Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The wind was cold on Scars face as he stepped out of the traders into the field of sunflowers; a chilling reminder of his death. Another game lost, more time trapped in this field. He was lonely, yes, but he would grow accustomed to it yet again. It was always the worst right after a series, when he was with friends again. Sure, there are the voices, but they aren't the same as being with his friends. Not that he would tell the voices that, he was far too kind to deny their company. He had grown to accept them as part of this world. 

He sighed, bending down to pull the weeds out of the dirt. He became lost in the ritual of gardening. Something to soothe his lonely soul as it wandered this world. The sun climbed higher into the sky and the chill in the air gave way to a glowing warmth. Soon the autumn heat became unbearable and Scar finally stood up from the flower beds and made his way to a shady tree. He sat down under it to eat an apple he had in his inventory when he saw it.

Standing on a hill in the distance was an iron golem. Its back was turned to scar, and it lazily treaded along the hillside. “Thats odd,” Scar squinted, trying to make it out more clearly "there's no villages in these chunks”.

“Which means,” he thought aloud, “that there is someone else in this world who made it”. He stood up again, and opened his inventory. The interface popped up in front of his chest an arm’s length away. He pulled out his diamond sword and put it into the first slot of his hotbar before closing it. 

He checked the tab list. 

No one. 

There was no one on the server.

Scar felt uneasy, but he decided to investigate. He made his way up the hill. “Why hello there big guy, welcome to Trader Scar’s, what brings you around these parts?” he said cheerily. “You must have come from outside the border- are you lost-”

Scars blood ran cold. It turned towards him. But that thing, no, that wasn't an iron golem. Its eyes were empty, devoid of the red glow of life in the gentle giants. Its limbs seemed wrong, and its body was far too smooth- almost like pale flesh was imitating metal. 

Scar backed up as it stepped towards him. Though, stepped is the wrong word. It slid closer to Scar, like a snake with legs. Scar screamed and ran. He didn't hear any footsteps so he turned back to see if it was following him.

Not even two inches from him was the monster. It had silently sprinted after him. Scar didn't have time to think or scream before his world went dark, the last thing he saw was the soulless, empty void of that creature's eyes. 

***

“Alright, I think today I would like to go exploring a little bit.” Calvin said to himself as he pulled the security tablet out of his inventory. It lit up and he tapped away at the screen, checking outside his house for any signs of threats. He was mostly worried about the Anomaly now that Goatman wasn't coming near his house due to his dogs. 

He scowled as he saw the large wooden structure on the hill nearby. “God, that thing is an eyesore. The neighbor needs to move away. Get that eyesore off my property, brother.” he thought twice about insulting the neighbor, not really knowing if the fake dog was still in his house or not. 

“Or ya know, he can stay. Ya know what, you can stay. Maybe I'll just build you a new house you can live in instead” he left his own house, stepping into the sunlight that filtered through the towering redwood trees just a few dozen blocks away from his home.

“Maybe that's what we'll do today, go explore and find some nice things to spruce up the neighbors house.” he nodded to himself in approval as he set off. “No wooden cube is going to exist on my property. Nah, you saw the house I made for Alex? You'll love it, yessir” Calvin looked around as he passed a broken down well. 

“Speaking of, I haven't seen her in awhile. Yo where my shawty at?” there was no answer of course, not even a giggle. Calvin kept talking to himself, assumably, as he went onward. The sun climbed higher and higher into the sky and eventually it began to dip towards the horizon.

Calvin looked across a river to see a village, bustling with life. It appeared untouched. “Oh nice, a village! Have I been to this one yet?” he pondered. He pulled a boat out of his inventory and crossed the river.

Stepping onto the shore, he saw an iron golem offering a flower to one of the villagers. Calvin felt a little bit more secure when he saw the glowing red eyes of the golem turn to him. The creature looked him up and down almost like a nod. 

“Nice to see you, big guy.” Calvin smiled, walking past him into the village. He went about his business, looking for some good loot and maybe a waystone. He explored for a little while until he felt something watching him. 

He had learned how to sense when it was Herobrine versus when it was something else. This wasn't the watchful gaze of Herobrine. He shuddered, remembering when he thought Herobrine was the worst of his problems. Now the entity didn't even hold a candle to the other eldritch horrors this world had to offer him. 

He turned slowly and there it was. The eyeless iron golem watching him. The normal iron golem didn't seem to even notice the beast, walking right between and past it and Calvin. 

“Aw no, not you. Dude that thing gives me the creeps-” Calvin didn't dare look away, backing up slowly into a house. “I think I'm going to sleep this night away”

You can't sleep

“Ok i guess im not” he groaned in frustration, opening the door to leave. The golem turned back to watch him again, its soulless eyes following him. “Eeeeee” Calvin shuddered as he quickly sprinted away “it's still watching me!”

He left the village as quickly as possible, trying to get away from that thing. “Naw man, I hate that thing. I HATE that thing. It's so creepy. It has no eyes-” he turned around to see it, only to find that it was sprinting at him full speed, feet dragging across the ground unnaturally. 

Calvin screamed and jumped. Shaking, he hit the ground running and ran, placing water behind him. It was simply too fast though, navigating around the liquid and heading right for him “It's so fast!” he screeched as the thing grabbed him. 

“No!” Calvin's world went dark and he felt himself falling through the void. It was a familiar feeling. This wasn't the first time the thing had sent him somewhere else. He was expecting to land with a thud in the village from Season 2, or maybe the Lost cities, but instead when the world loaded in around him he was sitting in a tree. 

“Aw hell naw” Calvin groaned, opening his inventory to find nothing. No armor or weapons either. “They took my scythe.” he jumped down from the tree. “Really what did I expect, for them to be nice to me? Naw, they can't ever be nice to me. Even Alex isn't really nice to me.”
He started to punch the tree. He had grown used to the survival loop, and knew his best course of action was to get tools and armor as soon as possible. Iron armor minimum. “But Calvin, Alex helped you out of the lost cities!” he squealed in a high pitched voice.

“No, no I don't want to hear it. You know how many times she's also gotten me killed? Shawty is a professional manipulator, yessir. She's just in it for what? The entertainment of leaving me confused and hurt? Twisted.” he waved at the air as he placed a crafting table. He just as quickly abandoned the table as soon as he made a pickaxe, walking off into the woods in search of a cave.

The next few hours of the day went by quickly. Calvin found a pretty good hole in the ground and jumped down into a small pool of water. He made another crafting table and ditched it as soon as he got a stone axe and pick. He mined up some coal and held the torches in his left hand before he descended down into the caves.

Other than the sound of his footsteps and the occasional groans of zombies, the caves were quiet. He occasionally talked aloud to himself as he mined up the ores around him. As he was sitting in a lit up corner, smelting some iron, he thought he heard the voice of another person. He looked around and saw a nametag through the wall. 

“Aw hell naw.” he took what he had and picked it back up, quickly putting on the armor he just crafted. “This is singleplayer- it always is- see?” he pressed tab to prove to himself it was a single player, only to see a name and a face with a goofy little smirk and green eyes displayed right below his. “Is it? Not? Oh my gosh there's another person in here!”

Calvin was still wary it could be an entity and so he crouched and sneaked around the corner, attempting to locate the owner of the name. Eventually he heard the voice it belonged to.

“Now I think that's probably enough iron to get me started, oooh maybe i should go for some diamonds? Though I'm getting a bit low on food…”

“Hello?” Calvin asked as the figure came into sight.

“GOODNESS!” the man screamed and turned towards Calvin, clutching his chest. “Oh my gosh you scared me; oh-ho-ho” the man was dressed in tan pants, brown boots with a matching brown jacket and a white undershirt. He leaned on a cane and brushed back messy long brown hair to reveal large green eyes. 

“I didn't mean to scare you man, though I guess there wasn't really any avoiding it.” Calvin stood up and cautiously approached the man. He was sure now this was in fact a player, due to his reactions, but if the player was a friend or foe was unsure still. 

“It's alright,” the new player said, taking a steadying breath before grinning goofily and offering his hand “I dont think ive met you before. My name is Scar Goodtimes!” 

Calvin put his sword back in his inventory and shook Scars hand. “Calvin. It's nice to meet you man.”

“You're all geared up,” Calvin observed as Scar put on iron armor and picked up a sword. 

“Can never be too careful, though I'm a bit klutzy, so maybe I'm not careful enough.” He broke his furnaces and put them back in his inventory. 

“Well if you've held your own against the entities then you must be pretty good” Calvin nodded, expecting Scar to have an idea of what he was talking about.

“Entities?” Scar questioned. “Oh like the zombies and stuff- well yeah they have always been in these worlds.”

“No I mean like herobrine and the - the anomaly.” he watched the vacant expression on scars face. “Goatman? The cave dweller? The one who watches? The knocker? The night dweller?” nothing still. “None of these are ringing a bell?”

Scar shook his head "I've heard of herobrine, but he's not really real- and if he was I've never seen him.”

Unbelievable. This guy has never met the entities- maybe he's from a place where they don't exist, but if so how has he gotten into my worlds? There's no way I escaped; they wouldn't let me go that easily. “I assure you man, he's real alright” Calvin said.

Before Scar could answer or process that information, they both heard the sound of blocks breaking. Calvin's blood ran cold.

“What is that?”

“Sh” Calvin shushed him, listening for the direction it was coming from. He timed the seconds between each block breaking. It was fast.

“Is that Herobrine?” Scar whispered, fear in his voice.

“Worse,” Calvin replied, his eyes locking onto the far wall. The blocks broke and standing in a two by one tunnel, was a figure with pitch black skin and iron armor. 

“Its Null” 

Chapter Text

“Run! Get to the surface!” 

“Woah!” Scar was taken off-guard as Calvin grabbed his wrist and started running from the direction that he originally had come from. 

He looked backwards; Null, as Calvin had called it, was chasing after them. 

Scar tripped. 

Calvin swore under his breath and ran back- using cobble to start blocking a thin part of the cave off. As scar got his bearings, he saw it was no use. Null started to break blocks almost faster than Calvin could place them. 

“Scar, get to the surface- I’ll lead him away”

“But what about you?” Scar asked, looking at the path upwards and then back at Calvin.

“I’ve dealt with this bastard before” Calvin said bravely, but his eyes gave away his fear.

Scar nodded, if he was in Calvin’s world he had a better chance of surviving if he listened to his new friend. He ran up and crouched behind a pillar, watching just to make sure Calvin would really be alright.

“Over here Asshole!” Calvin caught the entity's attention and then he started digging into the wall, blocking it off behind him.

Null luckily didn’t see Scar, and started to mine the cobble Calvin had covered his hole with. He was attempting to reach Calvin, who was placing the blocks behind him right after mining them. There couldn’t have been more than 4 blocks between them at any given time.

Scar couldn’t think too hard about that, as a skeleton started to shoot at him. “Oh geez!” Scar yelped. He narrowly avoided the next shot and scrambled for the surface.

Eventually Scar made it out of the caves. He must have come out somewhere different then near where he spawned, since before him was a small flower field instead of an oak forest.

Usually the flowers would calm his nerves, but he was stuck thinking about Calvin hoping if he would be ok. He looked across the horizon for any sign of him, but only saw some monsters in the distance. It was good he could see them in case they decided to attack.

I guess that means I also have no where to hide. He thought to himself as he pulled out some torches. He began to light the area up, hoping it would serve as a beacon for Calvin, as well as keep him safe. 

Scar anxiously started to build a house out of oak wood and logs. He would occasionally have to fight off monsters, but zombies and spiders weren’t any match for him. He was most scared of creepers, but luckily he didn’t see many tonight.

Soon four walls were erected in the field, serving as a safe house. “No roof yet, but this should do for tonight.” Scar hung two torches up on the wall and started to place his furnaces.

“SCAR! That was his name right? SCAR” Scar finished putting coal in the furnace and opened the door to the house. 

“Calvin?” He looked around and then wandered to the backside of the house- he saw Calvin’s silhouette in the distance, holding a torch. “CAKVIN! OVER HERE!”

Calvin turned towards Scar’s voice and started to sprint over. 

“Aw man Calvin buddy I was so worried, but you made it!” Scar grinned and patted him on the back “how did you make it?”

“I mined into the wall and placed blocks behind me, climbing up until I reached the surface.” Calvin explained, showing his pick. It was worse for wear. “you started making a house?” 

“Yeah it’s not much, it’s a little quaint, a little small, but it’ll do for tonight at least. Doesn’t quite have a roof yet, come on inside and I’ll give you a little tour” scar led Calvin inside and started to show him the small set up. 

“Ok so there isn’t really much of anything here yet-“

“Scar the floor is still grass” Calvin chuckled 

“Oh I know- but wait until you see the vision!” Scar gestures to the floor as Calvin shut the oak doors behind him. He explained how he wanted to do a checkerboard pattern with birch and dark oak and make a tavern or a market with a house on the second floor.

“That sounds awesome, but what about security?” 

“Security?”

“There are things in this world that can break down doors, or that will wait for you to enter or leave your house to strike.” Calvin explained. “I have a security system back in my world to ensure I’m as safe as possible”

“Oh well,” scar thought “I guess iron doors and buttons will do the trick”

Calvin had a puzzled look on his face “so you know anything about security craft?”

“No, what is that?”

“It allows you to create cameras and reinforce blocks, among other things.” Calvin went on to explain more about his setup. He places cameras inside and outside of his house, his primary stripmine, and other dangerous locations to check if entities are there before he leaves or enters an area. 

“Even if you can’t avoid going to that area, you at least get a heads up.” Calvin explained solemnly. He smiled at scar and his tone became more relaxed “I gotcha man, don’t you worry about it at all. I’ll show you exactly how to make everything you need and get you all set up.”

“Oh that sounds lovely” scar breathed a sigh of relief. It all sounded very complicated, it required a lot of blocks Scar didn’t think he could get quickly, and the recipes sounded difficult to memorize. “I don’t think I would be able to memorize all those recipes"

“You really only need to remember a few, the rest you can just figure out later.” 

Calvin started to cook up some food, he must have found it when he exited the cave and came looking for scar. Scar started to smelt his ores and crafted a chest to put all his supplies in.

“Want me to smelt your ores?” Scar offered, extending his hand. 

“You gonna steal them dawg?” Calvin teased

“No, no, just trying to be a friendly neighborhood scar, that's all.” 

“Alright but you better not take my diamonds later on” Calvin handed over his gold and iron.

“I wouldn't dream of it,” Scar put it in the furnace and smirked, “though I am known to offer people trades sometimes.”

“Do you now?”

“Yup! Trader Scar’s, the best shop in all of Secret Life”

“What’s Secret Life?” Calvin started munching on some cooked chicken. He offered a leg to scar.

Scar took it and sat down “Oh yeah I suppose you wouldn’t know about the Life Games would you?”

Calvin shook his head.

“Well, me and a bunch of my friends are kinda trapped in this endless loop. We spawn in a new world with a limited amount of lives and when those lives run out our time in that world is over. The last man standing is the winner of the game.”

“Aw man a death loop?” Calvin groaned “Can’t say I’m unfamiliar. I’m trapped in this hellscape too.”

Scar nodded in understanding.

“Have you ever won?”

“Oh yeah, I won Secret Life” Scar said with a smile, but his heart felt heavy remembering how that season went for him.

“So secret life was just one of these life games?” Calvin clarified.

“Oh yeah there’s been a lot of them. 3rd life, Last life, Double life, Limited life, Secret life, Wild life and Past life. They each have a different twist to them, and some have more lives than others. There’s some games where you only have three lives and others where you have six. In Limited Life we had a timer that determined our lifespan and it would go up or down depending on your amount of kills or deaths.”

“Aw man that sounds fun” Calvin wiped off his hands, satisfied with his meal.

“It would be if it weren’t for the watchers.” 

“Are they entities?”

“You could say that I suppose; I’m not really sure what they are. I just know they keep us trapped in these games and they feed off our emotions.” Scar shuddered remembering the tasks from the secret keeper “they like the negative ones best; they are the most fulfilling- full?”

“Filling?” 

“Yes, that’s it, thank you.” Scar giggled at his slip up. “You see, when you die your name goes from green to yellow and then to red. Red is your last life, and on it you become bloodthirsty.”

Calvin thought about that “So, what, you turn on people?”

“Yeah, some people are known to go completely off the rails. That’s where the emotions primarily come from. It’s worsened by the fact that when you are in the games, you often don’t remember that you're trapped in this death loop. Memories are known to fade when you are inside the game”

“So it’s a vicious cycle.” Calvin sighed "Dude that sucks.”

“It wasn’t so bad this last time around.” Scar thought about how many times in Past Life it seemed like people remembered the previous games “Martyn seems to think the watchers might be losing their power over us.”

“Martyn?”

“Martyn IntheLittleWood. He’s one of my friends. He seems to know quite a lot more about the watchers than any of the rest of us, well, besides Grian of course.” Scar rambled, noticing the sky was starting to finally lighten and the sounds of mobs were beginning to fade out.

“He’s my-” scar paused. Thinking for a moment about Grian. There was a lot there to unpack, lots there that hurt him to think about. “He’s a very close friend. He’s very smart too, and he knows quite a lot about the watchers.”

“They sound cool dude,” Calvin said as he stood up. “Well it’s almost daytime. I think I should go get us a stable food source; think you can finish this house up?”

“Yeah of course!” Scar jumped up excitedly “Just leave it to Mr Goodtimes; I will make us the best residence you’ve ever laid eyes on, mark my words! It will be functional and fashionable.”

Calvin smiled. “Alright man, I’m counting on it. I’ll see ya soon.” 

Scar watched as his new pal left the house with a hoe and a water bucket in his hands. 

“What a cool guy. I like him” Scar remarked to himself as he got going on the roof.