#woah okay man | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

eyelessfog · 2 years ago

Text

Blood in the Water

A Red Snow minific with the idea of if they found Martyn after the end of Limited life.

"Martyn?"

He can't see. He can't feel anything, smell anything, taste anything but blood.

But he can hear, and he can hear...

"Martyn?"

Ren.

---

Pearl peels back Martyn's eyes and moves her head out of the way so that she doesn't block the sunlight. Ren watches from the side.

"Uh, so. His pupils aren't dilating or anything. Which means..."

"He's not dead," Ren says.

"Well, that's not what it means, but also... No, he's not dead," Pearl agrees. "He's breathing. Honestly, the hell happened to him? He's... I don't know." She flicks a finger at his forehead.

"...I don't know either," Ren says.

"Then what do we do? Leave him here?"

"No." Ren's voice is forceful, and Pearl flinches back.

Martyn breathes something that sounds like a word, and Pearl whips her head to stare down at him.

"What?"

"Ren," Martyn whispers.

"No," Ren says again, eyes wide behind his sunglasses. "We're not letting him die."

---

In the end, they bring Martyn into the sort-of clock tower not far from where they found him. It has a table, which they lay Martyn on after clearing away the plates and dry steak, and has a significant amount of supplies to scavenge through.

Pearl presses a hand to his forehead to check for a fever, and then pulls her hand back and hisses.

"Pearl?" Ren asks, looking over from where he's arm deep into a chest.

"He's burning up! Like- like ow my hand kinda burning up!" Pearl shakes her hand out, face twisted in pain.

"Is he?" Ren walks over and places his own hand over Martyn's forehead, then blinks. "Oh. Ow."

"Yeah! This is... So much worse than any fever I've ever seen." Pearl swallows heavily. "He'll need something... Cold. I should- Um-"

"Water," Ren says. "I'll get snow later."

"Right. Thanks," Pearl says, and then hurries out where there had once been an iron door. A moment later, she runs back in and adds: "Take off any heavy layers he's wearing. Lighter clothes the better. I think." And then she's off again.

"Sure," Ren says to no one.

His eyes fall down to the sash around Martyn's waist, and he pauses. He picks up one of the ends, where there is a white zigzag against the red. He knows this. He knows this very well.

"My Hand?" Ren asks.

Martyn doesn't answer.

---

"So," Pearl says.

"So?" Ren asks.

"You saw the, you know. The thing."

Ren tilts his head, and Pearl watches his ears flop against his head. He'd taken off the crown the day prior, leaving it lying on a shelf with his fur cape, and making his ears far more expressive than usual.

"What thing?" Ren asks. Pearl makes a gesture, and Ren blinks. "What??"

"The- his-" Pearl groans, then tries once more. "The thing!"

"If you mean his bits, yeah, I've-"

"NOPE!" Pearl shrieks. "Nope! Didn't need to know that, I meant-" She walks over and tugs at the collar of Martyn's shirt, where a red lichtenberg scar runs down his neck and chest.

"Ah, yes. I saw that, yeah," Ren says, nodding his head.

"Aren't you curious what it means?" Pearl asks, frowning at it.

"Uh, well... I assume it means he was hit by lightning?"

"Ren."

"Listen!" Ren says. "I just want him to wake up, and then I'll find out what's going on from him."

"If he-"

"He will," Ren promises. "He has to."

Pearl looks down at Martyn doubtfully.

"Pearl, if you found a Tilly-"

"Right," Pearl says, eyes softening. "He has to."

---

"Did you think we would ever find another area like this?" Pearl asks.

Ren laughs. "After how we ended up last time, I'd hoped not. I mean, what if it was- you know."

"Yeah. I don't- I didn't want to, you know, fight again." Pearl lowers herself further under the water until Ren can only see her eyes from where he's lying on a makeshift chair. It's not particularly comfortable, but it's good. The sun is warm on his skin, and he's still able to see Pearl, so.

"I'm glad we're here, though," Ren tells her.

The water bubbles violently in what Ren recognizes as Pearl laughing, and she sits up, coughing. And also still laughing. Presumably at him.

"What! What did I do?"

"You would say that, huh? After finding Martyn-" She bursts into another round of laughter.

"What? What! Come on, I didn't even- I found my friend and-"

"You found your hand," Pearl says, making her voice deep and giving herself an even worse Scottish accent than the one Ren uses.

"Me hand-" He can't finish what he wants to say, and ends up bursting into laughter too.

It's not really funny, but they haven't laughed like this in a while, and it's warm, and things are sort of looking up, and... There's some sort of giggly glee in the air, and they're both soaking it in.

It's not like when they found the first game Pearl had played. Found the Shadow Tower and the Snow Fort and the Southlands and all that. It's not cold and dark and scary and angry and sad. They aren't fighting. They aren't alone.

They're on the beach, pretending everything is okay, and this time, it's working.

---

"Do you think he's actually dead?"

Ren, who had been playing with the fur of his cape, pauses.

"What?"

Pearl shifts on the ground so that she's facing him. "He's... We found each other alive and well, right?"

"I wouldn't call it well," Ren says, offering a breathy laugh. There's no humour in it.

"No. But we were up. I saw you on the hill, and you were alive. You were alive. We both..." Pearl shifts again, staring up at the stars.

The wind is cold against both of their skin, but it's worth it to be outside. They've been cold for a very long time. They can handle being cold for a little longer.

"It's been a while," Pearl says, instead of finishing her sentence. "He might not wake up."

"And we won't know until he disappears. But for now, he's here. We can see him. He's here."

Pearl stays quiet, and Ren decides that's the end of their conversation. He rolls over, back to her, and closes his eyes.

A bit too long later, Pearl shifts again.

"Ren," she breathes, wind nearly stealing her voice away. "I don't know if I know how to exist with someone new." She breathes in, a shaky noise. "It's just been us for the longest time. No danger, no animals, no sound, just... us. I don't know how to let him into the mix."

"We'll figure it out," Ren tells her. "We're survivors. We adapt." Then, again: "We'll figure it out."

"Right," Pearl says quietly. Even quieter: "I wish I had Tilly."

Ren wordlessly turns to face her, and she runs a hand over his head, scratching at the base of his ears. It feels nice, and even beyond the want to sleep, he can feel his head turning to mush and his eyes closing against his will.

"I'm sorry," he hears Pearl say before he falls asleep completely. "I won't doubt it again. I know... I know you need him."

And then he's asleep.

---

At some point, Ren started lying down next to Martyn when they went to sleep, soaking in his warmth and, hopefully, offering him some cold. Pearl, who'd long since gotten used to sleeping curled up next to ren with his fur cape over them, didn't take long to decide to sidle up beside them.

And so, somehow, between cooling him down and forcing him to eat and drink, they managed to bring the fever down.

A couple nights after, Martyn actually wakes up.

Ren and Pearl don't notice it for a while, busy having found the hidden second storage room after noticing how loose the rock in that part of the floor was. Ren had gone down, and was looking around, while Pearl just lay down, arms and head in the hole, holding a conversation with Ren as he explored.

"Can you get any good enchants?" Pearl asks.

"Yes, but I'm not sure what we're looking for here. We haven't needed armour in months-"

"Might be a year, now," Pearl interrupts.

"Point proven, then," Ren says with a sigh. "No need to enchant any of these leftover armour pieces, and... What, mending? Do we want mending?"

"No mobs to get quick experience from. Wouldn't be worth it."

"Then? We don't need anything to help with defense, we don't need anything to help with offense, we can't use mending..."

"Ugh, and we got so excited over the enchanting table too..."

"I figure that's why you stole it from us, huh?" a scratchy voice behind her croaks.

Pearl turns around quickly, but she was halfway into the hole already and the shift of weight sends her toppling down, three blocks deep.

"Ow," Pearl says, teeth gritted.

Ren hurries over, looking down at her, brow furrowed in worry. "Pearl?" he asks.

Past him, Pearl watches Martyn's eyes go wide. "Ren?" he breathes.

"Martyn," Pearl says, just to finish the circle.

Ren looks up, and his breath pauses in his chest. "M' hand," he whispers.

"My liege," Martyn returns.

Pearl lets herself fall limp on the ground and waits for them to finish with this ritual of theirs.

---

"What do you mean by 'all this?'" Martyn asks, leaning away from Pearl as she presses her hand against his forehead for the fifth time. "And can you stop that? I'm fine."

"You're warm," Pearl says by way of explanation.

"No warmer than normal," Martyn tells her, then puts a hand to his forehead. "... A little warmer than normal. It's fine, I'm not sick. Probably. I think."

"You've been sick for a week or so," Ren adds helpfully.

"Right! So I've finished with all my being sick stuff, and now I'm all good," Martyn says, nodding confidently.

"I actually meant that you're probably still sick, considering you've only just woken up," Ren says.

"Oh."

Pearl tries to put her hand on his forehead again and he bats her hand away.

"Dude. Stop. Anyway, what do you mean by 'all this?'" Martyn asks again.

"I mean... Clearly something happened here. A game, I'd assume. I just... What's the story? What happened?" Ren asks.

"Oh, um. It's a long story," Martyn says, grimacing. "Besides, why didn't you just ask Pearl?"

Pearl sits back on her heels, giving him a blank look. He stares back. She turns to look at Ren, and they stare at each other.

In the end, Pearl turns back to him and goes, "What?"

"What?"

"I haven't been here. Ren and I have been kinda busy outside the border."

"What? But you- what?"

Ren interrupts them. "Hold on, I think we should introduce ourselves. Properly."

"I already know you two though-" Martyn tries.

"I," Ren says loudly, and Pearl rolls her eyes at the dramatic tone of his voice. "-Am th' Red Winter King." He makes a sort of bowing motion from his chair. "Ye may call me RenDog."

"Or Ren," Pearl says.

"Your turn," Ren tells her.

"Right. Like, the way I introduced myself to you?"

"Indeed," Ren says.

"I'm blaming you for bringing back his accent," Pearl says to Martyn. "Anyway, I'm Pearl. People used to call me the Scarlet Witch, but I always preferred the Scarlet Snow Witch, myself."

"Oh," Martyn says. "You aren't- neither of you are-"

"From this game?" Ren asks. "No. But you are, and it would be cool to know why this server is... Like this."

"There's a lot of dirt in the sky," Pearl mentions, in case anyone forgot.

"Right," Martyn says. "Skynet. Um, with that in mind, this is going to be a long story."

"We have time."

---

"Where's the clock?" Ren asks curiously, a bit after Martyn has explained everything to them.

"What do you mean?" Martyn asks.

"I had to strip you 'cuz of your fever and you didn't have a clock on you. So where's your clock?"

Martyn frowns and pats at his hip, where it always hangs.

It's not there.

"What?" Martyn looks down. No clock. Lower on his priorities list, but still something he'll panic about later, no dogwarts sash either. He pats at his pockets, and then his back pockets, and then freezes. "Did you take it?"

"No? I didn't see a clock when I took your stuff. That's why I asked."

"Where did you find me? When you first got here, where did you find me?"

"Uh, just down the hill. On the way to the tower." Ren's brows furrow. "Martyn-"

Martyn bolts out the door.

Pearl, working the Clocker's farm out front, makes a noise of surprise when he appears, and calls after him. There's Ren's voice too, but they don't matter right now, because he's just realized something and he needs his clock to know if he's right.

He nearly trips on the way down the hill, his eyes already scanning the gravel for any golden glint. Nothing. Nothing. Where is it?

He kicks at the ground, looking for any hint of it. Glass, gold, anything.

He turns to the side a bit and finds it.

It seems to have rolled, maybe when he... fell. He scrambles for it, picking it up and inspecting its face. The glass of the clock is cracked, and when he looks under his sandal, he can see shards on the ground. The hands on the clock - which, really, is more like a timer - have broken off, or maybe just disappeared. Ash and dust cover it, and Martyn uses his sleeve to wipe it off.

"Martyn!" Pearl calls from just behind him, voice as worried as he's heard it since he woke up.

"M' hand?"

Martyn turns around. "Found it!"

Pearl's face falls in relief, and she goes limp on her feet, doubling over and heaving the biggest sigh. Ren tilts his head, brows furrowed in a cross of worry and confusion.

"The clock," Martyn elaborates. "This was my clock." He shows it, face up, to Ren, who peers at it curiously.

"Uh, cool," he says.

Martyn flips it over. "Sure, yeah. But the important part is what's going on in the back."

"Ehe. That's what she said," Ren says quietly. Pearl elbows him anyway.

Martyn ignores them. "Look," he says, at the heart on the back.

"Looking," Ren says obediently.

Martyn shoves his nail into the seam between the heart and the rest of the clock and pops the heart out. Underneath, there's an empty space in the shape of a diamond.

"Ah," Martyn says.

"What?" Pearl asks, angling for a better look.

"Fragment obtained," Martyn says tiredly.

Pearl and Ren exchange a worried look.

---

"No, sorry, wait," Pearl says suddenly, the day after. "You teamed up with Scott?"

"Yes?"

"Oh, hey, yeah! What? Scott?" Ren calls over.

"After my game?" Pearl asks skeptically.

"After our game?" Ren adds, sounding terribly pouty.

"Well, I mean, hey, listen. We all teamed up with different people this time around. Sometimes you were against those people in a different game! It happens," Martyn tells them, hands up in surrender. "I mean, hey, you teamed up with BigB! And Grian, at the end, I think."

"I didn't," Pearl tells him, turning up her nose. "That was a different Pearl." She pauses. "Also I don't think I had a rivalry with either BigB or Grian for either of my games."

Martyn thinks about it for a second. "Well, I guess so."

"And yet!" Ren calls. "You have had two game long rivalries with Major- two!"

"Ah- hey! I'd call each of them only, like, half a game long each. One full game total! C'mon now."

Pearl makes a face. "That's still proving my point."

"Look," Martyn says, sighing. "No harm, no foul."

"There was so much harm involved?"

"No... hard feelings, no foul?" Martyn tries.

"Hm," Pearl says.

"Whatever. What's for dinner?"

"Bread!" Ren says brightly.

Martyn looks tiredly up at what's left of bread bridge. "Blegh. I've had enough bread for... 72 days."

---

"So," Pearl says, sidling up to Martyn. Martyn gives her a suspicious side eye. "What's with the lightning scar?"

"The?"

She points at his collar. "The lightning scar."

Martyn looks down at his chest, then makes a big show of screaming and falling back, pressing a hand over the scar. "WHAT IS THAT?"

"Did you- did you not know?" Pearl asks, leaning over to look him in the eye.

"Oh, no, I knew," Martyn says, sitting back up properly. "Wasn't too sure what you were looking for though. Figured playing it up would work out well." Pearl makes a face, and Martyn shrugs. "Didn't hit right. Tough crowd, I guess."

"Right. Well. What's up with it? Like, why do you have it?"

"It's probably from when I died."

Pearl tilts her head.

"When people's time ran out, lighting would strike their bodies and they'd... Disintegrate, I guess." Martyn wiggles a bit in his seat, uncomfortable. "My time ran out after everyone else's, and the lightning came down, and... that was it. I mean, I thought I died. Everything went black, everything went quiet, you know, all the 'probably dying' stuff. And then I heard you and Ren, and then I woke up."

"Then... The lightning was because you were supposed to die at the end."

"I always thought that, maybe, if you did it right, the winners would get to survive," Martyn tells her. "But, no, I was supposed to die like everyone else."

"But you did survive," Pearl reminds. "I did too. The winners... I mean, I guess they do, don't they?"

"Then what about the winner from the other game you were in? It would have been Ren or Scott, right? And that," Martyn jerks his thumb towards the door of the Clocker's tower, "Isn't the right Ren. Besides, Ren didn't win his game either. He died before I did. So this isn't about winning. This is something else."

"Ren didn't win?" Pearl asks.

"What? No. What?"

"I always just assumed that... Oh. Huh. Okay."

"No, it's something else." Martyn lies back onto the table again, spreading his arms out. "What else do we have in common?"

"A lot of things," Pearl says. "Too many."

Martyn laughs. "So much that it loops back around to nothing, huh?"

Pearl falls back onto the table beside him, face scrunched in annoyance. Martyn laughs again.

---

"I'm glad you're awake, Hand," Ren says as he and Martyn walk around the server in search of supplies.

"You know, I've noticed you don't use that accent when you're talking to Pearl," Martyn tells him.

Ren sighs. "She's bullied it out of me. By the time we got to- well. Apparently it makes things feel less serious, and we need to have serious conversations."

"I think it sounds very serious!" Martyn tells him. "Too serious, maybe. Very grave and... serious."

Ren laughs. "I appreciate that. And I appreciate that you're here, honestly. I missed you."

"Awh," Martyn hums, touched. "Thanks, man! I missed you too."

Ren goes quiet for a moment, looking up at the deepslate platform the Nosy Neighbours had planned on using.

"I missed you," Ren says, voice low and heavy with meaning.

Martyn pauses behind him, brows furrowing. "Right," he says, feeling a little unsure. He doesn't know Ren's situation. He doesn't know Pearl's. But they do this sometimes - somehow make the quiet of the world sink deep into his skin. Make him feel like he's alone through just the tone of their words.

Something happened. Something he doesn't understand.

"...We should get Pearl a Tilly," Ren says, and then continues walking.

"What?" Martyn asks, lagging behind. "I thought- I thought you said you haven't seen any other living - or even undead - things since your game ended! How are we going to-?"

"No living things, no, other than Pearl and you. If we can find players, we'll get her a dog."

"What, is that an order from the Red King?" Martyn laughs, a little hysterical, a little worried.

Ren doesn't respond for a minute too long, but in the end: "Yes. We're going to get Pearl Tilly back. That's an oath."

They rest of their exploration of the area is quiet.

---

"Why are you here?" Martyn asks as Pearl searches for eggs in the clocker's storage.

"Tryna' make a cake," Pearl says, pulling a face as she half organizes the chests in their owners' absence.

"Right. Obviously."

"Obviously," Pearl parrots. "How do they not have eggs but have three buckets of milk?"

"To show off that they own cows," Martyn answers. "But no, I meant, why are you and Ren still here? Like, within the borders? You told me that you left your game the moment you woke up, and I'm fine, so you don't need to stay back for me."

Pearl pauses. "Well... It's not staying back for you, you."

"I feel appreciated," Martyn comments dryly.

"I like you fine- No, no, I hold a grudge from the last game, actually, so that's a lie! But I... Yeah, I probably would have left a day or two after you woke up. And that's assuming I didn't pick out what I wanted from everyone's chests and just leave you on the ground." Pearl throws a bundle of stone to the side. "The thing is just that Ren likes you. Ren likes you a lot. You were really important to him during his game, and then he died, and then he was alone for a really long time. Before I found him, he was... I don't know. It wasn't good. He wasn't doing good. But he missed you, and now you're here, and I won't take him away from you."

"And what about you?" Martyn asks. "He could stay. You could leave. Why don't you?"

"We already did that." Pearl looks too focused on the chest. "We... went in our separate directions, once. I think I almost died. I think he almost died. We're not doing that again."

"Better together," Ren says from the doorway of the Clocker tower.

"Better together," Pearl agrees. "Anyway. Why do you ask?"

"What did he ask?" Ren asks.

"Wanted to know why you guys stuck around," Martyn answers.

"Oh," Ren says. "'Cuz you're here."

"That's- that's sweet, dude."

"I am sweet," Ren says proudly. "But we have been here a while. We scoped out all the bases, so I think at this point it's raid, pack, sleep, 'n then go."

"Yeah?" Pearl asks. "I thought you were going to stick- I FOUND EGGS - stick around a little longer!"

"Congratulations!" Ren says politely. "And I kind of was, but... Martyn, do you want to come with us? We should leave, but I don't see why we can't have you along."

"I- me?"

Ren makes a show of looking around the room. "I think you're the only Martyn around," he says, teasing.

"Well, hey, I'm not gonna say no to such a nice offer!" Martyn says brightly. "Thanks!"

"Happy to have you on the team! This cake is now a celebratory cake. It'll be ready when you two get back from stealing things!" Pearl shoos them towards the door.

"Just us?" Martyn asks. "What are you doing?"

"Baking a cake, obviously," Pearl says, rolling her eyes.

"And avoiding responsibility," Ren finishes wisely.

"Baking a cake," Pearl repeats, and then places an iron door in the Clocker's doorway. "Bye, have fun, don't come back with stupid stuff!"

Martyn makes a pitiful face at Ren, and Ren cackles in response.

---

"You shoved us out pretty quickly," Martyn tells Pearl that night.

"I know. I was the one who did it."

"But why?"

Pearl gives him a look. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"Well, the answer, had you not asked that question, would have been no. But now I'm curious, so the answer is yes."

"I don't want you to come along," Pearl says. "You're not... You're not the Martyn I know-"

"Yes I am? I played in your game too. And the one before that, and Ren's before that."

"I mean! Yeah, I know, but you're not just the one who played with me. You're someone different now. You're not Ren's Martyn, or my Martyn - you're... Who you are now." Pearl sighs, a heavy thing. "And that means that I think I could grow to like you. I could learn to care about you. Because you're not like who I hated."

"But?" Martyn prompts.

"But you're still a lot like him. You're still Martyn. And I don't know how long it'll take me to forgive you for that."

"For being me?"

"Well," Pearl says. "When you put it that way, it sounds kind of weird."

"Naw," Martyn says. "I get it. And for the record, I'm sorry."

"Huh." Pearl looks at him with something like awe. "I didn't think I'd ever hear you say that to me."

---

"Okay, okay, okay," Ren says as they leave the boundaries of the game. "So, I'm the Red Winter King, and Pearl's the Scarlet Snow Witch-"

"I still think that it's important to mention that they both equate to blood in the snow," Pearl adds.

"Of course," Ren agrees. "Obviously. Now, since that's us, what do you think you should be?"

"I need a code name?"

"Well, not a code name," Ren says.

"No, I think he's right," Pearl tells him. "I think these are code names."

"They're not! They're titles."

"What's a title if not a code name?" Martyn asks.

"It's not- c'mon now!" Ren cries. "You know what I mean!"

"I do!" Martyn agrees. "Am I supposed to be sticking to your theme?"

"The red snow theme?" Pearl asks.

"Yeah. I mean, you two came up with yours independently, I know, but... Do you want mine to be like that too?"

Pearl taps her lip thoughtfully and Ren shrugs. "You don't have to," Pearl says.

"Right. Well then... I'll be the blood in the water."

"Ooh!" Pearl gasps. "Oh, that one's good, yeah!"

"Like blood in the snow, but... Melted, you know?"

"Alright," Ren says, grinning. "You're the blood in the water."

#[written in stone]#red snow duo #and martyn i guess <- hes feverish and dying like. the whole time. edit: or not. hes awake now #rendog #renthedog #pearlescentmoon #inthelittlewood #martyn inthelittlewood #itlw #literally killing me why does martyn have so many tags. lordy #okay anyway WOAH. MAN. DUDE. took me so much longer than i thought it would. and is longer than i thought it would be #unedited so. thumbs up emoji. we live. we go on with our lives

74 notes · View notes