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Tango was having an absolute blast on Empires, especially with his engineering job for fWhip. He’d been working Decked Out nearly non-stop for… he didn’t even know how long– it was easy to lose track of time when he was hyper focused on his work. He loved Decked Out, and was excited to someday finish, but doing a project for someone else was different. Designing for their environment (in this case a really awesome one), working with their aesthetics and desires, and collaborating was all really exciting. Decked Out could wait - he’d probably come back with fresh ideas from all this.
When the hermit group set out through the rift, no one had talked about things like how long they would stay - they didn’t even know where they were going. Tango didn’t particularly care how long people were staying, or if they’d start commuting? Figuring out those kinds of things wasn’t really his department. (Actually, he wasn’t sure if they could leave? Someone would figure it out and let him know.) He’d honestly barely known what was happening when he showed up at the Rift - Impulse told him to show up, so he did. He’d forgotten to show up for the King’s Vault Assault, which was a little embarrassing. Given that Impulse was the one who’d invited him to that, he figured it would be best to show up to this invitation.
It had sounded like the expectation was the whole server crashing, because Grian had crashing when he tried to go through. A whole new world, with new people, some awesome towns and his literal long lost soulmate was completely unexpected. It’s not that Hermitcraft was boring, but this was new and exciting. His friends seemed to be settling in okay - well, he hadn’t actually seen a lot of them, but he hadn’t heard about any problems. Yes, he was already hyper focusing on his new project, but making a contraption basically in an ancient city? In this magical place? Amazing.
Fwhip had taken Tango out to socialize a few times, but Jimmy never seemed to be around when they went out. Tango’d gone by Tumble Town (amazing name) several times to visit Jimmy, but it had always been a bit weird? Scar was usually there, which was fine, but his energy can dominate a conversation. Though even when Tango had caught Jimmy alone, things were… off. Of course, they weren’t in Double Life anymore. They weren’t officially soulmates. They weren’t fighting for their lives, they didn’t have all that pressure on them. No Team Ranchers against the world, totally in sync and unable to trust anyone besides each other. That was over. It had ended. Which was fine. Of course.
Jimmy had seemed really excited to see him at first, the first day when they found each other in the tunnel and Tango had thought maybe they were still… something. But it didn’t last maybe that had just been an initial excitement that faded? (Jimmy was always excited, which was one of the things Tango lo– liked about him. One of the many things.) He hadn’t thought they’d ever see each other again, but he’d thought if they did… never mind. Jimmy hadn’t invited him to move in, he’d invited Scar, and fWhip seemed very happy to have Tango with him, and Tango was happy to be in Gobland, to live with fWhip. Everything was great.
It was very unclear to Tango what he should be doing with regards to Jimmy. Jimmy always talked to him, they would have some laughs, Jimmy would always tell Tango he was welcome back whenever, but... It wasn’t what they’d had before. When he saw him, Jimmy always seemed closed off, sad… distant? Tango kept inviting him to come over to Gobland and see his contraption progress, to hang out in his little Goblin house, but there was always some excuse not to. He tried not to think about it too much, but it fucking sucked! Tango thought what they’d had back on the ranch was something real, something important, and that maybe if they’d had more time, things could have… but nope. Apparently not. Which was fine.
So Tango focused on his work, which was easy to do. fWhip hung around a lot while he worked. Having someone around was very different and surprisingly nice. They had compatible humor styles, they told each other endless stories about their servers and friends, and nerded out about redstone and contraptions. They often ate meals together, in the tavern or just wherever they were working. Usually that famous Gobland pork, but fWhip made sure to mix it up some. He even asked Tango what foods he liked to each, which was very thoughtful. It was almost domestic, which he’d only ever really had on the Ranch. (And if he wished Jimmy could be there too, that the three of them could hang out and bounce around ideas, all have dinner in the tavern, well. Didn’t matter, it wasn’t happening.)
It was even harder to keep track of time in the cave than at home, so far from the sun. Tango didn’t know if it was anything approximating dinner time, but he defaulted to calling meals “dinner” and went off in search of it. As he came to the main level, he heard voices from one of the buildings. Tango was about to call out when he realized the voices sounded upset, so he kept his mouth shut as he approached.
“--I haven’t done anything wrong, I certainly haven’t broken any of your so-called ‘laws’ that you don’t even follow.”
fWhip sounded defensive and angry. Awkward! Maybe Tango shouldn’t say hi after all.
The voice that responded was so angry, so cold and so hard that it took Tango a moment to recognize it at all.
“There are things that are wrong that aren’t in the laws. You know that. Things like basic human decency.”
“Hey I’m a gob–”
“Shut up, fWhip.”
fWhip shut up. Tango was pretty sure most people who knew him would shut up if they heard Jimmy sound like that, it was so unnatural and upsetting. What the hell had fWhip done to make Jimmy sound like this?
Tango guessed Jimmy was waiting to make sure fWhip was going to stay shut up. Maybe he was moving around, maybe he was staring at fWhip, maybe he was staring off in another direction. It was frustrating to not be able to see what was going on, but bursting in seemed very… unwise.
When Jimmy resumed, his voice was still deadly serious, but a bit less disturbing. “I’m going to talk now. Do not interrupt me.”
There was a pause. Maybe there was a nod from fWhip, or maybe a refusal to say or indicate anything.
Jimmy spoke clearly and deliberately. Had he practiced this speech? Maybe, this really wasn’t what Jimmy normally sounded like.
“I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to hurt me. You insult me, you have a whole campaign of trying to get people to disrespect me, you try to ruin my career, and now this. I know why you’re doing this, and it’s literally unbelievable. You’re really something else. I can’t believe we were ever… anything to each other. Give it up. Stop pulling other people into your stupid revenge plot. I’m the one who got killed, over and over, I’m the one who got a warden in his base. You’re not the victim, fWhip!”
Aww fuck. This sounded bad. Very very bad. Tango had picked up that fWhip was part of the whole “Jimmy is a toy” game, but he thought it was a friendly running joke. Oops?
It didn’t take long for fWhip to respond. “Are you done with your little speech, Sheriff? Do you want a little round of applause for your performance?”
Tango heard the most sarcastic applause he’d ever heard, and he hung out with Cleo. fWhip’s voice was cold and low, and he was straight up sneering. Tango had only known him for a few… for however long he’d been here, but he’d never heard him sound anything like this. What the fuck was going on?
“Well that’s all well and good, but I don’t care what you think is going on, I don’t care what you think about anything. No matter what you think, the whole server doesn’t revolve around you, Jimmy. We have our own lives and emotions and... and everything.”
fWhip faltered for a moment, but continued on. Less cold and sarcastic, more angry.
“You gave up the right to have me care about what you think of me when you fired me, without even talking to me! Just decided everything we’d done together was nothing, that everything I’d done for you didn’t matter. You are corrupt! I’m looking out for the best interests of everyone here, with someone like you claiming to have authority over them. It’s not about you, Jimmy! We’re happy here in Gobland, and you’re not part of this and no one needs you, so get out of here before I kill you again.”
Oh fuck. Tango headed towards the door, hoping he could stop an actual murder.
Jimmy exploded at fWhip. Tango had heard him angry before, with all the shit that went down on Double Life, but this was something else, something much more… personal?
“You’re not happy! Stop lying! You’re using him! This is all literally because you found out what we are, what we’d had, and you actually couldn’t handle it! Couldn’t handle that I’d had something good without you! Couldn’t let me have that again! I don’t care if you imagine you’re happy, but he deserves better, so much better than you.”
Tango froze just outside the door as soon as he heard “him.” What?
Meanwhile fWhip was almost shouting. “What better, you? Sheriff? You’ve ignored him since you got here!”
“That’s because you literally stole him, to-- to turn him against me! To put him in your weird cave and, and, make him forget about the sun! Everything is weird now! You can’t stand that I actually had someone who made me happy, that I had a partnership that worked, someone who would never betray me, unlike half the people on that server treated their partners. We’re real soulmates. What Tango and I had was actually so special, and you’ve never had anything like that, so you took him away from me!”
fWhip was now actually shouting. Jimmy kept trying to interrupt him, but he just kept going.
“Jimmy, he’s a fucking adult, he can do whatever he wants. I’m not holding him captive in a cage. I offered him a job that he loves and is very good at. What would he do with you, raise some fucking cows? Try and make your town less boring? Pick up after you and all your messes, like I did? Try to keep you from flying off and doing idiotic things, try to keep you safe from your own issues, try to get you to grow up and actually respect yourself and everyone else? He’s happy, and I want him here, he’s amazing and there’s really no way you could appreciate him like I do.”
Tango unfroze and headed to the door, even though he desperately wanted to run away from all this. He heard movement inside as he reached the door.
“Get out and don’t you ever come back.”
Jimmy and Tango’s heads swung towards the door alarmingly fast as Tango walked in.
“Gentlemen, gentlemen, please, I’m sure there’s enough of me to go around.”
Tango forced his voice to be as casual and humorous as possible, forced himself to smile like he wasn’t walking in on a potential murder, about… him?? It was a gambit, but Tango had no idea how to approach this besides humor, and he really wanted this fight to stop.
Did Tango mean it, about there being enough to go around? If they meant what he thought they did about him? Sure, why not? He never would have thought he’d go for a goblin, but he really enjoyed fWhip’s company, he wanted to keep seeing him every day, and he was cute in his own way.
And Jimmy, well. That one was no question.
The room was completely silent. Tango’s main goal had been “no violence”, but “not insanely awkward” had been a close second. Oops. After a minute he decided to go sit down, in the chair that was the closest approximation to equidistant between the two of them.
Tango sat for another minute. Tango and fWhip were both looking nowhere in particular, certainly not at each other or Tango. This was the absolute worst thing to happen since Tango had gotten here. He cleared his throat. No real response. They were both closer to looking at Tango, but were only looking more at Tango than away from Tango.
Well, Tango didn’t see any reason that waiting would make things better, so he just went for it.
“Gentlemen, uh, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but you were shouting and the cave echoes. Well, you weren’t shouting at first, but, you know what I mean. Anyway. Um.” Tango looked at his hands, as if they would have any answers. They did not, and he made himself continue. “I assume you didn’t mean for me to hear that, and it seems maybe we should… talk?”
No response.
Tango tried something simpler. “You guys wanna sit down?”
After a few beats, they both pulled up chairs and sat down, after some awkward shuffling around how close or far apart everyone wanted to sit. Tango let them sort it out in silence.
It was apparently still Tango’s turn to talk. Damn.
“Sooooo it sounds like I’m missing some context about what happened before I arrived? I know fWhip used to be Jimmy’s deputy, but now he is his own deputy, or the law’s, or something, and that’s it. Would anyone like to fill me in a little?”
No one responded. Sigh.
“Please?”
He tried to make it relatively neutral, not manipulative or sad or anything like that. Apparently it worked well enough, as they instantly jumped back to talking over each other.
They alternated telling the story, usually via interruptions as one or the other objected to how the story was being told. Tango mostly let them both say as much as they wanted. It was a lot to take in. The wildest part was that the note they’d found in Grian’s base has been from fWhip as part of his Jimmy obsession. Tango could understand obsessing over Jimmy, but this was. A lot. He could see the potential for obsession in fWhip, it was one of the reasons he thought they got along so well, but this was intense. But, if he’d been publicly dumped by Jimmy, instead of what seemed like ghosting… yeah. Okay.
After who knows how long, the story got to the present. The arguing about the story only got worse as Tango came into the story. It was horrendously awkward, but the only way out was through.
When fWhip ended with “And then you walked in,” Tango almost wished the story would go on longer, because now he had to say something.
“So, uh, I don’t really know how to have conversations like, uh, this.” Tango waved his hands vaguely around the group. “But you two were on the verge of killing each other, so I guess we need to figure it out now?”
Jimmy jumped in before Tango could continue. “Tango, I’m so sorry, this is actually terrible for you and I basically feel like a monster, I don’t know if you can forgive me, you probably shouldn’t, I’ll go away, I’m sorry.”
Before Tango could respond to Jimmy, fWhip broke in. “I should have told you what was going on, I didn’t want – if you knew what was going on, I was afraid you’d leave. I’m sorry. I swear this wasn’t a game.”
fWhip paused, and continued more slowly and deliberately. “At the beginning, I’m not sure exactly what I was thinking. I really did want contraptions, and I did hear you were good, but was I partly motivated because of everything with Jimmy? I don’t know. But I swear it’s not about Jimmy, not now.”
This was somehow not getting less awkward. Tango cleared his throat, mostly to have something to do. “Okay, yes, uh, apologies accepted all around. Don’t worry, I’m a big boy, I can take care of myself. Let’s just sort out, ugh, I guess how everyone feels and then maybe we can never, ever talk about this again?”
Again, silence.
Tango had, until now, kept himself from sighing, but he was so tired of all these feelings, he had never had to deal with so many feelings in quick succession before.
“Fine. I’ll go first. You’re welcome.”
He turned to fWhip.
“fWhip, living here is great, working with you is great. I enjoy your company. A lot.”
Tango cleared his throat again. This was so awkward and he just needed to be done.
“I don’t think you’re spending all this time with me because of Jimmy, that’s crazy. We’ve only known each other– okay actually I don’t know how long we’ve known each other, I should get a clock– but I’d really like to keep getting to know you better. A lot. Okay?”
fWhip nodded slightly, almost... bashfully? Which looked odd on fWhip.
This was so much for Tango to deal with, he’d just wanted dinner, he’d forgotten to eat again.
Tango turned to Jimmy. As he feared, Jimmy looked sad, so sad it made Tango’s heart clench. This had been a terrible idea, talking to fWhip first, but he’d thought it made more sense, given what he was going to say to Jimmy. Tango reached out for Jimmy’s hand. He got it, but Jimmy didn’t look up.
Tango tried the casual approach.
“Hey, buddy.”
Jimmy didn’t respond. Tango made his voice as gentle and soft as he could manage.
“Hey buddy, my rancher, my soulmate, my guy.” He gripped Jimmy’s hand a little tighter on ‘soulmate’ and Jimmy gripped back.
“I’m sorry if I made you feel rejected or anything else. I had no idea what it would mean moving to Gobland. It was a cool job, and you hadn’t asked me to move in so I didn’t think…”
Jimmy’s voice was so, so quiet. “I just– Tango I didn’t want to be pushy, literally the first time you came over. With us not being on Double Life anymore, I basically didn’t want to assume we’d be together – like we were then, the way we were. I basically wanted you to have space for things to be different. And then the next time I saw you, you’d already moved in with him.”
“Right, and, yeah I see how that would have looked, if you thought I’d known about you and fWhip. But I didn’t. And then when I went to visit you, things were weird, so I thought you didn’t want to – that you didn’t want to be soulmates anymore.”
Jimmy’s voice was not quiet anymore. “No, Tango, no! I want to be soulmates! I always want to be soulmates with you, it was so good, I wanted to stay together forever, I’m-- I’m so sorry I died so stupidly.” Jimmy dropped his head, staring at the ground.
Tango didn’t have to make himself speak in a soothing voice, it just came out naturally. “Hey, hey, Jimmy, it’s okay. Endermen got plenty of people, and it’s not like anyone lasted much longer than us. That’s not here, that’s not now. We’re good.”
Well, that hopefully answered one of Tango’s questions. Jimmy said “had wanted”, but he also said “always want to be soulmates”. He hated having to split his attention, but he turned to look at fWhip, to see if he was okay. He tried to ask with facial expressions, and he seemed to succeed because fWhip gave him a (admittedly lackluster) thumbs up. Tango knew it must be ridiculously awkward for fWhip.
Tango gave fWhip as much of a smile as he could before turning back to Jimmy. He still had one hand holding Jimmy’s. He didn’t really know what he was doing, but he reached a hand out to Jimmy’s face and tipped his chin up with two fingers. Aww damn, Jimmy was silently crying. Great.
“Hey hey hey, don’t cry, everything’s okay! Please don’t cry. You’re my soulmate, even if you don’t want to be, you are, heh. I’m not going anywhere, I’m not ditching you for anyone, you’re stuck with me, okay? Like it or not.”
Tango was trying to be light hearted, but unfortunately Jimmy just cried more. He thought it was a different crying, maybe? Better? Jimmy grabbed Tango’s free hand with his own and squeezed tight. Okay.
Tango turned so he could see both fWhip and Jimmy again. “But, I don’t think… I don’t think anyone being soulmates, or not, stops any other feelings from happening, or is necessarily more important than them, just, like, different? Yeah, different. And you two seem to have some big feelings about each other that you gotta sort out now. Or… or else.”
fWhip spoke for the first time since Tango had started talking to Jimmy. He sounded weary, but at least a little amused, more like normal fWhip. “Or else what?”
“Or else I will… I will be very annoyed! I might wreak havoc!” Tango let himself sound a little silly, hoping to lighten the oppressive mood at least a little.
It worked, at least a little. Everyone had (very small) chuckles, and the mood in the room was a little less miserable.
Tango sighed. “Okay, so you both clearly hurt each other, a lot. Do you want to talk about how you feel, how you felt, or do I gotta prompt things? I will but aaahhhh this is so many feelings.”
Jimmy sighed even deeper than Tango had, and squeezed his hand. (Which was very good, and Tango wanted that to keep happening every day, ideally.)
“Alright, well, basically.”
He paused, and Tango was afraid he wouldn’t start again. He gave Jimmy a really tight hand squeeze, and he felt some tension relax in his soulmate.
“Actually, I did think we had something special, fWhip. You were my deputy, my lawyer– literally my best friend.” Tango saw fWhip deflate a little and look at the floor, but he didn’t comment on it. “You were basically always looking out for me, I actually couldn’t imagine my life without you by my side, and then you– fWhip you literally killed me so much. I know you were in a group but – actually that was worse! Why were you in a big group bullying me, conspiring against me? I thought you were the one always on my side. It wasn’t fun at all for me! Just dying over and over, people stealing my things everytime. Having to break my bed with my hands to escape? And then you trapped my base, which basically went really poorly for me, you know I’m not good at that kind of thing – what was I supposed to think?”
Jimmy’s voice dropped very low, and Tango hurt to hear the pain in it.
“You… you hurt my heart, okay fWhip? And then you come back and you’re not even apologizing, you’re actually threatening me and going after me in public. So, I basically figure you hate me.”
fWhip was visibly unhappy, staring at the ground, but he listened quietly to Jimmy’s story, holding space or whatever they call it. At the end, he jumped to his feet.
“Jimmy I don’t – I don’t hate you! I just… I… I don’t know! You dumped me! With a note! A note!!! You say all those things now but you dumped me with a note! What was I supposed to do?”
fWhip was pacing anxiously. Tango didn’t know if he should do anything besides hold Jimmy’s hand, so he watched fWhip pace.
“I tried so hard to be what I thought you needed, to help you how I thought you needed, and then I have just a little bit of fun, and you toss me out, like garbage! Like I didn’t mean anything!”
fWhip looked like he might cry and Tango was not down for more tears. He tried to speak but Jimmy got there first, standing up as he talked.
“fWhip, no, you– you meant so much, but I thought you–”
“Gentlemen, Gentlemen, please. Here’s what we’re going to do. Everyone sit down.”
They sat down.
“Wonderful, pleased with our progress, good job team. Now, you all close your eyes.”
They did not close their eyes.
Now that fWhip was sitting down, Tango took over the pacing duty. “No, I have a plan, it’s brilliant, it’s quick. Do you trust me?”
Maybe it was playing dirty, but Tango was hungry and tired of talking. They both nodded.
“Excellent. Then close your eyes. I’ll ask you questions, and only I will know your answers, so you don’t need to worry about who knows what or whatever nonsense, okay? It’s a perfect plan.”
They closed their eyes.
“Okay. Raise your hand if you miss the other one.”
Though it took a few moments, thankfully they both raised their hands.
“Okay. Raise your hand if you would like to stop fighting.”
That got their hands up much quicker.
“Fantastic. Last one, take your time with this one. Raise your hand if you want to be– well, if not what you were before, because it sounds like you weren’t communicating great, then something that’s, uh, let’s say more than regular friends.”
They did take their time. Tango impulsively reached out and gave each of them a quick hand squeeze. Tango’d never touched fWhip like that before, but things were different now.
After the hand squeezes, they both raised their hands. Yay.
“Okay, you can open your eyes now.”
They opened their eyes, and looked right at each other. Tango did not feel like evaluating their moods.
“I now pronounce you both idiots. You’re done fighting, I fixed it, you should figure out if you want to date, and if either of you want to date me, I’m down for whatever.”
fWhip laughed, really genuinely and cheerfully. He suddenly seemed okay again, and Tango realized that he quite enjoyed that laugh, and really wanted fWhip to be happy. “Down for whatever” had perhaps been too casual an expression of his feelings.
Meanwhile Jimmy spluttered, choking on nothing.
“What, just like that? Just decide?”
Tango grinned at him. “Well, why not? I’m sick of all this, I just want to know what’s up. So, soulmate, do you want to date?”
“Well yes of course I do! I love you– oh, uh, uh um, do I?.”
Jimmy’s face was beet red. Tango wasn’t surprised by any of this, which is why he’d put Jimmy on the spot. He wasn’t surprised, but he was secretly ecstatic.
Tango took Jimmy’s hand again. “Well, whether you do or not, we don’t need to figure out that much right now, okay? We want to be together, you’re my soulmate, my rancher, and my boyfriend. Good?”
Tango leaned in and gave Jimmy a very small kiss, because if he gave him more than that he probably wouldn’t be able to stop, and that seemed inappropriate – at least for now.
He pulled back from Jimmy and turned to fWhip.
“Hey, fWhip, what do you want?”
fWhip’s smile was very suggestive. “Oh, I’m flexible. Very flexible.”
Tango chuckled, quite pleased with his response.
“Hey soulmate! Do you want to date fWhip?”
Tango saw Jimmy hadn’t opened his eyes since he’d kissed him, which was very cute. He should make sure to kiss him more as soon as possible.
“Umm, well, I, basically-”
“Babe, yes or no, pick one right now, you can always change your mind later.”
“Okay, Yes? Yes. Yes.”
Tango clapped loudly, while pacing farther away to let them look at each other… however they were going to look at each other.
“Wonderful! I, Tango of the Tek variety, renowned master of relationships, have solved almost everything. Everyone can have two boyfriends, and figure it out as we go, it’ll be great, I’m a genius.”
As Tango hoped, fWhip picked up what he was putting down. They were going to be a great comedy duo.
“Only almost everything, O relationship master?”
Tango stretched his arms over his head and yawned.
“Yeah, I want dinner. No more feelings until after dinner.”
Jimmy, Tango and fWhip had a lovely dinner, where they didn’t talk about feelings, but certainly felt them, as the three of them began the process of figuring out their dynamic. This was all absolutely unexpected, but Tango was immensely pleased with these developments. Best trip ever.
Grian really should make a rift travel brochure and include “unexpected polyamory” under the risks and rewards.