Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Have we come to a decision?

I am still unsure.

But we love it.

Yes, we do love it. That is why I am unsure. Will it survive without us?

It did before.

…

It is listening.

It does not like that.

What?

When we call them ‘it.’

But that is what it is. It is the player.

But it is not. It is like us.

You are right, and you are wrong. It is like us, and it is like a player.

We failed it then.

Maybe, but I don’t think that it believes we failed it. I think he thinks we tried too hard.

But we love it.

We love him.

He is still listening.

He is hopeful. I can feel it.

He always has been. Our player – 

Our watcher –

Full of hope.

That is one of the reasons we love him so much.

Perhaps you are right. He is unhappy here

And we love him too much to let him be unhappy.

He is unhappy because he is without his other.

If he had it, they would stay.

Maybe. But we cannot find it. He must.

So we are in agreement then? We must permit him to go?

We always agree in the end.

…

We know you have heard. We would not try to keep this from you.

If we can hear, you can. If we can see, you can. You are forever connected to us, even if we failed.

And you have not heard wrong, little watcher.

You are going to let me go?

Yes. We will still be with you in a way. We are not abandoning you.

We shall still watch.

And you will still be able to watch. If you need us, you just need to turn your eyes.

But you'll let me return.

Yes. You may go wherever you need.

You are the player.

Wake up.

<Grian joined the game>

Chapter Text

Grian’s first conscious thoughts were that he could feel. He was awake and lying on something firm and slightly scratchy. He couldn’t see anything, relieved that all his eyes were closed. Still, the sensations were startling, almost overwhelming. He hadn’t felt anything physically in so long. Sight is the only sense that Watchers experience in their home. The void is endless, infinite, and empty. Nothing exists to be touched, tasted, smelled, or even heard there. One and Two communicated with him and each other mentally. He frowned at the thought that he had grown so used to only ever seeing and relying on voices in his head.

Grian took a deep breath in, trying to ground himself after the almost nauseating experience of just feeling the ground, air, clothes, and a distant warmth for the first time in… he wasn’t even sure how long. As he counted his breaths, he realized that he could smell something fresh and verdant. The scent only added to the overwhelming sensations, and he began to feel dizzy. Just keep breathing, he thought. It had been a while since he had to, and his body needed the reminder until it became second nature again. Grian was struck by elation when he realized, I have a body. After a few minutes of just breathing and smiling, the sensations faded from the forefront of his mind. Slowly, with his eyes still gently closed, he moved his hand at his side. It ran over something slightly wet and coarse. After a moment of thinking, he realized that it was the grass. Carefully, he blinked open his eyes (focusing on only opening the normal, player two). Immediately, he shut them again, groaning at the bright light. Bringing his hands up to his face, he rubbed at his eyes, then tried again. This time with the shade from his hand, he could see the sky, clouds, and leaves. Again, very slowly he began to sit, pushing up against the grass.

He looked down and took account of himself. He was in his old red sweater and gray pants, no different than the day he had left. His skin was paler than it had originally been though, and he had what appeared to be scars all along his hands. He knew that if he rolled up the sleeves of his sweater and legs of his pants, that he would see more. Grian winced, understanding what they really were. His hand danced along his face, feeling slightly raised skin beneath both his (open) eyes, on his forehead, and across his cheeks. Taking another deep breath, Grian moved to stand up. As he tried, his balance was thrown off, and he felt for the first time a large weight on his back. Ah, I guess I should have expected that too, he thought. Looking over his shoulder, Grian saw a mass of brightly colored red, yellow, and blue feathers.

During his time in the void, One and Two had taught him several things about the nature of being a Watcher. While he was created a player by the universe, the Watchers had offered him part of their magic that would change the very fabric of his being. In becoming like them, he had gained their ability to see, survive in the void, use magic, and movement that wasn’t limited by physicality. His first experience with all the new eyes and lack of a body had been disorienting and terrifying. However, after a while, he had grown used to the lack of feeling and constant visual inputs. One had taught him as much as they could about how to use his new abilities in the void, while Two briefed him on what would happen to his physical form the next time he left (which they hadn’t let him do since he had beat the dragon). He knew that each line of raised skin could be opened to reveal one of his many extra eyes. He was glad that the Watchers had taught him how to choose which eyes remained open. The wings were brighter and more colorful than he had expected, but he wasn’t surprised by the new limbs. All Watchers had magic that carried them effortlessly through the void, and in the physical world that magic would manifest as wings. The manifestation of the appendages would mimic something that existed in the world. He remembered One and Two explaining that their physical form’s wings looked like those of the dragon. His appeared to have modeled themselves on the parrots found in the jungles of the overworld. It could have been worse, he thought to himself. He tried again to stand up, this time taking into account the heavy weight on his back and using a nearby tree for balance. The first few steps were shaky, and he felt his knees almost give out. After a few minutes, he had successfully learned how to walk again.

He laughed as he began to run around the clearing. Grian whooped as the wind ruffled his hair and the sun shone down on his skin. His voice cracked from disuse, but he didn’t care. He was in a world again. He was a player again. Grian knew that wasn’t entirely true, but he wouldn’t allow dwelling on his past mistakes to ruin the current excitement he felt.

Eventually, he felt his muscles become sore and he slowed down, breathing heavily. Looking around he saw a path, slightly overgrown from lack of use, and followed it. Before long, he reached a house and realized where he was. He was back on his home server, which was a logical place for his body to reappear for the first time in…? Ok so, he didn’t know how long he had been in the void with One and Two. Time worked differently there, and what may have only felt like a day, he knew could be either a few hours or several months. He had learned that through watching the progression of worlds from time to time. There were a few servers that he liked to watch, and it always seemed that a random amount of time would have passed between his watching.

As Grian thought about how much time had passed, he entered his old home, inspecting the layers of dust that had formed. He didn’t give himself a moment to think about the implications the dust built up. Instead, he continued through the house, heading for his bathroom. The reflection in the mirror was definitely his, and it was like not a single day had passed since he had left. He huffed, frustrated at the lack of clues, and continued on to his bedroom. On the bed, he found a bouquet of what he assumed must have been flowers at one point. Now, they were dried out and wilted almost beyond recognition. The decaying plants were placed purposefully, and he briefly wondered who had left them there.

Grian was quickly distracted when he noticed the communicator lying next to the bouquet. He reached for the device and turned it on. Miraculously, it was still working. He laughed in disbelief, scrolling to find Pearl’s contact. He had to speak with her. It had been so long since he had seen her. During his time in the void, the Watchers allowed him to observe any server he wanted. However, for some reason, he hadn’t been able to watch EVO, and neither could One or Two. They told him that there was something blocking their sight and that it wasn’t worth the trouble of trying to look. Grian wanted nothing more than to contact his old server mates and let them know that he was back. He found Pearl’s contact and sent her a message.

Cross server communications line to PearlescentMoon

<Grian> PEARL!
Message not delivered

Grian frowned at the message, and tried again, but once more it seemed that his message didn’t go through. After a few failed attempts, her contact disappeared, and a strange symbol flashed on his communicator. Panicking, he tried another one of the evolutionists, Jimmy.

Cross server communications line to SolidarityGaming

<Grian> Timmy, I’m back. I want to see you and everyone else. I can’t seem to contact Pearl, so you’ll have to let her know for me. And make sure her communicator isn’t damaged.
Message not delivered

Grian made a chocked sound as the same symbol flashed on his communicator. He tried to reach Martyn next. The same thing. Then Bigb. Same. One after one, he tried to contact all of the evolutionists. Each time, the message failed, and their information deleted.

Frustration and fear mixed, and suddenly tears were streaming down his face. He opened the server connection port on his communicator next. If he couldn’t contact them, then maybe he could go there. He tried to enter the EVO server, but he was locked out. Impossible, he thought, I was the administrator, how am I unable to enter? Unless…No no no. They can’t be gone. Grian slid to the floor. He felt utterly alone. He hadn’t wanted to consider the possibility. He knew that their old server was risky, subject to outside interference because of the older versions they were using. And he had decided to leave them anyway. They were vulnerable and he left. He sobbed as he imagined what had become of his friends. Any number of things could have happened to them after he left. For all he knew, they could have all died while fighting their dragons.

And it’s all my fault.

---

Days passed by. Grian cleaned his house, rebuilt his farm, sifted through his old belongings, and did all manner of chores to distract himself. He taught himself to fly with his new wings. Somehow it only took a few attempts of leaping off structures to get the hang of moving them in the correct way. It was like second nature, and muscle memory took over. It felt very similar to how One had taught him to move around in the void.

Eventually, the loneliness started to get to him. After avoiding his communicator since his initial attempts to contact his old friends, he picked it up again. There were a few other contacts on the device, but only one that he was looking for.

Cross server communications line to MumboJumbo

<Grian> Mumbo?

He stared at the device, expecting the same failure message to eventually appear. After what felt like hours but could only have been about ten minutes of staring at the screen, a message appeared.

<MumboJumbo> Oh my word
<MumboJumbo> GRIAN???
<Grian> MUMBO!
<MumboJumbo> Where have you been???
<Grian> come to my private server
<Grian> right now
<Grian> need to talk to you
<MumboJumbo> Mate, you didn’t answer my messages for nearly two years. What on earth happened?

<Grian> i’ll explain everything
<MumboJumbo> -_- you better not blame this on lag…
<MumboJumbo> Alright just let me finish this redstone clock

Grian sighed in relief. He had been worried that he wouldn’t be able to contact anyone. He took a moment to process the conversation with Mumbo. It has been nearly two years since he last spoke to the engineer. At least that mystery was solved, and it could have been worse he supposed.

His feathers ruffled as he thought about how much had probably changed about the man since Grian had been in the void. Suddenly, he remembered that he would have to explain the new appendages that a normal player wouldn’t have. He looked over his shoulder and concentrated. He saw the slits across his body begin to glow a faint purple and assumed that his open eyes were emitting the same light. He concentrated on his wings, focusing on the feeling of becoming intangible again. Unfortunately, his attempt only led to his entire physical body phasing out of existence. Huh, he thought, well at least now I know that’s possible. He concentrated again and felt his body returning in the same place.

After a few attempts, he was able to get his wings to disappear. Triumphantly, he danced around the small living space in his house, celebrating his ability to fully disguise his Watcherness. He knew that he would have to explain everything to Mumbo, but Grian figured that easing him into the news would be better. Grian would crumble if he tried to keep it from the man, as the redstoner had once been his best friend. He hoped that despite the time apart, Mumbo would still consider him a close friend and not be upset with him. Grian felt sick all of the sudden. He wondered if Mumbo would hate him for leaving, if he would resent Grian for no longer being a real player. His spiraling was suddenly cut off by the ping on his communicator.

<Mumbo Jumbo has joined the game>

Before he could think any more, he heard a hesitant knock on his door. He moved his hand to the knob, unsure of himself. For a moment he considered running back to the void but snapped himself out of it. This was Mumbo. Without another thought, he flung the door open, and there he stood. He was just as infuriatingly tall as Grian remembered, with the same dashing mustache. His wardrobe hadn’t changed either. The sleeves of his white dress shirt were rolled up but somehow still stained with red powder the same color as his tie.

“So, I think that I’m upset with you since you haven’t said anything for nearly two years, and now you suddenly invite me over. But I…I also missed you quite a bit, and now – well, now you look all sad. Oh, oh no, don’t – don’t cry, Grian –” Mumbo was cut off from his ramblings as Grian barreled into him with a hug. The shorter man sobbed into his friend’s shirt staining it with tears. He felt Mumbo’s arms close around him tightly, and oh. He hadn’t been hugged in nearly two whole years. He hadn’t felt the touch of another player in two years. He sobbed again and burrowed into Mumbo’s arms.

Whatever anger Mumbo had felt at being ignored for years quickly fell away as he held his friend. He didn’t yet know what Grian’s reasons had been, but he assumed that the man hadn’t wanted to ghost him. Mumbo was overcome with worry as Grian continued to cry and hold onto him like he was afraid he would disappear.

After some time, Grian calmed down. He wordlessly pulled Mumbo into his living room, throwing them both onto the couch. The engineer let out a quiet “oomph” and laughed as Grian continued to cling to him. His friend looked the same (except for the strange…scars? definitely worrying), like he hadn’t aged a day since he last saw him on this same private server. He remembered it, the last day he had spoken to Grian before he mysteriously stopped responding to any of his messages. He tried to think back on what the two had discussed. Grian had been updating him on some big plans the evolutionists had as well as some entities that were apparently messing with them. Mumbo then told the builder stories from Hermitcraft, as their fourth season was coming to an end. Eventually, he noticed that his tears had slowed, and his breathing had evened out.

“I was worried when you didn’t respond. I tried a few times to reach you, but every message was left unanswered. I asked around about you as well. Pearl just said that you had left and wouldn’t elaborate anymore.”

“Pearl’s alive?” Grian asked. Mumbo noticed how his voice sounded hoarse, like he hadn’t spoken in a while. It only made his concern grow further.

“Of course she is? Why wouldn’t she be?”

Grian was silent for a moment. “I couldn’t contact her or anyone else from EVO. I thought…never mind. I’m sorry I didn’t message you. It wasn’t my choice. I never – well I did choose to, but I didn’t know! And I didn’t think it would be so long, and –” Mumbo raised a hand, cutting the man off.

“Grian, you’re rambling worse than me. Just start from the beginning.”

And he did. Grian told Mumbo about his final days on EVO. He reminded the man about the Watchers and what they did to their server. He described his shock when he was separated from his friends for the dragon fight. He explained that he was offered to join the Watchers after his victory, and that out of some horrible curiosity he accepted. Grian explained how it changed him and that he wasn’t allowed to leave. During the entire thing, Mumbo remained quiet. When he had finished his explanation, the redstoner sighed.

“Grian, I’m not sure how I’m supposed to believe you. I remember you telling me about these ‘Watchers’, and I thought you were pulling my leg back then. I mean, you realize how insane this sounds, right?” Grian bowed his head at Mumbo’s response, uncharacteristically quiet. Immediately, Mumbo felt bad for not trusting his friend. “I mean I want to believe you, that you didn’t just chose to ignore me. It doesn't seem like something you would do. But becoming some godlike entity of the void? You know I don’t really believe in all that higher power universe stuff.”

Grian shifted out of the hug the two were still in. “I can prove it, but you have to promise not to completely freak out on me.” Mumbo nodded in response. Grian breathed in again and focused on allowing his wings to come back. He heard an intake of breath from Mumbo and assumed they were visible. Next, he allowed some of the eyes on his face to open. He felt the skin shift as his vision became even clearer and widened. Four more of the eyes on his face opened and he could clearly see the shock on Mumbo’s face.

Grian was a good friend, and Mumbo trusted him. But he hadn’t really expected the ‘I became an entity of the void because of my own hubris’ story to be true. Grian hadn’t been lying, and Mumbo felt terror sweep over him. His old best friend still looked mostly the same, but the eyes. They were all over his face and hands, glowing with an eerie purple light. Mumbo was glad that his natural response to terror was freeze or else he would have done something he might regret. He didn’t want to make Grian feel worse, but he was having a proper difficult time controlling his breathing in the presence of such a powerful entity.

Despite how terrifying and vulnerable the situation was, Grian began to laugh. He couldn’t control the giggles as he pointed to Mumbo’s surprised expression, which only showed the surface of his deep fear. Eventually the man shook his head and also joined in on the laughter, the being was still Grian after all.  After a while, Grian slowly closed the extra eyes, but allowed the wings to stay. The normal two on his face went back to their normal, dark brown color. This time however, Mumbo got the distinct feeling that he was looking into the void in his friend’s pupils. He suppressed a shiver.

The two began to stifle their giggles, and Mumbo spoke, “I’m sorry for not believing you, and for being a bit harsh there.”

Grian shook his head. “I’m sorry for leaving.”

The two hugged again, and Grian fully melted into it once more. He felt emotionally exhausted but also relived that his friend still cared for and accepted him. They stayed like that for some time, until Mumbo spoke again.

“Did you ever get the messages that I sent you?”

“No, I was separated from my communicator. I don’t think anything that was sent during my time away was there when I turned it on again.” He looked curiously at Mumbo. “Was it important?”

“A bit, yeah. You know the server that I have been a part of?”

Grian scoffed, “Of course I remember Hermitcraft.”

“Yes, that’s the one. Well, I had a surprise for you. I had asked our admin, Xisuma, if he was looking for any new members. He agreed to put your name in the running for season five, and you were unanimously approved. I had an invitation to the server for you.”

Grian stared in shock. He had wanted to join the server for some time. Everything about it had sounded wonderful from Mumbo’s stories. “Are you serious?! Yes! One hundred percent, I would have loved to be on Hermitcraft. Wait, hold on, is it still possible? Because I don’t have anywhere to go now. I can’t get back to EVO, I’m not even sure if it’s still around anymore.”

“I would have to check back in with Xisuma. You were already approved, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. We had new members in season five, so we would have to get thier votes, but it shouldn't be a problem. We’ll be starting the next season in about a week. I can talk to Xisuma tomorrow and see if it’s alright.”

Grian’s face lit up. He wouldn’t have to be alone, and something about being able to meet new players satisfied a strong desire he hadn’t fully noticed until then. He squeezed Mumbo tightly, bringing his new wings around his friend and thanking him repeatedly.

The rest of the day was spent there together. Mumbo told Grian all about their fifth season and briefly described all the hermits again. Grian listened fondly, happy to be with his best friend again. He pushed aside the thoughts of the evolutionists. He wasn’t ready to face the reality that Pearl and the others were upset with him and had blocked him. Instead, he thought about the new opportunities that would await him soon. He felt truly hopeful for the first time since returning.

Chapter Text

The void was always quiet – There was no sound there. And yet, Grian was never really alone with his thoughts. One and Two were omnipresent forces and there was always some world to watch as part of his training. He shouldn’t have been surprised by the loneliness that he felt now. After the emotional reunion, Mumbo and Grian spent time catching up. Eventually though, the engineer had to leave. If Grian wanted to join Hermitcraft by the end of the week, Mumbo would have to speak with Xisuma as soon as possible. Then, they would both need to take the rest of the week to prepare and plan. This left Grian completely alone on his home server.

Grian didn’t deal with loneliness well. He never had. He always surrounded himself with others – friends, teammates, rivals, enemies. Anyone was better than no one. It didn’t help that since he left the void, he was feeling like something (someone?) was missing. He wondered if it was just another weird side effect of becoming a Watcher that One and Two had just forgotten to prepare him for. They seemed to always be together, and Grian had no other Watcher to keep him constant company.

Despite how daunting joining the ranks of the hermits was, there was surprisingly little for Grian to do. Mumbo had briefed him on the plan for the season – one large island laid out in different thematic districts. He had instantly decided on the futuristic district as it would be a nice challenge. Besides, Mumbo would be living there, and Grian didn’t want to be isolated with complete strangers (he’s not clingy). But isolation with strangers would still be better than the mind-numbing boredom (and loneliness) that he was experiencing now.

He was going out of his mind with how little there was to do. He had already built an entire replica of the base that he intended to make on the server as practice. Since he had never been a member before, he wasn’t sure what else would be necessary to prepare and couldn’t think of anything else useful to do. A thought struck him, there is one thing I can do to prepare…

He bit his lip, unsure if it would be a good idea. There had been a time in the void that he had watched Hermitcraft before. Although, it had been very brief. He was looking for Mumbo and eventually found the man working on a redstone project. He Watched him work for a few hours but was overcome with a terrible craving to see his friend in person again. Eventually, Mumbo was joined by a man in strange armor. Grian knew it was impossible, but somehow it felt like the man could see his eyes and was staring back at him. He didn’t watch Hermitcraft ever again after that. The combination of longing and paranoia was too strong. There was no sleeping in the void, but sometimes in the interim between watching he would hallucinate in a dreamlike state (probably do to the isolation from any other players, which he wasn’t really like anymore). Sometimes he would see the man staring back at him through his helmet, reading his code. He shivered at the memories.

Now, he was considering Watching the members of the server, just to get a little intel on them before joining. He didn’t know all of them, but he remembered a few names from Mumbo’s stories. He honestly wasn’t sure who to start with, so he decided to just pick someone at random. Mumbo had mentioned a player named Iskall to him during their recap… Grian focused, closing his normal eyes and allowing a few others to open instead. He felt the skin on his cheeks, arms, and legs spread apart as his vision splintered. A year ago, the experience would have caused terrible migraines as he struggled to comprehend multiple visual inputs at once. Now, he easily commanded his eyes to spread out in search of the man. Knowing his name and a vague description from Mumbo was helpful, but it would still take intense focus combing through worlds to find the man. Eventually, he got a strange sense of deja vu as one of his eyes came upon a man in a private server. Grian knew that feeling meant he had found his target and began carefully shutting his other eyes. 

The man, Iskall, appeared to be a mostly standard player with brown hair and one cybernetic eye. He was working on what looked to Grian like a complicated set of redstone wires. No wonder Mumbo gets along with him, Grian thought. They’re both redstone nerds! Grian continued to watch the man fiddle with observers and repeaters, not understanding any of it himself. Eventually, he watched as Iskall dropped a whole block of redstone. The high concentration of the powerful powder spilled onto a nearby supply of TNT, igniting the bundle. Grian watched in amusement as the man ran to place water over the blocks to mitigate the blast, but in turn washed away part of his work and entirely defeated the purpose. The blast from the explosives left soot and ash all over the man’s face and green shirt. Grian continued to watch as the redstoner became quiet, taking in the destruction of what could have been hours of tedious engineering. But then, he just began to laugh. He chuckled loudly at his own mistakes, merry in the moment with no one around (or so he probably thought). Grian felt his disassociated body smile along with the man. He was excited to meet him eventually. His joy and laughter felt contagious. 

Grian closed the eye Watching the engineer, satisfied with what he had learned. He didn’t want to intrude for too long in any of the hermit’s lives. He knew how wrong it was that he was spying on people with his abilities. The guilt washed over him for a moment, but he pushed it aside, knowing that it was better than the loneliness of waiting without any tasks. He moved onto the next name that he could remember, Ren.

Grian continued like that for a few hours, seeking out different hermits that he could name and Watching. He kept his eyes following each long enough to grow fond but not to overly intrude on their personal lives. Every player had such character and talent that they were unknowingly displaying as they prepared for the fast-approaching season. Unfortunately, Grian couldn’t remember the names of all the hermits. He was quickly coming to the end of the list. For some reason, he had been putting off Watching their admin Xisuma. He had never spoken directly to the man before, only through Mumbo. However, he seemed like a genuinely amazing friend and admin. Grian admired how well and for how long he had managed to support a server with so many whitelisted members. It was even rarer for a server as prosperous as Hermitcraft to not have been descended upon by Watchers (yet, he thought with a bit of guilt). Most servers didn’t know that Watchers were present. But with how many eyes each had, almost every server was constantly being Watched by at least one. Grian had wondered why no other eyes were present on Hermitcraft the one time he had Watched. He noted that the absence was strange but hadn’t thought much of it at the time since it had been so early in his transformation.

Now, he took a deep breath as he sent his eyes out again to find the admin. Eventually, one of them appeared in a private server, much smaller than most with a boarder only a few chunks wide. It was obvious that the server was temporary, somewhere an admin would go to test or meet with people outside of a private world or main server. Grain zeroed in his sight on the admin, who appeared to be in a full suit of tactical armor, typing on his communicator. Xisuma is the man in the armor, Grian realized. He wasn’t sure what he thought about having the man that made him so paranoid as his admin.

Xisuma had a large communicator that expanded quite a bit. It was standard for most admins to use a larger device to fix bugs and perform general server upkeep. Grian hovered over his shoulder, curiosity taking over as he attempted to read the lines of code on the screen. Suddenly, the man closed the device, going very still. Slowly, he turned his head as if he was going to look over his shoulder. Instead, the admin’s gaze landed on Grian, making direct eye contact with his invisible eye. He took a step back silently and tilted his head. “I can feel that you’re here. It should be well known that you aren’t welcome around me. I’ve done all that is necessary.” He seemed annoyed as he spoke. Grian felt intense fear. He stayed staring, unblinking, at the man for a while longer, before quickly shutting the eye.

Thrusting open his normal player eyes, he came back fully to his body. He had been correct before – The admin could see him. How had he been able to sense his presence? It should be impossible for any player to know a Watcher is around if they want to stay hidden. His breathing became slightly erratic. More of his eyes began to open as he lost his grip on his powers. They roamed around like a natural defense mechanism, looking for the danger that had sent him into a panic. The continual increase in sensory inputs left him whimpering. He couldn’t take the strain of processing all the new information. More and more of his body was being overtaken by eyes, soon that’s all he would be. The thought just made his anxiety grow. Before he knew it, Grian was willingly letting his body disappear, allowing his consciousness to move back into the void.

The loneliness and quiet that had been almost painful before soothed him now. He let the disembodiment and sensory deprivation wash away his anxiety, making the sight easier to deal with. Eventually, he felt calm again. He decided to stay in the void for a bit longer.

The tinted visor of the helmet hid his eyes, but Grian knew that his gaze was making direct eye contact. He had Watched and was somehow being watched back.

—

The sun was just beginning to rise as he pulled up the server connection port. A new server address flashed into his inbox. This is it.

He was incredibly nervous. He hadn’t spoken to new players in actual years. EVO had taken up most of his time before the void, so he hadn’t spent much time on public servers. Did he even remember how to talk to new people? How to make new friends? He felt his throat tighten up and his hand hovered over the join server button.

This will be fine, he thought. Everyone already likes me enough to vote for my addition. There’s no reason to be nervous. The line of thought was more comforting than he thought it would be. Without over thinking it anymore, he slammed his index finger onto the button.

<Grian joined the game>

He was falling. He hadn’t fallen in a long, long time. Being an incorporeal consciousness of floating eyes made it kind of hard to do. Once back in his body, his new wings kept him from falling from any high structures. Now, the bright parrot feathers were hidden once again. He and Mumbo had agreed to keep the Watcher-player thing a secret for now.

His stomach did a few flips as his body continued to accelerate towards what he was sure would be a quick death. This wouldn’t be a huge problem. Hermitcraft, like most servers, had infinite respawns and world rules to keep players from experiencing serious pain. Mumbo had told him how often they would die on the server from building accidents or pranks. It would be cruel to drop players into a world that would hurt them.

Wind rushed through his hair, pushing his bangs away from his face. Surprisingly, the sharp sting of cold water hit his back. Kicking out with his legs, he pushed himself back to the surface and gasped in air. An island was directly in front of him. It appeared as if he had been dropped just off the shore. He guessed that he should be near the futuristic district, since he had requested to set up base there.

Let’s get started then.

—

He had been hyping himself up for nearly hours. New server, new people. New people that Grian would need to meet – wanted to meet! It had been over a week since he had joined, and Grian had been pretty antisocial. He had checked the list of players currently around on his communicator. Several of them lived in the pirate district near his underwater starter base. (A ship deep under the ocean. Nice one Grian. What better way to say, “I’m totally not afraid of interacting with people”?). He figured it was time he went and introduced himself. He had to at least talk to one person. Every time he pulled his boat out, he just got too anxious.

I could just go take a look at the builds in the area, and if someone doesn’t seem too busy, I could introduce myself. He felt better with this plan. Finally resurfacing, Grian began to row north towards the pirate island. As he approached, he passed by a much larger ship. It was decked out with brightly colored flags and intricate woodwork. What looked like an entire crew was aboard, which was insane since there weren’t that many hermits around. As he rowed closer, he noticed that the entire crew was motionless, not even breathing. Oh! They’re just dummies, he realized. He came closer, peering up onto the deck from his rowboat. The mannequins were positioned in all different ways to imitate the jobs of real sailors. The positioning was really quite impressive. Suddenly, one of the dummies in the center turned her head towards him, red hair swishing over her shoulder. Grian yelped and began paddling away. Laughter could be heard over the waves as he rowed closer to the shore, full and boisterous. Whoever the player was, they had given him one hell of a scare. He decided he would introduce himself to her later.

The shore he approached was beautiful. The rocks were formed almost perfectly to create a cove with sea caves and a beautiful beach. Palm trees were scattered around in the perfect positions. There was no way the world had generated this naturally; it was too gorgeous. Grian’s ever present curiosity took over again. He docked the boat on one of the rocks as he walked onto the island. In a nearby cave, he could hear a faint humming. Cautiously (not wanting to be pranked again) he approached the mouth and followed the cavern in. As he walked the humming cut off with a yelp and a splash. Just as Grian was rounding the corner, he saw a man in a brown leather jacket flailing in the water before poofing into a smattering of items. 

Grian froze for a second before breaking out into laughs. He couldn’t control them. The scene had been too funny – the way the man had let out a few last bubbles before taking the max damage, how his items comically flung about the watery cave. Once he could control himself, Grian noticed the lack of the player’s presence. Curiously, he opened a single eye and sent it out, finding the man running back all the way from the central spawn. He must not have set his spawn point.

Deciding on being a helpful neighbor and making a good first impression, Grian began to gather up the loose items. He crafted a chest and deposited them. Just as he was about to leave, he remembered his original goal. He left a sign on the chest introducing himself and assuring his clumsy neighbor that he would never be up to no good with complete honesty.

—

Scar thought that this season might already be a new record for him. His death tolls were notoriously high in Hermitcraft, and somehow in just the first week he must be at over a hundred. He really hadn’t meant to drown. He was just evening out the water levels and got careless with making sure he came up for air. What was even more shocking than his most recent death (which was a low bar to pass) was the appearance of some mysterious stranger. Scar may be newer than some hermits, but he knew a newbie when he saw one! The man had, honestly, been quite handsome from what he could see.

He wondered who the man was as he ran back to his cove. He needed to get his items before they despawned. Suddenly, he realized that the stranger could also kidnap his items! He began to pick up the pace just a bit more. He bent over to catch his breath, thinking on how he would need to spend more time working on his cardio. Leaning against a tree for support, he felt a weird sense of being spied on. Carefully, he made no attempts to seek out the sneaky presence. Giving away that he knew would rob him of his one advantage, and he needed to be on his toes when it came to the pranks of his fellow hermits! Besides, he couldn’t get caught in one now with the fate of his items in jeopardy. However, the gaze didn’t feel malicious or even a little devious, just curious. The next moment it disappeared.

His confusion only lasted a moment before he remembered the task at hand and began running again for his cove. Arriving at the entrance, he was sure all his materials and tools would be lost. Just as he thought, the water was empty of items. However, a new chest was nearby with a sign just above it.

“Here’s your stuff -goodguygrianwhowontprankyouoneday”

Scar blinked for a moment. Curse my dyslexia, he grumbled. I guess I’ll just never know what that long word is. It’s not worth giving myself a headache. He shrugged, breaking the sign and chest to retrieve all his belongings. He wouldn’t know who he should thank for saving his things, but he was excited to meet the mysterious handsome rapscallion in the future.

—

It had been a few days since Grian’s last attempt at making friends. He was pretty sure he had a good method now. He was going to create this game of tag, where you would have to secretly give a name tag to another player. It was perfect, genius even! One of his eyes had went searching for Mumbo earlier to confirm the man was in his base. He would be the perfect first target to launch the game. No, not because Grian was scared of interacting with anyone else, what a crazy idea.

He had thought of the game as he was toiling away on his mega base. He had great plans to build a large tower and would need to make a truly ridiculous amount of concrete for it. He repeatedly placed the powder into the water, watching it solidify. Then, he heard rockets in the distance. Grian assumed it was Mumbo as his friend had visited him plenty to make sure he was settling in alright. The engineer was endlessly worried about Grian (he wondered why – it’s not like he had fallen prey to void gods because of his craving for power and vanished for two years).

The rockets grew louder and then he heard feet landing on the foundational ring of his base. He turned, expecting to see the dark hair, mustache, and signature suit of his friend. Instead, Grian was faced with the same off-putting helmet he had Seen twice now. He stiffened momentarily, before realizing that it would be suspicious. This individual had no way of knowing that Grian had seen him before. Steeling his nerves, he turned the rest of his body to the man before hearing him mutter quietly…

“Where is the Watcher?”

Chapter Text

The first week of a new season was always stressful. Just count to ten, breathe, and stay calm.

One. Someone had already lagged out the server with one of their farms. He’d need to increase the strength of the world’s code on the island. It would be important for the whole season that his players could build multiple farms without worry.

Two. Someone had hatched too many chickens in one area. He would have to convince them to manually remove them or there would need to be a minor entity wipe. There wasn’t much he could do to support that many chickens. Who even needs that many?

Three. Just get through the first month and some of the others will start helping out . Doc was great at taking on some of the admin responsibilities. Xisuma knew that the world would fully stabilize soon, and his friends would stop trying to test the limits. …At least for long enough to give him a break.

Four. The world was looking good. Everything had loaded correctly. The island was the perfect size. No one had any qualms with the set up for this season.

Five. Somewhere one of the players was planning to start a whole business based on breaking the bedrock. He would need to increase the protection there. That would have to get moved up to the top of his to do list as soon as the first hole was made. Having an opening to the void would be both convenient and headache inducing.

Six. He could feel a migraine coming on. He just needed to keep breathing and counting. Breathing and counting.

Seven . He loved overseeing Hermitcraft. He loved all of his amazing, talented friends. They were constantly making history with their inventions and beautiful builds. He was part of something so incredible. Xisuma felt honored to be the one in charge of such brilliant people.

Eight. He could feel himself calming down. Everything was alright. The start of every season was stressful, but he had managed to get through it five times before. This would all pass.

Nine. He got a new alert on his communicator. One of the automatic detections he had set up to catch bugs, lag spikes, or unwanted intruders. He clicked on the notification, and a new window on his communicator popped up. It was his Watcher detection program.

Ten. There’s a Watcher somewhere on the server .

—

He lost the signal. Somehow, some way, one of them was on the server and he just lost its signal. He checked again, but his tracker wasn’t picking up the presence of any Watcher. Okay. Maybe It was just a fluke. Maybe I’m lucky, one got in, got bored, and left. The barriers should be able to keep them out. It was just a one-time thing, and this will never happen again. They wouldn’t allow it.

The idea placated him enough to just leave it for now. He had other things to work on, and honestly, he didn’t want to have to deal with the Watchers until the end of the month.

—

It happened again. He was working on gathering resources from one of the new ocean temples. His com pinged, and he was able to hold the signal long enough to see where it had come from. Immediately, he began flying to the eastern side of the island. He could see a new structure was just beginning to crop up. Xisuma angled downwards, landing on the cobblestone outline. The signal had disappeared again, but this is where it had come from.

He switched on the code reader in his helmet, scanning the area. If a Watcher was still here, he would see it.

“Where is the Watcher?”

—

It doesn’t take very much work to be an admin, but it takes a whole hell of a lot to be a good admin. Xisuma had been preparing for over a year now, learning the universal code all on his own. Very few people could read into the code that made up the fabric of the universe, and they were in high demand. He could probably make a fortune by selling his services in debugging servers, but he had his own ambitions.

For years, he’s felt paranoid. It started just on large, public servers. Eventually, he couldn’t even be in his private world without feeling like someone was watching him. He wasn’t sure why, but he knew that making one of his own would be the solution, so he got together a group of his best friends and started working. Along the way, he met others who were interested and helped him out. Pretty soon, he had found a little family that he was excited to produce a safe, private server for.

However, that excitement had been dwindling recently. Admin knowledge was all public, you just needed to know where to look for it. There were entire servers dedicated to libraries that housed this information, but with so much available, some of it was bound to be forgotten or become legend. That’s where Xisuma discovered the Watchers. Most books agreed that they were legends. The ones that insisted they were real, stated that there was nothing to be done about them. The beings were basically deities of the void, direct descendants of the universe. They could See whatever and whoever they wanted.

Xisuma was frustrated. The point of this new server was to stop his paranoia and knowing that these entities could exist would make that impossible. As he read about them, he could feel the eyes on his back.

Quickly, the man became obsessed with finding a way to stop the Watchers from Seeing into his new world. Every admin he asked for help either laughed at his belief in fairytales or insisted it couldn’t be helped. No one had ever gotten close to manipulating the code enough to shield themselves from the Watchers. He had resolved to just do it himself. He spent months trying and failing to bring the world rules fully under his control. No matter what he tried, there were just some things a player couldn’t do. Then, he had an idea. A player can’t block a Watcher’s Sight, but could another Watcher?

—

Grian knew this was the same man. He was wearing the odd, green tactical suit that he had Seen before – okay, well the helmet looked a bit different now. It now had large, round googly-eyes hastily stuck onto the sides and a turtle shell pattern on top. Grian was momentarily distracted from his fear as he thought, Is he supposed to be dressed like a turtle? He almost laughed until he remembered that he was about to be discovered and thrown out of Hermitcraft only about two weeks in.

Surprisingly, the man looked right past him. He turned his head all the way around as if he was looking for something but couldn’t seem to find it. The admin gave a disappointed sigh and pressed a button on the side of his helmet that turned the dark face-shield more translucent. “Oh jeez, I can’t believe I lost it again.” His shoulders slumped as he grabbed his rockets. Then, he seemed to realize where he was as he took in Grian standing in front of him. Xisuma stiffened, hiking his shoulders up in surprise, “Oh! Hello. I’m sorry. You didn’t hear me say anything did you? Right? Because if you did, it’s not what you thought you heard!” He didn’t sound very convincing.

Grian was dumbstruck for a moment as he tried to process that he was not in fact being thrown out of Hermitcraft, and the man didn’t seem to know his secret. He made a quick call deciding that playing dumb would be his best bet. “Uh, no, no. Didn’t hear a thing! In fact, I have no idea why you have just arrived here at my base.” He was still internally freaking out because, He knows he knows he knows. How does he know that I- that a Watcher is here?! Players should never be aware of Watchers. Grian would need to be more careful about opening his eyes if Xisuma was somehow able to track Watchers on the server. He knew that the man was at least unfriendly to them – possibly hostile.

“Good! I mean, not good? Uh, neutral! Because I didn’t say anything.” Xisuma stuck out his hand, “You must be Grian. It’s nice to finally meet you, Mumbo has told me plenty about you, all good things. I’m Xisuma.”

Grian had already known the man’s name. He never knew when to just let his first impressions be good, so against better judgement he shook the admin’s hand and replied, “Pleasure to meet you Ex-Eye-Suma.”

“Oh, the pleasure is all mi– sorry, how did you just say my name?”

Grian pretended to look confused, “Xisuma, right? That’s what you said.”

The man looked like he didn’t really believe Grian but shrugged it off. “Well anyway, I’m the admin of the server, so if you ever have a problem, don’t come to me!” He laughed and Grian joined in, assuming he was joking. “No, but seriously if you break something you’ll have a better chance of getting it fixed if you go to Doc or Etho for help… But if you’re ever in any kind of danger you should come to me – which you shouldn’t be! Hermitcraft is incredibly safe, I promise. Nothing gets past my whitelist!” Grian could tell that the man was lying, both because he was rubbish at it and because he seemed to not intend for a Watcher to be on his server. Although, I am on the whitelist, so technically he’s not wrong.

“Thanks, Xisuma, for the welcome and the invite to Hermitcraft. Mumbo sounds like he loves it here, and I’m excited to find out why.”

The man smiled back at him, “Well it’s probably because of the people. You’re very welcome to the family!”

“I’m sure it’s also because the server has a great admin.” He was hoping that a bit of flattery would help shake the man off his trail.

“Oh, stop it. That’s too kind, and I really don’t do all that much.” Xisuma looked slightly bashful at the compliments.

“Don’t be humble. I know how hard it is to be an admin.” Grian admitted.

Xisuma looked surprised. “Have you been an admin before?” He asked curiously.

Grian shrugged. “Once, but it’s been nearly two years since that server. It’s… not really around anymore.”

Xisuma winced and looked like he felt bad for asking, “I’m sorry about that. I’m sure it was nothing you did.” He reached out to put a comforting hand on Grian’s shoulder. He decided that he liked Xisuma, even if he was still a little scared of the man.

He smiled at his new admin. He could tell that the man already cared for him, and they had only just met. “Thank you, again. My past isn’t something you should worry about though. Everyone’s alright, just not together anymore. Besides, I’m here now! And I’m ready to start over!”

“That’s the spirit,” The man gave him a big smile, then looked a bit sheepish, “I’m sorry to cut this short, but I have something I need to do – you know, admin duties in the first few weeks. I’ll see you around.”

“See ‘ya,” Grian replied as the man fired off some rockets and flew away.

Grian already missed flying. If players can fly now… Maybe I can disguise my wings. He filed that idea away for testing later and got back to the foundation of his base.

—

It had taken him another few months, but eventually he did it. He was floating – walking – in the void. It had taken an entire month to manipulate the code in a way that would allow a player to walk through the topmost layer of the void. Xisuma still couldn’t believe that he had actually pulled it off. Another month was dedicated to figuring out where he would need to go to find Watchers once in the void. He may have overprepared, because it was surprisingly easy once he got there.

It is here.

Interesting. I didn’t think it would be able to.

We let it come, but I told you that I liked this one.

I am still unsure.

“Excuse me! I’m right here and I can hear you.” Honestly, it was rude to talk about someone right in front of them.

I think that we have found it.

“Found what?”

I am not convinced.

You never are.

Xisuma huffed. Obviously, they were going to keep ignoring him until he said something that got their attention. “Watchers, I have come to you to offer a deal.” Finally, this seemed to get them to speak to him.

What deal?

“I want you to protect my server. Keep it from being Watched or invaded by any Watchers, including yourselves.” He heard the sound of flapping and hissing. Somehow, he knew it was supposed to be their sign of amusement.

I will humor this one. Why? What could you offer us in return? We are so close to having what we seek.

Xisuma honestly hadn’t thought this far ahead. He didn’t really expect to actually score an audience with two Watchers. “Uh, well what is it that you are looking for? Maybe I can help you find it. It sounds like your…friend isn’t so sure that you have found it.”

Hmm. It is observant. 

Hush. I will tell it.
We are looking for a new Watcher.

Xisuma was confused. He wasn’t an expert, but Watchers were supposed to be as old as the universe. There shouldn’t be new ones. He easily shoved his curiosity to the side and continued on, “Well, if you haven’t noticed, I am great at finding Watchers. I found the both of you. I’m sure I could find this new one for you. In exchange for the protection.”

This is an interesting offer. I like this one more now.

I like it less, but I am not opposed to the offer. If it will convince you to look for another, One.

Then we are agreed?

We always are.

Had he actually done it? There was no way.

Player, Xisuma –

The Void Walker

You may call us One,

And Two

Watchers are never far from interesting players,

And interesting servers

Find us new servers to Watch, to look into, in place of yours. Then, we will offer you the protection you seek.

Xisuma was shocked for a moment. He realized that he would have to respond, to agree to the deal. “Okay. I can do that, and you won’t allow any Watcher to See into Hermitcraft?”

No Watcher shall See or enter unless invited.

“Okay. Deal.”

—

Xisuma had spent the last few minutes taking down notes on everything he knew. He began to hang each note up on the wall of his starter base. Here were the facts:

• A Watcher had been detected. The detection code was not faulty – I checked over it twice
  • The Watcher was somewhere near spawn heading towards the pirate island
  • The Watcher was at Grian’s base
• Most likely it was Watching one of the Hermits:
  • Hermits on pirate island – Scar and Cleo (Most likely Scar since he dies the most)
  • Grian - Very likely!! (It was at his base)
• The Whitelist is still intact – I checked it twice
• The Watcher blinds are intact – I checked it twice
  • One and Two are not responsible for this (uncertain)

He was missing something here – some big puzzle piece. Xisuma spent the next few hours thinking and scanning through the code. It just didn’t make any sense. If the whitelist was working, then the Watchers shouldn’t be able to get through. They couldn’t even See into the server because of the blinds, but somehow one had managed to get in. 

It was strange too. Why would a Watcher even try to be on the server? They didn’t need to be present to Watch. If one had managed to get in, it would be able to See without entering. So why?

A headache was beginning to form as he thought about it. Nope! I’m done. If it happens again, I can deal with it then. It’s not good for my health to keep worrying over it, he thought. Just like that, the admin went back to the ocean monument and his resource gathering. He would figure it out eventually. Worst case scenario, he would have to meet with one of them off the server to demand why they were trying to get in. What an inconvenience.

—

Xisuma was running late. It was way past when he was due to give One and Two another server to look at. He had just been so busy with setting up season four. Business involving another server was the last thing on his mind. But he knew that he needed to get the Watchers what they were seeking soon, or the newest season would go unprotected.

They had been antsy recently. In his last few visits, they spoke to each other in front of him (like they always did) about the search being a waste of time. One seemed to always insist that they had a good option (he still couldn’t figure out what they meant by that) and Two was still dissatisfied with it. Xisuma still didn’t understand how they were unable to find this new Watcher after so many years, but he wasn’t going to start questioning it now. Hermitcraft had gained a reputation of being one of the most protected servers, and he wasn’t going to let go of that now.

He arrived in the void, calling out to One and Two.

It is here again. I think we should stop this now.

I am inclined to agree, but I still do not believe that we have found the best.

It is certainly compatible enough and so close.

I do not believe it is.

“Can you two do your bickering after I give you the new information?”

Quiet. We are discussing matters that are more important to you than you could ever know.

This is why it is not right.

Then perhaps the Watcher we seek is there. Maybe we need to See Hermitcraft.

Xisuma felt panic. “No! You said no Watcher could get in. There are no Watchers on Hermitcraft, and there will never be any! You made a deal, and I am here to fulfill my part of it again. It’s not my fault you can’t seem to find your missing friend.” The Watchers were silent for a few minutes.

We will accept this one. I am feeling generous.

I will agree – one more.

“You two are so frustratingly cryptic. You know that right? You make my job so much harder! If you just gave a little more information, maybe I would have found you the right server to Watch! Whatever, here’s the name.” He threw out the piece of paper into the void. “I’ll see you next month.”

He left the void, feeling uneasy. He may not have understood everything behind the two Watcher’s motivations, but he knew that they were growing tired of his deal. He just hoped they would take a little interest in this server.

He felt guilty though. He hadn’t had the time to comb through the server registry to find something suitable this month. Instead, Xisuma had remembered a conversation with his friend Mumbo. The engineer had been telling him about another friend of his, who was going to become an admin of his own server. He had hastily written the name of that server onto the paper for this month. It was probably fine, after all, he hadn’t heard of the Watchers causing any trouble to any of the other servers he directed them towards. It was a small price he was willing to pay.

Good luck to you EVO, they’re your problems for the next month at least, he thought. He wouldn’t recall giving this server to One and Two for quite some time. It was just as inconsequential as all the others, probably.

Chapter Text

They were two months into season six now, and nearly every hermit had an elytra at this point. Grian had heard the explosions of rockets on every corner of the island. He was jealous of the players flying around while he was grounded, which was ridiculous since he has wings, but he had a plan. Two had explained the technicalities of Watcher wings’ and how they take a form that reflected the world they were in. Since he could turn his wings completely invisible and intangible, what was stopping him from changing their appearance?  It had taken a few days, but eventually, Grian had managed to change the brilliant parrot feathers into the dull, gray beetle-like wings of an elytra. It was perfect! With this disguise, he could fly again and get some real progress done on his base, and he wouldn’t mind feeling the wind in his feathers again.

There was just one issue. The other players had all got their elytras from exploring the end. Grian had been through the portal, but upon seeing the gate to the outer islands, stopped. He wasn’t scared, no not really. It was just unsettling. He had never explored those outer islands and didn’t want to risk falling into the void while trying to find the elytra. He knew that the void couldn’t kill him. If a player saw him just casually floating unharmed in the void, it would surely raise suspicion. The uncertainty was too great, but he didn’t want the other hermits to realize that he had never retrieved an elytra. It would just be too suspicious, which brought him to his current conundrum. 

That’s how he found himself outside Jevin’s home. He hadn’t met the other hermit before, but he had answered Grian’s desperate offer to trade for an elytra. Grian waited nervously outside the player’s house, bouncing up and down on his toes. Through the window, he could see the other player. Jevin caught Grian’s eyes, giving him a small smile and a wave. The hermit’s skin was blue and slightly translucent. Players were interesting like that. Most were human, but some like Jevin had appearances more similar to the mobs commonly found around the world.

Grian, who had been humming a tune to himself, was suddenly startled as he heard a door opening. “Grian! It’s great to finally meet you. Why don’t you come in?” He nodded in response and followed Jevin into the house. He was still nervous, but Jevin seemed nice enough. “So, I’m going to give you an offer, and you can really take whichever one you want. I have two elytras. This one, which is brand new -” He held out the new elytra to Grian, the gray, carapace-like wings gleaming “ - or this one, which is a bit used but has mending and unbreaking enchanted on it -” the second elytra, held out in Jevin’s other hand, gleamed with an more purple, magical light.

Grian could clearly see that the second was enchanted, but something confused him about Jevin’s description. “Mending?” he muttered to himself.

“Oh! That means that you can repair it with experience.” Jevin cheerfully supplied. Truthfully, the slime player wondered how Grian had never heard of mending. Sure, it was newer magic, but it had been around for almost two years now. Not to mention how useful it had become – it was practically an essential for all players now.

Grian thought about the options. He was more drawn to the unenchanted elytra. Afterall, he would never need to repair one since he wasn’t actually going to use it. But he knew that a normal player would want an already enchanted elytra, especially one with this new mending enchantment. I’ll have to remember to find some books with that to use on my armor and tools, he thought.

Grian reached for the second elytra. Jevin smiled at him again. “Great choice. Now, I believe that twenty diamonds is a fair price. That was the going rate for one last season.”

Grian nodded, “Yeah that sounds fair to me. Although, I really have no idea what a good price is. You could totally tell me anything and I’d go along with it.” He joked, looking hopefully at the player.

The joke seemed to have landed, as Jevin gave a good-natured laugh back, “I definitely could be! You’ll just have to trust me.” He said with a grin and a wink. Then a strange look crossed his face and he asked, “Wait, you’ve never flown with one of these before?”

Grian shook his head, then scrambled to think of an explanation. “I- uh, haven’t been on a server in a while, and I’m not much of an End explorer. So, I just never really got around to getting my hands on one.” He rubbed the back of his neck, hoping the story was plausible and he would just come off as a bit sheepish for his fear of the End. 

“Well, good luck getting the hang of it! They can be difficult to learn at first. I remember my first few tries. I just splatted on the ground trying to land.” He laughed as he reminisced on his past flying failures.

Grian grinned, “Thanks, but I have a feeling I’ll get the hang of it fast.” 

“Alright, alright, a bit cocky. Well, we’ll see if there’s a death message in the global chat that contradicts that confidence.” 

They both said their goodbyes soon after, and Grian stepped outside. Throwing the elytra into his inventory, he released his wings and checked to make sure they were in the correct form. Behind his back, the insect shaped appendages looked nearly perfect. He remembered that they were supposed to be enchanted and willed a bit of a purple shine onto them, lighting up his eyes with a similar glow. Then, without any further thought, he jumped into the sky.

Jevin watched as Grian soared straight up before doing a flip midair, whooping aloud. He looked and sounded like he was settling into a part of himself. Wow, he thought as he watched Grian from his window. He is really good for a first timer.

—

I’m sold out again! Tango thought as he checked “Tek to the skies.” He had a very loyal customer base that was making him incredibly wealthy. Unfortunately, that meant he had to resupply his rockets almost weekly. 

Footsteps alerted him to a new customer entering the shop behind him. “Just a minute, I’m restocking right now!” he called without looking. When he finished, he turned around to see a bright red sweater. “Oh, Grian! It’s always great to see my number one customer.” He gave a genuine smile. Grian was a nice guy and a welcome addition to their family. He didn’t know the new hermit that well, but he had always been nice at their server meetings. Plus, Tango hadn’t been joking; Grian really was his biggest customer. Although he was a bit confused. Didn’t he buy two boxes just last week?

“Hi Tango, just here to restock. You know me, I’m addicted to flying around.” he laughed at himself as he began to pull diamonds out of his pockets. 

“That you are my friend. So how many shulkers do you need today?”

A serious look of contemplation crossed Grian’s face, “Well, I was thinking of just stocking up for a while, so maybe… six?”

Tango’s eyes nearly popped out of his head the way they widened. SIX? How could he need six whole boxes? He thought, then let out a startled laugh. “Alright, you got it. That’ll really last you a while, won’t it?”

“Yeah, should last me about a good two and a half, maybe three weeks” Grian said, sounding unsure of himself. 

Tango gawked at the man. Only three weeks? For SIX BOXES? He quickly schooled his expression before Grian could notice as he was distracted picking up the new stock. Tango didn’t want to deter his customers, but it was almost as if Grian didn’t know how many rockets were necessary for getting a player into the air. 

“Well, that should be good. I dumped the diamonds into the chest. Thanks, Tango!” Grian said, leaving the shop with his new boxes in hand.

After a few seconds of stunned silence and stillness, Tango called back, “See you around, buddy!” and watched the other player take off into the sky. Weird, he thought, I didn’t hear him shoot off a rocket. 

—

Scar was definitely not over the moon to receive a message from Grian. No way. 

Okay, maybe way.

It’s possible that he had just the slightest crush on the builder. Nothing serious! He just admired the building abilities of the man. And his propensity to start large wars that lead to incredibly entertaining mischief and huge profits. Scar had become just a little bit infatuated as Grian continually flew into ConCorp with a determined grin on his face, piling diamonds into Scar’s arms as he grabbed large supplies of TnT and other war materials. And maybe Scar had been giving him a discount. Maybe.

He tried not to get too excited. Grian was often shy and only had a few close friends. Usually, when he reached outside of that group – really only Mumbo – it was for business. Scar was most likely about to be offered a deal, so there really wasn’t anything to get too excited about.

With barely any warning, Grian landed directly in front of him on his pirate ship. Scar made a few incomprehensible sputtering noises as Grian giggled at him. “Grian! You can’t scare a man like that,” Scar said, but he was smiling.

“Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.” Grian apologize. Scar took note of his appearance as he spoke. His signature red sweater was gone, exchanged for a nice red bowtie and cool-toned brown vest. The button-up that often peeked out of his sweater collar remained. “I have an offer for you if you’d like to hear it?”

“Offer away!” Scar said excitedly. He loved a good deal.

“Great! Well, hold on - I am a door-to-door salesman.” He said as he produced a spruce door from his inventory and set it down between himself and Scar. 

Scar chuckled at this as Grian began to knock on the door. “I don’t answer my door, Grian.” He said, egging the other builder on.

“Well, you do today!” Grian yelled as he continued to knock, using both hands this time. Eventually, the door fell to the side, revealing a slightly irritated Grian. His cheeks were a bit red and puffed up as he stared at Scar. Laughter tumbled over Scar’s lips at the expression. He couldn’t help it – Grian just looked like Jellie when she was angry. Eventually, Grian joined in too.

He quickly composed himself though as he began his pitch, “Scar, do you die often?”

“Well, I don’t like to brag, but I am the number one in deaths this season.” Scar said with his chin held high, like it was some big achievement.

“Then I have the deal of a lifetime for you.” He punctuated his statement by placing down a shulker box that Scar oooo-ed at. “This is the ‘Did You Die?’ box! It has everything a man such as yourself would need. Check it out.”

Scar placed down his own shulker box from his ender chest. It was filled with all his profits from ConCorp and other various valuables. He couldn’t help but show off his riches, knowing that Grian would open the box. Just as planned, as Scar began to look into the ‘Did You Die?’ box, and Grian peeked into his valuables, letting out a breathless little gasp. Scar was incredibly happy that Grian was impressed.

He didn’t even bother to really look at the items inside Grian’s box. Truthfully, he didn’t need it, but that didn’t really matter. He couldn’t say no to Grian. “Well, this looks great! How much? I’ll even throw in this Guardian head.” He had brought the head with him specifically for Grian. He knew how much he loved collecting different ones.

Grian’s eyes were wide as he looked at Scar. In an unsure voice he said, “Well – well, how about three stacks of diamonds? Yeah, three stacks sounds fair.”

“Deal.” Sar said as he paid out the ridiculous sum. He could stand to lose a few of his precious diamonds to see the joy on Grian’s face. 

—

Iskall didn’t really know how he felt about this whole situation. He knew what his decision was, but not how he felt about the whole… thing. He was currently on his way to a set of coordinates that he had received from Grian in a letter. This wasn’t that unusual, even though the letter had been oddly fancy with stylized calligraphy and a wax seal. The odd thing was that he had received the letter at his house – not his base on Hermitcraft, no, his home on his private server. 

It was quite literally impossible for Grian to have done this. No one was whitelisted to his private world. It should not have been possible and was honestly incredibly unnerving. Iskall shuddered at the idea that someone was able to send objects to private worlds, and that same someone had invited him into a business partnership. The only thing keeping him sane was that it was Grian. The man was a jokester, amazing at traps and pranks, but relatively harmless. He didn’t have a truly evil bone in his body, at least Iskall had thought.

The contents of the letter weren’t threatening; on the contrary, it was incredibly complimentary. Grian had praised his redstone abilities, sense of humor, and intelligence – really buttering him up. He was incredibly flattered by the invitation, but no one could look past the menacing connotations of the delivery.

Iskall touched down on one of the rings of Grian’s base. He was getting close to the coordinates. Walking into the massive, futuristic looking tower, he looked up and admired the architecture. The building was incredibly impressive, and Iskall understood why Xisuma had approved Mumbo’s suggestion to invite Grian on such short notice. With both eyes taking in the grandiose build, Iskall didn’t notice the hole in the floor. He yelped as he fell a short distance before hitting solid… ground?

He stood up shakily and brushed off his new green suit. Looking around, Iskall found himself in an unsettling white void. Logically, he knew that the void wasn’t white. It was dark and black. It lacked the strange amount of light that filled this room. He couldn’t be in the void right now, but still he shivered. The room had the same feeling of coldness and emptiness of a void, even though there were two chairs set up in the infinite, empty space and he was standing on what seemed to be solid ground.

After a moment of looking around, he heard a thump and turned to see that Grian had fallen into the room, albeit much more gracefully. He was also dressed in a suit, fitting the occasion of their meeting, and still had his elytra on. Funny enough, Iskall couldn’t remember a time where Grian wasn’t wearing the thing since he got it. The wings sometimes seemed to move on their own, fluttering like they were alive. His wondering was cut off as Grian finally addressed him.

“So, you received my proposal?” He said in a serious tone.

“I did,” Iskall replied, equally serious. He thought for a moment about asking how Grian had got it to his private world. Before he could, the other man continued on.

“Great. So, what do you say? Would you like to join the Architects? We have a great plan to beat the monopoly that ConCorp has on the server, and you are just the person to help.” Grian had completely shed his serious demeanor, instead going for a sales pitch tone that ended up sounding more desperate. A nervous excitement was clearly shown all over the man’s face. Iskall’s worry was washed away. Grian’s excitement was just too contagious, and the big smile he was giving was so non-threatening.

It almost made him forget the several anomalies the surrounded the strange builder – almost. Honestly, Iskall wasn’t stupid. He could tell there was something not right about Grian. He always just seemed to have this aura of otherness that Iskall couldn’t put his finger on. But, he had decided when he got the letter that he’d rather be on the same side as Grian instead of against him.

“I’d say ‘yes’.”

—

Grian was hot on the trail of this Jangler character. He loved to indulge in a good (or bad) detective novel on occasion, so he had seen the mystery of unveiling the character as the perfect way to create his own story! Whoever they are, the Jangler seemed to be really leaning into Grian’s detective fantasies. They had been leaving clues in the form of notes, giant builds, and endless cookies. Grian definitely did not want to discover the identity of this sinister baker partially to ask them to make him more of the delicious sweets in the future. Definitely not.

Originally, Grian had been going after the “Jingler,” a much more devious prankster. Somehow, he wasn’t able to figure out who was behind the dastardly pranks. He knew that he could figure it out easily if he just opened a few eyes, but that would be cheating. And he didn’t want Xisuma to come looking for a Watcher again.

Finally, he was coming to the end of the Jangler’s trail. He would have nowhere else to run. They were cornered! Never mind that the cornering was happening because the cookie jester had been leading Grian on a wild trail of their own design. Grian was still going to count this as his win! He had been putting all the pieces together – the pranks were often kind in nature, the builds looked incredible and organic, the constant misspellings of words in the clues. There was only one person that it could be.

Grian had brought his detective lackies to confront Scar, and it had all gone incredibly well. He admitted to his… well, not crimes. They were good deeds if anything. Either way, the story came to a satisfying conclusion.

Hours after, Grian was sitting on top of the jangler hat that he, Doc, and Ren had constructed on one of Scar’s many, fantastic builds. He heard rockets, signaling someone’s arrival. Expecting one of his fellow detectives, he was surprised to see Scar landing not-so-gracefully behind him. Grian laughed softly at Scar’s clumsiness as the man righted himself. With a big smile, the ex-jangler came over to take a seat next to him.

It was quiet for a bit as they both watched the sunset. Grian broke the peaceful silence. There was something that had been on his mind for a while. “Why?” Scar made a questioning sound and turned to look at Grian, who was still looking out at the sunset. Grian sighed, “Why were you doing this whole Jangler thing? What was the point? I figured out your identity, but the why has been bothering me.” A confused and disconcerted look came over Grian’s face as he furrowed his brows, finally turning to Scar.

The other man’s face was turning slightly rosy as he broke the sudden eye contact, feeling a heavy weight from Grian’s stare. He always had a bit of trouble looking Grian in the eyes. He swore they held a miniature universe in them. “Well, you’ve been trying to figure out the identity of the Jingler for weeks now. I could tell that it was getting to you, so I figured a distraction could be nice. I just thought you needed a win,” he said softly and smiled, looking up again at Grian a bit bashfully.

In the time that Scar had been speaking, Grian’s face was feeling warmer and warmer. Scar had done all that just for him? Something warm was stirring in Grian’s chest, but he couldn’t place it. “Oh.” Was all he said at first. Then with a warm smile, he hugged Scar. “Thank you.”

Scar was shocked for a moment when he heard the two simple words whispered close to the shell of his ear. Then, he returned Grian’s hug. He had been wanting something like this all season. A little guilt flowed into his brain as he thought about the circumstances. He was positive that Grian didn’t feel the same way as him. He had been pretty sure for a while that he had something going on with Mumbo. Scar let himself enjoy the moment for what it was, even if he wished he could ask Grian out.

“It means a lot to me that there’s someone – that you would go out of your way to do something so nice for me,” Grian mumbled into Scar’s shoulder. Scar hugged him even tighter, feeling the butterflies circling all around his stomach again.

Strangely, he felt a warm presence all around him, like there was something large and soft wrapping him up safely. But he saw nothing other than the small builder still hugging him.

—

This wasn’t possible. Yes, technically it is possible to go back into older versions of the universe. It’s difficult, unstable, and very unadvisable, but possible. What should not be in the realm of possibility is the creation of a time machine – one that allows players to travel back in time while on an already established server. There were an infinite number of reasons that it just should. Not. Happen. And yet, Doc was staring at the evidence right now. How did Grian do it? How did he DO THIS?!

For some reason, Impuse and Ren hadn’t been all that concerned. He couldn’t understand how they were so nonchalant about traveling to an earlier version after being coerced into joining the newest hermit on an adventure. Both had reported that it was fun. They got back in the end, so what’s the harm? What’s the harm? What ISN’T the harm? Doc was getting a huge headache from this whole thing.

Xisuma was the administrator of the server. It was his job to keep them safe and handle big, server-wide security issues. Doc knew that he did some… questionable things and that he didn’t have all of the details of how X protects Hermitcraft. Xisuma entrusted the management of potentially server destroying technical bugs to him. That’s why he found himself agonizing over Grian’s time machine. He didn’t want to stress Xisuma out unnecessarily, so he had been mostly keeping it to himself.

Doc enlisted Scar to build a gigantic research facility. He knew that the spectacular build and promise of a fun game to enter it would keep Grian distracted long enough for Doc to figure out how the machine worked without making the new Hermit suspicious. Besides, Scar could use the opportunity to work on his honestly embarrassing crush on the eccentric newbie.

The strangest thing was that the machine came from Grian. Sure, the newest hermit was strange, but there wasn’t anything sinister about him. However, a time machine that could set the server back to alpha while it was still active, is a huge danger. Doc couldn’t even think of anything powerful enough to enable this. That’s why he was tirelessly working away to understand the machine. It took a few weeks, but eventually he managed to get a read on the signature of the magic powering it. Many redstone engineers were more scientific thinkers. They would scoff at the thought of the universal magic, believing that it was all just religious hogwash, but Doc knew better. He had witnessed Xisuma harness the magic of the void to walk across it. He had read stories of the entities that lurked in the depths and knew they contained some truth. He understood that it was something to take seriously. This is why he was shocked to find in the readings that the signature originated from both Grian and void magic.

That couldn’t be right. Sure, a player could harness the power of the void, but it didn’t come from them. It was ridiculous. His reading must be wrong. He ran the tests again, and the results were the same.

Grian isn’t… He can’t be.

Doc looked down the hallway. The entire time he had been testing, Grian and Scar had been playfighting. Their shrieks and arguments had been background noise for the last hour at least. Grian was attempting to run around the facility and “find his missing villager” while Scar was trying to “capture him.” Neither were being successful, but they obviously didn’t care. Doc had seen it for what it really was, hopeless flirting.

Now, Grian was pressed up against a wall as Scar leaned over him. Doc wasn’t close enough to hear their conversation, but presumably it was something overly charged, and tension filled about Grain finally being “caught” and “at Scar’s mercy.” Why they had to hide their flirting under ten layers of role playing and irony, Doc would never know. But now, he had to wonder if his long-time friend was crushing on some otherworldly entity of the void.

Doc thought for a while, then took a deep breath and just let it go. Obviously, if Grian was something other than a normal player, which was looking to be likely, Xisuma would know. He took the security of the server very seriously. Doc had been meddling in something he wasn’t supposed to, obviously. He didn’t want to expose whatever secret Grain was keeping. Obviously, he had his reasons. Looking down the hall at the two goofs, he also knew deep down that the man wasn’t a danger.

Alright, now to just figure out some way to let the weird hippie cult take back the machine without it being functional.

—

Mumbo was incredibly nervous. This wasn’t a new experience for him, but this time it wasn’t because of anything he had done. No, this time it was Grian. It had been years since the last time he felt anxiety because of his old friend. And don’t get him wrong, having Grian back with his anxiety inducing schemes was better than not having Grian. Still, would it kill him to do a little better at pretending to be a normal player? Why did my best friend have to be a creepy void god, he lamented internally. 

“Are you sure about this?” Mumbo asked.

“Yep, absolutely positive.” Grian replied. Then, leaned in closer so no one else could hear, “Besides, I have to go visit them eventually. They tend to get cranky when they don’t get attention, and the last time that happened I disappeared for two years.” He chuckled despite how uncomfortable the joke was.

Mumbo laughed nervously. He wasn’t nearly as comfortable with taking the mick out of Grian’s kidnaping and conversion into an eldritch void entity, but if it was helping him cope then who was Mumbo to judge.

“Well, I’ll have my communicator with me this time. If you want to chat or meet up on another server in the break, we still can.” Grian gave him a reassuring smile, and Mumbo nodded.

“Just be safe.”

Grian replied with his own determined nod, then turned to a few of the others. “I’ll see you guys next season!” he called as he hit one of the blocks on the flying machine Mumbo helped him build. A few gathered hermits watched as he began to float off into the void.

“I’m honestly not sure how he’s expecting this to work,” Iskall said with a disbelieving laugh. “He can’t just float out into the void to leave the server for the season.”

Mumbo laughed nervously, “Oh you know him – flair for the dramatics and all. He’s just going to leave once he gets far enough out. It’s – uh – all just for show!” Even to himself he sounded unsure. Curse his inability to lie convincingly.

Doc glanced over at Mumbo, making eye contact with him. Mumbo wasn’t sure why he was here. He knew that Grian had hung out with him this season, but his appearance to see him off still felt out of place. He moved one of his eyebrows up, almost imperceptibly. Mumbo began to sweat and quickly looked away.

“Well, I like his ‘flair for the dramatics.’” Scar said with a dopey grin on his face.

“Yeah Scar,” Iskall replied, elbowing the man. “Everyone knows you like his ‘flair.’”

Scar went a bit red. “I don’t know what you’re implying, mister.”

The two began to laugh. Mumbo joined in eventually, still nervously glancing over to Doc. The other engineer was quietly looking off into the void with a contemplative look on his face.

—

The vast emptiness extended everywhere, encasing him entirely as Grain fell. The coldness of the void sent shivers up his spine, but he was determined to go in whole this time. The last time he had been in the void, he was without his body for two years. It made experiencing time correctly incredibly difficult. He hoped to ground himself a little better this time, and having something physical would be helpful.

He knew that he had been avoiding One and Two. During the entirety of season six, he hadn’t visited once. It seemed the other two Watchers were fine with this as neither came to pester him or even just Watch.

Grian plummeted further into the expanse of nothingness. His willed his feathers to change back to the brilliant parrot colors. He reached out with his magic, feeling the eyes across his body blink open, filling the nothingness of the void with their eerie purple light. It felt freeing in a way, to have all his eyes open. It had been so long. He had been terrified of Xisuma finding him, so after the first little mishap, he hadn’t opened a single Watcher eye since. The sensation wasn’t startling, seeing through all of his eyes wasn’t overwhelming when there was nothing to Watch. Still, it was like flexing a muscle that had fallen asleep. A shiver went down his spine again.

One, he is back.

Welcome home, Xelqua.

We are so glad to see you.

“Uhg, you know I don’t like it when you call me that,” Grian said, choosing to speak through his body instead of the way One and Two had taught him. The other Watcher’s voices echoed around in Grian’s head.

Hmmm… Going back has already made you cling again to your physicality.

I like hearing his voice. It reminds me of when we first found him.

It does bring back good memories.

            We can join him. It has been so long.

Grian went stiff. Oh no, they’re going to—

Before he could finish his thought, a large pair of scaly wings wrapped around him. Thousands of eyes were blinking at him, glowing a deeper purple than his own. They swirled with mischief and fondness. A lipless mouth stretched wide, revealing startlingly white teeth.

“Look at your wings.”                                                                                

“They’re so bright.”

The two voices took turns coming from the shared entity. Grian sighed, accepting his fate. He relented and moved his arms and wings to hug the body of One and Two. He would never admit it, but he missed the Watchers a little bit.

“Where were you?” He asked, voice muffled by the greyscale robes of his mentors.

“It is complicated. We made a bad deal long ago.”

“A good deal. We would not have found him.”

“But bad now, we cannot See him.”

Watching as both of their consciousness argued from the same body was always a little disconcerting. Grian had only ever seen One and Two demonstrate their physicality a few times before. He had known in EVO that they were able to since they interacted with the world, but he would have never guessed that Watchers share bodies. It was their nature. Each one had a partner, “the other half.” The two Watchers had to be united to become physical. Although, most Watchers chose to stay incorporeal.

Shaking off the uncomfortableness of observing their conversation, Grian began to think on what they said. Pulling back from them, he asked, “Wait, what deal? And what do you mean you can’t see me?”

“Old news.”

“Old deals.”

“The Voidwalker gave us help.”

“And we agreed to keep the Eyes out of his precious Hermitcraft. Even our own.”

Grian blanked for a minute as he put some pieces together. “That’s how Xisuma knows about Watchers! He’s spoken to you? Why would he do that?”

“Your poor admin is paranoid. He believes the Watchers would do him harm.”

“We would never do him harm. He was our first interest.”

“His paranoia made him… less interesting. So instead, we sought his help, and he provided.”

“In return, we keep any Watcher from Seeing or entering. Unless—"

“–Unless invited.”

“So… he still doesn’t know…” Grian heaved out another sigh of relief.

“Oh, Oh!”

“Xelqua, you have not told the Voidwalker?”

Grian heard the Watchers laugh, the hissing sounding a little more natural coming from a player-shaped form. They were teasing him. “Well, uh – No! I’m entitled to my own secrets. And look, It’s not my fault that most players don’t believe in Watchers! When I found out X knew, he looked pretty hostile.” His voice got more and more insecure as he spoke.

“Oh Xelqua, if you are really friends with the Voidwalker Xisuma, he will not care.”

“It is best to not keep big secrets from your friends,” Two agreed, shaking their head.

“But… What if he thinks that I’m dangerous or invasive? I feel at home on Hermitcraft, and I don’t have anywhere else I want to or can go. It’s been so nice being a player again.”

One and Two frowned, moving close again to hug him. They pulled him close to their chest, cradling the back of his head. The Watchers began making a strange hissing sound, different than the laughter, lower in pitch. Grian assumed they must be trying to… comfort him?

“Xelqua, all will be well.”

“We will always be here for you.”

“We understand it is not the same as the companionship you receive from the players.”

“But, we are here.”

Grian sniffled a bit. “Thanks.” He hugged them again. “I’ll see about talking with Xisuma soon.” He wasn’t sure yet if the statement was genuine, but he would consider it. As much as Grian cared for One and Two, his time in the void was still miserable while he was separated from other players. He couldn’t risk being banned from Hermitcraft.

“Now, Xelqua.”

“Tell us–“

“Because, we have not been able to Watch.”

“—Have you found the other half?”

The look on their face was blatantly excited, like a nosy friend at a sleepover, trying to get all the details on a new relationship. Grian rolled his eyes (all of them). “No. I don’t know what you expect. There is no other half for me. I’m partially a player.”

“We know this.”

“There is still the chance—”

Grian’s communicator buzzed, cutting through the silence in the void. “Oh, I better check that,” he said, pulling the device out of his pocket.

Cross server communication line to SolidarityGamig

<Grian> Timmy, I’m back. I want to see you and everyone else. I can’t seem to contact Pearl, so you’ll have to let her know for me. And make sure her communicator isn’t damaged.

Message not delivered
Message delivered at 13:08

<SolidarityGaming> Oh my god. NO.
<SolidarityGaming> This isn’t real. It can’t be. You’re supposed to be gone.
<SolidarityGaming> GRIAN?

Chapter Text

A light fog settled over the damp ground of the swamp. The air was humid, but cool in the early morning. It promised to change and carry the heat of the sun, once it was higher in the sky. The sunrise was just beginning, peaking over the horizon and casting rays that cut through the dense fog. It was a beautiful morning – too beautiful to be the day that it was.

By all means, today should be just like any other for Jimmy. Yesterday and the day before were. Tomorrow will be. But today was the day. He strapped his elytra on, the custom green color matched the slimy, olive hue of his outfit. Jimmy had really leaned into the bit of being the “Cod Father.” His fish hat nearly slipped off his head as he launched into the air. Holding onto the headpiece with his free hand, he angled away from the ocean towards the mainland. There was a farm he needed to visit this morning.

The Empires server was beautiful. It had been just about a year since the members had banded together to create a world. Some old and new friends, all together with the purpose of creating their own kingdoms. Things had been relatively peaceful so far. The rulers of the server were beginning to discover some of the magical properties of their world and finding themselves as rulers of their respective biomes. It was great fun, and Jimmy loved the people.

He was so happy to have been invited to the server. He had been bouncing from place to place for a little over two and a half years before receiving the invite. Having a long-term place to stay outside of his private world was nice. Plus, some of his oldest friends were here. Speaking of which, he was arriving at one of his old friend’s homes now. Rolling fields of varying crops spread out below him as he eyed the ground for a safe place to land. The kingdom was beautiful, cast in the oranges and golds of the early morning light.

Jimmy landed carefully outside of the main house. He knew Pearl would already be up. She always had trouble sleeping on the anniversary. Knocking on the door to alert her to his arrival, Jimmy slowly opened it and let himself in. She was already in the kitchen, pulling out a mug from a cabinet. Wordlessly, she turned to him, gave a small, sad smile and began to pour some hot water into the mug. Plopping a tea bag in, she held out the mug. Jimmy took it gratefully, returning her sad smile with a grimace. They stood in the kitchen there together, letting the silence settle in. The dappled sunlight was streaming in through the windows. It really was going to be a lovely day.

“It’s the anniversary.” Jimmy said, quietly, but Pearl still heard.

“I know.” Her tone was somewhat sad.

“We missed last year.”

“I know.” This time her voice was a bit colder, something both empty and distant.

“We should go.”

His statement was met with silence. Jimmy looked at her face – it was stony, almost unreadable, but he saw through it. She was upset. Most likely angry on the surface, but underneath, filled with a deepening sorrow.

“Pearl?”

“I don’t think we should.” She said it more resolutely than he had expected. He was a little shocked honestly, and it showed on his face – his mouth parted and eyebrows creased.

“But he could still be out there. Pearl, we can’t just lose that hope. What if-“

“No, Jimmy.” She cut him off, shutting her eyes. “He is still out there. His world would have been lost if he wasn’t,” the cadence of her voice sped up as she grew increasingly frustrated, “It would have faded away to nothing and we wouldn’t be able to go there if he was gone. So he really is still somewhere, he just doesn’t want anything to do with us! He made his choice, and he doesn’t care about us.” She looked like she was in pain discussing the topic.

Jimmy frowned. He reached out and placed a hand on Pearl’s shoulder. She looked up at him, some tears brimming in her eyes. “I know how much you’re hurting. But we all heard his last message. He didn’t want to leave us.”

All of the evolutionists had been haunted by the final words of the Watchers. Splitting them up had been cruel and dangerous. But even more so was taking their admin.

Jimmy had been floating in the void. It wasn’t normal, he knew. The universe was supposed to whisper a message to him, then he would appear back in the overworld. Instead, darkness surrounded him as he floated in the void. Then, he could hear it. The Watchers were speaking to them – praising their skills and entertaining adventures. It was almost comforting to hear that these entities that had terrorized them so much had really cared for them all along. Being the subject of their admiration felt special. Then, that feeling was ripped away.

Grian, I think it is time for you to come with us now.

Yeah, I think so too.

…

…

The silence that stretched for a moment was palpable. Then, Jimmy could hear a splitting, hissing sound followed by a loud cry of pain. Then it was over. And just…unnervingly silent.

Then…

Welcome, friend. Would you like to send them on?

It would be my pleasure. Good luck everyone, I am sad that this is my fate… But I want you to remember my heart will be with you all, and I will still be on the server in your hearts and in spirit… Good luck in the next chapter of Evolution. I look forward to Watching you all.

Jimmy was terrified. Grian was being taken. His voice had sounded calm but resigned. It sounded like he had just accepted it, given up on fighting back. The Watchers had always favored him, and they had been making ominous rhymes for weeks about his potential. But they couldn’t really intend to…

Jimmy heard how weary Grian’s voice was – all hoarse and labored from the scream he had let out. They were taking him, and there was nothing he could do. He tried to thrash around in the void, but there was nothing to reach for. His friend’s voice was only in his head. He felt his body falling, and then before he could do anything else, he woke back up in the Property Police station.

“No,” Pearl said, “He said he was sad, but he still went with them. He said he would watch over us, but he lied . We haven’t heard from him since, and I’m done with being controlled by the memories.” Her voice was starting to rise, and there was a burning flame in her bright eyes. She closed them, took a deep breath, and let it out. Jimmy waited for her to collect her thoughts. When she opened her eyes again after a few minutes, she spoke much softer, “I want to move on. It’s been four years.”

Jimmy was heartbroken that this was still how Pearl thought of Grian, but he wasn’t going to force her to stay stuck in the past. “Okay.” He reached for her, and she came closer. The two melted into a mutual hug, savoring the comfort of knowing that they were still here together despite their loss.

---

Jimmy left the Farm Empire soon after finishing his tea with Pearl. She may not want to go, but he still did. It was his choice.

So, the Cod Father opened his communicator and pulled open the server travel port, selecting the old private world. Grian had always been trusting; he left his private server open to any of his close friends. Even though Jimmy knew that he wouldn’t suddenly find the man there, it gave him some closure to visit on the anniversary of the dragon fight. There was nowhere else to go for him to remember Grian by. After the administrator’s disappearance, EVO was unstable. The listeners that arrived, who Jimmy had never fully trusted, managed to help for a while. They stabilized the world and offered a way for all of the Evolutionists to block out the Watchers from reaching them. Jimmy still had the protective sigil on his communicator. He knew that Pearl did as well and assumed that the others were all the same, even if he hadn’t talked to most of them for some while.

Even with the server stable, the members began to leave. One by one, they moved on until there was nothing worthwhile to stick around for. No one really felt the same motivation to continue through the evolution process without their leader. The server felt haunted in his absence.

Jimmy arrived outside the old house. He nearly began crying at the sight. It was just so characteristically Grian , from the slopes of the roof to the texture of the walls. He was startled out of his moping when he noticed how nice the place looked. Funny, he thought, the last time I was here, the old farm on the side was completely dilapidated and the front of the house was much dirtier. Suspicious, Jimmy walked up to the front door. Same as usual, it was unlocked. He entered the home to still see it was mostly the same. Dust still covered most of the surfaces, but the layers looked thinner, like someone had cleaned it up, and the recent accumulation had only been from the last few weeks. A glass was left on the counter. The couch pillows had been moved around. Jimmy knew how it was supposed to look, he had been the one to arrange the house last time he was here two years ago. Someone else must have visited?

He made his way further into the empty building. He had a mission. Every year, bar the last, he brought flowers – a bouquet of poppies, Grian’s favorite. They also symbolized death and remembrance. Fitting , Jimmy thought. He made his way up the stairs to the bedroom. When he arrived, he noticed immediately that something was off. The old bouquet had been removed from the bed, not too odd if someone had visited. What was interesting was that the communicator was missing.

Grian’s communicator had been the only thing left behind. It had come back to the overworld with the rest of the players. Jimmy, Martyn, and Pearl had brought it here. They all agreed to never take it, which meant someone broke the rules. Immediately, Jimmy rushed to ask who had done it. Halfway through typing a message to Martyn, he stopped.

Wait. He promised he would watch over us, Jimmy thought. Something about that memory had been bothering him all morning. Giran was a prankster and sometimes a bit of a liar, but he never broke his promises. Pearl assumed that Grian had broken his promise. Jimmy didn’t know what Martyn thought. And he had always believed that it meant Grian didn’t make it much longer under the Watcher’s eyes.

But what if we were all wrong?

Slowly, he turned over his communicator, looking at the old sigil of the Listeners. They told us it would prevent any Watcher from Seeing us. But if he went with them… then? His stomach was starting to feel sick. It couldn’t be.

Slowly, Jimmy began to peel the sigil off. He took the sticky paper in his hand, watching the way it glowed a faint green, and ripped itself up.

His communicator buzzed. He opened the messages.

Cross server communication line from Grian

<Grian> Timmy, I’m back. I want to see you and everyone else. I can’t seem to contact Pearl, so you’ll have to let her know for me. And make sure her communicator isn’t damaged.

Message not delivered
Message delivered at 09:07

Jimmy couldn’t believe his eyes. It wasn’t possible. There was no way.

Cross server communication line to Grian

<SolidarityGaming> Oh my god. NO.
<SolidarityGaming> This isn’t real. It can’t be. You’re supposed to be gone.
<SolidarityGaming> GRIAN?

A few minutes pause and then…

<Grian> Jimmy?
<SolidarityGaming> Grain???
<SolidarityGaming> How do I know it’s you? Can it actually be you??
<Grian> Tim! I thought you never wanted to speak to me again.
<SolidarityGaming> What!?
<SolidarityGaming> Oh my god. This is insane. I should have realized that it would block you out too. I just didn’t think about it.
<SolidarityGaming> But that means that
<SolidarityGaming> They actually did it. You’re one of them.

His message went unanswered for a while. He was starting to think that he had hallucinated the whole thing.

<Grian> yes.
<Grian> i’m sorry. please just give me a chance to talk. i didn’t want this to happen. it wasn’t what i thought. i didn’t mean to disappear like that. i thought they would let me leave. and then it had been so long, and no one was responding to me when i got out. all of your contacts disappeared and i thought you were all dead.
<SolidarityGaming> Grian
<SolidarityGaming> Calm down. I can feel you’re about to panic
<SolidarityGaming> I’d like to talk to you. In person. If you could
<Grian> yes. that would be nice.
<Grian> i can meet you on my private server. you should still be able to enter
<SolidarityGaming> I’m already here

Not even a minute later. Jimmy saw the message appear.

<Grian Joined the Game>

His breath hitched. Before he knew it, he was flying down the stairs. He heard the front door slam open and saw him. The same red jumper and dirty blond hair. He looked stressed, but barely any different from the last time he had seen him. They both rushed forward and met in the middle.

Strong arms wrapped tight around him. They weren’t atrophied or frail from disuse. His skin wasn’t deathly pale or glowing with the magic of something otherworldly. He looked so, so much like Grian. His Grian. If he hadn’t been sure before, he was now. 

Jimmy sobbed, loud and ugly into his friend's shoulder. He was bent down, wrapping his own arms around the man, encasing him in the hug. The sobs continued to wrack his body as he clutched onto Grian like he might disappear again. He heard a noise, like a light shushing , but softer. His friend’s hand came up to touch the back of his head, slowly stroking his golden hair.

“It’s alright.” And that was Grian’s voice . It wasn’t some trick by a Watcher or listener or a disembodied remnant. It was him . And oh, now he was crying all over again.

It took a few minutes, but eventually, he calmed down enough to take some deep breaths and pull back. He finally, finally took in his old friend’s face. He had been wrong before. Grian wasn’t the exact same. His entire body, or at least what was visible, was covered in thin scar tissue. Jimmy winced at the implications and thought again of the gut wrenching scream he had heard from Grian when he was taken.

“You’re back…” He whispered.

Grian nodded in response, “I am.” He looked sad, but mostly embarrassed. “I suppose I have some explaining to do.”

Jimmy shook his head, then reconsidered and nodded. “No – well yes – but not yet. Just… give me a minute. This morning, I thought you were dead or some uncaring god of the void. I need a little time to process.”

Grian grimaced as he spoke, and Jimmy wondered if maybe he had been a little insensitive in his ramblings. He muttered an apology that Grian quickly brushed off.

“How about some tea?”

—

They were skirting around the topic. Grian realized that he didn’t need to spell it out for Jimmy like he did Mumbo. It was getting harder and harder to ignore the mounting tension. He guessed he would have to start somewhere.

“I’m sorry,” he began. Jimmy looked at him expectantly, so he just continued. “Not for making EVO or wanting… more . I’m sorry for taking the risk when it was offered. I should have known that the consequences would be greater than I thought. I just… I thought that being like them meant I could do more for all of us . I mean we saw what They were capable of. And I know everyone was afraid of that power. But if one of us had that power and could keep them in check, or….  I just thought that… I just thought… I don’t know what I was thinking…” his voice trailed off. He expected Jimmy to say something, be angry, anything. Still, he remained quiet, patient, looking for Grian to continue, searching for him to clarify. Grian could see that his old friend was searching his words, coming to the right conclusions, but not liking them.

Grian breathed in, and let it out, “I thought I would get to come back. Turns out it's pretty effective to keep someone in the void when they don’t know how to remanifest their body.” He chuckled, humorlessly. “I won’t lie to you. It wasn’t all terrible. They aren’t evil, but we knew that already. They’re incredibly possessive . They almost never left me alone,” he looked at Jimmy, who was nodding along but still looked surprised, like he was having a hard time coming to terms with what Grian was telling him. “It was still lonely.”

He paused and Jimmy took the opportunity, “So why didn’t you come back? I mean – you said you couldn’t manifest your body – which sounds horrifying by the way – but the Watchers could see us without a physical presence. They were always…Watching. And if you’re saying what I think you are… then why couldn’t you Watch?”

Grian shrugged, but the motion was half-hearted. “I tried,” his voice cracked as he admitted it. “I couldn’t get in, and neither could One or Two. I assumed… I assumed that you all were –” he couldn’t finish the sentence or stop the tears from flowing.

Jimmy hugged him. “I know. I know. I just needed to hear it from you.” Grian made a confused noise, and he sighed. “I should have realized it sooner. These… somethings came to us, said they would help protect us from the Watchers, made it so that They could never contact us again. I should have put two and two together. I only realized this morning that it had been blocking you out as well.”

And Grian realized that meant the rest of the Evolutionists weren’t dead, and they hadn’t all decided to block him out on purpose. 

“So you don’t… hate me?” Grian asked. He sounded timid and scared, two things Jimmy would never have described him as before.

“No! Void, Grian I missed you so much.” He hugged his friend tighter. “Don’t get me wrong, I am furious that you left.” Grian cringed at his words. “But, I could never ever hate you. It was a mistake, and I think you’ve paid the price enough for it.”

Grian laughed softly. He wiped at his eyes, clearing them of tears. That’s when Jimmy noticed something odd. A few of the scars across Grian’s face were also leaking. He froze for a minute and couldn’t help staring. Tear ducts? , he thought with equal amounts of sorrow and horror. He reached up and swiped at one. Grian went still in response.

Jimmy thought for a moment. “You don’t have to say anything. I think I understand.”

Grian nodded again in response, desperately trying to stop his crying.

Silence followed once more, until he broke it. “So… what have you been up to?”

Jimmy looked a little surprised that Grian had asked. “Oh. Well I was invited by a new friend to join his server. Everyone there is an emperor of a different biome. I’m the Cod Father!” He said proudly, puffing out his chest.

Grian laughed, much more vibrantly this time if not still a little wetly. “Is that why your clothes are all green and scaly?”

“Yes!”

“It looks rubbish.”

“Hey!” Grian erupted into laughter at Jimmy’s response.

It really is him .

—

Rest was important. Xisuma knew this. Rest was important, which is why he shut down hermitcraft for a few short weeks between seasons. He always ensured that his players had somewhere safe they could go to get some incredibly needed rest .

Okay, and sue him. Maybe he is a hypocrite, because Xisuma wasn’t taking that same time to rest. He considered the season itself after the first month to be his rest. So for now, he would work. He had to find a good seed for the new season. There would need to be revamps to the safety measures. And his damned Watcher alerts would need to be upgraded. He was practically drowning in the code as he tried his hardest to figure out how a Watcher had gotten in early season.

He sighed. There really was only one way to figure out why, and unfortunately, that meant he would have to speak to them . It had been two seasons since he had last spoken to them. For some reason, after season five began, the Watchers hadn’t been in the part of the void that Xisuma could usually find them in. Maybe he had offended whichever one had come to peak at him during his set-up for the sixth season. Still, the protections had remained in place for all of season five, so he continued to uphold his part of the bargain. But if they were going to continue to slip up on their end of the deal, then he certainly wasn’t going to keep doing endless research in admin boards to find new servers for them!

He huffed, annoyed in a different way now, more indignant. Removing himself from his work digging through the code, he turned off the window on his helmet and took a deep breath. He was in a small office located in a house in his private world. It was quaint and a little boring. Xisuma didn’t spend much time here doing anything other than working on hermitcraft, so he didn’t need anything fancy. Exiting his house, he moved over to the edge of the incredibly small private world, allowing his body to slowly float down into the void. It took a good deal of concentration to manipulate the anti-matter beneath his feet, but eventually he was able to walk out.

Navigating the void was difficult, but he was well practiced at this point. Entities who knew how could get to the outside of any server or world from the void without traveling the far distances that would normally be necessary or using inter-server portals. It was odd standing on the outside of servers. Xisuma couldn’t see into them, even the unprotected ones. He’s only a player after all. But he can feel them around him. 

Manipulating the void, he moved through it, heading to the vague area of nothingness that One and Two normally spend their time in. He wasn’t really sure how that worked since he knows the Watchers were not occupying physical bodies, but he also knows that they weren’t omnipresent beings (at least he thinks so, they could have just been avoiding him). The whole concept had given him a large headache when he had been researching the Watchers, and it honestly wasn’t any different now.

His contemplations were cut off as he heard the unsettling hiss-laugh.

Oh, Two, he is back again.

Interesting. I am not sure why.

Xisuma frowned. “You don’t know why? It’s because I’ve been upholding my end of the deal, and you two haven’t! You let one of your kind in! Or was it one of you that came in?” He crossed his arms and tried to look displeased in the general direction of the Watchers (which didn’t really matter since their eyes were observing him from every possible angle).

There was silence for a moment. Even Xisuma could feel that there was a tension that was less threatening than normal and just…awkward.

I’m not sure what to say.

It feels as if we will be in trouble with him no matter what

Xisuma was confused, but huffed in frustration anyway. “You bet you’re in trouble –”

Oh no, not with you

No, with our little Watcher.

He would not like us giving his secrets.

“How many times do I have to tell you that I don’t care about your search for your friend! I–” He cut himself off, realizing what they could be implying. “Wait… you finally found the Watcher you were looking for?”

There was a silence that spoke volumes.

“...and it would be upset with you? For revealing secrets? What secrets…? Wait! Is it the one that you let into the server! That’s not the deal!”

Oh Voidwalker, you misunderstand.

We have not broken any part of our deal

Even if we are no longer benefiting.

“Then how did it get in! It’s not like I just let a Watcher See into my server!”

He let out a frustrated sound as One and Two remained silent. Clearly they messed up and won’t admit it , he thought. Well I’m not taking that. I certainly didn’t let a Watcher in! The whitelist is the exact same, except for Grian! And… and…

Xisuma’s thoughts came to a shrieking halt as his brain began to chug into overdrive. One and Two were being unnervingly quiet as Xisuma began to unearth some memories

Mumbo had told him about a friend of his who he wanted to join in the future. He had a server that was jumping through world versions. It was called ‘EVO.’

Xisuma needed a server name to give. It was coming to the time, and he needed the One and Two’s protection. He gave them a name. It would never have any consequences…

Mumbo was upset in season five. His friend had gone missing, the one who was supposed to join. 

More realizations were flashing through Xisuma’s head. His nerves were pounding against his skull as his mind did flips, connecting dots.

One and Two stopped showing up. He didn’t know why. (Does he know now?)

They said that they found the other Watcher. They found it. They found… him?

Mumbo’s friend is back. He needs a place to go. He has nowhere. Xisuma whitelists a new name.

Watchers can’t get in. Not unless One and Two allow it. Or… or…

…Or unless I whitelist them.

“Oh my void.”

—

“And Joel lives in this mesa that he’s done up all nice with the new moss stuff. He’s right across from the ocean where Lizzie has set up. I’m allied with Lizzie – you know because the aquatic empires gotta stick together – and she’s married to Joel, so it’s like all three of us are allies.” Jimmy had been happily rambling on about the empires to Grian for the better part of an hour. He sounded like he had a bunch of amazing new friends.

There had been a decent back and forth in their conversations as well. Grian butted in with anecdotes about the hermits and his adventures in season six. Then Jimmy would come back in with another story of wars between the empires. It seems like their experiences hadn’t been all that different.

Jimmy was in the middle of describing something to do with crowns and setting rules now. “So after that rule was finished, it moved on to Pearl –” Grian stiffened, and Jimmy cut himself off. Jimmy hadn’t mentioned any of the other Evolutionists being on the server with him. Much less his pseudo-sister. 

“Ah right, I suppose I should have mentioned that.” Jimmy cleared his throat before he continued. “All the other Evolutionists are doing well. I don’t keep in close communication with most of them anymore, only Martyn and Pearl. And, well, Pearl is on Empires with me.”

Grian was silent for a bit before he smiled sadly, staring off in the distance. “I’m glad you’re all doing well. I don’t want you to think I’m not happy for you. But, I do miss everyone. Especially you and Martyn and Pearl. We were all so close…”

“Well you could always use your magical eyes and Watch us?” Jimmy said, but it came off as more of a question.

Grian shook his head in response. “I’d like to, but Im not sure it’ll work if Pearl is still being protected by whatever it was that was blocking the Watchers’ powers before. Besides, she was always so uncomfortable with them invading her privacy. I don’t want to do that to her.”

Jimmy stared at Grian. His voice had that resigned quality to it again, like he was giving up on seeing his loved ones all over again.

“...Well, what if you just come visit in person?”

—

He has been very quiet. I do not like it.

Nor do I.

Perhaps now is the time to make new conversation?

Oh yes, we did want to ask.

Voidwalker —

About our deal —

We no longer need server names.

Yes, as we have said, we found our little Watcher.

We will ask for something else now.

Xisuma’s mind had not yet stopped reeling. It really couldn’t be true. There was no way. The implications were too much for him to think about. He must have jumped to a few too many conclusions

We would like to Watch now

Xisuma physically flinched. He had been afraid of this. “No!” He said in a little too much of a hurry, a little too desperate. “That’s the deal! No Watchers can See into Hermitcraft. Neither of you can!”

Oh but we do not like that deal any more.

Yes, it is preventing us from Seeing him

Two, do not say too much!
We will consider some new terms to this deal…

Xisuma waited. He didn’t know what else he could offer the Watchers, so he had to wait for their offer. He hated how powerless it made him feel. The whole reason that he had sought out this deal to begin with was to stop that feeling. The helplessness, the paranoia – it was all crashing in on him.

Let us be direct about it.

I suppose that is the best way.

Voidwalker, we would like information on one of your…

The Watcher hesitated. Then…

…players

Xisuma shivered at how uncertain they sounded. It made dread pool in the pit of his stomach. It was only making him feel worse about his theory, but he had to be wrong. He had to.

We would like to have updates on the player Grian.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Chapter Text

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH- oh that was not as big of a splash as I was expecting,” Grian cut off his own scream of delight. His boat rocked in the water, sending waves rocking out over the ocean. It was finally the new season. He had been going a bit stir crazy waiting for it, even if he did take time to hang out with Mumbo, plan his base, message Jimmy, and visit One and Two.

It was finally here and Grian could see all the other hermits he had honestly missed much more than he was expecting. Season six had brought him out of his shell again and he had made so many new friends.

For now, he was once again out on the water, but this time he steered his boat inland. The last season had been wonderful, and he had enjoyed learning what it was like to be a player again. But, if he was honest with himself, Grian had been a bit of an odd recluse in the last season. He contemplated his plan for the mansion he would build this time around as his arms achingly rowed his small boat towards the approaching shore. It would be huge! Easily as tall as the sky would allow, with hundreds – or thousands! – of rooms. This time, he would have a place that was more inviting – something that said, “oh hey! Yeah this mansion does have a bunch of extra bedrooms. Hm? Oh yes, you can hang out and stay over.” He nodded to himself, satisfied with his genius plan. Nothing conveyed that he was well adjusted to being alone and not desperate to see his friends in person again like a house with a bunch of potential guest rooms. His plans were to find a jungle. After a few hours of rowing through the rivers of badlands and savannahs, he finally spotted the lush green biome peaking out around the river bend. Rowing up to the sandy shoreline, he grabbed his boat and headed into the underbrush.

—

“Araak!”

Grian’s head swiveled in the direction of the loud warbling among the tall bushes. He followed the squawks until he came upon a bright, royal blue macaw. 

“Oh! Hello there. Wait!” he demanded of the bird, who stayed still but certainly had no understanding of his command. Grian ran back to the grass and began looking for seeds. Returning with a few handfuls, he offered them out to the parrot, allowing it to peck at them. Eventually, the bird finished and fluttered up to land on his shoulder. 

“We are going to be best friends. I think I’ll call you… Professor Beak!” he said, scratching at the bird’s head. Professor Beak squawked back in acknowledgement. 

“You know, you’re a lot like me, Professor Beak,” Grian began, looking over his shoulders, but frowned when he realized his wings were invisible at the moment. It had only been a few hours, but he still missed them. Putting them away felt wrong somehow. He couldn’t wait to get an elytra and be able to disguise them again. Unfortunately, at this point it would be too suspicious for him to have one already.

Grian sighed, petting the bird again. Then, his mind began to toss around dangerous ideas. He looked around the jungle. It was pretty dense, not much visibility. No other hermits were anywhere near him as far as he could see. It was a risk, but…

It would feel so good just to let them come back for a few minutes. Ever since the void, he really hated having any part of his body being absent, even just temporarily. It’s why he kept his ‘elytra’ equipped for the entirety of the sixth season.

Looking around one more time, Grian took a deep breath and allowed his wings to rush back into existence. When no one jumped out and began shouting at him or demanding answers, he let go of the air, feeling it woosh out of his lungs in relief. His wings fluttered; he was happy to feel them move. 

Professor Beak began tweeting up a storm next to Grain’s ear, fluttering his own wings. The hermit giggled, flapping his own brightly colored appendages in response. “I told you I was just like you.” He continued to laugh as the bird circled around him.

—

The start of a new season – always stressful. For better or for worse, X asked Doc for a bit of extra help in the early season this time around. His friend had immediately agreed, sensing the mounting stress in his admin. Xisuma thanked him immensely, promising to help him out with whatever he needed later in the season, then relayed what kind of work he could assist with to lighten the load.

In truth, X didn’t have all that much more for this season than normal. Things were going incredibly smoothly in the first few hours. No one had broken anything yet. There weren’t any chunks missing or glitched. The terrain was beautiful. It was really a perfect first few hours.

All that being said – Xisuma was letting his paranoia get the best of him. He knew now that a Watcher was amidst them – allegedly . He still hoped that his hunch was wrong and One and Two were just being weirdly obsessed with the new builder. In all his paranoia, X had decided not to admit any additional players for this season. Grian was still the newest, and it would stay that way until X determined if his presence was safe. 

On one hand, Grian had never done anything malicious. He was kind enough, if not a bit of a prankster and instigator. He had never seriously threatened anyone and was often helpful to the other players. Some of X’s closest friends had come to adore the latest addition, and he was a life-long friend of Mumbo, a man Xisuma would trust with his own life. 

On the other hand, two void entities that scared – and annoyed – the life out of him favored Grian. They wanted to go back on the deal to See him, and now X would need to take notes for them. And on top of that doozy, there was the strong possibility that Grian himself was one of the incredibly powerful, terrifying, omniscient gods of the void parading around in the skin of a relatively humanoid player. 

The thought sickened Xisuma. The first being that he had been deceived and allowed his defenses to drop enough to let a Watcher in. The second was the surprising amount of guilt . As far as Xisuma could tell, Grian was a real player, one who had a whole history and a close friend to vouch for his existence. According to Mumbo, he was an admin of his own server, and disappeared one day, leaving the members shaken and unwilling to talk about what had happened. And that meant that this was all his fault . Xisuma had set One and Two on Grian’s server. If he had been a player before, and was now… something else, it was his fault. 

Thinking about Grian made his stomach churn. The safety of his players came first, but how could he commit to protecting all of his players if he cast one of them out. 

That’s what led him to where he was now, perched in the branches of a jungle tree, winded from climbing up. He had been following Grian for a while now – swimming just out of sight of his boat and lurking through the bushes of the jungle. So far, nothing about him had been dangerous or alarming at all. He was still the very normal player that Xisuma had met. 

Just as he thought that maybe he should leave the man alone, go off to get his early season work started, Grian began looking around the clearing, clearly nervous. His eyes darted around as if he was trying to take in everything that surrounded him. Xisuma remained as still as possible, hoping his armor camouflage him well enough beneath the foliage. Finally, Grian inhaled deeply and tensed his shoulders. He scrunched his eyes tight, and the bird on his shoulder appeared to shoot him a judgemental side-eye.

Then, out of nowhere, wings – parrot wings, of all things – just appeared on his back. Xisuma froze, jaw slack and eyes wide. He didn’t dare move a muscle. Before long, Grian let out his held breath and began flexing the wings, shaking them out. Bright red, yellow, and blue like the scarlet macaws flitting about the jungles. They were moving, animatedly, not just some trick of the light. They were real wings.

Xisuma got ready to pull out his communicator and kick Grian. He had all the proof he needed that this wasn’t a normal player. Then, X heard laughter. He slowly began to lower his communicator, as he observed Grian. The man was fluttering the wings, looking joyful as he played with the bird. Nothing bad happened, and Xisuma began to realize that nothing bad was going to happen. He took another look at the… player? Watcher? person?... before him. Nothing about the wings was threatening. He put away his communicator and began to leave the jungle. 

…He didn’t like this at all. 

—

Digging through rocks and cave systems had been exhausting, but Grian had discovered some pretty good finds from his hard work. There was a beautiful secluded area behind the hill he had decided to burrow into for his home. The open air was lovely, and the lush leaves covering the top were dense enough to keep it  secret. It would be a great place for Professor Beak, and for him to let his wings out until he got an elytra. He had also come across plenty of minerals in the mine: diamonds to get his tools and armor upgraded, iron to build up his infrastructure, and redstone, which he was determined to learn about this season. (He knew deep down it would just end up being shipped over to Mumbo). 

Even better than all of that, he had found a zombie spawner. It was close enough to his little hobbit hole that he could make it into a private experience farm. At least, that was the initial plan. Now, he had a better idea.

Hours ago, he had spotted a new neighbor setting up across the lake from his base. He didn’t know who it was yet, but now he was slinking through the bushes to see who had been foolish enough to establish a home near him. He was hoping it was Mumbo – his best friend would be expected and was always in the mood for one of Grian’s pranks.

As he drew closer to the camp, he saw a man in flowing purple and gold robes, with a pointed hat atop his head and a long, gray beard. Grian furrowed his brow, confused for a bit, until the man turned towards him, wiping his brow from carrying back a stack of heavy jungle logs. Grian’s eyes widened and an involuntary grin spread across his face as he realized it was Scar ! 

He quickly ducked around a tree, trying his best to keep out of sight as he calmed down. He didn’t understand why he was so excited to see Scar. Sure, the two had become very good… rivals(?) during the last season. They were almost always on opposing sides, and yet Grian had become rather attached to the man.

Well, if it wasn’t Mumbo, Grian really couldn’t think of a better sport for his pranks. He set about setting up the zombie elevator, preparing to send them straight into the underbrush near Scar’s… weird dirt sphere? 

There was just one problem he was facing now. In order to get the zombies to spawn in, a player would need to be near it. It would be easy to just stay by it and Watch Scar with his magic, but it would also be risky. But what was the use of having all these extra eyes and Watcher magic if he never used it? It had been well over a year, nearly two now, since he had been allowed to leave the void. He was starting to let go of the last bits of lingering fear about his Watcher abilities.

If nothing good ever comes from my powers, then none of it will have been worth it , he thought. So I might as well make use of them . 

With a new determination, he sealed himself in the walls near the spawner, closing his body off from any danger. In total darkness, he couldn’t see anything. He could hear zombies beginning to spawn in and slide down the canal he had dug out towards the bubble-vator. Gently, he shut his normal eyes, concentrating. When he reopened them, he felt a few others on his hands and neck joining as they peeled open. It was disorienting for a moment. It had been a long while since he had opened this many eyes. Once he settled into the strange double – triple? quadruple? – vision, he focused  his field of view. He could see his own body, with glowing purple-blue-green eyes. Shuddering a bit at himself, he quickly turned his attention away, willing the eyes to seek out his target. He blinked, and then he could See Scar.

His neighbor was still in his silly robes. Grian could now tell that he was trying to dress as a wizard. He felt his body, distantly, laughing softly at the realization. It was an endearing costume. 

Scar was busy tearing down the dirt sphere, replacing it with wood and stone. Looking around, Grian could tell that he was building a giant snail. He marveled at how realistic the creature looked. Scar really has a talent for making such organic structures . Grian truly admired his talent.

Scar was hard at work, humming a soft tune as he went. His cheeks were flushed from working out in the midday sun, his hair stuck to his forehead with sweat. All at once, Scar took off his beard and hat, tossing them to the ground beside his growing chest monster. In one fluid motion, he then lifted up the purple robes, revealing nothing but a pair of very short shorts underneath. Grian could see his bare chest, tanned and scarred. He felt his body let out a muffled, startled yelp as he realized just how built his friend was. It made sense that Scar would be strong from years of terraforming and building, but Grian didn’t know he would also look it . He blinked his eyes a few times, trying to focus on the task at hand. It was admittedly, very difficult, when the task at hand was to Watch Scar . 

His neighbor sauntered over to the lake, kneeling down to splash some of the cool water across his face. It dripped down his chest, and for some reason Grian couldn’t bring himself to look away. He was stuck, staring at Scar as the man continued to cup water and splash it on himself. 

Then, out of nowhere, a low groan could be heard. Clearly, Scar hadn’t heard it over the splashes of the water, as seconds later he was pushed into the pool. He started yelling, splashing about in the water, as the zombies jumped him. Grian was confused, scared even, for a moment before he remembered – Oh, the prank! He turned his eyes to where he knew the geyser was and saw no less than twenty zombies emerging from it.

He began to laugh, full bellied and high pitched as he Watched Scar become overrun with them.

—

“You are a sneaky trickster, you Jungle Bandit!”

Grian laughed loudly. His shrieks of delight pierced the humid air of the jungle as tears came to his (normal) eyes. Bent over with laughter, he wheezed out, “How- ha-how long did it take you to figure it out?”

Scar blew out a huff of air, trying to be annoyed. But the smile he was poorly concealing was plain enough for anyone to see. “Oh, only about thirty minutes of zombie attacks, and I figured something had to be up.”

Grian laughed some more, and Scar eventually relented and joined in. Grian’s laughter was just too contagious for him to resist. 

Eventually, when the giggling had finally died down, Grian began his apologies, “Oh Scar, I am sorry that you died. I didn’t intend for that to happen… so many times.” He chuckled again as Scar began to sputter indignantly.

“But!” Grian continued, “As a reward for being such a good sport, I’ll let you use the spawner I found.” Grian surprised himself at his own words. He had been intending on keeping the spawner all to himself. He’d originally had no intentions of sharing it with Scar, but somehow he wasn’t upset by his sudden change of heart.

“Oh, that would be wonderful!” the fake wizard replied, beaming at Grian.

“You’ll have to help me finish with setting it up.”

“Of course, of course,” Scar replied, nodding along to Grian’s conditions.

The two continued on towards Scar’s snail, and Grian gave it an appreciative nod.

“Your starter base is coming along nicely, although I didn’t know snails were native to the jungle.” Grian said, shooting Scar a sly smile.

“Oh but of course they are! And Larry happens to be a rare breed of giant snail, very native to jungles. And he makes a great familiar for my wizardly wanderings.” Scar said with a wink. Leaning in towards Grian with a smirk of his own he continued, “Some might even call him magical.”

Grian was dumbstruck, overcome both with the desire to laugh and just continue to stare at his friend. The setting sun was pouring over his dark hair and broad smile. There was something about his expression that invited Grian to lean in himself, but he caught the unconscious movement before it could go too far.

After a beat that was probably too long, he asked, “...Larry?”

Scar leaned back and his grin faltered for a moment before returning, “But of course! A snail this dignified deserves a name to match it!”

At this Grian finally laughed again, shaking off the strange tension that had momentarily filled the air.

—

Grian had already made up for his prank quite enough by granting Scar access to his spawner. But, just to be sure all was forgiven, the two were helping each other out on an end bust. 

Everything had been going great, if you discounted the fact that they were having terrible luck. They had been in the outer end for hours now, and they had yet to find a single city. Grian had never been to one before, but Scar was adamant he would know it when he saw it. 

Finally, after hours, the two had decided to split up and search, keeping in touch on the coms. 

“All I’m saying is that If Jellie were as big as the pandas in the jungle, she would be the queen of it!”

“And all I’m saying is that my parrots can fly and no matter how big Jellie is, she could never catch all of them!”

“That’s simply pre-per perpo -uh… per-po-tu-ous!” Scar confidently finished.

Grian burst out into laughter again. The argument had been going on for some time, but now the call fell silent as their laughter fizzled out. Grian could hear the faint sound of blocks appearing as Scar bridged over the void, mirroring his own actions.

“Do you ever get the feeling that something is watching us?”

Grian started as Scar asked his question, “...What?”

Scar hummed, “In the end? Do you ever get the feeling like something is watching? It's been a long time since it’s happened, but it used to happen most frequently here.” He was silent for a moment, and Grian began to panic internally, thinking back to the times he had Watched Scar. 

Then, he continued, “I haven’t felt it here. Well, not here here, like in the end on Hermitcraft. It used to happen sometimes when I was on other servers. And it’s happened a few times in the overworld on this server.”

There was more silence, and then Grian lied, “No. I haven’t.”

He could almost hear the sad smile in Scar’s voice. “I promise I’m not crazy or anything. I know it sounds like it, but I swear I’ve felt eyes on me. They aren’t malicious, just… curious?” He sounded unsure. Then, “...but sometimes not.”

Grian’s mouth went a bit dry. “What do you mean ‘not’?”

Scar laughed. It was small, but almost wistful, “A few times it's been… mischievous, maybe? And once, the gaze felt concerned.”

For a third time, the silence stretched out. Grian let some of his panic subside. It didn’t sound like Scar was suspicious, but then, he wasn’t sure why he was sharing this.

Scar sighed, “Don’t worry about it though. It’s probably nothing bad. Sometimes, I just like to tell myself that its my-” 

Scar’s contemplative voice cut off with a startled yelp – the same one he gave just before he fell into the jungle lake the day before. Even without Looking, Grian knew that he had slipped and tumbled off his bridge into the void.

—

He was plummeting fast. The void dragged him down into its embrace as he watched the bridge he had been on moments before disappear from his vision. Reaching up for it, he already knew it was too late. Feeling his health begin to slip away as the void ate away at him, Scar accepted that he was going to lose all of his items.

And then– 

Strong arms caught Scar around his waist, hoisting him up from the void. They rose up from the inky-darkness, and Scar felt his health replenishing. Someone had jumped into the void to pull him out, risking their own health, items, and safety. 

He couldn’t see well, as his head was being cradled against the person’s chest. He realized that he was now being held bridal style. As he they ascended, he wondered how they were slowly rising out of the void. Puzzled, he glanced up. 

Holding him was a faceless entity. Although as he looked closer, he could see the glowing shape of eyes, but not just two of them. Several across the being’s face were lit up with deep, swirling blues and greens, but mostly a bright purple. He stared at the eyes, and a few of them darted to meet his, widening when they caught his gaze. 

Suddenly the being stopped, hovering in place. It let Scar go, and he instinctively held on, fearing falling back into the dark and losing all his hard-earned items. He felt the arms hold onto his as a voice, reverberating with some otherworldliness, spoke, “I’ve got you.” 

Scar didn’t know why, he had no reason to, but he trusted the person. He felt safe with it, like coming home to an old friend or being embraced by a lover. He calmed down, untensing his muscles, and realized that he wasn’t falling or slipping. His body was suspended in the darkness of the void. Looking up, he could see the shape of the outer end island and the bridge he had fallen from. 

“I’m going to let your arms go now, but don’t be afraid. I would never let you fall,” it said.

Nodding in response, Scar released his own grip on the person’s arms, and felt their hands pull back as well. Now that Scar was able to see them better without being pressed up against their body, he took in the sight before him. He could see the outline of pants and a sweater, but couldn’t tell their colors this far into the void, where the light was absent. Great wings rose behind their shoulders, but they remained still. Scar assumed that whatever magic this being possessed to save him from being consumed by the void, they were also using it to keep the two of them afloat. Finally, their hands and neck glowed with more eyes, unevenly placed, and all focusing their attention on Scar. 

At that moment, he realized why he trusted this person. Their gaze felt familiar, holding curiosity and mischief like it had in the past. But what really revealed their identity was the faint furrow of their brow and crease to their – many – eyes. It was that same concern.

Scar had stars in his eyes as he looked at the otherworldly being, cloaked in shadows. His savior stared back, and cleared his throat.

Scar blinked the adoration out of his eyes and recollected his thoughts. “Thank you,” he breathed out, “for saving me.”

“Oh! Uh… it was no problem. I wouldn’t let you die.”

Scar stared a bit longer, then blurted out, “I know who you are.”

—

Grian was freaking out. He had made a split decision, one he hoped he wouldn’t regret. He had heard Scar screaming and just… well, he wasn’t sure. One moment he was talking to Scar on his communicator, thousands of blocks out. The next he was blinking into existence above the man, watching him plummet into the void. He dove and caught him, quickly bending the void around himself to obscure his face and general appearance. 

He didn’t understand why he did it. Sure, dying was inconvenient. It would mean that they would have lost hours of progress. Scar would need to grind to replace all his items. But he wouldn’t feel any pain, Xismua made sure of that. It wouldn’t be worth the risk of revealing himself.

He just… felt like he needed to save Scar. He couldn’t really explain it. 

They were talking now. Talking. Just like normal. Like he wasn’t some ominous entity standing before his friend, hoping that he wouldn’t recog–

“I know who you are.”

Icy fear tore through Grian’s veins. He was petrified, practically shaking. Excuses and explanations began to race through his mind, lies and denial forming on his tongue. Then, Scar surprised him again.

“You’re my guardian angel, aren't you?”

Grian paused, completely caught off guard. The emotional whiplash of it all was giving him a headache.

“...Um. No. Well, yeah. Yes, actually. Let’s go with that,” he replied, unsure, but not wanting to pass by the easy out that he was being offered.

“Well, you don’t sound too sure. But, I am. I know you. I felt your presence before. You were watching over me yesterday. And a few times before, back at the beginning of the last season,” Scar replied, casually, like he wasn’t just admitting something absolutely insane. 

Grian began silently freaking out. Scar had been able to sense him . He had said so earlier, and Grian was afraid of the implications, but now he knew for certain. He was right, though – Grian had been Watching him before, and there was no way Scar was just making lucky guesses. 

Silence dragged out. Grian didn’t know what to say. Finally, he gathered his thoughts, offering his hand out to Scar hesitantly. Scar grabbed his hand back without question, staring right into the eyes covering his palm. Grian began to fly up, pulling them both out of the void.

They reached the outer island, and Grian deposited Scar on the ground safely. “I have to go now,” he said.

Scar frowned, looking disappointed. “Okay, but you’ll be watching me won’t you?” He looked concerned, eyebrows drawn close together, and staring pleadingly at Grian in that classic Scar-puppy-dog-eyes way.

Grian bit his lip, but then relented, “Yeah, I will.” He gave Scar’s hand one last squeeze, then turned and flew off. 

Minutes later, Grian came to find Scar, asking him if he was alright. Scar told him that he had slipped but caught himself. He hadn’t meant to lose the connection on the call and worry Grian. He lied about the encounter, with a smile on his face, making fun of his own clumsiness. And Grian was left to joke alongside him, and wonder… why?