Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Stars. many many stars. That traveled along the cold and thick void space. Each one a world where people known as players live, some by themselves and others in groups of two or more (these ones are know As servers).These players created a main hub a place where portals to each of these many worlds was held so quick travel could be possible and where shoppes had been placed to sell items and tools for those who didn’t have certain things spawn on their own worlds.

These worlds held their own special aspects of life some have a respawn anchor where you could die over and over and be back in the comforts of your found world, and in some where respawning wasn’t an option giving the players a one life chance at that life. some are found by lonesome people intending to be in solitude and peace, and some found for others to live as family and friends all being able to share their love and talents for building, red stone (mechanics) and exploring.

Players were born on their worlds living there until their old enough to travel on their own. Its a galaxy of possibilities and wonder. Where players can travel and explore new stars. People even discovered that these worlds are created by strands and strands of code which has led to the development of creating custom sars to further fill the ever growing Void.

Watchers are told to players as myths, nothing but entities from long ago. They would Watch the very first players on their worlds as they created and built until they were ready to move on. These players would find company in the erieness of being Watched. They marveled in the feeling of someone other then themselves being able to see their creations and findings, even going as far as worshipping the Watchful entities. These players of old later found that that they could travel far beyond the stars that they could see, bringing forth the findings that other people such as themselves lived on these far away worlds. This is what started the community and growth of the Void Space.

The players of old began to forget the pleasured feeling the Watchers gave them as they now had people that not only Watched but spoke and contributed to each other’s creations. As The seasons and millennia went by the Watchers hunger for harmless entertainment shifted to a need for sorrow and grief. They would receive their meals through Watching the more unstable servers, the ones that had war and conflict but even that grew too little for Them. They craved more then what the players were giving Them so They interacted with the worlds and its players, succeeding in creating their own gruesome entertainment if needed.

He laid there floating in the void. The boatem crew, his friends, lay floating beside him stuck in the exhaustion that came from the events of season 8. he let them sleep peacefully as if nothing could ever hurt them, dreaming of the people they called family and the worlds they called home. Grian as much as he wanted to could not rest.

Something was calling him, something sinister and distasteful. a multitude of a thousand voices speaking and whispering all at once. They spoke to him and he could barely make out what they were saying. It was hard when so many voices were screaming, crying, whispering all at once. It would have been absolutely incomprehensible if Grian himself wasn’t part Watcher.
One second he was surrounded by his boatem family the next he sat completely isolated in a black void, no stars to be seen for miles, just gut wrenching suffocating darkness. He could see himself, or what little of himself could be seen in his distorted Watcher form. An extra pair of wings sprouted from his back right below his first set. His body shifted and morphed into something sickeningly tall, thin, and unfamiliar.

A black gooey substance started at his fingertips and merged with his skin slowly fading at his elbows. A purple cloak suffocated his body, the Watcher symbol (a hollowed out vertical rectangle with two broken corners) clasping it together. He could feel beneath the cloak another pair of arms sprout, floating by his ribs fixated into a praying position. Another pair of eyes opened below his first set and a third one that tagged along in the middle of his forehead. That's not right. He began to panic more at the new addition of a fifth eye.
He knew he could not be afraid while facing Them. These monsters, these disfigured masses of void, feathers, and eyes. They were terrifying, deep in his bones Their voices shook through him causing him to tremble, but he did not fall or succumb to the feelings they wanted him to. Grian was part Watcher yes but he was also strong willed and stubborn, not even a god like entity could take that from him no matter how hard they tried.

That is why he was chosen to be one, They were fascinated by him, outraged even, Grian didn’t give up and neither did They. There were others like him of course just as strong and stubborn towards the Watchers but he was the first they found the first player to be turned to one of Them.
They spoke to Grian. They were enraged. he could tell. The fact he and all the Hermits escaped from Their attack on Season 8 was a clear reason. The code borders had been weaker that season and no one knew why. Grian, though had his suspicions that a Watcher attached a piece of itself to Pearl, one of the Boatam members and a friend of Grians from his old server, Evolution.
It had been destroyed and abandoned after the Watchers took him from his former home. He was young then and could only do so much. Nothing remained of it except for the people. It devastated him when he heard the news but he was ever grateful that his friends had made it out.

The Watchers never showed any outward emotion, They hardly ever moved. Just floated there like ghosts or shadows. Grian remembered the first time he saw one. It was after his fight against the Ender Dragon (a protector of the End cities created inside the worlds) he was split up from the rest of Evo when they jumped through the End portal.

He had won the fight. Then the ground fell beneath him into the void bringing him with it. He thought he would die and respawn but he didn’t. he floated there in the void just like he was now. The God like entities had shown up, and to a players mind they were incomprehensible. They were somehow there but not, almost solid but faded in and out of this plane of existence. They hurt his head when he tried to look at Them and his body felt heavy and yet stuck in place due to fear. And when all their millions of eyes looked at him. It was wrong. So incredibly wrong. Now though he was more Watcher than player, making it a bit more doable to comprehend them.

deep thick cloaks hiding what they were, eyes seeping out of every corner of the beings. Their Wings huge and intimidating loomed over their forms and Their eyes looked somehow straight at Grian and yet at something deeper inside him. They were full of glee and malice. Grian knew that What they truly felt was aggravation. Aggravation towards him and him alone.
All at once the thousand voices rang through Grians skull. They screamed and glitched through his head. They repeated over and over in his mind what They wanted him to hear. punishment. They wanted him punished.

He felt every thought and emotion that came from them in that moment and it terrified him. The Watchers could only do so much to Grian and the server. But despite that Grian couldn’t help but tremble beneath the sound of the Watchers and what their voices implied.
They went too far when re-creating him into one of Them. They made Grian too powerful for his own good, he didn’t know how to use what twisted powers the watchers had “gifted” him but he did know that he had enough in him that Their power towards him was limited. as if Grian was subconsciously using it to protect him and the Hermits. So what were they planning on doing to him?

not fair! They screamed again and again in Their distorted messed up voices. Grian couldn't help but cover his ears failing due to the set of wings that replaced them he felt sick as the monstrous noise rang through his body. He began turning back to his player form. the second pair of wings folding into his back, their rightful place, the second pair of hands following. his bones screamed in pain at the shift from his Watcher self to his player self. Why. Why were they reverting him from his Watcher form?

And then he felt it. Flinching at the sudden synge feeling of flesh being ripped open, looking down at his left arm with panic. where he had felt the pain rip through his skin was an eye, raw tissue surrounding it making Grian gag at the sight of it as the pain registered in his brain. He bit back a scream refusing to give the Watchers pleasure.

He kept his composure for a bit before he felt more sprout up his right arm and his legs. they stabbed their way to his shoulders and neck he could feel each eye move beneath the once comfortable fabric of his sweate and He understood.
He understood why they had reverted him to his player form and it was so he would feel the seething pain of their punishment. Cruel and grotesque thats all these entities were. They marveled at others pain and misery, fed off of it, and interjected in Grians life whenever he was beginning to feel the tiniest bit of normalcy . And comfort. And peace. They wanted nothing more than to Watch Grian
suffer after every bit of happiness he felt.

They knew the best way to punish Grian was to torture his mind. They knew what feelings Grian held towards being a Watcher so they played with the emotions as if they were poker chips ready to be given and taken from one tragedy to the next. They knew what they were doing. They plagued him with a constant reminder that he will never be normal. Never be his old self. Never be a player no matter how hard he tried.

He looked up from his arms to see the Watchers were gone and he was back in his space suit floating in the void full of stars that he was in before the Watchers had taken him. Except he was alone, the Boatem crew, he knew where already on season 9. Grian couldn’t care in the moment. All he could do was sit there staring off into nothing. No tears spilled from his eyes.

He was past overwhelmed by what had just happened. too focused on the white hot pain that ran up his body in splotches of raw flesh and eyes. He didn’t have the energy to cry anymore. It wouldnt be long, that Grian, like everyone else would be stransported to the new world as well. Through when it came to it it wasent like everyone else at all. He never really was, and never will be. He is a Watcher. Something that hurts others for gruesome enjoyment, and Destined to always hurt the people he loves. A monster pretending to be something he is not. Hoping he can return to what he was before he was stripped of his humanity. Of his thoughts. Of his love.

Xisuma looked around at the world's spawn, the rocky cliffs and mountains surrounding him. a river rushed on one side inevitably leading to an ocean somewhere in the newly created world. He watched as slowly but surely his server (the Hermits) began to spawn in, some by themselves and others in groups or pairs depending on how they decided to escape the horrendous ending of season 8.
Eventually everyone circled up around him waiting excitedly to start season 9. they talked amongst themselves discussing future build plans and hoping for a better season, trying to move past the destruction of their last world. He looked around doing a Quick headcount to make sure everyone had made it safely to the newly created world.

He noted all his Hermits, looking over the last group, the Boatem members. It consisted of Impulse, Pearl, Mumbo, Scar, and- someone was missing, some short parrot winged hermit was missing. Grian wasn’t here yet. Why? X had assumed that he would have come through with the rest of Boatem but he was nowhere to be seen. He looked around the group of Hermits re-counting every member for the second, third, fourth, time.

He ran up to the little Boatem crew “Impulse where is grian?” He asked, voice low enough that no one could hear except the group of four to not alarm the others. They all looked at him with questioning looks and nervous movements, Mumbo rung his hands together, Scars pointed ears twitched, Pearl shifted on her feet, and Impulse’s tail flicked back and forth, “We don’t know, we thought you might be working on getting him here so we weren’t to worried about it” Impulse answered getting a bit hesitant with each word.

Mumbo then spoke up “but if you're asking us, somethings wrong isn’t it?” X stiffend at that “I-I don’t know I made sure to teleport everyone here so..” he trailed off a moment before speaking again, “ I'm gonna go check with Keralis and try and locate him or re-teleport him here. We will figure this out, promise.” he gave a reassuring smile, calming a bit on the last part trying to show that he had this under control. It didn’t feel like he did and he wasn’t very good at hiding it. he never really was, season eight was a good testament to that.

In all honesty X didn't have a single clue where Grian could be or what had happened for all the Boatem members to be here except him. “Is he going to be alright?” Pearl asked her eyes full of fear from something long ago “Yes, yes of course he will. I will go work on getting him here right now” he said, half to comfort Boatem and half to give confidence to himself. He turned around starting towards Keralis, and in front of him Grian stood staring at the ground, staring somewhere distant, and off-plian. His hands clenched to his sides and his body stiff, the other Hermits stared wearily at him, not sure if they should approach.

X felt immense relief after seeing Grian’s dirty blond tuft of hair. He immediately ran to him noticing that something was wrong, the Boatem members following behind surrounding the winged Hermit in a half circle, Xisuma stopped in front of him. “Grian thank void! You had us all worried, are you okay!?” X asked, moving to grab both sides of his shoulders. Grian’s head shot up to look at X as his hands touched Grians arms, his wings shuttering and eyes blinking a few times before he answered “Ya-yes Im fine all good here don’t worry!” He stiffened trying to hide a pained expression as he tried to shift out of X’s grasp. Almost like Xisuma’s hold on him was causing him pain. He let go, moving his hands away cautiously.

“Are you sure? You looked pretty rough there for a minute,” Scar said, clearly worried about his friend.
“Ya ‘m sure please don’t worry about it, I was just a bit put off by being left behind.” He expressed with more confidence than last time. X did not believe Grian for a second, not about how he was feeling or what had happened, but he didn't want stress Grian out more then X could tell he was.

He in turn gave Grian a stern look through the purple visor of his mask studying his face. The feathers on his cheeks and bridge of his nose looked in rough shape they drooped a bit more than usual. His eyes looked tired and full of something X couldn’t place. X sighd “If your sure? Grian gave a half nod “Let's get this season started then shall we?” Xisuma said using everything in him not to worry too much about his avian friend. He settled on giving Grian a reassuring smile. Grian in return nodded giving X a misplaced grin of mischief.
Xisuma made sure everyone was okay from the escape of season eight before letting them loose to venture off and explore the new world. He was worried about Grian and knew something had happened, but he didn’t want to pressure the feathered hermit into telling him. He also knew that if it got serious he and the other Hermits would intervene and try and help Grian the best they could. With that knowing thought he decided, like everyone else, to wander off and begin his season 9.

There was no way. No way in void that Grian could continue to hide what the Watchers had done to him. The eyes were everywhere, they ran up his arms to the base of his neck and a few had spread to his ribs. He could feel each and every one, the way they rubbed against his maroon sweater leaving a disturbed itchy feeling against his body.
They threw off his balance making it impossible to focus. Like he could see everything and nothing at the same time. It felt like his vision would fade and re-focause not sure which eyes to use. Sometimes his vision would look past the world itself and see into the code of it and its players. It was too much. Too Overstimulating. And a reminder of how little humanity he held. He knew if he wanted to stay on this server, His home. He had to hide it. Had to act decently normal.

Chapter Text

Xisuma looked around at the world's spawn, the rocky cliffs and mountains surrounding him. a river rushed on one side inevitably leading to an ocean somewhere in the newly created world. He watched as slowly but surely his server (the Hermits) began to spawn in, some by themselves and others in groups or pairs depending on how they decided to escape the horrendous ending of season 8.

Eventually everyone circled up around him waiting excitedly to start season 9. they talked amongst themselves discussing future build plans and hoping for a better season, trying to move past the destruction of their last world. He looked around doing a Quick headcount to make sure everyone had made it safely to the newly created world. He noted all his Hermits, looking over the last group, the Boatem members. It consisted of Impulse, Pearl, Mumbo, Scar, and- someone was missing, some short parrot winged hermit was missing. Grian wasn’t here yet. Why? X had assumed that he would have come through with the rest of Boatem but he was nowhere to be seen. He looked around the group of Hermits re-counting every member for the second, third, fourth, time.

He ran up to the little Boatem crew
“Impulse where is grian?” He asked, voice low enough that no one could hear except the group of four to not alarm the others. They all looked at him with questioning looks and nervous movements, Mumbo rung his hands together, Scars pointed ears twitched, Pearl shifted on her feet, and Impulse’s tail flicked back and forth “We don’t know, we thought you might be working on getting him here so we weren’t to worried about it” Impulse answered getting a bit hesitant with each word.

Mumbo then spoke up “but if you're asking us, somethings wrong isn’t it?” X stiffend at that “I-I don’t know I made sure to teleport everyone here so..” he trailed off a moment before speaking again, “ I'm gonna go check with Keralis and try and locate him or re-teleport him here. We will figure this out, promise.” he gave a reassuring smile, calming a bit on the last part trying to show that he had this under control. It didn’t feel like he did and he wasn’t very good at hiding it. he never really was, season eight was a good testament to that.

In all honesty He didn't have a single clue where Grian could be or what had happened for all the Boatem members to be here except him. “Is he going to be alright?” Pearl asked her eyes full of fear from something long ago “Yes, yes of course he will. I will go work on getting him here right now” he said, half to comfort Boatem and half to give confidence to himself. He turned around starting towards Keralis, and in front of him Grian stood staring at the ground, staring somewhere distant, and off-plian. His hands clenched to his sides and his body stiff, the other Hermits stared wearily at him, not sure if they should approach.

X felt immense relief after seeing Grian’s dirty blond tuft of hair. He immediately ran to him noticing that something was wrong, the Boatem members following behind surrounding the winged Hermit in a half circle, Xisuma stopped in front of him. “Grian thank void! You had us all worried, are you okay!?” X asked, moving to grab both sides of his shoulders. Grian’s head shot up to look at X as his hands touched Grians arms, his wings shuttering and eyes blinking a few times before he answered “Ya-yes Im fine all good here don’t worry!” He stiffened trying to hide a pained expression as he tried to shift out of X’s grasp. Almost like Xisuma’s hold on him was causing him pain. He let go, moving his hands away cautiously.

“Are you sure? You looked pretty rough there for a minute,” Scar said, clearly worried about his friend.

“Ya ‘m sure please don’t worry about it, I was just a bit put off by being left behind.” He expressed with more confidence than last time. X did not believe Grian for a second, not about how he was feeling or what had happened, but he didn't want stress Grian out more then X could tell he was. He in turn gave Grian a stern look through the purple visor of his mask studying his face. The feathers on his cheeks and bridge of his nose looked in rough shape they drooped a bit more than usual. His eyes looked tired and full of something X couldn’t place. X sighd “If your sure? Grian gave a half nod “Let's get this season started then shall we?” Xisuma said using everything in him not to worry too much about his avian friend. He settled on giving Grian a reassuring smile. Grian in return nodded giving X a misplaced grin of mischief.

Xisuma made sure everyone was okay from the escape of season eight before letting them loose to venture off and explore the new world. He was worried about Grian and knew something had happened, but he didn’t want to pressure the feathered hermit into telling him. He also knew that if it got serious he and the other Hermits would intervene and try and help Grian the best they could. With that knowing thought he decided, like everyone else, to wander off and begin his season 9.

There was no way. No way in void that Grian could continue to hide what the Watchers had done to him. The eyes were everywhere, they ran up his arms to the base of his neck and a few had spread to his ribs. He could feel each and every one, the way they rubbed against his maroon sweater leaving a disturbed itchy feeling against his body.

They threw off his balance making it impossible to focus. Like he could see everything and nothing at the same time. It felt like his vision would fade and re-focause not sure which eyes to use. Sometimes his vision would look past the world itself and see into the code of it and its players. It was too much. Too Overstimulating. And a reminder of how little humanity he held. He knew if he wanted to stay on this server, His home. He had to hide it. Had to act decently normal.

He tried his best to travel alone at the start of the season knowing it would be easier to avoid the risk of him revealing anything by any of his friends touching his arms or shoulders and in turn freaking out. He knew they would worry and start asking questions he couldn't answer. but he was a social person and when Mumbo found him deciding that he was going to stick by Grian, he couldn’t bring himself to say no, even knowing that it was going to be harder to act like everything was normal.

Mumbo and Grian explored together beginning their journey into the season. Mumbo was one of Grian’s closest friends so of course he knew something was wrong, but Mumbo knows Grian isn’t the type to share his problems, specially if it made anyone worry or concerned, so he let it go. For now.

Mumbo and Grian were coming up on a cave as they spotted Scar sulking a few blocks in front of them. judging by the many death messages placed on their comm screens Scar died yet again due to falling, him inturn losing all his stuff…again. Scar of course joined their little band of shenanigans as they gathered basic tools and supplies. Scar was an amazing friend one of Grians best friends even right next to Mumbo. The problem was that Scar wasn’t very good with personal space which caused issues when Grian’s goal
In the first place was to stay away from people touching him.

Mumbo and Grian stood at a cliff edge laughing. Scar had just fell and died for the fourth time since joining them. It was caused by a little friendly push from Grian. After a while Scar had made it back to the cavern he had left Grian and Mumbo at and decided to get payback on his feathered friend. He came up behind Grian who was standing by the cave edge getting ready to jump down as Scar grabbed his shoulders and pushed him.

He had expected Grian to fall into the cavern and they would laugh about it after he made it back from his respawn. Instead Grian cried as if he was in pain, fell into the cave and panicked. His wings had flared out just in time to catch him crashing him on a cliff edge a few blocks down.

Scar yelled over the edge at his friend as Mumbo came over to him, “Griaan you good!” No answer. Mumbo and Scar looked at each other puzzled and worried. They decided to head down into the cave to check on him. As they approached they noticed Grian was shaking, sitting stiffly with tears in the corners of his eyes and hands hovering above his shoulders where Scar had grabbed him. Scar couldn’t help but feel a pain of guilt as he ran over to him. “Whoa G are you okay?! I didn’t mean to scare you that badly, I’m so so sorry!”

Mumbo joined Scar in kneeling beside Grian. “Hey, Grian buddy you alright?” Mumbo went to grab Grian’s wrist to try and move them from his shoulders but as he did so grian jumped back to reality, flinching at Mumbo’s movement. “I-I'm fine! Sorry for worrying you guys like that, I'm not sure what happened.” He spoke nervously trying to play it off. He looked back and forth between Mumbo and Scar as he spoke, trying to relax to push further that he was fine.

His eyes stopped on Mumbo studying his face. His raven black hair was brushed back away from his face. His dark brown eyes were kind and always held a bit of nervousness to them. He had pale skin, and the familiar black mustache that sat below his nose was shaped and taken care of neatly. Mumbo had blue phantom like scales on the sides of his face and small tattered phantom wings laid against his back. His black suit vest was just as neat and tidy as it was the start of the season somehow, Grian smiled to himself at that. He took a breath in and out, calming a bit.

Looking over at Scar. His hair was grown out this season. It fell below his shoulders and shone in the sun, he had a gold leaf band around his head. Grian smiled a bit as he thought about the long tangent Scar would go on about what hair products he used and the amount of care and time it took to get his hair to look the way it did. He moved to scars jade green eyes and then traced the old wounds that lined his face with his eyes, one started at his right elf ear and ran a thin line across his nose. The other much bigger started at the bottom of his left jaw and crossed to the other one, nearly touching meeting at an odd angle. He took another breath in and let it out, relaxing some more feeling the comfort of his friends beside him.

He took one last breath before deciding to speak, “I'm sorry guys I really didn’t mean to worry you.” He looked down at his feet playing with a loose father that had fallen from one of his wings. “ I know I've been acting a bit off but please don't worry ‘bout it, it will blow over in a few days. I just need some time to process a few things.”
Mumbo thought for a minute, looking at Grian sternely but worryingly before he spoke “Grian“ He spoke carefully “does this have something to do with the Watchers?”
Grian stiffened in response and furrowed his brows still looking at the blue feather in his hand.

“Ohhh are those the creepy eldritch monster entities you told us about?” Grian cringed at Scars chipper choice of words. But He nodded, answering both Mumbo and Scars questions. He didn't want to worry his friends with the Watchers. And he knew if they saw what They had done to him neither of them would want to be around him anymore. He didn’t want to scare his family away by showing them how inhumane he was. Grian couldn’t handle that. Not again.

Mumbo and Scar where the only ones who knew his association with the Watchers. And it was by luck they kept his secret and still stuck around him. The conversation had come up during the turf war of season 7. Grian was hiding in the mansion he built for that season. After an overwhelming and frantic escape from mayor Scar and the H.E.P team, Grian had gone home and out of nowhere lost control of his Watcher side and it started to show itself. He hid himself away in a panic. Scar had wandered off trying to look for Grian to make sure he was fine and found him sitting on the floor against one of the mansion walls. He saw Grian spaz in and out of his Watcher form and decided to call Mumbo to help him calm Grian down and figure out what was happening. Grian had decided in that moment that he had to explain to them what was happening at least to an extent. He had explained to them that the Watchers took him from his server and had turned him into one of Them.

The rest of what happened and why was way to touchy of a concept still. Grian remembered how utterly difficult it was to re visit the sucky parts of his life and in all honesty he wasn't used to it. He decide that it would be easier to lie than answer their questions. “Right, well are you hurt at all?” Mumbo looked Grian in the eyes with concern. he shook his head, “no, no I'm good”. He was still shaky from the events that had just happened.
“Did they speak to you?” Scar asked, his tone changing to something low and calming.
Grian nodded
“What did they say?”
“It-…Grian pulled his hands away from Mumbo’s “It was nothing important. Just- They were angry and stuff but like I said it will blow over in a few days and I will be back to normal I promise,” he gave a reassuring smile as he stood up. “Now lets go down in that cave, ya? I don't know about you but I would actually like to make some progress this week!” Scar stood up after him “oh ya right, I'm the one that keeps dying no thanks to the both of you!”

Mumbo took a moment, his friends argued in front of him teasing one another. he would do anything to help them no matter what the problem was. He knew they would do the same for him, so what he could not grasp was why Grian was so adamant in keeping his problems to himself, him and Scar already knew his association with the Watchers so what was the problem? Mumbo decided to instead think about what he did know and that was that when Grian decided to tell them what was going on, because there was absolutely way more going on then Grian was telling them, he and Scar would be there for him, for comfort, and for reassurance. He just hoped Grian new that. He stood up to join them, “Scar buddy, I'm pretty sure the first two times were your own fault.”