Acrylic Waves (Bk 1)

V. Controversy

Sunlight filters through the doorway as I open my eyes. I squint at it, remembering all that has happened in the past few days. How could I have forgotten X's song? I knew the answer, and I hated it. There was nothing I could do about that. The watchers were unreachable unless I wanted to give myself up to them. No way in a million years would I ever do that.

I push myself into a sitting position, noting the sparse but beautiful furnishings in the room. My armor is hanging on an armor stand in front of the wall opposite me. I push aside the covers, wincing as my sore muscles ached in protest. I looked at the various wounds on my arms and legs, my eyes tracing over the even stitching. I guess that Stress is responsible for this, so I have her to thank.

Standing, I lean against the wall as my vision goes black from standing up too quickly. I take deep breaths, flinching as they cause my stomach wound to move and smart. My vision slowly returns and I take a tentative step. Feeling a small bit more comfortable, I walk out of the bedroom into the kitchen of the small house. I notice some food on the table, along with a note from Xisuma. Server meeting at 12. Try not to be late. -The X-man. I snicker at the signature. It was a nickname we goofed around with when we were with Doomguy. Both of us wanted cool nicknames, but we also loved messing around.

I feel a twinge of sadness as it infects my already low mood at the prospect of having to attend a meeting. Xisuma remembers more than I. I try to brush it off, but it sticks to me like a piece of styrofoam that uses static electricity to hold onto a person's clothing. I sigh. There is no point in arguing with myself over such a simple thing. I run my hand through my dirty, long, white hair, looking around for the shower and an enderchest.

I locate both, pulling fresh clothes out of the wardrobe add-on. Enderchests connect to an off-world wardrobe as well as the in-game cloud. Any player can access a set of new clothes from their enderchest, as well as the items they store in there. The items in an enderchest vary by server, but the wardrobe always fits the players' style choices.

I shower and change into fresh clothes. I burn the old ones since there is no point in trying to fix them. They're just the black clothing that I wear underneath my armor to prevent the weather from getting to me. Glancing at the clock, I notice that it is 11:30. I don my armor, clicking it into place. I noticed that my old helmet, the one that Doom had given me and matched my brother's, was on top of the stand. I take it, staring at my reflection in the tinted glass. 

My eyes follow the contours of the scars on my face. The most prominent is the scar that I share with X across the bridge of my nose. The other ones are minor, all of the various injuries from when the watchers hit me during training.

I may not have liked it, but it taught me to block, I think to myself, philosophically. I clip the helmet to my belt so I can have it if I need to.

I exit the house, climb a tree, and then walk across various branches to reach X's nether portal. I enter the portal and allow the purple swirls to whisk me away to the nether.

/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\

I emerge from the portal on top of a platform high above the shopping district. I look around at all of the shops the hermits have already built. Grian's barge, Scar's Chest Monster, Ren's log shop. They all look amazing with all their little details. I look over the mycelium island towards the town hall, magnificent in the noon sunlight. The clock on it says that I'm already late for the meeting, but I can't figure out how to get down. Hunting around for a few minutes, I find the bubble elevator that will take me down to the ground.

I step out at the bottom, the magic waters caused by the mixture of magma and water evaporating quickly, leaving me dry. I walk over to the town hall, noticing how Xisuma is standing at the top of the steps, waiting to begin the meeting. Every other hermit is there, except Doc. I hear footsteps behind me and spin around to see Doc. He glowers at me, assessing me from his position. He's a good half a foot taller than me, but I'm more worried about the weapons he has than his height. I've beat people taller than him.