Foreword

So before we get started, it's time I address the elephant in the—wait, there are no elephants in Minecraft… It's time I address the creeper in the room. (Nailed it. :] ) The index. In case no one has noticed, I have not been keeping it up to date. XD I do plan on doing it, but I'm overwhelmed enough right now as it is, so I'm thinking about doing it differently. More on that later, but for now, consider it 'on hiatus'.

That all! Onto the chapter! :)

Chapter X

How We Play the Game

««««« … »»»»»

"You want my help?" asked Olivia, sounding surprised.

"Yeah," Petra replied, "I figured we had one conversation, so we're like, super-close now, right?"

Olivia laughed. "Well, can't argue with Jesse logic. Sure, I'll keep my eyes peeled."

"Thanks Olivia," Petra said, and with that and a smile, she immediately set out to look for the next person she wanted to enlist to her cause. No sooner than she did, Petra spotted Axel over by the—

Oh, it was actually a cake booth.

Axel noticed her before she got there and quickly turned away to wipe the frosting off his face before turning back to her with a smile.

"Hey Petra," he said. "To what do I owe the honors?"

"Axel, I need your help."

"You need my—?" he cut himself off, sounding excited. "Oh, yeah, sure. I'll help. Anything for—pfft—I mean, yeah. I'll help."

Axel crossed his arms and seemed to feign indifference. Petra raised an eyebrow.

I don't—I'm not gonna ask.

"Okay, listen up," she said, "'cause I've repeated this story two times already, and I'm not making it four. Jesse and I were making a deal with this guy named Ivor, and it backfired bad."

Axel looked confused. "Meaning?"

"Meaning the psycho not only cheated me out of my very hard earned payment, but he threatened Jesse with a sword to his throat, and I'm going to get payback."

Axel's blank stare turned livid in a mere second. "He did what?!"

"I already have Jesse, Olivia, and Lukas looking for him. You in?"

His livid expression then turned uncertain. "Uh… Lukas?"

Petra frowned. She didn't have the patience to entertain the Quincunx trio's biases, and she didn't have the obligation to either. So rather shortly, she crossed her own arms and questioned rhetorically, "You got a problem with that?"

"I mean…" Axel drawled, rubbing the back of his head. "No. No problem."

"Good. Look for a creepy guy with a green robe, long, messy black hair, and a beard. Thanks, Axel."

Petra started off, but Axel spoke up again. "Hey, uh… Petra?"

She stopped, looking back.

"Yeah?"

"Do you… like cookies?"

Petra blinked. "Umm… Yeah. Who doesn't?"

"Right?" said Axel. "They're like, the best thing ever. I mean maybe with the exception of cake…"

Axel went on about cookies, but as he did, Petra thought she noticed someone with a green robe slip through the crowd. "But yeah, I was getting cookies for me and my friends, and… I got five, so… if you wanted one—"

"Sorry. No time," she cut in, not taking her eyes off of the spot he disappeared to. "Later, okay?"

"Oh, uh, okay. But if you change your mind—"

Petra couldn't waste any more time and took off before she could lose him.

« … »

Jesse had tried talking to the Deejay, but somehow it had come across like a bad pickup line and now she was mad at him. Then he accidentally grabbed someone he thought looked just like Ivor, but who turned out to just be a strangely dressed—and touchy—woman.

She had been wearing the same green robe and had the same messy long black hair. It shouldn't be possible to look that much like someone else.

Over the noise of people, Jesse thought he heard a faint and all too familiar 'oink!'

He stopped.

"Reuben?"

Jesse listened again, but couldn't hear him. Had he imagined it?

He looked around but didn't see any sign of—

"There he is!" Jesse heard someone shout at the exact same moment he noticed his hero, Gabriel the Warrior, walk out from the crowd not ten blocks in front of him. For a second, for one second, Gabriel turned his head and met his eyes.

Jesse stared. It was like time had stopped. Buuut, it hadn't, because only a moment later, he was plowed to the ground. The girl didn't apologize, just got up and bolted off again. He just was not having luck with girls today. That sounded bad, too. Even his thoughts sounded bad.

"Gabriel! Gabriel!" she shouted.

Jesse peeled his face off of the ground just in time to see a crowd form around the celebrity. He watched as the ushers around Gabriel shooed people away and Jesse sighed, pushing himself to his feet.

He was right there. Right there. In their town, walking the same streets Jesse walked every other day just to buy food. And all thanks to those creeping Ocelots, Jesse would never get to meet him.

"Gabriel looked at me! He actually looked at me! ME!" it was the same girl who plowed him over. "Wow…" she swooned.

Jesse immediately wilted, caught between feeling dumb for just thinking the same thing, and feeling dumb for wistfully wishing that one day… someone might think that highly of him.

Jesse found Axel before he could find where the oink had come from. If it had come from anywhere. Jesse couldn't help but wonder if he was just hearing things.

Axel was standing by… wait… was that the winning build?

Why was that over here all of a sudden? Perhaps more importantly, why was Axel looking at it?

"Thought you could just wiggle right out of that trap, didn't you?" Axel taunted one of the chickens. "Well—wiggle as much as you want, you're not goin' anywhere."

"Axel, what are you doing looking at that—that—abomination?" Jesse asked indignantly.

Axel flinched and turned to Jesse. "Huh? What? Oh—nothing. I was just looking at how… undeserving it is."

Jesse decided to give Axel the benefit of feigning stupidity.

"Okay, I believe you," he lied. "Axel, any chance you've seen a creepy-looking beard-y guy anywhere?"

"No. Petra told me what happened. I'm keeping an eye out for him."

Axel smiled, looking proud of himself, but Jesse just looked past him at the chicken machine. He looked back at Axel, mounting his hands to his hips and giving him a quizzical eye.

"Okay, so I got a little distracted," admitted Axel.

"I knew it! Axel, how could you?" Jesse accused indignantly. "You traitor."

"It's just this machine presses all my buttons—" he explained, "unnecessarily complicated, and mean to birds for no reason…"

Jesse narrowed his eyes at him. "Don't look at it."

"Okay."

For some reason, that had felt almost anticlimactic.

Jesse looked around again, then back to Axel. "Hey, have you seen Reuben? I thought I heard him earlier, but I couldn't find him."

"Haven't seen hide nor hair," Axel shrugged. "But I'm sure he's fine. He's a tough little ham."

A chicken clucked loudly, and Axel turned back around.

"Axel?" Jesse said in a scolding tone.

"Right, right! I'm all ears—er—eyes," Axel babbled.

Jesse rolled his eyes.

"No more looking at chickens. Look for humans with messy beards. And pigs."

"Got it!" Axel saluted.

Jesse gave a nod. Then, right as he turned around, he noticed again the same little 'oink'.

He definitely heard Reuben that time.

« … »

Pushing her way through the crowd, Petra looked around. Again, she barely managed to catch a glimpse of the suspect walk around the corner, and followed as fast as she could. As soon as she turned the corner, she spotted the green robed man standing right there, facing away from her.

Why would he just be standing there?

Petra tapped him on the shoulder and… 'he' was actually 'she', and she looked incredibly annoyed.

Huh. From the back, this irritated lady had looked just exactly like Ivor.

"What now?" she grumbled.

"Oh. Sorry," said Petra, "you looked like someone else."

The woman rolled her eyes with a sigh. "So I've heard."

Petra watched her walked off indignantly, raising an eyebrow and heaving a sigh of her own. That meant she was back to block one…

Before she could even dwell on that, Petra saw him.

It wasn't the same lady. Walking past the gate to the bridge going into the keynote, Ivor looked back just long enough to give her a good look at his face… and that beard.

It was him.

"Ha," she chuckled under her breath with a smirk, "I see you now, Ivor. You just keep walking. I'll catch up soon."

But first, she had to gather her makeshift team.

A new game was on, and they were going to play it right.

« … »

Jesse's heart was beating fast in his nervous hustle. He looked back and forth, trying as hard as possible to be thorough despite being frazzled. He wanted to find him, but he didn't want to miss him in a hurried frenzy.

He was just about to call out for him when out of nowhere, who should jump up in his face, but Aiden. His actual, number one. Least. Favorite. Person. EVER.

"Weeell, if it isn't the spherehead!" Aiden said, an insult he'd heard all too many times before. "D'you see the winning build? Shame we got disqualified, but at least it was still better than yours."

Jesse tried to go around him, but Aiden just got in the way again.

"Kinda busy right now, man," Jesse muttered through clenched teeth, trying to keep his cool.
"What? Busy trying to get a life? Busy trying to find some friends?"
Says you, thought Jesse… though technically, he was right.

"Aiden, I really don't have ti—"

"How's your stupid pig? I hear intense heat causes brain damage."

Jesse seethed. That comment, added to his haste, added to everything else that had been stacking up in his mind, and something in him snapped.

It was because of him that Reuben had gotten lost in the first place. It was because of him that they lost that competition and might never get another chance to meet Gabriel the Warrior. And now, Reuben was possibly in danger, and Jesse couldn't even get past Aiden's sorry butt to look for him. All because of him. All because of this half-witted, incessantly irritating—jerkwad!

Jesse clenched his fists. He neverpromised Petra he would try to talk it out with Aiden.

"Oh, so THAT'S what happened! You were lit on fire at some point in your life! Well, that explains a lot."

Aiden fell silent and looked like he was still processing the comment, and Jesse felt the urge to make fun of him even more. The first thing that came to mind was Aiden explaining his already unfunny joke at the building contest, making himself look stupid on top of unimaginative.
"I'm talking about you," Jesse said mockingly, and then paused. "I'm saying you're an idiot."

"Hey—who are you calling an idiot?" Aiden asked like an idiot.

"You, now MOVE!"

He had had enough of this. He'd put up with Aiden's abuse for nine years too long now, and he was DONE.
Before he knew what he was doing, Jesse had grabbed him by his shirt and shoved him so hard that he staggered back and fell.

"Woah!" Aiden gasped, scooting backwards away from him. "Man, I was just joking!"
"Yeah?" said Jesse, sparing him another irate glance as he walked past him. "Well, I wasn't."

Thankfully few people seemed to pay much mind to what was going on, and no one bothered to say anything.

Jesse picked up his pace, now looking around frantically for his friend.

He heard him, he knew he heard him. He had to be—

Jesse heard it again, louder this time.

"Reuben?" Jesse called, "Reuben, is that you?"

"Getcha pork chops here!" Jesse heard, looking around and spotting a meat stand a few paces away. "Fresh off the bone!"

The man advertising looked like a butcher, and right in front of him on the booth counter, trembling in fear, was Reuben.

"Reuben!"

Jesse dashed over, pushing through a small gathering of people to do so.

"What's the big idea?" the butcher grumbled. "I'm trying to run a business here."

"That's my pig! You kidnapped my pig!"

"Oh really?" the man said. "Well I found him out in the woods, so I think that makes him MY pig."

Well, he wasn't wrong. Generally, that was how things worked around here.

"Please, he's my friend!" Jesse begged.

The guy didn't budge, unsympathetically stating, "To me, he's inventory."

Jesse looked at Reuben who was still shaking and returned it with his own look of worry. What Jesse couldn't help but notice was that on top of looking terrified, his best friend now had a big black mark around his left eye.

Oh no, what happened to you?

The butcher scratched his chin and appeared to be in thought.

"Buuut, I might be amenable to some kind of trade… Not that you look like you got much of value." the man snorted a chortle. He snortled. "I gotta get some kind of return on my investment."

Jesse was appalled by this man's conduct and lack of any compassion, but more than that, he was just afraid for Reuben. All that mattered was getting Reuben back. If it took everything in his inventory, so be it.

Sadly, the butcher was right. It wasn't much. Did Jesse really look like that much of a low-life?

"Well, I have some shears."

The man smiled as Jesse pulled them out.

"Oh, that's very nice," he said, but a moment later his smile disappeared. "Ehhh, but surely the life of your friend is worth more than a pair of shears."

Jesse bit his lip and took a breath to keep from blasting in this guy's face to go to the nether. Here he was just trying to buy back his friend, and this guy was trying to extort him?

"I have a hoe," Jesse offered, pulling it out.

"Do I look like a carrot farmer to you?"

This guy is really trying my patience…

Jesse faked a laugh to keep from screaming. "Um… well," he said, trying to keep his cool. "I do have…"

Jesse unsheathed his weapon. "A sword."

He would be sad to give it up, but it was the only thing he still had of any value. Well, aside from some carrots, but the guy had already made his value for those quite clear.

"Hey hey hey, hold on a minute there," the butcher stammered, reeling back a bit. "Are you threatening me?"

Jesse looked down at himself. Holding the sword outward, he had instinctively taken a fighting posture. He wasn't threatening him, but… he didn't have to say he wasn't, did he?

"What do you think?" Jesse murmured, purposing to not specifically say that he was either.

"All right you little maniac, fine," the man blathered, looking unsettled. "Take him, he's yours."

Against his better judgment, Jesse slammed the sword down on the table and picked up Reuben, leaving it behind in place of his friend.

"Pleasure doing business with you, jerk," he grumbled.

Of course, Jesse would never have actually attacked the guy, but for that reason he was glad he took his bluff.

So long, awesome stone sword.

He barely even got to use it, but it had served him well.

After they got a little ways away from the stand, Reuben squirmed and Jesse let him down. No sooner than he did, Reuben gave an offended snort and huffed off in a random direction.

Jesse followed.

"I'm sorry, Reuben," he said, "I never should have let you run off in the woods."

Reuben gave him the cold shoulder, turned up his snout and looked away from him to say, 'I'm not oinking to you anymore.'

"Aww, I bet a hug would make you feel better," Jesse said, kneeling down in front of him and opening up his arms.

The disgruntled face Reuben was making vanished as he jumped up and nuzzled Jesse's face.

"Oh, Reuben, what happened to your eye?" Jesse asked, again noticing the big black spot on his left eye.

Reuben backed up and squeaked out his piggy tale of woe.

'Well you see, Jesse,' he imagined Reuben saying, 'I was running home and this big mean ol' zambie punched me in the face!'

It was his fault, he just knew it. This wouldn't have happened if he'd kept Reuben with him…

"I'm so sorry, Reuben," he said, holding him close again.

"Hey, Farmer Boy!" Jesse heard and perked up. "Over here!"

Jesse jumped to his feet and spotted Petra running up to him with Axel and Olivia in tow.

"Guys!" Jesse shouted in excitement, meeting them halfway.

Olivia frowned incredulously. "Jesse, you did not just answer to 'Farmer Boy.'"

"What? It's true."

"I've been looking for you," said Petra, clearly a little exasperated. "Where've you been?"

Jesse just smiled, too happy to feel bad about inconveniencing her. "I found Reuben!"

Reuben oinked to announce his presence.

Olivia gave a happy, "That's great! I knew you would!" while Axel announced, "The Quincunx Stars are back together! Good to have you back, buddy."

Petra just smiled and spectated their little reunion.

Reuben made the rounds to get his due attention from the others, clearly expecting the same royal treatment from everyone else. He started spouting off a sequence of oinks that Jesse presumed was a retelling of the story Jesse imagined he already told him.

'Well you see,' Reuben was probably saying, 'I was running home and this big mean ol' butcher guy who smelled bad grabbed me and stuffed me in a bag—!'

"So…" inserted Petra, "where did you find him?"

Jesse wasn't even quite sure how to answer that. Reuben had already summed it up so well. But when he thought about what just happened, it seemed almost unbelievable. Though, what he actually ended up saying was probably not the most believable anyway.

"It was… weird, actually. I… I think I just accidentally mugged someone."

Olivia and Axel gave each other that look that meant Jesse had said something they didn't understand in the least. Petra gave Jesse the same look.

"How do you… 'accidentally' mug someone?" Olivia asked, Reuben still blabbing on and begging for her undivided attention as she rubbed his head.

"Well," Jesse tried to explain. "I found Reuben at one of the booths, but the guy wanted to trade for him, so I offered him my shears, but he wanted more, so I offered him my sword too, and he thought I was mugging him, so I just kinda went with it. Technically he just gave him to me, but I left my sword with him."

"Wait…" Petra muttered, "he gave him back to you, and you gave him your sword anyway?"

"Well, I figured he did find Reuben, so I'd leave it as a sort of finder's fee."

Also, he thought it might help to alleviate his conscience and make him feel less like a criminal.

Petra raised an eyebrow. "Your logic doesn't make the most sense, but I admire your shrewdness."

Reuben stood up on his back feet and pawed at Petra's legs. Petra looked a bit shocked and gently pushed him down, patting him on the head.

"Eeey, glad to see you too little guy." She turned back to Jesse and said much more smoothly, "Now that I have you all together, are you ready for some more good news?"

Jesse looked at her, eyes widening. "What?" he wondered.

Petra crossed her arms with a mischievous grin. "I found Ivor."

They all perked at that, giving each other excited looks.

"Come on" she said walking off and gesturing for them to follow. "We need to get into that keynote."

« … »

I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.

— 1 Corinthians 1:10

Author's Notes

So the events in this chapter are a little all over the place, but otherwise, it came out all right. :) Though, for a chapter that was pretty much all about not getting distracted, I sure got distracted a lot while writing it. XD
For some reason, I always have trouble writing dialogue for Aiden because he's not very quick-witted. Also, here's a little bonus Bible verse for ya for that part:

Proverbs 26:18-19

Like a maniac shooting flaming arrows of death is one who deceives their neighbor and says, "I was only joking!"

And I shall leave you with that! ;P Good day to you all!

- "If it isn't the spherehead." — Instead of 'blockhead' as an insult, I used spherehead, because they're all block heads and spherehead sounds like spearhead. I know, it's cheesy, but you should be used to that by now. XP

- Team… Trashbag? — If you're like me, this line probably made absolutely no sense. That's why I changed it to something that at least makes sense with an explanation. :P

- Dear Ranger Wheatley, (everyone else can ignore this) — Thank you so much for your reviews! Unfortunately I can't reply to them if you don't make them from an FFN account, but I'm happy to make an exception once to answer your question. ^^ I do plan on covering the events of episodes 5-8 in a separate story, and I would like to do season 2 as well, presuming I still have the drive to do so by then. XD You can find more information about this on my profile. Thanks so much for your support! I'm glad you're enjoying it. :)

Choice Notes

- Why not do both?— As I'm sure you've noticed, a lot of the choices I make with the dialogue especially try to utilize more than one of the options. I don't go out of the way to do this as much as possible, I just try to make the whole conversation feel natural and make sense while keeping the characters in character. Yes, sometimes if I really like multiple options, I will try to work them in IF it makes sense and doesn't mess with the flow. Sometimes though, it actually helps. :) As for the actual game choices, you can see I did that with the one with the black eye, and also the sword. I had separate reasons for both of these that I'm not going to go into now, but just letting you know, I DID have a reason. XD

Glossary

-Glossary Not Found!— I genuinely couldn't find anything to add to the glossary this time. XD BUT if you see anything that you personally want explained, please let me know. :)