Chapter Text
Gem would like to think that she’s been doing great so far in this game. Just look at her! A part of a strong team, their base already made at an easily defendable location, well on her way to being completely geared up, her hearts at a full thirty—
—and she’s running around a server that’s yet to be lit up. At night. The time where mobs are abundant and could jump her at any second. Yep. Uh-huh. She is indeed doing that right now.
…look. Let it be known that being smart is Impulse’s job. Gem’s just here to watch her Scotts do smart people things! (And murder. She’s also here for murder! Not at the moment, but soon…hopefully!)
She’s not going to have a chance to do those things if she dies here, though. She’s got a reputation to uphold, and that reputation does not involve being the embarrassing first death of the game because of a stupid skeleton hiding in the woods.
There’s a distinct groan that makes all of her senses flare up, her body instinctively twirling around to find the zombie headed towards her. The lone zombie creeps onwards, slow, jerky, and an easy kill.
Gem swipes at the undead with her sword, cutting through the mob. It doesn’t take much to dispatch the zombie, as her enchanted blade practically melts through it like butter. In just mere seconds, the zombie poofs out of existence, leaving behind bits of its rotten flesh.
She doesn’t stop to pick it up, though. There’s not a whole lot of use for it, at least not that she can think of.
Instead, she spins on her heel and picks up her pace. Better find a spot to camp for the night, seeing as the onslaught of mobs won’t end anytime soon.
She considers digging out a hole for all but a brief second. It’s not gonna be fun sitting in a cramped hole for the rest of the night.
She could find a cave, but that doesn’t solve the problem of mobs.
The silhouette of the Secret Keeper gradually creeps into her vision. That’s good, she’s closer to spawn now. Maybe that means she can make it back to her base on her own.
Well… that might also be a tad too optimistic, she realises, once she tries to scout out a path back home and remember the uphill trek.
Her gaze wanders again, letting her mind ponder about her options.
That is, until she spots the skeleton notching an arrow.
She lets out a yelp in a totally dignified manner, then holds up her shield just in time to block the arrow flying her way. She’s going to have to either make a run for it or attack it up close, since she doesn’t have a bow handy to fire back.
Stepping aside to dodge another shot, Gem decides on the latter option. She breezes past another arrow fired at her, using the momentum to leap forwards and give the bony creature a good kick from below. It manages to send it tumbling down, hitting the dirt with a dull thud, coupled by the clanking of its bones against each other.
With one more stab, its skull is shattered into pieces. Gem breathes a sigh of relief, moving onwards to the usual routine of looting the mob, but right as she reaches for the remaining bones—
“Behind you, Gem!”
The shout ignites a chain of sparks in Gem’s mind, recognising the voice in an instant. She immediately whips around, wide-eyed and barely able to catch her breath.
She jumps up when she’s greeted by a zombie being slammed into the ground by a stone shovel, inches away from her. (Only by a little! She didn’t get scared that much, she swears.)
Quick to follow up on the attack, a yellow-collared dog pounces on the zombie, tearing into its throat. It didn’t stand much of a chance after that, and Gem doesn’t even get to act before its twitching dies down.
As for the dog, it prances to its owner with proud steps.
“Aw, Mailbox!” Pearl coos, ruffling her dog’s fur. “Such a good boy…”
Gem stays still, content with watching while she recovers from the rush of blood to her ears, each thump of her heart overwhelming her hearing. She allows her limbs to go slack, the rush and urgency of it all finally settling down in her brain.
She exhales, making her painfully aware of her previous shallow breaths, the way her chest constricted and curled inwards, crushed beneath the weight of panic. Everything feels lighter now, calmer, more peaceful. The foggy haze her mind had been under clears, replaced by the image of moonlight dancing along Pearl’s skin as she continues whispering words of adoration to her pet. For a moment, Gem could’ve convinced herself that they’ve returned to normalcy, that she’s spending a night out with her best friend, and nothing more.
The sight causes a tug at the corners of her lips. Finally, the comforting blanket of familiarity relaxes her enough to speak.
“Really? Mailbox ?” Gem teases, once she caught on to the name of Pearl’s dog.
Pearl gawks at Gem as though her entire being was just insulted, and she huffs, “I’ll have you know that Mailbox here just saved your butt!”
“Alright, fine.” Gem drawls, picking up the bone beside her. “Then I’m sure he wants a treat, huh?”
Right on cue, Mailbox dashes over at the promise of a bone, which Gem hovers just out of his reach. He tilts his head and pants, looking at the treat eagerly. Name and zombie slaughtering aside, Gem does admit that Pearl’s tamed a very cute puppy— Just look at him!
Gem giggles, then lets Mailbox grab the bone off her hands. After he graciously accepts the reward, nibbling on it, he bounces back over to Gem. Not giving her any time to react, he makes himself comfortable on Gem’s lap and nuzzles closer to lick her cheek.
“Somebody’s playing favourites.” Pearl mumbles as she makes her way over, pouting at the two.
“Jealous?”
“Shush your face.” Pearl crosses her arms and tries her best to hide the amused flicker in her eyes. Pearl’s face turns just a shade redder, but Gem is more focused on playing with the puppy in her arms than to tease her even more.
By the time Gem does pay attention to Pearl, what she notices is how her hair is more mussed up than usual, how smudges of dirt dappled her clothes and skin, how she’s taken off her signature hoodie and has it tied around her waist. She sways gently as she stands, occasionally glancing off to look out for mobs, yet keeping a calm and easy composure.
“What have you been doing out here?” Gem asks once Mailbox leaves her grasp and returns to Pearl’s side.
“I could ask you the same thing!” Pearl laughs, “I was finishing up on my mound when I saw you running around, about to become a zombie’s midnight snack! And— Well, I couldn’t just let that happen, could I?”
That reminds Gem of how she’s still sitting on the ground, causing her to spring up. “Right! Uh— Thanks.”
She dusts herself off, averting Pearl’s gaze as her brain recalls everything that led up to this. In the midst of that, she processes Pearl’s reply and sputters, “Wait, what’s that about a mound?”
“My house!” Pearl beams, which doesn’t really help address the randomness of that sentence. “C’mon, I’ll show you.”
Pearl begins strolling towards the direction of spawn, and Gem doesn’t think twice before following, with Mailbox trailing behind the two.
The sight of two…let’s just say, “directionally confused” houses sitting atop their own mounds soon greeted Gem. It’s not everyday you’re inspecting an upside down or a horizontal hut, Gem can tell you that much. She decides to not put too much thought on the structural integrity of the builds, which might just be the best decision she’s made all night.
Pearl also doesn’t comment on those builds, instead stopping in front of what’s nestled between the two.
“It’s…” Gem squints, as if it’d reveal whatever mastery had been skilfully disguised in the construction of the structure before her. “It’s a mound.”
A mound. One plain mound.
“A lovely mound, mind you.” Pearl adds as she puffs out her chest. “A lovely, round mound.”
Gem stares at the mound, all the while mentally lamenting how the word “mound” is starting to not sound like a real word anymore, especially if this conversation continues.
“Yeah…” Gem tilts her head. “It’s…cute?”
Pearl side-eyes Gem and chuckles. “Jeez, had to dig real deep for that one, huh?”
Gem isn’t even sure why her face grew slightly hotter at the reply, but every retort she has dies as quickly as they flash in her mind, leaving her to trip over her words and become more flushed— What does Pearl want from her? It’s just a mound! A regular mound that she apparently couldn’t appreciate enough.
Pearl goes to open the door to her home, but her guffaws continue. “And you call yourself a lump lady— I can’t believe you, Gem.”
Pearl leans on the front door to invite Gem in, a smug grin still yet to fade from her expression. Gem rolls her eyes, accepting the invitation nonetheless. Of course, she catches the old nickname from a joke way in the past, which makes her pause just beside Pearl.
“ You ’re the one who called me that.” Gem aims to elbow Pearl, perhaps a second away from actually making contact until Pearl makes an awkward scoot to the side.
It came naturally, something that she doesn’t process before doing. They’ve done this far too many times, after all. Gem had to glance between her own elbow, strapped with iron armour, and Pearl, who was evidently wearing no armour at all, to make sense of why Pearl moved away.
Right, hearts don’t regenerate.
The realisation hits with as much grace as the splash of a bucketful of ice water. Gem quickly steps back, sheepishly glancing at Pearl. “I— Uh, sorry about that.”
“It’s alright.” Pearl waves her hand noncommittally while shutting the door. “Hard to get used to all this, eh?”
“All this” would be a far too simple way of putting it, but Gem doesn’t comment on it. It doesn’t perfectly capture the feeling of being a part of a death game, nor the way that something as little as Pearl backing away from Gem made her heart sink ever so slightly, but it’s not like Gem has a better grasp on it than Pearl does. She just nods, turning away to examine the inside of Pearl’s base.
It’s a far cry from Pearl’s previous builds, that much should be obvious. Wooden support beams can be seen buried in the dirt placed to imitate a natural mound, keeping the ceiling from caving inwards. Aside from that, there’s nothing much of significance to note. Still, Gem can definitely see Pearl’s influence on the setup of the chests, already sorted for different items.
Speaking of, Pearl opens one of the chests. “Now, don’t tell anyone else about this! Especially not Impulse! ‘Cause… um…”
Pearl presents two bowls of mushroom stew, faint clouds of steam whiffing out from the wooden bowls.
“I couldn’t really get a third.”
Gem could only stare for the few seconds that followed. She thought she’d scouted out a fair amount of the map, and she can’t recall any areas where enough mushrooms could be found to cook with. She’s sure Pearl hadn’t gone to the Nether for them, either, judging from the lack of said related achievement in the chat earlier in the day. If so, how did Pearl manage to get two perfectly good bowls of soup?
Pearl catches on to Gem’s bewilderment, mostly from the scrunching of her eyebrows. Despite that, she offers one bowl to Gem, who wordlessly accepts.
“It’s our lil’ secret, okay?” Pearl winks once Gem grabs onto her bowl.
The soup swishes as Gem cups the bowl, allowing for the warmth to spread to her palms. There’s way more things Gem should be worrying about, and maybe the origins of a bowl of mushroom stew shouldn’t be added to the list.
Just for tonight, she can set all her thoughts aside to enjoy a taste of home.