Grian Oneshots PT2

9 ~ Emotions Are A Liability [Short]

TW: Faked Death; Destruction; Betrayal; Stealing of one's emotions;

~

Mumbo hit the button on the comms unit before sitting down near it. Light filled the large screen as the video loaded. The background was Grian's list in the Ship in the Bottle back on Season Six.

Grian waved to the camera, as he leaned against the wall of the list.

"Hello!" Season 6 Grian greeted. "Uh, this feels weird...

I'm Grian, Season Six of Hermitcraft, and I just finished getting water out of my ship. This is a tradition I haven't indulged in much lately, but I'm trying.

I make a video every few months and report on some things I loved and save them to the comms unit from before everything. These videos will be viewed after my passing or a disappearance. Usually I use these first videos to talk through my anxieties about being new, or to explain why this is a thing anyway.

It first started when I was a kid. I loved the camera my mum had given me. Back then I wasn't named Grian, but instead Xeqlua Zeri Detlas. When I was a teen I joined my adoptive older brother Salted in Crafted. We got popular for doing some skits, but my want to build and record it just grew.

So Salted suggested we make Wynncraft.

And we did.

Except I got ahold of a command block and kept using it to create reference shapes, before recreating it in survival.

The Watchers still said I was cheating and dragged me away and into YHS and KOV. There I was placed under a Watchling - a Watcher who's a kid - and some... unsavory things occured.

But I escaped to Evo!

Evo or Evolution.

I really like the idea and although it was a tad bit glitchy I think if I had made a better firewall the Watchers could've been kept out.

The Watchers found me though, and forced me into 3rd Life and Last Life. That's uh... where I met all of you guys.

I mean, to my surprise the Red King Rendog actually was a kind and soft guy, with the Psycopath who steals cookies - Scar - being all kind and...

And not blood thirsty...

I uh...

It did hurt when I realized I was the only one who remembered. Mumbo trusting me enough in the nether to not mine the floor beneath him... it was enough.

I uh...

I'm just gonna move on.

Hermits hermits hermits...

Although I never thought I'd actually be on the server, when you all accepted me without mentioning anything about my past it suprised me.

Doc wasn't the big bad scary creeper cyborg with laser eyes who has complete control over lightning and redstone as many rumors have said...

X isn't the scary admin who kills all trespassers...

And it... It makes me happy.

I...

I think I'm getting off track." Season Six Grian laughed. "Well-" An alarm goes off and Grian reached for the comms unit, pulling the camera closer. "Why's Pearl calling-?"

The first video ended between Grian's words. Silence engulfed the Hermits and the Guests.

"Pearl do you...?" Scott started.

Pearl frowned and nodded. "That was the day Evolution was destroyed."

Many former Evolutionists shivered. Timmy tucking his face further into his husband's shoulder, tears having started when the video began. Scott frowned and held his husband. Big B and Mini grimaced and looked to the ground, while Martyn sat emotionless and still.

"Mumbo, could you play the next video?" Tango asked, eyes closed as he held Zed tightly and held onto his other boyfriend's hand. Everyone had just wanted to hear Grian's voice, especially after...

...

Grian glared at the floor boards as he heard his friends' emotions bubbling up and over eachother. He couldn't bring himself to care, to pretend he cared, to pretend he wasn't a monster without emotions now.

He knew if he had emotions still he would be crying and trying to hug all the Hermits, but he couldn't. Emotions were a liability for all Watchers, and he'd given his emotions and his freedom away to save them.

He closed his eyes as he sighed, a soft whisper in his ear making him look back into the room.

"You could come back, Grian. They all care about you, and it feels wrong to lie and say your dead." Martyn's voice was soft.

"Its for the best. I still have unfinished business. I'll return to them when I have my emotions and freedom back." Grian said, looking at Martyn.

He could see the Elf's emotion with ease, but not because he was a Watcher. No. Because he'd seen through Martyn's masks since the beginning. Since before they'd known anything about the Watchers or Listeners. Back when they were two abandoned elf kids on the streets. They'd had nothing but eachother so they'd grown to be cold and cruel, to protect eachother.

They had both been cursed to be Pheonixes.

Forever to be cursed with reincarnation.

This was just the latest in a line of thousands.

"Stay safe out there, Xel. Your coming home to the Hermits, or I'll beat your ass in our next life."

Grian sighed and closed his eyes, for just a moment he saw the first version of him. It was always his arrogance that got them into these situations. In many lifetimes Martyn had drilled the fact it wasn't his fault that any of this happened.

He couldn't disagree more.

"If I fail, promise to tell Scar and Mumbo I loved them, alright?"

"You still love them, Grian. You just can't feel it anymore."

"Just promise."

"...fine. I promise. But if they start crying on me it'll be your ass on the line."

Grian knew he should laugh, hell he knew he would've. But he felt no pull to laugh. He felt no joy. He felt nothing.

And oh god that would've terrified him if he could feel emotions.