Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Grian is fishing in his fisherman hut. He had already got the mending book, but by now, it's become his hobby when he isn't building or blowing stuff up.

It's a fairly normal day on Hermitcraft. Him watching Gem build across his base, Mumbo asking in the chat where his tie has gone, Xisuma scolding Doc for almost crashing the server.

Yep, normal Hermitcraft.

In the distance, the sun is going down. He isn't worried about the mobs spawning though, Bdubs will probably sleep through the night. So, he just keeps fishing.

That is, until someone caught his attention. Gliding hurriedly with an elytra to the direction of the train is Scar. Grian isn't sure why Scar is in a hurry, but he decided it's not his business. His business is with the fishes and junks of the water.

That is the last ounce of peace he felt until his soul buzzed and he taps on his chest to see the chaos.

<Xisuma>EVERYONE

<Xisuma>GET BACK TO UR BASE AND STAY THERE

<False>Why? Whats going on?

<Xisuma>Idk how but there is a bloodmoon on our server

<Mumbo>Do bloodmoons affect human?

<Xisuma>no, but pls stay somewhere safe and dont go near anyone else

<False>what about me and grian? We're avians

<Xisuma>Avians aren't affected much and aren't dangerous, you'll be fine

<Xisuma>Cleo? Doc? Tango? Jevin? Are you still there?

<Doc>yes but bad i just hissed like a creeper.

<Doc>Really bad

<Tango>My fire is out of control

<Xisuma>tango, box urself in with unflammable blocks

<Xisuma>Someone pls check on jevin

<Xisuma>Stay in ur bases, i'll figure this out

<Joehills>I'll check on him

<Xisuma>ok

Grian felt like his heart bursted outside of him and got in again. He's a watcher, he isn't sure if he'll be affected or not but if he is, then the hermits might have a lot more trouble than they thought. He watched the last of the sunset and when he turns to the other side, a red moon was taunting him high up in the sky. He stares at it for a good couple seconds

.

.

.

.

Nothing happened. So, the bloodmoon cannot affect watchers, he made a note of that.

The others should be fine, as far as he knows, the rest of them are humans except Cleo, Doc, Tango and Jevin. They should be fine, bloodmoons can't affect humans after all.

He flies into his base, he will be keeping an eye out in case anything happens from a distance.

Hopefully Xisuma finds out the problem soon or they'll have to wait the night out.

////

Scar is calmly panicking. He made it to his train, now just a bit more into his flying balloon house. Once he landed in the house, he tries to relax himself.

He felt it.

The sensation of the bloodmoon. He quickly blocks the windows and anywhere that anyone can see him from.

He isn't worried about losing control, no! In fact he and Cub enjoyed the bloodmoon. But, they were on hermitcraft, a server filled with humans! If any of the hermits saw them, what would they think?

They lied to them. He lied to everyone! If Xisuma finds out, he won't be staying long, he will get kicked, or worse, banned! So, he had to stay hidden.

In the back of his mind, a voice tugs at him. Scar you felt it too right? He double taps on his chest to respond to Cub. He whispers back to him. Yea, i did. This is bad. He waits for Cub's voice. It is. Where are you? He whispers again. In my base, you? Scar sits down on his couch. Safe. You know we cant let them see us right?

Scar sighs at that. Yeah, i know. Blocked my windows for that. Jellie came to sit on his lap. Good, stay safe and hidden dude! Scar smiles at that, his hand petting Jellie. Will do!

He keeps petting Jellie even when his hands start looking see through and Jellie slowly becoming blue-ish. Scar can feel the wings on his back grow and his size shrinking a little. He is now a full vex under the influence of the bloodmoon. He decided to make tea and wait out the bloodmoon outside.

////

"Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad!! This is bad!!!" Xisuma says as he stares at the thousand codes in front of him.

The bloodmoon is one thing. But the hermits are another. They say they're humans to each other, but Xisuma knows for the life of him that none of the hermits are ever fully human.

A few seasons back, a watcher fell and he took him in---Grian really thought Xisuma doesn't know he was lying about being an avian---Scar and Cub are vexes, which can be quite dangerous if they lose control.

Oh, and don't get him started if Impulse lost control, that guy's a demon! Though he's not sure a demon like Impulse would attack people.

He doesn't know if fallen angels are affected but still, this is really bad. He doesn't know what shapeshifters like Pearl can do, nor does he know what's gonna happen to Ren. Worse, can the bloodmoon affect voidwalkers like him? His head feels like it's gonna explode any second now. He sighs and opens up another admin panel to speed up the process.

"This is gonna be a long night" he mutters under his breath.

Chapter Text

Impulse and Skizz both kept a secret from the server. Impulse is a demon banished from the nether and Skizz is an angel fallen from the aether. They both agreed to shut their mouths and never talk about it to any other hermits. Not even Xisuma. 

Impulse was hanging out with Skizz outside of the pyramid when a strange feeling came to him. "Skizz?" He knew that feeling. "Yeah, dippledop?" 

".. Skizz tie me up. Chain me, do something to restrain me!!" 

"Wha-? At least buy me dinner dude!" 

"Skizz, NOW!!" 

"O-okay?" Skizz takes out a rope that somehow glows. "Will this be okay?" 

"Yeah,yeah, just.. Make sure I don't grief the hermit's bases" Impulse let Skizz tie his hands first. 

"Dippledop what are you talking about, why would you ever grief the hermit.." Skizz looks at his friend..wait no, that's no longer his friend. Red eyes stare at him, Impulse is gone, no more. His face fell. "Impulse?!"

Impulse looks at his tied hands, and then to Skizz. His eyes widen and in an instant, his wings appears and his horns grew. He took off into the air immedietly. "WAIT, IMPULSE!! THEY'RE GONNA SEE YOU!!!" Skizz takes off after Impulse. If anything, he needed to protect Impulse. 

////

Mumbo is a vampire. He's just in his base, looking for his one missing tie---despite having 10 others---in his chest monster. He suspects maybe one of the hermits took it as a prank or something. He would never lose his tie. 

He is so distracted that he doesn't notice the moon that rose is red in colour. Then he suddenly had a strong urge for blood.

He is so thirsty. So, so very thirsty. He is hungry. Very hungry. He needs to feed. He needs a glass of blood, perfectly red and fresh blood. His fangs grew longer and he somehow didn't notice his wings ripping his clothes. 

With that, he took off into the dark red sky, searching for anyone he can feed on. 

////

Xisuma finds a bunch of unreadable purple codes that messed with the server. Well, great. He can't turn off the bloodmoon since he doesn't know how to fix watchers coding. But that gave him another worry, a watcher has barged into the server and changed the codes. Sure, Grian is a watcher, but there's no way Grian would do that... Right?

He rubs his temples. This is such a headache. He has to confront Grian about this... 

Oh. 

Wait.

He can ask Grian to fix this. "I'm such a derp." Xisuma taps on his chest to open the chat. He begins typing away until he stopped before pressing send. Grian didn't want the others to know about him being a watcher. He switched to whispering to Grian instead. 

////

Grian is watching the moon from his window. 'The moon is so unsettling..' he thought. The red light illuminating the ground, his base and everywhere the red can reach, it isn't bright enough to light the place up. It looks.. Wrong. Very wrong and in the distance he can see a winged figure-wait what?! Why is someone out there?! Is it False? She's the only other winged one in this server. But then he paused, that's two winged figures. Who is it? If one is False, then the other is..? 

Oh.

Oh, this is bad. 

Someone had also been hiding away themselves!

He jumped a bit when a voice whispered to him. Grian, are you still there? Oh, it's just Xisuma. What could he possibly want to talk about? 

Yeah? What's wrong? He answers.

Oh, you're fine, thank god. Do you think you can fix a few codes? Well, he wasn't expecting that. 

Yeah, I was an admin before, but why so suddenly? Grian realised he might be in a bit more trouble than he thought. 

Can you come take a look at the codes? I identified what caused the bloodmoon, but I can't fix it. Oh. Well, he can do that. 

Yeah, sure, I'll be there in ten. 

Grian dives off his balcony and let the cold air breeze underneath his wings. It feels wrong to do that under the red moon though, but he needed to get to Xisuma's fast. 

He had already seen two winged figures, it might be the hermits for all he knows. Maybe it was just his imagination, but still. If any of the hermits are actually winged and didn't tell anyone, this might be bad. 

After all, he is one of the people who have never told anyone about what he is. He would understand if anyone else kept themselves secrets as well. 

////

Pearl is snooping around Gem's base. She should have stayed at her base, but she's worried about Gem... And maybe she was bored. 

She found Gem in her chest monster, organizing her items. "Gem!" She calls out. Gem gasps before turning to her. To pearl's surprise, Gem has antlers and hooves for feet. 

"Gem..? You're a hybrid?" 

".... Yeah, but...so are you?" Gem took too long to answer. 

"Wait-" Pearl reaches to feel her antennae. "Oh." She also noticed her wings. How did she not notice that before? "Well, looks like the cat's out of the bag" 

"How come you've never told me?" 

"I should be asking you that as well!" 

Gem opens her mouth to answer but then closes it when she can't find an excuse. "Okay, you got me. But I have a feeling you kept yourself a secret for the same reason as well!"

Pearl can't argue with that. "Well, what's your reason?" 

"For fun, im not dangerous or anything but I wanted to see how long I can last without getting caught. I didn't expect you would be a hybrid as well though"

"I-okay. My reason is something else, but since you're...you, I trust you."

"What's your reason, Pearl?"

"Well... I'm not actually a hybrid. I'm a shapeshifter-"

Suddenly, the both are startled by a howling sound. 

"...Please tell me that's just Tilly" Gem seems unsure. 

"Gem, how'd you know about Tilly? You weren't in double life?"

"I'm a world hopper, sometimes, I just like to astral project and watch you guys in the death games"

"Wow. Wait so you saw me win?"

They hear a low growl somewhere outside. 

"Hide." Pearl managed to choke that one sentence out before Gem drags her to a hiding place.

Just as they thought, a random wolf, larger than any other they have seen, comes wandering in a few minutes later. How come there's a wolf randomly? Gem softly taps her shoulder and gestures to follow her. Pearl did so, and Gem showed a secret way out.

 They're safe....for now.

Chapter Text

Scar is safely hidden in his base, enjoying tea and petting Jellie which is a ghost now. Scar's magic can't really keep Jellie's body when his magic is too strong. So he settles for Jellie in her ghost form. The night's gonna be long, but at least he has Jellie. 

And because the hermits never have a peaceful day in their life, Scar hears blocks being broken. Great. Someone is gonna intrude and they're gonna see him. Scar quickly takes Jellie and flies out the nearest window.

Strangely enough, when he looks back he sees Mumbo with wings and red eyes staring at him. Well, he's gonna add that to the list of unsettling things he's seen. For now, he has to get to safety and not let anyone else see him. 

He thought he was high enough to not be seen by anyone. He is proven wrong when he sees Impulse with horns and wings pass by him, zooming with full speed. 'A demon?' he thought. Behind him is Skizz-is that an angel?!

Skizz stops for a moment to look at scar. "Uhhh.. You.. I.. We saw nothing, okay?" Skizz said.

Scar nods. "We saw nothing." he echoes after him. Skizz then gets back to chasing Impulse.

Well, that is certainly an encounter. 

////

Mumbo broke into Scar's place. He thought he would see Scar and he can feed on him but he is instead greeted by a ghoulish figure. So, no blood for him then. He can attack Scar, but he won't get anything, so he just lets Scar shoot out into sky, not bothering to follow him. 

He chooses to fly towards Grian's base instead, but he doesn't see anyone so he just keeps on flying, searching for anyone he can feed on. 

////

Joe was wandering in the shopping district when he got the messages from their admin. He volunteered to go check on Jevin, so he took off into the sky with his elytra. The bloodmoon is nothing to him. After a little while, he sees Jevin's base in the distant horizon and swoops down when he sees Jevin. 

Jevin is melted on the ground. Joe doesn't go near him. "Hey, Jevin? Are you alright?" He asks. Jevin only moves a little, which Joe assumes is a shrug, or a sarcastic attempt at saying 'im doing good, totally isn't melting on the floor at all!' 

Joe takes out a glass block and start constructing a jar for jevin. "Here, can you get in this jar?" Joe place the jar in a way that it's opening is tilted towards Jevin. Jevin makes a gurgling noise. ".. I'll take that as a no" Joe sighs.

He looks towards his surroundings to check if anyone's watching. They take out a book and a pen-where did he get that?- and scribbles something on it. In an instant, Jevin has his sort of humanoid form. "It won't last long, can you get in the jar before you melt again?" Joe smiles at him.

Jevin makes a gurgling noise, gets annoyed and frustrated and then slowly nods as he gets into the jar and melts again.

"Okay, I'll also be visiting Cleo, do you want me drop you off at anyone's base first or do you wanna tag along?" Joe holds the jar in front of him. He didn't close it since Jevin might not like that. Jevin makes a motion Joe doesn't quite get.

"Hmm.. Is that a yes?" Joe tilts his head. Jevin sticks out a hand---well Joe thinks it's a hand---and makes a slime version of a thumbs up. "So, you'll tag along, okay. Hold on tight!" Joe shoots up into the air while holding Jevin's jar tightly. They are careful not to tilt it. 

-

They arrive at Cleo's base a while later. Joe easily spots her on her rooftop.

...Why is she on her roof? Is she stuck?

Joe lands behind her gently, making sure Jevin doesn't spill out. "Hey Cleo, are you okay?" Joe puts the jar on the ground. Cleo turns around, eyes red, mouth wide open with many, many disturbing teeth. But Joe isn't worried about that. 

Cleo lets out a zombie groan as they stare each other down. "What are you doing on this roof?" Joe asks. Cleo steps closer to him with another zombie sound. "Oh that? That's Jevin. The moon is making him more slimy than usual and he can't keep his form." Joe gestures to Jevin in the jar. 

Cleo takes another step closer. "Hmm.." Joe takes out his book and pen again-seriously, where did he get that-and starts writing something down. "Do you want me to get you inside your base?" Joe asks again, this time with a more relaxed expression. 

Just like magic, it probably is magic anyways, Cleo gets a word out. "Infect." That's what she blurts out. Jevin starts gurgling loudly inside his jar. "Oh, don't worry about that, Cleo. You can't infect me, nor will you attack me. Do you want to get down from here?" 

Cleo still has that unsettling undead look in her. But she manages to choke out another word. "Yes." Joe nods at that. "Okay, hold on, I'm gonna find scaffoldings for you." Joe jumps down from the roof and into Cleo's base. He scrambles through the chests, finding the scaffoldings a while later.

Gosh, he hopes Cleo won't attack Jevin. She won't attack him, but Jevin? Who knows what he can say-or glurg out-that might offend Cleo. He hurried back to them, relieved to see they were just staring at each other. 

"Here, I'll place these down!" Joe begins placing down scaffoldings from the ground to the roof. A few while later, he randomly hears a thud. Ah. Well that's not good. Did Cleo knock Jevin's jar? He rockets up to the sky. Fully expecting jevin to be on the ground, melting away. 

He hadn't expected for another visitor. 

He lands on the roof, in front of the.. Person. Protecting Cleo and Jevin from whatever harm the person could do. 

"You seem familiar" Joe starts. The figure is in a hooded cloak of some sort, face hidden entirely. But, he can indeed make out some of the blonde hair sticking out and oh, did he mention the giant scythe? Yup, that too. 

"Joe Hills." The voice says. Joe seem taken aback by the voice. It is familiar in a way it isn't. "That's me. Who am i speaking to? I feel like i should know you." Joe is so distracted by the giant scythe. 

"Zedeath, but you might know me as Zedaph." the voice speaks. Ah. Okay. So, Zedaph is a grim reaper. Got it. He makes a mental note to not get on Zedaph's bad side. 

"Pleasure meeting you, Zedeath. May I know why you're here? You see, our server is in the middle of a predicament right now." Joe gestures to the moon. "So, I don't see any reason for you to come here so suddenly."

Zedeath chuckles. "I am here for the souls that should have passed a long time ago" Zedeath glances at Cleo. "But I have a feeling you're not gonna make this easy for me, will ya?"

"You guessed that right. I'm not handing them over. I will politely ask you to leave!" Joe gives them a smile. A soft, and dangerous smile. 

Zedeath didn't falter, he keeps staring at all of them, one by one. "Mortal one, I do not wish to hurt anyone. I am simply doing my job." Zedeath keeps his stance. "I am very sorry, but no can do" joe readies himself, a notebook and a pen in hand. 

Zedeath sighs. "I won't fight. I shall take my leave now-AARGH?!" Winds whoosh past them. Two figures blurs in between those lines. Zedeath, despite being intimidating is actually quite.. Zedaph-like. Huh. He never thought he would think that about a grim reaper. 

"Oh, darned angels and demons-Oh, and do try to stop me from reaping the other one. Zedaph is screaming at me to stop, and i would like a good game" Zedeath snickers. 

Joe splutters. "Who-?" As far as he knows, none of the hermits are in another state like Cleo. So, who? 

Another shadow zoom past them. "Ah, there he is." Zedeath crouched and leaps into the air, following the figure. Joe glances at Cleo and Jevin, and then back to Zedeath in the distance.

He writes something on his notebook. "See ya Cleo, Jevin. I've got a death to stop." Joe leaps into the air with a rocket. He made sure Cleo got down with Jevin and hid in their base. Now, he's just gotta stop Zedeath. 

A small voice in the back of his head asks him, how will he stop Zedeath?

Chapter Text

"Huh" 'Another dud..' Mumbo thought.

He saw three people on a rooftop, he thought one of them would at least have blood. Cleo is a zombie, he's pretty sure zombie blood will poison him. The hooded figure doesn't even have blood! 'How eerie.' he thought.

And then there is Joe.. Who is.. Uhm.. Let's just say he is afraid of what glowing rainbow blood will taste like and what would happen if he drank it. He's pretty sure blood isn't rainbow in colour. Or is he hallucinating? Can vampires hallucinate? 

He-is that someone behind him, gliding.. WITHOUT AN ELYTRA OR WINGS?! 

Well, this night has gotten weird. 

He spots someone's base and lands there. Where is he again? Oh, right, Joel must be here, he must have blood, right? He is so thirsty right now. He just wants a little blood, just a bit.. Just to quench his thirst-oh, there he is! 

Mumbo stalks behind some of the building walls. Joel has blood. Red blood he means. Not rainbow or no blood or zombie blood. Just pure red blood. Though, it does look a bit off. Human bloods is usually dark red, this one have a light hue of bright red.

But he is thirsty. 

Mumbo steps closer to Joel. Just a little blood. Joel isn't even looking with his back turned. It wouldn't even hurt! Just a bit of- IS THAT THE GRIM REAPER?! 

Mumbo yelps, alerting Joel to turn around and see him with the figure. "What the-?! Mumbo?! Why are your eyes red- and BLUMMIN HECK, WHO ARE YOU!?" Joel stares at them, mouth agape. 

"Ah, Joel. Pleasure to meet you. Im Zedeath." Zedeath smiles. It's actually a warm smile if he wasn't so intimidating that the others can't focus on the smile. 

"Uhm, right. Just have the grim reaper in my town. Very normal. And why are you here? Is it me? Oh gosh I'm not ready to die yet I still have Lizzie and-" 

"Nope, not you. Him" Zedeath points his scythe at mumbo. Mumbo splutters and mumbles some words that no one can actually quite make out. 

Zedeath readies to swing his scythe. Mumbo yelping and closing his eyes, ready to be cut down and taken away from his home. 

He can hear Joel screaming at Zedeath, but he couldn't make out a single word he said. He is a trembling mess, stuck in his head and unable to get out. It feels.. Familiar for reasons he can't put his hand on. Like this has happened many times before. 

'This is it..' Mumbo thought. He has avoided death for long enough. His time was up a long time ago. He will miss Hermitcraft though. And Grian! And also Scar, and Xisuma, he was so nice to him when he first joined and.. Well, all of them. 

They stop for a moment when he hear a rocket, a thud and an ow. Zedeath snickers at that. "Thought you'd never come. Will you talk me out of it again?" He turns around and sees Joe holding his head, staring at him with a relieved sigh. Mumbo isn't sure how Zedeath is normally conversing with Joe but he won't question it.

"Yup, yup, I'm here. While I am good at talking, I figured it wouldn't be much, so I'll ask this." He stands up properly. "Will you stop if I give you something in return? Not my soul, or the others, of course. Maybe an IOU?" 

"Interesting. What may you offer me?" Zedeath tilts his head, amused. Joe smiles politely at that. "Anything as long as it doesn't involve anyone else, or my own safety. I'll be glad to be of any help." joe expresses. 

"How curious.." Zedeath muses. "I'll take it. I won't be telling you my wish right now though. I haven't thought about anything i need or want right now. See you in the near future, Joe Hills" Just like that, he vanishes with a puff of dark smoke. 

"Well. That was weir-MUMBO!" Joe turns to see Mumbo biting down Joel's wrist. Mumbo looks slightly guilty, like a child getting caught stealing candies. "I-okay. We have a vampire now. Come on, I'll get you something other than Joel for you to feed on." Joe stares down at Mumbo until he lets go of Joel.

Joel was passed out and slowly dropped to the floor as Mumbo did. Thankfully Joe caught him. "Okay, come, let's go to Zed's base yeah? He's got a few sheeps to draw blood from." Mumbo nods. He is unsure why he is following Joe instead of attacking him or running away. He just feels like he should. 

How odd.

////

Grian is practically screaming in his head. 

Those are watchers codes! He recognises it. Who has messed with the codings?! Did another watcher slip between the cracks of the tight security of Hermitcraft? But that wasn't his main concern. He turns towards Xisuma. 

Does he know? 

"These codes seem to be the problem, but I don't know how to fix it. Do you perhaps know how?" Xisuma asks. He doesn't know how to reply to that. 

Like, how do you tell someone 'Yes, I know how to fix this, but i need to be a creature with many eyes and wings to fix it, and I don't wanna tell you because i will probably be kicked or banned!'? 

He realised he was silent for too long. He shakes his head, clearing his mind and then meet Xisuma's gaze. Xisuma didn't know what he is. He couldn't have known.

"Uhmm.. I could try, I don't really..it's really hard since I'm out of practice.." Grian gives a smile that doesn't really reaches his eyes. He feels like Xisuma knows, but he also is doubting his insticts. 

What if Xisuma actually knows? What if he was testing his loyalty? What if after he fix the code Xisuma bans him? What if-no, calm down. If he have a panic attack now, Xisuma will surely know something's up. 

.. If he didn't know what he was in the first place that is.

Xisuma nods. "I.. Uhm, I have to check on the others, I'll be outside for a while. I'll trust you on that, yes?" Xisuma smiles... Maybe? He can't see under that darned helmet. 

"Yes, I.. Yeah, I'll do it. Just gotta.. say, how long will you be out?" Grian hopes it is long enough for him to fix this. He hopes. 

"Uhh.. Maybe a few hours? You know how far the hermits' bases are, I also have to.. Do something about them. Yeah, I saw a couple hermits leave their bases earlier, they'll be getting an earful of me for that." 

Grian nods, relieved he has at least enough time to stop the effects of the bloodmoon. "Alright then."

"I'll be going now, see ya in.. 3 hours? Yeah, 3 hours." Xisuma heads towards an opening. "See ya!!" Grian says cheerily. 

And with that, the admin is gone into the distant clouds. Grian sighs a breath of relief. He has to do this fast, before xisuma comes back. Slowly, his body, now with hundred eyes and wings, stared down the codes. "Well, time to get to work."

////

Xisuma sighs in relief. He had thought a long while on how to approach Grian. He wanted to tell him that he knew and be honest with Grian but..having a panicked watcher isn't a good idea. Worse, it's the bloodmoon.

So he took a 'I don't know, you try it and we'll see if it works.' route even though he knows Grian can and will make it work. He is so glad to be done with that, but now, the matter in hand. The hermits.

First, he needs to check on Cleo. Gosh he hopes he isn't too late for them. Zedeath is suppressed due to Zedaph but he is sure the bloodmoon will make them come out and go after Cleo. That was their agreement after all. Oh, and Jevin. He hadn't heard from him at all. Nor Ren. This is terrible. 

He swings by Cleo's base. Trying to find any sign of her. Please, please dont be too late. He is so relieved to see Cleo in her base holding... Uh. Is that Jevin? In a jar? Her eyes are empty but the way she held Jevin says otherwise. Maybe the bloodmoon doesn't affect her that much. She still got her caring look and holding Jevin like assuring him it'll be okay.

Xisuma melts at the sight, not only because it was wholesome, but because he recognised Joe's magic swirling the two. He wants to join them and have a chat and fall sleep by each others side. 

But he had other things to do. He sighs. 

Next up, Mumbo. He is also a target of Zedeath. Vampires and all that. He takes off in the air, wondering where Mumbo could have gone. 

He flies over the shopping district. He can see a dragon sleeping peacefully in the middle of all the buildings. Huh. Must be Wels. Good to see he's fine though. He should probably teleport Wels to somewhere safer though, but he is afraid Wels might act on instinct and attack. So he just leaves him be. He pressed his chest and opens the chat.

<Xisuma> shopping district is off limits, too many mobs are under the influence of the bloodmoon here. Dangerous. 

He didn't like lying at all, but he couldn't just say 'Hey! There's a dragon in the shopping district, but don't worry that's just Wels!' Wels wouldn't like that very much.

He continues gliding. In the distance he sees something flying and oh-it's Scar. He slows down and flies lower, pretending to not see Scar and Jellie. 

<Xisuma> im gonna check on every single hermit. Y'all better be at your bases or so help me

He can hear Scar yelping in the distance and snickers to himself. Right, that should send Scar back to his base. It's safer for him there without any hermit watching or accidentally stumbling upon him. 

He continues his search. Mumbo, where is he? He might have to ask if anyone's seen him or he can just teleport to him if it came down to that. He flies above Gem's base and-oh dear. 

Ren is drinking from the river and he sees a few splotches of red on the ground. Right. He hope that it's just sheep's blood or something. He swoops down, careful to not alert Ren instincts. 

Xisuma calls out to him. "Ren? Can you hear me buddy?" He gets a growl in response though. "Ren, I do not want to hurt you, but I will if i have to. You're not safe out here"

Ren pounces, claws and teeth ready to tear him apart. Xisuma dodges just barely in time. Automatically, Xisuma's eyes glows blue. A blue string of code appears and wraps around ren's nuzzle. He hated doing that. Ren snarls and pounces again, well its good Xisuma has some pretty sick armour which protected him from ren's claws. 

"Ren, we've done this many times before, you know who won. I went easy on you before, now though? Im not so sure i can leave you here" He tries again, maybe Ren could hear him. 

Ren in fact did not stop. He continued striking Xisuma to the point X actually fell onto the ground. "Ow, okay" Xisuma winces at the pain throbbing on his legs. "Thats enough" A string of code appears again, this time, wrapping itself around ren's legs. Ren drops to the ground, unable to move or hurt anyone. "Sorry about this. I'll make it up to you later" Xisuma waves his hands and Ren dissapears. 

Xisuma, despite only sending Ren to a field somewhere, still felt bad. Yes, he can get him again anytime, but.. It still felt horrible. He has given Ren a few chew toys and many sheeps there though. That should be okay to last till' the morning at worst. 

He gets up again. He hears footsteps and hushed whispers behind him. "Gem? Are you there?" He turns around to Pearl with wings instead. "Oh. Pearl, you're supposed to be at your base. It's not safe." Xisuma tries to step closer but stops when he sees Pearl flinch. 

".. Where's Gem? I know she's here somewhere." Xisuma glances around. ".. Okay, Gem, i know you're watching, please come out. I feel like i should explain something." Xisuma sighs. Why is this night so long? A few good moments later Gem appears. She looks wary of him. 

"X, was that.. Ren?" Pearl gulps. Xisuma is thinking of a good way to not scare them off. He nods. Pearl and Gem both tense up immediately. "I.. Ren wouldn't like it if he knew I told you both about what he is. I'm sure you both understand." 

"Where did you send him to? What did you do to him? What even are you?" Gem's instincts are up. 

"In a field far away from us, he's safer there, oh, I undid the rope thingy if you're worried. He is under the influence of the moon so he isn't in his right mind for now. It's safer for both us and him like that. Please act like you didn't know what he is though, he's been keeping it secret for a while."

Xisuma takes a breather. 

"As for what I am... I mean I'm not even keeping it secret, no one ever asks, really. I'm a voidwalker. I'll tell you more but I have a date with the grim reaper, stay safe, I'll tell the rest of it later." 

He was about to fly off, but a voice so scared made him stop. "Aren't.. Aren't you mad we didn't tell you what we were when we joined? We lied to you!" Gem had guilt written all over her face. Also confusion as well but that's not important.

"I knew what you were, Gem. Same goes to you, Pearl." he then takes off into sky. He snickers when he hears Pearl ask Gem about the out of context date with the grim reaper he meant as their voices slowly fade away. 

<Xisuma> anyone seen mumbo? He's not in his base

<Joehills> he's with me! 

Xisuma nearly crash when he read that. What does joe mean-mumbo is a vampire! If anything he is in danger.. Or maybe not. Joe is something else after all. Always carrying that book and pen with him as a weapon. Or just to take notes and write poetry and doodle the hermits. 

<Xisuma> oh uhh you guys okay there?

<Joehills> all good! 

<Xisuma> where are you

<Joehills> Zed's base

Xisuma nearly crash again. ZED'S BASE?! That's like the exact place Zedeath will be in. Now he is worried. Joe doesn't know Mumbo is a vampire, right? Or maybe he did know but still, he doesn't know about Zedeath! Or did he? Joe is such a mystery, even to him. 

<Xisuma> Coming over

Xisuma arrives at Zed's base a bit later. He sees Mumbo. Eyes red and dead inside with wings out and fangs. He shudders at that. Mumbo has always been the awkward silly guy so seeing him like that is.. Unsettling to say the least. He shrugs it off. 

"Hey, Joe. Mumbo didn't cause any trouble did he?" Xisuma looks at Joe, no bite or claw marks, or injuries anywhere. He feels a heavy feeling leave his chest as he confirms Joe is okay. 

"Howdy, X. I wouldn't say he didn't cause any trouble, but he is okay...for now at least. All good." Joe says as he realizes Mumbo had been wanting to keep this secret. "Uhm, you.. You're not mad he hid himself, are you?" Joe's eyes never leaves Xisuma. Even though Xisuma is sure he can't see through the helmet, he feels like his soul is being pierced through. 

"No, I knew about it for a while now, i never mentioned it because he seemed like he wanted to keep it a secret." Xisuma stops for a bit, looking at Joe. "I also know what you are, Joe. Well, not exactly, but i know you're not human." 

Joe only nods. "I am mortal, i promise you that" Xisuma snorts at that. "Don't worry about it, mate. We got a couple immortals in our server as well. One of them is him. " Xisuma gestures to Mumbo. Joe nods again. "Also, have you seen Zed? I'm a bit worried since he.. Let's just say he's a wild card ay?" 

Joe smirks at that. "I took care of him in case you're worried about the half dead getting taken away." Xisuma stared at Joe after hearing that. He didn't take on death and win did he? He notes to himself to never get on Joe's bad list. (Yes, Joe keeps the names of people he hated in that magic book. Don't know why though.) 

"... You're not kidding?" Xisuma tries to understand this logic. Joe laughs, "Oh no, not like that. I myself can't stop a reaper. I talked him out of it." 

Xisuma feels so lost right now. What did he mean he talked it out??? "Uh.. You're sure no one is getting taken away? I still need to check on the others, so I need a confirmation now." 

Joe nods. "Positive. If he does come back though, I bet I can talk to him again." 

... Okay, Xisuma really doesn't understand how Joe does things like that, but... It's Joe. of course he can. He decided to not question it anymore. "Okay, I'll see you around." Xisuma waves and takes off again. Well, if that wasn't weird he doesn't know what is. 

'More hermits to check on!' he reminds himself as he glides through the red night sky.

Chapter Text

Joel didn't know where to start. Actually, he should start by how a grim reaper called Zedeath which really just seemed like Zedaph came to his front door to take Mumbo. And then Joe somehow managed to talk it out and....He got bitten by Mumbo. Huh. What a weird night. He was pretty sure Mumbo was a human yesterday. Heck, he thought all of the hermits were human!

He looks at his hands. They are sparking with electricity. "Oh." He groans loudly. He reaches for his head. "Is my antennae-oh, yup, it is." his hands play around with his antennae. If anything he doesn't want the server knowing that he's an alien that crashed at lizzie's front door and somehow they got married.

He sighs. He turns around to go into his honey shop, to check for profits or something and then.. There they are. Zedeath stares at him. Well, he thinks they're staring, he can't see their face. "Don't you know it's rude to stare at others for long? I know i'm good looking but sheesh, tone it down a little" 

It struck him after getting a laugh from Zedeath. He did not just joke with the grim reaper. "I came to check if you were okay, good to see you up and running." Zedeath smiles at him. "Gotta go now, your admin is chasing demons and angels, have to be there for at least emotional support." He then dissapears into a puff of black smoke. 

"Huh. Xisuma chasing demons, huh? Like this night couldn't get weirder-ARGHS!!" Three, wait no-four shadows pass by him, almost knocking him over. 

"Blummin' heck, is that Xisuma?! Chasing a demon and an angel?! And why is Zedeath also there?!" 

////

Impulse had an angel chasing after him. This was bad. Bad. Very bad! That angel is gonna get him if he isn't fast enough. He keeps yelling Impulse's name as well. 

How did the angel get his name? Well, at least it isn't his real one. His real one is-

Wait no, focus. He got an angel after him and he's thinking about names?! He swoops up and then drops at random times, maybe he can tire out this angel. He doesn't mean any harm to anyone. Most he'll do is burn a place down or place a trap with tnt! That's.. Why he was banished anyways. 

He only wanted to grief and it wasn't even harsh griefing, more like silly pranks! He got kicked out because he did not want anyone to die or taste blood or hear the anguish screamings of hopelessness. He only wanted to prank and be silly. He was banished for that stupid reason! So unfair!

Wait, focus. An angel. After him. Right. He swoops down, toppling over one or two shulker boxes and chests. He looks back, still following him. He sighs. He flies more, all over the place. 

Most of the time, he'll end up toppling chests, shulkers and even lanterns. Some other times, he almost crashes into a couple of players. 

He can't say he didn't enjoy doing that though. The players yelp and curse him out everytime he did that. He chuckles every time. Wait he's still got a player and an angel--when did that player came-Chasing after him.

////

Xisuma sees hypno. Hypno is the dream catcher of the server. Have a nightmare? Go to him. He'll fix you right up. That would be okay if he wasn't forcing Bdubs to sleep. He acted a bit ghoulish, making Bdubs thinks he's seeing ghosts. Oh, did he mention that Bdubs is one of the descendants of the sun? Yup. Xisuma sighs and press his chest to open the chat again. He contemplates a bit before switching to whispering.

'Bdubs' He said. He can see Bdubs yelp and stagger before getting back on his feet. 'Yeah??' Bdubs replied. 'Im coming over, are you at your base?' He asks, despite watching them from afar. 'Oh, yes! Yes! Im at my base! You're coming over? That's great!' Bdubs says enthusiastically.

He can see Hypno scrambling to get away from Bdubs, probably afraid he will see him as a ghost. Xisuma snorted. He knew what everyone is yet they're still hiding it and it's so funny to pretend not to know even when they're being very obvious. 

He glides towards Bdubs after seeing Hypno gone. "Hey, friend, you good? You look like you've seen a ghost." Xisuma tries so hard to hold his laugh. He's glad he has the helmet because he would be very obvious. 

"Uhhh, yeah! Peachy! All great! What's up?" Bdubs has his usual smile on him. "Oh, nothing, I'm just checking on everyone. Bloodmoon and all that." Bdubs nods before realising sonething off. "Wait, shouldn't you be like, on the codes or something?" 

Xisuma was not prepared for that. "Oh, uh, Grian's helping me out. I ran into some problems I couldn't fix, but Grian apparently knows how to." he shrugs. 

Bdubs nods again. "Shouldn't you be helping him? What if he messes up something?" 

"I trust him enough that he won't break that. It's coding, not redstone. He is an admin after all, Life Series and all." Xisuma relaxes. 

"I see, I see. Well, if you trust him enough, I'll trust your judgement of him" Bdubs' smile beams through the dark red light. 

Literally. 

His teeth is glowing. He is the descendant of the sun after all. Xisuma has caught him glowing fully in the dark once. Perhaps he could use Bdubs as a free glowstick or a replacement redstone lamp one day. Bdubs gasps as he realised his teeth was glowing. In front of their admin. He panics a bit. "X? Please don't be mad, but-" 

"I know." who knew such a simple word can break someone's mind?

It took a while for Bdubs to process that. "Wait what?!"

"I knew. I knew for a long time now and I'm not mad. Honestly, you all need to hide yourselves better." Xisuma states. "Well, gotta go now, still have many others to check on." before he can jump into the air, two shadowed figures pass by him, almost making him tumble. Bdubs is already yelling at them to be more careful but Xisuma only sighs. "Well, that's bad." He says as he takes off. 

He manage to catch up with Skizz's speed as he spams rockets. "Hi Skizz, lovely night, ain't it?" Xisuma says, making Skizz yelps and jerk backwards. "X!! Uhhh.. Well, you see..!" Skizz tries to explain himself, but eh, Xisuma already knew so he only said, "Shush, we got an Impulse to catch. Come on before he gets away!" 

Skizz stutters and trips over his words but ends up focusing on making sure Impulse does not get out of his sight. 

A few while later, a new voice joins them. "Hiya, Xisuma. Skizzleman." Zedeath appears and mock tipping hats to them. Xisuma and Skizz both screamed when they saw the person. "Oh, don't be so dramatic. I'm just here to watch and be an emotional support, I've got no business with you lots....Yet." 

Xisuma shakes his head to clear his mind. Now was not the time for Zedeath. His eyes glows and like before, a string of code comes out of thin air, grabbing Impulse's feet, making sure they won't lose him. He pulls another one, this time, he wraps it around Impulse's torso and pulls. But, he got dragged along instead. Well that is embarassing. 

He wraps another one, this time, apologising before he wraps it around his wings and pulls again. They both are dragged down by gravity immediately. Impulse screams but Xisuma only sighs and looks at Skizz as he falls. 

Almost immediately, a pair of hands catch him before crashing onto the ground. He groans, and looks up. Skizz probably saved him-Void, that is NOT Skizz!!! Zedeath stares at him for a while before letting him go. "As much as I am feared, I am still an angel. Just the angel of death." Zedeath rolls his eyes. Well, Xisuma thinks he's rolling his eyes. He cannot see what is going on with Zedeath.

He looks to his side, he sees Impulse trying to back away from Skizz as much as possible but the code strains aren't letting him. "I'll take it from here. Thank you, both of you." he steps closer to Impulse. "Hey, Impulse, can you hear me?" 

The demon breathes shakily but nods anyways. "Okay, do you know who i am?" Xisuma pauses a bit. "Oh wait, wrong choice of words-I mean do you remember me?" Impulse is still in panic but shakes his head. Xisuma nods. "I'm Xisuma, admin of Hermitcraft. Alright, Impulse. Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna send you to your base, and you'll stay there, okay? No one's gonna hurt you, no one's out for you. Repeat that."

Impulse stutters, but manages to choke it out from his throat. "No one's gonna hurt me, no one's out for me." Xisuma nods and smiles. "I'm gonna undo the strains, you won't run away? I'll trust that you won't run away." Xisuma stops for a moment and looks at Skizz and Zedeath. "15 blocks away, please. Give him space." 

They both break out of their trance and back a few blocks away, trying to make some conversation with each other. 

Xisuma turns his attention back to Impulse. "Don't run away, please." Xisuma begs him as he undo the strains. In a moment, Impulse is free. Now, will he run? They waited for a bit. 

.

.

.

He didn't run! Xisuma can almost cheer his victory out loud. He starts opening up his admin panel and enters the command. "This'll be weird, but I assure you it's safe." Xisuma says and takes one last glance at Impulse. He presses the button and in an instant, Impulse is gone. 

Now that that's settled. The angels. 

His head snaps back to those two. "Okay, you two. What do you want to do?" They then proceed to look at him like he said something wrong. "What? You two are angels. Bloodmoons don't affect you. You're free to do anything...But Zedeath, please dont go around giving my players a heart attack, that'll be appreciated!" 

Zedeath chuckles. "I'll just be watching in the dark. It was good to see you too, Fallen Life." they vanish into thin air with the same dark smoke everytime. 

"Wow, I'd never thought I'll see both Life and Death on my server of all things." Skizz was an angel of Life.. That got fired from his job somehow. But that's context for another story. Xisuma is tired, but he still needs to check on Cub, Doc, Tango, Keralis and False. Plus, Grian needed the extra hour. It doesn't seem to be getting daytime soon. 

"Listen, Xisuma, about uhm.. Us.. Me and Impulse. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, like I know you're mad and-"

"Nope, not mad at all. I knew you were an angel, Skizz. No one comes crashing on the server after they fell out of the sky like Grian and you. Oh, and don't get me started with Impulse, I saw his tails and horns numerous times. He really needs to be more careful with that"

Skizz blinks at him, processing what he just heard. "Uhh okay. Uhm, you're not mad. Okay."

"Well, you can do what you want I guess? I have to check on the hermits." Xisuma sees that look in Skizz's eyes. "Nope. You can't come. I'm sorry, but some of the hermits wouldn't like it if anyone sees them right now. Even me. But i have to check on them or well, who knows what the hermits would do?" 

Skizz looks dissapointed, but nods, "Yeah, okay. I understand. Stay safe, Xisuma." something catches Skizz's eyes. "You're hurt." he blurts. Xisuma looks on his hands and his armour. Oh, he did look pretty bad. "I'm okay, it's just scratches and claw marks. And some dirt. I'll be alright." 

Xisuma sighs. He knew that look. "Okay, okay. How bout' this? We meet at your base after I finish checking the hermits. You can force me to sleep or rest or something after that." 

That finally made Skizz's shoulder slump. "Alright, you promise?" Xisuma smiles. "Promise. I'll whisper to you when I'm done, see you!" Xisuma waves and takes off again. Boy, this had been such a long night. 

Without realising it, he had flown the whole way to Keralis' base. When will this night end? He is so sleepy right now. 

He sees Keralis immediately. He doesn't go near him of course. No one goes near an eldtrich horror on a bloodmoon unless they want nightmares for life... But then again, they had Hypno so.. He can always go for a little closer. He sees Keralis sitting on his crab rave island with eyes that don't seem like his and mouth melted to the point it looks like he's screaming. How unsettling. Well, at least Keralis isn't causing trouble--he thought too soon.

In front of him, Keralis appears. He forgot that this guy can teleport. He shrieks, but covers his mouth as he remembers Wels sleeping in the shopping district that's a little bit too close to Keralis' base. He backs away slowly, trying his best to not let his inner thoughts that's screaming at him to run control him. 

Keralis' face is so disturbing, he decides he did not want to hover any longer near him. Last time he stayed longer than he needed to, his ears almost bled out due to the sound that he can't comprehend. Like the total derp he is, he ran. 

Keralis lets out an inhumane scream and ran after him, body part melting and reforming and his eyes is big, wide, disturbing, same goes for his mouth and jaw that seems too stretched like a cartoon. But a disturbing cartoon. 

Somehow, he succesfully got out alive. If you count having a deep cut, still bleeding, on his stomach, armour half busted and helmet with cracks alive. He probably needs to change his helmet before the air filter gives out. But he bet it can last a few more hours so he isn't that worried. 

Though, it is strange he is able to breath like this. Usually, he would have a bit of harder time to breath in the overworld but that night, he could breath like the filter was never broken. 

He glances at the red moon, perhaps not all of it's effects were bad. Maybe he could breath better because of the moon. That doesn't mean he don't want it gone though. 

He glides in the air again after a few moments later. He had arrived at Tango's base without even noticing it. Strangely enough he sees a cobblestone box. He knew what it was immediately. He swoops down to greet Tango. "Hello, Tango, are you alright in there mate?" The box feels too hot so he keeps his distance. "I'm okay, just uh.. Really hot in here!" 

Xisuma nods, not that tango can see it. "I'll whisper to you if we got the moon fixed tonight. Get some sleep if you can, I'll be leaving now." 

He can hear Tango hum from inside the box. 

Okay, just a few more hermits. He can do this. And then he can rest and.. Oh, he also needs to check up on Grian. He might get too stressed and get out of control. Oh, and Xb! He's a guardian hybrid! Is he in water? Xisuma checks the chats. No death messages. He should be fine. He also glided over Joel when he was chasing Impulse. He always knew joel was an alien. The guy basically crashed into hermitcraft with a spaceship and yet, strangest thing he did when he first crashed was worry about his wife being mad at him if he was late instead of worrying for his ship. 

Okay, he really needs to focus now. Back to his mission! 

Chapter Text

Xisuma yawns as he lands at Cub's front door. It is 3am or something, and he really would like his beauty sleep now, but of course, he need to check on everyone first. Wait-he is drifting off again. Find Cub.

He searches the whole base, but finds no one. He guesses Cub's in his firework factory so he went there. At the first floor, he found no Cub so, he went up the elevator. On the 3rd floor he finally found Cub, but.. Oops. He forgot Cub was a vex on a bloodmoon, and can't shift to his human disguise. He made eye contact with him and starts sweating heavily as he sees Cub's eyes widen. 

Quick! Think of a way to make Cub feel safe! "Oh.. Haha. I'm so sleepy that I'm seeing ghost Cub. Heya ghost Cub, everything good?" Xisuma hopes Cub believes him. Please bite it, pleaseeee. That might've been the worst thing he could've said at that time but please believe him! 

Cub looks taken aback, confused and well, he's feeling a lot of things right now, but he plays along. "Good. Good. I'm just stocking up on fireworks, y'know? Just Cub stuff.." a pause, "You ain't lookin' too good yourself, X. Are you sure you're okay?" 

Xisuma chuckles, he's actually not okay and is sleepy and he actually wants this night to end quickly. "Oh, y'know, got stuck with some mobs earlier!" He hated that. He hated lying. He fakes a chuckle again. "Cub's gonna laugh at me for seeing a ghost. See you, hallucination Cub!" He hits the elevator noteblock and goes up another floor where he catches his breath. Pretending is so hard, and lying tastes like he just drank poison. He hopes he won't have to do that again. 

He sighs and picks himself up again. With the help of Cub's launcher, he is off into the air again.

Onto the next base! False.

He glides over to her base and wow, she did some cool stuff here. He looks around, and finds her after a while. "Hey, False! Everything good?" Xisuma feels his eyes droop a little. False turns around and greets him with a smile. "Hi, X, what brings you here?" 

"Just checking on everyone, we never know what the bloodmoon might do, so it's a safety measure?" Xisuma stares at the avian. He still can't believe the queen of hearts, heads and body parts is this woman standing in front of him. She's a legendary warrior lost to history. A fighter that fought till' one day, she mysteriously vanished. Well, who knew she would join Hermitcraft after been missing for years? 

"I see, that's good but uhhh.. Do you want a potion or two? Your armor looks.. Broken, so is your helmet and oh my gosh, is that a wound?! It's bleeding!" False points out at his arm and his side. 

"It is? Oh, that's not good. Do you have any bandages and health potions?" 

"Yeah, actually, come along, let's get you treated." False motions to follow her. He obeys, and follows her to a guest room. He takes a seat on the chair False gestured him to. "Okay, hold on, I know I got a few stuff in here." she rummages through her chests and barrels. She turn back to him with two health potions and a few bandages. "Who did this to you, X?" False asks. Ah, this is the question he wanted to avoid the most. 

"Just a few mobs." he knew False didn't believe that. False is a warrior, she would know if a cut was intentional or from a mob. ".. Right. Okay.." False says. She focuses on bandaging him instead and letting him drink the sweet health potion. He hisses as the cuts burn for a while and then, they were almost gone. 

Almost.

"Thanks, False." Xisuma smiles at her. "I better get going though, I haven't checked on a few others." 

False has that look. Oh no. He kept getting that look tonight. "I'm planning on meeting up with Skizz after I'm done, he's gonna force me to sleep and rest after this. Don't worry too much." Xisuma says calmly as he gets up on his feet again. 

The look from False has dropped, but not completely. Oh, he knows what's gonna happen after this. "See ya, bye!" He rushes out and shoots into the air as fast as he can. 

////

False didn't like what she saw. X was acting weird and fidgety and he was injured with his helmet broken and void, he was bleeding. She knew it wasn't mobs, mobs don't scratch you like a player do. She hated that more. He lied to her and for what? 

She taps her soul, the chats open up. 

<False> guys, X is overworking himself again

<Xisuma> im not!

<False> he's lying

<Skizz> oh X...

<Zedaph> X, its not ur time yet, dont rush it

<False> zed what

<Xisuma> Zed no

<Xisuma> i'll rest after this, just a few more hermits and im done

<Zedaph> :)

<Zedaph> X, u can teleport u know?

<Xisuma> okay, i'll just teleport to the rest of you and be done with it, happy?

<False> fine i guess

<Skizz> Ok

False sighs. Their admin just never knows when to rest does he?

////

Xisuma cannot rest. He teleported to Doc, and forgot about the creeper stuff and almost blew himself up. Hey, he's alive and Doc is safe so that's a win. He's glad no redstone was damaged though. He didn't wanna be held responsible for that. He opens the admin panel and types another location in.

This time, he almost drowned, he forgot Xb was in the water and his armor was heavy. Thankfully Xb saved him. Right. How did he mess up twice? Xb, just like the others asks if he's mad or upset about not telling him about their hybrid thingy or some super ancient magic that no man should be allowed to hold, honestly he just nodded to Xb and said he knew and left, leaving a wide in shock Xb there.

Next on the list, Beef. He teleports to him, pretends he just arrived behind Beef and does the same tactic as Cub's. He joked about seeing Beef as a cow because he was sleepy and the name Beef makes him think of cows. 

He's glad they're all okay now though. All of the hermits has been checked. He did feel like he's forgetting someone though. He shrugs it off anyways. If he don't remember it, then it's probably not important. He then teleports to Joe who was still in Zedaph's base. He says hi and stops there for a while as he figures out a way to check on Scar or hypno. Or even Grian. 

He settles on shooting them a whisper instead. 'Hey hypno' He begins. 'Is eveything okay? I'm a bit tired I'm sorry I couldn't make it to your base' He is pretty sure Hypno is relieved to know he won't be visiting him in his ghostly form. 'Yeah, im alright. Have some rest, X' Xisuma nods. 'Will do'

Okay another one. 'Hey Scar, are you okay? I couldn't make it to your base, I'm sorry' He lets himself slump over a little. 'Oh, that's okay! I got Jellie with me! Everything is finee, don't you worry about it!' Scar's voice is as cheery as ever and it makes him smile a little. 

Joe looks at him with concern. Even Mumbo, who isn't in his mind completely looks concerned for him. He must look like he just crawled out of a grave if even the half dead is looking at him like that. "The last person is quite tricky, Grian."

That grabs Joe attention, "Why? Is he.. One of the harder ones to...Scratch that, is he another wild card?" Xisuma nods. His mind still running for the options he has. "He is quite a unique one." Xisuma states. 

If he goes in his base now, Grian might not be done yet and might freak out. If he doesn't though, he can't change his helmet. Not like he needs in under the moon but he still feels like he should fix it soon. He wonders if Grian can read normal messages in that form? He wouldn't wanna surprise Grian with galactic texts. 

He decides to text in the main chat instead. Yup, that's probably the best. 

<Xisuma> g? Im done :-)

<Xisuma> im gonna come back now

<Grian> ᖋꖎ∷ᒷᖋ⌥॥?!

<False>???

<Skizz> G? 

<Grian> ₸𝙹ꖎ⌥ 𝙹リ ¦ᒲ ⎓¦リ¦ᓭ₸¦リ˧ ᖋ ʖ¦ᒣ

<Xisuma> don't worry about that. It's probably another language. 

<False> oh

<False> why is he talking in another language

<Xisuma> bloodmoon effects i think

<Xisuma> Keralis also spoke in another language i couldn't understand

<False> i see

The others might read it like that, as a bunch of nonsense. But Xisuma can translate it as 'ALREADY?!' And 'hold on im finishing a bit'. Xisuma nods and takes a glance at Mumbo and Joe. "...How has Mumbo not attacked you anyways?" He realised a little too late that he said that out loud. Joe chuckles. "I'm Joe Hills. My friends will never hurt me." 

Xisuma tilts his head, but nods. It's Joe Hills. Of course, of all people, no one would attack Joe. How powerful is that guy anyways? That's .. A bit worrying. Xisuma clears his head with a shake. "I think Grian is done, I'll go now." 

"Okay, bye!" Joe waves to him as he shoots across the sky again. This time, he lands a bit further from his base. Just in case Grian wasn't done. He walks towards where he left Grian at, his storage system. He can feel Eyes watching him but decides not to mind it. It's just Grian. He sees the boy in red shirt staring at the admin panels. He's holding in his snort so hard because he knows Grian is only pretending not to see him. 

He decides to leave Grian for a bit, he needs to fix his helmet first. He heads for one of his shulkers and grabs some spare parts for his helmet. Before taking off his helmet, he noticed one of the Eyes watching him. 

As much as he had no secrets to hide, he wouldn't like it if someone is looking at him when he's helmet-less. He decides he's gonna do something about that. "Wow, I'm so sleep deprived that I'm seeing hallucinatic eyes at the corner of my vision. I'm hallucinating so bad. What am I gonna see next? Wels as a princess?" he says while making an 'I'm so done.' gesture. He's holding in his laugh so hard at his terrible acting. 

In an instant, the Eyes vanish. Only then did Xisuma let out a huff and takes off his helmet. His massive X scar on his face still remains when he looks in the mirror. His elf-like ears twitch a little with the change of the air. He begins looking for the problem in his helmet and begins fixing away. 

After 30 minutes or so, he is done with a helmet that looks brand new. He slips it on his head and decides that Grian is probably waiting for him now. He sees Grian, still pretending to be typing away at the codes. "Hey, G. Is all going well?" He starts. 

Grian pretends to be startled. Seriously, they need to get good at this, he can read all of them crystal clear. "Oh, hey, X! I, uhh, managed to stop the moon from appearing again, but we do need to wait this night out." Grian smiles awkwardly. "That's good, that's good. Thank you for helping out, G. You're a lifesaver." 

Grian chuckles at that, face flushing from embarassment. "Just helpin' out! You should rest now though, you don't look quite good." Grian-oh great, now Grian's giving him that look. "Yeah, I really should. I'm seeing stuff now. Skizz is gonna force me to sleep or something after this. Gotta meet up with him now." he and Grian both shoot up in the air after that, waving to each other when they split ways. 

He arrives at Skizz's base, not the pyramid, his base. "Hey Skizz, are you there?" And then he hears a crashing sound, and a yelp. What is Skizz even doing? "I'm fine! Yes, come in, i was just cleaning up my base!" He enters the base and sees Skizz picking up a bunch of items on the ground. "You good there?" Xisuma asks. Skizz nods with a smile. 

"Yup! My chest just fell over when I was trying to find my glowberries, nothing much. What.. Happened to you though? You look like you just survived a ravager attack!" That made Xisuma chuckles a bit. "Well, I did just almost blow myself up with Doc and almost drowned, thankfully Xb came in clutch and saved me. You can tell this was a long night for me."

Skizz gives him that look. Oh no, not again! "Yes, yes, I'll rest, I'm planning on some shut eyes too. Can you wake me up after.." He looks at his helmet clock. "Three hours? I need to check on a few hermits a bit more frequently. Not all of you, just the ones that are harder to keep safe under the moon." 

Skizz frowns at that. Xisuma sighs. "Look, it's just this night. I can rest plenty when it's daytime tomorrow." Skizz still has that look, but it softened. "Alright, okay. I'll wake you up after 3 hours, but you better rest tomorrow or I'm gonna ask Keralis to tie you on your bed till' you sleep" 

Xisuma snorts. "I'll look forward to that" They both chuckles a bit. "Well, here's a bed, you can sleep here I guess, I don't really got many rooms." Skizz hands him a blue bed. "That's alright." Xisuma places the bed down and sits on it. 

They both stare at each other for a bit before Xisuma asks, "Are you gonna watch me in my sleep?" Skizz spluttered a bit, "N-no! I- I'll be in the next room, call me if you need something!" Skizz hurried out the room, switching off the lights in the room as he did. 

Xisuma finally lays on the bed. His thoughts thinking if he will get any nightmare from Keralis. He shrugs it off. If he did have a nightmare, Hypno will surely come and weave or eat it or something. He's got nothing to worry about. 

He ends up falling asleep peacefully, and yes, Hypno did come and weave his nightmare. Thankfully Skizz didn't see him.

Chapter Text

He wakes up to skizz calling him. He opens his eyes, he is still in Skizz's storage room. "Hey, X. You asked me to wake you up, yeah?" Skizz's voice rings in his ears.

"Yeah, i did. Thank you for actually waking me up" he gets up slowly. His head feels light. "Can i have some water...oh thank you-!" Xisuma catches a bottle of water in his hands. 

He tilts his helmet up a bit, making only his mouth visible. He chugs the drink until only the bottle is left. "I'll be going now" He checks his chat logs, no deaths or anything new. He opens his admin panel and type in a location. 

"Wait, so soon!?" Skizz stops him.

"Yeah, i need to go now, i already left them for three hours now, if anyone gets hurt and i'm too late, i won't forgive myself" Xisuma hands are itching to press the button immediately but he is in the middle of conversing and that would be rude. 

"Oh Xisuma.." Skizz gives him a sympathetic look. "...alright i guess. I'm guessing i also can't come this time?" Skizz asks. Xisuma nods. "Yeah, you're not the only one with secrets. You should ask it yourself if you're curious about them, it's not my place to reveal their secrets" 

Skizz nods, Xisuma press the command and dissapears in a split second. 

////

Ren is murdering sheeps. He is quite enjoying his time on the open field, someone even forgot their chew toys here! Ha! It's his now! He bites on it and runs around like a puppy seeing the outside for the first time. 

He stops in his track when he sees a player though. They just appeared out of thin air, how come? He approaches the player. They have armor and wears a helmet-Who wears a helmet in the middle of the night?-It's also tinted darkly, how does one see in that? He stalks from a safe distance. Staring at the player, still unsure if they are a threat or a friend. 

The player seems to notice him and calls out his name-how did they know his name? He barks at them. The player backs off before nodding and pressing their hands to open a panel. Could he do that too? He tries pressing his paws on the ground but nothing came. When he look back, the player was gone. 

How odd. 

////

Cleo isn't sure how she got down from her roof or why she has a jar of jevin in her hands but she is so she keeps doing it. She is startled by a noise behind her. A player in green armor with helmet is staring at her. She don't know why but she has the urge to bite them and rip them to shreds. Jevin also is glurging out something in the jar but the player has her attention.

"Hey cleo, just checking by. I'll go now before you attack me" 

That is all he said. How odd. He then vanishes after typing something in a floating window. Ugh, right before she bite him as well! 

...Who was that anyways? 

////

Grian is in his base when he hears rockets and a thud. He checks the source of the sound immedietly. He looks outside his window to see Xisuma sitting on the floor of his balcony, clutching his head and still dizzy. He giggles at that. "Hey X! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be resting with Skizz?" 

"Oh-hey grian. I asked him to wake me up after 3 hours. I'm a bit worried since we don't know the moon's effects. It can effect human's speech after all. Like your text and Keralis!" Xisuma gets up. 

He had forgotten about that. The text he sent when he was panicking to shift into his human body came out as galactic. He is glad Xisuma doesn't recognise the language though. 

"Now that i know you're fine, i'll go check on the others! See ya!!" Xisuma then takes off. Grian only watches from the distance. The question that lingers in his mind is..

Why didn't Xisuma asked why he was still awake at 3am? 

////

<Xisuma> hey joe is everything okay

<Joehills> yeah all good

<Xisuma> what about mumbo

<Joehills> still ok

<Xisuma> ok

<Xisuma> everyone else???

<Etho> am okay

<Xisuma> oh my gosh i forgot about you

<Etho> nah thats ok, im doing fine

Etho looks at the chats. Apparently Xisuma had been checking on everyone else and somehow forgot him. That's normal though. He is a Kitsune. Everyone who met him will forget him. It's like their memories are pushed to the back of their minds until he makes the first move. Only then will they remember him. 

... He also didn't want Xisuma to see him with ears and tails. So he is grateful Xisuma forgot about him. Everyone else should be fine, they're humans. Not him. 

He stares at the red moon. He hates it. It looks odd and wrong in many different ways.

////

Impulse is actually having a nice time in a base. It's a town, mixed with modern and rundown buildings at once. He decides he loves it. He did obey that player's commands though. To stay there. He actually didn't mind. This place was.. Well it wasn't what he expected. He expected a death chamber or a dungeon so this is.. Quite a nice surprise. 

Suddenly, a figure crash in front of him. Both the human and him yelps. The human clear their throat before speaking, "Oh, hey impulse. Are you okay? Sorry i really need to learn to land properly" he recognises that voice. It was the player with the angels! He glanes around, no angels in sight. 

"Uhh... Im.." Impulse didn't know if this person wanted him as a slave or what. His fight or flight almost activated. "Good to see you doing alright. I'll go now, a few others have-AH YOU SCARED ME!" The person-Xisuma was it?-jumps at something. He turn around to see. 

Oh. He also screamed. 

"Im not that scary am i?" Zedeath looms in front of them. "You're not, but we gotta put a bell or something on you" Xisuma pause, "Wait that'll be worse- the bells of death!" 

Zedeath only chuckles. "Right.. Uhmm" Impulse don't know how to react to this. Are they not out for him? The words he repeated before rings in his head. 'No one will hurt you. No one is out for you' 

After a while, Zedeath dissapears. His attention snap back to the player. "Right. Sorry bout' that. I'll go now" Xisuma then rockets into the sky. 

What an odd place, he thought. They're not out for him, he thought. 

////

Keralis is in his base, unsure of why he is here. He hears footsteps. Loud and metallic footstep. He teleports to the sound. A player in green yelps-oh he knows this guy! This was the one he chased down and got away. Why is he back? The player backs away slowly. Just like before. 

Keralis wonder if he will run again. He do like a good chase. The player pulls something like a floating panel of some sort. He starts typing something in and vanished into thin air. Keralis tilts his head. 

How curious. A player dissapearing! 

////

Wels is having a lovely sleep. That is until he hears footsteps and someone muttering something. His eyes snap open to see a player in green next to him. Someone is disturbing a dragon's sleep? How brave. 

The person yelps and ran away from him. Guess he wasn't so brave after all. He scoffs and continue sleeping. 

What an odd night. Someone is backing out from disturbing a dragon. Must be a dream or something, he thought.

////

That's the last of them. The others don't need checking. Cub and Scar can control themselves, Mumbo and joe is okay, Joel is probably asleep, same goes for False, Bdubs and Tango. Hypno can take care of himself, the moon didn't disturb his mind, just his senses. Pearl and Gem is probably sensible enough to not disturb any other hermits. Xb is well.. He can't disturb anyone since he is stuck in the water. 

He goes back to his base, it was an odd night for sure. He won't lie, he's not felt this worried ever since... Well, ever. He takes off his helmet, ready to plop onto his bed. Hopefully, the next day, everything should be normal again.

Chapter Text

The sunrise is a nice change from the red ambiance last night. Bdubs stares out the window from his base. He remembers last night and genuinely don't know what to do. Apparently, Xisuma knew. He knew all this time but didn't say anything to him. 

Sure, he himself been keeping it a half secret from the server. Everyone can see the night randomly ending when he sleeps but no one ever questions it, not even Xisuma. Which, now thinking about it, is weird! But, he isn't mad or anything. He's just lost. 

"I have to talk to X soon" Bdubs mutters under his breath. Surprisingly, he sees Hypno passing by and remember the ghost he saw too. He chases after Hypno to tell him what sleep deprived him saw. 

////

"Zedeath, you're telling me X knew but didn't ban us or something? He wasn't even mad or scared??" Zed asks his inner self. His grim reaper self. 

"He was a little scared, yes. But he knew, this isn't the first time i talked to him" Zedeath answers. Zed lets out a questioning hum. 

"You sure we don't need a word with him?" Zed asks. "Nah, he'll be fine" Zedeath assures. Zed nods. He trusts himself after all, even if it's a grim reaper version of himself. 

////

Cub isn't sure what to think. Xisuma showed up to check up on him last night, while he was a full vex. Xisuma did say he felt like hallucinating him as a ghost but... Is their admin really that gullible? But then again, X can be a bit derpy at times. 

"And then Mumbo showed up and he has this very cold stare! I could've sworn i saw wings but that might be shadows, oh did i mention his eyes looked red? I didn't know human eyes reflect that much!" Scar snaps him from his thoughts with his rambling. 

He payed no attention to what Scar said though. He was trapped in his mind.

////

Ren wakes up in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, where was he? He couldn't see anyone's base at all! What happened last night anyways? 

He couldn't remember anything. Hopefully nothing too bad. 

Randomly, his head spins. Maybe he had woken up too fast? The world warps around him, his vision swimming between the field and then he blinked.

He is back in his base. 

...What just happened? 

////

Impulse is not doing okay. The only thing he remembered is asking Skizz to keep the hermits safe from him, running away from an angel-or two? Who knows what he was seeing. Then, there's the player. Who was it? He don't remember at all!

He is pretty sure the angel was Skizz though. Maybe he just have to ask him. Yeah, that'd be good. 

////

He is in his base, sitting on crab rave island specifically. Why was he there? He don't know. He don't remember at all. 

Keralis stands up, gathering himself and walking towards his chest monster, to find a change of clothes. Then, the memories hit him like a ravager bulldozing through blocks. 

"The person-who was that? Oh.. Oh this is bad!" Keralis exclaims. It was indeed bad that someone found and saw him when he was not in control. But it's a lot worse when he don't know who it was. It could be anyone! 

This is really bad.

////

"Hey X?" Gem asks, she had shown up at his doorstep in the morning. 

"What is it, my friend? Is anything bothering you?" Xisuma replies. 

"Well, i.. Was hoping we could arrange a meeting?" Gem says, taking Xisuma off guard.

"Why specifically?" 

"Just.. Yknow.. About last night. I mean we were bound to have a meeting about that anyways so.."

He doesn't push further, despite his worries.

"Hmm.. Yeah, you're right. We are bound to have a meeting anyways. I'll see if the hermits are free tomorrow"

Gem nods. "Thanks, X. It really means a lot to me" 

Somehow, he thinks her words aren't about him setting up the meetings.

"You're welcome, gem"

Chapter Text

Gem asked for a hermit meeting. He should've expected that. She probably had some questions for him and the others. He hopes she won't expose ren though. 

Everyone is already at spawn already. All of them in their human forms. They made a circle, simple enough for a meeting and sat on the grass. Yes, they sat on the floor, no one brought chairs. 

Some hermits are fidgety and nervous, like impulse and Xb. Some eyes him suspiciously. Mostly Cub and Beef since he pulled a 'i was sleep deprived and hallucinating trick'. Some just kept on being casual and talking to others, some was on edge and keep glancing at him every once in a while. 

Simple to say, it was chaos. He puts his hand up, silencing everyone. 

"Right, everyone is here. I guess i should start the meeting" all eyes were on him now. "First of all, i apologise for the bloodmoon yesterday. Someone has.. Hacked our moon codings" 

Murmurs fill the air. "Im still figuring out who and how they did that. They left no trace except codes in another language. I should thank grian, he helped out a lot to fix it" he turns towards grian. "Seriously, thank you, you're a lifesaver" 

Grian's face flush. "Well, im always glad to help a hermit!" Grian says with a sheepish smile. Everyone else also thanked him, making his face red as doc's tomato. 

After that, the voices died down. All eyes snap to him again. "I'll be working hard to find the culprit who did this to us from now on. I hope you all can help as well since it is a bit tricky" He is met with many nods and okays and yeah sure. He can't help but smile a bit. 

"Moving on, gem actually had something to say. Gem?" In an instant, everyone's heads track her. She smiles and takes a deep breath. "I.. Have something to confess" she looks up at Xisuma. 

Xisuma's panic spikes. What is she planning to do now? Please just ask about him, not ren. Please not ren- wait a minute, is she revealing what she is? Wait-

"Im a half deer hybrid. Im also a world hopper that can astral project." She says as she drops her amulet, the one that masks her appearence. Slowly, antlers fades into existence, along with hooves and a poofy tail. Xisuma looks at the hermits, he don't know how they will recieve this. Most of them gasps, some just left their jaws open and many many mutterings were heard. 

"Im sorry i haven't told you all sooner. I wanted to see how long i could last honestly" Gem smiles warmly under the sun. 

"Wait, so who found you?" A voice asks. 

"Pearl did! She came to check on me yesterday on the bloodmoon" she gestures at pearl. Pearl only frowns in silent.

Slowly, Pearl also voices out. "I.. I actually have been hiding something as well. You see... Im a shapeshifter" 

A few loud hermits said WHAT loudly. Some gasps more and some looks straight up lost. Pearl looks at gem, and then Xisuma. She then shifts a bit, making wings and antennae stick out. 

"That. Is. Awesome!!" A hermit-Joel he thinks-yells out loud. Pearl looks surprised and then a soft smile creeps on her lips. 

Xisuma knows what's gonna happen next. Well, he should prepare for the hermits reveal party. He grabs a few cocoa beans from his inventory and takes put a brewing stand. "Uhh, X, what are you doing?" Keralis asks. "Just brewing some hot chocolate. Why?" 

"In the middle of the meeting?!" Bdubs yells. He chuckles at that. "Nah, meeting's over. Who's next?" The hermits stare at him in eerie silence. Like he had said something wrong! ...He didn't right? "Okay, i'll go next i guess. My friends, i am a voidwalker" 

He is met with silence again but this time Grian screamed, "WHAT?!" He almost burst out laughing at that. "Yup, a voidwalker, alive and breathing!" He says with a chuckle. The hermits looks like they don't believe him. "Alright, alright, i'll show you guys something" His eyes glows and a string of blue codes appears, falling gently on his hands. "Voila."

The hermits jaw drops open. Weirdly enough, they all fell silent and gave each other a look. He is a bit confused on why but he thinks that maybe they were judging him? Or wondering what to do next? That's just his guess though.

Wels fake coughs and suddenly the tension was gone. They were back to murmurs again. 

Thats's good. Now the hermits have a bit more confidence in revealing themselves. A moment of silence. He counted down mentally in his head. 

One.

Two.

Three.

"I have to tell you all something"

"Dont be mad but-"

"Im sorry that-"

"Last night-"

"Wait so you saw me-"

They all look dumbfounded as they look at each other after they said that at the same time. Xisuma can't contain his smile at all. He clears his throat. "Ahem! Right. Why don't we do this in turns? Impulse? You wanna go first?" 

Impulse nods. He sucks in a breath. "I.. Am a demon" the rest of the hermits is surprised but they don't judge. After all, they were hiding something themselves. Impulse's camouflage falls as he said it. Next to him, Skizz smiles brightly. Xisuma is now passing around hot chocolates. 

Next up, Skizz, he shows his wings while saying how sorry he is for keeping it secret. And then Xb and then Beef and then Bdubs, and then Cub and so on.

Sometimes they would give remarks like how Bdubs saw hypno and only realising that wasn't a ghost. Or asking how mumbo isn't burning in the sun. Or how pretty a hermit's hidden traits were. Each and every one of them revealed themselves. 

The special cases were kept last since they're still hesitating to reveal themselves. 

And when he means special cases, he means the beings that have powers that no one should ever hold but is here nevertheless. 

Joe steps up first amongst them. "I am a mortal, i assure you that. You may notice i carry my book and pen with me all the time, it's a part of my magic. I would ask you to not touch it if you can, it's not gonna end up good"

Well, Xisuma isn't even sure anyone knows what joe is, even joe himself. That is a bit concerning if he is honest. 

After that, their eyes turn to Keralis who is still fidgeting, unsure whether to reveal himself or not. They are quiet for a few minutes while waiting for Keralis to decide. Keralis can always refuse if he isn't comfy with that. Xisuma wanted to say that but Keralis spoke first. 

"... Hypno, if the others get nightmares, you can take care of them, yeah?" Keralis starts off. The hermits looks concerned. Well, who wouldn't be? 

"I mean.. Sure, but why would we get nightmares from you..?" Hypno replied. Keralis sighs. 

"Don't be too shocked, it's still me in the end, okay?" Keralis glance at each and every one of them. 

He takes a deep breath, and slowly, his face starts melting. Well, not melting but.. His jaws stretch, making his mouth open wide with many horrifying sharp teeth. His body melts slightly, and his hands shows claws. His eyes looks huge, staring down at their souls, piercing through. It's like he is flickering in and out of reality. 

He stops immedietly when Zedaph screamed. How ironic. The grim reaper is screaming. "Ah, sorry, i should've given you all a warning first" Keralis apologises. The hermits stare at him in shock, no one saying anything. "As you can see i am a being of the dark. I.. Am not quite sure what i am either but i assure you im still the good ol' Keralis you know" 

The hermits are still quiet. Xisuma starts panicking. What if the hermits don't accept Keralis? What if they are scared of him? What will happen if they hate Keralis? Oh no, oh no, oh no no No NO NO- 

"That's pretty sick, man. Never thought i'd see an eldtrich horror in my life" Cub's voice booms through the silence. Finally, the tension drops. Some of them still look wary but they don't linger on it. Some are now smiling and asking Keralis questions. 

Xisuma let out a breath he didn't even realise was holding. 

Next up is grian. Xisuma understands if he still don't wanna reveal himself. "G? You don't have to y'know? We're not gonna force you" 

"... X, do you know?" Grian asks, taking him by surprise. He didn't expect that. "I-well, i do. But these guys don't" Xisuma didn't dare lie. 

Grian nods. "Well then, no use in keeping it secret" he looks at all of them.

Literally.

His Eyes wander all around the hermits. They noticed it and yelps or shriek upon seeing it. "Im a watcher" grian gulps. "I would step out of my body and show myself but i'm a bit tired for that today" 

Some stare at him, their guards up. Ah, right. Xisuma forgot about that. Doc has fought 'gods' before. They're really just watchers. False have had a history with Watchers as well and it's not good. War and all that. Come to think of it, almost all of them have a bad history with Watchers. Tango barely escaped the watchers, impulse and skizz had been watchers enemies for a long time now. And... oh boy. Is this gonna end badly? 

They stare at grian. Grian stares back. 

"And you knew about this, Zisuma..?" Doc breaks the silence. "From the very first day, yes" Xisuma replies with no hesitation. "And you let him stay..?" Doc says, making their hearts drop. Everyone's heart dropped. 

"Doc, i let two vexes, a demon, an eldtrich horror, and even a Joe on the server, you can't tell me not to let a watcher in here." Xisuma is ready to defend Grian. 

One tick. Doc eyes Xisuma with an unsatisfied look.

Two tick. The hermits look at each other, unsure of what's gonna happen. 

Three. Grian closes his Eyes, afraid of what's next. 

"I can't argue with that. That is true. I'll let it slide i guess" 

"... Wait what?" They are all flabbergasted. Even Grian opened his Eyes again, in confusion. 

"He's been with us for what, 4 seasons? He's proven to not be dangerous. If he is, well, we wouldn't be here talking peacefully in an open field today" Doc says smoothly. 

"... I-okay. Thats.." Xisuma don't know what to say. It is good that Doc is okay with it! But.. Wow, he really didn't expect that.

"Thank you for accepting me" Grian closes his Eyes and opens his eyes. A warm smile spread across his face. 

They all made small chats and moved on pretty quickly after that. Ditching the horrible mood from earlier.

Last one is Zedaph. "Okay, my turn! You see im a sheep hybrid.." Zedaph shows his hooves and sheepy ears. A question lingers in Xisuma's head. Isn't Zedaph the grim reaper? How is he a sheep hybrid? Xisuma frowns. Not that the others can see it. He didn't wanna call Zed out on it just in case he still wanted it to be kept a secret.

"Oh, right! I also.. Hid something else.." Zedaph avoids any eye contact. He can already hear the hermits asking him what is it. "I-hold on let me just die first" he held in his breath.

"What" Tango says plainly. After that a messege vibrates on everyone's soul. 

<Zedaph died>

They all stare at Zedaph-no, it's Zedeath! "Good to see you all again, hermits" Their voice is so deep, and to top it all of, their face only shows up to their mouth. The rest of it is simply the darkness. Amidst all of the confusion and terror, one fellow smiles. "Howdy, Zedeath" 

"Hello, Joe" Zedeath returns the smile. The hermits looks at them like they're crazy. Xisuma just passes hot chocolates around amidst that. "Have you figured out what you wanted yet?" Joe asks so casually to Death. 

Xisuma wonders if this is just a regular Sunday afternoon for joe. It probably is. 

"No, not yet. I will come to you once i think of a good idea" Zedeath says as he vanishes into thin smoke. Joe nods. After a while, Zedaph appears again while gasping for air. That got the concern of the hermits of course. 

"Dude, Zedaph are you okay?" Impulse puts his hand on Zed's shoulder. "Im fine-just... Oh i hate doing that. Don't worry, i can't die" his gaze lands on joe. "Also, Joe, you did not just talk to DEATH like he is your normal everyday life" Even Zedaph is shook by joe's ability to befriend anyone and everyone. 

"I'd never thought i'd say this either. Death is so friendly. He can be intimidating but he is polite" Joe says calmly. "Well, Death says you're interesting and i say you're most likely crazy" Zedaph remarks but there is no offense to it. They giggled and laughed while sipping on their lovely chocolate drinks. 

After a while, it actually became a small party. The hermits bringing souvenirs and Keralis setting up a dance floor-how did he do that so quickly?-as they chatted and danced all evening. 

What a nice ending to this problem, Xisuma thought. He feels like he is forgetting something though. Oh well, if he don't remember it, it's probably not important, right?

Chapter Text

The hermits are partying, celebrating that they all finally told each other the truths. Cheering and dancing and drinking without a single worry in the world. 

They forgot one thing though. 

The ones that messed with the codes aren't caught yet. No, they're still on the server, watching, waiting, and listening to their every move. 

"I think that is a good way to end the recording. With a small-er.. Not really small party to celebrate" The zombie watcher looks at the hermits with many, many Eyes from afar. "Yup, sounds good to me as well! Pix?" A girl with red hair looks at the Speaker, expecting a reply. "Alright, alright" Pix, a man in blue stated plainly. 

He pressed a recorder of some sort and start saying something in a voice that's not quite his. 

"And what's a good way to end this episode other than a hermit party? They setted up a dance floor and chatted and laughed for the whole evening. Forgetting all about the bloodmoon codes that we may or may not have tampered with. And that is all from me, i'm Pixllriff, our writer is Zloy_XP and captions are provided by Lyarrah. Thank you so much for watching and we shall see you again for the next week" he Speaks.

He ends the recording. "That's good for now. We'll come back again soon" Pix says. Lyarrah, the listener nods but a voice catches their attention. 

"So, like, are you guys done? Can we go now?" Ex deadpans with arms crossed. Hels next to them does the same. 

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Thank you for your help though. We appreciate it" Pix flashes them a smile. Ex rolls their eyes. "Whatever as long as you agree to not destroy this server, Speaker" 

"We promised we won't damage anything as long as you helped us" Zloy, the Watcher, pipes in. "If you still don't trust us, you can ask Lyarrah. Speakers can't lie after all" 

"We know that. Whatever. Let's get out of here, red! These freaks are boring me" Hels grabs Ex's hand and drags them away with many protests. 

The three of them only watches them go. Pix only voices his thoughts when he is certain they are out of earshot. "So, like, when do you think they'll warm up to us?" He looks towards his two friends. 

"It's been.. Wait i'm bad at math-hold on," Zloy counts in his head, "5 seasons! They've been like this for five seasons! And still no sign of accepting us into their lives!"

"I know. They're acting so tough, and for what?" Pix suppress a sigh. "They still think we're gonna destroy the server if they don't let us make recaps of the hermits" 

Lyarrah and Zloy nods in sympathy and understanding. "They just won't let us be their friends" Lyarrah comments. 

"I know-" Pix got interupted by Zloy, "and it's so frustrating!!"

"Well.. I guess i don't blame them for not wanting to be friends with beings like us" a pause, "Hell, when we first saw each other we also fought. I still remember when Zloy and me would get confused whenever you dissapeared" Lyarrah tried to hide it, but her giggle and grin betrayed her. 

"Hey, if it helps me, i'll take it. Plus, you two were gonna rip out each other's throats and mine! If i didn't vanish, you both wouldn't stop!" Pix defends, putting his hands up to his shoulder level on mock defense. As if his huge smile didn't say otherwise. 

"Sure, sure... Thanks for that though.." Lyarrah gives them a warm smile, as if saying 'thank you for being friends with her'. 

"Anyways, we should head out. I saw that there's a nice place at the community" Zloy's eyes glows an eerie purple. Others would have activated their fight or flight instict upon seeing it, but not for them. They know it's just Zloy opening a portal for them. 

"Ooh, a new store opened?" Pix questions. His eyes glowing orange now. Lyarrah nods, "Yeah, i heard the owner's called Cherri fire or something. She sells quite some nice arts but she opened a diner recently" 

"Cherrifire? Isn't she like..a Listener? Are you sure it's safe? I don't want us to be found out" Pix stared worriedly into his two companions faces. 

"Don't worry about it. She won't snitch. She's friends with Tibbycap" Lyarrah reassures him with a pair of green glowing eyes. 

"Who?"

"The other watcher"

"Oh alright"

Slowly, a portal appears from thin air and one by one they step through. 

Into the Hermitcraft Fan Community.