Work Text:
There was another gap in the world. The world they were all supposed to have left. Jimmy knew Netty was as aware of it as he was. Knew by the fact she’d shown up to the Biome Buddies base singing Christmas carols, of all things. It wasn’t even December yet, so obviously she was just trying to distract them both from the fact that the first one through the portal hadn’t made it to the new version.
Martyn was gone.
The Listeners had said, “If you flee, you’ll be free,” but they hadn’t said what that meant. Jimmy had been sure they’d find themselves out of Evo, in some other world free from the Watchers. Instead, they were just in a new version with crappy combat, missing woodland mansions, and annoying (but cute) alpacas. Six of them were, anyway. The other half of the Biome Buddies wasn’t.
Between the fact they were obviously being Watched and Listened to, it didn’t feel safe to ask. Had the Watchers grabbed Martyn the way they’d grabbed Grian? Had the Listeners pulled him free? The Watchers had made a big show of taking Grian, but Taurtis and Salem had just sort of … gone somewhere. Jimmy had hoped that meant they’d found a way out, or that maybe the Listeners had helped them leave. (Please don’t let them be stuck in the Downside Up again.) He hoped that was true for Martyn, too. That he’d found some amazing new world to explore without Watchers making him jump through hoops (or throwing meteorites at his office when they weren’t happy with him).
Jimmy kind of felt responsible for making sure everyone else settled into this new version, since they were stuck here. The Property Police were no more, and the Biome Buddies were down to one, unless Netty was applying to fill the vacancy. The mission to find a woodland mansion had failed spectacularly, but she did manage to find the mountain where the alpacas lived. If this was an audition, she was scoring fifty-fifty on biome location. To be fair, Jimmy was zero for two on that front, so he guessed she could have the job if she wanted it.
It had been an interesting distraction, finding and taming the alpacas, which were apparently really llamas, but whatever. Color-coding them by their blankets for each person, though, had shown Jimmy that Netty wasn’t just looking for distraction. She was in full-on denial, as she decided on colors for Salem and Martyn. What was Jimmy meant to do with that?
The long and treacherous journey back to their new spawn gave him plenty of time to think, at least in theory. In between fighting mobs and wrangling llamas, anyway. You’d think that would have given him time to come up with a clue, but as they tied up the llamas and put signs to show which player each was for, he was still at a loss. Each llama marked for someone who’d gone seemed less of a gift and more of a memorial.
Martyn’s liked to spit. A lot. That actually seemed kind of fitting.
The look Netty gave him when she suggested creating a security force to protect the llamas finally gave Jimmy the answer he needed. She wasn’t in denial. She knew, and she was scared. Scared for all the ones who hadn’t come with them.
There might be nothing they could do to protect Martyn and the others, but they could at least protect their llamas. And maybe, just maybe, the Ones Who Listen would hear what they didn’t dare ask or say.
We miss them.
Keep them safe.
Shhh.