<TW> mention of possession, mention of weapons, weapons, possession, injury

<CW> angst, fear, banter, fluff.. barely

This is made in collaboration with Roxy-Rox0!!

꒷︶꒷꒥꒷✦༺ s l i me ༻✦꒷︶꒷꒥꒷

    Turns out, Gem isn't the only one who wanted to stay at Joel's base, because when he arrives home all of the Mountaineers are at his Tori Gate—except Grian for.. obvious reasons. "What are you all doin' here?"

    "Sleepover.?" Mumbo proposes, softly laughing his nervous laugh.

    Joel unstraps his elytra and glances over all of the residents of Cherry Mountain—only Impulse, Skizz, Gem Scar, and Mumbo—then sighs. "Ugh, fine." He tries to make his voice sound annoyed, but he really doesn't mind at all.

    Joel walks through the Tori Gate, his friends right behind him. He rushes up the black-stone stairs two at a time until he reaches the top, earning a few complains from Scar and Mumbo to slow down. Joel ignores them, but waits at the top of his staircase. "Hurry up, I wanna get in before dark."

"Joel, it's noon," Impulse tells Joel after glancing at his communicator—all of their communicators have been buzzing, but Joel's ignoring it, and he thinks Scar and Skizz haven't even noticed.

    Gem types out a message on her communicator with a smirk, Mumbo staring at his own with a conflicted look in his eye—Joel considers checking his communicator then, but decides to continue ignoring it. Joel huffs and says, "Well, maybe that just proves my blummin' point!"

    "Let's hurry in before the crowd arrives," Gem calls out to the slackers on the stairs—Scar, Skizz, and Mumbo—and hops up the remaining stairs for her, bouncing beside Joel.

    Joel is glad that his friends can relax a bit after the tense meeting, but he can't help giving Gem a quizzical look. Crowd? What crowd?

꒷︶꒷꒥꒷✦༺ b o o ༻✦꒷︶꒷꒥꒷

    "I never agreed to this!" Joel protests, for probably the billionth time, but yet again most Hermits ignore his frustration.

    "Gem said you were fine with it," Joe says nervously, yawning right after. He is still a Muppet, and doesn't seem used to Joel's personality to know how to talk to him. And he's tired.

Joel looks around his home, then peeks out the window where several Hermits are in his view and wandering about his city. Joe, Keralis and Cleo had decided that Joel's base would be the perfect place for the members of Hermitcraft to hide while the whole search for whatever is wrong with the server and missing members goes on. Joel huffs and sits in front of Joe's smaller form, crossing his legs over each other and studying the Muppet.

"I am fine with it. Just a proper warning would have been better," Joel tells Joe, it isn't a lie, too. He really doesn't really mind his friends and new server mates staying over, but now he has to deal with figuring out places to stay and all that blah blah—which is a pain.

Joe looks relieved at that and he ends the conversation, taking out his scribbled on communicator, little phrases and quotes in crayon all over the original grey steel. Joel stares at Joe for a moment longer, then—noticing Wels, Jevin, and Beef coming closer—he stands up and leaves the Muppet behind.

Joe blinks his heavy, tired eyelids when Beef gets on his knees to squeeze his shoulder, causing the Muppet to look up. "Hey Joe, could we go around our bases to get some stuff? Wels is a decent fighter, and Jevin's pretty sneaky when he wants to be." Beef reassures Joe, then as an afterthought, he adds, "And I can hold my own."

"You want to leave?" Joe questions, tilting his head to the side, the wide and sewn eyes of Joe's Muppet skin unsettles Wels a bit, but he doesn't mention it.

    "Yeah, I realized I forgot some of my armor in my base, and Beef wants to get more food from his for just in case if Joel doesn't have enough so we don't have to go on a slaughtering spree," Jevin drawls, slowly recounting the reasons that him and Wels and Beef wanted to leave, and slouching a bit so he can lean his elbow on top of Beef's head comfortably.

"We wanted to check in with you so you wouldn't freak out later," Wels explains, his armour clinking against its own plates as he shifts a bit.

Joe blinks again at the three—it's awkward to have the Hermits talking to him and treating him like he's the actual admin; he supposes it's respectful, but it seems wrong, almost. "Oh, yeah, you can go. Just don't be gone for long and check in with someone—preferably me—if you're delayed."

"Sure thing!" Jevin springs back up and starts to speed walk away, a bit of his blue slime dripping off him and landing on Joel's stone floor. Beef squeezes Joe's shoulder subconsciously before he stands up and jogs to catch up to Jevin, Wels' armour clacking as he stumbles while also walking after the slime.

   Joe stares at them as their forms become smaller and more shadowy, eventually looking back to his communicator. He checks the time—it's just over two p.m. now—and Joe realises he should probably get something to eat. Maybe he could take something from Cleo, or Doc. They totally wouldn't mind!

    Joe smiles at the thought as he stands, it seems like a normal thought in the confusion of the server currently.

꒷︶꒷꒥꒷✦༺ f r o g  e g g s ༻✦꒷︶꒷꒥꒷

    Jevin messes with his slimy fingers in the pocket of his white hoodie—how his slime didn't stick to the soft fabric even he didn't know!—glancing back to see Beef and Wels trailing right behind him as he walks into Wels' castle, their first destination. Wels is a bit behind, because he is trying to remove some of his extra armor bits—like the chest and thigh parts, and others that might mess with his mobility—while walking with them, and Beef is just fiddling with the rolled up part of his sleeve on his flannel to distract himself as he walks.

    Wels told them earlier that he was going to remove some his armor as a precaution because of the constant noisy clanks—which Jevin barely notices now after years of knowing the knight. Jevin turns and walks towards a random chest, opening it and lazily looking over its contents. He continues doing so for different chests, sometimes taking out things that he thinks his fellow Hermits might need.

"Is the spyglass necessary?" Beef half laughs beside Jevin, seeing what he's grabbing out of another chest. "We can only carry so much."

"Very necessary, Mr. Vintage," Jevin declares, fighting off a grin, and turning towards Wels. His black eyes flick to Beef's clothes, which were back to their classic look with the stained apron—he must have changed when he asked Wels for the restroom earlier—plus his brown leather gloves.

"Yours or Beef's next?" Wels asks Jevin—though he's actually asking the both of them—tucking his helmet under his arm and messing with the curly red ponytail that connects to the steel at the top.

"Mine," Jevin starts towards the big door and shoves the spyglass into on of his inventory slots, that Beef told him to save. Beef's statement wasn't serious, but Jevin finds it funnier if he acts like it was. The group mainly got tools from Wels' base.

Jev pulls some slime off of his forearm, squishes it into a ball, then he hands it to Beef. Fresh slime ball; now with an added blue color! Jevin snickers and rolls his sleeve back down, turning around to Wels. Beef needed the slime to make a lead to grab a chicken he saw running around.

"Wels, I'm gonna go to the forest for extra wood! Don't feel like checking the shopping district, too out in the open," Jev's voice gets quieter as he walks to a nearby forest. He thinks he hears Wels' confirmation that he heard, but Jevin doesn't stay within earshot to check.

Jevin wanders away, clumsily twirling around his axe—if you ask him later, he will probably say he twirled it perfectly, but no one was there to see. He makes quick work of an oak tree, trying to ignore how his slime jiggles with every swing. It's annoying, but Jevin has gotten used to the bothersome "treats" that come with his blue slime body.

    Jev's communicator buzzes in his pocket and he curiously stops attacking trees to pull it out—who's sending messages? Jevin frowns as he looks through the world chat and his private messages, but there's no new notification, not even from the server in response to something that Joe might have done to the code. So his communicator is just buzzing to buzz now?

    Jevin flicks the short antenna on the device, sending a drop of slime flying, and studies the screen as it buzzes again. Something's wrong with it, obviously.

    Jevin is about to shove his blue communicator deep into his pocket to forget about the device for an hour, but his communicator aggressively buzzes at him and it's screen flashes white, then pulses with an odd greenish-purple-y color.

A honey-like voice comes out of the little speakers on the device, making him drop his communicator. Jevin's eyes widen as what looks like a green light pushes out of the screen, its form quickly growing taller.

    "Oh hell," Jevin mutters as his borrowed bones suddenly feel odd, and unstable in his slime and it feels like a cold hand is grabbing at his throat and mind.

꒷︶꒷꒥꒷✦༺ b l u e  d u c k s ༻✦꒷︶꒷꒥꒷

    "Beef, is Jevs with you?" Wels calls to the brunette, jogging over to him and glancing around.

    "No?" Beef hums, pulling at his apron subconsciously, "I think I heard him shout something about wood a while ago."

    "I'll message him, we should get going to yours so we can be back by dinner," Wels says, already pulling out his communicator, deciding to start with a whisper to Jevin.

[You whisper to iJevin: hey Jevs, where'd you go? Come back we need to go]

    Wels waits with Beef for a few moments, the knight tapping his foot in the grass while he waits. Beefs answers his impatience first and asks, "Did he respond?"

"No." Wels stares at the message, Jevin doesn't usually respond immediately to a message, either to make sure people don't know when he is available, because he is ignoring buzzes, or because he is actually occupied. "Might as well start looking for him, though."

    The two set off—after some consideration—towards a nearby grove of trees that they thought Jevin might have gone to. Beef takes a few bigger steps to get ahead of Wels and cups his hands around his mouth, inhaling a quiet short breath.

    "IJEVIN! You in here?!" Beef shouts into the forest.

They walk for a while longer, Beef occasionally shouting into the dark forest—how thick are the branches and leaves?—to see if Jevin will hear them first and then travel back. Then Beef stops, making Wels stop too, and listens.

A slosh sound followed by rustling of the leaves sounds nearby, and Wels perks up. Clearly that sound was the missing slime? Jevin's voice confirms his thought, but it sounds off.

"Hey! Come here!" A pause, some hesitation, and Beef glances at Wels with confusion clearly lining his face. "...Beef! Wels!"

"Is he trapped?" Beef wonders, already starting towards the overgrown foliage.

Not unless one of his bones is missing or broken, Wels thinks but doesn't say, instead trudging after Beef in his still heavy boots.

"Jevin.?" Beef calls, stepping into a line of sunlight, chopped down trees around him. Wels is right behind him.

A bit of shimmery blue slime is on the floor, along with Jevin's communicator, buzzing and sparking and coated in a thin layer of slime. Wels nervously walks ahead of Beef, towards the communicator—why did Jevin leave it?

Beef turns away from Wels as he hears another rustle, straining his ears to listen for the sound. He sees a flash of muted bright green, and the shine of a netherite axe, and his eyes widen as he's suddenly being attacked.

"Hi! Which one are you? Wels or Beef?" Jevin's body drawls quietly for only Beef to hear, slurring a few words. His body is dripping green slime—not blue, Beef's startled mind registers and panics even more—as if his mind is too weak to uphold the form of his slime properly.

Beef lets out a startled scream as an answer as Jevin's axe comes down on him and he just barely turns his head enough to avoid it. Wels immediately hears and turns around, sword quickly unsheathed and poised.

    Beef shoves Jevin off him, cringing as some of the green slime goes flying. "Beef!" Wels shouts running towards the brunette, glaring at the green Jevin.

"Beef?" Not-Jevin echoes rising himself up and watching Wels and Beef with lime green sunken bulb-like eyes in his slime instead of black ones. "Noted."

Wels tenses, because, one; Jevin is clearly possessed in front of him. And two; since when did possessed Hermits show any emotion besides anger or indifference?! Let alone speak other than grumbles or insults? This possession is different from last time. Advanced somehow.

Jevin lunges, stretching out his slime body to pull himself closer to the other two quicker. Beef flinches to the side, trying to pull Wels with him but failing when Jevin grips onto the knight's dark grey undershirt—his steel chest plate discarded into a shulker box for 'stealth'.

"So, Wels?" Jevin questions, grinning an unsettling droopy grin at the terrified knight as he blocks his axe with his sword.

"Jevin-" Wels inhales sharply, blood spilling down his cheek as Jevin slips his axe over his sword to cut his face.

Wels swings his sword, effectively slicing off the fabric of Jevin's hoodie and cutting through green slime. He hears the clang of bone against the sword, but Wels can't bring himself to put more force and break a part of what holds his friend together.

    Jevin rolls away, staring at his shoulder. Wels pulls himself to his knees and watches Jevin stare at the chip to his slime, carefully willing slime to reform that area. "A slime body.." Jevin mutters, his now lime green eyes shining. "Great."

    Wels stands up as Jevin pushes himself off the ground, and he feels Beef grab him from behind, dragging him a few blocks and back into the forest. "Beef-!" Wels starts, but Beef's gloved hand clamps over his mouth as he drags them into the bushes.

    "Shh," Beef glares at Wels with nervous—thankfully—dark blue eyes. "If we just hide maybe he'll lose interest?"

"He'll find us right here, Beef," Wels hisses, dropping his voice to be quieter and pushing Beef's hand away.

"Then dig," Beef tells him, pulling out a shovel.

Wels huffs, but complies and pulls out a shovel himself to dig down. Once the two make it down far enough Beef covers behind them with dirt, effectively blocking the hole and leaving them in darkness. Wels feels Beef leaning closer to him—probably as a comfort—but neither of them speak.

Wels' heartbeat echoes in his ears as he slumps against the dirt wall they've dug out, every little noise always seems too loud when you're hiding. His and Beef's breathing, small clumps of dirt collapsing, the questioning buzzes of Wels' and Beef's communicator—Jevin's is still put in the clearing—is all too loud.

Yet, over all the noise, Wels can hear the exact moment Beef's breath hitches and the slosh sound of Jevin's slime is right above them. He closes his eyes, hoping for Jevin to pass them by and lose interest—like Beef said—so they didn't have to hurt him.

Jevin's boot thumps against the ground and he swears, making Wels flinch. There's no sound for a moment, then the thumps go a different direction and Jevin says something. The sound is almost too soft and muffled for Wels to hear. "Echo would want the communicator destroyed..." and the rest is too far for Wels to make out.

Wels opens his eyes and internally groans—he forgot to pick up Jevin's communicator. Light sparks up between Beef and Wels, a torch being held by the former. Beef gives Wels a confused look and, with a glance up at the dirt, he pulls out his communicator to type something out.

Wels hears the soft buzz from his communicator a moment later, and he pulls it out carefully. Ignoring the world chat messages, he focuses on the one Beef sent.

[VintageBeef whispered to you: Who's Echo?]

Wels' eyebrows furrow—he has no clue who Echo is. He types out a quick message to Beef, and he almost winces as he hears a distant crunch of metal. Jevin's communicator is broken now, he assumes.

[You whisper to VintageBeef: idk..]

Realization shoots across Beef's face and he looks up at Wels with wide eyes. It takes what feels like forever before Beef sends another whisper to Wels, and he glances down at the bright screen of his communicator.

[VintageBeef whispered to you: Is Echo the one who possessed Jevin? And everyone else last time?]

Wels' own eyes widen as Beef takes another few seconds to type another few messages. Wels already knows what Beef is going to type next, though.

[VintageBeef whispered to you: I think the Entity got a name, Wels.]

[VintageBeef whispered to you: It's name is Echo now]

꒷︶꒷꒥꒷✦༺ w e t  b l a n k e t ༻✦꒷︶꒷꒥꒷

<joehillssays> Wels, Beef, Jevin, are you on your way back?

<joehillssays> guys I made Joel set aside a place for you to stay, you three'll have to share though

<joehillsays> Food is almost done.

[joehillssays whispered to you: WELS. Are y'all on your way back?]

<joehillssays> I'm getting worried, are you okay?

[joehillssays whispered to you: wels please respond]

[joehillssays whispered to you: im worried]

<Docm77> Beef why arent you responding?

<Docm77> Joe's panicking

<Docm77> Wels. Beef! Jevin??

<ZombieCleo> ANSWER YOUR DAMN COMMUNICATORS

<ZombieCleo> YOU HAVE EVERYONE STRESSED

    Scrolling down the concerned list of messages in the chat log, Wels feels bad. Poor Joe. He looks up when Beef tugs at his arm, seeing the bright lights from the cyberpunk part of Joel's base. Beef tugs on the lead with the chicken and walks forward without Wels—Beef went back for the chicken before the two left, on foot, back to Joel's base. They never got to go to Beef's base.

    Beef clings to the lead like a life line as he hops up the black-stone stairs and through the Tori gate, Wels right behind him and shoving his communicator away. Neither of them have responded to the messages. When they finally checked the chat log they were in Impulse's city, so they thought there wasn't much of a point in doing so.

    "Hello?" Beef calls out once he reaches the top, easing the chicken in front of him and looking around. "Anyone nearby?"

    Wels clomps up beside him and they walk into Joel's city, where no one is wandering aimlessly anymore. Wels assumes they're all eating somewhere together, considering the talk of good in the world chat. "GUYS!" Wels shouts louder than Beef did—he'd rather them find him and Beef then have to wander the streets of Joel's city.

    It takes no less than two seconds, Wels assumes, before a pounding sound echoes through the city. Hermits running through the city, Wels thinks. False swoops in first, flying over a building and almost crash landing on top of Beef's chicken.

    "You guys are idiots," False glares worriedly as she stands up straight. Beef smiles apologetically as she walks up to them and studies their dirty clothes and Wels' cheek, which still has blood running down it.

     A flood of Hermits follows soon after, and Joe clangs against Wels' armored shin—Wels isn't sure if Joe is hugging it or attacking it, either way he doesn't mind. "Where were you?!" The Muppet asks, but a flood of other voices interrupts any of the two's replies.

    "Oh, what happened to your face?" Keralis questions, grabbing Wels' face gently and turning it to see better.

    "You're bleeding!" Stress worries, standing beside Keralis.

    "Why weren't you answering your messages?" Doc asks, more so to Beef, as he studies the two.

    "Why're you so dirty?" Wels barely makes out Mumbo's concerned voice.

    "Where is Jevin?" Hypno's question comes out clearest in Wels' ears, and he pulls his head out of Keralis' hold to look at the man.

    Hypno looks a bit frightened, and he's trying to look over Doc's shoulder—an almost impossible task, considering the hybrid's height—to spot the slime among the group. Wels stares at him, Beef stiffens, and suddenly the concerned voices and questions of the other Hermits cuts off.

    Doc lets Hypno push him to the side, and he repeats his question. "Where is Jevin.? Beef, Wels?"

    Beef opens his mouth to respond, but he soon closes it, clearly not knowing how to answer. Hypno waits, a bit of desperation leaking into his dark eyes. Wels cuts in with a simple answer after Beef's second attempt, wanting to get the bad news over with. Rip off the bandaid, y'know?

    "Possessed." Wels answers flatly, watching Hypno's expression fall.

    "What?" xB's voice breaks the silence, and the uproar restarts.

    "Did ya see him?" Pearl's voice asks.

    "The Entity found you!" Zedaph's panicked voice almost squeaks. 

    All of their voices are just detached sound, and Wels can barely comprehend what they're saying. He wants to answer their questions, really, but it's getting harder to even put a name to each voice as everyone's panic floods his ears.

    "SHHH!" Cleo hisses, breaking through the crowd of Hermits to stand in front of Beef and Wels. "Tell us what happened."

    "He wandered off, and when Beef and I went to find him he attacked us. We hid in a hole until he lost interest and went away," Wels answers quickly and briefly.

    Joe pulls on Cleo's striped sock and she bends down to pick him up and bring his Muppet form to eye level. "He's gone.? Possessed?"

    Beef nods in answer, frowning as his eyes fill with regret. Joe slumps and reaches out to cling to Cleo's shirt. Wels thinks he looks like a disappointed child in Cleo's arms. "So it's real. This is actually happenin'. The Entity is back."

    "Echo," Beef mumbles, making Doc's eyebrows furrow as he leans closer to Beef to hear better.

    Beef notices this and raises his voice. "Echo." he repeats, "Jevin said the name. I.. I think it's the Entity's name."

    "Echo.." Wels glances behind him to see Joel, the new Hermit is gripping his left wrist tightly and he looks unfocused. Like he's lost in his head.

    Wels' arm is grabbed suddenly, and he looks away from Joel, turning to see Stress and Keralis regarding him worriedly. "You're hurt, Angel Face. Let's get you fixed up, ya?"

    Wels is pulled out of the swarm of Hermits, glancing back once to see Doc handing Beef some food before they turn a corner and are out of sight. "Let's get you fixed up." Keralis mumbles again, watching Stress move ahead of them to get supplies.

    Wels nods and blinks heavily. He didn't realize how tired he was. Stress will lead him to a bed, and he can sleep. And he can escape to the blissful unawareness of a gentle rest.

    In dreamland—or the dark void of a dreamless sleep, Wels doesn't know which will claim him—everything will be fine, maybe a bit crazy, but fine nevertheless. He can forget about the troubles of the real world for the night, get some sleep, and figure out how to get Jevin back after.

    Sounds like a plan, Wels thinks, wincing a bit as Stress taps his cheek with a small cloth.

꒷︶꒷꒥꒷✦༺ s p o n g e b o b ༻✦꒷︶꒷꒥꒷

And that's the chapter! I really liked writing this one! I had fun.
Happy Halloween readers :].

4078 words

Oh! And check the description. There should be something new ;).