Harvey (Team Crafted)

Taking Inventory

Harvey woke up on his own in the early morning, roused by a dust-induced coughing fit. He waved a hand in front of his face as he sat up on the bed, catching his breath. Then he looked around.
    It was maybe an hour after dawn; the grey-pink in the sky had turned to soft blue, dotted with clouds, and the morning fog was almost totally cleared away. Dew was on the spider web-laced windows, and lining the webs themselves as well. It was then that Harvey noticed that the windows in the tower he now called home were tinted violet; he couldn't say he was surprised. His avatar had a good taste in color, just like him.
    Harvey surprised himself. He didn't normally think about his own tastes. Or fashion. And even when he did, he didn't think positive things. He never really thought many positive things of himself. But here, in the Sorcerer's Tower in the Guild of Team Crafted in this dangerous realm, he realized that there was no room for self-deterioration. If he was to survive, he would have to believe in himself just as much as he believed in the other members of his team... If he could even call them his team.
    Harvey shook his head and swung his feet over the bed, onto the dusty floor. After pulling on his shoes and tying them, he stood up straight and stretched his arms high up towards the ceiling, making a small, satisfied grunting sound as he felt a few pops in his spine.
    Finally, he observed his living situation in the light of day as he fussed with his bed head. Everything was covered in dust, and cobwebs were all over. The place itself was pretty messy; empty potions bottles covered every surface and the two selves hanging over the windows had clutter all over. Harvey drew in a deep breath - which he could hardly do without coughing - and rolled up his sleeves.
    Time to get to work.
    The first thing he did was go through both chests. The smallest was filled with a few potions ingredients. It had been awhile since Harvey touched Minecraft, but he was able to identify nether wart, some redstone and glowstone dust, mushrooms, carrots, and a few disgusting bodiless eyes that the aspiring Sorcerer suspected had once belonged to a certain arachnid.
    The other chest - the double - was almost empty, other than many empty glass bottles, one filled with a rather boring-looking liquid, an orange potion, and two pink-ish potions.
    After he was done with that, Harvey got to work cleaning. Before anything else, he swept all of the dust through the hatch into the library to be dealt with later, using an old broom he had found propped up against the wall beside the furnace.
    He knew he would have to scrub the floor to finish, but he decided to save that for last. He sorted through the chests and separated the potions ingredients into small piles, and bottles into rows and stacks in the large chest, hopefully to be turned into potions if they could find a way to the Nether. All the bottles and miscellaneous other items on the shelves were sorted into the correct places as well till the place appeared almost as though it hasn't been abandoned for three years.
    The last cobwebs were burned using a torch, and finally, Harvey pushed open the window. Later, he would realize that "pushing open" a window, just meant breaking it. He realized, as he felt fresh air rush into his room, that the smell of the inside was horribly rusty, dusty, and just plain stagnant. He was short of breath for a moment before he coughed, and took deep breaths of the clean air. It was a sunny new day, now nearly noon. Everybody was awake.
    Deadlox and True could be seen across the path, sitting on the roofs of their separate houses, sharing an apple and talking and laughing. Jerome was sweeping dust out of his house. As Harvey watched him, a sheep trotted past behind Jerome within the treehouse, a stick in its mouth. Harvey laughed a little and looked towards the farm. The fences around it were being replaced by Sundee, whose sunglasses were propped up on his forehead. The crops themselves looked in pretty bad shape; they'd all have to be replanted. Harvey didn't see Husky anywhere, but he remembered Deadlox telling him that the fish lived just outside of the Guild walls, in the river. He was probably there, fixing up his house.
    The only other person out of sight was Sky; Harvey wondered where he might be, but soon shrugged the notion off and went back inside to get to work. He got all his sheets off the bed and carried them down through the library and outside. He shook them out, washed them using water from the stream, and hung them up to dry over the edge of the well, where lots of sun beamed. Hopefully, they'd be dry by the time night rolled back around.
    Harvey had found a bucket inside the cauldron in his room. He had stuffed all the sheets inside before going down to wash them. He asked Jerome to toss him down a cloth, which the furry did, and Harvey filled the now empty bucket with water from the well. It was hard getting back up the ladder to to his room while carrying the heavy bucket, but after two tries and only getting himself a little soaked, he finally made it up.
    He got to work on his hands and knees, scrubbing the floor with his sleeves and pants rolled up so they wouldn't get more wet than they already were.
    It was only after he finally finished cleaning everything in the top room that he realized how hungry he was. His stomach growled and Harvey grunted slightly. He looked around his room, but he already knew that the only thing edible he had was mushrooms, which he really wasn't in the mood for.
    He went down the ladder, already feeling like he was getting better about using it, and outside. "Hey, Jerome?" He called up to the nearby treehouse.
    There was a moment's hesitation before a sheep's head peered over the edge of the doorway, looking down at Harvey curiously. Harvey tilted his head, staring at it curiously. "Uh... Jerome...?"
    "Ugh, move, move!" Jerome's voice called, and the sheep was nudged out of the way as the fluffy appeared in its place. "You're all lucky I don't cook you all! I could really go for mutton tonight!" He growled, and the sheep baa'd at him either in a dismissive way, or in a fearful way. Harvey couldn't tell which. He couldn't speak sheep.
    Jerome sighed, leaning in his doorway, and looking at Harvey. "What's up, kid? Need another cloth?"
   "No, actually, I'm done with that." Harvey said. "I just wanted to ask, do you know where I can get any food?"
    Jerome blinked. "Oh, right, yeah Deadlox mentioned you humans eat more often than us. Yeah, yeah, here, I got ya." Jerome disappeared inside the treehouse. Harvey only had to wait a couple of minutes and hear a few curses at the sheep family housed with Jerome before the Bacca was back. "Here." He tossed a loaf of bread down to Harvey.
    Harvey fumbled with it clumsily, but just managed to catch it with both hands before it could hit the ground. Jerome snorted. "You really are different than the rest of us aren't you?"
    Harvey stared up at him for a moment, trying to think of a good comeback, and he looked down as he couldn't think of one, holding his bread close. Jerome's faze softened. "Hey, kid, I didn't mean... It's okay to be different. I mean, that's what this whole world is all about."
    Harvey looked up again. "What d'you mean?"
    Jerome shrugged. "Well, look around you." He said, and Harvey did as he continued talking. "Most of us appear to look like you, right? Sky, Deadlox, True, and Sundee all appear mostly human. But True's eyes are different than a human's and he's very intellectually advanced for one too. Sundee has very light-sensitive eyes and can see in the dark, which is why he's usually wearing sunglasses. Deadlox, well... Deadlox is pretty much just like you but he can fight better. Then you got me and Husky who are completely different than you; the point is, we all look different in this world, but while we have special abilities sometimes, we really all belong to the same blanket species. We're all just Minecraftian. I think that's the beauty of this world. Nobody judges anybody else cause of how they look." He thought a moment. "Is that what it's like where you're from?"
    Harvey stared up at him a moment, trying to think of a way that maybe it could be, but he couldn't. He sighed. "I wish."
    Jerome smiled sympathetically, although he did look a bit scary with his big animalistic fangs. He looked up at the greying sky. "It's gonna rain today, but how about I take you out hunting tomorrow, kid?"
   Harvey blinked. Hunting? His dad and his uncle used to go hunting all the time but... "Y-Yeah, sure!"
   Jerome nodded. "Now get inside and eat before you get soaked."
   Harvey smiled and nodded. "Thanks Jerome!" He called before he ran inside the Sorcerer's Tower again. Jerome watched him go, smiling a little in spite of him. He had to admit, the kid was a little like Seto in some ways. Same voice, for one; but he also had a lot of charisma.

Seto's fingers closed weakly into a fist, collecting a bit of sheets in his hands. He opened his eyes slowly, his arm slowly reaching out in front of him. His hand touched warm skin and his opened his eyes fully.
    Sky laid there, his eyes closed. Seto blushed as he saw him, smiling softly, curling his knees a little closer to his chest almost shyly even though Sky was fast asleep.
    Seto let his eyes fall shut again tiredly. Last night had been rather long and he just didn't feel like getting up. A few minutes passed by in peaceful silence, with only the sounds of the birds chirping outside and the grandfather clock in the hall ticking loudly in the air. Then Sky stirred.
    His soft, golden eyes opened, and he smiled at Seto. His arms, already around the Sorcerer, pulled him closer to his chest lovingly. "Morning..."
    Seto blushed and smiled, resting his cheek contentedly against Sky's chest. "Good morning..." He felt Sky petting his hair slowly and gently and he couldn't help but giggle.
    Sky smiled down at him before he kissed his head. "How'd you sleep?"
   Seto hummed. "Alright... I always sleep well when I have you here. Damn humanoid fireplace."
   Sky laughed. "Well I'm glad I can keep you warm."
   "Yeah, me too." Seto giggled again, before the thoughts of last night resurfaced in his mind again. His smile faded, not like he was sad, but like he was thinking.
   Sky, of course, knew that look very well. He blinked and stopped moving his hands, fingers still laced in Seto's soft, messy brown hair. "Something on your mind?"
    Seto hummed. "I just... I got an idea..."
    Sky tilted his head, prompting him for more.
    Seto hesitated, thinking over his words before speaking. "I was just thinking... Well, what if we like... See, there are so many of us here now, it's not just me and Ty and you tagging along on our adventures every few weeks. We're always together, all eight of us, but just stuck here. So I thought... Why don't we build a more central base? Like a fortress? Somewhere that would be easy to reach from the villages in case someone needs our immediate help from monsters." Seto sighed, looking down. "I dunno, it thought like a good idea last night..."
   Sky gripped his shoulders, making the Sorcerer look back up at him. "No, no, it's a great idea! It would bring us together as a team to work on such a big project like that, and we would be able to help people faster and better." Sky smiled. "You're a genius, Seto."
    Seto rolled his eyes. "No, True's the genius of the team."
    "Well, that may be true, but True isn't nearly as cute as you."
    Seto blushed, smiling as he looked up at Sky. "Well, I dunno, True can be pretty cute sometimes..." He said teasingly. Sky growled in jealousy and Seto just laughed.

Sky's house had never felt more empty. He had built it years ago, and Seto had helped him. It looked just like a normal, two-story suburban house.
    His bedroom was on the second floor. He laid on his bed silently, on his side. It was dark, he only had one torch up, on the other side of the room. He was staring at the other side of the bed, which was empty, but he didn't have the heart to remove the second bed. That was where Seto always laid...
    His life was so different now than it had been before the Sorcerer's disappearance. His days had been warm and filled with light and laughter and now... Everything was dark and cold and lonely. Harvey's sudden appearance just made him more bitter. He missed Seto more than anyone, because he knew Seto better than anyone else even could...
    There was a knock on his door. Sky raised his head. What the hell was anyone doing at his door? It was storming outside.
    He reluctantly got up and went downstairs and to the door, but when he opened it, he blinked as he saw none other than Harvey. Sky's eyes narrowed. "What." He demanded.
    Harvey just sighed as he trembled slightly, soaked in the rain. "C-Can I borrow a blanket...? I left mine out to dry a-and I forgot to bring them in..."
    Sky stared at him for a few seconds in silence. Harvey saw him thinking, wrestling with his conscience. Finally, he just sighed. "Get in here." He growled, leaving the door open and walking away, through a door at the beginning of a hall.
    Harvey blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected Sky to let him in. He stepped inside, looking around. Sky appeared to have don't some cleaning too, or maybe the place wasn't as messy as his. Either way, there was no dust any-
   "Shut the damn door!"
    Harvey jumped and quickly shut the door behind him, muffling the sounds of the raging storm just outside. Sky came back into the room with a few towels. "Stay there until you're dry. I don't want any muddy footprints, I just cleaned this place." He turned and headed up the staircase as he finished, "I'll get you some clothes. You're only staying here till the rain stops. And you're sleeping on the couch." Then he was gone.
    Harvey stared after him, somewhat shocked. He really hadn't expected Sky to let him stay... Maybe he was growing on him! He'd have to make sure he wouldn't be a nuisance at all, so maybe he and Sky could get along even better later. He quickly got to work drying himself off, avoiding dripping on the floor as much as he could.