Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

i’ve been reluctant on doing this,, since it felt like if i did,, it would be giving up,, admitting that i couldn’t finish it. but honestly? i think that’s alright. perhaps,, as a first fic,, this was too ambitious for me. perhaps,, with this,, someone else who wants to could write there own story like it. perhaps i’ll return to it someday(though that’s a big perhaps). maybe this is where it ends. i won’t know until i hit publish. but whatever that answer is,, i’m glad i wrote this, even if i didn’t get far. it’s been over a year since i posted that last chapter, it’s about time the story was finally shared. 

(quick note: these notes are very poorly written,, and probably wouldn’t have been that similar to the final product[example: chapter 6 was supposed to have grian singing, but then i realized i did not know how to write that good, so it was changed])

Chapter 7

• Filler. 
• Doc and Grian bonding time. :)
• It’s been three weeks since the hermits have come to the corrupt world that is evo. 
• Grian decides he wants to go on a walk. 
• He’s almost out the door, when Doc speaks up.
• He wants to go with him. 
• The whole room is quiet. Everyone who has been hanging out with Doc knows he’s suspicious of the other, and everyone who’s been hanging out with Grian(literally everyone but doc) knows he’s intimidated by the creeper-cyborg.
• After a moment of silence, Grian stumbles out, “uh,,, o-okay..”
• When they exit the room, the rest of the hermit look at each other, worried for both of them.
• They begin to walk out. It’s night. The sky is beautiful, but neither of them seem to be enjoying it. 
• They reach a river. It’s tinted purple. Like everything else in this world.
• “What even happened here?” Doc asks, looking at Grian. He stills.
• He gets out an “i don’t know”, but they both know he’s lying.
• Doc “subtly” grabs at his iron sword, ready for a fight, if needed. Grian pales a bit.
• “Are you sure about that?” He says, giving him one last chance to confess. 
• Grian doesn’t speak, he doesn’t even look at Doc. His wings are almost wrapped around him, like he wants to hide.
• When he does look up, he sees something behind Doc. A creeper.
• He panics, and quickly rushes at Doc, obsidian sword at hand. 
• Doc doesn’t know there is a creeper behind him, and just sees Grian charging at him, ready to strike. 
• He gets out of the way, like Grian hoped he would, but also strikes at him.
• Have you ever had that moment, where, you can see that you are about to mess up, but you are already committed to the action, and can’t stop yourself?
• Yeah.
• That happened.
• So, once Doc Done Did Messed UpTM, and he quickly realizes what he’s done, Grian is lying on the ground, with a large gash on his wings, looking up at Doc with fear in his eyes. 
• Doc tries to help him, but Grian doesn’t trust him, and tries to scoot back, but was met with pain on his back. 
• Doc looks at him with guilt, before leaving. 
• Grian is just sitting there in pain, and starts hearing voices. 
• The Watchers. The Evolutionists. Taurtis. All saying how pathetic he is, on how he couldn’t save them. He starts to break down, crying, apologizing over and over.
• He doesn’t see Doc come back, until something touches him, startling him.
• He looks up, to find Doc standing in front of him, hand on his shoulder.
• He tries to scoot away, but his hand is firm, not letting him move.
• It’s only when Doc tells him to take a deep breath, that he realizes he’s hyperventilating.
• He follows Doc’s instructions, but is still wary of him. 
• He calms down after a bit, which is when Doc holds up a role of bandages he has. He starts wrapping it around his back and wings with care. 
• Once that is done, they become silent, one wary, the other guilty.
• After a moment of silence, Doc speaks up. He apologizes for his behavior, and how he was acting unfairly towards him, just because he attacked them with a good cause. 
• Grian apologizes as well, saying that he probably should have just explained what happened, so none of this would have happened. 
• Doc disagrees, saying that, whatever happened, seemed to cause a lot of trauma for him, and was probably uncomfortable to talk about. 
• “But I should have at least tried to tell you all that..” “Who’s to say we’d listen to that?”
• After a while of talking, they finally decide it’s probably time to head back, as they’ve been out for an hour now.
• When they get back, they’re met with a group of worried faces, and a couple suprised ones. 
• A lot of them are concerned about the injury on Grian, but they tell them not to worry about it. 
• It seems like they get along now, so they don’t know whether or not that’s something to be excited about, or worried.

Chapter 8

• Filler. 
• It’s been a month and a half now, and the magic that makes the portal is almost ready. 
• The hermits are a little antsy to leave this corrupt world, as there is barely anything to do here. All they ever seem to do is just wait in the tower, supposedly hiding from something. 
• Grian seems to think that there is something that would try to kill them if they ever left the tower, and doesn’t want anybody leaving it without his help. 
• So, they are all pretty much stuck in this tower, just waiting for the void magic to replenish, so they can leave. 
• Everyone is worried, as False seemed to be missing from the group, and was nowhere to be seen. 
• Suddenly, False bursts through the door of the tower, which startles everyone, and is immediately lectured by X and Grian—Grian, because he knows of the dangers that lurk beyond; and X, since the hermits are family to him, and he couldn’t handle losing any one of them.
• False tries to calm them down, saying that she just went out exploring at night, which causes Grian to become even more concerned.
• “At NIGHT?!? Don’t you know how dangerous that is?” “Relax, even if I were to die, which I didn’t, I would’ve respawned here.”
• Grian looks like he wants to rebuke that, but then he glances at all the other hermits, and sighs in defeat. 
• “Anyway, I was out exploring, when this weird-purpley-creeper appeared. It was about to explode, when I knocked back with my sword, and right as I did that, a skeleton shot at it, and it dropped a music disc. So, after I took care of the skeleton; which, was also weird and purpley, for some reason; I got an idea, and went mining for diamonds, so I could make a jukebox!!”
• She paused, holding up the jukebox, as if waiting for something. The room was quiet.
• “...a jukebox!!” She repeated, holding it up again. 
• “Why?” Grian asks. 
• She gaped at them all. “Uh, so we can make music, duh.” 
• Grian was confused. Why waste a perfectly good diamond for something practically useless? He tried making one before, but when he found it didn’t have a use, he had thrown it away, a little peeved he had basically thrown a diamond away. 
• False explained that it only works with a music disc, like the one she had in her hand. 
• Grian, now curious, watches as she places down the jukebox, and plays the song. 
• It’s a slightly catchy beat, and some of the hermits find themselves humming to the beat. 
• The music relaxes them, and they start talking amongst themselves. 

Chapter 9

• Oh hey actual plot. 
• After a couple months of living in the glitched world that once was evo, the magic that makes up the portals that go between worlds have fully replenished, allowing them to leave. 
• They ask Grian if he’s sure he doesn’t want to stay, in case his friends do come back. He still seems pretty sure they won’t come for him.
• They are concerned, but nonetheless, welcome him officially as a hermit, and they enter the portal.
• They go into the actual hermitcraft six world. 
• Yay.

(note,, i actually wrote a little something for this part! i had really wanted to. visualize this bit,, particularly the ending bit,, so... i did!)

Chapter 10

• Oh hey, more filler
• It’s been a week of them living in the new world, and Grian is excited. 
• There’s all these new mobs, like dolphins and fish, and drowned!
• He knows he probably shouldn’t be excited for that last one, but he is.
• Anyway, there’s this kinda big event, where the hermits gather around to talk about funny stuff from the past, and stuff like that. And, he’s late. 
• So, it’s night, and Grian shows up to this big bonfire-esque party thing, where everybody is gathered around a fire, roasting marshmallows(and friends), waiting for everybody else(*cough cough grian cough*) to show up. 
• Once the last person finally shows up, Xisuma clears his throat, quieting everyone. 
• He goes on to explain what the event is about, mostly for people who are kinda new to this whole thing, mainly Stress, Zedaph, and Grian. 
• Anyway, once that is done, they all start sharing stories past seasons, like, that rubix cube puzzle joe made for mumbo once, or, all the stuff wormman got up to, and let’s not forget the whole NHO affair! 
• After a couple of stories that left people laughing on the ground, everyone turned to Grian. Cleo asked if he had any stories to tell. 
• He stiffened a little, but after a little discussion in his head, he decided he had nothing to hide, and started sharing the story of The Grian Empire. 
• After a quick timeskip(cause I'm not watching all evo just for this one chapter for funny stories)(sowwy), the hermits are all laughing along with Grian, who just finished the story of the Diamond EscapadeTM. 
• He’s about to continue with another story, when he takes a look at his communicator, and notices it’s well past midnight. 
• He says this, and the hermits, or, at least the ones who are awake, Perl up, and check their communicators, too, and once they’ve checked it, they immediately get to work. Some wake up the sleeping ones, some go put out the bonfire, and others start picking up all the blankets and food they left. 
• Iskall walks up to Grian, and thanks him for coming, saying that his stories were really funny, before going to go wake up Mumbo. 
• Grian smiles, and can’t help but think about the evolutionists. 
• He goes home.

Chapter 11

(don’t ask why the bullet points are like that, idk why either and idk how to fix it)

• Filler
• Evil Xisuma and Grian Bonding Time!
• Grian is flying above a little beach, for reasons I do not know. 

• (hi, future zecori here, found a reason: he’s looking for a jungle for parrots)

• He spots a little cabin in a little forest next to the little beach. 
• That’s a lot of littles.
• He decides to investigate, thinking it’s someone’s secret base, or, maybe just an abandoned starter base.
• He enters the cabin, and starts looking around.  
• He finds a couple necessities, like food, and diamond tools. 
• As he keeps going, he figures this probably isn’t a starter base. 
• It’s also not abandoned, as that bed looks like it’s been used recently. 
• He’s too busy thinking on who’s base this is, and why they’d make it so far away from the rest of them, that he doesn’t hear the door to the cabin creak open.
• It’s only when he hears a sword unsheathing and footsteps running towards him that he realizes someone’s here.
• He turns around, obsidian sword in hand, blocking the attack from the figure, who does look familiar, but.. wrong, at the same time. 
• They scuffle for a bit, before the figure eventually gets the upper hand, and knocks Grian’s sword from his hand, and pins him against the wall with his diamond sword. 
• Seriously, Grian, you have to get some fighting lessons, you gonna die someday if you don’t. 
• ...I mean, yeah, you’ll respawn, but that’s not the point..
• Anyway, he gets a closer look at the figure, and notices that they look strikingly similar to Xisuma, except.. Red..
• The X lookalike is about to strike, when their eye catches the sword that was thrown on the ground. 
• They stare at it, before turning their attention back to Grian, seemingly glaring at them through their helmet. 

• “Where’d you get that sword?!” A distorted voice said, sounding a lot like Xisuma, but lower. 

• Grian, in his panic, accidentally tells him the truth, making this stranger the first to know even a little bit of Grian’s past with the Watchers. 
• It seems like the stranger didn’t expect this answer, mostly thinking that this guy was a hacker, or something. 
• Grian realizes what he said when the stranger questioned about the watchers, and began panicking more. 
• The stranger tried to ask more questions, but stopped when he realized that was making this guy more panicked. 
• He sighed, and took his sword back, and picked up the obsidian sword, pocketing it. 
• He turned back to the boy, and when he saw that he wasn’t calming down anytime soon, he left to go get something. 
• Grian wanted to get up, to run, to get away from here, but he couldn’t.
• His panic seemed to make him freeze, not wanting to move anywhere. 
• So, he just stayed there, crying. 
• He startled when he heard the stranger come back, with something in his hands. 
• It’s a blanket and cookies. 
• He sets the blanket around Grian, and sets the plate of cookies down next to him. 
• He glanced at the winged-boy, before heading out of the cabin.
• Grian just stares at the door, before turning towards the cookies. 
• He ponders the chances of them being poisoned, before deciding to risk it, and took a bite. 
• It was the best gosh darn thing he’s ever eaten. 
• It was warm and gooshy, but not that much gooshy. This stranger better tell where he got these cookies, cause, wherever he got them, is where Grian was shopping from now on. 
• Once he inhales the rest of the cookies, he looks back towards the door. 
• After a moment of contemplation, he slowly stands up, and heads out the door, blanket in hand. 
• He finds the stranger at the beach, a little ways off from the cabin. 
• He walks up to him. 
• The stranger is eating the other half of the cookies.(don’t ask me how he is with the helmet on, idk)
• He doesn’t really acknowledge Grian other then a small hum. 
• They both stare at the sky, watching the sunset. 
• It’s a little while later when a Grian breaks the silence. 
• “Sooo,,, where’d you get those cookies?”
• The stranger looks at him, presumably with a raised eyebrow. He explains he made them himself. 
• Grian gets a starry look in his eyes, and his wings fluff up. He excitedly asks if he could teach him. 
• The stranger seems.. confused with this. 
• “You want.. me, to teach you how to bake..?” He asks.
• Grian nodded. 
• The stranger thought about it, and shrugged. He said sure, but not right now. He ran out of ingredients, and would need to get more. 
• Grian exclaimed that he could get the ingredients super quick, but the stranger denied, saying that he’d rather do it himself. 
• He was a little sad, but accepted that. He asked when he should come over. 
• TS said he should have them ready in a week or two. 
• Grian excitedly shakes his hand, finally introducing himself. 
• The stranger hesitated, before introducing himself as Ex. 
• “‘X’? Like, the letter?” “No, it’s E-X, but it’s pronounced ‘x’.” “That’s gonna be confusing, I have a friend who goes by X..” “..Do you now...?” “Yep. So, do you have any other names you like to go by?”
• He hesitated again, before stating that he used to go by Xeno. 
• Grian stared at him, making him uncomfortable, before saying he looks like a Xeno. 
• Xeno let out a breath he didn’t know he had.
• He nodded his thanks, and the two set off in their own directions—one to the sky, the other to his cabin. 
• Xeno looked back at Grian as he took off to the islands, and wondered what these watcher fellows could have done to make him so scared. 

• (that’s gonna be all the grian and ex interactions in this fic, but i will make oneshots for both the baking thing, and more)(hopefully) 

• (ignore previous line, I’m continuing it in the next chapter)

Chapter 12

• Filler
• It was about a week after that first meeting with Xeno when Grian realized he had no way to contact him. 
• How that slipped past him, he had no idea. 
• He decides to check in with Xeno, to see if he has the ingredients yet, and if he doesn’t, try and figure out a way of contact. 
• He reaches the beach, and starts heading towards Xeno’s cabin. 
• He knocks on the door this time. Manners are important, kids. 
• He heard shuffling inside, before the door opens up a crack. 
• Grian looks at the eye that’s staring at him, and waves nervously. 
• The door shut, but before he could be disappointed, he heard a lock unlocking, and the door opened again, wider this time. 
• He sees whom he can only assume to be Xeno wearing an oversized pajama shirt and pants. 
• His eyes are also colored weirdly, reds as his iris and pupils, and a weird purple-ly sclera. 
• Xeno, who Grian notes doesn’t have as deep of a voice anymore, but is still distorted, goes on to apologize to him, saying he forgot that they didn’t really have a way of communication, but by the time he remembered, Grian was long gone. 
• Grian reassures him, saying that at least he remembered shortly after the meeting, instead of a week after, like him. 
• Xeno chuckles a bit, and goes on to say that he had gotten all the ingredients a little while ago, and was putting everything into an ender chest so they wouldn’t go bad when Grian showed up. 
• He led him to the ender chest, got out all the ingredients, and started getting to work. 
• After a time skip(cause i don’t really want to write them baking, as fun as that would be, since writing them baking would be hard, at least for me), and a bunch of laughs, they finally finished the cookies, and were just waiting for them to cool down a bit so they could eat them. 
• Xeno decided that this was a perfect time to ask about the watchers, and what they are. 
• Grian stilled, and looked down, rubbing his arm, his wings puffing up. 
• A beat passed, before Xeno said that, if it would help, he could tell something about his past that he doesn’t like anybody knowing about. 
• Grian looked back up at him, nervous. He studied his face, seemingly having an internal argument, before looking back down, muttering an agreement. 
• Xeno waited a bit, seeing if he was going to go first, but when he stayed silent, he sighed, saying “Where do I begin..”
• He goes on to explain that he’s a void creature, hence the eyes and the voice, summoned by Xisuma, hence.. pretty much everything else about him. 
• He explains that he was made to help him lead the small group that would later become what it is today(disclaimer, i haven’t watched any other hermitcraft seasons besides six, so i will get things wrong), but he soon lost interest, mostly because X didn’t want the other members to know about him. 
• He grew salty, and, out of spite, decided to destroy some of the buildings in the world they were in at the time. 
• He and X argued with each other, which ended in him basically getting thrown out into the street to fend for himself. 
• He had to teach himself survival mechanics so he wouldn’t die, as void creatures can’t respawn. 
• When he heard that they were going to world jump again, he decided to go too, because he didn’t want to be alone just for the heck of it. 
• This continued for awhile, Xeno messing with the hermits, X kicking him out, only for the cycle to repeat. 
• That is, until the season five. Xeno hadn’t even done anything yet, he was just walking around, when X stomped up to him, and started to yell at him, before banning him. 
• It was the worst experience of his life. 
• He didn’t know how long he was in there, but it was awhile. 
• He didn’t really know how he got out of.. whatever that was.. he just.. felt something, and just grabbed onto it, looking for anything to hold onto, and before he knew it, he was in a new world. 
• He didn’t really question it, though, he was just glad to be free of it. 
• He didn’t know if this place was inhabited or not, but at this point, he didn’t really care. 
• As Xeno finished his story, he turned back to Grian, signaling for him to go on ahead with his story. 
• Grian stayed silent for a moment, before starting his story. 
• He starts his story near the beginning, from when he first woke up in an unknown world, surrounded by a bunch of people he didn’t know. He didn’t know anything about himself, except for his name, Grian. 
• They all quickly became friends, and before they knew it, a couple of weeks pass by, when they first find out about the existence that is the watchers. 
• He explained that they were deities, charged with watching worlds, and helping them update. 
• “..So, there’s a watcher watching us right now..?” “..yep..” 
• He explains they are supposed to do this in secret, so no one figures out they exist. 
• These watchers, however, decided they wanted to be worshipped, so they announced their presence, thinking that they would get praise. 
• They didn’t. 
• They got mad. 
• They got crueler, harsher, to the point where one of the evolutionists, which is what they called themselves, tried to leave, only to be stopped by them. 
• They made the group travel to the end, and defeat the dragon. 
• Once they did, they took one of the players, and forced them to become a watcher like themselves. 
• That player being Grian. 
• They kicked the remaining players out of the place they called spawn, where they first, well, spawned; to a new one, far, far away. 
• Things stayed this way for awhile, before the evolutionists mysteriously disappeared. They were no longer in the world. 
• The watchers got mad. 
• They snapped at Grian, seemingly blaming him for this. 
• They punished him for minor things, like walking wrong, his wings not in the right position, even breathing too loud. 
• After a particularly bad punishment, he decided he had enough, and fled.
• He saw the mess that Evo had become. 
• He found one of the old watcher towers, which he used to use when the watchers allowed him on evo. 
• He decided to live there, and never leave, only going out for food, which just so happened to be a couple hundred blocks away from the tower. 
• He wasn’t happy, but he was satisfied. 
• Until they came. 
• He had forgotten what it felt like to just.. have fun, and not worry about them finding him. 
• When he finished, his eyes were wet with tears he refused to let fall. 
• They were both quiet for a while. 
• That is, until a timer dinged, signaling that the cookies were ready, startling both. 
• Xeno excused himself, and got up to get the cookies. 
• He came back with a tray of cookies, two plates, and a couple blankets and pillows. 
• He sat down on the floor, and patted the spot next to him, looking up at Grian.
• He took the invitation, and sat down next to him, cuddling the blanket. 
• The two ate the cookies in silence, both thinking about what the other told them. 
• After a while, Xeno told Grian that he could come over anytime, if he ever needed to talk. Grian looked at him, and smiled sadly, nodding, saying that he could do the same to him. 
• They talked a bit for awhile, just chillaxing and eating cookies, before eventually Grian had to get home, since it was late. 
• They almost part, before Xeno calls out to him, remembering something. 
• He quickly goes back inside, and comes back out, holding Grian’s obsidian sword. 
• Grian perks up, and thanks him, saying that he’d been wondering where it was. 
• Xeno nodded in response, smiling. 
• Grian flies off, promising to come back soon.

(note: most of xeno’s backstory was made on the spot, right then as i wrote it,, and would have probably have been retconned a bit when i officially wrote it. probably in a way where x didn’t look so much like a bad guy[again, wrote it on the spot didn’t have much time to think])

Chapter 13

• Filler
• Parrot Dancing.(delete this line once the chapter notes are done)
• It’s been a couple weeks since that meeting with Xeno, and in the excitement, he completely forgot the reason he was out there in the first place. 
• So, after one quick trip to the jungle, he goes to the Sahara meeting room he had made for his, Iskall, and Mumbo’s business they were making. 
• He quickly made a little jungle area, and led the parrots he had tamed into it. 
• Once it was sealed, he placed down a jukebox he had made, after asking False on how to make one, and put a disc in it. 
• He watched as the parrots slowly started dancing as the music picked up. 
• He sat there, entertained, before tapping his foot to the beat. 
• The foot tapping slowly turned into full on dancing as the song kept going. 
• When the song ended, and the disc was ejected, all of them were disappointed. 
• That is, until Grian plopped the disc back in, starting the song over. 
• The parrots seemed to chirp out a chorus of happiness, as the started dancing to the song once more.
• This continued for awhile, until Iskall had shown up to the meeting that was scheduled, which Grian had forgotten about. 
• When the song ended, he was about to restart the song for the umpteenthed time, when Iskall cleared his throat, startling him. 
• They stared at each other, until Iskall decided to speak up. 
• “So… you gonna let me join you?”
• That broke Grian out of his trance, and he sputtered out a sure. 
• Iskall walked up to the jukebox, and restarted the song. 
• The parrots immediately danced, but Grian was a little nervous to start. 
• He asked for how long Iskall was watching him. 
• “Awhile.” Iskall replies, tapping his foot to the beat. 
• They do that for awhile, just tapping their feet to the beat(hey that rhymes) till the song ends. 
• No one really goes to put it back in. 
• “..What’s wrong, you nervous?” Iskall said, breaking the silence. 
• Grian asks what he meant. 
• “Well, you were okay with dancing before, what’s so different now?”
• “..I guess I’m just not comfortable with dancing in front of others as I used to be..”
• Iskall frowned a bit, before shaking his head. 
• “How ‘bout we dance together?” He shrugged. (I swear if anybody thinks this is shipping i will scream)
• Grian looks at him, confused. 
• Iskall explains that maybe if they danced together, he might get less self-conscious about it. 
• Grian thought about it, before hesitatingly accepting it. 
• Iskall nodded, and put the disc back in. 
• As the song started playing, he quickly started dancing to the beat, silently urging Grian to do the same. 
• Grian started out slow, before slowly picking up speed, and then began dancing like how he was before. 
• He grinned at Iskall, who grinned back. 
• They continued like this for awhile, the birds just watching them instead of dancing, when suddenly Mumbo burst through the corridor.
• He apologizes about being late to the meeting, something about being a  spoon, when he stops at the sight before him. 
• They all just stare at each other as the music fades out. 
• After a moment of silence, he just goes, “..Am I... interrupting something..?”
• Grian quickly says that he isn’t, and goes on to explain why they were all here in the first place, quickly going to the meeting table, which made Mumbo and Iskall go to sit at their seats. 
• As Grian continued explaining, Iskall can’t help but wonder why he was so nervous about dancing. 

• congrats, me, you somehow made a fluffy chapter angsty. here’s a gold star.

Chapter 14

• Hey, looks like the plot is back
• K, so after months of living in the hermitcraft world, it seems to be all good. 
• Everybody is getting along, Grian is getting used to being in a new world, everything is great!
• There’s absolutely no way this could go wrong!
• ...right…?
• Anyway, Joe is out in a plains biome, for some reason. 
• He’s doing something, when suddenly..
• A *~*mysterrrrriooussss pooorrrtaall*~* appears. Again.
• Joe, being the smart person he is, pulls out his communicator to report it to X instead of investigating and probably getting pulled in himself.
• However, before he can do that, the portal starts swirling, which means somebody is coming. 
• Joe climbs a tree to hide in.
• A brown-haired girl exits the portal.
• They look around, before going back in.
• A moment later, they come back out, with eight more people in tow.
• They start to make plans, and Joe can only hear snippets of it.
• They start to split up, and Joe thinks he’s almost in the clear.

• *snap*

Chapter 15

(in all honesty,, this chapter and the last one(maybe even the next?) could have been combined into one,, but i really wanted the even 20 chapter count kdmdkdmdkdkdk)

• It seems that the universe decides now would be a perfect time for the branch Joe is on to break, alerting the group of his presence.
• They quickly surround him, and start questioning what he’s doing here(they don’t specify where here is).
• He tries to turn it around on them, asking them what they’re doing here, but he’s outnumbered, and they ignore his questions.
• They start arguing amongst themselves.
• It stops when somebody mentions how they are even going to get Grian from the Watchers—“Wait, Grian?” “You know Grian?” “You know Grian?”
• They let him explain that they are in hermitcraft, and how they found Grian in this glitched out world.
• He then asks what the watchers are, which makes everybody really uncomfortable.
• Eventually, the bush-baby-person(Netty) decides they can trust him, and they all start explaining what happened with the watchers.

Chapter 16

• (this chapter is basically an info dump)
• K, so, in the beginning, there were ten people, who were called the evolutionists.
• At first, everything was fine. But then, these figures called the watchers started making their presence known. 
• They were nice, at the beginning, but over time, they became stricter. Crueler. Punishing them for small things. 
• One of the members, named Martyn, had tried to leave, but was ultimately stopped by the watchers.
• After a while of this, they sent the evolutionists to the end, to defeat the enderdragon. 
• They beat it, and in return, they “rescued” Grian, and sent the rest of the evolutionists off back to the old world.
• They were angry at the watchers for taking Grian, but ultimately accepted it, some less so than others. 
• Almost immediately after they were sent back, they were kicked out of their old spawn, which had been aged and torn down, and forced to relocate to a new one, thousands of blocks away.
• Before that, however, Jimmy had gotten a message from the listeners, who tasked him with bringing an enderchest to everyone. So, he did, if only so he wouldn’t have to face repercussions.
• Anyway, a while after that, they found a tiny hole in their new spawn, and decided to investigate it. They did, and found that the listeners were going to help them escape. 
• And they did.
• They entered a new world, one ruled by fair figures, ones that let them do what they want, as long as it wasn’t damaging to the environment or others(like, pranks are fine, but not malicious griefing)
• The only thing that would make it perfect, however, was Grian.
• It took almost a year of planning, but they did it. With the Listeners’ help, they made a portal that would them to where Grian was, so they could rescue him from the watchers, and they would be reunited again. 
• And yea that pretty much sums that situation up.
• And now they go on a scavenger hunt for grian.

Chapter 17

(this chapter and the next could also have been combined but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

• Pretty much a fluff chapter.
• They go on a short adventure to find Grian, and find him in his base, along with Mumbo, for reasons unknown. 
• After a moment of silence, they all get into a group hug, and start crying tears of joy. And stuff. Yea.
• They all start rambling on how much they missed each other, and other sappy stuff.
• Look, im not good at super happy things, alright? 
• Grian starts apologizing, thinking everything was his fault, for some reason, but the evolutionists shut that train of thought down quickly.
• They just sit in silence in a group hug, enjoying each other’s company.
• Cut to Mumbo whispering to Joe “who are they?”
• Joe responds, “I’ll tell you later.”

Chapter 18

• • A happy chapter.
  • Which means I have no idea where I’m going with this.
  • Yay.
  • After the group hug is finished, they decide to go tour around hermitcraft, to see what he(and every other hermit) has done over the past few months.
  • Some of the hermits follow them, whether out of curiosity, or protectiveness, depends on the hermit.
  • Anyway, yea, once the tour is over, pretty much all of the hermits have followed them(including ex, but he’s hiding), and decide now is a great time to introduce themselves. 
  • Introductions exchanged, Grian decides to ask an important question:
  • “Are you staying?” 
  • The evolutionists look at each other, a flicker of guilt in their eyes.
  • They explain that they have a new home, in the world they have escaped to. 
  • They thought Grian would’ve come with them.
  • Grian starts to get torn—he doesn’t want to leave either of his friends.
  • The hermits look at each other, and after a moment of silence, and X walks up to Grian. 
  • He tells him that, if he wants to, he can leave with the evolutionists, that they’ll be okay. 
  • After a few moments of hesitation, he agrees, and after promising them to visit, the evolutionists start heading towards the portal.
  • X stops them—“Don’t you have to wait a while before using the portal again?”
  • They shake their heads, because, by some miracle, watcher and listener magic work differently than void magic, and can transfer people without a wait time. 
  • Which basically means they can visit whenever they want.
  • Do I know it’s OP? Yes. Do I care? No.

• Ok, maybe I do, but do you want a happy ending or not?

• So, with that bullet dodged, and a group hug with all the hermits(except for ex, but he’ll hug him later), and some start heading back to do their thing, and others start conversation with some of the evolutionists. 
• After that, the evolutionists start heading towards the portal, to go to the new evo.
• Before entering, Grian takes one of them aside(Netty), and asks her a single question.

• “Where’s Taurtis?”

Epilogue

• Taurtis walks towards another tree.
• He chops it down. 
• Success.
• He finds himself reminiscing about Grian.
• He wishes he wasn’t alone in this glitch up world.
• He heads home.
• The End.
• Or is it?

never specified who it was in the prologue ;3

i felt really proud of myself for that twist when i made it up,,, in all honesty i probably could have foreshadowed it better aside from never mentioning a name at the beginning,, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. 

this wasn’t where it was gonna end, tho,, no sirre. i had plans for a sequel! (probably could have also just.. been a part of the original noglb but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). watchers would have maybe had a more active part instead of just... not existing. like,, even the listeners had more screen time here kdkdkdkdk. 

i hadn’t thought much about it,, barely have a coherent storyline,, but basically it boils down to this:

the listeners(who are ocs of mine who i love,, named ore, ruby, and pearl) are tasked by themselves to find taurtis,, who had vanished without a trace. eventually, they find him in evo, an either they go or grian and maybe someone else goes to find him. 

and like,, before that grian is having like an existential crisis due to the fact that he’s having memories of stuff that he’s pretty sure hasn’t happened,, yet... feel like they did. 

wrote a smol fic for it a while ago,, that pretty much sums up what i’m talking about. 

anyway,,, over on evo, we have taurtis and sitruat, who are trying to survive(or,, less sitruat, more taurtis). now,, i don’t have much info to give on sitruat,, since i was mostly waiting on the to the end series to give us more info on ‘im,,, but that never happened,,, soooooo.. not a lot i can say. i had entertained the thought of perhaps,, sitruat was a result of a watcher experiment? like,, a prototype of grian becoming a watcher,, except gone wrong.

(lemme explain here,, in this au,, listeners and watchers are not allowed to turn players into,, well,,,, listeners and watchers. maybe they were allowed to before,, but now that power is restricted to the [insert name for the lead watcher and listener]. so,, the evo watchers had to resort to nefarious ways to do so. why did they do it? idk! oh also not all watchers are bad these two are just jerks)

and also,, this was never covered in the original fic,, only implied,, but.. the evo world was messed up. respawn barely functioned right,,, mobs were op.. grian had a good reason to want to never leave. 

anyway,, this is where i don’t really know what happens next. all i know is everything turned out right in the end. don't know how,, it did.

but!!!!!! that is also not all!!!!!!!!!

i also wanted to make a little ask blog,,,,, for npc grian and robo grian. i promise this makes sense-

it started out normal,, taking place before and or during the sequel,,, with you talking with robo-g and npg,,, but over the course of the blog,, you realize grian,, and a couple other players,, had gone missing. the robo duo had been trying to solve the mystery,, but it’s pretty hard to figure out what happened when no one seems to remember the victims(aside from one, who had disappeared at a later date). 

you all find out that the watchers had kidnapped them all,, with the exception of taurtis, who was summoned by grian. the watchers had cast a spell that caused the other players to forget about them,, except for the robo duo bc robots i guess. and the listener trio from earlier show up with a watcher oc of mine at one point,,, annnnnd... yeah i think that’s pretty much all i have. 

i still find it hard to let go of noglb,, since there’s so many thing i wanted to do with it,,, but.. i think this is the right thing to do. and even if it wasn’t the way i had wanted to,, it’s nice to finally share this with all of you. thank you guys for sticking with me,, and hello new readers who discover this! i hope you had a good time reading this, despite everything. and thank you.