#is it too much to want to be a hermit that dies in my log cabin & no one ever discovers me so i am entombed in my nice little home……like?

[lesbianlenas]

my classes start again 3 weeks from today

[frombeyondtheblackhole]

Hermit DSMP Swap AU: Part 9

Foolish flinched. Qackity’s shouting stopped abruptly. It was warmer (Las Nevadas was surprisingly cold). Foolish slowly opened his eyes. An open grave stood at his feet. His heart jumped into his throat and he stumbled backwards, falling on his back. He stared dumbfounded as a bee flew out from the grave and landed on his knee for a moment before flying away. Quackity was nowhere to be seen. 

His breathing slowed and he looked around. He was in a graveyard next to a church. Was he dead? Was this limbo? What had happened? He wasn’t supposed to die… but he had died before. But if he had died just now he still should have had his third life, he should have respawned… maybe he had. Maybe he was still alive… That made more sense. No, wait, he still had all of his stuff, if he had died his inventory should have been empty… Foolish held his head in his hands and stared at the ground.

“You ok there, friend?” 

Foolish’s head snapped up. A man with neon green hair stood on the other side of the stone wall surrounding the graveyard. Foolish quickly picked himself up and brushed himself off. “Yeah, I’m fine, I’m fine… um- this may seem like an odd question, but, am I dead?”

The man laughed, “I don’t know, are you? I mean, I assume you're not dead, cause I’m not dead, unless you’re un-dead, if you know what I mean.” 

Foolish let out a deep breath he didn’t know he had been holding. “Alright, I’m alive, i'm not dead,” He muttered, staring at the sky.

“You sure you’re fine?” The man asked again, putting air quotes around the ‘fine’. “Cause, you don’t seem fine…” 

Foolish shook his head “No, really, don’t worry about me, I was just a bit disoriented, that’s all.”

The man pursed his lips and raised a brow “You asked me if you were dead… not if you had died. Which means you knew there was a chance you might get stuck in a respawn glitch. Have you been messing with server magic?” 

“You make that sound like a bad thing.” Foolish scowled and crossed his arms looking down at the man. He wasn’t in his twenty-three foot form but even in this form he stood almost a foot taller than the other man.  

The man shook his head “It’s not necessarily a bad thing, just dangerous. I mean, I would be a bit of a hypocrite if I condemned people for messing with server magic.”

Foolish didn’t look impressed. “It’s only dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing.” 

“I mean, I guess.” The man said rubbing the back of his neck as he contemplated Foolish’s words “But no one is stupid enough to mess around long enough to get the practice...” He trailed off as he looked up to see Foolish looking at him with an incredulous look, “Oh.” 

Foolish finally relented and his expression softened, “Maybe you're right, I mean, my name is Foolish after all,”

The man chuckled, “Maybe we're both a bit crazy. I’m Joe, Joe Hills. Nice to meet you,” He said, climbing over the low stone wall and reaching out his hand. Foolish smiled and shook it. Joe had a firm grip.

“So you said you have experience with server magic, what can you do?” Foolish asked as the two of them walked out of the graveyard and over to the church. This church was much nicer than church prime. As a builder Foolish could appreciate the detail put into the architecture.   

Joe shrugged as he sat down on the steps and leaned back on his elbows looking up at the sky, “I can see better in the dark If I want to. Honestly, I don’t really mess with it much anymore.” 

“Why not?” Foolish asked, leaning against the wall. 

Joe shrugged but Foolish noticed his grip tighten into a ball. “It wasn’t worth it. A friend of mine got hurt and almost didn’t respawn. Actually, she should be around here somewhere, I wonder where she went?” 

---

Cleo stood on a concrete road getting yelled at by an angry man with a scar through his left eye and a blue beanie.

 “Who the fuck are you? What the fuck did you do to Foolish? Where is Foolish.” 

“Aaa, Foolish is a Zombie!” another man wearing glasses and green suspenders yelled. 

Cleo staggered backwards and summoned a sword from her inventory, “Who am I, what about who are you?”   

“You better tell me, right fucking now, what the hell you did to Foolish or I’ll-”

“You’ll do what? Don’t try me, I’ll put this sword through your skull I will,” Cleo bluffed. 

The man with the scar summoned an axe.  “Charlie, go get Purpled, tell him we have an intruder in Las Nevadas.” 

The man in green, presumably Charlie, looked at him perplexed “But, Quackity from Las Nevadas, why are we attacking Zombie Foolish?” 

“Damn it Charlie, Just get Purpl-” 

Cleo didn’t let him finish. A yell ripped from her lungs as she charged him, sword swinging. Quackity startled and blocked with the shaft of his axe. He shoved her off and she staggered back. Cleo dug her heels in swinging the sword like a club. There was a burst of pain, or more like cold (Pain felt different ever since the undeath) as his axe cut into her shoulder. But he was bleeding too. His axe returned to his inventory as he clutched his arm and staggered back. Cleo gripped her sword tighter, breathing hard, her eyes locked on him. 

She felt the impact and another burst of cold as an arrow hit her in the chest. Her head snapped up, there was a kid in purple firing arrows from a crossbow as he ran towards them. He was wearing full netheriet.

Cleo turned and ran.

“Stop her, she fucking did something to Foolish!” Quackity shouted. She didn’t stop running as arrows landed about her feet. Down the road through a tunnel and past a stone fortress. Cleo scrambled off the road, over a hill. She could hear them still behind her. Dodging through the hills she was able to shake them by looping back around behind them as they continued on. 

Once they were gone she slowed down. She touched a hand to her shoulder. It was throbbing with a dull ache and it felt cold, a deep cold like ice in her veins. She looked down. The arrow was still in her chest. She needed to do something about that. 

She was back at the fortress. Cleo slid down the hill, climbing behind the wall and slumped against the stone. She gritted her teeth and pulled the arrow from her chest with a grunt, dropping it in the grass. A golden apple appeared in her hand and she took a bite, the juice tingling in her mouth as the regen and absorption began to take effect. 

The throbbing eased a little and the wounds began to close. She looked up and froze. An enderman stared back at her with mismatched eyes. No wait, not an enderman, at least not quite. Half of his face was white. 

“Hey Tubbo, I think I found out what Quackity was shouting about.” The half-enderman kid called over his shoulder. 

Cleo staggered to her feet, her sword out. “I won't hesitate to-” 

The half-enderman backed up and raised his empty hands “Oh no, we're not with Quackity,” He explained. 

Cleo scowled but lowered her sword. “Well isn’t that lovely, someone who doesn’t want to stab me.”  

He looked alarmed, “Oh, I wouldn’t do that- I mean, I definitely don’t want to do that.” Now that she got a better look at him he looked kind of young, he was tall but in the lanky teenager kind of way. He looked to be 18 or 19, maybe 17. His suit probably made him look older.  

“Oh hey, so what was Big Q so mad about?” Another kid said as he came around the building. He stopped short when he saw Cleo. “Oh…” He was much shorter than the ender-kid. Two horns curled up out of his brown hair and almost every inch of exposed skin was covered in burn scars. Cleo let her sword return to her inventory. 

“Big man, why is there a funny looking zombie in our base?” the goat kid said 

Cleo bristled, “I’m still a person, thank you.”

The goat kid looked back at Cleo  “Ooooh- oops.”

“Now look what you’ve done, you’ve gone and insulted her.”

“I didn’t meeean to, how was I supposed to know?” The goat kid wined. 

The two bickered like a married couple. Cleo coughed “Um- would either of you two be able to explain what is going on,”

“Haven’t got a fucking clue,” The goat kid chirped, a little to cheerfully. 

Cleo pursed her lips, “Well, could you at least tell me where I am?” 

“Um… The road between Las Nevadas and Spawn. Or do you mean here-here. This is our cookie shop.”  The ender-kid explained.

Cleo blinked.

“I think she means the server big man,” The goat kid said, “This is the Dream SMP.”

Cleo blinked again. So not Hermitcraft. Shit. 

---

The goat kid introduced himself as Tubbo and the ender-kid as Ranboo. Cleo explained what had happened, which made Tubbo laugh. It turned out that the cookie outpost and Las Nevadas were in conflict and Tubbo liked the idea of doing something that would, in his words “Piss off Big Q.” 

Cleo tried to return to Hermitcraft but was met with an error message. Tubbo and Ranboo offered to let her stay in Snowchester till she figured things out. They had no idea how she got there but they didn’t seem too concerned about it.

Snowchester was surprisingly far away from what the kids were calling a cookie shop. To Cleo it looked suspiciously like a military outpost but who was she to judge? 

Snowchester was a quaint little walled in town, overlooked by a massive mansion worthy of any Hermitcraft base. There was a tower, docs, and a little wheat field mixed in with little log and stone houses.  The air was crisp and cold, light snow fell around them landing on her hair and bare arms. Untouched snow coated the steps to most of the houses and closely shuttered windows looked back at her. The ocean lapped against the shore and the sound of a boat bumping against the pier carried up through the town. A single seagull landed on a stone wall. It looked at Cleo and cawed.  

Ranboo and Tubbo lead Cleo around a strangely industrial building on a hill in the middle of the town with “Danger, keep out” signs on the doors. 

“So what’s in there,” Cleo asked, nodding towards the industrial building. 

Ranboo raised his brows and looked at Tubbo. Tubbo pursed his lips “Oh nothing much, that’s just where we do equipment testing. You’re not allowed in there,” he added. There was finality to his tone. Cleo wondered what he was hiding and if it was worth snooping around to find out, but there was a dark conviction in the way that the kid with too many scars said it. The way the ender-kid hovered at his side anxiously watching everything. Maybe she should be careful not to make more enemies.  

They lead her to a little house behind the industrial building. “This used to be Foolish’s but he moved out so you can stay here for now,” Tubbo explained opening the door and letting them inside. 

“Foolish… the guy who Quackity thinks I kidnaped? You’re giving me his house?” Cleo scoffed looking around. A square table and chairs stood off to one side, a counter with a furnace and cabinets lined the back wall and a cactus in a pot sat by the front door.    

“Well, it’s not really his house anymore, he hasn’t lived here for months,” Tubbo shrugged. 

Cleo sighed, “So long as he won’t mind. Goodness this whole situation is a mess.” 

Ranboo gave her a sympathetic smile.  

“Welp,” Tubbo clapped his hands. “We’ll let you get settled in. Just don’t go snooping around in people’s homes, we are pretty private people here.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” Cleo said absently, still looking around the room.

Tubbo and Ranboo left, closing the door behind them. 

There was a silence and then Cleo jumped at the sound of someone drinking milk. She spun around summoning her sword, freezing as the invisibility melted away to reveal Etho standing in the corner. 

“Finally, I thought they were never going to leave,” Etho muttered.

“Etho! What are you doing here?” Cleo bristled. 

Etho looked sheepishly off to the side as he rubbed the back of his head. “We’ll, I might have been following you. If you mean here on this server, we don’t really know. Oh yeah, TFC’s here too. We’ve been stuck on this server for about two weeks now. Least, I’ve been, TFC showed up about a week ago.”

“So wait, You're telling me you have been stuck on this server for two weeks?”

Etho nodded “Yup. Come on let's get out of here before they come back. We can talk at my secret base.” 

Cleo pulled away “Wait, wait. Why? Why were you sneaking around? Why are we avoiding those kids? I would like a good reason before I turn down their hospitality.”

“This server isn’t what it seems to be. It’s seriously glitched out. Haven’t you noticed how many scars everyone has here, how many hybrids there are.” 

Now that Cleo thought about it, even the ender-kid, Ranboo, had scars that looked like tears running down his face. Scars only happened when there was a glitch during respawn so they were pretty rare, the fact that three of the five people she had seen so far had obvious scars was concerning, especially with how bad the scars on that Tubbo kid were. On top of that, Quackity looked like he might be some kind of bird hybrid, with small golden wings, while Tubbo was a goat and Cleo had no idea what Ranboo really was. Hybrids were the result of pretty strong server glitches, and from what Etho was saying those guys weren’t the only ones. 

“So the server is glitchy, that doesn't make them bad people,”  

“There are places on this server that have been blown up all the way down to bedrock. Those kids who seemed so nice, they have nukes in that building right outside. There is a prison that everyone here is terrified of, seemingly for good reason. The Warden that guards it almost killed me while chasing me and TFC away, and said something about hunting us down and killing us till we were completely dead.”  

Cleo blanched “Completely dead… like, they have a way of reliably preventing respawning here.” She remembered what it felt like being stuck in the void unable to respawn. For Joe it had only been a couple of minutes, for her it had felt like hours.

“I don’t know,” Etho shrugged. “I just think it would be best if we all kept a low profile till we can find a way out of here.” 

“I… I trust you, Etho. But I don’t want to leave without letting those kids know that I won’t be staying here. They seem like nice kids, I’d rather not just disappear on them.” 

Etho hesitated, then nodded “Alright, Just be careful, and take this,” He said handing her two invis pots. “You can find me in the sewers under their shopping district, there is a community center in the middle of a lake, the entrance to the tunnels is underneath it.”

Cleo took the potions and smiled reassuringly, “Don’t worry, I got this. I’ll be fiiine.”

“Ok,” Etho nodded and pulled his facemask down. He drank an invis potion before leaving the building.

Cleo sighed. Perma-death hum, would that even work on her? Seeing as she already kinda died before. She didn’t want to have to find out.

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

the hermits as dumb things my friends and i have said on our minecraft server

Scar: Yummy obsidian

Cub: ???

Cub: You eating it?

Scar: Tastes a little bit burnt

Scar: Like smokey burger

...

Cleo: I only want their heads

Cleo: Is that so much to ask

...

Bdubs: Thief

Etho: ?

Bdubs: You’re stealing wild sugarcane

Etho: The operative word being “wild”

Doc: Feral sugarcane

Doc: Just like normal one but can bite you

Etho: Like Bdubs

Bdubs: Yes!

...

Grian joined the game

Grian: I don’t care about Jesus

Mumbo: Oh my god Grian you just killed me

Mumbo: I’m dying at that being the first thing you say when you log in

Grian: My teacher is talking about Jesus and I went to play Minecraft instead

Mumbo: Reject Jesus, embrace Minecraft

...

Zedaph, looking directly at a hoglin’s backside from two blocks away: I wonder why this hoglin isn’t attacking me

...

Grian was slain by MumboJumbo

Iskall: Casual murder

...

Scar: I have 1 heart

Bdubs: Where are you Scar I just wanna talk

GoodTimeWithScar was slain by Bdoubleo100

Xisuma: F

Xisuma: Here lies Scar

Bdubs: I’ll give you your elytra back if we can have a truce

Scar: I know where you live

...

(Grian’s first day in season 6)

Cleo: Hunt heads

Cleo: That’s what I do

Cleo: Speaking of which can I have yours

Grian: S-Sure?

Cleo: :D

Cleo: Lemme just get my executioner hood

Mumbo: Back sorry

Mumbo: What did I miss?

Cleo: Murder

Mumbo: CLEO

Cleo: I neeeeeeeed the heads

Mumbo: I wanted to wait til he dies first

Mumbo: Not straight up execute him

Cleo: Oh

Grian: WH

...

(In Impulse’s base)

Tango, popping by for a visit: Hey G

Grian: What do you mean

Grian: I’m at my base

Grian: Doing nothing

Grian: Nothing sus

Tango: Understandable have a great day

...

Mumbo: Why the frick is there a snowball in my furnace

Mumbo: Grian

Iskall: SDFGH

Grian: THAT WASNT ME

...

Mumbo: Iskall assaulted me with snow today

Grian: That’s exactly what I’m gonna do too in a sec

Mumbo: ASDFGHJK

Grian: I’m coming for you

Mumbo: Oh no

...

(After destroying the goat statue)

Bdubs: *chuckles* I’m in danger

Doc: Not yet :)

Bdubs: Thanks that’s very unsettling

...

Cleo: That awkward moment when you accidentally give the armour stand your sword and then take his pants while trying to get the sword back

Joe: ASDFGH

Cleo: Feels like you weren’t expecting that message

Joe: I was not

...

Grian: Would you mind if I killed you

Bdubs: Gimme a sec

Grian: Now for something I never thought I’d say

Grian: Would you like to run away first

...

Grian: Watch this

Grian experienced kinetic energy

Impulse: Epic

Tango: Flew into a wall?

Grian: Okay that spread my stuff out more than I expected

Impulse: Welcome to my base

...

Grian: I like killing myself every now and then

Mumbo: That sure is a sentence

...

Grian: Oi I wanna raid your base Mumbo where are you

Grian: *visit

...

Etho: I’m gonna hunt you

Etho: :)

...

Grian: I love brutally ripping off the heads of defenceless creatures, vicious mobs, my friends, and myself

[strawberrylemonz]

Campfire Tales

Part 3 of my series!  Thank you for 100+ followers!!!

As usual, do ask me any questions you may have regarding this series! 

This is dedicated to both @petrichormeraki and @applepie1000

Enjoy!

Part 2

Part 3 [CURRENT]

Part 4

————————

“You’re gonna burn the ‘mallows”

“Am not”

“Are too”

“Am not”

“Are too”

“Calm down, you two”

Everyone was sitting around the campfire as Tommy brought out the sticks and marshmallows. He had already taken out the rest of the supplies to make snacks and drinks using the fire, doing his best to make sure that everyone was comfortable before he explained his time before joining the hermits.

“You doing alright?”

Tommy stiffened at the sound of being addressed so suddenly. Turning to his side, he saw his older brother smiling up at him. Tommy had been feeling very anxious since the group began their hike up to the campfire, so the sight was comforting for him. He returned the smile to his brother, who extended a hand out to him.

“Let me help you with those, Toms. Just sit down and relax for a bit. You’re probably very nervous.”

Now, Tommy would usually bite back with an overconfident comment, but Tommy didn’t feel like his usual self. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders and handed Grian the remaining supplies. Grian, in turn, grabbed the supplies before sitting his little brother down on a seat. Ruffling his hair with affection, Grian handed Tommy some marshmallows before setting off to finish handing everything out. 

“You get near that majestic cat, Iskall, and I will stab you”

“Okay, okay, I’m backing off.”

Peering up, Tommy saw Cleo scoop up a cat, before walking off to sit on a different log seat. Iskall, in turn, nervously laughed as if he just escaped death. ‘Wouldn’t be an understatement.’ Tommy thought with slight amusement. Iskall then turned to Tommy, smiling at the younger boy. Tommy, returned the smile, waving at the man. Iskall saw that as an invitation and proceeded to sit down next to Tommy on the log.

“Nervous?”

“Is it really that obvious?”

“Well, yeah. You started to tone down on the cussing when we arrived at Pirate’s Pier. You stopped cussing in general when we took Captain Puffy’s ship to the campsite, and you haven’t cussed since. You’re also fidgeting around a lot.”

“Shit”

Iskall let out a laugh as Tommy shoved his face into his hands. Patting the young adult’s back with care, he did his best to comfort Tommy.

“Hey, it’s alright. We’ll understand if you decide to stop telling us. But don’t push yourself to either share past your comfort or to coop up all your feelings. It’s not healthy for you, and we’ll all attack you with care and affection until you feel better.”

Tommy barked out a laugh as he playfully pushed away Iskall’s face.

“That’s all you lot have been doing since I arrived. Been acting like I’m your baby brother, or some shit.”

“Well, that’s the case. At least, for one of us.”

At that, the two peered over to Grian, who was putting up the left over supplies with haste, obviously eager to begin unraveling his brother’s pain.

“He seems more hyper than usual”

“I’m pretty sure it’s on the account that he found out that his favorite raccoon is, in fact, his younger brother.”

“I hope he isn’t disappointed-”

Tommy was interrupted when a hand covered his mouth. Feigning irritation, Tommy peered over at the owner of the hand, Iskall. Quirking an eyebrow at him, Tommy gave a pointed look. Iskall huffed before removing his hand from Tommy’s mouth.

“What the hell was that for, Isk-”

“Don’t say that.”

“Don’t say what? Your name?”

“No, Tommy, not that. Don’t say anything about Grian being disappointed in you being his brother. The two of you have been acting like brothers since the day you two met. You guys are two peas in a pod, burrowing in bases together and pranking any fool who let their guard down. He is more than happy to have you as his brother.”

“How can you be so sure when you say that?”

“Because, Tommy, I saw how he reacted. The two of you obviously couldn’t see that well, with the two of you weeping up an ocean-”

“-Did not-”

“-Did too. Anyways, I saw his reaction to putting the pieces together. It was a whole new Grian, one we never got to see before. His facade fell the moment he saw who you were. Something changed in his eyes, and he held you with more pride and love than he ever did before. He’s more than happy to have you as family.”

Tommy furrowed his eyebrows before looking Iskall in the face. He wanted to doubt his words, he really did. He wanted to believe that he didn’t deserve so much of Grian’s love, that he didn’t deserve a special place in his heart. One look at Iskall’s face, however, was more than enough confirmation that he wasn’t being lied to. As much as Tommy wanted to avoid his brother’s love, he knew he couldn’t. All Tommy could do was to just pray to Clara that this brotherly bond would not be torn apart and bombed, just like his last two. He just wanted a family member he could rely on, not one that would break him with betrayal and miscommunication.

“What are you two talking about?”

Tommy peered up to see Grian standing there, munching on a melted marshmallow. Rolling his eyes, Tommy snorted at him as Iskall laughed.

“Talking about how much of a big man Toms is.”

“Hey! Watch the sarcasm! I am a big man!”

Grian snorted before sitting down on the other of Tommy, getting comfortable on the log. The two brothers shared a smile before Tommy faced the rest of the group.

“Everyone ready?”

A chorus of confirmation was given, a single nod to return them. Sighing, Tommy situated himself and cleared his throat.

“I’m severely grateful for all of you, truly. You’ve all looked past the fact that I was a bastard and decided to keep me around. You guys helped me come to terms with things that I once thought was impossible to come to terms with. You’ve all even helped me heal from those stupid, shitty triggers. I really don’t know where I’d be if I hadn’t ended up here, especially looking back to where I was at my previous server.”

He saw everyone’s face gain some form of affection at his words. The pat on his back and the hand on his was all he needed to know that he woild go through with this. They’ve housed him and healed him for over 2 years, they deserved to know what they saved him from.

“Alright, it all started when I got an invite to Dream’s server, the Dream SMP.”

————

Grian didn’t know how to react, how to feel. How could he? It’s not everyday that you find out that the amazing big brothers you idolized weren’t so amazing after all. How could the people that vowed to look after their baby brothers turn around and break the youngest one? Tommy claimed that everything was a misunderstanding, and that he deserved his punishments, but no one deserved punishments that severe.

“-I tried telling them how that made me feel, but Technoblade and Wilbur said that it had to stay in the pit. Tubbo tried to tell me that it wasn’t a big deal, but he was terrified of fireworks for so long after that. Not just fireworks, loud noises in general.”

Grian could tell how uneasy everyone was feeling, but they all understood not to prevent the boy from sharing. He had a lot of built up trauma that he tried forcing away, and that wasn’t healthy for him. He had to get everything off his chest, for the betterment of his mentality and health in general. Grian tried not to grimace as Tommy moved onto the death of the president, how he died of a heart attack. Doing his best to make sure his brother was comfortable, he periodically offered the younger boy drink and snack breaks in order to collect his thoughts. Tommy was grateful for these. 

“-He was so mad that we reinstalled a person to be our leader, saying that we betrayed him, but that’s not the case! I promise you it wasn’t! I wouldn’t have intentionally betrayed someone that I saw as my brother, my idol, my...my friend.”

Grian put an arm around the slouching boy and after making a mental note to help him fix his posture offered him a hand. Tommy happily accepted the comfort, trying his best to compose himself.

“And then he...he...”

“What is it, Tommy? What did Techno do?”

“He asked me if I wanted to be a hero. I didn’t even get to properly answer him. I still remember his words, they are forever engraved in my brain. ‘You wanna be a hero, Tommy? Then die like one!’ Then he set fucking withers on my nation, my home. Pathetic, isn’t it? Haha, and that’s not the worst part! That wasn’t even the worst disaster to have happened on that stupid, cursed day. My nation was blown up, and when I had turned to see what happened, I saw Wilbur, standing there, laughing at the chaos. Next thing I knew, dad- er, Phil, he...he killed him. I lost Wilby. I couldn’t save him from his madness.”

His voice had gotten much quieter as he spoke about that painful day. If everyone wasn’t so quiet they would have missed it, the way Tommy’s voice broke and quivered. Trying not to break, he leaned into his older brother, not paying any attention to the height difference. Grian, in turn, was holding his little brother as if the world would crumble if he let go. His brother was dead, the other blinded by his personal morals. And his father, his hero, murdered his son in front of the others. Grian did his best to listen to what Tommy was saying, not wanting him to feel unsupported. He just sat there and listened.

“-He didn’t even say goodbye to me. He just stood there as Dream took me away. Ghostbur went along with me, which I was grateful for, but the company of a ghost can only go so far, especially when it’s of your late brother.”

No one could believe the burdens put upon the shoulders of these two boys. They shouldn’t have had to deal with any of this, yet they were forced to do so. They couldn’t get mad at Tubbo, he didn’t deserve to be despised after having to deal with such a stressful decision at such a young age. Iskall took over trying to comfort Tommy while Grian tried to drink as much water as he could, as if it would drown all the emotions he was feeling. He felt absolutely sick hearing what Dream put his baby brother through. He suddenly felt amazing at being a Dream slayer. He was sure Tommy would find comfort in that. Tommy eventually got to the end of his stay with Techno. 

“I was hoping that he would understand why I didn’t stay, why I had to leave. As much as I care for him, he was feeding in to my negative thoughts, and I had to prevent myself from becoming everything I didn’t want to be. He didn’t get it, though. I still saw him as a friend, a brother, but he only saw me as a selfish traitor. He only saw me as someone who wanted to use him as a weapon. Phil called me a traitor, too, and they took down my tower. It’s okay, everyone sees them as ugly pieces of shit. Tubbo and I began to slowly heal our friendship as we prepared for Doomsday, but that’s when things got weird. As Tubbo and I went on a walk to discuss our plan, some weird portal opened up in the ground. I felt weightless as I fell in, and then I ended up here. I’ve been here with you guys ever since.”

Before he could say anything else, Tommy was engulfed into an embrace. Grian buried his brother’s face into his chest, kissing his brother’s hair as he rocked him back and forth. Iskall joined in and rubbed the boy’s back, Mumbo approaching and supporting Grian and Tommy’s weight so they wouldn’t fall. Xisuma stood behind the two, hand on Tommy’s shoulder. One by one, Stress, Scar, Joe, Tango, False, everyone began to join in on the comfort circle to give support to the brothers.

--------

Grian and Tommy had not detached from each other since the campfire. No one pointed that out, not this time. They just gave the birdie personal space with his raccoon of a brother. Everyone gave the two smiles, wishing them goodnight as they all left to stay in the lodging of their choosing in the adventure park. Tommy and Grian waved at them before turning to leave to their choice in lodging. After a while, they arrived to their destination, the Antarctic Empire. After standing in the hall and debating which room to stay in, they eventually decided to stay the night in Grian’s room. Once the were changed for bed, the two just sat on the bed, unsure whether or not they should talk about something or force themselves to sleep. Finally, sucking in a breath of confidence, Tommy spoke up.

“So, since festival week is in a few months, wanna help me plan our outfits and hand out fliers?”

[give-grian-rights]

HERMITCRAFT 8 LIVEBLOGGING

fifteen hermits worth of liveblogging. i am losing my mind. LONG POST AHEAD.

JOE HILLS (First HC8 Video)

Mumbo did the speech. he forgot everything he was supposed to say <3

Pearl and Gemini were just .in a pit . having stuff thrown onto them

Every Hermit is staying on the same continent !!

FIRST DEATHS VERY QUICKLY, Iron Golems took out Tango and Etho (maybe more?)

Joe seems to be the only one looting the chests

Evil Jevin !!

Evil Xisuma appearance on Jevin’s 60 second video!

Pearl has something planned for an “archeticual wonder” for a resupply area upon death?

Stress, Xisuma and Joe are capturing villagers and starting up a resupply debut.

Bdubs is killed by Cleo and is now OUT FOR BLOOD

First death counts- Etho, Tango, Bdubs, Cleo?

Cleo was killed by Keralis

Joe has now supplied Cleo with weapons and food . She left but not before saying “Time to kill BDubs again!”

Gemini was killed by Bdubs! They both died and are now at spawn.

Pearl was killed by Cleo

Pearl is planning a respawn inn !!

Cleo was killed by Iskall

Cleo was killed by Pearl

False, Stress, and Gemini team up??? AA!!! they brought a delivery of supplies to Joe <3

i wish i knew what was happening on that end .

APPARENTLY XISUMA IS ONTO MAKING THE SECOND VILLAGER BREEDER ALREADY ??

Iskall is the first with Diamonds??

Breathe in that ash !

WAIT IS TANGOS EYES LIKE THAT RN BECAUSE HES TEAMED WITH KERALIS AND BDUBS ???

KERALIS, BDUBS, AND TANGO TRIED TO DO A SHAKEDOWN ON JOE. HE TRIED TO DROP LAVA, GOT HIMSELF ONTO TWO HEARTS BECAUSE HE PLACED IT ON HIMSELF, AND IS NOW SWIMMING OUT INTO THE SWAMP

the big eyed trio are now off to shake down Gemini

Joe fell in Lava in the Nether

Joe Death To Lava Two: Electric Boogaloo

Joe drowned trying to kill a glowsquid

WATCH JOE’S VIDEO OH MY GOD SEAN HILLS RECAP RAP??? MY BELOVED????? i am gonna be streaming this unironically later LIKE OH MY GOD THIS SLAPS. ALSO THE CREDITS AT TEH END IS HILARIOUS

Zedaph Episode Recap

Zed gave us a recap of the continent every Hermit will be living on !!

Wouldn’t recommend Zedaph as the first video for the season, he skips the intro/speech but it’s Zedaph and hes making it fun!! Lots of nice editing :)

~SCIENCE TIME !~

Zedaph.. why is your starter base made out of concrete ?

There are no sheeps whatsoever on his mountain

Hes calling his lab an icecream sandwich..yeah i see it

Zed tried to make a portal underater...f

Scar died to a creeper </3

Zedaphs base is gonna be tracking how long hes there/someones loading the chunk!

XISUMA LIVE BLOGGING

A cool cinema scene of him becoming an axolotl!! <3

NOW I CAN SEE IT, GRIAN WAS THE FIRST DEATH!! Death by Iron Golem!!

XIsuma’s baseplans need over 45 THOUSAND BLOCKS TO BE PLACED

He’s also planning on making a shulkershell farm!!

i’m not gonna lie ! talking axolotl X is horrifying ! thanks !

Day one Villager Breeder... chaos.

Xisuma Derp! looked straight at a buncha wool and said how badly he needed beds and then walked away

THE GIRLS CAME OVER AND CONVINCED HIM HE NEEDS TO MOVE THE DESIGN OVER MY FIVE BLOCKS FOR SWAMP VILLAGERS..

THE GIRLS ARE JUST LAUGHING AT HIM AND HIS VILLAGER TROUBLES

day one and Xisuma has got his axolotl!!

Very pretty starterbase!!

XB’s

..I’m not gonna lie theres not much to say!! He’s very calm :) he says hes going into it without a plan, and htat last season was the only time he had any thought of what he was gonna do.

He made a real nice starter house and thats about it!

Cleo’s

Bdubs: “She ain’t gonna hurt me!! i’m invincible, babey!”

Cleo learnt that BDubs will never hurt her even if she deserves it . I am starting to realize why she kills him

SHE DECIDED SHES GONNA BE A PROPER CHAOS GREMLIN THIS SEASON...

AISDJASID CLEO GOT PAID TO KILL BDUBS?? HDUIAIHSI SCAR WHY

“Alright I found my mission for the season! Murder.”

Cleo, Mumbo, Grian, and Scar are all holed up in a cave together!

..Scar died from a skeleton !

Cleo has now split from Grian and Mumbo! Scar is missing in action

CLEO FOUND A GOAT

SHES KILLING THE GOAT???

she got a HORSE <3 and Joe gave her a saddle! I think her name is..Widget?

She LOVES the candles for shamboo n waterbottles and bits n bobs for her armorstands!!

Got her Armorstand stickgod book <3

Geminitay POV

NEW HERMIT NEW HERMIT NEW HERMIT!!

She has a LOVELY voice!!

The pov of her in a hole . being surrrounded . is kinda hilarious

It might’ve been Etho who was first death?? I GENUIENLY CANNOT TELL BECAUSE OF EDITING

All the murder was just for heads!

Seriously her voice is. wow

WE LOVE A QUEEN WHO KNOWS HOW TO CRAFT A SHIELD WITHOUT USING THE GUIDE <3

False, Gemini, and Stress are on the great journey for MOSS !

Gem just blew their minds with the moss.

TANGO KERALIS AND BDUBS ARE BACK Keralis: “Show the diamonds show the diamonds show the diamonds!” Gem: “Keralis. This is not how you make friends.”

The boys suecessfully recieved a diamond each

Etho n Iskall are travelling together!! You dont see those two together often

Etho got a glowsquid head!!

Gem: “Etho doesn’t share, is what i’m learning..?”

Etho hooked her with a fishing rod and said she has to do what he said .

In order to get the diamonds, Tango, Keralis, and BDubs placed down a sign saying “Gem is Great!” and Gem used a glow inksack on it.

Etho: “So..What is this? Do you have an ego, or this a motivational thing, or..?” He said, while laughing

Iskall: “I think its really funny that you have set your base up in the middle of a birch forest.” Gem: “I love birch forests! Do you not like my birch forest? Iskall: “I love it, yeah.” Gem: “This is the best biome in the game, Iskall.” Iskall: “Mmmm..” Etho: “I’m pretty sure I heard Iskall talking earlier that like, of all the biomes in the game, there was one he hated more than anything. Gem: “Oh really? And what was that one?” Iskall: “..Taiga.” Gem: “Taiga.. That’s true, thats a good one, thats a good one.” Iskall: “Don’t like Taiga.” Gem: “Mhm.” Etho: “Which one do you hate more than anyone?” Iskall: “..Diorite fields. Thats a bad one.” Etho: “Yeah thats a bad one.” Gem: “Didn’t know about that one. Well make sure to avoid’em. Birch forests are really good.” Iskall: “I’m a big fan of birch forests.” Gem: “Yeah, me too, me too. I’m glad we’re on the same page :) This is so beautiful! All the white and- and the like zebra stripes! is fantastic.” Iskall: “I..Um.. Yes.”

OH SHE’S CANADIAN,, ETHO HAS A FRIEND /j

She’s still in college :O SHE’S A SCIENTIST?? SHES WORKING AT A HOSPITAL?? POG!!

She accidentally found an enchanted golden apple in a mineshaft!! she thinks its the first she ever found in survival!!

She has a cow, sheep, and a few crop farms set up!! Her starter house has INTERRIOR!

SHE CHANGED HER SKIN AND ITS SO PRETTY AND HAS OVERALL AND I LOVE IT!!

shes doing a cottage core inspired base!

WOAHH!!! SHE MADE HTE MOST GOREGOUS CUSTOM TREE I’VE EVER SEEN ??

BDUBS IS HERE and he is so so so impressed by the tree ?!

also hes carrying a clock.. :(

He’s here with a present!

HE BROUGHT BAMBOO!

she thinks its so funny that he stops conversations to sleep AOIDHFEAUI\

SCARS

WE GOT A TRANSITION SCENE!! the canonical reason for the bed in his old village always being occupied is because underneath it, was his wizard portal!

Bdubs: “It’s a new season! You’re the little guy now!”

They are all very amused by that ^

they’re rubbing the fleece of bdubs jacket .

Bdubs: “Have a nice rub :)” PLEASEAHSIOJDIUASLDHIASDA

His starter base is gonna be a wagon and he wants the end game to be a bioshock esque skyscraper!

he confused a horse for a player . flashback to iskall thinking mumbo was a mob

PEOPLE THINK MUMBO DOESNT HAVE PANTS ON.... </3

Scar, Mumbo, and Grian.. have NO braincells. at all. THey just placed a crafting table with a boat on top with a bed on top with a boat on top .

this is what BROS FOR LIFE looks like.

BOATEM POLE !

SCAR IS STUCK UNDERGROUND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT IRL AND HAS NO PICKAXE..

AND HE DIED TO A CREEPER .

it seems like Grian, Mumbo, and Scar are working together !!!! HOLY SHIT !!

THERES SO SO SO MANY FARMS???????

he died several times trying to catch a skeleton with a sword

FIRST CHEST MONSTER OF THE SEASON <3

SCAR JSUT TOLD BDUBS HE LOOKS LIKE OSCAR THE CROUCH... BDUBS CANNOT EVEN ARGUE

OH NO.... GRIAN WENT AFK IN A HOLE . WITHOUT A HELMET .

THEY PUT A  GLOWSQUID HEAD ON HIM

OH MY GOD MUMBO MADE A NOTEBLOCK SONG?? AJUDA

SCARS BUILTING IS SO SO SOOS GOREGOUS SERIOUSLY GO WATCH THE VIDEO OH MY GOD ITS HUGE

its a giant ass house boat wagon . its pulled by a llama . that killed him . so now its trapped, pulling hte agon, forever

Grian: “..Thats a very big house, for a very little hat.”

GRIANS SUPER SPECIAL EGG??

SCAR PUNCHED IT..

they really came out here . and killed the egg already.

Scar: “..I touched the thing”

TANGO POV

We see the three big eyed boys forming <3 they interrupted Tangos intro

THEY’RE BULLYING HIM ABOUT HAVING SMALL EYES AHIDUIASUHDWIS

HE TRIED TO CALL THE TRIO TEAM BUG EYE... THE OTHERS ARE VERY OFFENDED

they found an axolotl and Bdubs was TERRIFIED just screaming “WHAT IS THAT YELLOW THING?!”

BDUBS IS ATTACKING IT ???

okay nope Bdubs caught one and Tango lost it

Bdubs is naming his axolotl Idiot

AMAZING HOUSE. WHY IS TANGO SO GOOD AT BUILDING AND REDSTONE??

Impulse POV

MUMBO TRIED TO PLACE DOWN A BERRY BUSH TO HURT IMPULSE . HE FORGOT HOW BUSHES WORK..

I DIDNT EVEN NOTICE THAT IMPULSE WAS IN THE BOATEM POLE

so it looks like those four are hteo nes who grouped up together

PEARL BROKE THE CONSTITUION SHE GOT IN THE WRONG BOAT SMH

THIS IS SEASON EIGHT! FIVE BROS !

So its gonna be about five people in the same area!!

YOO!! Fantasy build for Impulse!!

G gave Impulse a spyglass, they had a fun moment of zooming in on eachothers face and complimenting eachother IHAUDIHAW

Grian and Impulse worked on an xp farm!

ASHDUIWAHISD GRIAN JUST LOGGED ON INFRONT OF HIM

a pillager stole his boat . not just any pillager . the one with a banner. </3

he has to live with Mumbo tuning a song .. </3 haha

Mumbo POV

it took fifteen seconds until Grian ran in during Mumbos intro

CONFIRMED? GRIAN WAS FIRST DEATH?

SECOND PERSON TO THINK MUMBOS PANTS ARE SKIN COLOR. GRIAN..

Grian: “Can you..Briefly explain why you’re just wearing a hawaiian shirt?” Mumbo: “Uh- what do you mean ‘just wearing a hawaiin shirt? I have shorts on as-well, dude”

FOLLOWED BY

Mumbo: “Can you explain why you’re wearing a red jumper?” Grian: “You know- you know i was born with this!”

MUMBO AND GRIAN STOLE THE BOAT LOOT FROM RENDOC

I THINK RENDOC JUST STOLE THE DIAMOND MUMBO THREW??

Grian: “Is that Scar?” Mumbo: “I can’t see past your giant waffle!”

DSFSDFJIOA they did an edit where they placed down a boat, both Mumbo and Grian got in, they made noises and then bopped up on top of the ravine they were in <3

THEY HAVE NO BRAINCELL THEY JUST PLACED DOWN A BENCH AND SAID “THIS IS THE MARK OF OUR VILLAGE!” and then placed a torch and a boat and a bed and aANOTHER BED..

..Mumbo is trying to be a pacifist this season!

Grian’s taunting him with beheaded things

And obviously part of being pacifist means he’s gonna be vegetarian in minecraft!

..he cannot use monster farms because pacifisim..

Mumbo was in the middle of reading the magical Timmy shack that Tango made (did i remember to mention that? who knows) and IN THE MIDDLE OF GETTING TO THE PART ABOUT IF YOU REMOVE STUFF FROM THE CHEST, NOTHING WILL BE ADDED IN IT AGAIN. Grian opened the chest . Mumbo SHOUTED HIAUDHUW Grian jumped man

They renamed it “Cave of Do Not Enter” HIAUEDUH

Mumbo and Scar BOTH did not know- at least Mumbo didn’t, Scar forgot,  that podzol spawns from two-by-two spruce..

him and his guitar song to be played underneath his house.. it goes with the aesthetic i suppose

MAN HE NEEDS SO MUCH HAYBALES I FORGOT THATS NEEDED FOR THE TUNE HE WANTS

Mumbo: “What.. On Earth.. Scar, it’s meant to be a starterbase, buddy! What is this? This is many things, many many things, a starterbase is NOT one of them!”

HE LITERALLY DIDNT KNOW THAT THE DRAGON EGG TELEPORTS... WHEN YOU TOUCH IT...

BDUBS

nothing special we havent seen yet!! just him screaming about axolotls.

He was working in the Mesa in his intro, skipping the “speech” from Mumbo

He released Idiot the Axolotl and lost it .

Him SCREAMING “Gemini” is HILARIOUS

While Gemini gave away those three diamonds, Keralis got so excited he won a bet with Tango and Bdubs, that he gave back . two of the diamonds . and none of htem released until well after they left

Bdubs: “That’s why i have my mwoss skin!” PLEASE I LOVE THE WAY HE SAYS IT.. make the moss hood.. REAL..

it took me a while to figure out what his base is but i LOVE IT so so much!!!

Nothing much new to add !!

Stress pov

please i love her . very good !! False seems to have joined her sheerly because Stress sounded like she knew what she was doing. she does not.

False felt peerpressured and asked Stress for permission to fight her because everyone was killing eachother .

It ended up with Stress following False. they found a village!

ISKALL only saw him one other time today!!

JEVIN APPEARS AGAIN !

XISUMA FELL INTO HTE BREEDER AND IT WAS SO FUNN IUAHHYIAUSD

Ren: “Ya look goregous, Stress!” Stress: “Thanks! Don’t murder my dog!”

She’s so proud of herself for caving!! (with False n Gem

Iskall blew up!

..Iskall fell from a high place

Stress has a LOVELY ravine base!!

False

False wants to become pirates with Stress <3

gatekeep gaslight girlboss

BIG OL MUSHROOM HOUSE !!

it looks like a mushroom church and i LOVE IT.

Nothing new we didn’t see from Gem. She does want to come up with a banner design for her base, though!

Grian

..Mumbo just thought Grian had a purpose so decided to follow him <3

ALSO HIS INTRO, AS HE JOKED ABOUT IN THE OTHERS VIDEO, WAS, IN FACT, THE BOATEM POLE

Grian is SO PROUD of the fact taht they got good loot from a treasure map. Ren and Doc are NOT IMPRESSED

Grian: “Lets go, potato boy!”

Mumbo: “I don’t have to replace everything I break! Peace Love and Plants- are these plants..?” He says, mining amethyst

pants

he who controls the egg, controls the server... Grian.. you’re doing great sir

...He decided.. his goal.. is to make his OWN..caves and cliffs update... HELLO..?

Grian was the first one to kill the enderdragon, MAN. Speedrunning career WHEN? /j

Grian: “And now [Mumbo] is flexing on my bed!”

he might not have a base. but he has an egg.

It is now 2am. i cannot do this anymore. This will be continued.. tomorrow!

[hermitcraftheadcanons]

Scattered AU Masterpost Part 2 [COMPLETE]

Due to post length limit (which is apparently a thing), this AU has been split into two parts. Find Part 1 here!

Join the Discord server here!

Contributions:

- Mumbo has a pet ravager miscellaneous ideas: the ravager is actually a bit small as far as ravagers go. Once Mumbo leaves to go to the hermits, he doesnt take the ravager with him, for fear the environment wouldn't be right for it. However, the ravager follows him and Iskall, startling both when it comes running up to Mumbo. The ravager does not like any of the hermits, however it doesn't attack them because it can understand that Mumbo cares about them. - anonymous

- related to scattered au and "what if this happened to old hermits too" -- python's stuck in a death loop in a bastion (his spawn is right next to a piglin brute). he has no clue what's going on but by god, does he blame zloy - Anonymous

- Consider: Etho's mask protecting him from the flowers that gave Hypno so much trouble. - @/rayveewrites

- (Scattered AU) After Etho dies accidentally at the spawn haven, his spawn takes him to Xisuma. Xisuma is clinging to life when he gets there, and Etho only has time to grab his admin's arms and promise he'll be found before Xisuma passes away. Etho and Xisuma get a few hours together to work on getting Xisuma to the surface before Etho starves to death, and he's transported somewhere else. After that Etho makes it his mission to cycle through spawns as quickly as possible to help Xisuma and anyone else who is trapped in their spawn graveyard, no matter how much his legs start to fail him from the damage starting to linger from building into the sky and leaping off to respawn over and over. - @/petrichormeraki

- Some honorable mentions from my written summary for mumbo in the au: the illigers being terrified as he keeps coming back no matter how many times they kill him; he gets adopted by evoker; he fails at evoker magic, like so bad he cant even dye a sheep; the evoker being so done with mumbo that they beg the vex to give him magic; mumbo summoning scar when the vex get annoyed at how often he summons them, mumbo eventually summoning bdubs after scar's contract to mumbo runs out.... and so much more - @/therainofsweetmelody

- Moobloom!Hypno attracts bees - @/itsabork

- Not too long into his messenger journey, etho remembers what had happened to impulse by the time he, zed and tango had found him, which inspires him to try and die in a different way each time he sets off to find another hermit, partly to avoid becoming resiliant to certain death methods and partly for the challenge - Anonymous

- Because Doc hasn't died his death messages haven't been showing up in the chat. The other hermits don't know if he's even in the same world as them. - Anonymous

- (Scattered AU) More on the Mumbo accidentally summoning Scar thing; the summoning has "opened" the chat for them, but only between Mumbo and Scar. All evokers can call on their Vex, after all, so why not an evoker in more-or-less training? - @/petrichormeraki

- (alternate headcanon) There's so much discussion in the server, I wouldn't know where to start restating. However, I wanna mention one thing: scar spawning in xisuma's first spawn, deep in a geode down under ground. Being trapped in an endless death loop due to the warden lurking just outside the geode, forcing scar into the same loop xisuma had been trapped in so long ago. Not only does he have to deal with the separation from bdubs once they got out of the end, now he seemingly cant escape the warden's clutches.... - @/therainofsweetmelody

- Admins log who knows how long: I've finally managed to get my helmet some repairs with this I could get some plugins to start working hopefully. Considering the situation going on, I better not have derped to hard on this, not now. - Anonymous (singleplayer sleep now works)

- (Scattered AU) Because the code is glitchy for mob hermita, Jevin would spilt when injured too much. So while X and Jevin are trying to get to the surface, they encounter a dungeon or a mineshaft and Jevin gets fatally injured. X starts freaking out cause he doesent want to be alone again and he cant bear to watch Jevin die infront of him and risk getting lost and seperated and Jevin just splits, theres two Jevins now and X doesent know what to think of it.While there are two Jevins, their consienceness is split between the two and his motor skills are more sloppy and X notices and realises that Jevin loses more of himself the more he splits. So while he has a lower chance of losing Jevin to an unfortunate accident, Jevin slowly reverts to a slime the more be splits and the more be spends time as multiple entities. X worries that if Jevin splits for too long or too much, he might lose Jevin - @/itsabork

- The only portal to get out of Hels and into the overworld is an incredibly complex vault boarder line weapon built by Hels Doc and Hels Mumbo and the location of the portal is known only to a few and it changes every season. Now cue Helsknight and Wels sneaking all around Hels while trying to look for this basically impossible to find and get into way home. - anonymous

- It takes a while, but eventually those outside of hermitcraft start wondering why all the hermits collectively disappeared. Sure, they started a new world, and sure they’re usually more secluded, but it’s been months. Skizz wonders why he hasn’t heard from Impulse in a while. All the legates wonder where Python went. Everyone’s confused when none of the hermits turn up to the next MCC. Things get weirder when none of them sign up for the one after. -🟣

- Ok to add on to the daisy ravenger post, on his way to 0,0 Mumbo found spawn spawn, slo when he arrived everyone had him at sword point, expecting angry illiger noises they were surprised when they herd "GUYS IT'S ME!!" - Anonymous

(Note: Hermits at the haven currently include Joe, Beef, Hypno, Scar, Bdubs, TFC, Mumbo, and Iskall, in order of arrival. XB is en route, and Etho was there briefly before dying and respawning elsewhere.)

- Pix and Zloy would be the first to notice the hermits' absence. After all, they do a weekly show about them. Maybe they just decided to have a few weeks of downtime before moving to the next Season? Though surely it wouldn't take this long... - @/rayveewrites

- because im a legacy sucker, the legates would likely be the first to notice the hermits' disappearance. between zloy being on the server, skizz being part of zits and very close to impulse, pearl knowing a few hermits, plus python literally disappearing. what they'd do about it? no idea.to keep it more on the topic of hermits though, don't think about how devastated skizz would be to find out what impulse went through. don't think about it :) - anonymous

- Hello I have produced thoughts! I don’t have room for both so I’m sending 2 asks -when Iskall arrives at the mansion all of the illagers are wary; if one of mumbo’s friends are here then he must be leaving soon. Despite their initial feelings they’ve come to care about this idiot that wandered into their house, and they’re fully aware he has no survival instincts whatsoever, so when he does end up leaving they send a ravager to keep him (and his friends, they suppose) safe -@/haworthiaace

- so like... hear me out ok what if the reason the whole world is corrupting and weird and why a lot of people are like slowly turning into mobs is because maybe this is the way the game and the mobs are turning on the hermits for like making really inhumane farms or something like that and the mobs somehow messed with the code of the world to get revenge - anonymous

- Scattered AU!! Biffa spawned very concerned and on a beach. Where is he? How did he get here? Is he alone? Well one of his questions was answered quickly as he heard a constant buzzing sound come from his communicator, upon opening it he saw probably millions of death messages. He quickly realised this was probably supposed to be a new season of hermitcraft, but he didn't really have time to think about it, night was quickly approaching and he could already see drowned swimming towards him. - Anonymous

- How many times did X die to that Warden? Maybe he develops something to counteract the Warden’s sensors, or that his heartbeat slowed down to the point that his suit can barely pick it up (therefor making it harder for the Warden to track Xisuma down). -🦊

- Etho tried his best to fight the system and not get any new features from all his deaths. But, the game has its ways. Slowly, after every death he has, the less alive he comes back. (Undead!Etho, could be ghost, zombie variant, or skeleton variant) -@/harley-the-pancake

- Other hybrid characteristics Hypno gets of the moonbloom: His ears turn into golden cows ones, the horns grow in, he gets a tail, and little flowers grow though his hair and wrap around his horns. He can also grow flowers around him as long as he has dirt, but thankfully they dont do anything beyond smelling a lot stronger and smelling very nice (and maybe a bit of evoking certain reactions, but nothing beyond what normal flowers can do, ie lavender being calming, just a bit more intense) - anonymous

- Beetlejhost ended up in the world along with the hermits, spawning as if summoned: in the middle of a circle of beehives. His spawn is in the birch forest near the s8 spawn, and his presence spooks anyone who stumbles across him. He blends in concerningly well with the black and white of the forest. Beef feels like hes being watched whenever he goes in the birch forest to get supplies, but joe never notices a thing. He teases the hybrids about their changes, leading him to get swiftly decked- - @/therainofsweetmelody

- beetlejhost spawns in a circle of beehives in the birch forest near spawn. he thinks he's invis, in reality it's just his stripes making him blend into the birch trees. he can't leave the circle of bees, ah how wonderful it is to bee bee-tlejhost - @/justme123abz

- Beetlejhost doesn't mean to be mean, really, he just has really, really bad timing. This includes seeing a pollen-stained Hypno and, with his gravelly voice, immediately say "Woah! Someone had some fun in the sun! Tell me, did you spend a week rolling in dandilions or do you just like the color yellow?" This does not go over well - Anonymous

- Speaking of hybrids, Xisuma spawned in a Wardens den right? Well unlike the other hybrids, Xisuma has been changing too but its been slow. Every time he spawned back in that place, on the warped ground, he's changed. He doenst notice the dark starts to seem less dark, until noises get louder, until he's more sentive to it then he noticed, he gets stronger and breaking though the stone with his bare hands seems a bit easier, its not until he finds Jevin and he points out the glowing horns (1)peaking from his temples when his hair is pulled back hastily that he realizes that something has gone horribly wrong with him. Thankfully Jevin helps ground him before he can freak out, so he shelves it for later, once they're out of this cave. The warden that once was down by his spawn is no longer there btw, disappeared. The horns grow slowly, and soon glowing vein like markings appear as well. (2) - Anonymous

- Okay, Xisuma, we established he spawned in the deep dark, right? As time goes on he adapts to the dark. The skulk sensors grow on him. However as time goes on, they not only grow on him, but become a part of him. His footsteps quiet to near silence, and he can feel sounds. He certainly isn't how he was when he entered, at first glance he might even be mistaken for a warden. - Anonymous

- Tango is the only hermit other than Mumbo Daisy kind of likes. Tango thinks Daisy is absolutely adorable, and Daisy does like the positive attention(and the treats). - Anonymous

- When tango meets mumbo’s pet ravager he loses his mind, he tried so hard to get the decked out ravagers to like him and then mumbo just waltzes in riding on one of the things! He ends up hanging around her a lot and eventually forms some sort of relationship, although not as close as he would like (he also gets a little more sympathetic once he sees the effects the evokers had on mumbo, he figures the guy earned a pet ravager) - @/haworthiaace

(Hermits now at the spawn haven, in order of arrival: Joe, Beef, Hypno, Scar, Bdubs, TFC, Mumbo, Iskall, Tango, Impulse, Zedaph. XB is en route, Wels and Hels are traveling through Hels to get there, Ren, Doc, and Grian are attempting to get there but their success has been limited so far)

- Scattered!AU: Idea that Ex is the ONLY one that knows what is going on and how to fix it perhaps (maybe 'cause of having been banished to the void for so long)? That's why he's trying to find X. - Anonymous

- Admins log: day 1006: Me and Jevin finally see sunlight, and I've managed to get the clock function on my helmet working, finally. As we're on our way to the surface, I only hope that I can find someone or something to help guide us to where we need to go, but unfortunately I've lost all signal to chat, and I think we're next to a woodland mansion. I think I've derped up this time.

- Dear Xisuma, if you see this message then the log is working, also fixed the clock in your helmet it's been 50 days, not 1005. I was about to leave with Iskall when I noticed you and Jevin outside with a few, erm, "buddies" of mine you two where passed out and I managed to stop them from killing you with Daisy, my pet ravenger. I'll explain everything later and spawns in the village are working, finally. I recommend not moving much and work on the data packs for a bit before you do anything elseExplanation log to Xisuma part 2: Sorry if the last one got cut off abruptly, apparently there's a limit to these messages. Any way please take care of yourself. Sincerely, your pal Mumbo Jumbo

- Admins log, day 51: I first want to say thank you Mumbo for bringing me up to speed and explaining why and how me and Jevin are here, next I want to say that these logs may slow down for a bit, I'll be working on some maintenance for some packs. I still don't know why this is happening, I now hope this is a wicked nightmare and not our reality. Hang on I see something over there it looks like, wait let me ju- Voice logs are off for the moment.

- all one anon

- mooblooms spread the flowers that enraptured hypno. now that hypno is a moobloom hybrid, he can make people "hypnotizd"! he doesnt like to, but if the spawn ever gets attacked, the hermits are winning easily. - anonymous

- I like to think that at some point when there's a significant number of healthy hermits at 0,0 they start group searches to find the rest of hermits - anonymous

- After awhile, if they can't change the spawn of everyone, they begin securing all the spawn points to everyone, so if their bed is ever destroyed in the future, they won't end up in a death loop again. They secure the death loop spawn points first. - @/ciaravixen

- For undead Etho: I know that ghasts aren't technically undead mobs, but they're basically ghosts and that's what I feel etho is becoming?He's leaving his mortality behind bit by bit as he ceases to care about death and starts to use it as a tool instead.One day he'll respawn without a body at all - @/draconic-dreams

- This is just a thought. Sand cant be good for Iskall's mechanical parts, and its not like he has anything to fix it. Does he have to wait to find doc to be able to have hope of fixing himself? - anonymous

- Jellie had spawned in the village that cub and xb had come across, so when xb heads to 0,0 he takes her with him (she'd be safer in the overworld than in the end, after all). Its quite a long journey, and she makes for good company. -@/supertiny-tins

- Grian, Doc, and Ren fianlly start heading out to 0,0. Its a long journey, they decide in the end to leave their beds behind at the cabin in case any of them die so none of them end back at their orginal spawns. they would of just made new beds every time but the lack of suplies and resources near by has been low oddly enough. Doc manages to push aside most of his fears to help Grian and Ren, who are weaker, but he keeps his distance whenever he can. They make many hastily built huts as they go 1most nights are spent sleeping on hard ground, later straight up blocks of wool they find but not beds, just wool is better then ground, and it doesn't do the weaker hermits any favors but it works. There are many close calls, but they manage to avoid death, mostly due to Doc. Along the way they start to find signs of other players, coble in places it shouldn't, a rare torch, half mined trees, but no hermits. They still have a way to go, but they're getting closer to the others and safety. 2 - anonymous

- Etho once found himself spawning in the middle of an ocean with nothing and no one in sight except of course... A faint trail of lights dancing beneath the waves... Pulsing and glimmering, almost in a rhythm, something so fascinating, so... So... He was meant to be doing something...? It was... Important... At least... It might have been... It's all.. Kinda hazy... It couldn't have been more important than the lights, nothing was more important than the lights... They were so beautiful... He could watch them all day... Etho never noticed how he slipped beneath the waves, nor how the glow squid's glittering eyes had turned upon him, coiling a tentacle around his waist as it dragged its prey deep into the depths, his eyes hazed with green, he never even noticed his lungs burning for air.And he never remembered drowning after he respawned. - anonymous

- Impulse actually punches through the Nether roof so they can traverse more safely to coordinates given to them by Etho. They leave trails of blocks so they can make their way back, of course. - @/rayveewrites

(Evil X is now hiding out in a cave near spawn)

- Shattered!AU: I see everyone's Warden!Xisuma heacannons and I give you Axolotl!Xisuma. Think about it he's been hanging around with them and Jevin in the lush caves so maybe he's becoming more like them. (Frills, a more pink-ish tint to his skin, the ability to breathe underwater, etc.) :D (Is this because the thought of him having Warden traits is terrifying to me? Maybe. Is it because I think he deserves to become something not scary after his whole ordeal in the Deep Dark? Yes.) - anonymous

- Ever since getting out of the loop, Impulse has had a horrible inner conflict between his guardian side being instinctually drawn to the water, and his human brain being deeply terrified of ever being submerged again. - @/asexualbert

- Because I absolutely adore Daisy, more headcannons for Daisy.Daisy will occasionally just pick Mumbo up gently with her horns when she thinks she isn't getting enough attention. Daisy has a bell collar, because she kept scaring hermits by following Mumbo silently. Daisy is more okay with Iskall than most other hermits, though still doesn't really like him. - anonymous

- Though I'm a sucker for angst, what if Impulse was saved by a dolphin pod or something instead of transforming into a hybrid (or after transforming if Guardian!Impulse is cannon). :3 I can picture dolphins don't take kindly to the Guardian Mobs, might even find them as prey if anything since they're fish. (Guardian!Impulse wouldn't count since they're smart enough creatures to tell the difference.) - anonymous

- Prob a bit early for epilogue stuff but I like to think that, once all the glitches are fixed, that those that became hybrids and would prefer to be back to normal get changed back. - anonymous

(Shade note: Personally, I'm a sucker for stories where the characters adjust and learn to live with the unexpected changes to themselves rather than having them magically fixed, but this option is certainly still here for the people who find it appealing)

- For the scattered au, after the numerous frozen deaths Grian's gone through he starts hearing voices from the snow, even from within Ren's cabin. A snow golem forms after a wandering trader drops a pumpkin and watches from outside the cabin, deciding to guard the place after taking a liking to Grian and Ren. - anonymous

- When Etho became fully ghost, it hit hard. BeetleJhost saw this, and after a while decided to teach him how to show his form and speak. It takes a lot out of him, but it’s worth it. His friends deserve that closure. (Listen, I was expecting angst, I just wasn’t expecting that much angst.) - @/harley-the-pancake

- Mod Shade, I want you to know that angsting ghost!Etho that hard was entirely on you. I was picturing him clipping through blocks and dropping items at inconvenient points, not fading out of existence entirely. - @/draconic-dreams

- Possible explanation for everything going on in Scattered:Players were never supposed to be so powerful; in the natural state of Minecraft they're just another mob, albiet one that can craft and use any tool.But the Players weren't satisfied with that. Everyone from the admin of the smallest server to the mythological ‘dev team’ has been imposing little changes on the world since its inception, slowly tweaking it into a better environment for Player-kind.A single spawn at the world's centre. The ability of Players to chat from one end of the world to another -- even across different worlds. Even natural regeneration, an ability unique to the rarest and most powerful of mobs. As time marched on, Players not only unlocked these things but began to take them for granted, drawing far away from the behaviour of normal mobs. This became normal. Players continued to create datapacks and run commands that tweaked the very nature of the world. -@/draconic-dreams

(Shade note: Perhaps it was just a random glitch, one fundamental line of code removed to shift the balance of power. Or maybe it was orchestrated, but by who and for what purpose? Either way, it will take the Hermits a while to realize this, and even longer to fix it...if they can at all.)

- Jessasin spawned in a mesa biome, of course he's confused on how he got there and why he's in this random vanilla world and not his usual modded world, but both questions got pushed aside when the death messeges arrive. He exploared the area gathering as much recourses as he can and goes off too find someone, anyone really. - @/ghan-does-things

- hello! I discovered the scattered au literally yesterday so sorry if this is something that has already been gone over but I had an idea about bdubs, what if his constant exposure to the void and surviving on nothing but chorus fruit for who knows how long made him slightly enderman-y? 1/2 (sorry, couldn't fit the whole thing in one ask)Like nothing obvious at first, but making eye contact makes him agitated and snappy, touching water makes his skin tingle and if you look at him in the dark his eyes seem to have a very faint pink/purple glow about them? Maybe the other hermits swear he's taller than he was the last time they saw him? And the tips of his fingers are blackened, he assumes due to frostbite, but it seems to gradually be making it's way further up his hands? again sorry if this has been gone over already 2/2 - @/plantichu

- Okay so after Welsknight and Helsknight manage to get past the crazy vault door in Hels, not sure how but it probably involved a lot of cussing on Hels part and Wels saying that he never wanted to look at redstone ever again. The portal takes them to the overworld near Xisuma and Jevin. - anonymous

- (scattered au) The first set of non hermits to join this corrupt world are two strangers that apparently came from infinity's grasp. The good news they both spawned at spawn, bad news the brought the tnt duper flying machines, good news that everyone was able to calm them both down. Now the fun begins. Tldr Illmango and Methodz finally get out of the infinity portal. - anonymous

- Loving the Scattered AU. Late to the party, but was looking at the wider MC community reaction to the Hermits vanishing. Once it's clear something bad's happened, would the Legacy crew and whoever else (former Evo squad members like Martyn and Jimmy as well, if they notice Grian go dark) take steps to find out what happened? Would they go to the MCC server (it's kind of a nexus between worlds) & get Noxcrew to try "pinging" the HC server? Would X & other admins see it but be unable to respond? - @/wixelt

- I dont know if anyone has mentioned it but uhhhh, guardian xb? he was a guardian hybrid before everyone got scattered like Ren was already a wolf/dog hybrid. iirc xb spawned in a desert which would be a very interesting place for a guardian hybrid to spawn - anonymous

- Etho has been so, so desperate to avoid dying the same way twice, to stay himself. He hasn't drowned that many times, he thinks. Surely, surely he's starved more often? There's a strange feeling of deja vu hanging over him when he respawns in the ocean, though he can never understand why. Each time the squid finds him, he drowns a little slower, and each time, he glows a little stronger.And he just can't understand, almost refuses to, as he treks from biome to biome, where the small green bumps that line his arms and face came from, how his fingertips seem to almost glow when he scoops a handful of water, how long he finds himself simply staring… at the moon, at sea lanterns, at torches, at lights… He would die a different way every time. He had to. He had to stay Etho. He would not become anything else. - Anonymous

- When Mumbo comes riding into camp on Daisy, it’s easy to see Impulse is not happy about the ravager being there. That’s expected, it’s not exactly everyone’s favorite mob to see around a safe haven. But when Mumbo and Impulse make eye contact, the evoker can’t help but make a simple warding gesture his friends at the mansion taught him- it’s a reflex move. Days later, Mumbo still isn’t sure if Impulse flinched because of Daisy’s sudden growl or his ward. - @/fluffy-papaya

- (From the Discord) What happened to the world: For years, seeds and the land they built had been carefully curated by those known as players, in an effort to make it both easier and more interesting for themselves. But the land doesnt want to be controlled. Their glitched, broken world is a result of the world itself rioting against their presence. Coordinates aren't visible with the debug screen, their coms only serve the world, to tell the players what it knows. Compasses spin wildly in the overworld, for there is no "world spawn" (though coordinates are visible with one in hand. Small mercies are still given). The world resists any further changes by the simple fact it refuses to accept what a hermit communicates. Maybe it's fixable, but maybe... maybe it runs deeper than just their world. (The Legates caused a lot of damage with all those withers, after all.) - @/basaltdragon

- While Iskall is in the desert, he ends up dying quite a few times, enough to adapt, he becomes like a stray, so now, if we have skeleton Etho, we have 3 undead hermits - anonymous

- When everyone is finally gathered and they manage to come together to use all their skills, new and old, the hermits use it to flee back to Season 7. They stay there for months, mostly to heal and adjust to what happened to them. (Trauma isn't easy) Those who have friends or family off server get invited to visit, but the hermits don't leave, they nearly lost each other and they aren't willing to risk it again right now. They'll make a new season 8 at some point, the hermits are too (1/3)restless and too ingrained in their ways to completely disregard how they've always done things, but that will come when they feel better, safer, more put together, when they can finally stop sleeping in a big pile becuase they're afraid the others will disappear. They never go back to that old glitched world, the idea makes them sick, and X starts the new practice of sending in the 'Cam' and/or 'alt' accounts in first to check out the world and set up commands and plugins remotely first. (2/3) What happened before will never, ever happen again he swears it. Next time they might not be so lucky after all [if you can call them all being traumatized, many of them dying over and over again, some being permanently altered, and barely escaping lucky] (also feel free to save these asks for near the end of the au!) (3/3) - anonymous (Shade note: I personally like the idea of them fixing and learning to live in the glitched-out world, but this is another alternate ending!)

- (From the Discord) What happened to the world: Alternatively, what happened is exclusive to their world. (I don't have Dramatic Storytelling for this one, sorry) EX has ADHD to the max, and everything he does is a desperate attempt to get Noticed, to get looked up to and listened to. He's known it was "wrong" for a while, hence why he took X's name and added "Evil", but he never seriously wanted them to hurt. Just to listen to him. He'd meant to come in and fix it all and finally be a hero. He didn't realize, either through haste or inexperience, that he too would be at the mercy of what he'd done.Maybe he does, eventually, make it to where the hermits have gathered. But does he really want to admit everything? (RSD had burned him before, and if there ever was something to place the blame on his head...) - @/basaltdragon

- lasting effects of deaths

- a large amount of assorted ideas

- The bell they put on Daisy was originally of the type that are put on cats, but Grian ended up switching it out with a cowbell because he hated the sound - anonymous

- False, Keralis, Cleo, and Stress make it to spawn, bedraggled and exhausted. Out of all the Hermits, they are some of the last to arrive. Along the way, they’ve encountered trials innumerable that have left them beaten and bruised, but after months of travel, they’ve finally made it.Shortly after leaving the Moobloom field, they came upon an abandoned cart in the middle of a desolate village. With some of the redstone they had found and whatever magic they managed to scrape up, they turned it into a sort of vehicle that allowed them to travel much faster. It had a habit of breaking every six seconds or so, but nothing they couldn’t fix. For the most part. A few accidental combustions aside, they crossed the server in record time.Once at spawn, False has to be forcibly restrained from immediately starting guard duty, and several of the Hermits have to physically wrestle her into a bed in order for her to get some rest. Stress starts up a potion factory the next day, and also starts decorating the spawn with the flowers she’s collected during their travels. Keralis helps out wherever he’s needed, but in his downtime, he constructs an elaborate warren of tastefully decorated, industrial tunnels under the spawn, just in case they might help. Cleo mostly just stays in bed, creating elaborate dioramas and mourning the loss of her zombie side. She’ll get better, but it’ll take some time. And that’s ok with the rest of them. - @/topazastral

- When Doc, Grian, and Ren finally make it to 0,0 there is no fanfare, no dramtic entrance, no revulation. They were travling and suddnly, there was a base, a hermitcraft base, and they could see people. Grian clambers to feet shakily from the shed, nearly falling but Doc and Ren catch him and toghther they help him walk foward and call out to their friends. They are safe now, they're here- Is that mumbo on a ravager what the hell? Wait thats Impluse? Seems like Grian wasnt the only one changed. - anonymous

- Jellie reacting to vex!scar headcanons -she recognises him instantly. The moment she and xb arrive at spawn she darts straight towards him. Of course, she cant figure out why he looks different, but regardless, thats her owner and she demands pets!!!-sometimes she will jump up and try to pounce on his vex wings, because shiny moving thing! Scar picked up on this very quickly and will move out of the way before she gets the chance (vex wings are rather delicate and a pain to get fixed)-whe she's bored, she will always go to mumbo and daisy for attention first. This makes scar rather jealous and she knows that damn well-Scar will sometimes pick her up and fly her around not too far from spawn for a few minutes. Nothing she isnt used to, as he flys with the elytra all the time, but something about flying with vex magic just feels... different. And fun! - anonymous

- Contrary to the enderman bdubs, ender dragon bdubs. His eyes aren't the normal brown, and are instead a bright magenta, he also now has ashen gray horns. - Anonymous

- Scattered AU: The intended world "theme" Xisuma had set up for Season 8 was Large Biomes. This was before anyone knew something was going to go wrong, of course, but it's had a horrible lasting effect in the glitched world. Not everywhere has generated as "large", so when Hermits are travelling they'll sometimes find normal sized biomes, and other times they'll find one biomes that stretches an abnormal distance in all directions. Grian and Doc's mountain range is one of these large biomes. - @/wixelt

- For the scattered au, the snow golem follows Grian and Ren (and Doc) to the spawn haven, for a few days the hermits are wondering what's leaving behind snow trails and zombie flesh, so they decide to have a night watch around this area. Ren volunteered and waited, half-asleep he nearly nearly gets hit with a arrow when he hears the sound of a skeleton getting hurt. He sees the snow golem and uses his sword to kill the skeleton. The snow golem tries to flee but Ren realizes and stops it (1/2)He welcomes the snow golem and introduces it to Grian and Doc, (where the snow golem warns him that it is keeping its eyes on him in its own language). Spooked, Grian tells them that he can understand it, and the golem tells him that he's been following them since their time at the mountain. They decide to give it the name Catmint and it helps guard the hermit's base at night (while giving a stern look at Doc every now and then.(2/2) - anonymous

- (Scattered au)Seeing as we now have 3 different variations of Etho, I raise you: all 3 at once. It turns out Etho was not in fact human, instead a shapeshifter who didn't know that he was, the deaths simply sped up the process, whereas before, while he would change slightly, it was never fast enough to be noticeable - Anonymous

- I had this idea some time ago actually but I thought it was silly but now that the au in ending might as well say it. It doesn't make much sense now with all the new development srry. What if one day Mumbo was callibrating his comunication monstrosity, and suddenly his communicator had signal. He called and called but whoever was a the other side didn't pick up, until they did and Mumbo was overjoyed, but the happiness died down when he could only hear chocked sobs and sharp breathing and (1)teeth chattering. Suddenly a voice whispered, little and fragile "h-h-he-lp". Mumbo knew that voice too well. Before he could even open his mouth to let his best friend he was coming for him, he'd be okay, anything, the breathing stopped. The call was still going, but no one was at the other side anymore, Mumbo hung up with tears in his eyes, and he swore he'd find him and he'd help him. (2) - anonymous

- Scattered AU: While there's still time for them: Mumbo was the furthest Hermit out in the Overworld, & didn't set off for over a year, yet wasn't last to 0,0 (with Iskall) by any stretch. More than half the Hermits seemed to arrive after him. This can be partly attributed to Daisy making good time, but it makes you wonder how many trials & tribulations impeded False, Stress, Cleo and Keralis along the way? How much Ren, Doc & Grian were slowed by Grian's condition? What took xB or Biffa so long? - @/wixelt

- Once everyone finds each other, at the world spawn, after the initial shock, and fixing of the world of course, the hermits all decide to settle much closer to each other. They were separated for quite a while, so it makes sense why they'd decide to keep close. Some groups also make shared bases. - anonymous

- I sort of want grian to be a bit more inhuman so how about grian’s skin on his arms, legs and most of his face permanently blackened by the severe frostbite and the rest of his skin has taken on a bluish tinge, his hair is no longer the Gold it was before but almost snow white with a tinge of dark and light blue, his ears and tail are snow white with what appears to be frost and ice growing on them (1/2)(2/2) grian can not cry because the tears will immediately turned to ice, he can’t swim because if his body touches the water the water will freeze over, his skin is cold to the touch and whatever he moves his body it will make a cracking sounds like breaking glass or smashing ice, no matter how warm it is he can always see his breath... i’m trying to think of more but I’m coming up blank so that’s it hope you like it. - anonymous

- bc i cant stand when cleo is unhappy: the moment she and joe reunite, joe realizes how horrible it is for her to have her body messed with against her will. and as an admin, he can modify her code to put her back to how she was in previous seasons (aka not totally rabid but still undead) - anonymous

- Admins log final day: I'm glad we'll all be able to wake up from this nightmare, and we're able to get an exit portal going thanks to Mango and Methodz having a backup of the key to open the infinity portal's power, we should be able to not only go back in time, but destroy this broken timeline. Were all grateful for them, and I did invite them both to help us incace this happens again. This will be the last day in this timeline, if you somehow found this helmet with these logs, thank you. :-) - anonymous

- Grian, Doc, and Ren find it hard to stay away from each other too long, especially Doc and Ren becuase they've been taking care of Grian for such a long time so they find themselves kinda hovering over him and Grian finds himself seeking them out even when he's with other hermits. The other groups, who've been toghther for awhile, do it too probs - anonymous

- Soon as Grian and Mumbo see each other, they launch themselves at the other and hold on for a long, long time. Iskall join in soon as he wanders by and they talk for hours about what happened, looking over Grian's new fox parts and the blue marks on his hands, Mumbo gray stained hands and magic, and just Iskalls overall experience. Also Grian's little fox buddy absolutely loves Daisy and vice versa. Its not uncommon to see the small fox riding on the ravager's back while Daisy scares people. - Anonymous

- I know I'm a bit out of loop w scattered au & is probably getting things wrong but consider this, when Mumbo accidentally summoned Scar, leaving Bdubs alone, Bdubs freaked out. The very person that meant rescue & hope for him back in the end is now gone, he felt like he's back into the void again and he thought Scar abandoned him because he's too weak & is a burden to Scar. (Yes I am currently drowning in Scardubs angst) - @/anthosaidsmth

- The glitches in the world didn't only happen to the Hermits, it happened to all worlds created in 1.17. The cause remains unknown, though it is believed that something or even someone corrupted/changed the code (what/who is up to imagination. In the case of the latter, so is the motive). My idea, we've already confirmed that Watchers are arrogant jerks so perhaps they couldn't stand the fact that players learned to do things against the rules that they put in place, and did this out of spite. - anonymous

- A bit late but I see all the Fox!Grian headcannons so what if Grian spawned in a jungle and slowly became a parrot hybrid instead? How idk, maybe resorting to eating seeds to prevent himself from starvation because there is no animals in this jungle.

- Here's a thought: The Hels!Hermits were also effected by whatever caused the scattering. They may all hate or annoy each other, but not having each other around to pick on isn't very fun (neither are death loops). Perhaps some of them gain humility over this or learn to be at least a bit nicer to each other and their counterparts. (or some of them find sadistic amusement in their counterpart's miseries) - anonymous

- Finally, once everyone has made it safely to spawn and the problems with the world have been resolved, the season begins. Some of the Hermits may have changed (more than just physically) but over time, they adapt and recover. Grian eventually starts yet ANOTHER war, Tango gets to build DO 2.0 (X is terrified at the fact wardens are involved), and Cleo becomes a coach on 'how to be a mob hybrid' (unless all new hybrids get returned to how they were before by admin powers or just being players). - anonymous

- With all the glitches fixed and all the hermits starting to get back to their normal (Well as normal as it can be after all of these), I wonder if Scar is still a vex. All the hermits just adapted to their situations, but Scar is different, he made a deal with the Vex. - @/anthosaidsmth

- It takes all of the hermits that changed a while to get used to the changes, but eventually they do, mostly through help and support from the other hermits - anonymous

- I had a wee idea and it's a little silly but I like hurt/comfort so maybe after all the scattered au events have passed and the hermits are all together living safely, every winter some hermits invite Grian to their bases to take care of him since the snow and the cold are very bad for him. Sometimes he gets fevers but most of the time he just needs a warm blanket and someone to distract him from the snow. This is also making me wonder if Grian could develop chinophobia (fear of the snow). - Anonymous

- conclusion

Art:

- An Evoker Mumbo

- Evoker Mumbo with Daisy

- Evoker Mumbo summoning Scar

- a Guardian Impulse

- assorted doodles here and here

- A two-part Impulse comic

Writing:

- some Etho lore come back to haunt him (pt 1)

- Cleo sharing mob-hybrid tips with Impulse

- Executioner

- Fish out of water

- Homesick

- Thalassophobia

- The General's Wager (pt 2)

- The Undertow

- Saviors

- Bdubs falling

- For lack of blue shiny rocks (pt 3)

- conclusion (pt 4)

- EX in the Deep Dark

- this road I'm on's gonna turn to sand

- Snapshots

- a multi-chapter Scattered interpretation written just before the real season 8, complete with some outside lore and crossover

- Scattered Across The Map (series of parallel multi-chapter fics)

- One Hundred Thousand Worlds Away

[wixelt]

Season β AU #002 - Welcome to β

So when we last left off on the Season β AU, the Hermits had been kidnapped by shadow doubles of themselves & dropped into an unknowable reality made up of an infinite blue jungle under an empty, Void-like sky. So, what’s next from there in the weird dream I had?

Well, from here, things get a little less ordered, but i’ll set it up as best I can.

- All the Hermits wake alone, with no-one else nearby, something i’m certain my unawake mind drew from @hermitcraftheadcanons’ Scattered AU (check it out if you haven’t, it’s great). I can tell from this that my dream originally intended this to be an alt version of Season 7 - though it isn’t now - as one of the “arriving alone” bits was Scar turning up in the jungle, as he does at the start of S7 (was in full wizard gear in my dream, to boot :P ). I want to play with the most recent info on S7, though, so post-S7 it is instead.

- There’s a few things various Hermits find odd or outright alarming beyond just what they can see after doing the normal “player” thing of crafting some basic tools to survive to take their mind off the panic. X discovers his admin powers are completely gone. They’re not even inaccessible, they’re just... not there. Anyone else who has command access notices this quite quickly too, & nobody misses the complete lack of access to communications.

- And all of the Hermits, beyond this, find that mining & crafting is broken somehow. Mumbo swings his fist to punch a tree, & cries out in pain, the wood far harder than even his practiced hands were ready for. It’s nothing more than a sting, & he’s fine once he’s gotten used to it, but it came as a shock, & rather than getting a log block for his troubles, he watches the section of tree, on his final punch, explode into a million useless splinters of wood, only a few large enough to put in his inventory. After a while, the Hermits begin to find that, with enough of these fragments, they can build a rudimentary sword (False manages this faster than most others), or a pick, or some planks, but it makes everything far more of a slog, as if the world is fundamentally dragging them down.

- In the months to follow - in the part of this that reminds me of Sky Factory - they will find that stone has the same problem, but worse. Stone drops... nothing. Absolutely nothing. Same with anything else underground, which would be bad for ore mining... if there were any ores to mine. Instead, through much trial & error, the Hermits find that crafting enough layers, combinations & types of wood & dirt together (in my dream I saw someone crafting thousands of Rubies together to get something - so I guess Rubies also exist here) - like those mods that have compressed blocks - gets you stone, & magnitudes more effort beyond that to get iron, gold, redstone, etc. Magnitudes further still to get even a single, tiny fragment of diamond, & then there’s netherite, & the other top tier, heavy duty materials & tools Minecraft has.

- By a year into this hell, the Hermits collectively have maybe enough diamond for less than half a set of armor between them, & no netherite to speak of. It hasn’t exactly been their main focus, though.

- With that initial panic out of the way, maybe it’s time to introduce you to where the Hermits are. This is Season β. That isn’t it’s actual name, if it even has one, but as far as the Hermits’ season system works, it’ll suit it well enough. It’s a sort of underlying junk/echo reality (in the part of the dream that was probably drawn from the Backrooms creepy-pasta) that runs beneath the entire Minecraft multiverse. All the echoes of worlds, all the little bits of lost history or forgotten places that never should have been or that simply slipped through the cracks... this is what β is. The place where all these various never weres have coalesced into an infinite, broken place where the usual rules of the Minecraft realms don’t consistently apply... and the Hermits are stuck here.

- β isn’t entirely this infinite, headache inducing blue jungle. This is just one layer of the dark infinity. There’s at least 11 layers, though I imagine there’s actually infinite or functionally infinite amounts. In my dream, I remember there was mentioned a 6th Layer, a 10th Layer, and I think an 11th Layer. I recall that one layer, I think the 10th Layer, was gradually “eating” away at another layer despite them being supposedly infinite, probably the 11th, in my dream, so in order to have the Hermits not immediately have to deal with that metaphysical clusterfrick, i’m stating now that the “Jungle” is the 6th Layer. How the Hermits are meant to get from layer to layer, or if they’d even want to, is undetermined.

- This endless hell is, well, just that: hell. And nothing shows that more than when a Hermit dies for the first time. It’s False who’s the unfortunate one. Being one of the most resourceful of the group, she manages to craft a stone sword within the first few weeks, sets up some basic shelter, & even manages to reunite with a couple of the other Hermits after days of trekking for miles & miles at a time, herself Ren & Stress managing to build a perimeter to keep out the mobs, which have thankfully been both keeping to their normal behaviors despite a few anomalies & been spawning in lesser numbers due to the jungle biome & copious amounts of leaves.

- So when a creeper unfortunately gets the drop of her in the midst of an unexpected mob horde - glowing with red lightning, of all things - and all the Hermits see her death message, it comes as a shock. Thankfully, she had a bed, so she dashes back to where Ren & Stress are waiting... & blinks in surprise as their eyes widen in shock & horror. Unnerved, False catches her reflection in a nearby pool of water... & flinches in fear as she sees the empty socket where her right eye used to be, as if it simply vanished. She can still mostly see fine, somehow, but her right eye’s “vision” is strange and hazy, with occasional flickering, & she swears she keeps seeing something moving in the corner of her eye, despite Ren & Stress assuring her there’s nothing there. And that’s not even getting into the strange, single black tally line that she later finds has appeared on her left shoulder like some sort of tattoo...

- This, unfortunately, isn’t the extent or even the specific outcome that awaits someone each time they die. It has the potential to get quite... odd. False got off quite lightly the first time losing an “eye”, all things considered.

- It is over a year before Grian - who was left behind from the party due to illness - sees any of his friends again. Through a means I haven’t yet decided on, he finds some manner of reaching β, albeit one-way & by accident, while searching for everyone with assistance from others. What he finds, though still his friends & relieved to see him, isn’t as pristine as he remembers. Time in β has not been kind.

- And I've decided it is Grian who gets left behind, rather than Jevin. I had this thought that maybe my dream “labelled” it as Grian but meant Jevin because in one part of the dream Grian appears “slimy” & face paint seems to melt right off him due to that (was an odd moment even with context). But given what β can do to people, apparently, i’m willing to lock the one left behind in as Grian.

Cutting it off again. Still a few things I haven’t gotten into, I think, but this is already a long post. :P

[painandignite]

medieval/fantasy!dsmp au

here’s my take on what the dream smp would look like if there was magic and took place in an older setting. my knowledge in medieval stuff is very minimal, but i’m trying my best.

- there’s a kingdom called the Dreamlands, which has many towns surrounding the main castle’s city. it’s a joint leadership between george and eret, with bad as their advisors, and sapnap and dream as personal knights. dream also takes on an advisor-like decision with george, and often george will confide with dream before talking to bad. a relationship built on unbreakable trust.

- wilbur is a leading general of their troops mainly as a strategist rather than a fighter. he often keeps the morale of fellow knights by singing tunes or taking time to know each person. however, after the last battle of the Pillager War, he’s no longer able to lead; he’s a shell of himself. more on the war later.

- tommy and tubbo are two knights-in-training. chaos buddies. you know the drill. though tubbo is in the guard, he’s thinking of becoming a craftsman apprentice. he wants to learn how to build things, and maybe create new inventions. but, he stays in-training to stay close to his best friend.

- karl is the main historian/records keeper of the castle. attending meetings and revising the notes bad takes to make into proper logs is his job. sometimes, he disappears for a while, and returns shaken. whenever karl comes back, he spends the next few days writing page after page of stories that no one can truly understand. karl insists they’re important, but can’t give a clear reason as to why. (the first day karl comes back, sapnap always brings him some food or warm drinks, and keeps him company. usually, sapnap ends up napping on a bench in the library.)

- ranboo is a new archivist at the castle since karl was looking for an apprentice. he tries his best, really, but sometimes there are blank pages that appear in records that ranboo doesn’t remember leaving empty. (tubbo makes time to go over ranboo’s work since tubbo knows a surprising amount of what goes on in the castle.)

- antfrost is their medic, who takes care of a herb garden for medicinal needs. it’s by a cottage behind the castle, where he spends most of his time with velvet. -w-

- philza is a sorcerer who prefers to watch things from the sidelines. he resides in his own private wing in the castle, where he experiments with different potion remedies and spells. after the war, he halted a lot of the projects he’s worked on to focus on memory restoration. for wilbur.

- you see, the dreamlands were at war with pillagers who raided towns on the border of their kingdom, slowly working their way to the heart of the land. george and eret sent knights to stop their approach, however the pillagers were powerful enough to eventually reach the castle’s surrounding city, L’manberg. wilbur asked to lead the remaining knights to defeat the oncoming pillagers, and created a plan to use illusionary magic to hide where their troops position. miraculously, their efforts to trick the pillagers worked, and the dreamlands were victorious. 

- having won the battle, wilbur led their knights back to the castle with the city’s flag in hand. but a pillager had their enchanted crossbow ready to fire at wilbur, and arrow pierced through his chest. he falls to his knees, gasping as the sudden numbness from the injury. 

- wilbur was quickly carried to the castle, with phil meeting them halfway there. they make it to phil’s work area, and he desperately tries to give him herbal remedies to the poison, when wilbur starts coughing blood, he uses healing magic to try to alleviate the pain. it doesn’t work. phil removes the arrow with shaky hands to try to stop the poison from spreading more. 

- (it’s too late)

- he dies on the table. 

- phil refuses to let him go. he uses a spell he learned about from a wandering trader on resurrecting people. however, there has to be a trade in exchange for granting the life. when wilbur awakes, he’s a ghost with hazy. he can’t leave the castle either because his body died in the castle, so his soul is chained to it. now, he wanders the halls, and many have gotten used to his presence.

- ok enough about ghostbur.

- PONK IS A CHEF AND HE IS THE BEST PASTRY CHEF OF ALL THINGS LEMON. he really wants george to let him plant more lemon trees, but they said no (even though he said please. ponk didn’t like the answer because the royal gardener has so much land to do as he pleases).

- techno. royal gardener. go figure. did i mention he helped write half of the books on potion-making that are in the library? no? well, no one really knows either, except for phil, since he was the main author of most of them.

- fundy is in-charge of the coffers. because foxes like shiny things? (i kind of based it off his originsmp character where he had a den of stolen stuff). when he’s not busy, he’ll keep track of where ghostbur goes from a distance.

- sam is the replacement general for wilbur. dream recommended him for the position because 1. he respects his ability to stay objective and 2. they trained together as knights, so dream knows his capabilities. he sets up rigorous training schedules for trainees, the hard work pays off.

- hannah and purpled are two knights who are basically sam’s assistants, dealing with the finer details of their army like weapon stocks and armor quality. they’re also extremely competitive with each other, and sam thinks it’s fun to watch them try to carry the most shields across the training grounds.

- callahan is a spy for the kingdom, and sends a few reports a month on how areas beyond the kingdom are doing. who’s to say he also includes town gossip about one of the kings and his green-eyed advisor.

- also, to be clear, eret and george aren’t married, they’re more like brothers 

- skeppy is a blacksmith, and utilizes magic to create many of his weapons. during peaceful times, skeppy makes a lot of cooking ware for ponk and cauldrons that are exported for sale. he also specializes in making baking trays.

- quackity is a tavern-owner, and drags george, dream, and sapnap from the castle to spend a night drinking together. a gateway to a commoner life. karl makes sure they make it back by morning, though no one in the castle minds that they’re gone. 

- niki is the stable master. if nascar racers rode horses, niki would be at that level. she’ll always beat you in a race even with the slowest horse. in addition to taking care of the animals, she keeps track of what medical supplies they have. she’ll have tea with philza and they talk about whatever comes to mind. sometimes, they talk about old memories of wilbur.

- jack manifold is a known explorer in the kingdom, roaming the realms beyond the dreamland. legend says he’s lived and died three times over, and he’s three times as lucky as any other man. jack specializes in fire magic, which is helpful for torches or campfires or lava.

- puffy is a captain on the sea, seeking the “Hermit’s Cove”. the dreamlands is not her home.

- schlatt is a sorcerer that can only create wine from any liquid and give people lung cancer. he’s usually too drunk out of his mind to actually cause damage. george doesn’t know why he’s in the castle, but hasn’t tried to get rid of him because...lung cancer...yea. quackity usually keeps him in check whenever he visits the castle, or drags him to stay at the tavern for a few nights. absolute nuisance.

i can probably write in a role for the other smp members, but that’s all for now.

[pengiesama]

A Log, Carved for Two (Fic, TOZ, Sorey/Mikleo)

Title: A Log, Carved for Two Series: Tales of Zestiria Pairing: Sorey/Mikleo

Summary:

Sorey and Mikleo (and the gang) visit an old inn, with a legendary log. In the process, they learn about life, love, and a certain appreciation for their luck in both.

--

Part of the Sormik Advent Calendar 2020's Secret Santa challenge! I got @applegelstore's prompt:

"I'm terrible with prompts so how about hot springs but it's a 1000 year old log serving as bathtub (if that irritates you please watch Abroad in Japan, Escape to Mt. Fuji)"

(...well, you'll get what you ask for...)

@sormikadventcalendar / sormikadvent (Twitter)

--

Link: AO3

Read on Tumblr!

It had, of course, always been Sorey’s dream to see a world where seraphim and humans could live side by side. And it was a dream that he had achieved, through sacrifice and pain and determination. Humans and seraphim now lived in one world, laughing together, arguing together…

…but, well, Sorey seemed to have slept through the beginning years of this glorious new world. Consequently, he didn’t get to see the wonder, experience the discovery, attend any of the cool parties, et cetera. He awoke in a world where it was just a Thing. It was the norm. Seraphim? Of course, there’s one that runs the bakery down the street, and one that lives in the pond out back; perfectly good neighbor, he is, he never makes a ruckus and keeps the mosquito population down in the summers.

(“Mosquitos Steve,” Mikleo managed to comment, through his discomfort, as he and Sorey walked to the bakery as the man they were speaking to had given them directions. “Yes. We all know about Mosquitos Steve.”)

Still, it was more than Sorey could’ve ever dreamed of. This sense of normalcy was a hit of comfort and nostalgia for his days in Elysia, in a time when the rest of the world had marched on so far without him. And, moreover, it was really interesting reading all the literature on the intervening period, and then grilling seraphim who’d lived through those periods to check for accuracies and contrasting viewpoints. And, moreover, it was a pleasure beyond words doing it with Mikleo by his side, with all of eternity stretching out in front of them.

This merging of worlds is what led to the subject of the day’s outing: a cozy little inn near the town (now city) of Lastonbell, tucked away from the city’s lights and avant-garde art installations, and tucked away from the Shepherdsmas bustle and the cold winter winds. Known for its history, and its hot springs, it was owned and managed by a merged human-seraphim family. That would’ve been enough to pique Sorey’s interest, but add in the prospect of great food and a soak in the hot springs with a hot babe…

“…And as for the hot springs,” Mikleo continued to explain to the group as they walked up the lengthy stone steps to the inn’s entrance. “You could, of course, just go to the back and soak in the ordinary springs.”

“Which I will,” Edna quipped. She’d grown weary of climbing steps and was forcing Zaveid to carry her on his back; she was bound to him with vines, seated in a comfortable chair of flowers, while Zaveid huffed and puffed.

“But did you know that there’s a thousand-year-old log that the resident seraphim have enchanted to serve as a private spring?” Mikleo tried to steer the conversation back.

“Wow,” Edna said drily. “An old log.”

“Wow…” Sorey breathed, voice breathless with awe. “An old log…”

“A thousand-year-old log!” Mikleo reiterated, voice brimming with excitement. “Do you know what that means?”

“It means that we’ll get to enjoy the hot springs without having to watch you two canoodle,” Edna said, and gave Zaveid a whack with a vine before he could make any sort of lewd followup. “Giddyap.”

“I’m afraid I’ll also have to take a rain check on the, ah, alternate bathing arrangement,” Lailah said. “I’ll leave you two boys to it, but please fetch me from the sauna when everyone’s finished up, woodn’t you?”

Everyone fell into a pained and eerie silence. Lailah’s eyes darted around, and she cleared her throat.

“Fetch me from the sauna, woodn’t you? When you boys are done with your log?”

As the silence stretched ever onward, Zaveid sighed tragically.

“Guys, I’m gonna have to save my own skin on this one. Have fun with the log and don’t get splinters where the sun don’t shine.”

With that, he summoned the power of the wind and dashed up the remaining steps in the blink of an eye, trailing swirling snowflakes and flowers from Edna’s perch as he went.

Lailah stared at Mikleo and Sorey, expectantly.

“…haha,” Sorey offered a weak laugh. “A-anyway, with the log being that old, it means that this inn predated us by a long shot. And could mean that the seraphim and humans running this place could’ve been doing the same thing back then, too…”

“With much less tourist traffic, but yes,” Mikleo agreed. “It’s something I’d love to ask the owners, after we’re done with dinner and our bath.”

Sorey’s ears perked up, hopefully. Mikleo gave a knowing smile.

“The private suite that has the log isn’t easy to get,” Mikleo said, his tone brimming with pride. “But of course, I pulled some strings.”

Great food, and a soak in a really old log with a hot babe. Sorey was the luckiest man alive.

 --

 Sorey’s jaw was slack with awe as he saw it. As he saw The Log.

“Wow…” Sorey marveled.

He and Mikleo both crept up to it as if it was a rare animal, as beautiful as it was dangerous, as if it was ready to roll away and into the winter’s night if spooked. It was exquisitely-carved and preserved, and the growth rings exposed at each end coyly insinuated at it being even older than anticipated. There were no plumbing elements installed to spoil its perfection; it was simply pure wood, pure Log. Truly a marvel worth the long trip, the long stair climb, and the painful sting of Lailah’s puns.

“Would our guests care to have their bath, or should this one leave them to admire it for a while longer?”

Mikleo and Sorey were startled out of their reverie by a low, serene voice. It was one of the inn staff, standing so still and so quiet in the corner of the elegant bathing room that they hadn’t even noticed them in the presence of the magnificent log specimen. Dressed in a modest but striking blue-and-black kimono and wooden sandals, the staffperson slowly glided over to the tub-side, regarding Mikleo and Sorey with an unknowable expression. With a wave of their hand, they summoned hot water to fill the tub.

“Well, at least we’ve found someone to chat with about the inn’s history,” Sorey thought.

The fragrance of an ancient forest filled the cool winter air, and the stream from the bath wafted to the open-air balcony to join the dancing snowflakes outside. The staffperson lowered a hand to touch the surface of the water; ostensibly testing the temperature for their guests. The effortless way they’d woven their artes made Sorey suspect that the gesture was more for guests’ ease of mind, rather than any uncertainty on the staffperson’s part.

“Our guests shall find towels and refreshments laid out for them,” the staffperson said. “Please do not hesitate to summon me as needed.”

With that, they bowed, and turned to fold themselves back into the shadows (or the staff corridors) from whence they came. Sorey managed to shake himself free of the enchanting log in time to call out.

“Wait! Can we ask you a few questions about this place?”

The staffperson slanted a look over their shoulder. Their white-blue hair was tied up into a severe bun that was quite at odds with their youthful features, and their ice-blue eyes showed an ancient weariness.

Sorey scratched at his head, mussing its newly-long (and blond) length even further.

“First, um, I’m Sorey, and this is Mikleo…”

“Yes,” the staffperson said, simply. “Of course, this one knows the names of such famous guests. We hope that you find our inn to your liking thus far.”

“It’s great!” Sorey assured. “We just really wanted to know more about its history. Is it okay if we ask you some stuff? I mean, if you have the time. We’ll share our snacks with you? What’s your name?”

The staffperson paused for a long moment.

“Lithia,” they stated, finally. “Please, ask this one anything you care to know.”

 --

 Lithia was not only a font of knowledge, answering any question Sorey or Mikleo threw at them – they were also, as a matter of fact, one of the original founders of the inn.

(“No,” they had to clarify, at Sorey and Mikleo’s insistent questions, they were not the ones to chop down the log.)

It was through Lithia that the inn’s history was told, in full.

One thousand and twenty years ago, a seraph and a human fell in love, but they lived in a world that was not meant for them.

One thousand and twenty, nineteen, eighteen, seventeen years ago, the seraph became weaker and weaker, more and more ill, suffering under the malevolence of the townsfolk and their cruelty towards their beloved human. It was different, back then. Humans fear what they don’t understand. Seraphim, also. Surely, our esteemed guests understand this too well.

One thousand and fifteen years ago, the human left human civilization behind, carrying the seraphim on his back, questing to find a place for the seraphim to recover in peace, a place to call their own.

There was, of course, no such place. Living as hermits in the woods would have to do instead.

They lived quite happily, the two of them. They enjoyed the beauty of nature, and the pleasure of each other’s company, for many years. The human eventually felled a tree and carved it into a lovely bath. The seraph used their artes to make it into a log hot spring. How whimsical, how unique; in another time, the two of them could have opened a lovely inn, and become known across the continent for their hospitality.

But of course, the human eventually aged and died, as humans do.

The seraph was left with the home they’d built together, and their silly little log bath.

The seraph was left like this for many, many years.

Eventually, humans began to see seraphim again. They began to live side-by-side. The seraph watched this from their forest house, with their silly log bath that they’d kept preserved all these years. The seraph was bitter for a while; angry, even. How dare they sort things out now, centuries too late?

The seraph was angry for years, with their house and their log bath. The seraph remembered their human so well, even after all this time. They remembered his voice, his face, his laughter. There was no one else to do so. There was no one left to remember him.

The human had always wanted to have an inn of his own, to host guests (which they could never have, without endangering the seraph) and hear stories from across the globe (which they could never explore, without endangering the seraph). The human had died without seeing this dream fulfilled. Even through the seraph’s anger, they remembered this, too well.

It was not a quick process. Lithia was known as being standoffish, even among the few other seraphim that had settled around their forest territory. It took years, and many meetings and partings. The young human attacked by forest beasts, who left offerings for Lithia for the rest of his life after they – in a sudden fit that even they could not explain – saved him, healed his wounds, and sent him on his way after his recovery. The travelling earth seraph with their team of human workers, who fixed up Lithia’s home after an earthquake finally brought down one of the ancient walls that could no longer be patched. The fire seraph, wandering through the woods, with the light in their eyes extinguished after losing their human family to disease.

It was not a quick process. But by and by, Lithia’s anger subsided, and eventually, they opened this inn.

“The two of you enjoy a rare gift,” Lithia stated. “It is not common for the love between a human and a seraph to end happily. I ask only that you treasure the opportunity you have been given.”

Mikleo’s hand had already found Sorey’s. Sorey’s hand squeezed back.

“Of course,” Sorey said quietly.

“And,” Lithia added. “Please refrain from having relations in the log.”

Mikleo and Sorey simply stared, wordless. Lithia tilted their head.

“Um,” Sorey said eventually. “I don’t think. That’ll. Be a problem.”

Lithia made a small noise. “Oh. I was not aware that the former Shepherd suffered such an affliction. I can brew a medicinal tea, should he wish to have the urge fall upon him.”

“We’re good! We’re good!” Sorey hastily clarified. “Um, it’s no problem, we promise. Thank you so much for opening your home to us, and letting us use something so dear to you…”

Lithia gave a small nod. “I only allow guests in this suite that I have personally approved. Ones that I personally judge worthy of it. The rest…”

Through the night air, there came the distinct sound of a vine whip against bare ass skin, and then Zaveid’s pained howling.

“The rest can bathe outside,” Lithia finished curtly. “Please, guests, enjoy your stay. I must take my leave to ensure no blood has entered the waters, lest I add the cleaning tab to your companion’s bill.”

“I think you should probably do it regardless,” Mikleo mumbled wearily. “Lords only know where Zaveid’s been.”

[writing-the-end]

WS Chapter 40: A Home in Hell

Previous Chapter

Masterpost

A lotta lore coming your way! Thank you X for being the only one with a braincell in this group to explain world mechanics in a way that even I- the author- hardly understands. 

And sorry for yet another cliffhanger! I just love them too much! (wonder how many people caught the foreshadowing a few chapters back)

Ecto belongs to @cooler-cactus-block 

Red belongs to @theguardiansofredland​

Red picks up his head as he hears the sound of fireworks. The late afternoon sun blocks Red’s vision, whiting out the sky and making it impossible to see who is flying by. He feels like a castaway, trapped on this mound of sand with only an ominous nether portal and an unlit campfire. He doesn’t even have the ability to start a fire. 

Glimmers of white rain from the sky, forms slowly descending from the heavens. Well, most of them are. One dives straight for Red, wings tucked in like an arrow shot from a bow. The grey elytran wings only open at the last second, just enough to slow the descent and save the flyer from experiencing kinetic energy. Not enough to keep Ecto from barreling into Red, sending them both skidding across the sand. 

Red squeaks, gasping for air as Ecto hugs the breath out of her. Red feels something wet on his shoulder, and realizes that Ecto’s crying. She isn’t sure she’s ever seen Ecto cry, even when she was iced out of her own home. “We thought you were gone.” 

Red’s lips thin out. She should be gone. Out of everyone’s way. But even death didn’t want something as useless as her. Avon’s wings eclipse the sun a moment later, oscillating to lower her to the sand. She crosses the sandy island in a few strides, lifting off the ground to reach Red as fast as possible. Avon wraps her arms and wings tight around the other two wanderers, cocooning all three in the embrace. A weak chuckle escapes Avon’s lips.“We have got to stop losing each other in this world.” 

They only break up when Red has to push them apart. She needs to breathe, and Ecto’s vice grip is definitely not letting her do that. The hermits take slow circles to lower in altitude before landing on the short spit of land. Grian does the best landing, sliding across the sand and using the grains to skid to a stop. Stress’s landing is more of a stumble, coming in too hot for her liking. 

Ecto lets go, but stays close to Red. “I...I can’t believe you’re alive. How...how does…” 

“Our world has a few different rules than yours appears to have. Differences in the laws of nature, and all that.” Xisuma states, sitting down next to the wanderers. The other hermits crowd close. Even Mumbo, despite nearly being killed by sixty six percent of the trio. “Most deaths here aren’t permanent. You die, but you can come back.” 

“Is that what world magic can do?” Red questions. “How does that even work?” 

Iskall pulls out a pair of flint and steel, striking it to start the campfire. Keralis and Stress pull up logs for them all to sit on. And Grian reveals pockets full of food. He can’t help but notice Avon’s gaze never faltering from the potatoes in his hand. He starts cooking while Xisuma fills them in. “I don’t know how all it works, but I know my spells work and it eases the tension on all of us.” 

“You don’t want to know how many times I’ve died. I’ve kinda gotten used to the tingly feeling of reviving.” Scar chuckles, leaning back and watching as the sun sets on the world. That reminds Scar of something. He picks up a bag from behind the log, tossing it across the fire to Red. “Here you go, little fish. Keep that little guy close in your world, you hear?” 

Red looks down, seeing the gilded statue glinting in the sunset colors and fire flames. He notices that it has little wings on it’s back, like an angel with wings outspread. Cute little wings, smaller than his wide nose. He can’t tell if the nose was a mistake or intentional. It’s endearing, but Red isn’t sure why Fred is so important for Scar. Did he make it? 

As the cooked meals are being passed around, Avon looks across the fire to Tango. He reminds her so much of Blu, especially the way that the flames frame his face, his blonde hair and eyes the color of heated netherrack. Xisuma said something about Tango spending lots of time in the nether. She bites into her baked potato, swallowing it before she speaks. “You worked in the nether?” 

Tango perks up, noticing the quietest camper suddenly speak. He takes a bite of his steak, and leans back. “Yeah, a few worlds back I made this massive nether style base and humongous big farm-ificators in the dimension.” 

“Were there other people in the nether? What was it like working there so long?” Red adds, scooting closer to Tango. 

“I mean, it was a pretty long time ago. My mind starts to wander and mix things all up into a bunch of gobblty goop. It was really hot, for one. And yeah, there were other people. They didn’t really talk to me much, but they liked to watch my work. They were pretty chill people, the ones I met. Gave me lots of books and told me all sorts of things, like how they would just- pop!- appear in hell. Called themselves hellspawns because of that.” 

Xisuma hums, looking at the wanderers and Tango. “I think there’s a reason why hellspawns exist. Every world is a bit different. Different rules of nature, and different ways of keeping those rules. But as every world mage knows, each universe needs to keep its balance. I may have a theory as to why the person who attacked you may exist.” 

“Ohhh, if it’s an Xisuma idea it’s got to be all sorts of cool wizardy spells and potion things.” Tango is on the edge of his seat. He doesn’t exactly know why these people appeared and lived in the nether, but his time spent with them made him want to make the best of his own life. Live on his own terms. And he feels he has, here among the hermits. 

“There’s three dimensions. All in balance with one another. Too much of one thing can be bad, and too much of another isn’t good either. The nether and the Overworld are equals and opposites. Mirrors, counterweights. Keeping the universe in balance.” Xisuma picks up a handful of sand, watching the grains fall through his fingertips and return to the millions of others among the beach.

“But what about the End? Where is it in all this?” Avon questions, leaning against a propped up knee.

“If the overworld and the nether are the weights, then the End is the scale. Measuring, taking, adding. The liminal space between both, but just as integral as either side.” Xisuma looks around. Most of the people listening seem to be lost, but still listening

“So hellspawns….” Tango whispers.

“Probably appear to give the world balance. To be the counter to the universe. A hellspawn can’t exist without it’s overworld counter being born. And the overworld needs the nether to ease the weight of creation. Both are needed to keep balance.” 

“Why would Blu attack us then?” Ecto seems to understand the gist, tossing out all the weird theoretical stuff. “If both need to be balanced, why attack us? Why kill the ender dragon and freeze an entire desert?” 

“That...I can’t understand.” Xisuma shrugs, pulling off his helmet to finally dig into the mushroom stew he’s been preparing. Long, fluffy brown hair falls from his helmet, curling around his face. 

The wanderers look to Tango, but he shakes his head. “I don’t think any of my books or conversations can help, friends. It’s been ages since my nether base and those massive farms, leaving to join the other hermits in the new world. I really wish I could help more, but this is way out of my league man.” 

The wanderers look at each other, before looking back at the fire. It’s not the answer they were looking for, but it’s information they needed. Now they know, hellspawns are from the nether. Some way of their world balancing itself. Stress changes the subject to something lighter, and Scar adds on his own quirky stories until the air is filled with laughter. Calm respite after so long the wanderers struggled. Retreating into the hermit world, wounded and defeated. Quickly becoming lost in the jungle, only to find new friends willing to help them. In more ways than just getting back on course. And now, they can return to their world. Healed and with a new understanding of what they’re facing. 

With the dawn light, Scar guides the wanderers back to Larry. The giant snail still eeks over the infinity portal, guarding it with a fierce, lopsided gaze. Scar presses a crystal into each of the wanderer’s hands. “ The heart of the warrior for Avon, Luck for Ecto, and water breathing for Red.” 

Red looks at his crystal, then up to Scar. He doesn’t have the heart to tell him that he can already breathe underwater. He just clutches the crystal close, nodding as the rift warps and shifts between them. As much as Red loves being with the hermits, he’s ready to go home. Ready to face whatever is waiting for him. 

The wanderers step back through the portal, falling between worlds and back to their own. It’s dazing, and they can’t help but stumble back into their world. The portal disappears, leaving them in the forest. Ecto winces, rubbing her head after nearly cracking it against a tree. “Ugh, what’s that awful scent? It smells like dead fish.” 

Red looks around, breath catching in his throat. He recognizes where he is. He remembers the river, flowing through the forest towards the sea. The giant boulders tossed aside and trees growing from the fractures within them. And he smells the horrible scent, making him gag, his nose burning and eyes watering. The tide is turning.

Red scrabbles to his feet, leaving Ecto and Avon behind. Stumbling through the sand of the beach, only to collapse at the interface of the water. The water swirls with a rusted red color, waves brushing dead fish and seaweed against the pristine beaches. It’s already too late. 

Red was too late. The tide has turned.

[sanne-star]

Don’t Challenge A Promise Between Friends

Kinda sad that this is my first fic here. Well, better write now than never, am I right?

TW: spoilers for Demise, backstabbing, blood, and death/death mention.

An unpleasant aura filled the air as the greyskin entered the Deadquarters as he came back from setting his own trap. He may not have made as many explosive traps as Cub had for the alive hermits, or made any misleading deals as some other greyskins did. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t doing anything useful in regards to Demise.

In fact, he was doing his part of a deal- one he’d made when there weren’t as many greyskins walking the earth as there were now. Disabling traps and what not to get right where he wanted. For when he makes a deal, he does all things necessary to stand by that deal.

So when he entered the meeting room and read that yet another rather cruel trap was set up in the book of secrets, he wasn’t too pleased. The greyskin wasn’t too keen on getting out to disable it, since he had just come back from doing a few errands in his base. But he couldn’t just sleep on it, especially when there wasn’t as many live hermits left in demise as there were greyskins, and a promise on the line of breaking because of this very same trap.

So emptying his inventory of any important valuables, but keeping his trusty sword in its place. In case he ran into a mob trap on the way there of course. He flew out of the Deadquarters and into the portal, heading straight to New Hermitville.

The only thing he could think about was how it all went down, and when it started getting so serious. Ever since Cub demised, almost all the traps afterwards were somehow related to TNT and Cub. And while it was funny at first, seeing the remains of the blown up builds wasn’t that great.

That’s why he went into hiding. To disable traps quietly and stay out of the Vex’s sight while doing so, only going to the Deadquarters to catch up with the others, and see if there were any traps that got in his way plan-wise. He really wasn’t expecting the game to get this dangerous, and the letter warning he got after making that deal wasn’t making things easier either.

And before he knew it, he was in New Hermitville. And the builds around him still roared with life and energy just as they were first created in that build-battle. The dragon on top of Grian’s stacked houses looking over the horizon ready to strike, the dabbing penguins taking a sweet nap to ignore the happenings around the village, and the Scara plant eyeing him with a look of hunger, ready to take another taste of the player in front of it. But he was too occupied with the mission at hand to take a look around the place.

Flying over the Area 77 gates he saw two things that definitely weren’t supposed to be there. A small half-dirt covered obsidian box, with the top open, and his fellow greyskined friend holding a minecart TNT.

He slammed into the ground behind the greyskin with an audible thud in anger, causing the builder to jump a little back in surprise. Looking back at whoever interrupted their moment of peace. “Who’s there? This isn- oh, it’s just you. How’s it going? You gave me quite the scare there!” The perpetrator- revealed to be Grian- gave a warm smile to a very contrasting cold scowl.

The greyskin glared at the TNT minecart in Grian’s hand before clearing his throat to speak. “You do know that log in traps aren’t allowed, right?”

The builder looked quite confused, noticing the tension change he glanced around for a way out. “Um, since when was that a thing? Was that discussed in a meeting? Because I can assure you, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Trying to get out of a possible bad situation through a scared-lie turned out to be successful, in some sense. Because the greyskin before him was taken aback by the response, walking up to the prankster in question with careful steps, with a look of both sympathy and guilt.

Grian could feel himself shrink back in fear as the person in front of him set a gentle hand on his shoulder. Which further deepened the guilt in the other’s eyes as they spoke softly. “Are you scared? It’s alright, I won’t judge you for not knowing.”

Grian felt tears welling up in his eyes, latching into the man’s robe unexpectedly, words flowing out of his month like a waterfall. “I don’t like this game anymore, I’ve been trying to end it ever since Cub died, I’ve been putting traps all over the server but someone keeps breaking them. I’m just- really scared, I keep starting all of these problems all throughout the season and leaving others to fix them. There’s only two people left, please let me fix it this time, let me be a good guy for once, please.” By the end of his rambling he realized he wasn’t looking up anymore, but more so being held in a comforting way as he cried, clutching the robed person tightly as if they were his lifeline.

Grian almost didn’t notice they were walking away from the trap. He almost wanted the man holding him to take him away from this mess, he couldn’t deal with it anymore. All the stress, all the blame, all these fun ideas turned upside down because of him and him only. There’s only so long til you realize you’re just a walking curse to your friends. But he couldn’t, he had to fix this mess, he pushed out of the greyskin’s grip so that Grian could see the trap straight on while the other could just see the builder’s growing curiosity in his eyes.

The dragon bro had so many questions, but only one screamed louder than the rest. “Wait a second, are you helping Doc? But why? It’s not like he helped you-“ A sword swinging at him had almost caught him off guard before blocking it with his own.

“You really think I’d forget everything I’ve been through with him? Of course I’d help him! And if you don’t approve then why not fight it out? Fair and square.” The greyskin’s eyes held a slight glint of light as he swung again, while the other’s still had some tears in it as parried the hit with haste.

Weaving and dodging, the swords kept clashing together.

Grian tried to reason his way out of this situation as adrenaline filled his system. “Why are we fighting?! I know you want this to be over as much as I do! So why can’t you let me be good and end it for once?” He was about to throw an ender pearl far away to recharge, when he noticed that he didn’t have anything on him, he wasn’t even wearing any armor.

Looking at the hooded man he could see a grin starting to spread wider across the man’s face as he ran toward him with a dangerous aura, realizing in horror right as he accidentally blocks the hit with his arm. That the greyskin had taken it all for himself.

All he could do in this shocked state was jump a couple feet back, and clutch his bleeding left arm. There was no backing out of this situation now.

With an unknown anger entering his system. He charged toward the greyskin, slightly grazing their cheek as they just barely dodged the attack.

Slash. Dodge. Block. Repeat.

It went like that for a couple more minutes, it was like a dance sequence at this point. Only really changing after every few swings that hit.

It came to a point where both greyskins were bloodied and at their last three hearts just staring at each other, waiting in anticipation for the other to make their move.

Grian had an abundance of scenarios running in his mind of how this fight would end, many ending in his demise. But he didn’t know what to think when the man in front of him dropped his sword and raised his arms as a sign of surrender. “Alright, alright. I give up, can we talk it out? You wanted to know why I’m protecting Doc, right?”

Completely caught off guard from the sudden change of tension. Grian almost slipped on nothing, accidentally dropping his sword to gain balance. “Uhh.. I guess so, uh sure..?” He wasn’t too sure about this whole thing, but if it meant ending the game quicker, then he’d have to bite the bullet on this one.

The hooded person chuckled with a bittersweet smile. “It’s simple, really.” He looked over his shoulder, Grian following his gaze to the trap he’s yet to finish.

He suddenly feels a burning sensation in his body, looking down to see the blade had been lodged in his stomach. The greyskin’s eyes going cold as he continued, slightly twisting the weapon with every passing second. “One of the players of Demise will suffer a very painful and permanent death.”

The builder’s eyes widened in fear. Permanent death? One of his friends never coming back? Because of this game? This news has ironically brought some devastating memories of his own friends back. “Wait- does that mean-“ His question was cut short as he coughed out blood.

But the hooded person seemed to have already known what he was about to ask, because he chuckled sadly at the failed attempt of a question. “That’s right, it means we might lose either iskall or Doc in this game of ‘trick or treat’.” He frowned, glancing back at Grian’s trap. “It was very difficult to choose who to save, because they’re my friends too. But I’m sure iskall can handle it just fine, he’s been through worse.”

Nothing could describe the amount of emotions Grian was feeling. But the look on his face summed it up quite nicely. He was absolutely terrified.

Especially after hearing the last thing they said. “So, no hard feelings my dude, ‘kay?” Twisting the sword before he even had a chance to respond, Grian was no more.

Grian was slain by Renthedog

The reaper looked at the bloodshed left by his former friend with little to no emotion in his eyes. Maybe this will teach him not to mess with me again.

DocM77 joined the game

Falling to the cold obsidian floor, Doc let out a yelp. Confused and dozed from the sudden change in surroundings. He was sure there was a lava trap waiting for him here, so where did it go?

He didn’t bother with the question as he noticed light was coming in from above him. As though there was some kind of greater being above him, the top half of the obsidian box wasn’t there to begin with. But that raises the question of why, Grian wouldn’t just, remove his own trap, would he? “I guess there’s no other way to find out other than getting out of here..” Doc muttered to himself before climbing out of his prison. Only to see a hooded grey figure standing silently over the grass at the top.

And although they weren’t facing him. The air around them felt familiar in a way, more familiar than Area 77. Somehow drawing him in closer to the hermit. But they didn’t seem to notice his presence, not even giving a reaction to him dropping down from the prison. They were more focused on a spot of darkened grass to pay attention to their surroundings.

Something in Doc suddenly clicked when he heard them let out a low chuckle. “Ren, is that you? Wh.. what happened? Wait, what are you doing here?” A storm of questions danced in his head, confusion and suspicion rising with each new question.

Ren wasn’t startled by the sudden second presence accompanying his own, rather he just turned to look at Doc from the side, revealing the blood that coated his robe. In a very protective but mencing manner to anyone that wasn’t Doc, he answered with an actual smile. “Don’t you remember? I promised I’d protect you.”

Doc was about to ask what he meant when a beep on both their communicators grabbed both of their attention. And while Ren was grinning ever so greatly, Doc couldn’t help but feel his blood go cold at the sight of the message. Something big had gone down between the time he was out and now. Doc couldn’t take his eyes off the message, re-reading it to make sure what he’s seeing is actually there. But that didn’t reassure him in the slightest.

iskall85 was slain by his worst nightmare

[mianite-3-unofficial]

Start of the Smoke

Andor was half asleep when she said it, watching her cat sleep on the pillow by his head.

“We could be executed for this.”

He sat up, looking at Anya. They’d been talking for hours and hours. So much so that his throat was sore and dry. He swallowed, letting her continue.

“We could be executed, or imprisoned. Yes, that’s what happened last time.”

Andor nodded, suddenly feeling cold. His wings pushed against the fabric of his cloak, but didn’t show on the fabric. He wrapped his wings around his body, his body, remembering when the feathers were purple.

“I know that all too well,” Andor mused, “I tried to… do something, and I was… my father… I was imprisoned for a long time. It wears on you. I still don’t feel like I did before. Then I was… imprisoned again, but this time I wasn’t alone. I had friends, family, and the knowledge that I failed.”

“Then use that knowledge,” Anya spoke, “It is as useful as any sword, any shield. This time is different, I can feel it. But we have to act.”

Andor sat up, a smile starting to grow on his face.

“You said there was a council, right? Who are they? If we strike now—“

“Are you implying we assassinate them?”

Andor paused. The way Anya said it, it sounded like a bad thing. But every single book Andor had read ended with the old leader dying. Assassinated, burned, hung… teleported to the top of the nether…

“What are we supposed to do?” Andor asked. They’d been pouring over papers and old logs, a hand drawn map of Vatredas sat on the table. The loft above Anya’s bar was surprisingly homey. By the windowsills flowers grew in old, dirty pots, the bed made. The cat— a huge tabby named Carnation— stirred, stretching out.

Anya opened her mouth, then closed it again. Then opened it— and closed it, with a click of teeth.

“I don’t know,” she admitted, “I honestly don’t. Outside of what I’ve seen and read, I have no clue what we’re supposed to do.”

“You probably know more than me,” Andor said. Anya shrugged.

“All I know is that this time will be different. This time, there are so many people that it won’t be stopped even if we are imprisoned, even if we’re killed. This fire cannot be tamed or put out, and if they want me to stand down they’ll have to behead me, and even then my words will live on. I would be content to live as nothing but a talking head, as long as my words are heard and heeded— balance must be done. Justice must be done.”

Silence hung in the air, the dull dusk sun bathing her in purple. Andor leaned back and gently pet Sunflower, who started purring, deep and loud.

“Andor, promise me that you’ll finish this. I can’t let this die.” Anya whispered.

Andor’s hand froze in Carnation’s fur. He wouldn’t be able to. He’d freeze. He’d run. Or he’d grow restless and let it rot. Just like Dagrun. The truth died on his tongue.

“I will,” Andor promised, “Because I know you’d do the same.”

Anya smiled, tilting her head just a little. He wondered what would’ve happened if he hadn’t stopped Jordan. Simple, she would’ve offered him a drink, woven her words into a tapestry so beautiful he would ask her to cut his wings off. And she wouldn’t. She’d tell Jordan his wings were a part of him, and now a part of the revolution. She’d tell him he belonged, just as she did when Andor joined. Except he still hadn’t told her about his wings, hadn’t told her so much...

Or, she’d treat Jordan like she would the men who fought, throw the door open as loud as a crack of thunder and howl at them to get out. Both, maybe. Shout his ass out the door and then scream until she was certain he listened, then explain her point with a boiling, rippling passion. He flexed his wings against the cloak, reaching for the hem. He could do this.

“Anya, I-“

Andor was cut off by the trapdoor leading up to her room flying open. A young looking girl with messy brown hair poked her head in, face flushed.

“Evelyn?” Anya asked. “What are—“

“Northern gate! Somethings happening!” Evelyn blurted, breaths coming in hurried wheezes. Andor stood, Anya kneeling by the trapdoor, looking down at Evelyn.

“What’s happening? Evelyn, sweetheart, slow down.”

“It’s— I... an executioner… an executioner killed someone. Nobody knows who, they… they can’t tell, Anya. But papa told me to tell you. Said for you to come as fast as you can.”

The smile disappeared from Anya’s face. She looked over at Andor, then started rushing around the room, grabbing her threadbare coat, then packing up all the papers and journals, hiding them behind a loose board in the wall. Andor bit his lip. If only.. he found himself wishing he could fly away, go back to being a wanderer, a hermit. But this was his responsibility.

Anya climbed down the ladder into the bar, Andor following her as they sprinted outside the bar. Evelyn led them, but Andor’s feet stalled in the muddy road. A pillar of black smoke was starting to rise in the air. His wings fluttered. He could fly. Ditch the cloak, the revolution, find an untouched corner of the world.

No god would listen to him, no guard would heed his cries. That power in his blood would be there, though, his Ianite, his strength—

“Come on!” Anya cried, already down the street.

Andor clenched his jaw.

He sprinted after her, the cloak rippling and snapping around him.

[triple-a-enderdragon]

Fire always means good things, right?

First | Previous | Next

Not many hermits usually see the early hours of the morning, but today was a special occasion. Once False alerted Iskall and Jevin, the only other hermits awake, the three of them worked to mobilize the rest of the gang. It went smoothly, except...

Most of the hermits had made it to the pavilion outside iTrade waiting for the stragglers to fly in. Once Impulse has confirmed where Xisuma's respawn point was, Iskall flew off to check; just to make sure X wasn't there. He came back with nothing to show, confirming everyone's fears.

Impulse was pacing back and forth, anxiously awaiting the arrival of one of the last hermits, Cub. Now that X was out of the picture, the two of them would have a tough time to figure out what was going on. Suddenly Impulse was glad he talked to X when he did, otherwise they would have has a much harder time than they already did.

He looked towards where the Strike Team was deep in conversation, wondering what they were talking about. They drew more attention to themselves as the conversation turned into an argument between False and Iskall on what they should do next. False caught Impulse's eye and beckoned him over.

"Impulse! You may have noticed that Iskall and I can't agree on what to do next. Can you be the tiebreaker? These three aren't helping," False said, pointing to Python, Biffa, and Wels; who looked like they didn't want to get involved.

"Of course! What do you have in mind?"

"I think we need to create a plan, make sure everyone is safe. After what we assume happened to Xisuma, no one should be alone if possible. We need to figure out what's happening before we do anything rash." This last point she directed at Iskall, who didn't seem convinced.

"We still need to find X's body! Are we just going to leave him in the Nether!? He's our admin!" Iskall protested.

"I know that, but—" False was interrupted by a beep from her communicator; in fact, the mumble of the assembled hermits died down as they all received the same message

[cubfan135 was blown up by Creeper]

False and Iskall exchanged a look.

"Ok, you win. But you're finding Cub, not X," False said. "Don't go into the Nether, Iskall. We can't afford to lose you."

"Don't worry, I'll be careful. You know where he was coming from?" Iskall asked as he prepared to take off.

"He should have just been coming from Concorp, but..." False gestured helplessly.

"I'll find him."

False watched the disappearing silhouette. "I know you will." She turned her attention to the assembly of hermits, somehow not noticing Tango's absence. Impulse, tuning out her address to the others, did.

~~~

Flying over Concorp, Iskall was on the lookout for creeper holes. Starting at the entrance, his search area slowly, yet steadily, increased.  A few minutes passed, he found nothing. Not wanting to risk Cub's items despawning, Iskall tried a different method. Closing his right eye, he focused on his left. Slowly, he could feel his diamond sense coming online. He expanded this sixth sense, taking great care to ignore anything in chests, until he could feel a set of armor and tools. This had to be Cub, he could feel it.

And so, grabbing his rockets, Iskall took to the skies once more.

~~~

Tango was alone. Hiding amongst the foliage of Big Logs, he tried to make sense of what had happened over the last few days. First the change to the Nether, then the dreams, then...

Even before Iskall left to look for Cub, Tango knew, as he had known with X.

Cub wasn't coming back any time soon.

Oddly enough, he had felt Cub's death before the message popped up; same with X. He didn't want to know what implications this had. Maybe it had to do with the figure in his dream; the looming column of fire that burned him when no other fire could. Paying what was owed.

I made you who you are.

A death he never got, a deal never made.

Let's see if you have what it takes.

"Tango?"

Startled, Tango looked up to find Grian, his new wings spread out awkwardly behind him.

"H-what? How did you find me?"

"You're bright red, dude. You stick out like a sore thumb."

"Ah, I see.." Tango hadn't taken camouflage into account.

"Impulse and False said they need to talk to you."

Let's see if you have what it takes.

~~~

Back in her base, False was impatient. Once her address to the hermits was done, Impulse had informed her that Tango was missing, and he may be important to what was going on. Immediately she sent Grian off to look for him and had been waiting for them since.

While she had paced back and forth, Iskall had come back with a worrying charge; Cub's limp body. He and Impulse then left to bring Cub to the infirmary beneath the Ministry of Truth, leaving him in Joe's care. They, too, had yet to return.

At the sound of a rocket firing, False's head snapped up. Tango and Grian were gliding in to meet her. As they landed, False admired Grian's tawny wings and how quickly he had adapted to them. In the few days since he mysteriously received them, he had improved tremendously.

As Grian stepped forward to greet her, Tango stayed back. That told her he was hiding something.

As Grian started to say something, he noticed False was looking right passed him, at the man behind him. It was a cold, calculating look, one that made him pause. He looked between False and Tango, before settling awkwardly into a corner.

Minutes passed and the tension only grew. He was almost relieved when he heard rockets overhead. Almost; things could only escalate from here.

As Iskall and Impulse touched down, False addressed them; her eyes never leaving Tango.

"You boys took your time. Is Cub safe?"

"Yes, Joe said he would watch him; to see if anything changes," Iskall answered.

False finally tore her eyes from Tango to look at Impulse, who was, in turn, looking at Tango.

"Impulse. You said Tango was important to what's going on, care to enlighten us?"

Impulse took a deep breath and, ignoring Tango's pleading eyes, said, "According to X, the Nether's been acting up." At this, False noticed Iskall stiffened. Interesting. Impulse continued, "And recently Tango's been acting weird around the Nether. I believe the two are connected."

Everyone turned to Tango. He looked at the ground and sighed.

"At first, I noticed the change in the Nether. I could always feel the Nether, how it changed between updates. This was different. It felt...off." False started to interrupt, but Tango stopped her. "You asked for an explanation, let me explain."

"At first I brushed it off as an update, even though we're not due for one for a while. Then..." He had to compose himself. "Then the dream. A being of fire. But at the same time, it wasn't a dream." Tango rolled up his sleeve, showing a rather nasty burn. "It shouldn't have been able to do this, but it did." He rolled his sleeve back down. "It didn't say much, except that I was being tested. On what, I don't know."

False was again about to say something, but was interrupted by Iskall.

"Grian? You ok, dude?"

Everyone turned to Grian, who looked like a deer in headlights. All he mumbled was, "So this is what she meant?" before taking off.

Immediately, False signaled Iskall to follow him. It wasn't safe for anyone to be alone at this point in time and she couldn't let anyone risk their lives doing something rash.

Hoping that would be enough, she turned back to Tango and Impulse, the latter already showing the strain of his responsibilities. The three of them would have to handle the crisis; and with the Strike Team backing them up, she knew it was more than doable. But in her heart, without Xisuma's constant and reassuring presence, she couldn't quite believe it.

~~~

Grian heard rockets behind him. Not what he wanted to hear, since he wished to be alone. He only hoped he could out-fly whoever it was and lose them in the trees below. It was dangerous to fly an elytra underneath the canopy, but with his wings, Grian was as agile as ever.

Diving into the forest, Grian dodged and weaved between the trees like he had never done before. He could still hear rockets, but they were  above him, and further behind. His plan was working. What he hadn't thought about was how quickly night was falling; he had to make a temporary shelter here. Was that dangerous? Yes; but he needed to be alone where no one could find him.

He didn't account for his pursuer's excellent tracking skills, as three minutes had barely passed when he heard a knock on the wall.

"Grian. Are you going to let me in, or will I have to break in?"

Grian groaned. Of course. "Go away, Iskall. I want to be alone."

He heard shuffling outside, followed by, "Well, that's the thing. False said no one's supposed to be alone outside of well-lit areas." Iskall paused. "You may be able to tell, but this is not a well-lit area." Another pause. "I could lure a creeper here if you want-"

"Okay, fine!" Grian broke the two dirt blocks serving as his door, glaring at the man standing beyond them. "Happy now?"

"Not yet, hang on..." Iskall gave a whistle and instantly a massive husky appeared beside him. "Since you mind my company, I thought you wouldn't mind hers."

"I don't mind your company, just...right now I would rather be alone," Grian said as he watched Venus waltz into his makeshift house.

"I know. I'll carve out my own little room, that way I'm just two dirt blocks away, if you need me." Iskall watched as Venus started poking through Grian's pockets. "And she's here for some non-human company."

Grian absentmindedly rubbed the husky's head. "That I think I can handle."

~~~

The night passed uneventfully; the early morning brought a message from False.

[falsesymmetry to: iskall85, PythonGB] Iskall, Python, Nether. Bring back Xisuma's body asap. Do not risk anything. We're counting on you.

[acepistol]

Log Three: Scuffles and Shuffles

ɆⱤⱤØⱤ. ɆⱤⱤØⱤ. ɆⱤⱤØⱤ. ₮ⱤØɄ฿ⱠɆ ⱠØ₳Đł₦₲.

ɆⱤⱤØⱤ.

Loading this stuff up stinks.

I'm back! Did you miss me? I hope you did!

There's news on the activity in Zone 4! The draculoids have taken residence of a white building. There is no information on what's inside. My theories are that it's either a new research facility, trying to compensate for the new recall on antidepressants, or a torture chamber. Don't go over there if you don't want any new battle scars, killjoys. I, myself, cannot check this out, but I have a friend who is. Let's pray they stay safe.

The activity in Zone 3 is also confirmed, and it was a scuffle between two groups of killjoys. Remember, although we may have different views, we are all fighting the same enemy. Or, perhaps, we are the enemy. Who knows? What we do know is that there was nothing involving BLI, and the killjoys that took part left with only injuries. I don't want any more trouble out there in the zones, you hear! Or you're grounded!

I'm kidding. I can't do squat, unless you find me.

I love you guys.

Still trouble with the vaccinations, but I've got an order in for tetanus solutions. If you need em, contact me in the next week or so, and I'll probably have them by then.

I have a bit of a larger following than I expected. That's good! Keep spreading the word to internet killjoys everywhere! I'm here to provide moral support where it's due.

My Killjoy friend who is checking out the activity in Zone 3, I have a request to ask of you. It's nothing big, but do you have a name yet? I need something to call you. If you're new, and in need of a killjoy name, come talk to me, and we can work out something.

Zone 1 has some insane activity, and, yes, I was apart of it (I'm not a hermit. I just don't go out when it's unsafe, and that's a lot of the time). I was out scavenging a bit when I saw someone. I'm unsure of who they are, but they had green hair, goggles, and a lot of necklaces. We just looked at each other for a bit before they disappeared, and then I heard screaming and gunshots. When I followed the person, I saw that they were in a fight with a killjoy from Warriors. I tried to stop the conflict, but the green-haired individual gave me a black eye (Ouch). They were eventually restrained, and we were able to communicate with the person (who was an underground killjoy and was unfamiliar with the Warriors) that the killjoys they were fighting were not BLI. The white suits and fake Drac masks are only a disguise (and a clever one! I love them). The person only spoke Korean. Thankfully, Warriors have killjoys from all languages and walks of life, so we were able to translate.

I think that person likes me now. They asked me about a prescription of ADHD medication. I'm working on that too, so hold your skeleton horses.

I've been spending some time up on Melancholy Hill, and I've realized something. I was nearby, and a lot younger, when the news got around that the Fabulous Four died. I was about 7 years old, when I ran by, seeing all the gunshots. My young brain thought I could be a superhero and... save my older brother from juvenile hall. But, I couldn't. When I got there, I heard screaming about the Fab Four being killed. A killjoy van was driving away... but... I never saw the bodies. My young brain thought that the Boys had been dragged off.. but there was no blood. Not a single trace of them, other than the holes in the wall and the broken glass and that wretched man Korse grinning gleefully (God, he's like Hitler).

Anyways, back to the straightforward and less-depressing news!

I've found a new Killjoy, and she's rooming with me! Her name is Battery Kat, and when she was younger, she was caught in the crossfire of the Helium Wars, so much so that parts of her left ear and eyebrow are missing. She still wears her dad's dog tags, and they're covered in trinkets she finds on the streets, from bottle caps to beads and everything in between.

Love that girl.

Anyways, thanks for the readings and the news! I'll see you next week!

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z Movie 1: Dead Zone

All right, it’s time or the first DBZ movie.   Dead Zone premiered on July 15, 1989, right between epsiodes 11 and 12.   It wasn’t actually called “Dead Zone”, and it’s title was simply “Dragon Ball Z” until the other movies came out, and then it was known in Japan as “Return my Gohan!”     Personally, I think “Dead Zone” works better as a title although it doesn’t really come into play until the very end.  

I ran into some trouble with this one, because I own all the DBZ movies on Blu-Ray, and it turns out that I can’t take screen captures of Blu-Ray movies on my computer.   So my only other option was to log on to Funimation’s streaming service and get my images from there.   But the video quality was pathetic, so I’ll apologize in advance for the crappy screenshots.  

I’m not sure how I’ll proceed with the other films.   I can’t use Funimation.com for all of them, because the Bardock special, the Broly movies, and Fusion Reborn were all taken off the site, probably because they’ve been playing them in theaters lately.   I guess I could buy the DVD editions, but I’m not sure it’s worth the trouble.   Well, I’ll worry about that later.

We open on this shot of Piccolo screaming.   Right away, you call tell this is going to be a great movie.   Casablanca should have done this.  

I’m not sure what Piccolo is up to here, but I guess he’s blowing up rock formations as part of his training to beat Goku someday.  

Then he gets ambushed by three mysterious warriors, and they pretty much eat his lunch.   A fourth one orders them to kill Piccolo.

Piccolo screams, and there’s an explosion, and the bad guys seem pretty confident that he’s dead.   They also know that since Piccolo and Kami were once the same person, they’ve killed Kami along with Piccolo, which seems to have been the purpose of this attack.

Except Kami’s just fine.  We see him on the Lookout, sitting in what looks like a confessional.   He’s startled, but only because he can sense that Piccolo has been defeated.   He suspects Goku, but then he realizes that it must have been... him. 

From there, we move on to Goku’s house, where the Ox King just arrived to bring Gohan some presents.   It’s very much like the first few episodes of DBZ, only this time Gohan is actually home when Ox shows up.

But then Ox King collapses, and Gohan has to run away before his grandpa can fall on him.

Turns out some bad guy coldcocked Ox King from behind, and now he wants the Dragon Ball on Gohan’s hat.  Chi-Chi sends Gohan into the relative safety of the house...

...but this guy’s waiting inside, so that’s no good.   Also he eats three pears, just because.

Chi-Chi squares up to fight these guys, but there’s three of them and one of her, and she has to keep an eye on Gohan too.  There’s a lot of gifs out there of Chi-Chi’s desperate stance in this movie, because it’s just so well-animated.   Everything in this movie is well-animated, really.    It might not be the most innovative story, but the visuals more than make up for it.  

Chi-Chi can’t even land a blow, as it turns out.   The bad guys take Gohan and leave, and Goku’s out fishing.   Somehow, he senses it when Chi-Chi falls, and he runs back to the house to see what’s wrong.   Chi-Chi tells him that his son has been kidnapped by bad guys.   The question now is: Is Goku a bad enough dude to rescue him?   The answer is yes.  

Then we cut to the bad guys’ lair.   This shot looks amazing.   I love the weird architecture of the castle, I love the salmon-colored sky and the yellow clouds, it’s just really pleasant to look at.   I’d hang this up on my wall at home if I did that sort of thing. 

The leader, named Garlic Junior, plans to use the Dragon Balls to wish for eternal life.   With Gohan’s capture, they now have five of the Dragon Balls, and they seem pretty confident that they can locate the last two without much trouble.   I’m curious as to how they can find them so easily, but this is never explained.

Also, I don’t understand why they kidnapped Gohan when all they wanted was the Dragon Ball on his hat.   Gohan informs them that his father will come rescue him, and the bad guys seem mildly impressed to learn that Goku is his father.   Garlic even recognizes Goku as the man who defeated Piccolo at the World Martial Arts tournament.    On the other hand, they just got done beating Piccolo, and quite easily, so they figure they can handle Goku if he happens to show up.

Garlic senses that Gohan has a great power within him, and decides to raise him as his henchman.   This right here turns out to be a huge mistake.  Bringing Gohan here was a questionable move at best, but here we see Garlic decide to keep the kid, rather than kill him or send him back to his family.    It just isn’t worth it.   Yeah, Gohan might make a useful flunky, but does Garlic really need one?   Probably not, but he’s too high on his own success to hedge his bets. 

Meanwhile, Goku heads to Master Roshi’s place to get Bulma’s Dragon Radar.   Not sure how he knew Bulma was at Roshi’s place, but whatever.   Just like in the TV series, when Radditz kidnapped Gohan, Goku was able to track his son by the Dragon Ball on his hat.   And this seems like a good time to discuss the continuity of this movie.

See, the original Dragon Ball movies sort of functioned as a retelling of Goku’s early adventures, with different characters and plot elements tossed in.   It was readily apparent that they didn’t fit into the continuity of the TV anime or the manga, because they literally retold key moments, like Goku meeting Bulma for the first time, or Krilln meeting Master Roshi, or Tao Pai Pai’s murder of Bora.   But the circumstances were changed, so it was clear that those movie moments didn’t fit in with the original story.   The DBZ movies, on the other hand, sort of operate as side-stories to the manga and anime, ecxcept that there’s usually one or two plot holes that keep them from fitting into the mythos.   

In this case, the big problem is that Bulma, Roshi, and Krillin are helping Goku find his lost son, but they didn’t find out Goku even had a son until Episode 2 of DBZ, which ends with Radditz kidnapping the boy.    If not for this scene right here, you could make an argument that this movie works as a prequel to DBZ, and Gohan got kidnapped by a different supervillain right before Raditz showed up.   

So why not say that it’s set after the battle with Raditz?    Because Goku dies in that battle, and by the time he comes back, Piccolo is dead.    By the time Piccolo returns to life, they’re all on Planet Namek.    You won’t see all of these characters reunited on Earth until Episode 121.    By that time, Goku’s a Super Saiyan, and Gohan is a few years older, and far more capable than the timid little boy we see in this movie.  

Still, it’s a pretty subtle plot hole, which I think is why some fans cling to the idea that the movies are canon somehow.   It doesn’t help that Toei did a whole filler arc in the anime, where Garlic Junior returns and references the events of the movie, but it just doesn’t make sense. 

Back at Garlic’s castle, he’s sent two of his minions to gather the last two Dragon Balls, while the third has to look after Gohan.   He doesn’t care much for this, and he stops to take a break by eating fruit from a tree in the courtyard...

... But Gohan has the same idea.  

Turns out this is special fruit that gets you drunk.  

Gohan has a whole hallucination, complete with a musical theme.

Somehow he wanders into Garlic’s oversized novelty cuckoo clock.

And then he sleeps it off on Garlic’s throne. Garlic seems to consider all of this as a sign that Gohan is no ordinary child, so maybe a normal kid would just pass out or die if they ate that fruit. 

Doesn’t matter, because it’s wish time.  Garlic gets all seven balls, and he asks the Dragon to make him immortal, and it works!   Goku’s still on his way when this happens.    It’s kind of surreal to see a bad guy pull something like this off without a hitch.    Even King Piccolo had to fight a few people first.

The actual process of making Garlic Junior immortal seems to involve some sort of energy transfer.    It even looks a little uncomfortable, but Garlic is sure that it worked. 

then we get this whole scene of demons rising up from the ground and marching off to war.    I’m not sure if this is actually happening while Garlic is becoming immortal, or if he’s just imagining what he’s going to do now that no one can stop him.

Goku arrives soon after, demanding the release of his son, and then Kami shows up, all glowing yellow like he’s a big shot.  Garlic is shocked to see Kami, since he assumed he was already dead, but Goku is just annoyed that Kami is butting into his rescue mission.   This scene makes a lot more sense when you’ve seen Kami and Goku quibble over the fight with Piccolo in the original Dragon Ball.

From there, Kami starts explaining just who Garlic Junior is.   Turns out that Garlic Senior was Kami’s rival for the job of Guardian of the Earth.   The previous Kami recognized the evil ambitions in Garlic, Sr.’s heart, so he picked the guy we now know as Kami.   Garlic, Sr. was a sore loser about this, so he rebelled against Kami, only to be defeated.   According to Kami, Garlic Senior’s last words were that he would take his revenge 300 years later. 

Kami finds it tragic that Garlic would be so evil as to put his own son in charge of his vengeance, but that’s where things stand.    So let’s talk about this for a bit.

I guess this is one of the things that makes this one of my favorites.    The previous films really didn’t add anything to the lore or advance the story.   Mystical Adventure was pretty good and fun, but it basically rehashed the same ideas that were already established in the TV series.   My favorite part of that movie was the Mifan Empire, but it can’t exist outside of that movie, because there’s no Chiaotzu or Crane Hermit to run the place.    On the other hand, the villain in Dead Zone has ties to Kami, which means that we can learn some things about Kami that maybe fit into the canon as well?   Like, this movie isn’t canon, but Kami is, so maybe he really did have to compete with a guy named Garlic to get the job 300 years ago?

Anyway, Garlic Junior seems to be an amalgam of several Dragon Ball villains.  He looks a lot like Emperor Pilaf, to the point where Funimation cast Chuck Huber to play both roles.   Garlic always struck me as an attempt to make an Emperor Pilaf who could really cause trouble.    Beyond that, Garlic also resembles King Piccolo because of his wish on the Dragon Balls and his plan to conquer the world, and he resembles Piccolo Junior, in the sense that he’s been tasked to avenge the defeat of his wicked father.   I don’t know if the Garlics have the same relationship as the Piccolos, where the son is essentially a duplicate of the father, but it could be like that.   Garlic also resembles Raditz by kidnapping Gohan and using similar moves to battle Goku and Piccolo later, and finally, he resembles Vegeta in his desire to wish for immortality.   Put all of this together, and you end up with a pretty compelling movie boss. 

At his core, though, I think Garlic is sort of meant to be an evil version of Kami.   Garlic Senior failed to impress the previous Kami, so he went full-on evil.    The current Kami, on the other hand, succeeded because he purged himself of his wickedness, although he created Piccolo in the process.    The implication here is that it was kind of a no-win situation.    The previous Kami had to choose between two inadequate applicants.    One became a villain and the other created a villain.   Even when Garlic Senior was defeated, his son was left behind to carry on his vendetta. 

The story raises more questions than answers, though.    What was Garlic Junior doing for 300 years?   Training, I guess, but it never gets explained.   The Garlic Junior Saga will later establish that he and his father are aliens from the planet Makyo, so how does that all fit into this?    Was Garlic Senior always a bad guy, or was he truly sincere in his desire to become Kami until he was turned down for the job?    Where are the Spice Boys in all of this?

Anyway, Goku doesn’t care about any of this.    He’s just here for his son, and for some reason Garlic’s minions actually bother to stop him.   They introduce themselves as Ginger...

...Sansho...

... And Nikki.

Then they puff up their bodies to get stronger and faster.

The three of them give Goku a little trouble, but then Krillin and Piccolo show up and the odds are now even.   I guess Krillin followed Goku here from Roshi’s place, while Piccolo survived the ambush from the start of the movie, and now he’s here for revenge.

Turns out that Garic’s henchmen aren’t so tough when they can’t gang up on someone.   Piccolo crushes Sansho like it’s not even hard.

Meanwhile, Kami and Garlic fight.   This is kind of a big deal, because we never get to see Kami in action in the anime, even though he was supposed to be a very powerful character in the Piccolo sagas.  But this is DBZ, so he’s helpless against as DBZ villain like Garlic.  

But Kami still has some power to spare.

Meanwhile, Goku fights Nikki and Ginger at the same time, and while they give him a little trouble, he wins pretty handily.    This movie also marks one of the few times we see Goku use his Nyoibo as an adult.    I feel like DBZ never quite figured out what happened to the Nyoibo after Goku came down from Kami’s Lookout, but he’s got it in this movie, and he needs it, because Nikki and Ginger can pull swords out of their bodies.

This movie also marks the first time Goku actually kills a villain with a Kamehameha.   In the past he either misses or the bad guy survives somehow, but here he aims at Ginger, hits him, and then hits Nikki with the same blast.   That’s one of the nice things about the movies.    They’re very short and self-contained, so there isn’t time for plot twists like “The big finishing move didn’t work!” or “Goku lost!  What do we do now?”   If Goku loses in a movie he just has to get up and try again, or hope the bad guy is feeling merciful.

Kami is clearly overmatched against Garlic, so he tries to blow himself up to kill Garlic in the process.    Trouble is, Garlic’s immortal, so that trick wouldn’t work.

Fortunately, Goku and Piccolo want a piece of Garlic Junior, so Kami can sit this one out.   Garlic actually wonders why either of these dudes would come to Kami’s aid.    Isn’t it obvious?    Garlic kidnapped Goku’s son, and he ambushed Piccolo, so now they want revenge.   I mean, on top of that, Garlic’s plans for the Earth would make things tough for their own lives, but there’s plenty of reasons for them to want to beat him up.

So Garlic transforms into the big beefy guy we saw in shadow a the start of the movie.    I guess this makes him the first Dragon Ball character to transform?   Well, Goku and Gohan turned into giant apes, but still, this is kind of a big deal.

Like I was saying, Garlic sort of resembles Raditz here, in that he managed to get Goku and Piccolo to team up against him.    He even uses the same opening move as Raditz, rushing towards them, vanishing, and then hitting them in the back with his elbows at the same time.

So where’s Krillin in all of this?   Goku tasked him with looking after Gohan, but when the fight started, Krillin got clobbered by a falling pillar and dropped the kid. 

Outside, Goku and Piccolo shed their weighted training clothes, just as they did against Raditz.    Goku again expresses surprise that Piccolo even uses weighted training clothes, so once again, this episode just doesn’t fit in continuity.   They could have teamed up to fight Garlic and Raditz, but Goku can only find out about Piccolo’s weighted clothes once.

Anyway, shedding the wieghted clothes seems to do the trick pretty well, so I guess that means Garlic Junior isn’t quite as tough as Raditz.   

For some reason, they decide Garlic is beaten, so they move on to settling their own rivalry.   Did everyone just forget that he’s immortal?

Garlic Junior sure didn’t, since he’s back on his feet.    But instead of fighting again, he takes a different approach.

Here’s a great shot of the castle, by the way.

Then this black hole looking thing opens up in the sky and starts sucking everything into it.

Piccolo almost gets drawn in, but Goku manages to save him, which is pretty awesome.

I always thought “Dead Zone” was a dub-ism, but no, that’s what Garlic himself calls it in the original script.    He even says “Dead Zone” in English.   What is a dub-ism (I think) is that his father, Garlic Senior, was banished into the Dead Zone 300 years ago.   Of course, any living thing that gets trapped in the Dead Zone gets killed eventually, so we might as well call that an execution, but the Japanese dub never mentions this when discussing Senior’s fate.  

It would be kind of ironic, though, because Kami doesn’t have anything to do with the power of opening portals to the Dead Zone.   Garlic Junior can do it (obviously), so if Senior got stuck in the Dead Zone, then that sort of implies that he put himself there accidentally, just like Junior is about to... well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Turns out Gohan’s awake now, and he’s mad.

I mean really mad!

Garlic isn’t entirely surprised to see that Gohan can resist the suction of the Dead Zone, but he doesn’t seem to think Gohan can stop him either.  He prepares to attack him with all of his power...

But Gohan fires an energy blast that knocks Garlic off his feet, and sends him into the Dead Zone instead.   

Garlic proclaims that this won’t kill him, but I don’t know if he’s relieved or terrified by that prospect.

Now that the moment has passed, Gohan just sort of passes out.

And without Garlic to maintain the portal, the effect wears off.

And then the sky fractures?   I don’t know what this is supposed to mean.   I thought the yellow and red color scheme just meant that it was sunset at Garlic’s fortress...

But now it’s a clear blue mid-day sky.    So I guess it was Garlic Junior’s doing?   Anyway, Kami remarks that he’s trapped forever in the Dead Zone, without even death to relieve his suffering in that place.  

Ironically, Gohan thinks it was Goku who saved him, when it was actually the other way around.  

Piccolo watches the others leave, and promises to deal with Goku another day.

And then we find the shards of the orange sky on the bottom of the sea, and Garlic is inside one of them, desperately trying to get out.  

So yeah, this is one of my personal faves from the movies.    I dig the idea of a bad guy actually wishing for immortality, only to have it backfire on him so spectacularly.   It fits in nicely with the whole theme of greed in this story.   Garlic didn’t need to attack Piccolo or kidnap Gohan to further his plan, but he did it anyway because he saw no downside to it, and it all came back to haunt him.   Goku and Piccolo almost lost when they got too wrapped up in their own grudge, but they managed to get back on track before it got out of hand.   

Also, this movie is just a visual feast.    Even simple things like Nikki eating pears or Chi-Chi tossing her apron aside are really beautifully done.   

It’s a little light on characters, but after Mystical Adventure, I’d say that was a good move.   Yeah, it would have been nice to have more of the gang in this movie, but they would have slowed the story down.   Honestly, they could have left Krillin out of the mix and it wouldn’t have hurt anything.  

[bonebreakjack]

The Princely Beast and the Dark Dragon

Ai hates Takeru,, but also he really really can't hate Takeru...

Warnings for non consensual kissing, Ai being an evil jealous little shit, and references to the episode Dreaming Roboppy

  First he took his allies. Then he took his friends. Finally he took his cards, the only ones he gave him. Everything single part of him. Everything that extends from him, it all belongs to Ai. Because in the end they were one in the same. And if they were truly the same being, then everything they had belonged to one another.

  Ai breathed a shaky sigh as he held Yusaku in his arms. His partners avatar severely injured from their final battle. He traced his fingers over the gouges, the missing leg, the slices in his skin exposing pink data underneath. In a way, it was pretty to look at. But reality was sobering and he wasn’t sure what this much damage would do to Yusaku’s mind. Soulburner and Yusaku breathing hard, both of them glaring hard at the A.I. Duo who looked on with victory in their faces. Ai reached out and grabbed Yusaku who fully collapsed due to his injuries, and taking him into his arms. The other Origin tried to plead for Ai to stop, it was sad really, it reminded him of Flame. Takeru kept trying to appeal to their good nature, it was almost princely like…

Soul burner reached out trying to get up but Roboppi pushed him down none to gently with their foot. Helping him along to his own unconsciousness by kicking him in the head and forcibly logging him out.

“Hey Big Bro…. Is he going to be okay?”Ai looked over to see Roboppi coming into the room, concern written all over their cherubic face. They must have came back from guard duty. They had a special room in the remains of Vrains holding the consciousness of their former friends. “I hope he will be. I’m just assessing the damage right now,” Ai didn’t reveal much more than that, he noticed that Roboppi has been more aggressive lately. Even their eyes have changed with a strange eerie ring of red surrounding the iris. He really needs to check their coding soon, he can’t have them lashing out on him or Yusaku, especially not with him this injured. “Ca-Can I hold him?”Ai turned in surprise as the meek request, Roboppi’s hands held out closing and opening them hesitantly. “No-” Roboppi’s eyes glowed dangerously that aggressiveness coming to the surface in near nanoseconds ready to rip Yusaku right out of his arms. Like hell he would let that happen! Little brother or not, Roboppi will learn some damn patience and respect here. They can’t throw a tantrum every time Ai tells them no. “Not right now.” Ai’s voice broke for no argument turning the former maid bot meek again from fear and shame. Good. For the immediate obedience he can offer something though. “You can however, hold his hand and help me check him over. It will be faster with the both of us.” The little bot nearly jumped with joy, the red near disapatting as they shuffled over not wanting to wake Yusaku. Their features turned incredibly soft and Ai reasoned that maybe he should have Roboppi help care for Yusaku after all. It seems they still have complete affection for him, enough to calm whatever beast now lies with in that seems to turn them into a monster when in battle. Their mood swings are incredibly concerning. “He’s so hurt, how are we going to fix it?” 

Isn't that the question of the year? This damage is pretty bad, even with Ai’s help its going to be a while to fix and they have to take in consideration Yusaku’s human body. If they don’t care for it he will wither away in the real world. Sighing, Ai thought what a troublesome partner he has. “We’re going to have to split up duties, Yusaku is a stubborn bastard, so he will live. I’ll watch over him in this world and you go to the real one, take care of him there until I fix him.”Ai threaded his fingers through Yusaku’s virtual hair humming content now that he thought of what he was going to do. Yusaku was in a state of mind that really any suggestions can slip through that thick head. “And what the hell do you mean by fixing him, Ai?” A rough voice spoke up startling both of them. Ai’s head snapped up and he was met with the furious face of Soulburner, who looked for disgusted and furious as he looked him in the eye. He looked worn still, but much better than last time and well Yusaku currently. Great, Prince Charming has returned. “Exactly as it sounds, Mr. Prince~ ” The confusion that immediately took over nearly had Ai bust out laughing almost as if it was bitter and acidic, like stomach acid. Ai almost hated this man, the one who easily broke through Yusak’s defenses and walls as if they weren’t there at all. A beast that turned into a prince sweeping his partner off his feet. Ai tried but Yusaku was such an ice king, and while he did acknowledge Ai, it was only when he died and finally left. It made Ai want to rip out his throat . But in the end he truly couldn’t hate this man, and that was the worst part of it all. He was so earnest, so honest, about his well… everything! No wonder Yusaku fell for him.

Flame had loved and cherished him too, enough that he was willing to die for humanity simply because of Takeru. And Takeru loved him back with everything he had, he loved Yusaku too, if not more so. Ai kind of hated him for not being hateable, seriously! He’s got nothing but petty jealousy to work with here. It’s one of the reasons he wasn’t captured with the rest. He now realized that was a mistake though. Soulburner didn’t take kindly of everyone being well taken away. Which, fair. But really he could have least knock where was his manners?! Ah, wait, he’s talking he should really focus on what he’s saying now. “-Can’t believe you did this to everyone! To Yusaku! Ai, I know your grieving, we can fix this, grieve together. Don’t do this to everyone! I-I may not be the smartest guy around when it comes to people's feelings, but you can rely on me too….” There was pain in his voice, a helplessness,  “I can’t say the pain we share is the same, but I can help… if you let me,” No, seriously, what shonen manga did this guy pop out from? He is literally too good to be true. Ai really hates the fact he can’t hate him. “ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?!”

“I am.” Soulburner looked a bit embarrassed by that but still had the fierce look on his face that says, ‘I’ll kick your ass for you own good’ all over it. Maybe if Ai checked the archive of manga he could find a character that looked like Soulburner and thus finally find the origin of- Wait, he’s getting distracted. Ai cuddled into Yusaku one last time before handing him to Roboppi. “Take him to the room we have for him and then check on his body. I’ll handle this,”

Giving a cutesy salute Roboppi happily took their master and bounded off. Ignoring Soulburner’s indigent squawks as he was ignored. Striding up to the smaller man, he raised an amused brow once Soulburner realized he wasn’t stopping at all. This wasn’t how he usually did things but to be fair, it wasn’t a usual situation. With everyone else, they hadn’t been competition for Yusaku’s affection, hadn’t been the focus of jealousy since he had no fear of them taking his partner away. It also didn’t help that he could see another use for Soulburner without using him as a hostage. Tilting his head cutely with a bright smile, he almost wanted to laugh again at the smaller’s wary look. Ai knew how humans acted, how they can react, out of all the Ignis he was the best at that. Lightning may have known how to scare them, to rip them apart, but Ai knew what made them tick ...and let them be their own failing. Bringing up his hands, Soulburner flinched as his face was cradled and then pulled slightly forward. Just enough for Ai to lean down and they were touching noses. “I meant fix him, of course. You saw the state of him correct? Yusaku is a mess-” “A mess you made last time I checked,” Came the quick snap. Oh, cute he was growling, Ai wonders if he will bite if he calls him Puppy? For another time. “Yes, I did, for his own good. You know how he gets after all, willing to destroy himself for his mission. That’s why I had to stop him~ Otherwise he’d get killed, and I rather have him alive.”Ai hummed, as his fingers glowed a bit working their magic. Heh, magic fingers. “I’m not an idiot. You had a different thing in mind when you said you wanted to fix him”Soulburner grabbed his hands to chuck them off, only to realize they won’t budge at all. For all his strength, Ai was far stronger. In this world he makes the rules, they are just visiting in it. “True, I really just wanted Yusaku to stop fighting me, maybe even erase his memories of everyone that way he won’t be depressed when I end humanity.”Ai hummed as he tightened his grip almost bringing down his hands enough to make it look like he was choking the fiery duelist. Forcing his head back, Ai look into his eyes and relished the bit of fear and defiance in it. “I’ll make an exception for you, and some of the others, Yusaku does need friends after all. Heaven knows I worked hard while was with him trying to stop him from being such a basement hermit” “Wait, what?!” “Oh, yeah, he practically was chained to his basement, it’s a good thing he had Roboppi, otherwise with how long he stayed in that chair he’d have cobwebs all over him-” Ai was cut off by a smack of frustration to his shoulder. “No! I meant-What do you mean but ‘make an exception?!’ ”

Ah! Now Ai understood, and he let a devilish smile crossed his face. “You see, the thing is, I’m incredibly jealous of you , Takeru. You have the number one thing I really want, my partners unconditional love. All for you, you greedy bastard. For the longest while I wanted you gone!” Ai sighed dramatically and felt Soulburner flush as he realized how close their faces were.  “You’ve gotten to be all his firsts too, his first date, his first kiss, his first time-” “Stop, please , just stop!” Cute, even in this form Soulburner was shy about intimate acts in public, or maybe it was just Ai? Eh, whatever. “Though not his first love, Ryoken has long had that seat.” 

Both their faces clinched in displeasure at the other rival for Yusaku’s affections. If Ai had been smarter, he could be sharing Yusaku right now if he had teamed up with Takeru from the get go. A common enemy/rival always brought people together.

”However, I got to know you and in the end I couldn’t even hate you, your truly are an un-hateable guy. It’s very annoying by the way, the only way I could truly destroy you is through petty jealousy”Clicking his tongue he shook his head, as if blaming Soulburner for being a good person. “That would have let a sour taste in my mouth, You make him so happy. How could I kill someone like that? So, I decided, You get to stay with Yusaku... But it will be on my terms ” “Wait! Ai no- ” Soulburner let out a squeak as Ai crashed his lips down, using the momentary shock to get into Soulburners head to knock him out. In the end, he really was too easy to get to.  A scream was muffled by Ai’s lips until Soulburner went limp, unconscious in Ai’s arms. “Don’t worry you and Yusaku are going to love your new life, once I rebuild Vrains, everything before hand will be just a terrible dream. You won’t even need your physical forms after I’m done.” 

He bridal carried the man away already thinking of the modifications he needed to do to turn the Knightly prince into an obedient one. “Guess this is two bodies we’re going to need to temporarily look after. Good night~ ” “Sweet Prince”