Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Pearl felt hurt, betrayed, alone. Her soulmate had chosen to leave her. And Martyn blamed her for Cleo leaving him as well. She didn’t even want to go to the Nether with him, he had even told Scott and Cleo that she had been reluctant to go but he had made her. And yet, he said that he thought he was an “Innocent party in all of this,” and he left Pearl too.

Tilly walked up to her and nosed her knee a little bit, she could tell Pearl was upset. “At least I still have you girlie, you’re not going to leave me right?” The wolf barked and wagged her tail a bit. She ran under Pearl's wings a bit, just barely brushing the bottom of them. “Hey, that tickles!” Pearl scolded the dog, laughing a little bit.

Martyn had even named Tilly, they had spent almost the whole day together. The little bit of time she wasn’t with him he constructed a Nether Portal, then this whole mess happened.

You want revenge, don’t you.

“Who are you?” Pearl hopped up from where she was sitting, looking around, not seeing anybody there.

Don’t deny it. I just want to help you. You’ve been wronged, they’re all gone, you have nobody left but me.

“Well,” Pearl sighed, “That’s mostly true, but I still have Tilly.” Whatever the strange voice was didn’t seem to like that very much.

Still, don’t you still want some help with those who’ve abandoned you!

“Honestly, yeah I do! They will feel the wrath of what they have now unleashed in me!” shouted Pearl in anger.

Perfect!

“What should I call you?”

Hmm… how about Scarlet, I like that name. Together we’d be a Scarlet Pearl

“Okay, Scarlet, I like that! Let’s see where this goes.”

Chapter Text

After that, Scarlet was pretty quiet for a while. Pearl got to work building a base to live in. She decided that a tower would work pretty well, and she could use the mangrove wood from the propagules she got from Bdubs earlier. She probably could’ve been making a lot more progress if Scott didn’t keep taking damage. He was saying that she took a lot last time but

Scar dropped by to say hi, that was pretty nice.

“Hi Pearl!” he called up from the bottom of the tower, “Um, you haven’t got a way up yet.

“Yeah, I’ll send some water down for ya.”

“This is dangerous,” he said as he started swimming up very slowly.

“If you had waited five more minutes I would've had a ladder for you, you know.” Pearl didn’t need a ladder, she could fly, so she didn’t think of it when she first made the tower.

“What’s the fun in that Pearl?” he said as he reached the top and looked around a little, “What’s up with this? This is amazing, you can see everything.”

“Well, everybody’s left me, so I’m not tied down by anybody right now, so I decided to just put my face in the stars and secretly cry to myself cause I’m all alone.”

“Good for you! Grian’s banished my pandas already and in a few minutes I’m sure he’s gonna banish me too!”

“Well there’s lots of space around here, you can bring your panda’s here.”

“I was gonna say, you should save some space cause there might be a second tower over here soon.”

“Kay Scar I would love to have a tower neighbor, see ya later, bye”

As he went back down the water, Pearl thought about Grian. She had always had a bit of a sibling-ish relationship with him and Jimmy, she didn’t know what to make of him apparently banishing Scar. Abandoning your soulmate isn’t cool, she would know that better than anyone. She knew he didn’t want to be Scar’s soulmate, his reaction when he found out proves that, but that shouldn’t matter.

Yes, yes, feel that anger. They’ve all left you and now they’re doing the same to each other. Doesn’t that make you mad?

Of course it made her mad, but Tilly walked up to her and snuggled up to her legs, she felt the red anger subside a little bit. “Yes Scarlet,” she answered a lot more calmly than she thought she could, “But, as long as I have Tilly, we’re fine right? And Scar doesn’t seem too bad either, maybe we’ll have a buddy.”

Maybe, maybe, but how do you know he won’t leave you too?

“Scar’s the most loyal person I know! He wouldn’t leave me for anything. But, then again, he is still with his soulbound at the moment, even if Griba’s not being the nicest to him.”

— — —

After the visit with Scar, Pearl decided to put a ladder in before she continued building the top bit. That seemed safer anyway. At this point it was just a floating disk in the sky attached to a pole.

She had just got to the bottom when she felt something, sort of a lurch in her stomach. This had happened plenty in Last Life, she knew this feeling well, one of her dogs had just died, and she only had one dog.

“Tilly! No!” she cried to the sky, “I guess everyone truly has left me, there’s no one left.”

I’m still here for you, I’m so sorry about your wolf, it really truly is very sad

“What do you want, Scarlet? I felt how you felt whenever I mentioned Tilly, I know you didn’t like her very much. Can’t you let me mourn in peace? If I have to be alone I want to actually BE alone for now, okay?”

And it worked, Scarlet left her alone. She didn’t hear anything else.

“Oh Tilly, you sweet sweet puppo.”

You know what? That dog was her real soulmate, not that traitor Scott. She has plenty of bones here, she can resurrect Tilly, on her yellow life. But, she will have to find a dog. Pearl grabbed all the bones out of her chest for when she finds one.

While she started putting the ladder in, Pearl started to think about Scarlet. What was the being? Why did Pearl feel connected to it? Why could Pearl feel its emotions and intentions? Why didn’t Pearl think of any of these questions before making a deal with Scarlet? The answer to the last one was the only clear one, she had been too upset at the time to think straight, it’s no wonder she ended up making some bad decisions.

Alright, you mourned enough yet?

“No!” yelled Pearl, “My only friend left is dead! Why don’t you understand that?!?”

Ugh, yawn. Revenge time.

“What do you mean?”

I mean you were wronged, it’s time we actually did something about it

Suddenly Pearl couldn’t move her own body. She tried wiggling her fingers, nothing, flapping her wings, nothing, turning her head, nothing.

“What are you doing?! Let me go!”

No, the ones you call Scott, Martyn, and Cleo, don’t you want to see them suffer? Even a little? I know you do, you can’t hide that from me

She didn’t even feel any hesitation in answering, “Of course I do, but I need to do that as me, let me go Scarlet.”

Fine, I guess

I should go find others anyway, and look for a new Tilly.

— — —

She had only just left the tower when she found Scar again, in the woods chopping down a tree.

“Hey Scar!”

Scar jumped, “Ah, oh Pearl, you scared the living Scar’s out of me. You made me drop my axe.”

“I didn’t think I was that scary. It’s my red life outfit isn’t it?”

“Yeah, that does make you scarier, I hesitated a little when I saw that up on the tower earlier.”

“Oh, you don’t have to worry, I’m not murderous for you, only Scott.”

He looked relieved at that, “Just Scott, ok, they have a bridge, I think you should trap their bridge.”

“Oooh, you have a good idea, hmkay.”

“Yeah, I think that you should trap that bridge so that he falls to his death.”

“But then I die as well?” this should have been pretty obvious to Scar, “I just want to hurt him, I don't want to kill him.”

“Oh hurt him, Ooh” he gasped, “I have an idea.”

“Yes, I’m curious?”

“We should make a torture room!”

Ooh, I like this guy!

“Um, I’m concerned about you Scar,” Pearl said, contrary to what Scarlet was saying.

“Well if you don’t do it Pearl I’m gonna make a torture room. So you put a cactus down, some lava down, maybe a few things. And maybe some safety precautions like some water to the side, and you could even drown in the water. So you know, just some things you could use to knock yourself down, almost to death, and then bring yourself back.”

“Oh, yeah, yes.”

“And I was thinking, you could even sell tickets.”

“Tickets? To watch the show?”

“Hey, you’ve got the right mind there Pearl. I was thinking if they wanted to take part in some of the torturing activities you could pay, but, I’m sure it would make a pretty good show too. Just a wonderful mind you have.”

“The only thing is, we don’t have cactus anywhere in this world and, do we have any berry bushes because I was actually looking for some of those?” Pearl asked him.

He considered that, “No, I’ve looked for those too, but! You by chance wouldn’t have a bucket on you would you?”

“I do have bucket,” she said, pulling it out.

“Kay, can I borrow said bucket? I’ll probably give it back,” he said in, not the most convincing tone of voice.

“Well,” she started, “It’s got water at the moment, but I can give you a fresh new one. I have so much iron, like I’m rich on iron. I’m good.”

“What do you trade for some iron in a bucket?”

“Honestly? I don’t mind, I’ll give it to you for free if you help me mess with Scott.”

Finally, some revenge! I must say, this Scar guy is really growing on me

“Oh, for sure, for sure. I’m gonna give you something and it’s gonna be hilarious, oh Pearl.” He was getting excited, and honestly, so was she, “Alright, go get that, I’m gonna continue to do chores for Grian. Oh man, this is gonna be good, okay, get that bucket!”

She went up to her tower and got him the bucket and he soon ran off to get whatever evil thing he was filling it with.

“You see Scott, I took care of you in Last Life, and I could’ve done it again this time. Maybe, if I wasn’t there you might’ve not even won Last Life. You didn’t trust me. You chose to abandon me, so now you have to face the wrath of the Scarlet Pearl ”

Chapter Text

“Hi,” Pearl said as Ren and BigB rode up on horseback.

“Hello,”

“Hi,”

“Pearl, we have come to rescue you. We have heard your cries of despair, we are here, the uh… horse bros.” Ren said. Ren always has kind of a dramatic flair to add to things, clearly today was no exception.

“Well, I love you horses, they're gorgeous! Are they for sale?” Pearl asked them.

“Why thank you, thank you” BigB said.

“Yes, yes,” started Ren, “Mine is named… Bee!”

“And mine is… Squirrel!”

“Bee and Squirrel,” Pearl thought for a second, “I like it! They’re lovely, fantastic.” She said with a bit of jealousy. Everyone seems to have pets at this point.

“Are you okay?” Ren asked her, genuinely concerned.

“I, I’m okay. I have been a bit battered around, got broken up with a few times. And now my dog died.”

And we want REVENGE!

“Not now Scarlet,” Pearl whispered so that the others couldn’t hear.

They didn’t seem to notice. “I’m doing fantastic. I’m just doing stuff, alone and Scar’s… got a bucket.”

“Oh, well.” Ren seemed really sorry for her, “I’m sorry your dog died, that’s kind of put a bit of  dampener on the whole day.”

“Actually, you wouldn’t happen to know where a dog is would you? I’ve got some bones and I’m looking to reincarnate my sweet Tilly.”

We don’t need her to bring death and chaos to the world! NO ONE CAN ESCAPE OUR WRATH!!!!!!!!

“There’s one by our house actually,” BigB said.

“Oh that’s right there is a dog!”

No dog

Pearl got really excited, “Is there a dog! I would love a dog! Please, please.”

Scar walked up, “Hi Scar,” Ren said rather cheerfully.

“Hello, oh you guys are paired up okay,” Scar said, seemingly disappointed, “We’re about to torture our soulmates, so.”

Yes! Pearl I REALLY like this guy! You’ll have to hang around him more often

“Oh! That’s… they do have some creepy stuff going on in the grove. We better get out of here BigB.” BigB simply nodded in agreement to what his soulmate was saying.

“But, dog? Dog?” Pearl practically begged them.

Ren looked at her, “I like how Pearl over here is pretending to be all innocent and stuff meanwhile, literally torture people.”

“Oh, I broke up a deal over here, now I feel bad,” and Scar did look sorry.

Oh Scar, don’t feel bad. Wait, what am I saying? Yes feel bad! Sadness, despair, misery, suffering, death, MURDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pearl continued, “I just wanna… is there a dog?” They started leaving on their horses, “Fine I’ll come visit you guys later,” she told them, and they didn’t say anything so she’s taking it as a yes. “I’ll be getting that dog, you’ll see me later!”

No dog, we don’t need a dog

Scar was just throwing snowballs at them.

“Okay,” he said as he turned to Pearl, “Here you go,” and he placed some powdered snow on her.

“Ooh! Yes! This is perfect. We need more of these Scar.” Pearl said, as Scar was evil laughing, “We need more.”

“I know right, we need more buckets though, we need more iron.”

“I have plenty! I’ll make more buckets.” she smiled at the thought, “Oh, I’m gonna die” she got out of the snow as she started taking damage.

“I want to try,” Scar said, getting in.

I know I said you don’t need anybody, or any stupid dog, but come on! This Scar guy is amazing!

“Oh man,” he started taking damage but didn’t get out like Pearl did, “Grian’s out there like, ‘I should've let him, have the panda’s in the walls.”

“You know what, this is a good idea, I like this idea,” she got back into the snow, both of them giggling.

A bunch of zombies started coming up to them. Maybe they shouldn’t be doing this at nighttime. But they’re pretty easy, Pearl can handle them just fine, even when shivering to death.

“Careful with that axe, Pearl, if you hit me, I may die.”

Ooh, maybe we should hit him, it’ll be funny

“It’s okay I got you Scar, I got you.” she said, looking over at him, “You know what, I protect the people I’m around. Unlike Scott who just abandons them.” Scar is just nodding at what she’s saying, “And, I’m healing up which means he’s healing. He must be panicking right now!” She was very glad at the thought. Maybe Scarlet is right, this is very fun.

“Yeah, yeah, Grian is eating too. I’m gonna eat too just to pretend that I’m not, like, doing this on purpose.”

Suddenly Pearl took a big hit, “Oh!” she got out quickly, “Scott’s taking damage, oh okay, he really was taking damage, that was terrifying for a hot minute there. I’m on four hearts, and you know I’m not gonna heal.” she hummed.

He broke your heart, so why should you heal his?

“Excellent point, Scarlet.” she whispered.

“Okay,” Scar got out of the snow too, “That’s probably enough torture for once.”

No, never enough!

“Yeah, you can pick that back up, I’m gonna go make some more buckets so we can have some more of these.” Pearl said, starting to walk back to her tower.

“I better get this stuff back home to Grian so I can pretend to be doing my chores.”

“Alright, see ya.”

— — —

“Scar’s given me an idea, he’s given me a good idea!”

That he has, this is true indeed

“Oh, this is gonna be fun. Maybe you’re right, Scarlet. That was really fun torturing soulmates with Scar.”

I know!

She got the iron that she needed out of the chest and got to working crafting some buckets. This shouldn’t take too long to do. Pearl went to her crafting table and started getting to work, she reached out to put the iron on the table, when she noticed it. She dropped the iron all over the floor.

No, no no no no no! They can’t be back, They can’t be! There’s no way!

Staring at the symbol on the back of her hand she fought back the beginnings of a panic attack. Breathing in, out. Think. Actually maybe don’t do that. All she can think about is Evo, and where she was before it. Where she came from. Grian’s the only one who really knows, since he’s had his own experiences with Them as well. Similar-ish experiences to her’s. Except They finished the process with him. Their experiences with Them were why they were always so close. Why they act like brother and sister so much. Some people even thought they were siblings.

Of course, there’s also the other Evolutionists, they obviously also have had some experience with Them. Martyn, Jimmy, BigB. But not like Pearl and Grian. Jimmy and Martyn had more experience with the listeners than with Them. But they all knew about Grian’s situation.

“Scarlet”

Yeeees?

“Are you… did you… were you… what are you?” she finally got out. She really should have asked this question before agreeing to Scarlet’s deal.

Mmm, not important

“Are you one of Them?”

Not quite

“Did you come from Them?”

In a way

“What are you here to do?”

Help you! Let’s be done with this interrogation that’s going nowhere, when more torture?!

“Are they coming?”

They’ve always been here, They’re always watching, you should know that better than anyone, right, Akoya?

That name was a punch in the gut, a bittersweet walk down memory lane. “Ok, now I really need to talk to Grian about this.” He would know what to do. He could figure it out. Though she won’t admit it, there’s no way Scarlet isn’t one of Them! It makes so much sense!

I’m sorry, but I can’t let you speak to your “brother”

Once again, Pearl found herself unable to move her own body. No matter how hard she tried.

“Scarlet! Let. Me. Go!” That worked last time, why not again?

I can’t do that. Also you remember when I said sorry before? That was a lie, it’s actually really fun to see you try and break free. You won’t be able to succeed. 

Okay then, how about negotiating? “Hey, why don’t we go find Scott? We can do more little powdered snow tricks?” That'll work for sure. If this is one of Them, Scarlet’s not very good at hiding her emotions from who she’s following. Pearl can feel them almost as clear as her own.

Yes! Of course we can!

She let out a sigh of relief as she regained control. “Thank you.”

Pearl?

“Yeah?” responded Pearl, confused.

The one you call Grian, he chose his path, to abandon who he is. We don’t want that for you too. You still remember who you are, right?

That was a shock, “Of course I do! I remember very well. But I’m not one of Them.”

… You were supposed to be

Pearl can’t respond to that.

Chapter Text

You know it’s true, those were your words

“That, was a long time ago. Before they took Grian. Before they left me! Just another thing for them to watch. I waited for so long for them to come get me, I didn’t even know how I got to Evo. And they decided it would be ‘interesting to see how you interact with the normal players’.”

They want you back now! And you clearly still recognize that part of yourself. You wanted to go back with them, I’m telling you there’s a chance!

“Thanks but no thanks. Now I need to find some gloves.”

Gloves? Why do you need those?

“Because if any Evolutionists see this mark on my hand, they’ll know something is up.” Pearl explained, “Even though they didn’t know exactly where I came from, they know this mark. And they know it faded soon after Grian left.” She let out a sigh, “One of the people I’m planning to go see is BigB, who was an Evolutionist. And we might see Grian or Martyn, or even Jimmy would know for voids sake! But especially Grian can’t see this, he’d absolutely freak out, the nugget.”

It would cause quite a lot of chaos though

“I’m just gonna ignore you now.”

— — —

She started walking over to BigB and Ren’s place, on the way she ran into Jimmy and Tango. They needed help getting a horn, so of course she helped them, why wouldn’t she? Hopefully Jimmy didn’t notice her gloves. Or that she kept pulling on them. Or how her wings kept fluttering nervously. Or literally anything about her right now.

A couple times she did go a little crazy, jumping in the powdered snow because Scott was clearly doing the same. It’s just a little tickle.

She can see him, he’s with Cleo. What are they talking about? He’s coming over here now?

“Hi Pearl,”

“Hello, did you enjoy your little tickle?”

“I did, did you enjoy your little ice bath as well?”

“I did.”

He tilted his head at her, “Why are you in your red skin already? We’re still green?”

“Because my heart is broken Scott,”

“Well now you know how it feels!”

“You left me! And Tilly died Scott! My dog died!”

“Oh Tilly died? Kay, that one I do give you my condolences.”

We don’t need your condolences

Pearl tugged her gloves up a bit more, her wings fluttering nervously when Scarlet spoke.

“And you know something else bad?” Scott said, not noticing, “I think Jimmy got a horn, did you give him it?”

“Yes, I did,”

“Why would you do that? The goal was for him to never get a horn?”

“Because I needed food since you keep taking damage! I was eating for you so much yesterday too!”

“Cleo and I were eating for you and Martyn cause you were in the Nether and were on fire!”

“I had pork chops! I was fine! You didn’t trust me!”

“To be fair,” he explained, “I didn’t know if it was you or Martyn, I just knew it was one of you.”

“And you still didn’t trust me cause you left! And now you keep taking damage!”

Good, chew him out

“ I keep taking damage!” he yelled, “You’re the one purposefully getting into ice buckets!”

And enjoying it too

“You did that too, Scott!”

“I did it after ! And I have been taking a lot of little damage-”

“Little? Little?! You’ve taken some pretty big hits a couple of times today!”

“Oh, that, yeah Cleo and I hit each other with axes at the start of today to mess with you and Martyn. And then you were annoying me with the snow so I had her do it again.”

Pearl pulled out her bucket of snow, “I’m not afraid to do this many more times, Scott.”

“Put it down,”

Oh, this is interesting, he wants you to put it down

She put the snow down and got in, and so did he. Pretty soon they were both shivering and taking damage.

“This is the most aggressive thing. It looks like you’re shaking in anger.” he laughed.

“I’m very angry Scott,”

Yes, let out the anger

“I’m very very angry, and now you have to deal with what you’ve unleashed .” she picked up the snow.

“You know, Martyn is actively trying to win Cleo back. He’s built a weird house over there and he’s brought the property value way down. He’s watching us right now.” He took out his communicator, “Why are you watching us?”

Pearl grabbed hers out as well, “You’re spoopy man,” she looked at him, “Weird.”

“Yeah, we’ve got mine and Pearl, I mean, mine and Cleo’s bridge over there.”

“You sure it’s not mine Scott?”

It rightfully is

“You said it, it’s mine now! ” she started running towards his house.

“No, Pearl! I will kill you!”

“ No you won’t! ” she yelled back at him.

Pearl made it to the house and ran inside, hiding in one of the corners and peeking out the window at Scott right as Cleo arrived.

“She’s just forcefully moving in.” he explained to her.”

Cleo nodded and came inside, “Pearl? I will kill you if you don’t come out of there soon.” They held an axe as if to prove her point. The zombie brought out some blocks and built a wall blocking off her corner, “There you go.”

Pearl brought out her own axe and cut a window in the wall. “ Peek-a-boo, Cleo, you’ve already been kicked out, Scott said this was my base, ”

“I didn’t,” he protested, “This is a crazy ex-girlfriend situation that I don’t want to deal with.”

“ It’s not an ex-girlfriend situation, ”

“Yes it is! You’re trying to be my soulmate! That’s basically the equivalent of that!”

“ I wasn’t trying to be your soulmate, I never wanted to be. ”

What is happening? She hears herself speaking and sees herself moving. She’s choosing the words and the actions. But she isn’t at the same time. She can do whatever she wants but she can’t. And no one seems to notice, she’s not sure if she wants them to or not.

“Then what are you trying to do this for!” he exclaimed.

“ Because it’s fun to mess with you! ” she ran out of the house laughing.

— — —

“SCARLET!!!”

…Yes?

“Was that you?” Pearl questioned.

Not really, I just kind of amplified your hate and anger for a bit. I wasn’t controlling you, just, influencing

“You can’t just do that!”

But why not! I didn’t take you over completely . And I promise not to do that again… yet

“Messing with people's emotions, literally or not, isn’t nice Scarlet!”

Yeah, like I care!

Pearl heard the buzz of her communicator

<Renthedog> Pearl I think I found something of yours, come to box

Her wings fluttered in excitement. He must have a dog!

“You’re impossible, I don’t want to deal with you right now. I need to go get my Tilly back if you don’t mind me.”

Chapter Text

“Hello, welcome to box, you are welcome here.” Ren greeted her at the door

Pearl smiled, “Oh I’m welcome here, is this a what’s yours is mine situation?”

“It could be!”

“Ah, it could be,”

“Well,” he continued, “the last time we saw you you were sacrificing yourself to some dark spirit in the forest in the middle of the night,” Pearl got out her powdered snow and placed it down. “And, now you’re doing it again you weirdo.”

“Yeah, I just like tickling Scott you know it’s kind of funny to me. It’s just a little tickle you know, he’ll be alright.”

He laughed at that, “Ah that’s hilarious.”

It is indeed

“Anyway, I might have something for you that I think you will be quite interested in.” He led her outside to a bit of wood on the ground, “You may think that this is some sort of a grave. But it is indeed the opposite, for within lies,” he broke away the wood, revealing an untamed wolf, “A fresh little puppers.”

Darn it!

“Can I tame it?” she asked very eagerly.

“Hold your bones for a sec,”

“I’m holding my bones!” and she was, she had gotten out the bones she brought.

“ We need to make a deal,” he offered, “When we’re fighting each other, if we come across each other on the battlefield, you shall turn the other way.”

Pearl was nodding but she could feel Scarlet wasn’t very happy with that. But there was a hole that Pearl saw in this, “What if you hit me? Does that allow you to hit me back? Or…”

“No no no no, let me rephrase. If we see each other on the battlefield, we shall turn away.”

Why would anyone want to turn away from a fight?

“Ok, what if it’s between you and Scott?”

“Listen, I don’t care about you soulmate. I’m only interested in you and me right now.”

“Well, to be honest I’ll do anything for Tilly. So if you want me to straight up kill Scott, I’ll kill Scott.” and she 100% meant it.

“Oh, don’t talk too loudly, he's very close by.”

“It’s ok, he’ll be fine, his ears are blocked it’s alright,”

“So we got a deal?”

“We got a deal,” she agreed, she gets Tilly and allies, that’s a great deal!

We don’t need either of those things

“We got each other's back?” Ren asked.

“I got you, I like this deal, I’m fine with this deal. I just want Tilly.”

“Good luck with the dog. I’ve got to get this cow in the box again.” One of his cows had wandered out and he was luring it with wheat. “See you soon on the battlefield,”

“Yep, hopefully not targeting each other.” She said while giving the dog bones, it already seemed to like her, that was quick. “Ok bye Ren!”

Tilly has been fully resurrected now.

— — —

Pearl had her Tilly back. She could calm down now. She had just been a very sad person who lost her dog, it had made her go a little crazy. Oh wow she went insane didn’t she? But to be honest Scott kind of deserved it so she didn’t feel bad.

We didn’t need that

“I wanted Tilly back, and I got an ally, is that so bad?”

You don’t need allies, and you really don’t need a dog

“Why do you hate Tilly so much?”

I don’t!

“Then why can’t I keep her?”

No answer from Scarlet.

“We’re keeping her, and that’s final.”

— — —

Later that day she went over to box again. Not really for any reason, just because. Pearl climbed up the ladders onto their roof and peered over the edge. Ren and BigB were down there seemingly making a deal with Bdubs.

BigB looked up and saw her there. He climbed up using some dirt blocks.

“Um, what are you doing?” he whispered.

“I don’t know,” she whispered back.

He hopped down from where they were down to Tilly, he gave her a little hit so of course she started attacking him. What did he expect?

Pearl hopped down too and told Tilly to sit, petting her to calm her.

“How did you get up here Pearl?”

The obvious way

“I climbed the ladders,” she stated matter of factly, “Your door is literally wide open.

“Uh hello, hello?” Ren said, finally noticing she was there, took him long enough.

Pearl giggled, “Hi Ren,”

“What’s going on in here?” he demanded to know.

“Nothing!” Pearl quickly replied.

“Pearl just scared me so much,” BigB said.

“You know,” started Ren, “I always thought of you as like a really kind and sweet person, but you are literally terrifying me right now.”

“I’m just visiting though,” she protested, “You don’t want to visit? Can I just say hi? I’m a lonely person alright, I just want some company. Okay?”

“Okay, you’re not welcome here if you’re just gonna torture people around us though.”

Uh, what else would we do?

“ Not now Scarlet, ” she whispered quickly, “I’m not torturing anybody, I’m just saying hi!”

“Her dog attacked me!” BigB told him.

“You, you hit her!”

“I did, I did do that,” he admitted.

“You know what, I’m leaving, apparently I’m not welcome here. I’m going, bye.” Pearl started climbing back down the ladders.

What did I tell you, they’re all going to leave you, you don’t need any of them

“No you can stay!” Ren tried, it didn’t work though, she kept leaving, “You can stay, don’t go Pearl!”

“No no, I’m just gonna go, okay, you know it’s fine.” she hopped onto one of the horses, not sure which one but it didn’t really matter too much, “Thanks for the horse!” she said while riding away, and they didn’t even notice.

She stopped a little bit away from them and turned around to watch them. From a distance she heard them realize that she had taken the horse and rushed outside to find  her.

Before Pearl knew what was happening, an Enderman rushed past her towards them. It must have been behind her!

Her communicator buzzed and she saw a death message, it had killed them!

Good

“Oh! That’s my fault! I didn’t mean, I didn’t mean for anything to happen.”

Did you not?

“I wasn’t even actually gonna take the horse, I just thought it would be funny.”

But, I thought you wanted to get back at people?

“At Scott! Not Ren and BigB! They have been nothing but nice to me!”

No they have not! They just kicked you out!

“Maybe.”

At this point Scott and Cleo came over.

“That wasn’t me!” Pearl immediately threw out, “I didn’t do it!”

“You sure?” Scott asked.

Are you sure?

“I didn’t do it!”

“What did you do Pearl?”

“I just stole their horse and then Ren stared at an Enderman and that’s his fault.”

“Oh there’s free stuff,” he and Cleo went over to the pile of dropped items on the ground.

“Don’t steal their items!”

That’s what you should be doing

“What do you mean?” He was playing innocent.

“They’re obviously on the floor!” Cleo pointed out.

Pearl picked up a chestplate just before Cleo could.

“Oh Pearl stole the chestplate?” Scott tried deflecting.

“I’m not stealing it, I’m gonna give it back to them unlike you guys who were gonna steal it!”

Don’t do that!

“I’m disappointed in my ‘soulbound’,” she gave Scott a very pointed look.

“I’m sorry but this is very on brand for the both of us, I don’t know what you expected,” true actually, “This is very on brand for us two. And, actually, we were just picking all of it up at the moment, I’m gonna throw some of it back.”

“Oh! There’s more inside!” Cleo noticed.

Luckily, Pearl managed to beat them to it and get the items. They left after that. And soon, Ren and BigB made it back.

“Guys I got you, I got your stuff,” she greeted them back.

“Pearl! You are an evil demoness!” Ren accused her.

What did I tell you? They don’t want you. Even though that was clearly his fault

“I just saved your stuff! I didn’t mean for you to die!”

` “You came here with evil in your heart, and so we were slain.”

“I didn’t, I didn’t , I just saved your stuff, Scott and Cleo were trying to take it.”

“The Enderman is still here too,” and it was, it was indeed still in the house.

“Well, you came here and just started insulting me, I don’t know if I want to save you right now.”

Why should you?

“ You came here, and you caused death. Whether you tried to or not! Because there is something wicked within you.”

“I just wanted to have some fun,” her spirit was deflating more and more by the second. No way she was getting broken up with twice in less than a week.

“You are banished from box. You have cost 2 lives. 2 lives! There is a demon within you, you are a cursed soul.”

“You know Ren, You actually aren’t too far off with that one.”

And she ran back to her tower with Tilly, the mark on her hand beginning to glow.

Chapter Text

After that very stressful day, Pearl wanted to do something a little more fun. There’s a disc that you can get from the ancient city, why not do that? And it may panic Scott a little in the process, so it’s a win-win. For her at least.

She won’t spawn the Warden on purpose of course. As much as she kinda maybe wants to see Scott die, she doesn’t want to die herself just yet.

It could be fun though

“No Scarlet, we aren’t committing suicide today,”

Okay…

— — —

“Horns don’t set off the shriekers right?” Joel said right as Pearl got down into the ancient city.

“Um, debatable. Don’t test that out while I’m down here please?” she asked him.

He laughed, “Okay,”

“I’m just here for a disc for absolutely no reason at all. I just want to”

Both him and his soulmate Etho laughed at that and climbed back up the pillar and out of the ancient city.

She’d have to be extra careful and sneaky while she was down here. “I may be risking my link to Scott right now. But that’s fine.”

It’s more than fine, it’s wonderful

Pearl made her way through the Ancient City, setting off a couple shriekers here and there, but no Wardens were summoned

Once she saw a strange figure in the city, “Is that BigB?” she thought aloud, “It certainly looks like BigB.”

After a while she heard Ren's voice in the roof above her, “You're being very loud up there!” she yelled up at him, putting some wool around her mouth to make sure no shriekers got set off by her voice.

They started panicking up there, “Oh no, oh no, it’s the demoness herself!” they were both saying in different ways.

“Hey! You know what, you caused your own death, okay, it wasn’t my fault.”

Yeah, you tell him Pearl!

“Pearl, be careful, the skulkers can hear our voices,” Ren warned her.

“I know, I’m covering with wool, it doesn’t affect it when you do that. You should take your own advice.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m in the Deep Dark, below you.”

He was laughing, “I can’t see you, anywhere,”

“Cause I’m hiding!”

Idiots

Finally, he seemed to realize what she was saying and peeked over the edge, “Oh there you are!” BigB was up there with him too.

“Have you guys been looting any chests?”

“Nope. No chest looting for us, we’re not that brave.”

“I mean, I saw BigB in the City before, so, are you sure about that?”

BigB looked taken aback, “Wait wait wait, uh, it wasn’t me, it was someone that looked like me.

Sure

“Uh huh, are you sure about that? Those glasses are really unrecognizable, uh huh.”

He dropped some iron down to her, “Watch your head!”

“Oh! Thank you! Um, you know those can set off the things right?”

“I forgot about that! You know, it would be a shame if I set those off.” he said in a sarcastic tone.

“Hey now-”

“Oops,” he pretended to drop something off the edge. “Actually, I’ll stop.”

His soulmate stepped in, “BigB, you don’t want to mess with her. She came to box and we both died. I mean, seriously.”

“Yeah, that was your own fault Ren, those glasses aren’t enderman proof unfortunately.”

“Dang it.”

“Are you all alone, Pearl?” BigB asked.

What kind of a stupid question is that!

“I am,” she responded, “I mean, look, I don’t have any people I’m with at the moment. So of course I’m alone, BigB. On top of that you guys kind of cast me out, so.”

“I think things could have changed,”

“It could have! And then Ren stared at an enderman and blamed me.”

“The first is just accepting that it was, it was your fault.”

Well, that was rude, “It wasn’t my fault, I think Ren needs to take that advice.”

Of course Ren got defensive at that, “Pearl, the problem is, you have a demon within, my friend. It is not your fault it is the demon within!”

I’m no demon

“Me! I think you need to look in the mirror! Blaming an innocent person for your mistakes, that's as demon as it can get!” She's not completely innocent, and she knows it, but that won’t stop her from blaming him.

“How could a demon infest this little face, just look at it, it’s adorable!”

“It is adorable, and that’s where all the evil lies, in the most adorable things.”

“She has a point,” BigB admitted.

Soon after that they left, and Pearl was back to her disc adventures.

She accidentally set off one shrieker, that’s fine. In one of the chests she found some diamond pants, that’s wonderful actually. But, while she was putting them on she may have set off another shrieker and summoned a Warden.

As it was climbing out of the ground she very quickly ran away and made herself a wool tower to hide on top of.

“No doing that today. I’m doing all of this for a music disc, I’m so stupid! As much as it would be funny to see Scott die, not today. I think I should just cut my losses here and go.”

Or…

“Scarlet, I told you, not today.”

Ugh, fine!

As Pearl was climbing up the stairs, she pulled out all of the stuff she had gotten. Not bad. Oh no, she forgot to enchant! The enchanter is down there. Okay, just really quick down and up, no problem.

Pretty much as soon as she got to the enchanter another shrieker went off, “Never mind!” She climbs up the ladder as quick as she can.

“Oh my gosh! I hated every part of that. But Scott, we're still alive. I hope you’re proud, you know I care enough.”

We don’t care at all though?

“It’s called sarcasm, Scarlet.”

— — —

On her way back to her tower, she hears an ominous voice.

“Well hello there,”

“Scar, that’s creepy,” It’s obviously him.

Yay! Scar!

“Haha, I got you this time!  After you made me lose my axe!” He's so proud of himself.

“I mean, I didn’t scream or anything in fright,”

“Pearl, do you want to threaten people? Do you want to bring fear to their hearts?”

Of course!

“Ooh, um, yes? I would love to, I want to get a few people back you know.”

“Well, I have paper for sale. That means… TNT.”

“Okay, okay, yeah. How much?”

He smiled, “Whatever you’re willing to give up, it’s my last few pieces, I’ve given away the rest of them.”

“Okay, I’ll give you a piece of wool,”

The smile dropped, “Ah Pearl, this is the most valuable item in the world.”

“And so is this wool! I got this from the Ancient City Scar! How could you not like this premium wool all right? I don’t know why I’m still covering my mouth with it”

“It smells like damp cave,”

“Oh that’s a great smell! You know what,” she put on a skull she got from the ancient city.

Scar, ever oblivious, says, “I personally am not much into the damp cave smells, to each their own of course.” he noticed, “Oop, where’d you get that?”

“From the Ancient City, so it also kind of stinks but, it’s rare you know? Eh? Eh?”

“Six paper for the head?”

“ Six paper?”

“Six paper for the head.”

She considered it for a second, then an idea came to mind, “I’ll just take the horse, tehehehehehe.” Pearl jumped onto Scar’s horse and rode away, “Let’s go,”

Scar just stood there, “He’s just letting me take it? That’s fine alright. Where’d he go? You take a man’s horse and he leaves! I don’t know how I got away with that.”

That was fun

“It was! But he did burn down Jimmy and Tango’s place yesterday because they stole his horse,”

It’ll be fine, I’m sure. You’ve barely built anything, and I’m sure he doesn’t care that much.

“Well okay.”

Chapter Text

You know what? I’m just going to go show my new prize off to Tango and Jimmy.

That sounds like a great idea

But just as I got there, I saw Scott and Cleo just outside of the Ranch.

“Pearl,” Scott called, “Did you have sugarcane originally that you gave to Grian and Scar?”

What? Why does he think that? “Nope, never did!”

Even if we did, why would we give it to you

Scott nodded, “Okay, then they’re lying. They’re just going around saying ‘Pearl had sugarcane’,”

“Are they now?! ”

But I liked Scar!

“They have sugarcane!”

“Yeah I know they did,”

Jimmy came running out of the Ranch, “Pearl Pearl Pearl! Is that Scar’s horse?”

I giggled, “Yes!”

Both Scott and Cleo started laughing and Jimmy’s face lit up, “How much? What do you want to return it to the barn it was in? The little barn.”

When I responded I gave him a sad stare, “What do I want? What do I want? I want friends, that's what I want!”

What are you talking about! We don’t need friends !

Jimmy came up beside the horse, “We’ll be your friends, you’re always welcome in the ranch!”

“Well I like friends,” I gestured to Scott and Cleo, “Cause these two won’t be my friends, I know that for sure.”

That seemed to make him reconsider a bit, “Wait, what are they? Wait, why?”

My response: “Cause they’re ‘soulbound’,”

Scott’s response: “She literally spent an entire episode,” He placed down snow, “Sitting like this, damaging me!”

“Yes, but that’s because I wanted to tickle! I can do a little tickle! That’s okay, look what you’re doing!”

Cleo jumped in, “The house invasion, too, was an issue.”

“I was just visiting! That’s what friends do! They just didn’t want me to visit, you know?”

“Pearl is very normal at the moment, very normal,” Cleo said sarcastically.

Who would want to be normal

Not really knowing why, I pulled some skulk sensors out of my bag, “Lot’s of normal,” I sarcastically replied back.

Jimmy was getting more and more fidgety by the second, “Yeah that thing? You just said like tickle? From how to- you can stay out here, stay out here.” He ran back inside of the Ranch and shut the gate quickly.

Oh come on! Because of the TICKLE! Really? That’s why?

Of course Scott decided to make the most of the situation, for himself, “Yeah, I think you should go and be friends with Jimmy, Pearl. It’d be great. I think you would enjoy it.”

The entire time he was saying that Jimmy was going, “No no no no no,” Am I really that bad!

I decided to challenge Jimmy’s reason, “Just because of the tickle? It’s just a tickle!”

“You’re also holding the deep dark stuff? See ya, you stay out there, it’s all good.”

“But, doesn’t, doesn’t that say something about the fact that I can survive? Did I just lose another person?”

See? Every day another person turns you away.

“I think you should go and keep trying,” Scott advised, “Jimmy takes a while to break down. I was his partner for the first game, it takes a while but once you whittle him down to… nothing, it works.”

Like I’m gonna listen to him.

He’s probably just setting you up for more heartbreak

“Ah, so, I could try that on you two , right yeah, yeah good idea.”

Scott immediately protested, “No see, I’m a master of it so it doesn’t work for me-” I’m not listening at all.

“Thank you! I’m going this way!” I rode away on Scars horse, time to find more ways to bug my soulbounds.

“You know what Scarlet, I have a new house, and our new house is going to be right here.” I said while riding onto Scott and Cleo’s bridge, he did say it was mine last time.

But what’s wrong with our tower?

“Nothing’s wrong with our tower, this one’ll just bug Cleo and Scott more. It’s my bridge now!”

Ah, I like your thinking!

“My new home, brilliant! Look at all these cows and sheep! Perfect! This is my bridge, Scott said it yesterday. Home! Home sweet home,”

I got off the horse and started placing down the foundations of my house, but I kept taking damage! What is Scott doing?

Getting back on the horse I rode over to see him where he was fighting mobs, “Look, you’re a porcupine, you’re getting us hurt so many times, what’s going on?”

“There’s a lot of mobs out here! And I have goats to move!”

“Our lives are not important to you?”

“I have goats to move Pearl!”

“Yes and you have lives to protect! Gosh, now I’ve got to protect you who would’ve thought,”

I thought, I very very much thought

“I’m sorry Pearl,” at least he has the decency to apologize about it.

I sighed, “It’s fine, I’m moving in on the bridge, I hope you know that. You said it was my bridge yesterday, so.”

“You’re moving in on, no I didn’t say!” he’s struggling to get any sentence out in response to that.

“Yes you did! I clearly heard you say ‘Mine and Pearl’s bridge,’ like as far as I’m concerned, that is permission to build a house on it, alright?”

“It’s actually Cleo you built it, so I would bring it up with them,”

“Ah, too late. You guys are soulbound with each other, so your decision is the same as hers.”

“I mean I’m actually not soulbound with her, we're just soul mates , we’re chosen soulmates. But she died because Martyn died. So. Actually, Martyn pushed her off a bridge, so you’re already, you’re one up on him .”

Okay, actually I like this Martyn guy

“Martyn is one of the ones who left before you came!” I angrily whispered to her.

Right, sorry!

Out loud I said, “At least I’m trying to protect my soulmate. Martyn’s gone loopy!”

“Yeah, I appreciate that you’ve not pushed me off a bridge yet.”

“I may have summoned a Warden twice but you know. Um so, what you’re saying right now is that I should kill Cleo one more time and then you won’t be even soulmates at that point,”

That isn’t what he’s saying at all, but I really like how your brain is working today. Can we please do that!

“See you’re not red, you’re not allowed to do that.” Scott tries to reason.

“What do you mean? As far as I’m concerned I'm as red as can be, Scott!”

“As far as your sanity, yes! Gone, far gone!”

“And who’s fault is that Scott!”

“It’s not my fault you have separation issues !”

“Of course I have separate- everyone’s abandoned me of course I have issues Scott!”

I just realized how many sentences you say that just end in Scott!

“Is your build the floating thing in the sky?” he asked.

“It’s the floating pretty thing in the sky, thank you very much! I need the extra,”

“Yeah I was going to say it was pretty!”

“Oh thank you,”

At least you have good taste in buildings

“As soon as I saw it I was like ‘that seems like a Pearl build’,”

“Ah, oh thank you, he’s a little nice to me today,”

“I can be nice to you when you’re not being unhinged! If you’re less unhinged, people will be nice to you Pearl!”

“Really? That’s something that can happen? I was trying to be nice to Ren and BigB, I saved their stuff from you two and then they cast me out! It’s not about being nice!”

From somewhere BigB’s voice came, “Yeah that’s right, that’s right.”

“Hey!” I swiveled my horse towards the sound.

Suddenly our communicators buzzed, it was a message from Ren.

<Renthedog> Pearl! This base seems VERY flammable :D

“Ren! Wait, why is Ren over at my base?”

“I would go check.”

Yeah, let’s definitely go check on that

Chapter Text

“What are you doing mate? I’m coming for you,” I say as I head back to my base, what is Ren on about? “In what realm have I done something to deserve having my base burned down. With him telling me there’s evil inside me, what about the evil inside Ren huh?”

I’m honestly shocked at how many people hate you on the world Akoya, I didn’t expect it to be this bad when I came here

“Don’t call me that, and of course people hate me. In this world people are unforgiving and ruthless. Nobody likes to listen to you. After day 1 all friendships are basically set in stone and they rarely ever change.”

Maybe I shouldn’t be doing this…

“Doing what?”

Never mind, just go see what the dog is up to, it’s nothing

“Okay, if you say so.”

— — —

“Ren? Why are you burning down my- hold on what’s going on here? Why are you burning down my base?”

Martyns over there as well, truly what is happening?

Suddenly Ren gets very excited, “It worked! It worked! It worked!”

“Why are you burning down my base?”

Ren and Martyn are doing some weird dance around a burning log, “Pet the dog, burn the log, poke the frog,” they repeat over and over, what strange chant is this?

I run up and put out the fires, “No no no no no, what are you saying, what are you on about? What is this?”

“Hi Pearl!” Ren says.

And Martyn actually answers the question, if a little vaguely, “We were petting the dog, we were poking the frog, and we were burning the log, to summon you!”

“To summon the demoness!” Ren adds.

Rude! I’m no demon!

“So the yellow hat guy, and the yellow glasses guy want to summon me?” If they call me names and say weird things, let's just do it right back. “Yeah, that’s not how this works.”

“What’s the problem?” Ren asks.

Martyn asks a question of his own, “What’s the one thing that we all have in common?”

“I have no friends?” just the first thing that comes to mind.

And we don’t want any either!

“Exactly!” wait what?

“No Ren, Ren has friends though, that doesn’t count.”

“No! Ren’s been sworn off! BigB ditched him!” Martyn defends him.

What!

“What!” I exclaim, they ditch me then each other, that seems to be how this server works now. “Is the dog all lonely? Ah such a pity,” sarcasm paints my voice, “Blaming your death on me. Such a pity.”

At least he has the decency to look slightly ashamed, “Pearl we’ve come to you with a proposition. First I shall apologize for my actions towards you.”

“Really now?”

I’m getting more and more confused by the second

The dog continues, “I’ve been unfair, and uncouth, and ungentlemanly, and Martyn will tell you I am nothing if I am not a gentleman!”

Don’t know why, but I find that kind of hard to believe

Martyn backs Ren up, why do these two always seem to come together somehow? “Mhm, he is a man that is gentle.”

I’m not buying any of this, “Well why should I believe the one who ditched me after the first day mm?”

He slightly hesitantly forces out, “I would also like to apologize for my actions, I was blindsided and I was hurt. I think we both felt thrown off by Scott and Cleo.

Of course Ren jumps back in with his weird proposal thing, “Pearl, what we’ve come to realize is that the three of us are actually, the same!”

You wish

“We’re all cursed, we’re all alone, we’ve all been abandoned, we are all… losers! We are the Broken Hearts club and I think we should unite!”

“I’m not a loser, I don’t want to be a loser,” I snicker.

Martyn joins, “Yeah I don’t know, I don’t want to go that far. I’d say I’m a loose cannon but not a loser.”

“Yeah okay, I agree with the loose cannon bit but.”

Ren seems very embarrassed, “I’m not very good with words. However! I would like to propose-” you’ve said that a million times already, are you that desperate to marry someone? “A tentative truce between the three of us,” that makes much more sense. “I mean, we need one another, Pearl. You know I still believe that you have a demon within you, and honestly I’d rather be aligned with a demon than any of the other fools in this world!”

Again with the demon stuff! Is he ever gonna let that go? “It’s okay, you’ve got a demon in you too, you’re just in denial. It’s alright. It’s okay, I believe that.”

“Do I?” Martyn says, probably starting to feel a little left out.

“Yes you do.”

He laughs, “That’s a hard yes. Okay, that’s good, I’ve already slain my own soulmate.”

“I’ve heard from Scott on that one. Does this, wait, does this mean I have friends?”

Wait what? No! No friends! I’m sorry I stopped paying attention a while ago. You know we don’t need friends Pearl! And you’ve learned what happens when you try to get them!

“I want to propose that we become friends, guys,” Ren states, much clearer than the last way he explained it.

“Well then Tilly’s got to meet you,” I call her over to me, “Tilly, come meet my new friends! Look at this, we have friends!”

They pet her with shouts of, “Hi Tilly,” and Martyn throws in a, “I named Tilly!” Ren also feeds her a little.

“Aw, you gave her steak too! She loves you.”

Martyn being Martyn immediately steps forward, “I’ll give her a steak! Oh I think, I think Tilly’s full.” He says when all she does is growl when offered his steak.

“Okay, I have friends now! I love it!”

“Well listen guys,” Ren starts, “I’ve got a plan to seal this alliance. I’m gonna head back to my box, to get that all sorted out. I’d like to meet you all again at some point this evening. Perhaps we can um, you know, tie the bond in between us.”

“Should we meet back at the spawn area? I was saying to Ren earlier that everyone’s built on the outskirts of the map but no one ever actually goes to spawn . So that tends to be the best place to meet.” Martyn suggests, it’s actually a pretty good idea.

“When I am ready to summon you I shall run the summon spell in chat. Alright guys, keep your eyes open for the summon spell in chat alright? We’ll see you guys later.” Ren leaves.

“Okay, goodbye.” I say farewell to my new friend, I have friends!

It’s probably a trap, he’s likely leaving to go back to his soulmate and tell him how he can’t believe your gonna fall for it

“Have some faith Scarlet,”

“What was that?” Oh void Martyn heard.

“Nothing!”

“Okay, bye everyone,” he leaves too.

“Bye!”

— — —

“That went well, we have friends now.”

We don’t need friends! We’ve never needed friends Pearl! Why can’t you just understand and remember that!

“Why are you so dead set against us having friends? The less people that want to kill us the better. And, if they’re even going to help us then why should we turn them away!”

Because we just don’t need them!

“We do!”

We don’t!

“We do!”

WE DON”T!!!!!

“This is a pointless conversation!”

Why do you want friends so much? You’re only setting yourself up for getting betrayed again. You of all people should know this by now

“You may be right, but this is what I want to do. End of conversation. I want to ask you, what were you talking about earlier with the whole ‘Maybe I shouldn’t be doing this’ thing. In context it sounds like you’re trying to stop me from having friends, if that’s the case, my you’re right, maybe you shouldn’t do it.”

I’m just here to help you

“With what?”

Anything? I don’t know. I’m just doing what I’m told at this point

“Who’s telling you to do stuff? Is it the Watchers? Cause it honestly makes a lot of sense, but you’ve said no before. But you know all of this stuff about my time with them and tried to get me to go back to them.”

It’s not them

“It totally is.”

No

“Ignoring you again!”

Fine with me!

Chapter Text

“Alright, well I’m gonna go get some blocks and start building my house on the bridge. Let them know I’m serious that I’m trying to separate them.”

Sounds like a decent plan

“You’re grumpy at me aren’t you?” I ask her.

Of course I’m grumpy at you! Didn’t you say you were ignoring me literally 10 seconds ago?

“Okay, yeah, guess I did.” Why do I feel this way? She’s not important to me in any way, so why am I feeling so guilty?

— — —

“Not only do I have blocks, Scarlet, but I have a disc and a jukebox so we can listen to music as we build!”

Silence.

Well, that’s fine, not like I care at all.

I get on the bridge with Tilly and place down a floor, easy enough. But, as I start placing the first layer of the wall I see some people coming over.

“Uh oh, we’ve been caught!”

Again, nothing.

“Seriously Scarlet! Who's ignoring who here?”

No response.

I’ll deal with this on my own then.

“Pearl!” Scott says, coming onto the bridge.

“I’m not here,” is my initial reaction until I realize I’m not even hidden so that will not possibly work, “Wha- what? Hi! Welcome to my house! Do you like it? Isn’t it cozy?”

“This is my bridge!” Cleo protests, “You can’t build a house on my bridge.”

“No no no, Scott said it was my bridge yesterday. Scott said it was mine.”

“Pearl’s insane.” Bdubs states as if it isn’t obvious to everybody, of course I’m insane.

“I’m moving in, it’s my place now. What am I in the way? Am I in the way of you two? Huh?” the whole point of me doing this.

“Not particularly,” they say.

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yeah I’m sure.”

Suddenly Scott tries to take out my disc, I try to grab it but he manages to get to it first.

“Hey now! Scott, you drop that disc right now.” Everyone’s laughing like this is all some silly joke to them, am I just a joke? Well, how would Scott like to be hit by a joke using an axe? “You drop that right now.” I don’t care if it hurts me, he’s hurt me a whole lot more.

Somehow he’s still laughing though no one else is at this point, “Pearl if I die we both die,” thank you captain obvious.

“Good! It means I’m the same as Tilly.”

“Oh no,” Impulse says, he’s just a spectator at this point.

“Where is Tilly?” Cleo asks.

“Don’t! You touch that dog, you die. I will kill you. I will kill you!”

“Oh yeah?”

“I will kill you Cleo! I’m not afraid to kill you! Don’t you touch that dog.”

“Yeah Martyn will take care of you, it's fine. Or you’ll do what?”

“I don’t know if I would if you touch Tilly.” Go Martyn! Keeping with our alliance, see Scarlet? Friends are a good thing.

“You touch Tilly, we have a problem.”

Wait, are they whispering back there?

“Okay I won’t touch Tilly!” what?

“What’d you do with my disc Scott?” I need that disc back.

“I don’t have your disc anymore.”

“What’d you do with my disc Scott?”

He gets up onto the wall, “Your disc went for a little swim.”

I hit him off so he falls all the way down to the water.

“Well that went better than ours did,” Martyn says to Cleo.

While they both laugh I peek over the edge as well. “That’s what happens when he keeps passing my disc out!” As I finish I start falling over the edge cause Cleo pushed me.

Once I hit the water I swim to shore, “Give back my disc Bdubs, I know you have it.”

“Trust me I don’t have it, I'm looking through my inventory right now I promise.” He says his hands up, panicking slightly.

“Someone has it, and I will kill them if they have it I will kill them!”

Wow, I’m not even doing anything and this violence, it’s amazing! Lean into this

Finally she speaks, but currently I don’t really think I’m in the best of places to respond to her.

“Martyn’s got it, I don’t have it anymore.” Joel says swimming away.

“Did you say Martyn’s got it?” I gasp and then in a lower more menacing voice say “You,” as I swim towards his ugly red blob of a heart.

Told you!

“Hey hey hey!” The betrayer Martyn says way too cheerfully as he swims up into his house.

“I thought we were friends?!? Where’s the disc huh?”

“I’ll give it to you, just pretend that you’re coming for me.” He whispers.

“Oh okay. Grrr hrr. I’ll pretend that I’m coming. Martyn! Give me the disc!”

“Ah, no visitors! Sorry we’re closed today!”

“No no no. Okay, we’re good? We’re good.” I say as I get far enough away that nobody’ll hear me anymore.”

“Dude we are literally duping. We took a horn, we took a horse, we took a disc. You’re good!”

“I’ll admit I kind of gave the horse to Jimmy so he has that at the moment, I’m not gonna lie.”

“Oh I might have traded Joel the horn for…” he pulls something out of his inventory, “Sugarcane!”

“Oh, yes! I love it!”

“Big, big value. I know Joel prioritizes torturing Timmy over just about everything on this server so this is the item that is going to help us trap, enchant, the whole shabang. I feel like I might need to plant this over at your base cause no one ever treads over there since…” he trails off.

“Everyone is too scared.”

“A little scared of it, yeah.”

“You can do that. I just need to get my jukebox, I left it in the house. It’s a gorgeous house, can I just say.”

“It is honestly. It’s one of those bases just like this one where you have to really look around on top of it to really-”

Out of the corner of my eye I see Cleo run over the house and light it on fire. My dog is in there! “She’s burning it, I need to get the jukebox. I’ll be right back.”

Quick as I can I run over there, by then most of that small house was on fire. “Yo, no, no no no no no. No no no no no. No no no. You don’t set my dog on fire.” I run over pulling out a water bucket, “Tilly! Tilly, oh my gosh. She burnt this house with my dog inside! Lucky I had a water bucket, are you alright Tilly?”

That is a new low! I don’t care much for the dog but seriously? That was just cruel!

“House plan failed, Scarlet. I mean it’s very clear that Cleo doesn’t want me there. That was going to be obvious but, if she’s going to burn down my house with a dog inside then no, that ain’t gonna work. I’m not risking Tilly’s life alright? I ain’t risking Tilly’s life.”

You were fine risking your own though

“Cause that’s funny! And Scott’s life is on the line too in that situation. By the way, you're talking to me again.”

Yeah, it’s kind of hard for me to do my job and not talk to you. Also I was proud of you, the violence and anger, all without my influence! That was amazing! You have to admit it felt good right? To let all of that out of you?

“I mean, yeah, it did feel kind of good. But you have to admit that being friends with Martyn really helped us in that scenario. If I wasn’t friends with him that may have turned out differently, and Martyn and Cleo would likely be red lives.”

Okay fine. Maybe it helped once . But I still stand by the fact that in the long run it will be detrimental towards your survival. Also, red lives make it interesting, you’re already red and look at all of the fun you’ve had, imagine how much better that'll be with even more bloodthirsty maniacs!

“I’m not technically red yet. I’m just red in spirit.”

That’s better in my opinion

“It might make things interesting to have more reds, but it will also make things escalate into chaos much quicker, and eventually, like it or not, we might have to team up with Scott,”

What!?!?!?!?!

“Listen for a second, when most people are red, chaos will happen. I know you like the sound of that but to survive it will become beneficial to us to team up with our soulmate.”

I hate that you have a point. Okay, no more reds yet , but soon .

“You know what, I'll take it.”