#bdubs and his fucked up pets my beloved

[dmwrites]

The monolith wasn’t something Grian had really taken a real gander at before. This occurred to him one sunny morning, as he was stretching his wings with a glide around spawn town. He’d spent so much time with the entity and his mega base, and already, it seemed, the hermitsippi and the buildings that lined it were cloaked in nostalgia.

But, back to the monolith. The thing stuck out like a white pencil in the sky as Grian soared over to it and landed on top. He sighed in contentment- the diorite that it was made of was just starting to warm up, and it was quiet up here, with just a touch of wind chimes coming from the giant birch tree nearby. Grian was pretty sure it was called the Whimsical Tree or something. Pretty thing.

“Grian?”

“Oh, hey Bdubs.” Grian turned to smile at his friend. “I didn’t know you were home! Hope you don’t mind me taking a rest up here- it’s so nice.”

Bdubs smiled and came up the stairs the rest of the way. “Not at all, darling Grian. You know you’re welcome to anything. What’s mine is yours and all that.”

“Thanks bud.” Grian closed his eyes and lifted his face to the sun. “Honestly, I haven’t seen you around much. Where have you been?”

“Oh, I’ve been all over. Traveling, making puzzles, tending to the Tree of Whimsey. Oh, and I got the nicest surprise from Keralis the other day! Do you wanna see?”

“Sure!” Grian opened his eyes and flew down with Bdubs to the ground.

“So, as you know, Lulu was my beautiful and perfect horse from last season. And now I have Mi Amore and Mi Amore 2, which are both wonderful horses, but nothing compared to my Lulu.” Bdubs whispered the last part of the sentence to him. “But, here I was the other day, just feeding the Amores, and Keralis showed up, and you won’t believe who he had in tow! Lulu!” Bdubs pointed down, and Grian found himself looking at a painted pig.

“Oh… wow.” The pig was painted stark white, with the precision of someone who builds hyper-realistic houses, and had the green leather armor Grian remembered Lulu the horse wearing. It even had a saddle. But it was most certainly a pig. Grian looked at Bdubs, trying to see any hint of a joke in his big ol’ eyes. There was nothing but pure joy. “Wow, I can’t believe he just found Lulu like that. She looks so good!” Grian made a mental note to talk to Keralis later about his scamming skills- clearly the man was an expert.

“Oh thank you, she’s such a pretty lady.” Bdubs pat the pig on the rump. “But, not only that, I also found Squawkers!”

“Squawkers?” Grian asked.

“My parrot from last season. I thought he was gone forever, but I found him wandering around spawn, of all places! Silly thing. I keep him inside, though. He’s skittish. Come, let me show you.” He waved Grian inside the monolith. Up a couple of dizzying flights of white stairs, and they came to a small room with a bed and seeds in a bucket. “Look at him! My Squawkers ! He’s looking a bit yellow, maybe from the trip between season worlds, but still, here he is!”

The thing was, that wasn’t a bird sitting on the bed. Sure, maybe if you stretched the truth, you could pretend like a pig was a horse. But sitting on the bed wasn’t an animal at all, but a man. A man that Grian knew all too well.

“Timmy?”

“What? No, no, his name is Squawkers.” Bdubs gently corrected him.

The blonde man was sitting on the bed, completely still and silent. He was full size, the way Grian remembered him, but it was like he was a doll. Except dolls can’t breathe, and he was. Alive, but not fully... here. Yet. Grian’s body felt icy cold all of a sudden. Yet. Why had he thought yet?

“You know what? I feel like something is off with Squawkers. Would you agree?” Bdubs cocked his head at Jimmy.

“Uh, yeah.” Grian choked out. He felt dizzy.

“Yeah…. He looks more like a canary now. Maybe it’s the lighting, I don’t know.” Bdubs tapped his chin to indicate he was thinking.

Grian had only seen Jimmy two times before, and both times ended in gruesome deaths of his friends. Grian knew who Jimmy was, and understood, in a fuzzy way, what this meant. Many things clicked in his mind all at once. Scar with his bow, saying he couldn’t understand why he felt the need to shoot. xB with his own bow, seemingly everywhere, just watching, on edge, all the time. Tango lettting Gem kill him over and over, both of them laughing and covered in his blood. The diamond pillar war in all its bloody glory. How Grian felt more alive there then all of the rest of this season so far combined. He looked to Bdubs, and for a second he wasn’t the handsome moss man, but the battle-worn fighter telling him that Etho loved him.

“No…” Grian whispered. If Jimmy was here, it could only mean one thing. The battle was coming back, the game with one victor was about to begin. And it wasn’t going to happen in a far off land this time. The war was coming here. The bloodlust was about to truly begin, and yes, Jimmy really did look like a canary now.