Work Text:
SolidarityGaming was slain by an enderman
Tango died
SolidarityGaming disconnected
Tango disconnected
Scar blinks, staring blankly at the thin, black communicator resting in his hand. ‘Disconnected’? What does that mean? They’ve seen plenty of messages in the chat during whatever this is, but that’s definitely not one that’s ever appeared before.
InTheLittleWood disconnected
Now Martyn is ‘disconnecting’? Scar stands up from where he had been crouched in front of the snot-nosed panda in his Sanctuary. What is happening? Maybe Grian knows. He seems to have a bunch of information that no one else holds, whether he’d willingly admit it or not. Scar is certain he could get some knowledge out of Grian if he presses enough.
“Grian?” Scar calls around the corner of the mangrove root entryway. When no answer reaches him, Scar pushes open the gate and begins making his way into the Red Velvet Keep. “Grian, are you here?”
A ding from Scar’s communicator draws his attention back to the thin screen. A pit drops in his stomach.
Grian disconnected
“What?” Scar gasps under his breath.
Scar’s soulmate disconnected. Does that mean Grian’s gone? Is he not in the world anymore? Does this have anything to do with where Grian goes when he disappears off the face of the earth? No, it can’t be. Scar would’ve surely seen that notification before if that was the case. When he reaches out across their soulmate bond, he still feels someone on the other end, but… it’s somehow different now.
“Scar!” a distant voice shouts from further along the ravine’s edge. “Ow!”
At the same moment Cleo exclaims, Scar jolts with a sudden burst of pain in his left shoulder. When she rounds the corner and reaches his view, Scar sees an arrow jutting through her skin right where he hurts. He freezes, his jaw dropping open.
“Cleo?” Scar responds.
Cleo rushes over to him and punches him lightly in the arm, just enough to cause an uncomfortable pressure but not enough to actually harm him. Scar jumps back a bit and gasps, rubbing at the offended area.
“What was that for?!” Scar exclaims.
Cleo chews on their lip. “Scar, I think we’re soulmates.”
Scar’s eyebrows fly high into his bangs. “What?! But Grian’s my soulmate and- and Martyn’s yours! We’ve known that for weeks!”
“Yeah, but they’re both gone. I literally watched Martyn vanish right in front of my eyes!” Cleo scoffs. “And we both saw the message that Grian’s gone, too. I have no idea what this means, Scar, but right now we need to figure out what to do about being soulmates.”
---
Pearlescentmoon disconnected
It’s been several days since Jimmy, Tango, Martyn, and Grian disappeared. Cleo and Scar have been soulbound the entire time, which may not have been the best thing for the rest of the server. Let’s just say, several structures have now been reduced to ashes, sending Etho and Joel into their ‘the ship burns, everything burns’ arc.
Ever since those four vanished, things have been different. Pearl has been trying to gather all the other players together in search of an escape from the border, but no one has been able to figure anything out. Impulse and Etho dug down to the bottom of the world, but only managed to find bedrock, as was expected. BigB discovered that the dome coats the top of the world, too, making it impossible to escape from the sky. Etho’s previous run through the border with a minecart no longer works, nor does the boat method which was his second try. Hope is running dry all around.
And then Pearl disconnects. After four days of radio silence from anything outside of wherever they are, she vanishes in a beam of white light right in front of Scar, Impulse, Bdubs, Scott, and Cleo.
After that, the world changes.
“Where’d she go?” Bdubs questions, swinging his head on a swivel in search of their red-cloaked friend.
“She’s gone,” Cleo says slowly, looking up from their communicator.
“Ow!” Impulse exclaims. “Bdubs, you good?” he asks, rubbing his calf.
Bdubs furrows his brows and turns to look at Impulse. “I’m fine. Are you okay?”
Impulse slowly straightens and glances down at Bdubs’ leg. The rest of them do, too, but there’s no injury on his dark skin. “What is happening?” Impulse asks hesitantly.
A series of dings draws their attention back to the chat.
Etho: did anyone take damage just now?
Smallishbeans: i got hurt and etho didn’t
ImpulseSV: I did!
Rendog: what? How did etho not take damage?
Smajor1995: pearl disconnected, there’s an odd number of us now
Bigbst4tz2: what does that mean?
Scar’s heart is hammering in his chest. Things just keep getting more and more insane. What does any of this mean? Now all of the people who could possibly have any answers to this crazy situation are gone! What do they do now? What chance do they have of getting out of here? There’s no telling where the others have gone now that they’ve ‘disconnected’. They could be dead for all the players know! Scar feels faint. His head spins and bile begins rising up his throat. Dings continue chiming from his communicator, but the words in front of him wind and contort until they mean nothing.
“Scar? Are you okay?” Cleo asks, reaching out to steady him. Their words echo in his crowded head, bouncing all around his skull until they hurt.
Scar groans and puts a hand over his mouth. The stinging sensation of vomit grows ever closer, threatening to spill over into the world outside his body. Just when he thinks he can push it down, it spews out of his lips and onto the green grass in front of him, splattering on Cleo’s black boots.
“Great,” Cleo sighs, shifting to rub Scar’s back. “You’re okay, Scar. Let’s get you out of the sun.”
Cleo guides Scar away from the others who are still frantically attempting to figure out what’s going on and into the shade of the oak trees. He pants, leaning against one of the trunks and sliding down to sit on the cool earth. While his head continues to spin, throwing up seems to have helped with the immediate terror.
Cleo lowers themself to sit cross legged in front of Scar. “It’s overwhelming, I know. Especially with the… ‘disconnections’.” She mimes quotation marks with her fingers. “How are you feeling?”
Before being soulmates with them, Scar never would have thought Cleo would speak to him in such a calm, caring tone. The last few days have shown him that she does have a gentle side. She does care about people and it’s beginning to feel like that care has been extended from just Scott to Scar too.
“Scared,” Scar admits, reaching down to fiddle with the green grass. “I don’t know what any of this means, Cleo. What do we do now? Pearl’s gone! They’re all gone. We don’t know where any of them are or if they’re coming back. And now our soulmate connections are broken?!” he exclaims, throwing his arms up. Suddenly, he freezes and his eyes widen. “Are we still soulmates?”
Cleo hesitates. “No. I felt pain and you weren’t hurt,” they admit.
Scar’s heart drops. “Are we still friends?” he asks softly.
Cleo nods instantly and reaches out to take one of Scar’s hands. “We will always be friends, Scar. I promise.”
---
“Run!” Impulse shouts, whirling his arm in front of him to send the earth of the mountain beside them careening down on the hoard of shadowy demons chasing after them.
The world had gotten so terribly monstrous after the message of Pearl disconnecting. Beings made of pure nightmares peeked from the shadows and the wardens crawled out of their tombs to torment the remaining players. They’ve had not a single moment to rest for the three weeks that has passed since the soulmate bonds began malfunctioning. Every few hours, their connection transfers to someone else. If they die while connected to someone, both die permanently. That’s how they lost Joel and Scott.
Cleo grabs Scar’s wrist and yanks him forward away from the danger pursuing them. “Scar, move!”
Scar finally manages to get his legs moving, stumbling after his friend. There’s been nowhere safe to hide this entire time. Factions have developed. Impulse, Bdubs, Cleo, and Scar split off in one direction while BigB and Ren secluded themselves in another. Etho vanished to some corner of the world at the beginning and was followed with the message of him disconnecting days later. Joel and Scott died during the first week. They haven’t seen the other two in five days and, honestly, that’s for the best. Scar has a hard enough time keeping himself from stabbing Impulse or Bdubs in the back with the growing bloodlust; running into two others that aren’t allies might be a bit too much for him to handle.
Reaching the peak of the hill, Scar glances around at the dark forest beneath them. “Where do we go?” he asks, whirling his head to look over his shoulder as Impulse and Bdubs approach.
“Anywhere!” Bdubs exclaims. “We’re gonna get eaten by those things!”
Cleo turns to Scar wide-eyed and grasping her chest. “Scar, I feel weird.”
A white light glows from her heart. It’s tiny at first; barely noticeable. But as the milliseconds progress, it grows until it’s consuming her entire body. All three of the others stare at her, frozen in place.
“Wha- what’s goin’ on?” Bdubs breathes.
Suddenly, Cleo’s body begins flickering. She reaches out to Scar, opening her mouth to call out to him, but before any words can escape her lips, she vanishes into a burst of white light. Scar, Bdubs, and Impulse stare at the place where they had been standing in shock. Scar’s heart is racing in his chest and his hands are clammy. Somehow, he knows she’s not here anymore and that’s confirmed by a ding emanating from their communicators.
Cleo disconnected
Growling from behind them draws them back to their unfortunate situation. The shadows have caught up to them. Another beep rings.
BigB disconnected
“Guys,” Impulse gasps. Scar and Bdubs shoot to look at him only to find his body being consumed by the white glow that had taken Cleo from them.
Bdubs reaches out and grabs onto Impulse’s wrists. “No! Don’t leave me, Impulse!”
Impulse grasps Bdubs’ shoulders and vanishes into a burst of white light. The shadows hiss and back away. They don’t seem to like that.
Impulse disconnected
As soon as the light has faded, the shadows approach again. Bdubs draws his sword as Scar does the same. Bending won’t be able to help them now that Cleo and Impulse are gone.
Ren disconnected
It’s just them. They’re alone in this world. All of their friends have vanished with no trace of where they could have gone. The shadows chitter and stalk closer, their vicious claws trailing across the damp grass. Bdubs lashes out at one of them with a grunt. It hisses and backs up a step before creeping closer again.
And then, the white light begins to engulf Bdubs as well.
“Scar,” Bdubs starts, lowering his sword and turning to face his friend. Scar’s eyes are wide and he shakes his head. “I’m so sorry.” Bdubs’ sword falls from his hand, he looks up to the sky, and dissolves into light floating up into the starry night.
Bdubs disconnected
“No,” Scar breathes. The iron sword trembles in his shaky hand as tears begin flowing down his face. He is completely alone. Dreadfully, terrifyingly alone. Maybe he should just let the shadows take him. That might be a better fate than living in this empty world for the rest of his life.
Grian’s voice whispers in his mind, “ Almost there, Scar. You’re almost back. Just a second more. ”
Scar looks down at his hands to see a familiar white glow covering his skin. The shadows hiss and growl, scurrying away from the hill until Scar is completely by himself in the darkness under the stars he’s seen all his life. He closes his eyes, breathes in deep, and feels himself dissolve from this torturous place.
Scar disconnected
“Scar? Scar, can you hear me?” Grian’s voice is muffled, seeming to come from every direction all at once. Scar groans and opens his eyes, taking a step forward. Instead of walking, he nearly falls out of… something. Warm arms catch him before he can hit the ground. “It’s okay, it’s okay. I’ve got you. Let’s get you in the chair.”