The two of them opened the door and went in, stopping in front of a jukebox, from which Soren's voice was emitting.
"What the-" Olivia stared in dismay.
"It's a recording!" Jesse exclaimed.
Olivia let out a groan. "After all that, he's not even here?!"
The recording laughed. "I, uh, should probably eat something. I'm positively lightheaded with excitement!"
Olivia frowned. "We came all this way and for what?! We're no closer to Soren than before."
Jesse hummed thoughtfully. "Wellll, this record couldn't have turned on by itself," she pointed out.
Olivia's expression lightened a bit, as realization dawned on her face. "Huh. Good point. I guess he really likes the sound of his own voice, then."
"Maybe there's something useful on the record, if we can figure out what he's talking about..."
"I've worked up a simple set of building instructions, to... inspire them. I will disguise myself and hide among them in order to observe them more closely."
"Observe who more closely?" Jesse contemplated.
Olivia squinted at some purple stained glass. "I wonder why Soren built a purple wall. It's not completely opaque though. Just really, really blurry," she commented.
"What? What are you talking about? Liv, that's purple stained glass, not a purple w-" Jesse turned to stare at the glass, before freezing, her face going pale. "... oh. Oh. Do you think Soren was talking about Endermen?"
Olivia blinked at the question, before she covered her right eye, and her face blanched. "Oh."
Because behind the purple glass were thousands, and thousands, and thousands of Endermen, teleporting about and picking blocks up at random.
"Endermen?" Jesse gaped, "Soren has been experimenting with Endermen?"
"Everything ELSE about this guy has been kind of pointing to crazy," Olivia mumbled, thoughtfully.
"I suppose everyone needs hobbies," Jesse hummed, putting her hands on her hips, "even if they're... very, very, VERY dangerous. You think he's training Endermen to build stuff?"
"I think HE thinks he's training Endermen to build stuff," Olivia responded.
Jesse hummed thoughtfully, before spotting a blueprint resting on a chest nearby. She went over to the chest, lifting the blueprint to one of the simplese designs of all time. It was made up of six blocks, five forming a capital letter 'L' and the remaining on sitting in the top right corner. The text said something about it being in all clay blocks.
"Whatcha got there?" Olivia asked, making Jesse jump. Turning around, and tilting her head back, she held out the blueprint. "It's some sort of crafting recipe. I'm just wondering why someone like Soren would need a recipe for a shape this simple."
Olivia craned her neck to look at the recipe, before her eyes lit up. "Because they're not for Soren, they're for the Endermen! This must be trying to teach them to build!"
Jesse's eyes widened, before she slowly pocketed the recipe. "Well, let's go find some clay blocks, then." And the two of them quickly searched the room, managing to find five clay blocks but not being able to find the sixth one.
"That's weird... how are we supposed to finish the design then?" Olivia mumbled, but Jesse's attention had fixed on the armor stand in front of the stained glass window. "Um... Olivia?"
Olivia turned as Jesse stared at the little black suit that was about her height, with purple eyeholes.
"An Enderman suit... either Soren has a rather unique fashion sense, or... hold on a second!"
Jesse nodded and looked at the stand next to it. "Looks like a taller one was hanging here, but it's missing... Soren must be wearing it! This is the disguise he was talking about!"
"In order to walk among the Endermen, you have to become an Enderman!" Olivia nodded, eyes widening.
Jesse frowned and looked outside. "Soren must be conducting his experiment right now- what with this suit missing and all."
Olivia's excited expression fell. "Which means that if we want to get to Soren..." The two of them glanced at the glass, "we're going to have to go out there to do it."
Jesse looked at the Enderman suit, before back at Olivia. "Maybe, if you tried to go... uhh... 'more' Enderman, and I put on the suit.. we could find Soren."
"Two sets of eyes are better than one," Olivia agreed, "and we'd have a backup- if you got found out, I could just teleport you out of there."
Jesse walked over to the Enderman suit, stepping into it. It was big enough that it still fit over her clothes, but tight enough so it didn't hang off her thin frame. She pulled the hood one, her vision turning purple from the purple eyeholes, and pulling down the gloves, wrinkling her nose that the funny smell. Endermen smell a bit like rotting cake. It's disgustingly sweet.
Getting INTO the suit itself was rather awkward, though, what with Jesse's extra arms. She finally managed to squeeze into it when she wrapped her lower arms around her midriff and inhaling as deeply as she could. The suit was a little bulgy because of that, but it wasn't too uncomfortable- the suit was fairly loose anyway, and the elastic quality let her arms squeeze into it without ripping. So that was something.
Jesse turned around to see Olivia shooting several inches taller than she already was, her arms getting longer and hands turning jet-black, both eyes starting to turn faintly purple, and her outfit darkening.
Both of them looked at each other, a tall Enderman with slightly curly hair and a much, much shorter one.
"Someday, far into the future, we'll look back at this and laugh," Olivia spoke, her voice oddly echoing and slightly warped.
"Not any day soon, I can tell you that," Jesse grumbled, making the two of them chuckle.
"I've already decided that only Endermen at peace build structures," the recording was still going, "when agitated, such as yesterday, they don't seem to have any interest in building things. Only... hitting me. With their fists. Repeatedly."
This earned a wince from both girls.
"Meanwhile, peaceful Endermen will move blocks to any spot on and on, until they somehow achieve... satisfaction, and walk away. Clearly, this will require further detailed observation." A pause. "I am so, so lonely."
"How are we going to find Soren? I mean, the suits do look fairly realistic..." Olivia frowned, "and we can hardly just go up to every Enderman and ask 'hey, are you Soren?'"
Jesse smirked at that. "You're part Enderman. I think you might be able to sense any discrepancies."
Olivia thought about that. "Okay. That seems pretty legit."
And with that, the two of them stepped outside, Reuben squealing in fear as Jesse slowly shut the door behind her.
A/N: Wow, that ending seems really ominous xD
Toni42: I know right? And yes. x) Wool World.
x.X. A.L. X.x
