It must be midnight or later.

Even so, Sage couldn't sleep. He just wasn't tired. Of course, he could force himself to sleep by clambering into his bed, but, as he had discovered the prior day, the world had become so corrupt that it was possible to sleep without a bed. And Sage didn't fancy getting stuck wherever Void did last time the admin slept in a bed. Sleeping without a bed was odd indeed. He couldn't quite tell that he was asleep, his dreams weren't fully encapsulating. It was as if he could still tell that he was awake and in the living world; he could still feel the sensation of the chair, floor, or whatever he was sitting on. He still felt rested when he woke up, though. Above all else, Sage was purely curious about the whole thing. The last time he slept without a bed was an accident; he got so caught up in his own mind that he hadn't even realized he was so tired until he woke up.

But now was different. He couldn't sleep because he just wasn't tired, not because he physically wasn't able to. He lay sprawled on the floor of his room, reading and rereading his notes. Of course, Sage could be doing something productive, like gathering more chorus fruit for Void... But lying on the floor like a dead person seemed much more appealing at the moment. He honestly didn't know what was up with him. A week or so ago, the duplicate would be jumping at the chance to work on something or unsettle someone else, or, honestly, anything. But now... He mentally added that to the list of things to talk about with Void.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Sage sat straight up as he heard the familiar movement of pistons, then saw the door open and the bee-suited Hermit walk in. He glanced down at the ground to see Sage sitting there, and cocked his head in confusion. "...hello...Sage...." He seemed worried. Sage could guess why; it isn't every day you walk into a room to see someone sitting on the floor, staring at you.

"Hi, Void," Sage said, standing up. He brushed off his knees and leaned against the wall as Void sat in one of the chairs. "Can't sleep?"

"More like 'won't,'" he clarified. "Sleeping is dangerous." The admin stopped talking and his gaze fell slightly, making it clear that he was remembering what happened last time he did so. Sage couldn't blame the other for being unwilling to risk whatever happened last night happening again. It seemed like quite the unpleasant experience; Void's haunted expression when Sage first woke him up was enough to send shivers down anyone's spine.

"You could always sleep without the bed," Sage proposed, shrugging. This got Void's attention; the admin fixed his eyes on Sage's again, confusion clouding his gaze.

"What? That's not possible."

And what a fine segway into Sage's notes that was. "You'd be surprised." Void blinked confusedly at this. Folding his arms, Sage continued. "I actually managed to fall asleep yesterday very far away from any bed. Fun experience. Didn't get trapped in any voids. Highly recommend." Come to think of it, the sleeping mechanisms seemed to be corrupting much more noticeably than other things. Maybe it was because it was so complex. Eh, whatever. The point was, Void was certainly hooked now.

"Really?" Void's eyes were wide behind his visor and he leaned forward slightly. "That's not normal." No crap. 

"That's not the only thing." What should he mention first? Well, it only made sense that he'd go in order of his notes. "I talked with Mumbo earlier, and he has no recollection of anything before coming to HermitCraft. He thinks he's been here since the beginning of time or something." 

Sage didn't have to be an experienced detective to understand that Void had not just something, but everything to do with this. The look on his face was evidence enough; even behind the visor of his helmet, Sage could see his face flush with guilty color and his eyebrows raise with confusion, and was that concern? Sage's own eyebrows furrowed. How much did he know? And why hadn't he told Sage? 

What else wasn't Void telling him?

"...And you do remember," Void confirmed. He spoke slowly, deliberately, as if this were the most vital thing to know ever. The faux-Hermit nodded in response. It was clear that Void knew about this. "Well, that makes sense," the admin continued, more casually. Makes sense? Really? "given that his memories have been locked away." 

What...? "Locked away?" Sage's eyes glistened in confusion. When the moustached man had been thinking back he did get the sensation that the memories, the ones from before HermitCraft, were something that he wasn't supposed to see. It did feel like they were behind a closed door to which he had the key. But the main question was why? "Why would you do that?"

With a sigh, Void shook his head. "I didn't do it. It's... it's hard to explain." Void was not enjoying this conversation. It didn't take a genius to figure that out from his careful words and less-than-enthused attitude. "It's the game itself. Whenever a player enters a new world, over time their memories of the previous one fade and are replaced by false, fuzzy ones." No wonder even Sage had a hard time remembering. He wasn't supposed to.

"So why do I remember?" These words came out slowly. Sage shouldn't know this. Even if he was self-aware, he wasn't an admin; he didn't have Void's powers. There was no way Sage should be even aware of their existence, let alone access them. What made him so special?

"I... don't know. I didn't know you did until now." For once, Void didn't have the answers. That was a new one. "How much of his life do you remember?"

Oh, this was weird. Sage didn't like this. It was one thing for Void to not tell him things, but it was another entirely for him to not even know himself. He was supposed to be the admin, the all-knowing overlord of the world. But even he didn't know what was going on with Sage. It was as if his entire view of the bee-suited Hermit had suddenly crumbled. An inexplicable urge to attack the admin jolted through him before he had the chance to even recognize it. What was that? Weird. Disregarding that, Sage figured he'd just have to figure this out himself, a task he assumed would be much harder than first thought would make it seem. "Not much, admittedly. I remember when he chose his name, but not much else. It's all hazy." 

Void nodded. "Okay, that makes sense, I guess. I'm still not sure why that's happening, though. Admins should be the only people able to unlock others' memories." It was an odd power to have over everyone else, but if only admins had it, why did Sage? He doubted Citrus had it-- she would've mentioned something when they were talking. And he couldn't ask- No. He wouldn't think about her. 

Sage had another question. He hadn't even originally written this down in his notes; this was something he had just thought of now. "Void, do you remember life before HermitCraft?" For an uncomfortable, tense moment, Void studied Sage, before relenting.

"No. I... I don't," he responded at last. His voice was low.

"What?" Sage did a double-take. His sudden outburst reflected his thoughts. The admin had just finished saying how he could access any and all memories he had before HermitCraft. "Why not?"

Looking away, Void said quietly, "I don't want to." The air was still and tense. Sage didn't have any possible clue why that could be.

"You don't want to?" Sage repeated. "Why? Aren't you curious? You had an entire life before this, and you don't want to know anything about it?" Sage's face harbored an incredulous expression as he stared at the admin. He just didn't get it. So much knowledge, right at his fingertips. And he refused to use it. If it were Sage in that position, he'd do it in a heartbeat. But no, Sage was stuck piecing together memories from two seperate people-- not to mention himself-- amd Void refused to learn anything. Sometimes the Hermit just stumped Sage.

Void seemed to have his reasons. "You don't understand," he began. No, Sage did not, in fact, understand. That's why he was asking. "Being an admin of a server... That's so much responsibility. And the knowledge of this world, this game..." He trailed off. "It's something I would never force on anybody." Sage grimaced at this, for it was that very person's fault that Sage and Citrus both knew about this world. He neglected to say anything, though, and Void continued, seemingly not noticing Sage's silent disagreement. "And if I consciously made the decision to do this, to take on this responsibility, I don't think I want to know what life was like then. And of course, there is the possibility that I was forced into becoming this."

That was a lot of talking. The more Sage thought about it, the more it made sense. Void didn't want to expose himself to any possible trauma his past held. He could understand that. "I get it." He still didn't agree, though. He'd rather know the truth than stay in the dark until the end of time.

Well. Now that that was over with, Sage remembered he had more to ask Void on the subject. How Mumbo got into HermitCraft in the first place, for example. But that wasn't important right now. Right now, he had more pressing matters on his hands. "Another thing; Void, I found a memory yesterday. One that didn't belong to me. And I was wondering, what was the deal with E-" 

He was interrupted by a familiar ding.  "Hold that thought. Doc just messaged me." Not this again. Not now, of all times! Why was that cyborg even still up in the first place? It was the middle of the night! "There's another glitch-- a serious one." Void didn't specify any further and just moved to leave. "See you tomorrow morning-- I have to fill you in on prank day before I begin it."

Stunned into submission, Sage murmured a goodbye. Wait. What's prank day?

---------

Citrus's POV-

Ah, morning. Time for Citrus to resume her duties. Surely something interesting would happen today. The cat was still hung up about Sage's near dismissal of the abnormality, and she was determined to find something good. Something that would force Sage and Void to listen to her. Something that would make them understand that she wasn't useless. 

Stress was already up and peering at herself in the reflective glass. Citrus meandered over to her and leaped up onto the counter on which she was leaning. Oddly enough, she wasn't wearing her usual outfit. Instead, she was wearing a pink dress shirt and dark pink pants. On top of those, she wore a long, white lab coat. On the counter lay a few bowls of different shades of green dye mashed into a paste and a few flowers of a slightly different color to her usual ones. She was busy pinning one into her hair when she noticed Citrus investigating. "Oh, hello, little kitty," she greeted. The cat gave a small mew in the direction of the dyes. "You want to know about those? Oh, Cleo and I are swapping places as one of our pranks for prank day today. This will take a while, so I'm getting a head start!" 

She smiled cheerfully, and Citrus's whiskers twitched. Prank day, how fun. The cat could appreciate some mischievousness. But that wasn't the only thing she wanted to know about. With a flick of her tail, Citrus directed Stress's attention to her scientist-esque attire. "Oh, that?" She seemed to hesitate for a moment. Yes, Stress? What is it? Whatever it was, Citrus could tell she wanted to pay attention to it. "Well, I got Bdubs to put it together for me-- he did Scar's mayor suit after all-- for... reasons." Citrus stared at her expectantly, her big, amber eyes boring into Stress's until the latter's resolve broke. "Look, I'm not sure how much of this you'll understand, being a cat, but I've been out here for a reason." 

Citrus's tail began to swish slightly, rhythmically behind her. Was this the moment she had been waiting for? The final bit of icing to top the cake she had been working so hard to bake? Her eyes sparkled with genuine curiosity as she silently urged Stress to go on. 

"I was flying over here the other day to grab some quick ice when I noticed the weather changing sporadically. I got so confused, but that happens sometimes, right? A freak of nature. But then I saw random ravagers, llamas without traders, just odd things in general..." She trailed off, seemingly returning to her memories. "I had to investigate," she murmured half-presently. Her next words had a wistful tone, as if she was describing it as she was experiencing it back in her head. All the while, Citrus was taking mental notes. She had to get back immediately.

"I quickly set up a small shack, just a place to stay while I did some testing. I tried to do various things-- tearing down ice spikes, building things, anything to try and find out the cause of all of this. There had to be something that was making this happen. But nothing worked. Then, I came to check my shop and found you, nearly asleep in a tree, and I realized that I could use a buddy. And... well.. all I've been doing is taking notes on weird things and trying things out. And, of course," she chuckled, "building my ice palace." She seemed to come back to reality and grinned at Citrus. "It's only fit for the Ice Queen, after all." Citrus blinked. What? "Eh, you wouldn't get that anyway."

She was silent for a moment before laughing again. What was so funny? "I can't believe I let myself get tricked into spilling out my entire career out to you. A cat! Doctor Stress, confiding in a kitty cat. That's something I never expected to describe my life."

Oh, but Citrus wasn't complaining in the slightest. In fact, this was perfect. Just. Perfect. As soon as Stress would leave, Citrus would dash back through the portals, through the Nether, everything she had to do to get back to Sage's base before this prank day thing began. 

And soon enough, Stress-- or rather, Cleo-- was ready. She waved goodbye to the cat and popped through the portal to get to the Shopping District. She was a bit early but had mentioned something about getting there before the others to discuss her plans with Cleo, aka, Stress. Citrus wasn't paying much attention to that part; she was busy brainstorming ways to exclaim her news.

----------

Scar's POV-

Scar stood in the area outside the Town Hall, surrounded by what seemed to be all of the other Hermits. Deja vu, much? The mood this time was much more casual than last time, though. Instead of clumps, the Hermits were scattered all around. Some were perched on top of the unused support columns, their elytra wings strapped to their backs. Some were atop makeshift poles for a better view. Scar himself was right below his column, as the top was taken by a certain False. The wizard had landed up there right next to her as a passive-aggressive way to ask for her to get down, but all he received was a shove and a bruised arm. 

Grian was over on the other side of the area. He had a huge grin on his face. The gremlin was generally the first to arrive, and always had something big planned, so seeing him smiling wasn't odd. But this smile... it was weird. It was almost too wide. Scar had grown mildly concerned. Until now, he hadn't seen him at all since the previous Saturday, and that hadn't ended well. Had so much changed since then? He hoped the brit was okay. Scar would talk with him after the announcement, see what was up. In other news, Scar could spy Sage as well, in the back. He and Iskall were talking, but Scar couldn't quite make out what they were saying. Something about Hermit Challenges?  

Yanking him out of his thoughts was a chorus of dings. Scar knew what that meant without even checking his communicator. It was time. The chatter died down quickly as Xisuma began to address the crowd from right in front of the Hall. "As I am sure you all know..." he began. Scar had heard this shpeal so many times, he could probably recite it from memory himself. He had to focus on the words themselves and not the person saying them. Apparently, it was harder than he had first thought to set aside everything in the spirit of prank day.

After giving the 'rules' of prank day-- which basically equated to 'no being needlessly cruel'-- Xisuma set everyone off and the group quickly scattered. Some Hermits like Doc, Ren, and Bdubs stuck together, while others like Tango and Keralis ran off on their own. Scar also caught a few ambling in the direction of his shop. Hm! Scar himself walked over to Grian, who was typing something into his communicator. At the sight of his presence, the brit glanced up, glanced back at his communicator, deleted the message he was typing out, and grabbed Scar's arm.

"Ow-!" Scar yelped. What was that for? "Grian, wh-" Something was definitely up with him. Normally, Grian would warn him before dragging him off to who-knows-where. 

Grian dragged him into the Town Hall before letting go. For someone so short, Grian was surprisingly strong, and Scar cradled his soon-to-be bruised arm-- and that was the arm he hadn't fallen on, too!-- as his companion began talking. "So, Scar, first of all, happy prank day!" He seemed like he was rushing to get through this so he could say something else. 

"Yeah.. Same to you," the wizard answered warily. "Are you alright? I haven't seen you around much a-"

But he got cut off by Grian. "Yeah, I'm fine! Great, actually." Oddly enough, the brit glanced around before leading Scar to the very back of the Town Hall, behind the diamond throne. His tone settled considerably when he spoke next. "I know how to get Mumbo back."

This was decidedly not what he was expecting. This didn't mean that Scar wasn't intrigued, though. "You do? Really?" He sounded more skeptical than he intended, but he just couldn't help it. Every plan that Scar had had had gone south, so he wasn't too hopeful. 

But Grian seemed the opposite. It was as if all that time away had given him some newfound confidence. "I do. And the best part is, no one will suspect a thing because it's prank day."

Scar just hoped he wouldn't be crushed.

But that bit about prank day had certainly gotten the wizard interested. "How so? Don't tell me you're planning a-"

"I'm planning a trap," Grian confirmed with a grin. Scar sighed inwardly. Since when did Grian's traps actually work? To be fair, the brit was probably better at them than him, but Scar's bar wasn't set too high to begin with. "Specifically, one with lots of explosives." Grian began to explain it more, and Scar internally summed it up as 'Set a trap right outside of the hidden staircase so the whole thing goes boom when someone-- assumedly Sage-- comes out, then swoop in while Sage is distracted, grab Mumbo, and get out.' 

But Scar had something else on his mind as well. He hated to bring this up, but it had to be done. "G, what if Mumbo's... dead?" The word tasted foul in his mouth and his heart burned, as if even allowing the thought to cross his mind was physically painful. 

Grian seemingly didn't even entertain the thought, as he basically brushed Scar off as he replied, "If he died, he would've respawned. He's alive." He said it with so much confidence that it almost stripped Scar of his concern as well. But the nagging feeling still stayed in the back of his mind that Mumbo was in much more danger than the two thought, if not worse.

"What if this somehow became a repeat of the deal with E-" The Hermit cut himself off in sudden remembrance that Grian would have no clue what he was talking about. The events of EX had happened far before the brit knew the other Hermits. Luckily, it seemed that his companion was ignoring him to begin with, so Scar didn't have to explain his slip-up. In fact, it didn't seem like Grian still noticed that Scar was with him; he was too busy muttering to himself about who-knows-what. The wizard frowned. "Grian," he said forcefully, grabbing his shoulder to yank him out of whatever other world he was in.

For the first time that day, Scar saw something other than the smile Grian had plastered on his face. For a split second, Scar saw what Grian was hiding, the shock momentarily breaking his cheery facade. His eyes were hollow and lifeless. His lips were trembling as if he was about to break down in tears any second now. He seemed so small-- and not just in terms of height. This was quickly gone, though, as Grian complained, "Could've given me some warning first before you grab my shoulder like that."

"You didn't," Scar reasoned, and Grian shrugged. "You were off in your brain, I had to get you out somehow." He laughed but wasn't really feeling it. "Back to the topic at hand..." To be honest, Scar didn't have too high of hopes for this. And as a result, he didn't especially want to lose prank day for something that had such a small chance of working to begin with. Today was supposed to be a day free of this, but apparently he couldn't even have that.

But apparently the other had different ideas. "Right," said Grian. "You can go do whatever for a few hours-- I'm pretty sure I saw some people by your little shop-- and I'll gather what we need and keep a lookout for Sage. I'll message you later when it's time. Alright?" Wait, so Scar would still get to enjoy prank day?

"But then you'd lose today. That doesn't sound very fair," Scar replied with a frown. Of course, he'd love to be able to enjoy today, but not at the expense of Grian's enjoyment. It didn't seem fair for Scar to have fun while Grian spent all day doing all the work. 

Grian shook his head. His smile faded slightly, but now it seemed more genuine, less like a flashy mask. "I wouldn't be able to enjoy today; not since I spent the last few days not doing anything at all, holing up in my base." So that's what he was doing. Or, well, not doing. "Besides," he continued, a smirk forming on his face. "if this works, it'll be my most successful prank yet."

-----------

Sage's POV-

As he promised, Void did in fact, come back a few hours later. Sage still hadn't gotten any sleep, but he also wasn't yet feeling any repercussions, so he supposed that was a plus. But Void's return was short and only to inform Sage that he'd have to show up for the prank day introduction. Void had explained the gist of prank day-- all Hermits were to stop any projects they were working on and spend an entire day just performing pranks on other people. It was supposed to be a fun bonding mechanism. He was adamant about participating, and Sage suspected it might stem from the fact that this would be the last one, well, ever.

The presentation wasn't any spectacle. The admin just went over the rules, pretty standard. To be quite honest, Sage initially had his reservations about this. Every inch of him was just squirming to talk with Void about EX, and if he was performing pranks, then that wouldn't really be possible. But now, he was actually looking forward to it. The faux-Hermit hadn't gotten a to of time to just have fun lately. Or ever, actually. It would be nice to do something without someone poring over him, deciding his every move. 

While the Hermits-- and Sage-- waited for Void to begin, Sage had been chatting with Iskall. The swede was still confused about Sage's little... trap for Grian. At this point, Sage couldn't lie; he was just as confused with his former self as Iskall, so he just covered it up with some generic Hermit Challenges thing. If there was something he remembered from Mumbo's life, it was the randomness and confusion of Hermit Challenges. Get someone to randomly fall into a hole and wade around in water for two hours? That seemed perfectly reasonable compared to other things. Iskall seemed to buy it, so Sage was clear on that bit. He had to say, it was a relief. The duplicate wouldn't lie, he was slightly worried about Iskall, what with his newfound affiliation with Grumbot and all. Eh, it wouldn't matter soon. If Grumbot was going to tell Iskall about Sage and Citrus, He'd have done so already. And He didn't know about Void, so that was just icing on the cake. Everything would be fine.

As the Hermits dispersed, a few stayed behind, either to talk with others, to find someone to hang out with, or just lost in thought. Impulse was one of these people, and he seemed to be looking around for a pranking buddy. His eyes locked with Sage's and lit up. The Hermit rushed over to Sage, who gave a little wave. "Hey, Mumbo!" 

Oh, right. Sage hadn't heard that name in reference to him in a few days; he had nearly forgotten about it. In the back of his mind, he expected to be called Sage again. Oops. "Hello, Impulse," he responded. "You in need of a buddy?" If so... Sage certainly wouldn't refuse. Though he had memories of doing them, he himself had never performed a true, good-natured prank. And what better way to begin than with a partner? He grinned at Iskall, and for once, it wasn't an act. He genuinely expected to have fun.

But why? He didn't deserve fun. Why should he have fun, while he was stripping it away from everyone else? Impulse would have more fun with the real Mumbo, that was just a fact. Sage didn't need fun to function. No, he just needed to make sure he does his work and doesn't get caught. No fun included. Why would Sage even want to have fun? He just needed to do what Void told him to. Right? Fun. That was something not on his agenda. That was something he didn't get. That was-

-enough. Sage didn't know where these weird thoughts were coming from-- first the violent one, now this-- but he didn't like them. And they were new, too; he couldn't recall having these before. Maybe the occasional bad thought, but nothing like this. Why had his life suddenly taken a turn for the weirder-- he didn't even know that was possible-- and should he let Void know? He still hadn't told Void about his weird EX memory. Would the admin even care? Every time he tried to contact him about it, he always conveniently had something else to do.

"Mumbo," Impulse said in a sing-songy voice as he waved a hand in front of Sage's face. "You still with me?" He chuckled as Sage shook himself out of his daze. "I was asking if you wanted to team up, but it seems like you weren't here."

Face flushing red with embarrassment, Sage hastily responded. "Oh, sorry, I got a bit distracted," That wasn't a lie. He was distracted.

"Thinking about your 'project?'" Impulse questioned. Woah. He completely forgot that he was using Mumbo's excuse of working on a project to cover up the three months of absence. He needed to stop forgetting things. Before Sage had a chance to respond, the other quickly finished. "I'm just teasing. But speaking of, you have been pretty elusive lately. I've barely seen you at all these past few days!"

"I haven't been that absent," the faux-Hermit muttered. "I've just had some things to sort out." Why did he care so much what Impulse thought? Did he actually feel bad for not interacting with the Hermits more? What was this? 

"Mhm, whatever you say." Impulse's eyes shined as he continued. "So, what should we do first? We can't go wasting valuable daylight on simple conversation. I know at the very least, Keralis is going to be away from his base for a while yet, so we have ample time if we want to do something there."

"Or," Sage suggested. "We could do a bunch of small pranks to get as many Hermits as we can." This would allow Sage to do as many pranks as possible. After all, when all of his, Citrus's, and Void's work was over, Sage had no clue what would happen then. This might be his only chance to ever perform pranks. Of course, he didn't mention that, though. "Usually it's quality over quantity, but when it comes to pranks..."

it seems Impulse was on the same wavelength. "...the more Hermits pranked the better!" He grinned. "Great idea. Where should we start?" His gaze traveled over to Scar's setup. "Hang on, I have an idea."

-------------

A few hours later, Impulse had to break off, having been called upon by Zedaph to help him and Tango perform a massive prank on False. The two had pranked many Hermits, most of them lethal, and admittedly had died themselves more times than was probably healthy. All in all, Sage had actually had a lot of fun. But something in the back of his mind was bothering him. There was always something, wasn't there?

Sage had had more of the disturbing thoughts. Something about seeing the others fall into giant pits, get squished by blocks, explode into red particles. Something about the brief look of horror that crossed a Hermit's face when they stepped unknowingly on a tripwire or pressure plate to hear the familiar hiss of TNT. Something about the cut-off scream of shock when an anvil came crashing down from above. It brought him so much joy. Too much joy. It was as if part of him enjoyed seeing the Hermits suffer. Like it treated these pranks not as such, but as actual acts of malice. He had pushed these thoughts and feelings away, but eventually, they just became too overwhelming, too loud, and he was almost grateful for Impulse needing to leave.

Right now, he just needed to get back home, collapse on the couch, and hope that no one else called on him. He used the Nether to get back to the base. Pressing the button, he descended the secret staircase and walked into his room.

To his surprise, he wasn't alone. Void was preparing some chicken and Citrus was sitting on the table. She stopped talking mid-sentence as Sage walked in. Void noticed as well and breathed an audible sigh of relief. "Hey, Sa-" he began, but Citrus cut him off.

"Sage!" She complained loudly. "Where have you been all day? I've been waiting here for hours."

"And talking my ears off since I got here myself twenty minutes ago," Void commented. He ignored a sharp look from the cat. "As she's mentioned to me at least seven times, Citrus has something important to share."

Oh, no. Sage really was not in the mood. He was tired-- in multiple manners-- and he just wanted to curl up into a ball and forget about everything. He didn't want to worry about Citrus risking life and limb for something that wouldn't even matter.  He didn't want to hear about some new mob that showed up in the icy biome and nearly killed her. Was it too much to ask that she stayed safe? 

She was his best friend. He couldn't bear to lose her.

Unfortunately, Citrus didn't seem to be able to read his thoughts and immediately jumped into her newest thing as Void set aside the chicken. "So, first of all, Stress was asleep before nighttime yesterday, that's worth a mention." Sage and Void shared a look before turning back to the cat. "But more importantly, Stress knows something's up." 

Sage should be invested. He should be caring about this. 

"She told me everything this morning. She told me how she had noticed some weird things happening there. Void, I know you have something to do with it. I don't know what, but I know you do."

He shouldn't be feeling like screaming. That was the last thing he wanted.

"She told me how she's calling herself Dr. Stress. How silly is that? And she said that she was testing things out..."

Sage's vision blurred and dimmed. What was this feeling?

"She told me-"

"Shut up!" Before he could stop himself, he shouted at the cat. "Shut! Up!" He wanted to stop. Citrus's mortified expression was enough to want him to stop and apologize. But he didn't. He couldn't. He was past his breaking point. "I don't care! I don't care about your stupid discoveries! They're useless and don't provide anything! We don't need your 'important notes'! We don't need y-" He caught himself before he finished, but the damage was done.

Eyes glassy, Citrus stood up. Her expression had gone from surprised, to horrified, to dejected, to livid. "Fine," she growled. Her voice was rough, as if she was suppressing tears and trying to cover them up by being angry. "I'll prove you wrong. I'm leaving, and I'm not coming back until I find something that might make you care about a single word I say." She snapped her jaws shut, her icy tone remaining in the air even after she stopped talking. She didn't utter another word as she left, her tail flicking furiously.

Suddenly, Sage was hit with the realization of what he had just done. The faux-Hermit shot out of his seat and went to chase after the cat, throwing his arm out. "Citrus wai-!" But the piston door shut in his face and he was just facing a wall. His hand was shaking. Oh no. What had he just done? 

He knew what he just did. He just chased away his friend. He yelled at her. Made her feel useless, the one thing she openly expressed being worried about. Sage was a terrible friend. 

-(Author's Rambling)-

Oops.