The Chained Watcher

Shopping!

Back from wifi-less vacation, and finished up a new chapter! You know, sailing is fun when the wind isn't strong enough to tilt the boat sideways while the hull thrums scarily beneath you as you lean as far back as you can without falling out in an attempt to stop the boat from putting the mast in the water.

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With the portal set to be closing soon, if the last couple times are any indication, a lot of players are going on one last shopping spree before they'll be cut off from the wider universe. Got a new favorite food? Try to get the recipe, or if you can't, buy it in bulk to delay how long it'll be before you grieve the exhaustion of your now limited supply of it.

As for Scar? He's shopping again! Just... not alone this time. The moment Xisuma heard he was planning to head out again, the admin sighed and joined him, and Grian threatened to bind a scrying focus to him if he ditched his escort. Which is apparently some kind of magic camera thing that would let Grian watch him without being nearby. While he does have to admit it's not a bad idea, it's still an embarrassing thought, being stuck with what's essentially a baby monitor.

On their way out, the two of them ran into Scott, who was also planning to head out shopping. Thus, two became three, and the newly expanded group continued on with higher spirits.

On the flight over, Scar asked idly, "So what are you heading out to buy?"

"Just some new outfits," Scott replies, letting himself drift low enough to leave a trail through the cloud bank they're currently flying over before firing off another rocket to regain velocity and altitude. "Minecraft lets us make many things, but high quality clothing is not one of them."

Scar nods understandingly. As someone who loves dressing up for different occasions, he's had to make sacrifices many times to complete fun outfits. His impromptu tailoring skill is considerably higher than it was before ending up on Minecraft. "I get what you mean. Now that I think about it, I should probably grab some bolts of fabric too. The last place we were at had fabric, sure, but shopping without letting it slip that I wasn't local or enamored by the Watchers ruling the place was way too hard."

Scott shudders at the reminder of the previous portal. "I can't believe all those people actually thought Watchers were gods. I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt so I could get some shopping done, but there were symbols and statues everywhere. Did you manage to do any shopping there? I ended up leaving before getting past a little farmer's market outside the gates. There were just... too many Watcher idols."

"Nope, my shopping was a complete bust." Not to mention how Grian had to bail everyone out by pretending to be like the other Watchers. Even for Scar, watching him put on that sneer was offputting. That's in the past though. "I've found plenty of cool stuff here though! It takes some hunting to find unique stuff, but I bought a bunch of magic items to mess around with so I can try to make my own someday, and some of it is really cool."

Scott's eyebrows shoot up. "You bought a lot of magic items? I did some browsing earlier, and aren't those at least a handful of gold coins apiece? Where'd you get that much local money?"

"Oh, I didn't! Grian did! He just let me borrow some to go shopping, even if I got in trouble for going alone afterward."

"Okay, then where did Grian get that much local money?"

Scar winces when he hears Xisuma sigh, but the admin doesn't seem too eager to bail him out of this verbal pit he's digging for himself, and probably won't interrupt unless he gets a little too close to mentioning Grian's big secret. "He uh... Magic?"

"Magic," Scott deadpans. Scar nods. "He's getting all this money... with magic."

"Yeah? I doubt I'd be able to do it anytime soon with my current level of skill, but he just put his hand on a gold block and exploded it into a bunch of coins." He pauses, then amends, "Well, not exploded. It just suddenly became a big cube of coins instead of a solid block, and collapsed in a mound of gold coins. Pretty cool to watch."