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A Single Undyed Shulker Box

Summary:

It’s amazing how much a single shulker box can mean.
Hermitcraft: Lucky in Love Day 22 - PearlescentMoon and Grian

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

It’s amazing how much a single shulker box can mean.
Now, a shulker box that holds a full and fully enchanted set of diamond gear and more is a little easier to understand meaning so much. And yet it doesn’t even approach the depth of things. So much of what makes that shulker box special isn’t within the box at all; it’s what led to the box being made. 
Memories

It’s a distress call sent out in desperation after a moment of whimsy went very, very wrong.
It’s a snowman built upside-down, as if that will make the happy ghast grown from the snowman’s snow specially designed to save an Australian.
It’s fighting off the enderman for vengeance in the process of saddling up.

It’s the flash of void-damaged endermen beginning just below the ghast’s tentacles.
It’s coordinates, checked and rechecked and rechecked, precious height wasted on logging.
It’s standing on the far corner to hold the ghast still and praying he’s low enough.

It’s being low enough.
It’s being too low.
It’s being just low enough that a named fear becomes reality.

Splat.

It’s a pair of pants, a red bundle of bits, and 49 arrows as the only survivors on the saddle.
It’s the calculation: 41 blocks of safety with the boots alone, more with Protection (not enough).
It’s logging out not resetting fall distance; five blocks too low.

It’s the guilt that only comes from trying and failing to do the impossible and being so, so, so close.
It’s remembering a villager setup that was the plan before the call.
It’s a pick and wings lent out, and a job to do.

It’s a sword, a bow, and a spear.
It’s a hoe, and an axe, and a shovel.
It’s a helmet, and a chestplate, and boots.
It’s two picks, and a stack of food, split for symmetry.
Everything matched, everything named, everything labeled.
(It’s even a chestplate redone for forgetting the Firemaster’s Fire Protection.)

Three hours later, a life rebuilt, all held within a single undyed shulker box.
And only a single request in return:
Don’t rename the bow.

Notes:

For those of you following me on AO3 only - hi! I'm doing ANOTHER month of Lucky in Love, aka randomly assigned hermitshipping. Because I can, and you all liked it last year!

Pearl and Grian are two people who both hear the siren call of shenanigans; the only difference is that Pearl tunes it out some of the time, and Grian almost never does. Beneath that, they both work very hard to support their friends individually and as a server-wide situation, and the history they have of building together is something to be admired. Sometimes, you can imagine that knowing someone like Pearl is around who will take up a mantle like "firefighter" takes some of the pressure off the back of Grian's mind when he's looking to instigate things like arson - and at the end of the day, Pearl knows Grian works as hard as he plays. Just. Only when he feels like it.

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