Camp Hermit-Blood: a Hermitcraft fanfiction

Tango

"I hope so too," Scar said.

Tango couldn't agree more.

He was super excited to get claimed. Hephaestus, god of blacksmiths, fire, and unofficially, mechanics. Mechanics were Tango's specialty.

Or Athena, goddess of wisdom, war, and useful crafts. Tango was famous for making crazy farms and minigames out of redstone. Also, Zedaph was a son of Athena. How cool would it be if they were brothers?

Half brothers. Same difference.

Tango was already almost positive who his parent was, though. His dad was Hephaestus for sure.

Why? Because Hephaestus was the god of fire.

And Tango loved explosions, although not as much as Grian.

Nobody loved explosions as much as Grian.

Tango wanted to do everything in his power to get claimed. It would mean living apart from the other Hermits, but they could always meet together during the day. And Tango wanted to make some new friends, too. It was useful to have buddies outside Hermitcraft because they knew things. Specifically, how to use that crazy thing that everyone called electricity.

It sounded like redstone, but better. And Tango had to master it.

"Okay, Grian and Scar, since you broke the kiln at Arts and Crafts, you go find a Hephaestus kid. They're the only ones who know how to fix that thing," Luke said.

"I think I can fix it," Tango said confidently.

The other Hermits nodded in agreement.

"Really?" Percy said. "With your redstone stuff? That uses... well I don't know. But the kiln doesn't use redstone."

Tango shrugged. "I bet I can figure it out. Grian, come show me which button you pressed."

"He can figure it out," Bdubs said. "He can figure anything out! Especially how to mass-kill iron golems!"

Tango looked at Bdubs. "Not anything," he said. "But I think I can do the kiln. It's not that complicated. I'm pretty sure the heat source was just destroyed. If I can figure out where that is, I can fix it."

Luke shrugged. "You can try. But if you make it worse, you're not getting dessert tomorrow. I'm still your head councillor."

No dessert?

The stakes were high, but Tango was fine with working under pressure. He had done it before, and he would do it again.

------

First, Tango and Grian went to get Zedaph. The son of Athena was also a good redstoner, and he always had some good, if not at least interesting, ideas.

But when they found Annabeth to ask her where her half brother was, she was visibly in a bad mood, muttering about how she thought she and "Seaweed Brain" could work together, but nooooo, he had to be a son of Posideon, of all the gods, and couldn't he have been Zeus, because he was much more tolerable, and...

Well, you get the idea.

Grian and Tango decided to leave her alone.

They went back to Arts and Crafts, where a group of Demeter kids was puzzling over the kiln.

"Move out of the way," Grian said. "We can fix it."

"More like I can fix it," Tango snorted.

"I can fix it!" One kid cheered from the back of the group.

"Go ahead and try, Felix," a girl said, rolling her eyes. "You aren't even claimed yet."

Tango shrugged it off, despite her apparent thought that his name was Felix. Instead, he pushed past them to look at the oven.

"I turned this dial, right here," Grian said.

Tango shooed the Demeter campers out of the room. "My dessert privelages are on the line," he said.

They left.

Tango got to work.

------

An hour later, he stepped back, brushing redstone dust off of his fingers and shirt, and admired what he had done.

He had figured out the problem and fixed it, using redstone where he couldn't figure out the otherworldly materials. He realized he was running out of redstone supplies and decided to sneak out later to get more.

Later, one of the Hephaestus kids came in with a few lava burns from the wall, taking a bite out of something that looked like a lemon bar. Tango had tried one the other night and didn't really care for them, but Bdubs loved them.

But there were other things he liked, like those things that were kind of like cake with cocoa beans in them: brownies, Percy had called them.

This was the reason Tango needed dessert privelages.

The Hephaestus kid looked at Tango, still covered in redstone; Grian, leaning against the wall and staring at a button that he seemed to be resisting; and the kiln, repaired but with a little Tango tweaks in it.

He swallowed his lemon bar. "You already did it?"

Tango closed his redstone shulker box, not caring that the kid had no idea what it was. "Yep."

He looked impressed. "Katie said it was still broken. Don't press that," he said to Grian.

Grian froze with his hands inches away from the button. "What does it do?"

"It's a self-destruct button," the guy said casually. "It'll probably send this whole building up on flames."

Grian snapped his hand back. "Why is it even there?"

"In case someone tried to steal the kiln."

"The kiln ? Who would want to steal the kiln?"

"It's happened before."

Tango laughed. "Don't get any ideas, Grian."

"Nobody would want to steal a giant oven," Grian said.

The Hephaestus kid took another bite of his lemon bar, but as his burns faded, Tango got the feeling it was more than a dessert.

He was still calling it a lemon bar, though.

The Hephaestus kid eyed the kiln again. "I can tell it'll work. Don't ask how. It's a Hephaestus thing. But you've got some talent. Call me Beckendorf. Head counselor of the Hephaestus cabin."

Before Tango could answer, Grian pointed to a spot above his head.

"Talent that he gets from his dad," Grian said, somewhat jealously. "Look."

Beckendorf, who had turned to leave, turned back around and grinned.

Tango looked up. Above his head, burning like an ember, was a glowing orange hammer and anvil.

Tango of the Tek variety was among his kin.

But most importantly, Tango of the Tek variety had earned his dessert privelages.