Grian stood up, squaring his shoulders and marching to the stairs, one beat of his wings sending him to the top.

"Grian?! Where are you going?" Scar cried in a panic, him and Cub racing after the winged man.

"I'm going to get the other hermits."

"Why? They won't listen," Cub stated.

"They will." Grian's voice was so firm he himself almost believed it. "I'll make them listen. They've let you suffer long enough! They've made it worse! And Evil X is still out there, holding the most powerful tattoo on the server, and we haven't done anything?!"

He was yelling, infuriated by this revelation and the urge to do something about it, finally. He knew what he was going to do- get Mumbo and Iskall- no, Xisuma! Get Xisuma to call a server meeting, and sit every single hermit down and tell them the truth. If they won't listen to Cub and Scar themselves, they'll HAVE to listen to Grian, he's a friend of both sides! And he'll convince them all that Cub and Scar were never the bad guys, and that Evil X is to blame again, and then together they will help the ConCorp duo and give them lots of hugs and get their true powers back and take down the hacker and his pseudo god once and for all!

It made so much sense in Grian's head. So simple, so straightforward. Why hadn't this happened earlier?

Cub was shaking his head. "Grian, we tried to tell the other hermits. But as soon as we did, they got scared. I nearly killed someone, with my powers, they're not going to listen to the villains!"

"You're not the villains, though," Grian's voice was soft now. "You guys are my friends."

That silenced the two. Grian gave them one last strong look and a smile before stepping back and out the ConCorp Country Club entrance before turning around and leaping into the air. From there he started toward the main island, before remembering the Nether portal and wheeling back around to go the much shorter route. One trip through the halfway-built map hub and he was standing in the portal to Xisuma's bass in the ocean.

"Xisumavoid! Where are you? We need to talk!"

"Just a moment!" came the reply almost immediately, faint and muffled but still a response. Grian tapped his foot impatiently. Finally the server admin came out of a tunnel in the wall of the massive pit lined with prismarine.

"Hey, Grian, how can I- woah! You have wings now!" He laughed-exclaimed. "Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Nope. My tattoo doesn't matter right now," Grian brushed that topic to the side.

"Tattoo? Congrats! What then-"

"I know what happened to Cub and Scar and I want to call a meeting to tell everyone."

Xisuma's cheerful face immediately faded. "...have you been talking to them or something? Cub and Scar shouldn't be trusted. They're liars and dangerous with their tattoos and—"

"You don't know them! They told me what really happened and it makes sense! So much more sense than everything you told me!" Grian immediately yelled. He was angry that everyone so easily believed that Cub and Scar weren't good people.

"Have you seen their powers? They're dangerous," X repeated slowly, almost as if trying to talk to a child. Grian narrowed his eyes.

"Your powers are dangerous in the hands of Evil Xisuma, but I haven't seen you try to condemn him for intentionally hurting us with your tattoo."

Xisuma flinched at that, before pausing.

"Wait. How do you know that? Evil X stole my tattoo and then went off the grid. I haven't even been able to find him with my normal console."

Grian's warm brown gaze was even as he met Xisuma's eyes behind his purple visor.

"I know because he's the one that hurt Cub and Scar. You fell right into his trap."

He saw the admin's resolution flicker. Maybe there was some sort of reason in X. Maybe he did remember the old Cub and Scar and knew the atrocities of his evil clone.

"Please, Xisuma. Just for once, listen to me. And them. Get the other hermits, and let me explain. There's a lot more at stake here than it looks. Please!" Grian pleaded.

Xisuma closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before squaring his shoulders with his arms crossed.

"Alright."

Grian stopped in the monologue he was preparing. Xisuma gave him a firm stare.

"I will go grab some of the other hermits that aren't too busy, and we will listen to what you have to say. I want Cub and Scar to be there as well. Meet me at the spawn island in half an hour."

Grian barely even gave an acknowledgement as he was already icing a quick flap of his wings to launch him toward the Nether portal and rush back to ConCorp.

He sent the ConVex a message each and they met in the flat netherrack plains of the work-in-progress Nether Hub. It was long overdue, but not many people worked on it. Joe used his speed powers for most of it and Cub tried to help out when no one was around, but it was still an incredibly slow process to clear the area for the to-scale map they had come up with.

"You got Xisuma to listen?" Cub asked in genuine surprise. Grian nodded.

"Yeah. Haven't sold him yet but he got some of the other hermits to come and listen."

Scar was grinning from ear to ear. "This is gonna be amazing!"

Cub didn't quite looked convinced at the other two's optimism, but Grian grabbed his hand, pulling him along and laughing.

"We'll be fine! All we have to do is prove Evil X really is evil, which we all know already, and they'll believe us and we can figure this all out as a group again!"

The three went through the portal to the spawn island (another area that needed a lot of love and to which Scar looked pained to think about for some reason) and they found a new construction- an extended platform filled mostly long, spruce table with chairs set around and a light blue woolen canopy shading the platform with the signature color of the outcasts.

Heads immediately turned to the trio as they came through the portal. Xisuma, Rendog, Mumbo and Iskall, Cleo, Tango. Ren's tail was swishing anxiously, his ears laying flat on his head with a concerned expression. Mumbo lit up at the sight of Grian, before morphing to immediately concerned as he lay eyes on the strawberry blonde's companions. Iskall was giving them a death glare. Tango was neutral through the entrance, but his tension almost gave a way a sort of confliction at seeing the ConVex.

"Nice wings, Grian," Ren noted, seemingly trying to focus more on that than the other newcomers.

"What are they doing here?" Cleo asked with a slight amount of venom.

Scar backed up a step, shifting slightly to hover behind Cub. Grian couldn't see Cub, but he assumed the scientist was giving the gathered hermits a rather cold look.

Grian smiled and waved, feeling somewhat fake as he did so. "Hello everyone! Thank you for coming," he started easily. Xisuma met his gaze and gave a small, harsh nod with his arms crossed.

Grian gulped. Even X didn't fully believe in him. And he had thought he was going to be one of the easier people to convince. Doubt flooded his mind as he shrunk, bringing in his shoulders and wings that had been hiding Cub and Scar somewhat as the ingrained feeling of self-consciousness with these people returned.

"You see, the reason I asked X to call a meeting- is that I think- uh, I think..."

For Cub. For Scar. Right.

Grian took a deep breath, recentering himself and his motivation. He opened his eyes and looked at every single hermit, lastly glancing over his shoulder at the two he was defending.

"It's not often that I speak up. But please, listen to me. What you all think about the two behind me? Cubfan and GoodTimesWithScar? You're wrong. They're not the enemy here. We need to help them, not make them into... not make them victims more than they already are at the hands of Evil Xisuma!"

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Word count: 1400

I know I said I was gonna make a separate book for Tattoo AU, but we'll see?

Also btw, some things on the Tattoo AU Notes are outdated. They haven't shown up yet, and I don't know when they will, but I hope eventually they will show up eventually?