Chapter Text
Pixel stretched in the wagon filled with chests and hay he called home, though it was a vague term to the Shapeshifter now, considering most of his life was spent in and out of servers, trying to find a proper place to call Home, with a capital H, perhaps.
A little bit of background would be good, wouldn’t it? Well, social statuses were always strange to Pixel. Humans were a more ‘dominant’ species, and Hybrids, while still sometimes being treated poorly, were becoming more prominent, with many influential persons being Hybrids. Off the top of his head, he could name people like Ranboo or Fundy, but that wasn’t really important.
Shapeshifters like himself, on the other hand? An extremely rare species that was still actively fighting for rights. That’s why Pixel posed as a Half-Shifter, a subspecies of Hybrids. Uncommon, but not as rare as Shapeshifters. If he could remember correctly, the most prominent Shapeshifter, and one of the only ones, was Dream.
Lore aside, though, Pixel posed as a Half-Shifter cat named Kris. It was easier to keep a fake name in case he was found out, so y’know.
Still, even with all that, he lived in the lobby of Hypixel, occasionally stealing from people for food or out of boredom. Today was one of the days where he was bored.
Things never really worked out for Pixel the way he wanted them to, though, so that’s what’s brought him to this current situation. It took him a moment to realize who he stole from, though, rainbow wings only catching his eye AFTER stealing an enchanted diamond helmet from them and bolting, weaving through the crowds and heading into the tunnels of the Lobby, all while in his cat form. It took him a moment to catch his breath to realize he just stole from Grian . THE Grian! Creator of TNT Run and prominent member of Hermitcraft.
“Gods above, I’m fucked...” He groaned, but refused to admit defeat. “Hiding spot, hiding spot...” He huffed as he wandered through the tunnels, trying his best to remember a place that was relatively unknown to most. Not a good idea, though, considering Grian had the YouTuber rank and he was with Xisuma, if his eyes decided to work today, who also had the rank.
Making a quick turn, he headed down to a more ‘secret’ room with red carpets and a small waterfall, giving him time to recollect himself. He pulled up the server list on his communicator and headed to the Classic Games lobby, deciding it would be easier for him and harder for the two Hermits to find him. He hid under the stairs of the closest area and waited, before remembering that people of higher ranks can find which lobby a player’s in.
Voices reached his sensitive ears, and he realized there were more than just the two he originally saw. Yeah, no, he was fucked. “Are you sure they went this way, Grian?”
Has he said he was fucked enough yet? Because that was ZombieCleo, creator of both Demise and the Head Games.
“Positive, the server list says he’s here somewhere. That was one of my best helmets, too...”
At least PVP wasn’t allowed in the lobbies, minus Duels of course, so he at least wouldn’t have to deal with yet another painful respawn. Still, he didn’t know how to swallow his pride and just give back the item, so he bolted yet again as he heard footsteps on the wooden floors, ignoring the shouts and the footsteps thumping after him. At least the Classic Games lobby wasn’t as busy as the main one. He swung the Bowling Alley door open and raced down to the tunnels, then to a dead end by accident, red stained glass and a quartz pillar preventing his escape.
He turned his head back to see Grian himself running over, before stopping. “Give that back!” He hissed, wings flapping.
Luckily, Pixel still had a few tricks up his metaphorical sleeve. He jumped, landing on the Hybrid's head and running up the stairs to his right. He made it through the building’s library and into the Build Team Office, Grian hot on his tail. He made it to a building that he was aware was a dead end, and figured he’d have to make a quick decision. Either let himself be cornered, or jump down into the water.
Guess which option the prideful bitch chose? Yeah, he jumped down. Grian stopped momentarily before going after him, but it gave him enough time to head back up the ladder and back out the door.
Top of the stairs, up another flight of stairs to the top floor, then scrambling up a ladder to the... well, he was expecting an attic. Instead, he ended up on a platform he could jump off of, but it would hurt like fire from the Nether itself. Maybe that was an exaggeration, but Cleo was now down there too, so he was cornered fully.
“You don’t have an escape option now,” Grian huffed. “Just hand the helmet over, please.”
Pixel transformed back into his human disguise, cat ears and a tail, otherwise his normal self, minus the crown and goat horns. “Why should I?” He asked in a relatively unphased voice, masking his inner panic fairly well. “I could just keep changing servers, y’know.”
“Wouldn’t be practical,” Cleo called from her place underneath the platform. “And it’d be time-consuming.”
“You’re right, but do I care?” He asked, a smirk resting on his face. “...I do. Take your stupid helmet back.”
He huffed and threw it into Grian’s hands, watching with amusement as he fumbled to actually catch it.
“Why’d you steal it anyways?” Grian asked, glancing back up. Pixel shrugged, not really prepared to answer the question. He didn’t do PVP, and your own items weren’t allowed into PVP arenas.
“I was bored,” He answered truthfully, not bothering to look to see Grian’s reaction to that as he opened his communicator. “I’ll be heading out now.”
With that, he teleported back to the main lobby and headed to the docks, before laying amongst the cargo and checking his messages.
-
[Pixel has 2 direct messages from Jolyne]
Jolyne: Hey can I ask a favor of you
Jolyne: Next time you see Explosion, kill them
Pixel: Bro you’re literally an assassin I can’t do that for you
Jolyne: They’re a Shulk, they’re hard to kill
Pixel: Speaking from personal experience? lol
Jolyne: Yes
Pixel: Normally I’d suggest using lava or something but you’d probs get kicked out
Jolyne: Of the Fork Kingdom or the server?
Pixel: Yes
Pixel: Anyways tf did they do
Jolyne: Stole a shit ton of my books, only gave them back because Pen told them to
Pixel: Oh that’s shitty
Jolyne: Ikr
-
Okay, everything’s normal with the modded Origins server he’s a part of. It was never really Home for him though, so...
Maybe Robo’s Realm is doing good , he thought as he tapped on a group chat.
-
Robo’s Realm - 12:17pm
Keeb: I wish there was a quicker way to get to and from Kris’s house :(((
Kit: Just use the Nether dumbass
Keeb: Nono I don’t like the Nether I mean
Keeb: @Spriggles wanna build a roller coaster to and from?? :eyes:
Spriggles: I don’t rlly have time `^` srry
Keeb: It’s fine dw
Kris: Were y’all talking about me?
Fuji: Oh look, the local dumbass appears
Keeb: Fuji stfu
Kris: Whatever idc
Kris: Keeb are you supplying my shop????
Keeb: Ye!!
Kris: I love you never change <3 /p
Keeb: :00 <3 /p
Mitte: Get a room you two
-
Pixel suppressed a chuckle, it never really changed. His friends, that was, the server on the other hand was constantly changing. He sighed and exited his messages, checking through the minigame lobbies. He might as well spend his time doing something productive before heading back to bed.
“Murder Mystery? No... Build Battle? Ha, I wish... VampireZ? Maybe tomorrow...” He hummed to himself, before looking at the Duels lobby. Well, usually people were chill in the arena, as long as you didn’t attack them. “Eh, why not?”
He was teleported to the Duels lobby and greeted by the massive arena with the words “HYPIXEL DUELS” over it. He geared up and went to the lobby arena, looking around. He was almost immediately attacked, just his luck. They got quite a few hits on him before he ran, then someone else killed him. He respawned back at the stairs, chest burning. Yeah, maybe he’d go get a few healing potions. “Damn, and here I was thinking they were chill...” He sighed, getting up.
He reached into his inventory and grabbed a healing potion as he headed away, drinking it and feeling the burning fade. He went through the portal back to the main lobby and sat down, suddenly not in the mood to do much. Still, he tapped the ‘Random Minigame’ button, and ended up in Hide and Seek, more specifically Party Pooper. Maybe it would be fun for a while.
-
First round he was a Seeker, he won. Second round he was a hider, he lost. Third round he was a Seeker, he won.
It was around 5pm now, so he still had time for one more minigame. Yeah, a round of Build Battle sounded fun. The theme was Sponge, he ended up building a shitty version of Spongebob and placed in 3rd. He wasn’t sure why Build Battle took so long, but it was at least time-consuming. It was about 8pm now, and he headed back to the wagon he was living in, ignoring the rumbling of his stomach.
It always seemed to be like that nowadays. It reminded him that he hadn’t eaten for about two days now either, mostly just taking potions of strength when he needed something to keep him going. It wasn’t as easy to get food recently anyways, since most people didn’t keep it on them when they came here.
Oh well. He’d worry about it tomorrow.
-
It was safe to say that his tomorrow self didn’t appreciate the lack of food, as he found it extremely hard to drag himself out of the wagon and into the streets, let alone look for food. He managed to snag a loaf of bread without being noticed, but it didn’t help too much, only giving him enough energy to find someone to steal from. He woke up around noon, so it would be easier to steal anyways, but he just sat down in a cafe instead. He wasn’t entirely sure why, but he just did.
Pixel thought for a moment, before an idea came to his head. A stupid, idiotic plan, but one that might just work if he could figure out world code. His idea didn’t have a reason, if anything, it was just for shits and giggles.
He could potentially sneak into Hermitcraft.
Sure, it was stupid, but it could serve as a personal challenge to see how long he could stay there until he was caught and thrown out. He looked up to the Hermits, he really did, but his impulsivity has gotten him into similar situations before.
He got up and headed down to the beach, a part of it that nobody really visited and sat down to ponder his decision.
“Decisions, decisions...” A voice beside him taunted, but he paid no mind. “Are you really risking your chances to get into Hermitcraft with this?”
Pixel held back a bitter laugh, glancing over at the frosty blue-haired being, watching its tail twitch in amusement as it floated. “I’m a nobody, I’m not gonna get into Hermitcraft.”
An angry voice hissed on his other side. “We’re not a nobody!” He snapped, ears flattening.
“I sure am looking forward to another Echo vs. Tez fight,” Kris growled, silencing the two parts. Tez looked slightly dismayed, tugging on the choker around his neck. “Are you just gonna let it talk shit about us like that?!”
Pixel sighed and stood up, turning to face the black-haired being. “I’ve learned to ignore it. Anyways, I won’t be doing much with my life anyways, so I think I’ve made my decision.”
“Is this really a good idea..?” Tez grumbled, but disappeared. Echo followed shortly after.
-
After enough research, the Shapeshifter figured out pretty quickly that a larger private server like Hermitcraft would be hard to crack, but not impossible. It would mostly take custom portals and a shit ton of research, but it was doable!
...Doable in the sense of it was way too much dedication for something as dumb as this, but he would still do it anyways. Being in a private world was lonely, but since he’d done a lot with it, he could get to work immediately. He had enough food to last himself, and a bed to sleep in.
This would be a ‘personal project’ after all, and what better way to do it but in isolation? ...Yeah. Being on Hypixel was different.
Still, he got to work, and he was sure it would be done in at most a month.
-
Okay, so it took a little over a month, but in his defense, portal shit was complicated! That’s what he kept telling himself at least, as he watched the portal light, the destination set as Hermitcraft itself.
Sure, it was stupid, but he wasn’t exactly known for his brilliant ideas. Or anything, for that matter. He transformed into his cat form, and stepped through the portal.