Chapter Text
From the moment the game starts, something is off.
“A few reminders!” Grian’s voice cuts through the chatter with ease, and quickly everyone falls silent eager to listen and to get things started. “As soon as you turn yellow, you’ll be assigned someone’s name. Your job is to kill them. If you do, they lose a life, you’ll get a new name, and so on. However, if someone else kills them before you, you also lose a life.”
“What if they die naturally?” Scott asks.
“You’ll be fine. If your Claim dies naturally, and you also die, let me know and we’ll fix it.” Grian looks around at the few nods he receives. Everyone knows how the Game is going to work, these are just reminders and last minute questions. “Other questions?”
Pearl raises her hand, mostly for the theatrics. “So, it’s like Soulbounds?”
“They may have your name, but you probably won’t have theirs. You can protect your Claim if you want to, or kill them, or whatever. I don’t know, I’m not your mum.” That gathers a few chuckles around the circle, bringing a small smile to his face. “Same rules as always. Breaks are mandatory, no murdering or trapping or anything of the sort during breaks. You can plan but not place, got it? Anything else?”
After a solid ten seconds of silence, Grian claps his hands. “Oh, also, last minute change. Because of code issues there’s not going to be a Boogeyman this Game. Good luck!”
And he speeds off into the nearby forest. He can hear the startled laughs and scrambling of people behind him. As soon as the words initiating the game leave his mouth, soreness spreads from between his shoulder blades up to the back of his neck. He quickly dismisses it as the aftermath of the stress that comes with setting up the Games, and gets to gathering materials.
If only he knew that everyone else scrambling behind him could also feel it.
The Game begins with giddy energy. There’s something exhilarating about starting from zero and having to gather even the most basic of materials like sticks or mine cobble with a wooden pick. The Hermits are well into their Hermitcraft season, and the rest are either all bouncing between advanced worlds or heavily modded ones, but at the end of the day none of them had been doing early gathering anymore.
Grian finds himself hanging around Etho and Tango, literally after falling from a cliff on some tree branches and getting two high pitched screams of surprise. They spend the next hour or so joking around, cutting down trees, and chatting with whoever passed by. And by the time he calls the first break, the longest one of the breaks to let people who live in separate servers catch up, most tentative alliances are already formed.
They all gather near spawn, set in their current teams and chatting away plans. Near the crafting table set in the center to signalize the center of spawn stand Joel and Cleo chatting. They’re a lot more amicable this Game, and probably intentionally choosing to team with each other since they’ve always been at odds.
On the other side, leaning against the table, are Martyn and Impulse in a fast-paced conversation. Grian watches them talk for a second, each comment making the other get even more excited and talk even faster, and quickly files them under dangerous in his mental list. Impulse has a steel strap of a mind that holds grudges like no other, and Martyn showed during Limited Life that not only is he always listening but he’s a confident doer.
Sitting on the grass, on the edge of spawn, sit Bdubs and Pearl chatting away. A little to their right, clearly having been a four-person conversation turned to two two-person conversations, are Skizz and BigB. They’re also odd pairings, but the intensity of the first and the jack-of-all-trades of the second will certainly make them interesting.
Grian arrives at spawn with Tango and Etho. “Hey, so, we’re teaming right?”
“I mean, Etho and I have teamed twice before but if you’re good with that…”
He waves the concerns away. There’s a somewhat unspoken rule to not team with people they’ve teamed with in the last Game, but it’s never gotten in the way of organic alliances. “Yeah, no problem with me.”
“Cool.” Etho answers and points towards Bdubs and Pearl. He’s already beginning to walk away as he speaks. “Then meet here after the break?”
Tango gives a nod and bee-lines it towards Impulse and Martyn, startling both of them out of conversation and immediately starting a teasing back-and-forth with the latter. Etho’s already sitting and bridging the gap between Skizz and Bdubs, bringing both small conversations back into one large group.
Grian looks around, partially to make sure things are running smoothly and partially to see which conversation he wants to join, when he notices there’s still missing people. The ache in his back reminds him of its presence as it stretches just a little further into his shoulders. No sooner after he notices the missing players, Scar and Scott walk out of the nearby forest talking quietly.
Scott sees him first, nudges Scar with his elbow causing him to also look up, and then they walk towards him. They join him and Scar offers him a bright smile, one Grian immediately clocks as his con-man smile. “Hey, G, got a second?”
The ache stretches further up his shoulders.
“Uh, yeah. What’s up?”
Immediately, they flank him and lead him further away from spawn towards the edge of the forest with gentle hands on his back. “Is everything okay?”
There’s a pause a tad too long for the answer to be yes. Scar answers, “Uh, have you seen Jimmy?”
Grian frowns and looks back at the people gathered around spawn. The tall blond is still nowhere to be seen. “No. I imagine he’s still on his way.”
Scott and Scar share another look, making a silent decision. It’s Scott who takes the lead of the conversation, “We think something’s wrong with him.”
“What do you mean?”
“Scar and I ran the same way when we started, right? We were joking that I’ve made it pretty high up in the scoring every Game, so maybe he should team up with me to… counterbalance the bad luck, or whatever.” Scott explains turning to survey the perimeter around spawn, with the intensity of the last green life in a server of reds. Grian knows the feeling too well. Scar glances between the two former champions, silently. It’s maybe his lack of jumping in to add unnecessary details that bothers Grian the most. “We thought maybe Jimmy would also like to be part of this team, and it’s been ages since he and I teamed up properly. But when we found him, he was alone. I asked if he wanted to join but he said no.”
Grian frowns. Jimmy’s a social soul, always has been. He was bound to bounce between groups and conversations, so of course there’d be small periods where he’d be alone. Clearly it wasn’t a transition-between-groups type of alone, if Grian was reading the situation right. “Weird.”
“Yeah. It was very curt, too. I asked if he already had a team or something, and––” He runs a hand through his colorful hair and turns to Grian again. “He said that he was running solo this Game, that he’d been getting better, had been training, and that he was going to win.”
It was certainly odd. “D’you think the jokes got too much?”
Scott shrugs and it does nothing to dissuade the worry building in Grian’s chest. Scar however shakes his head. “No. It sounded different, and besides, I think he wouldn’t have joined at all if it was because of the jokes.”
“And it was too certain.” Scott continued, “He is confident that he’s going to win, almost…”
“Smug.” Scar supplied with a little shrug. “And then he turned around and left.”
Jimmy was smug. And petty. And a try-hard in the way their entire family was, honestly. But genuine confidence, not the kind built from delusion or ignorance, was not a recurring thing. Jimmy folded too quickly. One well placed joke-threat and he’d give up. There were only a few people who knew when Jimmy was being genuinely confident, but unfortunately Scott was one of them, so it wasn’t Scott misreading the situation.
Grian rubs a hand against his temple. He gives another quick look around spawn, and there’s still no Jimmy. He also notices another blond looking around every so often. Red eyes meet black for a quick second, a small nod, before Tango returns to his conversation with Martyn.
Hm. Grian turns back to his two companions. “Did anything else happen?”
They both shake their heads.
“Okay, keep an eye out for him. Let me know if anything else happens.”
Scar looks at him with an ever-so-slight expression Grian is in no place to identify, and besides being near Scar at a Game still feels a little disorienting after the last four, and nods. “Do we tell Grian, Brother-Grian, or Admin-Grian?”
The question renders him silent for a split second. “You decide.”
It seems good enough of an answer for Scar who gives them another dazzling smile and turns around to join the others. Scott gives Grian a look, a single gossip-seeking eyebrow raised, that the blond very obviously ignores, and sighs before also going towards the others.
Grian bee-lines it to Martyn. He puts a hand on his shoulder and smiles at Impulse and Tango. “Hey guys. I need our latest champion for admin stuff.”
“We’re on break, G! No admining.” Impulse jokes before throwing an arm around Tango’s shoulder and leading them away. “Enjoy your boring talk.”
He doesn’t even give him a response, quickly moving to stand in front of Martyn who is standing up from his lean against the crafting table. Joel and Cleo have split off to talk to others, leaving only Grian and Martyn near the table. “What’s up, G?”
“Can you Hear Jimmy right now?” He stresses the word and hopes Martyn will get it. “He’s not here yet.”
He gets it. Obviously. Martyn frowns and focuses on the center of Grian’s forehead, as he Listens to the world around them. Grian waits and does his best to not fidget. After a few seconds, Martyn looks at Grian and nods.
“Yeah. He’s… hundred or so southwest from here. Seems to be napping, from how he’s breathing.”
A bit of the worry dissipates from his chest. Okay, at least that explains why he’s not at spawn. Martyn is looking at him weirdly, and catching onto his concern. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. It’s not like him to miss the first break, so. I was worried he got caught in a cave or something.” He says, hoping against hope that Martyn can’t hear the lies coloring his words. “You know how I get during the first few days.”
Martyn gives him a look. He doesn’t believe him, obviously, but Grian wouldn’t believe himself either if the roles were switched. But Martyn doesn’t comment on it, bless him. “Yeah, I guess that’s true. I’ll keep an ear out, anything weird you’re the first to know.”
Grian gives him what’s probably the first honest smile since he and his team joined the others at spawn. “Thanks, mate.”
After the break, the first day continues on without a hitch. So does the second, and third. However, it also remains without sightings of Jimmy. Most of their energy is spent on building bases and preparing for future traps and plans. Without the presence of the Boogeyman curse, and all players still in green, it’s peaceful. It almost feels like the green days in Third Life, those few days before Grian’s little mindless prank complicated his entire life.
Teaming with Tango and Etho, despite being friends from Hermitcraft, takes a bit of adjustment. Grian’s growing restless with the peace. He keeps a notebook with future traps on him, and is honestly counting the days until nature takes its first life and things get wild. Tango is much more of a preparer, getting resources he knows will be scarce within the week. And Etho is a reactionary player, meaning he is neither Grian’s level of restlessness nor Tango’s level of preparation. They do end up falling into their natural roles. Tango builds them a base, with enough tunneling underneath to reach almost everyone else’s bases from underground. Etho gets a functioning farm and crops, automatizing as much and as Grian-proof as possible, before moving on into gathering Enderpearls and other bits they’ll need later during fights. And Grian takes to planning traps, connecting with others, and playing harmless (genuinely harmless this time) pranks on others.
The initial teams grow more and more solid, with tenuous relationships with other teams. There’s a soft alliance between the Joel-Cleo team and Skizz-BigB team. And a bigger net of soft alliances with Grian’s team. Because of the Jimmy situation, which took a backburner as there’s been no development other than Jimmy’s absence, there’s an unspoken trust between the GET Rekts––an awful name that started as one of Grian’s jokes and unfortunately stuck around––and Scott and Scar, who were still nameless but everyone was calling the Ss. Scott and Tango have also been talking a bit more, sharing worries late into the night over their missing ex/partner, respectively, long after Grian’s turned in. And because Etho cannot help himself, there’s also a soft alliance with the Happy Triggers––Bdubs and Pearl, nicknamed by Skizz.
It’s at dawn, on the fifth day, that it all changes.
Grian’s team is all awake and moving around already when the message appears. He’s feeding the cows, Etho is replanting some of their crops, and Tango is making a… redstone component Grian can’t even name. Teaming with two redstoners is a lot like living with Mumbo during his planning stages: a constant stream of terms Grian has no hope of understanding. His two teammates had very specifically told him to not touch the redstone stuff, and had even hidden their chest. Which felt a bit excessive, and totally justified.
He’s in the middle of holding a bundle of wheat to one of their stubborn cows when he hears the clatter behind him. Grian whips around, and sees that Tango’s sprung up from his chair, letting it fall backwards, and that whatever he’d been crafting had been dropped on the table to instead look at his communicator.
“What’s wrong?” Grian frowns. Etho also stops, hands still in the soil but ready to jump to action if the situation calls for it.
Tango flips his communicator around. He’s too far for them to read anything, but Grian sees the yellowed name immediately. He quickly slips his own communicator, which he hadn’t even felt buzz, and reads the message.
SolidarityGaming fell from a high place.
“Oh no.”
Etho stands up to look over Grian’s shoulder, and when Grian tilts it towards the white-haired man, he hisses in sympathy. “First death.”
“Don’t.” Tango mutters as he types away. Neither Grian or Etho say anything else. The former because the message only causes that ache that had taken place over his shoulder to spread up his jaw, and the latter recognizing the concern on Tango’s voice.
< Tango > you ok buddy?
There’s no response to his message.
< Smajor1995 > Jimmy?
You whisper to PearlescentMoon: You’re closest to spawn, do you see Tim?
Grian waits a few seconds, putting away the wheat and walking over to the main area of their base.
“Okay, what’s going on? You two are freaking me out.” Etho finally breaks the silence. “You weren’t this stressed about him during Limited, and everyone saw those conversations with Scott, Scar, and Martyn during the first break, Grian.”
Grian looks at him before looking at Tango and already finding the red eyes on him. “What’s going on with Jimmy, G?”
“He’s running solo this Game.” He answers with a light shrug.
Tango frowns and recoils like he’d been told Decked Out will be permanently shut down. “No chance.”
“I know.”
“He’s not much of a solo player,” Etho comments, knowing Jimmy the least of the three but enough to know that Jimmy isn’t supposed to willingly be a one-man team.
Grian looks at his communicator and finds no response from his twin.
You whisper to InTheLittleWood: can you hear him?
Smajor1995 whispers to you: he isnt at spawn, i came to check
Smajor1995 whispers to you: no one knows where his base is either
“I tried talking to him the other day but he just…” Tango trails off as picks up the chair and sits down again, more defeated than they had seen him since the Game started.
Grian looks at him with a frown. “Did something happen between you?”
“You’re going to give me the big brother talk? Really? Now ?” Tango frowns back at him in disbelief, but Grian quickly shakes his head.
“You’re both smart adults, I’m not an idiot. What happened, Tango.” It comes out less of a question and more of a demand, and Grian knows he accidentally said it a bit more seriously than intended—his Admin voice as the others called it–– from the way the other two suddenly grow more serious.
Tango begins fiddling with the redstone component he had been making earlier as he talks. “We bumped into each other, and he was very… quiet? Like, stilted. He asked me to leave and wouldn’t look at me. I thought maybe he was still peeved about Bread Bridge, we haven’t really been able to meet up between Games with Decked Out and all the Servers he’s been in…”
“He didn’t care about the bridge that much, anyways. Certainly not enough to break up with you over it.”
“I–I know, and Scott told me that he tried to convince Jimmy to kill me–– for extra time during Limited, and, and that Jimmy refused.” Tango shrugs. His words come out tangled as he gets himself worked up over why Jimmy was acting that way. “I don’t think it’s from Limited… I guess I could’ve––I mean, I could’ve tried a little harder to meet between Games?”
Etho shakes his head before Tango even finishes talking. “It’s not that. Joel says that they were all super busy, including Jimmy. They barely saw him by the end of Empires, let alone someone from a different Server.”
Grian’s communicator buzzes on the table.
InTheLittleWood whispers to you: same abouts. hundred sw of spawn… hasn’t moved much apparently
Well, that wasn’t very helpful. Grian had gone looking after the first break, and then again the third morning, but hadn’t seen anyone or even a semblance of a base. Learning that Tango had seen him is shocking enough. Wait. “You met with Tim?”
“Yeah, second day or so.”
“Do you know where his base is?”
Tango blinks at him. “I wouldn’t call it a base, but yeah.”
Grian’s eyes widen and he quickly begins moving, grabbing the necessities for the day. “C’mon, you gotta show me.”
He doesn’t notice the startled look between his teammates but hears them moving behind him anyways. It takes them less than a minute to be out of the base and running towards spawn with Tango leading. The rest of the players are still waking up, from what Grian can see during their mad dash across the land. This Game they had spread out a bit more than in Limited, but were still much closer than they had been in other Games.
Once they reach spawn, they find Scott and Scar already standing there and talking quietly. Scar notices them first smiles confidently. “Well, hello there!”
Grian doesn’t even bother to answer the greeting, which is probably rude but the ache is beginning to creep around his collarbones. Instead he breathes heavily and says, “Tango––Tango knows where Jimmy’s base is.”
“It’s not really a base.” Tango points out, also winded from their sprint. The only one who looks okay is Etho, who’s surveying around the perimeter of spawn. From spawn they could see three separate bases, and another two a little further away. If anyone else is awake, they’re not visible from where they stand. “More of a small chest monster––that way.”
He points towards the same direction Martyn had said, and Grian doesn’t wait for his breath to fully come back to him before he begins running in that direction. There’s a buzzing in his ears that overwhelms and blocks any other sound. Grian doesn’t hear Etho’s call after him, nor the footsteps that follow him with surprising speed.
He only feels an arm hook around his waist and yank him back. Grian whips around to see Scar holding him back, straining a bit when Grian tries to slip out and continue running, but otherwise holding him in place.
“Scar!” He struggles again but Scar seems able to predict him and keep up with his every attempt. If the circumstances were different, it’d be a hit to the ego to realize he’s grown predictable. “Let me go, what are you doing?!”
“Hold on, you can’t just go running into a forest with the only person on this server who can and will kill you.” Scar reasons as the group joins them. It sounds almost like he’s repeating Grian’s words back to him, and Grian can’t help the odd turn of his stomach at the idea of Scar actually getting stuff out of teaming with him other than death and drama.
Etho quickly comes to stand before Grian to further stop him. “We don’t know what name he got.”
He hates that they make a good point. He sags against the hold, and clearly Scar’s gotten really good at predicting him, because it still takes him another thirty seconds to let him go without worrying about him darting away the moment he’s released.
Grian glances up at Scar, and the man looks away before taking a sheepish step away and refusing to look at him again. Somehow, that’s more confusing than Scar being able to catch him and successfully stop him from running, despite Grian being smaller and much faster.
“We need to be on the same page before we go in,” Scott breaks the silence after a few seconds of everyone regaining their breath. “What do we know?”
“Jimmy’s being weird,” Tango starts. He stands between Scott and Etho, but he keeps looking past Etho into the forest. “Says he wants to be solo, we don’t know if it’s a strategy or a self-isolation thing.”
The mere idea of the latter causes Grian to clench his jaw. “He’s the only yellow so far.”
“He has a Claim. And the bigger our group gets, the more likely it’ll be that it’s one of us.” Etho points out.
There’s a few nods. “Who else knows?”
“Martyn.” Grian says, and refuses to acknowledge the confused and curious looks he gets. Instead, he quickly checks his communicator for any other messages, and sees that Pearl’s responded to his message.
PearlescentMoon whispers to you: no? I see you and your group
PearlescentMoon whispers to you: is everything ok? Is Jimmy ok????
“Pearl’s suspicious now, I guess.” He adds as he types away a response he knows she won’t believe but will keep her from acting for at least a few hours.
You whisper to PearlescentMoon: yes don’t worry
Scar does a quick count with his fingers, showing them seven as he talks. “That’s half the server already, assuming Martyn hasn’t told Impulse and that Pearl won’t tell Bdubs right now.”
“And that Joel hasn’t caught on.” Scott adds.
Void. Grian hadn’t even thought of Joel. Another member on the list that knows Jimmy well enough to catch on the weirdness.
“Could you call a break, G?” Tango asks. “He won’t be able to kill anyone, and no other accidental deaths would make yellows. If there’s another yellow, things will get more complicated with trying to avoid another person.”
Grian considers it. If they were on break, things would be less likely to go wrong. However, there’d be no reasonable explanation for the rest of the server as to why they’re taking a break shortly after dawn, during a mostly peaceful time. Should they even tell the server what’s happening with Jimmy? Is there something happening with Jimmy? He pockets the communicator as he shakes his head.
“I think we’re overcomplicating things. We need to go off the assumption that it’s a strategy. Because if it is, it’d be unfair to him as the only yellow to stop the game… If it’s not, this is a game. None of the deaths are genuine. And we can always call it off, and help him with whatever needs helping.”
No one, including himself, seems quite content with the decision but no one argues against it.
“We’re still going to see him.” He adds, and that does get explicit agreement. “Stick together, keep an eye out.”
Tango takes the front again, the rest falling naturally into a V-formation behind him. Etho and Scott stand directly behind Tango, swords at the ready, and Grian and Scar behind their respective teammates. Grian holds his sword while Scar walks with an arrow nocked and ready. In the careful surveillance of the forest, which grows thicker as they walk, Grian’s eyes catch Scar’s.
You okay? Scar mouths.
Grian gives a short nod. Yeah .
And the two look away from each other. Grian turns to look ahead, past Etho’s shoulders, when he notices him rolling his shoulder. “You alright, Etho?”
The man glances at him over his shoulder. “Yeah, just–– my back’s been botherin’ me since the start of the game.”
Alarm bells ring in Grian’s head as soon as Etho speaks. He sees in the corner of his eyes that Scott turns to Etho, as does Tango, with surprise in their face and a faint reach to their own shoulders. His stomach drops, the ache that’s reached the hollow of his throat makes itself present, but before he can say anything, Scar’s voice rings out.
“Tango! Watch ou––”
A single white-feathered arrow flies by them, hitting the ground before Tango, and the silver glimmer of a tripwire breaking catches Grian’s eyes. He doesn’t even have time to yell before all he hears is the memory of TNT hissing as he wakes up in his bed.
Tango was blown up by SolidarityGaming
Smajor1995 was blown up by SolidarityGaming
Etho was blown up by SolidarityGaming
Grian was blown up by SolidarityGaming
GoodTimeWithScar was blown up by SolidarityGaming
>> Your Claim is… GoodTimeWithScar !
< Skizzleman > WHAT
< InTheLittleWood > ?!?!?!?
< ImpulseSV > WAIT WHAT
< bigbst4atz2 > tahts all team GET and the Ss
< ImpulseSV > who did jimmy get?
< ZombieCleo > how does that even happen?!
< Etho > Not going to claim your win jimmy?
Grian groans as he sits up, hand going to rest against his collarbone, before he snaps to look at Etho. “What are you doing?”
“Poking the bear,” he answers as he types another message. “He either got lucky or he’s deadly. I want to see his reaction.”
< SolidarityGaming > only meant to catch etho, sorry everyone!
The apology is well placed to pretend normalcy, Grian will give him that, but are they really supposed to believe that of the five present his hit was on one of the two he didn’t have a relationship with? His older brother, his ex-turned-close friend, and his current (current?) partner… All caught in collateral and he doesn’t even mention it?
“There’s no chance you were his target.” Grian says towards Etho before turning to look at Tango. “You alright, Tango?”
“I don’t know if I should be hurt that I was his first kill, or proud that he set up a trap that worked really well.” He gives a wet chuckle and runs his hands down his face. Tango lets his arms fall against his stomach and looks at the ceiling, probably reviewing every conversation the two have had. “This sucks.”
Grian can’t help but laugh, rubbing the sore spots from the explosion. As he stands up and passes by Tango’s bed, he gently pats his shin and continues on his way. “Etho, you mentioned your back hurting?”
At this, Tango also props himself up on an elbow to look at Etho. “Oh, yeah. Is it between the shoulder blades?”
Etho frowns at both of them. “That’s where it started, yeah. How’d you know?”
“And continued over the shoulder onto the chest?” Grian asks, and Etho nods. “That’s the last time I ignore an ache. I’ve had the same thing the entire time…”
As the conversation tapers off, he thinks of the logistics of the trap. He clearly had it set up from before turning yellow, since it’d taken the group less than an hour to start heading his way. Meaning his death wasn’t accidental. And there was no way he knew who would head that way, so it wasn’t targeted, despite what he said. And for it to instantly kill all five, Grian can only wonder how much TNT was under them… and where he got so much of it this early in the Game.
“I got you, Tango. By the way.” Etho suddenly says into the silence of the room. “So, no need to worry about who might wanna kill you.”
“Are you going to?”
Etho laughs at that, “Risk your rage? No chance.”
Tango grins. “Smart man. I got Pearl, so we’re safe there since I doubt Jimmy will try anything with his own sister.”
“He killed me.” Grian points out. “And, more importantly, you.”
Tango lets himself drop back onto the bad. He’s wound up with a worry Grian is painfully familiar with, and one he knows is near impossible to shake off. Concern for a loved one was dangerous during the Games.
“Who’d you get, G?”
“Scar.” He sighs and hears both his teammates snicker at that. “And he’s pretty good at making enemies, so… mild concern there.”
“Have some trust in his silver tongue. He’s good at getting himself out of situations…” Etho offers but they both know Scar is less likely to get himself out of a situation than into a situation.
Etho begins moving around, rearranging things in chest and handing out the basics that they need after dying. Grian also gets up and begins making their collected wheat into bread and dividing it between the three. When he glances over his shoulder, Tango is typing at his communicator, waiting a few seconds, and typing again.
It almost startles him when Tango speaks up. “So, is it strategy or are we calling it?”
They all know the answer, but no one likes it, including himself. “I’m not stopping until I see him… but for now, I really hope he’s just hyperfocused.”
By midday, things haven’t gotten any better. Grian barely escapes four traps by the skin of his teeth, Scott escapes three, and Skizz, Bdubs, and Pearl turn yellow after a mining trip goes wrong. Two hours past midday, Impulse and Martyn have a run in with piglins in the nether and turn yellow. BigB throws an Enderpearl after fighting a skeleton in the thicker part of the forest and turns as well. Within minutes of sunset, Cleo is TNT-minecart-ed by Jimmy and it takes Joel as collateral.
By the time Grian goes to bed, knowing he’ll stay awake all night anyways, the entire server is yellow. And something tells him that by the next night, it’ll be just reds… if not greys.
Tango doesn’t sleep either. He looks out of the window the entire night, not even pretending to go to sleep. It’s probably smarter, now that they’re all yellows with Claims on each other, to keep watch at night. Neither Grian or Tango do very well as lookouts.
Etho doesn’t comment on it when he wakes up, but his movement marks the start of the day for the other two. They begin moving around, doing their early chores like feeding cows and farming, before Grian and Tango take to trapping their base against unwanteds.
It almost feels silly to trap it when they have not-so-soft-anymore alliances with most of the server. And when the Game feels so far removed, they’re trapping for appearances more than anything else.
Before midday Skizz and Scott have gone red. The first from tripping down a cliff, the second from an unclaimed trap. Within the hour, Cleo joins them after accidentally getting killed by Pearl while fighting skeletons, and Impulse follows soon after by not killing Cleo before Pearl could get them.
It’s nearing sunset when Grian’s communicator buzzes twice, so quickly in succession that he almost misses the second.
BdoubleO100 tried to swim in lava.
InTheLittleWood whispers to you: meet at spawn