#hels!wilbur

[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.”

[st4rry-fruitz]

cellbit is pure evil for that message to tallulah 😭😭😭

[hermitcraftkinfessions]

Thank you! I have several timelines, and actually want to have kids in this lifetime too. It feels really invalidating to be told I’m fetishizing myself or faking being trans just because I want biological kids and feel I could handle the dysphoria of pregnancy.

And yes, Caleb was a sweetheart. Picture a German shepherd hybrid, just ears and tail and sharper canines. But he had vitiligo/poliosis type patches of green on his skin and fur and hair. That’s what he looked like. Little menace got Doc’s brains and my lack of self control.

-Rendog

Fr, people are so weird for saying things like that to people who feel differently than what they think trans people should be, the image of Caleb is adorable though! Wish I coulda met him, sounds like a blast -Mod Hels

[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

[kingofdandelions]

Bad end friends but it's called Badtimes and is composed by:

Corrupted-Mayor Scar.

Demise Scar.

The Life series Scars (Or at least 3L and LL Scar).

Hels!Scar/BadtimeswithScar.

Watcher Scar from the winners liveblog.(which I just discovered from you. Btw)

Bad ending!Scar (from the bad ending Au in which Ren remains king and everything goes wrong).

Wilbur!Scar/ Revivedscar from Yesterday.

And Pestilence!Scar (horseman au)

Hm I've never heard a Pestilence!Scar, but he sounds real

Lmao we're going into the Badtimeswithscar multiverse and im loving it

And also Watcher Scar from @life-winners-liveblog is so cool

Everything a out @life-winners-liveblog is so cool

I love @life-winners-liveblog

[ctntduoarchive]

i keep accidentally almost calling you wilbur during our gay sex rps its VERY distressing - @sootburz

HEL;PPPPP ......... the demons

[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.

--

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.

--

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

--

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. 

--

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…

--

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.

--

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

--

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.

--

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.

--

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.

--

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 

--

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.

--

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!

--

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.

--

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."

--

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?

--

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.

--

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.)

--

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.

--

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.

--

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.

--

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.

--

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.

--

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!

[fryingpan1234567]

have some headcanons I have for Hermitcraft, the DSMP, and Minecraft content in general

Gen:

- Communicators come in three forms: something that looks like a Nintendo DS, a phone, or this screen-type thing that wraps around your forearm. It contains everything that isn't "in-game"- like settings, chat, inventory, all that stuff

- Elytras look like different kind of wings that adapt to the player that wears them. When you first find them in an End City, they're gray silk and two-piece. When a player equips them, they change to become a part of them until they take them off. For example- Grian's became feathery and colorful parrot wings- bird shaped and all. However, Tommy's- they're white with red edges, feathered as well, and there's four of them. Two bigger ones, and two smaller ones underneath those. Pearl's have two sets like Tommy's, only they're purple and dark gray moth wings. Tango and Impulse have dragon ones, as would Wilbur's, had he had them. They're all different

- The way building works is that you select a block out of your communicator/ inventory, and it's about the size of a miniblock- you can hold it with one hand. Once you toss it on the ground, it expands into a full-size block like we know and love

- Taking damage/ healing potions/ wounds are interesting, because depending on how you get hurt, it's different. Fall damage means a lot of pain- but no visible damage. If you got hit with a weapon, on the other hand, it leaves a cut or wound. You bandage it, and having "full hunger" means you'll heal faster. Only a potion fully erases the marks

- Each SMP/ server is its own planet. You can travel between them with your communicator, like teleportation, but not all of them are public. Some, like Hermitcraft and DreamSMP, you need an invitation to get into

- That being said, every Nether is connected. It's infinite. Every server just has a different part of it. The End, however- every SMP only gets one, unless they "reboot", like the Hermits do every season

- The DSMP and Hermitcraft are pretty well intertwined- Tommy and Grian are cousins, Charlie is Jevin's little bro, Zed and Puffy are siblings as well, Xisuma found Ranboo as a kid and sent him to the DSMP. Once- and only once- a year, the two servers meet for a party, alternating which server it's held in. They also send each other stuff for pride month, because they're all gay idiots who build (and blow up) pretty things 

Hermitcraft:

- Every few months, the Hermits "season over"- the migrate to a whole other sector of the planet and start over. There isn't really a reason, they just all get antsy whenever they stick to one place for too long

- Only some of them are human! For example, X is an entity- not from Earth, not the End or the Nether. He just sort of is. Humans of the server include Keralis, False, Joe, Iskall, Beef, xB, Hypno, and Wels. Everyone else is some sort of other species or hybrid.

- Continuation of the last one, here are our hybrids/ other species:

     - Impulse is a dragon hybrid

     - Zed is sheep🐑

     - Tango is a fire demon/ blaze, take your pick

     - Bdubs is a glare (look it up if you don't know they're awesome)

     - Rendog does not need a detective to figure out

     - Doc is a creeper hybrid

     - Scar and Cub are both vexes

     - Mumbo, along with Doc and Iskall, is a cyborg

     - Grian is birb

     - Pearl is a moth

     - Gem is a deer hybrid (and a trans one bc only males have antlers :DD)

     - Cleo... yeah

     - Stress, Gem, and technically Bdubs are nature nymphs

     - Etho is also a being. Not worldly. Not otherworldly. Just exists.

     - TFC is a stone golem hybrid!!

     - Jevin is Jevin honestly

- Hels is a direct mirror of Hermitcraft. It more resembles the Nether than the Overworld, but they do connect in the real Nether just like all the other servers, just closer. Helscraft is made up entirely of twins too- each Hermit has their respective twin living in Hels copying every build they make. Any Hermit or Helsmit could find their way around the others' territory without a problem because they're virtually the same

- It is very safe to say that every single Hermit needs their daily intake of coffee or there'll be hell to pay. Stress and Bdubs would be asleep on their scaffolding by hour two, Scar has been known to fall right out of the air while flying, Wels and Xisuma are on a literal rampage, Impulse is just. Dead. Lying dead on the floor. He does not get work done that day

DSMP:

- I've got more hybrid/ species hc's for ya (I can't give you all of them there's so many members TvT)

     - Dream is an axolotl hybrid. As much as I love SAD-ist's design, I like the thought of that absent smile literally just being his face, hiding all those sinister thoughts

     - Sapnap is a blaze, obviously

     - Tommy, Phil, and Quackity are all various bird hybrids

     - Tommy, Techno, Phil, Karl, Foolish, and Callahan are all immortals/ gods (and DreamXD and Mumza obviously but yk)

- Once upon a time, the lives system was actually pretty well-kept... but after Wilbur and Tommy, and Dream went apeshit with the revival book, plus all these new gods joining, things are a little bit more chaotic. Tommy's life system is completely broken, Wil's will always continue, just in different forms, Foolish is a totem and can't even die in the first place other than the Red Banquet (but that was part of a ritual)

- Tensions and PTSD run high. There are so many traumatized people and villains and parental figures, everyone ends up with some weird hobbies to cope-

     - Tommy ends up learning to sew and makes pride flags for everyone when they come out and during pride month, and he's made himself a sweater from Friend's wool. He also sewed the patches onto Wilbur's jacket

     - Tubbo learned how to care for bees and a garden

     - Quackity started his own country?? Good for him ig go off king

     - Ranboo got really into the sciences :DD

- Niki took Wil's jacket when he died to Phil

- Puffy is always a shoulder to cry on for literally everyone, even before she officially became a therapist

there are the hc’s!! I’ve started work on the DSMP x Hermitcraft >> Life servers thing for @barley-hopkins (:<

[wilburgersoot]

hi wilbur i dont know if ive ever met you properly, im tina :) -🥕

Oh! Hel - hello Tina.

It’s nice to meet you.

[Wilbur holds out his hand for a handshake that gets firmer as it goes on]

So uh, where do you fit in in all this?

[hermitcraftkinfessions]

People: it’s impossible to find Hermit/Traffic Kins or fictives.

Me: kins Ren, Grian, Scar, BDubs, Xisuma, Zedaph

One of my partners: kins Mumbo and Keralis

Another one of my partners: kins Scar

My partner system: contains Doc, Grian, Scar, Tango, Impulse, Gem, False, Stress, Cleo, Pearl, Etho, Iskall, Joel, Jimmy, Lizzie, Martyn, Scott, and Skizz

we (mod ex & the rest of what we dubbed the van) have mostly mcyt or mcyt adjacent fictkins, though it’s not just those lmao. we have: ex (me), ren, grian/ariana, zedaph, ranboo, voltz (voltz wars ranboo), wilbur (of the soot variety), crumb, Q, bdubs, kristin/mumza/lady death, gem, cleo, lizzie, mani (my source’s hels!grian/ariana), daniel/rt, zebalin (my source’s hels!zedaph), & technically dread though they’re more universe adjacent sort of this got way longer than i intended but here it is lmao -mod ex

[coffee-n-bagels-comic-universe]

Lucifarians: A Family Forged: Bios (1980): Venka Tupper / Ven Lucifarian

"Everybody talks about Pride before the fall. I'm just glad they have my name in their mouths."

Name

Full Legal Name: Venka America Tupper (Born: Leach. 1st Change: Todd)

First Name: Venka

Meaning: Means 'Victorious', from Esperanto 'Venki' 'To conquer', ultimately from Latin 'Vincere'.

Pronunciation: VEHN-ka

Origin: Esperanto

Middle Name: America

Meaning: In the English speaking world, this name is usually given in reference to the United States of America.

Pronunciation: a-MEHR-i-ka

Origin: English

Surname: Tupper (Born: Leach. 1st Change: Todd)

Meaning: Tupper: Occupational name for a herdsman, derived from Middle English 'Toupe' 'Ram'. Leach: Originally indicated a person who was a physician, from the medieval practice of using leeches to bleed people of ills. Todd: Means 'Fox', derived from Middle English 'Todde'.

Pronunciation: TUP-er. LEECH. TAWD.

Origin: English. English. English

Ring Name: Ven Lucifarian, Pride

Commentary Nicknames: The Prodigal Daughter

Nicknames: Ven, Meri

Titles: Miss

Characteristics

Age: 32

Gender: Female. She/Her Pronouns

Nationality: English

Ethnicity: White

Birth Date: August 5th 1948

Sexuality: Straight

Religion: Christian

Native Language: English

Known Languages: English, Spanish, French, Latin, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian, Norwegian

Relationship Status: Single

Astrological Sign: Leo

Entrance Music: 'You're So Vain' - Carly Simon (1972-), No Music Prior To 1972

Voice Claim: Helena Bonham-Carter

Geographical Characteristics

Birthplace: London, England, UK

Current Location: Unknown

Hometown: London, England, UK

Appearance

Height: 5'6" / 167 cm

Weight: 150 lbs / 68 kg

Eye Colour: Light Brown

Hair Colour: Golden Brown

Hair Dye: 2 Front Strands Dyed Purple

Body Hair: N/A

Facial Hair: N/A

Tattoos: (As of Jan 1980) 10

Piercings: Ear Lobe (Both)

Scars: None

Health and Fitness

Allergies: None

Alcoholic, Smoker, Drug User: Social Drinker, Smoker

Illnesses/Disorders: None Diagnosed

Medications: None

Any Specific Diet: Vegetarian (But will eat meat if she has to.)

Relationships

Allies: Freddie Blassie, Lou Albano, Skull Lucifarian, Bel Lucifarian, Pat Lucifarian, Cas Lucifarian, Hel Lucifarian, Eve Lucifarian, Syd Lucifarian

Enemies: Moolah, Wendi Richter, Lord Alfred Hayes, Mr Fuji, Dynamite Kid, George Steele

Closest Confidant: Norma Tupper

Mentor: Driskoll Leach

Significant Other: None

Previous Partners: None of Note

Parents: Driskoll Leach (64, Father), Regina Leach (40, Step-Mother, Née Wolf), Wesley Tupper (65, Step-Father), Norma Tupper (60, Mother, Née Todd)

Parents-In-Law: None

Siblings: Martha Colt )43, Half-Sister, Née Wilbur), Gareth Wilbur (40, Half-Brother), Madonna Bullock (37, Half-Sister, Née Wilbur), Frederick Tupper (35, Brother), Eric Tupper (29, Brother), Freya Bull (26, Sister, Née Tupper), Edric Tupper (23, Brother), Donna Buckley (20, Sister, Née Tupper), Earl Swift (18, Half-Brother), Candace Swift (15, Half-Sister), Duke Leach (13, Half-Brother), Sigmund Todd (41, Half-Brother), Eunice Doctor (38, Half-Sister, Née Todd), Prosper Tupper (17, Half-Brother), Edith Tupper (14, Half-Sister), Nicholas Tupper (11, Half-Brother), Cassandra Tupper (8, Half-Sister), Theobald Tupper (5, Half-Brother)

Siblings-In-Law: Donald Colt (42, Martha's Husband), Sophia Wilbur (39, Gareth's Wife, Née Brock), Cyrus Bullock (36, Madonna's Husband), Reign Tupper (34, Frederick's Wife, Née Bird), Kinsley Tupper (28, Eric's Wife, Née Beverley), Cyril Bull (25, Freya's Husband), Judith Tupper (22, Edric's Wife, Née Best), Basil Buckley (19, Donna's Husband), Berenice Todd (40, Sigmund' Wife, Née Norris), Leopold Doctor (37, Eunice's Husband)

Nieces & Nephews: Diana Barlow (22, Niece, Née Colt), Arthur Barlow (21, Diana's Husband), Peter Colt (19, Nephew), Blanche Colt (16, Niece), Oscar Colt (13, Nephew), Rhoda Wilbur (19, Niece), Gabriel Wilbur (16, Nephew), Pearl Wilbur (13, Niece), Fitzroy Wilbur (10, Nephew), Oro Wilbur (7, Niece), Ferdinand Bullock (16, Nephew), Olive Bullock (13, Niece), Clarence Bullock (10, Nephew), Misty Tupper (14, Niece), Casimir Tupper (11, Nephew), Melissa Tupper (8, Niece), Albert Tupper (5, Nephew), Katherine Tupper (8, Niece), Winfred Bull (5, Nephew), Iris Bull (2, Niece), William Tupper (2, Nephew), Emmeline Reeve (20, Niece, Née Todd), Gerard Reeve (19, Emmeline's Husband), Conrad Todd (17, Nephew), Brava Todd (14, Niece), Bernard Todd (11, Nephew), Indigo Todd (8, Niece), Archibald Todd (5, Nephew), India Doctor (17, Niece), Chad Doctor (14, Nephew), Millicent Doctor (11, Niece), Neil Doctor (8, Nephew)

Children: None

Children-In-Law: None

Grandkids: None

Wrestling

Billed From: Hellview

Trainer: Skull Lucifarian

Managers: Skull Lucifarian

Wrestlers Managed: None

Debut: 1966 (WWF Debut: 1980)

Retired: N/A

Wrestling Style: Trickster

Stables: Daughters of Darkness (1966-)

Teams:

Father’s Pride (Skull & Ven)

The Vixens (Ven & Bel)

Dynasty (Ven & Pat)

Cherry Bombs (Ven & Cas)

Lavender’s Blue (Ven & Hel)

The Killer Barbies (Ven & Eve)

Violet Offenders (Ven & Syd)

Regular Moves: Over The Shoulder Arm Drag, Forearm Smash, Leg Sweep, Chokehold STO, Keylock, Diving Somersault Evasion, Beheader (Neck Wrench), Lineage Ender (Standing Moonsault Double Knee Drop), Lion's Den (Crucifix Pin), Family Pride (Leg Trap Sunset Flip Power Bomb)

Finishers: Wish For This (Shooting Star Knee Drop), Flowing DDT, DDT

Refers To Fans As: The Prideful, The Prideful Ones

Heel or Face: (As of Jan 1980) Heel

[kingofdandelions]

The other Scars are added on later.

The canon life series Scars are pretty easy to imagine so...

Wilbur Scar is a funny idea but it's just Revivedbur and normal Scar in a trenchcoat.

BadtimeswithScar is pretty nebulous as most non-canon Hels are, he can be imagined in so many ways.

Pestilence Scar would be very outside the group only really speaking with Watcher Scar as he is a literal embodyiment of pestilence and all that and mortals wouldn't understand him

Dude this is such a cool fuckings concept I love you for exististing and telling me this

[tobysbliss]

i can imaginr charlie chasin tommy around and tommys just screaming like he does and he runs into someone and cowers behind them like "HELPBELP HEL PEHLP" -tsb

He’ll go to ranboo or wilbur “HELP PLEASE HE’S GONNA KILL ME-“ cause who wants to admit theyre being chased by someone trying to tickle them?

[chaya1117]

Everworld Series (4/12) By K.A. Applegate

Realm of the Reaper

Another book another POV. This one is from Jalil. You finally get to understand the relationship, if that's what you want to call it, between him and Senna.

Jalil has an interesting little issue. In the real world, he's got OCD, like bad. He can't handle dirt at all, but for some odd reason he has no issue what-so-ever in Everworld. Weird. But 

"W.T.E Welcome to Everworld".  

It doesn't surprise me. Neither does the talking pig. Or maybe warthog is a better name for it cuz when I think of pig I think of like Wilbur or Hen Wen. They take a swim, find another town. They get into the town just fine. But they aren't getting out easily. 

This lovely little town is controlled by Hel. Loki's daughter. And she is bat shit crazy. She's also this half-dead, half-alive being that really just gave my imagination the creeps. They end up in a pit, and at of the end of the path what do they find.... you got it a pot of gold... still no Lucky Charms Leprechaun,  just a pissed off dragon that sends them on a quest to get his shit back. From who you wonder? The fairies, the fae, the lurachmain. Yep, Leprechauns. we found Christopher's leprechauns finally.

 Oh did I mention they find Senna again? Well they do.

This is where the book ends.

[eyewyrm]

CONSIDER

. Wilbur is Grian's helsmit. Think about it, Wilbur's skin comes from Grian's skin but recoloured. COnceptually hels are like evil recolours but they fail at being actually evil.. Grian's hels was born the moment he joined hermitcraft as all hels do AND SO, it all lines up, Grian joined hermitcraft in season 6 2018 AND wlibur only started his channel in 2019, it LINES UP,, Wilbur must of escaped from hels to join dsmp or something. its all connected... everything is connected..

[votederpycausemufins]

Chapter of SF2 and a slight tribute

I was nearly done with my chapter when the news hit. In my years of playing minecraft, and following it and the content creators online, I never really knew of Technoblade. I started with some of the og youtubers, into Mindcrack and related series, then finding Hermitcraft. When the datapack came out for getting a random item every minute or so, I wanted to see various people using it because of adhd brain hyperfocusing. That was when I found Wilbur. A little after was SMP Earth and because of my recent interest in Wilbur, I saw some sort of video or stream or something about it, and looked into it more. And that was the first time I knew of Technoblade. I didn’t really keep up with it much because my hyper focus doesn’t do streams well, but I knew of Technoblade. After that, it was the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon. I saw some of his videos get recommended, heard other people talk about him, saw he was in MCM, and other stuff. I didn’t really watch much of it, just was aware.

At one point, a friend of mine invited me to a discord group, and from there a small private minecraft server. This was around the time the DSMP had been going for a few months, I think around the time of Tommy’s exile, I want to say. The friend who invited me to the server was really into it, but I was still in my happy Hermitcraft bubble, and again, I don’t do watching streams all too well and that’s what the DSMP was, lots of streams. But I got a summary of some things and then was recommended a small fic on tumblr by PetrichorMeraki. After reading a bit, I had my own idea for a short fic, and I did a bit of research before writing a short fic of Tommy having been living in Hermitcraft going to MCC.

I wrote a few more short fics before starting War on Hermittown. I blazed through that thing, writing I believe 25 chapters in 19 days. I wrote fast of course, but I also did research. It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough to learn of Technoblade’s character, and really learning about him and not just knowing the name itself. Of course then I looked back at other stuff like SMP Earth and a few other things because of Strawberrylemonz’s fic, having Grian related to SBI. 

Eventually MCC Pride 2021 happened, and for the first time I really watched something of Techno’s. Mainly because of Grian, but still. At the time I didn’t really try looking at other videos because I was dealing with a lot, but it was the big first time I saw/watched Techno and not just his character. And I can see why so many people watched him and found community in his videos.

So when the news hit, I still cried at the video, I still wanted it to be a joke or something. I’m sure if it were a joke, people would be upset for the fakeout, but I still think it would still be nice because then it wasn’t real. And I’m someone who barely watched his videos and only knew him through clips and characters and the like. I’m sure for so many people who were more directly part of his content and community, it hit harder.

I will admit, some of this story later on was going to touch on death in terms of how it works in the MC universe. I was planning to have an offhanded conversation about it in a later chapter. It was still going to involve the group going through the nightmare scenarios, though I wasn’t sure who exactly would talk about it other than Phil being the one to explain. Then the news hit.

A scene I had half planned for a while suddenly seemed much more pertinent in a sense. I’m not sure how everyone will react, but I felt it was good for some sort of tribute, especially when Techno himself was thinking about memeing his own death. Technoblade as a person may be gone physically, but as people have said, he never dies in our hearts or our souls. And there’s the fact that he wasn’t just a person, but also played a character or two, and us writers love to write au’s where a character didn’t actually die.

“You’re very pretty. Yes, a very pretty chicken. So can you please get the tree for me?” The chicken didn’t answer, instead just pecking at the ground. “Pleaaaaase? It would really help me, and I’m helping out your boss.”

The chicken looked up at the person who was asking them the question. They had a smile on their face as they looked expectantly. When the chicken kept staring, the person tilted their head to the side, letting their ears flop over which caught the bird’s eyes. The person blinked and suddenly the chicken had attached itself to one of their ears, biting down onto it with its beak. “Oww! That’s not nice! Why do you always do this? You don’t even do it to actual rabbits!”

The person finally pried the chicken from their ear when both of them looked up at the sound of a twig snapping. “Hello? Who’s there?”

“You answer first.” And both the person and the chicken found themselves looking at a half dark teal and half pink person.

“Oh! I guess that makes sense! I’m-” And then the chicken clucked and grabbed onto their ear again. “Ow! I said no biting!!! Let go!”

“Oh… Aven. Finally left the castle?”

“Hmm? Castle? Oh! Yeah I was asked to come here and I was supposed to be doing something. But I can’t remember exactly what- Oh yeah! I need to find… Spore! Yeah that was the name they gave. I just got a little distracted with… With Grifter… Uh, anyway! I’m having trouble with the trees, could you maybe help?”

Silski huffed. “Ghosts… typical. Sure, Toob’s parents are visiting and they’re not the biggest fans of me. Was just going to wander around, but at least this gives me something to do.” A sudden thank you had the hybrid jumping before sending out a stream of curses. “Well if you really want to thank me, stay in one fucking place.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I can’t see what’s not really there!” And Silski waved an arm around, it passing through the ghost a few times in its blind movements. “No matter means no sound interaction. No sound interaction means I rely on my nose and you don’t have a smell either. See, if I were a full blown Warden hybrid, then I could. Could even freak Sense out.”

“What do you mean?” 

“He’s some ‘ender hybrid’. Smells like death to me. He doesn’t seem to like me either.”

“Oh, him?” The ghost replied, patting the chicken again. “Well that’s why I’m hoping to talk with Spore, see, my boss is not happy with him since he’s going to have one of those complicated deaths. I mean, that’s half the reason he’s still around. Well, that and the magic that keeps being used on him.”

“Grifter no do- wait, dead? Like, dead dead? No respawning?”

“Yeah? He uses redstone a lot, right? I’ve seen a lot of people get reaped for that. Wait if he’s not the reaper does it still get called that…?”

“Uh… not sure what you mean, but thank you for the tip.” Silski smiled. “Here’s your wood or whatever. I’ve got to go mining for a ‘peace offering’.”

“Oh! Okay!” and the ghost waved before trying to pick up the logs. “Hmm… I didn’t think that through.”

But then the chicken picked up the wood and clucked at the ghost, making them smile. “Right! First to find Spore, then, Gree-on!” and they started off on their own path, rabbit ears bouncing as they went along.

.

.

.

“Alright, I know it’s sort of obvious that this is for Doc based on the fact he’s not here.” Phil spoke up, making the two hermits and Paul look around to see that was the case. “But you didn’t notice that before knowing that was the case. What’s going on?”

“The vines make it a bit obvious.” Mumbo answered for him and Xisuma. “We know enough about them. Not sure why he knows though.”

Paul started his answer by gesturing to the area around them. “While yeah, the vines are a big clue, the buildings are more so. That one over there is The Elusive Chicken, Beef’s bar and inn, and then that is Adlingtont’s church. It’s the Mindcrack world Doc and I were first in. The vines everywhere just make it more obvious it’s Doc.”

“Because of The Jungle.” Xisuma nodded, and then Paul agreed. 

“Yeah, because of the jungle.”

While the others got ready to start moving, Grum just tilted his head. “Wait what?”

“Well you weren’t built when-” Mumbo started to explain, but Grum shook his head.

“No, they said different things.” And he pointed at Xisuma and Paul.

“We both said the jungle.” Paul said, a little confused.

“No no no. You said ‘thuh’ and Xisuma said ‘thee’. Maybe it could just be standard inflection, but Xisuma normally says ‘thuh’ too, and the only reason for differently is if he’s using it as a more proper noun version!”

“Did you understand any of that?” Phil asked, looking at Techno, who shrugged. He actually did, but also wasn’t going to interrupt Grum and the others any further. 

“If we’re thinking about two different jungles, things might turn into a mess from getting our wires crossed. We’ve already been here too long dealing with all of us.” And he gestured to the group. “Well, most of us.”

“I’m not fully convinced the previous one wasn’t also about me.” Xisuma commented, trying not to give a reaction as his brother scoffed.

“And we’re not going to have to deal with me. This is all about fear, and fear is just an involuntary psychological reflex that clouds your better judgment.”

“You’re ignoring the ‘involuntary’ part of whatever phrase you’re quoting.” Paul spoke up. “We’re trying to get into a world that already had admin protection, and now you’ve got a magic user as admin. And it sounds like they’re pretty experienced. They’ll find something on you.”

“I already know what I’m going to see.” Wilbur spoke up, surprising everyone to look over to him. He had been quiet for a while, obviously still recovering from shifting back and forth from the exile replication and where the group had been. It had stopped once Xisuma had arrived on the island, but even with the time, it had still been taking a toll. “Having to wait for it isn’t helping. I guess you’re different.”

Xannes just stared at Wilbur for a few moments before turning back to Paul. “Fine, two different jungles. Which are you talking about?”

“Doc’s jungle. He set up his base in a jungle, made a treehouse to live in. I think he got out all the woodpeckers Bdubs left there. What about the one you guys are talking about?”

“The NHO jungle.” Mumbo spoke up. “Just called The Jungle now because talking about the NHO connected to it is… a sore subject. Doc, Etho, Beef and Bdubs started up the group and claimed a jungle as well as a nearby mesa. They wanted to go back to the more classic ways, like no fishing farms or messing with reality. I mean, they did it anyway here and there. They acted as sort of villains of the server as a joke. Tried framing an opposing group for plastering banners all over my base. Stuff like that.”

“Alright, so what happened?” Paul asked, Phil, Techno and Wilbur also looking curious from being unfamiliar with it. Tommy was also interested, only knowing bits and pieces from other hermits, Grum being in the same boat.

“First thing that happened was vines growing on Bdubs. We thought he was just putting them on himself as camouflage or something, but Doc later told us they were just growing. After that, Etho had been seen working on a redstone project before disappearing. His disappearance led to a conflict about the mesa which nearly boiled over before thankfully calming and things started to get peaceful, but then the rest of them started disappearing. Bdubs seemed really off before he disappeared, followed by Doc. Beef was around the longest before he also disappeared.”

“Obviously they came back. I saw all of them other than Beef when I showed up for the party.” Paul commented before Xisuma picked up the conversation.

“They all reappeared for a competition called Hardcore Hermits. Because of how it was set up, all I knew was they did show up, and then eliminated night three due to phantoms. Bdubs and Doc showed back up when season 6 began, brought from worlds they found themselves in afterwards, but a large amount of their memories surrounding the jungle were… fuzzy to say the least. I wasn’t able to do anything to help them regain their memories, but was able to verify that it really was them.”

“And that’s all?”

“Well, any talks about it leaves them feeling a bit off again.” Mumbo spoke up again. “Bdubs most of all. Doc normally tries to brush it off and act like he’s fine, but with all this…?” And Mumbo gestured to everything around them as he trailed off.

“Alright, so Doc has trauma from a cursed jungle that he set up in with people he knew from a place where he was also in a jungle, did I get that about right?” Phil asked, getting a few nods. “So which way is the jungle here?”

Paul gestured in a direction and started to lead them down the paths, quickly getting them to a portal. Even with the situation, the group was still about to take a moment to admire the nether hub. Resources back in the early days of Mindcrack weren’t the most plentiful, that was well known, but the mix of sandstone and nether brick was pulled off well, even with the various colors marking the different rail lines breaking up patterns. 

He led them over to a rail line marked with purple wool. A sign listed it as going towards Doc’s base as well as Joe. They scavenged a bit for minecarts as well as Paul grabbing an extra one, a furnace, and some coal. Sure, the rail was powered so they didn’t need to use it to get them going, but it would make sure they were all going at the same time so nothing unexpected could split them up. The only exception was Paul. He knew the rails best, so he would be able to spot and issue, and if he needed an extra few seconds to fix it before the other carts got there, it would help with that.

Once the carts started going, Paul explained just how long the trip was going to take. There were a few complaints, mainly from those used to flight in some form. But after that settled down, conversation started up, being the only good way to bide the time until something interesting happened.

.

.

.

Vee was at a table, kicking her legs, not really paying attention to the reason she was currently at said table, that being the conglomerate of hermits also in the room and around the table. The only ones not at the table with the rest of them were Scar, Cub and Hoodie. All three of them were carefully working together to constantly cast an illusion based spell.

Vee had showed up a few days ago at this point, and while the hermits wanted to interrogate them earlier, the incident at Mumbo’s base with them and Rendog had caused issues. The human passing and shifters of the group were able to be around her easily enough, but not everyone had that luxury. So Hoodie had brought up an illusion spell from one of his books. He wasn’t sure if he could keep the spell up for as long as it was needed based on the exact circumstances - a large group of people that would always be shifting around no matter how still they may try to stay - but if other magic users helped, between any number of them they would be able to keep it constant.

After what happened with Grian, while Grifter was involved, the hermits still came to the conclusion that at the very least something happened from the mixing and colliding magics. Not wanting to risk a new side effect, the Convex pair and Hoodie made sure to practice privately. While that occurred, the only hermits worked on discussing how they would go about questioning Vee. Though she was a Listener and had already mentioned a more direct connection to Grifter, she was still obviously a child. In the end, they decided that for the most part, only one hermit should ask a majority of the questions to keep from overloading her as well as keep from talking over each other. After that it was deciding who. Since they were going to be moving more and that was the issue with the illusion, it was narrowed to non hybrids, and then further narrowed by who were emergency admin.

In the end, Joe was picked for following the prior guidelines as well as his generally softer voice as well as having some more recent experience with kids through his daughter. Well, that and he was the oldest person there, being a sort of immortal being and having the most experience, but it was mostly the other stuff. So when it was all set up, he was sitting closest to the head of the table where Vee was, Jrum sitting in the other closest seat across from him, mostly at Vee’s insistence.

“Howdy there. I’m Joe Hills. Hope this isn’t too overwhelming for ya.”

Vee shook her head before adjusting some headphones she was wearing. Joe had a little knowledge of Listeners, a little less than Watchers, but it was enough to know that they had ear coverings to mirror the masks Watchers wore. They, however, were not what Vee was wearing. Instead the item looked worn, yet well taken care of. Obviously an important item to the girl, which meant a way for Joe to ease into the conversation. “Those headphones helpin’ out?”

“Hmm? Oh, uh, yeah. My papa gave them to me. He thought they were good at blocking stuff out if things got too… bleh.” And she waved her hands around to represent ‘sensory overload’ clear enough for Joe. “So he got some for me because it could help it for me too! And then he also got some for my sister, but she doesn’t use them as much.”

Another opening for Joe. “Yeah, I heard she helped out when you had a run in with a scary animal earlier.” He could tell there was a little wince from Ren, but he could also tell he knew Joe didn’t mean it like that.

“Yeah! Astrid’s the best! I was really really really happy when Papa adopted her so then I had a bigger sister and she didn’t like me at first because I think she still was angry at her brother but Papa was really nice and even offered to adopt Flora too but Flora likes her family so that was a no. Oh yeah, Flora is Astrid’s girlfriend! I don’t get to see her much, well I only got to see her once, but she’s really really nice. And now Astrid’s visiting her for our break because it’s been a year since dad started helping us as listen things and I know Astrid really really really wants a break because she was stuck doing double the work and then it all went bleh because Grifter didn’t know what she was doing and messed it all up.”

The last part collectively caught everyone’s attention, all three magic users needing to work to keep everyone disguised as they all seemed to sit up a bit more in their seats. “So you know Grifter as well? What exactly did he do?”

“Yeah he’s kinda sort of my uncle, but that’s ‘cause he’s friends with my papa.” A few small winces occurred from the hermits, but that was already something a number of them knew from Jrum. “But also since he’s Flora’s uncle.” And that part got more reactions out of people, half from the news of the greater connection in general, and half running through Grian’s family tree to figure out whose hels Flora was. “Well Astrid’s brother-” Another bout of people trying to figure out who Astrid and her brother were. “-was really mean and hurt Flora and her family, so Astrid was gonna use magic to fix it, but because she was only just learning it, she had to use an older weaker spell to fix it, but she didn’t get to finish it in time when Grifter did his version and so Astrid couldn’t finish the spell and it kinda backfired.”

“Olortun.” Hoodie spoke up, having everyone look at him. “Old spell, famous for a tale it was told in. It can take months or even years to cast due to the physicality of the spell and number of recipients. Caster needs to take a vow of silence and if the spell is left incomplete, it backfires and curses the caster with the ailment they were attempting to cure.”

Someone was about to scold Hoodie for speaking out of turn, but Vee didn’t seem bothered and took control of the conversation again. “Yeah but I don’t know if she’s still doin’ the spell or not because the thing she was trying to get rid of was the fact that the bad thing was Flora and her family couldn’t talk or anything.”

Hoodie nodded, not talking this time, which allowed Joe to get them back on topic. “But you said Grifter messed with that?”

“Oh, well he really likes Flora because she’s his niece and he likes to spoil her a little bit so when he became admin of her server super recently, he fixed it. Of course that meant Astrid couldn’t complete the spell, so she’s staying quiet… but we work through it!”

“I see. So Grifter is the admin of… Flora’s server?”

“Yeah, but I mean it’s also kinda Astrid’s server. I mean, Papa made it so now she belongs to the world he’s in when not doing listen things, but she still thinks of it as hers since she grew up there and everything. Which I think is stupid because then that could make mom’s world my world and I never want to go there again. Never ever ever ever.”

“Right, so I’m guessing that both of them are with him right now?”

“I mean maybe? But I thought he was supposed to be here.” And that caught the attention of the hermits again.

“Oh? And now why’s that?” Joe asked, words potentially rushing out a little bit to keep the other hermits from speaking first, and while it stopped them, Vee could tell something was up and fidgeted in her seat a bit before replying.

“W-well, there was the mistake with Grian getting all magicked to forgetting stuff, and it was enough that none of you were helping and he wasn’t believing you, but Grifter was visiting and since he’s sorta like him but not, he was believing better and then Papa helped get paper proof and Grifter’s been using it.” Then Vee hesitated, looking around at the group who didn’t look happy with the answer. “R-right?”

“That’s… not exactly the case.”

“Okay well I know Papa said you wanted him to come, but no one but me ‘n Grifter can get in since he was here in the first place and I’m still considered in training, so then it’s not the only reason for him being the one helping?” Vee said, though in the end it was more of a question than a statement.

“No. While the magic part’s all correct, and potentially no one being able to get in since I’m sure someone else would have intervened at this point if that weren’t the case, Grifter took Grian away after the magic incident and hasn’t been back.”

“But… But Grifter said he was helping. H-He did…”

“Now I’m sure he did, but he might have been lying.”

“But why would he do that?”

“Because he’s a piece of shit.” Jrum was the one to speak up, though he was quickly scolded by a few hermits. Still, it didn’t end well with Vee reaching her emotional breaking point from the statement and starting to cry, now overwhelmed. Joe kept the others back as he moved closer to Vee, also moving back a few seconds later once he confirmed she needed space and not someone by her side.

Once Vee had calmed enough that someone could get close again, Stress carefully picked her up and left, her magic still being available for assistance to help the two of them get around with the others keeping up the illusion until Vee was completely out of sight just to be safe. After that, Scar followed after Stress, leaving the rest of them to converse about everything they learned. The main points being that first Grian was almost definitely affected by the magic collision, which made Jrum’s suggestion of needing Vee to figure out a counter spell more likely. 

Second was that he was in the hels version of Tommy’s old server since most of Grian’s family was from there. Pairing with that was that this Astrid person also seemed to be in that server with Grifter and also a Listener, which no one was sure if it were good or bad. The assumption was bad since Vee and her dad were still in the dark. Plus according to Jrum, either Grifter or Grian had been on Vee’s call to Astrid and Flora, so either way, there was some association there.

While in the long run, there wasn't much new information, what was new was a big help. So if there wasn’t much progress on the other team’s front, the rest of the hermits at least had a leg to stand on.

.

.

.

Grian couldn’t immediately find Sally when he returned to his room in the castle. He searched for a while before Grifter showed up with Flora. He had given her the rundown on Toob’s parents being there and apologizing for them busting into the room, which Flora was glad to hear. Now, Grifter was looking to teach Grian more in terms of magic.

Since he couldn’t find Sally, Grian was initially hesitant, but after telling Flora the issue, she agreed to continue searching for Grian until he returned.

Training didn’t last too long, Grian having issues with using magic and just not having the stamina for it yet. There was one instance he managed to get his magic past the blue color he saw Astrid using most of the time and into the same viridian color Grifter sported. It left him feeling especially sapped of energy afterwards, but it was still a nice feeling to have done it.

Upon returning, Grian was fine with collapsing into bed and maybe giving Sally some cuddling in the process, but it looked like Flora hadn’t found her yet either. And while Flora had messaged Astrid, she was still apparently with her dad and couldn’t come back to help look.

With just the two of them, Grian and Flora went looking for Sally. Since it has been so long since they had last seen her, Grian was a bit worried. If she had escaped on her own, the area she could have gotten to grew every second they couldn’t find her. But then there was the possibility someone stole her, which wasn’t completely out of the question after their kidnapping of Jane. Plus it could have been someone other than Toob and Silski. Maybe Wassa was upset they hadn’t returned with the information yet, though he thought Flora said she sent it to him with a message.

After combing through the castle a second time with Flora, they somehow managed to get some important information out of Aven, who claimed he saw the chicken with another ghost. Flora said there were no other ghosts on the server, but Aven also had a horrible memory, so it could have been someone in pale clothes or something. At the very least it told them that someone had Sally and she wasn’t just wandering about. 

They managed to pry out a little more information on a general area and direction Sally had been in which helped with the scope of the search. Having Flora helping to search helped as well due to her being a hybrid, specifically a fox at that. They were known for hunting down chickens, and now that they had a more recent trail for her to follow. She led Grian along most of the time, but sometimes Grian flew into the sky to see if he could see anything from above. There wasn’t much, but here and there he noticed something that helped.

Once Flora really got Sally’s scent, they were racing through the trees of the forest they found themselves in, Grian struggling a little to keep up. Because of it, Flora reached wherever the chicken and her captor was before Grian. And then because of that, Grian didn’t slow down when he reached the area, only having to stop as quickly as he could when he realized that he had caught up and Flora had stopped. This led to Grian falling on his face and finding himself eye level with a chicken that was decidedly not Sally. Sally, instead, had her beak firmly clamped on the ear of a hybrid unfamiliar to the server. A very rabbity ear on an all too familiar looking hybrid.

Grian and the hybrid stared each other down for a few seconds before Grian’s brain caught up with what he was seeing. His wings puffed up in an attempt to make himself look bigger and more threatening at the same time his hands tried to force himself back up so he was standing and easily able to fly, run, flight, or anything else he might need to do. “S-Sam… how… I… Why…?” Grian tried to look for words at the same time, which he was failing at. He wanted to ask how Sam was here, or why he was here, or yell at him, or even warn Flora on who exactly this was since he hadn’t given names before. 

But any attempt at words were lost by the shrill shriek that was heard, making Grian wince at the tone and notice Flora doing the same. And when he looked back at Sam, he had now picked up Sally and was holding her in front of her. Grian was so sure the sound came from the chicken until Sam opened his mouth again and Grian saw him speak. “Please please please I was just caring for the chickens and Gallus was helping me out because I needed to find Sally but then I found Sally and we started walking and talking and I didn’t mean to do anything bad please please please I promise I’ll be good and nice and won’t I swear I won’t do anything bad!:

Grian was left speechless. Sam never acted like this. Sure, sometimes he might apologize to make you a little guilty, but it was always something small. Not like he was begging for forgiveness and like he himself was expecting to get hurt. It was weird and so unlike Sam, and then Grian realized it wasn’t.

First off, it was now obvious as to why Aven mistook Sam for another ghost, because they seemed to actually be a ghost. They were see through and everything, and other than interacting with the chickens, Grian could see through enough to tell that the grass wasn’t being trampled underneath the rabbit hybrid. And speaking of them being a hybrid, Sam’s ears were almost always perked up and a bright white color. Though one ear was still clamped on by Sally even as she was held out in front of Sam as almost a sort of meat shield, the other was flopped over. And not only that, it was more of a sandy or creamy color and not nearly as fluffy as Sam’s normally were.

Now that Grian had taken a moment to calm down enough to look over the ghost Sam, it also gave him a moment to think about what he knew otherwise. A week ago, he had been living with Sam and Taurtis, dealing with highschool among… other things. But since then, he had been here, in the future. And Sam was supposed to be dead. And sure, this person was a ghost, which happened when you died, but they were a different ghost. And Grian wasn’t just in any future, he was in the future where he had escaped to a sort of reverse reality. His dad was the one who wasn’t usually around instead of his mom. One of his twins was some sort of green hybrid thing instead of a pig or piglin or whatever. And apparently, Sam wasn’t a murderer, but someone who looked more scared of him than he usually was of Sam.

“H-Hey.” Grian managed to choke out. “I’m… not sure who you think I a-am… But um… I’m probably not. And I d-doubt you’re Sam. Uh… W-Well, my name is Grian.”

Slowly, the not Sam peeked out from behind Sally. “Gree-on?” Grian of course flinched at the way it was pronounced, but not Same noticed and let go of Sally, letting her hand from his ear, and instead using one hand to tug at this other ear and the other to hit his head a little. “I’m sorry I’m sorry. I’ll do better I promise.”

“H-hey, It’s okay. Uh, there’s no… ‘ah’ sound. It’s more just ‘an’ Gree-an. And It’s supposed to be just one word… but just that little change would be a lot better.”

Not Sam gave a little nod, carefully saying it a few times before getting it all together and saying Grian’s name pretty much normally, which was a great change of pace compared to normal Sam. “Oh… I hope you don’t mind… but um…” Not Sam trailed off for a moment before quietly continuing, almost in a whisper. “It doesn’t go ‘Sam’ like you said it.”

While Grian was a little conflicted to show any sort of vulnerability or kindness to someone who looked so much like Sam, he still managed it. “Oh? How should we say it then?”

Not Sam noticed the ‘we’ enough to take note of Flora, who was thankfully staying out of it for now, though Not Sam grabbed Sally again as well as the other chicken, almost to try and protect them from the fox hybrid that Flora was. “I-it’s Sahn… not Sam. S-ah-n.”

“Well then Sahn. I’m… sorry for frightening you, but we were just looking for Sally, my pet chicken, and you seem to be holding her.” Grian explained, and Sahn looked at the chickens in his arms before trying to pry Sally off his ear, a feat that was much easier once Grian had his hands on the animal. “I guess we both remind each other of people we know. Not so nice people unfortunately.” And Grian didn’t miss the wince from Flora. She thought highly of her uncle, and while it was actually her false uncle, she didn’t know that. “So, why are you here?”

Immediately, Sahn looked a little calmer and happier. “Oh! That’s right! Um, so my boss or master or whatever you want to call him sent me here! And he sent me to look for you.”

And now things were more complicated again.

.

.

.

The rolling of minecart wheels had rolled on for a while after the most recent conversation had ended, or more accurately, the last conversation Techno had focused on. He had realized partway into it that Phil hadn’t spoken once in any of the talking. And then looking just behind him at Phil made Techno realize his dad seemed out of it. He tried to think of why, then quickly came up with the answer. Tommy’s confession. Or talk or admission or whatever fit that kind of thing. So obviously while Phil said he was fine with it, that obviously wasn’t the case.

Thankfully Techno and Phil were at the end of the minecart train, so they didn’t really need to deal with keeping their conversation private from both sides, and the people in front of them were more likely to focus on forwards anyway. “So, what’s eating at you?”

Phil jumped just a little bit from Techno’s voice being closer and obviously directed specifically at him. “That obvious?”

“Yeah. I’m guessing this is about Tommy?”

Phil nodded. “Look, I know I’ve been a shit dad. Grian told me as much when I first showed back up, plus I had a bit of an idea when Tommy went missing. Sure, I helped the kids with accurately summoning Tommy back which kicked off this whole mess, but they were the ones trying it in the first place. Hell, If I wanted to, I could have tried it with Grian when I first found out about that technique.”

“If I recall, you did try, you just were left confused since the information was mixed with worship of some bee god.”

Phil chuckled a little at that. “Yeah, But I did figure it out. The big problem was that you need something that helps represent the person you’re after. And it had been years at that point, so we didn’t really have much to go off of. But I still could have kept trying.”

“You have no clue if it would have worked.”

“I know. For all I knew, he could have actually been dead. I didn’t fucking know if their little summoning shit would work if Tommy was actually dead. Only hope I had was if I was not too shitty here.”

That left Techno a little confused. “What does that mean?”

Phil shrugged for a moment before sighing. “Look, Hels isn't the most well known thing. Sure, the older you get, the more likely you are to find out, but even people older than me sometimes don’t know about it. It gets excused by mods or Herobrine or whatever. But Paul and I know a bit differently because of who we are.”

“And that is?”

“The Wels of the Hels Deaths. See, Death can’t fucking deal with their own family. And If you noticed, You and I are both related to Kristen, me by marriage and you by being her kid. And since Zedaph is her brother, he’s related too.”

“So that means we literally can’t die? Bruhhh I could’ve staked so much more on the fact that I can’t die.”

That earned a slight chuckle from Phil. “Not exactly. That’s where the deaths of Hels come in. Sure, one of them is my hels and one is Paul’s, but they’re not actually the hels of Kristen and her brother, and aren’t actually me or Paul. So it becomes a sort of exception. So the family of the deaths of one side are dealt with by the other.”

“So you’re saying I’d have to punch you in the face to keep living?”

“Depends. There’s two deaths not just to try and deal with that family problem, but because there’s two kinds of death. There’s nuance to it, but simply it’s if you're accepting of your death or not. Your mom is for when you don’t here, but if I recall correctly, Paul’s Hels is that, so mine would have to be the other.”

“Alright, so I can keep punching Paul in the face and not have to regret my actions when I finally go out on my own.”

“I mean, it won’t be me, me. But I guess close enough. And I’m guessing that means you’re planning to eventually go out on your own terms? I thought you would just refuse outright.”

Techno smiled a little. “Nah, don’t want to get as old and ancient as you. I’m not sure I could deal with trying to consciously keep myself from turning to dust.” He paused as Phil jokingly hit the back of his head. “Plus, I’m sure with all those political people heading to whatever afterlife there is, there might be some government to take down there.”

There were some more chuckles between Techno and Phil before it was serious again. “But no. I mean, I dealt with my mom literally being death and I saw that didn’t keep Wilbur alive. I’ve seen here and there you struggling with having been alive so long. Some people think not dying is great, and so many people have respawn magic to keep them alive. Yeah there’s some people who die because of a particularly bad death or hardcore gone wrong, but there’s other people who realize that they’re done. They have the chance to keep living, but they think it’s better to go onto whatever is next. No one knows what that is- Wait you haven’t been-” “She hasn’t told me anything.” “Right, well, no one knows what’s next, and while some people have comfort in familiarity, some people like the thrill of what’s next. And I think maybe someday I’ll go onto that. We all probably will eventually.”

“Yeah. I’m not sure how long I think I could keep sticking around after losing you guys. There were some days where I was thinking of giving my soul up just to not deal with it.” Phil admitted.

“Bruh you better not do that if we kick the bucket. Look, I know we’re cool and all, and while you might suck at it, you still love us.” “Hey!” “And yeah, if we end up in some place where our souls or whatever we have get to interact with each other, sure I hope that means we find each other again, but I don’t want it to be that you only showed up to follow after us. I’m sure whenever I die you’re going to be all upset or whatever, but I’ll be going out on my own terms, not your terms. Your terms are for when you’re done. So don’t make that something I’m responsible for.”

“So, essentially?”

“You’re used to living a lot. I might not be the same. Don’t blame yourself if that happens. If anything, you can make fun of me for taking the easy way out or whatever. Just know that if I happen to die, I’m okay with it, and you can’t be beating yourself up like you have with everything else.”

“Thought you wouldn’t come back to that.” Phil said with a half joking, half sad smile.

“Well I did. Look, I’m just going to say it. You kind of sucked as a dad. To be honest, you probably spent a century or two without kids and haven’t even spent half of one with us around. And if Paul’s got a family and he managed it, who cares, because he’s him and not you. With how you reacted to me talking about my death and how you reacted to other stuff, you have a tendency to expect the worst and just kind of give up.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

“Well I’m going to guess you did it in the past too, right?”

“Maybe.” Phil half admitted.

“Well you dealt with that, so deal with this. It’s not as finite as death or whatever, so you’ve still got time to try and fix it. And it doesn’t have to be immediate, especially since you’re used to taking a while through life.”

Though he rolled his eyes, Phil agreed. “Guess that makes sense. When did you get so wise?”

“Got raised by you.”

“Yeah. Guess you did.” Phil sighed before giving Techno a quick hug. “Sorry for being a shitty parent. But know that if you die or disappear or leave or whatever it is, I’m still going to care for you. And not just me either. Your brothers, your mum, hell, anyone else you’re close with in any sense really. They’re going to care for you.”

“Yeah. And even if any of that happens, call me cheesy or whatever, but if any of that happens, at least they’ll all have a memory of me to keep.”