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The memories of Monopoly Mountain and their aspirations come to the front of Grian’s mind as soon as he realized that he may have found the only pieces of sugar cane on the server. Unlike Monopoly Mountain, however, this was not Scar’s idea. This monopoly that came to Grian, this plan in his head, it was all his idea, all sparked by the sugar cane that was currently in his inventory. He quickly got back to their base and planted the precious resource underground. Hopefully no one would find it there. He was sure no one would, so he quickly rephrased the sentence in his own head. Hopefully Scar wouldn’t find it, even if it happened to be an outrageously lucky accident on his part. He didn’t need his soulmate to ruin the secrecy of his, well technically their, sugar cane.
Grian felt his soul leave his body a bit when Scar was building a pit for his Jellie Pandas. The pit was just deep enough so that when Scar was excavating the walls, the sugar cane was exposed. Grian quickly patched it up of course, but the presence of Jimmy was not reassuring. He made no indication of having seen the sugar cane though, so it was probably safe. It was still a bit too close for Grian’s comfort, and it even made his feathers stand a bit on edge.
A few days later, Scar had come to him, claiming knowledge about the sugar cane. Grian let him dig where it previously was, but as the scarred man was soon (immediately) to discover, it was no longer there.
“It’s in my inventory,” Grian said as Scar read the sign that he had put there. “You know what this means, right Scar?”
Scar looked up at him. “We have a genuine monopoly?”
“We have a genuine monopoly,” Grian confirmed. He swore that he could see a fire light in Scar’s eyes at his sentence. He was almost certain that his companion was remembering their endeavors in the desert. Grian couldn’t blame him, as that was his immediate thought as well.
“We can sell paper to the other players since they can’t farm it,” Grian pointed out.
“You’re right! Oh, this is going to be so fun!” Scar exclaimed. They conspired about their plan as they converted some of the sugar cane into sheets of paper. Their first target? Etho and Joel.
///
“Hello! May I interest you in some paper?” Scar called out as he walked towards the pair. As Joel walked up to him, though, Scar noticed his enchanted diamond hoe.
“I-is that…?” Scar started.
“Oh, this?” Joel held up his hoe. “I got it in the Deep Dark.”
“You know what? I’ll trade you two pieces of paper for your hoe.”
“Two pieces?!” Joel asked incredulously. “You can’t do anything with two pieces of paper!” Scar looked down and shook his head.
“But! I will take the sugar cane,” Joel said. Scar looked back up at him. “I’m not allowed to have the sugar cane-.” Scar clasped his hand over his mouth, but it was too late. Joel and Etho were already bombarding him with questions.
“So there is sugar cane? Where is it?” they both pressed in sync. Scar was too preoccupied with denying their questions, despite that he had already given away the fact that he and Grian did have sugar cane, that he didn’t notice the very same man walk up the path towards them.
“Scar, what is going on?” Grian asked. Scar whipped his head towards his feathered compatriot, not expecting the sound of his voice.
“Scar said that you two have sugar cane,” Etho said almost immediately. Joel stepped forward to agree with his soulmate. “Yeah! He was trying to sell us paper and then he said that he wasn’t allowed to have the sugar cane.” Grian took a quick glance at the scarred man, then turned back to the pair before them to say, “We don’t have any sugar cane, just the paper.”
“Well, whatever you have or not,” Joel started, “he was trying to sell us two pieces of paper! You can’t do anything with that!” Grian started laughing. “I gave him six!” he yelled over his shoulder to Joel and Etho as he and Scar headed down the mountain.
“Well, that didn’t work out as planned, did it?” Scar asked after they walked in silence for a bit.
“Not necessarily, but it’s not like it’s the end of the world, is it?” Grian responded. He turned around to face Scar, now walking backwards. “Plus, there’s other people on the server. Joel and Etho weren’t our only chances to sell paper.” Scar looked Grian in the eyes, then sighed and said, “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. So who’s our next target?”
///
Scar arrived at his destination after he split up with Grian. The mid-century modern house came into view as he walked over the hill, and there was a lot more progress on it then when he last visited. He looked over to his left and saw someone working on what appeared to be a pool.
“Bdubs! How are you?” he called. Bdubs looked over to him and responded, “Hey Scar! I’m just working on the house.”
“Can I come up?”
“Sure!” Upon that response, Scar climbed up the side of the pool’s foundation.
“Go through the house-!” Bdubs was trying to yell at him, but it was to no avail. Scar stood right in front of him.
“Could I interest you in some paper, good sir?” he immediately offered.
“You have paper?!” the bruised man asked excitedly. Scar nodded in confirmation. “Do you have any sugar cane?”
“No, just the paper. I have four pieces,” Scar said.
“I’ll take it. Here, 32 pieces of copper,” Bdubs said as he handed the scarred salesman the copper. Scar looked at the metal in his hands, carefully considering the offer, before handing the copper back. Just a second later, Grian ran out of Bdubs and Impulse’s house shouting, “Scar, I got the gunpowder, let’s go!” Scar quickly jumped off of the pool’s platform and onto the grass, sprinting next to his soulmate. They could hear Bdubs yelling at them as they ran, though they didn’t look back. As soon as they were sure that they were a safe distance away, they collapsed onto the ground, laughing.
Grian turned to look over at Scar, who’s laughter was almost breathless from running, and who was wearing a large smile on his face. The avian took in that face, he took in everything about the man next to him, the man who he was linked to. This was the man who he would spend an entire death game with. This was who he would win or die with, and he was fine with that.
Scar got up after catching his breath. He brushed the grass off of his clothes and reached out his hand. Grian took it and stood up as well. He and Scar held eye contact for a few seconds before Scar said, “That was amazing!” Grian smiled.
“Yeah, it was. I almost forgot how exhilarating it was to be part of one of your scams.”
“It’s not a scam! And it was your idea to sell paper to people anyway,” Scar retorted dramatically, hand on his chest. The blond couldn’t help but laugh at that.
“Fine, fine. But my point still stands.” Scar evened out his stance, his normal, easy smile on his face. He held out his fist, and Grian hit it with his. It was a job well done, and more enjoyable than Grian ever could’ve thought.
Now, Monopoly Mountain felt closer than it ever did, and the joy and exasperation all came flooding back to him. It wouldn’t be terrible if they relived those moments now, would it?