In a deep, deep hole underneath his base, BigBStatz finishes digging, and he calls up.
"Hey, Pink! I'm gonna need the water bucket right about now."
No response. Clearly, Pink hasn't heard him.
"Hey, Pink! Pink!!" He calls out again. "Pink!! PINK!!" BigB does his best to mock fright, hoping to get Pink's attention - and he successfully does, as the kid runs up to the hole.
"What?" He calls back down, mildly alarmed.
"Pink! You left me stranded in the hole!"
"And I'm on the verge of leaving you stranded in the hole. What do you want?"
BigB lets out a laugh, before pointing to the bucket in Pink's hand.
"Pour down the water! I need to leave now!"
"I can barely see you down there, do you think we'll have enough?"
"Yes! Now pour the water!"
Rolling his eyes, Pink obliges, pouring down the water. It takes quite a while of standing in silence between the two, staring at the water (which seems to be a lot more than should've been in that bucket), for it to finally reach BigB, and he starts to swim up. It takes a few seconds, but BigB eventually gets out, and starts to shake himself off a bit, much to the confusion of Pink.
"Why are you...shaking the water off like a dog?" He asks.
"Well, we don't have towels, now do we?" BigB responds, chuckling. "Dogs have the right idea, you know."
"Do you have a dog?"
"No, but I've been soulmates with one!"
"What."
BigB laughs at Pink's incredulousness. Pink keeps thinking he's become desensitised to the weird things BigB says, but out of nowhere BigB loves to say something that's even weirder.
"Yes, my good buddy Ren."
BigB mentioning his soulmate's name only makes Pink look more confused and slightly appalled.
"Uhm, are- uh-" Pink looks around in confusion. "Me? Are you talking to me, or-?"
"Yes? I'm telling you about my soulmate, Ren Diggity Dog! Super dramatic guy, but we love him to bits. Think of Kreek, but if he was into theatre instead of being into ghost busting."
"Oh. Oh. Okay. Sorry, I- his name is Ren?"
"Yes. Do you know somebody else called Ren?"
"Uh...yeah." Pink points to himself. "Me."
BigB starts laughing in surprise.
"Ohhhhh, that makes so much sense now. I didn't know that was your name!"
"Yeah, that's what I thought. That's why I was so confused when you mentioned a 'Ren', I didn't think it was common."
"Do you want me to call you Ren?"
"Pink or PinkLeaf is fine. Can we move on? Thanks, we're going to move on." Pink doesn't want to be embarrassed by his mix up any further. He points to the hole that BigB just climbed out of. "You gonna just leave that there?"
In response, BigB pulls out some wood, the exact same type as the floor, and begins to cover up the hole as he rambles.
"Oh, of course not! I'm going to cover it up now, and then when someone stands on top of it, I'm just going to destroy it from under them! And if I'm unlucky I'll just have to push them in."
"Who are you going to kill, anyway? Kreek? Flamingo? I know we're killing one of them."
"Any of that group, really. Whoever's closest to the hole when I decide to break it."
"Be careful with it, though. You don't want to kill anyone who might want to hold a vendetta." Pink warns, leading to BigB remembering something.
"Oh, I know full well about people holding vendettas. I'll be fine."
(BigB shoves the memories of flames and fairies from his mind.)
"Yeah, but I'd rather not make any enemies. For one, apparently Kreek holds grudges until the end of time. Probably for longer than that."
"I was thinking about that, actually." BigB avoids looking into Pink's eyes, as his heartbeat grows louder when he does. Even if he's able to shove down the urges, he's not going to be able to hold it down for long. Better get this over with quickly. "They all could probably overpower me in a fight, and if he does, they would never shut up about it. Kreek especially. So, best not to get into a fight- best to kill them so fast that they won't even realise what happened."
"Agreed. I've been...I'm gonna try not to sound creepy, but I've been watching them over the past few weeks or so. Kreek and Tanqr, I mean. I've been trying to see what they're like - Kreek's really nice, way nicer than I thought, just...overconfident and likes to tease people."
"Yeah, I mean, he's clearly got the skills to give him the right to be confident." BigB sits down on the crafting table nearby, fiddling with a block in his hands. "Good with a sword, good with puzzles, excellent deduction, just really showy about it."
"Apparently he used to be a lot calmer. But people say that after he lost Season 2 of RB Battles, he went on a weird downward spiral, and now he's...I think they described it as 'overcompensating'." Pink shivers. "I haven't seen any other side to him, but I hope they're not telling the truth. If I'm slightly unnerved by him when he's trying to be nice, I don't want to know what it would be like to go up against him in a competition. And that's not even mentioning Tanqr, who's worse."
(And unbeknownst to Pink, he's more right than he could ever think to be.)
"It's just one competition, how much of a residue could it leave?" BigB queries.
"I've no clue, and I don't want to find out. If Kreek takes losing that badly, then I don't want to know how Tanqr takes losing. He's Kreek but with his competitiveness turned up to 11."
"You sound like you've invested a lot of thought into this."
"I have. I'm not sure I'm allowed to tell you this, but I'm going to be in Season 3."
"Yooo, congrats!" BigB's being genuine, Pink can tell. It's difficult to get into the championships - there's a whole application process, and even then, you have to be invited to apply first - so anyone who gets in generally gets a lot of praise for it.
"...Thanks." Pink knows he's saying far too much, but he's started talking about the things that occupy his mind and now he's not going to stop. "I might have to fight them face-to-face. And so I want to be prepared for that." This is making him more frantic than he usually is. He's gotta change the topic. "Well, we'll have to get all our enchantments done now, cause I bet Kreek and team won't let us do anything else later." Pink mentions whilst motioning to his pickaxe, secured tightly in his belt - the 'hotbar' as they call it.
"Not if we bribe them!" BigB replies cheerily, suddenly smiling, an idea clearly in his head.
"We're already paying them 3 diamonds? And a binding agreement? What more can we give them?"
BigB winks and runs to their chests, pulling out some things, and running back to the crafting table to do something, all while Pink watches to figure out what he's doing. Once he's done, he turns around with a proud grin, holding something up.
"Cookies!"
Pink stares down at the cookies, then back up at BigB, unamused.
"Cookies." He repeats, hoping that BigB's joking.
"Yep!"
"BigB...uhm, how do I say this.." It's hard for Pink to stifle his laugh, he doesn't want to mock BigB. It's too difficult, but it's okay, because they both end up laughing along. "That's not going to work."
"Everyone loves a cookie! Plus, I'll give them their stuff back, and maybe throw in an extra diamond to seal the deal."
"Yes, everyone loves cookies." He actually doesn't like cookies that much, but due to the fact BigB literally has a cookie on his shirt, he's not going to bring that up. "But after getting unceremoniously killed, I don't think they'll be so accepting."
"Just watch - they'll love them! They're baked with care."
"You made them on a crafting table-"
"With care!"
"-while plotting to kill him."
"Okay, fair."
This earns a bit of a chuckle from both of them, before the topic switches once more.
"So how are we gonna get them over here?"
"Bring the lapis, bring the tools to enchant - what we'll do is we'll go over, enchant our things, and then pretend we forgot our diamonds, and bring them back to our base to kill them!"
"What if they don't want to come?"
"We can guarantee they'll probably come to make sure we aren't scamming them."
"True, true..." Pink starts to exit their base, facing away from BigB. "Well, I'm going to get some extra wood. Be back in a second."
"Oh, alright!"
He's not sure about showing his back to the boogeyman, really. As much as BigB seems intent on not killing him, he really can't be sure. After all, this could all be an elaborate ploy just to kill him, instead.
No, it can't be. It won't be that. BigB seems like a pretty honest guy, and Pink knows he could get away if anything happened. Well, he thinks so.
He just needed some space, cause he's scared either way. Get all his thoughts in order before he aids in a plan to murder someone. And he can't stop thinking about how, whenever BigB was discussing the plan - he saw a glowing red glint in his eyes.
~~~
Hyper doesn't really know how he's followed along Tanqr this far, but he's made it here. Now, he's following him into a cave, at Tanqr's request - he was just doing regular things, farming and collecting resources just in case, when Tanqr had texted him to meet him at his base. It took Hyper a long while to find it, though he knew it was in the trees, but once he did, Tanqr dragged him all the way here, saying something about 'trying something new'.. He hates it when Tanqr gets cryptic.
So now he's in this cave, and it's quiet, other than the duo's footsteps and the 'cave noises' which scare Minecraftians so much. He can understand why - it's not really the noises you'd like to hear when in a dark, claustrophobic area. It's a different one to the one he'd gone in with Megan - there's a vast network of caves over here - but it's lit up to some extent. This must've been where Tanqr got his tools from - Tanqr clearly didn't like it either, considering how much he's lit up this place.
Finally, Hyper works up the courage to question things.
"Why are we in a cave, Tanqr?" Hyper asks, looking around in nerves. "From what I saw, you have enough iron."
"We're not here for resources, Hyper, we're here for some training."
Tanqr responds, a sly smile on his face. Hyper doesn't like it.
"Training in what, exactly?"
"Well- Did you bring that diamond sword with you?"
"...Obviously?"
"Alright." Tanqr points into the abyss of the cave in front of them, clearly he hadn't bothered to excessively light that area up. "Do you see that hoard of zombies?"
Hyper peers into the cave. He can't see anything. He even tries to adjust his glasses, but gets nothing.
"Nope."
"Ugh, you lot and your eyes." Tanqr grabs Hyper's hand and pulls him into the darkness, which Hyper has to adjust to. It's a little weird how Tanqr lit everything except this part up, but whatever. He starts to make out the zombies coming around the corner and hears them above the cave ambience.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Fight them."
Hyper laughs, then realises Tanqr is not joking.
"What, so your idea of 'training' is throwing me into a fight scenario with no prior knowledge?" "You know zombies well enough to be able to fight them. Plus it gives me more of an idea of how you fight." Tanqr shrugs.
Hyper rolls his eyes, not really understanding this, but he's never really understood the combat people much anyway.
"Alright."
So he runs forward, and starts attacking.
Tanqr watches as Hyper runs in, sword brandished, attacking the zombies with short slashes of his sword, trying to push them back. When he's done with them, he usually takes them out with a swift slash through the chest or throat. Slashing can get you somewhere, a way to attack multiple people - Hyper's good at it, but he's not causing enough damage through it. And he doesn't seem to think much about other threats, focusing entirely on one target and taking damage from any others until he can deal with them. That's not so good, considering his technique. Taking a bit too much damage, there. Plus, his slashes don't do enough damage on impact, just keep mobs away, it takes much too long.
Tanqr's already got a lot of advice to give. Nice.
He watches as Hyper stumbles out of the mess, throwing some rotten flesh at him. It's easy for Hyper to find his way back to Tanqr, glowing blue eyes and all.
"There you go. Can I have some food? I'm low on health. Sure hope that was helpful." Hyper sarcastically rambles, trying to get his point across.
Tanqr laughs and passes him some chicken.
"Yes, very helpful indeed. And you...sure have a way of fighting. There's a lot I'm going to need to do with you." Tanqr shakes his head. "Look at you. You're not equipped to run headfirst into a fight when you're so scrawny."
"Rude." Comes Hyper's instant, unthinking response. Tanqr seems to be amused by it though.
"Well I'm not wrong. And you've got a reasonable technique, with some work, but you're not actually damaging your opponents, just pushing them away. And only focusing on one, which defeats the purpose of slashing rather than stabbing - it helps you get multiple opponents with one swing." Tanqr measures up Hyper with his hands, and holds the wrist that still holds the sword. "Your grip's good, if a bit too tight. Loosen up a little, you're not going to drop the sword. Loosen up overall, actually, you're much too tense when fighting."
"Yeah, that's cause I'm scared."
"Try not to be, you're going to win anyway, that's the mindset you're going in with. You'll have a lot more fun with it if you let yourself be loose with your attacks, rather than stiff." It seems casual, the way Tanqr says it.
But the fact Tanqr referred to it as 'fun' sticks in Hyper's mind, and he looks over to him in mild shock, as he realises what Tanqr means.
"Hang on, you're referring to me killing people as fun. You're saying I need to have fun while killing someone."
Tanqr facepalms.
"Obviously. Why do you think I phrased my advice like that?" Hyper takes a step back.
"Look, I made this deal with you because I want to get better at fighting. Not because I want to become a blood knight!"
Tanqr sighs.
"That's not what I'm trying to say. I want you to be able to relax when killing someone, so you don't feel horrible afterwards. That will make your life so much easier in a...you know, murder game?"
"Yeah, well, that doesn't stop me from feeling like a bad person about it."
Tanqr walks up to Hyper and pulls up his head, so Hyper makes direct eye contact with him. It's unsettling, to say the least.
"Don't try to resist it, Hyper, that'll only make it feel worse. You'll get over it quite quickly once you're in the flow of it all."
"Says you. I bet you've never felt bad about killing a person in your life."
"Oh, I have." Tanqr saying that takes Hyper aback a little. Is he lying, or is he being genuine? "I just got over it. And you can do the same, okay?
Hyper sighs. Clearly Tanqr has plans for him, and at this point there's little use dodging it.
"Fine."
"Alright, good. Now, let's work on your swings, those really need some support..."
~~~
Ashley and her gang are travelling into the forest near their base - they needed to get some wood before they could even think of going into the mines - and some food too! It's so scarce here, it's really annoying. They need torches, and coal, and there's so many different things to keep track of down there.
"I need food..." Leah whines, but is shut up by a swift throw of some bread in her face. "OW- oh, okay."
"I can't be the only provider for this dysfunctional family." Sanna jokes, having been the one to throw the bread.
"I'm just underprepared!"
"Well, come underprepared and you're going to die again. Simple as that." Ashley responds and winks, much to the indignance of Leah, who sputters a bit before sighing.
"Yep, don't have a response to that..."
Into the forest the group go, and they quickly begin chopping down wood with their axes. Or well, Leah and Ashley do, Sanna was insistent it would be easier to conserve wood and stick to punching trees.
"How are your fists, Sanna?" Ashley teases.
"In pain, but I didn't waste wood!" Sanna yells back, pretending to be miffed.
"Well, no kidding about the pain part!"
And so the girls keep chopping wood from the trees, walking around, chatting. Ashley's looking around, just in case, when she notices something. Namely, a faint glow in the distance. She walks towards it, and she manages to make it out when she squints - a burning torch.
"Which one of you left a torch here? It's daylight, we don't need torches." Ashley asks, to shrugs from the other two.
"Eh, wasn't me. I don't even have any torches." Leah replies, confused.
And from the trees, comes the answer.
"Oh, sorry, that's mine-"
Leah yells and hides behind Sanna, Ashley pulls out her sword and whips around to see Megan, who immediately throws her hands up.
"AAAA-"
"Hey! It's just me! I'm not going to hurt you guys!" Megan looks between the three, who all breathe a sigh of relief.
"Sorry, that hoodie makes you look so different. I thought you were the boogeyman - or Tanqr!" Sanna responds, which earns her an elbow from Ashley.
"I feel like the boogeyman is much worse. Tanqr isn't that bad." Ashley chides. She's about to continue, but she realises Megan's giving her a death glare. "What's up with the face?"
"Really? He's not that bad? Ashley, he's manipulating Hyper."
Ashley blinks twice.
"What?"
"Yeah, I think so, anyway. That's why he killed me yesterday."
"Oh, yeah, about that...you doing alright, girl? I mean, clearly not, seeing as you have the whole...emo thing going on, but-" Leah starts, but Megan cuts her off.
"Oh, I'm doing fine, I have no clue why I woke up with this hoodie. I'm more worried about Hyper, honestly."
"Are you two still in a team? I know I wouldn't be able to face him after a betrayal like that." Sanna queries.
"Nope, we went our separate ways. Which I think was a bad idea, considering..."
"And Hyper teamed up with Tanqr instead?" Leah jumps into the conversation. "I don't really think that counts as manipulation. Megan, you sound like a crazy ex."
"No- hey!" Megan seems quite offended by that. "You weren't there!"
"That's what they always say." Leah winks, and Megan sighs.
"I can and will explain. I remember what he said clearly - he threatened Hyper. Repeatedly!"
"Completely normal behaviour." Ashley shrugs. "Especially for Tanqr."
"Why did you need to clarify the second part-" Sanna starts, but is cut off by Megan.
"Okay, well, yes, normal behaviour for Tanqr, but that doesn't change the fact that he tricked Hyper, kay?"
"Well, what did he say to him?"
Megan paces around, hands in her pockets, as she explains. "Something about deals. Hyper said to me that he had to make a deal with Tanqr to get the time when we were in the caves, hence why he was so hasty about getting out. But that deal was in exchange for not killing Tanqr, so that when he couldn't choose who to kill, Tanqr basically used that against him."
"And that's why you don't make deals with Tanqr! He should know that, we've been acquainted with Tanqr for this long." Ashley sighs, but then gets an idea. "But...if you really are annoyed with him...I have a proposal."
"Oh?" Megan's eyes light up - she's clearly interested in Ashley's suggestion.
"Rather than rejecting the 'crazy ex-girlfriend' label-" Ashley's immediately it off by Megan's indignant sigh.
"No, Ashley. I'm not a crazy ex-girlfriend, dammit!"
"Hear me out first. Rather than rejecting the crazy ex girlfriend, embrace the crazy ex girlfriend." Ashley holds her hand out. "Don't ever leave them alone. Keep trying to drag Hyper off and distract him. Try to sabotage all of Tanqr's plans. He'll get so annoyed that he might end up abandoning Hyper anyway. There's a reason the guy doesn't normally make allies." Ashley winks, but Megan doesn't seem to get it.
"Or he could just kill me. He's not above that."
"Well, make sure he doesn't do that. You know, stay a little far back, so that if he lunges for you, you can run, but make sure you're close enough to piss him off."
"Or...you could just explain to Hyper he's being manipulated?" Sanna suggests, with a hint of sarcasm. "That's the simplest solution."
"I've been meaning to try that, instead of going full on 'crazy' as Ashley likes to put it." Ashley lets out a chuckle at Megan's statement. "But...I don't know. He should know that Tanqr doesn't have good intentions, shouldn't he? We were just saying yesterday that we were scared of him, that he was scared enough that he just went along with his demands, so I don't quite understand-"
"I hate to say this, but Megan, he betrayed you. He could've been lying." Leah says, thinking she's saying some kind of ugly truth, but Megan shuts her down quickly.
"Leah. He was on the verge of crying. I think he feels bad."
"Wait what-"
"Ouch. Yeah, he definitely feels bad. Maybe he's got a plan of his own? You need to talk it out with him." Sanna returns to the conversation with this, to which Megan gives her a nod.
"That's the plan. And if he doesn't give me an answer, then- well, I dunno."
"Then you can go full on crazy ex girlfriend!"
"Ashley, I swear to god- you know what? Fine. I'll take your advice, I'll annoy the hell out of Tanqr. See where that gets me."
"Sweet!" Ashley pumps the air. She's gotten a new habit of doing that. "If you ever need any advice on being a real annoyance-" Ashley adjusts Megan's hair, pushing a strand that had fallen in front of her face behind her ear. "Just ask us. We have experience. And Tanqr hates having his plans foiled, so it works excellently."
Sanna puts her hand to her chest in mock offence.
"Are you calling us annoying, Ashley?"
"Mayhaps. Don't worry, I'm annoying too. Oh, and you can ask us for any other resources. If you've split off teams, then you're gonna need stuff." Ashley offers. .
"We literally have a dirt hut as our house. We're great for advice and resources." quips Leah, which earns a facepalm from Ashley.
"Well, we're trying!"
"I won't take anything from you guys, don't worry." Megan pauses. "Except for food. Do you have any spare food? I'm low."
Ashley chuckles, shoving some bread into Megan's hands.
"Yeah, here. Start farming quickly, girl. You're gonna need more than 5 pieces of bread."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'd steal, but I'm not dropping to Tanqr's level." Megan lies. She'll probably end up stealing.
"He was talking about stealing from others, wasn't he?" Ashley chuckles a bit at that. Hypocritical, but maybe they need to steal a little bit.
Megan shrugs. "Well, I'm going to find Hyper." She starts to walk away whilst waving at the trio. "Don't get killed by any more creepers!"
"We're going to try not to!" Leah yells back, a little annoyed but laughing all the same.
Megan runs off, a new confidence gained, as Ashley turns to the group.
"Mystery of the randomly appearing torches - solved! Now let's go back to gathering wood."
Cue laughter, and a return of the axes.
(And fists, for Sanna.)
~~~
Meanwhile, there's Sketch, idly vibing alongside the group as Kreek away to get more cobblestone to build a wall around their base. This place has started to look less like a base and more like a castle, and that's all Kreek and Denis's doing.
Not that he cares. Sketch would much rather sit around and make jokes while the others do that. Rather, he wants to find out more about this game, and maybe - maybe, mayhaps, maybe - win? Well, probably not. Not when he's got foes like Tanqr and friends like Kreek to deal with.
(As if their team will last.)
But he's not gonna sit around and give up. Instead, he's going to experiment, see what advantages he can get, and then make his moves.
Speaking of...he's got an experiment he's been itching to try.
"DENIS!!!!"
Denis turns around from...uh...whatever he's been saying to Albert and Kreek, and stares directly at Sketch.
"No need to yell for me, I'm right here." He already looks as if he's dreading what's to come. Rightfully so.
"Give me one of your lives."
Denis pauses.
"What?"
"The funny server people never gave me an answer to my question of what would happen if I were to get 4 lives. And since you have 3 lives, and I have 3 lives, you should give me a life so we can find out."
Sketch waits eagerly for Denis to answer, but Denis just facepalms.
"No, this is just an excuse to steal one of my lives."
"I promise I'll give it back! You know me, I never tell lies!" Sketch lies. Okay, maybe he'd give it back. Maybe.
"You always lie. Go to Kreek or Albert, they're more likely to fall for your nonsense."
Sketch decides to turn on 'annoying child' mode.
"But Denis! You're the only one who will do my stupid ideas with me! Kreek's too stuck up for that and Albert will just run away! Pleeeeeease?"
"Kreek will probably do it, he likes finding out things."
"But Denis-"
Denis throws up his hands in anger and sighs.
"FINE! Okay, okay, I'll give you a life. But you have to promise me you'll give it back." he sighs, defeated.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll give it back." Eventually.
Denis pulls out his communicator and types in the command.
</givelife Sketch>
In that second, Denis clutches his chest in pain, as a wisp of red colour shoots from his chest and into Sketch's. The heart on his sleeve changes to a yellow, and so does the streak in his hair. No kidding, it felt like his heart was torn - and the patch on his sleeve reflected that.
"AGH-"
Sketch, meanwhile, feels an odd warm feeling in his chest as a new patch appears on his sleeve, dark green and with a heart inside the already existing one. It takes him a second to snap out of the weird feeling - he's never felt anything like that before - and focus on the task at hand.
"Ooh, dark green! Is that what happens when you get 4 lives?"
"I..guess so?" Denis chuckles, but it's clear he's still in pain. Well, he's still clutching his chest and straining his words. So yes, definitely in pain.
"I'm gonna go and boast to everyone in chat! They're going to have to see my MAGNIFICENCE!"
"Okay, you do that, then-" Denis falls face-flat on the floor whilst Sketch, revitalised and over-energetic, pulls out his communicator and begins to boast.
~~~
<Sketch> hey look guys i'm dark green!!!
<DylanHyper> How
<Sketch> i have four lives
<KreekCraft> Denis, did you actually give him a life?
<Sketch> i pestered him until he gave me a life
<BigBSt4tz2> i can see that happening
<PinkLeaf> oh no
<KreekCraft> Give him back his life
<Sketch> no
<Tanqr> can i take that life from you
<Sketch> no its my life!!
<KreekCraft> Tanqr.
<Tanqr> can i take that life from you with a sword
<KreekCraft> TANQR.
<Sketch> well it's denis's but i promised i'd give it back
<DenisDaily> Sketch he just threatened you
<Sketch> oh.
<LeahAshe> Denis! Fellow yellow name!
<MeganPlays> I am right here >:((((
<MeganPlays> Denis if I pester you enough will you give me a life
<LeahAshe> You can't just say "I am right here" and then immediately attempt to abandon me
<DenisDaily> If you pester me enough I shall make you the first red name
<MeganPlays> IT WAS A JOKE IM SORRY
<AlbertFlamingo> hey Bromance Bros should we play pass the parcel except it's pass Denis's life around
<DenisDaily> I have made a terrible mistake
<KreekCraft> Please don't, we have better things to focus on.
<Sketch> yes
~~~
Sketch runs out of the building he and Denis were sitting in as Denis chases after him.
"Sketch, don't you dare-"
"ALBERT!!!!" Sketch yells, running directly into the titular flamingo, pushing him to the ground.
"A-"
"LIFE! TAKE!"
"Okay, okay! Quickly!"
</givelife AlbertFlamingo>
Sketch immediately collapses onto the floor in chest pain while Flamingo shoots up, not expecting that weird warm feeling but quite appreciating it.
"Sweet. I'm dark green now."
"Quick, keep the life away from Denis!" Sketch yells, pointing to the left while still keeping his face flat on the floor. He yells this, mind you, just as Denis runs up to the group.
"Albert, give it back-"
"Maybe you shouldn't have made the mistake of giving one of your lives to Sketch?" Albert teases, chuckling. "It's mine now! I am the great dark green god, and I shall RULE OVER THIS SERVER!"
"Why are you two like this, why am I friends with you two-"
Recovering from his pain, Sketch decides to give the rest of the server an update.
~~~
<Sketch> albert now has 4 lives
<AlbertFlamingo> I AM A GOD AMONGST MEN
<AlbertFlamingo> bow down to me UwU
<PinkLeaf> what the hell
<Tanqr> hey can we talk about the fact you called your group 'the bromance bros' what's up with that
<AlbertFlamingo> We're bros that hug sometimes
<iAmSanna> Awww that's adorable
<KreekCraft> I leave to get more cobblestone for FIVE MINUTES and THIS IS THE NONSENSE YOU THREE GET UP TO?!
<DenisDaily> Kreeky come back and help me get my life back
<BigBSt4tz2> kreeky?
<LeahAshe> KreekButtCrack
<iAmSanna> I told you to use that in dire situations only!
<KreekCraft> Rude
<DenisDaily> Are you going to help me or not
<KreekCraft> I'm coming, geez
<DylanHyper> This is the funniest thing I've seen all day
~~~
"Albert, my life! Give it back!"
Albert decides to get up close with Denis, hands behind his back and wings fluffed up.
"What's the magic word~" Albert teases.
Denis sighs.
"Ugh. Please can I have my life back."
"That's not the magic word~" Albert teases, causing Denis to facepalm.
"What is the magic word then, dude-"
Before Denis gets an answer, Kreek runs in, throwing some cobblestone in his direction.
"Am I some babysitter for you three?! I just wanted to get some extra cobble for our base defences, and now you're causing chaos?"
"You aren't our dad, Kreek, so shh." Sketch teases. "Hey, Albert, give him the life."
"Oh, Kreek? You wanna join us in teasing my dearest Denis?"
"No, I don't, please give Denis his life back so we don't risk any accidents-"
Albert does not give Kreek a choice.
</givelife KreekCraft>
Albert starts laughing hard, despite the pain in his chest, while Kreek starts uncomfortably jumping up and down at the feeling of gaining a life - yes, it's nice, but he did not ask-
"NO I DON'T WANT TO BE A PART OF THIS RIGHT NOW."
Denis immediately turns the focus of his ire to Kreek, but he takes a slightly different approach.
"Well, if you don't want to be a part of this," Denis proceeds to run up to Kreek, shaking him a little, "you'll give me my life back."
Kreek thinks, for a second, he could just keep it. It would increase his chances of winning, an extra life, so it's a buffer for safety. And it would be funny.
But no, he can't betray Denis like that. Better to keep his teammates by his side and not fall for Albert's schemes, that's better to keep his teammates around. Plus he'd feel bad.
"Fine, Denis-" Kreek only manages to get out the first few words of his sentence before Sketch and Albert yell in defeat.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO-"
"Kreek our fun!! You're ruining our fuuuun!!"
Denis finds himself laughing wildly after this.
"Get dunked on, Sketch!"
Kreek doesn't add anything, he just smiles and types something into his communicator.
</givelife DenisDaily>
"AAAA-"
"Oh, yeah, giving lives hurts."
"I CAN SEE THAT."
Sketch, while a little annoyed that his fun little experiment is over, is quite happy with the results. He got his answers, whether useful or not, and well? A little bit of entertainment out of it too.
~~~
<Sketch> denis got his life back :(
<DenisDaily> Good
<DenisDaily> Kreek is currently laying flat on the floor I think he's having a breakdown
<KreekCraft> HEY DON'T JUST TELL THEM THAT
<Tanqr> send a photo please
<AlbertFlamingo> new meme format
<DenisDaily> You can't take photos on communicators </3
<Tanqr> nooooooo
<KreekCraft> SUCK IT
<Sketch> you're all ignoring the agony i'm in :((((
<LeahAshe> Yes
<PinkLeaf> hate to intrude on your bromance quarrel but hey Kreek and team you guys wanna seal our deal?
<Sketch> what
<KreekCraft> Ah, the diamonds from earlier? Yeah, just come to our base.
<BigBSt4tz2> okay! be there in a few minutes, i believe you're just a river or two away!
<PinkLeaf> can you send the coordinates?
<KreekCraft> 550, 75, 450
<BigBSt4tz2> pink, we're neighbours, why did you ask for the coordinates?
<PinkLeaf> oh yeah whoops
<BigBSt4tz2> see you soon!!
<AlbertFlamingo> DIAMOND TIME!!!!
~~~
Tanqr bursts out into laughter at the chat, much to the confusion of Hyper. They're back in the base now, and Hyper's nursing his hands from pain - Tanqr had him consistently changing his grip on his sword, until Hyper was able to swing a lot faster - his wrists are hurting from all the movement, so he's just trying to recover from that. Tanqr, meanwhile, has been wandering around, rambling about defences - Hyper tuned most of it out, to be honest - until he checked chat, and started cackling.
Really, even with all the improvements he's made - which, to be fair, he has made improvements - he's still unsure about all of this, but he's taking what he can get. Still, at Tanqr's manic laughter, he turns around, incredibly perplexed.
"Is everything okay?"
"Well, Hyper, we'll be able to enchant our stuff very soon. Can you gather as much lapis as possible? I'll get some weapons."
"Okay, but that doesn't explain why you're laughing."
Tanqr chuckles again.
"Well, I was originally going to leave it till later, as I needed to scout out where Kreek's base was, I've only seen it a few times, but nope! They just exposed their coordinates. Don't worry, I've saved it. It's time to get our stuff enchanted, without wasting any diamonds."
Hyper's immediate first thought is Oh no. He's still only just accepting the fact this is his life now, he's not ready to start sneaking around just yet!
"Oh, okay! We're doing this now! Should we just start going?" Act confident, act confident, nothing can go wrong if you act confident-
"Not just yet, we need to get a lot of things. Lapis, ladders, water, blocks...then we can go. We'll wait until we can spot the base, and then I'll outline the plan to you. Trust me, I'm good with stealth."
Only because you wear black all the time and are 'one with the shadows', Hyper thinks. Then another thing comes to mind.
"Wait, do you know how the enchantments work? The different ones? You've only been here once."
Tanqr chuckles, mildly embarrassed, and looks away.
"Well, that's why I got you on my team, now isn't it? I can only gleam so much from overheard conversations."
Hyper doesn't know whether to be disappointed or amused.
"Right, okay. I'll explain it to you now and on the way, it's a little complicated. There's a bunch of enchantments."
"Just make sure you're quiet when I tell you to be."
Hyper's scared, but Tanqr seems very excited. And honestly, he wants to get one over on Kreek. Beating him at a game would be quite a feat. Dude's skilled.
Maybe this will be a little bit of fun.
~~~
"Are you sure about this?" Pink whispers under his breath, as they approach their destination. BigB looks up at the base in the distance, lost in thought. The base of the quartet is surrounded by cobblestone walls, so it looks imposing from a mile away. "Are you sure this is going to work?"
BigB shrugs. It'll probably work, and he's got the ability to force it.
"I've seen less foolproof plans work. This can work too. Just remember to be enchanting your stuff, and I'll take most of the speaking lead. Stay quiet, make small talk, don't say anything. We've got this, okay!"
Pink nods nervously.
"Okay."
BigB gulps down a jolt of panic in his throat, and any murderous urges that come with it. It's a lot easier to deal with this early in the morning. Good thing he's not leaving it till late again.
Time for the boogeyman to strike.
~~~
A/N
Is some of this filler? Kinda. Do I care? No, it's character building. You need a little bit of filler, long as it's entertaining. This chapter's got some really funny lines to me, I hope you guys enjoy them too. I wanted to have some shenanigans (I guess) that would happen in a normal Life series instalment just like the 'AHA' stuff from Last Life, uh...Judge Judy and Executioner from Limited Life...yeah, you get my point. Hence, the lives stealing scene! I had quite the fun time writing it, and letting Sketch be an absolute chaotic gremlin.
Also, plot setup. See, it's not all filler!
Thanks for reading!
- YanDan