It is 9:00 at night and I am sitting at my computer, jamming out to Undertale: The Musical on YT and typing away. What am I even doing with my life?
Nothing good, that's what.
Oh yeah, and these two are here.
You say that as if you're not the one who chose to have us do the note with you.
It's not my fault people like you!
Technically, it is. If you really wanted people to dislike us, you could write us as bitches.
Ellie, I write you as a bitch. They like you anyway.
...
...
...
Petra is trying really hard not to laugh right now. She's failing.
I'm sorry, but that's fucking hilarious!
Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let's just start. Everything belongs to Telltale Game except Ellie.
"Alright, first off, why does it burn so much?" Jesse sputtered, brushing her dripping black hair out of her eyes. "Second, what the hell was that? You could've gotten me killed just then!" It was obvious to Petra that she was pissed. Of course, the Jesse version of pissed was different from the typical version of pissed.
"First, it burns because you landed on the water and not in it." Petra scoffed. "Second: How? You can swim. At least, I would imagine you can." Petra didn't have much faith in Jesse, but she hoped the girl could at least swim. She was seventeen, for Notch's sake! Besides, Jesse didn't seem to be having any problem staying afloat at the moment.
"Well, what if I hit the water too hard and died?" Jesse pointed out. Too bad her point wasn't valid.
"I…don't think that's possible. Water breaks your fall, no matter what height you fall from or how hard you fall." Petra reminded her.
"Oh, yeah, you're right." Jesse remembered. "Well, what if the river was frozen?"
If Petra hadn't needed all four of her limbs to tread water, she would've facepalmed. "It's July." She deadpanned. "It felt like a hundred fucking degrees earlier-there's no way in hell that it would go from being that to it being cold enough for the river to freeze in less than a day. You weren't going to die. I'm sorry we scared you, but those mobs would've fucking killed us all if we hadn't jumped."
"Can you at least give me some warning next time?" Jesse asked.
"No, we can't."
Jesse had nothing to say to that. "Alright, you two, stop it." Ellie said, looking a little annoyed with their conversation. "We should get moving, anyway. Jesse, try to land in the water and not on top of it next time."
After some swimming, the three girls came to land. The worst part of swimming is always getting out and being all wet, and it didn't help that they were in their regular clothes. They wrung out their dripping wet hair and headed in the direction of Endercon. "Hey, guys?" Jesse asked.
"Yeah?" Petra replied.
"So, this is all hypothetical, but-"
"No, it's not." Ellie interrupted. "I don't know what you're about to ask, but it's not hypothetical. It never is."
"Oh my fucking Notch." Jesse muttered. "Okay, it's not hypothetical. Aiden sabotaged our build during the competition, and I was wondering if I should turn him in. Maybe he and the Ocelots will be disqualified."
Petra thought for a moment before she answered, "Well, in a perfect world, that would get the Ocelots disqualified. But this isn't a perfect world, and a lot of people like the Ocelots." It was sad, but true. "So no, they won't be disqualified. With no proof backing either of you up, people will default to believing Aiden, and you'd just wind up looking like a sore loser. Let's face it: Chances are, someone saw Aiden sabotaging your build but they didn't give a shit. People like the Ocelots, and they don't like you and your friends. I'm sorry, but it's true."
"Yeah, you're probably right." Jesse sighed. "And don't worry. I'm not that stupid-I know who likes and doesn't like me."
The rest of their walk was pretty much silent. By the time the three of them made to to Endercon, they were dry, and night had completely set in. "Hey, could you guys let me know if you see Reuben anywhere? I told him to run when we were attacked. It was for his own good, but now I don't know where he is."
"Of course." Ellie said, and Petra nodded.
Axel and Olivia were waiting by the entrance to Endercon. "Jesse." Axel said, not acknowledging Petra or Ellie's existence.
"And…Petra? And Ellie?" Olivia looked confused.
"Hey, you two both know Petra and Ellie…" Jesse paused as she tried to figure out what to say. "...my new super-close friends. We're all super-close now."
Petra and Ellie simultaneously facepalmed. "No, we aren't. Petra and I just saved her sorry ass in the forest."
"Yeah…" Jesse shrugged. "We ran into each other while I was looking for Reuben."
"Couldn't find him either, huh?" Axel said. Petra raised an eyebrow. Had Jesse had both of them looking for Reuben with her?
"I'm sorry, Jesse. We looked everywhere!" Olivia apologized.
"I found him, but then we got attacked by mobs and I told him to run for his own safety." Jesse sighed. "He'll show up soon, I'm sure."
"I gotta admit, I'm pretty bummed that they won…again." Axel said, gesturing to the beacon.
"Come on, guys, no need to be so damn upset. We'll get them next year!" Jesse encouraged her friends.
"I don't know, Jesse." Olivia responded.
"The spirit is willing, but the flesh is sad." It seemed to Petra like Axel was referencing something, but what did she know about references and whether or not someone was making one?
"Hey, if at first you don't succeed, then, uh, succeed later than originally planned." It was a wonder to Petra that anyone was willing to even look at her.
"That's not the saying." Ellie deadpanned.
Petra sighed. "Yeah, I know. No need to highlight my moments of stupidity. Anyways, Jesse, Ellie, I think we should go see about that thing." The thing. Petra mentally facepalmed at herself and her spectacular failure at being subtle.
"Oh, right. The 'thing'." Well, at least she wasn't as obvious as Jesse. Ellie drew a finger across her throat. Petra made a mental note to stop Ellie from murdering Jesse later.
"Subtle." Olivia said, the sarcasm blatantly obvious.
"Yeah?" Jesse didn't pick up on it, though.
"As a punch to the face. Axel and I were going to head into Endercon anyway. See you in there?"
"I heard someone saying there's free cake by the map booth." Axel said before leaving with Olivia.
"Cake? I want cake. Can we get cake after this?" Jesse asked once they were gone.
Petra rolled her eyes, putting her hands on her hips. "Once this deal is made, you're free to do whatever the hell you want."
"Are we going or not? That skull isn't trading itself." Ellie said impatiently.
"Patience, Ellie. It's a virtue. But yeah, we should go. We're supposed to meet over there, in the alley." Petra gestured to said alley.
"Dark. Dark. Verrrrry dark in here." Jesse said once they were in the alley.
"Huh. That's weird." I muttered.
"What? Am I supposed to like the dark?"
"No, not that. We were told to meet in the dark, creepy alley close to the gates, but he's not here. Think maybe he's late?"
"That's possible." Ellie said at the exact time that Jesse asked, "Are you sure this is the dark, creepy alley he meant?"
"Well, we were. It's possible that we heard him wrong." Petra said, more to herself than to Jesse. "Then again, we've been doing this for years and neither of us have ever gotten a meet up spot wrong before. Of course, there's a first time for everything…okay. New plan. You and Ellie stay here in case this is the spot he meant. I'll look around for darker, creepier allies."
"Wait! You can't just leave me here!" Jesse exclaimed before Petra could leave.
"First off, you survived in the forest, so I would hope that you can survive in a dark alley. Second, Ellie's going to be here too. She can save your ass if necessary. It'll be fine." Petra assured her.
"Okay. But something about this feels off to me."
"Let me tell you something, Jesse: A lot of our deals feel off." Ellie broke in. "They always go perfectly fine. What makes this one any different?"
"Fine." Jesse grumbled.
"I'll be back before you two know it." Petra walked off, only realizing when it was too late that she still had the skull. Whatever.
Once Petra was out of the alley, she let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She wasn't claustrophobic, but she supposed it was impossible to experience what she had in her life without having at least a dislike of small, dark spaces. Well, Ellie wasn't afraid of them, but she was Ellie. Stuff like that didn't apply to her. It never had.
A bit of searching later, Petra had found absolutely no allies that were dark or creepy enough to be the one Ivor had talked about. When she went back to the alley, Ivor was there. Of course. "Ivor!"
"Ah, here she is. I assume you have the skull."
"Yeah, sorry about that. Should've left it with them. In any case, I've got it."
"If you have what you promised us." Ellie and Petra exchanged glances. Petra was having serious regrets-maybe this hadn't been such a good idea.
"Neither of you said anything about her," Ivor gestured to Jesse, "when we first met. And I don't like surprises. Between this and the fact that one of you is only seventeen..." He glanced at Petra, who tried not to show how pissed she was, "Well, if these are the sorts of people you associate with, perhaps we should just call the whole thing off."
A long stream of swear words ran through Petra's mind. Ellie fired back, "Yeah? And where are you going to find another dealer here at Endercon who's willing to get you a wither skull by the end of the night? Nowhere, that's where. Also, just for the record, Petra might only be seventeen, but she's the best fighter I've ever seen."
"I suppose you're right." Ivor scowled. "I'm sure I've seen better fighters, though."
"That's not the point." Petra said. "Besides, my friend's fine. Right, Jesse? There's no problem here." Petra glared at her, as if to say, You had better fucking be cool.
"Maybe we should rethink this whole thing. This guy gives me a really bad feeling." Jesse whispered.
Clenching her teeth, Petra hissed, "You think he gives you a bad feeling? If you ruin this for me and Ellie, we'll give you a bad feeling that makes the bad feeling Ivor gives you seem like the feeling you probably get on your birthday."
Jesse flinched. Turning to Ivor, she said, "Yeah, I'm cool."
"Proceed, then."
Petra took out the skull and handed it to Ivor. He examined it carefully from all angles, as if he was worried it might be fake. "I'll take that diamond now." Petra said.
"Take it. You've earned it." Ivor gestured to a chest near them. Jesse, Ellie and Petra looked at each other, shrugged, and opened the chest.
"Um, this isn't a diamond!" Jesse exclaimed.
"No shit! It's lapis!" Petra swore. They turned to where Ivor had been just a moment ago, and naturally, the motherfucker wasn't there anymore.
"Why the hell did you two trust that guy?"
"It doesn't matter now." Ellie answered. "We need to go after him."
The three girls ran off. "We are either getting that diamond, or we're getting the fucking skull back!" Petra said angrily.
"Or, you're going to make him pay, right? Right?" Petra had to wonder sometimes what it was that was wrong with Jesse.
Neither she nor Ellie responded. Once we left the alley and found ourselves back at Endercon, there was an unfortunate lack of Ivor. "We lost him!" Jesse stated the obvious yet again.
"Well, then we'll just have to find him again. Let's split up." Petra instructed. And they did. The searching all blended together, but there was a distinct lack of Ivor. Somehow, they all wound up as a group again with Olivia and Axel.
"You see him anywhere?" Petra asked, hurrying up to the group.
Jesse shook her head, saying, "No. I thought I saw him earlier, but it was just a false ala-wait! Holy crap, there he is!" The group turned to where Jesse was pointing and saw Ivor heading into the convention hall, where Gabriel would be doing his presentation later. Petra rolled her eyes. How very fucking convenient. "Looks like he's heading towards the Hall."
"We're going to have to get past that usher to follow him." Petra didn't know why she felt the need to say that, considering it was obvious, but she said it anyway.
"Let's go." They all headed up to the usher. "So, yeah, hey." Jesse made small talk.
Petra's attitude, on the other hand, was more of the 'Fuck it' variety. "What would it take to get us inside tonight?" The usher looked like the sort of guy who would let them all in for a date with one of them.
Unfortunately, looks can be deceiving. "Uh…tickets." He started laughing hysterically. "That was a good one." Petra rolled her eyes. No, it hadn't been. "You should laugh." Nope.
"Look, this is really important." Jesse said.
"Yeah, and so's my job." The usher responded, right before a chicken flew in front of him. "Chickeeeeeen! Chicken! Chicken! Chicken!" It flew away. "It's gone. You're totally fine. You're a totally cool dude."
They went back to their own little group. "We have to do something." Petra said in a low voice.
"Like what? The show has been sold out for ages." Olivia pointed out.
"I could bust right through." Axel suggested. "I just need a little wind-up room." Petra couldn't tell if he was serious or not. She seriously hoped he wasn't.
Ellie shook her head, putting an end to that idea, if it had ever really been an idea. "We'd get banned from Endercon for fucking life."
"We need a distraction." Jesse said, seeming to think aloud.
"A lot of chickens running around might be a distraction." Petra suggested. They looked over at the usher, who was currently in an 'argument' with a chicken. "Shoo! Shoo! Get out of here!" Out of all the things to be afraid of, this guy was scared of chickens. Fucking chickens. Petra didn't know whether to laugh or send him to a mental hospital.
"The usher is afraid of chickens." Jesse whispered. That seemed pretty obvious to Petra, but she decided not to say anything. They had bigger things to worry about. "What would you say if I told you I want to break this guy's chicken machine," She gestured to the convenient chicken machine next to them, "to create the mother of all distractions?"
"I'd say you're a fucking genius." Ellie responded.
"But you'd have to break that pane of glass to reach it. How are you going to do that?" Olivia asked.
"Let's figure it out." Jesse answered.
Okay, um, the final word count is 2566. Also, this chapter was finished on 12/4/16.
I think she's paying more attention to her music than she is to the computer.
I'm sorry! It's really good music! Shoutout to Man on the Internet!
You barely have any readers; what's the point in doing a shoutout?
I didn't ask you!
You wrote that line yourself, so you clearly must have wanted to hear it at least a little!
I didn't ask you either!
Ugh, whatever. Anyway...
We now give you...
From the author herself...
Review replies!
Rebekahtpe: I've received an RQLC! I feel loved now...=)
Crackin' like an egg? What does that even mean?
I'd like to see in the dark. Then I could read late at night without anyone EVER knowing! Mwahaha...
Ariza Luca: Glad to see you like my stuff so much =)
I'll see you guys in the next chapter! Bye!