laurawitchart

[laurawitchart]

The Original Minecrafters shorts pt5: Trading Hall and Ocean Monument.

Trading Hall

Chosen loves watching the locals, or villagers as they're actually called. He recreated their village and brought a few here to their base, and the recreation looks pretty accurate, well, except for the lack of flammable blocks. He enjoys watching them roam around free and mingle amongst themselves, he sometimes tries to talk to them and they offer trades like the players do. They're walled in to keep them safe from zombies and those iron golems sometimes spawn for extra protection. I wonder how the players keep their villagers? One of them did mention having some.

With that thought, Chosen jumps up in a burst of fire and flies to the players’ town.

Over at the players’ marketplace, Chosen tries to remember which of the many players was the one with the villagers. He constantly changes his stock but thankfully he is one of the ones who can talk so he should be able to identify him by his voice, which he soon hears.

“Hey, Chosen, whatsup?” The player greets.

“Hey.” Chosen greets back. “You're the player with villagers right?”

“Ah so you heard?” The player says, a hint of slyness in his crunchy voice. “You looking for some rare goods?”

“Well now that you mention it I do need to stock up on redstone for Dark,” Chosen suddenly remembers, “but I was mostly curious about the villagers themselves.”

“Hmmm, I guess I can show you.” The player says, picking up his loot from his market tent so they don't get stolen. “Follow me.”

As the two walk the player strikes up a conversation with Chosen.

“Do you have villagers at your base?” He asks.

“Yeah, I recreated their village for them and keep them safe from the mobs.” Chosen answers.

“So you have villagers but don't keep them in a trading hall? That's weird.” He says.

“Trading hall? What's that, like keeping a bunch of villagers that trade with you inside one big house or something?” Chosen questions.

“Kinda like that but a lot more confined for our convenience.” The player says walking through the doorway to a large wooden building.

“C-confined-?” Chosen stammers as he now reluctantly follows the player.

What Chosen sees on the other side of the door makes him almost wish he never asked to see the villagers. Rows upon rows of 1-by-2 prison cells filled to the brim with imprisoned villagers, forced to do business with players with no sun, no food, and no freedom. Off to the side Chosen can hear the grunts of pain from a villager as a player attacks them for not doing their job to the player’s liking.

“Pretty cool right?” The player that led Chosen into this Hellhole nonchalantly asks. “Took forever to get these bastards to cooperate but it was all worth it.”

“How could you do this..?” Chosen softly and shakily asks.

“What? Make an amazing trading hall? They're just NPCs. It's not like they have feelings or get hungry or anything. This is what they're designed to do.”

…It's just a stickfigure, it doesn't have feelings… Why would it get hungry, it's just a drawing?… Do your job, you useless stick! Just do what you're made to do! …

“Chosen?” The player asks as the stickfigure stares off into space.

Chosen turns his head to meet the player, eyes burning bright red.

It all happened so fast.

One second Chosen was listening to the player talk about how villagers have no feelings, the next he's surrounded by his golden fire engulfing what used to be the trading hall and the item drops of several different players. He listens to the panicked ‘hmm’s of the villagers he freed as they flee the fire.

Strangely, Chosen feels nothing. No satisfaction in killing the villagers’ wardens and freeing them, no remorse for killing several allies, nothing but the fire inside him dying down.

Chosen takes off back to his base, ready to forget about all this.

Chosen lands at his base, making a pitstop at his mini village to appreciate his free villagers and give them some extra food. He's now wishing he had grabbed the ones he freed but doesn't have the energy to expand the village to make room for them right now anyway, or to constantly run them all back and forth in the first place.

Chosen walks into his bedroom, he crashes on his bed and blacks out.

When Chosen woke up he hears Dark looking for food in the kitchen. He gets up and his stomach reminds him that he's hungry too.

“You didn't make dinner?” Dark asks before looking up at his brother. “You ok, Cho?”

“I committed arson and killed a bunch of players and I don't know how I feel about it.” Chosen says, ambling over to the dining table and taking a seat.

“You committed arson earlier? Damn.” Dark says, giving Chosen a playful punch and sitting down in the other seat. “Was there a reason or just needed to get it out of you?”

“Players imprison their villagers, locking them away without anything except for when they want to trade with them! They attack them for the littlest things and don't think they have emotions or feelings or anything!” Chosen sputters out, trying to not sink into old memories but failing. He hides his face in his arms on the table and cries. “I just- Something came over me… I couldn't- I couldn't watch them suffer…”

Dark doesn't know how to respond. Chosen hasn't had a reaction to anything in this game like this. Sure he's cried before but he's normally back to being happy after a few hours. Dark thinks for a moment for something that could help cheer Chosen up.

A few minutes later Ted comes walking up to Chosen with a red rug draped over his head and a plate of cookies on his back.

Chosen chuckles at the goofy sight and takes a cookie. “Thanks, Ted.” He reaches for another one but Ted walks away towards the open door. “Hey.” Chosen follows the spider outside around the house and finds Dark building some redstone contraption in the small bit of free space between the base and the forest.

The spider walks up to his master, who gives him head rubs. “Good boy.” Dark says to his pet before addressing Chosen. “Come here. Sit.” He says gesturing to the red and black checkered blanket draped over the grass. Chosen obliges and Dark sits next to him. Ted wedges his way in-between the brothers. Dark flicks a lever and a redstone line lights up, a second later a firework shoots out of the ground and explodes in the air with a burst of red and orange colors, then another with yellow and blue, and another with red black and white.

“Feel better now?” Dark asks.

“Yeah,” Chosen answers, “thank you.”

Ocean Monument

“Admit it, Chosen, we're lost!” Dark shouts over the rushing wind to his brother as they fly over the vast and seemingly endless ocean below.

“No we're not!” Chosen shouts back, practically plastering his map onto his face trying to read it.

“Chosen, we've been flying for hours and haven't seen so much as an island, let alone our base!” Dark protests. “Give me that map!!” He shouts, reaching for the map with still burning hands.

“Dude, you're gonna burn it!” Chosen argues. Dark tries to grab it anyway. They wrestle mid air and the two quickly fly off course, crashing into the ocean.

“Damnit, Chosen, now look at what you've done!” Dark curses.

“ME!?! You crashed into me! Why does it matter if you're the one reading the map!?” Chosen argues back.

“Because you clearly can't read it!” Dark snaps, snatching the map from Chosen. “What the fuck, there's no ocean anywhere on this! How the fuck did you lead us out into the middle of the fucking ocean!!!”

“It's not my fault there's no compass on that map.”

“GAAAAAAAAA!!!!” Dark explodes, sending water everywhere and Chosen skipping like a stone across the water for a few dozen blocks. “COULD THIS GET ANY WORSE!!!”

The sticks hear thunder roll as the sky darkens and rain starts falling. As amazing as Minecraft is it does have its faults, the worst of them by far being how the slightest bit of rain can completely stop the two from using their fire, making it impossible to fly.

“Oh fuck off, Chosen!” Dark curses.

“What!?” Chosen asks, making his way back closer to Dark.

“Don't ‘what’ me! You can control the weather! You did this!” Dark accuses.

“You know how weird the weather is in this game, I can't control it like this!” Chosen argues.

Dark looks like he's about to explode again but instead lunges at Chosen, who easily dodged the initial attack but gets pulled underwater by his leg anyway.

The two wrestle underwater and almost drown each other. They quickly tire and make a small platform to rest on. They lay on their backs for a while and catch their breaths.

Chosen offers Dark some chicken and looks up at the rain. “It doesn't seem to be letting up any time soon. I think we might as well try swimming to land.” Dark lets out an exasperated groan.

“Hey, swimming isn't so bad.” Chosen tries to reassure.

“Easy to say when you can swim like a torpedo.” Dark protests.

“Well I might have enough wood for a boat but that would still take some time.” Chosen suggests, rummaging through his inventory. Dark dramatically groans again and flops backwards, hitting his head against the cobblestone platform.

Several days cycles passed, the ocean just keeps going on and the rain won't stop.

“Are we there yet?” Dark groans in the back seat of the boat.

“No. Still no land.” Chosen answers. “You want some food?”

“Yeah.”

Chosen takes a break from rowing to eat with Dark, the two enjoy their food in silence. Something attacks their boat, throwing the brothers off of it right as they try to have a conversation. Once their eyes adjust they can see an enormous turquoise structure shimmering in the water with pale blue lamp blocks speckled around the walls. There's also a dozen or so giant green pufferfish with lasers staring right at the sticks. Before they can even think of fighting, a hallucination of a grey monster pufferfish takes over their vision for a moment. The two scramble to get back on their boat, just in time to escape the dozens of lasers aimed at them.

“Did you see that?!” Chosen exclaims.

“Yeah! What the hell was that!” Dark screeches, trying not to sound scared as he steadies his breathing “Damn. There's gotta be like 20 of those things and even more in that temple.” He assess.

“Those blocks are beautiful.” Chosen adds starry-eyed. One of the pufferfish monsters shoots a laser at Chosen, who quickly fires one right back.

“There's approximately a hundred laser fish down there that can cause hallucinations and you're focused on how pretty the structure is?” Dark scolds. “Well, you wanna try to conquer this thing?” He asks, eager to finally kill something. Chosen nods and readies his lasers.

The two dive down and begin fighting.

They don't even get through the entryway before they run out of breath. Chosen tries to swim up but Dark grabs his leg and hands him a blue potion. Dark drinks an identical potion and continues their crusade. Chosen trusting his brother drinks his and immediately he can breathe again. He quickly swims forward to catch up to Dark, who's staring at the entrance of a labyrinth.

“I'll go right, you go left.” Dark half suggests as he starts swimming to the right.

Chosen makes his way through the labyrinth, killing any monsters that attack him while trying to admire the structure. He finally gives in and starts mining it away, wall by wall. His potion eventually runs out but him removing parts of the ceiling were creating air pockets, it slowed things down having to retreat every minute but I'll be worth it once he brings part of this thing home with him. Although Dark is probably waiting for me on the boat so I should wrap this up.

Chosen swam back up to the surface after hollowing out the structure. The rain has finally stopped.

“There you are. I was starting to think you died or something.” Dark teases.

“Nah just mining those blocks to take them home. Better that trying to pick up the whole thing.” Chosen says climbing into the boat. He notices dark holding something hanging off into the water. “Uh, what's that?”

“Dinner!” Dark proudly announces, holding up three grey pufferfish monsters by their tails, each easily twice the size of the green ones.

“Okay I guess we're having sushi tonight.” Chosen says, lighting his fire and begining to head home.

“Yeah if we ever get home.” Dark jokes, following his brother.

[laurawitchart]

The Original Minecrafters shorts pt4: Pets and Redecorating.

Pets

Chosen decided to take a stroll through the meadows and forests sounding the base, not to look for anything in particular, just enjoying the serenity of Minecraft. Day quickly turned into night and the sounds of sheep and pigs turned into zombies and skeletons, and something else. A growl? Before Chosen could investigate a skeleton jumps out of the forest, trying to attack something small. It dies not a moment later and reveals its attacker to be a little wolf, who looks around then stares up at Chosen.

“Hey, little guy.” Chosen says. “You want some food?” He offers the wolf some steak. He looks like he wants it but doesn't take it. Chosen looks at the bones the skeleton dropped. Well he was attacking it, maybe he likes bones? He offers the bones to the wolf and immediately hearts fly around his head as he puts on adorable puppy eyes. Chosen's heart melts as he grabs the dog for a hug. The dog responds by booping Chosen's face with his square nose and wagging his tail. He puts the dog down and he starts running circles around his new owner.

“Come on, buddy.” Chosen calls as he starts jogging back home with his new pet in tow.

“Hey, Dark, I got a new dog!” Chosen announces as soon as he opens the door.

Dark stops eating his steak to examine the dog from his seat. “That's a dog?” He finally asks.

“Yes!” Chosen proclaims.

Dark's pet, Ted, comes out to see what all the commotion is. Chosen's dog immediately goes into a bow-like stance, his front legs flat on the floor with his wagging butt in the air. Ted is startled by the sudden movement but plays along and raises his front legs, waving and tapping them around. The dog jumps up and runs around the spider and the two start playfully chasing each other.

“Aww they like each other.” Chosen says, starry-eyed.

“That is pretty cute.” Dark says with a chuckle. “You got a name for him?”

Chosen thinks long and hard but ultimately comes back with a no.

“Welp, let me know when you think of one.” Dark says going back to his steak.

Later, Chosen and his dog are happily playing outside. He taught the dog some tricks, like fetch and stay. He even took the dog flying for a bit, though he didn't really like that. Everything was perfect until the dog stumbled on Dark's Nether portal. Curious, the dog jumped in.

After a full day of searching for his dog, Chosen finally decides to check the Nether. He quickly finds the stick he was playing with and knows for sure he's here. Shortly after beginning his search, Chosen hears whimpering. He immediately flies in the direction of the sound and finds his beloved dog on fire. Chosen quickly tries to place water for him but it just evaporates. He tries to grab the dog and take him home but he falls over dead before Chosen can even try.

Chosen stares at the puff of smoke that was once his pet, tears streaming down his face. He collapses into himself on the floor and sobs. Chosen cries for what feels like forever before his brother shows up and takes him home.

“It's alright, Cho, we can find another dog.” Dark tries to reassure.

“I didn't even get to name him…” Chosen says through sniffles.

Dark sits with Chosen on his bed, trying his best to comfort his brother. Ted comes over and mourns with them.

“Hey, at least we still got you, right, Ted.” Dark says, rubbing the spider's flat head.

“Well yeah, we don't exactly take him outside. It's a little hard for something to happen to him when nothing happens here.” Chosen says, still somewhat crying.

“Well he did survive the house fire so there's that.” Dark says. “And I would love to take him out more but he looks just like the other spiders.”

Chosen gets an idea, he remembers finding an item called a name tag a while back. He grabs it from his chests and writes Ted's name on it using his anvil as a table.

“There we go.” Chosen says, showing off the pixely ‘Ted’ above the pet spider, who does a little happy spin and climbs up Chosen for a hug.

“Well isn't that adorable.” Dark says. “I'll leave you two alone.” He jokes.

Ted rubs up against Chosen, his way of asking to play. Chosen creates a faint laser for him to chase around the room, so faint and weak that Chosen can still see through it. The two spend the rest of the day enjoying each other's company.

Redecorating

New flowers. Carpets. Colored glass and terracotta. Yeah, it's time to redecorate this place.

The red tones of bricks did add a slight pop of color to the otherwise grey base but Chosen was getting sick of the same colors, and right on que he finds more colored blocks that won't burn.

Chosen looks at the statue of him and Dark. The ugly netherack texture makes his eyes burn, or he has the desire to destroy it, either way it needs to be replaced. Chosen tears down Dark's part of the statue and rebuilds it with red terracotta. Much better.

Chosen flies around the base to see what else needs to be upgraded. The barn looks like it needs some sprucing up. He replaces the walls with regular terracotta and adds some of the new flowers around. Sunflowers especially fit the farm vibe in this corner of the base. He also adds some grass and haystacks around the fields.

“Alright, what next?” Chosen mumbles to himself as he hyperfixates on decorating everything.

Dark came back from the Nether, tired as he usually is after wrecking havoc, hoping to take a nice nap. He immediately got whiplash from the wave of color painted on their base. Flowers and leaves draped on and around every building, most of which have had their walls replaced with terracotta of some color. Various decorative pieces are scattered around the sides of the roads. Even the beacon is colorful, with green rugs draped over parts of it and flowers all around the base and Chosen somehow turned the light beam red.

Speaking of Chosen, why does he look like he wants to add more? Dark thinks as he watches his brother hover above. “Uh, Cho, what's all this?” He calls out.

“Ah, Dark, you're back. What do you think?” Chosen eagerly asks.

“It's…a lot.”

“Have you seen the statue yet? You look so much better now that you're not made of netherack.” Chosen states, gesturing to the statue.

“Uh, I guess. What's wrong with netherack?”

“It's ugly. I don't know how you can look at it for so long.” Chosen answers.

“It's just a block.”

“Yeah, an ugly block.”

Dark doesn't have the energy to argue over this. “Whatever, I'm gonna go to bed. Please don't overdo it with the decorations.”

“Yeah yeah I won't.” Chosen says dismissively.

Chosen in fact did not keep his promises and most of what he did after talking to Dark was torn down. But the base does look nicer now.

[laurawitchart]

More butterfly sticks, now with faces.

For Mitsi's design I took inspiration from rosy maple moths because they're adorable. Also kinda wishing I put some notches and bites in Chosen's wings from the previous piece but oh well.

[laurawitchart]

Butterfly Chosen just because.

Look at the little guy enjoying his freedom.

Mostly inspired by the Codebreakers au where Dark draws Chosen as a butterfly.

[laurawitchart]

The Original Minecrafters shorts pt3: Redstone and Herobrine.

Real quick, I've started working on making Chosen and Dark's base in Minecraft, mostly to give myself a better idea of their land but also so that I can cheat a little with the art later. Here's the progress so far.

Anyway on to the stories.

Redstone

As Chosen flew through the skies he couldn't help but admire his own work. Their base looks incredible, well organized and expanded, paths stretching throughout connecting everything, from the farms to the barn to the statue of Chosen and Dark with their house in the center. Flora and makeshift benches line the sides of the road with lamps speckled throughout. Wait, why do the lamps look different? Did Dark upgrade them?

Chosen landed at the house. When he walked through the door he felt something at his feet, the block immediately popped and turned into string.

Since when can you place string? Chosen though to himself.

Not a second later the floor beneath him gave way and Chosen plummeted into the lava bath below.

“GAAHH” Chosen yelped as he pushed his head through the lava to breathe again. The lava didn't really burn but it was still annoying to trudge through.

When he looked up Chosen could see his mischievous little brother watching him through the entryway trap. “DARK!!!” Chosen yelled, flying up the shaft in a burst of fire. “What is this!?” He demands.

Dark laughs. It's not often that Dark laughs, and of course Chosen is happy that he's happy, but dear, Creation, his laugh is terrifying. “Just playing around with those new redstone items you showed me the other day.”

Oh, right, I guess I did give him the idea to do this, didn't I. There were some new pages in the crafting guide book that all had to do with redstone, something Chosen knew Dark was passionate about. His face lit up in a way Cho’s never seen before as he flipped through the pages, you could almost see the creative ideas forming in his head.

“Well as long as you're having fun, but maybe save the traps for the monsters.” Chosen says. “By the way, are those new lamps out there your handywork?”

“Why yes,” Dark stated proudly, “they have daylight sensors that automatically turn the lamps on when the sun goes down.”

“Wow, that's really cool.” Chosen said.

“Yep, and that's not all I have in mind.” Dark proclaims as he pulls out several pieces of stitched together paper, neatly folded in his inventory, each containing schematics for a redstone contraption that Chosen isn't smart enough to understand.

“Sounds like you'll be busy for a while.” Chosen says, walking over to the chest room. “Just try not to get anyone hurt, alright.” As if scripted, the second Chosen says that he steps on another piece of string. He manages one quick glare towards Dark before falling down into another lava bath.

Herobrine

“You have taken it too far this time.” A disembodied voice rings into Dark's head. He whips around to attack it but finds nothing. He looks around the cave but finds nothing but the bloodied enderman corpses he made. “I have tolerated the presence of you roundlings long enough, forced myself to stand by, letting my strength build as you slaughter my creatures for sport. No more. This ends right now. Get OUT OF MY GAME!”

Dark continues to frantically find the source of the voice, throwing fire willy-nilly to light up the tunnels but once again finding nothing but his trail of monster corpses, rotting in puddles of their own blood.

“Show yourself, COWARD!!!” He screeches. Dark listens to his own voice echo throughout the caverns for a bit before the voice laughs at him menacingly.

“Coward? I'm the coward? Says the creature who hides away, ashamed by what he is in his code, taking your anger out on the innocent rather than facing it.”

Dark continues to hurl fire everywhere until the entire cave looks like the bowels of Hell.

“I suppose it's a lot easier to seem brave when you can hide behind powers like yours. What would you be without them? What would you do if you couldn't kill someone in a single punch? Would you still not fear consequence? Or death? Or worse?!”

Dark lets out an explosion of fire accompanied by his war cry. “WHO ARE YOU!?! SHOW YOURSELF!!!”

A clawed hand grabs Dark's arm. He goes to attack it and finds the now flaming white-eyed enderman corpses up and reaching out for him. Looking back into the tunnels he sees a bunch of white eyes attached to his other kills, all shambling towards him on fire. Dark tries to kill them again but they just keep getting back up. He starts hallucinating, seeing a white-eyed player flicker in and out of his vision as he fights. He suddenly feels weak, his powers and muscles disobey him and the mob corpses pin him down.

The player hallucination stands in front of Dark. It bends down to meet his eyes and says “I am Herobrine. And you are mine.”

The figure disappears and the chaos immediately stops. The fire dies down and the mob corpses go back to exactly how they were. Dark’s body gets up and walks out of the cave without being told to. He tries telling it to stop, to change direction, anything, but it won't obey. He screams, a mix of rage and fear, and the voice comes back.

“Don't waste your breath.” It says, the voice now mixed with Dark's and far more real than it used to be. “I am in control now and there's nothing you can do about it.”

Back at the sticks' base, Chosen lounges at home listening to a music disk. ‘Dark’ comes home and walks right up to Chosen with a strange look on his face.

“We're leaving. Now.” ‘Dark’ says, grabbing Chosen.

“What!? Why? Is something going on? Dark?” Chosen asks, baffled by his brother's sudden change in behavior.

‘Dark’ doesn't answer and just keeps walking, dragging Chosen behind him, unable to release himself from his grip. Dark usually is a bit stronger than Chosen but not this strong.

“Open a portal and let's leave.” ‘Dark’ demands, throwing Chosen in front of him.

“What, no! Why do we need to leave? What's going on? What's gotten into you?”

‘Dark’ regrabs Chosen's wrist and nearly breaks it. “Make a portal now!” He demands again.

Chosen can now see ‘Dark’s’ eyes clearly, pure white and rectangular. That's not Dark. “Ok! Ok! I'll do it.” He says, forming a white orb in his hand. Chosen turns around and it seems like he's going to open a portal but quickly snaps around and lands a clean punch on his ‘brother’ that sends him flying backwards. Chosen blasts forward to where the imposter landed and menacingly hovers over him. “Who are you and what have you done to Dark!?” ‘Dark’ levitates well above Chosen, raises his arms and creates a massive energy ball. Chosen shoots a laser and blows it up before he can throw it and destroy the base. Alright whoever this is clearly doesn't fully understand Dark's powers. Amateur. The explosion sends ‘Dark’ crashing back down to the ground. Before he can eat dirt Chosen throws a hard punch, bathed in golden light, that sends a shockwave through Dark and launches him forward, and the creature in his body even farther. The two tumble and roll across the stone paths as Chosen follows. The creature, now revealed to be a white-eyed player, quickly gets up and teleports away once it realizes it lost its vessel, leaving Chosen very confused.

“Dark, are you alive?” Chosen asks his unconscious brother, who gives a faint harsh groan. Chosen picks him up and brings him back inside the house.

“So are you going to tell me how exactly The Great and Powerful Dark Lord managed to get possessed.” Chosen slyly asks as he applies a healing potion to where Dark got super-punched.

“Shut the fuck up. I don't wanna hear it after the day I just had.”

“Oh don't be like that, you're fine now” Chosen reassures. Dark just grumbles in response. “Get some rest, Dark.” He says, putting another health potion on Dark's nightstand and blocking up the windows, leaving him alone in darkness.

[laurawitchart]

The Original Minecrafters shorts pt2: Cooking Catastrophe and The Wither.

Cooking Catastrophe

Chosen was very excited to share his perfected recipes with his brother later, who should be home soon. He works fast to make sure it'd be ready when Dark gets home but as he watches the clock tick by he realizes that wasn't happening. Chosen figured his fire powers would cook the meat faster, but he forgot to account for something; his house was made of wood.

It wasn't long before he noticed the burning hole in the wall. He tried to pat out the flames but there was too much. With his panic growing by the second he tries to ice over the embers but accidentally creates more fire, the curse of having two powers on the same output. He tries using water buckets and bottles but it doesn't help enough. Soon enough Chosen is surrounded by the burning remains of his home.

Dark emerges from his mob farm to find Chosen defeated in what's left of their house. The cobblestone roof and floor as well as their furniture is all that remains, fire and ice and water scattered around the floor where the walls used to be.

“You know, I always thought I'd be the one to burn down this house.” Dark says. “What did you even do?”

“I was trying to cook us dinner.” Chosen says distraught. “I wanted it to be done before you got home but the meat just wasn't cooking fast enough.”

Dark kneels down to Chosen and puts his hand on his shoulder. “Eh, I was getting tired of that old house anyway. We deserve something bigger and better.” His words aren't doing anything to cheer his brother up. “Maybe we should take a break from this game. Maybe you can think of some new house designs. You definitely need some time away if you're so upset about losing a house.”

“This wasn't just a house. This was the first real thing I built, my first creation. This place kept us safe and secure over the years. This was our home.” Chosen takes a second to calm down. “I suppose it was due for an upgrade…” He says, finally getting up and heading to the chest room.

“You already have plans for a remodel?” Dark asks.

“I've been thinking of ways to upgrade our base for a while actually.” Chosen answers, grabbing some stone blocks and heading back over to Dark. “Thanks for helping me cheer up.” He says, hugging his brother.

“Yep. Any time.” Dark says, returning the hug with some pats. He picks up his bed and heads away from the base to nap in peace while Chosen builds.

Dark is woken up by a zombie attacking him in the woods. He quickly kills it and heads over to the base, which he doesn't even recognize anymore. The new house is a lot bigger than the old one and now made of bricks with stone variants. The animals now have a brick barn and the crop fields have been greatly extended. Even Dark's mob farm has been spruced up. The only thing that remains untouched is the statue of the brothers. Leaves and vines decorating the buildings with cobblestone roads lined with light posts and custom bench blocks and flowers.

Chosen comes out of the house and happily shows Dark around the new base, saving the house for last.

“So, what do you think?” Chosen eagerly asks, finally getting to the house.

“I was not expecting all this in just a day.” Dark answers.

Chosen's kitchen is now twice as big and so is the dining room. There's seating at each large window and the bedroom is now big enough for the two to properly decorate their own side. Their chest room is almost twice as big as the old one and much more efficiently designed, easily capable of holding several years worth of resources.

Chosen smacks his forehead. “I still haven't made dinner for us. You're probably starving by now.”

“Eh, I can eat. Try not to burn down the house this time.” Dark teases.

The Wither

“Hey, Cho.” One of the players called out while Chosen walked through the marketplace. Apparently some players can talk, albeit very crackly and just barely understandable.

“Hey.” Chosen says to the player. “Found anything new lately?”

“No. I don't think there'll be another update for a while.” The player says. “But I still got plenty of diamonds for you if you still have blaze rods.”

Dark has been practically gatekeeping the Nether lately so getting resources from there is hard for players, well harder than it should be, so Chosen is the only one they can trade with to get anything from there.

“How much will a stack get me?” Chosen asks.

“How about 8 diamonds?” The player barters.

“Sure.” Chosen says. “By the way, I found a bunch of these in Dark's junk chest. I can't find a crafting recipe for it. Is it just decoration?” He asks, showing the player a black skeleton head.

“That's a wither skull, you use it to summon the Wither and get a Nether Star. You said you have a bunch of those? Dude, you can make so many beacons! I'm sure the Wither won't be a problem for you guys with all your cool powers.” The player excitedly explains. “You can get a lot more diamonds trading those. How about 32 for 3 skulls?”

“Damn they're that valuable!?” Chosen says pulling 3 skulls out of the partial stack. “How do you summon a Wither with these?”

Back at the sticks’ base, Chosen rummages through Dark's chests for soul sand.

“What are you doing in my chests?” Dark asks as Chosen finds what he needs.

“You wanna fight something?” Chosen asks, already running outside.

“YES!” Dark exclaims and follows his brother.

Chosen goes a decent distance from the base to start building the boss. As he puts the last head on the soul sand structure he pulls out his sword and lights it up. Dark readies an energy ball without any questions. Immediately the structure turns into a three-headed skeletal enemy, flashing white and blue. Dark is all too eager to kill something and throws his energy ball at it followed by more explosive fire, completely ignoring the charging health bar at the top of their vision.

Once the bar fills up the boss explodes, sending the brothers flying backwards and leaving a decent crater in the ground. It hisses and launches exploding heads at the two. Their enhanced resistance usually keeps their health high without much effort but this thing is much stronger then Chosen anticipated. Damn I wish I made us some armor first.

Dark doesn't care about damage. He rapidly hurls fireballs at the thing and keeps its attention while Chosen attacks it with his flaming sword.

The boss spins a bit, pondering who to attack first, then flies up. The two sticks follow it. Chosen switches to using lasers, holding the boss’s aggro while Dark charges a large energy ball.

The ball quickly finishes off the Wither and it drops a purple star. The two fly back to the destroyed ground to pick it up.

“Was that it?” Dark asks. “I thought this would be a challenge.” He says smugly, ignoring the 8 hearts he's missing. “Where are you going?” He asks as Chosen runs inside with the star.

After some troubleshooting, Chosen turns the star into a beacon. Using the thousands of gold accumulated from Dark's piglin rampages, he goes to a blank spot in the center road, recreates the pyramid in the player base and tops it with the beacon.

“Pretty cool right?” Chosen asks atop the golden pyramid.

“What does it even do?” Dark asks.

Chosen opens the block's menu and is met with five status effects to choose from. Dark flies up to get a closer look.

They all seem pretty useless to them but decided on resistance. Chosen feeds it a gold ingot and it lights up.

Chosen can tell Dark isn't all that impressed. He pulls out the rest of the wither skulls and asks “You wanna fight that thing again?” Dark's face beams before eagerly flying off the pyramid and back to the battlefield with Chosen in tow.

[laurawitchart]

The Original Minecrafters shorts pt1: Potions and Village.

Potions

After an exciting day of killing everything that moves in the Nether, Dark came home to rest, this time with a heap of some new item.

“Whatcha got there?” Chosen asks, flipping through new recipes in the crafting guide book.

“A ton of this new stuff this new monster drops. There's this new structure in the Nether with spawners for these flaming metal things, as well as a black skeleton that's immune to fire. Idk what to do with it but it's mine.” Dark explained. As he walked off a couple of the orange rods he was carrying falls out of the pile.

Chosen picks up the rods and sees if there's anything in the crafting guide, and sure enough there are.

“Blaze powder and a brewing stand?” Chosen mumbles to himself as he crafts. He takes the brewing stand to Dark, thinking he might have a use for it with the hundreds of rods he's collected. “Hey, Dark, those rods of yours made this thing.” He sets it down for the two to investigate.

They open the block's menu and match items to the obvious silhouettes. Now they just need to figure out what goes in the top slot. The brothers begin cramming just about everything in the house into the stand until something finally works; netherwart.

“What even is that?” Chosen asks.

“Something from that new structure I must have accidentally picked up. I destroyed a lot of it.” Dark answers.

With a bubbling sound the brew is done and the water bottles are now awkward potions. Dark grabs a bottle, investigates it, then chugs it.

“Dude, don't just drink that!”

“Bleh, this tastes awful.” Dark snarls, tossing the rest of the potion behind him.

After making sure Dark was okay, Chosen goes back to shoving everything into the stand until something works; sugar.

The result is two potions of swiftness. Dark takes one and once again chugs it. This time however he immediately feels jittery and overwhelmed with energy. In a blur he dashes outside, breaking the door off its hinges, attempting to satiate this sudden burst of energy.

While Dark has zoomies outside, Chosen continues to experiment with the last bottle. The strangest and most specific item works on the stand; a fermented spider eye, one of the new crafts Chosen happened to be playing around with because it was in the guide book.

Dark comes rushing back in, still on a sugar high. “WHOOO THAT SHIT FEELS GOOD!!!” He announces.

Chosen chuckles and shows Dark the final result of their experimentation; a potion of slowness.

“Ooooo, there's negative effects too.” Dark marvels, no doubt already thinking of a thousand ways to use (and abuse) these potions. “How'd you make that?”

“A fermented spider eye of all things.” Chosen answers. “Which is a regular eye, sugar, and a brown mushroom.”

Dark walks back to the brewing stand and continues playing with the new toy, while Chosen searches the chests for anything that might be an ingredient.

Village

As Chosen flew through the air he finally was begging to find some land that was untouched by his and Dark's initial destruction. As he was admiring the landscape he stumbled on a little town. Oak and cobble houses tied together with gravel roads, animal pens light posts and farm plots spotted around, and these strange new creatures he had never seen before.

Chosen lands in the structure and begins exploring. The creatures; brown, green eyed, big nosed, and each draped in different clothing; seem to not pay him any mind. Strange little meowing things scurry under Chosen's feet as he walks through the little village.

The evening sun begins to set and the creatures begin to huddle near the well in the center of the village and soon after they disperse just as silently as they gathered. Weird. Chosen thought.

Monsters were beginning to spawn and just as Chosen was about to find them he hears something else killing the zombies and skeletons. Looking around he finds a mossy golem made of iron just ripping through the monsters like it's nothing.

Chosen walks over to the golem and inspects it. “Well aren't you a handy guy. We could honestly use some mob control over at our base.” He muses, giving it a pat on the back. It did not like that.

“AAAA I'M SORRY!!!” Chosen yells as the golem sends him flying straight up into the air, taking about half of his health. Chosen steadies himself and flies back home.

“Ok note to self; don't even touch a golem.”

[laurawitchart]

I'm gonna take a sorta break with my OGMC au. I'll still work on it, mostly by adding short stories to fill in the time skips in-between chapters and maybe some new art for previous chapters. But for the main story I need some time to figure out and write down exactly what I want. I might post some stray fanart not related to the au if I find the inspiration.

Also I will be making a master post for the au once I get all the season 1 (ch1-5) shorts out.

[laurawitchart]

The Original Minecrafters Ch5: New Family

May 16th, 2016

The new transportation project has been going well. We should be starting the testing and troubleshooting phase soon, I'm just waiting to hear back from the project manager on that. I specifically asked to be the first to test the machine, with Mr. Smith in case there's anything hostile waiting on the other side. While I have done some research on this game I just want to be as safe as possible, you can never be too careful. Once thi

The dark grey stickfigure’s typing halted when a pair of delicate white hands covered his eyes. “Mitsi, please, I'll take a break once I send this.”

“You said that 10 documents and five e-mails ago.” The dainty woman protested. “Vic, please take a break. I know how much you want to get that transportation machine working but overworking yourself isn't going to help.”

“*sigh* I know.” Vic said, massaging his eyes. “I just- This will revolutionize fast travel for all stickkind. Being able to get to any website or application in seconds-”

“Vic, I know, you already gave the whole company this speech.” Mitsi interrupted. “And you know that's not an excuse to burn yourself out.”

“I just… want to get this done.”

“Because you want to try to find your brother?” Mitsi asks, pulling up the YouTube tab that Vic tried to hide behind his e-mails, featuring the mysterious black stickfigure in Minecraft.

“We don't know if he's actually my brother… but yeah, I do want to find him.” Vic admits.

“Well then he better have a good explanation of where he came from if he's not your long lost twin brother because he looks exactly like ya, aside from your blue eyes and scars. Heck, if I didn't know any better I'd think he was you.”

“Yeah that's another reason why I need to find him. No doubt other sticks have seen these videos, I don't need them confusing the two of us.” Vic says.

“You will find him, Vic, I'm sure of it.” Mitsi reassures. “And I'm sure once you are able to find him you'd rather be a functional stickfigure and not a zombie running on 50 shots of expresso.” Vic chuckles. “Speaking of, there's coffee and donuts in the break room.” She muses, pulling Vic out of his chair and towards the door.

Vic stops Mitsi and pulls her into a hug and kiss. “Thanks, Hunny. I'm sorry if I've been a bit irritable about all this.”

“No worries, Hubby.” Mitsi reassures. “Besides I'm your wife, it's my job to keep your head on straight.”

The two share another kiss then head off to the break room.

“Hey, hey, guess who I am.” The light grey stick called to his coworker, holding up a blue-frosted donut to his face. “I need that report now. Get this done now. Where's my emotional support wife and work husband?” The stick says, mocking Vic. The two double over laughing, one of them abruptly stops.

“U-um, Gray,” the bright yellow stick tries to get his friend’s attention, “it's the boss.”

“Yeah I'm mocking the boss.” Gray says, putting the donut back up to his face, oblivious to Vic and Mitsi behind him.

“Ahem.” Vic loudly coughs.

Gray immediately eats the evidence and meets his boss. “Oh, hi, sir.” He says with his mouth full.

“Oh don't mind me, I'm just getting some breakfast with my emotional support wife.” Vic sarcastically says, walking over to the coffee pot.

“Aw, c’mon, Vic, it was a little funny.” Mitsi says, grabbing a strawberry donut.

Vic grumbles. After sitting down with his coffee he notices the time. “Where's Smith?” He asks. “He's usually here getting a second cup by now.”

“Uh, I think he's still with Jim and Scott.” Citrine answers.

“Still working with them on the transporter huh?” Mitsi asks. “You're rubbing off on him, Vic, he's as much of a workaholic as you are.”

“Actually I think they're almost done. Scott seems so sure that the prototype will be operational as soon as this afternoon.” Citrine says.

“Really?” Vic inquires.

Gray nods, still trying to chew the entire donut he shoved into his mouth.

“Well then, maybe I should check on them.” Vic says walking out of the break room. Mitsi grabs another donut and follows him.

Over in the testing lab, several different stickfigures are finishing up the prototype transporter, with a couple of dark blue sticks at the control panel and Mr. Smith overseeing them.

“Okay, that should do it.” A black orange-headed stick proclaims from behind the machine.

“Am I clear to start it up?” A midnight blue stick asks.

“Not yet, Scott.” Another stick shouts. Once everyone is a good distance from the machine he calls back. “Alright, you're good to go!”

The two dark blue sticks type away at the control panel. Once they're done the forest cyan stick pulls a lever down and the machine whirls to life.

Vic and Mitsi arrive just in time to see it. Their two-year long project is finally operational. Vic finishes the last of his coffee and walks up to Smith.

“Hi, work husband.” Mitsi jokingly blurts out. Vic’s face turns hot red.

“What?” Smith asks.

“Just some dumb joke Gray told in the break room.” Vic says annoyed.

“Ookaayy…” Smith says confused. “Well, um, you're just in time to test out the transporter, sir.

“Um, Mr. Grey, are you sure you want to go into a video game first? You know those things are basically designed to kill players right? I don't think stickfigures respawn like players do.” The forest cyan stick asks.

“We'll be fine, Jim, thanks. I've done my research on this particular game and we'll have my head of security with us.” Vic reassures.

“Also, sir, if something were to prevent us from bringing you back here at least on a website you can take the train back to the city, you won't be able to do that in a game.” Jim persists.

“If other stickfigures can make their way into this game then I can find a way out.” Vic insists.

“Alright.” Jim concedes while Scott enters the destination.

Mitsi holds Vic's hand. “Are you ready?” She asks him.

He nods, gazing into her shining pink eyes before heading through the portal. Mitsi and Smith quickly follow.

Vic spawns into Minecraft and is immediately met with a gorgeous view of the landscape. Forests blanketing the land below, winding rivers cutting through the green, snow-covered mountains in the far distance, it was unlike anything he'd ever seen. He steps closer and quickly realizes he's on the edge of a cliff, inches away from plummeting hundreds of feet towards his death. He steps back but bumps into Mitsi. The two lovers grab each other and steady themselves.

“Woah, that was close.” Vic says looking down.

Then along comes their third wheel.

The three go tumbling down the cliff, taking some damage hitting blocks on the way down. After a bit of free falling they land in a waterfall. They get over their shock and swim down to solid ground.

“You two alright?” Smith asks, popping his shoulder back into place.

“I'm fine.” Vic says helping Mitsi to her feet.

“I think I left my stomach up there but I'm ok.” Mitsi says.

Smith takes in the seemingly endless array of trees. “So, what now?” He asks.

“Look for any sign of that black stickfigure, I'm sure if we just pick a direction and go we'll find something.” Vic answers.

The three pick a direction and start walking.

After what felt like only 20 minutes the sun starts to go down and it gets dark.

“Have we been here that long already?” Smith asks.

“Time works differently in this game.” Vic explains. “One day is barely half an hour. But it's still not even 11 o'clock in our world”

Smith nods. “Makes sense. Jim did say this place was made for ‘players’ and it probably would be boring for them to have to wait a whole day for something. What are players exactly? Was that in your research, Vic?”

Vic slows down a bit, his face darkening. “Fundamentally the same as cursors. Digital avatars for the deity on the other side of the screen so that they may interact with us. The creatures here may wear friendly faces but don't be fooled, they're still the same monsters.”

“Vic, you alright?” Mitsi asks, catching up with the boys.

“Yeah, I'm fine, Mits.” Vic tries to reassure.

Mitsi puts an 8-bit white flower on her husband's ear.

Vic chuckles. “Where did you get this?”

“Off the ground. There's all kinds of flowers here, I've been collecting them!” Mitsi says showing off her collection. “And petting every animal I see, they're just so cute and friendly.”

Vic chuckles again as he watches his wife frolic off to find another animal to befriend.

“So is there anything special about nighttime, or is it just dark?” Smith asks.

“Well-” Vic starts before getting cut off.

“ITSNOTFRIENDLYITSNOTFRIENDLY!” Mitsi yells as she runs back to the group, being chased by an enormous spider.

She quickly jumps into Vic's arms and Smith readies his toolbar. He creates a staff and bats the spider away. Just as they thought the threat was gone an arrow whizzes by, followed by unfriendly grunts and hissing. The group makes a run for it.

Smith holds the monsters back while Vic runs as fast as he can to get his wife to safety. He finds a small cave and hides in it.

“Are you ok?” Vic asks.

“I'm fine.” Mitsi answers.

“Good. Good…” He says, panting heavily. He slouches against Mitsi.

She takes out the donut she grabbed earlier and hands it to Vic. He eats it and the UI above his head lights up, showing his hunger bar go up.

“What's that?” Mitsi asks.

“That's… Basically your health status. *pointing to the hearts* That's your overall health and that *pointing to the food* is essentially your stamina.” Vic explains, still very tired.

“Do you need food to get your stamina back?” Mitsi asks.

“Yeah.”

“Well, good thing I grabbed an extra donut. Maybe this'll teach ya to eat actual food for breakfast and not just coffee.” Mitsi jokes. The couple laugh.

Smith found and joined the two in their cave. “Alright, we should be safe now.” His words are immediately followed by a 'tksssss'.

The three snap around to look at the threat just as an arrow pierces its head and drops dead. The one who shot the arrow, a stickfigure, shrouded in darkness, readies another arrow and fires, immediately killing another silent monster behind them. Their savior runs up to them, the light from outside just faintly revealing his color to be blue. “Are you guys ok?” He asks. The three nod. “That's good. Do you guys have a base I can help you get back to?”

“Uh, no. We're actually looking for someone.” Vic says.

“Well why don't I take you to our base for the night. It's well lit and we have plenty of food.” The blue stickfigure suggests.

“That sounds nice. You need a rest, Vic.” Mitsi says. Vic's too tired to argue.

“By the way, my name is Blue. My brother, Yellow, should be around here somewhere also fighting mobs.” Blue says.

“A pleasure to meet you, Blue.” Smith says. “My name is Mr. Smith, and these are my bosses, Vic and Mitsi Grey.”

“Nice to meet you all.” Blue says as he starts heading off to his base.

“So where are you guys from?” Blue asks, trying to make conversation.

“A lovely little village in the Outernet.” Mitsi says.

“Outernet?” Blue inquires.

“It's this place where all animations go when they're uploaded to the Internet.” Vic explains.

“Oh so that's where Purple came from.” Blue mumbles to himself. “Sounds like a cool place.” He says for everyone to hear.

“Are you not from the Outernet?” Mitsi asks.

“Nope. Never left the PC until about a year ago when a Nether portal just randomly spawned.”

It isn't long before the group arrives at the base. The buildings tower above the trees and the street lights flood the roads. The grey stickfigures all marvel at the blocky town laid before them. A small group of sticks mingle below a statue, one of them being the black stick Vic is looking for.

“Feel free to look around. Over there is the guest house and if you need anything just let someone know.” Blue says before walking over to the mingling sticks.

“-those monsters didn't even see it coming!” Red declared, wrapping up his story as Blue arrives. “Oh, hey, Blue.”

“Hey.” Blue greeted. “Um, Chosen, I found a group of sticks and one of them looks just like you. I mean there are very obvious differences like eye color. I think he might be that fourth stickfigure Alan mentioned making a while back.”

“Really?” Chosen asks. He gets up and Blue points out the group of grey sticks he brought home.

Chosen makes his way over. “Um, hello?”

The three turn to face the greeting. The hollow head of the group does in fact look just like Chosen. It's like looking in a mirror, a faded banged up mirror, but still a mirror.

The two are practically staring at each other in disbelief. Meanwhile the pale woman off to the side was absolutely ecstatic to see the two together.

“Alright, Mits, let's give those two some space.” The tall stick says, ushering Mitsi away.

The two are now well aware of the audience they've accumulated.

“You wanna chat somewhere private?” Chosen asks.

“Yeah. I don't like being watched like this.” The grey stick says.

“Yeah me neither. I'm Chosen by the way.”

“Vic. It's nice to meet you.”

Chosen leads them to a greenhouse garden, filled with all kinds of flora and crops Dark genetically modified to look nicer. The two sit down on a bench and begin properly introducing themselves and their parties.

“I wasn't expecting to find so many stickfigures here.” Vic comments. “I really thought I would just find you and Dark.”

“It was just us for a few years before Orchid and Purple came. Then Purple accidentally led Orange's friends to the base last year, and the rest is history.” Chosen explains.

“Where did you find Orange? Did he and his friends find their own way into Minecraft?” Vic asks.

“Kinda. Two of his friends had just found a way into the game but Orange himself and the rest of the group were in Alan's PC.” Chosen answers.

“A-alan’s PC?” Vic asks fearfully.

Chosen had forgotten that Alan never properly apologized to Vic, though he was mentioned still. “Yeah, he never actually hurt Orange or his friends. He even apologized to us, even you, though I think he was assuming you were already a part of our group and was hoping we'd relay his message to you. At least, I'm assuming you are Victim.”

The sound of Vic's real name makes his blood run cold. What do you mean? He's changed? That sick monster has changed!? How!? That's not possible! This has to be a trick! There's no way- He can't- It's too good to be true- I shouldn't have let my guard down- I-

Vic's racing thoughts were cut off by Chosen putting his arm around him, he realizes he's shaking.

“I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring back bad memories.” Chosen says. “Do you want to talk?” Vic shakes his head.

They sit in silence for a moment while Vic calms down.

“I'm not going back to him.” Vic says.

“I'm not gonna make you. I didn't want to go back either at first.” Chosen says.

“What made you change your mind?”

“I offered to bring Orange’s friends home, not realizing their portal led directly into Alan's PC.” Chosen explains. “Yeah, that was quite the day. But it all worked out at least.” He thinks for a moment. “Have you talked to anyone about Alan?”

“I tried…” Vic explains. “Mitsi knows I was abused but I never told her anything beyond that. I don't wanna traumatize her. I tried talking to other therapists but every time I tell them more details they just…give me this look…like I'm some sort of anomaly. I've stopped trying to talk about it long ago, I'm more focused on the future. Besides, bottling it all up has worked out so why change that?”

“Until someone brings up the slightest reminder of your past, then it all comes flooding back.” Chosen says. “I thought bottling everything up would work too, but once I sat down and talked with my brothers I felt a lot better. It doesn't erase the memories or heal the pain but it helps a lot knowing that there are people that will listen and are there for me. You're not alone, Vic, you're not the only one Alan hurt. You can't traumatize us anymore than we already are, well except for Orange but he'll still be there for you. We're all here for you.”

Vic melts further into Chosen and, slowly but surely, begins telling his story. Every detail that has been burned into his memory. Every loss, every death, all the torture he endured if he did survive, how he was crammed into a tiny box if Alan had to leave mid fight. Throughout it all Chosen keenly listened. No judgement, no interruptions, just listening ears and a shoulder to cry on.

When Vic was done talking he looked up at Chosen, his face showed no false remorse or horror, just genuine understanding and empathy.

“Feel a bit better?” Chosen asks.

“Yeah.” Vic answers, still wiping his tears. He felt lighter and freer with the weight of his past finally lifted.

The twins sat there admiring the beauty of the greenhouse's plants as the sun slowly rose, casting rays through the vines and leaves, burning away the hostile mobs and creating friendly animals in their place.

Vic, Mitsi, and Smith eventually had to head back to the Outernet, but still promised to visit often and even convinced Chosen to step out of Minecraft occasionally. Vic even got all his brothers phones so they could easily communicate with each other. With the whole family reunited with all their friends it really doesn't seem like things could get any better.

[laurawitchart]

The Original Minecrafters Ch4: New Friends

As the green and blue stickfigures were about to head home from their daring Nether adventure they heard footsteps below them. When they investigated the noise they found another stickfigure, a purple one about their age. With their curiosity getting the better of them, they followed the stick through another portal.

On the other side of the portal lay a gorgeous town, with buildings of all sizes, banners and torches flowing in the wind, a statue and a castle on either side and well lit roads tying it all together.

Not long after crossing over into this land, an explosion came from the portal behind.

“You shouldn't have come here.” The figure behind them hissed.

Deep orange flames soon surrounded the young stickfigures and a being, shrouded by the intense fire, loomed above them. Chaos ensues.

Purple ran to his mom and Chosen to tell them about his encounter with the strangers in the Nether. Before he can elaborate on his panicked explanation the group hears three distinct yells from where Purple came from. Chosen runs after the noise, Orchid and Purple follow.

The three arrive at the portal and see Dark and two unknown sticks running around a fire arena like headless chickens. Seriously, Dark, you can snipe a chicken from the top of a mountain but can't catch two sticks? Chosen shoots a precise laser between his brother and the strangers, quickly stopping the chase and grabbing their attention.

“HEY!” Chosen shouts. “What the hell is going on here!?”

The three are quick to blame each other and start arguing, trying to convince their audience that their side of the story is the correct one.

“ENOUGH! You two,” Chosen snaps, directing his attention to the strangers, “who are you and where did you come from?”

“We were exploring and just messing around and we saw them *pointing to Purple* and we just wanted to introduce ourselves.” The light blue stickfigure said.

“We've never seen another stickfigure outside our group so we were curious.” The light green stick added.

“We didn't mean to cause any trouble.”

“It's alright. Dark, why did you try to kill them?” Chosen asked.

“WHA- You said to protect that kid at all costs. I saw people chasing him so I did what I thought I needed to do to protect him!” Dark said defensively.

Chosen pinches the bridge of his nose. “This isn't what I meant- You don't have to kill people who are in the mere vicinity of Purple to protect him!- *sigh* Whatever, no one got hurt right?”

The two strangers shake their heads.

“Good.” Chosen says, walking up to the two. Getting a better look at them he can see that they're just children, not much older than Purple. He walks past them to relight the portal behind. “Come on, let me escort you two back to your home.” Chosen insists.

It's a short walk between the portals but enough for a small conversation.

“You kinda look like our friend.” The green stick commented. “Well, other than your color, that is.”

“Is that so?” Chosen inquires.

“Yeah.” The blue stick confirms. “You two look like you could have the same animator.”

“Ha! Well I hope for his sake that's not the case.” Chosen muses. “My animator was a psychopath who enjoyed watching me struggle, and that's the least of it. I can't begin to imagine what he would have done to Dark had we not escaped when we did. And I sure hope he never made another stick to torture afterwards.” He added, his face darkening with each word.

The young sticks are speechless.

“I… I'm so sorry.” The blue one finally says.

“Eh, it's in the past now.” Chosen reassures, pushing the memories far back in his mind.

The three arrive at the portal.

“This one your's?” Chosen confirms.

The two nod and head in, Chosen follows just to make sure.

A pit immediately forms in Chosen's stomach. This isn't Minecraft, he fearfully thinks to himself. This place looks different but the feelings are all the same, the place where he was imprisoned and tormented for years on end. The two sticks excitedly jump off the tab their portal resides and begin calling out to their friends. Three warm colored sticks answer their calls and huddle into a group hug. One of the sticks does in fact look just like Chosen but a different color. The pit in his stomach keeps growing as his mind races to think of an explanation for this that doesn't involve his animator. Then a sound he came to dread rings in his ears; the door on the other side of the screen opening, he is coming.

Alan sits at his desk and watches the cluster of colors excitedly hop around his desktop, then he sees it, the black stickfigure he had drawn far too many times, staring back at him. He pulls up a notepad and starts typing to his stickfigures.

Um, guys, do you know that stickfigure over there?

Orange jumps up to answer Alan, as he's the only one who can directly talk to him, but pauses once he sees the stick he’s referring to, still standing at their Nether portal.

Orange walks over to him and encourages him to join the group. The black stick is hesitant but does so anyway.

“Hi. I'm Orange and these are my friends.” The young stick introduces. “What's your name?”

“I- Um-” Chosen stutters, instinctively glancing back up at the animator, keenly watching his every move. “Chosen,” he finally says, “you can call me Chosen.”

“Cool name.” Orange says before running back to the notepad to answer Alan's question.

His name is Chosen and he seems cool. Orange says.

Green and Blue also tell the group about how they found him after going through the Nether portal and that he brought them back to the PC. Orange relays the information back to Alan before jumping back down.

“Is that… your animator?” Chosen asks.

“Who, Alan?” Orange asks, gesturing to the overly detailed deity that resides on the other side of the screen with large square eyes that reflect the monitor he controls. Chosen gradually tenses up the more he looks at him. “He's my animator but he treats us all the same even though he didn't really make the others.” Orange continues.

“He does?”

“Yeah! He likes to play fight with us, toss us up with his cursor, he even has me help him animate.” Orange explains gleefully.

Chosen's face goes pale and his mind races. He makes them fight, throws them around and forces this kid to do his work! I can't believe he's done this again. GAH, of course he's done this again, he's a psychopath! These kids don't even know what he's doing is wrong. I gotta get them out of here!

The cursor moves over to Orange and picks him up. Chosen reacts. He fires a laser at the cursor, knocking the kid out of its grip, grabs Orange and flies back through the portal. The rest of the group yell and follow them.

Chosen flies faster than he's ever flown before. His golden fire burning bright and the Nether whizzing by in a blur, it's a miracle he didn't crash into anything.

Once at the base Chosen finally lets Orange go. The kid skurries away and grips his wrist. “What the heck!? Why did you do that!?”

Chosen finally thinks about what happened and his actions. “I'm… sorry. I just needed to get you away from him. I… couldn't watch him hurt you.”

“Hurt me!? Alan!? He's like my dad! You're the one who hurt me!” Orange snapped.

Chosen finally notices the partially cauterized gash on the kid's wrist, not unlike wounds Dark would sometimes come away with after he and Chosen fight.

“I… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I have some health potions if you want.”

“No, it's fine. Blue has potions back home.” Orange responds, still a little angry.

“What do you mean Alan is ‘like your dad’?” Chosen asks. “You said he throws you around and makes you fight your friends and makes you do his work-”

“WHAT! I never said that!” Orange clarifies. “I said he lets me help him work and he sometimes joins our friendly fights. And we like being picked up, it's the only way he can really interact with us.”

“I-” Chosen begins but is cut off by Orange.

“Did you seriously drag me out here against my will just because you misunderstood what I was saying about Alan? Who do you think you are? Child services!? What could have possibly led you to rip me away from my friends and my home!?” Orange blurts out.

Chosen feels like he's about to cry. The next thing he knows he's spilling his guts to this kid he just met, telling him about everything Alan ever did to him before he escaped with Dark. How he was tossed around, forced to fight for his life, and how Alan made him work tirelessly.

Every bit of anger in Orange’s golden eyes turned to remorse, regret for his previous words, and a bit of empathy. He knows all too well that Alan is no saint. But he also knows that Alan has changed.

He goes to the ground with Chosen and gives him a side hug, and Chosen melts right into his little brother.

“Um, Cho?” A deep voice comes from behind.

Chosen perks up and wipes his tears. “Oh, hey Dark.”

“What's going on here? Who's this?” Dark asks.

“Oh, um, this is-” Chosen begins.

“Your new brother, apparently.” Orange happily finishes.

A second later four sticks jump through the portal, yelling their unsynchronized war cries and quickly halting once they see there's no danger. Orange chuckles at his friends’ antics.

“Who the fuck are these guys!?” Dark shrieks.

The two groups spend the day getting to know each other and having fun in Minecraft, playing around and eating food, Dark even put on a little firework show to watch. And, after some convincing, Orange got his brothers to come to the PC and meet the new Alan, who immediately and wholeheartedly apologized. There is just one thing that didn't make sense about his apology though; who is Victim?

[laurawitchart]

The Original Minecrafters Ch3: New Faces

“Mom, where are we?” The young stickfigure asked.

“I don't know, but stay close to me.” Said the pink woman.

The two stickfigures walked through Minecraft’s forests, suitcases in tow, the child clutching a plush doll. They flinched and jumped at each noise the surrounding fauna made.

After what felt like forever the two hear a voice up ahead, undoubtedly another stick. They stop dead in their tracks but that only seemed to alert the stranger of their presence. The pink stick steps in front of her son as the stranger approaches. Seconds later he makes himself known, black and intimidating and with red eyes that pierce the tree's shade. He looks just as surprised to see the family as they are.

“Hello.” The stranger says. “I didn't know there were other stickfigures here. Sorry if I startled you.”

“Who are you?” The pink woman asks defensively.

“My name is Chosen. And you are?”

The woman was hesitant to answer. “Orchid.” she finally said.

“What about you, kid?” Chosen asks, kneeling down to be shorter than the kid.

“Purple.” He says. “Are you the Chosen? The one that shows up in like every popular YouTubers’ Minecraft videos?”

“Uummm, I don't know what this ‘YouTube’ is but I do interact with other Minecrafters.” Chosen says confused.

“Mom, it's him!” Purple says excited. “We can trust him, he can keep us safe.”

“Sweety, just because you've seen this man on the internet doesn't mean you truly know him.” Orchid quietly says to her son.

“Is there something you're running from? Because I can protect you guys if needed. My base is very secure and I don't mind sharing my food and resources.” Chosen reassures, eager to share his paradise with others.

“Mom, please!” The boy asks, giving his mom puppy eyes.

“*sigh* Fine.” Orchid concedes and starts heading over to where Purple already ran off to. “If anything happens to that kid I will snap your neck.” She coldly says to Chosen.

Chosen is taken aback by Orchid’s sudden dark tone but understands where she's coming from, after all he feels the same way about this world and his brother, both he would happily defend until he can't move his body.

The three walk through the forests and into the base. Roads of various grey textures wrapped around the structures, tying together a barn, crop field, numerous automated farms, a mini village and a golden pyramid creating a beacon of light, with a house at the center and a flaming statue of the two stickfigures overlooking the base, the black one raising a sword and the red one raising a fireball. Leaves, flowers and lamps decorated the sides of the road with banners and torches adorning the buildings.

“Did you build all this?” Orchid asked.

“Pretty much.” Chosen answered. “Anything that's automated is my brother's design but even then I added my own touch to it so it ties into the rest of the base.”

“Woooow.” Purple said with stars in his eyes.

Chosen leads the family to his house. “Feel free to make yourself at home. Are you guys hungry?” He asks.

“Yeah.” Purple says. “What do you have?”

“A lot.” Chosen says, handing the two his recipe book to look through. “Let me know if something looks good.” He goes to the kitchen to prepare some ingredients.

Orchid is taking in her surroundings. The excessive use of stones to build the house didn't do well to give it a warm welcoming feel. Purple also takes note of the house’s design.

“I thought your house was made of wood?” Purple asks.

“Oh, it, uh, was made of wood but it burned down. We don't use wood in our builds anymore ‘cause of how strong our fire is.” Chosen answers, showing a small flame in his hand before putting it under the stovetop.

“Y-you have powers?” Orchid sheepishly asks.

“Yeah, quite a few, actually.” Chosen answers. “So does my brother, Dark, but his are all fire based.”

“This looks good.” Purple states, showing his mom one of the recipes, completely unbothered by the revelation. “What are you gonna have?”

“Oh, um, that's fine.” She says.

“Two of this please, Mr. Chosen.” Purple politely asks.

Chosen chuckles. “You don't have to be so formal, kid. You can just call me Chosen, or Cho.” He reassures, walking back to the kitchen to make their food.

While Chosen is away the family hears something skurry below them.

“AAAAAAAAA!!!” They both yell.

Chosen drops everything he's doing and runs to them to see what's wrong. Orchid is tightly holding her son, taking shelter on top of the makeshift table, while Dark's pet spider curiously looks at the family.

Chosen grabs his chest, relieved that it wasn't a serious issue, and calmly picks up the spider. “Ted, you scared them.” He playfully scolded.

“Is that your pet!?” Orchid nearly screeches.

“Dark's pet, but yeah. This is Ted.” Chosen says proudly holding up the spider, making sure his name tag is obvious. “He doesn't attack us so he's basically a weird looking dog.”

The two begin to relax and Purple even tries to pet Ted, holding his hand out like you would for a dog. Ted bumps his flat face against Purple's hand.

“See, he's peaceful.” Chosen reassures. “I should get back to cooking before the food burns. Ted, don't get into any more mischief.”

“Are there not dogs or cats or normal pets in this place?” Orchid asks.

“There are but…” Chosen paused, thinking about the wolf he tamed a while back and how quickly it died. “It didn't work out…” There's a brief awkward silence before he goes back to the kitchen.

Chosen comes back from the kitchen with two plates of food; cheese crusted chicken with potato wedges and cooked carrots on the side. Purple immediately digs in.

Half way through their meal the door slams open, making everyone jump. A bright red stick storms into the house, his face seething with rage.

“Well hello to you too, Dark-” Chosen begins to say, holding a third and fourth plate of the chicken meal.

“Shut. The fuck. Up.” Dark demands, glaring daggers at Chosen as he walks into their bedroom, once again slamming the door.

Chosen is stunned by his brother's sudden attitude. “I am so sorry about that. I'll go talk to him.”

The two argue loudly from their room. Chosen is trying to keep calm but Dark's temper isn't allowing that. Their argument is cut short by Chosen being flung out and across the room, crashing into the front wall, blood gushing from his nose.

“Fine, be like that!.” He yells back, blocking up the door with obsidian. He makes his way over to the cauldron to clean himself up. The blood isn't stopping. “Hey, can one of you look in that chest at the end of the counter and grab a health potion?”

“Uh, sure?” Orchid answers. She finds the chest, grabs the health potion and investigates it, curious about how well it works and what its limits might be.

She hands Chosen the bottle and he downs the whole thing immediately. “Thank you.” He says, whipping the rest of the blood and cleaning out the cauldron. “I'm so sorry about him,” Chosen starts while shoving an oversized sponge into the cauldron, “he's been very moody lately for some reason. I've been trying to get him to talk but he'd rather punch me I guess.” I oughta change that beacon power to regen at this rate.

Orchid's eyes fill with empathy. “I get it, my husband is like that; always angry at something and always tries to fix it with violence. He doesn't like talking, even if it's to give him a solution to his problem.” She looks over at her son, happily playing with his plush doll. “He tried to raise Purple with that mentality but I wouldn't let him… he didn't like that either.”

“Is he what you're running from?” Chosen asks. Orchid just nods. “Well, if he ever comes here and tries to hurt you, I'll snap his neck.” He says playfully.

Orchid smirks. “Promise?”

“You guys will be safe here, I promise.”

“You really don't have to, you know.” Orchid says.

“Please, it's the least I can do.” Chosen reassures as he quickly builds a starter house for the family. “Besides it's either this or sleeping in the same house as The Moody Lord over there. Or would you rather sleep in the barn with the animals?”

“Alright.” Orchid concedes. “But you really don't have to go out of your way for us. I'm sure we can handle ourselves.”

“Really, it's no problem at all.” Chosen says, landing in front of the two. “Besides, this game can be a little rough at the beginning, believe me.”

The two walk into the house, Orchid quietly pulls Chosen aside to talk while Purple explores the building. Some furnaces and makeshift furniture making up the kitchen, some seats by a large window overlooking the forest, some double chests in convenient locations and a bedroom with two beds for them.

“Thank you.” Orchid says.

“No problem.” Just as Chosen says that there's a problem. Deep orange fire erupts from every window in Chosen's house, accompanied by Dark's enraged yelling. “Uuhh, y-you guys head to bed. I need to take care of that.” Chosen says with worry written all over his face. The two head to their room and hope that everything is going to be ok.

The two snuggle together in the same bed and watch YouTube videos from Purple's phone, hoping to get a better understanding of Chosen and Dark. The players don't see much of Dark unless they're in the Nether, and even then they're trying to avoid him. Meanwhile Chosen is a super star. More than happy to help the players out in any way he can; building, resource gathering, mob control, you name it. And he was not joking when he said he has a lot of powers. Using eye lasers to cut blocks in ways that players can't, making ice out of nothing for Nether highways, he can even control the weather, bringing rain and lightning, as well as flying and cooking items with fire. Yet here he is, being silly and playing a video game. I suppose we should be grateful, we really don't need someone this powerful in the Outernet. The two eventually fall asleep in each other's arms.

Nine months later.

Purple and Orchid couldn't be happier. They're finally away from the ailments of their old life. No more bills, no more work or school, no more Navy. Chosen was more than happy to help them learn the game, and Dark isn't as bad as his first impression was. He even offered to help Purple explore the Nether and collect quartz, his favorite material. While exploring this time he stumbled on two stickfigures. He freaked out and ran off but they heard his footsteps and followed him through the portal.

[laurawitchart]

The Original Minecrafters Ch2: Meet the Players

A year has passed since we first came here and so much has changed. New structures, new biomes, new mechanics. Dark has been having fun discovering how the game works. A while back he learned how to make monsters spawn in a specific place and now he has a “farm”, as he calls it, for when he gets bored of the Nether. He's also taken an interest in potions and automation. Just last month he fixed up the house with special lights and made the door open on its own (and we finally added some windows). Meanwhile I've just been exploring the world, collecting interesting things from all around, interacting with the locals, it seems like every time I think I've found it all one of us finds something new. Hell, last week I found two new creatures in the caves; some small flying thing and one of the village people but throwing potions (that thing is really annoying). I wonder-

Chosen's thoughts are interrupted by a peculiar sight in the cave he was in. Torches, and patches in the stone, as though someone was here before and mined the ores. Was Dark here? Those Nether portals do spit him out in strange places sometimes. But why would he leave a torch?

Chosen follows the trail of light until he hears noises, footsteps. Not clanky or squishy footsteps like the normal cave inhabitants. These sounded like the ones the locals make. Around the corner is an opening to a big cave that sounds like the direction of the noise. He puts out his fire and cautiously peeks around. In the middle of the cave he sees three creatures that look like zombies but… brown? And they're moving weirdly, their arms are at their sides, swinging at each other occasionally, their heads are moving frantically and the creatures are bobbing and jumping and running in a way Chosen has never seen before.

One of the creatures spots him and the three begin running after him. Chosen tries to camouflage in the darkness but it doesn't work. By now the creatures are too close to outrun so he ignites his hand and gets ready to fight.

Once the fire appears the creatures stop dead in their tracks and seemingly examine it and Chosen. Are these things intelligent? The creatures continue their strange movement, almost like they're communicating with each other. Chosen finally gets the courage to speak up.

“Uh, h-hi?” He says sheepishly.

The creatures are taken aback by Chosen's words. They look around at each other, then one of them pulls out a sign and places it.

Chosen cautiously approaches the sign to read it. You can talk?

“Um, yeah, I can talk.” Chosen replies.

One of the creatures breaks the sign and replaces it. What are you?

Chosen isn't sure how to respond to that. “Er- a stickfigure. … My name is Chosen.”

The creatures start jumping in place as one of them breaks and replaces the sign again. What's a stickfigure doing in Minecraft?

“I'm just playing the game. Having fun.”

You're a player like us! One of the creatures, er ‘players’, writes.

“”Players”? Interesting. I didn't know there was anything else here beside me and my brother.” Chosen says.

You have a brother? Is he a stickfigure too? The question earns a punch from one of the other players.

Chosen laughs at the silly question and answers it anyway. The four continue their conversation in the cave, occasionally fending off a monster or two.

Meanwhile, at Chosen and Dark's base, Dark emerges from his monster farm, tired and with an inventory full of flesh and bones and eyes. The sun is setting and he's ready to go to bed. He's about to head inside when he hears the sound of four footsteps running full speed towards him.

“Dark!” Chosen calls after his brother. The three players in tow.

“Chosen? What's going-?” Dark stops his question when he sees the off-colored zombie creatures. “What is that?”

“These are players,” Chosen proudly announces, “I found them in the caves.”

The players rapidly crouch up and down, a symbol of greeting among their kind.

“They invited us to see their base. I wanted them to meet you and see our base first though.” Chosen explained.

The players roamed around the property, taking in the cottage-like house with a spider inside, the (frankly quite ugly) mob farm, the crop fields and animal pens, and the stack of trees going up to the build limit off in the distance.

“I'm a bit tired, Cho, maybe tomorrow?”

“Aww but we were planning on having some food and sit around a fire pit. Doesn't that sound nice? We can sleep in tomorrow if you'd like.” Chosen implores.

Dark grumbles.

“I'll carry you back home afterwards.”

“*sigh* I'll hold you to it.” Dark concedes.

At the players base, or rather their city because that's the only way to describe this place. Houses reaching seemingly 50 blocks tall, long stretches of various buildings, a huge marketplace filled with more players with a stand for just about every resource. The ground is paved with various stones, mixed and matched to create a unique texture, illuminated by several fancy street lamps. Leaves and vines and flowers decorating the paths and buildings. And in the center of it all four fountain statues surrounding a pyramid of pure iron topped with a… diamond block encased in glass? Whatever it is it’s shining a beam of light straight up into the sky and going near it makes everyone feel healthier. This place is incredible, and Chosen can hardly wait to get back home to implement these features into his own base.

The players lead the sticks to the outskirts of their city where their fire pit is. Turned-over logs surrounding a 3x3 of cobble with a piece of netherack in the center. Simple but ambient. There's a furnace and a small crop field off to the side with plants Chosen had never seen before.

One of the players toss some food at the sticks and begins writing on a sign. How long have you two been here?

Chosen is too busy examining the new food to notice the message. A baked potato it's called, so those crops over there must be raw potatoes then. He takes a bite of the food and immediately shoves the rest into his mouth. It's not as good as a perfectly cooked pork chop but it's a welcomed addition to his diet.

Dark answers the question, “Um about a year at this point, I think? We haven't been keeping precise track but it's definitely been a long time.”

Do you not leave the game?

“Nope, we haven't left since we found this place.” Dark says while playing with his potato.

One of the players runs up to the group and throws a bunch of shiny things at them. The other players pass the items around. With a swing of their arm they equip what Chosen can now recognize as the armor he found a while back. He knew he could make armor out of ores but never felt the need to do it, although with all the new monsters it probably wouldn't be a bad idea.

"Why is your armor glowing?" Chosen asked.

It's enchanted. One of the players writes on a sign.

"Cool"

Another player walks up and hands out milk buckets to drink and some more food options.

“Thanks.” Chosen says.

The player jumps around and accidentally walks into the fire. In a panic he places some water that spreads into the fire pit and extinguishes the flame, earning him some punches from his comrades.

“It's alright guys.” Chosen says, lighting his hand and placing some fire back on the netherack. With his hand still burning he grabs his milk, which quickly cooks and becomes a bucket of cheese. “What the-?” Chosen turned over the bucket to get the cheese out and investigates it. He takes a bite and his eyes light up, this is the best fucking thing I've ever tasted, he almost devours the whole thing but has an idea first. Taking his baked potato, some of the pork he was given, and the cheese, he takes pieces of each dish and mixes them all together. The final product tasted like pure heaven.

The players were keenly watching the stickfigure, trying to figure out how to do that. When Chosen finally notices his audience he offers to make his custom dish for them too, and of course he makes one for Dark.

He tossed the loaded potato to the players and hands a fourth to Dark. “Want one?” He asks.

“I’m good.” He replies.

“Suite yourself.” Chosen says, happily feasting on the potato.

By the end of the night Chosen had fallen into a food coma and had to be carried home.

“Hey, Ted, sorry we're late.” Dark half-heartedly says to his pet spider.

He throws his brother onto his bed and crawls into his own. The two sleep the entire day away.

By the time Dark woke up, Chosen had made a sort of kitchen where he was experimenting with all kinds of foods and writing down the recipes for the ones that tasted good.

You've eaten bricks multiple times before, I don't trust that all those recipes are really good. Dark thinks to himself. "Having fun?" He asked when he made it to the counter.

“Ah, you're finally awake. Here, I made you something.” Chosen gleefully says, handing out a plate with something yellow rolled up on it. “It's an omelette, it's cooked eggs with carrots, potatoes, and pork rolled up in it.”

Dark is hesitant but takes a bite anyway. “Oh wow, this is actually really good.”

Chosen's face lights up, he excitedly grabs his recipe book and shows Dark all his creations. “I've found a ton of new foods for us to try!” He exclaims.

“Alright, alright, calm down. Are you showing me this because you want a taste tester?”

“Mmm… Wouldn't hurt to have a second opinion on my cooking.” Chosen says slyly.

“Fine. Just don't put me in a food coma.” Dark says as he takes a seat at the makeshift table.

"No promises."

[laurawitchart]

The Original Minecrafters Ch1 pt2: The First Night

"AAAAAAAA!!!” Chosen yelled as a creeper sends him flying through the air.

Turns out Minecraft isn't always as peaceful as he thought, at least when it turns night.

Chosen peeled himself off the ground and brushed himself off. “I swear, if I ever see one of those exploding green things again- !” His statement was cut off by a ‘tksssss’ sound from behind. Chosen whipped around, eyes blazing, and cut the leafy monster clean in half.

With his heart still pounding he decides to find his brother and take shelter for the night, hoping that these monsters will go away once the sun comes up.

“Dark!” Chosen yells. “Dark! I think we should head inside. Dark- there you are.” He finds Dark around the side of the house… happily beating a skeleton with a zombie head… At least he's having fun.

“Dark, come on,” Chosen implores, “these monsters aren't gonna stop. Maybe we should go inside and hope they go away in the morning.”

“What why? This is fun!” Dark eagerly states. Chosen can see his translucent UI above his head, a heart ½ left. He's not paying attention to his health. Does he not know he has health? Wait what happens if we lose it all? I don't wanna find out.

Chosen tries to explain how damage works in Minecraft to the best of his ability while dragging him inside. Dark doesn't believe he can die but also doesn't want Chosen to worry. Chosen scrolls though his inventory looking for some food for Dark, who's standing in the open doorway.

There's a strange noise coming from something behind him. Dark looks down and picks up the small creature.

Chosen finds some raw mutton and is about to give it to his brother who instead shows him his creature first.

“Hey, Cho, look at this ugly thing!” Dark announces proudly holding up an enormous spider.

“WHAT THE HELL!? WHAT IS THAT!?”

“I don't know but I love it! I'm keeping it!” Dark proclaims, letting the spider go to wander the house.

“*sigh* I guess as long as it doesn't attack us it can stay.” Chosen concedes, handing Dark the food. “Here, this'll help you get your health back.”

Dark takes one bite of the uncooked food and spits it right out. “It's cold!” He snarls. Chosen doesn't even get the chance to reply before Dark's hands ignite, immediately turning the red meat brown and smoking. He takes another bite of the food. “Much better.”

“Huh, I didn't know you could cook food here.” Chosen says, fascinated by Dark's discovery. He grabs another piece of mutton, lights it up and shoves it into his pacman mouth. ‘mmmmmm’

Later, the brothers are lounging around on their beds. There's too many monsters around to sleep and they're not particularly tired anyway. Dark is playing around with his hotbar, fascinated by how neatly stacked and stowed away his loot is.

“So, are you gonna name it?” Chosen asks, gesturing to the giant spider staring at them from the upper corner of the room.

“Hmmmm. Ted.” Dark declares.

Chosen scoffs. “Ted? Where did that come from?”

“Idk”

The two share a laugh. “Ted the spider it is.”

The two hear noises from outside, clacking and grunts of pain. They look outside and find the sun is up and most of the monsters on fire. The two run outside, eager to start the day.

[laurawitchart]

The Original Minecrafters Ch1: New Beginnings

Peace. Real peace. No fire, or explosions. Just this beautiful view and calming music. The Chosen One thought to himself as he sat on the grass watching the sun set in Minecraft.

I could stay here forever. Chosen continued. I just wish Dark were here beside me.

As if summoned, The Dark Lord dropped down right next to Chosen, carrying a heap of gold swords.

“Well that was fun,” Dark proclaimed, tossing his keep away “but I'm bored. Ready to hit the road, Cho?”

Chosen has been down for whatever Dark wanted ever since the two escaped the PC, after all destroying those websites was a lot of fun, but this time he wasn't too eager to leave this game. Chosen was truly happy here, and he's not ready to just walk away from it. And Dark did say he had fun. We'll both be happy here.

“Actually, Dark,” Chosen starts “I was thinking… maybe we could stay here.”

“Stay here? Why?”

“There's just so much to do and see, I honestly don't understand how you could have gotten bored. This place is so peaceful and lively. And… truthfully… this is the happiest I've ever been.” Chosen replies

Dark could hardly understand a word his brother was saying. What do you mean you weren't happy all this time? We're you just lying to me when you said you were having fun destroying those websites?!

Chosen can see the drastic change in his brother's face. “Look, Dark… it's not that… it's just…” Chosen struggles to put the words together. “Alan used me to destroy his ads for so long… It was fun venting out my anger but… I like creating things too.” He finally manages to say.

“*sigh* Alright, I'll play your silly game with you.” Dark gives in, playfully punching Chosen's shoulder. He punches back, the two start playfully wrestling.

The two brothers sit beside each other and watch the rest of the sunset. Soft ambient music plays and the sounds of friendly mobs roaming the fields echo through the land. This place truly seems like paradise. What could possibly go wrong.

[laurawitchart]

The votes are in and the alternate universe I'm starting with is OG Minecrafters

As Chosen watched the cubicle sun set he felt a relief no amount of destruction had ever brought. No fire, no yelling, no explosions. Just soft ambient music and the sound of peaceful mobs roaming the fields. He couldn't be happier in this game, and with his brother by his side what could possibly go wrong.

Hey, Dark, whatcha got there?

Dark: A potion.

Of?

Dark: You'll see >:)

[laurawitchart]

[laurawitchart]

I'm gonna be moving on from scene redraws tomorrow and starting on alternate universes (if you guys want). Which one would you guys be more interested in?

Trauma Twins; What if TDL won his fight against TCO in AvA3? Alan watched the end of their fight and found it entertaining, so he respawned Chosen just to let Dark kill him over and over again. After a few months, Chosen manages to escape, is found by Vic and Mitsi and brought back to their village. Mostly ChoVic(brotherly) and Vicsi fluff.

Second Terror; A dark take on 'What if Red wore the Viraband'. He takes down TDL but the virus takes control and makes Red turn his blades on his friends, leaving only Orange alive (though permanently injured). Chosen ends up killing Red then taking his brothers back home to recuperate. Orange stays with Chosen and Dark and takes on their personalities and habits somewhat as the years pass. By far my darkest au.

The OG Minecrafters: Chosen convinces Dark to stay in Minecraft. The Newgrounds attack doesn't happen, the two get to interact with the players and become somewhat famous because of that. More happy Cho

Race Swap: The CG are powerful hollow heads and Alan's sticks are full heads taken from different websites. Same personalities (and all of AvMs1 is the same except for the visual difference) but now the CG have powers that awaken during the Showdown and Chosen, Dark, and Orange don't have powers of their own.

Hollow Heads Swap: My take on 'What if Alan made the hollow heads in a different order'. There are basically 6 different versions of this au and that's not including randomly switching the four around; Age Swap, Sec=Vic Cho=Dark. Villain Swap, Sec=Cho Vic=Dark. Mirror Swap, Sec=Dark Cho=Vic. These three can be done both with and without their original powers, basically if Alan kept their names but their personalities and colors are swapped. So like for Age Swap, Orange would be named victim and Vic would be named TSC but Orange would still be the same kid we know (just with Alan trauma now).

If you would rather someone else's au please leave a comment and include a link (or at least the name of the op) to where I can find the au.