The Chained Watcher

Sky-High

~~~

Stepping through the sky-blue portal, Grian takes a deep breath, enjoying the unique smell of the world around him. Nothing wrong with Minecraft, of course, but there's a certain amount of... artificialness, in its lack of variety. Like, the same type of flower will always smell the same, no matter where it grew or how long it's existed for. You'll never get a dandelion so dark a yellow it's almost orange, nor will your lilies ever develop strange petal patterns due to crossbreeding.

Looking around, Grian sees crisp blue sky, not a cloud in sight. Not a cloud in sight, that is, until he walks over to the edge of the vaguely flat stone outcropping the portal's on and looks down.

"Huh. Pretty high up." Looks like they're on top of a steep mountain this time. Shouldn't have to worry about many intrepid hikers making it this far up, since the air's thin enough to make extensive exercise difficult and unpleasant.

Glancing over at another of the Explorers, some kind of merfolk skilled in sea exploration, Grian sees them already looking fairly worse for wear. Yeah, these altitudes aren't very kind to anyone used to the atmosphere at sea level.

He puts a hand on their shoulder, nodding back towards the portal. "Atmosphere's too thin for you up here. We'll probably dig a chute through the mountain to get to ground level pretty soon, but until then, you should stay back on the other side of the portal."

They frown. "I'm not helpless."

"I'm not saying that you are. All I'm saying is that this isn't a place geared towards your strengths. The air gets thin this high up. It's the complete opposite type of environment to what you're best suited for."

"Just because I ain't a bird don't mean I can't handle heights."

He rolls his eyes. Stubborn idiot... "The problem is that your lungs literally aren't designed to handle air as thin as this. It's the same situation as when we ended up underground. Only those who could see in the dark or glow went exploring, while the rest of us were stuck in base. Until we get a space ready for everyone whose lungs aren't optimized to handle the thin air at high altitudes, very few players should stay on this side of the portal for more than five or ten minutes at a time."

They glare at him, trying to get him to be the first to break eye contact, but he doesn't look away. He can see how heavily they're breathing just walking around up here. If they try any kind of heavy exercise, they could very well pass out, and extended oxygen deprivation does not play nice with anyone who hasn't had time to adapt to low oxygen.

After a couple stubborn seconds, their shoulders sag, and they give up on holding his gaze. "I just... feel a little useless, you know?"

He nods. "It'll probably feel like that for a day or two before we can make an easy path down to the bottom of the mountain. You'll get the chance to explore, I promise, as long as you don't hurt yourself trying to compete in oxygen efficiency with a bunch of skinny bird people. And if the ants in your pants really won't let you sit back for a day or two? Once we've got enderporters, just bug one of us to give you a lift down to ground level. If no one else will do it, I'll give you a lift."

"...You promise?"

"I promise. I might not be around base too often, but I usually check back in at least once a day in the early phases of exploration, so if you catch me while I'm around all you need to do is ask."

They search his eyes for a second, then bow their head. They acknowledge sheepishly, "The air's a lot thinner than I'm used to up here."

He nods knowingly. "Yeah, it gets that way at the really high altitudes."