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votederpycausemufins · 2 years

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Chapter of SF2 and a slight tribute

I was nearly done with my chapter when the news hit. In my years of playing minecraft, and following it and the content creators online, I never really knew of Technoblade. I started with some of the og youtubers, into Mindcrack and related series, then finding Hermitcraft. When the datapack came out for getting a random item every minute or so, I wanted to see various people using it because of adhd brain hyperfocusing. That was when I found Wilbur. A little after was SMP Earth and because of my recent interest in Wilbur, I saw some sort of video or stream or something about it, and looked into it more. And that was the first time I knew of Technoblade. I didn’t really keep up with it much because my hyper focus doesn’t do streams well, but I knew of Technoblade. After that, it was the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon. I saw some of his videos get recommended, heard other people talk about him, saw he was in MCM, and other stuff. I didn’t really watch much of it, just was aware.

At one point, a friend of mine invited me to a discord group, and from there a small private minecraft server. This was around the time the DSMP had been going for a few months, I think around the time of Tommy’s exile, I want to say. The friend who invited me to the server was really into it, but I was still in my happy Hermitcraft bubble, and again, I don’t do watching streams all too well and that’s what the DSMP was, lots of streams. But I got a summary of some things and then was recommended a small fic on tumblr by PetrichorMeraki. After reading a bit, I had my own idea for a short fic, and I did a bit of research before writing a short fic of Tommy having been living in Hermitcraft going to MCC.

I wrote a few more short fics before starting War on Hermittown. I blazed through that thing, writing I believe 25 chapters in 19 days. I wrote fast of course, but I also did research. It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough to learn of Technoblade’s character, and really learning about him and not just knowing the name itself. Of course then I looked back at other stuff like SMP Earth and a few other things because of Strawberrylemonz’s fic, having Grian related to SBI.

Eventually MCC Pride 2021 happened, and for the first time I really watched something of Techno’s. Mainly because of Grian, but still. At the time I didn’t really try looking at other videos because I was dealing with a lot, but it was the big first time I saw/watched Techno and not just his character. And I can see why so many people watched him and found community in his videos.

So when the news hit, I still cried at the video, I still wanted it to be a joke or something. I’m sure if it were a joke, people would be upset for the fakeout, but I still think it would still be nice because then it wasn’t real. And I’m someone who barely watched his videos and only knew him through clips and characters and the like. I’m sure for so many people who were more directly part of his content and community, it hit harder.

I will admit, some of this story later on was going to touch on death in terms of how it works in the MC universe. I was planning to have an offhanded conversation about it in a later chapter. It was still going to involve the group going through the nightmare scenarios, though I wasn’t sure who exactly would talk about it other than Phil being the one to explain. Then the news hit.

A scene I had half planned for a while suddenly seemed much more pertinent in a sense. I’m not sure how everyone will react, but I felt it was good for some sort of tribute, especially when Techno himself was thinking about memeing his own death. Technoblade as a person may be gone physically, but as people have said, he never dies in our hearts or our souls. And there’s the fact that he wasn’t just a person, but also played a character or two, and us writers love to write au’s where a character didn’t actually die.

“You’re very pretty. Yes, a very pretty chicken. So can you please get the tree for me?” The chicken didn’t answer, instead just pecking at the ground. “Pleaaaaase? It would really help me, and I’m helping out your boss.”

The chicken looked up at the person who was asking them the question. They had a smile on their face as they looked expectantly. When the chicken kept staring, the person tilted their head to the side, letting their ears flop over which caught the bird’s eyes. The person blinked and suddenly the chicken had attached itself to one of their ears, biting down onto it with its beak. “Oww! That’s not nice! Why do you always do this? You don’t even do it to actual rabbits!”

The person finally pried the chicken from their ear when both of them looked up at the sound of a twig snapping. “Hello? Who’s there?”

“You answer first.” And both the person and the chicken found themselves looking at a half dark teal and half pink person.

“Oh! I guess that makes sense! I’m-” And then the chicken clucked and grabbed onto their ear again. “Ow! I said no biting!!! Let go!”

“Oh… Aven. Finally left the castle?”

“Hmm? Castle? Oh! Yeah I was asked to come here and I was supposed to be doing something. But I can’t remember exactly what- Oh yeah! I need to find… Spore! Yeah that was the name they gave. I just got a little distracted with… With Grifter… Uh, anyway! I’m having trouble with the trees, could you maybe help?”

Silski huffed. “Ghosts… typical. Sure, Toob’s parents are visiting and they’re not the biggest fans of me. Was just going to wander around, but at least this gives me something to do.” A sudden thank you had the hybrid jumping before sending out a stream of curses. “Well if you really want to thank me, stay in one fucking place.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I can’t see what’s not really there!” And Silski waved an arm around, it passing through the ghost a few times in its blind movements. “No matter means no sound interaction. No sound interaction means I rely on my nose and you don’t have a smell either. See, if I were a full blown Warden hybrid, then I could. Could even freak Sense out.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s some ‘ender hybrid’. Smells like death to me. He doesn’t seem to like me either.”

“Oh, him?” The ghost replied, patting the chicken again. “Well that’s why I’m hoping to talk with Spore, see, my boss is not happy with him since he’s going to have one of those complicated deaths. I mean, that’s half the reason he’s still around. Well, that and the magic that keeps being used on him.”

“Grifter no do- wait, dead? Like, dead dead? No respawning?”

“Yeah? He uses redstone a lot, right? I’ve seen a lot of people get reaped for that. Wait if he’s not the reaper does it still get called that…?”

“Uh… not sure what you mean, but thank you for the tip.” Silski smiled. “Here’s your wood or whatever. I’ve got to go mining for a ‘peace offering’.”

“Oh! Okay!” and the ghost waved before trying to pick up the logs. “Hmm… I didn’t think that through.”

But then the chicken picked up the wood and clucked at the ghost, making them smile. “Right! First to find Spore, then, Gree-on!” and they started off on their own path, rabbit ears bouncing as they went along.

“Alright, I know it’s sort of obvious that this is for Doc based on the fact he’s not here.” Phil spoke up, making the two hermits and Paul look around to see that was the case. “But you didn’t notice that before knowing that was the case. What’s going on?”

“The vines make it a bit obvious.” Mumbo answered for him and Xisuma. “We know enough about them. Not sure why he knows though.”

Paul started his answer by gesturing to the area around them. “While yeah, the vines are a big clue, the buildings are more so. That one over there is The Elusive Chicken, Beef’s bar and inn, and then that is Adlingtont’s church. It’s the Mindcrack world Doc and I were first in. The vines everywhere just make it more obvious it’s Doc.”

“Because of The Jungle.” Xisuma nodded, and then Paul agreed.

“Yeah, because of the jungle.”

While the others got ready to start moving, Grum just tilted his head. “Wait what?”

“Well you weren’t built when-” Mumbo started to explain, but Grum shook his head.

“No, they said different things.” And he pointed at Xisuma and Paul.

“We both said the jungle.” Paul said, a little confused.

“No no no. You said ‘thuh’ and Xisuma said ‘thee’. Maybe it could just be standard inflection, but Xisuma normally says ‘thuh’ too, and the only reason for differently is if he’s using it as a more proper noun version!”

“Did you understand any of that?” Phil asked, looking at Techno, who shrugged. He actually did, but also wasn’t going to interrupt Grum and the others any further.

“If we’re thinking about two different jungles, things might turn into a mess from getting our wires crossed. We’ve already been here too long dealing with all of us.” And he gestured to the group. “Well, most of us.”

“I’m not fully convinced the previous one wasn’t also about me.” Xisuma commented, trying not to give a reaction as his brother scoffed.

“And we’re not going to have to deal with me. This is all about fear, and fear is just an involuntary psychological reflex that clouds your better judgment.”

“You’re ignoring the ‘involuntary’ part of whatever phrase you’re quoting.” Paul spoke up. “We’re trying to get into a world that already had admin protection, and now you’ve got a magic user as admin. And it sounds like they’re pretty experienced. They’ll find something on you.”

“I already know what I’m going to see.” Wilbur spoke up, surprising everyone to look over to him. He had been quiet for a while, obviously still recovering from shifting back and forth from the exile replication and where the group had been. It had stopped once Xisuma had arrived on the island, but even with the time, it had still been taking a toll. “Having to wait for it isn’t helping. I guess you’re different.”

Xannes just stared at Wilbur for a few moments before turning back to Paul. “Fine, two different jungles. Which are you talking about?”

“Doc’s jungle. He set up his base in a jungle, made a treehouse to live in. I think he got out all the woodpeckers Bdubs left there. What about the one you guys are talking about?”

“The NHO jungle.” Mumbo spoke up. “Just called The Jungle now because talking about the NHO connected to it is… a sore subject. Doc, Etho, Beef and Bdubs started up the group and claimed a jungle as well as a nearby mesa. They wanted to go back to the more classic ways, like no fishing farms or messing with reality. I mean, they did it anyway here and there. They acted as sort of villains of the server as a joke. Tried framing an opposing group for plastering banners all over my base. Stuff like that.”

“Alright, so what happened?” Paul asked, Phil, Techno and Wilbur also looking curious from being unfamiliar with it. Tommy was also interested, only knowing bits and pieces from other hermits, Grum being in the same boat.

“First thing that happened was vines growing on Bdubs. We thought he was just putting them on himself as camouflage or something, but Doc later told us they were just growing. After that, Etho had been seen working on a redstone project before disappearing. His disappearance led to a conflict about the mesa which nearly boiled over before thankfully calming and things started to get peaceful, but then the rest of them started disappearing. Bdubs seemed really off before he disappeared, followed by Doc. Beef was around the longest before he also disappeared.”

“Obviously they came back. I saw all of them other than Beef when I showed up for the party.” Paul commented before Xisuma picked up the conversation.

“They all reappeared for a competition called Hardcore Hermits. Because of how it was set up, all I knew was they did show up, and then eliminated night three due to phantoms. Bdubs and Doc showed back up when season 6 began, brought from worlds they found themselves in afterwards, but a large amount of their memories surrounding the jungle were… fuzzy to say the least. I wasn’t able to do anything to help them regain their memories, but was able to verify that it really was them.”

“And that’s all?”

“Well, any talks about it leaves them feeling a bit off again.” Mumbo spoke up again. “Bdubs most of all. Doc normally tries to brush it off and act like he’s fine, but with all this…?” And Mumbo gestured to everything around them as he trailed off.

“Alright, so Doc has trauma from a cursed jungle that he set up in with people he knew from a place where he was also in a jungle, did I get that about right?” Phil asked, getting a few nods. “So which way is the jungle here?”

Paul gestured in a direction and started to lead them down the paths, quickly getting them to a portal. Even with the situation, the group was still about to take a moment to admire the nether hub. Resources back in the early days of Mindcrack weren’t the most plentiful, that was well known, but the mix of sandstone and nether brick was pulled off well, even with the various colors marking the different rail lines breaking up patterns.

He led them over to a rail line marked with purple wool. A sign listed it as going towards Doc’s base as well as Joe. They scavenged a bit for minecarts as well as Paul grabbing an extra one, a furnace, and some coal. Sure, the rail was powered so they didn’t need to use it to get them going, but it would make sure they were all going at the same time so nothing unexpected could split them up. The only exception was Paul. He knew the rails best, so he would be able to spot and issue, and if he needed an extra few seconds to fix it before the other carts got there, it would help with that.

Once the carts started going, Paul explained just how long the trip was going to take. There were a few complaints, mainly from those used to flight in some form. But after that settled down, conversation started up, being the only good way to bide the time until something interesting happened.

Vee was at a table, kicking her legs, not really paying attention to the reason she was currently at said table, that being the conglomerate of hermits also in the room and around the table. The only ones not at the table with the rest of them were Scar, Cub and Hoodie. All three of them were carefully working together to constantly cast an illusion based spell.

Vee had showed up a few days ago at this point, and while the hermits wanted to interrogate them earlier, the incident at Mumbo’s base with them and Rendog had caused issues. The human passing and shifters of the group were able to be around her easily enough, but not everyone had that luxury. So Hoodie had brought up an illusion spell from one of his books. He wasn’t sure if he could keep the spell up for as long as it was needed based on the exact circumstances - a large group of people that would always be shifting around no matter how still they may try to stay - but if other magic users helped, between any number of them they would be able to keep it constant.

After what happened with Grian, while Grifter was involved, the hermits still came to the conclusion that at the very least something happened from the mixing and colliding magics. Not wanting to risk a new side effect, the Convex pair and Hoodie made sure to practice privately. While that occurred, the only hermits worked on discussing how they would go about questioning Vee. Though she was a Listener and had already mentioned a more direct connection to Grifter, she was still obviously a child. In the end, they decided that for the most part, only one hermit should ask a majority of the questions to keep from overloading her as well as keep from talking over each other. After that it was deciding who. Since they were going to be moving more and that was the issue with the illusion, it was narrowed to non hybrids, and then further narrowed by who were emergency admin.

In the end, Joe was picked for following the prior guidelines as well as his generally softer voice as well as having some more recent experience with kids through his daughter. Well, that and he was the oldest person there, being a sort of immortal being and having the most experience, but it was mostly the other stuff. So when it was all set up, he was sitting closest to the head of the table where Vee was, Jrum sitting in the other closest seat across from him, mostly at Vee’s insistence.

“Howdy there. I’m Joe Hills. Hope this isn’t too overwhelming for ya.”

Vee shook her head before adjusting some headphones she was wearing. Joe had a little knowledge of Listeners, a little less than Watchers, but it was enough to know that they had ear coverings to mirror the masks Watchers wore. They, however, were not what Vee was wearing. Instead the item looked worn, yet well taken care of. Obviously an important item to the girl, which meant a way for Joe to ease into the conversation. “Those headphones helpin’ out?”

“Hmm? Oh, uh, yeah. My papa gave them to me. He thought they were good at blocking stuff out if things got too… bleh.” And she waved her hands around to represent ‘sensory overload’ clear enough for Joe. “So he got some for me because it could help it for me too! And then he also got some for my sister, but she doesn’t use them as much.”

Another opening for Joe. “Yeah, I heard she helped out when you had a run in with a scary animal earlier.” He could tell there was a little wince from Ren, but he could also tell he knew Joe didn’t mean it like that.

“Yeah! Astrid’s the best! I was really really really happy when Papa adopted her so then I had a bigger sister and she didn’t like me at first because I think she still was angry at her brother but Papa was really nice and even offered to adopt Flora too but Flora likes her family so that was a no. Oh yeah, Flora is Astrid’s girlfriend! I don’t get to see her much, well I only got to see her once, but she’s really really nice. And now Astrid’s visiting her for our break because it’s been a year since dad started helping us as listen things and I know Astrid really really really wants a break because she was stuck doing double the work and then it all went bleh because Grifter didn’t know what she was doing and messed it all up.”

The last part collectively caught everyone’s attention, all three magic users needing to work to keep everyone disguised as they all seemed to sit up a bit more in their seats. “So you know Grifter as well? What exactly did he do?”

“Yeah he’s kinda sort of my uncle, but that’s ‘cause he’s friends with my papa.” A few small winces occurred from the hermits, but that was already something a number of them knew from Jrum. “But also since he’s Flora’s uncle.” And that part got more reactions out of people, half from the news of the greater connection in general, and half running through Grian’s family tree to figure out whose hels Flora was. “Well Astrid’s brother-” Another bout of people trying to figure out who Astrid and her brother were. “-was really mean and hurt Flora and her family, so Astrid was gonna use magic to fix it, but because she was only just learning it, she had to use an older weaker spell to fix it, but she didn’t get to finish it in time when Grifter did his version and so Astrid couldn’t finish the spell and it kinda backfired.”

“Olortun.” Hoodie spoke up, having everyone look at him. “Old spell, famous for a tale it was told in. It can take months or even years to cast due to the physicality of the spell and number of recipients. Caster needs to take a vow of silence and if the spell is left incomplete, it backfires and curses the caster with the ailment they were attempting to cure.”

Someone was about to scold Hoodie for speaking out of turn, but Vee didn’t seem bothered and took control of the conversation again. “Yeah but I don’t know if she’s still doin’ the spell or not because the thing she was trying to get rid of was the fact that the bad thing was Flora and her family couldn’t talk or anything.”

Hoodie nodded, not talking this time, which allowed Joe to get them back on topic. “But you said Grifter messed with that?”

“Oh, well he really likes Flora because she’s his niece and he likes to spoil her a little bit so when he became admin of her server super recently, he fixed it. Of course that meant Astrid couldn’t complete the spell, so she’s staying quiet… but we work through it!”

“I see. So Grifter is the admin of… Flora’s server?”

“Yeah, but I mean it’s also kinda Astrid’s server. I mean, Papa made it so now she belongs to the world he’s in when not doing listen things, but she still thinks of it as hers since she grew up there and everything. Which I think is stupid because then that could make mom’s world my world and I never want to go there again. Never ever ever ever.”

“Right, so I’m guessing that both of them are with him right now?”

“I mean maybe? But I thought he was supposed to be here.” And that caught the attention of the hermits again.

“Oh? And now why’s that?” Joe asked, words potentially rushing out a little bit to keep the other hermits from speaking first, and while it stopped them, Vee could tell something was up and fidgeted in her seat a bit before replying.

“W-well, there was the mistake with Grian getting all magicked to forgetting stuff, and it was enough that none of you were helping and he wasn’t believing you, but Grifter was visiting and since he’s sorta like him but not, he was believing better and then Papa helped get paper proof and Grifter’s been using it.” Then Vee hesitated, looking around at the group who didn’t look happy with the answer. “R-right?”

“That’s… not exactly the case.”

“Okay well I know Papa said you wanted him to come, but no one but me ‘n Grifter can get in since he was here in the first place and I’m still considered in training, so then it’s not the only reason for him being the one helping?” Vee said, though in the end it was more of a question than a statement.

“No. While the magic part’s all correct, and potentially no one being able to get in since I’m sure someone else would have intervened at this point if that weren’t the case, Grifter took Grian away after the magic incident and hasn’t been back.”

“But… But Grifter said he was helping. H-He did…”

“Now I’m sure he did, but he might have been lying.”

“But why would he do that?”

“Because he’s a piece of shit.” Jrum was the one to speak up, though he was quickly scolded by a few hermits. Still, it didn’t end well with Vee reaching her emotional breaking point from the statement and starting to cry, now overwhelmed. Joe kept the others back as he moved closer to Vee, also moving back a few seconds later once he confirmed she needed space and not someone by her side.

Once Vee had calmed enough that someone could get close again, Stress carefully picked her up and left, her magic still being available for assistance to help the two of them get around with the others keeping up the illusion until Vee was completely out of sight just to be safe. After that, Scar followed after Stress, leaving the rest of them to converse about everything they learned. The main points being that first Grian was almost definitely affected by the magic collision, which made Jrum’s suggestion of needing Vee to figure out a counter spell more likely.

Second was that he was in the hels version of Tommy’s old server since most of Grian’s family was from there. Pairing with that was that this Astrid person also seemed to be in that server with Grifter and also a Listener, which no one was sure if it were good or bad. The assumption was bad since Vee and her dad were still in the dark. Plus according to Jrum, either Grifter or Grian had been on Vee’s call to Astrid and Flora, so either way, there was some association there.

While in the long run, there wasn't much new information, what was new was a big help. So if there wasn’t much progress on the other team’s front, the rest of the hermits at least had a leg to stand on.

Grian couldn’t immediately find Sally when he returned to his room in the castle. He searched for a while before Grifter showed up with Flora. He had given her the rundown on Toob’s parents being there and apologizing for them busting into the room, which Flora was glad to hear. Now, Grifter was looking to teach Grian more in terms of magic.

Since he couldn’t find Sally, Grian was initially hesitant, but after telling Flora the issue, she agreed to continue searching for Grian until he returned.

Training didn’t last too long, Grian having issues with using magic and just not having the stamina for it yet. There was one instance he managed to get his magic past the blue color he saw Astrid using most of the time and into the same viridian color Grifter sported. It left him feeling especially sapped of energy afterwards, but it was still a nice feeling to have done it.

Upon returning, Grian was fine with collapsing into bed and maybe giving Sally some cuddling in the process, but it looked like Flora hadn’t found her yet either. And while Flora had messaged Astrid, she was still apparently with her dad and couldn’t come back to help look.

With just the two of them, Grian and Flora went looking for Sally. Since it has been so long since they had last seen her, Grian was a bit worried. If she had escaped on her own, the area she could have gotten to grew every second they couldn’t find her. But then there was the possibility someone stole her, which wasn’t completely out of the question after their kidnapping of Jane. Plus it could have been someone other than Toob and Silski. Maybe Wassa was upset they hadn’t returned with the information yet, though he thought Flora said she sent it to him with a message.

After combing through the castle a second time with Flora, they somehow managed to get some important information out of Aven, who claimed he saw the chicken with another ghost. Flora said there were no other ghosts on the server, but Aven also had a horrible memory, so it could have been someone in pale clothes or something. At the very least it told them that someone had Sally and she wasn’t just wandering about.

They managed to pry out a little more information on a general area and direction Sally had been in which helped with the scope of the search. Having Flora helping to search helped as well due to her being a hybrid, specifically a fox at that. They were known for hunting down chickens, and now that they had a more recent trail for her to follow. She led Grian along most of the time, but sometimes Grian flew into the sky to see if he could see anything from above. There wasn’t much, but here and there he noticed something that helped.

Once Flora really got Sally’s scent, they were racing through the trees of the forest they found themselves in, Grian struggling a little to keep up. Because of it, Flora reached wherever the chicken and her captor was before Grian. And then because of that, Grian didn’t slow down when he reached the area, only having to stop as quickly as he could when he realized that he had caught up and Flora had stopped. This led to Grian falling on his face and finding himself eye level with a chicken that was decidedly not Sally. Sally, instead, had her beak firmly clamped on the ear of a hybrid unfamiliar to the server. A very rabbity ear on an all too familiar looking hybrid.

Grian and the hybrid stared each other down for a few seconds before Grian’s brain caught up with what he was seeing. His wings puffed up in an attempt to make himself look bigger and more threatening at the same time his hands tried to force himself back up so he was standing and easily able to fly, run, flight, or anything else he might need to do. “S-Sam… how… I… Why…?” Grian tried to look for words at the same time, which he was failing at. He wanted to ask how Sam was here, or why he was here, or yell at him, or even warn Flora on who exactly this was since he hadn’t given names before.

But any attempt at words were lost by the shrill shriek that was heard, making Grian wince at the tone and notice Flora doing the same. And when he looked back at Sam, he had now picked up Sally and was holding her in front of her. Grian was so sure the sound came from the chicken until Sam opened his mouth again and Grian saw him speak. “Please please please I was just caring for the chickens and Gallus was helping me out because I needed to find Sally but then I found Sally and we started walking and talking and I didn’t mean to do anything bad please please please I promise I’ll be good and nice and won’t I swear I won’t do anything bad!:

Grian was left speechless. Sam never acted like this. Sure, sometimes he might apologize to make you a little guilty, but it was always something small. Not like he was begging for forgiveness and like he himself was expecting to get hurt. It was weird and so unlike Sam, and then Grian realized it wasn’t.

First off, it was now obvious as to why Aven mistook Sam for another ghost, because they seemed to actually be a ghost. They were see through and everything, and other than interacting with the chickens, Grian could see through enough to tell that the grass wasn’t being trampled underneath the rabbit hybrid. And speaking of them being a hybrid, Sam’s ears were almost always perked up and a bright white color. Though one ear was still clamped on by Sally even as she was held out in front of Sam as almost a sort of meat shield, the other was flopped over. And not only that, it was more of a sandy or creamy color and not nearly as fluffy as Sam’s normally were.

Now that Grian had taken a moment to calm down enough to look over the ghost Sam, it also gave him a moment to think about what he knew otherwise. A week ago, he had been living with Sam and Taurtis, dealing with highschool among… other things. But since then, he had been here, in the future. And Sam was supposed to be dead. And sure, this person was a ghost, which happened when you died, but they were a different ghost. And Grian wasn’t just in any future, he was in the future where he had escaped to a sort of reverse reality. His dad was the one who wasn’t usually around instead of his mom. One of his twins was some sort of green hybrid thing instead of a pig or piglin or whatever. And apparently, Sam wasn’t a murderer, but someone who looked more scared of him than he usually was of Sam.

“H-Hey.” Grian managed to choke out. “I’m… not sure who you think I a-am… But um… I’m probably not. And I d-doubt you’re Sam. Uh… W-Well, my name is Grian.”

Slowly, the not Sam peeked out from behind Sally. “Gree-on?” Grian of course flinched at the way it was pronounced, but not Same noticed and let go of Sally, letting her hand from his ear, and instead using one hand to tug at this other ear and the other to hit his head a little. “I’m sorry I’m sorry. I’ll do better I promise.”

“H-hey, It’s okay. Uh, there’s no… ‘ah’ sound. It’s more just ‘an’ Gree-an. And It’s supposed to be just one word… but just that little change would be a lot better.”

Not Sam gave a little nod, carefully saying it a few times before getting it all together and saying Grian’s name pretty much normally, which was a great change of pace compared to normal Sam. “Oh… I hope you don’t mind… but um…” Not Sam trailed off for a moment before quietly continuing, almost in a whisper. “It doesn’t go ‘Sam’ like you said it.”

While Grian was a little conflicted to show any sort of vulnerability or kindness to someone who looked so much like Sam, he still managed it. “Oh? How should we say it then?”

Not Sam noticed the ‘we’ enough to take note of Flora, who was thankfully staying out of it for now, though Not Sam grabbed Sally again as well as the other chicken, almost to try and protect them from the fox hybrid that Flora was. “I-it’s Sahn… not Sam. S-ah-n.”

“Well then Sahn. I’m… sorry for frightening you, but we were just looking for Sally, my pet chicken, and you seem to be holding her.” Grian explained, and Sahn looked at the chickens in his arms before trying to pry Sally off his ear, a feat that was much easier once Grian had his hands on the animal. “I guess we both remind each other of people we know. Not so nice people unfortunately.” And Grian didn’t miss the wince from Flora. She thought highly of her uncle, and while it was actually her false uncle, she didn’t know that. “So, why are you here?”

Immediately, Sahn looked a little calmer and happier. “Oh! That’s right! Um, so my boss or master or whatever you want to call him sent me here! And he sent me to look for you.”

And now things were more complicated again.

The rolling of minecart wheels had rolled on for a while after the most recent conversation had ended, or more accurately, the last conversation Techno had focused on. He had realized partway into it that Phil hadn’t spoken once in any of the talking. And then looking just behind him at Phil made Techno realize his dad seemed out of it. He tried to think of why, then quickly came up with the answer. Tommy’s confession. Or talk or admission or whatever fit that kind of thing. So obviously while Phil said he was fine with it, that obviously wasn’t the case.

Thankfully Techno and Phil were at the end of the minecart train, so they didn’t really need to deal with keeping their conversation private from both sides, and the people in front of them were more likely to focus on forwards anyway. “So, what’s eating at you?”

Phil jumped just a little bit from Techno’s voice being closer and obviously directed specifically at him. “That obvious?”

“Yeah. I’m guessing this is about Tommy?”

Phil nodded. “Look, I know I’ve been a shit dad. Grian told me as much when I first showed back up, plus I had a bit of an idea when Tommy went missing. Sure, I helped the kids with accurately summoning Tommy back which kicked off this whole mess, but they were the ones trying it in the first place. Hell, If I wanted to, I could have tried it with Grian when I first found out about that technique.”

“If I recall, you did try, you just were left confused since the information was mixed with worship of some bee god.”

Phil chuckled a little at that. “Yeah, But I did figure it out. The big problem was that you need something that helps represent the person you’re after. And it had been years at that point, so we didn’t really have much to go off of. But I still could have kept trying.”

“You have no clue if it would have worked.”

“I know. For all I knew, he could have actually been dead. I didn’t fucking know if their little summoning shit would work if Tommy was actually dead. Only hope I had was if I was not too shitty here.”

That left Techno a little confused. “What does that mean?”

Phil shrugged for a moment before sighing. “Look, Hels isn't the most well known thing. Sure, the older you get, the more likely you are to find out, but even people older than me sometimes don’t know about it. It gets excused by mods or Herobrine or whatever. But Paul and I know a bit differently because of who we are.”

“And that is?”

“The Wels of the Hels Deaths. See, Death can’t fucking deal with their own family. And If you noticed, You and I are both related to Kristen, me by marriage and you by being her kid. And since Zedaph is her brother, he’s related too.”

“So that means we literally can’t die? Bruhhh I could’ve staked so much more on the fact that I can’t die.”

That earned a slight chuckle from Phil. “Not exactly. That’s where the deaths of Hels come in. Sure, one of them is my hels and one is Paul’s, but they’re not actually the hels of Kristen and her brother, and aren’t actually me or Paul. So it becomes a sort of exception. So the family of the deaths of one side are dealt with by the other.”

“So you’re saying I’d have to punch you in the face to keep living?”

“Depends. There’s two deaths not just to try and deal with that family problem, but because there’s two kinds of death. There’s nuance to it, but simply it’s if you're accepting of your death or not. Your mom is for when you don’t here, but if I recall correctly, Paul’s Hels is that, so mine would have to be the other.”

“Alright, so I can keep punching Paul in the face and not have to regret my actions when I finally go out on my own.”

“I mean, it won’t be me, me. But I guess close enough. And I’m guessing that means you’re planning to eventually go out on your own terms? I thought you would just refuse outright.”

Techno smiled a little. “Nah, don’t want to get as old and ancient as you. I’m not sure I could deal with trying to consciously keep myself from turning to dust.” He paused as Phil jokingly hit the back of his head. “Plus, I’m sure with all those political people heading to whatever afterlife there is, there might be some government to take down there.”

There were some more chuckles between Techno and Phil before it was serious again. “But no. I mean, I dealt with my mom literally being death and I saw that didn’t keep Wilbur alive. I’ve seen here and there you struggling with having been alive so long. Some people think not dying is great, and so many people have respawn magic to keep them alive. Yeah there’s some people who die because of a particularly bad death or hardcore gone wrong, but there’s other people who realize that they’re done. They have the chance to keep living, but they think it’s better to go onto whatever is next. No one knows what that is- Wait you haven’t been-” “She hasn’t told me anything.” “Right, well, no one knows what’s next, and while some people have comfort in familiarity, some people like the thrill of what’s next. And I think maybe someday I’ll go onto that. We all probably will eventually.”

“Yeah. I’m not sure how long I think I could keep sticking around after losing you guys. There were some days where I was thinking of giving my soul up just to not deal with it.” Phil admitted.

“Bruh you better not do that if we kick the bucket. Look, I know we’re cool and all, and while you might suck at it, you still love us.” “Hey!” “And yeah, if we end up in some place where our souls or whatever we have get to interact with each other, sure I hope that means we find each other again, but I don’t want it to be that you only showed up to follow after us. I’m sure whenever I die you’re going to be all upset or whatever, but I’ll be going out on my own terms, not your terms. Your terms are for when you’re done. So don’t make that something I’m responsible for.”

“So, essentially?”

“You’re used to living a lot. I might not be the same. Don’t blame yourself if that happens. If anything, you can make fun of me for taking the easy way out or whatever. Just know that if I happen to die, I’m okay with it, and you can’t be beating yourself up like you have with everything else.”

“Thought you wouldn’t come back to that.” Phil said with a half joking, half sad smile.

“Well I did. Look, I’m just going to say it. You kind of sucked as a dad. To be honest, you probably spent a century or two without kids and haven’t even spent half of one with us around. And if Paul’s got a family and he managed it, who cares, because he’s him and not you. With how you reacted to me talking about my death and how you reacted to other stuff, you have a tendency to expect the worst and just kind of give up.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

“Well I’m going to guess you did it in the past too, right?”

“Maybe.” Phil half admitted.

“Well you dealt with that, so deal with this. It’s not as finite as death or whatever, so you’ve still got time to try and fix it. And it doesn’t have to be immediate, especially since you’re used to taking a while through life.”

Though he rolled his eyes, Phil agreed. “Guess that makes sense. When did you get so wise?”

“Got raised by you.”

“Yeah. Guess you did.” Phil sighed before giving Techno a quick hug. “Sorry for being a shitty parent. But know that if you die or disappear or leave or whatever it is, I’m still going to care for you. And not just me either. Your brothers, your mum, hell, anyone else you’re close with in any sense really. They’re going to care for you.”

“Yeah. And even if any of that happens, call me cheesy or whatever, but if any of that happens, at least they’ll all have a memory of me to keep.”

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