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tunastime · 1 month

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A Gear of the Heart, Starting

just a little something I wrote for somebody's (@shepscapades) birthday back in November :3 after I asked what etho and bdubs would've been like shortly after etho's deviation. this is the few times before last life where bdubs realizes etho might be a good friend, and how their relationship changes. comes right before A Gear of the Heart, Turning! (4653 words)

Etho remembers quite a bit.

He remembers the ricochet of the explosion through his left side. He remembers a dozen errors across his vision, showing every unit damaged by the blast, the fractals of fracturing snaking up his arm, the shattered remains of his central programming lingering like a livewire.

Over and over he can remember the pitch of Bdubs’ voice and had to wonder his own diagnosis at that moment. Bdubs watching his android die in his name—he remembers that, too. Bdubs didn’t even ask for that. It was something Etho gave to him. He’s not sure he could even say why, either.

It remained a bitter flavor he couldn't identify, even as Xisuma assured him he was okay. Something had happened then, sitting on that floor, thirium in hand. Some movement in his chest he couldn’t place. It wasn’t anything physical, but it felt like some gear of his nonexistent heart had started, turned—rotated. And all he could do was ask himself why. What’s he supposed to do with that?

He doesn’t know. Fine.

Etho goes back to work at someone’s request. Not even his own request, either, so he has to wonder if maybe Doc put him up to it. Him being Bdubs. Him being Bdubs who shifted back and forth on his feet at Etho’s door—a facade of a base in the process of being designed. If one could even call it a base, yet.

And even though he was increasingly certain that Bdubs had been told to ask—and Etho asked him if he’d been asked to help, and he was adamant about asking by himself, that’s what he said. He said: “You think I gotta be told to ask people for help? I can’t just be doin’ things on my own?” and it had felt so much like doublespeak that Etho didn’t even fight to differentiate his tone.

But Bdubs had asked if he wanted to help with the horse course. Terraforming—it should be right up his alley, if he’s still into that kind of stuff. Figured he was the expert—or so it goes. Etho had nodded. He wasn’t sure what else he was supposed to do. He supposes he could have easily said no.

But every part of him yearned to say yes.

So he did.

The dust sifts through his fingers.

Etho perches in the grass, partially hunched as he leans over his line of redstone, shrouded by the hill half-built around him. He’d spent most of the week prior carving out the lines of the track, setting posts for buildings, laying out blueprints for Bdubs to finalize. Today, he lays his line meticulously, dust shifting in his hands. They still shake a bit—nothing a human would notice, nothing that disrupted the flow of his lines, but the overworked gears still shifted in protest as he worked. He could see the faded overlay of the project in his vision if he focused. It crackled, slightly blue-yellow, orange glowing indicators where action was needed, where there were mistakes to be corrected.

It isn’t his redstone to fix. The lines under his hands were—freshly laid by his near-expert technique—but the deeper lines, noteblock announcements, droppers, doorgates, the flourish of the house course, weren’t. Etho smooths out the line he was standing near with his thumb.

There was nothing wrong with the laid redstone, really. It’s just. Well. It’s not even. It takes up so much space. It lacks the efficiency and tidiness he practiced to a precision. It radiated Bdubs in an overpowering way, one that might turn a gear of the heart—one he didn’t have, of course. Etho’s lines are neat, rigid, conforming to his perfect mental map.

He lets down his section of dust, drifting over to the dispenser system. He pushes a line further into place, brushing dust back from the side. Further on, where the line crosses, he readjusts it, he smooths them from start to end of line. His hands work where his mind recalculates, looking for errors along the redstone already laid out by Bdubs. Programs bubble up to assist; he dismisses a message, and another as he works. The line straightens from source to sink.

As he passes, searching for another correction, he hears someone above him. In the corner of his vision, another message notification pings: from Bdubs.

They’re all from Bdubs, actually, now that he notices in full. He blinks, mouth twisting into a frown. Whoops.

He hears someone—Bdubs, he realizes, as he notes the fall of his feet, and the sigh he hops down from his horse, the shuffle of said horse, hooves on grass—clear their throat. Bdubs shuffles around as Etho moves back over to his finished redstone, dusting his hands on the sides of his pants. He lifts the small bag of dust, twisting the tie shut around his fingers as he travels back up the line to recheck the connections.

“Etho?” Bdubs calls. Etho straightens, just on instinct alone, glancing up at the stretch of sky he can see. It’s bright blue, barely dotted with clouds, and the grass looks warm with sun. He fixes where the dust starts as he sections off the end, tossing the rest of the redstone over to his sling bag.

“Under the hill!”

Bdubs leans over the edge, tilting his head at Etho as he peers into the dark. It takes him a moment to find Etho’s face, partially obscured by black fabric and the fluff of wool around his collar. Etho tilts his head, raising his eyebrows.

“Did you need something?” he asks, arm hanging loosely by his side. Bdubs frowns, too, watching Etho’s expression. As his eyes seem to adjust to the dark, his gaze falls on the lines of redstone. He pauses there for a long moment. In that moment, Etho feels something in his chest grind, almost to a noticeable ache. If he could pull in a breath to settle it, he might have, but the sensation and minute sound passes as soon as he moves his hand to press flat against his regulator. Bdubs is gone when he looks up, reappearing only as he drops into the cavern, catching himself on the wall. He readjusts his cloak around his shoulders, shuffling into the low-light.

“Etho,” he says, still frowning. Etho looks him over. He watches Bdubs set his hands on his hips, but his heart rate stays even and his temperature level. The only thing that changes is the tone of his voice, fluctuating with a pattern Etho recognizes as forcing something. Bdubs takes a long breath in and lets it out. Etho’s eyes find the twitch of his fingers as he folds his arms, rather than the sharp curve of his mouth.

“Yes?” Etho asks. He feels his pump work a little harder. It kind of hurts still, whatever’s stopped working in his chest. He flicks his eyes, recalling a diagnostic, setting it to run in the background as he closes out of the overlays and the world returns to yellowish-grey. Bdubs is still frowning.

“You mind tellin’ me what’s wrong with this redstone?”

Etho blinks. The diagnostic comes up clear.

“What do you mean?” he says, his expression shifting into something copying amusement. He’s trying. He’s at least trying to mimic the emotions he sees. Soon enough it’ll feel natural, he’s certain. “What’s wrong with it?”

Bdubs snorts, which turns into a laugh, which turns into Etho smiling a bit wider, a bit more confusion lingering in his expression as he leans around Bdubs to check his meticulously placed line. Bdubs turns away from him, facing the system, the clock that linked the start gates to the timer below.

“What’s—” Bdubs scoffs, shaking his head. “What’s wrong with it? Etho—” he holds out his hand, waving Etho over. Etho lingers at his shoulder as he steps forward, peering over the curve of it and the moss and small leaves and flowers draped over his neck. “It’s too perfect.”

Etho makes a sound like a scoff now, a caught sound in his vocal unit, a stuttering start to his sentence that doesn’t form right away. He’s trying for surprise, the pitch of his voice rising unexpectedly.

“It’s too perfect?” he asks.

Bdubs nods. After a moment, Etho thinks he sees his expression shift, the high of his cheek rising. When Bdubs turns his head to look at him, just for a second, Bdubs is smiling.

“Bdubs,” Etho says, sighing, turning away from him, to his bag on the far side of the room. He shakes his head. That something-nothing in his chest flutters and fades and disappears all at once, instead replaced with the urge to smile back. Bdubs laughs, and Etho can imagine him tipping his head back, mouth curved up as he giggles to himself. Etho shakes his head. As he starts to pull away from Bdubs, he feels him catch his sleeve, holding fast to his elbow.

“Etho, wait—” Bdubs giggles. “It looks really good.”

Etho raises his eyebrows. Caught in Bdubs grasp, all he can do is look at him, head tilted, trying not to let the amusement show on his face. Bdubs giggles, face breaking again as he does.

“Etho…” he tries again, fighting back a smile. Etho tilts his head the other way, as if to prompt him further, looking for anything. He stays silent. Bdubs hand lowers slowly, that smile faltering just a fraction. Maybe he thinks Etho’s upset with him. There’s a flicker of recognition in his eyes. “You gonna say anythin’? Or you just gonna stand there?”

Etho smiles, finally. He shrugs a little, glancing over at the fixed lines of redstone.

“I fixed your redstone,” he says cooly, sticking his free hand in his pocket. Bdubs blinks. He jerks away as Etho’s smile grows, shoving him hard in his shoulder. Etho wobbles for a moment, smiling to himself, scrunching up his face as Bdubs’ expression morphs. He does laugh, after a beat, poking Etho in the shoulder as he does. Etho hopes he can see the smile in his eyes. He saves, logs, keeps this moment. He’s sure in the low light that his LED spins yellow for a moment. It feels right. If there’s any feeling to catalog.

Bdubs huffs. Etho thinks he hears him say something under his breath. It sounds a lot like thank you.

It’s out of habit, rather than obligation, that Etho finds himself back at the horse course. Of course he ends up here, his feet moving him about as if his brain-not-brain had no thoughts of its own. Man. Some days, it really felt human.

He wanders across the plain, eyes lingering on fully-built buildings, knowing the schematics and plans, watching as those plans-now-buildings stretched higher above his head, where they nearly threatened to pop the sky wide open.

Bdubs had sat down with him earlier that week, papers spread out between them. He’d stopped by, actually—worked his way up the mountain to the base Etho had finally finished, papers in hand, looking like he was on the verge of collapse. He’d dropped the blueprints on the largest table Etho had managed to clear, spreading out the designs for huge, complex buildings. Etho watched him explain, listened for the inflection of when to offer suggestions, heard the way Bdubs’ voice grew quieter, almost conspiratorial, as he explained his palette. There was something methodical in the way Bdubs spoke, not only in the approach to his colors, but to his style. As much as it seemed eclectic and strange, he watched the pieces fall together as Bdubs spoke of his gradients. There was something deeper there, a precision that Etho, all of a sudden, in that room, craved to emulate. To write to disk. To save. To do more than just copy.

He’d built the horse stable first—all to his own specifications. It was Bdubs later who came in to detail, tilling up the dirt around to plant grass and flowers, sectioning off parts of the empty stable. It was almost difficult to compartmentalize that Bdubs was finished with it now. That they’d worked each line of the redstone and Etho had supervised the first steps of building, and now he could look up and see the very top, or almost, if he were to strain, of the spikes above the buildings.

And in just a few weeks, Bdubs was onto another project. Etho smiles to himself. He can’t help it. There was something rather comforting about that. Something about Bdubs dragging him along to help, pointing him toward the thing he was good at, and asking for help. Bdubs showing up at his door with plans. Bdubs cracking jokes with him, and looking for a laugh Etho couldn’t replicate yet. It’s like something clicked. Or was just on the breach of it. And Etho liked it.

Etho clears his field of view, taking in, instead, the stretch of sky where it met the ocean, along the line of hills and grass and flowers, and further still, to the smudge that looked like Bdubs. He blends in too well—the green of his coat barely noticeable against the field of grass that splayed out from the side of his build. There were still materials strewn about—chests half opened, shulkers stacked waist high.

Bdubs stands to the side of a dark grey and white horse, one hand placed on its nose, the other digging through his bag. Etho watches for a moment. Bdubs fishes around for that entire second that he lingers, searching for something, until he pulls out an apple. Another falls to the ground, rolling away from him. He holds out the fruit for the horse as Etho clears his throat.

“Hiya, Bdubs—” he says as Bdubs startles, twisting around to see him. He huffs, an immediate frown coming to his face. Bdubs turns to fetch the dropped apple, holding it high above his head as the grey horse nudges its nose into his empty hand. He pats it instead.

“Etho,” he says, tone thin. He sighs, shaking his head. “Scared the life outta me, you know that? You gotta make some noise when you’re walkin’ around.”

Etho smiles, a nice and easy reaction to the annoyance in Bdubs’ voice. It’s getting easier. At least a bit. The smiling part, that is. The inflection that comes with being happy.

“I’ll try next time,” he says, shrugging his shoulders. His hands find his pockets as he looks around, eyes following the path around the buildings. He’s sure the pollen and moss will be stuck to his clothes for days before he gets them out.

“Mm,” Bdubs hums, unconvinced. “I’m sure you will. Now, what’re you doin’ here? You don’t have anything better to do?”

“That’s a good question,” Etho says.

Bdubs turns back to him for a second, just a glance over his shoulder as he cocks his head to the side. He raises his eyebrows before he turns back to the horse, who’s started to nose at his bag. He drags his hand down its nose.

“You’re tellin’ me you don’t have an objective right now?”

“I never have an objective, Bdubs.”

Bdubs snorts again . Etho steps over, slow, minding the horse. It sniffs as Etho holds out his hand, nosing his gloved palm. He pats the horse's nose, somewhat stilted, smoothing over the soft bridge of his nose.

“Right,” Bdubs hums. When Etho glances over to him, Bdubs glances away, as if he’d lingered as Etho stepped over. He’s not moved from Etho’s side, which. Makes something fit into Etho’s chest in a way he isn’t expecting. He rests his hand on the horse's head, looking over at Bdubs in full.

“I can’t come see how the horse course is looking, now that you’re done?” he asks. Bdubs makes an embarrassed sounding noise, watching the rise of the buildings to their left. The horse sniffs, and Etho lifts his hand away, letting it fall to his side.

“I—I got excited about it,” Bdubs mutters. If Etho leans enough, he can see the beginnings of a flush creep over his cheeks, up the shell of his ear. Something about that, too. Etho looks beyond him, though, studying the rise of the buildings as Bdubs does. He nods to himself.

“I can tell,” he says, amusement slipping into his voice, almost naturally. Immediately, Bdubs whips around again, face twisted in offense.

“Hey!” he snaps. “You makin’ fun of me?”

Etho shakes his head, spreading his hands out in front of him as he does.

“No, no. Not at all,” he says, hoping the smile he’s giving is reaching his eyes. “I’m saying we make a pretty good team.”

Bdubs makes a little huff of a sound, but his posture and expression softens. Etho studies it from the moment it appears, trying to place the emotion behind it. He seems upset—but not from anything Etho said. He almost looks guilty.

“We’ve always made a good team,” Bdubs mumbles. Etho blinks.

“Since when have we been a team?”

“Since—s…” Bdubs blurts, then backtracks, folding his arms over his chest. “Well we’re a team now!”

Etho raises his eyebrows, stepping away from the horse and more around Bdubs’ side. He leans in a bit as he stands by his side, bumping their shoulders together. Bdubs doesn��t recoil. Instead, he pushes back, just for a moment, and they jostle. Bdubs hums, sighing through his nose.

“Are we?” Etho asks. Bdubs nods, short and firm.

“Mhm! ‘Cause I said so.”

Etho nods with him. There’s that thing again, a turning, jostling, in some part of his chest that really shouldn’t turn or jostle. He can feel his temperature tick up just a few degrees, a fan kicking on to settle the temperature, thirium sludging warm to cold through his limbs. A team, huh? He couldn’t beat Bdubs’ conviction, that’s for sure. Maybe it was a bit of guilt, then. Maybe something in Bdubs had realized Etho was much more of a help than a hindrance. Maybe Bdubs wanted a friend. Maybe he just felt bad and the feeling bad got to a point where he had to just do something about it. Etho didn’t know. He didn’t live inside Bdubs’ brain. And picking at Bdubs’ every emotion was a task enough to drive his processor into the ground. He could already feel another spike in temperature, LED glowing yellow-blue. Maybe it wasn’t all bad. Etho sticks his hands in his pockets.

“I’d like that,” he says, finally pushing out the words as his programming jumps into gear, “What’s our next project then?”

Bdubs goes back to jostling him before he turns away, moving from Etho’s side to collect his horse. Gathering the horse's reins in his hands, Bdubs pauses.

“Ooh…” he says, frowning a little. Etho watches the little furrow of his eyebrows—thinking. Bdubs is turning the idea over in his head. Bdubs steps back over with the horse in tow, already walking in the direction of the horse stable. Etho jolts forward, taking several big steps to match Bdubs’ pace. “Well why don’t you come back to the clock and we can talk about it, huh?”

“That sounds nice.”

Bdubs makes an affirmative sound, leading the horse around and into the stable. Etho watches him unlatch the gate, ushering the horse into the pen.

“I can put the kettle on and everything,” Bdubs says. He lifts the bridle out of the horse’s mouth, running his hand along the length of the horse’s nose. Etho doesn’t mean to watch him as he does, but the action is so purposeful. There’s a moment where Bdubs’ expression is unreadable—unreadable as in Etho simply can’t place anything on it. Unreadable in the amount it changes—something softer than he’s seen, something far away. Bdubs’ whole demeanor seems to shift as he stands still for a moment. Etho isn’t sure what to do with himself. He’s just standing in straw and dirt and stones, all of which he can feel under his shoes. He shuffles a bit, back and forth, to make his presence known, before he says:

“You know I can’t drink anything, Bdubs.”

And Bdubs rolls his eyes, squinting over at him, stepping away from the horse to hop the gate.

“Well you can at least fake it,” he grumbles. He folds his arms again, wrinkling his nose at Bdubs as Bdubs leads him out of the pen and into the open field around the horse course. The shadow of the buildings above them hasn’t changed, yet. The sun is still high and warm in the sky.

Etho laughs. At least, he makes a sound that he thinks passes as a laugh. Bdubs laughs too, though, so it must sound pretty convincing. He nods, the smile on his face feeling much more natural than he ever could have expected.

“I could fake it,” he laughs. “Sure.”

Bdubs grins at him. It’s nice. It makes the walk back to his base a little more bearable.

By the time Etho gets his invitation to the life game, he’s grown accustomed to being at Bdubs’ side again. He wanders around Bdubs’ base like he knows it, makes it a spot he chooses to map, to memorize. Bdubs checks in on him when he isn’t around as much—asks him how his builds are going, wonders if he needs help. Bdubs lingers in his spaces too, like a plant trying to root, gives himself reasons to stand in doorways just a bit longer, just enough to extend their goodbyes. It feels right—in a way that almost gives reason to Etho’s deviation. Maybe, deep down, from their first introduction, Etho had decided to glue himself to Bdubs’ side and not become unstuck. Maybe he’d simply put that decision, his first ever decision, into motion that day. It didn’t matter much as to why anymore.

When Etho gets his letter, he doesn’t open it. He holds it between two fingers, turning it over and over. He doesn’t need to read it to know what it says. There’s a dark red seal on the back, shaped like a heart. He makes a little sound, some sort of click in the back of his mouth, before he stuffs the letter in his pocket, half-folded.

He finds Bdubs exactly where he expects. Bdubs is sitting cross-legged in his garden, hands in the dirt, when Etho arrives at the crescent moon base. If he looks closely enough, Etho can still tell that Bdubs’ own letter sits on his window sill in the kitchen, unopened. But he’s really squinting to notice, so he writes it off for now as a flaw in his own sight.

Bdubs turns to him as he walks up. His hair is pushed back away from his face with his bandana, and his hands are covered in dirt, and he’s got a streak of black soil across his forehead that Etho tries not to look at for too long. Bdubs shoots him a toothy grin, going back to his bright orange tulips. If Etho looks long enough, he could probably guess the soil mixture, and tell him if it's good enough to be planting orange tulips in, but he doesn’t. Instead, he comes to stand behind him and Bdubs hums in greeting.

“Etho,” he says, looking up again, wiping the dirt from his forehead. “What can I do for you?”

“Oh, nothin’,” Etho says, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He forgets who he picked the gesture up from, but it’s become part of his natural body language patterns now, so he won’t be stopping it anytime soon. “I just came to see how you were doing.”

“How I was doin’, huh?” Bdubs asks, amusement trickling into his voice. Etho smiles, feeling his face pull.

“Mhm,” he says. “That’s right. I can’t come and check up on a friend?”

Bdubs laughs, sticking his spade in the dirt.

“Oh, we’re friends now?” he says, still giggling as he turns around. “I thought we were just a team.”

Etho watches him lean back on his hands, legs coming out from under him. He tries to read Bdubs’ expression and voice for any note of insincerity, or play, or teasing, but doesn’t find anything he normally associates with Bdubs. This just feels true.

“I mean, I figured with how much we’ve been working together…” Etho starts, to which Bdubs startles, waving his hands.

“No, no!” Bdubs yelps. “Etho, I thought the same thing! I just wasn’t expectin’ it from you.”

Etho blinks. It feels owlish, small, almost a wrong reaction to hearing Bdubs say something like that. But it’s what immediately happens, before he tries to open his mouth, and no sound comes out. He waits for a moment. He assumes his LED spins, maybe even red, as Bdubs watches him, face paling.

“Oh,” Etho says quietly.

“We’re friends,” Bdubs says, voice much smaller than Etho’s ever heard it. “‘S that alright with you?”

Etho feels like the proper response would be to laugh, if he could really feel anything at all besides every gear in his chest halting and restarting themselves. He makes a noise that sounds almost like a cough.

“Mhm,” he says. He watches Bdubs’ shoulders relax and finds that his own posture sinks with it.

“Good,” Bdubs says, nodding along. “Was there anything else you wanted to scare me with?”

Etho knows this tone—playful. Teasing. He works up a smile and fishes the letter from his pocket, slightly bent. Bdubs’ eyes flick right to it, right to the red seal pressed into the paper. Immediately, he scrambles up, reaching for the note in Etho’s hands. Etho lets him grab it in his dirt-covered fingers, even as Bdubs tries frantically to dust off his hands as he notices. Bdubs turns it over itself, glancing up at Etho.

“It’s for you?”

Etho nods.

“It was on my doorstep this morning,” he says. “I can see you’ve got one in your window?”

Bdubs snorts, shaking his head.

“Yeah, I haven’t opened the damn thing. I’m excited up until the point I’m not, ‘cause I know I’m gonna lose again.”

Etho hums. As Bdubs hands him back the letter, Etho rests his hand on his shoulder, giving it a hesitant, light squeeze. Bdubs looks quickly down at it, before he’s back to staring at Etho’s face.

“Don’t worry, Bdubs,” he says, hoping his voice is full of amusement and affection like he feels like it is. “You’ll have me there this time!”

And Bdubs laughs, full and warm in his chest, and Etho jostles him around as he does, until Bdubs is smacking his shoulder and wiggling free. He picks up his fallen hat and his tools, and Etho follows him around the side of the house as he puts things away. As he shuts one of the chest, Bdubs says:

“You mean that, though? You wanna be on a team?”

Etho smiles, feeling his eyes squint, forces every ounce of new feeling into his words when he says:

“I don’t think I wanna team with anyone else, Bdubs.”

And Bdubs’ grin in excitement is more than enough to convince him he’s made the right choice.

It’ll be a long two weeks until the death game starts. When he returns home later that night, Bdubs’ plans for success turning over in his brain, recording for later, Etho reads over the letter enough to commit the page to memory. He keeps it safe internally as the letter finds its way to his bookshelf, half-sealed. Through him, like it’s just under the skin, runs an emotion he’s not yet familiar with. He hopes it's a good one, at the very least. He hopes so, as much as an android, a machine, someone just now familiar with the idea of free will, can hope.

It feels good, though. And something makes him think that everything will turn out just fine.

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katkat030 · 2 days

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Ooooh what the thing you're writing abt?

You are SO kind and thank you for asking!

I threw those tags out there fully expecting no one to actually poke me about it and I'm really happy you did :)

Mutuals who know me from elsewhere,,, I already put a summary of this under the story time thread so I guess I have no excuses for not making this public

I'm writing a fic based of the DBHC au (Detroit Become Hermitcraft) comics by Shepscapades (if you're not familiar with it, I highly recommend you check out their blog!! I have SUCH brainrot and the storyline and art are so compelling)

DBHC is a Hermitcraft narrative of sorts that makes use of the android mechanics from the video game Detroit Become Human

here (1), here (2) and here (3) is sort of where it all starts (but I highly recommend looking through the DBHC au tag on their profile <- that link's in reverse chronological order btw so you don't have to scroll down first)

Basically, Xisuma designs androids (like Mumbo, Etho, Impulse and Doc) to assign to some of the hermits (Grian, Bdubs, Pearl and Ren to name a few) at some point around season 8 or maybe earlier, and they help with things like building, terraforming and probably resource gathering.

And at first they're androids, like "command me to do this and I will", but then they deviate, sometimes through a traumatic event or just by nature for whatever reason, and become more human, sentient in a way. And after Etho deviates, him and Bdubs start to become very close friends, with feelings attached, but the gist I get is that Etho doesn't entirely know what he's experiencing, and I think Bdubs is... probably in denial.

anyway, I could go on for hours about this but that's the basis of Shepscapade's DBHC au.

I'm writing an incredibly fluffy (and fighting the urge to write angst. but I may include a pinch, we'll see) oneshot about the two of them. Current plans is that they've been planting saplings (Etho was originally designed to help with terraforming and that, after all) and it's late afternoon, so Bdubs being Bdubs is very, very tired.

And tired people are clingy, they let their guard down a bit, they start giving in slightly to things they don't have enough energy to fight.

Like the urge to reach out and go hey, come back, I actually want you to play with my hair, I want you to lie with me in the sunshine, I want to listen to the sound of your android heart (thirium pump) because it's a reassurance that even though my eyes are closed you're still nearby, I want you here, and I'm going to hang on to you because I don't ever want you to leave again.

#thank you so much for asking!!#I have shepscapades to thank for the entire au! None of this my own except the sunshine oneshot bit fueled by my dbhc ethubs brainrot #I'm really enjoying tackling a fanfic - I've only ever written original characters before this point. it's such fun #my writing #shepscapade's dbhc au #asks #answered #my posts #ethubs #ethubs fanfic #Hermitshipping #Trafficshipping #hermitcraft fanfic #don't know if it's fine to maintag this? I'll stick to names #ethoslab #bdoubleo100 #bdubs

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askdbhc · 11 months

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Caulifla what do you think about Kale in her Super Saiyan 4 form?

Kale doesn't have SSJ4 because her tail was cut off as a child (She has LSSJ like Super Broly)

I'll just give you the reversal ^^

#Only Cabba and Caulifla have Super Saiyan 4 #CauliKale moment #kale #dbhc #dragon ball #dbz #dragon ball z #askdbhc #ask #dragon ball hc #super #universe 6 #caulikale

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1-marigold-1 · 4 months

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the boys are finally getting some rest [and some other random dbhc stuff]

dbhc au by @shepscapades , also this drawing is heavily inspired by this post

They are eepy [I mean,,,,, X is sleeping and Doc is just staring at his tea - X will probably make some angry british noises when he wakes up and finds out his tea is cold now--] I started this with intentions to leave it as a sketch oh god

We all love angst but-- let them get some rest and sleep, and tea or coffee okay I'l shut up now--

nahhhh some Eefo

This is so stupid but BDUBS YOUR DOG IS ATTACKING ME

And me as that one meme because this is how it felt when I was writing that long ask [also my sona reveal yippie :D]

#hermitcraft #hermitblr #xisuma #xisumavoid #dbhc xisuma #dbhc doc #dbhc etho #ethoslab #docm77 #dbhc fanart #my sona

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horse-head-farms · 4 months

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@shepscapades ‘s dbhc hypno lives in my head even though he has been drawn only once and as a background character so i was compelled to make my unofficial addition to the au

HYPNO-T120 (later “hypnotizd”) is an android who was built at other hermits’ insistence for Xisuma to stop working himself to death. As such, Hypno is very analytical and very efficient at working with mods/servers/code to share Xisuma’s workload. He also has a lot of programming pertaining to care and sleep, to ensure Xisuma takes frequent breaks and doesn’t forget self-care, and to help with his insomniac tendencies. Whilst initially intended for Xisuma’s aid, Hypno helped others as well

He was later “lent out” to xB on request, so he could have help on a heavily modded server. xB found Hypno fun to be around, albeit incredibly annoying. Hypno would find loopholes in xB’s orders, reply with sarcasm to whatever xB said, and correct him about details very patronisingly. Hypno first began doing this after observing that xB’s overall mood and motivation became better when he had someone to dispute with, and thus as an android whose secondary function is to improve the health of humans, Hypno became slightly antagonistic to xB. Eventually this spiralled into Hypno straight up arguing back or not doing things xB asked him to - deviancy. When xB returned to Hermitcraft and complained about Hypno’s antics, he was very surprised to learn this was not in fact normal android behaviour, and instead a sign that Hypno had deviated and was sapient.

After the reveal, Hypno opted to keep the bandana - considering it a token of his and xB’s friendship - but chose new clothes. xB has still not forgiven him for developing free thought solely to annoy him

#very interesting to use someone elses design because it made me realise how saturated the colours i normally use are LOL #im not sure how much of a workaholic xisuma actually is in the dbhc au but i like characterising him as one and i think this works well so #the timeline doesn’t work AT ALL by the way. i just think android hypno on a modded server is fun #my art #dbhc #dbhc au #hhf #hypnotizd #xbcrafted #hermitcraft #hermitcraft dbh au #hermitcraft fanart

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b0at3mdraws · 4 months

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I present an 11hr & 35min DocM77 to you chat!

I cannot physically draw Doc without horns or a shaggy as fuck mullet so, mx. @shepscapades you have to work with me here.

DBHC is an au by the lovely Shep and the au has been eating my fucking skull (Specifically Doc) so ye:D

[Watermark + shading only under the cut off]

Don't ask why he looks tired, Started drawing him at 2:07 am yesterday.

#my art #mcyt fanart #hermitcraft #docm77 #hermitcraft dbh au

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bruhman745 · 2 years

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wrote another short for @shepscapades ethubs dbhc au!! highly recommend reading her comic (and looking at her AMAZING art) before reading!

[FIC BELOW READ MORE!]

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“Bdubs.”

“Yes, my love?”

Etho smiled.

“I have a theory.”

Bdubs looked up at Etho from his place on the dirt, already pulling off his gardening gloves.

“A theory? What, you a scientist or something?” he snickered. Etho offered him a hand to get to his feet, and he took it.

“If I’m a scientist, I’m not a very good one,” he chuckled. “But I guess I’m just curious. You wanna test it out with me?”

They had been more than a human and his android friend for a while now, so Etho had taken to his own head to do a bit of… personal research. He wanted to show more affection in the way humans did, just to show Bdubs how much he cared, and he’d found some, confusing but interesting results. After looking into it further and diving deep into some sketchy forums, he was pretty sure this would work.

Bdubs rose an eyebrow, frowning.

“With you?” He narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. “This isn’t something… weird, is it? Because that’s the vibe I’m getting here!”

Etho rose an eyebrow.

“Weird? How so?”

“Like- Like, I dunno! It seems like you’re propositioning me for somethin’!”

“Is that what you think of me? Wow, Bdubs-”

“No, no no! Don’t you twist my words-” Bdubs huffed, then stamped his foot in the dirt. “Gah! You always do this! Seriously, they make you things way too smart-” He pinched his brows. “Nevermind. You can’t just ask me to test something with you while looking at me like- Like that! It’s weird, and you’re making Bdubs’ mind go to places Bdubs’ mind shouldn’t!”

Etho blinked.

“Looking at you like what?” He wasn’t making a face, was he? Bdubs couldn’t even see half of his face! There was no way he could tell what he was thinking just by looking at his eyes-

“Nevermind! Let’s just-” Bdubs waved a hand and turned, “-go do whatever it is you want me to. Make this quick, though – I’ve got moss to get back to!”

“Your moss will be just fine, don’t worry,” Etho smiled, taking Bdubs’ hand to lead him back to the house.

They got a few feet further before Bdubs grumbled, “I can walk myself, y’know,” but he didn’t let go.

Etho led him inside and shut the door. He let Bdubs set his things down and get comfortable, watching him quietly. Eventually, Bdubs stopped trotting around, absentmindedly mumbling to himself, and stood in front of Etho again with his hands on his hips. He narrowed his eyes again.

"What's this experiment then, huh? You gonna strap me to a table and probe me or something?"

"If that's what you want, then-"

"No! Don't finish that sentence! I don't want that at all!"

Etho laughed, "Really? Are you-"

"Yes I'm sure!" Bdubs poked him in the chest. "Just get on with it!"

Etho stepped closer to Bdubs, studying him for a moment. He noted that his body temperature had risen, his face subtly flushed, but didn't think much of it. He was just outside working all day, after all. It only made sense.

"Close your eyes."

Bdubs frowned.

"What, are you gonna rob me or something? You know I've got nothin' worth robbing!" He crossed his arms over his chest, moss shedding from his sleeves with the movement. Etho made a note to buy a lint roller later.

"I know. I carry your things for you,” he deadpanned, earning some more disgruntled noises from Bdubs.

“Ugh, fine! I guess I’ll do it,” he huffed and turned his nose up. He squeezed his eyes shut, and Etho watched him carefully. He waited, just a few seconds, and Bdubs peeked just one eye open.

“Liar,” he teased, and Bdubs threw his arms up.

“You didn’t do anything! You’re tellin’ me to close my eyes and then not doing anything, how am I not gonna look?! You could be stealing my stuff!”

“What stuff?”

“Oh you-” Bdubs snapped his mouth shut, cutting himself off, then turned. He walked a little circle before planting himself right back in the same spot, reassuming his arms-crossed stance. “Fine, I’ll actually close my eyes this time. Happy?”

Etho watched him shut his eyes a second time and smiled, “Very.”

He waited another moment and, when Bdubs didn’t open his eyes again, he stepped closer.

Careful, he thought. It is a delicate process for humans to get to this step in their relationships. I cannot mess this up.

He brought his hand up to gently grace Bdubs’ cheek, fingers brushing warm skin. He caught the sharp inhale from the other, and he hesitated.

“Is this alright?”

Bdubs just nodded, his jaw taught and shoulders tense. Etho worried he’d overstepped.

“I need verbal confirmation.” He didn’t, but he wanted it.

“Yes- I said make this quick, didn’t I?”

Etho hummed, “Yes, you can’t leave your moss waiting.”

His fingers slid further back, his palm cupping Bdubs’ face. He was warm to the touch, and for a moment Etho worried he was developing a fever when he remembered that this was normal in this situation. He dipped his hand down to trace Bdubs’ jaw, pausing as he felt the pulse pick up beneath his touch.

120 BPM, he measured. Interesting.

He pressed his palm to Bdubs’ skin, cupping his cheek. He felt him shift his weight, eyes catching the way he moved his foot over the floor, his hand slipping from Bdubs’ face as he moved away.

“Hold still for me,” Etho instructed. He couldn’t do this properly if Bdubs continued to squirm.

“I am!”

“You’re not, though.”

Bdubs huffed through his nose, then promptly stopped his fidgeting.

“Thank you,” Etho hummed softly. He swiped his thumb over Bdubs’ skin, and realized he was just stalling. He knew why; Bdubs was human, and he wasn’t. As much research as he’d done couldn’t equal natural ability – instinct. No matter how hard he tried, he could never quite understand fully.

But this could be the first step to trying, and he knew trying was better than nothing. He couldn’t mess this up; he had to take it slow.

Unluckily for him, Bdubs happened to be one of the most impatient people on earth.

“Is this the theory? Are you reading my mind or something? I didn’t give you permission to read my mind – you don’t wanna know what goes on in there!” he rambled. “Not that it’s anything bad, I just don’t think you could handle it. Bdubs’ mind is powerful, you know.”

Etho laughed.

“Shhh. I’m sure it is, but you know I can’t read minds. We’ve been over this before.”

“I know, but you could be lyin’ to me! You’ve done it before-”

“Not on purpose.”

“-and you wouldn’t hesitate to do it again!”

Etho was quickly realizing that if he wanted Bdubs to be quiet, he’d have to make him. He leaned in closer, their faces inches apart. He used his free hand to pull down his mask.

“Bdubs.”

He watched the other’s mouth stop before he said another word, shutting for a moment before he spoke.

“What? What is it? Do I have something on my face?”

Etho was quiet for a moment, then remembered something he’d found in his research. Perfect. He smirked.

“You don’t, and that’s the problem.”

He closed the distance between their lips finally, ignoring the warning flashing at the edge of his vision. He could hear the thirium rushing through his body; he could almost feel Bdubs’ lips against his. Almost.

Their kiss was short, though, because Bdubs quickly shoved him away to an arm’s length, hands grabbing Etho’s shoulders in what could only be bewilderment. His eyes were wide, his mouth was open, and his face was flushed bright red.

“What the hell are you doing?! Why- What-” he stumbled over his words, barely able to form a sentence. “You’re- You just kissed me! Why?! Why would you do that?!”

Etho blinked. He drew his hand back.

“Is that… Is kissing not, okay? I thought-”

“I don’t care what you thought! Why would you do that?! You’re- You’re-” Bdubs stuttered, hands not leaving Etho’s shoulders. Etho dreaded the words he was stuck on, his chest aching already. He wished it was just his thirium pump acting up.

“I’m… not human. I know.” He finished the sentence for him, eyes cast to the ground. “I read that it’s something you do when you want to show affection for someone. I can’t really, you know, do that in the way I would, uh, as an android, with you.” He looked up again, putting a hand over Bdubs’ as he met his eyes. “I overstepped, I’m sorry.”

Bdubs just stared at him, blank-faced. Etho searched his features, trying to find any hint that his apology had been accepted, but Bdubs only blinked.

Then, he laughed.

“Whaat? What are you talking about?” He dropped his hands from Etho’s shoulders. “I’m not mad! I just- I don’t get where all this is comin’ from! I mean, first off, it’s weird kissin’ you- Not in a bad way! Just- I don’t think you were made for that. Your lips are all weird and rubbery and-”

Etho sighed in relief, hanging his head. He put a hand on Bdubs’ shoulder, balancing himself as he laughed loud. Bdubs stopped rambling and frowned.

“What? What’s so funny? Why are you laughing?”

Etho just shook his head, chuckling.

“I’m just so relieved!" he gasped, though he didn't even need the air. "I thought you hated me for a second!"

"I couldn't hate you! If I hated you, you would'a been gone a long time ago, I'll tell you that much." He turned his nose up, then gave Etho a quizzical look. "I just don't get it. You can't even feel any of- well, that! Why kiss me if you're gettin' nothing outta it? It doesn't make any sense!"

Etho's laughter died off, but he let his hand linger on Bdubs' shoulder. He processed the question for a moment, then looked the other in his eyes again.

"I do feel it, though. I'm not supposed to, but I do."

Bdubs rose an eyebrow. He stepped just a pace closer.

"Really? How?" He tilted his head just a few degrees to the right, the action catching Etho's eyes easily. He stared for a moment, fondness warming a smile on his face, before he answered.

"This." He pointed to the damage on the left of his face, touching the part closest to his lips. "It's not a lot, but since I never got it repaired, I have touch sensations here."

Bdubs nodded, hand on his chin as he hummed and thought for a moment. Etho dropped his hand from his shoulder.

"Really? So…" He stepped closer. Etho took the cue, leaning down so they were eye level. "So if I kissed you here, you'd feel it more?"

He put a hand up, just brushing the damaged area. Etho felt it, the warmth of Bdubs' skin flooding his face.

It was… different. Not weird. Just different.

"Yes," he breathed, afraid to move too much.

A warning flashed, "Thirium Pump Irregularity Detected."

Shut up.

Bdubs grinned. His hand pulled Etho's face in closer. Their lips brushed.

"I don't need 'verbal confirmation' for this, do I?"

Etho smiled, "No, you don't."

#dbhc au #ethubs #hermitshipping #shep ur au is making me insane #so im going to make everyone else insane by writing for it #mwah <3 #there will be a continuation to this btw #hermitcraft fic #takes place in s8 btw #if u notice a detail yes its on purpose

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blackbat09 · 7 months

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i'm normal about @shepscapades' dbhc au. and uh. wrote a thing that's very much not canon but equally as much a love letter to everything shep's done. it's xbralis because of course it is.

“Shiswammy, I don’t think - Hm. Is this really necessary?”

[Voice Identified: Hermit Keralis1]

“I mean - maybe not. But, if I’m honest, it’d make me feel a bit better if you did use it?”

[Voice Identified: Administrator xisumavoid]

“It’s just - what does it even do, Shishwam? All this - this redstone and wires and bluey goopy stuff. You keep giving everybody robots this season - like, what am I even gonna use it for?”

“Well, we can just - here. It’s online. Can you hear us, XB?”

[Question: Audio Processor Functionality.]

“Yes.”

“Wonderful! Will you please give Keralis your initialization text?”

“Hi! I’m an XB2000 android. I can carry out basic tasks such as resource gathering and crafting, but my functional specialties are combat and exploration. I’m designed for high-stress environments, like deep oceans and naturally generated structures, and am enchanted with Aqua Affinity and Depth Strider, though I may be upgraded at your discretion.”

“At my discretion? Really, now.”

XB figures now’s as good a time as any to look at the Hermit he’s being given to. He’s been programmed with a knowledge of all this season’s Hermits, as well as the other androids Xisuma has brought to this world, so there aren’t really any surprises in store - but it is the first time he’s actually laid optical units on the man, in the flesh, and he quickly updates the player data from the previous season with the new input he receives as he looks Keralis over.

The Hermit’s wide eyes meet XB’s gaze, and his mouth twists in a smile, leaning his body a few degrees in XB’s direction.

The motion is not a threat - XB’s Hermit cannot register as hostile - so it goes mostly ignored.

“And what are you looking at, prrrincess?”

XB stares at his Hermit for a moment, watching the man’s smile falter and his eyebrows draw together, before Xisuma speaks.

“Oh! He means you, XB - Keralis likes his nicknames, he does.”

And while XB is aware of this already, has a certifiable database of aliases Keralis has given other Hermits, being given a new designation already is -

Well. It makes sense, actually. Keralis has just acquired a nameless android, and model numbers are unwieldy at best for casual address.

[Question: Visual Stimuli.]

“I’m looking at you, Keralis. Your appearance has changed since your documentation was last updated in season seven. My personal files will now match your current physical appearance.”

The furrow in Keralis’ brow smooths, and his smile returns, leaning in closer before he murmurs, “Anytime you want a closer look, princess? All you gotta do is ask.”

“Keralis!” Xisuma’s tone is scolding, but he also seems to be laughing, and Keralis snickers as he pulls away from XB, winking at him as if they’ve shared some sort of secret. He doesn't think they have.

“I’m being good! I’m being good, Shishwam, I promise.”

—

“Has anyone ever told you you’re beautiful, XB?”

His motions don’t pause or falter as the question registers, the light at his temple flickering as he cycles through his memories - it’s a short search, one XB doesn’t really need to perform, but it’s good to be thorough, for Keralis’ benefit.

“No.”

The man gasps, the sound of a second pick falling silent as Keralis stops in his mining. XB continues - the andesite Keralis requires won’t mine itself, and the vein XB is working away at is still projected to be decently large.

“No?” Keralis repeats, voice raising as he continues, “No? XB! How could this be?”

There’s - emotion, in his tone, that XB decides is best categorized as aghast. In talking to DocM and Xisuma during routine maintenance, he’s been assured that Keralis can be prone to dramatics - that his words and feelings are sometimes not as grand as he projects them to be. But XB doesn’t mind it, really - Keralis being demonstrative with his feelings, even if it pushes the line into exaggeration, makes them easier to react to in a way that pleases his Hermit.

“I mean, before you, I spent all my time with Xisuma and DocM. They must not have felt it was pertinent to tell me,” XB suggests, and Keralis huffs, his pick resuming its rhythm - XB’s answer is satisfactory, then.

“Well I think it’s necessary,” he declares, pauses between his words dragging on a bit longer to catch his breath between speech and exertion. It’s something XB has grown accustomed to; sometimes he’ll need to stop and compose himself even when he’s not working, simply growing too animated and tripping over rapidly-spilling syllables until he’s half-wheezing. “I can’t just - just send you off in the world, not knowing you have beautiful eyes! They’re like the sea, XB. You could drown a man in them.”

Along with his exaggeration, Keralis likes his figures of speech, his simile and metaphors. Technically, XB can sort of grasp what he’s saying - Xisuma has been rather accommodating when it comes to updating his verbal and linguistic processing, trying to make sure he understands what Keralis means beyond the base definitions of the words he says (in whichever language he decides to use that day - his Hermit was rather delighted to discover XB’s fluency in both Polish and Swedish) - but, sometimes, even with everything XB has access to, he still can’t quite parse the why of what Keralis says.

[Eyes: like the sea: blue? Wet? Could drown in them: deep? Dangerous? Negative?]

XB is quiet for a moment longer, watching the steady swing of his own pickax before he offers, “If my appearance is unsatisfactory, you can ask me to change it.”

“XB!” He sounds horrified, and this time the sound of his pick is replaced with the heavy stomp of his boots as he bullies his way into XB’s space, taking his face between work-roughened hands. XB’s arms lower gently to avoid hitting Keralis with his pick, obediently meeting his eyes as the Hermit usually wants, when he holds XB like this. “I would never!”

“But you can,” XB points out. Keralis’ face only folds more, stern frown seeming - almost out of place.

His Hermit usually smiles.

[Software instability.]

“But I won’t, XB. And that’s that. No buts.” He stares back at Keralis for a long moment, committing the serious face to his memory.

XB would rather not have many examples of the expression. Among his top priorities are his Hermit's health and safety, after all, and his happiness is a decent indicator of both.

“Yes, Keralis."

#xbralis #my fics #dbh hermitcraft au #i'm normal about this and certainly don't have a bunch of headcanons and shit.#nope. not me.#sorry i'm annoying about xb.

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wren-kitchens · 2 years

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oops my hand slipped

this is inspired by @shepscapades amazing dbhc au that has consumed my every waking thought and single-handedly gotten me to ship ethubs like there’s no tomorrow. go check her out, she’s rlly cool

anyway this is probably incredibly inaccurate but I absolutely had to write something when I saw it—I ended up writing this in less than a day lmao

“wait- wait, wait, wait.” bdubs stops his pacing and turns to face etho. “how do you sound like that?”

“I- I don’t know!” etho feels oddly exposed, having bdubs’ full attention again. “it- I don’t-“

stress levels 68%

“I don’t know what this is.” etho is panicking. how does he stop looking like he’s panicking?

“you don’t-“ bdubs has started pacing again. “oh, gosh, x is gonna be so mad if i’ve broken you.” he’s muttering, running his hands through his hair. “it’s gonna be hard enough to hide your eye, how am I-“

bdubs looks up suddenly and rummages through the many pockets in his moss coat. “aha!” he exclaims, pulling out something green and translucent.

etho watches as bdubs moves over to him.

“what-what are you doing?” etho resists the urge to step back as bdubs gets close to his face.

unregistered emotion detected, the warnings flash, thirium pump irregularity detected.

“here, stand still.” bdubs’ tongue is stuck slightly out of his mouth as he stands on tiptoe. he puts the green thing on etho’s ears and nose, and etho realises it’s a pair of sunglasses.

bdubs stands back, then frowns. “well, it’s not perfect.” he mutters to himself.

“what is the point of these?” etho’s face feels hot.

“coverin’ up the red eye.” bdubs says. “green is a complimentary colour to red, it should make it less obvious.”

new unregistered emotion detected

“you- is it unsightly?” etho asks, worried, for the first time, about his appearance. “xisuma can-“

“no!” bdubs says quickly. “um, I mean, we don’t have to bother x, do we? besides.. you look nice.” his eyes widen and he looks away. there’s a faint pink on his face.

huh.

“thank you.” etho says, feeling an odd heat in his cheeks. “why don’t you want to talk to xisuma?”

“he, uh. might get mad if he knew I broke you.” bdubs says.

etho frowns. “you didn’t break me.”

“well I was there.” bdubs says. “I should’ve been payin’ more attention.”

“you didn’t break me, though.” etho repeats. “the creeper did. or I did. both.” he pauses. “not you.”

bdubs is still close. he raises a hand and runs a finger down the crack in his cheek. etho shivers.

oh. that’s new.

“dunno.” bdubs says. etho’s face feels like it’s getting hotter. “still feels like I should’a done something. you weren’t supposed to do anything but mine.”

“i’m- i’m sorry.” etho is heavily distracted by the fact that bdubs is cupping his face. “I didn’t- couldn’t let you die.”

bdubs glances up and jumps backwards. “don’t do that!” he exclaims.

“I- what did I do?” etho asks. he just stood there, didn’t he?

“you were lookin’ at me funny.” bdubs’ face is a deeper pink. “you robots are weird.”

“I was..” etho frowns. “what?”

“you- I don’t know!” bdubs throws his arms up. he’s agitated? “those glasses are supposed to hide your eyes! oh, come here.”

etho makes to walk, but instead bdubs goes to him.

etho frowns as bdubs takes the green sunglasses off. “why?”

“they weren’t working.” bdubs says. he surveys etho’s face again.

thirium pump irregularity detected

yes, he knows, thank you.

“I mean,” bdubs reaches upwards and fiddles with etho’s hair. the warning light flashes more aggressively in the corner of his vision. “it’s not like x is known for getting mad.”

etho is not listening. it’s a weird feeling, bdubs’ hands in his hair. not bad though—no, not bad at all.

“your face is going blue.” bdubs notes. “what does that mean?”

“uhm. probably just a side effect of the explosion.” etho says. he cringes internally. how does he sound so emotional? he barely said a sentence!

“it doesn’t, like, hurt or anything?” bdubs says.

“no.” etho says. “feels.. hot.”

“hot, huh?” bdubs says.

“yes.” etho says tentatively. “what does that mean?”

“nothin’.” bdubs says, badly disguising a grin.

“it has to mean something.” etho says.

“you’re blushing.” bdubs says.

etho puts a hand to his face. “i’m what?”

“blushing.” bdubs says. “it’s what humans do when they’re embarrassed or something.”

“bdubs,” etho says.

“yeah?”

“what’s embarrassed?”

“it’s like..” bdubs frowns. “oh, how’d you describe it? um. it’s like when you do something that’s dumb and you don’t want anyone to see ‘cause they might laugh at you.”

“I haven’t done anything dumb though.” etho says.

“it can be if you think you look silly.” bdubs adds. “like when you were worried about the crack.”

“I.. suppose.” etho says. he was worried about that, but only when bdubs pointed it out.

“anyway, you don’t look silly.” bdubs says, turning around to grab the pickaxe on the floor. “come on, let’s go mining.”

etho hesitates.

“oh, right.” bdubs moves back over to him and takes his hand.

etho pulls up his mask again with his free hand and lets bdubs guide him down the cave. he doesn’t, necessarily, need to hold bdubs’ hand. but.. well, it’s nice.

unregistered emotion detected

that warning light seems to be always flashing when bdubs is involved.

“bdubs.” etho says.

“yeah?”

“there’s another emotion.” he tries. “I don’t know what.”

“well, what’s it feel like?” bdubs asks.

“like..” etho frowns. “I don’t know how to describe it. something.. warm here.” he puts a hand to his chest.

bdubs looks at him. “yeah?” he says again. his voice is oddly gentle.

“it’s nice.” etho says. “I like it.”

“when do you feel it?” bdubs says.

etho thinks. “when I realised you weren’t gonna reset me. when you’re patient with me, like how I can’t find my own way and you just hold my hand.”

“I think you’re feeling happiness.” bdubs says.

“that sounds right.” etho says. “i’m happy when I see you.” he tests the word. then smiles. “yes, that’s it.”

“you’re sweet.” bdubs says, looking away again.

“oh.” etho smiles to himself. “so are you.”

“I am not!” bdubs exclaims suddenly. his face is a deep pink.

“you’re very sweet.” etho pushes, grinning. “holding my hand, helping me.”

“i’m not sweet!” bdubs says determinedly. he snatches his hand away from etho, looking embarrassed.

aha, he can figure out emotions! take that!

“aren’t you?” etho steps closer to bdubs teasingly. “what are you then?”

“i’m- i’m big and tough!” bdubs folds his arms.

“hmm.” etho says, leaning close. “are you sure?”

“you- yes!” bdubs pushes him away, and etho laughs.

“is that why you’re blushing then?” etho says. “‘cause you’re big and tough?”

“I regret teaching you that.” bdubs mutters, pulling up his hood to hide his face.

etho laughs again. “you look very cute.”

bdubs’ breath hitches, and etho worries he’s said something wrong.

then bdubs yells, “HEY!” and pushes etho again, and etho is reassured.

“well, you do.”

“I don’t look cute, you look cute.” bdubs mumbles.

thirium irregularity detected

unregistered emotion detected

cute, huh?

#how’d I tag this #hermitshipping #ethubs #hermitcraft dbh au #hermitcraft #hoax writes #trafficshipping #ig?

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shepscapades · 15 hours

Note

Keralis aint gaslighting he just believes Xisuma is the most handsome man alive

Yeah Keralis was just being honest

#dbhc sillies #dbhc #dbhc art #dbhc grian #dbhc keralis #keralis #grian #dbhc xisuma #dbhc ask #anon #art escapades #hermitcraft #hermitcraft au

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oh-snapperss · 1 year

Text

the stories we tell, the truths untold

hey guys what if Evo was a campfire story and what if Etho was being watched?

this is part of a concept @pebbltree and i have had for well over a month now involving etho and the universe and we're really excited to share more!

art for this fic by pebbl!

Words: 5735

CW: Watchers, mild horror (no gore or blood or anything!)

Read on AO3!

for @shepscapades. you inspired us with dbhc, so we wanted to gift you the entire au. our ultimate revenge, if you will<3

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“Hey, Pause, if you’ll get wood for a fire, I’ll set up the tents?” Beef drops his bag unceremoniously on the forest floor. After a day of gathering supplies, they’re all exhausted in this new world, and with the sun steadily traveling towards the horizon, Pause had suggested they settle for the night, instead of fighting through it. Little supplies and no armor certainly didn’t lend itself to quick traveling, especially with the complete lack of villages so far.

Pause cranes his head up to look up incredulously from where his hands are braced against his knees, breathing heavily. “Beef, we don’t have tents! What do you mean?”

“Oh… c'mon man, it’s about the principle. I can go kill a rabbit?” Beef shrugs, then winces. “Man, walking all day… ain’t no joke.”

“The principle?” Etho has to stop where he’s sorting their few supplies just to laugh.

“Yeah, Etho, the principle!” Beef starts picking up rocks around the area, placing them in a circle for a campfire.

“Principle of what? Pretending we have tents?” Etho sounds incredulous, holding back a snort. Only Beef.

“You know they called me that in–nevermind.” Beef cuts off his own joke as both Etho and Pause break into laughter. “That doesn’t work–but it’s not my fault we don’t have any!”

“Then why would you offer–okay. Principle it is.” Shaking his head, Pause straightens up, pulling the already worn stone axe from his back. “I’ll chop the wood, but only cause I’ve got the only axe right now. You fellas better help out.”

“Yeah, yeah, get chopping, wood boy.” Beef retorts.

Etho just rolls his eyes. He leans back on his knees to sit on his haunches, resting his hands on his legs for a moment. They’re dirty, covered in mud, soil, and scratches from the day so far. Later, he’ll clean them off in the river he can hear nearby, maybe even wrap them to protect the scratches, but for now he wipes his forehead off with his sleeve, glancing up through the trees. Sunlight filters through them, although shadows around their clearing are quickly growing as the night approaches. There’s a tiny breeze filtering through the woods, sending the branches into a gentle dance that Etho has always enjoyed seeing. The rustles in the foliage beyond seems to promise food and life, although he can’t see any cows or sheep yet, which is unfortunate. They’ll have to make do with the thin sleeping pallets for the night. Inhaling deeply, Etho can’t help but love how clean and new the air itself feels–it’s the fresh air of a world just freshly created by the universe, and Etho always feels slightly awed every time.

After all, the universe loves him. His lips curl into a smile under his mask for a moment, and then he’s brought back to reality, where Beef seems to have stubbed his toe on one of the rocks he’d just placed.

“Crap!”

“You good?” Etho asks, trying to sort through his belongings again. Had he always had two wooden pickaxes? Why did he have two wooden pickaxes?

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Beef grumbles somewhere behind him.

A few beats of silence, then–“Sun’s already setting… I can’t believe this.” A dull thunk of the axe hitting wood sounds, then another, and another as Pause sinks his axe into one of the smaller trees, until it finally crashes to the ground, crushing a couple bushes below. “Got us some wood!”

Etho glances up from counting how much wheat he has. “Pause… that’s how day works. Sun rises, sun goes down...moon comes up… moon goes down…”

“I know! But it just seems fast!” Pause says, quick to rise to Etho’s banter. He grunts as he heaves the axe down on the fallen tree, before dragging them over to the circle of stones.

“...okay. How’s the campfire going?” Beef asks, cutting both of them off. Etho twists to look at him–he’s sitting on the forest floor, glaring down at his foot as if he’d done more to it than simply whacking it on a rock.

“I’ve got some wood. I’ll get it started,” Pause stops for a moment, glancing down to Beef with exasperation and amusement. “You good?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Beef says with a tone that says the exact opposite, before whipping his head to look at Etho. “Etho, what are you doing? We’re working hard, you’re just–sitting there!”

“I’m supervising,” Etho corrects. “and you’re just sitting too!”

“...wh–no, go help start the fire!” Beef waves Etho towards Pause, and Etho rolls his eyes before scooching over to help pile sticks on. There’s dirt caked into his pants, and twigs digging into his knees, but it was easier than standing fully to take the few full steps over. With the sticks and logs in the pit, he leans back, letting Pause do the actual lighting since he has the only flint between the three of them.

For a moment, there’s silence, until the cracking of fire fills the air, and Etho sneezes at the smoke immediately blowing to his face. Beef clambers back to his feet with the air of a mortally wounded soldier, grumbling under his breath about smoke in his eyes.

“Beefers, can you bring over the pork?” Pause asks.

“Yeah, I got it,” Beef replies. Etho ducks instinctually, and sure enough, meat soars through the air a second later towards Pause, who catches it without missing a beat.

“Thanks.”

“Yeah, no problem!”

And so their dinner is cooked quickly, while Etho and Beef set up torches around their area in the hopes mobs won’t dare to come near in the night. It’s an easy routine for them–Pause always cooks, Etho sets traps for more food, and Beef sets up tents… except they don’t have tents this time. Or traps, for that matter. Not yet.

For now, pallets are laid out, and while Pause is turning the meat over, Beef rolls three logs into a triangle around the fire for them to sit on. All three of them eat unceremoniously and quickly–they haven’t had a good meal since arriving, after all. As the sun turns to brilliant pinks and oranges, Etho wipes his fingers on his pants and glances over at his bag. His fiddle is wrapped in there, and he’d love to play it, but something holds him back, this time. Beef raises his eyebrows at him, a silent request, but Etho shakes his head.

“I shouldn’t… don’t wanna make the cuts worse on my hands.”

Beef nods in understanding. “I have an idea for what we could do instead..”

By now, the sun has set fully, but the world hasn’t completely darkened. Etho can just make out the leaves of the bushes drenched in deepening shadows, and the fireflies have just started to flicker into existence. Somewhere in the distance, a wolf howls. Glancing up at the sky, Etho watches the final streaks of pink fade, replaced by the first of thousands of stars. As always, he smiles up at it–he knows what that star is. Home. The stars smile back as they twinkle into existence, as if greeting a friend. After a moment he tears his eyes away from the galaxy above, brought back by Beef’s statement. Both Pause and Beef are staring at him, and he realizes he must have ignored them by accident–a rarity. Usually he ignores them on purpose, just to be funny.

“Hmm?” Etho glances between them. “Wasn’t listening, sorry.”

“Yeah, we figured. You always do that–looking at the sky and forgetting the earth when the stars come out,” Beef says, as if it’s the most normal statement in the world.

“...do I?”

“Yes,” Both Pause and Beef say in unison.

“Oh,” Etho says, and while they look back at him, as always, he offers no explanation. He clears his throat, trying to move on. “What were you saying?”

“I was suggesting something…” Beef trails off, looking to Etho as if that would make him magically know what he said.

Etho raises his eyebrows. “Is it… sleeping?”

“Nope!”

“I like your thinking already,” he laughs, scooting on his log just barely toward the fire. The gentle wind on his back has turned unkind in the night, serving to bite with a chill.

“Thank you! Now hear me out, gentlemen….” Beef stops, glancing around the woods as if to make sure nothing else is listening. “Scary stories.”

Pause nods emphatically from his own log, looking rather enamored with the idea. Rolling his eyes, Etho sets aside all hope of a full night's sleep–not that he’s ever had that with them. Not that he cares.

Another beat of silence passes, where Etho forgets to reply, and then Beef speaks again. “C'mon guys, it’ll be fun!”

Etho settles his hands back into the rough bark, bracing himself against them. “I’m not saying otherwise…”

Truth be told, Etho hasn’t ever really gotten the… point of scary stories, really. Sure, he’d been afraid of the occasional mob or fall, but ultimately he knew he was safe. The universe was kind, kinder than most people knew, why should he fear it? For all the campfire stories Etho had heard others swap over drinks and meals, he’d never really understood the appeal of it being scary. To him, it felt like just that–a story. Something never to be feared, just enjoyed.

“C’mon, Etho, don’t you enjoy being scared out of your wits? Just for fun?” Pause grins, and there’s something in it that feels unfamiliar to Etho. Again, another phrase he can’t understand. The other players have always described fear in ways he’s not sure exist.

“I mean, sure? Why not?” He settles, taking his hands off the wood and instead leaning forward to rest his elbows against his legs. The fire crackles as if laughing in the wind, sharing his sentiment that such fear doesn’t exist. Etho snorts softly in agreement. “Tell me a scary story, Pause.”

For a moment there’s silence, broken only by the sounds of mobs out in the distance, the fire laughing, and crickets whispering, and Beef settles too, sitting on the ground in front of his log, far too close to the fire for what Etho would deem comfortable. Pause closes his eyes, and the shadows on his face, for a moment, seem to cast a warning over it. Etho’s brows furrow–he’s not sure the shadows have ever done that before. Nonetheless, the moment passes, the shadows become as friendly as the rest of the universe again, and Pause opens his eyes, glancing between Etho and Beef with a glint.

“Alright, gentlemen… gather close… gather near… and let me tell you the legend… the tragedy… of Evolution.” Pause waves one of his arms at the sky, and Etho follows his gesture, looking to the sky. Again, he smiles. Then Beef interrupts, and Etho drags his gaze away again.

“Oh come on, Pause, we’ve all heard that one!”

“Have we?” Etho frowns… Evolution… the word is familiar, but not with the weight placed behind it.

“Come on, Etho, everyone knows about Evo. Oldest legend in the books… ‘cept for a couple stories, I guess.”

Etho can’t reply to that. He knows which legend is older, and he won’t confirm it. Not yet. He speaks after a moment, choosing his words carefully. “I’ve not heard it… I don’t think.”

“What, really?” Pause tilts his head at Etho. “Out of everyone… I guess I figured you’d know all these legends by now.”

“Nah, you know me!” Etho cracks a grin. “I’m a redstone guy! I’m no storyteller.” (That’s a lie, and they all know it.) “Tell me about it?”

The other two trade glances, then Beef shrugs and leans back against his log again. Pause nods, takes a deep breath, and begins.

“Once upon a time… there were beings. Powerful, godly beings… ones who called themselves…” he trails off, glancing around again, even to the open sky, before reaching for a stick on the ground. “I’ll write it… just in case.”

“In case of what?” Etho scoffs, confused.

“In case they w̸a̸t̸c̸h̸.” Pause hisses back, and for a moment Etho is taken aback at how serious he sounds. Then he’s shaking it off, craning his head around the fire to see what Pause writes in the soil. For a moment he struggles to read it–it’s upside down for him and scrawled without care to keep it neat looking. Then he reads it out loud, just to be sure he’s read it right.

“Watchers?”

“Shh! You can’t invoke Their name!” Beef sounds appalled, swatting at Etho’s leg. “You don’t want Them near!”

For a moment Etho stares at him, brows furrowed, then he turns his head to see Pause looking at him with the same deadly serious expression. They can’t be serious, can they? He decides to test their theory, and dispel whatever the odd feeling in his chest is by mocking it.

“Watcher watcher watcher watcher–”

“Etho, no!” Pause shoots to his feet, eyes wide with… fear? Etho wonders if that’s what his eyes look like, when facing the dangers the universe won’t ever truly hurt him with. Beef doesn’t move, but he trades looks with both of them before settling.

“Etho, just hear the story!” Pause scolds, sinking back down to sit. Despite feeling rather inclined to burst into giggles, Etho obliges, crossing his legs and staying quiet. He’s intrigued, to say the least.

“Alright, so these beings… the ones who ẉ̷͊ā̴̠t̸͎̽c̷̉ͅȟ̷̲, they’re not players, right?” Beef prompts Pause, giving him a nod.

“Right. Nobody seems to know exactly what they look like… mostly because anyone who could tell us either won’t or is dead.” Pause sighs, rolling the stick between his hands. “I think the general agreement is whatever they are, they aren’t human, or mobs, but… something different. It’s like they’re admins on steroids–they just have that kind of power, and more. And the thing is, they don’t use it how admins do.”

“What’d’you mean?” Etho asks. There’s a stray coal burning orange by his shoe. He crushes it under his heel, and it crumbles into ash.

“They use it… well, they use it like a toy. As far as anyone knows, they pick servers, pick players, use them as their playthings. Like entertainment.”

“Seems a little ridiculous, if you ask me.” Beef shrugs. Still, Etho doesn’t miss the way his eyes seem a little too similar to an animal just before slaughter.

“A lot of things seem ridiculous in this universe, until they’re true.” Etho counters, voice quieter than normal.

Pause lets his tone slide for once. “I think that the best way to explain them… is to tell the legend of the first lost server… Evo. They say the Wa– supposedly, they found Evo. Used it as a plaything, before throwing it away.

“The thing about Evo–what really made it stand out, if you know what I mean–this server was filled with the most powerful players in the universe. Some stories say that these players came there powerful, others say that the gifts were given by the… Not-Admins.”

“I thought they just watc-looked?” Etho frowns. Something keeps him from saying that word, and he’s not sure why.

“Not always… not on the servers they played with.” Pause glances around again, and so does Etho. By now, the sky is completely darkened, lit up by stars that… huh. Etho isn’t so sure they’re smiling, right now. He shakes it off, looking to the woods instead, where vague shadows swathe everything in it in darkness. A shiver runs down his spine, and he looks back to Pause, who continues his tale after a moment.

“So… the players on that doomed server. There was the admin, Grian… he had wings-”

“Like an elytra?” The woods aren’t so menacing after all, and he cracks a slight smile.

“No, like wings, Etho. Impossible wings, from the beginning.”

“...I see.”

Pause squints at him, then sighs. “There was Martyn… or maybe Merlin. I’m not sure what his name was, to be honest. Don’t guess it matters, now. I’m not sure what his gift was, either. But Pearl…” Pause’s tone turns almost reverent, closer to a whisper. “She was made of stardust and the universe itself, and fell from the moon.”

This time, Etho can’t quite laugh. Made of stardust…yeah, he knows that’s possible, better than anyone else. He looks up to the sky again, and they provide no answers.

“Netty… she could grow anything just from the force of her mind, just like that.” Pause snaps his fingers. “And not just regular plants, she could grow trees, magical things with roots to the void that should have been impossible to plant otherwise.”

Beef interrupts, eyes glinting excitedly. “-oh, I’ve heard of her! I know there was another player who could hop through time–”

“I’m getting there!” Pause says back quickly.

“...Sorry, time hopping?” Etho’s nose wrinkles. Such a thing… he rolls his eyes. Made of stardust, sure. Time hopping? Never.

“Yeah, yeah, hold in there, I’ve not explained what made the server so special.”

“...I thought it was the players.”

“It was, but there was something else, another impossibility that drew them there.” Pause nods, then leans in for dramatic effect. “This server could hop forward through time itself.”

There’s a drawn out silence again before Etho speaks.

“Sounds like a load of mumbo jumbo to me.” Etho laughs, but it feels stifled, as if the air were trying to push it back in his throat.

“...it’s a story, Etho. Of course it’s all mumbo jumbo.” Beef shakes his head, staring into the flames of the slowly dying fire.

“Aren’t all stories started from truth?” Pause counters.

Etho’s mouth falls open, perhaps to counter, but nothing comes to mind. Instead he gives a stilted nod, and his mouth closes without further argument.

“Can I tell my story, then?” Pause rubs a hand over his face. “I’ve not even gotten to the good part yet!”

“Yeah, yeah” Beef snorts, “Go on, scare the crap outta us.”

“Anyways, to recap before Etho here decided to interrupt–don’t roll your eyes at me-these players were special. Blessed by the universe, or maybe something else–but they all joined together, to create a world that could jump through time itself.”

“What does that even mean?”

In the woods, a twig snaps. Nobody hears it other than Etho, whose head flies up towards the sound, only to see nothing.

“Yeah, so this world… they started it as if the universe had only just begun, before all the resources we have today existed.” Beef glances to Pause. “At least, that’s how I heard it.”

Pause nods in response, sketching something new in the dirt with his cheek resting on his other hand. “That’s about right. Nobody knows if the admin made a deal with them or if they found a way on their own, but… that’s what it was.”

“That’s not possible.” Etho worries at the inside of his cheek. “Can’t go back. Not like that…” Memories filter through his head, of an age no other player should have seen, when it had simply been him and the universe, and the few animals that had come into existence at the time. To travel to that point… for something else to go back too and ẘ̷̜̃a̵̗͇̋͠t̸̢̓͒c̷̫̥̐h̸̲̀̃… his neck prickles, and he glances around. Is there a mob nearby?

The woods are empty.

Pause laughs, but it sounds wrong to Etho too. “Anything is possible, when you’ve been blessed like that, blessed by the very universe or void or.. whatever. When you’re being w̵̻͎͗a̵͍͚̽͘t̷͙̲͆̇̿č̴̲̭̋͠ḫ̶̃̿ẻ̷̢͉͙̃̔d̶̙̐̅̐.” … “Who knows, Etho… maybe you too.”

“Nah, man!” Immediately, his hackles are raised, which is… ridiculous. This is just a story! Some stupid campfire story meant to entertain, that someone made up lifetimes ago. And yet… he’s being… no. No.

“I’m just saying!” Pause says, sounding far too amused for how Etho feels so wrong.

“Go back to the story, Pause.” Beef intervenes.

Pause grumbles under his breath, something about constant interruptions and a bad audience–and Etho can’t butt in indignantly, not this time. “Okay. So the ones who were… looking at the players, they started to intervene. They left gifts in bedrock and other impossible blocks, and the players had to follow clues to reach them. Most of the players willingly went along with it. They were scared, afraid of what could happen if they didn’t play the game how it was meant to be played. All but one. All but the admin… Grian. As the story goes, he broke the rules. Took gifts that weren’t his, the impossible blocks from builds… just a general pest, to be honest.”

“Now hang on, I always heard he blew up the builds, and that was what upset them.” Beef interrupts.

“Who on earth did you hear it from??” Pause raises his eyebrows, looking at Beef like he has three heads again.

“That’s just how I’ve always heard it told!” Beef protests. “What version did you hear?”

“The right one, obviously.” Pause turns his chin upwards, towards the moon overhead, radiating smug energy. Beef opens his mouth to protest again, and as the two dissolve into bickering, Etho can’t help but glance upward at the sky again.

The stars feel wrong. Etho shivers, eyes growing wide, and he’s glad his mask is firmly in place, hiding his expression. Although… the mask is just an illusion of protection, isn’t it?

Where did that thought come from? He’s always been protected under the stars.

The back of his neck prickles again, and he whips his head down and around towards the woods. A stick cracks, and his hand travels to where his sword would be strapped to his side, if he had one. Still, there’s no movement, and Etho forces himself to turn his back to the shadows, because there’s nothing there.

He’s being-

A scoff of breath leaves him. This is ridiculous. He’s not being ẅ̷̲̖́͘͠a̶̲̺̜͊̇̋ť̵̬c̷͎̙̜͓̆̀̿͘h̶̪̏ͅẻ̷͓͛͝d̸̪̒́̈́ͅ, there is no such thing as a Watcher, the universe loves him. That’s the mantra he repeats even as puffs of air leave him faster and his eyes sting in the smoke.

He’s being ẅ̶̘̎͛͝a̸̗̔̿̀t̶̨̢̖́c̸̩͆́͌̕̚h̷̞̭̑͆́́̾ę̵͈̖̦̟̅̂̈́̅͐ḋ̸̻̘.

He’s fine.

The world comes back into focus around him, the campfire crackling merrily as Beef tosses a new log into it. Pause is speaking again, and Etho realizes the story must have continued without him. He shifts, hesitating to give into his fear–not fear, he’s never felt that before–whatever it is, but he slides off the log and in front of the fire, matching Beef’s position. It’s easier to breathe again, with his back guarded by the wood. Pause and Beef say nothing of his movements, although he can feel both their eyes on him, watchi-looking at him.

“Just getting warm. Getting chilly out here!” Even to him, his words sound strained.

Pause shrugs in agreement, and continues his story. This time, Etho doesn’t look at the sky for reassurance.

“--so they’re doing the impossible, and one of the players could even hop back and forth, he called it the Downside Up–”

“Oh, weird. I thought it was the Other Side.”

“Sorry, the Downside Up?” Etho grins without any positive emotion tied to it. “Thought this couldn’t get any more ridiculous sounding!” He’s being-

“Yeah, that’s what they called the times they left behind whenever they hopped.” Pause says, before holding the stick from earlier out to Beef. “You remember Their symbol? I can’t.”

“Yeah, I got it,” Beef says, and he etches in the ground, brows furrowed in concentration. Etho cranes his head the opposite way as before, narrowing his eyes.

“What would they have had a symbol for?”

“To show it was from them! It was created from bedrock itself, and etched into the earth and stone and even stars.” Pause sighs. “Look, Etho, Mr. First Player–don’t look so shocked, we guessed anyway–you’ve been around a while. It’s just a story. Let it entertain you. Let me tell the story.”

Etho purses his lips, but nods. It’s just a story. Stories are fake. Stories are rooted in truth and–no, no, this one isn’t. He takes a moment, considering, shoving away all his newfound apprehension, then seizes on another strange fact.

“They could just.. Use bedrock?”

“Yes!” Beef’s voice rings out louder than Pause’s, but both echo through the woods for just a second.

“Etho, they could do anything. They aren’t players, or gods, they’re beings between. Nobody knows.”

“Right.” Not players. Not gods. Simply something outside of that sphere, existing in the same universe.

“And so they,” Pause jabs his stick at the word scratched on the ground, “started a game with their players, a wonderful game of clues and punishments and rewards. And the players played well! They played how it was meant to be played, all but one.”

“Right… you said before. Grain, right?”

“Grian.” Pause says, rolling his eyes. “Maybe it was Grain. That makes more sense, honestly.”

“Yeah, Grian, Grian, the admin, whatever–him. You said he fought back?”

“Well, not fought, exactly. More just… didn’t play by the rules. And god, he paid for it.” Pause closes his eyes, looking to the stars for a moment. “All of them paid for it.”

“What, they punished him–sorry, everyone, just for not playing by the rules?” It feels like a warning. Because if there’s one thing Etho has never done, it’s stay within limits. Another glance at the stars, and–the stars don’t feel like home anymore. They’re ẇ̶̰̩͇̬a̸̜̘̮̰͉͉͐̓̓͘͠͝ţ̵̟̟̲͌̊̀̕c̵̡̆h̸̤͙̤̺̐̌͂i̸̛͎̹̫̿́̒̑ͅn̷͖̼͐͒̓̀̍͜͠g̶̬̣͓͊̌ͅ.

Beef nods. “Yeah… pretty much. Thanks to the admin’s refusal to play by the rules… in the end, everyone was punished. Least, that’s what I always heard, right, Pause?”

“Yep! At first, they let the players live under a false pretense of freedom, let each of them do what they would, just left clues and portals and gifts. But finally… the players wanted to go and take on the final fight.”

“The dragon.” Etho almost rolls his eyes. The dragon fight had always felt… well, boring, compared to what the rest of the universe offered. Somewhere in his head, music plays, the song he’d listened to when he’d undertaken the dragon on his own world. It’s calming, much more entertaining to listen to than the eerie silence the End had held when he’d first gone. Supposedly, the End was much more life-filled now, but he’d not bothered to explore much of it, preferring to keep under the stars for now.

“...did it..go well?” he frowns. The End was untouchable, surely.

“Supposedly, when everyone jumped through, they were separated. Alone. Screaming for their friends, only to be faced with the eyes of a beast larger than life.” Pause lowers his voice. “They fought the dragon alone, screaming for their friends, and they won anyway!”

“Doesn’t seem so bad to me!” Etho feels a weight on his chest lighten. Sure, it was an odd punishment, to face the dragon alone, but he’d done it without issue. “How is that possible? To separate the players like that?”

“Anything is possible, if you’re being w̴̧̞͕͇̩̼̒͒̂̑͛ạ̶̢̳͎͖͎̏͒ţ̵̛̬̗̘̺̺͆͋̐̓͐č̴̪̃̋̑h̵̛̹̭͛͑͊͝͠e̶̡͖̊̏̐̓̾̏d̴̰͚̪͚̞̭̠̎̍̿̈̋̋.”

The weight of the words returns tenfold, and it’s crushing, feeling the eyes on him, knowing they’re there knowing–

He gasps for air, forcing away the fear filling him. “I thought you said not to say that out loud!”

Pause breaks into laughter. “Chill, Etho, it’s just a story! I meant it, like, for the atmosphere. It’s not real.”

Another branch breaks, and Etho startles, eyes wide with the same fear he hadn’t understood, before.

“Did you just get scared by a branch cracking?” Beef frowns, but seems inclined to laugh.

“...no”

Pause snickers, “You did!”

“No, leave it, cmon–” Etho shoves some leaves into Pause’s area, hoping one will fly into his face. Pause just shoves them back at him, snorting.

“Awwww, scared some mythical beings might get ya?”

“Weren’t you telling me stories have truth to them, earlier?” Etho counters, and all three of them fall silent, illuminated only by the now-mocking campfire shadows and the dim moonlight. For a moment, Etho almost thinks Pause and Beef look afraid too, sharing nervous glances into the forest and above. Then Beef clears his throat, and the moment ends.

“Let’s move on-”

“Yeah-”

“Yep-”

“As I was saying, the promises of the universe weren’t given to the players when they defeated the dragon.”

“Wh–promises of the-” Etho feels his heart drop from his chest. Those promises were for him, once. “You mean…”

“Oh, you know, and the universe loves you, because you are love, all those words that beam into your head? They changed it. Made it different.” Pause shakes his head. “Powerful beings. Messing with the universe itself.”

“Again, impossible.”

“Is it?”

Of course it is!, Etho wants to say. The universe can’t be messed with, not like that. The universe loves its players. We aren’t ever in any true danger!

He’s not so sure, sitting in this world.

“...what did they say?” Not that… he really wants to know, but… he needs to know.

“Oh, well… that’s when they took the admin. Made him one of them. They say Grian threatened the other players, he changed. He became a-y’know.”

“What do you mean, one of them? I thought you said they weren’t players–” he doesn’t understand, feeling a bit dizzy.

“They aren’t. But… he used to be, at least.” Beef shakes his head. “Took his wings, gave him new ones, took his humanity, freedom, everything. I’ve heard versions where he doesn’t remember, others where he does… some versions where he’s simply a prisoner, forever trapped in… wherever Watchers live.”

“Don’t say the name!” Pause hisses.

“Alright!”

“That…” Etho doesn’t really know what to say. The hair on his arms stands straight up, and he peers into the woods. Nothing. “Good campfire story, Pause. Wanna sleep now?”

“It’s not over!” Pause grins just a little too widely. “Just now getting to the best part!”

Etho shudders, Something is w̵̨̞̽͐̉a̷̲̩͍͕͜͝t̸̢̥͕̣̠͕̄̈́c̵͚̮̝̫̓̏h̶̢͉̯̜̘͗͜ͅỉ̶̳͓̈́͂̊̉̅ͅn̷̦̹̬̰̳̘͂g̷͈͈̾. “Alright, go on.” he swallows. Just a remnant of the past.

“Well, the admin was taken, but that leaves the other players. Three of them… Merlin, BigB, and… another. They were thrown into a vicious cycle of death, forced to kill each other over and over in games that only had one victor… one survivor. And then they do it again, and again, and again.”

“Oh.” The rising fear stops, for a moment. Such games… impossible. At least that must be myth and nothing more. “Who was the third?”

“Nobody knows. That was his other punishment–to be forgotten. No one knows his name, no one knows anything about him, except he and Merlin were close.”

Again, impossibility, most likely. It’s easier for Etho to dismiss that out of hand. A player forgotten? Players can’t be forgotten by the universe. “And the others?”

“Some of them were killed, along with the server. They set the server in ruins, burned it, destroyed it, and swallowed it wholly into the void itself, never to be visited again.”

“Seems harsh…”

“I don’t think so. I think that was the kindest punishment,” Beef mutters. “I’d rather that than anything else, if it were me.”

Neither Pause nor Etho have a response, and after a moment Pause clears his throat and continues. “Two escaped. Netty and another. I think… Beef is right. That was a worse punishment than dying… to live and always be w̸̡̧̺̩̻̋̊͐̔̈́͠ą̷̣̑̔̓͘͠t̸̡̘̩̳̜̉̈́̂̓̈͂c̶̯͇̘͔̣̰̫̀̃̊̈̇̈́͌̇̉h̷̝̦̩̣̲͉͑͒̊̊͑͐͋̔͜͝e̸͓͙̟̳̺͙̕d̴̲͓͂̾͗̂̚͜. To live on and be powerless against the past, stripped of the gifts given.”

“They lost their gifts?” Etho’s eyes fill with horror, and his hand edges his pack, where his own gift (or at least… part of it) resides.

“Yep! And that’s it! That’s the legend of Evo! Cool story, right?” Pause seems… unbothered by it all. Can he not feel it?

Etho nods weakly. “It… that’s a story, alright!”

“C’mon, Etho, you know it’s just a story! It’s all fun!” Pause waves smoke out of his face, before pushing off the log to his feet. “Well! Good times, gentlemen. Should we sleep the mobs away before we all die a gruesome death?”

“Probably should, yeah,” Beef follows suit, opting to flop on his log without a pallet or even a blanket. “Etho, you got first watch?”

“Yeah, I got it,” Etho doesn’t move from his spot, just stares into the campfire. “I’ll wake you up when it’s your turn.”

“Okay then. G'night, Etho.” Pause flops onto his pallet, and within minutes, both him and Beef are breathing steadily, completely out.

Minutes tick by, measured only by the steady creeping of the stars above. At first, Etho tries not to think, tries not to exist, even. The fire dances softer than earlier, flames barely eating the charred sticks. He sighs, but pulls to his feet to place another log in the fire. As he turns to the pile of wood, he’s startled, turning his head so quickly his neck cracks to peer into the woods.

There’s nothing there.

There’s something there.

He swallows back air, and it chokes him. He picks up a log and holds it like a weapon, grasped firmly between both his hands. Even so, as he revolves in one spot, peering into the trees, nothing appears. He’s alone. After a moment, as the fire dips dangerously close to spluttering out, he’s forced to lay down his flimsy protection. Kneeling down, he shoves it in, then returns to his log and flops backwards on it to stare up at his solace.

He stares up at the stars, and the stars ẃ̶̰͎̳̤̖͔͂͗́͒ǎ̵̧ţ̴̧̧̗̙͔͓̮͗̅͋̓̑̀͐c̷̭͚̬̿̉͗́̌͠h̵̡͍̖͖̭̬̺͙̋̅͗ him back. It only takes a heartbeat for him to realize that these are not his stars. He shuts his eyes, willing them to go away, to leave him be, and when he opens them again they are still ẁ̷̪̰̳̳̩͙͙͎͚̱̓̓̌͝a̵͎͕̟͉̭̪͚̋̆̉̊̊̈́̀̎̋̔̔ͅt̷͓͔̼̱̥̯̺̺̦͆̿͌̾͜ͅċ̷̟̬̱̍h̵̘̦̮̙̬̤̘͛̅ͅị̷͍̣̝̑̀̈́͊͆͊̆̋͗͋͜ň̷̢̨̧̳͔̳̻̱͉̲͎̀̿̀̋̕ģ̸͙̠͌̈. Something cold stops his heart and he’s suffocating under their cold care, and he doesn’t understand, because the universe promised, and this is not the universe he thought he knew.

He is being w̸͖̗̥̬̫̣̟̰̔̋́̉̋͘ǎ̵͔̳̳̖̟̲̫͔̉ț̶̼̘͇͇̫̺̗̣̱̻̩̬͊̃̈̀̒̒̔͆̓č̴̱̺̟̺͕͉͙̿̿̓̓̇̈̽̉̉͝h̴̩̝͍̩̭͐͋̿̍͑̓͋͘e̷̢̘̖͚͉̦̪̻͕̘̯̔̒́̉̓̊͋́̓̑͝ḑ̸̨̫̳̼͉̫͙̼̪͍̏́̐̽̅͝.

Hours later, when he wakes Beef with shaking hands and no words, he flops down on his pallet, and he searches one more time, for the safety and love the universe has always given. For the first time, he cannot find it.

He is being ẃ̶̧̛̛͈͙̮̗̙̦̰̙̖̗̬̭͚͔̾̈̈́̊̀̏́̈́̽͑͊̽̇̇̊͗́̊͋͋̓̏̓̚͘̕͜͝ȁ̶͙̩̝͇̼͉̠̳͎̻̀͜ͅt̴̨̡̺̦͉̗̺̞̱͍͓̫̠̭͇̝̰͎̘͕̬͙̘̙̖͒́̄͒̌̉̈̄͐̅̈́͒͒̒́̈́̑̽͘̕̚ͅc̸̨̡̧̢̧̛͚͕̼̜̥̥͓̦͚͎͓͇̹̮̮̱̣̣̳̞̟̱̖̐̃͌̀̍́̀̇̿̈͆̾͛͌͐̎̈́͌̃̋͆͐́͂̀̋̋̚͘͝͝͠͠ͅh̴̢̛̛̰̥̯͉̗̄̄͆̈́̇̌̈́̊̆̀̓̄̊̍̓̐̔̄͒̽͆̊̈́̄́̐̒̕ë̴̢̢̛̛̥̼̱̹̪͇̪͕̲͕̦̫̲͓̤̲̪͓͍̙̗́́̎̔̓̉̊͗͋͆̃̐̋́̇̈́̎́̚͝d̴̹̈́͛̑̒̓̇̓̃̈́̀

#ethoslab #etho #pauseunpause #vintagebeef #evolution smp #tw: watchers #watchers #hiiii guys it's me i'm back on my bullshit #my fics

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