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#hels!jrumbot
votederpycausemufins · 11 months
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I'm finally back with another chapter of the hermit tommy fic, Surprisingly Familiar, after months of writers block caused by depression (among other things). A full explanation is found in the notes of the Ao3 version. A link to that is featured in the masterpost of the fic which itself is linked on the masterpost of my writing that's pinned to my blog (a lil complicated, but it keeps things organized)
I am also willing to talk to people on discord if people want. The main server I'm a part of is the Daily Grumbot server. I won't give a link since tumblr doesn't like posts with external links, so just go look for the post at dailygrumbot.tumblr.com!
With that, reminder that the hermit tommy au was created by @petrichormeraki and also anything suspiciously specific said by hels!techno might have some meaning to it, and enjoy the story!
Techno was put in charge of helping carry Doc around. Out of the group, he was the needed balance of being able to lift someone or something that heavy as well as having good mobility. Also Doc didn’t seem to want to be helped if his amount of hissing was anything to go by. 
While his missing cybernetics didn’t remove a leg or anything, his missing arm was heavier than his remaining one, so it was more of a difference compared to when he lost his original one. That paired with also losing his eye at the same time made him both unbalanced and without depth perception. They originally tried to let him walk on his own, but Doc instead quickly managed to start falling to the side before crashing into a wall after dealing with the uneven, vine-covered ground. So he was carried.
Without needing to focus on trying to keep upright, Doc instead was left to start mumbling to himself. It was a mix of various languages he knew, but for the most part in ones the others didn’t understand. And even with what they could understand every once and a while, it still wasn’t enough to know what exactly it was about. But at the very least, it seemed to be that he had some theory on what was causing this. Probably.
But they couldn’t really slow down to try and get an answer out of Doc. With what they had found earlier in the treehouse base and the strange animalistic noises they heard when finding Doc, the remaining members of the group knew they needed to keep moving.
“You know, if we can’t get answers from Doc, we might have to circle back.” Techno spoke up.
“We’ll have to circle back sooner or later. It’s not like we have a lot of space.” Mumbo replied, gesturing above them. They were still in the large dome of vines, which seemed to keep them mostly safe from the vines themselves, but whatever monster was around was a different story.
“Yeah, I get that.” Techno huffed. “The thing is, while I can carry Doc around better than most of you. I still can’t do it forever. So it might be nice if we head back or someone else tries carrying him.”
Since Mumbo had been the one to reply to Techno, everyone else used that as a bit of an opportunity to move a little bit faster and let it seem like Mumbo moved closer to offer. Once he realized, the redstoner sputtered a bit before relenting and taking Doc from Techno. The hand off didn’t go quiet so well, Mumbo nearly collapsing when he was given the brunt of Doc’s weight, but he recovered quickly and managed to carry him rather well.
“I guess carrying robots all day builds muscles, eh mate?” Phil asked, hoping to lighten the mood a bit.
“I suppose that’s part of it. But moving blocks around for building and redstone helps some too I would think.” Mumbo suggested, though it only got a shrug.
“I thought building wasn’t really your thing. I thought others did that.”
“We all do a little bit of everything.” Xisuma spoke up, though his voice was a little muffled from the vines over his helmet. “Mumbo tends to work more on the redstone side of things, but he’s not stuck there. And he does better at building than Grian at redstone.”
Phil laughed a bit at that before conceding. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Plus redstone’s not all that practically useful if it’s not built somewhere, huh? Can’t really be a door if there’s no building for it.”
“I mean I can still share the designs.” Mumbo huffed a little, his mustache turning into a frown, which simply drew more laughter from Phil, up until Paul, who had been quiet that whole time, shushed them all.
Everyone stopped, not saying a word, even trying to breathe as little as possible. They stood still other than adjusting their feet to best stay in a still position as well as ready to run or fight if necessary. Sounds that were distinctly not from the group came from the foliage around them, the question was if some creature was making them, or if it was simply some sort of breeze through the leaves.
Just as it looked like they were safe enough to keep moving, Doc hissed loudly, and then the creature Xisuma had seen before pounced from some bushes and other nearby greenery. Phil was the first to react, not as burdened by vines as the others. He slashed at the creature with a sword before it tried swiping its claws at him, barely being blocked by the sword in time.
Techno jumped in to help, attacking the creature from behind, hitting it with his axe, which ended up being rather ineffective. In the bit of stunned surprise that caused Techno, the creature swiped at him with enough force to knock him away and onto the ground. 
Since he had only just handed Doc off, Tech was already feeling a little exhausted. That and the fact that the creature seemed to be affected by combat differently made everyone worry. One of their remaining fighters was practically out for the count and they still didn’t know what would happen if any of them died. 
Before the creature could attack once more, Paul ran in, not with a sword or anything, but just slamming into the thing with his body. The group was still close to the edge of the dome of vines, close enough that with that attack, the creature broke through the wall of vegetation. Though it also seemed to be a sort of foe to Doc, the vines didn’t seem to care and also started wrapping and restraining the creature, it trying to escape its growing prison.
While the group was thankful that the jungle was taking that thing away, they were not so pleased that in getting the creature that far, Paul had to do the same. The vines also attempted to pull him away, likely to trap him with all the others that had been taken.
Xisuma was the first to try and drag him back, Techno and Phil still recovering while Mumbo dealt with Doc. Still, with Xisuma already being so covered that his breathing was hindered, the most he caused was that now the both of them were being dragged in.
Just as Phil rushed to help, there was a yelp from Mumbo as Doc had escaped his grip and rushed as best he could to Xisuma and Paul, hissing loudly. Everyone braced themselves on instinct, ready for an explosion, but it thankfully never came. The vines receded and let the pair go, allowing them to leave the edge of the dome and drag Doc with them.
“Holy fuck, what here you thinking?!” Phil shouted at Doc. “Were you trying to get some of us killed?!”
Doc just sat on the ground quietly, Mumbo and Xisuma both worried for their friend, but unnerved with how vulnerable he seemed. Doc wasn’t even mumbling or hissing any answer, just being completely quiet. 
“Fine, I guess we’ll just rest here. Hopefully whatever you did didn’t also give that thing a chance to possibly escape and attack us again.”
“Phil, calm down.” Techno tried to speak up. “Whatever he did worked. We don’t need to dwell on a what if right now.”
“I can’t calm down right now. We have been stuck in this whole thing for who knows how long and we’re going to be here for who the hell knows much longer. And while I would love to leave, I also don’t want it turning into a giant waste of time because someone almost screwed it up for all of us!”
“Can’t die here.” Came a mumble and everyone looked towards Doc. “They won’t…” Doc continued before it devolved into hisses.
“Doc, we can’t understand that last bit.” Xisuma spoke up, making Doc quiet again. “While he shouldn’t be yelling, Phil does have the slight point about how we should try and find a way out of this quickly. What you know would help a good deal.”
After a moment, Doc looked at his right arm, at least what little was left of it, as well as moved the stump. While the message that there was something related to his missing arm involved, Paul was the one to provide more context. “What’s Dinnerbone got to do with this?”
“Wait, you’re saying he really lost his arm to Dinnerbone?” Techno piped up. “Bruh, that’s kind of cool to hear.”
“If I recall correctly from what Doc has said, the two fought and Doc won, and as a sort of revenge, Dinnerbone just removed his arm.”
“Sounds like a sore loser.” Phil joked, having calmed down a little bit with the discussion helping to find a solution as opposed to running around more. “Is this all supposed to be more revenge?”
Doc shook his head, speaking again, but in a language none of them understood all that well. Still, the little information already given was a clue. They just needed to figure out what it meant.
“So,” Techno spoke up first. “Is this being caused by at least one of the gods?” It was that or it was supposed to be revenge by something else, which could have been the case, but was unlikely. And with Doc nodding, then of course it was the first idea.
“Is it still revenge?” Mumbo asked next. “You said it wasn’t more revenge, but maybe… another one got upset?”
“You think multiple gods could be upset at him?” Phil asked incredulously.
“I interacted with Notch, Dinnerbone was on the Mindcrack server a few times, Herobrine is a hermit as well as one of the Deaths.” Paul paused before adding on one more piece of evidence. “And also there’s Etho.”
Mumbo also jumped in before Phil could say more, looking like he might try to refute it. “Doc also has a knack for breaking the laws of the universe simply because he can. While most of it is taken well… I wouldn’t be surprised if something wasn’t.”
“Okay, fine, divine punishment. What for?” Phil conceded, looking at Doc, but was really fine with anyone answering. What he didn’t expect was Doc to nod and manage an answer, simply repeating “punish”. “Well… that’s just great.”
“So… punishment for something. The question is what for.” Mumbo spoke up, rubbing his chin before then asking. “It’s not due to another fight you had, right? Because then that would be the revenge we already said it couldn’t be. So, is it for any of your… disruptive redstone?”
Doc shook his head, doing the same when he was asked if it had any connection to the hivemind Doc had mentioned here and there. From there, there was a bit of sidetracked conversation with Techno comparing Doc’s hivemind to his chat and Phil’s crows. But eventually, they got back on topic.
“So, if it’s not any of those other things, what exactly could they punish you for?” Xisuma asked, and then everyone was quiet to let Doc respond, but he didn't. “Doc, whatever it is, we can’t help unless you tell us. It may be bad, but if we want to-“ 
Xisuma was stopped as Doc finally spoke up. “Knowledge.”
“What?”
“Know… shouldn’t.” Doc tried explaining, but only half the words could be understood. “…punish too…”
“That’s not great.” Phil huffed. “It’s something you’re in trouble for knowing, forbidden knowledge or some shit, so we can’t help out since we can’t know what it’s about?”
Doc agreed with Phil’s explanation, which had Mumbo place a reassuring hand on Doc’s shoulder. “Doc, I’m sorry that we can’t help you with that part… but if The Jungle was your punishment for… whatever it was, it already happened.”
“He’s right.” Paul spoke up, looking back towards Doc from where he stood leading the group along. “It seems this is about you worrying about the secret slipping and everyone else getting punished, but here we are, surrounded by that happening, probably to a greater extent than it would actually be, and you’re still tight lipped. I think that means you wouldn’t let it slip.”
Doc nodded in agreement, but the group could tell he didn’t fully agree. “Want to… though…” Doc spoke, careful with his words this time to make sure they could all be understood.
“Sorry, that’s not something we can really help you with.” Techno spoke up, the tone of his voice more lighthearted to try and lighten the mood at least a little. “Phil’s already a dinosaur, so Paul must be just as old, plus he knows some of the gods for better or worse.”
“I belong in a museum.” Paul responded, with a tone of voice that implied some sort of inside joke, especially with Phill laughing and even Doc managing a weak laugh.
“Whatever. What I’m saying is he might somehow know what you’re having trouble with. And if not him, then someone else. It can’t be everyone is off limits, right?”
“If not me, someone else from your server?” Paul suggested. “If it’s godly punishment, then for someone safe you might want to talk with I-”
He was cut off by a hiss from Doc, loud enough that no one could tell what Paul said, at least until he apologized and spoke again. “Sorry, I’m uh,,, bad at remembering chosen names it seems. Joe I believe then.”
With that mention, Doc nodded, and everyone took that as the answer to what had been said, not realizing that it was less of a mistake and more of an excuse.
“Even if you can’t talk with any of them, it doesn’t mean you can’t talk to anyone at all.” Xisuma then said, hoping to give a suggestion. “Even though you can’t talk about it directly, you can still voice your worries. Being direct could get you hurt, which is a reasonable fear, but hopefully being indirect won’t get you in trouble. And now that we know the… safe information, you could come to me or Mumbo, or any of the other hermits. Though they would need a summary of what we’ve learned. Not to say we learned what you’re being punished for!” Xisuma quickly corrected at the mention of learning making Doc hiss.
“I think what they’re all trying to say.” Phil spoke up. “Is that there’s ways to get around the whole di-vine punishment and still talk about your feelings so it doesn’t screw you up on the inside. Because keeping it all close to the chest could hurt you.”
That seemed to be what finally got to Doc, because as he nodded, the vines started to disappear, followed by just about everything else around them, before being replaced by the next false reality they would have to go through.
.
.
.
Everyone was still silent from Grian’s question. No one was sure exactly what to say, though for wildly different reasons. One thing that was certain was that Death, any of them, having an interest in you, likely wasn’t a good thing. 
Sahn, who had been the only one making noise with some humming, finally clued in and spoke up first. “Oh wait? Was that question for me? Sorry, I didn’t realize. …Um, what was it again? I already forgot.” 
“I uh…” Grian nervously started, unsure now with the shift of tone in the room. “I don’t exactly know who this ‘Warrior’ is. I’ve heard about him a few times, but not enough details. And so I want to know who he is and what exactly is going on.”
“Oh, that first part is easy!” Sahn smiled, cheering up quickly. “He’s officially known as The Warrior of Death! He’s got another name too but I’m not allowed to use it. He’s one of… two? Or wait was it four… I think it was four deaths. But I help him out! And have been since I died.” Despite Grian not liking Sam and not knowing too much about Sahn, he still winced at the mention that Sahn was indeed, and had indeed, died. “I forget exactly why. I think there was something weird. Maybe something about… tents? No… hurts… no it was… somewhere in the middle. Anyway! He wanted me to find you for some reason! I don’t know why because you have Sally, and what should have been enough.”
Grian tensed at the mention of his recently acquired pet chicken, now questioning if there was more to the animal. “And how would she have been ‘enough’?”
“Well my boss really likes chickens. Oh, and other similarly related animals! He can know what just about any of them see. Wait is it any, or all? Maybe both? I don’t remember.”
‘This is probably just because of your current time stuff.’ Astrid signed. She had no clue if that was the case or not, but it was better to come up with an excuse just in case.
“Yeah, she’s probably right.” Flora agreed. “Maybe he’s just wondering why a new death kid just appeared.”
Sahn looked like he wanted to disagree with that, but was stopped as Silski walked through him and picked Grian up. “This isn’t going anywhere. You’re coming with me to an… emergency meeting.”
Grian just kicked at Silski. “First put me the hell down, second, what are you even talking about?”
After a moment, Grian was put back down, though with a huff from Silski. “I’m in a team with a few people. We call ourselves the council. One of the people included is your mom. Other than the actual Deaths, she’ll probably know the most about this. Unlike this ghost.” And Silski attempted to gesture to Sahn, but had no clue where the ghost was and did so in the wrong direction.
“Wait what d'ya mean his mum? I thought he was like, Grifter’s cousin? Though I also think I heard Eepr say he was a clone.” Toob was the one speaking up.
“Uh, well I was supposed to pretend to be some sort of relative, but Flora figured out quickly and so I just didn’t bother?” Grian admitted sheepishly, Flora butting in a moment later.
“Yeah I didn’t know about faking it. But enough has already happened in this world, so one more thing isn’t all that surprising.”
“Well I don’t care.” Silski grumbled. “Are you coming with me or not?”
“Sure…” Grian replied hesitantly. He wanted some sort of explanation. There was already enough going on and enough unanswered questions that he wanted some of them to be answered. That being said, the possibility of seeing his mum felt off. Some of it probably came from the fact that this wouldn’t be his actual mother. But it also might be the simple fact that… he didn’t remember her at all. Grian still had a few memories he was clinging onto of his brothers and dad, but his mum was a different story. She was barely ever around due to her ‘job’. That, mixed with Grian having been so young and it having been so long, he honestly didn’t remember what she looked like, how she sounded, what she was like at all. He would know this warped copy of her better than his own mother.
As Silski started to leave, Grian followed, Astrid managing to tell him that she and Flora would keep in contact with their comms. It reassured Grian a bit, which helped, though when he turned back, Silski had gotten pretty far already. 
Grumbling a bit, Grian flew to catch up with the sculk hybrid, nearly face planting into the ground when he landed. “The offer to get carried still stands.” Silski piped up. “Last time I am though, because honestly I’d like to stay away from you and your smell.”
Grian accepted, though instead of being actually carried, he instead perched himself on Silski’s shoulders, which apparently stunk less to him. “Okay I know I tried cleaning myself up when we got back from getting the stuff on my wings checked out, I shouldn’t smell that bad.”
Silski was quiet for a moment, trying to think of what to say that also wouldn’t reveal the secret Astrid had told him. “For all we know, whatever time magic sent you here is ender based. Which is weird since that’s almost impossible to find in pretty much any world, but what else would explain it?”
Grian was pretty sure that by any world, Silski meant the worlds of this reality, not the one he and Grifter were from. Which could make sense if whatever was annoying Silski was unique to the other world he had recently come from and why here and there, the sculk hybrid had mentioned the smell not being as bad. Still, he mentioned that Sense apparently smelled, so what did that mean for him? Just another question to ponder, Grian supposed. In fact, he could even ask about that. “So wait, then what about Sense?”
“Ugh, him. I’m not exactly sure why he smells like death and rotting and whatnot, which makes you seem a whole lot better in comparison. But even ignoring that, I can’t say I’m a fan of him. In the short time he’s been here, Sense has been a prick to me. I didn’t think I did anything wrong, and he sure won’t explain if I ask. I have some guesses, but those might not even be right.”
“Some people can just be assholes.” Grian replied, but then thought about it more. In a world where Taurtis was gone, he had found Perfect Sense. They had been together and seemed madly in love with each other and even had kids. And here was someone saying how bad Sense actually was. Or probably was. He didn’t really know either of the two well enough to know who had more of a point. And, if he did end up the same way, like Grifter, would he potentially turn a blind eye for love? Not if it was really bad, right?
“I can hear your brain going at full steam.” Silski spoke and pulled Grian out of his thoughts, which he realized were probably being spurred on by his audience. “Oh good, that worked. I’ve been trying to talk to you for a while.”
And Grian found that they were already approaching the cottages where Flora had taken him to when she dragged him along while visiting her mum. He hadn’t realized he had zoned out that badly, but Silski also seemed to move pretty fast, so that also probably helped with how short it felt.
He shivered a bit, ready to go into the hopefully warm cabins, only for Silski to walk right past them. Grian complained, but was threatened to be thrown in the snow, so he reluctantly kept quiet. Finally, they reached a bit of a clearing, but nothing really seemed to be there. Which was even more frustrating since Silski stopped moving. Grian still waited a moment, but when nothing happened, he started to say that it all seemed to be a waste of time. Unfortunately, before he could continue, Silski yanked Grian off his shoulders and into his arms before essentially throwing Grian into the middle of the clearing. 
Grian yelped at being thrown, before quickly wrapping his wings around him to help brace for impact. He hoped the snow would also help, and it seemed it did because when Grian did land on the ground, it didn’t hurt at all. It was really cold, but didn’t hurt. But, when he went to sit up and yell at Silski, he found it hard as the snow seemed to have swallowed his wings. Enough snow to weigh them down and make them hard to lift. As he tugged to pull one of his wings free, his audience was suddenly pointing out that his wings weren’t the only things the snow was covering. 
The amount of times Grian had seen quicksand be mentioned in stories had made him assume it would be more common that it was in everyday life. Suddenly finding himself being swallowed up by quick snow made him try to think over what had happened in all those stories. Unfortunately , all he could come up with was people grabbing onto nearby vines. He wasn’t really in a vine filled forest. And there weren’t even any branches due to them being in a clearing.
Grian ultimately resolved himself to the fact he had been betrayed. He was probably going to die, though thankfully it wasn’t going to be permanently. Unless, of course, Silski had planned ahead. As the cold started to become so unbearable that it hurt, Grian figured he would just have to see when he died. And then he fell onto some wool.
Silski fell down from the ceiling a few seconds later, though he landed on his feet. “Come on, we still need to get to the meeting room.”
Grian didn’t move from the floor, just staring up at Silski. “I’m not dead, right?”
Silski huffed before yanking Grian to his feet. “No. It’s a secret entrance through the snow. There’s others around that are traps to trip people up, so don’t go telling people how to find this place.”
“I thought you guys just met out in the open?” Grian said, recalling when he had first seen the group.
“Yeah, that’s for the public club stuff.” And Silski led Grian down the halls of what seemed like some sort of old structure. “Sure, that’s fun and all, but really, we tend to focus on stuff like this.”
Silski gestured, before cursing and realizing that they were still on the wrong side of a door, which he then led them through, and showed the place off again, though with a little less grandeur. Still, despite that, the room definitely looked amazing to Grian. The room was still clearly the room of the old structure, but at the same time it had been updated in a way. Banners hung to the walls proudly and torches held in what looked like sconces adorned the walls. In the center of the room was a strange table. There was a large wooden disk on top to make it into a table, but the base seemed to be something else. 
Curiosity getting the best of him, Grian moved to the table and lifted the disk, staring at the dark magic in the center and the sort of scarlet colored hints accenting it, looking like stars covering the sky. Before he could admire anymore, a hand slammed down in the disk, nearly pinching Grian’s fingers. Grian looked up to see who had done that and found a girl glaring daggers at him. He assumed she would be frowning if it weren’t for the bubble gum she was blowing, which made him flinch when it popped. But he didn’t seem to be the only one startled by the noise as a hiss came from his left. 
Grian took a step back at seeing a creeper, not dealing with them all that much so far, but knowing what they could cause. However, after a moment when it didn’t explode, Grian realized that it was actually a hybrid rather than an actual creeper, and also they had a lot of cats with them.
“Oh come on!” Bubblegum girl glared at the creeper. “How are you still flinching at that?”
“Y-you did it t-too soon.” The creeper shuddered out, almost like they were still cold despite how warm the room was compared to the temperature outside, or should it be considered above? “I d-didn’t get a ch-chance to process it.”
“I duh duh duh- that’s what you sound like. You’re still just a little cry baby.” Grian, though the insults weren’t pointed at him, still winced at them since they were coming from an unfamiliar person that could potentially turn to him at any second.
“F-fuck you.” The words sounded more confident than the stutter would imply. “I got in here j-just like everyone else. And I d-didn’t get a f-free pass, like s-some people.” And then their gaze turned to Grian, also being a glare, which did not help Grian’s confidence with being there. And Silski had yet to say a word, so he didn’t expect the sculk hybrid to speak up and tell them to back off. But someone did.
“Leave him alone. Unlike everyone else, as you are comparing him to, it seems like he wasn’t here willingly.” And Grian looked to see another person enter the room, someone both familiar and not. Someone, though he had forgotten the face of, he could still remember that it was different. His mother, or this version of her at least.
“Speaking of.” Silski now spoke up. “I’ve got answers to your questions about that, as well as a bit more. But the simple answer is that Grian is apparently just Grifter from the past.”
“The simple answer?” The alternate version of his mother asked, and Grian wondered if she could tell he wasn’t the real Grifter. It was probably because of his wings. Grifter apparently made his look more like the real one’s, so maybe he could pretend the opposite?
“Well, he wanted me to pretend otherwise to try and keep things simple. Who knows what someone might want out of the possibility of time travel. So he helped with changing my appearance to really throw people off.”
“I see.” Was the answer before his not mum looked over at bubblegum girl. “Ekke, I believe you had wanted clarification on something?”
Elle popped another bubble before sitting up in her chair. “Yeah. We saw him before. I think he saw us too, but didn’t come running over even though you two said he went missing for a couple of years when he was like this, right?”
“W-we were really y-young then.” The creeper spoke up. “He pr-probab-bly wasn’t sure i-if it was us.”
“Okay fine, whatever.” She chewed loudly and leaned back in her seat, the chair teetering on its back legs. “If ya don’t remember their names, they’re Euro and Krys.”
“Ekke!”
“Whaaat? Just make it quick for the kid so Sil can actually start the meeting.”
Silski sighed before moving Grian to sit in Silski’s chair before the sculk hybrid propped his arms up on the backing. “The main reason we’re here is that someone outside of Grian’s immediate family seems to be taking an interest in things, which could lead to some extra insight on Grian appearing, but could also be cause for concern. Grian’s here to supplement any information I haven’t pieced together from the rumor mill as well as be a sort of… well, not lie detector exactly. But you know what I mean.”
“Uh, I don’t.” Grian spoke up, before being silenced as Silski reached a hand down before covering Grian’s face to shush him. That worked all of two seconds before Grian shoved the hand away and then sulked in the chair.
“S-so… your m-mention of n-non imme-“ Euro wasn’t able to finish his sentence before Silski started to answer. Grian thought it was a bit rude for a moment before noticing Euro didn’t seem upset by it, so maybe it was a normal thing.
“Yes I did mean it was still about someone in your extended family. It seems to be Death. The other one of course.”
Grian watched as Krys clapped a hand to her mouth before slowly lowering it at Silski’s added clarification. “Oh. That’s… strange. You’re sure it’s him?”
“Considering Grian’s got a chicken following him around plus someone saying they literally work for the guy, I’m fairly certain.”
“Lovely…” Krys sighed, rubbing her temples before pausing to pick a cat up off of the floor and hand it to Euro in a fashion that seemed like it was a common action. And it seemed helpful since Euro had not reacted well to the confirmation.
“Is he okay?” Grian asked the group in general, concerned about his… pseudo brother? He guessed that was probably the best way to describe Euro, though he obviously wouldn’t say it aloud.
“Right, you wouldn't know about it, would you?” Silski spoke up. “Did Fleur and Astrid at least tell you about how people get into this world?” Grian thought it over, thinking Flora may have made some small comment about it. But apparently needing to take that long to answer was an answer of its own. “Alright, who wants to explain?”
“I will.” Ekke raised a hand. “So before you were admin, we had this asshole named Nightmare. He said the place was open to just about anyone to join, but to make sure the place wasn’t completely flooded, there was a sort of test in the way. He got ahold of a way for people to have to deal with their ‘biggest fear’ or whatever. If you could get past it, it meant you were strong enough or some bs. Plus, if you showed up together with someone, then you had to go through theirs as well. And if you failed the test by succumbing to it or dying, you would fail. Depending on how, it could just be you booted, or could be everyone. Turns out part of the reason he was so insistent was because this place is screwed the hell up because of the guy interested in you, and trying to get out is only easier than getting in because of that test.”
Grian’s heart dropped at the last bit of information. Sure, most of it didn’t sound great, but he kind of wanted to leave to get back home eventually, and time travel wasn’t really the easiest thing in the first place. Plus, if the person interested in him had messed things up that badly… well, who knew what that meant for him. “Well… uh, what does that mean for Euro?”
“A few things really.” Krys was the one to speak up before showing off some scars on her neck that made Grian flinch. He had seen similar ones on Flora, but they were mostly covered with fur. Without that, they looked a lot worse. “As you know, your father is one side of death. Nightmare knew that and… didn’t want him involved. So he made sure to find ways to cut contact between him and us. Some of that included him involving your uncle once he did learn about what had happened to us.”
“Oh… so dad’s…?” Grian trailed off. It wasn’t his dad, not really, and he hated that he needed to keep reminding himself that. But again, he still wanted to see his family again, no matter what version of them it was.
“Wile sees him most often, your father makes it a bit easier to leave. Not by too much, but enough.”
Grian nodded before thinking of another question. “Uh, do you guys need to go through that whole test every time? Or did I guess, since it’s not around anymore from what Grifter told me.”
“Th-thankfully n-no.” Euro hissed out. “If I h-had to see th-those two every time, th-the potato t-torcher w-wouldn’t be en-nough.”
“Potato torcher?” Grian asked, eyebrows raising in a mixture of shock and concern. “Is that-?”
“A sentient potato really screwed Euro over.” Ekke spoke up. “One day it was ‘oh you are suck a close friend! Come to my wedding because we are such good friends’ to ‘why are you so upset I tried threatening a child with doxxing’ all the way to ‘here’s every time I and some others you thought were friends actually hate you for that we decided to tell you all at once instead of pointing it out in the moment for you to work on, why the hell didn’t you ever improve or change?’ ignoring the fact that they changed the context of some of those things. It, pardon the language, really fucked him over for ages. He tried joining this place not long later and I’m surprised he made it through alive. It was like a reverse beacon stealing nightmare. Not the person of course.”
“That… is a lot to unpack.” Grian spoke up, glancing at the creeper hybrid. “Are you sure he’s okay with you sharing all that?”
“Pretty much.” Ekke shrugged. “He’s terrified of sharing it directly, so doing it through other means works better. I’m totally free if you ever want to do the same. As long as it’s not also something that causes you disdain for potatoes and certain conifer trees because I don’t think I could handle two of that.”
“It’s uh… mainly rabbit based.” Grian admitted quickly, hoping it would resolve the topic. Which it seemed to with Ekke nodding before Silski coughed to bring attention back to him and then get them back on topic.
“Anyway, again, Warrior named death is involved again. I already mentioned he has someone around that’s working for him. That someone said they were here for Grian specifically, but also for someone going by the same of Spore.”
“Oh n-no…”
“I can’t be certain that it’s anything related to sculk though.” Silski paused to give Grian some clarification. “The Dark, aka what’s through the portal that is this table, is fungal like, and fungi have spores.” And Silski lifted the board on top of the table enough to show off the portal briefly to Grian. “The worker specifically mentioned that Spore was asked to interact with Perfect Sense and help with his redstone poisoning.”
“Which could be from redstone immunity which fits if it is sculk based.” Krys agreed. “Or might not if they’re interacting with his kind.”
“His kind?” Grian asked, wondering if it had something to do with Silski’s ‘ender’ mentions.
“There is a very long story about that.” Krys answered. “But a simple thing is that he’s not really from around here.”
“Ah.” Grian nodded, realizing that was probably more connected to him and Grifter not being from around there either.
“Okay next bit.” Ekke spoke up, getting a frustrated sigh out of Krys.
“We still need to be careful about the ‘entrance exams’ apparently.” Silski spoke, using air quotes around entrance exams. “Astrid came back mentioning a pretty big group was stuck in a reenabled test. There’s a chance it’s still connected to Warrior because of how big the group supposedly is. The person who showed up already is a ghost, so they likely got a free pass.”
“How m-many is a large gr-roup?” Euro asked, getting an answer of ten people, which made him hiss and hide by snuggling into cat fur.
“They hopefully won’t come through then.” Krys spoke, though she still looked concerned. “Did Astrid mention any progress?”
“Not directly, no.” Silski started, then quickly added before anyone could reply, “She did mention a ‘king’ is part of the group, so if they do make it through…”
“I understand. If something happens to you, we won’t fault you for it.”
Silski shrugged, and Grian looked for some sort of answer, though he wasn’t given one. “I still might as well give the rest of the information I’ve put together. It’ll go to a whole lot more use if it’s not stuck with me.”
“Okay spit it out half n half.” Ekke got glares from everyone with working eyes, but didn’t seem to mind, just waiting for Silski to continue.
“This next part is probably going to get me in trouble, but I don’t trust Grifter.”
“What?” Grian turned in his seat to look at Silski. “Uh, but he’s me?” He then wondered if Silski had realized that they weren’t the real Grifter. “Why say it in front of me if-”
“Because you should get a heads up.” Silski replied, cutting Grian off, then further explained when Krys asked him to. “Look, he’s the new admin and everything, and I swear my distaste isn’t just because of the company he keeps, though to me it’s a very good reason.”
“That’s my future husband you’re referring to.” Grian complained before Silski whacked him.
“Look, he’s your future version. I’m sure you think that makes him immediately trustworthy, but I don’t think that’s the case. You want to go to your home and change the past? Well what if he’s in the version of the timeline where he tried that and it’s a lost cause? You were mumbling about someone completely different when you came back from some ‘training’ with Grifter, and based on context clues, I think it’s someone you want to change the past for. Maybe Grifter thinks it’s fine to screw them over to keep things how they are, but you might not.”
“Who’s to say it wouldn’t be purposely screwing them over that I want to cause?” Grian asked, getting an answer from Euro.
“W-well, if you wa-ant to do that, then y-you would just want to d-do it f-for you, but Sils-ski said you w-want it f-for the other p-person, which i-isn’t a dist-tinction made lightly.”
“Okay, fine. So what if that is what he’s doing? Maybe he’s right.” Grian spoke back, though if it were the case, he wouldn’t be happy with it.
“That’s just one possibility. There could be other things that are going on. Like the fact that he’s training you at all is worrying.”
“How so?”
“What exactly is he training you for?” Krys asked, and Grian quickly gave the answer, which seemed to concern her. “Oh, yes that is worrying. Listeners are particular about things, Watchers just as much.”
“Watchers?” Grian asked. It wasn’t something Grifter had mentioned, at least not that he could really recall.
“They’re counterparts to Listeners. It’s not something I’m an expert on, not in the slightest, but the two are made to be balances to one another in more than one way, to the point that just one Listener can affect things on the other side greatly. If you’re learning early, it could cause some issues.”
“Well, Grifter’s been constantly going to wherever other Listeners are and telling them about what’s going on.” Grian explained from what he had been told. “If they haven’t made a big stink about it, then it must be fine, right?”
“G-grian, you k-keep saying th-things that you’ve b-been told.” Euro spoke up. “B-but have you g-gotten any p-proof? Saying th-things c-can be r-really easy comp-pared to actual p-proof.”
Grian wondered for a moment if maybe Euro had a point before he remembered that Grifter had given him some proof. “Yes, I have.” He looked over at Krys, knowing she would be able to verify what he was saying on some level. “The other person who’s been staying with you, Flora’s mom Sadie, she’s seen the physical proof I’ve been given about everything.”
Krys paused before nodding. Sadie had mentioned something to her of that sort. That confirmation seemed to help Euro and Ekke, but Silski was another deal. He knew a bit more than he could say, for fear of completely screwing things over. Sure, proof could be proof, but it still wasn’t something first hand. Even something like what Grian was mentioning needed to be verified. And if it was anything like what he assumed from what little info he’d gathered about what the so called proof was, it seemed like something that could be manipulated, giving half truths and leaving out certain parts to cast Grifter in a better light than reality.
“Now, I would like to circle back to something you mentioned before.” Krys spoke up, directing her statement to Silski. “This ghost you mentioned could have easily gotten through to this world, but it sounded like this Spore person is also around if the ghost has already contacted them. That is what you meant, yes?”
“Right.” Silski grumbled. “My guess is they either managed to be separate from the big group, or they got in through alternate methods.”
“Like what?” Ekke asked, then Silski patted Grian’s head. “Him?”
“Me?” Grian asked, looking up at Silski for some sort of explanation.
“Just because it could be they’re connected to sculk doesn’t mean they definitely are. You guys crashed at our house after you met with Cerus, which happened because you owed Wassa. And you owed Wassa because after Grifter took you off-world to train, you came back with some sort of substance on your wings that appeared after you were in a mushroom valley or something.”
“Uh… cave but the rest is pretty accurate.” Grian mentioned. “How much are they talking about me behind my back?”
“Just stuff they want another opinion on.” Silski tried reassuring Grian. “Plus, they’re not entirely convinced Grifter’s telling the full truth either. Fleur’s wondering things with the ghost around and Astrid’s still wary of him after her whole curse incident.”
“Right, that.” Grian reluctantly agreed. He still didn’t think that was the case, that Grifter was lying. He had been handed proof, shouldn’t that be enough? “Well, uh, if we’re worried about the Spore person, since we know they’re connected to the death you’re talking about, if they were somehow brought over by me, someone should have noticed.”
“You mean like noticing you had gunk stuck all over your wings?”
“Not all over them!” Grian argued, then hesitated before adding on. “Just… noticeable enough that it bothered me. But that doesn’t take much!”
“Then show your wings off to the others.” 
Grian froze at the suggestion. Not because showing the mycelium off could be bad, but more the idea of him showing his wings off to two people who were supposed to be his family. They would know he wasn’t supposed to have these bright colorful wings, so the best explanation would be that they were disguised that way. But you couldn’t really color them differently since the shape was different too. So it would have to be some sort of illusion, but something like that should also hide the mycelium. And since they knew he was supposed to be Grifter’s past version, he couldn’t use some other excuse. He didn’t know how to make an actual illusion himself to make his wings look like how they were ‘supposed to’ while also showing off the mycelium they hadn’t quite gotten rid of. Especially since he couldn’t really look at his wings since they were on his back.
“You hesitating isn’t a great sign.” Ekke spoke up, then made Grian flinch as she blew and popped a bubblegum bubble.
“I… I’m not a fan of anyone looking at them. I barely tolerated getting them inspected before, and that was only because Flora and Astrid were there.” Grian fumbled before giving his excuse. It wasn’t exactly a lie, he had gotten used to his wings being messed with back home… mainly by Sam. If the circumstances were a little different, he probably would let the group look, but for now, he couldn’t. “I know technically you’re part of my family, well I mean you are.” Grian then had to quickly cover almost revealing things. “It’s just, I haven’t seen you guys in years. If it weren’t for showing up here in the future, it sounds like I still wouldn’t have seen you for a few more years. We might be related, but you’re still pretty much strangers to me.”
“I suppose you’re right.” Krys agreed. “However, if you could potentially come back with one of those two at a later time, this is pretty important.”
“We’ll see.” Grian answered, then looked at the others. “So, is that about it?”
“I th-think so.” Euro said, then looking to Ekke, who nodded.
“Alright then, let’s go.” Silski spoke up, then started to stand before Krys held up a hand, making everyone pause.
“There is one more thing I think we should discuss.”
“And what’s that?”
Krys sighed before speaking again. “We’re under the assumption that The Warrior is after Grian due to his time displacement, but I’m not completely sure. Technically, it could be that, but it may not be just from curiosity.”
“What do you mean?” Ekke spoke up, now sitting in her chair properly and looking at Krys. Looking over to Euro, Grian saw he looked just as concerned.
“My husband is not the biggest fan of Grian, or rather, Grifter. It takes a bit of explanation, but the long and short of it is that despite being death, they can be killed, and Grifter could potentially do that.”
“He could what?” Silski asked, surprised and nearly shouting. Grian was just as surprised. Was she saying that he would want to- no, it was just speculation, right?
“How do you know that?” Grian asked, voice wavering, before getting his fears confirmed that Grifter had tried to kill Deathza. The only thing reassuring Grian at that point was the following information that it occurred before Grifter was put in prison, meaning before he was replaced with the current Grifter.
“Okay, let me get the full explanation out of the way, it will make things a whole lot simpler.” Krys spoke, then pulled out a sword. Grian worried about why the weapon was drawn before the blade was used to carve into the table. “Our universe is really two universes. Once upon a time, they were just one, but that’s not the case now.” And she caved a line down the middle of the square she had originally carved. “Most people think of them as mirrors to one another, but that’s not exactly the case. Think of it as more of a set of scales. If you put weight on one side, a matching weight needs to be placed on the other side. It doesn’t need to be immediate, but the longer one side weighs more, the more likely it could eventually crash against the ground and potentially break the scale itself.”
Grian looked at the scale that was carved onto the table, one side on each side of the middle dividing line. While the scale example worked, the mention of most people thinking of the two as mirrors made Grian also take that into account. If it was so common, then there had to be some things that fit better with that explanation. Like, if he were here, could the actual past version of Grifter be experiencing the same thing? Or if the real Grifter were also on this side, what did that mean for the side Grian was from. “Uh, do the sides have names at all?”
“A few.” Krys agreed. “Aey and Enne, Wels and Hels, Kall(Kæll) and Glöd, there’s a good amount. We’re in Aey and the other is Enne. People are usually from one or the other, but the gods are not, and there are rumors that there are some people who could still be from the before. I would doubt that’s the case since again, the scales. They can be tipped for a while, but certainly not that long.”
Grian nodded, but then looked up from the diagram to ask a question. “So, what does that have to do with now?”
“I’m getting there.” Krys assured, then dragged her sword over the place where the scale connected. “Aey and Enne can still interact with one another. Mentioned before were the Listeners and Watchers. While they are mainly considered part of Aey and Enne respectively, they interact with both sides, with at least one of each assigned to each world. Along with that, their kind are not restricted to which side they come from. Another example of interaction is for the deaths. Two deaths for each side. They represent the two sides to death itself for their respective half of the universe.”
Krys drew a pair of circles on both sides of the split, putting an extra dot in one of the circles on what Grian assumed was the Aey side. “Despite them being the embodiment of death in its various forms, they aren’t gods. I wouldn’t say demigods either, but even lesser gods isn’t right. And then powerful practically immortals is a mouthful.” Krys sighed. “As long as the deaths are deaths, they are able to go between worlds at will, ones from both Aey and Enne. For the most part, they will stick to the side they belong to, but for certain cases they will interact with the other. The biggest reason for that is that there’s one rule placed on them by the gods. They cannot be the ones handling the souls of their family.”
While it made sense, Grian was still surprised by it. Whenever he was dealing with the possibility of dying back home, he always recalled that his mother was death. He didn’t know the full ins and outs of it, which was obvious now, but he had hoped that if he did die, stuck as a ghost or not, he would still potentially get to see her again. “So… if I end up dying…”
“Your father wouldn’t be involved, even if it would fall on his portion of death.” She paused when Grian opened his mouth. “This explanation is already long enough, I’m not explaining those sides.” And Grian’s mouth snapped shut. “Your uncle also wouldn’t be involved due to that as he is still part of your family. It affects mostly direct bonds, children, marriage, adoption too for Flora’s case. But because of all that, neither death of this world could deal with any of us, so that would fall upon the deaths of Enne. Or, it could fall upon the duty of a new death.”
“Which would happen if one of them were killed?” Grian asked, pretty sure he was following along.
“If they were killed or retired or whatnot. Their title would pass on. If they willingly leave the position, then it would be given to who they also willingly pass it to. But if they are killed, it passes to the one who defeated them.”
And suddenly a lot of things made sense. “So, you’re saying that my uncle, this ‘Warrior’, might be interested in me because Grifter could kill him. And… and he might want to kill me first? To erase Grifter so he couldn’t even try?”
“Smart kid.” Ekke spoke up, but then looked to Krys to confirm if that was what she was trying to imply, earning a nod.
“Before, I would have said that it couldn’t be the case, but there’s also the fact that Silski has implied your… ‘scent’ could be from something connected to Enne. But that doesn’t entirely matter right now. What does matter is why the Warrior is really interested in you.”
“Then I guess we’ll need to start grilling the ghost he had show up. You guys owe me and Toob for kidnapping Jane. And making him stay at our place. And making me deal with the ender fucker more. Just, you guys are in charge of interrogation.”
“Okay fine, that’s fair.” Grian agreed. “So, now are we done?”
“Yes, now we are done.” Krys agreed, then stood from her seat and flipped the table board over, revealing other carvings. “Oh, uh. I guess we need another one of these.”
“Not it.” Silski spoke up, then picked Grian up, ignoring as he squawked a bit. “I need to get him out of here and then back to my place. Among other things. So bye.” 
By the time they were back out in the snow, Grian didn’t really notice the cold all too much, instead focusing his thoughts on everything that was talked about. Okay well he did eventually focus on the cold because it felt like it was freezing his wings off. The feeling did subside enough for him to start thinking again, making him think he just got used to it. And that was a fair assumption, seeing as how he was right before with the fact that he couldn’t see his wings well, including how the mycelium stuck in them receded in time with his feeling of the cold.
.
.
.
Jrum, along with a number of the Hermits, were at spawn. He held a weapon in his off hand, but his main hand was sparking slightly. Not because he was damaged or anything, no. Vee, along with some help from Hoodie, had been teaching Jrum fairly well on how to use magic. And by fairly well, he meant he had learned the basics well enough to not explode and said it was good enough for him. 
While Jrum trusted the two enough to teach him, that still wasn’t by much, but the only Hermits who could have taught him were busy or unavailable, and the other magic users weren’t in a compatible style or whatever Joe had said about it. 
Speaking of Joe, he and the other opped Hermits had finally found the issue with the whitelist. Whether it was Grifter’s doing or someone else’s, people who were supposed to be ignored by the whitelist, specifically Watchers and Listeners, were now being checked. And since they weren’t officially on the list, they couldn’t get through. That being said, the reason Vee had gotten in was because of an exception Xisuma had added for those under a certain listed age. He had added it after a small fiasco that had happened when the bots were first given their bodies. There was also supposed to be more to the rule, but it was assumed that the fact Vee was from Hels was messing with it.
Either way, it led back to why everyone was at spawn. After adding the main people who were being kept out by the issue, Vee had been allowed to add her father onto the list. Though the Hermits were reluctant since he had associated with Grifter before, he hadn’t seemed to know the actual truth. Still, he probably knew the most out of everyone involved that would be willing to talk to them. And if he did cause issues, then Pix or Zloy could be called in.
When someone finally appeared, the Hermits all prepared just in case there were problems right off the bat. Fortunately that didn’t seem to be the case, and the Listener just looked over the Hermits before Cub gestured that they could relax a bit. As soon as he did, Vee ran out from the crowd, no longer being held back by Stress. 
The Listener merely let Vee tackle him with a hug before attaching herself to one of his arms. One of his six arms. The arm lifted until Vee was in front of his face, which had milky white eyes that probably couldn’t see well if at all. “Papa! You’re here!”
“I am.”
“And you’re like this! Jungle gym time!”
The Listener laughed before bringing another arm up, which she also hugged onto. As she continued to hang from his arms, the Listener looked at the Hermits to answer the main question he assumed they had. “I don’t feel comfortable showing off my regular look to you guys. This is how I look when all… Listener-ified. I think you have seen how Grian looks when he’s the same.”
“You mean when he looks more like a giant harpy?” Scar spoke up, getting another laugh out of the Listener.
“Yes, like that. I managed to get these things.” And he moved his extra sets of arms that Vee wasn’t clinging to.
“Jungle gym Papa!”
“Yes, it could also be called that.” And then he pulled Vee away and put her back on the ground. “But it’s probably better if you go play somewhere else.”
“Aww, but you just got here!”
The Listener sort of seemed to glance up at the Hermits before speaking to Vee again in a stage whisper. “Well I think these guys want to make me do boring adult things with me. Probably meetings and paperwork and presentations.”
“Nooo that’s dumb!”
“Well you can run off so you won’t have to suffer through it with me.”
Vee nodded before running over to Jrum to play with him again. Jrum reluctantly followed, but did his best to go slowly to hear as much of what he could.
“Alright, so are we going to be talking here, or do you guys have a special meeting room?”
“We have one of those if you don’t mind the travel to get there.” Cub was the one who spoke up, and then Jrum caught the Listener nodding.
“It’s no problem Mx…?”
“Huh? Oh don’t bother with that, just call me Cub.”
“You never know, better safe than sorry.” And then Jrum saw him shrug, which looked weird with extra arms. “You can call me Joeyish.”
And then Jrum was finally pulled out of hearing range, and also dealing with Vee panicking from seeing a fish.
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theimpishknight · 2 years
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Back with a helsmit!!!! Misery aka grian is a cuckoo bird
So 2/3 bots have been pinned on others
NPM is with Misery
Grimbot is with NeutralTimesWithScar
And Jriam is with actuality!
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kiwinatorwaffles · 2 years
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VOID DUO HERO AU (VDHAU) MASTERPOST
i know i technically have a whole tag but liiiike. i might as well make a masterpost for easier navigation of the more Important™ posts ay?
this post will be regularly updated with new info!
what is VDHAU?
VDHAU, or rather Void Duo Hero AU, is a hero au centered around the hermitcraft cast, more specifically around xisuma and evil x (at least for the first main fic).
the name has become pretty much outdated due to the fact that i've expanded upon many other characters, but it's an emotional attachment ok
make sure to filter out #vdhau spoilers if you don't want any spoilers!
WRITING:
it takes two to play (the game of mutual secrecy) [TGMS] [longfic, complete] - first part in the series and centered around xisuma and evil x.
a GHOST stole my coworker's BODY? (NOT CLICKBAIT) [oneshot] - a look into what happened with wels, featuring beef, zed, keralis, and a side of team canada.
hey man i mean it's a free sword right [oneshot] - wels's power origins: contains a strange witch, a well, and a cool sword.
two knights’ defense, ghost of a sense [TKD] [longfic, complete] - the spinoff for wels and hels shenanigans as they’re forced to bond.
opening this can of worms [can of worms] [longfic, complete] - the story of norman’s progression as a hero.
hiding in plain sight (the meaning of trust) [TMOT] [longfic, upcoming] - a tale of how an escaped lab ray tries to adapt and hide in the outer world while keeping suspicions low.
TAGS:
#vdhau and #void duo hero au - general tag. there really is no difference but i put two just in case
#vdhau art - art i make of the au!
#vdhau fanart - awesome fanart you guys make!
#vdhau talk - worldbuilding, info, and general talk about the au
#vdhau chapters - links to what i publish on ao3
#vdhau [character] - any art or discussion of a character in the au
IMPORTANT POSTS/REFERENCES:
TGMS cover page
original lineup (OUTDATED) will be remastered in the future.
characters included: xisuma (outdated), evil x, grian, pearl, scar, mumbo, impulse, gem, cub, zedaph, worm man, keralis, bdubs, tango, wels (outdated), hels (outdated)
full powers document
[TGMS INTERLUDE SPOILERS] vdhau hermitgang - not really important i just think it's funny
[TGMS CH4 SPOILERS] ghost physics in the vdhau universe
TGMS 1 year anniversary art - includes xisuma’s updated armor
TKD cover page
various designs
hermitcraft recap trio
worm man's casual wear (slightly outdated)
hypno and xb
ms. gem, mr. slab, and jrumbot
etho's magical awakening
....radioactive jevin LMAO
witch shelby
[TGMS CH4 SPOILERS] wels and hels (thanks xy and sky for the help!)
[TGMS END SPOILERS] ex's updated hero outfit + casual wear
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rainixdra · 1 year
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My Hermitcraft brain still working through Grumbot Prime’s existence:
Considering from what is implied Grumbot Prime and his Grian were far more ruthless in the fight for server mayor during their season 7.
But.
You know who else was introduced during Season 7?
Helsknight.
What if. Just what if Grumbot Prime’s universe isn’t just a Season 7, but the same dimension as Helsknight’s own? A place where judging from Hels and Wels’ differences, all the Hermits worst traits are amplified.
Other than that we could also reasonably assume that Prime never left the S7 world (since by Hermatrix canon Grumbot is now installed on the Hermitheus) and instead everyone stayed and updated the world accordingly, thus explaining the copper used in Prime’s frame.
Side side note: Prime could also imply that Grumbot had more versions of himself created after the campaign much like Jrumbot. Thus Grumbot Prime could be called such in that he is the Original Grumbot, the First Grumbot of his world. Rather than the Prime referring to him having been the desired Grumbot that Grian wished for.
thusly it could also be implied that post s7 of that world became a robot dictatorship whereby like Grian and Mumbo chose to keep our grumbot in a truman show style set (before he gets installed into the Hermitheus in the Hermatrix canon thus freed), Prime has prevented most of the Hermits from leaving the Season 7 world. Thusly it would also add onto the matrix parallel that was common in the S8 plotline.
granted this line of thinking would go against the Hels world Grumbot Prime theory soooo.
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circesays · 2 years
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OKAY I HAVE SOME THINGS TO SAY AND QUESTION:
AND THERE ARE SO MANY SPOILERS FOR THE HERMITCRAFT SEASON 8 FINALE SO COVER YOUR EYES AND SKIP THIS POST IF YOU DON’T WANT THEM PLEASE:
…okay is everyone good? Nobody going to be unexpectedly spoiled? Excellent.
The Hermatrix with Ren and Doc is glorious. It really is. The dedication put into that storyline is clear to see, and I got emotional when I saw the finale for it. (Of course, I then proceeded to literally yell aloud “OH NO” when I saw the vine thingies on the ship’s rocket-thingy (propulsor? Repulsor??) but I digress. Those things are TROUBLE!)
It’s beautiful. Another really really cool Rendog-produced season finale, with Docm77’s incredible work added in. It gives the entire Season closure, because now we don’t have to worry that some of the Hermits literally just died a fiery moon-induced death. The fact that it also semi-cameoed in Grian and Tango’s videos were really cool too (Grian got a Hermatrix book after they killed him and Tango fought Grumbot in space on his way to the moon- later, we’re shown a clip of Grumbot and Jrumbot, who are integrated into the Hermitcraft transport ship. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!)
(To be fair it could be a complete coincidence tho lol)
But my question is: what the heckity heck does this mean for the Boatem, Xisuma, and ZombieCleo post-credits scenes? I haven’t quite gotten to everyone’s finale, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen most of them, so if there’s another post-credits scene I’ve missed then ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ whoops.
Cleo’s is pretty simple but extremely angsty- upon fleeing to the End, she finds that the portal where the Dragon Egg usually rests is deactivated, showing that the Overworld was destroyed and she has no way home. She falls to her knees in despair. At this point, we can assume that she wakes up in the Transport ship and falls back asleep for the next season- but maybe her dreams are of isolation? Trapped alone in the End, with no idea of who survived? We can only assume because we don’t know what they dream in cryostasis. I hope she dreams of Joe teasing her for thinking they wouldn’t survive. I hope Joe is actually there teasing her, because this entire dream and cryostasis thing is insane 0.o
Now, Xisuma’s cutscene showed Evil X’s place being crushed by the moon too, and Ex grumbling about how he was betrayed. I haven’t exactly been following X’s perspective (I want to sit and binge once I have more time. Things Happen and I have a lot to catch up on lol), but does this mean Evil X was simulated the entire time? Or is there a Hels!Simulation that they (Ex’s hels!hermits??) were going through? Maybe it’s Xisuma’s perspective of what he thought would happen to his clone-brother-thing? I dunno. Interesting to think about. At least X is back to his former self!
And finally, last but certainly not least, Boatem. The quintet of Trouble™. They’re in the Void now, waiting for the next season. Are they there in their dreams? Are there going to be consequences of floating in the void for however-many-weeks until Season 9, even if it’s simulated? They only have each other right now. We can assume that they are going to float (or at least, dream of floating) for a long time. Or maybe that was before they woke up in the ship? I’ve had dreams where it felt like hours had passed, only to wake up a literal minute later. Maybe it was time distortion and now they’re all in a different simulation together. Hm.
Actually, for that matter, what the heck is up with Mumbo and Grian’s soul situation now? Was that even real? Was Mumbo’s shapeshifting a glitch in the Hermatrix? Does Mumbo actually share Grian’s soul now, outside of the ship, or was that just confined to the simulation made to protect them all?
(Can i just say that Grian is a mad genius. I was on edge the entire finale, wondering why the heck he would let himself stay on half a heart, and then he asked Mumbo to high five him, which ruined Mumbo’s no-kill streak. Literally the last moments of season 8. Oh my god that was such a big brain play, I watched it three times over and I couldn’t stop laughing at the pure shock and disbelief in Mumbo’s voice.)
Those are my thoughts on the situation. Guess we’ll just have to wait until Season 9! Thanks for the wonderful first season (for me, at least. ;D). Looking forward to what comes next!
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voillohiarchive · 3 years
Text
HermitCraft Cannon: Evil X and Hels are actually evil and actively hurt others. BadTimes and True are just cam accounts. Grumbot and Jrumbot were left in S7 and aren’t coming back. TommyInnit has nothing to do with HC.
Me: but wholesome found family au 🥺 none of the meanies r mean they r just nice. They adopt grum and jrum and Tommy and it’s all nice
HC Cannon again: Grian is a hermit he doesn’t do anything that bad
Also Me: evil grian tho,,, 👀
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jungledubs-archive · 2 years
Note
here are my helsmits in the au im making. + the other guys that also ended up in hels
bdubs = moss
cub = alevin
doc = law
etho = ethics
false = true
gem = capri
grian = gealach
hypno = fog
impulse = heart
iskall = boiling
jevin = e hartin
joe = john mountain
keralis = bug
mumbo = nonsense
pearl = clam
ren = crown
scar = wound
stress = relief
tango = ballet
tfc = aluminum baker / ab
beef = pork
wels = hels
xB = patch
xisuma = ax
zedaph = zedeath
cleo = angel tra
extra guys that r also there for some reason
ex, wormman, npg, robot grian, ariana griande, grumbot, jrumbot, badtimes
ooooooooh
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To handle the two Grumbot issue: the one working with Helsknight can be Jrumbot, a legion of robot drones meant to work as Grumbot’s physical form that ended up being hijacked by Helsknight and turned against ConCorp
-lechairpourriedegrianri
Ooh, I like that! The Jrumbot drones are very cute, and also can and will tear you apart. Hels is quite fond of them. :)
- Mod Shade
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lunanight2012 · 4 years
Text
Hewo!
Who’s ready for TCoH (The Creatures of Hermitville) Book 2?
Anyone have any theories on what is gunna happen in book 2? (besides maybe the obvious involving Tim vs Xisuma (and Luna).
I’m just curious.
Also Characters that will making an appearance in book 2:
*Obviously we have Mr Etho Slab
*Vintage Beef
*Hels Knight
*Jrumbot
*Stress’s baby
*False’s baby (#1)
*Another bad guy later on ;)
I wont be adding Hypno, for a couple of reasons: 
1) I have currently: Joehills, scar, cub, grian, mumbo, iskall, stress, doc, ren, tfc, tango, impulse, false, zedaph, cleo, xisuma, bdubs, keralis, ex, true, pixl, grumbot, luna, and for a few more chapters tim and dale. And now im adding 4 more characters. It’s a lot of characters and I can’t add all of them.
2) I dont really know what to make him, he could be a medusa type of creature but no. 
3) I didnt add a number of hermits that were in season 6 for the same reason
ANYWAYS
Etho is ninja
Vintage Beef is a minotaur
Hels is a dragon, and he’s actually Wels’s cousin who went missing when he was very young. 
Happy things will happen and sad things too
but anyone have any ideas? I just want to ask and see.
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votederpycausemufins · 9 months
Text
And the final chapter of Do Bots Dream of Electric Lives, which will lead into the start of season eight. And perhaps that ending bit will sound vaguely familiar to people who know.
Grian ended up winning Third Life. On the one hand, it was nice he won and just managed to get so far in the first place. On the other hand, it meant he took the longest to return. And when he did return, it was with Scar, something that didn’t really make Grum all too happy. It was even worse when Scar was brought along when Grian did show up, the two were even holding hands when they entered the room. Sure, they almost immediately stopped, Grian probably just dragging Scar along or perhaps the other way around, but Grum didn’t like it either way.
“Well you sure took your time!”
“You know I couldn’t just let myself die, Timmy” Grian argued back as he looked Grum over extensively.
“His name is Jimmy, Dad.” Grum complained, and he would have crossed his arms if one of them wasn’t being looked over at that moment.
“Oh I know that, I’m just teasing him.” Grian said, then finished up with Grum and moved onto his brother. “Have you two had any more issues? Any at all?”
“No? I don’t think so?” Jrum answered before giggling. “That tickles!”
“Speak for yourself.” Grum said, glaring towards Scar and crossing his arms. Grian was concerned for a moment, ready to hear something more important before he followed Grum’s gaze and frowned.
“Grum, Scar and I were sort of… we went through a lot during Third Life. And the way it ended-”
“What did happen anyway?” Jimmy asked, getting an explanation from Scar regarding Bdubs and the clock and then the betrayal and finally the fight within the cactus ring before Grian jumped off the desert mountain. “Oh, well that sure was a lot. Uh, is it okay if I go catch up with Scott, or should I stick around.”
“I guess you could go.” Grum spoke up. “But make Scar leave too!”
“Grum isn’t the biggest fan of Scar.” Grian quickly explained before Grum started to rant about how Mumbo should have been mayor. Jimmy got the hint and pulled Scar along as he left the room, something Grum appreciated. “Well, is there anything actually important that was an issue?”
“Well, I’m not sure if it’s an issue for them…” Mumbo started to speak up. “But you probably won’t be the happiest about it.”
Grian narrowed his eyes and started to open his mouth to ask what Mumbo meant before he noticed the box in Mumbo’s hand and quickly put the pieces together. “Mumbo! I was waiting for a better time for that!”
“I know, but it seemed connected and you weren’t around so this was the best we could manage.”
Grian huffed before Jrum tugged on his sweater to get his attention. “Dad, are we really Watchers like you?”
Grian looked conflicted before finally answering. “Yes, at least, sort of I think. You’re not exactly like me or the others, just, when making you I guess I sort of used a little bit of magic I had from my Watcher days, which is probably why you two are as, uh, sentient as you are.”
“Why didn’t you mention it already?” Grum asked, wondering why it had been kept from them.
“Well, at the very least the two of us didn’t know until your birthdays. Well, the celebration that is, not your actual birthdays.” Mumbo piped up. “These masks appeared with your presents and we just sort of… set them aside for later.”
“I was planning on telling you two on our way to season eight since it’s going to take a while to get there.” Grian admitted. “I wanted you two to end the season without this hanging over your head, then talk about it on the way and give you all that time to sort of… process it while we were travelling.”
“Well, we kinda still can, right?” Jrum asked. “I mean, we just just sorta pretend we didn’t know, and then you can tell us all about it then! We just know we’re gonna talk about it later now instead of it being a surprise.”
“I guess that is one way of looking at it, right Grian?”
Grian took a moment to think it over before looking over to Grumbot. “Well, what do you think about it? You’ve been affected by it a bit more than your brother, at least based on what he told me before.”
“Um, okay. It seemed like it was sort of happening because I was missing you.” Grum admitted. “But can you still stay here for a little while?”
Grian nodded and came over to Grum, hugging him. Jrum quickly jumped on top of the pair to join the hug as well, and Mumbo was pulled in shortly for a big group hug. Grian was able to talk about a few highlights of Third Life, also getting the chance to explain to Grumbot just why exactly he and Scar had ended up as a team, which the robot begrudgingly accepted as an answer. 
.
.
.
“That is… a very big ship.” Grum said while looking at the thing currently floating in the ocean around the cowmercial district.
“Yeah, I sort of said the same thing when I saw it the first time. And this isn’t even the full ship, just this season’s piece.”
Sitting in the ocean was the Hermitheus, the ship that took the Hermits between seasons and even carried along certain landmarks from each season, as sort of trophies or whatever. Currently what was present was only a fraction of the whole spaceship, a label printed on the hull listing it as the ‘S7’ piece. A few hermits were loading in some of the landmarks, like the entire town hall.
“I thought other people could visit the world after us. Aren’t they going to be upset at missing stuff?”
“No, not really.” Mumbo started as he walked up, having finished with helping to pack up the last piece of the barge. “The world others visit is a sort of… duplicate of this one, not the real one. It’s to make things a little safer. If we tell everyone that the other world is the one we use, then it makes it harder for er, certain people to learn where we’ve gone.”
“Why would we need to hide that?” Jrum asked, poking his head out from the shulker boxes of the items he and Grum had packed. “We’re just moving.”
“Well, Hermitcraft is pretty well known.” Grian started to explain. The bots already knew how the hermits filmed their exploits to share to others for entertainment, but not some of what came from that. “And not everyone is the nicest. There are some people who would probably want to make a mess of things. Like, imagine if there were hundreds of Evil Xisumas who would want to get into Hermitcraft.”
“Hey, I heard that!” A voice came from the Hermitheus piece as Evil X poked their head out from the bay doors. “I at least have tact when it comes to messing with all of you. Those pieces of-” “Children!” “-fine, those POSes would like to do things far worse than I.”
“Worse than you?” Grum asked, confused. He knew from Jrum that Evil Xisuma’s whole evilness wasn’t the most standard, and that they had a soft side, but he didn’t imagine they would admit it so easily.
“Yes, I’m sure you’re very surprised such a thing exists, but there are some crimes that even I look down upon. There are certain people who don’t like to treat hybrids as regular players. Then there’s the divide between players from regular worlds and those from modded worlds. And don’t get me started on what speedrunners have become these days! Turning it into some stupid competition instead of potential lives being on the line, those imbeciles!”
“Ooo I wanna know about that on the way!” Jrum exclaimed, starting to run towards the ship before doubling back to pick up boxes.
“Man, I can’t figure out why Xisuma thought he'd be safe to bring along. His vibes just don’t feel right man.”
Grum jumped at the new voice before looking at who spoke. He recognized the owner of the voice, but only because of the descriptions he had gotten from his dad in the past. “Uh, are you Renbob?”
“That I am lil dude. And I guess you’re supposed to be Grumbot. Nice to meet you man. We made sure to trick out the ship with enough space for you and the other two. Though Evil Xisuma and his own friend were sort of last minute additions.”
“And his friend?” Mumbo asked. “Xisuma said his brother would be the only other addition.”
“Well tell that to the other guy they dragged along who’s up at the main portion, man. Keeps asking a lot of technical questions. Stuff about virus protections and simulated realities, man.”
“I see.” Mumbo said, looking a little worried. “Um, would they happen to look like Grian, or-”
“Nah, more of a piglin or something similar, man. At least the dude is getting along alright with my compadre on the controls.”
“Oh, speaking of other people.” Grian spoke up, cutting off the current conversation on who Grum assumed was likely Prof. “Have you already picked up the other new hermits, or is that going to be next?”
“We did that part first, man. Already inside the main ship, so you’ll see them when we’re all finished here. Only reason the evil dude is here is because his friend insisted on it. Couldn’t tell you why though.”
Grum didn’t really listen to the rest, noticing Jrum waving him over. Grum picked up the rest of their shulker boxes and carried them inside, Jrum pointing him towards a ladder. He followed behind and climbed up to a balcony overlooking the storage for the season seven builds. On a piece of the balcony was an area for Grum and Jrum’s shulker boxes, even being labeled as such. Once they were placed down, the two followed further listed instructions and placed a net over the boxes, strapping it down to the floor immediately afterwards. 
Before long, the other hermits joined on the ship, the bots finding their way to their dads. Grum made sure to keep a careful eye on Evil Xisuma though, and was glad to see he was nearby Xisuma. There were a few stragglers that everyone had to wait for of course. Iskall arrived and proclaimed they had finally placed all the leaves on their base, getting some cheers from the hermits. Jevin was also a little late, and looking a bit green. Not so much in the sense that he looked sick, but more that he looked more like a regular slime. Grum could see a few hermits ask about it, but he seemed to brush it off, and Grum wasn’t sure if the way Evil X seemed to suddenly be acting meant anything.
But he didn’t have time to think about it long, as Renbob gave one last announcement and warning before the ship piece took off to reconnect with the main ship. Once it did and the shutter at the one end of the ship piece opened up to the rest of the main spacecraft, Jrum was off to explore, Grum following behind.
As the other hermits made their way in that direction, the bots looked out over the balconies of the other season segments, looking at the builds brought along. Jrum was happy to point out Sahara as well as Concorp in the season six area, knowing enough about the two to get excited upon recognizing them. The stuff in the older seasons was less familiar, having heard more about the previous season rather than anything before that. Though technically, season seven was now the previous season.
At the end of the piece of the first season was the main portion of the ship. It had what seemed to be some living quarters as well as navigational systems. But a little more exploring led the bots to find the engines or whatever equivalent the ship had, plus a hangar that seemed to have a tricked out RV. But one thing the bots didn’t find was any area for places to pass the time.
“Hey Daddy? What do you guys do on the way to the next season? Do you go exploring in the old stuff? Or is there some place we didn’t see?”
“Oh, um, well…” Mumbo hesitated. “See those sort of… pod things in the main room?” Mumbo pointed and Grum and Jrum both looked over before looking back and nodding. “See, we sort of use those to… kind of sleep most of the way there. It makes things seem to go faster, but we also don’t stay in there the whole trip of course. Just for extended periods of time. We do try to plan things so that it won’t be just one of us… awake at a time. Oh this is a little hard to explain. Probably easier when we actually do it.”
“Will it work for Jrum and I since we’re robots?” Grum asked, and by the look on Mumbo’s face, it seemed he didn’t know. So, because of that, Grum walked over to the pair of people who stood at the controls, one he recognized, one not so much.
“Oh! H-hello th-there.” Prof spoke, before apologizing for his speech. “S-sorry. B-bad day.”
“It’s okay!” Jrum assured him before looking at the other person. “Who are you supposed to be.”
“I’m the Goat Father.” They answered in a gruff voice. “Now what do you want?”
“Oh, well, we’re just wondering if those sleep things will work on us at all?” Jrum pointed toward the pods. “Since we’re kinda robots and not, like, normal players.”
The Goat Father looked Grum and Jrum over for a moment before Prof wrote something on his clipboard and showed it to him. “Yes, it will work on you two. You two simply have special ones to use. Not out of the ordinary though. Some of the other hermits are… special cases as well.”
“How do we know which ones are ours?” Grum asked before being taken over to two pods. They weren’t next to each other, so Grum then asked why that was.
“They’re placed within alphabetical order based on the legal names of all the hermits. You’re listed under Grumbot_System, which leaves you after Grian and before Hypnotizd, meanwhile Jrumbot is placed between joehillssays and Keralis1.”
Jrum started counting through the pods, then paused just before reaching the one that was supposed to be Grian’s. “Why isn’t that one Grum’s?”
Prof gestured to the one two before that, the Goat Father giving the actual explanation. “That one there belongs to one of the new hermits that will be joining you in season eight. More specifically, Geminitay. The other hermit will be-”
“Pearl!” The bots turned towards their dad, who had shouted the name. They turned at just the right time to see Grian fly right into an unfamiliar person, tackling them to the ground with a hug, wings flapping in joy. “I’m so glad to see you! Oh! You need to meet the boys! Grum, Jrum, come over here and meet Pearl!”
.
.
.
“Now, I can just place this here and- Ow! Hey!” Evil Xisuma turns around after being slapped by a clipboard. “What was that for?!”
Prof doesn’t answer and merely smacks Evil X again, making him growl. “D-Don’t do it.”
“And let a plan like this go to waste? Absolutely not. You and NPG already ruined the other one. Plus even if I could salvage it, the Hermits already plotted out the world they’re using for their upcoming season, so I can’t really make any changes to the navigation.”
“Th-they l-l-l” Prof started before getting frustrated and writing on his clipboard, turning it around and shoving it in Evil’s face.
“Yes, and letting me join them is their mistake!” They said, shoving the clipboard away. “Honestly why my brother is this trusting is anyone’s guess. You would think- What now?!”
Prof had written more on the clipboard and forced Evil X to read it, pointing over to the pods where the hermits were currently stationed. More specifically he pointed at three pods in particular, which Evil X did look over before scoffing.
“Then I’ll leave them out of it. The rest can suffer just fine.” Prof whacked EX with the clipboard again before pointing to a few more hermits. “Ow! Okay look maybe I could keep those few out of it as well and-” Prof pointed to even more. “Stop that! If I cared about what every hermit thought about the others, I wouldn��t do anything. Sure, NPG likes those two well enough because they’re family… and then their parents being hurt would upset them, and their friends being in the same scenario, but it would just completely snowball from there!”
“Th-then d-don’t d-do it!”
“X-Xannes-”
“Shut the fuck up! Or I’ll make sure what happened to you is permanent this time regardless of whatever robotics you add!”
“...”
“Shit… I didn’t mean-”
“I-it’s ok-kay. I’m not s-stopping y-you g-going bec-cause y-you need t-time out of h-hels. I a-also h-heard that th-the world is a n-newer o-one.”
“It’s- Who cares, I’m out of practice anyway.”
Evil Xisuma flinched as a hand was placed on his shoulder. “D-do that. And a-at l-least try. I-I’ll h-handle h-h-hels j-just f-fine. A-and NPG c-can b-b-be helpf-ful when h-he needs t-to be.”
“Fine, whatever. You win for now. At least for now I won’t add in the virus. But no promises I won’t try mid season when you’re not around.”
Prof nodded before turning at the same time Evil X did, both hearing approaching footsteps.
“Hey mans, hope neither of you were messin’ up any of the controls because the goat wouldn’t like that at all, man.” Prof wrote on his clipboard before showing it off to Renbob. “‘I was making sure they didn’t mess with anything.’ Aw great, nice to hear dude. And it looks like we’re still on a great schedule. Man, this new season should end up going great. So many new hermits, right my man?”
“I will tear your face off and eat it if you keep calling me that.”
“Hey no worries, just had to say something. Is dude gender neutral enough for you?”
“...”
“D-Don’t”
“Shut up!” and Evil X stormed off, flipping both people off before stomping towards the various season ship segments to go sulk.
“Th-they’ll be f-fine. P-robably.”
“Good enough for me dude!”
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Robot Birthday Ch 1
Yes I know I'm a day (nearly 2) late, but Grumbot birthday made me so happy for it that brain wanted to not make the words go (and present ideas were a little hard). I'm planning for this to be 4 chapters long, and imagine this came out on Grumbot's birthday bc the last chapter should (should) come out on Jrum's b-day June 6th)
Also this is for the Metal Hearts Series, so check out my pinned post for Metal Hearts, Rustic House Club, and More than One.
Neither Grum nor Jrum were allowed near Aqua Town. Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem. The two of them did their own things around their dads’ bases and normally only visited the greater shopping district. But now that they were directly told not to head to Aqua Town, both of them were very tempted to sneak in. Grian was doing his best to keep the pair of them away, knowing the ins and outs of mischief and being able to guess what the pair might try or at the very least redirect them.
The bots usually tried a few times a day to get into the area. Most recently, Grian had enlisted some help from Scar and Mumbo. Grum had been thoroughly distracted hunting down Scar through Keralis’ city most of the day while Mumbo found himself with one less mustache and Jrum looking for someone to sell it to.
Of course, most of the Hermits were unavailable. There was a reason that Aqua Town was off limits, and that was because they were all gathered there. Everyone had pooled some diamonds together to buy a plot of land and create a building for a certain special occasion. See, sure the Hermits had their birthdays and would sometimes get gifts from each other in place of a celebration, but this was different. The bots were built, not born, and though they acted older, neither of them were a year old. Or at least, they weren’t quite a year old. And for the special occasion, the server decided to work together and set up a special event.
Because of it, the new building was being divided into three. The first section would be mainly for Grumbot, the second for Jrumbot, and the last would be saved for the end of the season as that was also just around the corner. The reminder of the season end did help the Hermits when a few of them planned for gifts, trying to figure out if they would need to be brought to next season, recreated there, or made as IOU’s.
All gift ideas were run through Xisuma for the most part. While Grum’s were easy to approve for any move to the following season, Jrum’s love of diamonds and redstone made it a little harder. In Xisuma’s case, he had a gift set up in terms of an invitation to the party. It had turned into three invitations in the long run, which meant that Xisuma wasn’t actively looking for a more physical gift between that and verifying the presents of others.
Beef was allowed to give Grum a piece or two of album art to bring into the next season as it was entirely decorative. TFC meanwhile was planning an IOU of some of what he would mine up next season for Grum to use as building blocks.
In terms of presents for Jrum, Scar was also planning an IOU with a fantasy build custom to the younger bot since he enjoyed the magical village so much. Meanwhile Doc had a lesson planned for Jrum to teach him a bit more of the reality breaking side of redstone which Mumbo and Xisuma had both reluctantly signed off on.
Impulse had been making a pair of treat baskets for both bots, being a connoisseur of odd treats. He ran them by Mumbo and Grian to make sure he wouldn’t overload the bots too much with ‘sweets’ but threw in a pair of shovelsicles. Cub took a while to make a quick path between the building and his pyramid through the nether for quick access to Targét and the minigames there. And then lastly as far as Xisuma was aware was Cleo, who was planning to salvage unused clothing for the armor stands in her zoo and Keralis’ city for some dress up items for the pair of bots.
Other than that, as it currently stood, the other Hermits were just bouncing ideas off of Xisuma or getting rejected in Keralis’ case of just giving them diamonds. They would have been good in small quantities as a treat, but his suggestion implied as more for spending, which would be mostly unneeded with the end of the season so close and not something to be brought to the next season.
With how close the two birthdays were to each other, the party was planned to be had in the middle of the two dates. It seemed that the bots were mostly unaware of their own birthdays, so it wouldn’t be a disappointment to not have a party on the exact date the first time around. Still, Grian and Mumbo especially planned to do a little something extra for each of the bots on their actual birth dates.
With Scar, Bdubs and Xisuma taking over Grian’s bouncer duty of Aqua town, leaving Mumbo and Grian the chance to leave Hermitcraft and go to the Hub. The Hub was a sort of world of its own, connecting between worlds and realms almost like a different dimension. It was how you could quickly go from world to world on your own, but also had a community of its own for out of world meetings. And it was also where the pair needed to go to legally register Grum and later Jrum as official ‘Players’ as the citizenship equivalent was called. Sure, Grian forged the paperwork slightly by changing a single number in the year so it would fit for last year, but the person in charge never noticed, so it was fine. Well, fine in terms of that, he still had to deal with Mumbo asking how exactly Grian knew how to forge paperwork as well he did once the pair of them had left the building.
It had been about four days at that point, and while normally just one Hermit could make a full building in a day and usually multiple could take less time, between conflicting ideas, making sure it was perfect, needing to double check with Grian, Mumbo and Xisuma most of the time, and also keeping the bots out, construction took longer than normal. But in the end it was ready and even early, using only half the time they had until the actual party. 
Because of that, it meant there could be extra details, though those too could need to be reviewed. But really, no matter what happened, everyone couldn’t help but be excited, whether for the parties themselves, or for the social gathering in and of itself. Things were going great. And hopefully they would stay that way.
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Part two of the birthday story! Time for the guests to arrive and actually surprising the guests of honor!
Sorry that it took a few days. Was dealing with job appl. stuff but i think i finally got it all settled. So then I could focus on this. Enjoy!
“Soooo, what present do you get them?”
“Their present is me not destroying the server.”
“You’re going to get us all in trouble.”
Standing in the hub to the entrance of Hermitcraft were NPG, Evil Xisuma, and a pig hybrid in a pristine lab coat, who was currently trying to ignore the former two’s squabbling. “Oh please, You know you and I don’t want to be here. I would have been perfectly fine with still being banned from their server.”
“Says the one who tries to secretly plan ways to get in.”
“I do not!” EX yelled back at the hybrid, who refused to look up at the hacker.
“Aww, calm down guys!” NPG spoke up, pulling the two other helsmits into a hug. “We’re going to have fun at this party. And I made sure to build the perfect decks for presents! So then I can play with the boys when we visit next!”
Ex scoffed and pulled himself out of the hug. “As if. You’re the only one who knows how to actually play that game. You could try teaching them, but it would probably take hours! It’s a stupid present to give them!”
“Then can I have the pink aries deck back?” NPG asked, holding his hand out.
EX stared at the hand as he crossed his arms before looking away and pouting under his mask. “...No. I said the game’s stupid… doesn’t mean the cards aren’t fine.”
“You just think they’re hot.” The hybrid spoke up, getting smacked by Evil Xisuma a moment later as he yelled ‘I do not!’ though said action left the hybrid unphased.
“Am I interrupting something?” A mostly new voice spoke up, causing the trio to look up. Having come out of the portal was Xisuma, the admin looking over the helsmits, trying to figure out if the argument was more serious or playful in nature.
“Nope!” NPG was the one to reply before gesturing to the other two. “I’m sure you already know Xa- Er, Evil Xisuma. And then this here is Prof!”
Xisuma held his hand out and Prof shook it, though not actually looking up at the admin. “I suppose you’re Doc’s hels? Or I suppose he’s your- Well what have you got there?” Xisuma asked, not sure how to go about the conversation with someone like the hels.
“Work.” Prof replied, tilting said work which was on a clipboard away from Xisuma so he couldn’t see it as easily, instead unintentionally showing off the large amount of stickers plastered to the back. “I was informed that presents needed to be reviewed by you.”
“Oh, yes.” Xisuma agreed. “I wasn’t sure if you would be bringing anything other than yourself. I know that my brother likely didn’t.”
“My present is not destroying your world you derp.”
“Right. Well anyway, I can review your present. With everything going on, could I look at it here? We’re sneaking you three in so I’m not sure I’ll have a chance once you’re in the world.”
Prof nodded and then pulled out two box-like items that opened up in a way that reminded Xisuma of shulker boxes, yet not at the same time. “I was informed that one of the children prefers skills such as NPG’s while the other uses skills parallel to Perfect Sense. Thus I have created individual presents of unique items. For the first, there are items such as wood and stone types from our secondary dimension The Aether, but also our tertiary dimension The Dark, mainly with the midori blocks which I have been told are parallels to ‘purpur’ which I must assume are purple in color.
“For the second I have a number of redstone blocks that reportedly do not exist in your world such as the compressor, the plopper, the iron rod, query attachment for if their organization is anything like Sense’s, some corundum, magnets. I’ve got some ghost connectivity in place so that they can be connected to whichever child so only they have permissions. Of course you most likely also reset at your season limits so the blocks and redstone would be left behind.”
Xisuma stared at Prof for a few moments before EX scoffed and handed over a list to Xisuma, they seemingly expecting the confusion and creating a list explaining all the items. Xisuma gave a slight nod in thanks, giving it a quick read before approving the items. It was close to the season after all, so potentially reality breaking redstone wouldn’t have long lasting effects on the Hermits. The world itself was another question, but they would deal with that when it came to it.
“Well, I suppose I can approve these. NPG, what about… you.” And Xisuma trailed off as the robot shoved two decks of cards in his face. “And what are these?”
“A jumble of cards from who knows how many games.” EX explained. “He’s turned it into some convoluted game. Your building assistants are more world breaking than these things. Mind breaking however… well potentially the redstoners might understand how to play it.”
“I see…” Xisuma replied, looking at what was indeed a jumble of cards from a number of games. “Well I can approve those as well. If that’s all, then we can head into the world.”
With a quick agreement from the trio, they were led through the portal and into the world, appearing at spawn, which Xisuma had combed over to make sure nothing could be messed with by the guests, and then taking them to Aqua Town. The other Hermits greeted them and then helped explain the rules and guidelines for the guests to allow their stay. NPG and Prof readily agreed, though Evil Xisuma argued over them for a few minutes before being convinced by a certain Hemit. After that, the signal was sent out and Grian and Mumbo could finally let the bots into Aqua Town and lead them to the surprise party.
.
.
.
“Ah, no peeking.” Grian spoke up as he noticed Jrum try to move the bandana off his head. The bots were just that, robots, so their faces were still just screens. Instead of having eyes, Mumbo had built some cameras into them to simulate eyes. Because of that, the screens themselves didn’t need to be covered, instead putting a blindfold of sorts over what was almost their forehead would block where the cameras were hidden.
“But I wanna seeeee.” Jrum complained. “What if I trip over something! Or… or there’s a monster and-”
“It should still be the middle of the day.” Grum spoke up. “So unless we’re being taken to one of Scar’s builds, there won’t be monsters. And Dad will keep us from tripping or falling or anything that might happen without our sight.”
“Exactly, so you two have nothing to worry about.” Grian agreed. “Besides, we’re nearly there. We’re going to head through the main nether portal now.” And then he helped the two into the portal’s magic alongside him, taking them through into the shopping district. Knowing exactly where they were helped the bots a bit with navigation, remembering how the area looked fairly well.
Finally the three reached Aqua Town and Grian had them placed in what was, as far as the bots were last aware, an empty lot. Then, Grian pulled off the bandanas, letting the bots see a new building decorated in reds and blues. A moment later, fireworks started going off, Mumbo nearby having flipped a lever for them. 
The bots stared at the colorful display before the other hermits were poking their heads out of just about every window and even the front door, wishing the bots a happy birthday. The bots each had a different reaction, Grum mostly stunned in silence while Jrum was immediately bouncing, quickly hugging Grian before running over to give one to Mumbo.
Grian laughed at the display while Grum quickly thought everything through. “But… it’s not our birthdays?” 
“That’s the point. It’s right in the middle of your birthdays. We were pretty sure that would help make it more of a surprise if you two tried figuring it out.”
“Oh.” Grum simply replied before looking at the building, then grabbing Grian’s hand and dragging him inside, leaving the builder laughing as he followed with little resistance.
“Grum! Look! NPG’s here!!!” Jrum exclaimed when he saw his brother had entered the building. Immediately following the statement, NPG waved, then immediately tried to hand off the presents he had brought along, but was quickly stopped when Prof grabbed the edge of the robot’s sweater even though he hadn’t seemed to be looking. “Oh yeah and he brought friends!” A complaint from Evil Xisuma came from somewhere else in the party, but the sounds of the party itself along with him not being nearby made it hard to hear.
“Alright, so while we’re having a party for both of you,” Mumbo spoke up as he came closer. “It is divided up so you can still have individual parties. A sort of middle ground. Since you two aren’t exactly twins, but your birthdays are close enough, and who knows, some twins share birthdays just fine, but I wouldn't be surprised at there being those who prefer separate birthdays. I’m sure before next year, you two can figure out which you might prefer. So, that all being said, since Grum was, er, created first, why not do his side of things first, if that’s alright with you two of course?”
The bots looked at each other before nodding, agreeing to Grum’s birthday first. So with that, they were led to the floor mostly designed for the older bot in mind. The decorations there were mostly red themed, but also musical in nature since Grum had shown a like for the topic.
“Well then, how about we get this show on the road?” Grian spoke up and dimmed the lights to help things really begin, a cake being brought out at the same time.
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part three of four of the bot's birthday fic. expect the last chapter later today! time for cake and games!
Grum couldn’t help but stare at the cakes in front of him. Everyone else was singing various versions of happy birthday, which led into everyone staring at Pearl for a little while at her version, but it gave Grum more time to admire the decorated treats. One of them was a full cake, looking pretty standard with a single red candle on top instead of the large red berry that would usually be there. The second was a much smaller cake which honestly seemed like a wide cupcake, which was most likely what it really was. Just enough for two people, or in this case, two robots. In replacement of icing, the second treat was topped with redstone. The ‘cake’ seemed to be quartz as opposed to actual cake. Then, sitting on one half of the treat was a diamond, obviously to show which half was meant specifically for him.
A slight problem came after the conflict with Pearl was over and Grum could finally blow out his candle. That problem being he couldn’t actually blow without a mouth. He quickly waved his hand at the fire with little success before realizing it was a very small flame and he was not made of skin. So before anyone could blow it out for him, Grum quickly pinched the wick, putting the candle out.
False came over and put a crown made from a gold helmet on Grum’s head. As he readjusted it to keep it from falling off his head which it didn’t quite fit, False used her sword to cut the quartz of the smaller ‘cake’ in half, passing one half to Jrum before letting Grum have the other. The bot admired his treat a little longer before finally eating it, almost regretting how fast it went down instead of taking the time to savor the taste. Though was he even tasting anything? How exactly did it even work for a robot like him? He didn’t have taste buds, but he and his brother definitely preferred certain minerals over others. 
Well that would be something to look into in the future. With the cake done, Grum looked around for his presents, not seeing any of them around. Not even NPG had his present on hand after trying to hand it over immediately as they arrived. Xisuma noticed Grum’s confusion first and moved a little closer to explain. Since he had been reviewing the gifts, he was most aware of their contents. A number of the Hermits had gotten unique gifts for the bots, or only able to get a present for one of the two and pairing with a different Hermit for the other bot. But at the same time, a few Hermits hadn’t wanted the bots to be potentially jealous of each other’s gifts, so they got a matching set.
Since at the start, no one was sure which bot would officially have their celebration first or if they would do it together, Xisuma thought it best that, no matter what, the presents would come last and the bots would open them simultaneously. That way any paired gifts wouldn’t lose their charm if they reappeared later on. Especially with the ones that were wrapped together and couldn’t be opened separately in the first place.
With the explanation, Grum nodded in understanding. Then he paused for a moment before asking another question of Xisuma, who paused in thought before nodding back, then making his way over to Jrum and quietly speaking to him. Jrum agreed with whatever the admin was saying, causing him to clap and get everyone’s attention. “Alright, I’ve gotten a request from the guests of honor-” The word guests confused NPG for a moment wondering if it was about them before both EX and Prof corrected him. “-About a slight change of plans. I’m hoping no one will mind more cake right now, especially as it is in another flavor. Either way, it looks like we have more slices left from this cake and I would assume we’ll have some left over of the other, so eventually anyone can pick up a piece as they like.”
There were a few joking complaints, but everyone moved upstairs. Jrum was immediately bouncing around to look at all the decorations before eventually getting to his seat at the head of the table and staring down the cakes, getting pulled back an inch or two by Mumbo when he noticed the younger bot’s screen was a little too close to the candle flame. Another round of happy birthday songs happened, and instead of an argument with Pearl, there was more the hassle of getting Jellie off the table as she tried to lick the cake. She eventually managed to, but it was Jrum’s cake and a single lick of the lapis powder was enough to change her mind and leave her tongue blue.
When it came time to blow out the candle, instead of doing the other things Grum tried or pinching the flame out, Jrum instead pulled out a bucket of water, splashing just enough out to douse the flame and not soak the cake. That didn’t mean that the Hermits didn’t panic in the few seconds between them seeing the bucket and then comprehending that the cake was fine though. 
Slightly less Hermits grabbed a slice of cake this time around, but there were a number of them who, knowing that there would obviously be more cake later, hadn’t had a slice from the first cake. They hadn’t expected the second cake this soon, so one or two who had eaten earlier to compensate didn’t immediately grab a slice. And if they left and reappeared to grab a slice a few minutes later looking a bit more scuffed up and maybe with a forming bruise, no one commented on it.
The cake for the bots was similar to the first one, having a quartz base and a diamond on Jrum’s half, but instead of just redstone, there was lapis powder acting as the icing with the redstone only around the diamond to make it less noticeable and make the cake blue overall since it was Jrum’s preferred color. The younger bot immediately ate up his piece since jumping around the room had tired him out a little, but Grum waited a moment to eat his, half because he was a little more full and half because he wanted to savor this piece.
Once everyone had had their fill of cake for then, the remaining cake was moved by EX, who didn’t care if he was late to the next part of the party. While he was doing that, the rest of the party was led through the nether and into some minecarts, taking them to a second portal which sent the partygoers into Cub’s pyramid. Specifically into Targét.
Cub handed some books to the bots which quickly named the games, the number of players, and a quick description of the game. There was also a box of other books for the other Hermits to grab if they wanted them, but some were happy to just follow around and watch the others play.
Looking through the list of games, the bots both immediately had their figurative eyes on the last game. They had already dealt with two, technically four, cakes. What was one or two more? It was easy enough to find the game, Cub explaining it was the only one with beacons at the entrance, so the bots quickly spotted the beams and headed that way.
The first round of the game didn’t go too well, the robots being just that, robots, meant that it was rather easy for them to accurately throw the ender pearls and the pair of them ended up tying in the end. The second time they played, however, instead of standing on the iron trap door, they got help from the Hermits. Two hermits helped by pressing the buttons to officially start the game while two others surprised the bots by pushing them into the game area. The bots were safe of course due to the slime at the bottom, but the randomness of the push as well as forcing themselves to be bouncing on the slime blocks helped with making it an actual challenge, Jrumbot winning in their actual match.
After the mishap of the first game, the bots were then suggested to try open sesame and put it on a high difficulty, seeing as how the arrows were more affected by air currents and the like as opposed to how linear and straight ender pearls are always thrown. The bots agreed, this time Grum winning the game, leaving the two to look at the book and ask for more suggestions.
Following that, Jrum went over to 25 and paired up with NPG for his game so there was still a little bit of a challenge. Totally not because EX was also nearby messing around to make things a little more fair, but letting Jrum win in the end. 
While Jrum was busy there, Grum tried out Player vs Machine. It was technically machine vs machine, but it was random enough Grum still found it a challenge, Grum had to get a little bit of help after gathering his diamond prize and shirt. The exit was blocked by a llama so he couldn’t get out. After he was helped out, Grum took a break from everything as he needed to recover from feeling trapped, but before long, everyone in a game playing mood joined in for Castle Defense.
After three rounds of that game, the rest of the games were played here and there, but before long, the bots had tried everything out and the Hermits in general were a bit tired out from all the games. After a short break to rest, the group went back to the party building to get to the presents part of the party.
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Another chapter of Surprisingly Familiar. Time to write for Grifter again!!!
hermit Tommy au is by @petrichormeraki and @helleborusangel gets tagged in my writing because I can.
Grian groaned as he woke up. It sounded like someone was up pretty early, and based on the fact that he seemed to be the only one in bed, he had a guess as to who it was. He was too tired to look at the time, but either way it was supposed to be the weekend and he wasn’t awake enough to be his normal wake up.
“What’re you doing?” Grian asked tiredly, wrapping himself in the covers more. “Come back to bed. ‘M feelin’ cold.”
Grian was glad to hear footsteps, but then realized they didn’t sound right. He turned in bed to face the source before opening his eyes and then finding himself face to face with the minimalist image of a face with a mustache.
Grian tried to jump back, but that was hard due to still being in bed. He still moved back some, and was able to see the image seemed to belong to a screen that was attached to a robot. “Dad! He’s awake now! I think I scawed him a wittwe!”
Grian didn’t pay attention to any answer as he looked around the room. He was in a large fancy king sized bed in a room that matched it. In other words, this was not his normal bedroom. Grian tried to get up out of the bed, but the robot pushed him back down, being much stronger than him despite being smaller.
As the robot’s hand kept him in bed, Grian started struggling, trying to find some way to escape. He wasn’t going to let himself be stuck in a place like this. If he just had something to use against the robot, maybe he could get out, but his punches and kicks did nothing except leave himself in pain.
“Stowp stwuggwing. You’we gonna huwt youwself awnd Dad’s nowt gonna wike thawt at aww.”
That just made Grian struggle harder. “Well I don’t care! I’d rather not be kidnapped and want to go home. If you want I could just scream bloody murder until someone shows up!”
“Thawt pwobabwy won’t work.”
“What, is that normal here?” Grian asked jokingly, but then was disappointed to see the robot nod. “Oh course it is.”
“If uwu don’t twy weaving, I’m gonna get my Dad. Awnd even if uwu twy, Seftew’s pwobabwy going tuwu stowp uwu.”
“Lovely.” Grian deadpanned, and then the robot left. Despite the warning, Grian still tried to leave, but found his escape blocked by another similar robot, though it was different enough that it couldn’t be the first one again. When it saw Grian, it stared him down until he reluctantly went back to the bed and sat there pouting.
He had to wait a bit while sitting there, lying back down at one point, but eventually the door opened again. Instead of the heavy metallic footsteps of the robot, they sounded much more like a human’s. They cleared their throat to get Grian’s attention, but he wasn’t really in a hurry to give them that. “So, mind telling me what you kidnapped me for?”
“You’re the one who was napping.” The person replied, and Grian’s eyes widened before he sat up. Standing there was himself, well, their face was definitely his. They seemed to be a few inches taller, red sweater replaced by a green tunic shirt, and black wings just barely visible folded up behind their back. “I was just trying to help.”
“What- but- why do you look like-” Grian fumbled out, mind trying to wrap around what he was seeing. “Dad?”
There was silence before the person held in some laughter, well, tried and failed. “No. No I’m definitely not dad. Absolutely not. I mean you’re close I guess, but he’s more blond than mousy brown.”
“But you look like him!” Grian argued. “I mean, he wore green a lot, and he’s got black wings. Wait are you related to him?”
“Yeah. Let’s see. I’ve got a dad and mum, one of which is literally death, I’m a triplet with two brothers, and then we’ve got a younger brother who was really little when I went missing from the rest of my family at the age of seven, living at a high school with a pair of friends, if you can call them that, and just trying to survive.”
“But that’s-” Grian started, before getting cut off.
“The same as you, right?” The person asked, sitting down on the bed. “And the answer of why should be obvious.”
“Are you…? Are you me? Like, me but older and from another dimension or something.”
“Or something. It’s a bit complicated with everything that happened.”
“Okay. And you’ve got robots. Why do they have mustaches?”
“To match their dad.” The person replied.
Grian’s eyes widened. “Wait, Taurtis has a mustache?!”
The other person’s eyes widened. “No. It’s not- I’m not with- Taurtis is…”
“What do you mean you’re not with Taurtis?” Grian asked, now very confused. “Did you break up or something? Or I guess did we break up… this is weird.”
“No. I didn’t break up with him. I… I didn’t want to… he was just…” the other person said, face falling. “When he stopped mo-“ and they cut themselves off. “Ignore that.”
“Were you- is… is Taurtis dead?”
“Uh, no. No he’s not dead. Just…”
“Oh my god…” Grian said, slumping down. “Taurtis…. Taurtis is… h-how did he…?” The person didn’t answer. “What happened to your Taurtis?”
“He and… and my Sam. Well we found something we shouldn’t have, and then I was the one to leave.”
Grian didn’t say anything else, just stayed silent. On one hand, this meant Sam was dead too, so he wouldn’t be causing any problems. But Taurtis. Taurtis was gone and he wasn’t coming back. Wouldn’t come back. Why had he even come to a future as horrible as this? But then he had a thought. “What happened to Taurtis?”
The other him was briefly taken aback by the suddenly serious tone. “I said. Essentially we messed with higher beings that shouldn’t be messed with.”
“Then what.”
“Well, they wanted one of us for something, but they didn’t tell us who or for what. Next thing I know, I’ve got blood on my hands and the other two are dead. I didn’t really get to do anything before I was dragged away.”
Grian nodded, completely quiet. The other Grian almost said something, but the look he was given stopped that. “That didn’t happen yet for me. If I get back, I can stop that, right?”
The other Grian blinked. “I mean, I’m not sure if it would work that way. I mean, I don’t remember getting pulled into the future when I was still in high school.”
“So it could work.”
“If we can get you back to that time, yeah, probably. But that’s if it will even work. I mean, since then I’ve learned magic, but I’ve never been able to really go back in time like that.”
“Well, maybe I should stay with you a bit longer, at least so I could have a chance by knowing what’s supposed to happen.” Grian said, trying to cling onto some sort of hope.” And you wouldn’t lie about it to make me feel better, right?”
“Hey, would I lie to me?” The other Grian said, sounding as genuine as he could muster. “Telling you about it is nicer than actually going through it, so of course I’ll tell you.”
“Thanks. So uh, where are we by the way?” Grian asked, looking around the room.
“We’re sort of in my castle.” Grifter replied. “Welcome to the NSMP!”
.
.
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Tommy was woken up by someone shaking him awake. He groaned a little, wishing he could stay in bed a bit more, but then he recognized the hands. “Grum? What’s up?”
“Dad’s been kidnapped.” Grum responded, panic in his voice. “I-It was Grifter. He was here and we didn’t know, and now he took Dad away. And then everyone started arguing and you weren’t around so I came looking for you.”
Tommy pulled himself out of bed the rest of the way. “Where’s Jrum? Why isn’t he here too?”
“He’s still with Daddy. He went to get Kokatori, which I think is good since I guess he’s warming up to them.” Grum explained, and Tommy nodded, pulling out his comm and looking at the messages in chat.
“Hey, why the fuck is Grian’s old name in there?” Tommy asked, making Grum shrug. “Well that’s not fucking good. Where’s everyone at?”
“Still over where the party was unless they’ve moved since then.” Grum answered.
“Alright, here, hold this.” Tommy said before putting Tubbee in Grum’s arms and then slinging the robot over his shoulder. “Let’s see if people will tell us shit about what’s going on. Can you message them that we’re on our way?”
Grum said yes and a few moments later Tommy felt his comm buzz, followed by Tubbee buzzing in response and Grum giggling at that. Good. With whatever was going on, it was a good idea to keep traumatized kids distracted. Tommy definitely didn’t know that from experience.
A quick trek through the nether got them back to Aque Town, where everyone was in a bit of a crowd. Tommy set Grum down on a bench nearby before pushing his way through the crowd, though most of the Hermits didn’t really need to pushed aside to let him through, doing it willingly. When he finally reached the center, he frowned upon seeing the group in the middle.
Xisuma and Mumbo were there of course since it involved Grian. Phil and Paul were also there, arguing a bit. Then, there was also someone Tommy didn’t recognize at all, who seemed to just be standing there awkwardly. “Hey, you in the bathrobe. What the fuck’s going on around here?”
Xisuma and Phil each tried to give some sort of explanation to Tommy, but he just stopped them. “Hey! I asked shower boy, not you shits. Obviously he’s important if he’s right here, but no one’s really dealing with him, so you go back to yelling while I give him something to do.”
“We weren’t fucking yelling-” Phil started to say, but then Tommy shushed him.
“Alright, what do you think happened?” Tommy asked the guy in the robe.
“Well, I was asked here by King Soares for some task. I met the local hedgewizard and we proceeded to have a magic duel. To make a long story short, I defended against an attack, the hedgewizard tried to stop my attack, and a Watcher intervened which seemed to cause some sort of issue with the Listener and now he’s gone.”
“Wait, you think Grian was a Listener?” Mumbo spoke up, making the robe man nod.
“Of course. The magic was coming from his direction and matched his magical signature well.”
“Alright, so this is all Grifter’s fault.” Tommy spoke up. “Grifter is like… an evil alternate version of Grian. Grian’s a Watcher while Grifter’s a Listener.”
The hooded man’s eyes widened and he nodded in understanding. To the side, Paul pushed away from Phil. “Wait, this whole time Grian was one of the Watchers here?”
Tommy nodded. “Yeah. His kids are too.” And that seemed to shock Paul more as he went to sit on the ground rather than stand, not trusting his legs.
Before anyone else in the group could say anything, Jrum ran in, holding Kokatori above his head. “The chicken doesn’t know anything which I think is weird!”
“Why the fuck would the chicken know anything?” Tommy asked, a bit confused.
“Because it’s not a chicken.” Phil was the one to speak up, Paul nodding to agree. “The question is how it even got here in the first place, because while it might not know what happened with Grian, any information it’s got could help.”
“You’re not seriously suggesting we interrogate a chicken, right?” Tommy asked, but the serious looks that Paul and Phil and even the magic guy’s faces told him otherwise. “How do you even do that?”
Paul stood back up and cracked his neck, which seemed to actually scare Kokatori. “I’ve got a couple options.” The chicken struggled a bit in Jrum’s arms before Paul grabbed its neck and pulled it out of the bot’s arms. “You want to do this the easy way or the hard way?”
The chicken struggled a bit more before hissing and then shooting something out of its beak. That caught a number of people off guard, but not Paul, even though what vaguely resembled a dart had stuck itself into his neck. “This isn’t gonna get any easier for you. It’s almost night and I think training some kids for their interrogation badges could be a good way to pass the time. Torture too if they don’t have them yet.”
“I’m sorry, do you mean badges as in…?” Tommy asked, trailing off.
“He means boy scouts, yeah.” Cleo was the one to answer, which surprised Tommy. “He’s sort of an honorary troop leader for them.”
“Yeah, the kids love me.” Paul chuckled, then looked around. “By the way, does anyone have any milk? I’m losing feeling in my legs.”
Hoodie went to Paul’s side a moment later and cast a spell, making everyone notice that he had gotten a bit pale after the chicken, or whatever it was, attacked him. “So, If I may ask, what exactly is this creature?” Xisuma spoke up, worried about whatever it was being on his server.
“Cockatrice.” Paul replied. “Belongs to someone I know.”
“I’m guessing that they’re not really a friend of yours, huh?” Tommy asked, earning a nod from the man.
“Yeah. Kokatori’s his main ‘chicken’, which makes it more odd that they’re all the way out here and not with him. How long have they been around Grian?”
“Maybe about two weeks.” Mumbo answered. “Everything was a bit of a mess around here recently. Grum and Jrum got stranded in another world and we had a number of issues getting them back. Somewhere near the end of all that, this chicken, or I guess, this cockatrice, showed up.”
“Good to know. Anyone got questions they want answered?”
“Well, I would say ‘where’s Grian’, but if Grifter is involved, he’s likely in Helscraft.” Mumbo responded. “It still would be nice to know why, though.”
Paul nodded and looked back to the mob. “Well, you heard him. What’s the answer?” And he glared at the cockatrice, which gave a feeble chirp of sorts. “Wrong answer, try again.”
“Wait, you understand it?” Tommy asked, making Paul nod. “How?”
“Deal with them as long as I have and you pick up some things. So, what’s the answer?” And again the cockatrice gave a feeble cluck, though this time with a hiss. “Last chance.” Another hiss, and then Paul sighed. “Alright, so somehow it doesn’t know. Koka was just ordered to keep an eye on this place, so they don’t know what’s going on with Grian.”
“What do you know then?” Tommy asked, getting closer to the mob. “Because I bet you’re not completely fucking clueless.”
Paul nodded. “Nice and to the point, I like it.” The cockatrice clucked and hissed a bit. “Alright, it noticed Grifter lurking around a little bit, but didn’t see him actually doing much because it was around, guess he doesn’t like chickens. Anyway, he was trying to get Grian for something, but for what they don’t know, just something.”
“Well, that’s better than nothing I guess.” Tommy said, and then there were more noises from the cockatrice. “What did that bitch say now?”
“Stuff about Punchwood.” Paul said, a dark look on his face.
“Who the fuck is Punchwood?”
Paul looked up. “You’ve been calling them hels versions? Well, I’m pretty sure he’s mine. I’ve known about him for a long time. He likes to send chickens to spy on me and others and I’ve had to make excuses about him showing up more than once. Technically people know me by either Paul Soares or Pablo Punchwood. That’s because he showed up and made a mess of things. Since then I’ve used the name Pablo Punchwood as a sort of alternate name, and so everyone assumes that the first Pablo to show up was me doing an editing gag as a promotional piece.”
“So your hels version is making a mess out of things?” Phil was the one to speak up this time. “Wait, I half met mine not too long ago and he was death instead of Kristen. Does that mean-” Paul nodded. “Well shit.”
“Well, if we end up dealing with him, we’re gonna need to get prepped.” Paul said, finally letting Kokatori go. It didn’t have freedom for too long though, as almost immediately Jrum grabbed it again. “Phil, Doc and Wels can lead a number of teams to get properly prepped. While I’m sure a number of you can prep well on your own, I don’t really trust you with a team.”
“Hey! That’s- You know that’s fair.” Bdubs was the one to speak up.
“Hoodie, while I’m sure your magic would be helpful, I know we’re going to need it to help Grian and it would also be good to keep this place safe. If anything happens, you have a way to contact us of course.”
“Then I will do what I can to assist those staying behind, sir.”
“Why the fuck do we need to prep?” Tommy spoke up, making people turn to him. “He’s in Helscraft. We know enough people there that are on our side, and more that while they’re not on our side, they hate Grifter more, and right now he’s the problem. Let’s just get over there first before we try figuring things out, especially since they could help us get gear.”
“Tommy, it’s not that simple.” Phil was the one to speak up, but was then cut off again.
“Why not? We just showed up there last time and we were fine.”
“Yeah, because we weren’t going in there alone and weren’t dealing with Grian’s Hels version. I think you saw what he did to the SMP.”
Tommy frowned. “Yeah, because we didn’t know he was gonna show up, but now we do. And sure, we still might need to prepare or whatever, but the more time we take to do that, the more time he has to do whatever the fuck he’s up to.”
“Tommy.” Xisuma was the one to speak up this time. “While I know the past few hours, Paul hasn’t seemed the most trustworthy, the other hermits seem to trust him and he does know what’s going on. None of us know exactly what’s going on here, so preparing in advance for anything is going to be our best bet.”
“I don’t want to waste any fucking time preparing for something that might not even happen!”
“Then let’s try and make it quicker.” Paul spoke up, looking up at the sky where the moon was rising. He put two fingers in his mouth and let out a large sharp whistle. At first, nothing happened, but then there was suddenly a crowd of baby zombies coming over to the group of hermits. A number of the hermits pulled out weapons, ready to fight, Phil also getting out a sword of his own, but Paul just stepped closer to the crowd of zombies and knelt down in front of the one at the front of the group. “Hey Bub.”
“Heya Mister!” The zombie spoke, which caught a few of the hermits off guard. “What’s going on?”
“Well first of all, I heard you got a new member related to Cleo here.” Paul said, gesturing to the zombified hermit.
“Oh yes! He’s already doing a lot! We’re even scheduled to go on a week-long trip to a scout camp to earn plenty of badges and he’s signed up for seven badges!”
Paul chuckled. “Good for him. Say, I’m sure plenty of you guys have your badges already, but I’m dealing with Punchwood again and I’ve got some friends that need to properly gear up.” He said, gesturing to the hermits.
The baby zombie nodded. “Say no more Mister Soares sir! As long as you sign our blue cards, we’re happy to help!”
“Alright.” Paul said, standing back up. “Let’s get to work.”
.
.
.
Perfect Sense looked back and forth between Grifter and the shorter, more angry looking copy of him that was standing to the side. “What. The hell. Is this? I though-!”
Before Sense could say more, Grifter started pulling him into another room. “If you want to shout, let’s go to another room before you accidentally scare someone!”
Sense sputtered at the accusation. “Accidentally scare someone? I wouldn’t do that!” He got out before the door shut behind him and viridian magic appeared around it. “It’s always on purpose!”
Grifter grabbed Sense’s tie and pulled him down into a kiss. “Oh I know, but Grian doesn’t know that.”
Sense looked back to the door. “So that was him. Why is he here and not locked up like he was supposed to be, hmm? You’re just letting him stand there, completely conscious, nothing stopping him from using magic.”
Grifter rocked on his feet. “Well, he actually can’t use magic because he doesn’t know he has any.”
“What.”
Grifter stopped rocking to look Sense in the eye. “Okay, so I know the plan was to kidnap and trap him, and we still might do that. But stuff happened.”
“And by stuff… you mean?”
“Okay so I get there and they’re having a party for their Grifect because it’s his birthday or something. I think it’s perfect to kidnap him from because the chaos will hide his disappearance. And then I run into a chicken.”
Sense facepalmed. “Oh dear lord, tell me you didn’t.”
“I didn’t! I just hid, no screaming. And that definitely wasn’t a normal chicken. Those eyes weren’t right. But anyway, then I moved and then I saw Punch!” Grifter said, shouting a bit. Sense also was surprised, but before he could comment, Grifter continued. “Apparently it was actually his wels counterpart, which is so much better, and then he messed with things so I couldn’t get Grian because then the chicken was watching him. And that thing scaled a fucking building, it’s not a normal chicken. I mean it’s worse than a blucker.”
“A-alright.” Sense said, just a little bit confused, then he looked back at the door. “But what about Grian?”
“Shit, right. Anyway, follow Tommy because he leaves alone. I try to figure out if he knows anything, but doesn’t look like it. I go back, and then there’s another new guy! He’s got magic shit and I’m pretty sure he’s working with not-Punch and then Grian’s nearby. I’m worried he’s going to do something to Grian so I just try a little spell to maaaaybe leave him unconscious for a day or two or something. But then he reacts and attacks back before I can get the spell out, and then their Scar is doing magic, and then Grian interferes and now poof! He’s a kid! So I dragged him here before anyone could notice and he woke up, saw me, and assumed he’s in the future since I’m also here.”
“So, he doesn’t know who you are?” Sense asked with a slight tilt of his head.
“No! So as far as he knows I’m future him and I know what’s going to happen. I just try to remember what’s different between here and wels based on what he says and it works fine. He has no clue he’s still got Watcher magic because that won’t fucking go away, but I can work with that! If he remembers, we shove him in the Anesi box and take it from there. But for now…”
“What do you need?”
“I need to go threaten some people so they don’t ruin some things. I want you to stay with Grian and get his trust. He’s already influenced into thinking he’ll love you since I do, but still play it a little safe. And if necessary, say that I don’t like to talk about my past too much.”
Sense nodded and the magic was lifted from the door. Grifter opened the door again and grabbed the redstoner’s hand to pull him out. “Feeling calmer now?”
“I… yes. I apologize if I scared you at all.” Sense said before getting an elbow in the ribs for him to be less formal.
“It’s okay.” Grian said, though he didn’t look like he was, still glaring a bit. “So, you’re Sense?”
“Perfect Sense, at your service Grian.” And Sense took Grian’s hand and kissed the back of it.
“Seesee, you’re going to make me jealous of myself.” Grifter said with a little giggle. “And don’t make him uncomfortable with that.”
“N-no. It’s fine.” Grian said, taken aback by what just happened. “Um, should I just go by Xelqua so you can tell us apart?”
“Well, Gri had a nickname some people use. A bit of an inside joke. Of course, people still might call him Grian, so you using Xelqua should be fine.”
“What do they use?” Grian asked, worried about what it might be.
“Grifter. And he’s completely fine with it.”
Grian nodded. “Okay. I just thought it might be something else.”
“It’s not.” Grifter said, teeth gritting slightly. “No one’s used that name in years.”
“Gri, are you-” Sense started, but then Grifter was off. “Well, I suppose he does still have things to do. Why don’t I show you around then?”
Grian looked to where Grifter stormed off before back to Sense. “That sounds good. I’m sure he’ll want some time to himself.”
“I suppose you would know that, wouldn’t you?” Sense said with a smile. “Well then, let me show you around the castle. I’m sure you’ll love it here. By the way, Gri didn’t say, how old are you at this point?”
“Eighteen. I’m legally an adult so you don’t need to baby me. I just got pushed back a few years, I’ve still got more high school to deal with, but I’m hoping I can find a way to graduate early.”
Sense nodded, making sure he was behind Grian so he couldn’t see his smile. “Well, I suppose you’re out of there now. Now I can’t remember if we have any guest rooms available, but if not, we can always add a bed in our own room. It’s large enough for that.”
“That sounds good. I was in there earlier and it did look pretty big.” Grian nodded, oblivious to what exactly he was getting into.
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and you thought we would have less angst~! lol nope!
@petrichormeraki @helleborusangel 
Grifter left briefly and returned with Sefter and Grifect, taking them over to where Grian and Mumbo had taken Jrum. “Oh I had the best idea! Since you have your kids and Sense and I have ours, they could be best friends! I’m sure they can get along great!”
“I’m not sure that’s the best idea right now.” Mumbo said, keeping Jrum close to him. “Jrum is very vulnerable right now and-”
“I kinda do want to play.” Jurm spoke up, tugging on Mumbo’s pant leg. “It was something nice I got to do when I was with d- uh… Bad.”
Mumbo hesitated, but then nodded. “I guess it probably wouldn’t hurt. But if anything happens to Jrum-!”
“Oh calm down, I won’t do anything to him.” Grifter replied. “Besides, I’m sure he wouldn’t let me.” And he pointed behind him to a doorway where Xannes was just coming in, followed by NPG.
“Jrum’s okay!” NPG smiled, before moving behind Xannes when he locked eyes with Grifter, the hels admin crossing his arms.
“You’re out of prison.”
Grifter smiled and pulled himself close to Sense. “Of course. Wouldn’t want to leave this hot stud alone for too long, now would I?”
“Well, You’ve had time with him, now it’s time for you to go back.”
Grifter pouted. “But my kids are having a playdate with Jrum. You wouldn’t want to upset a child, would you?” Grifter’s pout turned into a sly smile and he moved closer to whisper to Xannes. “And Sense has said you’re such a softie when it comes to kids. Before you can do anything to me, I could do whatever I want to that robot. I could create a fun little feedback loop and break them like that. And you couldn’t do anything about it because you decided NPG is better to protect, hmm?”
Xannes wasn’t sure what to say that wouldn’t cause some problem, so he just glared. Grifter’s evil smile quickly turned to one that was much sweeter, and he pulled Grifect over, letting the child talk to Xannes. “Hi Mistew Xannes! Awe uwu weawwy the best hackew evew?”
“I… am known as the best hacker, yes.” Xannes gritted out after another smirk from Grifter.
“Wow! Thawt's so coow! Cawn uwu teach me how tuwu duwu stuff wike thawt?”
“Don’t you want to play with… whatever Jrum would be considered to you? Cousin or some shit?”
“Yeah! But cawn uwu teach me watew?”
“Yeah yeah, whatever.” Xannes growled, rolling his eyes. Grifect went back over to Jrum and Grifter tried pushing Sefter to play as well, but the older sibling refused to join in.
“Hmm, it looks like Sefter doesn’t want to play. I guess I should take him back to Prof. Sense, you can watch Grifect, right dear?” The evil scientist nodded and Grifter gave him a kiss. “Now Grifect, remember what I told you.”
“I wemembew!” The young bot replied, getting a pat on his head from his dad. Grifter left with Sefter after that, but Grian and Mumbo watcher where they had been.
“You’ve got a bad feeling about that too, right?”
Mumbo nodded. “After what we’ve heard about him, of course I do.”
.
.
.
Sefter twirled a sword in one hand while holding an axe in the other. Behind him, Tommy was tied up and stuffed in a large chest, muffled sounds being the only thing to escape the box. 
On the other side of the room, Grifter dragged Grum along, who was doing his best to resist. “P-please. I d-don’t w-want to g-go.”
“I don’t care! I need you for this, so you’re coming with me. No one will even notice!”
“N-no. I w-want to s-stay with T-Tommy. P-Please!”
“Stop complaining or I’ll rewire you for what I need. I’m sure it can’t be much worse than a lobotomy.” Grifter threatened in a cheerful voice. “Now let’s go!”
Grum was scared by the threat and then stopped resisting. Grifter found it much easier to move the robot now, though the screen changing to a smiley face confused him. He hefted the bot onto his shoulder, quickly sent a message to Grifect, and then they were gone.
The_Grifter left the world
Sefter left the world
The_Grifter joined the world
Grumbot_System joined the world
When they arrived in the SMP, Grumbot jumped off of Grifter’s shoulder and pulled out a sword. “Alright, I’m guessing that means you can also find Theseus from here, right?”
“Theseus is likely to be with the admin. The admin also has a needed item. That item must be retrieved.”
“Good.” Grifter smiled. “Take us there!”
Grumbot hesitated, buffering for a few moments. “Console commands have been disabled. Locating Theseus is not available. Reinstate programs before trying again.”
“Ugh, well how do I do that?” Grifter huffed, smiled gone. 
Coordinates appeared on Grumbot’s face for a few moments before it spoke again. “If it has not been moved, those should be the coordinates. There will be people around it.”
“And they know my ‘good’ copy?” Grifter asked, using air quotes.
“Correct.”
Grifter sighed and pulled on his new outfit, replacing it with a standard red sweater. He cleaned up his hair a bit, resisting the urge to mess it up again and then showed himself off. “How do I look?”
“You look like bzzt.”
“I’m sorry, what?” Grifter asked. Had the robot just censored a word. “I look like what?!”
“Was that not the goal? To look like bzzt? You did change into what looks like bzzt sweater.”
Grifter calmed down. “Oh, you were trying to say Grian’s name hmm? And people say I’m the bad one. He won’t let you say his name.”
“Incorrect. That is a recent addition as protection against the Admin and Dream.”
That got Grifter’s attention. “Oh really? So it’s something you’re doing on purpose?”
“Also incorrect. It has not been turned off and knowledge about the program is recent. It also cannot currently be turned off.” Grumbot explained in a deadpan voice, starting to walk to the quartz mansion, leaving Grifter to follow behind.
“Well now I’m curious. Why can’t you turn it off?”
“Another component controls that program.”
“Hmm, I see.” The helsmit nodded. “So, where are we headed?” He paused as Grumbot pointed to a building in the distance, far enough that Grifter needed to squint. “Over there? Pfft, why walk. I can get us there quicker.”
He grabbed Grumbot, and greenish magic swirled around them, teleporting them next to the building. “If you are attempting to mimic bzzt, that is not helpful for the image.”
“Pfft, it’s fine. No one saw. And if they did, I would deal with it. Now let’s go inside. I already know what I’m going with. Oh, and you better play along, or else.”
Grumbot nodded, making Grifter frown about that fact that it didn’t seem even a little scared from his threat. The helsmit picked Grumbot up before walking into the building, putting on a smile. “Hey, we’re back. Mumbo’s still back in Hermitcraft with Jrum keeping Tommy company.”
“Did you not figure out how to help him out? His body’s still here and obviously he didn’t come with you.” Philza spoke, having returned and Techno gone once again.
The helsmit didn’t need to worry about figuring out an answer because Grumbot quickly answered. “The revival process for those from this world requires an extra step in the form of an item that the admin was in possession of. He will need to be found.”
Those there glanced at each other, which obviously didn’t mean anything good. “What’s wrong?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. Fundy held out his communicator, letting Grifter look at it before showing Grumbot. Grifter held in a smile when he saw that Theseus was here, and it looked like his old admin was here too. The errored message was interesting though.
“Obviously it isn’t good news. Dream was bad enough, I don’t want to see what an evil version of him is like. Unless of course it’s an opposite version and he’s nicer.” Phil spoke again.
“From what I’ve heard? He’s not really that nice.” Grifter replied. Not nice to most people that is, at the very least. But he wondered if this Nightmare person would want to be on the good side of a Listener. In fact, he had already lost his server, hadn’t he? So what more could he possibly lose from some sort of partnership. “And while it probably isn’t a good idea to go near him, it looks like we’ll have to.”
“I’m not sure how long it would take to gather people up to help with that.” The hardcore player said. “A lot of people are still injured from the banquet and-”
Grifter cut Philza off. Grian would probably be concerned for his faaamily~. Ugh. “I’m sure I can do fine on my own. Even an admin can’t do much against a Watcher. And while extra help would be nice, you getting close could just end up being more harm than good if you end up in the crossfire. I don’t want to need to revive anyone else just trying to get this thing.”
“He will also be getting some assistance already.” Grumbot spoke up, and Grifter held in the urge to roll his eyes. 
“I’m not sure that’s the best idea.” Grifter tried his best to sound genuine. He’s pretty sure calling the robot by its name would be more effective, but to be completely honest, he had forgotten it at this point.
“There is to be no discussion on this matter. You will be getting assistance.” Grumbot replied, pulling out an axe. “And the sooner travel is started towards the new admin, the better.”
Grifter looked over the people in the room. Obviously getting Philza to look after the robot wouldn’t be a good idea. Even if he wasn’t like his own dad, the helsmit was sure he would be equally as experienced. The demon was off the table too. No way the robot would escape from that. The enderman thing could just teleport around.The fox hybrid might also be too quick on the draw, though he did look young. But no, the fluffy haired boy with little nubs of horns poking out, he seemed like the best option.  He even already had a kid attached at his leg, so adding another would make things tougher on him.
Grifter took Grumbot over to Tubbo and put the robot in the teen’s arms. “Here, try to keep him occupied. I’m sure those two could even play together.” Though Grumbot didn’t react, it looked like the ziglin liked that idea, making it even more likely for the teen to respond positively. And that he did.
The helsmit sent a little wink to Grumbot before giving it a hug and leaving the building. As soon as he was outside, Grifter leaned against a wall and waited for the robot to come out. In a few seconds, there was a commotion from inside and then Grumbot rushed out of the building. Grifter immediately pulled the robot into his arms and teleported them away before anyone could follow outside. “I’m hoping you got what you needed?”
“That could not be obtained.”
“Well then what the fuck was all that noise?”
“Attempting to reconnect programs followed by a necessary escape.”
“Ugh, well I’m sure everyone’s out looking for you now. I’ll take us back and you can do whatever the hell you need to.”
“That would be a good idea.”
Grifter teleported them back. The Fox hybrid unfortunately stayed behind, but the helsmit quickly bashed him over the head, letting him fall to the floor unconscious. “Hmm, I think I could have gone a little harder without killing him. Normally there’s more blood. Maybe I’m just out of practice?”
Grumbot didn’t respond to the banter, just staring at the replacement console. It didn’t need all the programs, but it would be so easy to just add them all back. Its arm reached to plug itself in, but the other arm’s hand stopped the first. Its screen flickered for a moment, and then it released its arm and plugged in. Just a copy of the coordinated program. That’s all that was needed.
When Grumbot unplugged again, Grifter picked it up. “I’m guessing that means you’re ready. Where are we headed to?”
Coordinates appeared on Grumbot’s screen and Grifter smiled before teleporting them there. They reappeared in a large field of snow, the helsmit glad he had changed back into a sweater. “You’re not going to freeze in this, right?”
“Correct.”
Grifter nodded and then looked around. “I’m not seeing them. Are you sure these are the right coordinates?”
“The coordinates were altered slightly based on movement, positioning and terrain. They will be four chunks in that direction in a number of ticks.” Grumbot answered, pointing towards a hill.
“Alright, sounds good enough!” Grifter shrugged and then started dragging Grumbot along in the pointed direction. When they reached the top of the hill, the helsmit looked around, smiling when he saw the people he was looking for. Theseus was following behind what was presumably Nightmare. Then the helsmit’s gaze drifted to a few blocks behind them and the extra set of footprints following the pair. It looked like someone was using an invisibility potion.
Grifter pulled out a bow and arrow, attaching his signature TNT to the end of his arrow, and then fired it so it would land in front of the pair. Not enough to hurt either of them, but enough to startle them at the very least.
When it exploded, Grifter teleported closer, leaving Grumbot behind. “Hi there. I don’t really want you going much further.”
“Who the hell are you?” Nightmare spoke as Theseus glared.
“Mmm… I’m sure you’ve heard of me. I’m a Listener. Grifter to be precise. I’m sure Theseus has talked about his much better older brother. If not, well I guess he’s just more of a little shit than I thought.”
“Nope, he never mentioned you. But I’ve heard of your kind.”
“Aww, that’s too bad.” Grifter pouted, pulling back another arrow and firing it at the invisible figure. “Anyway, nasty tail you’ve got there.”
Nightmare and Theseus turned around to see an arrow floating in midair, footprints being created in the snow with nothing visible making them. Immediately the invisible figure was pulling armor on, ready to fight. “Thanks for the tip.”
“Anytime! Anyway, I need Theseus. Apparently Dadza really likes him still and is upset he’s gone. I wouldn’t do anything, but he kinda cursed someone that I actually care about, so if I don’t do this, it’ll end badly for me.”
“Well tell him Theseus is staying with me. There’s still some training he never finished.”
Grifter’s eyes lit up briefly and the implications, but he still frowned. “Can I at least have him long enough to take back to Dadza? It’ll take five minutes, ten tops. If he doesn’t let me bring bitch boy back, I can just try killing him.”
“Try killing death?” Nightmare asked, sounding skeptical.
Grifter nodded. “Yeah, we’re pretty sure I’m the only one who can actually do it. It’s why people really prefer being on my side.” The helsmit’s smile shifted to something darker. “Which is why you should probably… you know… Listen. Besides, being on my side has plenty of perks!”
Grifter couldn’t see Nightmare’s expression because of his mask, but eventually he nodded. “Fine. But you better be back before those ten minutes.”
Grifter nodded, giving a beaming smile before grabbing Theseus and disappearing. Nightmare put his arms behind his head, acting bored, before pulling out an axe and shield at the last second, blocking an attack. “I know you’re still here idiot.”
The invisible figure didn’t respond, so Nightmare just threw their axe at the person, the blade digging into the armor, deep enough to break through it. “I guess the durability was low.” Was all Nightmare said as he popped his arm back into place, having dislocated from the amount of force he used in the attack. “So, got a na-” Nightmare continued before being cut off as he was grabbed from behind.
“You are in the possession of a needed item. It must be handed over.”
“And what are you supposed to be?”
Grumbot buffered for a moment before answering. “Console. The admin used a console for various jobs before he was taken away and replaced by you. You likely still have an Item needed for the revival process of this world in your possession. The surrendering of that item would be appreciated.”
Nightmare kicked Grumbot away. “Not a chance.” He then pulled out a sword, hitting away the invisible figure. “Not like I can do it with this person fighting me.”
“Then they will be eliminated.” Grumbot replied, booting up its combat program. It pulled out a sword, ready to attack, but then was pushed to the ground.
“Nah, you might be useful later. Get out of the way.” Nightmare said before pulling out a trident and stabbing it into the ground, impaling Grumbot’s arm and nailing it to the ground.
As Nightmare and the invisible person fought, Grumbot looked at the trident. Fortunately it only injured one arm, and as a robot, it was ambidextrous. It pulled the trident out and held it in its hand. With the combat program active, Grumbot angled the throw, adjusting for movement from the other combat, and then threw the weapon.
In a moment, Nightmare was the one stuck to the ground. The invisible person tried to take advantage of the situation, but Grumbot managed to push them aside. The face flickered and then changed to its normal self, though even then it still flickered a bit. “Look, I’m just after my book. Give it here and you can be on your way.”
No one moved, Nightmare wasn’t even struggling, so Grum pressed his foot into Nightmare’s chest. “Give it up, or we could just stay here.”
“Who are you?”
“I think you know.”
There was quiet for a bit, but then Nightmare pulled out a book. “Fine, but I’ll be getting answers.”
“No you won’t.” And Grum pulled the trident out again before smashing it down on Nightmare’s face, shattering the mask he wore before the body disappeared into a cloud of smoke. Immediately Grum closed his combat program and curled into a ball. He started crying at what had just happened, everything quickly catching up with him. But the danger was gone now, right?
The sound of armor moving drew Grum’s attention to the now formerly invisible person, the piglin now looking down at Grum. The bot immediately regretted closing his combat program and tried to boot it up again, shakily drawing his sword. He didn’t want to die again, especially now he had the- the book! Grum dropped his sword and grabbed the book, shoving it into one of his extra inventory slots. It was just in time too as Techno grabbed him.
“D-d-don’t kuh-kill m-me ple-please!” Grum stuttered out. He was lifted up, which he thought was a curious way to kill him, but he also didn’t expect fireworks as a weapon, so anything was on the table with him. 
Instead, Techno just moved Grum onto his back before leaning down and grabbing the dropped sword. “Already made the mistake of killing you once. Besides, you’ll get rid of my ghost problem.” And then he started walking. Grum was still a bit scared of getting killed, thinking the piglin could be lying, but he was also tired. He was glad he still had the trident, which was channeling at the very least, so he wouldn’t necessarily need his charger, but conserving power would be good right now, so he went to sleep.
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So, took a bit longer to write this since I was moving back home now that the school year is done and as you probably saw if you follow me, I created the Shared Space au! I’m really proud of that too, so check it out! and send asks for it too!
anywho, tagging time! @petrichormeraki @helleborusangel
Jrum stood facing Grifect, sword at the ready. He just needed to buy some time because there was something easy he could do. Instead of having an actual communicator, it had been built into his system at one update, so he didn’t need to get it out and type. Instead he could just send it mentally, though it could be a little odd at times.
But right now it was important. Jrum got a message ready and sent it to Mumbo, then to Grian. Telling them he was in danger and Tommy probably was too. But there was a problem, he didn’t get a message back from them, but an error.
“Sowwy, but I can’t wet uwu caww fow hewp! Thawt wouwd make my dad mad. If they gow aftew Tommy, they’ww see youw bwothew iws gone.”
Jrum jumped at Grifect, slashing his sword at the other bot. An arrow hit him as he ran forth, a second when he hit Grifect. Not wanting to get shot anymore, Jrum kicked the dispenser, pushing it out of Grifect’s reach. He attacked with his sword again, but a shield materialized on Grifect’s arm and deflected the attack. “That’s not fair!”
“Why wouwd I make iwt faiw? I wawnt tuwu win awnd hacking iws easy. You’d awweady be dead if I couwdn’t wisk wetting a message out thawt I was the owne who kiwwed uwu.” Grifter explained with a giggle, hacking in a new dispenser. “At the vewy weast kiwwing machines won’t duwu thawt, then I cawn pwetend iwt was juwst an accident whiwe you’we fine! But if aww my data iws wight, once you’we dead, you’ww be whisked away fwom thiws wowwd again!”
Jrum hesitated at that. He would? But he lost a life in the SMP and came out fine. But then again they had weird respawn rules, Tommy was proof of that. Jrum thought about trying to run, but then had an idea. If he would have an issue with respawning, Grifect would have to have the same issue!
Jrum pulled out a bow and fired it at Grifect before pulling out an axe. The helsbot put their shield up for the arrow, so Jrum was quickly able to chop it in half with his axe. Grifect’s eyes widened which let Jrum know something else, the other bot wasn’t good at combat or have a program for it. “You asked Xannes how to be a better hacker?” Jrum swiped his sword at the bot. “He’s a good hacker because he had to train all his skills. Xisuma is the best admin, so he needed to beat that. But he also needed to be good at everything!” The sword managed to tear into a weak part of Grifect’s body at a join. “You may be a hacker, but you have no clue how to actually use what you have! And that means I win!” And the sword sliced Grifect in half, the robotic body disappearing in smoke before it could reach the ground.
Jrum panted, having used a lot of energy for that. He wanted to close his combat program to conserve power, but he didn’t know if anyone else would show up. He wasn’t even sure where his hels version would respawn. But the fact that he needed to respawn at all was good news, so Jrum attempted to send another message and smiled as it went through. Now people would know what was going on.
.
.
.
Grian kept glancing at his comm, worried out of his mind while he wasn’t with either of the bots. He had just gotten them back and while they looked like they were getting better, he couldn’t help but imagine the worst. It also didn’t help that he was dealing with NPG, Xannes and Sense all in one room. 
He couldn’t help but sigh in relief when he got some messages from the boys. Jrum was still having fun playing with his hels copy and Tommy seemed to be taking care of Grum. The best part was the message that Grum was cuddling with Tubbee, which was great to imagine. It was just a shame Tommy could send a picture without disturbing them.
“So are you guys close to being done arguing?” Grian spoke up, getting up from where he was sitting. “I’m getting a headache from it all and Mumbo’s not here to help.”
“You can always go for the next best thing.” Sense suggested, making Grian scrunch his face up in disgust.
“What would Grifter think?”
“As if he wouldn’t want some fun with a clone.”
Grian shuddered. “Why are you like this?”
“Because Grifter and I love each other, which is surprising that you can’t do that as the ‘good’ versions.” Sense replied, crossing his arms.
“Hey! Those two of course love each other, they’re just not gross about it.” NPG argued for Grian. “And Even Xannes is okay with his stuff.”
“Ye-Hey!” Xannes complained, but then was stopped as their comms buzzed. Everyone looked away, Grian going over to his own and reading two messages, watching as a third appeared.
Grifect was slain by Jrumbot
<Jrumbot> Something’s wrong with Grum and Tommy. Grifter’s been up to something and my copy’s been hacking.
Grian was slain by PerfectSense
Grian watched as his own death message appeared as he was blasted in the back by a death ray Sense had on him. When his eyes next opened, he was in bed and heard a scream in the distance. His comm was still in his hand since he was holding it when he died. There were three more death messages, one for Xannes, one for Tommy and one for NPG. 
The one for Tommy was the most concerning with Jrum’s message, so Grian jumped out of bed and broke his window to go through, not wanting to go through the main hall and run into Sense again. A few shards of glass cut into his wings from the shoddy break and Grian’s recklessness, but he didn’t care, needing to get there fast. He flew as fast as he could to get to the old hobbit hole, glad it wasn’t too far away.
Grian’s eyes widened as he got into the place. It was a mess and Grum was standing in the middle of it, holding a sword and staring at Tommy’s bed. Tubbee flew near him and was stabbed by the sword, making Grian hold his breath before the bee popped out of its hive again. The avian was glad that Xisuma had set it up so that the bee could respawn since Tommy had been scared of something happening to it.
“Grum, put the sword down.” Grian said. He wanted to reach for a weapon, but realized he hadn’t grabbed any before rushing over there. He frowned as Grum didn’t move, instead killing Tubbee again. “Grum, put it down!”
Grum put the sword down, slowly laying it down on the ground. Grian started to take a step towards the bot, but they immediately turned around, pulling out a crossbow and shooting Grian with it. Grian yelled as the arrow struck him and he looked at Grum, now realising it wasn’t his son, but the hels version. “What did you do with Grum?! And it said you killed Tommy too. How? You left the world with Grifter and didn’t-”
Sefter moved so fast Grian barely comprehended it. Grian’s wing deflected the attack, though an axe chopping into it still hurt. At the very least it was weak as Sefter was just bringing the weapon out, but he was just after any damage. Another attack came down on Grian’s arm before the bot changed to another crossbow, shooting Grian point blank.
Grian attempted to attack back, even though he only had his fists and wings as weapons, but Sefter kept dodging them. Grian huffed, finally noticing the magic radiating off of the robot. A strong speed potion. There was no way he could land a hit on Sefter, especially without a weapon. But that was fine, because it finally made sense. Tommy wasn’t here, likely in the other half of the hobbit holes. Grum also wasn't around because someone messed with the messages and he had left the world, not Sefter. Because of that, there was no reason for him to be here.
When Sefter next attacked, Grian dodged, letting himself fall. He opened a portal just below himself, letting the magic envelop him before closing it again so the bot couldn’t follow. He felt like he was falling for a few moments before opening a second portal, taking him out of the Watcher’s world and into the SMP.
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The first thing he heard was someone crying. It sounded familiar, but at the same time he couldn’t place it. A voice that spoke up definitely was recognizable though. “Hmm, not sure it worked. Why not hit him again harder this time?”
“Tech-” He got out before something slammed into his gut, winding him. “Wh-What the fuh?” He managed to wheeze out.
“I-I’m s-sorry. I d-didn’t… You s-said he was- wh-why are you laughing?”
“You’re a f-fucking bitch Techno.”
“Nice to see you too Tommy.”
Tommy groaned as he sat up, having trouble as he found Grum sitting on his lap, holding a book in his hands like he was ready to bludgeon Tommy with it. That was probably what hit him in the gut now that he thought about it. “What the fuck happened?”
“The kid got the revive book that Dream had and used it to fix you. Did the same for Wilbur.”
Tommy sat up just a little bit straighter. “Wait, Wil’s alive? You’re serious?””
Techno gestured to Grum. “Yeah, apparently this one half revived him while we were all gone.”
“This one? His name’s Grum.” Tommy said, crossing his arms.
Techno crossed his arms back. “Does it matter?”
“He’s our fucking nephew!” Tommy complained, making Techno huff.
“And? So far all of my ‘nephews’ have tried killing me.”
“B-because you did it first.” Grum piped up. “I tried to be d-diplomatic with y-you and-”
“Yeah, well I hate government.” Techno cut Grum off.
“Yeah. I know. It was sort of my job to account for people like you. But it’s fine! One uncle is enough!”
Tommy chuckled. “Hey, maybe you’ll like Wil as an uncle too. Then you’ll have two.”
Grum turned to look at Tommy again. “I was already accounting for him in my count as I already had encounters with him here before. That is the one I was referring to.”
“Wh- Hey! Why am I being excluded?!” Tommy shouted while Techno smiled slightly. 
Grum recoiled slightly, which made Tommy back off a bit. “You… you said I could call you something else. Just because you’re actually my uncle… you’re sort of not.”
It took Tommy a bit to realize what Grum meant. He supposed it was true, a week ago, they hadn’t known they were actually related to each other. “Well, alright, if you’ve only got one uncle, I’ve only got four brothers! Take that Techno!”
The hybrid just rolled his eyes while Grum tackled Tommy with a hug. Tommy patted the bot, rolling his own eyes, though it was more sarcastically. “So kid, why not start with Tommy?”
There was a moment of confusion from Tommy before Grum suddenly stiffened, letting Tommy know that whatever was being talked about wasn’t the greatest thing. “What are you talking about?”
“Something got brought up before we came here. I figure since you two seem close, he should be telling you, especially if I’ve already been told.”
Tommy leaned back to look at Grum. They didn’t look scared as much as they were nervous. “Hey big man, what is it? If it’s something that happened because of Dream, I won’t be mad. I mean, you kinda killed me and I’m fine.”
Grum fidgeted a bit, still looking nervous, but then he answered. “Um, I think I have something called chat? At least that’s what Techno called it.”
Tommy was taken aback and looked at the piglin. “Yeah, well, chat’s just what I call it. They’re basically just voices.”
“Right… sorry.” Grum apologized.
Tommy looked between the two of them again. “Wait, so you’ve got your own form of chat? They’re not telling you to be as bloodthirsty as Techno, right?” Tommy asked, and Grum quickly shook his head. “Then yeah, it’s fine. Besides, even if I didn’t like it, your dads do so-”
“They don’t.” Grum cut Tommy off. “You’re… I’ve only told two people and you’re the second. I thought it was bad.”
“No, you’re fine. It runs in the family.” Tommy assured the bot. “Plus, they don’t sound too bad, so it’s fine.”
Grum fidgeted some more. “Well… Dream isn’t the nicest-”
“Wait, you hear Dream in there?!” Tommy couldn’t help but stand up in shock, causing Grum to fall off the bed. “Uh, sorry Grum. I just- Dream?! Really?!”
Grum rubbed his head. “Yes and no? He’s not like the one that was admin here, at least mostly. And they’ve kinda been around before I even knew you.”
Tommy didn’t look entirely convinced, but he didn’t want to make Grum even more upset. “I guess that’s okay. Who else do you remember the names of?”
“Um, all of them. There aren’t many. There’s Dream of course, but also Eyes, Gor-”
Tommy didn’t need Grum to continue. “I found your book. You hid it in your charger. Their names were in there. I mean, I don’t know how you got PM in your chat, but it sounds cool.”
“You found my book?” Grum asked, tilting his head. “And it was in my charger? Who put it there?”
“Uh, I thought it was you. I mean, you sent me a message to go there, though you used Eye’s name.”
Grum shook his head. “Then I didn’t do that. Eyes did.”
“What do you mean Eyes did?” Techno asked. “How can your voices do stuff like that?”
Grum looked even more confused now. “But… Is that not supposed to happen? Eyes and Console have both been doing that.” And then Grum’s confusion turned to panic. “I thought you said it was okay?”
“Shit.” Tommy cursed, sitting back down to pull Grum into a hug. “Yeah yeah, it’s okay. Just different. Fuck we need Mumbo and Grian.”
It was perfect timing, as just as Tommy said that, Techno’s communicator buzzed. The hybrid took it out and read the message before showing it to the teen.
Grian joined the world.
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