Grian-Centric Oneshots (YHS Trauma, Injury)

Scars (Crack)

Description: On a hot day, the founders of Sahara decide to cool off in the river. Iskall finds out some things about the new Hermit, Grian.
Word Count: 970
Characters: Grian, Iskall and Mumbo

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It's an unbearably hot day for everyone on the server. Too hot to do anything , one might say. And the ones who might say it are the Architechs.

Perhaps they should be working on Sahara Now, like good businessmen. But how could they be expected to do such strenuous work when the searing heat from the sun was making their skin fry and their blood boil?

Really the only thing they could do today is relax in the water. And that was exactly what they were going to do.

The cool river they had found was a pleasant escape from the hot weather, and they were getting ready to settle down and spend the rest of the day there.

They could almost feel the relief the blue waters would bring them.

"Uh, guys?" Mumbo suddenly blurted out.

The other two turned their attention to him, excitement momentarily put on hold.

"I forgot the picnic basket," he proceeded to inform them calmly.

The response he got was, in contrast, not nearly as peaceful.

"You forgot the only thing you were supposed to bring?" Iskall asked, incredulous.

" Iskall brought the towels, I made the food and held onto the sunscreen, your only job was to take the food with us ," Grian reminded him, oh so kindly.

"Right. Well. I forgot it," Mumbo reminded him matter-of-factly.

"Well what do we do now?" Grian asked.

Mumbo only shrugged.

"Go back and get it!" Iskall cried out, being the only voice of reason of the three of them.

There was a sigh of resignation from Mumbo, and the lanky hermit treaded off to make a trip there and back for their forgotten lunch.

"God, he's such a spoon," Iskall grumbled.

"Well, we might as well get a head start while he's gone," Grian said, walking towards the river.

Iskall turned over to look at him as the other took his red sweater off, he was ready to follow suit when-

He froze for a second as he watched the blond Hermit jump into the water.

That was odd. Did he just see some sort of discoloration on Grian's back?

He relaxed his tense shoulders and took off his shirt as well, getting ready to enter the water with the other man.

When Grian resurfaced, Iskall immediately went to ask,

"Grian, I think I saw something on your-"

Again, there was a pause.

His chest had multiple scars on it, some larger than others. Was that what he saw on Grian's back? Scars?

Grian was still waiting for him to finish his sentence.

"Your chest," Iskall started, "and your back too. Are those scars?"

Grian looked shocked for a moment before he seemed to realize something.

"Oh, um, yeah," he answered a bit awkwardly, with a hint of regret, as if he just remembered he even had them.

"How did that happen?" Iskall questioned, wondering how it was possible that this small, gremlin of a man had such large scars.

Ones that never disappeared with a respawn. Ones that he had survived from and let heal over instead of taking some sort of healing potion.

"Well, I originally came from a permadeath world," Grian said, "Got these back when I still lived there."

"You did?" Iskall couldn't keep the shock out of his voice.

Permadeath worlds weren't very well-liked.

The only people who visited them were thrill-seekers and people with a death wish, and often nicknamed them Hardcore worlds. They were seen as a mere curse. A stain on reality.

People were supposed to live happily without concern for losing their existence permanently. Unfortunately, there were many servers where people were born, raised, and possibly killed by some accident or otherwise-never really getting the chance to leave and enjoy their life or change other peoples lives by just existing. Hardcore worlds were essentially dystopias to onlookers.

His new friend had been one of those people?

Someone who could've died before they'd even met?

"Yeah," Grian rubbed the back of his neck-there was a scar there too, trailing down the side of his neck to his shoulder.

How many times had he nearly died?

To originate from such a place, that-

"When did you leave?" Iskall had to know.

"When I graduated from highschool, I was 18," He explained, "I left the server and never returned."

"Huh," was all Iskall could really get out. There was so much on his mind and yet that's all he could say.

"Yeah," Grian agreed.

"So, how did you get all those scars?"

Grian shrugged.

"Multiple things, really. High school was nuts for me. I don't really look back on it too frequently, y'know?"

Iskall nodded, he could understand that.

"I guess it's not necessarily normal to graduate with a bunch of scars, but my friends really liked to get us into trouble," he laughed awkwardly.

Iskall sighed.

"I guess even in permadeath worlds, teenagers still like doing dangerous things for the sake of fun, huh?" he said, as if the Hermits didn't do that everyday.

Grian laughed lightly, but genuinely this time.

"Yeah, those kinds of things are universal."

The two fell off into another conversation, as Mumbo finally arrived, trying to hide the fact that he was out of breath and held up the basket.

"I got it!" He said, making the two turn towards him.

"Finally!" Grian said, throwing his head back dramatically.

"Let's hope you didn't somehow forget the food inside the basket," Iskall quipped as Mumbo walked over and sat the basket down near the stream.

"Ah, well about that. I definitely ate everything in the basket before I got back," Mumbo stated.

Grian burst out laughing as Iskall rolled his eyes with a small smile tugging at his lips.

Hopefully they could just enjoy the rest of the day without any other issues.