WC: 2010
Warnings: Slight description of a panic attack

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Ranboo was given a place to stay in Scar's starter base until Xisuma could figure out what had gone wrong with his internal code.

"It's like the code was tampered with," X had explained to Ranboo over a video call while he was traveling with Cleo and others in the nether hub. "It erased any information that was there originally. It's rare, but it can happen—usually it's caused by glitches in servers, so I'll have to dig through the world code to see if there are any remnants. That's the best way I can start, though..." he trailed off, seemingly not wanting to trouble Ranboo any more than he had already.

"Anyway. It'll take a while," he'd warned. "Like I said, I can't guarantee how long it'll take for your code to be fixed. Then there's the matter of getting you back to your home server..."

The video call ended abruptly after that. That was fine with Ranboo—he didn't want to receive any more bad news right now anyway.

Cleo had pulled Ranboo aside after that. She'd been walking with Scar and Grian in front for the majority of the trip, so Ranboo was surprised she hung back to talk to him.

"I've asked Scar to lend his starter base to you," she'd said. "I would have you stay with me, but I've got a bunch of creatures to take care of at my base. Stupid monsters—they keep breaking out of their cages and running around. Or flying. Who knows at this point. Anyway, it's not really a safe place to stay; at least I know how to wrangle them up."

Ranboo had only understood a few bits of what she'd said, but he'd nodded anyway.

"You'll like Scar's starter base. It's very cozy. And, of course, I'll be sure to come check on you every now and then."

At the time, Ranboo had been surprised by how caring Cleo had been to him—especially since they had only met. He'd quickly learned, though, that that was just the Hermits' natures.

He now stood with Scar in front of a worn-down wooden gate. Paper lanterns hung from the archway, and a cobbled path started just beyond the gate entrance.

Behind the gate stood a giant snail. Ranboo wasn't joking--it was bigger than a village cathedral. Its shell was a soft brown, and it had left a trail of green slime behind it. Strangely enough, it had a few diamond blocks dangling from its face like a beard—a diamond beard? Ranboo didn't know which was odder: The idea that Scar had put that as a weird flex, or the idea that the snail had grown the beard on its own.

The snail craned its head to peer at Ranboo. It stared at him with what Ranboo could only describe as a blank expression—it might have not been the brightest creature. Then its gaze shifted over to Scar, and it let out a quiet squeaking sound that sounded almost like a noise of affection for Scar. The scene might have been cute if the snail couldn't have literally run over Ranboo if it wanted to.

"This is Larry," Scar said. "He's a part of my starter base, too."

"You lived in a giant snail before you built your current base?" Ranboo asked.

"Well, the snail's shell. Not, you know, the actual snail. But yes. I also lived in the part behind you."

Ranboo turned and looked past the wooden gates. The rest of Scar's starter base consisted of a dozen or so houses, all built in a fantasy-cottage style. They formed a loose circle around a centerpiece that resembled a crystal jutting out from the ground. Enormous trees flanked the outskirts of the village with hanging wooden bridges connecting them.

Ranboo noticed his jaw had dropped like it had when he first saw the Shopping District. Unlike Cleo, though, Scar thankfully took no notice. "Welcome to the Magical Village!" he said.

"This place is insane," Ranboo marveled. "This was your starter base?

"Aw, thank you. I'm very happy with how this came out."

He said it so casually, but Ranboo could tell he was trying not to brag about the build more. Ranboo managed to pick his jaw off the ground. "If this is your starter, how big is your current base?"

Scar's eyes lit up in excitement. "Oh, dude, I need to show it to you sometime! Once you get elytra, though—we use ours so often that builds aren't really designed to be accessible from the ground."

There was that word again—elytra. If they were so commonplace that builds here were better suited for flying rather than walking, why hadn't Ranboo ever heard the term before?

Still blissfully ignorant to Ranboo's troubled expressions, Scar pushed open the gate with a loud creak. "Here! I'll show you around."

Turns out there were more than just houses inside the village. A terraformed cliff face overlooked two farms-one for carrots and one for potatoes. From what Scar explained, each house served a different purpose: Things like automatic farms and trading halls and such.

Once they had finished the tour, Ranboo spoke up. "Okay, just one question." He looked around the village one more time. "If all these houses are used for, like, trading and farming, where am I supposed to stay?"

Scar's mind seemed to do a hard reset, and he blinked a few times. "Oh! I just wanted to show you around the surrounding area. You'll be sleeping in Larry, but you're always welcome to check out the village, too!"

Ranboo couldn't help it. He burst into laughter, which only grew when he noticed poor Scar's confused look.

"I'm sorry," he muttered after the giggles had subsided. "It's just...sorry. The way you easily got sidetracked..."

"No, no, I get it." Thankfully, Scar didn't seem offended. "The other Hermits tease me about that all the time, but I know they mean well. It's all in good fun!"

Ranboo was relieved Scar wasn't too fussed about it, and he returned the smile Scar was giving him. "Mind showing me what's inside Larry?"

Larry's interior was small but cozy. The main floor was decorated like a sort of workshop. Barrels lined the sides of the room, which was curved to accommodate Larry's shell.

Ranboo noticed there were a ridiculous amount of chests and...what were those? Some kind of purple box? Anyway, they were lying in whatever free space Scar had—stacked against the walls, underneath the barrels, you name it.

"Man, Scar, you've got a problem with organization," he noted.

Scar's laugh was infectious, and Ranboo found himself smiling again. "Yeah, it's a huge problem. You should see the storage room downstairs."

Ranboo whistled softly as they descended a ladder down to the lower floors of the starter house. Scar wasn't lying, the problem was even worse down here—purple boxes were actually embedded into the shell, like Scar couldn't find any more space. They had to climb over piles of chests to navigate the room.

"I'll move all of this to my megabase in a bit," Scar reassured Ranboo. He flipped open the lid of a nearby chest and whooped in excitement. "15 diamonds! How long have they been sitting in here?"

"You're telling me the chests aren't even organized inside?"

"Of course not!" Scar sounded offended. "Do I look like the kind of person who has an organized chest system?"

"No," Ranboo admitted, grinning.

The uppermost room of the shell house was a bedroom, sparsely decorated with a single purple bed and a wooden closet. For some reason, shelves mounted against the wall held all different kinds of mob heads—Ranboo recognized a squid, cow, zombie, and—

"You beheaded a panda?" Ranboo asked Scar, aghast.

Scar didn't even look remorseful. "The things killed me when I was building this starter base! They have it in for me, I swear."

"You got killed by a panda??" Ranboo managed to sound even more surprised.

"Don't be fooled by their cute, fuzzy appearance. They're stone-cold killers."

The weirdest thing? Ranboo wasn't even surprised Scar had managed to get himself killed by a panda, of all things.

Their argument was cut short by Scar's communicator dinging with a notification. He lifted it up and read the message on the screen slowly, mouthing out the words like he was given a set of complicated instructions.

Finally, he turned towards Ranboo again. "I guess we have to stop the tour here. You've seen everything here anyway, but feel free to explore the Magical Village more if you want!"

"Why? Where are you going?"

"I'm, uh, Cleo needs me to talk about something." He faltered, trying to backtrack. "Not about you—I mean, not in private, Xisuma's there too—" He groaned and slapped his head.

"Right." The word tasted bitter in Ranboo's mouth. "I get it, it's alright. Thanks for showing me around, Scar. I appreciate you lending your starter base to me."

"Yeah, of course. I was only using this place for its villagers and extra storage at this point, so I'm glad to see it being lived in again." Scar looked relieved to change the topic. "I'll see you around, Ranboo!"

After he left, Ranboo realized he was alone for the first time since he'd found himself in this world. He had time to actually process what had happened.

It was almost too much to handle at once. He sat down shakily on the purple bed, trying to make sense of the situation.

He didn't have a clue how he got here. He didn't know how to get back to his own server, or where said server was. He barely had any memories left, and too many questions left unanswered.

Dammit, Ranboo, he thought. He realized his breathing had grown unsteady and he took a few moments to inhale and exhale slowly, slowing his racing heart.

Now's not the time to have a fucking panic attack over your situation. That's not gonna solve anything.

Ranboo got up from his sitting position and headed to the small closet leaning against the wall to distract himself. The inside was empty, save for a tattered lavender robe he assumed belonged to Scar.

There was also a mirror inside. God, he looked horrible. His suit was terribly worn, and his hair was lopsided. Even his crown had a dull sheen to it.

Well, at least he was dry from his fall into the ocean earlier.

...Oh, gross, he smelled like saltwater.

Ranboo tried his best to straighten his hair, but it was a losing battle. It took him a good 5 minutes alone to get it looking semi-decent, but there was one tuft of hair that refused to stop curling around his pointed ear. 

It was good enough for now. Anyway, he could hide some of it with his crown.

Speaking of his crown, he tried to shine it with his suit's sleeve, but some of the dullness just wouldn't go away. Why he was wearing such ruined clothes—and why he hadn't changed them sooner—he had no idea. The different colored jewels on his crown might have meant something but, of course, he couldn't remember.

It was weird. He knew his name was Ranboo. He knew what he looked like. But he couldn't remember other simple details like his friends or his life before Hermitcraft.

Ugh, he was going to drive himself insane if he tried to make sense of the situation any more than what he already had. No new details were going to arrive. He wasn't going to magically start remembering out of nowhere. The facts were right in front of him, and he didn't have enough info to figure out the problem on his own.

The best thing he could do right now was to wait for Xisuma to examine the server's internal code.

He was exhausted. What he did need right now was some rest. It had been a rough two hours.

He set down his crown on the panda head sitting on the shelf, which was morbidly funny to him. Then he made his way over to the bed, sinking into it with a low sigh, and fell asleep immediately.

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I've been associating Celeste's Farewell OST with this story, so you'll see a few chapters tied into some of the songs from the OST :D For full effect when reading this story you'll want to listen to the music too

Thanks for reading!