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A death game always starts with a tick of a clock. Real or not, fate was always behind pulling the invisible strings and controlling them all.
All the same people, all the same friends, and yet he can’t seem to recall what the real goal is except to survive. Nothing could stop any of their chaotic nature from coming out. They knew the ‘rules’, and for some reason, all Grian wanted to do was break them.
Except he didn’t mean for his friend to die. It was all in playful fun gone wrong.
He felt really bad being the reason for the first death. So he made a decision.
“I am in your service until I lose my first life,” Once the words were said, a promise was made. Bound by a spoken spell.
And possibly his first real ally in this game that doesn’t feel quite real.
Immediately, they started planning together, easily slipping into their usual dynamic of laughter.
“Dying was the best thing that could’ve happened to you-”
“Now I don’t know about that-”
They kept going, and stopping at Grians base was the start of their journey. Rummaging through his chests and collecting anything he deemed needed.
“Okay, I have enough junk so here’s the plan, this base is now officially abandoned- this is the shortest base I’ve lived in-”
“Awwe, it was a nice little base,” Scar chimed in, standing at the entrance, moving aside as Grian turned to leave.
“It was nice while it lasted- it lasted 5 minutes and I left it immediately because I got bored,” He turned quickly, pacing, choosing what to do exactly. “And then I ended up killing you and now I’m your partner so-”
So quickly he tried to end the sentence, a lot quicker than his base lasted, deciding it was time to continue with their plan.
Scar, the neverending thinker, starts talking.
“Well you know Grian, I don’t believe in never.”
A short laugh fell from his lips. “And I don’t believe in always, Scar.”
“That sounds like a challenge!”
“Sure, if you can make me believe otherwise by the end of the game, I’ll let you, uh, hm….”
Scar hummed. “You make it sound like you’re staying a lot longer than just your first life.” He said with a sneaky smile.
“Guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
—
“Ren won’t trade with me and I told him that when we turn red, he’s first on our list.”
“What do you mean we?” Grian cuts in. “Once I turn yellow I’m out.”
Scar only laughed. “Nooo, we’re joined at the hip!”
“I said I owe you my first life.”
“That’s true. Oh-” Scar changed the subject swiftly, now entering enemy territory and later finding Pizza again.
He noticed the look his friend had before, knowing the more he would say to convince him otherwise. But Scar was smart and he knew that, knew when to use information to his advantage.
But Grian also knew this, and he wouldn’t let it trick him.
—
They managed to last a long time, Scar turning a red life while Grian was still on his first.
Still intricately bound by a vow.
And when Scott and Jimmy asked to make an alliance with them, yet again did the thought cross his mind.
Scar went through his own shenanigans, officially making the four of them allies to each other. Joking in the way they always have.
“Scar, you remember, the second I lose this life, I’m out. You know that right?”
He never did get a response, his partner ignoring the statement and continuing on the conversation.
Grian wasn’t sure who he was convincing more. But he still planned on keeping his word.
—
Curse his morals.
He was free from Scar now! Now down to his second life. There was no obligation to be held, he’s fulfilled his end of the deal and now it was over!
And oh, so many others were lost and down to their last.
He had to find Scar, after the chaos of the previous day, he had to warn him. Grian had to know exactly where their allegiance lies now.
“I have to tell you, there’s quite a few people after the last session that decided you really need to die.”
They went with their plan, and by some miracle, they kept surviving. Etho’s death was the final straw to their questionable allyship.
“Is this it? Is this where we show our true allegiance to each other and we turn on everyone?”
Scar’s emerald eyes lit up, spoken in a hushed chaos, “Yes. We do it. For the fallen kingdom. For Pizza!”
How have they survived this long?
Clearly, Grian shouldn’t have stuck to his morals so strongly. Once Scar realized he still was on his second life, he made a game. A no-kill pass, a pause in his bloodlust for a moment of sparing him.
So quickly was there a sword in his back and lava being thrown at him, blurring the world and jolting him awake and alone in his bed.
Grian was so sure he wouldn’t go back, deciding immediately that Scar was to go down first for the betrayal. He was prepared for them to team up against him, and he wouldn’t go down without a fight.
But when he stood there in front of them both and Scar messaged him saying he had a plan, he actually believed him. In a way, he wanted to see how exactly this would play out.
Then Everyone else was gone. There stood him and Scar, facing each other and far too alive.
“Traitor!” the slash of his sword missed him, too far and not quite aimed.
“You can kill me.”
Immediately, the fight left him. “What- no-”
“For everything you did to me to keep me alive this long, you may slay me and take the enchanter.”
He wanted to argue, to think of some other way for this to go down. I mean, how set in stone were the rules? Why does there only have to be one- Why couldn’t they just both-
But with every other friend gone, what makes them so special?
Scar, so held tightly to the thought of their friendship being ruined.
The voices of their fallen friends rang in his mind, and they wanted a fight.
“Okay, can we at least to the duel if we have to at Pizza’s grave?”
In a ring of cactuses and a smokey fire, only one of them stayed standing.
With the blood on his hands and Scar already dead and gone, Grian made his final decision of the game.
Looking over the edge of Monolopoly Mountain, he took one last glance at Scar.
“Guess I win. Looks like I still don't believe in always.”
Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he let himself walk over the edge, letting the wind whistle in his ears and a calm sensation take over, hoping to wake up in his bed again at home.
☆☆☆
“Do you believe in always yet?”
Sun peaked through tree branches, illuminating his area in little spots that it could reach.
This was not Hermitcraft. And this was not his home bed.
The rules of the game were different. No longer were they the same, and no longer would trust be easily given with the boogeyman on the loose.
Two lives he would survive on, and already did the plan run through his head of trying to steal a life from someone else.
What perfect coincidence that he would run into Scar first of all people. With their friendly banter, Grian had to make one thing clear.
“First things first, everything that happened last season is null and void. It’s doesn’t count, okay?”
Only confusion filled Scar’s eyes, easy jokes slipping off his tongue.
“So you mean I can’t put you on a llama and take you to the desert?” A light shove of his shoulder and sparkling eyes. Only it was the truth and his friend easily dances on the line of it without knowing. “Whatever you’re talking about, it’s a clean slate. You could never to wrong to me.”
And oh how Scar should believe in never.
—
And oh how Grian still doesn’t believe in always.
Shot in the back without even a chance to react, he was hit hard into his last life.
It was a simple thing, really. They knew the name of the game, especially with the Boogeyman on the loose. Someone was bound to lose a life. He was bound to die.
Finding friends and alliances came simple, the Southlanders were the closest people he had this time around. Trading lives as a trust exercise and joking day by day. Oblivious to the reality at hand.
How he should’ve known it wouldn’t last once he turned red, no longer safe, exiled from the family he knew.
—
“Not like this! Not like this!”
He didn’t have enough time to process while running until he felt a blade through his chest and ice flowing through his veins. Then at once, he was watching, a spectator in all of this, waiting for this to be over once again.
Scott became victorious amongst them all.
Grian had the choice pop up in front of him, and he took it, killing Scott off of the world and finishing the game once and for all.
☆☆☆
Waking up once again leaning against a tree, he was starting to think Scar might have won the bet in the first round.
He still doesn’t believe in always, and yet, he always ends up replaying this game over and over again.
It was different this time around, now curiosity abroad and eyes looking around, curious for who their soulmate could possibly be.
Easy laughter, easy jokes, easy friendship.
It takes less work, having immediate allies since the beginning of the game, and now more cautious of what happens to them. After all, he is no longer the only one who has consequences for his actions.
Grian didn’t want to be right, but he feared he might have known all along.
“Scar! I think we’re soulmates and you’re too busy chasing fairies!” He cried out, watching his friend run away on his own adventure.
Oh, how cruel fate is to bound him back to the person who doesn’t remember anything.
Watching as Scott hit Scar in a moment of their conversation, he felt it all.
And Scott knew it immediately by his quick look of realization.
He spoke no words about it, keeping his mouth shut and continuing on as if nothing had happened.
Then Scar ran off again to do who knows what, and Grian wouldn’t forget the whisper from Scott passing him.
“How do you always manage to get stuck with Scar?”
Looking into dark green eyes, recognition hit. He remembered. No longer was Grian the only one stuck with the memories of the seasons.
Taking one last look at Scar, Scott said one last thing.
“You know how these games go too, it’s not going to be any easier than the first time you had to kill him.”
—
Frustrated Grian was, his soulbound still wholly unaware of the situation they are now in. And he only had one last idea left.
“Really important, I need you to stand right under this, okay?” After a few tries and Scar questioning him and asking about the Jellies, he continued. “Now look at me- look directly at me.”
With a quick crack, the dripstone fell without Scar looking. “Scar!”
“Okay! I’m looking directly at you,” intense emerald eyes looked into his own as he dropped the dripstone once more.
Recognition flooded Scar’s face. “Oh my god…” Grian cackled. “This whole time! We’ve been parading around the server and you knew this whole time!”
“Why did you think I was so concerned for your health and safety?”
Easy laughter relaxed his shoulders.
“How did I never notice!”
—
Deep down, Grian felt a bit guilty, but it kept him going being secret soulmates with BigB. And another alliance to keep each other alive in the unknown of the game.
And Grian should know that doesn’t always last, using a great idea to Ren, bringing his close friend down with him once and for all in the game.
He would mourn, a secret to all.
But Scar already knew, and maybe that’s why he believed in never.
—
An idea, a prank, a death trap. Who would’ve guessed his own plans would kill them both.
Feeling the sharp pain in his ears and feeling a jolt of shock straight through his heart, he knew he died.
With Scar, dying on the other side of the server, alone, and unaware.
He cried. “Oh, I’m so sorry Scar… It wasn’t meant to be…”
Grian didn’t stay to watch the rest of the game, only wishing for it to be over once and for all.
☆☆☆
It was a different feeling when he woke up this time, still so far from home and not in the comfort of his base.
When he opened his eyes once more, he could see everyone else's faces, all lined up in a circle looking at each other, confused.
The only thing they had with them was the clothes on their backs and a clock already ticking down.
24 hours starts now.
—
It was like any other game they played before, but this one felt different almost.
Familiarity scared him, the Boogeyman coming back into the game and creating more distrust than any other.
Alliances were different, and from the beginning, Grian made himself a group, the Bad Boys they called themselves. Chaos coursed through his veins.
Except nothing ever lasts forever, becoming the last of his team to survive.
Even if he’s the one to blame for some of their downfalls.
No longer did he care, the TNT in his hand second nature, the smell of gunpowder filling his lungs and the explosion ringing in his ears.
He wholly existed in these exploded pits, and it gave him pride to survive once more.
—
“It’s the ultimate betrayal.” Without a second thought, Grian brought his axe down, metal hitting armor.
“Wait wait wait! No- no-” Scar ran, and Grian closely followed behind.
“I’m sorry, Scar-”
“You can’t shoot a man in the back!” The other scrambled, bringing out a bucket of lava to drop on Grian.
But that didn’t stop him from switching weapons to his sword, getting ready for another blow.
“Of course I can!”
“You just hit a man in the back-”
With one more hit, Scar ran out of time.
—
How poetic it is, to betray the ones you care for, and yet, you all die in the same place you created.
The Bad boys would forever live in the Bread Bridge, together and hurt.
☆☆☆
Once more, they woke up in a circle together, more friends joining them this time around. A campfire was burning, and they all knew how this was going to happen.
Each with a task at hand they have to finish, a single goal to survive and complete their adventures.
It was simple.
—
Like clockwork, each day passed by, tasks being finished and going up to the Secret Keeper to present themselves.
The symbol on the stone made him uneasy. Something so familiar yet he can’t quite reach the memory.
Deja vu hit him the third day, now being soulbound once again but with Joel this time.
They never do seem to live when their lives depend on one another.
—
“Wait no Scar- be friends! Scar listen-”
The one person he had to trust for seasons past, he can’t seem to get back with.
But he will succeed once again. “Okay, yes.”
Oh, did the moments after feel too familiar.
“You betrayed me.”
“I didn’t betray you-” the effort felt fruitless.
If only Scar knew the number of times he’s betrayed him.
—
Over and over, he succeeded and failed at tasks, the more he kept going, the more he didn’t know how to continue.
And for once, the canary was not the first to stop flying, now left with the fault at hand and living another day.
Deaths were second nature in a game like this, old friendships were no longer remembered and only fight and bloodlust coursed through them. When will they be allowed to rest?
—
He could only watch, yet again a ghost from above only allowed to spectate, no power to interfere.
Then Scar was only left, in the middle of a clearing and blood on his hands, confused, and a winner.
Watching the fight go down, Grian could only say one thing, hoping it would get to his once companion.
“She’s dead Scar. You won.”
“Oh.”
Grian would watch, stuck in this forever limbo, seeing his friend struggle and suffer, pressing the button oh so many times yet stuck in this world forever.
A whisper would pass in the wind.
“I guess you finally have to believe in never.”