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Bdubs felt particularly dangerous today. Things so far this season had been fairly intense already, for everyone, including himself and his team, but the urge in his brain still wanted more thrill. Something different, something that didn’t necessarily involve death. At least, not guaranteed death just yet. Maybe near that edge, keeping him wound up and waiting for something — or rather, someone, to inevitably get him.
That's why, today, he's in search of Martyn. After their little interactions from last session, he figured the red wouldn't be opposed to some more fun, right? They both had fun last time; Bdubs being swung at twice in a joke, the two navigating the new mountains brought to them by 1.18's terrain generation, attempting to sneak around The Villies' lighthouse to flank them only to be spotted by Pearl, nearly losing direction at least once nearly right after.. yeah. Fun. it was definitely a time. A time he probably won't forget about anytime soon.
Admittedly, he did originally look to 'prank people' with Martyn as a way to jealously - and rather carelessly - get back at Etho, for leaving him in the dust like that last time, but he did find himself having better fun than he had originally anticipated, much to his misfortune. Why not have a little more fun before things fall apart, before he turns red, before Martyn inevitably turns on him? He may as well make the most of it. On second thought, maybe he should have hung out with some other red life, considering there were two more at the moment, probably at least a little less.. trigger-happy.
“Martyn?” He calls out, glancing around the neatly built pagoda. He was starting to rethink things, maybe it wasn’t the smartest idea to willingly approach a red life all by himself. Who knows what could happen to him out here, out in the open like this? He knows Martyn is no stranger to killing in cold blood, no one on this server is.
He then skips up the front steps, head turning in search of his red-life servermate. "Martyn?” The yellow life tries again, stepping a bit closer to the front of the base. Neither Martyn nor Cleo seemed to be here. Maybe he'd have to look elsewhere. After all, it's no surprise for either of them to be wandering about the server. Still, this was a good starting point, in all fairness.
Bdubs turns back around, ready to make his leave, but is instead rather unceremoniously greeted with the sight of just the person he was in search of, right in front of his face.
"'Ello, Bdoubleo!" The red gives his usual sharp-toothed grin, clearly proud of himself for managing to get a scare out of his.. 'friend'. Sure, we'll go with that. In reaction, Bdubs jumps back at least two blocks and a half, if that was even possible to do. For him, it probably was.
Startled but unwilling to show it, Bdubs exhales. "Martyn." He can already hear Martyn's stupid laughs and giggles without even having to look at him for longer than a second. "You- frickin' jerk! Give a guy a warning next time, will 'ya?"
Martyn is already all laughs, the bastard, making sure to remember not to give a warning next time either, seeing as his scare was successful. "Why would I do that? You should be on alert,” He reminds, then considers that maybe Bdubs was looking for him, initially. He wonders why that could be. “So, you need somethin’? What’s going on? You snooping?”
"No, no," Bdubs waves the concern off. "I was just looking for you, actually." He doesn’t exactly know why his heart is beating a little bit faster than he would have expected it to in this moment, but it probably had something to do with the rush he’d been craving. A more dangerous kind of thrill. Something with a bit more of a risky edge.
Something about Martyn just drove him closer and closer every time, like a moth to a flame. Like he was in a daze each time Martyn decided to fuck around with his thoughts and emotions for the umpteenth time. He was always good at that. Bdubs had no idea how the bastard did it. He could learn a thing or two from this man.
"Me?" He hears the red ask, pulling him from his thoughts for a moment. "Why me?"
"Just wanted to see you."
"Come on." Martyn scoffs.
"Okay, fine, I was wondering if you.. had time," Wording this shouldn't be so hard. "To be dangerous, like last week. Y'know, when we- when we tried to get The Villies?"
As if trying to remember, Martyn blinks and stares dully at the yellow life in front of him for a few seconds. Then, it seems to click in his head, gathering his thoughts together instead of letting them freely run around devious-style in his head like usual.
"Ohhh, that's what this is about, is it?" That stupid grin is back on his face. "In that case, I do have time."
Bdubs mutters under his breath, an annoyed "Shut up." coming from the man. Considering the other half of what the red life just said to him, he seems to almost light up, noticeably softer. "Wait, you do?"
"Yeah, why not? You wanna blow something up?" The red life jabs a thumb in the general direction of the rest of the server, behind himself. For a moment, he nearly forgot that The Rejects' base wasn't directly behind - or rather, in front of - their base anymore.
"Yeah, I wanna blow somethin' up! You kiddin' me?!" Bdubs excitedly follows after him, his brain already whirring with ideas on how he could assist in this, assuming they won't fail at first try. "What kinda question is that?"
And so, chatting along the way about unimportant topics, such as, of course, actual plan structures regarding where they were even going, and random server related topics, they make it to The Rejects' repulsive sandwich/monstrosity/multilayered house?/slop cake-esque building/base, sneaking around the back instead of through the probably-trapped front door maze for obvious reasons. Bdubs glances over at Martyn and puts his index finger over his lips, before getting up and out of his crouching position and dashing behind one of the doors of the base, hearing Jimmy and Joel blabbering about whatever it was they usually yapped about just nearby. Conveniently enough, it was a mildly interesting topic, and moment to eavesdrop.
"Yeah, so, I was just thinking," Joel starts, sorting through a chest, tossing unimportant items from inventory to chest and vice versa.
Jimmy perks up, focus diverted from the piece of steak in his hands to his teammate. "Yeah?"
"How come no one's tried to trap the base since that minecart?" Says Joel. "Like, seriously. You'd think they'd have done it by now."
"Yeah- was just thinking about that, actually, I was gonna put a little something in the uhh- at the front door, I think. Careful of that." This earns an acknowledging nod from the reject. "Don't use the front."
Closing the double chest by leaning forward with his hands on it, Joel then steps back and over to the door leading to the 'main' section of the base layer. Upon doing so, he can hear a block being placed, but not in time for the explosion that occurs only a few moments right after. He's not quick enough to put his shield up despite his usually sharp instincts, sent a couple blocks back from the end crystal that just blew up in his face and damaged his gear, all for it to not even kill him. Bummer. "What the heck?!" He squawks. "Jimmy, what are you doing, man?! What in the world?"
"I- That wasn't me!?" Shouts back the red life, offended by the accusation, as reasonable as it may be. The other red life and his accomplice, however, were struggling to hold in their chuckles and snickers, making a run out of the base. They were still seen, but it probably didn't matter. For now. For sure. As they sprint out of the base, they both hear Joel yelling something along the lines of "Martyn! Oh, you bastard! I'm gonna..." before the shouts trail off, Bdubs and the red gaining distance from the base. The yells only make them both laugh harder now that they can freely do so, having a stray shot or two fired at them anyway.
Between laughs, Bdubs says: "That was great! Did you get 'em? Did you get 'em? I didn't see-"
"No, no, but that he took damage for sure!" Martyn wheezes, proud of himself. Matter of fact, Martyn had been the one to shoot the crystal, Bdubs placing it behind the door as Joel had walked close. He had put his shield up, unlike the reject, preventing much pain. Sure, Martyn could have easily done that himself, had he gained distance with the crystal and been the one to place it, but a little bit of company in setting traps wasn't always unwelcome. Besides, he had always thought Bdubs losing his breath over everything was pretty entertaining. The guy's laughter spread like untamed Australian bushfire.
"Oh, that was great," The man in question sighs, biting his bread loaf to recover stamina from all the sprinting. Martyn does the same with a piece of mutton. "Dammit, how did he survive that?"
An idea begins to spin in his head, which was never a good sign.
"Come on, come on, quick," He hurries, reaching to grab hold of Bdubs' wrist. "I've got an idea for something else we can do."
"Okay- Goodness sakes, you don't need to drag me everywhere. I'm right here."
***
"Why are we here, again?" Asks BDubs as they stand in front of a lit nether portal in the temporary cobblestone box previously set up by Ren, Martyn and Jimmy.
"We're going to the Nether."
"Yeah, thanks a lot. That helps."
Martyn huffs. "I need ghast tears."
"Well, ya could've just said that," Bdubs complains, walking into the Nether portal with the red life following behind. Upon entering the not-so-great spawn location and going a bit deeper, they encroach on an open lava lake, spotting a few ghasts in the distance.
"Right, let's see here," Martyn walks a bit too close to the cliff edge, trying to calculate the distance from them and a far away ghast. Of course, the calculations are not great, knowing Martyn. "You wanna bridge across?"
Bdubs swallows. "Me?"
"Why not?" The red grins, challenging. "You scared?"
Of course not. He's not scared, Bdubs tells himself. He's been through countless dangerous situations, this is nothing. He's killed, he's been killed, and he's survived this long already. If he was weak, like Martyn was thinking, he wouldn't be here right now. And the doubt regarding his safety with a red life so close in the back of his mind won't leave his head any time soon. Surely, he tries to convince himself, things won't go that poorly. Surely, he won't end up on red from this little mistake he's about to make.
Surely, Martyn wouldn't be that cruel to him so soon.
Swallowing his fear, Bdubs makes his way to the ledge, sorting through his hotbar before grabbing a little short of a stack of cobblestone and creating a one-block bridge across the lava lake. Martyn follows behind, shifting so as to not fall in himself, looking out in case the ghast they were going after decided to shoot at them.
Why did he agree to this? He wasn't sure. Maybe it was the fact that if Martyn was knocked off of this bridge, his series would be over. Maybe it was because he still had a life to spare if need be, and Martyn didn't. Maybe it was because he felt challenged and didn't wanna back out.
Or maybe he's just willing to take risks, willing to prove himself.
Hands slightly trembling from anticipation, he makes his way across. "Dude, I am not liking this one bit," he laughs nervously, trying not to look too far down. He wonders why Martyn hasn't responded to that. He was behind, right? Maybe he just didn't hear.
He then feels a prickle in his back, almost like a thorn. A thorn, cutting way too deep than it should, right into his back. With a startled yell, he's just been shot clean off the edge. The lava burns against his whole body. Every attempt at movement causes his skin to burn, body sinking deeper into the lava like quicksand. He can't think, he can't think, everything hurts. That stupid enchanted armour does nothing to help him feel it less, or even survive. If anything, it only extends his agony, giving Martyn just the sight he wants. You'd think, for a second, that he would've remembered the ender pearls in his hotbar, or the fire resistance potion he kept on his person in case this really did happen, like he considered. But with his hearts rapidly going down, just like his energy, he couldn't save himself in time.
He couldn't save himself in time, and now they're even.