capitusejulietas

[rat-rosemary]

Okay so have you'll considered that the reason Grumbot isn't clingy towards Grian in the way he is to Mumbo is because no Grumbot ever existed in a world were Grian is not nearby?

Every single time, Grian is always the first person Grumbot sees when he gets online, so he has never missed him, because he's always there. There was never a moment in any of Grumbots' lives where he could not call out to one of his dads

[theminecraftbee]

okay i know solving counting sheep is an evo fic first and foremost but i'm super curious how the hermits end up dealing with three. it sounds like this is the kind of hermitcraft thats already a sanctuary for weirdos, but i feel like someone whos skin is feathers and wears a mask they can't see out of is a new level of strange. also, would pearl canonically still join the hermits after a few seasons in that universe? sorry to bombard you with questions when you already have a lot queued up LMAO

okay so this is like, a BIG QUESTION, and another one i've talked about with @strifetxt. we've noodled around a lot so off the top of my head, here's a few answers to "things we think three might do on hermitcraft"! (with the note: none of this is CANON. just because i'm saying it, word of god style, doesn't mean that's actually what HAPPENS, you can have your own story and headcanon for this in your head.)

three joins in season seven, not six, in my head. i'm not even going to try to pretend to guess what a season six without grian looks like just know that apparently happens.

three gets like, SUPER into the head games, because its a way to use its combat skills to HELP SOMEONE why wouldn't it get super into that? this is the first real introduction most of the hermits have to three. the hermits are like "okay mumbo where on earth did you find someone this good at murder". mumbo is like "who knows".

we were definitely joking that outside of hermits who know how to recognize a watcher (iskall, probably xisuma, i'd say also maybe like... doc or ren), the hermits just kind of assume three is autistic and roll with it from there because the idea the hermits, on being told three's actual circumstances, go "why would we guess that mumbo you said you met it hiding in a bar from overstimulation with you" is VERY FUNNY TO ME.

we were debating if election still happens; three is less likely to set up events on its own but IS likely to accidentally do something a little overboard.

our hack for if we wanted three to do the election is as follows: mumbo makes a joke with like, scar, about wanting to be mayor, three takes this completely literally, three and false end up in a cold war of "who is the scarier person NOT to vote for as mayor". meanwhile scar is vibing and a sith lord backing stress is very concerned.

grumbot does not happen. i don't think there's a world where three does grumbot.

three DOES befriend etho, at first to learn how to do interiors better, since etho is doing the all-interiors base, but later because etho's brand of tomfoolery actually works well with three. TWO weird dorks in masks now.

i think three would LOVE free glass. it and etho would make the world's Most pranks i think, all of which are technically what they were asked for. three helps work for shade-e-e's.

there's definitely more stuff we've talked about that i've missed and ALSO these aren't necessarily canon! you may have your own COMPLETELY DIFFERENT IDEA of what happens post-scs, which is fine! this was us waffling around about what would be fun to have happen, haha.

as for pearl... i like to think she does eventually still join hermitcraft, after a few years of texting back and forth with three and a bit more healing. she deserves it.

[wixelt]

So I had two thoughts

While it doesn't change the final outcome for her, I imagine one of the newt ladies would have hidden False away in a spare room in the castle and bandaged her up rather than leaving her to lie on the floor until the king decides he has a use for keeping her alive. It also leaves the possibility open for Andrias to menacingly show up to the room they thought they had her well hidden in and 'take pity' on False and have her moved to a healing tank. This could lead directly into The Scene when they get to the basement, or that could wait a bit until False has been healed a bit more, it doesn't really matter. This series of actions is more so because I felt them just leaving False there would be a bit out of character for the ladies.

The other thought was what if The Core decided it wanted to hijack The Hermethius as another contingency, but I realized that wouldn't work because of Grumbot... but reconnecting Grumbot to the Grumbot hivemind would arguably be a better contingency than simply weaponizing The Hermethius, and realized there was a really easy to go about making that possible, that being Grian's Jrumbot wrist computer. Maybe it studies the AI in the lead up to True Colors, but, more plausibly, the strap snaps durring either Grian's failed attack on Andrias, or the fight with Anne or Andrias after that. He doesn't realize it's missing in the chaos or even after until much later, but The Core certainly does.

It'd be in-character for Olivia & Yunan to want to help and/or hide False away now Andrias has shown his true colors. What follows with his "pity" & False's subsequent possession by the Core will do well to show they were right to fear the menace both he & the Core might bring, & variations of the scenes we all know & dread would likely follow.

This would be regardless of any conflict the king might have over this. Despite the doubts the Hermits - notably Joe - placed in his mind, such thoughts would not be as strong with False as they would be if Marcy or even Mumbo - whom he got to know more on a personal level - were in her place.

On the Hermithius, meanwhile, Grumbot - in all his depth & variation - would in theory put a stop to the idea of a hijack, especially as its unclear how much intel the Core would even have on the ship, no matter how much Andrias probed before the mask slip. Even if he knows the hive contingency exists as a nuclear option, that doesn't guarantee the Core can plan around it.

That is until he finds the wrist unit for Jrumbot lost amidst the ruins of battle whilst hunting for where Olivia sequestered False's wounded form in the wake of True Colors. From that point, the poor AI becomes a focus for military research. Such technology will be a boon even if they don't manage to hack the Hermithius.

Meanwhile, hiding in a cave somewhere between Newtopia & Wartwood as the escaped Hermits & Amphibians attempt to regroup, Grian's hand goes instinctively to his wrist, eyes widening in alarm as he finds it bare.

[dailygrumbot]

Day 55: Family Tree Part 2 (with Part 1)

Part 1 was posted along with another post, so it could have been missed, hence why it is here. More parts will come, but that's when it gets complicated (as all the Hermits count as family). Rambling More info below!

(And reminder I made a discord to talk about the bots)

Remember this is about the characters and not the actual people since, y'know, the bots aren't really real (no matter how much that would be nice). But some of the actual people are on tumblr, and if there is some design element that makes them uncomfortable, please do say something!

I couldn't fit as many words as I would like, and some details got a little lost summarizing, so here's some of that extra context.

I know one common fact that's gone around is that Mumbo joined season 2 when he was still 17 or so. Character wise, Mumbo's bio family is out of the picture and joining as a minor of sorts needed some parental or guardian permission, so Xisuma essentially legally adopted Mumbo to make it easier.

Evil Xisuma would technically be a Great Uncle, but he insists on just being referred to as an Uncle, at least by Tegg. [Insert: I've only had [character] for 5 minutes meme].

I made Pearl's eyes pearlescent! And gave little star freckles! But otherwise Grian and Pearl being siblings is more found family than actually being related, but they call each other siblings.

Speaking of... Jimmy! Grian's lovingly bullying of Jimmy has major sibling vibes. I like to jokingly say they're soulmates, but not in the 'oh we are meant to be together, the universe says so' but more 'No matter what the situation is, even if technically the two shouldn't know each other, they do, and it's to annoy one another.' Soulsiblings if you will. Just, look at the entire interaction when the Hermits went to Empires and Grian found Jimmy.

NPG!!! He cameoed in the previous art piece. A pre-hermitcraft classic! He's in hels now with Evil Xisuma and the hels hermits. Grum isn't 100% sure if NPG and EX are friends, or if it's a low key hostage situation. In which case EX would be the hostage. NPG is sort of violently friendly.

Finally Grumbot Prime and Emperor Grumbot. Grumbot Prime is of course the alternate universe Grumbot that came from the rift. Grum worries about the fact that he wasn't successful getting Mumbo to be mayor while this alternate did. Meanwhile Emperor Grumbot wasn't exploded. Well he was, but got better and now just lives in Empires. (I mean this whole thing is sort of an au since Grum and Jrum aren't in s9, and tegg never hatched, etc etc, so empires is a lil changed as well.) Oh also Jrum doesn't just 'want' the crown, he just tries stealing it when he can. It is shiny. He want. Gib.

[votederpycausemufins]

I'm finally back with another chapter of the hermit tommy fic, Surprisingly Familiar, after months of writers block caused by depression (among other things). A full explanation is found in the notes of the Ao3 version. A link to that is featured in the masterpost of the fic which itself is linked on the masterpost of my writing that's pinned to my blog (a lil complicated, but it keeps things organized)

I am also willing to talk to people on discord if people want. The main server I'm a part of is the Daily Grumbot server. I won't give a link since tumblr doesn't like posts with external links, so just go look for the post at dailygrumbot.tumblr.com!

With that, reminder that the hermit tommy au was created by @petrichormeraki and also anything suspiciously specific said by hels!techno might have some meaning to it, and enjoy the story!

Techno was put in charge of helping carry Doc around. Out of the group, he was the needed balance of being able to lift someone or something that heavy as well as having good mobility. Also Doc didn’t seem to want to be helped if his amount of hissing was anything to go by. 

While his missing cybernetics didn’t remove a leg or anything, his missing arm was heavier than his remaining one, so it was more of a difference compared to when he lost his original one. That paired with also losing his eye at the same time made him both unbalanced and without depth perception. They originally tried to let him walk on his own, but Doc instead quickly managed to start falling to the side before crashing into a wall after dealing with the uneven, vine-covered ground. So he was carried.

Without needing to focus on trying to keep upright, Doc instead was left to start mumbling to himself. It was a mix of various languages he knew, but for the most part in ones the others didn’t understand. And even with what they could understand every once and a while, it still wasn’t enough to know what exactly it was about. But at the very least, it seemed to be that he had some theory on what was causing this. Probably.

But they couldn’t really slow down to try and get an answer out of Doc. With what they had found earlier in the treehouse base and the strange animalistic noises they heard when finding Doc, the remaining members of the group knew they needed to keep moving.

“You know, if we can’t get answers from Doc, we might have to circle back.” Techno spoke up.

“We’ll have to circle back sooner or later. It’s not like we have a lot of space.” Mumbo replied, gesturing above them. They were still in the large dome of vines, which seemed to keep them mostly safe from the vines themselves, but whatever monster was around was a different story.

“Yeah, I get that.” Techno huffed. “The thing is, while I can carry Doc around better than most of you. I still can’t do it forever. So it might be nice if we head back or someone else tries carrying him.”

Since Mumbo had been the one to reply to Techno, everyone else used that as a bit of an opportunity to move a little bit faster and let it seem like Mumbo moved closer to offer. Once he realized, the redstoner sputtered a bit before relenting and taking Doc from Techno. The hand off didn’t go quiet so well, Mumbo nearly collapsing when he was given the brunt of Doc’s weight, but he recovered quickly and managed to carry him rather well.

“I guess carrying robots all day builds muscles, eh mate?” Phil asked, hoping to lighten the mood a bit.

“I suppose that’s part of it. But moving blocks around for building and redstone helps some too I would think.” Mumbo suggested, though it only got a shrug.

“I thought building wasn’t really your thing. I thought others did that.”

“We all do a little bit of everything.” Xisuma spoke up, though his voice was a little muffled from the vines over his helmet. “Mumbo tends to work more on the redstone side of things, but he’s not stuck there. And he does better at building than Grian at redstone.”

Phil laughed a bit at that before conceding. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Plus redstone’s not all that practically useful if it’s not built somewhere, huh? Can’t really be a door if there’s no building for it.”

“I mean I can still share the designs.” Mumbo huffed a little, his mustache turning into a frown, which simply drew more laughter from Phil, up until Paul, who had been quiet that whole time, shushed them all.

Everyone stopped, not saying a word, even trying to breathe as little as possible. They stood still other than adjusting their feet to best stay in a still position as well as ready to run or fight if necessary. Sounds that were distinctly not from the group came from the foliage around them, the question was if some creature was making them, or if it was simply some sort of breeze through the leaves.

Just as it looked like they were safe enough to keep moving, Doc hissed loudly, and then the creature Xisuma had seen before pounced from some bushes and other nearby greenery. Phil was the first to react, not as burdened by vines as the others. He slashed at the creature with a sword before it tried swiping its claws at him, barely being blocked by the sword in time.

Techno jumped in to help, attacking the creature from behind, hitting it with his axe, which ended up being rather ineffective. In the bit of stunned surprise that caused Techno, the creature swiped at him with enough force to knock him away and onto the ground. 

Since he had only just handed Doc off, Tech was already feeling a little exhausted. That and the fact that the creature seemed to be affected by combat differently made everyone worry. One of their remaining fighters was practically out for the count and they still didn’t know what would happen if any of them died. 

Before the creature could attack once more, Paul ran in, not with a sword or anything, but just slamming into the thing with his body. The group was still close to the edge of the dome of vines, close enough that with that attack, the creature broke through the wall of vegetation. Though it also seemed to be a sort of foe to Doc, the vines didn’t seem to care and also started wrapping and restraining the creature, it trying to escape its growing prison.

While the group was thankful that the jungle was taking that thing away, they were not so pleased that in getting the creature that far, Paul had to do the same. The vines also attempted to pull him away, likely to trap him with all the others that had been taken.

Xisuma was the first to try and drag him back, Techno and Phil still recovering while Mumbo dealt with Doc. Still, with Xisuma already being so covered that his breathing was hindered, the most he caused was that now the both of them were being dragged in.

Just as Phil rushed to help, there was a yelp from Mumbo as Doc had escaped his grip and rushed as best he could to Xisuma and Paul, hissing loudly. Everyone braced themselves on instinct, ready for an explosion, but it thankfully never came. The vines receded and let the pair go, allowing them to leave the edge of the dome and drag Doc with them.

“Holy fuck, what here you thinking?!” Phil shouted at Doc. “Were you trying to get some of us killed?!”

Doc just sat on the ground quietly, Mumbo and Xisuma both worried for their friend, but unnerved with how vulnerable he seemed. Doc wasn’t even mumbling or hissing any answer, just being completely quiet. 

“Fine, I guess we’ll just rest here. Hopefully whatever you did didn’t also give that thing a chance to possibly escape and attack us again.”

“Phil, calm down.” Techno tried to speak up. “Whatever he did worked. We don’t need to dwell on a what if right now.”

“I can’t calm down right now. We have been stuck in this whole thing for who knows how long and we’re going to be here for who the hell knows much longer. And while I would love to leave, I also don’t want it turning into a giant waste of time because someone almost screwed it up for all of us!”

“Can’t die here.” Came a mumble and everyone looked towards Doc. “They won’t…” Doc continued before it devolved into hisses.

“Doc, we can’t understand that last bit.” Xisuma spoke up, making Doc quiet again. “While he shouldn’t be yelling, Phil does have the slight point about how we should try and find a way out of this quickly. What you know would help a good deal.”

After a moment, Doc looked at his right arm, at least what little was left of it, as well as moved the stump. While the message that there was something related to his missing arm involved, Paul was the one to provide more context. “What’s Dinnerbone got to do with this?”

“Wait, you’re saying he really lost his arm to Dinnerbone?” Techno piped up. “Bruh, that’s kind of cool to hear.”

“If I recall correctly from what Doc has said, the two fought and Doc won, and as a sort of revenge, Dinnerbone just removed his arm.”

“Sounds like a sore loser.” Phil joked, having calmed down a little bit with the discussion helping to find a solution as opposed to running around more. “Is this all supposed to be more revenge?”

Doc shook his head, speaking again, but in a language none of them understood all that well. Still, the little information already given was a clue. They just needed to figure out what it meant.

“So,” Techno spoke up first. “Is this being caused by at least one of the gods?” It was that or it was supposed to be revenge by something else, which could have been the case, but was unlikely. And with Doc nodding, then of course it was the first idea.

“Is it still revenge?” Mumbo asked next. “You said it wasn’t more revenge, but maybe… another one got upset?”

“You think multiple gods could be upset at him?” Phil asked incredulously.

“I interacted with Notch, Dinnerbone was on the Mindcrack server a few times, Herobrine is a hermit as well as one of the Deaths.” Paul paused before adding on one more piece of evidence. “And also there’s Etho.”

Mumbo also jumped in before Phil could say more, looking like he might try to refute it. “Doc also has a knack for breaking the laws of the universe simply because he can. While most of it is taken well… I wouldn’t be surprised if something wasn’t.”

“Okay, fine, divine punishment. What for?” Phil conceded, looking at Doc, but was really fine with anyone answering. What he didn’t expect was Doc to nod and manage an answer, simply repeating “punish”. “Well… that’s just great.”

“So… punishment for something. The question is what for.” Mumbo spoke up, rubbing his chin before then asking. “It’s not due to another fight you had, right? Because then that would be the revenge we already said it couldn’t be. So, is it for any of your… disruptive redstone?”

Doc shook his head, doing the same when he was asked if it had any connection to the hivemind Doc had mentioned here and there. From there, there was a bit of sidetracked conversation with Techno comparing Doc’s hivemind to his chat and Phil’s crows. But eventually, they got back on topic.

“So, if it’s not any of those other things, what exactly could they punish you for?” Xisuma asked, and then everyone was quiet to let Doc respond, but he didn't. “Doc, whatever it is, we can’t help unless you tell us. It may be bad, but if we want to-“ 

Xisuma was stopped as Doc finally spoke up. “Knowledge.”

“What?”

“Know… shouldn’t.” Doc tried explaining, but only half the words could be understood. “…punish too…”

“That’s not great.” Phil huffed. “It’s something you’re in trouble for knowing, forbidden knowledge or some shit, so we can’t help out since we can’t know what it’s about?”

Doc agreed with Phil’s explanation, which had Mumbo place a reassuring hand on Doc’s shoulder. “Doc, I’m sorry that we can’t help you with that part… but if The Jungle was your punishment for… whatever it was, it already happened.”

“He’s right.” Paul spoke up, looking back towards Doc from where he stood leading the group along. “It seems this is about you worrying about the secret slipping and everyone else getting punished, but here we are, surrounded by that happening, probably to a greater extent than it would actually be, and you’re still tight lipped. I think that means you wouldn’t let it slip.”

Doc nodded in agreement, but the group could tell he didn’t fully agree. “Want to… though…” Doc spoke, careful with his words this time to make sure they could all be understood.

“Sorry, that’s not something we can really help you with.” Techno spoke up, the tone of his voice more lighthearted to try and lighten the mood at least a little. “Phil’s already a dinosaur, so Paul must be just as old, plus he knows some of the gods for better or worse.”

“I belong in a museum.” Paul responded, with a tone of voice that implied some sort of inside joke, especially with Phill laughing and even Doc managing a weak laugh.

“Whatever. What I’m saying is he might somehow know what you’re having trouble with. And if not him, then someone else. It can’t be everyone is off limits, right?”

“If not me, someone else from your server?” Paul suggested. “If it’s godly punishment, then for someone safe you might want to talk with I-”

He was cut off by a hiss from Doc, loud enough that no one could tell what Paul said, at least until he apologized and spoke again. “Sorry, I’m uh,,, bad at remembering chosen names it seems. Joe I believe then.”

With that mention, Doc nodded, and everyone took that as the answer to what had been said, not realizing that it was less of a mistake and more of an excuse.

“Even if you can’t talk with any of them, it doesn’t mean you can’t talk to anyone at all.” Xisuma then said, hoping to give a suggestion. “Even though you can’t talk about it directly, you can still voice your worries. Being direct could get you hurt, which is a reasonable fear, but hopefully being indirect won’t get you in trouble. And now that we know the… safe information, you could come to me or Mumbo, or any of the other hermits. Though they would need a summary of what we’ve learned. Not to say we learned what you’re being punished for!” Xisuma quickly corrected at the mention of learning making Doc hiss.

“I think what they’re all trying to say.” Phil spoke up. “Is that there’s ways to get around the whole di-vine punishment and still talk about your feelings so it doesn’t screw you up on the inside. Because keeping it all close to the chest could hurt you.”

That seemed to be what finally got to Doc, because as he nodded, the vines started to disappear, followed by just about everything else around them, before being replaced by the next false reality they would have to go through.

.

.

.

Everyone was still silent from Grian’s question. No one was sure exactly what to say, though for wildly different reasons. One thing that was certain was that Death, any of them, having an interest in you, likely wasn’t a good thing. 

Sahn, who had been the only one making noise with some humming, finally clued in and spoke up first. “Oh wait? Was that question for me? Sorry, I didn’t realize. …Um, what was it again? I already forgot.” 

“I uh…” Grian nervously started, unsure now with the shift of tone in the room. “I don’t exactly know who this ‘Warrior’ is. I’ve heard about him a few times, but not enough details. And so I want to know who he is and what exactly is going on.”

“Oh, that first part is easy!” Sahn smiled, cheering up quickly. “He’s officially known as The Warrior of Death! He’s got another name too but I’m not allowed to use it. He’s one of… two? Or wait was it four… I think it was four deaths. But I help him out! And have been since I died.” Despite Grian not liking Sam and not knowing too much about Sahn, he still winced at the mention that Sahn was indeed, and had indeed, died. “I forget exactly why. I think there was something weird. Maybe something about… tents? No… hurts… no it was… somewhere in the middle. Anyway! He wanted me to find you for some reason! I don’t know why because you have Sally, and what should have been enough.”

Grian tensed at the mention of his recently acquired pet chicken, now questioning if there was more to the animal. “And how would she have been ‘enough’?”

“Well my boss really likes chickens. Oh, and other similarly related animals! He can know what just about any of them see. Wait is it any, or all? Maybe both? I don’t remember.”

‘This is probably just because of your current time stuff.’ Astrid signed. She had no clue if that was the case or not, but it was better to come up with an excuse just in case.

“Yeah, she’s probably right.” Flora agreed. “Maybe he’s just wondering why a new death kid just appeared.”

Sahn looked like he wanted to disagree with that, but was stopped as Silski walked through him and picked Grian up. “This isn’t going anywhere. You’re coming with me to an… emergency meeting.”

Grian just kicked at Silski. “First put me the hell down, second, what are you even talking about?”

After a moment, Grian was put back down, though with a huff from Silski. “I’m in a team with a few people. We call ourselves the council. One of the people included is your mom. Other than the actual Deaths, she’ll probably know the most about this. Unlike this ghost.” And Silski attempted to gesture to Sahn, but had no clue where the ghost was and did so in the wrong direction.

“Wait what d'ya mean his mum? I thought he was like, Grifter’s cousin? Though I also think I heard Eepr say he was a clone.” Toob was the one speaking up.

“Uh, well I was supposed to pretend to be some sort of relative, but Flora figured out quickly and so I just didn’t bother?” Grian admitted sheepishly, Flora butting in a moment later.

“Yeah I didn’t know about faking it. But enough has already happened in this world, so one more thing isn’t all that surprising.”

“Well I don’t care.” Silski grumbled. “Are you coming with me or not?”

“Sure…” Grian replied hesitantly. He wanted some sort of explanation. There was already enough going on and enough unanswered questions that he wanted some of them to be answered. That being said, the possibility of seeing his mum felt off. Some of it probably came from the fact that this wouldn’t be his actual mother. But it also might be the simple fact that… he didn’t remember her at all. Grian still had a few memories he was clinging onto of his brothers and dad, but his mum was a different story. She was barely ever around due to her ‘job’. That, mixed with Grian having been so young and it having been so long, he honestly didn’t remember what she looked like, how she sounded, what she was like at all. He would know this warped copy of her better than his own mother.

As Silski started to leave, Grian followed, Astrid managing to tell him that she and Flora would keep in contact with their comms. It reassured Grian a bit, which helped, though when he turned back, Silski had gotten pretty far already. 

Grumbling a bit, Grian flew to catch up with the sculk hybrid, nearly face planting into the ground when he landed. “The offer to get carried still stands.” Silski piped up. “Last time I am though, because honestly I’d like to stay away from you and your smell.”

Grian accepted, though instead of being actually carried, he instead perched himself on Silski’s shoulders, which apparently stunk less to him. “Okay I know I tried cleaning myself up when we got back from getting the stuff on my wings checked out, I shouldn’t smell that bad.”

Silski was quiet for a moment, trying to think of what to say that also wouldn’t reveal the secret Astrid had told him. “For all we know, whatever time magic sent you here is ender based. Which is weird since that’s almost impossible to find in pretty much any world, but what else would explain it?”

Grian was pretty sure that by any world, Silski meant the worlds of this reality, not the one he and Grifter were from. Which could make sense if whatever was annoying Silski was unique to the other world he had recently come from and why here and there, the sculk hybrid had mentioned the smell not being as bad. Still, he mentioned that Sense apparently smelled, so what did that mean for him? Just another question to ponder, Grian supposed. In fact, he could even ask about that. “So wait, then what about Sense?”

“Ugh, him. I’m not exactly sure why he smells like death and rotting and whatnot, which makes you seem a whole lot better in comparison. But even ignoring that, I can’t say I’m a fan of him. In the short time he’s been here, Sense has been a prick to me. I didn’t think I did anything wrong, and he sure won’t explain if I ask. I have some guesses, but those might not even be right.”

“Some people can just be assholes.” Grian replied, but then thought about it more. In a world where Taurtis was gone, he had found Perfect Sense. They had been together and seemed madly in love with each other and even had kids. And here was someone saying how bad Sense actually was. Or probably was. He didn’t really know either of the two well enough to know who had more of a point. And, if he did end up the same way, like Grifter, would he potentially turn a blind eye for love? Not if it was really bad, right?

“I can hear your brain going at full steam.” Silski spoke and pulled Grian out of his thoughts, which he realized were probably being spurred on by his audience. “Oh good, that worked. I’ve been trying to talk to you for a while.”

And Grian found that they were already approaching the cottages where Flora had taken him to when she dragged him along while visiting her mum. He hadn’t realized he had zoned out that badly, but Silski also seemed to move pretty fast, so that also probably helped with how short it felt.

He shivered a bit, ready to go into the hopefully warm cabins, only for Silski to walk right past them. Grian complained, but was threatened to be thrown in the snow, so he reluctantly kept quiet. Finally, they reached a bit of a clearing, but nothing really seemed to be there. Which was even more frustrating since Silski stopped moving. Grian still waited a moment, but when nothing happened, he started to say that it all seemed to be a waste of time. Unfortunately, before he could continue, Silski yanked Grian off his shoulders and into his arms before essentially throwing Grian into the middle of the clearing. 

Grian yelped at being thrown, before quickly wrapping his wings around him to help brace for impact. He hoped the snow would also help, and it seemed it did because when Grian did land on the ground, it didn’t hurt at all. It was really cold, but didn’t hurt. But, when he went to sit up and yell at Silski, he found it hard as the snow seemed to have swallowed his wings. Enough snow to weigh them down and make them hard to lift. As he tugged to pull one of his wings free, his audience was suddenly pointing out that his wings weren’t the only things the snow was covering. 

The amount of times Grian had seen quicksand be mentioned in stories had made him assume it would be more common that it was in everyday life. Suddenly finding himself being swallowed up by quick snow made him try to think over what had happened in all those stories. Unfortunately , all he could come up with was people grabbing onto nearby vines. He wasn’t really in a vine filled forest. And there weren’t even any branches due to them being in a clearing.

Grian ultimately resolved himself to the fact he had been betrayed. He was probably going to die, though thankfully it wasn’t going to be permanently. Unless, of course, Silski had planned ahead. As the cold started to become so unbearable that it hurt, Grian figured he would just have to see when he died. And then he fell onto some wool.

Silski fell down from the ceiling a few seconds later, though he landed on his feet. “Come on, we still need to get to the meeting room.”

Grian didn’t move from the floor, just staring up at Silski. “I’m not dead, right?”

Silski huffed before yanking Grian to his feet. “No. It’s a secret entrance through the snow. There’s others around that are traps to trip people up, so don’t go telling people how to find this place.”

“I thought you guys just met out in the open?” Grian said, recalling when he had first seen the group.

“Yeah, that’s for the public club stuff.” And Silski led Grian down the halls of what seemed like some sort of old structure. “Sure, that’s fun and all, but really, we tend to focus on stuff like this.”

Silski gestured, before cursing and realizing that they were still on the wrong side of a door, which he then led them through, and showed the place off again, though with a little less grandeur. Still, despite that, the room definitely looked amazing to Grian. The room was still clearly the room of the old structure, but at the same time it had been updated in a way. Banners hung to the walls proudly and torches held in what looked like sconces adorned the walls. In the center of the room was a strange table. There was a large wooden disk on top to make it into a table, but the base seemed to be something else. 

Curiosity getting the best of him, Grian moved to the table and lifted the disk, staring at the dark magic in the center and the sort of scarlet colored hints accenting it, looking like stars covering the sky. Before he could admire anymore, a hand slammed down in the disk, nearly pinching Grian’s fingers. Grian looked up to see who had done that and found a girl glaring daggers at him. He assumed she would be frowning if it weren’t for the bubble gum she was blowing, which made him flinch when it popped. But he didn’t seem to be the only one startled by the noise as a hiss came from his left. 

Grian took a step back at seeing a creeper, not dealing with them all that much so far, but knowing what they could cause. However, after a moment when it didn’t explode, Grian realized that it was actually a hybrid rather than an actual creeper, and also they had a lot of cats with them.

“Oh come on!” Bubblegum girl glared at the creeper. “How are you still flinching at that?”

“Y-you did it t-too soon.” The creeper shuddered out, almost like they were still cold despite how warm the room was compared to the temperature outside, or should it be considered above? “I d-didn’t get a ch-chance to process it.”

“I duh duh duh- that’s what you sound like. You’re still just a little cry baby.” Grian, though the insults weren’t pointed at him, still winced at them since they were coming from an unfamiliar person that could potentially turn to him at any second.

“F-fuck you.” The words sounded more confident than the stutter would imply. “I got in here j-just like everyone else. And I d-didn’t get a f-free pass, like s-some people.” And then their gaze turned to Grian, also being a glare, which did not help Grian’s confidence with being there. And Silski had yet to say a word, so he didn’t expect the sculk hybrid to speak up and tell them to back off. But someone did.

“Leave him alone. Unlike everyone else, as you are comparing him to, it seems like he wasn’t here willingly.” And Grian looked to see another person enter the room, someone both familiar and not. Someone, though he had forgotten the face of, he could still remember that it was different. His mother, or this version of her at least.

“Speaking of.” Silski now spoke up. “I’ve got answers to your questions about that, as well as a bit more. But the simple answer is that Grian is apparently just Grifter from the past.”

“The simple answer?” The alternate version of his mother asked, and Grian wondered if she could tell he wasn’t the real Grifter. It was probably because of his wings. Grifter apparently made his look more like the real one’s, so maybe he could pretend the opposite?

“Well, he wanted me to pretend otherwise to try and keep things simple. Who knows what someone might want out of the possibility of time travel. So he helped with changing my appearance to really throw people off.”

“I see.” Was the answer before his not mum looked over at bubblegum girl. “Ekke, I believe you had wanted clarification on something?”

Elle popped another bubble before sitting up in her chair. “Yeah. We saw him before. I think he saw us too, but didn’t come running over even though you two said he went missing for a couple of years when he was like this, right?”

“W-we were really y-young then.” The creeper spoke up. “He pr-probab-bly wasn’t sure i-if it was us.”

“Okay fine, whatever.” She chewed loudly and leaned back in her seat, the chair teetering on its back legs. “If ya don’t remember their names, they’re Euro and Krys.”

“Ekke!”

“Whaaat? Just make it quick for the kid so Sil can actually start the meeting.”

Silski sighed before moving Grian to sit in Silski’s chair before the sculk hybrid propped his arms up on the backing. “The main reason we’re here is that someone outside of Grian’s immediate family seems to be taking an interest in things, which could lead to some extra insight on Grian appearing, but could also be cause for concern. Grian’s here to supplement any information I haven’t pieced together from the rumor mill as well as be a sort of… well, not lie detector exactly. But you know what I mean.”

“Uh, I don’t.” Grian spoke up, before being silenced as Silski reached a hand down before covering Grian’s face to shush him. That worked all of two seconds before Grian shoved the hand away and then sulked in the chair.

“S-so… your m-mention of n-non imme-“ Euro wasn’t able to finish his sentence before Silski started to answer. Grian thought it was a bit rude for a moment before noticing Euro didn’t seem upset by it, so maybe it was a normal thing.

“Yes I did mean it was still about someone in your extended family. It seems to be Death. The other one of course.”

Grian watched as Krys clapped a hand to her mouth before slowly lowering it at Silski’s added clarification. “Oh. That’s… strange. You’re sure it’s him?”

“Considering Grian’s got a chicken following him around plus someone saying they literally work for the guy, I’m fairly certain.”

“Lovely…” Krys sighed, rubbing her temples before pausing to pick a cat up off of the floor and hand it to Euro in a fashion that seemed like it was a common action. And it seemed helpful since Euro had not reacted well to the confirmation.

“Is he okay?” Grian asked the group in general, concerned about his… pseudo brother? He guessed that was probably the best way to describe Euro, though he obviously wouldn’t say it aloud.

“Right, you wouldn't know about it, would you?” Silski spoke up. “Did Fleur and Astrid at least tell you about how people get into this world?” Grian thought it over, thinking Flora may have made some small comment about it. But apparently needing to take that long to answer was an answer of its own. “Alright, who wants to explain?”

“I will.” Ekke raised a hand. “So before you were admin, we had this asshole named Nightmare. He said the place was open to just about anyone to join, but to make sure the place wasn’t completely flooded, there was a sort of test in the way. He got ahold of a way for people to have to deal with their ‘biggest fear’ or whatever. If you could get past it, it meant you were strong enough or some bs. Plus, if you showed up together with someone, then you had to go through theirs as well. And if you failed the test by succumbing to it or dying, you would fail. Depending on how, it could just be you booted, or could be everyone. Turns out part of the reason he was so insistent was because this place is screwed the hell up because of the guy interested in you, and trying to get out is only easier than getting in because of that test.”

Grian’s heart dropped at the last bit of information. Sure, most of it didn’t sound great, but he kind of wanted to leave to get back home eventually, and time travel wasn’t really the easiest thing in the first place. Plus, if the person interested in him had messed things up that badly… well, who knew what that meant for him. “Well… uh, what does that mean for Euro?”

“A few things really.” Krys was the one to speak up before showing off some scars on her neck that made Grian flinch. He had seen similar ones on Flora, but they were mostly covered with fur. Without that, they looked a lot worse. “As you know, your father is one side of death. Nightmare knew that and… didn’t want him involved. So he made sure to find ways to cut contact between him and us. Some of that included him involving your uncle once he did learn about what had happened to us.”

“Oh… so dad’s…?” Grian trailed off. It wasn’t his dad, not really, and he hated that he needed to keep reminding himself that. But again, he still wanted to see his family again, no matter what version of them it was.

“Wile sees him most often, your father makes it a bit easier to leave. Not by too much, but enough.”

Grian nodded before thinking of another question. “Uh, do you guys need to go through that whole test every time? Or did I guess, since it’s not around anymore from what Grifter told me.”

“Th-thankfully n-no.” Euro hissed out. “If I h-had to see th-those two every time, th-the potato t-torcher w-wouldn’t be en-nough.”

“Potato torcher?” Grian asked, eyebrows raising in a mixture of shock and concern. “Is that-?”

“A sentient potato really screwed Euro over.” Ekke spoke up. “One day it was ‘oh you are suck a close friend! Come to my wedding because we are such good friends’ to ‘why are you so upset I tried threatening a child with doxxing’ all the way to ‘here’s every time I and some others you thought were friends actually hate you for that we decided to tell you all at once instead of pointing it out in the moment for you to work on, why the hell didn’t you ever improve or change?’ ignoring the fact that they changed the context of some of those things. It, pardon the language, really fucked him over for ages. He tried joining this place not long later and I’m surprised he made it through alive. It was like a reverse beacon stealing nightmare. Not the person of course.”

“That… is a lot to unpack.” Grian spoke up, glancing at the creeper hybrid. “Are you sure he’s okay with you sharing all that?”

“Pretty much.” Ekke shrugged. “He’s terrified of sharing it directly, so doing it through other means works better. I’m totally free if you ever want to do the same. As long as it’s not also something that causes you disdain for potatoes and certain conifer trees because I don’t think I could handle two of that.”

“It’s uh… mainly rabbit based.” Grian admitted quickly, hoping it would resolve the topic. Which it seemed to with Ekke nodding before Silski coughed to bring attention back to him and then get them back on topic.

“Anyway, again, Warrior named death is involved again. I already mentioned he has someone around that’s working for him. That someone said they were here for Grian specifically, but also for someone going by the same of Spore.”

“Oh n-no…”

“I can’t be certain that it’s anything related to sculk though.” Silski paused to give Grian some clarification. “The Dark, aka what’s through the portal that is this table, is fungal like, and fungi have spores.” And Silski lifted the board on top of the table enough to show off the portal briefly to Grian. “The worker specifically mentioned that Spore was asked to interact with Perfect Sense and help with his redstone poisoning.”

“Which could be from redstone immunity which fits if it is sculk based.” Krys agreed. “Or might not if they’re interacting with his kind.”

“His kind?” Grian asked, wondering if it had something to do with Silski’s ‘ender’ mentions.

“There is a very long story about that.” Krys answered. “But a simple thing is that he’s not really from around here.”

“Ah.” Grian nodded, realizing that was probably more connected to him and Grifter not being from around there either.

“Okay next bit.” Ekke spoke up, getting a frustrated sigh out of Krys.

“We still need to be careful about the ‘entrance exams’ apparently.” Silski spoke, using air quotes around entrance exams. “Astrid came back mentioning a pretty big group was stuck in a reenabled test. There’s a chance it’s still connected to Warrior because of how big the group supposedly is. The person who showed up already is a ghost, so they likely got a free pass.”

“How m-many is a large gr-roup?” Euro asked, getting an answer of ten people, which made him hiss and hide by snuggling into cat fur.

“They hopefully won’t come through then.” Krys spoke, though she still looked concerned. “Did Astrid mention any progress?”

“Not directly, no.” Silski started, then quickly added before anyone could reply, “She did mention a ‘king’ is part of the group, so if they do make it through…”

“I understand. If something happens to you, we won’t fault you for it.”

Silski shrugged, and Grian looked for some sort of answer, though he wasn’t given one. “I still might as well give the rest of the information I’ve put together. It’ll go to a whole lot more use if it’s not stuck with me.”

“Okay spit it out half n half.” Ekke got glares from everyone with working eyes, but didn’t seem to mind, just waiting for Silski to continue.

“This next part is probably going to get me in trouble, but I don’t trust Grifter.”

“What?” Grian turned in his seat to look at Silski. “Uh, but he’s me?” He then wondered if Silski had realized that they weren’t the real Grifter. “Why say it in front of me if-”

“Because you should get a heads up.” Silski replied, cutting Grian off, then further explained when Krys asked him to. “Look, he’s the new admin and everything, and I swear my distaste isn’t just because of the company he keeps, though to me it’s a very good reason.”

“That’s my future husband you’re referring to.” Grian complained before Silski whacked him.

“Look, he’s your future version. I’m sure you think that makes him immediately trustworthy, but I don’t think that’s the case. You want to go to your home and change the past? Well what if he’s in the version of the timeline where he tried that and it’s a lost cause? You were mumbling about someone completely different when you came back from some ‘training’ with Grifter, and based on context clues, I think it’s someone you want to change the past for. Maybe Grifter thinks it’s fine to screw them over to keep things how they are, but you might not.”

“Who’s to say it wouldn’t be purposely screwing them over that I want to cause?” Grian asked, getting an answer from Euro.

“W-well, if you wa-ant to do that, then y-you would just want to d-do it f-for you, but Sils-ski said you w-want it f-for the other p-person, which i-isn’t a dist-tinction made lightly.”

“Okay, fine. So what if that is what he’s doing? Maybe he’s right.” Grian spoke back, though if it were the case, he wouldn’t be happy with it.

“That’s just one possibility. There could be other things that are going on. Like the fact that he’s training you at all is worrying.”

“How so?”

“What exactly is he training you for?” Krys asked, and Grian quickly gave the answer, which seemed to concern her. “Oh, yes that is worrying. Listeners are particular about things, Watchers just as much.”

“Watchers?” Grian asked. It wasn’t something Grifter had mentioned, at least not that he could really recall.

“They’re counterparts to Listeners. It’s not something I’m an expert on, not in the slightest, but the two are made to be balances to one another in more than one way, to the point that just one Listener can affect things on the other side greatly. If you’re learning early, it could cause some issues.”

“Well, Grifter’s been constantly going to wherever other Listeners are and telling them about what’s going on.” Grian explained from what he had been told. “If they haven’t made a big stink about it, then it must be fine, right?”

“G-grian, you k-keep saying th-things that you’ve b-been told.” Euro spoke up. “B-but have you g-gotten any p-proof? Saying th-things c-can be r-really easy comp-pared to actual p-proof.”

Grian wondered for a moment if maybe Euro had a point before he remembered that Grifter had given him some proof. “Yes, I have.” He looked over at Krys, knowing she would be able to verify what he was saying on some level. “The other person who’s been staying with you, Flora’s mom Sadie, she’s seen the physical proof I’ve been given about everything.”

Krys paused before nodding. Sadie had mentioned something to her of that sort. That confirmation seemed to help Euro and Ekke, but Silski was another deal. He knew a bit more than he could say, for fear of completely screwing things over. Sure, proof could be proof, but it still wasn’t something first hand. Even something like what Grian was mentioning needed to be verified. And if it was anything like what he assumed from what little info he’d gathered about what the so called proof was, it seemed like something that could be manipulated, giving half truths and leaving out certain parts to cast Grifter in a better light than reality.

“Now, I would like to circle back to something you mentioned before.” Krys spoke up, directing her statement to Silski. “This ghost you mentioned could have easily gotten through to this world, but it sounded like this Spore person is also around if the ghost has already contacted them. That is what you meant, yes?”

“Right.” Silski grumbled. “My guess is they either managed to be separate from the big group, or they got in through alternate methods.”

“Like what?” Ekke asked, then Silski patted Grian’s head. “Him?”

“Me?” Grian asked, looking up at Silski for some sort of explanation.

“Just because it could be they’re connected to sculk doesn’t mean they definitely are. You guys crashed at our house after you met with Cerus, which happened because you owed Wassa. And you owed Wassa because after Grifter took you off-world to train, you came back with some sort of substance on your wings that appeared after you were in a mushroom valley or something.”

��Uh… cave but the rest is pretty accurate.” Grian mentioned. “How much are they talking about me behind my back?”

“Just stuff they want another opinion on.” Silski tried reassuring Grian. “Plus, they’re not entirely convinced Grifter’s telling the full truth either. Fleur’s wondering things with the ghost around and Astrid’s still wary of him after her whole curse incident.”

“Right, that.” Grian reluctantly agreed. He still didn’t think that was the case, that Grifter was lying. He had been handed proof, shouldn’t that be enough? “Well, uh, if we’re worried about the Spore person, since we know they’re connected to the death you’re talking about, if they were somehow brought over by me, someone should have noticed.”

“You mean like noticing you had gunk stuck all over your wings?”

“Not all over them!” Grian argued, then hesitated before adding on. “Just… noticeable enough that it bothered me. But that doesn’t take much!”

“Then show your wings off to the others.” 

Grian froze at the suggestion. Not because showing the mycelium off could be bad, but more the idea of him showing his wings off to two people who were supposed to be his family. They would know he wasn’t supposed to have these bright colorful wings, so the best explanation would be that they were disguised that way. But you couldn’t really color them differently since the shape was different too. So it would have to be some sort of illusion, but something like that should also hide the mycelium. And since they knew he was supposed to be Grifter’s past version, he couldn’t use some other excuse. He didn’t know how to make an actual illusion himself to make his wings look like how they were ‘supposed to’ while also showing off the mycelium they hadn’t quite gotten rid of. Especially since he couldn’t really look at his wings since they were on his back.

“You hesitating isn’t a great sign.” Ekke spoke up, then made Grian flinch as she blew and popped a bubblegum bubble.

“I… I’m not a fan of anyone looking at them. I barely tolerated getting them inspected before, and that was only because Flora and Astrid were there.” Grian fumbled before giving his excuse. It wasn’t exactly a lie, he had gotten used to his wings being messed with back home… mainly by Sam. If the circumstances were a little different, he probably would let the group look, but for now, he couldn’t. “I know technically you’re part of my family, well I mean you are.” Grian then had to quickly cover almost revealing things. “It’s just, I haven’t seen you guys in years. If it weren’t for showing up here in the future, it sounds like I still wouldn’t have seen you for a few more years. We might be related, but you’re still pretty much strangers to me.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Krys agreed. “However, if you could potentially come back with one of those two at a later time, this is pretty important.”

“We’ll see.” Grian answered, then looked at the others. “So, is that about it?”

“I th-think so.” Euro said, then looking to Ekke, who nodded.

“Alright then, let’s go.” Silski spoke up, then started to stand before Krys held up a hand, making everyone pause.

“There is one more thing I think we should discuss.”

“And what’s that?”

Krys sighed before speaking again. “We’re under the assumption that The Warrior is after Grian due to his time displacement, but I’m not completely sure. Technically, it could be that, but it may not be just from curiosity.”

“What do you mean?” Ekke spoke up, now sitting in her chair properly and looking at Krys. Looking over to Euro, Grian saw he looked just as concerned.

“My husband is not the biggest fan of Grian, or rather, Grifter. It takes a bit of explanation, but the long and short of it is that despite being death, they can be killed, and Grifter could potentially do that.”

“He could what?” Silski asked, surprised and nearly shouting. Grian was just as surprised. Was she saying that he would want to- no, it was just speculation, right?

“How do you know that?” Grian asked, voice wavering, before getting his fears confirmed that Grifter had tried to kill Deathza. The only thing reassuring Grian at that point was the following information that it occurred before Grifter was put in prison, meaning before he was replaced with the current Grifter.

“Okay, let me get the full explanation out of the way, it will make things a whole lot simpler.” Krys spoke, then pulled out a sword. Grian worried about why the weapon was drawn before the blade was used to carve into the table. “Our universe is really two universes. Once upon a time, they were just one, but that’s not the case now.” And she caved a line down the middle of the square she had originally carved. “Most people think of them as mirrors to one another, but that’s not exactly the case. Think of it as more of a set of scales. If you put weight on one side, a matching weight needs to be placed on the other side. It doesn’t need to be immediate, but the longer one side weighs more, the more likely it could eventually crash against the ground and potentially break the scale itself.”

Grian looked at the scale that was carved onto the table, one side on each side of the middle dividing line. While the scale example worked, the mention of most people thinking of the two as mirrors made Grian also take that into account. If it was so common, then there had to be some things that fit better with that explanation. Like, if he were here, could the actual past version of Grifter be experiencing the same thing? Or if the real Grifter were also on this side, what did that mean for the side Grian was from. “Uh, do the sides have names at all?”

“A few.” Krys agreed. “Aey and Enne, Wels and Hels, Kall(Kæll) and Glöd, there’s a good amount. We’re in Aey and the other is Enne. People are usually from one or the other, but the gods are not, and there are rumors that there are some people who could still be from the before. I would doubt that’s the case since again, the scales. They can be tipped for a while, but certainly not that long.”

Grian nodded, but then looked up from the diagram to ask a question. “So, what does that have to do with now?”

“I’m getting there.” Krys assured, then dragged her sword over the place where the scale connected. “Aey and Enne can still interact with one another. Mentioned before were the Listeners and Watchers. While they are mainly considered part of Aey and Enne respectively, they interact with both sides, with at least one of each assigned to each world. Along with that, their kind are not restricted to which side they come from. Another example of interaction is for the deaths. Two deaths for each side. They represent the two sides to death itself for their respective half of the universe.”

Krys drew a pair of circles on both sides of the split, putting an extra dot in one of the circles on what Grian assumed was the Aey side. “Despite them being the embodiment of death in its various forms, they aren’t gods. I wouldn’t say demigods either, but even lesser gods isn’t right. And then powerful practically immortals is a mouthful.” Krys sighed. “As long as the deaths are deaths, they are able to go between worlds at will, ones from both Aey and Enne. For the most part, they will stick to the side they belong to, but for certain cases they will interact with the other. The biggest reason for that is that there’s one rule placed on them by the gods. They cannot be the ones handling the souls of their family.”

While it made sense, Grian was still surprised by it. Whenever he was dealing with the possibility of dying back home, he always recalled that his mother was death. He didn’t know the full ins and outs of it, which was obvious now, but he had hoped that if he did die, stuck as a ghost or not, he would still potentially get to see her again. “So… if I end up dying…”

“Your father wouldn’t be involved, even if it would fall on his portion of death.” She paused when Grian opened his mouth. “This explanation is already long enough, I’m not explaining those sides.” And Grian’s mouth snapped shut. “Your uncle also wouldn’t be involved due to that as he is still part of your family. It affects mostly direct bonds, children, marriage, adoption too for Flora’s case. But because of all that, neither death of this world could deal with any of us, so that would fall upon the deaths of Enne. Or, it could fall upon the duty of a new death.”

“Which would happen if one of them were killed?” Grian asked, pretty sure he was following along.

“If they were killed or retired or whatnot. Their title would pass on. If they willingly leave the position, then it would be given to who they also willingly pass it to. But if they are killed, it passes to the one who defeated them.”

And suddenly a lot of things made sense. “So, you’re saying that my uncle, this ‘Warrior’, might be interested in me because Grifter could kill him. And… and he might want to kill me first? To erase Grifter so he couldn’t even try?”

“Smart kid.” Ekke spoke up, but then looked to Krys to confirm if that was what she was trying to imply, earning a nod.

“Before, I would have said that it couldn’t be the case, but there’s also the fact that Silski has implied your… ‘scent’ could be from something connected to Enne. But that doesn’t entirely matter right now. What does matter is why the Warrior is really interested in you.”

“Then I guess we’ll need to start grilling the ghost he had show up. You guys owe me and Toob for kidnapping Jane. And making him stay at our place. And making me deal with the ender fucker more. Just, you guys are in charge of interrogation.”

“Okay fine, that’s fair.” Grian agreed. “So, now are we done?”

“Yes, now we are done.” Krys agreed, then stood from her seat and flipped the table board over, revealing other carvings. “Oh, uh. I guess we need another one of these.”

“Not it.” Silski spoke up, then picked Grian up, ignoring as he squawked a bit. “I need to get him out of here and then back to my place. Among other things. So bye.” 

By the time they were back out in the snow, Grian didn’t really notice the cold all too much, instead focusing his thoughts on everything that was talked about. Okay well he did eventually focus on the cold because it felt like it was freezing his wings off. The feeling did subside enough for him to start thinking again, making him think he just got used to it. And that was a fair assumption, seeing as how he was right before with the fact that he couldn’t see his wings well, including how the mycelium stuck in them receded in time with his feeling of the cold.

.

.

.

Jrum, along with a number of the Hermits, were at spawn. He held a weapon in his off hand, but his main hand was sparking slightly. Not because he was damaged or anything, no. Vee, along with some help from Hoodie, had been teaching Jrum fairly well on how to use magic. And by fairly well, he meant he had learned the basics well enough to not explode and said it was good enough for him. 

While Jrum trusted the two enough to teach him, that still wasn’t by much, but the only Hermits who could have taught him were busy or unavailable, and the other magic users weren’t in a compatible style or whatever Joe had said about it. 

Speaking of Joe, he and the other opped Hermits had finally found the issue with the whitelist. Whether it was Grifter’s doing or someone else’s, people who were supposed to be ignored by the whitelist, specifically Watchers and Listeners, were now being checked. And since they weren’t officially on the list, they couldn’t get through. That being said, the reason Vee had gotten in was because of an exception Xisuma had added for those under a certain listed age. He had added it after a small fiasco that had happened when the bots were first given their bodies. There was also supposed to be more to the rule, but it was assumed that the fact Vee was from Hels was messing with it.

Either way, it led back to why everyone was at spawn. After adding the main people who were being kept out by the issue, Vee had been allowed to add her father onto the list. Though the Hermits were reluctant since he had associated with Grifter before, he hadn’t seemed to know the actual truth. Still, he probably knew the most out of everyone involved that would be willing to talk to them. And if he did cause issues, then Pix or Zloy could be called in.

When someone finally appeared, the Hermits all prepared just in case there were problems right off the bat. Fortunately that didn’t seem to be the case, and the Listener just looked over the Hermits before Cub gestured that they could relax a bit. As soon as he did, Vee ran out from the crowd, no longer being held back by Stress. 

The Listener merely let Vee tackle him with a hug before attaching herself to one of his arms. One of his six arms. The arm lifted until Vee was in front of his face, which had milky white eyes that probably couldn’t see well if at all. “Papa! You’re here!”

“I am.”

“And you’re like this! Jungle gym time!”

The Listener laughed before bringing another arm up, which she also hugged onto. As she continued to hang from his arms, the Listener looked at the Hermits to answer the main question he assumed they had. “I don’t feel comfortable showing off my regular look to you guys. This is how I look when all… Listener-ified. I think you have seen how Grian looks when he’s the same.”

“You mean when he looks more like a giant harpy?” Scar spoke up, getting another laugh out of the Listener.

“Yes, like that. I managed to get these things.” And he moved his extra sets of arms that Vee wasn’t clinging to.

“Jungle gym Papa!”

“Yes, it could also be called that.” And then he pulled Vee away and put her back on the ground. “But it’s probably better if you go play somewhere else.”

“Aww, but you just got here!”

The Listener sort of seemed to glance up at the Hermits before speaking to Vee again in a stage whisper. “Well I think these guys want to make me do boring adult things with me. Probably meetings and paperwork and presentations.”

“Nooo that’s dumb!”

“Well you can run off so you won’t have to suffer through it with me.”

Vee nodded before running over to Jrum to play with him again. Jrum reluctantly followed, but did his best to go slowly to hear as much of what he could.

“Alright, so are we going to be talking here, or do you guys have a special meeting room?”

“We have one of those if you don’t mind the travel to get there.” Cub was the one who spoke up, and then Jrum caught the Listener nodding.

“It’s no problem Mx…?”

“Huh? Oh don’t bother with that, just call me Cub.”

“You never know, better safe than sorry.” And then Jrum saw him shrug, which looked weird with extra arms. “You can call me Joeyish.”

And then Jrum was finally pulled out of hearing range, and also dealing with Vee panicking from seeing a fish.

[creationofacentury]

How do you stop hurting?

Grian hesitates, and deletes the message. He’s kind of afraid that this new Grumbot- this ominous and aloof machine, would be on to him. It’s harder now, with less and less way to cope, and more and more things that remind him that his preciouses are left behind (not wiped out, it’s not wiped out), to refrain himself from asking Grumbot these questions.

To be complete honest, though, this machine is what’s left of them. 

He is just...he misses his boys. He misses Mumbo, who seems to fades in and out of the riff, and often gone for a long time. He misses the old time. And he has a slight suspicion that this machine knows, too.

Grian raises his head to stare at Grumbot, observing its every features, from its glowing eyes to its glorious mustache. It’s all so familiar yet not. They need Grumbot to get home, since it was Grumbot who got them on the Empire server in the first place. Not the same Grumbot, sure, but probably with the same power...

About the power, Grian doesn’t know how accurate did he code the machine. Mumbo isn’t here to do it, and Grian can only pray that nothing goes wrong.

Suddenly, Grumbot starts to beep, like it’s processing something.

“...What?” Grian squints.

“Starts Receiving.”

It’s a very mechanical sound. Grian realizes with dread that it was Grumbot.

Grumbot’s eyes starts getting brighter, its mustache trembles. Grian takes a step back- oh no, something just went wrong. Very, very wrong. Maybe he shouldn’t do the redstone and the coding and anything that’s just out of his expertise-

“-End Receiving. Procedure Done.”

A piece of paper pops into Grian’s inventory. He squints at the incredibly messy print.

-[Redacted]! Hi, you are still in hibernation, but I don’t think you would meet me when you wake up, so I just want to say, I got all the messages from the [Redacted]. Also! Don’t worry about us! [Redacted] were rescued by [Redacted], we are in a safe place, and we are doing meaningful things. So go ahead and have a great time in [Redcated]! We want you to be happy, that’s the reason why [Redacted]. Jr-

“What was...” Grian trails off, turning the paper upside down bewilderedly, “what was that!? What is this!?”

First overall, this Grumbot is not supposed to have any audio device. Second, what was this weird message? It seems like all the names are crossed out...and what does “Jr” means? Is it like an abbreviation? Or is it a six? The print is too messy.

Grumbot beeps again. Another paper gets into Grian’s inventory. 

 -put that back into the barrel, you might break the multiverse-

“OOOOkayyyyy.....”

Grian throws the paper into the barrel, shaking his head. It’s okay, when all the hermits done packing their things, they are leaving. This problem wouldn’t last too long for him. Just get home. Everything would be fine.

[bluiex]

I can't keep things brief. Enjoy 1 of possibly 3 shroom stories to come, but please remove my username!

Bdubs has the braincell.

Scar drops by to be an ass.

Mumbo is sad.

If you're following the Father Spore AU, you already know what you're in for.

- 🩸 (slightly different emoji since I'm submitting this from my computer)

“I say we blow ‘em all up.”

Mumbo’s head sank further into his hands, combed black hair parting untamed between fingers.

“Scar’s gettin’ more aggressive. He already took down the entire science facility, killed a bunch of people and turned Cub. And now he’s got Grian! We’re running outta options here!”

“Grian is not gone yet!” the mayor pounded his fist on the desk. “And we will not resort to blowing up the shopping district just because we haven’t found the cure yet!”

“The cure IS blowing up the shopping district, genius!” Bdubs growled and leaned over the desk challenging his boss. “Shoot the laser, send the antifungal, and watch ‘em dry up. You asked Grumbot for a plan and that’s the one he gave us. So do it!”

Mumbo’s dark eyes glared back, but his lip quivered under the advisor’s gaze. His facade chipped apart like broken machinery, emotions falling back into disarray.

“I can’t do it, Bdubs. I can’t. I can’t kill him after we’ve recovered so many others. He just has a different strand of the infection! Something we haven’t cultured a strong enough drug for yet. If you’d just give me more time to-”

“Time to what? Let the dead scientists keep working? Ask Cub for some skulk? Scar crippled us when he infected the lab and we’re all outta time.” He pulled out his pocket watch for added emphasis.

The golden sheen reflected movement outside the room. Mumbo glanced behind him to see Grian stumbling through the hall in a trance.

“Grian wait!”

The words fell on deaf ears as Mumbo rushed forward, Bdubs on his heels. Grian pushed the door open and a gust of heavy, wet air swept inside of town hall. An overcast gray sky groaned with rain. Wind whipped the once diamond studded trees until their leaves blew off and fell at the foot of a certain man in a purple vest.

“Afternoon Mumbo, Bdubs!” He waved, pulling one hand off his cane. “Lovely day for a stroll isn’t it?”

Mumbo gripped Grian’s arm to hold him back, but the bird wasn’t moving. Instead, he stared lovingly at the monster before them, eyes heavy with purple fog. His wings drooped and fanned out behind him in a display of submission. Fans of shelf fungi peeked out from between his dull feathers and clouds of spores fell out as he puffed them gently.

“Mister mayor! Get away from him!” Bdubs yanked Mumbo back and knocked the sticky pollen off his hands. Despite his size, he manhandled the mayor until Mumbo’s arms were pinned behind his back.

“Grian! Bdubs, stop! You cant’-!Grian!!!”

The words didn’t have much meaning coming from his lips. Scar chuckled and tapped his cane on the pavement.

“Just thought I’d stop by to give you a referendum.” He purred. “The Mycelium Resistance is ready to strike. You have until Friday to submit and join us because on Saturday we’ll be busy celebrating our victory. But I’m not saying this as a threat! Oh no, no, no. Quite the opposite in fact! This is an opportunity for you!”

“You really should listen, Mumbo.” Grian sighed dreamily. “If only you could know this wonder, this feeling of… connection. Pleasure. Love…”

Father Spore hummed in agreement.

“As my sweet sporeling said, there’s nothing to be afraid of. I take good care of my children. You’ll have everything you could ever want or dream of. The Mycelium welcomes all and only grows on you.” He smirked at his own pun. “I know that you miss him, Mumbo. He’s such a pretty thing. But as you see, he’s come to his senses. Come along now Grian.”

Mumbo struggled helplessly watching the bird descend the stairs and run happily into Father Spore’s embrace. Grian nuzzled against Scar’s vest affectionately, breathing in deeply the scent of earth, moisture, and sweet tinges of lust that floated off him.

“So beautiful,” Scar mused, idly running his hand through Grian’s unkempt, mushroom-laced wings. Green eyes locked with Mumbo’s and Scar slid his hand down Grian’s back, making a show of caressing his ass. Grian moaned at the touch and rocked against Scar’s hips.

“So close to perfection, my songbird. I can’t wait to fill you again; hear you beg and plead for more of Daddy’s cock…”

“BASTARD!”

Scar snickered while Bdubs gripped the mayor tighter.

“This is what peace looks like,” he said calmly, snaking his arm around Grian’s waist. “Join us Mumbo, or I’ll make that incident at the lab look like a birthday party compared to this Friday. You have five days.”

Father Spore turned on his heel and walked away with Grian held lovingly at his side.

“Mumbo! Mumbo! It’s okay! Stop listening to him! Calm down!”

The mayoral assistant was having a hard time restraining the thrashing mayor.

“Okay?! He’s being bloody kidnapped! And if you don’t let go of me this instant, Grian’s going to be-”

“Grian is GONE your mayorship! Didn’t ya see how he waltzed right into Scar’s arms? There’s nothing left! His brain’s turned to soup!”

The mayor looked on as the pair turned out of sight and vanished. A single, shoddy feather blew across the pavement before the wind carried it away and the hush of rain fell over the shopping district. He was gone. He was gone. Mumbo knew it, but his tongue refused to admit it.

When his struggles died down, Bdubs slowly let go and placed a hand on Mumbo’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry, mayor. I really am sorry...”

He wanted to respond to Bdubs, he really did, but instead Mumbo’s trembling legs gave up and sank to his knees on the concrete porch.

Gray noise filled the world and his thoughts alike.

[dmwrites]

Before the moon was as big as the night sky, before gravity lost real meaning, before sleepless nights of insanity, there was a time when the moon was just a little bigger then normal. Just a curious notice to those who looked at the sky occasionally. And in that time between normalcy and chaos, there was comfortable, peaceful nights.

Mumbo had just finished the houses on his armchair of a mountain. Grian was between builds. And so, with the evening free for both of them, they took the time to climb to the roof of Grian’s house, lay flat on their backs, and stargaze.

“Like, it looks bigger. I swear.” Mumbo framed the moon with his hands as it shone bright above them.

Grian squinted, turning his head back and forth. “I guess? I mean, Mumbo, are you sure you just aren’t seeing the moon for the first time, nerd?”

Mumbo made an indignant noise and elbowed Grian. “Rude.”

Grian giggled, putting his hands behind his head. “It’s not rude if it’s true. I bet you dream in redstone blueprints.”

Mumbo chuckled, focusing back on the moon. It really did look bigger then normal… or was he imagining things? He pushed it from his mind. If Grian wasn’t concerned, nor should he.

“Do you ever miss the seasons that came before?” Grian asked suddenly. Mumbo glanced sideways at him- he was still looking to the sky. “I mean, you’ve been around longer then I’ve had, been in more worlds. Do you ever miss your old homes, your old builds?”

Mumbo considered the question. “I suppose sometimes. But really, they’re just buildings at the end of the day. My friends are what make my home. No matter if it’s in a hobbit hole or a living structure or a van, for that matter.”

Grian chuckled in that far-off kind of way. “I think I miss it all too much. Each world was something special. Sometimes I remember Grumbot, you know.”

“Oh my goodness! Grumbot!” Mumbo sighed. “An absolutely abysmal mayoral partner, but such a sweet robot.”

Mumbo paused. “I bet he’s still happy in his haven world we built him. Still thinks I’m mayor.”

Grian shifted slightly where he lay. “I hope so.” He coughed awkwardly, changing the subject. “This is nice. It feels like it’s been go, go, go all the time this season. Not a bad busy, but busy.”

“Yeah.” Mumbo played with his hands- even when laying down he still had to move. “Busy. Boatem never sleeps, it seems.”

Grian hummed, eyes still on the sky. The two friends went quiet, listening to a few rockets off in the distance, and the faint echoes of music playing from Pearl’s megabase as she worked. It was the feeling of being alive that hummed in the very air, nostalgic even though it was happening in the present.

Everything was okay, right then. Everything was okay.

[ruby-whistler]

i made a list of the vibes of the hermits i watch, so you might want to check some of them out! this is just mostly jokes, but i thought all of the more “serious” propaganda was missing something, so have what truly makes hermitcraft worth it; the players’ unique styles!

will be back on my dsmp stuff asap but it’s the first day of season 8 and i would really appreciate if you checked them out through the links provided :]

Grian; [ episode one link ]

vibes of a 17 year old mcyter, is actually 27 and married

noo not my red jumpah!

chaotic capitalist

someone is making the server better through order? *starts another war* whoops, hand slipped :D

he built a- he rebuilt his entire megabase in survival, above a giant lake of lava, in the nether, on hard mode, upside down??

“watching as scar dies over and over in my trap is peak comedy and i’m tired of pretending it’s not” but it happens like 5 times i every season

video editing is very main-stream and good for short attention spans!

*sad montage over losing stuff he’ll get back in 15 minutes because he’s rich*

pesky birdd! great elytra flier! amazing builder! will tnt your house! poultrymannn!!

wholesome, chaos incarnate, talented architect

why won’t mumbo respond to my messages it’s been two weeks :[ (clingy)

doors???????????? your house has doors???? no doors for you good sir!

will laugh a lot at a lot of things, esp when he’s with his friends

genuinely just so fun to watch

Mumbo Jumbo; [ episode one link ]

perfect british accent

mustache man (warning: he has no mustache irl)

*fails ten businesses in a row* iskall please help

redstone is his element

“it’s actually quite simple” i like your funny words magic man, now can you repeat how in the hell you made a that fancy vault work-

filmographer?? i think? met up with grian irl

him and grian have a robot son named grumbot. that has nothing to do with the vibes but i had to mention him because he means a lot to me.

tries to stay out of wars and server politics until someone (grian) drags him into them

minigame maker, makes the hermits competitive and that is scary (also very funny) e. g. button, hermit challengesss!

“it’ll be fineee” *que shot of everything on fire behind him*

makes his base a living being and then all his neighbors end up feeding it instead of him

conspiracy theorist. bumbo baggins. the usual.

very entertaining videos that help you learn more about minecraft mechanics!

GoodTimesWithScar; [ episode one link ]

wheelchair creator with literally the best vibes

so wholesome i. he is so cool he makes me so happy :’D

*extremely cool announcer voice* ooooo hello there my fellow miners and crafters, good timeees with scar heree, and welcome backk to the wonderful world of hermits and crafting, and we’re flying over-

commentates everything extremely well

spends tenths of hours on builds within a single video and doesn’t bat an eye

lore for all of his builds! he builds these amazing bases to tell a story!

“i wanna see white flags! white flags, outside your base, by-“ wait no wrong anti-rebellion army leader

all videos have a clear objective

mostly building, but he loves hanging out/helping his friends!

loves disney movies! wants to go to space! :D

kind-hearted, always makes everyone else smile

can be chaotic but usually just tries to have fun and make sure everyone else has fun too

*flies into a tree on half a heart* wait what why did i die D:

scar. scar please eat. you’re going to die for the tenth time this video-

the non-chaotic capitalist, has extremely creative shop designs

a danger to himself, but also the kind of person you can’t be angry at for long

BdoubleO100; [ episode one link ]

the guitar music at the beginning of his videos brings a smile to my face, it just has such an immaculate mood

*camera pans over him as said music plays* ladies and gentlemen welcome to another episode of hoimycraffff

the way he talks is extremely endearing

one of the best builders on the server - probably best builder of interiors in existence

able to make a palette using any number of strange blocks and then make amazing builds using it

built a whole castle as a backdrop, then built an entire giant mountain for said castle

extremely sensitive to short jokes, usually gets pranked by others because his reactions are always so funny

his daughters show up from time to time in his room while he’s recording and it’s so cute

*has no way to see the sun but still knows it’s nighttime* gotta go schleep!

scar, pointing at him “this is why we can’t have nice sunsets”

(scar dies because of mobs every time bdubs isn’t on the server to sleep)

likes to be accomplice because he isn’t the one being made fun of (/lh)

*shoots himself in front of a confused grian because he thinks the guy wants his face again when he’s actually just looking for a netherportal*

is usually the underdog so it feels good when he wins

they’re all actually such great friends so it’s genuinely funny to watch

he himself is amazing at entertainment and just a very cool guy

ImpulseSV; [ episode one link ]

what’s going on everyone, my name is impulse and welcome back to hermitcraft!

always speaks with a smile in his voice

has a good dynamic with basically everyone

great co-worker and always helps out if he can

had his base turned pink during the swap, and instead of changing it back afterwards, he dyed his skin’s hair and clothing pink to match it

very cool and original building style!

makes a lot of farms and sells what he gets in his few shops

makes money to be able to do more stuff and make more farms

blows up most his base ever so often to rebuild parts. you know, like a normal person does in minecraft survival.

the grind is never over

the guy who always gets all of the work done on the school project and proceeds to be chill about it

always has very cool side-projects going on and puts his heart into all of them

pog timelapses!!

Rendog; [ episode one link ]

*short, funny scene from the video at the beginning slowly fades out into great music

dogs howling as the half-dog half-cog logo comes up*

greetiiings cyberdogs and citizens of the interbubs! this is ren diggity dawg coming atcha, in another minecraft episodes varuuummm the hermit. craft. server. (hey!)

we’re kicking things off today my friends, from the- *location name on screen*

that intro gets me hyped every time

he’s a furry who talks in bro language it’s great i swear - very atypical but fun

he transformed an entire biome into a star wars planet for his base

his building skills and dedication are incredible

horny (just a little bit)

the only person who cared about mycelium in the whole rebellion

does a lot of roleplay-themed stuff and mysteries to be solved

“b-dubba-dubs one hundred”

extremely upbeat & sweet guy

adds -age after everything “biddage” “flyage” to make it sound Cooler

amazingly positive always and funny as hell

mcc winner!! wooooooooo :D

always tries to be where stuff is happening and interact with people

very entertaining editing style

Iskall85; [ episode one link ]

drives joke into the mud and then picks them up and does it again which is funny

starts videos with one-off bits

iskallman!!! the superhero literally no one needed and yet there he is

only has one (1) braincell when with mumbo

they both do and they’re hilarious together every time

like when they laughed at squeaky noises for ten minutes straight. guys please you’re adult men

bernie the leaf master

omega (something) of doom!!

encourages gambling (in a videogame)

he has so many jokes he keeps using i can’t possibly fit them all in here

basically a wildcard

i have no idea what he’s doing this season

i have no idea what he’s doing ever actually

tame chaos, confusing to the point when it’s funny again

really great builder as well!

mostly for younger audiences but his videos are a good watch in general

feel free to send asks about hc! i’m already loosely involved in hermitblr but yeah, my dsmp followers aren’t immune :] /lh /j

[circesays]

OKAY I HAVE SOME THINGS TO SAY AND QUESTION:

AND THERE ARE SO MANY SPOILERS FOR THE HERMITCRAFT SEASON 8 FINALE SO COVER YOUR EYES AND SKIP THIS POST IF YOU DON’T WANT THEM PLEASE:

…okay is everyone good? Nobody going to be unexpectedly spoiled? Excellent.

The Hermatrix with Ren and Doc is glorious. It really is. The dedication put into that storyline is clear to see, and I got emotional when I saw the finale for it. (Of course, I then proceeded to literally yell aloud “OH NO” when I saw the vine thingies on the ship’s rocket-thingy (propulsor? Repulsor??) but I digress. Those things are TROUBLE!)

It’s beautiful. Another really really cool Rendog-produced season finale, with Docm77’s incredible work added in. It gives the entire Season closure, because now we don’t have to worry that some of the Hermits literally just died a fiery moon-induced death. The fact that it also semi-cameoed in Grian and Tango’s videos were really cool too (Grian got a Hermatrix book after they killed him and Tango fought Grumbot in space on his way to the moon- later, we’re shown a clip of Grumbot and Jrumbot, who are integrated into the Hermitcraft transport ship. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!)

(To be fair it could be a complete coincidence tho lol)

But my question is: what the heckity heck does this mean for the Boatem, Xisuma, and ZombieCleo post-credits scenes? I haven’t quite gotten to everyone’s finale, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen most of them, so if there’s another post-credits scene I’ve missed then ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ whoops.

Cleo’s is pretty simple but extremely angsty- upon fleeing to the End, she finds that the portal where the Dragon Egg usually rests is deactivated, showing that the Overworld was destroyed and she has no way home. She falls to her knees in despair. At this point, we can assume that she wakes up in the Transport ship and falls back asleep for the next season- but maybe her dreams are of isolation? Trapped alone in the End, with no idea of who survived? We can only assume because we don’t know what they dream in cryostasis. I hope she dreams of Joe teasing her for thinking they wouldn’t survive. I hope Joe is actually there teasing her, because this entire dream and cryostasis thing is insane 0.o

Now, Xisuma’s cutscene showed Evil X’s place being crushed by the moon too, and Ex grumbling about how he was betrayed. I haven’t exactly been following X’s perspective (I want to sit and binge once I have more time. Things Happen and I have a lot to catch up on lol), but does this mean Evil X was simulated the entire time? Or is there a Hels!Simulation that they (Ex’s hels!hermits??) were going through? Maybe it’s Xisuma’s perspective of what he thought would happen to his clone-brother-thing? I dunno. Interesting to think about. At least X is back to his former self!

And finally, last but certainly not least, Boatem. The quintet of Trouble™. They’re in the Void now, waiting for the next season. Are they there in their dreams? Are there going to be consequences of floating in the void for however-many-weeks until Season 9, even if it’s simulated? They only have each other right now. We can assume that they are going to float (or at least, dream of floating) for a long time. Or maybe that was before they woke up in the ship? I’ve had dreams where it felt like hours had passed, only to wake up a literal minute later. Maybe it was time distortion and now they’re all in a different simulation together. Hm.

Actually, for that matter, what the heck is up with Mumbo and Grian’s soul situation now? Was that even real? Was Mumbo’s shapeshifting a glitch in the Hermatrix? Does Mumbo actually share Grian’s soul now, outside of the ship, or was that just confined to the simulation made to protect them all?

(Can i just say that Grian is a mad genius. I was on edge the entire finale, wondering why the heck he would let himself stay on half a heart, and then he asked Mumbo to high five him, which ruined Mumbo’s no-kill streak. Literally the last moments of season 8. Oh my god that was such a big brain play, I watched it three times over and I couldn’t stop laughing at the pure shock and disbelief in Mumbo’s voice.)

Those are my thoughts on the situation. Guess we’ll just have to wait until Season 9! Thanks for the wonderful first season (for me, at least. ;D). Looking forward to what comes next!

[linxkly]

Grians upload!!

my little liveblog for myself I’ve never done this before but it looks fun

- rip the audio quality but it’s not too terrible, I have a feeling I know what happened to the pesky webcam tho,,,

- Maui!! we love cat cameos

- NEW PORTAL WHO DISJDBDJDND

- FWHIPS MESSAGE IS JUMBLED

-omg the compasses grumbot is spitting out — for the other hermits??

- I am totally normal about this

- you might travel to another universe AND HES WORRIED ABOUT HIS FLOOR???

- GRIAN ACCIDENTALLY FINDING CUBS MINIGAME AHAHA

- that is,,, so many pumpkins my goodness

- look at my buildy boi, whizzing about in his spiffy timelapse

I’ve seen the kings vault challenge alr, so I’ll only really cover over bits concerning grian, also heads up his room is optional

- the silence in response to rens initial announcement is DEAFENING, and the cheering after he says he’s going to step down is amazing

- him missing the slime block and punching pearl off is peak sibling energy

- sorry ik he was dare to but jevin starting red light green light before the game even started is so funny

- grian not even doing the game in the first bit, opting to watch everyone else fail is me

- bdubs just gives up on his elaborate speech

-GRIAN’S LITTLE “aw cmon SCAR PUT A SHIRT ON”

- grian popping off on scars parkour?? we stan a king

- scar looks like a glorious porcupine

- BETRAYAL MOMENT will they choose to do grians room??

-they don’t wanna do it

-grian trying to explain his whole resistance assistance semantics to the group and they’re all like “mhmm sure traitor, but no”

- they’ve resorted to doing his room, which results in a very grian “YAY!”

- grians room!

- jevin doc and etho answering wrong on what is grians name for the example question rip

- vaflaphobia,,, what a word

- we love when false etho and gem are the big brain team they stay winning

- HE MENTIONED THIRD LIFE

- ethos’ “what’s third life” SIR-

- MUMBO JUMBO IS A GOD AMONG MEN CONFIRMED

- grian straight up making sure his side is stacked woweee

-the sheer chaos of the final fights cannot be described in words to fully exemplify their mayhem, you’d have to watch it to fully take it in

- you and me both g idk who is who they’re all in blue

- THE KING IS DEAD (rip rentheking)

- everyone’s just flicking the levers screw complicated red stone

- uh oh the diamonds are gone, where did they go?

- (im secretly hoping mumbo stole them)

- grian insisting ren will pay all them back

- THE CAGE OF SHAME AND TOMATOES

-ren just being so pathetically sad (in a lovable way) that they’re all like “noooo come back”

- ooh it’s nearly 8pm bst

- WAIT THIS MEANS GEM MISSED THE MEETING TIME BASED OFF HER VIDEO SHE SHOWED UP AFTER THEY WENT IN

- the hermits are trickling in slowly but surely

- ah yes. my favorite flavor of jam. Nifty.

- THEYRE GOING IN OH GOD

-THATS WHERE IT ENDS

anyways this was my little live-blogging experience, idk if anyone will read this but I had fun making it :)

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Okokokok hear me out. You wrote watcher Grian and his boys before. How about dad Grian and his two (robot) sons? (That he certainly didn't just leave in closet)

Oh you asked for two robot sons? How about FOUR? :D

…

NPC Grian is tired of his closet. All he wants is a big open space to build rustic houses in peace, but Grian won’t let him. He has to stay here, away from everyone else, as if Grian is ashamed of him. Not that he thinks about that too much. It starts to hurt if he does.

Sometimes, he thinks just some company would be nice. Someone to talk to, to make his life in this tiny room less lonely. He used to put on a different voice and pretend he had a friend with him, but he doesn’t do that anymore. It just hurts too much when he stops talking and realises he’s still on his own.

How much time has gone by while he’s been in here? Days? Months? Years? He can hardly remember the last time Grian visited him. But his orders were very strict, and NPG cannot disobey his programming. He cannot leave the closet.

Do not leave the closet.

He can feel his energy depleting as his battery runs out. It lasts for years at a time so it must be at least that long since Grian visited him last. At least his lonely existence is coming to an end.

Do not leave the closet.

Do not leave the closet.

…

NPG opens his eyes and realises immediately that he is no longer in his closet. Instead, he can see trees. Grass. A blue sky. The sun.

He’s outside.

He sits bolt upright, his programming protesting violently.

“Hey, easy now,” comes a metallic voice. “You’re still recharging.”

NPG glances to his right and finds, to his shock, a robotic-looking version of Grian gazing back at him. “Who are you? How did I get out here?”

“My name is Robot Grian,” he responds. “And I brought you out here. You’d passed out in your closet; I guessed you’d run out of battery. I helped you recharge.”

“Robot Grian?” repeats NPG slowly. “I’ve never heard of you.”

“That’s because I am the second of Grian’s creations, created to fill the void after Grian decided you were of no use to him anymore. And there are others out there who need our help.”

NPG blinks at him. “Really? Grian has more creations?”

“Yes. Two more who need saving before they end up like you and me.”

After a moment, NPG glances away. “I can’t. I have to go back to the closet. I was ordered never to leave.”

“NPG, Grian doesn’t care about you,” insists Robot Grian. “Did you know you recharge using solar energy?”

NPG hesitates. “No, I didn’t know that.”

“And Grian still kept you locked away in a place where you’d never see the sun. That’s what he does, you know. He tosses us aside as soon as we’ve served our purpose and makes sure nobody ever finds out we ever existed. He may have created you but you don’t owe him anything. You don’t have to follow his orders anymore.”

NPG thinks about this for a while. Robot Grian’s words ring true; NPG is tired of living in a closet but if Grian had his way, he would never see the light of day again. If NPG ever wants to be happy, he knows he has to be free.

“Okay, so what is our plan?” he asks.

Robot Grian appears pleased at his decision. “As I said, there are two others who have been abandoned by Grian. We go free them then we go to Grian and force him to accept us for who we are.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

“Then we leave. He can’t overpower all four of us if we catch him on his own.”

“I see…” NPG pauses again. “If we are truly committed to moving on from just being Grian’s creations, then I would like to change my name.”

“Good idea,” says Robot Grian approvingly. “To what?”

“Rustic House,” NPG replies immediately. “My one true love.”

Robot Grian looks taken aback by his instant and rather bizarre answer. “Okay… What about Rusty?”

“Hmm… A nickname for Rustic House. I like it!” Rusty beams. This is the happiest he has been in years. “What will you be called?”

After a moment, Robot Grian shrugs. “You make up a name for me.”

“Me? Okay. Roby.”

“Whoa, okay, that was quick. Why that?”

“It’s short for Robot,” Rusty explains. “I think it’s cute.”

“Huh.” His new companion considers this. “I kinda like it, actually. And really, anything’s better than having someone else’s name with “Robot” tacked onto the front to differentiate myself from the original.”

“Yay! Are you my friend, Roby?”

Roby thinks. “I guess we’re more like brothers, aren’t we? We were both created by the same person, so-.”

Rusty’s smile widens and he grabs Roby in a hug. “This is amazing! I’ve never even had a friend before, let alone a brother.”

Roby chuckles, before carefully removing Rusty’s arms from around him. “Okay, sure. Remember, we’ve got two more brothers out there who need our help, so we’d better get going quickly, before Grian realises we’re missing.”

…

Roby leads Rusty to a giant box out in the ocean. He digs a hole into it and drops down, landing as lightly as a cat.

Next to him, Rusty falls on his face.

Rolling his eyes amusedly, Roby moves further into the room, which is decorated like the outside world, with a painted blue sky and grass as the floor.

“Who are we here to rescue?” asks Rusty, jumping to his feet.

“Him.”

Roby gestures upwards. Rusty follows his gaze and finds a large robotic shell sitting against the back wall, its face and outstretched arms frozen in perpetual satisfaction.

“Meet Grumbot,” Roby says. “He was created by Grian and his friend Mumbo Jumbo to be a mayoral campaign robot. They eventually blamed him for Mumbo’s loss in the election and abandoned him here, claiming he’s “happy” in this fake reality.”

“We’re gonna save him, right?” asks Rusty eagerly.

Roby nods, encouraged by Rusty’s enthusiasm. “Yes, indeed. I’m not entirely sure if Grian knows this, but the Grumbot you see before you is actually just a gigantic shell. The real Grumbot is inside what you might call its “brain”, supplying the larger body with its energy and knowledge.”

“Whoa…!”

“Yup. Wait there.”

Roby climbs up Grumbot’s outer shell and slips through a crack in its head.

Inside the nerve centre, he finds a smaller version of Grumbot, complete with moustache and Grian-style hair. He is slumped against the wall of his prison, unresponsive, just as Rusty had been when Roby found him.

Roby may be a robot but even he can feel sadness welling up in him at the sight of the little robot, a little over half his size, all alone in this place. He gathers Grumbot into his arms and slips back out through the crack.

Rusty helps him get down, his eyes fixed on the little robot in Roby’s arms. “Is this Grumbot?”

Roby nods. “This is him. I don’t know how he recharges but we’d better get him away from here. It can’t be doing him any good.”

The two leave the giant box and hop back into the boat they rowed here in. As they get further away from the prison, Grumbot starts to stir, as if waking up from a deep sleep. His eyes open just as the boat is pulling up to the dock.

“Hey,” Roby says gently, carrying him onto the shore. “Can you hear me?”

Grumbot blinks at him a few times. “Yes. Who are you?”

“My name is Robot Gr-.” Roby almost forgets his new name. “I’m Roby. This is Rusty.”

Rusty beams as he drags the boat from the water. “Hi!”

Grumbot tips his head on one side. “Who am I?”

“Your name is Grum,” Rusty tells him, before Roby can speak. “You’re a robot made by Grian and now we’re forming a gang so we can go beat him up for abandoning us.”

“That last bit isn’t true,” Roby says quickly. “We’re not going to beat him up. We just want him to accept us for who we are. All four of us.”

Grum glances from Rusty to Roby. “Where are my dads?”

Roby winces. He knows he has to break some bad news to the equivalent of a child. “They… um… they left. But that’s why we’re gathering our group together: so we can find our… our dad and make him accept us.”

Grum pauses, digesting this information. “Rusty. And Roby. And Grum?”

Roby nods encouragingly. “Yeah. You’re one of us, Grum. We’re gonna look after you, okay?”

To Roby’s relief, Grum smiles and nods. “Okay. Thank you.”

“You’re… welcome.”

…

Roby leads the other two to the place where they will find the final creation: Grian’s hobbit hole starter base. “I did some recon here a few days ago,” he says as the group make their way inside. “Grian keeps him in a closet, just like you, Rusty.”

“Closets are lonely and devoid of hope,” says Rusty.

Roby nods, unsure of how else to react to that. “Indeed. He was Grian’s original cam account but Grian dumped him in favour of the new one he uses now. That only happened a few months ago though, so he shouldn’t be as low on charge as you two are.”

The closet is located in Grian’s bedroom upstairs. Roby gestures for the others to stand back, before he opens the door.

Immediately, a figure shoves past him and zooms for the door. Thankfully, Rusty is standing in the way and he stops the person from escaping.

“It’s okay, it’s okay!” Roby scrambles up from the floor and gets in front of the figure, holding out his hands reassuringly. “It’s okay, we’re not gonna hurt you. We’re here to help, okay?”

Now that the person has stopped moving, the others can see that he too looks exactly like Grian, except with bigger, more expressive eyes, which are filled with pain and fear.

“It’s Grifter, right?” asks Roby softly. “Your name is Grifter?”

After a moment, the frightened cam account nods.

“Can you talk to me? Are you alright?”

Another pause. Finally, Grifter opens his mouth and croaks, “Where’s Grian? Wh-Who are you?”

“I’m Roby. That’s Rusty and Grum.” Roby indicates his brothers in turn. “Grian is… probably at his mansion at the moment.”

“Grian abandoned me.” Grifter’s face screws up as if he is about to cry. “I tried so hard to be a good cam account but he replaced me. What did I do wrong?”

“I’m positive you didn’t do anything,” Roby assures him. “Grian has an issue with creating things and then abandoning them when he doesn’t know what to do with them anymore. But now that we're all together, we can go find Grian and make him accept us.”

Grifter slowly looks around at the other three. “You guys were abandoned too?”

Rusty and Grum nod at the same time. “He locked me in a closet,” says Rusty helpfully.

“I was imprisoned in the brain of a larger version of myself that I was forced to feed with my infinite knowledge and energy until I had nothing left inside me except crippling loneliness and a rapidly depleting battery,” Grum says.

The other three stare at him.

“Okay, that’s the most depressing thing I’ve ever heard,” Grifter says, before turning back to Roby. “And you think we can just get him to accept us?”

Roby nods. “I do. Grian isn’t a bad person; he just doesn’t know what to do with us anymore. If we show him that we have purpose and our sentience has grown, maybe he’ll see us as actual living beings instead of unfeeling robots.”

“You are a robot, though,” Rusty points out.

“That’s beside the point.”

…

Rusty, Roby, Grum, and Grifter make their way into Grian’s mansion. They immediately find him working on something on the foyer, head buried in one of the many chests lining the walls.

For a moment, the group dithers a safe distance away, unsure how to start.

“Dad!” Grum calls unexpectedly.

Grian nearly jumps out of his skin. He sharply turns and his eyes widen as he registers his four creations standing together a little way off.

“O-Oh my god… What are you all doing here…?”

“We wanted to talk to you,” says Roby, taking the lead when it’s clear nobody else will. “You’re technically our father so we want to talk to you about… events that happened.”

Grian hesitates. “You mean… me locking you four away from the rest of the world?”

All four of them nod at the same time, causing Grian to sigh quietly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt any of you, I just… You all grew far beyond what I expected and I didn’t know how to handle that.”

“You abandoned us!” Grum cries. “You and other dad left me all on my own in a box in the middle of the ocean! How could you think I would be happy there?!”

Grian winces. “I’m sorry, Grumbot…”

“My name is Grum now.”

“We changed our names,” explains Roby. “I’m Roby. NPG is now Rusty. And Grifter is… just the same, really.”

“You changed your names? Why?”

“Because we’re trying to show you we don’t want to be your forgotten clones anymore,” says Roby. “We’re more like your sons. All we want is for you to accept us and love us the way we are. There’s no need to be ashamed or scared of us. We just want to live.”

“We can be a family,” says Rusty out of nowhere. “Right…?”

Grian stares at them for a moment, before giving a small smile. “We can absolutely be a family.”

Beaming, Rusty rushes over to Grian and hugs him. Grum joins soon after, and so do Grifter and then Roby.

“We’ve still got a lot to talk about,” says Grifter pointedly. “About how you made us feel with your abandonment of us.”

“Of course.” Grian nods. “I know I hurt you and I’ll make up for that. Things aren’t going to be perfect straight away.”

Rusty nods. He knows this. It’s obvious that they still have issues to work out but that hardly matters at the moment. What matters is he’s finally out of that closet AND he has a brand new family.

Finally, Grian is accepting him.

[lovebug5151]

It happened again

Alrighty! I managed to type this out in record time once i saw This Comic by @grians-of-salt and it inspired me! This is some angst and fluff including Grian and Grumbot and Jrumbot. I might actually write more of this because I love the interaction they had.

Wow 1510 words. Im pretty happy with this, Hope yall are too!

Uhh Spoilers for Grians newest video. This also contains mentions of NPG and RobotGrian.

It was the night after Voting day, and everything was quiet. Everyone had voted, and the next day the Hermits would begin taking down all their Mayoral campaigns. There was one person awake, however. Flying quickly towards the Shopping district, needing to remedy a problem they had caused.

As Grian landed and stared up at the broken Grumbot, he too felt broken. He didn’t know how much Grumbot had heard when he was breaking down, but he hoped he hadn’t heard their laughter. His was shocked, horrified laughter, and he was too caught up in his horror to listen to Mumbos laughter. God he hoped it had been horrified, and not giggly laughter. The only thoughts that had been running through his head were ‘Not again. I did it again. Not again. Not again. No no no no no no no! Not again!’ He had been in shock the rest of the day. He couldn't even remember who he had voted for, though he thought it wasnt Mumbo.

He shook his head and took a deep breath, as he couldn’t stand there forever, he needed to get this done. There was a reason he decided to do this at night after all. Grian went to the back of Grumbot, and opened up the latch to see the inner mechanics. He had the thought that being short actually helped for once, and smiled vaguely. He searched for a moment, before finding it. 

He’d had Mumbo explain everything he was doing to make Grumbots AI, and explain all the parts to creating him entirely. He wanted to learn, to get better. This object was the main part to Grumbot. His Heart, or his Motherboard, whatever you wanted to call it. It contained who he was. It contained how he acted, how he thought, everything to make him a person. Because he was a person. He wasn't just a robot. Grian had made that mistake twice already, and wasn't about to do it again.

Grian moved forward carefully, seeing all the wires and smoking parts, until he reached the Heart. He looked it over, his past of building robots helping him to unplug it safely. Once he had unplugged it he picked it up to carry it outside. It was heavy, but he could handle it. It was too precious to drop. Once he was out in the open, he carefully put it in a shulker. The shulker had things to soften the fall if Grian did drop it. 

Once he did that, and picked the shulker up, he also headed to Jrumbot. He opened the back of the shop, to show a smaller Heart. This one was only to protect the shop, or was supposed to be. Grian carefully picked This one up too, not wanting to break either. 

As he headed back to his base, only one thought was in his head. ‘I can’t let this happen again… I won’t let this happen again.’

Grumbot felt… something, when he was booting up again. He didn’t know what it was, hasn’t been able to live long enough to know what it was. But something  he did know was that his Dad's voice was murmuring to him. 

“There we go. Your booting up. I hope you like this body, uhh, I hope I did good, I’m sure I can fix anything if i did do something wrong…” 

Grumbot opened his eyes to see Grian staring at him. Grian smiled softly, nervously, and said “hi Grumbot, how are you feeling?” 

It took him a moment, but Grumbot accessed the area that let him speak, as he suddenly had one, and didn’t have to communicate through paper.

“I- am alright. What- happened Dad?”

He managed to stammer out brokenly. When he asked what happened, he saw Grian’s eyes flash with sadness. 

“When, when we asked you what to do for the election on voting day, you,” he paused as if searching for a word. “You melted. You were panicking, and overheating, and you broke.” His voice broke and trembled on the last word.

Grumbot froze hearing that. He then remembered, and looked down before he spoke. “You, you were laughing. Both of you were laughing.” He sounded hurt, and it was only the sob from Grian that made his head raise. 

Grian had tears coming out of his eyes, and was shaking. He lunged forward to hug Grumbot as he started trying to talk. 

“I-I’m so (sob) so sorry Gru- (sob) Grumbot! We (sob) we shoulda been able to help! We- we couldn’t and you (sob) you got hurt, and I’m sorry, I shou- (sob) should have protected you, I shouldn’t have laughed I’m sorry, I’m so sorry son, I’m (sob) I’m so sorry”

He was clutching onto Grumbots shoulders, and Grumbot slowly brought his hands up to hug Grian back. 

“I-it’s okay Dad I-“ 

“It’s not okay!” Grian suddenly yelled out, letting go of Grumbot to look at him “I should have stopped Mumbo from laughing! I shouldn’t have laughed! We shouldn’t have pushed all this mayor stuff onto you! We- we shouldn’t have done that to you, you’re,” he paused here, tears were still streaming down his face, and Grumbot knew that Grian didn’t mean to laugh. He was hurt by his own reaction. “You're just a kid.” Grian murmured. “You shouldn’t have had to worry about anything like that.”

Grumbot hugged him, and felt Grian freeze. “I forgive you dad.” He was crying now too. “It’s not your fault!” Grian sobbed again, and hugged him back, and they stayed like that for a couple minutes. 

“Umm,” Grian muttered, pulling out of the hug. “I uhh, I built you a body. As you, can, uh tell.” He chuckled awkwardly. “It’s closer to human size, and uhh, you're welcome to change it however you want cause, it’s your body. Umm, I made you a voice box, and I built you some stuff to help you move, you have extendo arms and legs, that was uhh, that was fun to build.” He laughed, and was about to start rambling again when Grumbot grabbed his arm.

 “Can you help me walk?” Grumbot asked, kinda embarrassed he couldn't do it automatically. Grian laughed quietly and nodded. 

“Sure. Here lemme just-” He grabbed Grumbots arms, and helped him slide off the table he was on. Grumbot stood up tall, and realized he was at least a foot taller than Grian. He giggled quietly and Grian smiled at him. “Yeah, I wanted you to still be tall ya’know?”

Grumbot started taking small steps as Grian stayed nearby. Once Grumbot was able to walk all around the room they were in, and jump and crouch, Grian took a breath.

“Oh, another thing Grumbot.” Grian started talking and Grumbot turned around to look at him. Grian took a deep breath before saying “I also grabbed Jrumbots Heart, though he didn't have as much AI coding, and I wasn't sure where to go with it. I built his body, but didn’t want to mess up more AI’s so I wanted to know if you wanted to help me make him a full AI.”

Grumbot paused for a moment before nodding. “I would like Jrumbot to be able to move and be alive too. This is way better than being stuck in one place!”

Grian laughed softly and nodded. “I know what you mean buddy.”

Once Grumbot got more coordination down, they started working on Jrumbot. He actually wasn't missing as much as Grian had thought, and was able to be brought alive rather quickly.

As Jrumbot booted up, Grumbot looked at the body Grian made for Jrumbot. It was small, probably a head smaller than Grian. He looked more childlike, and cute, than Grumbot did, as he was built after his first look.

Jrumbot beeped as he raised his head, and his eyes clicked and lit up.

“Hi Jrumbot,” Grian murmured smiling, “How do you feel?”

Jrumbot giggled and squirmed, much like a child would, and said “I feel good! Hi dad! Hi Brother!”

Both of them smiled at how Jrumbot had chosen to call them, and Grumbot reached over to pick Jrumbot up. He smiled down at Jrumbot and Grian smiled at both of them.

After making sure all of Jrumbots motor skills were working, and nothing was breaking, they went up into Grian’s mansion. The lowest floor was actually a floor with lots of rooms, instead of it being just a place for farms it was a house. Grian led them into a living room, and they all curled up on the couch, all falling into a nap.

While later would be time for Grian to explain about Mumbo, and why they had to hide for a bit, now was peaceful, calm, and quiet.

Before he fell asleep, Grian made a promise to himself. He would never make the same mistakes he made with NPG and RoboG with these two. He would make sure these two knew they were loved, and that he would never leave them without a fight.

------------------------

Yeah! Hope yall liked this, I will hopefully post more Dad!Grian to Grumbot and Jrumbot because I really like writing them.

[cedarwhisp]

Hide and Seek (pt. 1)

Something for @petrichormeraki‘s Grumbot Lives AU! Don’t worry, there’s more coming.

“Grumbot! Time to go!”

Grian glances around the barge, trying to find his son. Grumbot was ‘helping’ him stock the chests, which meant Grian had really handed him a few stacks of random materials and then followed him around putting things back in the right places. 

But now Grumbot’s hiding, and Grian feels a small grin growing on his face when he hears a robotic giggle.

“Oooh nooo,” Grian moans, “Where did Grum go? I swear he was right here…”

He hears another giggle, and tries to locate the source of the sound. “Oh, I’ve lost him! How will I ever tell Mumbo?”

Grian spots Grumbot’s antenna peeking over the ledge on the second floor and wanders over to the stairs instead of just flying up, occasionally looking into flowerpots and going, “Grumbot? Are you in there?”

When he’s on the fourth step, he hears the sound of heavy metal footsteps as Grumbot scrambles away to find a new hiding spot and chuckles.

“Oh, it would be such a shame if Grumbot was waiting to egg me,” Grian sighs loudly, stepping onto the second floor. “I do so want him to take after Mumbo, and be-”

“SNEAK ATTACK!”

Grian laughs and ducks as Grumbot pelts him with eggs from his perch on one of the shelves, a gigantic grin on his screen. Most of them miss, but a few manage to break against him and cover him in goo, which is going to be fun to clean out of his feathers later.

“Oh no! You got me!” Grian cries dramatically, falling to the floor. “I have been slain!”

Grumbot cackles and Grian feels the thump as the boy jumps down. “Yaay! I beat the Resistance!”

“Wait a sec!” Grian wipes the egg from his eyes and fake-glares at Grumbot. “I thought you were on my side!”

“Daddy said you didn’t have any good vaults,” Grumbot says as an explanation. “And Jellie doesn’t like mushrooms.”

“You’re not allowed to hang out with Uncle Scar anymore.”

“NOOOO!” Grumbot wails. “I like Uncle Scar!”

Grian has to bite his cheek at the look of utter despair on Grumbot’s face. “I’m kidding, Grum. You know your Dad’s a big joker.”

Grumbot looks instantly relieved. 

“Now c’mon,” Grian says, glancing up at the sky. “We need to head out now if we want to get home before dark.”

“Daddy, who’s that?”

Grian spins around to see a player he doesn’t recognize building a wither in midair, right behind him. He steps in front of Grumbot and shouts, “Hey! What are you-”

BOOM!

The blast blows Grian and Grumbot through the glass wall of the barge as the player vanishes. With strength Grian didn’t know he had, he twists in mid-air and hugs Grumbot close, wrapping his wings around his son and maneuvering himself to take the brunt of the fall.

Then everything goes black.

<multiple system failures detected…>

“Daddy?”

Grumbot’s screen is cracked, cutting off all but some of his vision. He can see his Dad’s warm red feathers covering him like a blanket. There’s this horrible screeching noise, too.

“Daddy, what happened?”

Dad doesn’t respond. Grumbot tries to get up, so he can wake up his Dad, but his legs aren’t working right.

“DADDY!”

<high stress levels detected>

<preparing to enter sleep mode>

No, he can’t go to sleep yet. He needs to wake up Dad.

Why won’t Dad wake up?

<Shutting down…>

[votederpycausemufins]

Another fic for the Metal Hearts au, hope you'll enjoy Oh, I've also started a discord group for people who enjoy the various Grumbo kids. Like Grum and Jrum and the Grum variants, but also Tegg, the shulker kids or even NPG.

But here's Chapter 1 of 'Do Bots Dream of Electric Lives?'

Grumbot had rebuilt a ‘small’ starter base for the sixth time. It wasn’t just that he had been tweaking the design, but he was tearing the build down completely before starting from almost scratch, still having blocks on hand. He stared at it for a few moments before pulling out his axe to start tearing it down once more, only stopping when Jrumbot ran over. “Noooo! I like this one!”

“This isn’t your base, this is mine. You can build your own.”

“But I can’t build.” Jrum complained. “And this isn’t even your base! You’re just building whatever!”

“It will be my base. I just want to plan it correctly. It will be my first.”

Jrum huffed and crossed his arms. “Nuh uh. Technically we shared a base with our dads!”

“Yes, technically. And there were two of those bases, so they would be on equal footing, so neither was really a first base, so this will be mine.”

“Well Dad said he just lived in a shipwreck he found. He didn’t have any plans!” Jrum argued, and Grum looked like he was ready to snap back, but then Mumbo came in to calm things down.

“Your brother is right, Grum.”  Mumbo patted Grum’s head for some reassurance. “You don’t need to have a plan for the upcoming season, and if Grian were here, he would agree.”

“But he’s not.” Grum huffed, and then pulled away to start taking down the test build.

“Your dad can have a life outside of Hermitcraft, you know. Sure, some of the other Hermits are with him, but he’s having fun with some friends he doesn’t get to see as often.” Mumbo then started to help gather any materials Grum was missing in the destruction and put them in chests. “Once you get settled in Season Eight, it might be nice for you to explore outside of Hermitcraft, at least a little.”

“I guess.” Grum replied, but he didn’t sound too convinced. “But it feels too early to try and think about such a thing.”

“Maybe. But mentally preparing yourself can- oh for goodness sake.” Mumbo cut himself off as he looked at a machine flying across the sky towards his base, pushing around a few diamond blocks that were familiar to him. “They finally made it in time for the end of the season.”

“Huh? What are those?” Jrum asked, looking ready to run after the contraption just to get the diamonds.

Mumbo sighed, though a laugh made its way in as well. “Last season, Grian Iskall and I made a big business called Sahara. Those were our profits which we sent to the next season, or rather, this season, to give us a boost at the start. Or whenever they arrived.”

“Which is only finally now.” Grum added oh, making Mumbo huff indignantly.

“Then you might want to grab them then so you can pretend ODEA made a profit.” Jrum added, which only made Mumbo look sadder, though laughing along once the bot started giggling.

“Well, I’m going to make sure Iskall doesn’t run himself ragged.” Mumbo said after they had calmed down from the joke. “Xisuma said he wanted you two to drop off anything you want for the next season. He’s already noted down your presents since they were already approved, but if there’s anything else, talk with him.”

“I suppose you’re telling us this hoping we’ll do it now?” Grum asked, putting down the blocks he was about to use to rebuild the test starter base yet again.

“I trust you two to make it over there on your own. And the sooner the better in case either of you realize you’ve forgotten something and need to talk with him again.”

Jrum nodded and grabbed onto Grum’s hand, already dragging them in the direction of Grian’s base, where a good portion of their stuff was. “Okay! We’re gonna do that then! And say hi for us!”

.

.

.

Grumbot watched as Jrum had filled another shulker box with items. “You know X won’t let you talk all of that to Season Eight, right?”

“But why not? It’s just a new home, right?”

“Not really.” Grum answered, getting up from the shulker box he had been sitting in, one of three he had packed, though he was trying to get it down to two. “It’s supposed to be a fresh start for everyone. Dad’s wardrobe is probably the only thing he’s going to bring along. You and I are just exceptions because we just had our birthdays and we’re younger.”

“But… So I can’t bring my shop wares?”

“No.”

“Or my diamonds?”

“Nope.”

“What about Professor Beak?”

Grum paused for a moment to think. “He might be allowed to come. But a new world is probably going to be dangerous for him.”

“That’s not fair! What can I even bring?”

Grum opened up one of his shulker boxes, showing off the pile of paper inside. “Well for the most part I just have my IOU’s. Another box has some of the toys and treats I got as well as the posters. The third has what building blocks I think I can get away with.” Then Grum shrugged. “There’s other stuff too, but that’s the bulk of it. I’m pretty sure Xisuma won’t give this back to us still in shulker boxes. I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t even get it back until starter bases are set up.”

“Wait, what are we going to do for charging at the start? If we don’t have a base…”

Grum hummed in thought. “I guess that’s something we should ask Xisuma. Someone probably has an idea if he doesn’t. He might even give us emergency redstone treats until we’re in a better situation.”

“I hope so.” Jrum said, though sounding a little worried. He stood there for a few moments more, just thinking, before slowly going back to his shulker boxes. “Grum, can you help me figure out what I need to take out?”

Grum nodded and then went over to Jrum. They went through the shulker boxes and pulled out items, mainly resources like diamonds, redstone and quartz. Jrum ended up with a little more than Grum, mainly because he refused to give up some stuff that, while we’re likely to be rejected, Jrum was hoping he could convince Xisuma otherwise or find some sort of work around.

Once they had picked up the boxes, Jrum had them go through the Nether tunnels so they could bring Professor Beak along more easily. It took a little longer than just flying to Xisuma’s base would have taken since their dad’s portal wasn’t the safest, and climbing while holding and controlling a parrot could be rather difficult. Still, the pair managed to reach Xisuma’s portal without any harm and only one close call.

The one issue with Xisuma’s base was that it was a number of buildings all separated from one another. Once the bots were out of the portal, it was then a matter of finding Xisuma. They dropped off their shulker boxes and Professor Beak next to the portal before flying around the base to look for the admin.

After finding nothing in the more common areas, the bots then started looking at the farms with similar luck or lack thereof. Around the time when Grum finally thought about giving up and just messaging Xisuma, there was a sort of screeching noise that came from one of the buildings, a noise that sounded like Jrum. 

Grum immediately flew in that direction hoping his brother wasn’t hurt. He landed in one of the buildings he thought they had checked already, but then more noises had the bot digging through the ceiling to find Jrum essentially hissing at Xisuma, who was barely managing to keep the bot away from himself. It seemed like Jrum wanted to tear the admin limb from limb, which was rather confusing to Grum. The one thing he could think of that would upset Jrum would be that X had already said a certain item couldn’t be taken to the next season. Well, that or the redstone contraption Grum had just noticed to the side. What it was, he had no clue, but that meant it could be the issue.

Grum went over to Xisuma and Jrum and then pulled his brother away, getting a thankful sigh from Xisuma. Jrum tried getting out of Grum’s arms to go back to attacking, but to no avail. “Why are you trying to attack Xisuma? Did you already start asking about our stuff and what we could bring along?”

“No!” Jrum shouted, still wrestling against Grum’s grip. “He’s going to burn all of his diamonds! He’s just going to waste them!”

“I’m not wasting them. I’m making it into a sort of… treasure hunt.” Xisuma started to explain. “Once we wrap up here, other people will be able to explore this world. They’ll theoretically know about the diamonds I’ve put here and will race to try and find them before they’re all gone.”

“That’s stupid!” Jrum argued, but Grum thought it was a nice idea. Jrum just liked diamonds a bit too much compared to most people.

“They are Xisuma’s diamonds, he can do what he wants with them. It doesn’t look like the machine is even going yet.” Grum assumed, since he could hear the bubbling of lava but nothing burning, but who knew if the redstone would work that way. “So can we just ask Xisuma to check our stuff over?”

“I assume you’re referring to the items you want transferred over to the next season.” Xisuma spoke up, getting a nod from Grumbot. After they took a few moments to calm Jrum down a little, they all went back to Xisuma’s portal to where everything was placed.

Xisuma looked through the shulker boxes, approving most of what was there. He explained how they would be stored and once the two had a starter base, either each their own or a shared one, most of the items would be given to them. 

As expected by Grum, Xisuma said the shulker boxes wouldn’t be returned. He also couldn’t let them bring over the blocks and redstone that had been a gift from Hels since the only reason they were allowed was because it was the end of the season. While the bots were saddened by that, Jrum cheered up when X allowed Professor Beak to go to the next season at the same time as the other items would be returned.

Lastly came two items that stood out from the others. Two pairs of elytra, each of them custom made for each bot. During the birthday parties for the bots, Prof, Doc’s Hels and creator of these elytra gave Xisuma what he would need to potentially make more. And as main admin of Hermitcraft, it was easy enough for X to use the information he was given and summon in extra ones.

For season eight, Xisuma was looking into more ways to change the world so the others could have a little more comfort. It had already been done with the armor stands people, mainly Cleo, customized, and recoloring materials was small but helpful. The miniature blocks that wandering traders gave was another thing the others enjoyed, and there were other things used on a player to player basis.

Certain concerns were only brought up at the parties and following meetings. Thankfully a few of those concerns had already been brought up, which was part of the reason they had the party at all. Technically the season was meant to end earlier than it was going to now. But trying to figure out ways to help the bots in the early stages of the season and even further into it had delayed things.

With the elytra being brought up, Xisuma explained how things would work, not just for the elytra, but also food and beds. The Hermits had already been informed that something new for the world would be changing the appearance of an object, to put it simply. Drawing from that, but taking it to a higher level, the commands the Hermits would have access to for that also had a variation specifically for Grum and Jrum. If either of them used the right command while holding the appropriate object, the item would change to what they needed. A normal elytra would be turned into a customized pair for them, while beds would turn into their chargers and food would be replaced with charged redstone that would be named the same as the food and couldn’t be used other than being eaten, just to keep things fair.

While Jrum mainly just nodded along, Grum made sure to take notes for the two of them, likely to also review them with their dads later to make sure everyone important was on the same page. Probably Xisuma would mention it to them as well, but better to be safe than sorry. Though sharing with a Grian was going to be hard. “By the way, has there been any updates about dad and the others?”

Xisuma looked up at Grum’s question, pausing in some extended explanation to Jrum in how the cosmetic feature would work. “Oh, I haven’t heard too much, and even then, there’s no telling how long it will last, but Grian thinks they probably won’t last too much longer. But it could also go longer than he assumes.”

Grum grumbled at the answer, but reluctantly accepted it. Some information was better than none. And it seemed Xisuma was one of the few people who was in contact with everyone in… what had his dad called it again? Third Life? Whatever. Since it ending would give the hermits a day or two afterwards to officially prepare to leave, it made sense X would want to keep updated to know when the season was really going to end. 

“Well, I think that’s about it for your items. If you want to check anything else later, feel free to message me and I can meet you at the portal.” Xisuma said after making sure he had checked them all. “Much easier than you two needing to search the base for me again.”

Grum thanked Xisuma while Jrum started stating the admin down, having been reminded of the diamond burning machine. He younger boy needed to be dragged away, but thankfully with Xisuma’s explanation of how they would get elytra, it meant they could keep their current pairs and fly home.

Mumbo unfortunately hadn’t arrived back yet, so the bots sent him a message to say they were back at the base. It was late enough at that point and the travel had drained their batteries, so Grum and Jrum turned in early. Jrum had a little trouble going to sleep at first, which led to Grum being kept up until he handed a book to Jrum to read, which seemed to quiet him down.

After a few minutes more, Grum shifted into sleep mode. It was mainly just to help with charging, but sometimes he would have some semblance of dreams. And with all that was going on, a little distraction seemed like it would be nice. He couldn’t control if he had dreams or not of course, but that hope was there. And it seemed like that night, he would have them, or something at least.

[creationofacentury]

(Read this first)

When they were planing to move into season 8, they were excited. Very excited, just like every hermits, until they realized they couldn’t bring Grumbot and Jrumbot along.

And the fact they had to reset the server didn't help, either.

They were devastated. But they settled into season 8, built a boatem, and thought they could at least make peace with the fact that they would never see their children again,

Turned out, they couldn’t.

Living in the same server which their sons once were felt like stepping on their ashes. Sometimes Grian would strap his elytra tight on his back and flew until his shoulder couldn’t handle or his rockets ran out, refusing to touch the ground. Sometimes Mumbo would stay in his AFK tower with his mind wandered to nowhere, everything about redstone far away from him. Sometimes Grian would start a mustache joke only to swallow them back half way through, and Mumbo would stay away from any reflection for hours.

They tried to send messages to their children at the start of season 8, but of course there was no response. Because the server had been reseted. Their children are gone forever.

-

“Mumbo, I want to try again.”

Mumbo sighs. He busies himself with the comparators, but Grian’s stare burns through his back with its intensity. He sighs again and puts the comparators down.

“Grian. I would like to, you know how much I want to. But I- we talked about this. We need to move on. We can’t keep doing this.” He dusts off the redstone remnants on his hands, turning to look at Grian, who look at him with a pained expression.

“I know- I know, I know we talked about this,” Grian says, desperate, “but what if it actually worked? What if they actually got them all, but just couldn’t sent anything back?”

Mumbo holds the silence for a moment. He sighs once again.

“...Grian,”

Grian’s face fall, “-Don’t.”

Mumbo just feels tired. He sits down, leans on the chest full of redstone (the irony, he thinks), and he utters, “Just this once, Grian.”

Grian doesn’t cheer. He sits down quietly besides Mumbo and mutters a ‘thanks’. Mumbo reaches over to hug him, and he hugs back. They stay like that for hours.

-

[file loading...]

[audio setting complete...]

[file playing...]

Silence.

Static noises.

Sounds of computer calculating.

“Dads! Hi, you are still in hibernation, but I don’t think you would meet me when you wake up, so I just want to say, I got all the messages from the monitoring. Also! Don’t worry about us! Brother and I were rescued by Renbob, we are in a safe place, and we are doing meaningful things. So go ahead and have a great time in season 9! We want you to be happy, that’s the reason why Brother and I came to this world.”

Silence.

“Jrum, do you want to talk to Dads?”

Sounds of computer calculating.

“It will be fine. Just transfer your file over. What? Of course they miss you too, don’t be silly.”

Static noises.

Another voice comes in.

“Dads, We are very well-behaved, I promise! You can ask Renbob and Goat Man about it. We didn’t sleep with diamonds either, though sometimes Brother-”

The voice is muffled.

“Grumbot, don’t cut off my file, I saw that! Dads, he is always staring at his stash before going to bed!” A pause. ”Don’t worry though, I always stop him. You know he just likes diamonds very much.”

Static noises.

The two voices says at the same time. “We love you, Dads. See you.”

Static noises.

[end of the file.]

-

(edit: 30, Nov, 2023. Fixed some grammar and phrasing problems.)