Snowstorm: A Hermitcraft AU

Original Ch. 2 drafts

Here are two drafts of chapter two that I went through.

—— Abandoned October 2021 ——

Grian passed the elevator and glanced back towards room 217 to ensure that Iskall, Mumbo, and Jevin were following him. He then continued down the hallway before stopping in front of room 209. He heard soft sounds of talking, all of which stopped when he rapped on the door. "Hello?"

The sounds of conversation returned and the sounds of footsteps accompanied it. The door squeaked open as it revealed Stress, now wearing jeans and a pink t-shirt. "Hello Grian, nice to see ya." She grinned. "Nice to see all of ya. Come in!"

Grian walked into the room, shortly followed by Mumbo. Iskall and Jevin curiously stayed outside, and Jevin motioned to Stress to close the door. She did so. Grian looked around the room, observing all of its occupants. They were a mix of familiar faces and new ones.

To his left, next to the wall between the bathroom and the main room, were three people. Scar, wearing his usual leather jacket and cowboy hat that almost matched his light brown hair, was talking to two people: a guy next to him with similar eyes, short-cut jet-black hair, and a Rome t-shirt that hung baggily over his thin frame that was talking very loudly about the colosseum while making large elliptical motions with his arms; and a tall blonde woman with sky blue eyes wearing a turquoise long-sleeve shirt and jeans who seemed to be analyzing the entering hermits out of the corner of her eye.

To their right a trio of men were playing rock-paper-scissors and chatting on the two beds in the room. Facing away from Grian sat an unknown-to-Grian muscular man with broad shoulders who was wearing a navy blue polo shirt with a fire department insignia on the back. His blond hair was partially covered by a matching baseball cap. On the other bed two slightly scrawnier men sat. Impulse, whom Grian knew well, and Impulse's friend who was wearing a green polo shirt and a pair of lab goggles over his dark blonde hair.

In the far corner of the room on a sofa, Xisuma and Ren we're talking to two people on the couch. Grian couldn't see both of the people on the couch, as Xisuma's taller frame blocked the farther person. The person on the couch that Grian could see was very tall. He spoke with a german accent coating his rough voice and seemed to be wearing a black t-shirt underneath a white lab coat. By the TV a woman with a red polo shirt and equally red hair grinned a lopsided smile at the newcomers. She beckoned Grian and Mumbo to join her on the relatively empty side of the room. They moved to join her.

After Stress closed the door, the room fell silent as all people present stopped their conversations to observe the new arrivals to the room. Grian was trying to get a better look at the second person on the couch when Xisuma interrupted his thoughts.

"Now that everyone is here, excluding Joe and xB, I would like to explain what we will be doing." He cleared his throat before continuing. "Tonight we will just do introductions, but tomorrow we will go to Cades Cove which Wels suggested." Xisuma

—— Abandoned December 2021 ——

It was 7pm and very dark when Zedaph drove his silver Honda Civic into the fire station parking lot. He pulled into a spot close to the squat, brick building. The garage of the building sat dark and dormant vehicles parked inside occupied their den. The two wall-mounted lights looked like cat's eyes, and they tinted everything in the parking lot orange. Zedaph turned off the car and looked down at his watch. The two glow-in-the-dark arms sharply contrasted with the gaping void that was the face of the watch.

He wondered where Tango was; he had said that he would be ready by 6:45, but he was nowhere to be seen. Zedaph sighed. It had been a long week at the lab troubleshooting minor bugs in the program that his team was running on Summit.

Zedaph felt like he was constantly running a 3200. He wanted to check in with Impulse and Tango after work, but their schedules seemed to never fit together. Impulse worked around the clock to manage his market while Tango was constantly occupied by his fire-fighting. Zedaph felt like he was stuck in a never ending cycle of yearning to hangout with his best friends, them not being available, and him being busy when they returned the invitation.

"Are we there?" a soft voice asked, pulling Zedaph from his thoughts. He turned around to face his passenger. Impulse had sat up from his sleeping position across the bench seat and was groggily rubbing his eyes. He was wearing a yellow button-down shirt that was once neat, but was now rumpled. His hair was unkept and wild. He had fallen asleep only a few minutes after Zedaph had picked him up from his house in Knoxville, and had slept for the entire 30 minute drive to the fire station.

"Nope. We just arrived in Maryville; now we're waiting for Tango." Zedaph quietly replied. He turned back around slowly before relaxing into the driver's seat. He closed his eyes and sighed again. "Are you okay, Impulse? You slept the entire ride here. Normally you are very talkative."

Impulse frowned at Zedaph and stated "yeah, I just pulled a couple all-nighters this week."

"You shouldn't do that." Zedaph commented to Impulse. "It's really unhealthy." Zedaph waited for a rebuttal from his passenger but none came. He swiveled his torso again to look at Impulse, bracing his arm against the passenger seat. Sleep had overtaken him again, and he was slumped over across the whole back bench seat, his snoring barely audible.

Zedaph turned back towards the imposing building in front of the car.

"Zed!" Tango urgently whisper-shouted.

Zedaph returned his attention to the road. During his period of inattentiveness, the road had curved right and led to a bridge.