I've had this ready for a while, but there is a specific reason I posted it today. It will be in the end note!
Your POV
It was a few days later, and I felt better. Well, sort of. That experience is something i'll probably never get over; something i'll never fully recover from. Even so, I felt well enough to go out on my own every once and awhile. Usually I would have to stay with one of the others though.
Like today. I was hanging around with Ren while he worked on some redstone, not paying much attention to it. While he was doing his thing, I had my phone out watching a movie.
"What're ya watching kiddo?" He called from the other side of the redstone's contraption.
"Oh, (favorite movie)." I called back with a small smile. When I watch this movie, it calms me down, even in the darkest of times. It was sort of like a sedative to my stress and anxiety.
"Fun!" Ren hollard back to me. I continued to watch my movie and Ren went back to work.
When the movie finished, I stood up and walked over to Ren to see his project. I decided to stand a fair distance away, close enough to see but not in the way. Even after all the times ive helped Mumbo and Iskall with redstone, I still didn't get a single thing Ren was doing. A piece of redstone here and a piston here, then a repeater and a hopper. What was he making?
"What are you making?" I asked him as I tilted my head to the side.
"Its a (some sort of contraption I don't do redstone in the slightest)!" He explained to me, and I understood a little better. I sat back and continued to watch the process of redstone, occasionaly asking a question about something.
About half an hour later, I was getting bored. So I decided to see what I had in my inventory. I found a shulker box full of random blocks that I have. With my random blocks, I started to build.
I built for about 15 minutes before I ran out of blocks. The finished product ended up being an... odd looking chicken with giant google eyes.
"Hey Ren! Look at this!" I called as I climbed to the top of the chicken. He looked back and chuckled.
"Nice, I thought I heard something going on!" Ren called back to me. He walked over to my masterpiece as he wiped his hands of redstone dust.
"How's about we head over to the shopping district and grab some lunch?" Ren asked and I nodded and jumped down from the chicken. We flew off to the shopping district and stopped at Hungry Hermit, then chose a spot to sit and eat. I had a few potatoes and golden carrots while Ren had some fish.
After we finished eating, Ren and I started walking around the shopping district. We stopped at a few shops, with an occasional purchase, but nothing much happened.
A few hours later, I was sent back over to Grian's base for the night. Grian was somewhere in his base, but I wasn't sure where, so I called for him.
"Hey, Grian?!" I started walking around the main level as I waited for an answer.
"Up here!" I heard from above me. I jumped, opening my elytra and firing a rocket. Grian was on the very top of his tower, sitting at the edge. I walked over and sat down next to him, hanging my feet over tee he edge. We were looking out towards the sea as the sun started to go down.
"How long have you been up here?" I asked. Grian looked down to me and said, "Half an hourish." I nodded and looked back at the water, seeing fish and dolphins moving around.
"Mumbo will be over in a little bit. He's gonna stay for the night to help out a bit. The mail system may be broken again..." Grian said as I chuckled.
"And how did you manage that?" I teased him and poked his shoulder.
"Hey! It wasn't me! I-it was the man in the chicken costume! He filled it with eggs!" Grian defended himself. I laughed at him again as he crossed his arms and acted offended.
"C'mon, let's go inside." Grian said as he stood up. I followed him down the center of the base, gliding down with my elytra. Carefully, I landed at the bottom, then put some of my excess stuff away in a chest Grian had set out for me.
As I took of my armour, I remembered all the, few, things I had done that day. I chuckled as ai remembered the chicken and watching a movie. Eating lunch with Ren then walking around the Shopping district.
While I was putting my last bit of armor away, I heard someone land down a few meters away. I closed the chest and went to locate the sound. In tree he main area, I saw Grian and Mumbo have a quick hug then pull apart. They both had blush evident on their faces for some reason. I ignored it for the time being and walked over and hugged Mumbo too as Grian told him of the broken mail system.
After some time, we went up to Grian's avery thing and sat in the grass. It was soft and cool unlike the concrete on the lower levels and more comfortable. Mumbo sat close-ish to Grian, but looked embarrassed by it- wait... does he.. like like Grian? I mean, Mumbo does act kinda strange around the blonde and always has red and pink powdered across his face around him. And now that I think about, Grian does the same, just less obviously. Ooh, this is a question I'm gonna have to ask them.
"Are you two hungry? I think I might have something downstairs." Grian asked Mumbo and I.
"Sure, I could go for something to eat." Mumbo responded sheepishly and I hummed my agreance. So, Grian flew down to his... storage system and started looking for something to eat. It left me alone with Mumbo, the perfect time to ask about the possible crush.
I looked over to Mumbo with a sly grin on my face, and he just looked back questioningly.
"W-whats that look for?" He asked in a concerned tone.
"Do you, I don't know, have a crush on Grian?" I smirked. Mumbo's face lit up like a redstone torch at that.
"Wh-what? No! Where d-did you get th-that idea from?!" Mumbo whisper-yelled. I shrugged
"Mumbo, it's obvious. You two are just too big of numb skulls to realize!" I said as I gave him a quick, soft jab in the arm with my elbow.
"Is it really...?" He whispered. I nodded. At that, Mumbo put his head in his hands, trying to hide the ever growing blush from the world. I decided not to tell any suspicions about Grian's crush, as I was still unsure about his actual feelings.
"(Tn), you won't tell Grian yet, right?" Mumbo asked nervously.
"Course not, Mumbo. That's for you to decide on." I said, even though I really really really did want to tell G. Mumbo showed a shy smile then continued to try and tone down his blush. I chuckled and laid down in the grass. Oh, seeing Mumbo get embarrassed was hilarious, for sure, and so easy to do.
Another few minutes went by, and Grian flew back up with some food. We all are happily, and I occasionally looked over to Mumbo with my sly grin glowing, then he would turn a slight shade of pink for a few seconds. Grian didn't seem to notice, though, but he was obviously enjoying the company.
An hour later
"But I want to stay uuuuppppppp!" I whined when G told me to get in bed. It was just around 9 PM, but I was still hyper.
"Just go to bed, the adrenaline will wear off eventually." Mumbo hollared from across the room. I went to my bed reluctantly and plopped down onto of the covers.
"And no playing on your phone until midnight!" Grian called
"Your no fun!" I yelled back jokingly. I heard a giggle from him and Mumbo after I said it. And, even though G had told me not to, I grabbed my phone and started playing some games. This is what I do, play games until I can hardly keep my eyes open a crack, which is usually about 1 or 2 am.... So, as usual, I messed around on my phone, keeping the volume low so no one heard it.
With Grian and Mumbo- 3rd POV
Grian set up an extra bed in his room for Mumbo near his Salmon Ghost disguise, which no one knew of. He also put down a chest for Mumbo to put his stuff in for the night.
After all of that was taken care of, they both sat on their beds and just talked. It was if nothing in particular. Sometimes it was Sahara, sometimes it was about some event, and sometimes it was about another Hermit. They never kept a consistent topic and let words fall out of their mouths.
"So, what was it like being mustacheless the other day?" Grian jokingly asked.
"It was a weird feeling, for sure!" Mumbo responded with a small laugh.
"It did look half decent on (Tn), I have to admit." Grian said, Mumbo giving a good laugh.
"True, very true." Mumbo could feel his face heating up with every word spoken. It was a bit worse since he was alone with Grian. He never meant for anyone to notice though. Mumbo thought he had kept it well hid, but apparently not. If (Tn) was able to figure it out, who's to say no one else did?
"Mumbo, you good mate?" Hrian asked with his classic mischievous grin. Mumbo realized he had been spacing out and responded with a quick, "Yep, I'm good!" Grian looked half convinced, but didn't question it any farther.
After a little longer of talking a messing around, Grian and Mumbo went to sleep for the night. Mumbo continued to question the knowledge of the rest of the server on his crush while Grian cuddled up with his cats.
Grian fell asleep quickly, but Mumbo didn't. He couldn't sleep for some reason. He looked over to his sleeping crush and smiled at the scene. Mumbo began to play happy memories as he finally began to feel drowsy.
Back with you
(Tn) was fast asleep once again. This time they hadn't stayed up until the crack of dawn playing games and watching movies, this time only about 11 pm. It had been a rough week so it was understandable behaviour, especially from someone of their age.
With all that had been going on, it was understandable for everyone to be this way. The sickness and the voice had just worn everybody out and it was getting to them for sure. It was very obvious in X though.
Even from under his helmet, you could see dark rings forming around his eyes. X had been spending so much time looking for cures and making sure that everyone was ok, he didn't focus those same needs upon himself. So many people have told him to get some rest, heck, even EX did.
With this whole thing, you could see a change in EX too. Even though most people haven't seen him around, X could tell his brother was helping and being genuine with a lot of things. Of course, EX would probably never fully change, but this was a start. And this start was hopefully going to be useful. Useful in a way to get Xisuma to sleep. Useful in a way to check around the server for anything suspicious.
EX hadn't really thought through helping the server, it just kind of... happened. He was bored and decided to go for a fly, where he found Zed sick and went to get his brother. Now he was being a helpful part of the server, even if it wasn't noticable. Ex was planning to show himself to the server eventually, maybe after his brother had some sleep and was near sane again...
Back at Grian's base, they had a problem that no one knew of. No one had seen them get in, but they were there. And with everyone asleep, it was the perfect chance for them to execute their plan. With a puff of hazy purple and pink smoke, something appeared.
"Hello again child." The voice whispered quietly. It wasn't loud enough to wake (Tn), but made them uncomfortable enough to move around. The voice chuckled and gave a sinister smile.
"Time to go on a little field trip, kid." And with that, the voice, which now had a physical appearance waved about their hand in the air. They performed some sort of magic that picked up (Tn) while also knocking them unconcious.
The embodied voice took the kid and started to open a portal home, then decided against it for the moment.
"Might as well tell them I was here, and make another sick..." They murmured out. With a flick of their wrist, a piece of paper was left on the bed. They then left with (Tn) to find the next victim.
After some searching, they decided to infect Keralis, a close friend to those who were already infected. And with that, the voice opened a portal back to their castle, leaving a cloud of purple behind, and went through, still having the kid floating close behind them.
They showed up in an almost empty room, the only furniture an old bed in the corner of the semi-dark cobblestone room. The voice set down (Tn) on the rickety bed, taking away the spell. (Tn) woke almost immediately, but was paralyzed from the neck down. After adjusting to the light, (Tn)'s eyes landed on their captor.
They were about seven feet tall, not including the space they were floating off the ground. The figure had a long, purple robe and horns on it's dark head. The face was two purple dots and a purpley line pulled into a thin smile. It had wings and a tail that came from behind it, but the wings didn't look useable. They were tattered and torn at the ends.
"W-who the hell a-re you?!" (Tn) stuttered out in horror.
"Didn't those crabs teach you proper language edicate, child?" (Tn) immeadiatly recognized the voice as the one from the cave.
"W-ho are y-ou and w-what do y-ou want!" (Tn) managed to get out if their trembling mouth.
"Tsk, tsk. Fine, as you wish. My name is Zhuvito (Zoo-vit-oh). And as for what I want from you, you'll find that out later. For now, you get to stay in here. Have fun. Tah tah!" Then they vanished into thin air. As soon as Zhuvito was gone, (Tn) had control of their body again. Immeadiatly, they searched though their pockets for their phone to contact any of the Hermits, then remembered it was charging in G's base. With that, (Tn) started to lose hope.
They sat on the bed, curled up in the corner, trying to think of a way out. First thought, break the wall.
Your POV
I went to the wall at the end of my bed and started punching, just as I had when ai first started Hermitcraft and needed wood for my house and tools. It seemed to be working, but when the block broke, it just regenerated in front of my eyes.
Then I began to search the room for any holes or weak points. Nothing. I couldn't find a single possibility of escape from my dungeon. I just curled back up in the corner of the bed, crying silently, wondering what that monster was going to do to me if I stepped out of line.
I sat there and wondered if I would ever see my friends again. I began going back through all my memories, not just of Hermitcraft. From the time I could remember, to my first baseball, to that horrible night, to moving to Hermitcraft, to the cave, and to hours before, finding out Mumbo's crush on Grian. I felt safe going through my memories, it took me to a world where I wasn't in danger. To a place where I controlled what happened.
I began imagining scenarios in my head of things I wanted to do, but haven't yet. I bagman imagining things that I had taken for granted, like being with someone I knew. Being safe with someone who cares for me and my safety.
I just continued to sit in the corner and cry as I imagined and remebered.
Grian' s POV
I woke up the next morning to see Mumbo still asleep. I smiled and went to go wake up (Tn) so they could get ready to go hang out with Joe for the day. Drowsily I walked over to their room. At the entrance, I knocked before going in just for a heads up.
But when I went in, no one was there. (Tn) wasn't in the bed or anywhere in the room. They had also left all their stuff behind, including their phone.
I began to worry as I continued to search, finding a piece of paper on the bed. It was a note, maybe they had just gone over to Joe's early. I began to read.
'Dear Hermits,
As you may have noticed, you're precious (Yn) is gone. I have taken them to my castle for reasons of my own. You may have also noticed little Keralis is sick now too. May want to get to finding that cure quickly Shashwamy Void, time is ticking, especially for your little demon friend~! Have fun finding me.
-Zhuvito'
I was crying now as I ran to get Mumbo up.
"MUMBO! SERIOUS PROBLEM! (TN) IS GONE!" I yelled as I entered the room. It definalty stirred Mumbo. He rubbed his eyes and I handed him the note. As he read, his facial expression changed quickly from tired to full alert.
"Message the others. Make sure it gets to X." Mumbo said as he got up and straightened his suit. It was adorable how seri- no. Not right now Grian. Your friend is in trouble, now is not the time to be fantasizing over Mumbo.
I grabbed out my phone and messaged everyone, making sure to private message X too.
X
Not him...
Stress
Who's Zhuvito?
Joe
Yes, I would like an explanation as well.
TFC
Yeah. Who is he
X
Server meeting. Right now. Shopping district. I'll explain everything.
~~~•~•~~~
Aannnnnddddd cliffhanger! I'm sorry, I hate cliffhangers myself, but it is what it is, I have to get back to partying! Why you might ask, because it's my birthday! The day this is being released (May 23, 2020) is my birthday. And let me tell you, quarnetine birthdays suck. Can't have a bunch of friends over for it, I got lucky to be able to have one over though.
Another thing, I wanna start asking you guys some questions. So, I'll be leaving questions at the end of every chapter from now on asking something. It may or may not be about the chapter, you'll see.
Other than that, stay safe, stay healthy, and I'll see you in the next chapter, ❤ U!!!
(This is my longest chapter yet and I was watching Whats New Scooby-Doo the entire time)