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Grian was tired. It was the only thing he was feeling, floating aimlessly in an unfeeling void, clutching the Boatem members with stiff hands. There was no sun or moon here, no way to keep track of time. He’d thought it’d been a while, he wasn’t sure.
It’d definitely been longer than forty eight hours, all of the true players had drifted off into void sleep. That was his only marker, he didn’t know how long it’d been since then.
Not for the first time he cursed his Nature, too Watcher to sleep, to player to move freely through the void. He was helpless, floating and floating. Not only could he not fall into void sleep but he couldn't let himself actually sleep either. He used his feeble magic to keep himself awake, to keep holding onto his friends. If he didn’t they’d drift apart, lost in the abyss forever.
Not that it didn’t feel like they were already eternally lost. But at least he wasn’t alone. No matter how much it felt like he was.
Grian was tired. He didn’t know how long he’d been in the blank nothingness but it was long enough for his eyes to grow used to it. So used to it that seeing something -anything at all- was so intensely jarring he was nearly sick.
He didn’t even know what it was, it was some color but after however long of pure black he couldn’t even name it. And it had lights. He’d forgotten what light looked like, it stabbed into his eyes painfully, swelling behind his lids even as he screwed his them shut against it.
Suddenly he wasn’t just drifting anymore, something was pulling him. Pulling him and the rest of Boatem. He clung to them desperately, flapping his wings in a useless attempt to escape the pull. The light was getting stronger and stronger the more they were pulled, brighter and brighter.
And then the pulling stopped. And then he fell. The weightlessness he'd been suspended in for an indeterminate amount of time just stopped and he fell. He fell and hit the ground with a clang, a noise, the first sound in what felt like years and days and decades.
He shrieked, his all important task of holding the Boatem members forgotten as he slammed his hands over his ears. Or tried to, the suit blocked him, making all his attempts to stifle the noise the sound the feeling of ground beneath his feet impossible.
“Oh my void Grian!” Called a voice, the first voice he’d heard since Boatem fell asleep.
Then there were more voices, an incomprehensible jumble of words and sounds that tore through his ears like knives. He curled up as tightly as he could, sobbing at the onslaught.
“Everyone quiet!” A voice shouted, and the others followed. Then the light was dimmed, it was still infinitely brighter than the abyss he’d been trapped in but it was less. Less painful, less intense. It was quieter too, Grian could hear the sound of shuffling and machinery and it was still piercing but it was better.
He cracked his eyes open just to see Boatem moving away from him, being taken not by the void but something else, something he couldn’t identify through his tears.
“W-wait!” His voice broke and caught, rough from disuse and the fact he hadn’t drank any water since being trapped in the darkness.
“It’s ok.” Said a voice next to him, barely audible and far too loud. “You did so well protecting them, you can rest now, it’s ok.” His vision cleared enough to recognize Xisuma was the one speaking to him.
Immediately he relaxed, he trusted Xisuma. If Xisuma said he was safe, he was safe. Boatem was safe.
With his adrenal finally fading suddenly the weeks of keeping himself awake, keeping himself alive without food or water with his feeble magical prowess was catching up to him. He was barely cognizant of the fact he was going to crash until he was already asleep, falling backwards into his admin's waiting arms.