Pigs and Guilt Complexes

Running

She glanced over at Harper, trying to reach a fair conclusion. Sure she had messed up, but couldn't the same be said for Ivor? And he had proved himself to be invaluable in their treasure hunting back home, as well as their recent portal mishaps. "Whatever you guys decide to do..." she started, setting her mind on her final judgement. "Harper will make things right and help you clean it all up."

It was impossible to gauge how well the crowd took it. Most of them had surprise written all over their faces, clearly having expected her to cast Harper off as an exile. But if she truly had the right intentions when she built PAMA, and was one of the Old Builders, then she was their best chance of restoring the town back to near normality.

Harper seemed just as shocked by the revelation too. "I... I will?" she whispered to Jesse.

The red lady shook her head softly and scoffed. "Yeah. She will?"

"Yeah." Jesse glared her down. "Right Harper." She gave her a small nudge with her elbow, trying to communicate through her eyes for Harper to back her up. She didn't like the odds of what would happen if the crowd didn't agree with them.

Thankfully, Harper seemed to get the message. "Yes. Yes, I will." She stepped out of Jesse's shadow and tried to look confident and reassuring to the others. "After I help these travellers find their way home, I'll come back, help you all find new resources, and we'll make this world great again."

A couple of people in the crowd still looked sceptic of the new plan – including Ms. Red at the front – but the majority of people seemed satisfied with the development. The balding man next to Harry mumbled something into his ear, shrugging at the whispered reply. "Worth a shot I guess..." he sighed reluctantly.

The crowd started to dissipate: people returned to their homes to survey the damage done and collect the tools they needed to begin the long process of dismantling PAMA's huge screen and lair.

Jesse looked behind them to the exit portal. Compared to the other portals they had come across this one was lacklustre at best. The gold exterior only reached up to her shoulders, while work on the redstone blocks had barely even begun. It was as unfinished as anything could be.

"I know what you're thinking Jesse." She immediately felt the eyes of the others on her back and resisted the urge to shy away from the attention. "PAMA apparently had a hard time finding the materials to finish the build."

"How bad is it?" she asked hesitantly.

Harper went closer to inspect the portal, walking around its sorry state and gauging the amount of work required to complete it. "It's not as bad as it looks," she finally concluded, "Obviously, we need to finish the exterior first. There's a mineshaft nearby that should contain enough gold we need. Then we need some redstone blocks on the interior of the gold. There should be some redstone ore deeper inside PAMA's lair; we just need the proper tools."

Petra looked at the fading crowd. "You think these guys can help?" she said, gesturing towards them.

Harper caught sight of them and shook her head sadly. "I think that would be pushing it right now," she said as the last members of the crowd shot her daggers. "I can get it done faster without their help. I do, after all, know where to find the proper resources. And it would probably be best if I stayed out of everyone's way for the time being."

Jesse raised her eyebrows, shaking her arms. "What! No, we couldn't ask you do to all that for us!"

"Relax Jesse," Harper put an arm around her shoulder. "After all you and your friends have done for this town, for me, this is the least I can do."

While Jesse wasn't reassured by her words, they seemed to make everyone else happy. Lukas and Petra patted her on the shoulders.

"Well, that couldn't have gone any better." Lukas grinned his teeth at her, "Good job at handling that crowd."