Chapter Text
"It's gonna be okay, S̵̭͈͘3̶̱̈́̚v̴̘̳Ṽ̷͎̆8̶̯̹̀N̶͎̓̑. I'm here with you, okay? You don't have to be scared, I'm here.”
"Bad people are gonna come but I won't let them hurt you."
"No, I won't let you get killed. I won't allow it."
"... I won't die, either."
"I know, and I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying by your side, alright? I promise."
I promise.
“So, I can world-hop?”
Joe nodded, adding a circle around Iris’ figurine drawing. She gaped at the added detail, but adapted and just drew around it. The paper was littered with doodles and stickman drawings, most of which are supposed to represent one or more of the hermits. Unfortunately, Joe was unable to find himself even though Iris insisted that he was there on the paper.
“Yes. Every player has the ability to hop through worlds, as long as they have the consciousness and awareness to do so. Unfortunately, you’re quite young to world hop on your own- not to mention, you just became a player. I believe Impulse will be visiting his friend, Skizz, next week. He’ll be going to their private world to do some redstone projects together. Perhaps your fathers would let you come with Impulse, so you can have a taste of world-hopping.”
Iris looked excited at the thought of going to another world. “Has- Has anyone world hopped when they were kids?”
“There are players who are able to world-hop as young as six years old, though it has a lot of… er… let’s just say it is not safe. However, those above ten are usually responsible to world-hop by themselves. If I recall, Grian had been able to world-hop since he was about twelve. Personally, I was only able to world-hop when I was sixteen.”
Iris hummed in response, making a drawing of her dads for the fourth time this hour.
Joe looked up at the clock, noticing the time. Doc should be here by now… where is he?
He supposed he could teach Iris a few more things.
“Iris, want me to teach you something that would amaze your fathers?”
The child was immediately interested, and she furiously nodded as she kept away her supplies in a small pencil box (that Bdubs made for her). The poet smiled gently and pulled out a fresh sheet of paper from a stack on the table. He set it in front of her and began writing down three names.
Grian, Ren, and Doc.
Iris giggled at the sight of their names and looked at Joe curiously.
“Iris, do you call them by their real names?”
Iris looked at the names and then nodded.
“Try this. I think it will make them very happy.”
Joe then wrote something down below each of the names.
Daddy, Pops, and Vati.
It has been a joke within the hermits about it for a while, now. Only Ren was really aware and accepting of his role as a father, and the hermits teased that Iris hasn’t called them ‘Daddy’ yet. Which is… which is weird. Iris isn’t that oblivious to the fact everyone saw the three hermits as her father figures, right? She at least must be aware that her relationship between the three of them is different compared to others.
So why was Iris so scared when she saw those three words?
“Iris?” Joe worriedly said her name, placing a hand on her shoulder lightly. “Are you okay?”
The child did not say anything, only staring at those three words before she eventually shook her head ‘no’. She took a new page of the paper and began writing down.
Through her messy handwriting, Joe barely managed to decipher Iris’ response.
I dunno. What they will feel.
“Is that so?” Joe asked, his lips pulled into a frown as he saw Iris hang her head. “Why do you think that?”
Grian sees himself as Guardian, not daddy. Ren is too nice. Doc… I duno. Also what does Vati mean?
“Vati is the german word for ‘daddy’- But anyway, why not? I think they would be happy to hear those words from you.”
Iris didn’t respond this time, placing her pen down on the table. She looked tired.
Joe sighed seeing her like this. When she became a player, she was able to speak again. However, it seems as if talking makes her more tired than any physical activity. They’re working on it- having Iris speak more than three sentences every time. But usually, when Iris seems tired from talking, she would just write it down.
Now that Joe took a closer look, he realized she looked more tired than yesterday. Or the day before. He wondered why.
The door opened in the little schoolhouse, and Cleo entered. She had a red shulker box tucked under one arm, the other being used to open the door. She looked surprised seeing Iris still in the room.
“Hey, you two. Doc running late?” She asked as she placed the shulker box down on the floor. She walked over to Iris to give her a small pat and gave Joe a small peck on the side of the head. “Howdy, handsome.”
“Hello to you too, gorgeous.”
This was not how they flirt, no. This was how they torture Iris during schooltime.
She gagged and stuck her tongue out, seeing the exchange between them. Iris really is a child.
“I’ll whisper to Grian about it, try out the new update a bit,” Cleo said, already putting a hand over her mouth to send Grian a quiet message. Iris tipped her head to the side, almost asking Joe what she meant by that.
“There was another way we could communicate privately, and it's through this function called ‘whispers’. It’s like regular whispering, but only the person receiving the whisper can hear it, no matter how far they are. There was a bit of a glitch so the universe took it out for a while. Guess it updated overnight.”
“Message is sent and got a whisper back. Apparently they didn’t know Doc was going to be busy. Grian’s on his way.” Cleo said, sitting down beside Joe and leaning back. “So… You teaching Iris some new words?”
Joe chuckled. “She knows those words already. She has yet to connect them to her parental figures.”
Iris noticed Cleo’s questioning stare and just shrugged, not quite in the mood to answer.
“Hm, alrighty then. Grian should be-”
The sound of teleportation was heard nearby, followed by seeing purple particles. Grian appeared right beside the table looking a bit disheveled in many places, mainly his hair where a bunch of redstone dust all over.
“Pardon me, Ren and I were occupied with the hippie commune. Doc was supposed to pick her up since it’s Monday.” Grian said, his voice having an edge to it at the mention of the creeper hybrid. Iris didn’t seem to notice it, though, only happy to see Grian and jumped up from her seat to give him a hug in greeting.
“Doc probably had something to do, it’s alright,” Joe said with a kind smile, even though Cleo could sense the worry radiating off of the poet.
Grian smiled back, but it didn’t reach his eyes. He looked tired, and also irritated. Probably due to Doc not doing his part. However, there was an ounce of happiness when Iris urged Grian to carry her. Laughing, he picked her up.
“You seem tired, Grian. Are you going to teleport again?” Cleo asked.
“Nah, too much energy. Also, Iris likes it when I fly anyway.” Grian said, grinning.
“I do wonder why…”
Grian smiled with a knowing look, not answering. He said his goodbyes to the teachers and left the schoolhouse, Iris waving at them over his shoulder.
They heard the faint sound of wings flapping, and from there they knew Grian and Iris had finally departed. Joe let out a deep breath he didn’t know was holding, running a hand through his dark hair. Cleo looked at him in worry.
“Doc hasn’t been… present, these past few days.” Joe said, noticing Cleo’s gaze. “I’m worried that he had gone back into his ‘obsessive work’ mindset, now that our server is no longer a threat and everyone is relatively back to normal.”
Cleo was also worried- but not about Doc. Okay, maybe about Doc as well, but she’s mainly worried about what will happen to the new family consisting of Grian, Ren, Doc and their adopted kid, Iris. (... She’s bias, she’s more worried about Iris).
She should’ve known that this wasn’t going to be an easy time for them, but she had some sense of hope. She didn’t want them to break apart due to Doc’s obsession with his work, it would affect Iris.
Of course, they’re all adults and they have to be the ones to talk about this issue. If it gets worse, then the hermits will step in. For now, they trust they know what they’re doing.
At least, Cleo thought.
Doc found Scar in the archives (no, not The Archives) where they store the information gathered from unusual specimens. He found it strange to find his friend in this room, he half-expected Scar to be outside, finishing off last-minute touches of Area 77 or examining the time machine downstairs with Jellie by his side.
The hermit was seated on one of the tables, three thick books stacked over one another at one side, the fourth being used by Scar. He was also scribbling notes on a personal note-book. Scar was so deep in concentration, he did not hear Doc approaching him, or Jellie letting out a small ‘meow’ at the sight of the creeper hybrid.
“I’ve been looking for you,” Doc said, his voice as low as ever and rumbling against his chest.
Scar let out a loud gasp of surprise, dropping his quill while doing so. He snapped his head towards Doc’s direction with almost a crazed, confused look. It nearly made Doc laugh. Once Scar realized it was just his colleague, he calmed down and offered him a sheepish smile.
“Good afternoon, Doc!” He greeted, voice cheery to mask the fear still lingering in his body. “What, uh, brings you here?”
“You disappeared for, like, two hours. I was hoping you would help me finish off the hangars but I couldn’t find you. I even messaged you but you didn’t respond.
Scar let out a small sound of confusion and pulled out his communicator from his pocket. He widened his eyes, seeing the current time. He scrolled back up to the earlier chats and saw Doc asking the others if they had seen Scar. Only Cub responded, saying no.
“Oh my gosh- I’m so sorry! I was having my break and thought I could spend the time studying a bit. Time must have flown way over my head because I was not aware-” Scar continued to ramble. It was amusing.
Doc looked over at the books and notes Scar has written. The books were old, some looking ancient with how yellow and how torn the edges of the pages are. The words seem intelligible to read at the very least, and there’s a bunch of diagrams. Doc likes to think he’s smart, as smart as Cub, but he has no idea what the hell Scar’s doing.
“What are you studying? Looks… a lot.” Doc asked.
“Oh! Cub and I decided to touch up on our magic knowledge in the universe.” Scar began to explain, almost looking excited now that Doc brought it up. “We think it’s going to be very helpful in teaching Iris about magic, and also try to understand exactly how her abilities can be proved effective in her current state. However, we realized that Iris isn’t a magic-user since she doesn’t have any magic of her own.”
The creeper hybrid wasn’t listening, only managing to catch the kid’s name.
“And so, we’ve been trying to figure out how to adapt with that- and I didn’t realize there’s so much more about magic we don’t really know off the bat! It’s intriguing and frankly, really fascinating. Did you know that if a non-magic user is surrounded by magic particles or energy for long periods of time, they would eventually harness the same magic energy around them, despite not being able to do said magic?? ISN’T THAT COOL?!”
Doc blinked. “That sounds a lot like Bdubs.”
Scar visibly looked less excited now. “Oh. Uh, right. Anyway, I should thank Wels. He visited the library in the community hub with his wife two days ago and borrowed them, saying it could probably be useful-”
Again, he wasn’t listening. Rather, he was stressed when he saw the current time. Shit, he was supposed to pick up Iris, wasn’t he? It was a Monday- Or a Wednesday? He usually picks her up during those two days- wait, did he pick up Iris last Wednesday?
“Hey, uh, Scar? I gotta go do something real quick-” Doc said, already turning until he felt the air pass through his ear, tickling him a bit, followed by Grian’s disappointing tone.
Picked up Iris.
“Doc, you alright? You seem pretty out of it.” Scar worriedly asked, standing up from his chair to walk to Doc’s side when he remained unmoving for a minute. His co-worker placed a hand over his shoulder, urging him to look at him in the eyes. “Do you want to talk about it?”
No, Doc does not want to talk about it. He imagined the disappointment in Grian and Ren- but would it be worse if he saw the sadness in Iris’ eyes?
But… He knows what he’s doing is important. He has to protect the hermits from the danger of alien technologies and species! And even though he’s against the other two responsible for Iris, they have to understand that what they’re doing can be dangerous.
Like, a time machine? That actually works?! Come on, man! The universe won’t be pleased with that!
“Nothing, Scar. After you’re done, let’s get back to work.” Doc said, brushing off Scar’s comforting hand and leaving the archives. He could always apologize to them tomorrow.
Doc didn’t come back “home” that night. Or the night after that.
It was Wednesday now, and Doc didn’t come to pick Iris up.
Fortunately, Grian was expecting this (as much as it hurts him) and was already there by the time Iris was done packing her school stuff into a shulker box.
“Grian!” Iris smiled, seeing him in the doorway. She quickly stored the shulker box in her inventory and ran up to him in excitement, already wanting the hermit to pick her up in his arms. Grian happily obliged and easily lifted the girl into his arms.
Joe noted that he looked less tired than before, but more noticeably tensed in some areas. Cleo also noticed, and the teachers shared a look with each other before facing Grian.
“Everything alright with Doc?” Joe asked first. “He hasn’t been seen in a while.”
“Just Doc doing whatever Doc does,” Grian replied, voice even and unidentifiable.
Again, the teachers shared a look, this time with more worry. Grian saw them and sighed, adjusting his hold on Iris who was busy playing with Grian’s sweater collar.
“Don’t worry about it. Thanks for teaching Iris- we’ll be off now.”
Iris, strangely enough, didn’t seem too keen on wanting to leave Joe and Cleo. She looked pleadingly at her teachers as they left, and that was when the zombie hybrid finally knew something was really wrong with the family’s current arrangement.
When night falls, Iris was sound asleep in her own little room in Grian’s futuristic base. The sounds of the waves crashing against the building lulling her to a peaceful and dreamless sleep. A sheep plushie was tucked between Iris’ arms, courtesy to Zedaph. She has a lot of plushies given by the hermits- safely placed between her and the wall so they don’t fall. Out of all of them, the Mini-Doc plushie was still easily seen.
The sight of the plushie made Ren paused, looking at the stitched eyes with a bitter smile before finally closing the door.
Ren placed his hand on the wooden surface, resting his forehead against it as he let out a deep sigh. Today has been stressful, so to speak. Now that Iris is asleep, he doesn’t have to worry much about her.
After a moment, he finally lets go and goes to the kitchen to find Grian pouring himself a cup of tea- quite aggressively, he noticed. The sweater-wearing hermit nearly spilled the contents of the kettle as he slammed it back down on the counter, heaving a deep breath.
“G? You alright?” Ren gently asked as he walked over to his side. Grian looked tensed and Ren had to quickly grab his cup to put down on the counter before he could break it from holding it too tightly. “Grian? Is this about Doc?”
Grian laughed, hollow. “Of course it’s about Doc- The man just up and disappeared when he knows very well of the responsibility he has of Iris. He knows and has agreed to it- we talked about it even!” He paused, and let out a small grumble. “It’s just… infuriating.”
Ren looked sad, seeing his friend like this. He doesn’t want them to have an argument over Iris- it would just be too devastating. He would rather talk it out but… Doc hasn’t even left Area 77 since who knows when. Guess he understood in a way- this wasn’t the first time Doc gets obsessed.
“Grian, I understand that it’s hard and… and difficult. I’ve known Doc for years and I know he gets like this sometimes. Being obsessed with work, I mean. For years it was the only thing going for him and I guess being a father is a whole new experience for him. We’ll talk to him.”
Grian looked at Ren with an expression on his face the hybrid could not describe. Was it sadness? And… awe? Or was it envy?
“I don’t understand how you’re so optimistic about it.” Grian softly said, letting his shoulders sag to release the tension he was holding (almost in defeat with his own raging thoughts). Ren half-smiled, knowing what Grian was talking about.
“What? Doc choosing work over literally anything else? He’s always been like that- especially in the earlier seasons. And ever since the nHo-” Ren stopped. Grian waited. “... disbanded, Doc has been making sure to spend more time with the hermits, especially this season, making sure every moment is not wasted. Of course, Doc was bound to go back into his old habits but he’ll bounce back. He didn’t just risk his life to save Iris for nothing.”
Right… they still don’t know exactly what Xisuma and Doc have done, only knowing what they found out but not how. Maybe they’ll tell them soon, or keep it with them until next season.
“I know, Ren. But I’m more worried about Iris. Don’t you remember how Doc’s absence affected her when he left the server? She misses him so much- and that’s when she’s limited to her naivety from being an NPC. Who knows how she would feel, being neglected by someone she considered an important figure like you and I. Iris has the capability to feel more and do more, now that she’s a player, and I…” Grian stopped, sighing.
Ren looked worried.
“... I’m sorry. It’s just, it reminded me of my home back in homeworld. The younger kids usually get frustrated, and because there isn’t much adult supervision, they do stupid things. Break things, fight each other, running away…”
The thought of Iris possibly running away from them made Ren’s stomach drop.
“Then we’ll talk to Doc. We have to persevere and be optimistic. We may not have chosen the parent life but the parent life chose us, so we must do our very best in the situation! We have to do this to make Iris happy. She deserves it.” Ren encouraged, flashing Grian a smile that would definitely make anyone weak on the knees. He didn’t mean to, he was just that attractive, and he likes smiling a lot.
Dark orbs widened at the sight of that smile, and Grian hastily looked away, picking up the now-warm cup and drinking it as if his life depends on it. Ren laughed, finding his reaction amusing and admittedly cute.
Once Grian has calm down, he placed his cup on the sink for their morning selves to handle. Ren watched with a slight fondness as Grian took a step back from the sink and stretched. His shirt is too big it didn’t even show a sliver of skin (not like Ren was expecting to, definitely not).
“Ren? I have an idea... “ The shorter hermit turned and flashed Ren a mischievous looking grin, no sign of anger or doubt from moments ago.
Ren could already feel himself sweating just hearing those words. “Er… Yea, G?”
“If Doc keeps on ignoring Iris then we’ll just have to give him a reason to come back!” Grian said, opened his arms wide as if it would help with the vague explanation. Though, this made Ren smile. Grian looked to be in a better mood than he was days ago. It’s quite in character for him to pull a trick on Doc for choosing work over Iris.
“Might want to elaborate more on that, G.”
“Doc is gonna feel so left out if he realized that the kid is on OUR side in this little game. In other words, we make Iris a Hippie!”
Imagining Iris in flower crowns was both hilarious and cute to Ren. He wasn’t sure how exactly this would make Doc feel left out, but perhaps this could wake Doc up just a bit to see how much he’s missing out on Iris’ life.