Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Hermitheus

“We’ve checked every inch of this place. There’s no sign of any intruders.”

“You don’t know that, man. This place is huge and there’s only two of us!”

“Technically the computer systems can also look out for a physical presence of the possible intruder, but the fact that they keep saying there is one but there’s no actual sign of one makes me doubt how good their surveillance skills are.”

“I guess man but- wait, what’s that?”

“What’s what?”

“Listen.” 

“... Is that… breathing?”

“It sounds like it’s coming from inside these walls. Or sounded. Man, who’s back there?”

“Step aside. The paneling shouldn’t be too hard to remove.”

There’s a curse, then some clattering behind the wall before the two voices can get inside. They get in not too long later, but the person inside has been hiding there for a few days and has learned how to easily get around. But they’re still unfamiliar with the place and in their panic, trap themselves in a dead end.

They’re captured, interrogated, accused of a few things, but they refuse to answer anything. “Well, there’s not much we can personally do with him right now. We haven’t gone too far from the Hermits, so we should drop him off there for Xisuma to take care of things.”

The next while is a blur, nothing happening but travel at first, but then when it’s time to actually move, they escape, dodging hands that try to grab them and racing through corridors. A smaller ship was already prepared for travel, so it doesn’t take too much effort for them to get inside and escape, but they have no clue how to actually control the thing and before long it's out of control. They panic, the only thing going through their mind being ‘crashing, crashing, crashing!’, and as the world below them gets closer, their vision goes dark, passing out before even reaching the ground.

EvilXisuma joined the world.

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Xisuma

When Xisuma saw the message, he froze. Evil Xisuma had caused plenty of issues in Season Eight and he was overall glad he hadn’t returned in Season Nine. He was hoping that he wouldn’t reappear at all, much like his absence in Season Seven, but Xisuma supposed that was a fluke. Or perhaps connected to everything Evil X did in Season Eight.

It’s not helped when Xisuma’s commands to try and locate Evil Xisuma seem to be bugged, no doubt something he had caused upon his arrival. Xisuma is happy to see some of the Hermits also attempting to help. Those with operator access tried to locate Evil X as well to little success, but a few of the other Hermits simply went to spawn to try and spot him. Though there was the chance of Evil X already having escaped, or found a way to change where he spawned in, Spawn itself was the most likely place for him to have been. 

There were no immediate signs of Evil Xisuma having arrived at spawn, or at least having still been there, so slowly, the search radius expanded until one Hermit noticed some unnatural smoke. The coordinates were given out and before long, a small crowd had gathered around what was quickly recognized as Renbob’s RV. Xisuma went to contact him and The Goat Father to see if they had any information as one of the Hermits climbed into the crashed ship to look inside. They climbed back out not too long later, having found no one inside, but signs that there had been at least one person, who had to have been Evil Xisuma, and that he had escaped the crashed ship.

Xisuma heard back from the pair on the Hermitheus, Evil X had been found on their ship, and then had hijacked Renbob’s RV to get down to Hermitcraft, but had lost control on the way, explaining why it had crashed. They were looking into Evil X’s appearance on their own ship, but didn’t have much information on it yet. At least, none they were planning to share with the Hermits. Since the computers had been telling them of an intruder since the end of ‘Season Eight’, it was possible Evil X was connected to their use of the simulation.

Xisuma relayed what little information he had gathered to the Hermits, which was of some slight help. It meant that Evil X was alone, possibly injured from the crash since there was no death message connected to his joining. Xisuma could also tell that there hadn’t been any hacking, at least that he could detect. If Evil X had gotten ahold of anything new, that unfortunately wouldn’t be detected, but for safety’s sake, Xisuma decided to look into if there was anything new he would need to look for.

Other than scouring the server for Evil X, things went mostly back to normal, aside from the Hermits constantly looking over their shoulders. What they didn’t know is how safe they really were, and how little they currently needed to be concerned about.

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Evil Xisuma

Shortly after the crash, just as Hermits were reaching spawn, Evil X had woken up, almost immediately passing out again as they registered the pain they were in. But they didn’t like staying inside the crashed ship, so with a good bit of difficulty, they pulled themselves out of the wreckage, somehow getting to their feet once they were outside. The world still felt like it was spinning, and Evil X nearly fell over as they took just one step. They started to wander as well as they could, constantly looking for places to lean and glad for the heavy amounts of trees making that task easy.

They heard voices from behind them, which startled them. Evil X stopped moving to listen, glad to hear they were distant and not getting closer. If anything, they were moving further away, so Evil X helped that along by continuing to move. They reached the end of the forest and found themselves at the edge of a lake, a large octopus sitting in the middle catching their attention first. Looking around, Evil X spotted a path leading towards some buildings and a bridge over the lake, so they went in that direction to follow it. The path was smoother, and Evil X didn’t feel as shakey on their legs, so no longer having the constant support of tree trunks wasn’t a giant issue for them.

But that all went out the window when noises came from the air, Evil X whirled around to find the source of the noise, falling over in the process. People were getting closer, and they didn’t want that. They wanted to be alone right now, and wanted to rest. They tried to get back to their feet, but they couldn’t manage to make their legs work. Another sound from the air made them more desperate and they started to crawl, looking for some sort of cover.

Sure, there were a few places for them to hide, but then their eyes landed on what seemed to be a door built into a boulder, something that they could easily get into while crawling. In fact, it seemed you had to crawl to get in. Not wanting to be found, Evil X quickly climbed inside. There wasn’t much there, just a crafting table and a bed. Thankfully the place was coated with a thin layer of dust, including the bed, so no one had been there for quite a while.

Evil X pulled themself up just enough to get into the boulder room and collapse on the bed. They didn’t like how it was also a rather small space, but it wasn’t as cramped as the RV wreckage, plus there was a sort of window at the top of the boulder that let them see outside a little. It wasn’t much, but that tiny thing helped the place feel comforting in a way. And though they could see out well enough, it probably wasn’t as easy looking back in if someone even thought to look.

A perfect place for Evil X to rest and lick their wounds. And once they were feeling better, they would start to gather resources. But that was for later.

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Grian

No one could manage to locate Evil Xisuma, but they knew he was still on the server. Every so often, an advancement would be shared to the world on something Evil X had done. Even with his progress being announced, none of it really told the Hermits where his exact location could be. Plans for a trap in the end were being put together, since entering that dimension would be one of the few guaranteed locations they could get out of him.

There had been a few death messages, but Evil X had a spawn set in some unknown place and so he never appeared at spawn itself. But on the chance he managed to erase his respawn location, there were some hermits that would rush to spawn at the mention of Evil X dying once again.

Still, no sign of him was seen, both from just running into him, or from whatever evil plans he could have been making. Some of the Hermits were left on edge from that, continuously waiting for the other shoe to drop, but the others were starting to believe that somehow nothing would happen at all, and by the time Evil X did try anything, he would be found out and caught.

Grian was one such Hermit of the latter group, throwing together a scavenger hunt for Zedaph so he could finally get a duplicate of the dragon egg. He crawled into Zedaph’s old Aboulder and left some signs to lead Zedaph back to his base. Grian thought about messaging Zed to tell him he had left some chests behind in his starter base, but if the next place Zed would go to was his main base, he could just add it in that Zedaph needed to take some of the items back there.

Grian secretly followed Zedaph along the whole way to make sure he didn’t get off track, facepalming a little at Zedaph’s incident with a regular chicken egg, then laughing a little at the confusion of Milksog. But when Zedaph went into his starter base and didn’t come out after a while, Grian was curious. Surely he couldn’t take that long to figure out the next location and fill his inventory with items. Maybe he was having trouble choosing which ones to pick, or that the items themselves were a clue?

Grian ended up climbing into the Aboulder to help Zedaph out, maybe lend an extra pair of hands, or rather, extra bunch of inventory space. He spoke as he entered, starting to ask why Zedaph was taking so long, and then he stopped as his eyes landed on the other person in the rock. Evil Xisuma had finally been found.

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Evil Xisuma

Evil X had gotten back from another visit to the Nether proper to find signs placed in their base. They seemed to compliment them at first, saying how far they had come from their ‘humble beginnings’. They weren’t sure crashing on the planet was really humble, but it was nice. Evil X had no clue what the heck the second part was supposed to be about, with ‘odd trophy innings’, but it was apparently a bad rhyme. And then apparently rhyming was hard, but the signmaker was still a bard and Evil Xisuma smelled like lard. Evil X did not take the last comment well and tore up the signs.

It had been long enough since Evil X had arrived in the world and they had perfected their routine as much as they physically could. They hadn’t once run into one of the other people that were around, and they were happy about that. Slowly they had branched out and done a few more risky things, like not returning home for a day or two to explore further. They still hadn’t been found, and Evil X was getting to the point of thinking they never would. And then someone crawled into his base, saying they were assuming the signs would be inside.

Evil X started to panic. The signs weren’t for them, they were for this other person, who had now climbed into their base. Evil X froze up, hoping somehow if they didn’t move, this person wouldn’t notice them, but they did almost immediately, since they were looking for signs that were no longer there.

“What? Evil Xisuma is that you?” The person asked but Evil X stayed silent and unmoving, hoping they would somehow leave. “Is this where you’ve been this entire time? Well I suppose I should take the fact that you’ve been living here as some kind of compliment! Are you doing okay, you look like you’re shivering?”

Evil X had started trembling, anxiety and panic building to the point that they couldn’t stay still anymore, but they still tried to stay still up until they flinched back at the person reaching for them. “Oh your armor looks all banged up! Is this new or did you not fix it up after the crash?”

The person kept looking Evil X over, handing some golden carrots to them that they reluctantly took after the person insisted enough. They didn’t eat any though, just stuffing them in their inventory for later. Evil X was just starting to wonder if maybe telling the person about the signs would get the person to leave since that’s what they had apparently come for. And they almost said something, but were stopped by a new person entering the boulder as well.

“Hey Zed, do you need help with- Oh. That’s Evil X.”

Chapter Text

Zedaph

The server went on a manhunt again. When Grian went to message Xisuma, Zedaph focused on him. And for that split second, neither of them had their attention on Evil Xisuma. They both paused at the sound of chests opening, and looked back just in time to see Evil X grabbing items from the chests before breaking through the walls of the Aboulder to start running. 

Xisuma met up with the pair as they followed Evil X into the Nether, horrified somewhat as he jumped into the ocean of lava in the main area of the Nether. Xisuma gave himself some fire resistance to follow behind, but it was still hard to see through the lava, and there was enough hesitation that he couldn’t find Evil X again.

Most of the portals were being watched to see if Evil X came back, but there were also a small group of Hermits sticking to the Nether to try and catch him there. One of those Hermits was Zedaph, though only temporarily. He watched the ocean for a while before finally deciding to return to his starter base to potentially look for clues, surprised that he found more than just a clue as Evil X had already returned and was rooting through the chests again.

“I guess you had your own portal out, huh?” Zedaph asked, surprising Evil X and making Zed quickly rush to reassure him. “Hey don’t worry! I’m not going to rat you out to the other Hermits or anything! Not unless you try anything evil. If you want, I can help you move to someplace not as cramped. Like dig out a portion of my base! Since you seemed to like this one so much.”

Evil X stared Zedaph down, trying to see if he was lying or had some ulterior motive, but just looking at Zedaph’s expressions didn’t seem to tell him much, so he asked a question. “Why would you want to help me?”

“Oh well you’re Worm Man’s old sidekick! And a friend of Worm Man is a friend of mine! Sure, I haven’t heard from him in ages, but that’s perfectly fine. Here, let’s get you over to my base sooner rather than later. Who knows what Hermits might come stumbling over to look for you. Or clues too, since that’s why I was here.”

Zedaph held out his hand, holding it there until Evil X slowly and reluctantly held it. A moment later he was dragging Evil X behind him, rushing to get back to his main base. They couldn’t really go through the Nether right now, and they had to dodge some Hermits in the Overworld at various portals. But all things considered, Zedaph’s base was relatively close to the starter village and the pair quickly reached the carved out mountain.

“Alright! My main bed is in the open, but I’ve got the Death Bed down the hall over here which you could use instead, though it could be a little bit dangerous. They’ll both be temporary until we can set up a place for you, but that shouldn’t take too long! Is there anything you want inside for decoration?”

“What do you mean?” Evil X asked, watching as Zedaph held his hands up to make a frame with his fingers, looking around the base to see what a good place for Evil X’s room would be.

“Well all you really had in the Aboulder was a bed, some chests and a furnace crafting table pair, right? I think you should have something that’s more you! I could just design it similar to the rest of the base, but maybe I could use blackstone instead of deepslate to give you more of that Nether feel.”

“I… That sounds fine.” Evil X replied after some hesitation.

“Perfect! Now, you probably don’t want to be visible, so we can plop you down at the bottom. The hall with my Death Bed and cactus farm has plenty of extra space, so I’m sure we can build a room for you there! C’mon how about you get a nice look!”

Dragging Evil X along again, Zedaph took him to the area he was talking about, pointing out the specific section and where they could mine up and everything. He pointed out how they would need to be a little bit careful since the hall ended by going outside, but as long as Evil X was careful, no one would notice him, and they could always decorate the end and close it up or obscure it or something.

“That sounds fine… I’m sorry, I don’t know your name.” Evil X admitted, surprising Zedaph a little.

“The name’s Zedaph! Zed for short if you prefer! I’m surprised Worm Man never mentioned me to you. But maybe it’s one of those things where he’s so sure he already told you and just never remembered that he hadn’t.”

“Right. Er, and who’s Worm Man?” Well, that was certainly more surprising than not knowing Zedaph’s name.

⁜※⁜※⁜※⁜※⁜

Evil Xisuma

“How do you not know who Worm Man is?!” Zedaph asked, loud enough to be considered shouting, which Evil X did not like. They immediately backed up, forgetting they were standing in a hallway and thus almost immediately found their back against a literal wall.

Zedaph noticed a moment later and quieted down thankfully, asking another question of them. “Did you lose your memory in the crash? Because that sounds like amnesia.”

“I… guess so?” Evil X answered, though unsure if they had. They were pretty sure they had just as much memory as they had before crashing, but how would they remember if they did or not if some of their memories were missing. “Things felt fuzzy before crashing too. I think.”

“Oh! That could be part of why you crashed. I thought it was a little odd you hijacked a ship and then couldn’t just hack it to make it do what you wanted. This is probably something one of the others would know more about.”

Evil Xisuma could feel panic welling up in them again. “You’re not going to tell them, right? You said you weren’t going to.”

“Right, I did say that. That makes things quite a pickle. I might just have to try faking my own amnesia to get answers! But then Xisuma might think you caused it!”

Evil X tilted their head in confusion. “Why would I think I caused it? You just said you would pretend.”

“No, I mean Xisuma.”

“But that’s me?” Evil X asked, though sounded about as sure as they felt now, which was ‘not very’. “You called me Evil Xisuma. So Xisuma would be for short? Like Zed for Zedaph?”

They felt bad as they saw Zedaph frown. They didn’t like seeing him frown. It made them feel bad for causing such a thing. “You don’t even remember your name or Xisuma? Well that is a lot to be missing! Xisuma’s the admin here and helps make sure everything is perfectly safe on Hermitcraft. You don’t seem to like him and are his evil clone or something, which is why you’re Evil Xisuma. And you’ve wanted to destroy Hermitcraft a number of times.”

“I have? Why?” Evil X asked, unsure why they would ever think that way. Maybe if they had their memories, it would make sense, but it didn’t right now. But maybe that’s why they were scared of other people. Maybe a memory they couldn’t remember was trying to bleed through and tell them that they were supposed to be evil, and people don’t like evil, so people don’t like you.

It wasn’t a pleasant thought, and Evil X felt it had to come from their missing memories, because it sounded like the person they weren’t was trying to tell it to them, convince them of it. Convince them of… of… Anything else Evil X was thinking got interrupted as overwhelming feelings of ‘bad, bad, danger, run, bad, hide, crash crash crash, bad bad bad bad bad!’ filled their mind instead. They barely registered as they started to hyperventilate, and then wondered why everything suddenly seemed to go sideways as Zed rushed towards them. And then there wasn’t anything.

Chapter Text

Zedaph

Zedaph felt bad as he went against his promise and contacted Xisuma. He was still trying to keep things discreet, to make sure Evil X would be safe in case there was a communication issue between him and the admin. Zedaph had quickly cobbled together the beginnings of a room for Evil X so he had somewhere to rest and somewhere to keep his items. It was pretty bland, but it was new and thankfully a larger area than the old Aboulder, so that would hopefully be appreciated. And then Zedaph also left some signs as a note to give an excuse for his absence, that being he was out collecting Nether blocks.

It wasn’t completely a lie, since Zed did go to the Nether. Specifically back to the lava ocean where Evil X had last been seen by everyone else. A place that was reasonable to be when he told Xisuma he had found Evil X and told the admin to come there instead of some other place.

When Xisuma did appear, he obviously asked where Evil X was and why he wasn’t right there, which made Zedaph need to quickly explain some form of the truth so Xisuma wouldn’t potentially get upset at being lied to. “Well he’s not here, here, but I did find him! I just let him hide again. I promise I didn’t just shove him in a nearby wall so he can run off again, and he should be staying right where I left him!”

“Is that because he said he would? Because even if you trapped him, he could still try and hack-”

“I don’t think he can.” Zedaph cut Xisuma off, piquing the admin’s interest and he gestured for Zedaph to continue. “I think he has amnesia. He didn’t know who I was, didn’t know Worm Man, he didn’t even remember you or even himself! He got genuinely confused when I said I might try to talk to you about him because then he wondered why I would talk to him about him since you both have Xisuma in your name. He’s also really jumpy and seemed almost horrified when I suggested that he ever wanted to destroy Hermitcraft. He even asked me why he would do that, and then I was trying to come up with potential reasons as to why but he collapsed while I was talking and so that’s also part of why I don’t think he’s going to go anywhere.”

“How much does he remember?”

“I don’t know. Apparently enough to survive as long as he did, so like, he’s got general knowledge, but anything about himself seems to be gone. But I promise he’s not going to do anything bad. I think if he was going to, it would have happened already.”

“Alright. I’ll tell the other Hermits so they won’t keep trying to hunt him down and are aware of the situation. But Zedaph?”

“Yeah?”

“You still need to be careful with him. I’m sorry, but him not doing anything bad is not a promise you can keep.”

Zedaph wanted to disagree, but nodded anyway to make Xisuma happy. As the admin flew off to talk with the other Hermits, Zedaph sighed before actually collecting plenty of Nether blocks of all types, returning to his base with what he thought was a very nice variety.

As he dropped off the materials, Zed found that Evil X was still asleep, so he placed the shulker boxes down in the room and left signs explaining that he was free to start building with them. He also followed it up by changing the signs out to explain his new destination, which was going to be at Decked Out 2. Zed then was only a few steps out of the room before he went back to redescribe where he was going, remembering that Evil X didn’t know about Tango’s whole project.

On the way to the dungeon under the Frost Citadel, Zedaph also messaged Impulse to meet up with him and Tango at Tango’s place, not giving a reason further than needing to talk with the two of them. Tango got a similar message, other than that Zed was coming to him. He didn’t give a response, but that was normal since he usually got pretty into working on the new Decked Out and would miss messages.

Zedaph easily arrived before Impulse, due to being on the way when Impulse was told in the first place, as well as just living closer than Impulse did. After a bit of wandering around and calling for Tango, Zed finally found him and dragged him upstairs. The only explanation he gave to Tango was to check his messages, leaving Tango to ask just what they were going to talk about. A question echoed by Impulse when he finally arrived.

“Okay Zed, why do we need to talk? I don’t think I did anything but-”

“No no, not that kind of talk!” Zedaph huffed. “Though it is sort of serious, it’s just something I want to talk about in person and not just messaging you two.”

“Is this about Evil Xisuma?” Tango asked. In reading through his messages, he also saw the ones from Grian having found Evil X at Zedaph’s starter base, the hunt for him in the Nether, and then Xisuma’s vague message about Evil X being found and theoretically not being a danger. “Grian mentioned that technically you found him first from going into your old base, did he do something to you?”

“No! He did not do anything to me!” Zedaph defended, before pausing and adding a clarification. “Well at least, not anything on purpose and he doesn’t really know that he did anything at all.”

“What exactly do you mean?” Impulse asked, getting more concerned as Zedaph started to look more anxious. He nearly asked again, but was stopped as Zedaph finally exclaimed a slightly unconnected thing.

“I was actually Worm Man!”

Both Impulse and Tango stared at Zedaph for a few moments before they nodded like it was something they already knew, which it seemed they did. “Yeah it was… kinda obvious to most people.”

Zedaph scoffed. “No it was not! I did everything I could to make sure that no one could tell we were actually one person.”

“Zed, you asked everyone on Moonlight to be your potential sidekick except yourself.”

“Because I was Worm Man’s personal assistant and already said I didn’t want to be! Which was supposed to be a cover for my identity.” Zedaph tried defending himself.

“When ‘he’ showed up on Hermitcraft, you pretended you had no idea who he was.”

“It had been a few years!”

“Not to mention the bad editing on your interview with him.”

“Hey! I was letting Evil Xisuma help with that because there hadn’t been much crime and he needed something to do. And I didn’t want to make him sad by saying his editing skills were… not the greatest.” Zedaph carefully added the last part, catching himself from saying that they were just bad.

“Look Zed, it was just as obvious as me being Dr. Tang-No.” Tango admitted, getting a surprised look from Zedaph. “...You knew, right?”

“Uh, yeah, totally, very obvious. A lot more obvious than me being Worm Man. I have no idea why you would compare those two situations.”

Tango rolled his eyes as Impulse managed a chuckle before speaking up with a question. “So, I’m guessing you’re bringing this up because with him being your sidekick when you were Worm Man, you think of him as a friend and are worried about him?”

Zedaph hesitated a bit, thinking things over before answering. “I mean yeah. Yup. He’s my friend! And… was one of the few people, okay well, only person I directly told my identity to. Sure, he sort of imprisoned me for a time before he turned good for a while, but he was good the whole time! Letting me keep my identity hidden by being allowed to leave as Zedaph as long as I spent one hour a day in the prison.”

“I… guess that’s good?” Tango said, unsure on whether it was or not.

“But… something’s happened to him. And I don’t mean like he’s suddenly evil again like you two thought he was last season!”

“He mind controlled Xisuma-”

“Up bup bup! I never saw any of the things you guys talked about. And I know I was a little more isolated, but not that much!” Then Zedaph paused, frowning before continuing his previous thought. “He’s got amnesia. Or if he doesn’t it’s something really really similar. He didn’t remember me, he also didn’t remember Xisuma. I don’t think he even remembers ever being evil.”

“Are you sure he’s not faking?” Impulse asked, and Zedaph quickly defended, saying just how sure he was, which was very. “Okay, well, where is he right now.”

“Currently at my base. He passed out earlier- Which is something else that makes me believe him -and last I checked he was still sleeping. I’m just a little concerned about him possibly getting found by Xisuma, because he says it’s fine, but I’m not sure what could happen if they actually interact. So I’m hoping maybe I could also make a room for him in the Frost Citadel?”

Zedaph looked at Tango with pleading eyes as Impulse also looked toward him wondering how Tango would respond. After being stuck under the gaze of Zedaph’s eyes for long enough that Tango was worried Zed was going to hurt himself, Tango relented, and even took Zedaph to a place it could go. Zedaph thanked Tango numerous times, even giving a hug that nearly suffocated him.

Just as Zedaph was about to leave, Impulse stopped him, getting both his and Tango’s attention. “Zed. Can we just discuss the part about Evil Xisuma a little more?”

“Weren’t we doing that? Making sure he had a base and all?”

“Yes, we were. But I was talking about your reaction to saying how he didn’t remember you.” Zedaph winced at Impulse bringing it up again, which he quickly pointed out. “Look, him not remembering you from having amnesia is one thing, but you’re taking it a lot harder than it sounds like you would. If he just didn’t recognize you, why this reaction?”

“Hey yeah, Impulse is right.” Tango agreed now that it was pointed out. “Did he say something else? Maybe called you or maybe even Worm Man something, not knowing it was you?”

“No! Of course not! I swear, all he said was that he didn’t remember my name or who I was, and that he didn’t remember Worm Man either.”

There was quiet as Tango and Impulse tried to think over just what it could be before Tango had an idea. “Is it that you’re less upset he doesn’t remember you, and maybe more upset that he doesn’t remember… things involving you? Like interactions you guys had?”

Zedaph looked down at the ground, Tango pretty much nailing it on the head. There of course was their interaction with filming the fake interview which Zedaph had already mentioned. Then there was also when Zedaph revealed his identity to Evil X right after the other had reassured him by taking off his own mask: his helmet. There was the time the pair of them hijacked a recap episode to help share the word of fighting villainy, though he supposed hijacking a video wasn’t a good example to show. After Evil Xisuma had become good for real and came to rescue Worm Man, Zedaph couldn’t help but poke some fun at how he knew Evil X had some good in him the whole time, which Evil X refuted, though he never refuted when Worm Man said that Evil X thought he was handsome. And then there was the Worm Man shop, with its own section for Evil X that he had filled with some of his own creations, like some constantly swapped out freshly baked cookies. Not to mention the fact that Evil X had been the one to sew the Worm Man t-shirt they were giving away in the shop.

“Zedaph?” Zedaph looked back up at Tango’s voice, eyes flicking over to Impulse briefly as the other two seemed to be looking between each other and Zed, looking a little worried. “Were you and he… not just friends?”

“Well I guess he could be considered a best friend! And that’s certainly not just a friend!”

“I think Tango meant something else.” Impulse spoke up, and Zedaph was pretty sure where this was going next. “Did you, or I guess do you, have a crush on him?”

The blush that erupted from Zedaph’s face ended up being answer enough for the pair.

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Evil Xisuma

Waking up with a headache was not something Evil X was happy about. Nor were they happy about the unfamiliar place they awoke in, though mainly due to the unfamiliar part. They frowned at first at the signs put up, remembering what the last ones had caused, but at the very least these ones seemed to specifically be for them.

They opened up the shulker boxes to look at the materials inside, pulling out most of the netherrack to try and start cooking it into bricks, only to realize they didn’t have the means to cook the stuff, at least not immediately. They quickly mined up a little more of the walls to get a furnace, and thankfully one of the shulker boxes had a bucket of lava, which they dumped into the furnace along with a stack of netherrack. 

As it cooked, Evil X took stock of the rest of the resources before starting to build up the room. The walls were made mostly with blackstone and crimson wood, while the floor was slowly built up with both types of nether brick, and even some deepslate tiles to pair with the blackstone. Evil X left a few places for lava to go once they had more, mainly hoping to add it into the walls as extra decor.

Most of the warped wood was used for chests, which lined one wall. Evil X decided to use some of the warped wood for accents on that wall, though mainly just the stems since they still had some reds. The opposing wall was left rather bland, just to make things simpler if they needed to make the room bigger. There of course was the missing wall that opened up to the hallway of the base they were living in, but then the final one had the most work done. It was a bit fancier, the pattern above his bed making it look sort of like a throne. It really was just a moment of wanting to indulge just a little. Mainly since while Zedaph was saying they could stay there, Evil X still had a little part of them doubting if they really could. Even if they were allowed, what if someone else showed up and they had to leave.

After putting the remaining materials back in the shulker boxes, Evil X collapsed onto their bed. Alright technically it was three in one to make a wider and longer bed, but again, indulgences. At the very least it gave them a very soft place to be, not cramped with how small a single one felt. And if they really wanted to, other people could fit on there too.

Evil X laid there for a few minutes just staring at the ceiling. They hadn’t decorated that yet, but didn’t really have the energy for it. Still, they could try planning it. With a sigh, Evil X stood up again and then made their way back to the shulker boxes to root through them. They had gotten about halfway into planning when they opened a shulker box they had missed before. While it had a few more Nether block, there were also some items that weren’t really for building, at least not normally.

Evil X pulled out the stacks of flowers as well as the knitting needles and yarn. Even without their memories, Evil X could tell they were placed in there for them, at least based on who they had been. They put the flowers back inside the box before sitting back down on their bed with the needles and yarn. Though they had trouble at the start, it seemed muscle memory wasn’t included in their missing memory. They just sat there for a while, making a simple scarf, even when Zedaph returned. And even when he stood in the doorway, Evil X didn’t notice until a purposeful cough caught their attention.

“What? Oh, you’re back.” Evil X said, nearly shouting the question after jumping from the cough.

“Sorry if I startled you. Whatcha making?”

“A scarf I suppose.” Evil X held up the piece they were working on.

“That looks nice. Are you going to dye it later at all?” Zedaph asked, pointing out the fact that it was currently just white. “I just kinda got a bunch of string from some piglins trades and a couple of striders, then bundled it up in a ball of sort of yarn. But I didn’t put them in an actual bundle. I could try and get one for you if you want.”

“A what?”

“Oh, you don’t know what bundles are?” Zed asked, and Evil X shook their head. “Let me go grab mine then!”

They watched as Zedaph rushed off, returning not too long later with a bundle. He showed off how exactly it was used for storage, and what items weren’t really the best to put inside. Evil X was happy to see that it could hold more than just one makeshift ball of yarn, and immediately asked if they could have a bundle of their own. Zedaph of course said yes, then grabbed the materials for them to craft it, having plenty of rabbit hide from trying to get a phantom membrane from his cat.

Evil X quickly put the new bundle together, proudly showing it off to Zedaph before stuffing a ball of sort of yarn inside. They left the one they were using out, then looked up at Zedaph. “I saw the sheep you had, uh, hanging in the middle of your base.”

“It’s dangling.”

“Okay, dangling. Do you have any normal sheep?”

“Oh yeah! I’ve got a pen of them on top of my base! Come on!” Zedaph started to drag Evil X along, but before they reached the end of the hall, Evil X dug their heels in, stopping them just before the exit. “Something wrong?”

“It looks dark out. I didn’t realize how late it was.”

“Oh that’s okay. My base is pretty safe from mobs. Plus, you were just sleeping, so I doubt you’re feeling tired already.”

“What about you?”

“Oh I’ve spent a few late nights here and there, what’s a little night time shearing?”

Evil X still hesitated before finally relenting, letting themself get dragged along by Zedaph to the top of his base to where he kept his sheep. Zed realized a moment later that he had forgotten shears and raced back down to find some, leaving Evil Xisuma alone with the sheep, telling them to make friends with the mobs.

They tensed up the moment they were alone. Well, other than the sheep, which were helpful as they stared the things down. But the sheep weren’t as interested in them no matter how much effort Evil X put into staring at them intensely. If anything the mobs were turning away from them. They tried not to take it the wrong way and attempted to turn their gaze elsewhere, scanning what they could of Zed’s base instead. 

The top of the base was pretty bland, just being fenced in animals, a bunch of beacons, and a couple chests. There was more on the horizon, but Evil X only took a glance before looking towards the ground at their feet. It was very nice… grass. So very… grassy and interesting and- no, they looked back up to stare at the sheep. Whether the dumb animals looked back or not didn’t matter. It was plenty better than just staring at stupid grass.

Finally Zedaph returned with a pair of shears, helping Evil Xisuma climb into the pen to shear the sheep they wanted wool from. They chose a few before stumbling back out, swearing that one of the sheep tried to trip them on purpose. And also just swearing in general. Zed did his best to calm Evil X down, but they just grumbled and just went back down to the lower ring and into their room to start working on turning the wool into proper yarn.

Zedaph popped in briefly to say goodnight before he headed off to bed, Evil X giving a halfhearted wave in return. While they were fine to have Zed around, they did want some time alone again. It made it easier to work with the yarn, especially since they didn’t exactly have all the necessary tools for spinning. But at the same time, just being able to sit there doing a repetitive task felt therapeutic in the same way knitting itself did. So when the yarn was finally made, Evil X went back to knitting. And by morning a scarf was placed on top of a chest next to the Death Bed where Zed was sleeping.

Chapter Text

Zedaph

When Zedaph woke up, he almost missed the gift set out for him. Mainly because he still felt like sleeping and was only awake because he needed to be. Thankfully, the still bright white stood out enough to catch his eye, causing him to pick it up. He looked it over, wondering how Evil Xisuma had managed to misplace it all the way over there. But just as he went to walk towards his guest and return it, Zed realized how it was probably put there purposely. 

He smiled a little before putting it in his inventory. He would have worn it, but things were warming up on the Overworld and he already naturally grew enough wool of his own to not need it for the cooler days. He would probably need it later though. He didn’t know exactly where Evil X would want to set up in the citadel and there were a few places Zed might need the extra warmth.

But that led into the plan for today. Zedaph knew he couldn’t completely avoid Xisuma regarding the current situation. After his reaction to Zedaph and Grian finding him along with his amnesia, Zed wasn’t sure Evil X would be too pleased with suddenly needing to face Xisuma. And while Xisuma knew the basics of Evil X’s situation, Zed had heard that the interactions between the two last season had not been great. 

On the off chance that things would go horribly wrong, Zedaph wanted Evil X to have other places to stay. And if he was busy working on another room with Tango, then Zedaph could invite Xisuma over to his own base and talk with Evil X not around. Plus on the off chance Xisuma somehow wanted to hurt Evil X, he would be shown that he wasn’t staying in Zed’s base.

Zedaph went towards Evil X’s room, knocking on the wall outside before looking inside. He looked in just as Evil Xisuma rolled over in bed to look towards the entrance, asking what Zed wanted with a slight grumble. He felt a little bad about waking Evil X so early since they had obviously stayed up a bit later, but the sooner Zedaph could meet with Xisuma, the better.

“I wanted to see if you were awake, mainly. But that’s because I’d like you to come with me to Tango’s base.” After a look of confusion from Evil X, Zedaph quickly tacked on an explanation. “Oh! He’s one of my friends, not dangerous. That’s where I had disappeared to when you were sleeping yesterday. I asked him if he could help you out a little and he said yes.”

Evil Xisuma didn’t look convinced. “Help me how? Did he know me well?”

“No, not really. I know you just made this room for yourself, but-”

“You’re kicking me out already?!” Evil X asked indignantly. “Should we even bother sending me somewhere else then? I’ll probably just get kicked out of there too.”

“What? No! You are not being kicked out!” Zedaph clarified, though it didn’t look like he was being believed. “I just want you to have another place to be if you don’t feel safe around here.” He then thought for a moment before also adding on, “I know you and Worm Man made a secret base with the worm cave, so I thought it might be like that! A home away from home.”

Zedaph tried to not look suspicious. He had made the Worm Cave before, but he had made it on his own and Evil X hadn’t gone there much. Plus it felt a little off talking about Worm Man in the third person in front of Evil X. But thankfully after a moment, he seemed to believe Zed. “Fine, we’ll do whatever, just as long as I’m back here by night, got it?”

“Oh yeah of course!” Zedaph agreed. “And that’ll be easier the sooner we get over there!”

The two of them made their way over to Tango’s base, only pausing when Evil X saw the building they were headed to and staring at it. Zedaph was confused by the reaction before realizing that Evil X probably hadn’t gone far enough to see anything quite to that scale, and obviously didn’t remember seeing anything that big. Especially since Zed knew his base wasn’t really a mega base.

Despite having talked to Tango just the day before about it, he wasn’t responding to messages again. Zedaph waited in the entrance of Decked Out for a few minutes before asking Evil X to stay put as he looked for Tango. After a nod, Zed flew down into the game to look for the other Hermit, eventually finding him working on some of the redstone. “Tango, please tell me you slept recently.”

Tango jumped at the sudden voice before sighing when he realized it was Zedaph. “Uh, I mean I didn’t last night, but I think it’s been recently enough that I wouldn’t spawn phantoms.”

“Well I’ll trust you on that. Now come on, I’m here with Evil Xisuma and need you to show him where he can build.”

“There’s plenty of space up there. If there’s space he can build.” And then Tango started to turn back towards his redstone. 

Zedaph quickly grabbed Tango’s shoulder and turned him back around. “No, you are going to go with him. I need to meet with Xisuma about Evil X. I don’t want him nearby in case those two being together causes a fight or something.”

It took a few moments, but Tango agreed and followed behind Zedaph. Once they returned, Zed took Evil X aside to explain where he was going to disappear to. “Alright, I need to meet with another Hermit. I’ve asked Tango to watch after you while I’m gone and help you build.”

“I don’t need help.” Evil X grumbled, giving a quick glare over towards where Tango was standing, out of hearing range, but thankfully not out of sight.

“I know, but he wouldn’t stick around if I said something else. He’s been working so much on Decked Out that I’m sure he needs a little break. If he has to be around you and not his redstone, he might get that break whether he knows it or not.”

“Huh. That’s… rather smart.” Evil X conceded. “I’ll try to keep conversation with him to keep him from thinking about it too.”

“Perfect! If you need anything just message me! Here’s the shulker boxes! Bye!” And as soon as all of the boxes were out of his inventory, Zedaph waved goodbye to Tango and then left to get back to his own base. He had already asked for Xisuma to meet him there, so once he did arrive, the admin was already there.

“Hello Zedaph.”

“Hi X!” Zedaph greeted as he landed, brushing himself off to get the wrinkles out of his clothes. “Sorry for the delay, just making sure Evil X would be busy with something for the next however long.”

“Busy with what exactly?”

“Building a place for him to stay. My Aboulder is very nice but also fairly small. Plus after Grian and I popped in there unexpectedly, he wanted something a little less easy to stumble upon.”

Xisuma nodded before speaking again. “How has he been acting since you found him?”

“Definitely not evil.” Zedaph answered before thinking a bit more. “For the most part he’s been jumpy and of course a little confused. He does seem to remember how to knit, he even made me this!” And Zed took out the scarf that had been left by his bed, handing it to Xisuma for him to look over.”

“I see. And have you worn this at all? And is this the only gift he’s given you? And what exactly did he make this with?”

“I haven’t worn it, no,” Zedaph started to give his answers. “This is the only thing he’s given me, and he made it with the yarn and needles I gave him in the first place. Oh, and the yarn was made from strider hair, but we did get some wool for him to turn into more yarn from my sheep!”

“I see…” Xisuma said with a slight nod. He then looked to the side and made some gestures with his hands, something Zedaph recognized as his movements from reviewing his admin stuff. That or he was looking at his messages, which Zed was pretty sure got projected to him on his helmet screen. And perhaps that’s where the admin panels appeared too. It was probably something Zedaph could ask about some other time. “Last time we spoke, you said Evil X had passed out. Did you learn what the cause was?”

“No, not really.” Zedaph admitted. “I didn’t really think to ask. At the very least he hasn’t passed out again that I know of, but I wouldn’t have known because I was asleep and so any passing out from him would have been the normal kind from sleeping.”

“You were with him that whole time?”

“Well he stayed in my base for the night as a temporary situation.” Zedaph half lied. It was temporary on some level, but more along the lines of a few weeks or months rather than just a day or two.

“And what about his memory situation? You mentioned him remembering how to knit.”

“I think that could have been muscle memory. He still hasn’t shown signs or remembering anyone I’ve mentioned. Of course it’s hardly been a full day since we first found him and-”

Zedaph was cut off as Xisuma held up a hand. A few seconds before, Zedaph had felt the buzz of his communicator from a message in the world chat, so he supposed the message was one for Xisuma, or at least one that caught his attention. Another buzz made Zed curious and he pulled out, reading the pair of new messages as well as when new ones started coming in.

• EvilXisuma: trst
• EvilXisuma: test
• EvilXisuma: That didn’t seem to wait it’s writing what I say how do I make it stop delete that didn’t work clear delete go away stop turn off I don’t know it’s gone
• ImpulseSV: someone turned on speech to text
• EvilXisuma: It didn’t reappear oh and it’s still going close stop ex out yes I know that I don’t know how to turn it off someone 
• GoodtimewithScar: this is interesting.
• GoodtimewithScar: if it’s still not working, try send again
• EvilXisuma: A message back oh great and that sent midway well if I did I don’t remember it and that’s something I wouldn’t remember either idiot take it off what a brilliant idea except the last time I tried I almost died because I can’t breathe without it we both wear helmets is there anything else that’s wait hang on
• EvilXisuma: Good time what do I try
• GoodtimewithScar: oh I just wanted to see what more you were saying
• Mumbo: it seems like he’s talking with someone at least
• EvilXisuma: No it is not funny I want it to stop and it is not stopping and it’s also making it hard to see and what what are they talking about I’m not I don’t like I am calm fuck make this fucking thing go away 

“Hey Xisuma, assuming you two have the same helmet, can you tell him how you would turn it off?”

“Oh, right, sure.” Xisuma said, caught off guard as he seemed to have been deep in thought from the messages. It made some sense to Zedaph, this essentially being Xisuma’s first interaction with Evil X since he had arrived. A few moments later, a message from Xisuma popped up in chat, followed by one of thanks from Evil X. “He… really doesn’t remember.”

“That’s what I was saying. Also give me a second to message him privately.” And Zedaph started a private message, but to Tango instead. If Evil X was struggling so much to send regular messages, then trying to do private messages was probably a little much for now. 

Tango replied a few moments later. Apparently the message issue had overwhelmed Evil X, and Tango hadn’t helped by saying it was a little funny, which managed to lead into a panic attack. He was calming down now, so there was no need for Zed to rush over, but hopefully he wouldn’t be taking too long with Xisuma.

“Well?”

“Uh, he had a panic attack. Got overwhelmed by everything. He’s with another Hermit though, so they’re helping him out.”

“I see. Well, I suppose this is proof enough of his situation. He’s forgotten how to use his helmet, not to mention apparently having forgotten its main purpose for surviving outside of the End or similar atmospheres.”

“So, since you believe he has amnesia, is there anything else you need?” Zedaph asked, wanting to quickly get back to Tango’s base.

“Yes, there’s still plenty to cover due to the full situation.”

Zedaph sighed but nodded. Of course he wasn’t getting out of it that easily. Hopefully it wouldn’t take forever.

⁜※⁜※⁜※⁜※⁜

Evil Xisuma

“I brought a bottle of water, but I’m not sure if you can actually drink it with your helmet. Since most foods are solid and potions don’t need to be consumed and- okay that works.”

Evil X swiped the bottle from Tango’s hand and pressed it to the mouthpiece at the front of their helmet. They quickly gulped down about half before pausing to breathe, then just sipped on it the rest of the way.

“How are you feeling?” Tango asked, getting flipped off in response. “Okay I probably deserve that. Zed started messaging me to check on you. He figured you were stressed enough with the world chat and didn’t want to try and get to private chats.”

“And he would be right.” Evil X agreed before taking another sip. “Is that all?”

“He says he’s going to take longer than he expected, but will still be back before nightfall.”

“Good.” Evil X said with a curt nod before standing up. “I suppose we should go back to building.”

“We don’t have to, you can take a break and make sure you don’t wear yourself out.” They glared at Tango after his suggestion. “Or maybe not?”

“Zedaph mentioned something along the lines of you not listening to that advice of yours.”

Tango at least looked a little guilty when that was thrown in his face. An expression that seemed to accentuate the bags forming under his eyes. “Okay do as I say, not as I do or whatever. Big deal.”

“Just take breaks, asshole. Something like having to help me out instead of whatever you’ve been doing. Doesn’t have to be resting or whatever.”

“That sounds like it’s coming from experience.” Tango said, trying to not let suspicion show in his voice.

“Look, before this most recent time at Zedaph’s, I only passed out once in the Nether which got me killed, so I’ve been trying to take breaks of some sort so that doesn’t happen, and it hasn’t. …I think.”

“You think ?”

“Time stuck in that rock really blurs together. And when exhaustion starts to kick in it’s harder to parse out. So maybe I have passed out other times.”

“That’s not a great thing to say.” Tango pointed out. “Have you been eating enough? If you can’t get solids through your mask, I can get soup from Impulse, or maybe Pearl or Gem.”

“I’ve been eating plenty, thank you very much.” 

“Okay, well what about staying hydrated? Especially if you’re in the Nether.”

“The Nether is the same as the Overworld to me, so yes to both of those.”

Tango shrugged a little. “I wasn’t sure if your suit helped with that or not. Your talk of rest makes me assume you’re managing to sleep for long enough?”

“If long enough is none, then yes.”

“What.” Tango deadpanned, staring Evil X down. “What do you mean no sleep?”

“Sleep is a trap I won’t fall for. As long as I rest properly outside of it, I won’t need to actually sleep.”

“Except apparently you’ve been passing out randomly?!”

“Only twice.”

“That you know of! Hang on, Zed needs to know about this.”

“No he does not!” Evil X shouted, but when Tango still tried anyway, his comm was smacked out of his hand and crushed by Evil X’s foot. “He doesn’t need to know about it! I don’t even know why I told you! He’s got enough on his plate because of me and I don’t need him realizing I’m even more of a problem because he’ll just… get rid of me, and then I’ll lose the one thing that I’ve found since I got here that doesn’t feel bad!”

Neither of the two spoke for a while, Tango not sure what to say in reply, and Evil X catching their breath after not taking one after they started shouting. Slowly, Tango started to bend down towards his comm, which earned some glaring from Evil X, but they were reassured that Tango was not going to tell Zedaph anything they didn’t want to share with him. Tango just needed to check that it wasn’t completely broken since if the two of them stopped communicating with Zed completely, he would probably worry.

Thankfully most of the damage was just visual from cracks, and Evil X’s boot didn’t come down with enough force to really break the thing. Which made sense, they were built to withstand a lot, like creeper explosions, long falls, underwater travels, and even falling into the void. He let Evil X watch as he typed out a message to Zedaph that replied to one that he had sent. Tango then sent another to claim the two might not be able to message for a few moments, going to focus on building.

Evil X started to move towards the boxes of building materials before they were stopped. “Hold on, can we maybe talk about your, I guess it's sleep aversion? That doesn’t sound good. I don’t need to tell Zedaph, but you should talk about it at least.”

“Or what?”

“Or I can go back to working on Decked Out.” Tango gestured in the general direction of the game. “I mean, I’m sure I’ve rested enough at this point.”

“Fine, whatever. But if you tell him anything-”

“No I get it, there’s some things you discuss with people who aren’t as close to you as others or then it gets too personal.”

“I suppose that is an… accurate description.” Evil X replied after some hesitation. “But are you absolutely sure?”

“If I say anything, it’ll be the cliffnotes version of anything that seems insanely important, but no specifics.”

“Good enough.” They relented before thinking things over on how to actually say what they wanted. “Since arriving here, a lot of… interactions I’ve had have been guided by my gut, so to speak. I can’t remember anything, at least not the important things, so it’s just feelings. People are mostly ‘bad’, but Zedaph is ‘safe’. I know lava should be harmful but it felt ‘swim’.”

“It felt swim?” Tango asked, wondering how that was a feeling.

“That’s the best way to explain it succinctly.” Evil X grumbled. “Off the top of your head, how many multiword emotions can you name.”

Tango thought about it for a moment before conceding.

“Anyway, the other Xisuma is ‘conflicting’, night is ‘crash’ and sleep is ‘prison’.” Evil X continued his explanation.

“That’s… not great. And you of course don’t know why that is.”

“No. I was never in a coma, was I?”

“I… don’t think so? I’m surprised you remember that’s a thing. You’d have to ask around, but the only one I know who’s had that happen is Wels.” Tango paused when Evil X reacted poorly. “You okay?”

“I am not asking whoever that is.”

“Why? Bad feeling or something?”

“Yes. It’s sort of ‘run’ or ‘sick’ or something.”

“Those are… pretty different feelings.” Tango said after a moment of hesitation on how to describe the discrepancy between the two words. “Wait… what about Jevin. Or maybe Beef? Like VintageBeef?”

Evil X practically puffed up like an angry cat at the mention of the other people connected to the Evil Empire. Something Tango couldn’t tell if it was good or bad when Evil X said the other names gave them the same ‘feelings’. “But Xisuma doesn’t cause that, maybe since it’s your name too?”

“I don’t know, maybe? You act like I know what the fuck any of this is about.”

“Okay, that’s fair.” Tango relented. “Well, whatever word association game you’ve got going on, it seems like it could be helpful in the long run. So probably mention it to Zedaph later.” He then took a moment to think things over and ask one more question about it. “What about me?”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m curious. What do you get from me and my name?”

Evil X hesitated a moment, thinking it over to try and come up with the best word that fit. “‘Rival’. I think. I’ll admit actually interacting with you has lessened it.”

That piqued Tango’s interest. “Really? ‘Rival’? I’d expect that for Xisuma, maybe even Grian with how much he gets blamed for causing wars, but me?” He took a moment before continuing with a new idea. “What about Impulse?”

“What, do you want to know how I feel about everyone?!”

“No, I just want to know him and maybe one other name. Something Zed said yesterday is sticking with me.”

“Fine, ‘annoyance’. Happy? Because you’re certainly getting there yourself.” They huffed at Tango.

“Happy? Well I suppose-”

“You know exactly what I mean!”

“I know, I know.” Tango tried to calm Evil X down. “Then I want to ask for just one last name and that’s all. Doctor Tangno.”

“…Adding doctor to the start of your name doesn’t change a thing, asshole.”

“Fair enough.” Tango conceded. He figured at this point that if Evil Xisuma had thought of the word, they might have used nemesis instead of rival. Technically he could have asked more to be absolutely sure, but it seemed like more questions wouldn’t be appreciated.

As the pair returned to building in silence, Evil X thought things over more. They had already been asked about a few people, and now found themself wondering about what their gut was saying about other things they hadn’t thought about yet. The most obvious thing to think about was more people of course. With a quick glance at the chat, Evil X learned a few more names and feelings. But then they stopped when remembering one name they had heard, but hadn’t seen otherwise. Worm Man.

Supposedly they were close with the person, and Zedaph mainly knew about them through said person. While they currently weren’t sure how well the pair did get together, they could be sure of the first part. They had some hesitation from the strange mix of emotions, making them try to figure out what word went with them. Since emotions did tend to have just one word, like happy or sad or mad or whatever, that’s what they were trying to figure out. The problem was actually translating the feeling into words, as none of the ones Evil X thought of felt right.

The first to come up was ‘safe’ but Evil X quickly shot that thought down. That’s how Zedaph felt and this was different. The next thought was ‘close’, which didn’t feel strong enough, followed by ‘intimate’, which felt a little too strong. ‘Soft’ seemed to pop up from nowhere as an idea, and it seemed to quickly snowball with more words such as ‘caring’, ‘kind’, ‘free’, and ‘knowing’.

Despite the struggle, Evil X felt comforted by it. If they had all these positive things coming through for Worm Man, then that had to be a good sign. Then they paused. It still didn’t feel like the word they were looking for, but it was the closest Evil X had stumbled upon. ‘Comfort’. That was what they could remember of Worm Man.

Chapter Text

Evil Xisuma

Having a square thing plopped in their hands wasn’t what Evil X expected, but it was what they got once they finally returned to Zedaph’s base. They had finished building their second room over at Tango’s base ages ago, spending time getting shown around what was apparently Decked Out. He wasn’t able to show off the whole place, but managed at least a decent chunk of it before Zedaph finally returned. True to his word, it wasn’t yet night, but it was close. The sun was just beginning to set, leaving Evil X to drag the pair of them back, getting into the technical indoors before the moon had fully risen.

Zedaph thankfully hadn’t complained, Tango having messaged him about Evil X’s aversion to night. He didn’t elaborate on it further than that and instead had insisted Evil X say so themself, but they had only just returned to the base, so it seemed a bit soon to start on that topic. Especially due to the square.

“What the hell is this?” Evil X asked as they picked it up with their other hand, holding it by the corner and letting it hang there.

“Oh! It’s your very own communicator!” Zedaph answered, pulling a similar looking device from his pocket, which, now that it was pointed out, Evil X also noticed the resemblance to the comm Tango had had. “Since you had so much trouble with your helmet and using it as a communicator, Xisuma managed to get you this! It might not be as good as a regular one though.”

Evil X frowned in confusion. “What do you mean? This isn’t a regular one?”

“No, not really.” Zedaph shrugged. “Everyone is only supposed to have one, and we’re not sure if you built yours into your helmet, or if that’s custom and your real one is elsewhere or what. Either way, X couldn’t exactly order a new comm for you, so we put this one together from old disabled comm parts. Apparently he had a number lying around from past times you messed with the server.”

Suddenly Evil X wasn’t as happy about the device they had been given. The reminder that apparently they wanted to destroy this place was not something they enjoyed. Sure they hadn’t reflected on it too much, but Evil X sure didn’t presently want to destroy the place. They couldn’t even imagine trashing Zedaph’s base alone.

“There’s also one or two of mine in there too. You would never believe that things unnatural to the world like Create mechanics would be more destructive to these things than the void! They thankfully only fried the circuits and stuff, so we mainly used those parts for the case.”

Evil X nodded and then finally looked the item over. The square device sat in their palm nicely, colored mainly in pink as opposed to the paired pink and yellow of Zed’s current comm. A screen covered one side of the square, not quite reaching the top and bottom. Instead the lower border featured a row of four buttons while the top merely had a speaker inlaid. Each of the four buttons was decorated with an icon within a border. The first was a heart, the second looked like a chest or bag, the third had a little speech bubble, and the last looked like a book, though that button was green instead of the pink that the other buttons were. Finally, in the bottom corner to the right of the buttons was a sort of rivet in purple that was the only thing besides the buttons that wasn’t inlaid into the case.

Flipping it over, the backside was mostly nondescript. There was another rivet in the same place, just mirrored. Or perhaps it was the same one, just going through the whole object. There was also a piece that could slide in and out, probably giving access to the stuff on the inside. Other than that, there were a couple of scuffs and scratches plus the remnants of a sticker that refused to come off all the way that gave physical proof the pieces had been used before.

Only turning it halfway back, Evil Xisuma could see a small dot on the side which they were pretty sure was a microphone, as well as a seam running along the edge of the device, splitting it in half. They had seen Tango’s communicator, and how it had looked like it was two pieces offset from one another, the second having a lot more buttons. With the rivet in the corner, it gave Evil X enough of a context clue on what to do. Using a little bit of pressure to push the two sides in opposite directions, the front and back halves started to move. Indeed, the pieces swiveled along the rivet, using it as a rotation point. Once the back had rotated about ninety degrees, it locked into place, revealing the hidden keypad in pink and green.

It was a bit squished, but a full keyboard was present. The numbers filled up the top row, all the letters using up most of the three rows below that, and the spacebar taking up most of the bottom row. Next to the L key on the third row, the last key was a backspace. The first key on the row below that was a shift key, next to the A. Meanwhile on that same row, the last two keys were a period and comma. Most of the keys also had smaller symbols below the letter or number, like the exclamation point under the one, a colon below the V, and speaker symbols below the Z and X. All of those smaller characters were in a slightly different color, a color that matched the button to the left of the space that read “ALT”. Beneath that key seemed to be a directional pad with arrows for up, down, left and right, but connected to the diagonals could be used as well. And finally, to the right of the spacebar was a simple enter key.

Evil X tested out the buttons by first messing with the directional pad. Almost immediately, the screen lit up with some text that they read before they quickly turned the comm around for Zedaph to look at, finding themself confused at what was there. “Huh? Oh! Since this is basically a bootleg communicator, it’s not automatically assigned to you. Xisuma wanted to just put your name as EvilXisuma again, but I asked him to leave it blank so you could decide.”

“Oh, alright then.” Evil X turned the comm back around and stared at where they were being asked to put a name. They didn’t take too long though typing in one similar enough to before, simply going by EvilX now. They were still conflicted with Xisuma existing and still hadn’t met him, so going with the full old name felt… almost wrong to do. “There. Done.”

“Got it! Now, as a heads up, we did add a few small things based on what Tango messaged me about while you were over there.” Despite Tango constantly sharing exactly what he was sending to Zedaph, Evil X couldn’t help but bristle at the possibility that Tango shared something that they hadn’t known or approved of. “If you press alt and your chat button, it’ll open up to a notes section for you. I don’t know how well you’re holding onto memories, or piecing together old ones, but notes seem helpful!”

“Yeah, thanks.” Evil X pressed the two buttons, already making a few sections for their missing memories, the Hermits, and one for miscellaneous stuff. “What else?”

“Well Tango briefly mentioned how you’re associating names with words, so we added a way for you to customize contact names more directly. When you’re in a chat, you have to press alt and the HUD button, and then you can rename it. You know, because it looks like a little heart.” Zed paused to smile and lightly poke the button, not nearly enough to actually press it. “Doc wrote most of the code for that, and it’s mainly based on the fact that hopefully you’ll be staying in Hermitcraft. If that thing leaves this world, it might freak out a bit. And hopefully just smoke, but it could potentially also explode.”

“Noted.” Evil X replied hesitantly, now expecting it to explode at any moment. “And is that it?”

“Well, I may have saved a few things onto there for you that you might like. Like some cookie recipes or knitting patterns. Also there are some motivational cat images in the photos already.” Evil Xisuma quickly found the image gallery and was immediately greeted by a grey and white cat with the caption ‘I believe in you when you believe in yourself!’ “Then, we can add more stuff if you need it, and if you want help customizing how the shell looks, you can just ask about that too, or feel free to do it yourself.”

Evil X nodded before looking the comm over again. “Now, how the hell do I use it?”

Zedaph was taken aback by the question. Something Evil X didn’t understand. They had struggled with the helmet already and Zed knew they had amnesia. Why was asking for help now so surprising? Well, whatever did cause the surprise wasn’t something Zedaph felt like sharing, as he only went into how to actually use the comm, fumbling over a few details here and there that Evil X needed clarification on.

“Sorry, I guess I’m so used to using it being intuitive for me that I forget some of the nuances involved.” Zed apologized, but Evil X furrowed their brows as it sounded more like an excuse to cover up something else. But if Zedaph wasn’t going to bring it up, then neither would they. Still, it was a hassle with Zedaph needing to backtrack multiple times to break down and simplify certain functions of the comm. 

While on one hand Evil X enjoyed just hearing Zedaph explain things, on the other hand they could tell both of them were starting to get frustrated on some level. To try and get out of it, Evil Xisuma lied saying they understood finally. Unfortunately, Zed could tell it was a lie, so they quickly tried again saying they understood enough and would figure out the rest on their own. 

After demonstrating that they could use the item by sending Zedaph a private message, he seemed convinced enough. Thankfully that meant that Evil Xisuma could shoo him away off to bed. It was getting late and they had both had long days. When Zedaph tried to argue, Evil X went to their own bed and joked about it being large enough to fit the two of them. 

That caused Zed to actually leave, and Evil X had their room to themself again. They flopped backwards into the bed and just laid there for a moment, staring at the ceiling. After that moment, they rolled over to open their new communicator again, actually typing up a few notes and changing a few names in the server contacts. But it had been a long day, and before long, Evil X put the communicator away again and rolled over onto their back again. After all the work they had done, they were glad to rest. 

⁜※⁜※⁜※⁜※⁜

Zedaph

Zedaph lied in bed for a while before giving up on trying to sleep. He had already been concerned for Evil X after his minor freak out with the chat, and then even more from Tango’s comments hinting at needing to talk about the nighttime aversion. Now, the issues with the new comm were raising some more concerns as well as some questions.

Using a comm was practically innate for any player. When it was in his helmet, sure, Zed could see Evil X getting confused there. It would be like him trying to understand some of Doc’s redstone with little to no context. But he knew redstone, and Evil X should have known how to work a comm.

Like, even a player who knew only the basics, who might struggle to remember something like… how much dye you need for wool if you’re not dying the sheep itself, or maybe forgetting how to craft chiseled stone. Even those players knew how to use a comm. And here was Evil X, amnesia not having touched his memory of survival, and yet he was struggling to send a single message.

Zedaph ended up pulling his own comm out and started looking things up. Or at least trying to. He figured maybe he wasn’t using the right search terms, but what should he put instead of “player doesn’t know how to use communicator”? The results were mainly tips on how to teach a young player how to use more complicated features. There was an article or two that were back when the crafter recipes were finally rolled out to all comms and not just modded in and needing to get a new comm model for the extra button. And maybe a few more articles similar to that with added opped commands.

Zed ended up tapping on one of the teaching babies articles, feeling a little bad about needing that kind of article for Evil X, who was very much not a baby. He tried reading through it, but his mind was elsewhere, thinking of the consequences of not knowing how to use a comm. They were how you kept track of your inventory, and how you found your coordinates and they gave you your experience level and so so much more. Maybe a chunk of it was muscle memory with the helmet features, but Evil X was still confused using it.

When Zedaph realized how little he was paying attention, he scrolled back up to the top of the article he had started reading before just closing it. He then switched over to his messages and stared down his private messages with Xisuma. It would be easy enough to ask, and this was probably important, but Evil X didn’t want to be talked about. But then that was for the present day stuff. Zed could just think of a way to dodge the current issue at hand while just learning the important bit probably at the heart of it. He had technically only promised he wouldn’t rat Evil X out, and that was totally easy and possible.

He typed, deleted and retyped a message about four or five times before essentially giving up and just sending what he had managed to put together. Now it was just up to whether Xisuma knew what it meant. Which, when he did finally respond, it didn’t seem like it.

• Xisuma: What?
  
  
• Zedaph: something came up and I want to respect Evil X’s privacy and not share stuff unless he’s okay with it.
  
  
• Zedaph: but I also need to know what exactly he is.
  
  
• Xisuma: In terms of?
  
  
• Zedaph: well, the other hermits have had a betting pool going on for him
  
  
• Xisuma: How did I not know about this?
  
  
• Zedaph: and so like, is he your brother? a hels? a clone? ETC?
  
  
• Zedaph: and I’m not sure. maybe because it isn’t brought up often?
  
  
• Xisuma: Ah
  
  
• Xisuma: Well
  
  
• Xisuma: I’m not entirely sure myself.
  
  
• Zedaph: really?
  
  
• Zedaph: well I think that means not brother then.
  
  
• Xisuma: Correct, we’re not related family wise as far as I am aware.
  
  
• Zedaph: what do you know?
  
  
• Xisuma: I don’t believe he is a hels like Helsknight or Badtimes.
  
  
• Xisuma: Mainly due to a conversation we had, and he implied there’s an Evil Evil Xisuma.
  
  
• Zedaph: I did not know about that. but now noted!
  
  
• Xisuma: I forget exactly when I first met him, but it was after Hermitcraft had started at least.
  
  
• Zedaph: huh.
  
  
• Zedaph: well, this unfortunately doesn’t help me, but the info might be useful at some point.
  
  
• Xisuma: Alright. Contact me if you need anything else.
  
  
• Zedaph: will do!

Zedaph set his comm down, grabbed a pillow, and yelled into it just a little. He needed plenty more, but he didn’t think Xisuma could actually help with any of it. The whole situation was a mess. Apparently no one knew what Evil Xisuma really was except for Evil X himself. Except, oh wait, he doesn’t have his memory, so he doesn’t know either.

Zed gave a deep sigh and just spread out on his bed, wanting it to just envelop him. He stayed that way for a few seconds before putting a hand on his forehead. For a moment he questioned if he was sick. Normally even long days didn’t leave him feeling this exhausted. But then he thought about what he had been doing.

When Evil X had first shown up, Zed was constantly keeping an eye out, hoping to find the hacker before he could start damaging Hermitcraft. The other Hermits probably were too, but Zedaph had had those extra interactions with him.

When he started helping Evil Xisuma after finding him, he started internally worrying about Xisuma wanting to get rid of him, and even more when Evil X revealed his amnesia. Then there were his meetings with Xisuma while balancing helping out Evil X. Ones that started with it up in the air on what could happen to his new guest.

It wasn’t until the second meeting with Xisuma where he seemed convinced that Evil X wouldn’t do anything did Zedaph feel plenty less worried and stressed. Sure, there were still a lot of worries from the questions he had, but the biggest potential problem was gone. And the tension Zedaph was only now realizing he had been holding for the past couple of days was gone too. Leaving exhaustion to replace it.

Oh well, the meetings also took a lot out of him socially, so he probably needed to recharge that battery along with general resting. If only he felt like sleeping, things would be a lot better.

Zedaph was in a weird energy state, or at least that was the best way he could think of it. He was too tired to be awake, but too awake to be asleep. He just stayed there for a little bit, staring up at the ceiling. He knew he should probably try sleeping anyway. Best way to fall asleep was to fake it. But instead, Zedaph decided he was just going to wear himself out.

Getting up, Zedaph checked who was around. Potentially he could work on his photography. He then decided against it after picking his camera spyglass up, holding it the wrong way around, turning on the flash that he probably never should have added in the first place, and practically blinded himself by taking a picture. Well, it at least made him a little more awake. Though that was also the opposite of what Zed wanted to do.

At the very least, waking himself up like that helped to remind him that trying something like that in his current energy state would go poorly. Plenty of things Zedaph could try right now would end poorly if he was being honest. So if he was going to wear himself out, he would need something safe and simple.

About an hour later, Zedaph returned to his base after a trip to the Nether, cutting down a zombified piglin which had chased him through. Was he doing poorly in terms of health? Yes. But was he also worn out enough he was sure he’d fall asleep the moment he was in bed? Oh definitely. In fact, his portal was actually a little closer to the bed in the center of his base, so to make the travel shorter, Zedaph went down to it, half tripping on his way, but thankfully still landing in water. 

A few steps more and Zedaph flopped onto the bed, indeed almost immediately passing out, the only exception was that he also adjusted to turn his head to the side. Lying face down with his head on the pillow had the potential for suffocation. And last Zedaph checked, he had no reason to try and die that way. Or did he? That would just have to be a question for Morning Zedaph then. And hopefully Morning Zedaph wouldn’t be too upset with all the things he was going to be left to deal with.

Chapter Text

Zedaph

By morning, Zedaph had come up with a plan. He was going to give lessons on being good to Evil X. Sure, due to the memory loss, he didn’t even remember being evil, but as far as Zed was concerned, it would be helpful to give them anyway. Perhaps if he did get his memory back, the lessons would stick and he would stay being Evil Xisuma only by name instead of actually Evil Xisuma.

And it wasn’t like he hadn’t given lessons before. Okay technically he hadn’t, Worm Man had, and as far as most of the server was aware, they were completely different people. But who cared, it was going to be easier since Evil X wasn’t evil right now, and Zedaph had some experience. So without much delay, he arrived at his guest’s room to start the lessons.

“Good morning! Hope you slept well! We’ve got some things to do!” Zedaph felt a little bad when he noticed Evil X jump at the sudden talking, but he then looked at Zedaph and rolled out of bed. He was still wearing his armor and everything, was it that comfortable to sleep in? Or did he have to wear it? That was something he might want to ask Xisuma about. Oh, but Xisuma didn’t really know what Evil X was, so maybe he couldn’t answer.

“So are you just going to keep staring at my bed, or did you come in here for a reason?” Evil X waved a hand in front of Zedaph’s face, making him realize he had been staring into space while lost in his train of thought.

“Ah, sorry about that!” Zed apologized, starting to lead Evil X to the center of his base. “Yes! I’ve got some plans on what we can do today! See, the Hermits are still used to evil you, but if you’re around helping out on the server and people can see it, then they’ll know they can trust you!”

“And… the Hermits is the name used to refer to everyone?” Evil X asked, looking at the notes on his communicator. Zedaph gave a nod, and after a quick edit to his notes, the comm was put away again. “So, I’m just supposed to go where everyone else is? Out in the open?”

“Well, yes.” Zedaph started, and he could see how Evil X was not looking forward to it. “None of them will know you’re living at my base! Especially if when you’re done, you head back to Tango’s! But only if you want, of course.”

“That… sounds fine.” Evil X hesitated before agreeing, crossing his arms before he did.

“Don’t worry about it! Again, two bases makes it harder for the Hermits to make you feel… unsafe. Either way, today we’ll go to the shopping district! I need to check on my shops to see if there are any sales. And Hermits are often there, so we can maybe get you to meet a couple, and if not that, then show off how good you’re being!”

“Right…” Evil X didn’t sound too sure, but he wasn’t outright arguing. And as Zedaph started towards the shopping district, he did follow behind.

When the two were nearly to the shopping district, Zedaph mentally facepalmed. He had meant to ask about what Tango had told him. So he stopped in place and turned to Evil X. “Hey, I forgot to ask. Yesterday, Tango had mentioned—”

Zedaph couldn’t continue, Scar suddenly flying by. They were still in a public area, Zed couldn’t ask about it here. He would have to wait until they were back at the base. Though it could end up being at Tango’s base instead of his own.

“You were saying?”

“Uh, we’ll talk about it later! We’re almost at the shopping district anyway!”

The first thing Zedaph did when they arrived was rush over to his shop to pull out an extra elytra. Evil Xisuma had been without for long enough. Hermitcraft was built with flight in mind in a number of places, so things would just be easier if they could both fly. Zedaph also handed a few fireworks over from his own stash. Finally he asked if Evil X knew how to use an elytra, which thankfully he did. Plus he was slightly indignant about the thought that he couldn’t use it, up until the reminder that he was missing his memory.

“Anyway, this is one of my shops on the server! Well, technically this is my only shop, but I share some profits in other shops.” Zedaph explained, gesturing in the distance towards Cleo’s dye shop. “Just about all of these places take diamonds. I don’t think you really have any, but Mumbo set up a machine that spits out diamonds if you press a button.”

“It just gives you diamonds?”

“Well, you have to wait a little while before it does. But then it will give you a diamond and also a little crown. But if you wait even longer, you get more diamonds and a fancier crown! Oh, but if everyone waits too long, it’ll explode.”

“Why? Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Well it would probably only happen when nobody’s around. I’m sure the only thing that’ll get destroyed is the diamonds. Oh and I guess also the crowns.”

Evil Xisuma nodded, then stopped as the two of them reached the diamond button. No one else was around trying to camp it, so Zedaph could easily offer it to Evil X. He took the offer and pressed the button, getting a single diamond and simple gold crown. Zedaph couldn’t help it and put the crown on Evil X, which didn’t want to fit right on his helmet. At the very least he didn’t mind, just checking over the diamond, as if making sure it was a real one.

“Now don’t go spending it all in one place!” Zedaph remarked, getting a small glare from Evil X.

“I literally can’t use it in multiple places. It’s a single diamond. I can’t turn it into nuggets like it’s iron.”

“Then we should have you talk to Grian. I hear he managed to sell something for half a diamond.”

“I don’t think that’s possible.”

“Tell that to the people I heard it from.”

“Heard what from?”

Zedaph noticed Evil X flinch out of the corner of his eye, but both of them turned to the voice to see Scar again. “Oh! Hi Scar! I was just saying I heard from the grapevine that Grian managed to sell something for half a diamond.”

“Really? I don’t think I heard that!”

“Oh well it was from a while ago. I think with his resistance advice thing?”

“Ohh you mean back when Ren was king! That was ages ago!”

“Really? Sometimes it feels like it was just last week.”

Scar continued to talk, and Zedaph was listening at first, but then he felt something grab his arm. Looking to his side, he saw Evil Xisuma having grabbed his wrist. Looking further up at him, Zed could see he looked a bit tense. “Oh, Scar, sorry to cut you off, but I think we’re losing Evil X here.”

“Oh my gosh I’m so sorry!” Scar apologized. “I practically didn’t see you there. Normally there’s lightning and destruction and all that. Plus Xisuma is always changing up his armor, so I think I thought you were him for a second!”

“Lightning?” Evil X asked, and Zedaph quickly mentioned how he had seemed to have an affinity for it in the past. He didn’t seem to take the news well, but nodded anyway to show he had understood.

“Well, you seem like you’re doing good after yesterday!” Scar pointed out, and Zedaph could see as Evil X glowered at the other Hermit. Zed quickly tried to think of why, but he was given an answer as the conversation continued in front of him.

“No thanks to you. It seemed like you were just getting joy out of my suffering.”

“Oh, well, I wouldn’t put it like that.” Scar sheepishly admitted. “I didn’t realize things were going that badly for you.”

Evil X didn’t say anything, just kept glaring at Scar. Scar kept trying to keep a smile on his face, but was slowly failing. That got Zedaph to finally step in. They were here to try and improve Evil X’s image with the Hermits, not make it worse. “Well I think it was just a bad first interaction! The Hermits are probably still used to you with your memories intact, so they’re just acting in a way that doesn’t currently work for you! How about you give it another try?”

“No.” Evil X crossed his arms, surprising Zedaph.

“No? Why not?”

“I didn’t even get an apology.”

Zedaph looked at Scar. He quickly ran through what Scar said in his head and realized that a sorry hadn’t been included. When he pointed it out to Scar, he looked surprised, then apologized, first for the incident with the chat, but then a second time for forgetting the first apology. Zed then looked to Evil X. He didn’t look like he was going to accept the apologies at first, but then he caught Zedaph looking at him and sighed. “Fine. Thank you for the apologies. I suppose we can try to get to know each other again.”

“Oh great! Nice to meet you! My name is Scar! And you are?” Scar held out his hand for a handshake, looking expectantly at Evil Xisuma.

After some hesitation, he pushed the outstretched hand down. “Evil X. And I’m not shaking your hand.”

“Well alright then! If you need anything from me, feel free to visit Scarland! We’re opening up soon!”

And then Scar flew off, leaving Zedaph and Evil X behind, able to talk about that sudden interaction. “That went pretty well!” Evil X grumbled in response, leaving Zed to give him a reassuring pat on the back. “Alright, maybe Scar wasn’t the best Hermit for you to meet up with so early. I know I already mentioned him, but Grian is an apparent go-to for new people, and you’re technically new!”

“That sounds like a horrible idea.”

“Okay then. Maybe we’ll come back to him eventually. I would like it if you got to meet up with everyone before too long.” Zedaph pointed out, and Evil X grumbled more.

“Ugh, fine, if it would make you happy.” And that comment did make Zedaph happy. But just as quickly as his joy had overtaken him, it was just as quickly gone. “What? Why are you frowning now? What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing.” Zed faked a new smile, then suggested Evil X could go to Cleo’s dye shop and check if there was anything set aside for him. After some hesitation Evil Xisuma walked off, following the directions Zedaph had given him to get to the shop. It wasn’t until he was out of sight that Zed finally dropped his smile.

Zedaph pressed his palms to his eyes and took a deep breath. For a moment, Evil Xisuma had seemed so much like himself. So much that for a moment, it felt like Season Five again. But just as quickly as those feelings of nostalgia and familiarity appeared, they were quickly replaced with the reminder of reality. Evil X was still missing his memories, and so it wasn’t like before at all.

Maybe he could find some comfort that Evil Xisuma’s personality had stayed the same, at least for the most part. Sure, there should probably also be some worry that he would revert back to his evil ways even with the amnesia, but hopefully that wouldn’t be the case. Zedaph would just need to look at it positively with hope that it would end up alright.

That hope didn’t help when he finally arrived at where he had sent Evil Xisuma and found him in the middle of some kind of panic attack. One so bad that even with Zedaph arriving to help, he still ended up passing out.

⁜※⁜※⁜※⁜※⁜

Evil Xisuma

Evil X found themself waking up from a nightmare. It was already fading, which on the one hand was good, but on the other hand, they were trying to hold onto it. It was something related to Before. Something connected to their memories. But as they tried to think of what it was, it just kept slipping further and further away. 

Finally giving up on that, Evil X looked around, worried upon finding themself in an unfamiliar place. Though, when they thought back on what they had been doing before waking up here, they had already been in a new place. This probably wasn’t that far from where they had been with Zed. At least that’s what they hoped.

Finally they caught the sound of some talking. It was slowly getting closer, and when it was finally close enough for them to process the words, they relaxed upon hearing Zedaph. It meant that they weren’t completely screwed over in some unknown place. But then they listened closer and could hear a worried or concerned tone from their fr- the Hermit.

“—Second time this has happened! I haven’t even gotten the chance to talk to him about the first.”

“Well I can help with more than just a couple potions and a place to stay. All of us could! You just need to ask!” The other voice was one Evil Xisuma didn’t recognize. It wasn’t even giving them any sort of instinctual feelings about the person speaking, which was really strange.

“No, I can’t do that. I already said I wouldn’t tell others about his situation, but the whole server knows at this point!”

“Well, everything that happened with chat kinda clued everyone in.”

“I know! But that’s why I want to be even more careful! He shouldn’t unintentionally get hurt any more if I can help it.”

As the voices got closer, Evil X did what they could to pretend to still be asleep. They wanted to hear more of the conversation, learn some more context, like who they were talking about. If they did want to say something, they could just fake waking from the nightmare this time.

“I suppose that makes sense. Still, just say the word and we’ll be there to help! At least if we’re available of course. It’s a little hard to help out if we’re not around in the first place.”

“It’ll all depend on Evil Xisuma.” They tried not to react to their name, thankfully not being noticed. “For all I know, he’ll get upset about us being here and insist we run to a Nether portal right away.”

Evil X felt sick or nauseous or something. Zedaph had been talking about them the whole time, but also, not? It was just like that stupid message all over again. Why did someone talking about them like that make them react so badly?

“Well I would hope he’d stick around a little longer to meet me. Maybe the fact that Pearl and I are pretty new might go well for him. He didn’t know too much about us before, so things could— hmm?”

“I think I saw him stirring. Yeah, see? It happened again!”

Evil X couldn’t keep their discomfort in. They started fidgeting, trying to distract themself from the conversation, but it was all their mind could focus on. At the very least as Zedaph and whoever rushed over, they remembered their excuse. So to follow it along, they purposely tossed and turned a bit more. They could hear some worried noises from the other two, but Evil Xisuma made sure not to keep them worried for too long, pretending to wake up, then fighting the blankets they had thoroughly tangled themselves in with their act.

“Evil X! Are you alright?!” Zedaph was right next to the bed and looked like he was trying to decide if he could help with the blankets or not. Behind him was what had to be the source of the other voice. It was a new person with reddish orange hair and two somethings poking out from there. Some sort of horns?

The person seemed to notice that they were being stared at. “Uh, hi! I’m Gem! I mean, my full name is Geminitay, but you can just call me Gem like everyone else!”

They still stared at her, staying quiet as they did. The others did as well, but Evil X could tell they were getting more nervous about the silence. “I don’t know you.”

“Uh, yeah that’s why I was introducing myself.” Gem pointed out, but Evil X shook their head. 

“No, I meant I didn’t know you.” They finally stopped looking at Gem to nervously flick their eyes away. “Or, not enough.”

Gem looked over at Zedaph looking for an explanation, meanwhile Zed looked back, seeming as lost as her. It took Evil X a moment to realize why. They had only told Tango, not Zedaph. Huh. He didn’t actually tell Zedaph about it.

“I mean, you’re kind of right.” Gem finally answered. “I’m one of the newer Hermits. I just joined last season, and we didn’t really interact that much. How did you know?”

“Well… another Hermit mentioned it to me. Or at least enough that I could figure it out.” They lied cleanly, only slight hesitation at the start potentially giving it away, but it would more likely point to deciding not to give the name of the Hermit. They were going to wait until they were alone with Zedaph to finally explain their weird gut feelings. “Now why are we here?”

Zed took a step forward, bringing attention to himself. “So, I’m not completely sure what happened, but we had been in the shopping district and I had been showing you around but then Scar showed up, and you weren’t a fan of him, so I asked if you would try helping out by checking the shop I co-own with Cleo, and then you screamed and when I arrived you were passed out!”

Evil Xisuma didn’t immediately process the words, just the fact that somehow Zed had said all those words in a single breath. Then they thought it over to process it for real. They remembered something being wrong with Zedaph. They remembered going towards the giant creature shaped shop. They remembered… a new feeling. It… it was fear? Fear connected to something that was in the shop. 

A hand was on their shoulder, and Evil X realized they had been starting to panic again at the memory alone. “Fine, sure, but why here?”

“Oh, well, I was worried about Xisuma wanting to know what happened. He could have just messaged me, but he might have also wanted to visit. And I didn’t want him seeing anywhere you’re staying, so I brought you here! Technically I was going to take you to Impulse’s base, which is underground below us, but Gem was here and offered to help.”

“Wait, why are we hiding where he’s staying?”

Thankfully Gem looked at Zed and he looked back, neither of them noticing the reaction Evil X gave. “Well I know where it is, and Tango does too. If we need to find him, we can, but he knows we’re safe enough to be around that he won’t freak out. Meanwhile we could get a repeat of whatever happened in the shop today, but unknowingly caused by Xisuma just showing up.”

“Okay, great.” Evil X spoke up before Zedaph could continue or Gem could ask anything more. “Don’t want to be here.”

While it was blunt, it got the point across, and after helping Evil X out of the bed, which they thought was entirely unnecessary, Zedaph led them to a Nether portal, and they made their way back to Zed’s base where Evil X was happy to collapse into their own bed.

They just stayed that way, face pressed against the covers, until they finally got the feeling they were being watched. But not the bad kind of being watched. More like they had been followed all the way there. “What?” And thankfully despite the force they put into the word, it didn’t come out all too harshly.

“I was hoping we could talk, if that’s alright with you.”

Evil X grumbled before sighing. At the very least they also wanted to talk to Zedaph, so it evened out. They just needed a couple more moments of not moving. Well, they could still allow hand movements, those didn’t really count. That was because they lifted their arm up then pointed in Zedaph’s general direction before then pointing at the open space on the mattress next to them. After that, they let their arm flop back on the mattress so they could truly just lie there.

They half paid attention to the approaching footsteps that led up to the mattress dipping from Zed sitting on the edge nearest to where Evil X had pointed. The two stayed in place for a few more seconds before Evil Xisuma finally dragged themselves into a sitting position, though they felt like immediately flopping back against Zed.

“Are you sure you’re up to talking? I can let you rest longer if you need it.” Zed offered, but Evil X shook their head. “Really really sure?”

“Yes!” They managed to say, finding themselves struggling with saying the single word. Why… why did that feel so hard? Was that why what they said before came out the way it did? It’s not like they could ask about it. That was essentially out of the question since they could barely get one word out, much less however many needed for asking.

Zedaph was about to speak again, but then Evil X shook their head again. “Wait, you changed your mind?” And they replied with a half hearted shrug. “What do you need?”

“Help.” They managed, and Zedaph started to ask questions on how and with what and why, but Evil X just focused on forcing their energy into another word. “V-voice.”

Zedaph stopped talking for a moment before processing the word. Then he was quiet a moment more before asking a question that Evil X could pay attention to this time. “Something’s wrong with your voice?”

Evil Xisuma nodded before Zedaph continued with follow up questions. “Is it because of something with your helmet?” They didn’t think it was, so they shook their head. “Did you lose your voice?” Was that similar to losing your memory? Well, maybe, but they weren’t sure, so they shrugged. “Well does your throat feel sore?”

They replied with another head shake before managing to make some sort of grunt when Zedaph tried to ask more questions. He thankfully paused, and let Evil X move their hand up and rub their knuckles against their chest at the sternum. “There’s pain there?” They thought about it for a moment, but realized it was more of a heavy feeling than pain. So they shook their head before trying to mime heavy to minimal success.

Finally, they decided to just push through it again, saying “heavy”. They had no clue if it would make sense, but it at the very least was something that made Zed’s eyes light up with recognition. “Oh! Like it feels like you want to talk, but actually making yourself talk is hard?”

Evil Xisuma quickly nodded. Yes, that was exactly it. Thank goodness. It wasn’t something completely worrying and unheard of.

“Okay, it seems you don’t remember, but that's non-verbal! Sometimes some of the Hermits have days like that.” Okay, more comforting that it did happen to the others. “My guess is all the stuff that happened before sapped all your energy that isn’t Stay Awake energy. Or at least enough that your Talk Energy needs to be used elsewhere. That makes sense, right?”

Evil X both nodded and shrugged at the same time. It made enough sense. Somehow they just didn’t have the energy for speaking. Well, there went their plans for talking.

“If you want, for stuff that isn’t easily gestured, you could use your comm! At least assuming you’re not dealing with full leaden paralysis.” They just looked at Zed confused, not knowing the phrase. “That’s like when your whole body feels heavy and it’s hard to get the energy to move basically anything.”

Their eyes widened. That was a thing? That was something that could happen? Thank goodness that didn’t really feel like the case. It was just their chest. In fact, instead of trying to show that they didn’t, they pulled their communicator out, ready to potentially send something. And yes, it was through private messages to Zedaph as they checked to make sure.

“Okay! Now that we’re done being sidetracked, I need to remember what I was going to say!” Evil X managed an exhale of a laugh at the comment, which they were glad to get a soft genuine smile in return for as opposed to the slightly exaggerated grin Zedaph had used for the statement. 

“Right, so I wanted to maybe ask you a few teeny tiny itsy bitsy questions?” Zedaph looked nervously at Evil X, as if expecting them to reject it. He had already been asking questions, but if he was checking again, that meant that it was going to be more serious stuff. Hopefully some of it would be about what Evil X wanted to discuss in the first place, so they gestured for Zedaph to go ahead.

“Okay, first, I’m really worried about you.” That wasn’t really a question, but go off. “You’ve passed out twice and I’m worried that since you have amnesia, which is a head thing, and you kinda crashed onto the server, and suddenly losing consciousness is not good, I just want to ask if there's anything going on that could be signs of something worse.”

At first, the words gave Evil X a small sense of deja vu, which was probably something they should mention in a moment. But there was also something else to it they couldn’t quite place. Something that didn’t feel great. Maybe that was something for a while later and not just once Zedaph was done with his questions.

As for the question, well, technically the deja vu could count, but they weren’t sure. Speaking of, they didn’t even know what could be going on that would also be signs of something worse. Unsure how to reply, they just shrugged at the question. When Zed insisted they answer with something, they used their comm to ask what kind of things would be signs of something worse. The reply started with Zed explaining the usual causes for the type of amnesia they had. The most likely cause was some sort of brain injury, what type, they couldn’t be sure, but some of those fit into other categories.

“Well, the first section we can probably rule out. Assuming you’re around Xisuma’s age, he’s not that old, so you probably don’t have a, quote, Progressive Condition.” Zedaph read off of his communicator, needing it to be out anyway in case Evil X had to send messages for their replies. “But there’s also the chance that there’s an infection in your brain. Have you had difficulties in coordination, weird stuff with your vision, paralysis, hearing loss—” Zed couldn’t continue as Evil X put their hand over his mouth to stop him since shaking their head for all the options wasn’t doing much.

“Right, sorry.” The reply was muffled, but after enough silence the hand was taken away, leaving Zed to keep talking. “Nutritional stuff or a heart issue aren’t easy to just spot, but we could potentially test for those. The most likely thing is some sort of brain injury like a horrible concussion or stroke. Those have a large range, and again, we could do some testing for that, though it might be a touch more complicated.”

Testing didn’t sound all that great to Evil X. It would be so much easier if they could just press a couple buttons to get an immediate answer. Maybe the admin could do that, but Evil X was even less fond of Xisuma getting involved with that.

“I do want to check. With those times you passed out, is there any chance that was from some sort of seizure? That can be another cause, but that time in the shop it didn’t look like the classic portrayal but who knows!”

They weren’t quite sure, so Evil X fumbled a little looking up what those were before shaking their head. It wasn’t that either. Zedaph seemed relieved by the answer, so that helped them feel a little better as well. But that was quickly gone as Evil X saw Zed’s face drop at whatever was next on the list. That was not a good sign.

“The uh, last thing on this list could be, er, something at least.” Evil X tilted their head a little, then gestured for Zedaph to go on when he didn’t immediately. “Uh, the last cause is something called Electroconvulsive Therapy. Essentially it’s an electrically caused seizure, which makes sense why it could be a cause, but…” Zedaph trailed off, and they had an idea of why that was.

In the shopping district, that one Hermit mentioned that they used lightning a lot during times they had apparently attacked Hermitcraft. Something that was apparently a signature for the Evil Xisuma of before. If they used it so much back then, there was always the chance that they had made a little mistake and screwed something up in their brain.

The pair sat in silence for a bit more before Zedaph spoke up to break the tension. “Uh, well, we can look into testing those things I mentioned. Um, until then, I had some other questions that maybe don’t have as horrible implications?”

Glad for a topic change, Evil X gestured for Zed to go on. Zed nodded before thinking over his question, either trying to find the right way to put it, or perhaps having trouble deciding which of his other questions to ask.

“Tango mentioned that I should ask you about your, aversion to nighttime, we'll call it. I’m sure that’s not something easy to answer with a nod or shake, so I’ll give you a second to send a message.”

Evil X nodded before starting to type out a message. It was slow, them already being a slow typer, but they also had to figure out how to describe it all to Zed. It would be easier if they could just talk, but there was still that weighted feeling on their chest. But finally, they sent it.

Zedaph picked up his own communicator when the message went through. He didn’t think just staring at it would do anything, maybe make it take longer by making Evil Xisuma anxious. But now that the message was sent, he could look at the wall of text that had been posted and read through it as Evil X waited anxiously for a response.

“So,” Zed started slowly, and Evil X tensed slightly for whatever might be said. Zed noticed and did his best to comfort them before continuing to speak. “A lot of things are giving you emotions connected to your forgotten memories of whoever or whatever. You’ve been using those to help guide you in place of your memories. But then sometimes they can be overwhelming?”

They gave a shrug in reply. That was most of it, and though they wanted to elaborate, they knew it would be a struggle to do so.

“Right, sorry, do you want to wait until you’ve got the energy to talk again for something like that?” Zedaph offered, and after a little bit of thought Evil X nodded. “Alright. Then we’ll wait until that.”

⁜※⁜※⁜※⁜※⁜

Zedaph

It took a while for Evil X to finally be ready to talk, but that was fine, Zedaph wanted to give him all the time he needed. Especially after everything that he had gone through in the past few days. Zed was sure things were feeling rushed, which probably wasn’t helping his current energy level. Evil X was still refusing to take even naps, and that definitely wasn’t helping. But things got a little better when Zed pointed out that he didn’t need to sleep. If he just laid down, maybe even have his eyes closed, it could help him feel a bit better. Evil X was reluctant to try, but did eventually lie down. Zed was even able to tuck him under the covers, hoping the slight weight of the blankets would help as well.

Finally, Evil X sat back up, saying he was ready to talk. Zed put away what he was working on when it was said, but then asked if he could be allowed to note down what he learned just for himself, to make sure he didn’t accidentally forget anything. There was a bit of hesitation, but then Evil X said he could take notes if it would really help.

“So, nighttime aversion?” Zed quickly repeated what he had asked earlier, hopefully to help them get started with the discussion.

“Right.” Evil X sounded like he was still a little hesitant, but before Zed could assure he didn’t have to share if he didn’t want to, they started to explain. “I’m missing my memories but there’s still something there. Just sort of… feelings. They’ve helped me figure out if something is good or bad. But it's more complicated than that. I’m mostly able to associate words with them.”

“And there’s something there with night?” Zed asked, making sure he was understanding correctly.

“Yeah. Nighttime is something negative, and sleep is the same. I don’t know why, it just is.”

“Do you have specific words for those, or is it just a general bad feeling? Since you said you were associating your feelings with words.”

“Uh, crash and prison respectively. I know they’re not exactly the names of actual feelings but—”

“No no, I get it.” Zed stopped Evil X from needing to explain himself. “You having word association with the feelings makes it more accurate other than it just feeling bad or good.That’s probably better. If you just got negative and positive feelings, it might not help much, but being able to associate words makes it more accurate, and it’s also probably a deeper connection to your past memories.”

The look Zed received from that hypothesis made him think the other hadn’t thought of it that way before, or maybe it was just some similar thought. “I guess that’s one way to look at it.”

“So what else have you gotten?” Zedaph asked, though the new look he got made him clarify the question. “You don’t have to share anything, Don’t worry!”

There was a sigh and maybe a bit of grumbling before Evil X spoke again. “Tango just kept asking me things trying to figure out what I got from them. It was a bit annoying.”

“Well I’m not going to do that. Even if I sort of really want to.” He admitted. Better to be upfront about it than have Evil X potentially get upset about it later.

“Alright, fine. But get your notebook ready because I’m not repeating this.”

“Oh of course!” Zedaph agreed and had his pen at the ready to note down whatever Evil X decided to divulge.

“People, or I guess The Hermits, in general are just ‘bad’, but thinking of certain names give me other feelings, like Tango being ‘rival’ and Impulse being ‘annoyance’. Xisuma is ‘conflicting’ and I’m not sure if that’s from whatever past I have with him or if it’s because we share a name. Back to the sleep and night ones, While I don’t fully remember what happened before me passing out those two times you dealt with, I do just remember just having extreme versions of those feelings.”

Zedaph paused his note taking and looked up. “Maybe it was something where it overwhelmed you to a point that your body decided passing out was the best way to stop it?” He offered and Evil X just shrugged. “Of course, we can’t easily test if that’s the case since that would mean needing to have you test it and that wouldn’t be good at all.”

“Right.” Evil X hesitantly agreed, seemingly like he was worried Zedaph would still try anyway. “Well, uh, that person we were visiting, unlike when seeing you and Tango, I didn't feel anything. Okay, I guess there was some confusion but that was confusion because I didn't get anything about her from my gut or mind or whatever is causing me to have these 'feelings'.” He ended by giving air quotes for the word feelings.

“Hmm, since that's the case, can I just list off Hermits and you can tell me if there's any you feel the need to share.”

Evil X seemed to think about it for a moment before speaking up, not with agreement, but instead information. “There were a few Hermits your friend Tango asked about that happened to all have the same emotion linked with them. If that's of note of course.”

“I think that counts. Unless it's a generic bad feeling like you said you have for people.”

“It’s not.” Evil X seemed reluctant to admit, but thankfully still did. “It was harder to describe. I couldn’t pin anything down. But it was something worse than just bad.”

“Really?” Concern filled Zedaph’s voice. Was it Hermits that had been extra cruel to him? Was it Hermits he hated more than others? Zed had heard about Wels having his own evil version named Helsknight and that there were other evil Hermits, so could it be connected to that? “Um, could you say who?”

“I… don’t know.” Evil Xisuma looked away, refusing to meet Zed’s eyes. “Can you just do your name listing thing instead?”

Zedaph was still very concerned and wanted to just be told, but he could tell Evil X was extremely uncomfortable with whatever it was, so Zed just nodded. “Okay, Welsknight.” Immediately he could see Evil X flinch. “Wait, was that one of them?”

He didn’t immediately react, but after a few moments, Evil X nodded. So, maybe that last theory was right. “So, does the name Helsknight feel the same?” Nope, scratch that, Evil X was shaking his head. So it had to be about Wels himself. Or maybe it was because he was Hels’ counterpart and it was only for the counterparts and so he would have to ask about the other Hermits with counterparts but could he remember who they were like he doesn’t think Tango or Impulse have any but maybe he heard that-

Zedaph felt something hit his head, followed by it happening twice more in quick succession. Apparently he had started looking down during his train of thought, so he looked up to see the thing hitting him, immediately seeing Evil Xisuma’s arm outstretched with his hand balled into a fist. “…Did you just knock on my head like it was a door?”

“Maybe.” Evil X said this as he quickly pulled his arm back to then cross both his arms. “Just go back to listing names.”

A flicker of a smile crossed Zed’s face, the way Evil X acted there being so similar to how he was before. And if Zed wanted to help him get back there, more information could probably only help. “Okay, but feel free to smack me again if I get lost in thought. Now let’s see, Joe? Hypno? Bdubs?”

“There’s something there, but I can’t think of a word.”

“For Bdubs?” Zed checked, getting a nod from Evil Xisuma. “Okay then, something positive, negative or neutral?”

“Negative, but not as bad as the earlier name.”

“Okay, got it.” Zed wrote a little note about that before continuing to list names. “Keralis? Cleo? Mumbo?”

“Traitor.”

Zedaph looked up from his note in shock. “Sorry, did you say traitor?”

There was some hesitation before Evil X nodded. “That one actually changed. It was something before. But I don’t remember what. It came up once, I didn’t really pay attention, I just remember it was different.”

“Well even if you don’t remember, that’s very interesting. Do you know if anything else has changed like that?” Zed asked as he scribbled down notes, then asked a second question. “And do you know when you noticed the change, at least in general?”

“I basically only noticed now. It’s not like I’m actively interacting with everyone in this world. And I don’t think anything’s changed besides that. I’d probably only notice if something made me think about it. You know, like someone interrogating me.”

“Hey! If this were an interrogation, I would be trying to get solid answers for everything. And also bring someone else over to play good cop.”

“Sorry, good cop?” Evil X looked incredulously at Zedaph.

“Of course! It’s more fun to be bad cop!”

“Rrright.” It didn’t exactly seem like he was convinced, but oh well.

“Okay, back to names. False? Jevin?” Zed noticed Evil Xisuma flinch again. The same way he had at Wels’ name. That was odd. He didn’t know of Jevin having an evil him. But though Zedaph paused to let Evil X explain if he wanted to, he never did. “Oookay, xB?” Another flinch, that wasn’t good. “Are you—?”

“ I’m fine .”

Zed winced a little at the tone. “You don’t sound fine. If you need a break—”

“Fine. break time.” Evil Xisuma quickly agreed. Okay, so that was really bad. He did not seem happy about the break, just frustrated. Which made sense since he thought this felt like an interrogation.

After taking a moment, Zedaph put his notes away. He then just sat there for a moment, letting Evil X do the same, but after a few moments he shifted to get closer before slowly moving his arms to move around Evil X, though not touching him.

“What. Are you doing.” It didn’t entirely sound like a question, sounding closer to being an accusation, but also not quite.

“Offering a hug? If you don’t want me to touch you, then I won’t.” Evil X just stared at Zedaph. He wasn’t refusing, but he also wasn’t actively accepting it. “Um, if you could just say which so I don’t need to assume—”

“No I just— Whatever. Go ahead.”

Zed lit up a little before he quickly moved closer to hug Evil X, nearly making the two of them topple over from the momentum. There was a bit of struggling from Evil Xisuma at the start, which Zed thought was just trying to keep them upright, then maybe just adjusting. But when he was starting to realize it could be struggling from wanting to get out of the hug, Zed started to let go and pull away.

“Wait. Don’t.”

“Hmm?” Zedaph froze in place, waiting to hear what Evil X wanted before moving even a pixel further.

“Just… let me get my arms out.” Zed nodded, waiting until Evil Xisuma had lifted his arms up before going back to hugging. Then, after a few seconds, Zed could feel as the arms slowly moved to hug him in return, bringing a smile to his face. “This is… nice. …Soft.”

“Oh of course! I give some of the best hugs. Okay, second best. Okay maybe third. …Top seven at least!”

“Mm, hugs are nice.” Evil X replied, tightening the hug just a little. It made Zed smile, glad he liked the hug, the first sound probably agreeing that he was very good at hugging and— wait why did they say it that way?

“Do you not remember hugs?!” Zed asked as he pulled away to look at Evil X. Or, at least, he tried to pull away, but Evil X hadn’t let go of the hug on his end so it took a second try before the two were separated.

“Uh, no, I don’t think so.”

“How can you not remember hugs?!” Zed practically yelled the question.

“I just, don’t?” Evil X shrugged, but Zedaph didn’t really hear him.

Zed was instead spiraling in his mind again. Evil X didn’t remember anything about the Hermits, that made sense, trying to remember individual people was tough. He also didn’t remember his own history, which again, made sense, that was a thing that happened. He did remember the generic things with how the world worked, something so innate it was hard to forget. Like how anyone with amnesia doesn’t tend to forget how to speak or walk. But on a scale from walking and talking to navigating the nether, hugging seemed like it was somewhere in between. It wasn’t like Zedaph had never… wait he couldn’t remember ever giving Evil Xisuma a hug before! What kind of monster was he?!

Zedaph’s spiraling only subsided a little when Evil X knocked on their head again. “Is me not remembering hugs that bad?”

“I’m probably in the bottom sevennnnn!”

Zedaph felt worse as Evil X seemed to recoil at his lament. “Okay apparently that’s a yes.” And then he moved close instead, sort of slotting his arms awkwardly under Zedaph’s before closing them in a hug. A very stiff hug, but a hug nonetheless. “I’m sure your hugs were top seven worthy despite my not remembering them.”

Zed started to open his mouth to say something, but he decided against it. With a slightly clearer head, he could remember once or twice offering a hug up to Evil Xisuma the same way he had a minute or so ago, but he always rejected it. Which was fine, he didn’t seem to like physical touch. It still hurt that Zed had never managed to give him a hug before, thinking they were so close when really they weren’t, were they?

Any more thoughts were stopped by Zed noticing Evil X shifting, likely to knock him on the head again, so he spoke up to stop that from happening. “Sorry, I’m just… Upset you don’t remember hugs at all.”

“Oh. Well. I bet my old first one sucked a lot more than this new first one.”

Zed gave a small laugh before hugging back again. He could dwell on things later. Right now, it was comfort time.