#10piecewrites

Jimmy continued to stare with his jaw halfway to the void. “What- you- you’re not- how are you here?”

Oli just grins, sitting back and crossing his legs with what he hopes is an annoyingly smug expression. Judging by the way Jimmy’s eyes flash, it’s working.

“I’m just that special. Being practically god and all, I thought I should pay a visit to my sweet sweet boy.” Oli waves a hand, tilting his head. Jimmy looks cute when he’s confused.

“Does Grian know you’re here?”

Oli grins. “Who do you think invited me?”

If Jimmy wasn’t in shock before, he certainly is now. “Grian. Brought you. Here. To his death games.”

Oli swings his legs absently. “Someone had to write a song for that little trivia bot. 2 of them, actually. In one day. Not sure how I pulled that one off, not to mention the snails.”

Jimmy dissolves into a fit of nonsensical babbling, and Oli can’t help but it burst into laughter again. While Jimmy processes this, Oli decides it’s about time he takes a look around. He hops off the block he’s sitting on, spinning around slowly to take in Jim’s base.

It’s cutesy, he decides, and almost painfully familiar. The cherry theming, the hilltop location, the giant animal statues. It always comes back to death and canaries, somehow. Oli can’t figure out how Jimmy keeps getting away with this. He walks slowly, dramatically sweeping around to take everything in. Listening to cherry petals shift under his feet and trying to drown out the phantom sound of explosions in his head. Jimmy has stopped talking, and is staring at him as he wanders. Oli flashes him a smile. Jim just looks apprehensive.

Oli doesn’t blame him. He’s not supposed to be here, even by Grian’s standards. And mathematically, Oli has an infinite amount of kills per death games he’s been in. He’s not a player, and as such he can’t die. He’s immune to Grian’s wildcards and rules. He’s practically a god, in a way, which is not really something he’s ever experienced. It would be more fun if he was allowed to stay. Maybe he can write another song.

Deciding there isn’t much more to look at, Oli turns fully to Jimmy. It’s uncomfortably quiet. Oli is about to make another quip when the silence is broken.

“Oli? What on earth are you doing here?”

If Oli thought seeing Jimmy messed with his head, hearing Lizzie calling out for him is like a shot to the brain. Even so, he can’t help but smile as he turns around to meet her.

“Lizzie!”

She runs up the hill towards him, slightly out of breath, transparent wings twitching in an all too familiar way. She pauses a few paces away, shooting him a grin.

“I knew those stupid snails sounded familiar. Joel recognized you first. How did you even get here?”

Pretending the mention of Joel doesn’t make him want to explode, Oli just shrugs. “Grian invited me. Voiced some snails, made some songs, and thought I’d come by and cause problems before he kicks me out again.”

Lizzie rolls her eyes. “To be honest, I’m surprised he hasn’t.”

“Well, I am technically God now, so…”

“Is that right.” Smoothing out her dress, Lizzie moves closer, forming a small triangle with the three of them. Jimmy still looks befuddled and Lizzie has that same mischievous glint in her eyes she always does, and Oli is suddenly very homesick. Is that even the right word? Home is where the heart is, or something.

“Yep! 100%, genuine, certified, bona fide God. Can’t die, and my snails wreaked havoc like none other.”

“You’ve got me there.”

“So,” Oli claps his hands together. “This is your guys’s base? Very cherry-esque. Draw inspiration from anyone?”

Lizzie puts her hands on her hips. “Hey! Pink has been my thing since we were kids. Cherry biomes were made for me. I’ve been making cherry wood houses since before your stupid hog.”

“How dare you!” Oli gasps, putting a hand over his chest. “My hog was not stupid, he was magnificent. And pink was my thing too! I had pink hair for a while there, remember?”

“Yeah, cause of me! I’m the only reason you dye your hair at all! And besides, you don’t even die it pink anymore after-”

Lizzie cuts herself off suddenly, eyes wide, and Oli freezes in place. Jimmy looks taken aback by the sudden tension, looking nervously between the two of them.

After what feels like years, Oli exhales. “… Yeah. Alright. Pink is your thing.”

“Oli…”

Oli turns around suddenly, walking purposefully towards the large birds marking the front of their base. He adjusts the little green halo floating just above his hair, which is notably not pink. “These are cute.”

Lizzie, forever hyperaware of Oli’s incessant need to avoid his problems, just sighs. “Aren’t they?”

And just like that, it never even happened. Jimmy eventually realizes he’s never getting any answers, and joins in the banter, helping Lizzie take Oli on an official tour of their base. Eventually Scar returns, resulting in a 20 minute long argument that ends with Lizzie half dragging Oli down the hill and towards the cave BAM has claimed as their own. Lizzie bitterly shows him where her snail first made an attempt on her life, and Oli’s apology is ruined by the fact that he can’t stop snickering.

Eventually Lizzie drags him back up to the surface, and all too fast for Oli’s liking it’s nightfall. Scar unhelpfully comments that they’ll need their sleep to deal with whatever horrors will happen next session, and that Grian will probably be on Oli’s case soon.

Reluctantly, Oli says his goodbyes. And if he hugs Lizzie just a little too long, she doesn’t comment on it. And if his heart isn’t quite in the jokes he makes at Jimmy’s expense, no one says anything.

He doesn’t really know where he’s going. He’s not entirely sure how he got there at all, to be honest. He supposes he’ll have to track down Grian and ask. He doesn’t want to leave, he’s getting awfully tired of finally finding his friends just to lose them again.

Oli wasn’t a villain by any stretch of the definition. In all honesty he was just your average petty thief in a fancy outfit. He had powers, sure, like any good criminal does, but they didn’t really help in this situation. Powers that rely on your voice don’t work on people who won’t listen to anything if it punched them in the face.

Pirate Joe was one of these people. So Olis epic powers of vocal manipulation were kind of useless right now.

So here he was, standing in the middle of a rather desolate downtown street attempting to persuade Joey- who he was rather tired of- not to beat the shit out of him using his regular, non-superpower words.

He really didn’t know how Joey always managed to get one over on him to be honest. Pirate Joe was more of a villain than he was, sure, but it’s not like he was exactly threatening. Then again, Oli didn’t stand a very good chance against a crazy guy with a sword who didn’t listen to anyone or anything. Guess the pen isn’t mightier than the sword after all.

Snickering at his own quip, Oli nearly forgot to dodge the aforementioned crazy guy with a sword, and very nearly took a blade to the chest. Which would have been less than desirable.

Luckily, he did dodge it, and only ended up with a very close call and a very pissed off pirate. Which he was pretty sure he could handle, right?

“You can’t evade me forever, Orion!”

“Watch me.” Oli grinned, jumping and weaving as Joeys swings got more and more frantic. And angry.

Oli was hoping to wrap this up soon. He was getting a bit bored, and wanted to slip away before any authorities showed up. He couldn’t handle the Sheriff and Pirate Joe at the same time.

Just as he was thinking this, Joey swung his sword again, with a lot more force. Oli scrambled to the side, and this was the moment he fucked up.

Joeys sword clattered to the sidewalk as Oli was attempting to regain his footing, and before he knew what was happening the pirate had fully body slammed him into the side of a building.

Olis vision went white as his head hit the brick wall, and he had a feeling he was fucked. Joey was using his full weight to pin him to the wall, and he was most definitely stronger than Oli was. Which was bad. He just wanted to go home, and now there was a good chance Pirate Joe was going to kill him.

The panic this thought brought gave Olis very concussed brain just enough clarity to kick Joey in the shins.

The pirate yelped, releasing his hold on Olis shirt to cuss the blonde out loudly. Oli saw his opportunity, and proceeded to get the fuck out of there.

He didn’t know where he was going- not that he could really see- all he knew was that he needed to be anywhere else. Somewhere he could call Lizzie or Joel to come save his ass again.