Work Text:
Second had discovered the game at a festival.
There was a booth with a virtual simulation for it, too. Victim wasn't entirely sure how, but it apparently transported sticks directly into the world itself, probably not unlike a virtual reality headset.
Except instead of just seeing the game world from the outside, you were actually in it.
The game itself looked pretty simple (Maybe even fun? But he wasn't telling anyone). Everything was made of cubes, you went around collecting resources and making materials out of them during the day, and then survived hordes of monsters at night. A simple sandbox survival game.
"Can I try it, Vic? Pretty please?" Second asked, eagerly pointing to the booth.
Victim hesitated. Agent had asked them to not stay out very late, and the sun was starting to go down. He'd never hear the end of it if they got back late.
But on the other hand, how could he refuse when Second kept making that stupidly adorable pleading face?
"Oh, fine. Let's go."
The young orange stick threw his hands up into the air and dragged his brother over to where the booth was set up.
The waiver was a little worrying, especially after reading the fine print, but he had already come this far, so…
"Just be careful, alright?" He warned as the two went in. This was pretty new technology after all.
"Will do!"
"And don't tell Agent I let you do this."
"I won't!" Apparently, Second was paying attention, because he immediately followed up with, "Wait, why?"
"Just… don't. This will be our little secret."
"Okay…?"
Letting Second go in by himself was difficult (Even if it was only for an hour, and Victim would still be standing right there anyway), but he was able to let go of that small fear for just a moment and let the kid have a bit of fun.
(And he would pay for it later)
If there was one main reason Second wanted to play Minecraft so badly, it was to do something he'd always wanted to but never could in reality.
He wanted to build a treehouse.
Since he only had an hour, he wanted to get started as soon as possible. He had spawned in a jungle, giving him plenty of wood and very tall trees to work with, complete with vines and even a few cocoa beans scattered about.
And some melons, so that was cool too.
He got to work on the base pretty quickly. In the middle of it, he found a parrot and immediately dropped everything to look for some seeds (And saw, out of the corner of his eye, Victim with an amused smirk watching all of that).
By the time the first night fell, he had gotten a pretty good start. The base was finished and he'd started on the walls. He even managed to make some fences to prevent any accidents. He'd left spaces for windows to go when…
Oh right. He didn't have sand. Or a furnace.
Or a bed, which became clear to him slightly too late when he heard a low growl from a zombie nearby.
Well.
Two nights left before that became a problem.
Victim was actually pretty surprised by just how quickly Second had learned to play the game.
It had barely been twenty minutes and he'd already managed to build a partial shelter. Sure, the walls were unfinished and it didn't have a roof, but it was something at least.
Then again, he wasn't sure why he was surprised. Second had already proven himself on multiple occasions to be a fast learner, it made sense that this would be no different.
Hm.
He considered finding a way to recreate this machine later.
The next morning, Second grabbed a map and some tools he made and set out searching for a desert.
Or a nearby river, whichever one he came across first.
He didn't need a lot of glass, just enough to finish his project, but maybe he could find some sheep along the way to make a bed.
Sure, he'd only be using it for one more night, but it would be nice to have at least.
He got the sand, some cacti (To Victim's confusion; what did he need cacti for?), and enough cobblestone to make new tools and a furnace, along with some coal for easy fuel. Then he ran back to his base to finish what he'd started.
The rest of the day was spent finishing the outer walls of the treehouse, adding in the windows, and finally, dying the wool he'd collected from the sheep to make a bed.
A green bed.
(Ah. That's why he needed the cacti.)
It wasn't exactly the right color, but it was close enough, since he didn't exactly have any bonemeal to make lime green dye.
That was two of the three days he had.
Did he seriously ask me to let him do this just so he could build a treehouse?
Victim wasn't even mad about it, it looked nice so far. And it was clearly taking a lot of effort, so there was that.
Besides, there weren't that many suitable trees nearby in reality for that kind of project.
Maybe he could find a compromise of some sort.
The third and final day was spent making the treehouse look nicer.
(No, it wasn't pointless, at least not in Second's mind)
There was some leftover wool that was turned into carpet, a few lights put up to make it easier to see (and to prevent monsters spawning), the roof was finished off with some stairs, and he actually managed to create an elaborate looking staircase to replace the ladder he'd been using (Okay, elaborate was a strong word for it, but it certainly wasn't just a straight line to the ground).
Overall, it was a nice treehouse.
Too bad he didn't have the time (or resources) to make banners.
The hour was almost up.
He wasn't going to be able to keep the parrot, was he?
Well, it was fun while it lasted, then.
The final night was spent on the roof, safe within the light of torches, looking up at the stars.
Maybe he could get Victim to do something like this.
Better yet, they might be able to do it for real.