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Lacking a fear of heights was nothing new to Gem. When she built, she usually built tall, and this season was no exception. The block leagues above her, marking the topmost point of her castle build, was a miniscule blur against the sun.
She was perched atop part of the red roof, adding spikes and peaks to the flat facade, when a shadow crossed over above her. A flash of white hair and green clothes–Etho. He was always coming over to visit her. Or bother her, more accurately. He rapidly plummeted, landing deeper within her castle.
“Do you like it?” Gem called, gathering her building materials and leaning over an unfinished section of the roof so she could see him.
Etho closed his elytra and squinted up at her. “It’s coming along.” He wandered around on the bottom level, staring up at the in-progress roof.
“I’m gonna add windows, don’t worry.” Gem swung a leg over the side of the roof and dropped, landing on her feet. Her boots absorbed most of the damage. “Over between the pillars to let some light in.”
Etho stepped closer to the wall, almost comically so, and stared up into the rafters. “All the way to the ceiling?”
“Just about. They’ll be stained glass too, I think. I have a pattern in mind. Come see from the front,” she said, tossing a shulker down on the ground to get it out of her inventory. Showing off her build was much more exciting than working on the roof, and she had needed a break anyway.
Etho followed her out onto the stony front platform and down the stairs. Gem turned, gesturing to the door. “Pretty grand, huh? Just imagine this doorway framing some long, dark hallways. It’s gonna be gothic–not too much light or anything.”
“Looks good,” Etho said, in a rather monotone voice. That was the most Gem was going to get out of him in terms of a compliment.
“Once it gets tall enough to be imposing, then the effect will really settle in.”
“How tall will it be?”
“See that block up there?”
Etho squinted at the sky. “Uh…”
“Almost directly above us, in line with the center of the door.”
Etho continued squinting. “Nope. But I can imagine how tall it will be.”
Gem started up at the block she had placed to mark her build. It was small, sure, but easily noticeable against the stark blue sky. There was nothing else in the air to focus on aside from it, and it was definitely within visible distance. “Can you really not see that?”
“Uh… Well, it’s kinda bright out here–”
“Etho, it’s cloudy.”
“Maybe I’m just too far away. Also my time is running out.”
“What? Your time–”
Etho vanished right in front of her. Gem started but remembered Etho had some sort of weird ender pearl stasis chamber connected up to his player launcher. And if he had somehow figured out how to teleport on command otherwise… Well, that was probably just another day in Etho’s world.
Gem gathered her tools and put her building materials to the side. She wanted to find him, maybe just to tease him a bit, because there was no way his vision was that bad. He had been squinting a bit, though. Gem paused her preparations. Etho actually did that a lot, now that she thought about it. He had come over to see her base a few times at this point and had always squinted for a better look.
And forget a sign in the distance. When she had crossed paths with him in the shopping district once before, he had been wandering around, more than a little lost, until Gem had pointed him in the right direction. He had been squinting at the signs then too!
She took off with her elytra in the direction of Etho’s base, ready to get to the bottom of this.
===
Gem landed to find Etho wasn’t alone at his base. He had been joined by Beef in his storage room, who was prodding one of Etho’s copper golems with a delighted look on his face. Etho rifled through shulkers, though jolted at Gem’s rapid descent.
“How do you keep doing that?” she demanded. “You keep vanishing out of nowhere in the middle of a conversation!”
“My time ran out.” He didn’t explain further.
“Oh, I can tell,” Gem said. “Has he pulled this on you too?” she asked Beef.
He looked up, seemingly surprised he was being addressed. The copper golem he had picked up to mess with swiped at his arms, though Beef was undeterred. “Uh, no. But I usually come to him.”
“Did you know he’s blind?” Gem accused. She was glad Beef was here. He’d care enough to actually get on Etho’s case about something like this, and Beef was one of the few people Etho would have a chance of listening to.
“Blind?” Beef demanded. “You?” he asked Etho.
“No. Gem’s just mad that I couldn’t spot a tiny little speck she left in the air.”
“It’s really obvious! It’s a block marking the top of my base,” she explained, for Beef’s benefit. “Kinda really stands out against the blue sky.”
“It’s sunny out,” Etho complained. “I couldn’t see it.”
“How many fingers am I holding up?” Beef asked, setting the copper golem down, who eagerly scurried off to empty Etho’s chest.
“Two.”
“He’s not that blind,” Gem said. “You do squint a lot though.”
“I do not.” He notably stopped squinting as she pointed out that fact. “Only if it’s super bright or something. Or if I’m looking at something really far away.”
“You shouldn’t have to squint at all though,” Beef pointed out. “Things shouldn’t be blurry at a distance.”
“They aren’t,” Etho said quickly, brushing by him to store some spare items in a shulker.
“Maybe we should make sure though?” Gem suggested. “We can test you.”
“I don’t think–”
“I’ve got signs,” Beef agreed eagerly. “Come on.” He stepped off the ledge of Etho’s storage room. Gem sincerely hoped he had an elytra.
“This seems unnecessary,” Etho said.
Gem didn’t want him to worry, but there was a chance that his vision was worse than he thought it was. Maybe it was mild enough that he hadn’t noticed though? A little blur might be easy enough to brush off as a non-issue. “It will be quick. And trust me, you’d know if it was that bad. You’re just having trouble seeing things far away, right?”
“I’m not having trouble seeing at all. My vision is normal. Like it always is.”
Gem shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out then. Come on.”
Etho followed her down to the ground, where Beef was already setting up a sign on a pole. Gem wasn’t quite sure how this whole thing worked. Neither she nor Beef were eye doctors, and the most she knew was that eye checking involved reading letters from a certain distance away. It wasn’t like they had any glasses though, so if they discovered Etho was in further need of attention, they were going to have to find someone better equipped to help him.
“It’s cheating if I can’t read your sloppy handwriting,” Etho pointed out.
“I’m writing neatly!” Beef said, keeping the contents of the sign hidden from Etho. “Go stand over there, and I’ll turn it around when I’m done.”
“How far away should he be?” Gem asked. “A few blocks, isn’t it? Five or six, maybe?”
“That sounds about right.”
Etho sighed but went to stand five blocks away from Beef. “This better not take too long. I have work to do.”
“You’re not on another timer, right?” Gem joked.
“No,” Etho said mournfully. He squinted up at his player launcher, as though relishing in the idea of a quick and easy escape.
“Even if he was, I know where he gets teleported to,” Beef said. He flipped the sign around and stuck it on a block. “What’s the top letter?”
He had written three lines, each with more letters than the one above it. Their sizes decreased from smallest to largest. The topmost line had a singular, massive letter–almost comically huge. Gem covered her mouth and tried not to laugh. Standing next to Etho, she could read all three lines. The bottom one was small, but still legible to her.
“Beef, I’m not blind!”
“Well, what is it then?”
“E.”
“Good. How about the next line?”
“No squinting!” Gem scolded, swatting his arm.
Etho stopped and stared at the sign. “F, C, Z”
He was wrong–the first was an ‘E’ and the second an ‘O’. Perhaps slightly alarming, but he had gotten one right… Okay, maybe that was alarming. Gem could see them all perfectly fine, and those letters weren’t even that small.
“Okay,” Beef said, face surprisingly straight. “And the bottom row?”
Etho studied it for a moment. Long enough for Beef to lean over and look at the sign himself to ensure the letters were legible.
“I don’t know,” Etho finally admitted.
“Best guess?”
“They’re too blurry.”
“You can’t read them at all?” Beef asked, mildly alarmed.
“They’re all blurry. Back me up, Gem,” Etho complained. “Beef, you wrote them when you were close to the sign, but I have to stand far back. There’s no chance of me seeing them from all the way over here.”
“I can see them just fine,” Gem said. “All three rows. You got two on the middle row wrong, by the way.”
“What?” Etho approached the sign.
Beef stepped further back to check which lines were visible to him at a distance. “I dunno, Etho. I can see these just fine.”
“No, come on, that can’t be right,” Etho muttered. He was hovering just in front of the sign now. “It’s not that bad though. It can’t be.”
“Haven’t you noticed any blurry vision?” Gem asked. “Or maybe headaches?”
Etho shook his head.
“Well, it had to get worse at some point, even gradually. Did you just start having problems this season, or…”
“I… I don’t know. This is… isn’t this normal? Maybe you guys just have really good vision. It’s kinda always been like this, so maybe you guys just have really good eyes.”
Gem exchanged a concerned look with Beef. “Etho, I have normal vision. Are you sure yours has always been so blurry?”
“I mean… I guess? It’s never really been a problem before.”
“Maybe you think it was never a problem,” Beef said. “But this… This really isn’t good.”
“I didn’t know!”
“I know,” Beef said. “But… well, maybe I should have noticed. You do sorta squint at things all the time, but I didn’t think it was this bad.”
“Beef,” Gem admonished. “You knew!”
“Well, I didn’t… I mean…”
“It’s normal,” Etho said.
“Yeah,” Beef agreed. “I guess I didn’t really find it odd,” he said hastily, as Gem glared at him. “That’s just how Etho is, ya know? And we’d play CTM and he was always spamming torches everywhere–”
“For the spawners, Beef.”
“Yeah, yeah, for the spawners,” Beef agreed. “But it wasn’t always great conditions, and it was dark a lot of the time, so I guess I just thought… I dunno.”
“You’re both stupid,” Gem said. “Who on the server knows how to build glasses? Heck, who even knows how to do a proper eye test? No offense, Beef, but I don’t think some letters on a sign are gonna tell us everything.”
“Maybe my eyes aren’t messed up, then,” Etho said.
“Oh, they definitely are,” Beef reassured him. “Who has glasses on the server?”
“Joe.” He was the first Gem thought of.
“Yeah. Let’s figure out where he got them from.”
===
Joe was not at his base. Nor was he at spawn or roaming around the shopping district. They found him atop a tall hill, gathering leaves from the nearby trees. Several empty tree trunks had been left in his wake–though he seemed to be chopping them as he went.
“Joe,” Gem called as the three of them descended rapidly. “You have glasses.” Straight to the point. They had little time to waste, and Etho hadn’t been keen on coming with them. She didn’t want him getting any bright ideas like running off.
“Howdy. You are correct,” he said, tapping them with a finger.
“Where did you get them? From someone on the server?”
“Well, originally, no, but a couple of weeks ago I got caught up in a creeper blast, and one of the lenses shattered. Zedaph was kind enough to hook me up with a quick fix.”
“Really!” This was wonderful. And much easier than Gem thought it would be.
“Do you know if he tests eyes?” Beef asked. “We don’t have glasses for him to fix–we kinda need to start from scratch.”
“I don’t know. But knowing Zedaph… I’m sure he’d be able to cook something up.”
Gem turned to Etho, who looked terrified by the very thought. “How does that sound?”
“Terrible.”
“Great! Let’s go.”
===
Zedaph wasn’t in the shopping district. Ironically, that was the first place they checked because it was closer, but upon arriving at his base, they found him in his storage room, wandering in circles around a donkey.
“Hello,” he said, slightly spooked, as the three of them flew in.
“Hi!” Gem said brightly. “You fixed Joe’s glasses, right?”
“Uh-huh.” If he was puzzled by the direct topic, he didn’t show it.
“Do you know how to make glasses?”
“I know how to make everything.”
“Well, I have a very eager customer right here,” Gem said, grabbing Etho’s arm and pulling him into Zedaph’s base–he had been hovering in the doorway, looking unsure of what to do.
“An eager customer?” Zedaph studied him for a moment. “For glasses?”
“He needs them,” Beef said. “Badly.”
“I don’t know about badly–” Etho began.
“But the problem is we don’t know how badly,” Gem said. “We tested him a bit, and he’s definitely squinting at things that are far away. I don’t know much more than that though.”
“It’s really not that bad,” Etho admitted. “Just… normal vision, really. Things far away are slightly blurry.”
“They shouldn’t be blurry at all,” Beef pointed out.
“Oh, I can help you with this.” Zedaph slapped down an ender chest and started digging through it. “My supplies are probably still in here.”
“Supplies?” Etho echoed in a worried tone.
He pulled a shulker out and started digging through that too. “I’ve actually done this before. You wouldn’t believe it, but Tango cannot see anything.”
Etho blinked. “Really?”
“Can’t see a block in front of him without glasses, I guarantee it.” A bundle was pulled out of the shulker. Zedaph dug through that as well.
“But… Tango doesn’t wear glasses.”
“Contacts,” Zedaph said, snapping the bundle shut. “I should have everything. You three… wait there a moment. I have an empty room that we can probably use.” He darted out into the light, taking a staircase up to another portion of his base.
Etho frowned in the silence. “I can see more than a block in front of me.”
Gem sighed. “Well, congratulations. You’re better than Tango.”
“I already knew that,” Etho joked.
===
Zedaph came to collect them only a few moments later, rambling about his general excitement. Etho did not exude the same enthusiasm but allowed Zedaph to lead him into a crude room dug into the side of the mountain. Gem and Beef followed, unwilling to be left behind.
The stone room was mostly empty, though it was well lit with glowstone and torches. A white sheet with black letters was hung on the far wall. In front of it, set a few blocks back, there was a red line of wool in the ground, obviously marking the distance one needed to stand from it. Aside from that, Zedaph had set up a crafting table and planks of wood as a table, which was scattered with translucent lenses, metal wireframes, and a few loose sheets of paper.
“Stand right here, sir,” Zedaph said, leading Etho over behind the red line, facing the poster on the wall. “And no input from the audience, please.” He ushered Gem and Beef to stand off to the side. Etho watched them go. His expression was fearful enough to be shared with those who didn’t have long left to live.
“Etho…” Zedaph said grandly, picking up a notebook and pen. “Second line from the top, if you please.
Etho hesitated, before he began to read.
It went on like that for a few minutes. Zedaph had him cover his left eye, then his right, changing out the posters a few times so the letters were different. Gem and Beef played along silently, seeing if they could read the smallest lines.
Etho’s poor vision quickly became apparent. He missed several letters and claimed some lines were blurry–which looked perfectly visible to Gem. How he had let his vision get so bad, she didn’t know. Zedaph had told them to remain silent though, so she did so. She didn’t want to distract Etho either, who was now zoned in on trying to focus his eyes to read increasingly smaller lines.
She and Beef shared another worried look when Zedaph had Etho read with just his red eye, covering the uninjured one. It was clear this side suffered even worse than the other.
Eventually, Zedpah slipped a lens into each side of the crude wireframe glasses he had made, instructing Etho to put them on and read more letters. He quickly swapped both lenses out for different ones, and the process repeated several times.
“Try this,” Zedaph said, handing him the frames once more.
Finally, Etho started from the top and read several lines, at Zedaph’s instruction. He smiled and gave Gem and Beef a knowing nod. “I’ll take those,” he said, taking the makeshift glasses back from Etho.
“How did I do?”
Zedaph made a vague gesture. “You did good.”
“So my vision is fine.”
“Well… no, not exactly,” Zedaph admitted. “You, um… Haven’t noticed any problems with blurry vision? Think hard about it? At any point in your life?”
Etho hesitated. “I don’t think so.”
“But things that are far away are more difficult to see, right?”
He shifted uncomfortably. “Well… yeah. But that’s normal.”
“Okay. Why don’t you give these a try though.” Zedaph handed him the pair of test glasses. “I know they’re a bit bulky and uncomfortable, but take a look and tell me what you think. Why don’t you take a look at these guys?” He gestured in the direction of Gem and Beef.
Etho turned to face them and slipped the glasses onto his face. He gasped slightly, and though his mouth was covered by his mask, Gem watched his jaw drop.
He pulled them up away from his eyes, then dropped them down back over. “What?” he mumbled in disbelief.
“Does it look better?” Beef asked.
“I… I can see you like I’m standing right next to you.”
Beef laughed. “Well, that’s a good thing.”
“Your left eye is worse than your right, but only a little,” Zedaph said. “You are very nearsighted. Like… very.”
“Is this really how you guys see all the time?”
“Yes,” Gem said, exasperated. “This is how you should be seeing!”
Etho gazed around the room, pulling the glasses off and slipping them back on. “But I can see… everything. So far away… And it’s so clear.”
“I’m gonna be honest, I don’t know how you managed for so long,” Zedaph said. “You’re almost as bad as Tango. But at least Tango knew there was something wrong!”
“Etho, has it always been like this?” Beef asked.
He shrugged. “Yeah, I think so.”
“And you never questioned it?”
“What was there to question?” Etho slipped the glasses back on in delight. “I didn’t know people were going around with borderline X-ray vision. I can count the trees out there!” He pointed out of the entrance, to the field outside Zedaph’s base.
“How do you do redstone in this condition?” Gem asked. “That’s got a ton of small pieces.”
“Well… I have to get close to the redstone to actually do it.”
Gem sighed. “How about caving?”
“It’s dark anyway.”
“Place a torch!”
“Oh, he does,” Beef said. “Plenty of torches.”
“So I can see,” Etho defended. “And to keep the mobs away. You know, back in the day, the light levels–”
“Yes, yes, you’re old,” Gem said. “And so are your eyes, I guess.”
“I can make you a better pair of frames,” Zedaph said. “It will take me a few hours, but I can get right on it. I wouldn’t trust you to get home without them. How have you not crashed into anything yet?”
Etho mumbled something under his breath. Gem guessed he probably had at some point.
“And he’ll be able to see just fine with the glasses?” Beef asked. “He should probably get his eyes checked regularly, right?”
“Yeah, once a season, maybe? Unless you notice it worsening. Then come right back, and we can see what’s going on. I am gonna need those back though.”
Etho handed over the cobbled-together frames with a mournful look. “They’ll be done today?”
“Very soon. I’ll get right on it. Don’t go too far. And no flying!”
“We’ll make sure of it,” Gem said.
“Good. I have some ideas in mind, but do you have a preference as to what the glasses look like?” Zedaph asked. “I can do anything, really. Well… mostly anything.”
“Uh…” Etho hesitated. “Maybe ones that… match?” He seemed confused by the question.
“Your outfit? You’ve got a black mask, green jacket…”
“Black is good.”
“I’ll make you metal frames–they’re a bit more durable.”
“I think rectangular-shaped frames would look good on you,” Gem suggested. It was clear Etho didn’t know what he wanted. “And black is a good color too–it will stand out against your face and hair.”
Etho tilted his head, seemingly open to the idea.
“Alright, alright, you three go entertain yourselves,” Zedaph said, shooing them out of the room. “I’ll come find you when I’m done.”
Gem led them out and down the stairs into the field below. Zedaph had warned them against flying, but Etho would probably be fine if he had managed to make it to this point. Still, they didn’t need to go far, so she settled down in the grass.
“Is there anything else we need to test you for?” Beef joked. “We’ve fixed up your eyes, but who knows what other problems you could have?”
“Problems?” Etho echoed. “I don’t have problems.”
“At this rate we should test the whole server,” Gem pointed out. “Anyone could be walking around with blurry vision, and we would have no idea.”
They waited around for a few hours, idly chatting, then discussing block palettes of all things. Having access to Etho’s ender chest with nearly every type of block available was a great benefit–Gem only had oak wood and stone on her.
Zedaph came for them eventually, grinning as he ran through the plains towards them. One hand was held behind his back. “Behold,” he said grandly. “I have designed the perfect pair of glasses. I just need you to try them on, and I can tweak them so they fit your face.”
He discreetly handed them to Etho who slipped them on and turned to face his audience. To his word, Zedaph had created a pair of thin metal frames, rectangular in shape. Etho’s eyes darted around nervously behind the lenses, staring at a less blurry world, and then his companions.
“You look great!” Gem said. “Those are the perfect shape for you.”
“You look very distinguished,” Beef agreed.
“Thanks,” Etho said, sounding a little bit like he didn’t want to look distinguished. “Everything really is just… clear.” He pushed them up when they slid down the bridge of his nose. “Kinda crazy how some little lenses can do all that.”
“Let me tighten them up a little bit,” Zedaph said. “And if at any point you need future repairs or something breaks, you can come to me. I’m happy to fix anything that breaks.”
“I might take you up on that.” Etho handed the glasses back over and blinked in surprise at the sudden change in his vision. “Sometimes handling explosives gets a little dangerous.”
Zedaph worked on the frames with a small screwdriver. “You’re lucky these lenses are so thick then. I doubt it will help much, but it might help a little.” He handed them back and Etho slipped them back on. He stared at the hills along the horizon in awe.
“We need to take you on a server tour right now,” Gem said. “Starting with my base. You’ll finally be able to see all the details. And the block marking the top point.”
“And signs,” Beef agreed. “So many signs in the shopping district. Think of how much more efficient you’ll be at shopping.”
“And Bdubs!” Gem said excitedly. “You need to show him your new look. And everyone else!”
Etho blushed, though it was hardly visible behind the mask. “Bdubs is gonna make fun of me.”
“No he’s not,” Beef reassured him. “Well… okay, he probably will at first, but not in a serious way. You know how he is.”
“We can test his eyes too, if it makes you feel any better,” Gem said. “Come on, come on, come on! There’s no time to waste.”
“Thanks, Zed,” Etho called, as he was dragged off. “Sorry in advance if I break them.”
“I’m just happy to help. It wouldn’t be good if you kept going around blind. Although that does sound like a fun challenge…”
“Bye!” Gem yelled as the three of them took off. She didn’t want to get roped into one of Zedaph’s crazy experiments when they had a server to tour. Now that Etho could actually see, she could get a real opinion about her base.
She rocketed over, hearing the popping of fireworks behind her indicating that Etho and Beef were following. Gem landed in front of her base at an excellent viewpoint.
“Well?” she asked. “What do you think?”
Etho removed his glasses, then slipped them back on. Off again. “This is actually crazy.”
Beef snorted. “What? Seeing?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you like it?”
“Everything is so smooth. Sharp. Your base just…” Etho made a vague gesture. “It splits the horizon. Like a knife, ya know?”
“It’s gonna look so good when it’s done,” Gem said. “And now you can see the block up there, right? That’s where the top will be.”
“Huh.” Etho pulled his glasses down and then back up. “I can see it now. Before… it just kinda blurred into nothingness. I didn’t know it was so bad.”
“Well, now you do,” Gem said. “And there are so many more exciting things for you to see. But…” A horrible realization dawned on her. “Etho… do you even know what your own base looks like?”
“Uh… It’s my base, so kinda–”
“But it's been blurry this whole time,” Beef pointed out.
“Well, yeah, I guess.”
“We have to go see it right now!” Gem said.
“Alright, alright,” Etho agreed, though he was still wandering about, staring at Gem’s base like it was the most fascinating thing in the world.
“Gem,” Beef said softly. “What are the chances we show him someone else’s base and convince him he built it?”
She glanced at Etho, who was just out of earshot. “You think he would fall for that?”
“I think if you let me have a few minutes head start, I can build a terrible quality replica.”
Gem grinned maliciously. “Well… It would only be fair after the hassle we’ve been through today.”
And if Etho truly didn’t notice, then, well…
They could always go get his eyes checked again.