Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Birds are the first thing you hear. Feeling the sun on your face comes second. You groan, turning over in the bed as you feel around for your phone. Turning it on, you wince at the harsh light.

8:21 AM.

You sigh, placing the phone back down. You think about lying down for a while more, but errands won’t finish themselves. You’re pretty sure you have a grocery run to do. Getting up, you put on something comfortable to wear before trudging into the kitchen to make yourself breakfast. Eggs and bacon would suffice. The pan sizzles with butter before you're dropping the eggs in one pan, and placing the bacon in the other. It smells nice and definitely wakes you up.

It's quiet in the apartment as you eat, nothing but tupperware scraping against glass. There's a meow to your left, and you look down to see your cat sitting by your feet. They must've been hungry. Feeding them a piece of bacon, the chair scrapes behind you as you maneuver your way around the feline to give him some wet food.

"You're so greedy," you mumble, watching the feline pace around your feet.

You set the bowl of wet food down and turn back to finish your own plate. Breakfast was finished, and now it was time to do the errands. The dishes were first, then the laundry, grocery, and buying Ham, your cat, more food, and litter. Throwing on a sweater despite the warm weather, you grab your bag of laundry, blow a few kisses to Ham, and slip out of the apartment. It smells like rice, and you nod your head in silent approval. Luckily, the complex had a laundromat, so you didn't have to make an unnecessary trip elsewhere. No one was there, much to your relief. The mornings were usually the best time to get the laundry done.

10:54 AM.

The keys jingle as you push open the door, locking it behind you. You throw your shoes into the cubby and slip off your sweater, tossing it onto the nearby couch. You refill Hams' automatic feeder, clean the litter to put more in, and put the groceries away. At least now, you have the rest of the day to do nothing. You stand there for a few minutes in silence, looking around the empty apartment. Whole load of nothing to do.

You click your tongue, running a hand over your hair. You couldn't sit around and do nothing; that's wasting the day away. What was there to do? You could read, watch TV, or maybe even play. You try all three, but nothing seems to catch your eye, and by the time you’re back where you started, it’s past lunchtime.

Your phone rings in your pocket when you’re in the process of washing dishes. You pick it up and put it to your ear, greeting the other person on the line. It was M, a close friend of yours.

“Hey, I’m just washing the dishes right now. What’s up?”

“Boo. Are you busy after?”

You chuckle, setting the last dish to dry. “No, I finished my errands for today.”

“Great!” You could hear her enthusiasm. “Let’s play Minecraft!”

“That old thing?”

You dry your hands and pick the phone back up, heading to your room. You’d have to redownload it, but you wouldn’t mind playing.

“Yeah. I downloaded a mod that’s been going around, and I wanted to play it with you.”

You hum, though you’re sure the phone doesn’t pick it up. You put M on speaker as you wait for the game to download. You ask if you should switch calls, but she says there’s no need to and hangs up.

Odd, you think to yourself, but you think nothing of it. M usually wasn’t one to decline an offer to VC. The game loads, and an invite appears in your notifications. Clicking it, you’re hit with a headache. It’s small at first until it becomes unbearable, and the world around you fades.

You stumble, a wave of nausea hitting you as you struggle to regain your bearings. Green is all you see. Rubbing your eyes, you blink wearily and look around. Everything’s blocky—Everything but you.

What the fuck is this?

Your clothes are different, too. They’re shades of green. You scrunch your nose at that. No one else is around you, and your anxiety spikes at the thought of being alone in some unfamiliar place.

“It feels like I’m inside the game…” You murmur.

You’re startled when you hear a voice. “[Player!]”

It’s M, and you feel a blanket of relief envelop you. Thank god.

“You’re here! What do you think?” She asks, walking up to you with her arms outstretched. At least someone was enthusiastic about all this.

“It’s definitely… confusing,” you say, rubbing the back of your neck. “Feels like you’re inside of the game.”

“You are.”

Your heart drops, and you stare into the gold plating of M’s helmet. She looked different. Increasingly different. With wings on the side of her head, along with a helmet that covered most of her features. Her hair was longer, and a different color as well. 

In the game? You frown, brows furrowing. That shouldn’t be physically possible. The longer you stare at M, the more your unease grows. M seems to notice your discomfort and claps your back, laughing.

“Don’t look so nervous! It’s just like VR.” The words don’t bring the comfort she thinks it provides.

You don’t talk to her after that, and she doesn’t seem to mind, leaving you to figure things out in your own time. Walking up to a tree, you stare down at your hands, deep in thought. She mentioned it was like VR, but didn’t elaborate further. It didn’t explain how you were inside the game without a headset to begin with.

If I’m here, what does this mean for my body?

In the dim light of the room, you sat in your chair, the monitor illuminating your face. A steady trickle of blood dripped from your nose. You were in a trance, a thin film glossed over your eyes.

Chapter Text

You discovered you could feel everything as well, punching a tree not that long ago. You were bleeding, staring at your reddened knuckles. Could you die in here? Would you die in here? M still hadn’t told you how to leave. In fact, you haven’t seen her in a while.

You call out her name, silence following after. You hear a pig in the distance, but no M. When you turn back to the tree, something grabs you by the shoulders, and you scream.

“Boo!” She shouts. You swear you jump three feet in the air. “Did I scare ya? Come on, I have tools for you.”

She steps past you, placing down a crafting table to begin putting together tools for you. You don’t see how she does it, and you’re not sure you want to. You’re too focused on figuring out how to leave the world.

“How does the mod work?” You ask quietly.

M doesn’t say anything for a long while. “You’ll see.”

9:43 PM.

“How do you leave?”

You had spent the last few hours in a personal mine collecting cobblestone and ores. You also cleared a patch of land to build you both a house. It wasn’t the best work, but it would suffice for the night to come. Time moved relatively slowly, almost like the real world. The sun was beginning to set, dipping past the trees.

“I don’t know.”

“What.” You deadpan at her, crying internally. “You’re pulling my leg here, right…”

She chuckles, working on a farm for them both. M had always been the better one in the group. By the time you would find iron, she was already finding diamonds. You look down at your hands, where the blood was beginning to dry. You’d have to disinfect and wrap them. Did bandages exist in Minecraft? You’re sure they don’t, the last you remember.

“Yeah, I’ll show you how to leave.”

“You said it was like VR, right?” You watch her nod.

Turning your attention in front of you, you try a few tricks. You pretend you have a controller in your hand at first, but nothing happens. You try to make the menu appear like you’re casting a spell—nothing. Hovering your hand in front of you, a singular orb appears on the tip of your finger, and a menu finally opens up. You breathe a sigh of relief.

Before you can press “Save and Quit to Title,” M stops you, hooking an arm around your shoulders. Despite the casual nature, her tone betrays her.

“Whoa, hey! Don’t leave yet!” She moves closer, holding a finger up. “You said you’d play! And, you still have to build us a house.”

Your eyebrows furrow. You already built one. Why did she want another? You unhook her arm from around you and step away. She holds her hands up in surrender.

“Why am I building it? We already have one.”

“I can’t build.”

You roll your eyes at her words. That was a lie and a half. Rolling up your imaginary sleeves, you get to work. Instead of a house, you decided to build a shed next to the farm. This way, they could keep things organized. M is gone again, and the sun has officially made its escape. The moon is peaking out from the other side, casting the land in a white-ish glow. There are no animals, and strangely no mobs. You can’t make out anything from the darkness of the trees.

She didn’t mention making any beds, and with no sheep around, you had no choice but to survive the night. It wouldn’t be the first time. You tended to explore caves and spend the first few nights in them. Crafting a few torches and ensuring you had enough material, you give the house a passing glance before disappearing into the night.

The further you go into the forest, the more mobs you start to see. A skeleton shoots at you, narrowly missing your shoulder. You didn’t want to find out if you could feel pain dealt from mobs, too.

You slip into the first opening you see. It’s relatively small and, with luck, it opens up into something bigger. You look at the vast, dark opening with wonder. You could definitely build something down here. You’d have to remember where it was.

Not wanting to take fall damage, you descend the side carefully, almost slipping a few times. You reach the bottom and place a torch down. There’s lapis to your right, and you’re quick to scoop that up. M would probably have an enchantment table by the time you get out.

A zombie grabs you, and you hate how you can feel the cold fingers on your body. You push it back, selecting your sword and swinging it at the reanimated corpse. It flashed red with damage, much to your surprise. The zombie persists, and you hit it again until it dies in a cloud of particles. At least it retained the Minecraft quality. The flesh that dropped was also blocky, and you turn it around in your hand. You open your inventory, which you discovered shortly after discovering the menu, and place it inside.

Venturing further into the cave, you use the torches to light your way. You had only managed to get hit a handful of times, which wasn't ideal, but at least you were alive. It hurt, and definitely felt like the real thing. You eye a nasty bite on your arm, then at the health bar just above it. You had a food and health bar on your arm that appeared when you looked at it, and when you got hit. Maybe you respawned similar to the game's mechanics. You weren't sure how many things had changed from being in here.

You were terrified, but determined. You weren't dead yet, that's what mattered. Finding a decent patch in the wall, you set up camp. The cave ambience was at an all-time high, and you didn't hesitate to mute it from the menu. You never liked the ambience and preferred playing without startling yourself every five seconds. Not the best update in your opinion. Placing a trapdoor down as a makeshift window, you shut it and stare out into the cave. You could see the glowing eyes of endermen and spiders alike moving and crawling around. You shiver at the thought of enraging an enderman.

Sitting down in front of the campfire, you open the crafting table next to you and take the opportunity to scroll through it. There were certain things you could make that you normally couldn't before, such as bandages. You're quick to craft that, catching it in your hands.

Nothing to disinfect it… You click your tongue before wrapping the bite as is. You could disinfect it once you were out of the cave, assuming the bite didn't kill you if it got infected. With nothing to occupy yourself with, you're left with your thoughts. M must have done something to transport you into the game; that was the only plausible explanation. How, and why? Was this the mod she mentioned? If it was, it wasn't a very fun one.

The next thing was the reality of it all. While maintaining a Minecraft dynamic, certain things were out of the ordinary. You could feel the damage that was dealt to you. You could bleed, you could get hungry, and you could get tired. Fatigue was beginning to wear you down, and you're unsure how long you've spent in the cave. You managed to find berries to sustain yourself long enough to keep your adventure going.

Dragging a hand down your face, you lean against the wall, bringing your legs up to your chest. You just needed a moment to recover, then you'd continue your exploration. Despite your thoughts, you find yourself nodding off, your head lolling forward. You snap out of it, rubbing your eyes of any sleep. It wouldn't be good if you slept now.

There's a crunch outside, and you think nothing of it. It gets closer, and you're sure it's a zombie passing by, or perhaps a skeleton. It stops in front of the wall you put up, so you can't see it through the trap door. You suck in a breath when something scrapes against the makeshift barrier. Not a mob. It definitely wasn't a mob.

You want to call out M's name, but she would've long announced herself by now. You stay quiet, hoping it'll go away. It does not, and instead moves to the trap door. You wait with bated breath, selecting your sword and preparing for a fight.

You blink, and it's gone.

Something was out there. Something was out there. You nearly scream when something pops up in front of you. It was a string of text.

[M]: You've been gone for a while. You didn't get lost, did you? :-)

It was M. How did she do that? You fumble around a little before a keyboard opens up in front of you. It's almost comical the way you type with both your pointers. You hit send, but nothing follows. You even go as far as asking if she had found you—nothing. At least the message mechanic worked.

Standing up, you dust your clothes off. You still had the sword equipped in your hand, and your hold on it tightened when you peered through the trapdoor. There was a sign not far from you. It's hard to read, but you manage to get an idea.

Click me.