Child's Play - A Hermitcraft 8 AU

The Test Subject (pt. 1) - Xisuma

Summary: Xisuma and Zedaph are in search of a cure for the Child's Curse, but so far there are only temporary cures with quite a few consequences.

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There was no way to fix the glitch.

It had sat so long in the game's code, that the world had just accepted it. The code had stopped fighting to get rid of the problem. Evil Xisuma and his mess he made weren't going anywhere.

"There must be something." Xisuma thought as he continued digging through file after file of the debugs that had occurred. Maybe the commands that were supposed to be going through weren't. Maybe he could find a way to get the code to fight it again. Maybe with enough searching, he'd find a way to get rid of this bug or mod or whatever it was Ex had managed to install.

Xisuma didn't do well with stress. He was one to overwork himself as everyone knew, and once he reached a breaking point, he'd go through a process of burnout for a week or two before he felt up to building or meeting up with people or even checking through the code. It had become a problem multiple times last season, and ultimately he wasn't able to go as far on his base and projects as he'd hoped. Even now he could feel it coming on, and he reminded himself he should take a break before things escalated any further.

He munched on a golden carrot. He'd starved to death about a week ago, and had to take the potion Zedaph had been experimenting with, which should age up the hermits after death. The side effects were brutal, leaving Xisuma with a pounding headache and intense nausea whenever he tried eating or walking around (not to mention the achiness from growing so much overnight). Just from the experience alone, he learned to be extra cautious with staying alive. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

He took a break to rest his eyes, because he knew if he didn't, someone like Keralis would probably come over and badger him to get out of his room for sunlight, social interactions, or  a nap: all things of which he felt he hadn't any time to do.

Xisuma got up to walk around the Evil Empire™. Or rather, to pace. Ex had said if Xisuma would do his will, he'd make things better. So far he'd changed the age after death from 3-6 to 4-8; which while wasn't exactly what he said, it did make the problem a bit more tolerable. Maybe today Xisuma could convince his brother that there was a better way to get what he wanted than using manipulation.

Although Xisuma doubted there would be any "getting to his brother" anytime soon.

"Ex?" Xisuma walked into the main building, where his brother usually sat around either restocking the area, collecting and counting his profits, or wasting time doing literally nothing at all.

"What is it? I'm busy!" he called from the room upstairs.

The excuse always annoyed Xisuma. Ex didn't know what busy was in the slightest. He could sit around all day, commanding his brother to do whatever he wanted, and Xisuma "obeyed" because he knew what was at risk. He knew his brother could create more problems if he fought back.
(Xisuma would ban him right here right now, but he'd vowed to never go to the extreme again.)

"You said you'd fix the glitch?" Xisuma walked up the stairs, to see that yes, Ex was focused on creating more derpcoin and creating the derpblock instead of actually doing something productive.

"Like I said, I don't know how. And it seems you and your family of 24 are doing just fine with the changes. It can wait a few more days." This had been around about the same excuse he used before. Ex wasn't very creative with his excuses, but Xisuma didn't fight it, unsure what he'd try to do if he fought back. For all Xisuma knew, Ex could force the hermits to be young forever, and that would not fare well.