There are many different kinds of loneliness. Twelve, as observed on a small server known as “Last Life”, are catalogued here:
1. Scar on top of a mountain has seven lives. If it were possible to “win” before everyone else was dead, he’d be winning. He lost his gold nugget of friendship. Murderers live below him. He has more lives than anyone else on the server. Grian didn’t take his deal. He is the only one on his mountain. He is winning.
2. Joel and Grian exchange a glance with each other and with a wizard’s hat on top of the mountain. They both know what it means to be lonely. They’re right next to each other. Cleo and Bdubs chat in the distance. They look away again.
3. The word “traitor” has many meanings. Lizzie thinks she knows all of them now. She doesn’t know which ones apply to her, but Cleo’s arrow almost killed her. The fort feels lifeless. At least she still has Ren.
4. The word “traitor” has many meanings. Cleo thinks she knows all of them now. She doesn’t know which ones were used against her, other than that her partner murdered her. She feels lifeless. At least she’s with Bdubs again.
5. The nether roof is one of the loneliest places Mumbo knows of. Impulse couldn’t be here to help, so it’s just him, standing in blistering heat on an unnatural field of bedrock, killing ghasts, and ignoring the death message that’s burning a hole in his heart. He’s lonely because he’s physically alone, and not because losing anyone has drilled a hole in him. He doesn’t know who he’s fooling.
6. While Impulse sleeps, Jimmy and Martyn destroy Grian’s bed to make sure he can’t come back. Jimmy says something about his spyglass. Neither of them laugh.
7. The word “traitor” has many meanings. Big B doesn’t want to talk about it.
8. Etho stares out the edge of his castle. Team BEST had, in his opinion, always been a bit doomed. That being said, Bdubs had refused to kill him before. Maybe he’d do it again. Maybe it would still matter. Maybe their history would win over bloodshed. He feels fire and thinks it won’t.
9. Tango and Skizz patch themselves up. They’re shaken. It was definitely shaky, being threatened for a life. Kinda stupid, in hindsight, but man! Tango’s not having a good day of it! At least they can trust each other though, right? Tango isn’t playing the double-cross game this time around, and Skizz has always been, to put it like Ren said, a loyal blade. The two of them—they’ll stick together. Even if it’s just them. Even if they saw how fast it could shatter.
10. A dog, outside in the cold, taps his sword against the edge of the fence. It’s quiet tonight. Good. Ren will guard his Queen and not worry about anything else but loyalty. He doesn’t have the heart to worry about anything else this time around.
11. One more day that Scott and Pearl could look each other in the eye and not be the boogeyman. Scott tells Pearl: maybe they should feel bad Cleo took a trap meant for them. Pearl tells Scott: why would they? They agree on this much. They don’t particularly want to kill, but they do particularly want to survive.
12. Bdubs tells Cleo that he missed her, quietly, one last time. How terrible to be together again, though. How terrible.