idk what fem trans person needs to hear this but you should get a winter skirt. get a thick long wool skirt. or else you will find yourself with only thin warm weather skirts and then be either freezing cold or dysphoric come winter. do not do that to yourself. invest in a heavy warm skirt and then you can frolic through the snow in style and comfort
I wear skirts and dresses year-round and I love novelty prints, which are harder to find in winter-weight fabrics, so here is a Guide To Staying Warm And Cute:
1. Base layer. Long-sleeved shirt (silk or cotton) and tights. This can be a blouse or a long-sleeved tee. Ideally the same color, or colors that both coordinate with your dress.
2. Is it below freezing? Will you be outside for any length of time? You need Base Layer 2: fine-gauge pullover sweater (wool or cashmere) and thermal tights. Actually for Base Layer 2 you’re gonna want to do thermal tights first, then fun fashion tights over top.
3. Petticoat. This is both practical and because Big Skirt Fun. I wear a fluffy soft nylon petticoat and when it’s super cold I add a flannel petticoat on top (actually just a circle skirt I made from a flannel bedsheet). The fluffy petticoat fills in the empty space in your skirt so cold air can’t get up under it and the flannel petticoat cuts the wind if you’re wearing a thinner dress.
4. Dress. At this point you’ve got so many warm layers on that it kind of doesn’t matter what your dress is made of. I wear sleeveless cotton dresses 90% of the time.
5. Cardigan. You are now at real risk of overheating while indoors so a layer you can take off easily is key. Also you can put brooches on it.
6. Boots. Ideally knee-high, ideally made of real leather. In the coldest weather you can add socks on top of your 2 tights layers.
7. Coat. You’re going to want something at least knee-length with enough room for your skirt. I got incredibly lucky and thrifted a 100% wool 80s-does-50s princess coat with a super full skirt. It’s ankle-length and weighs a ton and it’s actually way too warm for any weather above freezing. Earlier this year I had to wait in line in 16-degree weather in New York in a cotton dress and with this coat on I was fine.
8. Scarf and gloves. With some dedicated thrifting (check those fiber content tags!) you should be able to find a shawl-sized wool scarf. You want something big enough that you can cover your head and ears and fill in the collar of your coat. This will also prevent hat hair. Leather gloves with wool or cashmere lining are optimal but whatever is warm and comfy will do.
This video depicts a moment that is nearly impossible to observe: a sperm whale surfacing with a giant squid clenched between its teeth.
These predators hunt at depths exceeding 800 meters, where light does not penetrate, and only biosonar directs the pursuit. Consequently, clear surface images are exceedingly rare.
This is, factually, the first footage of this that we have ever gotten. This has never been observed by a human being before in recorded history. The only reason we knew these whales ate those squids before was the beaks of the squids found in the stomachs of dead whales, and the battle scars on whales consistent with fighting giant squids.
My favorite thing about this clip is that, in the original uncropped footage, you can see her calf is right beside her, ascending from the depths along with her. Whale calves don't dive until they're taught by their mothers. It is very likely that this footage is of a mother whale teaching her calf to hunt on one of its very first dives.
When I saw this footage for the first time, I cried a little tbh.
From imdb: ”During the filming of some scenes for The Princess Bride, the weather became markedly cold for Robin Wright Penn. Andre the Giant helped her by placing one of his hands over her head; his hands were so large that one would entirely cover the top of her head, keeping her warm.”
All of the behind the scenes stories about Andre the Giant were adorable like this, Apparently Wallace Shawn is deathly afraid of heights, so he was freaking out while they were doing the scene scaling the cliff and Andre was like “it is okay, I’ll keep you safe.” there’s a behind the scenes thing on the DVD and everyone is choked up and misty eyed when they talk about working with him.
It should be known that when he got back to wrestling after the movie came out he was constantly pulling other wrestlers into the locker room where he had a tv set up with a copy of the movie so they could watch. He was desperate for the guys to see it and he really wanted their honest opinion on his acting.
not to sound like a christian facebook mom but some of yall need to have grace in your hearts for the people in your lives or the people you pass once on the road and never see again like you literally need to stop assuming the worst of everyone and their intentions it is poisoning your brain. you can be careful and responsible without being a miserable person. it is possible i promise
Also, if you're a jerk to others, the percentage of jerks you interact with will be higher than if you're not a jerk.
By being a jerk, you're actively making your life harder and less pleasant. This is because we're a social species, and we do this thing called "mirroring" usually unconsciously, so people tend to reflect the behavior you put out, back to you.
Also you can intentionally be kinder with people, and they'll be kinder to you.
We are a social species depended on cooperation to survive. Altruistic behavior is actually what's in our genetic past, far more than jerks.
A few years back, my comedian husband was at Cardiff Glee Club, waiting to perform. He's friends with all the staff there, so he was chatting to one of the glass collectors while the audience were coming in, finding their seats, ordering drinks to their tables etc
It was a busy night, and apparently the bar and kitchen were both running a little behind. Mid conversation , a woman strode up to Steff and his friend and aggressively said "I get that you're having a nice time, guys, but some of us are still waiting on drinks, so do you think you could do your jobs?"
Before either could answer, the bar manager materialised.
"Well, he's a glass collector and he's one of the acts on tonight," she said politely, pointing them out. "So, neither of them can help you. But I'm the manager, can I help?"
("I specified that," the manager told Steff afterwards, "because if she's going to be a dick, I'm going to waste her time by telling her why she's wrong and has just been stupid before I help her.")
"Yes," said the woman, now gearing up to get good and annoyed to compensate for her embarrassment. "We've been waiting for our drinks for over half an hour! This is ridiculous!"
"I'm sorry about that," says the manager. "We're super busy tonight, as you can see. What's your order number? I'll check its status."
The woman gave it. The manager looked it up.
"Ah," said the manager. "I see the problem - these were ordered twelve minutes ago, but there's currently a twenty minute wait, as you can see on the board. I'll see what we can do to speed it up, though, and we'll get to it as soon as we can."
The woman grumbled and left.
The manger put her one lower in the queue.
Five minutes later, a second woman from a different group arrived.
"Sorry, it's very possible I'm being a bother and you'll get to it soon," she smiled. "But I just wondered if there's an update on our order? It's been a while."
"I'm so sorry," the manager said, "we're super busy. Let me check for you... Yes, you're still in the queue. We'll get to you as soon as possible, shouldn't be long now."
"Oh!" says the woman. "No, no worries, I just thought I'd double check to make sure we hadn't somehow dropped off the system. Thank you!"
She left, and the manager put her one higher in the queue. When her order was made, the manager added an extra bottle of beer, and a little note that said "Sorry for the wait :)"
And I tell this tale because, the thing is... If this is typical behaviour, that first woman probably goes her whole life never quite being happy, never quite content, always missing out on free moments of human connection. By contrast, the second woman goes her life getting those little gestures, being seen that little bit earlier, having a slightly smoother time of things.
And neither probably even realises. In a thousand small ways, Second Woman has a happier time than First Woman, entirely down to their behaviour.
So yeah - act like a cunt to people, they'll repay you in kind. That's how it works. Your choice if you want that or not ig
Grian being a clingy wife to mumbo over not finding his diamonds was my favorite part of his villain arc
yes mumbo is still in his dress shirt as hes rock climbing. no i dont remember where mumbo is instead of this series but i like to imagine hes just constantly scaling mountains
John Oliver gets it, as usual. AI Slop is one of the best episodes of Last Week Tonight I've seen so far. Gen AI is theft. Those who use it are not authors or artists, they're grifters profiting from real creatives.
The Watcher lore is perfect, and the way Scar and Mumbo are scared but decide to trust him, and the way they act when they realize it’s safe ooooooo it’s so good!!
So, long story short I’m not sure? Like I said that was my first fic, so I’m not sure how good I actually am at writing requests, but I’d love to see the prompt!
It was a beautiful, sunny day on the Hermitcraft server. The sun was shining, the river trickled clearly around the mountain, and Grian pinky promised that he wasn’t going to get up to any mischief.
Well, no major mischief. At the very least he had nothing planned.
The only thing on his agenda for the day was a lovely resource grinding session with Scar. They had been running out of similar materials, and there were a few things that were always in high demand on the server, and they had decided to take the day to stock up on some much needed materials. The tedious work was always more bearable with someone to talk to, even if it did tend to slow them down quite a bit. Still, Grian was confident that once they got away from the distractions and temptations of the other hermits’ bases they would be able to make good time.
He knelt down and opened his ender chest, making sure once more that he had all the tools they could need for a full day of resource gathering, then stood up and breathed deeply in the early morning stillness.
A soft meow broke the tranquil silence, and Grian looked over with a grin to see a familiar gray cat loping toward him at a relaxed pace. He knelt to the grass as she got closer, presenting his hands for her to regally shove her face into. “Well hello there miss Jellie! Aren’t you a pretty kitty! Lovely to see you, as always.”
The cat languidly rubbed into the scritching of his careful claws and began purring like an engine, almost loud enough that he didn’t hear the small voice of the Zookeeper riding her back.
“Oh, I see how it is!” The tiny man rose to stand on Jellie’s shoulders, hands on top of her head as he glared up at the larger man who was still lavishing his cat with attention. “I come all the way over here, and not even a hello!”
Grian did his best to maintain his poker face, but the corners of his mouth pulled up at his friend’s false annoyance. Still, he didn’t make eye contact and continued lavishing Jellie with attention, keeping his eyes steadfastly locked onto the cat even as his wandering hands actually managed to pet the small man on her head. This seemed to be the breaking point for Scar, who huffed indignantly and began climbing up his sweater clad arm.
The avian kept his face straight as best as he could while enduring the ticklish feeling of his tiny friend scaling him like a jungle gym. Keeping that arm carefully still even as he continued to ignore the annoyed muttering aimed in his direction. Eventually, the tiny reached his destination, grabbing ahold of the larger man’s colorful head wing, and taking a deep breath.
“GRIAN!” Even expecting it, the sudden noise made him jump in place, forcing Scar to tighten his hold on the wing as it snapped in to cover Grian’s face in surprise. The giant dark eyes nearly went cross eyed trying to see the tiny man hanging on for dear life in front of his nose, but he managed to clock the giant grin on the landscaper’s face as he finally managed to make eye contact. “Well hello there!”
Grian finally decided that Scar had suffered enough, and brought his hands up underneath him as he let go of the colorful wing, trusting that the soft palms would be there to catch him, even as his larger friend giggled at his predicament.
“Ah, there you are Scar! You should have let me know you were here, it’s quite rude to climb people without permission you know.” He mock scolded the tiny in his hands, grinning at the way he suddenly puffed up in indignation. Cutting off what truly promised to be an epic lecture, he straightened up and raised the hand holding the tiny up to eye level. “Will Her Majesty be joining us today then?”
“No, she's hangin’ out with the kitties today. Finny and Bee are getting into all sorts of trouble lately, so she’s on kitten duty for a while.”
“And you think Jellie is going to keep them out of trouble?”
“No, but I trust her to stay in one spot until I come back if they get stuck somewhere.”
“Ahh, yeah that makes more sense. Alright, then you’re with me today?”
“Yep! Got everything I need, so we should be good to go!”
“Excellent! I should be set to go, so let’s get a move on.” He moved the hand containing his tiny friend over to his shoulder once more, where Scar climbed on and began setting himself up for a stable flight. He grabbed some of the avian’s blond hair and tucked himself tightly into the wedge where the head wing met the rest of his skull, slipping his hands underneath some of the outer feathers to get a better grip on the sturdier shafts.
It took real effort not to twitch and throw him off as Grian felt tiny hands dig into the sensitive feathers of his head wings, but eventually Scar settled into a stable hold and braced himself properly between said wing and the shoulder beneath him.
“All set to fly?” Grian carefully turned his head without dislodging his smaller friend, and received an enthusiastic thumbs up out of the corner of his eye.
“Ready to go, my good man!” He could hear the tiny much more clearly now that the man was literally laying up against his ear. A wide grin grew across his face as he spread his impressive wingspan behind him, flexing the colorful feathers in preparation for flight.
“Pesky Bird airlines would like to welcome you to the friendly skies! Please keep all arms, legs, and chicken eggs accounted for at all times.”
“Haha- whoa!” Takeoff was always faster and more intense when he was riding with one of the larger server members, but none of them were quite like flying with Grian. The avian’s natural wings made him faster and more maneuverable than anyone on the server, and he made full use of it navigating the tightly packed skyline around Cherry Mountain. In seconds they were above the orange cranes of the shipyard. Grian took a moment to float in the air, hovering in place as only he could do, and looked happily over the shipyard and the zoo beyond. He admired the way Scar’s massive redwoods scraped the clouds, and the way his wheat fields rolled golden into the distance. He could hear Scar let out a contented sigh at the view as well, and smiled happily, angling his wings slightly to get more speed as he pulled a tight turn, catching a thermal coming off the mountain and climbing rapidly.
A glimmer from across the river caught Scar’s eye and he tugged on the head wing with a devious smile on his face. Grian faltered slightly, but followed the direction of his tugging and a matching smile spread across his face as he angled into a sharp dive, racing across the river before spreading his wings abruptly, back beating them a few times before folding them tightly to his back and falling the last couple inches to the ground. The sudden movements made Scar yell in surprise and hang on for dear life, but he enjoyed every moment of it, and was still grinning widely when Grian plucked him off of his shoulder to sit comfortably in his hands once more.
“Hmmm, there’s an awful lot of lag on the server today, isn’t there Scar?”
“Why, I believe you may be right, my good man!” Scar smirked wickedly up at his co-conspirator as they walked through the creaking wooden structures of Gem’s base. “And as good neighbors, it’s only right of us to make sure that none of that lag is affecting our dear friend Gem’s storage room!”
“Why, you make an excellent point Scar! What kind of friends would we be if we didn’t at least check on Gem’s base? Not good ones, that's for certain!” They giggled to each other as they crept through the creepy halls of the Lovecraftian remains of Gem’s cute fishing village, noting the care and attention put into the fine details of the place with excitement.
Finally reaching the storage room, and fully confident that Gem was nowhere near her base at the moment, the two split up to check the chests on either side of the room. Scar flipped through a couple chests of stone and logs, almost tempted to take some of the dirt, but he knew they’d be getting plenty later on. Finally, he stumbled upon a few stacks of unoxidized copper and his eyes lit up with glee.
“Ahh, wonderful! I believe Gem is about to make a very generous donation to the Zoo!”
“Oh?” Grian looked up from where he had been stealing a few of Gem’s spare blankets for his nest to see Scar’s mischievous face reflected in a pile of copper that was quickly disappearing into a shulker box. Hmmm. That was some very shiny copper. And if Gem was already being so generous today…
“I can see it now, I’ll put up a dedicated bench in commemoration of this very neighborly donation she’s making. Yeah, that feels like a good idea! Gem will love it.” Scar turned to see Grian shoveling more copper into his own shulker box across the room, and wandered over curiously. Partially to see if there was more copper in these chests, but also to inquire what his fellow builder might want all this copper for. It wasn’t a color he was currently using in any of his builds, and as far as he knew there hadn’t been any new buildings started in the shipyard in a while, so…
When he finally saw Grian’s face, he instantly understood the issue, and had to cover his mouth to hold back the giggles. Grian’s eyes were so dilated that there was barely any of his purple iris left, just giant black voids from which no shiny sparkly object could escape. The avian was clearly being influenced by his instincts since he had started gathering nesting materials. Pffft… bird brain go brrrr
It took a few minutes for the two to finish up, and another few to leave a few diamonds in the chests and a sign for Gem thanking her for her generous contribution to the Zoo, but they were soon on their way again, determined to actually make some progress this time.
And they almost made it.
Soaring around the mountain, Grian spotted something moving out of the corner of his eye, and was struck with inspiration once more. “Oh! Scar, while we’re here, have you seen Mumbo’s fans?”
“His fans?”
“Yes! Let’s have a look, shall we?”
Swooping gracefully around Mumbo’s shockingly detailed shopping center base, Scar could see that, indeed, the quirky redstone genius had once again created something strange and unique. There were moving approximations of fans everywhere, large ones, small ones, one that took up the entire side of a building. But most importantly they were all moving, all seemingly spinning in place as the trapdoors opened and closed in a spiral pattern. It was incredibly fascinating to watch, and Scar immediately knew he wanted to add one to the train somewhere, but that would have to wait for another day.
Their meandering path had brought them to one of Mumbo’s spare storage rooms. Grian gently tapped down on the stone floor and quickly set Scar down on one of the chests that decorated the walls of the building. Making direct eye contact with the tiny he grinned, “Gosh, I think there might be a lag spike around here as well!”
A mirror image smirked up at him and chuckled in agreement, bending to begin shuffling through the chests on that side of the room. Grian’s wandering hands brought him through a few chests filled with standard materials, gravel, concrete powder, growth potions, when he finally reached a familiarly smelling chest, which he threw open with a dramatic gasp. “Well now! I guess there really has been a lot of lag on the server lately!” Scar couldn’t help but laugh when he saw that the chest was full of salmon and cod, no doubt pilfered from Grian’s fishing dock while he had been distracted. He continued to laugh as the fisherman floundered in indignance, until a mischievous glint took over his eye.
“Well if Mumbo likes my fish so much, it’s only the neighborly thing to do to give him some!”
“I couldn’t agree more, my good man!”
Together it only took a short time to get a dispenser rigged up in a panel in the ceiling. Ideally, the next time Mumbo opened the chest full of stolen fish, the panel would pull back and the dispenser would drop said fish onto his head. Funny, harmless, and easy to rig up, at least in theory. However, with their combined redstone expertise it definitely took four or five times longer than it should have, and by the time they were sure it would work, Mambo could be coming back to his base any minute. Quickly, Scar hurried into the wall, blocking the area behind him to finish checking the last bits of wiring, and make sure nothing had gone astray in their efforts to be speedy. Just in time as well, as just as he slipped into the wall, they could hear the distant whine of rockets announcing the redstoner’s return to his base, and no doubt he would see them hanging around and come to greet them.
“Grian!” A jovial British voice, only slightly louder than the whine of firework rockets popped up behind him and the avian let out a shrill chirp! in surprise, spinning around to face the incoming redstoner. He managed to flip the lid off of a different chest at the last moment, and spread his wings out slightly as Mumbo himself came around the corner. Not enough to look strange, but enough that the brightly colored feathers would provide Scar a bit more cover.
“Mumbo!” He greeted in reply, resisting the urge to move over to his friend and take up all of his personal space as he liked to do. It wouldn’t do to be discovered right away after all.
“Hey bud! What’re you doing here? I didn’t think we had anything planned until Thursday.” The hermit had turned to begin emptying items into the intake of his item sorter, but suddenly froze, turning to face Grian with a stricken expression “Wait is it Thursday already? Did I miss it? Oh no, I had plans with Impulse on Tuesday afternoon, and then Tango on Wednesday, I’ve missed them both! I’ll have to apologize, oh I’m such a spoon!”
The tall man dissolved into an increasingly frustrated chain of muttering as he searched his pockets for his communicator, and Grian finally felt like it was time to stop laughing and intervene. “Mumbo! It’s still Tuesday, don’t worry. I’m just waiting for Scar to show up for our grinding session, and I thought I’d come over and have a look at these lovely fans of yours.” Grain grinned, “I’m a big fan of your fans Mumbo! You could even say I’m your fan’s fan. A fan fanboy. A-“
“Okay! Okay I get it!” Mumbo laughed, cutting off the stream of puns before it became infectious. “You’re a big fan.”
“I think you’ll find the big fan is actually over there.” Grian pointed at the factory wall as Mumbo groaned and dropped his head into his hands at having set up yet another pun. Suddenly something seemed to occur to him as he looked around the room.
“Hmmm. Interesting. See, the thing about my storage room, G, is that there aren’t any fans in here.”
A suspicious look cut into him from above a fabulously groomed mustache, and Grian knew he would have to play this part perfectly. He let his eyes flick briefly towards the chest he had flipped open, and almost inconspicuously ran his fingers through the feathers of his left wings, as if nervous about being caught. His friend’s head immediately snapped in the direction of the open chest and Grian had to hold in a smirk. Hook, line, and sinker.
The redstoner raised an eyebrow at him and slowly walked over to the chest. “So I suppose I just left this open then, did I?”
“Hmm, I suppose you must have!” Looking anywhere but at Mumbo, the avian could barely hold back a laugh at the skeptical look his friend was shooting him.
“Surprising, considering that I definitely remember shutting all of my chests before I left for my industrial district. Any idea how this one might have gotten opened G?”
Excellent. “Oh, that chest? Ahh, I suppose I got hungry whilst admiring your many wonderful fans. Just grabbing some...” Grian quickly thought about what he had seen growing in the small farm outside the building “carrots and such.”
Mumbo gave him such a deadpan look that Grian almost gave it up right there. “Just grabbing some carrots out of this chest full of growth potions?”
Rats!
“Yeah, well, it was just the first one I opened before you came over. If I were you, that’s where I would’ve put my carrots, so that’s just where I started” it was weak and a little awkward, but it was the best he could come up with on short notice. Luckily, Mumbo just chuckled and shut the chest, moving to the opposite wall and opening a seemingly random chest.
“See mate, this is why I keep telling you to get a proper storage system. You might actually be able to find something every once in a while.” The mustached man tossed him a stack of carrots and he caught it with a disgruntled look.
“My storage system works fine thank you!” He bit into a carrot defiantly.
“Your storage system relies entirely on vibes.”
“Yes, well, at least I don’t store my carrots in with my gravel.”
“Okay first off, neither do I? And secondly, you absolutely do! I’ve seen you do it!”
“I’m a dynamic man Mumbo! I can’t be constrained to your rigid item sorting ways! Besides, it’d take too much time to build one at this point”
“Time you lose anyway opening every shulker box in your base every time you need a bit of string.”
“Okay, okay, that’s besides the point! I came here to see your fans, not get a lecture on my incredible and dynamic storage system.” Grian pulled himself back together, relaxing his wings which were beginning to puff up in false agitation as the argument continued.
Mumbo laughed, storing a handful of redstone that Grian hadn’t noticed back into his inventory, as if he’d been intending to build the system right then and there, just to show Grian how ‘easy’ and ‘efficient’ it would be. The avian honestly wouldn’t have put it past him to try. “Alright bud, come with me, I’ve been dying to show these off!”
Grian almost followed him out of the storage room, genuinely interested in learning about the fans, when a small grunt of frustration froze him in place, and he snapped back into position. He had nearly forgotten the whole point of the ruse! “Ah, no!”
Mumbo froze, looking back at him confusedly, and he scrambled to cover up once again, “Uh, I don’t have a whole lot of time before Scar gets to my base you know? I was thinking you could try and explain it here?” Mumbo looked at him oddly. It wasn’t unusual for Grian to ask Mumbo to explain redstone to him, but he usually insisted on a demonstration. Actively refusing one was suspicious at best.
However, as far as Mumbo knew, he had already uncovered the mischief the avian had gotten up to. There was no reason to be suspicious, and, truthfully, he'd been dying to talk about his fans. The mustached man wasted no time leaping into his explanation, quickly dissolving into nearly incomprehensible muttering about timing and the particular placement of trapdoors.
Grian hoped desperately that Mumbo was too deep into his redstone explanation to notice how his ear wings twitched as he tracked the subtle sounds of Scar brushing the last line of redstone dust into place. While he was interested in the explanation (he wanted one of those on his base immediately) right now his biggest priority was getting out without getting caught, and he could tell Scar was wrapping up fast. Small tapping noises heralded the Vex hybrid’s return, suddenly speeding up as they got closer. Grian only had a moment to wonder what was happening before a small weight hit the back of his right wing and he had to keep himself from hissing in pain as the feathers were suddenly pulled.
Scar had finished the redstone lines and was now lying in wait for an opportunity to sneak out of the wall before the owner noticed and caught them. Finally, the meandering explanation caused the mustached man to turn around, and Scar spotted his opportunity. He sprinted up the piece of string he’d hung on the back of the chest, and across the lid, launching himself into the wall of multicolored feathers hiding him from sight. He hit the wing hard, and grabbed onto some of the pointed shafts before he could slip down the smooth surface entirely. He could feel the wing tense under the unexpected force, but Grian quickly caught onto his plan, and folded his wings into an almost heart shaped V, cupping his palms behind his back to catch Scar as he slid down the slope where the feathers met his sweater. The tiny fought hard not to giggle, riding the high of a successful prank as he was inconspicuously slipped into the collar of his co-conspirator’s sweater, laying flat to avoid detection.
As soon as Scar was tucked out of sight, Gruan reached into his pocket and activated the alert tone on his communicator, pulling it out and pretending to read a message quickly. “Ah, sorry Mumbo, Scar’s at my base and he’s wondering where I am. Do you think we could pick this back up later?”
Mambo jumped at the interruption, but quickly agreed, shooing the pesky bird out of his storage building with a promise of meeting up later and a warning that he better not find any more of his ties missing. Grian gave him a cheeky grin before taking off, mindful of Scar’s unstable position in his collar. He flew towards his base until he was out of sight, before quickly turning and landing on the mountain, pulling the giggling tiny out of his hiding spot.
It took a long minute for them to stop laughing, Grian carefully holding his friend close to his chest as he doubled over in laughter, feeling the small form convulse in hysterics against his palms.
It was a long moment before either one of them could recover their composure. Every time they began to calm down the image of a wet fish flopping down onto an unsuspecting Mumbo jumped to mind and set them off again. By the time they were able to gather themselves and clean up a bit the sun was peaking high in the sky.
“Ahhh, that was great! But we seriously need to get a move on if we want to get any progress done today. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t bring a whole lot of torches with me.” Scar said, checking his inventory as he brushed the last bits of grass out of his hair.
Grian was in a similar state, shaking out his feathers to let all the dry grass and leaves fall to the ground, then bending to pick up his smaller companion. “Yeah, alright, that seems like enough pranking for one day.”
“Oh ho! I didn’t think we’d see the day those words would come out of your mouth!”
“Oh hush you.” Grian tucked Scar back into his spot behind his head wing and let him get settled for a moment before leaping back into the air.
They soared over the landscape, looking for a dark oak biome, or perhaps a desert or gravel pit, whichever came first. The Hermits didn’t tend to build out this way, so it was unexplored but also ripe with unmixed resources, and that’s what they were after for today.
They finally touched down in a Dark Oak Forest and immediately got to work, Scar carefully harvesting saplings and apples in the canopy while Grian chopped down tree after tree until they each had a whole shulker filled with logs each. Deeming this satisfactory, they split the other goodies evenly and shoved the shulker boxes into their inventories, quickly making their way to the next destination.
Scar spotted a strip of yellow on the horizon to their left and tugged Grian’s head wing towards it, immediately turning him towards the desert. Once again they efficiently gathered the sand, building up a quick beacon and going nuts with their enchanted shovels. There was a brief moment of concern when Scar was buried under a pile of sand, but he was able to dig his way out easily, and insisted he was fine, so they kept going.
Finally they took off again, taking a bird’s eye view of the ground as they searched for some gravel. The grainy gray texture could be difficult to spot from so high up so they both had to be focused on the ground as much as possible. Eventually, Grian spotted something, shouting over the wind. “Scar! Hey, look down there, does that look like gravel to you?”
The tiny pointed at the gray patch in question, and sure enough it had that signature pebbling pattern of loose rocks over stone, a hallmark of a gravel deposit. He bent over the colorful head wing to yell directly into the avian’s ear. “Yeah! Looks good to me! That dark spot might even be a cave!”
“Okay then I’m taking us down!”
Grian shifted his wings into a glide and took them on a slow circular path down to the ground, finally jogging to a smooth stop. He retrieved the tiny from his ear and held him cupped in both hands so he could see. The gravel pit was small enough that they didn’t bother with the beacon and only retrieved a few stacks of gravel each, although Grian managed to trade some of his flint for more gravel since Scar needed arrows as well. Unfortunately, neither of them managed to fill even half a shulker box apiece.
“Well that was disappointing. Want to try looking for another one?” Grian looked over at Scar as he packed away his tools and shulkers.
The tiny shook his head as he finished packing up his own inventory, already placing down an elder chest to retrieve some different tools. “Nah, we might as well check out that cave we saw from the air. It’s only a few blocks into the trees and we both still need lapis.”
“Yeah, sounds good.” Grian picked out a good pick and a few stacks of torches, putting everything else away. “Alright, let's head out. I think it was this way?”
The cave ended up being more of a ravine, but it slanted deeply and there was always the chance it opened up later on, so the two decided to forge ahead anyway. Sure enough, after about five minutes of walking through a dizzying tunnel system the cave opened up into a large cavern with a few underground waterfalls that they could hear. The two quickly got to work lighting up the area before they could be overrun by mobs, and in the light of the torches they could see that the cave was actually only the first part of a system of pockets that seemed to lead deeper into the earth.
“Oh excellent! Alright that works out perfectly then!”
One of the waterfalls echoed more than the others, and, after peeking down into the hole it was apparent that it led into a vertical crevice several dozen blocks deep. They finished mining the surface level deposits of iron, redstone, and lapis in the cave and then jumped into the waterfall, traveling slowly along the stream to the bottom where it hollowed out into a small open area.
“What do you think Scar? Here look good?” Grian hefted his pickaxe onto the shoulder that didn’t contain his tiny friend and sized up the space in front of him.
“Works for me.”
“Onwards and downwards then!”
The monotony of breaking deep slate and placing torches continued for several minutes, interrupted only by the sounds of pleasant conversation and the occasional ominous bubbling of a lava pocket.
Tink. Tink. Down.
Tink. Tink. Down.
Tink. Tink. Down. Thock.
Tink. Tink. Down.
Tink. Tink. Down.
Tink. Tink. Down. Thock.
Tink. Tink. Down.
Tink. Tink. Down. Chitter.
“Wait, hold up.” Grian suddenly came to a stop, pick pausing mid swing. “Did you hear that?”
“Yeah, hold on.” Scar knocked carefully on the left wall and the strange chittering echoed through the tunnel once more. “Yeah there’s definitely an ancient city somewhere around here.
“Any point in heading over there today?”
“Nah, we’re not really outfitted to hold off a Warden, and I don’t think I’m using any skulk at the moment, are you?”
“Not at the moment, no. Alright, perhaps another day. Let’s get out of range of that sensor before it becomes a problem then.”
They mined a little ways to the right until the sensor stopped chittering with warnings, and continued on downwards until Grian’s pickaxe hit a pocket of air instead of stone. He turned to look at Scar on his shoulder before mining out another block so they could get a better look into the cave. In the darkness pockets of ore gleamed in the torchlight, but more than that, the eyes of dozens of mobs turned towards them.
In the darkness they could see the ominous purple rippling of enchanted bows. The thick twang of an arrow being released in the blackness jumpstarted them out of their stunned silence and the two shrieked in alarm, blocking up the hole just before another arrow could snipe at them through the opening. They leaned against the newly placed cobble and breathed heavily in the shock.
“Why are there so many?!” Grian wailed melodramatically.
“Aaaaaaahhhhhhh so many creatures of darkness! So many creepy crawlies!” Scar panicked in agreement.
“They must have been spawning there the whole time we’ve been in this area. Ughhh and that cave was such a good one too!” The avian lamented, snapping Scar out of his dramatic mumbling.
“Well hold on now, who said we’re just giving up on it?”
Grian took the tiny into his hands once again to better fix him with a raised eyebrow. “Uh, you did? Remember, we’re not equipped for any kind of raid today.”
“My good sir! You dare suggest that two innovative, brave, and extremely handsome Hermits such as ourselves should turn back, simply because the path ahead is blocked by, what, fifty or so zombies? There are treasures afoot Grian! Many many shiny treasures!” Scar had completely switched gears at this point and his salesman’s grin was in full force as he visibly saw the idea of shiny trinkets break down Grian’s defenses.
“Scar, that's not fair, I’m a weak weak man. You know this.”
“You? No! You’re a big, strong man who certainly isn’t afraid of the creatures of the night! Especially not with HotGuy at your side!” Scar pulled out his signature bow, enchantments glowing brightly in the darkness, and Grian laughed, caving immediately in the face of his friend’s confidence.
“Alright, but we need a plan. We’re gonna tunnel a bit to the side and drop in a lava bucket to take care of that big clump, then you take high, I’ll go low?
“Ah, ever the strategist my good man, I knew I could count on you! Sounds like a plan to me, now let's go!”
They tunneled another few blocks to the side, knocking out a block three above ground level that revealed the darkness of the cave beyond. Grian held Scar up and he quickly placed the bucket of lava and let it flow into the hole before he could be targeted by any arrows or the reaching hands of the mobs beyond. The molten slag dripped into the darkened hollow, audibly eliminating a huge chunk of the mobs that had seen them and gathered close. The two glanced at each other and smirked, returning to their original space and mining through the wall. The lava still oozing from the wall of the cave provided enough light to see that a majority of the mobs had been decimated, but it also highlighted the eyes glowing in the darker parts of the cave. The two readied their weapons in response.
Grian immediately got to work, hacking and slashing through a squadron of skeletons. His netherite blade made quick work of the undead crowded around him and he swung wide to create space. Another zombie fell as he leapt over a dripstone point, its reflexes too slow to dodge the shining arc of his blade in the lava light. The extra space gave him ample room to breathe, throw down some more torches and plan his next move. He raised his shield to catch an arrow and his eyes darted over to a creeper that had escaped the initial lava downpour. It was slowly stalking in his direction, hissing out a low note that would have had his hair standing on end in any other situation. At the moment, though, it was exactly what he wanted to hear.
The avian skirted the edges of the cave, pausing only to dodge a stray arrow or leap over a crag in the rock. He moved quickly enough to avoid being caught by the horde, but slow enough that they never lost interest in him. Circling the edges of the cave, he made eye contact with Scar from where he had been thinning the herd with his bow from his perch on a high ledge. The tiny was high enough to be out of reach of the mobs and was raining flaming arrows down on the hoard with unerring accuracy. They made eye contact, and Grian could tell that he had caught onto his plan by the way he smirked and began to make his way around the ledge towards the far side of the cave that Grian was slowly picking his way towards.
Together they brought nearly every mob in the cave into one large clump in a slightly brighter area of the cave. Grian made eye contact with his ally and received a nod in return. He leapt out from behind a boulder and charged directly at the festering mob of creatures in front of him. A zombie and a skeleton fell dead to the ground in front of them, each sporting a tiny flaming arrow to the head, but he didn’t slow his stride for even a second. Carefully, quickly, he punched the creeper on the nearest side of the cluster to him, then continued sprinting straight through to the other side as the beast hissed and swelled. There was another of the creatures on the other side, and Grian nearly laughed at his good luck as he gave it a good smack too.
He kept running until he heard the first deafening boom. The sound was overwhelming in the harsh underground walls of the cave, and was almost immediately followed by a second boom, adding an artificial echo to the already unbearable noise. The avian was thankful that he had folded his head wings over his delicate ears before the first Creeper had gone off, and he hoped that Scar had had the foresight to do so as well. He looked back over his shoulder to check and was glad to see that the tiny had managed to stay perched on his ledge overlooking the now smoking craters where the mob cluster had been. The tiny zookeeper looked a bit disoriented, but was still standing and was visibly gathering his bearings as the seconds crawled on and the ringing began to fade from their ears.
Then the Shriek came.
The sound was so intense it could barely even be called noise anymore, just a wall of pure force ripping through obstacles and people alike.The cave rattled and dripstone fell from the ceiling, but Grian didn’t even have the presence of mind to notice it. He couldn’t stand, he couldn't see, he couldn't even think. The echoing of the cave tossed the air into a riot, the sound echoing into eternity as his brain seemingly tried to melt out of his ears. Out of the corner of his eye he could see an already damaged skeleton die to the force of the noise.
Faintly, he was able to recall the Ancient City from earlier, and noticed that the side of the cave he was on would have been the closest to it. The creeper explosions must have woken the Warden, and it had shrieked its displeasure at them through the solid underground walls. He barely had the presence of mind to be grateful that it hadn’t managed to get into the cave with them.
The disorientation faded slowly, and the ringing felt as if it would never end, but he was soon able to turn his head enough to see Scar’s perch up on the high ledge. It was more protected and further from the wall the Shriek had come through, but Scar was so much smaller than he was, it would have hurt him a lot more. Sure enough, the tiny appeared to be entirely unconscious, draped over the edge of the ledge with one arm hanging down limply. However, as Grian watched, Scar began to stir, his arm retracting above the lip of the ledge. His vision spun slightly but he could see Scar sitting up. Holding his head, but alright, safe and uninjured.
And slowly…slowly….he began to tilt.
Gria watched in horror as the tiny slowly tipped to the side, clearly off balance and unaware from the shriek. He rocked back and forth slightly, but inevitably he lost what little balance he had and began to roll over the side of the ledge.
The avian barely registered what he was doing, wings snapping out faster than thought as he cleared the cave in two wingbeats. He didn’t even have enough presence of mind to watch his flight path, legs scraping clumsily over dripstone and boulders as he raced against time and gravity to get to his tiny friend before he could hit the ground. He barely even registered the distance, eyes glued to the small form as it finally lost its battle against gravity and topped over the edge.
The fall seemed to wake the tiny just in time, senses coming back to him just enough that he screamed on the way down, flailing desperately for solid ground that was closing in far too fast. The sound, barely audible over the still intense ringing in his ears, was just enough to propel Grian the last few feet to catch the falling tiny. The breath left his lungs in one huge gasp as the tiny body thudded into soft palms instead of unforgiving stone.
Scar’s eyes were closed against the terror of the fall, but as he slowly realized that he was no longer falling to his death, he slowly cracked them to see what had happened. The light in the cave was sparse and dim, but he was able to make out Grian’s pale, worried face having in over him like the moon. Relief flooded his veins as he realized he was no longer in danger of falling to his doom, and he let himself relax into the warm palms cradling his body.
The groaning of a zombie behind him was barely audible over the fading ringing in his ears, but hearing it out of nowhere still threw him into a state of tense panic, his body instinctively throwing itself to the side to dodge a blow that wasn’t there. A second hand shot out to keep him from once again plummeting to the ground, but the sudden movement still made his head spin so badly he couldn’t keep his eyes open.
He stayed like that for a long moment, breathing in deep gulps of cool air as the sounds of the remaining mobs drew closer. He forced himself not to react to them, trusting Grian to protect him as he recovered, even as he could feel the heartbeat underneath him pick up in nervousness. Suddenly, the hand under him moved, knocking him off balance and disorienting his already damaged sense of direction. He could tell he was moving, but not where or why, he just had to trust that his friend wouldn’t hurt him. He managed to crack his eyes open to get a better look at what was going on.
All he saw were teeth.
He was dropped onto a wet surface, hands and knees slipping in the pool of saliva as he fought to orient himself. The instinctive panic of being suddenly stuck in such a large mouth gripped him and dumped adrenaline into his veins once more, but he managed to relax almost instantly. The mouth wasn’t freezing and rank like a zombie’s, the teeth that surrounded him weren’t sharp and needle-like like an enderman’s, the flesh wasn’t the foreboding gray of a pillager’s. There was only one person who could have him right now, and he was more than ready to trust Grian with his life, as he had so many times before.
The ground underneath him rose up to wrap him in a wet embrace, thoroughly licking him all over to coat him in a thick layer of saliva. Scar futilely tried to wipe it out of his face, but gave up and left his eyes closed when he realized that he was only spreading more of it around. The small cavern was blissfully warm, verging on too hot after the chill of being underground, but he found it impossible to relax into the heat as he was tossed around almost frantically. The tongue beneath him rose up suddenly, pinning him to the roof of the mouth just in time for the entire space to thump heavily, and he knew Grian must be on the move.
The avian must have decided that that was enough prep time, because he paused in his ministrations, leaving Scar soaked and winded sitting on the back of his tongue. The cavern tilted back slightly, but didn’t move for a long moment. The tiny took a moment to catch his breath before patting the tongue underneath him in a signal that it was alright to continue. Grian’s mouth immediately jumped back to life, scooping him towards the dark cavern at the back of the mouth. A loud gulp and he was being gently but efficiently massaged down the tunnel, drawn ever closer to the safety of his friend’s stomach.
Grian took a quick moment to trace the lump traveling down his throat, guiding his friend ever further into his chest. He had done this a couple of times before, but it never ceased to amaze him. However, this time he didn’t have luxury of basking in the amazement of being able to hold his friends so close. He was trapped deep underground with no weapons, broken tools, and limited food. The wind generated by the shriek had blown out the majority of the torches, and he could hear the noises of the undead getting louder as they spawned from the darkened corners of the cave. The ore could wait for another day, right now he had to escape.
Grian’s wings pumped hard, shooting up above the dripstone maze of the cave and out through the slanted entrance of their tunnel without even slowing down. He took turns with a speed and agility that he never would have exercised with one of his smaller friends if they were on the outside, clinging to his hair or feathers, for fear that they’d be shaken loose or dropped at altitude. But now, Scar was safely contained inside his crop, with no fear of falling or getting lost. Grian could feel him rolling and sliding around as the sharp turns threw him from side to side, but didn’t dare slow down even a bit. He may have gotten away from the horde, but his instincts were alight with panic, insistent that danger lay around every stalagmite and drop off. Scar would be dizzy, but he would also be safe just as soon as they escaped from this thrice-cursed cave!
The tight turns gave him no room to think, twisting and rolling in split second maneuvers, he blindly navigated through pure reflex. There was no sense of time or distance or direction, only the next obstacle and the easiest way to get around it as fast as possible. His surroundings blurred together into a smear of gray and green, stretching on and on until he finally burst into the cold night sky, lungs burning as they desperately gulped down a few deep breaths of fresh air. He kept climbing, pumping higher and higher into the clear sky, until the trees looked like fuzzy dots on the ground below. Only there, out of reach of any mob or player that could want to do them harm, did he stop his desperate flight and slow to a halt.
“Scar?” Grian’s throat was rough from the heavy breathing, but he still managed to croak out the name. His hand sought his crop, pressing into his chest as if he could feel that Scar was alright through touch alone.
“I’m here!” Scar threw himself against the pressure, pressing deep into the organ lining as if he could make himself one with the larger man. He knew it was a silly thing to say, especially since Grian could feel him shifting around inside him, and definitely knew exactly where he was, but it seemed to make the tense muscles around him relax slightly anyway.
“Are you okay? You aren’t hurt are you? I didn’t bite you or twist your limbs wrong or-“
“Grian! I’m fine, you didn’t hurt me at all, and you got me away before anything else got the chance. In fact, I should be asking you that! Are you okay? Did you get away safely, did they hurt your wings at all?” Scar knew how delicate and sensitive the limbs were and he had definitely seen more than a few of the bright red and blue feathers scattered on the floor of the cave before he’d been knocked off that ledge.
“I’m fine! All bits and bobs accounted for!”
With the confirmation that they were both okay, the adrenaline began to fade and both of them felt exhaustion drop on them like a ton of bricks. Grian’s flight wobbled for a moment as his tired wings finally felt the strain of all those high speed maneuvers, and Scar tucked himself further into the ridges of the wall and began shaking. The avian could feel him trembling and immediately angled himself into a slow and steady glide headed for his base. The only solution to this situation now was time and cuddles, and the best place for both was in the safety of the nest.
The long flight back to base was mostly silent, save for the sound of the whistling wind and a few scattered check-ins from one or the other. Scar felt himself slowly calm down and relax as the warmth of the crop soaked into his tired muscles, the elastic walls and floor cradling him better than any hammock. He was almost tempted to fall asleep on the flight home, but he didn’t want to leave Grian alone to set up his nest, even if he wouldn’t be of much help.
Eventually he heard the tell-tale tapping of an avian landing on a stone floor, and felt the sway of the camber change from the up-down motion of an occasional wing beat to the side-to-side sway of a walking gait. He let the movements further calm him as the crop adjusted around him, compensating for the movement and keeping him safe and comfortable inside of his friend.
Grian placed a hand over his chest, savoring the feeling of the tiny hiding under his skin for a moment before speaking gently into the silence of the night, “Hey, Scar I’ve got to lean over to fix up the nest, you all right?”
“Yeah I’m good G, go ahead.”
Warning thus given, Grian got right to work. He let his subconscious guide him in shaping the nest of blankets and pillows, expanding and reshaping the walls to include some new articles of clothing from his flock, and setting up a space big enough for several people in the center. Something told him he wouldn’t be spending the night alone.
Finally settling back into the recently created nest, Grian turned his attention inwards once more. He stared down at his sweater. It didn’t even have a bump in it, nothing to give away that he was protecting a whole other person inside himself. It got to him every time he did this, how small his friends were and how easily they disappeared from the world within him, as if they were not each incredible and memorable people who had made their own amazing mark on the world. Now they didn’t even create a bump under his sweater. A part of him was sickened at that thought, but mostly he was glad that if he really needed to protect one of his tiny friends, not only would no one be able to get to them, no one would even know they were there. It was the perfect protection, and it made his instincts hum in contentment as he felt Scar shift slightly inside him, trying to get a bit more comfortable.
He had already made up his mind that he wasn’t going to let Scar go until he asked to be let out. Normally, he would do so after only a few hours, or perhaps even overnight in some cases, such as when Mumbo managed to work himself into exhaustion and his growth potion wore off. Grian was always happy to provide a safe place for his exhausted friends to stay the night, and usually had no trouble letting them go in the morning. But this time he knew he wasn’t going to be able to let go so easily. He wouldn’t go against Scar’s wishes, but he certainly wasn’t going to give him up unprompted. Not after what they had been put through in that cave.
He knew better than to underestimate the tiny, knew that Scar was a capable and formidable Player on any given day. He was driven and capable of creating incredible masterpieces from transforming entire landscapes to building towering and intricate structures. He was also very much a menace to rival Grian himself when properly motivated, and the avian couldn’t help but wonder if he might be seeing a dose of that mischief himself after this overprotective episode.
Still, despite being aware of this, he knew he couldn’t convince himself to let the smaller out until he was explicitly asked to. After the scare in the cave his instincts were rattled, and he wanted nothing more than to keep his friend close and safe for as long as possible. He winced, remembering the stories his tiny friends had told him about preds with good intentions keeping their tiny friends trapped against their will and never letting them go. He’d never do that, of course. The second Scar asked to be released he would be free. But still, he could see the appeal of keeping his more delicate friends safe and close forever. He wondered what that said about him, what that meant if he was able to understand those villains so easily. The more he thought about it the tenser he got, until a sudden burst of activity from his crop pulled him out of his reverie.
Scar had been relaxing and calming down from his near death experiences, and there was no better place to do that than in one of his favorite places and favorite people in the world. The darkness was similar enough to the cave to be disconcerting, but the soothing sound of the enormous heart and lungs above him reminded him of where he was and he was slowly calming back down to normal. He slid to the side slightly as he felt Grian shifting in the nest. It always amazed him how every small movement the avian made was so apparent to him in here. Truly there was no way to be closer or more connected with his friend, and he cherished it every time he was invited in.
Running a hand along the walls, Scar frowned as he felt the tension under his fingers. He hadn’t noticed it before, and now that he was looking for it, the heart beat above him was picking up pace as well. Grian must have been working himself back up, but why? Was something happening outside? He couldn’t hear anything, and Grian wasn’t moving to protect the nest like he would have if there were some sort of intruder, so what could be wrong?
Unless there was no outside threat? Grian was working himself into a panic, but Scar couldn’t tell why. He was glad for his position all over again, as the avian was incredibly closed off about any serious discomfort or fear he was feeling, and he knew that had he not been literally sitting an inch from his beating heart, he would never have known there was anything wrong.
Well he knew now. As far as he was aware, there wasn’t an outside source of danger, which meant that the most likely cause of this was an adrenaline drop sending the avian’s finicky brain into a downward spiral, and he was quickly working himself back into a panic. Luckily, he and Mumbo had become something like experts at bringing Grian down from this kind of state over the past few years, and he was certain he could help his friend through this.
“Hey Grian, you know what I’ve been thinking?”
Grian startled a bit out of his reverie, placing a hand over his chest to acknowledge Scar. “Hmmm?”
“We never would have been in that situation if we’d had one of my patented good luck crystals on us.”
“Crystals? You mean those chunks of glass you were selling back in Season Seven?”
“Why yes my good sir!” Scar made an enthusiastic flourish with his arms, draping out the sleeves of an imaginary wizard’s robe with a practiced gesture. He ignored that his only companion was unable to see it, after all, a good showman doesn’t need any audience but himself. “One need never fear the terrors of the night with the power of good luck on your side!”
Grian laughed, jostling Scar with the sudden shaking of his diaphragm, and the tiny grinned at the success of his plan to cheer his friend out of that dour mood.
“But Scar, you’re not a wizard anymore! Wouldn’t the ‘crystals’ have lost their power by now?” Scar could practically hear the patronizing air quotes in that statement, but simply moved past it like the mature and gracious person that he was.
He pouted at the walls around him, playing up his disgruntlement so that the avian could feel it in his movements, “Of course they wouldn’t! Such powerful magic would never fade, especially from such a well manufactured and reasonably priced crystal!” He nodded decisively in the face of more laughter. “But of course, thanks to a certain Pesky Bird throwing a portion of my inventory into the Void, as well as some… shipping complications,” He winced at the memory of the full shulker box of shattered glass that he had had to throw away, unwilling to even open it and risk a mountain of glass shards spilling out “We no longer have such items for sale.”
Grian was caught in a full blown fit of laughter by now, no doubt remembering the same incident that Scar himself was. He was doubled over, arms wrapped around his stomach and full-bellied chuckles shaking his frame. Scar, more cramped but not uncomfortable, smiled at the other man’s reaction, and resisted the urge to tickle him from the inside. That much movement without a distraction would only send him spiraling into his instincts, and he wasn’t quite done with their current conversation.
“Instead! You may peruse the many and varied hats that Swaggon Inc. has to offer! Each one a powerful mob deterrent, and every one more fashionable than the last! Truly the Swaggon employs only the most powerful and reputable methods of hat-based mob protection, and no hermit should be caught going into a cave without one. That was our true folly Grian, We were going in there like knights without armor, like turtles without shells, like Disney without lawyers! Completely unprotected, shame on us.” Scar nodded decisively like he had just sealed an argument.
A hand pressed in on him, and he switched his spot over to lean against it, taking comfort in the acknowledgement. The laughter had trickled off, but when Grian spoke again, the tone in his voice was much lighter, and Scar knew that his silly nonsense argument had done the trick in cheering up his friend.
Grian chuckled again, beginning to massage into the spot where he could feel Scar’s small form pressing into his hand. He felt the tiny briefly press against him deliberately, returning the acknowledgement, before he relaxed against the wall of his crop and laid down, trusting Grian entirely to take care of him. The thought made the avian’s brain a bit fuzzy but he got his instincts under control quickly, determined to be present and aware for as long as he could.
“But Scar, I already have the conductor’s hat from Swaggon Inc., and I honestly don’t think it’s ever warded off a single mob. In fact, I might have died more while I was wearing it.”
“Well of course it hasn’t!” Scar let his salesman’s smirk take over his face even as he laid down further and relaxed into the heat “All Swaggon creations are special and unique, each with their own purpose and fail- I mean, flair! If you haven’t yet found a hat that suits your needs, all you need to do is buy another hat!”
“Oh, buying more hats is the solution here, is it?”
“Indubitably my good sir!”
The pair chuckled softly as the conversation petered out, both content to sit in comfortable silence for the moment and just bask in each other’s presence. Grian smiled softly to himself, still rubbing at his crop in a soothing motion. He knew Scar had been cheering him up on purpose, and he truly appreciated the lengths his friends always seemed willing to go to for him. His eyes began to dilate as he basked in the love he had for each of his flock mates and the feeling of Scar being so close and protected inside of him. A quiet purr began to trickle out of his syrinx, mimicking the sound of a happy Jellie as his instincts began to take over. He simply relaxed into the nest and let them guide him into a fuzzy haze.
Scar ran a hand along the slimy walls, hearing the contented purring increase in volume, and giggled at the thought of how dilated the avian’s eyes must be. He laid down fully and relaxed into the soothing heat of the crop. He hadn’t yet told Grian, but the softness and comfortable warmth was incredibly soothing for his legs, and sometimes on bad days, he wanted nothing more than to return to this soothing darkness. Today he was feeling alright, but the heat soothed the ever present ache in his legs after the amount of exertion and adrenaline he had been through today, and he was thankful for the relief. The darkness was just so soothing, and Grian was such a good friend, surely he wouldn’t mind if Scar closed his eyes, just for a little bit…
Grian wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it had surely been at least an hour before he heard the sound of rockets guiding someone to his nest. He immediately puffed out his feathers, dangerous claws out of their usual sheaths, and his eyes reduced to slits as he prepared to maul the intruder in defense of his nest.
“Griaaann! Are you in here?” The avian could barely register the new voice beyond the fact that another member of his flock had shown up, and he immediately relaxed. His feathers fell back into place, claws returned to harmless fingers and nails, and his eyes dilated back to enormous circles alight with joy. Flock! More Flock! Grian increased his volume, syrinx vibrating in a loud purr as he beckoned her into the nest with a silly grin.
“Grian? I can hear you in there, did you take my spare blankets agai-” Gem cut herself off as she rounded the corner into the nest room, a look of startlement falling into an awed grin as she observed the gooey pile of avian collapsed in his nest. It was the big one, the one meant to expand enough for the entire flock, and he was currently burrowed into one corner, mimicking Jellie’s purrs in an unmistakable invitation. “Awww, hey there birb! You want a cuddle?” The purring got markedly louder. “Yep, that’s a cuddly bird right there. I think it's been too long since we all had a sleepover don't you? I’ll see if the others can get over here, hold on while I text Skizz to bring some of his blankets over.”
She settled into the warm nest beside Grian, and something in her melted as he immediately turned to give her access to his wings, wordlessly asking for her help preening them. She knew that it was a very important bonding activity for avians, and as much as she joked about them being like siblings, it still made something in her warm to see that he trusted her so much.
As she ran her fingers through the long feathers, carefully straightening each one, she kept an eye on her communicator. It lit up periodically with responses from the rest of the Magic Mountain crew, each one enthusiastically agreeing to the sleepover and agreeing to bring over more nesting material for their resident bird boy. After a few minutes everyone had responded in the affirmative except for Scar, who had only sent a winky face emoji to the group chat, a far cry from his usual enthusiastic response to the offer of cuddles and flock time. She frowned in confusion, and sent him a question mark in their private chat.
Grian curled further in on himself and began humming contentedly as her communicator dinged once more. Scar had sent her a selfie of him leaning against an obviously organic wall, stroking across it with one hand and a big smile on his face. Gem looked over at where Grian was still laying in the nest, curled into himself with his recently preened wings around his shoulders, and crawled awkwardly over his legs to face his front. From there she could see his massively dilated eyes and goofy grin as she laid her hand over his chest, where she knew his crop to be located. Gem pressed in gently, feeling the tiniest indentations of pressure against her finger appear in a responding rub. She smiled and went to press in again, but made the mistake of getting too close to the nesting bird.
Her world was a bright blur of red and yellow for a few seconds as she was quickly manhandled into a new position, and before she knew it she was tucked into a cocoon of colorful feathers. An arm wrapped around her stomach tucking her into the wing cupped protectively around her shoulders. The feathers shielded her from the dim light of the room, and between that and the warmth and comfort of the nest, she was nearly tempted to drop off immediately, until the whine of rockets alerted them to more arrivals. The wing went momentarily tense, hiding her even further from view, until the echo of footstemps finally reached the nest room and it fully relaxed from around her.
In the doorway stood Skizz, laden with blankets and a few of his signature torn suit jackets, looking absolutely thrilled to be joining the nest pile. He hurried into the room, but stopped at the edge of the nest, not entirely sure whether he was allowed in without an invite. This was solved seconds later when a colorful wing stretched towards him, beckoning him closer, and he enthusiastically stepped over the lip of the nest, walking carefully over to where the other two hermits were cuddled up.
“Hey G!, ‘Sup Gem! You guys are looking awfully cozy over there.” Skizz sat back on his heels as he finally reached the back of the nest, awww-ing over his younger friends looking so comfy. A warm feeling spread in his chest as Grian grabbed the blankets with his scent on them, briefly releasing Gem to better integrate them into the walls of the nest. He efficiently rebuilt the structure, confidently weaving everything together in a manner that was both comfortable and stable, and Skizz could only sit in awe once again at the wonderful things his builder friends could create. He said as much to the pair, and was treated to a happy look from Gem for only a moment before he was blinded by feathers. “Whoa! Careful G!” He too was efficiently manhandled into place by the surprisingly strong builder, tucked firmly against the wall of the nest, in a slight divot that seemed specifically made for him. Before he could even register this fully, a strong wing was draped against his side, and he instinctively wrapped his arm around the shoulders of the avian trying to cuddle into him.
From the other side of the wing, once again tucked into Grian’s side, Gem giggled at his stunned face. “Yeah, he can get really pushy when it comes to arranging his flock. Just go with it, it always turns out really comfy in the end.”
Skizz recovered himself, pushing a hand through the iridescent hair of the avian who had once again returned to purring loudly, and laughed. “Dang G, where’ve you been hiding those guns buddy?” He playfully tousled the hair under his palm and was rewarded with a big grin and heavily dilated eyes from the avian. Skizz could admit, the nest was more comfortable than any bed he’d ever been in, and having some of his flock here, literally wrapped in his arms, was starting to satisfy some of his own protective angelic instincts. He may not have wings to wrap his flockmates in like Grian did, but his arms were plenty big enough to scoop them up and hold them tight, and that’s exactly what he did. He could feel his own eyes start to dilate and let himself sink into that fuzzy, half-aware state that indicated that his instincts were in full force.
They laid there for a while, just sitting in that half aware state of contentment, until another rocket sounded outside the room, and another presence approached the nest. This time Grian didn’t even bother to bristle his feathers and Skizz’s aura visibly brightened as he sensed his best friend approaching. The demon entered the room with a low chuckle, not willing to break the calm atmosphere as he approached the nest. Like Skizz, he paused momentarily at the boundary before stepping into the cup of the nest proper. Impulse had long been integrated into the group nest, and quickly moved into position, finding a spot behind Grian’s other wing with his arm stretched across the avian’s shoulders on top of Skizz’s. The cuddled up hermits sighed in happiness at the added warmth that the demon added to the pile, as if they had snuggled up to a living furnace. Impulse grinned at this response, but fought not to sink into his instincts as he opened his balled up hand, revealing a tiny Mumbo nearly sleeping in the center of his palm, his growth potion having worn off hours ago. He carefully poked the tiny awake with his thumb, rousing him from a gentle doze.
“Hey buddy, we made it.” He murmured to the drowsy tiny, still processing his surroundings in the dim light. The little redstoner let out a huge yawn, rolling onto all fours in Impulse’s palm and attempting to stand up, before thinking better of it and sitting back down.
“Hmmm, yeah seems like we’re almost all here, huh? Where’s Scar, is he joining us?” The demon checked the little zookeeper’s usual place on Grian’s chest before looking to the others for answers when he wasn’t there.
“Scar’s here, Grian’s just got him tucked away for the moment, don’t you big bird?” Gem placed her hand back over Grian’s crop where Scar was almost definitely trying to sleep if the annoyed pushing against her fingers was any indication. “If you want to join him Mumbo, I’m sure Grian would be more than happy to have you.”
At the implication that he might get to keep more of his flock so closely Grian turned enormous eyes onto his best friend, a questioning croon interrupting the constant background noise of content purring. Mumbo considered it for a long moment before deciding to take them up on the offer. Even with all this company, without his heated blanket draped over him in his smaller form the night air would get cold, and he was admittedly tempted by the idea of being so close to his flockmates.
The demon nodded his assent, and shuffled slightly out of place to better reach around the wing draped over him. He carefully deposited the tiny into his avian friend’s waiting hands, chuckling as they quickly cupped him and brought him closer for inspection. Grian rubbed his cheek along Mumbo’s tiny form, much to the mustached man’s dismay, and crooned loudly in delight at being given another member of his flock.
“Alright alright that’s quite enough of that! Let me in you big sap!” Mumbo laughed, trying to push the giant face out of his personal space. A warm tongue slid up the side of his body in retaliation, sticking his normally slicked back hair nearly vertical with the thick slime. “Ugh!”
The rest of the hermits giggled at his predicament, and he took a monet to glare at them before the mouth in front of him opened, and he was carefully lifted over the sharp white teeth onto the warm tongue beyond. The slick muscle cupped downward to accept him, then surged upwards to press him against the roof of the mouth, almost as if the avian was still trying to cuddle him even now. He grunted and pushed against the hard palate, only succeeding in coating his hands and arms in saliva before they slipped and he was once more pressed tightly between a tongue and a hard place. Luckily, that seemed to give Grian the hint he needed, and he got on with the process of covering the tiny in saliva, licking him thoroughly to ensure a smooth ride down to his crop.
After a moment of wet and confusing frenzy, Mumbo was thoroughly drenched and the tongue suddenly backed off, falling into stillness below him. A questioning hum echoed up from the throat beyond, and the entire chamber tilted slightly, asking if he was ready. Mumbo softly rubbed the wet muscle below him before sharply tapping on it twice in an affirmative signal. In response, the chamber tilted to gently slide him into the waiting throat beyond.
The muscular walls hugged him tightly as he slowly fell below the avian’s calm heart and felt the movement of his huge lungs only inches away. It once again struck him how precious this was, how incredible it was to trust someone to be so close to you that they could feel your very heart pounding against their skin, protected only by thin membranes and muscle.
By the time he reached the chamber below, Mumbo was thoroughly relaxed and ready to take a well deserved sleep inside his friend. The brief drop woke him up slightly, but not enough to notice the chamber’s other occupant, who awoke with a startled shout as the other tiny landed almost directly on top of him.
Scar grumbled as he was jolted out of his cozy state by the a lanky form dropping directly on top of him. He wasn’t impressed by the lack of warning, and smacked the nearest wall in retaliation, but when that only resulted in louder purring, he gave up on retribution and grabbed Mumbo’s arm to pull him over.
“Scar?” The taller man was confused, but didn’t protest his action, willingly allowing his long limbs to be arranged into the best position for optimal snuggles.
“Shhhh, no talking, it’s sleepy time.” Scar mumbled as he collapsed into the waiting arms of his friend. The redstoner obligingly tucked the zookeeper’s head under his chin and relaxed, listening to Scar’s breathing evening out into the easy rhythm of sleep once more.
“Hmmm if you say so…” He trailed off as sleep claimed him as well. He gave one final rub to the warm walls of Grian’s crop before his eyelids lost their fight with gravity and he succumbed to the warmth and comfort around him.
Gem smiled as she felt the activity still under her hand and heard Grian’s rumbling pick up in response. He was no longer just imitating a happy cat, but all manner of pleased animal noises, as if he couldn’t restrict himself to just one expression of joy anymore. He had his flock close by and the nest was safe, and best of all, two of his most vulnerable flock mates felt safe enough inside him to fall asleep. His instincts couldn’t have been more satisfied.
“You did a good job, big bird. Look at you all strong and safe for your flock. You’ve done so well.” Gem grinned as Grian beamed at the praise, folding his wing further around her to pull her closer. “Here let’s take a selfie for Joel, we can make him jealous that he missed nest time.”
Impulse pulled out his phone and obligingly snapped a picture of them all cuddled up in the nest, arms and legs and wings all tangled together in a warm pile. He grinned and sent it to the group chat, which dinged on all of their comms simultaneously. Joel almost immediately sent back a selfie of himself in a similar situation, curled up with his wife and a few of their friends with Jimmy resting on top of his chest. The demon grinned as he pinned it with a thumbs up, sending their selfie to the larger Hermit chat before tucking his com away for the night. He shuffled closer to the group, wrapping a sturdy arm around the builder’s torso with Gem’s, while the other was tangled with his best friend’s arm across the avian’s back. His own instincts were glowing with contentment at having his pack so close at hand, warmed by his fire and safe from any harm. The contentment made his eyes begin to drift shut and he could see he wasn’t the only one.
Grian was slightly more coherent at this point, but he was only trading the instinct driven haze for a sleepy one. His flock was close, his friends were safe, and all was right with the world. He relaxed and let the even breathing surrounding him guide him to sleep.
etho has released 3 public photos, all of his busted set up. unbust your set up or just post mirror selfies flexing like a normal fucking guy get it together
