Work Text:
As Scott laughed, Bek cackled, and Oli snickered, he felt the absence of Martyn’s voice was apparent. Sure, it could’ve just gotten lost in the chorus of other voices, or he honestly may not have laughed at all, but still. It was odd either way, because Oli had been listening out for his voice. He hadn’t contributed anything to the conversation in a couple minutes.
He f5-ed to check that Martyn’s ship was still moving with them. It was.
“You’ve gone awfully quiet, Marty,” he tried. “Wh–What’s on your mind, old boy?”
Scott and Bek went quiet, apparently likewise curious.
Oli carefully looked at Martyn’s little icon at the top of his screen. It didn’t light up.
“I think he’s fallen asleep at the wheel,” Bek offered, a shorthand for “technical issues.” Scott typed “martyn we cant hear you” in chat.
They waited a moment, but Martyn still said nothing. He wasn’t muted, not on the server anyways, and he didn’t even try to disconnect or anything. Oli half expected him to crash any second now, except he’d been silent for a few minutes now and his ship was still moving.
“...Did he say he’d be back and we just missed it–?” Scott asked, with a bit of a laugh, before going quiet when they all saw Martyn’s prox mod icon light up.
It sounded like a snore, which they all seemed to take as “Martyn solved his problem and was going with the bit.”
Now— Oli had heard Martyn fake snore before. It wasn’t particularly uncommon. But it was usually loud, exaggerated. This, on the other hand, was quiet. Of course, Oli didn’t say anything about this— assumed it was a side effect of his mic getting reconnected, or something— but he did notice it.
As of right now, though, he went along with it. As did Scott and Bek, it seemed.
“Marty!” Oli shouted, “Marty, wake up! Don’t let the sea take you, Marty!”
Scott laughed, and Bek sounded like he was about to say something, but then Martyn said something else. Or, not really said.
He just hummed slightly, and then followed that with another quiet snore.
Alright, that–
That sounded a bit too genuine.
“He’s not actually–?” Bek began.
“Martyn?” Scott asked.
No response. The three of them went quiet.
“What time is it for him?” Oli asked.
“No idea.”
“Is he still streaming?” Bek asked.
“I’ll check,” replied Scott. Vague typing could be heard, and his ship stopped. After a minute, he said, “Yeah. And it… looks like chat hasn’t heard from him in a minute either.”
“Oh no,” said Bek, at the same time Oli said “Uh-oh!”
“But his– he can’t—” Bek tried to say. “His boat’s still movin’. Is he holding the key down or something?”
Exactly what Oli was thinking.
“Uh… I think he said something about auto-walk the other day?” he offered.
“Is he seriously– Martyn,” Scott laughed. “Mods, can any of you end stream?”
Martyn snored again, and it caused them all to giggle. Oli tabbed out to open Martyn’s stream himself.
“only editors can do that, i think,” a mod said in chat, “martyn doesnt have any editors.”
“Of course,” Scott muttered, having seen the same.
“Is that a no?” asked Bek.
“No, he doesn’t have any editors,” Scott relayed. “Can any of you host?”
A moment for the stream delay to catch up.
“maybe?”
“mods usually cant but he might have a bot for it”
“let me see”
Another moment.
“no dice.”
“Dang it,” Scott said.
“His ship’s still moving,” Bek pointed out. Tabbing back in showed that the two of them had left Oli’s render distance. “We’re about to hit the island.”
Scott’s ship appeared in his peripheral, him apparently having tabbed back as well. Oli sailed with him.
“Do we get the Sun God to kick him off?” Oli asked. “So he doesn’t die?”
The other two seemed to consider this. Bek and Martyn’s ships became visible again, as well as a bit of their destination island.
“I mean, we could just keep him safe for now,” Scott suggested. “But if he’s still asleep when we finish the quest, maybe.”
“‘Cos it’s not like he’ll be going anywhere anyways,” Bek said.
“Exactly.”
Oli watched as Bek’s ship stopped in the distance, and they hopped out. He then watched as Martyn’s ship hitting the island was met with an accompanying yelp from the man himself.
“Jesus!” Scott exclaimed.
“Woah, you alright?” Oli asked.
Martyn audibly took a breath.
“Yeah, fine, why do you ask?” he said, in a casual voice.
“Martyn,” said Scott.
“What?” he asked. Oli could see his little head looking around in the distance, “What, what’d I do?”
“You went and fell asleep on us, is what you did!” said Bek. This gave Martyn pause.
“Oh,” he said. “Did I?”
All three of their voices overlapped: “‘Did you?’” “How would you not have noticed–?” “We were talking to your mods and everything–”
Scott was the one who rose above the other two, saying
“Martyn, I think you oughta log off for the night.”
“Yeah, maybe,” agreed Oli with a snicker.
“Oh, nah, nah,” Martyn said dismissively, exiting his ship. “I’m good, sorry about that, I’m good.”
“Mmh, no, I’m not so sure you are,” Bek countered.
“Oh, really,” said Martyn. “Just a quick doze, you know. A power nap.”
“Martyn,” said Scott, “When we finish this quest and go back to spawn, you are logging off. Understand?”
Martyn was quiet.
“Ah, alright,” he said eventually.
“And no detour, ‘oh we’re not technically at spawn’ nonsense either.”
“Aw man,” Martyn chuckled, albeit followed with “Alright, alright. Can we quit fussing over me now?”
“I think so,” Oli offered.
“For now,” Bek added.
“Last thing:” Scott and Oli docked on the island.
“Mh?”
“Get some damn editors on your stream.”