Work Text:
Bdubs is starting to think that Etho sent the wrong coordinates to his so-called “revolutionary” shulker-sorter. He’s been poking around this stupid jungle for a while now, and all he’s seen are little bits of fallen bamboo, the occasional footprint that’s way too small to be anything but a particularly silly bird, but probably even smaller, and some discarded scrap materials.
Etho usually isn’t one to leave his materials behind, Bdubs thinks to himself, a little worried now, and he messes with the hood of his moss blanket nervously. “Um… Etho?” he calls out.
There isn’t a response, and now Bdubs feels a bit silly, but then he hears a twig snap from a nearby tree. His initial thought is that it could be Etho trying to prank him, but his white-haired friend never makes such careless mistakes when he wants to be sneaky.
That is, unless he’s calling my bluff that I’m thinking that, and then he’ll jump me! Or… maybe he’s thinking that I know he’s going to call my bluff, and that he’ll actually be behind the tree. Maybe he knows that I know that—
Bdubs is going to get a headache if he continues down that train of thought, so he just assumes it’s probably some wildlife or something.
That is, he assumes so, until suddenly there’s the tip of a poorly-made stone sword at the back of his neck, the sharp pinprick just barely digging in.
Iron, no enchants, no signs or redstone anywhere in sight? This isn’t a prank.
The humidity of the jungle compared to the newfound severity of the situation causes a bead of sweat to trickle down his neck. Dying right now wouldn’t be particularly pleasant, and he really wants to know what kind of idiot would hold him at swordpoint with a stone sword.
With both hands raised in surrender, Bdubs slowly turns around, surprised that the blade hasn’t immediately stabbed him as he does so.
Expecting to see some sort of hacker, perhaps someone who expertly evaded Xisuma’s tight grip on the firewall, Bdubs is surprised to see none of the sort in front of him.
Instead, there is a boy.
Dirty hair that might be brown, might be blonde, hangs in front of a sharp, angled face. Wide blue eyes are filled with the rage of a trapped animal, and he looks like he’s almost drowning in his dirty shirt and pants, everything much too big for his too-skinny frame.
“You’re not supposed to be here!” Bdubs blurts out, running off pure shock alone, and the boy yelps. With lightning-fast steps, he runs away, slamming into a few tree branches and tripping over some roots on the way.
For a split second, Bdubs just stands there, absolutely dumbfounded, and then he realizes the severity of the situation. Somehow, miraculously, a child has either accidentally found or hacked into Hermitcraft, and Bdubs is just letting him get away!
Gah, I’m such an idiot!
Stumbling over his own moss blanket, Bdubs equips his elytra and shoots off into the air, glancing around for the mystery kid and pulling out his communicator. He makes sure to send the message to only Xisuma, so as not to throw the others into a panic.
BDoubleO100: hey x, can you check the whitelist?
Xisuma: Sure?
Xisuma: Oh, that’s weird
Xisuma: how in the world did someone bypass the firewall?
BDoubleO100: wait don’t kick him yet!!!!!
Xisuma: Why not?
BDoubleO100: I don’t think he’s a hacker
Xisuma: I’m giving you half an hour, and you either explain to me what’s going on, or I kick the person.
Oh, gosh, Bdubs always forgets how scary Xisuma can be when he’s upset! Expertly closing his elytra, Bdubs lands just behind the boy, who is crouched at the steep hill slope. Yeesh, Bdubs doubts he could survive rolling down it, that wouldn’t feel good.
“You’re quite the jumpy one, huh?” Bdubs jokes, and the kid screams once again, losing his footing on the slope.
With a guttural cry of terror that sends a shiver down Bdubs’ spine, the kid starts to fall. With the normal confidence of being able to respawn, Bdubs and other hermits are rarely scared of death. Maybe irritated and in pain, sure, but nobody has ever been so genuinely afraid before.
Maybe that’s why, instead of letting the boy plummet to death, Bdubs dives down with his elytra and grabs the boy in his arms. Elytra aren’t meant for carrying two people, though, and both of them immediately tumble into the jungle dirt once Bdubs grabs him.
It’s painful, sure, and he’s definitely stained his favorite shirt and ripped some moss off his blanket, but he thankfully hasn’t torn his elytra.
After checking himself for any injuries, Bdubs turns to the kid, who hasn’t moved from where he’s curled up into a ball.
The kid is curled up tightly, breathing harsh and ragged, and every few seconds a full-body shudder runs down his frame. His eyes aren’t really focused on anything at all, and it’s starting to worry Bdubs.
Is he having a panic attack? He looks like he’s having a panic attack.
How in the world does Bdubs help a rabid child having a panic attack? He’s about to start panicking himself, for goodness’ sake!
“Hey, uh, kid? Are you there?” Bdubs asks, waving a hand in front of the boy’s face.
As if on instinct, the boy murmurs a soft “m’ not a kid” under his breath. His accent is similar to that of maybe Cleo, or some other British person who isn’t quite as posh as Mumbo or Xisuma.
Not really knowing what to do, Bdubs sits down next to the kid and pulls his knees up to his chest. How can he tell Xisuma to kick out someone who looks so scared? He doesn’t have the heart to look into those terrified, angry, sad blue eyes and reject him peace.
Bdubs doesn’t know this person’s backstory, but judging from his brief interaction, it can’t be anything good.
“I, uh, don’t really know if you can talk—and that’s cool—right now, but, um… can you just nod for yes, shake your head for no, maybe?”
Bdubs waits with bated breath and, eventually, the boy gives a jerky nod in response. “Awesome! Great! Okay, first question! Did you come here on purpose?”
The kid shakes his head almost imperceptibly, and Bdubs crosses “hacker” off his list of why he might be here. “That’s good, that’s good! Means Xisuma, he’s our admin, has still got his super awesome firewall!” Bdubs can’t help but boast a little for his admin.
However, at the mention of the word “admin”, the boy has curled even tighter on himself, and his blunt nails seem to be digging into his skin. Maybe his old server had a bad admin or something? It doesn’t quite explain everything, but maybe he came from a glitched respawn from a hardcore server…?
“Please don’t take me to the admin,” the boy whispers, and Bdubs heart feels like it’s just been beaten into a thousand pieces with a giant baseball bat.
How could he ever say no to a request like that?
Making what is probably one of the dumbest decisions he’s ever made, Bdubs offers a hand out to the boy. “I can’t promise he won’t somehow find you out, but I can promise a perfect hiding spot from him!” he offers, brown eyes sparkling.
When he extends a hand for a handshake, the boy shakes it, his grip much firmer than what Bdubs expects it to be. “You can’t break a promise,” he says, his voice dead serious. Ooh, finally, someone who takes promises just as seriously as he does!
“Of course not!” Bdubs exclaims, as if the very thought is absurd. “Promises are sacred! You can’t break them, that’s like breaking a hippo… hippocran… hippanti… ugh, whatever! It’s bad! Breaking promises is bad!”
With a sparkle in his blue eyes, for the first time, the boy smiles at Bdubs. “Why would you help a stranger who got into your private server?” he asks, and oh, he really does look like a little boy when he smiles all broken.
Bdubs has to take a moment to think about it, because, really… he’s never thought about it before.
On this server, unless you’re busy with something yourself, it’s almost instinct to help others wherever and whenever you can. A helping hand is as easy as breathing, shared resources and the honor system goes almost without being said on occasion.
And yet, so many people haven’t lived in places like this. Judging from this boy’s white scars that line his face and the visible parts of his neck, arms, and legs, he hasn’t lived an easy life.
“Not sure where you come from, but here, we help each other out. Always.” Bdubs tells him, and the boy’s mouth opens in an “o” shape, a hint of envy in his eyes.
As the two of them make the trek to Bdubs’ base, the silence feels more comfortable than usual. The boy is looking around with wide eyes at everything, even though he hasn’t even seen the shopping district yet, and Bdubs can’t help but smile.
Just then, however, his communicator buzzes, and he winces. Right. The promise.
Xisuma: Checking in on the new whitelist. Code isn’t giving a name, it’s all warped.
BDoubleO100: I’ve taken care of it, don’t worry!
Xisuma: what do you mean by that
BDoubleO100: just trust me on this one, okay?
Xisuma: I presume that means you’ve gotten rid of whatever the problem was?
Xisuma: bdubs?
Bdubs turns off his communicator and leads the boy into his base, taking him down the set of stairs. “Just realized I forgot to introduce myself—I’m Bdubs, and this is Hermitcraft! We’re usually a white-list only server—”
The boy flinches and curls in on himself, and Bdubs makes quick work to remedy the situation before it escalates. “But it’s fine! You’ll be safe here in my basement until we figure out how to get you home, okay?”
The boy has sat down on the bed, blanket wrapped around his shoulders, and even though he looks like he’s fighting sleep, he shakes his head vigorously. “Don’t wanna go back,” he whispers, more to himself than to Bdubs.
What? Who doesn’t want to go home?
Where did this kid come from, to be more scared of where he came from than strange, unfamiliar territory?
As Bdubs turns on the furnaces to start cooking a small dinner for the kid, he realizes something. “I just realized, I never asked for your name! What’s your…” Bdubs trails off when he turns around, a smile tugs at his face when he sees the boy fast asleep in the rickety bed, curled up in a ball.
His furrowed brows aren’t tight and worried when he’s asleep, and he looks so much younger. As Bdubs sets down some soup on a nearby table, he thanks every god out there that Etho didn’t take out the cozy basement decorations he left.
Bdubs heaves out a sigh, and just as he starts climbing up the stairs, a thought slams into him faster than one of Mumbo’s crazy flying redstone machines.
How am I going to hide a child from the other hermits?