Things are about to get interesting.

This image is also made by FoxalotlWrites on AO3! It's the scene way back in the beginning where Miesall introduces Grian to the big scary Listeners.

✧✰✧

Those three were not the only ones awake late into the night. Just as the sun set in the sky, a pair had walked into the portal leading into the main hub. Wrapped around Xisuma's shoulders was a dark cloak. The pin that kept it together had purple glowing galactic letters emblazoned on it reading 'ᔑ↸⍊ᔑリᓵᒷ↸.' Although the cloak had a hood, he seldom wore it. Perhaps in his early days, when he was much more afraid of being seen. With the passage of time, however, he had grown to be more confident. Dare he say, he almost felt as though he did not need the secrecy he once gained from his server anymore, but even if that were fully true, he could never abandon it for those that still needed it. He was their Admin; he feared what it could become without his guidance. 

As their destination came into view, he looked over at the man walking beside him wearing his own forest green cloak with the letters '╎リℸ ̣ ᒷ∷ᒲᒷ↸╎ᔑℸ ̣ ᒷ' glowing a goldish yellow color on the pin. "Are you ready, dear friend?" He asked.

"Of course." Joe replied with a nod towards the other. After he responded, he turned his attention towards the gigantic portal in the distance with messy lines of people all heading towards it. It was a sea of cloaks. It mostly consisted of blue and green, but there was a decent amount of black garments as well. Even a few purple cloaks dotted the crowd. The two let themselves be swallowed up the colors, careful not to lose each other as they slowly made their way to the portal.

Once they were inside, they met with the familiar large white walls with pillars that stretched down the grand hallway. Big stained glass windows lined both sides of these walls, repeating eight images: Sniffer, Guardian, Warden, Vex, Ender Dragon, Listener, Void and Watcher. No matter how many times Xisuma had seen them, he couldn't help but gawk. Each one was crafted ever so beautifully, but being just like everyone else, the one that always caught his eye most was the Watcher. The image showed them in a pure, formless white wearing a white cloak of their own. It was in the form of a human, with five pairs of wings protruding from their back. Each pair was a different color: white, gold, tan, purple, black and silver. The first time he had come here, he had childishly asked if that's how they really looked. The answer to that of course was no; no one knew how they really looked. They might not even have a form. Still, the mystery of it all still pulled at him to this day.

The Admins, as he knew, respected the Higher Species. Without them, there would be no worlds and no updates, after all. For better or worse, players, hybrids and creatures all depended on them. And as far as the expert and master admins were concerned, that especially was true of Ender Dragons, Listeners, the Void and Watchers in that order. Their supposed levels of importance displayed plainly in the order of the stained glass windows as well as the colors associated with each Admin rank. To them, Watchers were so important that they even modeled the Admin headquarters after their alleged temple. He personally wasn't so sure they all deserved such high praise, especially considering how he had personally gotten caught in between the seemingly everlasting war between the Watchers and Listeners. A prisoner of war, used as a tool; a weapon to blind the all-seeing beings. Even more so when he considered the strife that these ethereal beings, in turn, had caused at least three of his friends. He knew better than to speak about that in this place, however.

It was nearly a half hour between the moment they first saw the portal until Xisuma and Joe were finally in the large room that seemed as though it could easily fit a million players. The trick was not only was the perimeter of the room massive, it towered all the way to build height. Balconies lined all four walls, almost too many to count stacked on top of each other. At the center of the room was a podium set up with microphones that were connected to speakers all over the walls with hidden redstone. The room was already incredibly full and only getting more packed by each minute the time for the meeting to begin drew closer.

"We should find a good balcony." Xisuma called above all the noise. He had already nearly lost Joe several times already.

"You're right." the American agreed, beginning to head towards the nearest ladder. It was just then that a cloakless boy covering his face with a mask rushed right into Joe, causing him to fall to the ground.

"Dream, what did I tell you?!" a deer exclaimed as he ran up. As Xisuma helped his partner, the newcomer pulled off his green hood, showing off his antlers. "If you want to be an Admin one day, you need to learn to act proper for once."

"R... right... the boy said, picking himself up as he brushed off his trousers. His green hoodie further hid his face as he stared at the ground.

"Your teacher is right." Xisuma cut in, unable to keep himself out of things. Taking care of so many outsiders left him soft for anyone struggling. "First, learn the rules. Being an Admin is a very serious and important task. Your server mates will come to depend on you. However," his eyes crinkled into a smile, "Once you learn the rules, and have your own server, you'll come to bond with people you never thought you would. It is a never ending job, and you need to understand how stressful it can be, but it's very rewarding.... Even when you inventibly get pranked." He chuckled to himself, sharing a knowing look with Joe. The two had been together ever since Hermitcraft began accepting people other than Children of the Void. While Joe hadn't always been an Admin, he had been one of the best friends Xisuma had ever made, a steady presence over the course of nearly a decade.

"Thank you, sir." The boy nodded, a shy smile reaching his mouth which peaked underneath of his mask.

"Xisumavoid." He corrected, offering his hand. The boy took it, shaking it.

"Dream."

"It was nice to meet you, kiddo. My name is Joe Hills, if we ever happen to cross paths again." The American waved before the kid and his mentor vanished into the crowd, allowing the duo to finally climb up several balconies. People were absolutely everywhere, bumping into them as they tried to find a somewhat decent place. It was only on the fifth balcony that they found a comparatively not as crowded area as the rest of the room.

"Hey, you're just in time!" A voice called, waving off to the side. The sight of an orange-haired elf wearing a green cape was enough to make Xisuma grin underneath of his mask, rushing over to the familiar man immediately.

"Fwip!" He greeted the man with a tight hug. "You made it!"

"Of course I did." The other replied as he was let go. He turned to Joe for a quick nod in acknowledgement before continuing, his eyes turning towards the center of the room below as he frowned. "There was something about this meeting... I don't know. The way they didn't say a thing about it in the invitation isn't like them at all."

"You're right." Joe nodded, his smile fading as well. "They didn't even bother including the minutes from the last meeting or anything. I thought it was a fluke at first, but they would never make a mistake like that. Added to the way they sent it out on such short notice..."

Xisuma had to admit, when his friends had put it that way, things did seem a lot more foreboding. He spotted a rare purple cloak in the crowd below, walking with an even rarer white. They were, of course, an ᒷ ̇/!¡ᒷ∷ℸ and a ᒲᔑᓭℸ ̣ ᒷ∷. As if their prestigious colors weren't enough to notice from so far, the crowd parted itself in their wake. "Well, looks like it won't be long until they start now at least. That has to be Bad and Skeppy down there."

Despite the former gaining the highest level of Admin status, donning the pure white, that never stopped him from being nearly inseparable with the faerie. While Xisuma had never talked to him personally, it was something that he very much respected about the man. He watched on, chatting lightly with the others, as BadBoyHalo took his place on stage. The creature that was with him, although he didn't join him, didn't stray too far. It took a few more minutes before the second white cloaked person appeared and took their rightful spot.

"I--" His voice began through the speaker, causing the crowd to quickly hush into silence. It was rather unlike Hyperpixel, Xisuma couldn't help but think. He was usually calm and composed, speaking only with intention. He glanced at his two friends, finding their expressions told they had thought the same. He gulped, hoping that this just was a bad feeling based on their jumping to conclusions.

"You probably are wondering why we invited you all here on such short notice." The master spoke once more, his voice tense at first and then easing into the beginning of the speech. "Please forgive me for my lack of eloquence. I usually have much more time to compose myself, but I fear time is not on our side today." He let his words hang in the air, staring up into the crowd.

"I am going to say it outright: we have noticed a disturbance throughout the worlds." Bad continued. The statement caused waves of whispers to ensue, but he merely ignored them and continued talking. "There has been a significant amount of bugs that have been reported in the last few weeks, and they seem to be growing at an exponential rate. While outbreaks tend to happen immediately following updates, we know it has been quite some time since the universe shifted by the Watchers. And, dare I say, these bugs are much more prevalent than ones we've seen after an update in quite some time."

"Bugs now?" Joe whispered, bewilderment in his voice. "But why would--"

"We aren't sure of the exact root cause of these issues." Hyperpixel continued from where the other left off. "At the moment, we cannot seem to detect a pattern either; the reported bugs seem to vary rather wildly. Most of these glitches are in the moderate intensity range, but there have been some S-class glitches reported as well." This stirred the Admins a whole lot more, the volume of the room rapidly increasing.

"S-class?!" Fwip exclaimed. "They-- they call those world-enders for a reason!" It was true. Only a master could hope to save the world at that point, and even then the chances of fixing it was slim. Such a problem was extremely rare under normal circumstances, almost only heard of immediately following the few of the worst updates in history. The void could feel his own skin crawl as he considered this.

If he were a leader, he would want to keep this information on the low to avoid mass hysteria. It was that bit of reasoning that made him fear that the two leaders were intentionally trying to downplay this as well. Nonetheless, he reached and placed a hand on Fwip's shoulder, looking into his eyes. Now was the time to listen, not to panic. His message, when received, caused the ginger-haired elf to take a deep breath.

"I know, I know." Bad exclaimed, trying to calm the crowd down enough so he could speak properly. "With the first few corrupted worlds, we thought about staying silent. However, as more problems arose, it was clear that we could no longer hide this fact. I want to ask of all of you, Admins, trained to protect and foster worlds, to not panic. All of your server mates depend on you to lead by example. If you panic, then they will also panic, and the worlds will descend into unneeded chaos. Me and Hyperpixel, as well as the experts below us, are working as quickly as we can to find solutions to these issues. In the meantime, we ask for your patience as wait times for larger bug fixes continue to increase." His manner of speaking had lulled the crowd into a quiet fearfulness. Not great, but at least controlled.

"Until then, we ask for you all to lean on each other. Those with intermediate training, please help novices with problems they cannot fix. Those that are advanced, similarly, help your intermediate peers. With the exponential amount of bug issues, there are not enough experts as well as us masters to stay on top of bugs that cannot be handled by an individual at their current skill level. We hope by implementing this, we will have more time to dedicate to A-class and S-class glitches as well as find temporary fixes. We have no more to comment on at this time. But please -- I reiterate, please lead by example. Regular players will be even more disturbed about this situation than you are right now. If you choose to tell them about this matter, please do so in a calm, professional manner as we are doing to you right now."

Just as soon as soon as the meeting had started, it seemingly had ended. These meetings often dragged on for hours. Usually at the end, the masters or experts would answer comments. When new policies were proposed, they were debated beyond death. Heck, even if nothing seemed to be happening, even then the discussion would quite often go on for a long time. To see how the Masters pull on their hoods and walk offstage without allowing the other Admins to ask questions simply felt wrong.

"That's it?" Joe asked, sensing this as well.

"Have you ever seen them act like this?" Fwip asked his superior, causing him to shake his head.

"No... never." He confirmed. "I think... I think that they're nervous about it all as well. Let's just hope the Watchers patch the issue soon."

✧✰✧

Xisuma decided to keep the contents of the meeting to himself and Joe. Considering his servermayes, he figured that it would be best. Perhaps people like Impulse and Doc would be calm about it, but Grian and Mumbo would most certainly panic beyond consolation. He just hoped that it was nothing and things would blow over soon.

In the meantime, he would play the game of survival named Demise. It was a fun little challenge he had heard Grian had made. Whoever died last would win; it was a rather simple concept, but it was spiced up by the vengeful Dead Team, which would try to murder the remaining living. He couldn't wait to play.

✧✰✧

There are six rankings of Admins:

Training - no cloak

Novice - light blue with dark blue pin - リ𝙹⍊╎ᓵᒷ

Intermediate - green with gold/yellow pin - ╎リℸ ̣ ᒷ∷ᒲᒷ↸╎ᔑℸ ̣ ᒷ

Advanced- black with purple pin - ᔑ↸⍊ᔑリᓵᒷ↸

Expert - purple with black pin - ᒷ ̇/!¡ᒷ∷ℸ ̣

Master - white with purple pin - ᒲᔑᓭℸ ̣ ᒷ∷

There is also another rank that is outside of the skill. This would be self taught Admins. Overall I think it's either fallen out of practice or frowned upon, but it wasn't as uncommon a few centuries ago. Self taught Admins either can take a test that will give them a proper placement instead of going through all the training a regular Admin would. 

Technically, Grian is a self taught Admin after being thrust into the position by the Watchers in Evo. He hasn't brought this up because he has no interest in it. He would likely would've tested as a novice just before he was taken by the Watchers.

 One would think he would gain experience with the Update gods themselves, but I don't think he really played a part in Updates other than celebrating. Younger Watchers tend to get less important tasks. For example, Miesall oversaw what players got what gifts. Another Watcher put together quests, and other Watchers made both into reality. Overall, if Miesall screwed it up, it would perhaps embarrass the Watchers, sure, but it's not going to kill anyone. He and Xel had no hand in actually creating and stabilizing the updates themselves. I think Miesall, being a lifelong Watcher and lover of books, would understand coding pretty well, but Xel was only a Watcher for.... I don't even know. 200 years? I forget. 

Also, I don't really watch BBH, Skeppy or Dream (and Hyperpixel, but hes not a CC I don't think). I just thought it would liven up the scene with some familiar faces even though it's not very relevant to the plot I don't think. Anyway, when I saw that Skeppy has a blue skin, I knew he had to be a fae. (Vex hybrid that is more Vex-like than fairies. Their skin is blue, lol)

Uh... I'm rambling now so I should go-