Chapter Text
Being new is hard. He’s so used to it. Right?
Skeppy looked up into the sky to see how bright and cheery it was. A smile easily took its home on his face. His home server, InvadedLands, was a mess and a half he loved to death. It just took a toll on him caring for all the people who desired to call it their home too. He wasn’t the only caretaker of the server, thankfully meaning he can join other servers and take breaks.
His fellow caretakers would probably laugh at him for acting like this. Hayech would be the one who would ignore it since Skeppy does too many bits around Invaded. Each one of his friends are lovely, all with their own quirks and details. He needs to visit them soon. As soon as he has himself situated on Strength.
Sitting in his thoughts while looking into the sky was an option. Bad would love to sit with him and cloud gaze with him. It’s been a while since they’ve met up. Why does time pass so quickly? They were so close until they weren’t. Tears pricked at his eyes. A small broken chuckle came through. Maybe he hadn’t moved on yet despite everything.
Strength is one of the warmer servers, at least compared to the ones Skeppy’s joined recently. Especially considering the fact InvadedLands is meant to be a home for the colder hybrids and those that needed cold servers to thrive on. Most of the server members are wearing combative gear made for warmer climates— excusing the peaceful players such as Godis —yet he stood on a hill in a plains biome wearing a hand knitted sweater by his dear friend.
Forget-me-nots are embroidered into the shoulders. When he feels alone, he hugs himself and feels the embroidering, remembering there’s someone there even if he can’t see them. Bad was a friend he can’t forget, from all the shenanigans to genuine heartfelt conversations. There were things said between them that only they would ever mention. Skeppy has issues with touch. Everything is weird when touch gets introduced to the conversation. He’s always held a position of only vocal power considering he hosts events, rarely ever playing them.
Over the ten years he's known BadBoyHalo only three of those years had physical affection shown. To most people they’d criticize Skeppy and call him sensitive. Bad had taken the time to find out why the diamond creature avoided touch like the plague and slowly helped him get used to it. That angelic patience that the demon had made Skeppy doubt everything about angels and demons as he’s never met a kinder person than Bad.
More tears pricked at his eyes, moving on is terrifying. He can’t do that quickly. Just like getting used to touch. The sound of someone walking up behind him brought him out of his mind. As he turned around, it was Sharpness who looked dull. Weird… Most of the people on this server described the sword master as energetic and certainly a being to be around.
The calico noticed how glossy Skeppy’s eyes were.
A soft voice reached the diamond creature’s ears, “Is there anything I can do to help?”
What an odd question. Normally people ask ‘Is something wrong?’, but this change is pleasant and new. Skeppy shook his head ‘no’.
“Not much you can help with…” He paused for a second. From what Skeppy’s gathered, people typically don’t go this far out especially toward the mountainous region. Why is Sharpness here? “If you don’t mind me asking, why are you here? I mean in this specific area.”
A small smile found a place on the sword master’s lips, “I practice here. The less air makes me think more conservatively as I fight. I also adore the cold. If you can’t tell, I’m from a colder server.”
Interesting. As the black haired male processed the information just given, the blond’s attention got drawn to the forget-me-nots embroidered onto the shoulders. It looked flawless excluding how the fornice is too tucked into the center basically muffling the white center which is meant to draw the eyes. The eyes were still drawn inward until the viewer looked into the diamond creature’s eyes. Warm brown eyes met his own which were muted olive green, both shutting out a story they call theirs.
“What’s your story, Skeppy? We’ve got something hidden from everyone, don’t we?” Sharpness spun on his heels, literal heels because the sword master’s wore a custom set of combat shoes.
There was a look of understanding while thinking about what to say, “I guess only one person knows my story. What about you? You started this conversation, quite naturally might I add.”
“I thrive on social interaction. Moments I isolate myself are probably my lowest moments.” His tail flicked from side to side with a relaxed position, his ears facing forward. The blacked hair fellow has only had a pet dog, Rocco. Dogs are a little easier to read than cats.
“It’s going to sound a little ungrateful, but why do you care to ask me and reveal such information about yourself?” Skeppy’s not from a violent home server, excluding everything that happened a few recent years back. There’s not been a moment where more than a handful of people knew about his mindset.
“You’re good…” Sharpness paused to think because that sounded weird. English is weird. “Sorry, didn’t mean to stop like that. I care because everyone here is important in their own way. Small or big roles simply don't matter here. Everyone’s got some petals that bloom and draw attention.”
Skeppy noticed the pause of hesitance in language, “Think in another language?” To that question, the blond did a smile and nod. “I do the same, although it’s a little easier for me because I’ve been doing it since I was young. Sounds like you’ve been doing it for a few years recently.” Once again the blond smiled, but thought through a response.
“It's a little awkward explaining the feeling of constantly switching especially since most of the words don't line up.” That was something they both had in common.
“Especially if you switch the direction of writing changes.”
“Serbian still reads left to right.”
“Better luck than me. Right to left was my standard until suddenly I needed to learn English for ‘play’ reasons. My parents just wanted me to know English to communicate. They thought telling a kid that English is only for play was the best way for it.”
“I only started learning English after I needed to branch out to new mentors outside of my own language.” So similar yet different. Brown to green, blue to red. History only echoes never repeating the same story.
Looking back into the sky, the sun had moved far as it was almost setting. Technically it was setting as the final arrays of red were warming it up. It was beautiful. Bad would have said the warm colors of the sky were always the passion of the divine while the cool tones that were left were the tears. Now he weeps those tears while his best friend is still giving everything he does his total passion.
Sharpness noticed how Skeppy watched the sunset with longing eyes. During these moments he wished he knew how to comfort people normally. The calico stepped closer— keeping a close, but respectable distance —to make the moment less foreign for himself. He’s the type of person to love close contact, yet he was keeping his distance just enough as he didn’t know Skeppy’s stance on physical affection. The diamond creature was picking up on this.
“You didn’t try to touch me…” With a moment of silence filling the space, “Why?”
The calico’s ears flattened down before moving into a low hanging position. “I don’t know much about you. There’s a lot I would have done, but I have self-control to not scare you with how I show I care.”
Skeppy chuckled gently, “Thank you for that. I don’t like being touched.” Sharpness didn’t poke into the reason why and instead turned the conversation.
“The sweater is cute, did someone hand knit it?”
“My best friend did it. Bad.” The sword master attempted to make sense of that sentence because he heard Skeppy say ‘My best friend did it, bad’.
“Your friend did it badly? But it’s a wonderful sweater.” The diamond creature realised the misinterpretation that just happened.
“No my best friend’s name is BadBoyHalo or SaintofGames, but he lets us call him Bad.” A look of realization replaced the confused one.
“That’s nice of him to do for you. Especially since he made the shoulders have forget-me-nots on them. He really does care for you if he chose to embroider those petals specifically.”
“How come? Do they hold a meaning?” Is this what the other members were talking about? Sharpness isn’t just a sword master, he enjoys gardening and flowers.
“Forget-me-nots are typically given to make sure the receiver won’t forget the giver. I don’t particularly use them for that, but I know most people do.” Is that why he held onto this sweater so tightly? He kept trying to move on, yet he couldn’t forget. “That’s just the most common interpretation of the flower. They have thin petals yet a sticky feeling when touched.”
The sword master took a few steps back and spun on the platform of his feet gracefully. He leaned against a tree to take his combat shoes off and rose onto his platforms again to do a proper pirouette this time. There was an air of grace, but emotion. So much emotion that couldn’t be expressed by normal speech.
As Sharpness went through a normal ballet routine, at least to Skeppy’s limited knowledge, the diamond creature’s mind raced with comparisons between Bad and Sharp. Both had green eyes, red & black color palettes that are accented by gray. So much was similar, but there was a clear difference. Bad was kinder, more patient, soft spoken, and a bit witter. Sharpness is kind yet pushing, soft but echoing, and revealing knowledge no one would count as knowledge.
Fate has given him another chance to make friends. Someone with passion just like Bad. He’s not Bad. Sharpness is his own person.
Once the stars made their presence known, Sharpness sat down next to Skeppy. The calico chuckled without a reason.
“Starting over is strange isn’t it?” The black haired male gave the blond a confused look. “You met Jude outside the server and both of you had a conversation about SMPs. Jude and I were teamed here during that week you guys recorded that video. He mentioned how you haven’t been on a proper SMP in years.”
“Were?” A bittersweet sensation filled the calico’s gut. “I betrayed him, which served as a point of interest for our videos. I play a part. Sometimes the part gets exhausting and lonely since I end up alone more times than not.”
“You’re here though, even through that.” Skeppy leaned back onto the ground. The grass was soft and healthy, clearly unused to the abuse of everyday activity. “Bad used to tell me sunsets show passion and its aftermath. If it’s a warm sunset there’s passion, and the sky will cool into a deep blue of tears.”
“That’s one way. Maybe that’s his way of sharing his love. Finding meaning in the sky.”
The next few weeks on the server weren’t eventful in a serious way. Skeppy had gotten used to the style of everything as well as moving quickly with some events he could possibly host with the group for videos. His whole shtick was hosting and tormenting his contestants.
During one of his planning days, Sharpness appeared behind Skeppy silently and waited. There was an uncanny patience about him. He’s had to wait for people to finish their planning before. Jude mentioned during one of the bedwars recordings that Sharpness would often entertain himself silently while waiting for Jude to finish planning or sketching a design. The diamond creature put the pencil down and saw the calico.
“Hi, there Sharp. Do you need me to leave the area so you can train?” Skeppy had learned after the first interaction he had with Sharpness that this was the sword master’s training location.
“Not exactly. I actually have a gift for you.”
“A gift? What did I do to deserve the gift?”
“Being you. I try to give everyone I meet a gift.” In the calico’s hands were a beautiful arranged bouquet of red Rhododendrons tied together with a deep blue ribbon.
“I can’t possibly acce—”
“No choice, Skeppy. I picked them already. I know you have a base, put them in a vase and display the beauty of your passion.”
Seeing it was pointless to argue, “Thank you, Sharpness.”
“You’re welcome.” There was so much joy in the calico’s voice. Just like how Bad would be happy if Skeppy ate one of his muffins. They enjoy giving to others and being around them.
The sword master equipped his elytra and flew off toward the spawn region. The Rhododendrons were red just like the sunset while the ribbon was the same blue as the sky after. Red for passion, blue for tears. Moments of history only echo never repeat.
Sharpness wasn’t new, but he wasn’t familiar either. The sword master created a deviation from the original flowers, Skeppy’s reaction. Blue to not forget, now weeps at the memories happily as passion waves through the soul.