Chapter Text
Thankfully they were all alive the next morning when they woke up, which is always nice. Well, most of them woke up. Bdubs, being Bdubs, was still snoring like he was having a competition with thunder on who was louder. There wasn’t even any thunder to be competing with. Maybe Bdubs’ snoring scared it away?
Anywho, the three who were awake decided to make a little food and talk amongst themselves.
“Oh, you know. Grian and I forgot to ask you something yesterday,” False says, remembering their conversation from the day before. “Are you and Bdubs teamed or did you two just decide to go mining together?”
“The latter,” Joel answers, with a shrug. “Just met outside while we were gathering wood and then decided to team up for a bit.”
“Nice, nice. Shouldn’t we see if you’re teamed with either of us, then?” Asks False, who seemed like she wanted to just get to it. Grian could understand why she’d want to know, he was a little curious himself.
“Well, Grian said that us Sigmas would gain a speed boost if around our Gamma, right Grian?” At Grian’s nod, Joel continues. “But we were together the entire time, basically, and I never once got a speed boost so I don’t think I’m teamed with either of you.”
Well, that is a way to find out who your pack is, Grian supposes. Just being around people and then not gaining the ability you’re supposed to get. Well, Grian couldn’t argue against it.
“Makes sense,” Grian shrugs, voicing his thoughts in very simple terms. “I wonder if anyone actually grouped up with any of their pack members straight off the bat.”
“It’d be kind of funny if no one did,” False chuckles. “It’ll be so chaotic with everyone trying to find their packs. Couldn’t we just use our communicators to ask everyone to meet at spawn so we can find our packs?”
“No!” Grian and Joel say at the same time, the former shaking his head vehemently.
“That’s taboo! You’re only allowed to use your communicators until you’ve found your pack or to see if someone died. You cannot even use tab to see everyone’s life amounts, until you get your pack of course,” Grian explains to her. Maybe he should have clarified some of those rules for their new players, but oh well!
“Ah, I see. Well, thankfully I haven’t used it yet. So only to see if someone died and if we find our packs. Gotcha,” False seemed to be taking mental notes on what Grian just explained to her.
“By the way… nose go on waking Bdubs up!” False put a finger on her nose as soon as she said that. Joel and Grian followed suit but Grian, with his speed boost, was faster than Joel to get it. “Welp, looks like Joel has to wake the beast.”
“That’s not fair! You both are fast! Plus you two are stronger, you both should be doing this!” Joel complains about the unjustness of the decision.
“Yeah, but you have more health than us and are stronger than Bdubs, so you’re the best option either way,” Grian counters, knowing Joel wouldn’t be able to come up with anything good to rebuttal with. “Also, I’m not in the mood to die today. And you have more lives than either of us so you can spare one of them on waking Bdubs up.”
Joel mumbled some not so nice words under his breath as he slowly made his way towards Bdubs. He pauses for a moment, only to take a stick out of his inventory. He leans over, standing a good bit away from Bdubs, and pokes his softly with the stick. Bdubs didn’t stir.
Joel then pressed him harder with the stick, still nothing. Joel took in a deep breath, looked back at the two Gammas, who were watching from behind a wall they made, and saluted. The two Gammas gave him a somber look and saluted back.
Joel then turned back after their mutual understanding of Joel’s soon death, and whacks Bdubs with the stick. This time, Bdubs snoring hitched, but then went back to normal.
Joel continued whacking him with the stick, but this time he added some shouting. “WAKE UP! TIME TO WAKE UP SLEEPING BEAUTY!” Bdubs was stirring more, but still wasn’t awake. “HOW ARE YOU STILL SLEEPING?! WAKE UP ALREADY!”
Finally, after what felt like forever and to the point where Grian and False were just standing next to Joel struggle to wake Bdubs up, Joel gave up. He threw the useless stick away from them.
“How does he do it?” Joel lets out a frustrated sigh and puts his head in his hands. Joel continues his rant as he paces around the room. He soon stopped paying attention to his surroundings and accidentally made the slightest bit of contact with Bdubs.
And then, Bdubs was finally awake.
“Huh? Wha?” Bdubs shoots up, looking at his surroundings. Joel stares at Bdubs in shock. And then the screaming started.
“WHAT?! YOU WOKE UP TO ME LIGHTLY TAPPING YOU WITH MY FOOT?! I BARELY EVEN MADE CONTACT! I HIT YOU WITH A STICK LIKE SEVENTY TIMES AND YOU DIDN’T EVEN MOVE! WHAT IS THIS B-“
“Don’t you dare curse.”
“SHUT IT, GRIAN! I’M JUST SO.. SO…” Joel decided to keep pacing as he angrily mumbled to himself.
Bdubs looks over to False and Grian, who were trying to hold back their laughter. “What’s his problem?” And that broke the dam, the two Gammas couldn’t help but burst out laughing at the noise of frustration that came out of Joel.
Bdubs looked confused for a little longer before deciding that Joel was just being crazy, and to move on. He looked at his communicator and almost started choking on air. “WHAT?! WHY AM I ON HALF A HEART?! GIMME FOOD NOW! GIMME GIMME!”
And that’s how Bdubs got everyone to stop laughing as they all remembered that, oh yeah, punching someone does damage to them. And Joel, who is potentially not the boogeyman, almost beat him to death.
False hurried over to the furnaces, that contained the left over meat they were cooking, and taking some. In record time, she was by Bdubs’ side and making sure he ate. Everyone was silent as Bdubs hurriedly stuffed food into his mouth and watched his hearts.
After a couple of seconds, Bdubs sighed in relief and the others finally let go of the breath they were holding. Well, that could have ended badly, thank goodness they solved that before anything bad happened to Bdubs. How embarrassing that would be to explain. Like “RIP Bdubs, died by Joel accidentally beating him with a stick since he wouldn’t wake up, and somehow slept through his death.” One heck of a way to go, Grian supposed.
“Respectfully, how the frick did you sleep through me beating you with a stick?!” Joel asks, trying to keep his voice calm and even, but as you all know, it did not come off that way.
“I dunno, guess you’re bad at beating people with sticks,” Bdubs shrugs, acting so nonchalant like he didn’t almost just die.
“I can- wha- I’m- Ugh!” Joel sputters, before burying his face in his hands out of frustration once again. Honestly, teasing Joel was quite fun. Not as much fun as teasing Jimmy, but a close second.
“Hm… Beating people… oh, you know what, that actually reminds me of something,” False says with a smile on her face. In Grian’s opinion, it was a little off putting. She did literally just say something about beating people with that smile.
“And what would beating people remind you of?” Bdubs asks her, looking also slightly confused on why she’s so chipper.
“Ah, well, I have to beat BigB up,” she answers, the smile still evident on her face.
“Why is that?” Grian asks her, this was his previous secret soulmate after all. He has to look out for him!
“Doc paid me to since he couldn’t be in this game. He paid me three stacks of diamond blocks.” The three men gape at her. “As a down payment of course.”
Joel sputters at that. “Three stacks of diamond BLOCKS?! Not like of diamond ore? Diamond blocks?!” False nods as an answer. “AS A DOWN PAYMENT?! Why does he want BigB beaten up so badly?!”
False shrugs. “Probably because he cheated on Ren last game and Doc is a very protective friend of Ren. Honestly speaking, BigB’s lucky that Hbomb didn’t find out. Hell, maybe even Fruitberries. But, Hbomb isn’t called Hmama for no reason.”
Grian shudders imagining what those two, very good pvpers, would do to BigB if they were that protective of Ren. Note to self, don’t mess with Ren. You will have three very dangerous people angry with you.
“I was actually going to beat up BigB anyways, because Ren is my best friend, but might as well get paid while doing it.” Scratch that, four very dangerous people angry with you.
“Ren really out here getting a protection squad,” Joel chuckles. Must be nice not having to worry about being beaten up by those four.
“He’s not the only one,” False chuckles. The other three give her questioning stares so she continues. “Scar too. I’m not exactly sure on my information, but I do believe that Cub paid someone to beat Grian up on his behalf.”
Grian was suddenly very thankful he had ultimately decided against letting Cub join this game, but fearful at the same time. It would suck if Cub paid one of the better fighters to beat Grian up.
“Oh, yeah! I remember that!” Bdubs mentions, and Grian’s head snaps towards him. “He paid Pearl. And Mumbo.”
“He paid Mumbo to beat me up?” Grian scoffs. He loves his friend and all, but Mumbo quite sucked at pvp. Not to mention Mumbo would never beat Grian up.
“No, Mumbo also paid Pearl to beat you up.” What.
Grian’s look of shock must have been hilarious with the way the other three started cracking up. In his defense, he didn’t think that Mumbo, his best friend, of all people would want him to be beaten up. There had to be some type of misunderstanding.
“No, there was definitely no misunderstanding. He most definitely paid to have you beaten up. Well, sort of. He technically paid Pearl to, and I quote, “talk to him about how he was wrong through whichever way you deem necessary.” So clearly you’re going to get jumped by Pearl.” Bdubs reaches over and pats his shoulder as in a “good luck, buddy” sorta way.
Well, at least Mumbo sounded like he wasn’t paying to get Grian beaten up. But still hurt. He could have at least talked to Grian himself!
“Man. So the two cheaters are getting jumped by the two most powerful people in the server. Yikes,” Joel smiles. Grian felt a little salty that he was so smug.
“Yeah, well one of those cheaters can be your teammate. And it may not be me, but BigB is still very much a possibility,” Grian retorts back. Joel glares at him and was about to speak before he was cut off.
“Alright, boys. You’re both pretty so settle down. Lets change the topic since you two can’t seem to stop aggravating each other,” False sighs and shakes her head at the two of them. “How about this, who would you want to be teamed with? And I want only two answers, and what you think their roles are.”
“So you want us to guess our teams?” Grian asks, summing it down to something much more simple.
“Yea, basically.”
“Well, I’ll go first!” Bdubs raises his hand like an excited puppy. False nods at him to continue. “So, I would want Etho and Cleo. Etho would probably be the Sigma and Cleo as the Gamma!”
“I’ll go next then. I’d want Etho and Lizzie. Etho as Phi and Lizzie as Gamma. My wife would be great as anything though. I really hope I’m teamed with her…” Grian felt a little bad with how sad Joel sounded at the end. He really was lost without his wife. Kind of cute though.
“Alrighty, might as well go next myself then,” Grian sits up straighter to give off a cool attitude. “Personally, my ideal team would be, and I know this may actually come off as a shock, Scott and Pearl.”
“Pardon?” False leans over, probably thinking she heard him wrong.
“I would want to team with Scott and Pearl. I mean, every game those two are together they do extremely well, just saying. I think their roles would be Scott as Phi and Pearl as Sigma.”
“That’s the only reason you want to team with them?” Joel gives him a judgmental look.
“Well, duh. The three of us are all super good at surviving. We’d be an amazing team and I wouldn’t have to worry about him dying straight off the bat.”
“Him?” Joel raises an eyebrow.
Realizing his mistake, Grian is quick to redirect the conversation. “I meant them, obviously. Anyways, False, it’s your turn. Answer your question.”
“Ah, well, if you insist, personally my ideal team would be with Ren and…” she takes a moment to think. “Probably Martyn. I feel like the three of us would be a solid team and still have lots of fun. I’m still betting that Ren is a Sigma and Martyn is a Phi? I could see either or, but I feel like Martyn would need to defend himself.”
“Well, we all had turns. Maybe we should go looking for people? Not that I don’t like hanging out with you all, but we’ve been sitting here and talking for a good while,”
Bdubs points out. And, pulling out his communicator to check the time, Grian winces. Yup, it was already midday.
“I agree with that sentiment. Lets go and try to make the most out of today.” Joel stands up from where he had been sat down.
The four of them packed up their makeshift camp and headed out. They chose against going towards spawn that day, but figured they’d go the next day if they have no luck. Instead they walked aimlessly in a direction, chatting amongst themselves over random topics.
“I’m so proud of him. Cub would too!” Bdubs wipes an imaginary tear from his eye after False, annoyingly, told him about how Scar snapped at Grian earlier. “You know how parents feel when their baby says their first word? That’s the feeling I have right now.”
“Oddly specific and weird, but fair enough,” Joel chuckles. “But, man, I really wish I had seen that exchange!”
“Trust me, it really wasn’t funny,” Grian grumbled out, annoyed that they’re talking about the one subject he’d rather avoid. “Can we please just drop the subject?”
“Fine, fine. I actually have a question for our dear False!” Bdubs, the amazing man he is, changed the subject. Grian was so happy for once something seemed to go his way.
“Oh? Well, ask away!” False tells him.
“So you mentioned you made bets with Ren, yesterday, right?” False nods in confirmation. “You never actually told us what you were betting though. Like how many diamonds per bet?”
“Oh,” False laughs and shakes her head. “No, no. We aren’t betting diamonds.”
“Oh? Something else then? Or did you two just say you were betting and then not bet anything?”
“First one. We’re betting on something very serious actually,” False’s laughter faded and she looked almost solemn. Joel and Grian’s attentions were successfully grabbed as they listen closely to False.
“Well, spit it out already! We aren’t getting any younger over here!” Joel rushes her for an answer, impatient to hear what’s so important she’d look this way.
“Snuggles,” was all False said in reply, earning her three sets of confused stares. “Snuggles is what we’re using as our betting piece.”
The three of them just gave the woman dumbfounded faces. Who used snuggles as a betting piece? And how does that even work?
Someone must have asked that out loud without Grian noticing, or False is psychic, because she answers. “You see, the two of us love hugging and snuggling each other. As friends do. But, Ren like to have me cuddled to his chest, while I like him being cuddled to my chest. So for all the bets he wins, we cuddle like how he likes, and vice versa for my wins.”
“What the fu…”
“Language.”
“Stop doing that Grian!” Joel huffs, giving Grian an annoyed look. Look, Grian was just simply not going to allow Joel to curse. “Anyways, that is absolutely ridiculous!”
“You’re going to start having that as your betting piece with Lizzie now?” False raises her eyebrow.
For a second, Grian thought her psychic abilities had run out, since there was no possible way that that was what Joel was thinking. However, as Joel looked down at the ground in shame, he knew that it wasn’t the case.
“Yea…” Joel admits, looking very ashamed. Mans didn’t even try to deny it. How sad.
“False are you psychic?” Bdubs asks False. Honestly at this point, Bdubs may as well have been reading his mind since that’s what Grian’s been thinking this entire time.
False just simply smiles at him before quickening her pace. Totally.. not disturbing or frightening in the slightest… Not at all…
“Oh shush, Grian. My smiles aren’t frightening!” False chides from in front of him.
Grian turns to look at Bdubs, asking the silent question if whether he had said that out loud. Bdubs shakes his head, and honestly Grian may as well have been a ghost with how white his face was. He is officially never messing with False after this, no siree.
And Ren by extension since messing with him will most definitely get him on False’s bad side too.
The four of them kept up minor conversation as they continued along. It didn’t take long for sunset to occur, and that when the four of them decided to pack up for the night.
“It’d be better to start camp now than later, since if we wait too long then mobs will spawn and we’ll have to worry about them. It’s just easier to set it up now so we’re already safe before they spawn in,” False explains to Joel, who wanted to keep going for a little longer.
Joel huffs and crosses his arms, but make no move to argue any farther. He’s probably just being salty that he couldn’t win an argument. Grian, personally, was already making camp. He wasn’t afraid of False or anything, he just completely agreed that they should set up camp. Totally.
Bdubs seemed to have the same enthusiasm to set up camp as him, since the two worked in tandem to quickly set up their small little base. They had carved into a hill and boarded up the front with wood and a door, so they could tell when day broke. On the inside, they simply placed a crafting table and two of their furnaces.
It wasn’t much, but it would do for the night.
“Alrighty then. Now that we’re all safe and sound, might as well get some sleep so we can wake up bright and early tomorrow morning!” Grian claps, subtly telling everyone it was time to sleep.
“I’d drink to that!” Bdubs backs down until he’s completely laying on the cave floor. He then turns onto his side and curls into a small ball. Grian watched in fascination as Bdubs didn’t take a second longer to start snoozing. He wish he could sleep like that…
“Ok then…” At least Joel seemed to be just as flabbergasted as he was, though was that really a good thing? Eh, doesn’t matter. “Ok, sleep it is. Night, losers!”
“Night, night!“ Grian calls out to them, going to lay similar to how Bdubs was.
“Good night, sleep well everyone!”
And soon, the makeshift camp was filled with soft snoring sounds as they slept the night away.