and the stars will be their guides (hermitcraft space au)

drifting (four)

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~ are we in control or not? ~

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TWs: Swearing, implied dissociation, mentions of death, blood

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"All of the interior design is done by Keralis, and Grian does most of the building, but I help out sometimes when I'm bored or just feel like dangling above the void of space with a thin rope being the only thing attaching me to the ship."

Etho nodded, taking in the information. Scar, one of his fellow spotters, had decided to stay past the end of his shift to tell Etho about everyone on the Hermit-Craft and their roles since he didn't have anything else to do. Beef had meant to do this a few days ago, when Etho met the NHO and became a part of it, but by the time they'd finished talking to Doc and Bdubs, Beef was needed to take over steering from someone named Hypno while he met with Xisuma about something. 

"Xisuma is the captain, as you already know, but he also has two co-captains and navigators, Cleo and Joe. Joe is also the self-elected 'Morale Person'."

"'Morale Person'?" Etho asks, amusement seeping into his voice. "What does a 'Morale Person' do?"

"Well, I don't really know what the standard is 'cause Joe's the only 'Morale Person' I know, but-"

"Scar!" A blur of red cut off Scar and crashed into him. Etho took a tiny step away from the two people, now in a pile on the floor.

"Owwww, what was that for?" Scar groaned from underneath the red blur, who, upon further investigation, was a person with sandy blonde hair wearing a bright red sweater.

Red-sweater-wearing guy flushed and untangled himself from Scar. "Sorry about that," he apologized, getting up. "I didn't think that would knock you over. I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"No, I'm fine," Scar said, waving his hand, which looked a bit weird since he was still laying on the floor.

"Oh, good!" Red-sweater-wearing guy looked over at Etho now. "Hi there, I'm Grian!"

"I'm Etho," said Etho.

"Ohhhhhh, you're the new guy everyone's been talking about!"

Etho nodded, trying not to look too awkward.

"As much as I'm glad you two are meeting each other, I would like to not be stuck on the ground permanently," Scar commented, reminding Etho and Grian of his presence.

"Whoops, I kind of forgot about you," Grian sheepishly admitted, hurrying to Scar's side. He pulled Scar up and let him lean against him until he'd straightened out his sleek metal pegleg enough that he could balance on his own. 

(From what Etho had heard, Scar had gotten into a bad accident years ago, hence his pegleg. The other leg luckily didn't need to be amputated, but it was still injured enough that scraps of metal now replaced some parts of it.)

"Anyways," Grian started, facing Scar, "Mumbo wants us to help him with something."

"Oh, you weren't here just to bother me?" 

Grian rolled his eyes. "Of course not! When have I ever done that?" When Scar opened his mouth to give an example, Grian hastily added, "Don't answer that." 

Goodbyes were said, and then Grian hurried off with Scar in tow, leaving Etho alone in the watchtower sprouting from the top of the ship. He sighed and scanned the stars for any sign of a threat.