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Millions upon billions of blocks out was a small house in a swamp, hidden by the trees and protected by a wall made of stone bricks, some of which already had moss growing on them. The walls weren’t really gonna do much if anyone on the server actually wanted to attack, but they’d have to find this place first, which meant they’d have to be looking for it. Nobody in their right mind would go here just for the sake of exploration, which was why this was the perfect place for two individuals to live peacefully.
They have tried something similar to this before but back then they were followed and their plan failed, both due to how pushy their pursuer was and how stubborn they were to not give him what he wanted, but this time was different. They had used an ender-canon that was rigged to self-destruct after one use so they couldn’t be followed, then they avoided flying for days on end so nobody could spot them in the sky and lastly they traveled underground for a while, constantly making sure they were alone.
Wemmbu sat down on the stairs of their porch with a sigh, a bowl of mushroom stew with eggs in his hands. It’s been months since him and Egg finally finished their house out here in The Sticks. Egg initially suggested they call it District 8 but Wemmbu rejected the idea. While they were building they had jokingly referred to their home as The Sticks over and over again and it just kind of stuck.
Egg joined his friend on the porch and the two clinked their bows together before starting to eat. As always, it was a quiet morning, some fireflies still out and about, a fog settling on the ground at their feet while the lanterns at their farm flickered. The air smelled of moss and dirt but they had gotten used to it. After all, it was leagues better than the smell of blood and gunpowder.
“Hey, Egg? You think you can help me wash my hair today?” Wemmbu asked after swallowing some of his stew. Wem’s hair was extremely long, reaching his knees. He didn’t like the thought of cutting his hair, the last time it was cut still leaving a bad taste in his mouth, memories of iron bars and orange jumper suits flashing in his mind.
“Sure, bro. It’s about time anyway, it has enough moss stuck in it to start its own eco system.” Egg joked, having finished his breakfast already and was now drinking his cup of tea. the comment earned him a playful punch from the shorter demon, both of them chuckling.
Washing Wemmbu’s hair was no small task, they’d first have to untangle it then lightly brush it with oil, letting that sit for an hour before rinsing it out. They used to first wash his scalp before treating the lengths but they figured they could combine the rinsing process with the massage to save water. Then, for the rest of the day, Wemmbu would need to let his hair dry. The final step was applying a powder to his entire hair which he would brush out the next day.
It might seem like a chore but neither of them minded too much. After all, it wasn’t like they had much else to do with their time anymore.
Once both of them finished their breakfast Egg took over the task of doing the dishes while Wemmbu prepared the hair oil and the shampoo in their bath house.
Originally they had just a bathroom but once they started adding rooms to their house they converted the bathroom to a storage room and moved it to its own separate shed. They also had a training area but Wemmbu was largely the only one using it.
Egg entered just as Wemmbu took off his shirt, folding it lazily and placing it on the counter. The celestial had seen his friend shirtless before many times but he couldn’t help but stare each time. The scars on his back alone were so numerous that they overlapped and almost looked like a map. then there were Wemmbu’s wings, once large and proud, they had been reduced to a tattered mess, barely functional, scars of immense heat lining the edges. Egg wasn’t there when he got that injury and Wemmbu didn’t like talking about it.
The tall celestial rolled up his sleeves, sitting down behind Wemmbu as he took a comb and began to gently untangle his hair. The half-demon purred quietly, relaxing under his friend’s touch. Eggchan was the only person where Wemmbu could truly relax like this, even when they were hunted or in a war, it was Egg who helped Wemmbu stay calm and focused. He was his greatest ally and, in the eyes of his many enemies, his biggest weakness, but to Wemmbu he was his closest, most trusted and only true friend. He placed a hand over a scar on his shoulder, wondering that if things had gone differently between him and Zam they could have been friends like that, too.
“Stop thinking about your ex.” Egg snapped him out of his thoughts and Wemmbu scoffed, rolling his eyes.
“I’m not thinking about anyone.”
“Bullshit, you touch that scar every time you think of Zam.”
“I do?”
“Mhm.”
Wemmbu never noticed but now that Egg had mentioned it he was right. It has been years but that betrayal still lingered in his mind, it still hurt, even if just a little bit.
“...I trusted him.”
“I know.”
“I really liked him, too...”
“I know you did.”
They’ve had this conversation countless times before but Egg never made him feel like he couldn’t bring it up another thousand times, if he needed to. Before Egg joined Zam had been a friend to Wemmbu, after all, and Egg was thankful to him for that. Still, thinking about what Zam had done and how he had treated Wemmbu afterwards made his blood boil. Sure, the former prince may have turned over a new leaf and retired but not once did he ever apologise to Wemmbu for the way he hurt him.
“...Are there other scars I touch when talking or thinking about something in specific?” the hybrid wondered out loud before turning his head slightly to look at his lore-keeper, who sighed and turned his head to face forward again, causing the shorter menace of a man to chuckle.
“Let me think... There is this burn mark on your left arm that you hold when you talk about FlameFrags. What’s up with that?”
Wemmbu lifted his arm to look at the scar in question. It was one of his earlier fights with Flame, before he got trained by Manepear. Wemmbu had been in a tight spot and trying to escape when Flame caught him, grabbing him by his arm. The half-demon’s chest plate had broken, leaving him with no protection for his upper body, so when the fire elemental grabbed him he branded his skin through his shirt painfully. His scream had been so loud that it had stunned Flame for a second, which was what allowed Wemmbu to escape. It was that day he truly realised the gap in power between him and Frags.
“Oh, that. I underestimated Flame and got my ass handed to me, escaped through pure luck, really. I tried to heal with an Gapple but the wound was too severe and I had no healing potions.” Was Wemmbu’s explanation to him, shrugging. It had been so long since he got that scar, he couldn’t feel it at all anymore.
By now Egg finally untangled all of Wemmbu’s hair, popping his back with a groan. Wemmbu followed suit, cracking his neck and rolling his shoulders. He then looked over his shoulder at Eggchan, who readied the oil.
“What about you? You got that one scar on your biceps.” Wemmbu inquired, pointing at where the scar was under Egg’s shirt before turning to face the front again. Egg hummed, recalling how he got that.
“It happened after you managed to escape Clownpierce’s prison when we were getting swarmed. They slashed my arm so I couldn’t use my weapons anymore and I was forced to surrender.”
Wemmbut winced, remembering that scene like it happened yesterday. He still felt super guilty for being unable to help anyone else escape that day, that included Zam. If he had gotten to Spepticle sooner, if he had been quicker in building the canon, if he could have just convinced Zam that they could all escape together–
“Stop it, you’re doing it again.” Eggchan told him, holding Wemmbu’s hand, which had been on the Zam Scar again. Wem let out a sigh, slumping his shoulders. Egg was right, there was no use thinking about that anymore. In the end, they all escaped anyway and Zam also retired. Most importantly, him and Egg were now safe. they no longer had to worry about these things anymore...
Wemmbu was sitting by the fireplace, letting his hair dry while Egg was journaling in his armchair. The half-demon had put his shirt back on again, playing with his tail as he watched the fire dance in the fireplace.
Fire reminded Wemmbu of a lot of things, few of them good memories, but by far the worst one made his wings tingle to this day. It was the most painful physical injury Wemmbu had ever received and for a long time he couldn’t even look at himself in the mirror because of it. Never once had he talked about it to anyone...
“Hey, Egg? There is one scar I haven’t told you about.” Wemmbu started, voice uncharacteristically quiet. Eggchan looked up from his book, his blue eye immediately on Wemmbu’s wings. He stayed quiet, allowing Wemmbu to continue, letting him know that he would listen. The shorter male slowly inhaled and exhaled before he began to explain.
“Is that all you got? What a joke!”
Wemmbu flew high in the sky, his wings casting a shadow at the group of people below him as he laughed at them trying to shoot him down. Almost effortlessly he dodged their arrows, shooting some of his own and hitting the people below him.
He may haven gotten on the bad side of a couple of guys after griefing their base, leaving his mark, which just so happened to be a crater caused by TNT. Hey, he still left them half a base so they could at least rebuild it, sort of, all Wemmbu took were some Totems, potions and pretty much all of the God Apples.
“You’ll pay for this, Wemmbu! Come down here and fight us!” One of them shouted, shooting another arrow and missing badly, Wemmbu didn’t even have to dodge that one. He continued laughing, flying circles around the group of four.
“If you want me on the ground you’re gonna need to shoot me down, ya chungies!” The hybrid yelled with a grin before flying right above them, casting his shadow in the people blow.
“You look like little ants from up here! What do you guys even think you could do against me? You can’t hit a single shot!”
“Just you wait, Wemmbu! You won’t be able to fly forever and when that moment comes, we-”
“Yap, yap, yap! Save your dramatic speeches for someone who cares!”
The purple half-demon was cocky, confident in his ability to dodge every shot. What he hadn’t expected to hear was the hissing of TNT behind him. he turned around, confused, when he came face to face with a TNT canon and a person in full enchanted netherite pointing a crossbow with a rocket at him. His eyes went wide and he quickly tuned to fly away but he wasn’t fast enough. He managed to throw a pearl before he got hit with blue and white fireworks in the back.
Wemmbu cried out in pain, feeling the burning on his back through his armour, but it wasn’t over. The canon fired and he was blinded and deafened for a couple seconds. He must be screaming but he couldn’t hear it, he only felt the vibrations in his throat. His ears were filled with a loud ringing, his face wet from fresh tears as he writhed on the ground, clawing at the grass. Everything hurt, he couldn’t register anything besides the searing hot pain on his back.
Then his pearl landed and Wemmbu was underwater. The water hissed and he continued to scream, bubbles leaving his throat instead of sounds. Instinctively he swam up, clawing his way to the shore, panting heavily and coughing up water, which camouflaged his tears. He took out all the God Apples he stole and downed them one by one, all 20 of them, but nothing fully stopped the pain. He stayed there, wailing on the ground, mourning the loss of his wings, all alone with nobody on the server who’d ever want to help him. He had made too many enemies and only had himself to blame for this.
For months nobody had seen Wemmbu after that incident and people grew suspicious. Was he planning something big? Search parties were arranged, among them the group that robbed him of his precious wings.
In the dead of night their group found him. His wings were shredded and tattered, the leather hanging off the bones loosely. It still had a lingering smell of burning flesh, the shadow they cast now way more disturbing as he stood on a hill above the five people, fully armoured with a sword in hand. In rapid succession the others saw the Interface full with death messages of five players and when two other parties arrived it was a massacre. In the middle was Wemmbu, eating another golden apple before vanishing due to the pearl he threw before the others had arrived.
“...I stopped blowing up bases after that and, until the whole Spoke thing, I rarely interacted with anyone else.”
Egg had stayed silent the entire time, listening carefully. Whenever he had seen the scar on his back he knew it must have been painful but he could never imagine just how painful it must have been. He still couldn’t. It was something one would have to feel and even then his brain probably wouldn’t be able to comprehend it.
Slowly, Eggchan got out of his chair, placing his journal on the arm rest, then walked over to his friend, sitting down on the floor beside him. Carefully, he wrapped an around around his shoulder, making the shorter man lean against him. He didn’t resist.
The two of them sat like this for a while, letting time pass by, the only sounds were the leaves rustling outside in the wind and the fire crackling and popping beside them. Wemmbu slowly smiled and closed his eyes, feeling like a huge weight had been lifted off his chest. For the first time in a very, very long while he felt like if he spread his wings he could fly again.