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#the green parts on the enderman side are based on like. the bits where the muscles join the skull lol
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Okay so Gem throughout Secret Life (and also the one episode in Limited Life) has been so fascinating for several reasons. (hello i'm back, yes this is the brain rotates the gem post, welcome.)
so first off everyone is fairly Aware of her pvp prowess, GeminiSlay is a name they know. So for the most part, no one tries to fight her. She's brought down by fighting blazes & an enderman, the red horde going after everyone (them fighting back) and eventually Scar's bow, and then by and large Grian's tnt minecarts before Pearl and Scar together kill her in a 2 v 1 fight (that for the 1st part mostly-ish bows, something she isn't quite as good at). People talk about how they don't want to fight Gem. Not unless they have to.
This affords her a level of safety. If they're scared of fighting you, they don't go after you.
And then she's the New person. She's the only New Person. She's cheery and happy even as she goes on her murdering sprees. Even Lizzie and Mumbo, not back since Last Life, have a different edge to them and then they're out so quickly they don't reach the line where the server goes into murder and betrayal. Cleo says it in the last session: Gem doesn't know what is about to happen.
And she doesn't. Not in the way everyone else does. It is a murder game, and Gem treats it as such, but she doesn't get the weight of what happens in those last sessions.
She loses her first life and is mildly bloodthirsty, she opens the end, sends in greens in hopes of getting more yellows, she gets a task that says kill every non red at least once and does so without hesitance, she turns red, succeeds 5 red tasks in her next episode and gets her two teammates to sacrifice themselves to her along with killing Pearl, and she smiles throughout the entire thing.
When the last session starts she's happy, ready to go out and murder some more people, and sure it's a bit "erie" and "quiet", but she's having a great time on the murder camel, looking for Skizz, figuring out how they can kill Etho/Cleo/Grian.
The other players Know what's about to happen, and she doesn't. Scott stays with her almost the entire episode. He knows what's going to happen. He already decided how he's going to die.
And then they come back from the Nether and Gem loses about 30 of her hearts, she panics slightly and a bit more when she finds Grian behind a wall (alone and down a bunch of hearts her first thought is run), but she goes back to the fight, kills Grian herself, and, oh, it's only them and the mounders left, time for the last battle apparently. She tries getting her murder buddy on their side again but Pearl refuses and it's not like she's leaving the Scotts, so they shoot arrows and run around the server a bit before retreating up the stairs back to their base. Pearl shoots her, Impulse dies, and Gem is starting to think they are going to as well (it's fine, that's what the game's about), but Bdubs and Joel are killed pretty easily and then she and Scott are running again (run, shoot, run again, why'd it have to be a bow fight?), there's a close call with Scar (it's fine, she gets away, where's Scott though?).
But I don't think she really gets it yet. Not until she joins back up with Scott and the first thing he says is "I need you to kill me. I've got 2.5 hearts, you need to kill me." And Scott throws items at her, food and an end crystal, and takes off his armour and Pearl and Scar aren't far behind...
Gem doesn't even get time to process. Pearl and Scar weren't far behind. She runs and fights and holds her own even in a 2v1, but it doesn't matter.
Gem is the new person. And she makes it all the way to 3rd, she's proud of that, should be proud of that. But she only thought of it as a fun murder game right up until Scott died. Sacrificed himself for her.
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rainbow-dunk · 3 years
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huehuehueehueueuuhhuehue teef
my objective making this was to make the design fucked up and evil and tbh i think i accomplished that
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killmebythebeach · 3 years
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A bunch of head cannons (Maybe too much). Also in talking about the characters.
I think Dream is that one design where his skin is just the static tv screen. He just constantly emits that fuzzy noise, Sam crafted him the smile mask that he can see through so he doesn't scare people.
George is just kind of the server itself. He's the same species as Hannah, but a mushroom and more powerful. If he stays awake too long, the server just kind of freezes. This is also a reason XD keeps him sleeping, it's his way of talking to George and he thinks the server is like his soap opera of mortals.
Callahan is sort of like the person who makes sure George doesn't get killed or dies while asleep, making sure he's surrounded by mushrooms and such. Deer hybrid <3
Alyssa joined the server because she knew all her friends were idiots and didn't want them to die immediately. But once the elections rolled around, she felt the pressure of choosing sides and ran away to the desert, only keeping contact with Ponk. She actually lives just a couple miles from Foolish's summer home. Her communicator actually died after a couple months and she had no way of charging it, so she lost contact with everyone.
Sapnap is a magma cube hybrid and can jump higher than most, his natural temperature runs hotter, and is fire proof. Bad found him in the nether when he was maybe 10-15 years old.
Sam was actually a normal creeper, but gained player like sentience from being struck by lightning. Instead of becoming charged, he gained intelligence and met the others on the server. Callahan taught him some Redstone, but from there he figured out a lot on his own. He's also a creeper centaur.
Ponk is actually a descendant of a fairy, a lemon tree. Their mask was also a gift from Sam because after the second or third time their tree was burnt, their immune system was weakened a considerable amount. Alyssa also wore her mask for them.
Bad is a size shifting demon from the nether, more specifically soul sand desert. He uses soul fire to gain strength, so because the egg died when near it, he was just a little weaker than normal. Because he's a demon he needs a tie to the overworld to stay there, he tied his soul and lives to Skeppy.
Tommy was grown in a lab to be a hero, project: THESEUS. The lab gave him small enhancements, like slightly stronger and just a bit more resilient, to make the Above Average Boy (TM). He then ran away to meet Wilbur. When Dream asked Wilbur if he wanted to come to the server, he asked if Tommy could go first to see what it was like. He also actually really likes gardening and making up funny songs to Wilbur playing guitar. He also made funny lyrics for his discs, but he's still a bit scared to take them out of his ender chest. Other than bringing attachment, Dream also exiled Tommy to see what his lab enhancements could do.
Tubbo is an adaptive hybrid! His hair was blond, shifting to brown when Wilbur found him, getting blue eyes from Tommy, growing small horns under Schlatt, parts of his skin being static when Dream was "helping" him with his presidency, and parts of his scars tinging black and green from Ranboo and Micheal. Tubbo also helped Wilbur write part of the anthem. He likes living in the snow because the Manberg flag had magma blocks on it, casting a heatwave over the country, and after L'Manburg blew up it got really hot from the exposed stone in direct sun.
Fundy can actually hold his breath for a very long time and swim very well because of Sally teaching him and his salmon genes. The yellow things on his hat are actually shells, and the stripes on his jacket are trans colors. Also with his dreams, he saw Eret was going to betray them but didn't think it was real, or didn't want to. He also saw Wilbur blow up L'Manburg but chose not to believe it, thinking his father could still be saved. He actually saw pretty much everything, but didn't quite understand what they were until after doomsday.
The necklace Punz wears is one of those picture lockets, but he lost the picture and can't remember what it was. The first time Dream paid him was when Dream asked for help and Punz made an off hand joke about getting money, and then Dream thought he was being serious. Him, Dream, and Sapnap were like brothers, and Punz got sadder every time he saw Dream pushing people away and diving deeper into darkness.
Purpled is an aliensent to see if the planet was colonizable, but then crashed and was stranded, all his communications down and his ship barely able to hover fifty feet off the ground. When Quackity blew it up, he essentially got rid of his chance of ever going home. Purpled's species can shapeshift, so he turned himself into the first person he saw, Punz. Eventually before trying to communicate with the native life forms, he edited his form a little so they weren't identical, keeping purple eyes and antennae, changing the colors slightly, and changing the voice up. When he moves away from the main SMP, Ponk makes sure to check up on him and that he has a way to check his communicator.
Wilbur came a month after sending Tommy. His father being a patron of life and his mother the goddess of death, he met in the middle being born as a human. The only reason Ghostbur was as active and present as he was was because he was so connected to both life and death. Since his corpse was decaying for as long as it was, Wilbur is now super weak, his flesh is thin and his eyes are rotted and gone. Much like Ghostbur, Wilbur in limbo saw what people said about him, and Ghostbur could hear that from the back of his head. Now Wilbur can hear what people say about Ghostbur and he hates it, not wanting to be connected to what he thinks like a shell of himself.
Schlatt is a ram (duh) and actually does the fainting goat thing. So when he died of a heart attack, no one knew at first if he was actually dead or not. His alcoholism stems from the revive book, as the possibility of tampering with death made him existential and scared, so to cope he drank. There are also a ton of other stuff other than revival in the book, but it's in galactic.
Skeppy was just a normal human, but after making the pact with Bad, Bad put a spell on him. Parts of him turned into diamond, protecting both his and Bad's lives. He however, is unaware of this. With the egg, he would just sit on it, the diamonds chipping away to make room for the vines.
Eret was cursed by the Wither Cult, giving them white eyes and a slowly deteriorating memory. Not sure what to do, Foolish dropped them off at the SMP. Sometimes they would dream about old memories from before the curse, but it was just glimpses so he could never tell what they meant. Once they were king, they made the Herobrine shrine subconsciously, not really sure what it was after. They also had a strange affinity of beacons and resurrection, some of their memories resurfacing when they tried to help Phil and Ghostbur revive Wilbur after doomsday. The reason people are more scared of their eyes than any other wierd eyes was because he generally looks like a normal human, but the wither along with their Herobrine origins creates an uncanny valley that people are shocked by.
Jack had red and blue irises before crawling out of hell, but after coming back the whites of his eyes also turned red and blue. He always wears 3d glasses so no one noticed, but he just thought no one cared enough to mention it. He also has a bunch of scars and burn marks that no one but him can see, therefore no one asks about them or thinks something is wrong, cementing the idea that no one cares about him.
Niki is a blaze hybrid (stole this from @/420technoblazeit) whose fire hair color changes based on strong emotion, something she bond with Tubbo for as a fellow shifter. A soft yellow in L'Manburg, brighter orange in Manburg, hot pink on Doomsday, a soul fire blue with the syndicate (which Techno hates), and a dead grey when she found out Wilbur was alive. She was also old child hood friends with Ranboo and Eret, leaving Ranboo for the SMP. Ranboo, unfortunatly, doesn't remember much more than her name. She also knows galactic from Ranboo, so she talks about her troubles to Shy the Enderman. She doesn't really know how to talk to Puffy anymore after Doomsday or finding out how she wants to protect Tommy.
Quackity can perfectly replicate someone's voice and, with a lot of effort, can completely change his form to another player. He also has very small yellow wings, too small to fly, so he almost always hides them. He used to constantly change his voice for jokes with Karl, Sapnap, and George, but he doesn't like doing it now in Las Nevadas, as he sees it as unprofessional. However, sometimes he uses when he visits Dream, changing his voice to people like George and Sapnap to make torture more effective.
In the In Between and Other Side, Karl actually looks like his old skin, or his natural state (the big purple one that inspired his sweater). But most of the time in the normal world, he looks human. With effort he can bring out the interdemential being thing, something only Quackity and Sapnap know about. The more he time travels, the easier it becomes to change, and he's even started defaulting to the other form.
HBomb is actually just a normal news reporter, sent to interview and record what's going on in the server, his first big story being the election. Upon Doomsday, the stress of seeing everyone alone, fighting, and disconnected, he ran away from the world, essentially becoming a cat lady. His undercover reporter persona is actually the cat maid. He eventually came back to the server to see how he could help after Doomsday, befriending Niki again and living with her in the underground city.
Techno is a piglin, so he's scared of soul fire. He forgot to tell Phil before he decorated the syndicate room, so he just suffers in silence. He also does better when around a lot of gold, like in the nether, and he feels drained and slightly weaker without it. Instead of just putting gold around the area (it would ruin his property value), he just hibernates. He has an emerald earing, like all of the syndicate, but his is a locket that unfolds into pictures of the syndicate.
Ant always wears a red hoodie, now ruined by the egg, that used to be Red's. On Red's death anniversary, him, Bad, Skeppy, and Sam would make cake and put flowers on his grave. He missed the last one because it was during the egg, but for a brief moment after Puffy killed him he saw Red. Red then promptly and bluntly told him to stop being a pussy (haha, cat) and that he shouldn't do all this just to get him back, one of Ant's motivators to make amends with the people he hurt while with the egg. Ant is also a shapeshifter, but can only turn into a cat.
Phil actually used to work under Foolish as a patron of life but then he had a son with the goddess of death, so his title was removed so he could be with her and he became an Angel of Death. Kristin noticed how sad he was after being released, so she gifted him wings. They were however, destroyed on November 16th. His chat also serves as messenger pigeons, which were used to send letters to Wilbur.
Connor is actually just a hedgehog who somehow befriended Schlatt. Even before the haunted mansion, Karl vented to him about his time travel troubles, not knowing he was a sentient player. As a hedgehog, no one really cares where he goes, so he goes outside the server limits to meet his friends from the haunted mansion.
Puffy is a distant relative of Schlatt, but instead of politics she went into piracy. With her mom, she went travelling the seas. One say, a storm came and wiped out her ship, her crew, her mom, everything but her. The reason she survived was because Foolish saw her and saved her. Unfortunately, Puffy hit hee head in the crash and doesn't remember anything.
Vikkstar is the equivalent of a big time celebrity, so of course his endorsement of POG2020 was a big deal.
Lazarbeam is literally just a ginger bread cookie.
Ranboo has actually met a lot of the smp before actually joining. He's met Niki, Fundy, Eret, Punz, and Dream at least. He also sees the inverted colors Enderman see. His suit was actually a gift from Eret before they forgot how to tailor. He got the crown from Techno after joining the syndicate, claiming he didn't want any syndicate members to look like trash.
Foolish came to the server most recently to check up on Eret, but he couldn't bring himself to leave again. When Puffy adopts him, he can't say no because he remembers saving her. His initial goal was to kill an ender dragon to claim the XD title and become a full god like DreamXD, but after realising someone already killed it he went into his totem if death phase. Upon meeting Eret, he got over it and they went on some silly adventures, Foolish now taking a more peaceful route.
Hannah is essentially a weaker George, as her power is tied to the plants themselves and not the entire server. She however has a lot more physical power because rose dryads like to fight because they have thorns. Since roses can be taken out a lot easier, she is essentially a glass canon. Also when around any plant, she can make it grow faster than normal.
Any guest on the server? Corpse, Pokimane, Lil Nas? They were all Slimecicle. That's how he knows where everyone is from, even outside of Las Nevadas. No one else knows this. He's also ancient, if he met Phil they would probably recognise eachother. There was an actual Charlie Slimecicle who was not a slime, but after being launched into orbit this Slimecicle decided to impersonate him.
Michael Mcchill is a sort of bounty hunter. He came to the server after hearing of all the crime, assuming there'd be a lot of bounties to collect. However, he soon learned that no one really cares if you commit a crime. He then took to reading news articles made by HBomb to see if there were any past open bounties. But after reading for a while about the server's wronguns, mostly Dream, he began to sympathise with them. And he's also a speedrunner, so maybe he could help with some bounties across other servers!
This was a very long post and i apologize, but it was so fun to finally write all these thoughts down! I hope you liked them! I can't even fit all the tags I want.
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smudgess · 3 years
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ranboos other half
so, while scrolling through reddit, i came across a thread discussing a certain older mc mod that may explain the origins of ranboos other half. the mod is called the farlanders mod, and features a mob called a farlander, that was originally conceptualised to be an enderman who had wandered too far and lost its connection with the end. the mob was a recolour of an enderman, who turned white when attacked. the mob also occasionally spawned with green and red eyes, an unexplained trait of ranboos current skin.  this is convincing as hell, purely based on appearance alone, but the real connection i think has been glossed over is the overall lore of the farlanders themselves. their whole story is that they wandered too far from the end and forgot their past selves, loosing their connection with the dragon and the end itself. and what is mr boo known to do? walk extremely long distances, travelling the most out of everyone on the smp, and forgetting things in the process one thing that i havent seen explained, is how the enderwalk plays into this, but a conclusion that could be drawn is the idea that the enderwalk is ranboos  enderman side fighting back, occuring when he experiences immense stress, fear or pain, as a way to defend himself as his base level genealogy is still enderman. if enderwalk ranboo is just ranboo with all his memories, it would make sense that his connection to the end ties into that in a big way. now this is where this theory goes a lil bit off the rails throughout tales from the smp, several ranboo iterations were featured, most notably ran and ranbob, both of which bore resembelence to ranboo but with differing colours and levels of black vs white. to explain this, my main theory now is that ran is in fact ranboo, just a version of him that hasnt yet wandered too far O R has been able to reconnect himself with the end (the most likely explanation being the second  one). ran, in the little screen time he had, demonstrated immense amounts of foresight and intelligence, however behaving similarly to ranboo, just with more cynicism. the similarities between ran and ranboo, as well as the mutual affection shown for tubbo coded characters, leads me to believe that they may be the same person. now i know this doesnt explain ranbob, but i honestly havent thought that far yet basically, the explanation i propose for ranboos white side is that he is becoming a farlander, an enderman who wandered too far from the end and lost his connection as well as his memories, and in the process got lost in time, loosing and gaining parts of himself throughout his journey (also ties to some arg stuff but i cant be arsed to talk about that now)
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Hermit DSMP Swap AU: Part 9
Foolish flinched. Qackity’s shouting stopped abruptly. It was warmer (Las Nevadas was surprisingly cold). Foolish slowly opened his eyes. An open grave stood at his feet. His heart jumped into his throat and he stumbled backwards, falling on his back. He stared dumbfounded as a bee flew out from the grave and landed on his knee for a moment before flying away. Quackity was nowhere to be seen. 
His breathing slowed and he looked around. He was in a graveyard next to a church. Was he dead? Was this limbo? What had happened? He wasn’t supposed to die… but he had died before. But if he had died just now he still should have had his third life, he should have respawned… maybe he had. Maybe he was still alive… That made more sense. No, wait, he still had all of his stuff, if he had died his inventory should have been empty… Foolish held his head in his hands and stared at the ground.
“You ok there, friend?” 
Foolish’s head snapped up. A man with neon green hair stood on the other side of the stone wall surrounding the graveyard. Foolish quickly picked himself up and brushed himself off. “Yeah, I’m fine, I’m fine… um- this may seem like an odd question, but, am I dead?”
The man laughed, “I don’t know, are you? I mean, I assume you're not dead, cause I’m not dead, unless you’re un-dead, if you know what I mean.” 
Foolish let out a deep breath he didn’t know he had been holding. “Alright, I’m alive, i'm not dead,” He muttered, staring at the sky.
“You sure you’re fine?” The man asked again, putting air quotes around the ‘fine’. “Cause, you don’t seem fine…” 
Foolish shook his head “No, really, don’t worry about me, I was just a bit disoriented, that’s all.”
The man pursed his lips and raised a brow “You asked me if you were dead… not if you had died. Which means you knew there was a chance you might get stuck in a respawn glitch. Have you been messing with server magic?” 
“You make that sound like a bad thing.” Foolish scowled and crossed his arms looking down at the man. He wasn’t in his twenty-three foot form but even in this form he stood almost a foot taller than the other man.  
The man shook his head “It’s not necessarily a bad thing, just dangerous. I mean, I would be a bit of a hypocrite if I condemned people for messing with server magic.”
Foolish didn’t look impressed. “It’s only dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing.” 
“I mean, I guess.” The man said rubbing the back of his neck as he contemplated Foolish’s words “But no one is stupid enough to mess around long enough to get the practice...” He trailed off as he looked up to see Foolish looking at him with an incredulous look, “Oh.” 
Foolish finally relented and his expression softened, “Maybe you're right, I mean, my name is Foolish after all,”
The man chuckled, “Maybe we're both a bit crazy. I’m Joe, Joe Hills. Nice to meet you,” He said, climbing over the low stone wall and reaching out his hand. Foolish smiled and shook it. Joe had a firm grip.
“So you said you have experience with server magic, what can you do?” Foolish asked as the two of them walked out of the graveyard and over to the church. This church was much nicer than church prime. As a builder Foolish could appreciate the detail put into the architecture.   
Joe shrugged as he sat down on the steps and leaned back on his elbows looking up at the sky, “I can see better in the dark If I want to. Honestly, I don’t really mess with it much anymore.” 
“Why not?” Foolish asked, leaning against the wall. 
Joe shrugged but Foolish noticed his grip tighten into a ball. “It wasn’t worth it. A friend of mine got hurt and almost didn’t respawn. Actually, she should be around here somewhere, I wonder where she went?” 
---
Cleo stood on a concrete road getting yelled at by an angry man with a scar through his left eye and a blue beanie.
 “Who the fuck are you? What the fuck did you do to Foolish? Where is Foolish.” 
“Aaa, Foolish is a Zombie!” another man wearing glasses and green suspenders yelled. 
Cleo staggered backwards and summoned a sword from her inventory, “Who am I, what about who are you?”   
“You better tell me, right fucking now, what the hell you did to Foolish or I’ll-”
“You’ll do what? Don’t try me, I’ll put this sword through your skull I will,” Cleo bluffed. 
The man with the scar summoned an axe.  “Charlie, go get Purpled, tell him we have an intruder in Las Nevadas.” 
The man in green, presumably Charlie, looked at him perplexed “But, Quackity from Las Nevadas, why are we attacking Zombie Foolish?” 
“Damn it Charlie, Just get Purpl-” 
Cleo didn’t let him finish. A yell ripped from her lungs as she charged him, sword swinging. Quackity startled and blocked with the shaft of his axe. He shoved her off and she staggered back. Cleo dug her heels in swinging the sword like a club. There was a burst of pain, or more like cold (Pain felt different ever since the undeath) as his axe cut into her shoulder. But he was bleeding too. His axe returned to his inventory as he clutched his arm and staggered back. Cleo gripped her sword tighter, breathing hard, her eyes locked on him. 
She felt the impact and another burst of cold as an arrow hit her in the chest. Her head snapped up, there was a kid in purple firing arrows from a crossbow as he ran towards them. He was wearing full netheriet.
Cleo turned and ran.
“Stop her, she fucking did something to Foolish!” Quackity shouted. She didn’t stop running as arrows landed about her feet. Down the road through a tunnel and past a stone fortress. Cleo scrambled off the road, over a hill. She could hear them still behind her. Dodging through the hills she was able to shake them by looping back around behind them as they continued on. 
Once they were gone she slowed down. She touched a hand to her shoulder. It was throbbing with a dull ache and it felt cold, a deep cold like ice in her veins. She looked down. The arrow was still in her chest. She needed to do something about that. 
She was back at the fortress. Cleo slid down the hill, climbing behind the wall and slumped against the stone. She gritted her teeth and pulled the arrow from her chest with a grunt, dropping it in the grass. A golden apple appeared in her hand and she took a bite, the juice tingling in her mouth as the regen and absorption began to take effect. 
The throbbing eased a little and the wounds began to close. She looked up and froze. An enderman stared back at her with mismatched eyes. No wait, not an enderman, at least not quite. Half of his face was white. 
“Hey Tubbo, I think I found out what Quackity was shouting about.” The half-enderman kid called over his shoulder. 
Cleo staggered to her feet, her sword out. “I won't hesitate to-” 
The half-enderman backed up and raised his empty hands “Oh no, we're not with Quackity,” He explained. 
Cleo scowled but lowered her sword. “Well isn’t that lovely, someone who doesn’t want to stab me.”  
He looked alarmed, “Oh, I wouldn’t do that- I mean, I definitely don’t want to do that.” Now that she got a better look at him he looked kind of young, he was tall but in the lanky teenager kind of way. He looked to be 18 or 19, maybe 17. His suit probably made him look older.  
“Oh hey, so what was Big Q so mad about?” Another kid said as he came around the building. He stopped short when he saw Cleo. “Oh…” He was much shorter than the ender-kid. Two horns curled up out of his brown hair and almost every inch of exposed skin was covered in burn scars. Cleo let her sword return to her inventory. 
“Big man, why is there a funny looking zombie in our base?” the goat kid said 
Cleo bristled, “I’m still a person, thank you.”
The goat kid looked back at Cleo  “Ooooh- oops.”
“Now look what you’ve done, you’ve gone and insulted her.”
“I didn’t meeean to, how was I supposed to know?” The goat kid wined. 
The two bickered like a married couple. Cleo coughed “Um- would either of you two be able to explain what is going on,”
“Haven’t got a fucking clue,” The goat kid chirped, a little to cheerfully. 
Cleo pursed her lips, “Well, could you at least tell me where I am?” 
“Um… The road between Las Nevadas and Spawn. Or do you mean here-here. This is our cookie shop.”  The ender-kid explained.
Cleo blinked.
“I think she means the server big man,” The goat kid said, “This is the Dream SMP.”
Cleo blinked again. So not Hermitcraft. Shit. 
---
The goat kid introduced himself as Tubbo and the ender-kid as Ranboo. Cleo explained what had happened, which made Tubbo laugh. It turned out that the cookie outpost and Las Nevadas were in conflict and Tubbo liked the idea of doing something that would, in his words “Piss off Big Q.” 
Cleo tried to return to Hermitcraft but was met with an error message. Tubbo and Ranboo offered to let her stay in Snowchester till she figured things out. They had no idea how she got there but they didn’t seem too concerned about it.
Snowchester was surprisingly far away from what the kids were calling a cookie shop. To Cleo it looked suspiciously like a military outpost but who was she to judge? 
Snowchester was a quaint little walled in town, overlooked by a massive mansion worthy of any Hermitcraft base. There was a tower, docs, and a little wheat field mixed in with little log and stone houses.  The air was crisp and cold, light snow fell around them landing on her hair and bare arms. Untouched snow coated the steps to most of the houses and closely shuttered windows looked back at her. The ocean lapped against the shore and the sound of a boat bumping against the pier carried up through the town. A single seagull landed on a stone wall. It looked at Cleo and cawed.  
Ranboo and Tubbo lead Cleo around a strangely industrial building on a hill in the middle of the town with “Danger, keep out” signs on the doors. 
“So what’s in there,” Cleo asked, nodding towards the industrial building. 
Ranboo raised his brows and looked at Tubbo. Tubbo pursed his lips “Oh nothing much, that’s just where we do equipment testing. You’re not allowed in there,” he added. There was finality to his tone. Cleo wondered what he was hiding and if it was worth snooping around to find out, but there was a dark conviction in the way that the kid with too many scars said it. The way the ender-kid hovered at his side anxiously watching everything. Maybe she should be careful not to make more enemies.  
They lead her to a little house behind the industrial building. “This used to be Foolish’s but he moved out so you can stay here for now,” Tubbo explained opening the door and letting them inside. 
“Foolish… the guy who Quackity thinks I kidnaped? You’re giving me his house?” Cleo scoffed looking around. A square table and chairs stood off to one side, a counter with a furnace and cabinets lined the back wall and a cactus in a pot sat by the front door.    
“Well, it’s not really his house anymore, he hasn’t lived here for months,” Tubbo shrugged. 
Cleo sighed, “So long as he won’t mind. Goodness this whole situation is a mess.” 
Ranboo gave her a sympathetic smile.  
“Welp,” Tubbo clapped his hands. “We’ll let you get settled in. Just don’t go snooping around in people’s homes, we are pretty private people here.”
“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” Cleo said absently, still looking around the room.
Tubbo and Ranboo left, closing the door behind them. 
There was a silence and then Cleo jumped at the sound of someone drinking milk. She spun around summoning her sword, freezing as the invisibility melted away to reveal Etho standing in the corner. 
“Finally, I thought they were never going to leave,” Etho muttered.
“Etho! What are you doing here?” Cleo bristled. 
Etho looked sheepishly off to the side as he rubbed the back of his head. “We’ll, I might have been following you. If you mean here on this server, we don’t really know. Oh yeah, TFC’s here too. We’ve been stuck on this server for about two weeks now. Least, I’ve been, TFC showed up about a week ago.”
“So wait, You're telling me you have been stuck on this server for two weeks?”
Etho nodded “Yup. Come on let's get out of here before they come back. We can talk at my secret base.” 
Cleo pulled away “Wait, wait. Why? Why were you sneaking around? Why are we avoiding those kids? I would like a good reason before I turn down their hospitality.”
“This server isn’t what it seems to be. It’s seriously glitched out. Haven’t you noticed how many scars everyone has here, how many hybrids there are.” 
Now that Cleo thought about it, even the ender-kid, Ranboo, had scars that looked like tears running down his face. Scars only happened when there was a glitch during respawn so they were pretty rare, the fact that three of the five people she had seen so far had obvious scars was concerning, especially with how bad the scars on that Tubbo kid were. On top of that, Quackity looked like he might be some kind of bird hybrid, with small golden wings, while Tubbo was a goat and Cleo had no idea what Ranboo really was. Hybrids were the result of pretty strong server glitches, and from what Etho was saying those guys weren’t the only ones. 
“So the server is glitchy, that doesn't make them bad people,”  
“There are places on this server that have been blown up all the way down to bedrock. Those kids who seemed so nice, they have nukes in that building right outside. There is a prison that everyone here is terrified of, seemingly for good reason. The Warden that guards it almost killed me while chasing me and TFC away, and said something about hunting us down and killing us till we were completely dead.”  
Cleo blanched “Completely dead… like, they have a way of reliably preventing respawning here.” She remembered what it felt like being stuck in the void unable to respawn. For Joe it had only been a couple of minutes, for her it had felt like hours.
“I don’t know,” Etho shrugged. “I just think it would be best if we all kept a low profile till we can find a way out of here.” 
“I… I trust you, Etho. But I don’t want to leave without letting those kids know that I won’t be staying here. They seem like nice kids, I’d rather not just disappear on them.” 
Etho hesitated, then nodded “Alright, Just be careful, and take this,” He said handing her two invis pots. “You can find me in the sewers under their shopping district, there is a community center in the middle of a lake, the entrance to the tunnels is underneath it.”
Cleo took the potions and smiled reassuringly, “Don’t worry, I got this. I’ll be fiiine.”
“Ok,” Etho nodded and pulled his facemask down. He drank an invis potion before leaving the building.
Cleo sighed. Perma-death hum, would that even work on her? Seeing as she already kinda died before. She didn’t want to have to find out.
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unicronian · 3 years
Text
a bunch of powers/hybrid smp character design hcs based around their powers in the mod:
(small warning for slight body horror in tubbo and wilbur’s sections, and horror themes in wilbur’s section)
this got long so here’s a snapshot of my fav bits above the read more:
tubbo can open his stomach up like a shulker, and just reach in there and put stuff in and get it out again
wilbur’s physical appearance is dependent on how well rested the person looking at him is
tommy glides by t-posing because his arms are his wings
ranboo can open unhinge his jaw and open his mouth like an enderman, and he has like an extra layer of mouth skin like a snake that you can only see when his mouth is unhinged
Phil hates places with low ceilings cause his wings are super long and he can’t stretch them out
Niki’s got gills on her neck to help filter water, so when she wants to talk to people above water she has to stick just her head out of the water and leave her neck beneath it
You know su!peridot’s augments she had at her intro, jack can like do that with his clawed fingers. Just like detach them at will and control them but they can’t go very far from him so it isnt very useful
Shulk!Tubbo:
tubbo has pretty thick skin with a slightly sickly pallor even though he’s perfectly healthy
he also has a carapace that’s similar in color and texture to a shulker’s shell covering the parts of his body that don’t bend(arms, legs, top of his head, upper chest) he can use these to block sword blows but if the sword is sharp enough it’ll stick cut into his skin
the carapace itself doesnt bleed, but it does heal and tubbo feels pain if it gets cut
like a lobster or turtle the carapace is a part of tubbo’s skin and can’t be removed(without extreme pain)
his hands are also reinforced by his carapace, giving him sharp claws at the tips of his fingers, and this is why he can punch through stone easily and without breaking his hand
he’s also pretty heavy underneath this extra armor and as a result he’s got a lot of intense muscle mass
tubbo can open his stomach up like a shulker, and just reach in there and put stuff in and get it out again, but it has limited storage
it kind of makes his stomach look like a shulker, with interlocking squares
the stuff inside his stomach exists in a type of hammerspace(we’ll just call it shulkerspace) so if you were to cut him open the stuff wouldnt be there
you do NOT want to stick your hand into tubbo’s shulkerspace, he can do it with no ill effects but if someone else did they might as well wave goodbye to that hand even if tubbo doesnt close his shulker mouth on your hand
Phantom!Wilbur:
wilbur can do like... ghost things like turning invisible and walking through walls in phantom state
particularly astute(or anxious) people can sense when wilbur’s nearby in phantom state, but not accurately guess where he is
wilbur oftentimes goes in and out of phantom state without even realizing it, sometimes just vanishing in the middle of the conversation because he let his mind wander
he also burns in the daylight which is sadge but not when in phantom state so he sometimes goes into the phantom state on reflex when entering a very bright room
wilbur can sense how tired people are, and if they are tired enough to summon phantoms wilbur can sense whose insomnia the phantoms are targeting on sight
wilbur looks like how you’d expect a ghost to look: see through, human, or at least... that’s what he looks like when you wake up in the morning
his physical appearance is dependent on how well rested the person looking at him is, but he is always corporeal when out of the phantom state
by nighttime, when you’re getting ready for bed wilbur’s eyes are green and if you look closely they glow in the dark, and if you look closer a skeleton makes itself clear beneath wilbur’s skin. it is not a human skeleton
by morning the next day without sleep transparent membrane stretches between wilbur’s claws and you can clearly see the skeleton. fangs protrude from its mouth and its rib cage stretches grotesquely outwards with every breath wilbur takes
by the second night wilbur’s transparent skin is blue and phantom membrane has escaped the confines of his hand and run down the length of his arm, extra bones begin to grow from the skeleton to accommodate the growing wing. it is harder to see through him.
by dawn of the third morning you can see a tail, more bone than blue, leathery skin, lashing behind wilbur, it seems to always whip itself in your direction. it stings when it touches you, but not for long. his frayed wings are fully formed.
night falls and wilbur’s glowing green eyes are sunken in, practically floating in black eye sockets. his skin looks vacuum sealed, giving you a perfect map of the meatless bones inside. he is entirely opaque, you cannot see through him but his stark white skeleton, expanding, stretching, and clawing at you, is clearly visible
you sleep, and wilbur looks human once again
this version of wilbur doesn’t only exist in the minds of the sleep deprived. if you let him stay in the edges of your vision too long, no matter how rested you are, you can see this form
by the time you focus your vision on him wilbur will be back to his normal state. you can’t see what your brain desperately tries to refuse. it is only when your mental walls have been broken down that you can witness wilbur’s form. for better or for worse.
Avian!Tommy:
instead of having an extra set of limbs like phil tommy’s wings and arms are the same limbs, like a harpy(and like wilbur)
where the wing’s wrist is(essentially where it bends, if you’re unfamiliar with bird anatomy) Tommy has some extra human-like clawed fingers that he uses as hands
tommy isnt strong enough to fly with them, even if he is very light thanks to hollow bones. he can glide, though
yes, this does mean that tommy glides by t-posing
tommy also has talons for feet, which sort of assist him in being slightly faster than everyone
his feathers are the same colors as a red parrot’s, and he keeps them very well maintained so they keep their lustrous color
he’s also got a lot of feathers dotting his body, like around his ears and stomach and they protect him from the cold in the high up areas he likes sleeping in
ok i dont really have anything to say abt his veganism he’s just Like That because parrot(cause god knows chickens are omnivores)
he has a beak that he uses for nuts and seeds and he can make bird noises!
And he’s got a small feathery tail that isnt useful for much but does look cool
Even though he can’t fly Tommy does have a third eyelid like a bird, it goes side to side and is transparent, he mostly just uses it while gliding or swimming
Enderian!Ranboo
Very tall boy with very long arms
Honestly very similar to dsmp!ranboo
Water burns him like acid and leaves behind very distinctive burn scars but he heals pretty easily from water burns
He is Constantly bamboozled by people wearing pumpkins and he’s Not a fan
Ranboo can open unhinge his jaw and open his mouth like an enderman, and he has like an extra layer of mouth skin like a snake that you can only see when his mouth is unhinged
He’ll avoid eye contact at all cost because it agitates him and gets him unreasonably angry at whoever he’s talking to, the others have gotten very good at avoiding eye contact with him, though
Teleporting is a lot of fun to him and he’ll sometimes just teleport around just for the sake of it, because he can sense the change in location when teleporting in a way humans with ender pearls cant
Enderians are the results of people trying to fuse together with end-based magic and so all of them have the half and half texture of their skin, but most of them all have the same powers
Speaking of skin, Ranboo’s ender skin is strangely smooth and he doesn’t have a protruding nose, just slits in his face he smells through
He also doesn’t have any body hair at all, but his long ears generally distract from that
Elytrian!Phil
Phil is an incredibly light person, compared to a human he’d be dangerously underweight
He’s essentially skin, hollow bones, and elytra because if he was anything else he wouldn’t be able to fly especially with armor on
However this and his hollow bones means he’s pretty weak in all areas, especially underground
Thanks to his Brain he gets slow and weak under low ceilings and also sadge
Aside from the kind of unearthly tint to his skin Phil looks pretty human, aside from the elytra of course
He’s got insect wings protected by an elytra. So, elytra on beetles and things are kind of like a half circle protecting the wings and pressing them to the body of the beetle, and this works because beetles are wing shaped- phil is not
So, phil has very unique elytra that completely encase his wings, and the top part moves out of the way to let his wings fold out so they’re like twice his height- and that partially adds to his dislike of low ceilings, he can barely stretch his wings
Phil’s got fragile beetle wings so they look pretty fragile but they can withstand a beating and carry Phil a ways(though it’s partially phil’s innate magic that lets him shoot into the sky)
Phil has a transparent third eyelid just like Tommy
And, he has antennae that he uses to feel the wind while flying
Merling!Niki
Niki essentially has two types of skin: a human-looking thick layer of skin that covers the upper portion of her body and an even thicker scale-like layer that covers the lower half
Her human-like skin is very rough and it doesn’t absorb water like human skin does, the scales are smooth but also don’t absorb water
She has two legs and a long, thick tail she uses to propel herself through the water, the tail is entirely covered in her blue scales
Her hands and feet are webbed so when she swims she spreads her hands out to help push herself through the water
Niki also has decorative fins on various places on her body like her ears, legs, arms and stomach, they’re all blue and can’t be controlled in anyway
She’s got gills on her neck to help filter water, so when she wants to talk to people above water she has to stick just her head out of the water and leave her neck beneath it
Breathing in air and rain at the same time is extremely uncomfortable and leaves her constantly feeling short of breath but she considers it well worth it to walk on land for a period of time
She also has sharp teeth because: yes
She doesn’t have eyelids, though, her eyes are built like a fish’s
Blazeborn!Jack
Jack constantly gives off heat, he wont burn anyone but you’ll get very hot if you stand too close to him for too long
He has metallic blaze skin that glows like molten metal if he was recently on fire or in lava
You know su!peridot’s augments she had at her intro, jack can like do that with his clawed fingers. Just like detach them at will and control them but they can’t go very far from him so it isnt very useful
And, of course, he’s immune to poison and hunger because he’s basically an android, he’s like a gold material and metal cant get poisoned or hungry
Jack will, however, become fatigued if he’s away from intense heat like fire or lava for too long, like a week
He gets hurt in water because the water basically sucks the heat away from him and that actually hurts him
Staying in a cold biome too long would do the same thing if jack didnt go prepared with warm clothing and probably a flint and steel but tbf to jack humans also die in cold biomes if they’re unprepared
I’ve got nothing for fragranceman right now as i’m not sure if schlatt’s going to be on the server a lot
But i might make skins for these!
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fl1nt-and-st33l · 3 years
Text
Bad to Worse to Weird
I am a huge sucker for found family tropes so this AU is probably going to focus on family relationships (bc you know trama). But honestly who knows I'm constantly changing ideas which is part of the reason I don't post anything I write. Oop- anyways this au is going to loosely be based off cannon but obviously it's not hince the au part. This is inspired by @softboy-killua. So please take this un-edited mess. This is also the first time i ever written anything like this so be gentle. 
Techno grunts wrapping his cape tighter around his bloody arm. Was his base always this far away or is the loss of blood finally getting to him. The battle between his brother and his stupid government left him more hurt then he expected. Not to mention the blast from Wilbur's explosion burned the hell out of him. He doesn't care though, he got what he wanted for the time being. He sent a message to whatever is left of l’manburg while also causing a little chaos along the way.  Every war on this server can be compared to many different greek tragedies. Why can't they see this is history repeating itself. Wilbur saw how horrible the government is. Why can't Tommy? 
Techno shakes his head and sits under a tree to rest. He knows stopping is a dumb idea especially out in the open like this but FUCK this armor is so heavy. He peels off what's left of his leggings and wince at the damage to his left leg. He really needs to get home before his leg gets infected. He takes off his helmet and chest plate, putting it in his inventory. He bites his inner cheek trying not to cry out in pain when using his right arm to take off his shoulder pads. The last thing he needs right now is to alert skeletons or zombies hiding under trees. Techno uses the tree to help himself up and continues dragging himself to his base keeping a watchful eye. His vision is blurry and it’ll soon be night but he needs to get to his base. He can already hear endermen spawning in. Fuck he didn't think he’d be this hurt from the fight. Then again he didn't actually think Wilbur was going to blow up the place. Techno curses at himself saying how he should have known and that he should have been prepared. After all, being prepared is what let him survive for this long. He sees his base in the distance and smiles till he feels blood and sweat staining his clothes run down his legs. He's so close he can't let something as pitiful as blood loss kill him now. He dragged his leg behind him opening the door to his base just in time for the sun to set. 
After bandaging up his arm, leg, and stomach (he has no idea how he missed the giant wound on his side) he ate some food he had left in his inventory. He sighed laying on his bed, putting his wounded leg on his pillow. From the looks of the burn marks all over his leg, the wither blast to the arm, his side being cut open, and the vares cuts and stabs from swords and axes he wouldn't be able to do much for a few….weeks. He hisses when he sits up to check the stitches he had to do on his side….looks like it's going to be a few months instead. This is a huge dent in his plans since he can't train properly, cant farm fast, or get any resources at the rate he usually does. He already planned to grind for resources for the next few weeks, but now he can barely walk. He feels himself getting angry and takes a deep breath. This is fine. Just gives him more time to plan and work out a strategy. It's not like L’manburg is going to do anything worthwhile in the next few months. At the most, they’ll maybe have full netherite gear if they focus and Tommy doesn't start another war. Techno tries not to let himself stress over it and lays down to finally get some sleep.
In the middle of the night, there is a loud crash that causes Techno to sit up and grab his sword. He bites his good hand holding back a scream of pain. Great. This is exactly how he wanted to wake up. In pain, barely able to move, and some asshat breaking into a base that took weeks to find the perfect spot for. This is just perfect. With a sudden wave of anger and pure spite for his own body he forced himself to stand up and drag his broken body to where he heard the noise. It seemed to come from the hall where he kept the food storage room and the useless block room. He knew this place like the back of his hand and made sure everything was perfectly organized, almost to the point where there was a separate room for every possible category of item in that world.
 He quietly made his way down the stairs doing his best to hide his grunts of pain going down every step. Once he got close enough he could hear who or whatever it was was inside the useless blocks room. Techno stood next to the room gripping his sword tightly trying to listen for any clue on who it could be. After all, it could be a random zombie or possibly Wilbur coming to make a plan with him to overthrow the government. Once he heard the quiet chittering of an enderman coming from inside the room he let himself relax a bit. He still kept the same alertness but wasn't as worried as before. He felt the adrenaline leave his body as he went to open the door though once he stepped inside he froze. He never freezes; he makes sure of that but this…..this… isn't like what he's seen before. There in the middle of the room sits a scared….boy? He can't tell what it is. It has half black and half white skin running almost perfectly symmetrical from each other on its skin. It has one red and one green eye that Techno only saw for a second before it covered its eyes with its hands. It has the same particles as an enderman floating around it, and it sure as hell sounded like one but it is much too small. 
It removes its hands to look at techno before quickly looking down. Techno grips tighter on his sword till it starts to let out a sound. It began to sound like a mix of a ghast and a child crying. To this day Techno is not sure why he did this but Techno drops his sword and slowly makes his way to it. “Um….hi?” It cries louder but instead of Techno getting annoyed like he usually does in these situations he looks around for something to comfort it. “Um...shit..wait um I'm sorry kid..um let's see um...do you want some cobblestone? Endermen….things like cobblestone right?” It..er the child looks up at him still having tears run down their face. Techno fought against the pain and slowly sat down to be less intimidating. Techno carefully tossed a piece of cobble towards them. The child stares at it and slowly picks it up making gurgling sounds. The crying slowly turns into a slight whimper as the child holds the cobble feeling more comfortable. Techno slowly scoots closer till he is arm's length away. The child now much calmer than before chitters and gurgles playing with the cobblestone. They notice Techno is a lot closer now and offers the cobble back adverting any eye contact at all. Huh...so this night went from worse to weird.
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lnterjection · 3 years
Text
gods of red skies (of this world to comprise)
Based on @quaranmine‘s post “that meme where the FBI shows up at your house because you know too much except it’s DreamXD and Ranboo being the only person who knows what an end portal is,” but I make it angsty.  
-----
“And here’s our table,” Phil said, and Ranboo’s jaw dropped in such standard enderman fashion he would have been ashamed, if he weren’t so preoccupied with the sight in front of him.
Slowly, he took a step forward. Leaned over and traced a finger across the pale, bumpy endstone, its tiny craters and rivers of raised ridges. It had been so long since he felt endstone beneath his skin. 
The empty sockets stare back into him, deep cyans and swirls of black. You’re here, they seem to whisper. We’ve missed you.
“It’s a cool table, but I think this is a bit of an overreaction,” he heard Techno whisper behind him. “Phil, what do we - uh...”
“Do you - do you know what that is?” Ranboo asked. He struggled to keep the awe from his voice. 
Phil glanced over his shoulders with a bewildered expression. “No?” he said, wings slowly fanning out. “What do you mean?”
“It’s-” Ranboo hesitated, taking a step back. Should he tell them? Should - should anyone in this cursed world have that sort of power? Wouldn’t that lead to more sides, more pointless statuses of power to fight over?
He made a split second decision. 
“Um, nevermind,” he said. “I forgot.”
The lie came so easily. Ranboo internally winced at how familiar his muscles were with the phrase. 
Techno eyes him, pupils narrowing, but he doesn’t comment. Phil gives them both a cheery smile and claps his hands in a neat, smooth motion, effectively shutting down the line of conversation.
“So!” he said. “Anarchy!” 
Ranboo nodded along, tried not to be too weird (or well, weirder than he must already seem to them), and that was that.
-
Everything was freezing - his crystalized bed that felt more like ice than wool, his creaking, ramshackle roof with scatterings of icicles that dripped frost and cold, the way every muscle of his body felt like it was contracting into a ball of sharp diamond. 
Ranboo couldn’t complain, though. He had a place to live. He was welcome here, which was so much more than what he deserved after everything he’s done. 
He wasn’t going to freeze to death. Worse case scenario, he takes his blanket and hides under his bed. He’ll be fine. Fine.
His chattering teeth and rapidly shivering body certainly seemed to disagree with him. 
Ranboo tried to draw in a clattering breath. The winds picked up, slicing every exposed inch of skin with an unforgiving glacier.
At least it’s not snowing, he thought weakly. 
And then, through the screeching winds and enveloping blindness of night, he heard it. 
There’s something crunching, outside the fences that made up his home. Ranboo blinked slowly, wondering if he’s finally gone off the deep end. If that last tether to sanity which his mind so desperately clung to was finally slipping away, and this was the moment he succumbed to that relentless war of the mind, never to resurface again.
For a terrible, traitorous moment, Ranboo hoped that it was Phil or Techno, here to invite him into their house of warmth, a sign of friendship or at least care, after he’d been invited into their anarchist group (which wasn’t taking sides, they just didn’t want to be ruled, was that so bad?).
“Not much of a house, is it?”
And like an arrow to his heart, that hope was promptly smashed to pieces.
“Shut up” Ranboo gritted out to the figure that was no doubt leering over him with that stupid smily mask and stupid smug voice. “You’re just jealous you don’t even have one.”
His mind scrambled around desperately as he suppressed a terrified scream. Is this his mind again? But that voice doesn’t show up outside the panic room, or does it? What does he know, really? 
Was this actually Dream, here to kill him? To take revenge on for destroying the community house? Ranboo couldn’t bring himself to drag his face away from the swath of blankets that he was clinging to, but he could hear the whine of the fence gates swinging. Something snapping shut in place. 
Dream was definitely here, unless Ranboo had, indeed, well and truly lost it. Which was a likely possibility. 
Dream, what was Dream doing all the way out here? And why now, of all times, did Ranboo decide to finally grow a spine? 
Well, either he was hallucinating big time, or Dream was here to kill him. Either way, it’s not like anything he did will matter. 
“I have a house,” Dream said, sounding mildly affronted. “Now, this pathetic excuse of a cattle pen certainly can’t be called one.”
“Just shut up and kill me already, Dream,” Ranboo yelled. His voice was muffled and thrown about by the wind, but it echoed through his bones nonetheless, and this was gratifying in some horrifying way because either way it’s not like what he’ll say will make any difference. “What, are you here to finally gloat over me too? Found a different target than Tommy, huh? Just can’t find a better use of your time than torturing teenagers-”
“What? Woah, I am not Dream,” Dream said, and Ranboo took a moment to process this information. 
“What?”
He finally looks up, squinting through the darkness and the biting way the winds attacked his eyes. 
The person that had his arms cross in front of him looked like a carbon copy of Dream, only with a pale blue hoodie instead of the usual lime green one.
“Just because you’ve put on a different outfit doesn’t mean you’ve changed who you are,” Ranboo snapped through chatters. “Fuck off or kill me, Dream. You’re not fooling anyone.”
“I told you, I’m not Dream,” was the reply. “Check your communicator.”
Ranboo, slowly, drew out the device and glanced at the pale, glowing screen. 
DreamXD whispers to you: I’m here.
“Really reassuring,” Ranboo said.
“Aren’t you supposed to be one of the nice ones?” ‘DreamXD’ asked. “I thought you had manners, or something like that.”
“Since when have manners ever helped me?” Ranboo bites, suddenly feeling something sullen draw his stomach down. Bittering clung to every word. “It’s like nothing around here gets done without violence.”
“That’s not my problem.” DreamXD made some shrugging motion, slowly turning his shoulders in an unsteady fashion like he was just getting used to moving his body. “I’m just here to...”
Ranboo flinched as a glimmering stick appeared in DreamXD’s hand. He recognized the telltale sheen of glowing enchantments, but that shouldn't be possible because you can’t enchant sticks. 
Dream, or DreamXD, or Not Dream, whatever the fuck he was - waved his glowing stick above him in what Ranboo assumed was supposed to be a menacing manner. He looked mostly like a deranged serial killer, which was, concerningly, also an apt description for the actual Dream. 
“I need to make an alteration to your book,” he said. “Hand it over.”
Ranboo stared at him for a long, drawn moment. His mind was blank, unresponsive, why would he want the memory book-
And then, his memory book was in the other entity’s hands, and Ranboo began yelling again.
“Give it back!” He lunged forward, but DreamXD teleported to the side and slammed his fist down on Ranboo’s back. He hit a faceful of snow and dirt, and a pained whine escaped his throat as the heel of a boot dug into his neck. 
Everything hurt. His back is now throbbing. Ranboo suppressed a sob as he heard the telltale sound of pages flapping wildly in the wind - and then the sound of ripping paper, grating against every bone of his body. 
Again - no, this couldn’t be happening again, why is this happening again, he was so careful and he hadn’t done anything and surely he had been good this time, hadn’t he?
His mind only just seemed to process what was happening. His memory book - his memory - was being stolen, torn, violated yet again and this time Ranboo could do nothing but listen and cry into the cold, gritty dirt while his neck is on the verge of snapping and what did he do?
He just wanted peace. He just wanted to be loved - not even loved, to just be left alone. To live without constant fear of pain or death or someone destroying everything he held dear. Was that so much to ask for?
Yes, a part of his mind whispered. You blew up the community house. You betrayed L’Manberg. You didn’t even have the spine to tell Techno and Phil, your new allies, what the end portal is. They welcome you onto their land and group and you repay them with more hidden secrets? How else will you betray everyone?
Everything part of him was burning. Ranboo wanted to slice and strip off all his skin, to submerge himself in freezing cold water and close his eyes and not have to worry about any of this anymore and why did he want all of that so much-
“There we go,” the voice above him suddenly said, and Ranboo made a choked noise as something hard kicked deep into his side. He tumbled across the floor with a few soft crunches before going limp, body splayed at unnatural angles that twisted knots around all his muscles. His throat felt more parched than desert sands, scraped raw and bloody. 
Something thudded in front of him, and Ranboo somehow had the strength to claw himself over through a filmy, blotched vision and drag his memory book back into his embrace. There were pages missing, ripped from the spine in jagged chunks like an unfinished puzzle shredded apart from frustration.
He choked again as a hand closed around his neck and dragged him up and something sharp and flaming jabbed into his chest. 
A coarse sleeve muffled his wailing scream. 
This pain was worse, so much worse, worse than the wither skulls and being dunked in water and all the stabs and slices he’s ever endured combined, his insides were burning and burning and on fire and covered in lava and Ranboo thought for a few fleeting moment that he would combust into sheer nothingness and he wanted to forget, forget why am I still here forget everything please I don’t want to be here-
“There we go,” the voice, that Dream voice, said, and it sounded so sickeningly like Dream but also not at all, because whereas Dream‘s voice always held a demeaning smugness about him this one had nothing but cold indifference, and Ranboo wasn’t sure which was worse but he couldn’t focus to think anyway because his entire world was red and white and burning and what the fuck was that stick enchanted with-
At some point, the pressure stopped. It faded away increments, and all Ranboo could comprehend was that eventually, as his mind flopped away from the shelter of nothingness, he was on the ground again and Dream was above him and everything was horribly, horribly silent. 
Why, he wanted to scream again to the howling winds, but his throat was spent and dead and he couldn’t move or do anything except lie there and spasm erratically like a dying animal with its guts already pooling across the stiff, blue grass. 
What did I do why is this happening please I’m so sorry I’m so sorry it’s all my fault please stop I don’t want to die-
“Let this be a warning,” the voice said in a smooth, terribly indifferent way. “If you write down what happened here, or about that end portal, I assure you that things will get much, much worse. And if you tell anyone, anyone else even a hint of what that portal is-”
Ranboo couldn’t even flinch as something cold pressed against his throat, as much as his mind leaped at the feeling. 
“I guarantee you will never see the light of day again.”
Was this what it had all been about? The portal? That he was being punished for his origins after all, for having the - the knowledge itself? For having the power to utilize it, even if he never would? 
“You really are Dream, aren’t you,” Ranboo rasped. He creaked his neck up to stare blankly into that pearly white mask. Every part of him, from his screaming body to his scattered, twisting thoughts felt weighted with magma, smoldering in its own ruins. 
Dream shrugged, a bit faster this time, and disappeared in a shower of flaking purple particles that drifted around like the snow that had, during some part of all this, began to fall. 
His eyes stung. His entire face was covered in tears, sharp daggers flicking the skin across with every movement. Ranboo couldn’t bring himself to care. He cradled his cold, crumpled memory book to his chest and knew that, as much as he hoped it was, this was not just a nightmare. Not in a world like this.
-----
Read on Ao3 here.
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cliban · 5 years
Text
Gaming
So uh. These are 3 (or 4) of my online gaming personas. (https://www.deviantart.com/bellae99/art/The-girls-and-Pyre-805308350) I've been writing this for a while, may have a part 2 soon!
So little bit of backstory here, I used to, I guess, it could be classified as RPing by myself, giving these characters personality, instead of being a blank slate for what I do. It’s also with my favourite games to play there too!
Clea slowed as the gates clanged shut and cursed, the world censoring her by itself. The path was gravelly and provided no clues as to what lay in the darkness beside it. This was not a good thing. Clea jumped off of Xena and stood with her. Hands on her hips, she whistled into the darkness. Nobody else was there. She swallowed and then she felt a hand on her shoulder and was too late to stop the bejewelled hammer from swinging into her face. She sprawled onto the ground and Xena stood over her protectively. Then Xena was thrown aside and Clea cried out as she hit the wall, both of them. The beast looked down at them with a leering grin, tied a rope to them, and started to drag them away.
Elliott slapped the zombie in the face so hard it lost too much HP, turned red, and keeled over. It split into two hunks of rotten flesh and three orbs of XP. Elliott picked up the rotten flesh and absorbed the XP, then turned and walked into the castle. “M’lord. Gotcha your items.” She reached into her inventory and pulled out the items of value. “Hey! You gonna open the door?” She grew impatient and kicked the door open. “Right, here you go, and I’ll take my reward and go.” The King chuckled. “No, I don’t think you will.” Elliott reached behind her and shifted her sword onto her belt. This goddamn dress was getting annoying. She pulled up her mask and vines started to creep around her arms. “I’m sorry?” Her voice was hardly muffled. “You see, you have quite a large bounty on your head. Much more that some blaze rods.” Elliott nodded. “I see. So this is the part where you spring your trap?” The King smirked. “Go. Kill her.” Elliott rolled her eyes and whipped her bow around, pointing it into the face of one of her attackers. She released an arrow and then there were hands on her shoulders and everything went black.
Pyre shifted uncomfortably in her suit. She adjusted her hat and flicked her ears once to make sure they still worked. Stalker wasn’t at this playtime. So she took the role. “Hey, Pyro. You ok?” Pyre yelped and spun round. It was Engie. “Oh. Just you,” she said. Although, of course, it didn’t come out like that. It was muffled to almost the point of just being noise. Engie could understand. Scout couldn’t. But Scout was annoying. Engie flipped his chocolate bar in his hands. “Why, did I scare ya?” Pyre snorted. “Of course not. You ready for today?” Engie nodded. “D’ya think we can’t sc- I mean, be nice to a couple o’ BLUs?” Pyre shrugged. “Well. I’m going. Come on, Engie.” Pyre was distracted by a couple of birds flying past, and then there was a choking sound from behind her. She turned back to see someone hugging Engie. But Engie didn’t seem to be too happy about that. She frowned and yanked the other person back. Engie fell to his knees, rubbing his throat. “Engie! Are you ok?” Pyre asked worriedly. He looked up and his eyes flickered behind her and he croaked “Look out,” but it was too late and something cracked across her head.
Clea blinked her eyes open. Everything was… Fuzzy. Then she realised she was in a room that was not one she recognised. It was small, with a table, and a computer. Pure white walls. A vent at the very bottom. A wooden door. She lifted her head and sat up against the wall. Xena was nowhere to be seen. Clea brushed her straw-blond hair out of her eyes and pulled her hood up. It was a forest green with yellow piping, and had a purple helm that went over her eyes, yet she could see through it. The wings on it fluttered weakly. Then she stood up, unfolding her jean-clad legs and pulling her aqua shirt up. 
Instructions flashed in front of Clea, and she read quickly. Hack all five computers, and don’t let the beast catch you. Easy enough. She tiptoed to the first computer and began to hack it. 
Three minutes later, the computer’s screen turned green and Clea crawled out through the vent onto carpeted floor. It felt like an office, this maze of white walls and blue floor. The door beside her burst open and Clea flattened herself behind it. Xena stepped into the hallway. She was in human form. “Xena,” Clea whispered. “Xena!” The rhino-girl whipped her head around and saw Clea. “I’ve hacked one computer,” she said quietly. “And I think the beast is coming.” She pushed Clea to the other end of the hall and started running as a glow came up from behind them. “Go!” She yelped and darted off in the opposite direction. Clea hid in a locker and watched the beast look around. A chill ran down her spine and the beast moved on. 
Clea darted into the next computer room and started to hack it. It was relatively simple. Just open up the code database, and disable security systems from there. Easy! Just took a little breaking into. Clea grinned as the computer’s screen started glowing a bright green, and jumped through a smashed window into the beast. “Oh.” 
She started running, hearing pounding footsteps behind her. The beast swung, clipping Clea’s leg. She fell, started dragging her leg behind her, fingers sinking into the carpet while her leg recovered. Her leg twisted the right way and she sprang to her feet, started sprinting. She could hear the beast behind her, and sweat trailed it’s way down her forehead. She was pretty doomed.
And then she got lucky. The beast reached for her, put on a burst of speed, and Clea jumped up, up, and to the side. The beast overshot and Clea swung into a room. She pushed her visor up and flicked her blonde hair to the side, then slid her visor back on. The beast went to the window and she rolled under it until the glow that signified the beast’s gem went away and she crawled out through a vent. 
Xena had hacked one computer since she’d split with Clea, and they met up in the bathrooms. “Let’s look for one together, OK?” Clea whispered, and Xena nodded. They peeked out of the door, and saw no beast. Quietly, the two walked towards the centre of the facility. There were several cubicles in the rectangular room, each with a wall of glass and a desk in it. The room’s flooring was metallic, and in the long gap that stretched from door to door, a spiralling staircase led to the second floor. Xena and Clea ran up this staircase now, and spied a computer in the corner. 
Xena kept watch while Clea frantically tapped at the buttons, bringing up pages and tabs of coding. She stuck her tongue out in concentration, and while Xena couldn’t see her eyes because of her visor, Xena knew Clea must have them narrowed in concentration. Xena held up a hand to shield her purple eyes, and jumped in alarm as she saw the glow of the beast. “Clea, beast is here.” Clea grunted and pressed enter. The screen turned green and Xena morphed back into her natural form. “Let’s go Xena.”
Xena scrambled down the stairs, and Clea jumped off the balcony, and landed on Xena’s back. They galloped out of the room, beast trailing after them, and headed for the door out. “Hold on!” Xena rammed the door, once, twice, three times, and it burst open. They ran out into the cool night, and Clea jumped off, hands on her knees once she landed. “We’re out! Let’s get back home.”
Clea leaned on Xena, who affectionately nuzzled her. “Not so fast.” Clea jumped, and reached for her gun, which wasn’t there, of course. “Hands in the air.” Glowering, Clea raised her hands slowly as three police emerged out of the darkness. “You’re under arrest for multiple counts of murder.” Clea’s eyes widened in disbelief. “That’s the beast you’re talking about.” The policeman who was talking to her scoffed. “No-one makes it out of there alive. You’re coming with us.” 
Someone grabbed her hands and shoved them behind her back, and she snarled. “Xena, don’t you dare gore him,” she warned, and then she felt cold metal across her wrists. Her hackles raised but she forced herself not to attack. “No shoving, Ok? Not comfortable with that.” She was led across to their van, and had just enough time to smile at Xena before the van slammed shut.
Elliott stumbled. “Thanks, Sen.” Sen took his hands off Elliott’s shoulders and stepped back. Elliott slung her bow across her back again and looked around. They were at her base, a three block high cave with seventeen rooms. It was built into the side of a mountain, with her and Sen labouring over a few weeks to carve the place out. They were in the entrance, with a five block wide waterfall covering the open end. Sen looked at the water and growled something. “Yeah yeah Sen. You don’t like water. I don’t think any enderman does.”
Tall and lanky, Sen towered over Elliott, who came up to his shoulder at most. They had met when Sen had been caught out in a rainstorm, and Elliott had taken him to her temporary residence in a village, giving him time to recover and be able to teleport. He looked essentially the same as any other enderman, save the odd purple spirals on his shoulders. Now they were inseparable, and went on many adventures together. 
“Right, I’m heading in. I still have the blaze rods, and plus, the mobs need feeding.” Sen nodded, and teleported to the farm, which floated above their mountain. He was off to get whatever crops had grown. Elliott yawned and headed down into the wide corridor, which gradually got higher and higher until it opened into the minecart terminal.
Elliott grabbed a minecart and zoomed down to the mob area, and surveyed the scene. The farm animals were sectioned off, and into their separate species when inside. Currently, however, they were outside, grazing. Elliott had other game on her mind. She hitched up her dress and stepped out of the minecart, and grabbed her fire-resistant diamond armour, complete with shield and her beloved diamond sword, Cleaver. She changed from her dress into that, and rolled her shoulders.
Elliott pulled her mask up and walked purposefully to the over world monsters. This was in a glass dome inside a massive cave. She took a deep breath, and opened the iron door. They currently housed eleven zombies, seven skeletons, four creepers, three phantoms, fourteen silverfish, and nine spiders, plus cave spiders of the same number. 
“Everyone! Any sick or injured?” The dome went silent, and two of the phantoms dived down, carrying the third. Most of the mobs were actually able to communicate. Elliott had that gift. “Do you know what happened?” The phantoms growled a negative. “Ok. I’m letting everyone roam the caves, you know the rules.” Elliott picked up the injured phantom and carried it on her back while she exited the dome.
She retracted the glass and the over world monsters started walking, flying, stumbling, or crawling, out of their normal habitat. Elliott whistled and started walking to the minecarts. She felt the phantom flop a little, and sped up. She gently laid the phantom down and jumped into the minecart behind it. 
They sped off to the small clinic Elliott had set up, and rolled gently to a stop just outside. Elliott stepped out and lifted the phantom. She transferred it inside, and all of a sudden Sen teleported in, growling rapidly. “Humans. Outside.” Elliott’s eyes widened and she gently set the phantom down, then ran outside, jumped, and Sen teleported her to the control room. “Attention! All mobs, return to your designated areas. I repeat, return to your designated areas!” She yelled through her microphone. There was a sudden flood of animals and monsters stampeding into their areas. 
Elliott activated everything, and slammed the doors of the mountains closed. She turned to Sen, and squeezed his hand. “We’ll be alright Sen, don’t you worry. Armour up.” Sen looked at her solemnly, and teleported, returning a moment later in full diamond armour. They left Joey, a blaze, in charge, and teleported to the entrance of the cave. 
Elliott took a deep breath, and jumped through the waterfall, letting her elytra carry her safely to the ground. She landed elegantly, and let the vines crawl around her arms to her wrists. There was a party of fifteen, and she raised an eyebrow. “What do you want?” Sen teleported in by her side. 
The leader of the group raised a shaking sword. “Look, if you’re here to capture me, don’t bother.” She stuck a dagger into the person trying to creep up behind her without turning around. The group gasped. “Ah now lads, she’s not that dangerous.”
The group parted to reveal a figure in shining diamond armour. “Will. Will Will Will. What do we have here? William.” Elliott deliberately made her voice as mocking as possible. Will strode forward. “We’ve found you. There’s no running from us now.”
Elliott snorted, and as the group ran forward, they attacked. Sen teleported two into the the air and dropped them, then down again to smack some in the face. Elliott slashed with her sword, kicking anyone who came too close to her. Hearts were lost, and finally it was Will and Elliott standing off. Sen was finishing off two of them. 
“It’s over, Will. Rory may have given you my location, but Sen and I are always together.” Will gave her a dashing wink. “Fear not, for I have a solution.” He pulled a squirming endermite out of his pocket and threw it at Sen. Elliott frowned, and then the endermite bit down on Sen’s skin and his teleportation particles turned red, along with the spirals on his shoulders and his eyes. “He’ll be a fine addition to the army.”
Will poured a bucket of water on the ground, and whistled. Sen began shambling over to it. Elliott’s eyes widened and she tackled Will. “Kill me, and Sen stands in the water.” Elliott backed off and started to head over to Sen, when Will made his offer. “Come with me and I’ll call off the Endercution.” 
Elliott swallowed, looked at Sen, and raised her hands slowly. Will whistled again and bound her hands behind her back, using a splash potion of slowness, just for good measure. He wrapped an arm around Elliott’s waist despite her protests. Then he grabbed an ender pearl, and ignoring Sen’s horrified warbling, threw it, and they teleported to the city.
Pyre collapsed to its knees and glared at whoever had hit it, confused. “Hey! You ok? Do you need something?” Pyre got up, flicking its tail, and approached the person, cautiously. It had an idea, reached behind it.
And brought out its axe. Engie winced as it approached the terrified assassin menacingly. It held out the axe and tapped the poor man’s shoulder with the flat of the blade, then nodded, satisfied. It lifted the axe and swung.
Pyre handed the lollipop to the guy and he smiled and waved. Pleased, Pyre waved back, and the guy laughed and flew away. Pyre turned back to Engie and helped him up.
Engie winced at the blood splatter and gore in the doorway, and let Pyro help him up. “Who was that?” Mmph. “I don’t know either.” Pyro waved at him and went to go get someone. 
Pyre bounced happily through the halls, swinging its arms. Scout stepped out in front of it and it skidded to a stop to avoid collision. “Oh! Hey dere Pyro, uh, watcha doin’ this earlyyy…..” Scout looked Pyre up and down. “Pyro, who did ya help?” Pyre shrugged.
Scout looked Pyro up and down in horror. Its suit was splattered with blood and fragments of bone, and its goggles had bloodstains on them. “Pyro, who did ya kill?” Pyro stood still, then shrugged slightly. “Well, go clean yaself up then!” Scout turned and marched briskly away, muttering under his breath.
Confused by the interaction, Pyre looked down at its suit. Silly Scout, getting all antsy about rainbows. It walked on.
Medic had just finished dissecting a heart, courtesy of Stalker, when Pyro walked into his lab. He clicked his tongue in displeasure and put the heart down. “Yes, Pyro, what iz it?” 
Medic had been busy with his odd flower-growing project when Pyre opened the door. He had rainbows all over his hands. “Sorry Medic! I was just coming to tell you that Engie doesn’t look at all well.” Pyre clasped its hands behind its back. 
Medic frowned, silently deciphering the mumbles of that creature. “Oh. Vell, I shall be back just now.” He grabbed his medigun and started to follow Pyro through the maze of twisting hallways.
Pleased, Pyre led Medic back to its room. Engie was still there, coughing a little. He smiled a little and Pyre exited the room to go find Sniper. He was on watch today, and Pyre wanted to know why the person had been let in.
Sniper was cosied up in his nest, wrapped up in a blanket to help fight off the chill of the cold morning. A trail of mumbling signified that Pyro had appeared behind him, and he waved it over. It sat down beside him, curling its tail around itself, and passed him a note in Medic’s elegant writing. 
Sniper, there was an attacker in the base today. Do your job properly or I will come over there and personally dissect you for organs. -Medic.
“Blunt, ain’t ‘e.” Sniper muttered, and folded the note up. Instead of giving it back to Pyre, he slipped it into his vest pocket. “Well, oi’ll be off then. Thanks for the note, Pyro.” Pyre nodded, and slipped back to the main room.
Suddenly, Pyre’s contract communicator sprang to life. “Heyyyyy Pyro! It’s Miss Pauling here! Can you do something for me? Would you like to do something for Miss Pauling?” Pyre nodded, delighted, and mumbled an affirmitive. “Oh thank God. Can you keep inside for a while? And tell the team to be on defensive mode for a while? The rest of the team’s mics aren't working and I think there’s-” Her voice cut out, accompanied with a lot of crackling. 
Alarmed, Pyre dashed to the intercom. It switched on the mic and started announcing Miss Pauling’s message. It could hear Demo audibly frowning, and pinched the bridge of its gas mask. “Need help?” There was a decloaking sound and Spy appeared behind it. “Yes. I do. Miss Pauling said I needed to tell everyone to be on defensive mode.” 
Spy relayed the message and Pyre thanked him, then dashed to the armoury. Before it could get there, however, something thunked into its leg. Frowning, it plucked a dart from its leg, and then darkness rushed to cover its vision.
Clea decided she didn’t like cells. “Yo!” She called. “Any chance I get to go now?” The guard shook his head and Clea sighed, leaned back on the small bed. The cell was quite large, with a toilet and a sink and a bed, but no windows except the door. Which was barred. And the barred wall beside the door. 
The prison was tall, and Clea was on the third level. She flopped back and yawned, putting her arms behind her head. Xena was somewhere in…. She didn’t know where Xena was. 
That’s when the complaints were heard. It started, a female voice grumbling about something, and it steadily grew louder. Clea got up and curiously grasped the bars. “...Listen, I’m not going in prison, what about Sen? He’s gonna waste away Will, mark my words, and then you’ll have killed one of an already endangered species-” A girl was shoved into view. 
She wore a green dress with a darker gradient, and a belt was tied above her stomach. It hung down to her knee on one side, then sloped down to just above her ankle on the other. Her hair was long, and looked like it hadn't been washed in a million years. It was of a curious colour, purplish undertones overshadowed by a lightish brown. A flower crown rested nestled in that hair, matching the vines that marched around her arms, coiled like snakes peering out from her wrists. Her eyes were a light blue, and there was a mask pulled up to just below her nose. She wore no shoes, and her eyes were steely. This girl was being shoved along by a flamboyant man in shining diamond armour. From the Minecraft universe, then.
Elliott furiously allowed herself to be pushed next to the door to the cell that had the girl in it. She wore a green hood, rimmed with yellow, and ended into a hooked purple visor that didn’t shine like a see-through material. She wore a teal shirt that rose up at the belly. She had a purple undershirt to cover this. Her legs were long, clad in skinny jeans and sneakers. Two bits of straw-blond hair poked out from under her hood. 
Elliott was turned, and the shackles binding her wrists were unclipped. Then she was pushed into the cell. With the girl. 
It had been half an hour. Clea sat in one corner of her cell, and the girl in the dress in the opposite. “Do you talk?” Clea broke the silence. “Yes.” 
“What’s your name? I’m Clea.”
“Elliott.”
“Isn’t that a traditional guys name?”
“I’m trans.”
“Oh.”
…….
“For the record, you make a wonderful female.”
“Sure.”
“What are you in for?”
“Murder. Stealing.”
“Woah.”
“You?”
“Murder, apparently. I didn’t do it though.”
Elliott raised an eyebrow. “Sure.”
“No seriously. I escaped from the murderer.”
“Tell me about it, then.”
So Clea told Elliott about her escape from the beast.
“You’re from Dead by Daylight?”
“Nah. Roblox. There’s a variation. You’re from Minecraft?”
“Yeah.”
“Who’s Sen?”
Elliott had her knees to her chest already, her arms wrapped around her legs, but she hugged them tighter. “My best friend. An Enderman.”
“Don’t they attack you if you look at them?”
“Sen’s different. He doesn’t mind. Except if you look into his eyes.”
“Ah. Just checking, you aren’t gonna kill me or anything, right?”
“No. I kill people who cheat me, or that I’m hired to kill.”
“Reassuring, aren’t you?”
“I’m not used to talking with people.”
There was another silence as the minutes stretched into hours. Then the cell’s door was opened again and a dark mass was dragged in. Elliott made a dash for the open door, but was shoved back again. “Who is that?” The two made their way cautiously over. Well, Elliott made her way cautiously. Clea darted over and started shaking the person’s arm. Elliott slapped Clea’s hand away and gently rolled the person onto their back.
Both drew back and gasped. The person was wearing a baggy red suit, with ashy, singed edges, that tucked into their black boots. There was a belt, and two straps like suspenders hooking over it. They wore grey gloves, with bands, and finally, had a gas mask. Their hat was old-fashioned, like an old detective movie, but what had gotten both of the girls attention, was the strangers singed green ears and tail.
“What the… Humanoid fox?” Clea whispered, and Elliott shook her head. “Don’t think so.” Then the figure sat up and rubbed its head. 
After some restrained screams, difficulty communicating, and finally resorting to sign language, Clea and Elliott became acquainted with ‘Pyro’. The masked nightmare had been darted and had woken up here. It seemed to pine for nine other people, with the exception of possibly one. But even Scout, as it said, would have been a welcome blessing. 
“There’s two bunks; who’s sleeping on the floor tonight?” Clea broke the silence again. “Or! Wait, two of us could share a bunk.” Elliott shook her head vehemently. “No way in Nether.” Pyro gave a muffled mmph, and Elliott shrugged. “Sure. You share with Clea.” 
“Right, no other awkward silences, let’s talk about our past. Edgy teenager Elliott, you first.” Elliott shot Clea a death glare. “I’m not an edgy teen.” “Edgy adult?” “No.” Pyro mmphed warningly. “Fine.” Elliott took a deep breath. “I was spawned in a village inhabited by ‘players’ like me. I grew up without event, apart from being one of the hardest workers and strongest. And I could talk to mobs. I had the appreciation and friendship of everyone in the village. But my best friends were Rory and Will.”
Elliott sighed. “I always played with them, helped them whenever I could, snapped at them a few times, apologised, and never thought that Will had ambitions. When we were sixteen, Will joined the army. He was always a flamboyant guy, with dreams and a funny accent. Then it was Rory and me. A year later, it was the update that ruined my life. It brought witches. It was decreed that players could turn into witches, and witches could disguise themselves as players with powers.”
“I knew then that I could never reveal my ability. Rory and I made a pact not to tell anyone. An uneasy two years passed, and everything seemed like it was going to be fine. Until Will turned up at my doorstep - he was commander of the army. He had slain the Enderdragon, Withers, and countless mobs. And he’d remembered my ability.”
“I was hidden away by Rory, who told everyone I had died. Will stayed for a while.” Elliott laughed bitterly. “And Rory and Will fell in love. The two married within two years. Rory, obviously thinking Will, her true love, was more important than me, gave me up. Fair enough, I thought, and ran. I hid out in an abandoned village, cast away my normal brown apron, and used iron armour for a while.”
“I lived there for a few weeks before finding Sen. I saved him from a rain storm, and he stuck by my side. And he helped me when I realised I wasn’t happy living as a guy any more. So I changed my gender. I found the material I used for my normal dress, hooded up, and went to some people who didn’t know me. Now, I’m perfectly female.”
“I hollowed out a cave with Sen’s help, and we opened a sanctuary for mobs. We have a blaze in third command taking care of them right now. I started doing Assassin and mercenary jobs, and…. Yeah. Rory figured out my location, and Will nearly killed Sen unless I allowed myself to be captured. And now I’m here.”
Clea’s mouth was moving, but no sound was coming out. “What about you, Pyro?”
Pyro shrugged. “Not much to say, to be honest. I very vaguely remember dancing in these wonderful rainbows, calling for my family to come join me. Then someone came in and told me to come with him. Didn’t know who he was at the time, but he sounded terrified. Not at me though. For me. He took me to the RED base, and gave me this suit to wear.”
“Turns out that was Engie. He signed me up for my job now, where I get to help people! He’s my very best friend. Sometimes, on days that I feel headachy, he turns into a flying dolphin. Just like Miss Pauling turning into a butterfly, or Solly turning into a unicorn. But I don’t know why I’m here. They took my lollipop and my rainbowthrower! It’s no fair.” 
Elliott leaned back, deep in thought. “Maybe they thought you were dangerous. Not to other people, but they thought you were working yourself too hard whilst helping people. Which makes them not bad, just misguided.” Pyro scratched its mask. “Makes sense.” The two looked at Clea. “What about you?”
“Well. I don’t really have an interesting backstory, really. You wouldn’t want to know it.” Elliott raised an eyebrow. “Bore me to sleep then.” Clea shook her head. “No, really.” Elliott gave her a look. “Just go on. Lie to me, and I will consider killing you.” Clea gulped and sat back.
“I…. I used to be a spirit. Not a ghost, just a spirit. And an evil one, at that. I used to roam the horror games, the dark games. Kill people. Destroy. Have fun with the other spirits. By killing people. Until I possessed this body to scare a group of children.  But somehow, our minds merged. We became one entity. The body I took, her name was Claire. The spirit’s name was Althea.”
“Claire refused to let Althea leave her body. She was perfectly fine with sharing a body. She believed Althea could change, become a good spirit. And eventually, Althea began to change. She would make better choices. She stopped scaring people, she stopped killing.”
“Finally, the day came when Claire deemed it a good thing for Althea to leave. Althea thanked her, and left. Claire continued on her way, and then, someone killed her. Althea felt her pain and rushed to her dying friend. Desperate to save her, she merged with Claire’s body once more.”
“In her haste, she poured too much power into her fusion, and fused her soul with Claire's. She heard only one thing - thank you - before they fused into Clea. That’s me.”
“Technically, I’m they/them, but I like the pronouns she/her. But anyway, our personalities fused, and so I get Althea’s enthusiasm, but also Claire’s shyness. I get Althea’s killing urges, toned by Claire’s logic and reasoning. I get Althea’s interest in reading, boosted by Claire’s love for learning and smarts.”
“In all, I’m technically two different people.”
Elliott nodded her head, impressed. “And where does Xena come into all of this?” Clea’s mouth tightened. “Xena is our soul remnant. She was formed of the split pieces of both our souls.” Elliott was still. “Alright. The lights should go out at any moment, so let’s get to the bunk.”
The other two nodded and Elliott jumped up, grabbing the fifth-to-last-rung of the ladder and hauling herself up. Clea, the smallest, curled up in the bottom bunk, and Pyro lay beside her on its back. Before Clea nodded off, she realised she had neglected to learn about the vines that wrapped around Elliott’s arms.
The lights went out, and Clea and Pyro started to sleep. Elliott lay awake for a while, contemplating how Sen was doing, how she had been captured, and, of course, how to escape. 
The lights turned on and Elliott grumbled, turning her head to the side. She had her hands tucked behind her head, and her legs crossed. She stared up at the ceiling for a while, before jumping down. She looked at Pyro and Clea and snickered. The two were curled up, Pyro with an arm wrapped around Clea’s shoulder, and Clea pressed into Pyro’s chest. 
Pyro blearily opened its eyes. It was tired. It swivelled its ears to hear Elliott pacing just behind the bars. It nearly rolled, but remembered Clea quickly, and realised its arm was wrapped around Clea’s shoulders. It's tail rested in Clea’s arms and as it tried to take it back, Clea mumbled and tightened her grip. Pyro smiled internally, and gently shook Clea awake.
Clea jumped out of her bed and yawned, then immediately went to the door. Still locked. Pyro slowly got up, and the trio looked across the prison. Soon, their door was unlocked, and they grouped to the courtyard. 
“Right, so now that we appear to be a group, how are we escaping?” Elliott wasn’t one to indulge in small talk. “Well, all our weapons should be stocked over there, along with our clothes.” “And how do we get in there?” 
Elliott thought for a moment. “Well, we could make our own weapons. We could use-” She was cut off by someone yelling. “Over there! Hands up!” Scowling, Clea raised her hands. “We’re already in prison, how can we get in any deeper trouble?” 
Two guards rushed over. “How come you don't have your uniforms on?” Elliott shrugged. “We were just chucked in a cell.” The guards frowned. “All three of you? In one cell?” Pyro nodded. “This is extremely against protocol,” the taller guard muttered. “Sorry. I don’t really know how prison works.” Clea offered.
The guards talked into their walkie-talkies and the shorter one nodded. “Alright, if you would come with us?” Elliott glanced at her comrades, and nodded. “Ok. Where are we going?” The guards started walking, with the trio following. “To get you registered and everything else.”
They had just closed the door when Pyro mmphed something. “Sorry, but could the other guard turn around?” The two translated, and the taller guard turned slowly to see the shorter, choked out in Pyro’s grip.
The guards were tied up, and everyone had retrieved their weapons. Then they darted off to find Sen and Xena.
Sen had finished talking with Xena, and languished in the corner. He had a magic-binding bracelet on, preventing him from teleporting. Xena was stuck as a rhino due to the collar that also bound her magic. 
The cell was cold, and damp, and the bars were just close enough for Sen not to be able to fit through. “Xena, give up. Already.” Sen had had just enough of Xena trying to ram the door. Xena did give up, and lay down with a huff.
Sen got up and wandered the cell, which didn’t take very long. He stuck an arm through the bars, retracted it, and then heard running footsteps. He frowned and looked through the bars. To see Elliott and two others running towards the cell.
Elliott saw Sen and put on a burst of speed. “Right. Keys!” Pyro chucked her the keys and she unlocked the door as quickly as possible. “Let’s get out of here!” She opened the door and Xena and Sen tumbled out. “Sen, can you teleport us?” Sen pointed to the band on his wrist.
“Magic binder.” Elliott snarled in fustration and took out her dagger. “Right. Arm.” Sen held out his arm and Elliott cut through the binder. Sen nodded appreciatively and teleported around a little. Elliott did the same for Xena, and counted quickly. “Right, how many can you teleport at once?” Sen frowned. “Three.” Elliott pulled her mask up. 
“Sen, we’re gonna need you to cry. Ender pearls.” Sen nodded and looked directly into the sun, which made his eyes water, and allowed himself to cry three ender pearls. “Right! Let’s go!” Sen teleported outside, and waited for the others to catch up. They did, and Sen placed his hands on the two stranger’s shoulders, and Elliott climbed onto Xena. Then they teleported-
-back to base. Except this wasn’t base. Clea looked around and started to shake. “Oh no. Ohhhhhh no.” Pyre shielded its visors. “Where are we?” Clea swallowed. “We’re in a horror speedrun.” At that moment, Pyre became aware of breathing sounds behind it, and turned to see a dragon. Quite cute, if it was being honest. The tall rainbow person shifted, and Clea giggled. “Run!” Pyre clapped its hands. Tag! It loved tag.
Pyro turned and Elliott looked to see a terrifying thing of nightmares. A maniacal grin twisted the creatures torn lips, and needles pierced its eyes. It had no other features, other than being a tall, slender humanoid with no right proportions. Sen shifted uneasily, and Clea whimpered. “Run!” 
Somewhere, back at the prison….
The shadow moved slightly at the window. “You lost them, you say. You stupid, stupid, idiot.”
Tired of the arguing, Elliott beckoned to Sen and whispered to him. He shook his head repeatedly, but Elliott kept whispering and soon his face changed. "O….k." He reached for Elliott's shoulder and Clea glanced at him, then snarled. "Oh no you don't."  He backhanded his subordinate, who went flying. He grabbed the next one. “Find them, now.” 
Meanwhile.
Clea cartwheeled to a stop. “What the hell.” Elliott sat up and held her head. “Sen, do you have some food?” Sen nodded and handed her a piece of steak. She ate ravenously and sighed in relief as energy flooded her. 3 hearts changed to full health. Pyro snuggled its new friend, the monster that had been chasing them. 
Sen folded his arms and sat back. “Us have to get to Minecraft. Now.” Elliott stood. “Sen’s right. If we can just, get to my base, we’ll be fine.” Clea shook her head. “No way. We’d be safer at my home.” Pyro mumbled something. 
Elliott scowled and folded her arms. "Well! I'm going. I don't know why I even helped you guys. Soft-hearted weaklings," she muttered. 
Clea frowned and a weak red glow filtered faintly from under her visor. "Oh no you don't. I saved your life, you ungrateful little-" Pyro frantically mumbled and was ignored. 
Elliott put her hands on her hips. "Oh, so now I owe you something? Is that how it goes? You save my life, I save yours? Well listen up, sunshine, cause you would never have gotten out of that prison without me!" Xena snorted threateningly and Sen stood by Elliott's side. "I cannot believe you! You're all 'independent' and angsty, so you can't even accept help? And you've done hardly anything for us!" Elliott's eyes hardened. Well, they went more steely than they already were. "I didn't ask to get locked up with you! I was only there because Sen was threatened! I'm out of here! Fend for yourself, demon-girl." Clea became very still. "What did you just call me?" Elliott sneered. "You heard me! Or is deafness part of being evil?" Pyro whimpered and clutched its pet tighter.
Pyre didn't understand! Why were they being harsh? This was the first time something like that had happened….. it wasn't fair, it WASN'T! Why, why, why? Why were they arguing? It wanted to go home…. It wanted to see Engie and Medic and Sniper and Miss Pauling. Heavy, Solly, Spy, Demo…. Even Scout. What it would give to hear the Announcer’s voice yelling at them again. 
Clea could feel her wings beginning to unfurl. “I. Am. Not. Evil. You’re disrespecting Claire by saying that! And all her work with Althea! I - We! We are not evil!” Elliott laughed, irritatingly. “Oh, right, right. Sorry - I just thought, with your history of being a demon, and everything~” Clea’s lip curled. “Alright, you shut up now.” Elliott raised an eyebrow. “Also a side effect? You think you’re above everyone else?” Pyro whimpered again and Clea’s anger surged. “Now look what you’ve done! Pyro’s upset!” Elliott snarled. “You started this!” Clea remained silent for a while. 
Elliott sniggered at seeing such a simple rebound silence Clea. The idiotic girl would not leave her alone. It was quite funny, if she was being honest. “Come on Sen, we’re going.” Sen took her hand and they began to vaporize into purple particles. Clea growled and reached for them, Xena rushing forward as well - Pyro joining in and touching Elliott’s shoulder, with its buddy on its back, arms wrapped around its neck. Then they all teleported. 
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