Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Meran's Story

EDIT: On a completely unrelated subject, MrCrayfish's Model Creator is pretty cool!




I rushed through the forest, weaving between tall birch trees. This time, I hadn't even seen them coming. The strange, headless, spider-like creatures had seemed to appear from nowhere, jumping out from behind tree trunks and off of tree tops. A small crowd of them trailed me now--a smaller crowd than I had been chased by in the past, but still big enough that I was worried about my chances of survival if I turned around to fight them.

I scanned the landscape ahead of me, hoping to a find an ocean, or even a river, where I could jump in my boat and speed ahead of the monsters. I saw neither of these, but what I did see, over to one side, was just as welcome: a Steve-like figure with no irises...it was Herobrine, who I hadn't seen for nearly three years!

If you don't know yet, Herobrine is actually nice. He helps players. The true evil is Dr. Chibawk, an ender-chicken who wants to take over the world, and who delights in the destruction of players' creations and the consumption of stolen cakes. More recently, Entity 303 has also been taking part in destruction, competing with Dr. Chibawk.

As I ran around the tree trunks, I turned toward Herobrine. He seemed to see me, and a diamond sword appeared in his hand as he hurried toward me. A second figure, who I hadn't noticed until now, followed Herobrine. It was Heropiggy, Herobrine's white-eyed pig friend. Then we reached each other, and I turned around to fight the spider-things. Heropiggy distracted some of them, resisting their attacks with his invulnerability, while Herobrine and I killed the others without suffering too much damage. After that was done, we went after the ones chasing Heropiggy.

When all of the creatures were dead, I turned to Herobrine and said, "Hi. Thanks for helping me with that! Do you know what those were?"

"They're called araknids," said Herobrine.

"Oh. Are you doing anything in particular out here?"

"Actually, yes. We're meeting some people at the Forger's cave. You could come if you want."

"How far is it?"

"Not very far. We're almost there."

"Sure, I'll come," I said. "Where's the cave?"

"Follow me," said Herobrine.

We ran toward a hill that was visible in the distance. When he got to the base of the hill, Herobrine ran around the edge. I followed, and discovered that there was a cave entrance on the other side. The walls of the cave were lined with redstone torches, and I could see a bit of light shining from around a downward-sloping corner.

We went toward the light, and emerged in a cavern lit by redstone lamps. Three people were already there: the pure-black Forger; the Cultivator, with miniature plants growing on hir head made of dirt; and Skylar, holding that question mark-shaped scythe. They turned toward us as we came in, and Skylar said, "H! guYs! ! d!dn't n0 U were c0m!ng, craftYk!ds."

"Hi, everyone," I said. "I didn't know I was coming either. I got chased by some araknids, and I happened to run into Heropiggy and Herobrine, who invited me to come after helping me defeat the araknids."

"0!" said Skylar.

As I typed, Heropiggy walked over to a dispenser--well, actually, I guess it was probably a dropper--that had carrot in an item frame on its front. He stood on a pressure plate, and a few carrots came out, which he ate. Next to the carrot dropper another dropper, this one with a piece of rotten flesh in its item frame. I wondered what it was for.

I turned toward the Forger. "So what happened with that portal thing that the Mushroom Man had?" I asked, referring to a strange item that one of Dr. Chibawk's citizens had used.

"I think I've mostly figured out how it works," said the Forger, "but I haven't been able to replicate the functionality. It has a set of coordinates programmed into it, and it takes you to another portabal--that's what they're called--that's somewhere near those coordinates. We're not completely certain, but we think it just takes you to the portabal that's closest to the coordinates. It hasn't been much use, though. We keep it turned off, so that it can't be accessed by Chibawkians."

Everyone was silent for a moment. I opened the chat and started to type something else, but then an enderman appeared in the middle of the cave! It was accompanied by a redhound, one of Dr. Chibawk's thin, black, quadrupedal creatures made for sniffing out redstone. I quickly closed the chat and poised my finger over the "1" key, which corresponded to the slot which held my sword, but I waited to see how the others would react.

"H!, Meran!" Skylar said.

I relaxed, putting my fingers back on WASD. When I had met Skylar before, Skylar had said that Meran was friends with these people.

"Hello," she said.

"Meran, th!s !s craftYk!ds," said Skylar, turning toward me. "CraftYk!ds, ! t0ld U ab0ut Meran, wr!te? And th!s !s D0lent!" Skylar nodded toward the redhound.

Dolent walked over to me. He looked up at me, walked around me, and then nuzzled my shoulder, before walking over to the rotten flesh dropper and getting some to eat.

"S0, Meran, what's up?" asked Skylar.

"I just had an encounter with 303's kids."

"Y!kes! That s0unds l!ke a d!ff!cult s!tuat!0n. W00d U m!nd tell!ng ab0ut what happened? ! enj0Y hear!ng Y0ur st0r!es!"

"I wouldn't mind," said Meran. "I was walking with Dolent in a jungle..."

* * *

Meran surveyed the green landscape. She and Dolent were searching for redstone. Since Dr. Chibawk had created furthermen, redhounds had started going out of use. There were barely even any left these days; some had died or been killed, and many had been turned into furthermen. Dolent, however, seemed resistant to the idea of becoming a furtherman, and so Meran had convinced Dr. Chibawk to avoid transforming him.

"I don't see any temples," said Meran. "Do you?"

Dolent looked around, and then turned his head back toward the ground. He kept walking forward, toward the redstone that he could sense nearby. As they emerged into a clearing, a house--one that definitely wasn't natural--came into view.

"Is that that where the redstone is?" asked Meran

Dolent gave a quick nod of his head.

"Darn. Well, we'll have--"

MeeeeeeowBOOM! A kitten, covered in magenta flames, suddenly came shooting out of the jungle and made a tiny explosion on the house! It was quickly followed by a burst of green fire, which ignited the wooden building.

A player came running out of the house, presumably to see what was happening. As soon as they rounded the corner, a volley of fire, cats, and arrows flew at them. The player dodged out of the way, managing to only be hit by a kitten, which then ran behind the house.

Three individuals emerged from the trees.

* * *

"First came Prince Matida."

"Who's that?" I interrupted.

"Entity 303's daughter," replied Meran.

"And Princess Repierk's sister," said the Cultivator. "She has gray skin, long red hair, and cat ears."

"OK, thanks," I said.

"After Matida came Repierk, and a chicken holding a bow," Meran continued. "The chicken had blue eyes. I couldn't be certain from the distance I was at, but I was pretty sure it was Zoanna Chibawk, who had disappeared from Chibawkia recently after fighting with her father."

"Who I'm guessing is Dr. Chibawk," I said.

"Yep. I wondered if she had joined Entity 303 just to spite her dad. Anyway, when I saw them, I grabbed Dolent and teleported down to try to help the player..."

* * *

"Prepare to feel the wrath of the Nether!!!" shouted Prince Matida.

"We have come on behalf of our Queen, Entity 303!" put in Repierk.

As Meran took Dolent into the clearing, the sky got darker, allowing Meran to be away from the cover of trees without getting hurt by the sun. She set Dolent down, and teleported behind Princess Repierk, who she attacked. Repierk turned around and released a torrent of green flames from his hands, but Meran teleported away before they could hit her.

She appeared on top of the player's house. Dolent was running at Zoanna, who had her bow partially drawn. The player was charging at Matida, deflecting her kittens with their sword. Repierk shot more fire toward Meran, and she teleported back behind him. This time, he was expecting her, and quickly turned around again to attack her. Meran teleported away again, over to Matida, and hit her while she was distracted by the player. Then Zoanna shot an arrow at Meran, and she had to teleport once again.

Once she arrived on the edge of the clearing, Meran saw that Dolent had left Zoanna, and was rushing toward the larger threats. The player had been hit by Repierk's fire, and was trying to douse it in a waterfall, but the flames refused to go out. Meran was about to join in the fight again, but then--

"Matida, my love!" cried Zoanna. "Your cats!"

Meran turned toward the chicken, and was amused to see that several of the Prince's kittens, which had been abandoned after impact, were now clustering around Zoanna, apparently poised to pounce.

Matida stopped fighting and rushed over to her lover. The cats disappeared as she picked them up, and she dropped a cyan potion. Zoanna picked it up, drank it, and disappeared. Matida turned around and started to go back toward her brother, but Repierk was now fighting the player, Dolent, and Meran as she now teleported over to him, and he too drank a cyan potion and vanished. When Meran looked at where Prince Matida had been, she was also gone.

Meran turned to the player, who was standing next to their ruined house, and gave them a nod, picked up Dolent...

* * *

"...and then I came here," finished Meran.

"W0w!" exclaimed Skylar. "That was exc!t!ng!"

"So I guess Zoanna left Chibawkia to be with Matida," mused the Cultivator.

"Yeah, probably," said Meran.

"It was fun to see you all," I said, "but I want to continue exploring now. Thanks for telling that story, Meran. And thank you, everyone, for always being so helpful! Bye!"

"N0 pr0blem! BuY!"

"Bye."

"See you later!"

*Grunt!*

"Bye!"

*Intense staring*

"Bye."

I walked back out of the cave.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Redstone and a Rescuer

I found a strange desert temple today. From the outside, it looked normal, but inside, the orange clay was replaced with black, and the blue was replaced with red.

When I mined under the stained clay and into the hidden chamber, I found that rather than a pressure plate, there was a mesh of tripwire two blocks above the ground. Fortunately, I didn't trigger it; I always mine down in the wall of the chamber, so that I don't accidentally fall on the pressure plate.

Looking through the chests, I found that they were full of redstone blocks and dust, redstone torches, repeaters, and other various redstone components. I took them all, then towered back out of the chamber.

When I came out it was dark, although I pretty sure it had been before noon when I went into the temple. I walked forward a few blocks, but stopped when I noticed a mob in the distance. It was thin and black, and walked on four legs, bending its head toward the ground.

Probably a redhound, I thought, thinking back to a book that I found half a year ago. I started moving away, hoping to avoid the redhound, but then its head snapped up, looking straight at me with its red eyes. Then, suddenly, it rushed toward me, and as it got closer, I saw that its eyes were realistic and high-resolution.

I stood with my sword in hand, ready to fight it, but before it could get to me, three lightning bolts struck in quick succession, killing the gaunt creature! The sky got lighter, and I looked up to see an iron and glowstone aircraft, which somewhat resembled a flying saucer. It descended, and a humanoid figure jumped off.

The pilot was holding a scythe, and had dark gray skin, claws, and a white shirt with an interrobang (‽) on it. This strange person came toward me, and a message appeared in the chat:

"<Skylar> Hell0! MY name !s SkYlar. ! d0n't halve pr0n0uns; just use mY name. Wh0 R U?"

"I'm craftykids," I replied. "He/him. Thanks for helping me with that redhound!"

"0, Yeah," said Skylar, "! th!nk the Cult!vat0r and h!r fr!ends talked ab0ut U a c0uple 0f thYmes!  Halve U met them?"

"Well, I've met Herobrine, Heropiggy, and the Forger. Is there anyone else?"

"The!rs als0 Meran, butt ! d0n't C her all0t. She's an enderw0man! Y R U 0ut hear?"

"I was just exploring this desert," I told Skylar. "The temple over there had strange clay colors in it, and it was full of redstone stuff. When I came out, that redhound attacked me. Well, I'm going to get back to exploring. Bye!"

"C U later!" said Skylar, hopping back onto the flying saucer. I ran off into the desert.

Sunday, April 5, 2015

The Easter Fluzzerbunny

Last year, it was spotted eggs...

This year, it's striped eggs!

While exploring an abandoned mineshaft, I came across a pink egg with purple stripes. Remembering the evil block-eating monster that came out of last year's egg, I was curious to see if a different creature would hatch from this striped one. I didn't want to take it home, of course, since last year that resulted in a large hole being eaten out of my house. I decided to stay in the mineshaft for a while.

I set up a temporary camp, and stayed in the general area, mining while I waited for the egg to break.

The egg refused to open, however; although I waited longer than it took for the spotted egg to hatch, this striped one remained unbroken.

Then an idea came to me. Last year, I put the egg on top of my furnace. Maybe this egg needed warmth!

I quickly placed some torches around the egg, then stood back to see if anything would immediately happen.

After about a minute of waiting, particles started coming out of the egg. Then it shattered, and a huge pink bunny jumped out! (Fortunately, I got a screenshot this time, unlike last year when I had to use a bad drawing.)

The bunny ran at me, and I pulled out my sword, expecting it to attack me. Instead, it went straight through me, dealing no damage but clearing my inventory as it went!

I watched as it disappeared down the passageway, then turned around to find a furtherman looking in my chest! Seeing that I had noticed it, the furtherman closed the chest, dropped a book, and disappeared.

I opened my chest and confirmed that my redstone was, as I had expected, missing. Then I picked up the book and read it.


The Fluzzerbunny Exterminators! by the Ghost Warrior

Recently, a plague of fluzzerbunnies has swept across Minecraftia, and it has come to my attention that something needs to be done about this.

That's why I started The Fluzzerbunny Exterminators! With the help of my colleague Mr. Jones, I have embarked on a quest to rid the world of these vile creatures. And it only costs one emerald, plus an additional one for each bunny killed!

(Also, please be nice to Mr. Jones. He is here to help, and will not, for example, leave you trapped in a cave. Alone. In the dark. Without any torches.)



So, as I said last year: if you find multicolored eggs, don't take them home with you! (Or try to hatch them.)

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

The Porcine Prankster

I usually put pressure plates next to my doors, but only on the inside. So today, when I walked over the pressure plate and out out of my house on one of my singleplayer worlds, I didn't expect it to do anything other than open the door.

Instead, it dumped water on my head! Someone or something had connected the pressure plate to a dispenser, which contained a now-empty bucket. I thought it must have been Dr. Chibawk who did it, so I looked around to see if he had left a message anywhere to taunt me. As I looked around, however, a pig popped out of the ground and shouted, "Sdksdfksfjsdkksdksfjsk!" The chat message said that the pig's name was Patricia Piggleton, and she was wearing Groucho Marx glasses!!

I jumped back in surprise, and Patricia said, "ROFL! I booby-trapped your house, stupid!"

I was angry. "I'm so angry!!!" I typed into the chat, before running at the pig and trying to hit her.

"LOL," said Patricia, and she disappeared back into the ground.

Hoping that the crazy pig wouldn't come back, I put the water back in the bucket, cleaned up the redstone, and went to collect some wood, which is what I had been trying to do in the first place.

Craftykids's Art: Meran

I actually made this a couple months ago, but just realized that I should post it:

Meran, flying with some of Herobrian's winged squid.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

"The Horse of Doom"

I found this book in a stronghold's library:



The Horse of Doom by Meran

A friend of mine asked me to write this about an adventure she had.
--Meran



Emerald Glass stared at the moonlit desert, empty except for cacti and dead bushes.

There was nothing to recycle.

She looked around one last time, then teleported a couple hundred blocks to the west. Arriving in a plains biome, she examined her new surroundings. To the west: just some trees and flowers; to the south: some sheep and a pool of water; the edge of the desert was the only thing in the east, but in the north...a village! That would be recyclable!

Emerald appeared inside the librarian's house, and started grabbing the bookshelves off the walls. She could give them to her friend Meran; Meran liked writing.

After the bookshelves were gone, Emerald took the furniture, and demolished the walls, ceiling, and floor. She started to move on to the next house, but then, through the window, she saw a transparent figure wearing froggy clothes and talking to a villager. It was Rana, another agent of Dr. Chibawk! Emerald teleported inside.

"Hi, Rana!" she said.

Rana turned around. "Oh, hi! Sorry, I don't think I've met you...what's your name?"

"I'm Emerald Glass," said Emerald. "What are you doing here?"

The villager that Rana had been talking to looked between the two Chibawkians, then scurried out the door.

"Oh, I've been trying to sell clothes to the villagers," said Rana. "They don't seem interested, though. I told them that Dr. Chibawk would destroy their village, but that didn't help." Rana paused for a moment. "Hey, are you recycling the houses? Maybe that will make them want to buy my clothes!"

"We could try that." Emerald teleported on to the roof and began tearing it off. "I have been sent by Dr. Chibawk!" she proclaimed. "If you don't buy froggy clothes from Rana, your entire village will become supplies and houses for Chibawkia!" Not that I'll stop even if you do buy them! she added to herself.

The villagers, who had come out of their houses and were looking up at Emerald, now glanced at each other, then back at Emerald.

"UNLEASH THE HORSE OF DOOM!!!" shouted the priest.

The ground started to shake, and then, suddenly -- BOOM! -- a spot on the ground just outside the village exploded! Out of the explosion rushed a skeletal horse with flaming eye sockets. It reared up and let out a roar, then ran toward the house that Emerald was on, jumped right onto the roof, and attacked her! Emerald quickly teleported onto another roof. "Rana!" she yelled at the ghost, who had come out to see what was happening. "Is there anything you can do about this horse?" She teleported again as the Horse of Doom opened its mouth and shot a fireball at her feet.

"Not on my own, but I can try to contact Dr. Chibawk!" said Rana. She stood still for a moment, then said, "Dr. Chibawk says he'll send help!"

Emerald teleported into a house and waited for the Horse to notice her new location. As she was starting to wonder where Dr. Chibawk's help was, she noticed some strange particles, like the ones you find at bedrock level, hovering in the middle of the room. Then a figure appeared, and all the torches fell off the walls.

In front of Emerald stood an individual covered in diamond armour. He had no eyes; just a streak of red where his right should've been, and blackness where his left would be. Emerald recognized him as the Ghost Warrior, although she had never actually seen him before.

"Ghost Warrior!" exclaimed Emerald. "There's a Horse of Doom out there, and it's attacking me and Rana!"

The Ghost Warrior said nothing, but ran out the door. Emerald teleported into the roof to watch.

As the Ghost Warrior ran toward the Horse of Doom, the Horse turned to confront its new foe. It shot a fireball, but the Ghost Warrior disappeared into the Void, then reappeared and hit the Horse with his diamond sword! The Horse reared up and knocked the Ghost Warrior away. The Ghost Warrior disappeared again in midair, reappearing behind the Horse of Doom. He attacked it again, this time getting in three hits before before, once again, being thrown back.

They repeated this several more times. After about the fifth time, as the Ghost Warrior ran toward the Horse of Doom, it opened its mouth and spit a stream of lava blocks at the Ghost Warrior, who, after being enveloped in lava, vanished. Emerald waited for him to come back, but nothing happened. The Horse looked around, also waiting. It soon gave up however, and, seeing Rana, started running toward her. Emerald watched, hoping that the Ghost Warrior would reappear just in time, but the Horse of Doom got closer, closer...and Rana fled, gliding toward a cave opening.

Then the Horse turned its attention to Emerald, and she too left the village, and went to find a safer place to recycle things--but first, to go Chibawkia and drop off the remains of the library.




Based on the recycling and teleporting, I'm guessing that Emerald is a cycleman.