This is based on Grian's comment "the wool is stained red with my blood" from HC ep 14... i just made it into a fic because i can.

Grian stared up at the sky to where four giant woolen signs were defying all laws of gravity to simply float. But then again, this was Minecraft. Gravity didn't exist.

His own simple "Scar build here" sign was alarmingly small, especially compared to Pearl's all-out "Oi, Scar, mate, buddy, pal! Place your swag here!" letter that took up a massive amount of space in the air.

He would have to do something bigger, better, more than the tiny, disappointing trio of words. D̶i̶s̶s̶a̶p̶o̶i̶n̶t̶i̶n̶g̶,̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶r̶y̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶e̶l̶s̶e̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶b̶u̶i̶l̶t̶.̶

Grian headed over to his shulker monster with a sigh. This was going to take forever, and he was already exhausted from building Griangotts. Well, he might as well get on with it.

He shot up towards his sign and landed atop the R. Time to get to work.

Several hours later, all he'd managed to get done was "I formally."

It was a long, tedious process of placing a few blocks, then checking and double checking the placement, correcting the inevitable errors and then moving on to the next letter. He wanted to cry. This was not what he wanted to be doing. H̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶u̶l̶d̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶m̶a̶n̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶.̶

Grian began to build up part of the second R. As he moved across the horizontal section, his foot caught on the edge. He felt his balance slip and he fell backwards off the end. He plummeted for a bit, relishing the cool air rushing past him, before flaring his wings and swooping around to finish the letter.

It was only then when he glanced back habitually at his wing, that he realized that it blended in with the night. But Grian didn't have time to sleep. He had to keep going on this. Besides, the others would have gotten twice as much done by now, he had to catch up.

He kept going... and going... and going. He ignored the occasional skeleton arrow that whizzed by him, the zombie moans and spider hisses. He ignored the sun and the moon and the time.

Until he couldn't.

He'd gotten to "of your" when he felt a pain in his wing and grunted. Looking back, he saw a puncture wound, arrow-sized, in the dark membrane. Scarlet blood began to seep out, dying the black scales.

"Ow," Grian muttered dryly. Had to keep working though.

His wing ached and his already sluggish pace dwindled even further as a few more arrows hit him; two more in the wings and one in the leg.

His already sluggish pace dwindled and white spots began to dance in his eyes like mini suns. Mini-Grians, a little part of him thought.

Cries rang out through the night; the cries of death. Grian momentarily forgot that his wing was hurt and leaped off of the letter to attack it. He spread his wings and-

He yelped as his win whipped back, snapped in two by the force of the wind. He could do nothing as he plummeted to his death.

<Grian fell from a high place>

Grian respawned below and headed straight back up and surveyed his work. "I formally request the construction of your on."

On? Oh, gosh, he'd messed up. Not just that; the entire sign was smeared haphazardly with blood. No, no, no, no, he couldn't leave it like this; it would just be a permanent reminder of how much he had a̶l̶w̶a̶y̶s̶ failed. He did not have the willpower to take it all down and rebuild it anew.

P̶e̶a̶r̶l̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶.̶

Well, he wasn't Pearl, he wasn't as creative or dedicated or hardworking as her, and he would just have to make do. If part of the sign was red, he'd just have to make the rest match. A little part of him deep down knew this was a bad idea, but he silenced it.

He pulled out his sword and set it to his palm. Gritting his teeth, he drew it across his hand, generating a sharp pain. Involuntary tears leaked out of his eyes and he blinked them back. W̶e̶a̶k̶.̶

Grian took to the sky and landed on the first I, then began to cover it in red.

It took a surprisingly short amount of time to stain everything with blood. The phantoms and skeletons were happy to help, and blood has an annoying habit of going everywhere. It was then that he realized he should do the other signs to match.

He started on Pearl's sign first (via falling off his own sign and dying again, then flying up to hers), leaving crimson spattered all over. His head rang and he felt himself slipping yet again. He couldn't fall, he was only on "mate!" Or was it "pal?" He couldn't focus enough to tell.

Grian flared his wings as he fell, gliding forward and turn- CRASH.

He tumbled unceremoniously down Pearl's mountain. At the very least, the durable scales on his wings (which he instinctively wrapped around himself) protected him from the worst of the rocks- until one of them caught on a sharp spire and tore with an agonizing rip.

After what felt like an eternity, Grian finally realized he'd stopped moving. And stop moving he did- until the blood loss caught up and he was back in his bed after another respawn.

A face swam into view. "Gri?"

"Oh, hi Pearl," Grian sat up and composed himself.

"You okay? That was quite the tumble," Pearl asked concernedly.

No, Grian was very much not okay. "Yeah, fine."

"Well, alright, just come to me if you need anything," Pearl told him.

"Okay," Grian agreed, knowing full well he would not be going to her.

Thankfully, Pearl headed off, leaving Grian alone with just two more signs to paint red.

"Okay, skelles, now's your time," Grian half-joked as he landed atop Mumbo's "I Know It's A Bit Late" message.

The skeletons evidently didn't take the joke well- they shot him anyway. Straight off the back of the sign. Grian caught the inside of the "O" and pulled himself inside. He nicked his arm and held it to the wool. It slowly spread, turning red.

Grian let out a small sigh. So tired. He was so tired.

It felt like another eternity or two of swinging around on Mumbo's letters. He fell a few times and nearly died, but he managed to grab hold of the wool and pull himself back up.

The final sign, Impulse's simple "Scar Build Here," was luckily small and lower down than Mumbo's, so Grian could just glide down to it.

He landed shakily atop the B, nearly falling off but catching himself. He landed on his back right in the curve of the B. It was soft and fluffy and Grian wanted nothing more than to melt into it and fall asleep.

Of course, he couldn't.

He was knocked out of his position by a stray phantom. He instinctively dug his fingers into the wool. Part of it tore, but most held up, supporting him as he dangled high in the sky.

Grian let go of it with a small sigh and quickly flew up to the S. All he had to do was make his way across the tops of the letters; he had so many injuries that they would do the work for him.

He unsteadily tiptoed across the tips of the letters, quickly bouncing across each one. He just managed to get the last E before the phantom returned, knocking him off the sign and down to his doom.

It was then that Grian realized that he still only had half of his sign done.

A tear slipped down his face- he was just so tired, he couldn't do it right anyways, it would take him days at this rate-

"Hey Grian!"

Grian jumped with a startled gasp and whirled to face the sound of the voice. He came face-to-face with an axolotl hybrid, head tilted curiously. "Oh- uh- Ex-zoomer, sorry, I didn't notice you-"

Xisuma's brow furrowed, the frills on the edges of his head shifting with it. "Are you alright, Grian?"

"Yeah, yeah, fine, yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Grian asked, staring at Xisuma.

"When was the last time you slept?" Xisuma inquired suspiciously.

"That's funny, coming from you," Grian snapped. "I'm FINE!"

Xisuma's frills flattened in fear, then flared out aggressively, making him look about thousand times bigger to Grian. "You listen here, Grian. This is not about me, and you do not get to act like this to me."

Grian's wings dropped down submissively and his tail curled inwards. His voice came out a small whimper. "Sorry, Suma."

Xisuma's face softened and his frills loosened. "I care about you, Grian."

Grian nodded quickly, backing slowly away. Xisuma grabbed his wrist and he went totally still, before Xisuma wrapped his arms around Grian and pulled him into a hug.

Grian melted into the embrace. Xisuma's tail curled around Grian's ankle protectively, a warm, welcome feeling. Grian felt his eyes begin to slip close and he blinked, trying desperately to stay awake, but to no avail.

Xisuma felt Grian go limp in his arms and smiled. Good, he was finally getting some sleep. Xisuma picked Grian up, careful of his wings and spikes, and carried him into his starter home. He tucked Grian in, then found a damp, mossy corner and curled up.

They would be having a chat about why the signs were red, but that was for later.
Right now, Xisuma was just happy to help another hermit.