Xisuma frowned as he took in the state of the shopping district. Roofs torn away by the 70 kilometer per hour wind and structures smoldering with fire from lightning; stock destroyed - the shopping district was not looking good.

He turned to the hermits. "Alright, guys, let's start rebuilding everything." The admin hoisted his pickaxe up to his shoulder just as Grian floated down from the sky. "Ah, Grian, just in time." Xisuma said, smiling. "We're going to rebuild the shopping district."

"Right."

Foolish watched as the hermits started to get to work. Placing down the shulker boxes they seemed to carry around everywhere, using their building materials to tower up and reach the higher places... the flow they had while building was fascinating to him. Even Grian, who was in charge of the highest damages, was fluttering around like a busy bee, showing no sign of being unnerved from their encounter an hour ago.

Xisuma, the admin of the server, sighed as he walked past Foolish. "The town hall is destroyed, we'll have to rebuild the entire thing. I wonder who I can ask..."

Foolish's eyebrows raised as he recognized an opportunity. Grian and I were just debating about who should keep Peanut Butter. This could settle it, once and for all.

Jerking himself out of his thoughts, Foolish hurried forwards, catching up with Xisuma just as the latter reached Grian. "Grian, I need you to take a look at the town hall." Xisuma called.

Grian glanced down at Xisuma and Foolish and nodded, handing the concrete block he was holding to Mumbo before landing in front of the admin. "Alright, X. Foolish, are you coming with us?"

Foolish smiled faintly as Xisuma turned sharply, having not noticed him before. "Yeah, I'll tag along." Foolish said lightly.

The three of them hassled towards what remained of the town hall. Foolish had never seen it before, but the brick-and-sandstone building was definitely not in its original state. The entire left half of the building was torn away, by wind or struck down by lightning, he did not know, but a little bit of guilt resonated within Foolish as he realized that he might have been the cause of the storm.

After all, he was the god of lightning.

"What do you think?" Foolish was pulled out of his thoughts again at Xisuma's voice.

Grian frowned as he landed beside them. "We might have to rebuild the entire thing. It'll be easier to tear it down and rebuild it than to copy the whole right side down, and the storm has revealed some of the building's weaknesses." The avian sighed. "It's such a big project, though, and Scar and Bdubs might be busy..."

"I can help." Foolish cut in, finally finding his opportunity. "Actually, I've been meaning to bring this up to you, Grian."

~~~

"A build battle?" Wilbur repeated, eyes wide.

"It's a good suggestion, I must admit." Grian said. "And this way, we'll figure out who gets to keep Peanut Butter."

"So you'll each build one side of the town hall, and the people will decide which side they like better?" Tommy asked, trying to make sense of the competition.

"Basically, yeah." Grian said.

"When is it?" Phil asked. "And can we help?"

"Tomorrow, and unfortunately, no." Grian started to rummage through his box of blocks. "It's just me and Foolish."

~~~

Wilbur watched in awe as Grian fluttered around his half of the building, placing blocks aesthetically. He was amazed by the rate that the avian worked, the building rising from the ground up.

Tommy, being the little gremlin child he was, got bored and started whining, but Wilbur stayed put.

"Can I please have some?" Tommy whined.

"No, you can't." Philza began, but Tommy kept going.

"But why? Phillllllllllllllllllllll, can't I pleaseeeeee have some?"

"You can't, Tommy, it's pure sugar!"

"It's happiness in a bucket!" Tommy complained.

"It's diabetes in a bucket!" Phil retorted.

"Hey!" Techno shouted, and Wilbur ducked as a bucket of cotton candy came flying. His twin held seven or eight tins of cotton candy in his arms, somehow holding them all in place as he came running.

Tommy caught the tin that flew over Wilbur's head. In front of Phil, he opened the can and started digging his little gremlin fingers into the pure sugar.

Wilbur took a bucket for himself too and slowly chipped away the cotton candy while watching Grian place blocks. Seems boring, but it was fun.

Grian continued to work until noon, and surprisingly, had almost finished the entire build by the time it was lunch. "You guys sure work fast." Techno remarked as the family sat down to eat, Tommy excluded because he had already stuffed himself full with several buckets of diabetes.

"Thanks." Grian replied. "Gosh, I am starving. Can I have some golden carrots?"

~~~

Xisuma blinked, in thought, as he examined the town hall. It was split half down the middle, leaving an obvious joining between the two building styles.

Foolish had chosen a simple template that followed the themes of his home, full of sandstone, smooth sandstone, and anything in between. Emerald bits - not full on blocks, surprisingly, were everywhere, mimicking the color palette of his base.

Grian, however, had gone much bolder with a futuristic build. His half of the build was higher than Foolish's - he had finished more - but Foolish's build felt more complete than Grian's, which was just a bunch of glass and concrete for now. It gave Xisuma traumatic flashbacks to the civil war. Xisuma was seriously concerned for Grian. His base was mega enough, but it really did look like a cake. Or a mixer. Or whatever the heck it was.

Well, we'll see who wins. Xisuma sighed and let the builders continue with their course.

~~~

The late afternoon sun shone down on Grian, making his rainbow wings glow. Secretly, Grian was glad of the sun. Building in the rain was never fun, and he will always have flashbacks to the war if he flew in the rain. Even though the sun could be blinding sometimes and didn't give him a good sense of light and lighting, it was better than pouring rain.

Great, now I'm ranting on about the weather. Grian thought, shaking off his thoughts as he picked up his shulker box, prepared to engage in the building war once more.

He listened to the sound of block-placing all afternoon, enjoying the way the sound changed based on the block he chose. Grian had to constantly remind himself to change to the right block and focus on the build.

The competition was over faster than he expected, or maybe that was just because he had been so concentrated on the building part, so he hadn't noticed the time passing so fast. Grian stretched out his wings and raised his arms in a normal stretch before hopping down to the ground and getting patted on the back by Wilbur, who was the only one left to watch him.

"Where's Tommy?" Grian asked, eyeing the stack of empty cotton candy tins in Wilbur's hand with curiosity.

"Went home." Wilbur said. "Wanted his custard biscuits."

Grian sighed fondly. "Of course he did."

"What's this about custard biscuits I hear?" Xisuma asked, and Grian jumped a little in surprise at the silent approach of the admin. "Oh, you finished, G?" He turned to look at the build. "That's great. I suppose I'll have to put together a panel of judges faster than I expected. Hmmmm..."

Xisuma trailed off thoughtfully, but Grian was in shock. "X! You haven't picked out the judges yet?! X!!!!"

"Nope."

Grian sighed again, but Wilbur smiled. "Come on, G, let's go home."

a/n: yes. i am back after 10 months with a very low quality chapter. goodbye.