Foreword
You know what's annoying? I didn't have trouble writing this, but every time I sat down to write it, my mind SUDDENLY became obsessed with thinking about literally every other random thing in the planet! That game I only played ten minutes of, that cartoon I watched like three years ago, that Minecraft map that I played a few days ago, that song I listened to a couple times when I was like fifteen, that stupid STUPID movie! :((( Like my brain was just like, 'Nuuuu, I just wanna goof around and have fuuun! I don't wanna write and be productive, waaaa!'
So I'm sorry this is a little late in the day, but I have someone to throw on the minecart tracks this time! Yay! :D You can blame my sister. She wanted to proofread it, but had work until a bit later. XP Lol, just kidding. My sister and brother are amazing! :D
Anyway, enjoy. :)
Chapter XII
Keys to the Keynote
««««« … »»»»»
"So… just to clarify," Petra heard Lukas ask through a whisper, bringing up problems with the plan when it was far too late to do anything about it as he so often liked to do, "we're not worried at all about the fact that we just broke someone's build, and will likely get in trouble for it?"
"Pft. I could fix that thing in my sleep," Olivia scoffed.
Lukas nodded. "Fair point."
The four—five—uh, six of them—including the pig—shifted along the wall inside the auditorium. It wasn't likely they'd be noticed now that they were inside as the place was crowded and dim everywhere but the brightly lit stage, but Petra kept an eye out for security anyway.
Though she wasn't sure why it came as a surprise to her, she felt great going into this with allies this time. Of course it wasn't as though she couldn't handle one crazy old guy alone, but it was nice to not have to.
She looked ahead to Jesse in front, for the first time seeing the fruits of her labor. They all followed behind him, somehow with Petra bringing up the rear. It was definitely a change of pace for her, but she didn't regret a single effort.
Having backup really was—
"And now," a male announcer called out in a loud voice from the stage, "The moment you've all been waiting for!"
"Here to announce the winner of this year's building competition…" said the female co-announcer, and Petra looked to see all of her weird friends crane their heads up to look at the stage and immediately become enraptured—including the pig.
Petra sighed and resisted the urge to smack herself.
The two on stage continued to play off each other's announcements as her 'team' stared, rapt with anticipation and resembling a bunch of dogs eyeing a steak.
"For the first time ever here at EnderCon…"
"We are very proud to present—"
"The one… the only…"
Then the two shouted in sync what would probably be cool if she cared at all, "Gabriel the Warrior!"
More lights, some smoke, and a rising platform later, Gabriel the Hero Dude was standing before his crowd of adoring fans making his grand opening. They all went wild with cheers ranging from the standard "Gabriel! Aaahh!" to the ever popular, "We love you!"
"Thank you, thank you," their hero said, waving his hands down to quiet them and giving a slight bow. He then threw his hands up in the air and asked theatrically, "Are. You. With me?!"
"TO THE END!" the crowd chanted.
Petra tapped a foot.
Just announce the dumb winner already so we can all get on with our lives, please?
"We are proud to announce the winners of the EnderCon Building Competition…"
Finally.
"The, uh—" Gabriel squinted at the paper. "Get-pw-pyu-pooned-pawned—I think there's a typo here."
A frazzled-looking girl with a book and quill speed-walked onto the stage and rushed to whisper something in his ear.
"Not a typo?" he asked, sounding surprised.
More whispering.
Gabriel looked confused. "Powned? But there's no 'O'. There's no vowel here."
Even more whispering.
"Slang?" His face fell. "Oh."
With the incredible acoustics, Petra could audibly hear Gabriel mutter under his breath, "This was a bad idea."
This got a laugh out of the crowd, and Gabriel the Embarrassed Celebrity went about trying to brush it aside as quickly as possible.
Petra looked over at Lukas who had somehow ended up following directly behind Jesse. As the two of them listened intently, Petra thought, They… really aren't that different.
She could feel the shame and regret radiating off of her friends, and finally decided enough was enough.
"Okay, you've paid your respects and gotten your closure, now can we please get to the reception?"
They snapped out of it, and Jesse actually shook his head. "Huh? Oh, yeah."
Petra rolled her eyes, and right then, who should she spot walking out of a door on the side of the room but him.
"Shh!" she hushed, pointing him out and whispering urgently, "Look!"
Ivor.
The petty jerk carefully closed the door behind him and looked around, but unfortunately for him, his biggest threat was completely shrouded. Ivor sneaked away down another hallway, a mischievous speck in his eye, and Petra smiled.
Seems our luck is turning around.
"Well?" Lukas asked Jesse. "Do we follow him or his tracks?"
Jesse looked back to Petra and all other eyes followed, the whole group giving her their full attention.
"Let's see what he has behind that door," Petra said. "If we can just get what we came for and not have to confront him, all the better. I don't feel like causing another scene."
Jesse nodded and they all followed as he led them around the crowd to the door.
Inside was a dimly lit… uh… closet?
"It's…" Jesse started, seeming surprised himself.
"A… storage closet?" Petra cut in.
Olivia looked skeptical, wondering, "Why would Ivor be hiding in a storage closet?"
"With how he looks," said Jesse, "how could he not be hiding in a storage closet?"
Axel snorted a giggle. Reuben just snorted, and raised an eyebrow. Lukas just raised an eyebrow.
"No, no," Petra muttered. "It can't be that simple."
"Wait—over here." Olivia motioned and walked over to farthest wall from the door. Petra couldn't help but notice that it was much clearer near the back of the room. In fact, all the junk looked to have been shifted toward the front end.
Olivia pointed out one chiseled stone block in the wall mixed in randomly with a bunch of stone bricks. "Look."
"Well," Lukas crossed his arms and said, sounding irritated, "that's mildly infuriating."
"This looks intentional," said Olivia. "I've seen Redstone Engineers use tricks like this to mark a spot without making the redstone obvious."
Petra looked at her, curious. "Are you saying this might be a secret door?"
"Well it's not very likely. If this guy couldn't pay a diamond, there's no way he could afford that many redstone components. We'd need a switch to find out."
Jesse's face lit up, and with a goofy grin, he slowly reached into his pocket.
Oh gosh no.
"Jesse?" Lukas wondered aloud.
If he pulls out the lever…
Jesse pulled out the lever and placed it right on the spot on the wall.
If that works, I'm gonna…
Jesse hit the lever, and lo and behold, the stone wall retracted into the adjacent walls block by block until it revealed a dark stairway behind it.
Petra blinked.
After a moment, Lukas broke the silence. "Wow."
"You can say that again," said Olivia. "Who knew Jesse carried around a lever with him wherever he went?"
Honestly shocked that had worked, Petra couldn't think of anything else to say but, "Way to go, Lever Boy."
Jesse was still smiling, and even brighter than before, but Olivia frowned and crossed her arms. "Hey, what about me?"
"That was really smart, Olivia," Lukas said with a smile, and Olivia suddenly looked very proud as well.
Axel frowned at him. "That's—That's what I was gonna say."
Petra expected Lukas to make a witty retort—something along the lines of, 'should've said it sooner, then'—but either he didn't think about it or he was holding his tongue. If it was the latter, then she had to admit, she was proud of him.
As Jesse pulled his lever off the wall—looking far too pleased with himself—Petra fought back the smile that wanted to crawl onto her face. Jesse's inner dork didn't need an ounce of encouragement.
Jesse looked to her. "You ready?"
Petra nodded. "Ready."
« … »
Jesse crept down into the passage below, his friends behind him and the unknown ahead of him. Even though all the steps were all made of stone, he could swear some of them were creaking.
At the bottom, Jesse cautiously peered around the corner where the wall to their left let out into a large, only slightly brighter room. It was completely littered with with bookshelves, most of which were also littered with potions. The floor was cracked and in some places even mossy.
Jesse looked back. His friends were piled up behind him, each trying to get a good look themselves while still staying behind him—even Reuben who perched atop Axel like the proverbial cherry on top.
As Jesse walked out into the open, the rest of them took the liberty to do the same. Everyone but Lukas who stayed peeking out behind the wall, looking skeptical.
"What is all this?" Olivia wondered
"Looks like it used to be the basement," said Jesse. "Weird place to have a hideout..."
Petra stood by Jesse with her hands to her hips. "I'll bet you anything I'll find my Wither skull here."
Axel, who was already excitedly looking around, chipped in, "And if we find anything else cool to steal along the way, so be it, right?"
Petra crossed her arms. "Axel—that's not what we're here to do."
"We're getting payback, right?" Axel argued. "No better payback than thieving from a thief."
"We're not here for payback, we're just here for pay."
"But if we can't get pay, I say we get even."
Jesse looked back and forth between them.
Petra frowned. "I don't want to stoop to his level."
Axel, sounding flustered, blustered, "I thought that was the whole point!"
Jesse decided to interrupt them, lest this go on all night.
"Axel, Ivor could come back any minute. Let's just focus on finding the skull, not—stealing."
"Or a diamond," Petra added. "I'll take either."
"Right," said Jesse. "A diamond would probably be preferable."
Axel finally went quiet and pouted, boyishly poking at one of the shelved bottles as the team spread out to search.
He almost couldn't blame Axel. He knew why he was so excited. He'd been so hyped from destroying the chicken machine that the idea of getting to unleash his inner griefer went to his head. To have all those hopes—weird though they were—dashed so quickly must have been sad for him.
Jesse peeked at some of the books as he walked under an arch made of bookshelves, taking every step cautiously lest he bump into one of them and get a potion to the head. Not surprisingly, it was mostly stuff about brewing.
Just ahead, Petra was going through a large trunk on the ground. As he walked by her she exclaimed, "Ah-ha!"
He turned in excitement. "You found it?!"
"Nope," she stated, then materialized a sword. This wasn't just any sword, however. This sword was colorful and super flashy, shimmering even in the lowlight.
"Whoa!" he marveled. "Is that a—GOLD sword?!"
"Yeah…" she said, astoundingly not sounding the slightest bit amazed, or even surprised. "Not the best material for a sword. Too heavy. And too soft… I can't imagine a gold sword would be much better in combat than a lever…" she paused, looking thoughtful, then shrugged. "But, it's still a sword."
Petra pushed it into his hands. "Here."
It was indeed a bit cumbersome now that he was holding it himself, but Jesse turned a curious eye to her.
"But I thought you didn't want to 'stoop to his level'."
"This isn't stooping to his level," she said, "this is being prepared to defend yourself. I won't have you unarmed around a guy who threatened to kill you."
Wow. That was… kinda sweet of her.
Good enough for him. Jesse smiled and pocketed the weapon. "Thanks, Petra."
"Anything for my new 'super-close friend'," she teased.
Jesse rubbed the back of his head with an awkward smile.
Next Jesse approached Axel, who was either examining… or admiring a shelf covered in things.
"Find anything?" Jesse asked, afraid to hear the response.
"I wanna steal that. And that," Axel answered, pointing at a weird-looking device and a potion of unknown substance consecutively. "I just wanna touch that."
Axel looked to his right at a mushroom. A mushroom… a mushroom?
"It's just a mushroom."
"Yeah, but the mushrooms around home are only ever brown. I've never seen a red one before. Not in person." The way Axel said this, you'd think he was talking about a celebrity, or an endangered species. Jesse raised an eyebrow.
"Just touch it, then."
"Oh really? Oh man!"
Axel touched it.
Nothing happened.
Axel pouted and drawled, "Well, that was disappointing."
He wasn't sure what Axel had been expecting, but for some reason now he felt compelled to poke it as well.
Jesse poked it.
Nothing happened.
"Huh."
« … »
What a bummer.
All this trouble, and they weren't even going to get their just desserts.
Axel had almost resigned to go back to 'just looking' again when out of the corner of his eye, he spotted possibly—no, undoubtedly—the most enchanting jewel of a find a guy could ever hope to behold, only outshone by Petra herself.
He wished he could steal her, but if she didn't even want him to steal junk from a beardy weirdo, she probably wouldn't appreciate her heart being stolen.
It stood atop a grand little pillar that looked valuable in and of itself, but this pillar seemed to bow before what it quite literally held on a pedestal. A potion with a purple liquid inside that glowed with mystery and wonderment as it seemed to swirl around on its own.
"Axel…?" Jesse interrupted his train of thought.
"Huh—yeah yeah," Axel muttered, refusing to take his eyes off the beauty. "I just—got… distracted…"
Mesmerized. Mesmerized was a better word for it.
"C'mon, Axel," Jesse urged him, starting to sound impatient, "make yourself useful and go find that skull."
Axel did his best to pry his eyes away, moping off. He supposed Jesse was right, though. Jesse was always right. In fact as far as Axel could remember, Jesse had never not been right. Axel just wasn't very good at listening.
Axel looked back. Then he shook his head.
No, Axel. We're not stealing. Petra said no stealing.
He thought he was settled… but then something occurred to him…
That potion was probably worth about a diamond.
It wasn't stealing, it was… collateral.
Yeah! This way, if they couldn't find the skull or diamond, they wouldn't leave empty-handed and have all that effort go to waste. Petra was smart, she would understand that. She might even thank him later. And if they did find what they were here for, he could put it right back. He would put it right back. He made a promise to himself that he would, right after they found what they were looking for.
Axel looked around to see if anyone was watching, then hastily and quietly snatched it from its lofty perch.
A good thief always covers his tracks, he reminded himself.
Axel spotted the potion he was eyeing earlier—which looked sad now in comparison—and snagged it, putting the pauper potion on the pedestal in the superior potion's place.
Fixed it!
Ivor wouldn't even miss it. After all, what you didn't know couldn't hurt you, right?
« … »
Olivia was overwhelmed with Ivor's hideaway being in such disarray. She thought the skull would be impossible to find. So, she supposed, she could look for anything that simply wasn't a book.
I've never seen so many books on enchanting… or at all for that matter.
Despite her efforts however, she found herself distracted by the strange titles, some of which were kind of ominous, and most of which were just weird.
The Mysterious Properties of Dragon's Breath… The Lapis in the Rough, the history of lapis lazuli down to its discovery… Enchanting with Foresight — The Ancient Art of Reading in Galactic… by Soren.
Huh…
How she wasn't sure, but she'd somehow ended up standing right next to Lukas as he too browsed the many titles. She didn't suppose she had to, but she suddenly felt awkward not saying anything.
"What a strange collection of books," Olivia mused.
"I know, right?" Lukas agreed, tilting his head slightly and squinting to read the title, "'I Gold You So—Impress your friends with your golden knowledge'?" He coughed through a chuckle and smiled in amusement. "What is this?"
"Not exactly a page turner," she replied. She couldn't imagine getting through five sentences of the thing without falling asleep or tearing her hair out.
"No kidding," he said. "And there are so many. This is more books than even I could ever read."
Olivia raised an eyebrow at him. "You read?"
Lukas squinted, seeming mildly perplexed. "Is… that surprising?"
"No," she insisted, suddenly a little embarrassed. "You just… don't seem the type."
Nice save, Olivia.
What was she thinking? She wasn't supposed to care about what Lukas thought anyway.
"Heh… well," he said, smirking and pulling a book from the shelf. "'100 Ways NOT to Make a Splash Potion' definitely isn't my my type of read."
"Hey guys," Jesse greeted, and Olivia turned to face him. "You find anything?"
Lukas smiled and sarcastically asked, "Uhh… you want an instruction manual on 'How To Build a Creepy Villain Lair Using Everyday Objects'?"
Olivia laughed. Wow, she never thought she'd laugh at one of Lukas' snarky witticisms.
Jesse shrugged. "Olivia?"
"Well he's no slouch when it comes to enchanting," she said. "This is pretty advanced stuff."
Jesse rubbed the back of his head, staring off to the side as he murmured, "Sooo… you two… getting along?"
Olivia stared at him. That was a bit of a weird question.
"Oh we're tearing each other to pieces," said Lukas sarcastically.
"He's ferocious," she added.
Lukas laughed. Olivia grinned.
"Okay," Jesse said, sounding kinda perturbed. "Good. Good."
Olivia raised an eyebrow, wondering for the eighth time tonight what exactly Jesse was up to. She'd been surprised to see him talking to Lukas at EnderCon but figured it was the typical post-competition humdrum—until, that is, Jesse actually invited him along with them. Jesse had elected to not explain why. She hadn't pressed, but she was very curious. She'd thought he hated Lukas every bit as much as she and Axel had, if not more. Why the sudden change of heart?
She had to admit though, she could possibly be starting to see why herself.
"So what did this guy want a Wither skull for?" Lukas asked.
"I don't know," Jesse shrugged. "Make a banner?"
"I mean he could just want it for decoration, I guess," Lukas said. "That's why I would want one."
Jesse went on casually, not even making eye contact, "Well when he threatened me—"
Olivia flinched.
"—Threatened you?" she almost blasted.
"Yeah, didn't I mention that?" said Jesse. "He held a sword to my throat?"
Olivia turned to Lukas who looked shocked. "Wait, wait, wait, this guy tried to kill you?"
Olivia watched the interaction play out as Jesse and Lukas went back and forth and she struggled to keep up.
"Yeah?" Jesse said, like almost getting killed wasn't that big a deal.
"And we're down in his creepy basement lair?"
"Yup."
"With no one in the outside world knowing where we are?"
Jesse paused a moment at that one, now looking a little nervous himself. "Yeeeah…"
Lukas blinked several times, silence hanging in the air for a good five seconds before he finally muttered, slowly and clearly, "Maybe we should hurry then…"
"Just keep looking," Jesse said, more concern lacing his voice now. "We'll be out of here soon. I hope."
« … »
Reuben searched and searched, but he couldn't find anything that even somewhat resembled what he imagined the head of a skeleton would look like if it were withery.
He was starting to feel discouraged, so he stood in the corner and stared at the ground.
Jesse came over with a smile and said to him happily, "Hey Reuben, find any clues?"
Reuben was distraught to disappoint him, but he slumped and hung his head in shame.
"I'm sorry Jesse, I failed," he snorted at the ground.
"Aw, don't be so hard on yourself," Jesse said, hugging Reuben softly and pressing his mouth to his forehead.
Reuben squeed, suddenly rejuvenated.
What was he doing? This was important, he could tell. He had to keep looking! He couldn't let Jesse down!
As Jesse went back about looking himself, Reuben redoubled his efforts.
He decided to stop using his eyes since he didn't know what it looked like anyway, and instead trust his nose.
He started at all the most important looking places, the small pedestal in the middle of the room, around the mushroom on the counter top, and he found nothing. Then he moved to the edges of the room. That's when he sensed something.
He could smell it.
He started sniffing even more furiously, determined to follow through.
He was close! He was—!
Bonk.
Reuben grunted and looked up in indignant surprise as Lukas turned around to look down at him. Reuben gestured with his head for him to move.
Lukas just raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"Move it dude!" Reuben snorted. He would have barked, but he wasn't a dog. "You're in the way!"
Reuben began prodding and shoving him with his nose until Lukas finally seemed to get the hint.
"Okay, okay," he said, backing away and leaving Reuben to work in peace.
Reuben sniffed at the wall where Lukas just was, then up just a little bit.
There was definitely something here.
"I found something! I found something!" he oinked, trying to get Jesse's attention. It wasn't a Wither skull, at least he didn't think it was, but it sure was something! This smell was special, something he'd never smelled before. It had to be important, he just knew it!
« … »
"What is it, buddy? You smell something?" Jesse asked, coming over as soon as he heard the pig's call.
He can't have actually found something… Lukas raised an eyebrow. Could he?
Curious, Lukas watched.
Jesse's pig snorted excitedly at the wall, pawing at it with his hooves and rubbing his snout against it.
"Something over there?" Jesse examined the wall and only a moment later gave a triumphant, "Ah-ha!"
Jesse pulled out his lever again and placed it where Lukas just noticed another block marker in the wall, same as the one on the outside door. Lukas was… impressed.
Wow. Smart pig.
Jesse threw the switch and before them, the biggest most imposing bookcase retracted into the floor before them.
"Good work, Reuben!" he exclaimed.
Lukas observed as Jesse rubbed Reuben's head as a reward and Reuben proudly stood up on his hind legs. Lukas smiled.
He's… he's a good friend.
"A secret door in a secret room?" said Olivia, the first to arrive as they all wandered over. "Seems a little… excessive."
"Aaand Lever Boy does it again!" Petra said.
"Wow," Lukas commended at last. "Great intuition."
Jesse gave him a dubious look.
Lukas blinked. "What?"
"Jesse, Lukas wasn't being sarcastic," said Petra. "That was a compliment."
"Oh. Okay," Jesse said.
Confused, Lukas wondered, "Wasn't… that obv—"
"Lukas shut up," Petra muttered.
Well okay then, he thought.
"Man, it's a good thing we have you to interpret Petra," joked Axel, "or we'd never understand a word he says."
Lukas ignored him, not sure how to go about pleasing them if simple compliments were too dangerous.
"Um… guys?" Olivia murmured, sounding a bit concerned as she called their attention back to the secret behind the bookshelf. "What is it?"
Lukas reeled back a bit when he saw for the first time just what had been hiding in plain sight. It was… a small build of some kind with the blocks in the shape of a T. He recognized all the blocks but the one in the middle.
"What in the Nether?" Petra blurted out.
Olivia scoffed and corrected, "Petra, your language!"
"The Nether is all this stuff?" Jesse questioned.
Olivia glared at him.
"Soul Sand," Petra pointed out the blocks that made up the three points—the ones he recognized. "It's everywhere in the Nether."
Lukas had read about it, but he'd never seen it up close before.
"What about that block in the middle?" Jesse read his mind, indicating the true object of interest.
It was an orange block quite unlike anything Lukas had ever built with, or had even read about. It had what looked like a small dial on its front, each of the nine slots illuminated with their own unique color.
"I've never seen one of these before…" Olivia marveled, now enraptured by it. She got a little closer to it, stepping up onto the platform it rested on. "Do you feel that?" she said, taking another step closer and raising a hand up toward it. "It's—almost pulsing. I wonder if I just—take a closer look..."
"Don't touch that, Olivia!" Jesse exclaimed, sounding suddenly terrified, and approached only to pull her away from it.
Good call, Jesse.
Olivia, looking slightly abashed, muttered to Jesse, "I was just curious."
"Well be careful, we don't know what it is."
"How is it glowing like that?" Axel said in amazement.
"What do you think it could be?" asked Olivia.
Axel gaped at it in awe. "I just know I want it."
Petra furrowed an irritated brow at him. "What is the matter with you?"
Axel shrugged.
"Maybe it's… some kind of machine?" proposed Jesse.
"If it is," Olivia replied, "it's not like any machine I've ever seen."
Lukas didn't know the answers to any of these questions—he had so many of his own. What did it do? Why did it give off such an eerie aura? He knew about every block that had ever been discovered—How had he never heard of this one? How had he never seen it before? And that… pattern…
Where did he recognize that pattern?
Lukas had a bad feeling about this.
The very familiar sound of the piston door to the stairway immediately shocked him into turning heel. He flinched, alarms bells going off in his mind, and he quietly but frightfully called to the group, "Uh, guys?"
The rest of them spun around too.
"Scatter!" Petra whisper-shouted, and not a moment later, everyone jumped into action.
Jesse yanked his lever off the wall, and each person dashed off to find a hiding spot. Lukas ducked into the nearest large chest he spotted, carefully closing the lid behind him.
He tried to relax and keep his breathing steady, but to no avail.
Lukas had a very bad feeling about this.
« … »
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."
— Matthew 7:7-8
Author's Notes
It's so hard to write scenes where there are SOO many people saying stuff. DX
So as you may have noticed, all of their viewpoints have been explored in this chapter. I won't say exactly why because spoilers, but let's just say that's somewhat significant. Though not exactly in the obvious way. I'll just leave it at that. ^^
I noticed that in the game they didn't announce Gabriel as Gabriel the Warrior, just 'Gabriel', and that seemed kind of weird seeing as it's like, his title. That'd be like the MC at an Owl City concert being like, "Here's Adam!" So yeah, I changed that. Sorry guys, I just love rambling about the writing process WAY too much. XD
Hope you enjoyed!
- To the End! — I always thought what Gabriel said was kinda weird, possibly a reference to something that's never explained, so the solution for me was either to change it to something that made more sense, or create that explanation. Well the explanation kinda fell into my lap, so here ya go. What Gabriel says here is, "Are you with me?" and the crowd chants something somewhat unintelligible, but it sounds like it could be, "To the End!" It makes sense to me since Gabriel is best known for going to the End and slaying the Ender Dragon, that this would be his rallying catchphrase. I have more on that, but I shall save it for another time. :)
- Finding the Basement — So in the game, they see Ivor go into the keynote, and just, I guess presume that he went into a door that happens to be open, and they just turn out to be right. Well, here they actually see him come out, so it's reasonable for them to be able to follow his tracks, and since he's leaving instead of going in, it makes sense that they would expect he's not in there. Fixed! :D Also, in the game, they pretty much plan on confronting him, expecting him to be down there, but they still hide when he shows up? Like why? XD It would be much more charismatic of you to just start lounging around and acting like you own the place, then when he shows up and acts surprised be all like, "I've been expecting you." :) Ooh! Uno reverse!
- "Nobody ever lets me have any fun!"— I wanted to make the interaction with Axel and Petra less about Axel being a dumb kid and wanting to take stuff that doesn't belong to him, and more about their, y'know, actual relationship. He doesn't just want to take a bunch of stuff, he wants her to agree with him.
- "I don't want to stoop to his level." *takes gold sword* — Can I just say, I HATE that if you didn't give the butcher Jesse's sword, Petra takes the gold sword for herself? It's either inconsistent with her character since she JUST SAID she doesn't "want to stoop to his level", OR it just makes her a TOTAL hypocrite, and no one likes a hypocrite. - _- I really like that Petra is shown to be a bit of a mercenary, but one with conviction and who draws a line for herself. She's not a thief, she doesn't ask for more than something is worth just because she can, and she doesn't take 'I was scammed' as an excuse to steal whatever she wants from this man who clearly has no problem stealing from her. So with that being the case, I realized I still needed proper motivation for her to be okay with giving it to Jesse, since, isn't that just essentially stealing it on his behalf? So this was my solution. Yes she has convictions but she's not stupid, and the safety of her friends is much more important to her than being perfectly righteous. Also she probably doesn't see it as stealing, but rather like compensation for making her go to all this trouble get what she's already earned. Like, she said, for all the trouble she had to go through to get it, she should already be asking for much more. An extra gold sword is like the least he could do, especially since gold really isn't that valuable in Minecraft. XP Also might I mention that after she gives him the sword in the game she says, "That's two you owe me," like that one belonged to her as well? *rolls eyes* Yeah, Petra needed a lot of fixing.
- "Well, that was disappointing." — I don't know if anyone else even gave a second thought that Axel mentioned wanting to touch the mushroom, but I always thought it such an odd and random thing to throw in there that I felt like I just had to make it even more odd and random. The result was this silly interaction. XP Call it pointless, but I think it actually shows nicely how Jesse and Axel will act as friends, so I went ahead and kept it in. :D
Choice Notes
Aside from the obvious, 'Yeah I didn't have Jesse take the potion 'cause that's dumb and OOC' there weren't game changing choices in this one. XD
Glossary
-Galactic— Galactic is the alphabet used in enchanting. While it's translatable in the game to weird things that don't actually have any meaning, it's safe to assume in a real world it would definitely have meaning. :P However I would imagine the means of understanding it isn't common knowledge, or even uncommon knowledge, but rare to the point almost no one knows about it.
-Enchanting & Brewing — Should have (might have) explained this sooner, but here we go. XD While definitely two different things, enchanting and brewing are seen as kind of one and the same. They both have to do with applying magical effects, one to objects and one to people. Enchanting is the process of giving a magical effect to an item, usually a tool or armor (though you can technically enchant any item) and brewing, needless to say, is used to make potions that give the people who use them, or the people they're used on, a magic effect. Potions of course give effects like poison, speed, and invisibility, while enchantments give things like efficiency, sharpness, and knockback.
- Red Mushrooms — Mushrooms are pretty much just that. You can make soup with them, and the red ones are only slightly more rare. Funnily enough, it's only the brown mushrooms that are actually used in making potions, so who knows why Ivor had a red one lying around. Maybe 'How To Build a Creepy Villain Lair Using Everyday Objects' told him to. Possible excerpt: Mushrooms are super spooky and mysterious. Especially the red ones. Your workspace looking a little too plain and 'good'? Just add a red mushroom in a pot, and instantly make anyone who passes by think, 'Ooh… this guy looks evil.'