WC: 1866
Warnings: None

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Ranboo didn't know how long he had been asleep, but he woke up feeling refreshed and well-rested.

When he sat up, he noticed one of those purple boxes Scar had owned sitting at the foot of his bed. He slid over to it and opened it, peering at the contents inside.

The first thing he noticed was the box's opening mechanism—rather than the top flipping open like a chest would, half of the box came off. When he closed it, the top automatically snapped to the bottom, as two magnets would.

There were a few objects inside the box itself. The biggest item was a knitted sweater vest, done in a sort of checkered diamond pattern. Underneath that were a plain white long-sleeved shirt and black pants.

Ranboo glanced down at his worn clothes again and flushed a bit as he realized Cleo or Scar—or even Grian or Xisuma—had noticed how ruined his suit had looked and given him brand-new clothes. He appreciated the gesture, of course, but at the same time, he felt silly that the Hermits were doing all this for him: Giving him a place to stay, now giving him new clothes to wear.

Nevertheless, he put the clothes on. The shirt and pants fit unnervingly well. The sweater vest was a bit snug, but that was okay. The fabric was soft and carefully woven together—was this hand-knitted by someone? It felt new.

Ranboo put his old suit in the closet, his hand lingering on the fabric before closing the door. As much as it looked ruined and past its prime, he couldn't throw it away. He'd appeared in Hermitcraft wearing it; something told him he'd worn it in his home server for a long time, too, where that may be.

There was only one more item in the box: A communicator, shaped like a phone rather than a small laptop like Xisuma's had been, was lying next to the clothing. Ranboo turned it on and checked the time, wondering how long he'd been out for. Surprisingly, it was the seventeenth already, about 9 in the morning—he'd slept through the rest of the sixteenth.

Apart from being connected to what must have been Hermitcraft's main group chat, he had a direct message from Cleo.

ZombieCleo: Ello Ranboo, hope you're doing alright in Scar's base. Not sure when you'll see this, but message me back when you do, alright? Got some stuff I wanna tell you

Ranboo typed out a message back.

Ranboo: hey, just woke up
Ranboo: thanks for the clothes btw
Ranboo: did you measure me or something?? these fit eerily well

ZombieCleo: 'Morning, good timing. Just woke up myself
ZombieCleo: No, we didn't measure you lmao, Mumbo's about your size and he had a couple spare clothes lying around. One of your neighbors in the jungle, Stress, knitted that sweater vest based on Mumbo's measurements, so it might be a little tight

So the sweater was made for him specifically. Stress had taken the time to knit the vest for him, which made him feel bad. Then he got angry at himself for feeling that way...again.

Ranboo: thanks, it's really appreciated :D the clothes fit okay, don't worry
Ranboo: what did you want to tell me?

No response for a bit.

ZombieCleo: Ah nvm
ZombieCleo: I wanted to ask you if you wanted to come with me and Grian to go fetch you an elytra of your own
ZombieCleo: But then I realized that endermen tend to attack players when they're looking around for it, and the only way to stop them is with water, and..you get the idea

Ranboo: yeah, probably for the best that i don't come
Ranboo: you don't want me getting myself killed by water again or something stupid

He'd hoped to give off a sarcastic, joking tone, like he was shrugging off the fact, when in reality he felt terrible that Cleo and Grian had to go grab an elytra for him rather than Ranboo going himself. Combined with his memory loss and the new clothes, he felt like the Hermits had to take extra care of him—like he couldn't do things himself.

Cleo must have come to the same conclusion, because her next response was laced with concern.

ZombieCleo: You sure you're alright?

Ranboo: yeah, i'm fine dw

Cleo didn't ask him more, but Ranboo suspected they'd be having a talk about it sooner or later—which he wasn't looking forward to.

ZombieCleo: Alright, well, me and Grian will be over there in a bit, alright? We'll drop off your elytra

Ranboo: sounds good, ty again for the clothes

Instead of staying inside Larry's shell house, Ranboo decided to explore the Magical Village a bit more. He knew that if he stayed in here, he'd just wind up overthinking his situation again, so he wanted to do something to take his mind off things.

The interiors of the cottages were nothing special—most held villager trading halls, but a couple near the back were reserved for farm storage rooms. Ranboo tried to trade with the villagers, but their prices were ridiculously expensive—and he didn't have any emeralds anyway.

After he was done looking around the village, he turned his attention to the surrounding area. Off in the distance was Scar's nether portal, surrounded by a bamboo forest.

Closer to Larry, in the middle of a large but shallow lake, stood some sort of island. Four worn stone pillars protruded from the ground, and a floating green gem was in the center of it all. It pulsed with a gentle glow, like the centerpiece in the magical village did.

Luckily, Larry had a small wooden dock, so Ranboo had a way to get to the island without touching the water. He was still careful not to accidentally splash himself while rowing, though.

The island seemed presumably empty until Ranboo eventually found a hidden trapdoor underneath some bushes. Underneath the island was another farm of some kind—upon closer inspection, a creeper farm. This place looked unorganized and messy compared to the neat builds above the surface—the walls showed the natural granite, andesite, and diorite, and the room was haphazardly lit up with torch spam.

There were an array of chests near the creeper farm itself. Ranboo opened the bottom one, which was overflowing with gunpowder. Something occurred to him, and he pulled out his new communicator and messaged Cleo again.

Ranboo: cleo, i noticed the elytra is made for gliding rather than flapping
Ranboo: if that's the case, how would you gain momentum?

There was no response for a bit—she and Grian must have been occupied fighting endermen or something. Then, it came:

ZombieCleo: Rockets
ZombieCleo: We tend to keep a stack or two on us at all times in case we run out
ZombieCleo: Need us to grab you some of those too? We just got the elytra, we're heading back now

Ranboo: nonono its fine
Ranboo: scar wouldn't mind if i took some stuff from his chests, would he?

ZombieCleo: Feel free!
ZombieCleo: To be honest I'm not even sure he remembers what's in the chests anyway lmao
ZombieCleo: We'll be over there in a bit

Rockets...that was gunpowder and paper, if he was remembering correctly.

He climbed the ladder leading out of the creeper farm and rowed back to Scar's base—he remembered seeing some sugar cane in one of the chests in the Magical Village.

After retrieving the cane, he rowed back to the creeper farm and climbed down again. Using the sugar cane and a handful of gunpowder he got from the farm's chest, he crafted a decent amount of rockets, enough to hopefully last him a week or so.

Even though it was a simple craft, Ranboo still felt satisfied when he was done. At least he had done this part by himself.

Yeah, with Scar's gunpowder and sugar cane, a voice in the back of his mind said. Ranboo sighed to himself.

He jumped when his communicator dinged loudly, accidentally spilling the spare gunpowder all over his shoes. He groaned and tried to wipe it off as best as he could before he checked the message he'd gotten.

ZombieCleo: Hey, we're by Larry right now
ZombieCleo: Where are you?

Ranboo: sorry i'm in scar's creeper farm rn
Ranboo: coming up gimme a second

He climbed the ladder and boated back to the mainland as quickly as he could without splashing himself accidentally. Cleo and Grian were waiting for him at the lake's dock.

Cleo waved hello and grinned when she saw his new clothes. "Those clothes look great. Fit okay?"

"Yeah, they're nearly perfect. Not sure how I should feel about that fact."

"I never thought I'd see the day where I met someone who fit Mumbo's clothes," Grian remarked. He knelt down and opened a purple box at his feet, pulling out a pair of elytra. "Mind turning around? I'll help you put these on."

Ranboo obliged, and he felt the wings drape gently on his shoulders. They were held together in the front by a simple clasp, which he clicked together. The wings were so lightweight, he barely felt them.

"Do you have any rockets?" Grian asked after he was done fixing the wings from the back. Ranboo grinned a little when he noticed that Grian had to stand on his toes to put the elytra on—he got the feeling that happened often with how tall he was; the gesture seemed so familiar.

"Yeah." He pulled one out and showed it to the two. "That's why I was in Scar's creeper farm earlier—I'm assuming it's Scar's?"

"He and I built it together, so we share the farm's drops," Grian explained. "You're always welcome to grab some gunpowder if you need it."

Ranboo glanced at the purple box behind Grian. "Hey, I've been wondering—what is that box called, anyway? I've never seen it before."

The subtle glance Grian and Cleo exchanged didn't go unnoticed by Ranboo, but he didn't know why they were doing it. "It's called a shulker box," Cleo said. "It basically gives you more inventory space—the lid doesn't come off easily, so you can carry it around without your items spilling out."

The locking mechanism made a lot more sense now. Ranboo nodded.

"Whenever you feel up for it, I'll come by again to show you how to fly using the elytra, alright?" Grian said, pointing to a spot past the lake. "I live in the jungle just a little past the trees over there, so if you ever need something feel free to stop by."

"Yeah, will do. I'll let you know once I'm ready."

Grian waved goodbye and took off in the direction of his base, his wings flapping noisily. As he left, Cleo turned to Ranboo. She seemed to be studying him—but why, he had no idea.

"Hey, later on, I'd like to have a talk with you, alright?"

Ranboo winced internally. Here it comes. He knew he'd have to do this sooner or later, given how unprecedented his situation was. "Y-yeah," he muttered reluctantly. "Sure thing."

Cleo spent another few seconds watching his face for something. Then, she nodded. "Well, I'll see you around, alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah," he repeated. "See you, Cleo."

With a final glance at him, she left.

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This is a bit of a break chapter, but we're gonna be jumping back into the action with the next update :D

Thanks for reading <3