Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was a normal day in Hermitcraft, well, as normal as it gets, the server had been lagging and glitching for a week and X was doing his best to fix it, meanwhile the hermits went on with their days, reporting any bugs they saw to Xisuma as he asked them to. The hermits had been given a clock, which looked different for each hermit, according to Xisuma it was to be able to 'track the area where they were at and define if it was safe to be in that area' as well as function as a normal clock to track time, the clock function didn't work in the Nether or End of course, but the area scan did.
However, while everyone's clocks went forward... Joe’s went backward, like a timer, and he had no idea why it was doing that, he went to Xisuma who tried to fix it but just failed, he told Joe to not pay much attention to it for now, but he couldn't help but feel concerned. But let's look at the nicer side of things, the server was having nice changes in its community such as the Shopping Island being now fully grassified and Hermits continuing to expand their bases.
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Joe was chilling in his office in the Town Hall, writing some poems for a little thing he was going to do, until Bdubs surprised him by throwing the door open, he ran over to his desk and leaned on it "JOE BUDDY!" Joe just looked at Bdubs with a face that said 'You almost gave me a heart attack' to which Bdubs laughed as he stood correctly, no longer leaning on Joe's desk "Sorry bout that Joe, I came to talk to you about something" to which Joe answered with "Well what would it be?" As he sat nicely on his chair and adjusted his glasses
"It's about an idea I had in the shopping district, that shops that hadn't made any diamonds in the past three months be demolished into oblivion and you..." Bdubs proceeded to point to the small set up of lava and diamonds on Joe's wall "You don't make diamonds..."
Joe simply went "Ah, there dear hermit, is where you are wrong, I can make diamonds, i'll just burn them afterwards because they are useless and cursed" to which Bdubs giggled nervously "Well, that's all I wanted to tell you, i'll be on my way okay?" and Joe nodded "You have the messenger to my communicator right?" To which Joe nodded "So if you need me you will send me a message?" Joe simply sighed "Yes, of course I will BdoubleO" and with that Bdubs left the office and flew away.
As Joe watched the sun set, he checked the clock again, still going backwards, he just sighed as he left the office, locking it, then leaving the Town Hall, using the nether to get back to his base. The winery was where he was staying at the moment so he went there and found two dogs waiting for him, who instantly jumped on him when he came through the portal. Joe laughed as he pet both dogs before getting them off him, shaking his head as he exited the portal place and went to the place he called a "room".
Joe simply got in bed without even bothering to take off his shoes, looking at the clock once again, its ticking was hypnotizing, and even if it was going backwards, it's movement was trippy, slowly, Joe's eyes began to close, while he stared at the clock until he fell asleep, the clock on his hand without knowing how dangerous that simple action was going to be.

Chapter Text

Joe had woken up with a massive headache, wondering what he did last night for that to happen. He didn't think much of it though, that was until he noticed the silvery blue clock with golden hands had disappeared from his hand, he panicked a bit thinking that something could have taken it. Checking his pockets, nothing. His drawer, nothing. Under his bed, nothing. Yet he could hear the ticking of the clock as if it was right on his ear. He had not really noticed yet but his vision was extremely bad  on his right eye, limiting to only being able to distinguish shadows. Joe didn't pay much mind to it since he already had really bad eyesight.

The brunette was simply sitting on his bed, holding his head which was hurting badly. He sighed as he stood up and grabbed his glasses, walking over to a mirror as he cleaned them, though his peace would not last long. When he looked up into the mirror, what he saw horrified him. His right eye was the clock, it was still ticking backwards though. He dropped his glasses and accidentally stepped on them as he got closer to the mirror, ignoring the crack the glass made when he stepped on it. Wide eyed, he stared at the clock that had replaced his right eye, he couldn't just leave it like that!

Joe quickly searched through his chests until he found a roll of bandages, which he wrapped around his eye, he had to tell Xisuma about this. He was about to head out when he noticed it was raining, breaking his fancy speaking persona, he said 

"Dang it! I need to get to Xisuma now and this rain isn't helping" 

He said as he groaned while looking for something to cover himself, he ended up deciding it wasn't worth searching so much. Running out of the winery, he felt the heavy rain pouring against his skin as he ran into the nether, where it's heat quickly started drying him up. He had forgotten to bring his elytra so he was currently running to X's portal. When he found it, he did not hesitate to run through it, but to his luck, it was in a tower where he would only be able to get down from by using Elytra, so he neared the edge of the tower, and while holding on to one of the sides, screamed.

"XISUMA! ARE YOU ROUND HERE?"

He said as loud as he could, multiple times, but getting no response. He sighed in defeat as he simply backed inside of the tower again, as he sat down against a wall. He was about to close his eyes before he heard the loud boom of a rocket, was that Xisuma? Did he notice him? He got exited as he saw a figure that resembled Xisuma land inside of the tower, that was until he saw them clearly. It was none other, than Evil X. Out of pure shock and fear, Joe quickly backed up into one of the walls and took out the first thing he touched in his inventory, which was a efficiency pickaxe.

"W-What are you here!? How?!"

His voice was breaking, he was shocked and scared of the evil version of Xisuma. Evil X simply rose his hand carefully as he walked towards Joe, then turning it around, offering him to stand up. Joe simply stared at him, confused on what was going on 'Wasn't this man evil? Isn't he like the embodiment of evil?' But any way, Joe took his hand and stood up, the evil one quietly asking.

"What's wrong?"

Said the other man, his voice sounded rough yet worried, he knew it wasn't like Joe to not talk poet like and break his voice normally. Joe simply looked away as he held the right side of his face.

"I-I'd prefer telling Xisumavoid more than you"

Joe said quietly, afraid of what Evil X could do with the info of his right eye becoming the clock. Evil X simply nodded and signaled Joe to follow him. Joe followed the evil man hesitantly before they both arrived to the edge of the tower, Joe was about to run back into the portal before his wrists were grabbed by Evil X and he felt his feet take off of the ground. As Evil X picked him, Joe simply froze but held onto the other's arms for more security, he observed as they both flew to a different tower. The landing wasn't the most perfect but it wasn't bad. EX showed Joe a way inside the tower where he found Xisuma resting on a chair besides a chest.

"Xisumavoid! I uh, something happened"

Xisuma had seen Joe arrive with Evil X, but before he could even answer, Joe had called out to him already. Xisuma quietly nodded and stood up, walking over to his friend and putting his hand on his shoulder reassuringly before signaling to Evil X that he could leave. Evil X left but groaned in annoyment at the fact he had to leave before flying out of the tower. Xisuma sighed and looked at Joe, asking

"What happened Joe? Is it about the server glitches"

To which Joe simply looked away as he un bandaged his eye, showing Xisuma what happened. The admin's eyes widened as he placed his hand besides Joe's face, holding it carefully. The admin was surprised that something like this could happen, they did have anomalies in this server such as EX [Evil Xisuma/Exy] and AX [Apathetic Xisuma/Axy] or NPC Grian [NPG]. But this wasn't something like an alter ego, this was so much more, and this was worse.

"I apologize for taking up your precious time Xisuma Void, but, i came to wonder if there was a possible way to fix this?"

Joe spoke quietly, a hint of worry in his tone as he tried to keep his composure. In reality, the poet was panicking hard, but he wasn't going to let that get to him. Xisuma moved Joe's hair out of the way of his eye and stared at it before his scarred face formed into a frown

"There might be a way to fix it, however, it might take some time until we can find it. This is no ordinary anomaly or glitch. I might try to tinker with your user code to try and find some clues but for now you shouldn't be trying to do anything yourself. Go to Grian or TFC, ask them for help too, they might know more than I do"

Spoke the admin, he referred to Grian's Watcher magic and TFC's Herobrine powers. Since Xisuma was only an Admin he didn't know as much about things like these, but as he said, he'd try tinkering with Joe's code and user data. The admin sighed as he put his hand on Joe's shoulder and once again, opened his mouth to speak

"For now, head home and get rest, I need you fully awake for tomorrow"

And with a sigh and a pat on the shoulder, Joe turned around before remembering he didn't have a pair of wings, and turned around to tell X. But before he could speak, X already had an extra pair of Elytra on his hands along side 32 rockets, which Joe gladly took. He took a leap into the heavy rain and with a rocket he flew into the honeycomb portal. Popping into the nether, which quickly dried him up, he used two rockets to get back to his portal from Xisuma's portal. When he popped back out at his little halloween Island, he made a quick nod to himself before he jumped into the air and used another pair of rockets to get back home, to the winery still.

When Joe finally got inside, he sighed a sigh of relief before taking off his shirt to put on a dry one. After changing into dry clothing, he sat down on his bed before looking at his hand, his right eye still blurry, however, it was clearer than before, but what he saw through it was the dirt, it was showing past time before the winery was there. Joe scoffed before closing his eyes, opening them once again as he walked towards his mirror, taking a deep breath in before looking closely at both his eyes.

However his quiet wouldn't last long as he saw a figure of himself grabbing his shoulders, he turned around in a second, but there was no one, looking back at the mirror, he saw it again. The man looked like him, same shirt, same hair, same skin tone, however both his eyes were clocks, one that was black and gold, and one that was white and platinum. The black and gold one went  forwards, and the white and platinum one went backwards. Joe took in a deep breath, before asking

"Who are you?"

And the figure responded with cryptic words

"Your Timeless Masterpiece"

Chapter Text

Joe sat up in a rush, confused as to what had happened. He only remembered having heard the words "Timeless Masterpiece" Before  feeling himself fall down and out of consciousness. But when he woke up he was on the floor, his mirror broken, it's shards infront of him. He sighed as he held his head and quietly stood up, his head aching. Joe sighed once he had completely standing, and then remembered Xisuma wanted him to talk to Grian and TFC and also do something with him that he wanted him to be present for.

So, he grabbed a brush and one of the shards of mirror to accomodate his hair over his right eye, bandaging it too, generally making it hard to see. Joe looked at himself on the shard he had picked up and smiled nervously, that should be enough. He grabbed his own wings and put them on, taking some of his own rockets too. It wasn't raining anymore so flying wouldn't be as dangerous. Joe was already on his way to his portal when something pulled the end of his pants.

He looked behind him and found a small pup there, he sighed and pat it, letting his hands go through it's soft white fur. It enjoyed the petting and simply let Joe keep petting them, their dark eyes looking at Joe happily. Joe simply chuckled before standing back up and continuing on his way to the portal, but didn't fail to notice the little white ball following him. He simply looked down at the dog that wanted to come with him before sighing disappointedly and saying

"I know you wan't to come buddy, but alas you can't, you might catch fire in the nether and we need to fly too. I promise I won't take long, okay buddy?"

The dog made a sad whimper that Joe simply responded to with a pat before taking a bone out of his inventory and handing it to the dog, who took it and ran back to the sanctuary. Joe took in a deep breath of the fresh air that came from the ocean before entering the nether portal, which responded with a hard breeze of hot air. Joe did his best to ignore that as he took flight. he was off to Grian's base first.

As Joe landed on top of the hyperlink, he saw the three turned off portals and knew what had happened there before going through the one that was turned on. He was met by a fresh breeze of the basement of Grian's home, where he kept his item sorter, before making his way outside and to the bottom of the stairs. The brunette took a deep breath in of the fresh air provided by the biome and nearby jungle before shouting out.

"Grian!"

And hearing a crash down in a pit to his right. He walked over to the edge, grabbing on to the edge of the stair as he looke down. There was the builder, attempting to finish something even though he had crashed down and fallen. Luckily he had fallen on a big slime from the nearby slime chunk. After hearing Joe shout out for him, Grian stood up and quickly made his way up with his wings. Barely landing correctly before almost falling.

"Hello Joe!"

Spoke the dirty blonde builder, there was a bit of dust on his red jumper, his short hair was messier than usual, and he looked a bit damaged. Alas the damage disappeared as he munched on a golden carrot, but his appearance stayed the same, messy hair and dust. Grian's blue eyes shifted around slightly nervously, he felt he was in trouble because Joe was there, and he'd usually be the father of the server so he thinks he did something bad.

Joe had caught on with the tall builder's nervousness and sighed calmly. Speaking with a calm tone 

"No you're not in trouble Grian, however, I came to speak with you about something."

"What is it Joe?"

Asked the blonde, slightly confused about why Joe, the one who usually knows more than him, would come to basically ask about something. Joe sighed, his own eyes sending quiet glances at Grian's wings before saying

"You are a Watcher, right?"

Grian quietly flinched slightly, his wings opening a bit. Confused as to why Joe would come to him for his Watcher Magic. However he still answered in a quiet curious tone

"Yes, I am. Why do you need it Joe?

And the brunette sighed as he took the bandages off, the golden hands of the clock ticking hypnotically, their sound no longer muffled by white bandages. He also moved the hair from place as he asked the taller builder once again.

"Do you have any idea what it is?"

Grian's eyes widened, his irises darkening to black before lighting up with a bright purple as he whispered words repeatedly, before they came out clearly.

"To the one that goes backwards they will be rewarded with silence, to the one that goes forward they will be rewarded with uproar"

Before his eyes went back to black before back to light blue. He held his head, Joe quietly neared his hanad to try and help before Grian simply stood correctly, a nervous smile on his face

"I'm alright Joe, yet I don't really have a good idea of what that is. I feel that I might have been told about it before but don't know where I have heard it"

He said as he neared Joe to get a better look at it, sighing as he shook his head before leaning backwards from him. He then signaled Joe to follow him towards a pair of chairs since he was getting tired of standing up. Before asking him while searching through a shulker box of books

"How did It happen again?"

Joe made a quiet sound that resembled a small hum. The breeze getting stronger, making his hair blow in front of his face as he answered quietly

"I fell asleep with it on my hand and woke up with it on my eye"

Grian nodded before pulling a book out of the shulker and opening it on one of the pages and starting to search, his eyes quickly observed every page, analyzing everything in seconds, before stopping on a page and looking back up at Joe, asking him something with suspicion and an undertone of slight waryness

"Joe, you're not lying are you?"

Joe sighed and looked Grian directly in his eyes, their eyes locking as Grian waited for an answer. Joe's right eye seeing something else as always, things weren't were the should be, and Grian appeared as a watcher through his right eye, he wore different clothing and his hair had a slight tint of light purple specks on it, but he knew it wasn't reality.

"I'm not lying. I can't bring myself to do so"

And he spoke truthfully, Joe can't lie even if he wanted to. Grian's posture relaxed as he sensed the truth in his tone. He sighed before looking down at the book again and showing Joe what he had been looking for, the words were highlighted as Joe looked at the page, his right eye displaying blank pages on the book, in pristine form without anything on them yet. The highlighted words read

A time backwards read, simply put it, there's not much of a way to get rid of it. There's been rumors of gods that have had clock eyes, people that have had their hearts replaced with clocks, I can't seem to find the reason to why this happens, even though I've done everything I could to research everything about these clocks that have replaced people's body parts, without damaging those they have used as a host. I'll be interviewing more people to see if I can find more about these, but  the thing they have in comon (The visible ones of course) is that they are all going backwards, for some strange reason. I need to visit someone who's at the edge of the time running out to see what happens.

Joe looked up at Grian quietly

"So it's not unique to me?"

And the builder shrugged before flipping to the next page he wanted Joe to read

Entry 89

I visited someone with not a lot of itme left, and stayed to see what happened when it ran out, it seems it affects their form directly in some way. Some die too from what i've seen, but it seems everything is different depending on the person, for example, S114, a woman with a clock on the palm of her hand, had her arm transform into a whole clockwork and S115 had something slowly kill his insides. I don't know what it is but it's odd, it's unique to the person it seems. 

The brunette looked up to the worried builder in front of him, who queitly spoked in a very worried tone

"The higher watchers once gave me this diary to study weird things like these so i could figure how to fix them with my power, but it's been diminished to so little there's not really a way I can figure how to fix it. I'm sorry Joe, I don't know how to fix this. Y-You can take the diary though!"

He apologized, he felt like things were going wrong but Joe simply sighed as he closed the diary, giving the taller british boy a smile

"Oh don't you worry Grian, I'll figure how to fix it, it's not your fault" 

As he put his hand on his shoulder, his right eye going even further back, as it showed a different form of Grian that resembled that kid from the game, what was it? Zelda? No no, Link. He was seeing Grian through different times every time. They both turned quickly when they heard rockets, Xisuma appeared to be here. He landed breathing heavily before grabbing Joe's shoulder, who had already let go of Grian

"We need to leave, now. I apologize Joe for rushing you but we really need to go"

Joe looked over at Grian, who simply nodded as a yes you can go. Before Joe looked over to Xisuma who quickly ushered him to the portal. From the nether, they flew toward Xisumas base, and out the honeycomb portal, towards a newly made tower specifically for this. Xisuma told Joe to wait as admin panels popped out all besides Xisuma, they had everything he  could need to know yet no answers.

X looked at Joe through the tinted glass of his helmet, signaling him to hold still as he touched things on the screen, it looked to have Joe's user file on it, as Xisuma went through it quickly, his hands moving fast betwen screens, eyes analyzing everything they could. Before he pressed something and it burnt the tip of his hand, he pulled it back quickly. Joe was about to go help but the admin quickly extended his hand to signify he was alright.

The nashvillian poet stood there quietly, he was worried if everything was alright, if Xisuma was alright, if there was a way to fix it. He observed as Xisuma moved through the screens, he looked like he knew he was doing so he didn't interrupt him. He sat down quietly, as he was getting tired, he let his right eye observe the admin. Displaying a younger version of the admin, the scars weren't there but he  still had his original doom suit.

He felt a shock of electricity go through his body, from his feet to his head, which brought him back to reality. X quickly apologized and explained he was doing something. Joe had concluded Xisuma wanted him here to make sure he didn't get hurt while he moved his code, he had done a lot of previous research on how admin power worked so he had a small idea of what Xisuma was trying to do. He looked up at the admin as he heard an exasperated sigh from him, it sounded slightly muffled thanks to his helmet.

"It's not in your code, it's something else. And since you were with Grian I don't think it's related to your mind itself."

Were the words that came out of the admin's mouth, spoken through speakers on the helmet as you can't really hear anything that comes from inside of it. He shook his head as the screens closd into themselves and disappeared

"I'm sorry Joe, I won't be able to do anything about this, it's not your user code so it's nothing i can tamper with"

To which the american boy sighed and let out a small laugh

"Oh don't ya worry XisumaVoid! We'll find a way, we always do"

Xisuma smiled under the helmet, Joe could tell because of the way his eyes closed. They moved their head to see the outside of the tower, the sun was setting again, Joe nodded before edging the edge of the tower and jumping, taking flight with his elytra as soon as he felt he was falling. Flying towards the nether, and in and out. Through the tower in the nether and to his portal, going through he was still in the air so he quickly turned to go to the sanctuary and check on the dogs.

When he landed there he was just rushed by the dogs, which somehow looked the same through his right eye, despite everything else being changed. He took them all in his arms and let them lick him and generally give him affection. It had been a while since he had been there so the dogs were glad. He decided to let himself have some time off, and stop worrying about his eye and all that stuff.

He spent the rest of the day playing with the dogs, no care in the world, giving them treats, making small competitions, cleaning their shelters. Forgetting about everything but the dogs, it seems there might be a bit of hope for the clock eyed man