Chapter Text
Pearl was running. From what, she didn’t remember. Or didn’t want to remember. The start of a new death game was always stressful, most of all because nobody got any warning, most of the time not even Grian dignified himself to give them a heads up. Pearl knew, though. She saw it in the way Grians eyes glazed over for a few weeks before the start, he got snappish and aggressive, more than he was usually. She knew, because who else was supposed to if not his sister.
She was grateful that she had taken after their mother. Now was not the time to dwell on the psyche of her younger brother, though, she was still running from something. ‘Spawn’, her mind offered helpfully. She was running from the worldspawn where they had all met at the start. Grian had plopped himself down on the ground and had started messing with the admin panel like he did for every new world they fell into.
He had shooed them away, saying that he couldn’t focus with all the chatter around. The only people he didn’t chase off were Pearl and Scar, the latter having gotten bored and wandering off soon enough though. Pearl had leaned against the tree which Grian was propped up against, looking over his shoulder and started preening her wings idly. “You know what, X?” she started, making Grian pause his scrolling. “Pearl, you’re not supposed to call me that and you know it.” Grian forced out, not looking up. “I don’t care. I’ll call you whatever I like when nobody’s around. Anyway, Xel, you become an asshole when They demand your attention. You know that?”
Now Grian looked up, and if glares could kill Pearl would be one life down. “I am aware, you’ve told me multiple times. Now get out before I chase you away, Chantrea.” Pearl shook her head, easily pushing herself away from the tree before sauntering off into the distance. She threw a quick “Alright, see you around, G.” over her shoulder before disappearing into the undergrowth. Now, she was running and hoping she didn’t just manage to get herself on her brother’s hit list because that boy could be brutal.
It didn’t take long for her communicator to buzz with Grians summary of what he gathered from the admin panel. Okay, so three respawns, green, yellow and red lives again, and – wait, Soulmates? She stared at the bit of text on the screen open mouthed, sharing health and saturation with someone randomly picked? Uff, looked like the Watchers really wanted a show this time, Pearl couldn’t imagine this going over well. Relationship drama it was, then. She wasn’t sure if she should be sad that Gem wasn’t here to get paired up with or glad that her, uhm, friend didn’t need to do this.
Deciding that this mental dilemma was for another day, she shook the thought out of her head, busying herself with gathering anything useful they might need. She wanted to be a good soulmate, after all, and provide the person she was paired with with a good start and stable resources. Was it nesting behaviour? Maybe, but Pearl didn’t care for her bird brain, unlike her brother who despised anything that tied him to a parrot. She’d say it was because he was gay that he was a parrot and she was an owl hybrid, but then she’d put her foot in her own mouth.
A buzz from her comm alerted her to a countdown.
Your soulmate is . . . ???
Oh great, it was a secret. Of course. Pearl was kind of mad now that everyone had listened to Grian and had scattered, this would be so much easier if- ouch! A chunk of damage being taken out of her health distracted her from her griping at her brother. What was her soulmate doing? Falling out of trees? She shook he head. It was an accident for sure. Now she just needed to find them. Quickly fashioning basic tools out of stone, she decided to start this game underground, digging around for anything useful. It wasn’t long before she heard muffled voices through the stone. Scar, her mind supplied, as she recognized the voice. And someone else… Martyn? And maybe Ren?
Sneaking around the caves, following the voices and steadily getting closer, she stopped just before the side tunnel she was in opened up into a mineshaft. Pearl could see the wooden beams that were holding the structure up in the soft glow of torches. “Careful, or you might fall.” she hummed, almost purred, just loud enough for the echo to reach the others, silky voice flowing through the caves like honey.
“What- who’s there?!” Martyn shouted, and she could vaguely hear Scar floundering about further along the mineshaft. She couldn’t help but giggle a bit. “Oh, come on. Don’t tell me you don’t recognize me.” she giggled, sounding slightly manic to be fair. “Pearl! Where are you?” Ren asked, taking chunks out of the wall around him. Pearl rolled her eyes, sliding down a little rift she discovered, landing right in front of the trio. “Hello!” she exclaimed, leaning on her pickaxe casually.
“Oh void, Pearl you scared me!” Martyn scolded lightly, no real heat behind it. She only rolled her eyes at him, following it up with a playful smirk. “Anyway, anyone here my soulmate?” she asked, swiftly closing the distance between her and Martyn and slapping him across the face. He gaped at her in surprise while Pearly just inspected her hand, mildly disappointed that she didn’t feel that same sting on her cheek. “Well, guess not. Anyone else?” she turned to face Scar and Ren, who both started to back away with raised hands.
Scar quickly punched Rens shoulder, Ren doing the same to Scar. Pearl watched with a scrutinizing gaze but didn’t feel any pain. She sighed, shoulders relaxing from a tension she didn’t know was there. “Alright, looks like it’s none of you all.” she conceded, turning to face a still shocked Martyn. “Wanna team up to find our soulmates?” she asked, not expecting much of a positive answer after the stunt she just pulled. To her surprise, her old friend nodded his head sagely. “Sure.” his eyes snapped up to her face, laser focusing on her cheek. “If I get a hit in too!”
He was in front of her in an instant, she didn’t even have time to lift her wing to defend herself. The sting that followed in the wake of his hand was well deserved, in her opinion. Oh her poor soulmate. “Okay yeah that was fair.” she admitted, rubbing at her red cheek gently. Martyn looked way too pleased with himself if you asked her, and her eyes narrowed without her permission. “Hey, hey! Don’t look at me like I’m a mouse you’re about to disembowel!” Martyn protested, lifting his hands placatingly. “It was just payback, we’re even now!”
Scar and Ren watched the exchange with an amused smirk. “You two could be siblings.” Ren mused, looking between Pearl and Martyn. “Yeah Pearl, are you sure Grian and you aren’t hiding a brother in law from me?” Scar inquired jokingly, eyes crinkling with a smile. “Scar I would love to be your brother in law but have you seen the insanity that are those two? No thanks, I don’t need that kinda stress.” Martyn countered, looking up at Pearl teasingly.
She could see Scars pleased smile, obviously appreciating the flattery and probably thinking about how Martyn would fit right in with their flock, what with the silver tongue and over the top compliments all the time. She could see why her brother liked him so much. That manipulative little shit. Pearl has heard enough to not trust Scar as far as she could throw him, at least in these death games.
“Well, looks like we’ll get going then!” Pearl exclaimed, clapping her hands together to chase away the moment. Martyn mumbled something in agreement before waving goodbye and staring to climb out of the cave the way Pearl came from. Once on the surface, the two of them started their search of their soulmates under the cover of night. “Soooo, ‘Trea, any idea who you’re paired with?” Martyn asked with mirth in his eyes, revelling in the way Pearl’s feathers ruffled in distaste. “Don’t call me that name. I don’t like it. I tolerate it from Xel, but you don’t have that privilege. I suggest that you don’t cross me, Martyn.”
Her tone had turned threatening with the last sentence, wings unfurling and slowly casting a shadow over Martyn, blocking out the faint light of stars and the full moon, the weak light framing her wings in an eerie way. He immediately backtracked, lifting his arms placatingly and mumbling an apology. Pearl sighed, forcing her feathers to flatten against her wings again. “Sorry, it’s just – it’s really triggering for me. I’m sorry Martyn, you didn’t deserve that.”
“No no, not at all.” Martyn protested, waving his hands around. “I did it to annoy you, it’s on me, I’m sorry Pearl.” She smiled at her chosen name, the past was passed and she liked to leave it there. They continued their travels, meeting many a player who hadn’t found their soulmate yet, and Pearl grew more and more irritated with every person that wasn’t hers. Some insistent nagging in the back of her mind made her want to find her soulmate quickly.
Soon enough, they even joined up with Grian again, who didn’t stop complaining about his soulmate who wouldn’t quit taking heaps of damage, not even as he shoved a goat horn into Pearls hands and blew his own. Their conversation was short and one-sided, with Grian chattering away now that his mind was finally free of foreign influences again. Pearl and Martyn listened, gracefully accepting that that was what he needed right now. Truth be told, they didn’t think that he recovered from discovering he was a Watcher as well, maybe he would never get his sanity back.
‘Scar and Xel are soulmates for sure.’ something in the back of Pearls consciousness insisted, but she pushed it away. So what, wasn’t like the two could stay away from each other anyway. Grian would probably abandon his soulmate and go be with Scar instead. She shook her head, that was not her problem, her only job was to not let her little brother go insane and snap. “Okay, I give up.” she exclaimed instead, crossing her arms in front of her chest and staring at the list of players with disdain.
“We have met literally every single person in this world and not one was my or your soulmate. We have been to the nether, for voids sake! Who are we missing?!” Martyn frowned down at the list himself. “Wait… We haven’t seen two people yet, Cleo… and Scott?” he mumbled, more to himself that anyone else, but Pearl heard. She perked up at the mention of Scott, it had been so much fun the last time she teamed up with him! And Cleo was a friend from home so she’d be happy teaming up with them as well. “Well, one of them has got to be it, so let’s go find them!” she yelled, grabbing Martyns arm and dragging him along in whatever direction seemed right to her. Somehow, they have got to meet them somewhere.
And from the realization that it has got to be one of the two it really didn’t take too long to find them, hair blue as the sea and red as an open flame accompanied by excited chattering catching Pearls attention. She started grinning widely, feathers fluffing up in anticipation. “Scott! Hi!” she shouted, waving at him wildly. But instead of Scotts usual, easy-going smile, she was greeted by a scowl. “I know that you’re my soulmate, Pearl. Where have you been?” he asked, venom laced into his voice. Pearl reeled back.
The harsh tone was almost like acid in her ears. “Scott, I-” she tried, but Scott cut her off again. “You’ve done nothing but hurt us since starting, what have you been doing?! Going to the nether, I can’t believe it!” he scolded, still looking at her with a frown. Next to her, Pearl could vaguely hear Martyn having the same verbal beatdown from his soulmate Cleo, but Pearl was too focused on her and Scott to care about it. “I was gathering valuable resources for us!” she shouted, wildly offended that Scott dared to accuse her of not caring about them. About him. Her feathers stood on end with anger, fluffing up like the fur on a cat’s back.
Her glare rivalled Scotts now, both staring at each other with equal amounts of scorn in their eyes. “Maybe I’ll just go and be soulmates with Cleo, they’ve been nothing but wonderful in the time you weren’t here. You didn’t even look for me, I’ve been everywhere trying to find you!” Scott finally spat out, eyes narrowing and forehead creasing with contempt. Pearl gaped at him. “That is so not true, Martyn tell him! We’ve been everywhere looking for our soulmates!” she turned to look at her friend, but found him staring after Cleo, who just left, with an open mouth.
Scott just scoffed at her, turning on his heel and stalking off after Cleo. “Alright Pearl, I’ll try to get my soulmate back, see ya!” was the only thing she heard before a blur of green clothes and blonde hair whipped past her, not even leaving her enough time to respond before disappearing. Pearl stood there with an open mouth, looking after everyone who just left, trying to get her thoughts in order. “Okay then!” she yelled after them, anger bubbling up again, “Go, then! I don’t need any of you! I’ll be my own soulmate!”