Chapter Text
Jawsh was never exactly social with anybody on the server.
Nobody knew what had changed since the beginning of the server. He had stayed to listen to Schlatt's speech and stayed around to meet the others on the island. But slowly, after a few days, Jawsh started to socialize less and less until he was barely seen on the main island.
It was obvious to everybody, even the ones that barely saw Jawsh around, that he was avoiding anybody. The way Jawsh would walk past groups of people out in the public without stopping to talk to them, ignoring anybody who tried talking to him when he was at the spawn area, how he would stay at his home. Nobody was dumb enough to think that he just was 'too busy'.
Even when his friends went to visit him, Jawsh would barely interact with them. He would either be continuing to build or just plain out ignoring them. Sure, there were some people Jawsh would have a conversation with, but even then, it was only a few people. Anybody else would just be given a few words and then silence. Silence was the best Jawsh could offer somebody - if he didn't walk away.
Sometimes, Jawsh would hide inside the buildings at the main island, listening to what the others said without him having to interact. The luck given to him, however, was that most of the time he hid at the time somebody started to bring him up.
“Do you think Jawsh has trouble socializing?"
“Dude, sometimes I want to go visit Jawsh, but I don’t want to be listened to. I want to actually meet the guy, but he just never speaks.”
“Who does he even talk to?”
“What does Jawsh even spend his time doing other than building?”
Nobody knew what to think of him whenever he was mentioned. The best way they saw him was antisocial. That’s all Jawsh could really gather from these conversations.
Some tried to continue to talk to Jawsh - even when they knew it was hopeless and it would lead to nowhere. Almost everyone who had tried to talk to Jawsh eventually gave up and never bothered to try and start up a conversation with him. They'd see him walk past and ignore him, just like he ignored them.
And who was to say Jawsh minded?
He didn't care about the others not trying to include him in conversations anymore. In his mind, if it allowed him to continue working on his base, he didn't care. There was no point in getting distracted from a build that would take longer if he got distracted.
Jawsh didn't find it strange himself that he always focused on building. He knew most of the people here weren't really builders and preferred to, well, socialise. Sure, some did build a lot as well just like him, but they didn't go to the extremity Jawsh was going for. They built what they needed to build, whether small or big, and continued their day with at least some interaction.
There were other somewhat big builds around, Jawsh knew that, but whoever built them took breaks. And it was obvious they did, since he would pass by said-builds days upon days with no progress except maybe a few more blocks placed down.
(There was a building right in front of his island that looked similar to the capitol building of Jawsh’s. It was done quicker than Jawsh had built it, and smaller. Jawsh could fit more than twenty of that building into his home.)
The only person Jawsh could understand taking their time with a build was Altrive.
Altrive was planning to build a casino; he had told Jawsh many times whenever he passed by - in fact, it was the first topic they would talk about whenever Altrive paid a visit to Jawsh. It had gotten to the point where Altrive had only gone over to Jawsh’s church complaining about the amount of material it was going to take to build it before leaving.
He knew that his friend wasn't the best at gathering his materials - Altrive always managed to get distracted one way or another, preventing him from getting what he needed. Jawsh did his best to help Altrive get what he needed in order to build his casino, but the blocks he wanted were so difficult to get that Jawsh just started getting the easier blocks for him.
Otherwise, when Altrive wasn’t in the mood to build and decided to watch Jawsh instead, he’d sit around somewhere in the church to watch the progress. In his mind, as Altrive had told Jawsh several times, it was to help inspire him to build his casino.
Basically, every day.
It was a daily occurrence, whether it was the complaining or Altrive wanting to hang out with him, to the point where Jawsh started to expect Altrive to arrive at his place at any point. When he didn't, Jawsh assumed he was either getting the materials or, just like the others, in a group of people having a conversation.
Altrive was also, unironically, the only person that Jawsh could talk to for long periods of time until he was finished for the day. Jawsh had known Altrive for longer (in the way that Jawsh talked to him more than anybody else), so he was the only person who Jawsh could talk to for hours and hours.
Unfortunately, with the two of them being the best of friends, Altrive also knew what annoyed him the most as well, which ended up leading up to the pranks happening to Jawsh throughout building his church.
When he first started building the church, Altrive had purposely placed the wrong blocks in different places and broke parts of the wall that were being constructed in order to mess with Jawsh. He'd complain to his friend about what he was doing (Altrive knew to keep it as little as possible, anyways, so it wasn't as bad as Jawsh was making it to be), but the complaining must've been overheard by someone who had been paying a visit. There were more pranks happening on his builds.
Now that he thinks of it, he doesn't even remember if someone had overheard or if Altrive had told the others about what he had been doing.
(He doubted it was the latter. Jawsh had a lot of trust put into Altrive, but even if he had told anybody else about what he had done, his trust wouldn’t have gone away.)
Blocks would be changed into different ones, just like the small pranks Altrive pulled on him, but it was more obnoxious. Little screens would have a video playing on it and it'd be hidden somewhere around the church so Jawsh couldn't get rid of it easily.
There'd be items taken from his own chests left on the side of the church that he desperately needed. Jawsh would always have to go get the materials, and when he came back, the things he needed were back in his chests. Someone was probably watching when he shut the chest and left to gather the materials to put them back.
Little buildings in his church were built as well, and while Jawsh wanted to take them down, he left them there and ignored them as he walked past them. It would be rude, he thought, if he were to take them down without asking who it belonged to. And even if he could use some of the blocks that had been used to build the little buildings, they were practically useless.
Sometimes he'd ask Altrive if he knew where the buildings came from. To be fair, Altrive was the only social one of the two of them, so he assumed that his friend would hear if somebody had gone over to prank him. He would always get the same answers from him, though.
"I don't know where they come from."
"Ask around, 'cause I have no idea who built them."
"You could take them down if you want. Nobody's stopping you."
Jawsh wouldn't listen to Altrive's advice, but it never stopped Altrive from continuing to say them.
Altrive had also said the same advice he had told Jawsh two days ago. "Jawsh, you're going to make me go insane if you ask me one more time about these buildings. I don't know where they come from."
The two had gone inside the church, and now there was a third building inside. It hadn't been there earlier today when Jawsh had been completing part of the wall for the church, which meant it was recent since he had just finished the wall about an hour ago. It was also before he and Altrive went inside the church (Jawsh had gone around to find Altrive to have an opinion about something he wanted to build).
"I'm the one going insane here!" Jawsh shrieked as he walked up to the building and examined it. "I swear, I'm going to start staying up late to figure out who is putting the buildings here."
It was a small little hut build - oak planks as the walls, cobbled deepslated stairs as the roof, and some windows at the front of the house. The door was a dark oak door, which didn't even have a window to peak in to see what the house had inside. A five by five hut, Jawsh counted.
He heard Altrive huff behind him, and he looked back to see him furrowing his eyebrows at him, a scowl forming on his face.
"I would rather you not to," Altrive replied, clearly not excited with what Jawsh had just said. "Last time you didn't sleep all night, you were the grumpiest person ever and it was horrible."
"And, it is not my fault." Jawsh stepped inside the building, curious to see what was inside. There was nothing inside, it was a purely empty little hut. Jawsh frowned - the other two buildings at least had a crafting table and furnace inside of them. What made this one not have any?
“Yes, it was! You decided to stay up so late and then the next day you started complaining to me about how you didn’t get a good night's rest,” Altrive recalled. Jawsh snickered at him, taking another step inside the hut. “And you managed to say it was my fault! Jawsh, how was it my fault?”
“Because you were the one who woke me up, first off. And you kept me up since I didn't get to finish what I had wanted to do.” He took another look around before he heard a small ‘click!’ from somewhere. It sounded as though it was right behind him - though, when he turned, Altrive wasn’t holding anything. “Did you press something?”
“No?” Altrive said, confused. “Why?”
Jawsh shrugged. “I thought I heard a button, or a lever.”
Altrive frowned and opened his mouth to say something, but the moment he got one word out (“what?”) Jawsh felt his body drop.
Jawsh screamed, and he could hear Altrive’s voice calling from afar, and he looked down to see a dark pit with nothing there to save himself with.
Jawsh immediately sat up and tried to calm down his breathing. Patting the surface below him, he felt the soft embrace of the blanket that had been left on his bed. Good. He was back home. His heart was racing, and Lord, it was racing faster than anything in the world.
He got up from the bed, preparing to go back to the church and grab his stuff, before his whole body went sore. His legs were aching the most - it felt as though someone had broken his legs with a hammer - while the rest of his body was in less pain. Had he fallen down legs first in the pit?
Jawsh didn’t care, and he sat back on the edge of the bed, swallowing as he tried to calm down from the scare. He wasn’t expecting to die out of nowhere today. He was usually so careful with where he was going.
He heard a small ‘ding!’ come from somewhere. He patted his pockets, and took out what was his communicator. Right. Jawsh still had his communicator on him. It was always on him, why wouldn’t it be?
Turning it on, the first few messages were from public chat (because, obviously, everybody would always make fun of someone when they died and then ask what had happened. He really shouldn’t expect anything else). He ignored those messages and saw a message from Altrive.
Altrive whispers to you: you good???
Altrive whispers to you: the pit is kinda deep…ill try getting your stuff
There was another private message from someone else. Jawsh decided to check the message first before replying to Altrive.
Berdboi whispers to you: i was expecting you to clutch that
Berdboi whispers to you: oh well
Of course it was Berd.
Jawsh knew that Berd was one of the few people who pulled pranks on him whenever he had the chance to. Many minor pranks, like the paintings on random parts of the church, were from him. He had also been the one who had taken Jawsh’s cactuses.
Berd was also, for some reason, of the very few who tried to keep a conversation going.
No matter how much Berd had tried, Jawsh would only give him a few words in reply. It didn’t stop the annoyance Berd brought with him whenever he visited. He would talk Jawsh’s ear off until he had nothing to say and would go off, bidding goodbye with no response.
Here the two were, with Berd pulling a new prank on Jawsh.
It was strange, though. Most of the time, Jawsh wouldn’t have minded the pranks so much. He always gave a performance about how annoying it was and that he wanted them to stop, so on and so on. Jawsh had never minded before.
But today, Jawsh did mind.
Was it because of the scare it gave Jawsh to fall down a large pit? Was it because he had and was still feeling immense pain from the fall?
Jawsh just wasn’t sure. All he knew was that the small act was keeping him in pain. He’d heal, sure, but the pain was going to keep at it for the whole day. And, if he was unlucky enough, possibly the next day.
He went back to Altrive’s message, and typed a response.
You whisper to Altrive: thanks
There was no point in responding to Berd. The bastard didn't deserve a response.
Another ‘ding!’ came from his communicator. Jawsh hesitated for a moment. He wouldn’t have looked at it, but it was possible the message was from Altrive. Sighing, he looked to see yet another message from Berd.
Berdboi whispers to you: youre ignoring me arent you
Jawsh rolled his eyes, and silenced Berd’s message so he wouldn’t have to look at them. He didn’t want to spend his time waiting for Altrive to arrive with Berd’s messages. And, before Jawsh himself got curious to see what Berd had even sent him (why was he so nosy today?), he threw his communicator across the room.
If Altrive sent him a message, he could deal with a late reply. Right now, Jawsh was not in the mood to stand up (his legs ached more than ever before) and pick up his communicator.
All he was hoping for at the moment was to have Altrive bring him his stuff and take a rest for about an hour. He could then go back to building whatever he had wanted to do today.
But anybody can hope and pray for something and not get what they want, because Jawsh immediately heard someone’s voice that he did not want to hear right now.
“Jawsh!”
Looking up, Jawsh was met with Berd entering his room. Berd had his armor on (Jawsh would've laughed at how funny Berd looked with the mask and helmet combined together), while holding his sword on his right hand. His wings covered his arms, but not enough to where Jawsh could still see some of Berd’s arm.
Jawsh stared at Berd for a bit longer before pointing towards the door.
“You want me to leave?” Berd asked, his tone having a hint of him being upset, even though he wasn't. Jawsh nodded. “Oh, come on, I just came from your church. I’m not leaving as soon as I arrive.”
Jawsh scowled in reply, and looked anywhere but Berd. If he didn't pay attention to Berd, the avian would probably get bored and leave Jawsh alone.
But Berd only grew even more annoying as he started tapping his feet loudly on the floor. He was trying to get Jawsh’s attention. There wasn't much Jawsh could do - the best thing to do at the moment was to ignore Berd.
Most of the time when he tried ignoring Berd, though, he'd keep pestering Jawsh until he either got a single word of response or was looked at. No doubt Berd was going to keep annoying him.
And Jawsh’s thoughts were right - Berd started to hum loudly. Jawsh looked up (by this point, Berd had just taken off his mask from his helmet - it probably had gotten too hot for him to handle) and realized that Berd was staring at him still. Hell, he wasn’t just staring, he was observing what Jawsh was doing. Berd had a smile on his face once Jawsh looked at him. The bastard.
“Leave,” was all Jawsh muttered to Berd, knowing that Berd was wanting something to be said by him.
“That’s rude, Jawsh. Not even a ‘hello’ or anything, just a ‘leave’?” Berd teased, a smug grin appearing on his face. “I know you’ve got more to say as well. It’s kind of obvious by how stiff you are.”
With that, Jawsh relaxed his body. He hadn’t even noticed that he had stiffened up as soon as Berd arrived.
Who could blame him?
“Fuck off,” Jawsh said, glaring at Berd. He was so annoying; the way he had to focus on the way Jawsh was, making him continue to talk. Did he ever get tired?
“You don't have to be rude, Jawsh,” Berd replied. “There's something called manners. You could use them, you know.”
“You could've used them too, Berd,” Jawsh snapped, clutching the side of his bed.
“How so?” Berd asked as he started to walk around the room. “Oh, look, your communicator.”
Berd picked up the device, flipping it around and stared at the screen. He sighed, clearly bored at looking at Jawsh’s communicator for the five seconds he had done so. Then he seemed to be pressing around some stuff.
Jawsh couldn't be too sure about what Berd was doing with his communicator, but he desperately was hoping he wasn't doing anything bad to it. If he was trying to break it, then Jawsh hoped he'd fail on doing so.
After he pressed around the device for a few more seconds, Berd dropped it back on the floor and continued to snoop around. Maybe Jawsh could have asked for it so he could have messaged Altrive to hurry up, but he didn’t want to ask Berd for his communicator.
“Jawsh, you have yet to answer my question,” Berd said. Jawsh rolled his eyes, clearly not visible to Berd. “What do you even have in these chests, by the way? You already have a ton at your church. There’s no point in you having chests here, unless you have something valuable?”
“Can you leave my chests alone?” Jawsh mumbled. Berd laughed at the response he was given, as if the thought of being told to leave someone’s chest alone was funny.
He scowled at Berd as the avian took out items that Jawsh had in there that were important. He inspected the items before dropping them back in the chest and repeated the process.
If he wanted to, he could've gone up and told Berd to leave his stuff alone. But getting up to tell Berd to stop wasn't worth the soreness in Jawsh’s legs.
“Jawsh!”
“Oh, look, it’s Altrive,” Berd immediately said as soon as he heard the voice call out, a smile appearing on his face.
Jawsh sighed from relief, ignoring Berd’s comment. He stood up, the ache rushing back, and walked (he didn't notice the first few steps, but he had been subtly limping) towards Altrive. “Thanks. Nothing was lost, right?”
“No, nothing, it was just a large pit, that’s all,” Altrive explained, giving Jawsh his items one by one. “I had to take three trips up and down the pit because you had so many items on you.”
“That might be my fault,” Jawsh mumbled, shaking his head. “But I appreciate you getting me my stuff.”
Altrive grinned before looking behind Jawsh. “Oh, why’s Berd here? Hi Berd!”
“Hi, Altrive,” Berd replied happily. Jawsh could just tell he was grinning without even needing to look back, seeing the aftermath of his prank.
Jawsh shrugged. “He just came by to see me after his prank.”
“That’s who it was! I was thinking about, like, five other people who could’ve done that,” Altrive replied. “I think he was the third or fourth person I thought about.”
“Oh, Jawsh!” Berd suddenly appeared right beside him, and he took a step to the side as his eyes widened from Berd appearing out of nowhere (he was right behind him, how had Berd gotten beside him so quickly?). “Can you come over to my base later today?”
“For what?” If only he could tell Berd to fuck off at this moment. He wouldn’t, though, since Altrive was right in front of him. He didn’t need Berd reminding him that Jawsh had told him to get out two times.
“Just come over,” Berd said, shrugging as he took off his helmet and replaced it with his mask. “I’ll see you later! Bye, Altrive.”
And with that, Berd walked out and left.
Jawsh shook his head, scowling as he could hear Berd walk away and shut the front door hard as he left the building. “I swear, I’m going to kill him one of these days.”
“Would that even be worth the same to what he did to you today?” Altrive asked, tilting his head.
“It would! My legs are killing me, I swear,” Jawsh whined. “Anything I can’t do today, I’m blaming him for.”
“That reminds me that you told me you were planning on adding some glass to the church, weren’t you?”
Fuck.
—○—
“You think the prank I pulled on Jawsh was a bit too harsh?”
Berd was waiting outside of his home for his friend (even if Jawsh didn't think of them being friends) with Lark and Joko. The two had passed by Berd’s house and called him to go out with them so they could go explore some of the other land masses that were near the main island.
And he would have gone with them if it wasn't for Berd asking Jawsh earlier that day to pass by his home. He hadn't exactly given a reason for Jawsh to pass by, but Berd was hoping he would still come by anyways.
So, the three started to talk about many of the things that they had done in the past few weeks. Especially Berd, who had been excited to tell them about the trip he was going to take on the nearby land masses in order to find special loot.
(He had almost hit his friends with the mask a few times; Berd was motioning with his hand so much that the beak of the mask barely scraped Lark's hand and would've hit Joko's arm roughly if he didnt pay attention.)
He wasn't sure how it had gotten from talking about plans to Jawsh (he always seemed to be the center of a conversation without even trying, Berd realized halfway through the conversation), but Lark had mentioned about his visit to Jawsh a few days ago and had a somewhat successful conversation. Lark even said that he was sure Jawsh saw him as a friend by the way he spoke, but wasn't too sure of it.
Joko had laughed at Lark for the extra comment, and then asked Berd about how it was going with him trying to be friends with Jawsh. Berd wasn't exactly proud of the things he had done to try and be Jawsh’s friend, but he assumed he wasn't all that bad.
Which was how it led to him asking his buddies about the prank.
“I mean, if no harm was really done then I don't think it was too harsh,” Joko replied, shrugging. “He wasn't bothered by it?”
“Well, you can't really tell when it's Jawsh,” Berd said, tapping the floor softly as he grew anxious about what he said (because he knows it's a lie, he was able to tell, but how could he admit it?) “He's only really talked more to Altrive. I heard Jawsh say more words with Altrive than anybody else combined today.”
‘Yeah!” Lark added in, nodding quickly before continuing, “Those two are always together at either Jawsh’s house or church. I went over to where Altrive lives three days straight, and I figured out he was at Jawsh’s church and returned only at night.”
“It's weird, though. I've seen those two interact, like, once or twice when we got here,” Joko continued. “All of a sudden, they're acting as if they've known each other their whole lives.”
“That's what I've noticed, too!” Lark agreed, before looking at Berd and motioned with his head for him to continue.
Berd felt strange talking about Jawsh without him being there. Usually, he would see Jawsh pass by groups, and once everyone broke off to go home, Berd would catch a glimpse of Jawsh running off.
If he was assuming right, Jawsh tended to listen in to any conversations, whether or not it was about him. It didn't seem like Jawsh was here at the moment, so maybe it wasn't wrong?
“I think you should ask him once he gets here,” Lark suggested. “Since he's coming by, anyways, you might as well ask him.”
“That's a good idea,” Berd agreed. “But I don't even know if he's coming over.”
“Did you just ask him randomly?” Joko wondered, an eyebrow raised as a smirk was starting to form on his face.
“Possibly?” Berd slowly said, and then sighed. “Yeah, I did.”
“You might as well message him, see if he is still up to coming over.” Joko shook his head at Jawsh, amusement in his eyes. Joko then looked at Lark, who wqs staring off into the distance. “Lark? Lark?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah!” Lark said quickly, nodding. “Sorry, I thought I saw someone but I might actually be going crazy.”
“If you are going crazy, let me know so I don't have to find a way to make you un-crazy,” Joko snickered.
"But I'm not, so you don't need to," Lark said proudly, and Joko rolled his eyes. "I'm not!"
With that, Lark and Joko started saying remarks to each other. Berd laughed, listening to the few words the two said to each other. He pulled out his communicator from his backpack to send a message to Jawsh, still listening to what his friends wer3 saying ("You are not the best person here," was what Lark had just said).
Berd was glad that he had unmuted his chat with Jawsh on the other's communicator. Jawsh would get the message and not ignore it, and he'd get a quick answer instead of a slow one.
You whisper to Its_Jawsh: youre coming over still right
He was about to put away his communicator in his pocket, in case Jawsh replied and he didn’t hear the notification, when he heard the faint sound of a ‘ding!’ from his left. Berd looked at Lark and Joko, seeing if they had heard it as well, but they were still bickering.
Lark had definitely seen someone pass by, and Berd already knew who was hiding somewhere that was nearby.
The guilt of talking about Jawsh washed over Berd all over again.
“What were you guys going to do again?” Berd asked the two, interrupting them from what they were saying.
Joko and Lark looked at him, silent before Lark’s eyes brightened. “Oh, yeah! Joko, come on, we have to go on an adventure. Bye Berd!”
Joko tried to say something, but was barely given the chance as he got dragged by Lark. He gave a quick smile to Berd before being able to use his own legs and run with Lark to go off.
Berd shook his head, glad that he managed to distract his two friend. He needed to talk to Jawsh one-on-one, anyways.
He looked back at the direction where he had heard the small noise. “Get out of your hiding spot, Jawsh.”
For a moment, Berd felt as though he had actually just been hearing things. Everything stayed quiet to the point where he could’ve sworn his own heartbeat could be heard from outside of his body.
Finally, though, he watched as Jawsh walked into the open, looking at the ground (or anywhere else, really) as he avoided making eye contact with Berd. Berd snorted, still unfazed by the lack of social queues from Jawsh.
He could still remember every moment Berd spent annoying Jawsh to the best of his ability. Whether Jawsh talked to him or not, it didn’t matter, as Berd continued to push Jawsh to at least have a longer conversation than a five minute one.
Jawsh had always told Berd to leave him alone, but never in a rude manner. Sometimes it had been in a way that Jawsh just wanted to be left alone. Or that Jawsh wasn’t doing anything and he didn't give a care in the world if Berd had been bothering him, just that he wanted to tell the avian to leave. Other times he would just tell him to stop with no other motive but to just say it with no clear way of knowing if he was pissed or not.
But Berd had been able to hear the change of tone when Jawsh had been telling him to leave earlier that day. Upset, very much more annoyed, and if Berd was able to remember well, maybe even a bit scared.
“Let’s go in,” Berd finally said, motioning with his hand to enter his glass home. Jawsh nodded, mouth still shut as he followed Berd.
Berd looked back at Jawsh as they waited for a few seconds for the ‘door’ made of vanishing blocks opened, and he slightly frowned as he focused on Jawsh’s expression.
Jawsh seemed rather grim, as if the walk from his base to here was painful for him. It was still painted on Berd’s mind how Jawsh had practically limped from his bed to him, even though it had been such a short distance.
He had to wonder how Jawsh’s pain was.
Once the two walked in, Jawsh instantly started to look around, placing a hand against the wall. Berd placed his mask on one of the chests and stared for a few seconds, worried before Jawsh removed his hand off the wall. He crossed his arms against his chest, and looked at Berd.
“You needed me for something?” Jawsh asked, a blank stare being given to him. Berd nodded in response, not exactly sure what he was going to tell Jawsh. “Go on, Berd. I don't have all day.”
Berd rolled his eyes. “You say that as an excuse whenever you can, Jawsh. You do have all day.”
“Not today,” Jawsh said. “I need to get going with my build.”
“Okay,” Berd replied, not convinced as he nodded slowly. “What do you even need to get done?”
“Adding in windows.” Jawsh shrugged, like he was unsure himself of what he was doing.
Berd snorted. “That's it? That's the most important part?”
“Yes? I would have had it done a while ago if you didn't pull off your prank,” Jawsh complained, his face scowling.
“Oh, yeah,” Berd said, glad that Jawsh had managed to make comment about what he'd done so he could ask his question. “Are you doing okay from that? I would've asked you earlier, but you were with Altrive.”
Jawsh was probably going to say some stupid remark, but closed his mouth as quickly as he had opened it. He winced and, once again, started to look at anywhere but Berd.
They were back to silence from Jawsh. This was, possibly, the most Jawsh had really said to Berd in the past three days (before that, Berd had been busy and didn't have the time to talk to Jawsh), and it wasn't for a good reason as well.
It was worrying though; why did Jawsh not want to answer his question?
Jawsh wasn't looking or responding to him. He was trying to avoid him earlier, and he was avoiding him now with his question.
Berd focused in on Jawsh’s body posture and noticed how stiff his stance was once more - just as it had been earlier when Berd went in his home to annoy him more.
Finally, after a minute or two of silence, Jawsh spoke. “I'm fine. Are we done?”
He frowned. Jawsh was not fine. “You're not.”
“You asked me if I was okay, not if you knew,” Jawsh said. “I'll get going now, thanks.”
And with that, Jawsh stepped in front of the vanishing blocks (no wonder he stood nearby the door) and left.
Berd would've called out to him. Maybe he should've, but something stopped him from doing so. He could ask Altrive to check on him later.
He had a feeling something was going to happen. His stomach turned and twisted itself as kept thinking about Jawsh even trying to complete his church with the windows in pain.
With that placed in his mind, he decided that he'd check up on Jawsh later. For now, Berd would give him the space he needed.
You whisper to Altrive: is jawsh doing ok
His worry had caught up to him after two hours after he and Jawsh barely spoke at his glass home. Altrive was the only other person that Berd could think about being somewhere where Jawsh was.
Berd stared at the screen, wings fluffing up as he waited for a reply. There was no way to see if Altrive was typing right now, and if he was, Berd was hoping it would be something positive.
Altrive whispers to you: not sure, im not with him rn
He bit the inside of his mouth.
Altrive whispers to you: but tbh he did kick me out of the church
Altrive whispers to you: want me to check?
Berd stared at the message for a few seconds, not sure what to say. He had never thought that Jawsh would tell Altrive to leave him alone. Altrive was the only friend Jawsh seemed to really talk more to.
You whisper to Altrive: no its ok i can check
Quickly, he stood up from sitting on top of the chests and put on his mask, not paying attention if he had scratched himself or not. Berd already had his armor on, so he didn't have to find it.
Without even looking around to make sure he didn't forget anything, he rushed out of his glass home and went in the direction of where Jawsh’s two buildings were.
He could hear off in the distance someone calling out his name, but he ignored them. Whoever it was, they could talk to him later.
What time even was it?
It had gotten dark outside since the past hour, so it must've been late evening or early night. There was barely any noise - the only thing he could hear were people talking (it was always the loudest ones Berd could hear).
In the distance, he could faintly see the structure of Jawsh’s house. He wasn't sure how fast he had been walking for him to be able to reach the bridge that went to Jawsh’s house. But it was still a good thing that he was able to get here quickly.
As he started running towards Jawsh’s house, Berd faintly heard someone call his name again. Scowling, he shouted back, “Talk to me later!”
Not rude, he thought, it was just a request that hopefully the person behind him would understand. Berd just didn't have the time to talk for even just a few minutes.
He reached to the front door of the large house, and opened it. “Hello?”
It was painful for Berd to not hear anything. Jawsh whined and complained so much that Berd knew he would be able to hear him since his room in the building was right next to the entrance. He also never closed the doors fully, so whatever Jawsh did was hearable throughout the hallways.
Without hesitating, he rushed towards Jawsh’s room and opened the door wide open, ignoring the slam it made as it hit the wall. Frantically looking around, Berd knew that Jawsh had to be at the church. A soundless and empty room wasn't something Berd wanted to see at the moment.
The faint feeling of his heart burning was felt through his body. Berd ignored it - he would focus on Jawsh first before he focused on himself.
Once more, he rushed out of the building from the back and headed towards the church. It was more visible from Jawsh’s home than the main island. A beauty, really, but Berd had never said it to anybody out loud. Maybe he should.
He was still wondering why Jawsh had been more upset at being killed from his prank, but not in the way that he was going to tease Jawsh about it forever. Berd could sense how painful the aftermath was. Limping, facial expression whenever he moved anything, talking - Jawsh was scared.
Maybe he should've done something different. Berd loved to prank Jawsh, since it got him a good reaction and he'd get at least a few words before Jawsh ignored him. He could've gone with a simpler one.
Really, anything that wasn't positive was going through his mind. Jawsh could just be fine, for all he knew, and Berd was just going to look crazy.
If Jawsh was to be at the church, where would he be?
Now Berd was just making this into a fun stupid game of hide and seek, with Jawsh not even knowing it. The thought alone cracked a small smile on Berd’s face as he got close enough to the church to where the church loomed over him.
There seemed to be something new added onto the church, Berd noticed. Colored glass panes were added to the circle that was on top of the large doorway entrance. A recent addition that Berd knew Jawsh had to get up and down multiple times if he kept falling.
Oh, right.
Realization hit Berd as he started to understand why Jawsh was upset, but before he could even think about it clearly, Berd heard someone from behind again.
“Lord, Berd, I'm never running after you again.”
He turned around to find Altrive putting his hands on his knees, breathing heavily before standing up straight and walking beside him.
“Were you the one calling after me just a few minutes ago?” Berd asked, turning to face Altrive. He felt bad now - he had basically ignored someone who was chasing after him. It had to be related to Jawsh.
“Yeah. I won't lie, I'm worried too,” Altrive said quickly before motioning with his hand to go towards the direction of where many of the chests were. “If I can think correctly, Jawsh would be near his storage for the build. Always looking for something, that guy.”
“Okay,” Berd replied, immediately rushing over to the chests and not waiting for Altrive.
He looked around, eyes looking at anything but seeing nothing but chests and chests and the amount of furnaces that Jawsh placed around. That guy could never stay organised.
“Not here,” Berd said as he looked back. Altrive stood there, blinking before shaking his head.
“Inside we go then- actually, why don't you check the roof?” Altrive suggested. “I'll check inside, you on the roof. Jawsh might've started on building something for the upper part of the church.”
“Yup, okay, got it.” Berd didn't hesitate and flapped his wings with enough momentum to be able to fly up to the roof.
His heart was trying to kill him. It ached more and more as the seconds went by, and he didn't know why. From worry or something else, Berd couldn't exactly figure it out.
As he landed on the roof, he could faintly see the start of either a new floor or arch on the upper part of the church. It was surely early night at this point since the moon was up and the sun had gone off to somewhere else. Berd could really use the sunlight for this.
He walked closer to the new part of the church, and heard something. Altrive was way down at the bottom, so unless he had dropped something, it would have had an echoed sound. But this noise didn't have an echo.
It sounded like shuffling. Like someone dragging themselves across the floor. Berd stayed still, not doing anything before he tapped the floor once.
Shuffling again.
Someone was up here. It had to be Jawsh. Nobody else would bother to get up on the roof to fool with Jawsh.
“Jawsh?” Berd whispered. “You here?”
With that, Berd felt relieved as he watched Jawsh poke his head out and then hide again behind the wall that was in front of Berd. He couldn't care about Jawsh hiding again - all he could really be glad about was seeing Jawsh.
“Berd! You've found him?” Altrive called out, and Berd was careful to walk to the edge and look down. “I can't find him down here.”
“Yeah,” Berd replied. “He's up here, hiding. Come up if you can, or I can get down with him.”
“I'd rather not go up there,” Altrive said, and walked out of the church. Possibly to wait outside, since he definitely wasn't coming up to the roof.
“Jawsh,” Berd softly said, looking over once more to where he had seen Jawsh. “Do you want to talk?”
No answer. He sighed, and walked over to where Jawsh was.
Jawsh was sitting on the floor, avoiding eye contact once more as he gripped somewhere on his leg. He shifted his leg, as if trying to hide it. Jawsh’s pants were rolled up as well.
Berd could barely hear the other's breathing, but the faint hitch in his breathing said what Berd had to understand.
“Show me your leg,” Berd said, his hand reaching over to the leg that Jawsh was gripping. He could sense the hesitation from Jawsh, but nonetheless he let go of his leg and slowly moved it towards Berd.
Berd winced as he got a look at the injured leg. The wound didn’t seem to be too deep, which was good, but Jawsh had probably bothered the wound too much. From the little light coming from outside, Berd could tell there was dried blood surrounding the cut. Jawsh must’ve been up here for too long.
“How long have you been up here for?” Berd asked, placing a finger where the dried blood was and moving it around slightly to make sure there was not too much blood coming out. He could feel Jawsh trying to pull away, but Berd shook his head. “Don’t. It’s gonna make it worse.”
Jawsh sighed, stopping his movement but still not answering Berd’s question. Frowning, Berd lifted his finger and took out his communicator. He looked at Jawsh, tilting his head in hopes that he’d reply to the question.
A minute passed by with no reply, and Berd started to send a quick message to Altrive.
You whisper to Altrive: can you actually come up here with some wool
“Does your leg still hurt from earlier?” Berd wasn’t going to stop with the questions. Until he got an answer from Jawsh, he was going to keep asking. He knew eventually Jawsh was going to talk. It was just more so what he’d answer.
Berd took out a torch he had in his pocket and lit it up, placing it on the ground so he could get a better view of the wound. He had been completely wrong about not a lot of blood coming out. There was still more coming out of the wound, but it was slow. It was going down his legs, instead of the sides.
“Still hurts, right?” Berd said, and he could see from the corner of his eyes Jawsh nodding slowly. That was a start. Not a lot, but Berd was still glad that Jawsh was communicating in some form.
If he had something on him, he would use it to treat his wound. Sure, he could use the sweater he had on, but he’d have to take off his armor. It would take too much time to take off the chestplate.
‘Ding!’
Altrive must’ve replied. He looked up at Jawsh, handing him the communicator that had been on the floor. “Can you tell me what Altrive said? I’ll tell you how to reply.”
If Jawsh wasn’t going to reply to any of his questions, he might as well get Jawsh to talk by having him answer whatever had been messaged to him. With hopes raised for Berd, he was sure Altrive must’ve replied to his message that was probably a few minutes ago.
Jawsh stared, confused before shrugging and looking at the communicator. For a moment, Berd was worried he wouldn’t actually get something from Jawsh, but he was glad to hear Jawsh’s voice as he spoke. “He said that he’ll be up in a few minutes. No wool in…my chests?”
“Okay, tell him to hurry up,” Berd said, ignoring the way Jawsh had questioned about the chests. “If you can, send it twice.”
Jawsh sighed as he nodded, and Berd watched as he pressed around the screen. He looked back at the wound. What could he use?
Whatever, he thought to himself as he stood up and started to take off his chestplate. He struggled to take off the little zipper on the back of the armor - and he could sense his arms getting sore from being behind his back for too long (which was two minutes. Berd had to wonder how his arms managed to get sore so quickly). It was an uncomfortable feeling, to which his wings were starting to puff up.
He managed to get the chestplate off and took off the sweater that was beneath the chestplate. It got cold instantly, with Berd only having a short-sleeve shirt on. It was cold, so cold, but he ignored the chills he was getting and crouched down, holding his sweater in hand.
“Lift your leg up,” Berd said, and he watched as Jawsh slowly lifted the injured leg up. His breathing hitched even more as he lifted it up and kept it in the air. “Don’t think about your leg.”
“How do you expect me not to?” Jawsh scowled.
“Just don’t?” Berd replied, a smirk on his face while carefully covering the wound with his sweater. Berd used the sleeves that were left hanging after tying it around the wound to clean up some of the blood on Jawsh’s leg.
“You are the worst, Berd,” Jawsh said.
Berd eyes lit up as he heard the way Jawsh had said those four words. Jawsh was teasing him. Jawsh wasn’t getting pissed.
For once in any conversation Berd had had with him, Jawsh was being playful.
He brushed off the happiness for a quick moment as he rolled his eyes and left the sleeves hanging beside Jawsh’s leg. “Whatever you say, Jawsh.”