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wren-kitchens · 2 years

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all that matters (p2)

inspired by @fire-to-embers ‘s reblog of my last rancher duo ficlet (I forgot to give it a title lol-)

I thought it was such an amazing idea, I just had to do it

the moment jimmy opened his eyes and found himself back in the mesa, he knew he had to find tango again.

he’s spent two days holed up in his house, only leaving to feed the animals, researching ways to travel across worlds. eventually, he found a way to use the portal technology to travel across worlds— thanks to the local archeologist, pixlriffs.

he’d been studying portals for a little while as a hobby (a hobby??) and apparently heard about jimmy’s research and decided to help.

so now jimmy has most of the materials he thinks he needs. he doesn’t know where it’s going to open— he just knows it’ll be where tango is. he has the blackstone, the diamonds, the soil for the soul fire, but he’s missing the final thing: a skulk catalyst.

no way is he going into the deep dark— him dying wouldn’t do anyone any good— so he travels to the man he has heard is the collector of the server. surely he’d have one.

“i’m sorry, you want a what?” scott says, hands on hips and looking slightly distastefully at jimmy’s clothes (which he hasn’t changed out of since his reappearance in the mesa).

“look, I know.” jimmy pleads. “but I really need one. I don’t know who else to go to.”

“why would you need something like that?” scott asks. “are you making a farm or something? ‘cause in that case you should talk to pixl about that-“

“no, it’s not a farm.” jimmy says. how is he gonna explain this? “it’s.. a portal. but not to another dimension. to another world.”

scott blinks. “you lost me.”

jimmy exhales, hoping the memory barriers between worlds aren’t as strong as they seem. “i’m looking for tango.” he says.

for a moment, he thinks scott doesn’t remember. then his face shifts from a blank expression to one of understanding. “oh. you mean-“

“yes.” jimmy cuts him off, not wanting to hear it. “yes and I need the catalyst to finish the portal. do you have one?”

“i can get one.” scott says. “for a price. what do you have?”

jimmy knew this was coming, so he pulls out the bundle of all his remaining diamonds. the ones for the portal are at his base. “all of these.” he says, watching the look of surprise and greed flash in scott’s eyes. “for one catalyst. and I need it soon.”

“done.” scott reaches for the diamonds, but jimmy pulls them away.

“after you get me it.” he says.

scott shoots him a scowl. “fine. give me a day.”

“a day?” jimmy exclaims.

“well i’d prefer not to be killed by the warden.” scott says. “i’ll set off now, how ‘bout that?”

“deal.” jimmy says resentfully.

he gets back onto his horse as scott gets his armour sorted and rides back to tumble town. he could use the extra time to make the portal, he supposes.

—-

tango is frantic. he cannot find any way to bypass the boundaries of the world. doc is too busy with his farms to pay any attention to him, and he can’t even get to ren, what with his new bodyguard bdubs.

he’s been trying to find something, anything that might get him through the borders of their world, when he stumbles across the Entity.

of course: grian would know. how had he not thought of that before? he created the life games, and the Entity, he knows this kind of stuff.

he grabs his elytra and flies as fast as he can to grian’s base.

“grian!” he yells as he lands. “grian where are-“ he cuts himself off with a scream, as when he steps into grian’s base, a chorus of ear-piercing shrieks go off. shriekers.

“yes!” grian laughs, punching the air. “that’s two for two!”

“oh god, what even is that?” tango asks, hand on his chest.

“oh, like, fifteen shriekers and a skulk sensor.” grian says, not moving from where he stands. “I got impulse so good with that the other day.”

“jesus.” tango breathes. “I can sympathise with him. can we talk outside? that is terrifying.”

grian grins. “sure.” he walks over to the door, setting off the shriekers again.

tango groans, clapping his hands over his ears and following softly behind until they’re out of range. “you’re incredibly annoying.”

“yes.” grian nods. “so what did you want?”

“okay, this is gonna sound weird.” tango says. “but do you know a place where you could.. I don’t know, travel to different worlds?”

grian stares at him for a second, and tango thinks he’s confused until he says, “dude I literally have one under my house.”

“you what?!” tango exclaims.

“why do you think my base can float?” grian says. he extends his wings and walks off the bridge. “c’mon!” he calls, flying down.

tango follows, gliding down after him. they come to a stop in front of a massive hole. it’s surrounded by a rock formation that is oddly familiar.

“it’s down here.” grian gestures towards the pit. “it can get kind of.. weird down there.” he warns. “stuff’s been..” he shakes his head. “it’s just weird. cool, but weird.”

tango isn’t sure if he wants to know what grian means— or if he wants to go down there at all — but it’s his only way of reaching jimmy.

“okay.” tango says after a moment.

grian looks at him, a slight frown on his face. “I think i know what this is about.”

a surge of panic rushes through tango. will grian let him go through with this? is this even allowed in the life games?

“please, i’ve gotta-“ tango starts, but grian waves his pleas away.

“i’m not gonna stop you.” he says, giving tango a grin. “i know you two got close in the games.” the way he says it makes tango’s face flush.

“yeah, well.” tango says, embarrassed. “I just- I don’t know what i’m gonna do if this doesn’t work.”

“I can help you.” grian offers. “i’ve been trying to figure out this kind of thing for a little while, and I think I know parts of how it works.”

tango starts to say something, when a loud noise cuts him off from the pit.

grian peers down. “we should check that out.” he says.

they fly down there. it’s a massive cavern, mostly lit up, with an enormous purple crack in one of the walls. it keeps shifting colours, one second blue, another pink, but overall it’s akin to enderman eyes.

“that’s.. odd.” grian is staring at the rift. “it only does this when something’s being..” his eyes widen. “oh.”

“‘oh’?” tango turns on him. “what do you mean ‘oh’?! what’s it doing?!”

grian’s eyes are fixed on something in the rift. tango follows his gaze and sees a dark blob in the mixing mass of purple.

“grian,” tango repeats, staring at the blob. it looks like it’s getting closer, and as it does, it becomes more clear. it’s a figure— a human figure. “what is it doing.”

“it only does this..” grian says slowly. “when it’s transporting something. or.. someone.”

just as the figure breaks the surface of the rift, both of their communicators buzz in unison.

tango doesn’t know who moves first. they both run to each other, crashing together in a messy hug. there’s water on tango’s face, and he doesn’t know if he’s crying, if jimmy is or if it’s both of them, but it doesn’t matter. it doesn’t matter because jimmy is here, and he isn’t leaving any time soon.

they don’t know how long passes. it could be seconds, it could be hours that they’re in the embrace. they don’t care.

tango’s face is in jimmy’s hair (is it longer?) breathing him in.

“i’ve missed you so much.” tango says.

jimmy doesn’t say anything, but holds him closer.

“i’m not going anywhere.” tango mutters into jimmy’s hair. “not again.”

“oh, god.” jimmy’s voice is hoarse. “tango.” the way jimmy says it, it’s a complete sentence. just him.

“i’m right here.” tango says. “right here.”

jimmy pulls away after a moment, taking tango in. he looks different— his hair shoulder length now, and dressed like a cowboy. there’s something that looks like skulk smeared on his face, and there’s a couple of cuts and bruises on his arms, but he looks positively ecstatic.

“you- you look different.” jimmy traces a hand down tango’s face. he might melt.

“so do you.” tango smiles. “always knew you’d be a cowboy.”

“were you inspired by the rancher?” jimmy says, fingering the skulk in his hair.

“were you?” tango chuckles.

“well, how’d you think I made the portal here?” he grins. “our local archeologist helped me out a bit. scott got the skulk though.”

“scott?” tango asks. “he doesn’t seem like the kind to go searching in the deep dark.”

“well, I payed him the rest of my diamonds.” jimmy says, but he’s not focusing on his words. a smile slips onto his lips. “I almost forgot how beautiful you are.”

tango feels his face flush. “can I kiss you yet?” he says. “I really wanna kiss you.”

jimmy laughs. “now why would I ever say no to that?”

tango leans towards him and their lips meet. jimmy pulls tango closer, running a hand through his hair, the other on his waist. tango is holding jimmy’s face in his hands. he smiles into the kiss when he feels jimmy’s wings around him, soft as ever (if slightly unkempt).

they’d later thank grian profusely for having the rift so open, and tango would explore the world jimmy came from. they’d get doc to set up inter-world communication, and the life game players would be incredibly surprised to find joel standing at 11” tall, scott in his colourful attire and lizzie as.. whatever she was.

later, there would be frequent correspondence between the two worlds, with raw material exports from hermitcraft and odd ‘magic’ items from the empires. (no one would know if these items were magic for sure, but they seemed to work as advertised and were interesting to run tests on.)

but that is for later. for the time being, tango and jimmy are back together and that is all that matters for them.

#i’m joining the war of tall joel on the side of tall joel #i’m so proud of the rift idea #rancher duo #trafficshipping #double life ficlet #empires smp ficlet #ig hermitcraft #team rancher #ranch duo

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