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Walking across the stone terrain Gem pauses.
She feels a tingling sensation, the air turning static as a metallic taste fills her mouth.The sky darkens as lightning strikes the sound thunders across the server.
Gem waits.
the death message should show up in a few seconds. a beep comes from Gem’s com. Lifting her wrist so she can see the message, her face drains of colour as she reads it.
[Pearlecentmoon was shot by solidaritygaming]
“No” Gem mumbles. She squeezes her eyes shut, everything drowned out by the sound of blood pounding in her ears. Pearl can’t be dead, she can’t.
“No, no no.” Gem repeats more desperately than the last, the words turning into nonsense mumbles as she walks away from Grian, tears well in her as her shoulders fall.
A silent cry escapes Gem, covering her mouth as more tears fall, her emotions getting the better of her.
Gem knows Pearl’s not dead at least not permanently, she’ll respawn back on hermitcraft when the game’s done. but it still hurts.
she feels like her chest is tightening as her cries quicken, breathing feels near impossible her lungs burn as if they’re on fire clutching at her chest.
Her vision blurs as she falls to her knees, the ground rough beneath her.
sobs wracking her body as she presses her hands into the stone ground. Gem hears Grian or she thinks she hears him, she can’t tell. anything he might’ve said is nonsense to her ears.
The only thing she can focus on is the death message, the small notification that was currently destroying her.
Gem feels a small touch on her shoulder, reaching around, she feels the soft fabric of a sweater, tugging it lightly the person moves to wrap their arms around her.
Gem clings to them as tears continue down her cheeks.
“She- she's dead” Gem choked out between strangled breaths, rubbing at her eyes as she continues to gasp in a search for air.
“Gem, Gem it's okay.”
Gem realizes the person hugging her is Grian, her teammate. Gem tries to calm down.
She should be there for grian, not having a stupid panic attack. She shouldn't be acting like this. She's never acted like this over the loss of a teammate. She doesn't know why it hurts so much now.
“C’mon take a deep breath,” Grian instructs, Gem nods as he moves to sit her up so she's not leaning against him.
“Copy me” he says as he begins to take a deep breath, following along gem begins to regain steady breathing no longer gasping for breath.
blinking away her tears she tries to ground herself. reaching out for grian he scoots closer to her.
Gem leans her head against his shoulder as she wipes at her face, tears drying on her cheeks.
“Thank you,” she mumbles after a moment “i’m sorry i-”
“Why are you sorry?” Grian cuts Gem off.
Shifting to look at him she finds that he is already staring down at her. His eyes heavy
“You shouldn’t be sorry, what happened wasn’t your fault” he ensures.
“I know, it's just- i’ve never had that reaction for anyone's death “ Gem clarifies sniffling as she calmed, though her head still felt like it was spinning
.“It happens,” Grian says, turning away “it’s happened to me, jimmy, joel, bdubs, scott-”
“Guys!” Scott calls, cutting grian off as he makes his way up the stoney hill.
“Speaking of” Gem mutters sniffling, wiping off her hands she unsheaths her sword as she gets up her legs ache from sitting on them. Grian also stands sword in hand.
“What happened?!” Scott asks as he moves closer to them his blue hair a mess atop his head, his shield burnt on the edges.
He looks like a creeper exploded next to him.
“To pearl? She’s gone” Gem snaps, scott steps back surprised by Gem's reaction to the question.
her eyes burn. Biting her cheek she turns away from Scott. Sheathing her sword as she takes a shaky breath. She needs to calm down.
Grian and Scott continue to talk behind her; the conversation is just background noise to her ears.
Eyes wandering over the distance her gaze lands on their lighthouse, the base they had been building since the first few days of the game, now sat destroyed.
it almost looked ominous in the night covered in explosions, moonlight shining down on it.
In the corner of her eye Gem sees two figures on a bridge. As Gem watches she realizes it’s Joel and Jimmy.
“What’re they doing?” Gem mutters quietly squinting at them as they make their way closer to the lighthouse.
“I think they're just trying to rub salt in the wound” Scott comments, walking up behind Gem as they both watch Jimmy and Joel in the distance.
“But we're not over there!” Gem shouts “we Don’t even care about the lighthouse either”
“What else can they even do to it?” Scott asks humour tinting his voice.Gem smiles at that, there isn’t much they can do to the lighthouse that would really hurt her or Grian.
“Where are we going to stay?” Grian asks, gem turns to face him she hadn't thought about that.
They had at least one more week in this wretched game.
So somewhere to stay would be mandatory, unless they wanted to fight mobs every night and evade traps set up by the red lifes.
After a moment Scott speaks up,
“You could move into Bigb’s egg,” he suggests pointing towards a large cobblestone structure at the top of the hill.“He’s never in it anyways.”
“ Maybe…" Grian considers
“ for tonight at least?” scott asks, gem shivers the cold of being out at night getting to her, looking at grian he nods.
“Fine.” Gem smiles at him as Grian begins to make his way to the egg.
“Night Scott" Gem says, giving Scott a wave as she follows Grian up the hill, the exhaustion of her day hitting her.
“Night, be careful” scott calls, looking over her shoulder she sees Scott make his way through the dark most likely going back to his base.
Gem makes her way up the steep hill.
“Grian?”she calls as she pulls herself up to the top of the hill, she rolls onto her back catching her breath from the climb.
“Yeah,” Grian responds as he appears next to Gem.
“Are you sad?” Gem inquires, as she gets up Grian holds out a hand to help her. His hand, warm against hers as he pulls her up.
“Yeah, I- i thought she had it under control,” Grian responded with a sad smile to Gem.
“Did she kill Cleo?” Gem wonders as both her and Grian make their way to the front of the egg.
“She might’ve- why is there obsidian there?!” Grian jumps back as he notices the two blocks above the doors.
“Oh, oh gods” Gem mutters turning as she hears a zombie growling behind her.
“No where’s safe” Grian complains behind her as she kills the zombie taking in a deep breath Gem sheaths her sword, she still couldn’t believe pearl was gone.
Blinking back tears once more she makes her way back to Grian since staying in the egg wasn’t safe.
“I’m sad” Gem groans as she comes up to Grian.
head heavy from exhaustion, she sits down not knowing if she could stand for any longer.
Although it’s still cold, the sun is rising in the distance meaning they will have to get back to work soon, so any rest is appreciated.
“I’m also sad,” Grian says, sitting down next to Gem as the sun rises behind them, the world lighting up as the day begins.
“There is something we can do though” Grian states as he types into his com.
Gem looks at her com as she receives a message.
[Grian] funeral
Gem laughs softly looking up from her com.
“Okay, let’s have a funeral.”