Chapter Text
There really is no surprise, Grian knows his life is a bit weird - so this happening to him should be expected.
Ever since he was seven and got abandoned in Japan by his parents, his life hasn’t been the same.
Sure, he got back to England, but deciding to visit his friends for Halloween when they were 16 was the biggest mistake he made in his life. From seeing Taurtis get stabbed by Sam, getting into a car crash to now being stuck in Japan yet again because Sam can’t be left alone.
Grian, Sam and Taurtis having the Yakuza after them and killing their leader, seeing Yuki kill herself and then being in witness protection.
Well, things just got worse after that. Giving up on trying to get back to England and now being stuck here with murders and misery around him, it really sucks.
He's seen Aliens, Ghosts, Chupacabra, even Cthulhu!
He's seen a portal around before, so having yet another strange portal popping up shouldn’t be so surprising.
-
Why is it here, though? It’s just outside the school, illuminating the surroundings purple with a shell made of stone. It shouldn’t be there, it wasn’t there earlier, then why is it here now? Grian has seen much worse things but for some reason he feels uneasy about this, something is wrong.
They decide to investigate, but before Grian could get a good look, he feels something push him in.
He kind of expected that Sam would push either him or Taurtis in to “check what was in it”, he probably should’ve accounted for that and been more careful.
-
Entering this strange world, Grian quickly opened his eyes, only to see a robot with a mustache? Well, that was probably the last thing he would’ve expected.
Grian doesn't really have any time to acknowledge the other stuff in the room before he hears a loud sound behind him, like glass breaking. What even was that?
He quickly turns around to investigate and sees, well… nothing. The portal was just darkened, it was not illuminating any purple as it did seconds ago. It's just black.
Grian quickly realizes he's stuck there.
Well.
Fuck.
He's stuck in this world. He has no idea what it is or how it works, he doesn’t have anybody else to help - not that Taurtis or Sam would help, really.
Grian tucks his gun into the pocket inside his shirt so he has quick access if something happens and he needs it.
Finally, he takes a moment to look at his surroundings, spotting something that appears to be a control panel for that big mustached robot.
Looking around some more, he sees some scaffolding. A LOT of scaffolding. It seems like something is getting repaired.
He also sees some things that kind of look like testing tubes, one purple, one yellow and one green. Strange. Is he in some kind of laboratory? Is that why he's here? Because some annoying fuck decided to mess with some portals or something?
To his right he sees some kind of tight enclosure for sheep. He feels a bit bad. In his world some sheeps act like humans, so seeing sheep being in such a tight environment just feels wrong.
He doesn't have much time to acknowledge anything else before he hears a swooping sound, as if something with wings was gliding down. Looking up he sees a girl with long hair and an orange-yellow-ish hardhat, a black shirt and a green pair of dungarees on. A pair of wings is strapped to her back.
She lands very smoothly down in front of him.
“Hello, Grian!” she says in a very cheerful voice,a big playful grin on her face.
Okay, now a million questions are going through his head. How does she know his name? Why does she sound so happy seeing him? Why does the word “Pearlescentmoon” float above her head? Is that her name? Is that why she knows his name? Does he also have his name floating above his head? But then why would she sound so happy seeing him if he was just a stranger?
Deciding to just respond, Grian says “hi” back. He tries to sound as normal as possible, but he just feels uneasy so it comes out a bit more quiet than he would’ve liked it to be. She doesn’t seem to notice.
“I was just up there cleaning your chest monster! It’s really messy, but don’t worry, I’ll fix it in no time. After all, I'm the cleaning lady!” she says, sounding genuinely happy. Why would she be happy cleaning?
And, wait wait wait- cleaning HIS chest monster? First of all, what is a chest monster? Second of all, he has never been here before. Well, that confirms that there must be another version of him here and that’s how she knows him. Not really sure how to respond, he just says “Great”.
“Hey you alright there Griba? Did something happen?” she says, eyebrows furrowing in concern.
Griba? Does she have a nickname for him? Ignoring that for now, he answers.
“I’m alright, i just don’t have a way to get out of this cave,” he says while looking up into the cave entrance, a pondering expression on his face.
That doesn’t really seem to help because her expression changes from concern to confusion.
“What do you mean? Can’t you just fly out, are your wings okay?” She says while trying to look at his back.
Wait again, time out- WINGS?! Does this world's Grian have wings?! well he can say for certain that he is intrigued by this second Grian that she thinks he is.
He doesn't want her to call his bluff so he quickly answers. “No! they are fine, they just hurt a bit! But I’ll be fine. It's just that right now I'm stuck down here,” he says while also doing his best to keep his back away from her so she doesn’t notice the fact that he does not, in fact, have wings.
“Oh, I see! Don't you have an extra pair of elytra for emergencies in your ender chest? I know you love flying, so it's a bit surprising that you don’t have an extra pair. Or do your wings hurt too much to even use an elytra?” She says, sounding genuinely curious.
Okay. Now she's just throwing random words at him. Elytra? Ender chest? What even are those? No time to think about that right now, he needs to leave.
“No, my wings are fine, they don’t hurt that much. I just lost all my stuff, that’s all. And I don't have a pair of elytra in my ender chest,” he says swiftly. Technically he is lying, he does have his gun and some Jerrykats on him. Well… he also has that strange bucket of Dom's milk that Geode gave him. Why did he even keep it? But "Pearlescentmoon" doesn’t need to know that, she hasn’t seemed to notice anything yet.
“Ohh, did you set your spawn here, and then when you died and lost your stuff you respawned down here?” She says.
Grian has a LOT of questions about that dying thing, but at this point he is too tired to actually care.
“Yes, exactly,” he lies, just so he can finally get out of this darn cave.
“Well then, why didn’t you tell me? I can give you my extra pair of elytra and some rockets so you can get out of here and get your stuff,” she says, her playful grin returning again.
“That would be wonderful, thank you,” he says with a genuine smile on his face, he's just happy to finally be able to leave.
-
She places down a weird black, green and yellow chest on the ground. It has an eye in the front of it, and somehow, that is the least confusing thing that has happened today.
She gives him a pair of wings and a stack of rockets, then says “Here ya go, mate! I better get going, I forgot some of the stuff I need for cleaning, I'll message you when I'm done with the chest monster, okay?”
“Yeah, sounds great,” he responds, while also being a bit confused on how she could message him. He doesn’t have his phone on him nor does she have his number, but that is a problem for other Grian.
He then sees her jump and fire off one of the rockets, flying up into the air.
Right… he needs to figure out how to do that himself.