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It all happens fast. One moment, Xisuma is perched on the scaffolding, yelling down at a grinning Keralis. Keralis is trying to coax him down, and Xisuma's almost done, seriously, he does not need an intervention for this. Too much longer and Keralis is coming up, Xisuma wagers. One moment, everything is fine.
He doesn't know where or why the scaffolding failed — only that one second he's smiling back at Keralis and the next he's seized up by gravity, that bewildering law of Overworld physics dragging him down to the earth. Xisuma is too startled to think, to imagine any way out of this — his elytra isn't even in his hotbar, nor a water bucket, there's not enough time —
There's just enough time to reflect that it might hurt a little, because he's not wearing his helmet, just the rebreather over mouth and nose.
It might be far enough to just respawn him, Xisuma reasons at the last second.
It is not.
Everything is — loud, and bright, and dark, not reaching him — everything is lead, too heavy to move, even the twitch of his fingers is like a scream — air like molasses, too thick to breathe, and this isn't dying and respawning, this isn't being wrapped in Hermitcraft's warmth and brought back, this hurts, it hurts, it hurts —
"XISUMA!"
Xisuma is not certain the voice is real at first. It could be coming from beyond this plane and Xisuma would never know. His head is ringing on an endless loop and it makes it hard to parse anything else. Is that Keralis swearing? Swearing? That doesn't seem right. Is Keralis here?
Like ribs pushed apart, Keralis' hands part his small bubble of awareness and cup his face in both hands, curling into his hair. That is Keralis, yes. Xisuma can't quite see him but he knows him, can hear all of his singing — not singing, no, that would be joy, this is Keralis roiling, barely human-looking, feeling terrible things too large to be contained, but that is still him.
Xisuma tries to focus on parsing small things instead of the large ones. Little beeps as his rebreather cycles, signalling that it is working. Small miracles. Keralis is still talking to him but the words themselves are outside reach. The ground below him, his enemy. Xisuma weakly laughs and that hurts too.
"Ow." Xisuma thinks he whispers it. It's very hard to say.
Another hand touches him, and the code sensation is familiar. "Hi X. Can you hear me?" Joe asks in a soft voice.
Yes, Xisuma thinks, but his mouth slurs the sound a little. Joe smiles, though, like the sun coming out from the clouds, like it's perfect.
"Good. Cleo and Keralis are here. We've got you, okay?"
"Okay." That would explain the cold set of hands poking at the side of his head. Someone says something about bleeding. Xisuma's not sure who's bleeding but that seems like a problem that someone should be solving. He's pretty good at solving problems but this one might just be a little beyond him, right now.
"You just keep looking right here at me, X, all good." Joe goes on in that easy voice of his. "You see me okay?"
The world has started to open up past the pain and Xisuma does now have a bleary view of Joe. "Mhm." His eyes are very, very green, moreso than usual. Joe is looking through him, Xisuma relates belatedly. He's surprised he hadn't noticed sooner — it's blatant, now, the hand carding through his code.
"Apologies, wouldn't normally do it without asking." Joe remarks like he's following Xisuma's train of thought through the admin's eyes alone. "You are definitely concussed, but otherwise lucky, I'd say. D'you got that, Cleo?" Joe's eyes never leave X's face, an appreciated sentinel, Xisuma thinks.
"Yes." Cleo responds, both closer and farther away than Xisuma expects.
"I'm going to go ahead and teleport us back to your place, X, okay?" Joe goes on. "You don't have to do anything but hang tight."
Xisuma does not remember giving Joe teleport permissions; Joe has some helpful admin privileges, yes, but is teleporting usually one of them? Perhaps an issue for a later time. Joe does tend to do as he will.
Lost in the confused train of thought, Xisuma blinks and for the tiniest sliver of a second, carved off a tick, they are in Hermitcraft's hands, and then in the next they are in Xisuma's base and he's sprawled in his own bed.
"That's a good trick," Xisuma tells Joe, who beams.
"Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week."
—
Parts of Xisuma's base have regulated atmospheric conditions like the End, so they take his rebreather off once they're sure his breathing is fine. Cleo is dead and Keralis is Keralis, so Joe's the only one who needs a rebreather of his own so long as they're present.
Cleo has Xisuma's blood on her hands and Keralis is possibly the most shaken that Joe has ever seen him. Xisuma is half-asleep already, paler than the pale he normally is, but the nasty wound on his head is bandaged pretty tight. Cleo is a person of many talents. Joe steps out of the way to let Keralis work his anxiety out through fussing, burying Xisuma in blankets and carefully washing the blood out of the admin's white hair.
"Stitches?" Joe asks Cleo under his breath from the far side of the room.
"I did some quick ones in the field." Cleo answers. "If they bleed through, I might have to redo them. I'm shocked that's the only major injury."
"His armor." Joe reasons. "Would've respawned instantly otherwise."
"I still think we need to keep a close eye. Voidwalkers aren't built for high-impact falls." Cleo shakes their head, red hair falling out from behind their ears. Joe reaches up and tucks it back.
"I agree, but I want to let Keralis calm down a little bit before we bring it up."
It's rare to see Keralis so worked up; the shadows in the room are writhing in unnatural ways, but weirdness does not bother Joe or Cleo. Joe can imagine it was a panic-inducing experience, and he doesn't blame Keralis for being upset, not in the least.
"I'll handle Keralis." Cleo murmurs. "Will you let everyone else know how things are going? I'm sure Zedaph or Doc are going to want to check Xisuma over." She blows air out through her nose. "Ugh, Evil X hasn't been around, have they? I can handle Keralis but they're going to pitch a fit."
Joe pats Cleo's shoulder. "You worry about Keralis and X, I'll do the rest. Promise."
"Braver than any 2b2t soldier." Cleo quips as they slip in to Keralis' side, wrapping an arm around him. Keralis puts his head on Cleo's shoulder as they watch Xisuma sleep.
Joe gets his comm and steps out of the room. Best not to disturb them with all the calls they have to make.