Unrecognizable

~Chapter Twenty-Nine~

Tears welled up in Sage's eyes as he watched the door further separating him from Citrus slide shut. He didn't mean to be mean, he could swear it! He had... snapped. All the stress and terrible thoughts that had been welling up inside of him had exploded out, their focus on Citrus. He moaned. Maybe he could chase after her and apologize? She had small legs; she couldn't have gone far. Sage moved to press the button to open the door again.

"Sage, don't," said the calm voice of Void from behind Sage. The admin hadn't spoken at all during that exchange, and was just standing there, an understanding look in his eyes. "It's not worth it."

Sage turned back around. "Not...worth it?" What? Did Void witness the same thing that Sage did? Because to him, letting Citrus know that he didn't mean what he said seemed pretty worth it. 

Waiving a hand dismissively, Void spoke. "She'll come back soon," he stated. Sage doubted that. Citrus wasn't the type to not follow through with things. Something told him that she wouldn't be back soon, by any stretch of the imagination. But he silently disagreed and just nodded slowly. 

"If you say so..." Maybe he'd go out later and look for her. Or maybe she just needed a bit of alone time. He had no idea. Why was thinking so hard? Sage was suddenly not in the mood to speak with Void. A burning desire still wanted him to ask about EX, but it was overpowered by his stronger mind that told him that he just needed rest. He needed to clear his mind, not clutter it with more endless questions. 

Conflicted, Sage decided that for now, just a walk was best. Something about focusing on the placement on your feet, feeling leaves and grass crunch beneath your steps, feeling a slight breeze ruffle your clothing and hair, just doing something physical to get your mind off of whatever was bothering you, was really therapeutic. "I'm going to go take a walk; if you want to go do more pranks, go ahead. I'd actually prefer it if you'd leave," Sage muttered, the ending just barely loud enough for Void to hear. The admin nodded and Sage turned around, pressing the button.

--------------

Scar's POV-

Losing one's items is not that fun. Scar had found this out multiple times during the pranks. Of course, none of said pranks were explicitly designed to induce item loss, but Scar was not the most coordinated person and had a few... unfortunate accidents. But nonetheless, when Grian sent him a frantic message to get over to Mumbo's base immediately because Sage just went in, the wizard had a less-than-fun time scrambling over to the nearest shop he could find to pick up an elytra and rockets. Luckily, he had a fair bit of diamonds from three separate clients from his pranking business which had gone hilariously, even if it did involve the loss of plenty of gear. One of his favorite pranks was on Jevin and had involved quite a few pufferfish.

But unfortunately, while he was finishing up a solo prank on Wels, he had gotten the alert and had to cut everything short. When he reached his friend's base, he was greeted by Grian, who was busy covering up a hole. As Scar entered, he glanced up and grinned. "Hello, Scar! Perfect timing." 

"Hey, G," Scar replied. "How's the trap going?" He raised an eyebrow as he looked at the floor. In matters of concealing, Grian had done extremely well. Whatever was there was completely unnoticeable. Convenient. But as for the trap itself, Scar had his doubts. Grian didn't exactly have the best track record with tnt traps.

"Swimmingly," was his response. The brit dug down a bit and fell into a small, pre-dug-out hole, beckoning for Scar to follow. The wizard did, and Grian displayed his trap. There were a lot of explosives. "I've got it almost all set up. I just need to rig a few pressure plates, and the second they get activated, the whole place goes kaboom!" He mimed an explosion and climbed out, followed by Scar. Grian now stood with his back to the concealed staircase and entrance, but behind him, Scar caught a glance of something disappearing behind a corner. Huh... Scar's companion didn't seem to notice his stare and just asked, "So? What do you think?"