Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

It started out like every other previous worlds that the Hermit's were led to. Everyone was together within their respective groups and all were focused on gathering the basic materials and building enough boats so that they could all find their way to some sort of mainland. 

Then someone had just appeared unconscious on the sand of the starter island without any warning. 

No one, not even Xisuma, was expecting someone new to appear this season so this was a shock to everyone. 

The person looked small, perhaps they were even a child. But their size wasn't the most shocking thing about them, what really surprised the Hermits was the brown wings that looked to be larger than the human themselves. 

As the Hermits panicked over what to do about this mysterious person, said person woke up. 

"Ah! You're awake!" Xisuma said as he noticed the person awake first, they were now sitting up in the sand, looking around confusedly at the surrounding ocean. "Do you know where you are?" 

The person's brows furrowed, squinting as they thought over the question given to them by Xisuma before shaking their head. 

"Well, that certainly makes things harder." Xisuma partially mumbled to himself before sticking out his hand for the person to shake. "I'm Xisuma, but you can just call me X if that's easier for you. What's your name?" 

The person stared at Xisuma's hand for a moment before taking it in their own hand, giving it a hesitant shake. "I'm Grian," 

"Well how did you get here Gree-an?" Cleo accentuated the vowels within Grian's name as she piped up from behind Xisuma. "You don't expect us to believe that you've just fallen from the sky in front of us." 

Grian flinched at how Cleo had pronounced his name and quickly adverted his eyes from the group. "I don't know what happened. I was just about to go somewhere with my friends but I ended up here," Grian eventually trailed off, his eyes going glassy as he looked off into the horizon. 

The Hermits all looked at each other as they had a silent conversation about what to do with Grian. Although they were all silently debating on the matter, Xisuma had the final say with being an admin and he trusted what Grian had to say, he truly looked lost. 

"Well then Grian, looks like you're going to be staying with us for a little while longer." Xisuma smiled from under his mask even if Grian couldn't exactly see the expression. "Welcome to Hermitcraft, I hope you enjoy your stay." 

"Thank you." Grian nodded as he stood up, brushing off any leftover sand on his red sweater. "I suppose you won't tell me what you actually do in Hermitcraft?" 

"Have fun as a chaotic, dysfunctional family!" Joe exclaimed happily from the edge of the tree line where he was gathering enough materials for starter tools and boats to get off the island. 

And just like that, everyone once again split off into their respective friend groups as they scrambled to gather materials and get off the starter island.  

No one really knew what to make of Grian as they were all building their respective starter bases and beginning to make the blueprints of their forever bases.

Out of all of the chaos and pranks that usually was happening throughout the days, Grian was one of the quietest ones. Besides the unconventional first meeting on the starter island, barely anyone has seen hide nor hair of the newest member. 

Mumbo Jumbo claimed that he had seen Grian build a crude cobblestone platform in the middle of the ocean and another crude half sphere of sand on top of the platform.

But no one could really confirm what Mumbo had saw was true considering every time someone went to the scene, all they saw was an empty ocean. Since then Grian had disappeared under the cold water and not resurfacing again. 

It was actually Scar who has had the most indirect interactions with Grian even if said interactions had happened under the unfortunate circumstances. 

Scar was working on terraforming the inside of his cave that just happened to be underwater. Losing track of time, and of the amount of air he had left in his lungs, Scar had to scramble to resurface for air. But of course, Scar wasn't quick enough. 

Goodtimewithscar drowned

After waking up in his bed, Scar had found a singular chest with all his items inside of it and a handwritten sign on top of it.

Didn't want your items to despawn. -G

After a few moments of hard thinking, Scar finally came to the conclusion that it had to be Grian who had saved his items considering no one else had their name starting with a G. And it couldn't have been any of his friends, they would've announced their arrival. 

It saddened Scar that Grian didn't stick around after that instance; he would've loved to say hello to a potential friend. 

Despite no one technically seeing or ever interacting with Grian, on their communicators they could all see how often he died. 

But that was to be expected, almost everyone had unfortunately died and then respawned only a couple seconds later as they tried to find better materials and started to build their bases.

Only problem was how often Grian was dying. 

Grian was slain by Drowned 

No one questioned it then, only giving their condolences and a few laughing at the slight blunder. 

Then it kept happening. 

Grian drowned

Grian was slain by Drowned 

Grian was impaled by Drowned

Now more of the Hermits were worried over the newest member. None of them had died that often before. 

Stressmonster: is everything okay love?

She never received an answer from Grian.

Chapter Text

Grian woke up confused. He was on a small island that was in the middle of the ocean and surrounded by a group of unidentifiable people all ranging from different sizes and species. 

The weirdest ones that Grian could pinpoint was a half-creeper, half-cyborg and what looked to be a patch work zombie. 

He wished he could say that he was paying attention to what the heavily armoured person was saying but he really wasn't. He was far too focused on where he was and how he got there exactly. 

Racking his brain, Grian tried to retrace his steps. He was with his fellow Evolutionists and friends as they were but a few steps away from the next update. 

Only problem of it all was that instead of being in an evolved world, he was in a new one all by himself. 

Judging by the lack of crafting tables spattered across the island, Grian had originally deducted that he was simply going to be alone. 

That was until he saw a large group of people crowded around him as he laid in the sand. 

Being on his back explained the aching pain in his wings but Grian couldn't remember when he laid down or when he closed his eyes. 

Everything seemed to be moving faster in front of him than they actually were. Everything seemed to be a blur to him as he watched everyone gather wood. 

He was obviously an outsider to them no matter how much the group appeared warm and welcoming in the beginning. 

Grian was last to leave the island, using this time to think. He had overheard the heavily armoured man -whom Grian assumed was Xisuma- explaining to a few of the others of the districts. 

He would've on instinct, gone for the fanasty district as that was the style he was the most comfortable with. But seeing as Grian was somewhere new with new people, why not go for a building style he has never attempted before? 

After giving himself a few more moments to think over his decision, Grian eventually settled to build in the futuristic district. 

As he rowed across the expansive ocean, Grian struggled to find a good spot to build, all the islands seemed to already be claimed by the others. 

Sighing, Grian set down his oars as he looked wistfully at the limp wings behind him. It would've been easier to get around if his wings would just work. 

Oh how he wished that he could actually fly, but of course, someone had cut his flight feathers rendering him flightless. 

Removing his now useless flight feathers to leave room for new ones to grow was quick and painless. That is, if he had someone help him. Or until his next molt but who knew when that would be. 

Grian sighed once again at his wishful thinking as he looked down into the ocean, admiring the fish as they swam past and marveling at how colourful some of the fish were. 

As he sat there, looking down into the water, he noticed what to be part of a ship sunken to the bottom of the ocean floor. 

Were there people living here before him? Even if there was, were the oceans that dangerous to be on? 

After a few moments of going back and forth with himself over staying here to build or hightail out of the ocean to build on land for the night. 

Eventually, Grian made up his mind to simply build a starting base within the sunken ship. He wasn't one to build a dirt hut for a single night, he was known for going the extra mile. 

Only problem was figuring out how to get a base under there. 

After countless amount of hours, of sleepless nights, hours of silent frustration, and countless amount of deaths either from a multitude of creatures that vaguely reminded Grian of zombies but were extremely waterlogged or drowning himself; Grian had finished his starter base. 

Well, it could barely be counted as a base seeing as it was really only big enough to fit a single chest, a crafting table, a furnace, and his bed. Just the essentials, nothing fancy. 

He'd probably expand at a later date but right now everything was sore.

At least the view was cool. He couldn't get over how he was actually underwater. Just watching the scenery around him made him want to build in the water despite how hard it was, the end result would be worth it.

The water back in Evo was empty, filled only with a few squid and a sandy bottom. But here? Grian could see schools of different types of fish swimming above head and a type of tall grass that swayed in the ocean's current. Void, he would have to build underwater when he finally got around to his main base, no matter how frustrating it was to actually build in such an odd environment.

With the newness of it all eventually wearing off, Grian stood up from his bed and stretched his wings out. From the lack of light coming from the surface, he assumed that it was at least evening. 

He wished that there was something that he could do. Of course he could work more on his base but he had already done that for days. He wanted to do something fun. 

Exploring was always fun! Hopefully the others wouldn't mind if he popped in just to have a little look around. 

His neighbors were one of the first he explored. Two islands surrounded the ocean he currently resided in. 

On his right, of course there was an island, but what intrigued him the most was the fact that whoever was living there seemed to be building what looked to be a man made mountain. 

On his left the island was much flatter than to his right. The only thing that broke up how flat the island was a singular tree. 

Vaguely, Grian remembers going to the island on his right and it didn't end up well. 

He was simply looking for more materials and simply exploring while he thought everyone else would be busy. But of course, he watched whoever lived there die. 

And he felt guilty. Even if he wasn't the one who technically killed his neighbor, he witnessed it.

So left it was. 

After what seemed like an eternity of rowing across the ocean, Grian finally made it to the island. 

It was much larger than Grian expected, he had only saw the large tree from his base but now he was actually on the island, he saw that there was a small pen of cows. 

"May I help you?" A voice asked from behind Grian making him jump back from where he was petting the cows. 

"I- I'm sorry," Grian stuttered, turning around quickly and looking wide eyed at the person behind him, not expecting to see someone who towered over him in a fine looking suit. "I didn't- I was- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude, I was just exploring." 

Sensing his panic, the stranger backed up a couple steps and put his hands up in the air. "You're fine, dude! It's just- I've never seen you before." 

"Oh," Grian said, relaxing slightly. "Sorry." 

"Don't be sorry dude! I didn't mean to startle you before. I'm Mumbo Jumbo but my friends just call me Mumbo." 

Chapter Text

"May I ask why you're here?" The stranger in a fine three piece suit asked. 

Mumbo, Grian thought to himself. His name is Mumbo Jumbo, it'd be rude to continue to refer to him as 'stranger in a three piece suit'.

"Just- I'm just exploring you know?" Grian stuttered out nervously. It wasn't that he was doing anything wrong, he just felt like he needed to be prepared with a valid reason of why he was actually here. "I've spent so much time underwater and I just thought that it would be nice to go out." 

"That's quite alright," Mumbo said as he fixed the sleeves to his suit. "I never did catch your name did I?" Mumbo asked as he stuck out his hand to shake. 

Warely, Grian looked at the outstretched hand before taking in in a featherlight grip and shaking it slightly. "I'm Grian," 

Mumbo gave Grian a wide smile that Grian found himself giving his much weaker one in return. "It's lovely to meet you, Grian. Are you my neighbor or are you from a different district?" 

"Same district if this is still the futuristic area." Grian looked out to the empty horizon, vaguely waving his hand in the general direction of where his base was. "Built my starter base underwater so I'm thinking of building my final base in the middle of the ocean." 

Mumbo hummed as he followed Grian's waving hand. "Quite brave of you for building underwater, I took the easy route of finding an island and making a base out of the only tree here." 

Grian turned to the tall tree that Grian had first saw from the ocean and finally noticed a rope ladder hanging from a branch. 

"Have you checked your communicator recently?" Mumbo asked, looking back at Grian. "A lot of us saw you struggling with the Drowned, we were really worried about you. We wanted to come and help but none of us knew where you were." 

Grian brought his shoulders up to his ears in embarrassment. He hadn't known that the others had somewhat witnessed his struggle. "I ah- I don't believe that I have a communicator? To be honest I don't really know what you're referring to." 

"Do you not have a communicator?" Mumbo gaped at the new found information when Grian shook his head in denial. "Well that does explain a lot, I'll have to ask X if we have any spare." 

"You don't need to!" Grian exclaimed suddenly. "I hate to bother you about this whole ordeal. I don't even understand why I would need a communicator." 

Mumbo furrowed his brow worriedly. "It helps keeps everyone connected considering we're so far apart." 

"Oh," Grian said weakly. "I still hate to bother you about asking for a spare communicator." 

"Nonsense!" Mumbo exclaimed excitedly. "You're a Hermit now which means that you're our friends. I'd hate for you to be caught in a sticky situation with no help." 

Grian looked at Mumbo before quickly shifting his eyes away back at the pen of cows. "If it doesn't bother you." 

Mumbo visibly brightened at Grian's hesitant agreeance to getting a communicator. "I'll get you one as soon as I find the time! Where can I find you when I do?" 

"I-" Grian started to speak before cutting himself off suddenly. "There's a sunken ship somewhere out in the middle of the ocean. There's a small hole at the front of the ship where you can enter." 

"Lovely!" Mumbo said cheerfully. "I should have your communicator by tomorrow hopefully if X isn't too busy." 

Grian nodded as he shifted on his feet. He was proud of himself that he managed to actually leave the shelter of his small sunken ship and managed to hold a friendly conversation with his neighbor but now he was ready to retreat back into the comfort of his base. 

Hopefully Mumbo would understand. 

As if sensing his own discomfort Mumbo spoke up once again. "Well, I hate to keep you for much longer. I'm sure that you have things to do." 

Grian nodded thankfully as he gave his quiet good-byes to Mumbo and the cows. 

"See you later my friend!" Mumbo waved to Grian from the shoreline as he rowed away, setting down his paddles to wave back. 

My friend, Grian mused to himself, haven't heard that in a long while. Did he truly mean it? 

Shaking himself of those thoughts, Grian instead made himself focus on the more important things. 

He had his break and now he has to get back to work. 

Grian gripped his pickaxe with an aching hand. He had been working for a couple hours now, expanding his sunken ship base. 

As much as he loved the cozy feel of it simply just being all the basics, he knew that if he was to stay any longer in Hermitcraft, he would have to expand. 

And yet, even after the expansion was done, Grian couldn't find himself to put away his tools and relax. 

His brain was high strung and his legs refused to sit still, he needed something else to do. But what else was there to do? 

He had enough wood and obviously enough stone to last him a long while, possibly even an eternity.

But he was missing one thing and that was a wide variety of ores. Grian had enough coal for any torches and fuel he could need and only a few bits of iron that he was saving to use for extra pickaxes and maybe even a few pieces of armor. 

He absolutely refused to make an iron sword. 

And even if he had the minor protection that iron could give him, Grian felt as if he wasn't safe enough, he would have to find diamonds. 

But who knew how rare those things were? Especially in a world with so many people. Grian could barely recall the last time he had seen one for himself. 

So, despite how tired his muscles felt, Grian went back to mining. 

After hours of mindless mining, trying a variety of different ways to efficiency mine, and almost giving up a few times. Grian finally found diamonds. 

As well as Mumbo's own mine by complete accident. 

It would be awkward and bad manners if Grian had just closed up the hole he left, leaving Mumbo confused if he ever planned on expanding his mines on why there was another mine right next to his that he didn't make himself. 

Quickly patting down his pockets to see if he had any spare wood to make a sign.

Accidentally stumbled across your base. Sorry about that. -G 

Chapter Text

"Hello Grian!" Mumbo exclaimed as he rowed his own boat towards a large cobblestone platform now in the middle of the ocean.  

"Good morning Mumbo," Grian said politely as he set down a worn down chest and began to dump a random assortment of items into it, not caring for it to be organized. 

"What are you up to today?" The taller asked, sitting down on a wooden chest that Grian previously placed before Mumbo had arrived. "It's not often that I see you above the water." 

Grian looked down at his feet as he picked at the hem of his sleeves. "I finally decided to get around with building my base." 

Mumbo let out a light laugh as he looked out on the cobblestone platform. "Well, you're farther than I am currently, I only have an inkling on what I want to build. I'm excited to see what you have planned." 

"And you? What do you have planned for your base?" Grian asked curiously. 

"Ah-" Mumbo rubbed the back of his neck as he avoided eye contact with Grian. "Some sort of sphere? I want to use it for an automatic sorting contraption. I can't handle having all my materials spread apart my base in random chests." 

Grian looked at his own chests embarrassedly, he tried to keep everything organized and within their own chests but no matter what he did, random items ended up in random chests. 

"Have you been to the shopping district yet?" Mumbo asked after the two of them fell into heavy silence, both of them trying to find some sort of topic they could talk about. "There isn't a lot of stores just yet seeing as everyone is currently focused on themselves but there's a few." 

Grian had been to the shopping district that was resided in the middle of the island only a short boat ride away where Grian himself resided. 

But of course, he's never visited it during the day, far too afraid that he would run into someone there. 

"Ah, not yet." Grian lightly scratched his cheek. "I've been too focused on building and getting enough materials for my base."

"Oh," Grian said suddenly, finally taking note of how geared up Mumbo was. From the few times Grian had actually encountered Mumbo, he was only ever wearing his fancy suit. "Is there a reason for you being suited up?" 

"A few of us Hermits are going End busting today!" Mumbo said excitedly. "We all want Elytra but the only way to get them is through raiding End cities." 

Grian furrowed his brows in confusion as he cocked his head to the side. "Elytra?"

Mumbo's eyes widened with surprise at Grian's question. "You've never heard of Elytra?" 

"Can't say that I ever have," Grian admitted quietly.

Mumbo continued to stare agape at Grian before recovering, clearing his throat as he threw a glance at Grian's own wings. "Well, it matters not! You have your own wings, I bet you'll be saving a lot of diamonds at Tango's rocket shop!"

Grian let out a nervous laugh as Mumbo continued to give his wings praise. "My wings are nothing special. Well, I wish you the best of luck with your 'End busting'."

"Oh, you're not coming with?" Mumbo said sadly, his shoulders slumping. 

"I didn't know that I was invited to come." Grian said quietly as he avoided eye contact with Mumbo. "But I doubt that I'll be much help." 

"You're always invited to come along on any adventures we partake in but I won't push you to come." Mumbo said, standing up from the chest he had been sitting on. "I should be leaving soon, don't want the others to be waiting up on me. I'll promise to bring you back something and your new communicator!" 

Grian nodded as he watched Mumbo hop into his boat and row off towards the main island. 

As he watched Mumbo get smaller and smaller in the horizon, Grian vaguely remembered the first time he went to the End. 

Grian was terrified. 

There was such a high chance of dying to the Ender Dragon and never respawning in a comfortable bed back in the village as if nothing happened. 

At this very moment, it was either life or death. And Grian didn't like the idea of the latter. 

Shifting his grip on the sword to be tighter, Grian looked around at his friends who were clustered together, all of them looking grim and pale in the face. 

"You okay G-man?" A man to the right of him asked, his tan face was only a blur to Grian but he was able to recognize the iconic headphones around his neck anywhere. 

Nodding, Grian gave his friend a wane smile before shifting his focus back to the Dragon that was flying around the late obsidian pillers. 

No matter how things turned out for him, Grian would fight to the very end for his friends. 

Breaking out of his thoughts, Grian wrapped his arms around himself in a weak attempt to bring comfort. 

This wasn't the past anymore, all the Hermits would be able to fend for themselves just fine in the End. All of the Hermits were probably seasoned pros at going to the End and returning to the Overworld as if nothing happened. 

They'll be just fine. Grian told himself. They can handle themselves just fine. 

Unable to get that certain train of thought to leave his mind no matter how hard he tried to. Originally, he had tried working on his base, planning out a circular shape on top of the platform. 

But that turned out to be a bust. Grian couldn't help but find himself looking out towards Mumbo's base or at the chest that the taller man was sitting on. Logically he knew that he was worrying over practically nothing but the fact that he was staying there was not helping.

He needed a change of scenery. 

Still in a building mood, Grian grabbed whatever supplies he had laying around that wasn't going to be put to use any time soon. Only problem is was the fact that he didn't know what he was going to build. 

He didn't need a third base anytime soon and he (hopefully) had an abundance of sand and gravel which both materials were extremely boring to grind out. So perhaps he could make a small shop, selling odds and ends. 

Digging around through the mess of chests to find the boat that he tucked away aimlessly and any slightly waterlogged wood left that Grian managed to salvage from the sunken ship, he was ready to go. Armed with a spare but equally worn down chest, he was ready to head to the main island.

Boat hitting the grass of the shopping district, Grian didn't make any move to jump out. 

Although this wasn't the first time Grian had been in the shopping district, this was the first time going when it was light out. He wasn't sure how the others would take to him being here. 

Hopefully more Hermits were out getting Elytra than he thought. 

Finally, finding the courage to step out of the boat, Grian slowly made his way up the slight hill that led into the shopping district. 

The difference was obviously between night and day.

At night a few of the shops were closed off to the public but the bright neon lights of the signs remained on, illuminating the surrounding area. During the day, of course more stores were open and Grian could faintly make out noises of the shops.

"Hey new guy!" A voice behind him chimed cheerfully, breaking Grian out of his thoughts. "Haven't seen you before!" 

Whipping his head around quickly, Grian swore he heard his neck crack slightly. "Uh sorry, I- I can leave if you want me to," 

"What?" The man asked, and now that Grian was actually facing him, he saw a blond with bright red eyes and equally bright wings that reminded Grian of a demon's. "Why would I make you leave?" 

Feeling flushed, Grian quickly adverted eye contact. "Sorry, I just assumed-" 

"Nah it's okay, I shouldn't have scared you like that." The man stuck out his hand, presumably for Grian to shake. "I'm Tango." 

"Grian," he said as he took Tango's hand before quickly drawing back. "You, uh- you wouldn't happen to know any places that are available to build on?"

"Oh! You planning on building a shop?" Tango asked and smiled wide at Grian's nod. "Any place that doesn't already have a chest of materials or at least a sign on it is up for grabs! You're sort of late on grabbing prime real estate but there's a few smaller plots around here." 

Grian nodded dutifully as he looked around. As much as he wanted to keep his hands busy with building, he didn't want to disturb anyone else who planned on building near by. 

"I'm excited to see why you build, man! I'll try to pop by with a friend to see how you're doing!" Tango said excitedly before rushing off, flapping his large wings and flying off into the horizon. 

Distantly, Grian wished he could do the same. 

He had barely started his building process when he heard the faint sound of a fuse going off and then shortly exploding. 

"Hey Grian! I brought a friend!" Tango touched down onto the earth with a bright smile. 

"What are you building here?" Tango's friend asked, looking around at the few things already constructed. 

Tango quickly elbowed his friends' side before Grian could even open his mouth and reply to what he was building. "Shh! We have to guess what it is, it's all apart of the fun!" 

"Hmm, I think it's a gym then!" Tango's friend said, walking around the small plot of land, examining what Grian and built so far. 

"A gym? Why would we need a gym in Hermitcraft when everyone has muscles like these?" Tango flexed his arm to his friend who only rolled his eyes and pushed Tango slightly. 

"If everyone did have muscles like you, we would need a gym."

Tango let out an offended gasps but a playful smile stayed plastered on his face. "I'll have you know, that I have glorious muscles!" 

Grian watched the interaction between the two with a sad grin. They reminded Grian so much of his own friends. 

He missed them. He missed playing pranks on them, he missed being able to hug them for no reason. He just missed being there. 

Not wanting to cry in front of his audience, Grian dug his blunt fingernails into the palm of his hand as he tried to focus on building. 

"Uh, forgive me for asking." Grian spoke up for the first time since the two had arrived. Distantly he hoped that he didn't sound like he was a second away from bursting into tears. "But why aren't you going to the End with the others?" 

"Don't need Eyltra when you have wings!" Tango said excitedly as he showed off his wings. "You and me are in the same boat, Grian!" 

"I decided to bite the bullet and go with a smaller group earlier." Tango's friend said "Didn't want to be stuck in the End all day going from city to city trying to find elytras."

"Isn't that dangerous though? Going in such a small group?" Grian asked shocked, last time he went to the End he had a very small group and they had barely made it out alive. 

Actually, Grian didn't know if his friends made it out alive, he was split up with them in the portal. What if they thought he was dead?

Tango's friend just waved his concerns off. "This isn't the first time I've gone to the End and I haven't died yet!" 

Grian just hummed in response, still reeling over the fact that someone, who Grian barely knew (and didn't even know his name yet!) managed to explore the End with only a few people. 

"What about you, Grian?" Tango asked him, startling him out of his thoughts. "Why didn't you go to the End with the others?"

"Didn't find out about it until this morning, plus who needs Elytra when you have wings?" Grian said playfully, repeating Tango's words. 

Tango nodded excitedly while his friend only rolled his eyes in good nature but Grian couldn't help but feel horrible for lying to the two. 

The conversation quickly stopped after that, Tango and his friend falling into their own conversation while Grian silently went back to working.

Secretly, Grian liked listening to the two talk, it made him feel less alone. Not that he would actually ever tell them that. 

The sun was just starting to set when Grian was putting on the final touches on his shop and a third voice popped up from behind him. 

"Hello, Grian, I see that you finally decided to emerge from your cave." The man said and Grian instantly felt his face turn red and shoulders come up to his ears. "And I see that you made some friends." 

"Hi X!" Tango's friend waved cheerfully as the two of them walked closer from the spot on the grass they were sitting on all day. "Grian won't tell us what he's building so we're trying to guess." 

"And what have you guessed so far, Impulse?" Xisuma asked, looking at Grian's work. 

Impulse, Grian thought as he sneaked a look at Tango's friend. It's nice to be able to put a name to his face. 

"Tango thinks it's going to be a gym," Impulse said. "But I think having a gym is stupid, none taken if it actually is a gym Grian." 

Grian just shrugged off the apology, he wasn't offended by any means. In fact, he thought the two bickering on what his building actually was to be quite humorous.

Xisuma only hummed as he examined the shop for himself. "It's a cart isn't it?" 

"Huh?" Grian said dumbly as he stared at Xisuma in shock before actually being able to form a complete sentence. "Oh yeah, it's supposed to be a traveling cart. I'm thinking of selling materials that are a bore to grind out." 

"That's a lovely idea, Grian! I'm sure that everyone is going to appreciate what you do!" Xisuma said and although that Grian couldn't exactly see his face because of his helmet, Grian would like to think that Xisuma said that with a smile. 

"I, uh- I just want to be able to help around here." Grian said lamely, picking at the skin around his nails. 

"I'm sure that this will help a ton of Hermits, Grian." Xisuma said as he clapped his hand to the smaller man's shoulder. "That reminds me, I didn't expect to see you today so I gave Mumbo your communicator so you'll probably want to see him soon." 

"Does that mean you'll finally be able to message us?" Tango asked suddenly. And if Grian was being completely honest, he forgot that the other was there. 

Xisuma hummed in response to Tango's question. "It isn't in the best condition nor is it one of the latest models but it works perfectly fine." 

"That's quite alright, I don't need anything fancy." Grian said, waving his hands in the air. "I'm just glad that I'm actually allowed one!"

"What do you mean 'allowed' to have?" Impulse said, making no attempt to hide the shock in his voice. 

Grian stumbled, his eyes going wide and his skin turning pale. He hadn't meant to say that. "S-Sorry, I have to go now! Thank you for sticking around with me today!" 

Without letting any of them say goodbye, Grian quickly ran away, leaving all his stuff behind in chests. He could get it later when surely no one would be out and about. 

He felt like such a fool. 

Chapter Text

It had been two days since Grian had last been outside, he decided that staying within the safety of his own sunken ship was better than going outside. No matter how much fun he had in the shopping district. 

In hindsight, Grian knew that he was eventually going to slip up. He just didn't know how soon that was going to be. 

Oh Void, he really screwed up now. 

Wallowing in his bed, Grian looked up at the wooden rafters. As much as he would love to remain in his bed, in the comfort of his own base, he knew he had things to do. 

"Hello? Grian are you here?" Mumbo's voice rang out through the small ship, making Grian sit ramrod straight in bed. Yes he knew that Mumbo said that he would be coming over to teach him how to use a communicator but Grian wasn't aware that it was going to be this soon. 

"Coming! Just a second please!" Grian said as he scrambled to look presentable, he didn't want Mumbo to see him when he obviously looked like he hadn't been taking care of himself in the past few days. 

"Hi Mumbo," Grian tried to sound cheerful as he welcomed the taller male into his base. "How did End busting go?" 

"It went swell! Got my Elytra as planned as well as a couple diamonds from a shulker box." Mumbo said as he entered the room, marveling at the space around him. "I brought you something as well." 

Grian just stared at Mumbo with wide eyes. "You didn't have to bring me anything! You're already doing enough for me by showing me how to use a communicator." 

"It's the least I can do, Grian. Think of it as a welcome to the neighborhood gift." Mumbo said, digging through his backpack that was thrown against the floor (Grian couldn't help but notice that Mumbo's backpack seemed to be pristine and new while his own was practically falling apart at the seams) and pulled out a purple matte box. 

"What is it?" Grian asked stupidly, turning the box over his hands. 

"Shulker box," Mumbo explained. "It's like a chest but you're able to transport items within it without the items falling out." 

Grian gaped at the box, amazed on how this actually worked. "I've never heard of this before, I've only used chests before." 

"I only brought one but I'm sure other Hermits will be glad to sell some to you." Mumbo said before clapping his hands together lightly. "Well, are you ready to learn how to work your communicator?" 

Grian nodded, still amazed on the shulker box but the box was replaced by Mumbo placing the communicator in his hands. 

"I'm not sure how much you actually know about using something like this so excuse me if I dumb it down too far." Mumbo said, taking a seat next to Grian on the wooden floor, but thankfully keeping his distance. 

"I don't think I ever used something like this," Grian examined the multitude of buttons on the machine. Distantly he remembers that he did actually have a phone back in highschool but even then, this was nothing like that. "So explain as dumb as possible." 

"Very well then, to turn it on you'll want to hold down the button on the side for a couple of seconds." Mumbo pointed to a red button on the side and Grian dutifully pressed it down. "You don't have much to do to get it up and running besides typing in your name here." 

Grian nodded, brows furrowing as he tried to focus on the small font. "So I just type what I want to say?" 

"Yep!" Mumbo said excitedly. "Not only will you be able to see what others send in the main chat, you'll also be able to message individual people." 

"Okay," Grian said slowly, watching a stream of messages pass over the screen. There seemed to be multiple conversations happening at once despite Mumbo saying there was a more private way to send said messages. 

"Would you like to send a message?" Mumbo asked suddenly, startling Grian.

Grian fumbled with both his words and the communicator. "Are you sure? I hate to interrupt something important." 

"If they're messaging the main chat, I doubt that it's important. If it makes you feel better I can message first before you." 

Grian nodded and watched Mumbo pull his communicator out of his suit pocket with much more fluidity than Grian could ever hope to achieve. 

Shortly after, Grian felt his own communicator buzz in his hands. 

MumboJumbo: Hermits I give you Grian!
Stressmonster101: Welcome love!!
Grian: hello everyone 
Tango: fellow wing buddy!!!! hi !!!

Just be sending that one message left Grian drained, he doubted that he would actually be doing that often. 

"So how was it?" Mumbo asked, "I know that it can be a lot sometimes but you'll get used to it."

Grian nodded, watching various amounts of messages all giving him a warm welcome.

"Do these break easily?" Grian asked, turning the communicator in his hands, occasionally taking a peek at the screen to watch the messages slowly taper off. 

Back in highschool, when Grian actually had a phone, he remembers constantly dropping it from various heights. While the screen was completely shattered - making it hard to type sometimes (but who would he text? All of his friends were dead) -, it amazed him that the phone itself didn't really technically break. 

"The communicator itself shouldn't really break, think of it like trying to mine obsidian with a wooden pickaxe with mining fatigue," Grian didn't really understand that reference but he nodded anyways. "But some people somehow managed to crack the screen. If that happens you have just hand it over to one of us redstone geeks or X and we'll be able to fix it up quickly!" 

Grian nodded again as he turned his attention back over to the shulker box after the screen of the communicator turned dark. 

 "I hope that I didn't wake you up when I came over." Mumbo said, breaking the comfortable silence the two found themselves in.

"What?" Grian looked up to see Mumbo looking at him. 

"Well, your hair is a mess so I just assumed that you woke up." Mumbo waved his hand towards his hair and Grian brought his hands up, attempting to flatten his messy hair. 

"I was in the mines," Grian lied, not wanting to tell Mumbo what he was actually doing before he arrived. Surely Mumbo would be able to see through his lie considering he didn't look like he's been in the mines, but hopefully the taller was nice enough to not call him out on it. 

"Well I shouldn't be keeping you if you need to get back to work." Mumbo stood up and fixed the straps to his Elytra that had become loose. "If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask."

"Ah, please wait!" Grian reached out to grab Mumbo's jacket sleeve. "How can I repay you?" 

"Repay? Grian you don't need to repay me," Mumbo started to say but Grian was already rummaging through his chests looking for anything valuable. 

"I-I don't have much but name your price and I'll pay it." Grian said frantically. "Please Mumbo, I feel horrible that I'm leaving you empty handed after spending your time to teach me something I should already know how to do." 

Mumbo shifted from foot to door, refusing to make eye contact with Grian. "I don't want anything material but if you could lend me some help with my base?" 

Grian visibly relaxed at the prospect of being able to help in some way. "Of course! I may not be the best builder but I'd be happy to help!" 

"I'm glad we got this sorted then, I'll message you when I need help and you message me with help you need." Mumbo said at the cut out door that led into the cold ocean. 

Grian nodded, "Of course, have a safe trip home." 

As soon as Mumbo had thanked him and disappeared into the ocean, Grian slumped down onto the floor with his forehead on his knees. Mumbo had only visited for a half an hour and Grian felt even more drained compared to how he felt after sending that singular message. 

How was he to get through the day with actually talking to more than one person? Especially when he felt like this after one person visiting. 

Sighing, Grian stuffed the communicator in his pocket. 

That was enough interaction with people for a long while. 

Chapter Text

Iskall85: could someone test out my guardian farm for me??? 

Grian's communicator buzzed loudly on the wooden floor, startling the small hermit out of the daze he had fallen in. 

Scrambling to grab the abandoned communicator, Grian squinted slightly at the small print, attempting to make out what the message said. He should've asked Mumbo the smaller details of this machine before the taller had left. 

Grian: i could help of the offer still stands 

Void, after sending that message he already felt drained. Why would he ever send that? This Iskall character could take him up on the offer and that would mean ending up actually doing it. Oh Void he really screwed up. 

As much as Grian regretted sending that message and not technically want to do it, it would be suspicious if he suddenly took back the offer. 

Iskall85: really????
Iskall85: meet me at the shopping district, ill bring you over to my base! 

Grian didn't respond to that message but began to make his way to the shopping district anyways. 

As he walked along the path of the shopping district, Grian distantly wondered who Iskall really was and what a guardian farm exactly. He's never heard of a guardian and couldn't even imagine what it was. 

"Hey man! You Grian?" A heavy accented voice rang out on the streets making Grian break out of his thoughts. 

"Ye-yeah!" Grian said, turning around and was faced with someone who was a little bit taller than him and had a bright green eye. Grian personally thought that the eye didn't look all that real, perhaps it was just for a fashion statement or perhaps it was a robotic eye, having a robotic eye wouldn't be the most outlandish thing he heard of. "Are you Iskall?" 

"Yep! Thanks for offering to help me out today, I owe you for helping out today." 

"It was my pleasure." Grian said, practically running after Iskall considering how much taller the other man was. "But if you don't mind, I have a question." 

"What is it dude?" Iskall asked, turning around slightly to look Grian in the eyes. 

"What is a guardian exactly?" 

Iskall suddenly stopped to think, almost making Grian run into them. "Guardians are kinda like pufferfish I suppose? But instead of poisoning you if you eat them, they shoot lasers at you. Or their spines if they're out of the water." 

Grian just stared at Iskall for a moment in shock. Was it actually that dangerous to be in the ocean? "And what do you need me to do?" 

"I just need you to make sure that I don't need to make any changes to this." Iskall replied. "Once again, I'll really owe you one after this, man." 

Grian only hummed as they both made their way to the edge of the shopping district and to the water. 

Iskall seemed to already have an Elytra so it made sense for them to fly to wherever they were going which brought up a huge problem for Grian. 

"You ready?" Iskall asked, a boat already placed in the water. "I know that you'd rather fly to the temple but I, uh, I actually ran out of rockets to get here so we're stuck in the boat for now." 

Grian sighed silently in relief as he gingerly stepped into the boat. "That's quite alright, I don't know where we're going anyways."

Iskall hummed as they began to row the oars of the boat. "So how are you enjoying Hermitcraft so far?" 

"I like it so far. Everyone I've met so far is nice." Grian said softly, "Even if I haven't met that many people." 

"I'm sure you'll meet more people, dude." Iskall said, turning their head slightly to look at Grian who was picking at the skin around his nails. "There's a reason why we're called Hermits." 

Grian hummed, focusing on the words of the other man and trying not to give into the panic that had been slowly making itself a home in his throat. "Is there anything fun to do around here? No-Not that I'm not having fun here, it's just that- I haven't really explored ya'know?" 

Iskall let out a laugh as the boat finally knocked against the edge of an ice island. "I totally get you dude, when I first joined I was completely lost. But there is a lot of fun around here, just gotta find your own fun! It is recommended to have friends with though." 

Grian just hummed, not taking the time to answer considering he didn't really have an answer to give. 

"Have you made any friends yet?" Iskall asked as he led Grian through an ice covered base. 

Grian thought for a moment before nodding. "I think Mumbo is. He helped me with my communicator a couple of days ago." 

"I saw!" Iskall said excitedly as they stepped into a water piller and mysteriously descended. With no other option, Grian hesitantly followed behind Iskall who was waiting for him at the bottom. "Mumbo's my friend too, has been for a while!" Iskall said, as if the conversation had never been interrupted.

"Well here we are!" Iskall said cheerfully, spreading their arms to a long pillar of a dark greenish-blue block that Grian couldn't name. "Welcome to Iskall's Omega Guardian Farm! Do you have a weapon?" 

Grian shook his head. Well, technically he did have tools that could be used as a weapon but nothing of sorts that Iskall was talking about. 

Iskall hummed, deep in thought before nodding to themselves. "Here then, I'll let you use mine. Just for now." 

Grian looked at the sword, his hands already becoming clammy. Countless times before, he had always found himself at the pointy end of whatever sword or knife that was being pointed at him, never the hilt. 

Yet, here Iskall was, holding the sword that seemed to be glowing slightly by the blade so that Grian could take it safely. 

After what seemed like an eternity, Grian took the weapon and Iskall began to explain what this was all about. 

"So, in a few moments Guardians will begin to fall down from their sea temple. All you have to do is swing the sword and collect the loot." Iskall explained, leaning against the wall as Grian took a step towards the designated area. "And when you're done, just press this button." 

Nodding, Grian trained his eyes at the small opening. And soon enough, large spiked fishes with a singular eye and a tail that didn't match their body shape fell down what he assumed to be a long fall. 

Void these creatures were ugly. 

Raising his borrowed sword, Grian took a couple of swings at the Guardians. Only a few actually died to his hesitant swinging. 

"So I just press the button?" Grian asked, walking over to the button that was on the wall, resting Iskall's sword against the same wall. 

Iskall nodded, not even bothering to look up from what he was doing on his communicator so Grian pressed the button. 

Nothing happened for a few seconds as Grian heard some sort of mechanic noise from behind the wall. But as Grian turned around to watch what Iskall had rigged up with this contraption, a horrible, high-pitched noise came from the Guardians.

That didn't sound right at all.

Watching in horror, Grian took a quick glance back at Iskall who didn't seem to be bothered about what was happening, perhaps this was actually supposed to happen? Either way, Grian didn't know how this contraption worked and he would rather not be chewed out by the other man by asking dumb questions so he stood in silence as he watched the wall come down. 

Grian watched as the Guardians doubled in size, vaguely reminding him of a pufferfish, just like Iskall had said before. 

The next few moments seemed like to go on for an eternity as Grian, still in horror, watched as spikes went flying in the enclosed space. Some hit the other Guardians causing a whole chain reaction but some hit Grian himself, thankfully Grian was quick enough to bring his wings up around his face before one could actually hit it.

Hopefully Iskall had a way to protect themselves. 

"What did you do?" Iskall exclaimed loudly over the sounds of the Guardians. The noise must've been loud enough for Iskall to actually pay attention.

"I pressed the button!" Grian cried back, wincing lightly every time a sharp shard hit his wings or any exposed skin. "Just like you said to!"

"When there wasn't any Guardians left, dude!" 

"Oh," Grian said dumbly, almost dropping his wings in shame before he remembered the situation he was in. Hopefully Iskall didn't get mad at him for a slight mistake. 

Grian heard Iskall sigh from behind him as well as pick up the sword that Grian thankfully remembered to place back against the wall. 

Iskall was totally mad at him, Grian knew it was wishful thinking but he hoped that Grian wouldn't find himself on the sharp end of the sword, not after so kindly being handed the hilt. 

Another eternity later, the noises finally stopped and Grian felt a warm hand land in his shoulder and without thinking, he flinched. 

"You okay, dude?" Iskall's voice was softer than it usually was (or as usual as Grian assumed considering he only just met the guy today). "You took a couple of hits back there." 

Slowly to not irritate or move the shards anymore, Grian brought down his wings and finally looked at Iskall. Thankfully they did have shards embedded in their own face. All that Grian could see they only had a few stuck to their hands. 

"Sorry-" Grian said weakly, ignoring Iskall's worried gaze. 

"What are you sorry for, dude?"

"I pressed the button and I got us in this mess." 

Iskall furrowed their brows at him. "Dude it's fine, I should've been more clear on instructions." A moment of silence fell between the two as Grian pondered over Iskall's words. "Do you want help with those spines though? I rather not send you back home all bloody and I rather not have Stress find out if I did. As sweet as she is, she is really scary." 

Grian felt himself nod to Iskall's offer but his mind was in a completely different place. Wouldn't be the first time I came home bloody. He distantly thought but quickly removed said thought from his brain. 

Thankfully Iskall didn't notice Grian's hesitation as they began to lead Grian through the maze they originally entered. Iskall was holding his hand but being mindful of any injuries so Grian couldn't complain, it felt nice that someone was actually holding his hand. 

When was the last time someone actually did that?

Not noticing that Iskall had stopped, Grian felt the same warm hands on his shoulders gently guide him down onto a bed, he didn't know what colour the blanket was but it was soft so he focused on that rather than anything else. 

"I don't really know how to bandage wings, that's more of Tango's thing and maybe even Stress', so I'll just pull out the spines if that's okay with you." Iskall said as they took a seat behind Grian on the bed, slightly startling the shorter considering he didn't exactly hear the other come up from behind him. 

Nodding Grian let Iskall do the work in places he couldn't reach as he himself worked on pulling out the shards from his arms. Distantly, Grian hoped that Iskall didn't mention how messy his wings were, why would you clean something when you know it doesn't work?

"I hope this doesn't make you hate me, dude." Iskall said after a long pause of silence from the both of them. 

Grian quickly turned around, pulling his wings from Iskall's light grip. "Why would I hate you? I'm the one who messed up, if anything you should hate me."

Iskall made a face, obviously disagreeing with what Grian was saying. "How about this, we forget everything that just happened and be become friends." 

Grian nodded as he turned around fully, looking Iskall in the eye. From what he could see, Iskall didn't have any spines leftover on his body. "I'd like that," He said with a grateful smile. 

Iskall smiled widely at Grian agreeing. "Well then new friend, I'm glad we can put this behind us!" 

Although Grian felt no malice coming from Iskall, he couldn't help but worry that something bad was going to happen. 

Perhaps he was just being paranoid and nothing was actually going to happen. 

Chapter Text

MumboJumbo to Grian: Could you help me with my base today? I think I'm missing something.
Grian to MumboJumbo: sure
Grian to MumboJumbo: ill be on my way after I grab some stuff
MumboJumbo to Grian: Of course! See you soon!

Grian turned off his communicator and grabbed the now slightly battered shulker box Mumbo had gifted him that he had filled with a random assortment of items when he didn't want to put said items away. He was glad that Mumbo was finally taking him up on his offer of helping with this base; he was beginning to feel guilty about the matter. 

Without the use of his wings, Grian hoisted himself up the concrete white walls that he had begun to erect in a circle on the previously built cobblestone platform. 

While yes, he felt safe in his little sunken ship where only a select few knew where he was most of his days. But alas, with him staying in Hermitcraft for an indefinite amount of time (he didn't like thinking about it as forever, it sounded like he would never see his friends again), he would have to start on his final base. This here he was now. 

Setting the shulker box into the boat that was always tethered to the cobblestone platform, Grian was ready to head to Mumbo's base, perhaps the taller was farther along than he was. 

"Mumbo?" Grian called out to the empty base. Looking up there seemed to be what looked like, from a distance, a half finished sphere and below he could see a well made man-made cave. He would think that it was a natural spawning cave if it weren't for the stairs. 

"Mumbo? Are you here?" Grian called out again, taking a brief look up at the stream of water that he had seen at Iskall's base. Perhaps he should find out how to make one of these considering his base was already turning out to be quite tall as well as considering his wings don't exactly work. 

"Ah hello Grian! Sorry I didn't hear you arrive any earlier, I was finishing up some building." Mumbo said, emerging from the cave. His tailored suit jacket and red tie that normally tied the businessman air that surrounded him was gone and his white dress shirt was rolled up to his elbows, covered in some red substance. 

Grian felt a cold wave of fear running through his body as he looked at Mumbo's state. He was by no means a stranger to seeing someone covered in blood, but seeing Mumbo, someone who was so kind to him and lives in such a peaceful world, seeing him covered in blood scared Grian. 

"Oh my God, Mumbo! Wha-What happened to you?" Grian stuttered out, as he dropped the shulker box into the ground and began to rummage through his backpack for the miniature medical kit that he usually kept on him (he had good reasons for such an essential). Hopefully whatever was going to be in it would be enough. "Si-Sit down!" Grian exclaimed as he grabbed Mumbo's hand, being mindful of any wounds as he motioned Mumbo to sit on the ground. 

"Wha- Grian I'm alright! Are you okay?" Mumbo asked, trying to get Grian to stop from nervously fluttering about. 

Grian stopped his fluttering about to stare at Mumbo with worried eyes. "Am I okay? Mumbo your shirt is covered in blood!" 

Mumbo looked at Grian with a confused expression. "Grian- I'm not injured anywhere,"

"Okay, you're definitely going into shock. Oh Void I don't know what to do when someone is already in shock, do I need to call Xisuma?" Grian rambled on, pulling out his communicator with fumbling hands.

"Grian!" Mumbo exclaimed, grabbing Grian by the shoulders in a firm grip, stopping all attempts for shaking fingers to type out a message to the admin. "I'm not hurt,"

Grian looked at Mumbo skeptically, obviously not believing what the taller man was saying.

Mumbo sighed as he tried to figure out another way to calm the panicking man down. "It's just redstone. It's known for staining clothes and skin, especially lighter colours." 

"It's just redstone," Grian repeated a bit weakly as his shoulders slumped and his grip on the communicator loosened. 

"Just redstone," Mumbo parroted, squeezing Grian's shoulders once more before pulling away, taking a look at his friend's pale face. "Are you okay?"

Grian swallowed and shook out both of his hands so violently that Mumbo feared that they would break. "Ye-" Grian swallowed again. "Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry for worrying you."

Mumbo's face twisted into a concerned frown but he said nothing. 

"So, how was your day with Iskall?" Mumbo asked after a moment of painful silence, desperately wanting to change the subject and remove the hurt expression on Grian's face.

"It-" Grian hesitated for a moment as he thought of the right words to say. "I think it went alright. We had a rough start with the Guardians but I think we ended up becoming friends? Or at least I hope that he considers me a friend." 

"They," Mumbo said after Grian had finished his rambling. "Iskall uses they instead of he." 

"Oh," Grian said softly as he lowered his gaze, his long bangs covering his eyes as he once again shook his hands. "I-I didn't know, I-I'm so so-sorry." 

Mumbo waved his hands in the air as if he was dusting off dirt from someone's shoulders. "It's quite alright Grian, Iskall has a nasty habit of never telling people. So I'm quite sure they don't blame you for the mistake, they're understanding the first time it happens but doesn't take it lightly anytime after." 

Grian nodded, it would be easy enough. He once had a friend (and in the same breath of air, they were once his lover) who went by the same. While highschool didn't bring back any fond memories, Grian could say for sure that they were one of them.

"So you, uh, wanted help with your base?" Grian said awkwardly, unsure how to really move the conversation along to the real reason why he was at Mumbo's base. 

"Right!" Mumbo clapped his hands together. "I'm having multiple problems with this base, especially the sphere. But I feel as if it's too plain." 

Grian nodded as he listened to Mumbo talk, taking a step back to look at the base in question. Mumbo was right, it did look quite plain with it being only one colour - he had the exact same problem until he chose another colour. 

"Do you have another colour?" Grian asked, "Besides the white I mean."

"Ah no, besides the sea lanterns I've only used white," Mumbo replied to his question. 

Grian hummed. "I would recommend a contrasting colour, just to break everything up. Any bright colour would work if I'm being honest considering your main colour is white." 

"Any colour? Wouldn't some be too gaudy?" 

"Gaudy? There might be a few personal preferences but depending on how you use it, I don't think it would be considered gaudy." 

"And what colour did you use? We are both using white as a main block." Mumbo asked as he looked over to Grian's base which was currently at the height where they could both see it from the island. 

"I used a block called cyan concrete? I've never seen or worked with the block before so I thought I could give it a try. If I'm being honest, none of the blocks that I've built thus far I've ever seen before." 

Mumbo nodded before a grin spread across his face. "That makes sense, I guess that I do need another colour. I hope you don't mind if I take your colour as well?" 

"I don't exactly own a colour but you're welcome to use the same palette as I am." Grian said with a smile, it felt good to just talk with another. "Uh, I do have one last question. How do you make those waterfall things?" Grian vaguely waved his hand in the direction of the two water streams that were in Mumbo's sphere. "Iskall had some at their base and I was interested in them."

"The bubble elevator?" Mumbo turned his head to where Grian was waving his hand. "It'll be hard to explain but I can give you some blueprints of how to build it." 

Mumbo turned to a chest that was at the foot of the sphere and began to rummage around said chest for the promised blueprints. 

Soon after sticking the upper half of his body into the chest, Mumbo reemerged holding a piece of slightly warped paper. Grian could only assume that it was the blueprints, they didn't look that blue if you asked him. 

Mumbo handed him the paper and Grian carefully opened it up, looking at the drawings. "What's this?" Grian asked, furrowing his brows at one of the materials. "I know that this one is soulsand but I don't know the other one." 

"Oh the magma cube? It can be found in the nether." Mumbo looked over Grian's shoulder. "I have a lot left over so I can lend you some, how much do you need?"

Grian was silent for a moment as he did the math in his head. "Maybe like four blocks? I haven't been the nether quite yet."

"Well if you haven't been the nether quite yet, I can lend you some soulsand as well! I'll be just a moment!" Mumbo exclaimed as he disappeared into the cave. 

When Mumbo reemerged, he had his arms full of the blocks. "I know that you're making a few water elevators but if you don't mind me asking why do you need them? You have wings," 

Grian froze as he took the new blocks into his own arms before tucking them away into his bag (he couldn't help but notice that the magma blocks were quite warm, it would make sense for them to be warm considering how they're named). "Oh, uh- just in case someone without wings wanted to come over?" 

"I guess that makes sense." Mumbo nodded to himself, even if he did notice the rise of octave in Grian's voice, Mumbo didn't mention it. "Well I shouldn't keep you any longer, it seems that the both of us have our projects to get to. I hope you had a good rest of your day, if you need any help with your elevator just send me a message!"

Grian nodded, giving Mumbo a bright smile before heading back down to the boat. 

If he ignored the fact that he practically had a meltdown over a made up injury, it was a good day.

Chapter Text

Grian, since seeing Mumbo about his own base and receiving the blocks, had finished the new elevators and extended his base in height. 

Why he was building such a big base, he would never know but it was honestly proving to be a struggle in his day to day life. 

Now feeling exhausted, Grian slowly climbed down from the second layer of his build, his feet scrambling to find purchase against the smooth side. 

When reaching the bottom layer of his base he found an innocent looking sign among all of the chests. 

Come visit Cleo's Haunted Shipwreck! The sign read and Grian bit his lip as he read it. 

As much as a hermit he truly was despite the others attempting to involve him, he didn't really try to include himself in these types of activities. 

So why not start now?

The sign left made no mention to where this ship could be. But really, how hard could finding a ghost ship really be?

Turns out, extremely hard. 

Grian had made his way over to the shopping district as a starting point before slowly looking over the shores, trying to find this fabled ship. 

All ghosts that Grian had encountered in the past usually came out at night with a few rare occasions so perhaps this ship was just like that. 

When he was just about to give up on looking, Grian rounded the corner of a store that sold logs and was quite aptly shaped, there was the fabled ghost ship. 

Good Void, practically took him all day to try to find the thing. 

Not wanting to waste any more time, considering the sun was now almost about to set, Grian hurried onto the ship, holding onto the rope ladder tightly.

Once on ship, it was obvious that this was a man made ship considering Grian was actually able to stand on it without falling through. Even though, the gimmick was cool and Grian was excited to start exploring. 

As he looked around, Grian was amazed at the amount of detail this Cleo person went through, it genuinely looked like a pirate ship - just like the storybooks he used to read in the library. He was most amazed by the ghostly pirate manikins, they were so life like that Grian was expecting for them to start talking. 

As he wandered around the ship, Grian knew very well that he looked like an excitable child. And Grian couldn't help but not care, there was no one here to hurt him (as far as he was aware) so he could show his happiness, there was no need to hide it out of fear. 

Just as he was about to leave, not wanting to overstay his welcome, Grian found something that he had yet to truly explore. 

It was just an unassuming button and in hindsight, Grian shouldn't have pressed that button and should really start working on the problem he has of pushing any button he sees, no matter what it does. 

In the end, hindsight was always 20/20 and never seemed to favour him, Grian, true to his own nature and curiosity, pressed the button and fell down a long hole that had opened up from underneath his feet.

Serves him right for pressing buttons that he shouldn't have. 

As he fell, Grian couldn't help but think that this was truly going to be the end of him. He had a second chance at life after the poor hand he was dealt all those years ago, starting when he was barely a child in grade school. And look where he was now, really stuffing up this chance by falling down a hole. 

Distantly, Grian couldn't help but hope that he would land on his neck for a quick and mostly painless death rather than having to sit at the bottom of the hole for who knows how long before his body eventually just gave up. He wasn't a stranger when it came to falling great distances - it always seemed to be him or someone he knew.

Even if Grian himself has died quite a few times already, there was always the horrid voice that would whisper in his ear, that was your last chance. 

As he closed his eyes, preparing for impact, Grian couldn't help but think - Would anyone notice he was gone? 

Grian fell to the ground with a loud crack and a loud groan. Broken bones were easy to deal with once you had practice but finding a way out of this hole would be a challenge.

Thankfully (or not thankful at all depending how one looked at it) he wasn't dead but dear void he felt close. 

Standing up with a wince, Grian took notice of his surroundings. Wherever he was wasn't very large, just enough for him to fall through without twisting too much. It was also quite dark, the only light being the natural light from above which admittedly, wasn't a lot. 

Then a growl was heard and a singular red light broke out in the darkness. 

"Hello?" Grian timidly called only, feeling quite stupid. Of course there wouldn't be another person down here! This hole could barely fit Grian himself. But nonetheless, he was hopeful that at least someone above the surface would hear him and come to his aid. 

But that hopeful feeling was quickly replaced by dread as a growl came from the darkness and the tiny hole was lit up by a singular red light. 

A zombie somehow had the glowing red eye surrounded by metal reaching out to grab Grian with it's dirt covered hand. 

Pushing himself against the far wall to get away from the reaching hands of the zombie bit instead of feeling the cool touch of stone, he felt the clammy touch of a hand. 

Whipping around, Grian was met with his own face on a zombie's body. 

With nothing left to do, Grian screamed.

Chapter Text

Grian gasped as he woke up in a bed with a thin white blanket on top of it and that  was pressed up against wooden walls that reminded him of his sunken ship base. 

He was by no means a stranger to death and respawning in different places then he remembered falling asleep in, but this one instance disturbed him. 

He was often killed by hostile mobs, he was killed at least fifteen times by the Drowned just trying to start getting his starter base. Being killed by Zombies barely made him bat an eye anymore, it has happened so many times already. 

But what disturbed him was the fact that one of the zombies was wearing his face and a few others that Grian couldn't quite name. 

How had they gotten his face? 

Now a little more aware, Grian pushed himself up to his elbows to look at his surroundings. 

It didn't take long for him to realize that he wasn't in fact not in his base. While yes, he was technically on a boat, it just wasn't his boat. His boat was underwater while whosoever ship he was on was above water from what he could tell from the small window that was across from the bed he was laying on. 

No matter how hard Grian focused on his surroundings, he couldn't get the zombie wearing his face out of his mind. Was it all just a prank or did someone have it out for him? 

If it was a prank, it was an awfully cruel one. To use one's face against them and scare the living daylights out of them. But, perhaps that's just how the other Hermits played their pranks on one another. But perhaps someone did have it out for him, he couldn't technically rule it out knowing himself and his past. Yet, no matter how hard he tried to rack his brain, he couldn't think of anyone he angered. Did someone just not like him for being the new guy? Or did someone somehow figure out his past?

A completely plausible theory if you asked him. 

A sharp gasp suddenly broke through his thoughts. Whipping his head around to where he heard the noise, he saw a woman who appeared to be a zombie with different shades of green skin stitched together in a patchwork pattern. "Stay right there! I'll go get Joe!" She suddenly said in a heavy accent before Grian could even open his mouth and then she was gone, leaving as quickly as she arrived. 

Now Grian just had more questions. Like, who was that woman and who is Joe?

Thankfully Grian didn't have much time to think over those questions before the zombie woman came back with a lithe glasses wearing man in tow. He presumed that this man was Joe but Grian could never know. 

"Good you're awake, how are you feeling?" The man asked as he quickly walked to the side of Grian's bed, his hand outstretched to touch him but Grian quickly flinched back. He wants to trust this man, he seemed to be kind and only have good intentions but one could never know. 

Grian learned that the hard way. 

Thankfully, Joe never mentioned him flinching. 

"So, how are you feeling?" The man asked again. "We were lucky to find you so quickly before you could actually die and respawn. That would've been bad considering we don't know where your bed is and respawning never one hundred percent heals you of your wounds." 

Grian just shrugged at the repeated question. Yes he felt sore but that was a feeling that he became used to after dying so many times before. He never truly noticed any lingering wounds after a respawn so he doubted that there would be any this time.

"May I check your injuries?" Joe asked, placing his hands in front of himself with palms facing towards the ceiling, a pose to show that he would do no harm. "I can understand if you do not want me to but wounds from zombies can get infected quickly if left unattended to. Not to mention when we found you, you weren't in the best of shape." 

Grian lightly shook his head, he doubted that he had any injuries. Looking back to the instance, he couldn't recall any zombies truly managing to get a hit on him. 

"There's a nasty scratch on ye neck ya'know." The woman said from behind Joe (Grian had yet to learn her name yet). "Yer lucky that it wasn't a bite, wouldn't want ya turning into a monster like me."

Grian stared at the woman in shock for a multitude of reasons. He hadn't realized that during his panic, that a zombie actually hurt him. Perhaps that's why he hadn't noticed the injury right away, his adrenaline levels were over the charts. Grian vaguely remembers reading something somewhere that adrenaline blocks the pain in stressful situations. Yet, something that shocked him the most was the fact that leaving a zombie bite unattended would actually turn him into a zombie. Grian had been bitten by a countless number of zombies before this one instance and almost always left the injury to heal on its own and he's never turned into a zombie. Was this world that different? 

"Cleo," Joe said sharply as the woman began to cackle on the floor. "Please ignore her, she doesn't have the best sense of humor. Now, may I check the scratches? I can only see one and it looks to be almost healed but you can never know." 

Grian hesitated slightly before nodding, pulling down the collar of his sweater, exposing the angry red scratches. 

He heard Joe let out a low hiss. "Well, it doesn't seem to be infected but it doesn't appear to be as healed as I would've liked. May I bandage it?" 

"Why ain't ye usin' a healing potion?" Cleo asked from the side, wiping the tears from her eyes.  

Grian didn't really know what to think of Cleo. Vaguely he remembers seeing her when he first arrived on spawn island so many weeks ago at this point - she had called him that horrid name that at one point when he was younger, he had once thought it was his name considering that was all he was called. But there was no way of her possibly knowing him from the previous world was there? All of the stories he had managed to hear had told him that a lot of them had been together in worlds like this before. And now she was laughing at his expense, at his fear.

But she had helped him. Surely that meant she was a good person. Or did she only help because Joe was there? If Joe wasn't there, would she have left him to die?

Speak of the Devil and he shall arrive, Joe hummed, effectively getting Grian's attention, as he wiped a wet rag across the scratches, wiping away dirt and leftover blood. "I could use a potion of healing but it would be counteractive considering this wound will heal in a day or two as long as it is kept clean. Though I must ask Grian, would you like a potion of healing?" 

Grian shook his head without saying a word. Although it seemed to be self explanatory, Grian didn't really know what a potion of healing was.

"Do you have any other injuries that I should know about?" Joe asked as cool hands tilted Grian's head to the side to look around for any other surface wounds. 

"I think I fell on my ankle," Grian said quietly. 

Joe just nodded as he made his way down to the foot of the bed to touch Grian's ankle. "It doesn't feel broken so I feel confident with what I'm about to do. I'm going to move your ankle around to see where it hurts."

"So what happened to ya?" Cleo asked as she watched Joe carry out his exam and as Grian hissed quietly whenever Joe moved his ankle in a particularly uncomfortable position. 

Grian just shrugged, "Someone left a sign saying that a ghost ship was opened up to look around. So I of course went and looked around but I probably fiddled with something I shouldn't have." 

Cleo let out a low noise in the back of her throat. "I left that sign but someone totally messed with my ship." 

Grian just nodded. He was hesitant but he believed what Cleo was saying, why would she be acting so mad if this was an intended prank from her? 

"Who would've done that?" Joe asked as he wrapped Grian's hurting ankle in stark white bandages before standing up and crossing his arms. 

"My guess would be Doc," Cleo said. "I pranked him a couple days ago so this must've been his retaliation. Messing my ship is one thing but getting someone hurt who wasn't previously involved is another thing - I have to get back at him." 

"Cleo you know that if you get back at him, he'll just do the same and this whole thing will snowball out of control until it's too big for anyone to handle." 

Cleo's pale face turned a surprising shade of red. "Joe, look at the kid! He literally died as soon as you laid him on this damn bed."

Grian stared at Cleo in shock, he knew that they had found him in bad condition but he wasn't aware that he had died. Dear Void he must've been out of it.

Joe sighed as his shoulders slumped down, he looked tired, looked older. "I'm going to go get a boat ready so that I can take you back to your base Grian. I don't want you putting any weight on that ankle for a couple of days." Joe said, completely ignoring his friend. 

Once Joe was out of the room and out of ear-shot, Cleo turned to Grian with a mischievous look in her eyes. "Do you want to prank Doc with me?" 

Grian opened his mouth but hesitated to reply. While he loved playing harmless pranks on people (especially his friends back in Evo), he didn't have the best experience with some 'pranks'. "What kind of prank are we talking about?" 

"Hmm, good question. I'd probably just build something that would be a pain in the arse to take down."

Grian nodded, the plan seemed harmless even if he didn't fully understand what Cleo was talking about. "I'm in." 

The large, mischievous grin that Cleo gave him was totally worth all the hesitance he originally had. 

Chapter Text

It was the day after the 'Ghost Zombie Incident' as Grian had begun to call it and his ankle was feeling much better. Or rather, Grian was just a seasoned-pro at ignoring consistent aches and pains at this point.

"You ready dude?" Cleo asked him, setting down a purple shulker box and wiped off the sweat that was on her brow. 

"What are we even doing?" Grian asked, he sort of jumped into this without really knowing what was going on.

"Building a giant chicken!" Cleo said with so much confidence that Grian thought that she was telling the truth. "Iskall hates diorite, says it looks like 'bird poop' so I thought it would be funny to rope them into this." 

Grian worried at his bottom lip - he quite liked Iskall and he didn't really want to rope them into this mess when it had nothing to do with them. "Will this get them in trouble?" 

"Nah. The diorite is probably just gonna make Doc suspicious of Iskall but nothing more - though Doc might prank Iskall back." Cleo said as she held a white stone that was flecked with grey. "Is this a bad time to ask if you know how to build a chicken?" 

Without even wanting to, a choked laugh emerged from Grian's throat. "I've never built one but how hard can it be? There has to be a chicken somewhere nearby that we can use as a reference." 

"I'll go get one! Surely Doc has to have some chickens laying around here." Cleo exclaimed, digging through her satchel to find seeds. "If he doesn't I'm sending a strongly worded letter to him. Who doesn't have chickens at their base?!" 

Grian just nodded and decided to keep quiet on the fact that he didn't really have any farm animals in either of his bases quite yet. It was hard finding animals and then dragging them half across an ocean to an unfinished base. 

"I found one!" Cleo came back with a very disgruntled chicken in her arms. Grian didn't know how chickens really communicated with humans (if it was possible in the first place) but this very chicken looked very upset at what had just happened.

Grian would too if someone much bigger than him promised him food but instead picked him up. 

"His name is Cluck Norris and he'll be our model." Cleo set down Cluck Norris but made sure to loop a lead around his neck so that he wouldn't wander away mid build.

"He's quite handsome," Was all that Grian said. How else is someone supposed to react to a chicken?

"Of course he is!" Cleo puffed out her chest looking very proud of herself, although she looked like Cluck Norris at this very moment. He seemed to be very flattered with the compliment. But then again, chickens couldn't really convey emotions to humans so Grian was probably reading into this a bit too much. "This may be a prank but I want Doc to know how serious we are." 

"Well then," Grian dug through the shulker boxes that were spread on the ground as he looked for the correct colour to use. "Shall we get started?" 

"He looks a little wonky," Cleo said from the ground, squinting her eyes as she examined the slow going statue. 

"What do you mean he's wonky?" Grian asked from the currently working head. "He looks perfectly fine to me!"

"He's all lopsided, dude. It looks like someone tried to chop off his head but only got one weak swing in with a really dull axe." 

Grian grimaced at the analogy given before climbing down the statue to see what Cleo was seeing. 

"Oh void, he really is wonky." Grian couldn't help but laugh once he saw what Cleo was talking about. Wonky was simply putting it. The statue of Cluck Norris seemed to have wrong proportions in all of the wrong places; his shoulders were wider on one side while his head was wider on the opposite side leaving the eyes to be farther apart from normal. Thankfully his legs seemed to be in the right place so they wouldn't have to demolish the entire statue.

"Do we just make him bigger? This is only supposed to be a pain in the arse for Doc, not for us." 

Grian nodded, he was already sweating from all of the hard work done under the sun. God he should really invest in a lighter sweater if he was going to do more things like this. "I'll take the head while you'll take the body?" 

Cleo groaned into the sky. "Is it too late to change my mind about the prank? Can't we just fill his base with leaves? It's much cooler there than out here." 

"But that means we'd have to take down this statue so that we don't seem messy." 

Cleo just groaned again but this time her head fell into her hands. "Dear Void, why are you so smart?"

"I just don't want to demolish this. I'm sore everywhere." 

"Doc's reaction better be worth all of this cause if he doesn't even notice this I might as well throw myself into the void." 

"The damn legs look too skinny now!" Cleo cried out, throwing herself across the left foot of the statue dramatically. 

"Just bulk them up. Thicker thighs are better than no thighs." Grian slumped against the other, unoccupied foot as he drank from a water bottle trying to stay cool. 

"Words to live by dude, words to live by." 

"Void, he looks amazing." Cleo said as she stood in the shadow of statue de Cluck Norris. "He's much taller than I expected though." 

"Are we done?" Grian grumbled into the dirt. "I need to, like, just lay in Iskall's base for a little while." 

"Not yet dude, we still got to spread the diorite everywhere." 

Grian groaned. "Can't we like rock-paper-scissors to see who has to do that? I think that if I tried to move even a finger my body would just collapse. 

"Hell no dude! I have no clue if you're a rock-paper-scissors god, there's no way that I'm doing this alone." 

Grian just groaned again. "You can't be a 'rock-paper-scissors god', it's completely based on luck!"

"Well what if I have horrible luck?" Cleo extended a hand towards Grian who grabbed it lazily before pulling himself up. "Come on dude, this will take less time than the actual building."

"If this takes up more time than the statue I'm legally allowed to sue you."

Cleo let out a bark of laughter as she handed Grian a handful of the diorite. "I don't even think we have lawyers here."

"I'll just make my own, it can't be that hard to learn law overnight." Grian said as he took the offered stone. "So, is there a method to this?"

"Besides placing blocks at random? I don't think birds really think about where they poop so just go crazy." 

Grian nodded but made note not to mention that it was totally possible to train a bird.

"Well? How's it looking?" Cleo asked from where she was trying to untie the knot that kept Cluck Norris in the area. 

"Pretty good. It's gonna take Doc forever to clean this up but I hope he at least keeps the statue." 

"If I come back in the next few days and find that this statue is gone I'm just gonna cry." 

"Thanks for helping me dude," Cleo said warmly, tugging Grian into a side hug. "I never apologized for what happened yesterday did I?" 

"It wasn't your fault Cleo, plus you've already done enough to show me. You could've totally left me for dead."

Cleo scoffed. "Even if I was cruel enough to do that and actually left you, Joe would never let me live that down. It would be like him having blackmail over me."

Grian laughed slightly, he was glad that Cleo had told him that she would've never have done that. 

It was nice to have someone in his corner.

Chapter Text

"Good morning fellow winged buddy!" A voice exclaimed from above where Grian was walking in the shopping district. Only one person called him that; Tango. 

"Good morning Tango," Grian said politely as he craned his neck upwards to the platform Tango made his temporary home on as he worked on his project. 

"Are you busy today?" 

Grian cocked his head as he thought over the question. Of course he had some stuff planned today that could always just happen another day and he had no important business to attend to. "I got nothing going on today, why do you ask?" 

Tango seemed giddy at Grian's reply. "I'll tell you more up here! Come on dude!" And then Tango's head popped back over the platform.

"What do you have planned?" Grian asked as soon as he got up on the platform, thankfully Tango made no mention of how instead of flying up, he used the conveniently placed scaffolding. 

"What do you feel about breaking and entering? Maybe even a little bit of stealing?"

Grian just stood there for a moment, taking in the question. It was an odd one but it hardly scratched the surface of the weirdest questions he's been asked. 

"Uh," He started dumbly, unsure how to proceed with this. "I've done both but, uh, don't do it?"

Tango broke out into a wide grin, thankfully not mentioning or questioning on why Grian had previously broken into someone's property and potentially stolen something. "How would you feel about breaking into Doc's office and then stealing his diamonds?"

"Are we stealing stealing?" Grian asked. While Grian had stolen before (mainly from the very overpriced convenience store on his way to school), he really only stole things that wouldn't make a dent in anything. He's already done so many things that would make Doc hate him, he would hate for another reason to suddenly pop up.

Tango hummed thoughtfully. "Well maybe we won't take the diamonds for ourselves but we can somehow misplace them in the walls if you know what I mean." 

"I suppose that's better than actually stealing them. So when are we going to do this?" 

"How about now?" Tango asked, extending a full face mask of a chicken to Grian. Dear Void, he can never seem to escape chickens in his life.

"What's this for?" Grian asked as he took the mask, turning it in his hands. 

"Well, before I asked you about this I did a little snooping around the area and it turns out that Doc and Rendog have some pretty extensive security." 

"And how are we to get in if this place has such high security?" Grian asked as he watched Tango eagerly tell him the plan. "You're making it sound like that as soon as we step foot inside we're gonna be kicked out."

"Well these masks should hopefully keep our identities safe," Tango held up his own mask that seemed to be a zombified version of a pig (what was with this world and all of their zombies?). "And as high-tech their security is, the only thing that protects the vault is a simple door. Shouldn't be that hard to break through!"

Grian nodded along, the plan seemed to be planned out well. "But what about our wings? Wouldn't Doc be able to tell it's us?"

Tango opened and closed his mouth a couple times as he thought over Grian's question. "Well, I didn’t really think of that but I'm kinda banking this whole operation on the fact that Doc and Ren will be working on their bases and won't be there."

Grian nodded as he looked down at the mask in his hands. "Okay," Grian nodded again. "Yeah, alright, let's do this." 

The bright and excited smile Tango gave Grian made his worries about this heist almost disappear.

[Line break]

"And you're sure that there's no security cameras here?"

"I don't even know what a security camera is!" 

Grian sighed as he looked up at the sky. But okay, that's a good thing. If Tango didn't know what a security camera was, that likely meant that the others didn't either, which would mean that logically, security cameras just plainly did not exist in Hermitcraft. Okay okay, Grian could do this. 

Stealing from a high security vault left unattended had to be much easier than stealing from a busy convenience store with a cranky store keeper, right?

"Wow," Grian said breathlessly as he looked around the highly detailed main entrance to the building. "It's amazing." 

"Wait till you see inside, it’s way more intricate in there than out here!" Tango said excitedly as he pulled Grian’s arm. “Don’t forget to put on your mask!”

Following what Tango said, Grian put on the chicken mask as Tango opened up the ornate doors. 

“Oh wow,” Grian 

“I know right?” Tango laughed at Grian’s reaction. “I was the same way when I first came here to do a little snooping around. It's pretty cool, huh?” 

Cool didn't even begin on how amazing the room was. The pillars that supported the entire room seemed to be intricately carved with a careful hand, from where Grian stood he couldn't exactly tell what material the pillars were but Void, he wanted to have some of his own. There were so many little details that kept catching his eye that possibly had no use to the room in general but tied it all together; the room itself, as intricate as it was, looked lived in. And as someone who lived in cramped and very modern quarters for most of his life, seeing a room this large was something of his dreams. 

The room barely even ended with that.

Looking up at the ceiling, Grian was met with a life like painting. He couldn't exactly tell what it was from the angle he was looking at it from but Void it was amazing. The gold trim that lined the painting seemed to twinkle and shine in the lighting, making the room seem much brighter than it really was. 

Grian wasn't one to really write essays (or do any schoolwork for that matter) but if he had to write a paper on this room, it would be the easiest thing.

"Come on dude, you can gawk at it later!" Tango called to him, already halfway down the hallway that Grian could only assume led to the vault.

Shaking his head, Grian began to run after Tango. "Coming!"

"It's pretty amazing, huh?" Although Grian couldn't see it, he could feel the cheeky grin Tango shot at him and Grian couldn't help but to flush and hide his face in the collar of his sweater. 

"There's so many words that I could use to describe this rather than amazing!" Grian exclaimed, talking animatedly with his hands. "How did they even do that painting? It's huge!"

Tango laughed, although he didn't know Grian for long, he was glad to see the younger get excited over something. "I'm pretty sure that Cleo was commissioned to make it because as amazing this building is, I'm pretty sure that Doc or Ren don't have an artistic bone in their bodies." 

[Line break]

"So," Grian started, staring at the large vault with Tango. "How are we supposed to get in? It looks pretty secure."

"Well if I know Ren, he usually cycles through the same passwords and I'm pretty sure that this has something to do with music and Ren only has one musical password." Tango rubbed his chin as he thought.

"Wouldn't Doc just choose the password if he knew that Ren has a select few passwords?"

"Void if I know," Tango laughed before moving towards one side of the vault where there were four pressure plates on the ground. "Just follow my lead, let's hope that Ren didn't suddenly just make up a new password." 

Grian nodded as he did what he was told to do, watching Tango's feet carefully so that he wouldn't mess up the sequence. 

When the sequence was finished, a large hiss and some steam came from the vault as it opened.

Now Grian wasn't really materialistic and didn't care much for jewels and riches, a side effect of living off of so little for a majority of his life so he didn't really understand why people simply had so much money just sitting around. That train of thought still applied when the vault door opened but he would be ashamed to say that he was totally thinking about what he could buy with all the diamonds that were inside.

He knew that back in Japan that diamonds were worth far more than they were worth here in Hermitcraft. The numbers were so large that they made his head spin.

Simply put, the vault room was filled wall to wall, from floor to ceiling with diamonds. There was even a fountain in the middle of the room that spat out diamonds every few seconds. Don't even get him started on the walls that seemed to be gilded in diamonds.

"Who even needs this many diamonds?" Grian asked, astonished, standing in the doorway with his mouth wide open. "Is there even this many diamonds in this world?" 

Tango who seemed to be equally slack jawed at the amount of diamonds. "I'm pretty sure that these are all stocks. But Void this is a lot of money, imagine all of the things you could buy!"

Suddenly Grian didn't feel as bad for the selfish materialistic thoughts he previously had. 

"Well, let's get started!" Tango said excitedly as he took out a pickaxe. "Do you have one, dude?"

Grian hummed as he took out his own pickaxe. His was a little dinky thing, only made of roughly shaped iron compared to Tango's sleekly made diamond pickaxe that glowed a purple sheen that he could only assume was some sort of high-end enchantment.

"Great! Let's start with the ones in the back then we can figure out how to get the ones in the fountain and walls." 

"Where are we even hiding these things?" Grian asked, holding a sizable diamond block that he had just picked up. Void this must be the most money he's ever held.

"I was thinking we could hide in the walls." Tango said, digging a small hole in the wall and placing a chest in it before placing the diamonds inside of it. "When Doc and Ren see that their diamonds are missing they'll probably go on a wild chicken case trying to find them when in reality they're just in here!"

Grian nodded as he followed Tango's lead in stowing away the diamonds.

"Are you willing to get your feet wet?" Tango asked suddenly as they placed the last diamond block in the hidden away chest.

"We're already breaking and entering, not to mention stealing. I don't think getting my feet wet will be the worst thing I've done." 

Tango broke into a wide grin. "Great! Here, hand me the diamonds and I'll hide them away." 

Grian nodded as he sat down to untie his shoes and socks (how often did he really take these off?) and rolled up his pant legs above his knees. After painstakingly building his starter base underwater, he would really rather not get his clothes wet for another thousand years.

"Do you want to go in Doc's office? Do a little rummaging around?" Tango asked Grian who was walking behind him, shoes still off and slung over his shoulder as his feet left little puddles behind him.

"What could we even possibly do in there? It's just an office."

"Come on dude! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to snoop around Doc's things!"

Grian gnawed on his lip for a few seconds as he mulled it over. It wasn't like they were going to be stealing any important documents, just looking around.

"Alright but I'm not stealing anything." 

"That's fair, that's fair. I just wanna cause a little mischief." Tango said as he skipped ahead, seeming very excited that Grian had agreed to take this prank a step further. "There's a little rumor going around that Doc has a bush in his office that he absolutely adores and I think it'd be funny if we mess it up a little."

"And when you say 'mess it up a little' you don't mean that we." Grian mimed cutting his own throat. 

Tango's eyes widened as he shook his head frantically. "Void no! I would never suggest breaking something someone cares about! I was just talking about decorating it slightly."

He then pulled out a handful of string in one hand and a handful of different dyes in the other. "So, which colour do you want?" 

Grian felt the cold chill of relief run through his body. He could handle sort of not really stealing but breaking something that was personal to someone was way out of his league. He wasn't a monster.

"Give me the brightest orange possible." Grian said with a boyish grin. 

"Now we're talking!" Tango smiled back at Grian with an equally boyish grin. "Come on, I'm pretty sure that Doc's office is this way!"

Like the other rooms that Grian had seen in this building, Doc's office was as lavish as the rest. Although it did have a more modern feel compared to the entrance.

"There she is, our soon to be magnus opus." Tango said with a sweeping arm towards the bush that was right besides the desk. But Grian did think it resembled a small tree better than it did a bush. 

"What colour did you pick?" Grian asked, holding his handful of bright neon orange string.

Without responding verbally, Tango held up a ball of garish purple string. It was amazingly hideous. 

"It's like a bad Christmas tree!" Tango exclaimed excitedly as they strung the tree up in horrible colours. "If only we had baubles too." 

"We've already done enough today, I'd feel bad if we did anymore." Grian said as he wiped the residue from the string and dye onto his pants. "If my hands are any indicator, it's going to take Doc a long time to get this string off."

"We did good today." Tango said as he stepped back to admire their work. "I know that this whole heist thing was supposed to be serious but I had a lot of fun. Thanks for coming with me." 

Grian smiled up at Tango. "I had a lot of fun too, thank you for inviting me." 

"Of course dude! Us winged-buddies gotta stick together!"

Chapter Text

Docm77: Attention all Hermits. For those who are against me, meet me in the empty plot of land near the shopping district so we may discuss.

The message came early morning, waking Grian from his fitful sleep and once he read that very threatening message from a man whom Grian hadn't had very much interaction with. 

Suddenly staying in his ship in a bottle for the next few hundred years seemed very appealing to him. Perhaps he could spend those years overthinking every action he had ever done in his life.

Was it possible that Doc didn't know that he took part in a lot of pranks that were directed towards him? Or would one of the people who he worked with rat Grian out to Doc?

No, he couldn't do that to his friends. Perhaps Doc could forgive the pranks that he had fallen victim to considering it would be very hypocritical for him to start a war? After the pranks he pulled himself?

But after the stunt that he and Tango pulled only a few days ago, perhaps that was what Doc was mad at. Was Doc really that cruel enough to drag down a good portion of the world for the misdeeds of two people?

Grian sighed as he ran his hands over his face tiredly. There was no way that he could just leave Tango out to the wolves.

When Grian arrived at the designated meeting spot, there were a lot more people than he had been expecting. While he was thankful that he and Tango wouldn't be left alone, Grian was worried that Doc would have the upper hand here. 

"Tango!" Grian whispered loudly to get his friends' attention. "Do you know what's going on here?" 

Tango shook his head, he looked much calmer than Grian. "I thought that we're just gonna get yelled at for messing around but this seems pretty serious." 

"Why are there so many people here then? Shouldn't this just be between the three of us?"

"I don't know," 

Grian swallowed the lump in his throat. 

"Hello everyone!" A cheerful voice rang out over the field. "I see everyone is here now!"

"Who's that?" Grian asked Tango, not taking his eyes off of the newcomers.

"The one who spoke is Scar and the older dude behind him is Cub. They run Convex. I guess they're going to be overseeing whatever this is considering they must be the only unbiased group left who's willing to do this. Must be good for their business though." 

Grian nodded along to Tango's words. It was nice to have a team that wouldn't be able to be bribed to any team but the thought that these two were the last unsettled him.

"We are gathered here today on what I believe is a disagreement?" Scar said, looking at someone who Grian believed to be Doc to refute the claim.

"I can excuse the pranks and the theft of my diamonds but I draw the line at my bush being defaced." Doc growled out, his red eye looking menacingly into Grian's soul. "I want them to pay."

Tango and Grian looked at eachother worriedly as whispers from both groups raised up. 

Someone stole from Doc?

Who's brave enough to do that?

Whoever did that is stupid.

Defaced a bush?

Who do you think did it?

"Why should the person who did all those things pay when you're the one who started it all? They were merely trying to finish it." A loud voice rang out over the field, trumping and silencing any of the whispers.

Cleo.

"You nearly right killed a man with your little prank on my ghost ship. So really I could say the same of how I want payment, I'm sure the victim could say the same."

Grian couldn't really say that he wanted payment for the hurt that Doc had caused back in the ghost ship. He merely wanted to forget about it but being the direct cause to why almost everyone was here, that made it hard to forget.

"So you're saying that you did this?" Doc asked shortly, crossing his arms.

"Can't say I did but kudos to whomever had the balls to do so." 

"Now, now, let's all calm down before a fist fight breaks out. We don't want blood to be spilled before I've even explained the rules of it!" Scar said cheerfully as if what he was witnessing had no effect on him. "But I would like to hear both sides of the story." 

"I got pranked," Doc said simply and Grian wished it was only that easy. "But someone took this a step further and went to steal my diamonds and ruin my bush. You know how long it took me to get rid of all of the string?! Don’t even get me started on the fact that I haven’t even found our diamonds yet!" 

Tango snorted quietly so that only Grian would be able to hear it. Turns out that hiding the diamonds nearly in plain sight did send Doc and supposedly Ren on a wild chicken chase.

(Grian thought that he should at least help Doc or Ren find their diamonds, after all, it is an extremely large sum of money to just suddenly lose in one day)

"As I said, Doc's prank nearly killed someone so I got revenge, this is the first time that I'm hearing of this theft."

"Well Doc, you're the one who gathered all of us here today, what do you expect us to do?" Iskall asked, making sure that Cleo wouldn't say something that she could potentially regret.

Doc glowered at Iskall. A red eye meeting a green eye. "I already said that I want revenge." 

"There are many ways to get revenge, dude."

"I want war."

Grian stifled a gasp at Doc's words.

He wanted a war? Surely he didn't mean an actual war like the ones in textbooks. Right?

"Right!" Scar said with a sunny smile as if what Doc had just said had no impact on him. As if declaring war on one another was a common occurrence. "We're here to explain some of the rules before we get started!" 

"First off, I know that I don't have to say this but I'm going to anyway; do not let this silly little battle get in the way of your friendships. Please keep everything on this field, do not attack people you simply see on the street and please do not grief anyone's bases. The bases here will be fine on designated battle days but personal bases are strictly off limits." 

Grian felt the tension in his shoulders leave slightly. He didn't know that many people on the other team, most of his friends were on his side of the field, but he was glad that there wouldn't be bad blood between everyone.

"Secondly, both teams will have two weeks to build a base and any defense systems you may need. And please do think of a team name."

With those final words both sides of the field broke out into excited murmurs but Grian couldn't help but feel a cold chill roll down his spine as he made eye contact with Doc and Grian felt that Doc knew all of the sins he could have ever committed.

"Come on dude," Iskall came up behind Grian and patted his shoulders. "We can go to my base, I got a big enough table to fit us all."

Chapter Text

For Iskall building their base (Iskall insisted that their base had to be called an 'Omega Base') right into an iceberg, it was quite cozy and full of warm wood that made the entire place seem welcoming.

"I suppose we should get down to the more important business." Joe said after everyone had funneled through the doorway. "What are we building as a base?" 

"It's still quite early so I doubt that anyone will have any extra supplies." A woman who seemed to be around his own height spoke up from across the table. She was wearing a bright pink cardigan, it looked soft.

"I have some supplies." Grian said but made no mention that it was a complete lie. Yes he had some leftovers from the two previous floors of his base but he felt like he was nowhere near finished. "If we run out I could always just get more." 

"Tango and I could probably do defensive and offensive traps for the base." 

"I can make a super secret doorway!" Iskall exclaimed excitedly. "One that only we know about!"

"Grian would you be up for building the base and possibly even designing it?" Joe asked. 

Grian just nodded. "I don't think that I could do the entire exterior on my own in two weeks and someone else will have to do the interior - I don't really know how to decorate." 

"Of course, I'm sure that everyone will be happy to help around when they can."

"Oh! I can do that!" The woman in the pink cardigan spoke up again. "I can already see all of the cozy chairs, oh! Maybe I'll add a fish tank!"

"I can have the design ready by tomorrow and start building the same day. Is there anything that I need to add to the floorplan?" 

Immediately everyone started to talk, pitching in their own ideas to what the base needed.

"A control room!"

"Some place where we can sleep would be nice."

"Probably a meeting room so that we aren't constantly in Iskall's way."

"A storage room so that we can stay organized "

"A kitchen!"

"It would be so cool if we had a stable or two so we could ride some horses into battle!"

"A place to hang out after a long day or work!"

"I love you all but we need showers, you're all gonna reek."

The amount of noise that was bouncing off of the walls made Grian's head spin but he did his best to make a mental note to add in everything everyone requested. Dear Void, this will end up being a large base.

"Now that the boring stuff is out of the way," Tango said when the noise finally died down. "Let's get onto the exciting part! What's gonna be our team name?"

"Tango, I doubt that anyone has really been thinking about a team name. War has barely been declared." Joe's calm nature flowed over Tango's own excitable nature but it did little to actually mellow him out.

"Well I've been thinking about it since we've arrived! And I got a perfect name that will strike fear into the other team's hearts!"

"Alright then, let's hear this scary name." Cleo leaned back in her chair, kicking her legs up on the table, even if Joe gave her a disapproving look at the action.

"G-Team,"

Cleo let out a loud snort of laughter. "'G-Team'? Love the name dude but can't really say it strikes fear into my heart."

Tango gave Cleo an exaggerated pout. "Hmpf. What do you think of it, Grian?"

"I- I like it. I mean we all have gs in our name so it makes sense. You know Tango, Grian, Iskgall, and Gleo!"

“See! Grian gets it!” Tango said excitedly, it seemed that going along with whatever Tango had said just added more fuel to the flame. Which Grian thought to be quite ironic considering that he heard that Tango was actually a demon hybrid from the others. 

Iskall let out a laugh as they watched Tango and Grian excitedly talk about the team name. They only had one interaction with the newest member and barely anyone else had even seen him until now. It was nice to see Grian do this, even if this was unconventional. 

"I guess that settles it, we’re the G-team.”

"Hi! I'm Stress, or I guess I'm Gress now!" The woman in the pink cardigan came up to Grian after the meeting had adjourned. "Just thought I would introduce myself seeing as we're on the same team and I'm gonna be working on the interior!"

Grian gave her a tight smile and made no movement or offer to shake her hand. Stress seemed nice enough but Grian was never good with meeting other people - oh Void, she probably thought he was being rude to her.

“It’s, uh, it’s nice to meet you too. I should have the blueprint done by tomorrow, is there anything that you’ll need?”

Stress stared at him in shock, as if she couldn’t believe that he was willing to work for so long in such a short amount of time. “Tomorrow!? Love, we have two weeks until we have to get this finished - you’re allowed to take your time on this.” 

“It’s just with everything that everyone wants in this base it’ll probably end up taking a long time to finish within the timeline we have.”

“I’m sure that the others will understand if something isn’t added. We’re already asking a lot of you.”

“Please just let me do this Stress, I want to do this for the team. If something seems like it won’t work I’ll veto it and move onto something else.” 

Stress grumbled, not looking very happy with Grian’s logic. “Fine, but I’m holding onto that promise.”

“So, is there anything you need out of this blueprint?”

“I just need the floor plan. But love, really, you don’t need to rush this.”

Grian just waved off Stress’ concerns. “It’ll be done by tonight, I’ll send you a message tomorrow so that we can talk about it.”

Chapter Text

Grian to Stressmonster101: the blueprint is ready if you want to come see it
Stressmonster101 to Grian: !!!!
Stressmonster101 to Grian: I can be down there in a couple minutes, just let me finish up over here
Stressmonster101 to Grian: Do you need me to bring anything down before I come?
Grian to Stressmonster101: no i think i have everything thank you 
Grian to Stressmonster101: i already have the blocks that im gonna use 
Stressmonster101 to Grian: Alright love! I’ll be on my way shortly!

“Hello Grian!” Stress’ voice rang out on the small island Grian had set up shop on. “It’s good to see you again, I see that you’ve been hard at work, love.”

Grian just nodded as he spread out a large piece of parchment onto a wooden table that he had been using to work on. “Hello Stress, are you ready to get to work?”

“I am! I am!” Stress nodded excitedly, practically bouncing in her place as her eyes took in everything Grian had marked down. “What kind of palette are you thinking of?”

Grian looked up from where he was making any last minute changes to the plan to wave his hand in the general direction of the blocks he had laid out. “You can change any of them if you don’t like them.” 

Stress took a look at the blocks that were just laid out in the grass and back at the blueprint. “Is there anything you need me to do?”

“No not yet, I just wanted to show you what it would look like on the outside.” Grian hummed as he gnawed on the feather part of his quill. “I can have the main footprint done by today so that you can start at least planning out the rooms if you’d like - maybe I’ll even get the walls up.”

Stress looked at him worriedly, “Are you sure you don’t need help? This seems like a whole lot of work to get this done in such a short amount of time.”

“It seems like a lot of work to get the interior done all by yourself.”

Stress just stared at Grian as he sassed her, who knew someone so quiet would be so sarcastic? 

“Well, you got me there but please let me help you love.” 

Grian only hummed as he turned back to his blueprints. “Here's what I have planned for the inner footprint, obviously I didn’t put any of the floors considering that’s ya’know, your job, so you can put whatever walls you want. But hopefully I made the scale correct here so that you don’t have to lose any important square footage.” 

Stress smiled as Grian rambled on, looking down to see what exactly he had drafted up. “This is all for me? No rules to follow?”

“I mean, yeah-” Grian looked sheepish. “I don’t really know much about interior design so I don’t think I’d be that good of a consultant but I don’t mind if you ask for my opinions.” 

Suddenly Stress tackled Grian into a large hug, practically taking him down to the ground with the force she had throttled herself at him. “Oh thank you so much love! I know that I asked to do this but it means so much to me that you’re actually letting me do this when this is your pet project!”

Grian, who was still very much startled at the hug (not that it was unwanted), brought up a slightly trembling hand and patted Stress’ back; it was shaking slightly. 

Was she crying? Grian didn’t know how to deal with emotions, especially not the wet ones. What should he say? Should he let her just cry herself out? No, that would be rude. Maybe he should tell her everything was alright, yeah that could work, that’s what people usually did in the books that he used to read when he hid out in the library (Taurtis always read whatever manga he had bought from the convenience store that morning, it had always brought him so much joy to buy the latest edition). He didn’t like to go to the library so it was like their own little oasis before they had to face the music (Grian hated that type of music, always loud for no reason with sharp notes that hurt his ears).

But Grian said nothing, he offered no words of comfort to the woman still holding him tight in a hug so they laid there, in the warm grass that whispered from the slight ocean breeze in his ears -  a tune that he would never be able to understand but he enjoyed it anyways - in silence.  

It was nice. 

Slowly, Grian was unsure how much time had passed; it could’ve been hours or merely just a blink of an eye (or maybe the two of them laid there for so long that the earth grew over their heads and tangled in between their ribs, in their skeleton - back into the earth from which they came; how poetic), Stress untangled herself from his arms.

“Let's get to work shall we?” She asked with a crooked grin. Her eyes didn’t look red or puffy and she didn’t have any visible tear tracks so Grian thought that was a good sign - maybe she just liked hugging people. 

Grian blinked as he stared up in the sky, he didn’t want to work. He was so tired and the smell of the grass as well as the bright sun shining on his face wasn’t helping much. 

He was so tired of it all, he didn’t want to fight in this war, he wanted to stop waking up in a cold sweat from nightmares, he just wanted to rest. 

Void was he tired.

But he nodded anyway and offered Stress a smile (he was so tired of smiling, he just wanted to cry. He was so tired). “Let’s get to work.” 

In the end, Stress had actually ended up helping Grian out after she had practically begged on her hands and knees to help with at least something (“I can’t just sit around here and watch you work while I do nothing!” She had cried. Grian didn’t try telling her that she didn’t need to stick around while he worked, he liked the company). 

While they didn’t get very far considering the fact that they had laid in the grass when they were supposed to be working, by the time the sun had started to set when they decided to call it quits for the day; they had barely even erected any sturdy walls, only an outline.

“Hey Grian, look over here!” Stress had suddenly called out as Grian was gathering up his blueprints from the table they had laid on for the better part of the day. 

When he turned around, he was met with a bright white light that seemed to blind him for a good few minutes. 

“What a good photo!” She said with a smile. “Maybe I’ll get photos of the others so that I can decorate with them!”

“Photos?” Grian asked as he padded over, looking curiously over Stress’ shoulder who was still smiling goofily at her communicator. “I didn’t know that you guys had cameras,”

Personally, he wasn’t one to have his photo taken. Of course Taurtis was always adamant about taking selfies at every waking moment (no matter the current situation) but besides for that, virtually no photos existed of him. He had his old school ID (which the principal had to fight tooth and nail with him for it to be taken) and an old Halloween photo from when he was in his first year of highschool (he had a copy of that photo that he kept on him at all times but the first thing he did when he was gone was crop him out, leaving only Taurtis and himself making silly faces at the camera. All things considered, and compared to the other nights, it was a good night). 

“Mhm!” Stress hummed as she showed Grian the picture. It was, of course, of him just as he turned around to face the camera - his mouth was slightly open and his eyes were wide with shock. All in all, it wasn’t a bad picture. 

(Any photo that was previously taken of him just ended up making him look sickly.)

“Do you like it? I can always delete it if you want,” Stress asked worriedly after he had gone quiet for an extended period of time.

“No, no, it’s good. Why did you take it?”

“Well, I think it’s always good to have pictures of my friends!” Stress exclaimed happily as she began to swipe through other pictures that she had taken. Every photo was of someone new.

There was one of Joe sleeping curled up in a plush armchair with a book falling out of his hands and his glasses falling off of his face.

Tango with his wind-swept hair; he must have just been flying before the photo had been taken.

One of someone sleeping in bed peacefully although there seemed to be drawings on his face as if he got pranked. The picture was slightly blurry so Grian could only imagine that whoever was taking the picture had a hard time not laughing.

Every photo that Stress passed by had every hermit doing something domestic or in some sort of chaotic pose. Every subject seemed to have a permanent smile on their face.

“I like to make scrapbooks of my family at the end of the season. I like to look back on the memories.” Stress confessed quietly as if this was her biggest secret and as if Grian was the first to know of this.

“Am I a part of this family?” Grian asked just as quietly, afraid the answer wasn’t going to be what he was secretly hoping for. He had told himself that he wasn’t going to get close with anyone in fear of his past and yet here he was, asking someone who he barely knew if he was considered a part of her family.

“Of course you are, you’re a hermit aren’t you? That’s why I took your photo so I can always remember this day.”

Oh.

Stress thought him to be family, she barely even knew him and yet here she was telling him that he was her family. 

Suddenly Grian felt very choked up with tears. He was never one for crying yet here he was nearly bursting into tears over his picture getting taken.

(When was the last time he had a family? He’d always considered Taurtis to be family but for all he knew was that Taurtis was gone forever. Everyone else in his old world (not his old old world, he would rather not think about the relations he had there) was nice enough but Grian felt too scared to make meaningful connections with the others so he simply kept close to Taurtis because that was all he knew.) 

“Do you need a hug, love?” Stress asked after she had noticed him trying to discreetly wipe his eyes with the sleeve of his sweater. “I didn’t say something wrong did I?”

Grian shook his head as he kept wiping his eyes, no use in hiding it now. “I’m just- I’m just overwhelmed right now. You’re the first-'' Suddenly Grian felt like he couldn’t finish that sentence.

And it turned out that Grian didn’t need to because he found himself wrapped in the arms of Stress once again. 

She was a good hugger Grian decided.

Chapter Text

It was late and Grian was tired. 

Or well, his mind wasn’t tired - hasn’t for a while. But it was his body that screamed with exhaustion which made sense. He had been working on the base for a while now. He didn't have a clock on him but when he started after a night's rest, the sun had only just peaked over the hilltop that overlooked the ocean.

Not too early that one would think that he stayed up all night but not too late where everyone would be out and about. 

No, the time was perfect. Not too hot from the night's chill still lingering at his feet but not too cold with the sun pleasantly warming him up. This was his favorite time to work, it was peaceful; he liked the quiet. 

But now it was dark with only the moon high in the sky and a lantern to light everything up for him.

Grian knew that he should probably get to bed, he had been working for some time now and he could start to feel the tired ache settling into his bones as he heaved over another concrete block onto the wall. Yet his brain wasn't tired, it had obviously not gotten his body's memo - plus, today had been a productive day; he had managed to get the walls at least three times the size of him and with the rate he was going now, he could provide another row done! 

Behind him Grian could hear the faint groans and bones rattling behind him. That was normal, even in his old world he could often hear the noises of the monsters in the background; it was almost like white noise at this point for him. 

(He could vividly remember the shock he had gone through on the first night in Evo. He hadn't expected zombies and skeletons to claw their way out of the earth when night fell. The monsters were merely storybook characters to him and now they came to life.)

Thankfully the walls were high enough to avoid any unwanted visitors. Well, he did have to worry about spiders climbing up the walls but he was trying to keep that thought out of his mind. 

As long as his area was lit up by torches (which it often was, he had horrible vision as is during the day and he'd rather not be completely blind at night), he should be fine. 

Monster hunting was something that everyone did in Hermitcraft whether it was simply to get whatever spoils said monsters dropped or it was to get experience that was used to enchant their items.

Of course everyone by this point would usually have some sort of contraption to easily get these items (Iskall was guilty of this) but there was nothing like a night full of slaying zombies.

So that's where Iskall found themselves on the open plain where a civil war would take place only a few weeks from now fighting monsters. How ironic. 

From where they stood now, Iskall could see what vaguely looked to be a large stone wall belonging to the other team. They didn't think that would really last in a battle, especially with TNT flying about but whatever floats their boats.

It was dark as it was obviously night with only the moon to light their path but to their left, Iskall could see a soft glow of torches dotted around their side of the land and the newly constructed walls of the base being lit up from inside.

Now who could be there so late in the night?

It wasn't unheard of for someone to lose a day or two of sleep to finish a project but it was always done under the safety of a roof so no monsters could get you, especially phantoms. But maybe the torches were just left over from a previous work day.

Seeing no harm in checking out what was going on, Iskall began to make their way over to the in progress base.

When Iskall was about halfway to the base, they finally heard the tell-tale screeches. Phantoms. Someone was definitely in there then. 

Picking up the pace, Iskall began to run.

It amazed them that whoever was out here working was actually able to get any sort of work done with the phantoms screaming above their head. Void, even if Iskall wasn't their target, the phantoms still managed to give them a headache. 

Iskall briefly thought of making themselves known to the worker but had ultimately decided against it in favour of taking care of the phantoms before the creatures could do any real damage. 

With a couple of arrows and picked up loot, the phantoms were taken care of, Iskall then turned to the mystery worker.

And of course it was Grian.

It didn’t really shock them that Grian was the one working so late. He had told the team that he was going to take on building the base and later Stress then told them that Grian was worrying over making everything perfect. 

“When’s the last time you slept dude?” Iskall asked, leaning over to watch whatever the shorter was currently working on. 

Surprisingly Grian startled suddenly when he heard Iskall’s voice, looking like a startled animal with how wide his eyes were. How Grian was able to work around the phantom screeches without a problem but get startled at Iskall’s voice would forever make them question. 

“Iskall? What are you doing?”

“I needed some bones, but I don't have a skeleton farm yet. When’s the last time you slept?” Iskall repeated their original question, watching Grian’s face as he thought through the question.

“Uh, not even a full day I think. Got up early to work.”

Immediately Iskall knew that Grian was lying. Or at least unintentional lying. Phantoms didn’t just spawn at random after not sleeping a full day, it had to be at least three days. But that begged the question, had no one really come on over to the island to see if Grian was still working?

“Maybe you should go to bed dude. You can work tomorrow.” Iskall said calmly as he reached around Grian to start cleaning up the mess.

“What?” Grian asked, staring at Iskall through half closed eyes. Yep, the kid was exhausted. “It hasn’t even been a full day! I’m not even tired!” 

“You’ve been working for at least three days.” Iskall was tempted to just pick up Grian and make sure he at least got a full night's rest. “How you didn’t hear them amazes me but phantoms were literally screaming above your head not even a minute ago.”

Now Grian just looked even more confused. Did he even know what phantoms were? 

“Three days?” Grian repeated as if he didn’t believe what Iskall was saying.

“Yeah dude, not to discourage you or anything but I don’t think you’d be able to get this much done in a single day.”

Grian stared at the walls, both his brow and mouth twisted into a displeased expression before he turned to Iskall. “But I barely got anything done!”

Iskall just stared at the walls that surrounded the two of them. How could Grian think that he got no work done? The walls were twice the size of him!

“Fine, I won’t make you actually sleep but you should at least step away from this and let your brain rest. You’re probably all mush by this point.”

Grian blew an exasperated and childish raspberry at Iskall, looking anywhere but at them. 

Eventually after a long moment of silence Grian’s shoulders eventually slumped downwards and nodded. 

“Fine, I’ll stop for the night.” Grian turned his back to Iskall as he began to pack away his items into the worn backpack he always seemed to have on him. “See you tomorrow then I guess.” 

Without Grian on the move and working, Iskall was able to notice how tired the smaller was. 

“You can bunk with me tonight dude, you seem ready to drop at any moment and I don’t think the others would appreciate it if you got hurt on my watch.” Iskall joked lightly but there was underlying seriousness to their voice.

Grian just hummed, his eyes slipping closed. 

"Come on dude, I'll carry you." Iskall said as he shouldered Grian's bag, surprised at the weight. 

Now they weren't expecting Grian to actually take him up on the offer considering how closed off the smaller was. But to Iskall's surprise, Grian had padded over and all but collapsed into Iskall's arms. 

Letting out a soft breath of air, Iskall readjusted Grian's weight so that he would be across their back.

As they carried Grian, it was relatively quiet. The only sound was his breathing and the monsters that seemed to be nice enough to stay a respectable distance away. 

"What are phantoms?" 

"Well, they're monsters that come out if you haven't slept in a couple days. And judging by how many you have, you've haven't slept in a few days; I'm surprised you're still awake." Iskall explained before falling silent once again.

"Wait, is this your first time seeing one?" Iskall asked after letting Grian's question really sink in. “I mean they’re kinda new but surely you should’ve seen one in the world before this one.”

They felt Grian shake his head against their shoulder. "Jus' had zombies and skeletons." 

"You kept your cool pretty well dude," Iskall said in shock. Just zombies and skeletons? What other things are new to Grian?

"Too tired to think." 

Iskall let out a soft snort of laughter, at least they got Grian to admit he was tired.  

"I'm going to set you down on the boat now all right? You'll be in a warm bed soon." 

Grian mumbled something that vaguely sounded like agreeing so Iskall gently set him in the boat.

One short boat ride later, Grian was property asleep. 

Not wanting to wake him up, Iskall picked Grian up once again and carefully carried him into their base to find a bed. 

They were tired too, Iskall couldn't see why they couldn't catch up on some sleep too. 

The next morning Iskall woke up with the sun in their face and Grian missing. 

The only evidence that Grian had stayed the night was the fact there was a hastily written note on the bedside table.

Thanks for letting me stay the night -G

Chapter Text

"Grian, Love!" Stress' voice rang out on the field. "Are you having a good morning?"

"Good morning Stress." Grian replied, looking up from the concrete he was preparing. It was quite a good morning in his opinion; spending the night with Iskall had left him feeling rejuvenated and he even slept in! "I've been good, how about you?"

"Me too! I'm glad you're feeling better, the others were worried that you were overworking yourself over this base."

Grian froze for a moment, did they know about his three day work binge? Did Iskall tell them?

"I see that you're already back to work but I was wondering if you'd wanted to go furniture shopping with me!" Stress continued to talk as if Grian had never panicked in the first place.she laid out a leatherbound book on a rickety table.

(Grian was thankful that if she noticed his panic, she didn’t mention it.)

“There’s a store like that here?” Grian asked. While he had popped in and out of the shopping district on occasion to see how his traveling cart shop was holding up, he's never seen a furniture shop.

“Of course there’s a furniture shop! It doesn’t have any bits and bobs, you know? But I can totally find the bigger pieces.”

“Well, uh, what are you looking for?” Grian asked, curious. Back when Grian was living in Taurtis during school, the small duplex they were living in had already had furniture inside it and during Evo, all Grian had really needed was a bed; he didn’t see why other decorations were necessary with the exception of a crafting bench and a furnace. 

“We’re going to need a lot of comfy chairs and sofas. We gotta get some normal chairs too, maybe even find a table that'll be large enough to fit us all.” Stress rambled off, listing everything she said on her fingers. 

“Oh I’m so excited!” Stress clapped her hands together as she watched Grian begin to throw different materials into different chests without a care in the world. "You should see my home right now! I have a complete wall covered in ideas and swatches that go well together!" 

Grian blinked before letting out an airy laugh. "Sounds like you've put more thought into the inside than I've put into this whole thing."

Stress scoffed as she rolled her eyes and playfully shoved Grian. "Don't sell yourself so short, love! Sometimes it's better to have no plan than an over complicated one!"

“Let’s start with the sofas!” Stress eagerly grabbed Grian by the sleeve of his sweater and began to pull him inside of the store. “I was thinking that we could use bunk beds to save space which are easy to make but because that leaves us with an empty floor I was thinking that I could make it into a sunken hang out area! What do you think, love?”

Grian tried his best to hide his grimace. This was Stress’ pet project, she wanted to furnish the building and he was more than happy to hand that baton over to her - it just didn’t feel right to completely derail her plans just because he didn’t like an idea. 

But the thought of being stuck so close to everyone else just sent a gross feeling down his spine. With everyone sitting in the same area meant that there was no space for Grian when he just needed to be alone.

“Grian?” Stressed asked, noticing that he hadn’t answered the question and was most likely staring into space. 

Grian’s face scrunched up as he weighed his options. Yes interior designing was Stress’ part of the build and by saying yes to the sunken sofa would make her happy but on the other hand, by saying no there would be no sofa pit and Grian would feel much better if there wasn’t one. He was the one building the base so he might as well be honest in what he wanted as well. 

Yes, having Stress hate him for shooting down her idea would hurt a lot; especially considering Stress was one of the few Hermits that he would call his friend. But in the grand scheme of things, Grian wanted to be comfortable too.

"I-" Great, now he was hesitating. "I don't know if I really like those sofas,"

Stress cocked her head to the side before nodding. "That makes sense! Guess you'll just have to help me find a lot of beanbags! What was the colour scheme again?" 

"Lots of white but with that cyan concrete, or at least I think that's what it's called." Grian said as he watched Stress flutter around the different sofas and the occasional throw pillow. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm tryna find a colour that will work with your colours." Stress turned around holding two different coloured pillows in her arms. "Now do you think we should use blush or yellow throw pillows?"

Almost instantly Grian's brain blew a circuit. Occasionally, he would like to think that he understood how to match colours but in reality he knew absolutely nothing. It was amazing that the palate for his projects turned out coherent.

(Grian was also heavily ignoring the fact that almost any colour went with white.)

"Maybe, uh, you could use the pink colour as the sofa?"

"Yes! Then maybe some white pillows!" Stress said excitedly as she began to weave through the countless sofas, trying to find the right colour. "And then I could add a yellow armchair! Grian you're brilliant!"

Grian managed a shaky smile as he watched her. 

This was going to be a long day and Grian was suddenly, very vividly, remembering why he didn't enjoy shopping.

It amazed him that someone was able to spend nearly a full hour just looking at the different styles of sofas and yet here he was, following Stress around like a lost duck as she fluttered around two sofas that looked the exact same to him, holding up pillows to each one. 

"Grian, love," Stress said, finally noticing her shadow. "Do you want to find yourself a chair?"

"A chair?"

Stress nodded, still looking intently at how the pillows looked on the sofa. "Well yeah, it's nice to have something comfortable of your own that you actually like. I can tell I'm boring you, love." 

Grian looked sheepish at the fact that he got caught but he nodded but he was glad that he was now able to just wander around the expansive store. 

Hopefully by the time he found something he liked, Stress was ready to move on from the sofas.

"It's on me so when you find something you like, just put this piece of paper on it and that'll take it off of the shelves so that no one else can buy it." Stress said as she pressed the paper into his hand. "It's my treat - think of it like a welcome gift!"

"Are you sure? I can pay you back," Grian said even if he was completely lying. He practically had no diamonds (the fact that the others used diamonds as currency still boggled his mind) but he hated being in debt to people no matter how small.

"Of course! Now you better go find the chair of your dreams!"

In the end, Grian did end up finding a chair that he really liked. It was a nice shade of olive green with the back of it not being too high so that his wings were constricted. And the best part of it all was the fact that whatever fabric was used didn't make his fingertips itch so bad.

"Hello love! Did you find a chair!" Stress greeted him cheerfully as he eventually found his way back to her; thankfully in the time that it took him to find the chair, Stress had finally made her decision on the style of sofa.

At his nod, Stress smiled brightly at him. "That's lovely! I'm so glad that you found something you liked, hopefully you had more fun doing so rather than watching me fuss around!"

"Are you sure that I don't have to pay you back? I mean, you're already helping so much with this whole base thing."

Stress simply just stared into his eyes, looking deep into them as if she was searching for something that Grian didn't know if he had or not. For someone who was barely an inch or two taller than him, at this very moment, Stress managed to make him feel even smaller than usual.

"Love, I already told you it's a gift - there's no need to repay me. But if you're so adamant about paying me back for a chair, consider this outing to be your payment; you've helped a lot." Stress said with a soft smile as if she was reassuring the both of them. "Now, let's go look at the kitchen stuff shall we? We have lots to get done today."

“Do you think that we should ask the others to bring over some household items or should we buy them new?” Stress asked Grian, looking around at the barstools. “Just imagine how cool it would be if we had one big family dinner!”

"Does that mean we'll need a table?" Grian asked, actually liking the thought of having dinner with everyone.

Back in highschool, Grian wasn't one to eat regular meals; in fact he often found himself not hungry enough to actually stomach anything. Not to mention Grian was horrible at cooking so he usually just ended up eating whatever was at the convenience store. 

"I'm actually thinking that we could have one really big island in the kitchen. I love how cozy an actual table can be but just imagine how big that would have to be to fit all of us!" 

"Just think, a big potluck where everyone cooks their favourite dish!" Stress said excitedly as she expanded her arms to their extent. "Of course we'll probably have to make sure Tango doesn't burn anything down and Cleo actually cooks her food through! How they can say that it tastes good is beyond me. How about you, can you cook, love?"

Grian shook his head. "Never really tried. I mean, I know how to throw some meat into a furnace until it's edible but I've never really, you know, made a meal." 

"You've never cooked? Not even tried?" At Grian's shake of his head, Stress just gaped at him. "Well what's your favourite meal then? Maybe one of us could teach you!" 

In all honesty, Grian didn't have a favourite dish; meat made him sick to his stomach (even now he avoided it like the plague) and he was too scared to even eat a bag of chips. 

"Don't think I really have any food that I like all that much."  

Stress' nose scrunched slightly as she thought. "Well that's fine! Maybe one of our dishes will be your new favourite - I'm known to make a lovely plate of cookies!"

Grian simply nodded. Although he wasn't one to really eat rich and heavy food, he was excited to try something new.

Grian felt light headed.

He felt as if he couldn't breathe. 

His hands were clammy. 

“Do you think we should buy some extra knives? I mean everyone has a sword or two but I wouldn’t really consider those to be kitchen utensils.” Stress thought aloud to herself as she stared at a bundle of them. 

"Oh Gree-on!"

He couldn't do this.

He could feel something drip down from his temple.

Was he bleeding? 

Shaking, Grian lifted up a hesitant hand to feel the skin underneath his bangs.

It came back clean, he wasn't bleeding.

All he felt like he could do was blink but every time he blinked the store just changed to the school hallways and Stress changed into him.

"Hm," Stressed hummed to herself, setting down the knives. "I'm sure Cleo has a lot of these, I'm sure she'll let us borrow them for a little while." 

Blinking again, Grian watched Stress look at individual pots and pans as exhaustion leaned heavily up against his shoulders.

His limbs felt heavy and numb, as if they were dunked in ice.

He blinked and let out a deep breath. He blinked again.

Grian blinked one last time and followed Stress diligently.

"You ready to go, Grian?" Stress asked him as she made the final payment for everything she had placed her name on.

But Grian didn't hear her, he was too busy focused on a red cable knit blanket that was draped artfully over a sofa. 

Hesitantly, Grian reached out to touch it, being mindful not to get his fingers tangled in the yarn and subsequently unwind the entire thing. 

When Grian's fingers met the soft yarn, he only barely held in his gasp; it was possibly one of the softest things that he's ever touched. As Grian ran his fingers delicately against the material, he could feel his wings shiver and shake with joy.

When was the last time that he ever touched something this soft? Most things he ended up touching made his skin crawl and feel itchy.

"Love?" Stress asked, only just now noticing that her shopping partner wasn't paying any attention to what she was saying. "Do you want that blanket?"

It was almost as if the blanket was made of fire with how quick Grian pulled his hand away from it. 

"N-no!" Grian managed to force out. He did want the blanket, he really did. But Grian doubted that he had enough money for it and he would hate it if Stress felt obligated to buy it for him simply because he liked the texture of it. "Just- just lookin' at it." 

Stress furrowed her brows but said nothing more on the matter.

After Stress had finished all of her shopping, with Grian being a particularly bored shadow, he almost instantly got back to work when he made it back to base. 

Even though he had been walking the store well into the afternoon and was very much dead on his feet, Grian was eager to get back to work.

Stress had told him that he didn’t need to worry about getting the furniture to the base but rather whoever owned the store would be delivering it to the base.

Which was nice, Grian didn’t think that he would’ve been strong enough to carry those heavy pieces that Stress had picked out. 

After watching Stress pick out the furniture, it had inspired and at the same time it had lit a fire inside of him to get into gear. It had finally dawned on him that people were actually going to be living here. 

Of course, logically, that was one of the main reasons why this base was being built. But knowing that in only a short amount of time, a once empty and sterile base would be looking homey and lived in. 

For some odd reason, that terrified him.

And because wanted the others to be proud of the base, Grian pushed himself to at least get a couple of rooms done. The furniture was bought and yet there was no place to put them - all there was to the base were tall walls and a cold floor.

Perhaps Grian was actually excited to see this cold base be given life by Stress' touch.

The sun had finally set and the moon had begun to rise over the horizon when Grian decided to stop working for the day.

A once large space had been broken up by newly placed floors that separated each of the levels and whatever large space that was still there after the floors had been placed were broken up as well by the help of newly erected walls.

Although Grian still thought it looked cold, with the help of the walls and the promise of new furniture, he was finally able to see the potential for warmth within this large building.

Slowly walking to his bed, Grian wished he had a nice bed with warm blankets rather than a lumpy cot and a thin blanket.

When Grian got to his bed, he froze.

There on his bed was the very same blanket that had caught his eye back at the shop.

Touching it, Grian was still amazed by it's softness. He used to think that his sweater was the softest thing that he ever had but now he was proven wrong.

Stress had bought this for him. Even though Grian had denied her politely from doing so, she had still gone ahead and done it.

Feeling hot tears well up in his eyes, Grian toed off his shoes and wrapped himself up in his new blanket before falling gracelessly onto his cot.

It was still lumpy and hard but at least he was warm now.

Chapter Text

Hell everyone!!!! Its been a hot minute, hasnt it?

I'm so sorry that I have had this laying around all sad and alone for a year :(((( a lot has happened since I last uploaded a chapter and I've missed you all so very much!!! <333

But important accouncement! I have decided to rewrite this story!

This story holds a very dear place in my heart and like typical sticks (aka me) fashion I originally ran into this story without a plan, only an inkling for a chapter that would be very far into the future.

But now I'm actually writing an outline! I haven't started any of the actual writing yet but I'm very funny in the outline so that's all that matters.

As much as I would love to give all of you faithful readers a solidified outline to look out for but I know me and I just can't promise that :( but despite this I would at least like to try to get something out before the fall semester starts (which is like in three months,,, ish).

But either way, I hope to see you all then!!!! And if I missed anything, or there's anything you'd like to see anything in the rewritten version of this story, don't hesitate to leave this in the comments!

Happy pride month btw, how very on brand for me :P