Chapter Text
It started with Grian, because of course it did.
But then it was Scott, and then Pearl, and then Martyn, and then Scar, and then Cleo, and then Joel, and Gem barely found it in herself to care who it started with, because it's ended with far too many others.
She didn't know what happened when they all went missing for maybe eight weeks at a time, but it couldn't be anything good. None of the Admins had figured anything out, no matter which code they scraped or how much they locked down a ser ver. Which was worrying, terrifyingly so.
And she knew that those seven knew something and they weren't giving it up.
Which was why this meeting was called.
Apparently she wasn't the only one to notice anything off, because glancing over the group quickly, Gem could recognize most of the people from Empires, even a couple of miscellaneous others Gem could recognize from offhand servers as well, Bekyamon, Eloise, and Owen to name a few.
They were at the spawn of the meeting server, a large, nicely decorated platform of stone surrounded by pillars and roofed with wood. Whereas usually a meeting would have just been held at the base of the month on Hermitcraft, this time they had been instructed to go to a whole new world. Gem understood why when she noticed all the extra members. Some folks sat on bean bags they must have dragged there themselves and others on top of blankets. A few opted to stand, but most had been there for a few minutes and were sitting down.
Gem joined the party, placing herself neatly near the middle. Xisuma and Fwhip stood in the middle of the loose circle, talking quietly as others blatantly snooped, False, Bek, and Owen side-by-side trying to look inconspicuous.
Gem busied herself talking to others, Lizzie and Jimmy in particular, as they hadn't been able to catch up recently. At some point, Joey literally fell out of the sky, screaming something about how Katherine was a traitor. He respawned, but was very grumpy about it, much to the joy of all three witnesses and Katherine herself.
None of the culprits were present, having been carefully kept out of the loop, but Gem wasn't quite sure if she was on board with that. The Hermit Backstory Rule dictated that you didn't ever ask about anyone's backstory without consent. This meeting was basically a gossip session about exactly that, but if it could rattle that many of them, some of the fiercest fighters and legends Gem had ever heard of or met… It had to be big, didn't it?
A high and sharp whistle split the air, and the meeting commenced.
People made themselves comfortable on the floor. Lizzie and Jimmy got all cuddled up with Gem like they were about to be read a bedtime story. Team ZITS was basically a cuddle pile. Etho and Bdubs stuck close. It was like a preschool class.
"I'm sure you're all aware of the reason we're here," Xisuma started, his eyes sweeping over all of them on the ground briefly. "But just in case we need a refresher, seven of our players have been acting particularly odd lately, as if in danger, and it's becoming a concern. These players are Grian, Scott, Pearl, Martyn, Scar, Cleo, and Joel."
Some people traded loaded or nervous gazes. X continued. "Since I know most of you are concerned about the privacy of our friends, I feel the need to clarify that if they tell us to back off and there seems to be no threat, we will, but we don't know that everyone is in the clear yet. Safety trumps privacy, unfortunately."
That seemed to soothe some of the problem, though most of the group remained on edge, including Gem. The entire situation was highly unusual.
"Now, does anybody have anything they think is of note regarding this issue? Even something that everyone here already knows?" The Admin asked, again giving them the once-over.
False raised her hand like a kindergartner, eagle wings held steady against her back. "Yeah, Grian is a Watcher, we have no goddam idea what Scott's deal is, Pearl is some sort of moon creature, Martyn's Martyn, Scar is a Vex, Cleo is a zombie and Joel is probably some kind of shapeshifter. Do we not think that the fact that every single one of them is fairly powerful and also nonhuman might have anything to do with this?" She questioned, her voice getting louder at the final sentence. A few people mumbled in assent.
X nodded. "That's actually a good point, False, thanks for bringing that up. Anything else?"
Seemingly catching onto the circle time theme, Bdubs' hand went up next. "Are we positive this doesn't have anything to do with the disappearances? It seems way too well lined up to just be coincidental," He claimed, looking around the spawn area with uncertainty.
Gem nodded, glad to hear somebody else say it. She too piped up, raising her hand. "Grian only got irritable after the first disappearance, and Scott was on edge after the second one was over, and so on, and so on. They have to be related."
"I agree," X said, leaning back on his heels a little bit. Keralis and Fwhip flanked him on either side, trading glances. "There's going to be another meeting next week, and I want you to inform everybody, even our suspects. Say that the Admins thought a get-together with everyone, since we're such a mixed bag, would be fun. We are just going to have to resort to asking."
Nobody seemed particularly thrilled with that prospect, and Gem privately agreed. She couldn't say for some of the crew, but she could speak for Scott and Pearl. If they didn't want you to know something, you wouldn't, and that was just how they worked.
Xisuma took another second to give them a disclaimer. "Please, for the love of the Void, do not go pestering any of them about whatever is going on. If we know anything about our friends and that particular group, they will just clam up more, and even if they wouldn't, I don't want to run the risk of hurting anyone's feelings for a situation that they quite possibly cannot control."
It was going to be an uphill battle from here.
"So," Pearl began, and Martyn heard the waver in her voice. "We're definitely going to be found out."
Cleo nodded from where they sat with a wither flower in hand, glaring at it like it was somehow annoying them. "Oh, yes, absolutely," She responded offhandedly, "They know we've been acting odd, so we need a game plan. What do we tell them?"
Martyn sighed. "The truth?"
At the variously bewildered looks from the rest of the rag-tag group of winners, he raised his hands to defend himself. "Hey! Hey! We have a week to figure this out and we cannot get a story straight in that amount of time. It's just not going to hold up under a thorough questioning. The best thing we can do is be honest!"
Joel squinted at him. "Why am I not surprised that the god of honor is insisting that we be honest?"
He swore Cleo's facepalm could be heard from space.
"We're not going to be able to put together a coherent and believable story in one week," Martyn argued, "It's best to just put it out there and hope that the truth will be more believable than any lie we can hope to come up with."
Scott gave a reluctant nod, and responded. "I see what you mean. We're going to need a backup plan in any case, though, in case of being kicked out — which I highly doubt is going to happen, by the way. Our friends have stuck with us through finding out about literal godlike beings existing and discovering that Grian was one of said beings, even though not everybody came clean — ahem, Martyn," He coughed.
Martyn made a face and turned to face Cleo, who spoke next. "I also don't think there is really a risk of getting kicked out, but I'll humor you. If that extremely unlikely problem arises, I say we dip into the Void. Even though it's still dangerous despite our godhood, Martyn can keep it at bay any day of the week." She glanced over at him to see if that was alright, and turned back at his confirmation.
"Just to recap," Pearl eyed the rest of them as if asking them to stop her when she was wrong. "The plan is to just tell them exactly what happened, the very little that we know about the why, and how it affected us and made us gods. If for whatever moon-forsaken reason they decide that we gotta go, we leave and go to the Void to recuperate and figure it out from there. Are we on the same page?
A chorus of "Yes" went around the table.
Grian finally cut in after having been silent for the entirety of the meeting, his voice somewhere between firm and glued-together-with-stubborness. "I think it's our best option. I don't like it, but I see no other way out of this."
Scott dipped his head in confirmation, small golden antlers gleaming. Scar grimaced slightly, but nodded nonetheless. A moment behind, Pearl conceded, followed by Cleo. Joel hesitated a few moments longer, but ultimately gave in.
"Great, now that's settled; are we going to attend the meeting together?" Cleo asked next, looking up. "We might want to. Safety in numbers, or whatever." Everyone gave varyingly enthusiastic answers, though all of them were affirmative.
Consensus reached, the meeting was adjourned.
The day had finally arrived.
Cleo tossed Martyn a mockery of his pirate getup, practically the same vest. He threw it on over his white t-shirt and black pants and thanked her. Somehow, mimicking outfits from the Games had become the theme for their little group.
Scott wore a green cardigan and decorated near his eyes with gems of the same shade, a stark contrast to Pearl's red shawl that echoed her cape and hood. Cleo wore their same dress, tights, and boots. Joel also wore the exact same thing as he did in the game, save for the red crystals he had reluctantly allowed Scott and Pearl to bedazzle him with. Scar and Grian hopped on the shawl trend, Scar's patterned with sunflowers and Grian's with poppies and lilacs.
Martyn was also a victim of the face gems, not like he was really complaining. He tucked a piece of red coral behind his ear and wore both of his bracelet keepsakes from the Games. One was a silver chain with red, yellow, and green hearts, alongside three charms, one depicting Mars, another in the shape of an hourglass, and finally a clock charm. The other bracelet was a woven one with Dogwarts' banner patterned onto it.
The silver bracelets were a constant amongst the winners, though everybody had a different celestial body and Game-specific charm. Apparently, being forced to keep your memories and become a god wasn't enough — you also needed a fucking charm bracelet.
Could you tell he was insulted yet?
Anyway, Martyn wasn't Mars because it was the fourth planet from the sun and he was the fourth winner, though that was a fun coincidence. Martyn was Mars because of his win, because Mars was the war god and Martyn had gone back on the oath he had taken to be peaceful until the fistfight. it also helped that Mars used to have water, another one of his domains, though the leftover ice was technically Scott's territory.
Martyn didn't want to think about how that might have had something to do with their allyship.
Grian was the Sun, Pearl was the Moon, and Scott was the Stars. They had all taken on their celestial associations as full-fledged domains, whereas most of the rest of them had just been dubbed essentially the minor god of their planet.
Scott and Pearl finally finished plastering red and purple gems around Scar's eyes interchangeably, so Cleo whistled them to attention. Pearl went to grab their contribution to the potluck—cupcakes that had taken all three of their brain cells combined, two of which were Cleo's, not to burn—and upon her return, the group set off.
The commute over via the World Hub was more tedious than the easier alternative of just having Martyn drag them through the Void, but maybe some normalcy would help them act like normal people instead of gods trying their best to not worry about their friends suddenly hating them for ascending.
After getting onto the meeting server, they stuck close, aware that they would probably be the last group there. Arriving to Spawn, Scott made a beeline for Lizzie, Jimmy, and the other Empire members, squeezing Shelby in a hug so tight Martyn thought she might pop like a balloon. The blue-haired man finally made his way back after exchanging some very fiery jokes with Lizzie for a few minutes.
Well, if they hadn't known about the plan, they would have found out just from how clearly guilty everybody looked. Gem shifted her weight uncertainly, and hushed conversations were taking place in every corner. Might as well get this done.
Pearl went to put the cupcakes on the small table that had been set up to carry all the food. Martyn spotted some donuts, dumplings, and a curry. Void, he was gonna get hungry.
"Hey, Etho, hey, Bdubs!" Cleo greeted, waving at the boys walking past them. The two smiled and Martyn caught a glimpse of something in Bdubs' hand. Great, something was probably going to blow up today.
The chatter continued. It was almost believable that this was a normal hangout if you didn't notice the glances thrown in their direction every now and again, or the fact that almost nobody came to speak with the group directly outside of small talk. Granted, people might have assumed that a group of seven all sticking together like that, never separating for more than a couple minutes at a time, was occupied enough, but Martyn still didn't trust it.
Despite Scar's steadying hand on his back, Grian snapped first. "Can you guys just spit it out already!?"
Dead silence fell over the Spawn, a blanket of apprehensive calm that nobody dared to break. Team ZITS in particular was looking like deer caught in headlights, while Xisuma and Fwhip just stared. Scar glanced at Grian with worry, but didn't move, keeping his hand where it was. Ultimately, it was Cleo who spoke up.
"Agreed. Clearly, you all are on edge, and it has something to do with us." They stated, her voice firm and leaving no room for argument. Martyn and Pearl seemed to have the same thought, both stepping up to flank Cleo on either side like it was muscle memory. Granted, it almost definitely was for Pearl, what with the three Gs, and Martyn had Past Life to think about.
Joel looked about ready to brandish his axe. Scott stuck to the back, but his gaze swept over everybody coolly. Martyn shivered.
Finally, the tense atmosphere was breached by Xisuma. "We should have a talk. Everyone, sit down." He requested, his eyes only briefly leaving the winners. Nobody protested, though Pearl was clearly reluctant to follow his orders. Their small posse remained standing, as did a few other stragglers. Martyn braced himself, breathing in and then out for four seconds each time.
Nobody seemed to know how to approach the subject, so silence hung for a few extra moments before Gem, still standing, finally managed to speak, her voice as soft as it was demanding. "Guys, what happened? You don't have to answer, but if you're in danger—"
"Not us," Scott assured her, hands raised placatingly. "And not any of you, either. We will tell you if you ask, but please be warned that it is not particularly relevant or even believable."
Gem looked around for a couple of seconds, gauging the reactions to that proposal, and was met with an overwhelming amount of expressions that were essentially just 'So? Tell us anyway.'
The ginger looked up again, visibly steeling herself. "Alright," She declared. "Tell me anyway."