Freeze or Fall

Chapter 7: Friends in Unusual Places

Grumbot wandered around the mesa, making sure he stayed fairly close to Ren's base. Since he'd barely been around the unidentifiable black substance, or Omega USB Of Doom as Iskall had nicknamed it. Of course, the acronym was a little switched around, but Grumbot chose to ignore that.

He kicked a pebble. Lucky him. Right? Iskall, Jrumbot, and Dad were stuck in one place or another thanks to the sickness, but he was lucky enough to pass. Now he just wandered around the mesa, trying to find something to do.

Incoming transmission.

Grumbot curiously answered.

Transmission received. Request to call?

Hm.

Request confirmed.

___________________

Npg hummed to himself, waiting for the answer. The sun had gone down and Exy was asleep, leaving Npg to his own devices. Being honest, building was pretty lonely without someone to talk with.

So he impulsively contacted the connecting robot in Hermitcraft, hoping for an answer.

Request confirmed.

Npg brightened a bit, sending the transmission to call. "Hello?"

"HELLO. ARE YOU RH?"

"Hi, and yes. But you can call me NPG."

"PLEASURE. YOU CAN CALL ME GRUMBOT."

Npg smiled, detailing the roof of his latest house. "Nice to have someone to talk to. I'm pretty lonely right now."

"SAME HERE."

"Your voice sounds funny, no offense."

"NONE TAKEN. MY DAD DOESNT KNOW MUCH ABOUT ROBOTICS, AND I WAS KINDA RUSHED. VOICE WAS A BIT LOW PRIORITY."

"Soooooo uh, whatcha doing?"

"AIMLESSLY WANDERING AROUND A MESA BIOME. YOU?"

"Building. Almost done detailing the roof, then it's just the interior I have to do."

"COOL."

Npg placed down a few more pieces of wood before gliding off the build. "You sound bored."

"YEAH. THOUGH I HAVE THE INKLING YOU AREN'T."

"I heard there's some pretty cool mineshafts in the Mesa, perhaps you could find something valuable there?" Npg suggested. "I stumble upon those a lot when getting terracotta."

"MAYBE."

The two talked for a while, the moon going along its course. Grumbot did find a mineshaft, and ended up collecting some shiny stuff from the chests. Npg finished his build and began a new one, the rhythm and muscle memory soothing.

Eventually the two got onto the topic of family and friends.

"-AND YEAH, I REALLY MISS MY DAD. IT'S PRETTY LONELY BY MYSELF."

"I know how you feel." Npg answered with a sigh. "I miss Grian."

"Grian?"

"Yeah. He built me, knowing how much I loved rustic houses. I unfortunately broke really quickly and he wasn't able to fix me properly. I used to have a brother..." Npg trailed off at the thought of Robot Grian. "But he left a long time ago. For a while, it was just me and Grian. I'd build my houses, and he'd practice whatever. Just us in a survival world. And then he was invited to Evo, and I never saw him again."

"THAT MUCH TIME ALONE... YOU REALLY ARE LONELY. I'M SO SORRY, THAT MUST BE HORRIBLE."

"No it's okay. Besides, I wasn't completely alone. About a year after Grian left, a stranger joined my world. He was an ex-alter, kind of like me. At first he was scared of me, and I was scared of him. But after some time, we got used to each other. He fixed me as well as he could, but eventually he had to leave too. He still visits me sometime's which was nice. He's actually asleep in one of my nearby builds."

"AWW THAT'S SWEET."

"I guess you could say he's like an older brother to me." Npg commented. "But even so, I still held out hope that Grian will return someday."

_____________________

Grumbot hesitated, not wanting to break the bad news. "NPG, MY DAD KNEW GRIAN."

"He did?"

"YEAH, GRIAN WAS A CLOSE FRIEND OF HIS."

"I bet they've done fantastic things as a team."

"NPG THAT WAS SIX MONTHS AGO."

"Six months?"

Grumbot sat down, dreading his next words. "NPG I'M SO SORRY BUT... GRIAN'S DEAD."