Look, I'm an author myself. I know how it feels to be getting a comment as well.
So, whenever i commented every chapter on a fic, and the author replies(or not) and they're playing it cool like, "appreciate the comments :)" , i just know that they're on the other side of the screen, giggling, punching the air and kicking their pillow XD
So, peoples, if u happen to like a fic, comment. Even just one can make an author bursts into fireworks.
"The server is full of mysteries and rumours? Yes why?"
"I heard the admin used to turn people into beings. Rumours says his players are trapped inside that server as a nonhuman. Can you imagine an admin doing that his own players?"
"Monstrous!"
"Indeed..."
Impulse almost laughed when he's heard two girls whispering that on the server hub. Pearl also snickered as well as Gem and Tango who both tried so hard to not stumble as they were laughing.
Xisuma would never do that to them after all. They aren't trapped. Xisuma saved them. It was their choice to become what they are now and it was by the admin's help that they did get what they wanted.
There is a legend, lost somewhere in the universe, the void, the land of never ending grass and the world of never ending flames. No one have spoken about it for the last hundred of years. Not much has been known since the last thousands of years.
This was a legend, far and silent, the ones who have heard of it is long gone, carried by the wind and the calming whoosh of the oceon. The only one who have known and interacted with this legend is a figure in the dark, small yet imposing. Though that too, is lost to history of tales.
"Uhm, so, what exactly is this legend you're talking about?" Pearl questions, failing to see where this story is going by their small fireplace for a hermit huddle--or rather known as camping with the whole server.
Impulse smiles, "They said the person is powerful yet was never understood by others. They held power unknown to mankind, destructive yet enchanting. That is until the small figure in the darkness came and became their companion.. Or maybe lover. No one actually knows what happened to them"
"What happened to the person themself then? Did they just vanish like every other myths?" That is definitely Xisuma's voice cutting through the crowd of murmurs and Ren singing and Cleo bickering and-well, a lot is going on.
"Some says they lived forever, together. Some says they died at the hands of each other. Some says they ran and lived happily until they died together. Some says one left the other. Nothing was confirmed for sure" Impulse explains, "So yeah, nobody knows"
"Typical mythologies" Grian comments.
"I know right?" Jevin chimes, agreeing to that. Myths are fun but no one ever knows how it ends.
Joe raises his hand, "I can confirm that some of those has happened" they announce with a smile on their face.
Cleo scoffs with amusement, "Sure, Joe, i bet you were alive when that legend was still ongoing"
"Can neither confirm nor deny unfortunately" Joe laughs, eyeing Zedaph amongst the crowds. Zedaph looks at him with uncertainty but lets it happen anyways, a smile on the not-quite-sheep's face as always.
After all, Zed is the one who found and befriended him when he wasn't understood so long ago. None of the hermits knew if him being the legend that they're talking about. No one knew Zed is the one who found him. No one knew they were still living after thousands years of faking their death. Just so they could run away together, away from everyone.
"You sure you'll be fine?" She asks, not trusting Gem's unreliable confidence at all. Last time she left the girl alone, she almost drowned herself!
"Come on, Pearl. I can handle myself! I'll make sure i won't even leave the base, yeah?" Gem reassures her, "Plus, False is coming over! I'm not gonna be alone here"
She sighs. She can't stop her, can she? "Alright. I trust you, but if you go anywhere near that river again, i will pull you out and then smite you myself"
"Wow, not even a hug after pulling me out?"
"Nope, bad Gemmies gets no huggies" she retorts, grabbing her hoodie and a basket full of goodies.
"Aww" Gem pouts, Pearl laughs.
"I'll be off now, take care!" She steps out of the house, heading towards Mumbo's base where her (not blood related) brother is.
Once she gets there, she knocks on the door. She can hear a few panicked yells inside and then it became quiet. The door opens, a very 'i just woke up' Mumbo greets her. "Oh, Pearl! What brings you here?"
"Woah, Mumbo, were you still sleeping? It's already noon, you lazybone!"
"Uhm, no..." Mumbo tries lying, she shoots him a look and he sighs immediately, "Yeah, i was sleeping....But! It's because Grian dragged me into the nest!" Mumbo beams, and she does as well.
"He remembered?"
"Well, not remember per se, but he's still got the instinct memory for it"
She can only smile, "I'm glad that at least his instinct knows who he is. Can i see him?"
"Uhm.. Hold on, I'll ask him. He freaks out if someone else come to visit here" the awkward guy steps inside again, and she patiently waits by the doorframe.
When Mumbo came back, she can see a pretty nervous Grian next to him. She takes in a breath, she can do this. "I brought some cookies for you two! And some bread, it's cinnamon" that is his favourite after all.
Mumbo takes the basket from her hand, "Uhm, come in! I, uh.. Want some tea?" She noticed that Grian has been staring at her the whole time. Did he remember something?
"I would never pass an opportunity for teas!" She walks into the house, following Mumbo to the living room before she is left alone with Grian. Usually, they'd be taking this time for light chats, teasing and even just asking about progress on their bases. But Grian doesn't remember, so it would be awkward to just ask about it.
"You.. Look familiar" Surprisingly, Grian was the one who spoke first. "Who are you again?"
"Oh, right. I'm Pearl!"
Grian observes her a little more, "Didn't you like.. Had wings before? Am i remembering this wrong? You-you had wings like mine, right? And.. There's..someone else but-I don't.. I don't remember"
She almost burst into tears when she heard Grian say that, "You remember that..?" A smile plasters across her face, "That's right!" She stands up and walks over to him, giving him a tight hug. He seems surprised but quickly melts into it, like he always does. "Griba, it's me, Pearl" she whispers, tears threathening to spill over. She pulls away, "Do you remember me? You, me and Jimmy-oh you call him Timmy right? You, me and Timmy, we're the skyblings, remember?"
"Sky.. Blings? Timmy? Pearl-Wait, what did you call me just now?" Grian questions.
".. Griba?"
Grian's face is that of realisation now. His eyes widen when he finally remembered. "Pearl!" He hugs her even tighter now. "Pearl, i-i'm so sorry i forgot about you!" Tears spills from both of their eyes, clutching onto each other like they would be million years apart if they let go.
When they finally pull away from each other, both of their eyes red and watery, Grian apologises again. "I.. I'm sorry i don't remember who Timmy is"
"Hey, hey, it's alright. We can meet him again later, yeah? Maybe Martyn as well, and Bigb!"
"... So familiar. You're all so familiar. The names, the way you talk, the fragments of things i remember. It's so frustrating that i don't remem-Mumbo!" Grian shrieks, supposedly at Mumbo who was behind her with cups of tea on a tray.
"Mate, how long have you been standing there?!" She's also surprised. Mumbo stares at them with the feeling of him interrupting something important.
"Uhm.. Since Pearl suggests you meet the past evo members?"
"What's an evo?"
Mumbo flashes her a look of 'help me, what do i say?' Pearl decides she should step in now. "Your server before Hermitcraft! Let's leave it at that yeah? It wasn't that interesting!" It actually was that interesting, maybe even more than that actually, but Grian doesn't need to know that yet. He definitely does not need to know that his server was wrecked by the Watchers.
She sips on her tea, "So, what have you guys been up to? I hope it's nothing too bad"
Grian and Mumbo gives each other a knowing look for approximately 3 seconds before turning to her to say no. Now she wonders what they have done to the hermits. Knowing them, nothing good. "Right. I'm gonna assume everyone is getting a prank once everything goes normal?"
"Only time will tell" Grian can't keep his grin. "I-i don't know. Maybe?" Mumbo avoids eye contact, she just knows that the man is smiling underneath that thick mustache.
Pearl snorts, "Guess I'm gonna have to go look for traps in my base soon. I certainly will be returning the-" her comm buzzes. She hopes it's only X giving a notice that the server will just restart. Quickly, she opens her comm and in a few seconds she shoots up, "I gotta go!"
Without an explaination, she runs outside and takes off with her newly shifted moth wings that she may or may not have copied from Grian. Going against the wind and time, she flies over the mountain, going towards the river. She can make out a small shape in the water, an orange blob with a cottagecore fits that fits Gem's description. Oh, she never should've left Gem on her own!
Across from her, in the air as well, is False who is looking for the same person as her. Okay, that's good. She have a backup in case she also drowns. Though she highly doubts it.
Without hesitation, she dives down into the water. Her vision blurs but she can clearly see Gem drowning with eyes open. Oddly enough her luscious green eyes, are replaced with those that of a really dark blue. She decides to question that later. She grabs Gem, and swims upwards, but it's like the water is dragging her down. She almost gasped, but she held her breath and keeps swimming.
She swore the river wasn't even that deep! This is ridiculous! She reaches outwards, hoping that False saw her diving down here. Her hands catches something soft, and it pulls her up. She held on tight to Gem, not letting her go once.
Once out of the water, False checks up in both of them. "Are you two alright? I was looking for Gem, but then i saw you diving in the water and-okay screw that. Breath. Just-focus on breathing, okay?"
"Thanks. You saved us" she lets out a gag, soke of the water got into her lungs.
False nods and then goes to Gem. In mere seconds, she gasped. "Her eyes..?"
Pearl nods, "I don't know what happened. She's been trying to drown herself a lot, saying that the river is calling out to her and-gosh i thought she was just feeling depressed and almost gave up on life because well you know, Impulse and Grian and well, the Convex!" She pauses, "I thought she was just lost in life and... I don't think that's what's happening now"
"This is hypnosis. What is hypnotizing her?" False shakes Gem, "GeminiTay, wake up" With a gasp, Gem snaps back to reality. She coughs out some water from her lungs and after a while she is back with them again.
"What..?" Gem blurts, her eyes landing on the river, "Oh.. Oh dear. I'm so sorry-!"
Pearl hugs her, shutting her up. "I'm never letting you out of my sight again"
"So you got any idea what's happening there?" Scott asks, looking over at Jimmy who's pacing around with anxiety and worry.
"Nope, not a word. Tango just said things aren't going well and then nothing. I-i'm a little worried to be honest. He's never not texted me for this long. He said something about some of the hermits being missing but they returned? At least one of them did" Jimmy replies.
"Maybe he's busy? I don't know, maybe the hermits are celebrating their return? You know the hermits are always looking for a reason to party" Scott shrugs, maybe Jimmy is just overthinking this after all.
"Maybe, but he usually would tell me what the hermits are up to. It's just.. Maybe I'm overthinking this?"
"If you want, we could visit them? We're whitelisted after all" Scott suggests and Jimmy beams.
"We could?" Jimmy asks again for confirmation and Scott nods. Scott grins whem he sees Jimmy absoloutely ecstatic.
After a few preparations here and there and telling others on their short leave, they finally arrived on Hermitcraft. Everything looked normal at first. The grass is green, the sky is blue, the builds are towering and the hermits are... silent? No messeges in chats, no elytras or rockets spamming to greet them.
"Something's wrong" Scott concludes and Jimmy nods. Something is definitely wrong. The hermits are never quiet. Ever. "Do we investigate-what the?!" A blurry figure wooshes past them, taking Scott down in a matter of heartbeat.
"Woah, Scott? What are you doing here?" That voice is familiar.. Wait-in front of them is a really confused Martyn.
"Wow, buy me dinner first, Martyn" Scott shoves Martyn off him, "And we're here checking on the hermits because Jimmy here is worried about his rancher"
"I was *not*!" Jimmy retorts with a face that says otherwise.
"Yeah, you sure were" Scott teases, before turning back to Martyn. "What are you doing here, Martyn?"
"Same reason as you. Though, i find it weird that the respawns are turned off" Martyn scan their surroundings. "There's also no hermits coming over to greet us. Something is definitely wrong" Scott and Jimmy both nods, agreeing to that statement.
Their comms ping and they see a feminine figure with an angry yet worried expression on her face spawning in. "Lizzie?" Martyn tilts his head and so does Jimmy. Scott only watches with a weird, uneasy feeling bubbling up in his chest.
"Martyn? Oh, Hey, Scott, Jimmy. I'm guessing you're here to check on the hermits as well?" Lizzie guesses and they mutter a bunch of 'yes.' She nods, "Okay. Well, I'm here to see Joel. That guy married me and didn't reply to my texts for a whole week! Can you believe that!"
"Yeah, same with me" Jimmy shrugs. "And well, something's horribly wrong if no one is coming by to greet us so let's go!" The canary walks and they follow, going through what some of them partially remember as Hungry Hermits and the shopping district.
There, they find a figure wandering about. Scott gasps, the one in front of them aren't a hermit--at least not that they know of. The person also gasped, looking them up and dowm through their red visor. "Who are you?" Lizzie demands and they only stared back in silence.
"... Get out of this server right now" the person say and they start pacing around. That confuses all of them at once. "You aren't safe here" the guy added.
"What do you mean.?" Jimmy asks and the rest of them nods, they all needed an explaination right now. Seeing a guy who they were certain wasn't a hermit before warning them about the server not being safe is.. Concerning to say the least.
"I mean, it's *not* safe" the person glance around, scanning their surroundings carefully with high alert. "Respawns are not on. Something about a glitch or a code brokened or messed with.. And the hermits are grieving, they're not in the right spot to accept visitors right now"
"Wait. Who died?"
"The water isolated person- Xb. Yes, that was his name. He drowned. Respawns aren't on so it's a permadeath" The figure explains and their hearts dropped simultaneously.
"How come we've not heard about this?" Martyn chimes in, not believing a word the person is saying. "Are you sure you're not lying?"
The person laughs, "If I'm lying, I'd have told you the server's safe and sound and nothing is wrong" the person sigh, "The reason you've not heard about it.. Well, let's say the hermits are still oblivious to their messeges not able to reach outside world"
"Wait, why? Why are their comms jammed?" Lizzie asks and Martyn have a terrible feeling churning his stomach.
"No idea, but if i were to guess, it's because the stars are weird" the person shrugs. They all instantly look up. At first, nothing is wrong, but Martyn knows. Martyn knows something is wrong.
"Scott? I-you're a Starborne, do you feel anything weird about the stars?" Martyn questions and Scott shoots him an uneasy look as well. That means yes, something is wrong with the stars but what? Martyn squints, he listens to the stars and what they have to say and-
'My, my. A lost Listener here' The stars say and jumps back, surprised by the fact the stars know. The stars laughs, he glance at all of the other's faces, Scott and him are uneasy, Lizzie and Jimmy is confused and the stranger, remains calm like this is something that happens on daily basis.
'Well, then i suppose we should start the game' the stars talks amongst themselves. No, wait that isn't the stars, that's a Speaker! What's a Speaker doing here? Are the other beings here too as well? Watcher? Listener?
'Fear not, we're not the other group of powerful beings. We're not with them and never will' The star-no. The Speakers speak. Are these the rogue Speakers then? The ones that rebelled with the lab experimenting with other Watchers and Listeners?
'Welcome, to First Life' All of them froze, a life game? On Hermitcraft? Now?? Of all times? 'A Life game that isn't hosted by the Watchers. The concept are simple, one life. One soul. One chance. The rules? Survive'
All of their blood runs cold. Survive? One life? Jimmy gulps, he is the canary. The canary that always died first. There is no respawns. It's a permadeath if he died here. Scott on the other hand, noticed something.
"They didn't tell us the twist" Scott announces and the Speakers-no the Watcher have come, so did the Listeners as well-laughs. Their voices are filled with none other than malice.
"Jimmy, stay with me. I don't want you to die permanently yet" Scott instructs. "Martyn?"
"Me and Lizzie. Let's search for the hermits. Gotta warn them!" Martyn suggests and they all nod, muttering stay safes and take cares before going their separate ways. Things aren't going well, no wonder none of the hermits contacted them or tried to even contact them.
|Martyn and Lizzie|
"What do you think the twist might be?" Lizzie asks Martyn, who is seemingly lost in thoughts.
"I'm not sure. But whatever it is, i bet it's bad"
Lizzie nods, with the weird beings, nothing is alright and nothing good ever came out of them. "Hey, what's that?" She squints and Martyn does as well.
"It's.. False!" Martyn runs towards the eagle, "Hey False! So sorry about coming in here without notice, we were ju-False?"
Uh oh.
Oh.
Oh no.
"Lizzie, RUN!!!" Martyn scatters and so does she.
False's eyes are red-Red. RED. It might be alright if she wasn't already chasing after them with a sword!
|Jimmy and Scott|
"I'm scared.. What if i die again?" Jimmy confesses and Scott places a hand on his shoulder.
"You won't. Not on my watch" Scott promises.
"Please don't be a sacrifice again, Scott. You can't be honorable this time" Jimmy pleads desperately.
Scott doesn't reply.
"Scott-"
"I promise. I won't try being honorable"
"Thank you..." In the distance they can see cub, "Cub!" Jimmy marches up to Cub, but Scott stops him.
"Something's wrong" Scott doesn't explain. He didn't need to. Cub turns around, eyes red and bloodshot-
"Hello, Scott. Jimmy. Lovely day, huh?" Cub strikes a conversation, like everything's normal. "What are you two doing here?"
".. Cub. I-your eyes?" Jimmy stammers and Scott is on his full guard. Cub reaches up to his eyes, mouth curving into a smile-the red type of pyschotic smile.
"Ah that. You guys never told me it was *this* fun to be a red!" Cub laughs, his skin is more and more see through the longer they are there.
"Jim, run"
And so they did with a very feral vex chasing after them.
"Not you again.." Wels bites his lips, Hels is in front of him with a mischievous grin-oh and did he mention Evil X is there too? Yup that as well. He sighs, "What do you want? A duel? 2vs1 maybe? Or do you just need more tnt?"
The two turns to each other before going back to him, "No" they replies simultaneously.
"Okay, right. And what are you doing here then?"
"I need to talk to you" Hels says and Ex nods.
He squints. This is mighty suspicious. Hels wanting a normal conversation? Between them? And Ex too? This is either a trick or something else then. "You already are, what is it then?"
"Have you seen the red eyed people?" Hels begins and that confused him even more. Who is he talking about? Tango? Hels himself? Ex? Doc? Etho?
"... You?"
Ex bursts out laughing and Hels groans. "I told you that you needed to be more specific about that!" Ex comments and Hels scowls.
"Yea, yeah. Okay, listen here nerd. I mean the red eyed people with the desire to murder"
"That also points to you"
Hels groans louder, "Okay, yeah, i give up. Ex you do the talking"
Ex snickers, "Alright, Failknight-"
"HEY"
"-So, Light Knight, you know about the red haze that's going on, right?" Ex clasps their hand, like a businessman that's boutta scam him.
"Oh, *that* red eyes. Okay, yep i have. What about it? Well other than the red urge to kill, of course" he replies, the only way he can see this ending is them 2v1-ing him.
"Well, me here, found the way to un-red them" Ex says and Hels mutters a retort. Okay, now that's intriguing. Why are these two telling him this?
"And that is by..?" He trails of, tilting his head in a cartoony manner of sort.
"Dying, or killing someone else"
Oh. Of course it's like that. He sighs, masking a groan, "Our server is a little unrespawnable right now. What makes you think this can be the solution--wait who did you kill?!"
"Nah, just Ex. They suck at pvp" Hels rolls his eyes, acting like he is overreacting. He is not, damn it!
He huffs, ignoring the dark knight, "Unless you're offering yourselves to kill and somehow come back even with the server's respawn going haywire right now, I'm guessing you needed something from me?"
"Maybe" Hels shrugs and Ex sighs.
"Look. Your beloved admin, my better half, the idiot, is a red right now" Ex explains and he gasps. When did Xisuma get the red haze?! He was just fine yesterday when they were having a funeral...? "And that guy, may or may not be the reason of my existence. If he dies, i die and i don't wanna die yet"
"... Right. Okay. So you want to be a sacrifice?"
"No. We just want you to do something about it"
"How am i supposed to-" two figures falls on top of him and he yelps while the other two not-quite hermits screams. "Ow what the?" He is greeted by two hermits who he haven't seen in a long time. "Keralis? Jevin?"
"Ayy, we made it!" Jevin whoops happily. "God, i missed Hermitcraft. Hey Wels, how's it going?"
"I-Jev?! How did you.. No, where had you two been?!"
"Sweetface, hello!" Keralis exclaims, turning over to see the two hallucinations..? "And who are these beauties in armour?" Keralis asks the hallucinations--how is he seeing them?! They are his hallucinations!?
"... Bail!! We bail!!!" Ex screams, dragging Hels away as they awkwardly runs away in a hurried panic. Why were they scared of being found out?
"You can see them?" He should be more concerned about his friends who had just returned from who knows where but he's been hallucinating Hels and Ex for a while now and someone who can see them is.. Interesting.
"Why can't we?" Jevin asks and Wels only looks shocked. His lips twitches in wanting to say something but he decided against it.
"... Right. Okay. We'll get back to that later. Uhm, where were you two? You've been missing for 8 months, Keralis! And 6 months for you, Jev! What happened?" He focuses back to his friends.
"We got kidnapped and taken to a same place" Keralis offers and he doesn't even know how to feel anymore.
"I.. Where is this place you're talking about? We searched *everywhere* for you. Doc and Cub pestered the devs, X reached to other admins, you know how we hermits are. We should've found you back then. Nothing stops a hermit. You know that. Some of us were convinced you both died!" He says without even realising it.
Keralis looks.. Guilty? Okay that's weird, and Jevin looks sad and surprised at the same time. "We're sorry, sweetface" Keralis glances up at him, "We're home now though. We're safe"
"... You're right. You're safe and alive. That's all that matters" he lets out a relieved sigh, "Let's go see the other hermits. They must be freaking out-aaaand there is one"
In the distance they all can see a very fussy Xisuma-wait. Isn't X, like, red? If that makes any sense? He turns to Keralis and Jev, who didn't know about this. They don't even know Xb's dead! He sucks in a breath, "Heads up. Be wary of X, *something* is going on and we can't fix it just yet"
"What, why? What's going on?" Jevin asks and he shuts him up with a look. Keralis is confused but nods anyways. In mere seconds, X is in front of them, his visor is down. He huffs, X's hiding the red eyes.
"Keralis! Jevin! Where have you been?! We were worried sick!" Xisuma says, sounding a little too normal for his comfort.
Keralis smiles, "We're sorry, Shishwammy, we got kidnapped and then we escaped"
"Oh, Keralis, I'm so sorry that happened to you, friend" X moves closer to hug Keralis but Wels steps in first.
"Not a chance" he saw the small dagger at X's pants and the potion that is hidden carefully behind the voidwalker's belt. "X, I'm warning you. I don't wanna hurt you but i will if necessary"
"Woah, woah! Sweetfaces, let's calm down and talk this out yeah?" Keralis tries to let this go but he snarls as a warning.
"How did you know?" Xisuma drops the visor, revealing the red eyes he had all this time. He reaches for the potion and the small dagger he'd been carrying. "Friend, talk to me. Who told you that?"
"My hallucinations and delusions told me. Now, back off, i can fight you easily, X"
X scowls but decides to return back the way he came from. Wels lets out a breath, wow when did he held his breath anyways? He turns back to Keralis and Jevin, who are both bewildered by what's happening.
"Guess i owe you an explaination about that. Oh and something else you should know.. It's Xb" he takes a deep breath, "He's dead"
He can see the two's faces falling. "What.. What do you mean?" Keralis pesters.
"If this is a joke, i will actually murder you, Wels" Jevin threathens. Wels offers an empty laugh, how is he gonna tell them about Xb death?
"Things have not been going well, guys" is all that managed to slip out of his mouth.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Greetings, readers, followers, and random person who came across this post. I have started a new fic!!!
So what if i put Scott in a blender and Martyn is the blade? What do you think will happen? Well the answer is, this spawned;
Murderer Martyn AU.
An out of context snippet:
".... What. I-are you alright? I literally have a knife at your throat and you're flirting with me??" The man asks.
"Doesn't matter if you have a knife at my throat or a tie on it, I think I like you nevertheless" He flirts.
"I.. God, what kind of person did Xornoth send me to? This is horrible!" The man exclaims with a horrified look on his face.
--
The fic isn't fully tagged yet but i am telling you to read the tags properly each time before you read a chapter. This fic will have a lot of warnings in it. For now though? Enjoy.
Silliness under the cut:
--
"Sugar. Sugar what the hell have you been up to"
I told you before, the answer is ✨side quests✨
"Sugar, is First Life AU discontinued?"
NEVER. That fic right there is my baby, it's the point where my writings are getting better and i shall not abandon it! It's just in a hiatus while i fist fight my other 14 wips. It's also so close to finishing, if only i have the mental capacity to write it..
There's No more questions right? (If you do, please just ask me in the comments/reblog/asks, I'm happy to answer anything!)
