vr pxfk iru wkdw sodq.


"Just listen to the other discs." Jesse told Reuben, "I'll check out the bookshelf."

The boy nodded and got to work, walking over to the next disc while Jesse stepped back, surveying the rest of the room. He ended up looking at the wall with the doors.

On each side of the double doors was a banner, with two members of the Order of the Stone on each one (save for Ivor). Magnus and Ellegaard were in one banner, with Soren and Gabriel in the other. Above the dark oak doors was a clock reading 'May 21, Δ50 - 5:10 AM.'

Nothing interesting here.

Jesse turned away and walked closer to the bookshelf. A depressing tune, from one of the discs, most likely, began to play behind him as he examined the titles. The Psychology of Mobs, How a Monster Thinks, What are Creepers made of? Jesse frowned, scanning all the other titles. 'All of these books are on mobs.' Besides that, there wasn't anything else.

With nothing else to do, Jesse looked behind him to see what Reuben was doing. There was now a third empty frame, 'Disc 2 - Track 19' written where the disc would have been placed. Frowning, Jesse walked over. "It's not a voice recording this time." Reuben said, pointing out the obvious. "The title makes it look like it's from a soundtrack, but what soundtrack?"

Jesse said nothing, instead looking down at one of the double chests. After checking and confirming that it wasn't a trapped chest, he opened it. Inside the chest were a bunch of books. They were old and worn. Judging by the titles, they were all guides. Guides on redstone, mining, construction...

'And why are these so old?'

He picked up one of the books, surprised to see that it wasn't dusty despite its age, and turned to the publication page for a year, only to find…

Γ14.

Jesse blinked.

'You can't be serious.'

It was serious.

Checking the other books had, in fact, confirmed that most (if not all) of the books were published in the years Γ14 to Γ16. His eyes narrowed in suspicion and confusion. He took out his notebook and quickly added the books to his notes. With that done, he pocketed the book and closed the chest shut.

The track ended as Jesse stepped away from the chest. He waited for Reuben to return it and get the next disc (which had a red inner circle) before checking the next chest. The next track, a simple, soothing tune on piano, began to play as he searched through it. Blank papers, brushes, and paints…? 'What are these doing here?' He checked all the brushes and cans for anything- a name or a marking, but found nothing.

'I should take note of this.' Jesse thought as he took out his notebook. The tune on the jukebox began to pick up pace as he took it out, quickly noting his findings. The paint materials done, he looked up at the discs. The previous disc, Disc 2 - Track 19, had an orange inner circle. 'So pink for the poison incident, green for Aiden, and orange for Track 19.' After writing all of that down, he looked at the next frame, which had C6H4Cl2 written on it.

Odd.

The next frame had a disc with a white and purple striped inner circle. Tucking his journal and quill under his arm, Jesse stepped forward and carefully took it off the frame to see what was written.

'Mellohi.'

He tilted his head, curious, then turned to the jukebox, only realizing now that the previous track was still playing, and at this point, the pace was twice as fast as it was the last time he heard it. "It's not done yet?" He asked Reuben. The boy shrugged.

"Apparently." He looked over at the disk in Jesse's hand, then at the empty frame. "What's 'Mellohi?'"

Jesse held the disc up. "Only one way to find out."

Reuben blinked, then looked down at the jukebox. Catching on, he shrugged and ejected the disc, stopping the song short. As Reuben stepped back, Jesse inserted the disc into the slot. Immediately after that, a jazz tune began to play. It was slow and sinister, yet calm and somewhat melancholy at the same time. Jesse and Reuben exchanged confused glances.

"Creepy…" Reuben mouthed. Jesse shrugged as he took out his journal, adding the other discs to his notes.

The song lasted only for a minute before it stopped. Reuben ejected it, and it popped out. The boy then stared at the two discs in his hand, confused. "What could this mean?" He asked Jesse, looking up at him. Jesse frowned.

"I know just as much as you do, Reuben. Although," He tapped the edge of the notebook, "Those two recordings… do you think..?"

He trailed off, biting his lip as he narrowed his eyes at the discs. If Red was in both of them, could that mean...?

"Do I think.. what?"

Jesse shook his head. "Nevermind. I was wrong, forget I said anything. Uh.." He glanced around the room quickly, searching for something to change the topic. His eyes landed on the frames. Specifically, the red disc. "Should we keep the discs, or leave them here?"

"Uhm…" Reuben bit his lip. "Keep them, I guess?"

"Alright then."

The boy kept his notebook, took the remaining disc from the frame and the other two in Reuben's hands, and kept them in his inventory. "Where to now?"

"Upstairs." Jesse walked on to the doors and pushed them open, "Come on."

After checking, Jesse and Reuben had found that the hall on Gill's side of the wall lead to the outside, while the hall on Maya's side led to a staircase going up. Naturally, they went down the Maya hall. (But not after opening the door in the Gill hall briefly, then closing it immediately after when Reuben thought he heard a zombie.)

Anyway, the second floor.

Right next to the entrance of the staircase was another small nook, just like the one at the library. Except there was more space this time, and it had a tall window right next to the couch. Across the couch was a small coffee table. To Jesse's right was a small space that led to another room, the door on the same wall of the entrance to the stairs. Walking forward and turning right would reveal a door to something labelled the 'Reading Room,' and going past that would reveal a hall leading to four other rooms- with two doors on each side. At the end of the wall was a single bookcase, a potted plant, and small window. The floor and walls were made of wooden planks.

"Which room do we go through first?" Reuben asked.

Jesse wordlessly went to the Reading Room.


If everyone in the group were to be in the Reading Room, it might have been cramped with only a small enough space for one person to walk through the whole room. The room was lit with redstone lamps hanging from the ceiling. There was nothing directly across the door, but leaning in, you would see a single desk and two chairs on opposite sides. On each side of the desk and chairs were paintings.

Curious, Jesse walked in the room to examine the paintings, Reuben following in and closing the door behind him. He walked off, presumably to look at the rest of the room.

The first painting depicted Petra falling down what seemed to be a dark pit, the vines surrounding her illuminated by the torch in her hand. She was wearing armor that, in Jesse's opinion, almost looked like something someone in the Order of the Stone would wear.

…Then again.

This painting also had a plaque below it, just like the one in the office. "Just My Luck" was the title, with the name 'apati3' written below it. 'A different painter, then?' He searched the painting for a signature.

"AN" was what he found. 'Must be.' He looked at the spot of the signature, then back down at the plaque. 'Kind of a weird name,' He thought as he straightened up. He stepped away from the painting and glanced back at Reuben, who was reading one of the books from the shelf, before looking at the other painting and walking over to it.

It was a picture of Olivia, who was holding her head and hair in distress. Her hands and forearms were purple, the color fading into simple splotches and spots as it went further down her arm. The plaque below had, written in the same style as the previous two plaques, the title "Withered" and the name 'Sketch' printed on it.

Jesse frowned, remembering the signatures of the first two paintings, then looked back up at the painting. His eyes narrowed as he studied it, and he stepped closer.

Just like the last two, there was, indeed, a signature. It was "DF" this time. 'But that doesn't match the name 'Sketch,' does it…?'

On that thought, Jesse took out his notebook and jotted everything down; a list of the titles of the paintings, their corresponding signatures, and the names in the plaques. He closed it and kept both it and quill, turning around to investigate the rest of the room. "What did you find, Reuben?"

"Huh?" The boy turned to him, a book in his hands. (Was it the same one?) Reuben glanced down at the book, then the shelves, then Jesse. "Oh. Nothing interesting... besides the fact that there's really no specific category for the books." Jesse raised a brow. "I mean, look…" He stepped back and gestured to the section he was standing in front of as the older boy stepped closer. "This book I have is horror, right? Look- this one is Sci-fi, this one's a cookbook, this one's mythology… None of it is sorted." Reuben finished.

"Odd." Jesse muttered. His eyes scanned the shelf, stopping when he decided to just take a random book. So he did, taking out a plain, brown book among plenty of others just like it.

"What's that one?" Reuben asked, standing on his tip-toes to see what Jesse was reading.

Jesse's eyes narrowed. "Another journal.. It's kind of old, though."

"How old?"

Without saying anything, Jesse showed Reuben the top of the page he was currently on, which read "October 28, Γ99"

"Oh." Reuben squinted as he looked down the page, "The handwriting isn't very good."

"Well, it's not as bad as yours, so I think I should be able to read it."

"Hey."

"Sorry. I'm gonna try to read it now."

Reuben stepped down and back, going back to reading the book he had in his hand. "You do that."

The boy wasn't wrong- the handwriting was atrocious. The person who wrote this must have either been in a rush, spawned only recently, or just had horrible writing in general. The fact that their grammar and spelling was at least decent alleviated the whole thing, somewhat.

"'It's almost Halloween! And you know what that means? LET'S TALK ABOUT MYTHS!'" The first line read. (Clearly, the person who wrote this was a mature adult.

Clearly.)

"'So- Herobrine. 'The Man with the White Eyes', he's also known as. No one knows how he came around to becoming who he is. Some say that he's a demon, and that he's always been like that. Others say that he's a personification of people's fears, and that he's just a hallucination that manifests when people are under the influence of 'things.' Then there are those who just don't believe in him in general and think he's just a spawn's tale for Halloween. But the thing is, this guy's been around ever since Alpha! Maybe even before that!'"

Jesse frowned, then scanned the rest of the entry. The rest of it was just the writer babbling about theories on who Herobrine was and 'witness accounts' on the guy.

In other words, nothing really interesting or important. (Although, it was odd that he just so happened to land on the page about the entity that he happened to meet just last night. No way was that a coincidence, right?)

The boy returned the book to the shelf just as Reuben closed the book shut. Jesse blinked, then looked down at him. He opened his mouth to ask what happened, but then Reuben said, "Wine scares me."

"...Okay."

Jesse twisted to look around. Aside from the unsorted bookshelves, there wasn't anything else but the window to the left, and on the wall beside 'Just My Luck' hung a lone clock, and that was it.

"I think this is all there is here." He said as he looked out the window. Beyond the darkness, he could see the faint outline of tree- wait, where's that light coming from?! He leaned forward to look, to see that the lights from the other mansion's rooms were seeping in through the windows. He blinked. 'Oh.'

"So do we leave?" Reuben asked.

"Yeah. Let's go."


The next room they investigated was the room right next to the Reading Room.

Apparently, according to Reuben, each room was supposed to have a light switch next to the door. After finding it and flipping it, Jesse managed to get a good look at the room- a bedroom. And it was a rather large bedroom for one person. Under a painting at the corner was a bed, a crafting table sitting beside it and a burnt out torch hanging above it. On one side of the room was a desk-bookcase with a mirror above it, and on the other side was another book shelf. Directly beside the door was a jukebox and a clock.

"Are all the rooms like this?" He wondered aloud. He glanced behind him when he heard footsteps, to see Reuben open the door to check the room directly opposite.

"Yeah, pretty much." He said.

Jesse glanced around the room before he went to get a closer look at the painting. "What are you doing?" He heard Reuben ask from the other room.

"Looking at the paintings!"

He finally got to the corner of the room and leaned in as much as he could to examine it. It was a picture of a girl who looked somewhat similar to Thief.. from what he could tell, at least; the picture only had the girl form her back. Her hair was longer, too, and- hold up, did she have six arms? The black edges of the picture almost made it hard to see, but yes, the girl did have six arms.

Which was weird.

"Hybrid" was written in the plaque beneath the painting, with the name 'Ariza Luca' under it. And speaking of…

The signature in this painting, which took Jesse a while to find thanks to the dark lighting, was "AT."

Jesse's eyes narrowed.

Definitely not a match, this time.

"Hey, Reuben?" He called, taking his notebook and quill out.

"Yeah?"

The boy stepped away from the painting, walking to the door as he wrote in his notebook. "There's a painting in that other room, right?" He left the bedroom and went to the one, where Reuben was.

"Yeah."

The room was more or less the same as the last one, burnt out torch, useless window, and the odd mirror- it was all there. Even the painting above the bed. Reuben was looking at said painting as Jesse walked in, glancing behind him for a moment before looking back. "What about the paintings?"

"They've gotta mean something, right?"

The painting in this bedroom was a group photo of six girls standing in a circle, a sort of spotlight on each of them, save for the lone redhead at the back. The painting was titled "The First Guests"; The name below read 'Gommie.'

It didn't take as long as the others to find the signature in this painting, but when he did, Jesse's confusion and suspicion only increased.

"HE" it read.

"But they're just paintings." Reuben said from behind him.

"If they're really 'just paintings,'" Jesse countered as he stepped back and wrote what he just found in his notebook, "then explain the paintings of Olivia and Petra in the Reading Room."

Reuben frowned, then conceded. "Okay, fair po- oh, where are you going?"

The older of the two had run out the room. "To see the other paintings!"

With an exasperated sigh, Reuben followed after him, being careful to turn off the lights and close the door behind him on his way out.


The other two paintings also had someone in the group in them. Somewhat.

The first one was another one of Petra, except she was… very different, one could say. One of the first things you'd notice if you looked at it was the fact that she was in very red, very different armor (both Jesse and Reuben had recoiled in discomfort upon seeing it). Her eyes glowed white in an eerily familiar way, and her mouth was shaped in a maniacal grin. "Among the White Eyes" was the title; the name, 'PurpleGirl.'

The second was of Lucy (sort of) and a girl in blue with a band in her dark hair. Lucy herself was in attire different from her portrait in the other mansion (Jesse was gonna name those things- he's tired of the word). She wasn't in a vest anymore- in fact, she was wearing Lukas's clothes. Leather jacket, striped shirt.. she also lacked a stetson. This one was titled "A Gender Incident." The name below it was 'Ghoti.'

The one other common thing between those two paintings? The names in the plaques didn't match the signatures, either. The signatures were "RP" and "AR" respectively.

Oh, but there was more. Reuben mentioned that there were similar paintings in the other mansion. In the one he and Petra stayed in, there was a painting of some figures cloaked in different colors running through the forest. The title, Reuben remembered as "Elements"; 'RapidSammi' was the name written in the plaque (something that took Reuben a little while to remember). Then there was the other painting in Axel's room; it was a picture of Axel, Olivia, Lukas, Petra, a boy who looked a little like Eli, and some other people sitting in front of some glowing, white thing. The painting was titled "Movie Mode," and the name was 'Toni.'

"And that's all you know?"

Reuben shrugged. "I didn't notice any weird signatures."

Jesse hummed. "Yeah, you might not notice them unless you were specifically looking for them…"

"So what now?"

Jesse kept his notebook and quill and left the Lucy room. "Now, we go look at those other paintings!"


A/N: I hate how short these chapters are smh. Anyway, it's my first weekend of the school year. yay. /s

I have to get to work on fixing the next chapter and continuing to write the one after that. AND THEN I still have that.. uh.. that other story.. to continue planning... and making...

... GOOD THING I HAVE A LONG WEEKEND HAHAHAHA

...I was gonna say something about the referenced fics, but I'm not sure what I should even say...

...where to find them? I guess? So "A World Unwound" (from the last chapter) can be found in Wattpad. "Hybrid," "Movie Mode," "Withered," "Elements," and "A Gender Incident" can be found here (although I think you already knew that xD), "Just My Luck" can be found in deviantART, and "Among the White Eyes" can be found on YouTube. Their respective owner's names are written on the plaques, just as Jesse read them. :3 There'll be three more (i think) in the next one, but that's about it.

Review Replies!

BeliTheGhoti0304 - [:3]

NoItsBecky - [Well, you're the first person to specifically bring up the multiverse (I think), so... not sure what the answer to your question is. Sorry. :/ What's got you confused about the multiverse stuff, though?]

Hey! Question- since majority of the characters in MCSM don't have surnames, do you know any good one for Otto? ...Huh? Why am I asking? ...Reasons.

I just need a good surname that wouldn't sound silly in a professional setting please :'D Jenkins (/tries to keep from laughing), Reyes, and Gonzalez have already been suggested to me, so don't suggest those, please. xD

Have a great day! :D