Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter from the story Hourglass!
Alright, so here's the scoop. I just got Flash Animate CC and I've been working on a new YouTube channel for animated fights, kinda like ScrewAttack does, except I'm going to be making it different. It'll be like Smash Bits and Death Battle had a baby the way I'm doing it, but the point is I'm getting into sprite animations. Just as a little sneak peak, I'll be releasing a snippet of the actual fight in a little bit once I figure out the formatting issues.
By the by, it's Doopliss vs King Boo. ;3
ANYWAY! I realized that I need to get moving on this series again, so I decided that I would listen to my old Pandora playlist from early 2013. And BOY, did I get some nostalgia flowing! I wrote over half of this just last night all the way until 2 in the morning, so...enjoy? XD
Now, let the story commence!
Chapter 26: Road Trip Tales
Norman had expected the inside to be bare metal, but he was pleasantly surprised. As the massive vehicle rumbled along on the tracks below, he shifted around on his wool block, which was a shade of gray. It was so big inside that similar blocks lined each wall up to the door, giving all eleven passengers plenty of breathing room.
"So," Auconi muttered, staring directly at Alexander. "you stole it from who now?"
Alexander grinned and leaned back in his seat, adjusting his arms so he could have one around the shoulders of his first girl and the other holding the waist of the second on his lap. Good Notch, he was disgusting. What was so attractive about greasy black hair and being way too tall?
"You want to tell them, Nikki?" he asked the tall, green-eyed female on his right.
Nikki pulled her fingerless black gloves tighter on her hands and then glanced up at Auconi. He felt a sudden drop in his stomach upon making eye contact.
"You should've been there. Al took us to check out this really deep, dark, scaaaary hole," she wiggled her spidery fingers at Alexander," It was in some faraway grasslands and it looked like someone used some explosives on it 'cos of how fucked up it was."
Bailey and Norman felt their ears prick involuntarily.
"Anyway, we went down into the hole and got attacked by, like, a hundred Creepers! But Al mowed their grassy asses in a minute. His stick is a pretty good weapon, if you ask me—way better than any other man's sword, or..." she took notice of Shatter, which Norman clutched tightly in his lap. "…shovel? You've got a shovel, huh?"
Norman tightened his lips and nodded, tightening his grip in addition. Nikki moved her eyes very slightly to the left and lifted a long index finger.
"And what's that on the end?"
He didn't have to look to know she was talking about the Magnomatic. He considered it to be truly a part of Shatter by now, however. A few seconds of silence went by before Astrid spoke up from across Norman. She still looked pretty eager to know the rest of the story.
"Keep going!" she urged, waving a hand; she unintentionally placed a silverfish stone in place of Darcy's footrest, making him jump in his seat. "Whoops!"
Nikki breathed through her nose and leaned back against Alexander's forearm. It had probably fallen asleep by now considering the constant pressure being put on it.
"Well, after we got through that, there was this big vent coming out of the ceiling with this giant minecart underneath it on a long rail line. There was no one around, so we checked inside it just for shits and giggles."
The prick turned into a burn.
While Nikki stifled a quick yawn, the other girl, who was rather short and curvy, wearing a black belly shirt with a slashed neck, and sporting wide sea-blue eyes, turned onto her back over both her partners' laps and got comfortable again. Auconi continued to watch in repugnance as Al rested his free hand on her thigh. He regrettably also felt some envy.
"Heh. When he brought us in there and it was carpeted and had seats and everything and was really cozy, we just…you know, we got comfy. It was dark and soft, maybe a bit cold. But it was real nice by our interests." commented the unnamed girl, her voice tiny like a mouse.
Al's smug grin broadened at her input. He lifted his eyes back to the original inquirer and said,
"After maybe an hour or so, we brought it back near the city and started cruising around. And man, was that the greatest! …oh, and by the way, Far Off, or whatever," he removed his arm from behind Nikki and stretched his fingers into the last slot of his hotbar, pulling out an orange-gray cube and tossing it in Kenneth's direction. "Sorry for hotpocketing this from you, but I thought it'd be useful."
The geek just barely caught the mini block in his outstretched hands. He recognized the block in an instant and jerked his head back up to look at the thief.
"So that's how I lost one of my extra command blocks! That's my emergency stash!" he cried, gaining a look of pure shock.
Alexander's arm returned to its previous position and he just shrugged.
"Meh. What do I care? Or what did I care? Now you've got it again. Besides, you should be thanking me since I was able to use it to bring you all back this huge-ass minecart! How else would we be getting to New Pork City if I didn't show up just an hour ago?"
As Kenneth set his Blockpack on his lap, he looked up and all around at the vehicle he resided in. He absentmindedly slid the block in his hand into one of the pack's spaces and gave a real hard blink, opening his eyes up again widening gaze.
"Gosh…" he murmured, staring bug-eyed at the entire compartment. "The code for this is so intricate! I've almost never seen anything as complicated as this!"
Astrid glanced up at him and raised a brow, grinning slightly.
"Aaaalmost?"
Kenneth continued to scan the vehicle from right to left, not letting a single pixel go unseen.
"Well, as you can imagine, I've done a lot of modding myself, what with my command block powers, so I've seen a TON of impressive stuff before. My teachers said it was impossible to get that as a Block power, that it was something restricted by Notch himself, but I sure proved them wrong! I can see everything! The code of this minecart, the grass outside, the tracks beneath us, all of it!"
He smiled genuinely, snickering lightly.
"It can get a little annoying if I'm trying to focus on just one entity for a long period of time, but I've gotten used to it. But most of you guys are all from Earth as you've said, so your code is, well…it's not really anything. You guys have an ID, but that's it."
Kenneth lifted a finger and started counting off all said individuals.
"Kelsey, Norman, Astrid, Darcy," he jabbed his thumb at Alexander, who glared him as a natural response. "and you and the girls, Al!"
"Don't call me Al," he grumbled, eyes narrowing.
Auconi crossed his arms and glowered at the carpeted floor.
"Yeah, only his fangirls can do that…"
Thankfully, Alexander didn't hear his sarcastic response and went on with giving attention to the two girls hanging on him. Kenneth's slow survey of his surroundings carried on as did his mini explanation.
"So, that means just three of you were originally spawned in the Minecraft Dimension. Bailey, Auconi, and…"
Kenneth stopped suddenly when his eyes settled on Adrian. The southerner glanced quickly up at him, mildly startled.
"Er, what now?" he uttered, feeling a jolt echo in his stomach.
The nerd across from him was eyeing him with a very strange look. He had a mixture of confusion and curiosity in his eyes as they stayed fixed in one spot.
"Sorry, Adrian, I just…your code looks…I…"
The whites of the hacker's eyes grew slowly and he blinked nippily, several times, as if doing this would help him take in the sight before him. What he saw was not Adrian. No, not Adrian. It was something he feared he would never have to witness occur.
It was staring right back at him, its eyes just as wide as his.
"Hwat?" he stuttered suddenly, mentally shutting down his code vision and locking eyes awkwardly with Adrian.
Adrian immediately recognized the terrified look in Kenneth's eyes. He couldn't really see his code, could he? If he did, then…oh Notch.
"I didn't say nothin…" he replied gradually, glancing over at either of Kenneth's eyes in rapid succession.
Kenneth broke their shared stare and glanced down to look at Adrian's plaid shirt, the blue and grey blurring together as he felt his heart begin to race faster and faster.
"Never mind, I think I was just spacing out again," he said, silencing himself promptly. "Oh Gods, oh Gods, oh Gods, oh Gods! It knows I know!"
"Heheheheh…"
Kenneth jumped in his seat and his mouth fell open a little. His breathing ceased as well.
"Eheheheheheh! Ahahahahaha!"
Norman, who sat a person down from Kenneth, glanced over at him in slight alarm. The geek looked like he was about to burst into tears out of nowhere.
"Far Ou—Kenneth, are you okay over there, or…?" he muttered, catching Bailey's wandering eye for a moment.
Alexander let out a near-inaudible chuckle and merely spectated from the side, allowing his snarky grin to grow in size once again.
"What, you get carsick easily? Because if that's the case, I'm gonna kick you off if you ruin the carpet, the walls, or literally any part of my baby!"
The small girl lying on his legs crossed her arms and piped,
"I thought you said I was your baby!"
"But it's a different kind of baby, Jax! It's more like my child. You're still my baby," cooed Alexander, bending over a little to get a good look at the girl in his lap.
Auconi let out a growly sigh and swiveled around in his seat. He absentmindedly started sliding the flat side of his sword back and forth against his seat and thought,
"Urgh. He's getting all gross and cutesy and affectionate again. I like him more when he's a sarcastic jerk. I can relate to that a little, at least."
Norman too chose to keep Alexander out of his line of sight. He repeatedly found himself exchanging glances with Bailey, who seemed just as concerned if not more for Kenneth. Sure, he was a huge geek and it looked a little ugly when he cried, but still.
"This. Was. Sudden." Norman mouthed, a tiny bit of sound passing his lips on each word.
The Creeperwhisperer across from him nodded once and glanced at Kenneth, as did he. A few moments of spectating went by before he had a sudden thought and reached into the Blockpack on his side. It took virtually no time for him to find their magic timekeeper.
"Nine days, fourteen minutes, ten seconds…geez."
He stared intently at the falling specks of emerald that filled the tiny hourglass. The inside of the massive minecart had fallen mute all of a sudden and he took a moment to glance up at the murky night sky, letting out an inaudible breath through his nose. He had forgotten that all the stars were still wiped out.
Minutes passed. Several long, quiet sixty-second sets.
Kelsey squirmed in her seat. The rumbling of the minecart just wasn't enough to fill the silence. That and the fact that Kenneth looked so distraught because of Adrian for some reason, who also appeared to be in turmoil over something, was why she felt so uneasy.
"So!" she said without thinking, causing almost everybody to jerk their heads up. "I know everyone's tired, but how about we play an icebreaker? We can pass the time 'til we all end up falling asleep!"
Alexander snorted, pointing at her with the fingers obscured by Nikki's shoulder.
"Sure, but first let me write another entry in my My Little Pony dream journal."
Nikki joined him as the two of them laughed sardonically at Kelsey, who merely bowed her head in a complete hush. The noise startled Jax awake, as she had already fallen asleep on their laps, and she rolled over to face away from them all.
Surprisingly, Adrian was able to pull himself out of his own anxious thoughts and quickly spoke up, stopping the mockery in its tracks.
"Y'know, why the Nether not?" he declared, stamping his boot in the carpeting. "Let's do it like this: we'll say ar' name, where we're from, and…how 'bout a talent?"
Astrid grinned and leaned forward in her seat, her hand jetting out into the air a moment later.
"And we can say what our Block powers are! Each time you say it, you put one in the center and we can make one awesome totem pole!"
Kelsey's heart skipped a beat. Not again! She couldn't use her powers properly!
"I don't know about the whole demonstration thing," she said, smiling awkwardly. "I mean, since there are eleven of us."
Astrid waved her suggestion away and replied,
"Pshh! We'll make it work!" she stood up and bounced backwards, landing on top of her seat so she was the center of everybody's attention. "I'll go first! My name's Astrid, and I was Astrid Villson back on Earth. More specifically, Madison, Wisconsin. If I had to choose just one talent, it'd be my superior pranking skills! Kelsey here knows what I'm talkin' about!"
Astrid jumped down from her seat and flicked a hand at the center space of the vehicle, placing a deceivingly normal stone block.
"And I can use silverfish stones! Lucky for me, since trolling is my reason for existing in the first place."
She turned on her heel and jabbed both her pointer fingers at Kenneth, who now sat in dead, scared silence with his eyes glued to the floor.
"Ken doll!" she shouted, getting him to peek up in alert. "You go!"
Kenneth bit his lip, trying uncomfortably hard to not look at Adrian in the slightest in fear of making himself faint.
"I'm…Kenneth. I'm actually from Minecraftia—the Far Lands—I just like to walk around in my other skin because I saw somebody else with it and thought it was cool. Erm, I guess I'm super good at hacking and such." He was having quite a difficult time trying to string his sentences together properly. "And I can manipulate command blocks!"
He placed a command block in the center, right on top of Astrid's first block. Sensing he should start a pattern, he looked around at all but one of the passengers and decided on Bailey, making eye contact with her.
"Do you want t-to go, then?" he muttered clumsily, still tripping over words.
Bailey gave a genuine smile and gave an agreeing nod.
"Sure! I'm Bailey, also from Minecraftia. Though my home was destroyed when I was a teenager, I'm from the ex-city of Goldworks. This'll only be a surprise to half of you, but I don't have a Block power. My talent is taming Creepers! For so many years now I've had this one named Butterball, but…yeah, I lost him a couple days ago, so now I'm trying to forget it all."
"Well, that was just depressing!" Norman thought, frowning his teeth. "I remember when she first got Butterball. It's been so long…"
Kenneth stood up suddenly and reached into his Blockpack, his hand coming back out a moment later with a small green block in his hand. Norman couldn't tell what it was at first, but then he placed it on top of the command block and he almost gasped. There it was, a little Creeper head just sitting there in front of him.
"Figured it was appropriate." Kenneth said with a shrug, sitting back in his spot. "It's purely symbolic."
Bailey grimaced, feeling a little unnerved at the sight of a Creeper cranium staring her in the eyes, but gulped down the choky feelings and allowed herself to move on. She shot a look to her right at Auconi, who hardly acknowledged the glance he'd been given.
"Auconi?"
The young Diamondore scowled, refusing to look at her. Ice breakers weren't his favorite activity in the whole Overworld, in all honesty.
"Ugh, alright!" he cried, rolling his eyes once. "My name's Auconi, I come from a small village in a desert no one's heard of, and I don't like to brag about my talents—"
"I sure as blue do!" Darcy exclaimed next to him, right in his ear.
Auconi grabbed the dipstick's face in his hand and shoved it further from him.
"Hey, I'm not finished yet! Anyway, I can do this,"
He placed a block of diamond ore in the center and, right on cue as usual, everybody was astounded. Diamond gets all the love.
"Ooh!" said Nikki, grinning past the growing stack of blocks to stare right at Auconi. "You lucky wolf!"
Auconi couldn't stop himself from going red almost immediately. Thank Notch it was dark out, because it masked his blush extremely well. To avoid another awkward silence, Auconi quickly jabbed a thumb to his right.
"Alright, Darcy. Go ahead."
A satisfied expression inched its way onto Darcy's face and he too stood up from his seat. He spread his arms out wide and began his little speech.
"I'm Darcy! I come from the one True Blue state: Australia! O'course, my talent is being smooth with the chickies, if you catch my drift." he said with a wink, causing nearly everyone to inwardly groan. "And hey, don't be startled by this, but I'm gonna put a bit o' lava in the center here, cos' that's what I do!"
Before anybody could cry out in protest, he made a gesture at the space above Auconi's diamond ore, placing a single block of lava on top and illuminating the frightened faces of everyone in the cart.
"Whoawhoawhoa!" Alexander shouted, removing his hand from Jax's leg and getting ready to place his own block over the molten rock.
Darcy leapt forward and caught his attention, waving his own arms.
"Oi, fruit loop! I won't let it flow, I swear. It's all good!"
Alexander stared angrily at the lava in the center, just daring it to move out of its space.
"If you burn up the carpeting, I'll shove my stick in your eye. I stole it fair and square, you know! I'm not about to let it get wrecked!"
"Alright, alright! Break it up, ladies!" Astrid yelled, only half joking this time as she started to look legitimately annoyed.
Darcy just shook his head and snickered at Al's paranoia, walking backwards into his spot. When he was again seated, he crossed one leg over the other waved a hand to the tower, still staring right at his accuser.
"Why don't you go then?" he offered.
Alexander sighed, taking a second to glare over at Kelsey for coming up with the whole idea before clearing his throat. When he was good and ready, he said,
"My name's Alexander, I'm from nowhere important, and my best talent is slaying monsters and players alike with this beauty!" he lifted his arm out from behind Nikki for a moment to take out his stick, proceeding to show it off in the warm orange glow spread through the minecart.
Auconi wanted to say something about him being completely useless in his absence, but he recalled that he'd said that hours ago already.
"And unfortunately, all I've got for a Block power is this,"
He lazily flicked his fingertip in the general direction of the tower, spawning a block of freshly-tilled farmland atop the five others. He refused to give Darcy a chance to speak again, so he squeezed Jax's thigh and said,
"Jax, you want to get this over with?"
Jax's face was buried in his shirt, so whatever she mumbled the next moment went mostly unheard by everybody. She did turn around after a few seconds, however, and started speaking to the whole group instead.
"Hey, I'm Jax, as you probably just heard. I'm from a little town called Hayville that you've also never heard of and I…meh, I haven't got any talents. Hell, I can barely use my Block powers, but whatever. I can try, I guess."
She gave a little stretch, a quiet series of cracks was heard, and she propped herself on one elbow, using her left hand to point up at the tip of the growing tower. A block of snow appeared there, glistening wet in the light of the lava two blocks beneath it. Jax actually looked a bit pleased with herself just then.
"Hey," she said with a small smile, "I did it this time!"
Seeing her expression, Kelsey felt a sudden urge to speak out about her own issues with her powers. Something was holding her back, but she couldn't figure out what it was. Just as it was starting to frustrate her, Jax nodded once in her direction.
"You're next…" she murmured, rolling over on her side again, presumably to sleep.
Kelsey's eyes widened slightly. She glanced all around her to find that they were all watching her now. When she looked at the seven-block tower, which had surpassed the height of minecart itself, she caught herself staring at the snow at its peak.
"Alright," she said, the one word slipping unintentionally past her lips. "I'll go! My name's Kelsey and I'm from Transville in California. I'd say that my best talent is being a pet-sitter. It's what I did for a job back home, at least. And my block power, well…"
She took a deep breath and gazed up at the top of the tower, running her fingers over her palm nervously.
"Just think of Mark, Kelsey. Think of Mark." she told herself, biting her lip.
She focused hard on the outlined box above Jax's snow, lifting her hand into the air, and…
"Ice, huh?" Nikki said, smiling; she rolled Jax back over to face the tower. "Hey Jax, she's almost like you!"
Jax blinked the heaviness from her eyelids and looked atop the block tower with glazed eyes.
"Huh. Neat." she murmured, turning back to her previous position. "Now let me sleep."
Kelsey let out a slow breath as she got an eyeful of the slippery blue block that sat atop its cold counterpart. She had done it. After her long moment of relief, she looked around to see who hadn't yet contributed a block. This was pretty easy to figure out, as there was a significant lack of cobweb in the tower.
"Norman!" she said, grabbing their leader's attention. "You've still got to go, right?"
Norman nodded in confirmation and stood up, following the present pattern. He cleared his throat; all he hoped was that his voice wouldn't crack or anything.
"Hi, everyone. Most of you know me already," he glanced over at Alexander's girls for a moment, "but for you two, my name is Norman. I'm also from Transville, and—"
"Wait, I've heard of you!" Nikki said suddenly, grinning. "You're the one who defeated the Glitch in the second time, right?"
Norman was a caught off guard by her statement, but he quickly pulled his words back together so he could reply.
"Yes, I am. Then you must already know my Block power, right?"
At this, Nikki just laughed and rolled her eyes.
"Oh, no! I didn't pay that much attention when I was in school. Go ahead, demonstrate for us!"
Norman pursed his lips, feeling only a little bit insulted, and craned his neck to see the top of the eight-block stack in front of him. He lifted the hand that wasn't clutching Shatter and placed a cobweb atop the spire. He'd used his powers so much in the past that the motion was fluid and natural, almost like it couldn't tire him out any longer. Upon seeing the sticky, spidery block, Nikki's eyes lit up and she turned her head to look right at Norman. Again, he was caught off guard by this.
"No shit!" she said randomly, standing up and out of Al's reach to get closer to the tower.
She got on her tip-toes and ever so slightly waved her pointer finger high into the air, like the flick of a small wand. To everyone's shock, a second block of cobwebs appeared above Norman's.
"Whoa!" Astrid cried, smiling broadly. "Witchcraft!"
Nikki crossed her arms and sat back against Alexander's forearm, relaxing again.
"Small Overworld, isn't it?" she said, returning her grin to Norman.
Norman returned the smile, though ten times more awkwardly, and cleared his throat a second time.
"Well…you know what, Adrian?" the Texan raised his head upon hearing his name. "You can just finish us off. It's almost midnight and we've all got to get some sleep if we want to stand any chance of fighting off tomorrow's monsters."
Adrian swallowed, doing some quick thinking on whether having Ben inside him would change his Block powers or not, but decided he would just have to try. Oh man, this was making him jumpy like heck.
"Alrighty then." he said, coughing lightly to clear up. "Ma name's Adrian and ah'm from Dallas, Texas. Earth, course. One o' my best talents is speed-eatin' and my Block power is, well, just tall grass is all."
He looked high up at the mammoth totem pole of blocks before them, staring at the outlined space at the very top. He lifted his hand and pretended to shoot a hand pistol in its direction, causing a block of shamrock grass to pop into place. He leaned back in his seat and sighed a breath of relief, smiling at the tower. The variety of blocks present gave it quite a unique look.
Kelsey shared the same smile as her best friend. When she surveyed all the different individuals sitting around in one big square, it really was neat to think of all their own backgrounds and stories they could possibly have. Nearly a minute of content silence went by as our protagonists watched the still tower shuddering in time with the moving vehicle.
And then…
"WELP!" declared Astrid, crouching down on the carpeted floor and lying on her side, facing away from everybody else. "I'm pooped, so I'm going to bed! G'night, all!"
Nobody responded out loud, merely replying goodnight inside their heads as they tried to find a comfortable position. With the soft rumbling of the minecart rocking its passengers inside, everyone was eventually able to fall asleep one way or another.
All but one.
All but one? Hmmm...can you guess who? It may or may not be clear at this point! ;)
I'll let all y'all know when I have my Doopliss vs King Boo preview put up on YouTube. I'm just doing this because...well...I WANNA BE, I WANNA BE, I WANNA BE FAMOOOOOUUUS! XD If you grew up with CN in the 2000's you should easily know what I'm talking about here.
This is Pastrinator64, your fellow writer and reader, signing out!
*throws sugar bomb and disappears behind its cloud of fine white sugar*
...Goodbye for now...
~Pastrinator64 [~]