Work Text:
“Hellooo~ Mumbolio!”
Mumbo could hear the smirk in his friend’s voice before he even turned around.
“Hello Grian.” Mumbo replied dryly.
There was a falter in Grian’s step before he walked over to stand beside his mustached friend.
“How did you know it was me?” Grian tilted his head to the side.
Mumbo looked up from the wires his hands were currently tangled in and sighed deeply. His shoulders sank from their upright position for what looked like the first time in ages.
“Because you’re the only one that is daring enough to disturb me during my working hours.”
Grian flinched. Disturb? Grian wasn’t being disturbing, was he? Surely Mumbo would ask him to leave if he was being disruptive, right?
“Could you please leave for a bit Grian? This is a commission and I have to finish it by tonight.”
Grian felt the smile on his face twinge as he processed the words. There it was. He was indeed being an annoyance.
“Yeah, sure Mumbo. See you later.” Grian didn’t sound right even to his own ears.
Mumbo almost wanted to look up from his work when he heard the strangeness in Grian’s voice, but he was immediately brought back when he started hearing a beeping coming from somewhere below him.
“Oh dear.”
Grian heard Mumbo’s annoyed groan as he walked out of the workshop. Maybe he could go hang out with Scar.
Grian made his way to Scar’s base, only to find a cackling Tango and Scar’s base in smoldering bits.
“What’s this?” Grian landed next to the giggling blaze.
“Oh, hey Grian! I took a copy of Scar’s base and blew it up.” Tango saw Grian’s face. “His actual base is underground, so there’s no actual harm, it’s fine. I learned how to duplicate builds a while back, and I-”
Grian tuned out Tango’s ramblings and breathed a sigh of relief. Pranks on the Hermitcraft server were about tedious tasks, not property destruction. Grian chuckled, waiting for Tango to finish explaining.
“That is kinda funny. What if we put a bunch of bonemeal around the area so that it looks like it’s been blown up for a while?”
Tango doubled over with laughter. “That’s genius! He’s gonna be so confused. I have a bonemeal farm at my base, I’ll go get some.” Tango took off in the direction of his base, leaving Grian in the burning rubble of Scar’s fake house.
Of course that’s the moment Scar decided to visit his home.
Grian heard rockets, and idly thought that Tango was rather quick considering he lives pretty far away.
“Grian!”
Grian turned around and found himself face to face with a wide-eyed Scar.
“What did you do?! Do you understand what you’ve just done? This is my house!”
Grian felt something in himself crack.
“No, Scar, this is a pran-”
“I don’t care if it’s a prank or not! You just exploded my house! Are you kidding me?”
Grian felt his ears droop. This was the first time Scar had ever yelled at him like this.
“Oh my God, you are so annoying sometimes!”
Tears pricked Grian’s eyes. He’s annoying?
“Well, if you just list-”
“Shut up! You’re always doing this! I keep asking you to stop pushing it, but this is the last straw!”
Grian was silent. He watched his joyful friend take out years of frustrations that he caused.
“Get out Grian!”
Tears were now streaming down his face, and he could see that there were tears in Scar’s eyes too. So Grian ran. He took off just in time to pass Tango in the air. He didn’t care anymore though.
Tango landed next to where Scar’s had started picking up the charred remains of his house.
“Did Grian tell you already?”
Scar stopped next to a big pile of rubble that used to be his bed. “What’s there to tell?”
Tango laughed, “I made a copy of your house and blew it up!” Scar froze, “Your real house is underground. Good one, eh?”
Tango went to elbow Scar, but the other man didn’t move. He just stared into the sky in the direction where Grian had taken off with a shaken look in his eyes.
“You good man? Sorry if the prank stressed you out for a bit.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about.”
Grian was annoying. Grian was disruptive. Grian was troublesome. Grian couldn’t breathe.
That’s exactly what the Watchers called him too. They punished him when he was too loud. They yelled at him when he did something wrong. What is going to happen to him now?
Grian found himself somehow in his nest surrounded by the scents of all of his friends. They felt off now. The scents were now associated with people that made Grian sad. People who were mad at Grian. They were going to hurt him. They were going to yell until he got it through his stupid head that he was defective.
Grian was running his fingers through his feathers as comfort, but now it was more like plucking. He was pulling his feathers out by the fistful. His erratic breathing was louder than he was willing to bear, so he pushed his head into the pillows and continued to cry. Grian covered himself with his wings.
‘Stupid Xelqua. Hiding from your problems again?’ He could hear the little voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like the Watchers whisper. ‘You couldn’t even find a home in your so-called safe server. You know why? Because you ruin everything.’
Grian screamed, and something inside him broke.
“Mumbo! Have you seen Grian?” Scar burst into Mumbo’s lab.
Mumbo put the last touch on his commission before turning to Scar. “I haven’t seen him since earlier today, why?”
“I think I just made a huge mistake!”
Mumbo could see the panicked look in the vex’s eye, so he brought up both his hands.
“Woah, calm down. What happened?”
“IthoughtheblewupmybasesoIstartedyellingathimandIsaidsomereallymeanthingsandnowIcan’tfindhim!”
Mumbo has spent enough time around Scar to understand almost everything the Vex just said.
“Did you check his nest?”
Scar paused his panic to think for a second.
“No!”
“Then let’s go!”
So they both raced out of the lab and towards Grian’s base.
Gri-Xelqua heard hurried footsteps outside his room. Where was he? What was this place? Why was he crying? He felt his feathers quiver in their sockets. Danger. Danger. He’s in danger?
Xelqua looked up at his door which was shaking with the ferocity it was being knocked on. Someone was saying something, but he couldn’t quite hear it anymore.
Mumbo pounded on the door even as more purple light spread out from underneath. Mumbo couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched. Grian had only gotten this bad one time before. The first season he got on Hermitcraft. Scar paced next to him, holding his arms close to his chest.
“He’s gonna be okay, right Mumbo? He’s gonna-he’ll be fine.”
Mumbo just continued knocking, not answering Scar’s frantic questions. But suddenly, he froze.
Scar stopped and looked over at Mumbo when he stopped knocking. The sight made him freeze too. There was an Eye on the door. A big Eye. The size of Mumbo’s hand.
“Scar,” Mumbo’s voice was barely louder than a whisper, “get Xisuma. Tell him it’s a code violet.”
Scar didn’t know what code violet meant, but it made him shiver as he slowly backed out of Grian’s house.
That terrible pounding had finally stopped, and Xelqua finally got a good Look at the people outside his door. A man in a suit looked back at him. There was another man with him, but he left. The man in the suit looked familiar, but Xelqua couldn’t place his face anywhere. Maybe he’s from one of the Watcher’s alliances? But why would he be here?
More Eyes began sprouting across the walls of this room he was in, some even spreading outside. The man in the suit looked alarmed at every single one.
But something caught one of Xelqua’s Eyes. The man in the suit had a trust sigil on him. One written by Xelqua himself. Xelqua had never written a trust sigil before. It was a sign of great reliance. Something Xelqua hadn’t felt since becoming a Watcher.
‘Surely I’d remember writing a trust sigil on a person, right?’ Xelqua pondered. Now that Xelqua was thinking about it, he saw something similar on the man that had left. ‘Who are these people?’
Xisuma had only had to launch code violet protocols once before. Back in season six. From what Scar was telling him, this seemed worse than last time. He sent a message to the entire server to stay inside and wait for further instructions.
The air around Grian’s base felt heavy. Xisuma felt it the moment he entered the house. He felt Watched. He sucked in a breath as he approached Mumbo, who hadn’t moved from in front of the door since Scar had left. The air around him held dozens of small Eyes all looking around frantically. A few landed on Xisuma, and he held his hands up as if to show that he was not a threat.
“Grian?” Xisuma called out, “You alright bud?”
The voidwalker outside Xelqua’s door had a small trust sigil on him too. He was saying something, but it didn’t make sense. Who was Grian?
“Mumbo and Scar said you were feeling sorta upset today.” Xisuma stepped closer and closer to the door, moving Mumbo out of the way as he walked. “Have you calmed down a little?”
Were the man with the suit and the man with the marks Mumbo and Scar? How do they know him?
Xisuma slowly wrapped his hand around the doorknob. “Is it alright if I come in?” He glanced up at the large Eye on the door.
Xelqua decided that he could come in, he had a trust sigil after all.
The Eye on the door blinked slowly as if to permit entrance.
Xisuma slowly swung the door inwards and gasped at what he saw in Grian’s room.
Grian sat in the middle with his wings spread wide. Wider than when they flew, wider than when they stretched. These wings touched the opposing walls in Grian’s small bedroom. And there were more of them. Xisuma counted three pairs of large, violet wings compared to his usual two brown ones.
Eyes were scattered across the walls, the ceiling and everywhere in the air. They all bore into him. Calculating his next move.
Grian himself was in a defensive position, crouched down as if to ready himself for any incoming attack.
Xisuma lifted his hands in surrender yet again and sat down a safe distance away from the Watcher.
“You’re not Grian right now, are you?”
Xelqua lowered his wings slightly. A voice emanated from every Eye in one unified chorus.
“Who is Grian? Who are you?”
“My name is Xisuma, I am the admin of Hermitcraft, the place you are at right now. Grian is one of my players.”
“Why would you think he is me?” The wings lowered more.
“He is who you become. Grian got stressed out and reverted back to himself from years ago, back before he joined this server.”
Xelqua froze. He is Grian? Grian is him? Xel-Grian looked down at his hands. They looked more calloused and tan than his own, yet these were his hands? He turned an Eye on himself and Looked. He looked older, more tired, but the bags under his eyes were smaller, and he had small wrinkles forming around his mouth and eyes.
‘This is Grian’, his own mind supplied.
‘I-I’m Grian.’
Grian felt his form shrink and the Eyes close.
Xisuma’s eyes crinkled with a smile.
“Welcome back Grian.”
Grian chuckled softly before slowly rising from his crouched position and walking to his admin. He felt his legs give out on him halfway through, and he felt the soft arms of Scar envelope him as he fell.
“Grian! I’m so so so so sooooo sorry! I didn’t mean to yell at you, it wasn’t your fault and Ishouldn’thaveblamedyoubeforehearingyouout!” Scar paused to take a breath before Grian shushed him.
“It’s fine, Scar.”
“But I-” Scar began to protest.
“It’s fine.” Grian said with finality.
Scar continued to hold him as he slowly felt strength return to his legs. Grian looked up at Mumbo who still had a shaken look in his eyes.
“I’m so sorry Grian, I shouldn’t have pushed you out.” Mumbo looked at the floor.
“I forgive you too Mumbo. You got stressed, can’t blame you.”
Grian moved over to the doorway and hugged Mumbo too.
Now if you’ll excuse me, gents,” Grian turned to all the three of the men in his house, “I would like you all to leave. I am going to be taking a long nap for the next three days.”
Grian then blacked out as all three of them dove to stop him from hitting the floor.
Xisumavoid: The coast is clear, everyone can go back to what they were doing
ZombieCleo: What happened, X?
Xisumavoid: Nothing, it was a false alarm