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Fourteen people spawned into this world, with a bright green name and a new resolve to live.
Each of these fourteen people has a bright green string tied around their pinky finger that only they can see. The string glows faintly, passing through caves and cliffs to one other person.
But Jimmy's string doesn't lead back to a bright meadow with flowers across the landscape. It doesn't lead back to wooden walls and homes carved into stone. It doesn't even lead back to a small base in the desert, with an arrow firing from Skizz's bow straight into the heart. Scott hadn't made it back yet, but the cry that Jimmy heard across the entire server as his soul left his body was just as devastating. And then the time spent waiting, building up the land just as Scott had always described it, for that string to finally be tied back together and for them to be home. It doesn't lead back to any of that.
But perhaps that's for the best. If you love someone, you have to let them go.
It's the middle of the night, and Jimmy feels a punch to the chest. Holding his sword high, he looks around the hillside- but there is nothing to threaten him. His soulmate probably got into an encounter with a mob, then. It's still strange, to feel a pang of damage bypassing his armor, to feel the string on his finger pull slightly. But he'll have to get used to it, as it's not like his soulmate is going to be perfectly safe for the rest of the games.
He continues climbing up the mountain, the buzzing of the world border to his left being overshadowed by the goats just ahead. He'll run up to a goat himself and slice off the horn with his sword if he has to. But everyone else is constantly blowing their goat horns, and Jimmy wants in.
But unfortunately, that would be the easy and logical way to get a goat horn. This universe doesn't like making things easy and logical, so instead, he'll have to wait on top of this hill for five minutes for a goat to ram into a wall.
Another hit to the arm, and then to the stomach. Jimmy stops in his tracks and winces. Whoever his soulmate is, they need to be more careful.
He takes one step toward the goat in front of him. What happens next is framed perfectly- he's standing on top of a hill, looking out into the forest below. The sun begins to rise, painting the sky in a beautiful pink. And then Jimmy falls to the ground, an aching pain in his chest. He takes a shaky breath, clenching his fists against the grass. What had just happened? What is his soulmate doing?
Tears begin to form in the corner of his eyes, and with blurred vision Jimmy recognizes the string on his hand changing from green to yellow, zipping along the path like electricity and a wire. And when it finally hits his finger, he collapses, his vision going black.
He spawns tangled in tree branches, and he promptly falls to the ground. He looks at the string on his finger, glowing bright yellow, and then looks up to see someone he didn't expect.
A pale-skinned man with pointed ears and blonde hair sticking up at all angles stands in front of him, with a dark red jacket and pants and a black leather chestplate scorched by what seems to be an explosion. He taps his foot for a moment, black steel-toed boots bringing up a bit of dust from the ground, before looking at Jimmy's finger. His glowing red eyes widen as he looks back to the matching yellow string tied around his own.
Tango is his soulmate.
Tango, his soulmate, immediately rushes to help Jimmy up, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, there was a creeper that came up behind me and-"
Jimmy takes Tango's hand, "It's fine, Tango, seriously," he smiles.
Tango still looks concerned, "Are you sure?
Jimmy grabs his communicator from beside him and glances at it quickly to see if there are any cracks in the screen. But suddenly, everything makes a lot more sense.
TangoTek was blown up by creeper
Solidarity died of a broken heart
Huh. Jimmy's never seen that death message before.
He slides his communicator back into his pocket and meets Tango's eyes.
"I'm okay," Jimmy says and smiles.
Tango hesitates for a moment, but he smiles back.