Chapter Text
"Why don't I remember all the paperwork involved in running Sky Army and all its branches? Why did nobody tell me there was paperwork involved?! I've been filling in boxes and signing my name for hours! This isn't fun!"
Of course he didn't get a response; the room he was in was empty, everyone else already out doing work such as carrying out errands or overseeing the execution of orders. SkythekidRS was left to fill out paperwork that gave those orders about the movements of materials and resources, who was prioritized to get them, what projects were meant to get them, and the amount of writing was tedious to the point of making him want to cry. Years of being in a state of suspended animation, dimly aware of the passage of time but so disconnected that he felt nothing for it, had made him forget a lot of the work that went into running Sky Army the actual military, as opposed to his Player's handling of their TeamCrafted and Sky Media groups.
He spent a moment swallowing down the flare of rage at the memory of TeamCrafted's end and the disaster that was Sky Media after, the impacts likely affected the stability of everything that was once familiar to him in Minecraftia. As shit as their relationships had been due to wartime and the desperate need to find and exploit any advantage they could over Herobrine, it wouldn't do to give his friends a free pass by blaming the trainwreck connections on Earth for their own meltdown in Minecraftia. It would make their efforts to get better on their own meaningless. They were not their Players any more than he was his.
"Ah, crap," Sky sighed, seeing his grip on his quill pen kept it in one place too long, staining the latest requisition form with a black puddle of ink. He'd need another copy made. Sitting back in his chair, he looked out the window of the working hut. In the distance, towers of scaffolding branched out to cover the beginnings of a new Sky Tower. Houses and apartment buildings were still being added to the residential district, expanding ever larger as swaths of land were staked out and claimed and built on. Sky had a feeling the richer Avatars were responsible for grabbing chunks for themselves, pulling away Builders from the public projects via promises of better pay.
Dream drifted by on the edge of his vision, mask on as was beginning to become his norm. From this far away, Sky could just about make out the words to an unknown song being sung by the new Anti-Viral Avatar; was it something to increase morale for the Builders? Or assist with speeding up construction? He hadn't been able to keep up with a lot of the changes to Minecraftia or what songs were put out that now aligned to Dream rather than himself, not with his time taken up with managing the slowly growing Sky Army.
He watched the blonde pass onward into the trees and turned back to the stained form. There was still work to be done.
The fresh copy of the requisition form sat in his hotbar as Sky wandered the cobblestone streets of Skytopia's residential district. Avatars bustled about, decorating, modifying, moving in, bringing life to the city on the rise. Houses of all sorts and sizes surrounded him, with the framework for mansions clearly seen further along in the distance. Part of the problem with Sky Army's previous incarnation, with its hunger for power and control to maintain an illusion of peace, was the disconnect between the upper ranks of the military staff with the people they'd been sworn to protect and defend.
Sky's new command structure demanded that all staff members take a few hours or so at the very least out of their week to spend among the populace, as well as make regular updates with the people of Sky Territories via global announcements and mass mail for more personal messages. There was clamor for something a bit more passive but still far-reaching for interactions, something like the social media platforms of Earth, and from what Sky heard in the rumor mills someone in Dream's camp was working on a Minecraftian version. The coding was slow going, requiring a lot of command blocks and redstone to support the rudimentary build and the posted messages could only be held in memory for a day before needing to be flushed to make space for more. Or they'd be pushed out of memory by new messages, if enough were posted to reach the limit.
If Minecraftia deigned to add the programming into itself, the memory issue would be solved. It was just a hassle to try and get any kind of contact with the world sentience for requests, not without being prepared to pay a hefty price for its assistance.
Sky offered a few waves and smiles to the few members of the populace who looked at him positively. Most of the Free Avatars were otherwise neutral to him, unimpressed with his exile despite the freedom it gave them from the Single Life System since it also allowed for the rampant corruption of his ideals in his absence. His return and efforts to 'clean house' were just first steps to redemption in their eyes for him and Deadlox. It'd be easier to get them to smile if Sky walked around with Dream at his side but doing that would lead to suspicion and distrust in him for relying on Dream's connection to people so obviously and heavily. It smacked too bitterly of using him and Sky had had his fill of manipulations on both sides. Besides, the little guy was already busy with collaborating with the investigation teams; a notice had been sent to him that the blonde was requesting time off to check in with the team that found a hidden research facility in the Nether.
More paperwork. Goodie.
He reached the current stall that served as the Builders' foreman station and dropped off a stack of paperwork detailing the projects that were approved for construction, which areas were available to build on, and the approved budget for paying for the Builders' time and skills. Arguing with the representative of the Builders faction was a new experience and time-consuming; fighting over the limited supply of emeralds in Sky Army's reduced treasury, currently stashed in his and Deadlox's Ender Chests, the demands for more expensive materials beyond what was available in the command block chain Dream had assembled for generating wood, cobble, redstone, and toolkits of iron tools, it was headache-inducing at the least.
'Some good came of it, I guess,' Sky thought to himself with a grin as the foremen gathered up the papers to look through and smiled up at him in appreciation. He was building up a better reputation slowly but surely. And good public relations would strengthen his position in arguing for his vision of Sky Army to overtake the one of the past, holding all members and Recruits accountable for their actions on the field. He wasn't going to let corruption get a foothold in there again, not without a fight.
With his rounds done and the newly filled out requisition form dropped off at the tavern where the Free Avatar Council was stationed, Sky sought out Deadlox to calm the nervous itch under his skin that came from being away from his partner too long. Distrust and paranoia was familiar to him now, creeping over him without someone he trusted close by to help him stay grounded and provide a second opinion when he couldn't trust his own.
He was aware that there was a word to describe what was happening to them both but he kept refusing to acknowledge it. Now wasn't the time, not when there was still so much instability and so few allies left and so many enemies free to move in the wilderness of the Overworld and the Nether. Maybe once peace was fully established, when there wasn't a major threat on the horizon to bulldoze through Minecraftia, he'd sit with Deadlox and their therapist and work on sorting out the tangled snarl that was their connection with each other.
Or Deadlox could be a dick and throw the newest edition of 'Skylox fanfiction' at him from the top of a tree.
"Hey! What the fuck is your problem?!" Sky snapped, rubbing his head as he glared up at the smug little shit crouched on the leaf blocks waving in the wind. The book itself, shimmering with a glow that meant it was signed and complete, rested on the grass like a placed block rather than hovering over the ground like a loose item to be picked up. Sky wasn't sure he'd ever get used to the new physics in the world brought about by Minecraftia taking cues from Earth and Minecraft Dungeons.
"You were walking around in your head again," Deadlox told him, sitting down and letting his legs dangle over the edge of the leaves. "Like having a giant 'Kidnap me!' sign stuck to your back." He leaned aside when the book was thrown back at him and ended up sailing off into the midst of the forest. "It's okay," he added offhandedly, "I have extra copies."
He didn't want to know why. "Why do you have extra copies of that?" Sky asked with a heavy sigh, shoulders slumping at disappointing himself.
"Did.. did you.. did you not just see yourself throw it like twenty blocks away?" Deadlox asked him with an amused little smile, pointing over his shoulder. "Extra ammo, dude."
"Shut up and get down here," Sky grumbled, waiting for the dancer to drop down from the tree. He reached out, fingers weaving in with Deadlox's and pulling him close, dropping his forehead onto the other Avatar's shoulder and sighing in relief. The buzzing under his skin settled and calmed, a sense of peace washing over him.
"Feel better?" Deadlox asked, tilting his head to rest his cheek against brown hair. Sky hummed, hoping the peace would last him long enough to suggest a quick getaway to get lunch together. "Good. Cuz I need you in a good mood for the report I'm about to give you. You're not gonna like it." He could feel the smile against his hair, could hear the bitterness in Deadlox's voice.
"Unless it involves those stupid squids trying to rally themselves, I don't wanna give a shit," he groaned, lamenting the possible loss of the warm feelings being close to his partner gave him.
"Seto escaped the prison."
And Sky immediately wished he had stayed indoors to do more paperwork.