Chapter Text
The MCC teams were about to be revealed to the contestants, that was one of the good things about getting to play in the actual event. You got to see the teams early, well almost everyone did at least. Apparently this guy, Tubbo, leaked so many teams he wasn’t allowed to get them early, not even his own. And he would need to find out the teams along with all the fans.
And honestly a part of Scar felt that, he was definetly someone who too would leak his team, and it was a miracle that he hadn’t done that yet.
But this led to the present, where all of the hermits that participated in the event, as well as a few other hermits who just wanted to see the teams were all waiting, counting down the minutes until Scott finally sent the message.
Grian was pacing, every so often typing on his communicator. Most likely to some of the other contestants. False and Ren were idly chatting about their next projects. Cub was standing off to the side talking to Xisuma. The latter of the two wasn’t actually in the competition, he just wanted to make sure the hermits were happy with their teams.
Gem was there too, she was newer as well to the competition, and yet she had already gotten her win, she had actually been the fastest hermit to ever get a win.
It was actually kind of mind blowing to Scar that she had managed that, but then again he was almost always at the bottom 10 of the individual scoreboard.
Pearl wasn’t here today, she was busy needing to finish a project, but she would probably see the teams soon.
Each of the communicators of the contestants let out a ping, signaling they had gotten a message, and all of them perked up.
Scar looked down the list of teams, a lot of names which he didn’t recognize flashed through his mind, and a few names where he knew of the person due to the fame they had, but nothing about the actual person.
That was until he finally reached his own team name.
Purple Pandas - Smallishbeans, PeteZahHutt, GoodtimeswithScar and Grian.
“Scar, we're teamed!” Grian exclaimed, clearly excited about it as he practically jumped over the table to hug the brunette.
Scar didn’t say anything in response, looking at the team. They were all such good players. And then there was Scar.
Ren spoke up as well. “Gem! Looks like we’re teamed with H-Momma!” Ren was cheery as usual, and it was no secret how excited he was each time he got teamed with HBomb. Gem perked up at that as she saw the team too. “That’s wonderful!”
Pearl, Cub, False and Illumina were teamed too, and the two hermits present seemed more than satisfied with that. Honestly they were really a strong team too.
Looking at the overall teams they all seemed so strong. And then there was Scar, the weakest of all hermits in MCC. Everyone else had at the very least made it to dodgebolt. Even if Pearls dodgebolt was in a non canon event, she had still been in the arena.
Grian was typing furiously. “Alright, I have messaged Pete and Joel. If we train we could win this Scar!” The blonde sounded really excited, and who was Scar to destroy that excitement. Yet the urge to remind Grian that he was teamed with Scar was strong. That Scar wasn’t that strong, and would surely drag the team down.
But maybe training would help. And Pete tended to be good in Ace Race. Yeah, Scar would train, and he would become the best version of himself he could. He would become good for Grian, and his team. He wouldn’t drag them down this time.
- - -
The public now knew the teams, and it felt like a weight upon Scars shoulder that his team was often predicted to be in the top 4 if not 3 teams. There was even some saying they would make it to dodgebolt, while others had less faith.
Scar was definitely one of the people who had less faith.
Not in his team, but rather himself, and his own ability to do anything, maybe that was why he had agreed to train before this MCC. While he had trained Ace Race before, there was apparently a long list of other things he would have to train for. And a part of him did not feel ready.
But Grian was skipping along the road, until the first game they had to practice.
Rocket Spleef Rush.
And Scar internally groaned at that. He wasn’t a master of flying like Grian, rather he was a master dying because he smashed head first into a window, or tree. So practicing flying was not exactly what Scar wanted to spend his Thursday on, not when he could be gathering leaves for his next build project. But it was too late now. He was here, and he could already see Pete and Joel chatting in front of the game.
And so Scar sealed his fate to multiple days of training various games.
The two hermits approached their teammates. And Joel looked like Grian had forced him to be there. And honestly, it would not surprise Scar if the winged hermit had done exactly that.
“Hello there, Grian and Scar.” Joel greeted as they got close enough, Grian bounced over to them. Honestly Scar did not understand how Grian could be so excited training for MCC.
Sure the event was fun, but running around doing the same thing for hours was not up Scars alley. Also why he couldn’t understand the people who spent days shaving milliseconds off their ace race time just to get onto the leaderboard.
Especially because sure training did help for the event, but still people like Pete didn’t try really hard to get onto the leaderboard, and he was still one of the top ace race players. It just didn’t make sense to Scar.
“Scar, you okay there?” Pete asked, making the brunette realize he had been zoning out. “Yeppers! Everything is just fine. I was just thinking about Rocket Spleef.” Pete hummed at that. “Well I think we should start with teaching you guys how to consistently rocket jump to gain height.”
So Scar would fall into the void over and over again? Just great. Although he did not complain. He would make his team proud. He didn’t want to let them down, and so if training would help with that, Scar would not complain.
Not to their faces at least.
And so the 4 of them entered the game and landed on the platform below. Pete demonstrated how to rocket jump, before telling the three others to do it. Apparently Grian was good at rocket spleef, since he could already do it. Joel and Scar both struggled however.
Pete kept giving constructive criticism, and telling them how they could improve. Apparently it was all hand, eye coordination, and getting the timing down. Something which took a lot of practice.
After around 2 hours both Scar and Joel could do it some-what consistently, meanwhile Pete had moved on, and was currently trying to teach Grian how to dolphin dive. Where he would have to reach the ground at the right angle, and then fly upwards again to gain height and momentum.
And it was kind of funny seeing Grian fall into the void below every time he failed.
At this point both Scar and Joel had stopped practicing their rocket jumps to watch Grian dive head first into the ground over and over again.
Joel snickered, “He looks like an idiot.” Scar giggled. “He does! Like a dolphin but if it was on land, and not graceful.” That made Joel full on laugh. “Exactly like that! Couldn’t have said it better myself.”
Joel smirked. “10 dollars says that he’ll keep it up for another hour before getting frustrated and giving up.” “You’re on.”
It was at least another 30 minutes of face planting, or sliding across the smooth surface before Grian managed to do it. And meanwhile they had gathered quite the crowd of people watching from outside the arena.
Grians cheers could be heard as he glided through the air. “Woo! I did it!” “Good job Grian!” Pete said, making the blonde beam at the praise.
Now that Grian knew what angle he had to do it from, he seemed to get a little better at it, a lot of the time he still failed. But he had a few more successes amongst the falls into the void.
It wasn’t long before the team moved on to the next game, and Scar had heard horror stories from the hermits that had been in the competition longer in regards to this next thing.
The Parkour Warrior course.
Now the course wasn’t in the actual event which was lucky. However movement, and other parkour related games were still there. So it was important to atleast get a little practice so you would be able to make harder jumps, because a single failed jump could cost you the victory in Parkour Tag.
At first Scar could keep up, at least with Grian. And he could still see Pete and Joel a bit away, however soon both of them were out of sight. Based on the distant voices, Pete was probably giving Joel a few tricks on how to get past a particularly difficult bit.
Grian also seemed to be stuck on one bit further back from the others. It was these green glass walls with small gaps where you would just be able to make it through, however there were trapdoors on the side to make the gap even narrower and harder to get through.
Both of them started attempting to get through the obstacle, and neither was successful in getting past more than 3 of the walls.
Grian looked around as Scar attempted it once more, and as soon as Scar was back at the checkpoint again, he looked in the same direction, two new people were approaching the entrance of the parkour course.
Of course Scar recognized Dream, with his dark green cloak, and white mask with a smiley face drawn on. And it wasn’t a big surprise he was practicing either, since he was known to be the best contestant in parkour.
The other person next to him wore a mask too, however it was golden, with emerald green eyes. Looking more like a totem of undying. Scar recognized him too, however he couldn’t remember the person's name.
Scar was starting to realize how embarrassing it was that they were stuck on the first half of the course, while the master, and current record holder of beating it in record time was here. He absolutely did not want the two new people to see him failing.
Grian however had the brilliant idea of waving the people over. “Dream!” Even from behind the mask, you could tell Dream's attention was suddenly on Grian by the way his head moved from focusing on the course to the blonde.
The warrior walked over, the one with a golden mask following close behind. “Hi Grian.” Dream greeted, sounding more confused than anything else
“Sorry to bother you, but Scar and I can’t figure out how to get past this obstacle, and I was wondering if you could maybe help us?” Dream chuckled, almost seeming relieved at that. And a part of Scar did not blame him. Grian was chaotic, and would not hesitate to shove someone into the void. Scar knew that from experience. Also Grian was known as “Lord Dreamslayer.” A nickname he got from killing the porcelain masked man.
“Sure! I was about to help Foolish with parkour anyway.” The golden masked man waved. “Hello!” He greeted. Foolish! Now Scar remembered the name. And he definitely would not forget later.
“Hi Foolish!” Grian greeted, and Scar was quick to follow him with a “Hello,” not wanting to seem rude.
However the greeting was cut short, because Dream started explaining how to do it. “So it’s all about the angle you approach it from, too much to the right or left and you will hit your shoulder which will throw you off balance.”
Scar hummed. “But how do you find the right angle?” He questioned and Dream sighed, and Scar looked down. Of course he couldn’t just get it, he just had to ask.
“I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s more about knowing yourself. Like I have broader shoulders than say Grian, so I will need a different angle than he does. It’s really just about trying until you know the angle.”
That was certainly unhelpful, but Grian seemed to perk up. “Wait! I think I get it. Scar! I think it’s similar to buildings. If you’re in the right angle the build will look amazing, but from the wrong one it’s just terrible.” Scar nodded in understanding. “Like the back of your bases.” He shot back. But Dream shot in. “I’m not sure it works like that-” However, Foolish cut him off. “Oh! I get what you guys are saying.”
The PVPer tried to get another word in, but Grian was already attempting the walls once more. And weirdly enough he was actually doing better than before. Then followed Scar, who also seemed to have improved by the advice.
And so the afternoon continued, with Dream helping the three builders improve on bits they found hard. (They spent way too long on the ladder neos.) But they soon caught up with Pete and Joel as well, who didn’t mind the new company, and Pete and Dream quickly started bantering about how Pete had completed the parkour first, and so he must be better. It was all clearly joking, while Pete was good, he wasn’t on Dreams level yet.
Dream's communicator beeped as they had gone back to the ladder neos, since Grian, Scar, Joel and Foolish all seemed to be struggling with it.
“Sapnap’s gathering a few people to practice some dodgebolt, do you guys want to join?” The green cloaked man asked, and after a silent conversation between the Purple team, Pete was the one to respond. “Sure man! Sounds good.”
And so the six contestants made their way out of the parkour course, and towards the arena where dodgebolt practice took place. Even before they arrived, they could see a pretty decently sized group already waiting. Sapnap was quick to greet Dream and Foolish. However his smile didn’t faltar as he realized that the two SMP members had also invited other people.
Soon the dodgebolt rounds were starting, and Scar, as well as his team, didn't start in the arena, rather they watched as other people started training.
However it wasn’t long before the purple team was standing inside the arena, each with an arrow in hand. And Pete took the first shot on their team. And hit their target.
Just like that they would trade the arrows back and forth, sometimes hitting, and sometimes missing their shot. Scar however, was very good with a bow. The contestants watching from the sidelines got a good laugh every time Scar would say “Hawkeye.” and then shoot his shot.
It made Scar feel like he was doing something good, something right for once. However that could not last, because as the rounds went on his team realized Scars one weakness in dodgebolt.
Mostly that he couldn’t dodge. It wasn’t like his moves were predictable, it was just that he would freeze up every time he saw an arrow heading towards him, making him an incredibly easy target. And due to him being a good shot, he was targeted as one of the first people.
As he stood on the sidelines, watching his team compete below since he was already out, he heard Seapeekay talking to Dream. “That team has 4 good people to shoot, they would not be a fun team to face in dodgebolt.”
And Scar couldn’t help but disagree.
He was completely useless it seemed.
Soon enough the round ended with his team losing, and they joined Scar in watching as another round started. However Pete was the one that spoke of the four. “It’s getting kind of late, do you guys want to head back to the hotel for the night? We can watch Seapeekays predictions before we go to sleep?”
Ah, Scar had almost forgotten, he wouldn’t be going back with Grian to Hermitcraft, instead he would be staying in the MCC hotel for competitors. It was needed since it would take too long for people to return to their home worlds if they stayed all day, and some people wanted to start practicing as soon as the arenas open in the morning, so it was easier for them to stay.
Plus the event spanned over 5 days, 2 games a day, and then one for celebration.
Not only that, each room had a giant closet where the team would be able to find matching outfits, if they wanted to wear those for the event.
And so after the three other members of the team had agreed to head to the hotel, they started the walk towards it. Pete and Grian were talking about some of the earlier events they had been teamed in, and at some point Joel had joined in to talk about doing a 3v1 in dodgeball.
Scar could only ever dream of reaching the levels of accomplishments his team had in the event.
Navigating the hallways was hard for someone like Scar, who was still fairly new to the event, however Pete seemed more than confident in knowing where they were going, and so Scar followed him.
Soon enough they reached a door where there was a purple panda logo, with the text of their team name under. They entered the room, and it was decorated as expected. A dark royal purple interior, with soft carpets, long curtains and a comfortable couch in the center. There was also a coffee table made of acacia wood. The same wood accented all the furniture in such a beautiful way.
Off of the main room were 4 smaller rooms where each of them would be able to sleep, there was also a giant bathroom, and the closet.
Dinner was already in the room on the table, apparently Joel had called ahead and asked for some to be delivered to the team who was exhausted. Normally they would go to the cafeteria instead of getting room service. But they felt that after a long day of training, they deserved to sit in some comfortable furniture and just relax.
Soon enough they were all seated and Pete had pulled up Seapeekays prediction video on the large TV.
As the fox hybrid showed his team predictions Joel exclaimed. “Fourth?! We can place so much better than fourth, and he put his own team in first? Classic Seapeekay.” Scar spoke quietly, and was almost hesitant. “Doesn’t he know what he’s talking about?”
Pete shrugged. “Sometimes. He’s often wrong about the predictions though. I mean in MCC 20 he didn’t even put the winning team in the top 5. So take everything he says with a grain of salt. I believe in us.”
Scar however, did not believe in his own abilities.