I actually had this draft sitting for awhile, ready to post. But I decided to hold off for some reason and... like a month went by. I haven't been feeling well lately, so I haven't written much either. Thank you for being so kind and patient with me. I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things again, slowly but surely. :)

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"Is this everyone?" Scott asked. The group had gathered in a messy circle in a clearing, and Scott was in the center of it, moving around so he could look at everyone present. The group looked around, each of them nodding in turn. "Good. Now, I suggest that we all introduce ourselves before we begin our discussion. I'll go first. My name is Scott Smajor. As you can see, I'm an elf and I also happen to be an Admin. I was put into the Void because they were afraid they'd catch my gay, and then I woke up here." He chuckled, which helped ease the tension in the group. A few people even laughed along.

"Well... my name is Grian." Grian said when the laughter ceased. He gave a bit of an awkward wave. "I'm from Hermitcraft. I uh- I technically am a self taught Admin? Annnndd... it seems I'm technically the Admin of this world. Technically speaking! I don't know what I'm doing at all! And— and I don't know anything more than the rest of you." He explained, waving his hands in front of him when he saw his Hermit friends exchange surprised looks.

It was the person next to him, Scar, who spoke next. The man had sat on top of a rock, just a foot away from the circle. He, unlike the other Hermits, didn't really seem to react to Grian's introduction. He tipped his hat. "I'm GoodTimesWithScar, but you can call me the hottest man on the server, or Scar, whichever you prefer." He laughed at himself. "I'm also a Hermit. Builder, terraformer and cat lover."

"I'm BigB." The next person introduced himself. "I come from the world E—" before he could finish his sentence, Grian interrupted him with a cough. BigB, Martyn and Jimmy shared a look before BigB continued, "Well, just a little world in the middle of nowhere. I— Martyn tells me that I was in the Void, anyway." He frowned at that, still trying to believe that for himself. He glanced up just in time to see Grian give him a slight nod.

"And I'm Etho." The masked elf beside him said, giving a wave. "I was a Hermit once, and after whatever this is, I am going to be one again real soon."

Upon hearing that, Martyn perked up. "That's an interesting name." He noted. Etho just laughed in response.

"And my name is Bdubs!" The human beside him quite literally screamed, pumping his fist in the air. He hopped around a few times, absolutely bursting with energy. Such a sudden burst of volume almost made Martyn topple over, but he didn't cover his ears at least. "A talented artist, Hermit, the tallest and despite what Scar just claimed, the most handsome in the land." He declared, chuckling. His introduction was an obvious lie, seeing as he stood shorter than most of them, even standing on top of a box. It was because of that, most of the group laughed at the man's antics. "Hey, why are you all laughing? You all know it's true!"

"Bdubs." Etho said as he walked over to his buddy. He gently took his hand and prompted him sit down. In doing so, Bdubs also seemed to calm down for the most part, puffing out his cheeks stubbornly instead. Being able to calm him so easily, with a single word and a single touch showed everyone that the two had to be close. And now calm, the group grew quiet.

"I do believe that it's your turn, Martyn." Scott said, pointing a stick at the elf on the opposite side of Bdubs.

"Oh... well, I'm Martyn." Martyn replied, lifting up a hand as a casual wave.

"Well, that's an interesting name." Etho said in turn, similar to how Martyn had said the same thing to him just a minute ago. He had let go of Bdubs hand now, instead choosing to rest the side of his chin on his fist. His eyes narrowed, but it was hard to read his expression with his mouth covered.

"Thanks." When it was clear that he intended to say no more, Scott gently prodded him. "Well, Martyn, would you like to tell us more about yourself? Maybe where you come from?"

"I was raised in a small village called Mythwood. I moved out and now I've been all over." Martyn shrugged. The information hardly mattered and though mostly vague, it was the truth. He had gone out and he had seen many places. Sure, he had a home in the Listener King's palace, but he wasn't going to share that with this group of mostly strangers. And as for Evo, he wasn't allowed to talk about that apparently. Though, admittedly, he wasn't sure if he would bring it up himself, either.

"And I'm his brother Jimmy." Jimmy said after him, and Martyn found himself relaxing his shoulders as the attention changed from him to Jimmy. He watched as Jimmy moved his hair behind his ear, revealing his curved auricle. "I'm adopted, of course. I was the only human in the entire village." He continued in, going into a lot more detail than Martyn had. Having known Jimmy, though, the information was unimportant. And quite frankly, the sound of his voice right now stirred something in him; something made him angry and sad and dare he say, betrayed. As much as he tried to shove those feelings down for the night, to make a good impression on other people, he just couldn't. All he could manage to do was ensure it didn't show on his face.

"I'm ImpulseSV." The next person said. "I'm another Hermit. There really are a lot of Hermits here, huh?" He chuckled with a grin. All the Hermits chuckled in reply, identifying themselves. "I'm a redstoner."

"I'm Skizz." The person next to him introduced. He wore a suit and tie, but the sleeves were ripped clean off, giving him a rugged look. He also smiled, but while Impulses was gentle, his was large and almost glowing with vibrancy. "Me, Impulse and Tango go way back. They may be absolute geniuses at redstone, but I'm their moral support! Or I was, until the stupid Watchers caught me!" He yelled, looking up to the sky. "Jerks!"

There was something about the way that he yelled that made Grian freeze. It had sounded... oddly familiar. He paused as he took a few extra moments to register what Skizz had said. "The Watchers took you?" He found himself asking before he could help it.

"Yeah!" Skizz yelled back, turning his attention towards Grian now. "They put me in this weird circle like I was in some trial or something. Can't tell because they were speaking, like, gibberish, or something. They were all like 'ugga bugga bugga cuchi cuchi yo!' Then they did some magic spell just like wizards do and tossed me into the Void like I was nothing!"

Upon hearing this, Grian swallowed. If he was indeed Tango and Impulse's friend, he couldn't have been in the void too terribly long. He must have saw Skizz at his trial then; that's why he was so familiar. But of course, that also meant that Skizz had seen him too. He subconsciously hugged his arm, staring down at the ground. Thankfully, if anyone noticed, no one said anything. Hopefully, with his changed appearance, he would go unrecognized.

Tango went next, then Ren, then Cleo. All familiar people, and so Grian almost tuned them out as he focused on his breathing and trying to get out of his own head.

By the time it came to the very last member, Grian had managed to calm himself down, or at least mostly. The last person was a brown-haired man with a distinctive green stripe in his hair. "My name is SmallishBeans, but call me Joel. Despite previous false claims, I am most handsome, awesomest and most humble man you've ever met. And yes, I do autographs, but let's leave that until later, huh?" He decided with a wink. "Oh, and also, sorry— I'm taken. The Watchers didn't exactly like us being together, but we got married and stuck it to their stupid faces!" Flaunting off a golden ring, he couldn't help but hold his head back and laugh.

"Sounds familiar." Jimmy lightly prodded, giving Martyn a knowing look, but the elf shied away from his gaze. Even though Martyn did so, he still felt more than a few curious glances stinging him.

"Watchers don't exactly like elves." Was all he said.

"I think it's any hybrid, honestly." Joel sighed, shaking his head. "I got the sense it was because I was a fairy and she was a human. Like it was in the name of keeping the species pure or something senseless like that."

Martyn was about to agree, but upon thinking through Joel's words, he paused. "But ... if you're a fairy, where are your wings?" He asked. Joel looked just like a human.

"That's... a great question, mate." Joel responded with a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of his neck. "When I woke up outside of the void, they were just... gone. Just like Tango's flames."

"And my wings." Grian supplied. "Mine just vanished, as though I never had them before."

"So in other words, this world seems to have messed with some of our codes somehow?" Scott deduced. The elf was still in the center of everyone, and he began to pace around the circle in slow, confident movements.

"But if that were true, there'd be unstable glitching." Martyn countered. At the very least, the ends of the appendages each one of them should have had would some sort of glitch. What Scott was proposing was akin to the Universe itself wildly ripping off Grian's wings. The edges wouldn't be smooth, it wouldn't be pretty and it almost certainly wouldn't be painless. That was not the case here.

And upon considering this, Scott hesitated in his pacing, looking directly at Martyn. "Are you proposing that this was somehow deliberate?" He asked.

"Perhaps." Martyn shrugged. "Perhaps not."

"But who would do such a thing?" Bdubs asked.

A pause hung in the air. Grian suddenly found his shoes more interesting, a sudden sinking feeling giving him an idea. He didn't voice this, even as he felt BigB's stare; he must of had the same idea, then. Come to think of it, it was rather similar to before: a group of players, stuck on a world, disconnected to the Main Hub.

"The Watchers." Was a whispered hiss, almost as though the wind itself had voiced it. And as Grian looked up to see who had spoken it, he found that it was none other than Tango. His clasped hands hid his mouth, but the way everyone was staring at him gave it away.

"You-- you think that they did this?" Impulse asked, his voice also a whisper.

"Well, who else could it be?" Tango asked, fire and spite alight in his eyes. "They've already hurt a lot of us, by the sounds of it. And it is them that manages the Void, after all. How else could a bunch of people from the Void be here?"

But it seemed as though Scott of all people, one of the former Void-dwellers, disagreed. He stepped towards Tango. "There could still be another explanation for this. Let's not jump to conclusions just yet."

"No, no, he's right." BigB agreed, anger showing in his tone as well. "This sounds exactly like something that they would do."

"Not to mention," Tango continued. He paused to take a deep breath of air, his hands falling to his sides. "Us Hermits are all fugitives, running from something. Sure, we aren't all running from the Watchers, but -- look, me, Impulse, Skizz and one of our friends all ran from them. I don't see it as coincidence that three out of the four of us are here. And that's not even to mention--" He caught himself, shaking his head instead. Not all of them were Hermits. That wasn't his story to tell.

"They took me and Bdubs, too." Etho began after a moment of silence, catching Tango's drift. "The Watchers thought -- well, let's just say they didn't like us either. At the same time, I'm not so sure that this seems like something that they would do." When everyone turned their full attention to him, he continued. "They've always been content enough to throw whoever and whatever they don't like in the Void; why would they change that now?"

The one who had an answer to that question, Grian, stayed silent. How could he speak? How could he simply tell everyone that this may have been-- was probably-- his fault? Surely, the Watchers had been looking for him since the moment he left. And now, right after he used his powers, he found himself wound up here, in a place that was beginning to remind him of Evolution. As much as he wanted to tell Etho that this actually exactly what they would do, especially to him, he just couldn't. That was like admitting fault. That was like admitting who he was and all that he gone through, all the things he had done and had run from. He couldn't do that. He just couldn't. His life might as well be over at that rate.

"Oh, this is like them too." Jimmy replied. "Trust me, I've seen enough stuff to know and I was raised among elves, same as you."

Etho raised an eyebrow. "You sound sure of yourself." He noted.

Before this could go any further, Scott put an end to it, stepping in between the two of their sight lines. "Okay, okay. So we all have different experiences with the Watchers, we get it. I still think that we just need to keep an open mind. And regardless of who or what or why we all find ourselves here, it really doesn't matter, does it? Because in the end, regardless of the reason, I think that we can all agree that we just all want to get out of here and back to our homes -- or, in a few cases, to find one. In order to do that, we are going to have to rely on each other. I am going to continue looking over the world's code and find a way to get the Main Hub portal activated again.

"Until I can do that, I am going to need your full cooperation. We could not chat or leave and some of us are different from before; we do not know what other changes may have been made. If you find any, please tell me right away; they may give me a better clue as to what is going on here. In addition, while I know that many of us are strangers, I need us all to act like friends -- or, in the very least, colleagues. If we work to support one another, this situation will become much more tolerable. Understand?" When everyone agreed, Scott couldn't help but relax. Maybe they would be alright after all.

♡『♡』♡

After the meeting was over, Grian found himself crouched on a rock. It had gone on for awhile after that, but most of the rest of it wasn't all that notable. Overall, the group had decided to act as though they would be staying there in the long term, just as precaution. As such, Impulse and Etho agreed to build a trading hall for everyone to use. Other than that, most everything else was forgettable; especially to the anxious avian above all others. Pulling his knees closer to himself, he sighed. Everyone was out and about the village, having fun. Here he was, moping. Regretting life. Wondering if this was his fault, and if it was, if his friends could possibly forgive him.

Lost in his thoughts, he hadn't realized when a familiar blonde sat beside him, facing the other direction. Martyn gently placed his hand over Grian's to gently alert him of his presence. "I know what you're thinking." He said, not looking at the other.

"You're not a mind reader." Grian tried to joke, but it came out as merely a statement.

"And I don't have to read your mind, because I know you, Grian." Martyn replied, glancing over at his friend before turning back away. "Trust me, whatever you think, it isn't them."

"You don't know them like I do, Martyn. I spent -- I was there a long time, okay? I know them better than anyone here. Better than any player, even."

Martyn looked back at Grian and stared at him until Grian met his gaze. "I know. But in my journey, I've learned... things. Trust me when I tell you that there is another explanation for this. Things have... changed. They wouldn't do this, not this time, at least." He replied.

"You can't know that, Martyn." Grian protested, taking his hand away from Martyn's and standing up. With that, Martyn stood too, and he faced the back of his friend.

"You know me, Grian. You know how deep my hatred is for them; how deep it always was from the first day that we --" He bit his lip. They were not to talk about Evo. He sighed. "Look, I can't tell you why I'm so sure, but I am. I have my reasons, I promise, but I just can't share them. Just as I'm sure you have your reasons for not telling all of your friends about us. That, damn it, apparently, we can't even be allowed to know each other."

Upon hearing this, Grian did turn around. "Martyn-" he began, but Martyn cut him off.

"Just... trust me with this." He replied. And, without waiting for a response, he walked away.