Work Text:
Xisuma taps idly at the desk he's sitting at, bored and kinda tired. He had spent a lot of time working on his base, broken his elytra, leaving him debating grabbing an extra to go fix up his main one, or just taking it as an excuse to lounge around.
He had chosen the second. However it left him with nothing to do. The only person online was Etho, who was currently AFK probably at some farm. No one to talk to and nothing to do, Xisuma taps at his watch, popping open the transparent mini command panel. He grabbed at the edge and pulled it out, expanding it in front of himself.
It has a slow stream of general stats running at all times, chunks loaded, if there's any loading errors, lag issues… the usual things. He clicks at the bottom of the screen and a keyboard pops up, similarly transparent and floating. A deep breath a little too slow accidentally fogs up his helmet and he has to wait a second for it to clear so he can see the panels.
He exits out of the command panel and exits out towards the files. A few main folders are out at the largest scale.
>World
>Players
>AntiW
He couldn't open the "AntiW" folder, whenever he tried it just showed a garbled mess and exited to the command panel. He clicked on the "World" Folder and looked at the next sets of files within.
World>
>End
>Nether
>OverWorld
Overworld>
>Loaded
>ErrorLog
>Hidden
>VTweaks
>Recipes
He sighs, exiting back out to the main folders. None of the world folders were going to be interest. It's all just normal things, maybe the occasional loaded chunks that were having issues, but really nothing important.
Players>
>Bdouble0100
>Cubfan135
>Docm77
>Etho
>FalseSymmetry
>GeminiTay
>GoodTimeWithScar
>Grian
>Hypnotizd
>iJevin
>ImpulseSV
>joehillssays
>Keralis
>MumboJumbo*
>PearlescentMoon
>Rendog
>Skizzleman
>Smallishbeans
>TangoTek
>VintageBeef
>WelsKnight
>xBCrafted
>XisumaVoid
>Zedaph
>ZombieCleo
He looks through the list, looking to see if anyone would have anything interesting. Mumbo has an asterisk next to his name…was that there before?
Players>MumboJumbo*>
>UserInfo
>Whitelist
Players>MumboJumbo*>UserInfo>
>General
>Statistics
>Log
>PastNames
Clicking on "General" opened a separate window of a command line with a couple lines of text above it, along with opening the actual folder.
Name:MumboJumbo
Age:29 Years
Birth_Server:HermitCraft
Unique>Mutant{Grian}
Respawn_at_death:True
Admin>XisumaVoid
Active:Yes
Xisuma was most caught off guard by the tag of being mutant, and then that mutation being…Grian. There was a small folder icon next to that line, so he clicked it.
Players>MumboJumbo*>UserInfo>General>Unique>Mutant>
>Grian
>Carrot
>Potato
>Pig
Xisuma filed away the other very strange options to look at later.
Players>MumboJumbo*>UserInfo>General>Unique>Mutant>Grian>
This folder is empty.
Xisuma squinted at it, as if staring at it in disbelief was going to make something appear. He backed out of that folder, clicking on the next one.
Players>MumboJumbo*>UserInfo>General>Unique>Mutant>Carrot>
This folder is empty.
Players>MumboJumbo*>UserInfo>General>Unique>Mutant>Potato>
This folder is empty.
Players>MumboJumbo*>UserInfo>General>Unique>Mutant>Pig>
This folder is empty.
Xisuma shakes his head, backing out of the folders and back to the general folder.
Players>MumboJumbo*>UserInfo>General>
>PlayerInformation.txt
>Log
>MumboJumbo_Console
Clicking on the text file opened up the same command prompt window with his age and stuff, but this time it actually wrote out why there was an asterisk.
Name:MumboJumbo*
Age:29 Years
Birth_Server:HermitCraft
Unique>Mutant{Grian}
Respawn_at_death:True
Admin>XisumaVoid
Active:Yes
*Alternative name is "Mumbo" .
Xisuma sighed, backing back out to the player list. One interesting thing out of Mumbo that he really aught to question later. He went to Grian's file. Maybe it said something about being,,, part of Mumbo?
Players>Grian>UserInfo>
>General
>Statistics
>Log
>PastNames
Players>Grian>UserInfo>General>
>PlayerInformation.txt
>Log
>Grian_Console
He opened Grian's text file, getting a similar command window. He closed the other two he had open.
Name:Grian,█̴̛̻̹͍̹̗̦͆͆̏͐̾̑̑█̷̧̯̘̖̮̦̠͕̯̑͆̿̂͆̈́̽̋̓ͅ█̶̬̥͈̃̇̎͌͠█̸̢̟͉̯̤̺̅̀̿̈́̍̅̊̉̔̿͜͝͝█̸̞̻͚̩̣̜̭͇̅̂̈̒̓́̐̈́̈́̈́̀͝█̵̨̟̞͉̰̺͙̘͇̘̑̄̚͜
Age:ꍞ̵͈̺̆̓͗̌͋̿̿̅̚/̸̛̮̦̗̳͙̂̒̔̂̓̎̐̐͝ꅔ̵̨̧̫̹̱͕̯̟͈̫̹̅̇̾͠
Birth_Server:̴͙͕͖̦̳̺͂͒͆̋̆̐̑͋̕ͅꍟ̸̛̩͇̟͔̫͍̠͙̗̳̼͂͊̍͛̓̄̕͜͠ꏝ̸̛̖̏̃̄͌́̾̐͘ꆂ̴̡̢̱͉͇͕̪̙͚̈́̑́ꇸ̵͓͈̯̰̠͇͖̑́͌̀̓̀͗̄͒̄̔ꐇ̷̽́͛̓̒̿̃͘͜͠꓅̷̨̣̳̥̣͙̭̫̥͔̳̮͗̈́̓̇ꂑ̸͚̗̝̤̫͙̥̤̲̥͛̔͜͜ꆂ̴̢̟͖̮̭̈́̇̇͒̑͛̈́͘ꍞ̵̛͖̹̜͒̓
Unique>Mutant{̵͎̳̠͈͈̮̦̺͍̖͗́͗̂͗͒̾̎̚͝͠ͅꅐ̸̩̦͉̝͓̀͑͆̓̄̑̐͂̔̈́̕͝ꋫ̸̡͕̭͓͓̜͍̈͐̓̽̌͝꓅̵̢͈̠̲̣͉̙̂̽̌͐̂̉͛̈͠ͅꏸ̶̠̺͍̼̉̾͗̍̐̿͐̚͘͝ͅꑛ̶͍̹̻̟̒̓͗̕̚ꍟ̴̨̢̧͉̞̦̱̭̒̐̓̎̅͗͗ꋪ̸̢̡̙̝͇̰̬̜̄̉́̌̎͋́́̓͒̏},{Parrot}
Respawn_at_death:True*
Admin>XisumaVoid, ̵͎̳̠͈͈̮̦̺͍̖͗́͗̂͗͒̾̎̚͝͠ͅꅐ̸̩̦͉̝͓̀͑͆̓̄̑̐͂̔̈́̕͝ꋫ̸̡͕̭͓͓̜͍̈͐̓̽̌͝꓅̵̢͈̠̲̣͉̙̂̽̌͐̂̉͛̈͠ͅꏸ̶̠̺͍̼̉̾͗̍̐̿͐̚͘͝ͅꑛ̶͍̹̻̟̒̓͗̕̚ꍟ̴̨̢̧͉̞̦̱̭̒̐̓̎̅͗͗ꋪ̸̢̡̙̝͇̰̬̜̄̉́̌̎͋́́̓͒̏
Active:Yes
*̵̛͕́͘͠ꋪ̷̨͉͐͋ꍟ̴̢̨̮̦̹͙̺̳̠͛̿̾̊̾̾̈̎̍̅̚ͅͅꌚ̷̧̗̠̝̠̺̜̬̖̤̊̈́͑̀̈͛́͐̉ꇛ̷̤͓͉̪̄̀̊̉̉̊͌̈́̋̎͠ꋫ̵̪̳͓̣͍͓͂ͅͅꅐ̸̮̟̠̠͉̰̲̈́͐̇ꌚ̵̧͓̏̌̽̌̃̃̕͜͝ꍞ̵͇͔̼͈͙̞͎̻͌́͌̔̂̒͜ ̷̼̌͋͊́̃̈̐̊̇͝ꇸ̸̗̤͎̜̓̾͠ꂑ̵̭̫̩̬̖͔̈́̏̂̓̀͒̓̎͘ꁒ̶̯͚̯͕̻͈̽͐͆͝ꂑ̴̠̖̫͙̮̀͂꓅̴̢͇́̒̀̑͐̇̕͜͝ꄤ̶͙͖̥͕̬͔̦̊̀̃̃̅͠ͅ ̸̡̙̩̪͙̗̜̰̣̬̹̈́̃̄̽͑͂̽͆̄̑͝ꃲ̷̢͎̻͎͚̝̠̳̟͔̭̙̊͊̓̌̀̍͒͝ꐟ̸̢̧̛͈̝͓̘̋͂̅͗͑̏̓́ ̴̧͚͓̞̭̯͕̿̑͋̈̃̀̓͑̏͝ͅꅐ̴̼͇̻̻̭̟͎̍̄̏̅̓̏̉̀̿̕̚ꋫ̶̡̦̿͋̔̽͌̆̓̓͒̂̓̕ͅ꓅̶̧̛̖͔̩̱̯̱̤̓̿͋̇̀̀̀͛ꏸ̵̧͕̩͈͍̯͖̦̮͍͙̋̾̊̔͒̓̿̋͝ꑛ̶̛͈̩̬̙͖̤̏̇̄̅̎̃͆̍͐͝͝ꍟ̶̮͉͓̹̹̥̺͎̦͍̙̼͐̇͗̆ꋪ̵͈̟̱̥̿̅̈
The more Xisuma clicks through files the more he wished he had just gone and fixed his Elytra. Why is Grian's entire file corrupt. What in the world. There was a seperate mutant file which was a mess, and then a second…admin? He should be the only admin, he was the only one that he knew of besides his…brother. At least that had left with his wave of admins. Especially since he hadn't given anyone else permission to be an admin on this server, and surely it isn't his brother. He really doesn't want to have to contact him and risk letting him connect to this server though.
He pulls the keyboard back out and clicks into the command prompt.
SetAdmin>Grian>XisumaVoid
XisumaVoid is already Grian 's admin!
List>Grian>Admin
Grian is not an admin of this server
List>Admin>Grian
Grian 's admin is Xisuma void and ̴̻͙̃͆̇̀̅̿̅̎ꅐ̵̥̩̦̈́͌͜ͅꋫ̵̦̳̳̒̒̃̋̊̔̆̎͛꓅̵̧̣̾͌̂ꏸ̷͇͖̘͕̗̤̭͎̀ꑛ̴͔͉̲̩̀̿ꍟ̸̣̈̔̍̒̑͂̈́͝ꋪ̵̭̤̫͇̞̙̻͙̔ͅ
Xisuma highlights that name and copies it.
List>̴̻͙̃͆̇̀̅̿̅̎ꅐ̵̥̩̦̈́͌͜ͅꋫ̵̦̳̳̒̒̃̋̊̔̆̎͛꓅̵̧̣̾͌̂ꏸ̷͇͖̘͕̗̤̭͎̀ꑛ̴͔͉̲̩̀̿ꍟ̸̣̈̔̍̒̑͂̈́͝ꋪ̵̭̤̫͇̞̙̻͙̔ͅ>Admin
You do not have permission to access this information. Please contact your server admin to allow permission to this folder.
Xisuma's blood runs cold– He should be the one with the most permission in this server. There weren't any names on the player list that… that were higher than him.
List>Admin>XisumaVoid
XisumaVoid 's admin is XisumaVoid.
Great. Contact himself to give himself permission to something he can't access. He really aught to bring this up at the next general admin meeting. His subset is of other admins with servers around his size, maybe one of them has an idea on how to fix this.
He goes back to the main player list, tapping his fingers on the desk as he thinks if anyone else has something that could connect to all of that mess. Maybe Pearl? He had white listed Pearl after the meeting, but Grian was the one to suggest her. Maybe her files shared something in common with his?
Players>PearlescentMoon>UserInfo>General>
>PlayerInformation.txt
>Log
>PearlescentMoon_Console
He opened this text file as well.
Name:PearlescentMoon,█̴̛̻̹͍̹̗̦͆͆̏͐̾̑̑█̷̧̯̘̖̮̦̠͕̯̑͆̿̂͆̈́̽̋̓ͅ█̶̬̥͈̃̇̎͌͠█̸̢̟͉̯̤̺̅̀̿̈́̍̅̊̉̔̿͜͝͝█̸̞̻͚̩̣̜̭͇̅̂̈̒̓́̐̈́̈́̈́̀͝█̵̨̟̞͉̰̺͙̘͇̘̑̄̚͜█̴̛̻̹͍̹̗̦͆͆̏͐̾̑̑█̷̧̯̘̖̮̦̠͕̯̑͆̿̂͆̈́̽̋̓ͅ█̶̬̥͈̃̇̎͌͠█̸̢̟͉̯̤̺̅̀̿̈́̍̅̊̉̔̿͜͝͝█
Age:ꍞ̵͈̺̆̓͗̌͋̿̿̅̚/̸̛̮̦̗̳͙̂̒̔̂̓̎̐̐͝ꅔ̵̨̧̫̹̱͕̯̟͈̫̹̅̇̾͠
Birth_Server:̴͙͕͖̦̳̺͂͒͆̋̆̐̑͋̕ͅꍟ̸̛̩͇̟͔̫͍̠͙̗̳̼͂͊̍͛̓̄̕͜͠ꏝ̸̛̖̏̃̄͌́̾̐͘ꆂ̴̡̢̱͉͇͕̪̙͚̈́̑́ꇸ̵͓͈̯̰̠͇͖̑́͌̀̓̀͗̄͒̄̔ꐇ̷̽́͛̓̒̿̃͘͜͠꓅̷̨̣̳̥̣͙̭̫̥͔̳̮͗̈́̓̇ꂑ̸͚̗̝̤̫͙̥̤̲̥͛̔͜͜ꆂ̴̢̟͖̮̭̈́̇̇͒̑͛̈́͘ꍞ̵̛͖̹̜͒̓
Unique>Mutant{̵͎̳̠͈͈̮̦̺͍̖͗́͗̂͗͒̾̎̚͝͠ͅꅐ̸̩̦͉̝͓̀͑͆̓̄̑̐͂̔̈́̕͝ꋫ̸̡͕̭͓͓̜͍̈͐̓̽̌͝꓅̵̢͈̠̲̣͉̙̂̽̌͐̂̉͛̈͠ͅꏸ̶̠̺͍̼̉̾͗̍̐̿͐̚͘͝ͅꑛ̶͍̹̻̟̒̓͗̕̚ꍟ̴̨̢̧͉̞̦̱̭̒̐̓̎̅͗͗ꋪ̸̢̡̙̝͇̰̬̜̄̉́̌̎͋́́̓͒̏} , {Moth}
Respawn_at_death:True
Admin>XisumaVoid
Active:Yes
Okay. Great. Two members with the same garbled text that wont let him access anything. Amazing!
List>Admin>PearlescentMoon
PearlescentMoon 's admin is XisumaVoid.
Oh, at least he's the only admin Pearl has. Why do those two have the same jumbled text but only Grian has admin issues? Xisuma swears that all that weirdness in season 6 must have been caused by Grian joining– Not in a malicious way, but just, a coincidence maybe? But he's inclined to think that Grian unintentionally brought something else with him when he joined.
A yellow message caught his attention in the main command line.
>SmallishBeans joined the game
<Etho>Hello!
<SmallishBeans>Hello, wyd?
<Etho>Building, you?
<SmallishBeans> Dunno, just joined, didn't I?
Xisuma smirked, turning his attention away from their chatting. He wished he could be in bed back on his own world. The spot where all of them went when they left the server——wait. He's an admin, if he went to the server hub he should be able to find a reception desk somewhere and talk to them about a specific player….maybe he could also go to his personal world and take a nap too.
He closed the windows down and stood up, exiting out of the server through his communicator.
The server hub was just as busy as it always is, bustling with people trying to get everywhich way in it. If it was still season 1 they would be allll the way back in the much older subsets of servers, but because he has to make a new server for each new season, they always get booted to much more recent areas. He takes a deep breath and pushes out into the main hallway, looking around for a desk.
He walks around a small bit, looking around for anyone who looks like they're a general hub admin, but can't seem to find anyone. He does however find Mumbo, yawning as he walks towards him– in theory back towards Hermitcraft.
"Oh! Hello X, funny seeing you here" Mumbo greets, pausing his walking to look at X.
"Goodmorning, on your way to Hermitcraft?" Xisuma asks, still looking past Mumbo to see if there's a desk somewhere.
"Yeah, I aught to keep working on my base in there…took a little bit of a break to build in my own world. It's just so lacking sometimes, it feels good to change it up, y'know?" Xisuma nods but isn't really listening to his words.
"Yeah. Mumbo, might I ask a uh, few things?" He asks, finally looking at Mumbo now, who squints at him but nods his head.
"Of course, what's up?" He asks, and Xisuma catches the worry in the voice.
"Do you know why your files say your mutant type is Grian?" Xisuma asks, squinting as he realizes just how..stupid that question is. Mumbo stares at him for a second before bursting out laughing. Xisuma doesn't,,get what's funny but he can't help but smile a bit. At least it isn't something bad.
"Ohh- Oh man,, Yeah, course. Probably a weird thing to see I bet," Xisuma nods earnestly. "In season 8 I had that whole like, peace love and plants thing, and eventually I started to become the things I ate. I ate only potatos for a huge chunk of the server and basically became a big human potato. Eventually I broke my own rule and ate pork, leading me to become a pig. Figured the only way to become a human was to….somehow intake some," Mumbo explains, pausing in a way Xisuma really hopes isn't the end because that implies that he…somehow permanently killed and ate Grian… "So I put Grian in a squashing machine to basically like, take out his soul? So when I did that I became human again, but I was left with a waffle on the back of my head for quite some time! Whenever I wake up I have to go and brush it out…I guess there's some part of his soul still stuck in me." Mumbo finishes, running a hand through his hair.
"Mumbo I…" Xisuma isn't..really sure what he wants to ask, so instead he just shakes his head and gives Mumbo a small smile. "Thanks for the recap, I'm going to..continue on my way so you can go do whatever tormented thing you were going to do on Hermitcraft. Ping me if you…need any fixing I guess!" He says, huffing out a laugh as he turns to walk past Mumbo, who chuckles a bit and nods, giving him a wave as he continues on his way.
One question answered, still many, many to ask. He finally spotted a dark wood desk pushed up against a window that showed nothing but white. He walked up to the desk and looked at the admin sitting there. She was wearing a helmet very similar to Xisuma's, except hers was still the default purple that all admins got first, and could change later. The purple constellations on her cheeks were visible through the large glass plate in the helmet, and purple bug wings were folded behind her back.
"Hello! What do you need help with?" She asked in a very polite voice. Xisuma will never understand why some admins wanted to work this job instead of managing a server, truly never understand.
"Hello, my name's Xisuma Void, I'm an admin for the server Hermitcraft, and I was wondering if I could get some information on a couple of players?" He asked, holding up the back of his communicator for her to see. On it was engraved his date of graduation, his island of birth, his mentor, and his chosen admin type. She nodded, looking at her watch and pulling open a very similar transparent window. Xisuma wondered if anyone else questioned what the hub admin were doing when they seemed to type into thin air for them. Their helmets were the only thing letting them see these windows.
"Alright Mr. Void, you said you needed help with some members. What was the name of server again?" "Hermitcraft" "Alright, and who did you need help with today?"
"Users Grian and PearlescentMoon, I was getting weird corrupted text in their files." She nods, clicking the players folder and then opening Grian's folder.
"Can you give me access to their folders please?" She asks, and Xisuma pulls up his command prompt window, typing in a command.
"What's your name?" Xisuma asks.
"Cecelia1285"
>AddAdmin>Cecelia1285>Grian
Are you sure you want to add Cecelia1285 as an admin to Grian?
>Yes
Cecelia1285 is now an admin of Grian
>AddAdmin>Cecelia1285>PearlescentMoon
Are you sure you want to add Cecelia1285 as an admin to PearlescentMoon?
>Yes
Cecelia1285 is now an admin of PearlescentMoon
"Alright, you should be an admin of them now" Xisuma says, closing out of his windows. He watches through the transparent window as Cecelia clicks through Grian's folder.
"Where is the issue occuring?" She asks.
"In their general user data text file" He answers. She clicks it open, and Xisuma watches as the text file opens a new window, and the jumbled text shows up.
"See, I don't know why that's happening. It's almost identical between him and–" He doesn't get to finish his sentance before Cecelia is pushing a button under her desk and they're teleported—
Xisuma stumbles a bit, looking around. They're….in the end. They're home for some reason. Voidwalkers all come from the end, all become admin of some kind. Why are they here?
"Cecelia? What's going on?" He asks, looking around as other voidwalkers in their suits walk past the two, eyeing them suspiciously. Xisuma sticks out like a sore thumb because of his covered glass and dark suit for the season, the orange glowing eyes on him stand out garrishly against the purples of most voidwalkers suits and buildings.
"You have a much bigger issue than you think you do." Is all she says before she's spreading her wings and waiting for Xisuma to do the same. He glances over at her– realizes he can take his helmet off. He's not sure if he wants to like this. He spreads his wings out and Cecelia takes off, they head off towards the school, or, government building, if you could call what they had a government. The heirarchy was something he had grown to love and hate with his time here.
They landed on the upper landing platform, other voidwalkers bustling around them. She lead him into the huge building, dragging him through some halls he recognized, but more that he didn't. The hub admins had more access than server admins, they were overseers for huge amounts of servers, while server admins like himself only oversaw one.
Cecelia stops before a large door labled "Watcher Divison" Xisuma finally realized what was wrong with their code- and why Cecelia was stating that this was a huge deal.
Cecelia stands in front of him, takes in a deep breath before knocking. There's a pause, Xisuma wonders who's behind that door– Footsteps approach from the otherside, and the door is opened, revealing another void walker, clad in a calming yellow suit, purple tinted visor and messed up wings bent behind their back.
"Hello, sir. I'm coming from.. from subset 0106X24. I have an issue with a server. This is the server admin, Xisuma Void" She steps to the side, gesturing to Xisuma, who purses his lips and gives a nod to the person standing in the door.
"Please! No need to be so formal, come on in you two," He moves to the side of the door and gestures for them to come in. Cecelia steps in first, Xisuma following her. "Feel free to take off any gear youd like, we have helmet and plate hooks." He says, Cecelia takes off her helmet, revealing a bun of black hair with light gray stripes running through it, her skin is pale and the freckles on her cheeks glow like the rest of theirs. Xisuma debates leaving his helmet on for anonymity, but he doesn't need to here, these are his home people. So he takes off his dark creaking helmet and ruffles his white hair, hanging his helmet on the hooks mentioned.
"Xisuma Void, was it? It's nice to meet you, my name's Mono. Do you prefer Void or Xisuma?" Mono asks.
"Xisuma, it's nice to meet you too, Mono" Xisuma says, looking around as they walk into a different hallway. There's doors lining the walls, each with a name next to them. Mono leads them through into a different area, further past a door labled "Watcher Security".
Xisuma is trying to remember what he had learned about Watchers in his time in school. He had mostly been taught to make sure you had a security measure against them– something so common that when he had been making Hermitcraft all he had to do was make sure it was selected. He doesn't know how he could mess it up.
They came to stop outside of a door labled "Mono". Mono opened the door and gestured to Xisuma to come in. He walked in, Cecelia and Mono following. There was a desk near the back of the room, a large window showed out to the void.
"Please, take a seat you two" Mono said, walking past them to behind the desk. Him and Cecelia sat at the two chairs across from him.
"So, Xisuma, what did you say you were having problems with?" Mono asks, making motions like Xisuma and Cecelia had done when pulling up the files.
"A few of my server members have corrupted text- I went to the server hub and found Cecelia, and she brought me here when she saw the problem." Xisuma recapped.
"And what did you say the name of the server was?"
"Hermitcraft"
"And who was it who was having issues?"
"Grian and PearlescentMoon, in their general information text file" Xisuma says, and Mono keeps clicking through things, until Xisuma sees him squint through his helmet.
"Grian here has two names listed and a large amount of corrupted text. These….The second admin and corrupted text is normal, but a second name is…curious. Have you asked him about this?" Mono asks, looking at Xisuma again.
"No, he wasn't online when I came to the hub to ask" Xisuma responds, fidgeting with his watch.
"And pearl?"
"Same story" Mono hums, clicking a few more times at something Xisuma can't see.
"So, It would seem that your servers Anti-Watcher folder is corrupt. It should have been giving you an error whenever the server restarted or updated, did it not do this?" Mono asks, and Xisuma thinks about the folders. It must have been the "AntiW" folder that was just a jumbled mess… But he hadn't gotten any errors? Maybe it was too corrupt to even do that.
"I think I know which folder you're talking about, but I wasn't getting any errors….But nothing has made me think there's any Watcher interaction. No update changes, no major errors, no player complaints…." Xisuma explains, wracking his brain for if there's been any issues. Maybe…sometimes players just didn't join for a while, and when they did they seemed….different, but no one had said anything. But the more Xisuma thinks about this specifically the more difficult it seems to try and gather the details together. He must have dreampt that.
"Hmm.. I'm gonna just put the uncorrupt anti watcher folder back in, it's going to restart your server– do you want me to send a message that the server's going to restart?" Mono asks. Xisuma nods, watching as he types a message, then as he makes more motions of things Xisuma can't see.
"Okay, it's restarting. Stick around here for a couple minutes and then I'll teleport you back to your subset of servers. Cecelia you said…" Xisuma tunes them out as he tries to think about what could be going on. Grian and Pearl, both…share some history, but neither of them seemed to have any visual shows of corruption, no broken parts of their body, no issues joining, stuff being lost, inventory issues……
"Okay, you two are good to go. Let me….There we are. Xisuma if you keep having issues, talk to whoevers manning your subset then and ask to come to the End okay? They'll bring you here." Mono tells him with a crinkle in his eyes, Xisuma purses his lips and nods. Cecelia stands, and they're teleported.
Xisuma walks back to the Hermitcraft server, letting himself be scanned before he's let back into the server. By the time he's logged on. Etho and Joel have both logged on, Mumbo is also online.
>XisumaVoid joined the game
<MumboJumbo>Hey X! What was that for?
<XisumaVoid>Had to update some security. Everything alright here? No one have any issues?
<Etho>Nope!
<SmallishBeans>None here
<MumboJumbo>I'm having a small issue…I can't seem to update anything in my inventory or break anything?
Xisuma squints at the messages
<XisumaVoid> Hold on, lemme check something
Xisuma opens the files back up, going to Mumbo's files and cracking open the text file again, he doesn't know what he's really looking for, but he doesn't hurt to look through the files. Maybe the restart had broken his permissions or game mode or something.
Name:MumboJumbo*
Age:29 Years
Birth_Server:HermitCraft
Unique>Mutant>{}
Respawn_at_death:True
Admin>XisumaVoid
Active:Yes
*Alternative name is "Mumbo"
Xisuma doesn't like the change of his unique to a mutant that doesn't work. He exits back out, doing a once over of the player list.
He.. realizes that, Grian isn't here, or Pearl. Both of them are gone. They're gone after Watcher security was installed. Crap, this is bad. Why were those two….Watchers didn't show themselves, that's why they're Watchers.
<XisumaVoid> Mumbo I'm gonna update your files, they're a physical aspect, so you might feel some strange things for a second. Let me know if anything hurts.
<MumboJumbo>??? Okay
Xisuma clicks into his console, pulling up the keyboard.
>Disable>Players>MumboJumbo*>UserInfo>General>Unique>Mutant>
Are you sure you want to disable this folder? Physical pain and distress may occur.
>Yes
Disabling Players>MumboJumbo*>UserInfo>General>Unique>Mutant>…
…
…
…
Disabled!
Xisuma checks his communicator again, waiting for any distress messages.
<XisumaVoid> Mumbo, you alright?
<MumboJumbo> Yeah, I can edit my inventory again, thanks X!
Xisuma sighs, closing out of Mumbo's stuff to look at the player list again. Grian and Pearl are just Gone. He can't contact them from in here– he should be able to contact them from the server hub…? He doesn't know where Grian's and Pearl's individual worlds are though, so he can't actually find them.
<XisumaVoid> Does anyone know where Grian and Pearls personal worlds are?
<MumboJumbo> I know where Grians is, not Pearl. Gem probably would?
<Etho> I know where Gems is, if you need hers!
<XisumaVoid> Yeah, could you two leave the server and meet right outside in the hub?
<Etho> Yah, seeya Joel
<SmallishBeans> I can't believe you're abandoning me. This is evil.
<MumboJumbo> Can do
Xisuma closes the chat and leaves the server again, going thru the loading of the server hub and then getting dumped right outside of the entrance to Hermitcraft. Next to him is Etho, and then a clunk just a moment later is Mumbo.
"What's going on, X?" Etho asks, tail twitching and ears facing different directions. Probably loud in here.
"I was noticing some corruption with Grian and Pearls files, and turns out our security was a bit shoddy– not, don't worry nothing's wrong with your files. Well, Etho I didn't look at yours and Mumbo you answered why yours were like that. But I need to talk to those two…probably alone, so sorry to ask of you guys just to show me where to go." Xisuma says, turning away to head towards the main hallway.
"Gem is way back in 16. But I think Grian has to be further back…" Etho says, looking around the overly crowded halls.
"We can go to Gem first"Etho lists her number- 010611316. Xisuma leads them towards the personal world portals. There's a number over each one, labled from 9 to 25. The last number of the persons subset is the first portal to go to, then there's two major hallways, one labled 0106, and the other labled 0712. They go through the 16 portal, leading them to a much less busy area. They go to the 0106 section, and then the other numbers further file the area down. From within it's just a matter of finding the chunk that fits your person. There's seemingly infinite rooms each labled with a different hundred. First the 000s, then 100s, 200s... Then finding them in that chunk. Gem has 113, so they go to the second chunk of hundred rooms, and go to the thirteenth. They come to a stop outside of 113, The name listed on the sign is infact GeminiTay.
"We all goin in or…." Mumbo starts, looking between the two of them.
"I think only Etho has her permission to go through. Etho can you go grab her and tell her to come out here?" Xisuma says, looking at him. Etho nods, heading over to the portal and standing in front of it for a second before continuing, stepping through it.
Xisuma and Mumbo are only waiting for a few minutes before a ruffled looking Gem and a tired looking Etho emerge.
"This better be good…" She threatens, glaring at Xisuma. He feels a bead of sweat form under his helmet.
"I just wondered if you have Pearls world code? I need her but can't access her right now." Xisuma says, and Gem squints at him, probably debating how easy it would be to end him right here in the hub. Apperantly she really needed her sleep– lesson well learned.
"…yeah. I've got it. 071290616. What do you need her for that you couldn't get her for anyway?" Gem asks blearily.
"Some server issues I ran into when I updated the security. Nothing bad" Xisuma lies through his teeth. Gem squints at him, but either decides its not worth it, or simply doesn't care enough to say anything.
"Alright, I'm goin back to bed. Goodluck on whatever it is you're doing" She says, giving a wave as she turns around and goes into her world again.
"Don't ever make me wake up Gem again please" Etho says quietly after she's gone. Xisuma smiles and Mumbo lets out a laugh behind him.
"Noted" Xisuma mumbles. "We're already in 16, so I think we should go talk to Pearl. Actually, Etho…." Xisuma says, turning back to face Etho with as much pity as he can muster up. Etho's tail stills behind him and his ears turn back.
"X…."
"Etho we can't access Pearls world…Gem probably can" Xisuma says, layering as much sorrow as he can into the words. Etho sighs, turning back around and stepping through the portal.
A minute or so later. A much more annoyed and much more rattled Etho step out of the portal.
"X..I swear whatever it is you need from me better be worth this. You know how much time I was building before I got off to go to sleep? I've barely slept a wink y'know." Gem mutters at him, shaking her head as she steps out towards the main hallway. They all follow, Etho furthest in the back.
"I promise this is important Gem, I wouldn't be going between peoples personal worlds if it wasn't." Xisuma placates, keeping pace with her as she walks out towards the 0712 hallway, leading them down to the 900s hallway, then up to the 906 portal labled PearlescentMoon.
"Can you just grab her and tell her I'm outside and need to talk to her?" Xisuma says. Gem nods and walks towards the portal, pausing similarly to Etho and then continuing forward.
It's a minute or two later before Pearl is coming out, fuzzy green antennae and green buggy wings folded against her back. She looks worried, but much calmer than Gem is.
"Thank you so much Gem, you can go back to your place now, and Etho you're good to go too. Thanks!" Xisuma says, giving them each a nod. Etho scurries off and Gem heads back to her own place.
"What did ya need, X?" Pearl asks, antennae twitching at anyone else exiting or going into their worlds.
"Just some issues with the server after a security update- We're gonna go grab Grian and then we can talk" Xisuma says, turning to Mumbo and nodding. Mumbo lists off Grian's number: 0712123114, and they start walking.
Pearl is fidgety as they go to the 14 portal, then head towards Grians personal world. Xisuma should probably give some explanation, but with what he's thinking, and with Mumbo here…Pearl can be anxious a little longer.
They walk to the very last subset of numbers– 1200s, and to 1231, there's only a couple rooms that share a 30s spot, and Grian is the very last portal of the entire hallway. Mumbo gives him a nod before heading in.
"What did you need us two for specifically?" Pearl asks, and Xisuma does not miss the worry in her tone.
"Just…some issues with security." Xisuma says. He doesn't want to be malicious here– of course not, but when all he's been taught about Watchers is how they go into servers just to hijack and take players, he can't help but feel anger and worry flare up in his gut. Grian has been here for four seasons now, almost more than he's not been here, but Pearl is new. Did Grian play the long game just to get another one of his kind in? Has he been hijacking and messing with players this whole time? Right under his nose?
Mumbo comes out, smiling as Grian trails out after him, wings folded behind him and a wide smile on his face.
"'Suma, what's up?" He asks, smile faltering as he spots Xisuma, brow furrowed, standing next to an anxious Pearl.
"Mumbo, you're free to go. You two, can we head back to my place?" Xisuma says, eyeing them. They share a look, and suddenly Grian isn't looking so good.
Mumbo looks between the three before deciding it's not worth the risk of saying anything, and heads off. Xisuma turns, leading them back to the big subset of portals. They go to the 11 one, then X leads them to the 0712 hallway, then the 900s, and then finally to 925, a portal labled with his name. He opens his communicator, going into the commands for his own world and putting in the command to allow PearlescentMoon and Grian access.
He gestures for Grian to go in, then Pearl, and then follows those two in.
His own world is quite old, a large building that looks like it's from the older times is standing strong, many rooms and farms are scattered about. He leads the two through the main building, through his kitchen and finally settles them down in a much more updated looking office. It wouldn't take much guessing to assume that this is where Xisuma spends most of his time in this world.
Grian and Pearl take a seat next to eachother on one side of the desk, and Xisuma makes his way around to the other. Mirroring his earlier interactions with Mono.
"So. I was looking through files, and both of you two have severe corruption. Two listed names, and Grian, you had a second listed admin. Before I give any further information, do either of you two know anything" Xisuma is giving them a chance to explain themselves first here. Xisuma watches as Grian and Pearl share a look. Grians wings are puffed up, and Pearls antenna are slicked back to her head.
"No. Not…not at all" Grian finally says, and Xisuma is sure that Grian knows that he knows that he's lying.
"I went to the hub admin to ask about it, to see if something had gone wrong. She saw the text and took me to…to Watcher Security." Just saying the word Watcher had Grian staring him dead, his wings twitched as he stared at X. He wasn't sure if he was trying to scare him, or if he just wanted to look at him before he dissapeared. Back up to where Watchers are supposed to be.
Pearl hadn't moved. Xisuma thinks that this is more intimidating than Grian's method of staring.
"He said my anti watcher systems had been corrupted, and he fixed them, putting the uncorrupted files back into the server files. I logged back in and did a check, you two were gone from the player list. Do either of you want to retry the question? Do either of you two know anything?" Xisuma asks again, letting more emotion bleed into his tone. He tries to handle these things with calmness, but when harm could come to his server and server members, it became a lot easier to let his anger get to him.
He watched as Grian stilled, hands gripping eachother so hard his knuckles were white. Pearl now looked worried again, looking over at Grian. The two were looking at eachother as if either of them were going to suddenly dissapear.
"Okay. X, you…you caught us but I swear there's a reason." Grian finally musters up enough courage to talk, his black eyes refuse to meet X's own.
"It better be good. You Watchers are known for stealing and hurting players. Grian you've been here for years, I didn't even notice. You got too cocky bringing another one in though. You have five minutes to explain what you're doing before both of you are taken off the whitelist." And it hurts to say. He's known Grian a while and Pearl has been nothing but amazing to interact with, but it's so hard to try and be nice to things that can so easily hurt his players.
"Okay- Okay X calm down please…I'll..I'll explain." Grian says, looking at Pearl, who gives him a nod.
"We both come from the server Evolution. It was an older server, controlled and run by Watchers. We Playe- The players…" Xisuma doesn't miss that slip up one bit. Something happened here. "Had to play, but every now and again Watcher would change the update w-they were on. Seemingly at random. They would make the players do tasks for them, sometimes if they were unhappy they would torture and take players. Like..Like me and Pearl." Grian pauses, looking over at pearl, who finally reaches out a hand, which Grian snatches and squeezes. Xisuma feels dread seep into his stomach as Grian takes in a deep breath and continues his explanation.
"We tried to stand up to them– they had hurt people we loved in that server, they had made too many mean punishments to go unnoticed by us. But, when we tried to fight back, they simply took us. They stole us and..made us part of their ranks. We swear X, Pearl and I have nothing to do with the ones who ruin servers, or the ones who steal people.. Please…..We escaped them" Grians voice breaks and he stops staring at X, using his other hand to wipe at his eyes.
Xisuma looks down at his desk. He had gotten this whole thing wrong. No way these two were evil. God if they wanted to be they would have been already.
"I'm sorry you two..I..I thought you were just playing the long game. I didn't realize…. that Watchers could even do that. I'll add an exception into the code. But…with the new security properly installed I think it might…do either of you two have crucial physical aspects of yourselves from Watchers?" Xisuma asks, already opening the command prompt to add them back into the whitelist and away from the security for Hermitcraft.
"Uhm,, our wings aren't..actually like this. And our…well, our visual forms aren't quite….what we actually look like? Watchers are able to transform, hence their..ability to hide in servers so well…But when we got..taken, they stripped us of our original forms and made us take the form of them." Pearl says, finally speaking.
Xisuma purses his lips and nods. Trying to figure out how to…explain this.
"The Anti-Watcher security is really good at detecting Watcher traits. How it does that is basically go through the smallest parts of your server player code, and search it for Watcher interaction. When it finds something, it's first job is to display it. So. Any code that it finds in any aspect of your player code will be highlighted and made active by the code. Basically, what I'm trying to say, is that when we join the server again, it might have you two in your…other.. form? Because it's detecting it and pushing it to the front. It's supposed to do that so you guys can't hide. But it might be less desireable right now." Xisuma says, dread worsening as Grian hastily wipes his eyes from what Xisuma hopes aren't tears. Maybe it's just dusty in here.
"But…Can't you change that?" Pearl asks, Xisuma bites his cheek as he opens the Watcher security folder, maybe there's a blacklist or something.
"Maybe, but I can't do much from here, we have to be in the server for me to change most things. I can keep you guys in my base, away from other people while I try and fix it, but I don't really….know how to." Xisuma finishes, closing down the command prompts and standing up.
"No..no we..we really should show ourselves. It's been long enough hiding in those forms– those…I really quite like them…It's gonna be weird being our true forms again..We aught to keep the names though, right?" Pearl asks, looking at Grian. She tugs his hand a bit as she stands. Grian sniffs, nodding.
"I really don't like my old one, the whole squelchy sound of it. Xelqua. Gross. I don't know why the Watchers insist on all those weird letters" Grian says, voice a little rough. Pearl lets out a huff and smiles at him, Xisuma can't help but smile a little too.
He leads them through the mutliplayer portal, leading them back to their subset of server numbers. He ushers them in first, watching as both of them successfully clear the whitelist. He walks in after, getting dropped back at his desk.
>XisumaVoid joined the game
<Etho>Welcome back everyone! Everything figured out?
<Grian>Yeah
<PearlescentMoon> We do look awfully different though! G I'm comin to your base.
<Grian>Kk
<XisumaVoid>Mind if I take a look?
<Grian>Come on over, we're gonna need to get used to people seeing us eventually.
Xisuma puts his communicator away and starts flying towards Grian's base. It's not too far– they're all pretty close together this season after all. He spots the buildings out the side of the mountain and lands right outside of them. No one's around, but he can hear shuffling coming from around the storage area covered in barrels and chests.
"Grian?" Xisuma calls out, walking towards the shuffling he can hear. He rounds the corner of the one sided storage building and spots basically a heap of wings. It turns to face him, and a white mask faces him– similarly to Grian it has dirty blond hair, but that's the only similarity. It's taller than Grian was, it's wings are purple and black, two more pairs than Grian has are sprung from it's back, along with one on it's face, covering it's mouth.
"X! Uh, yeah. Hi, this, it's still Grian but, this is what I..really look like I guess. Sorry, I was trying to take off the mask." It- Grian answers. Xisuma looks him up and down, the cloaks draped over his body, the glowing purple symbol above his head, the eye's that are sort of only visible if Xisuma doesn't actually look at him. The way his wings seem to glow.
Xisuma hears feet hitting ground and turns, faced with a similarly face covered– Pearl. She has moth wings still, but they're gray and black now, the circles glowing purple, and her antennae glowing similarly, much longer than the usual moth ones she had. Her hair is brown and blond still, with nothing covering her mouth. Her clothes are completely covered by a large cloak, which she promptly undoes and drops on the ground, revealing a dark and purple outfit. Very much a purple species. Xisuma wonders for a moment why all powerful species tend to be purple.
"Wow…" Is what he manages to say, staring between the two friendly Watchers. It's weird to see them. He's only ever heard of them- he didn't know they even had real forms.
Pearl laughs from his left and pats him on the shoulder.
"Yeah, quite the shock I bet! Two of us! On your server! Better listen to us now, save we use our magic powers on ya!" Pearl jokes, and Xisuma smiles, shaking his head. She's doing an amazing job at taking the seriousness out of this.
"I'll be right back" Grian says, walking past Xisuma and taking off. Xisuma watches in awe as he flaps the three sets of wings in perfect harmony as to not hit eachother with them.
"Why does he have bird wings and you have moth wings?" Xisuma wonders out loud, turning back to Pearl.
"Oh! I already had these. When they took me they just decided to leave them be. Most watchers have what Grian has though. Three sets of wings along with the face ones–You're basically supposed to never take the mask of because if a person sees your face it like, ruins some sort of power or something- I don't care. So when the Watchers take in a new person, they keep the mask on that person until they get to a higher rank. Grian and I of course never…got to a higher rank, so we're stuck with them- anyway— so if it gets taken off you can still hide your eyes with them." She explains, pulling at the top of her mask for emphasis. It didn't budge.
"Oh, that's unfortunate" Xisuma says. Pearl gives a shrug, turning her attention back towards the house Grian had flown off to.
They wait a moment before Grian is coming out, gliding back towards the ground, landing silently and coming back up to them. He's wearing normal clothes now– not the standard sweater and pants though.
"None of my clothes fit me. I had to steal from Scar– thankfully I'd already done that." Grian says, and it's quite funny to see Grian wearing Scar's usual jacket and pants.
"Someone needs to–" Pearl starts, but they're interrupted by a quite perfectly timed ping to their communicators
>GoodTimeWithScar joined the game
Pearl snorts as she starts typing.
<PearlescentMoon> SCAR WE NEED YOU AT GRIANS BASE RIGHT NOW
<GoodTimeWithScar>??? On my way?!
"Grian you're never going to live this down" she says, snapping a photo just in case that wasn't enough. Grian groans, looking at his communicator and seeing the messages.
"You're mean, Pearl" He says, moving the wings away from his mouth just so he can show his pout. Pearl sticks her tongue out at him.
A firework can be heard, and soon Scar is landing a little rough next to Xisuma. Looking at the two figures– about as tall as him. Xisuma was shocked with how short they were– He's still taller than him both.
"Xisuma, who are these?" Scar asks, staring at them both.
"C'mon, you don't recognize us?" Grian jokes, spreading his 6 wings out to full length. Xisuma watches Scar squint– their voices are the same, Grian does usually sound quite recognizable.
"..Grian?" Scar asks, looking him up and down, taking a second to glance down at his own jacket when he spots what Grians wearings. Pearl giggles behind Xisuma.
"Cha-ching! Your clothes are the only ones that fit me, my bad on that front. Like the new look?" Grian asks, folding his wings back up and letting his face ones sit near his ears.
"What happened??" Scar asks, walking up and behind Grian, pulling at Grians second and third pair of wings, maybe just making sure they're real. Grian shivers and makes his face wings cover his face again.
"Long story, but get used to us looking like this!" Pear pipes up, taking pity on Grian's embarrassed shivers as Scar pets through his wings. Xisuma doesn't know if both of them are oblivious or if Scar just doesn't know.
"Pearl??" Scar says, looking past Grians shoulder and eyeing Pearl.
"What happened?" Scar asks, finally stopping his raking through of Grian's feathers, moving back around front to look at Pearl. She crosses her arms, as if daring Scar to try and touch her. Scar thankfully doesn't.
"Long story– just expect us to always look like this from now on– well, probably anyway. Some amazing prank opportunities might be placed in our laps…." Pearl says, smirking at Grian, who is still facing the ground with his wings out. Pearl sighs, shaking her head.
"I'm glad some jokes got this out of being terribly awkward." Xisuma inputs, finding a spot to interject without being rude.
"Yeah! I'm gonna head back to my own base and change. Scar, you should hang out with Grian more like this I think he would enjoy getting used to this body again!" She says with the most shit eating grin Xisuma has ever seen on her. Scar squints but nods, Pearl turns around and takes off back towards her base.
"Well– Grian, let me know if you need any support or help with anything. I'll..I'm gonna go back to my base too. Good luck, be safe!" Xisuma says, smiling at Scar- Scar can't even see it. He's sure the double entendre isn't lost on him that time as Scar levels him with a blank face. Xisuma huffs out a laugh and takes off again.
Void. Two Watchers on his server, both of them victims of other Watcher's torments, both friendly. What an insane day on the hermitcraft server.
Well, he's happy for them to be comfy in their own bodies until he one day finds Etho and Joel stalking his base, throwing chicken eggs and really horrendously flirting, and when he scares them off he sees the form of Etho and Joel flicker away as Grian and Pearl start cackling. He sort of wishes he hadn't found anything in the first place, but he can't help but smile as the two fly off, comfy enough to be egging his base.
He's glad for them.