#vaunna’s requests

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Welcome back :D

Maybe something with Scar in MCC?

so we’re jumping right back into it with some ANGST! yaaaay!

also i know some of the people *cough*DREAM*cough* weren’t in Scar's first MCC but for the purposes of fic, they are ;)

… 

  “You excited for your first MCC, Scar?” asks Pete, giving his newest friend a nudge.

  Scar grins back at him. “Heck yeah! I just wish Grian could’ve been here.”

  “Well, he’s watching,” says Martyn.

  “I know, it’s just not the same. At least I won’t have to face him in any of the games, though.”

  RyguyRocky leans around Pete to address the others: “Speaking of facing people in games, there’s been a substitution. Ren’s out, Cub’s in.”

  The colour drains from Scar’s face. “Cub?”

  “Yeah. Shouldn’t matter though, right? One hermit is much like another.” Ry glances awkwardly at Scar. “No offense, of course.”

  Scar falls silent and glances up at the sky. He hasn’t told his teammates but he’s nervous about facing the other hermits in the games. There’s no way he’d want any of them to go easy on him but at the same time, he doesn’t want to go too hard in case they accidentally go too far. 

  But now, he’s facing his best friend. He could have handled facing Grian, but not Cub. Scar and Grian fight all the time. But Scar hasn’t even sparred amicably with Cub in many years, let alone actually faced off against him in an actual match. 

  Maybe it won’t happen, he thinks. Maybe Survival Games won’t even get picked.

  But fate decides to prove him wrong.

  Scar’s hands are clasped tightly together as he waits for this match of Survival Games to begin. The second-to-last game and his team aren’t doing so well in the rankings, but it’s a lot better than Scar expected. At least they’re not last. 

  But this is the game he was dreading. He is not a fighter. Build Mart went very well, but now THIS. He’s discussed strategies with his team of course, but talking about something is very different to executing it, and executing it WELL.

  Halfway through the game, Scar manages to get separated from his teammates. Stumbling up a hill outside of the faux-city, clutching his sword, he comes face-to-face with another person on their own, a person he had hoped not to see during this game. 

  Cub stares back at his best friend, his grip on his sword tightening so much that his knuckles start to turn white. This is what he had been dreading. Of all the games to come face-to-face with Scar, this is the worst. 

  After a moment, Scar lifts his shield. “You’re gonna kill me, aren’t you?”

  “If not me, it’ll be someone else.”

  “I don’t want it to be you.”

  Cub glances over his shoulder. In the distance, he can see the outline of Dream mercilessly hacking into another player with an iron axe.

   The message Vixella was slain by Dream flashes up in chat. 

  “Yes,” Cub says, raising his sword. “You do.”

  The two have been close friends for many years; they know each other’s fighting style by heart. Every time one gets close to gaining the upper hand, the other brings them back down. 

  Finally, Scar makes a mistake. Trying to anticipate Cub’s next move, he slides to the side, ready to bring up his shield to defend. But he mistimes his move by a split second, and a split second is all it takes. 

  Cub’s sword slices a gash in Scar’s midriff, causing him to cry out and drop to his knees, his hand flying to cover his wound. He can hardly concentrate through the pain.

  “I’m sorry,” Cub murmurs, lifting his sword. 

  Hunched over and unable to see his best friend’s face, Scar closes his eyes.

  …but the final blow he’s expecting never comes. 

  Instead, he hears a pained grunt, followed by a clattering sound. 

Cubfan135 was slain by PeteZahHutt

  When Scar lifts his head, he sees Martyn offering his hand to him. Scar takes it and Martyn helps him to his feet, supporting him and keeping him upright. Over Martyn’s shoulder, he can see Pete picking up Cub’s dropped sword and Ry covering him with a shield. 

  “Is he okay?” Pete asks, moving to the other side to watch the group’s back. 

  Scar moves his shaky arm out of the way. Blood is smeared over his wrist and hand, and more is leaking from the wound in his midriff. 

  “He’s hurt,” Martyn responds. “Scar, can you walk?”

  “I-I think so.” Scar clears his throat as his voice cracks from pain. “But I’ll just slow you down. Just leave me here and you might stand a chance.”

  “No way that’s happening,” says Pete, gently placing his hand on Scar’s shoulder. “Win or lose, we do it as a team. Ry, do you still have that healing potion?”

  His teammates’ voices fading, Scar’s gaze fixes on Cub’s sword, now held in Pete’s hand. He doesn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed that Cub didn’t manage to kill him. If Cub was able to inflict such pain on him while trying to SPARE him pain, he doesn’t want to think what someone like Dream might do to him.

  “Scar?” prompts Pete suddenly. “We gotta get moving. Are you okay to walk?”

  Scar nods weakly. “I am. Let’s go.”

  He’ll be fine. They’ll all be fine.

…

GoodTimeWithScar was slain by Dream

…

  In the stands, a red-sweatered individual watches on, his worry slowly being overshadowed by calm rage.

  “I’m coming for you, Dream,” he mutters. “Just you wait.”

#mcc #goodtimeswithscar #petezahhutt #inthelittlewood #ryguyrocky #vaunna’s requests

[ashhollowart]

hey! if it’s okay, could you draw my oc? no worries if not!

Yes hello! Thank you for the request, your oc is such a cutie and was so fun to draw!!

#ask ash #ash's art #art request #sketch art #also hi Vaunna!!

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Could I possibly get a team ZITS hurt/comfort? I don’t really care what it’s about, maybe having something to do with Zed helping the other three recover from 3rd life/ Last Life?

YES! i am always down to write Team ZITS

...

When Skizz respawns back on Legacy for the first time in months, the first thing he does is gather some basic supplies and go to the inter-server portals. He knows he’s technically supposed to put in a request to travel there first, but he hopes Xisuma will understand his urgency.

He gets to Hermitcraft with no issues. Now that his communicator is linked to Hermitcraft’s comms system, he shoots Xisuma a message.

<Skizzleman> Hi X, sorry for the short notice but is it okay if I stay here for a few days? It’s kinda urgent.

His heart pounds as he waits for a reply; he doesn’t want to stray far from the portals in case he gets in trouble. Luckily, it doesn’t take too long before a message comes through.

<Xisuma> Sure. Just make sure you notify me just before you leave.

<Skizzleman> Will do. Thank you sir.

Skizz leaves the safety of the inter-server portals and heads for one person’s base. He doesn’t have an elytra, in this world or his own, so the journey is slow. And it doesn’t help that this person’s base is almost the furthest it could possibly be.

Finally, he arrives at the pristine modern-style base. Exhausted from his journey and from the events he’s fresh from, he knocks on the door.

Within half a minute, Zedaph opens the door, dressed in casual clothes. “Skizz?” he says in surprise. “Wh- What are you doing here?”

“Last Life,” Skizz responds helplessly, unsure how to begin to explain. “I, um…”

“Oh.” To Skizz’s relief, Zedaph nods. “Come on in.”

Skizz follows Zedaph into the lab. His friend leads him to the living area and gestures to the chair near the fireplace. Skizz gratefully flops into the chair, his feet aching.

“So… um…” Zedaph hesitates, hovering near the chair opposite him. “What made you come here?”

“Impulse, Tango, and I agreed that when we lose our last life, we’ll all meet up here,” Skizz explains. Sorry, I assumed one of them would’ve told you.”

Zedaph shakes his head. “Oh no, it’s okay. How… How did you die, if I may ask?”

Skizz drops his gaze, certain that he’ll start to cry as he recalls what happened. “TNT trap. It was my own fault; I was running around with the other reds and then just… BLAM. Lights out. Never saw it coming. Honestly, it may not have even been a TNT trap. It all happened so fast, I just figured that’s what it was.”

“And… how are you feeling after all that?”

“I…” Skizz hesitates, blinking back tears at the simple question. “I’m so tired. Physically, emotionally. I just want my best friends back so I can hug them and tell them I love them and then sleep in a non-trapped bed without needing to worry about being attacked in my sleep.”

Zedaph wordlessly moves over to Skizz and sits down next to him, wrapping his arms around him. Skizz relaxes into the hug, finally letting the tears fall. It’s been so long since he felt such a warm embrace; the waves of loving energy are almost overwhelming.

They’re still in the embrace when another knock at the door sounds. Zedaph gently releases Skizz and the two rush to the front door. As soon as Zedaph opens it, Skizz’s heart leaps at the sight of who’s outside.

“Tango!”

Without speaking, Tango darts into the lab and grabs Skizz in a tight hug. Skizz hugs him back, clutching him like his life depends on it. Zedaph steps to the side, letting them have their moment.

“I was hoping you’d be here already,” Tango croaks, his tears making the back of Skizz’s collar damp. “Are you okay? I tried to get to you but you died seconds before I did.”

“You died?” gasps Skizz.

“I tried to go red so I could join you. When I heard Grian’s TNT trap got you, I…”

Tango trails off.

“So it was Grian, huh?” Skizz attempts a joking tone. “Dang, he’s batting a thousand when it comes to permakilling me. Two for two. Did you avenge me?”

“I tried,” says Tango quietly. “Mumbo gave me an end crystal so I kamikazed in Grian’s base. Not sure if I managed to get anyone or not. Frankly, I… I just wanted it to be over at that point.”

At this moment, Tango glances to the left and spots Zedaph. Putting on a brave smile, Tango lets go of Skizz and gives Zedaph a quick hug. “Hey. Sorry for not letting you know we were gonna be here.”

“Ah no, it’s okay,” Zedaph says quickly, squeezing his friend’s shoulder. “I’m just glad you two are alright.”

“It might take Impy a bit longer to get here; he was still on yellow when I left.”

“Good,” Skizz says. “I want him to win. He didn’t deserve it last season but he does now.”

Tango nods. “Yeah, I agree.”

After a short silence, Zedaph clears his throat. “Can I get you guys anything? Food, supplies?”

“Just a bed to sleep in,” Tango responds. “I’ve been going for nearly twenty-four hours straight and I think I might be about to collapse.”

“Oh of course, yeah,” says Zedaph. “You know where your room is. Skizz, you can sleep in mine.”

“Actually…” Skizz glances sideways at Tango. “Do you mind if I take a bed to Tango’s room? I don’t really wanna be separated from him right now.”

Tango takes Skizz’s hand and squeezes it reassuringly.

Zedaph nods. “Yeah, no worries.”

Later that night, Skizz and Tango lie in their beds, placed one block apart in Tango’s specially made room. Skizz has to keep glancing over at his friend, to make sure he’s still there. He can’t stand to lose Tango again.

“Do you think they’re still fighting?” he whispers after a moment.

After a moment, Tango quietly responds, “Well, when it gets to the endgame, people tend to keep fighting and not sleep. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s all over by the morning.”

“Poor Impulse…” Skizz’s voice cracks. “He was one of the only yellows left. Do you think he’s okay?”

“Impy’s smart. I think as long as he keeps moving and joins up with groups of other non-reds, he should be fine.”

This helps Skizz feel slightly better. “I’m so proud of him. He’s really learned from last season and… I think he can make it to the end, dude.”

“I think so too. But you should get some sleep, Skizz. Been a long day for us.”

“I’ve been trying.” Skizz lets out a quiet sigh. “I just… I keep worrying that something’s gonna happen. It’s gonna take a long time to unlearn the vigilance and paranoia.”

“Hey, that’s what I’m here for.” Tango rolls over to face his friend, giving him a small smile. “We’re gonna help each other through this, okay?”

Skizz can hardly manage a smile back. “O-Okay. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

…

Skizz wakes up with a jolt, sitting bolt upright in bed. The clock on the table beside him says it’s just before sunrise. For a moment, he’s unsure of what woke him; he doesn’t remember having a nightmare.

Then he hears soft voices from outside.

He gets up and quietly opens the door. From the balcony, he can see down into the main part of the lab, and he can see two figures standing by the door. The white lab coat of Zedaph is clearly visible, but it isn’t until Skizz gets closer that the emblem on the other person’s shirt allows him to identify them.

“IMPULSE!”

Skizz’s shout, louder than he intended, echoes across the lab as he sprints down the stairs and tackles Impulse in a hug.

“Oh, Skizz…!” Impulse’s voice cracks. “I missed you so much.”

Skizz buries his face in Impulse’s shirt, soaking in the familiar feeling of being held by his longtime best friend. “Is it over?”

“It’s over.”

“You… sound sad.”

“Well, I…” Impulse sighs. “Grian betrayed me and I died.”

Skizz stares at his best friend. “Oh gosh…!”

“What happened, Impy?” asks Tango, standing on the stairs.

“Grian and I made an agreement that we would never kill each other unless we were the last two standing,” Impulse replies numbly. “But… he stood by and did nothing as Cleo attacked me and killed me.”

Skizz’s heart sinks. “Did- Did he not see? Was he unable to help?”

“No, he stood by and watched me die. I yelled for him to help me, but he didn’t move.”

“Oh, Impulse…” Skizz gives his best friend another hug. “I’m so sorry.”

“I think…” Impulse clears his throat as his voice again almost fails. “I think he was just looking for a way to get rid of me. I was probably a liability.”

“More like a threat,” Tanso says unexpectedly.

Impulse glances up at Tango. “Huh?”

Tango’s arms are crossed. “You were a threat to him, plain and simple. So when an opportunity came along to make sure you died without him being culpable, he took it.”

“I… I guess it could’ve been that…”

As Skizz senses Impulse’s mood dropping further, he decides to keep talking. “So I’ve been permakilled by Grian both seasons and you’ve been betrayed both seasons. That sucks, man.”

Impulse blinks. “It was Grian who got you?”

“I walked into a TNT trap. Tango said it was Grian’s.”

Tango nods silently from the stairs, confirming Skizz’s statement.

“Gosh…” Impulse sadly shakes his head. “I guess we both got screwed over in the end, huh?”

Skizz nods, throwing his arm over his best friend’s shoulder. “Wouldn’t be Imp and Skizz if we didn’t.”

Impulse chuckles. “I guess that’s true. Anyway, I could really do with some sleep.”

Zedaph takes over and starts to usher Impulse towards the stairs. None of them seem to have noticed anything wrong, but Skizz can see right through Impulse’s facade. The chuckle is hollow and forced, the smile thin and weak. Skizz can tell that Impulse is trying incredibly hard not to cry, and it breaks his heart.

But Skizz won’t bring it up right now; it’s not time to talk anymore. What the three of them need most right now is plenty of rest to recover from their ordeal. And here, being taken care of by Zedaph, they should be able to do just that. It’ll be hard, he knows. Just like it was the last time. But this time is different.

This time, they have each other.

#last life smp #skizzleman #tangotek #zedaph #impulsesv #vaunna’s requests

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

I am thinking about Impulse seeing the clock in Bdubs’ hand and immediately connecting it to 3rd life and I’m making it angsty in my mind. Mans has trauma towards clocks now and trust issues but he will hide it with a smile on his face however strained it may be

leftover 3L trauma my beloved

...

When Impulse received the saddle and diamond armour, the first person he thought of to give it to is Bdubs. He knows how much Bdubs loves his horses. And after all the drama that went down a few months ago, he wants to do something nice for his friend.

But as Impulse flies along Bdubs’s path, gifts in hand, he can’t help twitching at the urge to pull out his sword and shield. One thing left over from 3rd Life is his paranoia surrounding death and potentially being ambushed, even though nobody has any reason to attack him at this point in time.

Finally, he spots Bdubs working on the path with his wooden shovel. He lands beside his friend and gives a friendly, “Hey,” to announce his presence.

“Oh, hi, Impulse!” Bdubs smiles and puts away the shovel. “Look at you flying in like a little bird.”

Impulse performs a twirl to show off his elytra. “Yeah! Got my wings the other day. Loving the new jacket, man. Very camouflagey. Almost couldn’t see you against the grass.”

Bdubs does a similar twirl to Impulse, showing off his furry green hoodie. “I love it; it’s so cozy. What’d you think of the path?”

“Very nice, man. I followed it on the way here; it was really helpful. Anyway, the reason I wanted to come over is because I found a little something I knew you’d like.”

He takes out the saddle and horse armour and gives them to Bdubs, who gasps delightedly. “Oh! Thank you so much! You’re such a sweetie.”

As Bdubs twists around to put the items in his inventory, Impulse’s eyes happen to flicker downward and his heart skips a beat as he spots something.

A shiny golden clock hangs from Bdubs’s belt, the twitching needle taunting him with the memory of looking into a very similar needle just seconds before his death.

As he comes out of his inventory, Bdubs notices that Impulse has seen it. “You’re looking at my clock.”

Impulse nods slowly. “Yeah. Bringing back some memories, I gotta say. Happy ones, of course,” he adds, attempting to joke.

“Of course…”

A slightly awkward silence follows. Impulse tries to look away but he can’t stop staring at the gleaming gold circle.

“It’s not THE clock,” Bdubs says after a moment. “Obviously.”

Impulse almost snaps that that doesn’t matter. But he forces the words down. “Yeah. Obviously.”

After another awkward pause, Bdubs lifts his hand.

Impulse involuntarily flinches, images flashing in front of his vision of a Bdubs bringing his sword down on his head. A Bdubs who may or may not exist anymore, who turned on him and murdered him as if he was nothing more than a mindless zombie. In this split second, all the terror and confusion and anger floods back to him and he backs away a few steps.

“Impulse!”

Impulse’s vision clears and he registers Bdubs’s worried face. Breathing heavily and more than a little embarrassed, he rubs the back of his neck. “I...uh…”

“What was that, Impulse?” Bdubs’s eyebrows crease with worry. “Did you… Did you think I was gonna hit you?”

“No!” Impulse plasters a smile on his face. “I just got startled, that’s all. Thought I heard a zombie.”

Bdubs’s eyes flicker upwards and Impulse knows he’s registering that it’s daytime. “Impulse, if you’re not over what happened in 3rd Life, I-.”

“I am,” Impulse says quickly. Too quickly. “It’s fine. It’s not like I worry that everyone I meet up with is gonna kill me with little to no provocation or get nightmares about giant clocks with anime eyes that rip my head off and use it as a basketball.”

Bdubs blinks. “That’s… worryingly specific. Are you seriously sure you’re okay?”

Impulse continues nodding. “I’m fine. Thanks for your concern, though. And… I should probably get going now.”

His friend doesn’t seem convinced at all, but he doesn’t question Impuls further. “Okay, if you’re sure. Thanks for stopping by; I really appreciate the gift.”

“No problem. See you later.”

Impulse turns as Bdubs is still saying goodbye and takes off into the air with his elytra and rockets, ignoring his trembling hands and the few drops of sweat trickling down his back. The incident has shaken him more than he likes to admit. He hates having this leftover distrust and discomfort around one of his closest friends, but there’s just no way he can shake it this easily.

This may be a brand new world, but the memories from the old one remain.

#3rdlifesmp #3rd life smp #hermitcraft #impulsesv #bdubs #vaunna’s requests

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

I was looking through your older requests and stuff from 3rd life, and I remembered the one with Scott and Jimmy nearly getting sacrificed to Dogwarts and I thought hmmm...demons, red aesthetics, a generally more powerful side?

Basically, I think it would be cool to have a version of that with Sausage and fWhip trying to sacrifice Jimmy.

(And wow, Jimmy really can't get a break with religious tones after EVO, huh?)

THIS. is genuinely one of my favourite things i've ever written, if not THE favourite. i'm so so proud of it :D

cw beating, blood

…

Jimmy no longer has the energy to scream or fight. Having been beaten periodically throughout the day, his chest and neck are in too much pain for him to move. Sitting slumped in the tiny cell he’s been put in with his hands tied behind his back, all he can do is keep fighting against the dull pain all over his body threatening to drag him into unconsciousness.

All he can do is keep fighting to stay awake.

Finally, they come for him. Led by fWhip, Sausage pulls Jimmy out of the former’s base and out to the altar that’s been set up in the centre of Sausage’s castle.

Jimmy knows exactly what’s coming. Neither fWhip nor Sausage has made any secret of what they intend to do to him. And after a full day of being kept in a cell, hands tied behind him, beaten every time he tried to escape or fight back, he doesn’t have the strength to try and stop it.

As they push him onto the altar, Jimmy stumbles. As a response, Sausage hits him in the stomach, knocking him to the ground. Seconds from passing out, Jimmy is powerless to stop Sausage from pulling him up onto his knees.

Coughing weakly, Jimmy slowly lifts his head to look at his captors. “Wh-Why are you doing this…?” he croaks. “What did I do…?”

“Sorry Jimmy, but Xornoth demands a sacrifice,” fWhip responds, and Jimmy can almost hear a twinge of genuine remorse in his voice.

Jimmy tries to push himself up in one final desperate attempt to escape but his chest and throat are screaming in pain and he’s unable to stop Sausage from pushing him back down and holding him in place.

“Please…!” he rasps, pulling weakly at the ropes binding his wrists. “Please…”

Neither of them respond as Sausage pushes Jimmy’s head down and fWhip lifts the axe.

Tears fall from Jimmy’s bruised eyes. He wishes he could fight back but he barely has the strength to stay conscious. If he has to die, he’ll die with as much dignity as he can.

“STOP!”

Jimmy again lifts his head, and though he can’t see very well through his blurred vision, he can make out a figure standing on the wall several blocks away.

“Pixl,” Sausage growls.

fWhip’s demeanour completely changes. All his remorse and carefulness disappears as he roughly hauls Jimmy to his feet by the scruff of his neck and holds his sword against his throat, angling Jimmy in front of him like a human shield.

“Don’t come any closer,” he says coldly but calmly.

“Let Jimmy go,” Pixl orders, lifting his trident and aiming it directly at fWhip. “Now.”

fWhip’s grip on Jimmy tightens. “You’re in no position to bargain. One quick movement and we’ll see how much blood the Codfather has inside him.”

Nausea rises in Pixl’s stomach at the grisly mental image. “I’m not saying this again, fWhip: LET. JIMMY. GO.”

“How did you know to come here?” Sausage snaps suddenly. “You live thousands of blocks away!”

“I told him.”

It takes Jimmy’s fuzzy mind a moment to recognise this new voice but when he does, his heart skips a beat.

“Scott?” A hint of surprise is audible in fWhip’s voice. “Why would you do that?”

“Because what you’re doing is barbaric,” replies Scott icily. “Now listen to the Copper King and let Jimmy go.”

“What do we do?” whispers Sausage to his ally.

fWhip narrows his eyes, his analytical mind trying to calculate the odds of him winning this fight.

As he does, he twists the sword in his hand and nicks Jimmy’s neck with the sharp blade, causing him to let out a semi-conscious cry of pain.

That sound triggers something in Pixl and he lets his trident fly. His aim is remarkable and it slams into a tiny piece of fWhip’s armour visible just to the side of Jimmy.

fWhip staggers back, releasing his grip on the Cod Empire ruler, who collapses to the floor like a stone. “Retreat,” he hisses to Sausage. “We won’t win this fight.”

Sausage, clearly needing no further encouragement, takes off into the air with his elytra, followed closely by fWhip.

Immediately, Pixl and Scott both rush to the unconscious Jimmy’s side. Scott pulls out his dagger and cleanly slices through the ropes binding Jimmy’s wrists, while Pixl carefully rolls him into a position on his back. 

“Jimmy!” he gently cups his friend’s cheek as he leans close, trying to awaken him. “Jimmy, can you hear me?”

When he gets no reply, a horrifying thought occurs to him and he hurriedly checks Jimmy’s pulse.

“He’s alive,” he says in relief. “But only just.”

“He’s really beaten up,” Scott observes shakily. “How could fWhip and Sausage do this to him…?”

Pixl carefully lifts Jimmy into his arms and straightens up, making sure Jimmy’s head is secure against his chest. When he speaks, his voice is low and barely controlled. “I don’t know. But we need to get his injuries seen to as soon as possible.”

“Take him to his house,” says Scott. “Gem and I have been working on healing magic so I’ll fly over and get some of that to help him.”

“Okay. Good luck.”

“You too.”

As Scott takes off into the air, Pixl rushes back to Jimmy’s house and carefully lays him down on the bed. As he removes Jimmy’s gloves, he spots bulging red burn marks left over from where the ropes dug into his wrists.

This simple sight almost unleashes Pixl’s barely-contained fury. Tears of anger spring to his eyes as he gazes down at the bruised face of his unconscious friend, twisted in pain even in sleep.

He turns his head to look out at the darkness through the window. fWhip and Sausage needed a sacrifice for their stupid demon and they chose the easiest target. It makes Pixl’s blood boil to see them continually pick on Jimmy just because he’s unable to fight back.

A weak cough brings Pixl’s attention back to his injured friend. To his horror, he sees blood pooling at the corner of Jimmy’s mouth, so he leans down and checks his young friend’s breathing.

As he’s doing this, Scott returns, holding a leather pouch in his hands. “How’s he doing?” he asks worriedly.

“He’s not breathing well,” says Pixl quietly. “And he’s coughing up blood. A few more minutes and we may lose him. What have you got?”

“I have a healing crystal,” Scott reports, pulling a magenta crystal out of the pouch in his hands. “It should heal any internal injuries and ease his pain, but external injuries won’t be affected.”

“That’s fine. Do it.”

Scott moves over to Jimmy’s bedside and closes his eyes as he holds the crystal over Jimmy’s body. The crystal glows magenta, and similar-coloured energy starts to flow from it into Jimmy.

Pixl watches this with interest. He’s never had an affinity for nature magic and it intrigues him how crystals can have such magical properties. But soon his interest is outweighed by the relief that the colour has returned to Jimmy’s skin and his chest isn’t heaving so much anymore.

Finally, Scott lowers the crystal, which has stopped glowing, and tucks it back into the bag. “That should help,” he says.

“Good,” murmurs Pixl. “He looks like he’s breathing easier.”

Scott nods, not trusting himself to speak again.

A brief pause follows.

“I want to ask you something,” Pixl says, in a tone that makes it clear he expects no argument. “Why did you call me?”

Scott glances at him in surprise. “What do you mean?”

“You’re on their side. Why would you want to go against them like that?”

After a moment, Scott looks away. “Because a long time ago, Jimmy told me he didn’t want to look me in the eyes as I get sacrificed on an altar; I realised earlier that I didn’t want the reverse.”

Pixl nods slowly. He, like many others, heard about what happened on 3rd Life and even though he isn’t aware of specifics, he can’t help thinking that Scott’s remark is tied into that.

Scott lifts Jimmy’s limp hand and pushes back his sleeve slightly to reveal the burn marks that Pixl noticed earlier. He gives a deep frown as he tenderly traces the mark with his finger. “I don’t understand how they can do something like this to someone they once called their friend,” he murmurs. “No matter how much things have changed, he… They… You just don’t do that to someone.”

Pixl nods again as Scott carefully places Jimmy’s arm back down on the bed. As he turns to leave, he again glances back at Jimmy and hesitates. After a moment, he reaches out and gently brushes the bruise over Jimmy’s eye with the backs of his fingers, unable to hide a deep frown of worry.

“Why do you treat him so coldly all the time?” Pixl asks. “You clearly care for him a great deal and he cares about you. Why do you continue to push him away?”

Scott takes a moment to compose himself and steady his voice before he replies. “I’ve already gone through the pain of losing him once. I can’t do it again. I’m sorry, but I have to go now.”

Pixl almost argues but thinks better of it. “Okay. Thank you, Scott. For calling me and for helping Jimmy.”

“Of course. Goodnight, Pixl.”

“Goodnight.”

After Scott has left, Pixl locks the door behind him and pulls up a chair next to Jimmy’s bed. His friend’s face is a lot less pale than it was, though the bruise over his left eye and the thin cut in his neck are still very much visible.

Feeling a wave of affection and protectiveness, Pixl gently strokes Jimmy’s shoulder and takes a great deal of relief from seeing a small smile appear on Jimmy’s face in his sleep. Every instinct in his body is urging him to fly out there and enact vicious revenge on the people who did this to his friend.

“I’ll make them pay for hurting you,” he vows quietly. “I swear.”

#empires smp #pixlriffs #solidaritygaming #jimmy solidarity #smajor1995 #scott smajor #fwhip #mythicalsausage #vaunna’s requests

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

MY DEAR WIFE. I DESIRE A SEQUEL TO THE JIMMY EMPIRE FIC. I MADE THIS TUMBLR ACCOUNT TO MAKE MY DEMANDS. NOW GO BE FREE. WRITE YOU FANTASTIC FANFIC WRITER YOU. -BEST SPOUSE, PURP <3

this was a popular request LMAO :D

here’s the first part

…

The ringing of her communicator wakes Lizzie up late in the night. Blinking herself awake, she quickly answers it, speaking quietly so as to not awaken her sleeping fiance next to her. “Hello?”

“Lizzie, it’s Pixl,” comes the familiar British voice. “I’m so sorry to wake you.”

“It’s okay,” Lizzie says. “Is something wrong?”

“Something’s happened with Jimmy.”

Lizzie’s heart skips a beat. “Is he okay?”

“I’ll explain everything later but I could really use your help right now. Are you able to come to the Cod Empire?”

Momentarily forgetting that Pixl can’t see her, Lizzie nods. “Of course, I’ll come over right away.”

“Thanks so much, Lizzie,” says Pixl gratefully. “See you soon.”

“See you.”

Lizzie puts down her communicator and gets out of bed. Just as she’s finished changing, her fiance stirs in his bed and murmurs, “What’s going on? Who was that?”

“Pixl,” replies Lizzie softly, secretly glad he’s awake; she wouldn’t have woken him first. “Something’s happened to Jimmy, and Pixl needs me. You okay to come over to the Cod Empire with me?”

Joel sits up in his bed, immediately more awake. “Of course, of course. Let me get dressed.”

The two fly straight over to the Cod Empire and land outside Jimmy’s house. Pixl answers the door on the first knock. “Queen Lizzie, thank you for coming,” he says gratefully. “And King Joel.”

He leads them inside. Lizzie and Joel both gasp simultaneously as they spot Jimmy lying on the bed.

Joel freezes but Lizzie dashes to his side and grasps his hand, staring down in horror at the bruises covering Jimmy’s face. “Oh my goodness! What happened to him?! Is he okay?!”

Pixl joins her on Jimmy’s other side. “He’s recovering,” he responds grimly. “You know the demon Xornoth that’s shown their face around the server lately?”

“Heard of them.”

“fWhip and Sausage seem to be around the epicentre of the whole thing. They captured Jimmy, kept him in a cell for a whole day, beat him several times, then tried to sacrifice him to Xornoth. Scott and I managed to save him but he almost died from his injuries before Scott was able to heal him somewhat with magic.”

Lizzie gazes down at Jimmy with a worried expression, gently touching his face. He stirs slightly under her touch.

After a moment, she speaks again, her tone low and dangerous. “fWhip and Sausage, you said?”

Pixl nods. “Yeah. Scott and I chased them off but I’m a little worried about them returning to finish the job. That’s why I asked you over; I could do with some help protecting him. If that’s okay.”

“Of course it’s okay.” Lizzie retracts her hand and presses her fist into her palm. “Hell, if either of them show their faces around here, I’ll rip them apart with my bare hands.”

Now Joel moves closer to the bed, his expression uncharacteristically serious. “Poor Jimmy… I can’t imagine how terrified he must’ve been.”

As Pixl opens his mouth to respond, another knock at the door sounds. The three frown at each other, trying to work out who could possibly be at the door.

After a moment, Pixl heads back over to the door and answers it. His gaze darkens when he sees who’s standing there. “You’re not welcome here.”

Lizzie stiffens as she hears MythicalSausage’s voice: “I just wanted to ask how Jimmy is. And to… apologise.”

“Apologise?!” Lizzie bursts out.

Joel draws Pixl out of the way as Lizzie storms to the door and shoves Sausage backwards. “You TORTURED my friend and you think you can just walk over here and APOLOGISE?!”

Sausage scrambles back as a furious Lizzie bears down on him. “I had nothing to do with hurting him! That was all fWhip!”

“YOU THINK THAT MAKES IT BETTER?!” Lizzie bellows.

She flings out her arms and manipulates the ocean water into grabbing hold of Sausage and bringing him closer to her. “ACK!” Sausage chokes, struggling uselessly. “LIZZIE!”

“I’m going to kill you, Sausage,” growls Lizzie. “Would you rather be flung high into the air and fall to your death or drowned in salty ocean water?”

“N-Neither!”

A dark smile appears on Lizzie’s face. “Too bad. I’ve decided I’m gonna drown you.”

She lifts the water higher. His scream is abruptly cut off as the water envelopes his head, stopping him from breathing. She watches with satisfaction as his air slowly runs out.

But then Pixl’s voice comes from behind her: “Lizzie, he’s calling for you. He needs you.”

Lizzie pauses, weighing up her options. Eventually, she releases Sausage onto the dock, taking grim pleasure in the way he splutters and coughs up water. “You’re lucky this time, Sausage,” she says. She kneels down beside him and pushes her face close to Sausage’s with a menacing glare. “But if you ever, and I mean EVER, come near Jimmy again, you’re gonna wish you were never born. Do I make myself clear?”

“Y-Y-Yes!” gasps Sausage.

Lizzie steps back and lets Sausage flee, before rushing back inside and back to Jimmy’s side. Her ally is stirring, his eyelids fluttering. “L-Lizz...ie…”

“I’m here,” whispers Lizzie softly, holding his hand against her cheek to reassure him of her presence. “I’m here, Jimmy. Are you okay?”

Jimmy coughs weakly. “M-My wrists hurt.”

Frowning, Lizzie pushes down Jimmy’s sleeve, revealing the thick red marks. “Wh-What is this?!” she gasps. “Pixl?”

“It’s…” Pixl hesitates, knowing what his next words will likely cause. “They’re burn marks. He had his hands tied behind his back for most of the day in that cell.”

Joel glances sharply at his fiancee. “Uh oh.”

Thunder sounds overhead as dark clouds rapidly slide across the sky. Lizzie’s expression remains steady, but lightning flashes in her eyes. “I’ll be right back, Jimmy,” she says, her voice as steady as her expression. But it’s just an act for Jimmy’s benefit and both Pixl and Joel know it.

Neither Pixl nor Joel stop her as she storms out of the hut and takes off flying towards the Grimlands. She lands atop the outer wall, rain starting to fall from the sky.

“FWHIP!” she bellows, her voice rolling through the clouds and echoing across the land.

Seconds later, the count himself appears atop his tower, within audible distance despite the increasingly loud thunder overhead. “Queen Lizzie!” He spreads his arms wide. “How may I help you?”

A bolt of lightning strikes the very top of fWhip’s tower.

“Aha, what have I done to invoke the wrath of the Ocean Queen?” fWhip laughs.

Instead of replying verbally, Lizzie lifts her arms and summons a giant wave of water from the river, sending it crashing down like a tsunami over the Grimlands.

“NO!” fWhip yells. “My villagers! You’re gonna drown my villagers!”

“MAYBE YOU SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT BEFORE YOU TORTURED JIMMY AND TRIED TO MURDER HIM!” roars Lizzie.

fWhip stares at her for a moment as he finally remembers that Lizzie is one of Jimmy’s closest allies. “...oh…”

Shaking himself into action, fWhip dives down into his flooded village. Lizzie watches him, taking grim satisfaction in watching him flounder around in desperation. She doesn’t even realise how close he is to death until-

fWhip drowned

Lizzie quickly dissipates the flood and jumps down to look for fWhip’s items. As she’s starting to pick them up, fWhip reappears, so she retreats back to a safe distance.

“I’ll get my revenge for this, Ocean Queen,” growls fWhip. “I will not take the attempted murder of my villagers lying down.”

“I don’t give a crap,” Lizzie snaps back. “Don’t you dare think about going near Jimmy ever again, because if you do, I can promise you I will wipe your goddamn empire off the face of the world and I will NOT regret doing it.”

fWhip narrows his eyes. “You’re messing with the wrong empire. I too have the power to wipe an empire out of existence.”

“I live in the ocean. The bulk of my empire is underwater now. Your TNT will make a scratch at most.”

fWhip’s mouth opens, then closes again. After a moment, he looks away. “Fine.”

Lizzie raises an eyebrow. “Really? You’re backing down that easily?”

“I’m being smart. You’ve no idea what’s coming, Lizzie. I do. I need to prepare. I can’t afford to be dragged into another war right now.”

As fWhip turns, he finds Lizzie extremely close to him. She grabs the collar of his shirt and pulls him close so that their faces are inches apart. “Then don’t start one,” she snarls. “Stay away from my allies.”

She shoves fWhip away and takes off again, flying back to the swamp. Part of her feels bad at the attack on fWhip’s innocent villagers but she pushes it aside. fWhip tortured Jimmy and was perfectly willing to slaughter him when he was tied up and defenceless.

Lizzie has no sympathy or mercy for a person like that.

When she gets back, Joel meets her at the door. “Lizzie, you’re back!” he gasps. “I saw the death message in chat.”

“Yes. fWhip needed to be told that I won’t tolerate him hurting my Jimmy.” Her gaze flickers from Joel to Pixl and back again. “Or any of you.”

Joel gazes at her with almost visible hearts in his eyes. “I love you so much, Lizzie.”

Lizzie can’t help a chuckle. “I love you too.”

“Guys, guys, come quick!” Pixl calls suddenly. “Guys!”

The two quickly rush to Jimmy’s beside but stop dead simultaneously when they see what Pixl is so panicked about.

A mark has appeared on Jimmy’s neck. It looks like some kind of rune, but what’s worrying about it is the fact that it’s glowing red.

“What is this?” Lizzie gasps. “What’s happening?”

“I don’t know! It just appeared!”

After a few seconds, the glowing dies down, leaving only the clear black mark.

“This has got to be something to do with the demon,” says Pixl shakily. “I don’t know what or how or why, but somehow, fWhip and Sausage’s attempted sacrifice of Jimmy must’ve caused this.”

“But what can we do about it?” Joel asks. “What can we do to help?”

Pixl has no answer to this.

Nobody does.

#empires smp #pixlriffs #ldshadowlady #solidaritygaming #smallishbeans #fwhip #mythicalsausage #vaunna’s requests

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Hey Vaunna, if you ever want to try and write something to make me cry, hit me up. Imma start making a list of things I’ve almost and actually cried over in fics-

Make me suffer, I dare you.

welp here we go! good luck everyone LOL

summary: Team ZIT face a blast from Zedaph's past

...

“I dunno about you but I think having only a set of coordinates sent to our communicators with no explanation is never a good thing,” says Tango, gazing around the clearing.

Impulse nods. “Agreed. Especially considering it’s been five minutes and… nobody’s here.”

As if on cue, someone walks out through the trees. The two jerk in surprise but relax when they register who it is.

“Oh, Zed, it’s you,” breathes Tango. “Why did you send us these coords?”

Zedaph doesn’t reply as he walks over to a tree on the edge of the clearing and pulls a lever.

Immediately, a glass box springs up from the ground and closes around the two.

“Hey!” Tango snaps, hitting the glass with his first. “What the hell are you doing, Zed?!”

“Tango?!” comes Zedaph’s voice from the opposite side of the clearing.

Tango and Impulse turn sharply to find… Zedaph running into the clearing.

After a stunned moment, they turn back. Zedaph is standing by the lever he just pulled, but he doesn’t look EXACTLY like Zedaph anymore. His eyes flash red, his hair more tousled and a slightly darker shade of blond.

“What’s happening here?!” Tango demands. “Why are there two of you? Who’s the real Zed?!”

“I am,” says the newcomer Zedaph immediately. “He’s…”

His face pales as he properly registers who’s standing on the other side of the clearing.

“I’m Helsaph,” the first Zedaph says. “Your dear Zedaph’s hels counterpart.”

“What’s going on?” asks Impulse nervously. “Why have you locked us in a glass box?”

“Oh, cuz I thought you might want to hear about what Zedaph did to me,” Helsaph responds aggressively.

Zedaph slowly moves forward towards Helsaph, but stops several blocks away. “I…”

“What the hell could Zed have possibly done to YOU?” Tango growls.

Helsaph jabs his finger at his counterpart. “You wanna tell them what you did or shall I?”

Zedaph’s mouth opens and closes uselessly for a few seconds, before he squeezes his eyes shut and looks away.

Helsaph turns to the two in the box. “Let me see if this jogs your memory of anything.”

He pulls out a pink item from his pocket and holds it up to his eyes.

Tango and Impulse freeze in horror.

“Look familiar?” says Helsaph challengingly. “Huh?”

Impulse stares helplessly at the helsmit. “I don’t… understand.”

Helsaph barks a laugh. “What, you don’t really think it was the real Zedaph under that mask, do you? Surely you don’t really think the mastermind behind the PR stunt that was Wormman would be out there risking his OWN neck?”

“Zed, what is he saying?” Tango demands.

“I recruited Helsaph to be Wormman and then I abandoned him in Season 5 when we moved on to the next world!” Zedaph bursts out suddenly.

Silence falls. Tango and Impulse exchange a look of horror.

“You didn’t know that, huh?” Helsaph taunts. “Guess your precious little best friend never told you that he’s not the moral angel you think he is.”

“Zed…” Impulse gazes at his friend in disappointment. “Why?”

Zedaph doesn’t answer. Instead, he murmurs, “There. I said it. Is that what you wanted, Helsaph?”

Helsaph grabs Zedaph by the collar and yanks him off the ground. “Is that it?! “Is that what you wanted?”?! YOU ABANDONED ME IN A GHOST WORLD FOR THREE YEARS!”

He tosses Zedaph away as if Zedaph weighed nothing. No sooner has Zedaph landed on the ground than he looks up to find Helsaph charging at him. He can’t react in time to stop Helsaph from slamming his boot into his stomach, yanking all the air from his lungs and causing him to dissolve into a fit of coughing.

“ZED!” Tango screeches, hitting the glass wall with all his strength. It starts to crack under his blows.

“You made me play the hero!” Helsaph yells at his counterpart. “You trained me and spent time with me and made me CARE about you and then you just tossed me aside like I was NOTHING to you! Do you have any idea how much it hurts to learn that the person you thought loved you actually didn’t give a DAMN about you?!”

“I…!” Zedaph’s voice fails and he hangs his head. “I’m… I’m sorry...”

“Oh, you’re SORRY?”

Helsaph grabs Zedaph by the throat and slams him against a tree, the pressure on Zedaph’s windpipe abruptly cutting off his breathing.

“You think SORRY is going to make up for what you did?!”

“Get off him!” screams Tango’s voice.

A second later, Tango himself barrels into Helsaph, knocking him to the ground and releasing his grip on Zedaph, who drops to his knees, gasping for breath.

Impulse appears at Zedaph’s side and envelopes him in a hug. “It’s okay,” he whispers. “It’s okay, Zed.”

A little way off, Tango is kneeling on Helsaph’s back, keeping him pressed to the ground. As Helsaph struggles against Tango’s grip on his arms, he screams, “All I wanted was to be loved! ALL I WANTED WAS TO BE ACCEPTED!”

“Shut up!” Tango snarls at him.

“Tango, don’t hurt him!” pleads Zedaph hoarsely, his vision blurred. Weakly pushing Impulse away, he stumbles blindly towards the hazy figures of Helsaph and Tango. “Let him go!”

“Let him go?!” Tango echoes in disbelief. “HE TRIED TO KILL YOU!”

“Please, Tango! Let him go!”

Tango stares at Zedaph in disbelief for a moment, before huffing and releasing Helsaph, though he keeps a firm eye on the helsmit. “Fine.”

Helsaph slowly pushes himself to his knees, his eyes fixed on Zedaph. All his anger seems to have vanished, replaced by despair. “Why did you not want me anymore?” he cries. “W-Was I not good enough…? Did I do something wrong…?”

“No…! I never intended to hurt you.” Zedaph’s voice cracks with emotion. “This is all my fault. I should never have abandoned you, I… I was just so scared of what you might become that I never considered I could help you not become it. And instead… my worst fears came true, and it’s all my fault. Helsaph, I’m so sorry.”

Zedaph slowly moves forward and, kneeling down in front of Helsaph, brings him into a hug.

And after a few seconds, the dam breaks.

Tango and Impulse stand together a safe distance away, watching their best friend hug his crying Hels counterpart.

“All he ever wanted was a family,” says Impulse quietly. “People to care about him the way we care about Zed.”

Tango hesitates for a moment, then makes a decision. He joins Zedaph and Helsaph on the ground and wraps his arms around both of them. Impulse does the same on the other side, both he and Tango holding their Zedaphs tightly.

“I wanna be a hero again, Zedaph,” croaks Helsaph. “Have I messed it up?”

“No no, you haven’t messed anything up,” Zedaph says reassuringly. “If anything, I’M the one who messed everything up. Can you forgive me, Hels…?”

Helsaph sits back on his heels, regarding Zedaph with wary eyes. “But… But how do I know you won’t abandon me again if I stop being useful?”

Zedaph anxiously clasps his hands together. “I know you won’t trust me again for a long time, and that’s… that’s completely valid. But I… I refuse to judge your worth based on how “useful” you are again. From now on, you’re my brother and I’ll stick by you, no matter what.”

“B… Brother…?” repeats Helsaph shakily. “You mean…?”

“You’re part of the ZIT family now,” Impulse chuckles, tousling Helsaph’s hair. “Double Zedaph.”

Helsaph stares at Impulse with wide eyes. “I… Why would you want me here after everything I did…?”

“Because Zed made some mistakes and he’s my friend so I want to help him fix them,” Impulse replies kindly. “Right, Tango?”

Tango nods back. “Absolutely. Plus, I mean, you can never have too much Zedaph, know what I mean?”

Sensing that Helsaph is about to cry again, Zedaph quickly steps in and says, “You know, Hels, you actually arrived at a great time. We could do with a hero right now. You remember Evil X?”

Helsaph nods, wiping his eyes with the back of his sleeve. “Very well.”

“They’re back on the server causing a bit of mischief, running a scheme that’s definitely a scam. The server could use a hero to keep an eye on them and make sure they don’t do anything evil.” Zedaph grins. “What do you think? You up to the challenge?”

“I…” Helsaph hesitates. “I’m out of practise.”

“Don’t you worry about that,” says Tango. “We’ll help ya.”

“Yeah, we’re gonna train you back up into the best superhero on the server,” Impulse adds happily.

Zedaph hands Helsaph the pink mask the latter dropped earlier. “Welcome back, Wormman,” he says softly.

After a moment, Helsaph takes the mask and puts it on.

And with this action, Helsaph’s road to recovery, surrounded by his brand new family, begins.

#team zit #impulsesv #tangotek #zedaph #helsmits #vaunna’s requests

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

//last life spoilers: a Lizzie + Ren alliance where Ren protects Lizzie? *chefs kiss* if you’re taking requests, could you write something regarding that alliance? Only if you want to

i still love Renchanting duo and i always will but damn if Lizzie/Ren isn’t a great duo

…

Despite now having a bodyguard, Lizzie has not been able to relax while outside her base. She glances sideways at Ren, who is circling her, keeping an eye out for any potential threats. This comforts her somewhat; she doesn’t know exactly how handy Ren is in a fight but having someone to watch her back can only lead to good things.

“Fear not, my lady!” Ren yells out of the blue. “I will protect you from the evil that lurks in the darkness!”

Lizzie spins round to find Ren attacking something with his axe just inside the treeline. She clears her throat as he returns to her. “Um… Ren?”

Ren beams at her. “Yes?”

“That was a chicken.”

“It was, yes.”

Lizzie pauses. “Last time I checked, chickens weren’t evil.”

“Well…” Ren glances down at the raw chicken in his hand. “Well, now we have a bit more food. So it wasn’t a totally useless endeavour.”

“Very true,” admits Lizzie.

When they get to the mountain with the dirt house atop it, Lizzie glances sideways at Ren, who is still staring suspiciously around them. “Ren, why don’t you go scout out the area and make sure there aren’t any traps nea-.”

“Okay!”

He takes off even before she finishes her sentence.

Chuckling to herself, Lizzie makes her way across the one-wide bridge towards the opening of the cave.

“Hello, Lizzie.”

Lizzie spins round to find Joel standing on the other end of the bridge, where she had just come from. “Uh, h-hi, Joel.” She gives a nervous laugh, wondering if Joel has found out that she bet on him to be the first to turn red. “What’s… What’s going on? Why’d you ask me over?”

Joel’s face holds a grim look as he slowly walks towards her, drawing his sword. “I’m sorry.”

Lizzie’s eyes widen as she realises what’s happening. “No...! Why me...?!”

“Because you were the only one who would come when I asked,” Joel replies. “I really am sorry, Lizzie. I didn’t want it to be you, but I need to get rid of this curse.”

“No!” Lizzie hurriedly backs away, painfully aware that she won’t be able to outrun him. “Joel, please! Please!”

Joel lunges.

“Get away from her!”

Lizzie almost falls over backwards as a figure appears out of nowhere and jumps in front of her, taking the stab to the gut that was aimed at her.

“REN!”

As Joel freezes, Lizzie reacts and shoves him off the bridge. She doesn’t even need to look at chat to confirm what she already knows.

SmallishBeans fell from a high place

She rushes to Ren’s side and steadies him, ensuring he won’t follow Joel over the side. “Ren!” she gasps, her voice cracking in panic. “Oh my gosh, are you okay?!”

Ren’s face is twisted in his pain as his shaky hand tries to staunch the bleeding. “I-I don’t think I’m gonna make it…”

“No, you HAVE to! Come on!”

Lizzie pulls Ren to his feet and slings his arm over her shoulder. She guides Ren through the woods, forcing herself to ignore every wince and muted cry coming from her ally. Thankfully, the two make it back to Lizzie’s tree fort safely, where Lizzie carefully lays Ren down on a soft patch of grass and flowers, hidden away from the entrance to the fort.

“Hold on, Ren!” Lizzie pleads, dashing to her house. “Hold on!”

She hurriedly rifles through her chests, looking for the items that will save Ren’s life. The netherwart is easy to find but she realises quickly that she doesn’t have any blaze rods.

As she’s searching through her final chest, her communicator buzzes.

Renthedog was slain by SmallishBeans

“No!” she gasps, abandoning the things in her arms and rushing back towards where she had left Ren.

Only his items remain in the spot.

Blinking back tears, she gathers up his stuff and puts it in a chest for him. When he finally emerges back in the tree fort about five minutes later, she tackles him in a hug.

“You’re yellow again,” she murmurs.

Instead of responding directly, Ren simply asks, “Are you okay?”

“I will be.”

She steps back and concentrates, whispering the spell that Grian taught them all at the start of this world.

Ren gasps as the green particles surround him, and the heart tattoo on his neck changes from yellow back to light green.

“Y-You gave me a life…?!” Ren stares at her in shock. “Wh- Why? You’re yellow now!”

“Because you saved my life. It wasn’t fair that you lost yours in the process.”

“Well I-I’m not implying I’m not grateful. I just…” He hesitates. “I was willing to die for you. And our alliance wouldn’t have ended if I’d died.”

“I figured as much, I just…” Lizzie forces a laugh. “I didn’t want to give Joel the satisfaction.”

Ren chuckles.

“And maybe… maybe I didn’t want you to die,” she adds. “I’ve never had a relative stranger put their life on the line for me before.”

“We’re not strangers anymore, right?”

“Oh heck no, you took a sword to the gut for me,” responds Lizzie. “You’re my friend. Thank you for saving me, Ren.”

Ren smiles back and gently touches her shoulder. “You’re welcome, Lizzie.”

#last life smp #ldshadowlady #rendog #smallishbeans #vaunna’s requests

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

A bit of an odd request (if it’s okay), but I really wanna see Jimmy and Fwip make amends. They both seemed pretty shaken after the whole dragon fiasco, so I thought maybe they’d be too exhausted to keep feuding? Jimmy got his cod head back and Fwip’s pretty guilty about the end trap. I dunno, I just wanna see these two be friends again. :((

Jimmy and fWhip need to reconcile now pls and thank u

...

Jimmy stares at the giant red tendril sticking out of his farmland. He may not know exactly what it’s meant to be but its colour and aura make it obvious that it is a more extreme form of the corruption that’s been plaguing his empire. Now that Xornoth is nearing their full power, the corruption is getting much worse.

“Hey,” comes a familiar voice from behind him.

Jimmy doesn’t even turn around. “I’m busy.”

“I know.” fWhip hesitates. “I just think we need to talk.”

“I don’t have anything to say to you,” Jimmy responds. “I’m tired of fighting you.”

“So am I, Jimmy.”

After a moment, Jimmy turns to face his old foe. “What?”

“I’m not here to fight or argue or steal anything from you,” fWhip explains. “Quite the opposite, actually. I just think we might want to talk about what happened in the End.”

Shaking his head, Jimmy turns away. “I don’t want to talk about that.”

“You should, cuz you’re just as culpable in the dragon’s death as I am.”

“Excuse me?!” Jimmy whirls back round to face fWhip in shock. “You lured me to the End using something extremely precious to me as bait, and now you blame me for wanting to get back home?!”

“There was another way,” says fWhip. “You could’ve jumped in the void.”

“And lost everything?” Jimmy scoffs. “That wasn’t an option, fWhip.”

fWhip’s eyes flash briefly. “Oh yeah you’re right. Losing your items is definitely in no way preferable to an ancient demon coming into his full power, ready to unleash an eternal winter on thousands of innocent people.”

Forcing down the bubbling anger rising up inside him, Jimmy places his hand on the hilt of his sword. “Get out of my empire, fWhip.”

“Jimmy-.”

“No.” Jimmy steps forward, forcing fWhip to step back. “You don’t get to come here and throw my failures in my face. Not after everything you did.”

fWhip holds his stare for a moment before he has to look away. “You’re right.”

Jimmy has to pause for a moment to digest what fWhip just said. “What?”

“I was so wrapped up in my power trip and winning our stupid feud that I was blind to what Sausage was doing right under my nose. You, Pixl, Joel, and Lizzie wouldn’t have been anywhere near the End if it wasn’t for me and my obsession with one-upping you. I shouldn’t have gone that far.” He inhales deeply, steadying himself. “Jimmy, I’m sorry.”

fWhip can only endure the ensuing silence for about ten seconds before he has to break it. “I’ll… I’ll just go.”

As he turns, Jimmy speaks. “fWhip.”

“Yeah?”

fWhip glances back at Jimmy, who is staring down at the ground with hollow eyes. “Sausage really did want the demon to be unleashed all along, didn’t he?”

“I-.” fWhip clears his throat. “It seems like it, yeah.”

“So then he was just using his alliance with you and Gem to get what he wanted.”

fWhip averts his gaze to the ground. “It seems so.”

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?” fWhip asks.

“That,” says Jimmy sympathetically. “I guess you must be feeling pretty guilty too now.”

“I can’t even begin to describe how horrible it feels to know that I played a massive part in bringing an eternal winter down on my empire and the empires of the people I care about.”

“Weren’t you putting down end crystals to try and heal the dragon as we were killing it, though?”

“But it didn’t work, did it?” fWhip doesn’t wait for an answer. “Too little too late, Jimmy. Now the corruption is spreading and the eternal winter is on its way, and no amount of “you tried to save the dragon” is going to change that. There’s no hope left.”

Just as fWhip says that, he feels the urge to confide in Jimmy about the one hope they DO have left: the dragon egg that Gem is taking care of. But after a moment, he decides against it. It’s not that he doesn’t trust Jimmy; it’s simply that the fewer people who know about the dragon egg, the safer it will be.

“No hope left,” repeats Jimmy dejectedly. “What are we supposed to do, then? Just give up?”

When he gets no answer, Jimmy looks up and finds fWhip staring down at the ground, his eyes glazed over.

“fWhip?” Jimmy prompts.

fWhip blinks himself back to the present. “Hm?”

“Are we supposed to just give up and let the demon take control of our world?”

“No,” fWhip replies immediately. “No way.”

“Then how do we fight it?”

“I guess… the first step is to heal any unnecessary rifts.”

Jimmy scrutinises fWhip’s face for any sign of insincerity. “You mean… us?”

fWhip nods.

“Oh.” Jimmy hesitates, starting to rub the back of his neck. “Well… I’m sorry for letting our rivalry get that far. And I accept your apology in return.”

“Apology?” repeats fWhip.

“You apologised earlier and I didn’t respond. I accept your apology now.”

“Oh!” fWhip’s expression clears. “Oh, good. Th- Thanks.”

Jimmy frowns. “Are you okay, fWhip? You seem… out of it.”

“I’ll be fine,” fWhip replies quickly. “Jimmy, I’m really glad we’ve had a chance to talk and settle our differences. If you need any kind of help with your empire or anything else, you can come to me.”

“Thanks.” Jimmy gives a smile. “Same to you, fWhip.”

“Much appreciated. See you later.”

As fWhip walks away, he accidentally moves too close to one of the red tendrils sticking out of the ground and winces at the sudden stab of pain in his neck. After making sure Jimmy isn’t watching, fWhip pulls down the collar of his shirt and checks. The red marks sneaking over his shoulder and up towards his neck are pulsating. The corruption in Jimmy’s empire must have triggered this.

After a moment, fWhip readjusts his shirt and takes off into the air with his elytra. The pain starts to die down as he gets further away from the corruption, but he knows it will flare up again when he gets back to his own empire. But there’s no way he’ll tell anyone about this.

If this is the burden given to him for his hand in the dragon’s death, fWhip will bear it alone.

#empires smp #fwhip #solidaritygaming #jimmy solidarity #vaunna’s requests

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Hey so, you know that whole 'Red's get innate bloodlust' and how Jimmy doesn't reaaallllyyy seem to have that? what if for some reason or other, maybe it's a glitch in the system or a trick of the gods, All of Jimmy's bloodlust and rage are actually felt by Scott. Green life Scott. ;) do with this what you will <3

oh my gosh this was so much fun to write! such an interesting concept!! :D

…

Grian is sorting through some chests in his house when he hears someone enter the room. Glancing up, he’s a little surprised to see Scott standing in the doorway, hands clasped together awkwardly. “Hey, Grian,” he says slowly. “Sorry for intruding. Have you got a minute?”

Closing the chest, Grian nods and stands up. “Yeah, sure. What’s up?”

“Um…” Scott leans back against the wall, arms folded. “So… you created this server, right?”

“I did, yeah.”

“Then hopefully you’ll have an answer to this,” says Scott. “I know there’s supposed to be this thing where red lifers feel some kind of bloodlust towards greens and yellows, but Jimmy doesn’t seem to be feeling it at all. We tried to activate it a couple of times but we got nothing. Then… there was kind of a… an incident.”

“Incident?” echoes Grian. “What kind of incident?”

“An attempted murder kind of incident,” Scott says slowly, “which Joel was lucky to escape with his life from.”

Grian cocks his head curiously. “What triggered it?”

“I’ve no idea. As far as I recall, everything’s fine one second, then suddenly, Joel’s on the ground bleeding from the neck. It was absolutely terrifying.”

“Oh, geez…” Grian frowns. “What was Jimmy doing right before it happened?”

“What?” Scott stares at him for a moment. “No, not Jimmy. Me.”

Grian’s eyes widen. “What? You?”

Scott silently holds out his hands, showing the spots of dried blood on them.

“Oh my god… Is that…?”

“Yeah. It’s Joel’s.” Scott takes a deep breath. “What do I do, Grian”?

“Firstly, tell me what happened,” Grian urges. “Tell me everything.”

“Okay.”

…

“It’s not working,” Jimmy complains. “I know I said I don’t want to feel bloodthirsty like the other reds but it’s weird that I’m the ONLY one who doesn’t seem to feel it. I don’t wanna be the only one.”

Scott gives his friend a thoughtful look. “This is bizarre. We’ve tried everything I can think of and yet it still hasn’t happened.”

“Hey, guys.”

The two look up to find Joel sauntering up the hill towards them. “How did you get in here?” Scott asks. “The gate’s locked.”

“I broke through the wall.”

Scott sighs. “‘Course you did. What do you want?”

“I just wanted to come up here and see what you’re up to,” says Joel. “I could see you from over there and what you were doing looked really strange.”

“We’ve just been trying to activate Jimmy’s red life bloodlust,” Scott says. “For some reason, he doesn’t feel the same urge to hurt or kill people as other red-lifers do.”

Joel grins. “Does that mean you don’t feel the urge to attack me when I do this?”

He shoves Jimmy, who stumbles back and almost trips over his own feet.

“Don’t do that,” Scott snaps, reaching out to steady his friend. “That’s mean.”

“Oh, am I being mean?” Joel proceeds to push Jimmy again, actually knocking him down this time. “Sorry about that.”

As Jimmy slowly climbs back to his feet, Scott moves in front of him, a steely glare on his face. “Joel. Stop.”

“I’ll stop if he proves he’s worthy of the red name and attacks me.”

“W-Worthy?” splutters Jimmy. “I never asked to be red!”

“I need you to leave, Joel,” Scott says firmly. “Before one of us does something we regret.”

Still grinning, Joel pushes Scott.

Something inside Scott snaps. Overwhelming rage surges through him. Teeth bared, he tackles Joel to the ground and rakes his nails down Joel’s neck, the urge to maim and kill only growing stronger as blood leaks from the cuts he’s creating.

His hands close around Joel’s neck.

“SCOTT!” comes Jimmy’s terrified scream from behind him. “SCOTT, STOP!”

Scott freezes.

Taking advantage of this, Joel sinks his fist into Scott’s stomach and shoves him aside, before scrambling to his feet and taking off into the trees.

Winded by the hit to his stomach, Scott shakily rolls onto his side, intending to push himself to his feet, but freezes again when he spots the blood on his hands.

“Scott!” gasps Jimmy, dropping to his knees beside his friend. “Are you okay?! What happened back there?!”

Scott can’t answer.

He has no idea.

…

“I sent Jimmy home and came straight here,” Scott finishes. “Grian, I-I was terrified. I still am. Why is this happening to me?”

Grian has been listening to Scott’s story with concern and interest. “Aside from being kinda horrifying, that’s also pretty interesting. I mean, you’re definitely the only non-red experiencing that kind of bloodlust. I’ve seen it in Scar and even Skizzle before but never Jimmy or a non-red.”

“I guess the first question would be why I’M the one out of the two of us being affected by this,” says Scott, “considering Jimmy’s the red lifer, not me.”

“Exactly. The only thing I can think of that’s more unusual about Jimmy’s case than the other reds’ is that Jimmy went from green to red a lot faster. Normally, it takes a little while for the server to register the change in a green going to yellow and a yellow going to red, but in Jimmy’s case, he went from green to red so quickly that maybe the server glitched and didn’t fully complete his transformation to red.”

“What, and you think the red-life bloodlust thing went to me by accident instead of Jimmy?” Scott asks.

Grian shrugs. “It’s a possibility. Honestly, I can’t really think of anything else it could be. I’ll do some investigating but it’s highly likely I won’t be able to undo this.”

“What do you mean?”

“I dunno if it’ll carry through to your yellow life too but it seems that this is something you might be stuck with for your whole time on this server. It might stop when you’re yellow, it might stop when you’re red, or it might get twice as bad. We’ll only know when we get to that point.”

Scott sighs quietly and glances away. “I was afraid of that. But what if I kill someone? I’m not supposed to do that; I’m not red yet. Or worse… Grian, what if I hurt Jimmy?”

“I don’t know, I’m afraid,” replies Grian reluctantly. “Are you gonna tell him?”

Scott hesitates. “I… don’t know at the moment. I don’t want him to worry about me.”

“Well, I can tell you from experience that bloodlust won’t discriminate between friend and enemy. All I can advise is for you to be really careful. As you know, he’s red; you can’t afford to slip up even once or you might lose him.”

“Trust me, I know,” Scott snaps. “That’s not very helpful, Grian.”

“Well, I’m sorry, but I’ve never encountered this before. Like I said, I WILL investigate. But you might have to prepare yourself for a new reality.”

After a moment, Scott shakes his head. “Sorry, Grian. I appreciate your help.”

Grian moves closer and places his hand on Scott’s shoulder. “I’ll do what I can.”

“Thank you.”

…

When Scott gets home, he finds Jimmy waiting for him. Jimmy jumps off his chair and tackles Scott in a hug. “Scott! I’ve been so worried about you!”

“I’m sorry,” says Scott softly. “Are you okay?”

“A lot better now you’re back.” Jimmy gives Scott a worried frown. “What happened back there? It was terrifying seeing you like that.”

“I didn’t mean to worry you. I just lost control a bit. His smug face and the way he was flippantly pushing you around just… made me lose it. I wasn’t gonna seriously hurt him.”

Scott winces internally at the lie. He’s fully aware that he would have killed Joel if Jimmy hadn’t said anything.

Jimmy doesn’t seem too convinced but he doesn’t push Scott any further. “Where’ve you been for the last hour?”

“I just needed to go see Grian and tell him what happened,” Scott responds truthfully. “In case Joel complains.”

“Why would he? He’s red and he attacked you first so you were allowed to defend yourself.”

Scott just shrugs. “Just in case. I don’t want there to be any trouble.”

Jimmy gazes at Scott, forcing him to meet his eyes. “Are you sure that’s the only thing troubling you? There’s nothing else?”

For several seconds, Scott just gazes back into Jimmy’s worried face, imagining himself attacking Jimmy as viciously as he attacked Joel just hours earlier, imagining Jimmy’s terrified face as he bleeds the life out of him. And for a moment, he hates himself. If only it was Jimmy. Scott can defend himself against red-life Jimmy. But Jimmy doesn’t stand a chance against a bloodthirsty Scott.

“Scott?” Jimmy says again. “Is there something else worrying you?”

Scott shakes his head and pulls Jimmy into another hug.

“No. Nothing.”

#3rd life smp #3rdlifesmp #solidaritygaming #smajor1995 #vaunna’s requests

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Okay, this one might be a bit vague, but I'm going to give it a shot:

So, hacker Zed. He's interested in the glitches, he wants to know what's going on, curious as always...but this time, it's a little bit different. His friends were hurt. His curiosity has teeth now.

Zedaph is Impostor the first round he plays. His partner gets voted out early, but he isn't interested in killing anyone to make up for lost time. No, the game has given him a weapon, and he intends to use it - not on another player, but on the map itself. This knife will open reality for him. It will flay the walls and the code and lay it all out for his examination, if he asks it to.

All he needs to do is halt tasks for long enough to perform his dissection.

(that's just a really long-winded way of saying "Zedaph uses the Impostor weapons against the map somehow? Is that anything?" If it isn't anything (or if it's too specific) feel free to ignore!)

hi sorry this is shorter than usual, i had a good idea but i just couldnt fill a full 1000+ word fic this time :( hope it's still good

(edit: @shadeswift99 sorry just wanted to make sure you saw this :))

“Guys, don’t listen to Endless,” Tango says firmly. “I did NOT vent. He must’ve killed Brody and then vented to medbay and blamed me to cover it up.”

“No, Endless is clear,” Astro says. “I couldn’t get on the scanner with him on it.”

“Then he’s lovers with the actual imposter. Or he’s mistaken. Point is: I didn’t vent.”

Skizz snickers. “Tango, I think you just need to give up at this point.”

Tango huffs and crosses his arms. “Fine. Fine. Vote me out, then. Vote me the heck out so I can do my tasks quicker.”

After Tango has been voted out, Zedaph heads back to navigation and stands at the download panel, intending to pretend he hadn’t finished it before the meeting was called. His imposter partner is gone already. There’s no way he’ll win this round on his own.

...so what if he does something interesting?

He takes out his knife and draws it over the wall horizontally. Immediately, the code is forcibly opened up for him. After a minute or so of looking, Zedaph disables both the meeting system and the only task he’s sure at least one of his new friends has.

As he goes to admin to double check this, he’s met by Impulse just at the edge of cafeteria. “Zedaph, hey. Are you having trouble with any tasks?”

“No,” responds Zedaph. “Why?”

“Skizz and Endless are both trying to upload data but it’s not working for some reason,” Impulse explains. “Do you have that task?”

Zedaph shakes his head. “I don’t, no. What do you think is wrong?”

“I’ve no idea, but hopefully we can get it fixed without Brody and Etho.”

“Why them?” asks Zedaph curiously.

“Oh, they’re the only two who can access the game’s code. Hopefully we don’t have to do that to get this fixed, or there’ll be no chance of winning on tasks.”

Zedaph nods, deciding not to mention that that’s exactly what he wants. “I see. Well, I’m gonna get on with the rest of my tasks.”

“Okay.” Impulse pats him on the shoulder. “Stay safe, man.”

“Thanks.”

Zedaph heads to medbay and finds Astro standing on the scanner.

“Hi,” Zedaph says quietly.

“Hey.” Astro finishes his scan and hops off. “There we go. Didn’t get to finish before the meeting. You scanning?”

“Um…” Zedaph almost panics but quickly thinks to check his tablet for his list of fake tasks. “I have the other one in here. Whatever it is.”

“Oh, the sample. Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

Zedaph waits until Astro leaves before shutting the doors and again opening up the code. There’s secrets all over the map, but none interest him. There’s nothing unique here, nothing interesting that can be used in an actual game.

He glances down at his knife. Perhaps he can make something.

So he closes his eyes and concentrates on the code.

Give me something I can use, he tells it. Give me something an imposter can use. Something only a random imposter will know is there. Something only I will remember from round to round.

A pause.

A long silence.

Nothing happens.

Disappointed, Zedaph leaves medbay and heads back down towards admin, intending to free the upload task and let the round continue.

But as he does, something calls to him from lower down in the ship. So he continues walking past admin and into storage.

And that’s when he spots it.

A door with a metal wheel next to it, neither of which was there before. A door that would’ve been there on a normal ship but was excluded from this ship because of the game mechanics. A door that is unmistakable in its design and purpose.

“Hey, Zedaph.”

Turning to face the person who’s just entered storage, a smile spreads over Zedaph’s face. The kind of smile that if you knew Zedaph, you would be worried about what he’s planning.

“Hi, Endless. Wanna see something cool?”

#friday night stabby #zedaph #vaunna’s requests

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

I know you haven't really done many prompts for Empire SMP, but having seen Jimmy's perspective today, I really want to see him just talk about everything that's against him and I think it would be really fun to see him just breakdown with Pixl.

Lore-wise, Jimmy really has gone through the ringer.

he really has T_T someone pls save him

...

Pixlriffs is working on setting up some more candles around the vigil when he hears a noise from behind him. Immediately alert, he spins round, already pulling out his sword, but he freezes when he spots a figure half-limping towards him.

As he rushes towards the figure, he realises with a jerk that it’s his closest ally. “J-Jimmy?!”

The ruler of the Cod Empire is dishevelled and clearly exhausted, and instead of his normal cod mask, he’s wearing the brown llama mask that Pixl remembers giving him a few weeks ago.

Pixl reaches out to steady his friend, holding him by the arms. “Jimmy, what on earth-?!”

“Gosh, your empire is… is really out there,” Jimmy murmurs, his words slightly slurred. “In the middle of a desert. I’m so hot…”

With that, he collapses against Pixl.

“Jimmy!” he gasps, propping his unconscious friend up.

He manages to lift Jimmy onto his back and hurriedly carries him over to his home. He lays Jimmy down on his bed and hesitantly removes his friend’s mask.

He’s shocked to see a fairly fresh cut on Jimmy’s face from his left temple to the corner of his left eye. It’s not still bleeding but it looks untreated. Maybe from the last day or so.

Forcing himself to ignore that for now, Pixl fetches some water and an ice pack, the latter of which he applies to Jimmy’s forehead. Immediately, Jimmy lets out a quiet sigh and stirs slightly, though he doesn’t wake.

After about ten minutes of gently tipping sips of water down Jimmy’s throat, Jimmy’s eyelids flutter.

“Hey,” says Pixl quietly, giving his friend a soft smile. “Can you hear me?”

Blinking groggily, Jimmy frowns. “What happened? Where am I?”

“In my empire,” says Pixl. “Do you not remember?”

Jimmy lifts a hand to his forehead. “My head’s a little fuzzy.”

“I’m not surprised; you were pretty dehydrated. Do you have any idea how long you were wandering around in the desert?”

“No, not really.”

“Well if you walked all the way here from your kingdom, it’s a wonder you didn’t parch to death,” Pixl responds. “Why didn’t you use your elytra?”

“I wanted to walk as long as possible and then when I eventually tried to take off, I realised I didn’t have any rockets,” says Jimmy sheepishly.

Pixl chuckles. That’s so Jimmy. “Right, I see. Why would you want to walk all the way here, anyway? We didn’t have a meeting or anything, did we?”

“No, I…” Jimmy hesitates. “I just needed a break. And I wanted to see you. And I needed to be several thousand blocks away from everyone else.”

“Really?” Pixl frowns. “Are you okay?”

Jimmy hesitates again, before deciding to tell the truth. “Um… no. I’m not okay. A lot of stuff happened yesterday and I’d really like to curl up and cry right now.”

Pixl gives his friend a sympathetic look. “Tell me about what happened.”

“W-Well…” Jimmy sits up in the bed, taking a deep breath. “fWhip covered my nether portal in cobblestone so I told him to come over and clear it up but he used tnt to blow it up and then when I told him to fix the hole in the ground, he blew a bigger hole under the first one and then Scott and Gem showed up and I was hoping they might be on my side but apparently Scott actually helped fWhip make the cobblestone thingy so then I got really mad and hit fWhip with my sword but then he killed me and stole my Codfather mask and I begged him to give it back but he just flew off with it a-and I don’t know how to get it back now cuz Scott said I keep starting things I can’t finish and that even with my allies, I couldn’t hope to beat fWhip but I need that mask back Pixl I can’t-.”

Sensing Jimmy’s rising panic, Pixl quickly grabs Jimmy’s shoulders to stop his friend. “Hey hey hey, shh. It’s okay, Jimmy. Shh.”

Jimmy lets his breathing settle, clearing his throat as his voice cracks. “Wh-What’s wrong with me, Pixl…?” he whispers. “Why am I such an easy target? Is this all because I stole stuff from Sausage so early on? Do I deserve all this?”

“No, Jimmy,” replies Pixl immediately. “fWhip is being a bully, and bullies always have their buddies backing them up so they feel stronger. First it was Sausage, now it’s Scott.”

“I just… I just don’t understand. I thought Gem and Katherine were my allies but Gem is now fully on fWhip’s side and Katherine pretends she’s on everyone’s side but she always seems to back up the person who isn’t me. Who do I have on my side?”

“You’ve got me, you’ve got Joel, you’ve got Lizzie.”

“I do trust Joel and Lizzie, and you of course, but… I-I’m just kinda expecting everyone to leave me if another alliance offers something better. And I wouldn’t even blame them.”

Pixl pauses, casting a brief look at the walls surrounding him. “...well, I’ll never leave you.”

“I-I don’t think you can realistically promise that,” Jimmy responds dejectedly.

This reinforces Pixl’s resolve. “I’m doing it anyway. You need an ally you can always count on, and I will be that ally. No matter what, Jimmy, I’ll stick by you. I know my empire is a long way from yours but if you ever need backup again, send me a message and I’ll drop whatever I’m doing and fly straight over.”

“Really…?” Jimmy stares at him with hopeful eyes. “Wh-Why would you do that for me? Aren’t there better, stronger empires out there you can ally with?”

“Frankly, yeah, there are. But I don’t care. It’s not all about power.”

Jimmy scoffs.

“It’s not,” Pixl repeats. “Power gets you through a war, sure, but wars aren’t the only things empires have to deal with. You’re a kind and fair ruler to your subjects, Jimmy. Villagers, animals, everything. You always go the extra mile to ensure their comfort and safety, and in this world, that’s a rarity. Power really isn’t the only thing that matters. It’s one of the biggest, but that doesn’t mean you should be counted out just on lack of power. That’s why you find yourself a powerful ally, right? And I like to flatter myself that I’ve built up a pretty powerful empire here. Maybe not fWhip-level powerful, but strong enough to defend us both if a certain tnt-crazed empire comes calling.”

Jimmy gazes at him. “Would you really put your empire on the line for my fights?”

“Of course.” Pixl gives him a kind smile. “That’s what allies do.”

“...Pixl, I…” Jimmy can hardly muster any words to express his emotions. “I-I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything. All we need to do is take care of each other and we’ll be okay.”

“Pix…” Jimmy is almost completely lost for words. He’s never had someone show this level of dedication towards him before, especially considering they haven’t known each other very long. “A-Anything you need, Pix, anything at all, just ask.”

Pixl’s smile falls as his eyes flicker up to the scar on Jimmy’s face. “Actually… I do have a question. How did you get that scar on your face?”

“Huh?” Jimmy’s hand automatically moves to touch the jagged line on his forehead. “Oh. This. A, um… a piece of debris from fWhip’s second tnt explosion got me. Nearly got my eye, actually.”

“It looks bad. Untreated.”

“Yeah, I… I’m not so good at first aid and I did ask Scott and Gem if one of them could help me clean it but they refused.”

Pixl’s eyes widen. “They what?!”

Jimmy nods sadly. “They made some excuses and left. Scott said it didn’t look that bad and I could deal with it myself. I looked at it in the river and I also didn’t think it looked that bad.”

“Gosh.” Pixl shakes his head disapprovingly, a deep frown on his face. “That’s… That’s so terrible.”

“I-I’m sorry,” whispers Jimmy.

“What? No, not you. I can’t believe Scott and Gem would leave you when you were clearly hurt. Do you have a first aid kit back in your base? And your food situation: do you have enough food? What’s your diet like?”

A little taken aback by the sudden questions, Jimmy hesitates. “I’ve, uh… been eating fish, mostly. Cod Empire, you know.”

“Any potatoes? Carrots?”

Jimmy shakes his head.

Pixl scrutinises him. “Right, okay. Jimmy, you’re gonna stay with me here for a while.”

“A-A while?”

“A few days. You’ve been through a lot lately; you need someone to take care of you. I’ll get that wound treated for you, show you around my empire, and make sure you get some nutrients in your diet. Do you have a potato farm?” Before Jimmy can reply, Pixl continues, “Nevermind, I’ll get you enough potatoes to either get started or improve it, whichever. You need to keep drinking water, though; you’ll get dehydrated really fast in the desert.”

He pauses as he registers the smile on Jimmy’s face. “What?” he chuckles.

“Nothing.” Jimmy averts his gaze, though his smile remains. “Just… thank you. I can’t tell you how much it means to me to have you on my side.”

Pixl smiles back and squeezes Jimmy’s shoulder.

“I’ll always be on your side, Jimmy. Always.”

#empires smp #pixlriffs #solidaritygaming #vaunna’s requests

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

It's been a while, but the Undertaker role on Friday night among us got me thinking!

The glitch where a player doesn't die instantly after being injured happens again, this time to Etho. He's in shock at first and can't communicate what's going on, and the Undertaker imposter (pick who might go best with Etho) starts to drag him away. The Imposter quickly realises that somehow, horribly, this guy isn't actually dead, and makes a snap decision to drag him to the medbay and try to save him rather than hiding the body, knowing they'll probably get seen on the way and have their cover blown. Whether or not the Imposter succeeds in their first aid attempt is up to you!

(Also gives room to explain Etho's absense that night with him having to recover from the glitch! Fluffy recovery opportunities!)

yay for the return of the long-and-painful-death glitch! lol

technically a sequel to this one

...

  It’s the first match of the session and the tension is palpable. The newest role has everyone quietly excited: the Undertaker role, allowing an imposter to move a body from one place to another. It’s such a simple thing and yet, as with all the special roles, it could be a game-changer. 

  Crewmate Etho is on his own again, monitoring the cameras in security. There’s six people left and even though they’ve already ejected Impulse, Etho isn’t completely convinced it was him. He has two suspects in mind, and he wants to make sure he knows where they are. 

  But all of a sudden, he hears the vent flap open and he spins around…

  ...just in time to see a flash of green and feel a sharp pain in his stomach. 

  Etho sinks to his knees, pressing his hand against the wound to try and help the pain. He lets himself collapse to the floor, the agony dulling his senses and threatening to pull him under. He’s not even attempting to stem the blood flow; he knows he’ll be dead in seconds. 

  But seconds go by.

  A minute.

  He doesn’t die.

  His mind is fuzzy. But he knows something is wrong. He just can’t do anything about it except lie on the ground and slowly bleed out.

  Eventually, something takes hold of him under the arms and starts to drag him away. Even though he’s seconds from death, he feels a bolt of panic and he lets out a groan.

  Immediately, the grip on him is released and at the same time, he hears a quiet yelp: “HOLY fu-!”

  A very brief pause.

  “E-Etho…? Are you… alive…?”

  This time, Etho can’t muster another noise. But as he attempts to move his hand, arm, leg, anything, his chest spasms and he lets out an involuntary cough.

  “Oh my actual god, you ARE alive…!”

  Etho is able to identify the voice now, and it’s one of the people he suspected of being the imposter. 

  But before he can make another attempt to speak or move, Brody takes hold of him again and continues dragging him. More panic hits him; Brody must be the Undertaker but he knows Etho’s not dead, so where is he taking him? He wishes he could look but when he opens his eyes, the world around him is still too fuzzy for him to register where he is.

  Finally, Brody stops dragging him and heaves him up. Etho can’t work out what Brody is trying to do until he registers a soft surface below him and he realises.

  Brody has brought him to medbay.

  “Stay with me, Etho,” Brody murmurs, hurriedly collecting up first aid supplies. The benefit of being an imposter here is the fact that he’s able to shut the medbay doors to ensure he’s not disturbed. 

  But he realises there are two people who need to know about this. 

  Thankfully, one of them vents into the room just as Brody is cutting open Etho’s shirt to access the wound. 

  “Brody, what on earth are you doing?” Astro demands. “What is this?”

  Brody fixes him with such a serious look that a chill runs down Astro’s spine. “Astro, there’s been a glitch. When you stabbed Etho, he didn’t quite die.”

  Astro stares at him in shock. “Wh-What?”

  “He’s still alive and suffering horrible pain. Astro, I need you to go get Evil.”

  Astro, frozen in horror at what he’s caused, doesn’t move.

  “Go get Evil!” snaps Brody, giving him a quick push. “Just GO!”

  Managing to shake himself into action, Astro jumps back into the vent.

  Brody turns back to Etho and finishes cleaning up the wound. Unfortunately, the majority of the machinery in medbay is just for show, so he can’t assess any internal injuries Etho has. But all he really needs to do is keep Etho alive until the game ends. 

  As Brody is patching up the wound, the medbay doors slide open and Astro reappears, followed by Evil. Astro closes the medbay doors again while Evil dashes over to the bed, his worried eyes asking a silent question.

  “It happened again,” Brody confirms. 

  “Again?!” Astro bursts out. “This has happened before?”

  Evil nods slowly, ignoring Astro. “You two are the imposters, then?” 

  “Yeah. But I don’t care about that now. I just need to keep Etho alive until the game ends. The post-game process will heal him.”

  “Guys, WHAT are you talking about?” Astro demands. “What’s going on?”

  Brody huffs annoyedly. “Evil, catch him up.”

  As Evil explains, Brody finishes patching up Etho’s injury and starts to wrap a bandage around his body. Throughout all of this, Etho has remained pale and still, prompting Brody to continually check his pulse. He’s still alive, but barely. Brody’s treatment is helping him cling onto life. 

  Evil appears back at Etho’s side. “How is he?”

  “Hanging in there. Where’s Astro?”

  Evil points over at the corner near the vent, where Astro is sitting against the wall with his knees drawn to his chest, his face buried in his hands.

  “What’s wrong with him?” 

  As a response, Evil simply gestures to Etho.

  After a moment, Brody sighs and hands the tail end of the bandage to Evil. “Finish this off for me quickly.”

  He joins Astro in the corner and crouches down next to him, awkwardly placing his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “This isn’t your fault, Astro,” he says.

  “How is this not my fault?” Astro responds despondently, his voice muffled through his hands. “I caused this.”

  “You were playing the game. There’s no way you could’ve known this would happen.”

  He doesn’t get a response to this, so he gently pulls Astro’s hands away from his face, forcing his friend to look him in the eye. “Astro. You can’t blame yourself for this, okay? Etho is gonna be fine. And going by what happened last time, he won’t even remember that this happened.”

  “But I will, won’t I?” asks Astro quietly. 

  “Actually, I’m not sure,” Brody admits. “Impulse was the imposter in this situation last time and as far as I know, he never found out what happened.”

  “Oh. So even though Etho won’t remember me stabbing him and leaving him to bleed out very slowly, I actually might?”

  Brody nods reluctantly. “You might.”

  Astro lets put a low groan. “I feel sick…” 

  “Brody?” calls Evil at that moment, his voice low and shaky.

  Brody turns his head. “What?”

  “He- He’s not breathing.” 

  Brody’s stomach drops and he shoots forward so fast he almost trips over. He rushes back to Etho’s side and checks his friend’s pulse using both his wrist and his neck. 

  He finds nothing. 

  Touching Etho’s hand, he finds his friend’s skin cold already, confirming what he already knows to be true. 

  A muted noise comes from Astro as he turns away. 

  As Brody hangs his head, Evil reaches over and gently touches his shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he murmurs. 

  “We need to end this game,” says Brody, forcing himself to keep his voice steady. “Now.”

  With almost no hesitation, Evil says, “One of you kill me.”

  Brody glances sharply at him. “What?”

  “There’s five of us left, right? Etho was the sixth. So there’s five left now. Kill me and end the game.”

  “Are you sure?” asks Brody hesitantly. “The glitch might happen again.” 

  “I’m sure,” Evil responds firmly. “Like you said, we need to end it. It’ll take too long to just vote you guys out; I’m standing right here so you may as well end it by killing me.” He glances over at his friend. “Astro?”

  “No,” says Astro shakily. 

  “Astro, it’s okay.”

  “No it’s NOT!” Astro’s voice rises. “You think I can bear causing so much pain and suffering to two of my friends in the same game?! I’m NOT killing you!” 

  Evil quickly nods. “Okay, I understand. Brody?”

  “Aren’t I in the same boat?” Brody says. “Do you really trust me to do it properly?”

  “Yeah, I do.” Evil gives a brave smile. “I trust you, Brody. With my life.”

  Ignoring the twinge in his chest, Brody draws his gun and aims it directly at Evil. “Okay. Good luck.”

  Taking a deep breath, Brody fires. 

  BANG.

  And luckily this time, the game acts as it’s supposed to. 

  As soon as Brody respawns in the lobby, he rushes over to his friend. “Etho, hey. You good?”

  “Me?” Etho blinks. “Yeah, why?”

  Brody gives a slow nod. “Nothing. Just checking.”

  He draws Evil aside to a corner of the lobby. “Okay, Etho definitely doesn’t remember,” he confirms.”

  “Does Astro?” asks Evil.

  Brody glances over at their green-clad friend, who’s leaning against the wall, arms folded and eyes staring blankly out into space.

  “...I think he might.”

  Evil and Brody approach Astro, who glances numbly at them as they get closer. “I remember,” is all he says. 

  “So the crewmate in the situation won’t remember what happened but the imposter will,” says Brody thoughtfully. “Interesting. I wonder why that is?”

  “I don’t really care,” Astro responds bluntly. “I just want to forget that whole thing ever happened.”

  “No, this is good. Kinda. It means you’re now part of our little trifecta of people who know about the glitch. Evil and I promised each other last time that if we experience this again as imposter, we’ll go find each other and let them know, even if we’re the imposter.” He fixes his friends with a serious look. “This is a dangerous glitch. Astro, promise me that if this does happen to you again, you’ll come find one of us.”

  Astro watches him for a moment, before slowly nodding. “Okay. I- Hey, Etho’s leaving.”

  Brody turns just in time to see Etho leave the lobby. Frowning, he quickly follows Etho out and catches him just going down the corridor. “Etho, wait!”

  Etho pauses and glances back. “Oh, hey. I just let Tango know I had to leave; I’m suddenly not feeling too great.”

  “O-Oh.” Brody stares at him. “I’m sorry to hear that. Feel better.”

  “Thanks. See you.”

  Brody watches his friend disappear round the corner, his mind racing. This has NEVER happened before. Etho has never felt unwell this early in a session before — or really ever. Surely it’s no coincidence considering what happened last round? Even though his brain doesn’t remember what happened, maybe his body does. 

  Or maybe his code does. 

#ethoslab #etho #brodyman #evilnotion #astrozoan #vaunna’s requests

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Jimmy 🔪 Pix >:(

so this is a kind of sequel to this one :D

(also i’m assuming you wanted Jimmy/Pixl angst not Jimmy and Pixl fighting each other LMAO)

cw blood

…

Even though it’s extremely different to his own and there’s hardly any water around, Jimmy enjoys being in Pixl’s kingdom. Pixl’s style of architecture is very different to Jimmy’s, and there’s always something new to look at.

One day, he’s on the outskirts of Pixandria, looking out across the desert towards where his empire would be, when he hears a familiar voice from behind him. “Oh, hey, Jimmy! There you are. Been looking all over for you.”

Recognising the voice immediately, Jimmy’s heart freezes but he quickly forces his fear down and turns to face the person. “What do you want, fWhip?”

“I just came over to see if you wanted to trade for your cod mask,” replies fWhip casually.

“Oh-!” Jimmy had not been expecting that. “Yes, I want it back!”

fWhip beams innocently. “Great! I want your empire.”

Jimmy blinks.

“I’m not kidding. Give me your empire and I’ll give you your cod mask back.”

For several seconds, Jimmy can’t quite manage to speak. “...you say you’re not kidding but you gotta be. There’s no way I’d trade my empire for ANYTHING, let alone the mask that YOU stole from me.”

“Oh, okay, fair enough,” says fWhip. “How about twenty shulker boxes full of slime blocks?”

“fWhip!” Jimmy snaps.

fWhip shrugs. “Or your life. I’d give it back to you if you let me kill you.”

Again, Jimmy blinks in surprise. “...really…?”

“Yeah!” fWhip’s innocent smile returns. “You seem interested so yeah, let’s go with that. If you let me kill you, I’ll give you your cod mask back.”

Strangely, this offer is tempting. Just a few seconds of pain and Jimmy will get his cod mask back? Considering the terrifying things fWhip is capable of, surely this is the best possible option…?

But on the other hand… there’s so much potential for things to go wrong.

“I shouldn’t let you do that,” Jimmy murmurs. “I really, really shouldn’t let you do that.”

“Then you’re not getting your cod mask back,” replies fWhip simply, turning away.

“Wait…!” Jimmy says hurriedly. “I… Please, there’s gotta be something easier to give that you want.”

fWhip turns back to face him, a scary smile on his face. “Nope, I’m set on this now. I want to kill you, Jimmy. It felt great doing it before when I acquired your mask, and it’ll be great to do it again.”

As Jimmy opens his mouth to respond, fWhip takes a step towards him, drawing his sword. Jimmy hurriedly backs away. “Nonononono! fWhip, no!”

fWhip slams his foot into Jimmy’s stomach, knocking him to the floor and snatching all the breath from his lungs. Jimmy screams hoarsely as fWhip looms over him and lifts his sword.

“Get away from him!”

A figure flies out of nowhere and barges into fWhip, knocking him away from Jimmy. He stands in front of Jimmy, sword and shield at the ready, protecting Jimmy from fWhip.

“Well, well, well,” scoffs fWhip. “The Copper King. Didn’t expect to see you.”

Pixl narrows his eyes. “This is MY empire.”

“I meant I didn’t expect to see you actually defending your little ally here.” fWhip pulls an expression of mock concern. “Remind me… where were you when his empire was getting blown up and his precious mask was getting stolen?”

“Don’t play your mind games with me, fWhip,” Pixl growls. “Get out of my empire.”

fWhip shakes his head. “No, I don’t think I will. Not ‘til I get the Codfather’s REAL head.”

Jimmy gasps.

Pixl’s grip on his sword tightens. “That’s not gonna happen. If you want to kill him, you’re gonna have to go through me.”

“That’s so cliche, Pixl,” fWhip sighs.

“I don’t care. One last chance, fWhip. LEAVE.”

fWhip raises an eyebrow. “Make me.”

Before Pixl can react, fWhip charges at him.

As Pixl blocks and then returns the attack, Jimmy scrambles out of the way and rushes to hide behind a rock nearby.

The fight is brief but intense. Both combatants are fairly evenly matched, and despite fWhip’s clear unstable state of mind, Pixl is able to keep him at bay.

Finally, Pixl manages to disarm fWhip and knock him to the ground. He aims his sword at his opponent’s neck. “fWhip, I’m not gonna say it again,” says Pixl coldly. “Get out.”

“You’ve already given me my last chance,” fWhip responds. “You’re not actually gonna kill me, are you?”

“I don’t WANT to, no. But if you refuse to leave Jimmy alone, then I’ll be forced to.”

“And there’s your biggest weakness.”

fWhip suddenly moves lightning fast and sweeps Pixl’s legs out from under him. As Pixl falls with a yelp, fWhip jumps up and snatches Pixl’s sword from his grasp.

“Pixl!” cries Jimmy.

As Pixl starts to get up, fWhip hits him with the shield twice in quick succession: once in the jaw and then in the stomach, knocking him back down. He then holds the point of his sword just above Pixl’s neck, not actually hurting him but close enough to stop Pixl from getting up.

“All this is just for show, isn’t it?” fWhip says tauntingly. “Your copper, your large buildings, your vigil. There’s nothing of substance beneath the surface. I’ve got weapons, tnt, a war machine. I’m not just all bark and no bite, you know. But it seems like you are, and that’s a shame.”

He turns to look at Jimmy, who’s watching this with horror, clutching the rock so tightly that his fingers are turning white. You see this, Jimmy?” He gestures to Pixl with the sword. “This is happening because of you.”

“No!” Pixl gasps out immediately. “Jimmy, this is NOT your fault, okay? Just- Just run!”

“Pixl-!” Jimmy starts.

“Go!”

After a moment, Jimmy takes off running and disappears behind one of Pixl’s buildings.

“You can run but you can’t hide, Jimmy,” fWhip calls after him.

Taking a risk, Pixl rolls to the side, out from under the sword, and leaps to his feet. But as he moves to grab fWhip’s fallen weapon, fWhip intercepts him and stabs him clean through the abdomen with Pixl’s own blade.

Pixl suppresses a grunt; even with the fiery agony exploding from his side, he refuses to give fWhip the satisfaction of hearing him in pain. He weakly pushes fWhip away and fWhip lets him, both of them knowing Pixl is beaten.

fWhip watches Pixl sink to his knees, clutching the bleeding wound in his abdomen, and collapse to the side. He knows what Pixl is waiting for.

“I’m not gonna finish you off, Pixl,” he says. “This is enough for me. If you bleed to death here, it’s no concern of mine.”

Coughing through a mouthful of blood, Pixl manages to keep his eyes open and fixed on fWhip’s face. “Why…?” he rasps. “Why are you d-doing this…?”

fWhip turns and walks away, his last cold words hanging in the air.

“Because I can.”

When he’s sure fWhip is gone, Pixl rolls onto his back, his hands trembling as he tries to stem the bleeding. He forces himself to keep breathing as deeply as he can, his mind racing to find a way he can survive this.

But try as he might, he can’t think of anything he can do.

“Pixl!” comes a voice at that moment. “Oh my gosh…! PIX!”

A second later, Jimmy appears at his side and presses a small handkerchief against Pixl’s wound. “Pix! Y-You’re gonna be okay, Pix! You… You gotta be okay…!”

“Jimmy…” Pixl summons as much strength as he can and pushes Jimmy’s hands away. “P-Please, y-you need to run.”

Jimmy frantically shakes his head. “I’m not leaving you!”

“T-Take my elytra and g-go. There’s r-rockets in my house.”

“I-I can’t leave you here to die, Pix!”

“Please, Jimmy…!” begs Pixl hoarsely. “fWhip is s-still here somewhere. Don’t l-let him get you. J-Just go!”

“NO!” Jimmy’s voice cracks. “I won’t abandon you! It’s you and me, Pix. No matter what.”

“Jimmy-”

At that moment, an arrow flies out of nowhere and strikes Jimmy directly in the chest, causing him to cry out and fall backwards.

“J-Jimmy-!” gasps Pixl.

Lying on the ground almost parallel to Pixl, Jimmy struggles for breath, tears flowing uncontrollably from his eyes. His right hand is closed feebly around the arrow sticking out of his chest, as if there’s anything he can do about it. “Pix…” he chokes. “I’m so sorry…”

“It’s okay, Jimmy,” Pixl croaks back. “This is not your f-fault, okay? It’s n-not your fault.”

Hearing Jimmy suffering and not being able to do anything to help hurts Pixl more than the wound in his stomach. With his last remaining strength, he reaches out and grasps Jimmy’s hand, taking comfort in feeling Jimmy’s grip in return.

“You and me, Jimmy,” he whispers weakly. “You and me.”

#cw blood #solidarity gaming #pixlriffs #fwhip #empires smp #vaunna’s requests

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

HELLO please, if you can possibly spare the time, a ghost Skizz yelling at Impulse from the afterlife/spectator mode and taking a really long time to realize that Impulse can't hear him...can be funny or painful or both

yessss i was hoping i’d get a request from you! i love all your analyses and ideas, especially of 3L Impulse :D

…

Arms folded, Skizz glares ferociously at his former best friend, who’s sitting under the window on the top floor of the crastle. He’s been yelling things at Impulse for at least a day now but Impulse’s been ignoring Skizz ever since he showed up here. Can’t handle facing his worst mistake, Skizz figures.

“You know, you’re a real jerk,” Skizz snaps. “We’re ALONE now. The least you could do is acknowledge me! You got me killed; the LEAST you can do is look at me!”

But Impulse doesn’t move.

Skizz throws his arms up in frustration. “I was REALLY excited to be on the same team as you, Impulse. When you said yes to becoming the Red Army’s supplier, I was happier than I’d been in a long time. I never guessed you’d STAB US IN THE BACK!” His voice rises to a yell. “GOD, I’m so mad at myself! I’ve known you long enough; I should have picked up on your stupid lies! I should have seen this coming! But NO, I was too naïve! I just assumed the guy I call my brother would never dream of stabbing me in the back like that!”

Impulse continues to sit completely still, looking down at the floor.

This infuriates Skizz further and he storms up to Impulse. “LISTEN TO ME, YOU BIG JERK! Stop ignoring me! Look at me and tell me you never cared about me! DO IT!”

But still nothing from Impulse.

Skizz furiously opens his mouth to yell again but something stops him. A thought, one that sends a chill down his spine.

Impulse isn’t ignoring him.

He can’t hear him.

Skizz crouches down in front of Impulse and clicks several times right in front of his face. Impulse doesn’t even blink. That clinches it for Skizz; he knows Impulse would never be able to keep still and not react if someone does that right in front of his face.

“You-!”

Skizz staggers back a few steps and sinks to his knees. Burying his face in his hands, he cries openly, not holding back his emotions anymore. His best friend can’t hear him. He’s probably not even thinking about him. Skizz is suffering alone in a facsimile of his world that he can’t interact with in any way, not even to call to his loved ones for help. He’s been cursed to scream and yell at his traitorous friend for the rest of this world’s existence, knowing that it’s completely useless, knowing Impulse cannot and never will hear him again. All Skizz wanted was to protect the people he cares about but now nobody can protect him.

“Hey, Skizz.”

Skizz’s head snaps up and he hurriedly wipes his eyes, clearing his vision enough to be able to see Impulse still sitting in front of the window. Except now, he’s holding an enchanted diamond sword that Skizz recognises as his own.

“You can’t hear me, right…?” Skizz murmurs in shock.

Impulse continues gazing down at Skizz’s sword with numb eyes. “I know it’s stupid to talk to an inanimate object like it’s my best friend,” Impulse says quietly, “but I can’t… I can’t do this anymore. I have to talk to you.”

He takes a deep breath, and Skizz is shocked to see tears filling his eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” he croaks. “I never ever wanted things to go this way. I was prepared to betray literally anyone else: Etho, Tango, Grian, anyone. But not you. I always planned to try and get you on the same side as me but when I saw your dedication to the Red Army, I just… I knew there was no way you’d leave them. But I still… I could never have- I never- I never thought things would go down the way they did.”

Impulse dissolves into tears, struggling to continue speaking: “And the worst- the worst part is I-I don’t know if I would d-do anything different if I had the chance. I don’t know if I- if I would try to- to save you. I’m a t-terrible person!”

Skizz watches with sympathy as Impulse cries, just as hard and emotionally as he himself was crying just minutes before. And like Skizz, there’s nobody around to comfort Impulse. There’s nobody to hug him and reassure him and let him know that he’s not alone. Because he is. Just like Skizz is.

Except… maybe he’s not.

Skizz moves closer to Impulse and hugs him around the shoulders. He can feel Impulse under him but he knows Impulse can’t feel him. Despite this, he continues hugging him. All his negative emotions are seeping away: anger, hurt, hatred. He doesn’t feel it anymore. What he wants more than anything right now is to let his brother know he’s not alone.

“I miss you, buddy,” they both whisper at the same time.

But only one can hear the other.

#3rd life smp #3rdlifesmp #impulsesv #skizzleman #vaunna’s requests

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

*looks at menu* Can I get uhhhh Wels angst double special to go please?

no sorry we're all out <3

jk :3

...

<iJevin> My name is Helsknight. And I have a message for Wels. I’ve got your friend iJevin and if you ever want to see him again, you’ll come to the following coordinates. Alone. Don’t bring a sword. Wait until the door opens and then enter. If you disobey any of these instructions, you’ll never see your friend again.

Wels’s stomach is squirming as he waits anxiously outside the iron door set into the cliff. He can’t see anything except a staircase downward through the window, so he’s long since stopped trying.

“Are you sure you don’t want backup?” Xisuma asks him.

“I’m sure. Hels has enough hatred in him that he can probably permakill Jevin, so I want to make sure that doesn’t happen. When I go in, keep the door open in case I need to make a quick getaway.”

“Do you anticipate that happening?”

Wels hesitates. “I won’t leave without Jevin. So… I don’t know. But I’d rather cover that eventuality than not.”

“Fair enough.” Xisuma glances sideways at him. “Are you okay? You look pale.”

“Well,I just…” Wels gives a sigh. “This is not how I wanted the server to find out about Hels. I don’t know when I was gonna tell them but I know I didn’t want it announced to them all this way.”

Xisuma nods slowly. “I get that. It was-.”

At that moment, however, the door creaks open. Taking a deep breath, Wels readies his shield. “This is it.”

“Good luck,” says Xisuma, patting him on the shoulder. “I’ll wait out here.”

“Thanks.”

Wels advances carefully down the staircase, which leads down into the cliff. At the bottom, he finds a large cave with dark blackstone walls and dripstone hanging from the ceiling, illuminated by fire from braziers made of netherrack. A villain’s lair befitting a hels hermit.

“Wels!” comes a desperate voice at that moment.

Wels spins round to find Jevin huddled against the wall near the corner of the cave. Lowering his shield, Wels dashes towards him. “Jev! Are you-.”

“No, Wels, get back!” Jevin cries. “He’s gonna-!”

Before he can finish his sentence, a figure appears out of nowhere and slams into Wels, knocking him backwards. Luckily, his knight skills help him keep his balance.

“Hello, Wels,” says Helsknight, a dark grin on his face. “Thanks for accepting my invitation.”

“You didn’t give me much of a choice,” Wels snaps back. “What do you want?”

“I want to kill you, Wels. But I also want to make things interesting. I COULD have just ambushed you out there, but where’s the fun in that? I’d like to make you suffer first.”

With that, he reaches out and grabs Jevin’s hood, pulling him roughly to his feet.

“Leave him alone!” Wels snarls, bunching his muscles, ready to charge.

Hels’s grin widens and he pulls out a sword. Before anyone can react, he slams the hilt of it into Jevin’s head. Since Jevin has been away from water and sunlight for a long time, his normally slimy body has solidified enough that the hit to his head knocks him out instantly. Hels releases his hood, letting him collapse to the ground.

Wels’s heart freezes and he stares in horror at his friend, his shield involuntarily lowering. “No…!”

Sensing his advantage, Hels kicks Jevin in the jaw, causing green blood to ooze out from his mouth. A further kick to the stomach knocks Jevin onto his back.

“No!” Wels cries. He tries to step forward, to do something, anything, but his legs give out and he drops to his knees, his shield clattering to the ground beside him. “Stop hurting him!”

“This is your worst fear, Wels,” Hels says tauntingly. “Not being able to save your friends. The world can burn around you, the ground can literally be dropping out from under you, but as long as your friends are okay, you won’t care. That’s why you’ll always be so easy to beat. All a villain has to do is hurt one of your friends and you just fall apart. Weak. Pathetic. Sentimental. You really think you can continue calling yourself a knight if you have such an obvious weakness?”

When he gets no response from Wels, Hels chuckles darkly. “I thought not. Now stay there and watch me kill your friend. Not like you’ll stop me.”

As Hels turns away, Wels stays still for a moment longer, forcing the hurt and anger and guilt aside. He can’t let Hels beat him this easily anymore. It’s time to embrace his true self and stop Hels from hurting his friend again.

Readying his shield, Wels looks up and spots Hels advancing on Jevin with his sword. The image pours adrenaline into his veins and he charges forward, arcing to the left.

Just as Hels brings his sword down on Jevin, Wels jumps in front of him with his shield raised, absorbing the blow. Before Hels can react, Wels jerks his shield up, dislodging the sword from Hels’s hand, and catches it with his free hand. Kicking Hels away, Wels stands between him and Jevin, lowered in a defensive stance.

Hels stares at him in shock. “What?!”

“You were wrong, Hels. My love for my friends isn’t a weakness - it’s my greatest strength. Because I have something to live for. Do you?”

Hels’s eyes flicker from Wels to his sword, before a grin spreads over his face. “Good. You were getting far too predictable. Good to see you can still surprise me.”

“Get out of here, Hels,” Wels growls, “before I decide to stop showing you mercy.”

After a moment, Hels gives a dark chuckle. “You impressed me today, Wels. So I’ll leave. See you later, old friend.”

Eyes narrowed, Wels watches Hels walk away. Only when he’s sure his counterpart is gone does he lower his guard and turn to his friend. Jevin is semi-conscious now, groaning softly as he struggles to sit up.

Wels kneels down beside him and helps him sit up. “Are you alright?”

“Gah… my head is killing me.”

“He hit you pretty hard, so I’d say you have a concussion.” Wels winces at the sight of the blood pooling at the corner of his friend’s mouth. “Here, let’s get you back up to the surface.”

Wels gently lifts Jevin to his feet, Jevin’s arm over his shoulder. He guides his friend up the stairs and out through the iron door, which is still open from when he went in.

Immediately, Xisuma, who had been sitting on the grass a little way off, jumps to his feet and dashes towards them. “You made it! Are you guys okay?”

“Jev’s hurt, but not too badly,” Wels reports. “I’m gonna take him to the swamp; he should be okay once he touches water.”

Xisuma nods. “Okay, good. I’ll get this place dealt with so Hels can’t use it again.”

Wels smiles gratefully. “Thanks, X. I’ll check in with you later.”

“Do.”

As Wels starts the long journey to the swamp with Jevin, his mind is firmly on Hels. But after a while, he pushes all thoughts of his counterpart aside in favour of making sure his friend is okay. “How are you doing there, buddy?”

“A little groggy,” murmurs Jevin. “I can’t believe you came for me.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“You risked permadeath just to come and save me.”

“Of course I did. You’re my friend, Jev. I’ll always come to save you, no matter what.”

Jevin gives a weak smile. “Thank you. That… means a lot to me. And thanks for saving my life. It can’t have been easy to confront your evil twin like that. I didn’t even know you HAD an evil twin.”

Wels pauses. “Technically he’s an evil clone of me from a hellfire dimension.”

“Really? How did he come to be on Hermitcraft?”

“That’s a long story. And it definitely was not my fault.”

Jevin chuckles, letting himself relax in the embrace of his best friend.

“Of course.”

#hermitcraft #welsknight #helsknight #ijevin #vaunna’s requests