Xisuma liked to think that he lived a good life. Or, more accurately, he lived a meaningful one.

He'd been the leader of Hermit Village for a while, ever since the previous leader (generik) left. Hermit Village was a sanctuary, a place for wayward souls to find a family and a home. There weren't many of them there, and Xisuma really did consider them all to be his family, not just his friends.

They were open to new hermits all the time. Whenever Xisuma left the village, anyone he found was offered a place to stay, and anyone who wandered into the village was offered one as well. And everyone was welcome. Human, hybrid, cyborg, it didn't matter. Hermit Village could be the place for them.

It made Xisuma happy that he could help people. Heck, sometimes he saved peoples lives. Like with Doc and Scar and Etho and Tango and Bdubs.

Xisuma loved his purpose, and he loved his family. And sure, they could be a lot of work sometimes, but the hermits were still everything to him.

And every new hermit was just as important as every original hermit, and vice versa.

And Xisuma was pretty happy with his life.

Xisuma blinked, realizing he'd gotten lost in his train of thought again. He looked back down to the chests he was supposed to be sorting out with a sigh. His spring cleaning had slipped over into summer.

Just about to start up again, someone burst through his front door. Xisuma spun around to the sound, finding Scar standing in the doorframe, bouncing on his toes.

"New person! There's a new guy X! There's a new guy!" Scar spoke very quickly, almost too quickly.

"Scar, say again? Who?" Xisuma asked, shooting up to his feet.

"There's a stranger here! He's probably just a traveler, wandered here, who knows!" Scar's excitement was clear, each word emphasized in an almost jittery and juvenile way. "Come on X! You've gotta introduce us, show him around!"

Xisuma smiled, now intrigued. He let Scar lead him outside, sticking right at his heels. Once they'd turned a corner around X's house, the scene unfolded before them. At least half of the hermits were clustered on the main, cobbled street, babbling excitedly. They surrounded the alleged stranger in a messy semicircle, all talking at once.

This was certainly interesting. They hadn't seen a passing traveller in a while, mostly due to Hermit Village's semi-remote location. Most of the village was surrounded by a forest, and they didn't have a proper paved road leading into the place. So for a wayward vagabond to find their way here was rare.

The chattering got louder as Xisuma approached the crowd. He quickly realized that while some hermits were ecstatic and curious, others were bickering over the stranger, namely False and Wels.

Xisuma sighed, wrote a mental note to talk with them later, and pushed through the crowd. From the way he held himself up, to the way he quieted the other hermits with a wave of his hands, you could easily tell he was the leader of the crew.

Xisuma tipped his head to the side, looking the stranger up and down.

He was significantly shorter than the admin, well, pretty short in general. He had messy chocolate brown hair and bright eyes that matched. He wore simple brown trousers, and a black t-shirt with a yellow 'i' in the center and hemmed in the same shade. A small pack sat in his back, too small to hold a reasonable amount of resources for traveling, and his hands fidgeted with the straps.

"Hello there! I do hope the others didn't alarm you too much, they can get pretty excited, we don't see travelers too often after all," Xisuma greeted. He noticed the stranger cast a wary glance towards False before looking back.

"I'm Xisuma Void," X continued, "the... I guess you could say Mayor, of this place, Hermit Village! And you would be...?"

The stranger swallowed before stammering out an answer. "I'm- I'm Impulse, my name's Impulse. I- uhm, Hermit Village, you said?"

"Yep! We're a little bit off the grid, but we act as a little oasis for anybody looking for one, humans and hybrids alike!" If this Impulse was an anti-hybrid supporter, Xisuma definitely needed to find out. Though the hopeful part of his head assumed not.

"Oh, that's really cool," Impulse responded, finally cracking a small smile. Xisuma sighed internally.

"X can we show him around now?!" Ren popped out from behind Xisuma, his wolf tail wagging behind him. "This place is so cool my dude—"

"Yeah!" Scar agreed, stepping out on Xisuma's other side. This triggered the other hermits to start blabbering again and Xisuma to raise a hand to get them to stop. He turned towards the hermits behind him.

"Okay, okay, I know you're all excited, and I promise you can all introduce yourselves and whatnot, just not this second. The town meeting is first thing tomorrow morning, we can do all of the fun stuff then. I'm going to talk with Impulse for a bit, you all can go back to what you were doing," Xisuma commanded. The hermits listened, dispersing into the village, and talking amongst one another. Once they were all far enough away, Xisuma turned back to Impulse, and noticed the man visibly relax.

"Come on, walk with me," Xisuma said to Impulse with a soft expression and a wave of his hand. He started walking slowly, not taking any path in particular, but instead planning on bringing the newcomer in a loop around the village, between the houses and the forest.

Impulse stayed at Xisuma's side, though he was a good meter or so away from him.

"So Impulse, where are you from?" Xisuma started, taking on a less formal tone. "You just a traveller?"

"Yeah, just a wanderer pretty much I suppose. I don't really consider myself 'from' anywhere." Impulse skirted around Xisuma's first question as if he didn't want to answer it. Xisuma decided not to push.

"So, I'd assume you're not headed anywhere in particular?"

Impulse shook his head. "No, I'll get on my way though. I wouldn't want to be a nuisance to you guys."

Xisuma bit his lip, holding back a small frown. "At least stay the night though. We've got free rooms, and it's nearly sunset." He gestured towards the sky.

"I- I guess I could stay..." Impulse trailed off, looking towards the houses.

"And if your mind's still set on travel, we can set you up with some supplies if you'd like. Even a new pack, I can't imagine you can carry a whole lot in there." Xisuma offered.

Impulse peeked over his shoulder at his pack, furrowing his eyebrows. "Thank you, liege— er, sir, that's very generous of you."

"Oh, you can just call me Xisuma or X, don't worry." Xisuma reassured after Impulse's stumble.

"Ah, sorry, okay."

Xisuma was slowly realizing just how mysterious Impulse was. He clearly wasn't kitted out to be a traveller, and if he really was one, he was an amateur at best. He avoided Xisuma's questions, and he seemed incredibly nervous. Travelers were typically more outgoing and sociable, considering they hopped from town to town and were constantly meeting new people.

It was weird. And what was weirder, or what could've been an explanation to the whole thing, was that Impulse didn't have a human aura. Xisuma, though most assumed he was human, was actually a voidwalker, meaning he was able to sense others "auras."

He couldn't tell exactly what Impulse was, only that he was masking some non human traits, and quite well too.

Impulse wasn't adding anything to their conversation either, so X piped up again, searching for some answers. "How long have you been a traveller for, Impulse?"

"Eh, a while." Impulse answered vaguely, dodging yet another question.

"You seem keen on leaving, may I ask why?" Xisuma asked. Impulse hesitated, not answering. "If it's all the hybrids here making you nervous, that's understandable—"

"No no, it's not that, of course not never," Impulse interrupted, waving his hands to emphasize. "I might like to stay for a bit actually, you do all seem very nice. I just usually do all this with someone else..." He trailed off as if he realized he'd spoken too much.

"Oh," Xisuma started softly, realization taking over. That could explain some of Impulse's behaviors. "I'm very sorry if you've lost someone important to you."

"Oh, no. He's not dead, I just, can't be where he is right now." Impulse spoke at a volume that was barely above a whisper. "He was the one that got me into adventuring, and now I guess I can't do it very well without him."

Xisuma nodded in return, glad that Impulse was opening up a bit. "Well, if it's an adventurer you want to be, I'm sure you'll be just as good as it as your friend one day."

Impulse looked down, but smiled at the comment. Xisuma stopped walking for a moment and looked up to the purpley blue sky above him. "You want to head inside now? It's getting dark out, and we can get something to eat if you're hungry. I mean, I sure am."

For a moment, Impulse sounded like he was suppressing a laugh.

"Sure, that sounds great!"

~ end chapter one ~

A/N: find the Homestuck reference, get a cookie :3 🍪🍪🍪