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“You’re still not balancing properly, Grian!” Cub shouted from the stands.
As much as Grian usually appreciated the pointer, he didn’t exactly appreciate it being said while he was tip-toeing on a singular fence post above the expansive, endless space that was the void.
After Grian’s most recent MCC where he was so close to squeezing out a win, the rest of the MCC Hermits offered to give him pointers, which he happily accepted. As for today, after weeks of careful planning, all of them—Ren, Pearl, Gem, Cub, False, as well as him, if that wasn’t obvious—managed to head over to the server to have one giant training session together. Needless to say, the trip was a blast, and Grian was learning things about PVP he didn’t think was possible until now.
After practicing Dodgebolt for about an hour, a few of them went to Parkour Warrior while the rest continued at Dodgebolt. Grian decided he needed a change of scenery for a little bit, and a couple of others has the same sentiment. He was never the biggest fan of the activity and was sincerely grateful when it was taken out of the competition’s roster, but he would be lying if he didn’t think it had nothing going for it. Most of his apprehension came from the anxiety that was performing it live in front of screaming audience members. When he was able to step back and enjoy it at his own pace (well, as paced as he could keep it), he found merit in being able to improve his coordination and reaction time.
“Hey, Grian!” Gem screamed. “Your pants are on fire!”
Though, it seemed like it was impossible to stop audience members from screaming all the time. He rolled his eyes at the same time Gem let out a whine like someone smacked her. False was probably telling her to knock it off.
Taking a deep breath, Grian squared up to get ready to jump to the next post. He could feel tension radiating from his friends in the stands. With a blink, Grian leaped…
And just barely missed his target. His left foot nailed it, but his right foot was just off enough for the pressure that followed to make the ankle bend abruptly and send him tumbling. He was almost able to recover by aggressively clawing at the top of the post, grabbing it with a firm grip, but the sweat covering his palms was a stronger force, making him slip off of it. He could hear a cartoon whistle sound in his head as the slipping occurred.
He was laying on his back as he spawned on the course, staring up at the sky and breathing heavily. Dammit, he finally thought he would be able to get past that stage! Shaking his head, Grian stood up and made his way over to the button that would allow him to exit the arena mid-session. He might as well use this moment to stop before he gets so tired he can’t join the others for more practice.
Warping back to the entrance, he was immediately greeted by the three that followed him over to the inactive game when all the Hermits first decided to split. They must have picked up on the fact that Grian wanted to be done. Such perceptive friends he had, “Hey guys, ready to head back to Dodgebolt?”
All of them nodded, with False the calmest, Gem the most excited, and Cub somewhere in between. He was the one that verbally replied for the other two, “Ren mentioned that he wanted to have some fun in Rocket Spleef, so I figured we should head there next once we all meet up again.”
“Sounds good to me,” Grian agreed. They proceeded to walk back to Dodgebolt, Grian and Gem taking up most of the chatting themselves while Cub and False simply listened, adding a few nods or shakes of their heads when directly asked by either of the talkers.
About halfway to the finale game, Gem paused while talking to point at something in the distance, “It’s Pearl! Guess they got tired of Dodgebolt and decided to come to us. Man, she sure is running really fast-”
“We need to leave. Now,” Pearl was suddenly a few inches in front of Grian and grabbing one of his wrists, dragging him with the goal of wasting no time in getting to the portal hub, leaving all the others in the dust and just as confused as Grian.
He, again, like the others, began asking desperate questions, “Woah, Pearl, hey- what’s going on? What’s got you panicked so… badly…”
Grian then noticed a bunch of random players rushing in the same direction as they were, making him feel even more nervous about the whole situation. Pearl simply ignored all of that, ignored the rest of her friends, and stared solely at Grian with a look that said we’re going to get you out of this, “I’ll explain it later. Right now, the main focus needs to be leaving.”
Oh Gods, what could that potentially mean? Why was she specifically looking at Grian? Did Sam somehow make his way here? No, that wouldn’t explain the rest of the server freaking out similarly-
“What do you mean you’re not letting anyone leave yet?” Ren’s voice cut through the air as well as Grian’s thoughts. The group of speedwalking Hermits stopped their advance to look at their last friend, who was very disgruntled. “This is serious! We need to get out before-”
“We know that this is a very stressful situation,” one of the NoxCrew members reasoned, “and we’re really sorry that we can’t do more to help. But we’re worried about opening the portals to other worlds and this issue spreading farther than it already has.”
Ren leaned a little bit, flattening his ears in such a dramatic way that it was obvious he was trying to earn sympathy points, “Are you positive you can’t open the Hermitcraft IP just a little to let us wiggle through? The other players won’t even notice us with how quick we’ll be!”
The NoxCrew member sighed before moving away to address another duo of players getting aggressive at the rest of the crew, “We promise we will let you guys out first thing once this is resolved.”
Despite his back being toward them, the other Hermits could see Ren’s dejection in the visible slouch of his shoulders and his left hand coming up to rub the back of his neck. As he turned around, he froze when he saw the rest of his friends before becoming incredibly relieved, “Glad to see you all in one piece. Looks like we’re going to have to stick together for a little bit.”
“But why?” Cub questioned, tired of not getting answered. “What’s happening that’s so bad that has us all on lockdown?!”
Ren and Pearl glanced at each other, then glanced at Grian—which, for the love of the Gods, please stop—and then finally decided to tell everyone what was up. Pearl tugged on Grian again, this time on his sleeve and much gentler, “Here, we’ll show you.”
They were all heading toward the edge of the main lobby where a lot of the rest of the server seemed to be congregated. Grian titled his head at the sight of players taking pictures down at the void like it was a tourist attraction. “Excuse us, coming through!” Ren announced, helping them worm through the mass of bodies in their way.
Eventually, they managed to squeeze to stand right at the railing that made sure players didn't freefall into the void outside of games (it wouldn’t hurt them if they did, but only so much power of a server can be rerouted into making it so spawn times from falling into the void aren’t three hours long, so it was smart of the NoxCrew to use it specifically for game maps), and Grian felt his lungs collapse at what he saw.
There was a giant rift in the void, almost a tear even, that felt like it was slowly ripping open more and more as everyone stared at it in awe.
Grian could only stare with a vague sense of horror.
"From what I heard, a guy was walking over here as a break from practicing, dropped something, and when he bent over to pick it up, well," Ren explained slowly. "At that point, it was more difficult not to see it."
Ren was looking at Grian as he spoke, and a wave of fear crashed over Grian as he finally connected the dots. Pearl’s focus on him, Ren's focus on him, the vaguely purple particles that swirled around the rift, the Admins freaking out because they just don't understand what could be causing this-
There was only one answer for all of it, and Grian couldn't even think about it he was shaking in his shoes so badly.
(Also, apparently, Ren and Pearl found the time behind Grian's back to talk about his history of godhood, which, okay. How did that conversation happen, and exactly what did they talk about? They better not have asked stuff like if his spit could change colors.)
“Woah, that’s pretty freaky,” Gem ooh-ed. “What in the world could cause that?”
“I have no idea,” False said, which was a pretty big indicator that this was really bad (not that Grian knew that already), considering her life before Hermitcraft allowed her to see a lot of messes and their causes. “This is a first even for me.”
“Well,” Cub stated plainly. “That doesn’t mean very good things.”
That’s what Grian was saying! Wait, he only said it in his head, didn’t he? Ah, “I’m going for a quick walk.”
Pearl quickly looked at him, “Wait, I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”
“Thank you for being concerned. Really,” Grian’s smile at her was genuine, “but I need to be alone for a few seconds. Let’s meet back up on the southern side of the portal hub, yeah?”
Pearl opened her mouth to object, but Ren placed a hand on her shoulder to placate some of her worries, “Sounds good to us. Be back soon, dude.”
Grian nodded, and that was the last interaction he had with his friends before he was slightly stomping away, breathing in and out through his nose and clenching his fists down at his hips. Of course, out of all the ways for today to go wrong, out of all the unlimited amount of ways-
Grian let out an “oof” when he collided right into the chest of another player, falling back onto his butt. He was shaking the cloudiness out of his head when the player in question spoke, “Oh, whoopsie daisy. You alright there, mate?”
Blinking, Grian finally looked up to see the player was a blond man adorning long green robes. His hat spanned a wide diameter, the shade it created almost making Grian miss the facial hair covering his chin. He leaned down, holding a hand out for Grian to take, which Grian figured why not, “Yeah, sorry for slamming into you like that. I’m not… I don’t handle panic the best.”
“Heh, considering right now?” the man asked, getting Grian standing. He then put his hands into his sleeves, completely covering them, “Your freakout is pretty subdued, as well as everyone else’s. I’m surprised there isn’t anyone screaming yet.”
Grian chuckled, but before he could respond with actual words, a very loud voice yelled out.
“GIVE ME BACK MY BOOTS TECH-”
The next voice was so much quieter that Grian almost missed it, “I’ll give them back when you admit to stealing my golden apples this morning!”
Grian tried peering around the man to see who was causing such a commotion, but the man quickly moved to still be situated squarely in front of Grian, “Haha, sorry about them. My kids don’t like being cooped up.”
After giving the man an incredulous eyebrow tilt, Grian let it go. From what it looked like, the guy was simply a tired dad, and Grian couldn’t imagine trying to corral kids during all of this, “They’re not the only ones.”
The man let out an abrupt laugh, “You know, you seem like a nice kid.” He brought his hand back out and held it like he wanted Grian to shake it, “The name’s Phil. It’s nice to meet you.”
After hesitating, Grian returned the gesture with a grin, “Grian. It’s nice to meet you too.”
Once that was over, Phil was back to keeping his hands in his sleeves, looking around at all the other players stuck in the predicament of not being allowed to leave, “Man, I wonder what would be enough to get NoxCrew’s shorts in a twist like this. I’ve seen them handle server crashes with grace, so whatever the cause is here must be really bad.”
“Wait, have you not seen it yet?” Grian asked.
Phil shook his head, “Unfortunately, no, I was too busy making sure my children didn’t do something that would get them banned.”
That was fair, “Here, I can show you it if you want.”
“Oh, well, thank you! Real quick first,” he turned around yelled, “Kids! I’m going to be busy for a second! Don’t do anything dumb and make sure Tommy doesn’t eat anymore dirt!”
There was a shout of annoyance being abruptly cut off followed by a noise of affirmation.
Eccentric.
Once Grian got back over to the edge where the rift was located, he was thankful that the large grouping of players seemed to have dispersed. The Admins probably told them to stay away for their safety, which Grian planned to do himself with no objections once Phil saw what was up. Standing at the railing, Grian swallowed as he looked down at the space tear once more, “Welp, here it is.”
Phil whistled, "Wow… That is big."
Grian scoffed, turning around to go find his friends again, "That's maybe understating it a bit. Anyways, now that you know, we should get back to our respective groups. It was nice meeting you, but-"
When he turned back around to give Phil a goodbye look, his pupils shrank at the sight of Phil somehow making the railing disappear as well as Phil stepping over the now-unsafe edge like he was about to jump off.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Grian shrieked, definitely catching the attention of other players but not really caring in the face of a man basically about to commit suicide. "ARE YOU NUTS?"
Phil laughed, still dangling his foot above the rift, "I get that from my wife a lot too."
As Phil took a leap of faith, Grian shot forward to grab him by his robes. The two of them hung there, staring at what was most likely certain death, and Grian could vaguely hear noises of screaming players who were watching them fight for their life. So much for the "no one was screaming yet” thing.
It was a little too late for panic, though, as Phil's body was heavy enough to slowly slide Grian off the floor as well. Grian noticed what was happening only when he felt himself tip forward. He tried to grab the edge with a hand to hang on, seeing as any second they were still not rift food was a second that could save their life, but just like the fence post, Grian's greatest enemy reared its ugly head.
His stupid, sweaty palms.
He closed his eyes as he fully slipped off the platform, feeling the wind rushing through his hair as he went down, down, down…
It almost felt like he was crashing into the surface of the ocean, and then it was cold. It had been so long since he had been in this part of the void; it probably wasn't that big of a surprise that he never wanted to come back again. It was maybe a slight overreaction, but he would have preferred dying like-
"Uh, mate? You gonna breathe there or…?"
Gasping, Grian sat up rapidly. Phil?
Grian stood up before fully facing him, and the man's innocent head tilt became very not-innocent when Grian noticed one particularly flashy detail.
Hanging onto Phil's back was a pair of light purple, translucent wings.
"You're… You're…" Grian didn't even have the words.
"I'm what?" Phil asked with a smirk. "Devilishly handsome?"
Just what secrets did this guy have? Are there more Watchers walking around, hiding in plain sight? "How- You- Do others know about you being a Watcher? Do your kids know?"
Phil rolled his eyes, as if he had the audacity to not care about the little fact that he was a literal Watcher, "Listen, I don't have time to play twenty questions. We need to fix this before the MCC server-"
"Don't you dare-" Grian reached out and grasped Philza by the wrist so the man couldn't ignore the problem at hand, and once the two of them made contact, Grian felt a rush of power flow through him as well as extra weight on his back.
Oh no, his wings were out, and judging by Phil's expression, they weren't wearing their normal parrot pattern.
"Oh my stars," Phil whispered. "I mean, it was pretty obvious considering you didn't get turned into minced meat while falling into the Inner Void, but still. What are the odds that two Watchers-"
"No," Grian hissed out. "I am nothing like you."
Phil paused with a look that said man, I am not even remotely qualified to touch that bag of issues, "Ooookay, well, I still need to prevent the server from ripping apart from the inside, so we either need to get you out of here, or you can follow me. The choice is yours."
Grian opened his mouth, his immediate response along the lines of dear Gods no, but then he remembered all of his friends still stuck on the server, probably losing their minds at him being missing. He remembered how Pearl and Ren tried their hardest to get him to safety once they learned what was going on. He thought about just how much danger Gem, Cub, and False were in by potentially being associated with all of this bullshit.
"Alright, fine." Grian sighed. "I'll help you figure out how to stop this."
Phil smiled sweetly, "Poggers."
---
They bounced around…
“It feels like we aren’t getting anywhere.”
“Mate, we are in a black void. I would be worried if it felt like we were.”
And around…
“You spent that many years in a hardcore world?”
“Yep! Didn’t know what else to do after my parents died, so I sort of just set out into the great unknown and winged it.”
“But why hardcore? You could have easily done the same thing but with the safety of respawning.”
“Well, I suppose I wasn’t thinking with the healthiest of mindsets, but I know I’m better now, and I know I can thank my family for a lot of it.”
And around…
“So, are your kids Watchers?”
“Surprisingly, no.”
“Why is that surprising?”
“Well, my wife isn’t a Watcher, but she’s not really human either.”
“Is that not… concerning?”
“Why?”
“You’re not worried they’ll become all-powerful or anything?”
“If picking up a hobby of destroying servers means they’ll stop wearing their shoes on the carpet, then I welcome it with open arms.”
And arou-
“STOP!” Grian suddenly blurted out, pausing in his flying-walking-swimming or whatever you called moving around this place. “This is ridiculous. At this rate, staying in the server would have helped us solve this problem faster!”
Phil looked at Grian sympathetically, “This job was always a time-killer, and sometimes not of the fun variety either.”
Grian snorted, “As if it could ever be ‘fun.’”
“You know, you seem rather put off by all of this,” Phil pointed out. “Wasn’t there something you liked about being a Watcher?”
Seriously? “I don’t know, you tell me how I can find enjoyment out of two Gods kidnapping me away from all of my friends and then telling me they killed all of them so I didn’t go back. Tell me how I could have been happy in a place where every day I was forced to have an identity crisis.”
Phil was dead silent.
“Hm, yeah, that is bad,” Phil said finally, genuinely apologetic. “Sorry for assuming things.”
Oh, wow, Grian was not expecting this, “D-Don’t worry about it, I just don’t understand why you think being, well, this is such a gift.”
Phil hummed, his sleeves ruffling in a way that said he was rubbing his arms comfortingly inside them, “My story was a little nicer than yours. You already know that I was mainly living in a hardcore world for a good portion of my life. The Watchers that trained me mainly focused on hardcore worlds, so when they noticed me and my skills, they figured I would be a good fit. As much as I would miss my builds, the fact of the matter was that I was getting lonely; I didn’t want to be lonely anymore. If it weren’t for the Watchers, I wouldn’t have met my wife, and I wouldn’t have had my kids.”
That… “I never really considered that.”
“Eh, well, I never considered a story like yours, so,” Phil shrugged, “I think it’s safe to say we’re even.”
Grian smiled, appreciating the levity that was coming back, but the expression of relief quickly fell off his face as the void shook. The entire void itself started vibrating like they were bugs in a jar that a kid was a little too excited to own. It began shaking.
“Oh no,” Phil whispered, which, great way to set the bar. “I think I know what’s happening now.”
Before Grian could ask, a tear started forming behind Phil that looked a lot like the one in MCC, just smaller. Grian’s horrified emotions keyed Phil into the idea that he needed to turn around. Both men were watching the split intensely as it got wider and wider. Soon after, a dust cloud made out of thousands of colors started spilling through. Its movements suggested it wasn’t anything sentient like a mob, but that didn’t make it any less dangerous.
“WHAT IS THAT?!” Grian screamed, mainly because he was worried Phil couldn’t hear him over all the noise.
Phil quickly explained, “It’s a virus and a really bad one at that!”
Xisuma talked about viruses sometimes. He usually said not to worry, as they weren’t that hard to spot, and not that hard to take care of. Grian believed him at the time and still believes him now about being able to spot one.
Grian wasn’t sure if he still believed him about the not-hard-to-take-care-of part, though, “WHAT DO WE DO?!”
Grian turned to look at Phil and nearly shrieked at the sight of multiple, purple eyes floating around his original ones. Phil was somehow able to make all of them glare at the same time, “We kill it, obviously!”
Phil used his wings to take off and do exactly what he said to do. However, Grian still wasn’t satisfied, “AND HOW DO I DO THAT?!”
Phil was too far away to hear anything. That or the noises that were being made by the virus were simply too loud. Grian wanted to curl up and cry. This had to be some kind of prank gone too far.
But as he watched Phil fly around the virus, Phil’s eyes and hands glowing a bright purple, Grian had to say fuck it and accept the mess that he had landed himself in.
Suddenly, part of the virus wormed its way around one of Phil’s ankles, holding on tight and whipping the man straight into the floor. Grian flinched at the almost cracking sound it made, and before he could think, he was rushing forward into the battle, “Phil!”
Flapping his wings to get some upward momentum, Grian leaped into the air and axe chopped his leg into the part of the virus holding Phil captive. He had a moment of clarity where he realized how stupid that was, but when Phil stood up safely and jumped out of the way of danger, Grian noticed the bottom of his foot glowing like Phil’s eyes were.
“Thanks for the save, mate!” Phil called out. “You should probably worry about yourself now though!”
Grian let out a choking noise as he nearly tripped away from the now rapidly-growing virus. Flapping his wings some more, he figured he might as well fly like Phil was doing to maximize dodging abilities; he was going to need it, “What did I just do?!”
Finally, Phil could hear him again, “It’s your powers as a Watcher! You summoned them!”
“I know that, but how?!” Grian yelled, swooping underneath a brief archway the virus formed in itself. “I’ve never used my ‘powers’ before!”
Phil got to the very top of the virus, his hands glowing again, as he started shoving downward. The virus was reacting violently, clearly displeased with Phil’s current actions, “It’s just something you do, I guess! I can’t really explain it!”
Grian was back to wanting to curl up on the ground, “Seriously?!”
Phil looked over at Grian, desperation in his eyes, “Trust me, mate, you just gotta feel it!”
Clenching his jaw, Grian proceeded to hold his hands out like Phil was doing. He went deep into his mind, trying his best to just feel. He kept his eyes closed, too much of a coward to watch if he failed or not, but then the pressure in front of him lessened, and he opened them in shock. Holy shit, it was working. He was going to ignore his glowing hands to focus on the victory he was currently scoring.
The virus slowly dissipated, allowing the two men to land on their feet and walk closer, sandwiching the dangerous code between them. Grian wanted to sob at the sight of the virus completely going away. He blinked, and then his hands were on his knees as he heaved all the air out of his lungs. Once again, holy shit, it worked.
He was vaguely aware of Phil making his way over, but not even the comforting hand on his back was enough to make him stand to attention. No, it was the quiet yet firm round of applause that filled the air. Grian froze immediately; he could recognize that clapping no matter how long it had been.
“Well done you two!” Please no, as if this day couldn’t get any worse- “We were about to send in our strongest, but then we realized you already beat us to the punch! You- wait, Xelqua?”
Oen and Ocsend: the names of the two Watchers that were in charge of Grian. They were the ones that met him inside the portal that got you out of the End, speaking cryptically about how he was about to leave his measly life behind for something greater. If only Grian knew what he was about to get into.
Swallowing the spit in his mouth, Grian turned to face the cocky stature of Oen for the first time in years. Their dangly sleeves hanging over their hands seemed to have only gotten longer. Taking a deep breath, Grian puffed his chest, “Hey.”
Oen was silent, emotionless, and Grian could tell Phil was getting nervous from the tension alone.
“Oh my US!” Oen squealed, suddenly shrinking down to the size of a player and rushing forward to stand directly in front of Grian. Their sleeve-covered hands (or whatever was hidden under there) grabbed Grian by the cheeks and squished his face as an excited grandma would. Wait, what? “It’s been so long since we’ve seen you! How’s life been? Have your powers been treating you well? Any interesting behaviors come out of nowhere yet?”
Grian shot out of the hold and backward into Phil, who subtly held an arm up in front of him. Grian had never been more thankful for a Watcher’s perceptiveness than now, “Excuse you, I need you to back off right now.”
Oen tsked before floating away and resizing themselves back to normal, “C’moooon Xelquaaaa, you have to forgive when an old fuddy-duddy like me can’t contain themself! I’ve just missed you so much!”
Grian’s glare didn’t lessen. If anything, it got worse.
Oen rolled their eyes, but before they could come up with another excuse, a flash of white came from behind them, and an elbow jutted into their side from the light. Oen winced, crossing their arms immaturely, “Ocsend! You so mean to me.”
Stepping out of the white was, not shockingly, Ocsend with their stoic expression and their flowy dress. It was hard to tell if they had legs like Oen or if they were perpetually hovering the entire time. They had a similar glare like Grian did, and it was squarely direct at Oen. It eventually fell off their face when they shook their head, looking at the players in their presence the same time Oen did.
Phil glanced back and forth between Grian and the two Watchers before deciding to focus on the Watchers with a few choice questions in mind, “Okay, pardon my Enderian, but what the fuck? How could you two just let a rift like that form?!”
Oen winced, rubbing the back of their neck, “Fair, fair. It’s on us for not noticing that the Watcher that was in charge of this place got taken out by the virus, so-”
“Taken out?” Grian interrupted. “Like, they died?”
Ocsend nodded while Oen continued explaining, “Pretty much. This was a really bad virus. Happens so little that even we forget it exists.”
Grian had to process that for a second, “So you’re saying the one day I visited the server was the day a super rare virus hit it and sent everything into chaos?”
Oen bit their bottom lip, “Yeah, kind of.”
Grian groaned into his palms.
Phil was concerned about other things at the moment, “Hold on, what are you going to do about the dead Watcher? You’re not just going to leave this section of servers without protection, are you?”
Ocsend shook their head and became disgruntled when Oen shoved their way in front of them again, “We got a few more on the way, so we should have a newbie in by tonight at the latest. Don’t worry, your precious little servers are under safekeeping!”
Grian and Phil grimaced at each other, sharing the same discomfort at Oen’s nonchalance about, well, everything. Grian cleared his throat, “Uh, you’re not… you’re not going to make one of us Watch?”
It was terrible that Grian asked that. It was devil's advocate down to a T, and for all he knew, he just damned himself to the fate he was questioning. Here it came, Oen was going to drone about how thankful they were for Xel for reminding them-
Oen let out a long ‘mmmm’ before abruptly speaking, “Nope!” They popped their ‘p,’ “Don’t really see a reason to do that. Unless you want to?”
Grian aggressively shook his head, “No, no, absolutely not. It’s just… you made me before, so-”
“Oooooooh oh oh oh,” Oen realized where Grian was coming from. “I see now. Listen, that was a one-time deal you scampered away from. The code that makes us wasn’t working, and we needed to improvise, and because of your neat little EVOLUTION server, we thought you would be a good choice. Too bad your escape fixed the spawn issue, otherwise, we might have chased you down.”
Grian… didn’t know how to feel about that, “Oh…”
Phil suddenly placed a hand on Grian’s shoulder, letting him know that he would take over the rest of the conversation, “As nice as this chat has been, the two of us have some peeps we need to go home to. Do you mind helping us get there?”
Oen hummed, “Of course, of course. Once the two of us leave, we can just send you guys out.” Oen floated forward to lightly shove Grian and Phil away, “Now shoo, shoo. We have a lot of work to do today. Thanks for stopping by Xelqua; we hope to see you again soon!”
And just like that, Oen was blinking away in a blurb of light, leaving the two players alone with Ocsend. Grian thought they would just give one last glance before leaving, but much like everything else connected to the Watchers, Grian was given a surprise. They walked or hovered or whatever until they were only a little bit of distance away.
Ocsend leaned down, closing two of their extra eyes and then soon reopening them. When Grian seemed to still not get it, they did it again. Grian was able to pick up on what they meant right before they did it a third time, “Oh! You want me to close my eyes?”
Ocsend nodded, and Grian hesitated. For all he knew, this was an attempt to get his guard down. Maybe they did want to kidnap him again, or maybe they wanted to finish him off. That technically wasn’t “kidnapping,” and the Watchers liked their “technicalities” a little too much.
But Ocsend was… nice, at least by the standards Oen set. They never minded if Grian sat next to them for a little longer than necessary, and sometimes they even let Grian watch old memories of his time on EVO even though that did the exact opposite of making Grian detach himself from his mortal life. So with those fond emotions, Grian closed his eyes and waited.
He flinched a little at the feeling of a big hand patting his head, but once he got used to the pressure, he-
Wait, a hand? Was Ocsend… using their hand?
In his entire time as a Watcher, Grian never saw either Oen’s or Ocsend’s hands. They always kept them covered tightly, away from curious eyes. Well, that probably explained why Ocsend asked him to keep his shut for this.
When the hand went away, Grian kept them closed for a few more seconds out of kindness. Once enough time had passed, Grian finally opened them again to watch Ocsend move into a white light much like the one they used to appear at the start. Grian blinked as they looked back, and the last thought Grian had before they disappeared was wondering whether or not that was a real grin on their face or if it was just a trick of the shine that refracted off of them.
Shaking his shoulders, Grian turned around and walked over to Phil, who seemed mildly confused about something. “Uh, mate? You’re not gonna make them, like, apologize? That blue one could probably get the green one to do it for you at least.”
Grian shook his head, comfortingly rubbing his arm, “No, I’m good. Besides, they probably won’t apologize anyway.”
As charming as Ocsend was, they were still a Watcher. They still took Grian away from his home and tried changing him into something he didn’t want to be. The two of them would see themselves as in the right no matter what Grian said or did.
“They… cared. In their own godly way,” Grian explained. “They felt cornered, so they did what they thought they had to do. They weren’t great, but they weren’t evil. Gah, am I downplaying things? My friends are always on my case about doing that, but… I don’t know.”
Phil grinned, trying to soothe Grian’s frayed nerves, “Yeah, I get what you mean. Don’t worry about explaining, you don’t need to. How you want to feel about that time of your life is something you need to decide for yourself, you know?
Phil was a pretty nice dude. Grian’s smile got a little wider, “Thanks. You’d make a great Hermit if you ever decided to join.”
Phil chuckled as a bright light started filling the area around them, “Hah, no offense, but as nice as that server sounds, I think I would last only a day before I snapped.”
Grian laughed as whiteness completely filled his eyes, “None taken whatsoever.”
All of sudden, almost as if he woke up from a dream, Grian was laying on a hard surface. Blinking the stars out of his eyes, Grian groaned as he used his hands to feel the situation around him, seeing as he, well, couldn’t see.
When his fingers graced some fabric alongside what felt like a hairy surface, he had a very sudden realization that he was laying directly on top of Philza, stomach to stomach, the two of them in the shape of a plus sign. He didn’t do anything about it, though, since Phil sounded like he wasn’t exactly in a position to move either. If anything, the only reason Grian wanted to move was that the guy was making noises like he was about to throw up.
But they would need to get up and be functioning sentient beings at some point, so it might as well be now. With great difficulty, Grian slithered off his new friend with the grace of a drunk parrot and fell backward onto his butt. He held his hand against his temple, hoping the action would stop his spinning vision like he was trying to stop a spinning top. Heh, he’s so funny-
“PHIL!”
A voice calling out was distinctly panicked, and worse, it was getting closer. Thank Gods Grian moved when he did; he was able to miss the torpedo that slammed into Phil. Philza, bless his patience, simply laughed it off and held what Grian finally noticed to be one of his sons closer.
“Hey, mate, I’m okay,” Phil reassured his family, lifting his head to look at him. “I’ve always promised I’d come back no matter what, and this was no exception.”
A threatening amount of fear filled Grian at the sight of Phil’s eyes still glowing bright purple, as well as other various slits around them visibly the same color. Why wasn’t he getting rid of them? Did he want every stranger from Hypixel to Mineplex to see how he really looked? Wait, what did that mean for-
Grian looked down at the floor, which had a slight reflection to it, noticing the same traits adorning his face as well. Shit shit shit, Grian aggressively rubbed his hands against his face like he was wiping water off his cheeks. He took his hands away, and when he saw it didn’t do anything, he proceeded to try again, almost as if he were a cat.
Eventually, his desperate pawing did work, and he let out a giant sigh at the sight of his normal face. He was able to turn back and look at Phil and his family and paused. The kid was picking up translucent feathers around them and fiddling with them like they were toys and not evidence of their dad being the closest thing to a God these servers have.
Suddenly, the other son walked up to their pile somewhat quickly, looking around like they were being chased, “Dad, you should change back. The other players on the server are starting to realize you and the other guy aren’t dead and are looking for you.”
“Ah, I suppose all good things must come to an end at some point,” Phil joked. As he stood up, his wings disappeared, and the slits on his face dissipated as he rapidly blinked real eyes. As his kids made their way toward the portal hub, he turned back to face Grian one last time, “Welp, I better get going. It’s my turn to make dinner tonight, and the wife won’t be happy if the kids don’t get fed. Thanks for that little romp, I hope you were able to learn some things that-”
“WAIT!” Grian pleaded. Phil froze in his walking away just like Grian expected him to, which, shit, maybe Grian should have thought this through a teensy bit more. “Your kids… they don’t care, do they?” Grian questioned somewhat impolitely, but dammit, he needed to understand. “They don’t care that you’re a Watcher?”
Philza blinked a little bit, shocked, maybe even offended, before a fatherly grin spread across his face like a banner being unfurled, “No, they don’t. We’re family, yeah? That comes before anything else.”
Grian vaguely heard the blond son calling out once more, but it was quickly overtaken by a much more familiar voice. The accent of that voice was similar to the kid’s but way thicker and with a southern drawl behind it, “GRIAN!”
Slightly freezing in surprise, Grian turned around and felt like he could cry—with what were finally happy tears—at the sight of all the other MCC Hermits rushing toward him. He had never been more relieved to receive a Patented Pearl Tackle, even on such hard flooring, than now. While she nestled into him on his left, he looked up to see Ren quickly filling in the space on her right. It seemed like they wanted to compete for who could squeeze his eyes out of his sockets the quickest.
“Grian, thank goodness, we’re so happy to see you okay!” Gem exclaimed, waving her hands around like she had no idea what to do with them. “When we heard about two players falling into the rift and then couldn’t find you, oh, we just about jumped into that egomaniacal hole ourselves! No one takes our friend away from us like that!”
Ah, well, it looked like not even Pearl concussing him could stop his emotions from flowing over his eyelids. Despite the evidence saying he couldn’t, Grian laughed, “Only you would call an inanimate object 'egomaniacal,’ Gem, only you.”
Cub tilted his eyebrows in concern, “You okay, dude?”
Grian nodded, holding Pearl and Ren all that much closer, “Never been better.”
---
The Admins had to do one last check-in with everyone. Some wanted to make sure the players were genuinely okay before sending them home—probably felt responsible for the shit show that was today—and others most likely just wanted to avoid potential Reports. Honestly, Grian respected both of those reasons equally.
He and the other Hermitcrafters all got interviewed at the same time, so they were easily able to meet up at their designated portal all at once after they finished. At least, everyone but Grian, because apparently falling into a black rift in the void was enough of a reason to be asked way more questions than anyone else. He just hoped the “answers” he came up with were believable.
Grian also pondered if Oen or Ocsend had anything to do with the fact that the Admins didn’t connect the dots of “Phil and Grian falling into the hole” and “the hole immediately going away once they came back.”
Regardless, it wasn’t a surprise when he trudged his way toward the Hermitcraft portal to see everyone else there, chatting nervously in an attempt to pass time waiting for him. Thankfully, False noticed him first, so everyone’s reactions were rather subdued based on the precedent she set, “Oh, hey Grian. Everything go okay with your interviews?”
Grian sighed, almost yawned, shoving his hands into his pockets, “Yeah, pretty much. It got repetitive after a little bit, but I guess that’s what happens when you fall into a tear in the void.”
“Which is just all the more reason to not do it again, right?” Ren teased with a hint of desperation as he threw an arm around Grian’s shoulders.
Grian rolled his eyes, lightly shoving Ren off of him, “I think the falling-into-the-void thing was already enough to make me not want to do it a second time.”
Gem’s expression became sad at that, “Was it scary?”
Grian hummed, genuinely considering her question, “Eh, it wasn’t exactly roses and daisies, but there wasn’t anything nightmare-inducing.”
Pearl didn’t believe him, “Are you sure about that one?”
“Yes, I’m positive,” Grian sighed amusedly. He still got caught off guard by how observant his friends were sometimes. He began walking toward their exit out of MCC, the rest of them following suit, “Thank you for being worried, but I promise I’m okay.”
“Wait, I almost forgot about one more thing,” Cub said, stopping the others from going into their portal. He rummaged around his inventory before pulling out a note and handing it to Grian, “A blond kid came by and said to ‘give this to the weirdo in the red jumper.’”
Grian was pretty sure he knew who that was, “Alright?” Taking the note from Cub, Grian quickly read over what it said. The process was somewhat difficult, seeing as the handwriting was downright chicken scratch in quality. Once Grian got past the illegible-ness, though, he found himself getting choked up at the words.
THANKS FOR HELPING OUR DAD.
Phil was a great guy, it made sense that he would be a great father too.
“Is the note nice, Grian?” False asked, picking up on the whirling emotions Grian was giving off.
Grian put the note in his inventory and gave False his widest smile yet, “Yeah, it’s great.”
Then finally, after the long-ass day they all had, they were back home inside Hermitcraft with a hoard of players waiting for them. It made sense; they were coming back a few hours later than they said they would. Nothing needed to be said, however. They all simply petered off to their respective groups. Ren immediately ran for Doc, False and Gem went over to Stress, Cub decided to stop by Zedaph briefly to talk, and Pearl bounded her way to the rest of Boatem.
Grian would have followed her, but he paused when he noticed a certain someone out of the corner of his eye, “Hey X. Did the server stay in one piece while we were gone?”
Xisuma chuckled, getting closer to Grian’s side and looking out over all of his Hermits happily filling each other in on what they did today, “Just barely. What about you, did you guys fall apart from all the practicing?”
Grian thought about everything that happened, “Surprisingly, no, we all made it out okay. I think we even came out stronger than before.”
Xisuma hummed, “That’s good.”
Yeah, good.