Chapter Text
Ren wiped the dust from his outfit, grimacing as it seemed to get everywhere. He loved playing around with unique and custom biomes, but boy did it often lead to messes. His muddy terrain easily got everywhere on his suit.
A ping from his comm caught his attention and Ren glanced down, curious as to what this could be. There wasn’t too much going on today, mostly everyone just kind of doing their own thing for the past couple hours. Maybe someone was looking for company?
Opening up the chat, his eyes widened in surprise at the whispered messages to him. They were still coming in. The first was from Impulse asking if Ren would go have a chat with Joel. A strange request. Why wouldn’t the man just come to him himself? Why was Impulse acting as a middle-man?
“Oh.. oh wow.” Ren looked at the other messages to him and quickly guessed why Joel hadn’t come himself.
His fellow canine hybrid had sent a large amount of texts to Ren, each showing that the other wasn’t in the best of moods. Messages like, “Ignore Impulse, he’s being nosy”, and “I don’t need a bloody babysitter, so don’t bother”.
They only seemed to get progressively worse. Whatever was going on with Joel didn’t sound great and he was obviously taking it out on his neighbors. That was no good. No matter your issues, you don’t turn it back onto your friends.
Ren shut the comm off and snapped open his elytra, bringing a couple rockets out to head towards magic mountain. He didn’t normally get involved where he wasn’t wanted, but Impulse was asking for a bit of help and that was enough to get Ren moving. A growl escaped him at the thought of his friends fighting and Ren knew he’d have to make sure Joel either let the two in and calm him down, or make him walk away and deal with his own problems.
~~~
Impulse waved him down before he got too close to Joel’s base. Maybe it was for the best. Ren was a bit riled up from just Joel’s messages. He needed to breathe a moment, cool off and not go into this mess barely holding back.
“Ayyy! Impulse my dude, what’s happenin’?” Ren called out, lifting a hand in greeting then sweeping the other into a hug.
Even if the reason wasn’t the best, the Ren Diggidy-dog did love a good Hermit Hangout. It had been a long morning of just building and gathering and thinking too much. Time to socialize, time to hang with friends.
Impulse gave a huff of a laugh, but it was obviously strained, “Hey, Ren.” He said, stepping back out of the hug after a moment. “Sorry for the call, but I think Joel needs a bit of help.”
Ren snorted, though it could almost be interpreted as a growl as his ears pinned back in anger. “That’s not what he was telling me.” He said, turning to glare at Joel’s base for the behavior of its maker. “Sounds like he should just be stepping back for a bit and cooling down.”
“Weeell… “ Impulse said, drawing the word out, “I’m not sure it’s completely his fault though,” He rubbed the back of his head nervously, “He’d been helping me all morning clear out some space for Metro-Mehem and everything seemed all good.”
Ren perked up, “Oh?”
“Honestly, it looked like something started going wrong with his hybrid code.” Impulse admitted, lowering his voice. “He started getting really agitated and jumpy. He was constantly checking his comm even though nothing new had come in. He was growling and snarling at basically everything.” It was said quietly, the social expectation of keeping hybrid behavior and instincts quiet slipped into Impulse’ own words.
Ren got it. He had the habit as well. No one liked to talk about loss of control, of when instinct would overwhelm you and you felt more animal than Player. Just thinking of it made Ren hyper aware of his own tail, slowly wagging back and forth, his ears shifting and keeping an open ear out for trouble. He had to consciously just let it be and not stop them from moving.
Hybrid instincts were something they all had to come to terms with. Sometimes you let it happen, accepting the behavior because it wouldn’t hurt anyone. Ren didn’t know how many times he’d run around in his own Biome, chasing the little Space Rats until he grew tired. He knew it was because of his Dog Hybrid Code, but that was okay. Who didn't need a little exercise once and a while?
He had his own fair share of troubles with them though. His temper and tendency to fixate on ‘his way or no way’ was one way it showed. Season 9 had ended up being a little messy with the King business in no short part due to his hybrid coding. He was defending his territory and grew to see some of the other Hermits as intruders. It had been a mess to try and tangle with the conflicting feelings for his friends.
They made it work out in the end, but it just highlighted to Ren how, if they weren’t careful, instincts could be a problem, even between friends.
“And so you grabbed me to see if I could do anything,” Ren said to Impulse, nodding in understanding.
“I mean, you do know the most about canine hybrids so maybe you’ll get what’s going on?” Impulse said, though his tone was very much stating it like a question.
Ren couldn’t really disagree. He lived with it, he knew the signs when there were problems. Out of all the Hermits, he would be the one to help Joel out if there was an issue - time to put that knowledge to use then.
Ren stretched for a moment, getting ready for a fight. That was one thing Ren knew would happen. Him coming in and questioning Joel would be seen as a challenge, and a stressed wolf is an aggressive wolf.
Waving Impulse off, he walked towards Joel's base.
Joel was pacing in front of the gate between his own city and Impulses’ when Ren got there. Upon seeing him, Joel growled, tail poofing up and ears drawing back, trying to intimidate Ren away. “I told you I didn’t want you comin’ over here!” He snapped.
There was a moment of submission from Ren, the dog in him wanting to not make the new threat have to take action. Ren ignored it though. He’d dealt with instincts long enough to push past it in most circumstances. This was no different then anyone else trying to get him to step back. Joel would just have to deal.
“Dude, calm down. If you don’t want people around, then leave. Stop bugging Impulse.” He folded his arms, unimpressed with Joel’s behavior. No matter how hard the younger man tried, it would take quite a bit to get Ren to step down as the top dog of the Server.
Joel didn’t take the challenge well, puffing his chest out to try and look bigger, but honestly just made it more obvious to Ren how worried and stressed Joel was.
“Tell me what you need, bro” Ren stated, standing up straight as well. Calm, sure, in control.
He didn't know if Joel counted him as a Pack Brother. It was hard to tell when it actually clicked. Half the time the hybrid themselves didn't realize it until months later. It didn't matter if they were Pack though, there's still a natural hierarchy that happens when there are multiple hybrids in a server. Ren was the experienced one, he'd been here longer and definitely had more strength.
"I need everyone to stop bloody bothering me!" Joel took a couple steps back, as though he wanted to escape but wouldn't dare to leave himself open to an attack from behind. His eyes kept shooting down to the comm clutched in his hand.
This was almost painful for Ren, how tense and afraid Joel was. The man himself didn't even seem to know what he wanted. If he really wanted to be alone he wouldn't have been waiting for Ren. He wouldn't have stayed trying to help Impulse. He wouldn't be constantly check his comm for a message that seemed to never come.
Ren tried to take it all in. He just needed to piece together what was happening, then he'd be able to help. Stay cool and calm. Having the both of them heckles raised wouldn't do any good.
"Lets just breath my dude. Impulse mentioned this might be hybrid stuff. Anything going on that might be buggin' you? Territory and borders all mapped out? You doing good with all the cherry blossoms on your mountain, they aren't too strongly scented? How about the noise levels? Mumbo's and Impulse on either side could be a bit loud."
He was just listing anything he could that might be wrong with Joel. For it to come on so suddenly though… it had to be something specific that was triggering this all.
Joel was slightly shaking as his breath grew faster. He was slowly starting to panic. It was made all the worse by not knowing why. Ren needed to figure this out, and quick.
And suddenly it hit him, “Are you Loyal to Lizzie?” He asked, feeling a bit silly for not recognizing the signs earlier.
Joel did not take that question kindly, “OF COURSE I’M LOYAL TO LIZZIE, YOU THINK I’D CHEAT ON MY WIFE?!” After those words, Ren found himself stepping back and bringing his hands up to catch Joel’s clawed strike as the other Hermit suddenly attacked.
Okay, that was not cool.
No more playing around.
Ren snatched Joel’s hand and pulled him in close, trapping Joel to stop the other from continuing to make strikes at him. He stayed silent as the younger hybrid growled and snarled, trying to snap and escape.
“We are not doing that, dude.” Rendog stated, “You need to get a handle on yourself.” His voice was firm, clearly an order.
He kept Joel locked in his hold until the other grew tired, growls turning into whines as Joel accepted the fact that Ren was stronger. Once Ren was confident Joel wouldn’t do anything, he calmly let him go, still alert and ready for if the younger man were to try anything but nothing of the sort happened. Instead, Joel pulled his arms close, trying to stop himself from shaking.
He took a large breath, but it ended up just sounding like a sad whine, “I-I don’t, something’s wrong. I don’t know what’s happening.” He started scratching himself, digging just a bit too deep. Ren quickly grabbed a hold of his arms again, trying to keep Joel calm. “It’s like I can hardly think right now.”
Ren took a deep breath, exaggerating it to encourage Joel to follow along, “Come on, it’s okay. I’ve got you. You’re safe.” He said, trying to get Joel back on track, “I need to know though, does Lizzie have you’re Loyalty?”
Joel whined once again, “I-I already said! I don’t know what you mean, like, it’s a closed marriage, we love each other, we don’t-”
Ren cut the other off, rubbing Joel’s hands and trying to sooth the other as tension continued to grow. “No, nothing like that. I’m talking code. Wolves can have loyalty to a Player, so does Lizzie have yours?”
Joel just continued to shake his head, “That’s mob stuff. Players- I don’t- we don’t have that kind of stuff.”
‘Oh boy-" Ren thought to himself, staring at Joel. There was no way he didn’t know. “You… you realize you’re a Wolf Hybrid, right?”
Joel’s ears flattened, “Yes, Ren. I know we’re Wolf Hybrids, but that doesn’t-”
“I’m a Dog,” Ren said plainly, “You’re a Wolf.”
“Wolf, Dog, it’s the same bloody thing right? What does that have to do with stupid mob coding?!” He was getting snappy again, but Ren could hardly hold it against him. It sounded like the kid hardly knew what he was.
“That’s actually a big difference, Joel. You’re a mob hybrid, that’s going to come with extra things you need to be aware of.”
Ren took a deep breath knowing he’d have to go into more detail than that. It didn’t seem like Joel knew much about anything hybrid related besides the basics. It was a frustrating reality depending on where you grew up. He’d come across avians that didn’t know how to preen properly and care for their wings, he’d seen a canine Player that didn’t have their own pack, he’d seen so many hybrids that just didn’t have the knowledge to keep themselves healthy.
It was a failing of education for all Players, but he’d never had a close friend deal with the consequences. It honestly hadn’t even occurred to him that Joel might need some help.
Joel started pacing around again, more growls escaping him, "Okay fine, whatever! I'm bloody loyal to Lizzie. What does that have to with this?!"
Ren breathed, trying to act as calm as he could to see if Joel would mirror him. If this was going where he thought it was, then Joel needed to be as calm as possible. There was a growing sense of dread though… He only hoped he was wrong.
"What do wolves do when their Players are attacked?"
What little calm he had was instantly gone as Joel took in what that meant. "Lizzie," he breathed out, almost falling to the ground as his legs gave out from under him.
"Whoa, okay okay! You're okay," Ren said, reaching out and keep Joel on his feet. "Give me some breaths, dude. Focus-"
"Focus?! Lizzie is hurt and in danger!" Joel snaps back, trying to pull out of Ren's grip.
The dog hybrid grit his teeth together as Joel scratched and pulled. Maybe that hadn't been the best way to phrase things. "We don't know that." He tried to placate the man, "Instincts are tricky. You said it yourself, we're players, we don't have the same things as mobs-"
"And then you bloody well said we do, so which is it?!"
He sounded so young, shaking with worry for his wife. Ren knew they needed to make sure Lizzie was okay, but the scale of things being wrong was so large and with Joel being so ignorant to his own hybrid nature he could very well be misunderstanding what his instincts were telling him. Ren had heard of a woman attacking another player just because her partner had gotten into a bit of a friendly PVP match. Mob code did what it did and it was up to the players to learn to understand it all.
Ren tried to explain this all to Joel, but the man was distraught. "Come on, Joel. You gotta relax my buddy. Was Lizzie planning on anything recently? You haven't gotten emergency pings or notifications so it's probably not that big a deal." He told Joel that, all the while trying to convince himself of the same thing. There were safeguards in place. Joel would know if something was drastically wrong outside of his hybrid nature. Hels, Xisuma would know, seeing as he was Joel's admin and was in charge of making sure all the Hermits were kept up to date about anything important going on.
"She's been just been getting ready to hop onto this new server." Joel said, voice still strained with panic. "With me startin' in Hermitcraft and all, she kept to mostly our own servers to make sure everything was okay and we didn't have a ton of things going on. Now that we're getting into the season a bit, she wanted to explore a couple other servers, hang out and meet others peoples, just normal stuff!"
Ren hmm'ed at that. "And let me guess… she started today?"
“I-I feel like such a hypocrite. I can go onto private servers, do my own thing and leave Lizzie behind but the instant she wants to, my instincts go haywire? That’s not fair to her,” Joel said, voice cracking and heavy. “She should get a chance to explore and do her own things.”
Ren reached out and scratched just behind Joel’s ears, trying to sooth the younger man. “No, yeah, you’ve hit the nail on the head. Lizzie should be able to do that, even with Hybrid Loyalty.” He thought hard, trying to figure out what was wrong. There is no reason for Joel to be this agitated just because his wife was on a private server without him.
He sighed, dragging a hand down his own face. “Okay, we’ve pinned down what it is, so let's try to get a bit more. How exactly do you feel? Think of Lizzie, what’s going on with her?”
Joel whined again, reaching a hand up to pull and scratch at himself, only stopping due to Ren keeping his hands from moving. “It’s, she… it’s like she’s stuck- trapped. I can’t get to her. She’s in danger, and I can’t get to her.” His breath started to come in small gasps and he curled in on himself, crouching low to the ground “I can’t- she… I can’t focus.
Ren felt like he was hitting a wall. Private Servers should not be doing this to hybrids. He’d never heard of it, and yet there were plenty of Wolf Hybrids with loyalty to others. Surely someone would have mentioned this happening? But no, there were always safeguards in place for Servers to make sure Players didn’t get trapped. Especially after the Dream SMP fiasco, where it had little to no oversight from the Devs, there were now protections and restrictions in place for Admins when setting up Servers for emergencies. No one should ever be stuck on a server like that again, so Joel's code should not be acting up.
"Here, let’s see if Lizzie has anything to say,” Rendog said, sitting next to Joel and guiding him towards his comm. Joel started to shake his head, telling Ren that he didn’t want to bother her, not wanting to be so overprotective and needy and controlling that his wife couldn’t even spend a day on a server he wasn’t part of, but Ren soothed him. It wouldn’t be like that. This would just be a small check in.
Together they brought up Lizzie's contact and sent a small message. Nothing too worrying, just a simple greeting, asking if she was settling in to the server okay.
Joel gripped the comm hard, staring at it as though it held the answers to the universe, still tense and shaking. Ren kept his breathing relaxed and even, trying to help Joel stay calm. Maybe it was working, maybe it wasn't. It was hard to tell, but having someone there surely was better than trying to deal with this alone.
The alert came and Joel almost dropped the device in surprise. He opened the message to read it and couldn’t stop the small whimper from escaping when it seemed nothing out of the ordinary was going on with Lizzie.
“Wait bud, look. Here, look,” Ren cut in, seeing Lizzie’s next messages. “They had to start late, something about a bug?” It wasn’t concrete, but it was something. He gently pried Joel’s hands off the keys and sent a small message back, asking her to check with the Server Admin that it didn’t affect any protections the server had.
She sent back a heart and then the comm went silent.
Joel could only wait and almost immediately Ren could see his thoughts spiraling. He cleared his throat, grabbing the wolf’s attention. “Let’s just relax my man, everything is fine.” He reached out and gently pushed Joel’s comm down to his side, “You seemed a little lost on some of the finer wolf and dog hybrid details, let’s chat while we wait, get your mind off it all,”
Joel barely reacted, only his ears twitching in irritation. He didn't say anything to stop Ren though, and instead just kept his eyes focused on his comm, as though it would somehow get a response quicker.
“Okay, let's get the differences down.” Ren starts anyways, guiding Joel to sit down and maybe help the other calm down. “You have your pack, right? As a wolf you're more likely to be selective and have a smaller group so don't try to force a bond just because your pack is smaller than others.”
Joel's face flushed though he pointedly kept looking at his screen. His ears flicked in Ren's direction though, showing an obvious interest.
“Thought I was just bein’ too picky…” He mumbled, the words barely reaching Ren's ears.
Ren smiled, ruffling Joel's hair, “That's okay. That’s just you bein’ you.” The small thump thump of Joel's tail hitting the ground made Ren’s smile grow, happy to see his friend beginning to relax, even as the other tried his best to ignore him. “Next thing you might have noticed is maybe your energy levels get a bit low if you don’t chow down often enough. A picky eater too?” He said with a grin, watching Joel’s face somehow get even redder.
Ren just laughed, continuing on,“Yup! As a dog, I’m pretty good at grabbing whatever and making it last all day, but wolf hybrids need a bit more nutritious meals to keep up their energy. Nice little trade off if you ask me,” Ren said, raising his eyebrows at Joel, “Seeing as how wolves also tend to be a bit stronger than dog hybrids, “ he stated, lightly punching Joel’s shoulder with a smirk.
Joel glanced for a moment at Ren, eyes alight at the thought of beating Ren. He quickly looked away though, pouting once more and stubburnly trying to keep focused on Lizzie and her eventual response. Ren wouldn't spoil the thought, but he highly doubted the younger man would be stronger than him any time soon. Ren kept in very good shape and had quite a few tumbles in his life. Joel was still very new to it all, not to mention being a bit on the small size for a Wolf Hybrid
Clearing his throat to grab the other’s attention once more, Ren moved on to his next point. “Besides just those You, my dude, have a bit of a temper right? Especially when questioned?”
Joel’s ears, having been perked up with intrigued and happily listening, immediately pinned themselves to the top of his head. He also released a slight growl, tensing at words.
Ren gave a chuckle, not at all perturbed. “Chill, man, just gotta say it like it is. It’s more hybrid things.”
Joel threw his hands up in the air, “What, so just all my flaws are from being a bloody hybrid? So plain ol’ humans are just perfect, aren’t they?!” he snapped. He went to leave, as though tired of the conversation, but Ren was quick to grab his hand. Gently enough that it couldn’t be interpreted at a grapple or attack. This was a delicate thing to balance, moments of high emotion and little understanding of hybrid nature.
“Joel, come on. You have to listen to me. You know that’s not what I’m saying at all.” Ren let Joel stew for a moment in his thoughts, not pushing it. “You can’t tell me you think Mumbo’s just perfect? He’s a lovable guy, but we all know he can tend to overthink things.”
Huffing, the wolf hybrid sat back down, tail wagging back and forth, agitated, but willing to listen.
“Not every hybrid will deal with the same problems, these are just the ones I’ve noticed in you. It’s important to recognize where they come from so you know how to act when they start causing problems.”
Joel looked doubtful, almost rolling his eyes as Ren tried to get it through to him. “Like, okay lets look at my pack. I’m a chatty guy, I love hittin’ it up with new people all the time. It’s part of my nature. The Ren-diggity-dog just wants to make friends with all the players! But I can’t actually have them be a part of my pack. It’s too many, I wouldn’t want all those people in my pack. I mean, how close could I actually get if I had more than 50 people all clamoring to be my best bud? Not going to happen."
"But I know when I’m hangin’ with someone new and that little instinct says they should be pack, I know to look out for that. Is this actually someone I want to be close with? Or is this just my inner dog wanting more buddies?"
Joel's patience seemed to only barely be contained, like he wanted to understand but didn't quite get it.
"Just because there's a reason for your behavior doesn't make it an excuse. It's just another way to work with it." Ren tried again, seeing Joel relax just that bit more. "It's all about finding that balance, my dude "
The wolf was back to silently pouting, though his body was slowly letting go of his previous tension. His hands, still clutching the comm, no longer gripped it as though it was a life line and instead let it rest comfortably.
Ren let the silence hover over them as Joel took in his words. There would be time later to teach about some of the more important aspects of being a hybrid, but that would be when Joel was actually in a mood to learn. Right now, he just needed to be kept calm.
As Joel breathed a bit more, Ren started up the conversation again. It was more relaxed and about Hermitcraft and his base plans rather than anything super deep. To his relief, it was only a short while later that Joel began to talk as well, outlining some of his own build ideas and sharing his list of insane building materials. They were all over the place and it sounded like a pain to plan and gather everything, but it was good for Joel. A nice way to keep his mind occupied, which was great because Ren still had no idea what triggered this all, and if he was being honest with himself, he was a bit worried for Lizzie's sake as well.
Joel was doing his best to just ignore his instincts, body still so incredibly tense that Ren knew he'd feel it for days afterwords. A simple conversation couldn't get rid of his feelings but he still didn't quite understand them.
Ren did.
Ren understood his own instincts and showed Joel that he knew enough about wolf hybrids. Joel could trust Ren. He could trust that things would be okay.
Ren just had to keep calm, to keep pretending that he wasn't also worried for Lizzie. He was fidgeting with his own comm as he debated with hismelf whether Xisuma should be notified and possibly look in to it as well. He held himself back though. Lizzie had already responded, she sounded fine. They were just trying to narrow it down now. There didn't seem to be immediate danger.
It took about 20 miniutes of distracted talking and deflection and by the nether was Joel doing an absolute amazing job at just trying to push it all down and try to keep calm, but honestly Ren wasn't surprised to see him back to being agitated and rude and frustrated all over again.
A simple ping caught both of them unaware.
Joel almost flung his comm with how hard he brought it up to read what had been sent, with Ren almost crushing the smaller man as he tried to peek over his shoulder and read the message as well.
<LDShadowLady> OMG 😱 our emergency contacts got disconnected!!
<LDShadowLady> We need all of our contacts to come to the server real quick so we can reset them. Can you come right now?
A breathy laugh came from Joel as he read his wife's message, relief flooding through the both of them.
"Well look at that, seems your instincts were right after all." Ren said. Without a backdoor to the outside, private servers and permissions could be quite the obstacle. It's no wonder Joel's instincts had suddenly flared up if those got cut off and he couldn't feel Lizzie any more.
"I-I gotta go, I guess," Joel replied. He was already typing a reply to his wife, though he did send guilty glances towards Impulse' base. "Could you… with Impulse, I mean. I didn't mean-"
"You are all good, my man. We know you didn't mean it," Ren laughed, "You can apologize when you get back."
Joel smiled and turned to head back to his base, probably to grap a couple of items or drop some things off before he headed off server.
"Can you, I mean you were just kind of trying to calm me down and keep my mind off it all, so maybe not, I just thought… it was kind of nice learning about the wolf and dog and hybrid stuff so maybe we can- not that you have to, it's just-"
Ren grinned at Joel's stumbling words, picking up what the other was trying to ask.
"Hey, the Ren-diggity-dog is always here for a chat. Whenever you need buddy, I can try and help a fellow canine out."
Joel relaxed, tail wagging as he just about bolted away, happy to go see Lizzie and to finally feel settled.
Ren smiled as his friend left, grabbing his own comm and watching chat until the familiar message of 'Smallishbeans left the game' popped up. He pocketed the device and started towards Impulse's base. He had to thank the other for bringing this all to Ren's attention and let him know everything was going to be okay.