Even though Zedaph's day was pretty much all over the place, the glitched portal kind of put the icing on the cake.
His day had started out somewhat normal--a few pranks here and there, maybe, but you had to stir it up sometimes when it came to living in the Aether.
That's right. The Aether. The home to all the angels that have done good in their lives.
And, no. They didn't live on a fluffy cloud in the sky.
On the contrary, the Aether looked just like the living world--or in this case, the Overworld. Here, though, everything was unnaturally sunny all the time and no hostile monsters would appear. It was like an oversaturated Overworld where nothing bad happened and you couldn't feel pain.
In short, it was the Overworld almost all mortals wanted.
But, when you got to actually ending up here, you realize...well, it's not so great after all.
Don't get him wrong, Zed loved the Aether. But it was a bit boring sometimes. The other angels here just liked to sit back and relax, taking an eternal break from their lives. They just wanted to chill.
Zed wasn't like that. He couldn't just do the same thing over and over. His life--well, death--style was all over the place, bouncing from one activity to another. And as such, he tried to make the other angels see that, too.
Unfortunately, his actions weren't exactly welcomed.
"Hey! That's the third time this week you've replaced sugar with salt in my bakery!"
Zed leaned against a nearby tree, watching with amusement as the village's baker spat out a cookie he was tasting. "You should know by now I'm going to do it!" he called back.
The baker yelled back a few choice words. Zed chuckled and walked away. It was only noon and he was already stirring up trouble. A typical day here.
If the Aether was the same thing over and over, what was the Overworld like? Sometimes, Zed had odd fantasies about what life was like back in the Overworld. His death wasn't that long ago--what was it now, nearing 2 years in the Aether?
Some of the others have been around for 200, 300 years. They were completely out of the loop for the Overworld--some of them thought it was still the dark days when coal blocks didn't exist and everyone was plagued with the legend of Herobrine.
Zed remembered having a small, solitary base. There was a group of people he used to hang out with, but their bases were relatively spread out. It took maybe 5 minutes by Elytra to get to the next person's base. Of course, you could always use the Nether hub.
But here's the problem: Zed had a bad history with the Nether.
After all, it's where he died.
...Oh, were you expecting some exposition? Nope. That's a story for another time.
For now, let's just say it involved lava lakes, broken Elytras, and a glitched portal.
Anyway. Zed was walking through the worn paved stone path of the village when he found himself standing in front of the portal that took you to other places in the Aether.
The Aether was quite a large world, and angels didn't have wings, so it resulted in an Overworld-like portal hub, although it didn't take you to the Nether. It was a weird system, but it saved everyone from physical exertion (unless you were one of those odd people that liked exercise), so everyone was happy.
Zed traveled quite a bit using the hub--usually, he went to other villages in the nearby area or sometimes just to one of the forests on the other side of the world just for some relaxation. He was about to step through the portal and head off to the forest, but he saw something that made him stop.
At first, he thought it was a trick of the light. Then, it happened again--it was subtle; you could only see it if you were looking out for it. In the portal's vortex, there was an occasional glitch of some kind--the vortex would flash a deep purple instead, and the glowstone frame would flash a different color too.
Zed had never seen anything like this before. A normal person would have left it be and let someone else, preferably someone more qualified, study it. But, Zedaph being Zedaph, he decided to be his own human test dummy and step through the portal.
It occurred to him too late that this portal was glitched, and the last time he had had experiences with glitched portals, he had died.
But he couldn't die now, could he? He was immune to pain and death. Plus, there was no nausea like the last time, it seemed pretty normal. What could go wrong?
Turns out, a lot of things.
Instead of finding himself in the quartz-floored Aether hub, Zed stepped out of the portal and onto something soft. Grass? Felt like it. But that wasn't right--the hub was all shiny minerals and polished stone.
Zed looked around, trying to get his bearings. He was in an oak forest, and he had stepped out in the middle of a clearing. Had that portal taken him to the forest directly? He doubted it. Aether forests were always sunny--this place was shady. The trees had pastel pink leaves and bright white trunks--these just looked like regular oak trees.
Then he looked behind him and yelped. First of all, the portal that had taken him here was gone. Second of all, there was a person lying on the ground next to him.
And the weirdest thing was, he knew that person.
"Tango?"
But that couldn't be--as far as Zed knew, Tango was still alive and in the Overworld. It looked like him, though--same blond hair, same black vest and striped shirt, although he did look a lot more disheveled. His clothes had what looked like ash all over them, and there were some large rips on the vest.
"Tango? Is that you?" Zed knelt next to him and tapped him on the shoulder. "Hello? You're not dead, are you?"
Possibly-Tango mumbled something under his breath. Zed sighed with relief. "Hey! Tango! Wake up!"
Possibly-Tango opened his eyes, and Zed knew for sure it was him. He'd know those red eyes anywhere. "Zed?" he muttered, squinting in the bright sunlight. "Is that you?"
"Yes, it's me, you idiot. What happened to you? You look like you've been to hell and back."
"That's one way to put it." Tango sat up and studied Zed. "I haven't seen you in a long time. We never got around to meeting up."
"Why are you acting so casual? Don't you know what happened to me?"
"Umm." Tango actually looked like he was thinking. "No...what? Did you get a pet or something?"
"No! I died! Didn't you hear? I was flying over a lava lake when my Elytra broke and I fell in!"
"Woah, wait. Hang on." Tango looked confused. "First of all, you died? And second...you know this is the Overworld, right?"
Now it was Zed's turn to be confused. "What do you mean, 'The Overworld'? This is the Aether."
"No, I'm pretty sure it's the Overworld. I think we need to compare notes here."
Tango started explaining his side of the story: "I've been stuck in the Nether for a long time. You remember that day you were going to visit me? You were running late, so I decided to go into the Nether myself and check on you.
"Then, this weird thing happened: It was like my portal just...vanished. Straight-up gone--no obsidian, no vortex, nothing. I started looking for another portal to use, but I couldn't find any. Everyone's portals were just gone.
"So I thought, hey, what if Zed's here? I started looking for you, but I couldn't. Apparently, you were there, you just...died? I guess?
"I've been exploring the Nether, trying to find the materials to make a new portal, but that was hard since all the nearby fortresses have been raided. Plus, there was the problem with the shortage of food and the fact that the whole dimension was out to kill me.
"After...what is it? Two years, maybe? I finally gathered up all the supplies to make a new portal. I constructed it, went through it...and now I'm here. With you. But that doesn't make sense since you died and were in the Aether."
"Wait, you said your portal glitched out? Nothing remained?" Zed tried to connect the puzzle pieces.
"Yeah...?"
"Mine did, too. I stepped through and boom, it's gone. Nothing left."
Tango tilted his head, trying to make sense of the situation. "Do you think we were in the Nether at the same time? Then both of our portals glitched out and we both got stuck? Well, I mean, you died, and I've been trying to rebuild a new portal."
He looked behind him and frowned. "Aaaand now the portal's nonexistent, too. I spent two years on that!"
Zed was about to add on another point when a thought occurred to him. "Crap. Crap, crap, crap. This is the Overworld. I can die now. And actually feel pain. What's going to happen if I die? Will I just end back up in the Aether? Or will it be glitched out since I was already dead?"
"I dunno. This whole situation's pretty messed up." Tango tried for a grin. "It's good to see you again, though."
"Same to you," Zed replied. "But tell me more--screw all this nonsense for a bit. What was it like in the Nether? I'll tell you what it was like in the Aether."
"What is there to know? It's just lava and netherrack everywhere."
"Nah, c'mon. It's gotta be more interesting than the Aether."
"Are you joking?" Tango was about to go on until a new voice was heard.
"Reuben! Where are you, Reuben?"
Another person came out from behind the trees. He wore a helmet and had some sort of green and gray suit. He halted when he saw Tango and Zed. "Oh. Hi."
"Do you recognize him?" Zed muttered under his breath so only Tango could hear.
"No. I'd definitely remember him."
"Let me guess," he said. For some reason, he didn't sound particularly surprised. "Came through some sort of portal? Don't know what this place is?"
Zed was surprised at how easily the man put it off like that. Did this happen often here? "Well, yes and no. It's weird--something through glitched portals. We don't understand it fully."
"Glitched portals? That's new..." the guy muttered, then realized Zed and Tango were still staring at him. "Uh, anyway. More or less, that's how we all got here."
That sentence didn't register with Zed until a beat later. "We?"
"Yeah." The man led them over past the forest and into a clearing. "I'm Xisuma, by the way. Call me X. Why don't you tell us your story over dinner?"
A pig ran up to them and snorted loudly. "Reuben!" X exclaimed. "There you are. Don't run away like that."
Tango pointed to the pig. "Is that on the dinner menu?"
"Tango!" Zed sounded scandalized.
"What?? I've been living off of mushroom stew and rotten flesh for the past two years! Give me a break!"
X looked offended. "No! I would never eat Reuben. He's my pet!"
As weird as this X person seemed to be, any kind of shelter was better than staying in the forest at night. Zed really didn't want to see this place in the dark. He glanced over at Tango, who shrugged. What else can we do?
"Okay, fine. We're coming."
"Great! I'll lead the way." X skipped off, Reuben the pig right behind him.
Tango shrugged again. "C'mon, Zed."
He and Tango followed X through the forest.
(WC: 1956)