#hels!Philza

[votederpycausemufins]

We're back with another chapter of Surprisingly Familiar. And I'm posting on here first rather than Ao3 bc it is not loading :')

The first two sections had a lot of backstory, so i tried to have less of that in the last section.

“Try it again. You’re making the curve too round.”

“I’m trying!” Grian huffed as he traced a small spiral in the air. “Can’t we just go back to the easier stuff?”

Grifter had called Grian over for some more magic training. Unlike before, where it had just been along the lines of using magic to do basic spells that anyone with magic could do, he was now insisting Grian work on using magic more specific to Listeners. Apparently it meant drawing the sigil of the Listeners with magic. Something that was apparently very particular.

“Sorry, but no. One of my friends has been looking into your situation. He thinks we can get you back to your time, but that there’s a bit of a time limit on that.”

“What?” Grian stopped to look over at Grifter. “Like, there’s a certain time that it can be done, or what?”

“Like, if you stay in this time too long, eventually you will never be able to get back to your time at all. I’m not going to try and go through all the ‘temporal explanations’ because I don’t really understand it all myself. But he was connected with Evo, so he knows some time stuff.”

Grian nodded a little at that. If it was another Listener who had worked with that world, then they would know about messing with time. Probably. Grifter had mentioned what it was about at one point forgetting that Grian didn’t remember that world.

“From what I can tell, the longer you’re out of your time, the more you connect with this time. Technically there’s always actually having you travel back to the past and then reconnecting, but then it becomes a lot more difficult. There’s a report of some people who had actually made a time machine that tried to just take it back an hour or so, but instead sent themselves back to before the Watchers and Listeners even existed as groups.”

“They… they did?” Grian nervously asked. If that was how bad it could go, then maybe Grifter was right to worry about taking too long.

“Yeah. They eventually got back, but dismantled the machine not long later, as they should have. Essentially, as long as the world still thinks you’re from whatever time, most methods can use you as a focus point. Because something most people don’t consider is that you can’t just travel in time. If you went back even a minute, well, the world moves along in the universe over time. Unless you can tell me the exact moment you got sent here, it would take a lot more work to figure out.”

“Well, I was asleep when it happened, so I can’t help there.” Grian replied, trying not to sound angry at Grifter, but he was frustrated at the situation.

“Exactly. So, if you want the chance to hop back in time and use magic to save Taurtis, we need to kinda rush through training.”

Grian sighed before looking back to where he was working. “Can we at least take a small break first? It’s a lot more exhausting.” Out from the ground stood two spikes of bedrock. Each one was from managing to successfully draw the sigil. While it took a lot of energy, it seemed to be from boosting Grian’s magic, his magic’s color shifting from purple to green. 

“Hmm, alright fine. It won’t work well to hurt yourself.” As soon as the words were out of Grifter’s mouth, Grian flopped onto the ground to rest. He had his eyes closed, something Grifter was happy about so that his frown wouldn’t be seen.

Grifter had gone back to try and get some more help with the Grian situation, only to find that a certain someone had figured out how to get into Hermitcraft. That, along with the group of Hermits that were trying to get into this world- well, half hermits, half family, which made it even worse- certain plans needed to be sped along. Lying about Grian potentially getting stuck in this time was just one way to help move things along. Plus, Grian wasn’t actually from the past, so he couldn’t get sent back home. So it would be easy enough to claim something or other had delayed them just long enough that now the easy way was gone. It would probably be best to try and frame it as being Astrid or Flora’s doing. Sure, Grifter adored Flora, but she was getting far too close to Grian, so if he had to throw her under the bus to make sure he could finish this plan, he would.

“Hey Grifter?” Grifter looked up to where Grian was lying, glad to see his eyes still closed. “Is it okay if I hang around the castle for a bit once we’re done here?”

“Of course. It’s technically your castle as well. Any reason why?”

“Flora and Astrid are busy.” Grian lied, badly enough that Grifter could tell.

“Sure they are. What’s really going on?”

Grian hesitated before answering. He could tell the truth, at least part of it, but either way, it wasn’t great. “It’s just… uh…” He tried to wrack his brain for something to say that wasn’t exactly a lie, but wasn’t a truth either. “I saw some of Flora’s family. And their grandmother tried getting close. She… she looks a lot like what I remember from Mum, but at the same time not. And I don’t like that I can remember more of someone that isn’t Mum rather than Mum herself.”

“Ah, yeah I can see how that’s hard to deal with. So I guess they’re spending more time there?” Grifter asked, not looking further into Grian’s answer. Grian gave a small shrug, not really saying no, but also not saying yes.

“I don’t know. I guess I’ve also just been around you a lot, and then around Flora and Astrid, but I haven’t really been near the people who are going to be my husband and kids.”

Grifter couldn’t help but light up at that. Unlike Flora and Astrid, Sense and their boys knew exactly what was going on and could help steer Grian in the ‘right’ direction. “Oh well that is a very easy fix! I’m not sure about the boys, but Sense is probably just busy with redstone and needs a break.”

“So, I could spend some time with him?” Grian asked, getting a nod from Grifter before getting taken away to see the redstoner. It took a little bit of hunting before the pair finally found him working in the castle, indeed doing some redstone engineering. He didn’t notice them immediately, too entranced in his work, but eventually Grifter snuck over and grabbed Sense, making him jump at first before giving a small laugh when seeing who it was.

“To what do I owe this surprise?” Sense asked after noticing that Grifter wasn’t alone and had brought Grian along.

“Well Grian brought up the fact that you two haven’t gotten to interact much, so I figured you two need some one on one time!” Grifter explained, and Grian was surprised when Sense’s smile actually fell. For a moment, he seemed almost scared before it morphed into simply just surprise.

“I uh, I thought you two would want to interact more yourselves?” Sense offered, looking between the two avians again. “Or perhaps all three of us? Or what about the boys?”

“The boys are busy with their own things right now and if I’m not training Grian with magic, I’ve got admin duties to deal with. The regular stuff is already enough but the added bits for helping Grian have made things almost overwhelming, so the backlog piles up when I work with him.”

Grian felt a little guilty at Grifter’s explanation. It was probably that Sense was upset that all Grifter’s free time was being spent helping him and not with Sense. And now he needed to spend that time with a younger version of Grifter that didn’t know him as well. “I don’t have to if he doesn’t want-”

“Oh nonsense! Seesee will be perfectly fine, right?” Grifter asked Sense. “But if he doesn’t think so, I’m sure I can convince him.” And Grifter leaned in to whisper something into Sense’s ear. After a moment, Sense nodded and Grifter smiled. “Well that settles it! You two have fun! Bye!”

Grifter left in a blur after giving Sense a quick kiss, leaving only a feather or two behind with Grian and Sense, having them stand there awkwardly for a number of moments before either of them moved, that being the redstoner getting back to his work. At least until Grian stopped him again.

“Uh, what exactly are you working on? If you don’t mind me asking?”

“I do mind, actually.” Sense replied before pulling away to go back to work. “I’m sure Gri will be too busy to notice if you stick around or not, so you’re free to leave.”

“I’d rather stick around.” Grian spoke up, not even asking if Sense minded this time. “And Grifter mentioned you should take a break from whatever you’re doing, and you know, he’s me, and either way, I think you should too.”

There was a pause before Sense said anything more. “I’d rather not.”

“Please? Just for a little bit?” Grian pleaded, then paused before asking a question. “Do you not want to be around me because of the chance I’ll change the past?” When Sense didn’t reply, Grian continued. “Look, I’m not going to lie, I am going to try and save Taurtis no matter what, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make sure I find you too. Honestly I’d love it if we were able to boot Sam out once and for all and you could be there instead.”

“Is that so?” Sense asked, which pulled a smile from Grian.

“Oh yeah of course. I’m sure you’ve heard plenty about him from Grifter, but he was a giant asshole, still technically is for me, but hopefully I won’t have to deal with him too much longer. And I could maybe also make sure to have you around if I knew what you were doing back then.”

For a moment, Sense actually considered the possibility before remembering how it was just impossible outright. Grian wasn’t really from the past, so he couldn’t go back and change anything. But Grian wasn’t supposed to know that, so he had to play along. After thinking it over a few moments, Sense huffed and pulled himself out of his machine, wiping redstone dust onto his pants before walking towards where he had left his dress shirt and suit jacket. An action that made Grian realize the redstoner was only wearing a tank top above the waist. While he was still covered, Grian averted his eyes anyway for decency, at least until he could see Sense finish buttoning his shirt out of the corner of his eye.

After Sense pulled his jacket on, he went for his tie before realizing it had been caught by his machine at some point and had been shredded up. “Ugh, great. Do you mind if we head to our, er rather, my room so I can grab another tie?”

“Nah, it’s fine.” Grian shrugged before starting to follow behind Sense. “Sorry about that one.”

“It’s not like you could have stopped it from getting destroyed.” Sense waved Grian’s comment off. “And Grifter wouldn’t have repaired it anyway.”

“Really? Why not?”

“He’d prefer me to cycle through my whole collection. I just find it easier to stick with one and our ways of organizing them are different. The last time I went through wearing ties, I found Gri with ties strewn about the room, arguing that patterns shouldn’t be sorted with colors unless the patterns were the same color or whatever.”

“Well I’ll try not to freak out over your tie sorting.” Grian said, crossing his fingers that whatever he was about to see wouldn’t be such a visual travesty.

When the pair reached Grifter and Sense’s bedroom, Grian was reminded of when he had first woken up there. Well, other than the fact that it looked a bit more messy than it had however many days ago. He wasn’t sure if it was due to Grifter being so busy, or if this was how it normally looked and they had just made it look nicer for Grian. Honestly he could see it going either way.

Sense went over to a pair of folding doors and slid them open, revealing the mass of ties hanging inside. For the most part, they were indeed sorted by color, but Grian’s eyes immediately caught on a few ties that looked like they were out of place. As Sense thumbed through the ties in the cooler section of colors, Grian pulled out a tie covered in blue and purple patterns, though the base of the tie itself was a red color. After putting it back, he found what seemed to be an orange tie covered in multicolored flowers that also made it look out of place grouped with other normal orange ties.

As Grian continued to look over the ties, Sense finally picked out another generic looking blue tie, putting it on. As he started to try and close the closet doors again, Grian stopped him, instead pulling out a tie that was a dark green, one that reminded Grian of the magic Grifter used. “Here, why don’t you wear this one instead?”

“I’d rather not.” Sense said after looking at the cloth, pushing it back towards Grian. “I’m perfectly fine with the one I’ve got.”

“But you were just wearing blue!” Grian complained, pulling the tie Sense had on away, finding it easy since he hadn’t managed to actually tie it yet. “You’ve got so many colors here! Wear something else!”

“I prefer blue.” Sense argued, pulling a different one from that colored section. “Blacks and whites are too bland and I like a little splash of color, and Grifter isn’t a fan of me wearing purple, so we agree on blue.”

“What? What about all the other colors?” Grian asked, gesturing especially to the gradient of pinks all the way to greens and even dipping into cyans. “Even a light blue might be nice.”

“I have my reasons for not wearing those other colors as well.” Sense said, attempting to close the closet again, but being stopped by Grian forcing them to stay open, shocking Sense by the fact that it was through magic. 

“Then how about you tell me and then I can choose one for you that you might like that isn’t boring.”

Sense glared Grian down before relenting and sitting on the bed. Grian smiled at the action before turning back to the closet and going through the ties. “So I assume greys fall under the same category as blacks and whites.”

“Of course.”

“Okay, What about browns? I don’t see many of those?” Grian looked back over to Sense, wanting to hear about that.

“Leather ties aren’t exactly comfortable to wear.” Sense began to answer. “And I just don’t tend to get many gifts of brown cloth ties. It’s either something colorful or greyscale to be ‘classy’.”

“Well, red ties could be classy too.” Grian lightly argued, pulling out one that matched his feathers.

“Well red is a difficulty for me.” Sense argued. “Not only am I told it clashes with my eyes, but cleaning redstone from it is a pain. Not to mention the fact that my… other self tends to use that color.”

Grian looked up. “You mean like how with Grifter and me and-” Grian hesitated, not recalling off the top of his head what Sense knew about Grifter.

“How you’re from Wels, yes.” Sense agreed. “The two of us have interacted in the past, so I prefer to make sure we don’t overlap, so I don’t wear red.”

“Well how about pink?” Grian asked. “It’s different enough from red, right?”

“A certain someone I hate very much is fond of pink and I will never get over that fact.” Sense crossed his arms. “Potentially, pink would be fine otherwise, but I would burn those things if Gri wouldn’t get upset over it.”

“Okay, good to know.” Grian quickly pushed the pinks away along with the reds. “Orange?”

“Too close to red and yellow and I don’t use either of those.”

“Oh. Wait, why not yellow?” There was silence to Grian’s question, making him look over at Sense and ask again. “Why don’t you wear yellow? It’s… not because of me, right?” Grian’s feathers ruffled, remembering the amount of times that Sam plucked his yellow feathers because he wanted them for himself, since ‘Taurtis is always wearing blue and gets some of your blue feathers, I want some yellow ones!’. The memory made Grian shudder before he remembered where he was. “If I- if Grifter gets upset-”

“He doesn’t get upset if I wear yellow.” Sense finally spoke up, though he was staring at the ground. “I will not wear yellow. I can’t. There’s-” He cut himself off as his voice caught in his throat. “I used to, but then things happened. So I don’t anymore.”

“Can I ask what happened?” Grian asked softly, pushing the ties back in place. He couldn’t help himself when he sorted a green tie out from the yellows and into the dark greens. He needed to do some sorting to help scratch that itch he felt looking at the mess. But after he put it in its new spot, Grian pulled his hands away from the gray tie and grabbed a light blue one before handing it to Sense and closing the closet.

Sense took the tie and put it on, waiting until he had tightened it around his neck to say anything more. “Well, I guess you did already ask about my past. Probably around the time you’re from, I ended up in a… situation.” Grian could tell that it was something Sense didn’t want to fully elaborate on, so he wasn’t going to pry on what the situation was exactly. “I ended up with someone who… he wasn’t quite as bad as Sam I wouldn’t think, but it was a similar problematic friendship.”

“That’s… not great. I’m guessing they’re the reason you don’t like yellow?”

“Sort of. I just… remember an argument we had where for reasons I won’t specify-” Sense immediately clarified, making Grian nod that he wouldn’t ask about those reasons. “-that the fact that I was wearing a yellow tie at the time was actually a large part of that argument. I know that sounds idiotic without the context but-”

“Me hating rabbits sounds idiotic without context. I’m sure a lot of things can sound idiotic or bad or whatever without context. But that made you swear off yellow?”

“Uh, no actually.” Sense continued. “Not entirely. I-” He paused again, a quick laugh escaping before he said more. “I’m not sure what it is, but I’ve lost a lot of the people close to me when yellow has been involved.”

That caught Grian off guard. “Wait, really? That seems weird.”

“Well, there was of course the argument I had with… my ex friend. But after him, I still wore yellow ties for a while. It’s part of why I have so many, even compared to my large amount of blues.”

Grian had to admit, there were a large amount of yellow ties when he had looked. He figured part of it was because if Sense wore mostly blue, those tended to get destroyed one way or another, so there weren’t quite as many as he would have ever owned. “But then something happened again?”

“My father liked yellow as well.” And despite the fondness in Sense’s voice, a chill ran through Grian as he immediately realized the mention of losing people and referring to his dad in the past tense meant that they were dead. “I liked the idea of matching him and I was even gifted a number of ties from him. But because of that, I couldn’t stand to see myself in that color anymore because it just made me think of him. And how I still never managed to do anything about it.”

“How did he die?” Grian asked, not expecting an answer since it seemed Sense was torn up enough talking about it vaguely. But he was surprised to actually get an answer.

“He was murdered.” Sense answered, venom in his tone from how angry he was now, any sadness completely gone. “And unlike the others, he wasn’t brought back since that would oust our new ‘admin’. Not like this wasn’t our third one anyway. And I couldn’t do anything against that hack and his stupid obsession with trying to destroy his brother’s server. Not to mention the fact that he’s apparently coming here.” And then the angry frown curled into a smile. “Well, this isn’t Helscraft anymore, Grifter’s the admin. And you’re not going to be the only hacker around this time.”

“Uh, what do you mean?” Grian asked, making Sense look up and shake his head, having gotten completely lost in his own thoughts.

“Oh, nothing. Just, apparently Gri and I’s old admin isn’t happy about us being here. To the point he’s even involved his brother and a number of wels to try and mess with us. Not to mention bringing along my other self.”

“Really? That’s not great, is it?”

Sense huffed. “Well, if Grifter can’t handle it, it won’t be, but I’m sure he’ll be able to.”

Grian patted Sense’s shoulder comfortingly before the redstoner pulled him into a hug. Grian almost pulled away, but then hugged back. Right now, it seemed like Sense needed it, and he didn’t want to take that away from him. And as they stood there, hugging one another, it hid as the light blue tie seemed to dull as a grayish purple started to coat it instead.

.

.

.

Everyone was just sort of standing around, not sure how to react to what they had just seen. After the jungle had faded away, half the group rushed to check on the other half. Mumbo had quickly gone to look at Grum while Phil and Techno were worried about Wilbur. Paul went to help Doc recover from the whiplash of getting his cybernetics back while also dealing with his heightened hybrid instincts, and finally Xisuma went to go to Tommy’s side.

What had thrown everyone off was Tommy flinching at Xisuma, but not from his reaction to Xisuma but rather Xisuma himself. X found himself dressed in armor that wasn’t his bee themed set, nor his regular set of green. Instead, he was dressed in a gray while standing to the side of the group was the familiar armor he normally wore, but currently being worn by Evil X.

The confusion wasn’t helped as the moment Xisuma called to his brother, they had unfrozen from whatever shock they had been in, running off across the end islands the group had found themselves on. Which left them to their present situation, at least until Phil finally pointed out that they would need to gather blocks to follow Xannes, since he was the only one of their group who could fly.

Doc was helped to sit down, not currently able to help out, but after that, everyone started to work on mining, save for Xisuma, who was staring off in the direction Evil X had gone, and Tommy, who went to Xisuma’s side. “Are… are you okay?”

“I should be asking you the same question.” Xisuma replied, not taking his eyes off the horizon. “You’re not injured from anything that was in the jungle, right?”

“Yeah. I mean, I don’t really remember much after I got separated from you guys. I think I got knocked out pretty quickly. Uh, should we assume this is him going through it now?”

Finally Xisuma looked away and down at Tommy. “I’m.. not sure. I think if it’s not, it’s something of mine that he doesn’t like.”

Tommy glanced towards where he had last seen Xannes in the distance. “Why was he wearing your armor? Mumbo said that was yours, right? Is it because you two are clones?”

Xisuma looked shocked before looking at Tommy again. “What? Clones? Who said we were clones?”

“NPG mentioned he was your clone or something. Cuz Mumbo didn’t know if you were siblings or he was a clone or what.”

“He’s my twin brother, not a clone.” Xisuma clarified. “I suppose it’s because the two of us look so much similar as opposed to…” the admin trailed off as he looked towards where Wilbur and Techno were, Tommy following his gaze and knowing what he meant. “I believe it’s probably because we have matching scars as well.”

Tommy looked back to Xisuma, realizing he couldn’t see through the visor of X’s current helmet to see the scars he knew were present underneath. It was a set of four claw marks that sliced over Xisuma’s face, going over his left eye in a way that impressed Tommy with the fact that the eye itself seemed unharmed.

“I think I remember you mentioning you got them from a dragon?” Tommy asked. Xisuma had shown off the scars to him back when he was still relatively new to Hermitcraft, trying to find ways to connect with Tommy. He had also given a summary of how he got them to Tommy, but he hadn’t really cared at the time.

“Yes, an Ender Dragon. I had managed to bring one into where our family lived and it attacked, leaving Xannes and I with our scars.”

“You think this might be about that?” Tommy asked, vaguely remembering the story a little better now that Xisuma had given the summary again. “I know you lived in the end, but the dragon’s there and now we’re there.”

“I… If it’s for me, potentially” Xisuma admitted after some hesitation. “Evil X liked to taunt me with it. There was one time where he brought in dragons to try and destroy Hermitcraft.”

Tommy shrugged. “I mean, I honestly was worried that we’d end up in a destroyed Hermitcraft at some point, either from you or me. The fact that this is just the boring ass end is pretty good in my books. And one dragon versus all of us looks pretty good in our favor!”

The wince Xisuma gave was hidden behind his helmet. While he knew Tommy was trying to help reassure him, X was also worried about Xannes being on his own and potentially ending up on the other side of whatever they might be fighting. He almost said something about it too, but then the pair of them were called over to help with bridging in Evil X’s direction to try and catch up, and to also talk about what situation they were probably in.

“So, why is he wearing your armor?” Grum asked as they were halfway across a void gap between the islands. No one was completely sure if the void was really there, but no one was fully eager to find out. “And why are you wearing that instead?”

“Well uh, that’s a really long story.” Xisuma replied, his feeble attempt to avoid the topic pretty obvious to the others.

“C’mon X, everyone’s bearing their truths to the world, it’s your turn now, innit?” Tommy asked, lightly elbowing Xisuma.

“Well, I suppose the simple answer is that armor used to… belong to him.”

“Seriously?” Mumbo asked, turning around in shock and having Paul barely grab him in time to keep him from falling off the bridge. “It was his? I can hardly believe him ever wearing anything other than red. Even with all your different armors, he’s kept the same style.”

“Since Hermitcraft, yes, but that wasn’t the case in the past.” Xisuma hesitated before saying anything more, enough that Tommy tried taking back his previous statement, saying the admin didn’t need to actually say anything. “No, you’re right. Especially because I think I know what this is all about.”

“This isn’t about when you banned him that one time, right?” Tommy asked, since he had already heard the story not too long ago. “I could just tell them if you don’t want to.”

“It’s something different.” X stepped onto the next island they reached, turning back towards the group. “As you know, Xannes and I are voidwalkers. That’s essentially the term for End based humans similar to netherborn, aetherkind, and if you want to be specific about it, terrans.”

“Which is what most of us are.” Phil said, gesturing to the group. “Not sure if he counts though.” And that time he pointed to Grumbot.

“I am Robots Georg, an outlier that should not be counted.”

“I’ll pretend I know what that means. Anyway, you were saying X?”

“Well, despite the name, voidwalkers can get what is known as void poisoning. Similar to how despite being in a dimension filled with water, you can still drown, and even netherborns can be susceptible to lava and fire in the right conditions. Some more than others, I know Tango constantly forgets his limits, not to mention-”

“We get the picture.” Techno cut Xisuma off. “Your point?”

“The last time Xannes and I were in these respective armors, there was… an incident.”

-

“What are you even doing with your life? The family business? You never cared about that before!”

“I care about it now, isn’t that enough? It’s not like you’re taking it up, so someone has to.”

“I’m doing something better! Something our parents can be proud of.”

“You know, you don’t get it, do you? What you do doesn’t matter to them.”

“And I’m sure you know that sooo well, huh? You’re just trying to kiss up to them by taking an interest in what our family has done for generations, huh?”

“Well I’ve been getting good at it, Starting out in the overworld is a little pain but-”

“What, can’t handle a little bit of sunlight or something? Or maybe you can’t stand wearing that suit, huh? Wish you were home where you could be out of that stuffy thing? Just lounging around in bed being a good for nothing waste of space?”

“You take that back!”

“Why should I? Isn’t that all you are?”

“I’m not! It’s not like you’ve been around, I’ve been putting plenty of work in.”

“Sure you have. So much compared to me, right? Except I’ve actually been busy. The reason I haven’t been around is because of all the work I’ve had to do. All the training I’ve had to do.”

“Stop it, you’re pushing me too close to the-”

“And once I’m done, I’ll be able to do just what you can but even better. It’ll be simple and easy. All I need to do is pop in a few commands-”

“-Look we might-”

“-pop into the End and just-”

“Xisuma!”

-

“Wh- You?!” Tommy looked shocked, realizing that Xisuma was being the jerk in the story, not Xannes.

“Yeah, I agree with Tommy. “ Doc spoke up. “Sure, you did a lot of pranks back in the day, especially with Biffa, but that sounded kinda cruel. You sure you’re not embellishing it to sound worse than it was?”

Xisuma winced. “No, I was an asshole back then, no way around it. I… our parents seemed to constantly put me above him to the point it got to my head. Both in the idea that I was better than him, but also that I could just keep being at the top of whatever I was doing. Around that time was when I first looked into admin classes. Suddenly there were people better than me and… well I took it the wrong way at first. I was so used to our parents putting Xannes down that… I came back to do the same.”

“Wow… yeah you were an asshole.” Tommy agreed. “How the fuck did you manage to come out of it like this?” And Tommy gestured to all of Xisuma.

“Well, for one I ended up dropping out of the class and didn’t again until after Hermitcraft had started and around the time Generik’s residency was starting to look shaky. But the main reason is what happened next.”

“Which was?”

Xisuma sighed. “The two of us both ended up falling, though Xannes managed to keep us from completely falling into the void. We were still stuck on a low outcrop from an End island with no easy way up. Not to mention our suits were damaged.”

-

“Xannes! Your suit!”

“Huh? Oh, it’s just a tear in the back, no big.”

“The fabric’s almost completely gone! How the hell did you manage that?! Do you have any idea how hard stuff like that is to repair?!”

“Oh, that’s what you’re concerned about… Thanks. Good to know the fabric is so much more important than my well being.”

“Well you’re the one who got us stuck in this mess.”

“Me? You’re the one who pushed us in here. I’ve been living here and could have been just fine with a respawn, but you’ve been away at your fancy school, so it wouldn’t have been as nice for you.”

“Then why not let me fall?”

“I could have. If you want I could still push you in!”

“Then do it!”

“...No. I’m not the only one who had their suit damaged.”

“What are you- my helmet!”

“See, at least I can stitch back together my suit.”

“You mean make Mom do it for you.”

“No I don't. I know how to sew. I learned even without Mother’s help.”

“Calling her that won’t make her dote on you.”

“I know that! Look, can you shut up for just… five minutes. Unless you want the void seeping in faster.”

-

“We did actually stay there quietly for a while, and at one point they even pulled their suit off to start fixing it. They didn’t exactly have the necessary tools on hand, but that actually made it a little more impressive. I had been worried about them not wearing it though, since there’s a reason we wore them even in the End.”

-

“I’m fine.”

“You’re coughing too much. Take your helmet off so I can see.”

“I said I’m *cough* fine! Don’t touch me! *cough*”

“‘Suma, c’mon, let me look!”

“Fine! Whatev- *cough* -ever.”

“Shit, this is bad.”

“What *cough* do you mean?”

“It’s already black. We still don’t know if anyone’s coming, and if they are, how long it’ll take. If they knew you were back then maybe-”

“So? *cough* They’ll notice you’re gone and *cough cough* come looking. How *cough* long are you usually out?”

“... Take my helmet.”

“What?”

“Put it on you derp! You need it more right now. Unless you want to die.”

“What about *cough* you?”

“I’ll just wear yours to make it take longer. They’ll show up soon enough, so it should last me until then.”

-

“No one showed up for hours. I’m not sure how long it even took because the two of us passed out before then.” Xisuma finished in a somber tone. “Turns out a near death experience really shakes up how you see things. And apparently my own armor was more damaged than I thought, because at some point Xannes switched ours up to make sure it would stave off the void poisoning for me. And he was right, I recovered fairly quickly, but he didn’t.”

“But I mean, he’s alright now, right?”

“I guess.” Xisuma answered, though he didn’t sound sure. “It was after that that they started being a bit more angry and violent towards me.”

“And a side effect of void poisoning is a sort of… unpredictable blind rage, right?” Paul asked. “The void causes a weird decay in the mind, similar to what zombifies creatures, but practically irreversible.”

“Right. And so I just wonder if maybe his current situation is my fault. If I hadn’t started that argument-”

“Well it sounds like your parents were jerks too!” Tommy said, cutting Xisuma off and making Phil wince. “If they hadn’t treated you like a perfect golden child and him as a scum of the… End, black sheep, then it wouldn’t have happened, right?”

“Well, yes, but-”

“Tommy’s right.” Techno spoke up this time. “And look, I’m not trying to use it as an excuse for any of us, but sometimes the actions we take are influenced by others in a way that the blame can be placed on them. It depends on the actions themselves, but in this case it doesn't seem like your fault.”

“The Wither were totally yours though.”

“And I said I’m not using it as an excuse.”

“How about we stop talking and just find Evil X!” Grumbot practically shouted, pointing off into the distance. “There’s lots of lightning that way! So they must be there! Let’s go!”

.

.

.

“So, that was your dad, huh?” Jrum spoke up as the block he was trying to lift with magic fell back down the pixel or so he had managed. 

“Yep! That’s Papa! He’s really really really nice and I love him lots and lots!” Vee replied with the biggest smile on her face. “He adopted me, and then my sister, and so now the three of us are a big happy family! Well, maybe not big, but definitely happy!”

Jrum couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Vee at the very least seemed innocent enough, or maybe the better word was oblivious. Her dad had been working with Grifter and somehow hadn’t realized that something was wrong with Grian. Or, well, it sounded like he did know, but completely trusted Grifter with any lies he told. But that was what Vee was saying, and she had also fallen for Grifter’s lies, so who knew, maybe her dad wasn’t lied to, but both he and Grifter were lying to her.

And then there was her sister, which made Jrum more sure that they were all just lying to Vee. He remembered that comm call. He knew the voice on the other end. It sounded like his dad, but simultaneously not. It had to be Grifter then, right? Vee had even said it was Grifter. And he was there through Vee’s sister’s comm. The same sister that was apparently dating Grifter’s niece. They all had a connection to Grifter, so there was no way none of them knew what was going on.

“Ooo! Lookit! You’re doing it really well!” Vee exclaimed, making Jrum realize he had moved the block up a full meter this time. He was a little surprised by that, since he hadn’t even been paying attention to what he was doing, and now that he was focusing on the block, it fell once more. “Aww, don’t worry! You’re doing really really well!”

“Whatever.” Jrum huffed. “You know, you keep bringing up that your dad adopted you and your sister, right? And in that one meeting you mentioned that she had a brother that sucked?”

Vee’s smile disappeared. “Yeah… he was really really bad.”

“Mind telling me?” Jrum asked. They had figured out who Flora or Fleur was supposed to be, but Astrid was still a little up in the air, and since she was around Grifter and maybe also around Grian, it was important to know about her too.

“Um, well…” Vee hesitated, kicking at the ground. “Nightmare was-”

Vee didn’t get a chance to continue, Jrum immediately recognizing the name. “Nightmare?! Her brother is him?!”

“Y-You know him?”

“Know him?! It’s because of him that my brother got kidnapped by Tommy’s stupid hels! And then it turned into a whole mess with Grifter getting involved and hurting my family! And then Grifter came back and made everything worse!”

“Eep!” Vee yelped, and Jrum looked over to her and the spike of bedrock that had appeared from the ground, pointing at her face. Jrum was shocked to see it, looking himself over before looking back up to essentially growl at the spike. Surprisingly, it seemed to react to his growl and disappeared into the ground a moment later. “You g-gotta be careful with that.”

“Yeah… sorry…” Jrum responded, though distracted. Things kept happening when he was angry, so maybe- “How much do emotions affect magic?”

“Uh, a lot?” Vee answered, though she didn’t seem confident with her answer. “Uh, they can help with focusing it. Papa helped me train with music and he said it was because uh… the emotions of the sounds help with how you feel, ‘n then it works as a guide for what you want the magic to do!” That time she started unsure, but slowly got more confident as she spoke, which helped reassure Jrum. Especially when she followed it up with a little magic demonstration of her own.

“So because I keep feeling angry and frustrated, stuff keeps happening for me? Do I just need to be constantly angry?”

“Oh no no no.” Vee quickly waved her hands to stop Jrum. “It’s just stronger stuff makes it react more when you’re new to it! Even sometimes when you’re not new to it cuz Papa has had it happen too. Uh, it’s kinda like when I got scared and then made those boxes.”

Jrum remembered the bedrock that trapped Ren. And then he thought more to his own dad, and the times his magic had acted up when it seemed he was feeling some sort of intense emotion like anger or fear. He could even remember one time when Grian was really happy and that had caused some sudden magic. Jrum almost made a comment about it, but then paused. When he had been trying to eavesdrop on the conversation Phil and Paul had had, way back when the latter had first arrived. He had made a comment about knowing Jrum was listening in to their conversation. He hadn’t known how the man recognised Jrum had hacked his way in, but Paul seemed to know enough magic that if Jrum was using magic instead…

Jrum focused once more on the block in front of him, reaching out and managing to lift it once again. This time he was actually controlling it when it got a block higher, and still when he pushed it left and right before it finally fell on its own, Jrum finding himself a little tired.

“You did it!” Vee exclaimed, jumping up and down before tackling Jrum with a hug. “We should show Papa! Oh wait, he’s busy. I could message Astrid! But she might be busy too. Grifter is-! Grifter is bad, we said that. Uhh… Well I think we should tell someone!”

“Yeah whatever, let me see who’s available.” Jrum rolled his eyes, trying not to smile with how infectious Vee’s joy was. He was easily able to send a message to the world chat, getting an answer not too long later from Joe, who was apparently happy to be available. Jrum thought he would be more involved in whatever important stuff the Hermits were up to, but Jrum also supposed that Vee was already pretty comfortable with him. “Joe says we can meet up with him. Let’s go.”

Vee was bouncing again as they left to meet with the Hermit, finding him a small distance away from the meeting room at what seemed to be a newly set up table and chairs for the three of them to hang out at. “Howdy there you two. I heard you had somethin’ to share?”

Jrum couldn’t get a word out before Vee answered for him. “Jrum’s doing Watcher Magic! Like he could do a little before, but he’s doing a lot better now! He did block moving! C’mon, do it again!” Jrum sighed before moving a new block a bit, though not nearly as much since he was still tired from before, and running over there hadn’t helped him regain any energy.

“I need some redstone.” Jrum panted, surprised when Joe handed some over. “Why do you have-?”

“Well someone pointed out that you might need some since you were doing a lot of work. Well, technically multiple someones, as it was recommended you get somethin’ to eat followed by gettin’ pointed out you tend to eat minerals like redstone, especially since that helps with chargin’ you up.”

“Uh, thanks then.” Jrum ate the redstone before getting some more from Joe, which he put in his inventory to save for later and make sure he didn’t use it all up in one sitting.

“No problem at all.” Then Joe looked towards Vee. “Yes?”

Jrum looked over to Vee as well, finding her fidgeting where she stood. “Um, are you still mad at me?”

“Mad at you? Now what gave you that impression?”

“Well, when you visited me when I was at Stress’ place, you got really upset.”

Jrum saw as it took a moment for Joe to remember what she meant. “Ah, that. Well I’m sorry for makin’ you think I was mad at you. You had just caught me off guard with what you were talkin’ about, and I suppose that surprise came off as anger which you thought was directed at you.”

Jrum was a little taken aback. Joe caught off guard? That never happened. Or well, it could definitely happen, but he had the uncanny ability to always seem to know what was going on when things were serious, like with the current situation. He was a little worried for a second that Joe could be lying, but he didn’t seem to have a single tell that he could have been.

“What had you been talking about?” Jrum asked, looking between the pair.

Vee opened her mouth, seemingly to answer, but was stopped by Joe. “It’s not somethin’ that’s exactly common knowledge. Part of why I was so surprised she knew about it.”

“But Papa said Listeners get to know about it! And shouldn’t Watchers too? And Jrum’s one.”

“And I’d have to agree with you on that part.” Joe replied. “But I believe you mentioned you’re still trainin’, and that seems like the thing to wait ‘til you’re fully fledged to learn about.”

Vee huffed and crossed her arms, slumping in her chair. Jrum looked between her and Joe, now even more confused and wishing he weren’t in the dark about… whatever they were discussing. “Can I at least get some vague clue about what it was?”

“You could, but I believe if you learn a little, you’ll want to know more, so nothin’ at all may be best for you.”

“What if I promise I won’t ask anything else?” Jrum suggested, trying to also give pleading eyes to Joe in hopes he could be convinced. “At least if it has any connection to what happened to Dad?”

“Well, I suppose it does.” Joe started to speak, getting Jrum hopeful. “Alright then. But you’re promising you won’t go lookin’ into it, alright?”

“Yes! I won’t! I’ll just imagine my own answers or whatever!”

“Okay, and Vee, you better not help him along.” Vee nodded, staying silent and even pretending to zip her lips. “We happened to get on the topic due to how Grian ended up messed with due to the mixin’ of magic from he and Grifter. Magic from Watchers and Listeners mixin’ together’s got a special term. And that term comes from when it first happened, specifically on a rather large scale. Despite that, it’s a little bit taboo to talk about the incident itself, and Vee happened to mention somethin’ implyin’ she knew about it more than most.”

“Oh. So like… how Dad talks about stuff when he was younger, and so everyone kinda just says that it’s when he was in highschool, but not any specifics?” Jrum offered as a sort of comparison. Especially since he and Jrum didn’t know as much about that time as the other Hermits did, so it was a similar situation for Jrum himself.

“Now I think that’s a fine comparison.” Joe complimented the bot. “Includin’ the part that he’s probably the one who should be tellin’ you about it. Or someone else older than you.”

“Vee’s older than me.” Jrum pointed out, reminding Joe that he was literally only a year old due to being a robot. “So she could count.”

“Now I’m sure you know that isn’t what I meant.”

“Yeah, I was just joking.” The bot huffed. “I said I wouldn’t ask about it more.”

“Um, mister Joe sir?” Vee carefully spoke up, hiding a little when Joe looked over to her and said she didn’t need to use formalities like that. “Why can’t you just help his dad? Because you’re… a thing I can’t say to Jrum.”

“Hey, I know he used to be Herobrine.” Jrum pointed out before pausing. “Well, I mean he technically still is? He goes by Joe now, but was it just a name thing, or is it a concept or-”

“The nuance of that matter isn’t a highlight of this discussion right now.” Joe said to keep Jrum from overthinking things. “As for your question Vee, despite any connection I have to what you tend to refer to as Hels, my involvement in this situation isn’t one that was ever foreseen as direct involvement. That being said, the situation also isn’t one that everyone is so sure it is.”

“Wait, what do you mean it’s not what we think it is?” Jrum asked. “My dad has been kidnapped and based on what everyone is saying, he’s missing a gigantic chunk of his memory. How is it different from that?”

“Jrum has a point! Why’s it not that? Is it because Grifter is trying something we don’t know about but you do?”

“Grifter’s involvement isn’t exactly what’s causin’ it to be something else. And as far as the Hermits and you are concerned, it is what you think. But there’s plenty of other people involved.”

Both kids looked confused before Vee gasped. “The other Watchers and Listeners! Or at least the Listeners, I don’t think Grifter could lie to the others as easily. But he must’ve done a bunch of lying to them! And… and Astrid and Flora and everyone was with him too! They’re being lied to as well! I need to call Astrid again so she can help!”

“Now slow down. I believe you already did talk to her about that, now didn’t you?”

Vee frowned. “Well, yeah, but now we know more so she needs to know more!”

“Vee’s right.” Jrum agreed. “But also shouldn’t do it yet, because she mentioned something to me.” Joe gestured for Jrum to continue after the bot paused for a moment. “You know how Vee keeps mentioning she and Astrid were adopted? Well, apparently before Astrid got adopted, she lived in the Hels version of Tommy’s server because her brother was the admin. Her brother was Nightmare, Dream’s Hels.”

“Now that is something we didn’t know yet.” Joe conceded. “Vee, you said your sister didn’t get along with her brother when you talked about her at the meeting, right?”

“No, he was really mean! He hurt her and Flora and her whole family and even tried to do it to me once. He was just as mean as my mom was.”

“How much does your dad know about Nightmare?” Joe asked, Vee answering that he probably knew more than she did. “Alright, I’ll need to go back into the meetin’ to tell the Hermits and others about that, you two take some time to rest before you go back into trainin’ alright?”

“That sounds like a good plan to me.” Jrum agreed before standing up, stretching, and then starting to go towards a nether portal. “If you need us, we’ll be at Daddy’s base. Dad’s portal is too dangerous.”

“Perfectly good reasoning.” Joe nodded, waving just before the two were whisked away by magic into the Nether.

“Uh, Jrum?” Vee asked shortly after they had stepped out of the portal and into the hub. “Did it seem like he knew more about what’s going on than he said?”

“Huh? Oh, well, Joe is always like that. I think it’s a mix of him being so old, being a poet writer whatever, being a Hermit, and probably five other things.” Jrum shrugged. “Plus, he probably does but doesn’t want to tell us just yet because they want to know more about it themselves, or because we’re younger. Or heck, maybe even both at the same time.”

“Huh. Okay I guess that makes sense.”

[silverware-drawer]

What the hell is a "cue es em pee"

0 notas

🦈 kocwillrock 🔁 philza

🏳️‍⚧️ wanna-flippa Seguir

MY& P4PA: WH@T D0' #)W3 S4Y WHE;N WE SE3 TH*E H@TER5??,?(

$M'E: D1$LIK€ 4ND #-_UNS+UBSCR/_1BE

M#Y PAP@:; # HEL,L YE4,H!;!!!$!!

*.*W3 BOT,H,, B@CKF''L1P 4WA_-Y"__*+&

🪹 philza

@backflipo-numero-uno please stop impersonating your dead daughter on fucking tumblr and get therapy

🦠 backflipo-numero-uno Seguir

NO LISTEN ITS REALLY HER THIS TIME I SWEAR

🪹 philza

I'm reporting you for your own good m8

🪹 philza

and also because you don't tag the months-old interactions with mariana you keep reblogging and I don't wanna see that shit on my dash lmao

🦈 kocwillrock Seguir

damn slime your dead daughter knows how to write a banger post

1,010 notas

💣 federation-sanitation-unofficial 🔁 im-the-orb-theyre-always-pondering

💣 2b-or-not-2b

Finally finished the enchants on my scythe. Going to test this shit on a dungeon run will update

⚠️ pactriggerwarning Seguir

you can come over and test it on me instead if i'm closer. like not in a weird way you can just hit me and I'll tell you how close I am to dying, how much blood I've lost etc

💣 im-the-orb-theyre-always-pondering

fuck okay- pac I've been meaning to talk to you about this. Listen.

💣 federation-sanitation-unofficial

you have. . . tendencies

4 notas

🔎 cellbo 🔁 peterparkoier

⚪ qsmp-census-bureau ☑️ Seguir

I hope you enjoy the island.

cellbit-deactivated19358

FUCK YOU

🐦 its-nice-to-miku Seguir

wait cellbit is this why your old blog got deleted lmao???

🔎 cellbo

shut up

🔎 cellbo

I hear you typing guapito don't you fucking dare

🥵 peterparkoier Seguir

NO MAMES

🔎 cellbo

GOD DAMN IT

201 notas

🌸 bagi-the-vegan 🔁 bagi-the-vegan

🌸 bagi-the-vegan

this island is so weird why did people seriously consider the disgusting green egg as a presidential candidate

🌸 bagi-the-vegan

Nevermind gegg is my son now

692 notas

🌸 bagi-the-vegan 🔁 gegg

🇧🇷 gegg Seguir

what we need is not government it is true union between the people

121.193 notas

🌸 bagi-the-vegan 🔁 gegg

🇧🇷 gegg Seguir

yo soy brazil. nosotros somos brazil. We Are Gegg.

992 notas

🌸 bagi-the-vegan 🔁 gegg

🇧🇷 gegg Seguir

the sun is a false god but a true threat

238.816 notas

🌸 bagi-the-vegan 🔁 gegg

🇧🇷 gegg Seguir

gegg

- gegg

1.1 millón notas

🪹 philza 🔁 philza

⚪ qsmp-census-bureau Seguir

I hope you enjoy the island.

etoiles-deactivated2884

dark metal when

etoiles-deactivated2884

dark metal when

etoiles-deactivated2884

dark metal when

etoiles-deactivated2884

dark metal when

elotes-deactivated1191866

dark metal when

elotes-deactivated1191866

dark metal when

elotes-deactivated1191866

dark metal when

etwall-deactivated92701

dark metal when

etwall-deactivated92701

dark metal when

🔰 etoyless

guys I cant believe it they are introducing dark metal soon its not a lie the admins really said so because otherwise it means they hate me GG woooo good fight i dont have to cry anymore!! well played!!

🪹 philza

etoiles you are going to get banned again stop provoking the feds

🔰 etoyless

you are right philza because you are the best ok i am never going to spam them again

🪹 philza

Good job I'm proud of you GGs

🪹 philza

ETOILES

69 notas

🔰 etoyless 🔁 etoyless

🔰 etoyless

@01101110011101010110110001101100 FIGHT ME

🔰 etoyless

@01101110011101010110110001101100 FIGHT ME

🔰 etoyless

@01101110011101010110110001101100 FIGHT ME

🔰 etoyless

@01101110011101010110110001101100 FIGHT ME

[gooperts-gunk]

i saw someone on twitter writing qsmp names in korean and im trying so hard not to be bothered i know they have good intentions but it was just so wrong in parts so instead here's how qsmp names would be written in korean BY THE SOUND not how they're written. note that i am not korean nor on the korean side of qsmptwt but as a casual kpoppie it's a rite of passage to learn hangul and try to learn korean at one point therefore though i am not a trusted source i do know the basics of the phonetics LUL

alphabetical order & categorized!

get ready for me to infodump on mouth sounds

update from the morning after this post: fixed/optimized some!!!

english speaking creators:

badboyhalo: 밷보이헤이로 (baed-bo-i-he-i-ro/lo) i infer it'd be easier to just call him 헤이로 out of every part of him name please let's halo-truth bbh. the 헤이 slurs into the "hey/hei" sound, very little accentuation on the just one part, it works as one!!

dantdm: 단티디엠 or 댄티디엠 (dan-ti-di-em, daen-ti-di-em) i've heard both pronunciations for the name dan, it's a matter of preference here! EDIT: also possibly 댼 instead which is also daen but like, not really? but also they're really similar? and i don't know how to hear the difference but there is one and nevermind don't worry about it man

fit: 피트 (pi-teu) directly would be 핕 but that's just a tricky one it's bound to have a soft ㅡ sound following

foolish: 푸리쓰 or 푸리쌰? (pu-ri/li-sseu, pu-ri/li-ssya) THIS ONE IS TRICKY if it does go 쌰 it's be a soft one, but more likely 쓰 EDIT: IS IT 풀리쎠 (peul-ri-ssyeo) ?!?!?!? IM STILL ON THIS FOOLISH IS SO TOUGH TO PUT INTO HANGUL IM NOT GONNA BE OVER IT

ironmouse: 아이욘마우스 or 아이룐마우스 (a-i-yon-ma-u-seu, a-i-ryon/lyon-ma-u-seu) this one feels tit for tat, same same, just a minor difference in accentuating the r in iron or not! EDIT: could also be 아이런 (a-i-reon) or 아이론 (a-i-ron) !!!

jaiden: 제이든 (je-i-deun) no notes very easy and straightforward one

lenay: 르네이 (reu/leu-ne-i) same with jaiden's!

nihachu / niki: 니하추 or 니아추, 니키 (ni-ha-chu, ni-a-chu, ni-ki) another same same thing with ni-HA or ni-A, just depends on accentuation or not! the 추 may possibly be said as 츄 instead, but im unsure of which

philza: 피르쟈, 피르 (pi-reu/leu-jya, pi-reu/leu) no notes, straightforward! as you will come to notice, f's usually translate to ㅍ's, and z's usually translate to ㅈ's!

quackity: 콰키티 (kua/kwa-ki-ti) no notes! i heard like months back that quackity's korean fandom endearingly calls him 키티 i think?? fun fact i remembered :)

slimecicle / charlie: 스라임씨컬, 챨이 (seu-ra/la-im-ssi-keol/keor, chyal/chyar-i) wow okay so how do you write charlie in korean because i KNOW there's no way it's 챠르리 (chya-reu-ri) my tongue is tripping over the 르리, it has to be 챨이, or 챠리, or 챨리 right??? okay the more i think the more 챨리 (chyal-li) sounds right ok everyone go home i think it's 챨리 LUL

tinakitten / tina: 티나키던, 티나 (ti-na-ki-deon, ti-na) no notes! straightforward!

tubbo: 터뽀 (teo-bbo) no notes! but also i feel like there's other ways to write it that im just not convinced are correct LUL

wilbur soot: 윌버 쑽 (wil/wir-beo ssut) no notes!

spanish speaking creators:

carre: 카레 (ka-re) no notes!

elmariana: 에르마리아나 or 엘마리아나 (e-reu/leu-ma-ri/li-a-na, el-ma-ri-a-na) the reason why i included 에르 alongside 엘 is because it ends up sounding like "ed", the L/R sound in korean is in that same range and when said fast or cut abruptly like 엘, it sounds like a D, if not for context :) so 엘 COULD work! but it'd be hard to recognize it as an L/R sound without some extra space made for the sound. this is also relevant for elquackity!

german: 헤르만 or 헬만 (he-reu/leu-man, her/hel-man) same thing as last note applies here! it'd sound like HED-man more than HER-man but, still, could work!

luzu, arin: 루쥬 or 루주, 아린 (ru/lu-jyu, ru/lu-ju, a-rin/lin) no notes! i see luzu more said with the 쥬 sound instinctively but it's one of those either or i think EDIT: if it were the spain pronunciation i think it'd be 루튜 (lu-tyu) or 루뜌 (lu-ddyu) ??? the thhh sound doesn't exist in korean but this is the closest it gets i think

maximus, maxo: 맠수머스, 맠서 (mak-su-meo-seu, mak-seo) okay at this point my brain is mush and im sure there's a better way to write this but it's a tricky one. the 맠 could also be 막 (mag) but im unsure where in the mouth the difference is between 맠 and 막, because hangul is very mouth oriented, it's allll about tongue placement, and i am SO not on that X_X EDIT: i change my mind it's 막 for maximus but 맠서 is fine i think idk how to explain is just is. also alternate pronunciationfor maximus: 막씨머스 (mag-ssi-meo-seu)

missa sinfonia: 미싸 씬퍼냐 (mi-ssa ssin-peo-nya) yeah that seems about right (my brain is melting everything is hangul) no notes! EDIT: ok but IS it possibly 미사 (mi-sa)??? im doubting myself here

polispol, pol: 폴에쓰폴, 폴 (pol-e-sseu-pol, pol) no notes!

rivers: 리버스 (ri/li-beo-seu) no notes!

roier: 로이예 or 로이옐 (ro/lo-i-ye, ro/lo-i-yer/yel) this is one of those scenarios where an abrupt L/R sound works just fine! don't know how to explain it! but it just works!

rubius: 루비어스 (ru-bi-eo-seu) no notes!

spreen: 스프린 (seu-peu-rin) no notes!

vegetta: 베헷따 (be-het-dda) okay i don't know how to explain but tonalities of how you say vegetta in spanish make me think 베 and that the tta would be equal to the sharpness of 따 stick with me here i've been doing hangul names for so long now i can't see the end of the horizon EDIT: for some reason im changing my mind it might be 페헷따 (pe-het-dda)

willyrex, willy: 위리렉스, 위리 (wi-ri-reg-seu, wi-ri) okay again idk how to explain but the reason why ㄱ and not ㅋ is because it just feels like it instinctively, like that's a deep ㄱ abrubt stop, not a high ㅋ abrupt stop. im losing my marbles

portuguese speaking creators:

bagi: 바지 (ba-ji) no notes!

cellbit: 셀비트 (sel-bi-teu) guys this is getting hard. yes it's somehow sel and not se-leu. yes it's bi-teu and somehow not bit. if it were bit it'd be missing the aftermath TCH sound and i think it sounds good with it. the sel has space to breathe and isn't abrupt. stay with me. we're almost done EDIT: fellow hangul enjoyer anon in ask box said 셀빛 (sel-bich/bit) or 셀비츠 (sel-bi-cheu) if with the accent, i like these, ur getting put on the fridge with the best magnets. 빛 is a fun one because it sounds pretty much the same to 빝 or 빗, all end in the same stop of the tongue going to the roof of the mouth, but 빛 in particular means "light" and i think that's nice :)

felps: 펠릅스 (pel-reub-seu) holy moly i didn't expect this to be a tongue twister but i think i nailed it

mike: 마이크 or 마이키 (ma-i-keu, ma-i-ki) i've heard mike being called mikey so i included it for fun because there's been so much hardship. so so much. we're in this together.

pac: 팩 or 패크 (paeg, pae-keu) paeg and not paek because it's just a more throat based sound to say pac idk man. pae-keu is a hypothetical im losing it man i don't know anything anymore EDIT: okay i change my mind it's definitely 패크 over 팩 im so loopy from hyperfocus overload man EDIT EDIT: i can also see 팍 (pak) being used though that isn't how it sounds for us, i can see someone saying it that way in korean if they were to read it before hearing it and then go from there

french speaking creators:

antoine daniel: 안투완 단옐 (an-tu-wan dan-yel) in french the a's are long so 단 over 댄 is a guaranteed. the yel could be accentuated more but you get the point by now

aypierre: when french accent, 아이피에히, when english accent, 에이피에어 (a-i-pi-e-hi, e-i-pi-e-eo) (thank u anon for contributing 피에어 that makes much more sense)

baghera jones: one way is 바게라 전스 the other is 바길라 전스 (ba-ge-ra jeon-seu, ba-gil/gir-ra jeon-seu) a baGERa or bagEARa dilemma.....

etoiles: 에투왈 (e-tu-wal/war) no notes!

kameto: 카메토 (ka-me-to) no notes!

THERE!!!! IT'S DONE!!!! this was hard but i feel like i got most right. and when im wrong let's just say this was just hangul practice and not serious right guys, just practice round, right??? we don't take me so serious, right??? just stick fight with totem??? if you know korean especially the phonetics better than me which is NOT a high bar at all, you can step over that bar EASY, tell me a better way to write these thank u! smile :)

bonus round coming at you live from the morning after!!! some others that i thought "yeah let's include you"

im gonna be working on this on and off all day i think so don't be scared if someone isn't here chances are brain is doing something else but will add it later :)

cucurucho: 쿠쿠루쵸 (ku-ku-ru/lu-chyo) no notes!

walter bob: 월터 법 (weol/weor-teo beob) could also be 봅 (bob)

chayanne: 챠얀 (chya-yan) or 차얀 (cha-yan) no notes!

tallulah: 타룰라 (ta-lul-la) no notes!

ramon: 라몬 (ra-mon) or if you're pac you say 하몬 (ha-mon) heehee :)

dapper: 답퍼 (dab-peo) or possibly 답뻐 (dab-bbeo) but im not so sure about that one

leo / leonardo / leonarda: if you speak english it's 리오 (li-o) if you speak spanish it's 레오 (le-o), then add on 날도 (nar/nal-do) or 날다 (nar/nal-da) :)

richarlyson / richas: 리찰리손, 리차스 (ri-chal/char-li-son, ri-cha-seu) no notes!

pomme: 펌 (peom) or 폼 (pom) both work here!

trump: 트람프 or 트럼프, to make it trumpet change the 프 to 펫 (pet/ped)

tilin: 티린 (ti-lin/rin) no notes!

juanaflippa: 환나프리파 (hwan/huan-na-peu-li-pa)

bobby: 법비 (beob-bi) or 봅비 (bob-bi) both work here!

empanada: 엠파나다 (em-pa-na-da) no notes!

pepito: 페피토 (pe-pi-to) no notes!

sunny(sideup): 선니사읻엎 (seon-ni-sa-id-eop) this one works nicely because the 읻 bleeds into the 엎 and sounds like it's one full iddeop :) this one is an ending in ㅍ not ㅂ moment but i don't know how to explain why

[annimator]

*BANGS POTS AND PANS*

NEW CHAPTER! NEW CHAPTER’S OUT!

Chapter 3: My Heart is Overflowing

(A1 Chunsik experiences emotions. Mostly joy and wonder)

The little egg was thinking about a lot;

It would be living outside of the Federation’s walls once it left this small house,

It would be living in the care of a new guardian instead of in a cell devoid of literally anything,

and most importantly-

“Chunsik!”

A1 Chunsik was given a new name.

Acau was calling out for his new egg. By the looks of it, Quackity was going to be bringing him to someplace else outside of the house the egg was currently in.

So Chunsik followed its new caretaker, and in doing so, the egg gets its first look into the outside world.

The house it was in was surrounded by a stone wall with a large entrance that gave way to a small rock pathway, alongside a small garden that contained a plethora of different flowers including a peony and a rose bush. A plentiful amount of trees were strewn around the area, which were placed beyond the walls that were bordering the house.

The sky was brightly blue. And despite all the clouds that were scattered amongst it, the sun still shined on the little Korean egg.

After a life spent locked within a Federation facility that was practically devoid of any colours, this was a sight to behold for Chunsik.

Hopefully it won’t have to go back to that wretched place now that it’s in Acau’s care.

Whilst Chunsik was admiring its new surroundings, Quackity asked Acau another question. “So people are asking; is it a boy or a girl?”

The Korean egg remembers the Federation workers using the words including “it” and “its” whenever they were referring it back when it was still A1. Something about how they used those words when talking about it felt wrong to Chunsik back then.

The egg looked at Acau as he was pondering up an answer to the question given to him, eventually answering Quackity after a couple seconds.

“Chunsik is a man.”

Chunsik was happy over this, bouncing out of joy whilst Quackity responded to Acau’s answer. “Oh! A- a guy?”

“Mhm”

“Okay, a boy.”

Acau repeated what Quackity said, glancing at Chunsik as he spoke in English, with a smile on his face, “Boy.”

Chunsik bounced out of joy again over what Acau said. By the looks of it, its his new caretaker doesn’t seem to be fluent in English, but it also means that the Korean lessons he was taught in the past won’t be going to waste.

———

All the plants and decor scattered around the area Chunsik was walking through were beautiful. He didn’t even notice whatever Quackity and Acau were talking about on their way to the big building Quackity was bringing Acau and him to.

There were other people in the building to by the sound of it, but he paid no attention to them. He mostly clung to Acau and Quackity since everyone else there was practically a stranger to him.

Presumably, Quackity was teaching Acau about these “quests”, and about some kind of money system that the island was running on.

As Quackity brought him and Acau to what looked like the center of the building they were in, people started to notice Chunsik’s presence.

He wasn’t sure how people would perceive him, and he slowly crouched into a corner, but his worries went away when he saw another egg.

Unlike him, this egg had a large crack on her face, and she wore a beanie with purple stripes of different tints, and had black hair. Her name was Lullah.

She placed a sign to greet Chunsik, “Good morning little eggo.”

Lullah was accompanied by another man. He had blonde hair, and wore a striped green & white hat, with a black haori that covered a dark green samue, alongside wooden sandals, and large crow wings that were sprouting from his back. This man was Philza.

Similarly to Lullah, Phil greeted him, sounding delighted over the sight of him, “AWWWW. Hello!“

Chunsik quickly wrote a greeting on his sign, and bowed after finishing it. “Hello!”

Philza read the sign, quickly replying. “Hi little guy! Hello, how are you? Oh, that’s a cool pose you’re doing.”

Another egg appeared next to Lullah, writing on her sign to also greet him. Unlike Lullah, this egg didn’t have any cracks or hair, but she did have a hat that was slightly tilted on her head and funnily enough, looked like a stack of pancakes. Her name was Empanada.

She was excited to meet him, something easily seen in what she wrote on her sign, “OMG HII.”

Chunsik was bouncing out of joy over meeting people that didn’t seem to have cruel intentions with him, and Empanada similarly bounced to mimic him. He started writing on another sign to greet Empanada, “Hello! I like your pancake hat!”

Other eggs and people started to crowd around him; one of the eggs had a duck floatie wrapped around his body and another one had a red baseball hat that was placed backwards on top of her head.

Whilst Chunsik was writing his greeting to Empanada, Philza asked him a question,

“What is your name little eggo? How do I say your name?”

Chunsik quickly started to write him an answer on yet another sign as more and more people and eggs started to notice him in the area they were all in.

He eventually finished his sign, finally introducing himself to everyone that was there, “My name is Chun-sik. It means… ‘Worker’.”

Philza laughed over learning what his name translated to. Alongside that, a large amount of people and eggs were all surrounding him.

In comparison to back during his time in the Federation’s custody, something about this felt more… comforting.

None of the people here sounded like they wanted to hurt or berate him. The egg with the duck floatie even greeted him in Korean! His name was Chayanne

And Chunsik greeted him back in English, “Hello Chayanne!”

Everyone there started to talk to and about him, but at the same time, none of it was insulting. He even spotted another egg too! And they had sunglasses!

“Did Acau name you?”

“AWWWWW.”

“Oh! I see the little egg! Oh my god, it’s so cuuuute!”

“Hello.”

“Hello!

“Helllooooo!”

“Acau, they’re all meeting your new son!”

“It’s pixels. It’s pixels.”

“Did you just say ‘it’s pixels. it’s pixels’?’

“Oh, you’re so damn cute.”

“If you need food or protection let me know.”

“I like the hat!”

“It is nice to meet you.”

It was all simultaneously overwhelming and comforting. But right as he was starting to take it all in, one of the eggs started to punch him in what seemed to be a playful manner, so Chunsik playfully punched back.

The egg wore an oversized yellow and green jersey with a mooshroom hat, and quickly placed down a sign to greet Chunsik. Their name was Richarlyson.

The Korean egg also place down a sign and greeted him, “Hello! I like the cow hat!”

Richarlyson placed down two signs to greet Chunsik, one of which was even in Korean, “CHUNSIK! You can trust me with anything!!“

Chunsik quickly replied to them with a sign of his own, also replying in Korean, “Yes, I got it!“

It was all sweet, cosy, and heartwarming. Chunsik never experienced this much joy over being surrounded by loads of people before.

Hopefully, this wouldn’t be the last time it happens.

…

But amidst all the solace, Chunsik noticed something.

Where did Acau go? Wasn’t Quackity showing him the ATM machine a couple of minutes ago?

Did he abandon him?

[hxly-fxther]

"Did any other Azraels become...me?" The Angel looks at his father, "I asked Mother but got a vague answer. How many Azraels become Philzas and why am I different?"

- Philza (Mage)

“Azrael, Death, The Grim Reaper, Thanatos, Pluto, Hades, Hecate, Anubis, Hel, Erishkiga. More recently, the path you have chosen has continuously lead you to Philza, for one reason or another. To shed the past, to embrace a future, become anew. Is that not what Death is meant to be? The end of something, the start of another?”

“Of course, if I fed you all the answers, I’m afraid the consequences could be disastrous for you personally. The man who thinks upon a throne of thought is doomed to rest there for eternity. Do know that what I have stated before still rings to be true, you are on the right path. Continue to move forward and know that you are you because of who you are.”

[sparkleofstardust]

hello everyone i'm hel (she/her) :D i speak english, german, and japanese (kind of - it's a love/hate relationship) and qsmp got me motivated to learn some spanish and french !

i mainly watch tubbo and philza, fit + tina when i have the time, still got a soft spot for team soulfire, and i mostly just lurk in the background but do occasionally shout my opinions into the void haha

i'd love to talk to more people in the community about the qsmp and/or languages in general, and welcome to all the newcomers !!

[mcytrecursive]

Nomination Update - Art

We're coming up on the close of these nomination updates, but there's one last group that we had to cover before we called it done. And that's art. We've had a lot of fics nominated, but we've also had a marvellous selection of art nominated. There have been some incredible, inspiring pieces nominated, including AUs, web weaves, an entire zine, comics, and more. Take a look!

Title: 52 hertz Link: here Fandom: Lifesteal SMP Author: oneirogen Relationships: Ashswag & Squiddo, background Reddoons/Ashswag Characters: Squiddo, Ashswag, Reddoons Length: 4,370 words and web weave Genre: AU, Character Study, Horror, Post-Apocalyptic AU, Weird formatting Summary: > SQUIDDO: So the plan is simple. We’ve got around thirty-six hours of driving to do until we reach the source of this weird frequency, then we figure out whatever is making it and then drive another thirty-six hours back so we can report to the Professor. Easy :D > ASHSWAG: How the fuck did you do that with your mouth. or: squiddo goes on a roadtrip.

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Title: Hels to Pay AU/From Eden Link: here Fandom: Crossover Fandom Author: aquaquadrant/lunarcrown Relationships: Tango/Jimmy is the main one I can think of?  Characters: Tangotek, Jimmy Solidarity, ImpulseSV, Helsmits Length: 105,000+ words and art Genre: Angst, AU, Character Study, Hurt/Comfort, Whump Summary: Tango is a Hermit, a redstoner, a Life Series member, and Jimmy's soulmate. However, before that, he was Tangotek from Hels, a blaze hybrid turned into a living blaze farm by Hels corporation Tek Industries. When Tango manages to break out of the Tek Industries lab and stumbles across a portal near Hels spawn, he doesn't hesitate before diving in, heedless of the potential consequences. Consequences such as his overworld counterpart, Bravo, being stuck in Hels for the next decade, looking for revenge, and ending up at Tek industries to get it.

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Title: Together till the very end Link: here Fandom: 3rd Life SMP Author: Avi-mation Relationships: Grian, Cleo, Etho (platonic) Characters: Grian, Cleo, Etho Genre: Canon-Compliant, Fluff, Family Summary: (This is a comic of the secret life roomies) After the gruelling hard task, Grian feels insecure about his place in the team with Cleo and Etho. As the yellow, he is a liability, especially knowing his track record. Cleo and Etho work together wonderfully, is there even a need keeping him around

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Title: Good News! Ghostbur Comic Link: here Fandom: Dream SMP Author: sidecast Relationships: Ghostbur & Technoblade, Ghostbur & Niki, Ghostbur & Tommy Characters: Ghostbur Genre: Canon-Divergent, Character Study, Fix-It, Fluff, Family, Friendship, Found Family Summary: Ghostbur happy ending comic! Based on blackout poetry of Wilbur's post about Ghostbur's limbo. 

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Title: DSMP Comics vol. 1 Link: here Fandom: Dream SMP Author: DSMP Comics Zine Relationships: all of them Characters: yep. all of them Genre: Action/Adventure, AU, Modern AU, Superhero/Superpower AU Summary: In a city brimming with heroes, vigilantes, and villains, a mysterious organization known only as E.G.G. has stepped out of the shadows. Their goal? Total chaos. In their quest to overrun the city, they've developed a device that shuffles people's powers— and nobody is safe…

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Title: another visit  Link: here Fandom: Dream SMP Author: yuker Relationships: Quackity/Karl Jacobs Characters: Quackity, Karl Jacobs Genre: Angst, Canon-Compliant, Hurt/Comfort, Time Travel, Character Study Summary: [sometimes I see him in the middle of the night but he doesn't really remember me.] In which Karl visits Quackity in between his time traveling, and Quackity cannot be sure he isn't dreaming.

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Title: El nido de cuervo - The crow's nest  Link: here Fandom: QSMP Author: wizardsandrain Relationships: Philza & Chayanne & Tallulah Characters: Phliza, Chayanne, Tallulah Genre: Canon-Compliant, Domestic/Slice-of-life, Fluff, Family Summary: A painting of the basement where Chayanne and Tallulah sleep

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Title: RvB/HC au Link: here Fandom: Hermitcraft SMP Author: gingermaple Relationships: platonic Etho&Cleo, platonic Scar&Bdubs Characters: Etho, Scar, Bdubs, Cleo, Grian Genre: AU, Crossover, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Space AU Summary: Hermitcraft characters in a Red vs Blue AU, loosely following (or ignoring) RvB canon. RvB is a space opera in a general war setting with a lot of silly shenanigans. Some angst, found friendship-family, and generally just a bunch of idiots getting themselves into crazy situations.

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Title: Desert Duo Vigilante AU [DDVAU] Link: here Fandom: 3rd Life SMP Author: kitsuneisi & xmaruu11 Relationships: Scar/Grian [Romantic], Grian & Jimmy [Platonic], Cub & Scar [Platonic] Characters: Grian / CuteGuy & Scar / HotGuy Genre: AU, Superhero/Superpower AU Summary: Hero HotGuy fights crime with Vigilante Cuteguy. There is a love dynamic going on [Grian loves Scar, Hotguy loves Cuteguy, but Scar only thinks of Grian as a friend & Cuteguy thinks Hotguy is annoying] They don't know each others super hero identities but fight crime together. Scar and Grian teach at a school together outside of their hero duties.

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Title: the handgun is no longer sexy Link: here Fandom: Dream SMP Author: regicidal-optimism Relationships: Quackity/Wilbur Characters: Quackity, Wilbur Genre: Canon-Compliant, Character Study, Romance Summary: Web weave about Las Nevadas Quackity loving a man who wants to die and not being over Pogtopia.

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Title: the wedding before everything went wrong Link: here Fandom: Hermitcraft SMP Author: terracottakore Relationships: etho/cleo  Characters: cleo, etho  Genre: Angst, Drama, Family, Humour, Slow Burn Summary: etho and cleo wedding 

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Title: Frankenstein Cletho AU Art Link: here Fandom: 3rd Life SMP Author: cerealdog Relationships: Cleo/Etho, Cleo & Etho, Cleo/Bdubs, Cleo & Bdubs, Joel Smallishbeans & Etho Characters: Cleo, Etho, Bdubs, Joel Smallishbeans,  Genre: Action/Adventure, AU, Canon-Divergent, Crossover, Drama, Horror, Romance Summary: Full-color art of Frankenstein's Monster!Cleo and Frankenstein!Etho in his lab, as well as three primarily black and white lineart pieces of other scenes from the book reinterpreted with Joel, Bdubs, Etho, and Cleo.

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Title: Portal AU Link: here Fandom: Dream SMP Author: lemontarto Relationships: Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & TommyInnit & Philza, Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit Characters: Tommyinnit, Tubbo Genre: Action/Adventure, AU, Fluff, Fantasy AU, Friendship Summary: Tommy & Tubbo r two lads living in the woods with their big brother wilbur (who is overworked stressed and tired) when tubbo stumbles upon a strange,magical portal formed by entwined tree branches ! Its mostly them engaging in shenanigans in this new world and going on adventures(led by sprites/spirits in the shadows) & wilbur getting to relax a bit!

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Title: the statue queen and her knight Link: here Fandom: 3rd Life SMP Author: greenix Relationships: Ethoslab & ZombieCleo Characters: Ethoslab, Zombiecleo Genre: character designs Summary: Cleo as a gorgon and Etho as a weeping angel.

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Title: Blood for the Blood Child Link: here Fandom: Dream SMP Author: @beckyblah on tumblr  Relationships: tommyinnit & technoblade  Characters: tommyinnit, techno Genre: Canon-Divergent Summary: Tommy holding an axe and a wither skull saying, "Blood for the blood child."

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Title: Not applicable Link: here Fandom: 3rd Life SMP Author: lockspick (locksock) Relationships: Ethoslab/TangoTek Characters: Ethoslab, TangoTek Genre: Smut, Action/Adventure Summary: personally, i think almost drowning in a 1x1 tube with ur teammate is a little homoerotic, don’t you?

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Title: Last of Us + Tntduo Link: here Fandom: Dream SMP Author: ashthefrogprin Relationships: Quackity/Wilbur Characters: Quackity, Wilbur Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, AU, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Apocalyptic AU, Romance, Slow Burn Summary: A series of images depicting quackbur in a The Last of Us AU, followed by a brief summary of a few scenes the artist was imagining. Wilbur has a shotgun; Quackity has an axe. They're both traveling across the country together trying to find a safe harbor with other survivors-- and, as it turns out, being in close quarters with someone during life-threatening situations means the two of you tend to bond. Odd thing, that.

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Title: Scar & Grian TMA AU Link: here Fandom: Hermitcraft SMP Author: qhideduo Relationships: Grian & Scar Characters: Grian, Scar Genre: Angst, AU, Crossover, Horror Summary: In which Scar is an avatar of the End and Grian is an Avatar of the Slaughter. (Grian has trouble finding people to kill to feed his patron. Scar suggests that Grian kill him since he'll come back anyways. Grian has concerns and hesitates, but does it with Scar's assurances.)

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Title: super_not_evil_mayor.png Link: here Fandom: Hermitcraft SMP Author: cornpapers Relationships: Scar & Bdubs Characters: Scar, Bdubs Genre: AU, Canon-Divergent Summary: A season 7 swap AU where Scar is mayor of the shopping district, but fighting to preserve the mycelium instead of get rid of it. He’s, uh, not doing so hot.

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Title: the arrangement Link: here Fandom: Hermitcraft SMP Author: cornpapers Relationships: Grian & Scar Characters: Grian, GoodTimesWithScar Genre: Superhero/Superpower AU Summary: Art of a meeting between Hotguy and the (seemingly antagonistic) Poultry Man, with a really intriguing dynamic.

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Title: tazercraft kagerou days Link: here Fandom: QSMP Author: routeriver Relationships: Pactw & Mikethelink Characters: Pactw, Mikethelink Genre: Angst, AU, Time Loop Summary: Tazercraft Kagerou Daze AU - you know that animated music video with the boy and the girl in a timeloop where they keep having to watch the other die in horrible accidents? This art is a redraw of that video's thumbnail with Pac & Mike as the two characters in the timeloop.

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Title: Space Mining AU Link: here and here Fandom: 3rd Life SMP Author: wszczebrzyszynie Relationships: Team Ranchers, Cledubs, Ethubs, Scarian, Treebark, Convex brothers, ImpSkizz, Flower Husbands. Zedaph, Doc, Pearl and Gem are also characters. Everything mentioned as platonic, except romantic Jizzie. Characters: Tango and Jimmy Genre: Action/Adventure, AU, Drama, Post-Apocalyptic AU, Space AU Summary: Space Mining AU. Tango was an engineer, became a wanted terrorist after he blew up Callisto, a moon where he was doing illegal skulk mining. He blew it up alongside other miners after finding out that skulk is alive, parasitic and infecting people, but he ended up being the sole survivor of the explosion, and the skulk wasn't completely sealed off. He ends up living with Desert Duo for a while (a pair of also dangerous criminals), and that's where he meets Jimmy. It kind of all goes downhill from there.

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Title: i think i would like a quiet life Link: here Fandom: Dream SMP Author: pidgedee Relationships: tommy&a healing arc Characters: TommyInnit Genre: Canon-Compliant, Character Study, Fix-It Summary: A gentle-ending poem comic about c!Tommy.

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See something you want to offer or request in the exchange? Horrified that a classic of the genre isn't represented yet (to be fair, maybe we didn't get permission)? Join our discord and sign up today! Nominations close Wednesday night!

[hermitcraftkinfessions]

Oh yeah we also do the flaring wing thing extremely frequently and for so many things. Just a few moments ago I was sliding in a puddle and violently started flapping my wings to try to get my balance back. One time we remember very well is one of our Philza fictives was talking to someone, and he started walking by him while he was talking, so he stretched his wing to block him, then felt horrified that he just walked through where he felt his wing was blocking. But we have so many moments with phantom wings since a majority of us have them. If we get stressed a lot of us will start flapping them. Earlier i got scared by some lightning and kept my wings wrapped around myself (and another sysmate deathly scared of lightning we found out) for comfort.

-Icarus (Solidaritygaming fictive. Technically not the blog I should be on but I wanted to chime in lol) from Blue Anon

Wings are very good indicators of many things is what we all have learnt here today! I have story after story of wing hijinks... the one coming to my mind right now is when we woke up one day and almost lost balance because we forgot we didn't have to account for the weight of our wings lmao -Mod Hels

[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.

[db4yup]

I posted 9,848 times in 2022

That's 1,670 more posts than 2021!

230 posts created (2%)

9,618 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

alzarianadric

lockoutkey

manifall

musicforteenagers

hermits-that-craft

I tagged 893 of my posts in 2022

#mason.txt - 17 posts

#mcyt - 8 posts

#:) - 8 posts

#wordle - 6 posts

#hermitcraft - 6 posts

#fucking hell - 5 posts

#/lh - 5 posts

#unreality - 5 posts

#mason lb - 5 posts

Longest Tag: 112 characters

#i dont *love* talking about religion but mason has just come into co-con and he certainly loves talking about it

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

if Hels is called Hels is normal hermitcraft called Wels????

40 notes - Posted March 7, 2022

#4

ronald reagan dying in pride month was the best thing he did for the queer community

46 notes - Posted June 5, 2022

#3

wait that's not danny gonzalez wtf

79 notes - Posted October 3, 2022

#2

watching CC's try and get their URLS is very funny like. no. you don't get it. name your self philza-mommy-milkers like the rest of us

294 notes - Posted November 8, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

girls if he's

caffeinated

animated

redstone innovator

behaviors crazy

can't phase him

never lazy

He's not your man, he's impulsesv

534 notes - Posted March 16, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[frenchphobic]

i am cursed with knowledge of both of these girl help

[hermitcraftheadcanons]

Philza is Hels Etho

Anime cosplay Minecraft uncles...makes sense

- Mod Shade

[limelocked]

thinking too much about hels!etho or clone!etho (yall remember when beef made a cloning machine and etho just baited us with a possible clone?)

and i still cant get over hels/clone cosplaying gojo satoru

the worst thing is that i cant draw this hypothetical character because pc said no <3 but like okay imagine how different we draw etho from kakashi in a vain hope of not showing the weeb? but its gojo

same hair (maybe shorter) and blindfold as gojo, uncovered mouth unlike etho with a scar from chin to cheek on his right side (ethos eye scar being on the left) that goes over his mouth. big chunky rectangular black or gray jacket/coat with either a higher collar or big hood, and like... darker pants rolled up above the ankle

yknow

mcyt weeb skins...

but a lil to the left :)

[constellation-sapphic]

Ah yes, the hels version of Philza Minecraft

Philza Terraria

[crash-hawk]

Gonna Turn Your Vision Red

Continuing the Voices series, here’s a bit more Kaleidoscope!Last Life brainrot for the soul.

(Disclaimer: Because my brain is an ADHD tire fire, Voices is being written wildly out of order, so this fic actually comes chronologically before the two I previously released, as will the one I’m currently working on.  headinhands.)  Followed by: when I’m far too tired to fall asleep by @lunarblazes burning remains, light the funeral pyre (breaking it up, ‘cause we’re tearing it down) branding the truth on a world of liars (please your god and release the hounds)  ___________________________________________________________

gonna turn your vision red ____________________________________________________________

Eenie meenie minie moe Catch a tiger by the toe If he hollers, let ‘im go! Eenie meenie minie moe

The rhyme has been repeating itself in Technoblade’s head in a numbing, thought-eating loop since morning.  Not, Techno reflects, that there had really been a night, per se.  Today is the thirty-first of October: Glaz Osenni, the Eye of Autumn, when the Southern sun slows to a crawl in the sky, leaving only a muddy dusk in the small hours of the morning to serve as “night”.  At the other end of the globe, Northerners would be celebrating Hels Night, gathering around the bonfires they light against the approaching months of endless dark and telling tales of the gods and their shadow-selves, a custom Techno always found rather amusing–what use, after all, would a Dark Mirror be to the Blood God?  He’s his own shadow-self; a glance in Hels’ mirror would likely reveal nothing but an empty glass, like a fairy-tale wampyr.

Eenie meenie minie moe Catch a tiger by the toe If he hollers, let ‘im go! Eenie meenie minie moe

It’s driving him insane, and the singsongy little-girl falsetto the Voice is droning in is doing nothing to improve the situation.  He wishes it would fucking quit it, already, and go back to baying for blood like usual.  That, at least, he is well-practiced at tuning out.  

Eenie meenie minie moe Catch a tiger by the toe If he hollers–

“Not exactly tiger territory, mate.”

Techno starts, spinning with a knife in his hand before he even knows it’s there.  “One of these days,” he growls, “you are going to sneak up on me at the wrong moment and this knife is going to end up somewhere it shouldn’t, Phil.”

Philza smirks.  “If it happens and you somehow manage not to miss, I’ll have earned it.  Good thing your aim is bloody atrocious.  What the hell was that you were mumbling about catching tigers?”

Gods fucking damn it.  He hadn’t even realized he’d started muttering along out loud.  “Nothing,” he says.  “Do you have a pickaxe handy?”

“Why the blessed, gracious fuck would I be carrying a pickaxe, Techno?”

“Too bad,” Techno grunts, his disappointment only half in jest.  “I was hoping to put it through my own skull.  Failed in my hour of need by the Angel of Death himself.  Remind me again why we’re friends?”

Philza snorts, though his expression is concerned.  “Voices kicking up on you, I’m guessing?”

Technoblade nods, rubbing bitterly at his temples.  He doesn’t elaborate further–explaining would take too much energy.  Not that he has to.  He’s never had to explain to Phil, something he’s not yet reached the end of his gratitude for.  

“It’s the Midnight Sun,” Phil muses.  “This time of year is strange everywhere–but more so for us.  The veil is thin.  Everything’s amplified.”  

Techno supposes that’s true–they’ve made their Empire here long enough to know, by now.  But–

Eenie meenie minie moe Catch a 

    (spider)

        by the toe If he hollers, let ‘im go! Eenie meenie minie mo

“Shut up,” he hisses, hands fisting in the hair above his temples.

“Techno, mate,” Philza cajoles softly, laying a hand on Technoblade’s shoulder.  “Go to bed.”

Techno takes a deep breath, squeezing his eyes shut as he counts in-four hold-four out-four the way Philza had taught him back when he’d first told his friend about the Voices, and nods.  

Ten minutes later he’s in his bed, with the heavy blackout curtains drawn against the stubborn daylight, and the Voices follow him down into the dark:

Eenie meenie minie mo Catch a tiger by the toe If he hollers, let ‘im go, Eenie meenie minie mo

________________________________

He’s walking briskly along a path through an evergreen wood.  Tall spruces grow thickly along the sides of the path, their dark green needles unburdened by snow or ice.  The autumn air is brisk but not bitterly cold–a lovely day for a walk in the woods.

Someone is holding his hand–a little girl of perhaps five or six with candy-pink hair in pigtail braids.  He can’t see her eyes.  She sings as they walk, a child’s nonsense rhyme, repeated over and over the way children do–except how would he know that?  The Blood God was never a child.

“Eeenie meenie minie mo, Catch a tiger by the toe If he hollers, let him go, Eenie meenie minie mo!”

Out of the corners of his eyes he almost thinks he can see eyes watching them, staring from the murky darkness that leads deeper into the woods.  Frowning, he draws his sword, but the eyes vanish as soon as he turns to look at them head-on.  The little girl giggles.

“They can’t see us, silly,” she says, smiling up at him, though her eyes are still hidden from him.  “They can’t see anything anymore.”

“Then they ought to stop staring, oughtn’t they,” he replies, feeling a half-smile rise to his own lips.  Why is he smiling at this child?  He doesn’t know her.

“They won’t,” she says with a theatrical sigh.  “That’s all they know how to do.  But they don’t matter.  They can’t see, so they can’t play.”

“Play?” Techno asks.  “Are we playing, then?”

“Not yet,” the little girl answers with another giggle.  “But we’re gonna be.  Look!”  She points up ahead, to where Techno can see a break in the trees, a clearing at the end of the path.

The little girl lets go of his hand to run ahead, and Techno jogs to catch up.  “You shouldn’t run in these woods,” he hears himself say.  “You shouldn’t wander off alone.”

(or the spider will get you)

“It’s okay,” she says.  “We’re here, see?”

At the center of the clearing is a perfect circle of rough gray stone.  An enchanter’s table stands in the  middle of the circle, its black volcanic glass surfaces graven with runes that seem to hover just above it, glowing faintly violet in the mellow mid-afternoon sunlight.  Men and women stand around the circle in a ring, perhaps fifteen or twenty in all.  Their faces are blank, their limbs slack, as though they were sleeping standing up–all but the one standing in the center.  This one is quite lively, the hood of his green cloak swept back, though Techno cannot see his face, hidden as it is behind a featureless white porcelain mask.

“There you are,” the figure says.  “I’ve been waiting all day!  We can’t start the game without you, you know?”

“You have to pick,” the little girl says at his side.  “Then they can play.”

“Pick?” Techno asks, confused.  

“The boogeyman!” the little girl exclaims, her voice full of childish excitement.

“The boogeyman,” Techno repeats, deadpan, his eyebrows raising nearly into his hairline.

“Yes,” says the masked man in the green cloak.  “This is your game, my old friend.  The one you know best.  Choose your champion, Technoblade.  Choose which one of them will be the first to receive the Blood God’s favor.  Then we can sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.”

CHOOSE, the voices clamor in agreement.

“Alright, then,” Techno assents, feeling the old red fever settle over him like a net.

He studies each of the motionless players in turn.  He sees the faces of gods he knows and mortals he doesn’t and a few who are neither fish nor fowl–he’s curious about these last, but it’s a remote sort of curiosity, and it doesn’t matter anyway.  What matters is the choosing, and the blood that will follow.

The Blood God extends his finger, pointing at each of the players as he chants the rhyme, with the masked man and the little girl and the voices chanting along with him.  

“Eenie, meenie, minie, mo, Catch a tiger by the toe, If he hollers, let him go, Eenie, meenie, minie, mo.”

[votederpycausemufins]

I finally know how this thing is going to end, but it might go over 30 chapters. Whoops! This chapter could also be longer, but I wanted a bit of a cliffhanger.

@petrichormeraki @helleborusangel

“That isn’t fair! I found him so you have to keep up your end of the deal!” Grifter yelled at Death, but he barely reacted.

“That wasn’t the agreement.”

“The agreement was I was supposed to find out what happened to Theseus, and I did that! He kidnapped the wels version of his admin and revived Nightmare and it backfired. He screwed up and you wanted to know how he was doing, so I brought him here so he wouldn’t fucking die without you around. So, now you know what happened, how he’s doing, and I kept him safe. That’s like, three times what you wanted. Now uncurse my husband or you won’t be death anymore.”

Death glared at Grifter. “I thought you said you weren’t after that.”

“I said I wasn’t going to try and kill you for your power because now I have Sense, but if you cursed him so I can’t easily be around him, that’s gone. If you’re not planning to reverse the curse, then I’m going to get something out of it.” Grifter smiled at then pulled out a crossbow. “Now, you’re going to uncurse Sense, or you won’t be around much longer.”

“You still need to finish your end of the bargain.”

Grifter froze, his brain trying to comprehend what had been said before he growled in anger. “We just fucking covered I already did and more! I don’t need to do anything more!”

“Part of it was making sure Theseus was safe. You haven’t done that. He may have moved to a new dimension, but he refuses to officially unlink himself from Nightmare’s world. Nightmare, in his hubris, has decided to try and claim his wels dimension world in his current revived state. I don’t think I need to tell you what will happen if he fails, and at this point, he will.”

“So I need to keep the bastards alive, sure. Is that all?” Grifter sneered, crossing his arms.

“Not quite.I would prefer Nightmare dead, but no one will take his title, so Theseus will just try again with no one stopping him.” Death explained. “Listeners are quite powerful on their own and can link worlds, so you wouldn’t lose Sense, but I’m sure your kids would love to meet their family.”

Grifter rolled his eyes. “Like they would want to meet Wile and Euro. They’re only still alive since you keep them from dying. They’re too cowardly to do anything right.” Death glared at Grifter, who scoffed. “Fine, whatever. I guess they might like Fleur and Sadie. At the very least trying setting it up for me while I’m gone. I’m gonna be busy backing up the wels world before I do anything.”

“I can agree to that.”

“Oh, and can you pause the curse while I deal with Nightmare? It might be the only chance for us to do something so fun and I don’t want to miss out on that opportunity.”

Death glared before answering. “If you stop on your job, it’ll kill him, but sure, I can do that.”

“That’s great!” Grifter smiled, bouncing a little. “I’ll just make a little stop and then I’ll start! See you soon enough!” He started to walk off, but then paused to turn back to death slightly. “Oh, and remember to warn Euro. We don’t want him exploding again!”

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The moment Grian was in the SMP, he started using his Watcher magic to look around. At the very least, it didn’t look like Grifter was around. It should have been obvious with his name not on the comms list, but if he had messed with the list before, he could have done it again. Fortunately that wasn’t the case.

Next he did what he could to find Grum, which was pretty easy. Grian already had a bit of tracking for Grum on his comm, and while before it wouldn’t have been enough to really help in another world, the fact that he could also track Watcher energy made it work. He was a little concerned that it felt weak, but he hadn’t really noticed it in the past, so likely Grum didn’t have much in the first place.

Either way, he knew where Grum was now, so he started flying that way. Grian wasn’t sure exactly what he would find there, so he got his sword ready for the worst case scenario. When he landed at the quartz mansion, he tried to be as quiet as possible. Peeking through a window, he couldn’t see anyone around, which was concerning. At least the demon should have still been there. This was his home, wasn’t it?

“Hey, what are we doing at the window?” someone spoke as they stood behind Grian, making the avian’s wings puff up before he whirled around and pointed the sword at. 

“Wil? Is that you?”

“Hi Xel! I haven’t seen you in ages. Though other than Phil and Techno, I haven’t really seen anyone for a while. I was sort of trapped in Te-” Wilbur started rambling before Grian clamped a hand over his mouth.

“I don’t need to hear all of that. Where is everyone?” Grian asked before slowly pulling his hand away.

“Right! Well Dream showed up again, though he’s a bit different. Dad went after him along with the others and they haven’t shown back up yet. Well, I mean, Tommy and Techno are still here.”

Grian looked at the building. “Techno’s here?! But Grum’s supposed to be here!”

“You mean the robot kid? He’s okay. I’ve barely seen him, even as a ghost.”

Grian didn’t bother to keep listening, moving into the house. Techno was supposed to be a great fighter, so the only upperhand Grian might get is taking him by surprise, which was pretty much all he had the last two times. But those two times might have been enough for the warrior to get his tells. That would make it risky and-

“I’m not his unc- did you just take a picture.”

“Yeah, say that again when I don’t have this photo.”

“Delete it before I make you delete it.”

“Whoops, too late. I already sent it to Tubbo! Maybe now you’ll be able to watch Michael.”

“Why would I want that?”

“Cause he’s a piglin too? And not like it’ll ruin your image now Technosoft.”

“Tommy…”

“Ah ah ah, you might wake Grum up!”

Grian slowly opened the door to find Tommy awake and chilling on his bed, just messing around with his comm. Techno was standing nearby with Grum asleep in his arms, plugged into the charger. Grian wanted to rush in, but his first thought was that if he did anything, it would be easy for Techno to do something to Grum.

“You think I would care about that?” Techno asked after rolling his eyes.

“Bitch, this kid might affectionately beat the anarchy out of you. You’re gonna be the favorite uncle whether you like it or not.”

Techno grumbled, but didn’t actively try to refute it, especially when Grum stirred slightly, snuggling up closer to the piglin. It made Grian hesitate. They had gone through a lot these past few days. And for Grum it had been around a month. While he wasn’t a fan of Grum being near Techno right now, he didn’t really want to disturb him while he looked so peaceful.

Tommy and Techno both looked up when Grian lightly knocked on the door. “Hey Tommy. How’d you get here before me?”

“Heeey Big G. Pretty sure Grum fixed whatever was wrong with me and that brought me here. He did the same for Wilbur and he’s outside.”

“He acts a bit more like Ghostbur did if you ask me.” Techno huffed, adjusting Grum in his arms.

Grian shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. I haven’t seen him in ages. Did see him outside though.” He then sighed and looked to Techno. “You haven’t done anything to Grum, have you?”

Techno managed not to flinch when the eyes glaring at him glinted a dangerous purple color. “Of course not. I even helped him out earlier.” He answered, kicking Tommy when he whispered another ‘Technosoft’ at that. 

Grum whined a little when the piglin moved, and Grian took that as an opportunity to take Grum into his own arms. The bot stirred a little, but still stayed asleep, making Grian furrow his brows. “He’s asleep…”

“Yeah, and?” Techno asked, crossing his arms. He didn’t know what was so surprising about that, but next to him, Tommy did.

“Grum doesn’t sleep. Neither of the boys do. I mean not really. They have a sleep mode, but that’s not really like actual sleeping.” Grian explained. “Here… let me test something.” He checked Grum’s power reading before unplugging the bot. They all waited a few minutes in silence before Grian checked again, eyes widening. “He’s charging himself.”

“What the fuck?! Really?!” Tommy shouted, though not loud enough to wake Grum. “How did that happen?!”

Grian shrugged, almost at a loss for words. “I… I don’t know. I didn’t think something like this was possible. I mean… I’ll look into it more later… but now really isn’t the best time.”

“You know, I wonder if it’s got something to do with their hels versions. When I was still stuck over there with Grifter, he said their versions of the bots weren’t built.”

“How does-” “Fundy.” “Right, nevermind.” Techno huffed, finally pulling a chair over and sitting down. “Well I have no clue how that place works, so for all we know, that’s what did it.”

Grian shook his head. “No, I doubt it. Normally hels is affected by us, not the other way around. The Listeners developed after the Watchers, Helscraft has fewer seasons than us. Theseus wasn’t in Helscraft until a while after Tommy joined us.”

“Yeah, but they had their kids back when they were in their previous season.” Tommy piped up. “There was no way for them to make them after you build Grum and Jrum since Grifter was stuck in their season four. For all we know, it works both ways.” Grian rubbed his chin, thinking about it, but then he suddenly started looking around, wings flared out. 

“What’s wrong?” Techno piped up, but the most he got in terms of an answer was Grum being handed to him again. The bot stirred a bit more, actually waking up this time. Before anyone could say something more, the world shuddered and a wave of green light suddenly passed through them. “What was that?”

“World backup. Watchers will do that sometimes, but it’s never noticeable.” Grian quickly explained, drawing his weapon.

“Then why the fuck did we notice that?” Tommy asked, a bit concerned.

“Because.” Grian turned around, wings shifting colors. “Green magic is what Listeners use.”

The_Grifter joined the world

PerfectSense joined the world

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Grifter pulled Sense in close to him before sending out a ring of lit tnt that exploded around them. It was powerful enough it made the ground shake and rumble which just made the Listener smile more. “Oh Seesee! Look over there! A castle! Let’s go over there!”

“That sounds good to me.” Sense replied, picking Grifter up bridal style and walking towards Pride Palace. He had a little trouble getting through the newly formed rubble, but before long they were at the gates. Someone in a crown and sunglasses tried to approach them, but Sense quickly pulled out a death ray and shot them with it.

They reached the throne room and Sense set Grifter down. The Listener ran over to the throne and stood on it, a giant smile on his face. “I’m king of the castle! I’m king of the castle! Oh! Do you think there’s one just like this in the hels world?”

Sense chuckled. “Probably not exactly like this. And that’s if it isn’t rubble.”

Grifter pouted and fell down onto the throne to sit. “I guess that’s true. Well, when we leave I can throw some puzzle blocks together for this place to bring it over. Then we can make some improvements.”

“Why not start with them now?” Sense asked, shrugging with a little smile, which Grifter matched with his own grin. Sense tossed an axe to Grifter, who turned the pink metal more of a viridian. “Now, I suppose I’ll have to find someplace to sit.”

“While I would love to offer you a lovely seat up here, the throne will unfortunately have to do. I need to make sure Nightmare comes here.” And Grifter got up, summoning a communicator made entirely out of magic. “But I’m sure he won’t want to waste time, so you won’t need to wait too long.”

Sense moved to stand behind Grifter, putting his head on the Listener’s shoulder and looking at the comm. “Hmm, looks like Tommy’s here. He was the other version of Theseus, right?”

“Oh yes he was. I’m sure Nightmare would be much more convinced if we had him with us. He wouldn’t want Theseus dying by proxy, now would he? And it’s not like he knows I need bitch boy alive.”

“Have I ever told you how hot you are when you scheme like this?”

“Mmm, tell me again.” Grifter leaned back before a noise from his comm made him look back. “Hmm, seems we have a slight change of plans. Looks like Grian’s trying to interfere. Can you hold down the fort while I make a mess of things?”

“Of course. Have fun my darling.” Sense replied before letting Grifter go, the Listener using magic to quickly shift back to looking exactly like Grian, even changing the appearance of his wings. Sense held out a bucket filled with water and lined with soul sand which Grifter tossed an enderpearl into. The scientist put the bucket next to the throne before sitting down on it, watching as Grifter created an exit for himself and flew off.