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“What are you doing in my house?” The fisherman asked. The woman jumped up in surprise hearing the voice, seemingly forgetting that this was his house. Now, he hadn’t expected much when he entered his home, but he certainly didn’t expect to see Gem holding onto a bunch of papers while her eyes sparkled looking at it.
Currently, Gem was scavenging around in Grian’s house, looking around at the shelves and decorations. Why was she in Grian’s base? Well, simple- she was bored! The server had been quiet for the last few weeks, and she had been feeling rather mischievous that day. Annoyingly though, most of her regular “victims” were unavailable. She couldn't bother Pearl who was currently working on something, Skizz was busy stuck in that pyramid of his and Impulse was wrapped up with metro mayhem. She didn’t feel like building either, and so by process of elimination, that left her with only one option: Grian, who was currently the only other online player NOT busy and one of her regular victims.
Finding the man was easy. It took less than a minute since they were neighbours and lived right beside each other, and for the last three months at least Grian could always be seen in the same spot. Flying over, she wasn’t shocked to see the man fishing at the now patched up deck. Thinking about it, she’s probably seen him here every time she’s logged since the first week of the server. (She remembered Joel mentioning something about the sea possessing the man at some point.)
Looking further, she could also see some new buildings in place up on the cliff. She could make out a red building and a blue one in the works too, along with splashes of spruce wood.
Curiosity got the better of her, and she decided that exploring his new buildings took priority over messing with the man, for now.
She scavenged around in his base for a while, finding all sorts of things. Shulker boxes played around haphazardly, all of them filled with random items and building materials; a chest full of fish, books and damaged rods; some dusty books that clear haven’t been read in a while; frankly, some ugly looking paintings and small model houses and more.
Looking around more, finding a few more junk items, something finally caught her eye. From afar, she could see a plastic sheet containing some small sized papers and a stamp(?). Walking closer to the shelf, she could see it more clearly- it was a letter making set. The papers had flower motifs on them, and lines going across the paper, clearly indicating it was for writing.
In the corner of the plastic sheet we’re some cute, simplistic stickers. Looking closely, she could make out some of the designs- one resembled maple, another was a pumpkin, a ghost, a rabbit, more flowers and more.
Turning around to the back, there were multiple empty envelopes at the back. They weren’t as decorated as the letters and appeared simpler, only being off white in colour and no design motive seen.
Temptation got the best of her, and she was about to open the letter when she heard a voice come from just outside the room.
Back to the present, she was currently tip-toed over the shelf and holding the set, a nervous look appearing on his face
“Ah, Grian! Um…nothinngggg?” The women said, clearly doing something. She quickly went to hide the letters behind her back, but Grian had already seen all he needed to see. He raised an eyebrow at her, unimpressed.
“Why are you scavenging in my base? And what are you doing taking my stuff?” He asked. He had just been fishing at his dock when he flew into his base to get materials, a sudden bout of inspiration hitting him. Upon entering his base, lo and behold, he found Gem stealing his items.
Thinking more about it, he really shouldn’t have been surprised to see her here. He had heard the sounds of someone flying over, but he didn’t think much of it, being too entranced with his mending book. The flight seemingly lasted for a very short perio, only needing one or maybe two rockets, meaning the player had to be living nearby. That, combined with the fact that him and Gem were the only other players online that weren’t deep with some building or redstone, could only leave the possibility of her being the one to disturb him.
“What? Haha, I don’t understand. What could you possibly be talking about?” She initially tried to feign ignorance, hoping she could- by some miracle- squeeze her way out of this situtaion but that clearly didn't work as all she received in response was the parrot hybrid’s wings lowering out of disappointment and him blinking. As a result, she had no choice but to admit the truth.
"Oh okay fine! I got bored and everyone else is busy. I had seen that you made some new buildings so I thought i’d maybe steal something or prank you somehow.” She relented. Grian crossed his arms and let out an audible sigh hearing that. Gem slouched over, trying to look ashamed or regretful, knowing full well she wasn’t.
“But, but, but! Look at this!” Quickly recovering from her (fake) sadness, she pulled up the set like it was some award, excitement clear on her fake. Grian blinked for a second, trying to recall when he had obtained this and from whom.
He had forgotten about it until the start of the season. He had gotten it from BigB a while back (along with a cryptic message that was in fashion for the man), probably during Christmas last year when all the EVO members decided to have a reunion. He then wrote one or two letters with it before putting it aside to collect dust. When the season started up, he had found it again and put it on the back of his shelf inside his base, thinking he would make use of it (He didn’t. He forgot again.)
“Look! It’s super duper cute, right? I was thinking, since christmas is coming soon, we could maybe use these. I know we have the postal system which pretty much removes the need for these letter sets, but come on, these have so much more charm!” Gem reasoned, muttering a quick “not to be rude to them” under her breath (“them” being Tango, Pearl and Etho who made the postal system that season).
She went back to reviewing the set, and her eyes sparkled again thinking of what she could write with it. She even thought about digging out the box of stickers she had somewhere in her house to decorate the letters
“I guess you’re not wrong…Might as well. I haven’t seen EVO guys in a while. They do seem fun.” Grian considered. He had written paper letters in the past rather than the convenient digital ones before- some joke about the server based around old versions using old ways to communicate and for the whimsy- but they were never extravagant, being just simple letters with a few stickers scattered around. He figured it wouldn't hurt to try though.
Seeing his agreement to join, Gem’s face lit up (along with her yelling an happy “Yes!”) and she ran off. Almost immediately, the orange haired woman came back with a pencil case and a box full of stickers. She was practically buzzing with excitement, a wide grin evident on her face.
They headed over to the coffee table to write the letters. They made sure to not write too many of letters, as even though the set had a lot more empty letters then one would expect, there was still a rather limited number of letters they could write before they ran out.
At one point, Gem Had stolen the letter Grian was writing and started running around and playing tag. As payback, Grian ended up stealing her stationary and flying ariund before getting caught. They also drew on each others letters too, along with numerous other shenanigans.
They ended up writing until the evening, and handed out the letters to the hermits via the postal system.
“That was funsies! We need to find more of these, I bet the other hermits would love them…” Gem suggested, skipping happily.
“Agreeded. Although im not sure where BigB actually got this set.” Grian muttered, walking alongside Gem.