Three Goblin Art
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@asktheminecraftbaker
Baker: I spent way too long trying to put something together and still ended up going simpler.
Warrior: A lot of my old clothes don’t fit me since I got back, so I may be a bit under-dressed. Whoops. Maybe the cape will make it look a bit formal.
Far From Home: Chapter 10
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Server Diagnosis: Unstable/Fluctuating Corruption Levels: High Salvage? [Y/N]
[N] _Final Preparations: Complete Data Recycle _Make Backup of Data? [Y/N]
[Y] _Creating Archive... [0%]
To The Lyrics of - ‘From FInner’ by Of Monsters and Men
_Archival of Data Complete.
Reset?
---
...*zzt*...
"Soral!" A small child came rushing back with something in his arms, missing an eye, white and somewhat transparent from the rest of the world. From the distance, gold flecks against black, and the shape of their master chained to it. A wave of relief washes over him, as the little one came running back to him.
"Where have you been? You know I can’t see past this part of the world, I got scared." The little one cradled the glowing box against his chest, a look in his good eye that would seem like crying to any other child Soral had seen in his life. He would have been crying, if he had the ability to. But the glowing object in his hands immediately tipped him off to bad news. "Ordell, what did you do?"
"I-I-" Sniffles and sobs. "She was going to be-I was afraid that she would die here-we'd lose her and-and"
Soral had seen Player 'data' enough times to know that was what Ordell was clutching on to so tightly. Faint white boxes clung to it; this was a problem. The memories attached to it were vivid and colorful, but very dangerous for this part of the world. The bonds of his patch were already flecking away like brittle petals.
"Dell this-this is bad. You're not supposed to steal! You’re not supposed to have this! This could make the corruption so much worse! I can't-I can't let her have this, she won't understand, it'll make things worse!"
"But-but I think she's seen part of it! In her dreams! Please-she doesn't know this is real but it is real and it's a part of her and we can't just let it go away." Ordell sobbed, holding the glowing box tighter.
Soral sighs and rubs his head, the clinking of chains against his wrist loud. "Okay, I think I know what I can do. She'll hold onto it for now, but it'll be separate from her life. If the two don't merge, then it should be safely tucked away until we can figure out what to do with it. Hopefully they don't merge." There was always the chance that she would pick stuff up from this other life, bits and pieces coming back to her, information becoming one. On this side of things, she was already a mess of potential.
Ordell beams a big smile from ear to ear, and hands over the glowing box to Soral.
/Saving Baker(FTB).char to 'Baker' Folder/ /Password locked/ /Unreadable/
Soral sits back down and wipes his forehead, watching little bits of gold fleck off from the patch that covered the hole. "That should do for now." The little one snuggles close to him, all happiness and relieved feelings coming from his aura. Ordell clung to this Player so tightly, there was something there he didn't want to lose, and he wanted to believe the kid had the right idea. If only he could give him the life he wanted so badly.
---
Baker gasped for air in her bed; a nightmare, vivid and long. She was falling but right before she hit the ground, she heard a voice, her own voice, picking apart her mind.
'Were you really trying to push him into the Void? Or push yourself out of existence?'
That moment she ran head first into The Source during the battle. There was only one outcome. She wouldn't survive.
'Why did you do it?! Is this what you wanted?!'
She clutched onto the blanket, Warrior was gone on his trip, gone too long, gone forever. A broken version of herself stared back at her before she woke up. She was broken, and missing, fragmented pieces of her were gone in the Void when she fell, something was wrong with her, and it wasn't just her husband running off to fulfill his dreams and leaving her behind.
But this dream was so much worse to the ones she had before. There was happiness and people she cared about, fictional but still wonderful.
She wasn't lonely there, she wanted to go back.
[ END PART 1 ]
Far From Home: Chapter 9
Despite her best efforts to try and help him shake off whatever was ailing him, Hawk had retreated to the Void Sleep, leaving Baker to herself once more. Her attempts to nurse him to health were desperate, as if she was terrified to let him go.
She was terrified, but she wouldn't admit it.
/Getting sick is a big deal. I mean, he is a different species of person, sorta. Things could affect him differently/
/Like the whole world I’m stuck in./
The rain came down in heavy sheets, soaking the uncovered floor and creating a racket against the canopies; the cape she wrapped around him was still warm as he left it behind. The air felt heavier, her breathing labored and short. It became harder to think clearly, her head was swimming with anxious thoughts. /What if something happens to him?/ /What if I never see him again?/ /What if he gets really sick and dies?/
Her breathing turned into a full force gasp for air, for a moment a feeling of vertigo came over her. Was she falling? Did she jump out of the tree? Black and static crushing against her lungs.
"STOP IT!" Baker slammed her feet onto the floor as hard as she could, reverberating back up her legs through pain and clenched teeth. "I can't keep DOING this!" She yelled out to the torrential rains, running her fingers roughly through her hair.
The air lightened a little, things calming down around her, and with a long drawn out sigh, her heart stopped beating against her chest in mad panic. Two slow blinks, she closed her eyes and wrapped the cape around her; a quick doze was all she needed. She can recover again, she can keep moving. As her gaze felt heavy under the weight of exhaustion, she swore there were faint white squares looking back at her.
---
It was another project she would see to the end, though wishing Hawk was there to lend a hand, Baker did what she could to get their new home set up, so once he came back, again, it would be all done. A good portion of the time was spent packing and moving everything to the Twilight Forest. Most of the home was empty except for things that were easily replaceable or an issue. The machine room was a task she was not ready to tackle yet, and instead of holding onto her dear penguin friends, she made them a home on the frozen beach from which Jack and herself had run amuck some time ago. They would be happier there, more room and actually getting snowfall.
She didn't want to let them go but it was for the best.
Baker sat in the emptied living room where the table was, her legs folded up and her arms resting against them, looking around. Most of the stuff was in boxes on the other side of the realm, but there was still plenty she was leaving behind. The garden of flowers, Hawk's apiaries, the colorful trees they had planted.
She sprawled out on the floor; Baker was so tired in so many ways that the thought of getting off the floor was too much energy to spend. She barely shifted to the knock on the door.
"Let yourself in!" She yelled, unmoving from her spot. From her position on the ground she could hear the door click open, and footsteps coming toward her. The figure over shadowed her, looking down at her fatigued figure.
"Should I be concerned?" It was Master with a familiar smirk, the tip of his cape tickled her ear as it came close to her on the floor. She just shook her head.
"Thanks for actually knocking this time. Y'know, before barging in." She smirked up to him, still splayed out like a fallen branch. He just lets off a low snort and a matching sarcastic smile.
"There's a gift on the kitchen counter for ya. I had so much honey left over, and well, I was told you occasionally like a drink..." Master eyed the crate sitting on the counter, and made his way over, inspecting the bottles carefully. Each one had a gold liquid on the inside that shimmered against the glass. He uncorked one of the bottles and took a whiff, smiling at the aroma.
"Mead." Master took one of the bottles for himself, taking small sips as he walked back over to Baker on the floor. "See you're hard at work." She nodded, folding her hands against her belly, but making no other motion to move; satisfied by the overall reaction of her mead. It was the first real positive response she got from him.
"I guess you know by now." Deciding that she wasn't going to get up, he might as well meet her halfway, and sat down on the floor next to her. At least he had some refreshment.
"Aye. Could of let him fend for himself, learn from his mistake."
Baker let out a sigh one might hear when a teacher gives homework during a long break from school. "Is this really gonna turn into a lecture, sir? Because I have enough self doubt to manage. I don't know if I can deal with anymore." She grimaced, expecting at least a half sarcastic remark about being soft and squishy and he knew best and blah blah blah.
"Don't intend to. Actually relieved." This was not the response she was expecting.
"Really?"
"Yes. Would have been easier to separate yourself, let him deal with his own mistakes. Instead you moved everything for him." He chuckled. "Was it good intentions or you a glutton for punishment?" Baker smiled.
"Probably both. He'll have plenty of time to mend fences in a healthier mindset and calmer environment." She finally picked herself up to an upright position, supporting the weight on her hands against her legs. The emptiness of the house was weighing on her.
"You're upset. Okay to be." He consoled, as Baker studied the work she had put into the home.
"It's fine." Baker seemed to close up a little in her response. "I don't- I gotta keep moving. If I stay here, I'll fall again." She rubs her eyes with the palms of her hands. The air around her seemed heavy again, and she lay back on the floor. Master was unsure of this response, but he definitely noticed something off.
"Get up." He nudged her with his foot. "You said you'd keep moving."
"Right." Baker hesitated, but picked herself up off the floor, fixing her cape back into place. "Anyway, I'm fine, but this place is upsetting right now, so let me show you what I've been up to."
She brings him down the stairs to Hawk's room, emptied like the rest of them, through the hidden doorway to her room. All that was left was a bed, a couple of chests and a desk with a single book on a stand. Master was immediately fascinated at the book, eyes locked onto it in curiosity, there was something about it that jumped out at him.
"Guess you already spotted the new thing." She smirked. He waited for her explanation and she nodded, trying to order her thoughts right. "Well, getting everything to the Twilight was a pain in the ass, and a far one too, so I decided to borrow one more book from Yule's library. I was looking for some way to get back and forth a bit easier, so I found this!"
Master studied the contents of the book that rested on the stand, the open pages were scrawled out in a writing he had not seen before, and one page was an illustration of a thick forest. The pages behind it were all scrawled out in more unfamiliar text.
"Baker, what is this?" Curiosity, but also concern, maybe uncertainty. He wasn't sure what kind of magic's she had been up to, but it was outside of her realm of experience.
"Not sure, it's called a Link Book. I fount it in the reference section in some book about different worlds and stuff. It did seem kinda nifty, but way too complicated for me right now." Baker handed him the book she had borrowed from the library, and he set to thumb through the pages quickly. "You'll probably find it easier than I did. There were these weird circle graphs and a lot of script. That's a project for another day." She laughed. "But I got what I was looking for!" Master looked up from the reference to see Baker touch the picture in the book on the stand, and disappear in a puff of black smoke. Master steps back surprised, only for her to return a moment later.
"Tah-dah! I vanished! But really, I just went to the Twilight. C'mon follow me." She smiled, and disappeared once more. More concern and even more curiosity, he touches the picture on the book as well. A pulling sensation, much like the one from the Nether portal or the Twilight one draws him in, and he feels himself moving through an unknown space. There's faint glimpses of runes and symbols he's unfamiliar with and than something solid under his feet. He blinks, and finds himself in Baker's unfinished home, up in an Elder Tree.
"Glad you made it in one piece. Hope the ride wasn't too much for ya." She laughed, taking notice to Master's obvious stunned expression.
"That was...a one way door." He looked to see a similar book behind him set on a stand, but the picture in the book was an illustration of her room.
"Yep! Book goes one way, so this book is set up to send you back to my room. I think it's awesome."
Master regained his composure, though still quite curious at all of this, the scales tipped to the other feeling, a more worrying one.
"I'm...impressed. But concerned."
"Hm?"
"Not a stable link, it had a lot of distortion, something's wrong with it."
"That-oh. Oh damn that's not good. I can try to make a new one, maybe it'll be better this time around."
For her to just express the notion of a 'better one', Master could tell that Baker still didn't grasp what it was she was learning. A doorway like this is not something so easily fixed, but this was a completely foreign world to him, and even stranger how easily useable the magic is to anyone. It's possibilities for danger were enormous, especially in the grip of inexperienced hands. He was holding onto the reference tome rather tightly in his grip. The need to be educated on this new study was necessary, especially with someone like Baker or his Apprentices meddling with it.
- 'Wardog, a word with you...it's urgent.' -
"Well, I could give you the grand tour, but it's a lotta boxes and unpacking left to do. It'll look a lot less empty when I actually have everything set up, it's very basic for the moment. Will probably put in a few more floors and set up some food. I might have to rely on the crops back on the Overworld, unless things will grow here in partial light. The apiaries didn't work so well here, not ready to tell Hawk that yet." Baker noticed Master was not paying attention in the slightest. He looked to be having a conversation with himself in his mind.
"Sturdy and sound, can tell-" He does not make eye contact, and Baker could tell his thoughts were elsewhere.
"Sir, is everything alright?" Master finally shifted back toward Baker staring him down. - ‘There is something about her, messing with the area around here.' -
"Unsure about Hawk's stability here. He had another breakdown." Baker nodded.
"I was asleep when it happened. I came back to find things had gone...south really quickly for him. But, he didn't do anything regretful, or uh...me for the matter. Heh. I wasn't here."
"...Unsure about your stability here either." Baker took a step back.
"W-what?"
"The time we had our...fight. Something happened." Baker shifted uncomfortably on her feet.
"I thought you didn't want to talk about it."
"I don't. It's hard to miss the vibe you give off."
"I'm sorry-what?!" Now Baker was confused. Was he trying to get a read on her again? What did he mean by vibe? Was this more about the magic stuff she was unfamiliar with? Did she mess up something when she was learning Thaumology with Yule? Or with the Link Book?
"It's unsettled. The air around you is tense, fluctuating." She stepped back from him, the heaviness in the air familiar once more, the feeling of being unable to breathe.
"W-what do you see that I can't? I mean, if it was because of the doorway, I don't have to use it anymore, I won't even touch the stuff if that's the case. I was just..." Deep breaths, in and out, trying to push away the claustrophobic feeling of being crushed. "I'm trying to fix things for Hawk."
Baker could see that she was being inspected like she was under trial for something. Was she some kinda project to him? Was there something actually wrong with her? The feeling of falling and crushing darkness, faint white boxes clouding her eyes. Finally, he looked away from her.
"Sorry, I'm concerned. Don't want to scare you, but-"
"But?"
"Connor's worried. A possible rift storm."
"A what?" Connor, Connor was Master's brother with the scarf over his eyes. She brought him out of the rain for food.
_'I noticed some fluctuation in this realm, so I had to see if I could find the source of the problem.'_
He was studying the realm...
"Does it..."
_'I know it’s possible for bits of your world to disappear completely. I’d like that to not happen, especially if the old dog and his whelps are running around. Makes a bit of a mess of everything.'_
"...does it have anything to do with the stability of the world he talked about?" Master nodded. "A-and he's talking to you?"
"Sure you've seen others moving around this realm while you slept."
A dream in the Void Sleep, Master walking around while she slept, while Hawk was sleeping, filling in the whole in the ocean as Hawk talked about being connected. _'I…can hear him talk in my mind sometimes... I believe we are all connected to a space here, and only one of us may be awake to walk freely and do things.'_
The knot in her stomach tightened, "So Connor's actually warning you-"
"Not sure what's going to happen, if anything. But there is...something off." Master held his tongue as he watched the color drain from her face. "I'm scaring you."
"Uh huh." She squeaked with a nod, a cocktail of nausea and lightheaded balance and being unable to catch her breath. He walked over to her, quickly collapsing into herself, he can see whatever fear for him in her eyes as he moved closer.
"Don't-don't look at me like I'm some kinda monster. I'm not!" She flinched as he came to meet her face to face, shallow breaths she couldn’t control, sobs in her throat, "Baker, look at me." She opened an eye to see Master staring at her. "You're not a bad person. Was out of line with what I said before to you, believe me. Don't want anything bad to happen to Hawk or to you. Whatever it is,” He paused, “it can be fixed."
"I-I can fix it." Her face wobbled into an uneasy smile. "It can be fixed." She repeated to herself, trying to build herself back up.
"Good. That's better. Be careful. It could pass no problem. You seem to have a connection to this place, for better or worse. Don't want it affecting you."
It's true she had some connection to this place, the lack of memories and the feeling of vertigo when she got upset. Maybe she did have something to do with the world around her.
"I'll be alright."
"Mm. Keep an eye out, stay safe." Master made his way back through the book and was gone. Baker was left in the half finished space of her new home, alone once more.
/Fuck-fuck no-fuck what's going to happen-/ “It can be fixed.” She repeated to herself, biting at a finger through her glove. /I shoulda told him to stay-/
She clutched at her arms, pressed against her chest, a freezing feeling she couldn't get warm, unable to breathe, fear, panic, wave after wave. She jumped back into the book, back to her old room. But Master was long gone, she couldn't feel his presence anywhere in the realm. He must have gone back to the Void Sleep. Let your thoughts be calm ones...'
She could hear something in her mind, it was calming, feminine, entrancing, but also monotone, like the feeling when someone drifts into a Void Sleep. Was it her own voice? Maybe it was the realm? It was silencing all the other noise in her head. She listened, feeling relaxed. Her back ached and her head grew heavy.
'It’s time to rest.'
The bed looked so welcoming, she hadn't slept well in forever.
"I need to find Master..." She pulled the blankets down and slipped into bed, tucking them around her shoulders. The pillow felt so cool against her face, the blankets warm and heavy. She couldn't move...
/The_Baker has logged out./
...
The last of the residents of the world had drifted to sleep, there was no one left on the Overworld realm. "You had your fun, but it needs to be reborn. Stop giving me this puppy eye look because your toy's broken." She took a long puff of her redstone light and took the jar from him. "You can watch if you want, maybe it'll make you feel better." He grimaced, as she put the jar on the table. The process was a necessary one, but that did not make it any easier. Sympathy could only do so much, there was a reason for her being here as much as he was. All that was left to do was watch as the world would be archived.
...
'W◘a ke◘ u p. . . ◘Yo u n ee◘d t o ◘w ak e◘ u p! '
...**zzt*** /The_Baker has logged in./
Baker snapped awake in her bed, the dusty pink of her walls were washed out of color, everything around her much the same. She seemed to be the only thing left with color in the monotone world around her, but her body was a tint of one solid pink, like she took all the color off the walls and painted herself. She was dreaming, she had to be dreaming. The air was heavy and her limbs dragged, tired and aching. She could barely get herself through the hidden doorway.
It wasn’t just her room, the world around her lacked any color, and everywhere she looked, faint white boxes hovered in the air. Everything felt like the static in her head. The world around her flickered, she could see lines and shapes she'd never seen before, strange text and numbers everywhere. Various numbers she didn't recognize, but they were everywhere.
Was this the rift storm? Was she going through it by herself?
"MASTER!" She called out, making her way outside. The flowers around her were stripped of their color, the sky was dark, unmoving, except for the flickering. Piece by piece, things started to break apart into more white boxes. The tall trees and flowers disappearing around her, Hawk's apiaries and the garden.
She ran, ran as her house disappeared in a cloud of broken potential.
"CONNOR! YULE!" Something was wrong. Everything was falling apart around her, she couldn't breathe but she had to keep running. The fort was missing massive chunks of it's cobblestone walls. and the library was slowly decaying in front of her.
"HAWK!" She was scared and alone, no one could hear her, no one else was around. She ran to the woods from where she came from, stopping at Master's monument. The weird purple thing he had built, where she threw eggs and lost her mind. She leaned against the base of it, trying to breathe. The air was too heavy. The world was collapsing around her.
"SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE!" She cried out, watching the trees and the world around her turn into a pitch black void.
‘You're awake?’
Baker looked up where a face looked back at her, much larger, it almost took up the entire sky in front of her. He was white as a ghost, hair that framed the face, and was indeed looking down at her.
"Help me! Everything's breaking! Where are my friends?! HELP ME PLEASE!" He was shocked to find her awake. More sympathy, and eyes drifting away from her.
‘...I'm sorry, it has to be done.’ He turned away and vanished from the sky.
"What's going to happen?! NO-COME BACK!" The air becomes too hard to breathe, she's panicking. "NO. I CAN FIX IT! PLEASE-!" The sky crumbles and the ground breaks apart from underneath her feet. And she's falling. The air leaves her lungs and she's falling, unable to stop. The descent is too much and her vision swims, seeing the last bits of the fragmented world fall around her, lightheaded, falling into the void, waiting to feel something. Hitting the ground, threads snapping, crushing darkness. Something.
——-
Song Recommendation: Pendulum - Watercolor
Far From Home: Chapter 8
He turned the jar about in his hands, inspecting the contents within. Parts of it seemed to separate and disappear, while the rest of it had the air of fragility and age. Worse still, it's strings seemed to tangle constantly with other jars.
"Still fixated on that one." A voice, smooth and low with a bit of lilt at the end, a hint of amusement, even teasing; it filled the room almost as quickly as the wispy smoke from her redstone light. He just brushed the hair back from his eyes, turning the jar over and over again.
"Doesn't appear any more stable than before. A shame." The wispy one chuckled, resting her arms on the top of the chair he sat in, the worlds above her, twinkled and jingled at her laugh, gently swinging on their strings.
"Those jars tend to be the worst. Break the easiest, with the shortest life spans, and the most problems."
She was right, she had seen enough of them come and go in her time. "Aye, it's fascinating though; the way the strings attach to it. No matter how I try to free it from the tangled web, it always seems to mesh with these two." He traced the lines with his finger to the other jars hung up by their strings. One of them, with insides that shone with the color of vivid diamonds, and the other, a spectrum of colors, but with a noticeable crack on it's side.
"Sometimes strings seem to appear, I've noticed. Perhaps in attempts to stabilize the world from falling over on it's side."
He smirked, with a shimmer in his good eye. "Like branches on a tree, that disperse the wind and balance the stress."
"Sometimes they act more like vines, entwining and connecting in order to survive."
He turned the jar about in his hands once more, and sighed. "This appears to be a very old world, that went through drastic changes too quickly. The way the new parts try to mesh, like a hastily stitched together quilt. The bonds are breaking apart too quickly." His tone settled into a somber one, "Suppose this one was not meant for a long life."
"No use getting upset over it." She left the room with swirly trails of smoke in her wake, and a chuckle that bounced against the jars once more.
He nodded, a defeated frown in agreement. "I'll give it a little longer..."
---
Through blurry vision and vertigo, Baker awoke to the distinct volume of yelling coming from outside her room; a couple of paintings that acted as a doorway could not do much to muffle the noise and the worry through alarms up too loud to ignore. Lightheaded and dizzy, she rolled to the edge of the bed to find some balance in her feet. The last attempt at sleeping did not account for any actual rest, she was still overly tired. Baker traced the dark circles under her eyes with a finger in disgust the night before and they were just as vivid now.
The fatigue was enough that getting out of bed was a chore, and one that Baker wished she didn't have to do, but it was definitely Hawk freaking out, and by the sound of it, his voice was ragged and hoarse. She slipped on the outer shell of her leather armor and hopped through the makeshift doorway that connected the rooms together. His room was in shambles, everything thrown apart in a flurry, what looked like panic and desperation. Hawk had his knees curled up to his chest on the couch, shaking and sniffling.
"Hawk?" His ears perked to the familiar sound in the room, letting go of his knees to reveal his face; the familiar sight of tear stained cheeks and exhausted eyes looked back at her. His hair had grown, tussled and a mess from whatever happened before, and the thing that stuck out the most, a small pink flower behind his left ear. Some amount of time had passed since he last stepped foot in this world.
"Baker-" He leapt off the couch and wrapped his arms around her, he was trembling but despite the signs of panic and crying on his face, at the least he seemed calmer than what she expected. "I'm glad you're back."
"Hawk, what happened? Everything's a mess." She ruffled his hair a bit with a free hand, relieved that he was not hurt by the looks of it. "You okay?"
Quiet, no immediate response out of him, like he was trying to put his thoughts together, perhaps fabricating them. His eye's moved about the room contemplating. He finally settled on a thought, "I-I can't find the villagers I helped. They're gone, I woke and I-" He shook his head. "I've been having terrible visions and I haven't slept."
Reasoning for whatever happened, she assumed, a build up for something. But she nodded; at the least she could start putting a picture together in her mind.
"Maybe they went home while we slept. I mean, they are a pretty intelligent race. Maybe they found a way back? They aren't incapable, I don't think."
"But," his ears lowered, "What if something happened to them?" The pause in her response left the room empty. Baker had no reassuring words to comfort him. It was just as good chance they were zombies again, or dead. This world wasn't kind to people on their own, trying to survive, even more so the testificate race, who seemed more nomadic that anything.
"I don't know, Hawk. I can only hope they made it back in one piece."
"I hope they're okay." He held on tighter, trying to find some means of assurance that everything he worked hard for didn't just collapse in front of him. She sat there with him on the couch for a bit, seeing if he would collect himself, find some kind of comfort in his head from this mess.
"I...I messed up."
"Hm?"
"When I was panicking, I ran into Yule and Lena, and all I could think about was the explosions and the mess they made, the disregard for the land. I told them about the villagers, and she laughed, talking about how stupid they were." Hawk shrunk in size, trying to make himself as small as possible in Baker's arms. "I yelled at her, blaming her that maybe she just killed them for fun, and I-I got carried away. I thought maybe that's why they were gone, and it made sense at the time. I said horrible things and Yule got upset-" He clung tighter, burying his face into her shoulder. "It felt like everyone else I've run into, trying to take everything from me. You weren't here and I was alone-"
It was making sense, little bits coming together; Hawk had another emotional collapse, except this time Baker was completely removed from the picture, and still things went bad. She looked around the disheveled room and then back to Hawk.
"What were you going to do, be honest with me." She was stern, but not cold. No reason to be irrational now, whatever happened happened, but no sense hiding the truth either. Once more, the shrinking feeling, Hawk trying to curl himself up into a ball in Baker's arms.
"I was going to run, run as far as I could-I tried to pack what I needed but..."
"But?"
He removed his tired face from her shoulder, terrified to speak. "...You." Baker just blinked.
"M-me?"
"I kept thinking about the last time, your voice kept breaking through, I couldn't put anything together. I wanted to run but I couldn't. So I just, sat here and cried."
That explained the mess. Baker could picture the scene vividly in her head, a back and forth between fear and will, and the inbetween of being pulled in both directions. It was so vivid in her mind; she must've went through this kind of struggle at some point, in the dark blotchy parts of her memory. They were both troubled people trying to make sense of the world they were in.
But Baker had all the assurance she needed that she was just as important to him as he was to her. From the way he acted around her, from the comfort they felt in each others presence, to the hair piece in his hair, with the familiar tint of pink.
"I don't know what to do, I feel like I ruined everything. This...doesn't feel like home anymore. I don't feel welcome."
And here was the problem she figured was the reason Hawk clung so tightly. If there were crossed lines between Yule and Hawk, it would make living within the fort an awkward and uncomfortable one. Hawk was already having a hard enough time as it was trying to adjust to this world, to have hard feelings with others and just the thought of being alone with the people that he angered, Baker could see how trapped Hawk felt.
Baker let go of Hawk gently, smoothing her clothes back into a neat manner, and brushing the hair behind her ear again.
"I'm not mad, and I'm definitely not gonna do something stupid like last time." She smiled. "You think you'll be okay 'till I get back? I'm gonna talk to Yule." Hawk nodded with uncertainty in his eyes, maybe even fear. "Don't worry, I just wanna make sure everything's okay on his end. I gotta make sure, I think we owe him that much."
"...Of course. I'll be here when you get back."
Baker made her way out of the basement and out the door, taking a moment to pause and look over everything she had built for them. Was it worth hanging on to? She slept more when people weren't around, it was obvious how lonely she felt, regardless of what she spent days building.
And there was Hawk's mental state to worry about. What were these visions he was talking about? And him having another breakdown, was it because of how he was before he left? The Twilight? Or his magic? Or maybe all of it? Maybe all of this was a countdown to a broken end, if Hawk couldn't keep up with this world.
--
Two knocks on the door and Yule opened up, neutral, not overly friendly, but not hostile. Probably because he expected Hawk to be at the door and not herself, his eyes seemed a bit sympathetic.
"Baker." He greeted.
"Hey, Yule. I-uh. Listen, I don't want to cause any further problems." He nodded.
"I don't have an issue with you, Baker, it's the company you keep that's become kind of hard to manage."
She agreed, the situation Yule was in was not something he probably appreciated being in, especially since Lena was a close friend and she and Hawk were the new guys. "This wasn't what I had in mind about being good neighbors," She chuckled, shuffling her feet a bit in place. "I don't want to cause any further issues-"
"Baker, it wasn't you." He said that already, but wait so did she. She was taking the blame, or trying to. Maybe she was defensive for him, because there was this little bit of her that thought, if things had started off better, maybe Hawk wouldn't have flipped out on Lena, but she wasn't there, she didn't know everything.
"No-I know-But I have a feeling it's better to be with him, for his sake. So..." She bit her lower lip, "I think we have enough resources to find a little place of our own, think it's time to move out."
Yules temperament lightened, mildly surprised. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, pretty sure. It's for the best. No hard feelings?" Baker stuck out her hand, getting the handshake she was hoping for.
"Of course."
"It'll take a little while, but when we're somewhat settled, I'll move everything over."
"Aye." And that was it. She had made the decision and it felt like the right one. No second guessing this time, if it was a wrong choice she'd make it work anyway. She needed more of that. This back and forth doubt was the kind of turmoil that Hawk put himself through trying to make a decision on what to do.
Baker turn-stepped from Yule's patio back to her house, "Ey' Baker. Take good care of him, alright? Think he could really use a stable friend around here."
She smiled, "I intend to."
--
Back at the house, Hawk was busy trying to pick up the scattered bits and pieces thrown about everywhere, arms full of wool, sticks and broken tools. He tossed it all into an empty chest and sat back down on the couch, awaiting the bad news. Baker couldn't help picturing a child ready to be scolded.
"Is he upset?" Hawk wore the grimace well, bracing for the potential bad news.
"Not so much, but, I definitely think we've worn out our welcome around here." Hawk nodded, focusing on his cupped hands in his lap.
"I figured as much." A hard dry swallow, and a sigh followed in step. "I suppose I will find a place to stay, I'm sure Master won't mind if I just sleep in his hovel by Aoi for a bit, until I make a suitable shelter."
"Oy, who said I was abandoning you? I'm not leaving you to fend for yourself out there, no way." Hawk turned, surprised.
"But I-I'm not welcome-this is your home-" Baker shook her head, cupping his hands in hers.
"I can always build a new home, I've done it before plenty of times now. What I can't handle is an empty house by myself." She bit her lip and tripped over her words, "I can't-I can't function-I don't function right...too many people looking at me, and I just want to hide. But I don't want to be alone either. It gets messy, it's aggravating back and forth-anyway. This place is no more a home than anywhere else I build walls, as long as I have family beside me."
Hawk's eyes widened, a red across his face. "Family..."
"Yeah kinda, y'know? I mean, even that butthead of a Master of yours has kinda, I dunno, found a place somewhere in my heart, I don't know why; it's weird." Could words be foreign to her but also familiar? It felt like old pieces of herself in her voice. "It hurts but I've always been worse when I just...close myself off from everyone. I-I think anyway. It feels, familiar. Like a 'learn from your mistakes' kinda feeling." She smiled.
"...But...you put so much work into this place."
"Nothing I can't do again. I'm sure Yule or Lena or Lilith will use it for something, or not, I dunno. Not really important." She was rather flippant about the whole thing, a place she spent months on perfecting and nitpicking all for nothing.
Hawk felt an uneasy chuckle come out of him, "You're okay with just giving up everything here."
"I had to...a few times." She cringed at the words, fuzzy bits were trying to take shape in her mind, this whole conversation was desperately trying to put things together, and the more she remembered, the more it hurt. There were bits of running at night, dodging shots from arrows and finding cover, sleeping through the day in a hidden spot until the sun set again and running further. Lots of climbing, steep climbing, and a drastic dip in temperature, familiar bits of chills and attempting to keep warm. It was familiar, the memory of crying on top of the elder tree in the Twilight and looking out at the vast landscape. There was some life before she woke up, she was sure of it now. "Anyway my mind's made up, so where should we go?"
Hawk blurted out, "The Twilight. I, I need to feel the aura in the air."
--
The two of them wandered about the shadowy overhangs of elder trees, vines swaying in the breeze. It was tranquil on the surface, to not fear the coming of night and shadowspawn, and just aimlessly wander for days. And the aura was plentiful, even Baker could feel bits of it, as they came close to a node or two. Hawk pointed out the location of a pure node and asked her to feel the energy coming from it, and she did. It was warm, and enveloping, the previous silverwood must have had a very small node, as she felt almost nothing on the Overworld.
"It's possible that it could have been drained from bad nodes close by, that can happen. That is their intended purpose, a shame that it drains the tree's life just to balance the world around it."
When they got too close to an impure one, the air would shift and almost crackle when they got even closer. A wisp took form and gave off little sparks arcing in all directions. It was time to turn the other way and hope that it dispersed back into the Aura.
"So where should we set up shop this time? Sky's the limit now." Baker was enjoying the clump of soft moss that gathered under a tall elder, looking up at the stars and massive canopy of leaves. She lazily connected the tiny points of light together with her finger.
"I'm not sure. We found a few of those abandoned homes but-"
"You felt it to? Something was still there."
"Yes, very good, spotting that feeling. Have you been practicing with magic?"
"Eh, just the stuff that I can learn from here." She laughed. "More reading than anything, remember there wasn't any vis in the air at our old place."
Hawk nodded, feeling the moss in his hands as well. "Something was still there in those little huts. I think it best we not disturb them."
Baker hopped to her feet, smoothing her cape back into place and stretching her back. "Well we don't have to stay in the Twilight, but I figured, y'know, it'd be better for you to be around here more."
"Heh, It would be selfish to only take my care into account, Baker. Where would you go?"
"Somewhere high." She said without thought. Yeah that sounded right, nodding in her own approval. "I...I want to build a tree home, high above the clouds." Hawk's eyes brightened with a laugh.
"In one of the elders?" he chuckled, "You were quite winded trying to climb one the first time."
Baker scoffed. "I could stand to lose a lil' weight. Sure there's an easy way to make the climb easier anyway. I'd find something..."
"You're serious then." The humor in his smile was replaced with a certain kind of energy, vibrant, almost elated.
"Yeah, a tree home. High up, let's do it. I want to." Her hands at her side, nodding, this was the decision and it was made. Now it was a matter of finding the perfect elder to be the base of their new home. It was nice to have confidence in her words, like she couldn't go wrong. And the feeling reached Hawk as well, like he could rely on her, like she was the support he needed.
--
"You mentioned something about my Master and 'a place in your heart.' Hawk chuckled, as he was busy turning logs of a fallen elder into the future flooring of their new home. They both agreed to make as little change to the actual tree as possible, and to try and use recycled materials or ones they grew on their own. To not disturb the balance of the Twilight, of course.
Baker grimaced at the comment, the way Hawk made it sound like it was some kind of odd crush she had. He wasn't bad on the eyes, but she'd never openly admit that. "Man I don't know. It's more a goal to just, not feel like a giant fuck-up around him." She built the foundation of the home around the base of the tree, supporting the floor with the branches that intertwined with each other. "It's weird, he scares the crap outta me but like, only so much because I kinda just keep going back to wanting to fix all the wrong that went on." Hawk continued his chuckle. "It can't be that bad, can it?" Baker gave in to the urge of uncertainty, feeling exposed like some giant secret was going to haunt her or whatever, a warmth rushing to her face.
"He is rather abrasive, but it's intentional I believe. He has always been, what was the phrase, 'at arm's length' with people, unless they were really close with him already. I'm not sure if there was anyone outside of Shade and Connor."
"Yeah I'm starting to see that. I kinda just, ugh. I want to fix everything, it's nagging me. It's unfinished and it bothers me." She lay flat against the floor, looking up to the rest of the tree above her. So far the floor felt even and level; so far so good. "It's a 'problem' that I'm supposed to 'fix' so I don't know if I just want closure or if I actually want to be on good terms with him."
"Heh, the only person out of all of us to get close was Maisie, and she was stubborn about it. She'd find a means; I guess she saw through his scary outer shell."
"Really? What'd she do?" Hawk put down the saw and sat down beside Baker on the floor.
"Little things, nothing really grand I believe. She'd fight back, not let him intimidate her. I think she didn't see him as being above her, or that it was possible to be his equal."
Baker laughed. "She's got fire, I like it."
"...She did." It didn't take long for the reality of the conversation to settle back into Hawk's throat. Baker was genuinely interested in the world Hawk grew up in, had to fight to live in, the friends he had made and the life he put together.
"That's not gonna stop hurting for you, is it?" Baker didn't want to keep bringing up old wounds, but it was Hawk that wanted to continue the conversation.
"There's no reason to keep hoping, but I can't seem to shake that feeling."
"Then hold onto it." Baker sat up off the floor, holding Hawk's hand in hers.
"You don't think it's some fleeting thing to keep wishing for?"
"I don't, but y'know me. I'm emotional and irrational." She chuckled, "But the only way I've ever made any kind of good decisions was from here." She pointed to her chest with a worried smile. "I mean, up here's important too," she poked at her forehead, "but it's also a trap. It'll talk over and over until I make no decision, and then I know it's wrong because no decision is the wrong decision, but I still do it. I do it a lot." Hawk looked up at Baker's face, and the hand over his.
"Over and over..."
"Yeah, something like that. If you still think she's out there somewhere, hold onto it, until you know for sure. Because what if you're right? What if she's still out there and you find her and you get your friend back, and things work out?"
Hawk smiled, "It's childish to think so positively."
"Well I don't care. I know if I stopped looking for something I felt so strongly about, it would be heartbreaking, and if I stop, I would never find it because I stopped. And maybe I'm the one that's supposed to find it! I have to keep picking myself up and going."
They watched the stars lazily drift by in an open sea of skylight, the sun never rising or setting, just consistent twilight.
"Baker, you seem so sure in positive thinking, but for everyone else. What about you? You have no memory of a life before you woke up here, except bits and pieces of what you've told me. Do you think you'll find what you're looking for?"
She folded her hands in her lap, her thoughts distant and uncertain. "I hope so. But not if it costs me what I've found. I have a life here, it's odd and not what I expect, but it's open, and I don't think I ever had that before. I think, I was tied down, I think I'm a different person, somewhere else." She rubbed the palms of her hands against closed eyes. "I know it hurts, it makes my head hurt and makes me tired but I still try to figure out what I'm missing. I'm just scared that what I want to know will destroy what I have."
The stars were drowned out by clouds that gathered overhead, and the sound of raindrops bouncing against the canopy filled the air. They moved closer to the base of the tree, where the leaves were thicker and covered them from the storm.
"Do you want to head back to the house for now? I think we made a good start, sturdy floor, got a few walls set up." It was a fleeting thought, she didn't actually want to move from her spot against the tree, as lightning crackled in the distance. She certainly didn't want to go back to the house either, it was likely Hawk would stay as far from it as possible now, so she'd have to do most of the moving, unless he went with her.
"It is a good start." Hawk rested his head on her shoulder. "It is nice." His head felt warm, too warm for Baker. She took off a glove and rested the back of her hand against his forehead, he was burning up. "I'm exhausted." Gears were already turning, he was sick and she got him sick and-no calm down-he needs you, there's no reason to point fingers and feel guilty. She wrapped his cape around him as well as her own, a mix of pink and green, the color of delicate flowers hiding from a storm.
"Just rest there and get comfortable. It won't take me long to set up the stove. I know we brought our teapot and some snacks." He gently nodded, wrapping himself tighter in the makeshift blankets, huddling himself as close as he could to the tree.
"Baker, I don't feel well." His voice was meek, fading. She dropped the cobblestone and knelt down to him.
"What can I do?"
"...Don't leave." He wiped his eyes with the capes, trying to keep his shoulders from shuddering from the sobs in his throat.
"I won't, I'll do my best to fix this..."
——-
Song Recommendation: One Republic - Au Revoir
A Necessary Apology
This might get to be a long post, so behind a cut it goes.
So, it's been pretty obvious, but I've just been gone for a good while now. Silent for the most part, except for sporadic updates. The last year and change has been hell, for a number of different reasons, but they all sum up to a phrase I've used constantly, called 'Continuous Bullshit'.
Now, what exactly happened within 'CB' was a clusterfuck of bad decisions, mistakes, and a lot uncertainty on both parts, Rob and myself. I don't wish to delve into too much detail on specifics right now, mostly because, this is a topic in which the details are only shared by a handful of people close to Rob and I. Down the road one day, I hope to explain better. Not that I don't care about you guys, but this barely stems out to the main branches of my family. No we didn't get pregnant, no we weren't hurt, but we were involved in an 'incident' that snowballed into something it wasn't supposed to.
It started back in October of 2013 and continued up until last week of February 2015.
In that timeframe, the two of us have both started therapy, diagnosed with depression and put on medication to ease the symptoms. Robert's biological father 'disowned' him and his biological mother died of heart failure. I've also been working at a retail store on closing shifts that is some degree of hatred I've described in minor bits and pieces on my personal blog (I'm sorry for the frequent rage floods), as well as got a wisdom tooth and an infected molar removed. All the while playing this game of CB to find a resolution.
There were times I had fallen into the pit and thought of ending it all. The moments stuck pretty strongly in my mind, being freezing cold in a car waiting for it to defrost so I can go home at like 11 at night, bawling in an empty parking lot, and just, times where I spent lying on the couch crying. I fought for the longest time to just get up, and for a good portion, I've just hidden within FF14, confined in my friends, completely disconnected from others being afraid to talk, cried a lot. I want to say that is hasn't been a productive year, but the fact that I got anything done is something my therapist constantly reminds me.
Because I've coulda done a lot lot worse.
The worst of it all, was it put a strain on my relationship with my fiance, I spent a long time doubting if I even loved him anymore. Why was I fighting this battle? Why did I care? Depression was destroying whatever I had left.
And looking at the update pattern, the noticeable lack of Warrior around here, well it's pretty obvious now how much my blog reflected my life on the other side.
But this story has a happy ending! The worst of it's over! The two of us are putting the bits and pieces of our life back together, and a lot of underlying baggage between us is being handled better. It is still a far flung dream to have a better job and stability, and get out of under my parent's feet, clear up the debt I owe to them.
But, things are better. A lot better. This tested our relationship to my parents, and I feel Rob has an actual mom and dad now that care about him, I have the love of my life back, as well as some bits of a happier me. I also have some closer ties, and it's just-
There are moments where I can feel the pink in me. It's really weird to relate so well to a color, but these moments of happiness and security and feeling loved and belonged. It feels like my heart is warm and open and everyone can feel it around me. I'm starting to come out of my shell. But we are still both depressed, so a lot of work is still to be done, but with everything that happened, we're much stronger for it now.
So I want to close this lengthy entry, apologizing for my schedule, and thanking everyone once again for sticking around. I'm going to finish this story one way or another. I need to.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for being awesome.
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and wish you all a Merry Craftsmas! Since we're in between big stories right now, I couldn't really do a big thing this season, but have a festive arangement anyway!
I'm also coming up to the third year anniversary, and while I would love to do a big picture, I have to learn from my mistakes from last year, and not bite off more than I can chew. With time crunch and more important bits to work on for this story, I just wish to acknowledge it and continue with actual story stuffs.
Thank you for being patient with me while I try to get my life in order. And thanks for the good time so far.
~ ScribbleLiz
Cookie Crumbs: Part 2-3
Music Inspiration: Stop - Approaching Nirvana
[ AN: So this is a pretty cool submission! It's a fan's concept of AskBaker 'world borders'. This is so cool! I have no idea how you created it, but it's certainly a really awesome idea.
Would anyone be able to see it? Or would it be visible to 'higher ups' like moderators/'stabilizers' and the like? Would the borders be more pronounced in areas of less 'stability' or even if crossing over to other worlds or heavily modded servers? So many possibilities! Maybe it's possible that these walls are more visible where the chunks start to really change, resulting in a server hop? ]
I'm also a sucker for the floaty white square look. =u= ]
Wouldn't that mean that FFH-Baker would theoretically be able to get back to MountainView? What then? Would the two Baker's memorys get clearer the closer they got to each other? Would they join back to one entity if they touched?
HMMM. That is a very good question. Guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens in the new chapters. We still haven’t seen the server shut down yet in the story like we did in 'A Bad Dream', so FFH!Baker went somewhere…
♥ Heee ~
I don't normally repost comments or reblogs but.
@furyrune: these are the best mc/au headcanons i have ever seen
This was a much needed squee after a shitty day at work. *u* Thank you for enjoying my head nonsense.
Far From Home and Main Story Conundrums
[ The first question I got on my main blog, but really it belongs here so it's gonna get answered here! The second one kinda relates to both so it's gonna be answered here as well. This is gonna be a long one with some mild spoiler-ish answers so behind a cut it goes! ]
Okay, let's see, where to start.
Why does FFH!Baker seem more affected by the split from Mountainview Baker?
I think this is more a matter of bad pacing on my part for the story line and my bad updating because the clusterfuck of real life. The way things line up in the first half of Far From Home took place already. Here is a rushed graphic to show where key points happen on both sides!
A lot of the stuff being covered right now is actually months behind where I am currently in the story. You will actually see some mild 'reconnecting' in Cookie Crumbs: 2-4 because there's another 'sync up' happening at that moment. So everything going on so far is from before waking up in A Bad Dream.
Also part of the way I'm writing Far From Home is a much much more condensed version of the roleplays that went on in the FTB server, mostly to cut out a lot of the in between time that occurred. Think we're all aware the time sink that is Minecraft can be, so you'll see a lot of the tedious parts cut out, because everyone kinda gets the idea.
'They mined.' 'They crafted.' 'They hugged.' So these two together make it seem like FFH!Baker is more affected, when the spacing is just different for both stories. I try to line them up as best as I could, but for what it is, and my time management lately, it could be better. I'm trying to get the two caught up, but it's hard, it won't happen until way in the second part of the story, and if I can catch up with the main story as well.
Vanilla!Baker (for lack of a better term) is still very much affected by what's going on with her, and the stuff going on in Far From Home doesn't help, but they are for the most part, separate dealing with similar issues in different environments.
What exactly is going on? Well, that hasn't been explained yet.
Now the second part of the question...
How is falling in the void and ending up in both The Nether and a different part of Minecraftia entirely even supposed to work?
This is a bit of where I concoct my head canon from, and it's partly based around how I view servers in the world which leads to the 2nd question.
What are servers in this head canon?
Minecraft, for me, is essentially a giant quilt of patches, with overlaying 'dimensions' that can intersect or be completely separate from each other. In a lot of ways I take ideas from the AskMissZion blog about the world jars, but trying to look at it from the perspective of the player. But I end up meshing canons from other blogs as well.
- 'Steve' is the one 'player' that has to defeat the Enderdragon which is why he can respawn. - Everyone else is on 'hardcore' mode and therefore can die in game. - If you fall into the void, you end up landing somewhere else. A good example is from the Neighbro blog. Ránion landed in a Tekkit based server and eventually made it to Mountainview. Ranwe does not defeat the Enderdragon because, once again, it's Steve's Path.
Baker can freely go to Mountainview (The Enderbro/Mountainview Server) the same way she can go to Hardcore Horizon (Miss Zion's Server) or back to her 'home server' (The 'Bake'craft server) by the way I imagine servers to be 'stiched together'.
When you start up a world, whether it be single player or multiplayer, it always has to be built around a starting point, sometimes a player and sometimes just a 'spawn point'. But eventually you stop exploring the land and you create 'edges'. These edges are where you create the weird 'biome errors/chunk errors'. This is where I believe the 'stitches' are to the servers.
But back to the question of why there are seemingly two Baker's about somewhere. The big turning point was the 'catch' Cookie made before Baker fell into the void.
If you've played on a server long enough, you'll run into the instance of lag where the server tries to catch up, and you'll have moments were you place a block/mine a block and it doesn't actually happen. The server couldn't catch up to your 'change' in the data and you end up having to re-mine/re-place the same block over again. What happens here is a metaphorical 'lag spike' in a broken/corrupt chunk of Sorallas.
Essentially. She did not fall into the void, but she also did.
So what you have is a 'fragment' of Baker. Not the complete piece, on a different server.
FTB servers to me are so far out of the spectrum of servers that they may even be on a completely different plane of existence. You can be logged into a vanilla game of minecraft and a modded FTB minecraft at the same time, but not without aggravating your computer, (and potentially blow up your video card...) So you technically have the same character in two different places.
But here's another question. Is it two different Bakers then, or one and a 'shadow'? It's been proven in both Far From Home and the Main Story that there are fragments of memory of the other side on each one. So her 'save data' is going somewhere. But can two different sets of save data be stored properly in the same 'character' without there being issues? And what other issues are at hand here as far as Character Corruption goes?
That's for you all to see...
Far From Home: Chapter 7
"No good. The Hoe of Growth doesn't seem to have any effect on it." "Mm. Thought as much." Baker held the silverwood sapling in her hand; they had been bested by the stubborn little sprout. "Thanks anyway, Yule. We tried our best." He nodded and made his way back to the mainland, leaving Baker to her business. The two of them had been making sense of the Thauminomicon, learning what they can through studies, but there was only so much they could do with just research alone. Putting it to practice was a whole other game, and with the land so barren of Vis, it was unlikely they would make any headway unless they took these practices a great distance in either direction of the base. Which left Baker the sapling that wouldn't grow. The days were quiet overall, Jack was the next to appear, but Baker wasn't in a mood to have visitors; she worried about Hawk, about the strain he was under. Was it just the Twilight Forest, or was it the realm itself that seemed to fatigue him? /It must be hard to cram something so complicated into these simple bodies./ Baker mused to herself. His world sounded fascinating and intricate, even more so for as complicated as this realm seemed to be. What would she be like in a realm like his? He talked about how everything wasn't made of blocks. Would she still be blocky? Would she take a shape similar to what Hawk is familiar with? /I would still have a head as big as a pumpkin./ That much she believed at least. She had a finished house with no one to live in it with; it seemed like just as she called it complete, Hawk disappeared. Jack didn't stick around for very long at the base, which left Baker to find any odd jobs to do in the meantime. She redecorated the bathroom, taking brick and stone from the Twilight's Labyrinths, and that was an affair she decided was best never to attempt again. She and Iksha had attempted to brave the lower structure of the maze, only to find the place full of nasty surprises. Bugs that clamped down on and toss the victim around like a ragdoll, bugs that smothered enemies in slime, or in flame, and worst of all, the minotaurs. Needless to say, the two of them hightailed out of it fast. There was still plenty of brick to take from the opening at the surface, and Baker didn't have to bother the nasties down below. It made a pretty bathroom, but she questioned the worth of struggle to go through all of the hassle to decorate one room of her house, as the stone seemed almost impervious to pick. Baker left more tired than she ever intended to be. --- Baker was sitting in the basement, listening to the hum of the machines idly as they processed the honeycombs she had been taking care of while Hawk was away. It was something of a pattern now. Wake up, tend to the crops, tend to the bees, make herself something to eat, find something to do. Jack had been busy in the mines most of the time or running around doing...something Baker wasn't sure of, but had gone quiet for a period now. But as if on cue, hurried footsteps were stomping down the stairs toward her. "Baker! Baker look at this!" Jack rounded the corner of the door with arms full of eggs and the biggest smile on his face. "What's up Jack?" He tossed an egg to the ground and out popped a baby chick, he was still rather excited about all of it. "Uh...yeah they do that sometimes." Baker smiled, remembering that Jack wasn't from this world, so all things considered probably everything was a new experience to him. "No no, that's not the best part. This is!" He put the remaining eggs down on the table, and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small shimmering pouch. With a few pinches of a colorful dust, the baby chick disappeared in a puff of smoke and instead, there was a baby...something. Something black and white that waddled and made strange noises.
Baker's eyes grew wide and her mouth twitched into a grin. Whatever it was, it was adorable. Big flappy wing things, big round eyes, it waddled all over the place. "It's a penguin! We have them at home, but I found this special powder in the twilight that turns chickens into them!" "It's adorable! What do they eat? How do they live? Do they need anything special?" Baker picked up this penguin and nuzzled it's smooth feathers in her arms. "They live in cold climates and eat fish. We can make a cold place for them to live!" "Yes! Right away-I don't want it to get sick! Um-uh-" Baker looked around, desperately trying to make sense of the situation. "We'll dig out a room on the other side of the stairwell and fill it with ice and snow! There's a snowy biome on the other side of the sea. It's a bit of a ride, c'mon Jack, I'll need your help." Baker gave Jack the penguin to hold as she dug through chests to find the materials she'd need. "If you need some shovels, I have two diamonds we can spare." He motioned to one of the chests perched next to Hawk's bed, and Baker found two pristine diamonds. It was a shame to waste them on shovels, but it would save them a lot of trouble only having to bring two that would last versus 10 made out of stone that would break so easily. --- The base disappeared on the horizon as Jack and Baker sailed in the direction of the frozen biome. She had taken the time to travel around the base in search of an area rich in Vis for the silverwood as that was one of her 'things to do to keep busy' for a day. Unfortunately the distance was much too far to travel on a daily basis. The boats touched ground on the frozen sandy beach; miles in each direction, everything was covered in snow. Jack put the baby penguin down and watched him run around in the cold white powder playfully. "He seems to like it." Jack beamed, watching the penguin like a mother watching it's child. "We'll have to dig up a lot, I don't want to come back for supplies if I don't have to." Baker handed him a shovel. "Before we lose the light of day." Jack smiled and promptly stamped the sharp end of the spade into the ground. The snow was easy to dig up, it came up in big clumps that Baker was able to pack into compact blocks with ease. Jack spent more time chasing the penguin, but Baker did not have the heart to discourage his fun time. She would get enough snow no problem before the sun set. Then she felt a smack to her back that ended with a slushy sound. When she turned, she saw Jack with snowballs in hand. Oh, it was on now, she smirked. Snowball after snowball they launched at each other, the penguin running in between the frozen artillery. Once Baker got a good throw in that hit Jack upside the forehead, knocking him to the ground, but when she ran over to check on him, she was bombarded with return fire. The two lay in the snow, staring up as the clouds gathered and the sun set; it was getting late, and they had enough of the frozen stuff to make the penguin a wonderful little home inside the base. --- "What about ice? I think they like slipping around on it too." Jack mused as he dug out a spot to the left of the stairwell. Baker was already on it, shoving blocks of snow into the compressor. "Got it covered, Jack." She picked up the shiny block of frozen water out of the machine with a grin. "This should keep the water cool enough for our penguin friend." When all was said and done, the place looked like the inside of a snowball, and was properly frigid to boot. In the center was a pond bordered in ice, and kept to a chilly temperature of 'decently cold'. The penguin seemed happy enough at least. Baker brushed off her hands and sat on the floor with a sigh. In the time it took her to mope around in the last few days, she and Jack had another addition to the house. "You're not cold?" Jack asked, pulling the cover on his shoulders close together. "Nah, I'm well insulated," She laughed and poked her doughy physique, "I like this temperature, it feels nice. If I had the choice, I might have lived in a snowy biome." Jack, though still kinda cold, sat down next to her with a smile. "Well I'm glad I cheered you up a lil' bit. You seemed kinda sad." "Wait really? Was it that bad?" Baker turned to him; it was so off the cuff-was she really as down as he thought she was? He just nodded with an apologetic smile. "Well shit, I thought I was doing a good job hiding that." Jack shook his head at the rather forced smile that looked back at him. It was evident that she was terrible at it. "I'm glad someone's been able to be friendly with him. I haven't seen that since Maisie." That name, she remembered that being a very somber subject, Hawk only talked about her briefly, and for every reason she understood why. How would she feel if one of her closest friends was taken from under her nose without so much as a fight to be put up against it? And then...gone. Baker curled her knees up to her chest. "It's not that I was avoiding you or anything, Jack. You just, kinda seemed to be busy with whatever and I kinda figured you didn't really need me tagging along being a giant mope." "Aww it's okay. I know you miss him. He's needed someone to be friendly with for a long time, and you managed to chip a hole big enough in his shell to get a smile out of him. That's pretty impressive." Jack laughed, getting up from the floor with an appropriate shiver. "I just thought you'd like something like this. They are kinda cute little buggers." Baker smiled. "They are. Thank you, Jack." He nodded and made his way out of the basement; Baker could faintly hear the front door close, as she turned to watch the penguin play around in the snow. --- It was late when she woke up, the little penguin was cuddled up in a corner and Baker was herself curled up into a ball next to him. By now she was definitely cold, but exhausted enough to fall asleep in the frigid little room. A consistent shiver she couldn't shake had set in; well that would teach her to fall asleep in the penguin's room again. Desperately rubbing her arms for warmth, she made her way back upstairs, the sounds of someone rummaging in the cabinets louder as she got closer to the ground floor. Jack must have come back for something but seeing Baker asleep, didn't want to disturb. 'I'd bring it back!' Baker mused the thought, not like she would have been mad about it. She rounded the top of the stairs, still trying to warm herself up, and was about to greet Jack once more but the words got caught in her throat; the familiar red cape was grey. That wasn't Jack. And of course, he turned around at that moment to meet her eye to eye. Great, just great. Not again. Baker broke the gaze that seemed to lock the two in awkward silence and cleared her throat. "G'mornin, Master." She greeted. "Evening." He motioned to the windows, it was clearly very late into the night, the moon was high and the stars bright. "Ah. Right. I had a bit of a nap." She shrugged. The smalltalk was struggling, what in the hells would she even be able to say to him? Part of her wanted to reprimand him for rummaging around in her kitchen, but she knew exactly where that conversation was going to go. It was not worth starting the argument. "Oh-Hawk left something for you. It's in the top shelf on the left." Baker motioned to the cabinets, Master turned and opened the cupboard to see a small brown satchel, which he opened and had a quick whiff of the contents. "Hmm. Coffee powder. Heh, smart boy." He smirked. "There's a brewing stand stashed up there if you wanted some." /I mean, I'm sure you would have used it anyway even if I hadn't-/ /NO. No we're not doing this. Stop it./ She bit her lip and attempted to force the smile once more. "Hmm. Thank you." She was unsure what else to say or do other than to stand by the stairwell and watch him concoct a couple of cups of coffee with the brewer. He handed her the other mug and sat down at the kitchen table without a second thought, and Baker stared at the drink in her hand. She took one sip and made the most undignified noise she could manage. How did people drink this?! Master chuckled. "Not a coffee person." He sipped the drink and sighed contently, much happier with it than she was. "Handy thing, his bee project." He set the mug down and watched Baker question what to do with the potent drink, though she didn't seem willing to sit down next to him, the awkward tension still hung heavy in the room. "You're scared of me?" Baker grimaced. "Hmph. That I'd be afraid of you-don't flatter yourself-" She shook her head and bit her lip in protest. "Ngh. No-no. I'm not doing this. I'm not." Master was mildly surprised at the tone she responded with, still defiant, still defensive. She was clearly not letting her guard down just yet. Baker sighed and leaned against the kitchen counter, staring into her coffee. There was no point in being hostile, at least without better reasoning.
"Yeah, I am. Lil' bit." She swirled the murky contents around in her mug with her gaze drifted to the past few months behind her. "Whatever you said, it wasn't-it wasn't just you. There's something off with me. It wasn't just you that night." Her body language suggested defeat to him, or understanding, regret, contemplation. She didn't look like she was about to flee from him, that was pretty clear. Maybe she'd be more willing to listen than she had been.
"...Any clue what?" Baker chuckled. "No idea. Something though. I know that." She took another attempt at the drink, still not pleasant after the second sip. "Is there anything I can do with this stuff other than to tough out the bitter taste?" She asked rather bluntly, which threw Master off his thought train. He smirked. "Iced coffee, coffee mixed with chocolate, a 'Caffe Mocha' or other sweets. Or just milk and sugar." Baker nodded and set the mug down to rummage through the cabinets to make good of the cup of coffee with minor modifications. "...You don't want to talk about what happened." Baker turned back at him with an uncomfortable sigh. "Did you?" "No." He shook his head, focusing on the drink instead as she turned back to creating some kind of concoction in the ceramic mug, he chuckled at the sigh. She certainly didn't want to waste the coffee, which was interesting to him. To go through all the trouble to make it palatable, she at least didn't turn it down from the beginning. Master was curious, the body language and the actions were probably a better indication than whatever words came out of her mouth. For a moment, it looked like she was fighting a completely different person in her mind to even get a proper thought out.
He agreed with her, there was something else in the mix, psychological or ethereal or phenomenal; there was too many unknown factors in this world to him yet. It made him uneasy.
"Did a decent job putting this place together," he remarked. Baker turned around from her experimenting to the compliment muttered between his sips of coffee. It was odd, he must have been grasping at straws for conversation as well for something so off the cuff. "...Thank you, sir." She smiled. Polite but still appreciative. It wasn't hard to miss the detail put into this place. Everything down to the molding and placement of furniture was a labor of passion and patience. "You were cold?" He asked, immediately changing the topic in the hopes the awkwardness didn't come back already. "Oh! Jack brought me back a penguin! Here I'll show you." Baker ushered him down the stairs, figuring she might as well show him the new additions to the place while she sipped at her much sweeter drink. When she stepped back into Hawk's room, it was there she noticed something off. For a second it was hard to pinpoint what it was exactly, until she spotted that something had changed about his bed. "What the..." It wasn't noticeable enough to drag her thoughts away from warming up before, but it was certainly staring her in the face now. The walls around his bed were donned with blocks of precious gems, and a long written piece. Master picked up the disruption almost immediately, and furrowed his brow. "Mmph. This is...new." He was definitely not pleased. "This wasn't here this morning, it must have happened when I was taking my nap. I...I don't know what to make of it." 'For I lay my spoils down at your feet, and offer my sword...' 'See I do pay attention to what you read' - Jack Baker and Master looked at each other with uncertainty, there was something about the whole thing that felt out of place. Like some kind of shrine or offering, or monument. For what little she knew of Jack, this felt really out of place, even for him. Did he pick it up too? This aura, the whole construct left some odd signature to it, invisible to the eye but made the hair on her arms stick up in attention. "What should we do? I think, I think this would just be bad news." Baker questioned, unsure of what to do. Master nodded. "Aye...Let's take it down." "Right." For a brief moment, agreement between the two. Whatever Jack was attempting to do, it was very clear that it would only widen the gap between him and Hawk. Baker was still uncertain though; Jack set this up for some reason he wanted to relay to Hawk, but having Master agree with her feelings was validating. At least she wouldn't be the only one in the wrong. The signs were pulled from the walls and the precious gem blocks put into a chest by the bed. "Mind me asking what's the deal with them?" Baker muttered between the task at hand. She hoped that his view of things were a bit clearer than her own. "Complicated. Figured you knew enough." Baker shook her head. "I got bits and pieces, but they're two very different view points. Hard to be impartial." She paused at the stack of signs in her hands, "Though I'm starting to see there's definitely pieces I'm missing to all of this." Master tossed the pick into the box with the gem blocks and dusted his hands. With Hawk's room put back together, the chill in the air was gone, and Baker rubbed her arms, brushing away the cool feeling, satisfied. "Manage well enough. Both have good things to say 'bout you. Even my brother." He smirked. Master was certainly trying to be hospitable, or at least not angry, though whatever bridge that was there between them was still smoldering from the original fire. "Whatever this was," he shook his head, "don't worry about it. Was for the best for both of them." Maybe this was more of the Master that she wasn't aware of. There was no malice in his intentions of removing the shrine, but more in line with protecting their best intentions. Maybe confronting Master wasn't so much an obstacle than it was a wall, a wall that Baker put up from the beginning. The mentality of putting up walls around her was familiar, off in a distant memory, protecting herself, hiding, fleeing. There was only so much to hiding, she supposed. The two of them made their way back upstairs, where Master rinsed the mugs in the sink and cracked his shoulder back into place. "Going to take a walk, clear my head. Work on the place near Aoi's." Baker nodded, unsure of how to say good-bye, but he was already turning for the door.
"Wait." She almost cursed herself for even opening her mouth, but it was too late now, might as well start what she finished. She sighed, and unraveled her clenched fists. "You...are a very intimidating person. But only so much I guess, cuz I was still willing to defend my actions but-ugh-there's no excuse for what I did, and it'll be one of those things that I just, never let go. Like a lot of things, I think." She paused, apologies were hard, especially to one she didn't agree with, "But, Hawk's important to me, and I only intended to protect him from himself, from others, it was not my place, I didn't think clearly." She bit her lip, unsure how to phrase the rest of her thoughts that didn't sound abrasive or mean.
"Go ahead, Baker. Say it." "You're not the enemy, and I just-I, I just don't want you to see me as a threat." Baker looked down at her feet, afraid to look him in the eyes. Master had turned to face her at this point; she was certainly trying, even if her words were foreign to her. Whatever mistakes she made, they sunk deep. And this was probably not the first time she's tripped over her own feet. Words were failing her, they pushed over each other, went backward and forward, repeated. The things that were certain to her, those were clear and crisp and forward. Baker was not so much an open book, but a book in a completely different language to him. What he did get out of all if it, the bits and pieces, was a clear image of what she saw herself as, and what she believed Master saw as well. "...You're not a threat." He finally responded. Baker lifted her head back up; it was so hard to keep eye contact with him that she just kinda rocked on her feet, chuckled nervously and rubbed her arm. "I talk a big game, getting all puffed up and defensive, but I'm about as intimidating as a kitten." Master chuckled at the metaphoric image. "Kitten wants to walk with the big dogs." He turned to open the door. "Take care, Baker." "You-you too." As the door closed she blathered out "...show you that I'm...better than this." But Master didn't need any further convincing of Baker's mettle. 'I'm not the one you need to convince, dear.'
——-
Song Recommendation: American Authors - Luck
'It took me a lot to even think about going back into that hellhole. But for all that Cookie's done for me, I needed to do something. I worry that Rob will come back while I'm gone. And I thought, well he'll just have to wait for me then, worry about me, wonder where I'd run off to. Heh. Kinda petty when you think about it, but then again not really. Because if he can have an adventure, so can I! It's not like we'll be spending excessively long there, going to the old doorway is a lot easier than traversing through the entire Nether. And the way Cookie just looks at everything while we travel. It makes my insides warm and gooey. I have to stop worrying about the choices I make. If he loves me, he'll be waiting for me when I get back.
[The_Baker and the The_Cookie have left Mountainview Server...]
Cookie Crumbs: Part 2-2
End of Intermission
[ Upon reaching the bakery, you notice the front yard is covered in chests full of goodies. Cookies, cakes, pies, breads, everything. The lights are off and the door is locked, and there's a note tacked to the left of the door... ]
" Everything in these chests is free to take. Feed yourself, feed your family. Take what you need, share them, pass them out to friends. Everything must go 'till I get back. I don't want it to go stale while I'm away. The Bakery is Closed until I come back from my adventure. Stay safe. ~ The Baker "
Tough Neighboorhood
[ Baker: I didn't want to intrude but I still wanted to say hi. I probably just looked like some crazy stalker eavesdropper. ]
Book Segment 07 - The Pigman