#i guess that's what happens when you grian someone without being grianed

[gillipopmoji-archived]

ive been grianed???

this is the stupidest emoji ive made in a while but the melatonin is kicking in and i need to sleep so here

[pt: this is the stupidest emoji ive made in a while but the melatonin is kicking in and i need to sleep so here]

grian

[life-winners-liveblog]

Watching Last Life - session 2

Part 4

Martyn: You know the luck thing we just talked about?

Scott: About me being super lucky? Yes, we just talked about it 2 minutes ago.

Martyn: You remember what I said?

Scott: That my "luck" was going to end?

Martyn: I stand corrected.

Scar: Because of the diamonds he randomly found? That isn't really that lucky.

Pearl: I think It's the fact he manages to catch people in the act when they try to rob his base so often?

Grian: No, no, no, He is of course talking about him shooting an arrow in the sky without a target and it hitting someone.

Martyn: Was talking about the fact that the time Joel rigs their door with tnt Pearl randomly decided to enter from a back window and discovered the trap, which is...what? But also those things too, because why not? How does this even happened? Do you have gods on your side or something?

Scott: Well... I am the champion of Aeor I guess... but I hardly think It's connected. I could feel my connection to them had been dimmed significantly the moment Last Life started.

Previous

Next

First

[theminecraftbee]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[rainyinautumn]

So Secret Life is happening. And it's great. And it has potential to be a LONG series compared to other life installments.

Let me explain.

Historically, the biggest killers in the life series are fall damage, PvP, and TNT (if you're wondering how I know this, this is how). Let's look at how each of those makes you dead.

Fall damage gets people in one of two ways: either taking a fatal bit of damage after being almost killed by something else (ex. Tango's final death in Limited Life), or falling a massive distance that wipes all ten hearts in one go (ex. Grian's final death in Limited Life). Neither of these are particularly viable at killing someone in Secret Life, at least not for a while, given all the players have triple the amount of hearts as usual. As for big falls, a lethal fall for someone with a full 30 hearts would have to be roughly 63+ blocks (fall damage is half a heart for every block after the third, with some small discrepancies for tick timings). That's a LONG fall. I'm talking you could jump off the top of the Crastle from 3rd Life and survive just fine. Granted, people won't be on 30 hearts forever, so that number will gradually whittle down, but what's typically a big killer is going to be more of an inconvenience for people with higher hearts.

PvP is the only top cause of death that's based on consistent and deliberate lowering of health, and without the boogeyman, it's not even a factor until someone goes red. Grian has implied, however, that reds will get different (and likely more violent) secrets, so I expect that once one person goes red, things will go downhill for everyone else rather quickly. I'm curious to see how PvP will work for people with high hearts but no regeneration. It'll probably take longer—an unenchanted Netherite axe in the right hands can deal a full 30 hearts worth of damage in just 4 seconds, but against unenchanted diamond armor would take around a full 20 seconds, assuming the person (for some reason) didn't fight back at all. And keep in mind players are allowed to enchant to their heart's content this season. The goal of most confrontations is likely going to be just to put a big dent in another player's health and in the hopes that that endangers them enough to be killed by more natural causes, rather than putting in the effort to wipe them out completely. Reds will likely prefer seeking out players with lower health in order to complete their secrets, but they may have to break the mold if they can't find an ideal target. Additionally, I wouldn't be surprised if some red secrets are something along the lines of "deal [x] amount of damage to a player" instead of just "kill someone."

On to TNT. The idea when setting off an explosion is always to do the maximum amount of damage possible. Explosions are based on power (how hard a thing explodes (4 in the case of TNT and 6 for end crystals)) and impact (how hard the exploding thing hits you). Impact is based on exposure (how close you are to the exploding thing), which varies wildly every time, so it's hard to say exactly how much TNT it would take to kill someone with 30 hearts in one go. My best guess, based on TNT-related deaths we've seen, is probably sixish point-blank explosions (probably best reached with six stacked TNT minecarts). Personally, I would love to find out exactly how much TNT you would need, and I'm sure Secret Life will help me out here. In short, you need a LOT of TNT to kill someone, but iron and TNT can be earned from secret rewards, so it may not be all that hard to get. And players should invest in a piece of blast protection armor (just one, though, more than one doesn't do enough good to be worth it).

And, on top of all this, players can get hearts back. Not without some trials and tribulation, but they have three pretty substantial lives. Sure, people will have bad days (like Martyn) from natural hazards like caving and being exposed at night, but both those things become much easier to avoid after session one or two.

TL;DR—it's harder to lose a life in Secret Life. As long as people are careful and try to hang on to their green/yellow lives, it could easily be the longest life series installment yet.

[frozenjokes]

Signing Back In, Apparently - 9

Prev/Next

Through the fizzling spurts of his slowly fading anxieties, Mumbo was beginning to feel.. light? A good feeling! Very good! Impulse had sat them all down to, in his words, ‘Get it all out on the table.’ Get on the same page. Talk.

And they did.

It took awhile for the ice to be broken, but the longer they went, the more horrified Mumbo was about just how much the four of them had left unsaid. Pearl was afraid. Afraid of being hurt, afraid of the crew being hurt, and being too late to save them. She always used the word save. Scar couldn’t do any more harm if he was dead, and god , she wanted him dead. Scar needed to suffer for the way he had played with them. Grian locked her in a tight hug when she admitted to blaming herself for his death. Mumbo hadn’t even known what had happened between the two of them and Scar before now.

Grian was.. angry? He was angry so he didn’t have to be sad, confused, betrayed, and every other range of emotions someone might feel when one of their best friends murders them. It shocked Mumbo to learn Grian still wanted desperately to know why. “I thought if I just crushed it down hard enough, I would eventually stop caring. I thought if Scar was dead, then it would go away. Now, I’m not so sure.” Mumbo took Grian’s hand in his and promised he’d find out. Mumbo didn’t recognize the pain in Grian’s eyes when he begged Mumbo not to.

“I don’t understand,” he had said. No one explained.

Mumbo probably had the most to say. Maybe it was because his own emotions were so confused? Unraveling every piece of the story felt like he was fraying the strands, leaping back and forth as he tried hopelessly to keep things simple and understandable. He was grateful when Impulse would step in and help. Usually, his insight was right. Pearl and Grian looked.. mostly distressed to be honest. Mumbo was deeply relieved when the explanation of his own attachment to Scar seemed to click for Grian. He hadn’t realized before seeing Grian’s shoulders relax, that Mumbo wanted him to understand the most. Pearl struggled with the idea, but she promised she wasn’t angry. Given Mumbo felt similarly with her desire to hurt Scar, he was more than happy to leave it at that.

Impulse insisted he had already said everything he wanted to with each of them separately, but with more than a little friendly bullying, he eventually caved. Mumbo didn’t remember the last time they had all laughed together like this. When they were alive, maybe?

“How did we ever lose sight of this?” Mumbo leaned back on his hands. He.. felt warm.

“Well I have a guess!” Grian rolled his eyes in mock-exaggeration, pushing against Mumbo’s arm.

“Ugh, Scar. Well, he did one good thing at least, bringing us all together. I can’t imagine living without you guys. Or, dying? Being dead? Gosh, imagine being dead with three other people you hate! I’d go crazy!” Pearl threw her arms in the arm, carrying the top half of her body ever so slightly away from the bottom. Grian snickered.

“Well, now that we’ve all agreed we are happier without Scar in our lives, I am declaring a Scar vacation! A Scarcation if you will,” Impulse grinned, making circles with his hand as he bowed. Mumbo clapped when no one else made a noise. “We all need some time away, I think. Even though we’re bound to him, we still have quite the range we can spend elsewhere, so I think we should take the opportunity to.. I don’t know! Hang out? It’s exciting, isn’t it?”

“Yes please, ” Grian let himself float on his back, crossing his legs. Mumbo caught Pearl’s eye, relieved to see her also looking a bit unsure.

This didn’t escape Impulse’s notice. “I know we’re all very focused on our individual goals, but Scar isn’t going anywhere. We need to take care of ourselves, first. And honestly, I’m tired! This is a mandatory vacation, so I don’t want to hear any complaints.”

“Okay, dad ,” Grian giggled, flicking at Impulse’s hair.

“Hey! You were on board!”

“You can’t force me to do anything! I’m a free spirit! A free spirit that doesn’t want to so much as look at Scar for a while! Let’s go Scarcation!”

“Just.. how long?” Pearl asked, unable to cover the apprehension in her voice.

“A week. Just a week.”

Pearl blinked, quickly sinking into a more relaxed posture, “I can swing that. Mumbo?”

“What? Yes, of course that’s fine. Sorry- do you guys feel like Scar is getting farther away? Like that pull?”

The three other ghosts paused, silent in their focus. “Oh come on!” Impulse broke it first, “Scar hasn’t gone sailing in- in weeks, right? Yesterday was probably one of the worst days of his life! Why would he go now?”

“Are we just going to let ourselves get dragged through the water then, or do we get to sit on the boat?” Pearl gave Impulse a bemused smile, patting him on the shoulder.

“Maybe we just don’t interact? Scar’s never out long,” Mumbo suggested. Impulse put his head in his hands.

“We could always just start tomorrow,” Grian suggested, shrugging.

“But we just had a moment! It was the perfect time!” Impulse wailed, throwing his hands up.

“Come on, let’s just go,” Pearl laughed, pulling Impulse to his feet, “Scarcation has already started, we’ll just separate once the boat docks.” The pull was starting to get uncomfortable now as Scar presumably picked up speed, and Mumbo wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be able to stay. He caught Grian’s eye, waving before he disappeared.

“Why would I tell them I’m leaving? They’ll figure it out, and they can teleport to my location anyway. God, when I first got here they wouldn’t stop because it spooked me so bad each time one just appeared in front of me! Eventually, I just got really good at not flinching so- AAUGH!” Scar’s scream was magnificent as he turned around to see Mumbo standing there, making a flying leap directly into Cleo’s arms. Grian popped into existence beside Mumbo, cackling as Cleo unceremoniously dropped Scar to the ground. Mumbo doubled over next to Grian, tears forming at the edges of his vision.

“I take it they’ve arrived?” Cleo smirked.

“Oh! Did you scare him?” Pearl said, delight evident in her tone as she pushed forward to examine Scar, still laying on the ground

“I didn’t mean to!” Mumbo jumped back, unable to keep the smile off his lips. He sat down, joined quickly by Impulse. “Sorry, I think I’ve already jumbled your Scarcation.”

“Well on a ship this small, I think that was inevitable. Alright everyone, pack in! Just pretend like he’s not there!” It took a little more convincing to get Pearl and Grian away from Scar, but eventually, they all sat, trying their best to ignore whatever Scar and Cleo were speaking about. But why was Cleo here? Mumbo hadn’t seen her in ages, along with most other pirates from the other factions. The same question was plastered on the faces of the other ghosts, and it wasn’t long before the whole group was silent, listening.

“Scar, aren’t you going to introduce me to your ghosts?” Cleo put her hands on her hips and jokingly tapped her foot. When Scar only gave a noncommittal grunt, she plucked him off the boat’s wheel and turned him around.

“No? Why do you even care? They’re my ghosts,” he scowled, shaking her off.

“Relax! I’m not going to take them from you. I just want to be friendly if we’re going to be seeing each other more often, and plus, ghosts are far more interesting than people.”

“I refuse to do this regularly. I already think it’s stupid, and honestly, you’ve made it seem like I’m not going to survive the trip in the first place.”

“Oh, you’ll be fine, you’re charming enough. Cub loves that kinda thing, which is why he’s so obsessed with me right now. It’s definitely not because I’ve started a competing business and anyone who tells you so is a damned liar.”

“Okay, this is like the fifth time you’ve brought Cub up, care to tell me who that is?”

“Trust me, it will be better as a surprise.”

“You keep implying he’s going to kill me!” Scar said, pointing an accusatory finger. Pearl perked up, but curled back in when Mumbo laughed, a sheepish smile crossing her face. She pushed him, and he pushed back without missing a beat, the two of them dissolving into a complete cat fight in seconds. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Impulse looking pleased. Pearl caught his moment of distraction, shoving her hand over his face with a short bark of laughter. Mumbo fell back on Impulse with a yelp, only for Grian to lunge past him onto Pearl, sending the both of them tumbling over the edge.

Grian didn’t miss a beat before teleporting back to Scar’s side, striding forward with great bravado, “I saved you, Mumbo! Be grateful!”

Mumbo rolled his eyes, “My knight in shining armor are you?”

“If you want to call me that, sure!” Grian happily took Pearl’s place beside him, looking quite pleased with himself.

“Ugh! Grian! You know I can’t see you in the water, how was I supposed to know you’d left?” Pearl said, appearing at Scar’s side. She laughed, eyes softening, “And you stole my seat.”

“You weren’t appreciating it enough.” Grian only caught Mumbo’s eye for a moment before both of them were distracted by Cleo’s call.

“Look, it’s right over there. Try not to crash on the spiky rocks, they’re hard to see through all the ominous, ever-present fog.”

“This ‘The Haunted Island’ is quite on brand, isn’t it?” Scar huffed, adjusting his grip on the wheel.

“Oh, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. They’ve also got haunting wails, cold breezes that send shivers down your spine, all of the good stuff! These guys have a reputation to uphold after all.”

All four ghosts stared, frozen in place. And then, almost all at once, they stood up to get a better look, clambering over each other. Mumbo felt Grian crawl onto his shoulders, and then felt Pearl scramble up Grian. Impulse floated beside them with an amused, but exasperated look.

“Where the hell are we going?” Pearl leaned forward, causing Grian to squeak and Scar to scream. Cleo was the first to turn around, delight coloring her face.

“Oh, look at that, you guys are adorable! It’s a pleasure to finally meet you!”

[aeolianblues]

Honestly if one of the first things everyone knew about me was that I spent 35 years pining for one woman, and later said woman and her daughter because she married a long time ago, then forget the fact that she inspired a lot of my poetry, I would simply burn it all and bury myself from the burning embarrassment of being such a loser.

But such was the life of William Butler Yeats.

Every one of them had a Life eh? TS Eliot too— fascinating fear of decay and mortality. You see it in his work etc etc, but he also left his wife when she fell mentally ill, for a younger hot thing— some 20 y/o when he was in like his 40s or 60s. We see you running away from facing the inevitability, man, a profound line about death doesn’t change that.

So it’s fascinating to read their works with this background context available to you, it’s such an insight into the human psyche. You know I’ve talked about this a little before, on how we sort of look to our poets and songwriters for answers, to help make sense of all the madness, and without fail, they happen to be some of the most flawed human beings in history. Or in less intense cases, they don’t have the answers we seek from them. It reminds me again of that interview with Grian Chatten from Fontaines D.C., in the NME back in 2022. He’s a poet for the modern day, I’ll grant him that easily. He convinced me recently that lyrics can work quite well standing alone as poetry and not come off as naff or aloof, or can still feel quite prescient and not pretentious or removed from the live setting in which they will be performed, making eye contact with you in a sweaty theatre (slowly getting larger, pleased to see, with the U.K. and Dublin arena shows planned). They can still connect with the loud guitars and drums pounding behind them.

He said to the NME, in light of Dogrel and his painting of a Dublin life, presenting you with the characters, the contradictions, the scenarios lived in his Dublin, his portrayal led to people turning to him for answers, when I think what you and him would both know deep down is that you’re really looking to him for a depiction of your world in the words that hit the soul, in a way that romanticises the moments you want to remember, and can beautifully frame the injustices of the bad ones. Not answers. Just a painting.

He said, people are looking to me for answers. What the fuck do I know?

Same as it had always been, hasn’t it? He doesn’t have answers. Yeats didn’t have answers. TS Eliot didn’t have answers— despite his vivid depictions of loss and decay, he still couldn’t deal with the thought of it himself. But all it does do, is let you read a work through the lens of your own life, and then look at it again through the eyes of a complex human being, the poet. It’s an option that is available to you. Some people do subscribe to ‘death of the author’, but if you’d like to explore the mind of someone who isn’t you, if you aren’t afraid to feel uncomfortable, different, or in the skin of a very different person, it’ll open you up to new thoughts, which don’t have to be yours.

I guess what I’m trying to say here is, don’t be afraid to read something you don’t agree with. Bad thoughts aren’t contagious. You can approach someone else’s work knowing it’s a complex read, and that can be an intriguing and insightful read. However, I am absolutely not going to be putting this post in any poetry tags, because I don’t think most people on the poetry canon side of the internet will appreciate me calling one of the crown princes of 20th century Irish poetry and literature a loser. Lmao.

[mochiwrites]

When you put the song home by cavetown I think it talks about how others see Scar and how he sees himself.

Home by cavetown first line is "often I'm upset."  This is Scar expressing how he feels so surrounded yet so lonely

"That I cannot fall in love but I guess" Scar can't fall in love no matter how hard he trys because he is already in love with Mumbo (and Grian but he doesn't know that) and even when Tubbo trys to get him together with somone all he can imagine is Mumbo.

"This avoids the stress of falling out of it." Scar no longer needs to worry about hurting the people he cares about because he cut contact with everyone besides his son.

"Are you tired of me yet?" Scar asking Mumbo if he is done with dealing with Scar yet.

"I'm a little sick right now, but I swear." Scar is dealing with the guilt of what he did to the people he cares about but makes a promise.

"When I'm ready, I will fly us out of here." To fix the contract he made with Scott and will save Mumbo, Grian, and Tubbo once he is ready to take that step.

"I'll cut my hair." Scar will drop his false personality to explain the truth

"To make you stare." The truth isn't nice it hurts and will shock whoever he is telling (this case, Mumbo)

"I'll hid my chest" Scar will hide the truth till it boils out and he can't take it anymore.

"And I'll figure out a way to get us out of here." Scar is talking about how he will fix the mistakes he made.

"Turn off your porcelain face." Someone is asking Scar to stop acting like everything is okay.

"I can't really think right now in this place." Scar has so many things he doing and doesn't know how to take the next steps.

"There's too many colors" to many of Scar issues are plying on top of each other.

"Enough to drive all of us insane." Everything Scar is balancing could drive anyone insane.

"Are you dead?" Someone asked how Scar is feeling.

"Sometimes I think I'm dead." This is Scars response to whoever asked him how he feels after he broke all his trust with Mumbo and Grian.

"Because I can feel ghosts and ghouls wrapping my head." Scar is keeping the truth from everyone he cares about, causing  him to feel numb and guilty.

"But I don't wanna fall asleep just yet." Scar isn't ready to accept the fact he has betrayed just about everyone that loved him he would rather reminisce on the good things that have happened.

"My eyes went dark." This is how his eyes looked after the many years without Mumbo.

"I don't know where." It took Scar a long time to realize that leaving Mumbo, Grum, and Jrum, he broke the only bit of happiness in his life.

"Figure out a way to get us out of here."  Scar hopes Mumbo will forgive him for not saying goodbye in person.

"Get a load of this monster." Others talking about how Scar is a monster because he is the grim reaper.

"He doesn't know how to communicate." Grian defending Scar about him being a "monster."

"Will everybody please give him a little bit of space?" Grian is trying to show that Scar isn't what he thinks he is.

" Get a load of this trainwreak."  Words people have said about Scar.

"His hair's a mess, and he doesn't know who he is yet." More words people have said about Scar and being a fay he has learn who he is.

" But little do we know the stars." Grian, Mumbo, Drum, Grum, and Tubbo are the stars.

" Welcome him with open arms." They will be there to open their arms no matter what.

"Time is."  The time.

"Slowly ."  At a slow pace has.

"Tracing his face." Changed to who Scar is now.

"But strangely he feels at home in this place." He now feels at home with who he currently is.

interesting 👀👀👀

I will say, I’ve equated this song with a future plotline in songbird that’s been subtly hinted at. all of the songs are like that. but !! this is a good take *nods nods*

[definitelynotshouting]

Hello!! I hope youre doing wonderfully :D Ive finally had time to do my first set of quotes for this chapter, enjoy!

- ☀️

"in this moment, he is both river and person, the turbulence of churning water sweeping him away beneath a layer of solid ice."

- I REALLY like the imagery of this. Grian being both the thing that destroys and the thing that gets destroyed. He's a force of nature: unstoppable and deadly (as a watcher, who *could* stop him from doing anything he wants, if he wanted to?), but he's also the one getting sucked under the water and unable to escape the flood. He CANT stop what he's doing; his actions hurt the people he loves the most, but as much as he fought against it he couldnt escape

- His hate for the watchers exists in two main fields: turning him into a watcher- turning him into someone else, and how his biology in turn hurts his loved ones. Ouch

- ☀️

"A wailing, ravaged keen rises up from the core of him— he just wants to die! He just wants to die."

"Grian latches onto it without thinking, digging claws and teeth into a dribbling cut and ripping it clean open."

"Mumbo."

- OKAY.

- SO. 1) the fore is shadowing. Grian being so tired and hungry that he cant help but feed is making me super excited to see what happens once they get back to hermitcraft. Especially because im guessing that'll be right after he uses the harming pots, and he wont be in his right mind to stop himself. Either that or he'll just be so caught up in his feels like he is here and so hungry that he feeds. I cant wait to see how that goes down

- 2) this entire sequence making him more determined to kill himself. He was just spiralling about how he wants to die, and THEN he accidentally feeds on X and Scar, AND THEN when mumbo shows up we're already seeing the start of his destructive behaviour. Isolating himself from his best friend :( THAT WHOLE SECTION WHERE MUMBO IS JUST STANDING OUTSIDE THE DOOR ASKING TO COME IN AND GRIAN STAYING QUIET PHYSICALLY HURT. Me when im in a self-destruction competition and my opponent is hunger au!Grian

- ☀️

"Disquiet leaks out from beneath the door— a creeping, crawling notion that the world no longer makes sense, fits poorly around one's shoulders. Like a worn, childhood coat, stained with the devastating loss of innocence."

- D: *distressed* i love this metaphor so much omg <3333

- Mumbo just wants his friend back grian please let him in.

- I really like how the coat metaphor, "fits poorly around one's shoulders" could reference how Grian's body doesnt feel like his anymore because of the watcher parasite

- In reference to Mumbo, the coat was new before they found out Grian was the one who made the games, but now it's ill-fitting and Mumbo doesn't know who Grian is anymore. Their friendship feels hollow, or "stained."

LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOO HI SUN ANON ITS GOOD TO SEE YOU IN THE INBOX!!!! :D

im so glad you liked these quotes from the chapter-- it was a lot of fun writing them, and im also having a blast watching people try to figure out whats gonna happen next >:] im glad the interaction (or lack thereof) with Mumbo was so gutting, because my gods we are not even remotely done with that yet<3

Thank you for sending these!!! It was really nice to read them, im so happy you liked what you've read so far!!!! :]❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[single-malt-scotch]

idk how to say it but i feel like ppl dont know the difference between lore, roleplay and improv when it comes to mcyt stuff. and some of this may be subjective but-

lore is kind of what lore is in loads of other media right? the world, history, story, concepts... for mcyt that may be lore simply from people's description of their bases (Pearl's base in s9- but its something she sets up and describes OOC), the worldbuilding set up in someone's entire season for themself (ex. Ren with Gigacorp, or the story and ideas built in s8 with Ren & Doc - both of which are contained to just the creators), or some other long term continuity brought through a server/season on purpose that everyone abides by (ex Evosmp's portals and evo signs for the series concept, Shadow of Israphel's world).

roleplay is pretty blatant and I am sure many people get it. servers like Empires are obviously roleplay, for example. In the modern nerd definition it is someone playing a character. For mcyt it may be a whole new name and self, or a variant of their default self playing out some kind of story or something that isn't just their normal content creator self. They may also make their own lore to fit with it, but not everyone goes into carrying a big bag of lore for their roleplay- sometimes its just a simple idea of a character in whatever server theyre in. It could be as simple as Impulse saying hes a dwarf but not providing any actual roleplay as a character, or it could be more concrete but loose (not constantly in character) situation like Mindcrack's B Team mafia, or its as wild as the lore and characters Ren & Doc put on in s8 despite them still openly acting as content creators through many parts of their videos.. Empires, Shadow of Israphel, Witches SMP are examples of more blatant RP focused series with little character breaking that also often have lore created for the worlds, but not all rp actually has to have lore in order for it to happen.

improv refers to the act of acting in the moment or whatever situation is provided. improvising with what is currently going on. roleplay can be seen as a form of improv. i think its important to separate the term from rp though, because not all improv is rp. People coming up with random fantastical line in the moment or acting impulsively to create a moment we all call back to is something that was improvised based on the situation. Bdubs' "he loves me" and grian's replies were not lore or roleplay, it was improv. (and we as fans can certainly do more with it- whether its ship content, making fics that make more to it, etc- but as its 'canon' it is nothing more than improv.) bdubs and grian were not roleplaying characters, there was no lore that made it happen (lore as a term just does't apply here). these people are great content creator and comedians, and that is because they are great improvisors. recognizing when theyre improvising these moments and using the term improv is important to me, and still credits them w the recognition they deserve without confusing people with with 'roleplay' when its not.

make of this what you will, i guess. i just keeping thinking about it not bc i think its annoying or that i am mad at ppl getting this wrong (on my thought of how i feel these terms are defined). but i feel like lore is the One term being thrown around and always applied to a number of scenarios that arent "lore".

[quaranmine]

booster ask -- Hermitcraft! (I'm predictable)

lol you forgot the modifying word, but that's okay, i'll choose one for you that hasn't been done yet. i'm choosing a mix of "Rhubarb: a favorite snippet of dialogue" and "Locket: idea for a fic I haven’t written yet" and it's gonna be a doozy

This one is just basically a scene from a fic I never ended up writing. There's, like, nothing else but this scene written and this is from somewhere in the middle of the fic. The concept is basically that going into S8 Mumbo was possessed by something like a blood god (in line with stuff like datd or techno headcanons) and basically experiencing the same thing as 3rd life red life bloodlust. Whatever my decision for it was, it's something that's specifically posessing him/infecting him. I don't know why. I didn't get that far. It's important to note I wrote this before Last Life was announced and Mumbo was in it, haha. The idea is that he's pretty scared by this happening, and decides to overcompensate for it and hide it via his "Peace Love and Plants" deal. Like, he thinks he won't be able to control it if he does kill something, so he just declines to kill anything at all. This is a scene from shortly after Grian finds out about it, and I still like it but I know I'm not going to continue it. There was supposed to be pretty heavy 3rd Life connections with the red lives. I think I wrote this in August 2021?

without further ado i present: about 1200 words of the mumbo bloodlust fic. CW for, um, discussions of killing?

➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶

“But what if I kill you, or, or hurt you-” Mumbo stammered. 

“You won’t, and you haven’t.”

“But I could. There’s this thing, like it’s in my brain- it wants me to.”

“I know,” Grian said, “I know.”

“No, you don’t understand,” Mumbo said, and as Grian stiffened he knew the statement was probably wrong, but he continued anyway, “it’s like a-a pain almost. It’s begging me to. Telling me violent things. When I see you, I don’t see you first. I just...see a thing that can be killed. I see your red sweater and it reminds me of blood and then I think about that blood and...When I see you I see a target first and a friend second.” The words tumbled fast from Mumbo’s mouth, and it was more than he intended to say but he just needed someone to know. Mumbo always had been a bad liar, and he couldn’t pretend much longer. 

Grian flinched. It wasn’t an exaggerated movement, and for once Mumbo actually wished he was more oblivious instead of less because if he hadn’t seen it then it wouldn’t have broken his heart. But Grian gathered himself and spoke anyway. “I think everyone sees me and wants to kill me,” he joked weakly.

“That’s not true,” Mumbo protested. He didn’t mean to cause...whatever this was. He didn’t like this path they were going down. 

“But you haven’t killed me yet,” Grian continued.  “You look past that first glance. Your first thought doesn’t define you. You haven’t acted on it. You’ve had all this time to hurt someone but you haven’t.”

“But I could!” Mumbo cried. “Stop–stop it, stop trying to make me feel better. Stop being so nice to me.”

Grian frowned, and in a flash pulled out his sword. I guess he is done being nice, Mumbo thought. The enchantments glinted slickly against the sharp edge, washing over it in waves. He had seen a million enchanted weapons before, but this time he felt mesmerized. 

“Why have you-” Mumbo started but before he could finish Grian was shoving the sword into his hands. Against his better judgement and in surprise, he took it. Then Grian roughly grabbed Mumbo’s wrist and in an instant pulled the sword against his own neck. Mumbo sputtered. “What-”

Grian’s face was dead serious. “So do it, then,” he said. “Kill me.”

“But I could-”

“Kill me? Then do it. You’re so concerned about hurting me, so then just do it.”

Mumbo stared and Grian met his stare. The sword felt heavy and right in his hands, like an extension of his body he’d been missing all season. The feeling crawled down his spine and settled sickeningly in the pit of his stomach.

Just one swipe and you could kill him. You could slit his neck and he’d fall to the ground and you could watch and the grass would turn red and you’d finally be free. 

The sword shook in his hands. 

“What are you waiting for?” Grian asked and his body was stiff and his voice strained, but he held his head up and did not break eye contact. Mumbo broke it instead. Looking his best friend in the eyes and listening to those horrible thoughts just felt wrong and bad and gross.

It was close enough that Mumbo could almost taste it. It could be so easy. His hands were already shaking and it would only take a particularly errant tremor to cut his skin. And he gave him the sword, so maybe he even wanted it-

No. 

What was he thinking? 

Or, was it not him thinking? He shook his head, that quick little movement he did to shake the thoughts away. They didn’t obey. It would be so easy. He shook his head again. It would be so easy. 

“My head belongs to me,” Mumbo mumbled, and if Grian heard it then he didn’t say anything in reply. With great effort Mumbo pulled his hand away, closed his eyes, and...tossed the sword to the side. It tumbled softly into the grass. Benign once more, out of sight. 

“You didn’t kill me,” Grian said, softer now. “I knew you wouldn’t.”

“You don’t know anything.”

“I think I do. You had a chance and you didn’t take it. It was hard but you didn’t do it. And I knew you wouldn’t. That’s what I’m trying to make you see!” Grian cried. “You fought against it! And you’ve been doing this the whole time. You’ve had every opportunity to kill me, or kill anyone else, and you haven’t. You won’t even kill a chicken for heaven’s sake. Sometimes I just want to shake you, to make you see. You’re the strongest out of all of us, you know. I had no excuse, but you do and you still resist it. You’re stronger than any of the rest of us.”

Mumbo didn’t know if he agreed. Isn’t inaction easier than action? All Mumbo had to do was just not do something, and he was normally pretty good at not doing things. And what did Grian mean, saying he had no excuse but Mumbo did? Mumbo had definitely killed a chicken or two with all those end crystals, too…

“But what if I can’t stop myself next time?” he asked. 

“I don’t care,” Grian said. “Look at me, Mumbo. I don’t care if you kill me. You could do it a hundred times and I won’t care. You think I’ve never been killed before? You think I’ve never been killed by a friend? We’re on Hermitcraft, we have infinite respawns here. Death isn’t permanent. What does my life matter? You could’ve killed me just then and I’d have woken up in my bed and walked right back out here and grabbed my things. You could keep killing me, keep hurting me, forever and it wouldn’t change our friendship.”

This was definitely one of the stranger ways that a person had tried to reassure Mumbo with, and he wasn’t sure he followed Grian’s line of thought. It wasn’t...Grian shouldn’t let people hurt him, and Mumbo didn’t want to hurt him. But his support was genuine, and Mumbo got the feeling that this was all really important to Grian that he understood this. Mumbo’s brain was stubborn, though. 

“Okay, but what if you lose your items? Sure death isn’t permanent, but items are a pain to replace.”

“Items are just things,” Grian said confidently. “They may be a pain to replace, but they are replaceable. You’re not.” Grian bent and picked up the netherite sword in the grass, and Mumbo’s heart skipped a beat. You could take it from him, whispered a dark corner of his mind, but he banished the thought with a sharp shake of his head. With a careless toss Grian threw the sword into the Boatem Hole next to them. “See? I don’t care. That can be replaced. It’s just an object.”

“Did you really just throw a netherite sword into the void to reassure me?” asked Mumbo incredulously. 

Grian had the sense to look embarrassed. His face flushed. “Yeah, I uh...I just did do that, didn’t I?” He squatted and peered over the edge of the hole. “You don’t think it might have fallen onto the bedrock and I could get it back?”

“No buddy, I think it’s a goner. You gave it a pretty solid toss right into the middle there.”

“I regret that,” Grian groaned. “Now it’ll take me hours to replace.”

“Wasted all that on some grand gesture to me, huh,” Mumbo chuckled. 

“Well, did it at least work?”

[ooooo-mcyt]

Yknow what? I'd actually go so far as to say that, as much as ive seen it complained about, it's actually pretty hard to "UwU" or "Woobify" Grian within the context of yhs.

I mean. It's possible if you go really extreme with it, but it's hard.

Grian at his core is actually a primarily decent person most of the timeand is a primarily innocent party in most things. One who goes through a Lot.

If you really think about it Grian's moral compass isn't too far off normal basic human morality. He's often anxious and hesitant when faced with any involvement in criminal activity, he's frequently dismayed and offput by suggestions of violence (the less deserved the more dismay is expressed as well), he's disappointed and frustrated at seeing the people around him do fucked up things, he's almost always polite with a good head on his shoulders when faced with a kind or reasonable person. Even well into ts, long after first coming back to Japan, Grian is still incredibly uneasy and fidgety with the suggestion that he take part in violence, I mean, remember that time he, Taurtis, and Sam were tasked with killing Geode and Grian not only initially tried to refuse outright but then checked in shakily with the other two multiple times just to confirm if they were really going to kill someone. Grian's typically the character most likely in the entire series to be incredibly put off by and very hesitant about doing bad things (especially to people he's not one million percent certain deserve it).

And while one could argue that we can't really praise his moral compass for being hesitant about involving himself in crime/wrongdoing when he often ends up participating anyways. Actions speak louder than words and all. However I disagree. The fact that Grian vocally does not wish to be involved in this kind of thing and has proven to behave on the more reasonable and polite side when acting independently in relation to likewise level headed people....is Very important. In fact, in actual legal cases, oftentimes a factor in trying individuals is the question of whether they would commit the crime in question indepently or under normal circumstances. This is the basis for necessity, duress, and insanity pleas, amoung other's. People who would not act the way they did in a certain scenario under normal circumstances are often liable to be judged favourably in their actions. In fact, speaking of duress pleas, Grian's got a pretty solid one for a lot of his actions. The times Sam or Yuki held a knife to his throat or the times police threatened to kill him if he doesn't comply with orders or any alike incidents. In cases where duress isn't applicable to Grian's behaviour there are oftentimes incidents in which an outright case for violence in self defense can be made. In fact, most of Grian's circumstances leave him very viable to be judged sympathetically on a legal standpoint. The fact that he was a minor, the fact that he had no apparent history of violence or crime, the fact that he was in a severely abusive relationship with a criminal and entering said relationship marked the start of any sort of criminal behaviour from Grian, any criminal behaviour from Grian always being in a group setting never lead by himself, the fact that he always clearly and openly protests when pulled into these group settings, the duress and self defense pleas that are applicable to pretty much all incidents in which he does engage. Which are also all factors that can and should be accounted for on. a moral basis as well, obviously. And like, Grian has a reputation for being arrogant, cynical, and rude or whatever, but he's really not. He very rightfully calls out other people's horrible bullshit and makes snappy remarks towards his abuser but that's the opposite of a problem and Grian's proven himself more than capable of reasonable civility towards reasonable people. Grian just isn't the selfish arrogant disrespectful criminal that he's sometimes implied to be and in fact he's largely innocent- or absolvable, if you'd rather- in most of the things levied against him. Grian's not a literal saint giving to the needy and taking care of orphans in his spare time but he's a decent guy overall???

And hey, speaking of that super abusive relationship Grian landed in. Let's not forget the impact of that situation. Sam was undoubtedly abusive towards Grian. He threatened Grian's life various times, he basically told Grian he was nothing compared to Taurtis, he shoved plastic down Grian's throat and laughed when he choked, he got Grian locked up in solitary confinement through complete lies just because he thought it'd be entertaining I guess, he forced Grian to kiss an abnormally large amount of people against his will (some of these instances sam recorded despite being asked not to), he himself tried to make out with Grian without consent while Grian was sleeping in his own private room, he forcefully dressed Grian up in feminine cosplay meant to be ~attractive~ complete with fake breasts, he lied to Grian about the gender identity of someone Grian dated as a joke (his words) and lightly mocked Grian afterwards, he locked Grian in a basement for three days straight and it's unclear whether or not he was planning to let him out anytime soon, he dragged Grian into a closet with school staff despite Grian's very vocal distress and discomfort then scolded Grian for considering reported it when this staff member made uncomfortable comments on the outfit Sam had forced Grian into, Sam offered to give Grian to another guy who made a similar uncomfortable comment later on as part of some trade, he consistently dragged Grian against his will into criminal activity whether by threatening him, tricking him into participating, or just altogether falsely implicatng him, amoung Many other things. And every step of the way Sam did his best to completely gaslight Grian. He used every gaslighting technique in the book. Telling blatant lies (for example, "i would never stab taurtis", "you are taurtis", "grian's crazy and he stabbed taurtis"), he denies doing shit to Grian that Grian knows damn well he did ("i would never stab taurtis"). He hard projected his bs onto Grian (from blaming grian for 'making' sam do awful shit sam did to claiming grian actually fullstop did the awful shit sam did). He was just constantly trying to turn people against Grian (convincing yuki and taurtis to back him up in calling grian a bad manipulative friend and insisting he needed to apologize for 'making' sam horrifically abuse him. arriving in the police station and instantly without hesitation telling them grian was crazy and dangerous and pinning his own crimes on grian. having taurtis back him up and help scold grian for getting mad about being locked in the basement for days). Telling Grian he's crazy (taurtis incident again, solitary confinement incident, the time sam kissed grian without his consent while he slept and grian got mad). Telling everyone else that Grian's a manipulative liar (taurtis incident again, solitary confinement incident again). Yknow. Gaslighting. Sam was just so unbelievably abusive. In like. Every possible way. Which adds a LOT of trauma to Grian. That on top of his parents abandoning him as a little kid too because we couldn't leave it at severe abuse.

Grian's not a bad person. And he's certainly a very sympathetic person. Which is why it would be hard to woobify yhs Grian. It would be hard to make a very sympathetic very sad character egregiously sympathetic and sad. His whole arc is getting abandoned by his parents, going to visit his friends, and getting violently abused and forced into a multitude of disturbing activities against his will for an extended period of time.

One could argue that sure Grian isn't a bad person and sure Grian's got a pretty sad life, but certainly a lot of people are guilty of making Grian more helpless and scared and generally 'pathetic' than he is in canon.

To which I reply...not really?

Grian already doesn't have half the fight response people ascribe to him throughout the series. That was a whole other post but honestly Grian's response to traumatic situations is very frequently to cave to them and he's got a much stronger submissive streak than people often admit. I mean, Grian was asked to dress up as his best friend who just got stabbed "to make things less awkward and make me feel better" and he did it within ten seconds of being asked without the others even needing to threaten him at all. Grian does express quite a bit of despair, fear, and submissive tendency in canon when faced with dangerous or traumatic situations. And while it's possible to go a bit too far with that if you consistently leave out the token fight entirely, I see people swing way too far un the opposite direction way too often. There's a reason Grian never actually killed Sam in canon. There's a reason Grian never made a serious attempt to get him arrested for his crimes. There's a reason Grian never just left. When Sam found Grian after he ran out of the gym during the Taurtis incident? Grian didn't lunge for Sam. There was no serious altercation between the two. Grian scrambled back and tearfully babbled platitudes while shoving plastic down his own throat on command. And even beyond that, a lot of the interpretations accused of making Grian too helpless/scared/'pathetic' are works that involve Grian processing trauma years after the fact. Which. Even if Grian was the most aggressive on edge fighter in the history of trauma responses during the traumatic events? People don't process their trauma after the fact the same way they instinctively respond in the moment. Even if Grian never shed a tear throughout any of the traumatic ordeals he experienced, it would be far from unrealistic behaviour for him to still process after the fact by panicking and sobbing his eyes out regularly. Which, again, Grian wasn't even all that fight oriented while it was happening so panic and tears isn't even super far removed from his actual in the moment responses let alone processing after-responses. It's just. It's really hard to "UwU" Grian tbh. He's a decent person, he went through hell (his own words actually), and he was never even really very effectively aggressive when he did. And while it's possible to dip too far into that territory, far more often I see things swung egregiously far in the other direction.

[votederpycausemufins]

All my knowledge is of hermitcraft and the stuff people have written for the Hermit!Tommy Au but I kept having this idea and needed to write it. I also think i got a bit out of character halfway through because it was supposed to be short, but i vibed with it too much so now it’s long and maybe not 100% accurate but it’s still angst followed by fluff.

also @petrichormeraki wanted me to tag them when i posted this.

Tommy had been with the Hermits for a while now. He hadn’t really kept track of when he first arrived, but it had at least been a few months. Otherwise, time was a mess. The Hermits has all but legally adopted him and all the joy that came from them caring for him made time seem to fly by.

Doc was fun to be around because while Tommy was perfectly fine never going back to the SMP, the way the man acted gave Tommy a small bit of familiarity in a good way to his past life.

He likes hanging out with False, mainly for sparring. Never anything deadly, but even if there wasn’t a need for Tommy to constantly look over his shoulder, it was good to keep from getting too rusty.

He doesn’t really hang out with Zedaph as much as Zedaph hangs out with him. Normally the Hermit would come out of the blue with something new for Tommy to try. Flicking levers over and over for something that would normally be as simple as using a furnace just became fun for Tommy, especially if he had energy pent up.

Xisuma is someone Tommy doesn’t run into much, but the fact that he doesn’t is something Tommy finds comfort in. Even as the server admin, the man is very down to Earth. Nothing like Dream ever was.

And then there’s Grian. Tommy got along with all the Hermits fine and of course there were some he preferred over others, but Grian took the cake for him. When he first showed up, Grian was the one to give him a place to stay at his old hobbit hole. Professor Beaks had been left there and still used to the SMP and scared for his life, Tommy hid the pet bird as leverage for his own safety. When Grian found out, he mostly shrugged it off, but the tens of chickens in the hobbit hole the next day was proof of retaliation.

Tommy didn’t understand the underwhelming response at first, but responded in kind, using the eggs from the chickens Grian had left to egg the Hermit’s base. When the builder nearly broke the door to the hobbit hole, Tommy grabbed his axe, ready to fight for his life, but was taken aback by the cheerful look on Grian’s face.

After that, Grian had practically taken Tommy under his wing. He showed Tommy how to build more effectively with cobble, eventually managing to get the teen to have some variety. Grian also brought Tommy along on his various chaotic endeavors, leaving behind chickens, mycelium, and possibly some missing doors.

The two chaotic red wearing Brits got along so well that they sometimes spent entire weeks together. Because of that, Tommy was all too aware that the Hermits participated in MCC as well.

It made sense. A few of the Hermits vaguely recognised him when he showed up in Hermitcraft and a few of them looked familiar to Tommy. That had made him feel a little safer since now these people weren’t complete strangers, but it did complicate things. Every so often, the portal to MCC would open and the Hermits participating would go through. The closest Tommy would get to the portal was just before the Hermits left, occasionally giving a ‘Good luck Grine!’ or something similar to Grian as he went through. But after that Tommy stayed as far away as he could manage.

The portal there led to MCC. And from there, there was a portal that led to the SMP. If Tommy could get to Hermitcraft, others could too. And that idea was terrifying, no matter who it was. Dream was a worst case scenario, but even if it was Tubbo. Tubbo had exiled him, and even if they were still on good terms after that, Tommy could have visited at some other MCC, but he didn’t, and that idea likely wouldn’t go over well, especially since otherwise, people probably thought he was dead and Tommy didn’t care to correct them.

But compared to all those other times, today was very different. Today Tommy wasn’t at the sidelines to help send off the other Hermits, he was one of the ones being sent off. They had taken every precaution. Mumbo had rebuilt his Spookification chamber for Tommy with some alterations, specifically removing the firework method of alteration. The teen was also dressed for being on a team with Grian as the Cyan Creepers, so his familiar red and white shirt was missing. But under Tommy’s costume, he still kept the chain necklace holding his compass. He refused to part with it, though made sure he would be hard to access to keep from glancing, knowing at the championships, it wouldn’t be spinning wildly anymore.

With a comforting pat on the back from Grian, he and the other Hermits walked through the portal. The crowd of people that were on the side almost immediately overwhelmed Tommy, making him think that it was a bad idea all over again, but the sight of the two other team members for the Cyan Creepers reassured them, especially as they lined up for the cameras for some fun and silly times. Then once the games began, he was too focused on winning to think of much else.

Before long, the championships were over. They had come in fifth, which was a bit disappointing at first, but on the other hand, it was still pretty good and kept the spotlight off of him. When dodgebolt began, Tommy stood next to Grian, but with a crowd of people, a good game, and no perfect place to sit, the both of them wandered for a better vantage point.

At one point, Tommy managed to push his way right up to the edge of the viewing ledge. It was the perfect place for a while until the action moved, causing everyone to decide it was the perfect place. Enough people moved nearby that Tommy was worried about falling into the pit below, and he almost did before someone pulled him back.

Tommy was ready to thank whichever Hermit or even other player helped him but the words died in his throat when he faced the person who grabbed him. He knew that mask and neon green color. And there was no reason for him to help Tommy unless-

“I finally found you!” Dream spoke. He raised his voice to be heard over the crowd, but not too much to draw the attention of others. Tommy froze as he definitely heard the words. But there was no way for Dream to know, he didn’t look at all like normal.

“I-I’m sorry.” Tommy tried not to stutter, hoping just the situation of being grabbed would excuse it. “But I don’t think I’m who you’re looking for. I’m new here. Unless you’re greeting me for being new.” It was something he prepared before in his mind after Grian brought up the possibility, but it felt sloppy putting it to use.

“Oh don’t lie Tommy. I know it’s you. I guess you got lost, but it’s okay, you can come back now. I got rid of the exile for you. Aren’t you glad?”

Tommy was glad for the mask that covered Dream’s face. He wasn’t sure he wanted to see Dream’s actual expression. “How did you-” He started to speak, but Dream cut him off, poking Tommy’s chest, right where the compass was.

“Weren’t you paying attention to the teams? Tubbo got put with me. And between games he just happened to glance at his own compass. And wouldn’t you know it, it led me right here.” Dream held up the compass that belonged to Tubbo. It looked damaged, and it was recent. Tubbo likely didn’t want to give the tyrant admin the compass, but lost it to Dream anyway.

“Give that back to Tubbo!” Tommy shouted at Dream, trying to snatch it from him.

“Feisty now, aren’t you? We can take care of that when you come back. I’ll also give it back to him if you come with me.”

Tommy froze. There was no way he was going back, but what could he do? Everyone was focused on dodgebolt, and he didn’t want his appearance to have caused more trouble for Tubbo.

Tommy glanced at the crowd one last time before reluctantly nodding. Dream grabbed his hand in a painful clench and dragged him out of the crowd towards the SMP’s portal to leave. However, just before reaching it, Dream stopped. Tommy, who had been looking back at the crowd, hoping someone would see what was going on, turned towards the portal to see Grian standing in front of it.

“Heya, where do you think you’re going. MCC isn’t over yet. Dodgebolt it still going on.”

Tommy expected Dream to just push past Grian or even give some sort of retort, but the actual reply was shocking. “Uh, n-no, just… have to head back early. Th-the game delays made things run over. A-and we’ve got to get b-back for… something else. Don’t w-want to be late for that.”

Dream’s words made Tommy so shocked he forgot to breathe. Dream was scared, no he was terrified. And he was terrified… of Grian. Tommy looked back at the Hermit who stood unflinching in front of them.

“Really? I could have sworn that you were here when I arrived, and that kid wasn’t. And he definitely came from a different portal. I know since I was keeping my eye out for my teammates. So why’s he going with you?”

“I uh…” Dream struggled, struggled, to give an answer, letting Grian continue. “That’s what I thought. C’mon kid, let’s go back to the crowd. You can stay with me until it’s over then I’ll help you find your portal back.”

And Grian took Tommy away without any retaliation from Dream. Tommy was left in awe. Grian wasn’t even an admin in Hermitcraft but Dream was terrified of him. It was amazing! But at the same time, it made Tommy spiral a bit.

When everyone returned, Grian had made sure Dream left before the Hermits and Tommy did so Dream couldn’t watch Tommy leave. Tommy stuck to False’s side as they walked through the portal, Grian being the last to come through as he continued to act as a guard. When he tried to comfort Tommy after his run-in with Dream, he understood when the teen responded he just wanted to go home. The championships were exhausting enough without a scare like that.

The next day, Tommy hung out with False. And then Zedaph, and then Doc. Grian noticed immediately, but didn’t pay much mind to it. He noticed since Tommy had spent a full week only hanging out with him, so the sudden absence of the boy was noticeable, but it made sense that he would want to hang out with the others.

After that, Grian didn’t pay too much attention to the lack of Tommy until he ran into him while stocking the barge. Tommy had been buying something at the store when Grian flew in. He nearly dropped his diamonds in trying to leave in such a hurry that it finally concerned Grian. The builder started visiting other Hermits Tommy tended to visit and ask about him. No one really noticed much other than Tommy dodging any questions about him possibly going to hang out with Grian.

Grian decided to leave it alone, and he was definitely going to, but after another run in with Tommy, he threw that decision out the window. Grian normally wouldn’t have done this, but after trying multiple times to just talk to Tommy and being unsuccessful, the builder had to essentially corner the teen.

Immediately, Grian regretted it. Tommy was trembling, obviously scared, holding a sword in his hand. He carefully tried to point out that Tommy didn’t need to have his sword out, but instead of just putting it away, Tommy just threw it on the ground, also throwing down his other gear. Grian had heard of Tommy doing this before with the other Hermits, so he immediately recognised what was going on and dived to grab the gear. It scared Tommy more, but Grian wanted to make sure nothing ended up destroyed.

“Tommy, calm down, I just want to talk. Did I do something wrong? I mean, obviously I must have, you look scared out of your mind every time I’m around you. But I can’t think or anything I did and I don’t want this to keep happening. So can I know what’s going on?”

Tommy didn’t speak for a while. He just looked defeated and terrified. Grian called in some of the other Hermits to come help Tommy calm down, though at first it didn’t help. But over time, Tommy finally did stop looking so terrified and they moved to somewhere he would feel less cornered. It took more coaxing after that, but finally, Tommy explained himself.

“He’s scared of you. Dream is… actually scared of you.”

“Yeah, I’ve killed him once or twice. Plus my full name is Lord Grian Dreamslayer, so it’s kind of in the name.” The builder tried to say it as a joke, but it didn’t seem to lighten the mood.”

“He’s the admin and he’s scared of you. And you… I’ve been hanging out with you.”

Grian nodded. “Well yeah, we do fit together well. ...Did he say something at MCC to make you think I didn’t like you?”

Tommy shook his head. “N-No. You’re right, you’re fun to be around. But dream likes… liked messing with me. And tried to train me. And I hang out with you more than I had with him, and I’m more like you. I-If you’re somehow more powerful than him-!” The rest of the words stopped in Tommy’s throat, choking him up. Stress was nearby and gave Tommy a careful hug for comfort, which helped him a little.

Grian waited a little bit for the tension to calm slightly before he spoke. “I don’t know exactly what Dream has done to you. You’ve told us a lot, but you obviously haven’t told us everything, and telling us isn’t the same as experiencing it. But let me tell you that I’m not going to do what he’s done to you. I remember how you were the first day we found you. And I see how you are now- well, how you were a few weeks ago- and I’m happy. Happy because you’ve been happy. You’ve been safe and cared for here and it shows. I don’t want to force you to be anything, I want you to be you. Sure, I’m powerful enough to kill Dream, but I’m not going to use that power on you. I’m only going to use it around you if it’s to keep him away from you.

“And! And! It’s just because of how your server is. Here we can go to the end. We don’t have a set amount of lives. We build massive structures and sell totems for a single diamond each. We fight Withers for fun and make farms with them. We farm just about anything you can think of. And Tommy.” Grian paused, making sure Tommy was paying attention. “You may be from somewhere far off that none of us old Hermits have seen, but now you’re here. And new home or not, that makes you a Hermit too. Sure you can be like me. Or you can be like False or Doc or Scar or Mumbo. But so far, you’ve been pretty you. And that you is a Hermit.”

Tommy took a few moments to process it, but the message seemed to get through to him. With that, Grian stood up with a smile. “Now I get that you probably don’t want to hang around me much right now. It makes sense. Maybe hang out with some other Hermits and learn some new stuff to get your mind off of things. Plus, I also did some talking around looking for you, and got you this.”

Tommy’s eyes practically sparkled as Grian placed down some music discs. He greedily grabbed the treasures and stuffed them in his inventory, looking up just to see Grian flying off. Taking on Grian’s idea, Tommy decided to go with Cleo and try to wrap his head around those armor stands again. While he wasn’t a pro, he did manage to make one scene of the hermits all holding weapons and surrounding an armor stand in lime leather armor. Grian was right. He was a Hermit. And he wasn’t going back. At least, not permanently, he thought, clutching his compass. Maybe, there would even be another Hermit like him.

[redstoneverdict]

Ok so this is inspired by @petrichormeraki hermit tommy au, go check them out they both come up with great stuff.

Tommy has been living with the hermits for almost 2 and a half months now and honestly he can’t remember the last time he felt like he could just let himself breath. The first few weeks were rough, seeing that joe hills found him passed out and a few steps away from death door one day when he was out and about. Tommy didn’t think he would just be running for so long, trying to get as much distance between him and lmanburg as possible. But he should’ve know exustion would catch up to him eventually, especially having just narrowly escaping a group of pillagers.

It took them awhile to even get him to fully wake up again, and even after that he felt too weak to keep on running so grian offered to let him stay in his old hobbit hole. Tommy didn’t want to accept the mans pitty but he still couldn’t even lift up a sword much less build a temporary starter base so he caved in. It only took about another week of relaxation before he was able to fully run around again and took up helping grian around his base and his various projects as a sort of payment for letting him stay in his old base.

Tommy was surprised with how well they got along, but honestly it shouldn’t have been to much of a shock seeing as they both love red and tend to be more of the michivsious type. It probably helped that Grian reminded him so much of his older brother Wilbur, he almost asked one day if the two was related somehow but decided against it. Tommy doesn’t want another connection to the pass he is trying to leave behind.

Currently they where gathering materials for grians barge and had been at it for most of the day, and had started chatting away about various things like best ways to prank people and what is xisuma hideing under his helmet, before falling into a comfortable silence. Tommy used to not be able to stand the silence, having always filled with with whatever comes to mind, but during his exiled, and when he ran away, he started to become more quiet. Why talk when there was no one there to hear you anyway, well anyone that was actually alive and could remember the inside jokes you where attempting to make.

Tommy’s thoughts drift to his brother, Wilbur. He still sort of feels bad for leaving without even telling him, seeing as he was the only one besides dream who actively tried to help him and vist him back in logshire, but honestly he probably would’ve forgotten him too by now, just like every other bad memory. He feels a tap on his shoulder.

“-tommy are you even listening?” Grian ask, takeing a step back after seeing tommy jump in his skin and pull out his sword before realizing it’s just grian.

“Oh sorry” Tommy says sheepishly, “I was just cought in my own thoughts, what is it?” He ask puting his sword away.

“ I said we’ve been working for awhile, how about we take a break and eat something” grian says pointing over to a shady spot in the distance.

Tommy didn’t notice the ache in his arms untill grian mentioned it and agreed, packing up their shoker boxes and flying over there, he still wasn’t quite used to useing elytra but feeling the wind blowing pass him definitely helped ground him after having thought about the past.

The two sat and ate for awhile, laughing at a story about how mumbo really made a his demise bunkers door code 1,2,3,4 and then falling into silence as they ate some more.

“ ya know” grian said inbetween bites of a sandwich he had brought, “ we always say mumbos the youngest around here but I don’t think I ever cought your age” he puts the sandwich down, “ and I’d rather not assume since I look pretty young myself, but how old are you?”

Tommy pauses and think, how old is he? He hadn’t really thought about since leaving. “ Um, what day is it?” He ask.

“ April 13th” Grian replys, looking kinda worried.

“ oh”, Tommy pauses, had it really been that long since he ran away? He shrugs “ I guess I’m 17 now, my birthday was on the 4th”, he says nonchalantly, taking another bite out of his pork chop.

“REALLY?” Grian is shocked, he figured tommy was at least 18 but finding out he was just 16 when joe found him all beaten up and knocking on deaths door steps puts him back a bit. But he can’t really be one to judge seeing how his teenage years where, and he knows that if he had the chance he would’ve ran away from it all a lot sooner then he did. “ wow wish I knew sooner, we could’ve thrown you a party or something” he says giving tommy a playful nudge, but tommy goes still and a look crosses over his face.

“N-no” Tommy says, furrowing his eyebrows and looking away, “no it’s alright, I kinda don’t do parties anymore. The last one I tried to throw, no one even showed up, I mean dream did-“ Tommy whinces, saying his name “but he doesn’t really count”

“No one?” Grian ask, taking note of dreams name, it’s the first time tommy has said someone’s name from his past, and he’s surprised it’s someone he vaguely knows, but he keeps quiet about it for now.

“Nope, not my best friend, not even my own family” Tommy’s voice lowers on the last part, pain written all over his face, before he pushes himself up. “ But now of that really matters now, does it?”. Tommy’s whole demeanor changes as he goes back into his usual self. “ how about we load up your shit head back to the shopping district before it gets to late yeah? I got other things to do besides being your bitch”

Grian knows tommy has been trying to cut back on his swearing, and that he’s just trying to change and get away from the subject as fast as he could, but Grian wasn’t going to push the matter. He knows what it’s like to feel like you’re not wanted by anyone and he knows that tommy will talk about it when he’s ready.

“ hey watch your mouth before I make ya eat a spider eye again” grian gets up “ but yah you’re probably right, it is getting late and I’d rather not lost all my stuff over 3000 blocks out.” He puts his hand on the larger boys shoulder and looks up at him “ you go ahead and take off and I’ll pack up what whatever we might of left”

Tommy looks back at the smaller man, he knows Grian isn’t stupid, but is thankful he is letting it slide for now. “ thanks grian.” He says softly, for once not feeling like he has to make his voice boom in order to be heard

Grian smiles back reassuringly, “ no problem kiddo, now go on get out of here” he says shooing tommy off as he takes flight heading towards the shopping district.

Grian stares at his shrinking figure and thinks. He doesn’t know what has happened to Tommy, but it’s obvious it’s was something painful enough to make him run away into the wilderness at such a young age. Grian picks up their remaining supplies before putting the shoker into in inventory. In any case, was was going to talk to the other hermits and organize a surprise birthday party for Tommy. He may not have any fond memories at the moment but grian would be dammed if he didn’t try to help the boy form new ones. Ones where he knows that he is apreacited. 

[heckpup]

My contribution to the Whitelisted AU by @petrichormeraki !!!

Mostly Ranboo stuff bc I love him and his stream last night broke my heart into pieces.

Edit: I added the “Keep Reading” thing!

— — —

Ranboo’s part Enderman. Being half of a hostile mob got him into a lot of trouble when he was younger, at least he thinks. That’s generally the first reason he doesn’t tell people what kind of hybrid he is right off the bat to people he meets.

Its not that hard to guess, anyway. Better to not confirm their suspicions and live a bit longer.

Being half-ender, he can teleport without the use of enderpearls. Its a little bit harder than just throwing the pearl, and he has a limited amount of teleports within a small period of time before he has to wait and “recharge.” If he tries to teleport before his cooldown period is over, then its a gamble where he’ll end up.

After a run-in with a village, he decided to never try it again, even if it is a fun adventure, not knowing where you’ll end up.

— — —

He’s in the middle of his cooldown period when he’s cornered by Dream. Dream wants, no, needs Ranboo, he says, to teleport into a prison for testing. A prison? Ranboo doesn’t like the sound of it. He can see it looming in front of him as Dream leads him closer.

Ranboo’s never been good with peer pressure, but if Dream doesn’t give him 30 minutes (Ranboo got unlucky too quickly. The faster the teleports, the longer the time), he won’t know where he’ll end up. It could be Niki’s bakery, it could be the Community house, it could be another server, for all he knows! (Its happened before. Not a good day for Ranboo.)

Dream is still pressuring him to teleport. He keeps getting closer, and he sounds like he’s getting angrier and angrier.

Ranboo tried to explain! He tries to tell Dream that he can’t teleport right now, and Dream just writes him off!

“You’re half Enderman, how can you not teleport?!”

“I can, but I need some time!”

“Bullshit! Teleport into the prison! Now!”

Ranboo complies quickly, if just to get Dream to STOP YELLING AT HIM.

— — —

He doesn’t know where he is. The middle of a jungle he doesn’t recognize, bamboo surrounding him. He can see a path, and an old minecart track. He looks down at his communicator as a barrage of messages gets sent. He slides to the ground, leaning against a tree.

R̷͎̀̑̋̿a̴̳̣̓̓n̸̗̈̄̉b̷̭̬͕̫͝ó̷̧̳̲̮̽o̴͓͑͝ entered the server!

Grian: what

Grian: who is that

Grian: X did you white.ist someone new?

Xisuma: no

Grian: who is that then

Xisuma: I’ll go check it out

Suddenly there’s a person in front of him, with a mask-!

Ranboo can’t breathe, mask, someone who could teleport like h i m. There were no particles, so they used ADMIN CODES-

Dream was going to yell at him for not doing it right, he knows it. He covers his ears in anticipation. He couldn’t take any more yelling right now, no yelling, no pressure, no yelling, please don’t yell at me, please Dream don’t yell at me I didn’t mean to teleport away from the prison I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry please just don’t yell at me-

There’s a hand on his shoulder, and he almost teleports, before he realizes that the hand isn’t Dream’s. It’s too gentle, and its not pulling up roughly like Dream inevitably would after he did something wrong.

He had done something wrong.

“Kid?”

That’s not Dream. It’s not Dream, where is he? Where did Ranboo end up this time? How far is the SMP? How far is L’Manburg?

Faintly, Ranboo can hear running. He can hear a swoosh and some fireworks that didn’t explode. He can hear people, more people, coming closer.

He can’t bring himself to look up again.

There’s some yelling, a “Bitch Boy” thrown around, and then a gentle “Ranboo?”

Ranboo can only shake as he looks up at TommyInnit and Tubbo, tears in his eyes. He wants to hug them both, they’ve been gone for so long where did they go? Where is he?

All he knows is that they’re alive, and that means that he’s away from Dream.

He’s safe. Teleporting randomly had finally come to help Ranboo.

Ranboo is part Enderman.

[frozenjokes]

Signing Back In, Apparently - 12

Prev/Next

“You’ll be okay on your own?”

“Yeah, Grian, I think I’d like a chance to walk around on my own for a bit anyway. Take it all in, you know? Catch me up later, will you?” Mumbo got to his feet, looking back in the direction of the dock. Or, what he thought was the direction of the dock; it was easy to get turned around. With the amount of landmarks around though, he probably wouldn’t have any trouble finding his way back.

“Of course. But if you miss out on something amazing, you better not blame me.”

“You’re going to be the one missing out. I’m going to play in the sand and dig a hole or something and it’s going to be great. You’ll be like, wow, I sure wish I had gone and made a little stick castle while I had the chance.”

“True, but I want to try one of these flight courses first. Maybe I’ll meet you later. I guess it all depends on when Scar decides he’s done. Not that he can leave without Cleo. Actually, I take it back, he would absolutely leave without Cleo,” Grian hopped up, joining Mumbo on his feet. He waved as he looked toward the distant noise, “See you in a bit.”

Mumbo nodded, smiling as he went. There was sudden joy in his newfound solitude, a childish excitement that he could do anything at all, and no one could see him. He welcomed every distraction on his way back to the dock, probably touching multiple things he shouldn’t, just to see what might happen. There were all sorts of little (and big) machines scattered through the shopping district, and he made sure to spend not-insignificant amounts of time trying to figure out what they did and how they worked. Maybe one of the more engineer-aligned ghosts could show him the next time he came back. Next time. Would there be a next time?

After getting lost about four or five times, Mumbo finally found his way back to the dock. It was perfectly lovely to explore every nook and cranny of the shopping district at his pace, but now he really was ready to sit and daydream about life here. Or maybe make a stick fort. He was still undecided on that point. Oh, look at that, someone had come and fixed the dock! Mumbo approached the boat, delighted to see he was still the only person here.

Well, at least until someone else groaned. A startled yelp escaped Mumbo’s throat, and he floated cautiously over the top to see Scar laying face down and shirtless in a bed of pillows, speckled with various injuries. Most prominent were the dark bandages wrapped across his back, contrasted heavily by the dozens of colorful bandaids dotting his arms. A small vase of flowers sat beside the pillows, a little note sticking out of the top that said ‘Thanks for the blood!’ in decorated print.

“Christ,” Mumbo laughed, “I take it you had a bad day?”

“I want to go home.” Scar’s voice was muffled from the pillows, and he made no effort to look up.

“I can see that. You know, I did think it was odd we weren’t being dragged back already, but I didn’t think it was because you physically couldn’t. I guess that should have been obvious.”

“Tell them to take me back.”

“Uh, no.”

“Please.”

“No.”

“I thought you didn’t like to see me this way.”

“I like it when my friends are having a great time. And they are. So I’ll probably just leave you here and, I don’t know, build a little fort or something? I can do anything.” Mumbo let himself touch the ground, circling Scar in a quick examination before heading in the opposite direction.

“Don’t leave me.”

Mumbo stopped. Oh, he hated that he stopped, but there was a certain desperation there that he just couldn’t ignore. Scar wanted him to stay, and damn it, Mumbo wanted to be wanted by him. When Mumbo turned around, Scar was looking up, his hair a complete mess over his battered face. God, it was so pathetic.

“You look stupid.”

Scar laughed, face planting back into his pillows, “They couldn’t pick a theme!”

Mumbo sighed, sitting down. He listened to Scar as he told a colorful tale of today’s adventure, first with Cub and the vex creature, and then later with Zedaph. He had thought Zed might have been there to help, but it took very little convincing on Cub’s part to get the other ghost on board. Scar spared no gruesome detail, but Mumbo was pretty sure he was also sprinkling in some flourishes of his own. If nothing else, it seemed like complaining about it was making him feel better. Mumbo enjoyed the outraged tone Scar’s voice would take when he said the word ‘ghosts’ as if the real reason he was so upset was because it shouldn’t have been able to happen.

“I feel like you’re less mad about the stolen blood and more upset that ghosts exist.”

“Well if I lost a fair fight then they can take all the blood they want, but nothing with ghosts is fair as far as I’m concerned. At the very least with Cub we had some sort of deal, I can respect that.”

“Ah, because you deal in fairness.”

“I like a nice illusion, sue me. Though, if I may be so bold, I think I’ve been getting the short end of the stick lately.”

“That is bold.”

“Well, you know me,” Scar sighed, adjusting his position. So relaxed, like his words hadn’t meant anything at all. They didn’t mean anything. But Mumbo couldn’t keep himself from freezing, shoulders tense. It was enough for the atmosphere to shift. Enough for Scar to notice. Scar turned to look up, just in time for Mumbo to speak.

“Do I?” A challenge. Scar was quick to recognize it, he always was. There was something infuriating about the casually pensive look that crossed his face, eyes unfocused as he considered. It was just an interesting thought. It was inconsequential. It didn’t matter.

“You’re upset,” Scar said. That was all he said; just an observation. A statement so obvious, made even more so by the splintering cracks in Mumbo’s back. Scar could feel them in his own. They were spreading.

“You didn’t answer me.”

“I didn’t realize you cared so much.”

Mumbo flinched back, regret crashing heavy on his shoulders, “I don’t care.” There was panic there, a sinking, desperation to wind back his words. To have never asked.

Scar smiled.

For the first time, Mumbo wanted him dead. To kneel over his weakened frame with his own hands on Scar’s neck, to squeeze , to feel him struggle, wheeze, and slowly fall. To be part of that last breath. If he wanted to, Mumbo could kill him. It would be easy. He could grab a rock from the shore and make a real mess of things. But he didn’t want blood. Blood wasn’t personal enough, not to him. If he was going to kill Scar, he would use only his hands.

“Haven’t seen that before,” Scar spoke lightly, tip-toeing on the thinnest ice, “Murder is a nice look on you. It’s frightening. Electric.”

Mumbo’s gaze refocused. But the moment had not passed. He did not speak.

“I wouldn’t mind if it was you,” Scar’s voice was so, so soft. Not meek. Not afraid. Gentle, almost. “You’re the type to feel bad, even with me. You don’t have to.”

Mumbo got to his feet. The boat did not quiver as his feet left the edge, stepping down to the dock. It did not miss him. It couldn’t, he had no weight to leave a mark. He had no real body. He left, back into the woods. Scar’s eye followed him the entire way. He did not come back.

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Can you do Grian or Bdubs + hurt/comfort?

hurt/comfort is my favourite thing to write so thank you!! :D (I decided to do both hermits if that’s okay)

Requests are still open! Please read pinned post before requesting.

…

  Grian has just finished showing Bdubs around his mansion when the two head outside and see that the sun is just setting.

  Predictably, Bdubs immediately gets out his bed. “Gotta sleep, hold on a sec.”

  Grian waits until Bdubs has gotten into the bed before breaking it out from under him and darting backwards.

  “Hey, give it back!” Bdubs yells. “Give it back, Grian!”

  “Come and get it!” laughs Grian, taking off running.

  Bdubs pursues him towards the trees. He’s everso slightly shorter than Grian but they’re fairly equal in speed, so Bdubs is able to keep up with him. 

  As they get further into the jungle, Bdubs speeds up, keeping his eyes fixed on the back of Grian’s red sweater. He gets closer and closer, until his friend is almost within reach. 

  Then Grian bursts through a patch of vines hanging in their path, and since Bdubs is so close, he’s unable to avoid crashing right through them.

  He screams as the vines grab him, pulling him back. Traumatic memories flood back to him as he thrashes around, but the more he moves, the tighter the vines wrap around him. Choking for air, he manages a few strangled screams for help before his voice gives out and he can no longer make a sound. 

  It’s happening again, his panicked brain realises: the jungle is swallowing him, stopping him from moving or speaking. He can’t fight them off. Not again. 

  Up ahead, Grian had almost entirely lost Bdubs in the darkness until he heard Bdubs’s final scream. Using a torch he happens to have on him, Grian locates Bdubs and his stomach drops as he registers his friend’s condition. 

  Bdubs is tangled in at least a dozen vines. He’s passed out but they’re holding him up by his arms, neck, and torso. 

  Without hesitation, Grian draws his sword and starts slicing through the thick vines. Thankfully, it only takes about four swings to release Bdubs, who immediately collapses forward. Grian catches him and, despite his friend’s weight, lifts him onto his back. He carries Bdubs out of the jungle as quickly as he can and takes him to his bedroom in the mansion, placing the bed he stole from Bdubs and laying his friend gently down on it. 

  For the first time, Grian notices the horrible red marks snaking around Bdubs’s arms, scars from the Season 5 jungle now accentuated by his second time being held by vines. 

  As he’s inspecting Bdubs’s slightly swollen wrist, he hears his friend’s quiet voice, “I’m so sorry, G.”

  “What?” Grian stares at Bdubs, who is now awake but has turned his head away. “Bdubs, there’s nothing to be sorry for. In fact, I’M the one who should be sorry for stealing your bed and causing that to happen. I-I never thought something like that would happen.”

  “It’s okay, Grian; I don’t blame you.” 

  Noticing that Bdubs has an air of embarrassment around him, Grian pulls up a chair and sits down, clearing his throat. “You know�� When I first came to Hermitcraft, I had nightmares every night. It took me a really long time for me to recover from my trauma enough to go about life without getting a panic attack every half hour. That was three years ago, and even now, I still sometimes get triggered really badly.”

  He clears his throat again as he starts to get a little choked up. “Recovery from trauma isn’t linear. No matter how long it’s been, you’ll have good days, bad days, and days when it’ll feel as raw as the day it happened.” 

  Grian pauses. “I guess what I’m trying to say is… I understand. And I’ll certainly never judge you, so you have no reason to be embarrassed. If something like this ever happens again or if you just need to talk to someone who’ll listen and understand, I’m always here for you.”

  He finally stops talking and regards Bdubs with a slightly awkward look. For a few seconds, he’s horrified with himself, worried that he might have misread the situation or gone too intense. 

  But finally, Bdubs turns his head to face Grian, his large eyes shining with unshed tears. “Th-Thank you, Grian. You’ve no idea how much that means to me. A-And if you ever need the same, I’ll try my best to help.”

  Grian smiles kindly. “Thanks, Bdubs. So do you feel well enough to head home?”

  “A-Actually, G…” Bdubs hesitates. “Would you mind if I… Um…”

  Luckily, Grian realises what he’s trying to say immediately. “Oh, yes, of course you can stay here tonight. I’ll go get my other bed; I think it’s in a chest outside.”

  He leaves the room and takes a moment to compose himself just outside. After all that, he hadn’t been expecting to spill his heart out to Bdubs, though he thinks it must have helped his friend to know that someone else is going through the same thing he is. 

  Grian has only ever heard whispers and snippets of Bdubs’s trauma, but as someone who’s gone through something similar, he knows better than to ask any personal questions about it. If Bdubs wants to confide in him, that’s his choice. All Grian needs to do is support him as best he can. 

  All Grian needs to do is be the person for Bdubs that he wished he had himself all those years ago.