Foreword
I am particularly proud of this chapter two reasons. One which I will tell you now, and the second which I will tell you at the end. The first being, this is the first chapter that I have been able to finish in a timely manner, without rushing or stressing at all, that I have also been totally happy with the end result. I didn't have to get up early to make any last minute changes, nor realize Friday morning that I forgot to do something really important. It's still a first draft no doubt, but it was a fun, challenging, and inspiring experience. So, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. ^^
Chapter XI
Partners in Slime
««««« … »»»»»
Ivy had always been short tempered. She tried to be patient with people, but it was hard to be when so many of them were so stupid.
She had been a clerk for a long time now and had to deal with a lot of people, so she knew. She really did try to see 'positive intent' whenever she could, but she had to put up with idiots so frequently on duty that she refused to put up with them off duty.
Today in particular, she was gathering a few things from the convention before getting her own booth started. She was selling slime for a redstone retailer of sorts. How slime was used in redstone, she would never know. Or care. Likely, most of the people getting the slimeballs wouldn't be redstoners though. They'd be dumb kids who liked gross things for some reason.
Tap tap.
Ivy cringed. She hated being tapped on the shoulder like that. Something about it made her skin crawl and made her want to just—
"Hey you," said a voice from behind her. "Where do you think you're—"
She snapped.
"What do you think you're doing?"
The irked look on the guy's face quickly turned shocked.
"Oh, I'm sorry," the guy said, taking a step back.
"Get away from me!" Ivy blasted.
He looked taken aback and whimpered, "I said I was sorry." As if that helped matters.
Ivy glared at him and stormed off.
The nerve of some people.
As she continued gathering some things for her booth, still, she thought, maybe she had overreacted. The guy was clearly stupid, but that didn't necessarily make it okay to snap at him. She would have to purpose to be a little more…
Ivy felt eyes on her, and turned just in time to see a girl with pigtails look away from her suspiciously, suddenly enraptured by a sign that read, 'Magma Cream Facial Mask. May cause rashes or first degree burns. Results not guaranteed'.
Ivy rolled her eyes and went about her business, but as soon as she did, she could sense the girl staring at her again.
This went on for minutes as she pretended not to notice. The girl was so cautiously suspicious it was getting annoying. If she wanted to talk to her, why not just tap her on the shoulder like everyone else?
Then, finally, it came. The same dreaded sensation on the same shoulder no less.
Tap tap.
Ivy took a quiet breath, and turning around slowly, she forced a courteous, "Can I help you?"
"Oh," the girl said, looking awkward, "No. Sorry. I thought you were someone else."
Ivy sighed and continued on her way. Only a couple minutes later however—
Tap tap.
"Hey," said a third, different voice. "Do you have a beard?"
Ivy craned her head around, seething at this point and too much so to hide it.
"Do I look like I have a beard?" she sneered at him.
The guy didn't flinch at all, which was somehow more annoying than the other two getting annoyingly shy and timid.
"Never mind," he drawled. "Thought you were someone else."
And that time, it was the stranger who walked off on her.
The NERVE of some people!
Finally, she headed for her booth, dreading the night ahead. She loathed to think about dealing with more peo—
Tap tap.
"What now?" Ivy moaned, looking behind her.
"Oh. Sorry," said the redheaded girl who'd tapped her, "you looked like someone else."
Ivy rolled her eyes with a sigh. "So I've heard."
She didn't want to wait around, and made a beeline for her booth where, hopefully, she would be less likely to be mistaken for some dude with a beard.
When she arrived, as if her day couldn't get more unbearable, she was greeted by a woeful sight. Nearby, a couple booths away from hers, was the winning build to the EnderCon buildathon whatever. Apparently the winner had thrown a huge fit to get it moved because, 'people were just walking right past it', and he wanted it somewhere people would 'actually look at it' or something stupid like that.
Now on top of everything else, those chickens would never shut up, and she'd just have to deal with the stupid chickens. Just another day of stupid people making her life more difficult. Or at least more annoying.
Ivy had her head buried in the chest of materials under the booth, when she heard the hollow sound of wood in her ears.
Tap tap.
Ivy shot up from under the counter and snapped, "WHAT?!"
"Whoa, hey," the blonde guy reeled back in surprise, holding his hands out in front of him. "I was… just gonna ask for some slime."
Ivy sighed.
"Sorry," she said. "I thought you were someone else."
« … »
"He went into the Keynote?" Jesse asked.
"Yeah," Petra said, pointing out the bouncer-looking guy posted out in front of the gate. "With the moat around the convention center the only way in is through that gate to that bridge. We're going to have to get past that usher to follow him."
"Thaaat might be easier said than done," Olivia pitched in.
"Okay," said Petra, "so what's the plan?"
As the team discussed their approach, Axel's mind wandered. First it wandered to the idea of eating cookies to celebrate later. Then it wandered to his poor costume that was smoldering out in the woods somewhere. Then to the chicken machine—the build that would go down in history as the dumbest winning build the EnderCon Building Competition would ever know.
Sure it was an awful build. Sure it should have been burned down like theirs had. Buuut, that didn't mean it didn't have at least a couple good qualities. Anything designed to trap and mess with chickens couldn't be all bad, right?
Axel found himself staring at it.
Chickens…
Chickens were the worst. Except when they were cooked. Cooked chicken was the best. Well, after cookies. Feathers were kinda fun too. It was fun to stuff peoples shirts with feathers and watch them go crazy trying to pull them all out. Other than that, though, chickens were just awful. They would stare at you for no reason and peck at you. It was fun to see them do those things to other people, but when one was on the receiving end, it was no fun at all.
"Axel?" Jesse called, the others already heading for the gate. "You comin'?"
Axel looked back at him. "Yeah, I was just—"
"Getting distracted by the chicken machine again?"
Axel wilted. "Yeah."
"Well, c'mon," Jesse urged. "We don't have all night."
« … »
As they approached the usher, Jesse noticed he wore a button-up shirt and a mop of blonde hair atop his head. He looked like any normal surfer dude—not that surfer dudes fit any definition of the word 'normal'—and he had the voice to match.
"So, yeah, hey," said Jesse. It was valid enough. Reuben gave a similar greeting.
The 'play' as they decided was to try and persuade him with a lie. Jesse felt a bit bad about it, but it wasn't like they were just trying to get a free show.
Petra followed that up with a smooth, "What would it take to get us inside tonight?"
The usher raised his brow and muttered, "Uh… tickets."
He gave a hearty chortle as if it were the best joke ever, then added, "That was a good one. You should laugh."
So, Jesse thought. That's how you wanna play, huh? Well, then it's time for mister nice guy.
Jesse laughed as well. "Heh, ha ha! That was a good one!"
"You think so, man?" asked the usher with a smile, checking someone else's ticket and admitting them as he spoke. "No one ever likes my jokes. Probs 'cause I usually tell them to people while I'm dragging them out kicking and screaming."
"Ha, yeah!" Jesse went along, despite the almost threatening tone to his comment. "See, the thing is—we had tickets, but we lost them."
"Aw, man," the usher moaned sympathetically. "I hate when stuff like that happens."
"Ugh, me too! I feel like such an idiot!"
Moment of truth. Or moment of… finding out if the lie works.
"I'm sorry, but… no tickets, no show."
Well, that was a bust. He couldn't say he was surprised, though. He'd barely expected it to work in the first place.
As they walked away again, Jesse overheard another group trying to get in without tickets.
"Please!" one of them said. "We have to get in to see the—I mean… we're on an important mission!" The usher gave them the same response.
Was that what they looked like? If so, Jesse thought, it would be impossible to get in. Funny because they actually were on an important mission. Sort of.
They regrouped a ways away and formed a circle so as not to be heard.
"We have to do something," Petra said.
"Like what?" questioned Olivia. "This show has been sold out for ages."
"We need a distraction," said Jesse. "Something to keep that usher's eyes on just long enough for us to sneak through."
Reuben gave an oink of agreement.
"Maybe one of us could talk to him while the others sneak around?" Olivia pitched.
"Hmm, something tells me that won't be possible with the moat," said Petra. "We could… no, that wouldn't work."
Jesse wracked his brain for a solution. He glanced at Olivia who looked to be thinking hard, then to Petra who looked determined to come up with a way. Then he looked to Axel who was… staring at the chicken machine.
"Axel!" Jesse exclaimed.
Axel jumped. "Huh? Oh, yeah, sorry—I was thinking, I just got distracted—"
Jesse beamed and threw up his hands in excitement. "You're a genius!"
Axel looked confused. "I am?"
Jesse rushed to explain as Olivia and Petra gave him their full attention. "What's more distracting than chickens?"
"True," said Petra raising an eyebrow, "A lot of chickens running around would definitely be a distraction. But where would we get that many chickens?"
He thought she'd never ask.
Jesse smiled and pointed directly at the winning build.
"Right there."
Petra blinked. "Oh. That would work."
"Woah woah," Axel blurted out. "Are you actually suggesting… what I think you're suggesting?" he shook his head in disbelief. "Are you suggesting that we grief that chicken machine?"
Jesse blinked and looked to Reuben. "I… I guess I am. Is… is that okay?"
Petra shrugged. "I'm all for ridding the world of stupidity."
Olivia mirrored her thoughts with a simple, "Ditto."
"That thing is FULL of chickens," Axel heavily emphasized this, pointing over at it. "You realize that once you break it, chickens are going to start flying EVERYWHERE."
"Well, that was the idea."
"Oh boy!" Axel giddily hopped up and down. "Tell me I'm not dreaming!"
Jesse had never seen him so excited.
"But you have to break that pane of glass." Olivia pointed near the base of the cage where the chickens were gathered, which happened to be about five blocks up. "How're you going to reach it?"
That was the question. Jesse hadn't a clue.
"Let's look around," said Petra. "there has to be something we can do."
The group went their separate ways again, in search of something they could use to break the chicken machine, or otherwise create a chicken-bomb-sized distraction. Jesse went straight to his trusted advisor.
"Reuben, I need your guidance," Jesse reverently addressed him. "What would you do in a situation like this?"
Reuben wisely gave a series of grunts and concluded with a nod.
"I see…" said Jesse. "Good idea."
Jesse followed Reuben's advice and noticed a guy jumping up and down on a squishy block of slime. It seemed to be a demonstration, next to which was a booth for slime.
"Hmm…" Jesse looked back to the chicken machine as an idea formed in his mind.
If he were to jump from the top of one of the booth shades and onto a slime block, that should be enough to get him up to break that glass. Then all the chickens would be home free, and so would they.
He wasted no time and went straight up to the slime stand, but Jesse almost jolted when he saw who was running it.
It was the lady from before who he'd thought was Ivor.
"Ohh… heeyyy…" he said, trying—and failing—to suppress the sudden surge of awkwardness he felt. "We meet again… heh heh… heh…"
The lady stared at him and raised a mildly irritated eyebrow.
At least she's cooled down now, he thought. Still, he should at least apologize.
"I'm really sorry about earlier—I honestly thought you were someone else." Jesse put on the best smile he could.
The lady quirked an eyebrow, then actually gave a slight smile of her own in return. "Apology accepted."
Whew! Jesse internally exhaled.
"Soo… could I get a slime block?" he pleaded, then added for good measure, "Pretty please?"
"We're only giving out slimeballs," she explained, "Slime blocks can be purchased from the business owners on the sign—" she pointed to sign in front of the booth, "—or you can craft your own with nine slimeballs. Which, before you ask, I cannot give you. We've got a limited supply today and we're only giving out two per customer."
Jesse smiled. Fortunately for him, there were five of them. That would be enough to get ten.
"Thanks!" he said, "I'll be right back," and he took off to get his friends.
« … »
Jesse grinned, holding his two slimeballs, each of his friends with their own set.
He had just finished explaining his plan to them when it suddenly hit him.
"Wait, this is only eight slimeballs." He had forgotten that despite his awesomeness, Reuben still didn't technically count as a person, so he couldn't really count as a customer. "We need one more to make a block."
"Okay," Petra jumped into action again. "We need to find a way to get more slime, and quick."
"On it!" Axel acknowledged, and before Jesse could say another word, all of them had piled their slimeballs into his arms and taken off again.
"Okay," Jesse muttered to himself, pocketing all the slime before looking around.
He considered just purchasing another ball, but his encounter with the butcher proved how little his current inventory was worth.
"Where to find one more—"
Not a moment later, as if destiny dictated he always be right exactly within view exactly when he was most wanted—or most unwanted—Jesse spotted Lukas standing ten blocks away, tossing a slimeball up and down no less.
It was as if they had conjured him.
Without thinking, Jesse blurted out, "Slimeball!"
Lukas perked and glanced at Jesse with a look of baffled bewilderment mixed with anger. "Come again?"
"No—not you!" Jesse blathered. "I mean, yes, you, but not—you're not—I need your slimeball."
Lukas looked at the slime in his hand.
"You… need my slimeball?"
"I swear, I have a really good explanation—"
Lukas blinked. "Okay?"
Jesse was about to speak, but felt weird about the idea of telling him what was going on without inviting him to come along. Honestly, it wasn't that he didn't want to invite him along. After their last conversation, he was… well, he was cool with him. At least right now. He knew Petra wouldn't mind, but Olivia and Axel…
"Olivia and Axel aren't the boss of you." Petra had said. "In fact, if you ask me, it seems more like you're the boss of them. The chances of them 'going along with it' are pretty high."
He didn't want to push it on them, but, well… if he'd had that mentality when they were kids, Axel and Olivia wouldn't have become friends either.
Lukas blinked at him again. "Jesse? You in there?"
"Oh—right," Jesse babbled. "Umm… we're trying to get into the keynote to follow the creepy beardy guy, and…" he paused. "Lukas, do you want to come with us?"
Lukas gave him a bemused look. "You want me? To come with you."
Before Jesse could respond, Petra came running over with Olivia and Axel close behind.
Petra smiled. "Lukas!"
"Well I'm popular today," he smirked, then gave Jesse a wry grin. "Okay. Count me in."
Axel looked shocked. "You invited Lukas?"
Olivia looked dubious. "You invited Lukas?"
"Yeah?" Jesse answered. He left it at that. While Axel and Olivia gave each other somewhat confused looks, they didn't say anything.
"Did Jesse explain?" Petra asked Lukas.
"Um…" Lukas looked somewhat bemused over at Jesse. "Kinda?"
Jesse gave a bashful smile, rubbing the back of his head, and Petra raised her eyebrow at him.
Turning to Lukas again, she explained, "We need another slimeball so we can break into the keynote and find the guy that ripped me off."
Jesse jumped in to add, "Oh, and we're gonna break that stupid chicken machine that won the contest."
He wasn't sure… he could have been imagining it, but Lukas' eyes opened wide, giving him an almost crazed look, with the impression that he was thinking, "Did you say chicken machine? In combination with 'break'?"
"Sold," said Lukas, immediately handing his slimeball to Jesse.
Jesse grinned. Now they had nine slimeballs, enough to make a block of slime, and hopefully enough to get them into the keynote.
Conveniently, the crafting booth happened to be right there, and right across from the chicken machine to boot. That would make climbing up without being noticed a cinch. All they needed now was the slime block.
Right as Jesse was about to throw all the slime down onto the table and unceremoniously spread them all out, Lukas spoke up.
Jesse instinctively slowed down to a snails pace so he could listen.
"So, you guys have been building together for a long time, huh? You've got good chemistry."
Axel chimed in, "You jealous?"
"I'm just saying, I think it's cool you have a team that works so well together."
"You're totally jealous."
What's going on in that head of yours, Lukas?
"How's it going, Jesse?" asked Axel "You know how to do this—a slime in every slot, and in every slot a slime."
Jesse had impressively taken this long to place five of the nine balls, but he couldn't take too much longer or he'd start to raise suspicions.
"I'm not jealous," Lukas continued through a slight laugh. "The Ocelots are great builders. I'm happy to call them teammates and I'm happy to build with them. Sometimes, they just have a hard time working together."
"Among other things," Axel inserted.
Jesse stopped for a moment.
Lukas had said 'teammates'. Not 'friends'.
Jesse raised a curious eyebrow as Lukas went on. "It's just nice to see that you all get along so well."
He doesn't talk like a jerk. Actually, he just talks, like, a lot.
"I mean, I'm not not saying I wouldn't prefer—"
"You about done there Jesse?" Olivia interrupted. Whether it was because she was tired of waiting, or tired of listening to Lukas ramble—or both—he should probably get a move on.
"I know, what's taking so long?" complained Axel.
"Cut him some slack," Petra said sounding sarcastic, "it's only his second time crafting."
"All right, all right!" Jesse said, placing the last slimeball down. "I'm done. Yeesh."
With that, the block appeared on the table, replacing the ingredients.
"Ta-da!" he announced. "One slime block!" Jesse looked down at the squishy and—well, slimy block on the table and muttered in disgust, "Gross."
Olivia snatched up the block of gross without hesitation, as if it were a piece of cake. "I'll take that." She walked off and started muttering to herself, "Now, if I just line this up right—"
"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Lukas babbled. "Are we sure about this?"
They all turned to look at him.
"Sure about what?" Jesse asked.
"Sure about actually doing damage to someone's property?" he said. "Not that it doesn't sound fun, but…"
Jesse was just about to respond when who should come strutting up to them but the winner of the EnderCon Building Competition.
Oh no, not this guy…
Jesse had never even learned the guy's name, but apparently he'd won once in the past, and now he was convinced he was the next Soren.
"Hello there," said the 'winner', a smug look on his face and an incredibly obnoxious nasal quality to his voice. He looked like a sloppy nerd, and wore the dumbest most gaudy looking t-shirt of a chicken he'd ever seen. "Did you see my amazing build set up right in front of the keynote? Yup! This bad boy beat the Ocelots and broke their nine year streak!"
The lot of them gave him dirty looks—even Reuben—but this guy pretended not to notice. He wasn't oblivious to it, he just wanted to flex his nonexistent skills on two of the only teams who were actually good at building.
"I know, I know, you want an autograph, right?" he bragged. "Well unfortunately, I don't have the time. I need to go prepare myself for my meeting with Gabriel."
Somehow this guy managed to be even more smug than Aiden. While Aiden was just a dumb jerk, this guy elevated himself so high up into the clouds it was amazing he didn't demand they refer to him as 'your majesty'.
"But if I'm not too busy, I'll try to get you one later." The guy laughed.
No one said anything. They all just turned to Jesse with looks that suggested if he didn't do something, any one of them might wring this guy's neck. Jesse responded by turning to Lukas with a look of his own that suggested if he still had any reservations after this, there was no hope for him.
Lukas returned the look with a nod and a simple, "Do it."
Jesse smiled and happily nodded to Olivia.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" the guy asked indignantly.
Olivia didn't say a word and went straight to setting up the slime block.
"What—What are you doing?"
They ignored him. Jesse gestured to Axel and Axel immediately got in place to give Jesse a boost. Jesse climbed atop the crafting table booth and looked out at the chicken machine then down at the slime block.
One distraction, coming right up!
Jesse backed up to the edge, charged, and jumped.
Jesse hit the glass as hard as he could. The glass shattered, and Jesse fell to the ground with more poise than he should have been capable of.
Just like Axel had predicted, the chickens flew EVERYWHERE. Under booths and over them, on top of counters and—people. And the people, oh boy the people, they started racing around like mad to get away from the stir-crazy birds as they ran amok, evidently intent on seeking revenge for their unlawful imprisonment.
Even though all they were really doing was running around, it seemed their distraction had worked even better than they expected. The usher was not only distracted, but took to the fray in a flurry, barking out instructions for people like, "Keep your eyes closed! They will peck out your eyes!" As for the culprits, no one was even looking at them, as they all seemed much more tied up with guarding their inventory or running around like—well, like chickens.
As for the damage done to the chicken machine itself, the one thing that wasn't a surprise was that no one seemed to care. Even as the owner shouted for help and for justice to be served, his cries went completely and entirely ignored.
Jesse couldn't help but smile at the sight. While they were annoying, chickens were harmless, but the chaos suited their needs just fine.
"Come on!" Jesse urged the team. "Let's get in there!"
His four friends and Lukas looked to him, each wearing a similar look of pleasure, and they dashed across the bridge together.
« … »
A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.
— Proverbs 15:1-2
Author's Notes
"What would it take to get us inside tonight?"
The usher raised his brow and muttered, "Uh… Lukas."
That was a good one, you should laugh.
Now as for the second reason. This chapter was a deceptively important chapter to me personally. Deceptively because I myself didn't even quite realize how important to me it was until I finished it. This marks a spot in the road that I have been excited to get to for a LONG time, and once I put the final line in this chapter down onto the white screen, it was like taking a breath of fresh air. It suddenly hit me that I've arrived at the first major turning point in this long story, and I don't even want to say what it is. X) I realize I tend to ramble, and I don't want to unintentionally spoil the experience for anyone because I couldn't keep my mouth shut. That being said, I'm particularly proud of this chapter for that reason as well. ^^
My one regret with this chapter was that I wasn't able to work in Lukas' "Anything's possible," line. XD Second draft material!
-Fixed it! — And finally! My brilliant plan shall finally be recognized! The true masterful reason behind making it so they both lose the competition! Ahem… If Jesse and his friends win the competition, why aren't they allowed to enter the keynote without a ticket?! Likewise, if the Ocelots win, why isn't Lukas in there? This one could be reasoned out with something as simple as Lukas just not being a big fan of the Order in general. This makes sense anyway as he doesn't really seem to be that into them anyway. Still, if he didn't go in, couldn't he maybe get them inside somehow? Or wouldn't they at least think to try this? My idea fixes everything and makes the story perfect! ):{
- Breaking the Chicken Machine— So I realized while adapting this thing that them breaking the chicken machine really was a selfish thing for them to do. That was one of the things I really wanted to fix, but it still needed to happen. My hope was that in making the build they break the one they both lost to, and one that literally NO ONE likes it's still not exactly morally right, but it's much more understandable at least. XD
- Don't make me call security! :{ — I couldn't help but notice that a lot of people in this part of the game are just weirdly hostile toward Jesse for no good reason. Ivy seriously overreacts to Jesse mistaking her for Ivor, and the chicken guy threatens to call security on Jesse when he hasn't done anything. Anyways, that wasn't really something I 'fixed' as much as something I just changed, but yeah. XD Thought I'd mention it.
- Chiiiiiiickeeeeen! — So yeah, you probably noticed if you remembered it, that I took out the usher's crippling fear of chickens. :P Wrong! I took out the statement of it without removing the allusion to it, so you can see it how you want. :]
Choice Notes
Yeah, most of the choices in this one were either obvious, or I just ended up doing something else entirely. :P I was temped to have him break the glass with his face, but I needed him to be able to describe the following events and not be seeing stars. :P
Glossary
-Slime — Slime is bouncy and squishy and can be used in certain aspects of redstone. The ball variant can be used in crafting fun stuff, and the block variants are the trampolines of Minecraft. :D They're lots of fun! Albeit possibly gross. XP They're obtained from slimes which are monsters mostly found underground that look like large green jelly cubes.
-Magma Cream — Really sounds nicer than it is. XP Not much is known about its properties, just that it's hot stuff (supposedly cream) obtained from magma cubes in the nether. Magma cubes are monsters that resemble slimes, but look more like—well, magma. Magma cream is mostly used in brewing.
- The Booth Shades— Yeah, I felt the need to mention for the sake of anyone not privy to Minecraft that this is possible. Any solid block, no matter how unstable it would be in real life is just as stable as the ground. Man, I really want to go over this story again and make it REALLY read like a novel one of these days, where you can read it and not need ANY of this stuff explained. :D I'm going to finish it once first, though. XP