Battle Scars - A Watcher-Grian AU story

Chapter 2 - Xelqua appears, Awkwardness ensues

TW: None

He tripped and landed face down in a bunch of grass as he ran through the portal. It tickled his his face, reminding him of how exposed he was - Any magic and there was a chance that they wouldn't need to keep an eye out for glitches in this server any longer. He shivered at this thought, before banishing it from his mind. He couldn't break down right now.

"Oh, X, you didn't tell us we had a new hermit joining us!" A voice called out, causing him to look up. 

Over 20 or so people watched him, and the speaker was a man with a suit and glorious mustache. Xelqua quickly remembered the act he was supposed to be playing and pushed himself up, groaning, reminding himself of what he needed to do. He was Grian. He speaks common, and he makes eye contact with people. Those last ones would be hard. He didn't like the idea of eye contact, it made him squirm.

"Where- Where am I?" He mumbled, English unfamiliar on his tongue. 50 years mostly of speaking Galactic outside of like the one class they had to ensure they still could speak it, would do that to a watchling - At least he thought it was 50... time was weird for watchers. He supposed he was only around 20 something in mortal years? No, he was getting sidetracked. He couldn't risk getting distracted and saying something he'd regret.

"This is Hermitcraft, our server." Another figure spoke up, this one in full green armor and a helmet over his head, their face tinted purple from the visor over it. Xelqua personally thought they had the right idea with eye protection, but for now he just avoided making eye contact. "How did you get in here?"

He pushed himself up into a sitting position. "I- I- don't know... I was in the server hub and ended up here..." He lied, hoping it didn't show in his eyes. Gah, how he hated not having his mask...

A creeper hybrid with some robotic body parts spoke up next. "Likely story, the head admins ensure that the server portals never malfunction. They're almost as glitch-less as bedrock"

Xelqua mentally frowned - The head admins didn't know about server portal glitches because the Watchers had to patch them up when they happened, as those were generally stronger glitches then the admins could handle. He knew people were afraid of the watchers but... were the admins lying? Luckily, years of formal meetings let him keep his face clear.

"Why don't we stop fighting and let X check the code." Someone in full iron armor called out. "It's unlikely he'd lie. He just got here. Innocent until proven guilty."

The green armored person - X was their name, he supposed - nodded, and opened up the admin panels. The shining holographic screens that hovered in front of him were tinted green as well, and he focused on the panels, tapping at them. This must be the admin. Xelqua stored this as important knowledge.

"So, Hello. I'm Mumbo. Well- Mumbo Jumbo, but everyone calls me Mumbo." The mustached man introduced himself. Xelqua nodded, waving.

"And I'm Welsknight, but everyone calls me Wels." The armored knight nodded at him, and he took this as his cue to introduce himself.

He took a deep breath - He couldn't screw this up... If he messed up the first impression, he'd be toast.

 He was Grian, a player who'd randomly been glitched into a server called Hermitcraft. "I'm Grian, and everyone calls me Grian. Or Grian. Or Brian. Depends on which it gets autocorrected to." He smiled, and got a few chuckles from the crowd, a smile from Wels, yet the creeper-cyborg was stone faced. Yet the tension in the air was released, the joke doing it's job and allowing the players to relax a bit.

They went around, introducing the other hermits. Most were either happy to meet a new player, or slightly apprehensive, but the creeper hybrid - named Doc - seemed to be the only one who seemed to doubt his act, even going as far to say, "Why are we even introducing ourselves to him, he's likely to be heading back to the server hub soon."

The admin - Xisuma, also known as X, spoke up with a sigh. "Bad news about that- We've had an influx of watcher magic just as we moved seasons... That might be the reason our new friend got teleported. And if the watchers have been able to reach our server due to us moving, it might be unsafe to open a hub portal until I can strengthen the barrier, I don't want to risk allowing them to use our movement as a chance to slip into the hub."

"Aren't two new hermits due to come from Empires SMP in a couple of days? They're joining this season..." Mumbo replied, shifting nervously.

"I'll have to manually teleport them..." X said, sighing. The admin sounded so tired, Xelqua felt bad.

This caused uncertain mumbles around the group. He didn't even need to act nervous, hearing that they knew about watcher magic... And they could detect it... He swallowed nervously, staring at the grass.

"How do we know the watchers didn't teleport Grian here to attack us!" Doc said

"Watchers can't disguise as players though-" Another hermit, this one he believed was named Stress, said.

Xelqua shifted nervously. Oh how little they knew...

"As far as we know..." Someone mumbled darkly.

"We do not know the extent of the watcher's abilities." X replied. "But Grian has given us no reason to doubt him. So he will stay, BUT, we will supervise him. Mumbo, can you do that? I'll drop in on him every once and a while."

Doc mumbled something darkly, but it was noon, and they'd made no progress in game around defenses or anything else. They said goodbye, and separated themselves.

Xelqua - or, he supposed he should try to call himself Grian for now to try and familiarise himself with the name - went with Mumbo and X, and got themselves geared up with stone tools and made shelters for the night.

A/N

Not quite fluff, not quite angst, a perfect middle ground.

This chapter was a bit short, but it was either a bit short or a bit long and I chose a bit short, sorry! Also thank you again for reading this! It gives me a lot of serotonin to know people like my story :D

WC: 1068

- Xera