The days of survival continued. The canary and the listener continue with the “under the table” deal. Their woven strands grew thicker as they continued to meet up regularly, calling themselves the Olive Ties, as Olive can represent military strength as they fit to portray themselves.
Meanwhile both The Raspberry Ties and The Peach Ties have been bunked down to yellow after Cleo had a nasty run-in with a Raid and then Tango decided to have a battling out with Scar, which ended in Etho gaining him and his partner a new row of hearts.
The teal ties have managed to make an empire off of the limited sugarcane on the server, making a tribute to the monopoly Scar had during the original Double Life. They are one of the last green lives left.
“Sugar, sugar, sugar- who doesn’t love some good sugar?!” Luna chuckles, tilling the grounds
“I know I do!” Scar grins, “And once we manage to harvest enough, we can resell the paper. Yknow Grian and I-“
“-Did this once. I know, Scar.” She rolled her eyes with a playful smile, “Geez, you must have really enjoyed being paired with him.”
“I have always liked working with him when I can. He’s petty and ridiculous, but I do miss him.” A faint rosy tint rests on his cheeks, lighting up his eyes. Luna glances out the corner of her eye with a smirk.
“He’s just up the hill, you know? You can go say hi.”
“Nah,” The little light he had faded and he kept digging at the ground, “He has Etho now and probably is busying doing something important.”
“Well, maybe you could say Hi or something? You never know! Maybe he’d want to see you again.”
“Maybe.” He paused to gaze over to the mountian tops, specifically looking at the spruce and cobbled deepslate tower on the summit.
The Blueberry Ties have built a mini sanctuary dedicated to the cats and dogs in thier area, Calling it the Blue’s Paradise. Traction between the Crimson and the Honeysuckle ties rise as it was found out that Pumpkin and Alora are secret soulmates. Ren blasts it aloud for the rest of the server to hear.
“Ren! Please!!!” Alora cries
“No, you betrayed the good left in me! I tried to restart in this world. I tried playing the role of the good guy.. but apparently that doesn’t work for you, does it?”
“Ren, that isn’t what I meant to do. Pumpkin needed-“
A trembling gasp cuts off her sentence as she sees him pull a obsidian plated netherite blade, from a velvet wrapped scabbard.
“Red Winter.” Pumpkin mutteres under her breath
“Red Winter- Lasses and Laddies- is upon us.” He grimly cackles, the echo of his haunting laughter draping over the world.
Across the river, The Violet ties, Etho and Grian dwell the farthest from the rest of the pairs. High in the mountains with a pair of goats and a tunnel under their base that only connects to Impulse and Silver, their closest allies.
“G!” Clover ran in his home.
“I need your help. Now. PLease. Now.”
“Yeah, yeah, ok! I got you, what’s wrong?”
“I need you to break ties with Etho.”
He slowly stepped back. There was a conflict in the way his eyes settled on her. There was a hesitation in wanting to help his friend while having his literal hands tied.
“You.. want me to break my line with Etho? Why?”
“Um..” her hand twitched, feeling the ghost thorns pricking in her hand. Sharp, piercing and deeply agonizing, though it was hidden from the naked eye. It was invisible to the naked eye, yet somehow Grian’s eyes darted down to her left hand that was crumpled to a fist. A bloody crimson clashes the violet glare across his dark pupils.
Her eyes remained distant; paused in this frozen, horrified at whatever moment was trapped in her mind.
“Clover.” He gave his voice a little raise, “Are you ok?”
“Hm?” her soft green eyes flicked up to meet his.
“I asked if you were ok. You’re shaking and your hand is doing the weird clenching thing. Did you see the rose again?”
“N-no! I mean, I don’t think so. I just- I know something and just need to know I can trust you.”
“Of course you can, but what does this have to do with breaking ties with Etho?”
“Because I need you to weave your ties with me.”
“Just think! You and your connection with the Watchers.. Me and my connection with the Withered beyond-”
“WAIT- WAIT HOLD ON- What’s this about Watchers-?”
“Don’t hide it. I know it- you know it-”
“No.” He took her shoulders firmly with his hands, “How do you know?!”
“...I was told.” She replied rather coldly
She scoffs, “What about him? He’s yesterday’s news. I already know he decided to pair off with Jimmy. His funeral, I suppose.”
“Jimmy?” Grian bit back his laughter, “You mean someone purposefully paired with the one person who’s destined to lose first?”
“Right. And let’s not forget Alora. Her and Pumpkin seem to have hit it off. Don’t need me. Better off alone, always have been, always will be. Just me and- and that rose.”
“And what now?” Grian whipped around,
“Nothing.” She rolled her eyes, “That shows even more of why I need you. Together, we could kill those two and rise to the top faster than you could say “Canary”. What do you say?” She smiled, extending her hand.
He stares at the offer laid before him. His eyes scanned around. Almost as if he is looking for a reason to say no; for someone to stop him. He begins to grasp his hand around hers, the ties begin to braid before-
“What are you doing?” Etho’s baritone like voice muttered
Grian jumps back from her, swiftly swooping his hand behind him.
“E-Etho! What are you doing back so soon? Didya find enough diamonds for an enchantmenting table?”
“Mhm.” He threw down a bundle full of them, “So, you wanna tell me what’s happening here?”
“Etho, Imma be frank with you. My partner ditched me and I need Grian to help me kill him and to do that I need him to be my soulmate.”
“Why do you need him to be your soulmate to do that?”
“Makes it hurt a whole lot more.” She smiled with a vengeful scrunch of her nose. He gave her a harsh glare before grabbing Grian by the wrist, pulling him into another room.
“Listen, Grian. I’m not Scar, I’m not stupid. I knew something was up ok? Why else do you think I came back so soon?”
“She came to me! Don’t get this twisted, Etho. I told you I would be loyal and I meant it!”
As the argument grew, Clover inched toward the door. She rested her ear against the spruce door.
“Then what was that all about???”
“She was the one wanting to be paired and junk- I didn’t say any sort of agreement.”
“You were shaking hands on it! That’s pretty much like a contract.”
“She’s just a means to an end!!”
Her hands trembled as she pulled away from the door. She shakily gasped in hearing his words.
“Clover is just a little mutt who follows me and Pearl around for security. Which I’m fine with, doesn’t matter, but this doesn't mean anything to me ok? Ok?” Grian ended with a cute little grin and cupping Etho’s hands with his own. Etho looks down at their hands, seeing their violet ties rebraid together. He pauses for a breath while letting his mind process and buffer out a response. Did he believe Grian? Even after what he knows of his history with soulmates. It was obscure to hear him speak about Clover like that considering how close they had always been, but he welcomed the idea of it. Somehow it gave him the satisfaction of not having competition.
“Alright then.” He gave a sigh of security, “If you are sure it’s nothing then I will go back for some diamonds because I actually only got enough for one of us to make full gear and the enchanting table.”
“Pfft- Ok then. Have fun, I’ll keep building at the base.”
Etho walked out the door and down his mining path; Grian followed back out to the room he left Clover in. Where she stood, painfully still, her fits clenched tightly to her side.
“Anyways, Clover what was-“ Then thier eyes met, his lept away in fear, “W-What is it- Are you-“
“I hear that. Every. Word.”
“What?! No! No, no, no, no, no, I didn’t mean that. I don’t mean that. I was lying to him. I promise, on my life. I promise.”
She squinted, “Promise..on your life..? Yeah, right.”
Clover swiftly turned on her heel to storm off.
“Just to prove it to you-“ He grabbed her by the wrist and spun her back around to face him. He cupped her hand to his chest and watched thier hands illuminate the aura from thier ties.
“-renounce my tie to Ethoslab and bind myslef to Clover Moon.”
The original threads to thier soulmates frayed and burnt on the tips. While a new color tie of a smoky grey braied thier purple and evergreen threads together. Engraved to the threads was one word- Shadow.
“G… you didn’t have to do that.”
“I wanted to.” His eyes poked through his curly, carmel bangs, “You need help taking down Timmy and Marytn and I always promised I’d be there.”
A crack of thunder rolls in the distance, the communication devices begin lighting up.
<ImpulseSV> What happened
<Pearlescentmoon> Did someone die?
<SolidarityGaming> whats going on
<Ellie> Did someone die??
<Alora> Is everyone ok???
“What if Etho finds out-“
“I made my choice and he can make his. That’s a problem for future us to worry about. For now, try to get everything you can and you can hide out in our basement. We’ll strt rallying people and gear. We’re readying for the war.”
Then, Grian’s communicator lit up and his face turned palr as a ghost.
“Etho died.” He sputtered at a whisper.
“He just lost his life from a Skeleton arrow to the heart.”
“Are- Are you ok? You aren’t feeling anything? You didn’t see to drop dead or anything.”
“Guess we know the severance song worked.” He then glanced down to his communicator, His shoulders and head weighed by the vows he claimed this day.
@opal-and-pumpkin - pumpkin
