Conflicting Lives- Chapter 5: Panicked Feelings (The Meeting Pt.2)

"What you SEE is the void BEYOND"

Notes and drawing process below cut :D

I had a lot of fun drawing this! I got inspo from a moment in Grians most recent Hermitcraft video of the tour of the server when he was visiting Bdubs and couldnt pass up the ooprotunity (view clip here)

I had like a week where I couldn't work on it though after getting the sketch done bc I wasn't home and couldn't draw but I'm really proud of how it turned out!

Drawing Process:

I am realizing now that I apparently never took a screenshot of the flat color- oh well

Conflicting Lives Tags List and Directory

Why hello there! This is a post of all tags to use for my Hermitcraft/Life Series Hero and Villain AU, Conflicting Lives! This is an extension of the materpost and more information is found there!

TAG LIST

#conflictinglives - Anything and everything to do with Conflicting Lives! This tag will be side-by-side with all of the below tags. #cl chapters - Chapters of Conflicting Lives! This tag will be under all chapters of Conflicting Lives to make them that much easier to find! #cl info - World Building and extra little tidbits of information about Conflicting Lives! Information from silly little fun facts to explanations of species relationships will be here! #cl characters - Anything to do with the characters of Conflicting Lives! This can range from reference sheets to random art I've made! #cl art - All official art from Conflicting Lives! This includes character reference art, scene art, and anything other art pieces I've made! #cl ask - All things asks about Conflicting Lives! This tag will be under all asks regarding Conflicting Lives!

Something to note, not all of these tags are exactly existent yet. This is partially because I don't really have anything to use for some of them, like the asks one at the time of posting this.

Conflicting Lives- Chapter 8: The ACTUAL Patrol, and a "Small" Conflict

Word Count: 3223

It was well into patrol, but Scythe and Joel could not get rid of the teasing comments of Voidling and iWork. It didn't help that they often did react very similarly (if not the same) to more than a few of them, only adding fuel to the fire. By now, neither Scythe nor Joel were saying anything to the other two in their patrol, and instead chatting with themselves.

They tried their best to ignore the two behind them, but when the four men heard a distant boom, the silence in the following moments spoke all that it needed to. With a simple nod amongst themselves, the four started rushing towards the area the sound came from, using iWork’s tech from Inventor to better help locate the origin point of it.

Without needing to say any words, Scythe ran over to Joel who easily picked him up and flew high into the air. iWork was close behind, helping Voidling in a similar way, the masked man instead holding onto a grapple-like rope that the winged man above him held onto.

The patrol made their way above and around buildings, the signs of what must have been an explosion become more apparent as they closed in on the source. The smaller and quieter explosion heard above the ever so faint laughter proved that, and she came into their view as they turned around the next building.

There she stood, in the middle of all of the chaos, living up to the name Wildfire as flames soared wildly in almost all directions. Her green skin illuminated with the orange of flames, Wildfire threw spears of flames towards smaller, lesser known heroes as they tried to land huts, to no avail. Luckily, she had her back turned to the patrol. Unluckily, a second villain was turned towards them, golden crown and crimson cloak glowing bright from the light of the flames.

As the cloaked villain leaned back to inform his partner of the incoming reinforcements, Scythe and Voidling dropped to the ground from the hold of Joel and iWork. As the four lined up and started to divide themselves into who would fight who, Wildfire’s voice rang through the air and over the sounds of the flames.

“Aren’t you glad I dragged you out here? Isn’t it just so fun to let it loose?”  Her voice was rimmed with mania, and when her partner in crime hadn’t responded, she continued. “Oh, is the great Red Winter too engrossed to respo--” she turned around, cutting herself off as her eyes seemed to sparkle with joy when she spotted the four heroes, “-- oh well just look at what we have here!

Four little heroes arriving just in the nick of time to save your friends!” She gestured to the scattered civilians, heroes, and police in the area as she spoke. “And here I thought that we wouldn't get the attention of the big guys, but I guess my little boom worked after all.”

Before she could continue, Voidling stepped forward, his armor helping to protect him from the small fires dotted around where the patrol landed. “That’s enough, Wildfire. You’ve done enough damage, and now it’s time for you and Red Winter to leave.” 

As he spoke, he drew his mace, the rest of the patrol pulling out their weapons and taking up fighting positions. iWork had his hammer out, but made sure to keep to a more covered and earthy area in case anyone needed healing. Scythe had a ryyk in each hand and had taken up a position of a straightforward and charge-like approach. Joel, with his battle axe in both hands, took up a position in the sky using his wings.

The expression on Wildfire and Red Winter's faces seemed to flip, a smirk growing on the cloaked wolf hybrid, a frown setting in on the zombie hybrid. “What a shame. I was just starting to have fun too!” Wildfire said in an annoyed tone.

Red Winter’s smirk only grew as he spoke, “I guess it's time to have some real fun then.” He turned to Wildfire. “Why not let loose on people who can actually put up a good fight?”

Wildfire found a smile returning to her face as she gleefully responded, “Oh, now that sounds wonderful!”

Red Winter charged towards Voidling, using his transformation abilities to become more wolf-like. Just as he reaches to swipe in a now werewolf form, Voidling raises his mace, blocking the attack and being pushed back.

In that same moment, Joel dives to where Wildfire is, dodging her spears of fire as they are thrown. Voidling starts to lose his traction on the ground from Red Winter’s continued blows, and iWork runs over to help him before Scythe can even fully react. iWork reached Voidling just as he is knocked backwards from the strongest attack against him, and Scythe comes up with a quick plan.

Slowly, he starts making his way towards where Joel is fighting Wildfire. He uses the light of the fires to his advantage, bending them slightly to help better conceal himself while also using his illusions to better blend into the ground and the flames around him.

Finally, he made it to where Wildfire and Joel were. He almost chuckled to himself as he realized the two were litterally playing with fire, then tapped Wildfire's shoulder, causing her to turn around. Seeing Joel get ready to launch yet another fireball, Scythe simply waved at Wildfire before jumping to the side. 

He had just barely missed the fireball as it came crashing down onto Wildfire. In the split second of quiet after the fireball landed, Scythe heard the clang of metal on armor as Voidling was pushed back as his mace hit his chestplate. Then as the flames fully clear, he decides to start up a conversation with Wildfire.

“Come on, you really chose to blow up a park instead of like, going to the gym or something?” He asked as he dodged one of her fire spears. She laughs as she responds, dodging a blow from Joel and reaching to attack Scythe, “Oh, don't be silly, you should know me by now!”

Scythe managed to dodge and grab Wildfire’s arm, but before he could do anything, she pulled him in, “I’m not one to shy from a bit of chaos.” A shiver ran down Scythe’s spine as she spoke, and he teleported away quickly as Joel dived towards her, axe in hand. 

Wildfire turned around just in time to see Joel diving towards her, and she quickly jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding getting hit. “You know,” Joel started as he dodged another spear of fire, “a certain someone visited recently bearing good will from you--” he moved to help Scythe as he prepared to throw a small ball of light at Wildfire “-- and it would be such a shame if she found out you injured Lux.”

Scythe threw the ball of light, but missed Wildfire as she dodged it, replying as Joel ran at her. “Oh, I won’t hurt him, “ she gestured towards Scythe, “but I don't mind hurting you.” She finishes just as Joel gets to her, ducking under his swing and pushing her elbow into his stomach.

Joel stumbles back and Scythe teleports behind him to help him regain his balance as Wildfire continues. “And besides, she was technically the one that suggested causing some chaos--” she threw a few more spears of fire at the pair of heroes “-- I just so happened to take it a bit literally, that’s all!”

Scythe took cover behind a nearby piece of debris, while Joel took to the skies once more to avoid the barrage of fiery spears. Scythe noticed that his flight was a little unbalanced, and that worried him more than he would ever admit, but he had to focus on what he needed to do next.

Wildfire and Joel kept fighting, and her voice rang through the air once more. “Besides, this gives a good opportunity to check in with you!” She stumbled a little as a ring of light began to encompass her vision.

It was working. When he was satisfied with the intensity of the light ring, strong enough to disorient her but weak enough as to not permanently harm her vision, Scythe came out of his hiding spot, running back to where Wildfire was standing. Joel sighed as he landed back on the ground, walking to a now slightly-stunned as he put his axe on his shoulder, admittedly a little amused at the stumbling state of the zombie hybrid in front of him.

“Why can’t you just let off steam like a normal person?” Scythe askes, delivering a light but firm blow to Wildfire’s shoulder with the handle of one of his ryyks. He stops the ring of light he made around her vision as she stumbled over, trying to be courteous as to let her catch herself.

She chuckles a little as she starts to stand back up. “Eh, it was worth it if I had a chance to annoy you guys. And if not I wouldn't have minded if I ended up with some other heroes showing up instead, just so i can beat their asses too.” She looked up at Scythe and Joel with a smile on her face, and Scythe felt something off as she spoke once more. “Plus, what’s the fun of doing something normal?”

Then Scythe noticed it, the sound of a large fireball falling towards the three of them. He jumped to the side just in time to look over and see the large ball of flame crashing down to where he just was. The heat was far more intense than he thought it would be, and he worried for a moment what shape Joel and Wildfire would be in after the flames died down. He wasn't really quite sure he saw them both dodge out the way before it hit.

“You never did answer my question either” a voice said behind him ,and before he could properly react he felt something push on his back and was shoved forward, barely managing to catch himself before face planting into the course and burnt dirt.

Quickly recovering, he turned around and saw Wildfire giggling to herself. Joel landed between the two, his clothes almost burnt off and his hair littered with small embers and ash, though he himself seemed to be completely unharmed. He looked behind himself to check to see if Scythe was ok before turning back towards the smaller zombie hybrid.

“I’m doing great, thanks for asking,” Scythe said sarcastically, walking forward to stand beside Joel. Just then, Red Winter appeared once more by Wildfire’s side, Voidling and iWork both taking up positions on each side of their patrol partners.

Apparently, Voidling and iWork had managed to push Red Winter far enough back to make him retreat, and he re-joined his partner in crime. “Are you alright, m’lady?” the cloaked villain asked, and Wildfire simply nodded, a smile growing on her face once more.

Scythe sensed something was about to happen, and looked over to Voidling only to find the masked hero looking back at him with the same confused and apprehension-filled look. He then turned to look at iWork beside him, who seemed to be focused on the gap between the two villains. In the same moment that he seems to see something, Scythe turns back to look at Wildfire and Red Winter, only to find a third villain standing between them.

“Well, well, well. Look what we have here!” Scarlet Moon giggled, her red moth wings fluttering behind her, eyes matching in color and almost glowing with excitement. “It seems this time I've been called in for the rescue, and how could I deny the pleasure of seeing four of my favorite heroes?”

Voidling stopped forward, keeping his mace firmly in his hands and speaking with a steady voice. “It is time for you three to leave. You’ve done enough damage, and you don't need to be causing any more.” iWork braced himself in case another battle broke out, and Joel started to stretch his wings in preparation to fly.

Scythe simply looked at Scarlet Moon, or rather Pearl, and she looked back. They held each other's gaze for a moment longer, then she looked back at Voidling. “I suppose so.” She put a hand on each shoulder of the two in front of her, and bright light started to emit from the trio. “I do wish I could have stayed longer though. Until next time, heroes.” She said, and a blinding light flashed, the patrol closing their eyes out of instinct.

When Scythe re-opened his eyes, the three villains were gone, and the surrounding fires were starting to lose their strength in Wildfire’s absence. He looked around at his fellow patrol members. Joel was rubbing his eyes from the bright light, Voidling was looking around and surveying the damage, and iWork was turned to Scythe. 

“Do you have any major injuries, Lux?” he said, reaching out towards his arm where he hadn’t quite realized he had a large scrape. “This doesn’t look horrible, but you should definitely get it cleaned before trying to heal it.” iWork continued, looking at the scrape closer through the dirt and dust stuck to it.

“Oh, uh, yeah I’ll do that.” Scythe responded, a little confused on how he didn’t see the wound before. The phantom hybrid looked at him with uncertainty. “I will, I promise! I’m just a little shocked that I didn't notice it, I guess.” he quickly added, and iWork looked a little more relaxed, though obviously not completely relieved.

He walked away from Scythe and to Joel, checking him over as well. Miraculously, he didn't have any damage to his person, but his uniform definitely needed to be replaced. Scythe could swear he heard iWork “lightly” scolding Joel. “You didn’t think to get your uniform in fire-proof materials? Come on, Stratos! Aren’t you a Blaze hybrid? You need a fire-proof uniform!”

Those were among the most tamed words of the scolding, but Joel did eventually manage to avoid the full-length of a scold by casually bringing up that Voidling might still be injured. iWork almost instantly stopped what he was saying, and begrudgingly walked away from Joel towards Voidling to make sure he wasn't badly hurt.

“Jeez, I almost couldn’t get rid of him.” Joel said as he walked towards Scythe, rubbing in the back of his head in slight embarrassment. Scythe chuckled and replied with a smile “I mean it is your fault for not getting fire-proof fabric, as someone with fire magic. That’s your own damn fault if you ask me”

“Oh, come on! You’re supposed to be on my side!” Joel pouted playfully, crossing his arm and looking away. Scythe laughed even harder, failing to apologize through all the giggling. Thankfully he was able to compose himself by the time Voidling walked over with iWork by his side.

“I want us to help where we can while we’re still in the area.” He said. Looking at Scythe and iWork, he continued” Lux, iWork, the two of you have Healing abilities, so I want you to check all of the citizens and bystanders to see if they need any help.” iWork opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again once Voidling put up his hand to stop him.

“Yes, I know I can heal too, but I want Stratos to come with me to clear the larger debris in the area to help clear up any major roads or paths that may be blocked.” He turned to Joel as he spoke, “Are you alright with helping clear, Stratos?”

Joel nodded, “Yeah sure. I can help lift and push stuff.” Voidling replied with an “Alright” before telling them all to split up and do what they need to do. Voidling and Joel went to the police and firemen that had arrived to check and see which areas needed to be cleared first, and iWork turned to Scythe.

“So here’s what I’m thinking. I have more disinfectant and cleaning things than you do for healing, I know that much, so I can start by cleaning any wounds, and you can then come in after and heal them with your ability.” He said. Scythe wondered how he thought of that so quickly, but he knew that iWork was a quick thinker, and the plan made sense anyways.

So he nodded, “That sounds good. What if it's a deep or large wound? Do we want to try and do anything different or extra?” He asked. He was genuinely curious, and didn’t quite know how much he could heal without running out of stamina, or risking his illusion fading, but he didn't really want to say that aloud and just hoped iWork understood.

He thought for a moment before responding. “If it's deep or large enough, I can do some initial healing after cleaning it. I understand your concerns, and if you think you’re getting too tired feel free to come and tell me or to step away for a moment.” He looked at the surrounding civilians before continuing. “There doesn’t seem to be many injuries, but still let me know if anything happens.”

Scythe nodded, appreciative of iWork’s concern. The phantom hybrid started walking towards the civilians, taking out his cleaning supplies and checking in with everyone. Scythe simply followed behind, stopping at anyone that iWork cleaned the wounds of, and made small talk while healing them, trying to be as kind as possible even when he did feel tired and ready to be home.

After about 45 minutes, everyone who needed assistance was helped, and enough debris was cleared to make the necessary roads and paths accessible to citizens. Voiding called iWork and Scythe over to where he and Joel were standing.

“Great work today guys. Go home, and rest. I’ll get a patrol with some of the other heroes to come and survey the area to make sure everything is still alright, but we all need some rest.” Scythe felt himself relax, and he took a deep breath as the masked hero continued. “You all did amazing today, both on the clean up, and in the fighting.”

The three younger men nodded, and iWork and Voidling walked in one direction, Joel and Scythe in the other. Joel didn’t even need to wait for Scythe to look at him before he knew what the enderman hybrid was going to ask.

“Yes, I'll take you back to your dorm. But you’re feeding me dinner and calling Cleo and Pearl to hang out too.” the winged man said, spreading his wings and holding his hands out for Scythe to hold onto.

Scythe laughed and grabbed his arms, still laughing as he replied, “Deal, and thank you, Stratos.” Joel rolled his eyes and flew into the air. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Also, it is so weird for you to call me Stratos, even if we’ve been on countless missions together.”

Scythe laughed and looked at the cityscape in front of him. “It is weird calling you Stratos, but we were still around the public eye so I didn't really have a choice.” Joel muttered a “Fair enough,” and flew back towards Cursia.

<<<Previous Next>>>

Literally sobbing over the hermits and friends working so hard together to put on this amazing show and charity event which is so full of love for the community and passion for the charity.

Grian hates livestreaming and here he is running the show getting everyone organised. Scar is zooming around as a robot looking after tens of thousands of us. Tango and Zedaph willing to eat the most heinous food for our entertainment... Martyn dying of cold and still talking through donations, taking the time to thank everyone he can and encourage people to never feel ashamed of whether they can donate a lot or a little. And we're only half way through, with a dozen other hermits here entertaining us.

Today is a good day to be in MCYT fandom, I'm in tears.

Come and meet Scythe in all his professions! Scythe, Lux, and Ender are from my Superhero fanfiction, Conflicting Lives and is the next drawing in my little art series of fic designs! Separate images below the cut :D (Glitch TW I think) oh boy tumblr crunched the quality-

Scythe

Lux

Ender

Conflicting Lives- Update (NOT A CHAPTER)

So obviously this isn't a legitimate or normal chapter by basically any means. I wanted to give a little bit of an update as to the lack of really anything with this story, and some of the reasonings behind it

Why hasn’t anything been happening here on Tumblr, or over on A03 in regards to the story?

When I started writing this story, I was in my senior year of highschool. It was sort of a hyperfixation project, and by the time I started getting into writing chapter 9 (which I have some of, but not at all of), I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do to fill the time gap until the big fight with Martian/Martyn. Because of that, I ended up developing major writer's block and just a general creativity block in regards to this story, and haven’t been able to make any progress.

This led to me forgetting about it for a while. That is until recently. I am currently about a month into my first year of college, and one of my classes has sort of reminded me of this forgotten and neglected story with something we were assigned to make. As a result, i went back through my document I have of all of the chapters, and realized that though i like this story, I want to change it and make it a bit more accurate, both to my college life experience thus far, and just to make it a bit more accurate to what I want the story to be itself.

This doesn't mean I will be editing chapters in this project. Hell, I won't even be deleting this story itself in any way, just making a new one that will be more updated. Chapters 1-8 of Conflicting Lives will still be here, and will stay here. Instead, I think I'm going to be making a new story where all the changes will be made.

What changes are going to be made?

As time has passed, it feels odd to me to have one of the closest friends of my main persona, Scythe, being a large content creator. I don't really know how to describe it other than feeling very parasocial, and I've realized that I'm not very comfortable with it, let alone how the CCs would feel themselves if they ever stumbled across this.

Along with Scythe himself, he's recently gotten a major design change, and I want to implement that new design into the story. I had previously had him as a half human and half enderman hybrid, but have recently changed his design (with the help of a friend) to be more enderman focused in terms of physical looks. I haven't quite decided if he’s going to be completely enderman yet, but that's more character lore than it is story lore, so it may not even come into play.

Character designs in general are also going to probably change, as well as how I release them. If you’ve seen the tumblr side of things, you’ll know that I have previously used Gacha Club for showing my designs for each character. While I am still most likely going to do this, I want to try and incorporate a little bit of my own drawing skills back into it to make it feel a bit more mine in a sense. I keep learning more things about drawing and am still very much trying to find my own style, but with the help of others and just general experimentation, I feel a bit more confident in my ability to draw the designs how I see them in my mind. However, please do not get your hopes up at seeing no gacha at all. It is still going to be there, just hopefully not as prominent.

Not only character designs, but the powers, abilities, and species of most characters will also be changing as well. It feels a bit unbalanced right now looking at things, with some characters in my spreadsheet supposedly being super powerful or super weak, but being average or the other extreme. I want to kind of dumb it down a bit and bring it to basic powers as much as I can, just to make it a little bit easier for me when re-writing the story. I don't really plan on changing relationship dynamics much, but I can't guarantee anything. Honestly, go ahead and comment on what your favorite ships are of the characters so far and I can try and keep some of them in, or even add them if they weren't in before. If you do choose to do this though, be reminded that this story uses CCs from Hermitcraft, EmpiresSMP, and the Life Series. Any character you see that is not a CC from any of those servers/fandoms, please do not put into ships; those are the characters of myself and my close friends.

What is the new story going to be called?

I’m honestly not quite sure yet. I like the name Conflicting Lives for the essence of what the story itself is, but at the same time, a new name for a new and revitalized story seems right as well. If anything, I may just rename this one to have “old version” in the title or something similar, but i’ve still not completely decided. 

One thing that i can tell you for certain though is that When i do figure it out and post the first chapter of the re-written story, i will make a new chapter here, and a new post on tumblr with the link to the entire story so you can have that as well. When that will be though, I don't know. Admittedly, I'm still getting used to being at college and managing my time differently, so it’s probably going to be much longer in between chapters on the rewrite than there ever was on this one (not including this update). I will try to make some sort of schedule or dedication to working on the story, but again, I can't confirm anything right now.

I think that's all there is for now. Thank you all for being a part of this story as it is now, and I hope that, if you choose to, you enjoy the re-write or even re-reading this one!

Grian, Impulse, Skizz, and Tango played content warning together and i don’t think they have a group name yet cause we have GIGGS, JITS, and ZITS i suggest that we should call them ISTG because it’s funny like that “I SWEAR TO GOD”

"Shadows die twice."

Hi I drew a thing today :D

Conflicting Lives- Chapter 9: Unlikely Friendship (NOT FINISHED)

Word Count: 1250

Scythe fumbled with his keys as he stood in front of the door to his dorm, Joel standing impatiently beside him.

“Does it really take you this long just to open your front door? I could’ve called Pearl and Cleo by now and they'd get here before you open that thing!” He said jokingly, though still definitely annoyed. Scythe just rolled his eyes as he put the dorm key in the door, twisting it and opening the door.

“Ladies first,” he said with a smirk, stepping aside to hold the door open for Joel. The blaze hybrid’s only response was a glare as he flipped imaginary hair, walking through the door with confidence.

Scythe chuckled as he followed into the apartment-dorm, closing the door behind him and pulling his phone back out. “Welcome back from patrol,” Ella said from the couch as Joel plopped down beside her. 

She looked expectantly at Scythe for an answer as to why Joel was here, even if it was a regular occurrence that the two would hang out. He sighed and responded, “I agreed to make dinner for him and invite Pearl and Cleo over for it as well since he took me home. Plus it wouldn't be bad to talk to them anyways after the patrol.”

Ella just nodded in understanding, curious about what happened, but not quite sure if she should ask. “Why? What happened during the patrol?” She asked a little hesitant after a moment. Scythe and Joel simply looked at eachother and simply sighed. “What happened?” Ella asked again, further confused by the reaction of the two men. “Was it really that bad?” 

Joel shook his head, “It's not that it was bad necessarily,” he paused, and Scythe finished the thought. “It's just something that we should probably talk about afterwards.” His gaze had drifted off to the side, and he looked hack at an evermore puzzled Ella, this time worry noticeable in her eyes. “It's nothing bad, I promise.” He measured her, walking over to where she sat on the couch and planting a small kiss on her forehead.

She visibly relaxed as soon as he did so, trusting Scythe that he knew what he was doing, or at the very least Joel and Scythe. “Alright I trust you, but don’t go too crazy. You still have classes in the morning and I don't want to have to clean up after you four.” Ella replied, a stern look in her eyes to both men infront of her. Scythe put his hands up defensively, and Joel replied “Yes ma’am. No messes are to be made.”

The phoenix hybrid nods approvingly before turning back to Scythe. “What are you planning to make?” she asked. Scythe thought for a moment before responding, “Spaghetti?” It was far more a question than it was a legitimate answer, but the pair on the couch nodded anyway. “Spaghetti is it then!” he said as he turned towards the kitchenette. As he rummaged through the cabinets to take out a pot and some noodles, Joel took his phone back out to call Pearl. He wasn’t on the phone for long before he updated the other two. “Pearl says she just has to finish cleaning a few small scrapes off Cleo and Ren then her and Cleo will head over. She was curious if you’d mind him coming over too since the three of them are at Pearl's place anyways.”

Scythe thought for a moment as the water was heating up, looking over at Ella to gauge her thoughts on an extra person coming to the apartment dorm. “I don’t think I would mind, but you guys would know Ren more than I would, so you could better judge.” she said, looking between Joel and Scythe. “I know Ren more than Scythe does, but even that's not super well either.” Joel replied, looking to the enderman in the kitchen for his opinion. After what felt like long hours, but really only a few seconds, Scythe responded, “I don’t really know Ren at all to be completely honest. The way I see it is this: I trust Pearl and Cleo. They seem to trust Ren. I think that if both of them trust him, then I can trust him for a night.”

He looked between Joel and Ella after he finished. They had yet to come to a conclusion, and Pearl was waiting for a response about Ren. “That makes sense” the two said in near-unison, and Scythe chuckled a little at it. As he turned back to pour the pasta in the now-boiling water, he said something to Joel. “Go ahead and tell Pearl that Ren can come along too. It won't be hard to feed everyone.”

“Will do,” Joel replied, and turned his phone back on, messaging Pearl the go-ahead. Ella leaned to the coffee table to get the TV remote, turning it on and browsing through shows before settling on a forging competition show.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was a knock on the door just as Scythe finished mixing the sauce into the spaghetti. Walking the short distance from the stove to the door, he opened it and was greeted by a familiar, but clearly tired, face. “Pearl!” Joel said from behind him on the couch, getting up and walking to the door.

“Elo mate!” the moth hybrid responded, walking in as the two guys stepped aside. Cleo followed right in after, greeting Ella as she found a nearby chair to sit in. Ren was a little more hesitant to follow, but seemed to relax once Scythe welcomed him in.

While everyone got situated and started chatting, Scythe went back to the kitchen, grabbing bowls and silverware for everyone. “Foods ready!” he called behind him. Almost immediately he heard the shuffling of everyone standing up and walking to the small kitchenette. He grabbed a bowl of his own to eat before quickly stepping aside to let others get their share.

As he went to sit down at the table, Scythe looked up and saw Ren hesitating to grab some food. The wolf hybrid's ears were down to the side in worry, but uneven in confusion as well. “Is there something wrong with the noodles Ren?” he asked after a moment longer. Thinking he might have done something wrong as he saw Ren's ears perked up in panic, the taller responder, “Oh- no! No, not at all!” He brought his hand up to the back of his head nervously. “it’s just.. uh what’s in the pasta? being a wolf hybrid and all i have to be a bit more careful and all…” he tried to explain.

It took a minute for Scythe to process what he did, but as soon as he did he started laughing. “Are… are you alright,dude?” Rem\n asked him. “Yeah.. Yeah I’m good,” Scythe said in between laughs. When he was finally done, he answered his concerns, “Ella and I make all our food allergen and animal safe. Her being part phoenix and me being part endermen there's quite a lot of food specifications we have to meet, and so we just make it safe for everyone.”

After he finished explaining, Ren looked as though he had just noticed Ela having wings and Scythe having a tail, key traits to their hybrid species, face flushing red in embarrassment. “Oh, uh, right. That makes sense. Like, a lot of sense. T-thank you.” he said awkwardly, trying not to show just how embarrassed he really was.