Child's Play - A Hermitcraft 8 AU

April Prompt List - Day 2: Thunderstorm - Grian

Summary: Child's Play AU with Hybrid Hermits AU in a storm. Prompt list by @HermittpadRecap

(And please, will someone explain how to tag, because this ain't working. I put in the hashtag-- but it STILL AIN'T WORKIN')

(Author Notes: This one is quite the chapter with tons of characters, so here's a rundown.

The following characters are children:
Ren
Mumbo
Zedaph
Gem
False

And the following are hybrids (some are vaguely mentioned, some you can't even tell):
Cleo - Zombie
Doc - Creeper
Etho - Fox
Ren - Wolf/Dog
Zedaph - Sheep
Tango - Blaze
Scar - Cat

I may have forgotten some here, but these are the main ones, if nothing else. For once I didn't write Glare!Bdubs. You proud of me?)

- - - - -

Grian watched the mini group of Joe, Cleo, Scar, and Bdubs as they got to their crafty art projects. He'd tried to draw to pass the time, but the group made art feel so effortless, meanwhile Grian was left with doodles.

Literal doodles. And even that didn't look any good.

"Can ya pass me a dark blue pencil, Bdubs?" Joe asked, not looking up from his coloring page. Despite his lack of ability to draw from scratch as well as Scar or Bdubs, Joe still could shade and color in objects on a page, and everything had a balance in color and thought out detail.

A rumble shook the building slightly, the foundation of the candy factory not as great as Impulse claimed apparently. Scar jumped at the sound, cat tail stiffening, ears perked up, and hand swiping an accidental line across the page. He gave a quick, high-pitched yell and then an annoyed groan at seeing how getting startled ruined his page. "It looked so good too," he muttered, sadness deep in his voice.

"What you've got there still looks great," Bdubs told him, handing over an eraser. "I'm sure it can be saved."

"No! It's ruined! And I'm sure it can't be saved!" Scar called out, far too dramatic for his own good.

"At least you can throw it away if it turns out badly," Cleo said to him, voice hinted with annoyance. "If I mess up anything on the page, I can't take it out." She was setting up a few more spreads in her bullet journal and was finding that using permanent marker was creating problems. Sometimes her hands would tremble a little, presumably from being a zombie hybrid, and her page would end up having all these little squiggly lines—which Cleo claimed was just a part of her "art style" now.

"Doesn't have to be perfect though," Joe answered her. It wasn't saying much though, because again, his coloring skills made the kids coloring book actually look impressive.

"Yeah. It's okay when everything you create comes out lopsided because you have an inability to do anything artistic!" Grian exclaimed, obvious sarcasm in his voice.

Another rumble of thunder, this time not creating problems for Scar.

"Well, you know you're a real artist if you hate everything you create," Cleo said, though quietly everyone in the group heard her.

"I must be doing something right then," Scar answered, with a little laugh, still struggling to get details right. Really though, his creation looked fantastic, everything structured out nicely in the fantasy nature scene, likely inspired by somewhere he'd visited recently. And everything he created felt alive.

"Don't be so hard on yourself!" Bdubs exclaimed, pulling an arm around Scar. "You know it looks great."

Scar rolled his eyes at the statement. "You're just jelly that you can't draw nature yet... at least you can draw people exceptionally."