BigB half-drags, half-carries an extremely weak PinkLeaf out of the nether fortress and into a corner, hidden from all the mobs. Pink's trying to walk on his own, insisting that he's still able to walk, but some of the blazes burned him pretty bad, so BigB would rather he's able to get out quickly.
"You alright?" BigB asks, sympathetically, giving Pink a steak to eat. Pink takes it quickly and sits up.
"That was painful. Can we go home now?" Pink mumbles out.
"Yeah, we can go. We got a lot of things, didn't we? Lots of blaze rods, nether wart...hey, even a wither skull! We'll have to keep that hidden." BigB doesn't want to see any withers get summoned. "You did really well out there."
"Thanks." Pink smiles weakly, but he's got enough strength to get up. "Okay, let's get out of here. I'm overheating."
"Me too."
The two run through the Nether, trying to stay away from any mobs and make it back to the portal. Pink doesn't hesitate to jump through, and BigB follows after.
Pink takes a second to sit on the mountain and revel in the cold breeze on top. It's relieving, now he's not boiling hot anymore.
But then his moment of calm is interrupted by hearing yelling from nearby.
The two look at each other in confusion before they walk over to the edge of the hill, before both immediately becoming incredibly confused by the sight of what's going on at the river.
"What on earth is going on down there? What did we miss? Again? " Pink questions, mild annoyance obvious in his voice.
"I have no idea, but it looks dramatic. Let's just watch." BigB responds, also highly concerned.
Nodding, Pink looks over to the top of the other hill and sees Albert watching from above, who turns and makes eye contact with him. Albert smiles and starts running down the hill towards the small bridge.
"Albert's coming. Hide." Pink says, half joking, half serious.
"Maybe he'll give us an explanation?"
"Doubt it."
Albert arrives and beams at the two, seemingly having a lot of fun.
"Hello boys! Do you guys have any popcorn?"
"Popcorn doesn't exist here, sorry." BigB shrugs, and Albert looks horrified.
"How can you not have popcorn in Minecraftia?! Everyone loves popcorn! I'll have to bring some to you when we get out of here..."
"No, no, you can get it in certain servers, but not here. Sorry." BigB sighs. "What's going on? We just came back from the Nether and suddenly everyone's arguing."
"Oh! To put it succinctly..." Albert takes a huge breath in. "Sketch my lovable but slightly stupid teammate decided he really wanted the enchanting table back so he recruited Megan to steal it from Tanqr and Hyper and Megan got Ashley involved to help her but they ended up getting caught by Hyper so Tanqr and Hyper chased them here Ashley brought in the girls as back up and now everyone's yelling at each other because they can't decide who the enchanting table should go to!" After his ramble, Albert beams. "And I've been watching, because it's really funny. Do you guys wanna watch it with me?"
"How did you say all of that in one breath?" Pink asks, bewildered, but doesn't get a response. BigB nods, absorbing all that information in and considering it.
"I have an idea. Music."
"That...that's the plan?" Albert asks, not expecting this.
"Yes! Pink, get one of our spare diamonds and 8 pieces of wood, arrange the wood like you would to make a chest and put the diamonds in the middle, please? Oh, and get one of the music discs we found."
"Okay?" Pink's horribly perplexed, and still a bit knackered, but he runs inside to do as he's told. Albert turns to BigB in confusion.
"What are you planning on doing with that?"
"It's either going to give them a super dramatic backing track or give us some dance music and make everyone snap out of it. We shall see...once Pink gets the jukebox, that is."
Almost as if on cue, Pink walks out holding a jukebox in one hand and a disc in the other.
"I did it. Now what."
"Alright, follow me!"
BigB starts to walk down the hill to where the others are, Pink and Albert following behind. Once he gets up to but not too close to the group, who are too preoccupied with arguing over the enchanting table and preventing Tanqr from murdering someone to notice him, he points to the floor next to him and gives Pink an expectant look. Pink and Albert share a glance and put it down. Hyper happens to notice from behind Tanqr.
"Uh, guys, what are you doing?"
Wordlessly, Pink puts the disc into the jukebox whilst looking at BigB for approval. BigB nods in response, earning a quick smile from Pink. A second after, cheerful and upbeat music starts playing, which very quickly gets everyone's attention.
No one speaks for far too long, and were it not for the music, you could hear a pin drop. All eyes are on Fight & Flight. Pink partly behind BigB out of embarrassment, partly leaning on him out of tiredness, but it's not exactly working because BigB is doing a little dance.
"...As I was saying." Hyper eventually gets out, breaking the silence (and reminding quite a few people that he's even there). "What in the world are you doing?"
"Well, it was a tossup, but let's pretend I always wanted to dissipate the situation." BigB responds, not being totally honest.
"Uh...you weren't even here when this started, how do you plan to do that?" Sanna asks, skeptical.
"Albert explained to us." Pink clarifies, trying to hide the fact he would like to disappear right now.
"And because you're all a bit upset right now, it's best trying to calm everyone down before we sort this out like civil people, because that's what we are!"
"Some of us aren't." Megan deadpans, motioning to Tanqr, who glares at her in response.
"Well...we're going to try to be civil people. And you're very clearly upset, so..." BigB continues the little dance.
He'd hoped that everyone would join in and lighten up a little, no matter what happened.
It...sort of works?
By getting everyone laughing at BigB's slightly terrible dancing, that is.
It's really not that good, but he's putting his all into it. A few people (namely, Ashley and Albert) do decide to join in for the heck of it, but mainly, it's just people laughing. With one simple move, the tension in the air completely dissipated, and it's like they're back at home.
Pink buries his head in his hands, trying his best to ignore Albert attempting to make Denis dance with him.
"Hey, it's alright. I don't mind." BigB whispers to Pink, reassuring him. He's a little embarrassed, he'll admit, but it's not like things got worse. "I'm okay with being laughed at for a bit."
"Well, as long as you're happy." Pink keeps his head in his hands as he says that, so it comes out very muffled. "I can't believe an enchanting table led to people nearly dying. If this is what happened now, then I'm terrified to compete against them."
Pink mumbled that - it's still supposed to be confidential - but Hyper overhears it and immediately takes the chance to make a joke.
"Oh, it will happen again. But you'll quickly get used to it. I know I did."
Pink's surprised by Hyper's sympathy, but
"How'd you deal with the competitive ones? Especially if they target you?"
"Well, from the 'underdog' to you - you just suffer through it. That's what I did." Hyper sighs. "Half the time they still terrify me, and I've known them for 2 years now."
"I hope I don't end up in that situation. I swear, if people start calling me a child again, I'm going to punch someone."
"Oh, I can imagine. That sounds like the worst."
"It is! I'm old enough to live on my own!"
Pink gets a kick about complaining about this stuff, and sooner or later, Pink's forgotten to be embarrassed and they're both laughing about previous experiences.
BigB looks over to the two and smiles.
"Tired of us already, huh?" BigB jokes.
"Sometimes you have to bond over the insanity of your companions, what can I say?" Hyper responds, and Pink gives a thumbs-up to agree.
BigB chuckles, and then realises someone's poking him in the shoulder.
"...Why are you playing along with them?" BigB turns to Tanqr, who's slid behind him. BigB did notice that he didn't seem to find his dancing all that entertaining, so he's probably still a little tense.
"I mean, I've never been in their position, so I wouldn't know, but as long as they find it funny and feel less stressed! What about you, Tanqr?"
"Huh?"
"What do you find funny? You're still a little annoyed, and I would love you not to be."
Tanqr takes a second after BigB's done talking to look him up and down, trying to puzzle out something in his head. It just doesn't make any sense to him. BigB seemed like he knew what was going on, and Tanqr was wary of him because of that, but right now, he's wondering whether he actually needed to worry.
"Kreek humiliating himself."
"Something else you find funny?" BigB quickly shoots that down.
Tanqr sighs. Is it that hard to understand?
"We're in the middle of a death game, BigB. Now is not the time for..." he explains, motioning towards the jukebox. "...silly dancing. We're wasting our time."
"Maybe it's not." BigB shrugs. He knows what Tanqr's getting at, and it makes sense. It's a common mindset to get stuck in in this game. But he knows better than that. "But I still think it's worth it. We can't get dragged down into the gloom of this game, that's just...unhelpful, yknow?"
"How? We need to focus on surviving, and ensuring we're on top of everyone else so we have the best chance at survival. Only one of us can make it out of this alive, and all you're doing is making everyone forget that. I know you're trying to take everyone's minds off the enchanting table."
"Don't worry, we'll sort it out in a second." BigB takes a second to think before responding to Tanqr's initial question. "Only four lives have been lost so far, we're still early on. It's going to get a lot worse, and a lot harder to stomach, later on into the game. I'd rather everyone have some happy times before things get really serious."
"So you'd rather people get attached to each other before things get serious, and are ignoring the risks that come with that? We can't leave this game until most of us are dead. You're only making things worse."
"Maybe. But in a game like this, we have to take joy in the little things, unless we all want to fall into despair." BigB has a realisation as he's talking, and lightly elbows Tanqr in the side. "Hey, don't act like you're not being friendly either. You and Hyper trust each other enough to do heists together, and it's only been a day!"
He meant that in a light-hearted way, but as he says that, Tanqr narrows his eyes and recoils.
"I'm only allies with him because-" Tanqr starts, before remembering Hyper's right there. "...Whatever. Just ask about the enchanting table."
"Okay, sure." BigB winks at Tanqr, who glares at him back. Then claps to get everyone's attention, and now all eyes are on him. "Are we all feeling better? Now that we've all chilled out to some chill music? Not feeling catty anymore?"
Kreek groans at the pun, but he does cover his mouth to hide his smile. He also seems to be the only person who gets it, and BigB's satisfied with that.
"Uh, no. Wow, I'm surprised that worked." Megan says. She's feeling a lot better.
"I mean, it is a tried and tested psychology technique. Do something so absurd that it snaps someone out of whatever funk they're in. In this case, we were snapped out of the tension over the enchanting table by BigB's atrocious dancing." Sketch explains, giving BigB a little tease at the end.
"Good! So, let's try to sort this out. As far as I'm aware, the Bromance Bros are fully enchanted, as are...uh, do you guys have a team name?" BigB asks Tanqr and Hyper, before remembering that Tanqr's probably not the type for that.
"Losers-" Kreek teases, but Denis puts his hand over Kreek's mouth to shut him up. Good. BigB saw the flash of murderous intent on Tanqr's face, and he was doing so well.
"Anyway, Hyper and Tanqr are also fully enchanted. Pink and I have enchanted our tools but not our armour. And you guys-" BigB motions to Leah, Sanna, Megan and Ashley, who've clumped together in a group. "-haven't enchanted anything at all, correct?"
"Nope." Ashley confirms.
"Okay! Who has it right now?"
"Uh, me." Sketch says, holding the table up. "I assume you're going to tell me to give it to the Femme Fatales?"
"If they think they're ready for the responsibility of holding it, yes!" BigB once again looks at the girls for an answer. "By the way, that's a really cool team name."
"Thank you!" Sanna beams, proud of her 'hard work.' Ashley takes a moment to think, but honestly, she really doesn't need to.
"Yeah, we'll take it. We might be holding onto it for a while, though, we don't have diamonds like the rest of you."
"Honestly, iron works fine. Best not to risk losing something super valuable." Denis pulls out his enchanted iron pickaxe as an example. Ashley nods, and seems to accept it.
"So are we going to deal with the influx of people wanting to use it now, or...?" Leah asks, but Pink instantly stops that in its tracks.
"I think we can all agree we don't want a repeat of this." he motions to Tanqr, Hyper, and the Bromance Bros. "All of this. So, no stealing." As he says that, he gives Megan and Tanqr stern looks. Tanqr chuckles at the fact he's being yelled at by a tiny teenager, and Megan looks sheepish.
"Hey, don't forget to blame me!" Sketch jokes, and when Pink glares at him, he gives Pink a thumbs up.
"Okay, so, no more chaos. We're happy with that. Keep it far away from us." Denis says on behalf of his whole team, because while Sketch agrees, both Kreek and Albert look unsure. BigB looks over to Hyper and Tanqr to get their responses. Tanqr seems like he's about to disagree, but Hyper interrupts him.
"Wel-"
"Okay, we can do that."
"Good luck keeping that one in line, Hyper." Kreek teases, but with some level of sincerity to Hyper. Tanqr glares while Hyper rolls his eyes, but he's clearly amused.
"I'm sure Hyper will do well." BigB puts his hands on his hips, very happy with himself. "Okay! Then it's settled! Sketch, give the girls the enchanting table, and we can get some more music to play us out. I think we've got another disc somewhere..."
Sketch smiles deviously and proceeds to chuck the enchanting table directly at Sanna's head. Good thing Ashley's got good reflexes. She pushes Sanna to the ground just before she's hit.
"Think fast!"
"A-"
"Hey!" Leah pouts on the other two's behalf, who are now both on the ground, slightly dazed.
Before BigB can figure out what disc to get, Albert steps in and takes Cat out of the jukebox, before putting whatever disc he has in.
"Don't worry, I've got one!"
"When did you go and get that-" Pink asks, but he doesn't have time to talk before the disc starts playing.
BigB's proud expression instantly drops, changing to one of shock, and everyone notices it.
"Not that one!" BigB exclaims, giving Albert a worried look. Albert gives him a confused but somewhat smug look.
"What's so bad about 13?" he asks, tilting his head.
BigB takes a second to figure out how to phrase it, but eventually, he gets an explanation out.
"That's...uh, that's the death record. " At that, there's some concerned murmurs from the crowd. "The rumour goes that whenever that disc plays, someone will die."
"Oh! Unfortunate." Albert says, but he stays right where he is.
"Then stop it from playing, if you think it's unfortunate." Pink scolds, but Albert just stares at him with that trademark unblinking smile of his.
"I mean..." Sanna starts, having gotten off the floor alongside Ashley. "If the boogeyman's willing, you could fufill the prophecy? So then no one has to worry about it for the rest of the day? So there's no more distrust between their teammates, and they don't risk leaving it too late!"
"Hey!" Hyper impulsively responds, and Sanna raises an eyebrow.
"I wasn't even trying to throw shade at you."
"She's right, though." Tanqr smiles, trying his best not to seem smug. "Alright, Boogeyman! Unsheathe your sword! Don't kill me though. Kill someone like...Ashley, or something, I don't care."
"Maybe don't be so excited about murder." Pink pleads, but it falls on deaf ears.
Ashley, taking lots of offence to Tanqr's statement, decides to challenge him, ignoring the fact that that's a poor idea.
"Alright, fine! Try to kill me! Give me all you've got, boogeyman. I can take you!"
There's silence for a few seconds, before the boogeyman finally decides to give into their worst desires.
"Alright then, Ashley." they say, pulling out their sword. "I'll give you a five second head start."
Amidst the whole group's yells of surprise at him being the boogeyman, Sketch starts counting down with a wide smile on his face.
Overconfidence has never served Ashley well, but she has a nasty habit of falling into its clutches anyway. Ashley would fight him head on, but quite frankly, she's not so sure about her fighting abilities against someone like him. So instead, she decides to run.
Pivoting on her heel, Ashley dashes into the distance, along the river. Sketch ignores the others and chases after, jumping across the river to get as close as possible.
"Ashley!" he taunts. "You wanted this~!'
"YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!" Ashley yells back, partially out of fear, partially as a response. Sketch just laughs. Does Ashley really think she can run? From him?
Well, clearly she can, because she's quickly gaining distance.
Ashley's trying not to focus on Sketch's taunts and is just running. Where to? She doesn't know, she doesn't really have a goal other than escaping. Maybe she'll attempt to loop around to where the others are. Maybe she'll run into a cave and hide there. No time to think, only time to escape.
She can barely see where she's going, she's so stressed, and her legs are aching, but she's got to keep running keep running keep running-
They're in the meadow now. Sketch knows that if he's not able to close the gap soon, he'll never catch up to her - as soon as she reaches the world border and takes a turn, he won't know where she's going or how to catch up. These voices are really annoying (how did BigB and Hyper deal with them? Actually, come to think of it, they probably didn't), he needs to get the release of a kill and fast. Now he's outed himself, it's now or never. He's seeing blood red, his hands are itching-
And then Sketch has an idea.
"I'm right behind you~!" he calls out again, as loud as he can, trying to make himself seem closer than he actually is.
Ashley whips her head around to check-
-and freezes in place. Only for a second or two, but still for far too long.
It's a lot easier for Sketch to kill when his censor bar's off.
<AshleyTheUnicorn was slain by Sketch>
~~~
A/N
Surprise, Sketch was the boogeyman! Didn't keep the suspense for long, but it's fine. He's doing fine at the very least. RIP Ashley, hope that didn't hurt too bad. BigB is doing his best to make situations better and then Albert steps in to make them worse, what a vibe. Oh, and Tanqr is being emo. As per usual. He's so emo.
Next chapter, you'll be seeing the fallout of that death snd Sketch's perspective. Stay safe out there, and thanks for reading!
- YanDan