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"I really shouldn't be here." Rasplin drawls.
"Oh. Really?" It's light, somewhat curious, but Branzy just looks like he doesn't want to be stuck in heavy silence while Rasplin stares him down and he, in turn, never lets his eyes leave the fight under.
"It's gonna make killing the dragon harder for everyone." Rasplin gives him a jerk of a shrug. "She heals from me. 'Cause of my origins."
Branzy's eyes roam over to the few remaining crystals on the other obsidian pillars. Then back to Rasplin. He knows he glimmers unnaturally here, in the dark. Especially when the dragon flies closer and reaches through the almost invisible link. Half a heart off his healthbar, cleanly. Then she's off.
"Oh." Branzy chews on his lip.
"It's gonna leave a bit of a strain on me once she's dead, too." Rasplin adds.
The crystal on the nearest column explodes upon impact, hit by an arrow. They hear cheers from the ground.
Rasplin cringes behind the mask.
"That's... you know, that's not really something you should share with other people. Not a weakness, something that can get you hurt badly."
"Other people?" Rasplin snorts after a few seconds. "Me and you, is that how you'd put us? Not... let's go with teammates, friends?"
"No, no." Branzy shakes his head too quickly. Then he must realize how it sounds, 'cause he stutters slightly, repeating again. "No? I mean, we are... it's not about how I view you. I'd like to think we're... good friends? It's just not safe, either."
"So you're also telling me I can't trust anyone here." Rasplin mutters. It's not a question.
Branzy swings his legs, hunching over on the obsidian platform, and jerks a shoulder.
A few shouts ring from down under. A message pops up in chat.
"Were those two teammates?" Rasplin asks.
"Nah." Branzy shrugs. "Does it matter?"
"I don't know them. I guess it doesn't."
They stare down silently.
Rasplin pretends not to notice the looks Branzy gives him sometimes from the corner of his eye. He tries to contemplate silently what they hold. The easy answer would be wariness.
Branzy can present as a scared, weak man easily. Rasplin thinks he might've been that, at some point. That's why it's second nature to him, but it's not what he is anymore, that's for sure.
Rasplin has seen people who won wars with words. Or with a single swipe of a weapon. Being a skilled fighter who can hold their ground against many, many people isn't always what defines your worth. Even in a server like this, from what he sees.
He pays close attention, and still notices, second nature to him, a flash of bright yellow on the opposite side of the obsidian. It really does not help it to get masked that the whole End is covered in dark purple and bland, saturated yellows.
Rasplin's eyes latch onto the lanky figure.
The man drags himself up onto the obsidian and breathes too heavily, and the grip on his sword, even if netherite, is too shaky and tired for him to stand a chance. Branzy turns his head and eyes him with wariness, holding up his crossbow, his mouth open trying to say something. Rasplin doesn't even wait for the swing, or before Branzy finishes the name.
Rasplin doesn't know it. That's the point.
A crystal spawns with a simple, familiar click, or shatter, close to the edge of the platform, and floats up into the face of the player.
He takes a step back.
The force of the push upon impact would be enough to throw him off into the air by itself, but the sizzle that makes Branzy twitch slightly, to the side, and the cut-off yelp say it twice where Rasplin already knows the weapon hit its target well.
He follows the yellow blur downwards with his eyes, slightly curious.
There's too many messages in the chat to catch the one exactly, but the body falls flat on the ground and doesn't move again. He can still see it clearly, the sickly bright yellow jacket against the endstone.
"Woah." Branzy breathes. Then adds quickly. "You can do that yourself? Is that just on obsidian?" His eyes spark.
"You just told me to keep my secrets, Branzy." He laughs quietly.
"Right. Shouldn't have done that." Branzy cackles back. There's something growing ever stronger in his look that's akin to concern, but Rasplin still can't put it, for what. He just knows he can hold his ground, so he tries to stay comfortable. This is a place to be, definitely for him, among all the chaos.
"Are you really scared?" He asks. "That can't be why..."
"What?" Branzy drums his fingers on his knees.
"I can't figure it out." He admits. "What we should be. We're allies, aren't we, Branzy? And you're calling us friends."
"I'd like to, yes. I would."
"In worlds I've been, that means... that usually means trust being put in each other, great trust. I've, hell, I've betrayed teams in my old times, but..."
"I didn't even know that." Branzy cackles. "I don't know you that well yet, Rasplin. You know, I would like to... alright, let's say I'd like to trust you, I really would."
"Branzy." The sound is ripped from his throat sharply, distantly reminding of a laugh. "We're teammates. We've been around each other for what, weeks? I've given you one of the hearts I've got, from killing people that aren't you."
"That's the difference I've learned." Branzy sighs. "That thing where you can be allies but not friends, you know? And then you can be friends who kill each other for fun. Or both of that, who never expect to lean on the other when times really are dire. We're... we are coming clean here, aren't we? No goofing around, like usual."
"You can do that well." Rasplin smiles in a sharp, toothy grin. Branzy can only see the curt nod he makes.
"Sorry." He sighs again.
"I only say that word before I betray someone." Rasplin cackles.
"That doesn't help, I hope you realise." Branzy's laugh is light and strained. "Alright, whatever, I know we're all the same there. It's the... It's that difference between being allies, and friends, and putting actual, real trust in each other for me. I've not done that over again in... a long, long while. I was taught that helps to live. The hard way."
"You have Clownpierce." He nods. "That sounds like enough."
"That's really the first reason I'd be willing to trust you." Branzy admits. "You're an old... friend? Of his. Even if I'm ever wrong about you, he wouldn't be."
Rasplin snorts. "Yeah, that... That helped me out a lot in the first weeks, didn't it? Or messed with my life, that too. You all have set expectations of me. But that's... expected. Hah."
"You're a strong player, that's for sure." Branzy says carefully.
"I'd like to be able to protect you, as well. You are my team."
"Is that... Is it about your thing with Clown, where you follow him..." Branzy frowns.
Rasplin laughs.
"Aren't you two a unit, on here?" He isn't really asking. "Clown, you, both of you. I don't have as much history with you as I do with him, but, honestly. I get all that he sees in you. And, you know? He's happier, here. It's strange, on a server like that. But he's better off." He nods to his words a few times. "It's not even that strange." He chuckles, then laughs again, and it draws out for way too long until he's out of breath. "Not strange at all."
"Ras... You do know you don't need to be anyone's underling here, right?" Branzy's voice rings, slightly strained. "There's no kings or gods here. When they say all those things, they're lying, really. Ash, Zam last season, anyone."
"I've been there." Rasplin smiles slightly. "I've thought about it, how I need to follow Clown around as a... it's not my job, you're right. It's no obligation. I've decided it now, I like it that way." He breathes calmly, holding eye contact. "Love it, really."
There's a light of understanding in Branzy's eyes, just the one Rasplin has seen too many times before but could never guess why, what it was. He took it for pity, often. Sometimes it was there.
The dragon jerks its wings violently, clapping, and comes up in a flare of purple behind them. The light shines brightly in Branzy's eyes, so natural there. It reminds Rasplin of the northern lights, back at Snow, a few worlds ago. But it's much more comfortable to be around, not distant and unobtainable, no, it's right there, no bitter memories attached to it right on top.
He lives through the moment, smiling peacefully, even as the dragon disappears into the void of the sky forever, breaking the bond, the chain attached to him in every world as a crystal being.
Shouts mix up with the warping sounds, down on the island. He has no care for those.
Then, all's silent.
"You know, I just want the same..." He starts, voice rasping slightly, and the sound booms in his ears.
Then, Branzy tilts over and sags to the side, and Rasplin has time to think, if it was to the other one, he'd slip and be dead of fall damage in a few seconds. Like that, Branzy just settles against him, and he can feel too well how he twitches and tries to curl in on himself, away. How his body's being wrecked by something, too.
"Branzy?" He asks quietly, then puts an arm around him to hold him in place.
Branzy's shoulder blades feel rough and too sharp against the touch.
Branzy breathes in, in a wheeze. It's the second Rasplin realizes this is the first time that his chest has lifted since the dragon exploded into purple warp lights.
"I am scared." Branzy mouths more than says. "That's what you said, didn't you? It's what they all think."
He sits up with his spine painfully straight, tense posture. His hands shake as they dig into the obsidian.
"I'm scared that... Rasplin, I have some problems."
"Isn't that something to get you hurt?" Rasplin asks softly.
"I've not risked it all in a while." Branzy wheezes. "Maybe I should. For a change. Before the server pushes me to, it's gonna happen. The first days are always the most peaceful ones."
Rasplin offers an open palm. "Whatever it is, at least, we've known each other long enough you can tell I'm going to listen."
Branzy takes the hand.
He doesn't seem to notice.
Rasplin does, the first moment, and gives it a choked sound before he catches himself.
"I'd like to... I really needed to tell you, I..."
"You're an... You're a hybrid, aren't you? That. Of that. The Ender Dragon." Rasplin finishes in place of him. That's what he thinks, he's almost sure. "That's why you're not... part of the fight."
Branzy jerks his head up to look right at him. "Huh?" His eyes look somewhere off to the side, but he is trying his best to concentrate on Rasplin.
There's a tug at Rasplin's hand. He lets it be, draw from him until his hearts tick down half, one, one and a half. He'll regen, it's fine. It's nothing different from what the dragon herself was doing just a minute ago.
Branzy starts breathing easier.
"I... Yeah, of course." He laughs. "That's all I was trying to... say." His voice isn't light at all anymore, just some sort of... dull.
He looks down, and he must see his hearts at full health. It's not where he connects the dots, though.
Rasplin tilts his mask up for a second and bites into a golden apple. Then, he flashes it away and puts a hand on Branzy's shoulder, tugging just slightly, prompting him back where he was before.
Branzy crawls a hand around him and hugs him too. Rasplin doesn't watch the way the two golden hearts tick down before it stops, but he knows they do, and after that Branzy must've healed and requires no more help, 'cause the healthbar freezes this way. He still holds on. They both do.
"Thanks, Rasplin." He mutters. "I did notice that."
"You mean, you just did?" Rasplin smiles slightly.
Branzy laughs quietly, relaxed now. Almost genuine.
"Thanks." He repeats. "It's... I didn't remember how bad it could become, from Echo. And I think I just made it worse at this height, closer to her. And last season it was almost easy 'cause I died already, and went back to base. This one was, oh, how many hearts was that from you?" That worried note is back in his voice.
"Just like, five. I could manage." The smile's still tugging at his lips, and he doesn't see an issue with it, although maybe he should. It doesn't matter to him, in the moment. He feels lightheaded and knows it's not from healing Branzy. He's aware what it is.
"I don't think I even was there, on Echo. That was stupid, to be. I really just came this time 'cause I wanted to help Clown out, somehow. Even if I can't do much."
"I get the feeling. I definitely do." Rasplin nods. The smile is shining bright, hiding behind the mask. He's a little... he's not bitter, but for a second he wishes Branzy could see it and smile him back. He'd do that. He would.
The idea makes something bubble up in his throat, so he's close to going haywire in just one second. It's nothing, just sparkles of purple around his neck, and yet too much for him, combating the typically iron control on it that he needs.
It grows up the skin to his cheeks, and, busy pushing it away, he skips the first couple words when Branzy speaks up again.
"What did you say there... I didn't..." Rasplin mutters.
Branzy leans back slightly to look at him from where his face is buried against Rasplin's neck. "That's... I said it's not what I wanted to tell you."
"It wasn't?" Rasplin slightly chokes. "What'd..."
Branzy taps with two fingers on the mask covering Rasplin's face, almost soundless. "Can I?"
He laughs slightly. "You can't just say that to a player on the deadli... Sure. Sure, you can." It's a funny thing, where all his instincts scream of one concrete thing, but he tells himself whatever Branzy might do is not that, it can't be.
He trusts him, though. Naively.
Branzy leans back, closer, and nuzzles a kiss into the nook where the fox ear on his mask pokes out.
That's all.
He smiles, then, open. Slightly shaky. "That's what I wanted to... what I wanted you to know."
Rasplin breathes.
His eyes slip past him just for a second, because he has to make sure, and of course there's still people down there. He knows he's not even gonna have to wait for someone, Clown probably, to ask in chat when they're coming down, and that, with Clown, is its own whole thing he's not gonna think about acting on. Yet, maybe. It's still an idea he's wary to touch on, after this many months of being... Change can be scary, alright.
This, now, is right in front of him and feels way too comfortable. Or, maybe, it just is. Maybe, it's just something he needs.
He squeezes Branzy's hand. "Can I do that too?" He laughs slightly.
Branzy's eyes widen. "Yeah." He drops. "Yeah, of... course."
Rasplin unclasps his mask, holding onto it in a grip so it doesn't stop covering his face. He tilts it then, slightly, then just covers them both from whatever eyes might roam up at the center of the island.
The itch is back up his face so it glows slightly, and the lights are almost remindful of the purple warps of the dragon dying, same as always.
He knows it can't hurt Branzy, specifically, that way a dragon and a crystal can only heal each other. Or kill, one way, how a dragon could drain him until he's gone, because he's not really just a crystal himself, is he?
He doesn't think about that.
Branzy holds out a hand to touch the flashes. He lets him, with a sizzle under his fingertips, and then presses his lips against the spot above Branzy's ear.
He clasps his mask back on, slowly.
Branzy giggles quietly, clasping his own knees, to get a grip at something at least, probably.
"Hey, Ras?" He mutters, and it's like he's out of breath. Then, his voice starts sounding... calmer, if still quiet. "Heck. Do you think we're soulmates?" He gives him a bright smile.
His hair twirls into stars and falls apart in the void.
He is everything.
The feeling stuffs Rasplin's chest now and makes him hurt. He's often had a hard time dealing well with vulnerability, and that comes back at him. A world like this amplifies it.
He realizes, sure, he knows that, they are just a simple, accidental match in the play the universe makes. He could humor himself so well now, pushing every word to be bitter in his thoughts, listing off every reason why the man who would agree to go through with something like this, not playing it off as a joke, try to chase that feeling until it's natural, a part of him... Why he, he is a fool.
It's a little too late, and he doesn't mind that.
"We could... We could try to be." He says quietly. "I'd enjoy that." Settling it.
He knows what happens when he rushes blindly, without care for the rules of a world. But here's a thing, at times a little misstep may be necessary.
To fall right to the void, his thoughts helpfully offer as his eyes follow past the end island. To...
The void is close to his home, though. He's had plenty, welcoming or not.
He has a strong thought Branzy could be one too, if they let each other.