WC: 1649
Warnings: Repeated death, somewhat graphic violence

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The last thing Ranboo remembered was falling.

It wasn't like falling from a cliff or tall structure. There was no jarring impact from hitting the ground. In fact, there was no ground--It felt like he was plummeting to a bottom that didn't exist, a loop, over and over again, with no clear end.

It was suffocating, too. Ranboo couldn't quite describe the feeling, but it felt like something was pressing down on his chest and preventing him from breathing. The feeling wasn't very painful, though, just a dull ache at most. He could ignore it easily.

Then, he tried to suck in a breath, but all that came out was a strained gasp. His lungs tightened, fighting for some air that wasn't there before he blacked out from lack of it. The pain on his chest constricted, turning the dull pain into short, sharp punches, making it harder to ignore.

He might have been screaming. He couldn't hear anything besides the rush of wind as he fell faster and faster. He vaguely noticed his hands slashing through the air, attempting to grasp onto a surface or ledge, anything, to break his fall, to stop this horrible, infinite, suffocating plunge, anything at all...

But nothing was there to save him.

Nobody was there to help.

Then, all of a sudden, he found himself submerged in water.

He opened his eyes slowly, unsure if his vision was blurry because of his being underwater or because he was groggy and disoriented. Probably a mix of both. The sun was only a few meters above him--it shone brightly in his face, making him squint and turn away.

Ranboo floated lazily through the water, still trying to orient himself. He couldn't quite feel the water yet, for some reason. Maybe it was his fall? He hadn't remembered falling into this water. He must have hit the surface quite hard; maybe that's why he'd temporarily lost feeling in his body.

Then, without warning, the feeling in his body returned, and the water felt painful as hell.

Ranboo didn't understand why it hurt so much. It felt like scalding hot water was being splashed onto his body. No, not being splashed onto him. It felt like he was submerged in boiling water. There was no way ocean water could be this hot.

Worse, through his blurry, underwater vision, Ranboo could see actual steam coming off of his body, like he was melting in the water.

In a fit of panic and desperation, he kicked upwards towards the bright sunlight above him, but something seemed to be pulling him down slowly, fighting against his upward movements.

Ranboo tried to swim up again, but whatever force was pulling him down was stronger. He risked a look down at what was making him sink and noticed a faint orange glow coming from the seafloor--a magma cube, forming a bubble column designed to pull you down.

But being deeper in the ocean was the last place Ranboo wanted to be right now. He wanted to get out of the water, away from this horrible, burning, melting sensation he was feeling.

He had a sneaking suspicion it was the water causing all this--but why he was reacting so badly to it, he didn't know.

Ranboo kicked, thrashed, and fought his way up to the surface, but the magma cube at the bottom wanted him to sink to where it was. He tried to swim out of the bubble column, but he couldn't break free.

The pains were getting worse and worse every second he spent underwater--he felt like his whole body was dissolving--and he desperately wanted to be somewhere, anywhere that wasn't this water.

First the endless falling, and now endless sinking...would it ever end?

And then, it did.

Ranboo drowned

But all he did was find himself sinking in the water, the pain returning in full force.

Ranboo drowned

And again.

Ranboo drowned

And again...

It was funny how pain worked. After a while, Ranboo didn't feel it anymore. All he felt was...numb. That was probably a bad sign, but he had stopped caring. He let the bubble column pull him deeper and deeper, over and over again, realizing there was no way out of this horrible death loop.

Ranboo slowly sank to the bottom of the water again. He knew the drill--once he hit the magma cube, the hot coals hit his body and added to the pain he already felt from the water. Eventually, it was enough to, well, kill him.

At which point he'd just end back at the top of the bubble column again.

Only, this time, as he hit the magma cube, he felt someone grab ahold of his arm and yank him out of the bubble column and into some kind of room.

In his dazed state, it didn't occur to Ranboo to wonder why there was a room by the magma block--or, probably more pressing, why he hadn't noticed it before. He blinked confusedly--the warm, bright light shining on his face was a stark contrast to the muted sunlight streaming in from above the ocean earlier.

After another moment, he realized that this room was free of water. The ceiling was pointed, and clusters of leaves were hanging from it. Lanterns hung from chains kept the space well-lit. A nether portal, wider than it was tall, was at the side of the room farthest from Ranboo.

He wasn't alone in the room, either. It took another few seconds for his eyesight to fully clear up, but he could make out a head of bright orange hair.

"...Hello?" The voice was female, with a British accent. The woman who spoke was peering down at him with a concerned expression. Ranboo noticed with a jolt that her skin was a sickly greenish-blue color--not something you saw every day. She wore a flower crown consisting mainly of cornflowers, and her clothing was worn and ripped at the ends.

"Are you okay?" she asked Ranboo. "We noticed your death messages pop in chat repeatedly, but we didn't know where you were until I thought to check spawn...your name's Ranboo?"

"Uh, yeah." Ranboo's tail curled around him defensively. He felt an awkward interrogation coming, and he didn't want to explain how the cause of his repeated death was actually the water around him, which definitely wasn't normal.

"I'm Cleo." She offered him a hand and helped him up. Ranboo noticed she was perfectly dry--she must have come in through the nether portal, whereas he was still dripping wet. Ranboo tried to squeeze some of the water out of his right suit sleeve, but it was a losing battle. For the first time, he noticed how tattered his suit looked--it was as bad as Cleo's clothing.

"I don't mean to be rude," Cleo interjected, bringing Ranboo's attention back to her. "But, erm--I don't remember you being on this server's whitelist. I mean, this server isn't open to everyone. Only a few select people."

Ranboo looked around the room, then back at Cleo. He would have remembered having a servermate like her, as unique as her appearance was. She was watching him carefully, so he made sure to phrase his answer carefully.

"...I don't think this is my home server or whatever," he said after a moment's consideration. "And before you ask," he added, as Cleo was about to open her mouth, "I don't know how I've gotten here, either. Maybe it--it was a glitch? I promise I didn't hack into the server or anything. I don't have the smarts to do that."

A small smile worked its way up Cleo's face, and her expression of suspicion faded into what Ranboo could only describe as pity. He shifted to one side, not sure if he preferred this expression over the former.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "Repeated death is never good for anyone--especially if it's a slow one like drowning. You must have gone through the cycle, what, a dozen times before I got here."

Ranboo was about to respond truthfully, but then he saw the look of pity increase on Cleo's face. Out of instinct, he gave her a small smile and lied through his teeth.

"I'm fine."

Thankfully, Cleo didn't press the issue. Whether that was because she suspected that Ranboo was lying or maybe because they had more pressing matters to deal with--like how he'd gotten into her server initially--he didn't know. Either way, Cleo pulled a communicator out of her short's back pocket and started typing out a message.

"I'm messaging Xisuma, the admin of this server," she said to Ranboo when she noticed him watching her curiously. "He might be able to work his admin-y shit and find out if there's been a server glitch or something. Frankly, I don't know how he does it."

Ranboo let out a small laugh, but he was still shaken over the death loop he'd just experienced. He didn't dare show it in front of Cleo, though.

"Alright," Cleo murmured after a few minutes had gone by. "He says to meet us at the Shopping District, he's there already." She turned to Ranboo. "You might meet a couple of my other servermates there as well--we call them Hermits. Are you okay with them possibly asking what happened--with the death loop and all--or would you rather not?"

Ranboo considered lying and saying he was okay with it, but, truthfully, he really didn't want to recount it to anyone, including Cleo. He shook his head no.

"Okay. I'll let them know in the chat so they get a heads-up."

She turned to enter the nether portal, motioning for Ranboo to follow her. "The Shopping District's portal is right next to this one--it's on an island by spawn. There's no way out of this room unless you go into the nether portal."

Ranboo let out a sigh of relief as discreetly as he could--he didn't want to go up into the ocean's waters again. Cleo didn't seem to notice--or maybe she pretended not to.

"Let's go, then?" she asked, looking over her shoulder at Ranboo.

He nodded, and they stepped through the portal. 

-

It's finally out! This first chapter has been put off a LOT, I apologize for the wait

This chapter was actually split into two because I was nearing 3k words in the doc ^^; That does means that chapter 2 will probably be out somewhat soon, so be on the lookout for that!

As for updates, I can't guarantee a schedule as I'm working on some other projects along with this. I'll try and get a couple of updates out each month, though

Thanks for reading! <3