Always Watching, Always Listening

IX Truly Seen And Heard (Wanting)

The morale boost had worked for the players, though it became hard for Void, Xisuma, Grian and, to a lesser extent, Jimmy to hide that the celebration had an effect on their energy - an ulterior motive for holding the event.
After all, they wanted the energy boost to be a surprise. There was a reason that the Void-mother always gave energy to those of her children who remembered her - who knew when they would need her protection?

It was a mere three days after the celebration when another Watcher symbol appeared. A Listener symbol was nearby this one, however.
Worse, they were both made of bedrock.

Scott and Jimmy were the first to find it.

"Oh no. No, no, no, no, no," Scott muttered, his wings fluffing up in fright as he began backing away.
"Well that's not good..."
"Thanks, Captain Obvious," Scott hissed.
"Ok, ok. I get it."

"Is that other symbol the Listeners' one?"
"Yeah, that's theirs alright."
"I thought so," Scott muttered. "This just keeps getting worse."
"Well, uh... Should we get the others?"
"But they'll ruin our cute date spot," the elf grumbled.
"

Then your challenge will be to find us an even cuter date spot. Plus these are here so it's ruined anyway."
"Ugh, fine, you're right, " Scott groaned, making Jimmy giggle, a sound quickly cut off by a yelp as Scott kissed his cheek with a devilish grin.

"So let me get this straight," Techno began, pausing for a second to let the gays say what he knew was coming.
"Good luck with that," Void, Scott, Joey, Xornoth, Puffy, Eret, and Ranboo chorused in unison.
"You guys were on a date," here, Techno revelled in the way the elf's face (although he couldn't see the 'Codfather's' face) lit up bright red at the deadpan tone in which Techno said the words. "And you found these here?"
"Yes," Scott confirmed, stuttering a little.
"And how recently beforehand had you been here?"
"An hour and a half before, at most," the elf said, seeming to get why the question was being asked.

"Why is that relevant?" Mumbo from Hermitcraft wondered.
"I was just about to say the same thing," Jimmy laughed.
"Same!" Jack cheered.
"Oh great, now there are three spoons," a Hermitcraft member, Techno seemed to recall her name being Cleo, grumbled.

"You leave my man alone," Scott quipped with a grin. "Only Lizzie and I can call him a spoon. That being said, Jimmy, you're a spoon."
"Well I was gonna say 'aw thanks, babe' because I thought you were defending me, but now you've ruined it," Jimmy stated.
"You still love me though," Scott smirked.
"Yes, unfortunately I still love you," Jimmy groaned playfully.

Then Niki jumped in, "Well, no one is allowed to call the other half of my duo, Jack, a spoon. Not even me."
"Thanks Niki," Jack called.
"Anytime!"
"Why can't we be more like that?" Jimmy asked Scott.
"Because we'd get bored of being nice to each other."
"True."

Mumbo waited a minute before asking, "Is nobody going to defend me? Please?"
"No Mumbo. All of Hermitcraft knows that you're a massive spoon," Grian told the man flatly, but not unkindly.
"Gosh dang it," giggled Mumbo.

"Anyways," the axolotl woman, Lizzie, said, nudging the conversation back on track, "The reason the timing is important is that it tells us how closely we're being Watched and Listened to, and how quickly they operate."
"What does that mean for us?" Jimmy asked.
"If it were less than an hour, we'd know that we likely had no wriggle-room, no freedom. As it is, we might not always be being Watched, but we also might be. We need to be careful," Void explained.
"I see, yeah, that makes sense," Jimmy said, half to himself.

With that, at Void's request, the group began silently writing messages to one another in one book and plans in another.

~~~

This group seemed smart.
The one who Watched and Listened should have felt threatened, he knew.
So why didn't he?

Why did he... want to send them a message?
Why did he... want to tell his bosses that he regretted his choices?
Why did he... want to join the server?
Why did he... want to help them?
Why did he... want to hide this from the higher ups?

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