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There was a child on hermitcraft.
Scar was the one to find him. He’d been looking for Jelly, who he hadn’t seen all morning, and was now flying over Scarland looking for the kitty when he spotted someone with bright blond hair that he nearly mistook as Grian's, before processing their size.
He was quick to land near the literal child, who looked no older than five or six seemingly wearing pajamas, with a red blanket tied around his shoulders. The kid didn’t so much as glance at him, entirely focused on the gray ball of fur in his lap. Well, at least he’d found Jelly after all, Scar thought.
He sent off a quick message to Xisuma before approaching with a smile.
“Well hello there! I don’t believe we’ve met, friend!”
The kid turned to look at him, shockingly blue eyes squinting at Scar, looking him up and down. He opened his mouth to speak and Scar braced himself for a scared, lost kid to ask where he was-
“Who the fuck are you?”
What.
Scar faltered in his stride.
“Oh, um.” He stuttered, “Uh, Scar. My name is Scar, and your little friend there is my cat, Jelly! You’re in Scarland right now, do you know how you got here little buddy?”
Nice recovery, he thought to himself with a grin.
“No.” The kid's face was blank, glancing between Scar and a purring Jelly.
“Right, well. Can you tell me your name then bud?”
The kid stared at him for an uncomfortably long time before answering in a murmur that Scar could barely understand.
“M’ Tommy”.
It felt as if they were at a standstill. The kid- Tommy continued to stare with eyes that now seemed more inquisitive than anything else. His hand was threaded in Jelly’s soft fur, scratching gently with what appeared to be dull talons. So he was a hybrid, then. Not uncommon, especially not somewhere like Hermitcraft, though Scar couldn’t help but wonder what sort of hybrid he was, exactly.
Tommy didn’t appear to have any distinct features or characteristics that could indicate his heritage. His little face was round with baby fat, his cheeks and nose tinged pink as if he were cold. The golden blond hair Scar had first noticed was, to put it kindly, an absolute mess of brushed-out and overgrown curls. They fell across his face, awkwardly parted so that he could see through them, big blue eyes peering through curiously.
Taking a deep breath, Scar went to say something else but was interrupted by the sound of rapidly approaching rockets. Hopefully, it was Xisuma. The admin was much better suited for talking with a child so young.
He turned, about to inform Tommy of their soon-to-be visitor, but freezing at the sight before him. Tommy’s head had snapped towards the sky, wide eyes scanning the clouds with a look of utter terror. He was shaking.
“Oh, hey, buddy. Tommy. It’s okay; it's just a friend of mine coming to help us. It’s ok” He was quick to move the last few steps toward the kid, hands held up in a placating gesture.
Tommy quickly turned back to face him, shoulders shooting up to his ears and hands tightening around Jelly.
“Why are they shooting” He whispered, voice unsteady.
Scar’s eyebrows furrowed.
“What? They’re not…” It took a moment for him to realize the frankly concerning reason for Tommy’s fear, “Oh! No no no buddy, he’s not shooting, I promise. He’s using blank fireworks – which means they can’t explode at all– to fly! He’s not going to hurt anybody, I swear. There’s no crossbow!”
The kid clearly didn’t believe him but nodded anyway, standing quickly when he spotted X finally breaking through the clouds. He took a few steps back until he bumped into Scar, curling into the hand that was soon placed on his shoulder.
His arms tightened further around Jelly as Xisuma landed and started moving towards them, pushing himself against Scar’s legs.
Scar shook his head at the admin, who thankfully understood and slowed to a stop.
“Hello there! Tommy, I want to introduce you to my good friend, Xisuma! He’s our admin here on the server, and he’s very nice, I promise. X, this is my friend Tommy. He’s a little lost, I think” He gently squeezed the kid's shoulder, noting how it trembled under his palm.
“Oh! It’s very nice to meet you, Tommy.” He glanced towards Scar, his eyes though barely visible under his helmet, held clear concern, “Any friend of Scar’s is a friend of mine.”
Tommy only pushed further against Scar, as if trying to become one with the man.
Scar took a deep breath before kneeling down, keeping his hand firm against the kid’s shoulder. The boy looked back at him with eyes full of uncertainty. It was obvious that he was fearful of the admin, enough so to forgo any caution he might have otherwise had towards Scar.
It was odd. Scar had expected the presence of an admin to be a comfort of some kind. Most kids would find the admin helm to be a soothing familiarity, an association of safety and home. But as Tommy glanced nervously between two strangers, he was more unsettled by X’s green helmet and armor than Scar’s, well, scarred appearance and odd getup.
“What do you say we head inside buddy? It’s starting to get a bit late, and we should probably figure out how to get you back to your home server, huh?” Scar did his best to keep his voice quiet, pushing aside his usual hyperactivity in hopes of soothing the kid.
The last thing he expected was for Tommy to practically throw himself out of his arms, shaking his head wildly and squeezing Jelly tight enough to make her meow in disapproval. He and X were both startled, exchanging looks of confusion as the boy backed further away from them.
“We don’t have to go inside! We can stay right here if that’s what you want, we’re not going to force you anywhere!”
Tommy continued to shake his head violently. Scar thought he could see tears beginning to fall down his cheeks.
“No! I don’t wanna!” His voice was loud and full of what seemed to be fear disguised as anger.
Scar felt helpless, in all honesty. He was out of his depth. His experience with kids had been limited to brief encounters on hub servers for the past few years. The few tantrums he had witnessed or had a hand in dealing with had at least had a clear cause, usually a dropped ice cream cone or not… wanting to go home yet.
Did he… surely not.
“Tommy, kid, do you not want to go back to your home server?”
His admittedly unsteady voice had both Tommy and Xisuma’s heads whipping towards him.
“Scar? Why would you-”
X was interrupted by Tommy’s shrill cry of, “You can’t make me! I don’t wanna!”.
Both of the adults took a moment to stare at the boy who was now properly crying, repeating the sentiment over and over. Xisuma recovered before Scar, slowly moving down to kneel and reaching up to press a button on his helmet.
The visor turned clear, showing his sparkling eyes and a few escaped wisps of dark curls. His face was kind and etched with deep smile lines, a small and somewhat strained smile danced across his lips.
It seemed Scar wasn’t the only one surprised by the action. Tommy stopped crying momentarily, staring at the admin with a surprised look.
“Your eyes are purple” He sniffled.
His quivering voice was a stark reminder of how young he was. He looked so small with his shoulders pulled up to his ears and his arms cross over himself. Void, Scar just wanted to wrap him in a warm blanket and hold him tight forever.
Xisuma laughed lightly, startled by the statement.
“Yeah mate, they are. They glow in the dark too!”
“My friend's eyes are purple. ‘Cause he’s a, um, he’s an end man.” The tears had slowed down a bit.
“Oh yeah? I’ve met a few enderman hybrids in my time. They’re very cool, aren’t they?” Xisuma asked quietly.
Tommy shuffled towards him slightly.
“Mhm. Tall” He agreed, “Why, uhm. Why are you purple?”
Tommy’s voice was still shaking, but the tears had all but stopped. His eyes were firmly on the ground though, even as he stepped unconsciously back towards the two men. He seemed nervous asking the question.
“I’m something called a void-walker. We’re pretty rare so you might not have heard of us.” Tommy nodded in agreement, “Do you know what a vex is, though?”
The boys head turned to the side as if he was thinking very hard before he nodded slowly.
“Think so,” He said.
“Well, that’s what Scar over here is!” X leaned in towards the kid who was now only a few steps away and whispered loudly, “He can do magic!”
Tommy’s eyes widened drastically, turning quickly towards Scar. It was his turn to laugh now, nodding his head excitedly.
“I can do magic! I tell you what, I have this magic crystal here and I think it could use a new home. Would you be up to that, little buddy?” He pulled the shiny stone out of his jacket and held it out to the kid.
“Yeah! I can do that! M’ a big man!” He exclaimed, previous fear seemingly forgotten.
His tiny hands reached out to grab the crystal from Scar, holding it directly in front of his face. It was mostly a transparent pink, with a deep red vein going through the middle.
“It’s supposed to protect you! If you keep it safe and feed it good intentions, then it’ll do its best to guide you when you’re in a scary situation” Scar prodded gently, “Do you think you need that?”
Tommy nodded immediately, not looking away from the crystal.
“Yeah? Have you been in a scary situation recently, bud? On your server?”
Another nod.
Scar at X who nodded slightly. They were on the same page then, Tommy wasn’t going anywhere until they figured out what, or void forbid who, Tommy was so afraid of.
Taking a deep breath, Scar continued.
“I’m sorry to hear that. I promise you that Xisuma and I will do everything we can to make sure things don’t get so scary again, ok? Does that sound good?”
Tommy finally turned his full attention to Scar again, glancing between him and X. They all stared at each other for a moment before Tommy sniffled. There was a brief moment of panic as the adults feared he was about to start bawling again, but they paused when the boy made a small step towards them.
“Promise?” He whispered.
It felt like all the air in Scar’s lungs had been punched out of him, and by the look on X’s face he felt the same.
“Yeah buddy,” He forced out, “I promise”.