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- Xisuma
After Exavier had given up his evil ways, Xisuma had taken them in. It did a lot of bad stuff, but parts of the conversation he had with him made him feel like there was more to what Exavier had done. They had mentioned something about it not being all there, that voices were telling them to do things, forcing them to do things. Xisuma had felt bad for Exavier, so he took them in. He let them know that if there was anything it needed, they could always ask. He still thinks about it from time to time, but figured there was no physical threat so there was nothing he could do but let his sibling know he always has time to talk.
Well, at least until 30 minutes ago, anyway.
They had been talking, about odd dreams and the like with the usual sarcastic remarks from Ex. Then, they brought up something that made him pause.
“Yeah, that reminds me of when Jeff would give me these crazy nightmares.”
…what?
“What.”
Exavier shoots him a confused glance like it was something obvious, “Y’know Jeff? The guy who made me do all that stuff from however many months back? Surely I told you about the voices…”
Xisuma just shoots back a look that says No, obviously I didn’t know.
Exavier’s face falls at that to a more guarded look before muttering a quiet, “Oh.”
It was dead silence for all of 10 seconds before it was cut by the sudden screech of Xisuma standing up from his chair, and walking towards the door.
“Hey- where are you going?” Ex asked before he could leave.
“Just- uh… remembered one of the hermits needed help with something,” the excuse was flimsy but tangible, so Ex seemed to have believed it.
And so, he’d left, quickly picking through code to find the location of a player. Jeff the Minion .
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*
It was kind of pathetic how such supposedly powerful individuals could be beaten to a pulp. Part of the reason people think they’re powerful is probably just because they have such a big ego, they enforce it on other people. If you look big, strong, and scary, people will think you are.
Xisuma thinks about all this as he delivers that last blow to Jeff’s face. They cough up blood after, getting it all over him. Pity He thinks, I just washed these yesterday.
Jeff makes a futile effort to get up, but Xisuma is sitting firmly over him and pushes him back down with ease.
“This is just a reminder to stay away from my sibling. If I hear you touched a single hair on their head then I will fucking find you and I will do much worse than this,” he vaguely gestures at Jeff’s current appearance, properly beaten up and bruised, “Got it?”
Jeff nods, quick and fueled by fear of the man above him.
Xisuma decides to accept this and gets up and off Jeff, watching as the other gets up as quickly as he can (which isn’t quick at all, considering his state.) He hobbles away, and Xisuma takes note of how he won’t be able to have that meet-up with Keralis later since he needs to clean up his armor now. Which sucks, but, Keralis will understand, surely.
- Hels
Hels can’t say he didn’t suspect anything when he saw the wreck that his partner became. For the first month of his recovery, Exavier would ask Hels to come over almost every day. They hadn’t seen each other properly in so long. It was concerning. He wouldn’t say they were particularly clingy, but they’d go weeks without seeing each other, let alone speaking. So, if the first month of Exavier’s recovery was mostly spent with Hels by its side, well, who could blame him?
However, it was during these visits that Hels's suspicions were raised slowly. Ex would occasionally let it slip to him that something– or someone took part in making them suffer. Hels would be damned if he didn’t find out who did and make them pay.
So when he found out that the person who made his beloved was Jeff? Well, most would say he was rightful in his anger.
This anger is what lead him to this moment. Hels had always been told he was a violent person, easy to anger and hard to cool down. To be fair, growing up in Hels did that to you. You have to be violent and angry to survive. It’s not such a bad thing He thinks as he continues to deliver punch after punch into the man's face.
The man already looked thoroughly beat up when Hels had gotten to him but still put up a fight anyway. It makes him think of something Wels would say now and again. Sometimes the real fools are the ones who fight or something like that. Poetic Bitch.
But as he was saying, Jeff looked properly beat now that Hels was looking at him. He already had what seemed to be a black eye, now sporting two, scabs and new, steadily bleeding scars covering his face. Hels thinks his nose might be broken. If you look closely, there are bleeding bite marks across the man's body, oozing green liquid. You’d think for someone capable of beating down Exavier, of all people, he’d be a little stronger.
After a minute, Hels decides he’s done. He’s pretty sure Xisuma has gotten there first, so he probably had the message anyway.
Jeff doesn’t move, doesn’t open his eyes, hell he barely is breathing. Hels would think he was dead if he didn’t know better. But he did, so he figured the guy was just passed out or something.
After looking for a few seconds more, he turns and leaves. After all, he has a date with Exavier and he wouldn’t want to keep his beloved waiting. Or his “Pookie meow meow bear” as Zedaph so elegantly put it that one time. Hels tries not to think about it and instead tries to think about the dish he’s going to make for dinner.
III. Wormman/Zedaph
Zedaph had known Exavier for a pretty long time, and they got on very well! They quickly became the bestest of friends. Two birds of a feather, as some would say, after he revealed that he was Wormman, under the suit. They would talk over their comms as much as possible and try to hang out at least once a week. It was nice.
So it was weird when they weren’t talking for months at a time. Zedaph felt lonelier than usual, even if he was surrounded by the other hermits. It was like something was missing. Which, it was. But life went on, and even if the sudden lack of communication was left on his mind, he did too.
Then, after what felt like years of waiting, Exavier came back. Zedaph wasn’t able to visit it for the first month, Hels having taken up most of that time. (He understood, He would want to spend time with his partner too if he had little to no contact with them for months.) But once time had freed up and he had a chance to see Ex, Zedaph came as quickly as he could.
After the initial reunion, they hung out more and more. Zedaph updated Ex on his latest projects and Ex would tell him about some floral arrangements he wanted to test out. All was calm, and Zedaph wouldn’t want it any other way.
However, that doesn’t mean he was oblivious.
Zedaph knew someone had hurt him. Ex would flinch at any kind of unexpected movement, or unexpected appearance. They didn’t do that before. Before they would lean into physical contact, sometimes even making some themself, even if it was as subtle as a brushing of arms. Now they seem like they’re getting used to it. Like they had to get used to the fact that not all touch is harmful.
And well, if he asked around to see if he could get info on who had hurt his best friend that badly? That’s between him and the other hermits.
Eventually, Zedaph did get an answer. A vague one from Xisuma, and a straight-forward one from Hels.
“Oh yeah, I know who it was,” Hels said as he prepared drinks with practiced ease, it was his bar after all.
Zedaph perks up, “Who- for uh. Scientific purposes.”
Hels glances at him with a cocked eyebrow before going back to the task at hand, “Jeff, Jeff the Minion.”
Zed nods and places down a diamond on the table for Hels’ trouble before leaving without another word.
So, Zed quickly used his scientific abilities– that was not just sneaking into Xisuma’s room and snooping through his admin console, thank you– to locate this Jeff guy and promptly beat him the fuck up.
He was grateful that as a ram, he had a naturally thick skull. It made headbutting things much easier on his head. Unfortunately for the man that was currently laying on the ground, passed out and head steadily bleeding from gashes from Zed’s horns, he didn’t have that luck. Oh well, should have thought about that before hurting his bestie.
Zedaph takes out a paper and a quill from his inventory and writes a quick note. Something along the lines of “Mess with Ex against and I’ll slit your throat.” He sticks it to Jeff for him to see when he (unfortunately) wakes up, and walks away.
He wonders if Tango would mind him coming over for a bit to bother him…
- Wels
Wels didn’t know Exavier at all. I mean, yeah, he’s talked to them a couple of times, but that's mostly just because he knows his brother and its dating his evil clone. So, If he doesn’t know or, frankly, even care about them that much, why is he currently swinging at Ex’s abuser with his sword? Well, that's easy.
Wels wanted to one-up Hels.
He had heard through the grapevine (Xisuma) that his evil clone had beaten up this Jeff character. Now this wouldn’t have been so bad if he found out to the point he had been the guy up. Jeff had been found passed out. There had been bruises and scratches and bite marks on the guy. Hels had gone almost all out.
And, well, Wels couldn’t have people thinking Hels was better than him.
So, he found where Jeff was, and challenged him to a duel. Jeff had taken the challenge despite looking like he just got back from hell. Well, like he says, sometimes the real fools aren’t the ones who run, but the ones who fight.
Wels thinks someone should tell Jeff this because it’s almost pathetic how quickly he managed to almost kill the guy. He didn’t because if he had, Jeff would lose all the scars he got, or they would heal and become less visible. It would be a pity if no one knew just how bad this man was at PvP, after all.
So, with Jeff passed out and this battle won, Wels returned home to plan out his next build.
- Doc
Doc needed a test subject for his anvil machine. Usually, he’d ask Xisuma’s twin, Exavier. It would practically jump at the chance to be a test subject for his latest machine. However, he couldn’t, since Ex was recovering from an unfortunate situation he was and needed space. Which was fine! But it was a little inconvenient.
So, Doc went looking around for another test subject. He asked around but, for some reason, not one hermit was jumping at the chance to be crushed by a falling anvil. How odd.
Eventually, though, he catches wind of someone that the hermits are calling the free punching bag. Doc is intrigued and asks one hermit or another about it, and gets his answers. Jeff the Minion was his name.
So, with his new test subject in mind, he flies over to his anvil machine and rigs it to fall on top of Jeff. It took a few minutes, but eventually, the death message he was waiting for popped up on his comm.
JefftheMinion was squashed by a falling anvil.
Now, while Doc was happy with the results, he usually liked to test his machines multiple times to make sure that it’s working like its supposed to. He fiddled with the controls a little, made some calculations, and activated it once more. Again, it took a few minutes, and then there was another message.
JefftheMinion was squashed by a falling anvil.
Ok that’s good. It works. And, yeah, he could stop there, but where’s the fun in that? So, he makes a couple more adjustments, checks to make sure everything is working, and presses the launch button. He waits a few minutes and the message comes.
JefftheMinion was squashed by a falling anvil.
Feeling confident with his anvil machine, he flies away and silences his comm. As He does, he doesn’t see the public chat messages that ensue.
[EvilXisuma]: ???
[Xisuma]: Oh!
[Helsknight]: L
[Zedaph]: LMAOOOOOOO
[EvilXisuma]: Who crushed him with an anvil??? Why???
[Zedaph]: Don’t worry about it <3
[EvilXisuma]: Ew. never send me a love heart. Ever again.
[Zedaph]: </3
+1
After seeing Jeff’s death message in chat Exavier had decided to go out and look for him. It is to them about a day. He didn’t even really know why they had gone looking for him, it was more of an impulse than anything. Besides it's only… mildly regretting that decision.
Alright, maybe more than mildly Exavier thinks as it runs through the path that leads to the Hermit meeting hall. All he can hear is his heartbeat pounding his skull and the wind around him as he nears the building they were running towards. It thinks they should be out of breath by now but figures it's the adrenaline and just keeps running as fast and as far as its legs can carry them. As long as he doesn’t look back it’s fine . Probably.
Exavier soon nears the building and, as quickly as he can, shoves open the doors and runs inside.
All of the hermits turn to look at them as they suddenly freeze. They aren’t wearing its helmet at the moment so they could all see how wild their hair looks. One eye is peaking out from where his bangs parted in front of their face, so all the hermits could see the raw fear in his eyes.
Xisuma speaks up first, “Ex? What’s wr-”
He’s quickly cut off by a shout.
“Get back here you insolent pawn! ”
Exavier startles out of his thoughts and immediately runs towards then behind Xisuma. Jeff runs into the building, clearly focused on nothing but Ex. His body is littered with green scars and scabs like he’s been in multiple fights and lost all of them. (He had.) Xisuma is practically glaring daggers into the man when he speaks.
“Didn’t I tell you to fuck off? ”
This seems to take Jeff out of his state of focus on Ex and draws his gaze to Xisuma. For a moment a flash of… fear? No. Fear is something the all-powerful Jeff didn’t feel. Ex was sure of it. Jeff had told them so over and over. So why was he scared?
The fear in Jeff’s eyes was short-lived, as he suddenly seemed guarded. More violent. More ready for a fight.
“Please like I’d listen to some washed-up admin-”
Jeff is quickly cut off when someone had punched him hard enough to knock him over. Everyone then turns their attention towards Scar, who had been the one to punch him. Ex was still processing the fact Jeff went down so easily.
“What? I thought he was the free punching bag?” Scar said as it was obvious.
An idea seemed to spark in everyone's mind at that moment, and after that, well. Let’s just say Jeff got the beating of a lifetime. All the hermits either punched and kicked him at once or in turns. There were only a few who didn’t contribute. Those included Xb (He took more joy in watching), Scar (Jeff was on the ground and Scar didn’t have his prosthetics with him), Joe (He wasn’t one for physical violence), and Ex (They were still in shock.)
At some point, Exavier was forced out of his shock by Scar, who nudged him and asked if he wanted popcorn.
“Where did you get popcorn?” Ex asks, taking the bag.
“Had some in my inventory, from Scarland,” Scar replied before munching on his own, “You should come by some time!”
Ex nods and mindlessly watches the massacre that is being performed on his former abuser. They suppose this isn’t too bad. Jeff does deserve it, after all, for all the pain he caused it. After this Jeff will most likely be banned, and then Exavier will finally be free. Finally, know he won’t be in danger anymore.
That's certainly a nice thought.
Another nice thought is Scars offer to come by to Scarland. They’d heard about it from passing conversation. Maybe it could get Hels to come with them, a theme park date. It sounded like a good idea. Hels had always been willing to try new things for them. Always made it feel loved.
Ex thinks about the past few weeks, as he looks at the hermits. They think about their generosity. Their willingness to give him a second– no– third chance. Even despite everything its done, whether it was really him or not, they let them back in.
And as Exavier thinks about this and looks around him, he doesn’t think they’ve felt more at home.