#but i tried...

...more like an edit + a concept...

...........

A/N: Oh god, oh fuck! This is a responsibility I wasn't ready for, but I must take it! Also, I'm sorry if I botched this, I don't watch TFC aside from the bits and pieces I see from the recap (which I need to catch up on). Hope you enjoy, Aryne! <3

The smell of smoke and the sea wraps around Grian as he flies into his base and up, spamming rockets as he goes.

His aviary is empty, aside from the one chicken in the corner, his parrots still in the Sahara meeting room.

Or rather, his aviary should have been empty if it hadn't been for the two mysterious figures sat by a window, staring out over the ocean view.

"EX? Chef? What're you doing here?" Grian asks, landing on the grassy floor just a few feet away from his guests.

The helmeted man looks up for a second before returning his gaze out the window. Grian and TFC make eye contact and the older hermit shrugs.

"Just needed to get away for a bit, y'know?" EX says softly, the distortion in his voice heavier than normal, making his words a bit hard to understand.

"Did something happen? Do I need to go fight someone?" Grian half-jokes, sitting down on EX's right side.

EX doesn't respond and three sit in silence. After a couple moments, the sounds of sniffling begins to fill the room and Grian shoots TFC a panicked look as EX leans against him, his shoulders shaking.

"Dude, what happened?" Grian asks more forcefully this time, hugging his Void Buddy™ as he cries.

"I… I… No, it doesn't matter. This is stupid." EX says, pushing away and quickly removing his helmet to wipe his face.

"It's obviously not stupid if it's got you of all people this emotional." TFC points out, patting EX on the back.

EX looks up at his friends, their genuinely concerned expressions startling him a bit.

"It was X…" He says after a moment of hesitation. "I went to his base and I guess he was really frustrated or something because he started yelling at me. Normally, I wouldn't care, but… It just got to me today…"

"Can you tell us what he said?" Grian slowly asks.

EX sighs, looking down at his hands, picking at a hangnail on his thumb.

"He said… That… He wished he could ban me again without people noticing. That I should stop trying to be so nice. 'Why do you want to be a hero when you’re supposed to be a bad guy? That's all you're destined to be!'" He says, dropping his voice distortions to perfecting mimic his admin counterpart.

Grian and TFC stare in shock.

They knew that X got a little rude when he got frustrated with a redstone project or a prank or something, but they'd never known him to be like this!

"And, that's not all. Get this, before he threw me out of his base, he decided to so painfully point out the fact that I'm not the same as you guys, codewise. That I'll never fit in anywhere because I'm like this." EX laughs harshly, gritting his teeth as tears pricked at his eyes again.

"What? What do you mean?" TFC asks, voicing both his and Grian's confused thoughts.

"Right… I never told you two, did I?" EX muses before sniffling. "I’m not living. It’s completely different. At least, in the sense that you guys are living."

He turns his helmet in his hands so that his reflection is visible in the crimson visor, staring down at his own greasy face with a grimace.

"My code is corrupted." He says bluntly. "The last time X banned me, something went wrong and I became registered as more of a mob rather than a player. If I die, I'll disappear like a zombie or a skeleton. No respawn."

A shocked silence hangs thick in the air as Grian and TFC take in this new information.

There is no hesitation as Grian quickly latches onto EX, hugging him tightly, TFC loosely following his lead.

' Oi, you! ... You can't be here. '

They had had such a pleasant evening together. Even though she had completely forgotten their one year anniversary, he had remembered, and planned a quiet dinner away from the children at the Bismark. It was so nice to get out of the house, out of the tribe for a little while to remember their love and little sparks of passion. To remember what it was like when they first met, the flirting…the little things you forget about when you spend all day and night playing a mother of four and doting wife. It was fun to feel a little younger…

The fun had ended abruptly, however.

First the pain in her head, an attack from the outside, or inside, she couldn’t tell. It was overwhelming, like her head was inside a large bell that would not stop ringing. Portia thought her ears would burst and blood might pour down the sides of her face. So loud, so painful, reality began to drift away. Her reality, everything that was up until that moment…it faded like an old photograph blurred from water damage. What was returned to her was something nothing like what was taken. Distorted, unfamiliar, and all she could do…was go back.

A man stood before her. Unfamiliar and handsome. He called out her name. His look of worry for some reason seemed to break her heart. But she didn’t know his name.

“I’m sorry, I don’t….I don’t…..”

Where was she? Where were her parents? Why was she alone with a stranger? And why did he seem to know her so well? Questions swirled in a whirlpool inside her head, and she began to drown. Shifting waters pulled her under, and everything went dark.

…..You….

…..girl……

…i had…every-thing…

…and y-ou…ruined…i..t…

Portia awoke from the nightmare with pounding heart and gasping breath. She saw her parents, laying in their bed. Blood soaked the white sheets red. She dared not go further. But that was a dream, wasn’t it? They were fine.

She opened her eyes, immediately met with warm sunlight, soft draped tapestries, and the sound of many distant voices outside cheerful as a morning melody. But. This wasn’t her home.

“Mother…? Father…?”

Her voice cracked as the panic returned. If this was not her home, was she still in a dream? Or were her parents dead? Dreams and realities blurred together as her breath quickened.