Child's Play - A Hermitcraft 8 AU

To be a Kid Again - Etho

Summary: Coming back from Last Life is hard and it's only harder as a kid. Week 1 and Etho's struggling on his own, the nightmares he had post 3rd Life still being a problem.

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Etho woke up in a panicky state. That had just been a nightmare, right? All imagination?

The image of Bdubs killing Grian was ingrained in his mind. Hiding under his blanket didn't help hide him from it. Burying his face under the pillow didn't muffle the screams, the music.

It was scary.

It had been too much.

How could anyone think of hurting their friends? It was some sick humor. Very sick—gross humor.

It was only then—after a few minutes of lying down nearly crying, that Etho realized what was off with him.
"I was doing So good!" he complained to himself. "Didn't even die once. Ugh." He shoved his face into the pillow again, forgetting the demented thoughts of Last Life for just a moment. Apparently server hopping brought him back to ground zero—or for him, luckily seven. "Seven is a nice number... And one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven days before I'm big again," he said, counting on his fingers. That's not too bad I guess."

Etho looked over at his clock. If it was late enough in the day, Iskall was probably working on his guardian farm, and wouldn't even meet up with Etho and see he was acting a bit stranger than usual. It wasn't late enough in the day to where it was safe, so he figured he'd go next to his copper machine and play around with some excess moss, mud, and clay he'd collected during recourse gathering (Iskall had called it junk, but it didn't matter how old Etho was. He wouldn't get rid of his treasure!). "Maybe in four days I can play with redstone." He tried staying optimistic, or childlike one might say, although in this mindset he preferred not using the phrase, but even while younger he found it difficult to keep positive.

While playing with various materials, all safe as Xisuma had been one to press that they shouldn't mess around with anything remotely dangerous before twelve, Etho let his mind wander. Even as he didn't like seeing people in this state, he really wanted a friend. He really didn't know what he died to, but the more he thought about it, the more he thought that maybe the dream world was real and everyone there that came home might be sorta little too!

Now of course, he wouldn't hang around Grian. While he was funny and amazing to have if there was a need for a duo of pranksters, he was loud and attention-seeking to a degree way worse than Bdubs even on his little days. So no. Also the travel to Boatem was quite the ways and Etho didn't trust any of the people there to get to his base safely.

"Iskall will see me if I go out and everyone will get hurt if they come up." But there had to be another way. He couldn't just stay up here forever! Eleven days was a lot! Even four was! Four days with no buddies, no redstone, and probably rough sleep knowing how he was!

Thinking about it enough, if he could get Bdubs up here somehow... or maybe Etho could make it down without being spotted and the two could go horse racing. Of course, that could be too dangerous, and then they'd get in trouble—but Iskall didn't know anything yet and Xisuma didn't know anything yet and Beef obviously had no clue yet, so this would be fine.

Etho got out his communicator, and with great difficulty, tried to send a message to Bdubs.

<Etho> - - > <BdoubleO100>
You small too?

Of course, he really didn't think through the fact that Bdubs could be so little that he couldn't read. This only dawned on him after waiting thirty minutes (with slight feeling of abandonment by his friend) to which he decided to call him.

Somehow, Bdubs managed to still have the brain cells to pick up.

"Etho?" The voice answered grumpily. Etho didn't mind though. Just having someone to talk to for a minute lifted his spirits quite a bit.

"Hey!"

"Why'd you wake me up!" Well, perhaps grumpy, sleepy Bdubs wouldn't make for the best friend in the world, but Etho stills saw it as better than nothing.

"I'm booooored. I've got nothing to do Bdubs!"

"Well I can't do nothing about it. Sorrowy."

"You don't sound sorry."

"That's because you woke me wup!" he yelled into the comm. Etho held his hands up to his ears for a second, taking a minute to recover from the noise.

"Well, can I pleeeease come over?" He'd walk all that way, or go horseback, if he had to. Of course, no elytra as Iskall had banned that (either for safety measures or for the chance to try something different and challenging or both).

"We could do a sleepover. Tango awready wants to come over, I 'ink."

Bdubs didn't know how rough sleeping had been lately. Even though 3rd Life had passed, and it had been weeks ago, Etho still got nightmares, which were much more intense and irrational the younger he was. He didn't prefer waking up either screaming or crying or both and the two to see that, but he also really wanted to see his friend.

"You're not going to trick me, and have an adult take care of us are you?"

"Well, 'ralis knows what happened to me and Tango 'ready, but he said he'll give us 'pace if we want. I won't tell him about you."

Etho contemplated (for like, two seconds) on this. Bdubs was fairly trustworthy and Keralis wasn't that responsible... so...

"Then I guess I'll see you tomorrow, Bdubs!"

"Bye-bye!" Bdubs yelled enthusiastically right before hitting the red button. He was always the one (next to Grian) who rushed to press the hang-up button, as if it were the best part of making a call. Etho found it kinda funny, and if he were in a much older position at the moment, he'd probably tease him for it.

Now then... Etho would have to plan for mission impossible. Sneaking out of the Shattered Savannah was difficult work, and he had to do his best to not scare Iskall by going missing or come across as sus in the next few hours...