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Bdubs and Cleo sat on the mossy mountain beneath Cleo’s base, watching the clouds roll by. A long afternoon break, taken together to keep either of them from getting sucked into just one more project–as builders are wont to do. Occasionally, an elytra would zip overhead–mostly Joe Hills, flying around his dock on some errand or other.
“So Cleo.” Bdubs settled his head more comfortably on their thigh, face tilted up to stare at Cleo with a faint smirk. “A little birdie has told me, someone’s trying their hand at learning redstone themselves, hm? Designing their own farms?”
“Oh, it’s just a little dabbling, and not very effective dabbling yet at that,” Cleo temporized, waving the thought away with the hand not carding through his hair. “It’s mostly just the creaking farm, mind you–the guardian one’s from a tutorial by LogicalGeekBoy. I’m not that brave.”
“Of course not, of course not; guardians are stupid and the less time you spend in those ocean temple things, the better.” A careful nod of emphatic agreement, not dislodging anything. “Tutorial is the way to go. Get to hearing them die faster.”
“You seem enthusiastic about them today,” Cleo snickered.
Bdubs grimaced. “Tango asked for my help getting some sponges, and it went–”
“About as well as my attempt to kill the elder guardians did? Swimming in circles, missing swings, crying a little?”
“Probably worse. I got pushed into a death loop by those jerks, lost my freaking silk touch pick!” A hand came up, and Bdubs cleared his throat. “Anyways. So I shouldn’t be expecting any more Redstone with Cleo segments?”
Cleo pretended to think for a moment. “Well, we’ll see. I certainly wouldn’t to step on your toes, Mr. Master.”
“Oh, not at all, not at all!” The smile returned to his face. “We love to see someone learning. In fact, I’m happy to help if you’re needing some advice. Already had two satisfied customers, where even the mighty Etho failed, and my rates are–”
“Quite exorbitant, I’m sure. And does it count as two customers if it was only one machine you were fixing for them to use?”
“Yes.” Definitive.
A long sigh, and Cleo stretched, their back cracking faintly. “I can’t believe it’s this early in the season and you’re already getting a swelled head. You usually wait at least a few months for that.”
“Yeah, well. Why’d we have to change seasons at all?” Bdubs grumbled, visibly trying not to preen over the compliment. “I liked season 10. I liked my base, and having all my stuff, and not starting over in the Nether.”
“But Bdubs,” Cleo whined playfully, “if we didn’t change to the new update, we wouldn’t have all the new stuff to play with! Like shelves, and spears, and the copper golems–”
“DON’T get me started on those things!” Bdubs sat up fully at that, glaring out at nothing. “Shelves are good, very good, but they’re not worth having to hear everyone go on in the comments about those stupid golems being the solution to everything!”
“Thank you,” Cleo said, legs uncrossing to fold more comfortably over the step in the moss. “ At least someone agrees with me. I tried making a storage system with them, and it was just. More frustrating than regular storage systems, for basically the same result. At least normal redstone stuff doesn’t run away from where you put it!” A pause, and a shrug. “I mean, I’m keeping it, cuz I went to all that effort, but they’re still annoying.”
Bdubs nodded. “I tried the same, and I just got so ticked I let 'em all freeze to death. Stu, Idi, Moro, all of 'em. They’re good as statues for decor, not much else.” He looked back towards Cleo’s base, humming thoughtfully. “You get sick of them being idiots, you could pull them out and freeze them up. I know you can scrape em to all levels of clean without them waking up again. They’d go with the orange-tealy thing you’re doing. Which looks great, by the way.”
“So far, at least. It’s been like pulling stitches, especially since I don’t like orange in the first place.” Cleo shook their head. “Been leaning on it all being symmetrical, so that if I make one part look decent, I know it’ll all be the same decent. Don’t know how you make it look so easy, all the flowy blendy colory stuff you do.”
“Oh, it is easy. Or, easier than redstone, at least. It’s like terraforming; there’s rules, but those’re working backwards from what looks good, and that’s flexible.” He gestured at the mountain, at the flow of the curves. “If you can do this, which looks incredible–”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome! If you can do this, you can do the orange, trust me.”
Cleo looked back towards the first layer of their base. “If you say so, Bdubs. You’re more confident in me about it than I am.”
After a moment, Bdubs thumped his fist into his palm like an idea had struck.
“Okay! Here’s the deal, then. I can teach you redstone, and working with orange and stuff, and you can teach me to be meaner to people. Since it’s on my goals list for the season, and you’re very good at it.” His eyebrows raised. “Sound like a deal?”
“I mean, not sure you need my help with that. You’re plenty mean to me already, Bdubs.”
“Am not!” A pause, and then a thread of worry appeared on Bdubs’ face. “...am I?”
Cleo laughed, leaning over to bump the side of their forehead against Bdubs’ temple. “No, you’re not, Bdubs. You could stand to be; you’re too nice to me sometimes.”
A beat, and Bdubs beamed back. “Well, that, I don’t want to change.”