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The slayer skipped dimensions a month ago and no one's heard from her since. So it's Faith's job to find her.
Andrew did research of course, so she kinda knew what to expect, but that didn't mean she really understood what he meant by "square world."
When Faith steps through the portal she starts laughing uncontrollably. Everything -- everything, including herself, the clouds, the chicken squawking at her -- is square and blocky.
She holds her arm up and the first thing she notices is that she lacks fingers. Okay. That'll take some getting used to.
--
Faith is good at this dimension. She carries a crossbow and a diamond sword, and hasn't respawned in weeks. Her chests are full of goodies. She's even built a nice house, though she restrains herself from building the castle she wants. She has to find the slayer.
She searches during the day, and tries her best to get back to her house to sleep at night. It keeps the swell of the monsters down. The less creepers in the world the better.
--
It's been months now and Faith is tired and lonely. She wonders if there's anyone else in the world at all, if Andrew was somehow mistaken.
Sometimes she goes out at night now just to slay. The growl of a zombie is something, you know? It makes her feel less isolated.
She returns home at dawn fired up and starving, only two hearts left. She mixes up some mushroom stew and it restores her, but there's nothing that can resolve the longing inside for human contact.
--
She makes a stupid mistake and doesn't look before she leaves a cave. All she hears is sssss... and that's enough to know that she's about to lose her stack of lapis because fuck if she knows where she is right now.
She doesn't have time to react, it's just BOOM, and then she's in bed and pissed at herself.
--
She first sees him in the Nether. He's nearly two blocks tall, and strangely attractive. Faith's view of things has been warped by being in this dimension so long, she doesn't even mind his square head.
He's shooting at a ghast and Faith wants to run to him, but there's a pool of lava in the way. She considers building a bridge, but she's thinking too long and then he's gone.
She returns home with a renewed sense of purpose. There are people in the world. It's just a matter of finding them.
--
It turns out Faith doesn't need to find him. He finds her. Comes right through her Nether portal and walks right into her house.
"Hi," he says, his words flashing white in the air.
"Hey. I'm Faith," she replies.
"You can call me Steve." He looks around, examines her chests. "That's not my name but people seem to call me that anyway."
"People?" Faith asks, curiously. "There are other people?"
"They come and they go," Steve says and he looks almost sad, even though his expression doesn't change. It's weird. "Most can't handle the nights."
"Have you seen a girl --" Faith pauses and tries to figure out what the slayer would look like in this world.
He shakes his head. "I haven't seen a girl in years."
--
They don't really discuss it, but their households seem to melt into each other. Steve spends less and less time at his place, and Faith has built him a few chests so he doesn't have to run home as often.
They've started constructing a tower of obsidian and glowstone, all the way to the world ceiling. "So your friend knows you're here, if she's nearby," Steve says, but Faith is just having fun.
--
The sex is hard to get used to. Their flesh doesn't give the way it does in her home dimension and, well, things aren't round, either. But it works well enough.
She'll take what she can get.
--
They'd been together for a month when Andrew arrives.
Faith is planting a garden out front when he approaches. "Hey, Faith, you can come home now."
"What?" Faith asks, stunned. She's been here for months.
"Sorry about that, turns out it wasn't this dimension afterall," he says. "Little oopsie."
Faith refuses to go home, and Andrew makes comments about her "going rogue," but she doesn't care.
Eventually, he leaves, and Steve comes home from gathering ink from squid.
She doesn't tell him about the visit.
--
They finish off the top of the tower with flaming netherrack.
"There. If she's anywhere nearby, she'll see this," Steve assures Faith.
She feels a pang of guilt, but she keeps her mouth shut.
"What are we going to build now?" she asks.
Steve seems to be contemplating. "I'm not sure. The possibilities are endless."
Faith would smile, if she could. Somehow, she finally feels free.