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If the Hermits thought that the missing clothing, being stolen for nest cuddles, and being perched upon by Grian would be the weirdest things that Grian did since he was a parrot hybrid, they would be wrong. It came as a shock to most of the Hermits, Xisuma and Mumbo not included, that avians were unable to see uncoloured glass; they then learned the hard way that while Grian could see most coloured glass, light grey stained glass was the one exception to that rule. Now, this wasn’t discovered until late in Season Six, when Grian, thinking that there was an open space for him to fly through, hit the glass flying almost as fast as he was capable of, and hit the ground a moment later, the glass being reinforced, dazed, confused, and mildly concussed. It was Scar who found him later that day, still lying on the ground in front of the building that he had run into; Grian was promptly gathered up into Scar’s arms and brought to Doc so he could be looked over, and was then monitored by Mumbo for the rest of the week while he recovered from his concussion.
Unfortunately, no one had figured out from that one incident that Grian couldn’t see glass until it happened three more times, and, Mumbo, getting concerned for Grian’s health, promptly ignored his avian friend’s begging, explained to the rest of the server why Grian seemed to be running into buildings more often than not at this point. The response was immediate, and the Hermits, not wanting Grian to keep getting concussed, started changing out their windows to something coloured so Grian would be able to see it. Despite being embarrassed that his flock now knew that he couldn’t see clear glass, Grian was quite grateful that he was no longer running into buildings quite so often; it still happened, but not as frequently as it had been.
***
The light grey glass incident took place only a month after the Hermits had all coloured the glass in their bases and shops to help Grian see it. It had been a normal day on Hermitcraft, or as normal as the day could be, and Impulse had been working in his shop, restocking and just tidying it up. He hadn’t been expecting any customers to arrive today, especially since the server was so close to coming to a close and moving onto the next season, but, when he heard something crash into his shop, he froze, eyes moving to the newly installed windows to see if he could see what had happened.
He had been expecting to see Tango and Zedaph messing around outside, having told them that he would be busy and wouldn’t be able to hang out with them until much later in the day, but he saw nothing out there. Confused, Impulse made his way over to the door of his shop, stepping out so he could see if this was some kind of prank. He hadn’t been expecting to see Grian on the ground, obviously just having run into his window again, but he was quick to pick him up in a bridal carry, both very confused and being careful not to touch the avian’s wings, and brought him to Doc, who sighed upon seeing Grian unconscious in Impulse’s arms.
“What happened this time?” Doc had asked while he took Grian from Impulse and set him on the bed that had been designed so Grian could be on his back while not crushing his own wings.
“I’m fairly sure he ran into my window again. I’m not sure how, since they are coloured, but I heard something crash into my shop and when I looked out, there he was,” Impulse sighed, running a hand through his hair.
Doc muttered something in German, probably a swear if Impulse had to take a wild stab in the dark, before looking Grian over. He confirmed that the pesky bird had indeed run into something once again, more than likely the window, and was once again concussed.
“Right. Thanks for bringing him here. I’ll go ahead and call Xisuma to come and pick him up.” Doc muttered, already pulling out his communicator.
“Xisuma? Not Mumbo?”
“Nope, X said to call him the next time this happens, so that’s what I am doing.” Sending the message, Doc went back over to his desk and sat down at the chair that was stationed there, placing his head in his hands and sighing once more.
“Alright man, just let me know if you need anything,” Impulse told him as he went to make his leave, wanting to finish up at his shop so he could get some other work done.
Doc nodded and gave him a quick goodbye, now just waiting for the Admin to arrive.
***
When Xisuma eventually arrived, he took one look at Grian, and just had to ask Doc how this had happened; he knew that all of the glass was now coloured, he had made sure that it had happened in a timely manner, so there should have been no way for this to happen. Doc had sighed, and X could only assume that he had been doing that a lot since Grian had been brought to him, and told him that he had a feeling that Grian, along with not being able to see clear glass, was also unable to see light grey stained glass as well, much to X’s exasperation.
Nodding, he thanked Doc for once again looking after the resident avian, and took Grian back to Grian’s own base, laying him in his nest.
Xisuma then had an idea, one to see just what colours of glass Grian really could see. He was quick to set it up, only leaving to gather the glass once he was sure that Grian would be unconscious for a few more hours, and two hours before Grian awoke again, he had set up a little testing station with every single colour of glass available so he could test and see what glass Grian could and couldn’t see; it would have to wait a few days for Grian to recover from his new concussion, but Xisuma knew that this would be worth it.
He was right, as, just a few days later when there was a serverwide meeting later that same day, Xisuma had Grian go into the room with the different colours of glass and walk around in it to see what colours he could and could not see. It turned out that, while he could see most of the coloured glass, he was unable to see the clear glass (as expected), the light grey stained glass (there was that suspicion confirmed), and he struggled to see the white and grey stained glass (that came as a surprise as it appeared that while Grian was capable of seeing it, there was a high likelihood that he would run into it anyway). To say that Xisuma was disappointed would be an understatement, as, judging by the look on Grian’s face when he was let out of the room, he had known, or at least suspected, that those three coloured glasses would also cause him to run into them.
However, it was time for Xisuma to start setting up for the meeting, and Grian was coming with him since he was keeping an eye on the pesky bird for the remainder of the week. When the pair eventually made it to the Meeting Hall, Grian had gone to sit in his usual seat, the one that had part of the back removed so he could sit comfortably there without leaning on his wings, however, before he could move to sit in it, Xisuma had grabbed it from its normal spot between Mumbo and Scar and moved it so he would be sitting next to the Admin himself.
“Wha- Oh, come on ‘Suma! I didn’t mean to forget to mention it!” Grian had exclaimed, shrinking just a bit under Xisuma’s gaze.
“Considering that you didn’t want Mumbo to tell the rest of the server that you couldn’t see glass, I highly doubt that. Sit.”
Grian did move to sit in his chair, pouting the entire time, arms crossed. Once X was satisfied that he would be staying put, he got to work making sure the room was ready for the rest of the server to arrive, ready for the meeting that would give the moving date for the next season.
The Hermits, once they arrived, only had to look and see where Grian was sitting to know that he had done something that had disappointed Xisuma, many of them having been put in the same situation as the avian before. It was only when the meeting started that they learned what it was that Grian had done to deserve sitting next to X like a misbehaving child.
“Just an update to the window situation,” Xisuma started, shooting a look at Grian, who was still pouting but now looking at the floor, “white, grey, and light grey windows will have to be changed to something else. I know this leaves very little choice other than the brightly coloured windows, but we don’t need Grian to suffer from yet another concussion and potentially cause himself more brain damage that he has already sustained.”
Snickers could be heard from around the room, but it was agreed that those who had white, grey, and light grey windows would change them over to black windows. From there, the meeting went as it would have normally gone, and it was revealed that there was only three weeks left on the Season Six world of Hermitcraft before Season Seven was going to begin.
***
Season Seven not only brought new ideas, builds, shops, pranks, and everything else, but it also brought up the fact that it wasn’t just windows that Grian was unable to see. As it turned out, it was any clear glass that Grian was unable to see, and that included potion bottles, as the Hermits learned while they were having the final multi mini-game battle of the Mycelium Resistance war and they were using splash potions of harming for a version of dodgeball. When Grian had been handed his, he had stared at the liquid for a solid minute, leaving those gathered to worry that he had never used a potion before, until he finally spoke up.
“How is the liquid floating?”
Silence, complete and total silence, before a broken whine could be heard from Xisuma as he buried his face in his hands. “You have to be kidding me,” he whispered, voice full of despair, “you can’t see potion bottles?!”
Grian hesitated for a moment, trying to figure out if he really wanted to answer this. He only answered when he was nudged by Doc to speak, so he, very quietly, very meekly, whispered out, “yes?”
Xisuma looked up, expression completely deadpan, saying, “you better be glad that this is the only time we can hold this event. However, once we are finished here, you are heading back to your manor and staying there for the rest of the week.”
Silence once again fell before Scar spoke up, trying his hardest not to break down laughing, “did- did you just ground him, ‘Suma?”
Not even hesitating, Xisuma nodded, eyes still locked on Grian, who immediately tried to protest, only to be shot down by yet another unimpressed look from X. Grian huffed, looking down for a moment, before looking back up and declaring, “let’s make this fun and last as long as we can drag it out for then, if I'm going to be stuck in my base for the next week… Can I at least restock the Barge?”
“Yes you can restock your shop.”
***
While Hermitcraft may have had trouble with figuring out the glass situation, and many of the Hermits, once they heard about the potion bottles, had quite a bit of fun messing with Grian, it was eventually figured out, and Grian rarely ever ran into another window. Sure, the addition of two new Hermits when they eventually moved to Season Eight caused a few problems with Gem forgetting to use a brightly coloured glass and instead used clear glass, resulting in yet another concussed Grian. Thankfully Pearl had been on a server with Grian once before, so she already knew about the whole glass thing, and also had some fun pranking Grian with potion bottles filled with both water (those ones were a lot of fun since the water was clear and so was the glass) and both potions and coloured water. However, despite all of the hardships, it was worth it as everyone loved having Grian on the server; Xisuma was just glad that most other servers that the Hermits regularly travelled to, namely the MCC server, only used coloured glass as there were many different players from all kinds of backgrounds and many different hybrids who all came to watch and compete in the championship.