Chapter Text
Gem had a headache. That was the first thing that she noticed as she slowly returned to consciousness. Her head was pounding as though it’d been struck with a hammer. Not a very fun way to wake up.
She also felt… strangely cold, and far more alert than usual.
The latter was probably what allowed her to shake off the last traces of respawn wooziness so quickly. The darkness receded from the edges of her vision, giving a much clearer view of her surroundings. What she saw, though, was quite perplexing.
This… definitely wasn’t her house. She was absolutely certain of that much.
The main thing that tipped her off to this was that she was not, in fact, in a house.
Gem frowned, the expression feeling oddly strained and uncomfortable on her right side. It tugged at her skin in a way that was a bit annoying, though that was the least of her concerns right now.
Right. She’d respawned somewhere weird, so she should probably try to figure out why.
The first thing she took into consideration was her cause of death.
That darn vampire. Coming into her village, messing with her villager friends, and then killing her to boot? Not very nice of him at all. Sure, he was the “villian” but there was no rule saying villains have to be mean to people!
Well, actually, that is kind of the whole point of being a villain.
Still, though. Gem didn’t have to like it. She would even go so far as to say she was pretty annoyed at him! He had murdered her and everything.
Ah, well. It wasn’t too big of a deal. She still had nine other lives, and being a villager had been getting a bit boring. No offense to the rest of her village, of course! She just… sort of wanted to try something new. That was exciting!
It’d probably be a whole lot more exciting if she had respawned in her own home, and was able to just get into playing around with her new abilities right away. As it stood, though, she really needed to focus. It seemed there was still some trace of those villager scatter-brain tendencies left in her, with how she was getting distracted right now.
Gem looked around. She was definitely underground, leaned against the wall of a narrow stone tunnel. Not only was this not her house or spawn, the two most logical places for her to have awoken after an untimely death, but it wasn’t anywhere she recognized at all. That was certainly a bit of a pickle.
Humming to herself in contemplation, she figured the best thing to do right now would be to check out her new origin. She knew that despite his villain persona, Scott would still probably put all her things in a chest for her. She didn’t need to worry too much about rushing back, so the best move would be to play it safe. It would be really unfortunate if she died again on the way home.
Nodding to herself at the logical conclusion, she pulled her comm from her inventory to check the information about her latest origin. It sure was a good thing communicators were tied to a player, and didn’t drop like normal items. If Gem had been stranded with no way to access her comm and learn about her new abilities and weaknesses, she would’ve been in real trouble.
Catching a glimpse of her reflection in the black screen of the inactive device, Gem let out a small gasp. Well, this certainly explained why part of her face had felt less flexible. It was made of metal!
Leaning closer, Gem noticed her right eye was actually the lens of a small camera. Woah, that was so cool! What was she?
Her concern and confusion gave way to excitement as she activated the communicator, pulling up the screen with her origin’s information.
Half-robot, huh?
Wow! That was so much cooler than being a villager! (No offense, villager Gem.)
Oh, she could shoot lasers! That would definitely be helpful if a certain vampire came around to cause trouble again. She’d sure enjoy giving him a little taste of his own medicine.
Gem shook her head with a light sigh. Hopefully the man’s next origin would be a bit nicer. Like the moth had been. She’d liked mothling Scott.
Not that any of that really mattered at the moment. Right now she needed to find her way home. Who knows what sorts of things could happen to the village while she wasn’t there to protect it? They had lots of iron defenders, but would that be enough?
Gem was quickly distracted from her worries by the sound of footsteps against the rough stone floor.
The steps were heavy, and the faint scuffing noise told her whoever was approaching was dragging their feet a bit. She wondered how she’d noticed all that. Probably robot senses, or something.
Gem turned her head toward the source of the noise. Her attention was momentarily pulled away to quietly marvel at the faint whirring sound her neck made when it swiveled. She turned her head back and forth a couple times, testing out the strange feeling of the perfectly-measured movements. Being a half-robot was just so new and exciting!
Gem’s playing around with scientific testing of her new robot body was interrupted by a startled scream to her left. Oh right, the footsteps! Something had been approaching her! Turning to investigate the source, what she saw was quite shocking.
A villager! What was a villager doing in an underground tunnel? Had they gotten lost? Her eyebrows knit together, though the robotic one just sort of moved inwards and tilted at a slight angle.
The longer she looked at the villager, the more concerned Gem felt. Her robotic eye didn’t miss any small details, and the ones she saw painted a bad picture. Clearly, their village hadn’t had adequate protections.
They had short, curly blonde hair, but it was dirty and definitely needed a wash. Their clothes had several small tears and stains, including some that her robotic senses deducted were almost definitely from blood. Had mobs gotten to them?
There were also a few scars on their arms and face, which made Gem’s frown deepen. The villager looked pretty young, definitely too young to be fighting mobs. The fear and suspicion on their face only confirmed in Gem’s mind that something was wrong here.
In the most calming tone she could muster (thankfully her voice wasn’t mechanical and robotic) Gem spoke. “Hello little villager! What are you doing underground? Are you lost?”
The villager spluttered, pulling out a sword. Oh, that’s not very good. Why would a villager need to carry a weapon? Clearly, something was wrong here.
“What- What am I doing here? What the fuck are you doing here!? You’re in Pogt- Er… You’re in my totally normal random mines! That belong to me!” They scowled. “And I ain’t no fuckin’ ‘villiager’ whatever the hell that means. I am a Big Man.”
He was mining? Villagers don’t mine! They do safer tasks like farming. Building, fishing, taking up crafts like carpentry or forging. But dangerous stuff like mining and fighting? That should be left up to adventurers like Gem. People who had multiple lives to spare. Humans lived in their villages for a reason.
Sure, there were the rare adventurer-villagers, (what Gem’s previous life had been) but even they had extra abilities that normal villagers didn’t. They were stronger, better able to wield weapons. They could summon iron defenders at will to protect themselves and their fellow humans.
This villager seemed angry for whatever reason, though she also noted based on his heart rate and posture that he was also anxious. That wasn’t what Gem wanted at all! Even if she wasn’t really one of them anymore, she was still the hero of the village. Gem still felt it was her duty to protect villagers.
So what if he wasn’t part of her village? If a human so young was mining alone, and had visibly faced some form of combat before, then he needed someone responsible to step up and offer protection.
She just needed to be polite. Show that she wasn’t here to cause any trouble. Yeah, that was it! A bit of gentleness to let him know she didn’t mean any harm. Her shiny new robot self probably looked a bit intimidating, especially to a villager.
“Um- I’m sorry, bud! I didn’t mean to end up down here, really. I don’t know what happened. This is just where I happened to respawn. Sorry again for intruding!”
He scowled. The suspicion in his face only increased. Darn, she really thought that might help. Maybe communicating with villagers just wasn’t a robot’s strong suit.
“You respawned down ‘ere, ay? Not at spawn?” The villager asked, skepticism clear in his tone.
“I was confused too, when I woke up. I think it might have something to do with whatever weird magic Scott used when he killed me?”
Gem hoped that offering up the theory that had been bubbling away in her mind might help convince him of her honesty. She wouldn’t be able to rescue this human if he didn’t accept help in the first place, and there was no way she’d just leave behind a villager in need.
The villager’s face softened slightly. Progress! “Someone killed you then?”
“Yeah… He was messing with one of my friends, and when I tried to make him stop…” She shrugged. “Ah, well. What can you do?”
There was confusion lining the human’s face now, and Gem wasn’t quite sure why. Speaking of things she wasn’t sure of…
“Oh! I can’t believe I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name’s Gem, what’s yours?” She offered her name up first, an attempt to make the villager feel more comfortable to share his.
He was quiet for a long moment, seemingly trying to analyze every plane of Gem’s face to read her intention. Apparently satisfied with whatever he found, he finally spoke. “...Tommy. Tommyinnit.”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Tommy! Do you need help with mining?”
Please say yes. Gem thought. She really didn’t want to let a young villager like Tommy mine on his own. What if he accidentally found a cave, or worse, a spawner? He could get hurt! Killed, even! Gem would never forgive herself if she just let an innocent villager die like that.
He shifted uncomfortably. “I’m not sure that’s such a great idea…”
“Why not?” Gem tilted her head to one side.
“I-”
A second voice from somewhere up the tunnel interrupted him, bouncing around the cold stone walls in an impressive echo. “Tommy, what the fuck is taking you so long?”
Tommy tensed, grimacing slightly. “Great, now we gotta deal with that fuckin’ bitch. Acting all weird and dumb and shit. This is gonna be a nightmare.”
Well if Gem wasn’t already concerned, she definitely would be now. Whoever the owner of that other voice, they sounded hostile. There was notable anxiety in Tommy’s posture now (even if he honestly seemed more annoyed than anything else.) She heard the sound of someone quickly approaching, and the human’s discomfort only grew with every echoing footstep.
“Is everything alright?
He shook his head. “You should- Fuck. You need to hide. Wilbur’s- My brother is coming, and he won’t like it if he sees you down here.”
“But I only want to help?” Gem’s brows furrowed as she glanced in the direction Wilbur was approaching from.
“Yeah, it’s not like he’d fuckin’ listen.” Tommy muttered bitterly. “He’s being all paranoid an’ shit. If he sees you down here, he’s gonna get super annoying and pissy about it.”
Apparently they’d spent too long just standing around talking, because any chance of hiding Gem away was firmly eliminated as the second person stepped into view. Another villager, this one taller and probably full-grown. Wilbur was in a similar state of disarray to his younger brother, with tattered clothing and several visible scars. While much darker, his hair had the same texture as Tommy’s. She could see the family resemblance.
He also seemed angry, which wasn’t ideal.
Villagers could be quite petty and stubborn if you got on their bad sides, and it made them much harder to negotiate with. Robot Gem lacked that particular knack for interacting with humans that her previous life had possessed. That would definitely make this even harder.
“Tommy, who the fuck is this?”
“Why do you assume I’d know!?” The smaller human retorted defensively.
“Well you were literally down here talking to them, that would imply a certain level of familiarity, Tommy.” Wilbur spat the name with venom, earning a fiery glare from his little brother.
Oh boy. This was not good, not at all. These villagers were clearly in significant distress, if they were arguing amongst themselves like this. While there’d be minor spats from time to time, villages were always close knit and rarely saw genuine internal conflict. If they were so hostile towards each other, something must be horribly wrong.
Clearly, things were even worse than Gem had initially believed.
No matter. She could handle this. She hadn’t been named “Hero of the Village” for nothing, after all! (Ignore the fact that the title was villager Gem’s, not hers.) She’d figure out what was wrong, and then fix it.
That was what she’d done at the old village, and it worked wonders. What was once a cluster of shoddily built houses that were half-falling apart with a tiny overtaxed crop field had transformed into a flourishing civilization under her guidance. While she may not be a villager anymore, Gem still felt a sense of duty towards these humans she had stumbled across.
It was simple, really. They needed help, so Gem would provide it.
With partially-feigned confidence, she placed herself between the two squabbling humans and used a bit of her mechanical strength to force them apart. The distraction seemed to startle them both for a moment, long enough for her to start speaking.
“Now listen. I’m not too sure where I am or how I got here, but you two are clearly in need of assistance. So-”
Wilbur cut her off almost immediately, tone laced with anger “And what’s that supposed to mean, exactly?”
She sighed. “I’m not trying to be mean, but honestly. Look at yourselves. You’ve clearly been through a lot of stress, if you’re fighting with your own family like this! You need help, and I’m going to provide it. Whatever is wrong, let me fix it.”
“How exactly are we supposed to trust you, hmm? Seems awfully convenient that you just- just show up out of the blue, while we are being hunted like vermin by that traitorous fuck who deigns to call himself ‘emperor.’” The brunet snarled, getting uncomfortably close to Gem’s face.
She blinked at him, mind whirring to process the new details. So these villagers were being hunted? That was horrible! Why would someone ever do such a thing? Villagers, almost without exception, are harmless and peaceful people. They shouldn’t be put into situations like this! To harm villagers was nothing short of needless cruelty. It could not stand.
Gem let the worry show plainly in her expression, hoping the robotic stiffness didn’t detract from its sincerity too much. “I understand why you would be suspicious of me, really. I do. If someone’s-” She grimaced just saying the word “-hunting you, it’s very smart that you’re being careful with strangers. But I would never harm a villager. And I can deal with whoever it is that put you in this situation to begin with. Look! I can shoot lasers!”
She turned her head to the side and fired a burning red beam from her robotic eyes. It made impact with the tunnel walls, melting a tiny patch of stone on contact. Mutely watching the sizzling steam drift upwards, Wilbur and Tommy both seemed equally at a loss for words.
“Holy shit-” Tommy’s voice was quiet and incredibly high in pitch. “That was so fucking cool!”
Recovering from his shock, the taller human crossed his arms with a huff. “Fine. Seeing the direness of the situation, I suppose I can permit you to lend us your aid. But you’re on thin fucking ice, got that?”
Ignoring the implied threat, Gem gave him a sunny smile. “I won’t let you down!”