Shroud has joined the server!

The arachnid teenager opened his eyes (his main two, plus a few of his smaller ones) to find that he was standing in a large brick building. A bright, teal beacon illuminated the entire first floor with torches mounted on the walls at each of the four entrances and exits. Most of the walls were made with glass windows that showed a sprawling cityscape on all sides. When Shroud touched his fingers against one of the windows, he realized that he was most likely in the middle of the city. All of the buildings must have been built outwards from Spawn. Shroud felt a spike of giddiness race up his spine as he imagined where he would fit in with all the Villagers that meandered in the streets right outside the Spawn building.

"Shroud! You're here! I didn't expect you to come so late. If I had known, I would have told everyone to be here for a proper welcome!" A voice spoke, coming in from the entrance opposite to where Shroud was pressed against the window. Shroud turned his face to see a woman in a green hoodie with her hood pulled over her dirty blonde hair. She was wearing black leggings that defined each of her hard earned muscles, and a shimmering enchanted Netherite axe was placed on her back. The woman raced towards Shroud with a smirk, her emerald green eyes glowing in the light of the beacon. When they were close enough, Drista dragged Shroud into a tight hug. When Drista pulled back, she gave Shroud a once-over look with an infectiously excited smile. "Well, how are you? How's your Dad? He isn't still murdering dogs, is he? When will Michael show up?"

Shroud let a soft laugh escape his body. It had been years since he last seen Drista, a friend of his father's who occasionally visited during the holidays. Even with his memories being that of a child long ago, nothing about Drista had really changed. She had an easy, bubbly confidence about her with an mischievous spark in her unnatural eyes. The only difference Shroud could find was that Drista now carried herself with a sense of responsibility as this world's Admin. There was a tension in her muscles that Shroud felt even beneath her thick hoodie. Shroud hoped he could cheer her up. "I'm pog as hell! Dad went off to his own world to retire, or so he days, adding that I give him, and I quote, so many gray fucking hairs." Drista chuckled at that one. "He hasn't been murdering dogs as far as I'm aware. Michael told me he'd be coming in tomorrow."

"I reckon Tubbo isn't ready to say goodbye, huh?" Drista said with a bittersweet tone that Shroud found himself being startled by. Before he could comment on Drista's melancholic words, Drista was turning towards a wooden ladder in the corner that led up to a trapdoor. Drista slapped the wooden prongs that connected the two poles. "You can sleep up here tonight, but you're on your own tomorrow. This place is protected by strong enchantments, and it will always be a neutral safe-zone. If you cause as much trouble as your Dad in his youth, you'll be welcomed in this building. Everyone who bears the marking of a Player has a room they can customize. But like I said, after tonight, I want you out in the world- exploring, getting resources, making friends, causing a tolerable level of annoyance. I invited you and Michael because I want you to reach new horizons."

"Or, you don't want us in your hair as you run this town? I see how it is. You don't want me staying at your place. Fine. You'll just be the first person I prank," Shroud said with his hands on his hips, a mock expression of hurt morphing into childish glee. Drista sighed but the smile she bore showed she wasn't all that upset. She even seemed to relax at the prospect of some good-natured fun being brought onto her Server.

"Maybe I just don't want you getting comfortable at my place. You were raised by Tommy Innit. Thievery is in your blood. If you weren't clearly a spider hybrid, I would say that you were a raccoon," Drista said with a wink. Drista walked out of the building, leaving Shroud to scramble up the ladder. It wasn't like he needed a ladder since his hybrid genes allowed him to climb onto almost any surface. Shroud had used this ability for good and evil in his lifetime. He gave his father heart attacks on the daily, and Michael was always a tad impressed with the places Shroud could reach. Shroud had seen many amazing angles to every day life using his supernatural skills.

True to what Drista described, the second floor was lined with halls that led into rooms. Each door had wooden sign with a name carved into the surface. Shroud passed each door, his fingers trailing across the carvings. When Shroud came to the near end of the first hallway, his hand pushed against a door, and it swung open slowly with resistance. Shroud blinked in surprise. He looked around to confirm no one was watching before peeking into the room. The name on the door was Lani, and the inside of the room was dark. A sliver of firelight poured in with Shroud's shadow creating a looming figure across the far wall. Caught in the shadow was a bed pressed against the wall. On the bed was a woman with light brown hair spread out across the pillows with her eyes shut. Her hands were folded together on top of the comforter, and she was laid in a straight line. The edges of the bedsheets and comforter were pressed underneath the mattress like someone forgot Lani was in the bed and they made it early in the morning. There was something eerie about the room that set Shroud on edge. It wasn't like Lani was just asleep, he felt like he stepped into a coma patient's hospital room. And with the fresh flowers sitting a vase on Lani's nightstand by the bed.

Shroud closed the door, walking away back down the hall. He continued until he found the room marked with his name. Shroud pushed his door open, stepping inside the dark space. Shroud lit a torch aflame. A reddish orange light filled the room as Shroud lit the candle at his bedside. Shroud pulled the sheets up from the bed, unmaking it within seconds. Shroud sunk into the comforter. He had spent the entire day waiting to come to the Variant SMP, and there he was, his first night in his new home with the promise of his best friend coming the next day. Shroud couldn't be more elated as he closed his eyes for the night.

——

When Shroud came down the ladder to the main floor, he was tackled to the ground immediately. Shroud's surprise gave way to bubbling laughter as he wrestled around with his best friend: Michael_Beloved. When the two of them finally pulled apart to stand on their feet, Shroud was given a proper hug. When the hug broke, Shroud was able to see they wore matching smiles with eyes hungry for adventure. Drista came in a few seconds later to greet Michael with a side-hug because she had been close with Michael's father, Ranboo, in the same way she was with Tommy.

"Alright, boys! Here is the situation! Right now you are in the capital city of the Variant Empire, Shard. This city houses almost every Player along with a multitude of Villagers under different professions. To the west is the Crystalline Ocean, and we have the Fracture Mountains with plains biomes all around the mountains to the east. Venturing northward brings you to the snowy biomes, and we have beaches and deserts to the south. Nobody had really gone past all of these places, but you are welcome to find a suitable place to live. You can join Shard's economy, or tagalong with another village," Drista explained as she handed both of them detailed maps of what has been discovered thus far. Shroud ran his fingers along the golden name printed along the edge of the map that must belong to the cartographer. "I would prefer if you informed me where you choose to settle that way we can update the map. Other than that, you are free to do what you want."

"Let's go!" Michael cheered. Drista gave each of them a pouch of gold coins before sending them on their way. Shroud didn't leave the Spawn building until Drista had disappeared from his line of sight. Michael, more than willing to leave his friend behind, started tugging Shroud to the east where there would have been the Fracture mountains. As they reached the outskirts of Shard, Shroud could see the vague outline of the mountains on the horizon. Michael and Shroud both hesitated at the gate that led out of the city. Villagers called out greetings in their native tongue to other Villagers, guards rotated around the perimeter, and the plains Drista promised would be out there was laid out before them. Shroud found himself grabbing onto Michael's hand as the future loomed over them. Some of the excitement he felt before turned into dread. Michael squeezed his hand with a reassuring smile. "We're going to be alright, Shroud. You and I are going to be making history together."

With those spoken words, both teens took one step forwards without looking back.

——

All things considered, the two didn't make it far from Shard. It was about a day's travel to the neighboring village. Michael went underground to mine for metals while Shroud remained on the surface to chop down wood and build a small home on the outskirts of the village. The more curious Villagers came by, some trying to get the boys to buy something while others offered treats for free. The mayor welcomed them into the village, explaining where all the craftsman and artisans worked, how most Villagers went to church, and about the full moon festivals that were held. Michael, always the diplomatic one, took in the information while engaging in conversation with the mayor. Shroud gagged at the thought as he cleared out the second floor of their house as a shared room until they expanded spatially.

The boys began planning a trip to the mountains on their second day. Michael got an apprenticeship at the forges because of his Nether hybrid genes keeping him from getting too hot or burning. Shroud did any sort of odd job he could get paid for including entertaining children, cleaning an attic, and keeping watch over the perimeter when the old lady who ran the library claimed Mobs would be specially tough. When he wasn't working, Shroud was planning more trips beyond the mountains, and he even wrote a letter to his father about how he was settling in. Shroud and Michael didn't meet any Players in their time at the village, but most Villagers could recall a band of adventurers with the same marking as Shroud and Michael coming through a few weeks prior.

It was one and a half weeks into their stay when they experienced the oppression their new home was under. Evokers, Vindicators, and Pillagers under the banner of the Wendigo faction swarmed around the village. They went in, taking whatever they found value in and destroying what they didn't find any value in. The Villagers merely let it happen, families huddling together while shopkeepers watched their savings get stolen with a crossbow aimed at their face. It was, apparently, a normal occurrence for the Wendigo faction to emerge from the forests in the mountains to steal resources from the nearby villages. They came to this particular village every two weeks or so. The Villagers could have handled their hard work being taken, but the scariest part was that the Illagers normally took people with them to become slaves.

Michael and Shroud didn't stand for it. Michael brought out his axe with an emerald in the butt to show that it was forged by Techno. Shroud had his whip with a kunai in his other hand for close quarters combat. Between the two of them, the small force of raiders were defeated in minutes. It was a byproduct of being trained by Techno, Philza, and Tommy when he got stronger under Sam's tutelage. With the battle won, Shroud and Michael were immediately begged to become the village's guardsmen. The two reluctantly took the gig, but they both knew it was a matter of time before the Wendigo sent a group bigger than the two of them could handle. They needed a more permanent solution. Their answer came in the form of a fox hybrid and his daughter.

——

"Fundy!" Shroud yelled at his cousin with a happy hiss at the end of his sentence. The redhead with fox ears accepted Shroud's hug as the spider hybrid came near him, and soon enough Michael was joining in on the hug. When they pulled apart, it was clear that Fundy had been part of the adventuring group of Players that had passed through the village on their way to the mountain. The other player must have been the teenage girl beside Fundy with white hair but similar fox ears who was also dressed like someone who had ventured up the mountain.

"I didn't expect to find you two here! What's up?" Fundy said as he pulled Yogurt closer to him. The girl huffed in embarrassment, but she returned her dad's half-hug. Shroud knew that Tommy and Fundy had a funny relationship. Somewhere along the line, they had lost touch with one another. It wasn't until Shroud and Yogurt befriended each other that the two's relationship started to mend. Now, Shroud didn't know where Tommy and Fundy stood since he never around them much when Fundy came over. Still, Shroud was close with Fundy, seeing his cousin as something of an older brother figure.

"Moved in a little over two weeks ago. We've taken up a job protecting the village against the Wendigo tribe," Michael answered for them both. Fundy's smile twitched at the mention of the tribe, and Yogurt tail flickered anxiously behind her. Shroud blinked in realization. Fundy and Yogurt had gone up that mountain. It wasn't unlikely that they crossed paths with the Wendigo group. Shroud felt his jaw clenched at the thought of the Wendigo Illagers attacking Fundy and Yogurt. If he wasn't angry before, he was now.

"Nasty group, aren't they? We actually came back from finding a place for Yogurt to stay to check on the villages around here. There is about four that the Wendigo tribe raid on the regular. I've visited the other three, and they don't have any protection against the tribe. I was hoping to find something, but all the villagers are severally underdeveloped. If this village was as bad as the rest, I was going to petition Drista to consider annexing these villages into Shard," Fundy said, rubbing the back of his head in something like embarrassment. Shroud raised an eyebrow at the action, and Yogurt piped up to inform them about what the problem was.

"If the villages are part of Shard, a lot of things will change. They would be forced under Shard's main religion, they would need to give a percentage of their resources to the city, and they would have to change a lot of their laws. Most of these villagers are pretty lax when it comes to taxes and other legal business, but Shard is held in an iron grip by their judicial system," Yogurt said easily. Shroud almost forgot how brilliant Yogurt was. She was a literal, dictionary-definition book-smart genius. When they were children, Yogurt was either the voice of reason or the one who came up with the most elaborate schemes. She was the kind of person who could wait for years to exact revenge on her enemies on the most vile ways possible. She was different from the rest of their group except maybe Rosie, who had the same cutthroat patience.

"I know it's a shit situation all around, but there isn't many options for the villages. They can reform to the ideals of Shard to get protection, or they can continue getting attacked until all of them are slaves," Fundy sighed, hands raised like the three of them would attack him for considering letting the villages exchange their independence for protection. Shroud rubbed his face. He didn't know what they could do since both options were terrible. It was all about the lesser of two evils. Becoming part of Shard would cost them certain religious and legal freedoms, but if Wendigo destroyed the village, their physical health would decline beneath the strain of slavery.

"Or, we can unite the villages under one militia. They can all keep their laws and religions, and the trade off would be that able bodied men and women would be taught how to fight. We can build a central command with a bell tower in the middle of all the villages. When the bell is rung, all the militia members will take up arms against the Wendigo raiders. Shroud and I can teach them how to physically fight. Yogurt can improve the defenses with her brilliant mind. Fundy, we can take volunteers for people to infiltrate Wendigo to gather information and help former Villagers escape slavery," Michael snapped his fingers with a growing smile. "We'll each have a meeting with the mayors of the villages. We can become their saviors."

Fundy seemed hesitant to agree, but Yogurt and Shroud were already discussing plans about what they would do. Fundy finally told them he would join as long as their uniforms weren't the color blue. Yogurt told Fundy with a deadpan expression that they would go with natural greens and browns to blend into the environment. Fundy laughed at that. Together they agreed to become Ground Zero.

——
Info dump:
Tommy - Shroud
Tubbo - Michael
Wilbur - Fundy
Dream - Drista
SapNap - Beautie
George - Lani
Fundy - Yogurt
Philza - Tommy
Technoblade - Rosie
Eret/Jack - Eryn
Sam - Hannah
Schlatt - Tubbo
Quackity - Ranboo
Niki - Michelle (maybe-)

Greater SMP - Variant Empire
L'Manberg - Ground Zero

Motivations will be very different from their original counterparts, obviously. The story won't be the same, either, as you can already tell.

If you have any ideas on characters I haven't already paired, feel free to comment. I haven't placed Finley or Junior anywhere, and I could probably have Endercat join as a cat-person for the lols