#Grian’s design changing like how day changes to night

[tiredeldritchhorror]

Man, Limited Life is probably my favorite of the life series, I love them all but I would happily rewatch Limited Life any day

[amethystfairy1]

Ttsbc glamor, I have a few different questions about it because it's something very cool

What is the weakest type of species that has glamor? I know it changes depending on the person, like Tango glamor being weaker compared to the average blazeborn, but on average, who has the weakest glamor?

Can you change the speed at how fast you can shoot glamor out of your hands? We know it can be shot as fast lighting bullets to play tag, and they can be normal bullets.

Can you change the size of the bullet of glamor you shoot (I'm going to assume you can but still)

Can you slowly release glamor, so it's like a trail? Kinda like when Disney Channel will take the magic wand and draw micky mouses head, then it will show up ?? (Or like produce fireworks type of design in the air using glamor?

Can you shoot glamor using other body parts besides your hands? (For example, your eyes or your toes?)

When glamor releases from the hand outwards, does that glamor slowly fade as it goes through the air, or does it stay the same strength until it hits impact with something? Also, what happens once the bolt of glamor hits something? Does it hit the object and splat, then fade, or does it hit like a bullet, and the impact will slow it down, then it fades out?

Does glamor leave marks? Like, I think you said it can leave bruises and stuff, but do the bruises look a little different than normal? (If your glamor malfunctions and you try and shoot it out, can you bruise your fingers?)

When you use glamor to hide body parts that don't want to be seen does it fade from top to bottem, bottem to top, fades everything at the same time or does it not fade at all and it just disappears like it was never there?

Why does the under city only have glamor and the over city doesn't? I know that the under city finds it important but what did they do for it to happen??

One last question about glamor (hopefully) if a human is holding a hybrid/mutant hand, can that human use their glamor?

I hope these questions made sense (I tend to get sidetracked while writing asks this long), but I wish you well, and I hope you have an amazing day/night/eve!

(One last extra question!)

Did the old main lab scientist from the under city work with the over city? Like the under city does the experiments to keep over city out of trouble and the over city gives them the stuff they need to do the bio technology and they trade out information??

Questions questions questions...

I took awhile to answer this because I wanted to think about it and make sure the answers all lined up and made sense! If I'm vague anywhere keep in mind I do still plan to expand on some of these worldbuildy bits in the stories themselves so I don't wanna spoil everything! 😆

There isn't just one specific subspecies that's much weaker than others, it's more that there's certain subspecies who are particularly good with glamor (blaze-borns, voidwalkers, mushroom mutants) and everyone else hangs around an average. Some subspecies have special skills to do with glamor that are unique to them though! Blaze-borns manipulated fire, avians and butterfly hybrids manipulating weight, that sort of thing...also keep in mind because glamor can't pass through inorganic material people like Doc or Cleo who have large parts of their bodies replaced with augmentations can't use glamor very well!

I mean, I'm sure they could change the density of the glamor bullet and therefore change the speed!

Yes, if you're skilled enough with glamor (like Grian) you can most certainly manipulate the size/affect/color of your glamor! But that's a skill that's on the upper end of glamor ability, Grian is uniquely very very talented with the stuff!

Again, if you're talented enough, have enough glamor, and you've practiced that particular skill, sure you could!

Yes! Once more, it's a talent + practice scenario! It's easiest to use glamor with your hands or fingertips because...I mean, that's where you'd be the most coordinated, but if you wanted to fire from another part of your body you could if you had enough glamor and practiced that specific skill!

Depends on the shooter and what they were trying to do! Grian's bullets as Cute Guy make impact like paintballs! Again though it's the talent + skill + practice scenario, glamor is very versatile and malleable if you've got enough of it and practice a lot!

If a glamor bullet strikes someone it'll leave a bruise like a paintball would! It's the same as any old bruise, the size and how bad it is depends on how powerful the glamor bullet!

It's like heat haze on tarmac! That's my favorite way of describing it in the stories anyway. I also often say that it's like fog growing denser and then turning clear. So basically the haze of glamor, which is tinted the persons natural glamor color, fogs over whatever they want to hide and then fades away, and the thing they wanted to hide won't be visible anymore!

They just have it! They didn't do anything, they've just always had it as long as anyone can remember! It's a trait unique to hybrids/mutants!

Nope! Humans can't use glamor! Hybrids can use their glamor to affect humans, see Jimmy concealing Scott when they went to the under-city together or Grian shooting human criminals with glamor bullets to knock them out, but humans cannot use glamor, no matter what!

No problem! It's neat to try and pick apart the power system a bit, and I want to make it clear that glamor is also something of a catch-all term for powers in the under-city. Tango being able to light things on fire is considered glamor. Shelby's glowing mushroom cap is considered glamor. Voidwalkers purple particles are considered glamor. It's not something that has a super solid set of rules because everyone learns to manipulate it in their own way to suit their needs!

The example I've given before is athletics...if you train super super super hard at a sport, you're going to get quite skilled at it, but you'll always be held back by your physical capabilities. By talent + practice + skill I mean that you need to be born with the capacity for highly skilled glamor usage, you need to practice those particular things to get good at them, and then you need to hone the skills over time! Grian's glamor bullets are a great example. He can manipulate them to kill or stun, he can change their size, density, and color, and he can fire them off in pretty quick succession. He needed to start out with having the glamor capacity to do that, but he also needed to practice and hone that skill!

As for that little bonus questions, I don't wanna confirm or deny anything to do with any relationships between the over-city and under-city in any capacity beyond what we've already seen, it's all spoiler territory and I promise we'll get into that as the AU continues to grow! I've got big plans! 😉

[justapracticingcreative]

A Watcher’s Redemption: Chapter 48

It felt cold and empty joining Central. Especially in comparison to where they had come from. It made Grian shutter as he opened his eyes.

Shaking off the feeling, he looked around at the room they were in. The portal room the Hermits had designed was so comforting. If he just looked around he could almost feel like he was still on the server, although the doorway leading out was enough to keep him from feeling fully at home.

Throwing on his cloak he had brought with him, he noticed how the feathers on his wings were now starting to blend in to the red lining on the inside. It brought a smile to his face to see the color growing brighter. Less and less white feathers were obstructing his colors, it felt so good to see them change back.

“Wow, I haven’t been here in a while.” Scar noted cheerily as he looked around the Portal Room. “I kinda forgot the Hermits built this together.”

Grian smiled back at him. “It almost makes it feel like we haven’t left.” He looked down at his comm on his wrist.

“Brings back memories,” Scar added, thinking back. “You ready to go?”

“Mmm, yep! I just sent X a quick message, we’re good to go now!”

“Awesome!”

The two turned towards the exit. Grian’s heart sunk a little at the sight. It was okay just being the two of them in the safety of Hermitcraft’s Portal Room but, leaving made him remember just how nervous he was.

“…okay…” He breathed out.

Taking their first steps out into the tunnel they could hear their footsteps echo off the empty walls. The lighting at this time of night was slightly dimmer than it would be in the day, almost no people would be walking around at this time so it would be a waste to leave all of the lights on. As such, it left the tunnels with far more shadows than there would normally be. A trade off for not being around the crowds during the day.

They walked towards the station nearest to Hermitcraft’s Portal, Grian’s eyes shifting around at any noise or movement. He flinched slightly when he first saw a couple people at the end of a branching off hallway, his heart rate picking up as he saw them. Instantly he read their code, just a glimpse to make sure they had one, they did, they were just normal players.

It wasn’t Them. It wasn’t the Watchers.

Letting out a small relieved breath he tried to stop his anxiousness, rubbing his thumb on that spot on the end of his sleeve for comfort.

Movement to his right caught his eye. Snapping his head in that direction he let out another breath. Just another player. They had a code.

Scar noticed his fidgeting, his brows furrowing as he looked at him.

They both reached the train rather quickly, both getting into the private cart that Xisuma had reserved. Grian relaxed a little once the door was closed, the train starting to move soon after.

As the train soon approached the station closest to Evo’s Portal Room it came to a slow stop. No one seemed to be around out there, not at this time of night.

Grian readjusted his cloak over his wings as he exited, Scar following right behind him.

Grian shivered as the train left again, the sound of the engine fading into the distance and leaving them alone in the silent station.

The air around them felt so still. The very sound of their breathing was on the brink of being too loud in comparison.

Letting out a breath, Grian took a step to get going. “It’s this way. It’s a bit of a walk but it’s not too far.”

Scar nodded his head and followed.

A faint purple glow could be seen in Grian’s eyes as they walked, he was watching out for any hazards but he also wanted to see if that purple string would appear again.

He looked around as they waked past a few empty hallways, no sign of that purple trail. No sign of Pearl, of his sister’s magic. No sign of what he was searching for.

Chapter 48 coming soon!

I am so so excited to post this chapter! It just needs a little more editing and it’ll be done! I’m going to post it as soon as I can tomorrow, unfortunately I can’t do that until I get home from work, but as soon as I do I’ll finish it up and post it!

Here’s the link to the beginning! Hope to see you there!

-JustaPracticingWriter/Creative

[mynameisnotsoda]

Lore dumping my fnaf au

I just remembered that I inserted myself and my best friend into the au for funsies (you'll notice I do that a lot. This is how cringe I am)

In my first draft I went on a rant abt how much I hated Wilbur's face but after going back to fix it I just needed to add his glasses LMAO. Initially I forgot about the face paint until I stared at my ref LMAO it's supposed to look faded and I think I did a pretty damn good job

Other than that the rest is fine. Erm. I didn't think I'd yap so much about that the actual lore is below the cut lawl

This is Maya!!!! (she/they) she's the mechanic in the pizzaplex, is addicted to caffeine, and is my bestest friend !!!!!! In the au we live together and also work at the same place that's so funny ‼️‼️

They usually work the night shift but if there needs to be emergency repairs during the day they're always on call for that. Nights usually consist of checkups and clean up of the animatronics and androids (will get into that later).

Clearly, I have a favorite, so he's also my favorite in the au itself LMAO cSoda works in the daycare but often leaves to bother the animatronics ☝️☝️‼️‼️

the daycare has an art station so that's where they work, they also help clean up and watch over the kids with the daycare androids !!! Who are *drumroll* Mumbo and Grian !!!!

(I forgot the makeup in this doodle,, and apparently the white stripe on the red part of the dress uggghh) the daycare androids are supposed to be more human looking to not scare the little kids, but cartoony (and tall) enough to differentiate from the human coworker. I like to imagine their faces are rly simple bc they're LED screens with projected expressions to make emotions n stuff. Plus I wanted to keep their faces similar to their skins with an in universe reason for it pfsjshgdhdh

Tumblr keeps bugging out every time I wanna post and it's DRIVING ME INSANE !!!! half this post got deleted and I'm SO MAD ABOUT IT but anyway here's the refs I made like 2 years ago. Their designs haven't changed since I made them so I probably won't remake them unless I start hating my old art enough LMAO

The canon heights I never wrote down so here they are: Ranboo 8'0, Wilbur 7'2, Maya 5'4, I'm 5'7, Grian 7'0, Mumbo 8'0, James 7'0, Tommy 6'6, Jimmy 5'5 and Schlatt wasnt in the AU at the time but he's 6'4

I didnt really make this au for anything except silly scenarios and because making the designs were fun pFF ALSO I FORGOT TO MENTION Sneeg is dj music man !!!! I never got around to drawing him before since I just figured out recently I wanted him to be dj music man so yeah !!

I know this isn't that much of a lore dump but I think I got all my thoughts out for now lawl everything will be under the animatronicfication au tag :v

I have GOT to draw Wilbur the way I used to. The biblically accurate animatronic eyes do NOT look good in my art style 😭😭 also I just noticed I basically painted the same thing into my sketchbook wtf I completely forgot about this doodle until I found it after digging for au art 🤯🤯

[bluiex]

Here me out here:

Goth Mumbo Jumbo. He wears exclusively old fashioned suits, he has sleeve n back tattoos, he’s got a fuck ton of piercings including several genital ones. But, he also is an adult with a day job, so he is most often seen by his peers in old fashioned, but simple, suits. And he never wears jewelry to work. Last thing he wants, being apart of team of redstone engineers, is for a messy circuit to go haywire and him be full of conductive material.

He used to go out a lot when he was younger, regularly spending his weekends at parties and clubs. He was always quick to make friends with anyone and everyone, usually being himself. But if he spots someone he likes, they get all of his attention and he becomes very attentive. He lays seduction on thick then, always surprising his peers with how much game he has. He doesn’t tell them, but he knows it’s because he’s got a very attractive voice, able to promise all their wants in that low voice.

Raver Grian. Sure he’s mischievous and aloof during the day, but the second he enters the club he’s a whole other person. He’s been doing this for years, and has made some truly life changing friends. He’s also gotten into some bone altering fights too, but that’s not the point. It’s about the colors, the unity with the crowd, it’s about having the space to have fun away from society.

His usual fit involves little of his body being covered, along with heavy makeup that borders on face paint in its intensity and design. White and purple are his colors here; sometimes he’ll wear his colored contacts that make all of his eye a deep navy violet. To top the look off, he has small wings he likes to wear. It makes him look like a hypnotic angel, or maybe demon. Either way, he’s unrecognizable from the Grian of the daylight: in that red jumper, black jeans, always with his glasses.

Steampunk Scar. I don’t feel a need to explain this.

Cyberpunk Cub. I also don’t feel a need to explain this.

— abridged anon

PS, plot twist: they all work together at whatever business, but they’ve also all meet at clubs before and never recognized each other, for one reason or another. Grian because he looks and acts totally different, Mumbo because of his voice mixed with the fact that usually people are drunk, Scar because he also acts different (more suggestive, salacious even (the nights Mumbo and Scar come across each other are very, very steamy)), and Cub because of Superman logic (he took off his glasses).

AKSKDNNF Cub just takes the glasses off. Genius

God I'm in love with mumbo already.

okay but what if by happenstance Grian recognizes Mumbo and starts to heavily flirt with him. Mumbo is so out of it at this point and just throws himself onto this mystery man. Who is hella cute btw- they have a one night stand (on accident according to Grian when he wakes up the next day and bolts out the house before getting recognized)

[dailypearldoodles]

Pearl designs ramble? 👀

Yes!!!

Ok so

my goal for designing pearl was 'a totally normal human', because i like the idea of like, being human to compliment her soup groupmates, but also shes pretty unhinged how can she even be human. so she has a lot of little traits on a very human body, i guess

i also incorporated a bit of her like timeline into it, so some of her traits developed over time as she visited different smps. most of them developed in hermitcraft because hermitcraft is weird like that

she gained extra eyes in Evo, her lava-lamp skin markings are due to the withering effect in legacy, she got her wings and antenna when she first came to hermitcraft, her eyes started matching the phases of the moon around when the mooners came to be, and her white particle flecks emerged when she summoned the onyx deer. in my first proper design of her (not on this blog) i went further to add fungi growing on her skin because of her alien base (but that takes too much time to draw too many small details lol)

and if you're wondering why she has pointed ears, its because i also headcanon her to once have been a zelda like how grian was once a link. and also because i like to draw characters with pointed ears

evo smp pearl, there are so many gradients going on lmao i had to tone it down a bit. her hoodie design is done by clipping a multiply cloud layer to some airbrushing. her eyes are black for some reason! and also she has extra eyes because...watchers? maybe? pearl in evo smp didnt give me like, a consistent theme to work with. like nothing stood out to me. i probs would have given her some flowers and bird friends if those werent destroyed by the watchers midway through the smp and she switched to a different build style. and thats fine! there was just no one or two things that really stood out that couldve been probably incorporated into her design in some way, so her design is kind of plain

a build a day pearl, is just based off of her youtube and twitch banner, plus the extra eyes from evo. in hindsight i probably should've given her flowers as well. Her eyes have changed back to white, but they become black at night like evo. this is probably the closest to her irl appearance that ill draw lmao

legacy smp pearl, i just watched all of her legacy episodes yesterday XD if you look closely, you can see red hearts and a red x on her eyes and mouth. theyre supposed to be correspondent to the 'blood night' and 'cant say name of item' events (the second of which wasnt very well adhered to lmao). Also, post-apocalyptic! I was very happy to make her design as asymmetric as possible. the withering effect plus the post-apocalyptic setting caused the lava-lamp markings to develop. OH YES she also has mechanical wings that resemble moth wings! i couldn't quite fit it into the drawing but they are based off of the optifine elytra, which with the two 0's look a lot like moth wings and pearl noted that herself in the video so yeah that exists. ill draw them sometime! on the base level, her design is pretty similar to hermitcraft pearl because its just an older version of her current skin, so her hair shading is chunkier and more, i guess crystalized like Pearlescentmoo's hair

empires smp pearl! definitely the most different pearl from all the others because i dont see this pearl in like the same timeline or time period as the others. like, evo, a build a day, legacy, hermitcraft and kind of traffic life but thats a bit complicated, those are all designs of the same pearl just at different time periods. empires smp is probably a different pearl entirely, mostly because 'gestures to her empires smp lore' oh yeah she has freckles. because i say so. and i think theyre cute. she has little crescent moon pupils in her eyes

traffic life pearl, or more specifically double life pearl. her skin markings have changed a little to match her deranged self, and also did you know that lightup combat boots exist, because they do, and i love that. Her hair flecks are longer and sharper, and her antenna are supposed to resemble horns. All of her eyes are open at all times. ive played with the idea that the traffic life world like, exists beyond the bounds of time progression in the other series, so maybe the players in the world would be from different eras. also tilly <3

hermitcraft pearl, she gets her wings! her wings are based off of the mimosa pearl moth, very pretty. her hair shading is smoother like the style of her current skin. i also tried to be consistent with this, but her hair is also similar to her eyes in that it kind of changes through day and night. during the day, there are more lighter parts of her hair, and at night there are more darker parts. you can probably see it if you scroll through the more recent doodles. of course, her left shoe is very fancy velcro sketchers courtesy of anon on day 43 both shoes are still untied, you cant stop me

the number one important thing about pearls design /j are her lil hair feathers on the top of her head! because they match with grian's. and i like skysiblings a lot. (on a side note, grians hair is the same shade as pearl's highlights)

yeah i think thats it thanks for reading my rambles :D

[moriiartist]

so heres my idea; scar calls everyone to the escape rocket, and everyone starts getting ready to leave, but reader doesn’t want to go because they don’t want to leave the world they’ve created for themselves? and they have a relationship (platonic or romantic) with grian?

have a nice day/night :)

GOODBYE TO A WORLD

 ۫  ּ   ִֶָ  ࣪✦ PAIRING \ C!Grian x GN!Reader

 ۫  ּ   ִֶָ  ࣪✦ SYNOPSIS \ The world is tearing itself apart, but you can’t bring yourself to abandon everything you’ve worked for just yet. It’s only been a few months since the Season started, and yet you’ve become so attached to your builds. At the same time, Grian isn’t sticking around, even if he has to drag you kicking and screaming with him.

 ۫  ּ   ִֶָ  ࣪✦ WARNINGS \ Blood, implied/referenced self-harm (feather plucking), death mention

 ۫  ּ   ִֶָ  ࣪✦ A/N \ Angst angst angst angst- For real though, I loved this prompt and I think that I might've gone off the deep end with the level of hurty feelings juice in this one. I tried to make the relationship with Grian more ambiguous, so you can read it as romantic or platonic if you like!

When the shock of your situation had finally set in, you didn’t know how to react. I mean, the biggest thing that had ever happened in the server since you’d joined around Season 6 was the two prank wars that Grian had started- all fun, jokey things that didn’t affect the bonds of your fellow Hermits in the long run.

This time, though? This time, you didn’t think that there was going to be any immediate shift to normalcy after the dust had settled.

“Moon’s big!” Grian joked, lips quirking into a half-grin at Mumbo’s expression, a curious mix between reproach and genuine amusement. A few steps behind them, you couldn’t stop yourself from breaking out into giggles as the avian’s wings puffed up with pride, both men turning to look at you with wide grins on their faces.

“It-it sure is,” you’d finally managed to gasp out, wiping a few stray tears of mirth that had escaped your eyes. “I just didn’t expect you to put it so bluntly!”

Mumbo shrugged, his usual Redstone-stained white shirt bunching at the shoulders with the movement. “I mean, I don’t know how else I’d put it. Moon’s big!”

Oh, how you wished that an increase in size had been the end of it.

The ground shuddered once more under your boots, and you flinched to the side as clumps of gravel and sod rained down from the sky, slamming into the ground around your feet. The sky was lit up in vibrant strokes of violet and orange-red, a beautiful sight if you ignored the giant celestial rock that was about to come crashing down on everything that you’d built up these past few months.

You hadn’t realized you had been biting your lips until your teeth broke through the skin, the taste of salt and copper flooding your mouth. Wincing, you gingerly swiped your tongue over the injury, momentarily distracted from the apocalypse around you as, once more, chunks of the ground tore apart and floated heavenwards.

You jerked as you heard your name called, wheeling around to see Scar and the rest of Boatem all standing around the Boatem hole, the escape rocket looming above like a monolith, the last bastion of defense keeping your little band of Hermits from inevitable demise as the giant celestial body above annihilated the remains of the server.

“We’re all gathering over here!” Impulse shouted to you, and you huffed as you twisted to jog over, the thick material of the spacesuit that Scar had made for you bunching and dragging uncomfortably against your skin. The other Boatem members’ getups were very similar to yours, give or take a few changes- color, being the major one.

All six of you wore thick, padded cream and burgundy flight suits, outfitted for the harsh conditions of the void that you were planning to launch yourselves into. The design distinctly made you think of what would happen if the steampunk aesthetic and actual spaceflight technology had a horrible, apocalypse-preventing baby. 

To be fair, Scar had less than a day to work on these, so you couldn’t really be picky, could you?

… It would be nice if they didn’t look like crash test dummies, though.

As you made your way towards the rest of the group, Grian didn’t hesitate in slinging an arm and wing around your shoulders, calloused palms gripping your shoulder with a tenseness that could only come from the urgency of the situation. Despite his otherwise cheerful, if a little bit anxious, expression, you had known the avian long enough to tell that he was shaken to the core. 

It had only been a few days since he had been staying up all night just to measure the breadth of the moon and its growth, and now you couldn’t even begin to imagine the kind of dread that had been slowly building up within him despite how everyone else had brushed the phenomena off.

“Grian?” you murmured softly, pushing the door to the observatory open with nary a squeak- proof of just how quickly the red-wearing builder had constructed it.

Your careful greeting was met with silence, the still air of the room feeling almost oppressive as you crept further in. It was dark, the chamber inside lit only with the light of the celestial body that loomed overhead, creeping closer and closer with every day.

A sudden clattering made you jump, and you found yourself hurrying towards the source of the noise, breath catching. Your worry compounded, sinking like a heavy stone in your gut as you finally laid eyes on what you were searching for- Grian.

The avian’s wings drooped uselessly at his side, his usually pristine feathers ragged and thinner-looking than usual, almost as if he had been plucking them. It appeared as though he had dropped something- a telescope, maybe?- and was frantically checking it for damage, muttering something quietly under his breath that you couldn’t quite make out. 

“Grian?” you called once more. The blonde whipped around, eyes wide and bloodshot as he suddenly realized your presence. He stuttered, obviously caught off-guard, but all you could do was gasp and rush to his side, cupping his face with careful hands.

He looked... awful. You knew that he hadn’t been sleeping all that well recently, what with the whole ‘mooner’ cult that he had decided to take part in, but you hadn’t realized just how bad it had gotten. 

Dark circles were carved thickly into the skin underneath his eyes, looking more like bruises than anything else in the low light. His entire countenance was... dull. It seemed as if the ever-present light that flickered just underneath his skin had all but disappeared, leaving his face grim and grey.

“H-hey! I, uh, I wasn’t expecting for anyone to drop by! Please excuse the mess,” the avian babbled nervously, refusing to meet your concerned gaze as it raked over his features.

“What happened to you?” 

Grian’s jaw shut with an audible click, guilt washing over his expression at the barely concealed panic in your voice. Despite how you were trying to stay calm, your furrowed brow and glossy eyes left nothing up to the imagination in regards to the inner turmoil you were feeling.

“... I’m sorry I was MIA for so long,” he finally murmured after a pregnant pause, his voice much quieter than it had been moments ago. “I just got caught up.”

You sighed heavily, letting your hands drop from his face and come up to rub at the bridge of your nose. “You can’t keep doing this, Gri. You’re going to run yourself ragged.”

“I-I know, but someone has to keep an eye on this thing.”

You couldn’t stop yourself from feeling Grian’s nervousness rub off on yourself, your cautious smile becoming more and more strained the longer the rest of the group kept dragging their feet for. You flinched as, once more, the earth beneath your feet shook with a tooth-rattling tremor.

“So, Scar-Scar, lets- lets get in the rocket, and then you need to explain why the rocket is the way it is,” Grian said decisively, his words heralded with murmurs of assent from the rest of the crew. It was clear that any conversation they may have had before this moment was over, and despite their cheerful faces, the air was crackling with tension.

Everyone was tired of waiting, barely even able to look at the moon looming over the horizon like a baleful white eye. Why was this suddenly so hard for you? Why did you feel guilty as you rocketed up to the ship that Scar had built, awkwardly gliding through the air as the shifts in gravity yanked you every which way?

You awkwardly scooted through the airlock doors, chuckling breathily at Mumbo’s concern that they were open, into the cramped interior of the rocket. It was uncomfortable, to say the least- having to carefully maneuver your way around your friends’ bodies in the tight space, especially once Grian insisted on setting his prized dragon egg down in the corner.

At Scar’s encouragement, everyone clambered down the ladder to where the cockpit was situated. You gritted your teeth as the entire ship vibrated, tightening your grip until you were sure your knuckles were white as you were jostled from side to side.

“Whoa! Turbulence!” Mumbo exclaimed.

You felt nauseous, although you weren’t sure whether it was from the earthquakes or something... different. You shook your head, trying to dispel the heavy feeling threatening to overwhelm you. It was just nerves. Right?

Once everyone’s feet were safely on solid footing, Scar clapped his hands with an air of finality, bringing the group’s attention from where they are curiously studying the landscape below through the tinted windows.

“Welcome aboard the Swaggon rocket. T-this is how we’re getting out of this world, by the way- I-I couldn’t think of any other way. Um, mind you that this rocket is too big to go in the Boatem, so I had to make an alternative plan, hence the spacesuits.”

You blinked. Scar’s words weren’t exactly the most comforting thing, but you realized that you weren’t actually all that concerned about the escape failing. 

In fact, you were more scared of it working. Because if it worked, then you would have to leave. You would have to start all over again, barely a few months into making this world. Before you could do everything that you wanted to do. Before you could live how you had wanted to.

There was no guarantee that you would be able to make it to next season. There was no guarantee that you would survive at all, actually. And- and you wanted to stay. You didn’t want to leave.

You grabbed Grian’s arm, lips parting to tell him of your sudden revelation, but you were cut off by Scar’s continued speech.

“Please stand on the official trap doors.”

Impulse frowned, the expression visible through the yellow-dyed glass of his helmet. “Um, it looks to me like there’s only four? Last I checked there’s six people here.”

“G-Grian! You guys get together over there,” the brunette quickly cut in, stuttering slightly with embarrassment. “And, uh, Mumbo? You and Pearl are probably gonna have to pair up too.”

You blanched. “Grian-”

The avian wasted no time in pushing you onto one of the iron trap doors situated in the corner of the room, the two of you squeezing together so tightly that you were concerned your ribs might bruise under the pressure.

“I don’t think the two of us are gonna fit in here,” he wheezed, oblivious to your distress as you tried to wiggle out of his grasp.

“Grian!” you gasped, wrenching a hand free to push yourself away, stumbling backwards onto the normal floor. “I-I don’t want to leave.”

The reaction was instantaneous. Silence fell upon the room like a blanket, no sound uttered beyond the distant rumbling of the earth as it was ripped apart. The blonde builder’s eyes were wide, lips parted in shock and equal disbelief as he processed your sentence.

“What?” Pearl questioned, eyebrows tugging together. “You want to stay here? Don’t be ridiculous.”

“The world is literally going to end in, like, ten minutes. So, unless you want to die, I would go through with Scar’s plan,” Impulse added, nervously tapping the glass of his helmet with a gloved finger.

You bit your lip as you glanced towards the ground, avoiding Grian’s gaze. “I know, I know- I just... I can’t leave, okay? You guys are perfectly fine to, It’s not like I would try to stop you, but- I have to stay here. I need to.”

The avian finally spoke then, his voice cracking in a way that sent pain sparking through every nerve in your body. “You would- you want to leave us?”

Tears welled in your eyes then, practically scalding as they threatened to spill down your cheeks. “No! No, I- that’s not it at all, okay? I can’t just let go of everything we’ve done here like this, and- this is what I want.”

The shaking was almost omnipresent, know, the tremors growing stronger and stronger while you talked.

Grian’s wings flared, feathers bristling as the avian stared you down with pure hurt in his eyes. “You can’t.”

“I can, and I will,” you shot back, determination in your voice despite the anguish that festered under the skin. “You can’t stop me.”

“Uh, anytime, guys?” Scar cut in, the scarred builder braced nervously in his corner of the room, anxiously glancing at the walls of the rocket as they shook and groaned around you. “The Swaggon rocket isn’t really graded for this kind of stress, and we probably should’ve left a long time ago.”

“Yeah, well, then you should be going,” you said firmly, ignoring the suspicious wetness on your face.

Grian’s face hardened. “We’ll see about that. Scar, punch it.”

When Scar said he had a plan, you expected it to be similar to how normal rockets functioned. Y’know, with the whole launching into the sky bit? Well, that is not what Scar had created.

No- he decided that dropping everyone out into the open air was a great idea.

Every Boatem member standing on top of a trap door shrieked as the floor fell out from under them, spiraling down into the endless abyss of the Boatem hole whilest trying to dodge the thick cloud of flying debris that surged up to meet them.

You only had a second to gape at the spectacle before you too were being dragged forwards, barely managing to keep yourself from falling out of the ship as well. Looking down, it was immediately clear what had caught you- Grian, a determined gleam in his eyes.

You should’ve known that he wouldn’t give up so easily.

“Grian!” you barked, shrieking over the sound of the wind and the other Hermit’s cries of panic and shock. “Let me go! It’s what I want!”

He bared his teeth, a familiar stubbornness that you had come to love settling across his face. “No.”

You could only gasp as you were wrenched from the safe confines of the rocket, bundled up to the avian’s body as he fell down, down, down- towards a place where you could never return from. Away from everything you’d wanted so badly.

You could only break down into sobs as the void swallowed you whole, wrapped in the warmth of Grian’s wings. The coldness of the dark bit at your face, even through the thick suit and helmet you wore, and there was nothing. No birdsong, no sound of the wind, nada.

It was everything that you had grown to hate.

“Why couldn’t you have just let me go?” you croaked miserably through your tears, too emotionally exhausted to pull away from Grian’s grip as the blonde held you firmly against his chest.

“I won’t let you die for what could have been, when there’s so much more to live for.”

[archetypal-archivist]

Grian- Boots for the Rain Gone Cold

Kind of a story idea for Ex-Watcher Grian, 3500+ words. This is what happens when you listen to the song Welly Boots on repeat for a couple hours. The premise is that Grian and the Hermits aren’t quite as nice as they seem, and when Grian has to flee Hermitcraft to keep his friends safe from the Watchers, his friends do some malicious compliance to take care of him while he is away.

------

A story in which the hermits take care of their own, even beyond borders they should not be able to cross.

Take a standard story about Watcher Grian. See him come to Hermitcraft, lost and alone and afraid. He has been through Evo, killed a dragon whilst alone and afraid, was taken against his will, watched his friends Pearlescent Moon and Taurtis die. He knows how to take care of himself, but nothing more than that.

Hermitcraft changes that, for him. Standing outside a portal that is unlike any he had ever seen, even during his time as a watcher, seeing a team of 20+ walk out is terrifying. But they had seen him, looked at each other, then rushed forward to claim him as their own. In the beginning he is left alone until he tentatively reaches out, saving Scar's stuff after he has died. An action unlike him, but he had appreciated their kindness in letting him stay, so he does his best to repay that.

Tit for tat is something he understands from the Watchers, even if this is a kinder variant.

Grian watches as people start to reach out to him, watching him with admiring eyes as he builds his first shops, offering items he's never needed or touched before now. (Conduits are so cool and he'll deny the shiver of excitement that crept up his spine when Xisuma first handed him one to his dying breath.) He watches as they smile and laugh at his antics, rather than come at him and his with sword and shield for his pranks.

He watches. He is good at that. He is significantly less good at returning their kindness, a trouble-maker to his core, intentionally or no. But he tries, and in the eyes of the Hermits, that is all that matters.

Iskall feeds him, sometimes, when he is sick and delirious, screaming at the shadows in the corners. They do not let him starve himself to death. (He learns to hide half stacks of golden carrots in their chests, just enough to replenish their supply, but not enough that they'd notice.)

Mumbo is patient with him when he comes crashing into his base like a wrecking ball, sometimes plowing into the taller hermit's redstone face first in the process. He just helps Grian up, smiling and laughing, helping him brush the red dust away. (Grian learns that Mumbo cannot sleep without noise, too used to the ticking of redstone clocks and firing pistons to sleep in quiet. He learns to fly in on late nights when Mumbo's base is still lit up and talk with his friend, chattering away until Mumbo can find it in himself to turn the lag machines off and fall asleep to the sound of Grian's voice.)

Xisuma watches the world with all the focus and patience that Grian once used when designing stars and bedrock towers. For Xisuma, Grian will watch the world too and ease its updates when he can- one less burden for his admin to carry, taken and handled with silent, secret grace.

Joe reads and reads and reads, spinning tales of his finds to all who stand still long enough for him to pin down for a bit. For Joe, Grian will bring out some of his old high school textbooks for him on the days when the man runs out of books to read.

Zedaph lives in a cave, warm and dry, but without color, the only life being the experiments rattling around in the background. For Zedaph, Grian will sneak in mushrooms and moss, encouraging them to grow in the shadows until the cavern blooms with them.

For the hermits, Grian is kind. For the hermits, Grian will learn.

Then one day it all comes crashing down, perhaps in the face of a bedrock tower springing from nowhere, perhaps in violent, screaming outburst of purple fire, perhaps in the face of a friend he once thought dead. The Watchers had tried their damnest to stamp out his heart and they nearly succeeded, but just as they could not stamp out his free will they also could not stamp out his humanity, and people- regardless of shape or size or color or race or species- are born to love and be loved.

Grian loves his Hermits. To protect them, he must leave. And so he does, quietly and in the dead of night, the faint echoes of screams ringing in his ears. If he has it his way, never again will he hear his hermit's pain, imagined or otherwise. It would be best to just forget.

Grian settles in a rainy little single player server that turns out to not be as single player as he would like. It seems instead to be an abandoned multiplayer server, lost dogs and empty houses abound in the distant corners, and every once in a while a new player stumbles in, running from something, settling in long enough to call the server home. Sometimes, these new players stay. Sometimes, whatever is chasing them catches up and they are forced to leave. Grian refuses to care for these fellow vagabonds, even as he watches from under the eaves of his perfectly constructed rustic house, rain dripping down and obscuring him from their wondering, pained eyes.

Grian has given up on having happy ending, and if the ending the narrative seems to want to give him is a tragedy, then he will seize it with both hands and rewrite it himself. What he does not take into account, however, is that the Hermits don't take kindly to being abandoned.

Grian was once a Watcher, and while watching and mimicking are perhaps some of his better skills, he was still new to the server and as such there is much about his Hermits he never had a chance to discover. Their pasts in large part remained a mystery to him, as he had learned to mimic kindness too well from them to ever pry. (They would have told him, if he had asked. Love was another thing he had learned from them, and if he had been seen and not just watched, he perhaps would have noticed how strongly they cared for him too.)

But yes. Though Grian was perhaps the only one of their number on the run from literal gods, he was not the only one with a tragic back story.

Xisuma, who watched the Hermitcraft server with all the vigilance of a soldier who had watched his fellow troops and their enemies weaponize glitches against each other, to the mass extinction of both. Evil X, who ran from it all, only to end up in a place where nothing violent simply became nothing.

Joe, who read and read and read, devouring knowledge the way he once devoured worlds, eyes flickering white on the nights when hunger panged in his stomach worse than usual. Cleo, who also knew the pain of consumption, from both sides of teeth like knives.

Zedaph, who popped into existence one day, whole and unsullied, with a vast, empty void where his past ought to be, who forgot sometimes that people are supposed to have likes and dislikes and colors and an instinctual obedience towards the laws of gravity. Tango and Impulse, who watched their friend and each other with eagle eyes to keep their trio from slipping back into old, self-destructive habits. (Overwork, overclocking, over-stimulation. All were equally killer.)

Grian, who's first and best skill, even before his building, was causing mischief and creating fun. A welcome distraction from old pains.

They loved him, the Hermits. In whatever flavor they chose, they loved him. They knew his darkness, though perhaps not the exact nature of it, and they knew that he loved them back. And then he left them.

The Hermits were powerful with love and sorrow and determination. Grian thought he could leave them so quickly, uproot himself from their hearts like a ghost in the night? Ha.

As. If.

It begins like this- Grian wakes in his little spruce house in the middle of a mostly abandoned town. The rain is pouring outside as it nearly always is and the rushing of wind through the trees puts him in the mind of his old ship-in-a-bottle base, warm and safe from the wet outside. He wakes up, stretches, thinks of eating. Steps outside and-

a brand new pair of bright red rain boots, almost glowing in the grey mist of early morning. They are in his colors, Grian just knows they would fit him perfectly. A welcome sort of gift, perfect for a world drenched in rain. Perfect for him, gifted with thought, with care. His stomach curdles and he just knows he won't be eating breakfast today either. A curl of a finger and the boots go up in purple flames, the scent of burnt rubber joining the petrichor of the air. He goes back inside. Goes back to sleep. Tries not to dream.

The boots are back the next day, shining red and a little closer to the door to better keep them out of the rain. He burns those too.

The boots keep appearing. Always bright red, always perfectly sized to fit him- squeaky new rubber, perfect for keeping out the rain. In the face of that, red boots like clockwork, is it any wonder that Grian gets tired? His front porch stinks of burnt rubber and there are new planks wherever he had to remove the scorched oak. Perhaps it's the burning that causes a new pair to appear- if there are no boots, a new pair comes to replace them, so perhaps a different method of disposal is in order.

He throws the next pair into the river. A new pair comes back to him the next day, alongside the old ones, dripping with sea grass and mud. Hmm.

(Cleo has friends in the rivers and oceans. It's easy enough to call in a favor or three to get the boots returned.)

Creepers next. A loud hiss and an even louder boom has him flinching back, phantom burns dancing across his fingers, but the boots are naught but ash. Three pairs of boots next time, one of them a dark swirling grey rather than the traditional red, as if mocking their scorched past.

(Doc's work. He's had enough experience with accidentally blowing up his own tools to know how to make a blast protection charm strong enough to keep his clothes and armor safe in the case of an unfortunate accident. The grey starbursts left over the material are just a neat bonus.)

Lava. Concentrated spider venom. Flattened by pistons. Dropped into the void. Left under a lightning rod. Thrown up into a tree. Fed to a guardian.

Each and every time, the boots come back, usually with some change in pattern, color, or marking that signals just what they have been through. All in perfectly usual condition, even the pair he cut in half with an axe.

(Stress had a field day piecing that pair back together, using molten honey and mending enchants to stick the halves together again. She always had loved a challenge.)

Eventually, Grian's front porch is covered in boots in all manner of designs, and fed up with the mess, he sets the whole mess on fire again with his signature purple flame, the only thing sure to reduce the number of boots permanently. He sets his house on fire in the process. Hmmmm.

There's an influx of new people into Grian's world all of a sudden. A pair of twins jump in, bloody, battered, and exhausted, and not a week later a roughed-up blond boy joins, snappish and hurting. All three lack shoes.

Now, Grian very firmly does not want to interact with any of them. He had found true friends among the Hermits and if he can't interact with them, then he certainly doesn't want to interact with a trio of traumatized children- however, he does have a pair of boots to give and dropping them on the children's doorstep requires no interaction at all. The female twin puts them on, marveling at how big the red boots are on her while the other kids stand watch suspiciously. Grian watches this from his front porch, hidden by the mist but eyes glinting purple in the gloom so he can see comfortably. The male twin seems to spot this, shouting and pointing, and Grian goes back inside to avoid the mess.

The next morning, the boots on his doorstep are rainbow-striped and several sizes smaller, perfect for a child's feet. Grian stares down at them, something hurting and tremulous in his heart, but his face remains blank. These boots are placed on the trio's doorstep as well. The male twin wears these, and the last child ends up with a pair of blue and black spotted ones.

(False had had fun with the patterns, feeling a little bit of relief that she could hunt down some rubber in a pattern other than plain red.)

Rumor spreads of a purple-eyed monster in the woods that gave people boots to keep them safe from the rain, although Grian very carefully avoids such stories. The children begin leaving trinkets for their monster in hopes to repay him, and Grian ignores these too until one day, the children somehow manage to get an old red dog collar to give him. Upon spotting this, Grian's heart gives a squeeze as it reminds him of Rendog, and he pockets it to put on his rather empty bookshelf. Other things also get picked up, all things that remind him of the friends he had to leave behind.

An allium, pressed into a book of galactic picked up from a stronghold. A jar of electric blue ink dried into a gelatinous cake. A tiny knight figurine, scuffed and missing an arm. A handful of spicy red jellybeans. Eventually, as time passes on and on and the rain bears down harder on Grian's tiny world, a trio of heartfelt, thankful cards appear on his kitchen table, all three drawn in crayon and filled with cheerful scribbles.

It rains harder, and the world shrinks down to just Grian and the three children who call out into the gloom every morning, grateful for the boots and the glimpses of purple eyes and feathered wings in the dark that tell them that they are not alone. The boots stop coming.

In their place, new things appear.

A toaster. Firewood. New sweaters and combs and soap. Little things designed to make life easier, many of them children-sized or painted in rainbow stripes or blue polka dots or a shade of red just off from Grian's favored color. These too go to the children, and the number of gifts Grian receives increases, many of them built from the material that he gives the trio of children.

(If the Hermits cannot gift things to Grian directly, then they will gift them to people who will transform them into something their wayward friend would accept. They do so with equal parts love and spite, angry to have been rebuffed but unwilling to let Grian feel himself forgotten. The trio of kids end up with a rather odd assortment of things. Tango, for example, is fond of the easy-bake oven he sent them that always burnt the food it made. Grian got nothing but his favorite chocolate chip cookies for a week, all of them scorched.)

In time, Grian does his best to drive the children off, building traps and leaving weapons on their doorstep to scare them. The stories of the monster in the woods increase in number and many more children join the server, encouraged by tales of purple-eyed, winged beast that taught its charges to be wary and gave them tools to defend themselves. Grian's cabin remains hidden in the mist, but many more wooden structures join it in the forest.

New boots appear on his doorstep. They aren't made to fit him.

(His heart aches, but his eyes remain dry. Morning dew condenses on Grian's cheeks.)

It comes to a head like this- no world, no matter how small or safe, is fully protected from the Watchers' gaze, and in the end, they find him. Only now, there are people here that cannot leave, that Grian cannot leave behind.

The children scream for their monster to save them. He rises from the mist, eyes heavy and wings heavier, dragging upon the ground and leaving trails in the brick red mud. They think they are saved. They are wrong.

Chains shoot out from the mist, forcing Grian to his knees as a huge female Watcher, Astrid, stares down at him, mouth turned down into a tiny frown and the rest of her figure still as stone even as she floats in the air, white robes fading into the surrounding fog. The purple emblem on her mask glows like a brand. Grian watches her with purple eyes glowing dim and dull, resigned to his fate but unwilling to flee if it means the deaths of those who do not deserve to serve his sentence in his stead.

He thinks, quietly, that he will die here. He wonders if this- any of this- is worth it. He thinks, yes. Yes it is.

He is wrong.

A figure coalesces before him, clad in yellow armor and arms crossed, the very picture of annoyed defiance. It tilts its head back, hard light construct featureless but practically radiating scorn, and from the mists a voice echoes.

"You are going to leave him alone. He's not for you." Astrid hisses behind her mask, galactic crackling and vile from between her lips, and the sound of wingbeats thrums like a heartbeat through the clearing, bass-heavy and loud in Grian's ears. He winces, closing his eyes as more chains shoot out from the ground to attach to Xisuma's- for what else could it be but his admin projected across time and space (that stupid, crazy, wonderful man)- construct. They coil around it, doing their level best to drag it to the ground, but the figure remains still and hovering before Grian, entirely unmoved.

"No. You will leave him alone." Xisuma's voice again, commanding and stern even from a figure that looks more like a glowing yellow armor stand. "I'll ask that you don't test me, it took a while to put this projection together and it will not dissipate until it fulfills its intended purpose." Astrid merely hisses again, this time with an underlay of static beneath it, and Grian's wings are suddenly pulled back tight and away from his shoulders- all three pairs of them, not merely those he prefers to wear.

The sound of flesh and feathers ripping through one plane and into the next has Grian feeling sick. Wrong, his mind repeats on loop, screaming. Wrong wrong wrong. Xisuma's figure freezes at his pained squeak before unfolding its arms and going carefully still. It tilts its head to the side, considering and cold.

"Is that your game? You do realize that that is death sentence, right? We would never let you survive it." Astrid nods. The chains rise up again, clinking softly as they loop once, twice, three times around Grian's outermost pair of wings, the ones most used to the physical plane and with the most nerve endings besides. The damp air is cold and aching in his lungs.

A rip. A scream. And then everything shrinks down to a flicker of brilliant yellow light, the shrilling of broken violins, and the long, drawn-out death wail of a Watcher unused to pain. A computer crash in slow motion complete with a harsh base note as Astrid's wings fall to join Grian's in the mud.

The world expands again, overwhelming. Agony. Silence.

Chains clink to the floor, broken, as Xisuma's hard light construct comes forward to stand before the Hermits' erstwhile server mate, slumped over in a pool of blood but conscious, something in his purple eyes bent, if not a little broken.

A voice, hoarse, achingly loud in the quiet of the glade. "You didn't stop her."

"No."

"...Is this my punishment then?" A moment of quiet and then the figure stoops down to gather Grian into its arms, its featureless gaze doing little to ease his fear.

Then, gently, ".....No."

Grian slumps, the last bit of tension seeping from his limbs as the pain in his back begins to register, sapping at his will and leeching into his voice.

"I'm sorry, you know. I- I'm sorry. I didn't want to go. It just- it hurts. Hels it hurts, so much. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"I know. I know." Xisuma's figure stands up, hoisting Grian a little higher up against its chest so that hiss remaining wings don't drag on the ground quite as much, then turning to face the cowering children. Eventually, a little girl in bright red rain boots stands up to meet its gaze.

She blinks back tears, scrubbing at her face to hide them, but her expression is brave. "Where are you taking him?"

The figure clutches the children's monster close, looking just as fierce as any dragon in a fairytale. "Home. Will you stop me?"

The girl pauses, considering. "No. Don't think I could, really."

"Will you try?"

"To keep going? Yeah, of fucking course, sure as my name is Clementine. To stop you? Not bloody likely, I like my head right where it is." Xisuma's figure nods, satisfied, and with a blink, it and their monster are gone.

Notes:

[puppetmaster13u]

Hermitcraft as Mob Hybrids

 BdoubleO: Villager (sleeps every night without fail, yet can be very annoying when they want to be)  Biffa: Iron Golem (the man's skin is pretty much iron man. Plus he's normally pretty chill but mess with his and he will mess you up) Cubfan: Vex (I mean this is obvious: Convex) Docm77: Goat-Creeper (The man is the Goat-Father, and he's a cybernetic creeper) EthosLab: Panda (1, the coloring, 2, he lives in the jungle, 3, I just felt like it) False: Wither Skeleton (Name a more annoying thing to get cornered by- plus tall spooky False. Also, who would want to fight her if she could inflict someone with wither?) Scar: Vex (Another obvious Convex) Grian: Chicken (I mean, Poultry Man. Plus most people think chickens aren't able to fly) Hypnotizd: Evoker (His color palette is perfect and it explains why he had trouble with villagers) iJevin: Blue Slime (Very obvious lol. It would be funny if the others had to deal with kid and baby jevins whenever he dies though.) Impulse: Ghast (S6 War: he made a ghast ball launcher. Plus imagine if he could light tnt from a distance by breathing fireballs, or if he could float freely through the air) Iskall85: Phantom (How many times has the dude stayed up mining for days or perched in his big tree) Jessassin: Pillager (You cannot tell me his skin wouldn't match up with it. I also just like the idea that the reason he’s not around is that he accidentally gets summoned to Raids or Patrols) Joe: Fox (Sweet berries, all of the sweet berries- plus in most cultures they're known for their cunning nature) Keralis: Cave Spider (Look into his eyes- only his eyes. Ignore all the limbs he uses to build, please.)

Mumbo: Enderman (Big tall stick of a man. Plus there’s the added bonus of being able to teleport away from troub;e) Python: Hoglin-Creeper (Nether colors, plus tusks, plus the creeper skin. And I just thought it was cool) Ren: Ravager (Dog/wolf was too obvious, and Ravagers are like the illigers' version of a big dog with horns. And I think the idea of the hermits using his mob form to launch themselves is hilarious)  Stress: Witch (She owns the potion shop, and did you see her on Halloween? She was ready for it) TangoTek: Piglin (Most people draw him with horns, why not tusks? Plus with Toon Towers, people could call him Porky the Pig) TFC: Shulker (He always stays in the caves, alone, and likes being undisturbed. Plus the idea of him just sleeping amongst his shulker boxes being the reason no one sees him half the time is amusing) Beef: Fox (The man is literally making Three Fox Hole, plus I thought I had enough Llama Dad AUs) Welsknight: Vindicator (I just like the idea of villagers being afraid of him, and he's just really nice and chivalrous towards them.) Helsknight: Blaze-Vindicator (He was cloned from Wels, with the power used from blaze rods. Plus the image of him raging and shooting off fireballs, only to get a snowball to the face is funny to me) xBCrafted: Glow Squid (The color palette matches up, plus he seems to have an affinity for that in the sea. I mean, just think about how many times he’s had pet guardians) Xisumavoid: Ender Dragon (I mean, he's the admin- and I like the idea of the hermits being his version of a hoard that he protects) Evil Xisuma: Wither (When he destroyed the server, it was with withermen. Plus the visual bonus of him launching wither skulls is amazing.) ZedaphPlays: Husk (1, his baby zombie trap, 2, he lives in/right next to a desert, and 3, I thought he and Cleo could be buddies with the whole Golf thing) Worm Man: Moobloom (Since we associate him with caterpillars and worms, why not flowers? And he can have dainty little hooves to clip clop around in) ZombieCleo: Zombie/Husk/Drowned (I mean, this was obvious. I just figured that depending where she spends her time she can change between the three. But would go back to a normal zombie when she respawns.)

Did I miss anyone? I’ll post designs whenever I get to it.

[give-grian-rights]

HERMITCRAFT 8 LIVEBLOGGING

fifteen hermits worth of liveblogging. i am losing my mind. LONG POST AHEAD.

JOE HILLS (First HC8 Video)

Mumbo did the speech. he forgot everything he was supposed to say <3

Pearl and Gemini were just .in a pit . having stuff thrown onto them

Every Hermit is staying on the same continent !!

FIRST DEATHS VERY QUICKLY, Iron Golems took out Tango and Etho (maybe more?)

Joe seems to be the only one looting the chests

Evil Jevin !!

Evil Xisuma appearance on Jevin’s 60 second video!

Pearl has something planned for an “archeticual wonder” for a resupply area upon death?

Stress, Xisuma and Joe are capturing villagers and starting up a resupply debut.

Bdubs is killed by Cleo and is now OUT FOR BLOOD

First death counts- Etho, Tango, Bdubs, Cleo?

Cleo was killed by Keralis

Joe has now supplied Cleo with weapons and food . She left but not before saying “Time to kill BDubs again!”

Gemini was killed by Bdubs! They both died and are now at spawn.

Pearl was killed by Cleo

Pearl is planning a respawn inn !!

Cleo was killed by Iskall

Cleo was killed by Pearl

False, Stress, and Gemini team up??? AA!!! they brought a delivery of supplies to Joe <3

i wish i knew what was happening on that end .

APPARENTLY XISUMA IS ONTO MAKING THE SECOND VILLAGER BREEDER ALREADY ??

Iskall is the first with Diamonds??

Breathe in that ash !

WAIT IS TANGOS EYES LIKE THAT RN BECAUSE HES TEAMED WITH KERALIS AND BDUBS ???

KERALIS, BDUBS, AND TANGO TRIED TO DO A SHAKEDOWN ON JOE. HE TRIED TO DROP LAVA, GOT HIMSELF ONTO TWO HEARTS BECAUSE HE PLACED IT ON HIMSELF, AND IS NOW SWIMMING OUT INTO THE SWAMP

the big eyed trio are now off to shake down Gemini

Joe fell in Lava in the Nether

Joe Death To Lava Two: Electric Boogaloo

Joe drowned trying to kill a glowsquid

WATCH JOE’S VIDEO OH MY GOD SEAN HILLS RECAP RAP??? MY BELOVED????? i am gonna be streaming this unironically later LIKE OH MY GOD THIS SLAPS. ALSO THE CREDITS AT TEH END IS HILARIOUS

Zedaph Episode Recap

Zed gave us a recap of the continent every Hermit will be living on !!

Wouldn’t recommend Zedaph as the first video for the season, he skips the intro/speech but it’s Zedaph and hes making it fun!! Lots of nice editing :)

~SCIENCE TIME !~

Zedaph.. why is your starter base made out of concrete ?

There are no sheeps whatsoever on his mountain

Hes calling his lab an icecream sandwich..yeah i see it

Zed tried to make a portal underater...f

Scar died to a creeper </3

Zedaphs base is gonna be tracking how long hes there/someones loading the chunk!

XISUMA LIVE BLOGGING

A cool cinema scene of him becoming an axolotl!! <3

NOW I CAN SEE IT, GRIAN WAS THE FIRST DEATH!! Death by Iron Golem!!

XIsuma’s baseplans need over 45 THOUSAND BLOCKS TO BE PLACED

He’s also planning on making a shulkershell farm!!

i’m not gonna lie ! talking axolotl X is horrifying ! thanks !

Day one Villager Breeder... chaos.

Xisuma Derp! looked straight at a buncha wool and said how badly he needed beds and then walked away

THE GIRLS CAME OVER AND CONVINCED HIM HE NEEDS TO MOVE THE DESIGN OVER MY FIVE BLOCKS FOR SWAMP VILLAGERS..

THE GIRLS ARE JUST LAUGHING AT HIM AND HIS VILLAGER TROUBLES

day one and Xisuma has got his axolotl!!

Very pretty starterbase!!

XB’s

..I’m not gonna lie theres not much to say!! He’s very calm :) he says hes going into it without a plan, and htat last season was the only time he had any thought of what he was gonna do.

He made a real nice starter house and thats about it!

Cleo’s

Bdubs: “She ain’t gonna hurt me!! i’m invincible, babey!”

Cleo learnt that BDubs will never hurt her even if she deserves it . I am starting to realize why she kills him

SHE DECIDED SHES GONNA BE A PROPER CHAOS GREMLIN THIS SEASON...

AISDJASID CLEO GOT PAID TO KILL BDUBS?? HDUIAIHSI SCAR WHY

“Alright I found my mission for the season! Murder.”

Cleo, Mumbo, Grian, and Scar are all holed up in a cave together!

..Scar died from a skeleton !

Cleo has now split from Grian and Mumbo! Scar is missing in action

CLEO FOUND A GOAT

SHES KILLING THE GOAT???

she got a HORSE <3 and Joe gave her a saddle! I think her name is..Widget?

She LOVES the candles for shamboo n waterbottles and bits n bobs for her armorstands!!

Got her Armorstand stickgod book <3

Geminitay POV

NEW HERMIT NEW HERMIT NEW HERMIT!!

She has a LOVELY voice!!

The pov of her in a hole . being surrrounded . is kinda hilarious

It might’ve been Etho who was first death?? I GENUIENLY CANNOT TELL BECAUSE OF EDITING

All the murder was just for heads!

Seriously her voice is. wow

WE LOVE A QUEEN WHO KNOWS HOW TO CRAFT A SHIELD WITHOUT USING THE GUIDE <3

False, Gemini, and Stress are on the great journey for MOSS !

Gem just blew their minds with the moss.

TANGO KERALIS AND BDUBS ARE BACK Keralis: “Show the diamonds show the diamonds show the diamonds!” Gem: “Keralis. This is not how you make friends.”

The boys suecessfully recieved a diamond each

Etho n Iskall are travelling together!! You dont see those two together often

Etho got a glowsquid head!!

Gem: “Etho doesn’t share, is what i’m learning..?”

Etho hooked her with a fishing rod and said she has to do what he said .

In order to get the diamonds, Tango, Keralis, and BDubs placed down a sign saying “Gem is Great!” and Gem used a glow inksack on it.

Etho: “So..What is this? Do you have an ego, or this a motivational thing, or..?” He said, while laughing

Iskall: “I think its really funny that you have set your base up in the middle of a birch forest.” Gem: “I love birch forests! Do you not like my birch forest? Iskall: “I love it, yeah.” Gem: “This is the best biome in the game, Iskall.” Iskall: “Mmmm..” Etho: “I’m pretty sure I heard Iskall talking earlier that like, of all the biomes in the game, there was one he hated more than anything. Gem: “Oh really? And what was that one?” Iskall: “..Taiga.” Gem: “Taiga.. That’s true, thats a good one, thats a good one.” Iskall: “Don’t like Taiga.” Gem: “Mhm.” Etho: “Which one do you hate more than anyone?” Iskall: “..Diorite fields. Thats a bad one.” Etho: “Yeah thats a bad one.” Gem: “Didn’t know about that one. Well make sure to avoid’em. Birch forests are really good.” Iskall: “I’m a big fan of birch forests.” Gem: “Yeah, me too, me too. I’m glad we’re on the same page :) This is so beautiful! All the white and- and the like zebra stripes! is fantastic.” Iskall: “I..Um.. Yes.”

OH SHE’S CANADIAN,, ETHO HAS A FRIEND /j

She’s still in college :O SHE’S A SCIENTIST?? SHES WORKING AT A HOSPITAL?? POG!!

She accidentally found an enchanted golden apple in a mineshaft!! she thinks its the first she ever found in survival!!

She has a cow, sheep, and a few crop farms set up!! Her starter house has INTERRIOR!

SHE CHANGED HER SKIN AND ITS SO PRETTY AND HAS OVERALL AND I LOVE IT!!

shes doing a cottage core inspired base!

WOAHH!!! SHE MADE HTE MOST GOREGOUS CUSTOM TREE I’VE EVER SEEN ??

BDUBS IS HERE and he is so so so impressed by the tree ?!

also hes carrying a clock.. :(

He’s here with a present!

HE BROUGHT BAMBOO!

she thinks its so funny that he stops conversations to sleep AOIDHFEAUI\

SCARS

WE GOT A TRANSITION SCENE!! the canonical reason for the bed in his old village always being occupied is because underneath it, was his wizard portal!

Bdubs: “It’s a new season! You’re the little guy now!”

They are all very amused by that ^

they’re rubbing the fleece of bdubs jacket .

Bdubs: “Have a nice rub :)” PLEASEAHSIOJDIUASLDHIASDA

His starter base is gonna be a wagon and he wants the end game to be a bioshock esque skyscraper!

he confused a horse for a player . flashback to iskall thinking mumbo was a mob

PEOPLE THINK MUMBO DOESNT HAVE PANTS ON.... </3

Scar, Mumbo, and Grian.. have NO braincells. at all. THey just placed a crafting table with a boat on top with a bed on top with a boat on top .

this is what BROS FOR LIFE looks like.

BOATEM POLE !

SCAR IS STUCK UNDERGROUND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT IRL AND HAS NO PICKAXE..

AND HE DIED TO A CREEPER .

it seems like Grian, Mumbo, and Scar are working together !!!! HOLY SHIT !!

THERES SO SO SO MANY FARMS???????

he died several times trying to catch a skeleton with a sword

FIRST CHEST MONSTER OF THE SEASON <3

SCAR JSUT TOLD BDUBS HE LOOKS LIKE OSCAR THE CROUCH... BDUBS CANNOT EVEN ARGUE

OH NO.... GRIAN WENT AFK IN A HOLE . WITHOUT A HELMET .

THEY PUT A  GLOWSQUID HEAD ON HIM

OH MY GOD MUMBO MADE A NOTEBLOCK SONG?? AJUDA

SCARS BUILTING IS SO SO SOOS GOREGOUS SERIOUSLY GO WATCH THE VIDEO OH MY GOD ITS HUGE

its a giant ass house boat wagon . its pulled by a llama . that killed him . so now its trapped, pulling hte agon, forever

Grian: “..Thats a very big house, for a very little hat.”

GRIANS SUPER SPECIAL EGG??

SCAR PUNCHED IT..

they really came out here . and killed the egg already.

Scar: “..I touched the thing”

TANGO POV

We see the three big eyed boys forming <3 they interrupted Tangos intro

THEY’RE BULLYING HIM ABOUT HAVING SMALL EYES AHIDUIASUHDWIS

HE TRIED TO CALL THE TRIO TEAM BUG EYE... THE OTHERS ARE VERY OFFENDED

they found an axolotl and Bdubs was TERRIFIED just screaming “WHAT IS THAT YELLOW THING?!”

BDUBS IS ATTACKING IT ???

okay nope Bdubs caught one and Tango lost it

Bdubs is naming his axolotl Idiot

AMAZING HOUSE. WHY IS TANGO SO GOOD AT BUILDING AND REDSTONE??

Impulse POV

MUMBO TRIED TO PLACE DOWN A BERRY BUSH TO HURT IMPULSE . HE FORGOT HOW BUSHES WORK..

I DIDNT EVEN NOTICE THAT IMPULSE WAS IN THE BOATEM POLE

so it looks like those four are hteo nes who grouped up together

PEARL BROKE THE CONSTITUION SHE GOT IN THE WRONG BOAT SMH

THIS IS SEASON EIGHT! FIVE BROS !

So its gonna be about five people in the same area!!

YOO!! Fantasy build for Impulse!!

G gave Impulse a spyglass, they had a fun moment of zooming in on eachothers face and complimenting eachother IHAUDIHAW

Grian and Impulse worked on an xp farm!

ASHDUIWAHISD GRIAN JUST LOGGED ON INFRONT OF HIM

a pillager stole his boat . not just any pillager . the one with a banner. </3

he has to live with Mumbo tuning a song .. </3 haha

Mumbo POV

it took fifteen seconds until Grian ran in during Mumbos intro

CONFIRMED? GRIAN WAS FIRST DEATH?

SECOND PERSON TO THINK MUMBOS PANTS ARE SKIN COLOR. GRIAN..

Grian: “Can you..Briefly explain why you’re just wearing a hawaiian shirt?” Mumbo: “Uh- what do you mean ‘just wearing a hawaiin shirt? I have shorts on as-well, dude”

FOLLOWED BY

Mumbo: “Can you explain why you’re wearing a red jumper?” Grian: “You know- you know i was born with this!”

MUMBO AND GRIAN STOLE THE BOAT LOOT FROM RENDOC

I THINK RENDOC JUST STOLE THE DIAMOND MUMBO THREW??

Grian: “Is that Scar?” Mumbo: “I can’t see past your giant waffle!”

DSFSDFJIOA they did an edit where they placed down a boat, both Mumbo and Grian got in, they made noises and then bopped up on top of the ravine they were in <3

THEY HAVE NO BRAINCELL THEY JUST PLACED DOWN A BENCH AND SAID “THIS IS THE MARK OF OUR VILLAGE!” and then placed a torch and a boat and a bed and aANOTHER BED..

..Mumbo is trying to be a pacifist this season!

Grian’s taunting him with beheaded things

And obviously part of being pacifist means he’s gonna be vegetarian in minecraft!

..he cannot use monster farms because pacifisim..

Mumbo was in the middle of reading the magical Timmy shack that Tango made (did i remember to mention that? who knows) and IN THE MIDDLE OF GETTING TO THE PART ABOUT IF YOU REMOVE STUFF FROM THE CHEST, NOTHING WILL BE ADDED IN IT AGAIN. Grian opened the chest . Mumbo SHOUTED HIAUDHUW Grian jumped man

They renamed it “Cave of Do Not Enter” HIAUEDUH

Mumbo and Scar BOTH did not know- at least Mumbo didn’t, Scar forgot,  that podzol spawns from two-by-two spruce..

him and his guitar song to be played underneath his house.. it goes with the aesthetic i suppose

MAN HE NEEDS SO MUCH HAYBALES I FORGOT THATS NEEDED FOR THE TUNE HE WANTS

Mumbo: “What.. On Earth.. Scar, it’s meant to be a starterbase, buddy! What is this? This is many things, many many things, a starterbase is NOT one of them!”

HE LITERALLY DIDNT KNOW THAT THE DRAGON EGG TELEPORTS... WHEN YOU TOUCH IT...

BDUBS

nothing special we havent seen yet!! just him screaming about axolotls.

He was working in the Mesa in his intro, skipping the “speech” from Mumbo

He released Idiot the Axolotl and lost it .

Him SCREAMING “Gemini” is HILARIOUS

While Gemini gave away those three diamonds, Keralis got so excited he won a bet with Tango and Bdubs, that he gave back . two of the diamonds . and none of htem released until well after they left

Bdubs: “That’s why i have my mwoss skin!” PLEASE I LOVE THE WAY HE SAYS IT.. make the moss hood.. REAL..

it took me a while to figure out what his base is but i LOVE IT so so much!!!

Nothing much new to add !!

Stress pov

please i love her . very good !! False seems to have joined her sheerly because Stress sounded like she knew what she was doing. she does not.

False felt peerpressured and asked Stress for permission to fight her because everyone was killing eachother .

It ended up with Stress following False. they found a village!

ISKALL only saw him one other time today!!

JEVIN APPEARS AGAIN !

XISUMA FELL INTO HTE BREEDER AND IT WAS SO FUNN IUAHHYIAUSD

Ren: “Ya look goregous, Stress!” Stress: “Thanks! Don’t murder my dog!”

She’s so proud of herself for caving!! (with False n Gem

Iskall blew up!

..Iskall fell from a high place

Stress has a LOVELY ravine base!!

False

False wants to become pirates with Stress <3

gatekeep gaslight girlboss

BIG OL MUSHROOM HOUSE !!

it looks like a mushroom church and i LOVE IT.

Nothing new we didn’t see from Gem. She does want to come up with a banner design for her base, though!

Grian

..Mumbo just thought Grian had a purpose so decided to follow him <3

ALSO HIS INTRO, AS HE JOKED ABOUT IN THE OTHERS VIDEO, WAS, IN FACT, THE BOATEM POLE

Grian is SO PROUD of the fact taht they got good loot from a treasure map. Ren and Doc are NOT IMPRESSED

Grian: “Lets go, potato boy!”

Mumbo: “I don’t have to replace everything I break! Peace Love and Plants- are these plants..?” He says, mining amethyst

pants

he who controls the egg, controls the server... Grian.. you’re doing great sir

...He decided.. his goal.. is to make his OWN..caves and cliffs update... HELLO..?

Grian was the first one to kill the enderdragon, MAN. Speedrunning career WHEN? /j

Grian: “And now [Mumbo] is flexing on my bed!”

he might not have a base. but he has an egg.

It is now 2am. i cannot do this anymore. This will be continued.. tomorrow!

[12u3ie]

Furious Cocktail AU Masterpost

This is an AU created by the Hermitcraft Headcanons Discord, so a big thanks to them!

At its most basic, Furious Cocktail is an AU where the Hermits drink a specific potion mix, die, and then can get powers. The potion combo is random and different for each player. The powers are based off of how they die, with a bit of the potions' effects added in. If a Hermit dies a second time with a correct potion combo, their code will be locked (in terms of powers) and will not be able to get any more powers.

(Hermits and powers under the cut)

Powered Hermits so far:

(These are not necessarily listed in the order they got their powers)

Zedaph

Was the first hermit to realize he had powers

Died in the Void (death was intentional, powers were an accident)

Feel asleep for three days, waking up to a very concerned Impulse and Tango

A couple days later, he realized he had powers

Powers

Telekinesis

Power draining

Locked powers are immune to this

Can blind other players

Teleporting things in and out of the Void

A bit of Void resistance

Eyes glow black when powers are in use

Tango

Zed told him about the powers

Died to a witch (accident)

Like most other hermits, he was a bit tired but didn’t really notice

Powers

Can inflict small amounts of potion effects through his hands

This extends to tipped arrows as well

Can temporarily enchant items  

Eyes glow like an enchanted item when powers are in use

Can eat blaze rods (not extremely relevant, but interesting to note)

Impulse

Finds out about the powers by accident, through Zed

By this point, Team ZIT have figured out how to get powers on purpose

Died to a shulker (on purpose)

Powers

More inventory (does not disappear on death)

Levitation

Shield he can bring up, but cannot move once brought up

Teleportation (not easily controlled)

Sparkles like shulker bullets/end rods when powers are in use

Etho

Learned about the powers through Tango

Died by fireworks (on purpose)

Powers

Throwing colorful explosions (ranged attack)

Flying without elytra

Blast resistance

Explode blocks (takes a lot of energy)

Firework particles when powers are in use

Ended up locking his code trying to get more powers

Doc

Learned about the powers through Etho

Died to a lightning bolt (on purpose)

Powers

Lightning (smaller shocks or larger bolts)

Weather prediction and lightning directing

Glows like a charged creeper when powers are in use

Grian

Didn’t know about the powers beforehand, but saw Impulse experimenting with potions and decided to drink one

He later goes to Impulse, who explains

Died by kinetic energy (accident)

Powers

Flight boost/agility

Resistance (at least to kinetic energy/fall damage)

Pushing kinetic energy outwards (super jump, ravager-esque knockback)

Super/increased speed

Little feather particles when his powers are in use

Cub

At a certain point, most of the server knows about the potion powers

Tries to die by Elder Guardian, but ends up drowning (accident)

Powers

Waterbending

Water breathing

Moves faster underwater

Bubble particles when powers are in use

Bdubs

Died by [Intentional Game Design] (on purpose)

Powers

Control of the day-night cycle (not changing the rate at which time passes; just skipping to day/night)

Can explode without killing himself

Eyes glow like an explosion, fiery red and orange, when powers are in use

TinFoilChef

Died by gravel (accident)

Powers

Stone manipulation (includes stone variants; basically an earthbender)

Block burrowing

Gravelly/floating block particles when powers are in use

Joe Hills

Tries to get powers from Cleo, but ends up dying to the diamond sword (deaths via players don’t give powers) (accident)

Powers

Controlling diamonds (summoning from the ground, manipulating diamond items like armor)

Enchantments that were on the sword (fire aspect, sharpness, looting (basically luck), mending)

Cold blue glow, like a cross between diamonds and enchantments, when powers are in use

Stress

Died by berry bushes (on purpose)

Powers

Plant growth/control

Can tame foxes

Particles like leaves/petals when powers are in use

Jellie

Not technically a player herself, she got powers via Etho’s experimenting

Before the events of this AU, Scar begged Xisuma to give Jellie semi-player status. He eventually did

Died to an enderman (on purpose?)

Powers

Teleporting wherever she likes

Can pick up blocks (levitation-like)

Can make enderman noises

Enderman particles and purple glowing eyes when powers are in use

Xisuma

Did not want powers at all, thinking they were far too dangerous

Powers permanently mess with the player’s code, and X wants none of that

Does get powers though, via an Evil Xisuma “prank”

When Xisuma realized he has powers, he has a bit of a crisis

Died from the Ender Dragon (technically on purpose)

Powers

Dragon’s breath

Haste/instamine

Levitation/flight

Regeneration by end crystals

Immunity to most enchants/effects (minus sharpness and power)

Purple eyes, that glow when his power is in use

(Almost) never uses his powers, even when beneficial

Scar

Technically the first hermit to get powers, but mistook them for wizard abilities

Only realizes once many other hermits have powers that he does too

Died by kinetic energy, flying into an enchanting table (accident)

Powers

Flight (not as strong as Grian’s ability)

Permanently enchanting items (as opposed to Tango’s temporary enchants)

Galactic particles (like an enchantment table) when powers are in use

Wels

Returns to the server, learning about the powers from Xisuma

Tries to get powers, then stops, thinking that he dodged a bullet

He did actually get powers though, getting them by a slime (technically on purpose)

He freaks out the first time he uses his powers, and like Xisuma, has a bit of a crisis about it

Powers

Splitting/cloning (maximum of four total Welses)

More strength during full moons

Reduced fall damage

Increased jump height

Body glows green when splitting

Hels

Died by a magma cube (on purpose)

Powers

Splitting/cloning (maximum of four total Helses)

Reduced fall damage

Increased jump height

Body glows red when splitting

Evil Xisuma

Before giving Xisuma powers, gives himself powers

Died by the Wither (on purpose)

Powers

Withering touch

Flight

Shoots wither skulls from his hands

Black particles when powers are in use

Vintage Beef

Died by a llama (on purpose)

Powers

More inventory (does disappear on death)

Speed boost

Carpet makes his armor fancy

Particles like llama spit when powers are in use

Keralis

Tries to get powers at random, drinking potion combos and seeing what kills him

Dies by a pillager (on purpose accident?)

Powers

Illagers don’t attack him (semi-applies to witches)

Can summon a banner of his face

Perfect aim, but only with crossbows

Can locate woodland mansions and pillager outposts

Can ride ravagers

---

This is the hermits who have powers so far in this AU. This list may and likely will be expanded over time, as more hermits get powers.

There are also quite a few stories about this AU. This masterpost is just the general concept and current powered hermits, and does not go into the specifics of certain situations. The stories (that are on Ao3) can be found here.

The timeline itself can be a bit complicated, so another post/reblog of this post may be made of it at some point.

Any questions about this AU can be answered by me or @mleemwyvern 

[votederpycausemufins]

I give you the final chapter of Summoning Family. It’s been a fun story, and while I have more ideas for it, there are other things I want to write. I mean, i got 114,984 words out of this thing! (so says ao3) I hope you enjoy, and read to the very end for something extra.

@petrichormeraki @helleborusangel

Grian smacked his alarm as it started to ring, making it shut up. He had been up late the night before getting everything ready. About a minute later, the alarm went off again and Grian groaned before shutting it off. The third time he sat up angrily and stared the clock down as he turned the alarm off. Why had past him set such an early alarm? They had done everything yesterday. Except get the cake. And decorate. And- okay they still had a lot to do.

Grian dragged himself out of bed and poured a bucket of water over his head to wake himself up. He then regretted that as he needed to dry his wings afterwards, but then he flew over to Mumbo’s base and barged into his bedroom. 

“WAKE UP SLEEPYHEAD!” Grian shouted at the top of his lungs to wake Mumbo up, but was surprised when nothing happened. “Mumbo!” Grian then stomped over to the bed, only to find it empty. Confused, the avian started looking through the base, eventually finding the redstoner feeding it. “What are you already doing awake?”

Mumbo jumped a little before looking over. “I could ask you the same thing. At least for me I rigged up some redstone to make sure I got up at the right time. I’ve already gathered up some supplies and in making sure I’ve got everything ready, I actually remembered to feed this place.”

“Good for you. Do you need me to get anything else? I was going to pick up the cake. Do you think Tommy remembered the message on top when ordering it. Oh no, what if he didn’t and it doesn’t-”

“Calm down Grian. I’m barely keeping myself together as it is. If it doesn’t work out, I’m sure store bought will be fine as an emergency.”

“But this is his first birthday! And it wouldn’t be fair if he got a standard one while Jrum would get a fancy cake!”

“Grian, they can’t even eat cake.”

“You’re right! Why did I even bother wanting to get them a cake?!”

“For the guests who can eat cake.” Mumbo quickly answered before continuing. “Although there is the possibility of a mineral cake. If I get some lava I could theoretically- hang on.” And he put down a shulker box and started going through it. “Of course a diamond on top since it will probably just be a cupcake or something, though we don’t want to leave Jrum out. And I think I’ve still got a chisel in my ender chest.”

“Well, It looks like you’ve got something to do.” Grian responded, feeling much calmer now that it looked like they had a good plan in place. “So even if this cake doesn’t work out, we’ll still have something good. But I’m still going to see if I can pick up the one we ordered so I’m going to run and grab that.” Mumbo half nodded, giving a slight wave, too busy planning on a mineral cake for Grum. 

Grian chuckled before making a portal and heading to the SMP. When he got to the other side, he pulled out a piece of paper. “Okay. Coordinates, coordinates… Ah, okay so the bakery is that way.” He turned in the direction of the coordinates and for a moment considered flying, but he remembered how close everything was and if he flew, he would probably pass it quickly.

It didn’t take long to actually reach the building, though Grian still double checked, even with the various signs of it being a bakery. Finally, he walked inside and went up to the counter, a bell ringing overhead as he opened the door. “I’ll be with you in a minute.” A voice from further in the building called and Grian just waited.

After about a minute and a half, a woman walked out and greeted Grian. “Hello there. Hoping to buy something or order?”

“Neither actually, I’m picking up an order. It should be under the name Tommy Innit but I’m the one picking it up.”

“Ah, yes! Tommy’s cake! I made sure to take special care of it!” The woman smiled and Grian narrowed his eyes slightly as it was a smile he was very familiar with, having used it plenty himself.

“Right, well did he remember to ask for a message to be written on top?” Grian asked, the woman shaking her head. “Right, I was worried about that. I hope it won’t be too much of a hassle to add that. I can pay extra if need be.”

“Hmm, yeah I can do that. What’s the message?”

“Well it’s… Here let me write it down just to be sure, I don’t want it wrong on such a special day.” The avian said before pulling a pen out and writing on his paper.

“Special… day?” The woman asked and Grian could hear the nervousness in her voice.

“Oh yes.” Grian couldn’t help but give a slight sly smile of his own. It looked like he’d have to get a store bought cake after all, but he wanted to see how this would go as he put the paper down. “It’s my kid’s first birthday. He’s… sort of adopted so while he’s not an infant, it’s still the first birthday he’s gotten to have so I’m making sure it’s perfect. So a simple 

Happy Birthday Grum’ will do.”

The woman stared at the piece of paper like it had just shown up and killed her family as she watched. “Right… birthday party for a child. Hmm. I think I got the design a bit wrong. Let me get you a second one. I can always comp the other person for the delay.” And she went into the back again, leaving Grian smiling. This was probably another person who had it out for Tommy, so messing with her was proving to be fun.

Listening carefully, he could pick up the woman panickedly whispering to someone else. “Jack we fucked up, Tommy’s not eating the cake, he ordered it for someone else!”

“What? Who? Ranboo or Tubbo?”

“No! I don’t even know the person out there but apparently the cake is for the birthday of a previously orphaned child!”

“Oh shit!”

“Yeah! So now we need to find a way to quickly make a non-poisoned cake before this guy gets suspicious.”

“You passed that point a while ago.” Grian called out into the shop. “I’ve done my fair share of schemes and recognize a scheming smile when I see it.”

Grian couldn’t help but smile as there was complete silence before the woman slowly came back out of the shop. “Right, so I guess, I don’t really have a cake for you.”

“No it’s fine. You said it’s poisoned? Did you use poison as a substitute for milk?”

“Well…”

“So you put both in there. That’s going to make this much easier. It always depends on the person, but milk normally stops any poisons, so a cake like that will just make someone sick for a bit but not actually poison them. Maybe just cause some nausea. It’s an easy enough fix!”

“You’ve… poisoned cakes before?” The woman asked.

“I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of… but poison cakes are not one of them, that was hilarious. Just not when it’s people I care about, which is why I even know how to fix it. Essentially we just need some milk and some netherwart. I’m guessing you have that somewhere?”

“Uh, let me check.” She turned to yell behind her. “Jack do we have any netherwart?!”

“No, but I can grab some!”

“Hurry up!”

“Yeah I know!”

The woman turned back to Grian. “So… it might take a little bit.”

Grian just leaned on the counter. “Oh I’ve got time since I don’t need to pick up a new cake. How about you start with that message and we can talk. What’s your name?”

“Uh, Niki.” The woman nervously answered as she grabbed the poisoned cake.

“Well Niki, seems like you didn’t like my brother much. I’d like to know why that is if you don’t mind.”

.

.

.

“Alright team, let’s get this place built.” Scar said as he rubbed his hands together. “We’ve technically only got fifteen minutes, so let’s make it count. Plus I managed to get a good sale out of thi-”

“Can we just start building already man?” Ren spoke up, and Scar jokingly glared.

“Oh alright. Start building!” And Scar used some vex magic to set up a little bit of localized time displacement for some super fast build mode. Though he wanted to help out as well, someone needed to stop the spell if any certain robots wandered over. And of course the only one currently around to do that was Scar, so he had to stay outside of it. Having never actually been on the outside of the spell, he got distracted for a bit watching everything happen, which was perfectly fine. Neither of the bots made their way to Aqua Town, and even if they had, Jellie was keeping an eye on things.

As things were still being built, Mumbo arrived and set down shulker boxes. “Sorry I’m late. I was up early of course, and so was Grian, but we got talking and realized there was something we forgot, so then I got busy doing that.”

“Well don’t worry about that Mumbolio, the place isn’t completely built yet, so decorating is still yet to come. The kids are still with Tommy?”

“As far as I’m aware, yes. Hopefully if they’re awake, they’re not causing too much trouble. Do you think they’re upset about not being with us for breakfast?”

Scar thought it over. “Maybe they’re a little disappointed, but I’m sure they’re happy about knowing that you’re setting something up for Grum, even if they don’t know exactly what it is.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“Yeah! Though could you also check with Tommy? I want to make sure I probably don’t have to worry about stopping the bubble and possibly also put up something for cloaking.”

“Right! Yes let me do that.” And Mumbo fumbled just a little bit before getting his comm to message Tommy. He sent a message off and waited for a bit for Tommy to respond. When one didn’t immediately come in, he got a bit nervous, but a few more minutes calmed him. “Well, they’re either still asleep or busy, so that’s probably good.”

“Good to know! Unless something changes in the next, I want to say five or so minutes, we should be good.” Scar responded, Jellie giving and approving meow as she groomed herself at Scar’s side.

“Well then I’ll keep watching for a message.”

“Got it. So, what did you get for decorations?” Scar asked, peeking into a shulker box.

“Well, his favorite colors are red and light blue, so there’s a lot of streamers and balloons and what not in those colors. Also got it in a music theme since I wasn’t sure how to make a party theme out of building.”

“Oh, that sounds nice. And got any plans for Grum?”

“Fantasy themed since he’s always going out to your village to play plus he seems to really like stories with that theme.”

“Alright, I’ll start drawing up plans for that tonight.”

“That sounds alright. Grian already sent an order in to The Boomers so this plot can be cleared again.”

“Nah, it’s fine. Keep it up. Better to keep the history around.I can sell another plot of land for the next party.”

“Well that’s very kind of you.” Mumbo started. “But again, it’s already been paid for. Though I’m sure they would be willing to listen to the change of plans.”

“Well, I normally wouldn’t suggest it, but you might buy a plot of land from Bdubs and get it cheap but using what would have gone to The Boomers.”

“Hmm, I’ll discuss that with Grian when he gets back.” Mumbo glanced down at his communicator. “Ah, they’re awake now. Tommy gave them the old reliable of a bowl or redstone though Grum got his with quartz.”

“Oh yeah, we’ll definitely finish building before they show up.”

“Then I’ll start prepping the decorations.”

.

.

.

Grian waved to Niki and Jack beforing picking up the cake box. “Thanks for the cake! And if you want to try killing Tommy again, you’ll need to try something sneakier to get past me!” Grian smiled at the pair, who gave nervous ones back. As he left, they retreated further into the bakery. To do what, Grian didn’t care since he had other things to pick up. Or rather, he had people to pick up.

Grian flew up into the air and looked around before spotting a snowy town to the north. That was probably Snowchester, which was where he was trying to go anyway. From there, flying to the town was easy, but actually knowing which house to go to was a bit more difficult. He didn’t immediately see any signs saying who lived where, so Grian’s first idea was to just knock on every door. That is, until he saw a certain ziglin looking out the window of one of the houses.

When the child saw him, he immediately started bouncing and ran off further into the house. Grian walked over to the house and knocked on the door, waiting as he heard movement inside. A few moments later, the door opened. Ranboo stood there, Michael now clinging to his leg and looking up at Grian. “Hey! I’m here to start picking people up and to be honest, this is the only place I knew to find people right now.”

“Well, I sort of know where some people are, but I can check if Tubbo is awake enough to help out with that.”

“Sounds good to me.” Grian agreed, then followed Ranboo into the house. As he waited for Ranboo to get Tubbo, the avian watched as Michael showed off some of his toys. Grian smiled and set the cake down to look at what was being shared with him. He was especially happy at the plush chicken, parroting a few clucks which made Michael squeal in delight.

Before long, Ranboo returned with Tubbo, who still looked a little tired, but was still awake and dressed. “Hey, sorry. Guess I slept in a bit.”

“No, it’s perfectly fine. I nearly did the same after being so busy the other day. We’re not supposed to start until a bit after lunch, so I’m early anyway, but Tommy’s back home and I only really knew about this place since Grum remembered it. No clue where everyone else lives.”

“Well, who all are you after again?”

“Fundy, Puffy, Wilbur, Techno and my dad.” Grian answered. “To be honest, just messaging them all would probably work if you could do that. My comm is a mess right now.”

“What happened to it?”

“I have never. Ever. In my life. Hated a chicken like the one I apparently own now.”

Tubbo and Ranboo glanced at each other. “Do we want to know.”

Grian sighed. “Probably not. It’s a long story. All I know is it messed with some ribbons, and when I tried to stop it, it broke my comm.”

“Well, I’ll message Fundy and Puffy. Ranboo, can you message Phil? I’m sure he’ll be near Techno or Wilbur, so that should get two birds with one stone.”

“Um, I’m the only other avian, thank you very much.” Grian said jokingly before he laughed. “But yeah, that sounds good to me.”

Tubbo nodded and sent some messages, Ranboo doing the same. Before long, they had responses from everyone and the only person who needed to be picked up was Techno, who was still living out in the middle of nowhere. Grian begrudgingly picked him up, dropping him on the landing absolutely completely on accident.

“Alright, I’ve got the cake, I’ve got all of you, you guys got presents or cards if you wanted to bring them?” Grian asked, looking at everyone, glaring at Techno to try and will him to not say he forgot something. Fortunately, Ranboo was the only one to have forgotten anything, and even then, Tubbo had remembered it for him. “Okay, good.”

Grian opened up a portal and gestured to it. “Alright, this should take you right in front of town hall, I’ll be the last through and lead you once I’m on the other side with you. Got it? Good! Let’s go.”

One by one, everyone made their way through the portal, the one exception being Ranboo and Michael who went through at the same time. Grian double checked everyone successfully got through before picking up the cake and- jumping as a chicken showed up, poking its head through the portal. 

“Oh come on. Go back through!” Grian tried shooing the chicken with a foot, his hands full with the cake. Instead of listening, it just hissed at him, coming all the way through and pecking at his feet. “Ow! Hey! If you don’t go through, I’m going to close the portal behind me and leave you stuck here!”

The chicken hissed again before jumping back through the portal, Grian following behind. He handed the cake off before closing the portal and taking it back. 

“So, I’m guessing that’s the chicken you talked about before?” Tubbo piped up, making Grian nod.

“Yep. Now let’s just head to the building. Follow me.” And Grian started walking, doing his best to dodge the chicken that kept following him and almost tripping him. “Please, how did you even get here from the mansion?”

The chicken of course didn’t answer, but it did move closer to where Michael was, the child enamored by the bird, especially as it currently donned a shiny ribbon around its neck. Michael wriggled to be put down, but after Grian’s reaction to the chicken, Ranboo was hesitant to let the ziglin leave his arms.

It fortunately didn’t take too long to reach the newly built building, a number of hermits on scaffolding around the place hanging up decorations. “Wait, what are you all doing? This wasn’t part of the plan.”

Etho slid down a bit of scaffolding to get down to Grian. “Yeah, well it’s a special occasion. At least it’s not another war right? But where are we putting the presents? I’ve got mine ready.”

Grian just sighed as Etho held up ribbons floating in the shape of a box. “I thought I paid for that.”

“Yeah, you did. But the kids didn’t.” Etho said, and Grian could hear the smirk from behind the mask.

“Alright fine, but there better not be any walls around.” Grian rolled his eyes and started walking towards the door.

“Wait actually there’s-” And Grian crashed into a wall of glass in front of the entrance. Etho grabbed the cake away just in time that it didn’t get destroyed, and Grian just laid on the ground.

“There’s a wall.”

“Yeah there’s a wall.”

“I hate glass sometimes.”

No one was able to stop Phil before he did the same thing as Grian and walked face first into the wall of glass he couldn’t see.

.

.

.

“Ace of spades.” Jrum said as he set down the card. To his left, Tommy smiled and put down a card of his own.

“As if that would work.” He set down an uno card. “Plus four.”

“Hey! That’s not fair!”

Tommy shrugged. “Too bad, I had it in my hand.”

“Yeah, I think it’s a great choice.” Grum nodded. “Jolteon, I choose you.”

At the same time Tommy and Jrum groaned at the card. “What the fuck Grum, I thought you were out of evolution cards!”

“Because you always forget there are branch ones.” Grum said smugly. “So that makes it your turn Jrum.”

“Okay fine! I’ve got garudamon. That’s a third stage card which stops your jolteon.”

“No it doesn’t, you used queen of hearts to get Philomena in there, so it only counts as a stage two.”

“Dammit! I forgot!” Jrum groaned, but then gestured to Tommy to take his turn.

“I play vertical half fire, half gold!”

“You added a seven dragons card to your deck?!” Jrum stomped his foot. “Where did you even get one?”

“Someone on the SMP had it for some reason. Cost a whole diamond for it.”

“Yeah, because you suck at bluffing.” Grum spoke up as he stared at his hand of cards.

“I do not!” Tommy retorted, crossing his arms.

“Yes you do. Mini outrage crowbar.” Grum put down a card which would normally be about the fourth the size of normal cards, but all of the cards were in sleeves so their backs couldn’t be seen, making it a level playing field.

“Ugh, I guess I’m down a point.” Tommy rested his head in his hand. “Fine, what do you have Jrum?”

“Battle!” He slapped down a very generic looking card. “Rock paper scissors!” Tommy threw rock while both the bots did paper. “Aww, no one did scissors!”

“Oh thank fuck. I need to draw anyway.” And instead of playing a card, he drew two instead.

“Well then that means I can play Legacy. The Revere ring means I won’t lose points the next time someone tries to take them!”

“Then I get to win!” Jrum smiled, making Grum and Tommy both look at him in shock. “I’ve got the two and a half of hearts! Steal double points if they would be protected!”

“Noooooo!” Grum groaned. “My points!”

From there, everyone dissolved into laughter and then put their cards away. “Alright, well I guess while we were playing your dad messaged me. Sounds like it’s birthday time.”

From there, Grum and Jrum stopped smiling to look at each other for a moment. “Are you sure? I mean, technically it’s my birthday, but at the same time, it’s also past then.”

“Because of the whole time thing? I mean, I guess, but did you guys actually celebrate or anything?” Tommy asked, the bots shaking their heads. “Then yeah, it’s your birthday. Don’t fight it. Even if you want to argue, pretend you don’t because you’re just going to get free shit out of it.”

“Hmm… I do like free shit.” Grum nodded. “Alright, I’m in. Let’s go.”

Tommy smiled at how he had rubbed off on the bot before leading them towards Aquoo town. Before they even landed, they spotted the new building and headed straight there, landing in front of it. Jrum and Tommy were both excited, but Grum still looked a bit nervous about it all. “What if something happens?”

Tommy turned around and went back to Grum’s side. “Hey, nothing bad’s gonna happen. Everyone’s in one place, only death that might happen is from minigames, but I think everyone made sure to not make those. I mean, there’s even a regen beacon set up just in case. Iskall and Stress said they’re going to try and stay away just to be safe, so they’ve probably already dropped off presents.”

“Why? I messed up with making it so they couldn’t come.”

“Hey Grum, remember my beach party? How I was freaking out thinking people wouldn’t show up like with my first one?”

“Yeah.” Grum nodded.

“And how I had no reason to be? This is kinda like this. There’s no reason to freak out, it’s safe and everyone’s trying to make you happy. And it’s not like you’re the only one getting this treatment, or are you forgetting my birthday.”

Both of the bots giggled at their memories of that. “Okay, I guess you’re right.”

“Does this mean we can go inside now? I wanna sca- I mean, see who’s here!” Jrum said, bouncing a bit.

“Yeah, let’s go in.”

.

.

.

The party was extremely eventful. A number of minigames kept everyone occupied and everyone was sharing stories. A few motes of interest came up during the stories, such as the wars Hermitcraft had had as well as the fact that L’Manberg started because of a drug van more or less.

When it came time for cake, the one Niki had made was presented for the whole singing of happy birthday. They had a little trouble as Jellie decided she wanted to try and eat some of the cake while the candles were still lit, but Scar managed to pull her away. 

With a bit of help from a piece of paper being used as a fan, Grum blew the candles out. As everyone was given slices of the cake, Mumbo set a special cupcake in front of Grum that he could eat. The redstoner was about to give another one which wasn’t quite as extravagant to Jrum, but in the bot’s few moments of thinking he was left out, he stole a piece of cake and tried smashing it against his screen, only for it to disappear. “Huh… I think we can eat actual food now.”

No one was too upset about Grum getting a slice of actual cake, mainly as they were too busy trying to wrap their heads around what happened. Though it was also since Grum was the guest of honor. Before long, all the cake was eaten, no one showing any signs of being poisoned. From there, a whole cart of presents was pulled over, Grum wide eyed at the amount there was stacked there.

Grum looked at all of them, trying to decide which to grab. His eyes caught Etho’s gift and he pulled it closer and undid the ribbon. “Oh yay. Glass. How thoughtful.” Grum thanked, everyone giving Etho a few eye rolls or glares. Following that, everyone watched as the bot stared Etho dead in the eyes and ate it, Grian Mumbo and Jrum being the only ones that knew he could do that. “I eat quartz, redstone and diamonds. Why is this such a surprise?”

“Well, I guess let’s do real presents now.” Tommy said, handing an actually wrapped present to Grum. “That’s mine. I think you’ll know what to do with it.”

Grum was confused for a second before opening the present, eyes lighting up at the contents. “A stylophone! Yes I know exactly what to do with this!” Grum turned the small instrument on and tested the scale before just a few notes. “Okay, I think we want… eight ten eight ten ten eight, seven nine seven six.” He tested out the keys, glad that it sounded right, then he inhaled loudly before quickly playing the notes. 

As soon as he finished playing the notes, he, Tommy, Jrum, Tubbo and even Grian all shouted at the same time. “LET’S GO!” And the room was filled with an extremely bass boosted song for a few seconds. Fortunately, since Grian had known what was about to happen, he quickly used some Watcher magic to save the ears of everyone with advanced hearing, something that Ren was grateful for since he had already gone through this once before.

When Grum went for the next present, everything shifted a bit and out popped the head of a certain chicken from the middle of the pile of presents. “Wh- how did you get in there?!” Grian asked, trying to pull the chicken out. It just hissed and pecked at him when he tried, leaving him to pull away. 

Grum tried next and it gave no resistance, so he patted the chicken. “Were you trying to be one of my birthday presents?” The chicken gave a single cluck. “Well then, I guess Kokatori is my chicken now.”

“It’s named what?” Phil asked.

“Apparently it’s name is Kokatori.” Grian answered. “That’s what I was told when he was given to me.”

“Huh. Good to know.”

Grum’s next present was from his brother, it being a number of various cards and a new set of card sleeves. After that was from Wilbur, which was a guitar perfect for Grum’s size. Techno had found some sort of journal to give as a present. Scar gave him a diamond statue, which was also packaged together with Bdubs’ gift of lots of bedsheets, which he said were for pillow forts and not just because he had plenty of spares. Beef’s was a voucher for a piano, mainly because he couldn’t wrap it. 

There were plenty of presents after that, but once they were all unwrapped, Grian and Mumbo pulled out one more. “Alright, currently it’s just covered by blankets because we didn’t have wrapping paper to cover something this big.”

“What is it?” Grum asked, walking over to the giant present.

“Well, when building you two, there were some things we had to leave out, so this is a recreation of something we had to leave out of you.” Mumbo explained.

Grum grabbed the blanket covering the thing and pulled it off, revealing a redstone machine that he soon recognized. “My music making system! I can finally make the thing that’s been stuck in my head!”

Before anyone could stop him, Grum started messing with the machine, and before long, a music disc popped out. Tommy always had a jukebox on him in some form, so he put it down and they played the disc. “So, what’s it for?”

“Well, Dad said he wanted to make a minigame for the barge.” Grum started to explain.

“It’s a shopping experience. Not a minigame.” Grian complained, getting a few laughs.

“Yeah, anyway, he needed music for it, and I had an idea, and, well, now he’s got something for it!”

“Well thanks for that.” Grian said, taking the disc out again. “Uh, we can make copies, right?” Grum nodded. “Alright. Well, the next question is if you want to keep this here and we can change this place into a music studio for you, or if you want it at the mansion or the ruin.”

“Hmm, here works, but maybe keep it out of the way ‘cause I want to play more games with people!”

“Yeah, I’m sure everyone’s down with that.”

The presents were put aside and people either went back to games, or excused themselves if they had somewhere to be. Grian had to take Puffy back as well as Wilbur, and then Fundy left to go see Iskall, Grum being understanding that he wanted to be with someone who wasn’t there and he knew longer.

Though he didn’t officially leave, Phil still stepped outside to get away from the noise of the party. When it was quiet enough, he pulled out a communicator and flipped through the contacts, finally reaching one he hadn’t touched in a long time. He pressed the call button and held the comm to his ear, waiting as it rang.

“Yeah, hello?”

“Hey, it’s Phil.”

“Phil? Hey, haven’t heard from you in, what, how many years?”

“Who knows. Just, A lot has happened recently and-”

“Hey while I’d love to talk, I’m sort of running out of battery and I’m currently the prisoner to some pirates who hurt my dragon and got them to fly off. I can call you back when I can, but for now it’s got to be quick.”

“Finally found Xelqua, I’ve got grandkids, looks like there’s a spy here.”

“Haven’t killed the spy yet?”

“Yeah that’s an issue because one of the grandkids likes it and has it as a pet now.”

“Oh wonderful. Whose kid by the way?”

“Xel’s.”

“Huh, thought he’d still be in jail. I didn’t think he had any sort of bail.”

“Wait, what are you talking about? You knew where he was this whole time?!”

“I sent you letters. I mean, before I moved to Minecrack, I was still doing my tv series. I’m actually back to doing it, which is where I am right now.”

“So one of your letters actually said you knew where he was? Now I wish I had read them all. Why couldn’t you just text or call for something important?”

“Because you never know what a spy can get into with all those digital things. The one you’ve got could-”

“Could what? Hello? Paul? Are you there?” Phil sighed and put his comm away. “Right, guess the batter died. Guess that’s something I’ll have to look into.”

.

.

.

The sun wasn’t quite setting when the party officially ended, but it was getting late. Everyone headed home left, Though Ranboo and Tubbo stayed behind to let Michael and the bots have a sleepover. Grum was especially excited about it when Grian came back from taking everyone home and seeming a bit out of it.

“Does this mean we can have a cuddle pile?” Grum asked, getting a nod from Grian.

“Oh hell no. I’m too manly for cuddling.” Tommy tried to argue, but GRum went over to him and gave him big puppy eyes.

“Please? It’s still my birthday.”

“...Fuck you.” Tommy replied, failing to the eyes with a sigh. “Alright fine, but the couples better not get too lovey dovey and shit.”

“No promises.” Grian said, tiredly. “But speaking of, where’s Mumbo?”

“Daddy said he was putting all the presents in some shulker boxes.” Jrum answered. “Amd I gonna get as many presents as Grum did on my birthday?”

“Yup.” Grian answered. “Welp, now that we know where he is, time to go to the mansion.”

Instead of flying them there, Grian just used a bit of magic to teleport them to his nest platform, flopping down on the hay a moment later. Tommy went and got blankets since he knew where they were while Tubbo and Ranboo watched over the bots and Michael as they played. Kokatori had also been brought along and played with the kids, though any time Ranboo or Tubbo got too close to it, it hissed at them.

Eventually Tommy returned with blankets as well as Mumbo, who had returned and helped Tommy with the blankets. Before long, everyone was curled up in blankets or wings or arms. Tommy was the last to fall asleep, thinking about how it all started when he and Grian were hanging out here. Now, here they were, a few weeks later with more friends and closer together.

Tommy shifted a little to pull one of Grian’s wings over him as a blanket, then finally fell asleep, and everyone was quiet.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Except…

With everyone asleep, Kokatori carefully got out of Grum’s arms and hopped out of the nest. It opened its wings and let a communicator fall to the floor. Opening it up, it saw the most recent use: a phone call in the middle of the party. Just what they were after.

.

oh whoops, I’ve got a sequel planned.

[rayveewrites]

Ray Hijacks the Team ZIT Ghostbuster AU Again

So @shadeswift99 made a few posts a while ago about a Team ZIT(S) ghostbuster AU, And then I may or may not have hijacked the post to add in ideas for most of the other hermits because why not.

Now, back then I was spitballing ideas and making them up on the spot, which is admittedly my usual writing process, but hey.

That said, I've had more time to think about it, and then last night I blacked out for a few hours and came to with a Google Doc filled with short bios for all of the hermits and a handful of hermit-adjacents. Now, this rapidly turned into an urban fantasy AU in my hands, but hey. It's fun.

This is in alphabetical order, with alternate personas (EX, Helsknight, Beetlejhost) beneath their original counterparts when applicable:

Bdubs

Lives in an old mansion in the woods alongside Doc for reasons known only to them. Bdubs works as an interior designer, with a side gig as a freelance hairdresser. His eyes are unnaturally large, similar to Keralis’, and he is at least partially a plant. Completely feral and frequently gets in trouble for having knives on him at all times. He and Cleo have a thing called Knife Club which makes everyone else nervous. Nobody messes with Knife Club. It’s not worth it. Sunbathes frequently.

Beef

Is a perfectly normal human being. He works as a butcher with a side gig as a graphic designer specializing in album covers and spends his free time playing pokemon and dragging Etho along to social events. He was the first person to spot the cryptid, and the first person who Etho approached of his own accord.

Biffa

Is a ghost possessing a robotic shell. Biffa is from the future. While initially his main goal was to get back home to his own time, Biffa has since made friends and settled down into a new life running a cafe specializing in a wide range of teas. He’s quite content with this, and has actually found himself far happier than he was in his own time. While his nature means he can see, hear and touch ghosts, his body was built specifically for a disembodied soul to be in the driver’s seat, and he doesn’t want to risk another taking control. Also, he has more important things to do than have fistfights with ghosts.

Cleo

Is a ghost possessing her own dead corpse. Her nature allows her to see, hear and touch ghosts. Can and will fistfight spirits. She works as a teacher, so she’s usually busy, but occasionally in really nasty situations the Beetlejhost will drag her in to break a ghost’s legs. Does sculpture in her free time, and is actually really good. The only one who can wrangle Beetle to any real capacity, and she’s learned to keep him on a fairly short leash. Housemates with Joe, and Keralis also pops in pretty frequently. Has Knife Club with Bdubs. Has an enchanted flower crown that prevents her from decaying further; a gift from Beetle. Recently started learning magic in the form of necromancy and illusions. Has an ongoing ‘feud’ with Zloy, in which she temporarily traps his soul in random inanimate objects every now and then.

Cub

A bit of a ‘mad scientist’ archetype, Cub’s experiments are not exactly the most ethical, though they’re at least more professional than Doc’s. Responsible for the creation of Jevin. Cub gets possessed stupidly easily- sometimes willingly- and can usually handle it himself but sometimes has to call for help. Has a magical method of communication with Scar for exactly this reason. Has a day job as co-owner of a business called ConCorp, which he started with Scar. Has probably broken the Geneva Convention.

Doc

Was presumably human at one point. Now an abomination. Repeated experiments on himself have resulted in a massively changed facial and foot structure, a body covered in mottled green scales, claws, and goat horns. He lost half his face in one of his experiments, and constructed a new cybernetic one. He lost his right arm fighting God. Killed said god and would do it again. Lives in a mansion in the woods with Bdubs, though nobody’s really sure why. Owns a casino because of course he does. Also a living crime against fashion, because the man refuses to wear anything other than his tattered lab coat, torn jeans, and crocs.

Ely

Runs the local radio station. Nobody’s ever seen him in person, and nobody knows where he gets people’s voice clips for his remixes. Probably a cryptid. Maybe a ghost. Seems pretty chill, despite the blatant invasions of privacy.

Etho

Is a cryptid. Lives out in the woods in an abomination that can barely be called a house. Has never been seen in anything other than full Kakashi cosplay. Tends to keep to himself, but occasionally lets Beef drag him along to social events, often with Doc and Bdubs. Nobody really knows what his deal is. Probably not human. Probably.

False

Used to be part of an illegal underground cage fighting ring, until she earned enough to buy her way out. Having grown up in said ring, she struggles to adjust to normal life, but living in a town where the barista is a robot and the local tailor has wings makes it easier. She now has a job as security at Doc’s casino, alongside Iskall.

Grian

Is either an angel or a demigod, but nobody knows which. Has wings. Is both a tailor and an architect. A complete gremlin who has elaborate masks of various birds and will wear them to commit crimes. Eats seeds. Messes with everyone else’s plants. Lives in Jungle Wood Flats. Volunteers at the local theatre.

Hypno

Has three eyes, but hides the third one under a bandanna at all times. Can see ghosts with it. Had problems with sections of plumbing randomly getting clogged and also making very weird noises, and eventually called Team ZIT when the plumbers couldn’t find the source. Was prepared for ghosts, but wound up with a slime creature instead. Works in a $2 store for some reason.

Impulse

Is fully human. The most sensible member of Team ZIT (which admittedly isn’t saying much), Impulse has a day job as a freelancer building custom PCs and fixing broken tech. Agreed to the whole ghostbusting deal because he was bored, mostly. Was the first one to meet Skizz face-to-face, and is the one to own that particular place outright. Gets possessed every now and then, usually by larger spirits. Used to run solely on caffeine and chronic anxiety until Zedaph started getting on his case about his sleep schedule. Now he runs on less caffeine, more sleep, and the same amount of chronic anxiety.

Iskall

Was part of a cloning experiment to create the ultimate hitman, and was the only known one to both survive and escape before the whole thing was shut down by the authorities. Their eye and arm were replaced with cybernetics in order to increase their already enhanced abilities, and they were chased by said authorities, eventually winding up on Mumbo’s doorstep and becoming Mumbo’s problem. Now works as security at Doc’s casino, alongside False. Lives at Jungle Wood flats. Occasionally volunteers at the local theatre. Does bonsai as a hobby.

Jevin

Is the slime creature in the pipes. Hypno lets him live with him under the condition he stops blocking the plumbing and making weird noises at 3 AM (Jevin still blocks the plumbing and makes weird noises at 3 AM, just not as much as he was). Has taught himself to take a humanoid shape, and likes having fingers. Sleeps in the bathtub because he can. Was created from a vat of chemicals in a secret lab underneath the house, which used to be owned by Cub. Doesn’t really talk to the man in question that much, but will occasionally refer to Cub as his father for the sole reason of watching him go through eight existential crises in three minutes. Has a glock.

Joe

Head librarian at the local public library, and has read a lot of books on Supernatural Things. Is a veritable fountain of exposition if you can figure out what he’s saying or have Cleo along with you to threaten the integrity of his shins. Has never been seen in the same place as the Beetlejhost. Are they the same person? Are they entirely separate beings? Is there a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde-type situation going on? Who knows!

Beetlejhost

Literally nobody really knows what his deal is. Nobody. Team ZIT ran into him on a call that they expected to be a false alarm and then he decided to follow them home. Spends most of his time being a minor nuisance in the most bizarre ways possible. Is implied to be responsible for the Ever Given getting lodged in the Suez Canal, but never confirmed. When he’s not bothering Team ZIT or getting them out of tight spots, he’s usually pestering Cleo, the only one who can keep him in line. It’s not really known if he and Cleo have a history or if they’re just Like That.

Keralis

Is a ghost haunting an architecture firm, and is mostly bound to the building, though he can travel to other buildings the firm has built, which is, uh, most of them. Initially only able to do small things- mostly writing notes or drawing diagrams- he eventually meets the Beetlejhost when the latter follows Mumbo to work one day for shits and giggles (he wanted to see how long he could mess with Mumbo before the man noticed. As it turned out, about a week, and by the end it was Iskall who noticed). After a couple of days in which Beetle teaches Keralis Ghost Things™, he scares half the office when he finally manifests for the first time. Has unnaturally large eyes and nicknames for most of the workers. Has no idea how he died or what his unfinished business might be. Very knowledgeable about architecture, and his input is usually very much appreciated.

Mumbo

Is a perfectly normal human being who does IT at Keralis’ architecture firm. Lives at Jungle Wood flats and spends most of his free time tinkering with tech and trying to keep Grian and Iskall out of trouble, which is a losing battle. Has a large, beating golden heart in his flat. He’s not really sure what its deal is, but if he feeds it apples it produces enough power for the entire building. Oh, and if he forgets to feed it for an extended period of time it starts draining his bank account. It’s really weird.

Pixlriffs

Was a perfectly normal human being until he died protecting a certain Russian zombie and became a perfectly normal ghost. Was a reporter in life and is a reporter in death. Runs a blog alongside Zloy about the local goings-on, supernatural or not. The blog’s the type where unless you live in/near the town you most likely won’t stumble across it, but they do have a small following of outsiders who assume the blog’s just a work of fiction. His unfinished business is to prevent Zloy from doing anything particularly stupid, a constant battle. Is able to go more places than Zloy due to being incorporeal, but respects people’s privacy. He’s bound to Zloy to a certain degree, not being able to go beyond a certain range of his friend. The range is pretty big, though, and he has plenty freedom of movement.

Python

Had a run-in with the fae as a kid, in which he accidentally pissed one off. In retribution, the faerie challenged him to answer a riddle or he’d be turned into a snake. Python’s answer was partially correct, so the faerie only transformed him partially. Python is fairly chill, though he strongly dislikes the cold and starts hissing if anyone disturbs him during Sun Time™. Sometimes Bdubs, being partially flora, joins Python for Sun Time™. He’s not venomous, because, you know...python. Also, he has a mildly disturbing habit of strangling rats and mice and then eating them whole, but he can’t help it and just tries not to do so when he has company.

Ren

Is a werewolf. He’s pretty chill regardless of form, though it’s only been recently he’s been comfortable enough leaving his ears and tail visible. He works as a lumberjack. One time Pixl introduced him to Monty Python’s Lumberjack Song and it quickly became his favourite thing. He spends most of his free time volunteering at the local theatre because Ren is absolutely a theatre kid and nobody can convince me otherwise. Gets possessed every now and then. Lives in Jungle Wood flats.

Scar

Works as a landscape developer. Gets possessed absurdly easily, though not quite as frequently as Cub. Has a magical method of communication with him. Technically co-owns ConCorp, but isn’t as involved. His cat, Jellie, is very obviously an eldritch abomination in feline form and he is comedically unaware of this. Lives in Jungle Wood Flats with Grian, Iskall, Mumbo, Stress, and Ren.

Skizz

Is the ghost haunting Team ZIT’s office. He was murdered by someone he’d thought was a friend who was trying to use his place to hide from the cops, and he’s stuck around, haunting the building. His unfinished business is to make sure nobody else uses the building for anyone shady, but the ghost rumours tended to chase most people off. Eventually he gets used to having Team ZIT around, and when Tango admits he doesn’t really have anywhere to go one day, Skizz eventually makes the decision to finally unlock the still-furnished upper floor for him. He’s bound to the building, but Impulse learns that carrying Skizz’s old vest with them allows him to leave. After that, Skizz sometimes accompanies them on missions and occasionally just hanging out. He’s usually more helpful than the Beetlejhost is.

Stress

Is a witch. Stress lives in Jungle Wood Flats and works as a doctor who specializes in supernaturally caused injuries- Team ZIT are some of her best customers. She also sells magic potions of various kinds, and has a side gig as a florist. She’s 90% of the Jungle inhabitants’ impulse control. Also has cryokinesis.

Tango

The Team ZIT member with a car. He gets possessed with frankly ridiculous frequency, but claims not to believe in ghosts for a long time (and keeps up the bit for even longer). Has developed various signals to indicate when he’s being possessed again. The strongest one, a rather nasty demon Cleo and the Beetlejhost had to team up on, left him with his glowing red eyes. He didn’t really have anywhere to go before Impulse bought the office, and tended to sleep on the couch or in his car until Skizz decided to let him into the upper floor, where he now lives alongside Zedaph and Impulse.

TFC

A now-retired ghostbuster, TFC calls in Team ZIT one night when he finds himself in over his head against a ghost with a grudge. He winds up becoming a bit of a mentor figure to the trio, usually coaching them over the phone if they’re not sure how to deal with one of the stranger spirits. Lost his leg years ago in a fight with a poltergeist that could have gone better, and now has a robotic prosthetic made by Doc.

Wels

While Team ZIT was out investigating some rumour or another in the woods, they came across a large stone box. Following video game logic, I guess, they then decided opening this large stone box sounded like a fun idea. Well, Tango and Zedaph did. Impulse was a bit more hesitant. The box actually held a medieval knight who’d been put in an enchanted sleep for centuries by his demonic doppelgänger, and was very much not prepared for modern life. Team ZIT took him to Xisuma, who happened to live closest, and Wels is currently helping out on the farm and trying to adjust to life in the 21st century. He can understand and speak modern English just fine because magic. Volunteers at the local theatre quite a lot.

Hels

Is Wels’ doppelgänger. Technically a minor demon. Won a fight with Wels and sealed him away for centuries as a result. A recurring problem. His real motivation is that he really desperately doesn’t want to go back to Hell, but he’s too proud to admit it. Lives in the woods with EX, who’s basically his only friend, though the weirdo with the brown cardigan keeps pestering him about his backstory and feelings for some reason. Has minor pyrokinesis.

XB

Like Biffa, XB is also a ghost from the future, though it seems to be a different timeline than Biffa’s. His unfinished business is preventing the apocalypse, but he has no idea how to do that, no idea if he’s in the right timeline, and is pretty sure he’s gone back a lot farther than he probably should’ve. Also, there’s the whole paradox issue, where if he prevents the apocalypse he never has a reason to go back and prevent the apocalypse, so he doesn’t prevent the apocalypse, so he has to go back and- he tries not to think about it too much. He mostly just hangs out in an abandoned house on the edge of town and vibes.

Xisuma

Is a beekeeper. Nobody’s ever seen his face; when he’s not in his beekeeping outfit, he’s either wearing a helmet, or (more recently) an extremely lifelike and detailed animal mask (is it a mask?). Actually a shapeshifting alien, he crashed down to Earth after a scuffle with his evil clone and was stranded because Earth doesn’t have the right tools or resources to repair a spaceship. These days he’s actually found he’s happier tending to his bees, selling honey, and helping his friends out, and probably wouldn’t leave Earth even if he could. It’s a simpler life, but a pleasant one. He bonds with Biffa over a shared love of tea and being stranded in a technologically inferior world and finding a home.

Evil Xisuma

Is Xisuma’s clone. Feels that if everyone’s going to call him ‘Evil’ he may as well own it. Shot his original’s spaceship down in a scuffle but wound up being brought down with him. Currently hides in the woods. Generally more of a minor nuisance than an actual danger. Used to spend his free time bothering X but has gotten put off by Wels, who has a problem when it comes to evil clones. His friends consist of Hels, who is a terrible role model, and Zedaph, who’s trying to help him work through his problems behind everyone’s backs. Can summon lightning because he deserves it.

Zedaph

Is the reason Team ZIT is ghostbusting in the first place. He’s a sheep shearer by trade, but that’s a fairly seasonal thing and ghostbusting is more fun anyway. Has somehow never been possessed, and claims it’s because he’s always standing next to Tango. He makes sure the other two gets enough sleep Because we all know they can’t be trusted to do it. Probably has some sort of really bizarre and situational magical powers he is thoroughly unaware of. Qualified to be a licensed therapist. Made friends with Evil X at one point, somehow.

Zloy

Like Cleo, he’s a ghost possessing a corpse. Unlike Cleo, there’s a good chance it’s not his corpse. Eh, it’s not like anyone else was using it. Runs a blog with Pixl, because why not. Was already a zombie when he met Pixl, who was still alive at the time. His body is a bit more decayed than Cleo’s, but it’s fine. His goggles are enchanted with the same preservation spell; it’s not really ever explained where he got them from. Has no regard for privacy but is fortunately unable to turn invisible or phase through walls due to inhabiting a physical body. Both can theoretically physically fight ghosts and has enough time to physically fight ghosts, meaning he would be a valuable ally if he could be bothered. Lives in a graveyard. Has an ongoing ‘feud’ with Cleo, in which he puts jabs at her on the blog. Once spent a week as a (very sarcastic) floating potato.

Hermiton

Is the name of the place they all live in/near. Located in an ambiguous location in an ambiguous country, Hermiton is technically large enough to be considered a city but has Town VibesTM. Supernatural going-ons are a fairly normal part of life, and a good number of inhabitants aren’t humans. Despite this, the wider world seems mostly ignorant of the existence of ghosts, magic, etc. I’m not too sure about geography, but it’s surrounded by forest in most directions and in a warm enough climate to not have snow in the winter (so Python doesn’t, you know, freeze to death). Most people don’t tend to bat an eyelid at strange-looking people walking down the street or serving them at the store; they’re used to it by now. There are several theories as to why Hermiton specifically has so much going on when it comes to the supernatural- ley lines, secretly the resting place of some long-forgotten god, et cetera- but it’s actually more of a case of ‘people who have supernatural traits hear rumours of a place where a lot of people have supernatural traits and go there in search of answers/a place to belong’. This doesn’t exactly explain where all the ghosts came from, but hey. Nothing’s perfect.

[b-dubs-valdubs]

Miitopia hermits presents…

Grian “Grain” MC

Miitopia spoilers ahead!!!

Link to masterpost

Some notes on this design:

Here Grian’s personality is cool, but it was changed to energetic after these pictures were taken

I haven’t yet decided on his war cry yet, but I’m open to suggestions :)

I made him an imp because 1. Wings. and 2. He likes to cause problems On Purpose

How to make:

Closeup on makeup

He has very faint eyeshadow which matches his skintone

Apart from that he doesn’t have a lot going on

Mii used

His eyes were changed to dark red in the makeup selection, but you can change them in mii maker if you wish

Hairstyle is always hidden by wig

Bonus images:

About to cause some Mischief

Lord Grian uh.. Console?-slayer strikes again

Have a wonderful day/night :)

[hermitcraftheadcanons]

Apartment AU Masterpost:

-Everyone lives in an apartment complex.

-Xisuma as landlord? Or just a really well looked up to person in the complex. Whichever works for you!

-Pranks all the time. Everyone's constantly pranking each other.

-Everyone has 'normal people jobs.' Perhaps Joe is an English teacher? (Cleo's also a teacher. (Irl.) Omg, what if they teach at the same school?) Maybe Bdubs is a professional interior designer? Maybe Cub builds computers? Go nuts, get creative.

-Actually, screw it. Bdubs works at IKEA.

-Everyone meets up every Friday night to go to the pub or go bowling or just do something together.

-They have a discord server because of course they do.

-European Hermits are early-birds, American hermits are night-owls. (This is the only way I can think to portray timezones and waking hours when everyone's living in the same building.)

-They all still love minecraft, don't worry.

-Keralis has so many books his flat is basically a library. He lets people come in and borrow books for a small fee.

-Tinfoilchef is a bit of a shut in but everyone makes an effort to include him.

-Etho would also be a cryptid like Xisuma. Like, we've seen Xisuma's whole body other than his face but the best we know about Etho is that: 1. He exists and 2. From the, like, one single real life photo he's shared, he broke a headset. Also, 3. Allegedly, he's buff. Otherwise; Beef and Etho invite Pause (who lives elsewhere,) over at random intervals to [play ctm maps] and do god knows what. Bdoubs works at IKEA but is the person to make the room displays, y'know.

-Scar sells dice and other tabletop rpg supplies that he designs. His shop is magiccrystals. com

-Cub and Scar made business with the guy who runs the fight club. They get half of the profits and everyone’s always wondering how those two can always afford the most expensive Christmas gifts for everyone.

-Mumbo could be an engineer or work on a STEM field, and he works on some really important and impressive projects and that would explain his polish person, Exept, when it comes to helping another hermit to change a lightbulb or fix a microwave he is an absolute disaster.

-Grian owns a parrot that knows everyones' names and faces and greets them when they come in.

-Scar's apartment has a balcony filled with plants and he has to bring them inside for the winter. (I'm assuming that all 4 seasons happen) Even without the balcony plants, his place is still full of indoor plants including his favorite venus flytrap. There is always a plant knocked over from Jellie's shenanigans. Jellie is supposed to stay in his apartment, however she keeps on getting out somehow, even getting to Xisuma's apartment occasionally.

-There's a grassy patch out back that acts as a backyard, but Stress has effectively taken it over. Perfect for flowers of all colors in the spring and summer, and during the winter you KNOW she’s building an ice castle from which to throw snowball at all her friends.

-Beef and, when he’s visiting, Pause get a lot of questions about Etho (since unlike X who gets one tightlipped visitor in shape of his brother Etho gets two that are willing to be vague) however they charge a fee for people to guess. They’d never actually sell him out but the guesses are always something technical related so there’s not much of a risk, he actually works as a botanist/gardener.

-Iskall is extremely good at ice hockey and, as resident Canadians, Etho and Beef have played with him. However Iskall only knows that he’s played with Beef because both beef and etho refuse to tell him who in the rink was Etho when they played.

-The only person who’s seen Xisuma's face is Keralis.

-Nobody knows what Grian does for a job. Like, when they think they've figured it out what he does, they're thrown through a loop again because he does a lot of odd jobs. Need help with a pet? Grian can help! Rip on your clothes? Don't worry, Grian knows how to fix it! Ect.

-Grian's an assassin. Iskall will make assassin jokes and Grian, without looking up from his coffee will go: "that's not how that works!" And then go back to being quiet. Everyone's like ????

-I love the idea of Grian knowing all these cool facts and when anyone acts he says 'it's because of his job,' and they still can't figure out what he does. He keeps correcting Iskall on assassin facts but they're all just like 'oh Grian sure must love those types of movies, huh.'

-Cleo teaches Joe's kid. (That means she teaches either year 2 or year 3? // 1st grade or 2nd grade?)

-Grian's family is in the mafia but he mostly just vibes. Sure, he works with the mafia, but he keeps his regular life away from work and none of the hermits (besides False because she saved the Mafia boss) know. Imagine boss looking at False and going, 'oh hey, you're already protected.' False is confused and says 'what?' But the Mafia Boss has already left.

-Etho is always in full kakashi cosplay.

-Honorary hermits apartment au: zloy and pixl have a radio show but also act as private investigators. Falsie hires them to investigate how she got the protection of the mafia. On their investigation they start asking Elybeat (that lives on a building right next to the hermits) about weird behaviors that he might have seen. Ely just goes ‘all of what they do is weird. I’ve recorded weird stuff they say and remixed it. They though it was funny and put the remixes as their elevator music.'

-Everyone thinks Etho is an assassin, but really, he's a horticulturist/botanist. He doesn't bother to correct them cause it means he doesn't get pranked, (or, as often.) Maybe someone finds out eventually? I don't know who. Maybe Doc and they keep it hush hush cause they think it's funny or something. || Maybe Bdubs finds out, (because I think he's seen Naruto?? Swear I saw a Twitter post where he recognized a Naruto joke) and he's the only one that recognizes that Etho's dressed like Kakashi and NOT an assassin. (That's lowkey a joke though.)

-Someone warns Grian against parking euro because they think Etho's an assassin and Grian just kinda goes: "alright then." Knowing that there's no way Etho is an assassin, but also realising how the hermits view that profession, he most likely starts feeling kinda bad.

-Beef used to be a car photographer and Mumbo takes photographs as a sideline when he was in college. They would occasionally chat about their past experience in the photography field and sometimes gush about cars.

-Hermit Challenges was actually a truth or dare game among the hermits. Mumbo was basically delirious from lack of sleep to explain his absolute gremlin energy. Mumbo dares Grian to steal front doors before passing out and everyone decided that was the end of that game. No one thought Grian would do the dare. A week later, everyone but Etho and Xisuma were missing their front doors (including Grian.) He stuck them in his bathroom so no one immediately saw the doors.

-As already established, Joe constantly hangs at Keralis's library. Let's say he also has a hobby for writing, and one time he was asking to himself how *insert really specific murder scene* would work in real life. Grian or Doc then overheard him and answers him in a also very specific way, he thanks them with 0 concerns and continues with his writing.

-Etho has been an assassin but it was many years ago, and retired to care for plants. (As you do.) He got hired by The Goatfather but intentionally botched the killings because, 'hey now those two are friends >:(' He and Bdubs still have the endrod game but it involves the whole apartment building and several discord messages going "located" or "flashlight on the move.'

-Stress paints all the hermit's door and puts their names on them. (-🌿)

-The organisization Grian works for is called "The Watchers!" They text him in riddles of what his missions are. This is so that if anyone peaks at his phone, they don't understand immediately!

-What if in YHS happen because of grian family and Sam is from an other family who does not support the grain family. So grian will not bring up high school and school and when joe and Cleo talk about there student grian sometimes cringes remember what happened in high school. (-🌿)

-Grian and Mumbo's hobbits holes were two cupboards they found on their respective apartments and decided to make a room out of them and named them their hobbit holes after they found out they both had them (-🐿️)

-What if it's a really old apartment and the 'hobbit holes' actually connect to each others apartment. (-🐺)

-Mumbo has these periods when he overworks like crazy and when they're over - he sleeps for like 24-36 hours straight. Everybody knows about this and help him if he falls asleep in random plaxes around the apartment. Mumbo once fell asleep right before his door and Grian tried to help him get inside while mumbling. Guess which remix were aded to the elevator music next week.

-Whenever anyone is annoyed or upset, grian sometimes pops his head up from his book and goes "who do I need to kill?" No one takes him seriously though he *would* kill for any of his friends.

-People who have left the server work nearby but have moved to new apartments. (For example, Welsknight works at a nearby food truck) (-☘️)

-With the Grian being a spy you get several oints where he thinks he's been found out but no one puts the and two together. They're all like: "Grian just likes action movies I guess."

-Scar's "wizard robe" is a bathrobe he owns. One day he forgets to change and just walks out in a bathrobe and no pants.

-Since Cleo teaches Joe's kid, maybe that extends to all the hermits' kids? Like the ones that have them, like not at the same time but at some point you know?

-I don't think I saw any regarding headgames, but I could've missed it. Anyways, what if Cleo wanted to make a big Scrapbook in her free time of all her friends, so she asks everybody to try and get pictures. So the PVP heads are candid photos, and the tradeable one are like selfies or group pictures. The other heads could just be a requirement for the picture like have a sheep in the picture. And maybe she gives the winners dinner payed by her or something.

-On the head cannon that hermits that aren’t on the server work nearby, Biffa is the actual mayor.

-Are mobs (and half mobs by extension) still a thing in apartment au? Cause if not I propose that Jevin just has cloob blue dyed hair and a bunch of blue tattoos.

-XB bakes a lot and always shares the food he makes with the others. They adore his cookies. Scar really wants to make some cookies in the shapes of disney characters with him, but he's too shy to ask. (-nameless anon)

-Perhaps Mumbo and Iskall are also protected by the mafia because of grian (perhaps scar is too) They and False have a 'we are protected and have no idea why' group (-Frost Anon)

-Imagine the hermits want to throw a nice party but X and Etho were kinda like “yeah no i’ll pass” so they make it a masquerade so that they can come- and then the whole night no one knows who anyone really is, but still has a really good time.

-Grian wanted a pet parrot, but felt like he would be terrible at taking care of one so he has toy parrots instead, those that have pre made phrases and such, and he is proud of his toy parrot pets. (-🐿️)

-Xisuma hosts a podcast! That's where all of his Xisuma speaks content ends up coming from. (-🇵🇭)

-Etho has a secret food blog called "Cooking With Etho" (based on the actual cooking with Etho segment in usually his modded stuff.) He also knows that there's hermits that either: have no idea how to cook properly or can't cook real meals due to their work. To help with this, sometimes he leaves finished meals or recipes with them (outside their doors or somehow in their fridge) and no one knows who does it prompting the theory of a self care ghost haunting the building.

(All of those in red were from Anons!)

-Joe works as a LAMP Developer.

-False has an assortment of swords, knives, etc. She even had a bow! She also has a dummy to practice fighting on.

(-@unpredictable-pancake.)

-Stress is a wedding designer. (-@the-angry-numel.)

-Iskall also works at IKEA with Bdubs. (-@mandatedempathy.)

-There's a local club that's basically fight club a few people are in. False, Iskall and a couple others are in.

-Hypno is kind of a bit of a loner. Everyone on the floor considers him a friend but he doesn't really have a best friend. He just does his own thing and people usually let him do that. He's fine with it.

-XB and Joe spend a lot of time at Keralis' library house just reading the books. Keralis usually charges every except those two because 1. They're there so often and 2. They're basically his room mates at this point. (-@tomcatacaphe.)

-Ren works at a bar as a bartender or musician. (-@friendlyneighbourhoodpieceoftrash.)

-Building on the last thing with Ren as a musician or working at a bar, he works at a bar as a server but does live music on weekends. It's the bar/pub/restaurant that the hermits sometimes hang out at together.

-I can see Grian working at a pet shop but also on the side of the mafia because of YHS. Or at least he used to be involved with the mafia.

-Beef once had to cart Etho off to the hospital for a chemical burn and explain to the other tenants that the explosion heard suspiciously close by wasn’t mafia activity. Etho is just an idiot with a hobby of making homemade fireworks.

-(-@limelocked.)

-False is the chief of police for the town they live in. Iskall is a hired assassin who normally gets employed by the mysterious figure GOATfather. Doc is the GOATfather, head of the mafia. Falsie is trying to hunt down these two as well as any others associated with them. The nHo is part of the mafia. Falsie has no idea any of them are in the mafia and they refuse to kill her because she has become such a close friend to them.

-Maybe Grian is a spy instead of an assassin? The group the Watchers is a government policing organization bent on trying to crack down on mob activity in the area.

(-@creator0fchaos.)

-The elevator music is hermitgang and remixes. -(@lookitsspacekween.)

-Zedaph is a game show host. Tango makes cartoons. (-@aphion-and-on.)

-Come on, let Iskall play ice hockey! Maybe not professionally if it doesn't work for the AU but he's v good at least. (-@automnalsaffron.)

-Grian maybe works at an animal shelter or an animal rehabilitation center. So everyone who has a pet usually comes to him for help if their pet is sick or injured. (-@vahco.)

-Grian has a safe full of guns, all the Hermits know about it but think they're fake. (-@xxpzmistxx)

-X never comes out of his room so no one’s seen his face. The only way he communicates is via text, Discord, and an intercom right by his door. He almost always gets groceries whenever the hermits are busy and therefore have no time to go out- but the hermits know he’s a real person because sometimes they hear guitar solos coming from his room.

-Hypno is a voice actor!

-Joe and Cleo often go home at the same time, and all the way it's almost always Cleo complaining about her students being bratty and the likes (Bonus points if Joe carpools with Cleo, who owns a car.)

-False unknowingly helps the boss of the mafia after seeing him wounded on a street one day, earning her their protection.

-As a callback to Season 6, Stress became a cat lady for a bit while False became a dog lady. As an added bonus: Cleo became nuts when Cub decided to gift her with spiders for her birthday or some other event.

-Mumbo still sidelines as a cameraman/film director for short documentaries and comedy sketches where he often invites Zed and his buddy Jack to act maybe?

-The first time X was proven to be an actual person was when the girls temporarily kicked the boys out to have the apartment all to themselves for a girls’ night which prompted the boys to have their own boys’ night. X was wearing his grey helmet that night so his face was still obscured tho, and from that day forward they always had a weekly girls’ night and boys’ night alternating on which group gets to have the apartment to themselves.

-False may seem like she can take a shot or two, but in reality she’s very lightweight and easily drunk, and is always the first one wasted. She becomes a flirty drunk who flirts with everyone and everything when she’s tipsy, an angry drunk the more she drinks and eventually a sad drunk before passing out. Cleo and Stress, her drinking buddies, always find amusement in this.

-As a callback to Xb living a thousand blocks away from society in s7, maybe he lives at the highest floor where not many (if not no one) occupies?

(-@heyitsroby.)

-Civil War started because they used to get groceries delivered to their doors and Grian started stealing them when they were left in the doorstep. Everyone stole each others groceries until one day they went into teamss of one side vs the other side of the corridor to the other until Grian stole so many groceries Dic was like 'Dammit!' He started going to the store to get groceries instead of getting them delivered to his door after that. (-@sayeshaa1108.)

-Regarding apartment au: Zedaph is similar to miu iruma from danganronpa: making the weirdest inventions and coaxing the other hermits into doing weird things for science. (-@oh-hecc-im-stupid.)

-Idk if Doc has a profession yet in the apartment au, but it just struck me- what if he owned a private casino?? Cause of s7? Just a thought! (-@853dragons.)

-Cleo really enjoys doing miniature diorama scenes. Like the tiny dudes from "Night at The Museum". She's like crazy good at it, and Joe will sometimes base his poems and stories off of her dioramas. Also maybe Joe has published a book of poems and short stories? (-@lynxes15.)

-Doc works as a social engineer and part time mafia boss. He rarely shows up for game nights. However, when he does, nobody else stands a chance.

-Tango, Impulse and Zedaph go over to each other's rooms so often they practically live together in an apartment room 3X bigger than everyone else.

(-@trashedeggnog.)

LINK TO NEXT POST: https://hermitcraftheadcanons.tumblr.com/post/617640752709861376/apartmentau-masterpost-2-link-to-previous-the

Posts with TW:

Guns, Gangs, Getting Shot. Don't read if you can't handle this topics.

-Everyone finds out Grian is an assassin/mafia boss because someone from a different gang (*cough cough* sam gladiator *cough cough*) found out where he lives and tried to murder him. Queue epic gun fight scene. If you want some angst, Grian gets shot a couple of times in the fight but didn’t realize it because of the adrenaline and passes out. (-Anon.)

-Imagine someone like, finding Grian's guns and weapons and just being :0 and Grian is a little nervous. But then the other hermit just think the guns are cool (it's probably either etho or doc) and they're just gushing over how cool the guns are. Grian is relieved. (-Anon.)

-iJevin owns at least one gun. He's not in the mafia or a cop or anything, it's just cool and legal so he as one. He's the constant counter for the other gun owning hermits who have them for more mafia related purposes (context: jevin owns at least one gun irl) (-Anon.)

[writing-the-end]

LoL Chapter 42- Crossfire

Masterpost

A Wizard Hermits tale (AU, designs, ideas belongs to @theguardiansofredland)

When the Forest has control of lightning magic, someone is bound to be struck.

Warning: mentions of abuse, invasive thoughts

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The deeper they got into the forest, the worse the illusions got. No one was safe, no matter how many talismans, potions, and mental exercises they run through. Sometimes the hermits have no choice but to stop and console a team member who’s being affected by the Forest. Warm hugs bring Cleo back from the long locked away memory of her death, how she became who she is now. It wasn’t until three potions and the welcoming press of his zweihander resting in his hand that Wels is able to ignore the illusions. And Grian nearly flies away as the Forest reminds him of how many times he’s been thrown out of every orphanage and guild he entered. If it weren’t for the hermits, he’d be alone, lost. And at the will of the Hangman’s Playground. 

Scar feels the sting of torn skin, right along where he got his namesake, before the rest of the illusion appears. Such a peaceful, normal forest. He tries to focus on the trees, the creek he passes by, with gentle animals of all kinds drinking from the fresh spring water. Of the perfect placement of rocks, ferns, even the way the dirt curls over roots. 

“No merchant’s son will be seen playing in dirt!” The hot sting of blood, of torn skin marred by rich jewels and gilded rings. His father’s voice growls through the extravagant manor. 

“And he tracked mud onto the entrance carpet! There’s no possible way we can get that stain out!”

“I wasn’t playing in dirt.” Scar whispers, daring to defy his parents. To speak out without being told to speak. His voice is young, pitching up and down across his words, tinged with anger and contempt. “I was practicing my magic. I was creating something ahmazin’.”

“I forbid you from ever using your magic! It’s a disgrace that my son’s magic is so...is so messy!” Scar’s feet were no longer on the ground, though he can faintly feel the soft compress of dirt in the forest, the illusion tells him otherwise. His father’s opulent outfit, matched with the bloody rings he wears on each and every finger, his hand balled in a fist in Scar’s collar. “You will let your worthless magic die, and do exactly as you are told.”

But Scar’s own thoughts rebuke the forest, without need of a single potion or talisman. Because he remembers what happened next. He spent his youth practicing in secret, and as soon as he knew he could make it on his own, he set off. From that moment forward, he defied his father by nurturing his magic, rather than letting it die. From that moment forward, he never did what he was told. 

And that led him to the hermits, his best friends, his family. He remembers the fateful day he met BDubs, pure happenstance and Scar’s own proclivity for disaster. He was in a tree, trying to better understand how trees form and grow to mimic in his magic- he wanted to make it as perfect as nature itself- when he fell backwards and ended up crushing the hermit just walking through the woods. 

If it wasn’t for his act of defiance that night, he wouldn’t have found his true family. If it wasn’t for that night, he wouldn’t have become the S-Class mage he is now. He wouldn’t have won in the Chimaera’s Championship. The night the Forest of Memories chose was one of the worst nights of his life, but it was also the beginning of the best thing ever to happen to him. The beginning of his new life, with his true family. 

The illusion shatters, like glass, fractals dissolving and lost in the wind. Scar smiles, looking around at his friends. Those who welcomed his magic, let him nurture it. “Have I told you how much I love you guys?” 

“Look, I think we’re getting close to whatever is hidden in here.” Doc points out, his hand on his friend’s shoulder. In the distance, red light bounces and is absorbed by the warm brown bark of the trees. Another leyline, just as large and pulsing with stolen lifeforce. They’re so close, they’ve come so far. Certainly there’s no way they can lose themselves now, they’ve been fighting it off successfully for who knows how long. 

But not everyone is successful in fighting off memories. At the back of the group, Mumbo wipes away the tears in his eyes. He doesn’t warn the others about the memories playing around him. He doesn’t want to disappoint the hermits. 

Not like he disappointed his dad. The Forest of Memories, the Hangman’s Playground, has dug up his worst fears, and replays every time he’s failed his father. Every time he returned from one failed guild exam after another. The sidelong glances and long tirades of how much of a disappointment Mumbo was.  Every single one, from his first exam when he turned thirteen, to the last exam before he was disowned.

It was that one that hurt the most. And it was that one that the Forest replays not just in Mumbo’s mind, but all around him. The trees turn to pillars, and Mumbo is standing on the expansive steps of his family’s manor. His father’s stern face looks down at him, clean shaven and hair slicked back harshly. The tight pull of the starched white collar of Mumbo’s shirt is even harsher, but nothing compares to the dense silence between father and son. 

He was a disgrace to the family. Dozens of guilds, laughing at the family line for creating such a worthless progeny. Dozens of guilds, turning him away after he failed their gauntlets, exams, and prerequisites. No matter what Mumbo tried, no matter what he did, he could never be good enough for his father. Not the way he was. 

“Miriam.” Mumbo tips his head up to meet his father’s stern, cold eyes. “Come back a guildmember, or don’t bother coming back at all.” 

He failed his family. He’s failed so many. He’s failed his family, he’s failed to help Gildara, or Danes. Fight after fight, battle after battle, he’s always the weakest link. He’s always been failing the hermits. And he’s failing them now. 

He’s the weakest link, and the Forest knows it. It knows he will fail, just like always. Mumbo wipes away tears, and discovers he’s in total darkness. The memory is gone, but the illusion kept it’s grasp on Mumbo. 

“Why would we want to be your friends?” A sneering voice echoes through the darkness, an accent all too familiar, the words all the more painful to be held by Iskall’s voice. 

“You can’t even use your own magic. All that power, wasted on a weakling.” A shadow passes in the emptiness, and Mumbo barely catches a glimpse of the brown, furry dog tail. 

A high pitched laughter, followed by the scrape of metal against stone. “You can’t fight, you can’t defend, you can’t even heal. At this point, you’re just dragging us down. We should have cut you down long ago.” 

The swing of a saber appears in the night, and Mumbo staggers backward as Cleo’s saber nearly cuts his chest open. In the foggy darkness, he can just make out her eyes. Or where there should be Cleo’s sea blue eyes. Instead, all he saw was oozing, black goo, pouring like viscous tears down her seafoam green skin. She’s gone, disappearing back into the darkness, a shark cutting through the waves. 

Mumbo attempts escape, but no matter where he crawls, the ebony darkness has him trapped. Laughter, voices rise from the void, whispers and shouts. Voices he knows, like those of his friends. Scar, Jevin, Hypno, even TFC. Berating him for being a useless member of the guild, that he’s just the jester, the pet. Of his father, yelling about the shame, that he wishes Mumbo was better, stronger, worthwhile. And voices he doesn’t know apart from the words they spit out. Bullies in school, taunting him in magic class for not even being able to call on his magic. Bullies in guilds, casting him out and laughing with every mistake he made. The guild leaders, sneering and jeering before, during, and after his failed tests. 

There was no escape from these dark thoughts, not when the Hangman’s Playground plays them out before his very eyes. Memories of reality, and memories of the fears and ‘what ifs’ he’s played a thousand times over in his head. He hears the voices he knows, just knows the other hermits say behind his back. He feels the stinging betrayal as they kick him out, the very words dozens of other guilds have told him before. He watches Grian leave him for better, stronger friends. 

Mumbo reaches out for Grian, his best friend, shaking fingers just barely able to grip onto the tarlike wings of the agnel. Like a bird trapped in oil, each feather dripping with the black goo. “G-Grian, please, I promise I’ll work har-”

Grian turns around, hand slapping away Mumbo’s own, and the empty black goo of Grian’s eyes stare into Mumbo. Pinning him down, too afraid to fight back. To weak to fight back. “Forget it, Mumbo. You’re useless, you can’t even draw your own magic circle. I don’t know why I bothered to ever save you, that day so long ago.” 

Beside Grian, Iskall’s laughter pierces through Mumbo’s heart. It feels so cold, so abrasive, even though nothing has changed about that tittering laugh of his friend. Mumbo shrinks awake, wiping the tears that cascade like a waterfall down his face. “I-I can be better, I can do better! Please don’t leave me!” 

“Oh yeah? Prove it.” The hiss from Iskall, slicing across his beard, catching the sludge and twisting in his facial hair. “Prove that you’re this mega awesome multi-mage of doom, and not some puny mega weakling that we know you are.” 

Mumbo’s panicking. He has to do it. Just this once, he has to unleash his power. So he can keep his friends. Closing his eyes, he digs deep. He tries to ignore the jeers and laughter around him, focusing in on his magic. His hands shake, but he tears down the walls he’s set up to protect himself, protect everyone from the surges he’s prone to. Mumbo can’t hold back on his powers, not unless he wants to hold onto his friends. He feels the power rushing through his body, but he doesn’t stop. He will prove it- he’s not worthless. 

Grian turns around, noticing that there’s one less person in the group. They’re so close, he can feel a change in the atmosphere around him. It reminds him of when they were in Gildara, but stronger. Like the entire world is pressing on his shoulders. “Mumby?”

Mumbo’s on the ground,  kneeling with fingers clutched in the forest floor. His shoulders rise and fall, and Grian realizes that the Forest of Memories was playing with Mumbo. Grian walks away from the group, keeping his spirits high and fighting off the tendrils of dark thoughts that tickle his mind. He reaches Mumbo’s side, kneeling on the red illuminated leyline. 

“Oh gods…” Grian whispers, seeing Mumbo’s eyes as he tips the mage’s face up. Veiled by mist, Mumbo’s sight has swirls of grey blinding him to reality. He’s trapped, deep inside the illusion that the Hangman’s Playground. And he’s losing control of his magic, sparks snapping free from fisted fingers, redstone saturating the ground around him. Grian reaches his hand out. 

Hands rest on Mumbo’s shoulder, holding him down. The voices are louder, angrier, filled with spite and hatred. Drowning out any sense of Mumbo’s rationale, he lets go of his magic. He unleashes it all onto the world. 

Mumbo grabs his father’s hand resting on his shoulder, and lets loose as much of his lightning that he can muster. 

The darkness shatters, and Mumbo sees that it wasn’t his father, or any guildmaster, bully, or even Dolios himself holding Mumbo down. But it’s too late to stop the bolts of energy as it crawls through his hands and runs up Grian’s ruddy skin. One more time, the Hangman’s Playground toys with him once more, letting him see the truth. Letting him watch as the uncontrolled magic surges through Grian, sending the young angel crashing to the ground. 

“Grian!” Xisuma cries out, abandoning the track of red, skidding to the ground at Grian’s side. Mumbo scrambles to his feet, stepping forward. But then he sees the ricocheting of lightning, jolts of lightning still searching for escape from Grian’s body, and the writhing pain that his friend is in. Charred black wings, just like the ones he saw in his illusion. Mumbo’s not in control of himself- was he ever?- and the power of uncontrolled magic fills his body, blinds his thoughts. From one extreme to another. 

He hurt Grian. He could hurt any one of the others. He’s horrified by his actions, the thoughts that led him here. He’s all or nothing- too weak or too strong, and either way it destroys those he loves most. 

The ground moves beneath his feet, the shouts and calls little more than white noise as the Forest of Memories replays that second over and over again in Mumbo’s mind. Hurting his best friend, hurting a fellow hermit. The hermits could be calling for him, calling for Grian, calling for the goddess of the dead for all he cared about. 

Mumbo just runs. Far away from the hermits, deep into the branching teeth, into the belly of the Forest of Memories.