#technically watcher grian BTW!

[arekayic]

mmmm headcanon theory time on mumbo’s new skin because i don’t fucking know anymore (ft grian bc i love grumbo)……

this isn’t a serious headcanon so if anyone wants to add anything on to it, go crazy :3

what if grian slowly started losing energy and color and his usual silly nature bc he doesn’t have a soul and it finally became noticeably bad in s10 so mumbo gives his soul back cus he loves grian and would do anything for him (let me have my delusions)… but then mumbo starts aging again bc something in g’s soul prevented him from doing so…..

but i’m really sad how they don’t share a soul anymore :((((((((((

and i guess vampires don’t age but i don’t think that man is full vampire at all 😭 he is not nearly cool enough to be immortal SORRY MUMBO he does not have that immortal swagger

[isjasz]

[Day 321] 💜

-

Ok Listen somehow my pieces get harder to explain every time. um. uh. my friend suggested lineless kissing art then we went insane, then they suggested watcher grian and secret life scar so uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh👍i had fun HASJKDAEHWEJ

[mooblesandsoups]

Songs like sunlight

An mcyt battle of the bands au

Some people really like my snowbugs WIP and now I'm using it as an excuse to talk about my au because I like this au. (Btw feel free to ask questions about the au please I'll love to talk more about it)

CW: the entire entertainment industry, implied workplace abuse and talks about disabilities

World building/plot

SLS or The battle of the bands au is a secret life au that takes place in a dystopian world aesthetically based on ideas like cyberpunk and solarpunk.

After all of earth's greenery was almost destroyed as caused by the industrial revolution people turned to music and other arts to not only cope but to separate more from the technology that was destroying the earth.

Centuries later earth us flourishing with greenery (however their water supply is definitely not better) everywhere you walk you see everything from people on scooters to bikes to street artist showcasing their work to anyone who'll listen, of course nothing can be perfect and Companies have used the rising growth of music to its benefit.

The biggest music company in the world is Watchers Inc. A music company that has been booming since the introduction of their latest singer a masked singer only known as X by fans as well as controversies with former members... However this mysterious singer isn't their reason for popularity oh no it's how they choose their next talents.

Every decade Watchers Inc. Hosts a battles of the bands competition, choosing a selection of popular indie artist to compete for a prize, with the winner being offered a spot as a talent for Watchers Inc. Alongside their prize.

This year is particularly special with the introduction.. And reintroduction of some familiar faces now battling to win a grand prize, which band will come out on top? What secrets will be revealed? What kind of relationship will bloom? And which will have their failures and personal lives broadcasted live in front of millions.

Bands

As mentioned previously this au is secret life based as that was what was currently out when I first started this au do of course I enjoyed playing around with dynamics and how they all started theirs bands/careers.

Gem & The Scott's- indie/alternative music (can't explain but think of black sheep by metric. That. Specifically the one in Scott Pilgrim)

Starting off with gem and the Scott's, gem and impulse met each other because of a family friend leading to their eventual friendship. Soon enough gem had an idea, let's male a band. Both gem and impulse had a fascination for music considering it's how they became friends, so it just felt right in gems eyes. However they needed one more member and luckily she knows exactly who to ask.

Next thing Scott knows as he's relaxing at a bar enjoying his break from music when a random ginger woman runs up to him and ask to join her emo band. And he said yes for some reason so I guess it worked.

Mounders- folklore music

The mounders were founded by pearl a few months after her band's contract was terminated by Watchers Inc. So she decided to start fresh and gather some of her friends to set up a proper band.

Due to Pearl's previous success it wasn't too difficult getting back into business with some assistance from her bandmates and suddenly everything is good again.

The Roomies- pop? (Maybe? Like Oliva Rodrigo kinda pop not finalized)

The roomies aren't technically an official band Grian is considered a independence artist by many and switches around bandmates a lot because of his contract with Watchers Inc. However he trusts etho and Cleo the most and preforms with them as much as he can because they treat him like an actual person.

The heart foundation- Jazz (Dont ask me details I don listen to jazz music)

Couple of dudes work at a bar and play jazz music. I don't know what else you want they're just silly guys with a bit of PTSD

Big dogs- rap (because its funny)

Jimmy and Martyn were both in the acting business for awhile which is how they met. Jimmy has been and actor since childhood and Martyn only started during adulthood while doing music on the side. Soon enough Jimmy ends up ranting to Martyn about acting and how he's tired of it after doing it for so long so Martyn asks if he wants to become a musician with him and Jimmy agrees then the big dogs were born.

Scar & Lizzie- Lizzie is pop (but like theater kid pop if that makes sense) and scar is yet to be decided (maybe country?)

Lizzie and Scar are both individual performers both choosen through a popularity vote by the fans and watcher staff.

Extra fun stuff

This was mentioned in the WIP above but Scott is legally blind, however he was not born blind. He basically got the bad genetics in his family and eventually starts going blind over time. Its really not too important to the plot (besides some backstory stuff and self esteem issues) but it's an interesting detail that I'm doing lots of research to get right.

Lizzie and Joel are married in this au! I'm only bringing this up because my friend came up with a funny idea that Lizzie was unarguably the more popular of the two but Joel bragged about his popularity more.

Skizz owns the bar the heart foundation works at the boys typically do seperate performances and performances together while also helping around the bar itself however Skizz is known to hire small bands to preform as well.

The setting SLS takes place in is as mentioned very green but there are spaces around dedicated to paintings and art in general, like cleared up spaces dedicated to graffiti or street artists having their own spot to work.

Almost everyone in this world is a hybrid of sorts, I try to have fun using lesser used hybrid headcanons but some are just a bit basic. Is there lore reasons they're hybrids? No I just think it's cool.

Since this is a secret life au all the winners of the previous games are Grian, Scott and Pearl (they won together), and Martyn. Grian, Scott and Pearl had all taken the offers to join Watchers Inc. But only Grian remains meanwhile Martyn stayed independent and just took his prize and left.

On the topic of the winners it should be mentioned that all the winners do know each other in some way, Grian is cousins with Pearl and therefore knew Scott by association, Pearl and Scott are former band mates but are still close, Martyn and Scott are friends from highschool so pearl knows him by association, Grian met Martyn at a bar an became friends.

And that's all yall getting for now!

[mochiwrites]

so is Scar trapped In a time-loop after he won? Because he refused to die. But he kept on living either. Repeatedly slamming the success button over and over again, hoping it'll end.

So does the Watcher grew bored one day, and offered him a deal; “Do you want to see your friend?” They asked.

Scar replied instantly, desperate. “Yes.” He hit the button again, another leather-bound book popped out of thin air, with a different content this time.

It had been written, with a language foreign to Scar but he was able to read. “Kill yourself.”

Scar obeyed.

And it lead to this. In a sense, the Watcher did kept their promise, Scar can see his friend again.

But he can only Watch. Watch them from afar. But If I'm right, Scar used the task to jogged the memory of his friend, so in a sense, he has control over the task? Could he break out of the loop by stopping this past version of him to win?

lovely AU btw! I've had my hunch even when I start reading it, and I was right. So this question basically bloomed from there.

eeeee thank you !!!

you’re right with some of it !! scar does get stuck in some kind of loop after winning. he’s continuously hitting the succeed button over and over. and eventually he just kinda gives up, maybe screams at the sky and demands his friends. but when there’s no answer he breaks down, crying and begging to end the loneliness.

it’s less of the watchers demanding he die and more of an “you want your wish granted? okay :)”

and when scar wakes up again he’s in the statue. there technically isn’t a past version of scar running around on the server. there’s only one scar, and it’s the one who’s been made into the secret keeper. so the loop is broken!

he does have control over the tasks though, yep! I’m not quite sure how he figures it out just yet, but it is something he discovers. and then he uses it to get grian to remember

:D

[asterssunzephyr]

Ok, when did the siblings get separated? And how did their parents meet and got in love?

Gri & Pearl: Their dad & mom met and fell in love on a non-permadeath server. Grian was born first, and then later Pearl.

Their dad however later had an affair with someone on that same server, which is where Gem and Fwhip are born from. When Gri & Pearls mom finds out, she takes them and moves servers.

Gem & Fwhip are separated by their parents, their dad taking Gem and living on permadeath servers while their mom stayed on the non-permadeath server the four kids were born on.

Grian was 4 when he, pearl & their mom moved, 8 when the twins were separated & 14 when he was separated and sent to YHS.

Gri was 16 when Evo started, 17 when it ended & he became a watcher; 18 when he joined hc6, 22 when Pearl & Gem joined hc8, 23 when hc9 starte.

hc6 & hc8 are 4 years apart, 2 for hc6 & one from hc7, when hc8 starts Grians birthday has passed even though technically its been 3 years since hc6 ended.

Hope this helps with timelimes btw:)

[sparxwrites]

Hi!! I'm the anon that sent that long and uh, "immaculate" ask about the scarian fic :D I'm really happy that you liked it so much, it made my day to read your response <3 (i somehow saw it only days after you responded and i was like "aw man it'd be awkward to respond so late" so... i didn't, sorry ;-;)

But!! I saw you were curious about the Winged Grian lore, so I'm gonna try to expand a bit on what other have already said.

So, there's a few ways that the fandom originates Grian's wings: Avian/Mob Grian, Watcher Grian, or simply Shapeshifting Elytra.

Avian/Mob Grian: Either born as an avian (a person with bird characteristics) or a mob (aka parrot/chicken). This usually presents as: Grian with white chicken wings, parrot wings (either the tri-coloured mc one or other irl parrot species) or custom coloured wings pertaining to his colour palette. Lately, due to Him getting the Dragon Egg and protecting it, people have also been giving him dragon wings, which belongs to the headcanon that his wings have shapeshifting abilities. This headcanon (i can't remember who first made the headcanon, sorry!!) can be found related to the other origins as well. (You might also find older stuff with dragon wings due to a very brief story line at the end of s6).

Watcher Grian: The backstory to this one is pretty big, but to condense it: In Grian's previous SMP series, Evo, there were beings of great power that tasked themselves with creating worlds, updates and so on in the MC universe. It happens that they take an interest in Grian and his server, helping them along the journey of hopping from update to update, beginning from the Alpha build. At the end of the series, right as Grian & co go to the end to defeat the Ender Dragon, Grian is taken by them (this technically was him starting his Hermitcraft series at this point, but lore wise it's a big blank of time). They are not really shown as malevolent, but since we don't really know their true motives, people went on to create their own takes of them. ATUS (And the Universe Shifts) was the most popular HC fanfic for a long long time (it was even read by Cleo) and it is what shaped today's most popular interpretation of the Watchers: entities with too much power and too little compassion, aka pretty evil! Anyway, Watcher Grian is presented as: Purple, lots and lots of purple and void and EYES (the SUPER focus on eyes is a bit more recent, tho), with the Watcher symbol & mask. He's been called (by the fandom) the Red Watcher, Techno's Blood God (due to the red watcher thing) and the Chaos Watcher. Wings usually are purple, void, cosmic, EYES, red, black, his cloak, or a combo of any of those.

Shapeshifting Elytra: this sorta speaks for itself. It's actually a headcanon that is used for all the other hermits as well, due to the focus being on the Elytra, rather than the character's origins! Mostly, the idea goes like this: Elytras take the shape, form and colour of whatever the player is like, unique to each of them. For example, Scar, as he is sometimes (canon and fanon!) a vex mob/hybrid, would have vex wings, sometimes he'd have wings matching his outfits and skins. This is presented as: Grian's wings shifting from watcher wings (s6) to (sometimes, depends on the fan artist) chicken wings (s6) to parrot wings (s7) to dragon wings (s8). That, or simply from parrot species to other parrot or bird species across seasons & smps (like last life).

I think that's all! I miraculously haven't hit the word limit in anon asks, so imma stop here, before i do! Hope this is helpful, but if you'd like to know more, check out @/give-grian-rights, they're basically the expert on Grian and his lore :D I'd also be okay with dms, btw, as long as you are too, but tbh I'd prob just ramble on and on (like I haven't already xD) Hope you have a great day <3

ah, hello again!, and yeah, that’s pretty much what i was aware of - thank you for the very comprehensive guide, though.

i’m very ambivalent about assigning hybrid status to people who don’t have skins that make it very evident they’re some kind of animal/mob cross, but i do very much like wings and i think given grian’s history of bird-related pranks and fondness for flying, i can see where it came from... i’ve seen some of the elytra designs for all the hermits, though, and i loooove them, they’re so good. very fond.

the watchers have shown up in last life since evo (which i have now watched in its entirety; taurtis my beloved...), btw - watch inthelittlewood’s pov for more. they’re pretty unequivocally evil in that. and, i’d argue, they’re also pretty evil in evo. the only reason it gets overlooked is that like... grian is almost worse behaved lmaooo.

...someone remind me at some point, when i’m drowning in work a little less, to write a meta post about how c!grian is, in fact, kind of a Bad Person. especially in evo, where he kills and explodes and burns and traps and teases remorselessly, and generally without asking permission, and often taking it just a few feet over the too far line. and how that makes him more interesting to me, rather than less, this man who’s natural inclination is chaos and violence and explosions and an absence of natively-felt empathy, very carefully reining himself in for the sake of his friends, because he was told to, because they asked him to, because he cares about them and wants to be liked and accepted. and also makes me want to use him as the world’s featheriest football even more, rip.

(also my dms are always open, as a general statement!! i know like... nobody in this fandom, it’s like me and one poor fucker i’ve dragged in after me, please come talk to me about shit. but also please bear in mind, depending on your age, that i am Very Much over 18, and that this blog / myself is intermittently 18+ in the nsfw sense.)

[votederpycausemufins]

Just about everyone is back together. There’s only a few minor concerning things happening. I’m sure it’s fine.

@petrichormeraki and @helleborusangel

Bad had taken Grian and Jrum back to Jrum’s section of his house, helping plug the bot into his charger. Grian couldn’t find a chair immediately, so he just quickly built one, leaving Bad blinking in surprise.

“So, I don’t think I introduced myself. I’m Grian, one of Jrum’s dads.” And he held out a hand while fumbling for his comm with the other. 

Bad shook Grian’s hand hesitantly. “I’m BadBoyHalo, or just Bad. I adopted Jrum while you weren’t showing up.”

“Yeah, Tommy sent me a message about that earlier.”

“Wait so that really was Tommy we saw earlier? He’s not dead?”

Grian shook his head. “No. He’s been living with us and some friends in a different world for a bit now.”

“Oh… then… he’s not going to like hearing some bad news.”

Grian tilted his head, worried. “Why? What happened?”

“Just after those two showed up,” Bad gestured to Jrum. “A message showed up that Tubbo died and he didn’t respawn.”

Grian leaned back in his chair. “Oh, no he’s alive too. My guess is your admin lied to you so you wouldn’t question his disappearance. Philza and Techno have also been away, so anything you’ve heard about them is probably also false.”

“Wait… so if they haven’t been here, who’s dealing with Ghostbur?”

“Who’s that?”

“Phil’s son Wilbur. He died but came back as a ghost and now he goes by Ghostbur.”

Grian looked down at the ground. “Right… Wil’s dead…”

That took Bad off guard. “Did you two know each other?”

“Yeah. Yeah we did. But I hadn’t seen him in years.” Grian then distracted himself by reading his comm finally. “Well it looks like I’ve missed a lot.”

<MumboJumbo> Found EX. He’s seen both the boys. Jrum’s got a nylium problem and Grum is… 

<MumboJumbo> I think I want to throw up.

<Tubbo_> Tommy and I were sort of kidnapped by Dream, and I think he also did something to Ranboo.

<Tubbo_> but we’re out now and have Grum. I’ve also got Michael.

[Eyes] Current X-S, Y-S, Z-S

[Eyes] End X-F, Y-F, Z-F

<EvilXisuma> What do you mean Tommy is with you? He’s with me.

<EvilXisuma> give me an answer!

<Ph1LzA> I found Ranboo, but he’s got no clue what happened.

<Ph1LzA> no sign of Dream either.

<EvilXisuma> fuck

<EvilXisuma> that’s got to be Theseus with Tubbo, and he’s going after Dream to try and revive his version of him.

<Tubbo_> Hi! We’re fine now! Mumbo found us, though uh, Theseus and Dream are gone now.

<EvilXisuma> that’s… mostly okay. Has anyone heard from Grian or that pig guy.

<Grian> hey! I’m here! I found Jrum and he’s doing okay now! Though just to get things out in the open, I do not quite remember how.

<Grian> whatever was possessing him is gone now though. Still trying to deal with the angry parent who adopted him.

<Grian> How’s Tommy doing btw?

<EvilXisuma> he’s still not awake.

<Grian> any chance you can bring him here? I’ve got Jrum charging and I think we should all meet up in one place.

<EvilXisuma> Pretty sure the giant thing in this place is also a charger though.

<Grian> It did sound like the boys were split up, so that makes sense. Can you still come over here?

<EvilXisuma> Fine, but only because you blacked out before

Grian sent his coordinates and then set his comm down. Then he started crying. Jrum’s condition had been bad enough and the fact that he still seemed upset at him without the plants controlling the bot hurt Grian. And then Mumbo’s reaction to just hearing about Grum without seeing him was terrifying. What had they done to his kids?

His wings flared open when a large hand touched him and he glared up to see the blurry form of the demon that was helping him. “Don’t touch me right now.”

“Just trying to make sure you were alright.”

“I’m not. My kids are… they’ve… it just hurts. It’s only been a few days but they’ve been alone for months and I couldn’t do anything! At least when they were stuck where we first built them we could visit, but even with everything I have, I couldn’t get in.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you- Have you ever heard of the Watchers?”

There was a slight hum as Bad thought. “Yes, though I haven’t really looked into them. I just know they’re really powerful and occasionally interact with various worlds.”

“Well, I’m that. And I’ve been trained as an admin. And based on what I have learned in the past few days, my mom is literally death, so that’s fun.”

“Is that related to you being able to kill the egg?”

Grian let out a short laugh. “No. That’s uh, Mother Spore. She tried using my body as a host, I tried killing her, we have a bit of a stalemate now.”

“You’re not going to-”

“It’s fine. It helped, didn’t it?” Grian asked.

Bad nodded, it had indeed ended up helping them. “Just making sure it doesn’t cause more of the same.”

Grian nodded before looking back over to Jrum. He was currently in sleep mode as he charged which was fine, but Grian still wished the bot was awake. His eyes then fell on Jrum’s empty arms. He checked his inventory and was glad to find one of the backups on him, so he pulled out a faux diamond block and carefully put it in Jrum’s arms. The bot stirred slightly, but then hugged the toy when it was in his arms.

“Oh, you have another one of those?”

Grian nodded. “Yeah. Jrum and I were out one day and found a trader selling them. We got eight of them for an emerald and a real diamond block.”

Bad’s eyes widened. “You must really love him if you’d spend that much.”

“It’s not actually that much to me, but I would have gladly spent more if it would make him happy.”

Bad nodded and then went over to a chest and pulled out an identical toy that seemed to have been dyed red. “Here, this is the one he had before. He got upset when it turned red. The egg was able to change blue things red and red things to white.”

Grian nodded and took the toy. “I’m pretty sure I can fix this. Just not until we get back to Hermitcraft. I’m pretty spent right now and still need to get us back home.”

Then Xannes was suddenly in the room holding Tommy in his arms. “Get me somewhere to put him down.” Bad jumped up and grabbed a bed for them to set Tommy down on while Grian started checking Tommy over. He looked mostly uninjured, but he seemed to have a large scar that hadn’t been there before over his stomach area. Grian carefully tested the area and was glad to see he was at least reacting to what was going on, but not in pain from the new injury.

“How’s he doing?” Xannes asked as Grian continued to look Tommy over.

“Well, him still being unconscious is extremely worrying, but I’m not seeing any physical injuries other than this large scar.”

“He got killed and revived. I didn’t get a good look at what happened, but I would assume that scar is from what killed him.”

Grian nodded, then carefully worked on sitting Tommy up. “Any head injuries?”

“He ended up against a wall, could’ve been slammed there.”

“Good to know.” Grian moved Tommy’s hair around to see if he could spot anything that was hidden. “You said revived?”

“We have a three life system here.” Bad spoke up. “If a death is important enough, we lose a life. After we lose all three, we’re dead for good. Though there are exceptions.”

“Yeah, Tommy mentioned those. Took us a while to convince him we didn’t have that.” Grian looked over to Xannes. “How do people normally react when they’re revived?”

“Normally they’ve got ghost pains for a while and are more violent.” The helsmit explained. “But everyone has a different reaction. I’m also not sure how different this is from hels, plus the fact that it was an instant revival.”

“That’s probably it then.” Grian frowned. “Makes me almost consider trying to contact Ellen. But she might not be around anymore…”

“Who?” Xannes asked, but Grian brushed him off.

“Our best bet is to try and kill him again and let him stay dead for a few minutes before reviving him again. I… It’s not the greatest thing in the world, but it… should work. And he should be linked to this bed.”

“Wait, are you just going to kill him again?” Bad asked, making sure he was really understanding the situation. “That seems like it would make it worse!”

“I know! But it’s probably that he died and got revived quickly enough that his mind or soul or whatever you want to call it didn’t catch up.” He then sighed, noticing his hands trembling and trying to calm them down. “I mean, I still can’t be sure… but again, best bet.”

Xannes looked skeptical, but relented. “Fine, but we try this once. Even if it only sort of works, we’re not trying it again.”

Grian nodded. “Alright, so I’ll just step outside while you do that… okay?”

“What, you’re making me do it?”

“You’re the one with evil in your name.”

“My name is Xannes!”

Grian held up his communicator. “Yeah, but it’s evil on here, and you got to choose that for yourself, so don’t complain.”

Xannes grumbled, but accepted the answer as Grian stepped out of the room.

“Grian finally got back to us.” Tubbo told Mumbo since his hands were still full from carrying Grum. “He’s also got Jrum with him and I’m guessing he’s killed the egg.”

“The what?”

“Uh, a plant that was possessing people.”

“Ah, EX did mention that.” Mumbo nodded. “Anything else?”

“Well he says he doesn’t remember how he did it.”

“Ah, have to talk to him about that once we get back home to ask if it was a conscious decision or not.”

“And Michael, someone found Boo and he’s okay.” Tubbo told the ziglin, who oinked happily. He then read more and looked back to Mumbo. “Still nothing from Techno though, but Grian wants us to meet up with him at some coordinates. Xannes and Tommy seem to have already moved there.”

Mumbo nodded, pausing to heft Grum up a little to readjust his grip on them. “Which way is it from here?”

“It’s on our current path. Closer actually. That’s the location of Bad and Skeppy’s mansion. Technically the house you had us going towards would have been closer, but only because of the trident path.”

“That makes sense.” Mumbo nodded, before noticing something in the distance. “What’s that?”

Tubbo squinted to make it out at first, but then it was obvious what it was to him. “Pandora’s Vault. It’s a prison Dream commissioned. So far it hasn’t been used as far as I’m aware, but obviously a lot has happened, so I’m not sure anymore.”

Mumbo nodded. If there weren’t more pressing matters at hand, he would be curious, since Tommy had said large builds such as that weren’t common on the server if they existed at all. He was still staring at it when Grumbot suddenly stiffened up and he nearly dropped the bot in shock.

Life Counter active. Entity Check TommyInnit. Death: canon. Life counter: Infinite lives remaining. Commence Respawn.

Just as soon as it had happened, Grumbot was back to normal, though trembling again. Mumbo hugged the bot just a little tighter for a moment before looking at Tubbo. “Are you sure there’s not a faster way?”

“The only other option is still boats.”

Mumbo looked down at Grumbot. There was no way for the four of them to all sit in one boat. He couldn’t row since he needed to make sure nothing happened to Grumbot and obviously the robot wasn’t in any condition to row instead. Theoretically they could manage to get the two of them and Tubbo into the boat if Mumbo scrunched up and continued to hold Grumbot in his lap, but that would involve leaving Michael behind since the child couldn’t row a boat on his own.

“Right, okay. Still walking.”

The group continued to travel, Mumbo and Michael both getting spooked by suddenly getting mining fatigue as they got too close to the prison. There was a small river which they were able to cross easily, but a second wider river had them pause as Tubbo built them a bridge. “The mansion is essentially right on the other side of this river. We’ll just be passing the entrance to the prison first.”

“Is it that place made of quartz in the distance?”

“Yeah.” Tubbo answered, before getting a second look at it. “Looks like they got an extension built onto it though. So that’s new.”

“Might be where the others are. You said they were charging Jrum. I saw the one charger in the other house and it had to be built pretty big. That might be where it’s housed.”

Xannes came out in a few minutes to bring Grian back into the room. “I didn’t need to revive him. He respawned naturally, which isn’t a good sign. Because of that, nothing’s changed.”

“A-Are you sure? Nothing at all?”

Xannes rolled his eyes but did his best to keep Grian from spiralling. “Yeah, but that’s just from trying this. We’re still waiting on the others to show up and they should be able to come up with other ideas.”

“R-Right… I guess you’re right.” Grian nodded before going back to his chair.

Bad moved closer to Xannes and whispered to him. “I’m guessing he’s close with Tommy?”

“Obnoxiously so. I’ve heard a number of stories from Jrum about Grian and Tommy doing something together. Honestly not sure how they didn’t realize they were related in the first place.”

“What the muffin?!”

“...Did… Did you just use the word ‘muffin’ as a curse?”

“Maybe I did! Now what do you-” Bad cut himself off to go back to a whisper. “What do you mean they’re related?”

“The two of them are brothers. Not sure the current state in this dimension, but as far as I know, Grian’s a triplet and Tommy’s younger brother to the three. Same parents too.”

“Tommy’s mom is also a fridge?”

This time it was Xannes’ turn to be shocked. “Their mother is a what here?!”

Before much else could be clarified, there was a whine as Jrum woke up. “Stop yellinggggg. I’m sleepyyyy!”

“Jrum! You know that’s no way to act when guests are over.” Bad scolded, but Grian stopped him.

“Let him sleep. Charging in the middle of the day always messes with his sleep schedule.” Then Grian pulled out a certain shiny blue rock. “Besides, it just means he won’t get any diamonds.”

Immediately Jrum was fully awake and jumping off the bed to grab the diamond out of Grian’s hand. “Give give give give give!!!” Grian tried to hold the diamond up in the air, but Jrum just started climbing up him like he was a tree.

“Calm down! I’m not- mmph! Don’t step on my face! Okay fine! Take it!” Grian gave the diamond to Jrum who instantly put it into his inventory. “I’ve never seen that before.”

Now that the diamond was safely in his possession, Jrum realized exactly who was there and went back to his bed with a slight angry frown. “Well what do you expect when you just offer him up a diamond like that?” Bad asked, going over and patting Jrum’s head comfortingly.

“For him to wake up for it. I mean, he did, but the climbing and being very grabby is different.”

“Again, you offered up a diamond. To Jrum. He’s got a love for diamonds that could rival just about anyone. More than once he killed someone just because they hadn’t put their diamonds in their ender chest quite yet so he took them.”

“Jrum!” Grian scolded the bot, who just got angrier.

“Why do you care? You weren’t here.”

“Jrum, I swear we were doing everything we could to find you and Grum. Your daddy and I would never want to lose you. Some bad people just made things really hard for us. But once we could come to find you, so many people wanted to help because they know how much your daddy and I love you and how much you mean to us.”

“But why’d it take so long?! You should’ve figured it out sooner!”

“Well, you know the stories I’ve told you about my time machine, right?” Grian asked, Bad looking over to Xannes and mouthing the words as a question for clarification. “Well, it was like someone took this whole world and put it in the time machine, so that way everything seemed so much longer for you.”

“Well that’s stupid.”

“It is! But now we’re here. And I know you’re upset. You’re upset like I was at your grandpa.”

And that was what got through to Jrum. Back before any of this had happened, when Phil had first arrived and Grian had been upset at the older avian, Jrum was worried about ending up the same way with his dads. He didn’t want that to happen, but now it was starting to. He started crying and mumbling out apologies, but Grian just hugged the bot and rocked him. “It’s okay. You don’t have anything you need to say sorry for. It was scary and we weren’t there. But it’s okay now. It’s okay.”

The door opened up with a slight slam, making everyone there jump. “Oh thank goodness, you’re all here. Along with… a very tall… man?” Mumbo questioned, his previous train of thought already out the window.

“Demon actually.”

“Alright. Now what was I going to say?”

Tubbo poked his head out from behind Mumbo. “We’re back with Grum.”

“Right! Yes that was it!”

“I’ll get another bed.” Bad said, leaving the room to find one. While they waited, Grian and Mumbo met eyes and smiled sadly at each other, glad that at the very least they had their boys back.

“How’s Jrum doing?”

“Okay. Just upset that he was so angry at us.” Grian answered, rubbing the bot’s back for some comfort. “What about Grum?”

Mumbo frowned and looked down at the bot in his arms. “Not good. He’s a mess to the point I’m worried we’d have to…” He trailed off, not wanting to complete the sentence. “The admin ended up abusing the fact that he was a robot, barely treated him like a person. God… he’s in such disrepair just physically, and while Tubbo said he was speaking earlier, he hasn’t said a word since I’ve seen him.”

“Well, maybe once he wakes up, he-” Grian started to suggest, but Mumbo cut him off.”

“No, Grian, he’s been awake the whole trip here.”

Grian’s eyes widened and he shifted to calmly speak to Jrum. “Can I set you down so I can look at your brother?” Jrum shook his head and held Grian tighter. “Alright then.” Part of Grin wanted to push to get Jrum to say yes, but he also knew that that could just find a way to make things worse.

Bad finally returned with a bed and put it down between the two already existing beds. Mumbo tried to put Grumbot down, but the robot refused to let go and they ended up needing to pry it off of the redstoner. They nearly stopped trying when it was enough to get Grum talking, it simply saying ‘no’ a number of times. But still, they needed to get a good look at Grum, and being held in Mumbo’s arms wouldn’t help with that.

For the most part, Grumbot was still the same as when Tubbo had found it. The only difference was the screen flickering back and forth between the one it had been stuck with and its regular face. Also, instead of lying down on the bed normally, the moment Grumbot was on the bed, it curled up into a ball.

It hurt Grian to see his son in such a state. He didn’t realize he had been holding his breath until Mumbo was next to him taking deep breaths for him to follow with. He slowly helped Grian lie down on the bed with Jrum, obvious to the fact that the avian needed rest with everything going on around him.

Xannes pulled Tubbo out of the room at one point, and when they returned, the two of them were accompanied by Phil and Ranboo who talked in hushed tones. When Grian had finally gotten to sleep, Mumbo took Jrum into his arms to discuss things with everyone else.

Tommy pressed his hands against his closed eyes. He hated how sore he felt, but he supposed that’s what happened when you get your last life taken. Then he paused. If he lost his last life, was he alive? Tommy pulled his hands away and opened his eyes. He didn’t look see through, but his skin definitely wasn’t supposed to be ash gray.

He cursed and got out of his bed, looking around. That was his bed, but not from the SMP. The wood around him was all from Grian’s old hobbit hole, and the last place he had slept before… well before everything happened. 

Tommy started looking through chests, glad to find a spare comm in one of the chests. He turned it on and was glad to see it was one of the backups X had made him after the first time he managed to break one. He hadn’t wanted to accept it at first, but apparently a number of the hermits lost or broke their communicators a lot, so he was more willing to take one.

<TommyInnit> Alright, hey guys. Guess who is having a crisis

<TommyInnit> btw, how long has it been since I left?

<GoodtimeswithScar> What seems to be the problem?

<Xisuma> Not that long. Definitely under half an hour.

<TommyInnit> I think I’m dead.

<TommyInnit> I died in the smp and I guess I lost my last life, but I respawned here

<Iskall85> Okay, and?

<TommyInnit> Well I didn’t respawn right. I look like I came out of some of those photos Grian had of demise.

<Rendog> black and white?

<TommyInnit> Skin yes, clothes no. blood is currently blue.

<Xisuma> I’m on my way over

<StressMonster> Does it hurt?

<TommyInnit> I mean, I’m sore? But not really. It’s not raining, right?

<joehillssays> nah, you’ll be fine Tommy

<TommyInnit> Okay.

<TommyInnit> panickign more now

<TommyInnit> i cna;t fucking get outside

<ZombieCleo> Someone blocked the door?

<TommyInnit> np. Nothing theere.

Tommy had tried going outside, but ended up running into something invisible. He tested it and found it was just a sort of invisible wall in front of the door. He remembered Xannes making something similar to trap dream in, so for a moment he thought it was the helsmit's doing. So Tommy broke a hole into the wall and tried going through that. But he just ran into another invisible wall. Had it been just outside where he mined, he would just be upset, but this time it was right in the space where he mined. He tried not to panic too much, but it was hard not to.

<TommyInnit> i’m jus stuck

<TommyInnit> help