Reset

Chapter 8 | The Sleep King

WC: 2955
Warnings: None

-

Ranboo didn't get many answers the day after that. Or the next. Or the days that followed that.

His first day was spent moping around Larry, occasionally staring at the little bee doodle in his journal. He didn't know why he was doing it. For answers? What answers? There weren't any.

No Hermits came to check on him that day, which he was fine by. He needed the time to think and process everything that had happened. He suspected that the Hermits knew that, too, and he was glad they gave him the time he needed.

Ranboo knew he had to find the trigger that had caused his flashback. That was the next best course of action. But the task was so huge, so daunting that he didn't even know where to begin. Where did you start when there were literally hundreds of items--or even phrases or names people had said--that could have triggered his recall?

And, hell, who was Bee? He was obviously a close friend of Ranboo's. But how did they meet? What tied him to Ranboo's home server? There were too many questions, and every time he seemed to answer one, a dozen more popped up.

The second day, Ranboo finally worked up the nerve to start retracing his tracks from the day he'd received that flashback. He realized wasn't spending his time very wisely--he knew what to do next. He just couldn't bring himself to do it, which made him angry with himself.

He started with the Shopping District. In the back of his mind, though, he suspected that this hadn't been the place. He'd seen all this before when he'd first arrived, after all. Cleo had toured him through it, and he hadn't had a flashback then.

Ranboo didn't go further than that. If he retraced his steps completely, he'd end up with no idea what triggered it again. So, for the rest of the day, he made small talk with Grian, who was in the area restocking his shop: a Victorian-style building floating over the water. Grian called it the Barge, which Ranboo thought was a bit of an understatement.

"The Barge is full of grindy stuff that no one likes to collect," the avian had explained while shoving bags of sand into a chest. "Sand. Gravel. Miscellaneous items like campfires or chains that everyone uses in builds but are weird to craft up."

"I bet your shop is pretty successful," Ranboo had commented.

Grian had dug into his enderchest and pulled out a handful of diamonds. "I've got about six stacks of diamond blocks stored here."

"Wow."

"Yeah. It's an arduous task, collecting all the resources, but it pays off--literally--really well."

On the third day, Ranboo had decided to explore Falsesymmetry's cyberpunk base. He'd only expected to fly around the exterior a bit--practicing flying with his elytra in the process--but False had actually been in the area and had offered to show him around the interior as well.

"It's nice of you to stop by!" False had said, tying her light blonde hair into a ponytail as they walked along the edges of her base. "I don't think we've had the chance to meet properly yet."

"Yeah, thanks for showing me around." Ranboo peered over the edge of the walkway, where a wide, gaping hole leading down to bedrock was. False had filled the bottom with water so in case anyone fell, they wouldn't die. Unfortunately for Ranboo, that water was just as dangerous for him as falling from a high place.

"Have you had a chance to explore the rest of the server?"

"Grian showed me around the Shopping District, and we flew past Tango's and your bases. After Zedaph's base, though, the tour got cut off."