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Unknown number
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“Grian! Just the bird boy I was looking for,” Pearl grinned.
Grian sighed. “You aren’t gonna let the winged thing go, are you?”
“Absolutely not,” Pearl grinned. “It’s my duty as the younger sister to tease you about absolutely anything and everything.”
Grian blinked, then broke into a quiet smile. “Yeah, I guess I should’ve seen that coming,” he chuckled.
“Anyway, what did you want to see me about?”
“You’ll see!” Pearl grinned toothily, grabbing his wrist and dragging him in a random direction.
Five minutes of dragging later, Grian stopped. “Wouldn’t it be faster to just fly?”
“Probably, but I forgot my elytra,” Pearl shrugged. “It’s only a few hundred chunks, shouldn’t take centuries.”
Grian grinned.
“Oh no,” Pearl said. “I know that look.”
“I’ll bet you do,” Grian cackled as he leapt into the air, grabbing Pearl by the shoulders.
“Oh no you don’t you little shi-”
Grian yelped in pain and dropped Pearl, who landed evenly on her feet. “That hurt!”
Pearl rolled her eyes. “Cry about it. Make yourself useful and fly back to get me an elytra if you’re so persistent, but you sure as hell ain’t doing that to me. Mumbo was venting about it for a week.”
Grian made a very disgruntled face. “Rude.”
Pearl raised an eyebrow. “About me or Mumbo?”
“Both.” Grian stuck his tongue out and shot into the air, probably to get an elytra.
He indeed returned a few minutes later, dropping the silky grey fabric on Pearl’s head. She huffed, equipping it and lighting a rocket.
“Now you’ve done that, Mr Impatient, last one there has to clean Scar’s chest monster,” she grinned, shooting into the distance.
“Hey!” Grian yelped, beating his wings. “I don’t even know where it is!”
Predictably, Pearl won. She had an evil grin on her face as she waited at the grand entrance to a moderately-sized room, grandly decorated in shades of navy and gold.
“You’ve outdone yourself again, Pearlo,” Grian said, landing beside her. “Can I see inside?”
“Yeah, but I’m not forgetting that you lost,” Pearl smirked. “You still have to clean up yours and Scar’s shulker monsters.”
Grian spluttered. “Mine too?! That wasn’t part of the deal!”
“Tough,” Pearl grinned, flinging the door open. “Aprez-vous.”
Grian blinked. “Um. Yes.”
Pearl giggled. “After you.”
“Right,” Grian nodded. “I, of course, knew that.” He stepped inside and grinned. “Oh, Pearl, this is perfect!”
And it was. The floor was almost entirely made of cushions and other soft materials, there were pillows and blankets galore, the decoration was simple but beautiful, swirls of gold in the dark walls which gradually increased in density until the ceiling was almost completely golden.
“Thanks,” Pearl grinned. “I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.”
“So when’s the sleepover again?” Grian asked.
“Friday, I believe,” Pearl replied.
Grian checked his communicator. “S-so three days.”
“Are you alright?” Pearl asked. “You just turned really pale.”
“Oh, yeah. I’m fine,” Grian managed, turning his communicator off again.
Pearl frowned, reaching over and grabbing his communicator. She blinked at it. “How the heck did you manage to get it password protected?! Only Xisuma can do that!”
“I got pretty good at coding during Evo,” Grian replied, snatching back the device. “Hard not to when you’re against the void gods or whatever They call Themselves.”
Pearl’s expression changed to sorrow. “Oh Gri…”
“Anyway, nice building, awesome stuff, cool cool cool, goodbye, さようなら, adieu, au revoir, auf wiedersehen, adios, I don’t know any more languages, catch you later byeeeeee,” Grian gabbled, swiftly flying away.
He waited until he was above the clouds before letting himself drop the fixed smile. He hated how he’d acted towards Pearl, she was just trying to help and he’d used his own trauma to drive her away. And it was to hide even more trauma, how dumb was that?
`Not dumb`, a Mumbo-sounding voice echoed at the back of his head. `It’s perfectly reasonable to want to hide this, but it would be far more beneficial to open up about it`.
Damn it Mumbo. Grian really needed him right now.
Mumbo seemed to be in the middle of some sort of redstone monster that looked, to Grian, intent on swallowing him whole. There were wires tangled around his legs as he knelt in the middle of headache of redstone lines. Grian stood silently at the edge, not wanting to break anything but yearning for his flock.
Presently Mumbo noticed him with a start, and began to stand up, detangling the wires.
“Oh hi Gri- ack!” He tripped over a repeater (or comparator) and started to fall. Grian quickly stepped forward and caught him.
They blinked at each other for a few seconds, Mumbo in Grian’s arms. Mumbo opened his mouth.
“I appear to have fallen fo-”
“I’m now covered in redstone,” Grian interrupted.
Mumbo pulled himself to his feet. “Ah, sorry. Redstone’s a pig to get out of clothes and stuff, but I can help if you want? Once I fell in my redstone vat and it took forever- ah, sorry, I’m rambling.”
“Redstone vat?” Grian repeated curiously.
“Yeah, most redstoners have a storage container for redstone dust because it stains everything else, like shulker boxes, so you can’t keep anything else in them. I tend to keep one redstone shulker box and fill it up when it’s empty.”
“So,” Grian’s eyes sparkled. “It’s basically a massive dust bath?”
“A very toxic dust bath,” Mumbo pointed out.
“I’m dead, those fools can’t hurt me,” Grian declared. “Where is the bath?”
“I told you, it takes a while to get out,” Mumbo added.
“You also told me you’d help clean up,” Grian smirked. “Now show me the goods, potato boy.”
“I thought that stopped last season,” Mumbo sighed. “Alright, fine. I was going to hide it under my megabase, but since you seem to have created us a- what is it, third? Another child there, I had to replan.”
“So where is it?” Grian asked.
“Under yours,” Mumbo replied.
Grian blinked. “Oh.”
Mumbo chuckled. “Come on, I’ll show you. There’s a redstone door that I hid in that tunnel…”
Grian’s eyes were practically glowing as he stared in pure joy at the tank of redstone dust.
In fact, Mumbo thought, they might actually have been glowing slightly purple.
Grian turned to him. “Can I go in it?” He asked. “Please?”
“Keep your head above it,” Mumbo warned. “And are you sure it won’t burn you? It does that after a long period of exposure.”
“Nah, I’ve been experimenting and I’m practically immortal now,” Grian mentioned casually.
Mumbo blinked. “You’re what?!”
“Immortal,” Grian repeated. “C’mon handsome, use your ears. And the answer’s yes or no.”
Mumbo flushed. “Yes, fine, whatever. Don’t hurt yourself, even if you do think you’re immortal.”
Grian beamed, flapping his wings and using them to hop onto the edge of the container. He then gave Mumbo a wink, and toppled head-first into the toxic dust.
“Worth it,” Grian grinned, completely covered in redstone.
“I think your hair is going to be permanently dyed,” Mumbo sighed fondly. “Oh goodness, your wings.”
Grian brought one forward and ran his hand through the scarlet feathers. It came back covered in dust.
“Looks like you’ll be learning how to wash wings,” Grian grimaced. “I have a special bath-thing for it in my starter base.”
“Okay,” Mumbo said simply, pulling out a rocket.
It wasn’t a long journey, and soon Grian was perched on the edge of a stylised bathtub as Mumbo ran the water.
It was a bit like a normal bath, just large enough to fit Grian’s wingspan with a shallow area in one side so he could lie perpendicular with his wings submerged, as well as a shelf to rest his head.
“So how does this work?” Mumbo asked.
“I usually just lie in it and let my wings soak for a few minutes, then preen them while wet with shampoo and conditioner to get stuff out of them,” Grian answered. “But I’ll let you do that bit.”
Mumbo gave him a soft, exasperated smile. “Naturally.”
Grian smiled back, then lent down to feel the temperature of the bath. “Okay, that should be enough water. It will increase when I’m in it obviously, and I don’t want it going over the shallow bit.”
“Alright. So, um,” Mumbo began. He stopped as Grian pulled first his sweater, then his T-shirt over his head, looking away. “Uhm.”
“This will be very difficult if you refuse to look at me without a shirt on,” Grian laughed a little.
“Right.” Mumbo glanced back at Grian, blush deepening.
“That being said,” Grian chuckled, snapping his fingers by his face. “Eyes up here, handsome.”
Mumbo squeaked, dragging his eyes up to Grian’s smirking face.
“You’re enjoying this a lot, aren’t you?” Mumbo huffed.
“Yup,” Grian grinned.
Mumbo sighed, motioning for Grian to lie down. “Come on then, let’s get this over with.”
Grian shuffled down so he was almost lying on his back, hands just supporting him enough that he didn’t touch the water. “Are you gonna do my hair first or wings?”
“Uh, hair,” Mumbo decided. “So it will dry while I clean your wings.” He carefully cradled Grian’s head in his hands, and the avian relaxed into them, slipping his eyes closed.
“Mkay,” he murmured. “I’m trusting you not to pour water in my face.”
Mumbo chuckled softly, not wanting to interrupt the tranquil beauty before him. “A terrible decision really.”
Grian quirked a smile, and Mumbo gently lowered his head into the water, watching it turn a murky crimson as he rubbed the strands.
A content silence filled the air as Mumbo lathered first shampoo, then conditioner.
Grian opened one eye a moment after he stopped, yawning. “You done?”
Mumbo nodded, and Grian shifted so his wings were submerged.
It took around three hours in total to wash, dry and preen, by which time Grian was fast asleep. With a content smile, Mumbo carried him to bed, tucking him under the covers.
While he was washing the bath clean of its redstone coating, a squawk made him jump.
On the edge of the bath perched a strangely familiar parrot.
“Professor Beak?” Mumbo blinked. “How did you get across seasons?!”
He wasn’t sure why he spoke aloud. Obviously the parrot wouldn’t reply.
“Grian smuggled me through the firewalls.”
Oh. Right. Never mind then.
“Um,” Mumbo said cleverly.
“What happened here?” Professor Beak asked, pointing a wing at the bath.
“He decided to go swimming in my personal redstone supply,” Mumbo sighed. “Also, not to address the elephant in the room, but you- this isn’t normal for a parrot, is it? Like, consciously replying to me.”
“Course not, Grian enchanted me,” Professor Beak informed him. “I can also go through server boundaries, I’m pretty much his messenger bird.” He lifted a leg to reveal a scroll tied to it. “As well as favourite pet, of course.”
“Right,” Mumbo said, utterly lost. “Sorry, Grian enchanted you?!”
“Sure did!” Professor Beak replied. “Oh, has he not told you that part yet?”
“I expect not,” Mumbo replied. “Don’t tell me if he hasn’t though.”
“Loyal,” Professor Beak hummed. Don’t ask how. “You’re a good friend. But he won’t mind if I just tell you that he used to be a mage. Still has the staffs somewhere, hidden in a chest monster. He enchanted me to world-hop and speak both English and Japanese.”
“Huh.” Mumbo remarked. “The more you know. Well I’m afraid Grian’s asleep right now, but I could give that to him if you have somewhere to be, or you could wait for him to wake up.”
“I’ll wait,” Professor Beak replied, starting to preen his feathers.
“Okay,” Mumbo said, rolling his sleeves back up from where they’d slipped down and grabbing the disinfectant again.
Grian wandered blearily into the living room later, by which time Mumbo had finished cleaning and was chatting to Professor Beak. Grian immediately flopped down on the sofa beside Mumbo, draping a wing around him and tucking his head into the crook of Mumbo’s neck.
Professor Beak whistled, and Grian flipped him off. Then he looked up.
“Professor Beak? When did you get here?”
“While your boyfriend was cleaning the bath,” Professor Beak replied.
“Oh yeah, thank you,” Grian snuggled up to Mumbo, who blinked and short-circuited.
“Uh,” he said intelligently. “Boyfriend?”
“Are we doing this now?” Grian muttered into his neck. “Cause I’m not very awake.”
“Right, we don’t have to,” Mumbo said. “I just, uh. Never mind.”
“You two really need to get your shit together,” Professor Beak observed.
“Language,” Mumbo said. Grian’s wing had puffed up. Mumbo coughed. “Um, anyway. Grian, since when has your pet parrot been fluent in English?”
“Ah. Yeah,” Grian sighed, sitting up properly, though keeping one wing draped over Mumbo’s lap. “So, after graduating high school, my… friend… persuaded me to join a little server with our other friend Taurtis. The server was originally an experiment where people could live in the past, experience life in the medieval time, and a few other time periods as you explored. We worked our way up, did a few quests for the king. I learnt to be a mage, and Taurtis tried to be a ninja, hilariously. Then we got into a bad situation, and got put in prison. Actually, this would take too long to explain fully- some stuff happened, we got in trouble with several kingdoms, I got some free trauma, went a little batshit, and started a kingdom as a joke, which kinda actually took off, cause apparently a tonne of people hate Valour, so they joined us. I got kinda bored of ruling after a bit, so I made Evo, which was partly inspired by the time travel in the other world. I passed on kingship to Taurtis — the other one had cleared off by then, thank fuck — and started my own server.” Grian breathed again. “So, yeah.”
Professor Beak whistled. “Wow.”
“That’s pretty similar to my reaction, mate,” Mumbo blinked, staring intently at the armchair opposite him.
“Sorry, I got a little carried away,” Grian laughed awkwardly. “But that’s where I learnt magic. I still have my old staff somewhere, I enchanted it with loyalty and it turned up at some point near the start of season six.”
“So are the letters from Taurtis?” Mumbo asked.
Grian nodded, and Beak fluttered across the gap, holding out his leg. Grian took the scroll and unrolled it, revealing black ink scribbles on the parchment.
“Mkay, I’m gonna go reply to this. Thank you Mumbo.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll see you later,” Mumbo stood up.
“Bye,” Grian smiled.
“Grian’s late,” Pearl remarked on Friday. The Hermits were all spread on various cushions and chairs, forming an abstract circle.
“To be fair, no one specified a time,” Iskall pointed out. “We all just turned up at similar times.”
As they spoke, a trill pierced the air and the doors flew open as a shape flew through the room, yelling “Pesky bird delivery service!”
Grian dropped whatever he was holding beside Keralis, and flapped over to perch on a ledge in the wall above Mumbo.
“Hey, I didn’t build that,” Pearl frowned.
Grian ruffled his feathers. “I know, I did. Anyways, can we get on with the sleepover? Everyone’s here.”
“What about X?” Cleo asked. A groan came from the lump beside Keralis. Grian grinned.
“Well, never mind,” Cleo raised an eyebrow. “Is he okay?”
“Just about.” Xisuma emerged. “What is all this anyway?”
“Whole server sleepover,” Pearl answered, clapping her hands. “Right, what game is first?”
Modified Monopoly was voted, which caused quite the conflict between Hermits, but they quickly moved on to a new game. Then another. Then another.
“Miss Scarlett, in the library, with the lead piping,” Impulse declared. Pearl snatched up the pouch and peered in it.
“Correct, again,” she sighed. “What time is it?”
“Twenty past the hour,” Joe answered.
“What hour?”
“Nine.”
Pearl blinked. “Evening? Already?”
Joe nodded.
“Well! Do we want another board game, or something different?” Pearl asked.
“Truth or dare,” someone, probably Cleo, called.
Pearl glanced around. “Is that all right with everyone? I don’t know why I’ve decided to be in charge, by the way. Sorry about that.”
“You’re all good,” Xisuma called. “I’m quite enjoying my time off. Though, who took my communicator?”
Grian hid his smirk.
“I dunno, but you don’t need it now anyway,” Pearl said. “Right, truth or dare. Who wants to go first?”
Gem raised a hand, and Pearl nodded at her.
“Xisuma,” Gem grinned. “Truth or dare?”
“Truth,” X decided.
“Why have you been so glued to your communicator for the past few weeks?” Gem asked.
Xisuma hesitated, looking around the room. “I don’t think-”
“We’re your server, we deserve to know,” Gem added. “And we want to take care of you too, that isn’t good for your health.”
Xisuma sighed, a smile playing on his lips. “Alright, fine. But I don’t want any concern over this, okay? I’m handling it.”
There were a few noises of agreement. Albeit half-hearted.
“There is someone or something working their way through the firewall. I’ve kept them out thus far, but they’re good at hacking, and it requires a lot of attention.”
“Well that’s easy to sort,” Cleo declared. “Anyone else who knows how to code can help X, take shifts and stuff, to ensure no one is constantly staring at a screen.”
“But-”
“No buts,” Gem interrupted. “You have a problem, we offered a solution. Or, at least, a method of dealing with said problem. Your turn!”
Xisuma blinked a few times. “Um, okay. Thanks? Uh, Mumbo, truth or dare?”
“Um, dare,” Mumbo said hesitantly.
“I dare you to… ooh!” Xisuma grinned. “Right, with Grian’s consent, of course-”
“Oh no,” Grian muttered from where he was sitting beside Mumbo.
“Since you’ve been stroking his wings all evening, I dare you to preen them. That’s the word, right?”
Mumbo glanced at Grian, who was blushing furiously.
“Uh, we’ll that is the word, but-”
“You know the significance behind it, don’t you,” Grian shot at Xisuma, who hid a grin.
“I may have done a little research.”
“There’s significance?” Mumbo asked. “I thought it was just that it has to be a trustworthy person.”
“That and some,” Grian muttered. “Fine, you have my permission. As long as no one holds it against me when I go all bird-brained.”
“Bird-brained?” Gem enquired.
“You’ll find out,” Grian huffed, flopping down to lay on his stomach so that Mumbo could reach his wings.
“So, are you all just gonna watch, or…?” Mumbo asked, laying a gentle hand on one wing.
“We can carry on while you do it,” Xisuma answered. “It’s your turn.”
A faint sprinkle of pink dusted Mumbo’s cheeks. “Right. Um, Jevin, truth or dare.”
Grian zoned out as the game progressed, content to bask in the feeling of trusted hands on his wings. It was only when there was a loud exclamation that he returned to focus.
“You can’t make me do that,” Pearl declared, glaring playfully at Scar.
“You picked dare,” Scar shrugged.
“But TWO WEEKS without ANY organisation?! That’s just cruel!”
Scar chuckled evilly.
Pearl huffed, gaze sliding around the room. It came to rest on Grian.
“Since you’ve woken up again, Griba, truth or dare?”
Grian hummed, thinking. “Truth.”
“What’s something about you that no one here knows? That includes Mumbo.”
Grian frowned. “Um. I have trauma?”
“We knew that.”
“I’m fluent in Japanese?”
“Really?”
Grian nodded, swallowing back a trill as Mumbo rubbed his coverts. “Yeah, I went to high school there. It’s where I met Taurtis, actually.”
“Taurtis speaks Japanese too?” Pearl asked.
“Yeah,” Grian nodded.
“Who’s Taurtis?” Scar asked.
Pearl’s expression fell, and Grian fidgeted.
“An old friend,” Grian said.
There was silence for a moment, before Etho coughed awkwardly. “Well, um. Your turn?”
“Gem, truth or dare,” Grian said.
Gem blinked. “Uh, truth please.”
“Do you believe in a higher power or, like, god?” Grian asked. He felt Xisuma, Pearl and Mumbo turn to look at him.
Gem paused to think. “Other than the Watchers? They don’t really count as gods, They’re the only ones that call Themselves that, but I know They’re real.”
“Can you prove that?” Doc challenged.
“Yes, but I won’t, it’s your choice to believe me or not. And technically I’m not actually supposed to know that they’re real,” Gem shrugged.
“So how do you know?” Grian asked.
“I’m a bit of a wanderer, I’ve picked up quite a bit of knowledge,” Gem replied. “And I dabble in magic, used to a lot more. You learn things through that.”
“Watchers don’t want people knowing what They haven’t told about them,” Grian stated.
“I’m aware of that. But no one here will snitch on me,” Gem answered.
“Fair enough,” Grian gave a half smile. “Your turn.”
After a few more rounds, the game developed into more of a physicological debate. Grian zoned in on Doc declaring the impossibility of perma-death worlds.
“They wouldn’t logically work, it’s just a myth that spun from hardcore worlds,” Doc conceded.
“I disagree,” Gem stated. “I know someone who knew someone from a perma-death world.”
“That’s very vague,” Impulse injected. “Who?”
“Lizzie, she mentioned someone, I don’t know who, that partially grew up in a permanent-death world.”
“She hasn’t told me anything similar,” False volunteered. “Not that I don’t believe you, but…”
“What do you think, X?” Pearl asked out of the blue. “This seems like something an admin would know.”
“I haven’t been told anything about them,” Xisuma admitted. “They weren’t mentioned in Admin Exams, but that might be because I was studying to be admin of a regular survival world.” He glanced at Grian. “I don’t know if it’s different for hardcore worlds.”
“My exam wasn’t for hardcore either,” Grian shrugged.
“You took an Admin Exam?” Cleo asked.
“Yup, I was admin a bit before joining,” Grian replied. “That’s where I got to properly know Pearl. But anyway, perma-death worlds do exist.”
“But there’s no proof,” Doc pointed out. “If you can find a way to prove it, I’ll believe you.”
“I’ll try if you want,” Grian shrugged, pulling out his and Xisuma’s communicators.
“Hey!” Xisuma called. “That should be password protected, how did you unlock it?”
“The password’s Keralis, it’s not that hard to decode,” Grian rolled his eyes, giving himself admin permissions and scrolling through his server history on his own communicator. “Here it is,” he said, flapping over to Doc and showing him the screen.
“Whoa, what? That’s a world you were on!”
“Yeah, I spent my teenage years there,” Grian said nonchalantly.
“That’s illegal,” Scar supplied. “I’ve read about them, and people under 18 aren’t allowed.”
“Oh,” Grian said. “I’ll add that to my list of crimes then.”
“Wait, was Taurtis there?” Pearl asked.
“Yeah, it’s where we met,” Grian replied. “And where I learnt Japanese. And some other stuff.”
“Are you alright?” Doc asked.
Grian blinked. “Why do you ask?”
“You have a load of trauma you don’t tell anyone but Mumbo and you were illegally in a perma-death world at an early age,” Doc listed. “On top of the fact your hands are translucent.”
Grian dropped his communicator, shoving his hands in his pockets. “That’s supposed to happen. All under control.”
“Um,” Xisuma said. “What?”
“Never mind, it’s fine,” Grian laughed nervously.
There was a ping from his communicator, then a notification followed on everyone else’s.
Unknown number
I’m coming for you Taurtis. Don’t worry. I’ll keep you safe.
Sam Gladiator has joined the game.