Chapter Text
Most who call their home server as Strength SMP are not intimate with their emotions or feelings, but the exception to this theory are the lower skilled players. Many of the viewers of Strength speculate why this theory still flutters around their minds.
JudeLow —Jude for short— was the one of the newest additions to Strength SMP at the start of season four, but even he was no stranger to this theory, and he is just as intrigued by the theory as he is terrified of it. Jude personally has seen how closed off the top pvpers are, but he’s also seen some of them experience stronger and intense emotions than the rest of the players. It was a double-edged sword with how life on Strength affected those who lived on it.
The average viewer of Strength SMP would say tears are rare, but they are wrong as tears are just as common as betrayals. Although, if the betrayal included one of the top pvpers of the server it would not elicit tears from the pvper, but the other party involved. None of the top pvpers would be caught dead crying, at least to what everyone thinks.
Sometimes a betrayal hits the wrong way, and a buried past is brought into light causing an impromptu therapy session or the person leaves Strength for a while to do something else such as train or mingle around with something unrelated to Strength SMP and/or pvp in general. Personally, Jude hasn’t seen a betrayal go south that far before, but after he had teamed with Sharpness —a top pvper notoriously known for betraying his teammates in the past on and off Strength— Jude can’t say he hasn’t seen a pvper not tear up before.
JudeLow is a trapper and renowned for his skills as one. He’s more focused on building his traps instead of training pvp full time; it doesn’t mean he never does pvp, but he keeps it to the bare essentials for it. He was invited to the Strength SMP because of this niche skill at the time to bring chaos and a new threat to a mainly pvp focused server.
Jude spent his time before being invited trapping on a free for all server called Hoplite for practice and fun. Being a trapper meant he would do a lot of prep work and only needed to be able to act weak or project that aura around himself; this constant need to use emotions to simulate himself being weak naturally proceeded him into understanding how to read and project emotions the way he wanted to.
When he did join Strength, he was almost awestruck with how most of the top players didn’t use their emotions to their advantage and instead chose to bottle, neglect, or turn to violence. Some of the top players who he thought would be on a similar emotional understanding to him weren’t and instead were also using unhealthy ways of handling their emotions.
Along with Jude there was another trapper joined Strength the same time Jude joined, that player was named ParkerGameBrain, Parker as most call him, and he was just as emotionally knowledgeable as Jude because the main style of “fighting” they do is trapping and baiting people into said traps. They both were a bit stunned at the state of the top players, but not at all shocked to an insane degree.
Sharpness is a sword master before and after joining Strength SMP in its very first season. He has most of his emotions projected outward, but it’s either a false emotion or for a ploy. The sword master shares the bare minimum of details with people as he has never been one to trust.
Sharpness is a perfect example of someone who bottles up emotions without shutting down; that bottle of emotions does overflow and spill out, but no one’s been close enough to see it happen or even understand why he does it. Frequent viewers of Sharpness can’t tell you if Sharpness has expressed anything but happiness, annoyed, bored, amazement, anger, and guiltiness—to a minor degree— on stream before. Even the die-hard fans that try and learn everything they can about this man can’t tell you if he’s teared up before or even felt sorrow.
It had only been a few days since Sharpness and Jude’s team up had come to the spontaneous end as it started. Both parties have been going about their lives as if they haven’t teamed and had meaningful moments together as it hurts to think that they were close at one point.
Before they teamed up, Jude had died mainly to Sharpness vice versa for Sharpness, so many knew and came to be entertained by their constant bickering, yelling, and deaths from each other. The viewers would have made bets that Tai’s arrow cannon would work before Sharpness and Jude would ever team up; no one would have expected it to ever occur. Yet, this duo became more truth than joke after Sharpness’ team practically fell apart as Evourai—Evo for short—left Strength to focus on a story driven server and Spongs being an absolute idiot, according to Sharpness at least.
They had been a peculiar, but compatible duo as their skills together encapsulated everything that a perfect player would have been if it were possible.
Neither party had interacted with each other in those few days. Many speculated why this was happening but had no solid reason to explain it besides that they both had bitter feelings over the betrayal Sharpness had attempted.
Sharpness had been on Strength less often than normal as he had been focusing on training. He often streamed those hours training specifically the fights against other players. Viewers couldn’t see many differences after the fallout of the duo, but the main difference was that Sharpness was being less chatty as normal.
People know Sharpness for having a mouth that could run a mile before his actions catch up, so the sword master being less chatty was a red flag though not a large one since Sharpness often acted this way when he was sick or tired as well.
Jude had been acting as normal as normal was for him. Viewers couldn’t see any discrepancies in his behavior or turn of phrase. The difference in actions is due to how each party thinks as Jude was prepared for a betrayal and was testing if Sharpness would push that button to “trap” Jude, but Sharpness had no plan going into the team up besides being able to be spared from being killed again and saw that opportunity as a chance to kill Jude.
Habits and physical traits of Sharpness and JudeLow are also very distinct from each other. Sharpness is cold to the touch for reasons he hasn’t explained, and it remains something members of Strength cannot explain themselves. He is also transgender, but this detail carries little to no importance because it doesn’t matter as long as Sharpness could fight and bring some sort of competition to Strength.
JudeLow is warm which lines up as he is a rabbit hybrid. Their personalities and their physical traits do not line up as Sharpness is an extrovert and Jude is more of an introvert, but they value others. Some might say that Jude is insane and they have evidence to back it up, but nothing solid enough for anyone to believe it if they weren’t believing in the circumstantial evidence.
Loyalty from each party is different as Sharpness is loyal if someone can prove their worth to him, or if they’re useful for a long-term period. Jude is loyal, but he is also paranoid; paranoia is what fuels Jude to build backups for his backup traps. Due to this paranoia, he was willing to put himself in a vulnerable position above a trap in front of Sharpness. In all honesty, Jude would have been ashamed —as a trapper at least— if Sharpness didn’t take that opportunity as it would be Sharpness was either attached to Jude or he valued the team they had going on.
Either way that event would have happened Jude would have been satisfied because he planned for both events; was one outcome more desirable than the other, not for Jude he wanted to see which one Sharpness would follow through with.
What happened right after Sharpness died in the back up trap for the backup trap is something only Sharpness and Jude know about. Sharpness had respawned in Jude’s base as Sharpness by technicality is homeless, something he refuses to confess to, and typically lives off whatever he can carry at the moment, not the healthiest way to live. He hadn’t made an effort to run away because of the rule you can’t kill naked players at spawn and Jude’s base is directly at spawn. Judelow had made it back to the base to see Sharpness going through his enderchest, but still armorless which was funny to him as when was the last time the sword master truly ever let himself be defenseless.
Neither of them spoke up first, but Jude eventually did.
“You’re an idiot, you know that right?”
“You say this as if you didn’t expect everything I did to just happen way before it did”
Sharpness wasn’t mad at Jude, but it was absolutely demotivating to die to a backup for a backup as NO one is that fucking paranoid. He should have expected it after spending two months with Jude. Everything Jude put him through, but mainly testing traps on him despite being teamed.
“You’re silent, Sharpness.” That tone Jude had used just then was in concern.. Did Jude care?
Sharpness blinked slowly before realising he had been lost in his thoughts, “There’s a trap under me. You haven’t pulled it yet. Why?”
That question did nothing, but bring an onslaught of laughter from the rabbit hybrid to which lead to Sharpness grumbling because what else should have he expected from Jude fucking Low. Once Jude calmed himself down and collected his thoughts he answered.
“Because it’s a server rule to not kill naked players and I don’t see a scrap of armor on you, princess”
“I would have armor if you didn’t fucking kill me, bitch”
With a mocking tone Jude in a sing-songy manner responds, “Shouldn’t have tried to betray me~ and maybe then you’d still have your things.”
The swordmaster wanted to rip his hair out which was already in a messy state since he hadn’t fixed the hair bow that holds his hair in his typical bun for fights. He typically would just push this annoyance away, but he has nothing to his name right now since the room he spawned in is Jude’s base.
“Could you be any more annoying? You seem more of a bitch then before I died.” Sharpness’ tone of voice was less pointed and softer, losing a bit of fight that he normally had.
Jude wasn't clueless at the softer tone and only heard the swordmaster speak in that tone once before. That instance had been a one off time. Everyone assumed Sharpness was ignorant of emotions and didn’t understand them, but in the two months Jude had been teamed with the blond he had only found that there was sentiment and an emotional understanding people wouldn’t assume Sharpness had.
“Sharpness, are you okay?” Jude dropped the teasing tone from his voice the concern bled through.
Sharpness couldn’t bring himself to respond right away, but managed to get a few words.
“I’m predictable… You predicted that I would betray you… If I told you something would you believe it?” The swordmaster’s voice faded between phases, but the sentence was audible.
The trapper stood there confused not because of the vulnerability, but because the person being vulnerable was Sharpness who is the epitome of bottled up emotions.
“What could you do that would be unbelievable?” Jude chuckled near the end of the phase in an attempt to lighten the mood.
“You’re the first person in a while to ask if I’m okay.” That wasn’t expected, but it made sense given that Sharpness is a fighter on Strength and didn’t have a proper team anymore. Sharpness plopped back onto the bed behind him which was a hard mattress since Sharpness has something against soft mattresses.
“I never understood why you prefer hard mattresses they’re so ridge”
“I’ve been stuck on my back during fights too much for a soft mattress to feel comfortable.” Jude knew Sharpness was omitting the fact falling into Jude’s traps did hurt his back too since most traps were dripstone and that pierced into the back.
The next few moments were silence, Sharpness was laying on the exhausted mentally and physically from the respawn; Jude was standing a few steps away watching Sharpness. The room wasn’t filled with tension as one would expect from a recent betrayal of a teammate, but it was cold and neutral, a type of cold one would expect from a moody lover.
As the silence was getting familiar between the swordmaster and trapper something unexpected happened, Sharpness’s appearance changed as a concealment spell had dissipated revealing his wings that had an unholy shen of white.
“What the fuck? Since when did you have wings? Aren’t you just a human?” Jude’s rapid fire questions made Sharpness’ already tired state confused.
“Jude what the fuck are you on about? I’m..” Sharpness touched his back, “fuck my life, truly”
“What are you Sharpness.” The pointed tone of Jude’s words made Sharpness more alert mainly because those tones normally directed at him meant punishment and it wasn't a question, but a demand.