Work Text:
the moon: my man
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The hermitcraft members had seen their fair share of moon-related weirdness: moon big, moon fast, moon bunnies- but Xisuma is pretty sure this may be a new one.
Moon… gone?!
When Grian had first noticed the lack of a moon whilst building his telescope, there was a lot of questions- and admittedly a lot of panic, scar had even suggested maybe there was never even a moon to begin with on season 11, although this was met with laughter and dismissal, Xisuma was starting to think he had a point.
“There is zero reason why the moon should have been gone last night- the code surrounding the celestial bodies has always been slim but everything that’s meant to be there is there- it just, IT doesn't make any sense!” He’s standing in front of the hermits pacing and feeling about ready to rip his own hair out when he feels a hand on his shoulder steadying him– Keralis.
“Shashwam driving yourself crazy will do no good here- all we can do is wait for nightfall again and see if it was just a one off incident, hm?”
“But- the moon doesn't just disappear as a ‘one off incident’- we cannot have a repeat of season 8 keralis, you know this surely–”
“Zizuma we know that all too well, but now is not the time for panic, let's all just stay up as a group, do some moon-gazing tonight and rejoice when everything is okay, yeah?” Docs words make an annoying amount of sense and the logic of them puts Xisuma back into his seat-
“Sure, yeah. Okay. sorry guys i just- really don't want anymore moon-based disasters, you know? But anyone if anyone willing could stay up tonight and help me keep an eye on things”
“You know we’re all gonna do everything to help, suma, you don't need to ask, we’ll stay up with you. ‘Cept maybe bdubs.” He hears Tango giggle as the jab at bdubs leaves his lips, and even smiles himself before realising-
“Wait, where even is bdubs?? And Etho? Those two, i swear if they’re so engrossed in their building they didn't notice world chat going crazy im gonna send them both to get their eyes and ears checked”
After some planning of where the hermits would be meeting up at night (and some more ribbing about the missing duo), the hermits disperse for the day, Keralis dragging Xisuma in tow towards the great roman empire for some tea and lunch.
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“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE SUN IS GONE.” the hermits still sleeping in the grass of the shopping district are awoken from what could politely be called a scream from Skizz, who is furiously shaking a shell-shocked impulse, “DIPPLEDOP YOU GOTTA GET IT BACK DUDE”, seeming to snap out of it, impulse makes some confused sputtering noises that are immediately drowned out by the collective yelling of around 20 people all realising that despite it clearly being daylight, the sun is gone.
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Xisuma is back to pacing, this time in the middle of the shopping district- “okay. If this is some collective prank you’re pulling to make me age 200 years- you got me! Har har very funny, you can admit it and fix the sky now thanks so much” the silence afterwards speaks volumes eventually being broken by a groan as xisuma thumps down onto the ground and pulls out several panels of code, flicking down the visor of his helmet and scanning the words in front of him furiously, tango having woken up, settles behind him and puts one hand on his shoulder, the other pointing at parts of the code as they talk through it together.
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Bdubs wakes up to the sky filtering through his window far more than is typical for his usual. wake-up time- usually, he would jump up and freak out about this, but not today! Today, as etho had decreed, was the first day of his vacation- the other man had been taking a break all week so far, and had frankly been nagging him to do the same, and bdubs is weak to a pair of big, pathetic eyes, especially when they belong to his partner. Speaking of the white-haired man, another reason bdubs is unable to get up in a panic is the fact etho is half laying on-half wrapped around him, clearly having latched onto him in the night due to their vastly different internal body temperatures. Bdubs has always run hot, whereas etho is ‘freakishly cold’ as bdubs has been known to call him (or yell it, more accurately) when a pale hand sneaks up his shirt from behind, catching him by surprise every single time.
At his shifting, he feels ethos hand on his waist move in more purposeful, soothing motions, and when he looks down at the shoulder ethos head is resting on, he sees the man staring up at him with an expression filled with equal parts tiredness, annoyance and mischief and bdubs instantly knows he's in for an interesting morning (afternoon? He can't reach his clock and its starting to agitate him not knowing what the time is, always drives his instincts crazy)
Etho must sense the rising anxiety within him because he lifts the clock up from where it sits on the nightstand so bdubs can glance at it, feeling the smaller man instantly relax underneath him as he realises it's only around 10am. Lightly scratching his nails up and down both sides of bdubs’ waist in a calming gesture, etho cocks his head to the side “up for a lazy morning in bed b-double-o?”
“Pulling out the full name, huh, sweetheart? I guess I can humour you just this once, if i have to”
“Mm you do~”
Honestly, he’d never say it to etho- lord knows his ego doesn’t need it- but bdubs is sure he couldn't think of a better start to his newfound (temporary) freedom.
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“Soo… i dont wanna.. Like… start another panic, but when did anyone last see etho and bdubs? Cause i live on the opposite side of the server to them but even I should've seen them at least once in the last 5 days.” Tango breaks the frankly stifling silence in Xisumas code room and he feels every person in the room turn to him with tired eyes,
“I.. I mean it's not MASSIVELY out of character for them to disappear for a bit, right?”
“See-, now normally i would agree, Zed, we all get caught up in things but.. Okay look. I don't know how these things correlate at all and im not pointing fingers or anything–”
“Ever since they've been gone, so has the sun and moon!”
“Yeah. yep. That– yeah. Thanks gem”
There's a couple of seconds of silence as everyone in the room processes this information, impulse nodding slowly, “I mean, that is true and it's definitely a strange coincidence– I just dont see how they could be correlated, you know? As much as bdubs is obsessed with the time i dont think he controls the sun”, impulse chuckles, wrapping an arm around tangos shoulder in an attempt to comfort the anxious blazeborn.
Skizz, who had been fairly silent thus far, breaks the lull in noise “why dont we just go to their bases.. See whatsup?! They’re totally fine, dudes, maybe bdouble-down is freakin out about the whole sun-moon situation, but other than that i bet they’re all good”
“I– yeah that's actually a great idea, skizz!”
“DON’T SOUND SO SURPRISED", with a cackle after taking a wing to the face, tango, as well as Impulse, Zedaph and Xisuma put on their elytra and set off up north.
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Etho thinks he's in heaven- it's the first week he's had off all season (maybe longer, if he's completely honest) and he's managed to convince his mossy partner to join him in the relaxation. In fact, this may be the most peaceful and physically recovered he’s felt in his entire, absurdly long life and he can only imagine bdubs’ relief given his even longer lifetime in servitude;
“Y’know, ‘dubs, this may be the most not-tense I've ever felt in my whole life- my shoulders dont hurt or anything” he grins at bdubs, who seems to have almost folded in on himself in their little underground geyser-spa etho had prepared before convincing bdubs to vacation with him- the man makes a vaguely affirmative noise and flops forward into ethos arms and chest
“I know, you’ve been holding so much for everyone else, time to let that go for a little bit, yeah?” pale hands find themselves on tanned back, lightly pressing into the muscles, trying to relieve even a little bit of the tension that has been building up in them for what must’ve been decades.
“Yur’ an angel, swee’heart- what did lil ol’ me do to d’serve you” bdubs speaks sluggishly, unfiltered thought escaping his throat as he pulls himself further into ethos space.
Its not long until bdubs is fast asleep and being carried to bed, seeming to be recharging energy he hasn’t seen in so very long.
“Juustt a couple more days, then things can go back to normal, he’s earned it.”, Etho moves brown hair out of the way and plants a kiss on bdub’s forehead before going downstairs to prepare dinner for the two of them
His dinner plans are interrupted by a loud knock at the front door, despite knowing the peace wouldn’t last long he had hoped for a couple more days if he's honest–
“Hey skizz, what's up? Woah, skizz and friends- what is this, an intervention?” etho chuckles, stepping aside to let the small crowd of people into bdub’s house
“Hey homeh buddeh! Y’see, we were getting a little worried about you two, given recent lunar events and everything. No one had seen you guys in a hot minute soo.. We thought we’d come check on you- butttt your base was empty so we came here!” Etho tried to listen- he really did! But one sentence there makes him pause–
“‘Recent lunar events?’ what are you talking about?” etho would consider himself an expert and authority on ‘lunar events’, yet he’s not heard of any events surrounding the moon as of late.
“Are you kidding me? Etho, have you not checked your comm? Or like… been outside? In the last week” impulse is baffled as to how the sun and moon being gone has escaped ethos notice, quite frankly. The man is usually one of their most observant, and yet he seems genuinely baffled over any mention of something being amiss, his line of thought is interrupted by an equally confused and concerned sounding tango–
“Dude, the moon is gone: so is the sun, have been all week.. How… how have you not noticed? What have you two been doing all week?!” he sounds almost scandalised, like he can’t believe even for a second that etho doesnt know whats going on (or whats not going up, more accurately)
“Wait what-??” he runs to a window of the round house and looks up at where the sun would be at this time of day “ohh crap, crap oh shit okay. Um. one second, let me just go wake bdubs up–”
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The group watch etho rush upstairs with an oddly panicked look on his face
“Right so that was weird right- like beyond normal etho weird”
“I don't say this often, top, but you’re totally right that was odd” skizz smirks a little at tangos responding sputtering, but they quickly fall quiet at the sound of indiscernible whisper shouting from upstairs, several loud thuds accompanying the speaking
“You two okay up there?”
“YEAH yeah- yeah Impy we’re fine- be down in a second, hah!” bdubs lowers his voice some, but not enough to not be heard “Etho- man we’re freaking screwed we messed this up so badly i KNEW vacationing was a bad idea oh gosh–” bdubs seems to be pacing and his voice is speeding up as well as his breathing-
“‘Dubs it's fine, we’ll figure it out, we always have, yeah? Remember when this happened for a couple days on mindcrack and it all turned out fine. Just breathe for me now and we can figure the rest out later”
The group can barely make out a quiet “yeah.. Yeah. yeah okay. Thank you, sweetheart, im sorry for freaking out”
A minute or two later, the duo descend the stairs and wave to the others awkwardly standing in their kitchen
“So. um. Sorry for us going MIA on everyone, etho convinced me to take a week off to relax with him. We haven't been looking at our comms or anything, so could someone explain what's going on with the freaking sky?” this is a more subdued version of bdubs than any of them had ever seen, he looks tired and stressed, fidgeting with his clock in on hand, the other entangled with ethos’
After an explanation and an invite to the next meeting regarding the issue tomorrow, the group is very quickly ushered out of the house by the, rather anxious looking, pair
“That was certainly.. A unique experience, even for them.” impulse chooses his words carefully, skizz however, does not. “Right?! Like what were they even talking about up there???”
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Etho stands outside just as the sun is setting, closing his eyes and channeling his innate lunar energy, “y’know, ‘dubs, i think this is why we were so much more relaxed than normal this week. Not carrying the trajectory of a literal celestial body on our backs- metaphorically carrying, i guess” wrapping an arm around bdubs as they see the moon rise up over distant hills
“Yeahh, gonna be a fun explanation tomorrow, d’ya think we can get away without them knowing it was us?”
“I mean, i dont think so. But you know they won't make us talk about it if we dont want to, backstory rule and all” etho sighs, “buuut i think it would be.. Nice to come clean, you know? Maybe we could take time off every so often without them freaking out so badly”
“Yeah. you’re right..”
“What was that?”
“I said you’re ri– OH YOU-” playfully shoving etho away, bdubs stomps back up to the house, a secret grin on his face the whole time.
Bdubs makes extra sure to wake up well before sunrise the next day, making his way up to the roof of his little house, knowing etho probably wouldn’t wake at this hour anyway, he settles down and watches as the moon sets over the rest of the server. He thinks distantly about how he struggled at the beginning of the season, having to leave season 10 was devastating and he wanted to stay forever, maybe. But deep down, he knows he cannot live so stationary while he still has a duty and oath to the hermitcraft server- he’ll keep things good for his friends. He also knows that if he had chosen to stay in the empty season 10 world, the second his friends and partner left, everything would grow cold- they brought light into the place (which is funny cause hEY THATS HIS JOB).
As the sun rises once again he takes in the view from up on the roof, everything becoming bathed in light oranges and yellows, and he thinks that he doesn’t ever wanna be anywhere else but here.
“Beautiful work as always, ‘dubs”
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The meeting hall is once again in use, however this time every single seat is occupied- not that much has changed though because there’s still deranged shouting going on across the table- “how did they just come back???” “were they hidden behind some clouds, maybe? I DONT KNOW YOU TRY EXPLAIN IT–” “guys please just list-” “i think we just shouldn’t question it eveythings fine now!” the overlapping voices is starting to drive him crazy, so bdubs stands up “hEY SHUT UP GUYS, seriously! All this shoutin’ is doing NOTHIN for us here and sizuma clearly wants to talk”
“Thank you, bdubs, it's good to see you again!” X clears his throat “and yes, i did want to just do a formal announcement, debrief type thing about this last week. As im sure you all know, the moon was back last night and the sun is back today- of course we have no idea if this will continue to be the case so i will be monitoring the situation closely–”
Etho sheepishly puts his hand up, commanding the attention of all the hermits, “so, um. It won't happen again, you don't need to worry, X”
“Etho, with all the love in the world, i have no reason to believe that's true”,
etho turns to bdubs, “‘dubs, i really think–”
“Yeah. yeah we should, want me to?”
“Want you to what- etho, bdubs what the heck is going on??”
“It.. well okay the moon and sun thing was our fault, okay?! We just wanted a few days off, y’know?? And i promise we didnt even KNOW they were gone even though we should’ve been more careful and we certainly will be in the future- i- i’ll, i don't know, i’ll wake up earlier and make sure the sun goes up everyday from now on, okay?! Please don't be angry-” by the time cuts himself off, bdubs has his eyes screwed up, feet up on his chair, head in his knees and is hyperventilating while etho grabs his (slightly glowing??) hands, attempting to ground the man and bring him back to the moment. He makes exaggerated breathing motions and noises until his partner is breathing steadily again, far less shaky than he was previously
“Woah- okay what- im gonna need some more clarity on how exactly it was your fault but i promise none of us are mad at you two, alright” X is speaking somewhat frantically, having never seen bdubs so panicked, the other hermits also look alarmed at this turn of events and are making noises of agreement to X’s assurance.
Etho sort of sighs and turns to the group, closing his eyes for a couple seconds, as if bracing himself “okay so, me and bdubs are um.. We’re the sun and the moon god- im sure you can guess who is who, i wont insult your intelligence. Its all fairly complicated but the important part here is there's sort of a background feeling where we have to make sure the moon and sun are in their correct cycles everyday and i guess we’ve been doing it so long that we stopped thinking about it, right, so when i convinced ‘dubs to take a proper break with me.. We didnt really think of it-! We just sort of ah- turned off isn’t the correct word but we essentially ‘turned off’ our powers i guess subconsciously?” etho stares at the table as he explains this, not wanting to deal with deciphering his servemate's facial expressions as well as explain himself.
Bdubs, however, is watching everyone like a hawk, looking for any sign of anger, annoyance or anything in that range- his big eyes have a gleam in them the others hadn't seen before, and they get the distinct feeling that this is more of what bdubs is like when he's acting as the sun god
“Oh my gosh that explains SO much about you two” Bdubs sputters in response to grians statement, unsure whether they ought to be offended or not “well, i mean, bdubs: you’re insane about your sleep, you wake up earlier than anyone I've ever met and you did quite literally become the god of gems sun-based religion back on empires! I don't know how we didn't see it sooner if I'm honest–” he turns to etho, “and YOU, you’re not slick either- you have the weirdest sleep schedule I've ever seen, you didn’t seem at all alarmed by moon big back in season 8.. Almost as if you knew what was going on..”
“That's a good point! What the hell was that, etho”, X seems glad that it may not have been his fault at all in the end, having been feeling guilt over it ever since, despite being assured it was okay by the hermits.
“Ah, well if I'm honest I think I was just exhausted and having trouble keeping things stable with how weird that world already was. Its why i was late to season 9, needed to recover and all” he scratches the back of his neck almost sheepishly, “sorry about that, i’ve learnt to control things a lot better now”
“Wait, who kept the moon all good while you were gone then?”
Bdubs head snaps up “i did! Anytime he needs a break and goes off to his LP world I deal with the moon. It was an exhausting start to the season but not too bad, and i’d do it all over again if i had to” a collective ‘awwhh’ was hear (as well as some vomiting sounds from some of their longer term friends– doc and beef, looking at you)
“I just feel bad I can't do the same for you every so often” at confused looks he further explains "I mean, the moon is a lot smaller than the sun, you know? A lot more energy to hold onto-”
“You mean you’re not powerful enough” “yes tango i mean im not powerful enough” he huffs and mutters a playful ‘this guyy’ under his breath, earning a cackle from tango.
Bdubs feels a cool arm wrap around his waist, underneath his shirt and he leans into his partners embrace, feeling a metaphorical weight being lifted off his shoulder as he distantly hears Xisuma continue on with the meeting,
“Right! Moving on, I suppose? This mob cap issue–” he turns slightly to etho and grins at him, one hand reaching towards the far side of ethos face, holding that side of his mask steady, while his other hand pulls down the side closest to him far enough for him to plant a kiss on his partners cheek- tan arm obscuring any part of ethos face that may have slipped out from the mask in the process. Etho responds with a huff and by pulling him in even closer, using one of his hands to turn bdubs face back to the centre of the table- though a smile is certainly hiding underneath his mask, if the pink tint to the visible parts of his cheek is anything to go by.