#ITS BACK BABY | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thedo0zyslider · 26 days

Text

Explosions Across Lifetimes - Chapter Thrifty Three: In The End With You - 4K Words

The group goes on an end adventure, and a certain goblin gets to see a certain someone again because of it.

A03 Link

After his first meeting with the Sheriff, Fwhip resists the urge to go back as soon as he can. He doesn’t want to come off as over excited, or clingy or anything, so he stays away from the Mesa for a while. Gives the Sheriff a chance to get less busy and come visit the caves first, see all his fine handiwork on the houses and the stores and whatnot. Even if Fwhip does really, really wanna go out there, and see the blonde’s face again.

He stays in Gobland like he doesn’t want to instead, for at least a month or two, building and making upgrades to the town along the way; including a factory or two along the way. He also does quite a bit of mining, the main thing the goblin is looking for being diamonds. He is in bad need of some diamonds, having used a lot of them for tools recently, or having stored them in the kingdom's vault; for any further surprise emergencies. The diamonds being the one speck of light blue in a sea of beautiful, beautiful gold…

And one day, on one of these diamond mining expeditions, Fwhip finds something interesting. Something much cooler than diamonds too, after he’s sent the other miners down a different tunnel to dig alone. And the ginger is soon glad he did that, because he soon finds himself in the freaking Stronghold of legend and fairy tales, the building already a light with torches. Upon a further, yet very confused investigation, he finds that the portal is lit and open too. And according to the stories, it’s supposed to be closed, with no eyes of ender being placed in the frames.

Fwhip is equally puzzled and amazed by his discovery, the portal swirling with stars and void rather beautifully. But it’s a little uneasy, seeing that the portal is lit. Especially when the Stronghold is in his empire, and he knows none of his goblins had found it. They would’ve done the proper safety regulations, and reported directly to him if so. And someone would’ve been noted missing if they did find it and foolishly go through the portal, never minding the thought of how any regular citizen would’ve gotten nine whole eyes of ender.

The Goblin King frowns, and slowly but surely retreats from the fortress, adding more torches and blocking off dark hallways as he goes. And several minutes later, when he gets back to the start of the cave, he places down the proper warning signals, then scampers back up to the surface to get to the bottom of all this.

He goes around over the next few days, asking every ruler from every empire if they’d found and opened the portal before him. (He is very normal and not a flustered, blushing mess when he has to seek out Jimmy again, thank you very much.) Everywhere he goes, the answer is a resounding no from all his peers, much to the goblins surprise and slight worry each time. So Fwhip organizes a date and a time for all thirteen of them to gather in Gobland, and venture into the End Dimension. In case something seriously bad has happened, and he needs backup upon entering the place.

The twelve of them (minus Scott, because he hadn’t been there that day for whatever personal reason) make their way down the mines, Jimmy warning everyone to be careful every few minutes or so. Everyone but Fwhip probably tunes him out, the constant warnings getting a little annoying. But the goblin can never get tired of hearing the Sheriff’s voice, so he does listen when he can, and when the ruckus of the other’s doesn’t drown him out. Though a few people do chat happily with the Sheriff in between his words of warning, their whole group now having ample time to get acquainted since the blonde and the goblin’s first meeting.

Though when they get there, Fwhip finds himself as the one who has to go in first. He is the one who found the portal, after all. A bolt of nervous energy goes through him, that uneasy feeling from when he first found the portal returning. Because this is a new dimension, and everyone’s waiting for him to go in first, but what if something goes horribly wrong because the portal was mysteriously opened and someone gets hurt and it’s all his fault-

“Fwhip you found it, come on.” Jimmy says quietly, nudging the goblin forward as gently as he can; and also momentarily startling him. Fwhip looks over his shoulder at him, and feels warmth blossom in his chest at the reassuring smile he sees. He nods at the blonde, flashing his own smile in return, and lets his body fall into the portal. Not even five minutes later he’s landing on the spawn platform, and clutching the endstone for dear life as twelve other bodies land beside him, and they all precariously bridge to the central island.

As soon as they get to the End, it’s absolute chaos. Pure and utter chaos, something the goblin totally expected from this group. There’s shouting, people running everywhere, and at least seven of them have stared at Enderman for too long. Which is really impressive because all of them have collectively been here for like, maybe five or six minutes maximum.

Unfortunately, one of those people is Fwhip, and he’s soon scrambling to get under cover; where the enderman can’t reach. He doesn’t really wanna die today, no thank you. So he runs towards one of the obsidian towers, planning to make a small hiding place next to it, and invite any other poor soul under there with him. He just has to contrast it without dying first, a task easier said than done with several enderman swarming and teleporting around….

______________________________________

Jimmy’s first experience in the End is hard endstone bruising him quite literally everywhere as he falls, and then almost accidentally being pushed into the void. Thank you very much Joel and Joel’s dumb, far too big for anyone muscles . That looked ugly on him too and totally not hot, you know, while Jimmy was at it with the insults.

His second experience in the end is screaming his lungs out and running frantically, about five enderman trying to kill him. Because he’d somehow managed to piss off five in the span of a minute somehow! Because of course he would!

The Sheriff, along with a few others, ends up running around like an embarrassing idiot for several long minutes, desperately trying to place down the water he brought to fend off his attackers. Which fails every time, because he gets hit every time he pulls the bucket out; like the damn things know what he has in there. But, thankfully, it doesn’t take long for his savior to come and stop his death in the end, his savior being a certain short goblin man that Jimmy has recently found himself a little fond of.

“Jimmy! Over here!” Fwhip calls from a little ways off, beckoning the Sheriff forward. He is crouched under a platform of stone, one small enough to where the endermen cannot reach him. And a few were currently trying to, angrily teleporting around and screaming like there was no tomorrow. Jimmy feels his eyes widen in hope, and books it straight for where the goblin is hiding.

He slides into the hiding space as quickly as possible, maneuvering through the small mass of teleporting enderman, entirely out of breath when he gets under it. Jimmy’s attackers join the outside of the platform with Fwhip’s and the screaming that had been there before quickly becomes ten times louder than it already was beforehand. The goblin makes sure he’s okay, and the tugs jimmy closer, until both their backs are pressed against the cool obsidian wall that makes up the back of their little fort.

Him and Fwhip stay crouched under the platform together, shoulder to shoulder the whole time they are hiding. The goblin is flushed against Jimmy, his ears flattened back. They were probably hurting from all the sounds going on, all the yelling going on just outside their little safe space (human and non human alike.) And Jimmy can get it, his own ears occasionally flattening in discomfort from the enderman and all their friends. The Sheriff feels a wave of empathy crash over him, and tries to block the sounds with his body the best he can.

When Fwhip gives him a look that is so kind and grateful, Jimmy also tries his best to not blush like an idiot. As hard as that was when they were so tightly pressed together, and Fwhip was just so nice; personality and looks wise…

It takes about five to ten minutes for their group to get a handle on everything, for the enderman around them to stop screaming; either because they disperse or are naked by stray arrows. But eventually, the two emperors, who still stay pressed together the whole time, scoot away from the wall, and try to hit the legs of their attackers with swords, though the success is limited. (What’s not limited though is the blush on Jimmy’s face, from Fwhip basically sitting on top of him as they half heartedly swing at enemy endermen….)

“The dragon’s not even here!” Someone yells out, Jimmy can’t tell who over the lingering screams of the enderman. It sounds like Sausage maybe. Or maybe even Pix, though that one feels like a stretch based on the scream. But whoever it is, the voice is decently annoyed at the reptile missing in action.

“Neither is the egg!” Another voice, one that’s definitely Shelby, says from a bit of a long way off. If he and Fwhip peak their heads out, they can just about see her, standing where the egg should be; according to old explorers journals. And right on the edge of some weird portal, a portal that is presumably the group’s ticket home, if the way they got here is any indication.

“This sucks!” Katherine’s voice joins the fray, sorely disappointed. Which made sense, she had come ready to kick ass and take names. And with a concerningly big battle axe too, Jimmy having to wonder where in the world she had either gotten or made that in her reportedly cursed lands. Or if she’d just found the thing somewhere in a loot, which seemed just as likely with the hundreds of old, old ruins known to be dotted around the world.

“You two can come now by the way, the endermen are gone!” Gem calls, hands cupped over her mouth, to help the sound reach everyone hiding. Because apparently more than just the two of them had bitten off more than they could chew, and were forced to hide from their aggressors. “You too Lizzie! And Joey!”

All four of them slowly shuffle out, rejoining the rest of their friends. Who all look like they’d taken a beating from the Endermen, not that the ones hiding had it much better before they’d hidden. Jimmy and Fwhip separate very fast, the Sheriff fixing his now crooked hat. The two men act like they weren’t basically cuddling under there, and sheepishly go to stand next to other people. (Namely Lizzie for Fwhip, and Sausage for Jimmy.)

Joel looks up at the empty sky, and lets out a bored huff. Most of the group promptly side-eye’s the God for having such an attitude on their very first group adventure together, sans Scott of course. “We didn’t kill it, we’re all useless!” Joel exclaims, hands placed decisively on his hips. That earns a few unhappy grumbles, all of which the brunette promptly ignores.

“That’s a shame,” Pix says, resting his hat further back on his head. He looks thoroughly disappointed by this discovery, for some reason. “I would’ve loved to study it.”

“What would you have studied…?” False asks, sounding a little uncertain. She still has her sword clutched in her palm, ready for action at a moment's notice. Or to stab one of the other emperors, if they happen to startle her. She's still flighty enough around them to believably do that, in Jimmy’s mind anyways.

“The body.” Pix says calmly, like it’s not the most disturbing response possible to that question. And, well, he is an archaeologist. They do study dead things….so the Sheriff supposes that it makes sense. Doesn’t make his response any less creepy though. He half wonders if he needs to keep tabs on Pix now, in case he parktakes in activities like grave robbing or illegal autopsies.…

“I think it, uh, explodes when it dies.” Shelby says awkwardly, giving their historian a rather weird look. Which means he has to be really weird, for the witch who lives in the supposedly haunted swamp to be looking at him like he’s crazy.

Pix just sighs in even more disappointment, and shakes his head rather sadly. “Another shame, then.” Jimmy briefly wonders what is wrong with him, to be so disappointed over no dead dragon body...

“ANYWAYS,” Joel says loudly, ending that rather uncomfortable exchange and causing heads to whip in his direction and most of them to jump in surprise. (They all graciously ignore how Lizzie goes at least two feet in the air, even if Joey does give her a brief Look.) “Are we going home or what?”

“I vote to go home.” Sausage says instantly, raising his hand. Fwhip follows his lead, and Gem, Jimmy, Katherine and (surprisingly) Pix all raise their hands as well. Majority vote seems to be that they should go home, the rest of the group either seeming indecisive or not caring too much about the next course of action, by the looks on their faces.

“Same here.” Joey says, arms being crossed rather sassily over his chest. His fish tail, that Jimmy had just noticed the pirate had, swished behind it’s owner in agreement. “I’m not exploring after almost getting killed by like, ten endermen.”

Murmurs of agreement follow his words, from more people than had raised their hands, and Joel lets out an annoyed sigh. Like he’s obligated to stay with the group or something. “ Fine , I guess we can go home. Since you're all too wimpy to explore the islands.”

“Let's get to the portal then!” Sausage says, with a far too cheery clap of his hands for this situation. Probably to cover all the rude words and grumbles yet again thrown at their god friend for the second time that day. Sanctuary’s protector then leads them over to where the exit portal is, and insists Fwhip should go in first. Because he found the Stronghold and entered the other portal first, and all of that stuff. To test it if something goes horribly wrong But the goblin isn’t having any of that, and volunteers the Sheriff before anyone else can even get a word in edgewise, or also volunteer themselves.

“In ya go, Sheriff!” Fwhip says, merrily, right as he shoves Jimmy into the weird glowing portal thingy. The Sheriff can only grab onto his hat, and let out a startled yelp, before he’s falling through darkness. And that’s all he sees for a long few minutes, nothing but pitch black darkness. The next thing Jimmy knows, he’s hitting the hard ground, grass not cushioning his fall in the slightest. The landing takes the breath out of him for a minute, but when Jimmy opens his eyes he is greeted with the blue sky of the Overworld.

Lifting his head a bit, he can just barely see a few pieces of wood planted in a circle, with a campfire directly in the middle. The portal must’ve thrown him back out at spawn instead of his bed in Tumble Town, by the looks of it. Even though he was supposed to be back in his empire, according to all that stuff about the end he’d researched before the short expedition.

Right as he thinks that, there’s a weight landing on the Sheriff chest; causing him to let out a surprised oof . Looking up again gives him the view of Fwhip, who had spawned in the exact same spot Jimmy had. The goblin was basically straddling him, both men chest to chest and staring at each other in bewilderment for a few seconds, before the goblin realizes what’s happening and moves faster than he ever has in his life .

“Oh, um…” Fwhip mumbles, pushing himself upwards a little, so they are not exactly chest to chest. He feels his face flush in embarrassment, and tries his best to ignore the very hard and strong muscles he can feel under his palms. “Hi..”

Jimmy blinked up at him, his blue eyes all wide. And pretty… . “Hey…ah-” He mumbled, hands fumbling around, like he didn’t know what to do with them. The Sheriff ends up hovering them over the goblin’s waist, and Fwhip thinks that’s precisely when his brain stops working.

“I didn't know it would spit us out on the same spot, sorry….” He mutters, maneuvering off the Sheriff carefully, even with the hands on his waist, ones that he steadily and a little regretfully moves off his skin. Fwhip sets himself down on the grass, a few inches away, and resists the urge to hide his burning red face in his hands. He feels his tail curl inwards in shame, and can barely look at Jimmy when he speaks next.

“It’s fine…” The blonde clears his throat, sitting up himself. He reaches up to fix his hat, readjusting the accessory atop his head. “We should move, in case someone else spawns in.” His gaze is fixed to the side, turned away from Fwhip, but there’s still a cherry hue visible on his cheeks.

“Right, yeah.” The goblin says, scooting a foot or so back from their landing point. Jimmy does the smarter thing, and gets to his feet. So he can walk away and get further out of range, instead of scrambling on the ground like some sort of gremlin. (Which Fwhip was, for the record.) He feels a little embarrassed when he realizes that, but doesn’t have time to dwell on it longer. Before either of them know it, two more figures are spawning. And they’re not on top of each other, which makes Fwhip want to grumble about why that even happened to the two of them only, and if the universe was just trying to embarrass him. The probability of which seemed highly likely.

Lizzie and Katherine are now in the grass next to them, both women similarly disoriented from their own fall. The former’s mask had gotten a little dislodged, and she quickly scrambled to right it on her face again. Fwhip does notice the totally not suspicious cat like features at all, and sees Jimmy politely avert his eyes. Katherine is just getting her own bearings, and doesn’t notice any fur or ears on the women beside her. Though the Princess probably doesn’t need to guess the Mayor’s secret identity, like the rest of them.

“Did you guys get dropped here too?” Katherine says, now picking herself up from the grass. Her pretty pink dress has been stained with dirt from the fall, and she brushes the loose specs off fiercely as she speaks. Her hair’s a mess too, and she has to quickly fix her pigtails.

“Yeah!” Fwhip says, feeling his tail flick in the grass. He briefly wonders why that was, but quickly comes to the conclusion that it’s part of the End’s weird magic. Magic no one should play around with, if they know what’s good for them. In the goblin’s opinion, anyway.

“Wonder why the others didn’t….” Lizzie hums, reflecting his own thoughts. Though she seems a little more curious and hung up on it than Fwhip is; and he’s sure there’s a few more of their friends that are very willing to investigate with her. Namely Pix, probably, and most likely Scott as well; since he was an adventurer or whatever.

“I'll have to ask them later.” Jimmy shrugs, sounding a little determined to find out. (Which was kinda hot, Fwhip had to be honest.) He was determined about a lot of things, but the goblin just supposes it comes with being the Sheriff. You have to be determined to be law enforcement, after all.

Lizzie and Katherine make a mumble of agreement, and the former gets to her feet with normal human agility. That leaves Fwhip the only one left on the grass, and he feels a little silly just….sitting there on the ground. But before he can get his own self to his feet, The Sheriff, who probably thinks he’s still disoriented from the fall, is suddenly in front of him to help.

“Up you go!” Jimmy says, reaching a hand down to the goblin, a lopsided smile is stretched across his face. Fwhip blinks up at him, a little mesmerized, and tries his hardest not to stare and get lost in that expression. He grabs Jimmy’s hand before he even realizes he’s reached up to do so (holy shit he’s holding Jimmy’s hands holy shit holy shit-) , and before the goblin can even process anything he’s being hauled to his feet.

“Thanks.” He huffs, leaning against Jimmy a little as he first gets to his feet. The Sheriff doesn’t seem to mind it, despite what just happened. All he does is give the other a kind, helpful little smile, not holding the goblin back when he prematurely lets go. He gives him his space to regain his composure, and then turns to Katherine for a brief chat. Once he knows his other friend is alright, of course. (Friends? Are they friends? Certainly after today they’ve moved into the friends category, right…?)

Fwhip notices all that concern the Sheriff has for him, and he nearly melts into a happy little green puddle right then and there. He always thought this guy couldn't get any better, but apparently he can!!! This guy can apparently always get better!!! Much to Fwhip’s great delight, truly!! He can’t believe it!!

He gets so lost in his thought about how great the Sheriff is, he doesn’t even notice that the man is leaving. Fwhip doesn’t notice until the blonde is about halfway down the path, his short chat with Katherine and Lizzie long over, and is turning to wave at the three of them as he departs back for Tumble Town.

“See you guys later, yeah?” The Sheriff says, tipping his hat in goodbye. His eyes go to all of them, but seem to linger on Fwhip the longest. That, or he’s just imagining things for his own benefit. Though it doesn’t really hurt to hope…

“Bye Jimmy!” He calls back, giving the blonde a small wave and a rather beaming smile/ Lizzie and Katherine echo him, calling goodbyes of their own, and Jimmy’s figure slowly best surely fades into the distance. Fwhip watches him go, for maybe several minutes too long, unable to tear his fond gaze away from the receding figure. Even when Jimmy is nothing but a distant dot on the horizon. And it’s not long after that the rest of them depart, all tired and ready to rest at home after their epic End Adventure.

“See you two later!” Katherine calls, being the next one to leave, frantically waving to the both of them. Fwhip feels a small giggle bubble in his throat at the enthusiasm, and waves back happily. Lizzie does the same beside him, tail not so discreetly curling in amusement behind her.

“Bye Katherine!” Lizzie calls, watching their friend go for a bit. Fwhip gives the Princess his own wave of goodbye, enthusiastically calling out her name. Not even a minute later, it is just the two of them left, and both emperors set off on the shared path to their own empires. Shared path, because Lizzie thought it would be funny to set up directly on top of Gobland. Though she was a pretty good neighbor, always giving him extra resources and trinkets. so he guessed the offense was forgiven. He guessed .

“What?” Fwhip says with a tad hint of suspicion, noticing the look Lizzie has been giving him for the past few minutes of their walk. Which was basically most of it. They’re walking beside each other step for step now, down the slightly bump path leading away from spawn and to both their empires. A path Fwhip makes a mental note to go back and fix up one day, when his schedule is clear and he has nothing else to do.

“Oh nothing!” Animalia’s Mayor says, a cheeky, cat-like grin probably stretching across her face. Probably, Fwhip can’t tell with that weird human mask on. “You and the Sheriff are just very interesting!”

“Are we?” Fwhip asks, feeling his suspicions grow even more. Though the goblin really does hope she’s not talking about what he thinks she is. He hopes he’s not that obvious, more so so he can keep denying it to himself than anything. “How so?”

Lizzie holds back a giggle, lightly elbowing her friend in the side. The goblin wants to shrivel up and die as soon as those cursed and entirely correct words leave her mouth. “Well, you clearly like like him.”

“I do not!” Fwhip snorts, already feeling flustered. And embarrassed too, like the Sheriff himself was with them once again. The kind of flustered and light feeling he only felt whenever the man was around, or when anyone seemed to talk about him, or when the goblin thought about him….or when anything related to Jimmy comes up at all…..

“You were staring and blushing the whole time!” Lizzie insists very strongly, an ear flicking excitedly from behind her mask. It’s clear she won’t be letting this one go any time soon, that’s for sure. “Everyone saw it!”

“Well can you blame me!? He’s handsome!” Fwhip fires back, feeling the red hot blush steadily creep up his face. It must be all the way to his ears by now, with how hot his face is. He'll stand by the point till the day he dies by the way, that Jimmy’s the hottest man Fwhip’s ever seen in his life; screw his past crushes!

“Debatable” Lizzie hums, her tail that is totally not real swishing in amusement. She’s really doing a poor job of hiding what she really is, truly.

Fwhip rolls his eyes with a snort, and pokes her playfully in the arm with a claw. “You think Joel is hot, that’s what’s ‘debatable.’ ” Lizzie makes a sound, one that comes out as offended, and pokes him back with her own claw.

“It’s not ‘debatable’ !” Lizzie exclaims, her fur fluffing up beneath her mask, revealing the orange and black spots lining her cheeks. “Your crush is debatable !”

“Whatever!” Fwhip snorts once again, a giggle escaping him at his friends puffed up fur. Lizzie protests again, a blush surely on her face just like it is hers, and that's how they spend the rest of the walk home; all the way till the duo reaches Goblands entrance. Red faced, teasing each other, and thinking of crushes neither of them agree, or will ever agree on.

(Fwhip wonders when he’s going to see Jimmy next as they talk, and feels his tail flick in excitement, hoping that it’ll be soon…)

#explosions acorss lifetimes #jimmy solidarity #ron.fic #ron.writing #empires smp #fwhimmy #empires s2 #empiresshipping #empiresfic #ITS BACK BABY

8 notes · View notes