Work Text:
It's not like it's not known to the Hermits that Grian is a Watcher. Everyone knows it by this point in time, if mostly for the fact that Grian's hold on the appearance of his wings tends to… slip, when he gets too invested in a build.
It's not like the Hermits are particularly scared of him, sure the Watchers are dangerous and are one of the few things that can truly kill a Player. But Xisuma wouldn't let someone in if he wasn't completely sure that they would cause no harm to his Hermits (or that the Hermits would easily be able to defend themselves if the worst happens.) Besides, most of the Hermits are the few things other than the Watchers that are able to truly kill a Player.
So, with the Hermits knowing and not caring that Grian is a Watcher, sometimes his vision… slips, just a bit. Where he was at first looking at one side of his build, instead of flying to the other side he closes his eyes and opens them where he needs to look.
Maybe he gets a little worried about Scar one day, after all, infinite respawns or not dying that much cannot be safe or healthy. So what if he decides to close his eyes and open up his other Eyes just to take a quick peak. It didn't seem like anything was wrong, so he closed his Eyes and went back to his build.
And maybe he starts doing this more often, checking on everyone when they die. Sometimes they lose gear and he'll fly over to help them replace it. It's not… weird. He's just worried about them! It's not like he's doing anything bad, and it's not like they would know!
The rest of the Hermits catch on pretty quickly when they realize Grian is Watching them. It's pretty hard to not notice the prickling of eyes on them (especially when they've always been paying attention to a feeling like that.)
It pretty quickly became a part of being on the Hermitcraft Server. Someone dies, they feel like they’re being Watched, Grian sometimes comes over to check on them and give them what they lost, and they go on with their day.
When Season Seven ended and Season Eight began was when there were two presences that Watched the Hermits. It wasn’t Gem, despite the cervitaur being invited so late into the series, most of the older Hermits had known her for much, much longer than a couple years. So it had to be Pearl.
But Pearl wasn’t a Watcher. Her code said she was a moth hybrid, her wings were a soft green color and her eyes were blue, neither of which were the dark purples and blacks the Watchers used. It wasn’t some random Watcher, there were so so many shields and locks on the Hermitcraft Server, not even Grian could See into it unless he was in the Server.
It wasn’t until a full moon a few years later into the Season (before the moon was big) when Pearl was seen perched on a roof next to her brother with wings of deep purple and eyes like the Void.
Just like when everyone noticed the Eyes on them two Seasons ago, no one really cared. Their new Servermate was a Watcher, but Xisuma had allowed her on, and Gem trusted her, so there was no reason to not trust her.
Pearl wasn’t a Watcher. Not in the way that Grian was a Watcher, at least. Grian had been stolen from his Server and warped into something he never wanted, and had run. Pearl, however, never met a Watcher after her brother was taken away, she hadn’t even met the Listeners that Jimmy had talked about. What she did was find everything she could about Watchers and their powers, and then replicated it herself, and succeeded.
When Season Eight ended (and wasn’t it a fun Season) and Season Nine began, the Hermits had grown used to two different pairs of Eyes on them. Pearl and Grian had started to Watch the other Hermits when bored, or when building, or really when doing anything. Sometimes it was because they wanted to chat, sometimes they just wanted to Watch (because for as much of a Player the two of them acted, they were something else now.)
When the Rift opened, the two Watchers forgot that the Emperors wouldn’t be used to Eyes on them. (Except for one of them, but the Listener was already used to his siblings checking up on him, and he didn’t care for much other than that his Rancher was back.)
The Emperors didn’t take much time to get used to the Eyes, having felt them a little bit in Season One, and already trusting Pearl. Lizzie and Fwhip being the first to get used to them (both already knowing many of the First Players of the Hermits) with the rest quick to follow.
When Hermitcraft ended (many many centuries after this) and there was only one Server, well, the feeling of being Watched was a welcome one to many, many Players.