Chapter Text
He woke up in a circle of eighteen people, Ren, Martyn, BigB, Pearl, Jimmy, Cleo, Scott, Etho, Bdubs, Joel, Lizzie, Tango, Impulse, Skizz, Scar, Mumbo, him, and Gem who was new.
He swallowed down panic as Scott sat up, meeting his eyes as he looked around.
Scott got up to shake Martyn awake. Martyn woke up and looked around.
“Gem’s new,” He said quietly.
Scott stared, “So what else is new?”
He pulled down his sleeve and saw three hearts, green, yellow, and red, there was also a line flowing through all three hearts, two lines if he was looking correctly.
“Let me see your arms Scott,” He said.
Scott raised an eyebrow but offered up both arms.
He took the one with Scott’s lives on it looking at it, only one line for Scott, that was odd.
Both of theirs circled their wrists and forearms along with going through the hearts.
He let go of Scott’s arm and said, “We’re back too three lives and I’d guess this is something about links, how I’m not quite sure.”
“So you think this’ll be a disaster,” Martyn gathered.
“Absolutely,” He agreed.
Scott sighed sitting back down in his spot, “Do we want to bet who’ll win?”
“Ren,” Martyn said immediately.
He rolled his eyes, “Gem, she’s really good at PVP.”
Scott looked over at Pearl, “Pearl deserves it.”
He sighed quietly, “Ready then?”
They both nodded and everyone else began to wake up.
He explained what he knew of want was going on, including a bit about the enchantment table being in the Anicent City and that there was no brewing potions that he got whispered into his ears, before a countdown began and they all separated to go through the early game.
‘Your soulmate is…’
‘???’
Of course they wouldn’t tell them, that’d be too easy.
When he ran into anyone they did a little test punch.
He came across Bdubs and Etho who had already figured out they were connected, which gave him a sinking feeling.
“Any ideas G?” Etho asked.
He gave Etho a half smile, “Depends on how the rest of the pairs go.”
Etho studied him, “Stay smart G, good luck.”
“Thanks,” He said, smile slipping off his face as the two left.
He continued on heading up to the mountains where some goats were.
Scott came up with news that Joel and Lizzie were linked along with Impulse and Skizz.
“I have a bad feeling about this Scott,” He admitted as BigB came up. He tested with BigB and they weren’t linked which kinda sunk his heart, he knew where this was going.
“We have this,” Scott said.
He shook his head as Mumbo came up after BigB.
He forced a smile onto his face, “Mumbo Jumbo!”
“Grian! How are you?” Mumbo asked.
“I hate goats,” He said, frustrated.
Mumbo laughed, “Ready to test?”
“Go for it,” He said with forced teasing, a theory proven or unproven.
Mumbo punched him and also winced like he was punched.
Mumbo slung an arm over his shoulders, “Well that’s that, huh mate?”
He nodded, “Yep.” That didn’t track with the mass amounts of damage he’d been taking however.
He eventually descended and ran into Joel and Lizzie. Mumbo followed behind him.
Him and Mumbo had gotten a couple large chunks of damage up on the goat mountain, to the point they were nervous they were going to die.
“Joel, Lizzie!” He called out.
Joel turned towards them, “Grian! Mumbo! How are you lads doing?”
He shrugged, “Heard you two are paired?”
Joel nodded while Lizzie joked, “Just proved to is that we’re actually soulmates.”
Mumbo laughed.
“Are you two paired?” Joel asked.
He nodded, “Yep.”
“So what are you two up to?” Mumbo asked.
“Babysitting,” Joel said, deadpanned.
“Scar or Jimmy?” Mumbo asked.
“Scar,” Lizzie said.
Fuck, shit.
“Martyn told him there were allays in the outpost and well he has one now,” Joel informed them.
He nodded barely taking in any of the information as he tried to reel in his panic, the two heartbeats next to his one fast but calmer than his and the other spiking for a moment before doubling down, both trying to calm his down.
“Where’s Scar now?” Mumbo asked.
Lizzie pointed into the ravine.
They look over the edge and there was Scar chasing an allay through the water.
“Time to get some fish,” He managed to joke.
They headed down to the river, he want about killing fish for food.
“Got any theories about other pairs?” Joel asked.
He shrugged, “Got lots of thoughts about lots of things.”
Joel snorted.
He was pretty sure that him and Mumbo were linked to Scar, the Watchers hadn’t messed with any of the pairs, letting their souls link up with who they were destined for, or in Cleo and BigB’s case, if he was right, the closet thing to it. Ren and Martyn were connected now even if they hadn’t been before the first game.
It was a thought that terrified him, he loved his partners don’t get him wrong, but he didn’t want to drag them down with him.
He’d already killed both of them in previous games and he was gonna end up doing it again and he hated it. They deserved so much more than him.
Joel admitted he’d hit Scar with an axe to freak out his bound earlier and offered up a demonstration which Lizzie was all for, Mumbo was hesitant as always, and he hesitated for just a moment before agreeing to it.
Joel went over to Scar in the water as the vex hybrid chased after an allay.
He’d punched Scar a tiny bit earlier but he’d not got a godo enough look at Scar to see if he also felt it and Mumbo had been distracted by Lizzie.
Joel hit Scar and he felt the dull side of the axe hit into his right shoulder. Scar barely reacted to the hit, eyes on the allay, vex obsession with it the man couldn’t help while Mumbo made a small noise of pained shock.
“No-not again,” He whispered to himself.
Joel hit Scar again for confirmation.
He tried not to scream out his disappointment, because that wasn’t fair to Scar or Mumbo.
Joel could read it on his face though, laughing at him because he thought it was a joke.
“Let’s just, let’s just keep this between us for now,” He said.
“We’re not telling him?” Mumbo asked, anxiety lacing his voice.
“Not yet,” He corrected, “I think it’d be funny to see how long it takes for him to realize.”
Joel snorted.
‘That’ll go on for a while,” Lizzie said jokingly.
“I guess,” Mumbo hesitantly, “As long as we tell him before the end of the week.”
He nodded, “Yeah, yeah of course.”
So with the three of them on board they along with Scar began, to collect more salmon from the river.
They were joking around as all of their comms buzzed three times in quick succession. He pulled it out and his eyebrows raised at the names in the chat.
‘TangoTek was blown up by Creeper’
‘impulseSV died’
‘Skizzleman died’
“What a way to find out who you’re bonded too,” Lizzie said with a chuckle.
“The good news is the three of them are really good friends,” Scar said brightly.
Him and Mumbo nodded in agreement.
Then Scar said, “I’m gonna be right back. I can’t let my first love go away from me like this. I have to go after the allay.”
They agreed to stay mostly put.
Once Scar was out of earshot he surfaced from getting salmon and said, “I can’t-I just-he has no idea we’re paired and I-,” He cut himself off.
Joel laughed at their misfortune while Lizzie looked off to where Scar had gone.
Mumbo sighed, “This is gonna be our whole week.”
Lizzie and Joel both nodded.
They continued to collect fish and coal from the ravine.
After a bit Joel said, “I can’t believe Skizz died so soon and it wasn’t his fault.”
“I know,” He agreed, while Mumbo simply laughed.
“That’s the worst way to find out you’re bound too,” Lizzie said.
They all laughed.
They were waiting for the fish to cook when both him and Grian started taking damage.
“He’s gonna get us killed,” He said worriedly.
“Excuse us gentleman, Scar’s taking damage and we’ve gonna go-” Grian started to say.
Grian was interrupted by the very vex they were talking about as Scar dropped in, “I got it back!”
Grian raised an eyebrow while he and the rest of their companions laughed.
Scar soon mentioned needing to find food so Grian handed over some of the Parrot’s fish.
Some more manual fishing later and Lizzie mentioned a plan to build a base above the Pillager outpost, which concerned both him and Grian especially once Scar also bought up the idea as if it were a godo one.
Grian’s, “That sounds like a horrific idea,” summed up both their thoughts pretty well.
Then Joel talked Scar into showing off a water bucket clutch which the other man at mastered on a hardcore series, Joel, Scar, and Grian had done together.
Speaking of Grian, his best friend had been acting slightly off since they found out they were paired. Forced smiled and tense laughs with his shoulders tight like he was ready to bolt at any moment.
It’d gotten even worse since they found out Scar was bound with them in the ravine.
He could see the terror, disappointment, and frustration in Grian’s eyes which confused him greatly. He knew Grian loved them dearly, more than anything, so why did he look so devastated at that, why did he want to keep it from Scar?
He didn’t understand what was going on in Grian’s head and that scared him, there was more to this, things he didn’t know, and he had a sinking feeling Grian wasn’t about to tell him.
“You’re playing with other people’s lives here,” Grian said, aloud as a warning to Scar, a warning that was ignored as Scar demonstrated a low risk water bucket clutch off the side of a hill.
“This is giving me heart palpitations,” He said which caused both Lizzie and Joel to laugh a bit.
Scar did a higher risk one which sent pain up his legs.
“Didn’t quite feel like you nailed that one,” He said.
“Yeah, sometimes I get clipped on the corners,” Scar said dismissively.
They ran into Skizz who confirmed Tango dying was how they found out they were bound.
In Skizz’s words when asked if he was surprised at all who he was bound to, “DippleDop wasn’t a surprise we did that a long time ago, Top was the surprise, didn’t expect him! Probably should have though!”
Splitting up from Joel and Lizzie had them soon running into Gem, Cleo, and Ren. cleo knew her soulmate was BigB and had already argued with and disavowed him while Gem and Ren were pretty sure that they were linked with Pearl and Martyn who were in the Nether.
Gem seemed peeved while Ren just seemed worried.
Grian seemed unsurprised by that information and their reactions.
Scar did hit Gem who had a dog, why he had no clue.
Well according to Scar he thought there was a pair in the group.
He was in love with a spoon. Not that that was new information.
Gem hit Scar back once the vex was in range which both him and Grian reacted too, outing their bond to all three other players.
They stopped by Bdubs and Etho’s house which had apparently made a lot of progress since Grian had been there last, before they returned to the mountain where the goats were because Scar wanted a horn.
While they were waiting for the goats were because Scar wanted a horn.
While they were waiting for the goats to charge them their comms buzzed twice.
‘Smallishbeans was slain by Enderman’
‘LDShadowLady died’
All three of them reacted with their own shocked noises until Grian said, “With everyone linked I expected people to die early but that’s two deaths and Joel and Lizzie know how to survive.”
“That’s the best part G,” Scar said, “They mocked me multiple times and look at me boom still Green, genius galaxy brain over here.”
They got a few more of the same horn, Seek the worse one.
Then the midweek break hit, Scar going off to mess with some Jellie pandas and him and Grian digged out a bit of the mountain.
Over Grian’s shoulder he watched his partner send a message to Scar, ‘You whisper to GoodTimesWithScar: Do you know who you’re bound to?’
‘GoodTimesWithScar whispers to You: Nope! No clue.’
“We’re not telling him yet?” He asked, “That’s what you said, right?”
Grian nodded, “I just thought he was playing dumb, playing a bit ya know.” There was a trace of hinted conflict in Grian’s voice.
“He’s just being himself,” He assured, “He’ll be sorry once we tell him.”
“I know,” Grian agreed, that same conflict in his voice still.
He pressed a kiss to the side of Grian’s head.
He meet back up with Grian and Mumbo once the break was over and then they further met up with Joel and Lizzie so they could build their base on top of the Pillage outpost.
He went on ahead a bit from the group and just booked it straight to the top of the outpost and built a safety platform for proof of concept and then just watched as the other four made their way up to him fighting mobs the whole way.
Usually he would blame his vex magic/heritage for the pillagers avoiding him but he could feel were his magic was being locked away so he knew that wasn’t it.
The other four did join him on the platform and they began to build it out. Joel and Lizzie began to make a staircase down, or tried to as the water let the pillagers swin up to them. Once Grian, Mumbo, and him went over to ask what they were doing a pillager spawned on the platform they’d built.
Grian restated his opinion, “This is the most horrific plan I’ve ever, ever seen,” As they were peeking over the edge of the platform at a group of pillagers who were in a clump underneath them.
Mumbo made a noise of agreement, especially as Joel dumped a water bucket above the Pillagers heads.
“That’s just going to bring them up to us,” Lizzie said, exasperated.
They soon decided to abandon ship, Mumbo declaring it as, “A horrific waste of time on a bad idea.”
He laughed at that, it would have been great had it worked bit it very much didn’t work so therefore a bad idea.
The pillagers chased them away from the outpost, past where Cleo and Gem were building and to where Bdubs was burning him and Etho’s base.
Bdubs wasn’t thrilled to be visited by the pillagers but was willing to chat a bit afterwards which was nice of him.
He spilt off from the other four, well Grian and Mumbo started to spilt from the group and they offer to let him join them but he didn’t want to intrude on them. They were linked together, bound by pain and souls.
He definitely didn’t feel the need to reevaluate their entire relationship.
He didn’t say any of that outloud through instead he merely said, “I might build a base with the Jellies.”
They both accepted that, though neither of them looked particularly happy. Mumbo kept glancing back at him while Grian kept his gaze pointedly away.
He made his way over to the jungle where the Jellie Panda were to set up a started base.
Was said starter base a dug out cave? Absolutely not! (Yes, of course it was)
He even set up a little wheat farm inside his base before slaying some cows for steak.
He wanted to eventually breed up the Jellies Panda’s population, it was in his long term plan for this little game.
But as looked around the jungle for the bamboo he saw earlier he realized someone took it all.
He frowned now he’d have to go around asking all his friends if they had it, and convince them to hand it over.
He sighed, he’d like to stay with the Jellies where he didn’t have to think about his partners basing together without him but he also really wanted that bamboo so he grabbed his tools and food and headed out.
He headed towards where the Pillager Outpost was, not the center of the bases by any means but a lot of bases were somewhat close to it.
He ran into Mumbo and Grian first, a chicken hole and a small wheat farm was their progress on their base, which felt very them, all of them maybe if he’d taken them up on their offer.
Grian questioned his outfit choices, he’d changed into a khaki colored short sleeved button up and khaki shorts, which was expected. Mumbo just sighed.
“I’m living with the Jellies!” He told them, “By the way somebody harvested all of the um-bamboo and I’m on the hunt of those culprits!”
“Okay, well it wasn’t either of us,” Mumbo said with a nervous smile.
He started to walk towards the more main area after the conversation, “Alright well I’m going to continued to g outlook for this rapscallion!”
He heard Grian’s voice fade into the background as he walked away, probably just talking to Mumbo.
Continuing on he saw Jimmy, surprisingly still Green, on the other side of the bridge to the other side of the river ravine.
“Jimmy, Timmy!” He said as a greeting.
Jimmy made a comment about ditching his soulmate for the Jellies.
His response was, “Oh I haven’t found my soulmate. I don’t care either.”
Jimmy and Joel, who was there, laughed at that, for some reason.
It was a lie anyway, he did care who his soulmate was and was kinda sad (see: really sad) it wasn’t Grian or Mumbo.
“Quick question to you, have you, any of you, seen the uh the bamboo napper? Somebody took all the bamboo out of the bamboo area where the Pandas are,” He asked.
“I haven’t seen any bamboo to be honest with you,” Joel said.
“I will literally give them all of my armor and everything I own, even my horn,” He said, he was serious too, he could re-get everything but couldn’t get bamboo himself, cause someone stole it. He did blow said horn in demonstration.
Jimmy looked contemplative then, “I’ll take that chestplate, my soulmate has it.”
He paused, “Who’s your soulmate.” Two more people off the list.
Jimmy smiled, a lovesick grin on his face while Joel muttered in the background, “Here we go now he’s not going to blumming shut up.” Jimmy’s Green eyes got a twinkle of mischief in them before the Canary said, “Scott.”
Then he dropped died and both his and Joel’s comms buzzed twice.
‘Smajor1995 fell from a high place’
‘SolidarityGaming died’
“Oh void,” Joel said.
He picked up Jimmy’s stuff and after Joel pointed him in the right direction he was off to return the stuff, hand over his chestplate to Jimmy, and get his damn bamboo.
“-sorry,” Was the first thing he heard as he approached the quaint little cottage, in Scott’s signature accent.
“It’s fine Scott, it happens,” He heard Jimmy say.
He knocked on a fencepost to catch both their attention.
“Scar!” Jimmy said.
“I comeforth with your things Jimothy,” He said with a smile.
“Oh you’re a lifesaver!” Jimmy said as he pressed him all his stuff, including his own chestplate.
“I made a deal with Scar,” Jimmy said to Scott.
Scott sighed bit, “What was it?”
“His chestplate for bamboo,” Jimmy said.
Scott nodded, “Sounds good.”
Jimmy left off to do something while Scott lead him to the bamboo.
“I’ve been searching far and wide for this,” He said jokingly.
Scott laughed brightly, “Yeah?”
He smirked called out.
He was almost surprised to see Jimmy so soon after a death but while he was doing some mining he heard Mumbo shout out, “Jimmy!” before letting out a string of indignant Mumbo noises as him and Scar, and most of the hermits, called them.
He came blazing out of the mine, “You better not be stealing our stuff!”
“I’m not, I’m not, I’m not,” Jimmy said with his hands up.
“What are you here for then?” Mumbo asked.
“Just wanted to inform you that Scar traded his chestplate for bamboo,” Jimmy said.
He groaned, “Of course he did.”
Mumbo merely sighed from beside him then asked, “Everything alright with Scott?”
Jimmy nodded, “His mine turned into a cave and he slipped, he’s more upset than I am.”
There was the thing he saw in Jimmy’s eyes that he noticed during Last Life, and even a bit during Third Life, almost like he knew more than he let on.
He’d never gained the courage to confront his twin, who didn’t remember that they were twins, during their time in Last Life and he certainly didn’t have it now.
He let Jimmy leave and him and Mumbo traded place, the redstoner heading down to the mine while he began the true work on an actual base.
Alternating stripped birch logs and birch planks with dripstone acting as spikes on top he began to build a circular shape, which he really liked.
When barely any of the wall was done he realized the end of the week was rapidly approaching which meant break time, which meant it was time to tell Scar.
After calling up Mumbo from the mine, getting a, “Oh this’ll be an epic base,” from his partner, and shoving the resources that they didn’t need into a chest, they headed off to the jungle were Scar was…with the Jellie Pandas.
When they found him he was talking to the Panda because of course he was, he expected nothing less from his golden hearted partner.
It almost hurt to take him away from this place so full of life and color and bring him back to a wall with spikes on it and him , who seemed to ruin everything he touched in these so called ‘games’.
“Scar!” Mumbo greeted.
“Hold on, hold on, ok, we got big things happening right now,” Scar said, barely paying them any attention.
He was breeding the Pandas. He almost, almost got out ‘it’s really unimportant,’ but he didn’t let it come on instead saying, “Scar it’s nearly the end of the week, we’ve got something very important to show you.”
“We found a new trick,” Mumbo said, trying to peak Scar’s interest, “It’s really important.”
“I just need you-I know you’re done this before,” He said.
Scar wasn’t paying them any attention at all, he shouted annoyed, “Scar!”
“They didn’t breed guys.” Was all Scar said.
“Come over here, stop messing with the pandas,” He said with a bit of an incredulously laugh.
Mumbo set a hand on his shoulder.
He finished placing the dripstone on the tree branch as Scar said, disappointed, “Aw, okay.”
“We got something really important,” Mumbo said, showing Scar where to stand, “We need you to stand right under this, okay?”
“But can you explain why they didn’t breed?” Scar asked as he stepped into the space Mumbo vacated.
He looked at the vex hybrid incredulously, “I-no? Scar!”
“Scar please, we really want to show you this,” Mumbo said, voice anxious but patient, something only Mumbo could pull off.
“Stand under the thing,” He said.
“Oh! Why am I doing this?” Scar asked while under the dripstone.
“So we can show you something,” Mumbo said, “Now look directly at me.”
“Okay, I’m looking directly at you,” Scar said and he was right up until the dripstone hit him, the Jellie Panda next to him distracting him, “Look at them.”
“Scar,” He said sharply.
“Sorry, okay I’m looking at Mums,” Scar said.
“You didn’t notic-” He started before sighing and saying, “Alright, I can only do this one more, ready?”
Both of his partners gave their agreements.
“Look at me,” Mumbo said.
“I’m looking,” Scar said quickly after.
The vex and the vampire were looking into each other’s eyes as the dripstone came down on Scar’s head.
He winced the second one hurting more then the first.
In the most disappointed in himself realization he’d ever heard from Scar he said, “Oh my void.”
He laughed while Mumbo chuckled a bit.
“Have you got any food,” He asked, he wasn’t healing.
“This whole time!” Scar exclaimed.
“This whole time,” He confirmed, Mumbo nodding along.
“This whole time. We’ve been parading around the server and you two knew this whole time.” It was fake anger, thank Time, but Scar was playing it well.
“Why do you think we’ve been so concerned about your health and safety?” He asked.
Scar did eat while he was talking so that was good.
“I can’t believe you didn’t notice, I was half convinced you were joking this whole time,” Mumbo said, “That’s why G messaged you during the break.”
“Oh,” Scar said, in realization.
They ended up having to all but drag Scar to the base, with a vague promise of possibility bringing the Jellies at a later time.
Since they didn’t have a true base yet they used the little mined out ledge of their mine for shelter.
He didn’t know how he was going to get through this.