there are a couple things about fics that piss me off. but I just read 40K words and they failed to tag “major character death” and “hurt no comfort” and I genuinely didn’t see it coming till the end. I want to punch a hole in the wall and rip my hair out.
The Santari village sat incongruous and looming at the end of the Orema pass, its buildings nestled into the sloping hillsides that marked the edge of the dog king's territory. The imperial road was several miles east, the next village a day's ride away. To the west were the foothills and rocky crags the Aarakocra called home, and to the south, the pass itself.
Northward was their destination - the boggy, inhospitable woodlands which held the ruin they'd been tasked to explore.
They'd agreed to take as much time as they needed in Santari. Midsummer visitors crowded the village, making it a perfect time to pick up odd jobs and purchase supplies. It also meant no vacancies at the inns, but Scar had sweet-talked a local merchant into letting them rent an empty house she had for sale.
It only had two bedrooms and there was no kitchen, but it had a proper, fully enclosed bath. As soon as they arrived, Bdubs filled the stone tile tub with clear mountain water and coaxed a fire to heat the rocks beneath it. He eased himself into the simmering warmth and began to wash the many days of hard travel from his skin.
He scrubbed the back of his neck and behind his ears, hands moving vigorously into his hair - and catching. He frowned at the knots, dunking his head under the water. He tried to tease apart the snags to no avail.
He soaked in the water until it went cold, then finally dragged himself out to search for the bard.
---
"Four silver."
"I haven't even told you what I want!" Bdubs shouts, standing in the front room in a bathrobe he'd found in the linen closet. He's dripping bathwater onto the floor.
"Four silver and ten copper, if you're going to yell," Scar says with a smirk. "I know you're good for it. Etho buys you everything."
"You did it for free before!"
Scar's eyes narrow at that, his gaze distant. "I never do anything for free. Are you on my favors list?" he lights up at that. "Of course you are! And I have just the favor in mind -"
"You wish! I ain't stupid enough to end up on no list of yours." Bdubs is fast deciding this isn't worth the trouble. Maybe someone in town can help. There were people who cut hair, right? Maybe he should go to one of them.
As he ponders the concept of wielding sharp things for a living and not using them for violence, he unconsciously tugs at his wet hair again, frowning. Scar catches sight of the motion and softens, sitting up from his position lounging on the bench.
"Oh, oh, oh! You want me to brush your hair again? That's on the house, absolutely," Scar is already digging into his satchel for a comb.
Bdubs takes a step back, a little frightened by the enthusiasm. "Well, I was thinking about something else, though. With my hair," he adds quickly.
"Hmm? A certain style? It's got great volume. And it's quite long. We could do some adornments!" his eyes are alight at the possibilities, fingers twitching to get ahold of Bdubs' head. "And with your natural curls, a couple pins here or there, it'd really -"
"I don't need adornments, just - can you braid it? If you braid it, it won't get messed up so quick, right?"
At first, Bdubs thinks the bard has...frozen, somehow, and he looks left and right for any signs of spellwork. Then he notices the half-elf is vibrating, a rictus grin on his face.
"Never mind!" Bdubs tries, hopping back a step. "I'm good, no thanks!"
"Pleaseletmebraid -" Scar inhales. "I will give you silver. Let me braid it. I have an idea. Bdubs, I have a vision."
"No, I really don't think I need to. I'm, uh. I'm okay."
"Bdubs," Scar says, standing now, hovering over the shorter man as if he's ready to attack. "Bdubs, you let me see this through, and I promise you something. A one hundred ten percent patented Goodtimes Guarantee."
"What?" Bdubs squeaks, wondering when Etho and Cleo will get home. Or the bird boy, he can usually rein Scar in.
"Etho is going to love it."
---
Scar parks Bdubs at the foot of one of the beds, sunlight warm and bright on his shoulders as he waits.
The bard combs through his hair with expert grace, parting it with the flick of his wrists. He starts humming as he works, then outright singing, making up a tune about Bdubs as he braids.
Bdubs is grateful for the distraction, at least. His virgin scalp stings as the braids are tugged in, neat rows appearing beneath Scar's fingers.
"Bdubs the brave and braided, sit and just be serenaded, curls of brown and eyes of amber, listen to my splendid timbre -"
"This tune is as much about you as it is abo- ow! about me," Bdubs complains, trying very, very hard not to fidget. He suspects he has a bruise on the back of his neck from Scar yanking him back into place earlier.
"That's because we're making something beautiful together!" Scar insists, finishing off another section of hair and sliding a ring onto the end of it.
After a few more braids are finished, Scar pulls away with a triumphant sound, a sincere grin on his face. "You look incredible," he announces. "Oh, let me find the looking glass!"
"Wait!" Bdubs tries, but Scar is already gone from the room. The druid touches a tentative hand to his head, which is half braided.
Scar returns, shoving a small mirror into his hands.
"Did you get tired? Oh, brother. This is a scam, isn't it? I have to pay to get the other half, don't I?!" Bdubs pouts.
Scar bursts into laughter, hiccuping with it and slapping his leg obnoxiously. "No, no! It's part of the vision - just look, okay?"
Bdubs checks his reflection at last.
His hair is parted on the left, and a little over a third of his scalp bears tight, tidy rows of braids. The remaining hair juts up, then lays soft and wavy, ending just below his cheekbone. He's fairly sure he's never seen anything like it.
He blushes fiercely, looking at Scar in disbelief. "What."
Scar fiddles with one of his combs, mouth uncertain. "You don't like it?"
Bdubs dares a second glance. "It's just," he starts, turning his head left and right. He looks...younger. Put together? Intentional. He feels like he's wearing art on his head.
"I think it's gorgeous," Scar gushes. "It's half - well, half-ish braided, to symbolize how you spend half-ish of your time in dreams. Get it?"
The front door opens before Bdubs can reply. Cleo comes in, arms laden with bags of supplies, Etho following after with a stack of boxes in his arms.
"I've got food!" Cleo announces, poking her head into the bedroom door with a smile. "Grilled chicken and - oh!"
She shifts the bags onto one arm so she can cover her mouth, eyes gleaming. "Ohh? The boys have been having a beauty date."
There's the sound of boxes being roughly deposited on the front room table, and Etho appears in the doorway next. Bdubs stares at the wall, lips pursed, pointed ears glowing red hot.
It's quiet for a while. A worrying while. Scar tuts and knocks Bdubs' hand aside when he tries to touch his hair.
"Oh snappers," Etho finally says, his voice just behind Bdubs' shoulder, making him jump. "That's your real hair, huh? Wow, B," Bdubs finally turns to look at him.
Etho's eyes are crinkled with his smile. "It's a whole new you, bunny! It looks great."
Bdubs puffs out his chest and puts his hands on his hips. "Yeah, it does, don't it?"
etho is working on his moss farm, debugging some redstone, squished in a one block high space. bdubs finds him like that, tinkering away. he comes up behind etho, peers over his shoulder, "what's the issue?"
etho startles and then laughs that cute little laugh of slight embarrassment and then explains the problem to bdubs. bdubs presses closer to etho's back to see what etho is pointing at, still watching over his shoulder. etho is radiating heat, probably sweaty from crawling around redstone all day and bdubs finds he doesn't mind at all. in fact he presses closer when he says, "this sounds like a task for redstone master bdubs!"
etho's eyes crinkles, his smile hidden behind his mask but audible in his voice when he says, "i better get out of your way then."
bdubs's moss coat would be too bulky for the space so bdubs tugs it off, makes sure to put it somewhere where they hopefully won't get too much redstone on it. etho shifts to the side and bdubs crawls into the space besides him. their hands brush when bdubs reaches to change the timing on a repeater and etho giggles again, flustered, cute. bdubs has to focus on the redstone too much to look over and catch his fond look.
bdubs solves the problem, something about an accidental bud powered line. "of course i fixed it," he boasts to etho, teasingly knocking into his side with his shoulder before he moves out of the crawlspace again. before bdubs can fully retreat, etho grabs his arm, gloved hand on bare skin. "hey. thanks bdubs."
"always happy to lend you my skills!" bdubs's jovial tone doesn't match the shiver that runs through his body at etho's hand still on his skin, warmth seeping through the material of his glove. bdubs can't tear his eyes away from it, from where etho's pale fingers are leaving redstone dust fingerprints on bdubs' tan arm, the red dust getting caught in his dark hair as etho's fingers shift.
etho must notice because he pulls his hand away like he got burned and shuffles to the side. "i should build the rest of this," etho says, quiet and unsure.
before bdubs can say anything, etho is already gone, disappeared deeper into the cramped maze of redstone lines. bdubs shouts his goodbye before he picks up his moss coat and flees the scene, just like etho had
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Hermitcraft SMP
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: John Booko | BdoubleO100/EthosLab, John Booko | BdoubleO100 & EthosLab
Characters: John Booko | BdoubleO100, EthosLab (Video Blogging RPF)
Additional Tags: Song: The Bug Collector (Haley Heynderickx), Domestic Fluff, Bugs & Insects, Not RPF, Established Relationship, Forehead Kisses, Short One Shot, EthosLab-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Alternate Universe - Human, Not Beta Read
Series: Part 1 of ||Albums||
Summary:
Bdubs gets a small scare when he goes to take a shower. Etho helps him out and deals with it.
omg I just was like “oh this fanfic writer is liking my amateur ethubs content I wonder if I’ve seen-“ I have. I had them all bookmarked with kudos already. ur works are so good I hope u know that. I like the way u portray their relationship sm they are so ethubs to me.
AGH THANK YOU. I can't believe there are ppl out there who have read everything I've written that's INSANE, you're crazy and I love you
I try my heart out to make ethubs (noun) ethubs (verb) as hard as they can lol
so it wasn’t until past life that I was like “WOAH ETHUBS” like before that it was a will they won’t they to me ig but I think it needed to absolutely punch me in the face before I was like “oh they are FREAKS!!”
anyways when were u like “wait a minute…..” realistically I wasn’t watching bdubs till s10 but I got a clip before that of etho choosing to come back to s9 by being in bdubs basement (his favorite guy ever) and that’s when I knew something was OFF ABOUT THEM!!!!
I think it was Last Life or Secret Life that got me suspicious but then some key episodes from 10+ years ago really set it in stone for me. Especially when paired with new stuff, like you see how it was there all along, or the way they like to refer back to old jokes and stuff
Key ethubs episodes from the archive:
• Bdubs mindcrack ep 9-10: “feat. ETHO”
• Etho mindcrack ep 49: “Bdoubleo100”
• Etho mindcrack FTB ep 49: “Pawn Shop Shenanigans”
• Bdubs stream pt. 1-2: “11-5-13 mindcrack livestream” (ethubs moment of all time for me)
Cheeky plug: I pulled these from my ethubs archive playlist
watching Joel’s vod and his chat are annoying me lmfao “u guys are making it sound weird” guys. bffr. yaoi is porn. don’t pretend like the CHAT is making it sound bad. that’s what it is !!!! it was a TOUGH watch
Tango’s needed glasses for a long time, but continually denies it/puts off getting any. When Gem discovered this, she roped in Scar, Grian, and Joel into helping her get glasses for Tango.
Every time Tango’s given glasses he’ll begrudgingly thank whoever gave them to him, and then they’ll “go missing” about a week later.
After a while of giving Tango glasses and then the glasses vanishing, Gem got Imp & Skizz to help, and then Zedaph, and then Scar roped in Cub, and eventually about half the server started giving Tango glasses whenever he “lost” a pair.
Tango still denies needing glasses, but he’s secretly started storing them in his nightstand as a keepsake. He really is grateful for his friends’ efforts to help, even if he’d never admit it.
This is so silly, and I feel like this would happen.
germansingergirl
vaporwave
baratheonpilled
stormborns
jbbartram-illu
areudirty
yousharknotpass
