Chapter Text
Tango stared at the disconnect message on the screen in front of him in disbelief. A chuckle escaped him, at least; Zedaph’s magic was known to sometimes cause glitches. And now he’d managed to crash the server. By throwing a tantrum.
The server would be back up in no time. Tango spent that moment scrolling through the menu and some of his settings, instead of sitting with his worry, before tapping to rejoin Hermitcraft. Everyone else had to be in the same position, having been kicked back to their individual Waiting Rooms as well.
—-
Scar’s tree filled Tango’s view when he reappeared in Hermitcraft, and the first thing he did was check the tab list. Hermits slowly filled the list, logging back in.
He waited as long as his patience allowed. Zedaph’s name would pop up at any minute. Really. Any minute now.
Any minute–
“I’m gonna check the Create server,” he told Scar, who looked disoriented as the world rendered in on his side. He didn’t wait for a response, logging out with a few taps.
—-
As soon as he appeared in Create, Tango shot off a quick message to Keralis, asking if Zed was with him, and then launched into the air. He was so discombobulated from the worry (because oh, that feeling was panicky concern, wasn’t it?) that it took him a moment to remember which way Zedaph’s cube base was.
—-
Keralis felt his communicator buzz with a pointed message, but he had his hands too full to even glance at it. His eyes were for the baby in front of him, and only the baby. Because surely this had to be a baby.
“Shh, shh, it’s all right, sweet Zedaph. Don’t force yourself.”
He wiped tears and snot from Zedaph’s face with his sleeve as the rammling hiccuped on sobs. Angry sobs, from the sounds of things.
“I’m sorry, baby, I don’t have any small toys for you yet,” Keralis said, taking a hand. Toys were great distractions for babies, and would have helped immensely to distract Zedaph from whatever made him cry.
“I’m not a baby!”
“Okay.” That took him by surprise. After all, Zedaph had seemed so happy to be called a baby before. “What are you, Zedaph?”
“I’m…” Zedaph hiccuped, staring at him with wide eyes. “…I’m an adult.”
Keralis nodded. “So am I. But I can’t call you Adult Zedaph. It has no ring! You’re supposed to be my sweet Zedaph, Zedaph. What’s wrong?”
The long stare continued, but that was okay. Zedaph was allowed to stare and think as long as he wanted.
“Would you like to come inside?” Keralis asked, because they were in his garden. And while it was a nice garden and had a nice swing, he had a nice cozy interior with plenty of carpet for the not-a-baby.
“Um.”
“Yes?”
Zedaph turned a glare at the grass. “I’m silly.”
“Yes.” Keralis didn’t know where this was going.
“When I’m small, I’m useless.”
“Now, sweet Zedaph, it’s not our purpose in life to be useful. I’d much rather have fun and make everyone smile.”
His words alone seemed to trigger something in Zedaph’s brain, because tears welled up in his eyes. He didn’t protest when Keralis shushed him and wiped his face for him.
“I’m gonna be small now,” Zedaph declared, already mumbling his words together.
“Do I get my sweet baby Zedaph again?”
Zedaph shuffled forward, latching on to his hand and pressing close to him.
“Oh, a tired baby, I see,” Keralis observed, nodding sagely. “It is very early in the morning, isn’t it? Let’s go inside. I’m just doing some sketches, nothing important or loud. You can rest.”
A nod was his only answer, and that was okay.
He led Zedaph to a soft patch of carpet in the train station lodging he’d built, setting him down there and gingerly detaching him from his arm. He pulled a throw blanket off the back of his desk chair, and he gave that to his guest.
“Would you like any warm milk?” Keralis asked, but it was as if he hadn’t said anything. Zedaph already looked halfway to sleep, eyes half-lidded as and settled in with his blanket bunched around him. Cute, but his expression, though sleepy, was still troubled.
Keralis returned to his desk, where he had his morning hot cup of cocoa, and went back to add a bit more to his sketches. Base plans, either here or on Hermitcraft, never truly ended.
When he heard the rush of fireworks ringing outside, he glanced at the door and put down his pencil.
“Wait here,” Keralis said, although he didn’t need to say anything; Zedaph was fast asleep.
“KERALIS! Keralis!”
And hopefully that shouting didn’t wake the baby. Keralis didn’t let himself speak until he closed the door behind him. He made it two steps into his garden before Tango nearly crash-landed in the grass in front of him. The dungeon master costume, usually reserved for when Tango was on Hermitcraft, looked out of place on the warm Create server.
“I can’t find Zed!” Tango grabbed onto Keralis, nearly tugging him down with him. “You have to help me! We were on Hermitcraft, Cub was watching him, he started screaming— I don’t know—“
“Slow down, Tango, slow down.” Keralis hefted him to his feet, but Tango just slid down again, his lips wobbling with restrained emotions. “Baby Zedaph is fine. What are you saying? Screaming? Cub? What happened?”
“Impulse and Scar and Cub and— and maybe Pearl? They all kinda— I don’t know, have a thing? Have you seen Zed?”
“He’s here, he’s fine. The baby is down for a nap. I think he needs some time alone.”
“Huh? Is this about how I acted when— that day? Are you trying to keep me away from him?” He laughed nervously. “Man, does everyone think that? Look, I promise, I already talked it out with Zed, and we’re all good, promise! Now can I see him?”
Keralis hesitated. Tango didn’t wait for him to gather his words, brushing past to go inside, and his face broke into a smile at the sight of the blanket lump on the floor.
“Hiya, Zed.” Tango closed his elytra and knelt on the floor next to him. “I’m gonna hug you now.”
And he did. Zedaph tensed up under the blanket and started to squirm, and Tango hugged harder until Zedaph melted in his arms.
“Yeah. Good squish, huh?”
“Mm.”
There was a silence that Keralis couldn’t parse. He lingered at the door to take in the scene, watching the two hug it out. When Tango looked his way, Keralis gave a thumbs-up.
“I heard you were throwing a tantrum, buddy,” Tango said softly. “What was that about?”
“Not small.”
“You’re not small?”
Zedaph shrugged against him. “I don’t know. I don’t want to be small.”
“But why not?” Tango asked, sounding genuinely curious. “Being a kid sounds like it’s a ton of fun! No responsibilities, you can let everyone else worry about the adult stuff, and you get to play as much as you want! And you had fun the other week with me, didn’t you?”
Zedaph didn’t answer.
“Right? Didn’t you have fun?” Tango tried to pull at the corner of the blanket so he could see his friend’s face, but Zedaph pulled it back down.
“Did I? I only remember feeling bad at the end of it. I’m sorry.”
“No, don’t be sorry. I’m trying to learn,” Tango insisted. “Really. I wanna do good by you, Zed. Impulse just told me about this thing Scar and Cub and him have, like, being caregivers for players like you. For people who regress. And I want in on it.”
“If I didn’t go all useless in the first place…”
“You know, you don’t have to be working all the time,” Tango pointed out. “Are the other hermits who regress also useless?”
Zedaph huffed, clearly defeated by logic.
Quieter, Tango said, “And I like hanging out with little Zed. I wanna play more with him, if he wants to come out and play?”
An invitation.
“Maybe. Feeling fuzzy and small,” Zedaph admitted.
“Can I get under the blanket with you?” Tango asked, to which Zedaph hesitated. Keralis took a step inside, closing the door as softly as he could, wondering if he should step in.
However, just at the moment when it seemed as if the silence meant an uncomfortable negative, Zedaph broke the pause by bleating like a goat.
Tango giggled. He kicked his boots to the side, and together, they moved the blanket to share the space. They met each other underneath with watery giggles.
“We could set up some chairs and scaffolding, and make a blanket fort,” Tango suggested. “A lil’ one, though, for the lil’ one right here!”
“Can you quiet down? I’m kind of still…”
“Oh! Yeah, sorry.” Tango lowered his voice, sheepish. “Is it okay if we just sit here for a bit?”
Zedaph nodded, making the blankets shake. They could do that. Sitting under the blankets together, content with the moment of peace.
And Keralis could have left them at that, secure in the knowledge that Tango was a safe babysitter for Zedaph, but a glance at his communicator told him that the conversation was far from over. He walked into the room and made a show of looking around.
“Oh, no! I’m sure I just heard Zedaph and Tango here, but I don’t see them anywhere!” Keralis exclaimed with a grin. “Where could they have gone!”
Tango muffled a laugh while Zedaph suddenly scrambled with the blankets, and the small rammling shoved his head out from under the blanket like he was gasping for air. He bleated, loud and concerned.
Keralis gasped. “There you are!”
“We were right under here all along!” Tango pulled the remaining blankets off his head, grinning wide. “Silly Papa K.”
“Mm-hmm!” Keralis nodded wisely as he walked over to them, crouching down to their level. “Papa K is very silly, hmm?”
“Very silly.” Tango poked his nose, and if Keralis hadn’t known he was just playing along with Zedaph, he would have thought Tango was the baby around here.
Keralis looked over Tango’s shoulder at Zedaph. “Scar’s on his way over. He said something happened on Hermitcraft?”
Instead of responding, Zedaph’s face scrunched up, and he pulled the blanket over himself again, to Tango’s protest.
“Or we could talk about it later?” Keralis tried. He offered a frown to Tango, trying to silently ask what the best course of action was.
Scar hadn’t given the full story over chat, but it had been enough. It was technically an issue they had to deal with, having operator permissions on the Hermitcraft server, when the server had an outage. Even if the cause of an outage was from someone’s magic flaring and even if they trusted the hermit in question to (probably) not do it again.
Scar landed on the train of Keralis’s train station, clearly lost to where everyone was supposed to gather, but at least he wasn’t shouting. Zedaph was in a delicate state. Tango had shared enough concern to cover all of them.
Keralis waved Scar down from The Flying Hermit and inside. At the sight of Zedaph and Tango leaning against each other on the floor, Scar hid a smile behind his hand.
“So, Scar, what happened on Hermycraft? Sweet Zedaph is calm and sweet again.”
Scar waved and gestured for Keralis to retreat outside again. Zedaph had started babbling, and Tango kept him distracted with little words and hums.
“We should wait until Zed is big to talk to him about all that,” Scar started with. “Well, part of all that. It started last night…”
Scar paused. Keralis waited for him to continue. They had plenty of time to go over any long story, after all. But Scar skipped the full explanation.
“Short version of the story: Cub and I were watching Zed this morning, and he was really upset because, I think, we were trying to convince him it’s fine to be small for a while.”
“Okay.” Keralis eyed Scar carefully. “But he can’t control the small?”
Scar’s shoulders slumped. “But that’s the point! He’s trying to fight it, when he should be trying to embrace it, to get a better understanding so that his brain copes better with being small! Listen, Keralis. Papa K.”
Scar patted him on the shoulder.
“There are hermits who are like Zed, and I’m very familiar with this by now. I’m an expert. Trust me.”
Keralis blinked. “Did you say there are others? More babies?”
“Yes.” Scar nodded vigorously, leaning on his cane. “I’m a well-known caregiver among them, as is Cub. That brings up another thing— we had a second little swing by, and Zedaph really upset them. He needs to apologize. When he’s ready, of course.”
Keralis put a hand to his chin in thought. “More babies is good for Zedaph… But his tantrum shut down Hermitcraft. Is that going to happen a lot now with him? How do we avoid upsetting a baby? Babies cry for all kinds of reasons!”
“We get him used to being little,” Scar suggested. “Have play dates, even. And with caregivers nearby to swoop in if one of them starts crying.”
“More babies,” Keralis brought up. “Are they as sweet as sweet Zedaph?”
Scar laughed. “Well, they don’t like being called babies, but I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if it’s you saying that. They’re the most adorable when they’re sleeping, in my opinion. We call them littles when they’re regressed.”
Keralis nodded, taking a mental note. Littles. Not babies. “I have a lot to learn.”
“And I will happily teach you, my young padawan! Right now, I’m trusting Cub and Impulse to watch one of the littles I usually watch on Hermitcraft.” Scar glanced at his communicator, and Keralis copied the action to see the new message there.
Tango: group vc?
Keralis tapped into the new group. “Hello?”
“Wanted to talk without disturbing Zed.” Tango’s voice came through as if he was standing next to them. “We really need to set up playdates for Zed and the other littles. He deserves to learn how to play while regressed. I don’t think he’s doing great with just a caregiver to watch him. He needs to be around more hermits like him.”
“Of course!”
“And toys. He needs toys. So many toys.”
Tango sounded so serious that Keralis had to smirk. “Are you sure you don’t want the toys for yourself?” he teased.
“Yeah!” Tango jumped for it. “I’ll need them to keep Zed occupied while I’m working on Decked Out 2. I gotta buckle down and get that built.”
“We’ve got toys galore,” Scar assured him. “And many more, coming to a Scarland near you!”