Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I'm going to be honest with you, I don’t exactly like all of this,” Astrid said, eyes narrowed to reveal small slithers of brown pointed to the bottom of their foot. The vine they had just crushed under their shoe started to shrivel up, bright red oozing out and bleeding onto the soil below. After seeing the grass dyed with its blood, they wiped their foot in disgust. Lips tightened together in a drawn out line.

Puffy only agreed, keeping her distance with the blood vines, walking on the balls of her feet to avoid such. Ever since the discovery of the egg, the vines only continued to grow and grow along the ruins and upcoming buildings of the server. As long that, also grew many citizen's hatred for such sights. It was a disease that was spreading throughout the server, consuming everything in it's path. It was a problem that needed to be solved, yet no one knew what to do about it rather than watch in disgust.

Astrid didn’t know much about the egg, they hadn’t even seen it in person and as of now, they didn’t want to. The only information they knew about the discovery was from others. From hearing what several had said about the beast only altered their opinions on it. It was disgusting. Astrid didn't know why anyone would want to keep that thing around.

"I told Bad this was going to end up well for anyone," Puffy took a look down at the blood soaked forest floor, "but he’s become obsessed with it. Only saying that he wants to keep The Egg and telling me not the worry about it.” She blew out a breath of air, the tips of her finger brushing along the hat on her head as she repositioned it. The captain's hat casted a shadow over her face as it blocked away the sun. She looked over at Astrid between two splinters of shade. "Of course I'm going to worry about it. That thing is such bad news. And who the hell just unearths a random egg out of nowhere and suddenly falls in love with it?"

“Even Dream said he didn’t like it, right?” Astrid had spoken to him briefly when they had crossed paths with him through the dug up path of Prime Path leading to the Community House. Usually they didn’t find a lot of their time spent on conversing it up with Dream. Which was mostly due to the difference in personalities. Though, a part of Astrid did believe that they would at least make acquaintances with him, hopefully get along in the slightest. Astrid had never tried to achieve such, even if they had been seeing a lot more of Dream due to his time spent helping Sam planning of Pandora's Vault.

Puffy shrugged: “Haven’t seen much of him, so I wouldn't know. But if he said that, then he said it. All I know is what bad told me. The whole spew he went on about finding The Egg while mining, finding it pretty, whatnot. I can only listen to his voice for a certain amount of time." "It’s a huge pain in the ass,” Astrid groaned out, half tuned into the conversation. Half of their attention was focused onto the building of their home that came up in their near path. A pit in their stomach soon set in as soon as they saw their house trying to fight off those ugly vines again. Their pretty house being withered away by those creatures. The wood of the home was splintering in some areas as the red twirled around it, breaking it apart under its touch while continuing to grow under the foundations. Goddammit, the house was such a pretty sight before all of this. It was a huge achievement for Astrid to actually find a place to build. Let alone, building it near the water and fairly close to Niki’s old bakery on the dock. On the other hand, the view in the front did present the Manifold Hotel, but they couldn’t complain all that much.

Taking out their axe, Astrid inspected the barriers that now blocked their entrance to the front door. Fingers tightened around the hold of the netherite tool, knuckles stiffening up in painful attempts to hold back the anger that was bubbling through their body. They at least let it out in forms of words, letting it came falling in between their lips after spilling from their throat without a second thought, "I swear. I just removed these stupid vines this morning, and they're already back. It's only midday! Fucking disgusting."

Puffy listened to the grumbles of her friend, watching with amusement written along the curves of her posture as the sharp tip of the axe swung and ripped the vines off the foundation of their small house. Once the vines had fallen onto the ground in sections, they automatically died without the connection of it's mother Egg. Showing no pity, Astrid let their axe rest against the door frame, the metal digging into the dirt underneath on impact.

Astrid kicked the dead growth away, praying they would not find more growing along their home soon after. "If no one does something about this stupid egg, I'll just do it myself. Just chop at it, y'know. It's gotta die somehow. Like it's stupid, dumb vines."

Puffy held her hands in front of her, thumb placed neatly on top of her wrist while the other was hidden away. Pushed into the creases that was created from the cloth material of her shirt. "Well, maybe you'll get your wishes soon. Hopefully."

"What do you mean?" Immediately intrigued by this. Astrid would do anything to get rid of The Egg. Not just because of the red vines -- though they were a huge issue to begin with, the Egg just created a a bad vibe as soon as it was unearthed.

"Bad invited me to a meeting. To discuss everything 'The Egg' related."

"What? Why?" Astrid's eyebrows weighed down towards their nose bridge. From finding their attention back onto their axe, picking it up back up so it wouldn't be left and forgotten at the front. As well as reducing the risk of it being stolen from their possession. "Why would he do that if he actually likes The Egg?"

"He's just being mature about it. Just wants to hear other people's words on it and come to an overall decision on what to do." Puffy said, her thumb running over the back of her hand, catching a bit of dirt under her fingernail, only collecting more in the end.

"Or because he's done with everyone's complaining about it and wants to make it seem like he's actually doing something," Astrid snickered, turning on their heel slightly. While one shoulder still faced Puffy, the other faced the door to allow them to open it. With a small creak in noise, it aloud just enough room for them to push the axe inside and lay against the wall to be taken care of properly later. Making sure they still had their attention set onto the conversation at hand, they turned back quickly to face Puffy. "I mean, that might be good. Maybe he will come to his senses about The Egg and get rid of it."

But, it was a group decision. Or, at least Astrid thought. It wouldn't make sense for Bad to just call a meeting of citizens together to discuss an issue if he would only make his own solution in the end. The whole process then would be unnecessary and waste everyone's time. Hopefully Bad was smart enough to acknowledge that though. "Who's all going to be there?" Astrid asked. Getting rid of The Egg wuld have to mean majority wanted to. That didn't really seem like a problem. It was curious question anyways.

"I only know of Ant and Punz also getting invitations." Puffy had replied.

In the process to close the door, their fingers had slipped off the doorknob. The palm of Astrid's hand had fell straight flat onto their side, fitting along the curve of their hip. Slowly, with weight, the door closed. The noise heard behind while their eyes had rolled in a crescent. Pettiness hidden behind each movement, but certainly caught Puffy's attention. Due to this, a small laugh emitted from her mouth.

"Fingers crossed it remains civil," Astrid said with a small smile, shoulder knocking against the wooden frame, "knock on wood."

"You know it will. Ant and Punz are pretty calm. For the most part." She shared the others smile as if it was contagious. Pushing the tip of her hat up, fingers brushing against the rim as she got ready to make her goodbye. "I'll come by tomorrow afterwards though to tell you everything that happened. If that is okay, of course."

The creak of the door again bounced up to their eyes as they nodded. "Of course. You're more than welcome to stop by anytime you please." The familiar noise was welcomed again after a goodbye. Pushing her boots down to make somewhat of a pile near the door. It was okay, it was only Astrid that seemed to step foot into the house nowadays. A sigh. But, busy again as they needed to put that axe away.

Chapter Text

The sun outside was an indicator for Astrid that it was past noon. Which meant there would be a few more hours to pass throughout the day before they would meet up with Puffy. Anxiety hung around at the bottom of their stomach, trying to claw its way up the sides of their ribs to make itself known. With each swallow, they only pushed it back down, not wanting their stress to be known rather than being hidden away. They had to admit a bit to themselves that the emotions were coming from the upcoming meeting to discuss the recent issues of the Egg.

Astrid was starting to worry in the first place about the Egg, but in the morning when they had finished doing their routines and getting everything ready for the day, they went out to their garden. Usually, digging their hands into the ground and pulling out potatoes that would be used for future meals or traded to others for other materials. But, when pulling up the crops, the skin was only molded along their skin and it was clear that the potatoes had somehow rotten right when they were supposed to be at their top maturity. An investigation of Astrid digging around the spoiled crops revealed that the Egg Vines that were littering around the front of their yard made its way around throughout the night and spoiled off of their crops. If it continued at this rate, who knows what other havics it would compete and harm it would do.

There were some stubborn people on the SMP, but usually Bad wasn’t in that group for the majority of the time. Astrid just hoped it stayed like this, until for the rest of the day at least. They wanted this stupid Egg dealt with; once and done, gone forever and never have to be thought of again. Hopefully that’s what this meeting came down to. They just had to cross their fingers and pray, because there was nothing they could do about it. In the end, they weren’t invited to the meeting.

Without sitting around and waiting for such news, Astrid had something better to do. They took a few steps over to their kitchen to grab a note that had been laying on the countertops since the early morning. Eyes scanning over it to read it one last time, they crumbled it up into a ball and shoved it in the front of their pockets. Stopping at the door to tug their shoes on, fingers getting caught momentarily in the shoelace before making sure the tongue on their boots were straight.

It was a no armor and weapons day for Astrid. Yet, they still brought a sword with them, just in case. Even if someone else wouldn’t attack them when they're out, it doesn't mean a random mob can find its way to their person to have a little snack. Ever since the end of the war, and the idea that all nations will remain somewhat civil with each other, Astrid found it a little silly to wear their armor out if they didn’t quite need it. The only times it had been used on its durability was the era of fighting, and even then, Astrid did rather find something else to do than participate in those. Especially when all they planned to do today was catch up with an old friend, it made no sense to carry the weight around of protective services, or even all their tools for that matter.

Along the path that led to the home, Astrid reached down and grabbed a small piece of one of the several cakes that were clustered around the ground. Even though they knew Hannah wasn’t the biggest fan when people ate off of the cakes she spent umpteen efforts on, if asked Astrid would just blame it on Sam. There were multiple of them anyways that made up the edges of the pathed dirt, a singular piece to eat wasn’t going to cause harm to anything.
Knocking on the door of the house the path led to, Astrid waited for the fairy’s response that had lived there. Hannah had invited them over anyways, offering tea and gossip (as she had put it in her note). Soon enough, the door was opened and Astrid was welcomed in. Settling down at the table in the corner, they leaned back in the chair, watching as Hannah filled up a kettle with water.

“What have you been up to recently?” Hannah asked, turning the faucet of water off and moving the kettle onto the counters. She flipped the lid and put it on the stove top soon after, making sure there was enough coal in position before using a flint and steel to light it.

“Not much, you know how it’s been around the SMP. Just sitting around and currently waiting for a response back from Boomer.” Astrid answered, eyes falling around the fairy as she watched her moves.

“How is Boomer anyways?” She asked after, focusing her intentions of putting away tools she no longer needed for the tea after preparing it. It’s been a few days since Astrid had written off to their sibling, so they were quite patiently just waiting for a letter back any day now.

“He’s good. Though, they want to do a bit more exploring before figuring out if they want to style down over here anyways. Besides that, It’s been fairly quiet, well was quiet until those stupid Bloodvines started to show up and tear up random shit.” Astrid let out in a grumble, now their elbows rested on the top of the birch table, allowing for their chin to rest in the open palm of a hand. “I don’t even live that close to The Egg and it’s still killing all my crops and trying to cut open my home from the outside.”

After the fire was lit, Hannah stepped back and observed to make sure the scene was safe before turning and sitting in the other chair, opposite of Astrid. “I know. It’s already grown around so many towers and I’m starting to worry about it destroying my house if it continues to grow at the same pace it has the past few days.”

“Has any of the vines gotten here already?” Astrid asked, their head tilting a bit with the question. They would think that the location of Hannah’s house was a good enough distance from the Egg that she didn’t need to worry about it quite yet. But, she was right, the vines of it have been growing at quite an alarming rate, especially with how they seem to branch off quickly and can destroy even the cobble of towers it has already.

Hannah picked off a bit of soot that managed to get on her wing from earlier, being careful not to pull at the scales that made them up as she cleaned them off. “I had a little look around earlier and didn’t see any vines that looked dangerously close to the house, but they’re getting close to the start of the path. As soon as the cakes start rotting then I’ll know I have to find a way to get them to avoid my land.”

“Well, maybe you don’t have to worry about it for much longer,” Astrid started, leaning forward with a hopeful smile, “Bad is holding a meeting today to figure out what to do with The Egg. So, if all good things come true, they’re going to end up tearing it down soon enough.”

“Hopefully they do. Especially with what happened with Skeppy and everything, it would be just plain stupid to let The Egg continue doing its thing.”

Astrid didn’t know what Hannah was talking about. The only thing they knew about was the discovery of The Egg, it being a pain in the ass, the meeting soon to be, and that was it. They didn’t think it was actually causing some harm to people. “What do you mean? What happened to Skeppy?”

“Oh, I’m not supposed to tell,” Hannah got up out of her seat as soon as the kettle started to whistle, signaling that the tea was really to be off the open fire and poured. “But, I heard this from Bad after it happened. Skeppy apparently went to trap The Egg in obsidian in hopes it would stop it’s spread after it took over their home, but he trapped himself in the process. Bad found him and eventually broke him out, but Skeppy acted differently.”

“Differently how?” Astrid asked while Hannah grabbed out two teacups from the cabinet, the noise of it shutting filling the air and pausing the silence as she tried to find words to explain her thoughts.

“Y’know how Skeppy has those diamond flecks around his skin? Bad said they had all turned red. Not like redstone, but just like they changed colors completely. He also couldn’t speak in full coherent sentences and was being way too possessive of The Egg. He even tried to kill Bad at one point when he wouldn’t leave The Egg alone.” Hannah poured the two cups and held one in each hand as she walked back over, setting them on parallel sides of the table.

“You think The Egg did this?” Astrid asked as they reached forward and wrapped their pointer and middle around the handle of the cup, carefully pulling it along the wood to be closer to them. While still watching the tea to make sure it didn’t drip over the edge in the process of the motions.

“I mean, Bad talked about how The Egg talks to him. Like he can hear it whispering these weird messages into his mind.” Hannah took the edge of the cup up to her lips, blowing a bit of air to ripple along the surface of the liquid in attempts to cool it down before taking a sip.

“So it’s a mind controlling parasite that keeps growing and growing. Fucking great.”

Astrid said their last goodbyes to Hannah before leaving the Rose Residents. They didn’t know how much time had passed while they were over, but they couldn’t help but wonder what was happening now. Especially with Puffy and if that meeting was still in the progress. Or even if it had finished and the planning to get rid of The Egg was around in motion. When the path had turned back to regular grass, they eyed the cake they had eaten off on their way out, but the feeling of their heart dropping disturbed all possible positive thoughts. Seeing that the previous masterpiece of a cake Hannah had made was now rotten to its core was a disarray. Knowing it was now possible for the vines to travel that quick, there had to be no possibilities the meeting went the way they didn’t expect it to go.

And just to make the sight worse, walking back to their house meant they had to walk through the northwest portion of the Badlands. It seemed from the very start and the discovery of The Egg that it was spreading to places owned by the Greater Smp, as well as the Badlands due to their locations being so centered on everything else.

The walk home included the borders of red seeming to cover everything in its path, climbing up towers like it was using the sharpest of daggers that couldn’t be knocked out with a singular touch. As well as wrapping over old flowers that withered away with the disease, getting ready to pass it onto the next azure bluet that was sitting nearby. The walk home also included a run in with some familiar faces.

“Oh my God, Astrid hi!” It was Ant who welcomed them first, the half cat hybrid stepping forward to say his hello. The tail that was connected to his back swung around excitedly, standing straight up on its own.

After Astrid walked over and hugged him, they turned so they stood next to Puffy, sharing a quick look with her before looking at the rest of the group. “Hey, what are you guys up to?” They asked, nudging their shoulders slightly, glancing over at Bad in the process. They weren’t quite sure if they were supposed to know about the meeting, and what was even happening with the whole Egg anyways. So, they kept subtle with their known information for the time being, having to be patient until they and Puffy could be in private and talk about it. They were disappointed they couldn’t read the atmosphere either, trying to figure out if it ended in a success or not. But, it was just a dud.

“We were actually just finishing something up. Had a quick little talk and now have a few errands to run around the Greater SMP.” Bad had answered their question, making them smile in return. For trying to keep information in, he was sure acting suspicious. He wasn’t the best at lying, but Astrid ignored it. Maybe they could invite themselves in and see what the group was up to, figure out if they were going to destroy the end, and maybe even the truth behind The Egg being able to corrupt people’s minds just like it does to the land.

“It’s honestly none of your business.” Or maybe Astrid wouldn’t be allowed to. They made eye contact with Punz after he spoke, an eyebrow flicking up ever so slightly out of place in reaction to his words. Even though he still stood with his hands in the pockets of his hoodie, she could notice the overall arch of tension in his figure. They wouldn’t be able to tell if it was because they were there and something else was affecting him though.

“I’m sorry, I was just curious. That was all.” Astrid said flatly, crossing their arms in front of their chest as the two remained eye contact throughout the whole exchange, blue meeting green; blue dominating over green like it always had.

“I’m sorry guys, but me and Astrid actually already have plans today, so I’m gonna skip on the rest of the meeting.” Puffy said, taking a step away and looking over at Astrid, who finally broke eye contact with Punz first to look at their friend. This was a better plan, Puffy could tell Astrid what was happening as soon as they left (and they could really use a distraction right now).

“Okay Puffy. We’ll talk soon. Take care, you two!” Bad told them with a smile and wave before the couple disbanded to Astrid’s home.