Foreword:
Ah-HA! You thought I was a goner, didn't 'cha? Nopers nope. Not a goner. Just super super busy. :) Sorry this took so long to get out, but if it makes y'all feel better, part of the reason was because I was having way to much fun working on the later parts of the story. (That and there's a flipping ton of plot holes to work out [most of them caused by me trying to fix the plot holes that were already there. . Erm, ahem. Moving on]. Also with Episode 7 having just come out, I haven't been able to stop bouncing off the walls. X) )
Since I'm coming to realize more and more just how wild the MCSM fandom is about shipping, I just thought I should say something: Set in Stone is not a shipping fic. The purpose of this novelization is not to add romances that I wish were there, it's to build upon the story and the relationships that are already there to begin with and add substance to the otherwise ignored, or 'glossed over' relationships, therefore making the story as a whole better. That being said, it's not like I'm never going to go into 'possible' romances, but just because someone is established as liking someone else, doesn't necessarily mean I'm shipping them.
That being said, on with it.
Chapter 2 – Pep-arations
««««« … »»»»»
Axel had always been late for their meetings at the treehouse. What with so many people to prank and chickens to torment, he was very busy. That, added to his weight—in muscle, of course—and his recurring tardiness was completely pardonable. However, this time, he had a specific reason for being late, and a good one at that.
Slowly, he crept up the ladder, careful not to make a sound as he approached the trap door to Jesse's treehouse. Inside, Jesse and Olivia were just talking, completely unsuspecting.
« … »
Jesse rummaged through his chest, grabbing any extra tools or materials he thought might come in handy in the upcoming contest.
It was good to have a carrot or two on hand, so he Pocketed three of them. Reuben LOVED the things, and so did he. Not as much as potatoes, but still.
Speaking of which…
"Do you think we have everything we need?" asked Olivia as Jesse stuck a potato in his Pocket.
Jesse pulled his head out of the chest and turned to face her with a flustered look. It was one thing to look for stuff to use—it was another to look for stuff to worry about.
"Olivia, we checked over our materials three times. We're ready."
"What about the fireworks?"
"Axel's bringing them," Jesse told her—for the third time.
Olivia made a confident look.
"Right. Right…" She wilted again and added apprehensively, "I just hope he remembers them."
That was a valid concern, he supposed. Axel was almost as prone to forgetfulness as he was to tardiness. He couldn't say that, though. Olivia was enough of a wet blanket without her every fear being externally reinforced. "Don't worry about it. Everything will be fine."
"But remember last year when we thought we had everything but we forgot the lever to turn it on? Our whole build was ruined!"
Jesse raised an eyebrow. "Do we have the lever?"
"Yeah," she replied uneasily.
"Then we're ready."
"Right."
Jesse smiled enthusiastically. "So we're good?"
Olivia smiled, less enthusiastically. "Yeah."
"Good."
Jesse went back to gathering more knickknacks and grinned with a roll of his eyes as soon as he was safely facing away from her. Always worrying, that girl.
Olivia heaved a resigned sigh and at last changed the subject. "Sooo, I've got a daylight sensor on the roof…"
"Mmm-hmm…" Jesse replied, pretending he had the slightest clue what she was talking about. He pulled a pair of shears from one of the boxes along the wall and stuck it in his Pocket.
"…And if I did this right, these lamps should turn on if it gets dark or overcast."
"Mmm-HMM…"
Closing the box and opening another, he produced a small two-piece trinket and mumbled to himself, "Flint and steel, not too shabby."
"I didn't want to just leave Reuben here with nothing while we're at the building competition."
Jesse stopped and craned his head to face her with a perplexed look. "He's coming with us."
Reuben, who had been off in the corner poking around Jesse's armor stand, bounded over at the sound of his name.
Olivia's face fell. "Really?"
What did she mean, 'Really?'
"I thought we'd been over this, Olivia." Jesse said, standing to his feet and stepping forward. "Reuben doesn't like staying by himself so he's going to be coming with us from now on."
Reuben oinked in agreement.
"Oh, right," she said. "I guess I forgot."
"Besides, this is his first EnderCon. He's really excited about it." Jesse smiled down at Reuben, who was now stepping on his toes and looking tickled pink.
"Okay. I'm not saying he shouldn't come. I'm not… but don't you think it's a little weird that you take him with you everywhere you go?" Jesse made a blank face as she continued, "He kind of makes us look like… I don't know… amateurs."
With his snout in the air, Reuben snorted the pig equivalent of a 'hmph,' then huffed off and hopped on top of the chest in front of the window, giving Olivia a dirty look.
"He's my wingman," Jesse said, looking back to Olivia. "People always wanna talk to the guy with the pig."
"You mean talk ABOUT the guy with the pig. Like, 'Look at the weird guy with the weird pig. How weird.'"
Jesse looked at her questioningly and turned to Reuben who was again making a 'defend me!' face.
Weird, huh?
Well, yeah, maybe, but so what? Jesse had long since realized that he was pretty weird, and just as long since decided that he didn't care.
"Reuben's my best friend."
Reuben squealed a happy, "uh-huh," and Olivia gave him a questioning look. "I thought I was your best friend?"
"Both of you are," he insisted obstinately. He didn't understand why the concept of having more than one best friend was so hard for her to grasp.
Olivia sighed and went on, looking despondent, "I didn't mean anything by it. I'm glad he's coming… I just don't want to give people one more reason to call us 'losers.'" She turned away from him to face the wall. "I'm getting tired of it. I'm tired of being a laughingstock."
Jesse softened.
He was okay with being weird, but he knew that he couldn't expect that from Olivia. She wanted to be normal—to be 'liked'. At the very least she wanted to be accepted by people who weren't weird, and just the fact that she wanted that so badly and would still stick by her 'weird' friends like slime… it showed a quality of hers that Jesse had always admired.
"We are not losers, Olivia," he said.
"We lose all the time," she argued. "It's what we do."
"Okay, okay," he conceded. "That might be true,"
Before he could think of another point in their favor, she cut in with, "I can't remember the last time we won anything."
Jesse drew a deep breath, determined even more to cheer her up, even if it would only last long enough for them to win the competition. Then the hype from the victory could do the rest for him.
He then paused for a minute until he decided what was the best thing to say.
"But… just because we're losers, doesn't make us failures."
Olivia looked curiously over at him. "How so?"
"Well, the opposite of losing is winning, but the opposite of failure is success, and you've succeeded at lots of things."
Reuben made a show of agreement and Olivia raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"
Jesse opened his mouth just to realize he couldn't think of something off the top of his head, and then thunder sounded in the distance.
He walked over and took a look outside the window behind Reuben to see that dark clouds had begun to obscure the sun, and the anticipated rain began to fall. Behind him he heard a quiet click, and turned to see the lights Olivia had set up now glowing steadily.
Jesse smiled, gladly seizing the convenient opportunity.
He pointed. "Like that."
Olivia blinked, also turning around and taking notice of her achievement. She sighed and then smiled. "If you say so, Jesse."
Jesse smiled back. It wasn't much, but he'd take it.
A hiss issued from the middle of the room below them, and Jesse stiffened.
"Do you hear that?" he asked.
Reuben squeaked fearfully behind him, and the frightened look that crawled onto Olivia's face mirrored his own suspicion.
"Oh, no," she gasped.
Holding his breath, Jesse sneaked over to the hatch, the hissing growing louder as he knelt beside it. He peeked over… and, "BOOM!"
His eyes zipped open at the sight of a creeper right in his face, and he screamed. He flew into a panic and before he knew it, he found himself backed up against the closest wall a good four blocks away. He heard a fearful squeal and in the corner of his eye Reuben reared back on the chest and fell to the ground with a loud thud.
The creeper laughed deeply—the 'creeper,' whom Jesse now realized was far too bulky and intact to actually be a creeper. The delinquent lifted off his green mask, leaving his hair looking just as flat as always. In fact, it seemed to be an improvement.
"Oh, man!" Axel exclaimed. "You guys totally freaked out! That was awes—!"
Axel was cut off by an angry Reuben who had charged and rammed him hard in the stomach. Though, Jesse got the feeling that it didn't hurt Axel as much as Reuben would have liked.
"Axel! What's the matter with you?!" Olivia snapped.
"Great," drawled Axel, ignoring her completely. "Now I'm going to smell like a pig at EnderCon. I thought we were buddies."
Now that the fear of getting blown clear out the window had passed, Jesse said graciously, "You had that coming. Cool mask, by the way."
"It is, isn't it?" he said with a smile. Olivia still looked very angry, glaring at him with her hands on her hips.
"Yeah," Jesse said, looking away from her and giving Axel a disdainful look. "Very convincing."
Axel chuckled. "The look on your faces…"
"Did you bring the fireworks?" asked Olivia.
"Of course I did," Axel said, then flippantly brushed aside her concern by adding, "I even brought something for the little guy."
Axel reached with both hands behind his back and produced two pieces of what looked like a small black costume. In one hand was a helmet in the shape of a dragon head, in the other was a set of woolen wings attached to a wooden frame.
"Nice!" Jesse said while Olivia looked somewhat disgusted.
"You brought Reuben a disguise?" she asked as Axel strapped the wings around the pig's belly.
"Um, we're going to a convention," Axel said. "Somebody's gotta wear a costume."
Axel shoved the headpiece on next, finishing Reuben's 'disguise.' With that, a miniature Ender Dragon started 'flying' around the room, threatening to get its dirty hoof prints all over the floor. It was hard to tell if he was loving it, or if he was trying desperately to get the thing off. And from the way he roared, he sounded like he could either be outraged, or just doing an incredible dragon impression.
They watched Reuben for a moment before Olivia spoke up, saying, "He looks ridiculous."
"It's a costume, Olivia," Axel said with a smile. "The whole point is to look ridiculous."
"But the Ender Dragon didn't look like that. It was massive and scary, and Reuben—well—Reuben is a pig."
"As long as Reuben is happy, I'm happy," Jesse stated as Reuben hopped up onto the chest beside Axel.
"Happy?" Axel asked him, and he responded with an excited, "Oink!"
Axel smiled and patted him on the head. "Well zippity doo dah."
Since it was his first time going, Reuben must have been happy to have a costume like everyone else there. Maybe dressing up like heroes was all it would take to get noticed.
"You definitely brought the fireworks, right?" Olivia said, starting to sound like a broken repeater.
"Yes, I'm ready. Waiting on you guys."
Jesse caught Reuben, who was running around his feet, and scooped him off the floor, then smiled at his team. "Let's get going, then."
« … »
The rain had cleared and the ground dried. Posters promoting EnderCon and Gabriel the Warrior were tacked to every tree in sight. They were on their way, and thus began the annual competition woes—and it all started with an effort to keep everyone motivated.
"Can you believe it, guys? If we win this year, we get to meet Gabriel the Warrior!" said Jesse.
Ever since they'd learned about that twist in the competition last month, Jesse had been beyond excited. Meeting Gabriel the Warrior would not only be an honor, but a dream come true.
"And what are the odds of that?" Olivia sulked, killing his daydream. Jesse frowned. He refused to start another building competition with his team feeling hopeless, no matter how slim their chances were.
"The odds are…" Jesse paused. He wanted to say 'one to one', but that obviously wasn't true. "…refreshed each time."
Olivia gave him a frustrated look. "The 'odds' are usually ten to one. Fifteen if you're counting the Ocelots, and I'm not counting the weird guy who's always trying to build with cactus."
There was an awkward silence, and then Jesse spoke up again with one more sad attempt to encourage them. "Maybe no one else will show up."
Olivia made a quizzical expression and muttered dryly, "Now you're being realistic." She heaved a defeated sigh. "We never win. And this year we've got Reuben with us." The pig gave an annoyed grunt and Olivia continued, further lowering the spirits Jesse had worked so hard to raise over the past week. "We basically have no chance. Same as always."
Though Axel wasn't saying anything, Jesse could tell from his silence that the hopeless atmosphere was getting to him. Why was it always so hard to keep them all afloat? That aside, something had to be done.
They needed a spirit boost; A fresh dose of hope. They needed to believe that they had a chance. How could he give that to them…?
It wasn't hard to cheer himself up. All he had to do was look at the 'Hang in there!' poster on his wall—the one with the pig that looked like Reuben.
"Oh, come on, have a little faith, Olivia. It's not like having Reuben around is going to make us lose. Heck, maybe he's what we've been missing this whole time."
"What are you talking about?" asked Olivia, looking confused. Well, it was a step up from depressed.
Jesse smiled. "Our lucky dragon!"
"He's a pig, Jesse."
"Lucky pig?" Axel unhelpfully inserted.
This conversation was getting confusing.
"My point is," Jesse continued, undeterred, "we can win, because… we want this more than anyone."
"How do you even know that?" Olivia grumbled.
Jesse ignored her. "We're going to win because we're prepared, we're motivated, and we've got a pig!"
Axel chuckled and Olivia perked up a bit while Reuben squeaked in satisfaction.
"Those Ocelot's aren't gonna know what hit 'em!"
Axel looked excited and the perpetual cloud over Olivia's head seemed a little less gray. He sensed an air of confidence slowly taking form, and that fired him up as well.
"Up to now we've hated losing. But today, today my friends, we're going to start learning how to love winning." Jesse's smile crumbled. "That didn't sound as good as it did in my head."
"No, no. I'm with that," Axel offered, bringing back Jesse's smile.
"All right," Olivia said with a smile of her own.
Mission accomplished.
Jesse glanced again at the posters all around and his eyes once again came to rest on one advertising Gabriel the Warrior. Jesse wondered if he'd ever become that famous. It wasn't impossible, and how awesome would it be to be the face on a stranger's poster? He imagined himself striking a heroic pose, flashing a confident smile, and wearing the cool armor he couldn't afford yet. The image made him grin dreamily.
Man, posters make everything look better, he thought. Then something dawned on him.
He stopped in his tracks. "Guys! Posters!"
Olivia and Axel both looked back at him and asked simultaneously, "What?"
"That's what we're missing for our build!"
"A poster?" Olivia muttered incredulously.
"No, I mean, like a poster." Jesse smiled and scampered over to the nearest tree, pointing to the EnderCon poster tacked onto it. "Take this tree. It looks great on its own, but once you put a poster on it, it stands out from all the other trees."
Olivia gave him a bemused look and glanced around at the surrounding forest. "Un~less, 'all the other trees' have posters on them."
Jesse frowned. "No, that's—that's not the point. The idea of a 'building competition' isn't just to build, it's to compete. If you want to win, you have to stand out."
"Stand out? How?"
He thought she'd never ask.
Jesse continued walking with an excitable grin, and his two friends followed curiously as he explained further. "We don't just build something functional, we build something fun. After we finish the fireworks machine, like we planned, then we build something in front of it to make it LOOK cool."
Olivia fell in step beside him and gave him an enthusiastic smile. "You might be on to something there."
"If you want to get a reaction out of the judges, you build something scary," Axel pitched in, catching up on Jesse's other side, "so I say we build a creeper."
Jesse beamed with excitement. A monster, now that was something he hadn't thought of, and he liked it.
Apparently Olivia did too. "I like the idea of a monster, but wouldn't an Enderman be better? I'm more scared of Endermen than creepers."
"They both have their moments," Axel said with a shrug. "Both pretty scary."
Or maybe, Jesse thought. We could do a different monster entirely! Like A zombie!
No, that was stupid.
Olivia had a point; there were few things in the world scarier than Endermen…
"Then again, you scared the crap out of us with a creeper today," Olivia pointed out.
Another good point. Creepers exploded, and when killed they dropped gunpowder—the main ingredient used for making fireworks. It couldn't have been more perfect.
Axel looked pleased with himself and pointedly added, "Plus, if we make an Enderman, no one will want to look at it."
That settled it. "Creeper it is."
"You're going with Axel's idea?" Olivia complained.
Was she kidding?! Wasn't she just defending his idea?
Axel frowned. "What's wrong with my idea?"
"Nothing. It could be totally cool."
"It is cool."
"Yeah."
Jesse rolled his eyes and turned his focus to the problem that had spawned from his solution. A new idea for their build meant they were going to need new materials, and they hadn't a moment to waste.
"Okay guys, let's get to work," he said. "We suddenly find ourselves in the market for a lot of green wool."
« … »
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
Luke 12:25
Author's Notes:
So turns out, you can't use asterisks either. And I can't make an angry face so I have to settle with an Axel face. |:( Yes, I'm still on that. I've been having nothing but trouble with FFN lately, I tell ya. - .-
It occurred to me that Olivia is about twice as pessimistic in this chapter than she is during this part in the game, (thus, twice as 'unlikable') but I didn't want her to come across as the biggest downer ever, so I feel like I should clarify a bit. I tried to get this out as best I could in the actual chapter (I try to make it to where things need an explanation as little as possible) but alas, it didn't come out as best as I think it could have, but the reason I imagine she's SO down right now is because every year they lose one of these contests it just weighs on her more and more and more, and now she's at the point where she's pretty much given up.
- Building with cactus — You don't have to be a Minecraft player to know that this is the worst idea ever. Just to give you non-players a little insight, though, cactus is prickly (duh) so it hurts when you touch it, it can only be placed on sand, or another cactus and cannot be placed directly next to any block. It's also a 'non-solid' block which means you can't mount anything on it, meaning no levers, or redstone, or torches, or redstone torches, or anything useful. It also means that if it doesn't have another cactus or block of sand to rest on, it will not stay supported in midair as most blocks in Minecraft will, but it won't fall, either. It will just poof into its Pocket form. (Hmm… I should have just put this in the glossary. :{ )
Choice Notes:
- According to my sources… — It wouldn't make sense for them to not know about Gabriel being at the competition until now. And my sources do exist, btw. Olivia says later that the show had been sold out for ages. How would she know if they only found out that morning? Fixed!
- Pocket as in (P)ocket pocket, not (p)ocket. — Okay, props to you if you even noticed this detail, but just so as not to confuse people, I've capitalized 'Pocket' because I wanted to draw a distinction between the Minecraft's bottomless-pit version of a 'pocket' and what most normal people consider to be a 'pocket'. That way the people reading this who don't know Minecraft like the back of their hand (Hi, Mom! :D) at least have something to go off of and aren't totally confused when I mention them pulling a whole buildings worth of materials out of their 'pocket'. Hence, Pocket.
Speaking of which…
Glossary:
- The Pocket — Or known in actual Minecraft as, the inventory, but in MCSM, it's often referred to as their pocket. In this case, Pocket. Confused yet? :P I promise I'm not trying to make this confusing, but I can't think of a way to make it any clearer, so sorry 'bout that. Anyway, in Minecraft the inventory (like most games) is basically (as I said before) a bottomless-pit. You can hold way more than humanly possible, and whereas with a different kind of adaptation one might want to explain that away, being that it's Minecraft, that's kind of impossible. Fun Fact: It has actually been calculated that Steve (The default Minecraft character) can carry over 97,000,000 pounds in his inventory at once.
- Slime — The equivalent of glue.
- Redstone Repeater — A redstone component that does as its name suggests: repeats a redstone signal.
- Endermen — Very tall, black creatures with long arms and legs and a stubby body. Enderman will move blocks. They have glowing purple eyes. Most of the time they are docile creatures but if a human meets their eyes, even for a second, Endermen will become hostile and beat up the person who looked at them (and they can hit hard).
- Creepers — The homicidal teenage punks of Minecraft. Hated by all who ever placed a block. they are very quiet, (almost soundless except when walking on sand) and to attack they sneak up on someone from behind, hiss and explode. So naturally they drop gunpowder when killed. They look a vibrant green and are a little shorter than people, having no arms and four legs. Though not the case in classic Minecraft, creepers in MCSM seem to hiss a lot more and bite if they cannot sneak up on someone.
-Cactus — Cactus is prickly (duh) so it hurts when you touch it, it can only be placed on sand, or another cactus and cannot be placed directly next to any block. It's also a 'non-solid' block which means you can't mount anything on it, meaning no levers, or redstone, or torches, or redstone torches, or anything useful. It also means that if it doesn't have another cactus or block of sand to rest on, it will not stay supported in midair as most blocks in Minecraft will, but it won't fall, either. It will just poof into its Pocket form.