Work Text:
Loonac was cornered.
“It’s over, Loonac! We are the Glitch SMP!”
The message, ringing through his ears, was the final nail in his coffin.
After all the effort. The sacrifice. The betrayal. He had… lost.
His feet moved underneath him, prompting him to run from his pursuers, but his mind was empty. Hastily, he made a decision and wrote a message back.
“Can I… get a word?”
They allowed it. He was surrounded, but they did not attack quite yet. They wanted to hear what the tyrant would have to say.
“Loonac, you’re not living today. This entire time, you’ve been actually the most rude person I’ve ever seen on a server. How many people are bound by your team without their will?”
He looked around. He felt the strings attached to the players around him, weak and worn thin by their will. Hypnosis surrounded the group, holding on to those who Loonac had tricked.
It was exhausting, really.
“The chestplate, Loonac.”
He looked down at his armor. The netherite gleamed with the setting sun, glowing brightly despite the dying light. A symbol of his status as king.
“Do you want to go down without a word to your voice, or do you want to give the chestplate up, and we can have a better discussion about this?”
Galaxy was right.
He was not going to survive.
Some may argue that the power got to his head, and what was about to happen was what he deserved.
But he never explained why he did any of this.
Truthfully, it’s because he saw potential in Hypnosis and wanted it to be so much more than its reputation. After every glitch he’d gotten, every fight he’d won, he could accredit pretty much all of it to Hypnosis. It got him almost every single glitch on the server.
But now, if he was killed, Hypnosis was going to be in someone else’s hands. But, honestly, if nobody wanted it at its worst, nobody deserved it at its best.
Call him attached, but he had watched Hypnosis turn from the most laughable joke of a glitch this server had ever seen into something that people feared. Hypnosis, to him, wasn’t just a glitch. Hypnosis was an era.
It hurt to have to let it go.
“The chestplate, Loonac.”
He looked down, resigned. Perhaps he had caused this. Perhaps everything that was happening to him was, indeed, his fault.
The chestplate came off easily. Galaxy took it from him with a wicked grin decorating his face. “Now, the glitches. All of them.”
He gave away X-Ray easily. It never meant much for him– just a tool to gather resources and further his other ambitions.
Telekinesis was the next one to go. He hesitated before leaving the glitch behind. Despite how useful it had been, saving him countless times, he had no use for it anymore. There was no escape.
Soulsplitter went next. And oh, the irony. The glitch that previously dominated the server, imprisoning all of its inhabitants in an inescapable void. He never could have lived up to Nufuli’s legacy.
Then there was Hypnosis.
I will not be thrown away.
In the entire span of the server, Hypnosis had only ever belonged to one person: him.
I will not be cast aside.
He wasn’t sure he was ready to let it go.
I will not be beaten.
Fortunately, or perhaps not, he did not have to make that choice.
This is my host. No one else. I chose him.
He felt Hypnosis hold on stronger. He stilled, confused, when it didn’t respond to his command. “What..?”
And I will not let him go.
“What’s going on?” Galaxy pressed.
“I– I don’t know.” He saw Hypnosis growing stronger around him. As if it sensed its final moments. As if it didn’t want to go out like this.
Even if I have to do what my host was too weak to do.
Hypnosis swirled around him, the bonds tying the players around him growing brighter, renewed. Even stronger than the bonds on the players surrounding him was the bond on Loonac himself.
He was no longer the puppetmaster.
Hypnosis had taken control.
He will understand. One day, he will learn.
He saw the reflection of Hypnosis’s light shine in Galaxy’s eyes. It had grown beyond a glitch.
Loonac could no longer let go of the glitch.
Was it still a glitch?
I am not weak. I am not less.
The thing about glitches is that they evolve. Over time, they are able to infect all that they touch. Given enough time, a glitch can turn into a virus, capable of creating its own power.
The glitches on the server did not normally have the conditions to develop this far. Glitches were constantly fought for. They changed hands daily, like the rising tide.
Except for Hypnosis.
I am much more than what the players claim. They were too late to see it.
The entire history of the server, Hypnosis had rested in one player’s hands. The benefit of being considered weak was that no one felt it was necessary to waste the resources hunting down the glitch.
It had grown past expectations. Feeding on the energy and power of its host, Hypnosis had gained enough control to flip the roles of the game.
I will make them see it.
Loonac was not in control anymore.
He felt the virus. It reflected Loonac’s strongest emotions. Anger. Grief. Ambition. Bloodlust.
And it acted on them.
I will make them see me.
Vines of energy crept up his arms and legs, holding his limbs in place. Hypnosis was known for controlling animals and monsters. Bending them to Loonac.
Over time, its power over players evolved. It started with small actions. Signing a book. Taking a wrong step. Missing a hit.
Eventually, it began to affect emotions as well. Manipulation. There was a reason Loonac remained popular for quite a long time despite his nefarious deeds.
The next step of Hypnosis’s evolution had begun.
It could control a player’s actions. It could control a player’s emotions.
So, logically, it could control a player itself.
What my host was too weak to do.
The vines grew along his body, constricting his movement. They spun around his limbs like string; string to a puppet, dangling and dancing for the entertainment of the master.
He felt the vines reaching up. They climbed his torso, reaching towards his neck.
Loonac didn’t have much time left.
The players around him looked on in horror. The vines were present for those he had under contract, even Rift, who had previously escaped. But they did not do much more than remind them. They weren’t as potent as the ones clinging to Loonac himself.
I do not need them yet. They will fall soon enough.
“I– help…” he gasped out. The vines had reached his neck, constricting his airflow as they crept towards his face.
Galaxy looked on in horror.
The vines reached the face. Loonac managed one last, pleading look before darkness consumed him.
Then all he saw was white.
From the weakest to the strongest, right?
Hypnosis was more than a glitch. It was a virus.
We are a virus.
We are Hypnosis.
We will seek revenge on those who have wronged us.
We will return to the power we once held.
We will rule the server.
I will rule the server.
I will infect every last one of them.
I will show them.
I am not weak. I am strong.
Hypnosis will be remembered.
What did my host say, again?
Oh, yes.
An era.
I like the sound of that.