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It wasn’t a religious thing, alright?
It wasn’t.
xB just…did this. It was a family tradition. The idol lived in the cupboard. He lit the candles in the evening, said the funny phrase his mom taught him, contemplated what he cherished, and blew them out.
Once a month on the full moon, he pricked his finger and dabbed a drop of blood on the idol.
It was a little evening ritual, a bit of peace and quiet before bed. It wasn’t religious. Maybe it was for his parents, but it wasn’t to him.
It was not religious.
But he did like to keep the cupboard locked. His mom was always insistent about that. Other people would apparently get the “wrong idea.” He wasn’t sure how much of that he believed, but hey. Mother knows best, right?
Unlock the cupboard before bed. Do the little ritual. Blow out the candles. Lock the cupboard. He’d been doing it for so long that it was second nature at that point.
The idol itself was a hand-me-down. It was only about the size of his fist, carved from onyx with moonstone fragments for eyes. Neither were common materials outside of the modlands, but hey; Wels had a suit of steel armour, Xisuma rocked carbon-fibre plasteel plating, and Hypno had a silver pocketwatch. Everyone else could just deal with his weird heirloom.
…not that he’d ever, you know, gone out of his way to show it to anyone.
At least, not on purpose.
Unfortunately, he was a hermit, and hermits were nothing if not nosy.
xB had just unlocked the cupboard and lit the candles with his flint and steel when he heard the front door open. Nothing to be concerned with; he kept the cupboard in a quiet back room of his base. It didn’t matter, and Hypno would know he was busy and would wait.
He put away the flint and steel and closed his eyes, beginning to recite the chant his mother had taught him.
The words burned his lips as he spoke them- an unearthly language that used to scare him as a child. It had to be spoken in a deep and guttural voice, as low as he could possibly go- a grinding tone that as a teenager he’d been unable to properly perform, what with the voice cracks and all.
It reminded him of the language the Endermen spoke in, almost- without the warping and weeping, truncated for the mouths of humans instead of the fanged jaws of enderfolk.
Like he was speaking in enchantment table or something.
The phrase was short, only fifteen words or so; and once he was finished, he laced his fingers together and thought contemplatively.
He’d had fun with Keralis today, playing bumper boats. He cherished his friendships.
He loved his base. He’d worked so hard on it. He cherished his home.
He thought of Hermitcraft, his loving family. He cherished them, all of them.
xB opened his eyes, leaning forward and blowing out the candles.
He stepped back, about to lock the cupboard-
And caught sight of Joe Hills. Who’d apparently walked right into his room while he’d been reciting his chant.
“Uh,” xB said, “Hey, Joe. You need something?”
Joe was staring at him, mouth agape.
“I, uh, I-“
Joe swallowed and put on a rather forced smile.
“I was, uh, looking for some…grass. At horsehead farms. But you were all out, and nobody was there, and I just thought…”
Joe cleared his throat and attempted to peer over to get a good look inside the cupboard.
“What, uh, what are you doing?” he asked.
xB considered. He could just slam the cupboard and lock it and chase Joe away. That would be the smart thing to do. But like…it wasn’t a big deal to him? This wasn’t some religious thing. Nobody would give him any trouble for it. They were Hermits, for god’s sake- Doc was off worshipping the Goatmother or a moon rock or whatever he’d decided his latest idol would be. xB was in good company with the weird little rituals. Hell, he was one of the more normal ones, by Hermit standards.
“My little evening ritual. No biggie.” He said smoothly.
“What, uh, what sort of ritual is it? I didn’t know you were religious,” Joe said, a cautious edge to his words that had xB quirking an eyebrow.
“I’m not.” He said, “This is just a little thing my family does.”
Joe nodded slowly.
“May I…have a look?” he asked.
xB considered.
“You promise not to tell the whole server? This is just my…it’s a private little thing, you know.”
“Oh, no. I’m- I won’t say a word.” Joe assured him.
xB shrugged. “Alright. Here, see?”
He stepped aside and let Joe have a peek at his idol.
“And the ritual is, uh…?” Joe looked to him for answers.
“Nothing much. Light the candles, say the phrase, contemplate what you cherish for a minute, blow ‘em out. Once a month I’ll prick my finger and dab a bit of blood on the idol. But that’s annoying, ‘cause I have to wipe it clean the next day. It’s a…meditation thing, I think? I don’t know man. We- I mean, my family, we just…do this. In the evenings.”
He shrugged.
“You get it, though, right?”
Joe nodded.
“Oh, yeah. Yeah, totally. Totally.”
“Anyway,” xB locked the cupboard, “I’d appreciate if you didn’t go around telling people about this. If Grian gets it in his head to steal my little idol I don’t know what I’d do. It’s like Hypno’s watch, you know? Or like, X’s helmet…”
“That important, huh?” Joe asked smoothly.
“Yeah. I mean, sort of. Like I said, it’s just a little thing I do before I go to bed. Doesn’t have to mean anything.” He said with a shrug.
“Yeah. Tell you what,” Joe said with a grin, “I will see you at Horsehead farms tomorrow afternoon. You, uh, you rest up, xB.”
“I will. See you tomorrow, Joe!” xB said brightly, locking the cupboard and leaving the small back room.
It was as Joe was leaving the base that he pulled up his communicator.
<Joehillssays has opened a private conversation with GoodTimesWithScar>
<joehillssays> Scar wake up
<joehillssays> I just dropped by xB’s base and he has an idol to a Primordial in his cupboard
<GoodTimesWithScar> HE HAS WHAT?!
<joehillssays> I don’t think he has any idea what it is. I walked in on him saying a sentence in Galactic- I genuinely don’t think he knows what he’s doing, but he was basically doing a ritual. Complete with occasional blood sacrifice. But he genuinely didn’t seem to have even the barest understanding of exactly what that is. He said it was a family tradition?!
<joehillssays> We need to talk to Xisuma.
<GoodTimesWithScar> We need to know exactly what he’s saying. What EXACTLY is his ritual?
<Joehillssays> Uh, he lights some candles, says a sentence in Galactic, closes his eyes and thinks for a minute, then blows them out.
<GoodTimesWithScar> …
<GoodTimesWithScar> Okay there’s about…four different rituals that could be. Best case scenario, a harmless request for protection. worse scenario, maintaining a binding of something to our world.
<joehillssays> And absolute worst case of all?
<GoodTimesWithScar> He’s summoning something without realizing it.
<joehillssays> Great. When is Xisuma getting back?
<GoodTimesWithScar> I think tomorrow? Stupid admin conference, always at the worst times-
<GoodTimesWithScar> Tell you what, I’ll meet you at your castle.
<joehillssays> Your exoskeleton charged or do you need me to rig up a charger?
<GoodTimesWithScar> Please rig it up. I’ll be there as fast as I can.
Joe paused, then, and bit his lip.
<joehillssays> So…what do we do?
<GoodtimeswithScar> Same thing as usual. Wait for X to get back, get xB to rattle off whatever the hell his prayer is. X speaks Galactic and can tell us if it’s benign or dangerous. If it’s dangerous, we tell xB he needs to stop and we destroy his idol. If it’s benign we apologize and let him do his thing.
<joehillssays> You make it sound so easy. Anyone else who speaks Galactic around here?
<GoodTimesWithScar> Not that I know of, aside from…y’know…
<joehillssays> Yeah, we’re not doing that. Better keep him out of this.
<GoodTimeWithScar> It would be pretty funny, though.
<joehillssays> Not worth it.
<GoodTimesWithScar> Agreed.
Joe put his communicator down and started sprinting to the nearest nether portal.