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After the turf war’s end and after everyone had wrapped up their family-friendly video recordings to share with other servers, it was time for the after party. This was where the hermits showed their true colors, where everyone was a little (or a lot) flirtier and more open than on camera. Tango was pretty sure that there was a massive betting pool running on who Grian was going to take to bed that night, though he also knew that no one’s feelings would be truly hurt if it didn’t happen to them.
Of course, being aroace and sex neutral, Tango wasn’t too concerned about that. He had other things to concentrate on, such as the latest game suggestion that had been brought up by Ren.
“I have an idea: let’s play spin the bottle!” the man cheered.
Most of the group (consisting of the resistance, HEP, and the Podzol Party) grinned and chimed in with agreement. However, Xisuma, practical as always, was hesitant.
“Uh… Tango’s here,” the admin reminded the group.
“Oh, right,” False grimaced. “Tango, is it okay if we play that?”
Tango first responded with a disconcerting grin, prompting a raised eyebrow from the warrior.
“Oh, totally. Count me in!”
“Huh?” Impulse was the first to actually say something, though everyone was staring at him a bit oddly.
“I’d love to play,” the blonde stated again.
“But you’re aroace?” Xisuma slowly asked.
“Doesn’t mean I still don’t like a little kissificating action!”
“If you say so,” Etho shrugged, slyly winking at Tango when nobody else was watching him.
That remark seemed to break the awkward freeze over the room.
“Okay, everyone who wants to play, circle up,” Ren called out.
It took a minute to get everyone organized, but Tango soon found himself sitting next to Impulse and Xisuma, lightly rocking back and forth. Ren placed down an empty Moo Pop bottle in the middle of the vaguely-circle-shape, then clapped his hands a few times for order.
“Alright, my dudes. I’ll go first,” he offered, sending the bottle spinning with a quick flick of his wrist. When it finally stopped, the neck was pointed towards Doc, who smirked as he sauntered over to Ren. The cyborg knew exactly how to take his boyfriend apart with a teasing brush of lips before diving fully in. Bdubs, the other member of the polycule, was grinning like a maniac as Doc settled back down on the ground and reclasped their hands.
Next in the circle was Stress, who landed on False. The two also had some experience between them, a healthy, established dynamic evidently present. They both met in the middle, making careful sure not to deepen the kiss too much (at least for the current moment).
Grian purposely closed his eyes as he took his turn and merely waited for his partner to walk over and begin. That turned out to be xB, who was much gentler than Grian had been expecting based on the way the avian contently sighed into the kiss. When he opened his eyes, his smile could have lit up the whole room.
It was Impulse up next, who was the first to land on Tango. His friend seemed quite apologetic, but Tango wasn’t going to let him be paralyzed by that. Leaning over a bit, he cupped a hand over his mouth as he whispered in Impulse’s right ear.
“Dude, it’s seriously okay. I voluntarily signed up for this game, and I totally want to do this. Please don’t feel bad about it.”
Impulse gave a slight nod in return, bringing a sweet little smile to Tango’s face. Then, the blonde lifted his hands to rest on Impulse’s madly blushing cheeks. After a moment or so of tension, their lips finally met in the middle, gentle and soft without any expectations.
In that moment, Tango simply inhaled Impulse’s slight scent of chocolate, which he had never known about before. Etho was always icy cold, and though he loved the absolute contrast, it was so nice to melt into an aura so similar to his own.
They broke apart after a few seconds, both flushing crimson as the circle cheered. Tango semi-discreetly winked at Impulse before spinning the bottle for his turn. Once again, it landed on the person right next to the one who spun the bottle, which happened to be Xisuma.
Now, if there were a short list of hermits that someone from another server would think would never play spin the bottle, Xisuma would certainly be on there. He was supposed to be the calm, serious admin and the slightly removed parental figure. Of course, in Hermitcraft fashion, X was actually one of the flirtiest ones on the server, seriously rivaling Grian.
The admin had already had his helmet off for most of the night, so he simply needed to turn around, lean forward, and completely take Tango by surprise. Tango had never thought of himself as a top, especially with Etho, but Xisuma was clearly the more dominant one in this scenario. While the kiss was strong and fulfilling on its own, it wasn’t overly passionate. There was no pushing and yearning for anything more, which the blonde really appreciated.
All too soon, the intoxicatingly sweet taste of honey was gone from his lips, leaving Tango panting a bit for his breath.
“You’re pretty good at this,” Xisuma whispered to him, sending Tango into a massive storm of blushing, especially as he had just happened to be glancing at Etho at that moment. The ninja gave him another wink in return, which was nearly too much for Tango’s system to handle.
The turns progressed rather fast, and Xisuma next landed on False. The admin seemed to understand that Stress had silently claimed False for the night, so he held back from deepening the kiss. It was quite evident from the look in False’s eyes that there would be another opportunity for the admin a different night, though.
Doc’s turn picked Etho, who was grinning as he removed his face mask. Truly, the ninja had no need to wear it as they weren’t around much redstone, but he just loved to fluster people as much as he could. That was something Tango knew quite well. The two kept it brief, though Tango wouldn’t have been bothered at all if it wasn’t. The blonde made no claims whatsoever to Etho.
Bdubs was up next, and he was about to spin when Scar stepped out of the kitchen where he had been busy working on food for almost an hour.
“Oh, hey Scar!”
“Whatcha all doing?” Scar asked.
“We’ve been playing spin the bottle, and it’s currently my turn,” Bdubs explained.
“Cool. Can I join in late?”
The group all chimed in with affirmations, and Scar settled down on the floor in between Bdubs and xB.
Once that was taken care of, Bdubs finally spun the bottle, landing on Stress. The woman’s face lit up at the way he carefully crossed the circle (avoiding an outstretched foot from Doc with disdain) and knelt in front of her. Before Bdubs had committed to his current polycule, the two had been casual lovers, and they chose to keep the kiss sweet and simple in front of the group.
One of the other hermits that would have been at the top of the “I-would-assume-you-would-never-play-spin-the-bottle” list was Scar. That assumption was also quite wrong. Yes, he was in a committed relationship with Cub and everyone generally thought of him as a cinnamon roll and a pure, innocent angel. The hermits knew better, though.
For Scar, it literally took effort for him to not flirt with someone, as his vocabulary was just so full of those little phrases. He knew every swear word in the book and exactly how to use it as well. Finally, though he didn’t participate in spin the bottle every time, he could take apart nearly anyone with a kiss. In fact, he was so good at reducing hermits to a gibbering mess that he was sometimes banned from playing. Those puppy eyes worked all too well, though.
Everyone anxiously watched the bottle spin as Scar maniacally grinned, waiting for his target to be revealed. That turned out to be Bdubs, who huffed out a short breath before turning to his right to face Scar. Surprisingly, the man chose that particular time to be absolutely soft and calm, which Bdubs had not been expecting. Still, all knew that he would have enjoyed being absolutely ravaged by Scar just as much as this. Doc and Ren were both perfectly fine with it (and perhaps a little jealous that Bdubs was the lucky one).
xB spun next and ended up with Ren. xB was similarly gentle, not really being known for pleasantly destroying others with consuming kisses. However, Tango had a premonition that it wasn’t always that way based on how xB every so often winked at Hypno, who blushed and then tried extremely hard to hide it.
Etho had also spent a good chunk of the game tossing random winks in Tango’s direction, which kept his cheeks just as red as his eyes. It was the ninja’s turn to spin up next, and he smirked as the bottle finally stopped on Grian. The avian stuck his tongue out in response, and Tango was truly tickled at the matchup of two of his favorite cocky bastards.
Though their faces were only inches apart in the center of the circle, both Etho and Grian were still fiercely competing for the award of the greatest tease. The ninja finally gave in, fully capturing the avian’s lips oh so sweetly. The second they pulled apart, though, both were back to their intense game of flirting. Tango rolled his eyes at their antics, but he was laughing all the while.
Finally, False grabbed the bottle and closely watched it spin. She had put quite a bit of force into it, so it took several agonizing seconds before the bottle finally stopped moving. Impulse was on the other end, and her piercing gaze had him flushing crimson nearly instantly. An entire conversation seemed to take place between the two with just their eyes and a few nods, then False’s grin grew even larger than Etho’s had been.
Like a tiger pouncing on their prey, she quickly sauntered across the circle to where Impulse was sitting and pinned him to the ground. Tango wasn’t quite sure who it was, but the complete ravishing of his friend eked out a whoop of someone in the circle. Both seemed unwilling to let go just yet, and Tango could almost see the tension sparking around them as the kiss became more passionate.
Finally, False reluctantly broke away, turning her head to where Stress was still seated. Yet another silent conversation was held, this time the other woman joining the pair and all three running out of the room muttering half-hearted apologies with hands clasped tight. Tango couldn’t help but smile, knowing that Impulse was going to be in for a hell of a night.
After a full completion of the circle, it was generally agreed that the game was over. Plus, Scar had just finished preparing a Moo Pop cake, which most of the hermits were eager to try.
On his way to the kitchen, Tango found Etho with his mask back up, waiting towards the back of the crowd gathered around Scar and his cake. The blonde slipped through the crowd of hermits and made his way to the ninja’s side.
“Hey, Etho,” he greeted.
“Ah, hello there. Do you have any clue what’s in this cake?”
“Nope,” Tango grinned. “But I’m certain it’ll be fantastic.”
“Scar’s cakes usually are,” Etho chuckled. “By the way, you did good back there in the circle.”
“Thank you,” the blonde blushed.
“Like X said, you’re pretty good at that stuff.”
“Okay, but why did you keep randomly winking at me?” Tango jokingly complained.
“Oh, was I flustering you or something?”
“Maybe…”
Etho only winked once again in response, and Tango playfully shoved his left side. While it had been more than a bit nerve wracking to work up the courage to ask to participate, the experience had been totally worth it. Tango was still aroace, but he knew he could totally handle a little kissificating action.