Chapter Text
[select multiplayer world]
[ggt server] ←
[joining server…]
“What the fuck”
“Oh good, you’re here.”
In the span of a second, Krishna woke up and spawned at the same time, which felt concerningly similar to being prodded with a live wire. He stilled in confusion and apprehension. Where was he? He was lying on something soft, and he could feel a distinct warmth on his face, which was strange because Krishna was fairly sure it was winter the last time he went to sleep, and he refused to use a heater because Tumblr said they represented Communism. Instead, he usually bundled up in every blanket he could find. Speaking of, none of those blankets were here. He should find them. He swung his legs out to find a floor and went to sit up, only to promptly bonk his head on the wooden… ceiling?
“You dumb fuck.”
What the- Who was that? Who was saying that? Because whoever it was, Krishna would like a word with them. He had just woken up in a strange place and a strange bed and he had no idea what was happening. Oh my god, were they his kidnappers? Did he get kidnapped? But he was busy! Could they reschedule? They sounded really familiar… Krishna rubbed his forehead where he’d hit the ceiling (ceiling?!?) and called out,
“Who’s there?”
“I’m right in front of you, Krishna.”
Krishna blinked and looked. Then jumped sky high (ow- wooden ceiling) when Xia, in the most ridiculous orange jumper, materialized right before his eyes. He swore violently and rubbed his head (that was going to bruise) and then gaped at the scene in front of him.
The room he was in was not the one he’d gone to sleep in, which he knew because there was no way he would’ve designed a room this atrocious. It had turquoise walls and cat stickers on nearly every surface. The ceiling was much higher than his initial estimation and the surface he had woken up on was a bed covered in neon green blankets (which clashed horribly with the piss yellow pillow).
What he’d first thought was the ceiling was not actually a ceiling, but a shelf whose placement would make most interior designers weep. It was the only shelf in the room and it was one foot above the bed.
The worst pop of color was Xia herself, with her, frankly, monstrous orange sweater with brown puffballs and green hijab. She looked like a pumpkin. She narrowed her eyes at him like she knew what he was thinking (and maybe she did, he wouldn’t know).
Krishna gripped his bed sheets tightly in one fist. He was going to burn that sweater. But first…
“Xia- what the hell is going on here? Where is this place? How are you here? What is up with this stupid shelf? What is this room?” An idea struck him and he balked and rolled off the bed, almost hitting his head again (seriously- what the fuck was up with that?), and grabbed Xia by the shoulders. She squinted at him, looking completely at home.
“Xia- are we dead? Is this the afterlife? All I saw was this screen that said something about a server? And- and joining it? Oh my god- is life just a simulation? Are we-”
“I’m gonna stop you right there, champ.” Xia interrupted suddenly with gusto and pried his hands off her shoulders. She stepped back and puffed a breath, looking distinctly annoyed that he ruffled her sweater. He didn’t understand why, it was horrendous.
“No, this is not a simulation. Yes, you saw a game screen. No, you are not dead. Although you may as well prepare yourself to be since you almost concussed yourself the second you woke up.” Xia continued smoothly over his offended expression.
“To be completely honest, none of us really know what is going on either. All we know is that one by one, we all woke up in this bullshit castle-” that was said with humor “-and that it looks suspiciously like the one Charlie built for all of us in their Minecraft world."
She was tapping her foot.
That was not helpful.
“Wait wait- Charlie? Charlie as in- our Charlie? And- and Minecraft? So- we’re in Minecraft then. This is a game.”
Xia nodded. “Yes and yes, and we all have the abilities of a player, too. Amanda was the first to figure that out after she smashed her head into a tree and it broke and started floating.”
Krishna gaped. Xia looked serious. “Amanda? So… is everyone from GGT here too?”
She hummed an affirmative while studying him, looking judgemental. Rude. “She’s the reason we have to be there every time someone new spawns into the world. So you can thank her for having me being your greeter.” Krishna grimaced. Of course, it was Amanda’s fault, the gremlin woman. Xia nodded in agreement (could she read his mind!?!?).
Xia huffed and turned to examine his room.
“I gotta say, your room has got to be the barest. Even Wynne’s is better. Charlie must’ve not gotten around to finishing it, like most other things in this castle. It’s not as bad as the dining room, though.” She patted his head sympathetically.
Krishna opened his mouth to ask what was wrong with the dining room before halting as he heard something from outside his room.
A voice floated from down the hall (?) that had a vaguely Northeastern American accent. “Hey! I resent that.” Footsteps stomped closer from the hall (?) outside Krishna’s room, before finally stopping in front of the closed door. The voice, now much closer, spoke. “It’s not like I actually expected us to live here or something, I just made it for fun!” That was Charlie, then. So this was actually real. Or was he insane?
“And I’m sorry that it’s not to your satisfaction, at least most of the castle has a roof!” They sounded like they had said this before, and were now very exasperated.
Xia wandered closer to the door but didn’t open it. “Yes, and most of those roofs have stains on them! And, because of your ‘fun’, Krishna probably has more brain damage than before.” Krishna squawked, but Xia didn’t seem to hear him. She continued speaking through the door.
“And don’t say the stains are lighting problems. They’re definitely stains. Why would you build stains into our castle?”
Charlie let out an audible grumble and something thumped on the door. “They are lighting issues. Prismarine lanterns are really hard to style! And Krishna already had brain damage, it’s not my fault he doesn’t get out of bed as a normal Minecraft player does.”
Well, how was he supposed to know? He just got here. In front of him, Xia tutted. “Whatever, just make sure that when we remodel this room, we put a lot of healing potions on the side. He’ll need them.” She shot him a look when he huffed. He stuck his tongue out at her. Hm... Maybe he did have brain damage…
Charlie sighed again and Krishna zoned in to listen. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. I swear none of you are ever going to let that go. I do not have the energy for this. I’m gonna go clean out the kitchen again, Amanda got her hands on the poisoned potatoes.”
Xia grimaced, looking at the door with pity. “Good luck with that,” she said lightly, drumming her fingers.
Krishna heard Charlie turn around and walk away, their footsteps clicking on the floor. Were they wearing heels? He didn’t know Charlie wore heels. Then again, he didn’t know Xia had a taste for sweaters that he could get for 50% off at Spirit Halloween. Xia scoffed at him angrily and glared (could she read his mind???). Krishna squinted. ‘Can you read my mind? ’ he thought. ‘ Your sweater is really ugly, why are you wearing it?’
“Well, it’s not like I can change what I’m wearing! All of us who didn’t have Minecraft skins from before got randomized ones! I mean, what you’re wearing could literally be a hate crime, and yet do you see me laughing at you? No. Because I’m nice like that. Also no, I can’t read your mind, you’re just thinking really loudly and it’s projecting into chat.”
…
Krishna looked down. He was wearing denim on denim with multiple tank tops layered on top.
…
He looked like he’d stepped off the set of iCarly.
…
Well, fuck him then.
Xia snorted.
Krishna wanted to cry.
“So… chat?” he asked instead.
Xia motioned to his head. “It should be something you can feel naturally. There’s this little section of our brains that works on its own, and that’s where you can find your health bar, your inventory, people’s name tags, and the chat. Try concentrating.”
Krishna concentrated and tried not to look constipated. There, somewhere near the front of his mind, was chat. It was almost like a roped-off section of his mind where something else was controlling what was happening. There were multiple empty boxes, which he assumed were the inventory, and there was a large set of full hearts and hunger bars. Hm. Could he, hypothetically, punch someone and take away their hearts?
Xia’s glare intensified. “Don’t you dare,” she hissed.
Oh, right, chat. Krishna continued examining the space in his head. There, off to the left and hidden behind his inventory, was a large, almost comical cartoon phone with a screen filled with text. And, Krishna thought with fascination, it looked almost exactly like a Discord setup.
KrishnaLovesFortnite: [And, he thought with fascination, it looked almost exactly like a Discord setup.]
AmandaGrace12: [awww Krishna, he’s like a little puppy discovering something new.]
Rhysbowl: [Amanda, stop patronizing him, he’s fragile.]
AmandaGrace12: [Well, it’s not like he can see this. My guy didn’t even realize he was projecting until Xia told him lol]
Krishna stared, entirely offended. Were they talking about him the whole time?? How was he supposed to know he was in a Minecraft game?
KrishnaLovesFortnite: [He stared, entirely offended. Were they talking about him the whole time?? How was he supposed to know he was in a Minecraft game?]
AmandaGrace12: [:anguished: :person_standing: :eye: :lips: :eye:]
Rhysbowl: [:neutral_face: :expressionless: :neutral_face:]
OnyxOxymoron: [Aw, it’s okay Krishna, I got here like five minutes before you did and I was just as confused]
Itsathenix_: [yeah, but did you immediately smash your head into a conveniently placed shelf?]
OnyxOxymoron: [lmao no LMFAO]
CharlieWasTaken replying to Itsathenix_: [HEY, I said I was sorry.]
Itsathenix_: [no, you didn’t.]
CharlieWasTaken: [no, I didn’t.]
Krishna surfaced from his mindscape with horror. “How do I stop projecting?” He frantically asked. This was insane. This was entirely insane. And what was that in the corner of his eye? Was that- NO. It was chat. In real life. Outside his mind. What was happening?
Xia shrugged. “That’s your chat outside of your head. Maybe now that you know of it, you can see it better? I don’t know, man. This shouldn’t really be happening in the first place."
Krishna groaned in frustration and slight terror. Could he, for once, get a straight answer? "Just- how do I do this?" he begged.
Xia sighed. "Just pretend there's this shield between your mind and the Minecraft part of your mind. Some sort of barrier so the two sides aren't merging. Imagine someone is trying to break into your mind and you’re trying to keep them out."
Krishna attempted to shield his mind, being uncomfortably reminded of those YouTube videos that tried to teach him meditation. Maybe he should’ve listened more. He could feel a sort of layer between his brain bits (that needed a better name) so he imagined pulling it over the area like a curtain. A sort of wave swept over him, and when he surfaced from his mindscape, the world was much clearer. In front of him, Xia straightened. Krishna could see a name tag floating above her head, hovering in a way that looked reminiscent of a slightly lazy budgie following around its owner. It read [xiastortillas]. He smiled. Xia squinted at him, confused. Hm, so it was working.
Xia rolled her eyes and turned around to the door, gliding towards it elegantly despite her undignified clothing. Her name tag floated serenely above her. She opened the door and he toddled out of bed to peek outside.
"Come on. You need to meet everyone. Fair warning, most of their outfits are randomly generated and atrocious. You’ll fit right in"
Krishna didn’t even bother with giving her a dirty look, too busy examining the halls. Xia was right, they were stained (he could imagine Charlie’s offended look). The rest of the hall was made of wood with a generous amount of multi-colored paint splattered onto the sides. That had to be another a recently-added touch. These people were idiots. He couldn’t wait to see what their randomly generated outfits looked like, and what their name tags were.
This was going to be fun.
—————————
~incorrect quotes~
—————————
Charlie: AMANDA. EVERYONE. GET OFF OF THE FRIDGE
Amanda: NO
Violent crash
Charlie: So, did everyone learn their lesson?
Amanda: No.
Athena: I did not.
Krishna: I might have actually forgotten one.
Onyx: I also did not
Charlie: *exhausted sigh*
—————————
James: On a scale of “Hi, Welcome to Chili’s” to “free sha vaca do”, how would you rate this experience?
Tuesday: It’s between “it’s an avocado, thanks” and “how did you defeat Captain America”, but as a solid answer I would say “I don’t need a degree to be a clothing hanger”. How about you, Wynne?
Wynne: Probably “road work ahead.”
Charlie: I speak many languages and this is none of them.
—————————
Athena: How did none of you hear what I just said?
Charlie: I’ve been zoned out for the past two and a half hours.
Ash: I got distracted about halfway through.
Xia: Ignoring you was a conscious decision.
—————————
Tuesday: What? I’m not aggressive!
Rhys: Last Wednesday, you fell off the grand staircase in order to whack me with a pair of crocs with the force of a thousand suns just because I ate your chocolate chips.
Tuesday: Survival of the fittest, b***h.
—————————
James: Petition to remove the ‘d’ from Wednesday.
Amanda: Wednesay
James: Not what I meant, but I’m flexible.
—————————
Athena: How do you politely tell someone you want to hit them with a brick?
Xia: I wish to acquaint your facial features with one of the fundamental items used in building walls.
Athena:
Heavenly music plays
(far away)
Krishna: …what are they doing?
Rhys, praying: God, give me patience
Krishna: Don’t you mean strength?
Rhys: If God gave me strength, both of those shits would be dead.
Heavenly music still playing
—————————
Ash: kicks the door open, looking panicked
Tuesday: …What did you do?
Ash: NOBODY DIED.
Tuesday: WHAT DID YOU DO?!?
—————————
Onyx: I’d die for you.
Wynne: Yesterday you said that to a potato chip, so you can understand if I don’t feel that special.
Onyx: Mm okay, then I’d live for you!
Wynne: YOU WOULD WHA-