Fanfic: Settle In, I'm here to Stay - Chapter One

Apr 02, 2013 00:51

Title: Settle In, I'm here to Stay
Author: ilcocoabean
Fandom: Achievement Hunter RPF
Character(s)/ Pairing(s): Dan/Ray, Michael/Gavin, implied Dan/Gavin, implied Ray/Gavin, past Ray/Michael, Joel, Jack, Geoff, Ryan, Caleb
Genre(s): AU, Angst, General, Slash, Romance
Rating: PG-13 I guess, mostly just swearing and violence.
Word Count: 2,431/?
Summary: Achievement City's been pretty quiet since Ray's arrival, so of course, they're due for another visitor.
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use.
Warnings: Character deaths (sort of?), adult language (Michael's got a dirty mouth guys), and violence.
Note: Minecraft AU! So this is a thing I've had written for a while. I was too nervous to post but now I've decided to say fuck it, and post it because, I mean yolo right?

Also, I've used buttskun's lovely art for clothing/design reference.

AO3: One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine |

LJ: One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine |


Chapter One

Achievement City was home and it was all Ray had ever known. Well, that wasn't entirely true, even he had to admit that to himself. He remembered, vaguely, living elsewhere but it was like a half remembered story from a childhood friend. For all he knew someone asked him if he came from somewhere and he merely assumed he had. It wasn't as if anyone was asking him now though. Knowing where someone came from guaranteed nothing and distracted from the important question: what can you do?

Any newcomers to the city were often treated with open apprehension until they could prove their worth. Gavin was handy with lava and explosives, Michael could take down any enemy with his trusty sword, Mogard, and Ray was just awesome at everything, if he said so himself. Everyone at Achievement City had a particular thing they were good at, making them useful to the entire city. If they could offer nothing then they were sent away.

“What use are they if they can't help us?” Geoff said, after they ran out each useless stranger, as if he were trying to excuse their ruthless behavior.

It didn't matter much; they all agreed it was fair. Even Jack, normally the most accepting of strangers, would pick up a sword to drive out anyone who couldn't prove themselves. It was how they survived for this long.

. . .

“I'm putting torches around this ditch lads,” Gavin said. “It's a long drop. Don't want anyone dying now do we?”

Rolling his eyes, Ray continued to mine the coal he found. Trust Gavin to bring up ancient history. It'd been a year since anyone had died and really Ray's death had turned out fine in the end. He'd only been in Achievement City for about two weeks when it happened so he could also blame the fact that he didn't know the area too well.

.

Having completed all of Geoff's ridiculous courses that were set specifically to test Ray's skills the day before, his final test was to go into the woods to collect more resources by himself. Specifically he was to gather gold and diamond. The former was needed in order to power their new project, a rail to expand their territory, and the latter was for himself, necessary to build armor for their excursion to the Nether.

It would be their first trip there together and was supposed to act as his final test. However Ray's trip into the nearby caves had resulted in his death and respawn back in the temporary dirt house, where he was found, delirious and without memories of the past two weeks he'd been there. Although his weapons and supplies were brought back, his experience orbs were accidentally taken by Michael (who apologized after the whole ordeal was over), thus completely ruining any chance of recovering said memories. While it had only taken him a couple days to heal from his wounds, it took a full two weeks before he could trust the others again.

Respawns were always like this and it was the reason why Geoff had issues with newcomers. If they died and respawned, the work that went into healing someone had to be worth it, otherwise it was a waste of supplies. Of course that's what Geoff said. Gavin, during Ray's second week of recovery, told him that the last person they allowed into their group had respawned and looted their homes while they attempted to get back to him.

“But you wouldn't do that, would you Ray?” Gavin asked.

Ray, caught off guard by the question, immediately shook his head.

“Good!” Gavin got up and headed to his door. Kicking the wooden door open, he shuffled outside for a bit, bending down to pick up a frame which he carried back inside. “I brought you a get-well present. It's one of the paintings from my art gallery. Just don't tell Michael I gave it to you, otherwise he'll whine about not getting one.”

“Where do I put it?” Ray asked.

“Well it'd look great just here.” Gavin gestured to the wall above the chest. “Seems like a good spot dunnit?”

“But,” Ray began. “I don't technically live here, do I?”

“Don't be silly.” Gavin scoffed. “Of course you do. Why would we have built it otherwise? Now get better, Michael wants to apologize but he won't because he's a nob so he's probably going to let you swing Mogard for a bit. But only when you're better.”

It was mostly a one-sided conversation after that-Gavin talking about the first time he'd gone into the Nether with Geoff and Jack, about the first time he'd met Michael, about his outfit which he designed from a creeper he killed once-but Ray would be lying if he said he hadn't enjoy it. Gavin was funny and nice and although Ray had barely known him for a week (discounting the previous memories he lost when he died) he could already tell he liked being around him.

He liked being in Achievement City, where Jack would worry and build houses to de-stress (small structures that would later be safe houses to others if they couldn't find their way back to the city before nightfall); where Ryan sometimes showed up to help the city grow (usually this involved scavenging for resources in the Nether or bring new information from other villages); where Caleb sometimes came from another village, bringing along plans of training courses he'd learned (they were complex mazes or games); where Joel would occasionally wander in after a few weeks (steering clear of Gavin, because according to Michael Gavin had a tendency to set things on fire whenever Joel was around just to mess with him).

“It's not much,” Geoff said, when Ray emerged from the dirt house after those two weeks. He grinned knowingly at Ray's reaction to his towering house. “But it's home.”

.

Had the respawn not occurred it was possible he wouldn't have become friends with Gavin or Michael for that matter. Just a little after Ray decided to stay, Gavin appeared at his dirt house to announce he was going to have company for his next trip to the caves (“But quarry sounds so much better!” Gavin insisted much to Michael's annoyance).

“What for?” Ray asked.

“Geoff's decided we can't let you go off on your own when you're doing dig downs. It's not that we don't trust you, we do!” Gavin added quickly. “We're just don't want a repeat of last time.”

And so, Ray was accompanied by Michael and Gavin. The three falling into an easy friendship that was soldered when Ray fought off two skeleton archers and two armored zombies while Michael rescued Gavin from a dark pit he'd fallen into. In turn this event also proved his worth to Geoff.

Today was hopefully not going to be a repeat of that eventful day. They hadn't seen much trouble during the last couple weeks so Ray thought it was safe to assume they'd go home, loaded with supplies, and the others would have a beer while he had some water or milk if Michael had any cookies at his house. It would be a quiet evening, they'd watch the sunset before calling it a night.

When a man stumbled around a corner of their tunnel, causing Michael to pull out Mogard and both Ray and Gavin to pause in the middle of mining, Ray realized, that really, he brought this on them.

The dude was wrecked. He sported bruises and bleeding scabs all along the visible parts of his body and his hair looked a little singed. His clothing was torn in a number of places and his sword cracked, probably from overuse in keeping away the armored zombies and archers following him. And not far behind them, barely discernible in the dark cave, were two creepers.

There was a moment's silence in which they assessed the situation before Michael yelled in what Ray thought was a reasonable tone of panic, “shit, run!”

Gavin led the way, Ray just behind him with Michel bringing up the rear after taking a few swings at the zombies closest to them.

“I can take them out with a few enchanted arrows.” Gavin called out, running in and out of rocks standing in their way.

“And destroy the cave?” Michael said incredulously, groaning when his elbow hit a rock jutting out of the wall. “Geoff would kill us!”

“Yeah but-”

“Just keep running!”

They emerged out of the tunnel and made a sharp turn onto a ledge where Gavin stopped just off to the side, probably thinking that the monsters would keep on running forward, and fall off. Realizing the plan too late Ray, misjudged the width of the edge. He backpedaled trying to curb his momentum only to stumble over his cloak.

He could see the steep fall below, a river of lava lying dormant at the bottom. Ray was already closing his eyes, bracing himself for impact, when a hand latched on, pulling him back onto the ledge, against the wall beside Gavin, who in turned latched onto him frantically calling out his name. Ray chanced a glance next to him and was surprised to see it wasn't Michael's doing but the stranger who was standing just next to him. The guy had to be running on adrenaline because although Ray didn't weigh much he was still carrying a lot of stuff in his bag.

“Ray?” Michael was just beside the stranger, breathing heavily.

“I'm good.” He nodded.

However before Michael could question him any further, groans behind him interrupted their rest. Apparently their enemies hadn't all fallen to their death, and some had begun to edge toward them from the opposite end of the ledge. Ray was really regretting their decision to sneak past them instead of taking care of them earlier.

Ray muttered, “well fuck.”

“What?” Gavin peered over his shoulder, “What happened? What did I miss?”

“Nothing you dumb shit-WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU'LL FUCKING FALL, YOU IDIOT!”

Gavin was leaning over the edge, ignoring Michael's continuous screams to “stop fucking around.” Ray almost giggled and he was pretty sure it was the hysteria of almost falling to his death because normally in the face of such danger he kept his cool. Things weren't looking so great for them.

“Look, it's the ladder we left!” Gavin made his way down, pickaxe dangling precariously from his bag.

“The spiders can still follow us though.” Michael pointed out.

“But the others can't, so come on!” Ray scrambled after Gavin, trusting Michael to follow.

Ray jumped down onto the ledge below, grunting a little from the fall but he continued to follow Gavin who was already far ahead, scouting the tunnels and lighting up the tunnel even further with his torches. Ray hesitated, waiting to see a glimpse of Michael on the ledge before he took off, listening to Gavin's directions when the tunnels started taking sharp turns.

“I'm starting to sense a pattern,” Micheal shouted above the sounds of zombies.

“Oh?” Ray winced as an arrow grazed his side and landed on the wall ahead of him just before he made another left at Gavin's instruction.

“We don't know how to light up caves!” Michael cursed wildly and Ray vaguely heard the sound of armor clashing against diamond.

Gavin wasn't too far ahead but his torches were starting to lessen with each turn. “We're almost there lads!”

Making one final right turn Ray finally saw sunlight up ahead.

“Thank fucking Christ.” Michael's said, relieved as one of the safe houses emerged into view just a few feet outside the cave.

Gavin was already inside and held the door open as the others rushed in, tripping over each other in their haste to get inside. The slamming of the door was loud but it wasn't enough to drown out the sudden hissing of zombies and skeletons burning in the daylight. Ray slumped against a bed, looked up in surprise, when finally the stranger spoke.

“Gavin?” He asked.

Ray turned to Gavin. “You know this guy?”

Gavin frowned, looking the man up and down before shaking his head. “No.”

“Gavin, it's me, Dan.” The man took a step forward and in an instant Michael was there, stepping between them. “We built an entire village together!” He continued, trying to get closer, one hand outstretched toward Gavin. “Slow-Mo-ville, don't you remember?”

Gavin shuffled back uneasily and Michael pointed Mogard just under the stranger's neck. “If he doesn't remember, then he doesn't remember.”

“That's because he respawned and ran away before I could-”

“Shut up.” Michael snapped. “Just shut up.” He pushed the man back into the wall, sword pointing down to a spot where the man sunk into, eying Gavin frantically. Michael turned and muttered to Ray. “Call Geoff. Ask him if we should bring him in.”

Ray nodded and looked over at Gavin who stood across from the man, axe in his hand and his bag of iron slung over his narrow shoulders, looking a little lost. “Gavin, want to help me?”

“What?” Gavin started. “Oh. Yeah, yeah.”

Waiting until the monsters had all burned, they then made their way around the back of the house. Ray switched his glasses out, opting for his regular square lenses. He couldn't wait until they got home so he could get out of his gear. He pulled his small headset from his pocket and attached it to his ear. Gavin fumbled with his bag, searching through its pockets for his own.

Flipping the switch on, Ray spoke into the microphone. “Geoff, come in, you there?”

He waited a couple minutes, repeating the call a few more times, before Geoff finally answered. “Yeah, what is it?” He sounded annoyed and there was a stifled yawn on his end. “Did Gavin try to push Michael into lava again?”

“No.” Ray rubbed the back of neck. “We found someone. Says he knows Gavin but Gavin-”

“He said I had respawned Geoff!” Gavin shouted into his earpiece and Ray winced. “Which makes no sense because... well because!”

“Good argument.” Ray commented.

“Shut up Ray,” Gavin grumbled. “Look point is... it doesn't make any sense. He says we built a village together and if I had respawned back in that village, I'd have waited there. I mean when I respawned in Achievement City and I waited so obviously I'd react the same way.”

“Not necessarily.” Geoff sighed. “All right. Bring him here. Make sure you blind him, don't want him knowing how to get here.”

pairing: dan/ray, misc: works in progress, genre: rps, wordcount: 2000 - 2500, !fanfiction, pairing: ray/gavin, genre: angst, misc: multi-chaptered, genre: romance, series: where we rule the world, genre: slash, genre: general, pairing: dan/gavin, pairing: ray/michael, genre: au, rating: pg-13, pairing: michael/gavin, fandom: roosterteeth/achievement hunter

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