Work Text:
It took a while for him to reorient himself as he came to in his bed. It was odd to wake up to the looming walls of his mansion rather than the light sandstone of the keep at the top of Monopoly Mountain, or the cool stone bricks of the Crastle.
Oh, don’t get him wrong, he knew it was coming. Probably just about the only one who could’ve known honestly, and yet…
His communicator was buzzing near constantly. The rest of the server obviously had no idea where they’d been for the past 56 days. According to the responses from the rest of the Lifers, they also didn’t know. That might’ve been the most painful fact of all this, though he also knew it was coming.
The Watchers weren’t shy about ‘teasing’ him with that fact, though as always their perception of what was humorous was just to the left of normal.
A gift. A ‘present’ for ‘winning’.
That’s the real joke of all this.
GoodTimeWithScar: oh gosh, we’ve erally been gone nearly two mobths?
Grian: So no one has any idea where we were?
He couldn’t bear to think more on the subject. Best to act along with everyone else, and hope everyone moves on.
Best to hope it doesn’t happen again.
Grian could only bear so much after seeing his old friends again. Didn’t know if he could deal with their unknowing grins as they chat like old friends, without them quite being able to recall just how they knew each other or for how long.
When they got back this time, it was somehow both more and less jarring.
He’d had a moment to prepare himself for waking back up in the Alley after putting Scott out of his misery. At the same time, however, suddenly going from the astral form of a spectator to fully corporeal in less than the blink of an eye? He couldn’t imagine feeling it again, and yet…
He looked around his Alley, and couldn’t get the thought that some stars would look nice dotted about on the ceiling out of his head.
They were the Sun and the Stars now, afterall. Even if no one else knew - or ever would know if he could help it.
(A few days later Cleo and Pearl were contacted by Scott, asking them if they remembered anything. They of course knew nothing, but at least now X and Fwhip knew what had happened to their players during the even longer time period this time.
Everyone who was taken the first time were asked again, everyone hoping for some sort of clue, begging for some morsel of information akin to what Scott had given.
No one came forward.)
Everyone on the Hermitcraft server knew what happened straight away this time.
Pearl alternated between sobbing and screaming about Double Life enough that the picture painted was pretty clear. It took weeks for what she had since dubbed ‘5am Pearl’ to retreat fully from her system - longer than they had even been taken for, honestly. It took weeks longer after that for her to actually reach out to Scott looking for some sort of support.
Scott gave it without hesitation, as well as an apology. That’s when everyone learnt that he remembered that game as well. Probably any future ones too at this rate.
Yet again, it was asked who on Earth ‘won’ that first ‘game’, and why they hadn’t come forward. It was asked if anyone actually did win or remember.
All Grian could think was a quiet “Last Life, huh?” It was whispered in the dark quiet of his basement as he watched the oh so familiar purple glow pulsate. It wasn’t the first time he thought of how They oh so liked to dangle freedom in front of him, and it most likely wouldn’t be the last. “What a joke.”
Truely, they were hilarious.
At least no one else knew just why he had reacted that way to being soul bonded to Scar.
No one ever would if he had his way.
(He didn’t notice the quiet longing that entered Pearl’s gaze when she looked at him after coming back and sorting through her memories. She remembered the game, yes, but there was something else there too. Something older.
She later did some research and found out that there was a server called Evolution. One that the players had to evacuate for some reason quite suddenly. One that had seemingly left the players who were on it with no memories of their time there. She was among the list of players who were on it, but she didn’t even remember leaving something like that.
She asked Martyn and Jimmy. Asked BigB. She even managed to get in contact with Salem and Netty. They all said the same thing; They had no recollection of the damn server and no idea how they all knew each other. And yet. And yet, even the two who she hadn’t had recent contact with responded knowing they at least knew her.
She told X what she’d found out and parts of what she was now starting to remember.
She kept the fact that she was remembering that a certain blond was the server’s admin. She also said nothing about the fact that he was not among the list of players found after evacuating Evo.
She just couldn’t help longing for someone else to know. She couldn’t help longing that he would know one day.
For the time being though, she would just keep talking to Scott.)
He found himself rather adverse to heights for a few days after returning this time. He noticed himself flinching if anything was above him at all as well - rather unfortunate timing, what with Scar’s newfound penance for swooping across the skies low down by bases and shooting arrows.
Grian could only be thankful he learnt to stop his outward reactions by time he was no longer able to avoid Pearl. She had started wanting to hang out more after Double Life and now that Limited Life was over it seemed doubly so. It was only now, after spending time with her and BigB, that he had noticed her attitude towards himself and the other Evo members had shifted ever so slightly. Oh, don’t get him wrong, he knew it very much could be the fact that she now had prior memories of being in a death game with them all that had affected her behaviour-
And. Yet.
The minor change was different with the Evo members than it was with the fellow Hermits. He couldn’t place it, but she was acting just that little bit to the left of how the rest were treating one another.
It gave him hope.
Hope was a dangerous thing for a man like him.
(The first thing Martyn did was contact Pearl. Of course it was, he fucking remembered! And he knew she did too - why else would she have asked him about Evo all those months ago.
She picked up on the second ring.
Despite the quick answer, neither quite knew how to start this.
“…You remember?” Pearl broke the silence.
Martyn breathed out harshly, her voice somehow feeling oh so strange now that he had the sharp juxtaposition of how she was five years ago versus how he knew her now.
“Yeah, yeah I remember - more than the game, I mean.”
“Evo.”
It was blunt and to the point, though Martyn couldn’t blame her. She was the only one until now to even actually remember that damn place.
“Evo.” He confirmed, just for both their sakes of mind. “With… with Tim and BigB…”
“Tom, Tautis, Netty, Mini, Zee… and…”
Another pause, the unspoken name still loud even in the silence.
“…He wasn’t on the list of us who got out.” Martyn eventually pointed out, the two leaving his name out of the current conversation in unspoken agreement.
“Tautis wasn’t either.” Pearl pointed out. She seemed to give it some thought, before adding, “I don’t know where he even went, if I’m being honest.”
“He… I think he left before They started really meddling.”
“…They spoke to us after we beat the dragon, didn’t They?” She sounded so unsure of herself despite them both knowing that at the very least to be fact.
“Yeah.” He stopped to try and recall what was said, though admittedly his thoughts were still rather all over the place from having his memories more or less just shoved back in, and he told Pearl as such.
“Everything is still a little fuzzy for me even all these months later, if I’m being honest.” She hesitantly said, her admittance feeling like guilt and quiet loss on her tongue.
The two lapsed into another silence, this one somehow more weighted then the last two combined. Her words spoke into existence the dread of their memories not being enough, even combined, to fully recall the lost year of their lives.
“I- he joined them, didn’t he?”
The words were not an accusation, but rather an attempt to make sense of what little they both knew. One last silence, though this one was the final resting point of the two’s confessions to each other for now.
The Moon and Tides have found one another again, left only to wonder about just what happened to their Sun.
Martyn never got around to messaging Grian about the Watchers or Evolution.)
He had always known better than to hope, and yet here he was the fool yet again.
They had apparently gotten bold as of late. Not only did They barely hide Their influence in that game, but to take the Hermits for a third time during one season of Hermitcraft was ballsy, even for Them.
Though, Grian supposes, They do oh so like a good show.
‘And what a show They got.’ Grian thought bitterly. He could still see it, hear him running through crater riddled fields to get to the ravine Pearl had been in, sword ready to slay the only person in the end to forgive him for his ‘crimes’.
Even knowing he’d remember, Grian couldn’t stand to see Scar stumble and search for a person who was no longer there.
Grian hated himself for not being strong enough to strike Scar down like he had Scott. He just had to settle for telling him that it was all over. He had to settle for just watching.
It took longer to return after than it had for the other winners. It seemed that They were reveling in Scar’s victory as much as Grian was wallowing in it.
“How fitting,” They crooned into the two’s ears, one able to hear Their words and the other only knowing a statue of Their likeness, “The Plants and Greenery to go with the rest. How fitting, that Yours would be The Sunflower to your Sun.”
He swears he hears one cackle as they continue, unable to leave without the last word.
“The Moon has The Stars and The Tide. It is only fitting that The Sun has his Flowers.”
He doesn’t know if he wants to laugh along or cry.
(They’d been back on the Hermitcraft server for nearly a month now, and Scar was still slightly reeling from his game - Secret Life, he told the others.
He was… stuck, on something that had happened, back before he’d pressed that succeed button.
He didn’t know where it came from, but he had heard a small little voice whisper in the back of his head when he stumbled down that hole to try and find Pearl.
“She’s dead, Scar.” It whispered to him. “You won.”
Even now looking back on it he could pick out the bitter twinge to the voice. Not bitter at the loss, no, but upset that another person had been subjected to the supposed ‘prize’ that is winning one of these games.
He had heard more voices as he staggered away from the Zombie that nearly took his last heart. They were laughing, talking about the other winners. He doesn’t remember much - he wasn’t paying all that much attention if he were being honest - but there was one line that jumped out at him, as he made his way to finally succeed the final task.
“The Moon has The Stars and The Tide.” The voice had said. After talking to Scott, Martyn and Pearl, he learned that the Beings having them play these games - The Watchers, Pearl and Martyn had called Them - had these… Nicknames for the winners.
The Stars for Scott.
The Moon for Pearl.
The Tides for Martyn.
So then…
“It is only fitting that The Sun has his Flowers.”
Who was their Sun?)
He couldn’t breathe.
Here he was, sitting pretending to be concentrated on his fishing when internally he was absolutely freaking out.
He knew They would do something about him not telling people sooner or later, but for Them to do it in such a direct way.
The very first question asked by that Trivia Bot of theirs - at least the first around himself. Of course they would have it be about Third Life. It was Their first go at these new games of Theirs, of course they would get upset at the knowledge of its existence being actively ignored - actively attempted to be forgotten.
And of course. Of course it would be one about Scar’s antics when he was right there. Hell, he found out later that a third of the questions about third life were at least in some way about the shit Scar pulled. And everyone was worried, Mumbo had clearly been panicking.
Of course, everyone knew damn well that there was just… an entire game that no one knew anything about. Scott had been very open about his game, as had Martyn. Pearl had taken a little bit to start talking about Double Life but she had started to really open up after Secret Life.
Scar…
Scar had been keeping awfully close-lipped about a lot of his time in Secret Life. Of course the previous winners all remembered, but… well, if he didn’t want to talk about it there must have been a reason.
But this question - about a bee Scar had only had for not even a week! This question? It somehow made it all the more real.
“Well,” Jimmy had started after the small stunned silence that had followed Mumbo reading his question out loud. “At least we have a name for it now?”
His optimism was heavily smothered by Mumbo’s utter panic - he had no clue what sort of consequences there would be if he had got it wrong!
Scar continued to try to bring some levity to the situation, insisting that he could give Mumbo the answer if he simply gave back the Bamboozler’s enchanting table, but everyone there knew he couldn’t actually give the answer.
Or at least, they thought he couldn’t. Grian thought that Scar couldn’t.
And even though Mumbo was his teammate, Grian just couldn’t. He couldn’t tell them all now that it was him who won that first game, couldn’t tell them that even if he hadn’t he’d probably still remember. Couldn’t tell them of all that they had loved and lost and, and, and-
With thirty seconds left on Mumbo’s clock, Scar had suddenly stilled in his big prodding movements. His face went through such an odd assortment of emotions, eventually landing on contemplation of some sort. It barely lasted 2 seconds, and yet Grian caught every fraction of emotion to catalog and panic about.
And for good reason, as after the moment of stillness, Scar mumbled an ever so quiet, “Mr. Bubbles…”
Everyone but Mumbo had frozen at the silly little name spilt from Scar’s mouth, Mumbo simply clicking the option that read the same as what Scar had said without thinking through the implications until after the screen of the robot had lit up green, after which he paused and joined everyone else in their stupor.
It might have been just the name for a bee, but it was still only the third ever detail about this first game that they’d been in, and on top of that it was a detail Scar had remembered.
And during the questions featuring Third Life, Scar just kept happening to be around the person being asked. And he kept.
On.
Remembering.
Oh, there were moments of Martyn having a ‘gut feeling’ or impulse thinking aloud that he’d be ‘that unfortunate to drop something and have it used against me’, but no one was fully remembering moments they shouldn’t have.
No one except Scar.
And it wasn’t just Third Life he was recalling as that week dragged on, no, it was all of them.
Next to no one fully trusted him, but he was among the most reliable at knowing an answer, even when he shouldn’t.
And now it was over, and Joel had won, but everyone kept coming back to the little new information they had about Third Life and
He.
Couldn’t.
Breathe.
(It’s barely a week after they’re all back on the Hermitcraft server that Joel, Pearl and Scar are all invited to a privately owned world of Scott’s. They agree to go, and it’s no surprise to also see Martyn there. Scott had set up a nice enough cottage, and they gathered round the oak table to discuss… Well, everything really.
It was setting up to be something between a tense and awkward silence when Joel nearly burst out with “So we’re here to talk about those trivia questions right?!”
His tone was somewhere between impatient and annoyed, though the others at the table knew it was a cover for the uncomfortableness at knowing you don’t know things you should.
Martyn and Pearl shared a glance, before Martyn continued more or less where Joel left off, “I feel we should start by pointing out the obvious- Scar knew. Like, actually knew the answers a lot of the time even without the multiple choice.”
Everyone turned to look at the man in question, but despite his name having been mentioned he stayed staring off at nothing, clearly having a lot on his mind. The others waited a moment to see if he regained focus by himself, but after waiting another few minutes, Pearl gently nudged his shoulder with her own.
“Scar? Bud? You alright?”
That seemed to do the trick, though he never lost the far off look in his eyes.
“Y-yeah, I’m fine. What, uh, what were we talkin’ about? Joel being the Connecting Roads…?”
Mostly blank stares were all that met his question, and he couldn’t help but fidget slightly.
“Scar,” Scott started, drawing out the scarred man’s name as Martyn narrowed his eyes at the bit of additional information he’d let slip. “We were talking about the Trivia Bot questions about Third Life.”
“And that you seemed to remember the actual game as the week went on.” Joel tacked on, blunt as ever. Scar didn’t meet any of their gazes, though his expression noticeably never shifted to that of nervousness. Just deep contemplation.
Eventually, he seemed to almost snap back to the room, finally looking back down and meeting his fellow winners’ eyes one by one, until he looked back to the stained glass window illuminating the room in shades of deep blues, rich greens and brilliant yellows.
“I don’t… I don’t think I really remember it. It was like… Someone was whispering the answers to me, and with the whispers came a- a flash of what happened during those moments.” He started, never taking his eyes off the mural now that he had noticed it. “Like, the first question we had up in the mountain, it was Mumbo’s.
“It asked, like, what the name of my Bee was in Third Life. And everyone else was in stu-stum-sue-. Stupor!- everyone else was in stupor at the fact that we finally had a name for it, and I was too! I was also thinking, ‘Why would I have a Bee’, but when I was heckling Mumbo for my enchanter, it got real close to the end of the timer and just. I saw myself walking around, skin gray and no shirt, very short shorts, with a Bee on a lead, calling him my balloon Mr. Bubbles!”
Scar got a bit rambly at the end, and yet…
“What are you even looking at Scar-” Scott asked, turning to look at what the Secret Life winner was so fixated on while he processed his answer, and found himself tensing, shoulders hiking up at the sight.
Scott’s very visible reaction caused the other three to also turn their attention to the window, curious as to why it held Scar’s gaze and raised Scott’s hackles.
It truly was a gorgeous piece. In the centre was a depiction of Earth, the continents broken into many pieces of glass purposefully in such a way that it felt like many winding roads encompassing the Earth. The glass used for the water shimmered beautifully, looking at times as though pure sheets of water had been wrangled into place. Just underneath the Earth was a waning crescent moon in a brilliant light yet bright yellow, with the finish on the glass rather purposefully pearlescent. The night sky in which the whole piece was set was also spattered with glints of silver-blue dots that would catch the light from the other side every so often to remind you of their presence. Bordered around the whole piece were elegant batches of sunflowers, poppies and lilacs all intricately weaving in and out of each other to create a charming arrangement. And of course, above it all, large and bold was a simple sun. It featured stylised rays twirling out from the centre ball like reaching ribbons that intertwined with the flowered border, the gold standing bright against the mostly black backdrop and providing a delightful almost back and forth with the star specs also in the sky.
Simply put, it was breathtaking.
“That-” Scott started, though cut himself off before starting again. “I didn’t put that there.”
That jolted the others out of their reverence, as they started worriedly discussing who could have installed it, and why.
Scar simply couldn’t bear to rip his eyes away from the spots where the sun embraced the flowers- his flowers.
He- He needed to talk to Grian.)