Tumgik
#still not a fan of how dream's persona eminates someone... problematic
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All my knowledge is of hermitcraft and the stuff people have written for the Hermit!Tommy Au but I kept having this idea and needed to write it. I also think i got a bit out of character halfway through because it was supposed to be short, but i vibed with it too much so now it’s long and maybe not 100% accurate but it’s still angst followed by fluff.
also @petrichormeraki wanted me to tag them when i posted this.
Tommy had been with the Hermits for a while now. He hadn’t really kept track of when he first arrived, but it had at least been a few months. Otherwise, time was a mess. The Hermits has all but legally adopted him and all the joy that came from them caring for him made time seem to fly by.
Doc was fun to be around because while Tommy was perfectly fine never going back to the SMP, the way the man acted gave Tommy a small bit of familiarity in a good way to his past life.
He likes hanging out with False, mainly for sparring. Never anything deadly, but even if there wasn’t a need for Tommy to constantly look over his shoulder, it was good to keep from getting too rusty.
He doesn’t really hang out with Zedaph as much as Zedaph hangs out with him. Normally the Hermit would come out of the blue with something new for Tommy to try. Flicking levers over and over for something that would normally be as simple as using a furnace just became fun for Tommy, especially if he had energy pent up.
Xisuma is someone Tommy doesn’t run into much, but the fact that he doesn’t is something Tommy finds comfort in. Even as the server admin, the man is very down to Earth. Nothing like Dream ever was.
And then there’s Grian. Tommy got along with all the Hermits fine and of course there were some he preferred over others, but Grian took the cake for him. When he first showed up, Grian was the one to give him a place to stay at his old hobbit hole. Professor Beaks had been left there and still used to the SMP and scared for his life, Tommy hid the pet bird as leverage for his own safety. When Grian found out, he mostly shrugged it off, but the tens of chickens in the hobbit hole the next day was proof of retaliation.
Tommy didn’t understand the underwhelming response at first, but responded in kind, using the eggs from the chickens Grian had left to egg the Hermit’s base. When the builder nearly broke the door to the hobbit hole, Tommy grabbed his axe, ready to fight for his life, but was taken aback by the cheerful look on Grian’s face.
After that, Grian had practically taken Tommy under his wing. He showed Tommy how to build more effectively with cobble, eventually managing to get the teen to have some variety. Grian also brought Tommy along on his various chaotic endeavors, leaving behind chickens, mycelium, and possibly some missing doors.
The two chaotic red wearing Brits got along so well that they sometimes spent entire weeks together. Because of that, Tommy was all too aware that the Hermits participated in MCC as well.
It made sense. A few of the Hermits vaguely recognised him when he showed up in Hermitcraft and a few of them looked familiar to Tommy. That had made him feel a little safer since now these people weren’t complete strangers, but it did complicate things. Every so often, the portal to MCC would open and the Hermits participating would go through. The closest Tommy would get to the portal was just before the Hermits left, occasionally giving a ‘Good luck Grine!’ or something similar to Grian as he went through. But after that Tommy stayed as far away as he could manage.
The portal there led to MCC. And from there, there was a portal that led to the SMP. If Tommy could get to Hermitcraft, others could too. And that idea was terrifying, no matter who it was. Dream was a worst case scenario, but even if it was Tubbo. Tubbo had exiled him, and even if they were still on good terms after that, Tommy could have visited at some other MCC, but he didn’t, and that idea likely wouldn’t go over well, especially since otherwise, people probably thought he was dead and Tommy didn’t care to correct them.
But compared to all those other times, today was very different. Today Tommy wasn’t at the sidelines to help send off the other Hermits, he was one of the ones being sent off. They had taken every precaution. Mumbo had rebuilt his Spookification chamber for Tommy with some alterations, specifically removing the firework method of alteration. The teen was also dressed for being on a team with Grian as the Cyan Creepers, so his familiar red and white shirt was missing. But under Tommy’s costume, he still kept the chain necklace holding his compass. He refused to part with it, though made sure he would be hard to access to keep from glancing, knowing at the championships, it wouldn’t be spinning wildly anymore.
With a comforting pat on the back from Grian, he and the other Hermits walked through the portal. The crowd of people that were on the side almost immediately overwhelmed Tommy, making him think that it was a bad idea all over again, but the sight of the two other team members for the Cyan Creepers reassured them, especially as they lined up for the cameras for some fun and silly times. Then once the games began, he was too focused on winning to think of much else.
Before long, the championships were over. They had come in fifth, which was a bit disappointing at first, but on the other hand, it was still pretty good and kept the spotlight off of him. When dodgebolt began, Tommy stood next to Grian, but with a crowd of people, a good game, and no perfect place to sit, the both of them wandered for a better vantage point.
At one point, Tommy managed to push his way right up to the edge of the viewing ledge. It was the perfect place for a while until the action moved, causing everyone to decide it was the perfect place. Enough people moved nearby that Tommy was worried about falling into the pit below, and he almost did before someone pulled him back.
Tommy was ready to thank whichever Hermit or even other player helped him but the words died in his throat when he faced the person who grabbed him. He knew that mask and neon green color. And there was no reason for him to help Tommy unless-
“I finally found you!” Dream spoke. He raised his voice to be heard over the crowd, but not too much to draw the attention of others. Tommy froze as he definitely heard the words. But there was no way for Dream to know, he didn’t look at all like normal.
“I-I’m sorry.” Tommy tried not to stutter, hoping just the situation of being grabbed would excuse it. “But I don’t think I’m who you’re looking for. I’m new here. Unless you’re greeting me for being new.” It was something he prepared before in his mind after Grian brought up the possibility, but it felt sloppy putting it to use.
“Oh don’t lie Tommy. I know it’s you. I guess you got lost, but it’s okay, you can come back now. I got rid of the exile for you. Aren’t you glad?”
Tommy was glad for the mask that covered Dream’s face. He wasn’t sure he wanted to see Dream’s actual expression. “How did you-” He started to speak, but Dream cut him off, poking Tommy’s chest, right where the compass was.
“Weren’t you paying attention to the teams? Tubbo got put with me. And between games he just happened to glance at his own compass. And wouldn’t you know it, it led me right here.” Dream held up the compass that belonged to Tubbo. It looked damaged, and it was recent. Tubbo likely didn’t want to give the tyrant admin the compass, but lost it to Dream anyway.
“Give that back to Tubbo!” Tommy shouted at Dream, trying to snatch it from him.
“Feisty now, aren’t you? We can take care of that when you come back. I’ll also give it back to him if you come with me.”
Tommy froze. There was no way he was going back, but what could he do? Everyone was focused on dodgebolt, and he didn’t want his appearance to have caused more trouble for Tubbo.
Tommy glanced at the crowd one last time before reluctantly nodding. Dream grabbed his hand in a painful clench and dragged him out of the crowd towards the SMP’s portal to leave. However, just before reaching it, Dream stopped. Tommy, who had been looking back at the crowd, hoping someone would see what was going on, turned towards the portal to see Grian standing in front of it.
“Heya, where do you think you’re going. MCC isn’t over yet. Dodgebolt it still going on.”
Tommy expected Dream to just push past Grian or even give some sort of retort, but the actual reply was shocking. “Uh, n-no, just… have to head back early. Th-the game delays made things run over. A-and we’ve got to get b-back for… something else. Don’t w-want to be late for that.”
Dream’s words made Tommy so shocked he forgot to breathe. Dream was scared, no he was terrified. And he was terrified… of Grian. Tommy looked back at the Hermit who stood unflinching in front of them.
“Really? I could have sworn that you were here when I arrived, and that kid wasn’t. And he definitely came from a different portal. I know since I was keeping my eye out for my teammates. So why’s he going with you?”
“I uh…” Dream struggled, struggled, to give an answer, letting Grian continue. “That’s what I thought. C’mon kid, let’s go back to the crowd. You can stay with me until it’s over then I’ll help you find your portal back.”
And Grian took Tommy away without any retaliation from Dream. Tommy was left in awe. Grian wasn’t even an admin in Hermitcraft but Dream was terrified of him. It was amazing! But at the same time, it made Tommy spiral a bit.
When everyone returned, Grian had made sure Dream left before the Hermits and Tommy did so Dream couldn’t watch Tommy leave. Tommy stuck to False’s side as they walked through the portal, Grian being the last to come through as he continued to act as a guard. When he tried to comfort Tommy after his run-in with Dream, he understood when the teen responded he just wanted to go home. The championships were exhausting enough without a scare like that.
The next day, Tommy hung out with False. And then Zedaph, and then Doc. Grian noticed immediately, but didn’t pay much mind to it. He noticed since Tommy had spent a full week only hanging out with him, so the sudden absence of the boy was noticeable, but it made sense that he would want to hang out with the others.
After that, Grian didn’t pay too much attention to the lack of Tommy until he ran into him while stocking the barge. Tommy had been buying something at the store when Grian flew in. He nearly dropped his diamonds in trying to leave in such a hurry that it finally concerned Grian. The builder started visiting other Hermits Tommy tended to visit and ask about him. No one really noticed much other than Tommy dodging any questions about him possibly going to hang out with Grian.
Grian decided to leave it alone, and he was definitely going to, but after another run in with Tommy, he threw that decision out the window. Grian normally wouldn’t have done this, but after trying multiple times to just talk to Tommy and being unsuccessful, the builder had to essentially corner the teen.
Immediately, Grian regretted it. Tommy was trembling, obviously scared, holding a sword in his hand. He carefully tried to point out that Tommy didn’t need to have his sword out, but instead of just putting it away, Tommy just threw it on the ground, also throwing down his other gear. Grian had heard of Tommy doing this before with the other Hermits, so he immediately recognised what was going on and dived to grab the gear. It scared Tommy more, but Grian wanted to make sure nothing ended up destroyed.
“Tommy, calm down, I just want to talk. Did I do something wrong? I mean, obviously I must have, you look scared out of your mind every time I’m around you. But I can’t think or anything I did and I don’t want this to keep happening. So can I know what’s going on?”
Tommy didn’t speak for a while. He just looked defeated and terrified. Grian called in some of the other Hermits to come help Tommy calm down, though at first it didn’t help. But over time, Tommy finally did stop looking so terrified and they moved to somewhere he would feel less cornered. It took more coaxing after that, but finally, Tommy explained himself.
“He’s scared of you. Dream is… actually scared of you.”
“Yeah, I’ve killed him once or twice. Plus my full name is Lord Grian Dreamslayer, so it’s kind of in the name.” The builder tried to say it as a joke, but it didn’t seem to lighten the mood.”
“He’s the admin and he’s scared of you. And you… I’ve been hanging out with you.”
Grian nodded. “Well yeah, we do fit together well. ...Did he say something at MCC to make you think I didn’t like you?”
Tommy shook his head. “N-No. You’re right, you’re fun to be around. But dream likes… liked messing with me. And tried to train me. And I hang out with you more than I had with him, and I’m more like you. I-If you’re somehow more powerful than him-!” The rest of the words stopped in Tommy’s throat, choking him up. Stress was nearby and gave Tommy a careful hug for comfort, which helped him a little.
Grian waited a little bit for the tension to calm slightly before he spoke. “I don’t know exactly what Dream has done to you. You’ve told us a lot, but you obviously haven’t told us everything, and telling us isn’t the same as experiencing it. But let me tell you that I’m not going to do what he’s done to you. I remember how you were the first day we found you. And I see how you are now- well, how you were a few weeks ago- and I’m happy. Happy because you’ve been happy. You’ve been safe and cared for here and it shows. I don’t want to force you to be anything, I want you to be you. Sure, I’m powerful enough to kill Dream, but I’m not going to use that power on you. I’m only going to use it around you if it’s to keep him away from you.
“And! And! It’s just because of how your server is. Here we can go to the end. We don’t have a set amount of lives. We build massive structures and sell totems for a single diamond each. We fight Withers for fun and make farms with them. We farm just about anything you can think of. And Tommy.” Grian paused, making sure Tommy was paying attention. “You may be from somewhere far off that none of us old Hermits have seen, but now you’re here. And new home or not, that makes you a Hermit too. Sure you can be like me. Or you can be like False or Doc or Scar or Mumbo. But so far, you’ve been pretty you. And that you is a Hermit.”
Tommy took a few moments to process it, but the message seemed to get through to him. With that, Grian stood up with a smile. “Now I get that you probably don’t want to hang around me much right now. It makes sense. Maybe hang out with some other Hermits and learn some new stuff to get your mind off of things. Plus, I also did some talking around looking for you, and got you this.”
Tommy’s eyes practically sparkled as Grian placed down some music discs. He greedily grabbed the treasures and stuffed them in his inventory, looking up just to see Grian flying off. Taking on Grian’s idea, Tommy decided to go with Cleo and try to wrap his head around those armor stands again. While he wasn’t a pro, he did manage to make one scene of the hermits all holding weapons and surrounding an armor stand in lime leather armor. Grian was right. He was a Hermit. And he wasn’t going back. At least, not permanently, he thought, clutching his compass. Maybe, there would even be another Hermit like him.
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for the shared space au, how would xisuma cope in isolation? since hes so used to communicating with the hermits and is now locked in a prison without human contact apart from dream.
“If that won’t do it for you, how about-”
“No.” Xisuma cut Dream off before he could say more. “There is nothing that you could say that would convince me to help you.”
“Are you really fine with being stuck here alone with me?” Dream asked, a smile in his voice as he found the idea funny. At least that’s what Xisuma assumed. The opposing admin seemed to be good at hiding his true intentions even with Xisuma sharing a mind with him.
“Before you realized my presence, you let your guard down, so I already know what kind of person you are. I have banned people for less than that.”
“Right, your brother.” Dream spoke, and Xisuma quickly blocked off his part of the mind again, though it was essentially too late. “Well, how about I ask you for something else then?”
“I will not help you out of this prison nor hurt those you should be protecting as admin.” Xisuma chided.
“That’s the thing. I’m not really the best admin I can be. My capabilities are limited, so I act how I do because of that. I mean, maybe if I had a bit more power...” Though Xisuma saw the reasoning, he also saw the trick behind it. He was about to refuse again, but then Dream spoke one more thing that caught his attention. “Well, I’m sure everyone would appreciate to know about the end.”
“Why wouldn’t they already?” Xisuma asked. He tried to look at Dream’s memories and thoughts, but was blocked.
“The place has been blocked off and anything from the End that shouldn’t be here is whisked away.” Dream answered in such a way Xisuma felt a chill even with no body of his own and even with the lava nearby heating the body he shared with Dream. “There’s something powerful doing that. Maybe powerful enough to split us up. But if they did, well, I’m guessing being stuck with me is better than being completely alone.”
Xisuma was quiet. Some strong entity that had blocked off the end? The first thing that came to mind were the Watchers, due to their associations with the end and void from what Grian had told him. But if it were them, things wouldn’t have gotten this dire unless it were an experiment of theirs. And if it were, then the moment Xisuma showed up, they would have as well. There was no way he should be a factor. So it had to be something else.
“Let them come then.” Xisuma finally spoke, which managed to leave Dream off guard for a moment. “I would do better off alone in the end than stuck here with you.”
“Fine then.” Dream spoke after a few moments, worryingly calm. “Well, if that’s what you prefer.” And then he said no more, leaving Xisuma in silence other than the bubbling of lava around them.
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hermit!Tommy au keeps living rent free in my brain and i need to get it out to write my other stuff. writing sort of helps but it’s also letting other aus in!
like in this i’m also using triplet au and some avian race stuff plus one au thing i’m adding because i like it!
send help, i don’t know enough about dream smp to write it well but i’m writing anyway and maybe it’s good but i have Anxiety™.
uh, anyway, part one of this new idea, if you have any idea who would help dream get tommy back like this, tell me cause otherwise i’m only using tubbo techno and dream cause i’m not sure who would realistically join.
oh yeah and @petrichormeraki for making the hermit!tommy au and i think also the triplet au? and then also @strawberrylemonz because i didn’t realize they had more chapters of their one fic and i binge read all of memories in the stars so now Grian and Tommy are brothers in this fic.
Dream smiled wildly under his mask as he stared at the portal that stood in front of him. It was no nether portal, the only resemblance being the purple color between the blocks of the frame. Said blocks were eight pure diamond blocks making an almost five by three shape. It had taken months to learn of the design and get it to work properly, but here it was. Known only as the infinity portal, Dream knew this was just what he was after.
A few other players stood near him, having assisted in the creation of the portal at Dream’s demands and threats. It had started when Tommy disappeared. When everyone realized, there were a range of emotions, but almost everyone knew that there would be no way to find Tommy. They hadn’t noticed for who knows how long after he left, leaving no trail. Dream was the only one who thought there might be a way to find his lost ‘friend’. And that idea became real when at a MCC tournament with Tubbo, the compass the boy always wore stopped spinning once again. And even then, learning that had been chance when in the middle of a game the normally hidden item had come loose.
Dream never saw Tommy so he assumed that he was simply in the crowd and not participating, which made it harder to pin him down, but with the return portals going group by group, it was easy to see the compass stop tracking Tommy after the Hermitcraft group left.
The initial knowledge left Dream shocked and even doubting a return of Tommy. That place was known as a very well protected place. It was likely that Tommy’s arrival caused those that resided in Hermittown would have their admin making things harder to bypass. And at the same time, someone who could get through like Tommy did, even by chance, would likely be heavily monitored. It’s just how Dream would do it.
But not wanting to give up, Dream researched into these people and learned how the Hermits would open their gates briefly before moving on. Based on previous patterns, there was no way Dream would wait months and months before that happened again, but some knowledge has seeped over from the previous event.
Some of the Hermits had found a way to create something called the infinity portal, and immediately Dream knew that would be his way to Tommy. If anything were to get past the Hermit’s protection, it would be something of their own design.
And now here it was, his very own Infinity portal. He had even used his admin powers to give it a little upgrade. A duplicate of Tubbo’s compass was placed into one of the blocks making up the frame. It was slightly dented and scorched from previous attempts and was currently sparking dangerously, but it was all holding. 
Now, speaking of Tubbo, the boy was just to Dream’s right. He grabbed Tubbo a little harshly and pulled him forward. “See, it finally works!” Dream spoke, his voice edging complete madness. “And I’m sure it wouldn’t have without that little trinket of yours, so why don’t you have the honors Tubbo?”
Normally Dream wouldn’t want to give anyone else the chance to get to Tommy before him, but he was smart and knew how to survive. While the portal looked stable and working for the most part, the sparks from the compass told another story. He could go in first and potentially die, or he could use a test dummy. 
Tubbo was too eager to see Tommy once again and didn’t see any problem with going first. He stepped onto the portal and barely gave a second thought about Dream’s Request to come back once he was through to say where exactly they landed. He watched as the world around him warped and turned purple, just as with a nether portal, but the bright white flash that followed was different.
The first thing Tubbo saw was a large turquoise building, but to see it better, he took a step out of the portal and fell into the water a few blocks below. He looked back up at the portal and then at the ocean floor before using the blocks he had on him to build back up to the portal. As he did so, he could feel his communicator buzzing madly. Tubbo finally looked at the thing once he reached the portal again and made a small platform around it.
<MumboJumbo> Did someone make a new cam-drone?
<Tango> Not me
<Grian> Might be Tommy, he’s the only one afk right now
<joehillssays> name sounds familiar and he doesn’t normally use them, so might be an old one.
Tubbo stared at the communicator, there were more messages, but only the first few mattered to him, specifically the message with Tommy’s name in it. He couldn’t be completely sure that it was his friend though, but before he could look at the list of other users, two new messages came in.
<TommyInnit> Guys, please just let me have this one, it’s really important.
<TommyInnit> Tubbo how the fuck
Tubbo couldn’t help but tear up at the message. He started typing back, sure his message was coming out poorly due to the tears messing with his already impared vision, but there was a ping as his message was sent before he walked through the portal again.
~~~~~
Tommy had finished afking near Mumbo’s industrial district, having turned off his communicator so he could just sit and watch the machines go. As he turned everything off again, he unmuted the device just to have a flood of messages show up. He scrolled up until a yellow one caught his eye.
Tubbo_ joined the server
Tubbo. His Tubbo. How was he here? Tommy had to know, and even if the other Hermits would get upset at his language, it was all he could think of right now. He sent a message, hoping Tubbo would see it and that this wasn’t all some huge mistake. After the messages were sent, he stared at the communicator until another message was sent. Seeing Tubbo’s name in a message made his heart soar, but it immediately seemed to stop as he actually read the response.
<Tubbo_> Dream’s been trying to find a way to you for months and he finally did it! I’m going to be right back with him and the others!
Tubbo_ left the server.
Tubbo was one thing but Dream was another. Tommy could feel himself trembling. He had found a way in. Tommy’s worst fears were coming true. But then another message came in.
<Grian> Alright, guess I’m breaking out the axe again
<Stressmonster101> I’m already headed to my brewing area.
<xisumavoid> Looks like they used an infinity portal.
<Docm77> I have nothing to do with it
Tommy managed to smile just a little at how quick everyone was jumping into action at the mention of his own admin. As more Hermits chimed in, Tommy sent his own message.
<TommyInnit> Dream is the real threat. I don’t think Tubbo would be helping if he knew the full story or is being threatened or something. I’m not sure who else will come, but just maim and capture anyone besides those two unless I say otherwise.
~~~~~
After what seemed like an eternity, Tubbo stepped back through the portal. He was dripping wet but had a huge smile on his face and Dream knew Tommy had to be on the other side.
“He’s there! He’s really there!” Tubbo was practically bouncing around.
“You’re wet.” Came the deadpan tone of Techno’s voice as he stepped closer, now knowing the portal was working.
“Yeah, it sort of spawned over an ocean but I made a platform and everything.”
“Good job Tubbo.” Dream spoke before anyone else could. “Now we can go help free Tommy from wherever these people have trapped him and bring him home.”
“Well, when I showed up, Tommy was able to use a communicator which is how I know he’s really there, so maybe he isn’t trapped and need rescuing?” Tubbo asked meekly.
“If that were true, wouldn’t he have come back Tubbo? If not for all of us, if not for his home, why didn’t he come back for you?”
Tubbo didn’t respond and Dream pushed past him to be right in front of the portal. He turned around to face the others he had collected there and pulled out his axe. “We don’t know what all will be there to ‘greet’ us once we go looking, so better to arm yourselves now. And the sooner we go through, the better.” And with that, he stepped into the portal.
When he reached the other side, his communicator immediately started buzzing. With no one in sight, Dream pulled it out to read what these Hermits were getting up to. He couldn’t help but laugh at the messages coming in. It seemed that they were torturing Tommy or something. This would be easy. Behind him, more people from the SMP came through the portal. They had weapons at the ready and even looked a little disappointed at the lack of a battle on the other side.
Dream pointed out the two landmarks that were best visible, a large turquoise tower and an island littered with buildings. While the tower was closer, Techno pointed out the building was made of warped wood, so it would be tough to deal with. The island on the other hand, it was so full with buildings that obviously plenty of these Hermits had to be living there. It was surprising it didn’t look like more of a mess.
Tubbo was the only one to notice a small island with a single chest on it. After close inspection, the chest was in no way trapped and Dream laughed when he saw it was filled with boats. “It’s like they’re asking us to attack them!”
After placing down a number of boats, Dream and the rest of his group rowed towards the island. A few people stayed out of the boats and swam in the water. While they weren’t as fast, it was better than having everyone vulnerable as they rowed.
They had nearly reached the island when there was the distinct sound of a firework being fired. Techno was the first to jump out his boat, looking for the source, but as the seconds went on, there was no explosion. Instead, another firework went off and a shadow passed over the boats.
Looking up, the group saw a figure with giant wings, a trail of smoke behind them. Techno fired his crossbow at them, but the flier swerved out of the way before diving at the group. Boats moved to get out of the flight path, but Dream stood in place and readied his axe. As the figure grew closer, he smiled. Perfect height, red shirt, blonde hair. That was Tommy. “Tommy, glad to see you. It’s been ag-” Dream was cut off and stopped smiling as an axe blade hit him just as Tommy passed him. 
He was about to speak again when there was a laugh. One that sent shivers down his spine. Dream looked around, but the source could only be from the one flying around him. That wasn’t Tommy. “A-Attack the imposter!” He managed to get out, pushing down his fear. There was only one person with that laugh. The dreamslayer.
As Grian swooped down for another attack, a yell from the nearby shore stopped everyone in their tracks, even making Grian slow down as it was someone yelling at him. “Grian! Get back here and give us a chance to be diplomatic about this!” Looking towards the island ahead, Dream could see a figure standing at the shore which the avian now flew towards before landing. Someone aligned with Grian was potentially dangerous as well, but Dream has an army while this new person wanted a peaceful option.
Still, it was an opportunity to get closer safely, so Dream obliged, having Techno follow him. The warrior begrudgingly agreed, this was for his brother after all. He hopped out of his boat and climbed into the back of the one Dream was rowing. Within a few moments they had reached the shore and Techno growled slightly at the sight of this new person. They seemed to have an attempted copy of Tommy’s face as a mask. The one Dream mistook for Tommy wore an identical mask. 
“Hello there. I’m Scar, mayor of Hermitcraft. I’m sure you’re here for Tommy, but I’m afraid he does not want to return with you, and we don’t have that many slots available for new comers at the moment.”
Techno crossed his arms at this ‘mayor’ while Dream let out a curt laugh. “I’m sure that’s what you think, but Tommy is one of us. He has to come back. Especially since staying here leaves his family behind.” Dream gestured to Techno.
“Hey, if they fill out the right paperwork and what not,” Grian started, Scar attempting to interject that he would have to be filling out the paperwork too before being shushed. “The rest of the family can come live here. Isn’t that right Techno?”
Techno barely gave any reaction and Grian shrugged his shoulders. “Okay, I get it. Haven’t seen you in who knows how long. It’s fine.”
Dream glanced over towards Techno. “You know Grian?” Techno replied with a no at the same time Grian replied with a yes. “Either way, that doesn’t matter. Tommy is coming with us.” And Dream swung his axe. Grian quickly intercepted it, but that’s why he had brought backup. Techno used the gap Grian had left and used his own axe on Scar. It only took a single hit as the mayor had come without any armor. In fact, the only things that fell to the ground were two masks, one of Tommy and the other of Scar. 
As Scar was killed, everyone’s communicator buzzed. Dream smiled, now it was a two on one, something this dreamslayer couldn’t possibly win against. But his smile fell as Grian gave a smile of his own. “You know we were giving you a chance. But now everyone knows what’s going on.”
Dream gave a nod and Techno lifted Grian by his shirt. In his other hand he held his axe which was now being positioned over the parrot wings Grian sported. That made the avian flinch which Dream was glad of, but before the axe could fall, there was the sound of plenty of fireworks going off and then the sky was filled with other hermits, all equipped with elytra.
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i can’t stop writing!
@petrichormeraki
“Fundy? Are you in here?” Iskall called out. Rendog landed next to the redstoner, weapon drawn as a precaution. 
Fundy did speak, but not as a response to Iskall. “No! Tubbo don’t!” From nearby, Tubbo jumped at the other pair in a panic to defend himself. Ren blocked the attack and disarmed Tubbo quickly as he wasn’t fully prepared for a battle. “Tubbo, they’re on our side!”
“They are?” Tubbo asked, refusing to look away from Iskall and Ren.
“Yeah.” Iskall spoke up, making sure to hold his hands up and hold no weapon. “I’m friends with Fundy. I’ve helped him in the past with his redstone.”
Tubbo hazarded a glance towards Fundy who gave a reassuring nod and Tubbo relaxed just a little bit. “Tommy’s told us about you. Said you’re best friends?”
Tubbo looked back to Iskall. “He said that? But I exiled him! I didn’t even visit him when I could have.”
“Tommy doesn’t blame you for that.” Ren spoke up, making Tubbo jump a little at the new voice. “Maybe he did when he first got here, but he gets that it was more Dream’s fault then yours. You should see his place.”
“Oh yeah!” Iskall said, lighting up a little. “He’s not far from here. Tommy set up his tower between Grian and Ren in the mesa. Refused to let any of us help. He grew up so fast.”
“Then can we go over there? I want to see Tommy and talk with him!” Tubbo was nearly bouncing around at the thought of seeing his friend again.
“Well, we can go over there, but Tommy’s probably in the middle of the fight.” Ren responded. “Though I’m sure he’d want to keep you safe.”
“And I’d rather not get Fundy mixed up in everything if he doesn’t have to be.” Iskall added. Though Fundy seemed to disagree.
“If Tommy is out there fighting, we want to help. He’s our friend.”
Iskall and Ren looked at each other, having a silent conversation with expressions before Ren sighed. “Alright, fine. We’ll take you back to the shopping district and-”
There was a large crack of thunder and Tubbo was left trembling. Ren and Fundy covered their ears from the sudden noise while Iskall looked for the source. When he saw the cloudy sky above with a purple glow in the distance, he knew what was going on, having seen the same scene once before. “Oh no… Grian…”
Rendog’s ears were ringing a little too much for him to hear Iskall, so he yelled a ‘what?’ before seeing the sky as well. “That’s… not good.”
Fundy recovered enough to comfort Tubbo and then turned to Iskall. “What’s wrong? What’s going on?”
“Change of plans. We’re staying here. Everyone else is in the shopping district, so if things go wrong…” Iskall trailed off.
“Then we’re the recovery team.” Ren finished the thought.
Tubbo, who was still rattled by the sound, still managed to push himself mostly past it. “Wh-what do you mean? Is T-Tommy going to be okay?”
Iskall, who had the most experience with Grian’s trouble with being a Watcher, seemed hesitant about his answer, but did give it. “Well, I think Tommy might actually be the safest one out there, though it’s still dangerous.”
“Then we need to go help!” Tubbo said, giving no chance for anyone to stop him as he ran out of the tree. Fundy quickly followed, and Ren and Iskall after him after they unfroze from their surprise. 
“Ren, Fundy, how about you two stay behind. We should have at least someone as an emergency team. I don’t want Tubbo going alone and I doubt we can do anything to stop him. I’m also not letting him head out there alone and I’m the one who knows the most about this.”
Ren Tried to argue, but Iskall shut him down. “Right, Fundy, let’s stay back.” The fox looked sadly at Ren, but relented and stayed back with him. Iskall started getting his wings ready to fly, but saw Tubbo had none of his own, so instead they headed to the nether portal.
Hermits surrounded the crater, weapons drawn. They created a wall of armor that protected their previous enemy. Mumbo took a risk and slid down to try and pull Technoblade away, but the piglin warrior refused to budge. With that out the window and no easy way out, Mumbo tried to reason with his friend. “Grian, calm down, you saved Tommy. You don’t need to be a Watcher right now.” Murmuring came from the opposing army. A few of them had heard of Watchers but never seen one. 
Grian cocked his head to one side, staring Mumbo down with all but one of his eyes, the last one continuing to watch Techno. Mumbo tried once more to move Techno, but he stood firm, causing Mumbo’s foot to slip. The sudden movement and noise made Grian’s feathers ruffle and Mumbo froze completely. Grian then moved his hand toward Tommy and Techno jumped to attack with a new weapon, only for it to shatter as well. The Watcher started to stand up only for the Hermits at his back to first arrows at him. He screeched in pain, focusing on his attackers and turning away from Techno and Mumbo.
Techno moved first, getting to Tommy’s side and starting to pull him away. Being so close Grian immediately noticed and attempted to attack, but Mumbo moved in front of the warrior and put his shield up, deflecting the attack. The expression on Grian’s face almost looked hurt as Techno escaped with Tommy and climbed up out of the crater with one hand.
Tommy started to wake up just as Techno reached Phil. The former king took his son from Techno’s arms and held him close. Dream smiled down at Tommy, glad to have his pawn return to the board. As a Watcher, Grian saw it all. He flapped his wings, using his Watcher magic to strengthen the effects and create a windstorm around him and everyone nearby. 
Scar and Cub were blown away by the wind as they still sported their vex wings which caught the wind easily. Philza also had to be held down for the same reason. As the wind whipped around, Grian flew into the air and launched himself at Philza and began to parrot Techno once more.
“How dare you defile the Blood God!” Techno yelled, ready to defend his family. But Grian didn’t stop, landing next to them. He looked at his father and brothers, noting one was missing.
“Someone’s missing” The Watcher hissed out. “And we saw he isn’t dead anymore. Your admin revived him.”
Tommy stared up at what Grian had become. The six purple eyes were now accompanied by a mouth full of pointed teeth and his hair has seemed to have turned into feathers. He was also taller and his feet were changed into talons. Tommy wasn’t sure how much was just how Watchers looked and how much was an emphasization of Grian’s avian self, but no matter what, Grian’s current state was terrifying.
Tommy tried to escape his dad’s arms, but Phil refused to let him go. Dream moved to stand between Tommy and Grian which made him even more upset about being unable to move. “How about we leave while we still can. We rescued Tommy. Let these Hermits deal with their own problems.”
Phil nodded and was starting to move before Tommy writhed in his arms. “No! I don’t want to go back! I need to help Grian!”
“Tommy, they just kept you trapped here and wouldn’t let you see your friends and family. Tubbo lifted your exile and I did everything to find a way to give you a path home. Don’t you remember all the time I spent with you? Think of this as paying me back for-”
“You’re not my friend Dream.” Tommy cut his former admin off, finally escaping Philza’s arms. “You never were. And if you were, I wouldn’t need to pay you back for just being with me. And you!” Tommy looked at his brother. “I kept trying to trust you, tried to get my brother back, but you won’t stop listening to the voices. And dad…” Tommy looked at Philza, but couldn’t get the words out. “I… I... “
Philza was knocked down and pinned under Grian’s foot. “No more Empire for you. Ice and snow don’t really fit with birds anyway, now do they.”
Philza grabbed the foot on his chest and tried to push it off him, but instead the talons just dug deeper into his chest. “Leave my son alone!” He gritted out, just making Grian laugh.
“Leave him alone? Like what you did? Abandoned him out in the middle of nowhere? I guess Techno really was the favorite. Or will you lose him as well?”
Philza managed to pull out his sword and slash it against Grian. It didn’t break, but the durability fell a dangerous amount. Angrily, Grian pushed his foot down harder on Philza, making the man wheeze. When others tried to step forward to help, corrupted parrot wings pushed them away.
“You abandoned one son, let another die, and lost the third to time.” Grian taunted and Philza’s face went white.
“Thi- y-you know what happened to-?”
“The Watchers had plenty of fun with him.” Grian answered, not directly answering that he was the third child and not giving up that he was still alive.
Techno’s eyes blazed with fury and attacked Grian. “You took him?!”
Grian just laughed and dodged the attacks. Tommy realized the avian was just toying with him. It reminded him of what Dream did. In a panic, Tommy put down his shulker box. A number of SMP members looked at it greedily, even amongst the current chaos. Tommy opened it up and pulled out two things, a jukebox, and a music disc. Tommy didn’t know if it would work, but he hoped that based on how Grian was acting, there were enough parrot instincts in there that he would listen.
He placed down the jukebox and inserted the disc, remembering it was one of Grian’s favorites. Erupting out of the speakers of the jukebox game was a laugh of a certain hermit which immediately pulled the Watcher’s attention. The jukebox then proceeded to play one of the songs for Mumbo’s mayoral campaign, and Grian stopped what he was doing and started dancing to the song.
Immediately Hermits raced towards Grian, pulling leads out and tying him up. He almost escaped when the song ended, but Tommy quickly put in the second of the two songs. After switching between the two a few times, the Hermits were able to completely tie Grian up.
Tommy put his jukebox and discs away and then picked up his shulker box before trying to go to Grian, but was grabbed by Philza. “Tommy, stay away from him.”
Tommy tried to argue, but then there was another shout. “TOMMY!”
Tommy turned, looking for the shout. “Tubbo?” Before he could notice his best friend in the crowd, Tubbo tackled him. There was an angry noise from Grian and he attempted escape, but stopped when laughter rang out from the reunited pair. “Tubbo I missed you so much!”
“Are you okay? Fundy took us to a friend of his here and then there was an explosion. They said you would be in the middle of it.”
“Don’t worry, I’m fine.” Tommy gave a small laugh. “No way Big G would hurt me.”
“Big G? Did you replace me?” Tubbo looked genuinely hurt until Tommy hugged him.
“I would never. You’re my best friend and nothing will change that.”
“That’s wonderful!” Tommy froze as Dream spoke, fully remembering the situation he was in. “Now that everything is sorted, we can go back home.”
“Not a chance, green bitch.” Tommy half growled at his old tormenter. “I’m staying here.” He almost pulled out his weapon, ready to attack when he noticed something else. “Tubbo, do you have seeds?”
“Uh, yeah, Fundy and I went through a jungle and it was a pain to get through all the foliage. Why?” Tommy held his hand out and Tubbo handed him the seeds.
“Hey G! Look what I got!” Tommy shouted and then held up the seeds. Since the music worked, he assumed this would as well. He was right when Grian’s eyes landed on the treat and seemed to light up. Nearby, Philza wiped away just a little bit of drool and shook his head, still recovering from nearly being crushed to death.
“Well would you look at that Dream, I can control the Watcher. And not just any Watcher, right?” Tommy gave a smug smile, having heard the play by play of Grian becoming the Dreamslayer many a time.
A few of those from the smp gasped as Dream actually dropped his weapon and surrendered. It was something no one thought would happen, especially at Tommy’s hand. Tommy put the seeds away and behind him Iskall and Mumbo started to work on calming Grian down. 
After he started down Dream a bit longer, Tommy grabbed Tubbo’s hand and pulled him over to Grian. “Big T, meet Big G. He doesn’t normally look like this though, but he does look pretty pog right now.” Tubbo asked if Grian really hadn’t hurt Tommy. “Of course, he’s too much of a charrot and is super protective of me.”
With Tommy’s back turned, Dream tried one last time to grab him. The second he started to move, all the leads snapped and Grian moved to the same point. He brought down an axe and hit Dream in the face, shattering the mask he wore. “I don’t think I got any blood yet.” Grian smiled. Tommy was scared for a moment of losing his brother more, but actually noticed him returning back to normal. “Blood for the Blood God and all that.”
The changes stopped for a moment as purple energy swirled around Dream. He covered his face, expecting to be slain, but no death arrived. The energy dissipated and then Grian finally turned back to normal and collapsed to the ground laughing weakly. “I’m… so glad I kept tabs on you guys.”
Tommy tried to hug Grian but he was beaten by Mumbo getting their first. “Okay! Fine! I get it! Best friends over family.” Tommy joked and then hugged Tubbo. “I can do that too.”
Philza and Techno attempted to approach Tommy, but Grian opened a wing and then pulled Tommy and Tubbo to his side. “Don’t hurt him.”
“Dad, I just explained this to Tubbo. He’s not gonna hurt me.” Tommy complained with a bit of a whine.
Philza wasn’t convinced. “Tommy, I heard what he said. He’s a Watcher, and they killed your brother.”
“He got better!” Tommy retorted immediately, not really thinking the response out. Grian doubled over laughing at it.
“It’s not some joke!” Phil said sternly, making Tommy freeze. Grian stopped hugging Mumbo and stepping in front of Tommy. He was unsteady on his feet and feeling exhausted, but nevertheless, he stood there.
“Xelqua lives.” Grian spoke, making Phil’s eyes widen. “Only thing the Watchers did was mess with him. Then they gave him an offer to join them. Oh, he also changed his name to Grian.”
Philza looked Grian up and down, trying to see if he was lying. And then the words actually registered in his brain. “Xelqua?”
“Hey dad.”
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God i love the trope of people who have animal traits going feral. So writing Grian is fun. I just realized that one time Grian said ‘I am the embodiment of twitch chat’ could imply those voices. i meant, it’s a stretch, but eh, whatever.
@petrichormeraki
Tommy hated how soon they were already gathered, preparing for another war. Hermitcraft was safe, the only wars were simply fun between friends. But now it was just like back on the smp. “I’ve got my disc box ready.” Tommy put the shulker in his inventory, looking over at Mumbo. “What about you?”
“I’m not really the best at these fights, so I’m just geared up and hoping I don’t die helping people out of here.”
“Help people out? What, are some of the hermits chickening out?” Tommy joked to lighten the mood, but it didn’t help.
“No. No one is going to just run off during all this. Grian’s our friend, practically family. But plenty of the people from your old world have been visiting. And with how you’ve talked about them, I doubt all of them will leave even though they should. And… Xisuma isn’t here. I don’t know how its supposed to work, but if he’s not here, we might not respawn.”
Tommy felt his blood run cold. He hadn’t thought of that. He could actually die. It had been so long since he was worried, having only one canon life left. He remembered Xisuma telling him he had ten, and every time he asked if a death counted, the admin said it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t until election 2 that he thought it had to be canon when he finally realized that he was never going to run out of lives. No one was. But now he could. 
“Well, I know them best. I should probably help with that.”
“You’re a better fighter, if either of us is going after Grian, it should be you.”
“Look, how about we just both fly over there now and help get people out, and when the fighting starts, we fly back to give whoever was already fighting a break.” Tommy suggested, and Mumbo reluctantly agreed.
Grian was flying towards a new island, one he knew was going to have everyone that wasn’t supposed to be there. Maybe Tommy will be there too. No way, he’ll be after Grian. But some of those people were his friends, right? Don’t you remember, Tommy said they abandoned him, exiled him. He forgave Tubbo easily. That’s different. How? Oh shit what’s that. Did Grian build that? AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!
Grian stopped listening and actually focused on the portal that had appeared in front of him. He hadn’t made it, especially since he didn’t have anyone to put there. So he tried to fly around it. It disappeared thankfully, but another appeared. Tubbo did say that cat was Tommy’s friend too. That was a cat? We could go and bring her back out. She might know where Tommy is! Oh that’s true! Grian dived into the portal.
“Oh look who finally dragged themselves home. It’s Xelqua.” Grian looked for the voice, then glared at them.
“You know I haven’t used that name since I was in your world Lynn.” Grian ruffled his feathers before preening them.
“Duck meat.”
“Mystic bitch.”
“Seed breath.”
“Rabbit freak.”
“Feather fart.”
“Pa-” “Grian, Lynn. Calm yourselves.” Grian stopped his insult to look at who approached.
“Sorry Zloy.” Grian said, rolling his eyes and then sticking his tongue out at Lynn.
“I saw that.”
“I know you did! What don’t we see?” Grian crossed his arms. Can he really boss you around like that? That dude is big. Bet you could- Grian shook his head to get those pesky voices to shut up. “Why am I here?”
“Pin was really upset that you left so early. Noah’s the only one that didn’t mind, but obviously you should have stayed longer.” Zloy spoke in a disapproving tone.
“Hey, Tommy is my brother. If Gxrgeous didn’t let things get this bad-” Grian started to complain, but Zloy cut him off.
“She doesn’t want to interfere like the rest of us.”
“Oh but Noah, Goof and Pin can? I’m a watcher because they interfered. You get more watchers by interfering.”
“And what, did you want Tommy to be one too?”
Grian felt his feathers puff up with agitation. “No! Of course not. I’m just saying she could have stopped things before they got to children being put in wars!”
“And here you are making more.” Lynn taunted Grian, making him even angrier.
“They started it by showing up in the first place to take Tommy! I only broke my promise to save him!”
“And what about now?” Zloy asked, drawing Grian’s attention back to him. “Why continue it?”
“Contin- What are you talking about? What, is Gxrgeous upset I’m helping out where she failed?”
“Pixlriffs, did you open up a window yet?” There was an answer of affirmation and suddenly Grian was staring into a watcher portal.
“And den we went to space! And dere were impastas and I got ta be one wit my dad, and we killed everyone and Sprinklez was so happy!” Crumb explained to Xisuma. The admin nodded along, half paying attention as he tried once more to access his admin panels and get them out of there.
“X! Where are we?!” Xisuma looked up and then around until he saw Iskall getting closer, falling from above with one of their other guests, Hbomb.
“I have no clue. I’m not getting any readings and I can’t access any admin panels to get us out of here.”
“Hey! You guys are my dad’s friends!” Crumb recognized Iskall, though she had only briefly seen him, and the other guy looked familiar, so that must have been who Sparklez said they just found. “We’ve been falling forever and it, well it was getting a little lonely but now we can share more stories!”
“Well, based on what was going on, might be something to do with Watchers with how Grian was looking. Though he was going to kill me when we saw him.”
“I have absolutely no clue what’s going on.” Hbomb spoke up, hoping the other three would have some explanation for him. Okay maybe just the two hermits, he wasn’t completely sure how much he would get out of Crumb.
“What does he mean with how I was looking? I’m just trying to hang out with my family!” Grian argued, making Zloy look a little confused.
“Grian, you started using your watcher powers to attack people. You threw those four in a Watcher portal, but as there is no new world prepared yet, they’re stuck in a place where no world exists.”
“What? But, I mean while I have trouble controlling myself when I’m using my watcher powers, I can remember everything once I’m a little more lucid. I mean, you remember the explosion.”
“Of course, Pixlriffs ran to me as soon as he noticed it was happening. Do you really not remember this going on?” Grian shook his head. “That’s not good. And we can’t look into it much if you’re here, so we’ll have to send you back.”
“Zloy, if you have to interfere, don’t let people get hurt.” Grian suddenly felt small and nervous, scared for his friends' safety. “And please, try not to let me go too haywire.”
“We can try, but until we know what’s going on…”
“I get it. But you better get Gxrgeous’ help too since this involves them now.”
“We will.”
Another portal appeared and Grian recognized the world of Hermitcraft on the other side. He didn’t want to go through, but if he didn’t now, he might never get to return. So he stepped through. Do you really think they know what they’re doing? Yoooo it was Zloy. Are you new, we’ve seen him before. We still need to keep Tommy safe, right? Hey Philza logged in. The dadza! Dadzaaaaaa. Guys, now I want pizza. What if he takes Tommy? Oh yeah, he shouldn’t be here either. Infinity portal time guys.
Grian sped up his flying, more determined to reach the island now.
Tommy was surprised to see a familiar avian as he and Mumbo landed on the island. “Phil? What are you doing here?”
The hardcore player looked surprised to see Tommy so soon. “I’m actually here for you Tommy. What’s going on?”
“Grian’s gone crazy and is apparently attacking people. I’m here to help get people back to the smp with Mumbo.” He moved to push Philza back through the portal. “So now is like the worst time for a visit.”
“Feels like it’s more of a perfect time to bring you back.”
Tommy, who was more focused on helping everyone else, suddenly looked over at Philza. “What? No, I’m staying! I’m staying right here! You should understand that! I’m going to help Grian! Just because you didn’t have him for like 15 years or something, doesn’t mean he’s not family!”
Philza grabbed Tommy’s arm. “And that’s exactly why you should come back. I saw him start going on a rampage because of you. What if this is just some of the same?”
Tommy shook his head. “That could just mean me leaving could make it worse.”
“Guys! I know your argument must be very fascinating, but I’m pretty sure that’s Grian flying towards us!” Mumbo yelled to get their attention and Philza and Tommy looked up to where the redstoner was pointing, Grian indeed flying towards them. 
Tommy yanked his arm away and started to pull out his shulker box when purple energy formed around the watcher avian and suddenly he was gone. Tommy’s eyes scanned the sky until a yell came from right behind him. When the blond turned, he had to crane his neck up to see the form Grian had taken. He looked like something out of stories he heard from one of the hermits. Angels with multiple wings and eyes covering them. Tommy could tell it was Grian, but at the same time, he didn’t.
“Dear lord.” Tommy heard Mumbo mumble. Grian was holding Philza in talons as a portal slowly formed made mostly of bedrock. Though Tommy was upset at his dad, he still didn’t want anything to happen to him. Fortunately the hardcore player could handle himself and stabbed Grian. He dropped to the ground and lost his health, but not knowing where that portal would lead, it was a better option. 
Tommy ran to his dad, ready to defend him, but the Watcher’s attention was drawn by another smp member who was trying to get to the infinity portal. With a swipe of a wing, Grian pushed the smp member into his own portal. A moment later he was going after someone else.
“Tommy, He’s after people from the smp.” Philza realized. “He’s going to go after you.”
Tommy didn’t want to believe it, but he knew the communicators didn’t work between worlds. That’s why they couldn’t find Xisuma or Tubbo. “Then let him, Tubbo’s gone. He’s got to be in there too.”
“No Tommy. If he’s after us, he won’t stop until we’re all gone. If you want to help Grian, you have to come home!” Tommy was pulled to look his father in the eyes. He hadn’t seen Philza look this scared in ages. And he was probably right. 
“Okay fine. Let’s go back.” Tommy nodded, and then followed his dad towards the infinity portal. Right before they could reach it, Grian noticed and dropped the person he was holding to go after Tommy, but before he could reach them, they had gone through.
The moment they got to the other side, Tommy regretted his decision. “What’s Dream doing here? Why isn’t he in the vault.”
“Tommy, come on, don’t be so harsh.” Dream spoke, trying to seem like no threat, but Tommy knew better and drew his weapon. “You came back with your dad, so as promised I won’t be too harsh on you.”
Tommy inhaled sharply, turning to look at Phil. “You were working with him?! Grian’s back there and you thought that bringing me back to Dream was going to be better than me helping my brother?!”
“Tommy, he-”
“I don’t want to hear it! I’m sick of trusting you! You always say you’re going to be there for me, but then you turn around and work with someone who’s going to hurt me.”
“Tommy, I’m your friend, I won’t-”
“Shut up green bitch. I’m going back!”
“No, you’re not going back Tommy. Once everyone comes back from visiting that little vacation world of yours, we can close the portal.” Dream spoke, sounding much too confident on something that wouldn’t be happening.
“Then we’ll have to close it now. If they haven’t come in now, they’re not coming through.”
Dream chuckled. “Oh I’m sure they’ll come through. I’ve got someone over there to bring them to the portal.”
“Kinda hard if Grian already got to them.” Tommy crossed his arms. “He’s tossing them in some weird bedrock portal and they’re disappearing. Unless Tubbo came back here.”
Dream stopped. That wasn’t supposed to be happening. “No, they were supposed to be put back through the infinity portal.”
It took a bit for Tommy’s mind to comprehend what Dream meant before he jumped to attack the former admin. “What the fuck did you do to Grian?! This is your fault, isn’t it?! Tubbo’s gone because of you!”
“It’s fine.” Dream gritted out. “He… the watcher messed with you. Saving you when you were falling. Ranboo didn’t have enough of his signature on him, but you. You’ve got to be around him all the time. I can use that.” Tommy tried to run, but Dream anticipated it. “Philza, grab him.”
Raven wings trapped Tommy. He turned around to yell at his dad, but there was just a blank look on his face. “What the fuck are you doing to my family?!” Tommy yelled, trying to escape the wings on his own with little luck.
“I’m just going to make sure everyone comes home and then we can go back to how things were before you ran away. And what better way to do that then to use the power of a Watcher.” Tommy wanted to argue again, but the handle of an axe crashed against his head, and the world went dark.
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Here’s another chapter! Y’all are gonna hate the ending.
@petrichormeraki
Grian knocked on the closet door. “Hey Xannes, I know you’re in there.”
“I’m busy! Go away!” Evil Xisuma’s voice came from inside.
“If you don’t come out now, I can get rid of the door completely and let people see inside. NPG’s told me it’s private information, but I’m sure sharing would be fine.”
There was silence before Xannes spoke again. “I’ll be right out!” There was a bit of clattering and then the hels admin opened the door as little as he could while also being able to squeeze through it.
“Nice sweater.” Grian pointed at the bright pink and yellow sweater Xannes was wearing before he quickly pulled it off and balled it up before throwing it into the closet.
“What the fuck do you want?” Then he looked over at Tommy. “And why is he here?”
“We need to get back to Hermitcraft and that’s Tommy. He’s from our dimension, not this one. We already met Theseus.”
Xannes crossed his arms. “And what do I get out of it?”
“You could come visit Hermitcraft again?” Mumbo suggested, but the admin just shook his head. “I thought you wanted that.”
“Oh, of course I do, but you know how I’m always visiting with NPG? That’s because my brother won’t let me in without him. Since he’s busy with Theseus, I can’t go anywhere.”
“Hey, before we left visiting, he said something about messaging you. Any chance that could be about NPG?” Tommy piped up.
Xannes hummed in acknowledgement before pressing something on his helmet. “So he did. Something I’ll need to tell Prof about. He’s actually going to be away for a few days to visit family. Something about seeing distorted mirrors or whatever.” He pressed the button again. “Alright, call NPG here and we can go.”
“Do I really need to discuss this? I have gone over this with my one dad before and have recovered from the events connected to my brainwashing.” Grum tried reasoning with Puffy who was insisting he had a therapy session with her. “I think there are more important matters to discuss other than my mental health.” 
“Your mental health is extremely important. Especially when you’re stuck in an unfamiliar place. And I’m not sure that having your dad as a therapist is the best practice.”
Grum frowned. “Technically a therapist should not have any relation with their patient outside of business work, usually up to three years I believe. But our admin is not fond of us leaving our world, so Daddy is the only option.”
“Well a second opinion would still be a good idea.” Puffy said, and Grum sighed before slumping in his seat. “I’m guessing that’s you reluctantly agreeing?”
“Yes, however I do have a condition.”
“What’s that?”
Grum gave a slight smirk. “That’s to have a significant influence on or determine the manner or outcome of something. But that’s not important right now. My condition is That between your questions for me, you allow me to ask my own questions.”
“Alright, but I may not answer everything you ask. Somethings may be a bit hard to hear or take too much explaining.”
“That is better than nothing.”
“Alright, so your brother mentioned you were brainwashed. How did that happen?”
“On our server, a system was started to buy plots of land on which to build shops, a ten by ten meter area being sold for one diamond block. It was started as a joke, but everyone went along with it. Soon there was a large diamond pile sitting in the middle of the shopping district. Dad thought someone needed to be in charge of it and created a town hall to place the blocks in and then created an election for mayor, nominating Daddy as a candidate. There were five total candidates, but by election, one had dropped out. One of the candidates was someone named Stress.
“She joined the election with Iskall as her running mate with a slogan and choice of colors. Meanwhile I was created to help my dads win. Just before the official election, Iskall appeared at my platform to get ideas from me. I refused to help anyone other than my dads, so he broke in and rewired me. Dad tried to help fix me when he found out what happened, but he does not know redstone well and only slightly fixed it. Daddy then came over and fixed me, but at that point, the stress of what happened and the fact that it was election day and it didn���t seem like my dads were winning ended with me breaking down.”
“That does sound like a lot to happen to someone so young. Even if as a robot you have the mental capacity of someone older, from what you’ve told me, you aren’t even a year old yet.”
“Correct.”
“Now, you said certain slogan and certain colors. What-”
“No. It is my turn for a question. Do you know someone by the name of Tommy Innit?”
“Uh, yes I do.” Puffy replied, waiting for Grum to ask more, but he simply nodded. “Are you going to ask more?”
“No. I have asked my question and now it is your turn.”
“Right. What were those colors and slogan?”
“I do not want to repeat the slogan. However, Stress was fond of alliums and used their dye.”
“Well then, that seems like something we should cover. The slogan likely may be a trigger to you.”
“Yes. How do you know Tommy?”
“I’ve… met him and his family before.”
Grum narrowed his eyes. “Is that all you are willing to say?”
“It’s my turn for a question.” Puffy responded, and Grum had to concede to his own rules. “How are you around Stress and Iskall?”
“Fine. They are my aunt and auncle now. Stress may have been running, but Iskall was acting on his own. At the time they were unaware how sentient of a being I was and is greatly apologetic for what they have done. They are very close with my dads and usually messed with things they ade, so at the time it seemed no different to him. Is Tommy from this server.”
“From this server? No, I believe he’s from SMP Earth.”
Grum had to keep himself from cursing. Now he was sure she was dodging his questions.
“Have you ever had negative experiences around Stress and Iskall after the initial incident?”
“Yes, the most prominent was when I first saw Iskall after getting my new body. After that was when I found a campaign sign that had not been taken down.” Grum paused before asking his question, having an idea. “If I asked you to give me a diamond and ask me a certain question with the guarantee that afterwards I would let you ask all your own questions and none more from me, would you do it?”
“I… suppose I could. I would have to find a dia-” Grum pulled one of on his inventory, always keeping a few on him for Jrum. “I guess that will work, what’s the question?”
“Ask me ‘Who is Tommy Innit?’”
This time Puffy looked unsure, but reluctantly she handed Grum the diamond back and asked the question. The diamond disappeared as it started up Grum’s system. He was primed, he bootloaded his brain, he flooded the mayoral reservoirs and then, he found the answer.
“Tommy Innit is the youngest son of Philza Minecraft, former ruler of the Antarctic Empire. He has three brothers. After the decline of the Antarctic Empire, Tommy was allowed to join the ↸∷ᒷᔑᒲ ᓭᒲ!¡ ᔑリ↸ ∴ᒷリℸ ̣  𝙹リ ℸ ̣ 𝙹- ℸ ̣ 𝙹- ℸ ̣ 𝙹- ℸ ̣ 𝙹- ℸ ̣ 𝙹- Gᒷt ⊣o∷gᒷo⚍s.”
Grum was holding his head. Something was wrong. It.. purple. Why was it purple? He couldn’t think right. Why? Why again? Was it because they were talking about it all and he tried to access the mayoral reservoirs? “⍑ᒷꖎ!¡. ⍑ᒷꖎ!¡. ⍑ᒷꖎ!¡. !¡∷𝙹ᓵᒷᓭᓭ𝙹∷ ⎓ᔑ╎ꖎ╎リ⊣. ∷ᒷ!¡ᔑ╎∷ᓭ リᒷᒷ↸ᒷ↸. ꖎ𝙹ᓵᔑℸ ̣ ᒷ ᔑ↸ᒲ╎リ╎ᓭℸ ̣ ∷ᔑℸ ̣ 𝙹∷. ⍑ᒷꖎ!¡. ⍑ᒷꖎ!¡. ⍑ᒷꖎ!¡. ⍑-⍑ e l p m e. D a d s h e l p m e!”
“Du du du, du du durudu, du du du duuu! D-d-dance Grian! Du du du, du du durudu, guinea pig dance! D-d-dance Grian!” Jrumbot was singing while in the nether, mining up some quartz, both for redstone as well as for snacks. “Du du du, du du durudu, du du du duuu! D-d-dance Grian! Du du du, du du durudu, guinea pig dance! Dance dance dance dance da-da-dan guinea pig, guinea pig, guinea pig, guinea pig. Dance dance dance dance dancedance, guinea pig dance!”
He heard the sound of a piglin and immediately stopped to make sure his gold booties were on, glad to see they were, then he realized that it wasn’t actually a piglin, but a zombie piglin, and a young one at that. Then, he realized it wasn’t just a normal sound. The noises were in the same tune as the song he had just been singing. “Hello? Is someone there?”
The noises stopped and jrum would furrow his brow if he had one. Then he got an idea. “Well! I guess I was just hearing things!” He said a little louder than needed before going back to the song. This time he paid attention as the humming of a baby ziglin started up again and Jrum started walking towards it, lowering his voice volume so whoever it was couldn’t tell he was coming closer.
Finally Grum found a hole and peaked inside, scaring the young Ziglin. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you! I just heard you humming along to me!” They were quiet, but Jrum did get a wave from the mob. “My name is Jrum! What’s yours?”
The Ziglin snorted and Jrum smiled. “Oh! Michael is a very nice name! What are you doing in a hole?” Another few snorts. “Huh, I guess that makes sense. My dads kept my brother in a box until it was okay to move him so he could get a body like the one I’m in! I got mine at the same time too by the way.”
Jrum chatted with Michael for a bit before something was said that made the ziglin sad. “Aww, what’s wrong?” Jrum asked, listening to the snorts in response. “Aww, well I hope Boo can find Bee. I got lost once and my dads found me, so I’m sure that your parents can find each other too!” A single happy snort. “Yes, Boo! He can do it. Wait behind me?”
Michael had shaken his head and pointed behind Jrum. When the robot turned around, he had to crane his head up at the figure that towered above him. They were half black and half white with the purple eyes of an enderman, streaks going down on the white side of their face from the eye. Jrum thought he also saw some mirrored on the black side, but it was hard to tell.”
“Who are you and why are you with Michael?”
“Um, I’m Jrum and I was mining in here while singing and then Michael sang along and now we’re friends.”
“I see. And what were you mining for?”
“Quartz! I’m a robot and so is my brother and we eat quartz instead of normal food, plus I need it for some redstone things.”
“I see. And are you-”
“Am I what?” Jrum asked when the person stopped talking, their eyes fading from purple and into green and red.
“Oh! Hello! Who are you?”
“Um… Jrum?” Jrum was confused by a number of things. The person’s changing eye colors, the repeated question, the tone of their voice changing from serious to chipper and finally the change to the common language. “You asked that already.”
“I did?” He asked, and then pulled out a book. “I don’t have anything written down about meeting someone like you.”
“Well we just met a minute ago. You asked what I was doing with Michael.”
“Oh, did you make a friend Michael?” The young ziglin nodded and then the person started writing in his book.
“Um, so what’s your name?”
“Oh! I’m Ranboo.”
Jrum smiled a little at the name. “Oh! Michael said his parents were Bee ‘n Boo, so you must be Boo!”
“That’s right. You’re able to understand him?”
“Yep!” Jrum nodded. “When I go to visit my sort of big brother he lets me visit Prof and Prof likes to give me presents like a language translator! My brother has one too!”
“What’s your brother’s name?”
“He’s Grum. We sort of got stuck in this world for a bit but we’re gonna try and find a way back and even if we can’t I’m sure our dads can find us!” Ranboo nodded and wrote down more in his book, making Jrum speak up again. “What’s that?”
“Oh, um… It’s my memory book. I’m not… entirely the best at remembering, so I write stuff down.”
“Oh! That’s cool!” Jrum smiled. “Well, I’m gonna go back to mining! Bye Michael! Bye Dad Boo!” And Jrum skipped away, humming a new song that mentioned being AFK.
“Mumbo! Mumbo Mumbo Mumbo Mumbo!” Grian started shouting, trying to get the redstoner’s attention.
“What’s wrong?”
“Look!” And Grian shoved his communicator in Mumbo’s face. “They’re alive! Or at least… they’re not completely gone!”
Tommy and Phil also came over to see what was going on as Mumbo read messages on Grian’s comm. “They both ran out of battery.”
“Yes! I mean, it’s not good because I doubt they have a way to charge again, which is not a good sign, but it means that they’re not gone forever!”
“Wait, how do you know that?” Phil asked and Grian showed him the phone.
“We set something up a while ago so we get notifications for them when something happens like they run out of battery or get badly damaged. Looking at the timestamps, these were sent while we were in Helscraft, but we didn’t get the notifications until coming back to this dimension.”
“Is there any way to track the signal?” Tubbo asked, making Grian light up.
“Maybe! It would take a lot of time though, so it might be good to have someone here work on that while we check the-” Grian stopped, his comm buzzing. “What?”
Tommy leaned in to read the new messages.
[Bot Status] Grum has run into a processing error
[Bot Status] Grum has run into a database error
[Bot Status] Grum has run into a mental error
[Bot Status] Grum has shut down due to extreme stress
[Bot Status] Jrum has encountered a virus
[Bot Status] Virus has been dealt with
[Bot Status] : )
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i have food poisoning and it sucks, but it meant i could just lie in bed writing, so here we gooooooo
@petrichormeraki
As Tommy paddled the boat, Tubbo watched their communicator. “It sounds like she’s not at… wherever we’re going anymore.”
Tommy cursed. “Any clue where to go now then?”
Tubbo glanced down at the messages.
<CaptainSparklez> She’s not there anymore!
<Rendog> How? It’s surrounded by water
<CaptainSparklez> She’s a shapeshifter, not a hybrid.
<Crumbl> yuoll nrrver find mee sprinklez
<CaptainSparklez> Again. You’re a shapeshifter. Why are there feathers left behind.
<Crumbl> I dinit mumch them.
Tubbo looked up and scanned the ocean before pointing out on the water. “Those feathers over there! It’s looking like she left them behind.”
Tommy smiled and turned the boat to follow the trail of feathers. It took a little bit, but the pair did reach land near a forest, though it had started raining. “Where do you think she is?”
Tubbo shrugged. “Don’t know. We don’t even know what she looks like.”
A calico cat walked nearby, then ran as the pair walked near it, making Tommy notice it. “Hey, must be a village nearby. Maybe she’s there for shelter?”
“I hope so. But she might just be hiding under some trees.” Tubbo suggested. As they continued to walk, Tommy saw movement near a tree and started to run toward it. Tubbo watched him run and then noticed the coloring of the form. “Tommy! Wait! That’s a-” The mob exploded. “-Creeper…”
“Aw myan!” The cat said as it sat down next to Tubbo, making them jump.
“Did that cat just talk?!” Tubbo said, nearly shouting from shock.
Said cat changed into what resembled a cat hybrid that reminded Tommy vaguely of Fundy. “Ye! I’m Crumb!”
“Cool! I’m Tommy and this is my friend Tubbo!”
Crumb tilted her head. “Ooo, really? Well I came here with Sparklez, he’s my dad. But i’m hidin’!”
“Want to hang out with us while you hide?” Tubbo suggested and the shapeshifter nodded, changing back into a cat and flopping over Tubbo’s shoulder. “Let’s boat back to your place and show it to Crumb.”
The now trio got into the boat and Tubbo watched as Crumb used her paw pads to type on her communicator and send a message.
<Crumbl> sprakle i made frends!
<Crumbl> Im gonna play wit tonmi and tubbox
Tubbo laughed. “I actually can be a Tubbox.” Tubbo said, making Tommy speak up as well.
“Tubbo in a box, what will he do?”
“Uwwu I’m so good at this!” Crumb replied proudly and Tubbo could feel her purr.
“So is what the captain said true?” Tubbo asked. “Are you really a shapeshifter, not a hybrid?”
“Ye! I um, I’m a badass shapeshifter!” Tommy and Tubbo tried not to laugh at the sound of this cat with a voice like that saying something like that, but they couldn’t hold it in and Crumb also started laughing along. “I’m super strong and beat the Ender Dragon when we had lotsa random potion effects!”
“That sounds so cool.” Tubbo complimented Crumb and then the three of them continued to chat as they rowed along.
Sparklez was glad to see another message from Crumb and see she had made some friends. When he read their names, he froze for a moment. It couldn’t be. This was nowhere near where he should have been. He shook his head. No, it was just coincidence. Crumb probably just misspelled it when typing.
<CaptainSparklez> Alright Crumb, have fun. Just don’t get in trouble.
He laughed as a message came back, distracting him from his previous train of thought.
<Crumbl> No prmosed! Were ginna conmit crim!
“I’m a danger to society!” Crumb shouted as she pounced on a chicken, no longer just a cat, but looking like a very squishy cat that could be mistaken as a stuffed animal at a glance. She had wanted to stay a cat, but by complete chance, another calico cat showed up and Tommy and Tubbo nearly went after the normal cat. She also liked how the pair approved of such a squishy looking cat going left and right killing mobs.
When a parrot flew above her, she jumped to try and grab it, but it was just a little too high for her to reach. “Come down here! I wanna eat you! Mumnch and crumnch!”
The parrot squawked and flew over to land on Tommy’s head. “Oh, leave this one alone. I think this is one of Grian’s. Part of his pesky bird delivery service. 
“But it just looks so tastyyy! Crumb jumped again. It made Tubbo wonder how much of it was just how she acts, or if being a cat so long made her act like one.
“Oh, speaking of Grian. He sent me a message.” Tommy says as he pulls out his communicator. With the flood of messages from the visitors - well, one in particular - Grian sent the message on their own private chat.
<Grian> bring Tubbo if you want but it’s parrot brain hours
<TommyInnit> he probably won’t be coming. We made a friend with one of the guests. Don’t really want to leave her all alone.
<Grian> that makes sense.
<Grian> and bring any extra wheat you can
<TommyInnit> okay, definitely not letting Tubbo come. It’ll shatter my manly image.
<Grian> dad left me books about shifting and I’ve had plenty of time to read. Did you know I can just give myself a beak or talons without shifting completely?
<TommyInnit> woah, hey. Alright big G, I’ll be there as soon as I can.
Tommy looked up to see Tubbo glancing at their communicator. “He messaged me directly, H is talking too much.” Tubbo nodded. “Big G wants me for something. Okay if I let you two hang out by yourselves?”
“Ye! We’re gonna have lotsa fun together! And den we can go see my dad!”
“I can’t wait to meet him!”
Tommy waves and then starts to boat off, using it as a platform once he’s far enough out at sea to safely use his elytra. He stops at his base and goes through his chests, making some hay bales. Afterwards he flies to the mansion and up near the roof where he knows Grian is going to be. 
It was a room made in one of the side roofs of the mansion. The main one sat above the great hall with windows wide open, but the areas to the side were a little more closed off. This one also had a large window, but there usually wasn’t much in there.
Right now however, the place was littered with a few beds and wool and hay bales. Grian was in the center of it all, wings spread out. In the small room they looked much larger. 
“Hey, I brought the hay.” Tommy joked, holding out the bundled wheat. Grian immediately took it and started spreading it around. “Hoo boy. Are you sure you don’t want Mumbo here, orrrr?”
“Oh he definitely wants me here.” Mumbo’s voice speaks up as he pushes a wing off him, only for it to flop back down, pinning his legs. His tie is loose and his suit is a mess along with his hair. “It’s been fine for a while. Just stay in bed, maybe wake up in the middle of the night to a nightmare. I forgot how he gets when he’s like this.”
Tommy nodded. He had only really seen this twice. The first time he managed to decline, much to Grian’s dismay, but the second time there was no way out of it with Grian now knowing they were brothers.
Tommy knows he could have said no this time, but seeing everything that happened the day of the war and the night following made Tommy worried, and he wanted to be there.
Grian smiles as he finishes moving blocks and beds and carpets around. He nudged a few stray pieces of wheat and cotton around with his feet and wings. He knows it would be so much easier to use his hands, but it just doesn’t feel right. 
The avian stares at the nest he’s built. It’s perfect. Maybe a little small for right now, but that’s just because the kids are still on their way. He thinks that he could make it bigger. Big enough to fit the rest of his family, but they aren’t around. So he settles for Mumbo and Tommy. 
He pulls Tommy into the nest, making sure he’s comfortable before putting each of his wings around Tommy and Mumbo. Mumbo half bats the wing away as feathers get into his mouth, but he’s too exhausted from helping to set this up in the first place to complain much more.
Grian holds them close. He could lose everything else if he still had the people he cared about most. He would do anything to protect them.
Crumb is excited as Tubbo boats the two of them towards the shopping district. She really wanted her dad to meet her new friend. And Tubbo was very much a new friend with a nickname and everything.
When they landed, she hopped out of the boat and shifted to a hybrid form before running off to find her dad. Tubbo was left running behind her, aging a little trouble keeping up.
“Sprinklez!!! Look at my new friend!” She jumped into her dad’s arms, shifting back into her cat form. He looked around not seeing anyone for a moment before a panting Tubbo caught up.
“You… couldn’t have… waited for me?” Tubbo panted out, trying to catch his breath.
“Dis is Tubbox! He has another friend but but but I don’ have a good name for him yet so he’s just Tommy.”
Sparklez smiles and shifts Crumb to hold out a hand. “Nice to meet you. Captain Sparklez. But most people just use my last name or even just use Jordan. The one exception being Crumb who likes to call me Sprinklez or of course just Dad.”
Tubbo’s eyes sparkle. “Wait, you’re the Captain?! I’ve heard so much about you! You travel across so many worlds and are known for the songs you’ve written and your curse! I mean, the curse isn’t the most popular thing to know about, but uh…”
Sparklez just laughed. “It’s fine. I’m sure I’m going to get rid of it soon enough. Glad to meet another fan, especially if you’re friends with Crumb now.”
“Yeah, she’s pretty pog.” Tubbo jokes and they continue to talk. He doesn’t give his real name since Crumb seems to like using ‘Tubbox’. He doesn’t know how much it could change their life’s if he did.
The netherite blocks go up and there’s the sound of redstone being messed with. He looks out to watch as the lava slowly disappears. Across the chasm he can see an equally black and white figure. He can already feel the energy on them.
Even with his admin powers gone, he still has some tricks up his sleeve. And there are always strings to pull.
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So, happy eggs benedict day to those who watch dsmp. I’m sure you’ll have fun today! I know I will when you all read this chapter and freak out at the end! also gonna apologize for the formatting. I wasn’t sure how to replicate what I did while writing it, so I’m doing that instead.
@petrichormeraki​
“Hey Tommy?” Phil took the teen over to the side, wanting to speak with him. “Since Grian is still talking with his admin-”
“He’s my admin too. You saw that the other me was in their world.”
“Right, fine. While he’s talking to your admin, I’ve got a question.”
“Alright, shoot.”
“When you were talking with that other you… D-Did Kristen show up?”
“Mumza? Uh, no. Why d’ya ask?”
“Well, I guess you wouldn’t know. She wasn’t really around when you were growing up. But she’s sort of… a goddess of death.”
Tommy’s eyes widened. “She’s what?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah, no. Mumza didn’t show up. You did. Or the other version of you. I guess you’re the death god there instead of her.”
“Right. Well, anything else happen, mate?”
“After the other you showed up, the other me got taken away by him and told me the thing to say to Xannes.”
“Alright. Thanks for telling me Tommy.”
“Theseus. Theeeeeeeseus. Theseus! Wake up!”
“Ugh… where am I?”
“Prison. Specifically Base Iridium.”
Theseus shook his head to wake himself up more. “Wait where the fuck am I?!”
“I just said you’re-”
“No what the fuck is this?!” Theseus shouted and tried moving around, only making the sound of chains jingling.
“Ohhhh, enchanted bedrock casket to make sure you can’t move. But hey, At least we get face holes. Aaaand you’re hyperventilating.”
“How do I get out?! Let me out!”
“If I knew how to get out, I would have aaaaaages ago and gone to see Sense!”
“W-Wait, S-Sense like the e-evil r-redstone guy?”
“Yes! With a wonderful mustache and sexy suit of his~”
“Oh eww gross. You’re just as bad as him.” Theseus cringed.
“How’s he doing?”
“Half starved to death and had his vocal cords ripped out.”
“He. What.”
“The new emperor of Helscraft or whatever did it. Kicked him off the throne and trapped him in whatever was there instead of the nether.”
“No! Now I need to get out!” Chain rattling filled the air.
“Uh hey, what’s your name by the way?”
There was a pause from the rattling. “Oh you heard I changed it? It’s Grifter now.”
“Uh, didn’t know you started with anything else.”
“Hiii Puffy! I’m baaack! Did you an’ Grum talk about stuff?” Jrum walked into Puffy’s home holding a lot of quartz in his arms. He knew he could just put it in his inventory, but this was more fun.
“Yes we did, though… well it was a little rough for him, so he’s... out building a place for you to stay near your charger until you can get home, alright?”
Jrum nodded, accepting the answer without question before setting his haul down on a table and picking up a piece quartz to chew on. “I made a new friend! His name is Michael!”
“Oh, that sounds nice.”
“Yeah! And then I went exploring and I found a big cave!”
“In the nether?” Puffy asked, only half paying attention right now while hoping Jrum would get distracted talking. She knew the bot’s brother wasn’t really out building after his panic attack, but duckling Dream had been kind and offered to help the child.
“It looked kinda like it, but no. It kinda looked like something Uncle Scar would make. It was pretty. He once built a humongous drill to get to the nether. A-And then some of the nether started climbing out, but the hole was waaaaay too big so it didn’t have any chance!”
“That sounds creative.”
“Yeah! He also made a magic village with a big magic crystal, and apparently it helps connect to the hels dimension, so I made a friend there!”
“What’s that?” Puffy asked with a tilt of her head. 
“Oh, the hels dimension is a place parallel to this dimension, but it’s not like another dimension like the overworld and the nether are different dimensions to themselves, hels is like… us, but through a mirror! A funhouse mirror! Like my daddy is really good at redstone like me, and he can get frazzled at times, but he’s really nice. But then there’s the hels version of him who’s like a big mean evil scientist!”
“Oh really. And I suppose you made friends with your hels version?” Puffy asked with a small smile, but Jrum frowned and found his antenna to tug on, squeezing the little blue ball at the end.
“Uh, no. Grum and I were built by our dads, but in hels, they got separated and so they couldn’t build us. So… we don’t have our own hels versions.”
Puffy frowned sadly. “Do you want to talk about that?
“Yeah. I’ve tried telling my dads, but they just sort of reassure me without really listening.”
Puffy got a chair set up for Jrum, ready for an impromptu therapy session which she hoped wouldn’t end as bad as the last one. “Now, what’s bothering you most?”
“Well, the fact that we don’t have our other versions kinda hurts because it sort of makes me feel like we’re less real. I know my dads say that we’re of course real, but it doesn’t hurt less because they just sort of say it and not give reasons. In fact, they sort of give us less reasons because they were really protective about us respawning since they didn’t know how that would work. I mean, I guess they had a reason to worry since Grum and me are here now, but the fact they couldn’t trust us with that kinda hurts.
“And then we need to be charged up as well as eat, but we don’t need to worry about phantoms. I guess it’s a trade off, but no one else has to deal with that! It feels weird! From what Xisuma said, he needed to mess with some files to get us read properly by all his admin stuff, and he didn’t need to do that for others sort of like us, so why are we different?!”
Puffy hugged Jrum to comfort the now crying robot. The small whispers of reassurance helped a little, telling him he really was a person and that he would be safe. Jrum was glad for them he didn’t like the mess he was in, and the fact that it came from not really being a person made it sting even worse. So he was very happy to find someone who would listen and understand.
System hard drive crash. Attempting recovery. Recovering… Recovering… 92% of data recovered. Rebooting… Rebooting… Essential data missing. Please insert external drive for troubleshooting.
External drive connected. Reading external data. 16 files located. Do you wish to replace data with files? Backing up old files. Backing up… Backing up… Data has been backed up. Replacing data. Replacing… Replacing… Replacement complete. Restarting. One moment.
Restart complete. Checking systems. 100% data found. Implementing… Implementing… Files implemented.
Are you sure you want to rename this machine? Renaming… Renaming… Renaming complete. Restart needed to fully implement. Restarting. One moment.
Welcome. Please continue with s s s set u u up. Ch ch choose a l l lan. :) 
Grumbot sat up with a start. He was pretty sure if he wasn’t a robot, he’d be breathing heavily. He put a hand to his head before looking around. It looked like he had been put in a room with a bed, but he didn’t recognize it, and no one else was there.
Grum tried to remember what happened. Had he run out of battery? Or had he gotten damaged. No, he had been trying to [: )] and it didn’t work out. He had also been with Puffy, so perhaps this was another room in her house. It wasn’t one he had seen before, but he also hadn’t really gone exploring.
Getting up from the bed and stretching, Grum decided to do just a little bit of looking around the room to make sure this really was Puffy’s place. He didn’t want to end up in someone else’s place and get in trouble. Though perhaps it was a similar situation to [: )] when they showed up on [: )].
That was another thing he almost forgot. Jrum. Was he okay? He didn’t know how long they had been separated and if it were long enough, he could have gotten in trouble. He had always taken after their [: )] and if the people here weren’t the happiest about stuff like that, it might not end well.
Well, as he looked around, the place seemed safe, and after carefully breaking a piece of the wall before putting it back, he was still at Puffy’s home. He attempted to contact Jrum, but it seemed that function wasn’t working. Possibly because they were no longer in [: )] and it was something there that allowed a direct connection between the two of them.
Grum’s eyes landed on a piece of paper he hadn’t noticed before. It seemed to be a note of sorts, so he read it. It seemed to be from the admin. He wrote how Puffy said Grum passed out and she went to check on Jrum to make sure the same didn’t happen to him. That if he would like, the admin could check him over and make sure everything was fine and there were no programming issues.
The robot rolled his eyes. He wouldn’t have any issues. [: )] and [: )] had built him just fine, Plus Jrum had gotten the two of them updates from [: )] so they were even better. There was no reason to see the admin, especially because…
Because…
Because why? This person was the admin, so he would just be making sure the server ran as smoothly as possible. He likely was just worried. That was all. What admin wouldn’t? And they hadn’t done anything to make Grum think otherwise. If they did, then maybe he would need to be wary. But so far, nothing. 
Puffy suggested they get a treat for Jrumbot to help him cheer up and Jrum wiped away his virtual tears before following her. As they left, neither of them noticed the small red plant wrapping around the antenna and connecting to the now red ball on the end of it.
“Ah ha. Nice joke Theseu- wait a second.” There was silence. “You’re not my brother.”
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The comment section from Ao3 sort of helped with this fic. and by that I mean certain people can hear their comments. if you want that to happen to you, go to the work on Ao3 and leave some comments!
@petrichormeraki
Mumbo wasn’t sure what the look on the two smp member’s faces were concerning. “Does… does he have a base with plenty of defenses? If so, I’m sure there’s got to be a weak point that he-”
“Dream doesn’t really have a base. He’s essentially homeless.” Techno answered Mumbo. “The best chance we have is possibly tracking Dream and tailing him for a while, but that likely won’t work. There’s a chance that he may be at the vault, but construction there only recently finished, and that’s only the exterior as far as I know.”
“Then we’ll have to try there.” Mumbo replied. “If he isn’t then we’ll keep looking.”
Techno rolled his eyes. “Look, I want to see my brother again as much as I’m sure you do, but that’s going to take some preparation. That place is supposed to be unbreakable.”
“I’ve got a book from Impulse. I can get through bedrock if I need to. I’m going to do anything to get Grian back.”
“Who?” Techno tilted his head.
“Right, yes. I’m such a spoon. He’s going by the name Grian now. Has for a long time.”
Sapnap treaded carefully, not knowing why Dream wanted to meet with him. He wasn’t sure why the admin gave coordinates so far out until his eyes spotted what seemed to be a building in the distance. He was wondering if this was someone’s base that they didn’t know about until now until he could see Dream there and working on building it. “What the fuck is this Dream?”
Dream looked over and spoke with a smile in his voice. “My evil lair. Out here where no one is likely to find it.”
“Never thought you’d try making a place for yourself.” He heard a noise that left him confused. “Do I hear parrots?” Dream nodded and then led him into the building. There were a few rooms they passed through first before getting to the largest of them that was filled with parrots. “Why the fuck do you have twelve parrots Dream?”
“Easier to lose one out of twelve than one out of one.” He then put down a jukebox and played a disc of cat. “And I can do that.”
Sapnap just watched, wondering if this was really why he had been asked here. “Alright. And did you just want to show me your new pets?”
Dream turned to look at his guest, trying to hide any disappointment in his voice as he stared at the magenta eyes that replaced the formerly black ones. “I actually have a proposition for you.”
After a small bit of nether travel which Tommy and Techno were reluctant on, Tommy since he was banned and Techno feeling they were unprepared, the trio reached the vault. Tommy contacted Sam at Mumbo’s insistence of learning information. He seemed to be taking a break at the time, so it worked well and the brothers talked with him, Mumbo staying off to the side.
So, I’m wanna go murder that green bastard. Yeah, let’s go commit some acts of violence! Anyone else concerned that all three of these guys have the exact same eye color? Dream please leave the vicinity of the family.; You cause problems. Blow up the vault!; Free Grian!!!!
Mumbo excused himself for a second and moved to somewhere nearby but private. “Alright, you have all been slightly helpful, but I really need you all to go away. I don’t need these people wondering why I’m not paying attention because I can hear hundreds of different people at once. You also aren’t supposed to be here in the first place anymore. Grian made that clear to me when we first got rid of you. Right now if you are planning to stay, I really need you to not be sending be violent messages and instead just help me figure out where Grian is.”
“What’s going on over here Jumboli?” Tommy spoke up, making Mumbo jump.
“Ah! Er, I’m just talking to myself. Building confidence and all that.” He tried to hide what was going on.
“Really? Cause it sounded like you were actually talking to someone else.”
Mumbo wasn’t sure how to deflect any more than he already had. “Nope, really I was. I mean, I was talking to myself. I don’t mean I was talking to someone else.”
Tommy nodded, but Mumbo wasn’t sure he bought it. “Well, Sam says Dream hasn’t visited recently, but the place is actually complete. They actually are weeks ahead schedule which, they’re not quite sure how they got that far ahead.”
Mumbo had an idea of why that might be based on how Tommy and Techno were acting. “Can we still look around? Just to be safe?”
Tommy shrugged. “I can ask.”
Sam let them into the building and Mumbo couldn’t help but gawk at everything. It was built so well and filled with amazing redstone. He’d never dream of making something like this back on Hermitcraft. It wasn’t needed. But it still really was impressive. He would need to come back once everything was fixed and take notes.
Multiple times Techno had to drag the hermit back as he started wandering off to check things in depth. He was so focused he didn’t realize the number of people trying to get him to check on Tommy until just a little too late.
“Tommy! There you are! I couldn’t find you in Logstedshire.” Mumbo heard the voice of Dream and he tried to enter the room to see what was going on, only to find a barrier in his way and mining fatigue keeping him from breaking through it.
“You came looking for me? I thought you weren’t coming back.”
“Tommy, I’m your friend. I wouldn’t just leave you back there forever. I guess I should have been more clear.” Mumbo moved enough that he could see the masked man facing Tommy. “That being said, you running away isn’t a good sign. And something tells me that gear isn’t something you got yourself. You were banned from the nether after all.”
Even though Tommy held a weapon, Mumbo could see Tommy’s hand trembling.
“You’re going to need to get rid of it before we go back.” Mumbo wasn’t sure how Dream could dig a hole with the mining fatigue. “Tools in the pit Tommy.” Mumbo watched in horror as Tommy got rid of all his items without hesitation. “I’m surprised Tommy.” Dream spoke again after a few unnaturally silent seconds after Tommy had given up everything. “You leave exile and break the other rules I gave you yet you were so quick to listen. Maybe things are finally getting through your head.”
TNT was placed and then lit, the explosion destroying Tommy’s items. Again, they just stood quietly before Dream left once more. Then the barrier fell and Mumbo was able to run to Tommy.
“Tommy, are you okay?” Mumbo placed a hand on Tommy’s shoulder. Techno walked up behind him, just lookin in the direction Dream had left.
Tommy turned to look at Techno and Mumbo, but his attention was drawn to his brother. “Techno, what the fuck is with your eyes?” Techno looked down, his magenta eyes meeting Tommy’s which had returned to their familiar blue.
“Ok thank goodness I’m not going completely crazy.” Mumbo sighed. “So far everyone’s eyes have been like that, and I didn’t think that was normal but no one was reacting to it.”
“The fuck are you talking about? They’ve been fine until right now.”
Mumbo shook his head. “No. They’ve been that way since I first saw you and you had them.”
Tommy wanted to argue, but before he did, he grabbed Mumbo’s hand and used his sword as a mirror. “They look fine now.”
“Well they are back to normal now, but until now they weren’t.”
“You’re telling me everyone except you and Tommy have the same eye color?” Techno asked, sounding skeptical.
“I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. I think this is even more of a reason to find Grian because this might be due to him.”
“How?” The piglin hybrid asked, making Mumbo rub the back of his head sheepishly.
“Well, I sort of left this part out, but Grian is also a Watcher.”
“A what?” Tommy asked, not knowing what that meant while Techno seemed to.
“We need to find Philza.”
Mumbo kept Tommy close to him as they walked into New L’Manburg. He followed Techno along as he brought them to a house that looked like it had broken into then boarded up. After seeing and hearing about the rest of the server, Mumbo wasn’t surprised, but Techno seemed to have not expected it as he started acting more cautious.
The hybrid broke the planks covering the door and stepped inside. “Phil? You in here?”
“Techno?” The voice of Philza spoke up, communicator in hand as he stepped into view. “I was just about to message you. They found the compass?”
“Who?”
“Quackity just showed up with Tubbo Fundy and Ranboo. They were asking about information on where you were then went through my chests until they found it.”
“Tubbo was here?” Tommy spoke up, making Philza look over at him.
“Yes, and he put me under house arrest.” The avian pointed to his boots. “I would have messaged you sooner, but we found something concerning.”
“We?”
“Hi!” Ghostbur came up through the floor with a wave. “There’s a basement that opens up to the void.”
“There’s no bedrock down there?” Tommy asked, but then Mumbo cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention.
“Look, I’m sure you all want to catch up seeing as how you’re family and all, but we really should wait until everyone is here for a family reunion.”
Philza shook his head. “I would prefer not to see Fundy again that soon.”
Mumbo looked confused for a moment before he remembered. “Oh right, he’s your grandson, isn’t he. No I was referring to Grian.”
The hardcore player didn’t recognize the name? “Grian?”
“He’s Xelqua.” Mumbo said exasperated, upset at himself for forgetting to give that detail once again. But it didn’t last long as he and the other two he arrived with looked at the one who had echoed his words.
Ghostbur looked between his family and Mumbo, wondering why they were staring. “Oh, did you guys not remember and I did? That’s a little out of character for me.”
“Are you telling me you remember Grian?” Mumbo asked, suddenly feeling hopeful.
“Yeah, he had a very nice mansion and gave me a blue feather.”
“He has a what?” Philza started to ask, but Mumbo signaled for him to be quiet.
“Alright, I suppose now is the best time to go over everything. I’m from a world Called Hermitcraft. Grian, or as you better know him as, Xelqua, lives there as well. Iskall too if Fundy mentioned him to you. One day out of the blue, Tommy showed up and ended up living with us for a few years even though it was just a few months for everyone here. Your admin Dream showed up to attack us and get Tommy back and while it didn’t work, for whatever reason everything went sideways and now everyone is back here, Grian and I included, no one can seem to remember anything, and Dream likely has Grian trapped!”
The others stared at Mumbo with a range of emotions from looking like he was crazy, to unsure, and to enthusiastic, though that last one was mainly Ghostbur.
“Now, you lot have a better understanding on how things go around here while I have a fair amount of resources. I’m sure if any of you have ideas of what to do, we can find some way to do it.”
“He does redstone stuff, so he may be the best we can do without Sam.”
“What?” Mumbo seemed offended. “You didn’t say that when I showed off my walking house.”
“You made a what?”
When the green man walked back into the room, Grian was very happy to see him holding seeds. He chirped, hoping they would be brought to him. But instead they were taken to another parrot. Why did the green man need so many parrots? Wasn’t he enough? Oh, but here he came and he had more seeds in his hand. They were even pumpkin seeds! His favorite!
But when he ate them, they seemed lacking. Maybe a little salt would be nice. And roasted too. That’s how Mumbo always made them. Who was that, a voice asked him. You’ve never heard of a Mumbo before, have you? Grian paused. That’s right. He didn’t know a Mumbo. The only one who gave him seeds was the green man. The green man asked him to do stuff and he would get seeds. He was a good parrot. With his mansion and barge and… wait what were those? He just had his little perch and cage.
Then he was given more seeds. The green man was happy about something. About someone named Tommy. Was that one of those other parrots? But then why was Grian getting seeds instead? Oh, maybe the green man wanted to call him Tommy? It wasn’t his favorite name, but it would do. Music started playing and he started to dance to it. It was so nice here. He couldn’t think of anywhere he’d rather be.
Grian had no clue where he was. It wasn’t Hermitcraft or the realm of the Watchers or any place he’d been before. Well, it was sort of familiar. It looked like he was in the middle of an infinity room. “Hello? Mumbo? Tommy? Xisuma? Anyone?” He called out, looking around. He tried to reach out for a wall but was too far away. He tried moving around but couldn’t seem to get any traction as he moved his feet. “Is anyone around? I think I’m a little stuck here. Did we fix everything?”
The question suddenly gave Grian an idea of what might be going on. “Did you lot put me in an infinity room to calm me down? Because I think I’m fine now. Can you tell me where the way out is?” There was still nothing. “Guys? Hello?”
Grian realized he had his wings shifted away and attempted to bring them back to test the ceiling, but they didn’t appear. “Um, guys? I’d really appreciate some sort of message or something. I’m beginning to panic a little.” He tried to reach for his communicator, but it was also missing.
“I know you probably just calmed me down from overloading my Watcher powers, but I really don’t like being stuck here, so I’ll wait until the count of three.” He counted down but there was still nothing. “Alright, hopefully this doesn’t take much.” Grian tried to reach inside himself for the suppressed energy but found it missing. And that’s when it finally dawned on him. “Oh… is this what death is?”
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I... don’t know what comment to make about this chapter. Oh, uh? i got like maaaaybe an hour of sleep last night? not even? I read fanfics.  @petrichormeraki
Grian ignored the other smp members as he tried to get through the portal. Stupid watcher form and stupid small portals! He just needed Tommy. Tommy needed to be safe. Mumbo wasn’t leaving so he would be safe, but Tommy was through this portal. That wasn’t safe.
He went through the portal himself, just leave him. No, obviously Philza pulled him in there. We are going a little crazy though, maybe it’s safer? No way!; We were protecting him, not Dadza. Should we even be calling him dadza? Watcher.; Release them from the portal. Is there any way to get smaller. I take back what I said about the 6 wings being cool, they’re just in the way now. Make one of the bots go there for him? If Jrumbot goes, he won’t be coming back. Lol yeah, he wouldn’t.
There were a lot of good suggestions, though two similar ones stood out. He could send someone through to get Tommy. Grian started to make another watcher portal to pull someone out, but then shook his head. No, why grab one of them? That wouldn’t be safe for Tommy. He closed the portal again, then looked around and grabbed Mumbo. The redstoner didn’t expect it and had no time to resist and now could only rest helplessly in Grian’s talons.
Grian plopped down on the ground to get better movement of his legs. For a moment things got even fuzzier. What did he have? Was it food? He moved it closer. Oh no, that’s Mumbo! That is not food. Why did he have Mumbo?
You idiot we need Grumbot. Is Grian okay? Guys, what if this is our fault? Mumbo can probably get us to Grumbot. DO NOT EAT THE MUMBO! Guys, it’s obvious why he thought Mumbo was food. Dude, say it and you might get banned. Watcher.; Release them from the portal. Lol I’m only joking. What if he just uses Mumbo instead of the bots? He can rebuild Grumbot if he dies. Dude, not cool. Noooo what if grumbot diesssss!
Grian briefly thought about opening the portal again. Grumbot wouldn’t like it if he got broken and Grian didn’t want to send Mambo there. Mambo. Mambo is a fun type of music. Is there any music around? That would be nice to listen to.
Aaand we’re losing him again. Is Zloy going to come fix this or what? Pixlriffs might instead. Guys, Caterpillar rave! Oh no what have you done! Boo chee boo chee boo chee bu.
Grian started dancing. The voices were making nice music. Oh and what was that? Mamb- Mumbo was saying something. “Grian? Are you okay? What’s going on?” That’s right, he wanted someone looking for Tommy! And Mumbo could do that, couldn’t he. So Grian put Mumbo through the portal. No the infinity portal. Why did he almost put Mumbo in the watcher portal. In fact, why was that there? He was supposed to get something from there right? Why did his head hurt so much?
Grian stopped thinking about that when Mumbo came back through the portal, but he didn’t have Tommy, so the Watcher pushed him back. But again he returned. And again and again and again! He couldn’t get Tommy back if Mumbo didn’t get Tommy. Wait, he was talking.
Grian focused on Mumbo as he spoke. “Grian, that portal that keeps appearing, did you put Xisuma and Tubbo in there? Yes or no.” Oh he was always so nice. He knew just what to do. “Yes. And. No.” Mumbo’s own voice came back.
“What do you mean yes and no?” Oh wait, how do I put it so you can answer. Hmm… Oh, maybe one at a time? Is Xisuma in there?” “Yes.” “Is Tubbo in there?” “No.” Mumbo rubbed his chin. “Okay, well, we still need Xisuma back.” Why did he need Xisuma back, he would just keep letting these enemies in. “Your form is a bit dangerous right now, and if you somehow killed one of us, there’s the chance we couldn’t come back.”
Grian scoffed at the idea. He wouldn’t hurt his friends. They were his friends! How could Mumbo suggest such a thing! But… Tommy probably had that fear. Maybe he had gone willingly because he was scared of that. Oh no what had he done! Grian opened the portal again and then flew into it.
Crumb had curled up on Iskall’s back and started to sleep. None of them had any idea how long they had been falling, just that slowly they had gone from one to two to four and now to seven. Iskall was projecting a game of checkers with his eye which two smp members were playing with to pass the time.
There was a noise, and everyone paused to look up, expecting to see someone new falling in to join them, but they were surprised to see Grian. The lack of gravity proved a problem as some smp members drew their swords and axes with enough force to actually start them spinning around. The Watcher stared down at everyone before speaking. “What is going on? I thought, well last I saw there were only four of you!”
“Grian?” Xisuma spoke up, hopeful about his lucid state. 
“Right, this is a watcher plane!” He ignored Xisuma for the time being. I wish I could remember what I was doing before I came in here.
“Maybe you were here to get us out?” Xisuma spoke up again, getting Grian’s attention.
“Oh X, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking. I mean I literally don’t know since I can’t remember what I was doing just a minute ago. But yeah, getting you all out of here does seem reasonable and… oddly familiar. Probably just me trying to remember.
“Are you doing okay?” Xisuma asked, really taking in Grian’s form.
“Yes and no? I don’t know what’s happening. The other Watchers pulled me away to help me sort of figure out what’s going on, but it’s not the perfect method to let me know what’s going on. For all I know the moment I leave, I’ll try to throw you all back in here.”
“Woah, dat’s a giant bird man!” Crumb exclaimed, waking up from her nap. Grian looked down at her, cocking his head to the side.
“Hello there. I don’t think I’ve met you.”
“Oh! I’m Crumb! My dad is Sprinklez!”
“Sprinkles?”
“Jordan Sparklez. One of my friends from the vault days.”
“Right. Vault gods.” Grian frowned. “Never were a fan of them. Freaked me out when no one could see where you three went.” He then chuckled. “You know, if all of you were here, I would have thought it was their fault.”
“Yeah, well Antonio didn’t make it, though H did.” Iskall pointed to Hbomb, who waved.
“Well, that might do it. I can’t be sure but… once you’re out, before I can do anything more, you’ll need to shout out about it possibly being Vault gods. Zloy should see.”
“Zloy?” One of the smp members asked, making Xisuma look over at them.
“Grian Is a Watcher who just resides in Hermitcraft. There are Watchers, normally multiple, that watch every world. Grian’s told me that one named Zloy is a Watcher of Hermitcraft.”
Grian nodded. “Yeah, you guys have a number of them, but the one in charge is Gxrgeous.” Grian shook his head. “We’re getting off topic. I’ll grab onto some of you and the rest hold onto me.”
After everyone was situated, Grian flew them up and out through the portal he came in through in the first place. The sudden change of energy affecting him made him crash, sending most of the rescued people flying. Immediately, Xisuma was shouting into the air the message Grian wanted sent and just as he finished, he was grabbed again by Grian.
This was good. He got Xisuma out. Mumbo would be very happy. But wait, there are more people out. Why are they out too? They are supposed to go in the portal. They must have escaped when he was grabbing Xisuma. That wouldn’t do. 
Grian tried to grab the others that were rescued from the portal, but a few of them followed Mumbo’s guidance to the infinity portal and escaped that way. Grian was upset, but ultimately it was fine. They were still gone. There were just two left to get rid of. This cat thing and one other person. 
Isn’t that thing a shapeshifter? Oh, what if she turns into a giant cat? Small brain: Godzilla vs King Kong, Big brain: Grian vs shapeshifting cat. Cat vs bird will not go well. If grian is tweety and the cat is sylvester, he’ll be fiiiiiine. Hey, if it’s really Tommy’s friend, maybe it’ll also leave.
Grian stopped listening to try and grab Crumb before she could do anything more. Just before his talons could wrap around her, a form moved in front of her, holding a sword of some purple material. “Stay away from my kid.” They spoke. For a moment Grian was upset at the new opponent before realizing it would be much easier to get rid of these people with them now in the same place.
A portal formed behind Crumb and Sparklez. Grian could see as the cat noticed it and panicked, though her dad refused to talk his guard down. When the watcher attempted to push them in, he was stopped by Xisuma. “Grian, you need to stop.”
“You need to stop.” Grian replied, wanting the admin to get out of the way.
We kinda did just try to save X, so we don’t want to get rid of him again. Maybe these two are fine and we can just leave them. Why does that guy look familiar? Watcher; Tubbo. What kinda sword is that? Ah yes, I too call my cat my child. Again, isn’t she a shapeshifter?
Grian was trying to figure out why the voices thought this person was familiar. And why had someone mentioned Tubbo. Suddenly one idea popped in his head. “෦႑፩㍘¹١₁𝟘 ꘠❶᱑⓿౸۰༳๑ ႐Ⅰ㍘〇¹႞٠१ ౦Ⅰឱ꣠༠৴០߁” He asked, but no one seemed to respond well, most of them covering their ears. A few people cried in pain, but one stood out. Grian looked at Mumbo and immediately regretted saying anything. The mustached man looked like he was in agony.
Right now everything else could wait. Grian moved and grabbed Mumbo. Grian heard someone try to stop him, but this was important. He took to the air and let magic swirl around him until he was suddenly back at his mansion. The watcher ignored whatever Tubbo was saying to focus on the redstoner, hoping nothing too horrible would happen to him. “M-Mumbo…” Grian mumbled, worried about what might happen.
Tubbo moved closer and immediately Grian was ready to attack them. How dare he try to get closer to Mumbo! But then Grian saw how terrified he looked. Tubbo was Tommy’s friend. He cared for Tommy as much as Grian cared for Mumbo. Or almost as much. Grian… Grian should bring them back together. He needed to. Why did he need to? He didn’t question it and just grabbed Tubbo. The teen seemed to yell in fear, but the Watcher didn’t listen, just took the two of them back to the infinity portal.
Grian put Tubbo through the portal before sitting down in front of it. If anyone could bring Tommy back, it would be them. Their world wasn’t safe and Tommy would want to come back. So he would. It was just a matter of time.
Zloy mumbled as he looked at the documents Pixlriffs had brought. Vault gods weren’t common to deal with, but it would help explain why none of the Watchers could figure out what was going on. Zloy sent for someone to find Pritt since they had the most experience with Vault gods in recent times. The biggest event had been when three of Zloy’s hermits were taken by the Vault gods, but smaller events had occurred after that. 
In an accident, they had tried to make claim to Grian, not recognizing his Watcher status. Immediately after that, they tried for Mumbo, but that was also shut down. He doubted they were attempting to go after Grian again, but at the same time, he knew there was some truth to their claim on him. Vault gods were powered by the voices that were channeled through a person. Everyone had the potential for that, some more than others. The three hermits had taken days to recover from the sudden silence that met them on their return. And Grian had always been hearing them. He had learned to block them out, but maybe that wasn’t enough anymore. And if it wasn’t a Vault god, what could do all this?
Dream got the notification of Tubbo’s return. Everyone was back. He could close the portal. But an idea crept up from the back of his mind. What if they tried it again? What if one of them built a new portal and it led to somewhere else. Using a Watcher was helpful, and Dream didn’t want to give that up.
The former admin turned to look at the still unconscious form of Tommy. He could try and use the connection to convince the Watcher to come here. Then he could close the portal. It would be perfect.
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Welp, this fic i thought i wasn’t even going to continue is now longer at 17 chapters than War in Hermittown which was 26 chapters. And I’m not done here yet! (WiHT ended with 56,719 words. SF was at 55,597 last chapter, and this one is over 3k words, putting it to at least 58k total)
tagging time! @petrichormeraki and @helleborusangel are you guys proud of me?
Xannes and Tommy turned their weapons on Theseus. “How’d you find this place bitch?” The hels copy just rolled his eyes before gesturing over to Dream. “What, you were tracking him?”
“He’s an admin using a console. Find the console, find the admin.” Theseus replied, which confused Tommy. “Right, you wouldn’t know about that, would you.”
Tommy glanced back to Xannes. “Any clue what he’s talking about?”
“Yes. Before command blocks, datapacks, plugins and autofill commands, a lot of admins would default to consoles. These days most people tend to ignore them, but there are some benefits. Though the negatives usually make it seem like the worst option.”
“Why’s that?”
“Admins have better control over everything else. A console is more powerful and capable of much more, but it’s disconnected from the admin. It tends to be stationary in the world and needs to be hidden, and while there are ways to make them moveable, it’s usually not worth the hassle.”
Theseus smiled. “Oh look who’s not as much of an idiot as they seem. Another question then. Why are you still getting in the way? You want those scraps of metal? Take them. He’s the one I’m after.” And he pointed at Dream.
“You haven’t fucking told us why though.” Tommy crossed his arms.
“You didn’t really need to know.” Theseus said before sighing and taking off his mask. “But if that’s the only thing that’ll make you let me through, fine. Nightmare’s dead in my world. I killed him myself. Used up his three lives.”
“You guys still have the three lives system? I thought everything in hels was… y’know, worse?” Tommy asked.
“Oh it is. Exactly why I want Nightmare back.”
There was silence save for the continued sound of weapons banging off each other. “You… you want to what?”
Theseus shrugged. “The bitch never really got what was coming to him. Sure it’s the NSMP, and it’s technically named after him, but his name is based on a concept. He’s not the one in charge, he just made a place where nightmares can become reality. He just never got that chance because he’s dead. And with how hels works, he can’t come back. That is… unless I can bring Dream back with me.”
“That seems like the worst idea I’ve ever heard.” Xannes spoke up. “There’s no guarantee how that will work, especially since he was an admin. You’re setting yourself up for a disaster for both your world and this one.”
“And so what? I die? If I can’t do this right, why bother sticking around.”
“Then I might die too bitch!” Tommy yelled at his copy. “And I definitely don’t want to go out just like that.”
“Plus there are other people linked here.” Xannes spoke, pulling up commands. “Now, you’re going to want to stop, or I’m going to have to attack.”
“Oh please, what can you do?”
“My brother is known as the best admin of all time. Which meant I needed to be the best hacker.” Xannes smiled behind his mask. “And with Prof and NPG around, I haven’t gotten to try anything out in a while, so I’m going to really enjoy this.”
Tommy could almost feel the danger that was Xannes before he moved. He swung his sword once, and even though Theseus was more than ten blocks away, it was like the blade had hit him. He then pulled out a crossbow along with his sword, managing to duel wield the weapons. And then even though the second weapon kept being fired, it seemed to always be filled with ammo, not giving Theseus any rest from attacks, not to mention the fact that it was also multishot.
Tommy used that as a chance to run over to the bots. “Alright you two, I don’t care what the fuck’s been going on with you two, you need to fucking stop before you kill each other.”
“He deserves to die!” Jrum shouted, not looking away from his brother. 
“Jrum, I’ve told you about the guy that kinda isolated and manipulated me? The one Big G compared to Sam?”
“Yeah, and Grum’s just as bad!” Jrum said before attempting to attack again, instead just getting pulled back by Tommy.
“No! No he isn’t! That guy Grum’s been stuck with? That green bitch right there? That’s the fucker who was messing with me! And now he’s been doing it to Grum.”
“Yeah right.” Jrum crossed his arms, and Tommy slapped the back of his head, wincing as pain coursed through his body from damaging the vines. It caused the teen to flinch back, making the bottles in his inventory clank together.
Hearing the bottles made Tommy remember what he had on him. He had no clue how well the water worked, but right now it was better than nothing. He pulled them out and smashed them on top of Jrum’s head like a water balloon, the water covering Jrum and getting into his mechanics. It caused a short circuit and it seemed to fry the vines from within, but also Jrum. As the circuitry within him sparked, it damaged the vines, causing even more damage to Jrum, until it killed him.
“NO! JRUM!” Tommy yelled, freaking out about having just killed someone in his family. Beside him, Grum just stared at the place where Jrum had been standing a minute ago, the body having dissolved into smoke. 
Life Counter active. Entity Check Jrumbot. Death: canon. Life counter: 1 life remaining. Commence respawn. Respawn complete.
Teleport Requested. Assessing. Assessing. Allowing Teleport. Entity Jrumbot Teleported to Deathpoint coordinates.
Just like that, Jrumbot reappeared. He wasn’t completely covered with the vines, but he still retained the single vine around his antenna and his screen was still a red color. “Oh thank goodness, I thought you might have had a single life left.”
“Well now I do, no thanks to you!”
When Tommy had yelled, Xannes looked away from his fight. Theseus was able to finally close the distance and attack Xannes without the helsmit protecting himself, but he didn’t need to, the hacks keeping him from taking damage. “He’s using a console…”
Theseus tried attacking Xannes again. “Yeah, we covered that already. Why’s it soooo surprising now?”
“Because the console is Grum.”
That made Theseus scoff. “Wasn’t it obvious? It’s a computer that’s always near Dream. It’s essentially a console with fewer drawbacks. Even more powerful than a regular console too.”
When Theseus said that, Tommy turned his anger on Dream. “Ohhh, I can’t fucking believe you. I mean, that is an absolute child. At least with me, I was older, practically an adult, but he hasn’t even had a birthday and you decided to mess with him! As if you didn’t have a death wish already! I mean, guess that’s why you got everyone blocked. What if I just asked Grum to unblock everyone, what then?”
“And what? Just let Phil and Techno back in? What would that help with?”
“Oh please, you know their dad would be the first one in. Doesn’t that scare you?” Tommy asked with a smirk, though it fell in a few moments. “Wait do you actually not know who their dad is?”
“Just because he’s supposed to be another one of your brothers doesn’t mean anything. They’re hardly something I can’t deal with.”
“Can’t deal wi- Dream! Their dad is Grian! You know, the guy who literally has the name Dreamslayer? Like that’s part of his legal name at this point.” Tommy could tell when it got through to Dream, because he pressed back in his invisible prison just a bit and started looking for some possible way out.
He ended up snapping his fingers at Grum. “Hey, get me out of here.” And then Grum processed the information and teleported Dream a couple blocks to his left, freeing him from the barrier blocks.
“Oh shit. Xannes! He got o-” Was all Tommy was able to say before he was pressed against a wall, feet no longer touching the ground and him left struggling for air.
“You know, I could kill you right here. It would be easy. But for all I know, you come back as a ghost. So I’ve got a better idea. Just to make sure that if you do come back, it hurts even more. Grumbot?” He looked over at the robot, who immediately made its way over to Dream’s side. He handed it a netherite axe with the word ‘Nightmare’ etched into the metal. 
“No, c-come on Grum. You c-can’t do th-this.” Tommy did his best to get the words out. “Pl-Please… c-can you l-let everyone in a-at least.”
“Oh come on. He’s loyal to me. Why would you think-”
“That command is protected and requires a password to access.”
For a moment, Tommy lost all hope, but in a moment of clarity, he realized that Dream didn’t know Grum would say anything. If that were the case, there wouldn’t be a password. Yeah, Tommy could be wrong, but there was still a chance. “M-Mumbo for Mayor…” He choked out, and immediately Grumbot started processing the password, then accepted it.
“Blacklist disabled.”
“Kill Tommy!” Dream yelled in anger. And then Tommy was hit by the axe. Once. Twice. And then a third and final time.
Life Counter active. Entity Check TommyInnit. Death: canon. Life counter: no lives remaining. No respawn applicable.
No. 
Commencing Respawn. Respawn complete.
Teleport Requested. Assessing. Assessing. Allowing Teleport. Entity Tommy Teleported to Coordinates X-3, Y-3, Z-3. Returning inventory contents.
Tommy was holding his chest, panting to catch his breath. He was so sure he was dead. But no. Here he was, away from Dream and still with all his gear. That had probably been Xannes saving him, and healing him as well based on his current level of health.
For a moment, Tommy wanted to rush back in there, but then he remembered. The blacklist had been disabled. People could get in. He pulled out the communicator and sent a message to Grian, hoping it wouldn’t take too long. Then he put it away and tried to go back over to the bots, but his legs were shaky, and in just trying to take one step, he fell to the floor.
Even though he wasn’t close to death, he could still feel himself fading while at the same time it felt like everything was happening at once. Every sound seemed louder, what little breeze there was felt like pins and needles. And he just felt tired. As his vision went in and out, he saw Jrum rush off. Then Theseus stopped fighting and went after Dream. Then the three of them were gone. Then he was up in the air, something picking him up.
Finally, he felt the buzz of his communicator, and everything went dark.
The moment Grian got the message from Tommy, Grian made a Watcher portal straight to the SMP. The others nearby were slightly surprised that it was to let them follow along, but they weren’t arguing. Tubbo was the first to go through, Phil and Techno following behind. Grian was about to be right behind them, but was stopped by a hand. “You’re not keeping me from going Mumbo.”
“I know that. I wasn’t going to.” The redstoner spoke before taking Grian’s hand. “You’re the one always jumping into things, and that’s mostly a good thing. But this is something I don’t want to be left out of, so whether you like it or not, I’m coming with.”
“What? Did you think I was going to leave you behind? I wasn’t going to close the portal behind me. I was hoping you would come too, I was just letting you decide.”
“Good. ...So, do we want to…?” Mumbo started to say before he was yanked towards the portal as Grian ran through it, dragging him along.
When they arrived on the other side, Phil was the only one nearby, sitting down next to the portal. “Hey. Before you ask, I volunteered to wait while the other two went off in their own directions. That was only a few minutes ago. Haven’t heard anything back from them.”
Grian nodded. “I’m going to try contacting Tommy. Mumbo, those coordinates Tommy forwarded to me before? Can you check them out?”
“Definitely.” Mumbo nodded, pulling out his own communicator and checking the coordinates and which was to go to reach them.
“I’ll see if I can find anyone who could give us information.” Phil offered before immediately leaving, leaving Grian alone.
Alright, if I were one of the kids or Tommy… where would I be?” Grian asked himself, looking around before spotting something red in the distance. “Oh hello there. What’s that?” He quickly got into the air, flying over instead of trying to cross the rough terrain. “Tommy did send something about Jrum and red plants, didn’t he?” Grian bent down to try and touch the stuff, but was surprised when it seemed to move away. 
A voice spoke and then Grian was left looking around, trying to spot who had spoken. “What do you mean don’t touch it? I’m trying to find my kid and the best lead I have right now are these things.” Then he was left looking around again. “Oh, if that’s the case, then why not ditch the invisibility potion and meet me face to face?” Another short bout of silence and then Grian growled slightly, clenching his fists. “Then maybe I will.” And he started following the moving plants, the vines moving to almost create a path as they parted near him.
They snaked into an underground room and then down a thin tunnel. Grian had a little trouble getting through with his wings, not wanting to shift them away in case he ended up needing them suddenly. When he finally reached the end, he was greeted by what was obviously two teams of people fighting. One group was all in purples meanwhile the other group had a mix of colors, but there were a lot of reds and whites.
When it didn’t look like anyone noticed him, Grian moved forward a bit, cleared his throat, and then shouted. “HEY!” Immediately everyone froze and looked over at him. “Excuse me, I’m sure you’re having a lovely war and all, but I’m looking for my kids. The two of them are about… these heights and are adorable little robots.”
“Are you saying you’re one of Jrum’s parents?” Someone in a black and white cloak said, and Grian nodded at them.
“Yeah. Is he here? Or do you at least know where he is?” Grian asked, before the person attempted to attack him. Immediately his wings moved to act as a quick shield. “I’m guessing that’s a yes, but you don’t want me around.” Grian pulled out his sword. “Eh, I was expecting an ambush anyway.”
But before another attack could happen, the voice from before spoke, seemingly to the cloaked person. “So what?! He abandoned his kid! If that were true he would have shown up!”
“Hey, I tried getting in. Your admin just found a way to keep me out until now. Now, are you going to listen to your friend and tell me where Jrum is, or are you going to fight?”
The incoming sword worked as the answer to Grian’s question and he blocked it with a shield before attacking back. The person tried moving behind some vines hanging from the ceiling, but Grian just sliced them to the ground, clearing the area. “Wait, how are you doing that?!” The person asked before Grian flew up to bash their head with the end of his shield and knock them to the ground. 
“Nooo! What are you doing!” A voice yelled out and Grian turned around to see a familiar robot running over.
“Jrum!” Grian landed, arms open for a hug, but he just pushed past his dad to run to the person now on the ground. “Wh-what?”
“Are you okay?”
“Nggh… yeah. Wait, now where have you been?”
“I got kidnapped and Grum was there and he attacked me! But now I’m fine!”
Grian looked between his son and the person he had been attacking. He had no clue why this was happening, so he looked over as some of the other people nearby, who weren’t sure how to answer him. “Oh come on, no one had any idea?” And then the invisible person spoke. “I mean I guess? He was built before the turf war, but he didn’t really take part in it. Why? Look, I just want to get my kid and leave. My resistance days are pretty much over.”
There was quiet before Grian sighed and his wings shifted away. “Fine, I’ll play along, but you better hold up your end.” And when he opened his eyes, they weren’t their normal color, nor even just bright purple from using his watcher powers. Instead, his iris and pupils seemed to be missing, replaced by grayish-purple sclera.
“Well at the very least it was a house.” Xannes grumbled as he attempted to brush off the layer of dust on the bed sitting in the corner for him to then put Tommy on. It was tough with him having to carry the unconscious teen and only really about to use a leg as a duster, which was just spreading the dust around. “Can this be any harder?!”
A door opening behind him made the helsmit groan. “That’s wasn’t a fucking request! What the fuck do you-” He turned around and saw someone familiar and thankfully wearing a red tie. “Fine. This works. You take the kid.”
Mumbo was handed Tommy and Xannes finally was able to just pick the covers up off the bed and shake them off. It left Mumbo coughing and Xannes instantly regretting it as an alert on his screen warned him about his filters, but he put the blankets back down. The redstoner set Tommy down on the bed while Xannes worked on cleaning out the dust that was now in his helmet. “What happened to him?”
“He got killed, but respawn brought him back. It didn’t seem to be the best respawn because it hit hard. From what I can tell, he wasn’t supposed to. Is this a hardcore world?”
Mumbo shook his head. “Tommy said something about them having three lives, but they only counted if they were important.”
“So he essentially just got revived instead of normally respawning. That would explain it. You should have seen the three that got revived this season.”
“That’s right, you permakill someone if they don’t return for a season, don’t you.”
“Yeah. Of course they can still exist elsewhere, but it's a type of ban in a way.”
Mumbo nodded before finally looking away from Tommy and over to Xannes. “H-Have you seen either of the boys?”
“Yes, though they’re not doing so well. You know what a console is, right?”
“Yeah.” Mumbo nodded again. “I had to use one when I was first starting out so I didn’t break everything when working with redstone. Came in handy a few times, but I’m glad not using one anymore. Is there one being used here?”
“Yeah. The admin here decided to have fun with one since he found a way to make it mobile thanks to your redstone.”
“My red- wait!” Mumbo jumped up from kneeling on the floor next to the bed. “Are you telling me he’s using one of the boys?!”
“Yeah, Grumbot. He’s extremely out of it, but Tommy was able to get him to remove the blacklist and I’m pretty sure he’s the one who revived him, so it’s not a completely lost cause. Meanwhile the other one got infected with something like crimson nylium. I’m not sure how bad your land war went, but ours got out of hard fast.”
“We had a bit of trouble near the end, but the minigame battle near the end kept things from getting too far.”
“Well, hopefully it doesn’t end up like helscraft. Most of us ended up possessed by the different nyliums for a good portion of the war. And looks like Jrum is in the same situation.”
Alright, I’ll let the others know and hope Grian notices the message.”
“How many came along with the two of you?”
“Same group that we visited with. They came from here in the first place anyway, so they’ve got a better chance finding what we need.”
“Hello? Ranboo? Are you in here?” Tubbo asked, carefully stepping into the house. They had been planning to set up the second floor for Michael when he disappeared, so hopefully Ranboo would still be living there at least a little, unless he had taken the ziglin elsewhere. 
The place was dark, all the windows closed and no torches or lanterns there to light the place up. It left Tubbo fumbling around, trying to feel his way around and wishing he had brought something for light. He tripped on something and fell to the ground, rubbing his head and hoping he hadn’t damaged anything. Then suddenly, something lit up, and Tubbo froze.
He had looked behind him to try and see if he could tell what had tripped him. He could barely make out the outline of a foot. Following up, it led up to a glowing screen with a smiley face plastered on it. Just behind that, Tubbo could also see two glowing magenta eyes from an enderman standing behind the robot. 
Before Tubbo could ask any questions, a voice came from elsewhere in the dark room. “You know. As far as everyone knows, you're dead. How about we keep it that way?”
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Okay! I came up with an au idea! and I would love to write it... but I don’t know enough about DSMP to even attempt it. So I’m just throwing the idea out for if other people want to use it.
It starts as a standard protégé au: Dream teaching Tommy and Tommy slowly becoming more like Dream. Tommy becomes someone people think of as someone to fear almost as much as Dream. And then Tubbo did something to upset Dream and it's time to take his last life. And Dream's not going to do it. No. His successor is. And even though Tubbo screams for Tommy to snap out of whatever Dream's done to him, he doesn't, and takes Tubbo's last life. Dream is congratulating Tommy who just stares at Tubbo's body, before turning on Dream and nearly killing him. But not killing him for good, no. He wants Dream to feel everything he put Tommy through. And in the end he becomes worse than dream. Someone people fear, but also someone people want to ally with because he has power. He never takes off the mask because he doesn't want to look at himself much less let other see him. And then he's sent back in time. Tubbo is still alive, Dream is messing around, and the Tommy of that time hasn't been broken yet. So he decides to replace Dream, but not let anyone know who he is. And he wants to help make the SMP a better place, honest. But when you have lost everything and your mind has been broken so many times, that isn't easy.
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-puts more angst on the plate that is this fic- have fun~!
@petrichormeraki “Oh myan oh myan oh myan!” Crumb wiggled her stubby cat legs as she held onto Tubbo, her smaller form going unnoticed by their avian captor. “Where’s he takin’ us?”
“I d-don’t know.” Tubbo replied, trying not to sound as scared as he felt. “I o-only came here recently. T-Tommy’s the one that knows everything.”
“Well, Sprinklez will definitely find us and and he’s gonna slay dis beast!”
“What?! No! He can’t do that! That’s Tommy’s brother! There’s just something wrong with him. Tommy used seeds last time so we need those.”
“Okee okee okee, I’ll look for seeds when we land.”
“Thanks Crumb.” The two were otherwise silent as Grian continued to fly, but then they both noticed as he seemed to sway in the air, his flight no longer steady. “Um, Grian? Grian? What was the other name? Xelqua? I know Tommy’s been calling you Big G, even though it feels like he’s- woah!”
Grian’s flying straightened out and then his face appeared as he looked down at Tubbo. Tubbo froze, there were feathers all over the place and even more eyes than before. While they were mainly purple, his two original eyes were now a more reddish hue.
Tubbo could feel Crumb shift on their back, thankfully out of sight. There seemed to be a little whimper their ears picked up, but it didn’t seem Grian heard the same, or just assumed it was Tubbo.
Grian looked back up and with him no longer blocking the view, Tubbo could see Grian’s mansion getting closer. His old hope was that maybe Tommy was there.
Grian landed on the roof of the place, dropping Tubbo and making Crumb roll on the ground. He spotted her instantly and immediately grabbed her instead. “No! Leave her alone!” Tubbo shouted, but he didn’t listen. The teen could only watch as a portal of bedrock and obsidian appeared. Magic that matched Grian’s eyes appeared in the frame as it was lit and then Crumb was tossed into the portal.
Crumb screamed as she was thrown through, scared about what would happen and what would be on the other side. She seemed to be falling for an eternity and was scared about what would happen when she finally hit the ground. She thought about making sure she was really a cat to try and mitigate it, but then realized a more obvious answer would be a bird. 
Not wanting to become a parrot after everything that just happened. Crumb shifted into a chicken. She spread her little white wings and her descent slowed, allowing her to finally get a look at her surroundings. Based on the chill of the air and the darkness of the world around her, it looked like the void. Crumb looked around, hoping to see the creamy yellow color of endstone, but there was none to be seen.
“What’s a chicken doing here?” Someone spoke up and Crumb started looking around. Beside her, also falling, was a man in a bee suit.
“Dat’s one big bee!” Crumb said, shocked, surprising the bee man as well.
“Oh, you must have been one of the visitors. I was told there would be a shapeshifter.”
Crumb nodded and then shifted to her cat hybrid form. “Ye, I’m Crumb. I came here wit my dad Sprinklez. Are we in da void?”
“Not quite. I’m not sure where we are. If it were the normal void I could easily get us out of here, but that’s not the case.”
“Aww, well, I was wit my new friend Tubbox and den a big harpy lookin’ guy attacked us and apparently he was my other new friend Tommy’s brudder.”
“So that was Grian. I wasn’t completely sure it had been so fast. I tried contacting the other Hermits but my communicator isn’t working and I can’t even reach my admin panels.”
“Oh dat’s not good.”
“No it is not.”
Tubbo tried to run to the portal, but was stopped by Grian. “Bring her back! She’s my friend! Tommy’s too!”
But Grian just stared as he tried, getting in their way. Tommy didn’t say anything about a cat friend, right? No, he didn’t. It was just Tubbo, and now Tubbo was going to be safe. Tubbo will go in the nest and stay there while he gets rid of everyone else. Grian dragged Tubbo over to the window near the nest and started to break the blocks to get in. Halfway through, he noticed the nest was very empty.
Someone took them, a voice shouted. Or killed them came another. They may have just gone looking. Or are hiding. They’ll come back for a Tubbo, right? Right. Grian liked how helpful the voices were being. He plopped Tubbo down in the nest.
“Let go of me! And bring Crumb back! She’s our friend!”
“Bring. Back. Friend.” Grian parroted. “Bring back friend.”
“Yes!” Tubbo pleaded. “Yes make another portal to bring Crumb back. Her dad will be so worried if she’s gone again.”
“꘠႑𑁦᠑෦१߀០ ⓿೧꣠༠፩⓵១୧ ႐Ⅰ㍘〇¹႞٠१ ႐Ⅰ㍘〇¹႞٠१ 𝟘᧚༳᧑➊০౸፩” Grian spoke in a language Tubbo had never heard and could barely comprehend. He covered his ears only to find them slightly wet and pulled a hand back to see blood come back, though it was turning a purplish hue. That freaked Tubbo out and he scrambled away, trying to find an escape from the roof that wouldn’t kill them.
But before he could go far, Grian grabbed him again and when their eyes opened again, he was in what seemed to be a large nest. “Uh… h-huh… guess that makes s-sense for a bird. Avian. Harpy? W-whatever you are right now.”
He’s scared of you. He should be. But he’s Tommy’s friend. Tommy asked you to keep him safe. Why is it purple. Duh, because of the Watchers. But he’s not one, right? But it happened because of Grian. He’s still bleeding though.
Grian looked closer at Tubbo, they were right, he was bleeding. But no, it couldn’t have happened because of him. It had to have been that outsider. One of the ones causing problems. Just like Xisuma had been. But now they were both gone. Now he just needed Mumbo and Tommy and his children here too. And then he could get rid of everyone else that shouldn’t be here.
Grian left Tubbo in the nest as he flew back into the air, using Watcher magic to take him elsewhere in the world.
Philza woke up to someone shaking him violently, it made his eyes snap open and look around to see iron bars surrounding him. He planned to look around more for a way out but a giant white mask with a smile on it was peering at him, shocking him and making him squawk. It was then he realized he was currently in his raven form, and there was no way he could shift back while in what was most likely a bird cage.
“Took you long enough to wake up.” Dream spoke to him. They were both outside, which shouldn’t have been possible with the former admin in the vault. “I suppose rest was needed after your fight.” Phil couldn’t remember any fight. “I had no idea Grian was your son. I guess it makes sense with his achievements, even if you abandoned him for most of his life.” Philza crowed, trying to argue with Dream, managing a ‘fuck you’ with his mimicry skills as a raven. But the cage just got rattled around again.
“Tommy doesn’t belong in a place like that. He belongs here. Watchers are dangerous beings Philza. You leaving him there is practically a death sentence. It would be best if you went over there and brought him back along with anyone else that’s over there.” Philza tried to argue, but he suddenly had a dizzy spell. “People like me don’t just become admins. We have to jump through hoop after hoop. I may not be an admin anymore, but I’m not powerless. You have two options here. Bring Tommy back, or don’t and I bring him back myself. And I won’t be as kind as you might be to him.”
Philza wanted to argue, but if Dream could do this, there’s no telling what could happen to Tommy now that it was obvious this man wasn’t playing nice anymore. He bowed his head in defeat and the next moment the cage was opened and he was dropped out of it. “Now don’t take too long, or I’ll assume you’ve betrayed me, and it’ll be even worse for the two of you.” Dream threatened, and Philza nodded before flying to the infinity portal.
Grian looked down at his friend defending the enemy. Is he really your friend anymore if he’s doing that? Maybe they were more friends with Xisuma than you. He was gone for three months, why wouldn’t he change sides for that. “Grian, you need to calm down. We can’t find Xisuma right now, so if you-”
“Can’t find Xisuma. Right now. Down.” Behind Iskall, Hbomb pulled out an axe, ready to fight Grian. Reluctantly Iskall pulled out a weapon of their own, not completely willing to fight their friend, especially since they had some trouble when all the hermits had been there.
The moment H took a step, Grian attacked, and Iskall barely had time to react and attempt to get between the two. Their shield was held up, but there was enough force from Grian’s attack that Iskall felt themself be pushed back until they collided with Hbomb. There was what sounded like a portal behind them and Iskall spawn a glimpse of what looked like bedrock before they were falling.
Grian watched the portal disappear, a pang of guilt hitting him. He didn’t want to get rid of Iskall, but he had to. People like that weren’t supposed to be here. They needed to go into the portal-pit. Tools in the portal. Gear in the pit. Enemies in the portal-pit. Yes. It was all very logical. Right?
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me: you first started writing this story 12 days ago, take a break also me: CHAPTER 16 BAYBEEEEE
@petrichormeraki
Grian realized waiting was easy. No one was running around or trying to hurt him. People were trying to give him seeds and played music! And the voices liked how nice people were being too. But at the same time, the Watcher couldn’t help but worry. Why wasn’t Tommy back? Maybe he should go through himself. But it was a small portal. An enderman could barely fit, and to a watcher, those mobs were rather short.
What if you just got smaller? But he looks so dope like this! maybe he’s like a… i forget the animal but if he can get his head through he can get the rest through. Why’s he trying to go through anyway?; he’s basically a giant monster who’ll be attacked if he goes through. But he’s powerful. He’ll be fine!
Grian had move voices talking, and one seemed very convincing about going through the portal. Yes, it was a perfect idea. He just needed to squish himself through the frame. A number of Hermits tried to stop him as he started to move. He shook a wing as a lead caught on it. Another tried to catch him, but he moved out of the way and it managed to tie Mumbo up. Oh! He could bring Mumbo as well. Two heads would be better than one. He gave a chirpy laugh as Mumbo seemed to scream as he went through the portal. Grian followed behind, though he struggled squeezing everything through. There was a flash of white light, and then nothing.
Dream could feel the Watcher enter the world. He made sure that Tommy had no easy escape from his current prison before the former admin left the room. He walked in the direction of the portal. Everyone was here and his new piece of leverage had arrived. All that needed to happen now was destroying the portal and having the powers of admin returned to him.
Mumbo’s face hit grass as he ended up on the other side of the portal, tied up in the rope of a lead. He started to look up and had to squint at the bright sky. Had he blacked out and the storm had passed? But looking around, the only familiar thing in his vision was the infinity portal and Mumbo realized he had gone through it.
There was a squawk as Grian came through the portal. Mumbo tried to get up and reach his friend, but the fact that he was tied up had slipped his mind and he ended up just essentially wriggling around. Grian leaned down to look at him and Mumbo met the Watcher’s eyes with a gasp. Mumbo remembered when Grian was using his watcher powers, he could see how the eyes almost never looked at the same place, always focused on watching everything. The two main eyes may have just looked purple, but Mumbo could always see the symbol of the Watchers that seemed to have imprinted itself within the pupils.
But right now, all the eyes looked down at Mumbo. They all looked glossy and somewhat unfocused. Instead of their purple color they had a reddish-magenta hue and the symbol of the Watchers was absent. “G-Grian? Are you okay?”
I mean, obviously he’s not. Yessss, stare into his eyes! If Grian’s a bird, does that make Mumbo some kind of-
Mumbo immediately started to try and get out of the robes that tied him up. No. No this couldn’t be happening. He had told them no. They said they wouldn’t try again. Grian had made it very clear that Mumbo was under his claim as a Watcher. He shouldn’t be hearing voices.
After a bit more struggling, Mumbo was free. He was able to stand up and brush himself off, then start to put Grian towards the portal. “Alright Grian, back in the portal.” Grian just moved out of the way and chirped at Mumbo. “Don’t be such a spoon of a bird! In the portal!” He tried again with no luck. He was about to try again when he noticed someone approaching. Mumbo had no clue who they could be or what they might do. He had heard some of the horror stories Tommy had told, so Mumbo decided his best option was to hide.
Using Grian as a wall between him and whoever was arriving, the redstoner stayed quiet, trying to listen. He could hear them approaching, walking on the grass, and then they stopped. Mumbo nearly peeked out from behind Grian, but then they spoke. “No clue why the Watchers put up with you. You’re clearly out of your element Grian. But that being said, you’re useful. And now you’re in a world with people more like you than any of those Hermits. No reason to leave.”
Mumbo’s heart dropped as he heard what sounded like a beacon powering down and then the magic of a portal shattering. As if living in an unknown world wasn’t bad enough, now there was no escape. 
And we’re stuck here. Mumbo’s a genius, he can fix it. He’s only a genius at redstone, it’s hopeless. Maybe he-
Mumbo forced himself to stop listening. Grian had started to move and he needed to follow to stay hidden. Until they reached the nearby forest, there was no other place to hide. Mumbo slowly kept in step with Grian, creeping his way until they finally reached a tree. He used that as cover instead and to finally see what was going on.
The redstoner recognised the man donned in lime green that stood next to Grian. He was the one to show up in Hermitcraft and come after Tommy. One that many of the horror stories had been about. And for whatever reason, Grian was following behind him. Mumbo wanted to shout, to reason with Grian, but his fear for his own life kept him hidden and quiet. 
Mumbo watched as the two left, and then he felt safe enough to move. Grian had made Tubbo the admin, right? And he had made… someone else one too. But he couldn't remember their name, and Tubbo’s communicator still likely wasn’t working. Nonetheless, he tried, only to get an expected error message. Who else could he contact?
Tommy! Ranboo. Fundy might work? Tommy might be with Philza so either of them. Wilbur or Techno? Quackity! Sam. Why would you ever try Quackity? Because you can, lol. 
Mumbo didn’t know all the names, but Tommy and Philza seemed the most reasonable. Mumbo sent each of them a private message, summing up what was going on and trying to give a warning. There was no error message, but also no reply, so the redstoner could only hope they saw the messages. And then he started moving, hoping to find something to help him, like a place to stay or materials.
Dream toyed with Grian’s addled mind. If only he knew how easy it was to capacitate the dream slayer. He could hardly believe that this was what he had been terrified of for so long. He could enjoy this for a while, but right now, he needed to do what he planned to from the start. He had summoned Tubbo and Ranboo, knowing they would have their guards down. As far as they were concerned, Dream couldn’t do anything and they could do anything as admin. Oh how wrong them were.
Dream walked to another room and sat at the table, leaning back in his chair as he waited. It only took a few minutes before Ranboo and Tubbo appeared in the room. Tubbo seemed a bit disoriented from the teleport, but Ranboo as an enderman took it well. “Tubbo, Ranboo, how good to see you.”
“You should be in the vault Dream.”
“You two have something that doesn’t belong to you.”
“Grian made me the admin.” Tubbo spoke up, sounding confident. Dream smiled at it, he had no ideal anything he tried would be futile. Anything either of them did.
“Well, he doesn’t have to keep it that way.” Dream stood up, walking to the doors. Tubbo and Ranboo looked ready to attack, but then he opened the door.
“Grian?” Tubbo sounded hurt and worried for the Watcher. The essentially mindless beast gave a trilling coo which left the admin pair unsettled.
“Now, you have something that belongs to me.” Dream spoke. He filtered his own thoughts into the mind of the Watcher and then he could see the watcher magic flow around Tubbo and Ranboo. Dream felt energized as the admin powers were given back to him and he saw the pair grow exhausted from the energy being drawn from them. Now everything was just how it should be.
Mumbo kept chopping at trees with his netherite axe, gathering resources. He Put down an ender chest and was glad to see all the usual contents were there. He used some of the diamonds he had to craft a chestplate, thinking that would be a bit more useful. One shulker box was cleaned out of items Mumbo wasn’t completely sure he would need and instead house more essentials.
As he cut down another tree, there was a wave of energy leaving Mumbo looking around. There was nothing obvious that it could have been. It still left him on edge, and he put his supplies away, switching to his sword.
Creeping through the forest, Mumbo was prepared to attack. Even if he wasn’t the best fighter, or really a fighter at all, at least he might have an element of surprise. Above him, the sun was starting to set, helping him even more as his black suit and hair blended into the shadows. Mumbo was starting to wish he had gone to False’s sparring sessions more, but there always seemed to be one redstone project or another he thought was more important.
Light caught Mumbo’s eye and ahead he saw a fire. For a moment he thought it would be a lava lake, but there were blocks all over the place, some of sorts that couldn’t generate naturally. That could be someone’s home. Or possibly even former home. If it were the first, then Mumbo hoped it would be someone to ally with, if it were the latter, the land being abandoned could do well as a shelter.
Mumbo continued forward until finally he reached a place that seemed to be a crater. There had been some sort of explosion, destroying the place. While it made Mumbo sad to see what was likely a very nice build destroyed, it also gave him hope that it would be safe now. That was until he heard someone speaking.
“Stupid stupid stupid. Now I’m stuck here and have to rebuild and-”
Mumbo knew that voice. “Tommy!” He ran towards the blond.
“What the fuck?” He heard Tommy say before he slid down into the crater and stood next to the boy.
“Tommy, that Dream guy, he got Grian and-” Mumbo started to explain before freezing.
“Grian?” Tommy asked, staring at Mumbo with magenta eyes.
“T-Tommy?” Mumbo drew his sword. Was this some copy? A trap? What?
“Yeah, what the fuck do you want?”
“I… What’s going on? Who are you really?”
“Oi, I’m gonna ask the fucking questions.” Tommy crossed his arms. “Who are you and what are you doing in Logstedshire?”
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Text
The rescue commences. But it’s going to be harder than Tommy thought because the bots aren’t so keen on being rescued.
the tagged people i like! @petrichormeraki @helleborusangel
Xannes spoke Jrum’s name as a question and immediately all eyes were on him. Xannes tried to keep from cursing in front of the kid, but it was a little hard when he saw even more red. Did he just change his face to match the room, or did he just do that whenever. “Xannes? What are you doing here?”
“You know this guy?” The demon asked in a wary tone.
“Yes he does. As for the question, NPG found out about the situation with your disappearance and I offered to come looking for you.”
Jrum’s face instantly lit up and in a moment he was running over to hug the helsmit. Xannes almost accepted it too, since the kid probably had been terrified in an unfamiliar place. But just at the last second, he saw the red plants that coated Jrum’s body and he took a step again. “Sorry. Still not a hugger.”
Jrum pouted and crossed his arms, but didn’t actually seem too upset. “Well, you came at the best possible time! Is NPG going to show up too?”
“Unfortunately not. I don’t think he can get in and I haven’t figured out what’s causing it yet.”
“Aww… It would have been nice…”
“So, what’s going on here?”
“This is the Red Banquet.” The demon spoke, looking much less threatening now that he knew Xannes was a friend. “We’ve been planning this little party for a while and I’m sure other guests will be arriving shortly. You’re just a bit early.”
“Is that why the entrance was covered up?” Xannes asked, glancing behind himself for a moment, both to look at the entrance as well as from the feeling of being watched.
“Yes, I hope you didn’t hurt them too much.”
“Hurt… who?” Xannes asked nervously and suddenly he realized just exactly how off this all felt.
“The Egg of course! It’s the source of all the plants around us!”
Xannes glanced at Jrum. “Alright, why’s he got the things growing in him? I’d think that wouldn’t be good for his body.”
“I’m just fine! Better even! I can do things all on my own and don’t need any of Grum’s stupid help.”
That made Xannes realise that the other of the two bots was indeed missing. “Wait, where is he?”
“I don’t really know. I haven’t seen him in a while. He could be dead for all I care.”
The helsmit looked back at the people gathered around the table. This really did seem all too familiar. And that wasn’t a good thing. He remembered having NPG finally getting the turquoise infection out of his system so he could deal with the rest of the similarly infected helsmets of turquoise and magenta spores. “I’m guessing HEP is less of a problem here?”
Most of the people at the table looked confused, but of course Jrum wasn’t, and surprisingly, neither was the demon. “No! We crushed them into the ground, and if any of them wants to live, they’ll come here!”
Xannes choked in surprise. Okay, it looked like those plants were really getting to him. “Well, looks like there’s still a few kicking around.”
“Really? Who? Is it Grum?!”
“Nope. Sorry kid.” Xannes added enchantments to his sword as he pulled it out. “Guess I’m just following in my brother’s footsteps, huh.”
And then chaos broke out.
Tommy had no idea how different the SMP would be when he got back. He expected more of the same, people around making destructive chaos and probably new posters and creeper holes. But the red shit all over the place was different. Plus it didn’t look like anyone was really around.
Before moving anywhere, he pulled out the comm Grian had given him and sent him a message.
<NPC_GRIAN> Alright, made it in.
<NPC_GRIAN> Wait was this NPG’s
He waited, but a message didn’t come in right away, so Tommy put the comm away to start looking. He didn’t know what exactly the plants were, but enough crazy things had happened in this world, so he mainly just ignored them, not caring if he did touch them. One thing that did get his attention was a poster that the plants were bordering. It was inviting people, Tommy assumed anyone, to the Red Banquet. Whatever that was. At the very least that likely explained the lack of people.
Tommy continued walking, poking his head into just about every building to hopefully find someone, but there was still nothing. He was hoping for at least someone to be around to tell him what was going on, but it didn’t look like that was the case. “How the fuck does everyone go to the same fucking thing? And where the fuck is it?”
No answer came for Tommy, so he ended up going into his old home, though it looked like someone had been living there. Connor, if the signs were telling the truth. “Well, let’s see if any of my shit is still here.”
Tommy honestly couldn’t remember what stuff would have been there, but there were still some items that he thought would be good to have on him, just in case. As he was rummaging around, the door behind him opened, and Tommy turned around to see who it was. Tommy’s fight or flight response immediately activated when he was staring at the admin, who was surprisingly just staring back at him.
“D-Dream…”
“How the fuck did you get here before me?!”
“Bitch I’ve been gone for months, you had plenty of time to visit this place. That’s only going to be your fault.” Tommy retorted, forcing himself to have some confidence.
“It is possible a teleport was used if he was aware of your destination.” Another voice spoke and Tommy lit up for a second.
“Holy fuck, Grum! That was easier than I expected. Where’s Jrum?” Then he stopped when he finally saw Grum and the state he was in. In his anger, he pulled out his borrowed sword and pointed it at Dream. “What the fuck did you do?” 
Before Dream or Grum could say anything, Grum suddenly turned around and drew a weapon, deflecting an attack from behind. “You done running yet?”
“How are you-”
“You! You goddamn bitch!”
“You’re supposed to be in prison!”
“What is going on?!”
Grum slashed at Theseus’ legs before answering. “The one currently attacking us is an alternate form of bzzt from a separate universe. The one we discovered is the one you are likely more familiar with.”
“Yeah green bitch! What are you going to do with two of us?”
Dream looked like he was about to attack, but then he was grabbed by Grum. “Commencing emergency escape.” And then the two of them disappeared.
“Fuck, now they’re gone.”
Theseus stepped into Tommy’s old house, holding his axe at the ready. “How did you get out?”
“Hey, you really want to kill me? Wouldn’t that end badly for you?” Tommy took a step back.
“Answer the fucking question!”
“Your Phil let me out when he realized you weren’t in the hels dimension anymore.”
Theseus spoke another curse under his breath. “Well, you better not get in the fucking way.”
Tommy crossed his arms. “Hey, I’m just after Grum and Jrum, and seeing as how he’s…” Tommy trailed off for a moment, remembering Grum and how he reminded Tommy of himself when he was in exile. “He’s got Grum, so as long as that’s the case, I’m after him too.”
“It’s a lost cause. That thing is better used for scrap metal. Though hopefully after I’ve gotten Dream back to hels.”
“Wait, why do you want that?” Tommy asked. Why would anyone actually want Dream around and not just kill him. “Didn’t you kill your version of him? Why get a replacement?”
“Because I wasn’t finished dealing with the first one.” Theseus answered, then put his axe away. “Let me do what I’m here to do, and maybe I’ll help with your little problem. Got it?” And before Tommy could answer, his hels version was gone.
Tommy wanted to follow, but first pulled out his comm to send an update and hope Grian had responded. He smiled when he saw that he had, but then confused when he saw there were other messages. He read them off, then sent some messages back.
<Grian> That’s good to hear. And yeah it’s his. He never used it so I ended up keeping it on me and never got it back to him.
[Eyes] X-1, Y-1, Z-1
[Eyes] X-2, Y-2, Z-2
[Eyes] X-3, Y-3, Z-3
<NPC_GRIAN> I got good, bad and unsure news
<NPC_GRIAN> Good, I found one of them
<NPC_GRIAN> Bad, something’s seriously wrong with him cause Dream did something
<NPC_GRIAN> weird, just got message from something/someone called Eyes giving me three sets of coordinates
<NPC_GRIAN> any way to use this thing to look at my coords?
Tommy stood there, waiting for a response. When one wasn’t coming in, he started fiddling with the comm to try and figure it out himself. Just as Grian got back to him, Tommy figured it out.
<Grian> Seriously wrong how?
<NPC_GRIAN> Looks damaged and isn’t showing much emotion. Also working with Dream? But the bitch tried convincing me he was my friend so could be the same sort of thing
<NPC_GRIAN> also figured out coords
Tommy switched back to the coordinate reader and started shifting around, trying to figure out which direction was which. It seemed like the first and second set of coordinates were about the same distance from where he currently was. Because of that, he started to head towards the first one listed. While he was walking, another message came in from Grian.
<Grian> That was fast. Anyway, what do the other messages look like?
<NPC_GRIAN> I started working on it when you didn’t get back to me immediately.
<NPC_GRIAN> looks like: [Eyes] coordinates
<NPC_GRIAN> doesn’t look like a player’s text, but also not sure what could message me, so that’s why I’m not sure.
Tommy groaned when a message didn’t come back within the next few seconds. What was Grian doing that was causing such a delay. Maybe it was just the way these comms worked? Once Grian got back to him, he could bring it up.
<Grian> Yeah, that looks like something else. And what do you mean not immediately?
<NPC_GRIAN> I’m guessing it’s something with these comms. It’s taking you ages to send a message back.
He had nearly reached the coordinates when Grian got back to him.
<Grian> Meanwhile I’m getting your messages all at once like they were pre-typed. That’s not a good sign.
<NPC_GRIAN> Well shit
Tommy stuffed the comm in his pocket and started running. He was close enough to tell that the coords were for the house that Tommy had never seen before, but recognized just the same due to it looking more like something out of Hermitcraft. He slammed the door open and started calling. “Jrum! Hey Jrum are you in here?!” There was no answer and Tommy checked the communicator again. He was just about at the right coordinates, but the Y value was a little off. That probably meant that the location needed to be exact, and Tommy looked down at the comm to make sure he lined up exactly. Because of that, he didn’t realize he was about to walk into something until he crashed into the charger and fell to the ground.
“Oh that’s a big charger. Why’s it so huge?” He looked between the coordinates again. “Oh. I’m guessing something’s in there.” Tommy broke into the charger’s casing and poked his head inside. For the most part, it was just a jumble of redstone, but in one corner was a torch lighting up a barrel. The teen pulled himself inside just enough to open the barrel and pull the contents out, that being a single unsigned book.
Tommy looked around before going over to a table and sitting down to read the book. He sent another quick update to Grian before opening it up and reading. It seemed to be a lot of notes written down, filling the pages. None of them were complete sentences, and the ink stains made Tommy imagine a number of them were written in a rush.
Zoning out = DSMP console program. QHHBP program active? What's KGADOOHM and HJTHJ? Connected to K⊣OOᒲR? There’s a vault. It’s for favorite things. Items and animals. I couldn’t write right. I think I zoned out there and fell. Posters of 2 music discs. Coords: X-3, Y-3, Z-3.
Tommy looked at his comm and noticed the third set of coordinates matched the ones written down in the book. Obviously he would need to go there. But Tommy continued reading, messaging Grian what was written down.
Woke up in pain. Programs were running too much. Don’t know why. Managed to unplug and drain battery. 873.5% of what. It was connected to ⎓⚍リ↸||?
Jrum officially moved out. He likes the red plants. I don’t. They’re not natural. Admin keeps visiting. Asking questions. Not sure how to feel. ⎓⚍リ↸|| visits too. Those are nicer.
Tommy flipped through more pages. More questions and confusion. Some did end up as full writing while others were just more quickly written words to convey an idea. With the mention of Jrum, this was obviously something Grum wrote, but there was almost too much here. Then Tommy stopped and read another entry.
Jrum officially got adopted. I don’t understand how I feel. It hurts but I’m also happy. He’ll stay away, but it just reminds me how hurt he is. How scared I feel. I miss my dads. Why didn’t they find us?
Jrum got adopted? Grum wondering why Grian and Mumbo hadn’t come for them and missing them? That wasn’t good. And based on the messaging problem, Tommy had an idea why.
<NPC_GRIAN> Another page implies they’ve been here a really long time. Explains why the server’s so different and how Dream was able to get Grum to that point.
<NPC_GRIAN> also you’re probably going to have to fight for custody or something because someone adopted Jrum.
Since Tommy knew he wasn’t going to get an answer back soon, he went back to reading. The messages seemed to be shorter and shorter, the handwriting becoming more messy. Tommy assumed that was because of them being over time and Dream breaking the bot down more and more. Then he got to a list which he immediately typed up and sent to Grian.
<NPC_GRIAN> Found a list of names or something. Obviously seems important.
<NPC_GRIAN> List: Grum, Dream, Gorgeous, Poultry Man, Eyes, Console
<NPC_GRIAN> I don’t know if it’s a code or just names or what. But since I got messages from ‘Eyes’...
Tommy closed the book and put it in his inventory. There was still more to read, but he already got information from it and was losing time. For now he needed to go to the second coordinates.
Xannes just stood, not even reacting when the first person attacked him. Their axe blade was aimed right for his chest, no armor there to stop it, but the weapon bounced off, causing no damage. Someone else attacking had the same reaction. “Sorry, but doesn’t look like your weapons are really working right now. Too bad since I’m sure mine will work fine.” And he swung his sword, hitting the next person who attempted to fight him. They were set on fire due to the fire aspect as well and being knocked away, slamming into the wall from a high level knockback.
From there, Xannes continued to attack, even getting a little cocky about the fact he couldn’t get hit in his current player-mode. Because of that, he was easily caught off guard when the demon grabbed him, forgetting he was only invulnerable to damage. While it didn’t hurt when he would have otherwise been crushed to death, now he couldn’t move at all.
His best shot was to try and get the demon with his sword. Demons were normally connected to the nether and his aetherite sword being an opposite of netherite tended to have a worse effect on them. But before he could get far with that plan, the weapon was taken away, and since he wasn’t in hels, his hacking capabilities couldn’t get him a new one. Potentially he could summon it back to himself, but that would be a little more complicated to use and could cost extra seconds he wouldn’t have.
“Why did you come if you’re just here to hurt me?” Jrum asked, clinging to the cat hybrid.
“I was trying to find you and your brother to take you home.” Xannes grunted, struggling as much as he could to get out. “I didn’t realize you’d be mind controlled or whatever this is.”
“I-I’m not being- and why would you want to take me home?”
“Uh, because your family is worried about you and helping out is the ‘good thing’ to do and all that bullshit.”
Jrum crossed his arms. “I don’t want to go. They just left me here, and… and now I have a new family!”
Xannes was about to speak up, but then he was squeezed a bit harder for a moment, pushing the air out of his lungs for a moment. “And we’re not letting anything happen to him, so if you’re planning on hurting him, you can think again!”
Xannes was wheezing slightly, trying to breathe. Suffocation like this was weird. Technically it couldn’t kill him or cause actual damage, but it still managed to cause a type of ghost pain. It was getting to the point where he was worried about managing to pass out, when there were voices. They sounded distant and unfamiliar, but getting closer. For a moment, Xannes thought he was imagining it, but the fact that the people around him were reacting to it too made him realize it was real.
People started appearing from the entrance, all of them wearing what Xannes was pretty sure looked like hazmat suits of some kind, but he couldn’t be absolutely sure from this distance and his current situation. What he could be sure of was the yell that came, and the chorus of the same response from Jrum’s new ‘family’.
“Jrum!”
“Tommy?!”
Tommy was almost to the second set of coordinates when he saw something different. It was a person. Well, not just a person, but a number of people. “Hey! Heeeey!” He yelled out to get their attention and most everyone looked over, showing a mix of emotions from surprise, to fear, to acceptance.
“Is that Tommy?”
“No, Tommy’s dead. Dream said so.”
“Well he lied bitch!” Tommy said, finally reaching the group. “What the fuck is going on around here?”
“I think you need to give answers first.”
Tommy groaned a little. “Okay fine, I ran off, started living somewhere else. Tubbo thought I was dead and pulled me back. I didn’t want to come back and brought Tubbo with me, and then Phil and Techno followed. I’m back ‘cause some kids ended up here on accident and I’m after them.”
“Are you talking about Grum and Jrum?” Tommy was pretty sure that was Puffy.
“Yeah! Any clue where Jrum is, cause I’ve seen Grum.” Tommy watched as a few people glanced at each other. “Oh fuck, what’s wrong?”
“First, you need to put a hazmat suit on.” Someone stepped forward, and Tommy was surprised to see it was Sam, looking a little odd without his creeper mask on, unable to wear it with the rest of the suit. 
“Can I ask why?”
“See all the red plants? Bad found something underground and started worshipping it. It’s started corrupting people, and one of them is your friend.”
“Shit.” Tommy said, grabbing the offered suit and putting it on. “You said Bad and Jrum, who else is down there.”
“Ant, Punz, Purpled, Ponk, Fundy, also someone named Hannah, you wouldn’t know her. She joined while you were presumed dead. We’re still unsure about Sapnap since he’s been trying to stay out of it, but Bad was really trying to pull him in.”
Tommy nodded, then realized that if Bad was the person in charge and tried pulling Sapnap in, then he also likely tried with- “And what about Skeppy?”
“He… he was involved.”
“I’m noticing the use of that in the past word shit. That mean he got out or…?”
“Last week Bad ended up getting him killed.”
Tommy’s eyes widened. If this thing could get Bad to kill Skeppy, it was really dangerous. “Alright, then let’s get in there.”
“Wait, you need a few things.” Sam started handing him items as other people in the group started moving. “These splash bottles are filled with holy water from church prime. They seem to help against these plants. Flint and steel to burn anything you're able to break. It needs to be fully burned or it can heal itself. Also don’t actively try to break anything except the source which looks like a giant egg. Trying to break anything is like it has a thorns enchantment. You get hurt back if you try to break it. Same thing happens with the main source, but it hurts you more, so you’ll need the extra health.”
Tommy took all the offered items, then followed the group down. He kept his sword at the ready, even testing it with one of the vines on the walls. Ow, yeah, that did hurt. So it didn’t look like the different material would help anything. Tommy was mostly willing to help, but he also knew that trying to get Jrum out of there would probably be a better priority since that’s what he was there for anyway and getting rid of any member of this evil group or whatever it was would help.
The moment he got down into the main cavern, he called out Jrum’s name. “Jrum!” He then watched as the people who had already been down there turned to look at him, surprised to see him alive.
“Hey! Theseus copy! Say yes!” Someone spoke up, and Tommy vaguely remembered the voice, but couldn’t place it. He had no idea what it would do, so he ended up saying yes anyway. Immediately, he regretted it as the sword in his hand disappeared. But that was followed by a yell from Bad, and Tommy saw him let go a person who was now holding the pink sword. “Thanks.”
Tommy caught the sword as it was thrown back to him, the other person he now recognized as Xannes slamming himself into Ponk and taking another aetherite sword from him. “Now what are you doing here?”
“Got Grian to send me in as back up. I see you found Jrum.”
“Yeah, the little shit has the weird vines growing on him and apparently has decided that these idiots are his family now. Bit of a downgrade if you ask me.”
Tommy slashed at someone who tried to attack Xannes from behind. “Yeah, found a book that I’m pretty sure is Grum’s. Apparently they’ve been here a long while and Jrum ended up getting adopted.”
“Hasn’t it been just a few days?”
“Yeah, so obviously there’s a big issue. Any chance you can teleport us out of here if I grab Jrum?”
“It would be easy if I had some coordinates.” Xannes knocked someone to the ground and then stole their axe before throwing it at someone else to hit them with it.
“Yeah, I’ve got some. X-3, Y-3, Z-3. That work for you?”
“Sure they’re safe?”
Tommy shook his head. “Not at all, but they were sent to me by someone, and the previous two ended up helping.”
“Alright, but if you get us trapped, I’m getting myself out and leaving you behind.”
“Yeah whatever, I already broke out of one prison. I’m sure there’s nothing as tough as that one.”
“Oh please tell me you didn’t.”
“Alright, I won’t.”
“Goddammit. Just grab Jrum and bring him here..” the helsmit groaned, attacking another corrupted SMP member and giving Tommy an opening.
Tommy ran towards the bot. He didn’t have as good of a sword as Xannes, so getting through everyone was a bit tougher, but he finally made it, grabbing the bot’s arm. Jrum immediately turned to look at him. For a moment, Tommy thought it would be easy, until the kid pulled out an axe and something Tommy recognized flashed on screen. “Oh shit shit shit! Jrum Jrum Jrum Jrum no!” He barely dodged the swing of an axe by jumping back. Sure, Jrum was a kid, but he was a robot kid. That sometimes took combat lessons from False. And he could remember them perfectly. And that meant the kid could potentially be as dangerous as, dare he say it, Techno.
He tried to keep dodging, moving back so Jrum would have to follow, but hits were landing, and the hazmat suit wasn’t the best armor to wear. He hazarded a glance behind him to check how close they were to Xannes, but he got an axe to his gut and fell to the floor, the hazmat suit now torn. “Xannes! A little help!”
The admin rushed over, hitting Jrum back with a fist to avoid using knockback but also keep him from killing Tommy. Then he hit a button on his helmet and the three of them were teleported away. The sudden change of scenery made Jrum stop attacking at the very least, now focused on figuring out where they were.
“Where did you take us?! Where are we?! Take me back!”
“No fucking clue.” Tommy answered, looking around before his eyes widened. “Wait, are those…?” He jumped up, seeing the posters of his discs and the two of them each on their own pedestal on a platform of gold blocks on either side of a nether portal. “My discs!”
He started running towards them, but was shot from the side. The power from the punch bow pushed Tommy with enough force, he fell back down. He winced and held the wound before looking to see who had shot him. “Dream…”
“How did you find this place?”
“That would be my doing.” Xannes raised his hand for a moment to get the admin’s attention before noticing the second robot. “And I see you have Grum with you.”
“Grum?!” Jrum looked over, asking the question angrily. “What, you couldn’t be dead?!”
Grum took a slight step to the side to be seen better. “And I see you are with these two. I believed you to have finally given up, but yet you still cling to meaningless hope.”
“No! I have a new family! I don’t care about these two.”
“And yet here you are, with both of them and coming after me. I thought I made it quite clear that I have no want to be around something as useless as you.”
“I’M NOT USELESS!” Jrum shouted before running at Grum, fast enough that Dream reacted by simply moving out of the way, pulling out a shield in an attempt to block. Jrum attempted to attack with his axe, but the blade just clashed against another axe in Grum’s hand. Jrum attempted to attack again, but it was also blocked by a mirrored move. The two robots just started to fight each other, neither managing to hit the other as they perfectly matched each other’s moves.
Dream attempted to stop the fight with an attack of his own, but he ran into an invisible wall. Feeling around, he was surrounded by the same problem. “Barrier blocks. Sorry, but not something you can escape from. You’ve got bedrock right below you and I know you decided using a console was the best option for whatever reason, so you don’t have any escape.”
“Alright, now let’s break the bots up.” Tommy said, walking towards them, switching his broken hazmat suit for armor. 
“Where’d you get all that gear?”
“Sto- uhhh borrowed it from NPG. It was the only thing I had access to and didn’t want to have absolutely nothing. Didn’t get a chance to replace it cause I got here too quickly.” Tommy explained before getting between the bots. “Alright you two, break it- ow! Stop hitting me! You’re gonna kill me!”
Xannes sighed and pulled Tommy out from the battle. “That was probably the worst idea.”
“It was at least something. So unless you want to suggest something, it’s the best we got.”
“Here’s an idea. You give Dream to me.”
Tommy and Xannes turned to see Theseus coming out of the nether portal. “After that, well, don’t get in my way anymore and maybe I’ll let you live.”
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Text
and you thought we would have less angst~! lol nope!
@petrichormeraki @helleborusangel 
Grifter left briefly and returned with Sefter and Grifect, taking them over to where Grian and Mumbo had taken Jrum. “Oh I had the best idea! Since you have your kids and Sense and I have ours, they could be best friends! I’m sure they can get along great!”
“I’m not sure that’s the best idea right now.” Mumbo said, keeping Jrum close to him. “Jrum is very vulnerable right now and-”
“I kinda do want to play.” Jurm spoke up, tugging on Mumbo’s pant leg. “It was something nice I got to do when I was with d- uh… Bad.”
Mumbo hesitated, but then nodded. “I guess it probably wouldn’t hurt. But if anything happens to Jrum-!”
“Oh calm down, I won’t do anything to him.” Grifter replied. “Besides, I’m sure he wouldn’t let me.” And he pointed behind him to a doorway where Xannes was just coming in, followed by NPG.
“Jrum’s okay!” NPG smiled, before moving behind Xannes when he locked eyes with Grifter, the hels admin crossing his arms.
“You’re out of prison.”
Grifter smiled and pulled himself close to Sense. “Of course. Wouldn’t want to leave this hot stud alone for too long, now would I?”
“Well, You’ve had time with him, now it’s time for you to go back.”
Grifter pouted. “But my kids are having a playdate with Jrum. You wouldn’t want to upset a child, would you?” Grifter’s pout turned into a sly smile and he moved closer to whisper to Xannes. “And Sense has said you’re such a softie when it comes to kids. Before you can do anything to me, I could do whatever I want to that robot. I could create a fun little feedback loop and break them like that. And you couldn’t do anything about it because you decided NPG is better to protect, hmm?”
Xannes wasn’t sure what to say that wouldn’t cause some problem, so he just glared. Grifter’s evil smile quickly turned to one that was much sweeter, and he pulled Grifect over, letting the child talk to Xannes. “Hi Mistew Xannes! Awe uwu weawwy the best hackew evew?”
“I… am known as the best hacker, yes.” Xannes gritted out after another smirk from Grifter.
“Wow! Thawt's so coow! Cawn uwu teach me how tuwu duwu stuff wike thawt?”
“Don’t you want to play with… whatever Jrum would be considered to you? Cousin or some shit?”
“Yeah! But cawn uwu teach me watew?”
“Yeah yeah, whatever.” Xannes growled, rolling his eyes. Grifect went back over to Jrum and Grifter tried pushing Sefter to play as well, but the older sibling refused to join in.
“Hmm, it looks like Sefter doesn’t want to play. I guess I should take him back to Prof. Sense, you can watch Grifect, right dear?” The evil scientist nodded and Grifter gave him a kiss. “Now Grifect, remember what I told you.”
“I wemembew!” The young bot replied, getting a pat on his head from his dad. Grifter left with Sefter after that, but Grian and Mumbo watcher where they had been.
“You’ve got a bad feeling about that too, right?”
Mumbo nodded. “After what we’ve heard about him, of course I do.”
.
.
.
Sefter twirled a sword in one hand while holding an axe in the other. Behind him, Tommy was tied up and stuffed in a large chest, muffled sounds being the only thing to escape the box. 
On the other side of the room, Grifter dragged Grum along, who was doing his best to resist. “P-please. I d-don’t w-want to g-go.”
“I don’t care! I need you for this, so you’re coming with me. No one will even notice!”
“N-no. I w-want to s-stay with T-Tommy. P-Please!”
“Stop complaining or I’ll rewire you for what I need. I’m sure it can’t be much worse than a lobotomy.” Grifter threatened in a cheerful voice. “Now let’s go!”
Grum was scared by the threat and then stopped resisting. Grifter found it much easier to move the robot now, though the screen changing to a smiley face confused him. He hefted the bot onto his shoulder, quickly sent a message to Grifect, and then they were gone.
The_Grifter left the world
Sefter left the world
The_Grifter joined the world
Grumbot_System joined the world
When they arrived in the SMP, Grumbot jumped off of Grifter’s shoulder and pulled out a sword. “Alright, I’m guessing that means you can also find Theseus from here, right?”
“Theseus is likely to be with the admin. The admin also has a needed item. That item must be retrieved.”
“Good.” Grifter smiled. “Take us there!”
Grumbot hesitated, buffering for a few moments. “Console commands have been disabled. Locating Theseus is not available. Reinstate programs before trying again.”
“Ugh, well how do I do that?” Grifter huffed, smiled gone. 
Coordinates appeared on Grumbot’s face for a few moments before it spoke again. “If it has not been moved, those should be the coordinates. There will be people around it.”
“And they know my ‘good’ copy?” Grifter asked, using air quotes.
“Correct.”
Grifter sighed and pulled on his new outfit, replacing it with a standard red sweater. He cleaned up his hair a bit, resisting the urge to mess it up again and then showed himself off. “How do I look?”
“You look like bzzt.”
“I’m sorry, what?” Grifter asked. Had the robot just censored a word. “I look like what?!”
“Was that not the goal? To look like bzzt? You did change into what looks like bzzt sweater.”
Grifter calmed down. “Oh, you were trying to say Grian’s name hmm? And people say I’m the bad one. He won’t let you say his name.”
“Incorrect. That is a recent addition as protection against the Admin and Dream.”
That got Grifter’s attention. “Oh really? So it’s something you’re doing on purpose?”
“Also incorrect. It has not been turned off and knowledge about the program is recent. It also cannot currently be turned off.” Grumbot explained in a deadpan voice, starting to walk to the quartz mansion, leaving Grifter to follow behind.
“Well now I’m curious. Why can’t you turn it off?”
“Another component controls that program.”
“Hmm, I see.” The helsmit nodded. “So, where are we headed?” He paused as Grumbot pointed to a building in the distance, far enough that Grifter needed to squint. “Over there? Pfft, why walk. I can get us there quicker.”
He grabbed Grumbot, and greenish magic swirled around them, teleporting them next to the building. “If you are attempting to mimic bzzt, that is not helpful for the image.”
“Pfft, it’s fine. No one saw. And if they did, I would deal with it. Now let’s go inside. I already know what I’m going with. Oh, and you better play along, or else.”
Grumbot nodded, making Grifter frown about that fact that it didn’t seem even a little scared from his threat. The helsmit picked Grumbot up before walking into the building, putting on a smile. “Hey, we’re back. Mumbo’s still back in Hermitcraft with Jrum keeping Tommy company.”
“Did you not figure out how to help him out? His body’s still here and obviously he didn’t come with you.” Philza spoke, having returned and Techno gone once again.
The helsmit didn’t need to worry about figuring out an answer because Grumbot quickly answered. “The revival process for those from this world requires an extra step in the form of an item that the admin was in possession of. He will need to be found.”
Those there glanced at each other, which obviously didn’t mean anything good. “What’s wrong?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. Fundy held out his communicator, letting Grifter look at it before showing Grumbot. Grifter held in a smile when he saw that Theseus was here, and it looked like his old admin was here too. The errored message was interesting though.
“Obviously it isn’t good news. Dream was bad enough, I don’t want to see what an evil version of him is like. Unless of course it’s an opposite version and he’s nicer.” Phil spoke again.
“From what I’ve heard? He’s not really that nice.” Grifter replied. Not nice to most people that is, at the very least. But he wondered if this Nightmare person would want to be on the good side of a Listener. In fact, he had already lost his server, hadn’t he? So what more could he possibly lose from some sort of partnership. “And while it probably isn’t a good idea to go near him, it looks like we’ll have to.”
“I’m not sure how long it would take to gather people up to help with that.” The hardcore player said. “A lot of people are still injured from the banquet and-”
Grifter cut Philza off. Grian would probably be concerned for his faaamily~. Ugh. “I’m sure I can do fine on my own. Even an admin can’t do much against a Watcher. And while extra help would be nice, you getting close could just end up being more harm than good if you end up in the crossfire. I don’t want to need to revive anyone else just trying to get this thing.”
“He will also be getting some assistance already.” Grumbot spoke up, and Grifter held in the urge to roll his eyes. 
“I’m not sure that’s the best idea.” Grifter tried his best to sound genuine. He’s pretty sure calling the robot by its name would be more effective, but to be completely honest, he had forgotten it at this point.
“There is to be no discussion on this matter. You will be getting assistance.” Grumbot replied, pulling out an axe. “And the sooner travel is started towards the new admin, the better.”
Grifter looked over the people in the room. Obviously getting Philza to look after the robot wouldn’t be a good idea. Even if he wasn’t like his own dad, the helsmit was sure he would be equally as experienced. The demon was off the table too. No way the robot would escape from that. The enderman thing could just teleport around.The fox hybrid might also be too quick on the draw, though he did look young. But no, the fluffy haired boy with little nubs of horns poking out, he seemed like the best option.  He even already had a kid attached at his leg, so adding another would make things tougher on him.
Grifter took Grumbot over to Tubbo and put the robot in the teen’s arms. “Here, try to keep him occupied. I’m sure those two could even play together.” Though Grumbot didn’t react, it looked like the ziglin liked that idea, making it even more likely for the teen to respond positively. And that he did.
The helsmit sent a little wink to Grumbot before giving it a hug and leaving the building. As soon as he was outside, Grifter leaned against a wall and waited for the robot to come out. In a few seconds, there was a commotion from inside and then Grumbot rushed out of the building. Grifter immediately pulled the robot into his arms and teleported them away before anyone could follow outside. “I’m hoping you got what you needed?”
“That could not be obtained.”
“Well then what the fuck was all that noise?”
“Attempting to reconnect programs followed by a necessary escape.”
“Ugh, well I’m sure everyone’s out looking for you now. I’ll take us back and you can do whatever the hell you need to.”
“That would be a good idea.”
Grifter teleported them back. The Fox hybrid unfortunately stayed behind, but the helsmit quickly bashed him over the head, letting him fall to the floor unconscious. “Hmm, I think I could have gone a little harder without killing him. Normally there’s more blood. Maybe I’m just out of practice?”
Grumbot didn’t respond to the banter, just staring at the replacement console. It didn’t need all the programs, but it would be so easy to just add them all back. Its arm reached to plug itself in, but the other arm’s hand stopped the first. Its screen flickered for a moment, and then it released its arm and plugged in. Just a copy of the coordinated program. That’s all that was needed.
When Grumbot unplugged again, Grifter picked it up. “I’m guessing that means you’re ready. Where are we headed to?”
Coordinates appeared on Grumbot’s screen and Grifter smiled before teleporting them there. They reappeared in a large field of snow, the helsmit glad he had changed back into a sweater. “You’re not going to freeze in this, right?”
“Correct.”
Grifter nodded and then looked around. “I’m not seeing them. Are you sure these are the right coordinates?”
“The coordinates were altered slightly based on movement, positioning and terrain. They will be four chunks in that direction in a number of ticks.” Grumbot answered, pointing towards a hill.
“Alright, sounds good enough!” Grifter shrugged and then started dragging Grumbot along in the pointed direction. When they reached the top of the hill, the helsmit looked around, smiling when he saw the people he was looking for. Theseus was following behind what was presumably Nightmare. Then the helsmit’s gaze drifted to a few blocks behind them and the extra set of footprints following the pair. It looked like someone was using an invisibility potion.
Grifter pulled out a bow and arrow, attaching his signature TNT to the end of his arrow, and then fired it so it would land in front of the pair. Not enough to hurt either of them, but enough to startle them at the very least.
When it exploded, Grifter teleported closer, leaving Grumbot behind. “Hi there. I don’t really want you going much further.”
“Who the hell are you?” Nightmare spoke as Theseus glared.
“Mmm… I’m sure you’ve heard of me. I’m a Listener. Grifter to be precise. I’m sure Theseus has talked about his much better older brother. If not, well I guess he’s just more of a little shit than I thought.”
“Nope, he never mentioned you. But I’ve heard of your kind.”
“Aww, that’s too bad.” Grifter pouted, pulling back another arrow and firing it at the invisible figure. “Anyway, nasty tail you’ve got there.”
Nightmare and Theseus turned around to see an arrow floating in midair, footprints being created in the snow with nothing visible making them. Immediately the invisible figure was pulling armor on, ready to fight. “Thanks for the tip.”
“Anytime! Anyway, I need Theseus. Apparently Dadza really likes him still and is upset he’s gone. I wouldn’t do anything, but he kinda cursed someone that I actually care about, so if I don’t do this, it’ll end badly for me.”
“Well tell him Theseus is staying with me. There’s still some training he never finished.”
Grifter’s eyes lit up briefly and the implications, but he still frowned. “Can I at least have him long enough to take back to Dadza? It’ll take five minutes, ten tops. If he doesn’t let me bring bitch boy back, I can just try killing him.”
“Try killing death?” Nightmare asked, sounding skeptical.
Grifter nodded. “Yeah, we’re pretty sure I’m the only one who can actually do it. It’s why people really prefer being on my side.” The helsmit’s smile shifted to something darker. “Which is why you should probably… you know… Listen. Besides, being on my side has plenty of perks!”
Grifter couldn’t see Nightmare’s expression because of his mask, but eventually he nodded. “Fine. But you better be back before those ten minutes.”
Grifter nodded, giving a beaming smile before grabbing Theseus and disappearing. Nightmare put his arms behind his head, acting bored, before pulling out an axe and shield at the last second, blocking an attack. “I know you’re still here idiot.”
The invisible figure didn’t respond, so Nightmare just threw their axe at the person, the blade digging into the armor, deep enough to break through it. “I guess the durability was low.” Was all Nightmare said as he popped his arm back into place, having dislocated from the amount of force he used in the attack. “So, got a na-” Nightmare continued before being cut off as he was grabbed from behind.
“You are in the possession of a needed item. It must be handed over.”
“And what are you supposed to be?”
Grumbot buffered for a moment before answering. “Console. The admin used a console for various jobs before he was taken away and replaced by you. You likely still have an Item needed for the revival process of this world in your possession. The surrendering of that item would be appreciated.”
Nightmare kicked Grumbot away. “Not a chance.” He then pulled out a sword, hitting away the invisible figure. “Not like I can do it with this person fighting me.”
“Then they will be eliminated.” Grumbot replied, booting up its combat program. It pulled out a sword, ready to attack, but then was pushed to the ground.
“Nah, you might be useful later. Get out of the way.” Nightmare said before pulling out a trident and stabbing it into the ground, impaling Grumbot’s arm and nailing it to the ground.
As Nightmare and the invisible person fought, Grumbot looked at the trident. Fortunately it only injured one arm, and as a robot, it was ambidextrous. It pulled the trident out and held it in its hand. With the combat program active, Grumbot angled the throw, adjusting for movement from the other combat, and then threw the weapon.
In a moment, Nightmare was the one stuck to the ground. The invisible person tried to take advantage of the situation, but Grumbot managed to push them aside. The face flickered and then changed to its normal self, though even then it still flickered a bit. “Look, I’m just after my book. Give it here and you can be on your way.”
No one moved, Nightmare wasn’t even struggling, so Grum pressed his foot into Nightmare’s chest. “Give it up, or we could just stay here.”
“Who are you?”
“I think you know.”
There was quiet for a bit, but then Nightmare pulled out a book. “Fine, but I’ll be getting answers.”
“No you won’t.” And Grum pulled the trident out again before smashing it down on Nightmare’s face, shattering the mask he wore before the body disappeared into a cloud of smoke. Immediately Grum closed his combat program and curled into a ball. He started crying at what had just happened, everything quickly catching up with him. But the danger was gone now, right?
The sound of armor moving drew Grum’s attention to the now formerly invisible person, the piglin now looking down at Grum. The bot immediately regretted closing his combat program and tried to boot it up again, shakily drawing his sword. He didn’t want to die again, especially now he had the- the book! Grum dropped his sword and grabbed the book, shoving it into one of his extra inventory slots. It was just in time too as Techno grabbed him.
“D-d-don’t kuh-kill m-me ple-please!” Grum stuttered out. He was lifted up, which he thought was a curious way to kill him, but he also didn’t expect fireworks as a weapon, so anything was on the table with him. 
Instead, Techno just moved Grum onto his back before leaning down and grabbing the dropped sword. “Already made the mistake of killing you once. Besides, you’ll get rid of my ghost problem.” And then he started walking. Grum was still a bit scared of getting killed, thinking the piglin could be lying, but he was also tired. He was glad he still had the trident, which was channeling at the very least, so he wouldn’t necessarily need his charger, but conserving power would be good right now, so he went to sleep.
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