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“Oh - we were friends last season, weren’t we?” Seri says, and it makes Betty flinch. It says it like it had almost forgotten, like it doesn’t matter.
“Yeah. We were,” she says.
And - well. It doesn’t matter, right? It doesn’t matter what things were like back then, because they’re not like that anymore.
They’re not the same people anymore.
It’s never more obvious than when she’s standing before Seri and Evi and shaking so badly she can barely string sentences together.
Things have changed. A lot.
But that’s just how you play the game. There’s no world where Betty doesn’t end up with enemies.
It’s just - strange.
And it’s not like Betty hasn’t changed too - it hits her a few days later how much more confident she feels now, wandering into another person’s base to trade with their villagers. She’s no longer using hand-me-down gear, her armour fits her properly, not being made for another’s frame, and swords no longer feel heavy and unsteady in her hands.
She’s sharper, too - she remembers a time talking with Arch, seeing a nametag through the wall - it had been instinct to draw her sword and run outside, threat in her voice.
She’s more reckless too - though maybe that’s not a good thing.
She flips between so scared she can barely hold a sword and some fragile veneer of calm whenever she’s in danger. When Cogmented follows her through a roof portal and corners her on a hill in the middle of nowhere she finds herself somewhere near the latter - she’s terrified, but her hands are steady and she manages to keep up the conversation, despite the netherite sword he’s holding.
“I really was expecting someone else to come here,” Cog says, and that, for some stupid reason, almost makes her slip into terror completely.
Instead - “No one else knows where I am,” Betty laughs anxiously.
“You could have said.”
She replies before she can really let herself think about it too much. “I don’t know where I am I don’t know what portal I went through so -”
It’s a lie. She knows exactly where she is - the portal directly to the side of the one that leads to the church. There’s plenty of people who’d be able to work out where that is. But what would be the point in saying? Who’s going to help her?
She’s solo, and sure she has allies, but they’re not the sort of people who can jump in a fight to save her.
She backs away a little. Cog follows, his sword held loosely in his paw, for now.
She’s still holding her sword, too. Not really much point, she can’t use it, but it makes her feel a little more confident. For some reason. And it lets her put pearls in her hotbar, which is - well, it doesn’t exactly make her feel any better, it’s Cog but -
The conversation has moved on.
“Ohh okay - oh god is what you thought when you saw me,” Cog is complaining.
Betty giggles. “Well you did kinda threaten to kill us all earlier -”
“I did say that - do you think I meant it?”
“Yes - ‘cause you said you meant it.”
Sin and Nara, both in the call with them, start laughing.
“I did say I meant it, too, yeah - I said all that.”
“And you tend not to lie anyway, so…”
“I don’t,” Cog says, and then he’s splashing potions at his feet.
“Okay,” Betty says, but she’s not panicking so - she manages to splash speed and fire res and throw a pearl and maybe she could have managed that better but it gets her into the river and she knows what to do in water. Kinda. She gets down to one heart of health before she manages to eat a gapple, runs out of speed at some point - but somehow still manages to stay alive and keep up some sort of a conversation.
Until she splashes invis, digs herself into the side of a ravine and listens for blocks breaking around her.
But there’s none, and Cog complains about losing her and - for a minute or so she can’t bring herself to speak. Terrified beyond words had never really had meaning for her before.
But - she’s fine. She’s fine. And when Evi jumps Emma and Cog claims he’s not fighting Evi’s battles for them but rather just wants to kill Betty, she’s able to speak and laugh and cringe when Sin calls it romantic…
She can’t lie and say there’s a part of her that feels something other than fear over Cog wanting to kill her personally. But she’ll never admit that out loud.
So yeah - she’s changed a lot, she guesses. At least she’s no longer just standing there and waiting to die.
She’s not sure this is much better when Evi kills her on the nether roof only a few hours later, and Betty respawns in her bed at the bottom of the world and thinks I’m not leaving my base again today.
It never used to be this difficult. There’s something to say about not caring about death - it makes living easier. But now Betty does care and that’s - scary.
The feeling of dread makes her hands shake as she tries to brew more potions, unsteady fingers fumbling a handful of glowstone dust and as she’s trying to sweep it off the floor she notices a nametag in the walls - it takes her a long moment to recognise the name as Sin’s and in that moment it feels like her heart isn’t beating at all.
But it’s just Sin. And Sin is familiar and safe. Betty climbs to her feet and hugs her, Sin wrapping her wings around them both.
That’s something that hasn’t changed at all. Feeling safe around Sin. They talk and run about and eventually the two of them end up in a 1x2 hole in one of Betty’s walls and Betty maybe decides to take her armour off for fun and - it’s paradoxical, stupid, but this is the safest she’s felt in a while.
When Cog tries to blame Betty for Void’s death, Sin is there grabbing her hand and reminding her it’s not true, none of it’s true - she knows, really, that Sin’s right, it’s just -
She doesn’t know. It’s weird.
But this is nice, crammed together in a far too small space for two people and just being able to - exist.
She didn’t use to require this much - she didn't need anything, really, after dying. But now - she’s so glad Sin is here. She’s glad of the contact and the kind words and she never used to need it, which is - well.
Betty’s not sure what the issue is - her thoughts stray to her whole solo-player situation then shy away again - that’s a topic that’s far too painful to think about for long.
She’s lonely, a lot of the time, she thinks. Betty’s never really been cut out for independence, but she doesn’t exactly have a choice. So - yeah. Dying stupidly makes that worse. Or something.
She’s not going to think about that too much, though. There are other, more important things to worry about - or smile about.
paddysol whispers to you: kept meaning to ask and then getting sidetracked, are you ok? evi killed you
Sin definitely catches Betty’s reaction to the message, eyes narrowing briefly before Betty shakes her head at him, quiet laughter on her lips.
She’s not expecting it, but maybe she should have - Paddy’s been so clear about how much Betty means to her. And -
Betty hesitates a moment before replying. It’s an instinctive reaction to claim she’s fine, but…
You whisper to paddysol: good question
You whisper to paddysol: not sure. be better tomorrow. just too scared to leave my base rn
She owes Paddy more than a lie.
But it’s not as difficult as she expects. And when Paddy offers to come visit her and Sin has to leave, there’s a minute or two when Betty is alone in her base and she thinks about how - well. A lot of things, a lot of people have changed - but there’s a lot that’s new. Especially - well.
Paddy gives her a hug and a kiss on the cheek the moment they see her, and Betty feels kinda stupid because Paddy’s died so much more than Betty in so many worse situations and Betty was the direct cause of one of them but - she’s just grateful, burying her face in Paddy’s shoulder for a long moment, before grabbing their paw to give them a tour of all the new additions she’s made since they last visited.
It’s a shock to remember that Paddy was the first person she showed this place to, how they’ve only really seen the main room and the farms. Betty had been so nervous, terrified she was that she was making a mistake, trusting the wrong person again.
She’s zoned out, thinking of it, and snaps back to the present when Paddy laughs about something and - yeah. This is new, and she wouldn’t trade it for anything.