Chapter Text
After the moon incident, Grian's secret came out. It had been partially his fault anyways so it only seemed fair that they knew.
All of hermitcraft knew of Grian's Watcher origins, but not many cared. He was still their friend, and aside from a few awkward questions being asked, everything carried on as normal.
But Scar knew first. He had been one of the first people Grian confided in about it, outside of the members of Evo. Scar could always sense electricity hovering just around the smaller male, but he never knew it was a Watcher thing.
Not until Grian opened his first portal for them, and all of the alarms were going off in the Vex hybrid's brain. Scar was so sensitive to magic he fainted when Grian summoned their portal despite being hundreds of blocks away, following the magic to the source as Grian was sending out invites.
It was a while since they'd entered the new world and Grian had been wandering and gathering up materials, laughing and giggling when he'd spot others off in the distance. Everyone was so jumpy due to the three lives thing, it made walking behind someone and shouting 'boo' a lot more interesting. After getting a few good scares in he stocked up as best he could before heading underground into the caves.
After a while he abandoned the idea of caving, surfacing and making a small base before adventuring off to find people to interact with, everyone was still green so it's not like his servermates would hurt him. He trudged through a swamp, groaning as mud and water soaked through his clothes and caused them to cling to his skin as he walked.
Grian gasped as he saw a group of his friends rushing out of the only village within the world border, rushing towards them and ignoring the stiff pain in his muscles from the drying, wet mud and clay caked to his trousers clear past his knee "Friends! I've been alone! I've been alone guys I've been alone!" he wailed, half for dramatic effect as they swarmed him, happy shouts of his name coming from the group.
The blonde stepped back and looked at the people in the group, Impulse, Scar, Bdubs, Tango and Cleo. He grinned and laughed as they helped him get the gunk off him, Impulse stepping in front of him as Grian peered curiously at the village. "oh, you don't wanna go over there, they're not very welcoming" Impulse huffed, earning grumbled agreements from the others, but Impulse's expression quickly changed to a smirk as he looked at Bdubs "However, we are very welcoming, Bdubs?" he hummed, snapping.
Bdubs grinned and placed down a jukebox, slotting in a disk as they all began dancing some. The others were laughing and just having a grand old time as Scar hastily pulled Grian out of earshot, looking oddly serious for the usually cheery man. "Grian, do you have a flint and steel?" he asked softly, green eyes burning with an almost hungry intensity that Gtian had never experienced from the man before feeling his face flush some under the gaze.
Grian fumbled through his inventory before nodding "y-yeah here" he mumbled. He handed it off to Scar without thinking to ask why he wanted it first, still frozen from the intense look in Scar's eyes when Impulse broke the moment. "Haven't you been in a cave for like 10 days?" he called, seeming to suddenly realize how odd it was for Grian to be absent for so long.
"Oh, uh yeah, I suppose" had it actually been 10 days? "I haven't seen anyone since before I started caving." he admitted, rubbing his arm nervously. "Dude you like, missed a whole party, like the whole refugee issue." Tango laughed, shaking his head at the insanity of it all as Cleo nodded, rubbing her temples "Oh yeah, there was a whole issue down there…" she sighed.
As the conversation continued, they wandered towards the village and Grian watched Scar take the head of the group, steering towards the dark oak tree in the center of the village with the flint and steel in his hand. Etho's voice was suddenly heard from… somewhere? Etho wasn't ever seen unless he wanted to be, so Grian left it at that "Scar has flint and steel, Tango" he called out.
Tango stepped in front of Scar with a hand out as he narrowed his eyes "Thanks for the heads up E, but I was already aware. I don't trust him." Tango hummed, just staring at Scar who appeared to not have a care in the world "Oh me? I was just looking at the tree, it looks nice" he chuckled, a twitch at the corner of his mouth the only hint that a smirk was threatening to find its way to the other's face.
"Take your burny-burny elsewhere" Tango grumbled, and broke the tension as Scar pocketed the flint and steel, laughing as he stumbled away "Take your burny-burny elsewhere!" He repeated, a grin on his face now. "Alright guys, goodbye, have a good time!" he shouted as he ran off.
Grian grinned as he finally spotted Etho dropping from the tree, beckoning him over to a rough patch of ground where he'd hid villagers. They spoke quietly about them before coming back up, Impulse having joined them. "We can't tell anyone! And surely not Scar, based on his actions so far, if anyone tells him they'll be dead." he murmured.
"Can I tell Tango?" Etho hummed, and Grian nodded, but froze when he saw a familiar bit of bleached hair over a ride in the hill. "Nothing's happening" he said quickly, followed by slightly nervous agreements from the redstoners either side of him. "It is very amusing to walk up to a group of people saying 'its a secret i promise i won't tell anybody'" Bdubs laughed, grinning as Cleo made her way over.
"They've got a big secret" Bdubs laughed "Oh you jerk!" Etho rolled his eyes fondly, turning to look at Grian as the smaller man gasped "Scar!" Etho yiped in frustration, rushing towards the now burning tree. Scar wandered over with a smirk "If you'd have just shared, everyone could have had Dark Oak saplings but now look" he chuckled deeply, and for once Grian looked at him in a new light. Was Scar TRYING to be the villain? As much as the thought unnerved Grian, it was also attractive to him.
Leave it to him to be attracted to chaos.
"So now nobody gets it?" Impulse asked, glaring at Scar. "Plus it's a rare tree… Scar what have you done…" Grian mumbled mostly to himself. "There's no savin that…" Bdubs sighed as he settled in to watch the tree burn as Etho was still desperately trying to put it out, then glared at him "Well i hope you're happy now Bdubs, that was the only one, now we have no Dark Oak!"
Bdubs sputtered and gasped "I wasn't even the one to set the thing ablaze! I was trying to save the stupid historical monument!" He argued "I- You're right. I'm sorry" Etho spoke as he finally stepped away from the tree to hug Bdubs. It was hilarious how much they acted like a married couple sometimes. "I hope you're happy with yourself, Scar." Etho said, glaring at him as the other man burst into a fit of hysterical giggles.
"You should have let everybody get some Dark Oak instead of hoarding it all for yourselves, we all could have had some." he laughed, Etho turned his attention away to continue speaking softly to Bdubs, still apologizing for snapping at him. Scar once again pulled Grian around the corner to speak in private, an evil glint in his eyes. "Do you wanna take over the sand biome?" he whispered.
Grian barely held in a snort as he watched Bdubs- who must have distracted Etho with something already- and Cleo's heads pop around the corner to listen "The sand bio- Scar you realize they can still hear us right?" he whispered back "I'll burn their village down if they try- oh hi! hey guys!" he said, something switching as he noticed Cleo and Bdubs behind him. Grian swallowed thickly, was this really the person he wanted to be? Some silly little Watcher cast out that fell for one of his best friends because he was suddenly full of… something.
Scar's eyes right before he noticed the others behind him was something else for sure. Grian had never seen Scar so serious with such dark intentions and in all honesty, it sort of made Grian feel like some silly teenager getting a crush on the school delinquent. Bdubs raised an eyebrow "I'm with you, what's wrong with you?" he huffed at Scar.
Grian peeked behind them and jumped some, realizing that Scar hadn't realized Bdubs and Cleo were there, but the fact that Etho and Tango were behind him. "This is the worst secret meeting I've ever seen" Grian whispered again, almost rolling his eyes as Scar just nodded as if deep in thought "Let's go have it over here" he whispered back as he grabbed Grian by the wrist and pulled him off in another random direction.
Grian sighed as he had not only space to breathe, but also to speak. "I have- I have been on a journey around this world, Scar." he paused for dramatic effect before leaning in close "I have all the saplings. Even Dark Oak." he hummed, his voice dropping to a low whisper.
Scar however, didn't seem to be affected or even care. "Cool, wanna take over the sand biome and make people pay to come get sand?" Grian laughed, was he actually serious about that? "I've actually already started on a little base and the desert isn't the best place to live Scar-" he was cut off by Scar laughing again, back to the low, almost mad sound.
"Oh poor sweet little Grian, you don't get it, do you? This isn't about living, it never is! Wherever you go, whoever you're with, it's about business. The ability to sell and trade for profit, sure you can survive, but it takes real effort to thrive." Scar spoke casually as if he were commenting on the weather, not at all how you'd expect someone to drop some crazy life lesson that… scarily enough made sense
"... It's about the monopoly" Grian responded softly after a moment of silence, looking away as Scar smirked "It is, and that place," he pointed in the general area of the village "Is a bust, I'm going somewhere better" he rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. "However," Grian began carefully, "there is a small patch of Dark Oak trees in the world border."
Scar hesitated "You can't make more sand, Grian. With Dark Oak if the others get four saplings our business is over." He kicked a rock on the ground as they began walking towards the desert to check it out "Scar we can't defend that biome, it's huge!" he argued, soft back and forth bickering continuing as they walked.