Oneshots! (Mostly Hermitcraft)

Definitely [Grian]

TWs: implied character death, death, explosions, suicide, injuries
Keep yourselves safe <3

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 Definitely. What a word. It promised so much, but those promises could get dashed to pieces with a simple twist of fate.

 I wish I could have done something. Anything. Anything and everything. I wish I could have prevented the tiny little accident that cost my friend his life.

 But I was too late. I am reminded of this every day. Every day, I don't see him. He isn't working on his base, harvesting crops, or making redstone contraptions. He doesn't stop by asking if I want to hang out or prank people.

 Maybe I can pretend he's still here. I can go to his base and look for him, and by some miracle, he'll turn up. He always does. He knows when I'm feeling low, and some superpower tells him exactly when I need a hug. I could never have a better friend.

 I flew out of Midnight Alley to the armchair formation right next door. I search the outside, looking for the tripwires that will allow me to enter. I trigger them and watch as the waterfall parts in a single coordinated motion.

 Once inside, I know there is no chance of ever seeing him again. Everything is dusty and dirty, a sure sign that he hasn't been here in a long time. Mumbo could never stand dust and dirt. He never allowed anything to get even remotely covered, nor spiderwebs to form. He was terrible at lighting up his base, as we all are, but none of us expected it to cause his death.

 It was like a bad omen, worse than the curse the pillagers gave you. One player had died, and now all of us were under the threat of death. Any one of us could be next. Everyone has taken to traveling in pairs, but how do we know that's going to prevent anything? It could simply result in two dead bodies. Two more funerals. Two more friends lost.

 And it would all be my fault.

 Watchers can corrupt the code in mobs. I know that. Why, why, why, did I use magic on that single creeper that snuck up on me? I know I could have dodged or deflected it. I didn't have to pick it up and hurl it into the storm brewing sky.

 Now, almost every one of the cat-fearing green mobs spawned with a purple aura about it, glimmering as if it were enchanted. They were. They are super-charged death machines, blasting craters dozens of blocks wide, decimating the terrain. And they only exist because I messed up one of them. A single explosion permanently kills.

 Nobody knows how to fix it. Xisuma has been working almost nonstop, Doc has been communicating with SciCraft to find a way to fix it, and Tango has been messing with them endlessly, with several close calls. None of us know how to deal with it.

 We just don't want to lose anyone else. We can't lose anyone else.

 Everyone knows the cause. Me. Me and my idiocy. People say all the time that magic is amazing, that it allows you to do limitless things once you master it. I call it my bane. It's tortured me ever since I received it. Every time, something happens. It's combat magic, rough and difficult to control. With it, I've defeated countless enemies, but what's the point when every other time I nearly kill someone I never intended to kill? Or harmed what I never meant to harm?

 And now, Mumbo is dead. Dead. Because of my stupid mistake. Because of my magic. He had promised to come to gather sand with me after the incident. Neither of us expected the corruption to carry over into the other spawns. He had walked away for a split second to pick up his things and then the disaster hit.

 There was nothing I could do. He was too far away, the blast too strong. That's when I realized the extent of the damage. Not only had the one that attacked me been charged far more than it should have been, but all of them were. Messages flooding my communicator, exclamations of terror and fear of the new, shiny monsters.