Chapter Text
If you asked Hummer himself, he would tell you that of course he had a life outside the internet. He was born to two parents, probably went to school, and just had a habit of fixating on certain mysteries. Mysteries like the Leviathan. He’ll talk to you about the Leviathan all day, why don’t you sit down and listen?
He doesn’t need to talk about his life beforehand, it was boring and mundane. Look at his research, that’s what’s important.
In the six months since Hummer started looking for the Leviathan, he’d gotten zero people reaching out to him.
Until Wifies. Wifies, who noticed that he’d oh-so-carefully made two fake biomes next to each other. Wifies, who went along with his plans.
Wifies, who asked about whether this was common. Hummer had stuttered when asked, as if floundering for information he should have readily available.
Of course he’s just like this. It’s a bad habit, becoming intensely focused on things. That’s all. And Levi is special, something important in the game. Something to believe in.
Wifies accepted his explanation without much prodding, and Hummer had to hold back a relieved sigh. He wasn’t quite sure why, but he was strangely glad he didn’t have to think about it any more than that.
They talked more like that after the fact, though the conversations about their lives outside of finding the Leviathan were few and far between. Nothing of real importance. Wifies would occasionally mention other mysteries he’d investigated, bring up things he’d learned, or old videos. Hummer would only ever bring up what he was like if Wifies asked him directly.
Yeah, he’d gone to school before, obviously. He didn’t go to college, not really worth it. He… didn’t have a job right now, but had enough money to live off of for a while. Most of his time was taken up by the Leviathan right now, the one that they’re supposed to be looking for, can they get back on topic?
Wifies would usually drop the subject after a few minutes, and Hummer didn’t bring it up again. His life before didn’t matter, just that he was a person who existed, Wifies could literally hear his voice over voice chat, there’s his proof.
Hummer really didn’t care to talk much about what his real life was like, always screen-deep in Reddit or Minecraft, searching. Hunting. Hoping, desperately, for even a glimpse of the Leviathan. In six months, he’d built everything up to get there, and now he’d found a companion who could help him do it.
It was working out for him. Finally.
And then the museum. Hummer made the mistake of assuming that Wifies had already been there, that he knew about the museum, that he’d already dismissed it. He discovered, with a horrible, sinking feeling, that Wifies had never even heard of it, or of her.
And Wifies was interested. Interested in the museum, interested in Arronax, interested in her research. Interested in everything, and it was Hummer’s fault that he knew.
He couldn’t make himself pay attention to Wifies’ excited rambling in the museum, or Arronax’s information. He just followed after Wifies, feeling almost like he was drowning in that awful, sinking feeling. He found his way around the museum easily, despite the fact that he swore he’d never been there. He’d looked up the server, gotten an idea of what it was like, and decided he didn’t want anything to do with it. Nothing with the commercialization of Levi, nothing to do with Arronax.
Arronax. Arronax. Why did her name make him feel ill?
It was harder to brush away his thoughts when paying attention to his surroundings, to Wifies and his excitement over Arronax’s research, felt just as awful as listening to his own swirling thoughts.
Like said, he felt like he was drowning. And Hummer was very, very familiar with the feeling of drowning.
The feeling only got worse when he gathered the courage to ask Wifies how he felt about the museum and he said that Arronax might be right, that the Leviathan could just be a combination of two bugs. He really thought that Wifies would be the right person, someone who could believe in Levi. And yet, one thoughtless comment about a museum, and it all fell apart.
What a fool.
And then Wifies broke the spell. Said he’d do his own research. Said he wanted to keep going. It was like Hummer could take in a proper breath for the first time since Arronax’s name came up in conversation. Wifies still wanted to keep searching with him, wanted to keep going forward. Hummer wouldn’t go back to searching alone. He felt light enough to actually show Wifies the one thing he did like in the server, the water lantern. It was a nice bit of redstone. He found it strangely easy to lead the way to the lantern, as if he’d been a million times before. The entire layout was easy to navigate, despite this being his first time stepping foot in the server.
He put the thought out of his mind, relieved that the museum would be over with soon and he could stop thinking about everything that didn’t make sense with Arronax.
The nether portal, of course, threw a wrench in his plan to forget all about it, but it was better than watching Wifies run around the museum like he was about to give up the search. The parkour was awful, but it was parkour, he could get over it. Even though he fell, like, six times. And Wifies had to point out the last jump to him, which was embarrassing, to say the least. Maybe it helped. Made it easier to not think about all of this. Not that he needed an excuse. When they made it through the portal, he focused on the redstone, the piston bullet. It was easier to think about the mechanics of the redstone, and then the shock of the sea at the negative coordinates.
The book almost sent his thoughts swirling again, before he saw the potions and it was like the idea melted from his mind. He had a reason, he understood why Arronax had never found Levi. That had to be it. He didn’t need to think about why her name stuck in his mind so much.
And, well, when he failed, arguing with Wifies succeeded in driving any remaining thoughts of her from his mind.
The final hardcore server was Hummer’s final chance to get Wifies to believe. To take a chance, to really think there was something more than just zeroes and ones in this game.
There were more players than Hummer had ever interacted with before. Huh, he couldn’t really remember playing much with anyone before Wifies came along.
Weird.
Probably nothing, he just preferred single player, and none of the people he knew in real life played Minecraft much, obviously. That’s all it is.
Wifies seemed to have zero qualms about robbing a random player for their redstone, and Hummer decided that there was no reason to argue. It would take too long to get the materials they needed organically, especially with the risk of dying and getting banned forever, so he just went with it.
Parameterization must have just not seen him, that’s why he seemed confused when Wifies said that they’d bring the materials back. Or maybe he was just confused that they’d want to take and then return his materials. Either way, seemed logical. And yeah, Hummer probably could have tried to back Wifies up during Parameterization’s whole extortion thing, or pay him some of the money, but Wifies never asked, and Hummer forgot about it after they actually got down to the ocean floor.
Wifies asked him, while they were moving through the ocean, if he normally would set up tests and search with someone else. Hummer stuttered for a response, despite the fact that it should have been easy to come up with the answer. Wifies was the first.
Why did it take him a few seconds to come up with an answer? It should be easy to remember.
Maybe it’s just because he was embarrassed to say that he doesn’t normally do this. That’s all. It’s easy enough for that to be the explanation.
It’s best not to think about it.
They argue again, Hummer makes a plea, and blows up their submarine. Sitting in the water, hearts ticking down one by one, staring at each other as they drown. Now, only now, Wifies believes. Maybe not in the Leviathan, but in him. Hummer has enough faith for both of them.
He doesn’t notice the potion in his inventory until the last second.
He drowns.