What flies out of my mind

This is the place where I post all of the things I create. I write and sometimes draw.

[crystalquillcreates]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Grian's friends are missing and there's a new Watcher-made server that he knew nothing about. He will stop at nothing to make sure they come back safe, but when he enters to find more than just his friends are being kept hostage he'll have to play his part and outsmart the uncaring deities if he hopes to keep everyone in Oakhurst safe from their grasp.

A Vampires SMP Hermitcraft crossover, is now up!

[crystalquillcreates]

@abolish-veylocke I have done it! Our rp is currently up on AO3!

[prokopetz]

I love remarking that a topic is "beyond the scope of this post" on a platform that has no meaningful limit to the length of a text post. Like, it could be within the scope of this post. I could just keep going. I bet some people would like that.

[mapswithoutwyoming]

if fermat had tumblr we would have had a proof for the nonexistence of nontrivial solutions for diophantine equations of the form a^n+b^n=c^n for n>2 centuries ahead of schedule

[earhartsease]

do you love the scope of the post

[prokopetz]

#tumblr absolutely has a maximum post length #or at least had one #and I hit it #I want to say it's 10-15k range? #those theory posts went hard (via @ariabauer)

From a technical standpoint, Tumblr's post length limit is either one megabyte of raw plaintext or 1000 "content blocks", whichever comes first. In this context, a "content block" means a heading, paragraph, a bulleted or ordered list entry, or an embedded resource like an image or a video. (Embedded resources are not counted against the one megabyte raw text limit, but have their own individual limits).

It's difficult to imagine that you managed to hit one megabyte of raw text in a single theory post (for reference, that works out to roughly 180 000 words, assuming you're writing in English, or about six hundred pages of formatted text), so I'm guessing you hit the content block limit instead, probably through some combination of numerous very short paragraphs and going hard on the bulleted lists.

[crystalquillcreates]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Grian's friends are missing and there's a new Watcher-made server that he knew nothing about. He will stop at nothing to make sure they come back safe, but when he enters to find more than just his friends are being kept hostage he'll have to play his part and outsmart the uncaring deities if he hopes to keep everyone in Oakhurst safe from their grasp.

A Vampires SMP Hermitcraft crossover, is now up!

[abolish-veylocke]

Open RP!

"Overly suspicious? How am I overly suspicious?!" Abolish fumes as he slams his pickaxe down on the stone in front of him.

"All I said was that Cleo might be a vampire, and I was literally right!" He ranted, clearly frustrated.

"It's not like I accused them of murder like Avid with Scott! I just pointed out that they joined Owen in killing the cows and didn't get the strength effect from the book!" He slowed his mining, rubbing at his now sore arms.

He tensed slightly as he heard footsteps behind him in the cave.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish glanced at Pearl before shrugging. "Yeah, okay." He said tiredly, stepping into the portal.

[crystalline-quill]

Grian climbed up the Nether portal and posted himself up as a sentinel as Abolish and Pearl came through.

He pattered on top of the portal, eyes darting in quick, staccato movements. However, he kept half an eye the two coming in.

"Wha- what is this?!?" Pearl said, turning all around wildly. She yelped as the water from the rain evaporated off her all at once, surrounding her in a cloud of steam.

Grian snickered. He was so used to the Nether he hadn't even paid attention on his own speed dry.

[abolish-veylocke]

"Grian, what is this place?" Abolish asked, looking around.

[crystalline-quill]

"The fiery sibling of the three dimensions in existance," Grian said. "Chock-full of lava, monsters, and most importantly to us right now, gold. We need some before the locals see us without golden armor and attack us on sight."

He leapt off the portal frame, hopping his way to a patch of nether gold.

"Better help me! We really don't want to fight any Piglins on top of the other things that live in this place!"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Three dimensions?" Abolish asked, raising his eyebrows as he followed Grian over to the gold.

[crystalline-quill]

"End, Overworld and Nether," Grian idly answered, too focused on prying gold nuggets out of netherrack with his talons. "But you can't make an End Portal, you have to find it, so let's not do that."

"...You know what? This might as well happen," Pearl said, placing down a crafting table to turn the golden nuggets into ingots. "One golden helmet coming right up!"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Why didn't we know about any of this?" Abolish asks quietly, rubbing his temples where he's beginning to get a headache.

[crystalline-quill]

"You did," Grian said, the lightheartedness dying in his voice. He continued digging, but a frown became stuck on his face. "I guess it's a good as time as any to tell you about the Watchers."

There was a short silence, broken only by the hits of the pickaxes and the dull roar of fire.

"Watchers are... beings that a lot of people call gods, even though the aren't really. They're powerful, and ancient, and constantly bored," he said, striking the rock a little harsher than necessary. "Players-- that's us-- die once nothing interests us anymore. So Watchers convinced themselves that by taking over worlds and manipulating Players they were doing us a favor, keeping us interested and alive."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... Well that's horrifying." Abolish admitted. "So... we're here to enntertain them, but have real lives putside of this?"

[crystalline-quill]

"Yes," Grian said, finally ripping out a chunk of gold, giving it to Pearl, who made an ingot. "All of you have friends, partners and families waiting for you outside, but you don't remember them because if you did, dying would simply mean returning to them. You wouldn't fear death and it wouldn't be fun for Them anymore."

"Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait," Pearl said, looking straight at Grian. "Do you know who is waiting for us out there? Who we are?"

Grian went quiet, looking at her with pained grief. "I came here to find five people. I didn't expect fourteen. But I do know you, Pearlie. You're my older sister."

He didn't say anything more, letting Pearl's eyes widen, letting her get used to the idea while he plucked the gold from her hands and crafted a golden helmet.

"Here," Grian said, putting the helmet back into her hands, before turning towards Abolish, ignoring her stammered questions. "Do you have enough for your own helmet, Abolish?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"I mean, it would use less if I make boots, but I have enough either way." He shrugged. "Is it like... more visible if I make a helmet?"

[crystalline-quill]

"Nah, helmets just break slower than boots. We're going to be walking a lot and gold isn't the strongest metal," Grian said, constructing his own helmet and plopping onto his own head.

While Abolish makes his own helmet, Grian breathes deeply and slowly unfurls his wings. Sure, he should give them more of a rest but he doesn't want to aimlessly wander around the Nether for Void knows how long.

"Stay here," Grian said, scanning the horizon. "I'll be right back."

With a powerful snap of his wings, he took off into the cloying air of the Nether. Flying in the chaotic rising air currents of the Nether takes skill, one Grian has but his wings resent.

He skimmed over the lava sea searching for any signs of a stronghold. He grit his teeth as the pain went from a complaint to a shout, but off in the distance: Nether brick.

With a whoop Grian banked sharply back towards Abolish and Pearl, grinning as he comes in for a landing.

[abolish-veylocke]

Well, that made sense. He glanced over at Pearl as they waited for Grian to come back, wincing when she still looked frozen with shock.

"What did you find?" He asked as Grian landed.

[crystalline-quill]

"Fortress! They have what we need," yelled Grian, landing with a stumble. "This way!"

He started walking in that direction, glancing at Pearl. She shook herself and started walking behind him, but looking at his back as if he was a pink elephant.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish followed behind them, looking skeptical. "What is a fortress?" He asked.

[crystalline-quill]

"Well, it's kind of the ruins of the people that used to live here? I don't know much about the history exactly, but I know they left a lot of loot behind," Grian said, more concerned with keeping watch than thinking about this words. "We're searching for nether wart, which is kind of like a small bulbous, bright red mushroom. And blaze rods! But those are pretty easy to spot."

"Mhm, sure," Pearl said, shooting a look at a Abolish that screamed 'do you know what he's on about?"

[abolish-veylocke]

He shrugged at Pearl, looking bemused. "Are fortresses dangerous?" He asked Grian. "I'm a decent fighter, but I'd rather know ahead of time."

[crystalline-quill]

"Pretty dangerous, so we gotta be careful, " Grian said, idly collecting any netherrack he could while still on the move. "We'll have to deal with wither skeletons, but they're taller than regular skeletons and so rigid that they can't crouch down, so as long as we put up block barriers above our heads they can't really do anything to us."

He made a considering noise. "Shields should also be useful. Blocking blaze fireballs avoids the whole 'getting set on fire' bit of going to a Fortress."

[abolish-veylocke]

"Oh, I have a couple shields." Abolish shrugged, handing one to Pearl and Grian each.

"What's a wither skeleton?" He asked curiously. "Does it have something to do with those black roses we've found in the forest?"

[crystalline-quill]

Grian paused. "You've found Wither Roses in the forest? Just casually lying around?"

"Yeah?" Pearl said, tilting her head in confusion. "Is that weird?"

"Very," Grian said, before turning fully to face the both of them. "Wither skeletons are bigger, darker skeletons that use swords instead of bows, but what makes them dangerous is that anything they touch starts to decay and die."

In his rambling he didn't notice the alarmed looks from his audience of two.

"If you get three wither skeleton skulls and arrange them in a special way, you can summon the Wither Boss," Grian continued, starting to walk towards the Fortress once more. "Anything the Wither Boss kills becomes the fertile ground for a WIther Rose, so for a place to be littered with those means either a lot of things died to the Wither or someone harvested a lot of Wither Roses and then just... left them there."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... Huh." Abolish sounded a bit bewildered. "They seemed to be growing there naturally, though I guess that explanation would make sense given Oakhurst's... history."

[crystalline-quill]

Grian tilted his head in a very birdlike manner. "What history?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Every two hundred years, all of the people in Oakhurst get wiped out." He explained. "Some people say the town's cursed... Either way, it wouldn't be too shocking if one of those massacres had something to do with it."

[crystalline-quill]

"Ah," Grian said, blinking. "Well, that would explain it. If no one knew about magic and someone unleashed a Wither, that would cause a massacre."

Grian quietly was wondering if that was true. He didn't have the time to see if this world had been created by the Watchers or not, so those massacres could have been invented history or real.

He shook his head, looking ahead instead.

"Well, lady and gentleman, we have arrived!"

It didn't look like much at first, just a corridor of nether brick breaking through a hill of netherrack. But then he stepped into the corridor and looked through, and the Fortress opened up before him, foreboding and dark over the lava sea.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish looked around the fortress quietly, eyes wide. "So... nether wart, and blaze rods, you said?" He asked, gesturing towards a blaze spawner. "Can't say I recognize any of this but... If anything here is a 'blaze', I'm guessing it's those."

[crystalline-quill]

"Right on!" Grian said, grinning with all his teeth. "Ready for a fight?"

He followed his words by placing down a crafting table and crafted himself a golden sword. With a laugh, he ran forwards towards the blaze, shield at the ready.

"Wait, is that my crafting table?" Pearl asked, looking at the object. "Come back here you-- You!"

She drew her own sword and sprinted after him.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish sighed, running after the two of them with his shield up. He didn't know quite how to fight these mobs, so he wanted to be careful.

[crystalline-quill]

With a screech, Grian baited the trio of blazes into bursting into flames.

"One- two- three!" he counted the fireballs as they impacted his shield. He could hear Pearl's yelp as she barely dodges the second blaze's projectiles. "If they're on fire they're about to shoot!"

He ducked out from his shield to swing at the monster, barely managing to crack the blaze's head because gold swords are terrible. Still, he raised his shield again and waited for the volley to begin again.

[abolish-veylocke]

"Why do they have to shoot fire..." Abolish said, sounding annoyed as he slashed one of the blaze's torso.

[crystalquillcreates]

"What did you think blazes would do?" laughed Grian, taking the opening Abolished had made to finally cut down the blaze.

Pearl managed to do quick work of the second one. "Oooh, shiny stick! Is that a blaze rod?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"It's still annoying." He sighed, finishing off the last one. "Is that a blaze rod?" He asked, looking over at it.

[crystalquillcreates]

"Yup! I'd say we need two, just to be safe, but blazes appear in the whole Fortress and we need Nether Wart too," Grian said, picking up the rod with the tips of his talons, to keep himself from getting burnt. "So we should go deeper and fight any blazes we see on the way."

He pointed dramatically with his sword.

"Onwards!"

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish sighed, but followed him forwards. "So... what do we actually need these for?" He asked, sheathing his sword as they walked.

[crystalquillcreates]

"Potions, mostly," Grian said, peeking around the corner of the Fortress hallway, finding mobs, and then making an overhead wither skeleton barrier. "Well, no. We don't *need* potions, we need an edge against everyone else in the Game. Just enough to force a truce and get everyone working against the Watchers instead of against each other."

"These 'Watchers'... How do you know they aren't watching us right now?" Pearl questioned, following closely behind Grian.

"I *know* they're watching," Grian said, eyes glinting a dangerous purple for a split second. "They just find this interesting enough that They don't plan on stopping me just yet."

[abolish-veylocke]

"That's not very reassuring." Abolish said dryly. "Why do you call it a game?" He asked. "Is that just what it's called when stuff like this happens? Has this happened before?"

[crystalquillcreates]

Grian stopped in his tracks

"We made a deal with the Watchers; we agreed to participate in their Games and they wouldn't attempt to destroy our world or hurt our loved ones," he recounted gravely, his lips thinning into a line when both Pearl and Abolish looked horrified at the destruction of the world. "Part of the deal was that we got to set some of the rules and we would be told in advance when the Games happened.

'And that I would be the one to design them' Grian didn't say.

"The Games were simple: a group of us would get part of our memories locked away, to make us believe that if we died in the Games the death was permanent. Then, we would be trapped in an isolated place and told only the last person remaining would be able to leave," he recounted. His fingers drifted without him knowing to the three little hearts etched onto his wrist. "Every game would be a different than the last. In one we were paired up and if you got hurt, your 'soulmate' would also hurt. Or another one where we all had exactly 24 hours to live... Unless we killed someone else and got their time."

"This lasted for seven Games," Grian stated, with a sardonic smile. "Then they got bored and tried to make a Game of their own. And so, here we are."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... That's a lot." Abolish said after a moment, sounding faint. "So, this one is different because they designed it, but it seems to still hold some similarities. Though there doesn't have to be just one winner here... I wonder why..?" He thought aloud.

[crystalquillcreates]

"No idea either and I don't intend to find out," he said, shaking the thought out of his head.

Instead he focused on the corridors, picking the one that headed deeper into the foreboding structure. He sprinted deeper in, sword at the ready. Soon they arrived at a crossroads.

"Now this part, I need a little bit of help with," Grian said, looking back at the two following him. "Nether wart stinks. Badly. But Avians have a pretty bad sense of smell compared to humans. So! Use your noses, hairless monkeys! Which way do we go?"

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish blinked slowly before pointing down the left side of the corridor. "That way." He sighed. "It's not like you have fur, either." He pointed out.

[crystalquillcreates]

Grian snorted. "I have *feathers* excuse you!" He said, pulling up one of his sweater sleeves to reveal a small section of the feathers speckled all over his body. He started walking backwards towards the left, a cheeky grin on his face. "They are much more superior than fur!"

Grian turned around and his smile dropped at the silence. It took him a second to realize he had been waiting for Pearl to sass back with how chitin was *so* much better than feathers, the cue for a long-running joking argument.

He grit his teeth. This was temporary. He had to believe that, because if the Watchers hadn't erased their memories and instead *destroyed* them he—

"If I'm your sister, why don't I have feathers?" Pearl asked.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish winced at the tension filling the air, looking down as he walked a bit faster. Though, it did make him wonder... did he have someone looking for him outside of this? Did all of the others?

[crystalline-quill]

"Hybridity is a funny thing," Grian said, his feathers ruffling without him meaning to. "It's a bit of chance and a bit of magic what decides your hybrid half. You're more likely to be something close to what your parents are, but you could also be something completely different! Legend says it's decided by 'the shape of your soul' or something like that, but honestly I-"

Grian's mouth kept running without his permission, nervous rant only growing longer as Pearl's eyes narrowed. He was slapped with the memories of her catching on to the fact that he was up to something, but this time the playful fondness was absent from her eyes.

He nervously glanced to Abolish, hoping to rope him into the conversation and avoid Pearl's growing suspicion that while he might not be lying, he was definitely hiding something. That was the only reason he narrowly avoided disaster.

"Abolish, look out!" Grian screamed. He leapt forward, but even as he moved to intercept the Wither Skeleton's downward swing, he knew he would be too late to help.

Abolish was on his own.

[crystalquillcreates]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Here's my slimeknight fic! I've been experimenting with HTML, and I'm proud of what I've done so far!

[abolish-veylocke]

Open RP!

"Overly suspicious? How am I overly suspicious?!" Abolish fumes as he slams his pickaxe down on the stone in front of him.

"All I said was that Cleo might be a vampire, and I was literally right!" He ranted, clearly frustrated.

"It's not like I accused them of murder like Avid with Scott! I just pointed out that they joined Owen in killing the cows and didn't get the strength effect from the book!" He slowed his mining, rubbing at his now sore arms.

He tensed slightly as he heard footsteps behind him in the cave.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish glanced at Pearl before shrugging. "Yeah, okay." He said tiredly, stepping into the portal.

[crystalline-quill]

Grian climbed up the Nether portal and posted himself up as a sentinel as Abolish and Pearl came through.

He pattered on top of the portal, eyes darting in quick, staccato movements. However, he kept half an eye the two coming in.

"Wha- what is this?!?" Pearl said, turning all around wildly. She yelped as the water from the rain evaporated off her all at once, surrounding her in a cloud of steam.

Grian snickered. He was so used to the Nether he hadn't even paid attention on his own speed dry.

[abolish-veylocke]

"Grian, what is this place?" Abolish asked, looking around.

[crystalline-quill]

"The fiery sibling of the three dimensions in existance," Grian said. "Chock-full of lava, monsters, and most importantly to us right now, gold. We need some before the locals see us without golden armor and attack us on sight."

He leapt off the portal frame, hopping his way to a patch of nether gold.

"Better help me! We really don't want to fight any Piglins on top of the other things that live in this place!"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Three dimensions?" Abolish asked, raising his eyebrows as he followed Grian over to the gold.

[crystalline-quill]

"End, Overworld and Nether," Grian idly answered, too focused on prying gold nuggets out of netherrack with his talons. "But you can't make an End Portal, you have to find it, so let's not do that."

"...You know what? This might as well happen," Pearl said, placing down a crafting table to turn the golden nuggets into ingots. "One golden helmet coming right up!"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Why didn't we know about any of this?" Abolish asks quietly, rubbing his temples where he's beginning to get a headache.

[crystalline-quill]

"You did," Grian said, the lightheartedness dying in his voice. He continued digging, but a frown became stuck on his face. "I guess it's a good as time as any to tell you about the Watchers."

There was a short silence, broken only by the hits of the pickaxes and the dull roar of fire.

"Watchers are... beings that a lot of people call gods, even though the aren't really. They're powerful, and ancient, and constantly bored," he said, striking the rock a little harsher than necessary. "Players-- that's us-- die once nothing interests us anymore. So Watchers convinced themselves that by taking over worlds and manipulating Players they were doing us a favor, keeping us interested and alive."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... Well that's horrifying." Abolish admitted. "So... we're here to enntertain them, but have real lives putside of this?"

[crystalline-quill]

"Yes," Grian said, finally ripping out a chunk of gold, giving it to Pearl, who made an ingot. "All of you have friends, partners and families waiting for you outside, but you don't remember them because if you did, dying would simply mean returning to them. You wouldn't fear death and it wouldn't be fun for Them anymore."

"Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait," Pearl said, looking straight at Grian. "Do you know who is waiting for us out there? Who we are?"

Grian went quiet, looking at her with pained grief. "I came here to find five people. I didn't expect fourteen. But I do know you, Pearlie. You're my older sister."

He didn't say anything more, letting Pearl's eyes widen, letting her get used to the idea while he plucked the gold from her hands and crafted a golden helmet.

"Here," Grian said, putting the helmet back into her hands, before turning towards Abolish, ignoring her stammered questions. "Do you have enough for your own helmet, Abolish?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"I mean, it would use less if I make boots, but I have enough either way." He shrugged. "Is it like... more visible if I make a helmet?"

[crystalline-quill]

"Nah, helmets just break slower than boots. We're going to be walking a lot and gold isn't the strongest metal," Grian said, constructing his own helmet and plopping onto his own head.

While Abolish makes his own helmet, Grian breathes deeply and slowly unfurls his wings. Sure, he should give them more of a rest but he doesn't want to aimlessly wander around the Nether for Void knows how long.

"Stay here," Grian said, scanning the horizon. "I'll be right back."

With a powerful snap of his wings, he took off into the cloying air of the Nether. Flying in the chaotic rising air currents of the Nether takes skill, one Grian has but his wings resent.

He skimmed over the lava sea searching for any signs of a stronghold. He grit his teeth as the pain went from a complaint to a shout, but off in the distance: Nether brick.

With a whoop Grian banked sharply back towards Abolish and Pearl, grinning as he comes in for a landing.

[abolish-veylocke]

Well, that made sense. He glanced over at Pearl as they waited for Grian to come back, wincing when she still looked frozen with shock.

"What did you find?" He asked as Grian landed.

[crystalline-quill]

"Fortress! They have what we need," yelled Grian, landing with a stumble. "This way!"

He started walking in that direction, glancing at Pearl. She shook herself and started walking behind him, but looking at his back as if he was a pink elephant.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish followed behind them, looking skeptical. "What is a fortress?" He asked.

[crystalline-quill]

"Well, it's kind of the ruins of the people that used to live here? I don't know much about the history exactly, but I know they left a lot of loot behind," Grian said, more concerned with keeping watch than thinking about this words. "We're searching for nether wart, which is kind of like a small bulbous, bright red mushroom. And blaze rods! But those are pretty easy to spot."

"Mhm, sure," Pearl said, shooting a look at a Abolish that screamed 'do you know what he's on about?"

[abolish-veylocke]

He shrugged at Pearl, looking bemused. "Are fortresses dangerous?" He asked Grian. "I'm a decent fighter, but I'd rather know ahead of time."

[crystalline-quill]

"Pretty dangerous, so we gotta be careful, " Grian said, idly collecting any netherrack he could while still on the move. "We'll have to deal with wither skeletons, but they're taller than regular skeletons and so rigid that they can't crouch down, so as long as we put up block barriers above our heads they can't really do anything to us."

He made a considering noise. "Shields should also be useful. Blocking blaze fireballs avoids the whole 'getting set on fire' bit of going to a Fortress."

[abolish-veylocke]

"Oh, I have a couple shields." Abolish shrugged, handing one to Pearl and Grian each.

"What's a wither skeleton?" He asked curiously. "Does it have something to do with those black roses we've found in the forest?"

[crystalline-quill]

Grian paused. "You've found Wither Roses in the forest? Just casually lying around?"

"Yeah?" Pearl said, tilting her head in confusion. "Is that weird?"

"Very," Grian said, before turning fully to face the both of them. "Wither skeletons are bigger, darker skeletons that use swords instead of bows, but what makes them dangerous is that anything they touch starts to decay and die."

In his rambling he didn't notice the alarmed looks from his audience of two.

"If you get three wither skeleton skulls and arrange them in a special way, you can summon the Wither Boss," Grian continued, starting to walk towards the Fortress once more. "Anything the Wither Boss kills becomes the fertile ground for a WIther Rose, so for a place to be littered with those means either a lot of things died to the Wither or someone harvested a lot of Wither Roses and then just... left them there."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... Huh." Abolish sounded a bit bewildered. "They seemed to be growing there naturally, though I guess that explanation would make sense given Oakhurst's... history."

[crystalline-quill]

Grian tilted his head in a very birdlike manner. "What history?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Every two hundred years, all of the people in Oakhurst get wiped out." He explained. "Some people say the town's cursed... Either way, it wouldn't be too shocking if one of those massacres had something to do with it."

[crystalline-quill]

"Ah," Grian said, blinking. "Well, that would explain it. If no one knew about magic and someone unleashed a Wither, that would cause a massacre."

Grian quietly was wondering if that was true. He didn't have the time to see if this world had been created by the Watchers or not, so those massacres could have been invented history or real.

He shook his head, looking ahead instead.

"Well, lady and gentleman, we have arrived!"

It didn't look like much at first, just a corridor of nether brick breaking through a hill of netherrack. But then he stepped into the corridor and looked through, and the Fortress opened up before him, foreboding and dark over the lava sea.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish looked around the fortress quietly, eyes wide. "So... nether wart, and blaze rods, you said?" He asked, gesturing towards a blaze spawner. "Can't say I recognize any of this but... If anything here is a 'blaze', I'm guessing it's those."

[crystalline-quill]

"Right on!" Grian said, grinning with all his teeth. "Ready for a fight?"

He followed his words by placing down a crafting table and crafted himself a golden sword. With a laugh, he ran forwards towards the blaze, shield at the ready.

"Wait, is that my crafting table?" Pearl asked, looking at the object. "Come back here you-- You!"

She drew her own sword and sprinted after him.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish sighed, running after the two of them with his shield up. He didn't know quite how to fight these mobs, so he wanted to be careful.

[crystalline-quill]

With a screech, Grian baited the trio of blazes into bursting into flames.

"One- two- three!" he counted the fireballs as they impacted his shield. He could hear Pearl's yelp as she barely dodges the second blaze's projectiles. "If they're on fire they're about to shoot!"

He ducked out from his shield to swing at the monster, barely managing to crack the blaze's head because gold swords are terrible. Still, he raised his shield again and waited for the volley to begin again.

[abolish-veylocke]

"Why do they have to shoot fire..." Abolish said, sounding annoyed as he slashed one of the blaze's torso.

[crystalquillcreates]

"What did you think blazes would do?" laughed Grian, taking the opening Abolished had made to finally cut down the blaze.

Pearl managed to do quick work of the second one. "Oooh, shiny stick! Is that a blaze rod?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"It's still annoying." He sighed, finishing off the last one. "Is that a blaze rod?" He asked, looking over at it.

[crystalquillcreates]

"Yup! I'd say we need two, just to be safe, but blazes appear in the whole Fortress and we need Nether Wart too," Grian said, picking up the rod with the tips of his talons, to keep himself from getting burnt. "So we should go deeper and fight any blazes we see on the way."

He pointed dramatically with his sword.

"Onwards!"

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish sighed, but followed him forwards. "So... what do we actually need these for?" He asked, sheathing his sword as they walked.

[crystalquillcreates]

"Potions, mostly," Grian said, peeking around the corner of the Fortress hallway, finding mobs, and then making an overhead wither skeleton barrier. "Well, no. We don't *need* potions, we need an edge against everyone else in the Game. Just enough to force a truce and get everyone working against the Watchers instead of against each other."

"These 'Watchers'... How do you know they aren't watching us right now?" Pearl questioned, following closely behind Grian.

"I *know* they're watching," Grian said, eyes glinting a dangerous purple for a split second. "They just find this interesting enough that They don't plan on stopping me just yet."

[abolish-veylocke]

"That's not very reassuring." Abolish said dryly. "Why do you call it a game?" He asked. "Is that just what it's called when stuff like this happens? Has this happened before?"

[crystalquillcreates]

Grian stopped in his tracks

"We made a deal with the Watchers; we agreed to participate in their Games and they wouldn't attempt to destroy our world or hurt our loved ones," he recounted gravely, his lips thinning into a line when both Pearl and Abolish looked horrified at the destruction of the world. "Part of the deal was that we got to set some of the rules and we would be told in advance when the Games happened.

'And that I would be the one to design them' Grian didn't say.

"The Games were simple: a group of us would get part of our memories locked away, to make us believe that if we died in the Games the death was permanent. Then, we would be trapped in an isolated place and told only the last person remaining would be able to leave," he recounted. His fingers drifted without him knowing to the three little hearts etched onto his wrist. "Every game would be a different than the last. In one we were paired up and if you got hurt, your 'soulmate' would also hurt. Or another one where we all had exactly 24 hours to live... Unless we killed someone else and got their time."

"This lasted for seven Games," Grian stated, with a sardonic smile. "Then they got bored and tried to make a Game of their own. And so, here we are."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... That's a lot." Abolish said after a moment, sounding faint. "So, this one is different because they designed it, but it seems to still hold some similarities. Though there doesn't have to be just one winner here... I wonder why..?" He thought aloud.

[crystalquillcreates]

"No idea either and I don't intend to find out," he said, shaking the thought out of his head.

Instead he focused on the corridors, picking the one that headed deeper into the foreboding structure. He sprinted deeper in, sword at the ready. Soon they arrived at a crossroads.

"Now this part, I need a little bit of help with," Grian said, looking back at the two following him. "Nether wart stinks. Badly. But Avians have a pretty bad sense of smell compared to humans. So! Use your noses, hairless monkeys! Which way do we go?"

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish blinked slowly before pointing down the left side of the corridor. "That way." He sighed. "It's not like you have fur, either." He pointed out.

[crystalquillcreates]

Grian snorted. "I have *feathers* excuse you!" He said, pulling up one of his sweater sleeves to reveal a small section of the feathers speckled all over his body. He started walking backwards towards the left, a cheeky grin on his face. "They are much more superior than fur!"

Grian turned around and his smile dropped at the silence. It took him a second to realize he had been waiting for Pearl to sass back with how chitin was *so* much better than feathers, the cue for a long-running joking argument.

He grit his teeth. This was temporary. He had to believe that, because if the Watchers hadn't erased their memories and instead *destroyed* them he—

"If I'm your sister, why don't I have feathers?" Pearl asked.

[abolish-veylocke]

Open RP!

"Overly suspicious? How am I overly suspicious?!" Abolish fumes as he slams his pickaxe down on the stone in front of him.

"All I said was that Cleo might be a vampire, and I was literally right!" He ranted, clearly frustrated.

"It's not like I accused them of murder like Avid with Scott! I just pointed out that they joined Owen in killing the cows and didn't get the strength effect from the book!" He slowed his mining, rubbing at his now sore arms.

He tensed slightly as he heard footsteps behind him in the cave.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish glanced at Pearl before shrugging. "Yeah, okay." He said tiredly, stepping into the portal.

[crystalline-quill]

Grian climbed up the Nether portal and posted himself up as a sentinel as Abolish and Pearl came through.

He pattered on top of the portal, eyes darting in quick, staccato movements. However, he kept half an eye the two coming in.

"Wha- what is this?!?" Pearl said, turning all around wildly. She yelped as the water from the rain evaporated off her all at once, surrounding her in a cloud of steam.

Grian snickered. He was so used to the Nether he hadn't even paid attention on his own speed dry.

[abolish-veylocke]

"Grian, what is this place?" Abolish asked, looking around.

[crystalline-quill]

"The fiery sibling of the three dimensions in existance," Grian said. "Chock-full of lava, monsters, and most importantly to us right now, gold. We need some before the locals see us without golden armor and attack us on sight."

He leapt off the portal frame, hopping his way to a patch of nether gold.

"Better help me! We really don't want to fight any Piglins on top of the other things that live in this place!"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Three dimensions?" Abolish asked, raising his eyebrows as he followed Grian over to the gold.

[crystalline-quill]

"End, Overworld and Nether," Grian idly answered, too focused on prying gold nuggets out of netherrack with his talons. "But you can't make an End Portal, you have to find it, so let's not do that."

"...You know what? This might as well happen," Pearl said, placing down a crafting table to turn the golden nuggets into ingots. "One golden helmet coming right up!"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Why didn't we know about any of this?" Abolish asks quietly, rubbing his temples where he's beginning to get a headache.

[crystalline-quill]

"You did," Grian said, the lightheartedness dying in his voice. He continued digging, but a frown became stuck on his face. "I guess it's a good as time as any to tell you about the Watchers."

There was a short silence, broken only by the hits of the pickaxes and the dull roar of fire.

"Watchers are... beings that a lot of people call gods, even though the aren't really. They're powerful, and ancient, and constantly bored," he said, striking the rock a little harsher than necessary. "Players-- that's us-- die once nothing interests us anymore. So Watchers convinced themselves that by taking over worlds and manipulating Players they were doing us a favor, keeping us interested and alive."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... Well that's horrifying." Abolish admitted. "So... we're here to enntertain them, but have real lives putside of this?"

[crystalline-quill]

"Yes," Grian said, finally ripping out a chunk of gold, giving it to Pearl, who made an ingot. "All of you have friends, partners and families waiting for you outside, but you don't remember them because if you did, dying would simply mean returning to them. You wouldn't fear death and it wouldn't be fun for Them anymore."

"Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait," Pearl said, looking straight at Grian. "Do you know who is waiting for us out there? Who we are?"

Grian went quiet, looking at her with pained grief. "I came here to find five people. I didn't expect fourteen. But I do know you, Pearlie. You're my older sister."

He didn't say anything more, letting Pearl's eyes widen, letting her get used to the idea while he plucked the gold from her hands and crafted a golden helmet.

"Here," Grian said, putting the helmet back into her hands, before turning towards Abolish, ignoring her stammered questions. "Do you have enough for your own helmet, Abolish?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"I mean, it would use less if I make boots, but I have enough either way." He shrugged. "Is it like... more visible if I make a helmet?"

[crystalline-quill]

"Nah, helmets just break slower than boots. We're going to be walking a lot and gold isn't the strongest metal," Grian said, constructing his own helmet and plopping onto his own head.

While Abolish makes his own helmet, Grian breathes deeply and slowly unfurls his wings. Sure, he should give them more of a rest but he doesn't want to aimlessly wander around the Nether for Void knows how long.

"Stay here," Grian said, scanning the horizon. "I'll be right back."

With a powerful snap of his wings, he took off into the cloying air of the Nether. Flying in the chaotic rising air currents of the Nether takes skill, one Grian has but his wings resent.

He skimmed over the lava sea searching for any signs of a stronghold. He grit his teeth as the pain went from a complaint to a shout, but off in the distance: Nether brick.

With a whoop Grian banked sharply back towards Abolish and Pearl, grinning as he comes in for a landing.

[abolish-veylocke]

Well, that made sense. He glanced over at Pearl as they waited for Grian to come back, wincing when she still looked frozen with shock.

"What did you find?" He asked as Grian landed.

[crystalline-quill]

"Fortress! They have what we need," yelled Grian, landing with a stumble. "This way!"

He started walking in that direction, glancing at Pearl. She shook herself and started walking behind him, but looking at his back as if he was a pink elephant.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish followed behind them, looking skeptical. "What is a fortress?" He asked.

[crystalline-quill]

"Well, it's kind of the ruins of the people that used to live here? I don't know much about the history exactly, but I know they left a lot of loot behind," Grian said, more concerned with keeping watch than thinking about this words. "We're searching for nether wart, which is kind of like a small bulbous, bright red mushroom. And blaze rods! But those are pretty easy to spot."

"Mhm, sure," Pearl said, shooting a look at a Abolish that screamed 'do you know what he's on about?"

[abolish-veylocke]

He shrugged at Pearl, looking bemused. "Are fortresses dangerous?" He asked Grian. "I'm a decent fighter, but I'd rather know ahead of time."

[crystalline-quill]

"Pretty dangerous, so we gotta be careful, " Grian said, idly collecting any netherrack he could while still on the move. "We'll have to deal with wither skeletons, but they're taller than regular skeletons and so rigid that they can't crouch down, so as long as we put up block barriers above our heads they can't really do anything to us."

He made a considering noise. "Shields should also be useful. Blocking blaze fireballs avoids the whole 'getting set on fire' bit of going to a Fortress."

[abolish-veylocke]

"Oh, I have a couple shields." Abolish shrugged, handing one to Pearl and Grian each.

"What's a wither skeleton?" He asked curiously. "Does it have something to do with those black roses we've found in the forest?"

[crystalline-quill]

Grian paused. "You've found Wither Roses in the forest? Just casually lying around?"

"Yeah?" Pearl said, tilting her head in confusion. "Is that weird?"

"Very," Grian said, before turning fully to face the both of them. "Wither skeletons are bigger, darker skeletons that use swords instead of bows, but what makes them dangerous is that anything they touch starts to decay and die."

In his rambling he didn't notice the alarmed looks from his audience of two.

"If you get three wither skeleton skulls and arrange them in a special way, you can summon the Wither Boss," Grian continued, starting to walk towards the Fortress once more. "Anything the Wither Boss kills becomes the fertile ground for a WIther Rose, so for a place to be littered with those means either a lot of things died to the Wither or someone harvested a lot of Wither Roses and then just... left them there."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... Huh." Abolish sounded a bit bewildered. "They seemed to be growing there naturally, though I guess that explanation would make sense given Oakhurst's... history."

[crystalline-quill]

Grian tilted his head in a very birdlike manner. "What history?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Every two hundred years, all of the people in Oakhurst get wiped out." He explained. "Some people say the town's cursed... Either way, it wouldn't be too shocking if one of those massacres had something to do with it."

[crystalline-quill]

"Ah," Grian said, blinking. "Well, that would explain it. If no one knew about magic and someone unleashed a Wither, that would cause a massacre."

Grian quietly was wondering if that was true. He didn't have the time to see if this world had been created by the Watchers or not, so those massacres could have been invented history or real.

He shook his head, looking ahead instead.

"Well, lady and gentleman, we have arrived!"

It didn't look like much at first, just a corridor of nether brick breaking through a hill of netherrack. But then he stepped into the corridor and looked through, and the Fortress opened up before him, foreboding and dark over the lava sea.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish looked around the fortress quietly, eyes wide. "So... nether wart, and blaze rods, you said?" He asked, gesturing towards a blaze spawner. "Can't say I recognize any of this but... If anything here is a 'blaze', I'm guessing it's those."

[crystalline-quill]

"Right on!" Grian said, grinning with all his teeth. "Ready for a fight?"

He followed his words by placing down a crafting table and crafted himself a golden sword. With a laugh, he ran forwards towards the blaze, shield at the ready.

"Wait, is that my crafting table?" Pearl asked, looking at the object. "Come back here you-- You!"

She drew her own sword and sprinted after him.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish sighed, running after the two of them with his shield up. He didn't know quite how to fight these mobs, so he wanted to be careful.

[crystalline-quill]

With a screech, Grian baited the trio of blazes into bursting into flames.

"One- two- three!" he counted the fireballs as they impacted his shield. He could hear Pearl's yelp as she barely dodges the second blaze's projectiles. "If they're on fire they're about to shoot!"

He ducked out from his shield to swing at the monster, barely managing to crack the blaze's head because gold swords are terrible. Still, he raised his shield again and waited for the volley to begin again.

[abolish-veylocke]

"Why do they have to shoot fire..." Abolish said, sounding annoyed as he slashed one of the blaze's torso.

[crystalquillcreates]

"What did you think blazes would do?" laughed Grian, taking the opening Abolished had made to finally cut down the blaze.

Pearl managed to do quick work of the second one. "Oooh, shiny stick! Is that a blaze rod?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"It's still annoying." He sighed, finishing off the last one. "Is that a blaze rod?" He asked, looking over at it.

[crystalquillcreates]

"Yup! I'd say we need two, just to be safe, but blazes appear in the whole Fortress and we need Nether Wart too," Grian said, picking up the rod with the tips of his talons, to keep himself from getting burnt. "So we should go deeper and fight any blazes we see on the way."

He pointed dramatically with his sword.

"Onwards!"

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish sighed, but followed him forwards. "So... what do we actually need these for?" He asked, sheathing his sword as they walked.

[crystalquillcreates]

"Potions, mostly," Grian said, peeking around the corner of the Fortress hallway, finding mobs, and then making an overhead wither skeleton barrier. "Well, no. We don't *need* potions, we need an edge against everyone else in the Game. Just enough to force a truce and get everyone working against the Watchers instead of against each other."

"These 'Watchers'... How do you know they aren't watching us right now?" Pearl questioned, following closely behind Grian.

"I *know* they're watching," Grian said, eyes glinting a dangerous purple for a split second. "They just find this interesting enough that They don't plan on stopping me just yet."

[abolish-veylocke]

"That's not very reassuring." Abolish said dryly. "Why do you call it a game?" He asked. "Is that just what it's called when stuff like this happens? Has this happened before?"

[crystalquillcreates]

Grian stopped in his tracks

"We made a deal with the Watchers; we agreed to participate in their Games and they wouldn't attempt to destroy our world or hurt our loved ones," he recounted gravely, his lips thinning into a line when both Pearl and Abolish looked horrified at the destruction of the world. "Part of the deal was that we got to set some of the rules and we would be told in advance when the Games happened.

'And that I would be the one to design them' Grian didn't say.

"The Games were simple: a group of us would get part of our memories locked away, to make us believe that if we died in the Games the death was permanent. Then, we would be trapped in an isolated place and told only the last person remaining would be able to leave," he recounted. His fingers drifted without him knowing to the three little hearts etched onto his wrist. "Every game would be a different than the last. In one we were paired up and if you got hurt, your 'soulmate' would also hurt. Or another one where we all had exactly 24 hours to live... Unless we killed someone else and got their time."

"This lasted for seven Games," Grian stated, with a sardonic smile. "Then they got bored and tried to make a Game of their own. And so, here we are."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... That's a lot." Abolish said after a moment, sounding faint. "So, this one is different because they designed it, but it seems to still hold some similarities. Though there doesn't have to be just one winner here... I wonder why..?" He thought aloud.

[crystalquillcreates]

"No idea either and I don't intend to find out," he said, shaking the thought out of his head.

Instead he focused on the corridors, picking the one that headed deeper into the foreboding structure. He sprinted deeper in, sword at the ready. Soon they arrived at a crossroads.

"Now this part, I need a little bit of help with," Grian said, looking back at the two following him. "Nether wart stinks. Badly. But Avians have a pretty bad sense of smell compared to humans. So! Use your noses, hairless monkeys! Which way do we go?"

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish blinked slowly before pointing down the left side of the corridor. "That way." He sighed. "It's not like you have fur, either." He pointed out.

[crystalquillcreates]

Grian snorted. "I have *feathers* excuse you!" He said, pulling up one of his sweater sleeves to reveal a small section of the feathers speckled all over his body. He started walking backwards towards the left, a cheeky grin on his face. "They are much more superior than fur!"

Grian turned around and his smile dropped at the silence. It took him a second to realize he had been waiting for Pearl to sass back with how chitin was *so* much better than feathers, the cue for a long-running joking argument.

He grit his teeth. This was temporary. He had to believe that, because if the Watchers hadn't erased their memories and instead *destroyed* them he—

"If I'm your sister, why don't I have feathers?" Pearl asked.

[abolish-veylocke]

Open RP!

"Overly suspicious? How am I overly suspicious?!" Abolish fumes as he slams his pickaxe down on the stone in front of him.

"All I said was that Cleo might be a vampire, and I was literally right!" He ranted, clearly frustrated.

"It's not like I accused them of murder like Avid with Scott! I just pointed out that they joined Owen in killing the cows and didn't get the strength effect from the book!" He slowed his mining, rubbing at his now sore arms.

He tensed slightly as he heard footsteps behind him in the cave.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish glanced at Pearl before shrugging. "Yeah, okay." He said tiredly, stepping into the portal.

[crystalline-quill]

Grian climbed up the Nether portal and posted himself up as a sentinel as Abolish and Pearl came through.

He pattered on top of the portal, eyes darting in quick, staccato movements. However, he kept half an eye the two coming in.

"Wha- what is this?!?" Pearl said, turning all around wildly. She yelped as the water from the rain evaporated off her all at once, surrounding her in a cloud of steam.

Grian snickered. He was so used to the Nether he hadn't even paid attention on his own speed dry.

[abolish-veylocke]

"Grian, what is this place?" Abolish asked, looking around.

[crystalline-quill]

"The fiery sibling of the three dimensions in existance," Grian said. "Chock-full of lava, monsters, and most importantly to us right now, gold. We need some before the locals see us without golden armor and attack us on sight."

He leapt off the portal frame, hopping his way to a patch of nether gold.

"Better help me! We really don't want to fight any Piglins on top of the other things that live in this place!"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Three dimensions?" Abolish asked, raising his eyebrows as he followed Grian over to the gold.

[crystalline-quill]

"End, Overworld and Nether," Grian idly answered, too focused on prying gold nuggets out of netherrack with his talons. "But you can't make an End Portal, you have to find it, so let's not do that."

"...You know what? This might as well happen," Pearl said, placing down a crafting table to turn the golden nuggets into ingots. "One golden helmet coming right up!"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Why didn't we know about any of this?" Abolish asks quietly, rubbing his temples where he's beginning to get a headache.

[crystalline-quill]

"You did," Grian said, the lightheartedness dying in his voice. He continued digging, but a frown became stuck on his face. "I guess it's a good as time as any to tell you about the Watchers."

There was a short silence, broken only by the hits of the pickaxes and the dull roar of fire.

"Watchers are... beings that a lot of people call gods, even though the aren't really. They're powerful, and ancient, and constantly bored," he said, striking the rock a little harsher than necessary. "Players-- that's us-- die once nothing interests us anymore. So Watchers convinced themselves that by taking over worlds and manipulating Players they were doing us a favor, keeping us interested and alive."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... Well that's horrifying." Abolish admitted. "So... we're here to enntertain them, but have real lives putside of this?"

[crystalline-quill]

"Yes," Grian said, finally ripping out a chunk of gold, giving it to Pearl, who made an ingot. "All of you have friends, partners and families waiting for you outside, but you don't remember them because if you did, dying would simply mean returning to them. You wouldn't fear death and it wouldn't be fun for Them anymore."

"Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait," Pearl said, looking straight at Grian. "Do you know who is waiting for us out there? Who we are?"

Grian went quiet, looking at her with pained grief. "I came here to find five people. I didn't expect fourteen. But I do know you, Pearlie. You're my older sister."

He didn't say anything more, letting Pearl's eyes widen, letting her get used to the idea while he plucked the gold from her hands and crafted a golden helmet.

"Here," Grian said, putting the helmet back into her hands, before turning towards Abolish, ignoring her stammered questions. "Do you have enough for your own helmet, Abolish?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"I mean, it would use less if I make boots, but I have enough either way." He shrugged. "Is it like... more visible if I make a helmet?"

[crystalline-quill]

"Nah, helmets just break slower than boots. We're going to be walking a lot and gold isn't the strongest metal," Grian said, constructing his own helmet and plopping onto his own head.

While Abolish makes his own helmet, Grian breathes deeply and slowly unfurls his wings. Sure, he should give them more of a rest but he doesn't want to aimlessly wander around the Nether for Void knows how long.

"Stay here," Grian said, scanning the horizon. "I'll be right back."

With a powerful snap of his wings, he took off into the cloying air of the Nether. Flying in the chaotic rising air currents of the Nether takes skill, one Grian has but his wings resent.

He skimmed over the lava sea searching for any signs of a stronghold. He grit his teeth as the pain went from a complaint to a shout, but off in the distance: Nether brick.

With a whoop Grian banked sharply back towards Abolish and Pearl, grinning as he comes in for a landing.

[abolish-veylocke]

Well, that made sense. He glanced over at Pearl as they waited for Grian to come back, wincing when she still looked frozen with shock.

"What did you find?" He asked as Grian landed.

[crystalline-quill]

"Fortress! They have what we need," yelled Grian, landing with a stumble. "This way!"

He started walking in that direction, glancing at Pearl. She shook herself and started walking behind him, but looking at his back as if he was a pink elephant.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish followed behind them, looking skeptical. "What is a fortress?" He asked.

[crystalline-quill]

"Well, it's kind of the ruins of the people that used to live here? I don't know much about the history exactly, but I know they left a lot of loot behind," Grian said, more concerned with keeping watch than thinking about this words. "We're searching for nether wart, which is kind of like a small bulbous, bright red mushroom. And blaze rods! But those are pretty easy to spot."

"Mhm, sure," Pearl said, shooting a look at a Abolish that screamed 'do you know what he's on about?"

[abolish-veylocke]

He shrugged at Pearl, looking bemused. "Are fortresses dangerous?" He asked Grian. "I'm a decent fighter, but I'd rather know ahead of time."

[crystalline-quill]

"Pretty dangerous, so we gotta be careful, " Grian said, idly collecting any netherrack he could while still on the move. "We'll have to deal with wither skeletons, but they're taller than regular skeletons and so rigid that they can't crouch down, so as long as we put up block barriers above our heads they can't really do anything to us."

He made a considering noise. "Shields should also be useful. Blocking blaze fireballs avoids the whole 'getting set on fire' bit of going to a Fortress."

[abolish-veylocke]

"Oh, I have a couple shields." Abolish shrugged, handing one to Pearl and Grian each.

"What's a wither skeleton?" He asked curiously. "Does it have something to do with those black roses we've found in the forest?"

[crystalline-quill]

Grian paused. "You've found Wither Roses in the forest? Just casually lying around?"

"Yeah?" Pearl said, tilting her head in confusion. "Is that weird?"

"Very," Grian said, before turning fully to face the both of them. "Wither skeletons are bigger, darker skeletons that use swords instead of bows, but what makes them dangerous is that anything they touch starts to decay and die."

In his rambling he didn't notice the alarmed looks from his audience of two.

"If you get three wither skeleton skulls and arrange them in a special way, you can summon the Wither Boss," Grian continued, starting to walk towards the Fortress once more. "Anything the Wither Boss kills becomes the fertile ground for a WIther Rose, so for a place to be littered with those means either a lot of things died to the Wither or someone harvested a lot of Wither Roses and then just... left them there."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... Huh." Abolish sounded a bit bewildered. "They seemed to be growing there naturally, though I guess that explanation would make sense given Oakhurst's... history."

[crystalline-quill]

Grian tilted his head in a very birdlike manner. "What history?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Every two hundred years, all of the people in Oakhurst get wiped out." He explained. "Some people say the town's cursed... Either way, it wouldn't be too shocking if one of those massacres had something to do with it."

[crystalline-quill]

"Ah," Grian said, blinking. "Well, that would explain it. If no one knew about magic and someone unleashed a Wither, that would cause a massacre."

Grian quietly was wondering if that was true. He didn't have the time to see if this world had been created by the Watchers or not, so those massacres could have been invented history or real.

He shook his head, looking ahead instead.

"Well, lady and gentleman, we have arrived!"

It didn't look like much at first, just a corridor of nether brick breaking through a hill of netherrack. But then he stepped into the corridor and looked through, and the Fortress opened up before him, foreboding and dark over the lava sea.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish looked around the fortress quietly, eyes wide. "So... nether wart, and blaze rods, you said?" He asked, gesturing towards a blaze spawner. "Can't say I recognize any of this but... If anything here is a 'blaze', I'm guessing it's those."

[crystalline-quill]

"Right on!" Grian said, grinning with all his teeth. "Ready for a fight?"

He followed his words by placing down a crafting table and crafted himself a golden sword. With a laugh, he ran forwards towards the blaze, shield at the ready.

"Wait, is that my crafting table?" Pearl asked, looking at the object. "Come back here you-- You!"

She drew her own sword and sprinted after him.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish sighed, running after the two of them with his shield up. He didn't know quite how to fight these mobs, so he wanted to be careful.

[crystalline-quill]

With a screech, Grian baited the trio of blazes into bursting into flames.

"One- two- three!" he counted the fireballs as they impacted his shield. He could hear Pearl's yelp as she barely dodges the second blaze's projectiles. "If they're on fire they're about to shoot!"

He ducked out from his shield to swing at the monster, barely managing to crack the blaze's head because gold swords are terrible. Still, he raised his shield again and waited for the volley to begin again.

[abolish-veylocke]

"Why do they have to shoot fire..." Abolish said, sounding annoyed as he slashed one of the blaze's torso.

[crystalquillcreates]

"What did you think blazes would do?" laughed Grian, taking the opening Abolished had made to finally cut down the blaze.

Pearl managed to do quick work of the second one. "Oooh, shiny stick! Is that a blaze rod?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"It's still annoying." He sighed, finishing off the last one. "Is that a blaze rod?" He asked, looking over at it.

[crystalquillcreates]

"Yup! I'd say we need two, just to be safe, but blazes appear in the whole Fortress and we need Nether Wart too," Grian said, picking up the rod with the tips of his talons, to keep himself from getting burnt. "So we should go deeper and fight any blazes we see on the way."

He pointed dramatically with his sword.

"Onwards!"

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish sighed, but followed him forwards. "So... what do we actually need these for?" He asked, sheathing his sword as they walked.

[crystalquillcreates]

"Potions, mostly," Grian said, peeking around the corner of the Fortress hallway, finding mobs, and then making an overhead wither skeleton barrier. "Well, no. We don't *need* potions, we need an edge against everyone else in the Game. Just enough to force a truce and get everyone working against the Watchers instead of against each other."

"These 'Watchers'... How do you know they aren't watching us right now?" Pearl questioned, following closely behind Grian.

"I *know* they're watching," Grian said, eyes glinting a dangerous purple for a split second. "They just find this interesting enough that They don't plan on stopping me just yet."

[abolish-veylocke]

"That's not very reassuring." Abolish said dryly. "Why do you call it a game?" He asked. "Is that just what it's called when stuff like this happens? Has this happened before?"

[crystalquillcreates]

Grian stopped in his tracks

"We made a deal with the Watchers; we agreed to participate in their Games and they wouldn't attempt to destroy our world or hurt our loved ones," he recounted gravely, his lips thinning into a line when both Pearl and Abolish looked horrified at the destruction of the world. "Part of the deal was that we got to set some of the rules and we would be told in advance when the Games happened.

'And that I would be the one to design them' Grian didn't say.

"The Games were simple: a group of us would get part of our memories locked away, to make us believe that if we died in the Games the death was permanent. Then, we would be trapped in an isolated place and told only the last person remaining would be able to leave," he recounted. His fingers drifted without him knowing to the three little hearts etched onto his wrist. "Every game would be a different than the last. In one we were paired up and if you got hurt, your 'soulmate' would also hurt. Or another one where we all had exactly 24 hours to live... Unless we killed someone else and got their time."

"This lasted for seven Games," Grian stated, with a sardonic smile. "Then they got bored and tried to make a Game of their own. And so, here we are."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... That's a lot." Abolish said after a moment, sounding faint. "So, this one is different because they designed it, but it seems to still hold some similarities. Though there doesn't have to be just one winner here... I wonder why..?" He thought aloud.

[crystalquillcreates]

"No idea either and I don't intend to find out," he said, shaking the thought out of his head.

Instead he focused on the corridors, picking the one that headed deeper into the foreboding structure. He sprinted deeper in, sword at the ready. Soon they arrived at a crossroads.

"Now this part, I need a little bit of help with," Grian said, looking back at the two following him. "Nether wart stinks. Badly. But Avians have a pretty bad sense of smell compared to humans. So! Use your noses, hairless monkeys! Which way do we go?"

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish blinked slowly before pointing down the left side of the corridor. "That way." He sighed. "It's not like you have fur, either." He pointed out.

[crystalquillcreates]

Grian snorted. "I have *feathers* excuse you!" He said, pulling up one of his sweater sleeves to reveal a small section of the feathers speckled all over his body. He started walking backwards towards the left, a cheeky grin on his face. "They are much more superior than fur!"

Grian turned around and his smile dropped at the silence. It took him a second to realize he had been waiting for Pearl to sass back with how chitin was *so* much better than feathers, the cue for a long-running joking argument.

He grit his teeth. This was temporary. He had to believe that, because if the Watchers hadn't erased their memories and instead *destroyed* them he—

"If I'm your sister, why don't I have feathers?" Pearl asked.

[abolish-veylocke]

Open RP!

"Overly suspicious? How am I overly suspicious?!" Abolish fumes as he slams his pickaxe down on the stone in front of him.

"All I said was that Cleo might be a vampire, and I was literally right!" He ranted, clearly frustrated.

"It's not like I accused them of murder like Avid with Scott! I just pointed out that they joined Owen in killing the cows and didn't get the strength effect from the book!" He slowed his mining, rubbing at his now sore arms.

He tensed slightly as he heard footsteps behind him in the cave.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish glanced at Pearl before shrugging. "Yeah, okay." He said tiredly, stepping into the portal.

[crystalline-quill]

Grian climbed up the Nether portal and posted himself up as a sentinel as Abolish and Pearl came through.

He pattered on top of the portal, eyes darting in quick, staccato movements. However, he kept half an eye the two coming in.

"Wha- what is this?!?" Pearl said, turning all around wildly. She yelped as the water from the rain evaporated off her all at once, surrounding her in a cloud of steam.

Grian snickered. He was so used to the Nether he hadn't even paid attention on his own speed dry.

[abolish-veylocke]

"Grian, what is this place?" Abolish asked, looking around.

[crystalline-quill]

"The fiery sibling of the three dimensions in existance," Grian said. "Chock-full of lava, monsters, and most importantly to us right now, gold. We need some before the locals see us without golden armor and attack us on sight."

He leapt off the portal frame, hopping his way to a patch of nether gold.

"Better help me! We really don't want to fight any Piglins on top of the other things that live in this place!"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Three dimensions?" Abolish asked, raising his eyebrows as he followed Grian over to the gold.

[crystalline-quill]

"End, Overworld and Nether," Grian idly answered, too focused on prying gold nuggets out of netherrack with his talons. "But you can't make an End Portal, you have to find it, so let's not do that."

"...You know what? This might as well happen," Pearl said, placing down a crafting table to turn the golden nuggets into ingots. "One golden helmet coming right up!"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Why didn't we know about any of this?" Abolish asks quietly, rubbing his temples where he's beginning to get a headache.

[crystalline-quill]

"You did," Grian said, the lightheartedness dying in his voice. He continued digging, but a frown became stuck on his face. "I guess it's a good as time as any to tell you about the Watchers."

There was a short silence, broken only by the hits of the pickaxes and the dull roar of fire.

"Watchers are... beings that a lot of people call gods, even though the aren't really. They're powerful, and ancient, and constantly bored," he said, striking the rock a little harsher than necessary. "Players-- that's us-- die once nothing interests us anymore. So Watchers convinced themselves that by taking over worlds and manipulating Players they were doing us a favor, keeping us interested and alive."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... Well that's horrifying." Abolish admitted. "So... we're here to enntertain them, but have real lives putside of this?"

[crystalline-quill]

"Yes," Grian said, finally ripping out a chunk of gold, giving it to Pearl, who made an ingot. "All of you have friends, partners and families waiting for you outside, but you don't remember them because if you did, dying would simply mean returning to them. You wouldn't fear death and it wouldn't be fun for Them anymore."

"Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait," Pearl said, looking straight at Grian. "Do you know who is waiting for us out there? Who we are?"

Grian went quiet, looking at her with pained grief. "I came here to find five people. I didn't expect fourteen. But I do know you, Pearlie. You're my older sister."

He didn't say anything more, letting Pearl's eyes widen, letting her get used to the idea while he plucked the gold from her hands and crafted a golden helmet.

"Here," Grian said, putting the helmet back into her hands, before turning towards Abolish, ignoring her stammered questions. "Do you have enough for your own helmet, Abolish?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"I mean, it would use less if I make boots, but I have enough either way." He shrugged. "Is it like... more visible if I make a helmet?"

[crystalline-quill]

"Nah, helmets just break slower than boots. We're going to be walking a lot and gold isn't the strongest metal," Grian said, constructing his own helmet and plopping onto his own head.

While Abolish makes his own helmet, Grian breathes deeply and slowly unfurls his wings. Sure, he should give them more of a rest but he doesn't want to aimlessly wander around the Nether for Void knows how long.

"Stay here," Grian said, scanning the horizon. "I'll be right back."

With a powerful snap of his wings, he took off into the cloying air of the Nether. Flying in the chaotic rising air currents of the Nether takes skill, one Grian has but his wings resent.

He skimmed over the lava sea searching for any signs of a stronghold. He grit his teeth as the pain went from a complaint to a shout, but off in the distance: Nether brick.

With a whoop Grian banked sharply back towards Abolish and Pearl, grinning as he comes in for a landing.

[abolish-veylocke]

Well, that made sense. He glanced over at Pearl as they waited for Grian to come back, wincing when she still looked frozen with shock.

"What did you find?" He asked as Grian landed.

[crystalline-quill]

"Fortress! They have what we need," yelled Grian, landing with a stumble. "This way!"

He started walking in that direction, glancing at Pearl. She shook herself and started walking behind him, but looking at his back as if he was a pink elephant.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish followed behind them, looking skeptical. "What is a fortress?" He asked.

[crystalline-quill]

"Well, it's kind of the ruins of the people that used to live here? I don't know much about the history exactly, but I know they left a lot of loot behind," Grian said, more concerned with keeping watch than thinking about this words. "We're searching for nether wart, which is kind of like a small bulbous, bright red mushroom. And blaze rods! But those are pretty easy to spot."

"Mhm, sure," Pearl said, shooting a look at a Abolish that screamed 'do you know what he's on about?"

[abolish-veylocke]

He shrugged at Pearl, looking bemused. "Are fortresses dangerous?" He asked Grian. "I'm a decent fighter, but I'd rather know ahead of time."

[crystalline-quill]

"Pretty dangerous, so we gotta be careful, " Grian said, idly collecting any netherrack he could while still on the move. "We'll have to deal with wither skeletons, but they're taller than regular skeletons and so rigid that they can't crouch down, so as long as we put up block barriers above our heads they can't really do anything to us."

He made a considering noise. "Shields should also be useful. Blocking blaze fireballs avoids the whole 'getting set on fire' bit of going to a Fortress."

[abolish-veylocke]

"Oh, I have a couple shields." Abolish shrugged, handing one to Pearl and Grian each.

"What's a wither skeleton?" He asked curiously. "Does it have something to do with those black roses we've found in the forest?"

[crystalline-quill]

Grian paused. "You've found Wither Roses in the forest? Just casually lying around?"

"Yeah?" Pearl said, tilting her head in confusion. "Is that weird?"

"Very," Grian said, before turning fully to face the both of them. "Wither skeletons are bigger, darker skeletons that use swords instead of bows, but what makes them dangerous is that anything they touch starts to decay and die."

In his rambling he didn't notice the alarmed looks from his audience of two.

"If you get three wither skeleton skulls and arrange them in a special way, you can summon the Wither Boss," Grian continued, starting to walk towards the Fortress once more. "Anything the Wither Boss kills becomes the fertile ground for a WIther Rose, so for a place to be littered with those means either a lot of things died to the Wither or someone harvested a lot of Wither Roses and then just... left them there."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... Huh." Abolish sounded a bit bewildered. "They seemed to be growing there naturally, though I guess that explanation would make sense given Oakhurst's... history."

[crystalline-quill]

Grian tilted his head in a very birdlike manner. "What history?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Every two hundred years, all of the people in Oakhurst get wiped out." He explained. "Some people say the town's cursed... Either way, it wouldn't be too shocking if one of those massacres had something to do with it."

[crystalline-quill]

"Ah," Grian said, blinking. "Well, that would explain it. If no one knew about magic and someone unleashed a Wither, that would cause a massacre."

Grian quietly was wondering if that was true. He didn't have the time to see if this world had been created by the Watchers or not, so those massacres could have been invented history or real.

He shook his head, looking ahead instead.

"Well, lady and gentleman, we have arrived!"

It didn't look like much at first, just a corridor of nether brick breaking through a hill of netherrack. But then he stepped into the corridor and looked through, and the Fortress opened up before him, foreboding and dark over the lava sea.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish looked around the fortress quietly, eyes wide. "So... nether wart, and blaze rods, you said?" He asked, gesturing towards a blaze spawner. "Can't say I recognize any of this but... If anything here is a 'blaze', I'm guessing it's those."

[crystalline-quill]

"Right on!" Grian said, grinning with all his teeth. "Ready for a fight?"

He followed his words by placing down a crafting table and crafted himself a golden sword. With a laugh, he ran forwards towards the blaze, shield at the ready.

"Wait, is that my crafting table?" Pearl asked, looking at the object. "Come back here you-- You!"

She drew her own sword and sprinted after him.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish sighed, running after the two of them with his shield up. He didn't know quite how to fight these mobs, so he wanted to be careful.

[crystalline-quill]

With a screech, Grian baited the trio of blazes into bursting into flames.

"One- two- three!" he counted the fireballs as they impacted his shield. He could hear Pearl's yelp as she barely dodges the second blaze's projectiles. "If they're on fire they're about to shoot!"

He ducked out from his shield to swing at the monster, barely managing to crack the blaze's head because gold swords are terrible. Still, he raised his shield again and waited for the volley to begin again.

[abolish-veylocke]

"Why do they have to shoot fire..." Abolish said, sounding annoyed as he slashed one of the blaze's torso.

[crystalquillcreates]

"What did you think blazes would do?" laughed Grian, taking the opening Abolished had made to finally cut down the blaze.

Pearl managed to do quick work of the second one. "Oooh, shiny stick! Is that a blaze rod?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"It's still annoying." He sighed, finishing off the last one. "Is that a blaze rod?" He asked, looking over at it.

[crystalquillcreates]

"Yup! I'd say we need two, just to be safe, but blazes appear in the whole Fortress and we need Nether Wart too," Grian said, picking up the rod with the tips of his talons, to keep himself from getting burnt. "So we should go deeper and fight any blazes we see on the way."

He pointed dramatically with his sword.

"Onwards!"

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish sighed, but followed him forwards. "So... what do we actually need these for?" He asked, sheathing his sword as they walked.

[crystalquillcreates]

"Potions, mostly," Grian said, peeking around the corner of the Fortress hallway, finding mobs, and then making an overhead wither skeleton barrier. "Well, no. We don't *need* potions, we need an edge against everyone else in the Game. Just enough to force a truce and get everyone working against the Watchers instead of against each other."

"These 'Watchers'... How do you know they aren't watching us right now?" Pearl questioned, following closely behind Grian.

"I *know* they're watching," Grian said, eyes glinting a dangerous purple for a split second. "They just find this interesting enough that They don't plan on stopping me just yet."

[abolish-veylocke]

"That's not very reassuring." Abolish said dryly. "Why do you call it a game?" He asked. "Is that just what it's called when stuff like this happens? Has this happened before?"

[crystalquillcreates]

Grian stopped in his tracks

"We made a deal with the Watchers; we agreed to participate in their Games and they wouldn't attempt to destroy our world or hurt our loved ones," he recounted gravely, his lips thinning into a line when both Pearl and Abolish looked horrified at the destruction of the world. "Part of the deal was that we got to set some of the rules and we would be told in advance when the Games happened.

'And that I would be the one to design them' Grian didn't say.

"The Games were simple: a group of us would get part of our memories locked away, to make us believe that if we died in the Games the death was permanent. Then, we would be trapped in an isolated place and told only the last person remaining would be able to leave," he recounted. His fingers drifted without him knowing to the three little hearts etched onto his wrist. "Every game would be a different than the last. In one we were paired up and if you got hurt, your 'soulmate' would also hurt. Or another one where we all had exactly 24 hours to live... Unless we killed someone else and got their time."

"This lasted for seven Games," Grian stated, with a sardonic smile. "Then they got bored and tried to make a Game of their own. And so, here we are."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... That's a lot." Abolish said after a moment, sounding faint. "So, this one is different because they designed it, but it seems to still hold some similarities. Though there doesn't have to be just one winner here... I wonder why..?" He thought aloud.

[crystalquillcreates]

"No idea either and I don't intend to find out," he said, shaking the thought out of his head.

Instead he focused on the corridors, picking the one that headed deeper into the foreboding structure. He sprinted deeper in, sword at the ready. Soon they arrived at a crossroads.

"Now this part, I need a little bit of help with," Grian said, looking back at the two following him. "Nether wart stinks. Badly. But Avians have a pretty bad sense of smell compared to humans. So! Use your noses, hairless monkeys! Which way do we go?"

[abolish-veylocke]

Open RP!

"Overly suspicious? How am I overly suspicious?!" Abolish fumes as he slams his pickaxe down on the stone in front of him.

"All I said was that Cleo might be a vampire, and I was literally right!" He ranted, clearly frustrated.

"It's not like I accused them of murder like Avid with Scott! I just pointed out that they joined Owen in killing the cows and didn't get the strength effect from the book!" He slowed his mining, rubbing at his now sore arms.

He tensed slightly as he heard footsteps behind him in the cave.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish glanced at Pearl before shrugging. "Yeah, okay." He said tiredly, stepping into the portal.

[crystalline-quill]

Grian climbed up the Nether portal and posted himself up as a sentinel as Abolish and Pearl came through.

He pattered on top of the portal, eyes darting in quick, staccato movements. However, he kept half an eye the two coming in.

"Wha- what is this?!?" Pearl said, turning all around wildly. She yelped as the water from the rain evaporated off her all at once, surrounding her in a cloud of steam.

Grian snickered. He was so used to the Nether he hadn't even paid attention on his own speed dry.

[abolish-veylocke]

"Grian, what is this place?" Abolish asked, looking around.

[crystalline-quill]

"The fiery sibling of the three dimensions in existance," Grian said. "Chock-full of lava, monsters, and most importantly to us right now, gold. We need some before the locals see us without golden armor and attack us on sight."

He leapt off the portal frame, hopping his way to a patch of nether gold.

"Better help me! We really don't want to fight any Piglins on top of the other things that live in this place!"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Three dimensions?" Abolish asked, raising his eyebrows as he followed Grian over to the gold.

[crystalline-quill]

"End, Overworld and Nether," Grian idly answered, too focused on prying gold nuggets out of netherrack with his talons. "But you can't make an End Portal, you have to find it, so let's not do that."

"...You know what? This might as well happen," Pearl said, placing down a crafting table to turn the golden nuggets into ingots. "One golden helmet coming right up!"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Why didn't we know about any of this?" Abolish asks quietly, rubbing his temples where he's beginning to get a headache.

[crystalline-quill]

"You did," Grian said, the lightheartedness dying in his voice. He continued digging, but a frown became stuck on his face. "I guess it's a good as time as any to tell you about the Watchers."

There was a short silence, broken only by the hits of the pickaxes and the dull roar of fire.

"Watchers are... beings that a lot of people call gods, even though the aren't really. They're powerful, and ancient, and constantly bored," he said, striking the rock a little harsher than necessary. "Players-- that's us-- die once nothing interests us anymore. So Watchers convinced themselves that by taking over worlds and manipulating Players they were doing us a favor, keeping us interested and alive."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... Well that's horrifying." Abolish admitted. "So... we're here to enntertain them, but have real lives putside of this?"

[crystalline-quill]

"Yes," Grian said, finally ripping out a chunk of gold, giving it to Pearl, who made an ingot. "All of you have friends, partners and families waiting for you outside, but you don't remember them because if you did, dying would simply mean returning to them. You wouldn't fear death and it wouldn't be fun for Them anymore."

"Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait," Pearl said, looking straight at Grian. "Do you know who is waiting for us out there? Who we are?"

Grian went quiet, looking at her with pained grief. "I came here to find five people. I didn't expect fourteen. But I do know you, Pearlie. You're my older sister."

He didn't say anything more, letting Pearl's eyes widen, letting her get used to the idea while he plucked the gold from her hands and crafted a golden helmet.

"Here," Grian said, putting the helmet back into her hands, before turning towards Abolish, ignoring her stammered questions. "Do you have enough for your own helmet, Abolish?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"I mean, it would use less if I make boots, but I have enough either way." He shrugged. "Is it like... more visible if I make a helmet?"

[crystalline-quill]

"Nah, helmets just break slower than boots. We're going to be walking a lot and gold isn't the strongest metal," Grian said, constructing his own helmet and plopping onto his own head.

While Abolish makes his own helmet, Grian breathes deeply and slowly unfurls his wings. Sure, he should give them more of a rest but he doesn't want to aimlessly wander around the Nether for Void knows how long.

"Stay here," Grian said, scanning the horizon. "I'll be right back."

With a powerful snap of his wings, he took off into the cloying air of the Nether. Flying in the chaotic rising air currents of the Nether takes skill, one Grian has but his wings resent.

He skimmed over the lava sea searching for any signs of a stronghold. He grit his teeth as the pain went from a complaint to a shout, but off in the distance: Nether brick.

With a whoop Grian banked sharply back towards Abolish and Pearl, grinning as he comes in for a landing.

[abolish-veylocke]

Well, that made sense. He glanced over at Pearl as they waited for Grian to come back, wincing when she still looked frozen with shock.

"What did you find?" He asked as Grian landed.

[crystalline-quill]

"Fortress! They have what we need," yelled Grian, landing with a stumble. "This way!"

He started walking in that direction, glancing at Pearl. She shook herself and started walking behind him, but looking at his back as if he was a pink elephant.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish followed behind them, looking skeptical. "What is a fortress?" He asked.

[crystalline-quill]

"Well, it's kind of the ruins of the people that used to live here? I don't know much about the history exactly, but I know they left a lot of loot behind," Grian said, more concerned with keeping watch than thinking about this words. "We're searching for nether wart, which is kind of like a small bulbous, bright red mushroom. And blaze rods! But those are pretty easy to spot."

"Mhm, sure," Pearl said, shooting a look at a Abolish that screamed 'do you know what he's on about?"

[abolish-veylocke]

He shrugged at Pearl, looking bemused. "Are fortresses dangerous?" He asked Grian. "I'm a decent fighter, but I'd rather know ahead of time."

[crystalline-quill]

"Pretty dangerous, so we gotta be careful, " Grian said, idly collecting any netherrack he could while still on the move. "We'll have to deal with wither skeletons, but they're taller than regular skeletons and so rigid that they can't crouch down, so as long as we put up block barriers above our heads they can't really do anything to us."

He made a considering noise. "Shields should also be useful. Blocking blaze fireballs avoids the whole 'getting set on fire' bit of going to a Fortress."

[abolish-veylocke]

"Oh, I have a couple shields." Abolish shrugged, handing one to Pearl and Grian each.

"What's a wither skeleton?" He asked curiously. "Does it have something to do with those black roses we've found in the forest?"

[crystalline-quill]

Grian paused. "You've found Wither Roses in the forest? Just casually lying around?"

"Yeah?" Pearl said, tilting her head in confusion. "Is that weird?"

"Very," Grian said, before turning fully to face the both of them. "Wither skeletons are bigger, darker skeletons that use swords instead of bows, but what makes them dangerous is that anything they touch starts to decay and die."

In his rambling he didn't notice the alarmed looks from his audience of two.

"If you get three wither skeleton skulls and arrange them in a special way, you can summon the Wither Boss," Grian continued, starting to walk towards the Fortress once more. "Anything the Wither Boss kills becomes the fertile ground for a WIther Rose, so for a place to be littered with those means either a lot of things died to the Wither or someone harvested a lot of Wither Roses and then just... left them there."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... Huh." Abolish sounded a bit bewildered. "They seemed to be growing there naturally, though I guess that explanation would make sense given Oakhurst's... history."

[crystalline-quill]

Grian tilted his head in a very birdlike manner. "What history?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Every two hundred years, all of the people in Oakhurst get wiped out." He explained. "Some people say the town's cursed... Either way, it wouldn't be too shocking if one of those massacres had something to do with it."

[crystalline-quill]

"Ah," Grian said, blinking. "Well, that would explain it. If no one knew about magic and someone unleashed a Wither, that would cause a massacre."

Grian quietly was wondering if that was true. He didn't have the time to see if this world had been created by the Watchers or not, so those massacres could have been invented history or real.

He shook his head, looking ahead instead.

"Well, lady and gentleman, we have arrived!"

It didn't look like much at first, just a corridor of nether brick breaking through a hill of netherrack. But then he stepped into the corridor and looked through, and the Fortress opened up before him, foreboding and dark over the lava sea.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish looked around the fortress quietly, eyes wide. "So... nether wart, and blaze rods, you said?" He asked, gesturing towards a blaze spawner. "Can't say I recognize any of this but... If anything here is a 'blaze', I'm guessing it's those."

[crystalline-quill]

"Right on!" Grian said, grinning with all his teeth. "Ready for a fight?"

He followed his words by placing down a crafting table and crafted himself a golden sword. With a laugh, he ran forwards towards the blaze, shield at the ready.

"Wait, is that my crafting table?" Pearl asked, looking at the object. "Come back here you-- You!"

She drew her own sword and sprinted after him.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish sighed, running after the two of them with his shield up. He didn't know quite how to fight these mobs, so he wanted to be careful.

[crystalline-quill]

With a screech, Grian baited the trio of blazes into bursting into flames.

"One- two- three!" he counted the fireballs as they impacted his shield. He could hear Pearl's yelp as she barely dodges the second blaze's projectiles. "If they're on fire they're about to shoot!"

He ducked out from his shield to swing at the monster, barely managing to crack the blaze's head because gold swords are terrible. Still, he raised his shield again and waited for the volley to begin again.

[abolish-veylocke]

"Why do they have to shoot fire..." Abolish said, sounding annoyed as he slashed one of the blaze's torso.

[crystalquillcreates]

"What did you think blazes would do?" laughed Grian, taking the opening Abolished had made to finally cut down the blaze.

Pearl managed to do quick work of the second one. "Oooh, shiny stick! Is that a blaze rod?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"It's still annoying." He sighed, finishing off the last one. "Is that a blaze rod?" He asked, looking over at it.

[crystalquillcreates]

"Yup! I'd say we need two, just to be safe, but blazes appear in the whole Fortress and we need Nether Wart too," Grian said, picking up the rod with the tips of his talons, to keep himself from getting burnt. "So we should go deeper and fight any blazes we see on the way."

He pointed dramatically with his sword.

"Onwards!"

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish sighed, but followed him forwards. "So... what do we actually need these for?" He asked, sheathing his sword as they walked.

[crystalquillcreates]

"Potions, mostly," Grian said, peeking around the corner of the Fortress hallway, finding mobs, and then making an overhead wither skeleton barrier. "Well, no. We don't *need* potions, we need an edge against everyone else in the Game. Just enough to force a truce and get everyone working against the Watchers instead of against each other."

"These 'Watchers'... How do you know they aren't watching us right now?" Pearl questioned, following closely behind Grian.

"I *know* they're watching," Grian said, eyes glinting a dangerous purple for a split second. "They just find this interesting enough that They don't plan on stopping me just yet."

[abolish-veylocke]

"That's not very reassuring." Abolish said dryly. "Why do you call it a game?" He asked. "Is that just what it's called when stuff like this happens? Has this happened before?"

[crystalquillcreates]

Grian stopped in his tracks

"We made a deal with the Watchers; we agreed to participate in their Games and they wouldn't attempt to destroy our world or hurt our loved ones," he recounted gravely, his lips thinning into a line when both Pearl and Abolish looked horrified at the destruction of the world. "Part of the deal was that we got to set some of the rules and we would be told in advance when the Games happened.

'And that I would be the one to design them' Grian didn't say.

"The Games were simple: a group of us would get part of our memories locked away, to make us believe that if we died in the Games the death was permanent. Then, we would be trapped in an isolated place and told only the last person remaining would be able to leave," he recounted. His fingers drifted without him knowing to the three little hearts etched onto his wrist. "Every game would be a different than the last. In one we were paired up and if you got hurt, your 'soulmate' would also hurt. Or another one where we all had exactly 24 hours to live... Unless we killed someone else and got their time."

"This lasted for seven Games," Grian stated, with a sardonic smile. "Then they got bored and tried to make a Game of their own. And so, here we are."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... That's a lot." Abolish said after a moment, sounding faint. "So, this one is different because they designed it, but it seems to still hold some similarities. Though there doesn't have to be just one winner here... I wonder why..?" He thought aloud.

[crystalquillcreates]

"No idea either and I don't intend to find out," he said, shaking the thought out of his head.

Instead he focused on the corridors, picking the one that headed deeper into the foreboding structure. He sprinted deeper in, sword at the ready. Soon they arrived at a crossroads.

"Now this part, I need a little bit of help with," Grian said, looking back at the two following him. "Nether wart stinks. Badly. But Avians have a pretty bad sense of smell compared to humans. So! Use your noses, hairless monkeys! Which way do we go?"

[abolish-veylocke]

Open RP!

"Overly suspicious? How am I overly suspicious?!" Abolish fumes as he slams his pickaxe down on the stone in front of him.

"All I said was that Cleo might be a vampire, and I was literally right!" He ranted, clearly frustrated.

"It's not like I accused them of murder like Avid with Scott! I just pointed out that they joined Owen in killing the cows and didn't get the strength effect from the book!" He slowed his mining, rubbing at his now sore arms.

He tensed slightly as he heard footsteps behind him in the cave.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish glanced at Pearl before shrugging. "Yeah, okay." He said tiredly, stepping into the portal.

[crystalline-quill]

Grian climbed up the Nether portal and posted himself up as a sentinel as Abolish and Pearl came through.

He pattered on top of the portal, eyes darting in quick, staccato movements. However, he kept half an eye the two coming in.

"Wha- what is this?!?" Pearl said, turning all around wildly. She yelped as the water from the rain evaporated off her all at once, surrounding her in a cloud of steam.

Grian snickered. He was so used to the Nether he hadn't even paid attention on his own speed dry.

[abolish-veylocke]

"Grian, what is this place?" Abolish asked, looking around.

[crystalline-quill]

"The fiery sibling of the three dimensions in existance," Grian said. "Chock-full of lava, monsters, and most importantly to us right now, gold. We need some before the locals see us without golden armor and attack us on sight."

He leapt off the portal frame, hopping his way to a patch of nether gold.

"Better help me! We really don't want to fight any Piglins on top of the other things that live in this place!"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Three dimensions?" Abolish asked, raising his eyebrows as he followed Grian over to the gold.

[crystalline-quill]

"End, Overworld and Nether," Grian idly answered, too focused on prying gold nuggets out of netherrack with his talons. "But you can't make an End Portal, you have to find it, so let's not do that."

"...You know what? This might as well happen," Pearl said, placing down a crafting table to turn the golden nuggets into ingots. "One golden helmet coming right up!"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Why didn't we know about any of this?" Abolish asks quietly, rubbing his temples where he's beginning to get a headache.

[crystalline-quill]

"You did," Grian said, the lightheartedness dying in his voice. He continued digging, but a frown became stuck on his face. "I guess it's a good as time as any to tell you about the Watchers."

There was a short silence, broken only by the hits of the pickaxes and the dull roar of fire.

"Watchers are... beings that a lot of people call gods, even though the aren't really. They're powerful, and ancient, and constantly bored," he said, striking the rock a little harsher than necessary. "Players-- that's us-- die once nothing interests us anymore. So Watchers convinced themselves that by taking over worlds and manipulating Players they were doing us a favor, keeping us interested and alive."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... Well that's horrifying." Abolish admitted. "So... we're here to enntertain them, but have real lives putside of this?"

[crystalline-quill]

"Yes," Grian said, finally ripping out a chunk of gold, giving it to Pearl, who made an ingot. "All of you have friends, partners and families waiting for you outside, but you don't remember them because if you did, dying would simply mean returning to them. You wouldn't fear death and it wouldn't be fun for Them anymore."

"Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait," Pearl said, looking straight at Grian. "Do you know who is waiting for us out there? Who we are?"

Grian went quiet, looking at her with pained grief. "I came here to find five people. I didn't expect fourteen. But I do know you, Pearlie. You're my older sister."

He didn't say anything more, letting Pearl's eyes widen, letting her get used to the idea while he plucked the gold from her hands and crafted a golden helmet.

"Here," Grian said, putting the helmet back into her hands, before turning towards Abolish, ignoring her stammered questions. "Do you have enough for your own helmet, Abolish?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"I mean, it would use less if I make boots, but I have enough either way." He shrugged. "Is it like... more visible if I make a helmet?"

[crystalline-quill]

"Nah, helmets just break slower than boots. We're going to be walking a lot and gold isn't the strongest metal," Grian said, constructing his own helmet and plopping onto his own head.

While Abolish makes his own helmet, Grian breathes deeply and slowly unfurls his wings. Sure, he should give them more of a rest but he doesn't want to aimlessly wander around the Nether for Void knows how long.

"Stay here," Grian said, scanning the horizon. "I'll be right back."

With a powerful snap of his wings, he took off into the cloying air of the Nether. Flying in the chaotic rising air currents of the Nether takes skill, one Grian has but his wings resent.

He skimmed over the lava sea searching for any signs of a stronghold. He grit his teeth as the pain went from a complaint to a shout, but off in the distance: Nether brick.

With a whoop Grian banked sharply back towards Abolish and Pearl, grinning as he comes in for a landing.

[abolish-veylocke]

Well, that made sense. He glanced over at Pearl as they waited for Grian to come back, wincing when she still looked frozen with shock.

"What did you find?" He asked as Grian landed.

[crystalline-quill]

"Fortress! They have what we need," yelled Grian, landing with a stumble. "This way!"

He started walking in that direction, glancing at Pearl. She shook herself and started walking behind him, but looking at his back as if he was a pink elephant.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish followed behind them, looking skeptical. "What is a fortress?" He asked.

[crystalline-quill]

"Well, it's kind of the ruins of the people that used to live here? I don't know much about the history exactly, but I know they left a lot of loot behind," Grian said, more concerned with keeping watch than thinking about this words. "We're searching for nether wart, which is kind of like a small bulbous, bright red mushroom. And blaze rods! But those are pretty easy to spot."

"Mhm, sure," Pearl said, shooting a look at a Abolish that screamed 'do you know what he's on about?"

[abolish-veylocke]

He shrugged at Pearl, looking bemused. "Are fortresses dangerous?" He asked Grian. "I'm a decent fighter, but I'd rather know ahead of time."

[crystalline-quill]

"Pretty dangerous, so we gotta be careful, " Grian said, idly collecting any netherrack he could while still on the move. "We'll have to deal with wither skeletons, but they're taller than regular skeletons and so rigid that they can't crouch down, so as long as we put up block barriers above our heads they can't really do anything to us."

He made a considering noise. "Shields should also be useful. Blocking blaze fireballs avoids the whole 'getting set on fire' bit of going to a Fortress."

[abolish-veylocke]

"Oh, I have a couple shields." Abolish shrugged, handing one to Pearl and Grian each.

"What's a wither skeleton?" He asked curiously. "Does it have something to do with those black roses we've found in the forest?"

[crystalline-quill]

Grian paused. "You've found Wither Roses in the forest? Just casually lying around?"

"Yeah?" Pearl said, tilting her head in confusion. "Is that weird?"

"Very," Grian said, before turning fully to face the both of them. "Wither skeletons are bigger, darker skeletons that use swords instead of bows, but what makes them dangerous is that anything they touch starts to decay and die."

In his rambling he didn't notice the alarmed looks from his audience of two.

"If you get three wither skeleton skulls and arrange them in a special way, you can summon the Wither Boss," Grian continued, starting to walk towards the Fortress once more. "Anything the Wither Boss kills becomes the fertile ground for a WIther Rose, so for a place to be littered with those means either a lot of things died to the Wither or someone harvested a lot of Wither Roses and then just... left them there."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... Huh." Abolish sounded a bit bewildered. "They seemed to be growing there naturally, though I guess that explanation would make sense given Oakhurst's... history."

[crystalline-quill]

Grian tilted his head in a very birdlike manner. "What history?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Every two hundred years, all of the people in Oakhurst get wiped out." He explained. "Some people say the town's cursed... Either way, it wouldn't be too shocking if one of those massacres had something to do with it."

[crystalline-quill]

"Ah," Grian said, blinking. "Well, that would explain it. If no one knew about magic and someone unleashed a Wither, that would cause a massacre."

Grian quietly was wondering if that was true. He didn't have the time to see if this world had been created by the Watchers or not, so those massacres could have been invented history or real.

He shook his head, looking ahead instead.

"Well, lady and gentleman, we have arrived!"

It didn't look like much at first, just a corridor of nether brick breaking through a hill of netherrack. But then he stepped into the corridor and looked through, and the Fortress opened up before him, foreboding and dark over the lava sea.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish looked around the fortress quietly, eyes wide. "So... nether wart, and blaze rods, you said?" He asked, gesturing towards a blaze spawner. "Can't say I recognize any of this but... If anything here is a 'blaze', I'm guessing it's those."

[crystalline-quill]

"Right on!" Grian said, grinning with all his teeth. "Ready for a fight?"

He followed his words by placing down a crafting table and crafted himself a golden sword. With a laugh, he ran forwards towards the blaze, shield at the ready.

"Wait, is that my crafting table?" Pearl asked, looking at the object. "Come back here you-- You!"

She drew her own sword and sprinted after him.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish sighed, running after the two of them with his shield up. He didn't know quite how to fight these mobs, so he wanted to be careful.

[crystalline-quill]

With a screech, Grian baited the trio of blazes into bursting into flames.

"One- two- three!" he counted the fireballs as they impacted his shield. He could hear Pearl's yelp as she barely dodges the second blaze's projectiles. "If they're on fire they're about to shoot!"

He ducked out from his shield to swing at the monster, barely managing to crack the blaze's head because gold swords are terrible. Still, he raised his shield again and waited for the volley to begin again.

[abolish-veylocke]

"Why do they have to shoot fire..." Abolish said, sounding annoyed as he slashed one of the blaze's torso.

[crystalquillcreates]

"What did you think blazes would do?" laughed Grian, taking the opening Abolished had made to finally cut down the blaze.

Pearl managed to do quick work of the second one. "Oooh, shiny stick! Is that a blaze rod?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"It's still annoying." He sighed, finishing off the last one. "Is that a blaze rod?" He asked, looking over at it.

[crystalquillcreates]

"Yup! I'd say we need two, just to be safe, but blazes appear in the whole Fortress and we need Nether Wart too," Grian said, picking up the rod with the tips of his talons, to keep himself from getting burnt. "So we should go deeper and fight any blazes we see on the way."

He pointed dramatically with his sword.

"Onwards!"

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish sighed, but followed him forwards. "So... what do we actually need these for?" He asked, sheathing his sword as they walked.

[crystalquillcreates]

"Potions, mostly," Grian said, peeking around the corner of the Fortress hallway, finding mobs, and then making an overhead wither skeleton barrier. "Well, no. We don't *need* potions, we need an edge against everyone else in the Game. Just enough to force a truce and get everyone working against the Watchers instead of against each other."

"These 'Watchers'... How do you know they aren't watching us right now?" Pearl questioned, following closely behind Grian.

"I *know* they're watching," Grian said, eyes glinting a dangerous purple for a split second. "They just find this interesting enough that They don't plan on stopping me just yet."

[abolish-veylocke]

"That's not very reassuring." Abolish said dryly. "Why do you call it a game?" He asked. "Is that just what it's called when stuff like this happens? Has this happened before?"

[crystalquillcreates]

Grian stopped in his tracks

"We made a deal with the Watchers; we agreed to participate in their Games and they wouldn't attempt to destroy our world or hurt our loved ones," he recounted gravely, his lips thinning into a line when both Pearl and Abolish looked horrified at the destruction of the world. "Part of the deal was that we got to set some of the rules and we would be told in advance when the Games happened.

'And that I would be the one to design them' Grian didn't say.

"The Games were simple: a group of us would get part of our memories locked away, to make us believe that if we died in the Games the death was permanent. Then, we would be trapped in an isolated place and told only the last person remaining would be able to leave," he recounted. His fingers drifted without him knowing to the three little hearts etched onto his wrist. "Every game would be a different than the last. In one we were paired up and if you got hurt, your 'soulmate' would also hurt. Or another one where we all had exactly 24 hours to live... Unless we killed someone else and got their time."

"This lasted for seven Games," Grian stated, with a sardonic smile. "Then they got bored and tried to make a Game of their own. And so, here we are."

[abolish-veylocke]

Open RP!

"Overly suspicious? How am I overly suspicious?!" Abolish fumes as he slams his pickaxe down on the stone in front of him.

"All I said was that Cleo might be a vampire, and I was literally right!" He ranted, clearly frustrated.

"It's not like I accused them of murder like Avid with Scott! I just pointed out that they joined Owen in killing the cows and didn't get the strength effect from the book!" He slowed his mining, rubbing at his now sore arms.

He tensed slightly as he heard footsteps behind him in the cave.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish glanced at Pearl before shrugging. "Yeah, okay." He said tiredly, stepping into the portal.

[crystalline-quill]

Grian climbed up the Nether portal and posted himself up as a sentinel as Abolish and Pearl came through.

He pattered on top of the portal, eyes darting in quick, staccato movements. However, he kept half an eye the two coming in.

"Wha- what is this?!?" Pearl said, turning all around wildly. She yelped as the water from the rain evaporated off her all at once, surrounding her in a cloud of steam.

Grian snickered. He was so used to the Nether he hadn't even paid attention on his own speed dry.

[abolish-veylocke]

"Grian, what is this place?" Abolish asked, looking around.

[crystalline-quill]

"The fiery sibling of the three dimensions in existance," Grian said. "Chock-full of lava, monsters, and most importantly to us right now, gold. We need some before the locals see us without golden armor and attack us on sight."

He leapt off the portal frame, hopping his way to a patch of nether gold.

"Better help me! We really don't want to fight any Piglins on top of the other things that live in this place!"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Three dimensions?" Abolish asked, raising his eyebrows as he followed Grian over to the gold.

[crystalline-quill]

"End, Overworld and Nether," Grian idly answered, too focused on prying gold nuggets out of netherrack with his talons. "But you can't make an End Portal, you have to find it, so let's not do that."

"...You know what? This might as well happen," Pearl said, placing down a crafting table to turn the golden nuggets into ingots. "One golden helmet coming right up!"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Why didn't we know about any of this?" Abolish asks quietly, rubbing his temples where he's beginning to get a headache.

[crystalline-quill]

"You did," Grian said, the lightheartedness dying in his voice. He continued digging, but a frown became stuck on his face. "I guess it's a good as time as any to tell you about the Watchers."

There was a short silence, broken only by the hits of the pickaxes and the dull roar of fire.

"Watchers are... beings that a lot of people call gods, even though the aren't really. They're powerful, and ancient, and constantly bored," he said, striking the rock a little harsher than necessary. "Players-- that's us-- die once nothing interests us anymore. So Watchers convinced themselves that by taking over worlds and manipulating Players they were doing us a favor, keeping us interested and alive."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... Well that's horrifying." Abolish admitted. "So... we're here to enntertain them, but have real lives putside of this?"

[crystalline-quill]

"Yes," Grian said, finally ripping out a chunk of gold, giving it to Pearl, who made an ingot. "All of you have friends, partners and families waiting for you outside, but you don't remember them because if you did, dying would simply mean returning to them. You wouldn't fear death and it wouldn't be fun for Them anymore."

"Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait," Pearl said, looking straight at Grian. "Do you know who is waiting for us out there? Who we are?"

Grian went quiet, looking at her with pained grief. "I came here to find five people. I didn't expect fourteen. But I do know you, Pearlie. You're my older sister."

He didn't say anything more, letting Pearl's eyes widen, letting her get used to the idea while he plucked the gold from her hands and crafted a golden helmet.

"Here," Grian said, putting the helmet back into her hands, before turning towards Abolish, ignoring her stammered questions. "Do you have enough for your own helmet, Abolish?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"I mean, it would use less if I make boots, but I have enough either way." He shrugged. "Is it like... more visible if I make a helmet?"

[crystalline-quill]

"Nah, helmets just break slower than boots. We're going to be walking a lot and gold isn't the strongest metal," Grian said, constructing his own helmet and plopping onto his own head.

While Abolish makes his own helmet, Grian breathes deeply and slowly unfurls his wings. Sure, he should give them more of a rest but he doesn't want to aimlessly wander around the Nether for Void knows how long.

"Stay here," Grian said, scanning the horizon. "I'll be right back."

With a powerful snap of his wings, he took off into the cloying air of the Nether. Flying in the chaotic rising air currents of the Nether takes skill, one Grian has but his wings resent.

He skimmed over the lava sea searching for any signs of a stronghold. He grit his teeth as the pain went from a complaint to a shout, but off in the distance: Nether brick.

With a whoop Grian banked sharply back towards Abolish and Pearl, grinning as he comes in for a landing.

[abolish-veylocke]

Well, that made sense. He glanced over at Pearl as they waited for Grian to come back, wincing when she still looked frozen with shock.

"What did you find?" He asked as Grian landed.

[crystalline-quill]

"Fortress! They have what we need," yelled Grian, landing with a stumble. "This way!"

He started walking in that direction, glancing at Pearl. She shook herself and started walking behind him, but looking at his back as if he was a pink elephant.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish followed behind them, looking skeptical. "What is a fortress?" He asked.

[crystalline-quill]

"Well, it's kind of the ruins of the people that used to live here? I don't know much about the history exactly, but I know they left a lot of loot behind," Grian said, more concerned with keeping watch than thinking about this words. "We're searching for nether wart, which is kind of like a small bulbous, bright red mushroom. And blaze rods! But those are pretty easy to spot."

"Mhm, sure," Pearl said, shooting a look at a Abolish that screamed 'do you know what he's on about?"

[abolish-veylocke]

He shrugged at Pearl, looking bemused. "Are fortresses dangerous?" He asked Grian. "I'm a decent fighter, but I'd rather know ahead of time."

[crystalline-quill]

"Pretty dangerous, so we gotta be careful, " Grian said, idly collecting any netherrack he could while still on the move. "We'll have to deal with wither skeletons, but they're taller than regular skeletons and so rigid that they can't crouch down, so as long as we put up block barriers above our heads they can't really do anything to us."

He made a considering noise. "Shields should also be useful. Blocking blaze fireballs avoids the whole 'getting set on fire' bit of going to a Fortress."

[abolish-veylocke]

"Oh, I have a couple shields." Abolish shrugged, handing one to Pearl and Grian each.

"What's a wither skeleton?" He asked curiously. "Does it have something to do with those black roses we've found in the forest?"

[crystalline-quill]

Grian paused. "You've found Wither Roses in the forest? Just casually lying around?"

"Yeah?" Pearl said, tilting her head in confusion. "Is that weird?"

"Very," Grian said, before turning fully to face the both of them. "Wither skeletons are bigger, darker skeletons that use swords instead of bows, but what makes them dangerous is that anything they touch starts to decay and die."

In his rambling he didn't notice the alarmed looks from his audience of two.

"If you get three wither skeleton skulls and arrange them in a special way, you can summon the Wither Boss," Grian continued, starting to walk towards the Fortress once more. "Anything the Wither Boss kills becomes the fertile ground for a WIther Rose, so for a place to be littered with those means either a lot of things died to the Wither or someone harvested a lot of Wither Roses and then just... left them there."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... Huh." Abolish sounded a bit bewildered. "They seemed to be growing there naturally, though I guess that explanation would make sense given Oakhurst's... history."

[crystalline-quill]

Grian tilted his head in a very birdlike manner. "What history?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Every two hundred years, all of the people in Oakhurst get wiped out." He explained. "Some people say the town's cursed... Either way, it wouldn't be too shocking if one of those massacres had something to do with it."

[crystalline-quill]

"Ah," Grian said, blinking. "Well, that would explain it. If no one knew about magic and someone unleashed a Wither, that would cause a massacre."

Grian quietly was wondering if that was true. He didn't have the time to see if this world had been created by the Watchers or not, so those massacres could have been invented history or real.

He shook his head, looking ahead instead.

"Well, lady and gentleman, we have arrived!"

It didn't look like much at first, just a corridor of nether brick breaking through a hill of netherrack. But then he stepped into the corridor and looked through, and the Fortress opened up before him, foreboding and dark over the lava sea.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish looked around the fortress quietly, eyes wide. "So... nether wart, and blaze rods, you said?" He asked, gesturing towards a blaze spawner. "Can't say I recognize any of this but... If anything here is a 'blaze', I'm guessing it's those."

[crystalline-quill]

"Right on!" Grian said, grinning with all his teeth. "Ready for a fight?"

He followed his words by placing down a crafting table and crafted himself a golden sword. With a laugh, he ran forwards towards the blaze, shield at the ready.

"Wait, is that my crafting table?" Pearl asked, looking at the object. "Come back here you-- You!"

She drew her own sword and sprinted after him.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish sighed, running after the two of them with his shield up. He didn't know quite how to fight these mobs, so he wanted to be careful.

[crystalline-quill]

With a screech, Grian baited the trio of blazes into bursting into flames.

"One- two- three!" he counted the fireballs as they impacted his shield. He could hear Pearl's yelp as she barely dodges the second blaze's projectiles. "If they're on fire they're about to shoot!"

He ducked out from his shield to swing at the monster, barely managing to crack the blaze's head because gold swords are terrible. Still, he raised his shield again and waited for the volley to begin again.

[abolish-veylocke]

"Why do they have to shoot fire..." Abolish said, sounding annoyed as he slashed one of the blaze's torso.

[crystalquillcreates]

"What did you think blazes would do?" laughed Grian, taking the opening Abolished had made to finally cut down the blaze.

Pearl managed to do quick work of the second one. "Oooh, shiny stick! Is that a blaze rod?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"It's still annoying." He sighed, finishing off the last one. "Is that a blaze rod?" He asked, looking over at it.

[crystalquillcreates]

"Yup! I'd say we need two, just to be safe, but blazes appear in the whole Fortress and we need Nether Wart too," Grian said, picking up the rod with the tips of his talons, to keep himself from getting burnt. "So we should go deeper and fight any blazes we see on the way."

He pointed dramatically with his sword.

"Onwards!"

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish sighed, but followed him forwards. "So... what do we actually need these for?" He asked, sheathing his sword as they walked.

[crystalquillcreates]

"Potions, mostly," Grian said, peeking around the corner of the Fortress hallway, finding mobs, and then making an overhead wither skeleton barrier. "Well, no. We don't *need* potions, we need an edge against everyone else in the Game. Just enough to force a truce and get everyone working against the Watchers instead of against each other."

"These 'Watchers'... How do you know they aren't watching us right now?" Pearl questioned, following closely behind Grian.

"I *know* they're watching," Grian said, eyes glinting a dangerous purple for a split second. "They just find this interesting enough that They don't plan on stopping me just yet."

[abolish-veylocke]

Open RP!

"Overly suspicious? How am I overly suspicious?!" Abolish fumes as he slams his pickaxe down on the stone in front of him.

"All I said was that Cleo might be a vampire, and I was literally right!" He ranted, clearly frustrated.

"It's not like I accused them of murder like Avid with Scott! I just pointed out that they joined Owen in killing the cows and didn't get the strength effect from the book!" He slowed his mining, rubbing at his now sore arms.

He tensed slightly as he heard footsteps behind him in the cave.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish glanced at Pearl before shrugging. "Yeah, okay." He said tiredly, stepping into the portal.

[crystalline-quill]

Grian climbed up the Nether portal and posted himself up as a sentinel as Abolish and Pearl came through.

He pattered on top of the portal, eyes darting in quick, staccato movements. However, he kept half an eye the two coming in.

"Wha- what is this?!?" Pearl said, turning all around wildly. She yelped as the water from the rain evaporated off her all at once, surrounding her in a cloud of steam.

Grian snickered. He was so used to the Nether he hadn't even paid attention on his own speed dry.

[abolish-veylocke]

"Grian, what is this place?" Abolish asked, looking around.

[crystalline-quill]

"The fiery sibling of the three dimensions in existance," Grian said. "Chock-full of lava, monsters, and most importantly to us right now, gold. We need some before the locals see us without golden armor and attack us on sight."

He leapt off the portal frame, hopping his way to a patch of nether gold.

"Better help me! We really don't want to fight any Piglins on top of the other things that live in this place!"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Three dimensions?" Abolish asked, raising his eyebrows as he followed Grian over to the gold.

[crystalline-quill]

"End, Overworld and Nether," Grian idly answered, too focused on prying gold nuggets out of netherrack with his talons. "But you can't make an End Portal, you have to find it, so let's not do that."

"...You know what? This might as well happen," Pearl said, placing down a crafting table to turn the golden nuggets into ingots. "One golden helmet coming right up!"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Why didn't we know about any of this?" Abolish asks quietly, rubbing his temples where he's beginning to get a headache.

[crystalline-quill]

"You did," Grian said, the lightheartedness dying in his voice. He continued digging, but a frown became stuck on his face. "I guess it's a good as time as any to tell you about the Watchers."

There was a short silence, broken only by the hits of the pickaxes and the dull roar of fire.

"Watchers are... beings that a lot of people call gods, even though the aren't really. They're powerful, and ancient, and constantly bored," he said, striking the rock a little harsher than necessary. "Players-- that's us-- die once nothing interests us anymore. So Watchers convinced themselves that by taking over worlds and manipulating Players they were doing us a favor, keeping us interested and alive."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... Well that's horrifying." Abolish admitted. "So... we're here to enntertain them, but have real lives putside of this?"

[crystalline-quill]

"Yes," Grian said, finally ripping out a chunk of gold, giving it to Pearl, who made an ingot. "All of you have friends, partners and families waiting for you outside, but you don't remember them because if you did, dying would simply mean returning to them. You wouldn't fear death and it wouldn't be fun for Them anymore."

"Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait," Pearl said, looking straight at Grian. "Do you know who is waiting for us out there? Who we are?"

Grian went quiet, looking at her with pained grief. "I came here to find five people. I didn't expect fourteen. But I do know you, Pearlie. You're my older sister."

He didn't say anything more, letting Pearl's eyes widen, letting her get used to the idea while he plucked the gold from her hands and crafted a golden helmet.

"Here," Grian said, putting the helmet back into her hands, before turning towards Abolish, ignoring her stammered questions. "Do you have enough for your own helmet, Abolish?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"I mean, it would use less if I make boots, but I have enough either way." He shrugged. "Is it like... more visible if I make a helmet?"

[crystalline-quill]

"Nah, helmets just break slower than boots. We're going to be walking a lot and gold isn't the strongest metal," Grian said, constructing his own helmet and plopping onto his own head.

While Abolish makes his own helmet, Grian breathes deeply and slowly unfurls his wings. Sure, he should give them more of a rest but he doesn't want to aimlessly wander around the Nether for Void knows how long.

"Stay here," Grian said, scanning the horizon. "I'll be right back."

With a powerful snap of his wings, he took off into the cloying air of the Nether. Flying in the chaotic rising air currents of the Nether takes skill, one Grian has but his wings resent.

He skimmed over the lava sea searching for any signs of a stronghold. He grit his teeth as the pain went from a complaint to a shout, but off in the distance: Nether brick.

With a whoop Grian banked sharply back towards Abolish and Pearl, grinning as he comes in for a landing.

[abolish-veylocke]

Well, that made sense. He glanced over at Pearl as they waited for Grian to come back, wincing when she still looked frozen with shock.

"What did you find?" He asked as Grian landed.

[crystalline-quill]

"Fortress! They have what we need," yelled Grian, landing with a stumble. "This way!"

He started walking in that direction, glancing at Pearl. She shook herself and started walking behind him, but looking at his back as if he was a pink elephant.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish followed behind them, looking skeptical. "What is a fortress?" He asked.

[crystalline-quill]

"Well, it's kind of the ruins of the people that used to live here? I don't know much about the history exactly, but I know they left a lot of loot behind," Grian said, more concerned with keeping watch than thinking about this words. "We're searching for nether wart, which is kind of like a small bulbous, bright red mushroom. And blaze rods! But those are pretty easy to spot."

"Mhm, sure," Pearl said, shooting a look at a Abolish that screamed 'do you know what he's on about?"

[abolish-veylocke]

He shrugged at Pearl, looking bemused. "Are fortresses dangerous?" He asked Grian. "I'm a decent fighter, but I'd rather know ahead of time."

[crystalline-quill]

"Pretty dangerous, so we gotta be careful, " Grian said, idly collecting any netherrack he could while still on the move. "We'll have to deal with wither skeletons, but they're taller than regular skeletons and so rigid that they can't crouch down, so as long as we put up block barriers above our heads they can't really do anything to us."

He made a considering noise. "Shields should also be useful. Blocking blaze fireballs avoids the whole 'getting set on fire' bit of going to a Fortress."

[abolish-veylocke]

"Oh, I have a couple shields." Abolish shrugged, handing one to Pearl and Grian each.

"What's a wither skeleton?" He asked curiously. "Does it have something to do with those black roses we've found in the forest?"

[crystalline-quill]

Grian paused. "You've found Wither Roses in the forest? Just casually lying around?"

"Yeah?" Pearl said, tilting her head in confusion. "Is that weird?"

"Very," Grian said, before turning fully to face the both of them. "Wither skeletons are bigger, darker skeletons that use swords instead of bows, but what makes them dangerous is that anything they touch starts to decay and die."

In his rambling he didn't notice the alarmed looks from his audience of two.

"If you get three wither skeleton skulls and arrange them in a special way, you can summon the Wither Boss," Grian continued, starting to walk towards the Fortress once more. "Anything the Wither Boss kills becomes the fertile ground for a WIther Rose, so for a place to be littered with those means either a lot of things died to the Wither or someone harvested a lot of Wither Roses and then just... left them there."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... Huh." Abolish sounded a bit bewildered. "They seemed to be growing there naturally, though I guess that explanation would make sense given Oakhurst's... history."

[crystalline-quill]

Grian tilted his head in a very birdlike manner. "What history?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Every two hundred years, all of the people in Oakhurst get wiped out." He explained. "Some people say the town's cursed... Either way, it wouldn't be too shocking if one of those massacres had something to do with it."

[crystalline-quill]

"Ah," Grian said, blinking. "Well, that would explain it. If no one knew about magic and someone unleashed a Wither, that would cause a massacre."

Grian quietly was wondering if that was true. He didn't have the time to see if this world had been created by the Watchers or not, so those massacres could have been invented history or real.

He shook his head, looking ahead instead.

"Well, lady and gentleman, we have arrived!"

It didn't look like much at first, just a corridor of nether brick breaking through a hill of netherrack. But then he stepped into the corridor and looked through, and the Fortress opened up before him, foreboding and dark over the lava sea.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish looked around the fortress quietly, eyes wide. "So... nether wart, and blaze rods, you said?" He asked, gesturing towards a blaze spawner. "Can't say I recognize any of this but... If anything here is a 'blaze', I'm guessing it's those."

[crystalline-quill]

"Right on!" Grian said, grinning with all his teeth. "Ready for a fight?"

He followed his words by placing down a crafting table and crafted himself a golden sword. With a laugh, he ran forwards towards the blaze, shield at the ready.

"Wait, is that my crafting table?" Pearl asked, looking at the object. "Come back here you-- You!"

She drew her own sword and sprinted after him.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish sighed, running after the two of them with his shield up. He didn't know quite how to fight these mobs, so he wanted to be careful.

[crystalline-quill]

With a screech, Grian baited the trio of blazes into bursting into flames.

"One- two- three!" he counted the fireballs as they impacted his shield. He could hear Pearl's yelp as she barely dodges the second blaze's projectiles. "If they're on fire they're about to shoot!"

He ducked out from his shield to swing at the monster, barely managing to crack the blaze's head because gold swords are terrible. Still, he raised his shield again and waited for the volley to begin again.

[abolish-veylocke]

"Why do they have to shoot fire..." Abolish said, sounding annoyed as he slashed one of the blaze's torso.

[crystalquillcreates]

"What did you think blazes would do?" laughed Grian, taking the opening Abolished had made to finally cut down the blaze.

Pearl managed to do quick work of the second one. "Oooh, shiny stick! Is that a blaze rod?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"It's still annoying." He sighed, finishing off the last one. "Is that a blaze rod?" He asked, looking over at it.

[crystalquillcreates]

"Yup! I'd say we need two, just to be safe, but blazes appear in the whole Fortress and we need Nether Wart too," Grian said, picking up the rod with the tips of his talons, to keep himself from getting burnt. "So we should go deeper and fight any blazes we see on the way."

He pointed dramatically with his sword.

"Onwards!"

[abolish-veylocke]

Open RP!

"Overly suspicious? How am I overly suspicious?!" Abolish fumes as he slams his pickaxe down on the stone in front of him.

"All I said was that Cleo might be a vampire, and I was literally right!" He ranted, clearly frustrated.

"It's not like I accused them of murder like Avid with Scott! I just pointed out that they joined Owen in killing the cows and didn't get the strength effect from the book!" He slowed his mining, rubbing at his now sore arms.

He tensed slightly as he heard footsteps behind him in the cave.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish glanced at Pearl before shrugging. "Yeah, okay." He said tiredly, stepping into the portal.

[crystalline-quill]

Grian climbed up the Nether portal and posted himself up as a sentinel as Abolish and Pearl came through.

He pattered on top of the portal, eyes darting in quick, staccato movements. However, he kept half an eye the two coming in.

"Wha- what is this?!?" Pearl said, turning all around wildly. She yelped as the water from the rain evaporated off her all at once, surrounding her in a cloud of steam.

Grian snickered. He was so used to the Nether he hadn't even paid attention on his own speed dry.

[abolish-veylocke]

"Grian, what is this place?" Abolish asked, looking around.

[crystalline-quill]

"The fiery sibling of the three dimensions in existance," Grian said. "Chock-full of lava, monsters, and most importantly to us right now, gold. We need some before the locals see us without golden armor and attack us on sight."

He leapt off the portal frame, hopping his way to a patch of nether gold.

"Better help me! We really don't want to fight any Piglins on top of the other things that live in this place!"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Three dimensions?" Abolish asked, raising his eyebrows as he followed Grian over to the gold.

[crystalline-quill]

"End, Overworld and Nether," Grian idly answered, too focused on prying gold nuggets out of netherrack with his talons. "But you can't make an End Portal, you have to find it, so let's not do that."

"...You know what? This might as well happen," Pearl said, placing down a crafting table to turn the golden nuggets into ingots. "One golden helmet coming right up!"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Why didn't we know about any of this?" Abolish asks quietly, rubbing his temples where he's beginning to get a headache.

[crystalline-quill]

"You did," Grian said, the lightheartedness dying in his voice. He continued digging, but a frown became stuck on his face. "I guess it's a good as time as any to tell you about the Watchers."

There was a short silence, broken only by the hits of the pickaxes and the dull roar of fire.

"Watchers are... beings that a lot of people call gods, even though the aren't really. They're powerful, and ancient, and constantly bored," he said, striking the rock a little harsher than necessary. "Players-- that's us-- die once nothing interests us anymore. So Watchers convinced themselves that by taking over worlds and manipulating Players they were doing us a favor, keeping us interested and alive."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... Well that's horrifying." Abolish admitted. "So... we're here to enntertain them, but have real lives putside of this?"

[crystalline-quill]

"Yes," Grian said, finally ripping out a chunk of gold, giving it to Pearl, who made an ingot. "All of you have friends, partners and families waiting for you outside, but you don't remember them because if you did, dying would simply mean returning to them. You wouldn't fear death and it wouldn't be fun for Them anymore."

"Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait," Pearl said, looking straight at Grian. "Do you know who is waiting for us out there? Who we are?"

Grian went quiet, looking at her with pained grief. "I came here to find five people. I didn't expect fourteen. But I do know you, Pearlie. You're my older sister."

He didn't say anything more, letting Pearl's eyes widen, letting her get used to the idea while he plucked the gold from her hands and crafted a golden helmet.

"Here," Grian said, putting the helmet back into her hands, before turning towards Abolish, ignoring her stammered questions. "Do you have enough for your own helmet, Abolish?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"I mean, it would use less if I make boots, but I have enough either way." He shrugged. "Is it like... more visible if I make a helmet?"

[crystalline-quill]

"Nah, helmets just break slower than boots. We're going to be walking a lot and gold isn't the strongest metal," Grian said, constructing his own helmet and plopping onto his own head.

While Abolish makes his own helmet, Grian breathes deeply and slowly unfurls his wings. Sure, he should give them more of a rest but he doesn't want to aimlessly wander around the Nether for Void knows how long.

"Stay here," Grian said, scanning the horizon. "I'll be right back."

With a powerful snap of his wings, he took off into the cloying air of the Nether. Flying in the chaotic rising air currents of the Nether takes skill, one Grian has but his wings resent.

He skimmed over the lava sea searching for any signs of a stronghold. He grit his teeth as the pain went from a complaint to a shout, but off in the distance: Nether brick.

With a whoop Grian banked sharply back towards Abolish and Pearl, grinning as he comes in for a landing.

[abolish-veylocke]

Well, that made sense. He glanced over at Pearl as they waited for Grian to come back, wincing when she still looked frozen with shock.

"What did you find?" He asked as Grian landed.

[crystalline-quill]

"Fortress! They have what we need," yelled Grian, landing with a stumble. "This way!"

He started walking in that direction, glancing at Pearl. She shook herself and started walking behind him, but looking at his back as if he was a pink elephant.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish followed behind them, looking skeptical. "What is a fortress?" He asked.

[crystalline-quill]

"Well, it's kind of the ruins of the people that used to live here? I don't know much about the history exactly, but I know they left a lot of loot behind," Grian said, more concerned with keeping watch than thinking about this words. "We're searching for nether wart, which is kind of like a small bulbous, bright red mushroom. And blaze rods! But those are pretty easy to spot."

"Mhm, sure," Pearl said, shooting a look at a Abolish that screamed 'do you know what he's on about?"

[abolish-veylocke]

He shrugged at Pearl, looking bemused. "Are fortresses dangerous?" He asked Grian. "I'm a decent fighter, but I'd rather know ahead of time."

[crystalline-quill]

"Pretty dangerous, so we gotta be careful, " Grian said, idly collecting any netherrack he could while still on the move. "We'll have to deal with wither skeletons, but they're taller than regular skeletons and so rigid that they can't crouch down, so as long as we put up block barriers above our heads they can't really do anything to us."

He made a considering noise. "Shields should also be useful. Blocking blaze fireballs avoids the whole 'getting set on fire' bit of going to a Fortress."

[abolish-veylocke]

"Oh, I have a couple shields." Abolish shrugged, handing one to Pearl and Grian each.

"What's a wither skeleton?" He asked curiously. "Does it have something to do with those black roses we've found in the forest?"

[crystalline-quill]

Grian paused. "You've found Wither Roses in the forest? Just casually lying around?"

"Yeah?" Pearl said, tilting her head in confusion. "Is that weird?"

"Very," Grian said, before turning fully to face the both of them. "Wither skeletons are bigger, darker skeletons that use swords instead of bows, but what makes them dangerous is that anything they touch starts to decay and die."

In his rambling he didn't notice the alarmed looks from his audience of two.

"If you get three wither skeleton skulls and arrange them in a special way, you can summon the Wither Boss," Grian continued, starting to walk towards the Fortress once more. "Anything the Wither Boss kills becomes the fertile ground for a WIther Rose, so for a place to be littered with those means either a lot of things died to the Wither or someone harvested a lot of Wither Roses and then just... left them there."

[abolish-veylocke]

"... Huh." Abolish sounded a bit bewildered. "They seemed to be growing there naturally, though I guess that explanation would make sense given Oakhurst's... history."

[crystalline-quill]

Grian tilted his head in a very birdlike manner. "What history?"

[abolish-veylocke]

"Every two hundred years, all of the people in Oakhurst get wiped out." He explained. "Some people say the town's cursed... Either way, it wouldn't be too shocking if one of those massacres had something to do with it."

[crystalline-quill]

"Ah," Grian said, blinking. "Well, that would explain it. If no one knew about magic and someone unleashed a Wither, that would cause a massacre."

Grian quietly was wondering if that was true. He didn't have the time to see if this world had been created by the Watchers or not, so those massacres could have been invented history or real.

He shook his head, looking ahead instead.

"Well, lady and gentleman, we have arrived!"

It didn't look like much at first, just a corridor of nether brick breaking through a hill of netherrack. But then he stepped into the corridor and looked through, and the Fortress opened up before him, foreboding and dark over the lava sea.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish looked around the fortress quietly, eyes wide. "So... nether wart, and blaze rods, you said?" He asked, gesturing towards a blaze spawner. "Can't say I recognize any of this but... If anything here is a 'blaze', I'm guessing it's those."

[crystalline-quill]

"Right on!" Grian said, grinning with all his teeth. "Ready for a fight?"

He followed his words by placing down a crafting table and crafted himself a golden sword. With a laugh, he ran forwards towards the blaze, shield at the ready.

"Wait, is that my crafting table?" Pearl asked, looking at the object. "Come back here you-- You!"

She drew her own sword and sprinted after him.

[abolish-veylocke]

Abolish sighed, running after the two of them with his shield up. He didn't know quite how to fight these mobs, so he wanted to be careful.

[crystalline-quill]

With a screech, Grian baited the trio of blazes into bursting into flames.

"One- two- three!" he counted the fireballs as they impacted his shield. He could hear Pearl's yelp as she barely dodges the second blaze's projectiles. "If they're on fire they're about to shoot!"

He ducked out from his shield to swing at the monster, barely managing to crack the blaze's head because gold swords are terrible. Still, he raised his shield again and waited for the volley to begin again.

[abolish-veylocke]

"Why do they have to shoot fire..." Abolish said, sounding annoyed as he slashed one of the blaze's torso.

[crystalquillcreates]

"What did you think blazes would do?" laughed Grian, taking the opening Abolished had made to finally cut down the blaze.

Pearl managed to do quick work of the second one. "Oooh, shiny stick! Is that a blaze rod?"

[pretty-hills-i-die-on]

Please please please can we stop calling unnecessary sequels and remakes by big companies “bad fanfic”??? Even the most poorly-written fics are somehow born from a love of the original text. A soulless cash grab made people who don’t give two shits about what they are actually creating is not “bad fanfic” and will never be.

[ecthelioffd]

its not fanfic if they're not even a fucking fan

[these-are-not-my-titties]

our own patron saint of one way trips

[slowspinningredemption]

something about the whole "fuck authority" outlook that amuses me is that people tend to fall into two incorrect camps. the first assumes that hating authority is something for edgy teens to do and you grow out of it when you reach the fabled "real world." the second assumes it's about sticking it to the establishment -- government, cops, etc.

but true authority haters know the secret third thing. and that's that authority is insidious and you have to fuck it everywhere you find it. when you know something is damn well wrong but the doctor tells you it's fine and you think well i'm no expert -- surprise! you have conformed to authority. when you see somebody acting a clown in public and everyone is uncomfortable but nobody says anything -- surprise! this too is a form of authority. when you see a consequence and think to yourself "it's fine, i just won't do [thing] and then i don't have to worry about it" you have altered your style of living because of -- surprise! authority.

when you tell yourself you can't be/do x or y because That's Not How It Works. when you refuse to believe someone's lived experience because apparently it shouldn't work like that. when you come up against something outside your understanding and ridicule it or assume it's a falsehood. guess what's behind all that! that's right. someone else's authority.

we realise this as teens because we're trapped 24/7 with teachers, parents, and guardians who have ultimate power over us and we recognise the inherent unfairness and injustice of many of their decisions. when we grow older and gain more authority ourselves many forget this fact and either think it's useless immature teenage rebellion or that the issues we must rebel against grow in proportion to our new responsibilities. we forget about our duty to root it out wherever we find it. and if you don't start small you'll never get the big shit. there's a reason people don't walk into the gym and start lifting 200lb on their first day.

anyway fuck authority. and before anyone comes at me talking about degrees and experts and "oh so we should just say fuck anyone with any advantage over us?" authority is not to be conflated with experience. experience advises and authority forces. one wants you curious and independent and the other wants you unquestioning and compliant. and that my friend is the difference.