#imagine being a zedaph watcher that expects him to know what happens in this server. rookie mistake on my end really

[zedif-y]

i wondered why i didn't know much about the hermitcraft court case, then i realized the two people i keep up with are both not involved and completely unaware

[hermits-that-craft]

Stuck Au - Forgetting and Leaving

Once again I am writing for the amazing @target-block and his amazing au

TW - Fighting, death, watchers, forgetfulness, magic, curses, Look The End is definitely not cannon to the au

It started small. The three men didn't realise what was happening at the time. Eye colour, the sound of laughter, the way their friends spoke. Impulse sat awake, struggling to remember the way that Zedaph's face would change when he's laughing, or the face Tango would pull when he's concentrating on a prank. Grian would stare into the distance, trying to remember how Mumbo and Iskall's laughter sounded. It's worse for Ren, who Grian and Impulse have both found stood staring into the distance, struggling to picture Doc's eyes and smile.

They talk about it, they do tell the others about how they struggle to remember, but the others can't help. Sometimes it's because they've never seen it, sometimes its because they can't remember. It hurts. It's painful, forgetting.

It's worse for Impulse, who fiddles with the flowers around his wrists wordlessly. It hurts, the one thing, the one constant reminder of his friends, his family is lost, gone forever.

If they ever make it back to the server, he can't imagine that they'd forgive him.

---

"Uh, shishwammy?" Keralis' voice is quiet, and the wide eyed man nervously turns something gold over in his hands. "I found something, and I'm not sure who it belongs too."

There had been a lot of that, over the past few weeks. Best case scenario, it was something someone had dropped. Doc and Scar had been doing that often. Worst case scenario had appeared a few times. A shulker box of Grians, a trinket of Ren's, Redstone supplies that Impulse had left lying around. Xisuma sighs, hoping to see something that he recognises as someone elses.

"What is it?"

"A bracelet. It's pretty, I found it before I-" Keralis' voice cut off, as though he was carefully rethinking his words. "Before I came back here. The season 3 hermits could have lost it."

Xisuma looks over the bracelet carefully. He has to admit, it is familiar, but he can't picture why. It's like he's forgetting more and more things, not just about the past season but about the missing hippies. It does look familiar, and Xisuma believes that it looks similar to the hairclip that Tango wears.

"We'll bring it up in the meeting."

"Spank you Shishwammyvoid!" Keralis says, walking off towards the seats Xisuma put down. Xisuma smiles, hoping that he's right about the braclet being one of a set.

---

"Hey, Orchid, Rose?" Ren calls out. "A persons here."

"What?" Grian yells from inside the house. Impulse picks up his sword, holding it tightly.

"A person. Has appeared. On my crops." Ren sounds upset, and Impulse walks over to the window. 

"What the-"

"What do they look like?" Grian asks, walking over to the window. His eyes widen as he looks at the cloaked figure, a mask over their eyes and a smile adorning their face. Grian falls to the floor, trying desperately to forget what he saw, what they mean. Impulse looks surprised at Grian, who can't be bothered to mask his fear anymore. Impulse looks out of the window again before he slowly creeps around Grian, who's thoughts swirl around his head. He barely hears the door open through his panic, though he does hear Ren yelp, snapping him out of the panic enough for him to look up as Impulse drags Ren into the house they had made.

"Grian, do you know who they are?" Impulse asks quietly. Grian nods, then he stops, shaking his head before nodding again. "What they are, then?"

Grian nods without hesitation. He takes a deep breath in, trying to avoid the expectant look on Ren and Impulse's faces.

"A watcher."

---

Tango and Zedaph walk through the portal, or more so Tango rows them through the portal. It would be a funny sight, the final two members of team ZIT rowing through a nether portal on their way to the meeting, until the hermits see Zedaph. Zedaph is wrapped in blankets, his hair messy and eyes tired. He looks terrible, and though it's a clear improvement from when he wasn't fully with the hermits and could only see out of empty eyes, but its still upsetting. Mumbo and Doc both appear similar to Zedaph, though Iskall is doing slightly better, Stress having allowed him to work on his base. Scar looks over to Doc, and the two men try to make their way to each other before Cub and False seperate them, apologies falling from the pairs lips.

"It's good to see everyone back here." Xisuma says, and it's obvious that he means it. If anyone hadn't appeared at the meeting none of the hermits would have been calm. Not even if they appeared five minutes late. "I think that we need to prepare to leave this world. We can't stay here, it's hurting us too bad."

"We can't just give up on them." Iskall says. "We can't leave them!"

"We wouldn't be leaving them." Wels says, stepping forward. "Because I'l staying behind to wait for them."

"No." Doc says, tears in his eyes. "We can't lose more people. Wels, we can't."

"You wouldn't be losing me. I'll be going to sleep until they arrive. I'll be fine."

"You still need to eat."

"Which is where I come in." Cub says. "I'll bring him food once a month."

"We can't abandon-"

"Do, we can't let you have a break down every time you see a line of the HRN." Cub snaps, and the hermits go silent. "You're destroying yourself, and you're only going to get worse the longer we stay here."

"Why you-"

"Please don't fight." Scar puts himself between the two men, his hands on both of their chests. He's the only hermit brave - or stupid - enough to get between the two men, but it calms both of them down enough. "Did you have more to say, Xisuma?"

It's clear that Scar wants to stay with Doc, but Cub pulls him away from Doc once more. Xisuma looks between the two men, and TFC pats Doc's back sympathetically. Cleo winces at the sad look that Scar sends Doc, clearly longing to talk to the man.

"No, the floor is open for anyone to bring anything up." He says, sending a look to Keralis.

Everyone looks between each other before Keralis stands up. He's just got back from visiting the season three world after he remembered that he left some things there, and its clear to everyone that he is glad to be back.

"This is only really for anyone who was on the season three server, but I found something that someone left. A gold bracelet."

Zedaph looks up from his blanket fort standing up with a purple blanket wrapped around his head and shoulders. His eyes are wide, staring at Keralis with tears in his eyes. He stands up, his hands holding the blanket around him. Tango notices, his heart in his throat, as the ring around Zedaph's finger glows, and he takes his hair clip off, choking out a sob.

The bracelet in Keralis' hands glows bright, the man staring at it with an astonished look. 

"Where did you find this?" Tango's voice is full of sorrow, sadness and guilt. Keralis blinks a few times, surprise written over his face.

"In season 3." He says. "I went back a week ago, I had left some clothes there and I wanted them back. I found it on the ground."

"He's dead." Zedaph mumbles. "He wouldn't have taken it off he-"

A tear slips down Tango's face as Keralis gives him the bracelet. The red eyed man turns it over in his hands, rubbing off some of the lose dirt. The glow dims slightly as the engraved words reappear on the bracelet.

Team ZIT

---

Impulse grips his sword tighter, Grian having fully calmed down from his panic attack. Ren leans against Grian as Impulse checks the window. The person, the watcher, hasn't moved, though they stare at him through the window. It must be time to leave season 4, though it feels like they haven't been there for more than a week. It's strange, they haven't seen a watcher before now, and Impulse doesn't want to see one again. He walks to the door, turning to the two men.

"I'm going to ask them to leave." He says, walking out before he can hear Grian tell him not to. The watcher smiles at him, their face a picture perfect example of nothingness, a blank slate with a smile.

"Hello, player." They say, their cloak flowing under them. "If you would kindly hand over the blo-"

"Leave." Impulse glares at them. "Get lost, we're not hand shit over to you. You can go and take your holier-than-thou attitude and get off Ren's crops." The watcher laughs wickedly before smiling at him. They take a step towards Impulse and all of the cells in his body scream to run, but he stands stock still, holding his sword tighter. He can see, out of the corner of his eyes, Ren and Grian watching them through the window, and Impulse refuses to let the watcher closer to his friends.

"Fine then." They say. "I will leave, you will be forced to go through the updates without our help."

"That's fine by me. Get lost." Impulse growls.

"Don't be rude."

"Don't be a bastard then." 

The unsettling smile turns into an unsettling frown and the watcher runs at him. Impulse dives out of the way, rolling into a kneel before throwing himself at the watcher, his sword slashing across their back. They scream, their wings throwing Impulse away from them. Impulse rolls again, kicking their feet out from under them. The watcher kicks him in the chest. Impulse hits the side of the house, the wind thrown from his chest. He ducks under their sword, stabbing at their chest. They block his attack. Duck. Slash. Block. Stab. Kick. It goes on and on before Impulse delivers the final blow to the watcher, his sword entering through their chest and exiting from their back.

"You will never remember what you need to." The watcher curses him, and Impulse can't dodge the magic they send his way. He frowns as the magic doesn't just hit him, but goes through the house and hits Grian and Ren.

"Rose, Daisy, come have a look at what I just did." Orchid calls, trying to remember his friends real names. Rose comes out, his red sweater in taters, he'll need a new one soon. Daisy follows him, pulling the hairband out of his long hair.

"Great job Orchid." Daisy sends him a thumbs up, though he frowns.

"Why does it feel like we're forgetting something?" Rose asks.