Archive of Our Own

The whimsy that came with being taken in by literal gods was quickly diminished when Grian was dropped. On his head. Got knocked out and everything.

When he came to, he heard the same voices that welcomed him inside the portal shouting at each other, except now they were much less bombastic and had no reverb. As if “God voice” was a setting they could turn on and off for professional appearances. Grian seriously hoped that was the case and would immediately request his own version if so.

“-w did you mess this up? There were so many things you could have done other than dropping the guy on his skull! This is the easy part of our jobs!”

“Nota please, I didn’t mean to drop him! I’m just n-nervous, it’s not every day we get a new guy!”

“Yeah, and it’ll be even longer if you give the newbie brain damage!”

Grian caught the two Watchers’ attention by rapidly sitting up on all fours to look at them like an excited puppy. One was much taller than the other, with slick hair blacker than the void around them, while the other had long, luscious locks, tied at the middle of his back and were only a shade darker than Grian’s own head. The first’s aesthetic seemed to be polarization, as his bright red eyes stood out among all the shadows, leaving his partner’s emerald irises to appear much more subdued in comparison.

“Can you guys make me a cow with wings?” Grian blurted out, no filter in sight.

The shorter one seemed to not know what to say, “Nevermind, I don’t think you can make whatever he has worse.”

“Nota!” the taller one chastised his friend while Grian stood up, oblivious, and wiped down his pants.

Grian looked up at “Nota” with a cheeky grin, “That’s a nice name.” He then turned to the other one, “What’s yours?”

“U-Uh, Verba,” the taller one stated, flummoxed at being addressed directly instead of second-hand.

Grian nodded as he looked around, surveying the albeit nothingness he was now going to live in, “So is it a thing for you guys to have your names end in A?”

Nota sighed and shook his head, “No, it just so happened that the two of us were coincidentally put together. I’m assuming you’re going to find a way to make it a thing though.” That last half was said with slightly less annoyance than the other statements had been. Grian counted it as a win.

Verba enthusiastically nodded his head, “Yeah! You can keep the name you have if you want to, but you’re entering a new life, so now would be a good time for an identity change if that is something of interest!”

“Well…” Grian drawled into a hum, placing his hand on his chin as he thought about it. “I’ve always liked the name ‘Xelqua.’”

Nota signed yet again, “We are going to regret this so much.”

---

“Noooooota!” Grian called out as he transported to each server they were in charge of watching right now.

He eventually accidentally landed in an ocean for a few seconds, which meant that when he popped back into the void to try and dry himself he ended up being absolutely soaked for Nota. Well, at least he found Nota in the end. "Nota! There you are!" Grian shook himself like a wet dog.

"Yes, I am here,” Nota held a hand in front of his face to block the water droplets from hitting his face. “Why do you look like a fish more than usual?"

Grian placed his hands on his hips proudly, "I was looking for you! I checked everywhere I thought you might be."

That only made Nota more confused, "Did you really think I would be at the bottom of a lake or something?"

Grian made a noise that sounded a lot like an objection, “That part was an accident! I wasn’t expecting water to be at the coordinates I appeared in,”

Nota facepalmed for a few seconds so he could figure out what words he could possibly say to that, “I need to start a list of ‘Xelqua Moments’ or something. It wouldn’t change anything except make me chuckle a little. I hope.”

Grian blinked, caught off guard by that middle word Nota said, before remembering what it meant, “Oh, right, my new name.”

Nota was confused again, but this time he had a hint of concern behind it, “You know, you don’t have to use a new name. Names aren’t that important to Watchers anyway.”

“Hey now! You just think my name giving us an awesome triple-A is- wait,” Nota’s words finally hit Xelqua. “What do you mean they’re not that important?”

Nota shrugged his shoulders, pulling out a screen to work on some code as he spoke, “It’s not that we don’t care about it, it’s just that after seeing all we do, all we are, well, names become slightly inconsequential.”

Hmm, Xelqua never thought of it like that. But, “Wouldn’t that make them the most important though? Like, in a life where we can’t choose a lot of things, doesn’t that make the one thing we can choose really significant?”

Nota froze in the middle of flicking through screens, “Huh, I never thought about it like that. Fair enough I suppose. It’s just been so long since I’ve thought about it.”

“Do you remember picking your name?” Xelqua asked as he moved around to be in Nota’s line of sight, making a little platform with his magic that he could place his elbows on. He placed his chin on his fists as well, like a small child excited to listen to their parent’s story, “Or was it just something you were given.”

Nota closed his screens, getting invested in the conversation, “Well, I don’t know. It’s just been my name for so long that I just know it as my name.”

Xelqua grinned, “Maybe now’s the time to finally choose something for yourself, yeah?”

Nota hummed, “Maybe.”

“Hey, guys?!” Verba suddenly called, popping his head into the void looking panicked. “One of our worlds has a virus, and it’s spreading fast!”

Nota suddenly glanced at Xelqua to see a guilty expression on his face, “Oh you little- did you seriously spend these last few minutes talking with me to avoid doing your job? Again?!”

Xelqua nervously laughed as he speed-walked over to Verba to open his own full body-sized portal, “Noooo I have no idea what you’re talking about! Now if you excuse us, Verba and I need to go take care of a very important matter. We’ll see you in a few hours! Byeee!”

Nota shook his head, facepalming again as his friends disappeared into the void.

“He’s a mythical being now and yet he still cares about tiny things like names,” Nota said quietly, a small smile tugging at his lips. “Only him.”

---

They were about a year or so into their arrangement when Xelqua decided to snap simply because he thought it would be funny.

Okay, not entirely because it was funny. He wasn’t prepared for the “huge amounts of responsibility” that came with being a Watcher. At the time it seemed like gaining a bunch of power would be cool, would just make his normal shenanigans even crazier—which partially happened, to be fair—but that was before he realized just how much work went into making sure worlds didn’t delete randomly or destroy players’ codes.

But the fact that it was kinda funny was also a plus.

“Hey guys?” he called out while watching over an empty field. The stars in the night sky were breathtaking, and his legs swung back and forth as he dangled them off the cliffside, “Have you ever thought about leaving this job for something more… not this?”

Both Nota and Verba stuttered incessantly at that, Nota unsurprisingly being the one to respond first, “What? Are you insane?”

Xelqua turned around and gave him a knowing look.

Verba laughed nervously, fanning his face with a hand as he genuinely considered the idea, “Well, that depends on what you mean by that. I've thought about taking breaks before, but…”

“No, I mean more than that,” Xelqua elaborated as he stood up and walked closer to them, wrapping an arm around each of them to direct their eyes toward the sky. “Like, I enjoy this gig as much as the next god, but there’s something about being a player that’s… it’s like being a star, yeah!” Xelqua let their shoulders go, running forward and throwing his hands in the air like he was presenting something he was proud of, “Sure, it’s kind of basic, and we don’t really stick out among all the others, but when we do, we really do. Doesn’t that sound like a lot more fun than just immediately being something like the sun?”

Nota looked as impressed as a rusty stop sign, “Your overuse of metaphors is not amusing.”

“I guess when you put it that way,” Verba began over Nota’s choked Verba why protests, “carving your own path instead of just being given power is at least a good learning experience. And you know for sure that everything you achieve is your own doing too!”

Xelqua clapped his hands together, “See! At least someone gets my rambling!”

Nota looked like he was on the verge of tears, “Isn’t the phrase ‘insanity finds company’?”

“It’s actually ‘misery,’” Xelqua pointed out with a chirp. “Which, given your grumpy attitude, I don’t think you’ll have trouble finding at all.”

Nota made clenching movements with his hands as if Xelqua’s neck was between them specifically.

“Nota has a point, though,” Verba quietly spoke after the bomb in front of him diffused a little. “If we really do want to pull off this movie cliche, we need to plan carefully. Those Above will be the furthest thing from happy if they find out.”

Xelqua hummed as he placed his hand on his chin much like he did a year ago when he first arrived in this silly life. Then he snapped the fingers of the same hand and grinned from ear to ear, “Don’t worry, I know exactly what to do.”

“I have a lot more than ‘a point,’ you guys!” Nota objected. “Are you seriously going to leave the sanctuary this life provides because you’re bored or- or because it would make for a silly story? That’s a little extreme in the long run!”

Xelqua and Verba glanced at each other, and in a surprising turn of events, Verba was the one to speak before Xelqua, “Are you saying you’ve never thought even once about living a life that wasn’t so restricting? Watching over everything is great, sure, but we have to keep it all so tidy and neat. Is having control over your own life really that scary to you?”

Verba was always more complex than they gave him credit for.

Nota was thinking the same thing, making choking noises as if he were physically slapped instead of asked a few questions, “Well, I mean…” Nota was silent for a solid few seconds, then continued in an almost whisper, “I’ve kind of always wanted to own a cat.”

Oh-ho- it seemed like everyone was going to have an unorthodox moment tonight. Xelqua loved the sound of that, “Then it’s settled! As I was saying before, I have a plan, and if you ask me, it’s quite foolproof.”

As Verba opened a rift so they could head back to the void for the night, Nota rolled his eyes, “I hope your definition of ‘foolproof’ is a lot stronger than I think it is.”

Xelqua would prove that to be half correct. Glass half-full is how that works, right?

The three would give the right excuses at the right times, getting any and all suspicion off their back, and proceed to sneak out underneath the same stars they agreed to do this in the first place. Right before they got to their exit, Nota took a step back and slightly panicked.

“Are you two sure you want to do this?” he whispered. “There’s no taking this back.”

Xelqua and Verba glanced at each other yet again. Verba attempted to reassure him, “Nota, you can stay behind if you prefer it here. We understand your worry.”

Nota vehemently shook his head, “No, I’m not getting left behind to deal with the mess you two are creating!”

That was the crux of the issue, wasn’t it? They did feel twinges of guilt for forcing Nota to choose, but ultimately, they did think it was going to be worth it in the end. That this was right and nothing had ever been more right before. Xelqua opened his mouth to explain all of this.

Suddenly, an angry screech filled the air around them, meaning they had been found out. Shoot, Xelqua was sure they would have at least a few hours to get away before anyone noticed. “It’s now or never!”

Xelqua hopped through without hesitation, making sure to sprint for fifteen seconds straight to be extra sure that the chance of immediate repercussions was as small as possible. Two pairs of footsteps pounded the ground behind him the entire time, so he felt okay in not turning around to check until he finished his little run-fest. Panting heavily and wiping his chin free of spit, he made eye contact with both Verba and Nota, the former holding onto the latter’s shirt sleeve and both breathing as heavily as he was.

“Seeing as we did the ‘now’ part,” Nota said through his near-gasps, “where do we go from here?”

Xelqua made a little hum through his exasperated lungs somehow, “Well, I’m pretty sure ‘whatever we want’ is up for grabs.”

As such, the three of them went off to find out what made them themselves. “Grian” was back to creating the first things that popped into his mind like he did in EVO. Created a new server, created a few games, you know, normal stuff that most people can easily create in a week. Maybe he shouldn’t be using his Watcher abilities for everyday activities, who knew how Those Above could find him, but really, you would be subtly using them too if you had them on hand.

Grian would eventually gravitate toward building things with his bare hands to be his main hobby. He found it rather fun back in EVO, and after a year of doing nothing but watching and adding updates, he was dying to get back into the thick of it to see how everything changed. It was absolutely balls to the walls just like he had expected. He could do things like make his bed pink, that was sick!

Gravitating toward building also came with the territory of hanging out in more building-based circles. Things like Build Battle and Build Swap were some of his favorites, the latter especially, and not just because it gave him more interesting challenges, but because while he was waiting in the queue one day, he came across a familiar and very tall face, their black hair standing out amongst the bright sun of the daytime. Thankfully, as Grian ran over, the man noticed him too and grinned.

“Verba! I can't believe it's-” as soon as Grian got next to Verba, however, a hand was shoved over Grian’s mouth.

Verba was shushing him, using his other hand to put a finger on his lips to emphasize the need to stay quiet, “Shh!” Leaning back, Verba looked around to make sure no one was paying too close attention to them and sighed. He also went back to grinning, but kept up a little bit of a facade, “Why, I’m glad to see you again! I sure hope you remember me, your acquaintance Mumbo Jumbo!”

Right, right, they technically shouldn’t know each other yet. Grian was soooo going to rip on that name later when they were alone, though, “Of course, how could I forget you ‘Mumbo Jumbo’! I’m happy to see that you remember me, Grian, as well!”

Could they be any worse at this?

Verba cleared his throat, probably feeling the same amount of embarrassment, “I’m very happy to hear that. Now, what have you been up to?”

Seeing as they were back to being normal, Grian felt the bottom of his feel roll from tip to heel as he rocked excitedly, his fingers clenching and rubbing together as the fact that one of his closest friends was here and still recognized him began to sink in, “Lots and lots and lots and lots! Oh, you should come to Wynncraft at some point! It’s a server I’m working on with a few others. I’m happy to see you’re getting into the building scene as well! You’re here for Build Swap too, right?”

“Oh! Er, yes, I am,” Verba elaborated somewhat anxiously, “but not because I’m good at it, really, it’s more for practice. I find my fingers are better at redstoning than building.”

Grian tsked, worming his way underneath one of Verba’s arms, “Ah, how unfortunate, being reduced down to having to deal with that icky, red powder. Don’t worry Mr. Mumbo Jumbo, I can help you get in tip-top building shape in no time.”

Verba chuckled, patting Grian on the back, “Aw, thank you for the offer. I’ll be sure to take you up on it at some point. Also, feel free to call me just ‘Mumbo.’ The others do that, seeing as I didn’t perhaps pick the nicest name to say out loud, ha.”

Instead of responding and continuing the conversation, Grian scrunched his eyebrows. ‘The others’? What?

Verba’s face became flushed as he realized his slip up, “I’ve been hanging out with a group of players recently! They all have their own server they consider their ‘home,’ and I guess I ended up doing that too.”

Fair enough, Grian supposed, “I see, I see. I hope they’ve been treating you well.”

“Oh, they’re all amazing,” Verba continued. “They’re very supportive and all-around jolly folks to hang out with! I feel like you would get along with them quite spectacularly.”

“NEXT IN LINE!” The player behind the lobby counter was suddenly calling out. “NEXT IN LINE!”

Grian and Verba turned to see that they were the next ones. Grian nodded his head as he made his way over to the player, “Yeah, yeah, sounds fun! I gotta ask, though, have you been in contact with Nota at all? I’ve never been able to find him it seems.”

Verba made a couple of nervous noises as he followed Grian to the desk, “Eh, not particularly. I think he went off to do more personal things and didn't need a mother hen breathing down his neck, you know?”

Grian hummed disappointedly. You win some you lose some, he supposed, “Ah, that’s too bad. I was hoping to see him again at some point too.”

“Y-Yeah, me as well,” Verba cleared his throat as they filled out the queue forms, the conversation ending there. Grian would go on to completely destroy him in Build Swap, unsurprisingly, as well as all the others they would partake in as they began to hang out once more. It was everything Grian hoped for and more.

But you know what kind of person Grian was. He was never, ever satisfied with anything involving routine. It didn’t help that Mumbo constantly brought up all the other players he got to hang out with. Grian was happy for him, genuinely, but still…

Grian had seen the kind of redstone Mumbo could make practically in his sleep, and since Verba was insistent that his new “friends” were “even better than him,” just what kind of world were they running over there?

---

In the end, Grian finally decided to check out what this little “server” of Mumbo’s was.

As a near and dear friend, of course. Just checking up on a pal. Definitely not because he was lowkey jealous or anything.

Sneaking onto what appeared to be a survival world, Grian immediately had to duck and cover at the sight of two people flying overhead using elytras. One had flaming orange hair, like ocean waves with the sunset shining on them, and the other just looked like a dude. The two were skilled, as it seemed they were able to hold a conversation while manning elytras, something Grian had seen very few players be able to do during his entire time watching over them.

Grian already liked this place.

He snuck around a little more, observing players of all shapes and sizes, including their various relationships. Hybrids came and went, Redstoners and Builders worked perfectly in tandem, and nothing could compare to the builds that littered the world and its biomes. Mountains that went up to the sky, holes that went down to bedrock, pathways that expanded from one edge to the other, bases that ranged from woodland cottages to literal mansions, and if Grian could shove only one thing in Nota’s face this would be it.

Players having free roam to create and do whatever they want; no limitations, no barriers, just unbridled creativity flowing through their veins. Because, at the end of the day, what are players outside of gods that don’t need to keep world order? Grian joined Verba and Nota because he thought he could advance even more beyond what he already achieved when in actuality, the freedom he yearned for was something inside him all along. Every day he spent away from the Watchers continued to prove that line of thought more and more.

Eventually, Grian stumbled across a rather sleek building. It was very professional-looking, almost as if it was a laboratory run by scientists. Grian bet dollars to donuts that if he would find Verba anywhere, it would be the nerdiest place possible.

Stepping closer to the windows, Grian was careful to peek inside without being caught. He was correct in assuming that nerds were running this operation, but neither of them was Mumbo. One was an older-looking man, seemingly not bound by his age, as he was bouncing all over the place excitedly and exclaiming to whoever he was working with about… whatever it was this building must have been for. As for his partner, Grian nearly fell off the window sill in shock at the sight of them.

Nota?

The man’s hair was chopped completely off, but Grian would recognize him anywhere. Nothing short of becoming physically blind would make Grian not recognize the man’s vibrant green eyes and angular face. He was just as excited as the older man, nodding his head rapidly as he followed him through the building like a little duckling.

Grian wasn’t sure what to make of it. Nota had been with Verba all this time, and Verba never told him? Even outright lied about it? And what about that new friend of his? He was behaving almost as obnoxiously as Grian did when they were all Watchers together, and yet he gets enthusiasm and encouragement and Grian got put in a bedrock timeout box? Not that Nota couldn’t make new friends, the guy needed to get out more honestly, and, well, maybe Grian had no room to talk because yeah okay fine he did only come to this world after getting a little jealous about Verba not giving him attention-

A sudden and loud BONK erupted from the glass right next to him, nearly making Grian jump out of his pants. His mouth gaped as he stared at Mumbo Jumbo, somewhat internally laughing at watching his friend eat shit—Mumbo had never really been able to get the hang of elytras—but mostly panicking because bro he was being SO stealthy and quiet and you’re about to BLOW his COVER-

“Grian,” Mumbo hissed, partially from the pain that was most likely now all over his face and partially because of the shock at seeing his non-whitelisted friend randomly on the server while flying over to meet Iskall for something. “What are you- just how-”

All Grian could do, as he always did when he was caught doing something he knew was against the rules but did it anyway, was nervously smile, “H-Hey Mumbo, just, uh, checking out your side gig! I got a little curious, you know how it is.”

Shaking his head, Mumbo reached forward to yank the back of Grian’s shirt like an ocelot’s scruff before taking off and getting him far, far away from there. Once they were a decent distance away, somewhere on top of a snowy hill, Mumbo let Grian go and placed his hands on his hips, “Just what do you think you’re doing? Do you know what they do to people that attempt to hack their way in here? What do you think they’ll do to someone who succeeded?!”

Grian opened his mouth to try and defend himself, but then a cold feeling washed over him as he remembered the huge realization he made just a few minutes ago, “Why did you lie to me?”

Verba blinked in shock, not prepared for the tables to turn, “W-What? This isn’t about me, it’s-”

“You told me you didn’t know where Nota was,” Grian explained calmly. A lot more calmly than he would in any other situation similar to this, “Not only do you know, he clearly is one of those ‘friends’ you talk about so much, so it’s not like you saw him once and forgot about it. You lied to me.”

Verba was speechless, “Grian, I didn’t-”

Grian shook his head, whatever anger he could feel at his friend sapped away due to just how hurt he felt, “I mean, I get it. I would-”

“Sca- Nota asked me to not say anything!” Verba blurted out, freezing Grian in his tracks. Verba bulldozed forward, needing to get everything out before Grian left forever, “I know that probably doesn’t make it r-right, and it definitely wasn’t fair to you, but it was so difficult! I’ve been begging him to join me in looking for you after we split, but he was insistent that we stay separate! I couldn’t follow that request, not really, so I snuck out and found a way to meet you in the Build Swap lobby and hang out again while also keeping in contact with him! I don’t want to lose either of you, so please, at least understand that.”

Grian had to absorb that one for a second, “Nota… doesn’t want to see me anymore?”

Verba stuttered a little bit, “I- I guess not. I was caught off guard by it too, to be honest. I knew you guys had your differences, but…”

Not to this extent, Grian finished the rest of that sentence himself. Blinking a few times, Grian ran a hand through his hair as he went over all his options. Okay, Nota didn’t want to be friends, that was fine.

“Hey, Mumbo,” Grian began slowly. “How did you get on this server again?”

Mumbo visibly got concerned, “I’m afraid to ask why you want to know.”

Grian found himself smiling as he did early, only just without any of the nervousness and all of the snark.

---

Hindsight is twenty-twenty.

Perhaps entering the world before literally everyone else, people that hadn’t even seen Grian yet, was not a particularly smart move.

Yet that did jack all in stopping him from smiling at the “Hermits” as they entered their new server for the first time. Really, what better way to make your character known than having your beautiful face being the first memory they make here? The only downside would be the sweat and dirt covering him and his face.

(Listen, he didn’t know when they would finally join, okay? And he might have overcompensated because of that fact. Maybe chopping down trees and mining for five hours just for a bit was overkill, but they would need to get used to it considering he was going to be one of them now.)

As expected, there was a wide range of expressions. Some were impressed and interested, others were simply apathetic and less than enthused. It wasn’t until the Admin and an older member said some soothing words, the former pointing out that any of them could have done what Grian did and the latter making a joke about how they shouldn’t be rude to the guy for cultivating their world for them. Whatever that meant.

But none of that turned Grian away from what he was focusing on. There, standing right in the middle of the group, was Nota. He was easily the most displeased at the sight of him being there.

Exactly what Grian was hoping for.

For the rest of the season, Grian stayed close to Verba. Grian wanted to be a little shit, but there was a certain level of respect that came with being a little shit so it was best for him to stick with a familiar face to ask questions. Of course, he wasn’t completely isolated; if Nota could make a new friend then so could he. Iskall was amazing, ready to go along with whatever unhinged idea Grian came up with that week.

No one needed to mention how much him joining Mumbo and Grian felt a little too much like his old days or anything.

Especially when Grian was doing everything in his power to do the exact opposite of replicating them.

If Nota didn’t want to be friends, then Grian could respect that.

Which made Nota angrily confronting him out of the blue one day totally unfair.

“What is wrong with you?” Nota spoke through clenched teeth, leaning aggressively on the door frame to Grian’s base.

Grian simply stared at his frenemy, unhappy that his morning routine was interrupted by pettiness, “You want me to go alphabetically or chronologically?”

Nota groaned, almost pulling his hair from his head from how quickly he ran his hands through it, “Fine, you joining the server to get back at me was to be expected honestly, but everything else? The Architechs, stopping The Jangler, you-”

“Hey, I helped you get your items back that one time, didn’t I?” Grian pointed out not so innocently.

“You are doing everything in your power to go against me!” Nota steamrolled through Grian’s attempt at being cheeky, turning around to shout at the air. “Maybe it’s on me for forgetting exactly why we invited you to be a Watcher, but holy cow!”

Grian shrugged, “Hey, you were the one that didn’t want to be friends. You said nothing about enemies. Or personal nuisances.”

Nota froze, “Oh. My Gods.” He turned back around to give Grian an incredulous look, “Are you serious.”

Grian could tell that wasn’t a question, “Oh Nota, you never change, do you?”

Nota sighed, shaking his head in his hand. “It’s not… ‘Nota,’” he mumbled.

Grian tilted his head in genuine confusion, “What? I didn’t understand that.”

“It’s not ‘Nota,’” Nota spoke much louder and not in his hand,” it’s ‘Scar’ now. GoodTimesWithScar. If I have to deal with you, I would hope you have at least a little dignity about our names.”

Grian got offended at that, “Of course not. I’ve done nothing but call Verba ‘Mumbo’ while I’ve been here, haven’t I?”

Nota stood up straight, and if Grian didn’t know any better, he would have said that was a grin tugging at Nota’s lips, “Alright, that’s everything I wanted to get out of the way right now. I’ll leave you be.”

Nota made his move to leave, but a snap decision overcame Grian before Nota could take off, “I’ll stop going after you!”

Nota made an inquisitive noise, only turning his head enough to peek at Grian from over his shoulder, saying nothing else.

It was now or never, “I have a few other plans I want to try out this season. They won’t be so you-targeted anymore if you would like that.”

Nota seemed to not expect that, some of the tension in his shoulders draining away, “That would be… nice. Thank you.”

Grian nodded as he watched Nota finally take off, probably heading back to the ConCorp headquarters to discuss how they wanted to involve themselves in The War now that it was coming to a close. Even though most of their conversation was antagonistic, Grian couldn’t help but feel comforted by the idea that he was making progress somehow.

Staying true to his word, Grian never did something that could be seen as going against Nota specifically. Scar willingly joined in the build battle with the Architechs when they asked if he wanted to, and Demise was always planned to be an everyone thing, which Grian hoped that would earn him brownie points with the rest of the server. He was sure his antics beforehand gained at least a little intrigue, and now he was going all out. He was way more comfortable in his place here and by golly was he going to make it everyone’s problem.

Then Area 77 came along and Ren invited him to join and well, how could he not? Hopefully, Nota would understand that messing with Doc was simply worth semi-breaking a promise or two over. The guy made it too easy to do so really.

Things were looking up a little, and Grian felt like he could fully breathe for the first time since he left the void.

---

One hop, skip and jump into Doc’s portal later, not a lot had changed.

Grian took consolation in the fact that Nota was willing to be neighbors with him, even if that required having three other players there as well.

Oh well, baby steps are still steps.

There was also the fact that Nota at least was willing to hang out with him, unlike last season where he almost broke out in hives every time Grian was in his vicinity. They were friendly, chatty, and if Grian squinted he could imagine there was no bad blood between them. As if their feud was a bad dream and any day now Grian would wake up back in the void when Verba had a slightly less silly name.

He was a Hermit through and through, and he couldn’t be happier about it. He was doubly happy that everyone else had been trained into accepting his fascination with starting wars. Seriously, they would learn why he enjoyed it as much as he did eventually.

Part of his steam was cut off when he realized HEP was being led by none other than Scar, which took him by surprise a little. It seemed like HEP was fully down for some shenanigans, and Scar from the last season wanted nothing of Grian’s shenanigans or him at all. Perhaps Grian could take a breather and stop worrying so much about every one of his minute actions.

Still, a part of him worried Nota would take it the wrong way and they would go back to their tip-toe relationship. After all, Grian was being annoying again, purposefully disrupting something Nota was working hard on just for a joke or two. The worry increased tenfold when the Resistance actually won, followed by Scar walking over to him for a closing conversation. Grian hoped his tensing up was as hidden as he was trying to make it.

“Congrats on the win, Gri,” Nota said fondly when he was in earshot. “Well earned, if I might add. You managed to crawl out of the deep right at the end there, which is impressive.”

Oh, Grian was being stupid again. Go figure. He held a hand out for Nota to shake and let out a deep breath when the man returned it. Grian smiled, “Thank you, and thanks for playing along. I hope you and your group had fun regardless.”

Nota hummed, taking his hand back so he could shove both of his in his pockets. He looked out over their final arena with a grin, and something about his expression said he wasn’t thinking about the war, “I always find myself managing to in the end.”

Grian made a similar humming noise.

---

“I hope Mumbo is doing alright,” Grian said quietly, the sun beating down on his sweat-stained skin after a long day of mining sand. Pizza brayed from the fence post it was hitched to.

Scar hummed noncommittally, not making eye contact and choosing to look out over the desert, dangling his legs off the side of the mountain. He made no move to stop sitting next to Grian. Despite Grian being the reason he died, he still stuck close by even though their agreement gave him ultimate authority, joking around similarly to how they did in the latest season of Hermitcraft.

Grian figured he could add that to his list of wins.

---

Grian was greeted with panicked screaming as he walked out of his alley followed by a loud crashing noise.

Flinching, he looked over at his train to see a butt sticking up in the air with a giant red hat laid perfectly on top of it. Ah, if Scar couldn’t learn to land gracefully, he could at least make his crashes really funny. Walking over to his friend, Grian grabbed the hat and held it underneath his arm, “You doing alright there, pal?”

“Y’p, j’st p’chy,” Nota said into the dirt. Peeling his face off the ground, he shook a little bit of the soot off before looking at Grian to see that he was holding a hand out for him to take. Standing up using the help, he waited patiently for Grian to give him his hat back, “Thank you.”

Grian nodded, a wave of nervousness filling him once his arms were empty, “Of course. Can I ask about what brings you over to this side of Boatem on this fine day?”

Scar explained as he readjusted his suit, “Just here to get some things from your train. It’s very nice not having to crawl down into the depths for deepslate, you know? I hate going down there, and I’m surprised you don’t, but I suppose those are simply my personal neuroses.”

Grian wasn’t sure what the implications behind that were and promptly chose to ignore them anyway. He instead chose to rub his arm, “O-Oh, fair enough.”

Scar picked up on Grian’s anxiety with a head tilt, “Do you not want me to? If you’re doing renovations or something I can go somewhere else.”

“N-No!” Grian cleared his throat when he realized how high-pitched he was getting, “I mean, no, the diamond intake from that part of the G-Train is insane, it’s just… I don’t know. I feel like you wouldn’t want to give me income or revenue unless you absolutely had to.”

“Ooooh… oh,” Nota abruptly realized what Grian was probably thinking about. With a sigh, he took his hat back down off his head and held onto one side of the rim with both hands at his chest, giving Grian a sincere look. “Listen, I know our first encounters on this server were… rough, and neither of us were keen on the idea of thinking too hard about where we came from. But now that we’ve been hanging out more, I’ve realized that a lot of negative things I was experiencing at the time were being unfairly put on you by nothing more than petty association. If I was truly mad about my life being upturned, I would have been mad at Mumbo as well.”

Grian made a noise, and he wasn’t sure if it was a good one or not, “But it was my idea?”

Scar put his hat back on with a tsk, “I am an adult who can learn to say no to his friends if he’s really upset. Honestly, any potential backlash I could have experienced from Those Above could have been prevented with a decent lie. If there’s anything I’ve been good at it’s tricking people into thinking I’m smart and coherent with anything I do.”

Grian giggled, “Ain’t that the truth.”

“Hey, watch it,” Nota lightly reprimanded him, making both of them laugh. Now that everything was calm again, he figured he could ask about something that was bothering him, “By the way, how’s Mumbo doing? I heard he asked for your help with something and I was wondering if it was generic help or… you know…”

Grian paused, “Oh, did he tell you about that?” Scar nodded, so Grian continued, “Ah, yeah, it’s a bit concerning, but I think we got it solved. He just needed a little bit of my ‘soul’ to recharge. His mojo was disappearing for some reason, and I guess borrowing some of mine fixed the problem.”

“Should we worry about why his magic is dissipating?” Nota prodded. “Do you think it might mean something worse is about to happen?”

Grian hummed, placing his hand on his chin, “I don’t know. I think the most likely scenario is what we guessed might happen after being out of the void for all this time and not going back. I’m honestly surprised our connection lasted this long.”

Scar also hummed, but with a tone that said he was much more unsure, “I guess so.” He looked around the area for a second before turning back and giving Grian a mischievous smirk, “Race you to X’s lighthouse and back?”

“Oh, you’re on,” Grian agreed immediately, pulling out his elytra and taking off, Scar not far behind him. The two jeered and laughed and almost nearly crashed, though the last one was more on Scar’s part than Grian’s. It was a fun time, and they even managed to wave at a few Hermits down on the ground as they flew past.

It was later at night when Grian was crawling into bed that his face heated up in embarrassment. Nota, Scar, Scar, Nota, just how many times did he use that name unintentionally? He rarely had that problem with Verba, so why couldn’t he-

Shit, wait, Mumbo, good lord couldn’t he just-

Taking a deep breath, Grian calmed down. He hadn’t blown anyone’s cover yet, and every time he said Scar’s name out loud it was by saying “Scar,” so he didn’t need to freak out. He was deeply tired if how he snuggled into his bedsheets was any indication, and exhaustion made messing up ten times easier. He just needed to get some shut-eye and practice a little more to really ingrain it into his muscle memory

That’s all.

---

Grian was abruptly woken up with a hand aggressively shaking his shoulder.

“Grian,” Mumbo whispered directly into his ear. “Grian, wake up.”

“Mmmmph, five m’re minutes…” he rolled over and barely fought the urge to recoil when his hand accidentally hit a drool pile he made on his pillow at some point during the night.

Mumbo just retaliated by using both hands to shake both shoulders, “But the trade. It’s supposed to be happening right now.”

With that, Grian blinked wide awake and practically flew out of bed, “Maybe start with that next time? Crap, how much time do we have left for the window?”

“About ten minutes, I think,” Mumbo answered, following Grian closely to not wake up the other Southlanders.

“Cool cool cool, just enough time to climb the mountain,” Grian said to himself as he slipped on his boots and chestplate. “Ah, jeez, where’s my bow and sword? I know I left them around here some-” he looked up to see Mumbo holding the weapons, “where. Thank you.”

Grian took them from a nodding Mumbo, who was silent as they made their way out of the walls and toward Magic Mountain. Right before they reached the top, Grian felt the urge to look up and see what he was approaching. It was a smart decision, seeing as Nota was waiting up there for them already.

“High time the two of you showed up,” Scar stated plainly. “I was getting worried you were going to flake last second.”

Grian got to the very top first, meaning he had to lean over to help Mumbo up the last few feet by hoisting him up. He managed to keep the conversation going through it all, “Sorry, got a little too comfy sleeping tonight and took a second to wake up.”

Scar began walking to his hut, “Must be nice being able to do that.”

Grian wasn’t sure to feel slighted by that comment or feel a sense of dread pool in his gut.

“Ah, personal sleeping habits aside,” Mumbo interjected, “you have the stuff we agreed on, yes?”

Scar nodded, saying nothing else.

Oi, it was going to be like that tonight, wasn’t it?

Grian glanced toward Mumbo to see that Mumbo thought the same thing. Still, a deal was a deal, and the Southlands really needed the stuff Scar was offering. With that in mind, Grian stood strong as he followed Scar with Mumbo in less than hot pursuit.

As they stepped inside, Mumbo and Grian examined the various crystals and weapons adorning the walls. Scar was rummaging behind a counter, and right as the two Southlanders got to it, he stood up and placed a pile of books and a few bottles on top, “Alrighty, that should be everything you asked for. I’m assuming you have my iron?”

Mumbo and Grian blinked, not expecting Nota to get straight to the point like that. Mumbo quickly moved to pull the ten iron out from his inventory, “Yes, here.”

He deposited it into Scar’s waiting arms, who made sure to count each individual one. Grian thought it was horribly ironic that he was making sure he wasn’t the one being scammed in this interaction. “Do the ingots lose value or something if they have a scratch on them?” Grian prodded, somewhat rudely, somewhat sarcastically.

Scar looked up from the pile to give Grian a look. Grian was pretty sure it meant derogatory things, but he liked to think there was a little bit of fondness in it too. Scar sighed, pocketing the payment and pushing the items he was giving up toward his customers.

"Alright, with all that out of the way," Scar began to finish, "I hope you two have a safe trip home."

With that, Scar started scribbling in a journal, no longer making eye contact or even acknowledging Grian and Mumbo.

Grian rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath, "How considerate."

Which was the wrong thing to do.

Scar blinked, looking up from the counter with a disbelieving smile, “Oh, I’m considerate? Just like how you two were when you decided to leave me all alone to chase after some sand?”

Scar took a step toward them from the opening in the counter, making them take a step back as they still faced him. Mumbo cleared his throat, “Scar, we offered you a spot with us in The South. You could have joined us just as much as we could have joined you.”

Scar moved forward enough to where he was in the doorway and they were outside, “That’s not the point! It’s the fact that no matter where we get in life, I have to worry about you two taking the first opportunity to do whatever you want with no consideration for me!”

Grian and Mumbo glanced at each other, not sure what to say. They know they could have been more considerate of Nota’s concerns about escaping, and Nota knows that he could have put his foot down more than he did if he really didn’t want to leave, right? They’ve all had these conversations already, surely some of it had to have stuck? Then again, escaping was a serious decision that might have backfired horribly if they dilly-dallied and also ended up working out for the better, which was probably part of the reason Nota ultimately got softer over the years.

This time, there was no real risk. No punishments were waiting for them if they changed their mind. The only reason they didn’t consider Scar’s plans was because they simply didn’t want to and didn’t think his viewpoint was worth it.

“I thought we were getting somewhere,” Nota said, looking a lot like he did that night when they all escaped. “The years on Hermitcraft and the last time I was in this world, you- I finally thought we reached a middle ground of sorts. But I guess what you two want always matters most in the end, huh?”

Grian felt something twist in his chest at that as he held a hand out. As if he could pull Nota back to them telepathically, “Nota, wait-”

Oh shit.

No- Scar turned around to face him, and instead of having an expression of annoyance or anger, his expression screamed hurt.

Grian could have handled anger. He had been handling Scar’s anger for a good portion of his life at this point, what was a little bit more to add to the pile? But seeing his friend feel as if Grian was just adding salt to the wound that was already a monumental mess up? Grian was pretty sure that not only did he not know how to handle that, but he was also sure he would never recover from seeing it.

“Scar, I didn’t- I’m sorry-” Grian tried, but his efforts were a moot point. With a particularly hard shove of the door, Scar slammed it shut, leaving Mumbo and Grian to stare at it shocked and befuddled.

Mumbo laughed nervously once, "Man, I forgot how persnickety he gets from time to time, right?"

He turned to look at Grian and was heartbroken at the stricken expression on his face. Grian rubbed the back of his neck with a sigh before turning around to head back to their base. The lack of any kind of quip threw Mumbo for a loop.

"Grian…" Mumbo almost called out but elected to just speak to himself at the end. He figured trying to comfort Grian right now would be fruitless. He sighed in a similar way to his friend before begrudgingly following in his footsteps.

Once they got back to the Southlands, Grian went promptly into their bed area to the corner with the chests, plopped on the floor, pulled out a map, and began sketching secret routes and key areas for them to remember as important. Mumbo checked up the others first, giving them some excuse as to why they were gone that wasn't fraternizing with the enemy and leaned around the cave's entrance to see what Grian was up to. With a shake of his head, he decided to make his way over to sit next to him, observant enough to notice that nothing could be said that would fix this.

Mumbo sat next to him for the rest of the day sharpening some swords and axes for everyone; ever-present, ever silent. Impulse checked up on them a few times, offering some water and food, but Mumbo turned it down with a thankful smile every time. They had a big dinner the previous day, so Impulse should save it for the other two when they come back from the mines. Definitely not because it looked like Grian couldn’t keep anything down and it would be a waste or anything. It meant a lot that Grian made sure to give him a small smile every once in a while to know his efforts were appreciated.

Grian eventually went to bed when it got dark again, and the next day when he woke up, was back to his normal self like he had never had a single bad day in his life.

It was nice of Impulse to check up on him throughout the afternoon, but really, they needed to focus on their low iron supply, don't worry about him.

---

“Hey, Gri, are you alright?” Impulse waved a hand in front of his face.

Grian took a second to register he was being spoken to, and once he did, he quickly blinked the fatigue from his eyes. He also tried mustering up a convincing chuckle, though he was sure he was less successful there than he was with his first action, “Oh, yeah, yeah. Just tired. Aimlessly walking in the void forever takes a lot out of a player.”

Boatem had been in here for nearly two weeks now, three-fifths of them about to collapse on their feet while the other two had never felt better.

Right before the moon crashed into their home, the ex-Watchers met in the dead of night, surrounded by the aggressive whooshing of blocks flying in the sky. They had all agreed that jumping into the hole was the best way to escape their fates, but the issue of their much more human friends came into question. There was no way those two would survive void-walking.

Thankfully, Mumbo’s massive brain saved the day once more. His calculations concluded that if the three of them made sure to constantly “boost” Impulse and Pearl, in a sense, they wouldn’t be harmed by the void’s energy. The three of them nearly made a blood oath to never, ever let up using their powers for as long as they were down here, even if they collapsed into unconsciousness from overexertion. As long as it meant their friends stayed safe.

Grian tried not to be too hurt by Scar’s glance at him during that discussion.

“Wait, where’s Pearl?” Grian suddenly pointed out, and genuinely. He just realized she was unusually quiet, given her proclamation to be the group’s “Number One Bestest Pick-Em-Upper There Ever Was!” Either she was in trouble—Grian had been using more of his powers than necessary today, there was no way it was his fault—or-

“Riiiiight here!” she yelled, jumping onto Impulse and yanking the back of his suit like it was horse reins. He let out a shocked yelp as he reached behind him to try and buck her off. No negative emotions came from the ordeal, thankfully, just everyone laughing as Impulse failed to beat a player half his size.

As he laid on the “ground” face down, Pearl sat on his middle back with a triumphant cross of her arms, “That makes four for me and two for you. Ooh! I think that means I’m beating Gem’s score now too!”

Impulse’s enthusiastic muffled groan only got everyone to laugh harder as he gave her a shaky thumbs-up.

As Grian wheezed his lungs out, he felt Mumbo come up beside him to join in, and only briefly stuttered at the sight of Scar on the other side of their human friends.

Grian chose to think that Scar was also staring at them and not at him.

---

“Quickly, there’s the exit!” Scar pointed ahead, the rest of Boatem following in his footsteps.

Xisuma had managed to contact them, saying he and a couple of other Hermits were safe inside a new world. Not everyone yet, but they were on their way soon. With Doc’s help, they could set up a faux portal of sorts to get Boatem out of there and back into a tangible world. The questions about how X and Doc could not only find them but tear into the void itself could come later when they were free and breathing real air for once.

“GUYS! LOOK OUT!” Mumbo shrieked right after Impulse and Pearl bounded through the bright light.

Grian and Scar turned to look at what scared their friend so badly and immediately understood his panic. A thick, navy purple smog was coming upon them fast, threatening to swarm their entire bodies. Both let out fearful noises as they turned around to run faster, but it was all for naught as the substance began to do what it set out to do: swallow them whole.

Grian couldn’t breathe. All he could do was cough and choke as he was pulled further and further into whatever. No, they were about to finally escape, please don’t make them stay.

As he was deposited onto a hard surface to continue hacking up the rest of the hopefully-not-poisonous air, it occurred to him that Mumbo and Scar were coughing similarly to him in the nearby vicinity. Clenching his fists against the ground, Grian did his best to project his voice despite his lungs being almost torn in half. “Are-” another cough, “Are you guys okay? Talk to me!”

Mumbo rubbed his chin with his arm, “I’m-” he let out one last cough as well, “alright. Well, as alright as I can be.”

“Same here,” Scar spoke, confirming his presence. “But that doesn’t answer the obvious question.”

Where were they?

Standing up, Grian looked around and tried parsing out the area they were in. It seemed like they were still in the void all things considered. It was the same darkness they had spent their previous weeks in if only a little darker and-

“Well well well, if it isn’t the three little traitors,” an omnipresent voice spoke from around them. “We thought we’d never come across you again.”

Oh no. No no no no no. This could not be happening.

Now all three of them were definitely standing up, and they were definitely stanced up on top of that. They knew what that voice meant. They had gone years without hearing it, yet it still managed to strike fear into their hearts all the same. The voice showing up meant one thing: they fucked up and they fucked up badly.

“Show yourself!” Scar yelled out, frantically looking around for anything he could aim at and hit.

But there was nothing to see, only feel. It was almost as if a cold wind blew through the area, all three of them shivering at the sudden drop in temperature. “Ohohoho, I should show myself? That’s a lot coming from the people who didn’t show themselves even once to us these past years.”

Grian didn’t like where this was going, “What do you want from us?”

If a voice could visibly pause, that was the closest thing they would get to knowing what it looked like, “I think you know exactly what we want, Xelqua.”

He knew where this was going. He did. So why did hearing them refer to him with that name send chills down his spine?

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” the voice began. “The three of you are in very deep shit with all that you have been risking on your little romp. Get ready, because your punishment will come any day now. Be happy you’re getting a warning; you don’t even deserve that.”

“Hey, wait a second!” Mumbo objected. “At least tell us what we did wrong! I mean, I guess it’s kind of obvious, but I would appreciate the specificity!”

The voice did that pause-thing again, “You should have thought of that before allowing a random we let you invite into our ranks to influence you. Good day.”

Grian felt a surge of shame run through him, and as Scar tried objecting like Mumbo did—albeit a lot more aggressively—they were all stopped by a now physical but still invisible force pushing them together toward a sudden light, similar to the one Impulse and Pearl used to leave the void.

They all screamed as they were shoved through the portal, stopping when they felt the cold, hard ground hit their backs. They lay there on the ground, tangled up in a pile of soreness and fear. They finally managed to sit up at the same time Pearl called out to them, running over to kneel at their side in concern, “Are you okay?! We got worried when you guys didn’t immediately come through the portal!”

Mumbo and Scar shook their heads to get rid of the rest of the haze affecting them, Mumbo electing to speak, “I don’t know. I think we are. Grian?”

Grian held his head in one of his hands as he looked at all of his friends, mostly at Mumbo and Scar, who was staring at him expectedly. Like they knew he was going to lie and say he was okay when they all knew otherwise. For some reason, this made him particularly annoyed.

“Yes, we’re fine. Thanks for asking, Pearl,” shoving the two of them off, Grian stomped over to some nearby trees to collect wood and get ready for the night.

As you could see, he was going to need to be in tip-top shape for the next couple of weeks.

---

Grian exited from his temporary sleeping area to head toward the spot he decided to use for his bit this season. He was promptly stopped in his tracks at the sight of Mumbo and Scar outside, chatting and holding a pickaxe and regular axe on their respective shoulders. They quieted when they noticed Grian in the corner of their eyes. Ah, so they were repeating their neighbor setup from last season, huh? Grian would need to message Pearl and Impulse and ask what they were up to at some point.

Squinting his eyes, Grian examined his friends(?) and their current appearances to see if they joined in with all the other Hermits that decided to change their aesthetics. As usual, Mumbo was the same tall bloke he normally was and Scar-

Scar had long hair loosely tied at the middle of his back. Just like how he wore it when he was officially a Watcher.

It was as if he built the word “subtle” with glowstone blocks.

Rolling his eyes, Grian turned so he could walk in a direction somewhat away from them, but he didn’t get far before he picked up on the sound of footsteps trying to discreetly follow him and failing horribly at the “discreetly” part.

Groaning out loud, he turned around to face them, “What do you want?”

His snap must have been rather ferocious because it even made Scar flinch a little. Unsurprisingly, Scar was able to recover much faster than Mumbo, “Maybe we don’t want you walking around alone right now?”

“So now you’re going to pretend to care, okay,” Grian said unimpressed. He went back to walking away, waving a hand in the air to show how much he disapproved of this, “Whatever, I highly doubt it’ll change much. Do what you want that makes you feel proud of yourselves I guess.”

Scar was getting heated, a familiar emotion when it came to his reactions to Grian, “Don’t just wave this off! They’ll come at any point, and especially when you’re vulnerable, so take it a little seriously!”

Grian scoffed, turning only his head to look at Scar specifically, “I would have thought you would be looking forward to something like this.”

Grian felt a little bad when a flash of regret appeared on Scar’s face, but Mumbo jumping into the argument interrupted that potential realization, “Grian! I know you two have had your disagreements over the years, but not even Scar is jaded enough to wish something like that on you. All we want to do is protect you, what’s so wrong with that?”

Grian froze at that. He could have said just about anything. Because this whole fiasco wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t get involved with you two? Because you two were happy and satisfied with your lives before I came and threw a giant wrench into it? Because I bet you two would have agreed with your superiors about this “punishment” if it was happening to literally anyone but me?

In the end, Grian went back to walking away, “I’m not in the mood to explain my feelings. Like I said, do what you want as long as I can still get the things I want to be done today finished.”

At some point, Grian thought he managed to scare them off. Then, while he was chopping down some trees for wood, he noticed them spying on him while hiding poorly in some bushes. Grian considered telling them to knock it off again, or at least make a funny quip that they couldn’t possibly expect to take on Those Above if they can’t even squat in a bush properly.

He ended up doing none of those things. He just let out a sigh and went back to doing his chores. Keenly aware of two pairs of eyes watching him throughout the rest of the day.

---

Somehow, through meddling as sneaky as a drunk panda in a window shop, Grian made it so everything aligned perfectly.

Mumbo was currently at Xisuma's to organize an off-server break for himself (after the giant threat was taken care of, obviously, he wasn't going to leave his friends to face it alone, Grian) and Scar was fast asleep. It was hard not camping all together every night in some weird huddle pile to be prepared, but Grian intentionally and fairly pointed out that if they came across as too prepared, Those Above would just find ways around it.

So that left them to just repeatedly check in on one another during the day and sleep in their own bases at night. The latter part of which Grian was wholeheartedly ignoring tonight to look at Scar through one of his windows. With a sigh, Grian took off into the night. He had been reading some eye twitches wrong recently, yay for lack of sleep, but he was pretty sure this one was real. Just in case, he used a little extra of his powers for no reason other than to be a beacon of attention.

Standing on an indiscriminate mountain far away from all the other Hermits, the night sky and its stars shining above him—ironically a lot like the ones he was under when this whole mess started—he watched as two Those Above jumped out from a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it rift at lightning speed, landing so hard on the ground they made cracks and indents in it. They slowly stood up, uncurling like snakes to glare at Grian, who had no issue glaring right back. He found himself making one of those smiles you made in unpleasant company, “Hello, welcome to Hermitcraft. I hope you don’t mind the mess; we’ve only just settled in.”

“Ah, yes, this server,” one of them stated. “We’ve been meaning to check it out for a while, but only just now found a reason to do so.”

Oh jeez, were they waiting for their own permission to come here? Grian really forgot how boring that life was, huh, “Well, I’m sorry to hear that, considering I have a proposition.” Grian took this time to expose his extra eyes and float down off the rock to be even smaller in comparison to Those Above, “I want to go with you willingly back to wherever it is you want to take us.”

The other leaned over the first one, looking down at Grian like the ex-Watcher was playing a trick, “What? You can’t be serious. We know how you operate, and that means there’s a catch.”

Grian smiled, placing his hands on his hips, “Eh, sort of. All I want is for you to leave Verba and Nota alone. As long as you only take me, I’ll make no complaints.”

The first one squinted, “Do you have any reason as to why we should accept this deal?”

“If… If it weren’t for me,” Grian found it hard to admit something he had accepted as fact for the past few years, “Verba and Nota would have stayed as Watchers. Running away was my idea and my idea alone. Don’t take out my selfish desires on some of the best people I’ve ever known. Besides, nothing could be a worse feeling than knowing they could have come with me but didn’t. You might wanna capitalize on that.”

The first one hummed, considering what Xelqua was offering them, “I must say, you can be rather diplomatic when you want to be. Alright, a deal’s a deal.” They snapped their fingers.

Grian couldn’t even blink before the other one was shooting forward, pouncing on him with their giant, clawed hand and forcing him to the ground with such pressure that he almost didn’t feel his head bounce off the ground when he landed. He made a choking noise full of pain, trembling in the other one’s hold as his vision slowly became clear once more.

“Wh- What…” his statement was more of a croak.

The first one giggled, clapping their hands together as they looked down on him in mischievous glee, “Oh, don’t worry, we’re still following the deal you offered us! It’s just that we planned to take you out right here and now. Can’t risk leaving loose ends. I’m sure you’re very familiar with that concept.”

No.

That couldn’t happen. He supposed one day his antics would get him in fatal trouble, but he drew the line at being brutally murdered and left as some kind of sick message for his friends. He wouldn’t put them through that no matter what. Some might question why he was objecting to hurting them now when before that was part of the deal, but c’mon, did you seriously not think he would just find a way to escape again after a little bit?

Kind of hard to do that when he was flippin’ dead.

He struggled against the hand pushing him harder and harder into the ground, kicking and scratching at the palm as much as he could, but it was futile. The hand squished him roughly, making him make another choking noise as well as start to choke in general. He was pretty sure he heard something crack, but he wasn’t sure if it was the ground underneath him or something inside him. His vision began to blackout, his struggles died off, and all he could think of was that he hoped Mumbo and Scar forgave themselves at some point.

As his hands dropped to his sides, a voice screeched out, “GET OFF OF HIM!”

The Those Above blinked and then shrieked as something hit them hard. It was some kind of magic, it looked like, and when the other one took their hand off Grian, allowing him to breathe and sit up, Grian panicked particularly hard. Oh, Gods, Scar was here, and he looked pissed.

He flew in and landed right in front of Grian, breathing heavily and his hands glowing so bright you almost couldn’t see the color of the magic. His eyes resembled fire, and Grian wasn’t sure if that was making it hard to speak or the potentially broken ribs, “S-Scar, you-”

“Zip it, Grian,” Scar snapped, shutting him up. Scar turned to look at him, and Grian, unlike other moments like this, could tell the anger in Scar’s expression was more akin to panic, “We will have this conversation when you’re not in the mood to throw yourself to the wolves in some weird attempt at atonement.”

Eeh, did he hear any of the conversation Grian was having with Those Above?

That scared Grian more than Those Above, to be honest.

“Oh Nota,” the first one groaned, the effects of the magic finally wearing off, “out of all of us to fall from grace, you were the most disappointing option. Xelqua regrettably made sense, but you? How unfortunate. You were so liked by everyone too.”

If Scar could physically growl he probably would have, “That name was never yours to refer to him as.” He briefly turned back to look at him, “And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

With that, Scar jumped back into battle. Grian got up on his knees to watch as Scar stupidly fought two Those Above as if fighting one wasn’t already impossible enough. He felt a line of blood drip down from his head, unable to wipe it off due to being in awe at the fact that Scar was actually coming out somewhat on top.

Then the other one managed to get a lucky swipe in, smacking Scar in the air and whipping him into the ground, cracking against the ground much like Grian did expect way faster. He let out one singular choking noise and then was silent, lying as still as an unused pickaxe.

Grian felt his heart stop.

The first one groaned as they stared at Scar’s prone form, “Ugh, this has already gone so far off course. Hurry up and dispose of them, I’m getting tired.”

“Do we want to go after Verba when this is done?” the other one asked, charging up some magic.

The first one shook their head, “No, he’ll be fine to leave. He’s not that worrisome, not in comparison with the other two at least-”

Grian found one last boost of adrenaline within him to throw some magic at the Those Above, easily making them even more annoyed than they already were. He didn’t care. He was too busy somehow managing to stand and run over to Scar to turn the man around. There were some burn marks on his face as well as a little bit of blood.

He was not going to cry like a baby right now, absolutely not, “Scar. Scar please, if anyone needs to be sorry it’s me.” He shook Scar a little bit, getting nothing in response, “Look! Grian’s apologizing, isn’t that a once in a lifetime experience? You just gotta wake up so you can hear it! Please.”

He placed his face against the front of Scar, squeezing his friend as much as he could in his weakened state. There was no way he could take on Those Above with the damage he already took. It sounded like the first one had now reached the “furious” stage of their anger as well, “THAT IS IT! If you want something done right, you do it yourself!”

As Grian held Scar close to him, closing his eyes in preparation for what he was going to feel, he slowly became confused as he registered no pain and no sudden movements from behind him. Turning around, Scar still held against his chest, he gasped at the sight of Mumbo standing valiantly in front of them, kneeling on one knee and using a fist to prop himself up. It was always hard to tell when Mumbo was genuinely angry, as his anger was much quieter and unnoticeable.

He had no problem making sure you knew he was absolutely peeved right now.

“You still have magic?!” the other one panicked. “How?! You were the weakest, you shouldn’t have any left!”

Mumbo grinned in a way that said he was a little too happy with himself, “Well, it turns out that having friends willing to go above and beyond for your sake makes personal crises a lot easier to handle! And it also turns out that you don’t appreciate it when they’re violently attacked either.”

“Mumbo…” Grian said in shock, the sight of a friendly face subconsciously making Grian loosen his hold on Scar. Safety safety safety.

Mumbo turned around to look at him with a comforting smile, “Hey. Sorry I took so long, the cavalry decided to take their sweet time in getting ready.”

It was hard to tell who suddenly joined the fight with his blurry vision, but he could definitely see at least Xisuma and Doc. It looked like Joe was here too. Wait, was that one TFC somehow? What-

“EUGH!” the first one screamed, jumping back and yanking the other one with them. “Don’t kill us! Do you have any idea what could happen if we get taken out?!”

Mumbo stood to his full height as well as took a step forward, “Oh no, don’t worry, we don’t plan to kill you. We all know how important you are to the servers we live in, unfortunately, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get our point across without that. You see, all of us care about each other a lot here,” another step, “and, as stated, we take personal offense when someone tries to hurt us! So let this be a lesson to you guys,” one last step to put his feet together, “never come back here. Ever. Not just because we’ll never forgive you for this, but because I don’t particularly enjoy being called ‘weak.’ Seriously, puts a damper on your heart a little bit.”

What had Grian been saying? Mumbo was way more complex than anyone gave him credit for? Yeah.

“Now that that’s out of the way, we- Grian?!” Mumbo turned around to look at his friends fall over, their exhaustion and injuries finally coming together to be too much to handle. Grian couldn’t really understand what he said from there on out outside of the panicked yelling—Xisuma was in the area with them, Mumbo didn’t need to shout that loudly for him—but Grian didn’t need to.

His family was there for him and that was all that mattered.

---

Grian woke up sore.

He sat up slowly and immediately regretted it. Breathing was already a struggle before, now it was even worse since he strained his body to move. Before he could collapse again from stupidity, a sudden hand was on his shoulder and another hand was holding a bottle containing bright pink liquid in front of him.

“Easy now,” a voice spoke. “Drink this and you’ll feel better.”

Grian soon recognized the voice as their familiar Admin and wasted no time in drinking what he now knew to be a Health Potion. He felt instantly better when the first drop hit his tongue, and proceeded to only get better as the rest of it went down his throat. It was so good that he choked on the last little bit he was drinking so fast, making X pat him on the back to help clear the residue.

Once that was situated, Xisuma popped the cork back into the bottle and leaned over to get Grian’s full attention, “How are you feeling now?”

Grian rubbed his mouth with his sleeve, “B-Better. Where are we?”

Xisuma stood up, “We’re inside a temporary base of sorts. I had Doc and Joe help make a little hut for the three of you to recuperate considering you guys probably haven’t had time to properly make any place to sleep. At least, not one that could safely handle your injuries.”

Wait, the three of you?

Looking around the room, Grian noticed some significant things. Off to Grian’s left in a chair by the door and slightly behind X was a slouching and passed out Mumbo Jumbo, his arms crossed and a minor amount of drool slipping down his chin. Then, down at the bottom of his bed to the right was-

Was Scar. He had a bandage around his head, but he was there, sleeping practically on top of Grian. There was no way that was comfortable if Grian was sitting in a relatively okay position and hurt like a bitch. Yet he still sat there, curled up and everything.

“Well, I suppose this is my cue to leave,” X stated, standing up and walking away. He paused at the doorway to glance back at Grian, “Feel free to ask any questions you may have, I’m sure we’ll be able to get them answered in no time.”

Xisuma winked, his open eye briefly turning purple and breaking Grian’s mind in the span of one second.

Then the door was shut, leaving Grian to sit there frozen in shock. Holy stars, Xisuma was an ex-Watcher as well? And Grian was left to open that can of worms by himself? Just how many Watchers existed to the point that more than he and his friends were able to leave? Were there other Watchers hiding away on Hermitcraft? Is that why X so readily accepted him, because he knew secretly that they were all-

Movement came from his feet, and he turned just in time to make eye contact with Scar who widened his eyes in shock at the sight of his friend finally awake. Grian opened his mouth to speak but firmly got cut off by Scar leaping forward and gripping him in a giant hug. Grian managed to return the hug for all of three seconds before wincing, his ribs brutally reminding him of why they were there in the first place.

“Sorry, sorry,” Scar said, leaning away. It almost looked like there were tears in the corners of his eyes, and him wiping them didn’t help. Once again, Grian was going to speak but was interrupted by Scar. This time by the man pinching his ear and pulling hard, “What is wrong with you?!”

Grian made noises to signify that he was more offended than he was actually being hurt, “What is wrong with me? What’s wrong with you? You were the one that charged in all alone!”

Scar let go, waving his hands around for dramatic effect, “Yes, after you did it first! You don’t get to call the kettle black right now!”

“I was trying to keep you guys safe!” Grian retorted.

“That doesn’t matter if you aren’t doing the same for yourself!” Scar mirrored, promptly shutting down any argument Grian had.

Both of them glared at each other, their anger falling short of the presentation because both of them were more so pouting than actually glaring.

Faltering a little, Grian took a moment to rethink how to approach this. He ended up rubbing one of his arms with his hand nervously, “You can’t exactly disagree that this whole mess is mostly my fault. Were they wrong in saying that you two would have left if I never showed up?”

“I was worried you were going to say that,” Scar sighed, sitting on the bed and placing his hands on the covers next to his hips. He briefly tapped his fingers as he took a moment to word what he wanted to say in his head, “Do you remember that talk we had about our names back when we were still Watchers?”

Okay, rapidly change the point of discussion a little less next time, please, “Yes? I don’t know what this has to do with the current conversation though.”

Scar laughed, way too happy that he’s thrown his friend for a loop, “I’ve just been thinking about it. Especially since that night on Magic Mountain.”

Yikes, they never really resolved that, did they? “Listen, I know I’ve messed up, but please believe me when I say that was the first time I screwed up about that. I never-”

Scar held up a hand with a calm smile, simultaneously calming Grian’s racing heartbeat but also making it worse, “That’s not why I brought it up. Er, well, it is, but not for the exact reasons you’re probably thinking.”

Grian tilted his head, subconsciously nudging Scar to continue.

"It just made me realize how much I missed us," Scar admitted. "Nota and Xelqua, hanging out, doing dumb stuff, and me using my brain cell to get us out of particularly dumb stuff." Grian snickered a little, Scar continuing after he was done, "I keep letting these small things blow up instead of just talking about them, and this week it blew up in the worst way, so I want to be better. Learn to put my foot down a little more, you know?"

"Yeah," Grian agreed, holding out a hand. "I also could learn a thing or two about backing off. Perhaps you don't need me to laugh at you every time you die and lose all your stuff."

With mirroring smiles, Scar reached out to finish the handshake, rekindling their lost embers over the years.

Letting go, Grian still felt bad about one thing, "Also, I know we just went over it, but I really hope you don't think I've been flippant about your names. I mean it when I say I've only screwed up out loud that night, never in front of anyone else."

To Grian's surprise, Scar waved him off, "Don't worry about it. Nothing bad ever came of it, and it wasn't the name usage that bothered me anyway."

Grian blinked, "Do you… not care about which name gets used then?"

"Well, no, I still prefer Scar. That whole 'the most important thing is the stuff we get to choose' convo comes to mind again," he said, making Grian flustered, "but back then part of me was still thinking of the name as a disguise instead of an actual identifier, so yes, I was more hurt over the stuff you're worrying about than anything else. But!" Scar kept going over Grian's flinch, "We just discussed how we both know better, cool your tail feathers. It's okay, Gri."

Grian thinned his lips, "It's just-"

Scar shook his head, fond of Grian's familiar antics, "Listen, you knew me as only for that for a good portion of our lives, and then I bet it was hard to fully leave that headspace while constantly worrying about that part of your life coming back to bite you in the ass, right?" Grian reluctantly nodded, not sure where Scar got that oddly specific situation from, "Then there's nothing to worry about. If it makes you feel better, I occasionally mixed it up in my head for the same reason." Oh.

"It's also not like you're the only guilty party in the room here," a new voice spoke. Mumbo. He was awake and he must have heard a lot of their conversation, "At least it was just us when you slipped. Back when you first joined Hermitcraft, I accidentally referred to you as 'Xelqua' when Xisuma asked me about you. At least I now understand the lack of reaction he had when I abruptly corrected myself."

He sat down on the other side of the bed, Grian chastising him with everything but actual anger, "You almost blew our cover on day one? How could you?!"

Mumbo chuckled, bringing his shorter friends into a hug, one friend in each arm, "I'm happy to see you two okay." The three of them split, Mumbo leaving his hands on one of their shoulders as they grinned at one another. They had never been happier to have been alive than right now. Eventually, Mumbo let go, a brief moment of silence filling the room as they figured out what to say next.

“So…” Grian started, wanting to get the elephant out of the room. “X is…”

Mumbo picked up what he was trying to say, “A Watcher, yeah, caught me off guard as well. We were talking about my break and then he suddenly got a notif about a weird breach in the whitelist. Turns out he had been ready for this day ever since he met Doc. Apparently, Doc made a big mistake and was cast out. He was lucky he ended up missing only an arm and eye.”

As Scar sat still, aggressively trying to get his brain to catch up with the current information, Grian simply nodded his head and continued the conversation, “I always wondered about those. What about TFC and Joe? I’m pretty sure I saw those two as well?”

“TFC said he aged out of the profession and needed a place to stay,” Mumbo explained. That cryptic comment he made when he first saw Grian suddenly made a lot more sense. Mumbo continued, “Joe isn’t actually one I’m pretty sure, he just offered to help because he didn’t want stuff going down right at the start of the season.”

Of course.

“Wait a minute, hang on,” Scar said, finally figuring out how to talk again, “did they mention their Watcher names at all? None of the ones they have sound like Watcher names, but it's not like we really talked to others outside of us so for I all know there was a Watcher named 'Tin Foil Chef.' Though, now that I think about it, X's name sounds like it could be-"

“Oh my gosh!” Mumbo groaned, interrupting Scar and placing his head in his hands. “Xisuma’s name has always been Xisuma! He just figured we’d assume him to be too dopey to be ever trusted with our kind of power in his life! He assumed correctly and I feel like such a fool.”

Grian and Scar blinked before Grian glanced over at Scar with a grin, “So it is true; Watcher names all end in A! I knew it!”

Scar rolled his eyes so hard that Grian was pretty sure he saw the back of his skull.

“Ah, you might not want to celebrate too quickly, Gri,” Mumbo warned, making the room go tense before chuckling with a lighthearted tone. “Pearl is not happy. With any of us, really, but you especially. I figured I should be a ‘bro’ and give you a heads up.”

Forget Those Above, forget an angry Scar, that successfully struck more fear into Grian than anything ever in his entire life. Including high school. And that was a very high bar.

Grian groaned, placing his face into one of his hands, “I knew she would find out sooner rather than later. I wondered why she didn’t ask when we first met up, but I suppose she was just being nice and waiting for me to say something without prompting. I guess she’s done being nice now.”

Scar laughed and grimaced at the same time, the kind of thing you do when you want to say haha, yep, we’re screwed, “Well, worse comes to worst, we’re all together in this now, yeah? We can handle whatever happens as a team.” Scar placed a hand on Grian’s shoulder with a firm and comforting shake.

Mumbo placed a hand on his opposite shoulder, similar to how he had it earlier.

Grian glanced back and forth at his friends, a warmth blossoming in his chest like a flower that refused to bloom until the perfect circumstances were met, “Yeah, together.”

---

Grian tried poking Mumbo with a stick only to receive the smallest of twitches from the man.

“Did you really think trying again a day later would change anything?” Scar said cheekily from the entrance to the farm.

Mumbo ended up not going off the server for his break after all, electing to find time to pass out at one of his builds for a deep sleep. He was at first curled up around one of his chests which Grian quickly rectified because as much as he adored his friend he was not in the mood to hear him gritch about the knots in his back thank you very little. Now he was calmly laid across a cot off toward the side, looking peaceful while Grian suffered in agony about not being able to talk to him.

Grian stopped leaning over to stand at his full height and place his hands on his hips, staring at Scar, “Okay mister, it’s not like I saw you do this exact same thing earlier this morning or anything.”

Scar held his hands up in a surrender pose as he walked further into the farm, “Guilty as charged.” Once he got next to Grian, he brought his hands down to cross them at his chest, “So when is he going to come back? Did he say?”

Grian whined, placing the stick on the ground for the next time they attempted this, “No, he said he would be out of it anywhere from a week to a month.”

Scar’s expression became noticeably dejected at that, “Ah, that’s not great.”

They were genuinely happy their friend was getting a break—he literally saved their lives, it was the least he deserved—but still, he had been gone only for a few days and they quickly realized that it was a few days too many.

As they left the farm together, Scar suddenly started grinning, “He shouldn’t have been so worried about us going at each other again. Clearly, we’re unified in our struggles at the moment.”

Grian was stretching his arms over his head and abruptly broke his posture to snicker at the comment, “Oh, please don’t let him know. If he knew about this way to control us we'd never get any pranks in ever again.”

“Oh my god, you’re absolutely right,” Scar laughed. “My lips are going to be sealed tighter than bedrock.”

Grian shook his head, “That’s not saying much when we’re able to blow it up you know!”

They were still laughing when they got back to their bases, Grian sitting on one of Scar’s chests and kicking his legs while the man rummaged through another one. Grian sighed as he watched the clouds roll through the sky up above, “Did you ever think we’d get here?”

Scar froze, absorbing the question as he slowly closed the chest’s lid after finding what he was looking for, “You know, not really. I figured we’d get somewhere nice, but nothing like this.”

“Do you think…” Grian wanted to word this carefully. “Do you think it really was worth it? Do you think we would have been just as content if we had stayed?”

Scar stood up fully, throwing an arm around Grian’s shoulders as he looked up at the clouds as well, “I think you know the answer to that.”

Grian hummed, taking a deep breath, enjoying the fresh air of a new world, “I guess I do.”