Work Text:
He looked over the options on the display, sipping his steaming tea as he considered the proposed new mobs. The artists' sketches accompanied each, and he was amazed all over again at the talent and thought brought forward by the residents of the multiverse to come up with such fantastic ideas.
His eyes were drawn over and over to the glowing lines along two of the mobs, one a familiar aquatic friend, and a new type of dark mob. The tea was lightly steaming now, and he closed out the few not catching his attention. The goat would be too close to Doc's storyline anyway, and while the moobloom was cute and adorable, it was so close to his current armour it probably wouldn't even get noticed. He closed out the iceologer as well, feeling that would be too reminiscent of his trader robes from the Button shenanigans as well. Was he being too picky? He looked over the three he had left. Two water-based mobs, and the new hostile.
Now there was a thought. He usually picked his armours to reflect a new passive mob for the update. Which meant he could use one of those later, and go with the hostile creature as his Halloween costume. Not to mention it wouldn't need to stand up to rigorous season grinding, since it would only be needed for a week or two.
Satisfied with his reasoning, he closed out the other files and brought his chosen one closer, focusing on the artist renderings over the pixelated one for the moment. The Warden was closer in size to an iron golem, though not as wide. The horns would be a bit tricky, but he loved the idea of the glowing lines and beating...was that its heart in the center of its chest? Maybe he could mimic that with a note block, and a redstone line to his pulse monitor? He smiled at the thought of his heartbeat being broadcast. That would be much better than actually exposing his heart.
He grabbed the blank shell of a helmet beside him, set up with just the basic rebreather and his admin access and functions. There were a couple of open ports that he could run options through. One of the artist renderings showed the.. he squinted at the drawing for a moment. Were those ears instead of antlers? Or maybe upright gills, not unlike the striders had. The tiny handwriting was hard to read, but that could say 'vibrations', right? If he used the same materials as the strider gills, they would be soft and flexible enough to not get him stuck in any doors at least.
He actually had to stop and laugh at that image. And make a mental note to fake someone out with it as soon as possible, otherwise he was certain that there'd be a lot of suddenly shorter door frames.
Let's see, what else would he want to add? Definitely the glow on the arms and chest, maybe tie that in with the heartbeat as well? That may be a bit much for one line to handle, though. He ran a quick diagnostic, checking the power draw and shaking his head at the readout. He tried it a couple of ways, simulating lights in the chest and on the arms as solid, blinking, and tied to a modified daylight sensor. As much as he would have loved to go with the sensor, it drew the largest amount of power as it flicked off and on. Which wouldn't be a problem outdoors with Bdubs or Wels working and resetting the daylight cycle, but on his suit it would also be activated any time he ducked in and out of shops.
Well, it's just for the holiday, it doesn't have to be perfect. Best to keep that in mind. An eye of ender would be the perfect fit for the center of the chestplate to hide the noteblock, and let him not worry about teleporting if someone hit him in the chest.
He lost track of time as he worked, figuring out what would need to be wired and what he could program to run off of the inputs already in his armour. A modification or twelve later, he was reasonably satisfied with his work and even happier with the low power draw he'd managed. Before he knew it he was remoulding the chest plate for the fake "beating heart", and running the tiny glowstone lights around it that should be hidden enough to only show in mid to low level lighting. The helmet gave him a little pause, as he switched back and forth between the reference images. The eyes seemed to be just blank holes, or was that a faceplate of some kind? He paused to sip at his forgotten tea, making a face at the cold temperature but draining the cup anyway. Oh! It was a mob that lived in the dark, right? So some protection for the eyes would make sense- to protect it from light sources. He nodded to himself, pulling a visor cover forward. That was easy enough to program, since it was similar already to the tints he used normally in the overworld. Would it be too cheaty if he used night vision on it? And then he could paint it in the grey and teal, leaving the visor beneath it completely black, as if his eyes were nothing but void when it flipped up.
He leaned back and stretched, wincing as his shoulder popped. It was still early, early morning, and a quick check showed most of the Hermits still afk or sleeping. There would still be about two hours before anyone would notice him up and about and chide him for working through the night again. Should be enough time to set the programming in place and check the fit of his new costume.
He pulled up the small beta-level data file on the mob, scanning through its coding before making a player-level copy and starting to trim. There wouldn't be need for health and damage, that would be overridden by his own stats anyway. He chuckled at the damage-taken chart; it seemed he was correct about the exposed heart. A direct hit worked similar to the target block where a bullseye would deal more damage. He left that in, though scaled it down to reflect a player's lower health limit. There didn’t seem to be much else he would need to modify, though the rush attack was quite interesting. Maybe the devs would expand on that before the full release, since there appeared to be placeholders for the speed and travel-distance in the code.
The only thing that gave him pause was a nearly empty code marked “vibration.” It didn’t seem to have very much there yet, again being placeholders, possibly for a new mechanic to be added. Wait, hadn’t the horns been labeled with that? Maybe it was an immersive detail, where sounds would make the horns waver or tilt? Could make sense, to let a player know if they were being too loud in the area, or drawing it’s attention. But it wasn’t yet coded to tie into anything else that he could tell.
He saved his file, storing one and making a mobile copy for the armour before checking the time again. The early risers were up, but his own status showed him afk, so he had time for a quick test run. Just enough to see if the armour could run the mod, and to monitor the power flow for the lights and heartbeat. He loaded a diagnostic panel just in case, so he could double check it later and hopefully catch any errors or issues that came up.
It downloaded easily enough, shifting the plain grey armour into the appropriate colors as he checked over the pieces. The back was rather plain, but it would be covered by his elytra most of the time anyway, so no big deal. He did like the helmet’s seemingly blank stare, and chuckled again at the large pouty mouth. What was it about frowning mobs lately? But it covered the rebreather well, without drawing too much attention to it. The horns? antlers? were soft to the touch as he’d wanted, quivering slightly when he ran a hand over one. A quick look at the diagnostic panel showed the lights and heartbeat still waiting for input, so those wouldn’t turn on until he was inside the armour. Everything else seemed to be in place, ready for his personal input.
He took a deep breath, excited as always to try out a new costume change.
He settled the helmet on last, flipping up the visor cover so he could watch the diagnostic as it booted. The admin panel scrolled along the side of the visor, ready and waiting to run. He would only need the armour mod at this point to test it out, not the full player install.
Okay, deep breath, and wait for the magic.
A private message popped up over the panel, taking priority. Dangit, he'd need to adjust the settings on that, it shouldn't cover the whole screen.
<Keralis to Xisuma> Are we still on for tea this afternoon Shishwammy?
He clicked on the exit button, intending to fix the resize before answering, and frowned when it didn't close. Had something frozen? Or was there a conflict with-
Several screens abruptly closed in the background, though the chat message remained. Along with a blank highlighted button glowing through it. He clicked on it again, trying to check-
<full player install initiated>
Well, guess he was gonna test it this way, then. He could always stop the program and uninstall it if there was a major issue, like the temperature fluctuations of the strider armour.
The world faded out around him as he reset, so he closed his eyes and stood still, counting the ticks in his head. The static feeling under his skin was familiar, the armour bonding and settling as the haptic feedback connections were made. The noteblock in the chestplate thumped lowly, almost like an extra rumble against his chest. It took a couple more ticks until it was synched with his heartbeat, and he smiled at the slowing pace as he took another deep breath. The chestplate lifted easily with his chest, the extra mods not hindering his breathing at all. His arms moved without stiffness, and he bounced in place a moment to check the fit and fall of everything.
Okay, now for-
A wash of color flooded the room around him, blues and greens, outlines and brushstrokes that painted the world in a strange ebb and flow of sensation. He could almost feel the entire room around him, from how far away the ladder was, to the amount of cold tea left in the second cup on the desk.
Except he hadn't opened his eyes yet.
And there was no change when he did.
His heartbeat kicked up and the colors shifted towards yellow and orange before settling again as a lighter green as he took several deep breaths. Okay, this was definitely new. The colors continued their flow around the room, in a complete 360 degrees, he realized, starting from where he stood and almost bouncing back to him before another wave.
Had something been programmed incorrectly? Maybe he had gotten something inverted when he was thinking about adding night vision to the visor cover. He raised a hand to flip it up, accidentally brushing the antler on that side.
The colors went wonky, shivering and unfocused and he almost fell over at the feeling of vertigo it brought him. He swallowed heavily, holding still until it passed and the room steadied again, back to a dark orange now, the noteblock drumming out in response to his racing pulse.
Okay, that was getting annoying, and fast. He'd need to adjust that, maybe tone it down to more of a background noise instead of such a forefront sound. But first he needed the helmet off, to uninstall to mod and check where he'd gone wrong.
He worked the latches of the helmet open, and tried to draw it off his head. Something snagged near the base of his skull, pulling sharply before he could remove the helmet fully.
Okay, think, don't panic. Nothing is ever fixed by panicking. He ran his fingers around the seal of the helmet, trying to find what had snagged him. A thin wire caught on his glove, and a gentle tug on it pulled at his skin again. What could that be for? None of his other armours had needed anything more attached than the biofeedback sensors already built in. But a firmer tug told him it was indeed attached to his skin, the sharp pain sending a shock behind his eyes.
His eyes .
Oh, jeez.
This was bad. This was definitely bad.
Very carefully, he brought up an admin panel with the flick of his wrist, a motion nearly second nature to him. The hum it made was unexpected, glowing a cool white in his new vision.
A very blank white.
A second screen did the same, open and humming away, though casting no light and showing him absolutely nothing.
He ran the fingers of his gloves across the top of the panel where the tabs should be. They kicked gently back as he found them, but refused to reveal their text or lines of code. World chat should be what, fourth tab? But when he tapped where the input should be it only fed back an error, felt through the glove instead of seen. And again on the next three tries.
He pushed away the urge to panic again, the drumming briefly rising in tempo before falling again. He closed out the admin panel, checking his pockets and pulling out the small communicator he rarely used. It took another few breaths to steady the shaking in his hands. There was no interface with this comm, since he'd only kept it as an emergency backup if his helmet ever failed. His helmet. Right.
His laughter startled him, high and a little hysterical, cutting off abruptly as he bit his lips together. A sickly yellow color bounced against the wall in front of him at the sound.
Sound .
Endless Void , he was an absolute derp.
Two steps to the chair at his desk, dark blue painting the sounds of his bootsteps along the floor. He sat heavily into the chair purple, barely there and relatched the helmet tiny yellow shards that he couldn't take off.
He cleared his mind, carefully thinking of nothing at all as his heartbeat settled, until the room was gentle blue and cyan and the noteblock was no longer sounding like a war drum.
Okay, lay out the facts. Noteblock as exposed heart works, needs to be quieter. Though is probably helpful right now. The Warden's "sight" is based on sound, and works in all directions. Were the colors based on the type of sound, or how loud it was? How far would they travel, outside of his small workroom?
He glanced up at the ceiling, knowing that the main hexagon of his honey farm was above him. He couldn't see outside of the room, was that limited by line of sight, or how far the sound could carry? He was walking towards the ladder almost before he had finished the thought, intrigued now by the idea of testing it, finding the limits of the new mechanic, ideas and half-formed tests already distracting him. His gloves gripped the ladder in little whispers of indigo, the iron trapdoor was a burst of orange as he triggered it open, and again when it closed behind him.
And then he was standing in a black, blank void, the drumbeat of his pulse barely illuminating the floor around him.
Okay, that was rather terrifying. Even the ratcheting of his pulse didn't carry far in what he knew was a large room. He swung his arms out, trying to remember the position of his trapdoor, moving in what he hoped was the right direction. He needed sound, noise to illuminate the space, give him a frame of reference so he didn't feel like he would step into void and fall forever. Hope that any noise would do, and not be limited to only the sounds he created.
A light green shape formed to his right and he shuffled towards it, following the smooth line to what should be- there. He gulped in a breath and pulled the lever, already moving the couple of steps over to pull the second as redstone fired and flared in his vision and ears, racing out in angry waves at the suddenness of it.
He fell to his knees as the second line activated, tiny explosions of silver and yellow surrounding him as bees popped out of their hives, their purple and magenta buzzing washing over the high walls and reaching the ceiling before echoing back. A dispenser ticked in neon green and then hoppers glowed red in succession as items flowed through, clanking and groaning like he'd never heard them before.
It was too much, like standing in front of the ender dragon's roar, or in the middle of an old zero-tick farm, the sound felt down to his bones , until he could nearly taste it. And the colors wouldn't go away, washing back and forth even when he closed his eyes; he could see every detail of the room, the farm, every petal on each flower and drip of honey from full hives.
A sharp sound traveled towards him, shards of violet and pink aimed at his head as he flinched away, gold slices of his name being called from outside of the black entrance. And then an explosion of silver and a giant figure of riotous colors stomped and slashed towards him in an overload of noise and shivering light. A weight like an anvil landed on his shoulder as it reached him, and the world whited out for the second time.
He was aware of the colors first, whispers of blue and purple on the other side of the room, the faint grey hum of an open admin panel nearby it. His own cyan heartbeat painted the bed he was curled on in the corner, a nearby chest, and washed over the wisps of light pink of a sleeping figure leaned against it.
He heard the intake of breath, magenta mist outlining the cloth-covered mouth, the high collar of his vest. "Back with us?"
Magenta boiled into purple, rolling like steam towards him with the low thunder of Etho's voice, crashing against the wall and breaking into smaller clouds as he flinched into it. His helmet was propped up with a pillow beneath his neck and he was grateful that the sensitive antler didn't brush anything when he moved.
"Too loud," he groaned back, his own voice crumbling gravel, grey and brown as it barely tumbled past the edge of the bed, falling apart as it was swallowed by the brightening green of his rising heartbeat. Colors faded on the other side of the room, quiet greys and blues as footsteps eased forward, the swish of fabric and bodies outlined in soft reds and purples as they tiptoed towards him. Cub's beard almost muffled the bright yellow clinks of his jewelry, while Tango's nervous energy made his head and fingers glow like the redstone he loved.
His hand was pressed to his chest again, trying to calm the blasted noteblock broadcasting his discomfort, easing the beat back into a cyan fading towards blue as Cubfan knelt beside the bed. Etho raised a finger to his facemask, and Cub nodded once.
He didn't wait for their questions, he already knew what was needed. His admin account had more access than all of them, and already had his files downloaded. The window hummed in bright white as he summoned it and turned it towards his friends.
"Uninstall my last update, or delete the mod if that doesn't work."
Thank the stars that Cub didn't ask questions, didn't speak as he and Tango scanned the screen, tabbing through and navigating what he couldn't see. It was exhausting, being aware of every movement and color change, of every highlighted item and sound that even mostly-still bodies made.
Tango's low voice was a smooth red and orange, licking out like a warm flame. "Resetting."
He shivered again as the colors greyed out, faded in blinking spurts as the thumping noteblock skipped and stuttered, until blinding pain flashed in his head.
"No- shit!" Light blue like a piston flashed back at him, solid and strong. Cub lowered his voice again, arm flashing across the white screen as it flickered. "X, the armour is resetting itself. You gotta get it off."
Void , even Etho's tension was a dark red bordering on brown, outlining his otherwise silent figure.
"Can't, it's conn-"
Tango ignored him, moved forward with flashes of orange as his boots scraped the floor, brushed against his armour as he tugged him to a seated position. "Latches, X."
Tango was already lifting his gloved hands even as he shook his head. Another admin panel was opened, a lighter grey hum until it was paired with his, the connection almost screaming with bright yellow between them. His flinch was cyan shards as his armour rattled, his heartbeat kicking back with lime waves that doubled back as the sound bounced across the sparsely furnished room. He lost track of what was going on beneath the sound and color, and then the helmet latches were open, his hands released as Tango tugged it up. His cry brown pebbles was lost under the still speeding tempo lime and yellow rolls of the drum, the attached wire catching at his neck, pain shooting through his head as it ripped -
And then everything disappeared. The sound, the colors, the movements.
Completely gone. Except he was still breathing, the air heavy and silent around him. He pulled off the chestplate, searching for the heartbeat he couldn't hear, feeling his chest rise and fall and hearing none of it.
Something touched his arm and he flinched away, the movement jarring the pain in his head. Jeez, what else coul- no. No, don't tempt the universe. He held himself still, the touch coming back, tentatively and then stronger, squeezing his arm and sliding up to the back of his neck.
He should have made a noise; he could feel it in his throat, couldn't hear it even in his head. "I can't see, can't hear." He couldn't tell if that was understandable, if he was too loud or too soft, if he was speaking at all-
Someone sat beside him, pressed against his side and wrapped their arm around his back. He took a shallow breath, letting the touch ground him along with the thick air, heady as he pushed down the panic threatening to choke him. Why had he thought this was a good idea? He should have left it alone, built the costume himself like the yeti one, instead of messing with codes and downloads. But the bee-armour had worked so well, and there was only the one little glitch with the strider-armour.
He jumped at an unexpected touch on his arm, but the touch stayed firm, waiting for him to relax before sliding down, someone tapping his wrist. His wrist? Oh. He focused on the familiar feel, flicking his wrist and imagining an open admin screen. Had he closed the other one inadvertently? Had he opened this one correctly? He held out his other hand, palm up, and was reassured when someone folded it into a fist and pulled his thumb up. He was so glad his friends were smarter than he was.
His stomach dropped, someone was pulling him back as he tried to curl forward over the disorientation, pressure building in his chest and his head until his fingers tingled and he couldn’t feel the person beside him. Something popped and he lost track of everything.
The world was dim and quiet, and his heartbeat was back in his ears and chest instead of bouncing around the room in technicolor. His body ached like he’d run a marathon, head stuffy as he took a deep breath, feeling his lungs spasm around it. He struggled a moment to sit up, pushing someone’s hands away.
“Helmet.”
"'Zuma?" Tango's voice was a blessedly simple sound, nothing more attached than worry and concern. Torchlight and colors that didn’t move when they shouldn’t met his eyes as Cubfan closed out the admin window he was working from and looked at him.
“We’ll get your old one for you.” Cub sounded relieved. "Back to normal? Or whatever passes as that for you?"
"Yes." He held the heels of his palms to his eyes, trying to convince his tired brain of that fact.
"Good."
There was a jarring pain in his shoulder, and it took him a tick to realize that Cub had punched him. He lowered his hands and blinked blearily at the bearded man. "Ow."
“That’s for scaring the shit out of us. I should hit you again but I think Keralis gets dibs on decking you.”
He hung his head, already imagining the apologies he was going to be making. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”
Tango’s eye roll was heard easily as he put his hands on his hips. “Maybe ask for some help the next time you go messing with your own code? What in the nether were you thinking, messing around with prototype mobs anyway? They’re not even in beta yet!”
They’re never going to let him live this down. “Working on my Halloween costume.”
Etho’s chuckle made him jump, already forgetting the sneaky ninja was still in the room, he was so quiet. “Nice costume, but if you wanted the screaming and passing out, there’s plenty of classic skins to choose from.” His hand was warm as he patted the back of Xisuma’s head, walking towards the doorway. “I’ll send Keralis in with your normal armour, so you can change out of...that.”
He paused at the door, eyes closed in a wide smile as he turned back. “It looked awesome, though.” And then he was gone.
Xisuma sighed, the exhale turning into a startled laugh, growing in volume as he realized that he was back to “normal”, and that all of this horror was over a silly costume change . His chest ached again, and he leaned forward to hold his stomach as his lungs burned with breathless laughter.
“I thought you said you fixed him.” Keralis sounded like he was scolding nitwits, which just made him laugh harder, bent over his knees and tugging at the short hairs on his neck, feeling the bruise already developing from the unexpected physical connection. A better physical connection was Keralis wrapping his arms around his back, tugging him sideways.
“Shashwamy. You gave us a scare, and not the one you intended, I think.” His helmet was pressed into his lap, hands tugging his away from his head and placing them on the cool metal. “Would you like to talk about it?”
“Deep void, I’m not sure if I can.” He leaned into Keralis, sighed again as he met Cub’s gaze. “I wasn’t intending on testing it like that. I didn't expect…” he trailed off, trying to think of the words to describe it.
Keralis was supportive as always, tucking his head against his shoulder, all wide-eyed smile. “What was it like? The good parts, at least?”
The good parts. His eyes caught on the dull grey armour stacked in the corner, noteblock and lights deactivated. He’d never gotten to see how the whole thing looked, if the lights on the arms and chestplate worked.
“It was only supposed to be the skin change, to try out the sound and lights and color-” he almost choked on the word, his heart racing for a moment before Cub’s hand was on his knee and Tango sat down on his other side. “I downloaded the full file by accident, then couldn’t undo it.”
Cub winced. “Blind?”
“Not...like you would think. I could see the panel, but everything was all outlines and shapes. I couldn’t read it.” He closed his eyes, remembering the palettes of colors that had painted his world for what was only- actually, he had no idea how much time had passed. “Sound turned into color, vibrant and...bouncing, almost. Or waves, like dropping pebbles into a pond. But in every direction, and I couldn’t turn it off, or tune it out. It was...overwhelming.”
Keralis squeezed him gently. “You let the bees out so you could see the room.”
He nodded. “Except the sound was amplified, and everything was too much. Sorry I scared you.”
"New rule--someone sits with you when you try a new armour."
Tango nodded in agreement. "Or at least give us a heads-up so we know to come check on you. A surprise works better if it's a good surprise."
"Yeah. Thanks, guys."
Keralis tapped the yellow helmet still in his lap. "No more scolding, it's time for lunch and tea. I have a picnic waiting for all of us near the barn. A good meal with friends will bring our spirits up, and then maybe we all help out and talk about costumes."
He buckled his helmet back into place, accepting the bee-themed light armour from Keralis, along with Etho's helping hand up, and followed his friends out of the shipping container on Keralis' base that they had been hidden away in. The afternoon sun was bright and warm, and quite literally a welcome sight for sore eyes.
And later, when the armour was fixed and a new, cleaner program was written and installed with the help of his friends, he was happy to try it on again. With his normal sight this time, and a quieter drumbeat that he could toggle on and off for effect. They took pictures together, and then headed over to the shopping district as the sun set, to see who else they could wrangle up for holiday costume changes.