Chapter Text
Grian was sure they started walking backwards even before he had shouted go. Not that it mattered to much, it was just the best way to start this chapter without being too repetitive, in the author’s humble opinion.
Grian, being the daring soul he is, decided that he would try to claim a tree near the surrounding area. He figured he wouldn’t have to fight many people, or anyone for that matter, off as most would want to stay away from making enemies straight off the bat. Not Grian though!
Not that he wants people after him all that much, but like, surely no one would keep a grudge against him from the beginning.
Collecting the wood from the tree, Grian felt smug about his earlier prediction of no one going to try messing with him. And from his vision, the person who took the tree closest to him was none other than Scar. Also, not very surprising. Grian’s played enough with Scar to know that the taller man is always as reckless as he could be and has absolutely no self-preservation. If Scar got Gamma, would his self-preservation reach the negatives?
“Hey, Scar!” Grian calls out to Scar, deciding to make his way over to the other. Who knows, maybe Grian will be able to trick Scar to give him one of his lives again. Scar has always been too gullible for his own good.
“Hello, Grian!” He is met back with a cheery greeting from his past soulmate who somehow always has a smile on his face. “You excited for this new game?”
“Of course I am. I literally made it, dummy.” Grian couldn’t help the small smile that made it’s way on his face as he tries to look annoyed or exasperated, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes to really drive that home.
“Fair enough, fair enough. I know I sure am! I wonder what I’ll get and who I’ll be teamed up with!” Scar seemed so excited for the game, Grian could just feel his smile grow.
“I feel you. What are you hoping to get and who do you want as your teammates? Ooh! Who would you not want as your teammates?” Grian asks, curious to know what Scar had to say, quite evident as his wings ruffled from the anticipation. Gosh, this was such a Bdubs and Impulse thing to do.
“Hm… Well, obviously I hope to get six lives,” they both chuckle. Who wouldn’t want six lives? “As for my role, I think I would want to get Phi.”
That, Grian did not expect. He was really expecting Scar to say Gamma, hell even Sigma would have be understandable. But Phi?
His surprise must have shown because Scar was quick to give him an explanation. “Well, as we both know I die less to being murdered than I am to my own lack of awareness. But if I have extra durability and have better regeneration, then I may be able to survive a fall if I trip or can take some extra hits or not get blown up by a creeper that one of my friends lead up to me eithout me knowing and blows me up…” That last one was personal.
Grian made an offended noise but didn’t comment on that jab any further. “Yeah, I suppose I didn’t see it that way. But I could understand why you’d want Phi now.”
Scar nods with a smile on his face. “Now for people I’d like to team with… Pearl’s really cool! She’d make an awesome protector and she’s like one of my bestest friends! Hm… as for someone else I’d wanna team with… Probably Bdubs! He’s super fun to hang out with!”
Leave it to Scar to want his teammates to be his close friends rather than people who are actually good at this. Though, Pearl wasn’t a bad choice. Grian would love to have her and Scott on a team if possible. On his team, he means, not another team.
“And, normally, I wouldn’t ever say I wouldn’t want to team with someone. But…” This made Grian super curious. He wasn’t actually expecting Scar to answer that last question. Scar loved like everyone! “The one, and only, person I wouldn’t want to team up with is…”
Damn Scar for pausing to make this more dramatic. Grian’s curiosity was at an all time high right then.
“You.”
..
…
…?
What.
“What?” Grian stared dumbfounded at Scar, while the other cackled. Grian sighed and shook his head, of course Scar was teasing him. He should have figured. “Ha ha, very funny Scar. You could have just said no one.”
Scar wipes a stray tear from his face as he calms down from laughing so hard. “I wasn’t joking.”
Grian scoffs, looking at the taller male with a clear look of annoyance. “Scar it’s not fun-“ Grian cuts himself off as he sees Scar’s expression change from amused to cold.
“I wasn’t joking,” Scar repeated. “I don’t want to team with you.”
“Scar, why not? We’re friends!” Grian argues, not understanding Scar’s logic behind this. If it was because Scar wanted to team with new people, Grian could understand. But he could tell in Scar’s eyes, there was something there. Rage, anger, just overall hatred.
Hatred for Grian.
“I just don’t want to team with the person who cheated on me,” Scar’s tone didn’t seem to change, still so cold and curt. “I didn’t take my anger with me to Hermitcraft since I figured that it would be rude to possibly mix others in this or cause another war. But now, in a new game, I can finally express how much you hurt me when you chose BigB over me. Or how I felt when I realized your loud scream of no was when you found out you were paired with me! Or how in the first game you just took one of my lives, no I’m sorry, TWO of my lives and just didn’t even team up with me. I was so lonely in that second game! But you don’t care, Grian! You don’t care about anyone but yourself! So, no, Grian. I don’t want to team with you.”
Grian didn’t get to say another word as Scar turned on his heel and left Grian, standing there completely frazzled and shocked. He had never expected Scar to actually be resentful over that, not after how nice and sweet he acted like in Hermitcraft. But apparently, Grian hurt him a lot more than he intended.
Grian swore he could hear his heart break.
But in actuality it was his communicator. It was dinging with his results and Grian quickly shook himself out of his stupor to see what he was given.
Gamma and he had three lives to spare. Just three lives… Well, not the best but at least it wasn’t two.
Grian took one more look, and off far in the distance, he could see the allay hybrid still walking away.
From him.
“Wow… he told you..” Grian whipped around to see a familiar blonde standing behind him, looking as surprised as he had felt.
Grian sniffed the air, it smelled… weird? It smelled minty almost. And, Grian couldn’t stop the uncontrollable need to growl.
“Calm yourself, I’m not here lookin for a fight.” Grian shook his head and looked away from the other, getting himself to stop growling. Knowing everything he added that he so happily left out during the meeting, mainly since nobody asked, he knew what the growling meant.
“Sorry. Gammas get a little aggressive with each other. I figure you didn’t come here looking for a fight, right?“ Grian chuckles lightly, looking back so the blonde didn’t think he was rude by not staring at her.
“No worries,” False reassures him with a small pat on the back. She wasn’t looking at him but rather where Scar had gone off to. “Trouble in paradise?”
Grian sighs, looking at the ground with a small frown. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure after this game or after we get a chance to sit down and talk we’ll able to work things out. It’s just a simple disagreement.”
“It sounded a bit more serious, but I won’t hound you for answers. Hopefully you both aren’t teamed then.” Grian wondered how much of their… argument? False had heard. It seemed like she must have at least heard his last couple of words.
“By the way, sorry to change the subject, but why are your eyes green?” False decides to ask Grian. Grian snapped his attention back to her, looking into her now yellow eyes. Poor False.
“Ah, that indicates life amounts. Dark green means you have four or more lives, lime green means you have three lives, yellow means two, and red means one,” Grian explains to her. “It will always be shown in the eyes, but sometimes people have other indicators. Like I have this change colors.” Grian taps on his little badge thing that was a hexagon and had a G engraved on it. Guess it could be for Gamma or Grian.
“Ah, I see,” False nods and looks at herself. From what Grian could tell, she was wearing her clothes from Empires, since her normal striped shirt was missing and replaced by a simple white shirt and yellow ribbon.
“Well, dear Falsey, would you like to go looking for people with me? Maybe we can stop by a cave and get some iron, diamonds would be even better,” Grian suggests. Normally he’d be all for mining and collecting resources, but he’d prefer to do that with his team. Also the author thought that things were getting a little repetitive. “Perhaps, after the boogeyman is chosen?” They only had about a minute left after all.
“Sure, sounds good to me. Shouldn’t we try collecting resources though?” False points out, even though Grian had just explained why he wanted to go find people in his mind which she clearly should have telepathically known.
They soon heard the beeping over their communicators, and decided to pause their conversation. Grian stares at it while it counts down.
5…
4….
3…
2…
1…
You are….
Not the Boogeyman!
Grian lets out a sigh of relief, hearing the same sound come from his companion. Well, guess that was all good then. Time to resume their previous conversation. And this totally didn’t happen because I forgot to write the scene where they got boogeyman and didn’t feel like rewriting so I put it in an awkward spot. Not at all.
“Well, yeah, but it’d be nicer to do that with our teams, you know?” Normally Grian played with a very cautious and careful style. But, right now, he just wanted to find his group and be with them! Collecting resources can happen later! “Besides, worst comes to worst, we can spend the night in the caves looking for iron and stuff.”
False hums, debating the options for a moment before shrugging. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
——
Many.
There were many things that could go absolutely wrong.
The two of them had found themselves in a very lovely dark oak biome. You know, the ones where it’s super easy for mobs to spawn? That one.
So… maybe Grian should have thought that through, just a little more. But in his defense, he is just trying to have a fun time. Which is weird. Sure, he likes having fun. But he knows this is more Scar behavior than his.
Just thinking about Scar makes him want to punch the stupid creeper he and False were running from. No! No thinking about that stupid allay right now! Or ever! Scar made his choice! Besides, it was unlikely they’d be matched together anyways!
Hopefully they weren’t, that would be so incredibly awkward.
Oh, right. We were talking about how Grian and False were running from a creeper. We should probably get back to that instead of being distracted.
Well, anyways, the two gammas quickly outran the creeper. It wasn’t hard considering they literally have a speed boost.
“This speed boost is so fun!” Grian exclaims, happily running around. It was always fun to mess with potion effects. But, to have a permanent potion effect while being in this death game. Well, it was quite exhilarating!
“It is fun!” False chuckles at Grian’s happiness, but agreed nonetheless. “Actually, I have been wondering something for a while, if you don’t mind me asking.”
“Not at all, what’s up?”
“Well….” False pauses for a moment to think of how to word her question. “For some reason, most of this game I’ve been smelling mint? And I’m not sure why as I’ve seen no mint around nor have I eaten any.”
Now it was Grian’s turn to chuckle. “Ah, well dead Falsey, that would be because of something I didn’t mention. My bad.” He didn’t really sound sorry though. “Basically, us Gammas can smell everyone else’s roles! Gammas smell like mint, as you’ve noticed, Sigmas smell like fruit, and Phis smell like petrichor!”
False had nodded her head while he explained, taking mental notes on all that information. “I see, well if us Gammas can do that. Do Sigmas and Phis have similar abilities?”
Grian’s smile grew wider. “Oh they sure do! I’m not telling you thou-“ False, smiling like she wasn’t about to murder him, brings her fist to her palm and starts to crack her knuckles. “I will totally tell you since we’re good friends! So basically if a Sigma touches you, they’ll be able to highlight you, this only shows for them, and it’ll last for about ten minutes. And for Phis, they have amazing hearing. And, essentially, if you take damage, they’ll kind of be able to hear how many hearts of damage you took.”
“Huh… those sound so cool… except for Gammas! Why do Gammas have it so bad?!” False exclaimed with the biggest look of confusion on her face, which, frankly, Grian understood perfectly. I mean, being a human highlighter and a human stethoscope is a lot cooler than being a werewolf, minus the wolf part. Unless you’re Ren and if he even got Gamma.
“Well, with our amazing sense of smell, we can be able to tell when someone is coming near us!” Grian defends himself. He spent a lot of time making these roles, mind you!
False looked unimpressed. “From how far, hm? Not that it matters, since the other two are far more useful.”
“That’s simply not true! If a Gamma can smell someone coming near them and their role, they’re able to know whether that person is a good target or not! Plus, teams are supposed to be working together, not separately. This is all about teamwork!” Grian at least thought all the added abilities that he kindly didn’t mention were cool…
False rolls her eyes, but finally the subject is dropped. “Whatever. Anyways, we’ve run for quite some time now. I think it’s time to find a cave and start getting some weapons and armor. Especially armor. We’re easier to kill without it. And, we need to start keeping track of our hunger so we need to be safe enough to go hunting.”
Grian pouts at that, but, he couldn’t lie, False had a point. “Alright then… lets go find a cave and hope there are some trees around it. We’re going to need a bit more wood than what I have on me.”
False nods. “We’re in a forest already, lets just take one of these trees and then go searching.”
So they did just that. Since they were in a dark oak forest, they just took down one of the trees together. They made themselves a wooden pickaxe and sword, just so they have at least something to defend themselves if they come into contact with any mobs in the caves. With that, they set off!
———
It didn’t take too long to find a cave, however, they did notice that the cave had torches in it. They both decided to investigate anyways, who knows, maybe some people left things in here that they could take. And even if there were people inside, it actually worked better in their favor as they were already searching for people!
“Hello?” Grian calls out to the cave. “Anyone inside?”
It was silent for a few moments. Grian took that as the cave being empty and motioned False to follow behind him. They’d check the place out before leaving fully.
However, as soon as they went through a small passage way in the walls, the two of them had swords at their throats. On the other end of said swords was none other than Joel and Bdubs.
Grian sniffs the air, something he should have done back at the cave entrance but fuck it, right? Anyways, because of his added ability he was able to tell that there was a Sigma and Phi amongst them. He couldn’t really discern who was which though.
Maybe Grian should have done something cooler with Gammas…
“Hey hey, we mean no trouble. We literally just want to get some tools and stuff,” False speaks up, hoping to calm the other pair’s nerves.
“And how do we know that neither of the boogeyman?” Bdubs retorts back, very clearly not calming down.
“Bdubs, we literally only have wooden tools while you guys have an iron chest plate and stone tools,” False deadpans. And, it’s not like she was wrong by any means. They were literally armor less and had wooden tools. If anything, they were easier to kill than either of them.
“Yeah, but if we let you guys mine here and get iron, who’s to say you won’t just kill us? Or kill us when we turn our backs or ki-“
“Or kill you when we find this super spooky disc and are just trying to have fun, completely betraying your trust and getting put on your hit book?” Grian interrupts Bdubs rambling with his own deadpan, which was a lot colder as he reminds Bdubs of his kill in Last Life.
Bdubs, to his credit, did look a little sheepish. “We- Well…” he sighs and lowers his sword, Joel following suit. And, actually, Grian totally forgot Joel was here, he had been oddly quiet. “I guess you have a point…”
“Great! Then, how about we all go mining together and talk about what we got. I’m curious to know which of you is the Phi and Sigma,” False smiles, deciding to walk past those two.
“Wait, how did you know our roles?” Joel asks, following her quickly which prompted Grian and Bdubs to follow suit.
“Oh, us Gammas can smell everyone’s roles. Both Grian and I are both Gammas,” she answers him. “And because of that, we can smell that one of you is a Sigma and the other is a Phi.”
“Huh. Interesting… Well, I’m the Sigma! Bdubs the Phi-“
“YES!” False interrupts Joel with a shout of joy.
“Why are you so happy?” Bdubs pouts, crossing his arms.
“I bet with Ren whether you’d get the omega role or not,” False chuckles, clapping her hands in joy. “And I win~ Ren bet that you’d at least get the beta role.”
“WHAT?!” Bdubs was, understandably, upset. But Grian and Joel could not stop laughing. Like, not False and Ren betting on Bdubs role.
“Did you guys bet on anyone else?” Grian manages between wheezes.
“Yes, actually. You were one of them, Grian. Neither of us won. I bet Sigma, he bet Phi. Kind of sad. And then we bet on you and Scar being teamed up, he said it’ll be the third time if you are. I said you both would and he said you both wouldn’t. So we’ve yet to see who won that one yet. And we also bet if Tango and Impulse would be together. And if Bdubs and Etho would be together. Pretty much it.” Grian was in absolute shock by how much they betted. Not to mention, he had no idea when they had the time to bet on this. They all only found out about the game a little while ago, and him and False had been together majority of the time. Will this be the third unsolved mystery of the series?
“I’m not even going to question it,” Bdubs shakes his head in disbelief, which Grian thought was completely reasonable. Because seriously, Grian was confused so he would choose to pretend it didn’t happen.
“Ok, so, lets just chat then and go mining.” Grian drops the previous subject, walking behind the others. He takes this moment to look at all of them thoroughly. Mainly for their lives.
Joel’s was obvious, having the streak in his hair change as usual. It was a dark green, so technically it stayed the same color. But, it did let Grian know he had the most lives. As for Bdubs, it was the bandana around his head, and it was a lime green, much like Grian’s badge.
The quad spent most of the day slaving away in the mines. Bdubs, considering he was a Phi, had weakened strength and wasn’t the most proficient when it came to mining. Grian got a glare for that feature, even though him and the others laughed. To make it up to Bdubs, Grian did do his mining for him. Not without a few jabs of how he’s being a provider while Bdubs is sitting there looking pretty.
He almost got killed for that comment, but it was worth it. He knew he was at least doing right by Etho for that comment.
Once they were all armored up and had an iron sword each, they decided to leave. They could always come get more iron and diamonds later. For now, iron armor and swords were the most important.
When they left the mines, the sun was setting.
“Ah. The sun’s setting. Maybe we should just stay inside the caves for the night?” False suggests to the group.
“But we sort of need food,” Joel points out. It was a very good point since none of them decided to bring food and they were all hungry.
“Well, how about False and I go hunt for food while you two… I don’t know build a little camp for us inside the cave. Block off all the entrances you need to and make sure it’s well lit,” Grian easily takes the leader role, giving everyone something to do. Teamwork makes the dream work.
The two pairs split off, False and Grian killing nearby animals while Bdubs and Joel build a small base for them.
“Hey, Grian…” False speaks up after murdering a pig. They’ve been leaving the chicken as much as possible since they’d most likely need feathers later on.
“Yeah, what’s up? Something wrong?” Grian asks her, wiping his forearm on his forehead to wipe some sweat away.
“No, I just.. had a realization of sorts is all?” False sounded unsure if that was the correct wording. Grian turned to face her, kind of because that’s a human thing to do when someone is talking to them. “Well, like. Joel’s a Sigma…”
Grian nods, confirming her statement, but tilts his head in confusion. “So…?”
“And Sigmas are the ones who knows who’s teamed with who…?” She continued and like. It hits Grian at that moment.
“Oh neither of us tested to see if we were paired with Joel!” Grian mentally facepalmed for not realizing. That was such a Scar thing to do-
Nope, not going down that rabbit hole.
“We didn’t even ask if Bdubs and Joel are partnered up,” False chuckles in disbelief, actually facepalming. “Looks like we’ll have to remember to ask when we get back.“
With that, the two continued their mini hunt, not trying to stray too much from their camp. It would be a pain to get back if they didn’t know which way it was. Plus, it was just rude to leave Joel and Bdubs starving!
The two made their way inside the cave, having to break the cobble wall the other pair had put up. Of course, they replaced the wall, they didn’t want mobs coming in either!
“We’re back!” False cheerfully calls into the small area. Not that she needed to since Bdubs and Joel were literally in the same room. It was pretty small to say the least.
“We’re aware,” Joel says, sounding a tad confused.
“Alrighty, lets start smelting food! I’m starving!” Bdubs complains, making grabby hands towards the two Gammas.
Grian gave him the meat, rumbling proudly. He could hear a huff next to him, and he looked over to see False giving Bdubs her catch as well. Now it was hum huffing and puffing.
“Woah, woah you two. I dunno why you two are angry at each other but calm down a little!” Bdubs tries to calm the two Gammas, who were glaring at each other.
Grian was the first to break eye contact, shaking his head in order to clear it. “Sorry, Gamma things.”
“Gamma things?” Joel asks from where he was seated on the ground.
“Gammas get… a little aggressive with each other to say the least. And Gammas are also very protective of possible teammates, only until they find their actual pact that is. So, False and I were showing off our catches, so we were getting a little heated cuz of those instincts is all,” Grian explains to Joel.
“Wait, why wasn’t this told to us during the beginning?” Bdubs huffs, liking to probably have this information earlier.
“I wanted people to explore some of the different abilities and features! So I didn’t tell everyone everything~” Grian smiles cheekily.
Bdubs groans. “How annoying! But so in character too. Should have figured.”
False nods, taking a seat on the floor against a wall. “Yeah, sad I lost that bet to Ren…”
“What bet?“ Grian asks, even though he could probably answer.
“Oh. We had a bet whether or not you told us everything at the beginning.” False shrugs. “I lost.”
“You two really bet on everything, huh…” Joel lets out a chuckle, shaking his head. “Sounds fun, though.”
“Alrighty, how about we get the food cooking? Then, we go to sleep! Because, I dunno about you all, but I’m so tired!” Grian yawns, trying to hurry this conversation up so Bdubs, who now had all the food, could cook it so they could eat. It wasn’t a good idea to go to bed on an empty stomach. Or, well, Grian just didn’t want to!
“Oh right!” Bdubs hurried over to the furnaces, there was four, and separated the meats. One furnace for mutton, one for pork chops, and two for the beef.
Soon after it was all done cooking, everyone chose their own meat and dug in. The room was filled with only the sounds of them chewing, them all being too tired to talk further. And soon, after they all had finished their food, the leaned against the wall or laid on the floor and fell asleep, waiting for the next day to befall them. Putting trust in each other that none of them would kill them in their sleep.