Chapter Text
The Olipeligo is made of sand and sea and surf and Oli is fucking bored of it. Maybe it’s beautiful, or majestic, but Oli’s had too many lonely sunrises and sunsets to get anything out of the view. Oli’s life hasn’t been this boring since before deciding to slay the dragon–maybe since before coming here at all. Living in fWhip’s cage had been monotonous, but the fear and uncertainty kept things from becoming truly boring. After Oli settled back in the Olipeligo, there had been friends and festivals and rifts and delightful new friends. Then, against all odds, getting to actually leave this world, which Oli had thought might never happen, to visit a spectacular new world. Oli had even been able to make a new home, as unexpectedly temporary as that life was – gone in a moment, right in the middle of a party, only time to say goodbye to the people who happened to be there. At least Pearl and Joe were both there, at least Oli had been able to say goodbye – though not with enough time to say everything that could have – should have – been said.
Oli’s mega tent, which is actually quite lovely, is the main thing of note on the beach. Building anything more than the initial “mega base” had been a huge accomplishment, because building is very boring, and Oli hates being bored. Now there are few more things to look at around the beach, but all it does is remind Oli of the past, of people who won’t be back again. It is good to remember them… but not all the time, not right now.
“Fuck this.”
Oli flies away without hesitation or destination, without any planning or checking of inventory, only wanting to be away. Likely doesn’t matter much, it isn’t like Oli has much to take, or has had any good plans… possibly ever.
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There are only so many places to go. Oli tries Dawn first, as usual, but Gem is away, who knows where, so Oli leaves a rambling note and departs. Even seeing the church from the outside brings back too many memories. Gem is still trying to keep up the religion, and the sunglasses, but Oli doesn’t really see much point to it anymore. Oli heads towards Sanctuary but veers away as it starts to come into view. Sanctuary is usually lively and bustling, and fun to visit, but it’s stepping into a close knit world where Oli is welcome, but isn’t truly a part of, and that feels like too much right now.
Oli flies onwards, still with no plans and now with dwindling rockets. Oli could walk back if needed, but that is decidedly boring. The bridge is obviously a big “no” as a destination, with the view of both the former rift and Hermitopia. Just as Oli begins to accept the inevitability of walking back to the Olipeligo (or finding someone to beg for rockets – maybe Pix was around), salvation comes into view: Tumble Town.
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Oli hopes to make a cool and dramatic landing, ideally right in front of Jimmy, but the rockets give out first. Nonetheless, Oli’s final tumble into the far end of the aptly named town is good enough. The dust is thick in the air, kicked up by Oli’s awkward landing. Coughing, Oli looks around at the quiet side of Tumble Town. It feels eerie - Oli had mostly forgotten about the half of Tumble Town on this side of the tunnel, outside Joel's walls. It makes Oli feel sad, which was definitely not the point of this trip. Oli quickly heads into the tunnel without looking back.
Everyone had doubted that Jimmy would ever finish the rail, fWhip had even made a whole thing about it, but then, miraculously, all the rails Jimmy needed appeared – of course from a Hermit murder game, why not?
Maybe there isn’t anywhere left without traces of their lost friends.
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“Oi, anyone home? O Sheriff, my Sheriff, will you do me the honor of gracing this humble bard with your presence?”
Stepping out from the tunnel, Oli squints, the bright sun glinting off the rails in a very irritating direction. Oli raises a hand for a little shade, longing for Gem’s sunglasses, probably lost in some crate back in the Olipelgo. Conveniently, Oli is looking directly at Scar’s train when Jimmy’s hat, followed by his head, pops out of the side of the train. It looks like Jimmy is lying down, but Oli isn’t about to comment on it.
“Ooee, Sheriff! Our mighty sheriff! How fortuitous!”
Oli strolls over to Jimmy, frantically trying to come up with an excuse for this sudden arrival.
“Holy moly, bro, no need to keep shouting, you’ve got me. What’s wrong?”
Jimmy’s head disappears into the train and returns, much higher up, as Jimmy jumps out, supporting Oli’s theory about Jimmy’s former positioning.
“Oh, nothing, my apologies for, ahem, disturbing you, sweet Jimmy. How are things in the train?”
Oli hopes to distract Jimmy from the question of Oli’s arrival - Jimmy’s a good lad, but very easy to distract.
“Oh, uh….” In addition to being easy to distract, Jimmy is notoriously bad at lying. “Just, um, cleaning?” Oli pretends not to notice Jimmy fumbling for a story. “Dusting! Yeah, uh, not gonna lie it’s actually so dusty here, and the train is literally so open to everything, so it’s. Dusty.”
Jimmy spins and strides away from the train, and whatever feelings live there. Oli follows, happy to ignore the past, no matter how recent or distant.
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They make small talk, strolling around and talking about buildings Oli’s seen many times before. Oli doesn’t know if they are avoiding the parts that remind Jimmy most of hermits, but has no desire to ask. Oli’s here to have some time in the present.
Oli belatedly comes up with an excuse for the visit, claiming to have swung by to “check on the tent”, with no further details. Jimmy eagerly jumps on the opportunity to show off the vacation home area and they head out Joel’s massive door, definitely not commenting on the impossible to avoid ranch.
Oli’s praise for the bridge, the water wheel – the whole area – is genuine. “Lordy, Jimmy, you’ve put me right to bloody shame, you’ve gone and built up more around this tent in mere weeks than I’ve ever managed around the original! Lordy, lordy, what’s a bard to do?”
Jimmy blushes and waves off Oli’s compliments, turning his head away, but failing to hide his pleased grin. Jimmy, this Sheriff Jimmy here, spends too much time being gruff and grumpy. There were plenty of Jimmy smiles on Hermitcraft, but since they got back… well, seeing his face light up from praise, as always, brings a smile to Oli’s face and a warmth to Oli’s heart. It's been hard, but Oli’s mostly learned to deal with people not remembering their lives together before… but sometimes memories suddenly push their way up. Oli remembers making another Jimmy smile like that, making him laugh, remembers feeling that same warmth in another world.
Oli aggressively pushes the thoughts away. Oli’s here to think about the present. Jimmy’s moving on, Jimmy’s building more than Oli’s ever seen from him, surely Oli can move on too. How hard could it be?
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As they casually stroll, Jimmy excitedly tells Oli about his evolving plans for his expansions and his progress with recruiting vacationers. Oli is, of course, delighted by the idea of having a little community again, especially one with Gem, Sausage, and Joel, everyone practically able to see each other’s front doors - or lack of doors, in Oli’s case.
“Just think, we could sing around a cozy little campfire with sweet Sausage again, my humble self supplying accompaniment! Wouldn’t that be a delight!”
A shadow moves over Jimmy’s face as the clouds return, which Oli thinks is a bit too narratively on the nose given the creased brow and downturned lips suddenly gracing said handsome face. Shit.
“Yeah, right, sure, just like old times. A little village again.” Jimmy’s voice is low and sad – not the voice of a Jimmy pretending to be upset from being teased, this is a Jimmy in a genuinely dark mood. All thanks to Oli!
Jimmy turns to look out across the water, a convenient way to avoid eye contact that Oli doesn’t want either. Oli quietly contemplates Jimmy's works in progress - all built, Oli realizes, since they’d returned from Hermitcraft. No memories of missing friends out here, all of that hidden by Joel’s walls.
The silence grows too long and Oli’s skin itches from the tension. Jimmy starts to clear his throat, and Oli imagines how it will go from here - borrowing rockets (that Oli will forget to pay back and Jimmy will forget were lent out), quietly flying back to the Olipeligo, maybe managing to eat dinner before passing out, dreading another lonely day on that stupid beach. And Jimmy, alone in his empty town full of trains and ranches that will never be used.
Before Jimmy can say anything, Oli starts speaking, not knowing what words will come out but trying to sound as bright and cheerful as possible. “Who needs to stick to ‘little’, now that you’ve found your stride building out here, now that so many friends are moving in! Why, Sheriff, I do say we can make a bustling city here! Look, have you thought about what we could do with this little overhang here? Come along, come along!”
This happens sometimes, Oli's mind and mouth acting as free agents, thinking and saying as they will without asking consent. As usual, Oli goes with the flow. Even if Oli’s slightly incoherent, Jimmy might not notice, or at least care. This time, Oli discovers, the plan involves taking Jimmy’s hand and dragging him to some seemingly random area.
They’ve touched before, of course, but never held hands. Obviously it’s practical, it’s to get Jimmy out of their collective gloomy headspace, not anything affectionate-- but Oli still feels something distracting (and undeniably pleasant) from the contact. Jimmy doesn’t pull away or leave his hand limp in Oli’s, dear Jimmy hurries along without complaint and holds Oli’s hand back just as firmly.
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Oli’s frantic and semi-random ideas for developing the area eventually turn from “nonsense to distract Jimmy” to “actually not that bad”. At first, clearly is just playing along for Oli’s benefit. As the ideas begin to come together, Jimmy starts taking notes in what Oli thinks is a perfectly delightful little notebook, decidedly fancier than any possession of Jimmy’s that Oli has ever seen. Oli almost asks to see the notebook, but something about the careful way Jimmy handles it makes Oli hold back. Jimmy puts the notebook away and Oli tries to forget about it.
The next time Oli throws out a wild idea that Jimmy somehow thinks is worth considering, he brings the notebook out again. Oli peers over, perhaps obviously, and sees that there’s words on the spine and shapes drawn in gold on the cover. A mystery!
The notebook departs again, Oli again attempts to not think about it, focusing instead on trying to make Jimmy laugh. The third time the notebook appears, Jimmy pauses to think before writing, long enough for Oli to become annoyingly curious about the shapes on the cover, mostly obscured by Jimmy’s hands – those big, strong hands that turn the pages in the book so gingerly.
Well, Oli tried! There were too many mysteries in Oli’s life to allow another one, no matter how small.
Luckily Jimmy doesn’t seem affronted by the request, and Oli has no regrets about asking, not if Jimmy is going to blush so adorably. (Has Jimmy secretly always been this adorable? Hmm.)
Jimmy gingerly hands the book over after a quick (perhaps longing?) glance at the cover. Oli has of course seen the color of the book, but up close it’s rich and beautiful, leather dyed a deep burgundy. The front cover prominently features a rendition of Jimmy's badge in embossed gold leaf with the letters "TT" in the center. Below the badge, in the same gold leaf, is a line art sketch of what looks like the skyline of Tumble Town. It’s honestly exquisite, and entirely unexpected for Jimmy. Oli can’t even begin to guess where it came from.
Oli carefully rotates the book and examines the spine. A stately serifed font spelled out "Tiny Tim's Tiny Journal." Fascinating! Oli had assumed that the TT on the badge stood for Tumble Town, but perhaps it is actually "Tiny Tim." Perhaps both? Turning the book over, Oli finds the back cover nearly blank, save for a drawing in the bottom right corner. Drawn with the same exquisite care as the skyline on the front, it depicts a lone tumbleweed bush blowing past a lonely cactus amidst an empty desert scene. It feels a little sad, and Oli doesn’t want to be sad about a notebook of all things. Instead Oli looks up and smiles at Jimmy, pushing those aching feelings away, at least for now.
“Ooee!” Oli squeals in genuine delight. “How elegant, how refined! Jimmy, pray tell, how did you acquire this precious book? Only the finest for our dear sweet Sheriff!”
Jimmy simply clears his throat and lightly opens the front cover for Oli to see, seemingly unaware of his hand gently brushing Oli’s in the process. Oli quickly looks inside the book, and definitely does not think about Jimmy’s strong hand, and how nice it was to hold earlier, or how nice it might be to hold again.
The inside cover has a simple inscription in loopy handwriting. “For Tiny Tim, the Biggest Little Sheriff in Town”. Just below it was signed “S + G”, each letter in different handwriting. The first page of the book simply said “Sheriff’s Journal”.
S + G?
Scott and Gem? Shelby… no. This was for Tiny Tim, not Sheriff Jimmy.
Scar and Grian.
Oli barely resists running a finger along the inscription, instead gently closing the cover and handing it back to Jimmy. Oli takes a moment before looking up, but there’s no tension now, just an unexpected quiet peace. Instead of saying something silly, Oli meets Jimmy’s gaze and smiles.
“Buy you a drink at the saloon?”
Jimmy laughs, with far more jauntiness than Oli’s weak joke deserves. “It’s literally my saloon and I bet you don’t actually have any money, do you?”
Oli sheepishly looks down, hands clasped, one shoe scuffing the dirt. “Oh, Sheriff, I can’t pull one past you, can I!” Deciding to toss caution to the wind and just go for it, (whatever it was) Oli looks up at Jimmy with fluttering eyelashes. “Good sir, I don’t suppose you’d be so kind as to buy little ole me a drink?”
Delightfully, Jimmy responds with a stammered “of course” and quickly strides towards the giant door in the giant wall. If Oli’s mind has a plan, it’s not sharing – but Jimmy’s fun, and flirting is always fun – and it certainly beats sulking about people that Oli will never be able to flirt with again.
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Jimmy follows through and buys (or rather, gives) Oli a drink, and soon after a second drink. They sit at a cozy booth together, sipping their drinks and snacking on peanuts Jimmy had produced from behind the bar. At first they go over the notes Jimmy had taken in his sweet little hermit notebook, making notes and adding details, but after they finish their second drinks they move on to effortless, silly chatter. (Jimmy has always been good for silly chatter, in any world.) The time passes easily, Oli's thoughts focusing on the Jimmy of right now. All thoughts of other people and other times fade away, at least for the moment.
Some clock chimes five, and Oli declares that means they each need a third drink, and that it’s Oli’s turn to bartend. Jimmy’s first two rounds were “beer” and “whiskey”, which was effective enough, but far from exciting. Oli wants to drink something more exciting, and perhaps to show off a little for Jimmy – it has worked before, though Jimmy couldn’t possibly remember that.
Oli stands up and walks behind the bar, letting a hand trail lightly over the countertop before ducking down to grab a bottle of simple syrup from a shelf below. There is a flurry of movement as Oli grabs various other ingredients, even running outside to grab an egg at one point. Jimmy intently watches, brow furrowing in his adorable way at the appearance of the egg. A shaker is deftly placed in the exact center of the countertop. Whiskey, lemon juice, egg, simple syrup, and ice are all seemingly casually dropped inside before Oli shakes it vigorously, cheerfully chattering away the whole time. Oli places an old fashioned glass in front of Jimmy and strains the concoction into it. Oli makes deliberate eye contact with Jimmy while filling the glass the rest of the way with soda water. Without breaking contact with Jimmy's beautiful chestnut brown eyes, Oli taps the glass on the counter and throws a cherry on a toothpick into it. Oli's heart skips a beat for fear that the cherry will miss the glass, hubris leading to emotional ruin, but the cherry finds its mark perfectly. The foam on the drink starts to rise, the foam standing straight up rather than bubbling over down the sides. Trying to act cool rather than relieved, Oli smiles and slides the glass closer to Jimmy, whose cheeks are now a satisfying shade of pink. Success.
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It was inevitable, given how many rounds of drinks they went through, that one of them would slip up and tell a story involving hermits. Oli freezes after saying Joe’s name, breaking the unspoken agreement to not talk about any of… them. Oli could change the topic with affected nonchalance, could pretend nothing had happened, but that idea feels both depressing and impossible.
The problem is that Oli does want to talk about hermits, about Joe and Pearl, about poetry and song and goddesses, about all the strange sights of Hermitcraft, about losing count of how many times that sweet prince Joe Hills, always amiable, rescued Oli from points across their world.
It would require explaining so much, but Oli is desperate to talk about Pearl, bright sunny Pearl, especially about Oli’s abandoned quest to understand what the heck was going on with Pearl, and what it meant for any of them. Maybe she was a goddess who threw Oli off a cloud, maybe that was someone else who improbably looked just like her, or maybe Oli hallucinated it all! Maybe she was the mortal incarnation of a goddess and maybe she wasn’t, but this Pearl and this Oli very much enjoyed each other’s company, and maybe that was all that mattered. Oli is desperate to tell Jimm, to tell anyone about the haunting moment when Oli locked eyes with Pearl across the campfire, realizing in a terrible instant that they had waited too long, that they were out of time, that maybe they could have enjoyed much more of each other – but they would never know.
Oli feels the beginning of a tear welling up, remembering winding up alone with Joe, time after time – in the cozy dear winter village, or out and about around Hermitcraft. Oli’s eyes slam shut, once again falling into memories of serenading her while she worked on her epic project, that Oli really had hoped to see finished, as foolish as that feels now. Oli wondered, for the hundredth time, what Joe was thinking - does he regret believing they could take their time, assuming the portal was going to stay open. How often does Joe think about a few precious kisses, sweet kisses that never had time to turn into more than a hurried goodbye and one final desperate kiss, hiding behind Grumbot, of all unlikely places.
Oli genuinely has no idea how to talk to Jimmy, or anyone at all, about the near-constant aching sorrow of missing friends and almost lovers, about regret and loss and joy, about what they’d had and what maybe could have been and now never would, about how bloody terrible it was to never know, about how it wasn’t getting any easier, shouldn’t it be getting easier?
Oli simply looks up at Jimmy, not hiding anything, with no idea what Jimmy will see, what Jimmy even wants to see. Oli’s at a loss for words, lost in too many ways, and decides to just wait for Jimmy.
Jimmy doesn’t make Oli wait. Jimmy smiles a little smile, still beautiful but so sad that Oli is suddenly on the verge of not just one but many tears. Jimmy reaches across the table and gently takes Oli’s hand.
“Yeah, I really miss them too, so much that I… Oli, I honestly don’t know what to do.”
Still utterly wordless, Oli reaches across the table to take Jimmy’s other hand and gives it a tight squeeze.
Perhaps not all conversations need words.