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watcheraurora · 9 months ago

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Wing Lessons

This was supposed to be 1.2k words of simple silliness. I don’t know what happened. Just a little thing between "brothers." Takes place after Double Life 4.0k words

Potential CW: one very brief flashback with Mild Body Horror that can easily be skipped over. It's one paragraph that’s inspired by ezzriin’s Blackest Hand animatic

—

Knock-knock!

Creak!

"Grian?"

Grian looked up from his drafting table where he'd been planning out his next build. "What is it, Tim?" He pulled his glasses off and set his pencil down. He stood and approached the doorway, stretching out his wings as he did. He'd been sitting for a while and his bones were sore.

Jimmy shifted a little so the door was still blocking most of his body. "Could I ask a favor?" he asked.

"Depends on what it is," Grian replied.

"You know how I've been the first one out of the Games every single time?"

"Of course." Grian suppressed a giggle.

"Well... it's changed me. I'm... I'm not used to this."

"What do you mean?"

Jimmy finally pushed the door away from him.

Revealing small, juvenile wings poking out from his back. They were mostly brown with streaks of yellow. Not quite downy, not quite proper adult plumage either.

Jimmy, unable to meet Grian's eyes and turning red from embarrassment, cleared his throat. "Will you teach me how to preen them?"

Grian stared. "Canary wings," he said. Not a question. "They'll get more and more yellow the more they mature." He made a shooing motion. Jimmy backed up and Grian pursued him out of the office. "C'mon. Let me show you." He led Jimmy down the hall into the bathroom.

"When did you get yours?" Jimmy asked as Grian opened the medicine cabinet and pulled out a few wingcare tools. "You didn't have them in Evo."

Grian felt his wings twitch and try to puff up at that. He forced them to remain still. "Not long after I left," he replied. "What do you remember about how I left?"

"The Watchers took you. Said they were going to keep you."

Darkness, purplish lightning, the empty hoods and long sweeping robes. Screaming as wings tore themselves from his back and eyes began to open in the skin of his face—

"Something like that, yeah," Grian replied. "After I got away from them, I got wings." A simple lie. One Jimmy wouldn't see through.

Tucking his wings in close, Grian grabbed the back of his red jumper and pulled it off, leaving him in the collared white button-down he wore beneath it. Jimmy followed his lead, though he had on a blue button-down with the sleeves rolled up his arms and a white T-shirt underneath.

"Alright. So. First thing's first. It's best to rinse our wings in the shower first. Do not use soap on them. Just the water is enough. They sort themselves out much better without soap. After that, you'll want to ruffle them and puff them up to, sort of, reorder the feathers where they're supposed to be. You might need to do this with your hands too, if your feathers are too messy. Once they're in order, it's time for the oil. This brush right here—" He lifted the instrument in question. "—is to get the feathers closest to your spine that your hands can't reach, but it also spreads the oil from our uropygial glands over our feathers. Actual birds only have one gland and it's usually at the base of the tail. We don't have tails and we have a lot of normal skin in-between each wing. As such, we have one gland per wing. We also have much larger wings than any bird in existence. More glands, bigger glands, more oil. More surface area. You get the point."

The unfocused look in Jimmy's eyes betrayed that he did not, in fact, get the point.

Grian sighed. "Let me show you." He grabbed a tea towel and soaked it in the sink. "Stick your wing over the bath."

Jimmy did as he was told. Grian transferred the tea towel over and stood on the ledge of the bath to be tall enough to reach the top of Jimmy's wing. Jimmy was taller than Grian, and his wings were going to be much larger and longer. At the moment, his were a little smaller than Grian's, and not big enough to support Jimmy's weight for full flight. Grian already knew he'd be the one teaching Jimmy to fly. He wouldn't trust anyone else to do so. As Jimmy's older "brother," sure he would mess with him a lot, but Grian would never allow Jimmy to fall out of the sky.

He wrung out the tea towel over Jimmy's wing, then used the tub faucet to soak the towel again and again until the wing was thoroughly soaked. Goosebumps prickled across Jimmy's arms and he shuddered.

"Oi!" Grian protested. "No shaking off the water yet! I'm not done!"

"It's cold!"

"Yes, because the water has rinsed off the oil that keeps your wings insulated. We're going to be reapplying it. But you have to be patient and not shake off the water."

Jimmy shivered again, but not as dramatically. "Okay. I'll try to hold still."

A few minutes of squawking, slinging orders, and shouting at each other later, both of Jimmy's wings were sopping wet. In seconds, Grian had doused his own wings in water as well, somehow managing not to even get his shirt wet, despite Jimmy's T-shirt being soaked.

Grian took a tool off the bathroom counter and showed Jimmy how to ruffle and puff his feathers to put them back into place. The tool was used to carefully fix feathers that didn't easily fall back into place. Then passed the tool—like long, strong tweezers—over. Jimmy fluffed and shook and reordered his feathers.

"Like that?" he asked hopefully.

Grian assessed him. "Actually, yeah. Didn't expect you to get it right on the first try. Proud of you."

Jimmy looked flabbergasted at the compliment, but didn't have time to bask in it.

Grian scooped up the brush he'd showed off first. "This is where it gets complicated." He twisted and extended one wing straight backward, primary feathers brushing the wall. "Right there. In the middle of the base of my wing, see that dark spot?"

Jimmy leaned closer, eyebrows scrunched. "Oh! Yeah!"

"That's where the gland secretes the oil that we use to finish the process. I'll go fast on the first wing and then slow so you can see what I'm doing, but we have to spread that oil everywhere. It's how we waterproof, insulate, and protect the feathers from parasites and bad bacteria. Also, feathers are essentially dead like hair. So without the oil, they'll get dry and brittle and fall apart. Which is why preening is so important." He used the brush to drag the oil across the underside of his wing first, and then used the specialized, scoop-like brush bristles to carry it over to the backside of his wings.

Jimmy watched with a dropped jaw. "How do you do it so fast?"

Grian smiled. "Years of practice, Tim," he replied. "Don't expect yourself to do it this fast and still be thorough for your first year or two. Now let me do this one slow so you can actually see what I did."

Jimmy watched closely, bent close to Grian's wings, his own juvenile ones moving around with excited twitches. Wings were like a second facial expression to anyone who knew how to read them. And Jimmy's showed off how intrigued and excited he was to learn.

Grian hoped Jimmy was actually paying attention, rather than just looking without seeing. He doubted this would be the only time he taught Jimmy how to do this. And that was fine. Preening was a process. He'd had to teach himself after leaving the Watchers and it hadn't gone well. If he could make it easier for Jimmy than it had been for himself... well. Maybe that made up, somewhat, for all the teasing.

Once his second wing was freshly oiled, he cleaned his preening oil off the brush before handing it over.

"Why'd you clean it?" Jimmy asked.

"To avoid passing any bacteria or viruses from me to you," Grian answered. "Now. Hold your wing out behind you, like I did." Jimmy did as he was told. Grian guided Jimmy to look at himself in the mirror from the side. "See the oily spot?" He pointed to a dark patch of feathers that weren't fluffy like the rest of the air-dried plumage.

"Yeah!" Jimmy exclaimed.

Grian pointed to the brush. "That's where you're going to brush from. Careful not to go against the direction of the feathers if you can avoid it. You don't want to rip any of them out."

Carefully, he guided Jimmy's hands through the oiling process, boosting himself to sit on the bathroom counter when he was confident Jimmy could do it on his own with only verbal guidance, rather than physical assistance.

"By the way," he said when Jimmy was halfway through his second wing. "We'll get you your own preening tools. It's best for every Avian to have their own. To avoid passing along bacteria. Like how you wouldn't want to share a toothbrush with someone. It's fine for this one time because it's not actually exactly like sharing a toothbrush, but in the future, you'd be better served to have your own. You'll need a longer brush, I imagine."

"Why?" Jimmy asked.

Grian gave him a skeptical look. "Our wings are proportional to our heights. Yours are going to be significantly bigger and longer than mine. Just to reach around them to the back, you'll probably need a longer handle when they're fully mature."

"O-oh. Okay."

"I'll get a set ordered for you. Call it a birthday present."

"Awww! Thanks, Grian!"

Grian pulled his red jumper back on, easily slipping his wings through their slits in the back of it. His glamour on them—the one that made his plumage look like that of a parrot, rather than the purple-tinted-black of a Watcher—flickered for a moment. Jimmy was too absorbed in his own wings to notice.

"So how often do I have to do this?" Jimmy asked, tangled up in his own arms and feathers while he tried to finish his second wing.

Grian leaned back a bit on the counter, keeping his freshly-oiled wings away from the mirror to avoid smudging it, and crossed his legs. "Well... that's a good question. Ideally, every day. At maximum, every three days. Your feathers will get really itchy and uncomfortable if you wait even that long, but sometimes things happen and you won't have time."

"Every day?!" Jimmy squawked. "This takes forever!"

"That's because this is your first time," Grian said flatly. "If you preen every day, right after you shower, you'll be as quick as I am in no time and it'll be as much of a routine as brushing your teeth within a few weeks. Also, you missed a bit."

Jimmy spun in circles, looking for a patch of feathers that hadn't been oiled, using the mirror to see the backside.

Grian snorted. "Nah, I'm just kiddin'," he said.

"You absolute buffoon!" Jimmy exclaimed in frustration.

Grian hopped nimbly off the counter and dodged out of the bathroom. Jimmy pursued him, preening brush still in hand. They ran through the base. Jimmy was shouting and Grian was cackling.

The moment he pushed through a door and out into the fresh air, Grian's wings snapped out and he took off. A powerful downdraft blasted Jimmy's hair and feathers backward as Grian launched into the sky.

"You get back here, mister!" Jimmy called. "You get back here and—and—"

Grian cackled as he soared higher, spinning and rolling. Banking in a circle while Jimmy kept shouting for him. This high up, with the wind roaring in his ears, Grian couldn't hear him.

"What's that, Tim?" he teased. "I can't hear you!" He laughed harder. Jimmy was gesticulating wildly, trying to mime for Grian to land.

Grian didn't. Just twisted into an aileron roll and shot off. Laughing the whole time.

—

It only took a week for Jimmy's wings to fully mature. Given how quickly after the Games they manifested, Grian wasn't surprised that they matured fast.

Which was how he found himself standing opposite his "brother" next to a cliffside near the base via the Nether, letting the sun warm his feathers. Jimmy's wings had indeed grown much bigger than Grian's and were so blindingly bright yellow they almost hurt to look at.

"Alright, Timmy. Put these on." He handed over a pair of flight goggles. "You'll get used to the windburn in your eyes eventually. For now it's best to wear those."

Jimmy pulled them on—and Grian snorted so hard he hurt his throat.

"What?!" Jimmy demanded.

"You look ridiculous," Grian managed to say between giggles. "No matter, no matter." He fought to get himself back under control while Jimmy pouted. Grian took several deep breaths, reining himself in. "Okay. Lesson one: flying."

"Shouldn't lesson one be, like, taking off?"

Grian laughed. "No. Lesson one is learning how to fall. Lesson two is learning how to land. Lesson three is learning how to fly. And lesson four is learning how to take off."

"How... how am I supposed to learn in reverse order?" Jimmy asked.

"Easy. Like this."

Grian shoved Jimmy off the edge of the cliff. Jimmy was bigger and taller than Grian and should have been able to stand his ground easily. But nothing a little Watcher power couldn't overcome.

Jimmy screamed as he plummeted.

Grian cackled as he hurled himself over the cliff, wings tucked close to his spine, and dove after Jimmy.

He caught up, since Jimmy was fighting to fall slowly and Grian was diving.

"Spread your wings, Timmy! Face the ground and unfurl them!"

"I can'tIcan'tIcan't!" Jimmy cried.

Grian eased his wings a little bit out to help guide him. He got close to Jimmy and grabbed his hands. "Come on! I'm holding onto you. I won't let you crash! Let them out!" He twisted so his back was facing the ground and Jimmy was above him.

Screaming, Jimmy unfurled his wings.

His falling momentum arrested abruptly.

Grian let him go, flipped over, and snapped his own out. Wind filled his feathers like sails. He navigated so he was gliding beside Jimmy. Their wings were so long that they were nearly thirty feet apart.

"Grian! Grian, I'm doing it! I'm flying!" Jimmy screeched, voice high-pitched.

Grian laughed. "Not yet! You're gliding. You fell, and now you're coasting." He lowered his wing closest to Jimmy and swept below him so they could be a bit closer to talk. "Step two is learning how to land! And it's best to run into your landing so you don't just drop and destroy your knees." He pointed toward a beach not far from the cliff. "Dip your left wing and we'll glide over there. You can watch me before trying for yourself!"

Jimmy struggled, but managed to angle himself into a bank heading for the beach.

Grian dipped and plunged through the air toward the ground. Jimmy followed at a much shallower angle. Grian pulled up at the last possible moment to slow down significantly. He banked in a circle like a vulture to get even slower as he lowered himself toward the ground. He got his legs under him and braced them to run the second they hit the ground. Jimmy kept circling overhead.

Grian ran into his landing. He could land without a run at this point, but he was a Watcher—too durable and immortal to royally screw up his joints. And he needed to teach Jimmy the easy way first.

Once he stopped and looked up, he snapped his wings back out and threw himself back into the sky. "Your turn! I won't let you crash!"

Jimmy screamed the whole way down as he spiraled ever closer to the beach. Grian stayed in tight formation just above, carefully monitoring. He had an instinct for flying now—

And he knew Jimmy was coming in too hot. At the wrong angle.

Jimmy seemed to realize it too. He was still screaming, but it got louder and more frantic.

Grian pulled up short and flapped in place, hovering as best he could. He lashed one hand out, the other wound back behind him. Both of them with strained fingers.

Purple light surrounded Jimmy and adjusted his angle. He slowed down until he was at nearly a standstill and stumbled to a landing.

Grian released the power holding Jimmy and twisted into a sharp dive, landing only a wings-length from Jimmy. "Bad angle, Timmy," he said.

Jimmy whirled. "How did you do that?!"

"Do what?"

"You stopped me from falling. I don't know how—but you did it!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Grian said flatly, just the right amount of obliviousness in his eyes for Jimmy to believe it.

"Then how did I land?"

"Favorable wind, is my guess." It was so difficult not to smile or giggle.

"Do I get to learn how to take off now?"

"Nope," Grian said. "We're going to hike back to the clifftop and we're going to jump again so you can learn to fly first. There's no use knowing how to take off if you don't know what to do afterwards."

"We have to hike?!" Jimmy complained.

Grian gave him a look. "Coming from the athletic one between the two of us," he said sarcastically, already heading for the path that would lead them back to the top.

Jimmy sighed dramatically and ran to catch up. "Grian—Grian—talk me through it while we walk, yeah? Once we get up there, how do I fly?"

"I believe in learning as it happens," Grian said blithely. "Besides, you don't listen."

"I do too!" Jimmy protested, blustering a bit. "Just—just talk me through it! Like, the flapping or whatever."

Grian snickered. "Fine."

He gave very thorough, clear instructions the whole way up. Jimmy looked overwhelmed about two minutes in. But, at the very least he looked like he was trying to understand. He asked questions and sought clarification.

Soon enough, they were back atop the cliff.

"Okay. Just hop off and give it a try, then," Grian said. "Running jump to give you as much outward momentum as possible."

Swallowing hard, Jimmy backed up several long steps, looking at the ocean beyond the cliff. "Okay. Okay, okay, okay. I got this. I'm Big Man Jim. I can do this. I can fly." He nodded to himself. "I'm gonna fly. I will."

He ran toward the precipice.

And stopped within a foot of the edge. "I can't do this! I can't just yeet myself off the side of a cliff! Into midair! I can't." He shook his head, staring over the drop.

Grian rolled his eyes. "Oh, for goodness' s—" One quick pull and push of his arm smacked Jimmy in the back with a gust of wind that sent him off the edge screaming again. Grian ran to the edge and launched himself off. "Get your wings out, Tim!" he shouted.

Thankfully, Jimmy figured that bit out. He righted himself and got back into gliding position. Grian dove beneath him, coming back into the same formation as before.

"Okay! Now remember what we talked about! Flapping for height and distance. Banking for direction. We'll get to rolls and tricks in a long time."

Jimmy nodded, gathering his courage back up.

He started—slowly—navigating the sky.

"Yes! That's how you do it! Tim, you're doing amazing!" Grian shouted. He churned the air with his wings and surged up to follow after Jimmy.

"Grian! Grian, I'm flying!" Jimmy shrieked. An ear-to-ear grin covered his face.

Grian laughed, brushing the outside tips of his primary flight feathers against the tips of Jimmy's in a moment of reassurance. Before he flipped into an aileron roll and came to a glide on Jimmy's other side.

"How'd you do that?"

"Practice." Grian took a deep breath. "Feel that warm breeze? Use it to ride higher. It's an updraft!"

Jimmy caught a couple more meters of altitude, but when Grian hit the same updraft, he soared much higher, laughing with joy and glee.

They flew around for a little bit, practicing, before Grian came to a gentle glide above Jimmy. "Ready to practice landing again? Are your wings getting tired?"

"A bit."

"Let's land. Then we'll do a quick takeoff lesson, land again, and then call it a day."

Jimmy nodded.

Instead of returning to the beach, they landed at the top of the cliff. Jimmy managed to catch the angle much easier since he hadn't gotten too much higher than it this time. He ran into his landed much smoother. Grian just dropped onto the ground and tucked his wings back easily.

"Not bad. Now, for takeoff, it's easier to take a running start. Fill up your wings with air, and such. Standing takeoff is a lot harder. Let's start with the running."

"Okay. Yeah. Okay."

"I'll show you first." Grian opened his wings and took off at a dead sprint before beating his wings at the air and taking to the sky.

Jimmy followed. Taller, longer legged, and more athletic, he hit the air with his take off quicker and stronger, surging upward.

Grian cheered. Jimmy laughed hysterically, like he didn't believe he'd done it.

"Grian! It worked!"

Still in the air, Grian managed a pretend bow. "You've learned from the best, my young apprentice," he teased in a goofy voice.

They both banked into an easy landing. Jimmy snatched Grian into a bone-crushing hug, still careful to avoid his wings. "Ooooh! Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Grian chuckled. "You're welcome, Tim." He squirmed out of the hug and took a few steps back. "Nether portal home?"

Jimmy nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah." His face was flushed with windburn and exhilaration as he pulled the flight goggles down around his neck. "That was the most amazing thing I've ever done. It's so much cooler than an Elytra!"

"Harder, but better," Grian said. "The Elytra and rockets do most of the work for you when it comes to landing and taking off, but flying under your own power is much more rewarding."

Jimmy nodded enthusiastically.

They hiked a short way to the Nether portal they'd made on the way here and ducked into it.

The journey through the Nether wasn't long. The whole way back, Grian was lost in thought as Jimmy rambled.

It had been a long time since he truly appreciated the gift the Watchers had given him by giving him wings. He took them for granted. But watching Jimmy discover the joys of real flight, not just Elytra gliding, reminded him of when he first learned to fly properly and thought it was the most amazing thing.

He glanced over at his younger "brother"—who had no memory of how Grian had been torn away from Evo and turned into a Watcher, whose wings were the result of a Canary Curse—and the smile still covering Jimmy's face was enough to make him smile himself.

Yeah. Being a Watcher wasn't always so bad, if it meant he got to share fun experiences like this with his friends.

One quick beat of his wings got him up high enough to sling his arm around Jimmy's neck and give him an affectionate, soft noogie. "I'm glad it got to be me, to teach you how to fly, Tim."

Jimmy, his big hazel-brown eyes suddenly getting a little misty, smiled. "Me too, Grian. Even if you did push me off the cliff." He gave Grian a playful shove. Grian shoved him back. They started pushing each other all the way back to the Nether portal that would take them back to their overworld base, laughing and calling out playful jibes at one another, tumbling through the portal home.

#cw: body horror #(briefly)#Traffic Light SMP fic #Jimmy Solidarity #Grian #Watcher!Grian #Aurora Writes #Rory Writes

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katkat030 · 2 months ago

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I remember you mentioning “The Watchers”, who are they? Can you tell me some lore behind them?

This is a rabbit hole that I don’t fully have time to go down myself right now but there’s a gold mine of information here and it can be split into about 3 parts.

From what I know:

There’s the original Watcher lore which is canon to Grian’s Evolution SMP, which started in 2017 and ended just over a year later. My knowledge of the SMP is mostly second hand, but the premise of it was to run through all updates of minecraft in order from the earliest version (buggy, grainy, fairly difficult to survive) to the more recent ones (transitioning bit by bit into the game we know today)

Evo smp and watcher lore is really concisely explained in a tumblr post here.

from the Evo wiki: Grian's final episode of the server was of the dragon fight, where he joined The Watchers when everyone jumped through the portal after killing the dragon. His joining of the Watchers had a modified end screen poem, where a text color representing Grian and additional text mentioning some of the other Evo members was added in. if you follow the link to The Watchers you’ll get more information on what exactly they are!

Grian talked about Evo and the watchers briefly in a podcast a good few years back (co-run by the same person who voices the Hermitcraft recap actually, Pixlriffs!) - when he joined Hermitcraft in Season 6, it's my understanding that his version of watcher lore ended with Evo. Canonically, Hermitcraft!Grian isn’t influenced by them at all. This isn’t the case in fan lore, which I’ll touch on later. There happen to be some incredibly interesting example of a what-if-they-do-follow/influence/kidnap/affect-him by talented writers, so if you want fanfic recommendations just ask :3

Where it gets really interesting is that creator Martyn, ign InTheLittleWood, decided to continue a version of watcher lore. This "eyesandears" (<- tumblr tag for it. Will contain spoilers) watcher lore is only canon to his interpretation of the series, and isn’t a server-wide thing that others incorporate into their videos. This runs throughout the life series and includes cryptic poems/rhymes, elaborate reasonings for why canonical events took place, Jimmy’s canary curse, who remembers the events of previous seasons and so on.

Note that the life series isn’t scripted, and has very loose guidelines for how players should act besides adhering to the rules. Martyn therefore has the story adapt as the series evolves (pun unintended), and a great example of this was his stream after limited life (life series iteration number 4) ended. He’s also on tumblr, because of course. This is his vod - I don’t have the time to go through it again myself. It contains lots of spoilers, but if you hang around in the fandom long enough you’ll begin to recognise the winners of each season and a few key events/alliances/betrayals/plot points regardless. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As far as I know, none of the other life series creators really know much about this or keep this in mind when the life series is going. It doesn’t influence them, nor does Martyn seem to go out of his way to incorporate huge amounts of it into his own pov. The lore adapts to what the players do, not the other way around.

There’s also the fanon (fan canon) watcher lore which is incredibly well (and quickly!) covered by Ezzriin, I’ll link that video here - this is more important for understanding why Grian’s depicted the way he is (and exactly what that usually entails).

The links I’ve included explain things better and more concisely than I can. Martyn’s 2 hour vod may take some time to get through, but I recommend at least checking out the others! :)

#Not sure how to go about tagging this and I’m too tired to like. Edit it. So I’ll keep it brief #watcher lore #Hermitcraft #The life series itself isn’t huge either. You could get away with watching like eight 30-minute episodes for each of the 6 seasons*#*real life was an April fools joke and there’s only one video per creator. However I’m calling it canon. There are 5 full length seasons #so far and another one on the horizon. So it takes about 4 hours (depends on the pov) per season (5 times) +30mins to catch up to live #Life series smp #Trafficblr #Hope this answers your question #It’s quite a big thing in the fandom but easy enough to summarise #Edit: looking at Grian’s “_ life: the movie” episode compilation here. 3.5+4.5+3+4+5.5 hours. I can watch that again /delusional

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