Chapter Text
“Welcome everyone, to Fan Life.”
Caly rubbed the sleepiness out of her eyes. Fan Life? Again? She looked around to see she was in a circle of people. Instinct told her to run, but why was no one else running? She scanned the faces to find only one familiar. Mayflower, standing beside her, looked furious.
“A game playtested by Creations, now revised, and offered to you to play.”
The voice said words that Caly was all too familiar with. She and May were two of the “Creations” mentioned, she guessed.
“The rules are as follows…”
Rules. Always rules.
“Each player will have four lives.”
Only four? Caly glanced at May, who rolled her eyes. They had six last time.
“On four plus lives, you are peaceful and dark green. Three you are still peaceful and lime, two are yellow, when you can make traps and red, of course, is your last life.”
This was the same as last time, wasn’t it? Caly’s eyes located the source of the voice. A cloaked person standing on top of an azalea bush in the middle of the circle. The Creator. She recognised their bark-like mask and high-pitched tone.
“Red names have all of their friendships and ties broken and become hostile; they can also team up with other red names, but you already know that.”
Another symbol on the ground. The same as the one that was in Spawn in the other game. The curved x with dots at the end of each point. The Creator’s symbol.
“Reds and yellows may kill dark greens for a life, too. Reds are the only ones allowed to kill all, mind you.”
Caly knew these rules already. So far the only things that had changed was the amount of lives they had been given.
“Remember the boogeyman? It’s back! At the beginning of every session a Creator,, will randomly and secretly select a non-red name on the server to become the boogeyman, or maybe more than one, who knows? She does.”
Of course she remembered the boogeyman. She’d been cursed with it a few times, having to kill her teammate Sam because of it. Caly wondered if the Creator mentioned would be the Campfire Goddess Sled, or Keiko.
“The boogeyman has one job: secure a kill on a green or yellow name to be cured. While you're the boogeyman all friendships and alliances are out the window, do what you must to be cured, because if you don't, the next session you are onto the next coloured life.”
The same as last time, again. She knew these rules. Looking around, she realised that she knew maybe a few of these people. Only vaguely, somehow she knew that the parrot hybrid that was staring at her was called Grian. He looked anxious. A little curious, maybe, but somewhat panicked. Caly turned to face May again. May didn’t look at her. Instead, the duck-parrot hybrid’s eyes were staring over the horizon, her feet tapping the ground as if she wanted to run.
“We also have another special twist this time: boss mobs drop lives. Upon killing a boss mob like the warden, a “heart” will drop and you may use it to gain a life, or trade it, who knows? You do.”
Caly wondered if this time, this rule would actually play a part in the game. Everyone in the other game was too scared to even explore the deep dark for a chance at a warden’s heart. The nether was basically unexplored and no one had found a stronghold either.
“You know these simple rules already. Do not break them. I will not warn you against flying, you winged hybrids, because you know the consequences already.”
May ruffled her wings in agitation. Caly saw that a lot of the other winged hybrids were the same. She was plain human though, so she wasn’t too worried about that.
“These rules are similar, but not the same as what my playtesters were bound to.”
Caly didn’t like being called a “playtester.” It felt controlling and strange. May also didn’t seem too happy with the choice of words. Caly stared at the ground.
“Are you ready, players? You better be. Your lives depend on it.”
Caly was done with the big long speech of rules she already knew. She wanted to go already. Probably hide in a hole for a few hours like she did on her first “session” last time.
“SCATTER!”
The voice cut out, and the person on top of the azalea bush disappeared.
Caly froze as everyone around her ran off in different directions. May glanced at her before taking off to the hills in the northwest corner.
She didn’t remember this from the original game of Fan Life. But that was because she missed the first “session.” She remembered something her old teammate Sam had told her about-she’d recounted the circle and the rush to get materials.
Materials. Caly remembered how it took a good few of those “sessions” just to get basic iron armour-some of which had been given to her by her ally Tania.
Get iron first then. The command gave Caly something to grasp onto, even though it slightly terrified her. Going into caves -alone- was not her favourite activity. She shivered despite the sun shining warmly on her face.
No. She wasn’t brave enough for caving. Who did she think she was? Gem?
Gem… the ginger girl in the circle. Caly wondered where she knew her from.
“You’re new,” a voice said from behind her. Caly jumped and swung at the person with her bare fists, then stumbled back with her hand covering her mouth.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry,” she muttered as the other person rubbed their now red cheek. Caly now recognised them as Grian, the parrot hybrid.
“You’re good. For now,” he joked.
Caly laughed nervously. “I’ll, uh-just be on my way I guess.”
“If you’re so sure,” Grian said, and began to walk off.
Caly waved at him weakly and turned to look at where a stream was flowing around the circle.
“Hey wait!” the parrot hybrid called.
She spun around. “Huh?”
“What’s your name?”
Caly paused.
“Caly. Caly Opaleye,” she repeated.
“Nice name. I’m Gr-,” he started, but Caly interrupted him.
“Grian, I know,” she finished, then ran towards the stream.
She heard his confused calls before the sound of the stream bubbling overtook her senses. It was calming.
The stream seemed to lead somewhere, so Caly decided to follow it. She was surprised to find sugarcane growing at its banks, but it was a pleasant surprise, and she took it gratefully.
She liked the water, and the way it danced around her feet when she walked along its shores. It was pretty. She vaguely remembered a book about a sailor being thrown overboard by some blue haired guy. One that she wrote maybe? It sounded brutal. She grinned. Yeah, it sounded like something she wrote.
Caly wandered down the stream. It eventually led to an ocean, with a pretty beach riming the water.
Run ashore was a rotting old shipwreck, which Caly immediately ran to without surveying the rest of her surroundings.
Sand sunk beneath her feet, and she was suddenly grateful for having these shin-high boots laced up properly. Otherwise she was sure sand would be filling her boots and finding its way into her socks.
The ship was on its side, but that proved to be no problem. Caly found an entrance from what would have been the top of the ship down to the hull, allowing her to easily clamber into its rotting chambers.
Somehow, Caly knew the exact layout of the ship. It was so… familiar. Yet so alien to her mind. The smell of rotting wood wasn’t very pleasant, and so she forced herself to breathe through her mouth instead.
Her fingers traced the sodden planks of the ship as her feet led her to a loot chest. She opened it, the chest creaking from rusty joints. The sight of rotten flesh made her extremely grateful for breathing through her mouth instead.
She shifted through the contents of the chest.
Rotten flesh, bamboo, paper, and a bowl. Somehow, the paper looked fine, but the bowl looked destroyed. Caly took the bamboo and paper. Something about seeing bamboo made her smile, as if it was a joke only she would understand.
Caly closed the chest and stood up properly again. There should be another chest on the other side of the ship- the captain’s quarters. She made her way over steadily, trying not to fall through any holes.
Sure enough, at the end of the ship she found another chest, more intact this time. When she opened it, she squealed as she immediately recognised the white ingots of iron. Five, total, plus some nuggets too. An emerald, three lapis, and a slightly wet treasure map.
Caly took all of them, placing them safely in her many pockets in her trousers and the pouch at her side.
The map she kept in her hand. It looked to be nearby. Now she had a little adventure to go on to pass the time before nightfall.
The foxine hummed as he wandered around trying to find a cave. Etho knew he couldn’t waste time when it came to these kinds of games, so getting armour first thing would definitely be useful.
When “SCATTER!” had been yelled, he immediately dashed for the plains. He still didn’t understand what was going on properly, or who the person on the bush was. He only knew this was another Life game, and two new people had joined them in place of Mumbo and Lizzie it seemed. Otherwise he was sure he would’ve recognised Lizzie’s bright pink hair.
They intrigued him. Usually, when there were new members, the old members would have heard of them before. But the winged hybrid and sailor dressed girls didn’t seem in any way familiar. Etho wondered where they were from, and how they got here.
Now he was surrounded by a lot of horses in the plains, who were all lucky Joel didn’t come around. He was pretty sure Joel ran off east.
“ETHOOOOOOOO!” someone yelled. Etho’s ears flicked towards the noise, and he found a ditch that Bdubs was jumping out of.
He was tackle hugged, and Etho blinked in surprise. “Happy to see you too Bdubs,” he laughed.
Bdubs grinned with broken teeth, and Etho adjusted his mask.
“You found an Etho?” Etho recognised Tango’s voice calling from in the ditch.
“Hey there Tango,” Etho waved when Tango’s head popped up.
Tango grinned back. “Heyyyy! You wanna join us? We found a cave here.”
“Sure,” Etho shrugged, and Bdubs jumped with joy.
Etho followed the pair into the ditch. Well, what he thought was a ditch. Instead, what he found was a small hole leading to a gaping cave that was quite a drop down.
“Woah!” he exclaimed when he almost fell into the cave from a sixty metre fall. Tango grabbed his arm and yanked him backward.
“Bdubs almost fell in earlier too, you’re not the only one,” he muttered. Etho swished his tail in annoyance.
“How are we going to get down there?” he asked, crouching over the edge. The cave was dark and looming, only small shafts of light from the surface made it down.
Bdubs passed him a torch. “We were hoping to get iron for a bucket, but no such luck yet. Also dynamic lighting isn’t a thing apparently, so watch out for that.”
“I see,” Etho muttered, examining the torch. Tango’s usually bright flaming hair also did nothing to light the dark areas.
He wandered around the smaller caves that sprouted from the ditch, collecting coal along the way for torches. He was hoping that one of these caves would snake their way down to the big cave, but most of them reached dead ends. He did mine a few veins of iron though, which would be useful for the bucket needed to get down to the cave.
He started to make his way back to the ditch and called his friends’ names. While he was at that, he also found another decently sized vein of iron.
“Why’d you leave us Etho?” Bdubs huffed. Etho gave him a confused look.
“I thought we were splitting up to explore the smaller caves, sorry about that,” he shrugged.
Bdubs huffed again while Tango checked a furnace.
“We could go down now,” he said, feeding the furnace iron and coal. Etho checked the amount of iron he had on him. Thirty one raw pieces of iron.
“Is there a point in risking a life if we already have enough iron?” he muttered, checking the furnace to see Tango had a little more than him.
“I don’t!” Bdubs yelled, throwing five pieces of raw iron on the floor.
Etho glanced at Tango.
“I’ve left some of those smaller tunnel-caves unexplored,” Etho offered. Bdubs nodded, and Tango picked up the furnace, but placed a crafting table, and a few seconds later, tossed shields to both Bdubs and Etho. Then he started following Etho into one of the caves. Etho took the shield gratefully and put it on his left hand.
This one in particular winded down in long, looping spirals. Etho ignored all the iron he saw, and elbowed Tango -hard- anytime he tried to grab some too. Bdubs was the one who needed iron now.
“Hey!” Tango play-punched Etho after the fourth or fifth time he tried to mine an iron vien.
Etho rolled his eyes. “We’re down here for Bdubs needing iron, not you.”
“I know, I know,” Tango muttered and rubbed his arm. Bdubs glared at them.
“You’re acting like I’m a child,” he said. Tango grinned and flicked his tail.
“Maybe you are.”
“HEY!” Bdubs ran after Tango after he took off up towards the ditch. Etho rolled his eyes again. They were both like children.
Etho debated running after both of them, but decided to let boys be boys and continue caving.
The cave winded down, down, down, down, down…
To the big cave. The foxine blinked when he realised there was dim sunlight shining on him from all the way up from the ditch.
His boots clicked on the deepslate.
He looked around. It looked somewhat safe. Only a few confused looking zombies around. Safe enough.
Etho squinted up to the ditch to see if Tango’s fiery hair would jump out at him. Unsurprisingly, it did, and he heard distant echoes of laughter and yelling.
“HEY GUYS!” Etho yelled as loud as he could. The yelling and laughing stopped. He took a breath before continuing. “THE TUNNEL LEADS TO DEEPSLATE!”
Yelling again, and just a minute later Bdubs bounded up to him and jumped around.
“YESSS!” he celebrated, and Etho once again gave him and Tango a confused look.
“Why were you two so set on this cave?” he asked. Tango brushed down his clothes and pointed to the deepslate.
“More chances of diamonds I guess,” he shrugged.
Etho blinked, then facepalmed. Of course.
Tango placed a torch and a crafting table as he made an iron pickaxe with some of the iron he’d smelted earlier.
“Expecting diamonds, Tango?” Etho teased. Tango grinned, and walked over to one of the walls that Etho was sure was just covered in glow lichen.
“Nah, I have some,” Tango strolled back over and leaned on his crafting table while displaying the diamond in his slim little elf-y fingers.
Etho tried to snatch it out of his hand, but Tango yanked it away into a pocket before he had the chance.
“Awww, not gonna share?” he pouted, wagging his tail slightly.
Tango tilted his head at him. “Don’t think you can split a diamond in half.”
“Only one?” Etho was surprised. Usually there were more. Now that he actually looked around properly, he didn’t think he saw any diamonds at all. He frowned. He knew that diamonds were less prone to spawning exposed to air but none at all was strange. “That’s weird.”
“BOO! Yeah that definitely is weird,” Bdubs appeared behind the two. Etho jumped back in surprise and Tango screeched.
“For goodness sake, you don’t just do that,” Etho gasped. Bdubs took an arrow out of his arm and winced, then shrugged.
“Nah. It’s funny,” he grinned.
Tango rolled his red eyes and showed his diamond to Bdubs while Etho placed some more torches around.
When he was just out of hearing distance from his friends, a spider leaped at him from an unlit area. Etho flicked his ears back in pain, and he swung his stone sword at it a few times before it died. From its dead body, an eye was the only thing left. He left the disgusting thing on the ground.
Another spider leaped at him. Then another. And another. Etho panicked and forgot he had a shield, and ran back over to his friends to eat what raw food he had left.
“There’s so many!” he exclaimed, watching his health go up painfully slowly.
Tango killed one. “Eeks.”
“It might be a spawner,” Bdubs suggested. Etho looked over to where the spiders had come from. The darkness obscured most of his vision, but squinting at it, it looked like there might have been some cobblestone there.
“Possibly,” he said, and sat down. His health wasn’t going up nearly as fast as it should have.
“Want us to explore it for you?” Tango mocked. Etho huffed.
“Have you lost any health yet?” he retorted. Tango shook his head.
“Well it’s not healing as fast as it should.”
Bdubs nodded. “Yeah, I noticed that too.”
Etho checked his health again. Seven hearts.
“Let’s check it out then,” he sighed, and ran over, brandishing his sword and adjusting his shield once more. How about you don’t forget you have a shield this time?
The moment cobblestone came into view, Etho spammed the rest of his torches on the ground. Sure enough, it was a spider spawner. Tango and Bdubs caught up with him just as he placed a final one on top of the cage of spiders.
“You good here Etho?” Tango asked. Etho blinked and looked at the mess of torches he’d left.
He took away the unnecessary ones. “Yeah. I’m good.”
There were two loot chests, one of which Bdubs was snooping in. Etho lunged for the other one.
A saddle, bones, gunpowder, and other random junk. Etho took the saddle and grinned. Horse time.
“I’m going to go back up now. I need food,” he said, and without waiting for his friends, he dashed for the winding cave that led him down here.
He did need food though. Once out of the cave and the ditch, Etho took a deep breath of
fresh air and looked around for animals to kill. The sun was setting now, and so he’d have to be quick if he wanted animals to spawn.
Then again, what about later? He’d have to save some animals for breeding later, wouldn’t he? Especially cows.
He couldn’t run anymore. The hunger was driving him crazy. So what if they needed cows later?
The first animal he was was a pig, two of them actually. Etho killed them both with his stone sword, blood staining his gloves and coat. That was fine.
He had four raw pork chops now. He gnawed on one of them while looking around for more animals. For some reason, all the animals he could see were pigs and horses. At least pigs when cooked gave some decent meals.
He slaughtered a few more pigs and wandered to where he found a savannah. There he sat, plopped on the ground eating raw pork chops. That’s where Tango and Bdubs found him around two minutes later, Tango showing off two more diamonds.
“Want one Etho?” he offered. Etho eyed the diamond, but shook his head. One diamond was basically useless. Might as well let Tango make a diamond pickaxe for obsidian and other diamonds.
Finally, his health was back to full and he wasn’t hungry anymore, but eating raw meat made him feel uneasy. Tango started to set up furnaces again, so Etho put his last six pork chops in one of the spare ones for it to cook.
In the meantime, he saw Bdubs struggling to make a saddle.
“Can’t craft a saddle Bdubs?” Etho teased. Bdubs glared at him.
“NO! Another thing this game is weird for. Seems to be no custom crafting recipes,” he growled. Etho frowned, and tried to make a saddle himself. It didn’t work, sure enough. His eyes caught on the saddle he’d gotten from the dungeon.
He grinned, and ran for a brown and white spotted horse. It looked strong, and fast.
Using the saddle, he mounted it quickly before Bdubs even knew what he was doing.
“Yes!” he exclaimed and pumped his fist in the air while Bdubs started yelling.
Etho grinned.