Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Somewhere, on a pretty unremarkable desktop, in the dome of IP addresses that could be considered a sky, there once was a small group of sticks.

They were inseparable.

They went on adventures together, fought foes together, defeated enemies together.
They retreated home together, recovered from hurt and injuries together, cried out for help to each other.

They were inseparable.

But they were not invincible.

Sometimes there were obstacles not even their combined effort could overcome.

Their path had been crossed by a different stick. A stick stronger and more powerful than anything they had ever seen.

And it had killed them. One by one.

They should not have survived that situation.

They should have been dead.

Then why were they still here?

Oh yes, there had been another stick. It had also shown strength and power, far beyond any of their imaginations.

And it had saved them.

Though they were eternally grateful, that had basically been the end of it. They had gone back to their desktop, their home, and the other had stayed, presumably also going back to its home, wherever that may have been.

Years had gone by, and so had their adventures. Friends had turned into enemies, rising alongside new ones, some had turned into friends again, while others had needed to be overcome with other methods.

But still no sign of their saviour.

Until one day, the Outernet portal opened again.

And the ever powerful stick figure appeared on their computer once more.

It told them it needed a place to lay low for a while, that it was hoping things would cool down, if it stayed away for some time.

The group happily welcomed it in, after all, they always enjoyed having other sticks around.

Some of them were a bit suspicious of the stick figure though and tried inquiring about what was going on. However, the other stick would not let them in on any more details, no matter how many times they asked. So they reluctantly decided to leave it be for now.

As the friend group was showing the newcomer around, its interest was piqued by a cube-like icon, located on the taskbar.

“What’s that?” it asked, pointing at the block.

“Oh, haven’t you heard of it before? I thought everyone knew about it,” the green stick replied.

“It’s our favourite game!” the orange stick said cheerfully. “Do you want to try it?”

Five pairs of eyes were now looking at the black stick expectantly.

It seemed to consider the invitation for a moment.

Surely there was no harm in trying, right? After all, it would be staying here for some time.

Chapter Text

“Right, I think that’s about it. All that’s left now is to choose a door.”

The Color Gang had decided that it would probably be best if they actually gave Chosen a place to stay before they started having fun and got up to any kind of shenanigans. Green had volunteered to build a small house on the left hand side of their own five story building, and the others had agreed.

It had turned out a bit bigger than what Chosen thought was necessary, but the young stick seemed pleased and he didn’t want to argue about irrelevant details like that.

Besides, Green had already rebuilt the room several times whenever she had thought something was slightly off, even if had only been to swap the materials around.

The building consisted mostly of wood, with windows trapped in each wall, including the one where the entrance was going to be. Green had even furnished the room with items he deemed to be essential.

There was a chest next to the bed where Chosen could store all of their non existent belongings. A cupboard had been arranged by the wall opposite the bed for all of the clothes they were apparently carrying around. And, last but not least, Green had put up a bookshelf beside the doorway and had filled it with literature Chosen neither knew nor was interested in.

Oh, and the flower boxes underneath the windowsills. Chosen actually liked those. They were pretty.

Now they were both standing outside, with Green listing all of the different types of doors that could fill the gap in the wall.

“Let’s see… We have oak doors, birch doors, spruce doors, …personally I wouldn’t recommend the acacia door—”

“What about that one?”

Green looked to where Chosen was indicating.

“The iron doors? We don’t really use those that often… but I suppose it could work. Maybe if I replaced some of the wood with stone, then—”

“Green, it’s fine.”

A blink.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, you don’t have to change it again.”

Green shrugged, looking slightly disappointed. “If you say so.”

She had just finished placing the buttons next to the entryway, when there was a call from across the desktop.

“Dinner’s ready!”

“Okay, we’re coming!” note shouted back.

As they were moving over to join the others, Chosen noticed that the footsteps behind her briefly stopped, and then turned back around.

She looked back just in time to see Green pull out an axe from his inventory, run around the house, breaking all the wood at the very bottom, to then go around again, lining the wall with cobblestone, admire his creation one last time, before running past Chosen and sitting down at the table, finally satisfied.

Chapter Text

splat, splat, splat, splat, splat, …

Chosen was curiously observing the blue stick figure in the rightmost corner of the desktop. They were currently placing a fresh layer of dirt on the available surface.

For what reason, Chosen couldn’t tell.

Maybe they were trying to build a sandcastle out of dirt? A… dirtcastle?

Okay, that probably wasn’t the case, but it wasn’t that far fetched.

Now Blue started laying down a different kind of soil. It wasn’t as coarse as the normal dirt and had a slightly darker hue. Chosen mused that it looked so soggy and disgusting, something must have died in there.

Wait.

…

But why would a kid’s game need a block like that? That didn’t seem right.
He would just have to ask about it later.

Blue seemed to have finished covering the ground and quickly scanned his inventory for another item. He finally settled on a stack of saplings.

Ohh, that’s what he was doing.

Yes. That definitely made more sense.

But what was the soil with the questionable texture for then? It didn’t look like anything could grow in there.

“Hey Chosen! Wanna help me out over here?”

The gardener stick waved at them with the saplings and gestured for them to join him.

Oh well. She figured she might as well start being useful on the computer.

Again.

Chapter Text

As soon as Chosen had reached the patch of dirt, he was handed half a stack of oak saplings.

“We’re running low on supplies again, so Sec put me in charge of restocking our plant based resources,” Blue explained, while also passing over an axe and some kind of white powder.
They noticed Chosen’s puzzled expression.

“It’s bone meal. Here, I’ll show you!”

They took a few steps back, creating a gap between the two.

“All you have to do, is to set the tree into the ground like so,” a sapling was placed in the open spot, “and then you just take your bone meal aaaand…”

Puff

Blue came out from behind the trunk.

“Ah, maybe you should have stood a little further away.”

He cut down some of the leaves before carefully pulling Chosen out of the tree.

“Sorry about that.” An apologetic smile formed on his face.

“It’s amazing stuff though, isn’t it? I’ve learned that it actually exists too! Of course, it doesn’t make the trees grow this rapidly, but it is used as a fertiliser, which does make it accurate!”

“Where do you get the bones from?”

“Oh, we usually just kill skeletons when they’re around. They drop their bones and we then turn them into bone meal. The ones we don’t use Red collects to tame wolves.”

“How, exactly, does one kill a skeleton?”

Blue appeared stumped for a moment.

“Okay, maybe it’s not all accurate then.”

After Chosen had been informed about the mechanics of a minecraft axe, the both of them soon got to work, planting, growing and chopping down oak trees, one after the other, then collecting the saplings, starting the cycle from the beginning again. It didn’t take long before Chosen’s entire hotbar was completely full.

“I see our wood problem has been solved.”

The hard-working sticks glanced around.

“Oh, hey there Yellow! Yeah, as it turns out, Chosen is a very efficient lumberjack. Why, did you want a few stacks?”

“Mhm. Me and Red are mining downstairs and have run out of sticks for torches.”

“Sure thing! Hey, why don’t you take Chosen with you as well? I think I’ll be able to handle this myself now.”

“ ‘kay. Come on then.”

Yellow led the way across the desktop to a sizeable hole in the floor, right next to their collective home. Ladders were attached to the sides, but yell didn’t acknowledge them and jumped straight down instead.

Here goes nothing, Chosen thought, and jumped in after them.

Chapter Text

Falling from great heights was not something new to Chosen. They had gathered enough experience on the matter to have certain expectations about the procedure. The most prominent one, was that there would eventually be an end to the fall.

What Chosen was not expecting, as she was dropping down the minecraft shaft, was that her trajectory would, upon impact, completely reverse by 180 degrees, carrying her back up the shaft again. She was so astonished, in fact, that she almost let it happen twice. However she quickly realised this would likely only lead to the same result, so she lit up her hands and lingeringly descended to the ground instead.

“Not a fan of trampolines, huh?” a voice came from the right.

Yellow was sitting in a minecart, with an empty one stationed slightly behind them.

Chosen momentarily acknowledged the four by four grid he was standing on, made out of a wobbly, green substance, before directing his attention back at the yellow stick.

After making sure Chosen was looking zhir way, zhe pushed zhirself off from the stone floor, causing the minecart to gain enough momentum to roll over the edge and further down into the mines.

The other cart lay waiting on the tracks. It was promptly occupied, with its inhabitant repeating the steps as demonstrated, while also straining to avoid touching the cold iron.

Darkness drenched the tunnels like syrup, only being dried by the occasional torch illuminating the walls. Chosen was becoming more and more wary of the rails leading deeper and deeper into the stone, leaving the only exit to escape further and further away.
This was not made better by the constant spiralling motion the minecart was making.

Down and round, down and round, down and round, down and—

stop

The sudden halt nearly made him fall out of his seat. It also made him painfully aware of how dizzy he had gotten.

“Not a fan of roller coasters either, hm?” the brightly coloured stick figure asked. “That’s okay, you can use the stairs next time.”

Yellow helped Chosen out of the ride, but getting up only made everything spin faster.

Together they walked along a lengthy corridor, with narrower ones branching off into different directions. Down here the air quality was noticeably worse, rendering Chosen’s headache official.

“Would you mind handing me the wood now?”

She obligingly did so.

“Thanks.” They wandered over to a crafting table, made some more lights and came back shortly after, holding one in their hand.

“Here,” yell provided him with a pick axe, “you know how to use one, right?”

But before she got a chance to answer, there was a call from one of the strip mines.

“Hey, look what I found!”

Upon hearing Red’s voice, Yellow started running in the direction it had come from.

And since Chosen didn’t have anything better to do, and because they didn’t exactly want to be alone in this stifling situation, they followed after yell again.

Chapter Text

When Chosen finally arrived at the entrance to the tunnel, the other two were already lost in conversation.

“—n’t think you could get so many in one vein!”

“You can’t, actually. They’ll be two different ones. Must be because we’re in between two chunk borders. I’ve heard of it happening before.”

“Must be pretty rare though, right?”

“Oh absolutely! You’d have to be very lucky to find something like this.”

“Hey Chosen, look! I found two diamond clusters right next to each other. Isn’t that cool?”

The walls appeared a lot closer together than before.

“Yeah, that’s great Red. …Good job.”

“You okay? You sound like you’re holding your breath or something. And you don’t look so well either.”

The exit was still so far away.

“Y’know, it’s likely just the air down here,” Yellow explained to Red. “With all of the dust that gets thrown up and no proper way to ventilate this place, I can see why one would try not to breathe in as much.”

How long would it take him to get back out, if he started running now?

“I know! Chosen why don’t you take these diamonds back upstairs to Orange? I’m sure they said we needed more of those too,” Red suggested.

“Great idea! You could maybe take some of our other supplies like the redstone and the iron too, while you’re here,” Yellow added.

And just like that, Chosen found himself walking back up the stairs next to the minecart rails, holding all of the supplies he could carry, first only taking one, then two, then three steps at a time, before completely succumbing to his paranoia and flying out of the underground tunnelling system, up the vertical shaft and onto the desktop at full speed.

Chapter Text

To say it had been a dignified landing would have been an overstatement.
To say Chosen hadn’t bothered to lower herself carefully and had therefore crash landed, barely being able to keep herself upright, that would have been a lot more accurate.

Leaning on the wall of the Color Gang’s house, Chosen began taking deep breaths and tried to calm down, which was not an easy task considering he was still on the computer and not actually outside yet. But at least he managed to get the shaking to stop.

Commotion coming from the tree plantation from earlier caught her attention. Only it wasn’t really a tree plantation anymore, as all the trees had completely vanished. Various other crops were now occupying the sheet of dirt that still lay in the same spot as before.
Another difference was that Green had also decided to show up, chatting with Blue and helping with the plants.

As soon as Chosen felt well enough, they started walking over to the busy duo. Blue noticed them first.

“Oh, hey Chosen! Back already?”

“I have a delivery for Second,” they announced, presenting the valuable ores.

“Sec is sleeping right now,” the builder replied, “but we know what to do with them just the same!”

Chosen handed them the supplies.

While the two of them discussed what tools were needed most, Chosen glanced around at the farm. There was wheat and beetroot, and there were carrots, potatoes, pumpkins, melons and—

…

Something was actually growing in that stuff. It couldn’t be food, right? It certainly didn’t look very edible.

“Ah, I see you’ve taken interest in the nether wart!” the blue stick remarked excitedly.

“Would you like to t—”

“No Blue! Chosen would not like to try the nether wart!”

“How do you know? They might like it!”

“Or they might accuse you of trying to poison them!”

“…”
“You never let me do anything.”

Chapter Text

A little later in the day, Chosen was sitting on his new, pixelated bed trying to pass time by reading one of the books from his shelf. It was a detailed guide to the inner workings of computers and how they operated.
It was turning out to be more interesting than he had thought it would be.

There was a knock on the door.

“Come in.”

The door screeched as it was flung open to reveal Red on the other side.

“Hey! I, err, …noticed you didn’t like being downstairs in the mines very much. And honestly, I get it. It isn’t a comfortable place at all. So, I thought I’d show you our other basement, so that you might have a more positive experience with our caves!”

“…I think I’ll pass.”

“Oh, come on, please? The air in there is much better and it’s nowhere near as tight and cramped! It’s not even that far underground. You’ll like it, I promise!”

Sigh

To Red’s delight and Chosen’s surprise, she actually ended up agreeing to go back down that wretched tunnel with him. This time Chosen decided to take the ladder, eager not to let the egress out of sight too soon again. Once she reached the end, Red led her to a passage opposite the drop to the mines. The path was considerably less steep and didn’t wind around in a spiral either, but went straight on instead.

Only a few paces later, the stone under their feet was beginning to be replaced with oak planks, while moss spread across the walls and floor.

And then the tunnel stopped.

And they entered the cave.

It was massive.
Every surface seemed to be covered by a plant or another. Moss, grass, bushes, vines, you name it. Even the water was full of big, almost heart shaped leaves. And animals too. There were brightly coloured fish, squid that could glow in the dark, and amphibians Chosen had never even heard of before, all swimming around in the lakes underneath. And another type of animal made itself known. Bats were fluttering by, evading obstacles at lightning speeds, directing Chosen’s gaze to the crystal filled holes in the walls.
Everything was being illuminated by a soft, warm glow, unlike the Outernet or the desktop, which always used bright, harsh lighting.

“Told you,” Red said, grinning.

It was only now that Chosen realised that their jaw had dropped after entering the cavern. They quickly shut it again.

Mew kept on walking along the wooden walkway leading further into the heart of the cave. Despite still being unsure about the situation, Chosen followed, willing to admire everything from a closer perspective.

“If you think this is good, you should see the real thing!”

“This isn’t real?”

“Not exactly. Me and Orange found this on another computer a few months ago. We were just as impressed as you are now! So, we figured it would be nice to be able to see it whenever we wanted.”

They stopped as the walkway ended.

“How did you get it over here then?”

“We rebuilt it.”

A beat.

“The whole thing?”

“Yep. From memory, mind you.”

Chosen glanced around again to properly take in the scale of the build.

“Just like that?”

“I don’t think you realise how boring it can be on the computer.”

Chosen almost let Red know that they did in fact know just how boring it could be on the computer.
Almost.

Before Chosen could say anything else, Red reached up to one of the vines and pulled out something small and round.

“Glowberry?”

Chapter Text

He turned over on his side.
He tossed around to his other side.
Then he tried laying on his back.

Then he gave up and threw the blanket off the bed.

It was simply no use. The mattress was too soft, the blanket too rough, and everything was just so unbearably hot.

This was not to say that she typically got a good night’s rest. Only whenever she was this exhausted, she would eventually be able to fall asleep.
Unlike today.

Chosen remained in this position for a moment, then got up, ambled across the room and went outside. The desktop was a lot calmer, with only the persistent hum of the computer being audible, now that everyone else was sleeping. Except for one stick, who was sitting in an open tab above, drawing mindlessly.

She decided to visit them.

“What are you still doing up?”

The orange stick figure glanced at him.

“I’m doodling,” it said and glanced back down. “Normally I wouldn’t stay up this late, it’s just that I haven’t had time to draw all day and I get upset if I can’t indulge in my interests. Besides, I’ve already overslept most of today, so I’m not as tired as usual.”

“Are those your friends you’re drawing?”

“Mhm! This was the time when Green won her 100th building competition. I nearly thought the computer was going to explode from all the TNT.”

Chosen wasn’t sure why someone would want to celebrate their work by blowing it up, but then again, Chosen wasn’t sure about most of the things the Color Gang did.

“Why? What are you still doing up?”

He shrugged. “Can’t sleep.”

“Oh, why not?”

“I guess I’m not used to Minecraft beds.”

The other considered this for a moment.

“I could draw you one.”

“A bed?”

“Yeah! Here look!”

Second, now full of energy, jumped to their feet and started sketching. It was clear that they had a lot of experience with the craft, as they were done within a couple of seconds.

“Ta-daa!” It presented its creation proudly, beaming at Chosen. “Come on, try it out!”

There was a creak from the bed and a rustle as the covers were rearranged.

“Any better?”

“It’ll do, thanks.”

“No problem! Would you like me to leave you alone then, in case I disturb you?”

In all honesty, it would likely be easier to fall asleep without the constant tapping of a pencil.

However, this would also mean that they would be dormant, alone, in plain sight, on ALANSPC. Trying to sleep while knowing that would practically be impossible.

It had always helped exponentially when there had been someone there she could rely on, while she had slept, even if there had been no immediate danger.

“No, you can stay.”

It had just always been someone else.

Chapter Text

“Is everyone ready?”

There was a chorus of avid nods in response.

In front of them lay, as they had explained to Chosen, a nether portal. They had invited some old friends to stay for a couple of days and were planning to meet up with them at the halfway point.

This arrangement had been made before Chosen had arrived on the computer, which meant that their friends didn’t know Chosen was here. But that just made the Color Gang all the more excited to finally introduce them to each other.

“All right, let’s go,” the orange stick exclaimed half-heartedly, clearly not as keen on going as the others, but enthusiastic nonetheless.

One after the other passed through the portal, until the desktop was empty.

On the other side, the first thing Chosen noticed was the piercing heat of the place. The air itself seemed to boil from the extreme temperature. And not only did it feel warm, but the nether also looked like it was burning with the overwhelming amount of red used for every surface and object.

Before she could make any further observations however, the group started heading forward and the journey began. Along the way, the landscape changed drastically every now and then, making it hard to believe they were still the same dimension.

Eventually they reached an area consisting mostly of lava pools, old structures and a reddish stone for walls, floor and, strangely, ceiling.

Something must’ve caught Green’s attention, as he suddenly pointed into the distance.

“Hey look! They’re here!”

The others began chatting excitedly and soon picked up the pace. Even Second appeared to loosen up a little.

But when the visitors inevitably came into Chosen’s line of sight, he halted abruptly.

There was a friendly exchange of greetings between both parties, until someone pointed out Chosen’s presence, whereupon the group’s friends became just as taken aback as Chosen himself.

Their friends were no Minecraft entities, as she had presumed.

They were stick figures.

And, judging by their expressions, they were from the Outernet.

Drat

“Hey, now that you’re here, we’d like to introduce you to someone!” Red bursted out.

“Chosen, these are Purple and Mango, Purple and Mango, this is—”

“The Chosen One?” the purple stick asked.

“…Yeah.”

“The Chosen One?” the taller stick asked frantically.

Red paused. “Do you know each other or something?”

Both of them stood perplexed for a while. Then Mango seemed to get a grip on himself.

“Would you please excuse us for… one second?” he said, whilst dragging Purple back with him. It wasn’t so much a question as it was a statement.

Although they were being too hushed for the group to understand, it was apparent that their discussion was turning into more of an argument.

“Chosen, do you know them already?” Red inquired again. But they didn’t answer, not even acknowledging the question in the first place.

In truth, he didn’t know them. In fact, he had never seen them before in his life. Though unfortunately that didn’t matter because, clearly, they knew him.

Some minutes later, the two seemed to come to a conclusion and rejoined the group.

Mango coughed quietly. “Apologies for the wait.”

Silence.

“It’s a… pleasure to meet you, Chosen,” Purple continued.

“Yes, …it’s nice to meet you too, Purple… and Mango.”

A few feet shuffled awkwardly.

The purple stick figure glanced around, uncertain. “Okay, …are we going, or?”

Red straightened up. “Uhh yeah, sure.”

And just like that, everyone spun around to head back to the computer.

As Chosen was about to fall in line, they were forcefully grabbed by the wrist.

“Can I talk to you for a second?” the tall stick requested, waiting for the others to pass them by first.

Once they were out of hearing range, she was released from Mango’s grasp and they both followed behind the rest.

“You’re the one from the posters, aren’t you?”

Chosen kept on walking.

“You’re the one they’re looking for.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Oh, don’t play dumb with me. I know who you are. Don’t think I wasn’t around all those years ago, when you were having fun destroying other people’s homes. The only reason why I haven’t gone back to report you yet is because Purple has this new thing about giving people second chances and that ‘you got a second chance, so Chosen should get one too’. And that’s only because, unlike me, he wasn’t old enough to understand what you were doing back then.”

Chosen briefly scanned the other stick. Mango’s attitude was starting to get on their nerves.

“Now, you may be The ‘all-powerful’ Chosen One and whatnot, but you definitely should not underestimate me or my capabilities. Because, believe it or not, I also know a thing or two about power and strength. So, if you don’t want me or that organisation to come after you, I suggest you stay away from my k—, I mean, Purple.”
“You got that?”

Some people were just so irritating.

“Why do you feel the need to intimidate me?”

There was no response, aside from Mango’s stunned expression.

“Listen, I don’t have any intentions on harming anyone. Even without your little speech. You seem to think I like to set people on fire in my free time or something. You also seem to believe I’m defenceless now that I can’t roam around wherever I please anymore, which would make you a hypocrite for underestimating me. So riddle me this, big guy. How would you plan on reporting me, if I could just kill you before you got there?”

A disturbed look formed on Mango’s face. Chosen noticed the nether portal coming up ahead.

“So, since you really claim to know me, I suggest that you don’t annoy me again, if you don’t want to experience the consequences first hand.”
“You got that?”

With that, Chosen left Mango behind and went through the portal, to return to his own personal hell again.

Chapter Text

Upon arriving back on the PC, Chosen avoided interacting with anyone else and went straight to their room, closing the door behind them and sinking to the floor with their back against the doorframe.

That definitely hadn’t gone as planned…

But then again, everything here had really been grinding Chosen down lately.
She hadn’t been getting much sleep, the lights were always a little too bright, making her want to tear at her skin, and no matter where she looked, she was constantly reminded of the fact that this wasn’t the first time she had been here.
And the longer she stayed, the more memories came back.

Chosen hadn’t meant to lash out at Mango like that. His concerns had actually been quite reasonable.

They were just so tired.

“Oh! You keep it here now?”

There were muffled yet audible voices from outside the house. If Chosen were to wager a guess, he’d say that had probably been Purple.

“Hm? Oh, yeah. It had just kind of felt right to have it in its proper spot again, y’know?”

That sounded like Second. Or Blue perhaps?

No, definitely Second.

“Mhm, I see what you mean… Say, don’t you think it’s kind of weird, how such great powers could be contained in such a flimsy looking cube?”

“…”

“What’s with the face? I’m not going to take it again, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I know, I know. I’m sorry, it’s just… I guess it just doesn’t feel so long ago.”

“You can say that again.”

The other stick let out a flat chuckle. “Come on, I think Green is done building you a holiday home.”

Chosen heard their footsteps advancing away from him.

After it had been still for a while, he got up, reached into his bookshelf, sat down on his bed and continued reading the computer manual to distract himself from the now more noticeable hum of the computer.

Chapter Text

“Sooo, what do you do whenever you get bored?” Chosen asked the quartet at the table.

“We try new things!” the red one called.

“Like what?”

“Like finding out what other functions a Minecraft block has,” the yellow one responded.

“Especially if it’s a function it’s not supposed to have,” said the green stick. “For example, you’re not supposed to use the fishing rod as a grappling hook, but that’s not going to stop me now, is it?”

The blue figure pondered Chosen’s question themself. “Or we try out new fighting techniques and hone our skills, to prepare for any unexpected dangers… or to just have fun.”

Red nodded in agreement. “Sometimes we even browse through the Internet to look for something interesting to do.” She paused to think. “I guess, when you have a limited amount of space, you eventually need to start getting creative with your options. That’s why we’re always exploring our surroundings in detail and finding ways to make the time pass by.”

“It must be nice to live on the Outernet,” Yellow contemplated. “Don’t get me wrong, I love being on the desktop, it’s my home after all. But sometimes it can get a little… understimulating.”

“Chosen, don’t you live there? What’s it like?” Blue chimed in again.

“Yeah! That place is huge! You must travel around a lot, right?” asked Green.

You have found a new target website.
This is already the fifth one you and your new friend are going to destroy this month.

“You could put it that way, I suppose.”

“And the sites you visit, are there many people there?” Yellow prompted.

You are met with dozens of pairs of eyes staring up at you.
The ones who know you don’t stay very long and run away immediately.

“Oh yes, …lots of people.”

Red’s eyes glinted excitedly. “You must have a great number of friends then!”

“Can’t say I have.”

“Oh? Why not? You’re so fun to be around!”

Everything has gone up in flames.
The only thing louder than the roaring fire and the collapsing infrastructure are the screams.

“Beats me…”

Chapter Text

“Okay, let me get this straight.”
“This virus you were following was able to simply pass through the Outernet barrier, but you weren’t and you therefore slammed face first against it. Using your laser eyes, you were able to burn a hole through it though and quickly picked up the pursuit anew. However, there was another obstacle in your way, which was essentially the back of the screen, as you said. You tried your laser eyes again, but they weren’t powerful enough, so you charged up your fists with all of your available energy and blasted a hole into the barricade, causing an explosion in the process.”
“And that’s how you got onto the computer?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Huh,” Purple said astonished, “and to think all I have to do is walk through a nether portal.”

Chapter Text

It had occurred to Chosen that it might not have been a good idea to speedrun through the only interesting-looking book in her entire bookshelf. As it had turned out, she lacked the amount of imagination the Color Gang had when coming up with new activities to indulge in.

This was why Mango had found Chosen just standing in the middle of her room when he had entered after knocking at her door.

“Oh, what do you want?”

“Alright, listen. I’ve been thinking about what I said to you and it has dawned on me that I may or may not have been overreacting a little.”

“A little?”

“Well, what would you have done in my place? The only context I’ve ever heard of you in was when you were blowing things up. Rational thoughts like ‘oh look, he’s friends with the Color Gang, he should be fine then’ are pretty much all suppressed by previous knowledge like that.”

“Okay, fair enough… Did you want to say anything else or was that it?”

“Yeah so, as I was saying, because of this revelation, I have decided that I wanted to apologise to you.”

“…Wait, really?”

“Absolutely. And to make sure you know that I mean it, I’ve gotten you a gift.”

“A gift?”

“I had to go back to the nether to trade with some of the piglins to get it. Though, technically it’s actually called bartering, but it’s basically the same thing.”

Chosen was presented with a small, circular Minecraft item.

“What is it?”

“It’s a fire charge. You use it to set things on fire or as a fireball if you have a dispenser.”

The rather sweet smile that had been on Mango’s face, Chosen realised, was turning out to be much more of a self-satisfied smirk.

“Funny.”

Chapter Text

In the morning, the Color Gang had decided to leave the desktop for a Minecraft village, as there were a few items they had wanted to trade there.

This would have meant that Chosen would have been by themself, if it weren’t for the two stick figures visiting from the Outernet.

Fascinatingly, they hadn’t come empty-handed, bringing food, drinks, plates and cutlery, even though Chosen couldn’t remember them carrying any bags with them. But maybe he just hadn’t been paying attention.

When the friend group had asked why they had bothered, since they already had plenty of provisions themselves, the two had pointed out that they only had Minecraft food, which wasn’t exactly to their liking.

Chosen had to agree. It had been alright for a while, but eventually it had become annoying to have all of your meals be crunchy.
Even the soups.

Therefore Chosen had been incredibly relieved when Purple had invited her to join breakfast.

After they had finished, Chosen and Purple got caught up in conversation, which left Mango to clean the dishes by himself on the other side of the room behind the counter.

“But you must have heard of Minecraft before. It’s one of the most popular games ever!”

“Oh, I’ve seen glimpses of it. But it wasn’t till I got here that I actually found out what it was.”

“Not even when it was in the papers?”

“It was? When was that?”

“A few years ago. Something about three stick figures, I think, creating a way to play Minecraft, while still being on the Outernet.”

The sound of the plates being washed briefly paused.

“Did it work?” Chosen asked.

“No. I believe the main focus of the article was about an accident involving the machine breaking suddenly.”

The clinking of the cutlery was a lot quieter now, as if trying not to drown out the discussion.

“Oh, what a shame.”

“That’s not even the worst part. If I remember correctly, then there was still someone inside the game when it malfunctioned.”

“Did they make it out?”

“Mmm, I’m not sure… Hey, I know! Maybe if the newspaper has a website, we could find ou—”

There was a crash and a startled shriek from the other side of the room.

Purple looked across. “Mango, are you okay?”

“Yep! Heh, just dropped a plate, that’s all,” he explained hurriedly.

“Alright then…”

“By the way,” Mango peered over the counter, “I happened to overhear your conversation and I just wanted to let you know that it doesn’t have a website, so you don’t have to look for it or anything.”

“Are you sure? They usually do.”

“Yeah, I checked! Don’t—Don’t worry about it.”

Purple looked back at Chosen, clearly confused, but didn’t inquire any further.

Later on, Chosen did decide to worry about it and, after some research, actually managed to find the article on the Internet.

They felt really bad afterwards for almost laughing in surprise.

Chapter Text

“Chosen, are the others back yet?” the other inquired.

“I haven’t seen them, so I guess not,” he replied to the yellow stick in front of him.

Yellow had returned from the friend group’s collective escapade early and had started constructing something on the side of their five story house. Every now and then, Chosen had glanced out of her window, trying to figure out what exactly yell had been up to, but to no avail.

Eventually Yellow must have finished though, since zhe was now standing in Chosen’s doorway, looking like zhe was going to explode with excitement.

“Fine, I’ll have to show you then!” they claimed and swiftly dragged Chosen outside, in front of their house’s main entrance, where the new contraption was located.

“I’ve finally completed it!”

“—finally completed it!”

“After years of having to run up and down those long flights of stairs, I have created a mechanism to solve all of our problems!”

“—created a mechanism to solve all of our problems!”

“Behold,” zhe paused for maximum dramatic effect, “my very own redstone lift!”

Chosen beheld the redstone lift.

“Complete with various pistons and observers, this invention will transport you to the top floor in record speeds. Come on, I’ll show you!”

“—on, I’ll show you!”

Once again, Chosen was dragged away, this time into the relatively spacious Minecraft elevator.

“All you have to do is press this button and then—”

“—and then the procedure should begin!” the other elaborated in detail.

Chosen reached for the small contraption on the table and firmly pushed the lever down. The two flat parts at the top slid into place.

“I’ve made sure that the entire process will only take a mere 30 seconds, by far more efficient than the average model on the market! …This, of course, does mean that it has a higher chance of blowing up due to technical difficulties, so if anything goes wrong, just—”

The flat parts popped up again.

“Hey, look, it’s done!”

One of the pieces was snatched up by the brightly coloured stick for inspection.

“After all this time, finally, …we can make toast!” The red stick figure held the food high up into the air.

Chosen let himself be infected by his peer’s enthusiasm. “At last, no more soggy bread!”

“Exactly!” Chosen’s companion yelled, laughing.

They couldn’t help but laugh too.

“Hey, Cho?”

“Yeah?”

“Hey, Chosen?”

“…”
“What?”

“I said, we’re here!”

Scanning her surroundings, she realised that they really were on the fifth floor. She turned to face Yellow again.

“Were you even paying attention? I’ve literally been rambling about the logistics of the lift for the past two minutes.”

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry Yellow. I must’ve gotten distracted…”

Chapter Text

“Y’know what? While we’re up here, I might as well show you something else.” Yellow pushed another button on the lift. It responded with a beep and descended to the next floor.

When the doors opened, Chosen was met with the sight of a white room, containing multiple large chests and complex machinery wherever it could fit.

The young stick stormed inside and reached behind one of the boxes. Chosen gingerly followed, trying not to accidentally knock anything over or flip any suspicious looking switches.

“Ah, here it is.” They pulled out a purple beam curving around a block at one end.

“Pretty cool, huh? It’s a command staff, or at least that’s what we call it. We don’t use it all too often, but it can do some pretty neat things, like…”

Zhe turned the staff upside down, so that the block was at the bottom, and jumped up. A line of text very briefly appeared on the floor, disappearing before Chosen had a chance to read it. Yellow’s feet landed on the block, but instead of slamming onto the ground, it stayed in the air, letting Yellow hover above the floor.

“Hah, I can see the top of your head from here.” They grinned, before hopping off of the floating staff.

“Did you make that all by yourself?”

“Ah, no, I didn’t make it at all. It actually used to be Mango’s. He must’ve made it.”

“Mango’s? Why do you have it then?”

“Um… it’s a long story, but, well, …let’s just say it was a present.”

Chapter Text

“Oh, I didn’t know there were eggs in Minecraft.”

Blue looked up from their cooking station. “Well yeah. How else would I make this?”

Chosen watched as the other put milk, sugar, wheat and an egg together on the crafting table. Out of them popped a box shaped cake.

“Obviously you need to be careful when the recipe requires you to crack open the egg, in case there’s a chick inside. Red made sure I wouldn’t forget… But, speaking of Red, surely you’ve seen mew use spawn eggs before, the ones where fully grown animals come out?”

“I guess now that you mention it… I just thought they were too big to be eggs.”

“I mean, to be fair, they aren’t natural eggs. They’re not laid by anything. We’re not even able to obtain them without a command block or the Minecraft icon.”

Blue picked up the cake and carried it over to the dinner table.

“Of course, there is one other type of Minecraft egg, isn’t that right Purple?”

The addressee caught sight of the blue stick.

“Oh my animator, I literally already said I was sorr—”

Chapter Text

“You got all that?”

“Mhm, I think so.”

“Great, you should be ready to go then.”

At the top of an open window, Purple had been instructing Chosen on how to fly using an elytra. He had been quite thrilled about the idea and had even let Chosen borrow his own pair.

Now Chosen stood at the very edge, carefully adjusting the wings on their back.

They took a step backwards,

leapt,

and, amazingly,

flew.

Of course, Chosen had flown before, but never without utilising her own powers.

She had to admit, while concentrating on gliding steadily across the desktop, this was actually pretty nice. It was rather relaxing to—

Oh, wait.

Chosen suddenly realised that there was one thing Purple hadn’t explained yet, as the other end of the screen started getting alarmingly close.

Chapter Text

Somewhere, on a pretty unremarkable desktop, in the dome of IP addresses that could be considered a sky, there once was a small group of sticks.

Their path had soon been crossed by a different stick. A stick stronger and more powerful than anything they had ever seen.

It had told them it needed a place to lay low for a while, that it was hoping things would cool down, if it stayed away for some time.

So, The Chosen One had stayed with them, had stayed for weeks just playing their little game. But it hadn’t always been fun for the stick.

Memories had kept seeping in through the walls and floors, from every corner and alcove, back into its mind, keeping it wary during the day and awake at night.

Even with a plentiful amount of things to keep the powerful stick distracted, its thoughts never stopped slipping back into the same mindset.

Ultimately, it couldn’t take it anymore. The Chosen One left without another word, without saying goodbye to anyone, hoping it would finally be safe to leave again.

When the group had wandered into its room, dressed up in costumes and armed with bags of sweets to celebrate their beloved annual festival, all they had found was a note on the bed.

No explanation for its appearance nor its disappearance had been given, only its appreciation for their hospitality had been mentioned.

And that had basically been the end of it. It had gone back to the Outernet, presumably its home, and the others had stayed on their desktop.

Months later, just as unexpectedly as all the previous times before, the Outernet portal opened again.

And The Chosen One appeared on their computer once more.

But this time, he wouldn’t be here to stay.