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"I still have no idea how you talked me into this." Bad said, smiling ever so slightly despite himself as he opened up Rock Simulator. "This is ridiculous."
Foolish laughed. "No, no, the gameplay's great." He insisted, opening up a game and waiting.
Bad logged in alongside him, rock appearing in the field.
"The game's got a separate voice chat built in if you want to switch to that." Foolish said.
"That's just- Why?" Bad said, and laughed a little too. "I don't get the point of this."
The two of them both switched to it anyways, just to see what it was like.
"How long are we playing this for?" Bad asked, looking around the game.
"Yo! You sound like you're really to that side of me!" Foolish said.
"Ohh, you do too!"
"It's like a little meet-up!"
Bad paused, staring at the rock in the plain with him. Foolish had spawned in as some marble of sorts, with patches of pale yellow. Meanwhile Bad himself was a darker rock, more akin to his minecraft skin, though he knew that was just a coincidence.
Then he spoke. "Your meet up standards are so low." He said, with a chuckle.
"Well, it's like- When I turn this way, you hear me less, right?" Foolish said, apparently turning away as he spoke, and sure enough he was muffled. "Just like real stuff! And there's the birds and grasshoppers and the wind in our ears- We're basically both in the same space, we're just both rocks."
"And it's still a video game."
"..Yeah." Foolish said. "You have a butterfly on you! It just landed!"
Bad turned his mouse to look up at it. "I do! Aww, it's kind of cute!"
Foolish watched as the sun in the game started to set, casting Bad in golden light, the man so close, little coos of wonder as the butterfly flapped and fuck, he was yearning because of a rock game. "I wish I could build in this game, or something." I'd make something just for you.
"You can just do that in minecraft, can't you?" Bad asked, looking down from the butterfly to Foolish.
Foolish thought on that for a second. "Yeah. I guess I can."
The sun set, and the two of them left the game.
"G'night, Bad."
The other man left the call, and Foolish got back into minecraft.
"What's the best place for a first date?"
"I'd say an amusement park."
"Why that?"
"Well, it's exciting! Overcoming dangerous things together? That's perfect for growing a bond."
"I'll go with a classic, a ferris wheel"
"Those aren't exciting, though"
"Rollercoaster then?"
"Yes, exactly!"
Foolish got into a singleplayer world - He didn't have a ton of iron anymore on the SMP, and the gold was all to go to his other projects if he someday got to go back to his desert, so he wanted to do it here where he had access to creative - and began his work.
Bad woke up to the sound of discord notifications, vwoop after vwoop after another, when he checked, seven of them.
Foolish: Bad
Foolish: I have something I've gotta show you
Foolish: wakey wakey
Foolish: we're in the same timezone
Foolish: It's nine AM
Foolish: I waited hours to make sure I wouldn't be waking you up too early
Foolish: did I do it right
Foolish: Come on I made something for you
Foolish: Hop onto this minecraft world
Bad looked at the direct connect code he'd been sent, and with a tired sigh sat up and got out of bed.
He sat down at his computer and joined a call with Foolish.
"So, what is this world of yours?" He asked, opening up minecraft, cleaning his glasses while he waited for the game to load.
"It's a surprise, Bad, I can't tell you yet!" Foolish said.
Bad raised an eyebrow, and Foolish almost seemed to be able to tell from the other side.
"Okay, I really shouldn't tell you, but it's inspired by some of the stuff we talked about the other day." Foolish said. "I made it for you after we stopped playing the rock game."
Bad put his glasses back on, and clicked to discord to read the time the call had ended. "Have you slept?"
"Ehh, a little I think." Foolish said. "I was excited. Didn't want to chicken out."
Bad got into the world, and saw Foolish standing in front of him, minecraft skin decked out in his red banquet suit. They were standing in a small courtyard thing of sorts, smooth stone pieces beneath them like tiles on the floor, a fountain of water behind Bad when he turned around.
Then Bad turned back to Foolish, and saw that the build stretched on behind him. A path, leading away from the fountain, an archway. Bad walked towards it and Foolish followed.
"So, you like what you see?"
Bad's gaze went right up to the towering sets of blocks that stretched above him, at first messes of diagonal lines and ups and downs with supports until he realized-
It's a rollercoaster.
Bad turns to Foolish. "You made this based on the stuff we talked about?"
Foolish nodded, walking up beside Bad as if he was trying to take the man's hand. "Yeah! I was going to go with a ferris wheel, impress you with my circle skills and all that jazz, but then you said you didn't like them."
"I do like them, I just said that they-" Weren't as good for a date because they aren't as exciting. Bad realized, as he walked up to where there was a place to get onto the rollercoaster. He looked back at Foolish, thoughts falling apart like train tracks used to in water in this very game. "What?"
"..You figured it out already, didn't you?"
Bad stared at him for several more seconds, until Foolish walked past him, setting a couple of minecarts and one in a furnace out on the track. "Uh- See, look, we can ride it!"
Bad followed more slowly, real-life eyes wide. Is this for content? He hasn't said he's recording, nothing of the sort, so-
He got into the minecart. "You ready to go?" Foolish asked. Bad nodded his character's head, and the two were off.
The whole thing was built from blackstone, just like the build they'd been working on as they talked about all these things, Bad realized. They went up, then through a small concrete cube that he recognized as his tiny build. A series of droppers above the track sent out five steak just soon enough that Bad was able to pick them up. There were a dozen other little references to the things they'd talked about; A cat by the path, a coupon that they rode along the edges of then circled around and went through. Dropping almost to the ground, to the field below them, where two rocks had been built.
Then it went back up, into a half-built tower - Just like the one Bad had tried to build in, with the egg gamble - where they stopped. There was a sign there, in glowing ink, on a small stand, and two branching railroad paths. A lever on each one, to make either the route.
Badboyhalo, it read. Will you get coffee with me?
Left is yes, right is n
Bad chuckled at that. "You missed a character."
"There wasn't space." Foolish said honestly.
Bad glanced back to the man behind him. He could hear the bit of tiredness in Foolish's voice, knew the little bit of sleep he'd said he had was probably by accident, and knew that this had all been done for him. Foolish had heard his words, his advice, and was trying to use it now.
Foolish had said himself that he was desperate for love, was this just that? Was that a no-go, or..?
Bad could imagine the other man's face, earnest and vulnerable and hoping, and flicked the left lever.
Foolish cheered as the track set off again. "Yes! Thank you Bad, I can promise I won't waste your time!"
"Other than with rock and tree simulators." Bad said.
"Okay, that's true." Foolish said with a chuckle. "So when do you want to do this?" He asked, as the yes route took them to a street, lined with coffee shops built in the game. "And which place? Which state, even, there's like four between us."
"True." Bad said. "I like that one." He said, punching the air in the direction of one of the cafes they passed. "We're going to have to upload those videos we've been procrastinating on, to pay for this."
Foolish laughed, tired but real. "Yeah, we will."
Bad smiled.
"Dogs aren't a deal breaker for you, right? Because if this becomes more than just a coffee I'm not getting rid of Rat."
"They are not."
"Good."