Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

[ The screen sparks to life with a burst of static, as our intro music starts to play. Large text appears in time with the music ]

10 PLAYERS

2 TEAMS

WITH ONE

LIFE EACH

AIMING TO KILL

EACH OTHER

WELCOME TO…

Minecraft

SECRET

RIVALS

[ Character portraits appear as their names flash across the screen, accompanied by a funny tagline ]

ANATHRA: “Did you guys 🔔ing go back to the prehistoric era?”

MARM: “Who has subtitles on? 🔔 Nerd!”

DOOVID: “You remind me of my dad before he smoked weed”

MILKMAN: “I’m afraid, I’m doing the parkour in fear”

VIKING: “I’m pretty sure Grandma’s are like zero percent bone”

FOOL: “🔔 his artistic vision we gotta go to hell!”

LEON: “Okay we’re going deeper into the giant scary forest”

RUBYCO: “Dog? more like Pog”

VINTAGE: “We’re all one team, the human team!”

AVID: “Why are we working together, aren’t we gonna all kill each other?”

[ And then, Static. Suddenly two unrelated video clips play, before cutting away to the correct camera, and the episode begins as the static fades away. ]

The footage begins on the view of Anathra and several others standing in a somewhat fancy room made of cincinnacite, yellow glass, and nether brick.

“Hello everyone, ” Anathra says, turning to the camera revealing his icy cold eyes as his visor is resting on his head. Everything around him is slightly tinted grey, other than him, and it seems he is giving this message on the video's pause screen, as no one else is moving.

“Welcome to Minecraft Secret Rivals! For the people in the audience who aren’t aware (or haven’t watched the original), here's a quick explanation of how it works.

Basically, we will have two teams of 5, and the two teams need to fight to the death right? But there's a twist: Each member of every team only gets to know one other member, meaning if anything happens to anyone along the line like someone dying or if someones lying about who your teammate is, it will be harder to figure out who is actually on your team.

And this is hardcore, so no one can quite just respawn! Also, death messages are off, and so is the chat. So the only ways we have to communicate is to talk to people in person, and if someone dies while no one else is around, there's a chance it could take a while for people to figure out.

Our goals are simple: You have to kill the enemy team, and then defeat the enderdragon to win. Is that helpful? I hope it’s informative enough, dear reader viewer!”

“Now!” He claps his hands and the grey filter disappears, and instead the footage is tinted slightly blue. His companions are talking and laughing, as they presumably were before he tugged on the strings to pause it for your sake.

“So! I am joined by these 9 lovely folks! First we have Vintage! Introduce yourself!”

The camera pans to a medium height person, with long pink hair full of cherry leaves. Looking closer, one can notice that there's a slight wood pattern to their skin, and that parts of her hair are actually branches.

“Ah! I wasn’t prepared- um Hi! I’m Vintage Applesauce, she/they, and I’m a Hamadryad that's linked to a cherry tree! I have never done a death game before, so I’m really excited and also really scared! Here's hoping it won’t go too badly!”

“Thank you Vintage! Now Leon, Who are you?” Anathra asked.

A tall endermen turned in Anathra’s direction, tilting his head at him quizzingly but still managing to avoid eye contact.

“What do you mean who I am?“ Said Leon, in a teasing tone of voice.

“You know I mean introduce yourself!”

“Oh alright. Well hello, I’m Leon, he/him and I’m an Enderman that's also a penguin! You uh, can’t really tell I’m a penguin physically though, but it is still a fact! You know how it uh, how it goes. Ahem- Anyways yeah I’m looking forward to this!” He smiled, enderman tail swishing behind him.

“I even brought my own snacks!” Leon said brightly, showing the camera a satchel full of chorus fruit.

“Next, SadMilkman!”

Milkman waved at the camera as he smiled brightly, brushed off his coat with his hands, and then readjusted his scarf.

“Hello! I’m SadMilkman but most people just call me Milkman-"

“Milkums.” Said someone from the left corner of the room, promptly interrupting him.

“Shut up, Avid!” He shouted back, “Um, I also use he/him! I’m really just some guy honestly- I mean I’m either human or something doing a really good job of pretending to be human and I think that might fluctuate depending on what's funniest!” He said, giving Anathra a thumbs up.

“Viking it's your turn!”

A man with a split color scheme of yellow and blue with large phantom wings broke off from his conversation with a shorter member of the group that had purple eyes and a monkey tail, and turned to both Anathra and the camera.

“Hello! I am VikingPilot or just Viking if you don’t feel like full naming me, he/him, aaaaand I'm- uh well, I’m not a hybrid at all, actually! I’m a perfectly normal human guy!” Viking said, cat tail swishing behind him.

The monkey behind him giggled into his hands.

“He just doesn’t wanna admit that he's a catboy.”

“I’M NOT A CAT BOY I’M- Aaauguh! Okay, fine I do have cat hybrid features, but I also have These,” he said, gesturing to his phantom wings, “So who heckin knows! I’m like a Chimera of a cat and a phantom or something. And uhh yeah! This isn’t quite my first tango with a death game, so I am excited to do more death!”

“And now here we have Marmalade!”

Marmalade, a woman with a long burgundy dress and brown hair full of light blue flowers, giggled and waved.

“Hi! I’m Marmalade, most people just call me Marm, though. She/her, and I’m a witch! Death games aren't typically my forte, but this sounded exciting, so I’m here!”

“Okay, next we have Fool!”

Milkman elbowed a tall man that nearly appeared to be a statue whos cracks were fixed with gold, causing the “statue” to elbow him back. He only took a step or two closer to the camera, before stopping and putting his hands in his pockets.

“Hello, I am TheFoolishFam, but you can just call me Fool. I use he/him, and I’m…”

He winked with his grey eye, unfurling a spiny golden wing with no membrane from behind his back, “Well, I’m an enigma!”

Anathra nodded and directed the camera a different way.

“Rubyco?”

The orange haired allay in the three color hoodie was in some sort of a cat slap-fight with Vintage, so xey hadn’t noticed Anathra approaching xem.

“Ah- uh hi! I’m Ruby or Rubyco! Any pronouns, and I’m german- thats uh not my species though, um- and I’m an allay! I’m happy to be here and I really hope that I don’t die first because that’d be EMBARRASSING!”

“And that just leaves us with Avid, Doovid, and myself! Which one of you gentlemen want to go first?”

“Me!” Avid piped up excitedly, waving his hand in the air.

“Okay, I guess Avid goes.”

The monkey with purple eyes did a couple small hops towards the camera, and was swaying and humming to some kind of tune that no one else could hear. He was smiling from ear to ear, his tail curled around his leg but occasionally flicking over and brushing Anathra’s.

“Hehe, Hello! I’m Avid, I use he/him, and I’m a monkey! I am also a musician in my free time, kind of as a hobby? It's fun! I’ve been in a hardcore series before, but I’m still super excited to be here and! Doovid, it's your turn now,” Avid says as he shoves a brown eyed monkey towards Anathra, tail spinning him around so the man was facing the camera.

“Ahhh! Rude! Um well, hello there! As Avid said, I’m Doovid, and I am also a Monkey, and I also use he/him! I- Well I also do music stuff sometimes? I’ve never been in a death game before though, that's um new to me, but I’m really interested in getting to see how this all plays out!” He nodded.

Anathra clapped his hands together again, and turned to face the camera yet again. The blue tint on the film got stronger with him looking directly at-

Looking directly past the illusion of his reality.

“Great, and that's everyone except me! So, hello, I am Anathra, he/him, and I’m an android! I’m hosting this game as a challenge for both my friends and a challenge for me! I had my visor off just for this section so I could properly speak to all of you guys,” he said, gesturing at the camera.

The camera that wasn’t there. There was no camera. Past this reality, and past this illusion, and all the way out to the page that it was written on. All the way out to-

“But, before we leave this spawn house I’m going to put it back on so I can be fully immersed in our game! Say goodbye to my pretty eyes, chat!” He winked at the camera smugly.

Not at the camera but at…..

At someone far past it.

…

That's you, by the way.

Hi there. Are you having a good day? I hope you are.

And… goodbye!

Anathra shut his eyes, and lowered the visor onto his face. The blue filter on the film leaves as soon as the visor suddenly lights up far brighter than it was glowing earlier for just one moment, before dimming back down. He took a deep breath as he let himself settle into his role the fact that the game was properly starting, and then opened the white and blue doors of the room.

“Let the game begin!”

He held the door open for everyone as they all ran out, excitedly beginning to gather early items.

[ A static noise can be heard for just a moment, before our perspective shifts from Anathra’s side to Leon’s ]

“You know, it’d be really funny if Anathra and Trog were just straight up lying about the twist and there were just no teams at all.” Leon said laughing, as his enderman claws dug into the wood of the tree in front of him.

“Maybe we’re actually just all on our own teams. One person teams!” Said Rubyco from over hir shoulder while breaking down a different tree for resources.

“Yeah wait, hold on. Why are we working together, aren’t we all gonna kill each other?” Avid asked

Anathra nodded.

“Well, the games only really just started, and we won’t be getting team assignments until day two! We don’t need to worry about that for now!” He said huffily.

“Yeah!”, said Doovid. “We’re all just one big happy family- for now!”

Vintage snorted.

“We’re all one team,” she said. “The human team!”

Leon paused and turned around to glance in Vintage's general direction while still avoiding eye contact.

“Vintage- only like one of us in this group here is human, and his human status is QUESTIONABLE AT BEST!”

“Hey!” Shouted Milkman from somewhere out of the camera’s view.

[ Pause. The film skips ahead for a moment. Unpause. ]

“The teams- we don’t need to know the teams, I already know what the teams are gonna be!” Leon said, glancing at Vintage.

“It's going to be You, Fool, Me, Doovid, aaaand Marmalade!”

Vintage giggled and continued putting resources in her inventory.

“What if you're right and now you’ve spoiled the whole game by accident?” They said jokingly.

Leon laughed. “Maybe then Trog will just have to give up and they’ll cancel the game all together.”

Fast footsteps began approaching as Ruby ran up to Leon and elbowed him in the arm.

“Or maybe you were right earlier and Trog is just lying about there being teams at all!”

Anathra turned to them from where he was cutting down another tree, with a semi puzzled look on his face.

“Do we genuinely think Trog would ruin the game like that?” He said, putting away his axe.

[ Pause. Trog is the assigner of the teams and the co runner of this game! You are now aware of who Trog is. Back to the program! Unpause. ]

Leon shook his head. “I don’t know, I don’t think they would, but also it depends! I mean- Who's Trog?”

Rubyco punched his shoulder. “Hey! Don’t be mean to someone who’s listening!”

[ Pause. Thank you Ruby! I always appreciate that you actually remember to consider that! Time to move forward again! Unpause. ]

Ruby shielded it’s eyes as they looked into the sun behind the large forest nearby.

“Wow, that's a giant scary forest!”

Anathra nodded.

“That really is a giant scary forest! Should we go deeper?” He asked, taking a couple steps towards the edge.

“Do we have to?” Leon asked, tail twitching nervously.

“Well, I think we should! Let's go on an adventure!” Ruby said, jumping over a couple large roots and continuing on hir way.

Leon shrugged. “Okay, we’re going deeper into the giant scary forest.” He replied, following Ruby and Anathra into the dense trees ahead.

[ Pause. Let's fast forward, and change perspectives (Static.) again! Unpause. ]

Marmalade was wandering around near the edge of a less giant scary forest nearby spawn when she spotted them. The buildings looked incredibly weathered and somewhat mossy, their stone walls practically crumbling. One of the ruined buildings had a skull patterned banner on it.

“Guys look! Are those ruins?”

Fool, Milkman, Vintage, and Doovid, who were all exploring with her, rushed to find out.

“Oh wow, they do look like some kind of ruins! I wonder if there's any cool loot.” Fool said snarkily, catching up to Marm’s pace quickly, as he began rummaging through the chests in the nearby

Marmalade wandered over to the side of some large crumbled structure. It was hard to tell what it was from the outside, but a chest was near the edge of one of the walls, and if there was loot she wanted at least some before Fool stole it all.

Opening the chest, she found… a book?

[ Static. ]

Doovid looked up at Marm curiously.

“Woah, a book? I didn’t know that you can read, ‘cause I sure can’t.”

Milkman laughed from where he was also looking through a chest across the way.

“That's objectively not true, Doovid! You had to have read the invites to accept them to be here today!” He said, pointing at him as if to accuse him of some crime.

Doovid turned around to laugh in his direction, grabbing some nearby sugarcane with his tail and putting it in his inventory.

“I guess you got me there!”

[ Static ]

Vintage ran around the corner towards Doovid and Marm excitedly.

“Guys, look what I found!” They said, as they held up a skeleton head.

Fool glanced over from where he was still rummaging around, and then glanced back to the chest.

“You’ll never guess what I also just found!” He replied, holding up another skull.

“Wait, that means there's maybe more to find! We should all get one!” Milkman said, running to go search through more of the chests to see if there was any more.

Marmalade pointed to a banner mounted to the top of one of the ruins, with a skull pattern on it that she had spotted earlier.

“If we all get skulls,” She said, “We should get that banner on our shields and be the Skull Gang!”

“Like from Pokemon?” Doovid asked.

Marm laughed. “Yeah! But does anyone else have name suggestions for our little group?”

Milkman raised his hand as he ran over with a skull now firmly placed on his head.

“We could be Team Boneheads!” He said, as he promptly knocked on his new “helmet” with his fist.

“Ha! That makes us sound stupid, but it's funny and I support your crimes!” Fool said, as he showed off a second skull banner and two more skulls, tossing them to Doovid and Marm.

“Catch!”

[ Pause. Let's fast forward just a little bit here! Static. Unpause. ]

Doovid and Vintage made their way to the top of the structure and gazed down into the large gap in the middle, revealing walkways all around the sides of the ruin.

Doovid pointed to the bottom.

“Are those spawners down there?” He asked nervously.

Vintage squinted, arm over her face to shield her eyes from the sun, and nodded.

“Yep those are spawners, and those ones at the bottom aren't the only ones in there. There's some on the walkways down too, do you see them?”

Doovid nodded nervously.

“Yeah I am certified not dealing with this today!” He said, as he jumped down and decided to explore elsewhere.

For just a moment, he thought he heard the sound of a crossbow being loaded. He whipped around, tail swerving out of the way of a potential attacker, only for nothing to be there.

Vintage glanced at him with her eyebrow raised. Doovid took a couple seconds to regulate his breathing, placing his left hand on his chest and trying to get any of his tension to go away. His fist was still balled up.

Just breath, Doovid. He thought, trying to catch his breath.

Nothing’s happened yet. Nothing is here, and nothing is hurting me. It’s just my brain playing tricks on me again. Breath, Doovid.

“Sorry. I… I thought I heard something.”

[ Pause. Let’s see what the others are up to! Unpause. ]

The rest of the group were working together to build a house! It was raining, but the roof was built fast enough for it to not be too bothersome.

“So you know how humanoids have less bones as they grow up? What if that kept going and then their bones just like, dissolved as they got older.”

Avid looked at Viking absolutely bewildered.

“What??? Where did that COME from?!” He said, as he was adding to the walls.

“Pff- I don’t know- I- ! Intrusive thoughts, man!” He said, as he was adding a mine entrance.

Leon glanced over to him.

“Wait, but if that's the case then how many bones would a grandma have?” Leon asked curiously.

Viking put his hand on his chin as he thought for a second.

“I’m pretty sure Grandma’s are like, zero percent bone.” Viking responded.

[ Static ]

For some reason, they had the “windows” be half slab openings, without realising that skeletons could still shoot through the gaps. That got fixed pretty quick as soon as they realized though.

By “realized”, I mean that Anathra got shot in the side.

[ Static. ]

It was Avid and Leon’s turn to be on mining duty, so off they went.

Avid’s singing could be heard from the entrance of the mines even as Anathra was heading down just to get some iron for gear for himself.

“They said to reach for the clouds, but now I’m up here cold looking down!” He sang, continuing to hum the rest of the song as he mined.

Anathra laughed, as Leon paused his strip-mining to make a furnace.

“Hey Anathra, do we think we can change the intro to just be Avid singing?” He asked, putting his materials in a chest next to his crafting table and popping an iron ore into the furnace to smelt it.

Anathra smiled softly as he got out his pickaxe.

“Haha, maybe! I mean it is only episode one so theoretically we could change the intro if so desired.” He replied mischievously,

“Hey!” Avid shouted from further away. “Don’t be complimenting me when I can barely hear it!”

Anathra and Leon only laughed in response.

[ Pause. Let's skip ahead and move over to the Boneheads again. Unpause. ]

“Wait, where did Doovid go?” Asked Milkman, looking around their little group, his skeleton skull still on his head. They were headed past the ruins to see if there was anything else of interest nearby.

“Oh,” Vintage said. “Doovid headed to spawn a little bit ago. He got spooked by something back at the ruins earlier so he wanted to go back.”

Fool was ahead of the others. scanning the horizon when he noticed something odd.

“Hold on,” Fool said, pointing to some terrain in the distance. “What is that?”

The terrain resembled the aftermath of a volcano, or like it belonged somewhere in the wastelands of the Nether.

Milkman climbed up to the ledge where Fool was standing so he could have a better view of what he meant.

“Oh, that looks like Hell!” Milkman said brightly.

[ Static ]

Ruby ran over to Doovid upon seeing him approach the edge of spawn.

“Doovid, Hi!” She said, waving his hand at him before stopping near him. I don’t know where the others that were with you went but uh, Could you get them and tell them we have a base now?” She asked, somewhat out of breath from jogging over there.

“Oh we have a base now? Cool! And sure, I’ll go find ‘em!”

[ Pause. Time skip! Unpause. ]

Everyone had finally made it back to the base! The Bonehead’s crew that were out exploring earlier were showing off their loot, and getting ready to go mining.

Anathra came up from the mines to see people with skulls on their heads chanting “Bone” over and over again, and was incredibly confused.

“Did you guys 🔔ing go back to the prehistoric era?” He asked, bewildered.

[ Static ]

“Vintage, psst- Vintage!” Fool said, coming up to her in the mines.

Vintage turned around to look at him.

“Yeah, Fool?” They asked.

Fool pulled out a stone sword, and narrowed his eyes.

“If I’m on your team, I am going to come up to you, show you this sword, and nod.” He said gesturing to its blade and then promptly sheathing it.

Vintage raised her eyebrows.

“Um, okay. And then I’ll kill you.”

Fool just snorted a laugh and shrugged, heading down further into the mines.

“Oh dang.” Vintage said, noticing she had an unwanted overlay enabled on her communicator.

“I forgot I had subtitles on. I should turn those off.”

[ Static ]

Marmalade was heading down into the mine when she heard what Vintage said, and laughed.

“Who has subtitles on? 🔔in’ nerd!”

[ Static ]

Avid and Viking were having a chill mining session. The keyword here is were. Milkman had somehow quietly snuck up behind Avid in order to scare him.

“Bone!” He shouted, holding up two bones in his hands.

“AAH!” Avid yelled, jumping back, thinking Milkman was a skeleton. Upon realising it was a player that had scared him, he responded in the most Avid way possible: Stringing together a cursed sentence none of them had ever heard before.

“AAAHH! NO I DON’T WANNA BE BONED!” He screamed, running through the mines as fast as he could.

Milkman paused, and Viking absolutely lost it, laughing so hard but keeping pace with Avid since he was supposed to be helping him.

“Wait a second-” Milkman said, clearly distraught by the horrible words Avid just conjured.

But Avid kept running. But who is Milkman if he doesn’t commit to a bit, so he started running too.

“Bone! Bone! BONE!” He said, chasing after Avid.

Avid looked behind him while running for his life.

“NO NO NO NO NO, VIKING DIG FASTER, DIG FASTER!”

[ Static ]

Leon sat on the floor cross legged, while munching on some of his chorus fruit. He managed to get it down without teleporting, thanks to his enderman genes.

“So when do we think our teams will be assigned?” He asked in between bites of his snack.

Ruby checked their clock from over where they were helping organise the chests.

“It shouldn’t be too much longer!” Ae said, checking their clock.

“It looks like it's only a couple minutes till!” Xe said.

[ Static ]

Doovid and Leon were discussing the Bonehead’s discovery of the ruins when it happened.

A sound like the bell of a clocktower rang through their ears. It was loud, daunting. No one dared ask for whom it tolled. The text appeared at the same time as it had rung.

The pink and red text only added to the feeling of dread.

“Team Selection Time!”

“Good luck. You will be teleported shortly.”

[ Static consumed the video feed, until the film cleared up, and the outro began.

It seems our episode has come to a close! Teams are to be chosen next, and then our game will truly begin. ]

Chapter Text

[ The screen sparks to life with a burst of static, as our intro music starts to play. Large text appears in time with the music ]

10 PLAYERS

2 TEAMS

WITH ONE

LIFE EACH

AIMING TO KILL

EACH OTHER

WELCOME TO…

Minecraft

SECRET

RIVALS

[ Character portraits appear as their names flash across the screen, accompanied by a funny tagline ]

ANATHRA: “Did you guys 🔔ing go back to the prehistoric era?”

MARM: “Who has subtitles on? 🔔 Nerd!”

DOOVID: “You remind me of my dad before he smoked weed”

MILKMAN: “I’m afraid, I’m doing the parkour in fear”

VIKING: “I’m pretty sure Grandma’s are like zero percent bone”

FOOL: “🔔 his artistic vision we gotta go to hell!”

LEON: “Okay we’re going deeper into the giant scary forest”

RUBYCO: “Dog? more like Pog”

VINTAGE: “We’re all one team, the human team!”

AVID: “Why are we working together, aren’t we gonna all kill each other?”

[ And then, Static. Suddenly two unrelated video clips play, before cutting away to the correct camera, and the episode begins as the static fades away. ]

“Team Selection Time!”

“Good luck. You will be teleported shortly.”

The players were somewhat frantic, the sense of dread still fresh. 

Marmalade popped out of the mines and made her way up the stairs.

“Who do we think goes-“

But before she could finish her scentace, she felt a tug on her stomach, as before her eyes, the scene changed. 

“Hngh- I guess I go first.”

She looked around nervously. Instead of being surrounded by her friends in their dumb house, she was on a triangular platform of cobblestone, hanging over the nothingness lazily. All she could see from her every direction was that signature inky blackness of the void. 

At the tip of the platform, standing in front of her between two basins of fire, was a figure she swore she recognized.

“…. Trog?” She asked, taking a step twoards the figure that was now floating up off the ground just slightly.

“Hello, Marma1de!” They said, winking.

Trog floated over to her, smiling sharply as they circled her before landing back between ththe basins of fire. They traced their finger along the edge of something sharp that Marm couldn’t quite see, before-

[ Pause! Static! Unpause! ]

“Does anyone have any food?” Anathra asked, coming up from the mines and placing half of all the cobble he got in the community chest.

Leon leaped up from his spot on the floor excitedly and waved his bundle around in the air. 

“I have corus fruit!” He said brightly, tail twitching happily behind him.

The look Anathra gave hin in response was all he needed to be able to tell that he didn’t appreciate the suggestion. Leon just sighed and tucked his bundle back into his inventory, shaking his head sadly. 

“Your so mean and crule to me” he said, heading out the door to go explore- or maybe just to do anything other than be in the house.

Anathra turned to the others.

“Does anyone other than Leon have any food?” 

Ruby, Vintage, and Viking all shook their heads and said variations of no, as all of them had been too busy exploring, building, or mining to really get any food yet either.

He sighed and face palmed.

“Well, we’re about to be teleported to get our teams anyway, so I guess it isn’t that immedeatly important.” 

[ Static ]

“Oof! Ow.” Said Doovid, tripping on one of the stairs up out of the mine and face planting directly into the floor.

“Man, this house sucks! Why are we using this stupid jungle plank house as our base instead of that like, cool yellowy-gold building that we used for the intro?” He asked, pushing himself up from the floor.

“Hey!” Avid yelled, echoing out from where he was still down in the mine. “If you arne’t gonna appreciate my house then get outta here!”

“I helped build some of it too!” Doovid shouted back.

[ Static ]

“Do we think we could look and see if theres any wolves around at all? I’d love to maybe get a community puppy or something before we all have to kill eachother.” Vintage asked as they were working on making more community storage.

Rubyco yawned from where they were laying on the floor.

“Dog? More like pog.” He said as she smiled tierdly up at Vintage.

Vintage and Marmalade, who had just walked into the counninty house, burst out laughing. Ruby just smiled at Vintage tiredly.  Xe had always loved Vintage’s laughter. A light flush was on their face as fae gave Vintage a thumbs up before going back to their nap. 

Marmalade was careful to move past them without stepping on them, but waved at Vintage quietly before taking some seeds out of the chest.

[ Static ]

“Okay listen,” Said Doovid, running ahead to catch up with Leon.

“If you don’t spoon sugar into your mouth, then you arne’t living! I don’t care who you are or what you say, it's the fact!” He said confidently.

Leon snorted a laugh and turned around, opting to walk backwards so Doovid could know he was listening, but he was looking down as to avoid any accidental eye contact. 

“The one fact!” He replied, teleporting just a short distance ahead of Doovid just so he’d have to run to catch up again, and then turning back around.

Upon doing so, he noticed something strange.

“Wait- Huh? What is that?” Leon asked, stopping and gesturing to the ruins, and to the large structure next to them.

Doovid skidded to a stop next to him, and coughed. He felt himself tense up a little upon seeing what Leon was referring to.

“Oh that's, uh- well that's where we found all the skeleton heads earlier!” He said somewhat brightly, trying to not let his anxiety get to him. 

Keep a hold of yourself, Doovid. It’s fine, it's just your brain being rude. He thought, fists still balled up tightly. He coughed again and then kept walking. 

Maybe it’ll be easier to not think about it if I just keep moving forward.

Leon, who didn’t seem to notice Doovid’s change in demeanour at all due to being in awe of the ruins, made a little “huff” sound and put his hands on his hips as shook his head sadly. 

“So I just missed getting to see all this? Awe man! That probably means any good loot is for sure gone, which sucks, but this still looks, like, really cool.” Leon said, continuing past the ruins.

“Is there anything else out past here?” He asked.

Doovid’s face lit up and he gestured for Leon to follow him as he ran ahead. He stopped on an outcropping some distance above the scorched earth of the strange biome nearby. Leon’s face crinked warily.

“Oh what the heck is that? It looks like hell!” He said, arms gesturing in a large movement to help convey his utter confusion.

Doovid laughed. 

“Yeah, from up here you can see Hell!” He replied brightly.

Leon sighed. 

“Yeah you know what that- that tracks. Thanks for this, Doovid.” Leon said dryly.

“Leeeoooon! Doooovid! Hiiii!” Ruby shouted, from somewhere off camera.

“Hi Ruby!” Doovid said.

“Oh hey there! Doovid was just showing me Hell!” Replied Leon.

[ Static ]

Vintage and Milkman were cutting down some of the large mushrooms in the forest when Avid arrived and waved hello.

“Hey Avid!” Milkman said from ontop of a mushroom.

“Oh, Hi Avid!” Vintage said, waving with their hand that wasn’t holding an axe.

“Hey guys!” He replied. “You two getting mushrooms?”

Milkman nodded and broke the last block of the top of the mushroom that he was standing on, taking a couple damage points from the fall.

“Well, yeah,” He said rolling his eyes, “We’re hoping to find some brown mushrooms at some point so we can have mushroom stew, because any food is better than no food and Shroombucks doesn’t deliver to Death Games- not like they’d ever be that cool.” He said.

[ Static ]

“I don’t know why but I’m slightly scared of cows sometimes, even with how cute they are. Maybe it's because of a story my friend Box told me once where they almost got trampled by a group of very angry cows.” Ruby said, laughing as they pet one of the cows in the hell biome gently.

“You never know when a cow could strike.” Doovid replied, getting out his crafting table and setting it on the ground.

But before he had time to craft anything at all, a feeling of vertigo latched onto him. He felt his stomach twist, as one moment he was outside in the sun with Leon and Ruby, and the next he wasn’t. He stumbled, struggling to keep his footing, before an arm stopped him from falling over. He didn’t notice how hard he was breathing until he realised he was safe, and was able to calm himself down. 

Trog floated away from him and gave him a little frown. 

“Sorry for spooking you.” They said apologetically, left hand scratching a triangle marking under their eye.

Doovid shook himself off and sighed gruffly, smiling just enough for Trog to be able to tell that Doovid wasn’t actually mad at them.

“I was just about to craft something!” He whined, crossing his arms and huffing for extra effect, clearly playing up his upsetness just to be funny.

[ Static ]

“Hey um so I have a uh, a question. Do either of you guys know anything about a sabotage system in this game?” Avid asked as he wrung his hands nervously, tail curled around his leg.

Vintage coughed, and Milkman’s eyes widened. 

“Um, no? I’ve never heard about anything like that, Why?” He asked

Avid averted his eyes nervously.

“Well, I got sabotaged so I.. I don’t get to know who my teammate even is! Trog said so themself.” He said, frustration clear in his voice.

Vintage dropped her axe and covered her mouth with her hand.

“Wait- you got sabotaged too?” She asked, looking at him with wide eyes.

Avid perked up at that.

“Wha- They got you too?” He asked with a shocked expression on his face. 

Vintage nodded. 

“Yeah- Trog told me I don’t get to know who my teammate is because I got sabotaged, but I haven’t told anyone that yet because like- what if they didn’t believe me or something!” She said, clearly glad to know someone else understood what they were going through.

[ Flash Back ]

“… I was going to tell you who your teammate is,” Trog said, frowning, “But it seems that someone has sabotaged you.”

“What? Wait, what does that mean?” Yelled a panicked voice from somewhere offscreen, somewhat hard to recognise through the audio’s static.

“I can’t tell you who your teammate is! You… Don’t get to know. Good luck out there. You’re going to need it.” They said.

[ Return To The Present ]

“Trog told me that too!” Avid said, tail uncurled and swishing behind him. “But isn’t that so weird? Like- I didn’t even know getting sabotaged was something that could happen in this game!”

Milkman laughed nervously.

“I mean, I do remember that at some point before recording started that we were told to not look around on the first day, so maybe whatever caused you two to be sabotaged like this was hidden around then?” He looked unsure, but he laughed nervously again, shaking his head.

“Anyways, I’m honestly just glad that didn’t happen to me. I mean, I haven’t even been called to find out my teammate yet!” Milkan said, prompting Avid to pinch his arm really hard and Vintage to elbow him in the side.

“Hey- Hah, Ow!”

[ Static ]

Anathra opened the door of the house, and placed some of the food he had gotten in the community storage. 

“Oh, hello Fool. What have you been up to?” He asked, glancing over to him as the man took a swig out of his canteen-  

[ Pause. Wait, Where did Fool even get that, he did NOT have it earlier! Unpause. ]

And then turning back to the furnace he was tending too.

Fool tilted his head while still drinking some of his water-

[ Pause. Again, WHERE DID HE GET THAT?! Unpause. ]

Before screwing the top back on and wiping his mouth with his sleeve. 

“Nothin’ much really, just tryin’ to get materials to make a temporary shrine for Atium until I have the resources to make ‘em a better one.” He said, putting his hands in his pockets.

“How ‘bout you Anathra?” He said, slinging the canteen over his sholder and putting his hands in his pockets.

“Oh, oh I’m alright. Just been working on getting food sorted you know? Also is it just me or has the server been a bit laggy today?” Anathra said, looking back over to Fool, and he watched as his eyes widend, face contorting unplesently, before he was suddenly gone.

The tug on Fool’s everything only lasted for a moment, but it felt like his stomach was going to fall out of his body as he was transported away from the house.

Everything was pitch dark around him. Wind rushed past him as he dropped. Fool looked down to see cobble platform, but then he felt a bubbling warmth flow through him, as he slipped through the cracks between the full blocks effortlessly, as if he’d become nothing more than a concept, feeling as though he was simple drops of blood falling from a knife that was not his own. 

Fool could vaugley hear someone call his name, but the sound was drowned out by the static filling his head.

He felt his stomach toss and turn and then tighten. There was nothing below him, and unfurling his wings, all he could do is slow down the inevitable. He held his breath, preparing to meet his end. He supposed the void would get to eat today. 

But before he could hit the void’s damage plane, he felt the falling suddenly stop, as a sharp pain dug into his arm. The sound of tv static filling his head got louder. He let out a harsh breath uncontiously, as he felt something warm run down the arm that had been grabbed unceremoniously. He glanced over, to see- 

Triangles. Trangles stacked on triangles stacked on triangles. All of them either equilateral or isosceles, not a single one had a right angle. The triangles were digging into his skin. Following the triangles up with his eye, he saw that they were going through the platform he had fallen through earlier, twisting and turning almost hypnotically. His right sleeve was stained a dark red, but it was slowly turning a gold tint.

Everything felt fuzzy, but slowly and carefully, the triangles pulled him up. It was like they were contracting in on themselves, getting smaller, lifting him as gentlly as the sharp shapes could manage. His ears were still ringing. 

The next time he looked up, the bottom of the platform was right in front of his face. That sort of bubbiling warmth akin to being in fire with a lava resistance potion filled his body once again, as he felt himself get pulled through the blocks, before getting carefully placed on top of them.

Fool stumbled dizzily, as the triangles became arms, catching him before he could fall over.

“The server’s a little laggy at the moment.” Trog said, holding Fool up to keep him stable, “Sorry about that.”

Fool nodded, unfurling his wings to help himself get a better hold of his balance.  

“I am also sorry about uh, that, by the way.” They said, gesturing to where they had drawn some of Fool’s ichor by accident.

Fool looked down at his arm, dripping with the warm golden-flaked red, watching as it turned to pure liquid gold when it hit the platform’s floor.

“Ah, no worries.” He said, closing up his wings once more. 

“‘Tis but a flesh wound.” He said, smiling and making an okay symbol with his right hand.

Trog sighed and shook their head, but they were smiling, happy to not have hurt him too badly. But if had they had to choose between an unfair death for of one of their players, and accidentally injuring them, they would take the latter every single time.

[ Pause. WAIT. I CAN ASK HIM WHERE HE GOT THAT NOW. Unpause! ]

“Oh, and before I tell you who your team mate is, can you PLEASE tell me where you got that canteen- I would love to know because you did not have that on day one and its driving me crazy that I don’t know.” They said, poiting to the canteen’s strap that was still hanging on his sholder.

Fool laughed.

“Oh this?” He said, holding up the canteen while smiling smugly. 

“I stole it from Milkman when he wasn’t looking.” He replied, taking another sip of water out of it.

[ Pause! Static! Unpause! ]

Vintage was boredly continuing to sort items when she laughed to herself.

“Alright guys, before 2024 is over, does anyone want to admit-” Vintage started.

“ME! I DO! I HAVE A CRUSH ON YOU!” Ruby shouted from the mines, running up the stairs and lifting them up.

Vintage laughed loudly as Ruby placed her back down, and Ruby sqeezed them in a hug tightly.

“That wasn’t the question! And, I already knew that!” She sqealed, kissing them on the corner of xer lips, getting a beaming smile in response.

Anathra giggled from over in the corner. 

“What was the question then? What other things should people admit before 2024 ends?” He asked.

Vintage thought for a second before slamming her fist down on her hand determindly.

“Defeat!”

[ Static ]

Viking was running out of the house when he stopped suddenly, and laughed loudly to himself, before turning to Avid with a 🔔-eating grin on his face.

“Hey, what if we kissed in the Anathra Secret Rivals Hardcore Spawn House?” He said, laughing again.

Avid wheezed and sputtered loudly, a slight color to his cheeks, clearly uncertain of how to react, which just made Viking laugh harder.

“I- I’m going back inside the other house!” He said, walking back in and shutting the door behind him. 

Viking put a hand on his chest and made a show of looking upset as he made a loud offended gasp.

“So you hate me?” He said, in a tone of voice that made it very clear he was not at all being serious.

“It’s fine! You can just kiss me some time later! I need to go mining!” He said, giggling and waving goodbye.

Viking smiled. “Bye! That better be a promise though!” He replied smugly.

“WHATS A PROMISE? I’VE NEVER HEARD OF THAT CONCEPT BEFORE!” Avid shouted, running down the stairs and covering his face.

Anathra and Doovid’s laughter can be heard echoing up from the mines offscreen.

[ Static ]

“So I haven’t actually explored these much yet,” said Doovid, “But these so far seem to be like actual proper mining tunnles, which is nice!”

Anathra nodded. 

“Yeah, it is nice to have a somewhat coherant mine doesn’t it.”

[ Static ]

Leon was wandering around in the hell biome when he noticed that it was starting to become night. He quickly dug himself a staircase down, it’s a lot safer to be under ground than surrounded by mobs after all. 

[ Static ]

Marmalade and the rest of the Boneheads gang (minus Doovid) were working on adding a second floor to the spawn house. Milkman was grabbing them more materials, when he threw an egg at the stairs out of bordem, and a small chick peeped out at him.

“Oh 🔔, I have a pet chicken now!” He said, running over to pick it up gently, before heading up to the new floor.

“Guys, we have a new pet! What do we name him?” Milkman asked, holding up the chicken gleefully.

[ Static ]

“Oh great, that is two caves right next to each other! Terrifying!” Leon shouted as he was nervously continuing to make his way down below the surface. 

He turned to look into the cave to his immediate left, and saw something he wouldn’t have expected in a million years. The cave was filled with… trees? 

There was a large forest growing in the cave without any light, some of the trees roots growing up the cave walls, the grass a strangly darker color than the way it normally would appear.

“Woah… Thats so creepy!”

[ Static ]

“I’m thinking we name him Doovid Underscore.” He said, showing the chicken to Marmalade.

“Why are we naming it Doovid?” She asked, laughing.

Milkman shrugged.

“Well, he’s not up here on the new Bonehead floor of the community house, so I think we should name the chicken after him in his honor.” He replied.

“That makes it sound like he’s dead!” Fool said.

Milkman smiled at Fool and then tilted his head downward.

“We are gathered here today to remember the life of Doovid Underscore…” He said in a fake serious tone of voice, causing Vintage to laugh.

“Seriously though, what should we do with this little guy?” Fool asked, walking over to pet the small chicken that Milkman was still holding.

Milkman gave Fool a goofy smile.

“Well, we need to put him somewhere that he’ll be in the sun, so he’ll grow up big and strong!” He responded.

“You’re so weird!” Fool laughed. “Alright, lets make Doovid Underscore the chicken a home.”

[ Static ate through the film, and the outro began.

 Things seem to have been properly set in motion now! Everyone who was able to be told their teamates have now been informed. 

The game has truly begun. Are you ready? ]