Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Grian climbed his new tree, trying to tame some of the overgrown leaves. He was very proud of this island. The wheat field was calming, it gave his base more space in appearance, and the tree held a gorgeous silhouette when the sun set. 

Life was going great for him. 

Even with the permit-exiles and putting up with the No-Poe, he felt like he was finally back on track with the whole Hermit thing. 

Grian hummed as he flew over to his main base, and stared at the side of the building he’d not yet found a way to finish. 

It was an odd shape, and the redstone he’d put inside was going to make finishing this wall extremely tricky. 

He frowned. This was going to be a painfully slow job. 

You got mail!

A distraction! He practically jumped at the prospect, grinning as he ran over to his mailbox. 

When he peered inside, instead of seeing the usual white mail shulker issued by the post office, he saw a green one. 

Confused, Grian took the shulker box, placed it and opened it. 

Right in the middle was a single piece of paper.

“Want to play a game?” He read the words aloud. 

Even if the ominousness of the message could definitely be passed off as another Hermit, he’d known them all long enough to know the writing didn’t belong to any of them.

Grian groaned. Watchers.

He’d just finished one of their games a few months ago! Wasn’t that enough for them!?

He looked back to the green shulker. Their color was purple, wasn’t it?

“Well, so is mine, but like, can’t have the Watchers taking all my fun!” The voice was echoey, as was the giggle that followed their words.

Suddenly, Grian was no longer in his base. 

No, this was different.

It was a dark void, and while he’d been in the void his fair share of times, this was different. This one felt more… alien to him. 

He spread his wings to try and fly, but was met with restriction, like moving in honey or getting caught in cobwebs, but even patience wouldn’t let him free. 

“Don’t even try it. Your attempts are feeble, too. Gosh, my Creation had more spirit and chances to get out with her attempts to leave.” The voice from before said, not even bothering to hide the boredom in their voice.

He looked around, yet he was met with the same darkness on every side. “Where are you?” He hissed out, frustrated.

A chill went down his spine, and his wings puffed up. 

“Behind you~” The voice whispered.

He flinched at the sound, turning to look behind him, but they were gone again. There was a laugh, eerily cheerful, from in front of him. He finally got the chance to get a good look at the figure.

They were cloaked, adorned in a long black flowing cloak that reached the floor, a hood that hid their face well. Even so, there was a green mask around their mouth and nose with a purple trim, and if he looked hard enough, he was able to see a mask around their eyes that looked like tree bark. 

“Hello, little Creation-Watcher-thing,” the person said calmly, the playful edge returning. 

Grian huffed at his “Watcher” title, having heard it far too many times from the Watchers themselves way back when. But Creation? That was a new one. 

“Who… are you?” He asked. 

The person floated and flipped upside down, holding their mask which underneath Grian was sure was a giant grin. Somehow, their cloak didn’t fall at all, and clung to their body instead. 

“I am..  "

“But my name doesn’t matter, does it? It’s not like you’ll know who I am!” They laughed. “No, you want to know what I am. And to that I answer, a Creator.”

Even with the new information, Grian was utterly confused. What was a Creator? What was the weird language they spoke? It sounded nothing like galactic. 

And their voice was so annoying. Why’d they have to laugh so much?

Grian huffed. If he wasn’t going to get straight answers about what they were, he wanted answers on why he was here. “What am I doing here? And what’s this game?”

The person flipped around again. “My game! So glad you asked!”

”You see, a few weeks ago, I got some of my friends’ Creations and put them in an arena, with lives and rules and murder, for my own entertainment! They were my playtesters.” 

Creations, plural. How many were there?

”But, now that things are finalised, I want to see how some of the more.. professional Creations could handle it.”

Even with the mask, they managed to give him a sharp look. “I’ve heard that the Watchers have some very smart and interesting puppets.”

So it was another life game. Great.

“No.” He said firmly.

The Creator paused, and unnervingly slowly, turned to him. “No?”

Grian tried to even his stance. “I’m not playing another game like this. I don’t want to.”

They were silent.

They laughed.

The Creator floated down to his level, shoulders shaking with their laughter, as they moved to be just a step away from him, head tilting playfully.

“Oh, you’re acting as if you have a choice, little Watcher.” The Creator booped his nose with a fingerless-gloved back of the hand. 

He tried his best to back away, still as futile as before, so he resorted to glaring. “You can’t make me! You’re not a Watcher! You don’t control me!” He yelled, swatting at the Creator’s hand, or, trying to. 

He failed. 

They giggled quietly. “Aw, how cute. It’s true, I’m nothing like those pesky Watchers, and I can’t control you, that’s up to your Creator.”

”But, I think you’ll find that this break from your duties on Hermitcraft will be quite… Refreshing,”

The Creator pulled out a bottle of a liquid, it was green and its contents looked similar to a portal. They tossed it at his chest, he fumbled with it in his hands, it slipped out of his grasp.

He yelped, reaching out for it, just barely managed to grab it before it shattered.

Straightening up, he examined the liquid. Sloshing around, it looked more like a slimy soup than a normal liquid.

“Accept your fate, Grian,” The Creator said, leaning in. “Play by my rules, not theirs.”

He decided to push his luck. “Why?” 

The Creator sighed like an exhausted parent, muttering something about him being difficult. “You see, Sun, while the Watchers use you to feed off of your emotion, I want the entertainment of watching you die, and to give you and your friends a new-ish experience.”

”I want you to have fun, let off some steam!” They seemed to brighten.

They perked up. “Oh, and you won’t have to create anything out of this. I’ll be in charge of that. You just enjoy the experience, and you and your friends will be allowed back onto your little Hermitcraft base after each session instead of being thrown into a void until the next.”

”So, will you cooperate?” Huh, maybe he had a choice.

“Or will I have to force feed you?” Yeah, that’s what he expected.

But, this “Creator" person mentioned no extra stress of creating something off of the game. It sounded… tempting. 

The Life Games were often fun at times, until he remembered the Watchers wanted the entertainment along with the emotion, so he had to make something of it. 

After some thought, he turned to the Creator, and he nodded. 

Their tone seemed pleased. “Good. Most of your usual friends will join you. Of course, they’re asleep or on your little Hermitcraft server, but they won’t be once you drink that tranjuja.” The Creator encouraged.

He looked at the ‘tranjuja’ in question, which didn’t look appetizing in the slightest. He took a breath, unscrewed the cap, and downed it in one go.

Doesn’t taste half bad, thought Grian with a hum.

He was in the void, the normal void, then everything faded away.

“Welcome, everyone, to Fan Life."

Chapter Text

“Welcome everyone, to Fan Life.”

Pearl was in a circle of familiar faces. No, that wasn’t entirely true. Two unfamiliar, on the opposite from her. A brunette girl with wings and a sailor-dressed girl with hair the colour between gold and brown. 

“A game playtested by Creations, now revised, and offered to you to play.”

The voice was even more unfamiliar, a strange sort of echo to their voice. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, looking around to try and find the source.

On another note, a Creation?

“The rules are as follows…”

Rules? Pearl thought, narrowing her eyes. 

“Each player will have four lives.”

Ah, a new game. She should have seen that one coming. 

“On four plus lives, you are peaceful and dark green. Three you are still peaceful and lime, two are yellow, when you can make traps and red, of course, is your last life.”

She stopped paying attention to the voice that seemed to be coming from everywhere, because she realized there was a person at the center of the circle. Somehow she hadn’t noticed them, and they seemed to be the one talking. 

The unfamiliar person stood tall and proud atop an azalea bush in a pot, which was stationed in the middle of the dirt circle.

“Red names have all of their friendships and ties broken and become hostile; they can also team up with other red names, but you already know that.”

She saw a symbol in the ground. It looked similar to the Watcher’s symbol, but very much different. Unlike the broken portal frame she was used to, this was shaped like an X made of two curved lines, and dots at the ends.

“Reds and yellows may kill dark greens for a life, too. Reds are the only ones allowed to kill all, mind you.”

These were familiar, she knew these rules. It would seem this mystery person did too.

“Remember the boogeyman? It’s back! At the beginning of every session a Creator, , will randomly and secretly select a non-red name on the server to become the boogeyman, or maybe more than one, who knows? She does.”

Pearl remembered the boogeyman all too well. But she was more focused on the new word, “Creator.” So there were both Creations and Creators, weird. 

“The boogeyman has one job: secure a kill on a green or yellow name to be cured. While you're the boogeyman all friendships and alliances are out the window, do what you must to be cured, because if you don't, the next session you are onto the next coloured life.”

The rules of not killing were less strict this time, it seemed. Maybe even… encouraging the panic and mistrust. 

“We also have another special twist this time: boss mobs drop lives. Upon killing a boss mob like the warden, a “heart” will drop and you may use it to gain a life, or trade it, who knows? You do.”

That was new, and it was interesting. She grinned, coy smiles grew on some faces she knew.

“You know these simple rules already. Do not break them. I will not warn you against flying, you winged hybrids, because you know the consequences already.”

Some of the winged hybrids looked uncertain, but Pearl shrugged. She was plain human. 

“These rules are similar, but not the same as what my playtesters were bound to.”

The mystery brunette who, now that she got a better look, was a duck and parrot hybrid, bristled. The other newcomer, a sailor-dressed dirty-blond haired girl, also looked uncomfortable. She’d bet quite a lot that the two knew something about the “playtesters”.

“Are you ready, players? You better be. Your lives depend on it.”

Pearl itched to run. She saw a spruce forest to the west, based on the sun, and she wanted it. 

“SCATTER!”

The voice cut out, and the person on top of the azalea bush disappeared. 

Pearl dashed. 

The screams of excitement from the others filled the air, but she was only focused on one thing. Spruce, and pumpkins. 

The builder wanted spruce for her base and the pumpkins would be a nice decoration. 

Pearl panted as she reached the forest, gasping and grinning as she punched the closest tree. 

She was excited. The person hadn’t said anything about needing to create anything off of this, anything for anyone else’s entertainment. Meaning this could be more fun than she expected. 

Of course, the excitement came with questions. 

What were Creations and Creators? Why weren't the Watchers controlling this game? What was the symbol on the ground? Who were those extra two people? And why did Pearl remember all the other games so clearly?

Usually, it was just fragments, but now, Pearl was getting flashbacks left and right. This spruce forest-she’d settled here in her first game, Last Life. Her teammate had won that time. 

A mediaeval type cottage-wasn’t it? Pearl smiled fondly at the memory. She loved being “girlboss.” She missed the nickname, but she’d disproven herself from it with the previous game, Wild Life. She was kind of… pathetic there. This time, she was going to be better. 

After a few minutes, she got herself some basic stone tools, and used them to cut down a few stacks of logs worth of trees, also gaining many saplings. 

She probably should’ve been getting gear, but the spruce was just begging to be taken. 

Right after chopping down another tree, her second axe broke. She huffed in disapproval, but it was going to happen eventually. Instead of making a new one, Pearl decided to try to find a cave, as she realised time was ticking from the achievements the other players were getting in the chat. Here she was obsessing over spruce while Skizz had iron armour already.  

While exploring, she swore she heard the sound of a villager nearby, and went to investigate the sound. 

Surly enough, through the trees, was a little taiga village. Pearl skipped in delight, stealing all the fully-grown crops as she realised she was low on food. 

Near the end of the village, incredibly close to the glistening blue border, there was a blacksmith. 

She grinned. “Jackpot.”

When she went in though, she found that the chest was empty. Confused, she checked all the other chests in the village, and only found leather armour and others had bad loot in them. 

Had anyone been here before? Someone must’ve, though Pearl didn’t remember anyone passing her when she was in the forest before. 

“Hello?” she called, not really expecting an answer. 

“Hello!” said a voice from behind her. Pearl jumped, and instinctively pulled out her stone sword, only to find Skizz. 

He had an iron chestplate on, and was holding an iron sword. 

Ah, so that’s where the loot went, and how he got the achievement. 

“Hi Skizzy!” Pearl chirped, and smiled at the sleeveless man. 

He returned the smile. “Hey Pearly Pop.”

“Whatcha got there mate? Taking all the loot from my village?” mocked Pearl, laughing. Skizz chuckled and tossed her an iron pickaxe. 

“Yeah, got most of the good stuff, sorry ‘bout that Pearly.”

Pearl brushed off the apology. “It’s all good buddy.” She said genuinely as she examined the pick.

Skizz sighed in relief. “Good. I don’t want enemies this early.”

“True, true.” She agreed. 

Though, who would get that upset over items?  He was currently the better geared one, and tended to have more allies than her. Not to say she was out making enemies though.

Speaking of enemies… “Say, don’t want anyone on these villagers, do we?”

Skizz stared at her. 

An evil smile grew on her face. “We could kill them all, or..”

“Hide them somewhere where we will only tell our teams?” Skizz pleaded, as he realised what she meant. Pearl laughed. 

“Sure Skizzy. But you’re implying you don’t want to team with me then?” she said, giving the man puppy eyes. 

Skizz frowned. “I didn’t think a Winner like you wanted to team with me.”

“But you’re Skizz! Everyone loves a Skizz!” Pearl tried to hide wincing at her title. She thought before she added; “Grian teamed with you last time, he’s a Winner.”

“I guess that’s true…,” Skizz thought aloud, and turned to the villagers, changing the subject quickly. “Where are we hiding the villagers then?”

Pearl thought for a moment. “Under one of the houses-maybe the blacksmith? I can hook up some redstone later maybe.”

Skizz seemed a lot more comfortable with the topic change, energy returning. “Sounds great!”

That led to now, where they’d- or, more like she’d finished herding the villagers, since Skizz dug part of the hole and disappeared. She was starting to think that he wasn’t across the village like he’d told her.

She decided on keeping six- the cleric, the armourer, three farmers and a cartographer for the emeralds. All the others, Pearl killed. 

When above ground, the villagers were unable to be heard. 

Pearl made the long ladder down, thanks to her logs, and the place to go down was marked with a mossy cobblestone block. 

Once she’d placed it to cover the hole, Pearl realised Skizz still wasn’t back. 

“Skizz?” she called, but got no answer. She waited for a few minutes, calling every so often, but still got no response. 

So much for “really quick.”

“Alright then, I see how it is.” The cheat. Took the information, took the loot, and bailed.

She only had some crops and logs. 

Pearl growled. “Go on ahead and make some friends, Skizzy, you’ve already got an enemy to even the stakes.”

She considered moving the villagers, but decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. 

Funny how she had been agreeing when she said she didn’t want enemies this early, but it seemed Skizz wanted some. You don’t just leave Pearl and get away with it.

Scott learned that first hand in the game she won.

May was pissed. 

And fuming.

But excited. 

It felt good to be back into another kill or be killed game, but this time she didn’t have a choice on it, so that was why she was pissed. 

Just because she missed a few “sessions” in the other game she helped “playtest” doesn’t mean she should have to play it again! Plus! Aspen and Marzipan had also missed a couple sessions, why weren’t they here too?

The rules were changed though, and the group was entirely different. She didn’t recognize any of them as far as she cared for look.

Lives were also changed. Two less than last time. But last time a majority of her lives were lost to her not showing up. And she’d really like to not talk about how she was dumb enough to make a sword with that stick. 

But here she was, going through a small cave with a stone pickaxe in hand, being reasonably cautious.

Already, she’d gotten five iron, enough for a helmet, but for some reason wearing a helmet sounded wrong. She’d have to ask one of the other people about that. 

The other people!
May was curious as to where they came from, and who they were. The only person she knew from this group was Caly, the rest were all a mystery. The person who’d told them the rules sounded uncannily familiar, but May couldn’t place a finger on where exactly she’d heard them before. 

The fact that they were completely cloaked and covered didn’t help. 

Right as she found another vein of iron, May heard voices coming from another branch of the cave. 

“Cleooooo do you have any food?”

May perked up at the name. Cleo? That was her teammate from the other game! Her “mom!”

“Mom?” she called, her voice echoing off of the cold stone walls. 

There was silence for a hot minute after the echoing ended. 

“Scar? Doesn’t sound like you…,” a different voice replied, more feminine. 

The duck-parrot hybrid crept to where she heard the voices coming from, placing one of the few torches she had on the way. 

“Hello?” she called, and turned a corner. 

May was met with a zombie, and she instinctively threw her pickaxe on the floor and drew her sword and screamed. 

The zombie doubled over laughing instead of attacking her. The duck-parrot hybrid stared at this zombie in utter confusion. 

On closer inspection, this zombie wasn’t like the normal mobs. It had poofy ginger hair and stitches connecting parts of its decaying skin. Also, it was wearing a very colourful outfit that May felt stupid for not seeing it earlier. 

Still laughing, the zombie tried to straighten up, but instead fell to the floor. 

May started to get embarrassed. This was another player. Their nametag told her that they were called “ZombieCleo.”

Hawhaw, May thought. She now understood the zombie part, but the “Cleo” bit still confused her. This was not her mom. 

“Cleo?” The first voice approached and entered the part of the cave that May and the zombie were in. 

Cleo, the zombie, took a few deep breaths and bit their lip before turning to the newcomer and smiling. 

“Hi Scar,” they said. “I think I found who called me mom.”

May suddenly became very interested in the subtle cracks in the wall. The other person, Scar, looked at May. “Hello. You’re new,” they mused, and ran a hand through their dark brown hair. 

Cleo rolled their eyes. “Well duh. No one else other than you would see me and scream, Scar.”

“Hey!” Scar pouted, and May watched as the two bantered back and forth. Scar had a constant cheeky smile, she noticed. It reached his green eyes most of the time. 

“You can’t pretend it’s not true! You’re constantly flying into walls on Hermitcraft, and once got jumpscared by your own little plan in Nine,” Cleo pointed out, on the brink of laughter once again. 

“Well-well- well ughhhhh, you’re right,” Scar sighed and tried to lean against a wall, but instead fell to the floor. 

Cleo ignored him. 

“What’s a newcomer doing here, in a cave all by themselves, huh?” Cleo asked, and it took a second for May to realise that they were talking to her. 

“Normal gearing up? I’m trying to learn from the last game’s mistakes,” she said confidently. She knew that if she didn’t have gear early on she’d be picked on, and once gear was sorted she could go onto food, which had also been a problem. She picked up her pickaxe from where she’d dropped it when Cleo scared her, and was about to leave, but Cleo called her back. 

“Where do you think you’re going?” they said, cocking their head playfully. “You don’t just look at a person and scream and get away with it.”

“Uhh,” May mumbled, not knowing what to do. 

Scar jumped up and down, brown jacket flailing. “Ooo, will you make her team with you-us?”

“You did call me “mom,”” Cleo thought, and turned to May. “Scar was my son a few games back, it was quite annoying.”

“Hey! Limited was a great time, I was the best son. The clockers were awesome!” Scar said, and May laughed a bit. She liked these people. They were funny. 

“Oh, what’s your name? If we’re going to be a team we should at least know your name,” Cleo asked, looking directly at May. 

May huffed. “I didn’t want to be a team-” she paused. These people looked more experienced with the games. With how laid back they were, with their quick reactions to the person on the bush. They both had a strong sense of Watcher on them, which was calming to her compared to whatever Creator nonsense was going on. And Cleo, Cleo reminded her of her Cleo, the one she knew. Maybe they could be good teammates. 

“May. My name is May Flower,” she told the two, though she didn’t know why they asked since it was above her head anyway. Cleo nodded. Scar smirked. 

“Mom, you have a daughter now! And she’s like Grian, a bird-person,” he elbowed Cleo’s arm but flailed and fell over in the process. Cleo laughed. 

“I still don’t get how you’re a Winner, Scar,” they scoffed. 

Scar got up and rubbed his neck, and brushed the dust off of his clothes. 

“Well then May,” Cleo said. “We’re a team then?”

May nodded, and smiled. She could work with this chaos. Especially Scar. Scar seemed unhinged already. She liked unhinged. 

“Tell us about the game you played, May,” Scar asked when they started to venture deeper into the cave system. 

"So long as you tell me where you're from."

"Fine."

Chapter Text

The blaze hybrid flicked his fiery tail, smirking as he watched his friends fight over some horse. 

He, Etho and Bdubs had spent the last while caving, and now Tango was guarding the two furnaces filled with iron and coal as they smelted. He’d also gotten three diamonds, of which he offered one to each of his current buddies. They both declined, Etho having gotten some loot in a dungeon and Bdubs wanting to earn his own. 

The furnace warmed his back, along with the sun on his face, and the heat of the savannah. Warmth was something that the blaze hybrid enjoyed a lot, especially since he was out of the nether. 

Now though, Tango briefly wondered about why he hadn’t seen a hint of Watcher stuff in this new game. Before he could think about that too much though, he had Etho and Bdubs fighting over a horse.

This was normal for them. He knew that they did this every game, for whatever reason. It was entertaining to watch anyway. 

“That was going to be mine!” Bdubs yelled at Etho from the ground. Etho was sitting on the horse, a brown and white spotted one, trotting around the short man and grinning through his grey mask. Tango guessed that he got the saddle from the spider spawner they’d found in the caves earlier, since they’d found that all of their special crafting recipes failed. 

“Sad about it, Bdubs? Well it’s finally my turn to have the best horse,” Etho said smugly. 

Bdubs huffed. “Of course I am! I thought we made a deal last game!”

“Maybe we did. But now I get to lord this beauty over you the whole game instead of the other way around.”

They continued this kind of banter for a little while, Tango watching in glee. Free entertainment. Eventually, Etho increased the trot to a canter, and he rode off and disappeared for a while. 

“Can you believe the audacity!? ” Bdubs crossed his arms over his chest and started directly at Tango. 

“Oh no, I can’t believe Etho would do something as insulting as that,” Tango said sarcastically. A part of him was proud of Etho for getting the horse instead of Bdubs. Bdubs rolled his eyes at the blaze hybrid. 

“Of course you’d say that. You prefer Etho over me, don’t you?” he said, and glared at Tango. 

Tango snickered. "No, of course not. I hate you both equally."

Bdubs huffed. 

"Okay then. Well I'm going to try to get my own horse to show up Etho-show him who's better!" he quickly grabbed his things and ran off to the far end of the plains. 

Now Tango was lonely. He sighed, and got up to find someone to team up with or at least someone to talk to. 

Just as he was packing away the iron to give to Etho if he found him again, Jimmy ran over with a baby zombie in full iron chasing him. 

“AHHHHH STUPID BABY!” he yelled, clambering on top of the furnace pile that Tango had made and panting. 

Tango blinked at the canary hybrid, and swiped a few times at the baby zombie with his iron sword. 

“Well hello there,” the blaze hybrid grinned. Jimmy took a deep breath and then smiled at Tango. 

They stood in silence for a moment, Jimmy going slightly red from embarrassment. 

“Hey.” He breathed one last large breath. “Sorry about that, I’ll be off now.” Jimmy stepped down from the furnaces.

Tango narrowed his eyes at the blond haired man. No armour. Just a slightly broken shield. Scuffed clothes. Looked hungry, 

“You’re good Jimmy. Wanna stay with me for a while?” he offered, passing the only piece of raw mutton he had over to him. 

Jimmy brightened. “I’d like that! A team, maybe?”

“Maybe,” Tango smirked, and started to sort through his inventory.

Five cooked steaks from the furnace earlier. Six pork chops that were Etho’s. Sixty two iron, half of which was also Etho’s. A bunch of random things like seeds, rotten flesh, string and sticks. An iron sword. Iron leggings and boots, supposedly dropped from the baby zombie. An iron pickaxe. A shield. Three diamonds. A few acacia and oak logs. A poppy. Thirty seven coal. Forty raw copper. Seven amethyst shards. Four sugarcane. An acacia sapling. Six sand. A stack and a bit of cobblestone. The “cat” music disc. Four bones and a spider eye. Golden horse armour. Five leather. 

A mess of an inventory, really. 

Tango scanned the area. 

The corner of the map, the world border cornering him. A savannah corner with plains all around. Forests surrounded the plains. Horses a plenty, farm animals even more. 

This wasn’t too bad of a place to stay. 

He put on the boots and leggings from the zombie, as the durability was quite high. Made a bundle to sort some other things out. Used some of the acacia logs for planks and then chests. Tossed some more steaks to Jimmy. Put his copper to smelt. 

“Jimmy, I’m going to be settling here,” Tango hummed, and threw his junk from his inventory into a chest. Jimmy surveyed the plains and savannah as night began to fall. 

“Sounds great!” The canary hybrid beamed, and went to chop an acacia tree. 

Tango started to light up the area with some torches to claim it, and killed a few mobs while he was at it. He wasn’t sure how many days had passed since they’d been dropped into this game because of his time spent in the caves, and that slightly scared him. Usually, one “session” would last a little more than a week, and since there was a boogeyman in this game, shouldn’t it only take a day to be rolled?

“Uhh Tango?” Jimmy called from the little cobblestone hut he was constructing. “Tango check your comm.”

Confused, Tango took his communicator out of his pocket and checked the most recent message.
A message not exactly normal, or in normal colour either. 

Written in red said the following:

* ChibiKeiko is about to roll the Boogeyman. 

“Who’s Chibi-Keeko?” Jimmy asked nervously, pronouncing the name slowly. 

Tango shrugged. “I don’t know, but it’s certainly something new.”

“Hi I’m Keiko!” a slightly accented voice chirped from the area Tango had not lit up yet. Jimmy made a noise that Tango was not willing to describe, and Tango himself jumped. 

“ Gahh !” His head snapped to them. “You don’t just appear like that!” he exclaimed. Keiko swished her long red dress as she walked towards the pair. 

“Yes I do,” she shrugged and brought out two sticks that had inscriptions on them. “For your knowledge, this is what indicates whether you’re the boogeyman or not. I won’t be reminding you next session because it’s funny.”

The dark haired woman threw both Tango and Jimmy sticks, and the blaze hybrid was slightly relieved to see that his inscriptions said: “Not The Boogeyman.”

Jimmy fumbled for his, but the tension eased off of his shoulders when he checked it, so Tango assumed he wasn’t the Boogeyman either. 

“Who are you?!” a voice Tango thought was long gone called out in confusion, followed by the sound of a horse neighing and soft trotting. 

“Keiko,” said Keiko casually, as if everyone knew who she was. Or maybe, they did know who she was. Tango thought back to the rules they’d been given at the start of the game, and narrowed his eyes at the woman. 

“You’re the Creator, aren’t you?” he asked. Keiko winked at him, gave the newcomer his stick and disappeared into thin air. 

“Well that was weird,” Jimmy muttered, putting his stick into a bundle. The newcomer examined his stick and sighed through his mask. 

“Yeah, it was. This whole game feels weird, doesn’t it?” said Etho, digging a hole for his horse. 

It did. The game felt off. Different. Untamed, somehow. 

Tango shook his head. Stick to the game. “Etho, you left your iron here.”

Etho rolled his eyes. “Fine, fine. Ignore the fact there’s something wrong with the mechanics. I tried to ask G about it just now, and he denied knowing much about this game. I’m not sure if he’s lying or just hi-”

“Etho, you forgot your iron but I’m going to take it. It looks like you’ve been stealing from other people for your gear, anyways” Tango interrupted him, and took the iron that he had been saving for Etho, crafted them into blocks to save space and put them in a bundle. 

“Gee thanks for listening to me Tango,” Etho folded his arms. 

Jimmy looked back and forth between the two. “So um, hi Etho.”

“Hi Jimmy,” Etho huffed. “You’re teaming with Tango then?” 

Jimmy nodded, a bit unsure. Tango elbowed him. 

“Yeah, we’re a team. Gonna join us or are you gonna run off to Grian again?” Tango asked sarcastically. The Canadian foxine rolled his eyes again and swished his tail in slight frustration. 

“Sure. A team of three is always exciting,” he said dryly. 

Martyn narrowed his eyes at the red-dressed woman in front of him. Her smile was genuine, her eyes overflowing with curiosity. Yet, she reminded him too much of the Watchers and Listeners. The way she moved around flawlessly in the air without wings and talked as if she was a robot. The way there was some kind of… energy, protecting and surrounding her. The way her eyes were rimmed with a dark green, like the Void, but her eyes were brown. 

She was odd, that was definite. 

“Hello,” she said finally, glancing between him and Joel, who was with him. “I’m Keiko.”

Martyn looked to Joel, who was much more confused than he was. Keiko had interrupted their caving, and now they had no torches left, so they were left in the dark while this woman stalled her time. 

“I’m Martyn, and this is Joel,” he tried. Keiko looked surprised. 

“You’re the first group who introduced themselves. I’ll remember you,” she said, and handed each of them a stick. 

Joel took it, and stared at it, until Keiko explained. “What’s written on it decides whether or not you get to kill someone today! Have fun you two.”

And then she disappeared. 

Martyn blinked at Joel, who was sighing in relief. 

“I’m not the boogeyman,” he said. Martyn checked his own stick. 

YOU ARE THE BOOGEYMAN , was written in red on his. 

Martyn blinked. “I’m not either,” he lied, trying to put on a smile. Inside, he was panicking a bit. The roll had taken so long, at least two days. That meant seven to kill someone, and he wanted to keep his streak of going to the nether first session. 

And he still didn’t have a full set of armour. 

Joel smirked. “That’s good. Carry on then?” 

Martyn nodded, and took out his pickaxe. They had no torches, but after cautiously looking around in the dark, Joel managed to find a decent vein of coal. 

They now had torches. 

From there, they explored the cave, every so often stopping when they had more iron to smelt and turn it into armour. By the time they’d reached deepslate level, Martyn had a full set of iron armour, and Joel was just missing his boots. 

They talked a lot while mining. Random things, jokes, references. They realised they could remember everything from past games, which they took to their full advantage. Martyn at some point stumbled across a geode, and immediately made a spyglass ust to say “aha!” 

Joel had grinned, made one too, and the two made “aha!” jokes for a good length of their expedition. 

They’d found this cave earlier in the session, to the east of spawn. After Martyn had found and saved the coordinates of a lava pool in the middle of an oak forest, he’d looked for a cave entrance, where he bumped into Joel, and they teamed up from there. 

“Are we allowed helmets?” Martyn asked as he carefully arranged his armour for a helmet on the crafting bench. 

“Uhhh good question. I dunno,” Joel called from somewhere else in the cave. 

He checked his comm, hoping that maybe there would be written rules. Alas, there were none, so he decided to just go for it, and if he got in trouble, he got in trouble. It would be good for his nether trip anyways. 

“I’ll just be the dummy and see what happens,” he muttered, and made it, then put it on his head. 

Joel jogged up to the little set up where Martyn was, and grinned. “Aww, but I can’t have a helmet too?” 

“You could. One person in trouble is better than two though,” Martyn shrugged, and tossed his friend some iron. Joel took it, and crafted a helmet with it. 

“Helmet buddies!” he said. Martyn chuckled. 

“C’mon, let’s see if we can get some diamonds,” he motioned his hand towards the deepslate areas. 

“Lemme craft an iron pickaxe first, I forgot to do that,” his friend responded, hurrying to craft a pickaxe. Martyn’s comm buzzed, and it told him that Joel had made it. 

Server: Joel has made the achievement [Isn’t it iron pick?]

It looked weird, Martyn noticed. He pointed it out to Joel. “Hey Joel, have you noticed this?”

“Huh. I didn’t, that’s weird,” his friend frowned. 

They carried on exploring while Martyn thought about the other weird things he’d noticed. 

The Creators, for one. That’s what he thought Keiko and the person on the bush were. The symbol on the ground. The weird world border. How the world kept blinking in and out of existence. 

It was all very bizarre. 

He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Joel yell. 

“Stupid skeleton!” he grumbled, yanking an arrow out of his arm. Joel had forgotten to make a shield. Typical. 

Martyn looked for the attacker. A skeleton in an unlit area. 

“I’ll get him,” he offered, and ran to it. It shot him once, but Martyn only needed two critical swings to take it out. It dropped a bow and two arrows. Nice combo. 

As he picked them up, he realised his inventory was a mess and scowled.

“I’ll need to get bundles,” he muttered. So much mob drops and ores, and different types of stone clogged his inventory. Hopefully he could get a few diamonds without needing to drop much.
“Do you have any food Martyn?” Joel caught up with him, still rubbing his arm. 

In the mess of the inventory, Martyn was able to find three cooked steaks and five cooked mutton. He gave the mutton to Joel, who ate it gratefully. 

They ventured on ahead, slowly running out of wood to make torches with. 

Other than the occasional zombie, stray skeleton or annoying creeper, they didn’t come across many mobs somehow. It was probably nighttime, Martyn guessed. 

They’d gone pretty deep before they found their first diamonds. 

“DIAMONDS!” Joel yelled so loud Martyn was sure that people on the other side of the map had heard it. 

A small vein of four, which they split evenly. 

Server: Joel has made the achievement [Diamonds!]

Server: Martyn has made the achievement [Diamonds!]

The odd messages showed up again. Martyn brushed it off as just as less weird than the other things he’d found. 

When Martyn made sure that he’d gotten the diamonds, he remembered that he was the boogeyman after seeing the stick again. 

He glanced at Joel. He could kill him. A quick-ish kill. The fumbling idiot fell into a hole, he noticed as he watched his possible target. Low health already, most likely. No food to regen. Tight space. Unexpected ambush. 

Martyn weighed the pros and cons, but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth it. He wasn’t going to kill his teammate. 

He’d have to kill someone else. But he still wanted to go to the nether. 

“Hey, uh, Joel? I’m going to go back up, see if I can get us a place to build a base and stuff,” he lied. Joel turned to him and shrugged. 

“Alright. I’ll continue mining, see if I can get us some more diamonds,” he replied. Martyn tossed him all his spare torches and any sticks or wood he had on him too. 

Really, he scrambled back up to the surface to make his portal and then get a kill. 

At several points, he got lost, the caverns big and winding. He stuck to where they’d placed torches, and found the place they’d met Keiko near the top. 

Almost there. 

When he emerged from the cave, he gasped, the fresh air filling his lungs in deep breaths. The trees around him swayed slightly. The forest was welcoming. He was starving, he realised, almost literally, when he saw a cow. 

Kill or keep? He debated with himself. Maybe, with all the weird stuff happening in this game, it would be easier just to kill. He’d suffer the consequences later if not, but he decided to risk it. 

He found a lot more sheep, cows and the like than he would’ve in the other games, he found out. 

After just a few minutes, he had a full inventory, but a good bit of food. 

He checked his comm and scrolled to find where he’d sent himself the coordinates to the lava pool. 

It wasn’t too far from where he was standing. 

But he needed to check something else first. 

Martyn: Guys, how many days have passed so far?

Keiko: 4.6 days have passed since the start of session one. 

Bdubs: I still don’t know who Keiko is. 

Skizz: She scares me.

Scott: Idk about you guys, I think she’s pretty cool. 

Keiko: Thank you Scott!

Caly: Hi Keiko. 

Keiko: I remember you, Tia. 

Tia?

Martyn ignored the rest of the buzzes from the replies. He had his time now. It was more accurate than he needed, but he was slowly running out of time. They were halfway through the session already. Wouldn’t the boogey have killed already?

Martyn shook his head. He had time. 

He reached the lava pool, and thanked the Watchers that he’d gotten water from a waterfall in the caves earlier. 

Using his speedrunner knowledge, Martyn quickly made the portal to the nether perfectly, before realising he didn’t have a flint and steel. 

He cursed under his breath while he tried to find some gravel.

It seemed the Watchers were on his side today, or the Creators, because within the minute he found a patch of gravel in a ditch and the first gravel he broke gave him flint. Dropping some rotten flesh out of his inventory, Martyn picked up the flint and ran back to the portal while crafting the flint and steel. 

Once he’d lit the portal, he cautiously stepped onto its base and put his shield up just in case.

The teleportation would usually make any normal person sick, especially Joel, but Martyn was used to it. 

The portal stopped swirling for a second, and Martyn surveyed his new surroundings. A nether waste. A fortress just across a lava pool. A warped forest just behind the fog. His comm buzzed, probably with another weird achievement. 

That was it. He just needed the achievement. 

For some reason, time felt short. He was running out of time. 

He stepped back through the portal. 

He had to kill someone.

Time. 

Just like the game he’d won. 

He wasn’t going to run out of time, not if the Watchers would allow it. 

Chapter Text

When Ren’s comm buzzed again, he expected an achievement, a question, or someone asking someone else to meet up. As expected, he saw Martyn’s achievement for going into the nether. A fond smile briefly overtook his look of shock, as his recurring teammate continued his streak of going to the nether first. 

What he was not expecting was a death. 

“Already?!” he exclaimed aloud after reading it a few times, to no one in particular. He was alone, building a box of sorts as a base. Maybe later he would add detail to it but usually bases got blown up anyway, so what was the point of pretty?

He wasn’t too surprised that it was Joel who died, that man was reckless and stupid. His reaction to dying wasn’t all too surprising either. But the realisation he shared sent him back to games before. 

Martyn has made the achievement [We Need To Go Deeper]

Joel was impaled on a stalagmite

Joel: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhh

Scott: Already?

Scar: It isn’t me!

Jimmy: Or me!

Ren: Wow

Cleo: Is that a boogeyman trap already?

Joel: No. 

Joel: Guys… Keep inventory isn’t on. 

Ren froze. They’d played games where keep inventory wasn’t on, the first three ones and the joke one. This time though, this time it felt like it was meant to test the players again. As if the person who made the game thought the players were spoiled from their previous games. 

His communicator buzzed again, then again, and it continued for a while. And while he did like drama, he was keen on the idea of having another box for a base again, like he did in the third game, Double Life. Ironically, his final death was to a stalagmite being dropped on his head by Grian, just like how Joel was impaled on one too. Though since it wasn’t a boogeyman trap Ren assumed he fell on the dripstone instead. 

Another realisation hit him. The boogeyman still hadn’t killed someone yet. Most of the session had already gone by. Which meant anyone who came around to the start of his strange looking cobblestone rectangle could be there to rid themselves of the boogeyman curse by killing him. He hummed. He would have to make it a tragedy, he supposed. The first boogey death of this strange season would have to be something special. 

He obviously wasn’t the boogeyman, the stick that the strange Keiko woman had given him said so. Ren found Keiko amusing. She reminded him of a more playful Watcher, how she introduced herself, the way she dressed, the way she said goodbye. She’d interrupted him when he was digging out some cobblestone while he waited for his iron to smelt, and he very much enjoyed meeting her. He knew he’d see her again in the next session, as she seemed to be the “Creator” mentioned in the rules, and that gave him something small to look forward to. She’d played along with his dramatic responses, and given him the stick like a knight’s sword. 

She reminded him of how Martyn played along with his drama. 

“Hey Ren?” a voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Ren spun around to find the parrot hybrid staring up at him from the base of his rectangle. 

“Hi Grian, whatcha here for?” Ren said cautiously, painfully aware that this person at his base could be here to kill him. 

Grian shrugged and climbed on top of the rectangle. “Just wanna know if you recognised the newcomers.”

“No idea who they are,” Ren shook his head and subconsciously backed away. Grian noticed this and frowned. 

“I’m not the boogie, but I’ll leave anyways,” he said, somewhat sadly, and sprinted away. Ren immediately felt bad for the parrot hybrid. Grian looked like he had nothing but a stone pickaxe, uncooked food and curiosity for who had joined his game. And all Ren did was assume he was going to kill him. 

He was tempted to chase after him, call him back and invite him to be his teammate. But Grian was already through the trees and unseen. 

Ren sighed, and looked upon the beginning of this box. He’d nestled this base into the side of a mountain northeast from spawn. The mountain was quite a sight, actually. It was extremely tall, yet only the smaller mountains around it had snow. On top of this one was a cherry grove. He’d considered going to live in the cherry grove but it would be much too far from spawn or anyone else to be convenient. Already, he was a good way from spawn. 

Maybe that was a good thing. Here hidden away by mountains and forests, his base would be less accessible to other players, maybe less people would even find it at all. Well, Grian had found it, but Grian was Grian. 

“A wall?” BigB’s voice sounded from below him. So much for less people would find his base. 

“No, a box,” Ren replied, and went back to placing cobblestone. He was on his last stack since he hadn’t had much time nor resources to collect it after spending most of the session mining iron from the mountain. 

BigB climbed up to where Ren was adding another layer to the box. 

“Like Double Life,” he muttered, and grinned at Ren. Ren smiled back. 

“Exactly.”

BigB sat on the wall. “Good session so far for you?”

“Of course! I’m doing wonderful over here in the mountains,” Ren said, showing off his iron armour. BigB quickly equipped his iron armour too, and laid his sword on his lap. 

“The boogeyman hasn’t killed yet,” BigB pointed out. 

“True,” Ren replied absent mindedly while continuing to place cobblestone. “What are you here for-to kill me?” 

BigB laughed. “No, of course not. Just curious to see where everyone’s at and where they’ve settled. Gets kinda lonely.”

Ren murmured an agreement and placed his last cobblestone.

“You got any cobblestone since you’re here bothering me?” he asked half-sarcastically. 

“Hey! I just wanted company. And no I don’t, but if you’ll accept me as an ally or teammate I can help you get some,” BigB offered. 

“Fine, come on lad,” Ren sighed and tossed the other man an iron pickaxe. 

BigB happily helped Ren mine out cobblestone for a while. Ren showed him an area on the other side of the mountain that he was using to get his cobblestone and BigB guessed that by the time this box was finished this part of the mountain would be desolated. 

But that was fine because no one checks the back of the mountain right?

Maybe, maybe not. How it was being hollowed out would make a good secret bunker later though, he noted. 

“So we’ll be Box Boys again?” BigB asked hopefully. He didn’t want to be alone again this time. He wanted a team, maybe a small one, a duo like this one, a trio maybe. Being a close ally to the 4 G’s last time was fun, but he wanted a proper team of his own. 

Ren sighed loudly. “Maybe. For now, you’re just my lackey to do jobs for me since you’re disrupting my peace.”

He said this menacingly, but BigB saw the fond smile under the tone. BigB smiled to himself and continued mining cobblestone. 

Eventually, Ren decided that the few stacks they’d each gotten was enough for now, and so they began placing them to add to the box. Already, it was three blocks high, but it was a big box. Almost forty metres in length, ten in width. 

That’s when Martyn came along. 

“Hey guys! What’s this?” he eyed the duo suspiciously, Ren especially. 

 “It’s going to be a big box,” Ren said matter of factly. “I don’t suppose you’re here to bother me too, are you?” 

Martyn climbed up onto the wall and sat there with his legs facing the forest and his torso turned to talk to them. 

“Hmm no, not really. More of wondering how you and BigB became a team,” he said. Ren huffed. 

“This lad just showed up and started assuming what I was building! He’s my lackey until I say otherwise now.”

BigB rolled his eyes and sat beside Martyn near a corner. 

“I think he’s just annoyed that you didn’t find him earlier,” he whispered loudly, loud enough for Ren to hear where he was on the other side of this wall. 

“I am not!” Ren folded his arms over his chest crossly. Martyn laughed. 

“Oh, you miss me old buddy?” he joked. 

Ren stood closer to Martyn now, leaning down and pointing his ears at him. 

Then he just stared, initiating a silent staring contest for about half a minute until Martyn snapped his finger in front of Ren’s eyes. 

“Hey!” Ren pouted, and straightened up. Martyn grinned. “Look Martyn, if you miss me so much join me and BigB.”

“Nah, I have an idiot teammate already,” Martyn sighed. Ren frowned. 

“Who?” BigB asked curiously, desperately trying to fit into the conversation. 

“Joel, of course,” Martyn stared at the setting sun and sighed again. 

BigB remembered that Joel had died earlier. He hadn’t been surprised in the slightest, knowing how reckless Joel was. While he was slightly surprised at the revelation that keep inventory wasn’t on, BigB wasn’t too prone to dying and often survived a long time, a few times the longest as green. Early game, that should not really be a problem to him. 

“...alone, you know. Let him kill horses and join us,” Ren said, though BigB didn’t catch the first part. 

“Hm, no. I don’t think I’ve teamed with Joel before, and so this should be fun. He matches my humour more,” Martyn grinned. 

“If you say so,” Ren huffed, and sat beside him. Martyn ran his hand through his blond hair and fixed his bandanna, then stood up and brushed down his clothes. 

“Well, I didn’t come here for chat. I came here to finish a task,” Martyn muttered, and BigB briefly wondered what task he meant, since this wasn’t Secret Life. 

“Did you want to trade?” Ren asked, right before the first swipe sliced open BigB’s face. 

BigB cried out, and tried to fight back, but Martyn was fast. Blood spilled from the wound on his cheek and BigB was overwhelmed by the metallic taste of blood filling his mouth. He tried to call for Ren, but instead choked on his own blood. The second hit came, denting his armour and knocking the breath and blood out of him, leaving him gasping for air. He tried to put his shield up but he was too weak, and through the pain he was vaguely aware of Ren yelling. 

He turned to flight, and tried to scramble off of the wall, but it was too late, and the last thing BigB saw before he died was a flash of diamond blue cutting at his throat. 

He was alone on the circle. The pain was gone, though the taste of his own blood lingered in his senses. BigB put his hand to his face to confirm it was gone. 

He realised it was dark. Of course, the sun had been setting when Martyn had come around. 

Almost immediately, BigB was shot by a skeleton. He winced at pain shot through his arm, and he ran. 

He had no armour because of the lack of keep inventory. He had nothing. 

At some point, he found a way to climb on top of the trees, and hopped from tree to tree with Ren’s box in sight, since it was the only thing lit up on this part of the map. 

A phantom swooped down and screeched, raking its bony claws off of BigB’s back and leaving his health lower than possibly safe. 

He kept running. 

The moment he could hear Ren muttering, he started screaming. 

“REN! RENNN!” he yelled and stumbled off of the tree he was on and flung himself at the base of the mountain where it was brighter. 

Ren immediately ran to his side and shoved food in his hand, which BigB ate quickly. 

“I can’t believe Martyn just killed you like that,” Ren muttered when BigB had gotten all of his stuff back and was leaning against the wall recovering his health. “Actually, I can believe it. That’s a very Martyn thing to do.”

“Yeah,” BigB said sadly. He was lime now, which wasn’t bad, but it was closer to being red than everyone else on the server other than Joel.

Ren turned to him and knelt, his hands on his sword that was digging into the ground.
“In return for your bravery and willingness to be killed instead of me, I accept your offer to become my teammate whole heartedly, and put you in charge of the box,” he said dramatically. BigB smiled, even though he didn’t choose to be killed. He was pretty sure Martyn killed him instead of Ren because he liked Ren more. 

“I am honoured,” BigB said, accepting the offer. 

Ren smiled, stood up and put an arm around BigB. 

“Martyn will pay,” he growled. 

“Oh, he so will,” BigB agreed. 

“Ooo drama already!” a feminine voice squealed from above them. The pair jumped apart and stared at the red-dressed woman smiling brightly from her place sitting on the wall. 

“How long have you been here Keiko?” Ren asked, surprised. Keiko was the person who’d given BigB his “YOU ARE NOT THE BOOGEYMAN,” stick, he supposed. 

“About twenty minutes,” Keiko hummed, and disappeared. 

Ren glanced at BigB. 

“She’s certainly a character in herself,” he muttered. 

“Agreed,” BigB laughed.

Chapter Text

It felt slightly silly to be angry at Etho for getting a horse, but Bdubs was mad all the same. It was his thing, having horses. The majestic beasts belonged to him and no one else. 

He reminded himself that it was just friendly competition, nothing to be mad about. Maybe slightly annoyed, but not angry. Maybe it was just like this because it was his first time losing. He couldn’t hold a grudge against Etho all season for it though. Bdubs planned to acknowledge the horse the next time he saw Etho, and not make a fuss about it. Maybe. 

It was just a game and friendly competition, after all. 

He kicked the sand into the stream where he sat. 

Sighing, he got up and crossed the stream over to the taiga. After he’d run away from Tango, he’d gone caving again, using the iron he had to make armour and some tools. Now, he had five diamonds and a bunch of extra iron and some gold. Bdubs wanted to get an enchanter before everyone else, since Etho had taken his horse. That would give him something even better to boast about. He hadn’t been able to find a lava pool just yet though, so that was a problem. 

Despite it being nighttime, he wandered around the taiga and checked his communicator. He hadn’t checked it too often since the start of the session. In fact, when that person Keiko came to give him a stick that said “YOU ARE NOT THE BOOGEYMAN” he was taken completely by surprise, and when he questioned her about it she frowned and told him to pay more attention to his comm. 

He didn’t, though. 

Now he caught up with all the achievements and chats while trying not to walk into the tall trees that blended in so closely with the night sky. Somehow, he didn’t get attacked by a mob once. 

When he came upon Joel’s death he thought for a second it could have been a quick trap boogeyman kill, but was somewhat disappointed to find it wasn’t. Then again, he wasn’t surprised. It was Joel, after all. Of course the reckless man would die to something stupid like stalagmites. 

But it put him slightly on edge. Surely, the boogeyman would’ve killed someone by now? Bdubs looked up from his communicator to look behind and around him. He saw no one, just the endless spruce forest he was wandering and the odd clueless zombie. He sighed, and sat with his back against one of the taller spruce trees, then continued looking through previous messages. 

Many strange looking achievements and boring messages later, Bdubs saw in relief that there had been a boogey kill already. Martyn had killed BigB. It felt slightly selfish to be glad someone had died instead of him, but in a game like this, it was fine to be selfish over lives when there were so few. This wasn’t like Hermitcraft where if he died he was sure to have someone help him back on his feet. This was a Life game, if he died, someone was bound to burn his things and threaten his life with a sword in hand. 

Not like he hadn’t almost died earlier to a trident drowned. Bdubs shuddered. He’d been stupid enough not to make armour until after that encounter, and it left him on three hearts during the night. It was terrifying. 

Finally, he reached the end of the unread messages. He frowned, unsure of what to do now. He wanted an enchanter, and for that he needed obsidian. The sun was rising, tinting the dark sky a pretty purple-pink. A perfect time to go looking for a lava pool, right?

Bdubs thought for a second, then face palmed when he realised Martyn had gone to the nether earlier. He doubted that he’d taken the time to mine out ten obsidian, so there had to be a lava pool somewhere on the map. 

He tried to remember which way Martyn went. Was it west? No, west was where he was now, and with all the wandering he did Bdubs would’ve fallen into the lava pool if it was above ground here. It might’ve been underground, but he didn’t see any cave entrances as far as he was aware of. 

Had he gone east? It was a forest area that Martyn had run to, wasn’t it? So it had to be east. East there was a mixed forest. North was also a forest though, Bdubs remembered. Though there were hills in the north while the east was pretty even land. 

Bdubs sighed. He could be very wrong, but going to find this lava pool would also give him a better understanding of the map. 

He stood up, attached the communicator to the rope over his shoulder and started walking in the direction of the stream, back to the circle with the weird x on the ground. 

It was then that he realised he was being watched. 

Keiko peeked her head from behind a tree, locked eyes with Bdubs and smiled. 

“Hello sir,” she said sweetly. Bdubs nodded at her but kept going. Keiko’s curiosity slightly terrified him. 

He heard Keiko sigh behind him, and from there he was vaguely aware of her watching him. 

Bdubs crossed the stream and finally turned to look at the floating woman. 

“Why are you following me?!” he yelled in confusion and partly frustration, the feeling of her watching him was uncomfortable and annoying. 

“I was bored,” Keiko frowned. 

“Go find someone else to watch,” Bdubs grumbled. 

Keiko narrowed her eyes at him. “Fine. Ren is more fun to interact with anyways.”

“Good,” Bdubs replied, and ran into the east forest. 

Keiko stopped following him, and instead he saw her turn to dust, presumably teleported to Ren. 

Bdubs rolled his eyes and kept running. There were so many weird things about this game. The fact that it wasn’t just a simple message to say whether or not you were the boogeyman. The strange achievement messages. How in chat, he wasn’t BDouble0100 like he should, but just Bdubs. The strange symbol he’d seen in the circle before he ran with Tango. The cloaked person who told them the rules. The weird language they briefly spoke in. How Keiko was a “Creator.” The new players, and how they bristled at the word “Creation.”

His eye caught on a tree that was on fire. Grinning through broken teeth, Bdubs looked around the area, setting a sheep on fire for food while he was at it. 

The sound of a nether portal swirling grabbed his attention from behind a couple of burning trees. 

Sure enough, there it was. A lava pool with a nether portal messily made on top of it. 

Bdubs quickly made a crafting table, and using three of his diamonds made a diamond pickaxe. He poured water over a part of the pool and began to mine out the four obsidian he needed. 

He quickly realised that this was going to take a while. 

“Here we are!” Skizz opened his arms as he introduced Impulse to the village he had found earlier. 

They were just back from another team’s area, JET, after a nice long chat about whatever and whoever. Impulse was pretty sure they were allies now. Having allies in the early season was always great to have, and always welcomed. 

Then Skizz had told him he had a fun surprise to show him, and while Impulse trusted his friend a lot, he was half-sure that it was going to lead him to his death by a trap or something. 

“This is a great surprise!” Impulse said grinning. He was genuinely surprised that Skizz had found a village. Villagers in particular were great assets late game. He ran for the blacksmith and found that the loot was gone. “I’m guessing you looted it already? And I can’t hear any villagers, that’s weird.”

Impulse heard Skizz entering the building and his presence behind him. 

“Pearl and I hid them,” he said proudly, leaning against the wall. Impulse tried to hide his surprise. So Pearl knew about the villagers too? Would that make her an instant ally? Impulse doubted Skizz came up with the smart idea to hide them. It made sense that Pearl had been there. She had gotten villagers in a past Life game, Last Life? 

“Oh really?” Impulse closed the empty chest and spun around to face Skizz. “Where?” 

“Um,” Skizz mumbled. “It was under here somewhere. 

He started digging out the floor with his diamond pickaxe. Impulse debated helping him but didn’t want to interfere with whatever his planning was. He wondered how he’d gotten the pickaxe. Skizz wasn’t exactly the most tactful person. He was still great though. 

Impulse was glad that he had Skizz this time. They were always apart, or once in a bigger group. And while they were pretty much attached by the hip on Hermitcraft, they’d only teamed up once in Limited Life. It felt like some sort of crime. Then again, the two had very different playstyles when it came to a Life game. Impulse loved deception and distrust, while Skizz was as loyal as a golden retriever puppy, always loved and kind. 

“Here!” Skizz broke a mossy cobblestone block in the back corner of the house, uncovering a ladder down to where he had supposedly hidden some villagers with Pearl. 

“Finally,” Impulse playfully hit his friend’s arm. Skizz winced, and Impulse gasped. “I didn’t realise I had my sword in my hand!” 

“All good Impy,” he muttered, and ate a baked potato. He said nothing else, and replaced every block in the floor except for the mossy cobblestone block that exposed the ladder. Skizz then started the slow climb down, and Impulse followed him soon after. It was a two by one hole, the ladder going down the width side. How they got villagers down here so quickly was certainly a mystery to Impulse, though he had a hunch it involved a lot of boats and water. 

He was suddenly very glad Skizz didn’t accidentally dig straight down on the block that didn’t have the ladders. Of course, his friend found a way to die without it. 

“Skizz watch out!” he cried down to his friend, who’d slipped off the ladder without noticing. Before Skizz could react, he was dead, his items strewn all over the ground. Impulse reached the bottom seconds later, and he felt extremely guilty for hitting him with a sword, because a fall from the height he fell should not have killed him in full health. 

Impulse began collecting his friend's items, trying not to mix them with his own. His inventory was a mess without the extra clutter, but he gathered what he could and clambered back up the ladder. 

He was dumping Skizz’s items in the empty blacksmith’s chest when he heard his friend’s familiar footsteps run in from behind him. 

“Back already?” Impulse sounded more surprised than he wanted to. Did he have a secret bunker nearby already? No way he ran that fast back from spawn. 

“I set my spawn in one of the other villager houses by mistake when gathering them earlier with Pearl,” Skizz sighed as he collected the items Impulse had stored and started to go down the ladder again. “Turns out that was a great idea.”

Impulse followed his friend quickly down in case he fell again, but this time Skizz paid attention enough to not lose his grip. 

Impulse watched as his friend silently brought himself back together again, putting back on his armour and adjusting his hotbar. 

Finally, Skizz looked at him with those sad puppy dog eyes of his and sighed. “Why am I surprised?”

“Two other people died before you, you’re doing great,” Impulse put an arm around his buddy. 

“Still!” Skizz said. “I’m one of three limes on the entire server!” 

“Does it matter? We’re all gonna die at some point anyway, it just means you’re closer to going on a little killing spree,” Impulse replied calmly. 

A small smile spread across Skizz’ face. “I like the sound of that.”

Impulse grinned back, and checked his communicator. 

Most of the messages following Skizz’s death were sad and sorry, but a few mocking. Pearl in particular. Impulse frowned. Pearl wasn’t usually aggressive like this for no reason. She always had a good reason. Always. But now she called Skizz a traitor, a cheat, a thief. That she was glad he was one step closer to death. 

“Skizz don’t check your communicator,” Impulse warned. Skizz gave him a confused look while he checked on the villagers, but nodded. 

“Okay,” he said. 

Continuing to read the messages, no one else seemed to notice Pearl’s hostility. It was strange. Impulse planned to speak to Pearl the next time he saw her because that was not normal. 

Then he reached the last message, from Keiko. 

 Keiko: End of Session!!!!

“Uhh, Skizz it’s the end of the session now,” he informed him, and saw that everyone was logging off. Skizz shrugged and used his communicator to leave too. Impulse followed suit. 

He hadn’t died that session, had a few diamonds, a teammate and access to villagers. Pretty successful for him, if he did say so himself. 

Chapter Text

“GEMMMMMMMM!” Pearl yelled as she flew over her best friend’s base. She had been too productive yesterday, working on her base and checking her shop profits. Though she had gotten side tracked with Metro Mayhem peeks and visiting Impulse, she wanted more social interaction. 

Gem’s base was coming along quite nicely, incredibly pretty to walk through with all the riverside buildings, and of course the giant castle that was supposed to be a laboratory. Gem was certainly a strange person this season, the amount of times Pearl caught her friend with a spyglass and wearing a white coat in the name of science and discovery was concerning. 

“Pearl!” Gem’s voice came from atop the castle where she was inspecting the shape of her radio telescope. “You should be asleep!”

Shrugging, Pearl landed on the roof of the castle and strolled up to her friend. “Maybe, but really, what can you do about it?” 

“Nothing,” Gem sighed. Then she grinned. “But I can pester you until you do.”

“Hmm, no,” Pearl folded her arms. “Besides, it’s session day. It starts soon.”

Gem gave her a confused look. “What do you mean?” 

“Fan Life?” Pearl returned the expression. Did Gem really not remember the first session of that extremely strange game? 

“That wasn’t a dream?!” Gem exclaimed, wide eyed and confused. Pearl dragged her hand down her face. 

“No?! That was very real!” she replied. “And you think I’m crazy when I don’t sleep.”

“Maybe you were hallucinating,” Gem insisted. 

“That’s got to be some next level hallucinating if we both shared the hallucination and if we made up a whole three hour session where there was some strange cloaked person and a floaty woman named Keiko who gave me a stick to tell me that I wasn’t the boogeyman instead of messaging me and there were two new people that I still don’t know their names but they looked cool and three people are on lime already,” Pearl rambled. Gem closed her eyes and took a deep breath in and sighed. 

“That sounds so much like my dream,” she muttered. “I do not want to play another Life game so soon. Shoot! If that wasn’t a dream, I forgot to record, I have nothing to post for session one!” 

Gem started panicking. “What is Grian gonna think?”

Pearl hugged Gem tightly and her friend stopped shaking.

“Did you not get told that we’re not creating anything off of Fan Life?” Pearl asked. Gem stepped away and stared.  

“What?” 

“You don’t have to make anything off of this season. It’s just for fun,” Pearl said, twirling her netherite axe in her hands and remembering the thrill of being a red life. Gem looked so relieved. The words calmed her down so quickly Pearl thought she was masking. 

“Well in that case, sure, I can’t wait!” she smiled. Her friend’s attitude changed immediately. Having this game just for fun was so much more relaxing, if you can call a death game relaxing. Although, the best part about this was that it started at half six in the morning for her, which was a big improvement from four am. 

Pearl thought for a second, running through the list of rules of the game in her head, and an idea came to mind. 

“Oh! Gem, want to team?” Pearl offered shyly. 

Gem thought for a second. “If this was for viewers, I’d say no because of how you betrayed me for my eye in Secret Life, and then acted like such a wet cat in Wild, but since I don’t have to make it angsty for them then sure, I’ll take you.”

“Yay!” Pearl spun around and smiled. Gem laughed. 

“You’re gonna have to send me your coordinates or we meet up at spawn,” Gem thought. Pearl shrugged. 

“Whichever works. We can be murder camel duo again!” The idea made the pair grin. 

“That would be awesome. Though, I don’t know where we’d get a camel,” Gem sighed. 

Pearl nodded. “We’ll find something. If anything, we can get horses and be the calvary.”

“We’ll see,” Gem said. 

The two stood in silence for a moment, then Gem checked the time. 

“Do you think it’s session time soon?” she asked. “It’s already five.”

Pearl’s brain went blank as she tried to think of timezones. “Uh, yeah actually.”

She checked her own Outer Watch to find it was half six. 

“Are we running late or something? It’s not like we can just go into the Waiting to get there. Last time I was just teleported,” Pearl started. “I wonder if-”

The world turned dark.