Jace trotted downstairs to see Maya, Olivia, Jesse, and Lukas working in the kitchen on making breakfast, all four of them chatting about something random. Reuben squealed happily upon seeing Jesse, and galloped over to meet her. She grinned and knelt down to pat Reuben on the head, which is when Jace spotted the bandage wrapped around her hand. "Oh- did you hurt your hand?" he asked, trying not to stare and failing miserably at this.
Jesse lifted her hand and gave it a look. "Hm? Oh, yeah. Burned it on the furnace a bit this morning," she said lightly.
"She was up the earliest," Maya agreed with a grin, pointing at the black-haired girl. Jesse grinned and adjusted her hair pin at this, before turning back to the food chests. "Mmm, how do you feel about toast for breakfast?" she asked, leaning down to rummage through a chest. "Even I can't screw that up."
"Mmm, sure. Anything else?" Jace leaned over her shoulder to peek into the chest. "Ooh, we could have some baked potatoes."
"Didn't we have that for dinner?" Olivia asked, tilting her head slightly.
"Potatoes can be eaten with any meal," Jace said seriously, reaching down to high-five Jesse with a grin when she held her palm up. Reuben snuffled in agreement.
Maya chuckled and reached into the chest Jesse had been poking through. "Then sure, that should be okay, since they're a multi-meal food," she joked. "Maybe we could have a rabbit stew or something, too?"
"Well, I wouldn't say no to that, I'm starved," Jesse laughed, lifting Reuben into her lap as she sank into the nearest kitchen chair, having popped two loaves of bread into the furnace and was now keeping a close eye on it.
Petra walked into the room a moment later, nearly tripping over a brewing stand that had been set near the door. "How did this thing get up here?" she wondered, "I thought the library was... downstairs...? Anyway, whatever. Good morning."
Slowly, more and more people trickled in, Nell yawning so loudly and widely that her jaw cracked, Axel still looking half-asleep, Cassie's glasses were slightly askew and Winslow was perched on her shoulder, Isa trotted in with Benedict at her side, the chicken running over to go greet Reuben, and Harper coming in with slightly-wet hair. Ivor showed up as well, although he avoided everyone's gaze and went to sit at the end of the table by himself. Aiden had dragged Maya and Gill off before they could really finish eating.
"Okay, so... should we go through a quick recap of what's happened so far, Mevia?" Hadrian asked, almost like some sorts of sports announcer. Jace mused about it for a minute before deciding it wasn't really important.
"We probably should, Hadrian," Mevia replied.
Otto tapped his lip and leaned forward. "So, in this 'alternative path to the future', Jesse is a girl," and he nodded at said Jesse, "and she, Axel, Olivia, Petra, and Lukas are all hybrids. Jesse is a spider hybrid, Axel is a creeper hybrid, Olivia is an Enderman hybrid, Petra is a Blaze hybrid, and Lukas is an ocelot hybrid."
"The Order of the Stone is directly connected to the hybrids," Gabriel picked up, thoughtfully. "But for some reason, we stop coming around. The hybrids then escape from the lab..."
"And then that Witherstorm is created," Dan picked up. "So at this point, the hybrids rediscover their... um... being a hybrid, and then Jesse and Axel go to find Magnus."
"Jesse beats him in the Death Bowl and becomes Queen of Boom Town," Axel agreed. "And then we head back to the temple and meet back up with Ellegaard."
"So then we go to find Soren to get the mystical F-Bomb," this made Soren glare at Magnus, "Jesse and Blondie fall into a hole and find a crap ton of Endermen, and then they get separated because Redhead here-"
"I'm fairly certain we addressed this and said NOT to call Petra 'Redhead'-" Cassie interjected forcefully, but Magnus ignored her.
"Gets Wither Sickness and refuses to tell anyone except for Jesse. A creeper blows up, and they drop into a hole because Reddie-"
A glare from both Cassie and Petra.
"Couldn't pull Jesse up in time," Magnus finished, ignoring both sets of glares.
Em nodded, biting her lip thoughtfully. "So then they go into Soren's library, and then they get locked in there by Ivor. Is that it?"
Soren nodded thoughtfully after a minute. "It should be. Shall we watch the next episode now?"
Harper shook her head after a moment of thought. "Let's give it some more time. How about we take another hour before joining back up in the living room?" she suggested.
"Sounds good to me," Clutch said, getting up immediately, before the three gladiators trotted out of the room.
After the dishes were all washed, everyone wandered off to go do their own thing. Olivia and Ellegaard put on the kettle to make some tea, talking about using pistons and repeaters. Harper, Cassie, and Stampy remained in the room as well, putting in their own input every few minutes. Both Jesses, having lost track of the conversation within the first half a minute, wandered off into the hallways to keep chatting. Reuben followed of course, snorting as the two of them discussed things.
Jace was in the middle of telling Jesse more about his world, their treehouse, and other things like that, when the two of them stopped, having heard faint sounds of arguing.
The two of them looked at each other hesitantly, before the group started moving their way in the direction of the shouting. Finally, they turned a corner to see Aiden and Lukas right in each other's faces, having a blazing row. Maya and Gill were standing a good distance away, glancing between the two of them with facial expressions that basically said they had no idea what to do here.
"You're following them around like some sort of lovestruck puppy!" Aiden was nearly spitting at Lukas.
"Who are you to tell me who I can and can't make friends with, Aiden?!" Lukas snapped back. "Am I not allowed to have friends outside of you guys?"
"They're LOSERS, Lukas!"
"You don't even really know Jesse, and you've never even actually made an effort to try to get to know Jace and his friends, now that I think about it. They might be losers, but that doesn't mean they're not good people!"
"Is... something wrong?" Jesse asked, hesitantly, stepping forward.
Aiden whipped around to face him, sneering at him. "What's it to you, loser?" Before he could say anything more, Lukas shoved him backwards.
"Don't talk to her like that!"
Aiden let out a shout and lunged at Lukas, drawing his arm back and slamming it to Lukas's jaw in a violent punch. The force of the hit knocked Lukas to the floor, Maya and Gill gasping in shock. Reuben ran over to the blonde to make sure he was okay, but Jace was seeing red. He ran at Aiden, the brunette boy drawing his fist back again in preparation to hit Jace.
Jace had just raised his arm as well when suddenly someone stepped in front of him, her long black hair swishing. "Stop! Stop!" Jesse yelled at them, her arms spread out wide in an effort to get both of them to stop.
Jace redirected his fist so that it sailed harmlessly over her shoulders, but Aiden didn't have such good control. His fist slammed right into Jesse's cheek.
It was as though he'd flipped some sort of switch in the girl. Jesse's eyes widened as she fell backwards, landing on her behind. She hadn't even landed fully when she was curling up on the floor, knees drawn up to her chest, eyes squeezed shut, a bruise forming on her cheek, hands clamped firmly over her ears, and an awful, nearly inaudible keening sound emitting from her mouth.
Aiden's eyes widened in surprise at the sight of Jesse curled up on the floor in fear as Jace saw red again. He grabbed ahold of the nearest thing in the room- some sort of ceramic ornament- before hurling it directly at Aiden's face.
The brunette ducked, forcing Maya and Gill to dodge as it smashed at their feet. But Jace didn't stop there; he grabbed more ornaments from the nearest areas and threw them at Aiden, the boy dodging and backing away from the now-utterly-furious Jace.
"Jesse?" Lukas went over to Jesse, trying to put a hand on her shoulders, but she immediately recoiled in fear, still making that awful keening sound, eyes squeezed shut.
A pair of arms went around Jace's chest as he tried to grab another ornament, pinning his arms back to his sides, wrestling him back away from Aiden.
"-ce! Jace! Calm down! Okay? Calm down there."
Slowly, the angry buzzing in Jace's ears stopped, and he blinked to see several shards of pottery and glass and other delicate things littering the floor, Ivor kneeling next to Jesse as he tried to get her to remove her hands from her ears, the girl trembling like a leaf as she kept scooting away from his touch. Lukas was kneeling not too far away, looking as though he were at a loss for what to do next. Reuben was at her side and nudging her gently with his nose, but Jesse was trapped in that dark place again.
Petra's arms had encircled the shorter male, keeping him from continuing his onslaught as she whispered calm thoughts into his ear.
Immediately, Aiden pointed at Jace. "He attacked me!" he shouted defensively.
"You punched Lukas and hit Jesse in the face!" Jace snapped back, struggling in Petra's grip, but the redhead was much stronger than she looked, and he wasn't really making much progress. "Let go of me, Petra!" he snapped at her.
"Not until you calm down!" Petra said back, but she wasn't really snapping at him.
Soren, Gabriel, and Em dashed around the corner, all of them stopping upon seeing the scene in front of them.
Ivor had finally grabbed Jesse gently by the wrists, making her blink blankly at him for a moment as she tried to process what was going on, before gently letting her hands down at her sides. She stood up now, stepping forward and putting herself between Aiden and the still-struggling Jace. "Okay, maybe- maybe we should all calm down?" Jesse asked, hands raised part of the way placatingly. The bruise that was forming on her cheek was becoming painfully evident, though.
Aiden glared over her shoulder at Jace, who returned the glare all too happily, before Petra slowly released him and stepped in front of the mocha-haired boy, cupping his face in her hands. "Okay, calm down, Jace. I know you're all fired up about Jesse getting hit in the face, but nearly killing Aiden isn't going to help. Okay? Okay," she said, calmly but firmly.
Jace slowly calmed down, green eyes staring straight into Petra's. A smile came over her face as she realized he'd stopped being quite so upset, and clapped him gently on the shoulder. "There we go, you're doing better. Let's head back to the living room now, okay?"
"Okay," Jace replied, although it was in more of a whisper.
Slowly, the group split up a bit, Em grabbing a broom and going to sweep up all the shards of pottery, while Petra led Jace into the living room, one hand tight on his to keep him from trying to lash out and hit Aiden again. Upon reaching the coffee table, Petra sat down, having to tug Jace down with her- he was still full of adrenaline.
Jesse came in five minutes later, an obvious bruise on her left cheek and Reuben in her arms. She slowly sat down in her usual spot next to Jace, Lukas sitting next to her and wrapping an arm around her rather protectively.
Axel winced upon coming in and seeing Jesse's face. "Ouch, y'all right there, Jesse?"
"Yeah, it just stings a bit," Jesse said softly, fingering her cheek tenderly and wincing.
"What happened, anyway?"
"We had a bit of a- spat, with Aiden," Lukas said quickly, when it became obvious that Jace was turning redder than a tomato again and about to spew a very long string of curses. "He punched me in the jaw, hit Jesse in the face... then Jace started throwing ornaments at him."
Jesse simply nodded and huddled into Lukas a bit more, a faintly distracted look still on her face. Jace looked at her for a minute, concern in his eyes. "You okay, Jesse?"
"Yeah. Just..." Jesse paused, as if unsure what sort of word to use, before waving her hand dismissively.
Slowly, the rest of the room trickled in, everyone glancing at Jesse's face but nobody asking when Petra caught their eyes and shook her head at them slightly. Aiden glaring at Lukas and Jace with an expression that would've made milk curdle. They returned it, Lukas tightening his grip on Jesse almost protectively. Jesse just reached out absentmindedly and patted him on the lower back.
When everyone was back in their seats, Maya, who'd gotten ahold of the remote this time, pressed the play button, and the title screen faded to back.
Jesse's voice spoke again. "Previously, on Minecraft: Hybrid Mode."
A/N: I know that last time it said 'Minecraft: Story Mode' but I'm too lazy to fix it right now xD
Oh... another one of Jesse's little 'panic attacks'. And look, Jace has shown his rare violent side again.
Also, some slight Lukesse and Jetra fluff (grins)
RQTC: Who here has played Legend of Zelda? (any of the games)
Kaos Ruin: (laughs)
AquaK13: They did indeed :3 And haha, sorry... xD
Darkbeast Dend: (thumbs up)
Meow Shadow: (catches cookies) Uh, okay! (starts passing them out) And I'm glad you're enjoying it so far!
LittleAngelbun: (grins)
DynamiteHunter6: Lol I know right xD
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: (grins)
Idon'tlikecheese: I know how you feel, fam x3
RapidSammi: (laughs) I'm glad you like this so much! And yeah, no more screaming, Sammi-kun. Squealing is allowed, though xD
Slayer88: (laughs)
sailor. mikuchan: (keeps laughing) And yeah, Hadrian's kind of a jerk xD
LunarStarsMoon: :3 And yeah, Cassie seems less sadistic than Hadrian can be, honestly.
Emily The Avenger: I'm glad you like it so much!
x.X. A.L. X.x
