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bluuedraws · 9 months ago

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What’s this? A new fic? Yes, yes it is.

Chapter One

Slam!

Xelqua flings the door closed behind him, shaking fingers fumbling for the lock as he quickly glances around. He’s panting hard, chest heaving as he bends over, hands on quivering knees. He doesn’t rest long before he lowers himself to the ground, wings splaying out behind him, nearly falling over in the process.

He has to be quick. He can’t be caught.

If he is, it’s over.

Taking a deep breath to settle his nerves, Xelqua opens his Eyes. They snap open immediately, effortlessly. It’s as natural as breathing. He can still remember when it was the hardest thing he’d ever done, taking him months to learn how to keep them open for longer than a second. Now, it’s second nature.

Xelqua shakes his head once, shutting down the memories as quickly as they came. He doesn't have time for this, not now. Not when They could find him at any moment.

Deep breath in, deep breath out. Ignore the fluttering in his stomach.

(Wham!)

Again, he opens his Eyes, but this time with a concentrated intensity. Worlds upon worlds stretch out before him, tickling his fingers as he reaches out a hesitant hand.

Which one, which one…

(Wham!)

His teeth grind together, anxiety sparking through his chest as he looks faster, scanning worlds with a growing panic. All of them are multiplayer and heavily populated. No, no that won’t work, he needs a single player world, one where he can hide properly-

(Wham!)

Fingers dance in the air, Eyes flicking back and forth frantically. Xelqua can feel his rising anxiety, growing and expanding in his chest. His breaths are short and quick, barely audible even in the silence of the room.

…the previously silent room, that is.

Xelqua jerks his head up as the sound registers, ringing in his ears and heart in his throat. The door flies off its hinges, crashing to the ground mere inches from his left wing. It’s smashed to pieces, and as Xelqua spins around, he realizes who has found him. Swirling purple magic greets him, and he’s slammed against the wall with such force he’s left breathless.

No, no no no nonononono-

“O⍑, ||ᒷᓭ” a voice whispers in the darkness. “What a pathetic attempt, Xelqua.”

“Go away!”

He screeches and lunges for the worlds, still visible in front of him, dancing just out of reach. He no longer cares which one he chooses, just so long as it’s far, far away from here so he’ll be safe-

A hand catches his outstretched arm and flips him sideways, slamming him to the ground. Xelqua rolls away, shoulder aching and arm spiking with pain, but the adrenaline pumping through his body refuses to let him sit still. He lunges again, but is met with glowing talons that slash his face, his arms, his chest, and pin him to the ground in a spray of blood.

“ᓭℸ ̣ 𝙹!¡ ℸ ̣ ⍑╎ᓭ! This is not a battle you can win!”

The claws tighten as blood drips down his arm, his face, into his eyes. Everything is red and Xelqua can’t breathe, he can’t move but he has to, he needs to get out get out GET OUT-

“I ∴𝙹リ’ℸ ̣ ! I WON’T GO BACK, I WON’T!”

The Galactic escapes him in his panic, and Xelqua kicks the thing off his chest, pushing magic into his legs to fling them farther. He leaps forward, half blind and body screaming in pain as he desperately reaches for a world, any world, he just needs to LEAVE.

His hand grabs something, and he clutches it to his chest tightly, desperately, as if it’s his very own soul and he won’t lose it again, he won’t-

But the world resists, deflecting his every attempt to get in. Whoever this world’s admin is, they’re a powerful one. Panic rising in his chest, Xelqua slashes at the wall that keeps him out, ripping and shredding until there’s a hole big enough for a person to slip through. He feels his pursuer nearby, mere seconds away from discovering his escape, and his heart leaps into his throat.

No no NO NO NONONONONO-

With a last desperate tear, Xelqua flings himself through the hole, his body on fire and tears streaming from his eyes.

He’s falling, falling fast, and he can’t tell what’s up or down, whether he made it through or was caught, just seconds from escape. The world fades from black to white to a sudden burst of color, and he shuts his eyes against the blinding light engulfing him. His head spins, everything spins, a twisted rollercoaster that he can never get off of. He feels sick, so sick, his head about to split open from the pain of the never ending fall. The world fades, everything fades, his body feels heavy and light at the same time, floating in the air.

Xelqua sighs, and lets himself drift into the black.

Xisuma has never seen anything like it before. He peers closer to the screen in front of him, hands frantically typing as he stares at the lines of code that are dissolving in front of his eyes. It’s as if something is tearing open the firewall, destroying the code that the admin had put so much time and care into to keep his hermits safe. Xisuma had thought he’d done a pretty good job, but fear sparks through his chest as he watches… watches something break its way in effortlessly, shredding his precious code to pieces.

He works with unmatched concentration, fighting against the thing forcing its way into the server, but it was a losing battle to begin with. Xisuma can barely keep it out 5 minutes before, finally, it shatters the last barrier between them.

“Shit!” The curse surprises him, causing him to stumble as he springs to his feet. He’s not usually one to curse, but honestly? It feels appropriate. Xisuma grabs his communicator and hurriedly types out a message to the group.

>>Xisumavoid<<

Emergency meeting at spawn, now. Everyone needs to be there. Something just broke through the firewall, so be on your guard. See you soon.

He ignores the immediate storm of shocked responses, instead shoving the console deep into his pocket, strapping on his elytra, and rocketing out of his base. He has to be the first to spawn. There’s a small chance the intruder would have appeared there, despite their unceremonious entrance to the world. If there’s any chance it’s hostile, Xisuma isn’t going to put any of his hermits in danger because of his failure. This is his problem, and he needs to solve it. As the admin slowly descends from the sky, he can make out two figures standing below him. Anxiety spiking, Xisuma quickly drops to the ground to see Scar and Mumbo already there, and deep in conversation. Relief fills him as he realizes they’re alone..

It doesn’t seem to be anywhere nearby…

“Hello Mumbo, Scar.” Xisuma lands with a soft thump beside the pair, startling Scar despite his soft touchdown.

“Oh! Xisuma, you scared me!” Scar’s bright laughter helps calm his nerves a little, bringing a bit of calm back to his thoughts. Honestly, just standing near Scar is an incredible cure for his anxiety. The man is so bright and bubbly, one of the kindest people you’ll ever meet. Xisuma has never met anyone quite like him before.

“Sorry Scar, but I must admit I have a few things on my mind right now, so I might not be very attentive at the moment.” Xisuma smiles apologetically before quickly checking his communicator for any updates.

It looks like everyone will be here soon.

“Yeah, about that X. What on earth do you mean something broke through the firewall? You can’t just say that and then go silent!” Mumbo fiddles with his hands, obviously nervous. His mouth is twitching as he fixes the admin with an anxious gaze. “Isn’t the wall supposed to be hacker-proof?”

Xisuma sighs, hand reaching for his hair but blocked by his helmet. He tries to pass off the movement as if he was just brushing something off as he thinks about how to answer.

“Yes, I thought so too. But I should save the explanation for when everyone is here. Better to only explain it once, that way we have more time.”

After a moment's hesitation, Mumbo reluctantly nods in agreement. The three of them sit in silence until more players begin to arrive, filling in the courtyard and chattering nervously. When it’s finally clear that everyone had arrived, Xisuma clears his throat and steps forward. Immediately silence settles over the crowd as all eyes turn to him.

“Hello all, thank you for coming on such short notice. I have some worrying news for you all. Something has broken into the server.”

This much is already known, although the confirmation does warrant a few gasps. Intrusion on a protected server such as this is practically unheard of. Xisuma is honestly surprised that no one is panicking yet. Even anxiety riddled Mumbo has managed to keep calm, with the help of Scar and a few other Hermits. Xisuma continues.

“I watched myself as whatever it is absolutely destroyed the firewall and slipped into the world. We don’t know whether they’re hostile or not, so please, everyone, be careful. I’ll need volunteers for patrolling, we’ll have to set up guards around the clock until we find this thing.”

Almost immediately after the words have left his mouth, several hands are raised. Xisuma nods his thanks to them before addressing the crowd.

“Thank you for the immediate volunteers. Scar, Keralis, Mumbo and Ren can patrol first. Pick any area nearby, and search it thoroughly. After a couple hours report back to me. In the meantime, I’ll be working on finding out anything else I can. Be careful, everyone. Stay vigilant.”

With that final note, Xisuma ends the meeting with a sigh. He feels exhaustion sweep over him, but he keeps his shoulders back and chin up. Showing weakness now would only spark fear. Xisuma walks over to Scar and Mumbo, the first to arrive and the last to leave. He gives them a small smile, before saying, “You be careful, ok? Don’t be afraid to ask me for help.”

“We know, X, but the same stands for you, alright? Don’t worry yourself to bits when we can help.” Scar fixes him with a stern glare, and Xisuma cracks another smile, nods, and turns. It’s time to go home.

He has a long night of coding waiting for him.

Something soft brushes against Xelqua’s face, swishing against his his jaw and tickling his nose. The feeling is so nice, so out of place from his usual life that he nearly lets himself fall back into the comforting blackness he’d been floating in just moments before. He lays there, relishing in the feeling, when suddenly pain spikes through his body. His eyes shoot open and he sits up with a gasp, frantically glancing around. The sudden movement sends more waves of pain through his body, and he winces again, bringing a tentative hand up to his cheek. It comes away red.

Xelqua quickly opens his Eyes and surveys himself, taking in every cut and bruise. His forehead has a relatively shallow cut on it, but seems to refuse to close. Blood still drips from the gash, pooling against his cheek and dripping down his cloak. His arms are marred with deep cuts, still trickling blood. He has quite a few bruises, but nothing seems broken, thankfully. His worst wound, however, is the one on his chest. It’s deep, very deep, and the constant stabbing pain causes his eyes to fill with black dots. Xelqua pants on the ground, clutching the ruined fabric of his robe against his chest in an effort to relieve some of the pain. It does nothing, of course, and he squeezes his eyes shut against the agony.

Where am I?

He’s sitting in a field, grass pressed against his legs and the sun shining down upon him.

Oh, the sun. How he’s missed the sun.

Obviously he’d managed to escape, or else he wouldn’t have waken up in the first place. He should be glad to feel anything, even pain. It means he’s alive.

But how long would he stay that way? How long until They found him again? The thought forces him to his feet despite the pain, and he stands there, panting and holding his chest, wings drooping against the ground, too exhausted to do much else. Move. He has to move. If he can find somewhere safe, he can rest, he can plan. Safety first, questions later.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Xelqua places one shaking leg in front of the other. He’s moving, very slowly but honestly? Who cares? As long as he was getting closer to safety.

What felt like hours, maybe years of pain-filled steps and heaving breaths, Xelqua finally spots a cave in the distance, overgrown and covered with vines. Shelter. With what feels like the last dregs of his strength, he hauls himself to the entrance and drops to the ground, too tired to move even an inch further. His eyes close, limbs still against the cold rock.

He hopes he’s hidden enough here, because there’s no way he’ll summon the strength to move again. Even now his thoughts are slipping away, falling back into that peaceful nothingness he’d come to treasure so much. He sighs, one last thought drifting through his head before he loses consciousness.

I made it.

Hope you all enjoy <3

Many thanks to @desertduality for the advice and support! Yes, I was the desperate anon begging for advice xD

Your support meant the world, and even though this chapter is fairly short, I’m so proud of how it turned out ^^

#fan fiction #Writing #Grian Watcher lore #Grian is Xelqua #Goodtimeswithscar #Gtws #Convex Scar #hermitcraft #Hermitcraft season 6 #minecraft #Mcyt #desert duo #Scarian #Xisuma #Keralis #mumbo jumbo #Rendog

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mummyscarian · 9 days ago

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Mumbo Stole Grian's Soul, and How it Connects to the Life Series

Alternatively, Mumbo Stole Grian's Soul, and How it Saved Everyone.

When Mumbo stole Grian's soul, he really stole it. Like he actually, genuinely stole it---the whole thing. All of it became his. Or, well, not his, exactly---it was still Grian's soul, but it was just in Mumbo's body, yeah?

Mumbo stole it to become human---it was a whole thing, really, he kept turning into a potato, and a golden carrot, and then a pig---oh, it was horrible! And he just needed to be human again. So, of course, the next logical decision was to steal his best friend's soul. Of course.

Grian wasn't exactly thrilled at first---well, he thought it was a joke at first. Mumbo insisted it wasn't, but, well, you can't actually steal someone's soul, can you? Grian went along with the joke, but he didn't feel any different, didn't feel empty or however one was supposed to feel when your soul was missing. Maybe Mumbo meant it metaphorically anyway. Regardless, the moon was big, and they were Watching.

Last Life. A new rendition of the death games the Watchers loved to put him through. And Mumbo was there. Why was Mumbo there? No matter---their minds were not their own, and the Boogeymen were coming. There was no time to think, only to survive. Watching Eyes, Listening Ears, there was never a real escape.

Mumbo died by Grian's own hands, and something felt weird about the world. He could feel it in the air---did everything become just a little more clear? When he looked up, why could he see them Watching? As the Finale neared, he could Remember. This was a death game. He was only meant to Watch---but he chose to Play.

When he died, he Watched. When Scott stood on that tree, and the Watchers started to reach---Grian defied them.

/kill Smajor1995.

He was not supposed to be able to defy Them. He always tried, of course, because who was he if not Grian, the prankster? But, regardless, he could not have defied them in their own world, where they were in control. To send a command like that, to destroy the sanctity of their game?

...Did he have that ability the whole time? The power to---No. He didn't. In 3rd Life, he was powerless. What made Last Life any different? The Watchers kept a grip on him as tight as the other Players, molding his mind into whatever they wanted, making him do horrible things to his friends.

Grian never knew what made it different. The moon was big.

Then it was Season Nine.

Mumbo---well, Last Life wasn't exactly pleasant. His mind hadn't been the greatest lately---not strictly because of Last Life, mind you. He was going through a bit of a slump. Everything had calmed down, after the moon and Last Life, and people were moving on, but he still felt uneasy, and lost, and burnt out. He... needed a break. A vacation.

So, with great hesitancy, and lots of doubt, he took one---went to see what else was out in the world. Hiked, biked, and saw all sorts of beautiful sights. And it... helped, truly, it did. It cleared his mind. He felt...

...human?

Without Mumbo, Grian felt like his soul was missing. Which was weird to say, he knew, because Mumbo had "stolen" his soul, but he just meant it metaphorically, alright? Grian without Mumbo---what was he?

He brought Grumbot back, but it still didn't feel the same. He missed his friend. And he knew it was good for Mumbo, but he still couldn't help but miss him the normal amounts (okay, maybe not the normal amounts, but that was beside the point, alright?).

He still couldn't help but wonder why Last Life ended the way it did, and why the Watchers were so silent. Grian tried to find out if he was somehow stronger, despite revoking his powers before---the Rift. Was it Grumbot, or was it him? He wasn't sure.

Then Double Life happened. And there was no Mumbo.

Things felt weird. Well, things felt normal, but slightly to the left, for a death game. Grian was distinctly aware it was a death game. They all knew it was, but there was always that fog that kept them from truly questioning, from truly fighting it. Complacent. Single-minded. Dependent. ...Violent. Aggressive. Unforgiving. Bloodthirsty.

He could still feel it, but he felt too aware of it. He could Watch the Watchers Watching them.

Double Life---it was short. Grian tried to push against the code keeping them all trapped, but, being bound to Scar---well, maybe Grian got too focused on trying to keep his soulbound (soul?) alive and, by proxy, himself as well.

Watching the Watchers Watch Pearl and Scott---They had more precautions this time, keeping Grian under Watch too. They were... wary. Cautious. Which meant they didn't know how Grian had slipped out from their grasp either.

Hope bloomed for the first time in a long time. A way to fight back, a way to save his friends from the death games---but how? Why? What happened, what was different---

Souls.

The Watchers controlled your soul. They changed its code to change you. Grian knew this very well. They had done this to his own soul many, many times. To his friends' souls.

Mumbo had stolen Grian's soul.

...He had literally stolen Grian's soul.

Grian could have laughed---he did laugh. That bastard. That loveable bastard! And he didn't even realize what he had done!

If Mumbo had Grian's soul, the Watchers couldn't bend him and break him. Grian... was free.

Well. Not entirely. Maybe Grian's soul was free, hidden where the Watchers couldn't find it (because who stole somebody's soul, seriously?). But his friends'...? They weren't. And as long as the Watchers had them... He wouldn't be free either. They used them like pawns to keep him trapped, all as punishment for daring to deny their divine gifts.

...But now he had a trick up his sleeve. A piece of the platform to stand on.

Going AFK during Limited Life was risky, but he trusted his Bad Boys' to protect him. Protect his body. (And Mumbo, unknowingly, or well, a little knowingly now, as of course Grian had told him when he returned from his vacation, protected his soul.) While his... not his mind, exactly, but another part of himself, confronted the Watchers.

This season was prime to be a bloodbath, but it would be the last of its kind, he swore to them. He demanded of them. It was a relentless argument on both sides---Grian wanted his friends to be safe and they threatened to harm them, while Grian withheld what they wanted most. Him.

The Watchers were a possessive bunch, and Grian---Xelqua---was theirs. They wanted him back, they wanted their Watcher back, he was one of Them, and they could not accept that he had dared to leave them. Could not fathom why he would.

There was a compromise---unwilling on both sides.

And so Secret Life was born.

Mumbo was there, and Grian was too scared to get too close to him, for fear that the Watchers would Look a little too close and See. He couldn't choose which players were dragged into these games, and the Watchers had their favorite victims (thankfully, Mumbo wasn't one of them, it seemed, even if he was the coal miner to the canary).

It was a fight for control, the Watchers unwilling to give it up, and Grian forcing himself onto the scene. Tasks, carefully crafted to be both frustrating and fun for His players (and sometimes just violent enough to satisfy their Hunger). Ups and downs, gives and takes. Tasks submitted by Watchers themselves---but the Boogeyman curse was all his own. See? He could make it entertaining, too. He understood what they wanted, and would give it to them, but only if they played by his rules.

Demise was a threat.

Interfere with their beloved "life" games, and They would take all of HermitCraft and force them into the games. Force them into worse. Take them, and control them, forever (just like Evo).

Real Life was a test.

It felt like loosing, to Grian. And, well, he did loose, actually. Out first, in his own game? Ridiculous. But... He felt like he lost everything he had worked so hard to create. Or, well, no, he felt like all that time spent running, and hiding, and creating a new him, trying to get himself away from the Watchers---it was for nothing. He... was submitting to them.

Of course, he knew it wasn't exactly that. He was still a Player, still him, and this was the only way to keep his friends safe. To convince the Watchers that he could run the games himself. To convince them that he was still a Watcher (it burned. It burned. He didn't want to be).

Running Real Life was difficult---he hadn't used his Watcher powers like this in... well, ever, really, to create a whole reality? He'd never gone that far. It was short lived, and, strangely, very nauseous.

But, somehow, it got the point through. He passed the test.

Wild Life was all his own. Weeks---months---spent carefully crafting a fun game for his friends, as though to apologize for everything he'd inadvertently subjected them to. He got to choose the players, and, to his surprise, they all wanted to come---even...

Even Mumbo.

Grian almost didn't want to invite him. But wouldn't that be suspicious, inviting them all but him? For them all to join but him? Mumbo would understand---but, in the end, he joined.

And he teamed with Grian. And it felt... so right. So perfect. Somehow, the death game didn't even feel like a death game. Him, Skizz, and Mumbo---the Sub-one Club! Or, well, the Floaters---or, actually, the Spanners! Yes, the Spanners! Grian almost felt at home. Being in control, the others knowing what He was and accepting him, creating a fun game for his friends. This was---well, it was just perfect! And he loved it! He loved it! It's what he had always wanted, back when 3rd Life was supposed to be his, and now, he had it! Everything he wanted!

And then

Mumbo

died

first.

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