Chapter Text
Case file #297
The games: Created by Xelqua himself, the games were made to feed the hunger we Watchers had ever so craved. Multiple players were invited, with a total of 5 current games, with some players joining in different games. The winners of the games include the sun, the star, the moon, Mars, and the Earth. Each won a different game. Sun won 3rd life, Star won last life, Moon won double life, Mars won limited life, and the newest edition, Earth, has won secret life. The rules are simple for the series; each player starts with 3 lives (with the last life being the only exception). All players fight and create a feast for the Watchers out of heartbreak, betrayal, anger, and much more. All players in the end will be sent to whatever servers they have been on, with no memories of the game itself, but they do know they participated in it and enjoyed it. They will also know who won. As for the winner, they will keep all of their memories of the games and any future games that occur. They also keep a clearer mind, so while others have to deal with the bloodlust being a red life mist gives you, they know what they’re doing is wrong and generally have more knowledge than the others about other topics such as us Watchers, or that you have to be the last one to die at the end of a series to be considered a winner. As for the latest winner, Earth, he is unaware that he has to die to go home. Consequently, he is unaware of how to return home.
Week 1
Scar:
Pearl's body was lying straight in the canyon. At first, Scar thought that Pearl was pretending to be asleep so that she could get a sneak attack. He walked over to her body and shook her. “Pearl, I know you're faking it. Come on, wake up and get back into the action!” Pearl's body was limper than usual. When the Scar had shaken Pearl, her body had not responded. “Pearl, come on, stop pretending.” Nothing, “Pearl said, " this isn't a joke, come on, nothing.
Scar could hear the faint groan of the zombie right behind him. That didn't count right now; something was wrong with Pearl. There was a faint hum before a message in purple letters appeared in front of him. “She’s dead, Scar, you won," it seemed to say. That was impossible. “How did-How did the guy with no friends win?” laughter came out of his throat. Whatever sort of comfort he was trying to convince himself of was gone.
He turned around, and the zombie was just inches away from him. He took out his sword, the one he had killed nearly all of his friends. The one where nearly all of his friends' blood was on. One swing. This wasn't fair; he had been forced to be the villain of the games this entire time. He tried to be a nice, civil person. He tried to follow the rules to be a good ally and an even better friend.
But every time he decided to be a good person. The secret keeper had to go make him a villain. him the villain of the server. At one point, Scar had wanted friends. His task? Do the opposite of what people tell you. The one time he needed supplies. His task? Steal light sources from the 5 players' base. Don't get caught.
The second swing. He never would be able to see the pearl again. He wouldn't be able to see Gem, Scott, Joel, Bdubs, Impulse, Cleo, Bigb, Martyn, Etho, Skizz, Tango, Mumbo, Jimmy, and Lizzie. And more importantly, he wouldn't be able to see him again. His boyfriend, D Grian. They had been together ever since season 8 of Hermitcraft.
As he walked up to the secret keeper, his mind began wandering to the times when life was better. Not great, most of the server hated his guts, but after each session, Grian would come down to the ocean where Scar was and begin braiding his hair. But Grian wasn't here now.
Scar knew his boyfriend was an avian, just as Jimmy and Pearl were. But they were special, as Grian had told Scar, something had happened to all 3 of them in the past (they didn't like to talk about it, so Scar never brought it up) that had given them some sort of magical abilities. They, however, rarely used their magic.
Perhaps Grian could use his magic abilities to get Scar out of there. Yeah! Scar had told Grian that he'd burn the world down just for Grian, so clearly Grian had to return the favor, right? But maybe Grian's magical abilities weren't all that strong to send Scar home. I mean, Scar had only seen Grian do small things with his magic, so until then, Scar had to wait.
But for now, he had to turn in the task that had ruined his life. The task had read “win secret life,” and he did. But at what cost? The first day, his task was seemingly innocent. “For ten minutes, call everyone anything but their real name.”Ass Scar went around calling people anything but their real name; he had lost way too many hearts. It wasn't until Grian and Mumbo gave him a heart and he had called Mumbo, Mumbo, that was when he had messed up his task. But with Scar being dyslexic, he failed his task firmly when he had said his task out loud.
However, Grian loved Scar way too much to let that happen. So he let Scar reroll for a harder task. This task followed the same format as the first one, “Convince 2 other people on the server to give a nickname to another player”. His first couple of attempts, he had brushed it off as his former task ghost still haunting him. But his final attempt was the one that stuck. He decided that he wanted to fluster Grian up. As he got Jimmy and Skizz to call Grian “The light of his life”. Man, that night, Grian's yelling had been worth it. To see his blushing face and ruffled feathers was more than worth it.
The second day, his task was to be pearls hype-man for 30 minutes of the day. Don't get called out. His task was mainly spent talking about how great pearls were. I mean, it wasn't hard after all. Pearl was an amazing player as it was. No one called him out for it because Scar was always talking about how great all the others were. So thankfully, no one did question him. In fact, as soon as he turned in his task, he had written a note on his bulletin board that said he supported pearlescentmoon.
The third day, his task was to remove all the light sources from around 5 player bases. If someone questioned him, he would have needed to put them back for that player. This was a slightly more difficult task, but he had succeeded in it. Just to be nice, though, when he turned in his task, he made sure to return all of the light sources he had stolen.
The 4th day was one of the worst times of his life. His book reads “ Do the opposite of whatever people tell you to do”. Easy right? Besides, that's basically all he did in his life. Wrong! His entire day was spent on the run. However, he was especially grateful when Martyn guessed his task. He wouldn't be able to hold the act up otherwise. Especially with the husband and wife duo, Lizzie and Joe,l chasing him all around the server. Joel yelled at Scar to take his helmet off, and Lizzie was especially mad that Scar had killed all of her cattle. By
By the time Scar had arrived at the ocean to meet with Grian, he was out of breath and especially jumpy. Grian had enough to tease him about that night.
By the 5th day, his task was more up his alley. “Start with wheat seeds and trade your way to a golden apple. Make a minimum of 5 trades,” is what his book said. And Scar had gone along with it. He, however, was suspicious of impulse, though. He was sure impulse had told Gem what his task was. Gem was a lady you didn't want to mess with, so when she had assured him, impulse did not tattle on him; Scar felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
By the 6th day, his task was just confusing. It was a game of chicken with Bdubs and impulse, and they had to play at least 3 games. each taking at least one heart of damage. They had completed it. Sure Bdubs and Impulse had to explain the entire game to him, and he decided he didn't like the game all that much in the end, but he completed the task.
By the end of the week, Scar had an awful task. He had to become the villain of the server. If it wasn't for Gem and her red army saving him from his horrible task, he was sure he wouldn't have been able to do the task either way. When Pearl killed him, it gave him hope. Sure, they hadn't exactly won, but Scar had gotten a couple of hearts.
At the start of the second week, Scar had to sabotage at least 3 Reds bases. been there, done that. He completed it. As for his second task, to make a couple of holes and cover them with grass. He hadn't had time before the sun set. As he met up with Grian, they shared their last kiss before Grian told Scar it would be the last day, the very next day. Then he made Scar promise that he'd stay safe. Scar agreed.
And well, here we were, the villain of the games now stepping forward in front of the secret keeper. As he pressed the succeed button, his memories from previous games came rushing back. Games he had enjoyed, but had lost and therefore wasn't allowed to remember.
3rd life:
His life began simply; he had gathered the basic resources and gotten to work on an idea he was sure was going to make him a fortune. From there, he had met a couple of people, one of whom was Grian. He had planted the seed of an idea that they could not only take over the desert, but also the entire dark oak forest and sell supplies. The idea wasn't bad, but then his first death hit. He and a couple of the other players were chatting about something. Grian had brought a creeper down to the group as a prank; the creeper exploded, and Scar died. He knew Grian felt awful, so awful in fact that he swore an oath to Scar, stating that he was in Scar's service until he lost his first life. Scar accepted the terms, and they went to the desert to live the rest of their lives out. Their empire began by chopping down dark oak trees. They then tried to sell the logs to the other players, but Martyn, Ren, Scott, and Jimmy came over, each stealing a sapling. As they ran off, Scar made a promise to himself that he told Grian. He would murder them. That made Grian. Oh, why did it feel like such a big victory to be able to make Grian laugh? As time went on, their love for each other grew. After building their base, lighting basically everything up around them, making a reputation board, and defending their home, they spent their night either holding each other, preening Grian's wings, or dancing around their home. All of those moments together felt refreshing, especially in the days that followed. His next death came sooner than expected; he had fallen into a canyon while distracted and talking to Grian. That death hurt more than anything, not because of the pain, but because of the fear that Grian would no longer love him the same. As he walked down to where he had died a second time, he picked up a bouquet of flowers. Poppies and lilacs to be exact, and walked down to the spot where Grian was waiting for him. Grian had met him in a hug and tears. Scar hugged him back before giving him the bouquet of flowers, and asking him if Grian and he could still be teammates. Grian then reminded him of his promise, and they spent that night talking about nothing and everything. Soon after that, they lost pizza- their lama. A grave for pizza was built right next to their house later that day. It wasn't long before some of Scars' vex traits were showing, more specifically, the grey skin. Whenever asked about it, however, Scar would brush it off as red life issues. As time went on, so did Grain andScars's relationship. It wasn't until one night that Grian sat him down and explained the Watchers were deities, ones that created the games. He explained that they were horrible and cruel people, and if Scar ever met one, he was never to trust them. Scar agreed. From there they had the desert war, and sometime during that, Grian had lost his first life. Scar was scared that Grian would leave him (like nearly everyone in his life), Grian kissed him and reassured him that he wasnt going anywhere. From there, they fought Ren and Martyn. As it came down to the last 3, Scar realized something. Grian was still on his yellow life. He and Bdubs were red; if they died, they couldn't come back. Grian, well, if he died, he could have respawned one last time, so he made a small game. He took a no-kill pass out of his pocket and told Bdubs and Grian that if either of them had managed to gain the no-kill pass, he wouldn't kill them. Bdubs had obtained the pass, Scar had (heartbrokenly) killed Grian. As Grian killed Bdubs, Scar then kneeled down and held his sword out. Grian's face went from anger to grief-stricken. He told Scar he wanted a fair fight, and they went up to Pizza's grave and held the fight. Both apologizing to each other as they hit each other. Just as it could happen, Grian hit Scar, and Scar fell down as Scar took his last breath. He smiled at Grian, and then he went limp. Grian jumped off the cliff out of pure grief.
Last life:
The games started with everyone getting a random number of lives. Scar was lucky in getting 6 lives. He was then met with Grian, who tricked him into giving him a life. That was fine; he still had 5 lives. He then teamed up with Joel, who later abandoned him when he turned red. Scar spent most of the series alone in his wizard tower, studying different magic spells. Then Scar had gotten what seemed like a brilliant idea. He would give lives to other people in exchange for an alliance. That had gone horribly; instead, it only brought him closer to his red life, and he was constantly getting used to it. His last death wasn't exactly painful, but it ended the pain that had built up throughout that game.
Double life:
Scar's life began as all lives did. Of course, in this game, he would be soul-bound to another player. But this game was different from the other; they were all scattered around the map, but they were all soul-bound to another player. Scar couldn't care less about his soulbound, though. He had his jellies and allies to look after. It was exciting to see his friends find their soul-bound though. For a while, Scar had thought Martyn was his soul-bound, but he had been incorrect. As time went on, he found Joel, Etho, and Grian. He was pretty sure any of them was his soulmate since Joel and Etho were soulmates. Besides, he and Grian had already teamed up for a series, so it made no sense for him to be paired up with him again. As it turned out, Scar was wrong; Grian had found out when Joel hit Scar with an axe as Scar was chasing an ally. Grian had screamed a huge no, to which Scar was confused about why he screamed. As for Scar, he found out later when Grian dropped some dripstone on him, and they both began bleeding. Of course, after that, Grian became more protective of Scar. Not in a loving way like in 3rd life, but in a way that seemed as though Scar wasn't allowed to do anything. There were multiple times when Scar had wanted to get the enchanter, but Grian had always told him no. Instead Scar had stayed home with his jellies while Grian often went out to get supplies. But then Grian started acting suspiciously. It started simply: he would stay out later than normal, sometimes most of the time, and meaningless supplies would go missing. But then it got worse. Grian would go out and return the next morning. He often went behind the forest, and he often could hear Grian's giggles about his night the next morning. So then Scar got bolder, he began taking damage on purpose, he went to the end city, he would jump up to the highest points and water bucket clutch them. It wasn't until Scar found out what was really going on with Grian. He was cheating on Scar with Bigb. The news hit Scar like a train, but whatever, it was fine. It got worse when Scar revealed he knew about Grian’s secret, and Grian acted like he knew nothing about the sort. Ultimately, in the end, he broke the soulmate bond. He walked one way, and althoughGriann had tried to convince him to stay, Scar left. So Grian walked the way. Their lives ended when Grian met the warden and was sonically obliterated by it.
Limited life:
This was by far Scar’s favorite. His life was spent living with his “family“ buddies and Cleo. Occasionally, their “dad” ethos came around with the whole spiel of how he and Cleo were divorced. That and that ethos were washed up. That series, while stressful at times, was amazing and super fun. Their family grew as Scott and Martyn joined the family, and at some point , the bad boys joined them. Then one day mom sounded weird, Pearl also sounded weird, but they both had amnesia colds, so it made sense. As for the boogeyman, unfortunately, at times Scar and Bdubs would kill each other just for a boogey kill. As time went on, their time diminished. Their memories as a family in the end were truly memorable, like the family dinner or the moment when Bdubs became a traitor. Or when Etho killed both boys with a minecart of TNT as a game of “catch,” those moments were truly the best, but in the end, their “cousins,” the bad boys, in the end killed him.
Scar felt like crying. He wasn't aware that he had fallen on the ground until he picked up his cane and began to walk over the trader's Scars. While he had planned to dig graves for everyone, he mentally couldn't. As he walked into the room, he collapsed onto his bed, shaking and sobbing. And from there he cried himself to sleep.