"I- I trust them Taurtis! What have they done that makes you think they're bad?"

"I dunno Grian, this seems very off. You seem very off," Taurtis said, biting his lip.

"Come on, you trust me don't you?" Grian said, a look of almost hurt on his face, causing Taurtis to hesitate.

"I do, but that doesn't really change the fact that I don't trust them Grian. Last person I trusted went and backstabbed me, quite literally. I don't get why you're so fast to trust them, do you not remember when they tortured Solidarity trying to escape. Do you not remember that?!"

"But- No, they didn't do that, they didn't. When was that - are you okay Taurtis?"

"Are you okay? It was only a couple months ago, just ask him, he'll remember. I doubt he'd ever forget."

"I- No." Grian shook his head. "No." he turned away, squeezing his eyes shut and looking away. "Stop it Taurtis, stop it."

"Grian- are you okay?"

"Shut up- just... just shut up."

"Grian-"

"SHUT UP TAURTIS!"

Grian felt the surrounding ground fall around him, plunging further and further down, expecting to reach bedrock but instead continuing to fall endlessly. The blankness of the void encased his mind, leaving him numb until his memories snapped back, forcing him into a state of acknowledgement, if that was the word. He coughed as he landed on a soft floor, looking somewhat like a cloud, but more tangible.

His gaze flicked to a nearby figure, his brown hair more messy than he remembered, his headphones noticeably absent.

"Taurtis?" he whispered, locking eyes with the figure, who almost instantly froze, the area so quiet Grian could hear his friend's soft breaths, reaching forward, gasping slightly when he made contact.

"Are you actually real? Like, is this not just my mind playing tricks on me?"

"I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm real," Taurtis said, looking at his arms and pinching them, as if for confirmation, making Grian laugh.

"Same here. Though what is reality - we could be in a book or a video game for all we know," Grian joked, though it was rather half hearted.

"If so then RIP fourth wall," Taurtis laughed, causing Grian to smile slightly.

"Who was the girl I asked out to prom but never attended?" Grian asked, his and Taurtis's smiles fading simultaneously.

"You really don't trust that I'm real, do you?"

"They've hurt me too many times for me to instantly trust that you're real."  Taurtis bit his lip, reaching forward and placing his hand on top of Grian's  (THIS IS NOT SHIPPING FFS SO DONT SAY IT IS) and smiling at him softly.

"It's me Grian. It's me."

"How can I be sure."

"I don't know really. I don't know that you're not just another figment of my imagination. It wouldn't surprise me," Taurtis stated bleakly, looking down.

"I'm coming to find you Taurtis. I promise," Grian answered, gripping Taurtis's hand harder, biting his lip as he closed his eyes, feeling the pressure disappear from his hand as he slipped back into reality.

Grian shot up from his bed, noticing that it was only a few hours after he'd fallen asleep, groaning and flopping back onto his bed, rubbing his forehead as he felt a headache growing. He sighed, clambering out of bed and flying down to a nearby beach, grabbing his shovel and starting to instantly mine the sand, filling up a few shulker boxes of sand and gravel after an hour or so, propelling himself to the shopping district with a firework, dumping his supplies into a few chests on the barge, stuffing the few diamonds he made into his ender chest.

"What were you doing at Evo?" Mumbo asked from behind him, causing Grian to jump with surprise.

"Wh- Why are you awake?" Grian stuttered, as Mumbo just raised an eyebrow crossing his arms.

"Why are you awake Grian? I'm worried about you. We all are."

"I'm fine," Grian reassured him, refusing to meet his eyes, instead continuing to sort through stuff in the barge.

"What happened in Evo, Grian? What did you ask Netty before you went into the portal that's clearly affected you, because something clearly changed."

"It doesn't matter," Grian brushed off, trying to walk out and fly away, only for Mumbo to hold him back, forcing Grian to turn around and meet his gaze.

"Yes it does Grian. It does matter. What's going on?" Grian sighed.

"I think I mentioned a friend I had in Evo once, Taurtis, remember him?" he asked, hesitating slightly.

"The one who made a republic?" Mumbo asked, and Grian nodded.

"He's gone," he whispered, almost instantly regretting saying it, but also feeling a weird kind of relief in saying it aloud.

"Who's they?" Mumbo asked, his eyebrows scrunching together as Grian just stood there, unable to move.

"It doesn't matter, they're not important," Grian brushed off, trying to wiggle away, managing to blast away using a firework rocket before ending up crashing into the newly constructed town hall, falling a hundred or so blocks onto the floor, managing to block most of the damage with his arms, wincing as they scraped against the concrete, ignoring the pain as he scrambled back up, noticing Doc looking at him with an air of concern.

"Are you okay Grian?" He asked, frowning slightly.

"I'm fine," Grian choked out, blatantly lying and he could tell Doc picked up on it, but he didn't push. He probably didn't care anyway.

Grian jumped off the ledge, gliding for a few seconds before flying towards his mansion, not even caring when he crash landed,!just stumbling into his bed, curling up into a ball, stressed and exhausted.