Axolistic

He had been following their group like a lost puppy ever since Jax teleported to the overworld with his sister. Just to be clear, they would definitely stage an intervention for Jax after that because that was totally not an okay thing to do.

While they were working on building their temporary base, Fin sat down near the end of the floating island, where the soft yellowish sand fell infinitely onto the deep black abyss down below. Koal and the others usually avoided going near the ‘shore’ of the islands, even with elytras, it was very easy to make a wrong move and fall into the void unless you had some fireworks or good momentum, it was game over for you.

So yeah, everyone usually avoided the abyss, just in case.

And yet… Fin just sat there so casually, his legs dangling off the edge; staring at his hands with a blank expression, seemingly not realizing the danger that lay below him. He didn’t seem afraid of falling at all, maybe that was because he had ‘been’ an enderman and was able to teleport on command. The whole ‘being an enderman’ thing, was another whole pack of worms that they would discuss later.

Either way, Fin was… something else, even without taking into account the whole situation he had. And it didn’t matter how much his friends nagged him to, Koal would not give this clearly unstable individual a weapon.

Jess and Roary weren’t with him at the moment, they were chopping down chorus trees at the north end of the island, they needed wood for the base they were building. Koal was pretty sure they had more than enough wood for the build, but he wasn’t about to argue with them, as Roary liked to say, better safe than sorry. Koal looked down from where he was standing, the structure of their build; to where Fin was standing. He was trying to see what Roary and Jess were doing, which proved to be difficult, taking into account how far they were. It looked like he wanted to do something, but didn’t.

Koal sighed, Jess and Roary would probably take a bit longer than he expected. He had already finished building what Jess had told him to, and Koal wasn’t really sure what Jess had in mind for this specific build, and she didn’t like it when things didn’t turn out how she wanted them to. Koal finally decided it would be best to wait for her to return to continue building the base.

Fin was still staring into nothingness, god…, it was kinda pathetic. Koal used his elytra to glide down to where Fin was sitting, careful not to glide off the edge. Fin didn’t seem to notice Koal standing beside him.

“What are you doing?” Koal asked, tilting his head sideways. Fin flinched a bit when he heard Koal’s voice, he took note of that.

Fin opened his mouth to speak, but when he tried to say something, he just started coughing. Which made sense all things considered, just for how long had he gone without talking? Koal took something out of his inventory, a small bottle of water. 

Koal handed the glass bottle to Fin, who flinched slightly before reluctantly taking it. Again, it made sense, taking into account that not so long ago he thought that water would be deadly to him. Which only made Koal wonder how he and Mo had managed to survive without water.

Fin clumsily opened the lid of the bottle, and examined the container for a couple of seconds before taking a small sip of water. And then he proceeded to drink the rest of the liquid in record time, Koal simply stared at him in astonishment as the other was doing that.

“Thanks…” Fin mumbled, his voice wasn’t as hoarse as it was before. “Why did you come down here…?” He asked, closing the now empty water bottle and handing it back to Koal. “I thought you guys were busy building…” He looked up. “...whatever that is…”

“I was, but Jess already has a vision on how she wants this to turn out… I’m just waiting for her to come back.” Koal explained, putting the empty bottle back in his inventory.

“Oh…” They paused for a second. “I guess that makes sense.” Fin responded awkwardly, and turned around, looking at where Roary and Jess were cutting down the chorus trees.

Koal walked up to him. “What exactly are you looking at?” He scooted closer to Fin.

“Just- the chorus fruits…” Fin answered, fidgeting with the cloth of his shirt.

“Are you hungry?” Koal asked, and he started looking through his inventory for something to give Fin. Only raw zombie meat remained, Koal and the rest figured they could just loot End Ships if they ran out of supplies. Just look at how that went this time…

“I- No. I mean- yes, but-” Fin tried to gather his thoughts, he looked up at the chorus trees. “I… like chorus fruits… Do you have any?” He tilted his head.

“No, not really my thing” Koal replied, before getting an idea. He took his trident out of hsi inventory. Koal could feel Fin staring at him ,hsi eyes fixed on the trident. Koal got ready to throw it, aiming it at one of the chorus trees; if he hit the chorus fruit it would fall down, it was also a chance to show off his aim. 

Koal threw the trident at the chorus tree, but instead of hitting the fruit. The trident embedded itself on the thin log of the tree. The fruits shook with the impact, but they didn’t fall. So much for showing off…

He prepared to do it again, but before he could do it, Fin spoke. “Can I try?” Koal stopped in his tracks and turned around to look at Fin. Koal subconsciously held tighter onto his trident.

“I…” Koal didn’t want to seem rude, but he really didn’t want to give Fin his trident. He suddenly remembered something. “Wait a minute” Koal started searching through his inventory once again until he found what he was looking for.

“There… you go” He threw the item at Fin, so that he could catch it. He didn’t.

Koal’s old trident landed at Fin’s feet, the weapon had definitely seen better days. Koal used to use it all the time before he found his current one, after that, Koal didn’t bother to fix it. It would just be a waste of materials.

Fin crouched down and picked up the trident carefully “...I have a trident back in our ship” He said, barely audible. Koal wasn’t sure if it was directed at him or if Fin was just talking to himself.

“Uh…We didn’t really find anything while we were raiding it.” Koal commented awkwardly. “Which, by the way, sorry about that.” He tried to start conversation.

“It’s fine…” The look on Fin’s face said otherwise. He was looking down at the trident, his fingers tracing through the weapon’s markings. “We hid what we had left, that’s why you couldn’t find anything. I would have taken it with me… if I had remembered.”

Koal didn’t know what to say to that, so he decided to stay silent. Fin got ready to throw the trident at the chorus tree, Koal honestly doubted that Fin would hit the fruits, despite how practiced his posture looked. After all, the fruits were high up and using a trident for the first time was difficult, Koal spoke from experience.

Fin took a step forward and swiftly threw the trident toward the tree and… it hit the target. Fin stumbled forward, almost falling forward onto his knees; at the exact same time that the chorus fruits hit the ground.

The trident came back and landed on Fin’s feet, he picked it up eagerly, and walked over to where Koal was standing. Fin handed the trident to Koal, who simply shook his head. “You can keep it.”

Fin nodded. “Thanks” He then walked up to where the chorus fruit was and picked it up, Koal stood beside him. “Do you want it?” Fin asked, breaking the fruit into two pieces, and offered one half two Koal, who declined.

For the next five minutes, Fin proceeded to throw his trident to all the chorus trees nearby, not missing a single time. Koal just sat down on the sand and watched as Fin did all of that, Roary and Jess would probably return soon.

Eventually, Fin got tired and after a few seconds of deliberation, sat down beside Koal. His hands were full of fruit, some of them were crushed and bruised. Fin didn’t seem to mind… a lot.

“Why don’t you use your inventory?” Koal turned around to look at Fin, some of the chorus fruits were leaking juice, …disgusting. “That would keep them… less damaged.”

Fin just stared at Koal with a confused expression on his face. “A what?”

Koal tapped on his pockets. “Also called pockets, very useful.”

“I- How is that even possible???” Fin asked, to which Koal just shrugged. Fin carefully placed all of the fruits he had gathered on his inventory. “You are 100% sure they will be safe there, right?” Fin met Koal’s eyes again.

“Yeah…Why do you need so many anyways?” Koal questioned. “I can understand one or two, but I’m pretty sure that’s more or less a stack.”

“I… Kan likes chorus fruit.” Kan? The enderman? “It’s for when he comes back, IF he comes back.” Fin mumbled the last part, though Koal was still able to hear him. Fin sighed.

“And…I just like having a lot of stuff.” So a hoarder, noted. Fin scratched his scalp again, his hair was dusty and matted, pieces of rotten pumpkin still remaining on his hair. Fin’s hair reminded Koal of a bush, a messy bush. It was long and curly, a darkish brown.

Fin started chewing on a chorus fruit, the juice of it staining his hair even further, Koal was having none of it.

“Yeah- no, stop,” Koal scooted closer to Fin.

“What?” He asked, still munching on the snack.

“Your hair is- stressing me out.” Koal replied. “I get that you didn’t even know you had hair until like- half an hour ago. But gosh, it’s horrible.”

Fin frowned and passed his fingers through his hair, well, as much as he could; his fingers getting caught on all the knots his hair had. Fin turned to look at Koal. “See? It’s fine…” Like as if that helped his case.

Koal stared at Fin, unimpressed. “It’s so not. Just let me tidy it up, it won’t itch as much, I promise.”

Fin seemed to actually consider it. “And why are you so insistent on doing that?” He asked, not completely trusting Koal yet.

“Because it looks nasty and also I’m bored, I need something to do.” Koal shrugged, having replied sincerely.

Fin sighed. “Sure, why not?” Koal didn’t get why it was such a big deal, Jess and Roary let him style their hair all the time. Heck, even Jax had allowed it once.

It didn’t end well, but that’s besides the point.

Fin sat criss-crossed in front of Koal, the two were more or less the same height, so Koal could tidy his hair up with little to no difficulties.

“I’m gonna have to wash your hair… with water.” Koal told Fin, as his body tensed. “I know you don’t like water, but if I don’t it’ll continue to tangle and get dirty, and it’ll be worse overall…”

Koal took out another bottle of water from his inventory and poured a bit of water on the palms of his hands and rubbed them together. He then proceeded to softly pass his hands through Fin’s hair, who stiffened as he did that.

“See, it wasn’t that bad.” Koal joked, as Fin shuddered slightly. Koal did his best to get all of the remaining grime out of Fin’s hair. Koal did what he could, but Fin’s hair wasn’t as clean as he hoped when he finished, Koal would just have to work with this.

Koal brushed Fin’s hair with a brush he’d borrowed from Roary. He would have to apologize to her later, the brush would not leave unscathed. The first few times Koal passed the brush down Fin’s hair, he flinched. As time passed, Fin relaxed more, so… that was an improvement.

After Koal had brushed enough, his hair resembled actual hair now, instead of whatever it looked like before. Koal split Fin’s hair into three strands and began braiding it, just like he did sometimes with Roary.

She and Jess eventually came back, with stacks of chorus wood and some sand. By the time they arrived, Koal had finished styling Fin’s hair. It was long and reached down to half of his back, it was tidier now, so it wasn’t as much of a hassle for him.

Fin had started to throw his trident at the trees again, he really liked doing that for some reason. And he was pretty good at it too, it was… weird. Of course, Koal could just chalk it up to ‘natural talent’, but he thought that there was more to it than that. There was a certain technique to it, Koal noticed, like he had done this before; many, many times before.

That sounded like a clue… Gosh, he was starting to sound like Roary.

Whatever, he could solve this ‘mystery’ after defeating the ender dragon