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To be fair, the start of every season was a little buggy - but season ten had been buggier than most. In addition to the normal wrinkles that needed to be ironed out of every new world, a virus had swept through the hermits fairly quickly, and the server had been plagued by random lag spikes that Xisuma was still chasing down the source of.
Still, most players decided to take it slow, out of respect or out of caution for rollbacks, and Grian had apparently started some sort of fishing cult, in an attempt to get mending books without villagers. Pearl extended her own brand of siblingly support.
Over time, he started to appear more run down, twitchy, and overall stressed, so it was no surprise to her when he eventually snapped and went Bird Mode™.
Several members of ‘Cherry Mountain’ had been nabbed by Grian and stuffed in his tiny starter house, which barely had a roof and whose interior was nothing more than a giant nest of wool and a couple of barrels stuffed full of as much (raw) fish and bread that the parrot could apparently get his hands on. So, they settled in and let the others know that the avian had apparently fallen into his instincts.
Pearl let everyone know what to expect, but for most this was not their first rodeo. Various hermits stopped by and were nested - as expected - but a few just sent well wishes.
A couple days later, Bdubs and Cleo were the first Grian kicked out of his nest. Pearl assured the hermits that it was a good sign, that it meant that he would probably come out of his instincts soon, but as more and more players were driven off by a frustrated bird, Grian only became more and more clingy. He was especially adamant that Pearl be there. It was strange.
Pearl ran through everything that she knew about avian instincts and culture, as well as looking at what all of the hermits that Grian had ousted from his nest had in common. Skizz, Stress, Joel, Gem, Zedaph, False… They were all more ‘aggressive’, so to say, in their affection… and it seemed like she was the only woman left…
Finally, it clicked, and Pearl had to muffle a only slightly hysterical cackle before sliding over to sit next to her admin.
“Xisuma,” Pearl whispered to him, a strange combination between amused and concerned, “I need you to check the server settings for player breeding.”
Alarmed, X pulled up the relevant code on his comm, and sure enough, he saw that it said true . He gave her a subtle nod, and quickly drafted an emergency announcement.
This could be very bad. For several hermits, but especially for Grian, who had had access to sunflower seeds from minute one. Luckily, most players didn’t have golden carrots yet, but for hybrid players with other breeding requirements like wheat or fish it could be-
Oh that sly bird…
Still, she knew why Grian had been so adamant on her being here now. When an avian ‘decided’ on having eggs, the entire community would gather so that they could choose a mate. It would be an avian’s close family’s job to help thin the pool by shooing out members that instincts alone wouldn’t tell the avian shouldn’t be on the table, like a siblings mate.
To that end, she shuffled over to Tango.
“I’m kicking you out.”
“Wha- Why?”
“I finally figured out what instinct Grian is running on, and you shouldn’t be here.”
“What do you mea-” Their comms pinged, and Pearl watched in real time as Tango figured it out. Bless his heart, but it took him longer than it should have - Grian and Jimmy really did have similar tastes in men.
<Xisuma> @all EMERGENCY! It has come to my attention that there has been a mishap with the plug-in that toggles player fertility. If you think you may have had an ‘accident’, please whisper me and we can discuss next steps. For the time being, please practice safe sex. You’re all adults.
Pearl watched as Tango blushed so hard he lit himself a little on fire and shuffled not immediately out of the nest as expected, but over to Xisuma, presumably for a pregnancy scan.
Void help them all.
That taken care of, she slid over to do the other half of her expected job. She had no real objections to her brother dating any of the hermits left in the nest, so preening it was.
~~~~~
Pearl may know more than almost anyone about her brother-in-all-but-blood, but his bird brain escaped her at times. Over the next few days, Grian slowly banished his 'suitors', always in pairs.
Keralis and Iskall, Cub and Impulse, Ren and Etho, until the only ones left in the nest were Mumbo, Scar, Doc, X, and herself and Grian. Mumbo, Scar and X she understood, but Doc was very clearly still there less because he was Grian's type in terms of a romantic partner, and more because he was fun . To tease, his 'pull his pigtails' type.
Since X told her that their 'contraception' plug-in had been fixed, and pregnancy risk was back to zero, she felt comfortable speeding this whole thing up by kicking out the creeper hybrid. She expected that Grian would kick out another pair, making his decision of 'mate', then kick her out for the 'main performance'.
But then the strangest thing happened. Grian kicked her out, paired with Xisuma. Stunned, it took her a minute to figure out.
For one, Grian had decided on both Mumbo and Scar. For two, X had stayed as long as he had not because he was Grian's type, even though he clearly was, but because he was dad.
"Oh, I'm never letting him live this down."