It is 2:34 AM. Grian is awake. Why is he awake? He doesnât want to be awake. Heâd been asleep a moment ago. Something is whispering in the back of his head. HeâdâŠ
An alarm sounds. Grian jumps about three feet in the air, wildly flapping his wings in his momentary panic, and then winces as he hears a lamp fall over. Dangit, heâd thought heâd finally moved all the fragile objects in his starter house so that he wouldnât - why is an alarm going off?
He stumbles across his house to where a screen is lit up and thereâs a siren blaring. Shut it off, shut it⊠âWait, hold on,â he says, as his brain finally processes which siren has gone off. âThe - the Rift! The Rift monitoring device! I didnât even think that would actually work, I stole that from Doc two seasons ago,â he babbles to himself, scrambling to read the numbers telling him that, across the server, the Rift heâd started monitoring was apparently doing⊠number⊠things.
Thinking about it, he has no idea why the Entity wanted him to study the unknowable this season. He has absolutely no clue what heâs doing. However, look! Itâs working! Maybe thatâs why?
âOh my gosh,â he says, finally managing to make the alarm stop alarm-ing. âOkay. Okay, to - to Scarâs nether portal? Should I just fly? Maybe I should just, yeah, I shouldâŠâ He grabs the things the Entity had suggested he use for his studies off the table. One more monitoring thingy heâd swiped from Doc, a set of tools Pearl had lent him, some things heâd invented with a bit of prodding - okay. Okay! Time to go check out the rift between worlds.
He stumbles out of his house, clumsily avoiding hitting the door with his wings. He brushes his hand across the Entity to make sure the thingâs paying attention, because, once again, Grian stole most of this from Area 77 and has no idea what heâs doing, and then he opens his wings and stumbles into the air towards his megabase and the Rift.
The server at 2 AM is nearly quiet, Grian thinks. Not quite properly quiet, mind you - he can see Keralisâs lights on at the log shop and hear the faint sound of axes, for example, and xB is doing⊠something⊠on top of his starter base (heâs glowing? Grian has questions and no time to ask them), but itâs quiet-er. Never quite totally still. Hermitcraft is never totally still. But itâs quiet and still in a way it isnât during the day, and it makes the anticipation Grian and the thing in his head are feeling even stronger.
It only takes a few minutes to get to his base. The cold night air has properly awoken Grian now. He swoops inside and stands in front of the glowing purple hole between worlds heâd been guided to, and itâs pulsating, flashing, burning in a way Grianâs never seen before. No wonder whatever the thing was heâd stolen had been going off. Itâs⊠mesmerizing. Itâs hard not to look at it. ItâsâŠ
Wait, what - what does that mean? Of course itâs wrong, Grian reasons with the thoughts heâs learned belong to the Entity, but itâs supposed to be! Thatâs the whole point! Itâs a gap between worlds! But itâs also the wrong thing, something that isnât supposed to - well yes, wasnât that the point? Honestly! No, thereâs something wrong wrong, the thing coming through wasnât what theyâd been waiting for. Oh, is that so? Thatâs news to Grian! Grian didnât know they were waiting for anything specific! Grian doesnât know what heâs do -
Every one of the devices Grian has with him briefly screams, in simultaneous human shouts, and then shuts down altogether. Grian stands, frozen.
The Rift looks at him. The Rift looks at the Entity, too, even though the Entity is only here in Grianâs head. Grian subconsciously puffs his wings out, widening them and flaring the eyespots on them right back at the Rift, instinctively trying to make himself too big and scary to look at, not prey, he isnât prey -
Then the world flashes around Grian, and he canât see anything at all, and the ground is shaking, and Grian canât see to keep his balance but his wings start flapping desperately to keep him upright anyway, and if this kills him heâs going to kill the Entity right back and also will owe Mumbo so much money so this canât be how Grian dies forever, it canât, it canât!
Desperately, he starts to try to use his wings to go backwards.
And then everything is still.
Grian looks up. All of the electronics are working again. The Rift looks like it did when Grian first found it. There are only two signs that something is wrong.
The first is the Entity in the back of Grianâs head, expressing what can only be described as mute, baffled terror.
The second is that there is another Grian standing right in front of Grian, wearing thin desert clothing, wide-eyed, with his own wings flared out the way Grian had only a moment earlier, standing in front of someone who could only be Scar, if only Scar had ever been that grey-colored.
The two of them stare at each other. He recovers first.
