Jesse spotted a lever on one of the nearby wool trees. She flipped it, a musical sound floating through the air when she did, and the far left of the lamp-cloud lit up brightly. "Neat," she hummed mildly.
"Alright, that's a good start," Soren said, optimistically. "You're getting there."
Jesse trotted over to Reuben, who was standing near some blocks of pink wool and looking at it. She leaned over to pat the little pink pig on the head, making him oink happily. "You like that, don'tcha, boy?" she asked happily.
Real-Reuben nudged Jesse's hand, and she rolled her eyes with a grin before starting to fondle his ears, the small pink pig grumbling happily when she did.
Onscreen-Reuben oinked cheerfully, before Jesse crouched down and held out her fist to the little pig. "Gimme a fist bump!" she coaxed cheerfully. He happily obliged, putting his hoof against her fist.
Jace grinned and did the same to Real-Reuben.
Onscreen, Jesse chuckled and left him to admiring his pink wool, looking around the wool world some more. Finally, she came to a wooden fountain. "Well, at least that's not wool." She dipped her fingers into the fountain musingly. "Must be all sorts of water systems in this place," she finally finished the thought after a couple of seconds.
"Of course," Soren nodded, "having a wool world is... kind of a fire hazard."
This made several members of the audience snort.
After a few more seconds, Jesse looked up with a slight start. The screen switched to show Lukas standing by himself, arms crossed, glaring at nothing in particular. Jesse shook her hand off and walked towards the ocelot hybrid, who didn't even acknowledge her for a moment.
"What do you want?" he asked brusquely, after a moment.
Jesse frowned at that, putting her hands on her hips. "Lukas, I know you're upset, but you've gotta keep it together."
Lukas still didn't look at her, his glare softening as he let out a long sigh. "I know I do, but... I just..."
Jesse waited for him to finish, a faintly expectant expression on her face. He finally let out another sigh and lifted his head to look at her, blue-green eyes meeting green and red. "Listen, I- I know I've been kind of prickly, but... I think something's wrong. With Petra."
Jesse automatically glanced over at Petra, who looked even worse than she had only a few minutes previously, before timidly biting her nails and glancing away as Lukas continued, "You- you have to have noticed, the lack of energy, the labored breathing... there's something wrong, okay?!" He seemed to be getting rather frustrated. "Something big. It's not fooling anyone."
He looked at the floor after a moment. "At least, not me."
Jesse looked back at Petra warily for a moment, before stepping closer to Lukas. "Petra has Wither Sickness," she said quietly, having dropped her voice to a lower volume.
Lukas's head snapped up to look at her.
The spider hybrid paused, seeming unsure what to say, before Lukas broke the silence, whisper-shouting and flailing his arms wildly. "Petra has Wither Sickness?! But- but- she's half-Blaze- how did she-?!" he spluttered nearly incoherently.
Jesse crossed her arms and looked at the floor. "She... made me promise not to tell anyone, but..." The girl looked back at Petra, before back at Lukas. "I'm starting to get scared... that if I don't tell anyone... she's going to push herself too hard and then-" she cut herself off, as if she didn't even want to think about it. She blinked hard, a troubled expression coming over her face. "I don't..." Her fists clenched at her sides, nails digging into her palms. "... I don't want that."
Real-Jesse sighed, making everyone look at her. "Sorry, Petra. I know I- I 'promised', but-"
Petra reached out and clapped Jesse on the back, nearly knocking her into the coffee table per usual. "Nah, it's fine. Would've happened sooner or later."
Jesse winced a bit, rubbing her shoulder. "I-I'm glad you see it like that..."
Lukas tightened his arm around Jesse's shoulders comfortingly.
Onscreen, Lukas was silent, before he initiated a hug himself, pulling the shorter female into it. Jesse stood there for a moment, staring at a spot slightly over his shoulder, before sighing and letting her head drop into his shoulder, putting her own arms around him and returning it.
They remained like that for a good minute before Lukas let go of her, inhaling slightly and letting it out in a sigh. "Thanks for telling me. I won't tell Petra that you told me. I'll... just watch out for her."
Jesse nodded, dashing her hand quickly over her eyes. "Okay," she agreed in a whisper, before she automatically crossed her heart and then placed one hand over her eye. Lukas smiled at that, repeating the motion himself and making the two of them grin a bit at that.
A moment later, Jesse spotted a lever, and went over to the side a bit, reaching out and flipping it. The far-right side of the lamp-cloud glowed, leaving only the center portion dark.
Jesse took a long, deep breath, before letting it all out. "Whew. Thanks, Lukas," and she smiled back at the blonde, rubbing her head slightly, "I think I needed that."
The blonde nodded at her again. "Anytime," he replied, smiling faintly.
"Flirting," Gill 'coughed' into his fist.
Jesse and Lukas swiveled on the spot to shoot the Ocelot a withering glare. He remained serenely unwithered, in fact grinning at them, so they both dropped with a roll of the eyes and a grin at each other before returning to the screen.
Onscreen-Jesse gave him a smile again before trotting off again, looking around the Wool World. "Okay... wonder how this puzzle works."
"Honestly, the puzzle's not that hard!" Soren complained. "You just have to flip all the levers and then you're pretty much done!"
Petra gestured at the screen, giving him an odd look. "You say that to us like we can hear you."
Onscreen, Jesse had apparently spotted the last lever, because she was now flipping it, the entire lamp-cloud glowing brightly. Another look-around revealed a stone button on the wall near the lamp-cloud, and she went over to the button and gave it a cursory glance, before hitting it gently.
The sound of shifting pistons suddenly came to life, and she scrambled back a step as part of the wall slid into the floor with a rumble, leaving a large archway in the wall that led into a... much darker place.
"That's... amazing," Jesse stared into the room beyond, which had a fountain in the center. Reuben came up to stand next to Jesse with a soft oink. "Hey, guys! I think I found Soren's way out."
Everyone came up to the doorway slowly, peering into the room beyond. "Okay... wow." The whole group slowly started to move into the hallway.
Petra stopped next to Jesse, a tremor going through her entire body. "Nice sleuthing, Jesse," Petra told the spider hybrid, sounding faintly impressed, "sorry I wasn't more help back there. When I think about how I ran all over Endercon looking for Ivor, or when I got that skull..." she trailed off for a moment, before picking up again. "It's hard to imagine that I did any of that, now that I'm like..." She paused again, before gesturing uncertainly at herself.
Jesse gave the redhead a hug, having to actively stand on her tiptoes and ignore the frost that was now creeping over her front. "I'm just glad you're... okay, for the most part," she said, sounding sincere.
Releasing the redhead after a moment, swatting off some of the frost, the two of them followed the rest of the group inside. The screen cut to the inside, which was a long, dimly-but-warmly lit hallway with tables with torches on them. There were bushes and glowstone hanging from the ceiling. It was beautiful and huge, although it looked like it hadn't been used in a while.
"We'll check out the rest of the house," Petra said, as they all started splitting up into little groups, "see if we can find Soren, before he finds us."
Axel gave Petra an odd grin. "You make it sound like he's a serial killer or something."
"We don't know that he isn't," Petra joked slightly. There was a minute-long pause where the group tried to process this, before Jesse slapped her hand over her eyes and slid down the wall, having given up and was now cracking up. Olivia was covering her mouth while she laughed, Axel snickering and Petra looking a bit more cheerful than she had before. Lukas was smirking and shaking his head, although by the way his tail was twitching, it was pretty obvious that he was smothering a laugh.
Soren crossed his arms with an offended huff at Petra, although the audience had pretty much given up and was now laughing along with the group of hybrids, so his huff went unheard. It also really wasn't that effective, seeing as he had a broad smirk fixed on his face as well.
"That is so encouraging," Lukas finally managed, before rolling his eyes with a grin and moving on.
Finally, Jesse got back up off the floor, although she was still giggling a bit, and looked around. Continuing through the hallways, she looked at the fountains that were placed through each section of the hallway. "Guess the water system's not just for the outside." She scratched her head after a moment's hesitation. "Not- that the outside was actually... the outside," she finished, and moving on into the last section of the hallway, where Olivia and Reuben had paused next to a door.
Olivia and Jesse shared a look, before Jesse pressed her ear to the door, a thoughtful look coming over her face as her eyes narrowed. "Hm... well, there's some music. But I don't hear anyone talking in there or anything-"
She was cut off by a familiar voice suddenly starting to talk. "I call that one 'Symphony in E'." A little laugh that made both hybrids' eyes widen, and several of the audience members' as well. "A new composition to celebrate my newest discovery!"
"Soren?!"
A/N: Uhh, so... I think my chapters are around 1,700-1,800 words on average now, but, y'know, I might be wrong.
RQTC: Do you think Soren and Isa were in the Old Builders at one point or not? Why or why not?
I do. I mean, c'mon, Soren's books are EVERYWHERE. And Isa had one of the Eversource chickens! There're more reasons, but I'm trying to update ASAP.
Kaos Ruin: I think it's called 'You Can Find It' or something.
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: (laughs) Yep.
Darkbeast: It's fine :3
LittleAngelbun: (thumbs up)
AquaK13: It was posted on the 11th (i.e. yesterday), so that's probably why xD / Yep, I do. xD
MissyMattingly: (grins)
Emily The Avenger: (grins cheerfully)
LunarStarsMoon: (returns the high five) / (laughs) Yeah, surprisingly. I honestly didn't think it'd get more than like 10 views. / (laughs)
rebekahtpe: Glasses!
RapidSammi: Cuteness, indeed xD
SofiaTheWriter88: (laughs)
sailor. mikuchan: (laughs) / Awww, well, you should watch it!
x.X. A.L. X.x
