<TW> mention of possession, missing persons, mention of weapons,

<CW> angst, fear, summary of first book

:)

This is made in collaboration with Roxy-Rox0!!

꒷︶꒷꒥꒷✦༺ b e a n s ༻✦꒷︶꒷꒥꒷

<joehillssays> hey guys, meet me at BDubs' courthouse.

<impulseSV> Something wrong?

<Renthedog> ooh whos suing who this time?

<GeminiTay> Sure! I want to show X something I found anyway

<GoodtimewithScar> aww jury duty!?

<joehillssays> about that.. well, just get here quick!

<Smallishbeans> Sure

Joel shoves his communicator into a large pocket inside of his leather tunic vest, ignoring the little buzzes of other Hermits replying to Joe's request. Joel hops over gaps in his Cyberpunk-Japanese themed city, gradually making his way towards one of the many—mostly unintentional—exits from the city's skyscrapers. Specifically the main entrance/exit, the tori gate.

    "To the courthouse I guess," Joel mutters to himself, running into the doorway to Impulse's base before using a few rockets to fly over the walled-in city.

    Joel lands and decides to walk the rest of the way through the partially cut down forest, not wanting to waste anymore of his precious rockets—the shopping district isn't that far, he can make it, easy peasy. He puts his hands behind his head, one resting there and the other gently tugging and feeling his brown hair. Not for any reason in particular, definitely not.

    Joel huffs and shoves his hands into the small pockets of his vest instead, deciding to ignore the tickle of his hair against his neck. Joel focuses on the thumping of his shoes and the green around him instead, as a distraction.

Something else grabs Joel's attention, however, when he spots a light in between two yet to be cut down trees. It looks green, so it can't be a torch, but it's too high and cut off to be a fire, and too bright to be a lamp. Joel stops walking to stare, now noticing the little light is getting brighter and moving closer.

Joel's eyes widen as a lime green orb flys by him, slowing for only a moment to pass by and ignore him. Joel's eyebrows furrow, he knew that magic orb. It looked so similar to..

Joel shakes his head, pinches his arm and pulls out his remaining rockets. He decides to fly the rest of the way to the grand courthouse BDubs made two months ago.

꒷︶꒷꒥꒷✦༺ j e r e m y ༻✦꒷︶꒷꒥꒷

Joel lands, almost twists his ankle right in front of Scar and Skizz—both of whom snicker at his awkward landing, though Skizz, being the kind man he is, does make sure he's okay—and quickly gets to his feet. Brushing at his thighs to rid his trousers of any annoying specks of dirt, he looks up and sees BDubs' large stone courthouse. "Come on Skizz, let's go inside," Joel tells the absolutely nicer and better of the scarred men and pats Skizz's arm.

    "I'm right here too!" Scar exclaims, walking after Skizz and Joel when they start towards the courthouse.

    "Skizz helped me, so I'm choosing to ignore your existence!" Joel says, as if he is stating the obvious.

"I'm hurt," Scar puts a hand over his heart dramatically.

"And I'm honored!" Skizz grins as they enter.

    Joel's eyes dart around the dimly lit main room, and Skizz leads him to another room. This one is brighter, with cameras around and rows of low wooden seats for jurors and spectators. This room is full of Hermits, with muppet Joe standing on BDubs's high judge chair—he looks nervous.

    Joel immediately notices Grian's lateness, scoffing to himself—after making sure Scar and Skizz weren't facing him so that they didn't think he was angry at them. He sits next to Impulse, Scar on his other side, and Skizz scooting around them to sit beside Impulse. Joel registers Zedaph sitting beside Skizz, and Gem, Tango, and Pearl whispering about something in the row in front of him, but Joe groaning and knocking his soft head against where the gavel should hit got everyone's attention.

"Joe!" Cleo shouts, glaring at the little blue man with some worry.

"Sorry, needed to get y'all's attention and-" Joe sighs and pulls out his communicator, pressing a few buttons before he grows back to his normal height and his fabric becomes skin again, his glamour gone. "That's better.."

Joe pulls on his hair and looks down at the crowd of Hermits. "Grian, BDubs, and Etho aren't here.. dang it.."

"Joe, tell us, what's wrong?" Stress stares up at Joe from her spot beside Iskall and False.

"Well.." Joe takes a deep breath and leans forward, fixing his glasses on his face. "X is gone. Keralis foun' his chest plate on the ground with a broken pack, and he couldn't find X anywhere."

    Joel bites his lip, that can't be good, can it? The admin missing? Joe hesitates, his eyes traveling over all of the now worried Hermits, his gaze lingering on a select few.

    Joe says, "And now I think Grian, Etho, and BDubs are also missin'.. and I-I," Joe looks at his communicator, "I'm stand in admin, and I saw this trouble in the code. I was practically hiding in the depths of X's base when this happened, but I know the code error. I had to help X with it when he got really tired last time-"

    "Sweet face, you're rambling," says Keralis, Joel has a hunch that Keralis already knows what ever it is Joe needs to say.

    "I think the Entity is back on Hermitcraft and that it took X and the others," Joe finally announces in a jumbled rush, Joel's about to ask what he means when the shouting starts.

    "WHAT?!" Scar yells in a tone Joel's only heard in the Life Series, standing up so quickly he wobbles and Mumbo has to stand as well and come over to stable him. Joel flinches and his head snaps to his side and he notices Mumbo's shaking—what has caused that?

    "You're kidding!" Gem partially laughs, clutching something tightly to her chest—her shoulders are shaking too.

    "I-I wish I was! But I looked at the code records X set up for me a while ago, and the code was green yesterday." Joe pulls at his hair again as Cleo quietly walks up to him and pats his shoulder.

    The room is hysterical, Joel decides as he grips the sides of his arms too tightly to be good. Zedaph beside him looks like he either wants to run or curl up and break down—maybe both. Skizz is looking around worriedly and rubbing Impulse's back and reaching out a hand to Zedaph, unsure whether to comfort the goat hybrid or not. Doc seems un-computing, Iskall looks like he has Stress's hand in a death grip, Ren's ears are pinned back and he's staring at his lap in horror. What is going on?!

    Joel's eye twitches—an annoying tic that Joel will probably obsess over later—and he clenches his teeth, grabbing the back of the row in front of him and hauling himself to his feet. "Alright, everybody SHUT UP!" Joel booms and the room listens, thankfully—except for Zedaph's panicked muttering, but that's fine. "Can someone tell me and Skizz what the hell you're freaking out about?"

"Oh, you guys weren't there." Scar mutters as if it is a revelation that Joel and Skizz just came this season.

Joel bites back a sarcastic remark, knowing it isn't appropriate, and nods. Cub thankfully isn't all panicked and starts to explain to Joel and Skizz, though he stays standing beside Ren and staring at the dog hybrid.

    "Around two years ago, X found a glitch in the world code. It was the Entity—a magical green creature that can possess people with its voice." Joel stiffens at the description and sets his jaw, Skizz turns his head towards Cub and the two new Hermits listen intently.

    Cub continues. "It got Grian and Etho first, and they started attacking and spying on us all. Impulse and Mumbo got transported right to the Entity with some spell, they got possessed too. It tormented Zedaph basically the entire time it was here, and even forced him to lead Doc into its hands. It trapped Ren. Almost killed Etho, Grian, and BDubs. Attacked X, Iskall, Gem, and I—possessing Gem and Iskall. Forced Mumbo to almost kill Scar, and Doc to attack Grian and Scar. Possessed Pearl.. it all finally ended when Grian got some Watchers to pick the Entity up and take it away."

Joel's eyes widen, and his expression stays frozen in shock for a while. It's a simplified summary, but basing on reactions from other Hermits it was horrible. Skizz makes a choked sound and Joel notices him hugging Impulse closer, and his hand finally settles on Zedaph's arm. "Basically the Entity possessed, tormented, and traumatised the majority of the Hermits." Cub summarises his summary.

Joel feels a bit sick, in all honesty, but all he can manage to say is a small "oh." That's certainly a past.

"Yeah," Joe swallows and speaks again anxiously, Cleo right beside him picking at knots in his hair obsessively. "That's about it. And now four people are missing, and there's a possibility it's because the Entity is back."

    "Uh, Joe, I told you I needed to show X something.?" Gem whispers loudly, Joel can barely hear her, and he's right behind her. Joe nods anyway, though. "I found Grian's communicator. By his docks, it had his fishing rod thrown beside it and was almost falling in the water. Fish were peeking out to see it."

    Gem holds up the device and Joel hears Scar mumble something before he's shushed by Mumbo. Grian's communicator is worn and loved, with a few faded scribbled doodles on it and a bright permit office sticker on the side. The screen is cracked—not horribly, but still broken—and it had probably been caused from Grian dropping it one or two too many times.

    "I didn't find Shashwam's communicator," Keralis tells everyone mournfully, his hands are knotted in his hair, but thankfully not pulling—yet.

"That's gonna bite us in back later, isn't it?" False crosses her arms and glares at the ground in front of her.

"Gem, please give me Grian's communicator," Joe asks, purposefully trying to act like he didn't hear False's comment.

Joel pulls at his sleeves as Gem slides out of her seat, leaving Tango and Pearl behind. Joel stops trying to follow what everyone is doing then, it's too difficult with all of the different actions and emotions. He instead lets himself get lost in his processing head.

    First thing to process: his friends are missing. Grian's communicator was found by Gem. What happened to them? They—Joel—will know if they die, right? That's how the code works? What if their respawn doesn't work because of wherever the 'Entity' took them? Stupid name—Entity. Is it even a name? Or is it a title?

Next thing to process: this Entity guy that has everyone freaked out. Are they a guy? Or simply what their name implies—an entity. They can possess people, right? Withe their voice, Cub said? Just like- Joel bites the inside of his lip to stop his thoughts from going farther. He didn't even realise it, but Joel had reached out to Scar while he was lost in his thoughts. Scar now has a hold on Joel's wrist, and Joel wonders if the man remembers Joel telling him he didn't like people or things touching his hands.

    Joel instantly feels a burst of anger, the Entity hurt these people. These kind people like Scar, and Grian, and Gem. Sure, they can be annoying—really annoying—but they don't deserve to be tormented. The Hermits don't deserve that pain. Joel's other hand clenches into a fist.

    Joel curiously, stupidly, wants to meet this Entity. How would that go? Joel'd just get himself hurt, probably. He'd lash out, and then the chain events of stupid anger would ensue. Maybe Joel wants that to happen, if only to rid himself of the small heaviness that's been creeping up on him.

Joel's eyelids drop and he focuses on his knees—he doesn't really register his movements, but he feels the headache forming. Before Joel's thoughts can spiral down sinkholes he'd rather not touch at the moment a hand touches his shoulder, snapping him back to reality and startling him.

Joel looks at Gem and calms himself with a deep breath. "Hey, meeting's done. Joe said to return to our bases or group together for now, he'll figure something else out for a place for everyone to stay," Gem tells him and grips his shoulder harder.

"Alright," Joel mutters and raises to his feet, brushing at his thighs—letting Gem keep her hand where it is.

    Joel lets Gem guide him out, catching a glance of Joe. The man isn't a man anymore—again—, and has gone back to his blue Muppet form, sitting in Doc's arms while typing away on his communicator. How Doc ended up holding Joe, Joel has no clue. Keralis and Hypno are with the two.

    Gem pushes Joel out of sight and he refocuses on the task of walking with her. "Is it all right if I stay with you? I can see Grian's base from mine, and it'll just be.. odd to not see him there as usual." Gem asks Joel as she straps on her elytra and grabs fireworks to get ready for take off.

    "Yeah, o' course you can," Joel tells her, staring at his remaining fireworks—they'll be enough, he thinks. "Just don't go flippin' all of my blummin' trapdoors!"

    Gem laughs and fires a firework, shooting into the air with a little hop. Joel smiles to himself, proud and glad that he could get the laugh out of the younger Hermit after that worrying meeting. He realises he hasn't shot off after Gem, and quickly shoots off to catch up to the ginger.

꒷︶꒷꒥꒷✦༺ w i l d ༻✦꒷︶꒷꒥꒷

    Echo presses another button, their eyebrows shooting up as a list of names and faces appear on the little, slightly cracked screen. They have the admin's communicator, or Xisuma's communicator—if you need names.

    Echo scrolls through the pixelated custom faces for each Hermit, taking note of the familiar looking names and faces. "Rendog"—the dog that knows too much. "Mumbo Jumbo"—one of the first Echo possessed last time, they think. And "ZedaphPlays"—of course Echo remembers him.

    Then there's the two new names: "Smallishbeans" and "SkizzlemanMC". Echo wonders about those two. How are they like? How much do they know? How naive are they? How susceptible to Echo's powers?

    Echo'll find out soon.

꒷︶꒷꒥꒷✦༺ l i f e ༻✦꒷︶꒷꒥꒷

Aye, it's done! See ya in the next one :]

2484 words