Oneshots! (Mostly Hermitcraft)

The Void Only Steals - Pt. 1 [Xisuma]

[POV: Xisuma]

TW: mentions of violence and manipulation

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They say the Void steals.

They say it rips away what is precious to any player sent to it. I should have paid more attention to that fact than I did at the time. Maybe then things would have been different between us. Different in a good way, I meant.

Brother, there was a difference from how we acted together, and it wasn't a good one.

I don't know why the Void would steal a player's sense of smell. It makes no sense at all. When you, dear brother, came back, I wasn't expecting that to have happened. It doesn't make sense when compared to the legends both of us grew up listening to.

It was funny at first. To an extent. You were always joking "Thank Notch I can't smell you anymore." The usual teasing. The usual jokes.

But for some reason, you were angrier. You were more manipulating and violent. You sought to control everything around you from production and farming to the roots of the economy. Maybe it's because you couldn't stop and smell the flowers or the sea. I can't know for sure.

You wanted, or maybe needed, to feel the sense of control after what had happened to you in the Void.

Brother, you never told me what happened. You guided the conversation away from it every time I talked to you. You pushed me away so hard, Ezra, it's almost a physical feeling.

I sometimes wonder if you condemn yourself to the pain and suffering that were not yours to bear alone. I wonder if, deep down inside, you still bear the child-like innocence that makes you want to be with people. Be with me.

Or has your life scarred you too much to trust another person ever again.

That, too, was in the legends. How the Void tortured all sense of belonging and trust out of a person. How it tore away sensations and emotions one by one until there was nothing left. How it gave them back so slowly that you would barely notice one or two were missing. Barely notice until you come back.

Perhaps, brother, that was the difference. It tore you apart so much you needed the control. You needed the security of being able to streamline the outcome of events. You needed control of your magic. You need control of events. You needed control of your life.

That need was poisoning you, Ezra. That need was driving you into the ground. That need is what led to nights of sobbing to yourself when you thought no one was around. You felt you couldn't control anything; that you were still the plaything of the cruel entity that is the Void.

Brother, if you can hear me, feel my presence even, know that I regret it. I'm sorry the Void tortured you so. I'm sorry it hurled you about and you could do nothing to stop it.

I'm sorry for sending you there a second time.

It was for your own good, I thought at the time. You weren't trying to get away from the moon threatening to crush us all to pieces. You didn't seem to care, dear brother, that the solid rock was threatening to end your life. I don't know why I did that. I don't know what I was thinking. Everything was jumbled inside my head as I struggled to keep the hermits safe. The moon had broken the dimensional layers, tearing into the Nether and End. We had thought we'd be safe in them...

All of us were together when I made the portal to escape, except you. None of us knew where you'd gone while we stood isolated on the endstone island, blinded by the lights of the gashes between dimensions. I did what I could, thinking it would prevent you from death.

Brother... How can you ever forgive me? Is the Void truly worse than death as the legends say? What could I have done? Everything was breaking down and collapsing... That's just another excuse, isn't it? Dear brother, I hope you can forgive me someday.

Notch, I'm such a derp. I snatched the communicator from the crafting table beside me, swiping past the chat messages that had built up while I was mindlessly working on my base interior. My admin panels pop up, the holographic screens settling in their positions. I pull the "player management" panel in front of me, scrolling through the list until I reach it.

The command that will bring you back.

Brother... Am I making another mistake? How will the Void have changed you this time? Will you desire revenge? Recompense? Rebuilding? Ezra, how can I know that I can help you this time? Will you allow me to?

I swallow tightly, forcing down the doubts. My finger brushes the button and it activates, my command runs through the server, processing the request. Green lights flash on the edges, and I close the panels.

Xisuma unbanned EvilXisuma

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Yes, there will be several parts to this (mostly because I don't want to pack it all into one part).

I'm writing an essay advocating plant rights. Would you like to see it if I post it here? (I'm half-joking. It's mostly cringy rants about how plants don't have rights.)