The Chained Watcher

Side Stories (again)

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Streaming/Content Creation

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Grian idly contemplated the most recent development in the hub, sitting at the top of his base while staring at the sunset.

Entertainment was at an all-time high, with the ability to record videos being added to most people's communicators and an upgrade available to allow for streaming videos live. It started when one server had started recording dramatic roleplay videos, though they hadn't managed to come up with a good name for it yet and just used their server's name. Turn's out green hoodie's name is Dream, and his server is named DreamSMP.

Some of the other hermits had started recording their own videos, and the server was getting quite a bit of traction online with its massive builds and complex redstone. Should he start recording himself? It's a shame the prank war has already ended, but there's still content to be had with the daily shenanigans that go on in Hermitcraft. Might as well give it a go.

He opens up his communicator's new recording function, watching the spherical camera float out a couple of blocks away from him. A red light blinks on. "Is this thing on?" Checking his communicator, it was indeed on. "Alright, uh..." What should he say? Hmm. Greet the audience, introduce the content. 

"Hello everybody! My name is Grian and welcome to Hermitcraft! Since this is my first video, I'm mostly gonna be doing a tour of my builds on the server." 

He took off into the air, watching the camera chasing close behind.

"First things first, if you look to your right you will see my current base. It is in no way a blender, a cake, or a flower pot, no matter what anyone else may say." The camera dutifully rotates to the right, giving a nice panoramic shot of his mega base.

"Next door is the base of MumboJumbo, redstoner extraordinaire and possessor of the server's most glorious mustache." Turning again, the camera focuses on the foggy shape of Mumbo's terrarium sphere thing on the horizon. He starts flying to the Shopping District.

"And just over this way is Hermitcraft's Shopping District! I myself have a couple of shops that are sometimes stocked, along with a joint project named Sahara. I have also been told in no uncertain terms that I am not to touch the redstone in any way, shape or form, so no insider's redstone tour today."

Heading off towards the prank war's location, he begins narrating again. "Just over here we have the remnants of a prank war we had recently. The futuristic one is G-Team's base while the turtle belongs to Team Star. It's really a bit difficult to unravel what happened to cause the war, but the two most debated theories are that it was started by either me or Cleo."

After several more minutes of exploring the Shopping District, Grian runs into a bit of a dilemma. Now what does he do? Prank someone maybe? He doesn't have any builds planned for today, but maybe he could work on a farm in his base?

"Well, I didn't really have anything planned for today, but let's try to work on a farm! I'm thinking a sugarcane farm hidden in one of these towers surrounding it, maybe a cactus farm too if it works right."

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"I don't understand, why won't it work?!?"

It happened again. He spent an hour getting the sugarcane farm set up, but now the hopper system was malfunctioning for no apparent reason. Did he really need to call someone over to poke it again? He flopped dramatically on the ground, looking at the camera as it stared back at him.

"This," he said, "is why I am not allowed to touch the redstone."

He sat up, checking the time. It's later than he should be up, though that stops very few hermits from pulling an all-nighter building their bases.

"Well, that's gonna be it for this episode. I need my sleep and to get someone better at redstone to fix this. Thank you very much for watching everyone, and goodbye~!"

The camera stares at him for a couple of seconds before he remembers to turn it off. It then folds in on itself, returning to the communicator. Now all he should need to do is edit out the in between travel time, and that should be good. Looking back at the broken farm, he also makes a note to get someone else to look at it sometime later.

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Introspection

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Grian found himself once again sitting at the top of his base, though this time he was staring up at the starry night sky. Recently he had been thinking about how much he had changed since they escaped the fortress, and the extent of the change surprised him.

Although his memories pre-imprisonment were foggy and hard to get details from, he was sure that the old him was much more stuck-up than he was now. It's not that he had lacked morals back then, but pride had had a much higher place on his list of priorities. Now, though? He felt no shame putting pride on the sidelines if it meant getting to have fun with his friends.

That was another thing that had changed. Watcher society had no room for something as sentimental as friendship, and the closest thing was allies who would happily stab each other in the back if it meant rising to a higher status. The cutthroat behavior had felt natural, after all, that's just how things were, right? Now, having seen how humans tended to interact with each other, the cruelty of the hierarchy was laid bare for him to see.

The other Watchers had no idea what they were missing out on, focusing so much on strict rules and violent punishments. If he had managed to actually get some of them on his side back then... But there's no point in what ifs. What's done is done, the past recedes into the distance while the future stretches out ahead. What will it hold for him next?

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If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask! Plot relevant things might not get an answer, but mechanics wise I'd be happy to respond.