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This world was supposed to be their final. At least that was the discussions Doc heard from Xisuma and Keralis. It was calm, it was lush, it was… well, perfect. No one was going to argue.
And since they were planning to stay, hermits decided to properly organise the shopping district, to choose who would be in charge of it and take care of everything within… Somehow the choice fell on Scar.
The terraforming started quickly and the vex, with the help of Bdubs, quickly got rid of the mycelium. Doc had mixed feelings about the environmental change. As a glare himself, he couldn’t really approve the destruction of nature just to be replaced with something more suitable. But Scar had two other glares on his team: Bdubs and Cub, so the goat stayed quiet. Just occasionally helped any leftover mycelium to spread.
But the entire situation quickly grew out of control. The lasers, the HEP… It was too much and just as a joke, as a reminder as to who in this group is a mad scientist, Doc decided to make a gun.
It was stupid, but it worked as an element of surprise. And that’s all Doc wanted. Just to surprise the ‘mayor’. Scare a bit, sure, but all of this was harmless fun.
“Wow!” Scar, after a small moment of panic and a high pitched ‘what is the world?’ quickly jumped on the opportunity to investigate the new weapon.
“That’s amazing stuff! Are you sure you don’t want to work for HEP? I’d love to have guns!” The vex was brightly smiling, putting on that charming and salesmaking personality.
“I can make one for you if you let mycelium spread,” Doc carefully watched Scar’s eyes. He wanted to ensure vex wasn’t going to get away with a fake deal. And Doc was right to do so.
“Why, of course, of course,” Scar carefully took the gun out of Doc’s hand, getting a feel for it. But his eyes not even once shined cyan. He was trying to get away with eating and having a cake.
“Scar, I want a proper-“ Doc got cut off by the sudden loud BANG.
The mayor held a smoking gun, grinning with all his teeth like a child. Doc didn’t even know what to say. He forgot what he wanted to say.
“Scar!” Xisuma’s voice quickly interrupted the silence. “What was that!? What are you two doing!?”
The vex winced at the voidwalker’s scolding, Doc tried to explain that he didn’t expect Scar to shoot blindly somewhere. But Xisuma, being almost shot to death, didn’t want to hear it.
A new rule quickly emerged.
No guns allowed. The exception being one gun Doc already has, but it is not allowed to be used. If anyone makes a gun or uses a gun, they would be kicked to the void with the said weapon.
Quite a drastic rule, but Doc understood the reason. And fairly, the goat got away with keeping his creation, so it didn’t bother him that much.
A lot had happened since.
A few hermits got abducted by void angels, or how others call them watchers.
That caused the plan to stay permanently in one world to be abandoned as Xisuma started to look for a new one urgently.
And then it happened again… but this time hermits returned with the watcher who was kidnapping them: Grian. A tiny man, harmless looking. But he proved himself to be a good person quite quickly by helping Cub and Xisuma figure out what was going on with the moon, to find yet another world for them all to move: safe and far away from the watcher's nest.
It looked promising. It was promising. Grian had said he was in charge of the games and now that the watcher was no longer in society they should stop.
They didn’t.
The same people, even Grian himself, disappeared yet for another few months. Came back emotionally unavailable and clearly traumatised. Hermits learned to help them to recover. It was the best course of action.
When the idea to move again was suggested, Grian shut it down.
“It would be useless… We have archives, we have seers, there’s just…” The watcher took a deep breath, glaring at his cup of tea like it had answers. “There is nowhere to hide from them. Let’s just ignore it and keep living.”
And while Xisuma and Keralis clearly wanted to argue, while they dreaded letting their “kids” suffer and not do anything about it… every other victim of these games agreed with Grian.
“It’s… it’s better if we stay. It’s more relaxing if we don’t have to worry about moving and just… be home after it all.” Impulse chimed in. As an emotional parent to everyone here, his words meant a lot.
And so it was decided for them to stay.
Everything went back to normal.
And then they all disappeared again for a few months, came back traumatised and exhausted, but at least everyone was prepared to deal with this.
There was no meeting, no serious discussion. Just quiet, calm, comforting time.
And when everyone was feeling better, the normal atmosphere would resurface and chaotic pranks would start again.
That’s what had happened at least between Ren, Doc and Scar, Grian, Mumbo, or how they deemed themselves: buttercups.
It was a silly game, a silly prank war with no real malice towards each other.
But as a prank, Doc made a gun, all colour coordinated to the HotGuy theme. He put it in the Scarland, all carefully wrapped. He knew that Scar would’ve forgotten about the rule on guns. Doc knew that he would be able to scare Scar into being kicked to the void by Xisuma.
That was the plan. To get one of the buttercups kicked, for a brief moment, to the void.
A few weeks later they all disappeared again. All buttercups, Impulse, Tango, Cleo, Etho, Bdubs, Pearl, this time even Gem got kidnapped.
People started to prepare for their return.
While doing so, Doc noticed that the gun was unpacked and even one of the bullets was missing. Clearly Scar had used it. Maybe right before disappearing. He would postpone the prank war, until they come back and until they would feel better.
The goat picked up the gun, carefully storing it away in the Scar’s castle, while coming to pick Jellie up to give to Cub.
It was very quiet. The entire area was quiet. And as a closest neighbour, Doc was taking care of all three bases: Scar’s, Grian’s, and Mumbo’s.
Mumbo had returned first. Ironically while Doc was cleaning some mechanisms from rust in Mumbo’s vault.
The heavy breathing, the wide eyes… The vampire held his ears like they still hurt. And so Doc just silently sat next to him, waiting when Mumbo was ready for the conversation.
“We couldn’t heal,” Mumbo was muttering. “They stopped our bodies from naturally regenerating. Our wounds were always bleeding, they made us depend on them, on their stupid tasks, they-“
“You’re home, Mumbo, it’s fine,” Doc briefly scanned the vampire, trying to see if any of the ‘unhealable’ wounds carried on. But his body, as always after these games, seemed fine.
“You’re the first one to return. Do you think you can guess when others would be back? Help us prepare what we might need for them to feel better?” The hybrid between goat and glare was careful with his words. These questions were prepared. By this point everything was prepared and agreed upon with victims themselves.
A few moments later Mumbo agreed. They went to Xisuma, Mumbo explained everything more clearly, and honestly Doc found it sick.
This specific game was just sick. As sick as the third one. It was just pure torture, not just emotional and mental, but physical as well.
Grian had returned a few weeks after Mumbo. He was almost the last one to return. They still waited on Gem, on Pearl, Impulse, Bdubs, Scar… there still were people. But at this point everything was prepared perfectly.
A soft light, a bunch of bandages, a note from hermits that they are home and safe, the communicator to text when they are back, food, water, most importantly a reassurance that they are not monsters for doing sick tasks.
Because apparently that was the hardest part in this particular game.
Sick, sadistic, cruel tasks. And worst of all none of them were mind controlled to do them. They weren’t… forced to. Technically.
Keralis tried to explain to everyone who had returned that they were manipulated into doing tasks in order to relieve pain, discomfort, to survive. That as much as it wasn’t forced, it was needed.
It was a proper therapy session to reassure every player that they are not a horrible person. That it’s the Secret Keeper (apparently that was the name of the new game master) who was horrible.
No one would blame them for what they had done there. Just like always. And especially now.
When Gem had returned, everyone was there for her. It was her first game, she should be the most traumatised.
But the ray of sunshine just went on a rant, comparing how unfair it was that Pearl and Scar had teamed up against her.
And very soon after everyone received a notification from Pearl’s communication device.
She was back too.
Scar would be home soon as well then.
That was the conclusion everyone made.
But not an hour later, not a week later… nothing came from Scar.
Xisuma was in and out of the world. Everyone was searching within the Scarland, the big tree, the shopping district, the HotGuy base… they were searching for Scar everywhere.
According to others his tasks were cruel. Or at least they guess it were his tasks. To make everyone hate him, to get into wars and arguments, to be a villain basically.
So everyone was worried Scar hid away in fear that they all hated him.
But alas, no one was able to find him.
When the moving date approached, the one they agreed on half a year ago, Xisuma pushed it.
“We’re not leaving. We haven’t found Scar yet.” The voidwalker was acting like a worried father, even if he hated being called dad. No one dared to point it out though.
But another week passed. And then another… and they needed to leave.
Impulse agreed with Skizz to take him on Hermitcraft, so they couldn’t wait any longer. Not when there’s another person waiting.
Apparently Pearl, Bdubs, and Mumbo also managed to convince Joel to move into Hermitcraft. Not permanently, as this person Joel had a wife and two empires to run, but as a vacation home.
And so they started to pack up.
Doc, being one of the closest neighbours to Scar specifically, was in charge to pack vex’s stuff. Jellie was still with Cub, so all cat-related stuff was probably already packed. Doc just looked over personal belongings. Brushes, the jacket from TFC, hats… A lot of miscellaneous stuff, but something Doc knew was important.
The box wasn’t too heavy or big, Scar never really carried a lot of stuff from world to world. And as Doc was closing it, his eyes fell on the gun.
The gun that was supposed to be a prank, a joke, to get the vex into the void for a few moments. Maybe days.
The gun that now was eating at Doc’s consciousness.
Scar very well could be in the void right now.
Scar very well could be locked in a watcher's nest for god knows what reason.
Maybe Doc had missed when Scar used the gun, maybe Xisuma noticed it before Doc did and actually sent Scar to the void. Maybe that’s why Scar isn’t home yet.
Maybe
Maybe
Maybe it was Doc’s fault Scar is missing.
•
•
•
Doc put the gun in his personal box.
New world, new place. Scar’s stuff was at Cub’s base with Jellie.
That gun was on Doc’s desk.
A reminder.
His personal punishment.
His personal responsibility.
His personal way to hope that Scar would come back for him to finish that stupid prank.