Hi, this is technically my first fanfiction (though I have been composing them in my head as long as I can remember). I appreciate any advice from more experienced writers :)

Note that it is rated T for mentions of neglect and implied alcoholism.

I am planning on writing a prequel or sequel to this this story (probably titled, The Story of a Block or the Acquisition of a Block) I haven't decided which yet.

This first chapter is very short (but the next one is super long, so that balances out - hopefully).

It is going to seem rather awkward at first; this is because I want to keep certain aspects ambiguous. It will clear up after chapter 3.

Chapter 1: A bell, for a door,

A young man sat at a table, reading. He was only twenty-eight, but his cynical demeanor and unfortunate mustache made him look older. He was reading The Theory of Bovine Agriculture. It was painfully dull but, as his friends liked to joke, that was how he liked it. Books were for obtaining knowledge after all; there was no need for needless imaginings or silly fantasies.

When his friends had first discovered that opinion of his in college, they had tried to change his mind – convince him that reading was supposed to be fun, but eventually they had given up. The truth was that he just preferred the real world. He thought it was cowardly to hide in a fantasy world instead of facing problems head-on. His friend didn't like that idea either.

Honestly, they couldn't agree on anything! It wasn't just with him either. Somehow the seven of them could all manage to have opposite opinions on the simplest of topics. He sometimes wondered how they hadn't killed each other yet, how they were such close friends. Maybe it was the adventures they went on together. Maybe it the was the fact that half of them had been friends since secondary school, which could also explain why he sometimes felt like an outsider. Or maybe it was the fact that they spent so much time together. They had become like siblings.

Bing! Bong! Bong! Bong! A nearby bell sounded.

He sighed and got up from his seat. One of his friends had installed a complicated system of bells throughout their home- connected to a button next to the main door - so that it was almost guaranteed that, wherever they were in the giant structure, one of them would always hear if someone was at the door. His friend had called it a doorbell. She may have been a technical genius, but her skills were somewhat lacking when it came to naming her marvelous inventions. Honestly, the man thought, the whole system was superfluous! He could count on his fingers the number of visitors that they had received in the five years they had lived there, and, as for the number of unexpected visitors—

The man opened the door and nearly choked when he saw the two figures standing in the doorway.

The smaller was a girl, no older than five, with startlingly dark eyes, tan skin, and short, black, curly hair. The taller figure was a twenty-three-year-old young man with similarly black eyes and short, black, beard. As the older man stood, staring at the two figures, his mind wandered to another place, another time.

Edit: I forgot to mention that this story takes place in a a sort-of Head cannon world which most of my MCSM fanfictions take place in and that resembles the real world slightly more than normal Minecraft. There are four regions:

The Fareast which is a sort-of unofficial republic of large cities (and their surrounding townships) each city is self-governing but they have a uniform postal system and some uniform laws and networking. Most of the cities are the cultural equivalent to 18th/19th century England (though they still have Minecraft technology).

The Northern Kingdom which is a collection of self-governing independent kingdoms. It is the cultural equivalent to Middle-Ages Europe.

The West which is a collection of smaller independent towns (including Redstonia, Boomtown, and Beacontown).

The Wildlands which is a catchall term for the mostly uninhabited hostile areas that don't fall into the other categories. They are in all directions, especially surrounding the Farlands, and take up most of the south. This is where all of the places that Jack keeps mentioning are.

All of them except the Wildlands share some aspects of culture. Including the fact that children go to Primary School from ages five to eleven where they learn basic life skill and Secondary school from ages eleven to sixteen where they learn more advanced skills (like basic redstone). There are colleges, admission is very competitive and usually based solely on the grades from Secondary School with few exceptions (most students, even good ones, cannot get into college or choose not to). Kids are considered legal adults at sixteen (though children can become "independents," with most of the right of adults, as young as fourteen with the signatures of a legal guardian and a government official (this happens most often in the Fareast with kids in the care of a government). They can get jobs or apprenticeships as young as thirteen and most children are given their first wooden swords around the same time.

I imagine that most of the new order was ~seventeen when the Witherstorm happened and are twenty-two by the end of season two, the Old Order had the command block for 1-2 years before fighting the dragon and broke up 8-9 years before the Witherstorm. This story takes place before the Old Order split up - meaning that Jesse and the others are all about 8-9 years old.