Benchtrio's Amazing Guide to City Living | Ft. The Hermits & SBI

Lore Q&A!!!

1. How did Grian, Martyn and Jimmy get their titles?

They were created. Millenia ago, after a bunch of generations, they came into being under the watchful gaze of the gods. The universe was expanding, more worlds were being created and there were more of them needed to watch over them. So they were created from the black void of the End.

Watchers and Listeners were like Werewolves and Vampires: enemies. A war came upon them when the last straw snapped, the two species fighting until the last man standing; they weren't friends.

No, they weren't friends but when the metaphorical smoke had cleared, it was just them standing over a field of withering corpses. They had an understanding. It came down to a truce between the last Watcher, Grian and the two remaining –but incredibly injured– Listeners, Martyn and Jimmy. Scar laughed at how close to Star Wars lore that was when Grian entrusted him with his origin story.

2. Where are Grian, Jimmy and Martyn from?

Both Watchers and Listeners originate from the End. That's where they live their immortal lifetimes, using little windows in the void to travel to and fro places like endermen.

3. How did Grian meet his friends?

Being a Watcher –or a Listener– can be a tad boring. Spying on worlds, laughing at the mortals like the mischievous sadists they are, remaining on the sidelines whilst everyone else moved along... It's like watching a never-ending TV reality show. Like Survivor: a lot of drama but barely any sustenance.

While it is entertaining, it can be boring.

Which is why Grian moved to the Overworld, to the cities bustling with humans and dogs and cats and birds. He disguised himself as an avian, taking after his most liked parrot species: the red macaw. A wonderful and colorful bird, the exact opposite of a Watcher's bleak black and deep purple. Jimmy moved in a year later, Martyn came only when he was needed –when XD was sighted but that's a whole other story.

Grian ended up in the famous block of flats. He didn't talk to his neighbors at first, too shy and too overwhelmed to finally be one of the main characters of the stories he was so used to watching.

When Stress first came over –a dish of cake and a basket of all sorts of sweets– he'd shut the door in her face the second after she'd told him her name. Pearl and Gem avoided him for the most part but they were also curious. The first time he saw Xornoth was because Pearl got too curious.

It's weird to have a neighbor who can sustain himself without ever leaving for work or his house altogether afterall!

To say that the demon didn't manage to spook him would've been a lie. It was also the first time he got to see a true demon that originated in the End. That was a true shocker! To say that he was more interested in Pearl and Gem after that would've been an understatement.

Slowly, he mended his relationship with Stress, he got so close to Pearl that they were like siblings, met Impulse thanks to Gem's nagging –which wasn't so bad but Grian's eye was twitching whilst she dragged him down the stairs– and then, he approached Fundy with a friendly yet lopsided smile, not knowing how to pull off an expression (wearing a scarf all the time kind of cuts that part of body language).

Being social after a war is pretty hard, what can he say? Sure, he didn't have nightmares (because how could he have nightmares when he couldn't hear any of the screaming? Unlike Jimmy and Martyn; they were quite unlucky) but he still didn't know how to interact with people. He'd barely interacted with his own kind!

Down the street, he met Scar when he entered his crystal, antique and all magic-dealing-things shop.

And then, one day, Scar dragged him off to a casino for casino night, specifically to test out his Luck crystal. And Grian may or may not have made a mess of the roulette and poker tables. And he may or may not have almost had Las Nevadas collapse in on itself because he called the police on a black market dealing happening in the owner's office.