Chapter Text
“Then I told him… No one takes my X on the spot! I swung around and then I punched the guy right in the nose.” Doc explained. The Hermits laughed at the story while Xisuma sighed. He shook his head as his face flushed pink. While the other Hermits began to tell their own stories, Xisuma silently pushed off from the wall he was leaning on and walked out to the kitchen. When he walked in we went straight over to the food table and grabbed a cookie.
It was a calm night in the Hermit household. Grian was asleep in Mumbo’s lap, Iskall flirting with Ren, Doc telling his stupid crazy stories that were mostly not true, Stress braiding Cleo’s hair, Tango making some sort of crazy weapon out of Grian’s lego set, Scar trying to see how many pencils and pens he could stick into Cub’s beard, it was a normal night and Xisuma loved it. He was glad that they all finally got to have a nice weekend to rest.
His work had been extremely stressful because some hacker gang was trying to hack into the news report stations, sending stupid messages that were just ment to annoy any and everyone. Same went for the idol Hermits. The Gem Clock News had recently been in their shadows, constantly stalking and asking the idols about the rivalry that suddenly appeared out of nowhere between the Hermits and ZexyZek. Not to mention Mumbo almost losing his hand to one of his redstone machines that had suddenly turned on out of the blue. The redstoner still didn’t understand what had happened, more of how and why. When Grian found out he started sticking right to Mumbo’s side, going wherever Mumbo went, except the bathroom.
All in all, X was just happy that they all could finally get a break from all the wacky chaos.
“Hey X.” A voice said behind the archangel. X turned to the person, securing his ventilator back on after shoving the sugar cookie into his mouth. The person had noticed and quietly laughed to them self about it. Xisuma quickly chewed and swallowed the cookie before talking.
“Sorry ‘bout that, False. Can’t resist my sweet tooth.” Xisuma said, chuckling nervously. False chuckled with him.
“No need to apologize.” False said with a smile. She walked over and grabbed herself some Void Y soda. The two stayed silent. False drank her soda slowly, giving X constant small glances. Xisuma easily noticed this. He grabbed another cookie off the food table and sighed. He crossed his arms and looked at False.
“What is it?” X asked. False looked away.
“I really don’t want to bother.” False said.
“No no. Go on. What seems to be on your mind?” X asked. False looked down, guilt looked spreading over her face. She sat her drink on the kitchen counter and turned to Xisuma.
“I don’t want to seem like I want to know everything about your life but I’ve just always been curious… What’s with your X scar, and I mean the scar cut into an ‘X’ on your face, not your name?” False asked. Ah that’s right. Xisuma has an ‘X’ cut scar in between his eyes. It was clear as day, sat like a screaming painting on his face. It was hard to ignore. Sure, many of the Hermits had scars but everyone knew the stories behind them except for Xisuma’s scars. No one really asked him about how he got them, they usually just created theories about how he earned them, giving their leader space and time, not wishing to push him into telling them the stories about his scars. Most of the Hermits either were too scared to ask, in fear of reminding Xisuma of bad memories that they didn't know about, while others just didn’t care to ask, it was non of their business really.
X just stared at False silently as she began to feel uncomfortable. Maybe asking him was a bad idea.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have a-” False’s apology was cut off by Xisuma’s laughing. She looked at her leader, confused and not expecting this action from him after asking such a private question. X waved his hand a bit to calm himself down a bit.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I just-a small memory of how I earned my scar.” X said with a giggle. False was still confused.
“What? How is it funny? I-I’m sorry but I don’t understand.” False said. Xisuma looked at her with a smile, hidden by his ventilator mask.
“I’m guessing that you think the story behind my x scar is bad?” X asked. False just simply nodded. X tilted his head to the side, looking away with a distant look in his eyes.
“It’s a funny story, actually, but has a bit of a dark side to it.” Xisuma explained. False leaned against the counter, looking at her leader curiously.
“Would...it be ok if you told me the story behind it?” False asked. The archangel turned his attention back to the blonde builder. He smiled at her and leaned against the nearest wall.
“Sure. I guess to start off, I got this scar from Doc.” Xisuma started. False’s eyes widened.
“From Doc? Last I checked, the only pain he causes to you is flirting annoyance.” False said with a snort. X blushed at the comment.
“Well, yes but this was before.”
“Before?” Xisuma nodded.
“Before any of you, before I ahem adopted you all.” False laughed at this. Xisuma was technically all the Hermits’ guardian or parent. None of them really saw X as their parent figure, more of a best friend that was always there for you when you needed them. X laughed with False.
“Right. “Adopted”.” False joked.
“Hehe. But anyways, to start our story, I’ll start at the very beginning… it all started a few years after I had been brought here to this world”
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It was 8am, or...that’s what Xisuma could make out from the sunrise shining through his small apartment window. He had dark bags under his eyes, staring at his computer and typing away. His pajamas hung loosely on his tired body like his limp wings that sat on his back as he worked. The man had lost track of time, the day, the week and most possibly what year it was. All he knew was that it was snowing outside and that he needed to get his programming work done.
The year is 2118, December 4th. It had been 3 years since Xisuma was brought to this world named Palace Concy, given a second chance at life after being abandoned by everyone he loved just because he tried to take charge of the Aether by changing the rules and making things right, stop the heavens from torturing poor demons and angels because of little mistakes they made.
Sure, it was a blessing that he was given a second chance at life but he wished that he was back in the hellscape of clouds and not sitting here on his ass, working 24/7 just to get paid enough to pay off his bills and give him almost two meals a day. His small excuse for a ventilator was hardly keeping him alive by itself.
The air in the Aether was thin while the air on the ground was much thicker and heavier which caused Xisuma’s lungs problems. He had a hard time breathing without his small ventilator and had a tendency to pass out every 10 or so minutes without it, he had a hard time breathing with it in general. It was small, almost useless and basically broken, small cheep rubber tubes connected from the small ventilator box on his hip, up around his ears and to his nose. But he shouldn’t argue. It was all he could afford. He was a broke, sad and tired man. Living on what he could, barely hanging onto that small string of life.
“Error! Error! Program loading!” The broken computer spoke. Xisuma felt his eye twitch, wanting to grab the computer and chuck it out the window at the nearest person outside and blame them for all his life troubles. Instead, he took a deep breath and slammed his face on his desk. He earned a loud thump in return.
At this point, instead of the computer, he might as well throw himself out the window of the 7 story building. He was so done with life. He was ready to just simply end his life and not have to deal with all this bullshit, but of course, as an archangel, he’d just come back to life. His body had its own respawn-like-machine. It was strange and he never got a full explanation of it, all he knew was that when he died he’d wake up, alive, in his bed without any of his stuff except for his clothes and useless ventilator. That's it.
A knock on his apartment door dragged the tired Xisuma out of his miserable thoughts. He sighed and got up. It was most likely his boss, here in person to probably fire him or yell at him. He wasn’t allowed into work because of how trashed he looked, always failing to try and put on a nice look. His boss just gave him what he needed for work and told him to work from home. When his boss needed to talk to him he’d simply email him or arrive at his apartment in person because Xisuma was far too poor to afford a phone or car, not like his life depended on one anyways. But on the other hand, Xisuma walked over to his door, closed his wings neatly on his back and opened the door.
“Yes Jack, I understand that I need to get the program done but I-” Xisuma started but froze in place when he saw who was in front of him. Two royal guards in their usual flashy armor stood in front of the poor looking man. They showed no emotion which caused X to panic a little. Why on Concy were two royal guards of Redstellia here, at his doorstep, in a shitty town that was known for its shadiness and poor desperate people, in the town named Ghotellter, the ghost town of the poor. Xisuma tried putting on a smile but it looked more painful than nice.
“C-can I help you?” Xisuma asked, starting to feel more and more nervous by the second. With one quick motion, Xisuma found himself breathing into a cloth and being held down by the two guards. Within a few seconds, he saw darkness as he passed out.