided she didn’t like him anymore for some reason, didn’t mean he had to follow suit.
She watched him from a distance, eyes like ice, until he left.
She watched him like a tightly wound spring, like a coiled snake.
But she did not strike.
So, yeah. That has been a little odd.
He thinks that if it weren’t for his newfound lease on life recently, that incident would have rattled him. So it’s a good job he doesn’t have to worry about that.
It still seemed worth investigating, though, if it made people less willing to embrace the skulk as they should.
So then, there was the incident with Xisuma.
This one, he thinks, was the most confusing of the lot.
There were some more looks – some from Jevin, Oli and Sausage as well – when they fought the withers together.
He was fairly confident that Xisuma wasn’t the biggest fan of the skulk. At least – he had been fairly confident.
But it wasn’t Cub who suggested trying to spread the skulk further in the End with a sweeping edge sword and some endermen.
And even after that, he’s pretty sure Xisuma’s been removing a fair amount of the skulk around Hermitopia.
There had been Impulse, too, unnerved and wary, asking Cub to dispose of parts of himself safely, rather than taking them and doing it himself.
And with all this came a growing… not discomfort. Why would he be uncomfortable? More a curiosity. How, after all, was he supposed to change their minds if he didn’t know their minds?
Joe- Joe was his friend, he had thought. Joe would get it.
And then he did.
It felt a little like missing a step, although to be fair that wasn’t necessarily uncommon in interactions with Joe.
He hinted, and Joe nodded and went along with it and was appropriately impressed.
Later, he was sold back the parts of himself that Joe had unearthed, both of them quite clear about where they had come from, and told that he could do whatever he liked with them as long as they didn’t end up back in Pix’s area.
He shouldn’t be surprised, really. Joe did tend to enjoy seeing where the chaos went. Why would he even want to intervene?
But then there are still sometimes those looks. When Cub is adding more skulk catalysts around Hermitopia, and Joe is quickly ducking in and out of the place because it’s not one hundred percent clear whether he's still an enemy of the state at this point or not.
When they’re doing that.
Sometimes Joe looks at him like he wouldn’t mind it if none of the Hermits told Cub when they left.
Sometimes, when he forgets himself a little, Cub wonders whether any of them would, anymore.
It seems like a double standard. There’s a perfectly reasonable explanation, he’s sure. He hasn’t found it yet, though.
Why, if he didn’t have the skulk to keep him company, he might even be feeling a little hurt lonely irritated.
It takes Xisuma replacing the entire floor of the tower for him to start to understand.
They say they hate it. Oh they say they hate it. Not out loud to him, most of the time, but they do. But they never get the roots.
They clear it away, and they leave the surface clean and new, or they leave it unrecognizably maimed by the scars they made themselves. Some of them even dig up the catalysts. But none of them get the roots, because Cub is still here, and so it will always come back.
None of them have even tried.
So that can’t hate it that much, can they?
They just don’t want it near them.
Well, he thinks.
Too bad.
He’s not very good at giving up.
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