The screen faded back in on the group riding through a swamp, around midday or early morning, most of them looking bored, half-asleep, or hungry.
"My rear end is profoundly sore," Gabriel sighed, breaking the bored silence.
Lukas nodded in agreement, running a hand through his hair and wincing as his fingers snagged his ears again. "I feel like we've been riding for forever," he conceded. Reuben let out an agreeing oink.
Real-Lukas grinned and rubbed Reuben's head.
"I'm telling you," Soren was saying angrily onscreen, "we CANNOT go to the Far Lands!"
Lukas raised his eyebrow at him. "Bit late for that now, isn't it?" he replied. Jesse stifled a laugh.
"Wait- the Far Lands?!" Ellegaard sat upright, dragging Magnus with her. "Is this the first time this was mentioned, or did I miss something?" She was not the only one to have this rather startled reaction; Gill and Maya looked as if someone had just snapped them out of sleepwalking, and Petra's eyes had widened.
"They're not just the edge of our world, but the limits of our comprehension!" Soren continued, flailing his arms wildly from where he was sitting on the horse, very nearly smacking Ivor in the face.
"Oh, please," Ivor rolled his dark blue eyes at the ginger. "The Far Lands are a happy accident. Nature's way of keeping things interesting."
Gabriel raised his eyebrow and looked at Ivor. "Uh, Ivor, I don't particularly like to disagree with you, but... I'm going to have to disagree with you on that."
Jesse 'coughed'.
"No, no!" And Soren shook his unruly head so furiously he nearly hit Ivor in the face again, "they are perilous and unpredictable! Strange sounds, floating points, they are not to be toyed with!"
Jesse glanced at Soren. "They don't sound that bad to me."
Ivor grinned at Soren. "See? Jesse thinks the Far Lands are cool."
"You sound like a seven-year-old bragging to another one about being right about something," Jesse said musingly.
Stampy made a very odd sound that sounded like a mixture of a laugh, a sneeze, and a cough. In the end, he nearly choked. Dan thumped him on the back, hiding a grin himself at the slightly offended expression now on Ivor's face.
Onscreen-Soren rolled his eyes. "Well, she WOULD- no offense, Jesse," he added quickly, twisting around to look at Jesse.
She shrugged. "None taken."
Soren turned back to Ivor. "The Far Lands lie at the very edge of all things. Where logic gives way to chaos. They're a dangerous place to visit. And a ridiculous place to construct a laboratory!"
Ivor just chuckled at the ginger a bit. "Just wait until you see it."
"Should we be worried about his sanity now, Mevia?" Hadrian asked, turning to the cyan-haired woman next to him. "Because... I'm worried about his sanity now."
"I am as well, Hadrian," Mevia replied, glancing at Ivor with a faintly disturbed look. Neither of them had actually been to the Far Lands, but... judging by some of the group's reactions, and the description Soren had given earlier...
"Do you two never stop arguing?" Olivia snapped at last, sounding irritated now.
"Yeah. They're kind of like an old married couple," Jesse remarked teasingly.
At this, Soren choked, and Ivor fell off the armchair.
Real-Jesse had been holding back her giggles, but at seeing their reactions she simply burst out laughing, falling over backwards and accidentally hauling Lukas with her. The blonde seemed a bit preoccupied with laughing so hard that tears were practically streaming down his cheeks at this little comment.
Not that the rest of the audience was doing much better. Petra had a hand clamped over her mouth, where she was trying to repress an irrepressible grin, and Jace was cackling with laughter so hard that he sounded like a witch. Olivia had her face back in Axel's shoulder, the burly boy doubled over with his arm resting on the coffee table and his face hidden in his arm. Reuben was making a snorting sound that sounded remarkably like laughter, Benedict seemed to be laughing, and even Winslow seemed to be sniggering at this. Gill and Maya were both howling with laughter, and even Aiden was fighting to repress a grin. Magnus and Gabriel were in stitches, and Ellegaard was nearly in tears from how hard she was laughing.
It was with a massive amount of self-control that Isa was keeping a straight face, but Reginald's grin was plastered across his face, and Milo had literally dived over the back of the couch to try to hide his laughter. Cassie had this silly grin on her face, Stampy was making that odd choking/sneezing/laughing sound again, Dan was making the stupidest face to try to hide his amusement, Lizzie had her head in her hands, Stacy had tears rolling down her cheeks, and Sparklez had essentially fallen off the couch. Harper had a pillow up to her face, where she was very obviously giggling at this. Em and the gladiators were all laughing openly, while Nell had this broad grin on her face. Otto had an extremely amused look on his face, while Hadrian and Mevia were basically cracking up.
Soren and Ivor glanced at each other, a red-hot blush covering their faces, before looking away again.
Soren and Ivor turned bright red onscreen and turned back to gape at Jesse. Lukas snorted a bit, ears pricking up in amusement.
"I don't know. I'm too hungry to care," Gabriel sighed, leaning back a bit.
"Yeah," Lukas agreed, his amusement fading, "I'm starving."
"When was the last time we ate anything?" Olivia mused. "Last time I remember actually eating was about two weeks ago, in that dirt hut. And Jesse didn't actually eat anything."
As if to prove the dark-skinned girl's point, Jesse's stomach practically roared.
"Your stomach has very convenient timing," Harper pointed out after she'd stopped cracking up..
"Indeed."
"Yeah, we're all pretty hungry," and Jesse made a face at her stomach. "Maybe we should stop for a bit. There has to be something in this swamp that's edible."
"This isn't the time," Soren responded almost scoldingly, "swamps are too dangerous. You never know what's lurking around-" He was interrupted by a rather loud sound. His head snapped around, looking spooked. "What was that?"
"My stomach," Gabriel grumbled.
Jesse quickly got off her horse, helping Reuben down. "Okay, let's just- take a quick break. Maybe find some food," she said quickly, running a hand through her hair and wincing as her hair caught in some knots. Everyone hopped off their horses as well, looking supremely relieved about it.
"We mustn't linger long," Ivor spoke, "the Far Lands are just beyond this swamp."
Jesse nodded and wandered off into the swamp. After a moment, she went over to a tree and picked a potato that was growing out of the base of the trunk. "Okay, potato, you're coming with me." She paused. "Aaannnnd I'm talking to a potato. I have no idea why. Unless I'm going crazy." Jesse leaned over to look at Reuben. "Am I going crazy, Reuben?"
Reuben shook his head with a little squeal.
"You're probably just sleep-deprived. Sleeping on a horse is extremely uncomfortable," Ivor mused. "You end up with all of these weird aches and pangs and you have no idea where they came from."
Satisfied by this answer from the pig, Jesse kept walking, before leaning down and scooping up another one. "Two potatoes are better than one. Especially when you're hungry," she added, grinning at Reuben. The pig grinned back.
Real-Jesse grinned and rubbed Reuben's head, fondling his ears. Reuben let out a little grumble of pleasure.
"Gotcha, potato," and Jesse picked another potato out of the ground. A tiny smile came over her face, and she tilted her head sideways. "Ahh, I remember Soren used to bring snacks for us. I think I tended to like whenever he brought anything to do with potatoes." A short pause. "I dunno why, though."
Jace snorted. Jesse smacked him.
Onscreen, Jesse blinked as she looked up again. "Oh-" and she quickly trotted over a distance and leaned down again. "One potato, two potato, three potato, four," she hummed mildly as she plucked it out of the ground.
"Are you singing about potatoes?" Lizzie asked, sounding and looking way too amused about this. Jesse shrugged at the pink-haired girl, an innocent smile on her face. "Maaayyybe."
"Hey, check out what I found!" Jesse called as she went back over to her friends and waving one of the potatoes about.
Olivia arched her eyebrow. She looked thoroughly unimpressed. "A potato."
Jesse shrugged. "It's food. Beggars can't be choosers."
"Good point."
Jesse pulled out all four of the potatoes, and then looked up, before pulling out her sword, quickly cutting all of the potatoes in half, and handing each of them a half. There was one extra half, which Jesse looked at and then gave it to Gabriel, quickly putting her half in her mouth and biting down to avoid dropping it. Through the potato in her mouth, she managed, "I'm gun' go see if I cen find an'thing elf."
"Why'd you hand the potato over to Gabriel?" Sparklez wondered.
"You guys cen defide who gets the last potato," Jesse finished.
"Oh."
Soren gave her a thumbs' up and resumed eating his potato as she trotted off. Ivor followed after Jesse. The spider hybrid hastily ate the rest of it as he asked, "How are you doing?"
"Not bad," Jesse replied with a shrug, before spotting something. It looked like a small house.
"What is that?" Harper asked when she noticed Ivor sucking in a sudden breath.
"A witch's hut. We should get out of here fast before the witch notices us and comes after us," Ivor said quietly.
Onscreen, Jesse approached the house, Ivor seeming more reluctant about it. "It's a witch's hut. We should stay clear of it. Nothing good ever happens when witches are involved," he whispered to Jesse.
Jesse pointed at something, looking interested. "Hey, there's a cake!" she whispered, following Ivor's lead. The screen switched to show a cake cooling on the windowsill. "That'd be enough to feed everyone!"
Ivor shook his head. "It's not worth it, Jesse. Witches hate trespassers."
Jesse weighed the options, tilting her head slightly and pressing her lips together, before looking back at Ivor. "Let's get out of here."
Real-Ivor let out a sigh of relief.
"Good idea." And the two of them started to tiptoe away as quickly as humanly possible. However, Ivor was checking over his shoulder rather than watching his step. And that was why, a few seconds later, his foot descended right on a branch.
"Uh-oh," Soren said slowly.
The snap of the branch rang out through the swamp with a ringing crack, almost reminiscent of a gunshot. Ivor and Jesse looked down, then up at each other. Jesse's eyes slid over sideways, and she gasped softly, but didn't turn her head. "Hey, Ivor... who's that?" she asked, almost conversationally.
Ivor's head turned slowly, glacially. The screen switched to show the witch turning around to stare directly at the two of them, Ivor and Jesse frozen in place.
"Double uh-oh," Magnus said quietly for once.
For one, frozen moment, the witch was staring at Jesse and Ivor and Jesse and Ivor were staring at the witch, and none of them were moving a muscle.
And then they were running.
They bolted into the clearing, the rest of the group looking around at them as they raced in. "Did you find any more food?" Olivia asked, looking a bit confused.
"No- well, sort of, but that doesn't matter. There's a witch here! We saw her creeping through the swamp, and-!"
A red bottle went soaring over Jesse's shoulder, narrowly missing her cheek, and smashed on the ground, sending red swirls and red potion splashing all over the ground. The whole group recoiled in shock.
"Triple uh-oh," Ellegaard said, sounding breathless now.
"And... she's here," Jesse finished, every set of her arms crossing in an agitated fashion.
A/N: Potatoes~ xD
RQTC: Should MCSM have a Season 2? Why or why not?
It depends, actually... I'll explain what I mean if enough people want to know xD
AquaK13: (laughs) / (laughs) Haha, probably. / Look it up; it's... frightening xD
J.M.M.: (grins)
Meow Shadow: (laughs) / Thank you! And yes, I prefer casual writing, it takes me less time to write a casual chappie xD / Look it up, I ain't spoiling anything.
Rabbits rule: Uhh I dunno. Purple Guy from FNAF? / Sure :3 / (pokes Jess) / Nope. / Uhhh... okay xD
Emily The Avenger: (laughs) / YAY YOU GOT THE 'reference' xD / Aww, lucky. / Nooo don't die xD
Kaos Ruin: Haha, nope xD
NinaNaranja: No, it's a game. / (laughs) / I'm glad to hear that!
Beli0304: (grins) / You should look it up, it's terrifying xD
NoItsBecky: (grins) Yep xD / Haha, pretty much. xD
RapidSammi: I know, right? / (laughs) Glad to hear that, Sammi-kun.
sailor. mikuchan: I added that in at the last minute xD
DynamiteHunter6: I've gotten everything from Lukas to Jesse to Gabriel. I have no idea why xD Nice :3 Did ya know I'm on Quotev as well?
LunarStarsMoon: (laughs) / You should look it up
FireBallin17: (grins)
rebekahtpe: (grins) / Nope, just actual Hybrid. There's gonna be- ... actually, I'm not spoiling anything. / Uh, fly. xD
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: (laughs)
Darkbeast Dend: (shrugs) Cool.
mEEplePeoPLe: (shrugs) No promises. I'm tryin' xD
x.X. A.L. X.x
