The Three Body Problem

Chapter 4

Things remained relatively civil between the three of them after what Grian had privately dubbed "the incident". Poultry Man didn't prank quite as much, the Watcher kept to themself, and Grian just continued to do as he always did.

Poultry Man and the Watcher had both made use of the fact that one of them could go AFK without affecting the others. When they did get into squabbles, one of them could go AFK and the other could hang out with Grian, and they both got some time away from each other.

Grian had invited the Watcher to take control when they were flying a couple of times, but each time the Watcher turned his offer down. He wasn't sure why, but the Watcher seemed relatively alright, so Grian didn't push the matter.

As it turned out, he didn't have to; the Watcher took the situation in their own hands.

Jevin took out a hit on Grian, and since he had kindly let him know beforehand, Grian built a trap for Iskall in preparation for when he tried to deliver a hit. Both Poultry Man and the Watcher were very invested in the trap, and gave Grian plenty of ideas on how to improve it. Although Poultry Man was a bit saddened by the lack of chickens, and the Watcher was a bit put-off by the rather bland design of it, all three of them were rather pleased with it in the end.

Grian was just beginning to work on the pillars on the side of his base when he heard rockets behind him.

it's iskall! run! grian, run!

Grian launched himself off of the pillar and towards the shopping district.

Iskall caught up with him alarmingly fast. He's right behind us!

Grian, let me take control.

Grian experienced a brief moment of surprise before he shoved it away and said, Sure, go for it!

The Watcher's presence flowed to the forefront of their mind, taking control of the body. They shifted the rockets in their grip and shot off into the sky. It was flight like Grian had never seen: the Watcher climbed high and dove deep, circled back and looped-the-loop, made hairpin turns in midair. They even tried to hit Iskall as he flew past them.

the safe room! Poultry Man reminded them.

Right! They looped around Grian's base a few times. Gotta give him the runaround.

They landed silently in the hallway to the safe room, crouching down out of sight. Iskall landed in their base, and as his footsteps inched closer, the Watcher inched further back towards the pressure plate. Iskall turned the corner into the hallway and the Watcher jumped backwards onto the pressure plate. Iskall walked right through the lava and into the pit. A moment later, their communicator beeped and said, [Iskall85 fell from a high place.]

Grian, the Watcher, and Poultry Man all burst out laughing at the same time.

Oh my god, Watcher, that was - that was incredible. I think I'm crying.

Poultry Man was laughing too hard to properly say anything. you - he - ha!

"That was quite amazing, wasn't it?" They giggled hysterically, displaying an unusual lack of composure, and put their hand to their heart. "I haven't flown like that in forever."

dude! you have to teach me how to fly like that.

The shock in the Watcher's voice was audible. "You - you want me to teach you how to fly?"

yeah. i've never seen anyone fly like that.

"Oh. I... well... yes, I suppose I could teach you."

thanks, man.

Their communicator beeped again. It was a message from Iskall: [can you bring me my stuff?]

I'll take it from here.

The Watcher handed over control of the body to Grian, who typed out a quick response to Iskall: [yeah if you promise not to kill me lol]

Grian collected all of Iskall's stuff and set off towards his base in the ice biome. As he soared through the air, Grian commented, "We should make a game out of that. We could challenge people to races - maybe a mid-air obstacle course or something. We could charge one diamond per run, but they only have to pay if we beat them."

but we'd always beat them if Watcher was flying?

"Exactly!"

It sounds a bit risky. They might find out. On the other hand, the Watcher mused, it would be quite fun... I guess we could try it.

"Really? Great! We'll have to start planning out the course, what the obstacles will be, how many materials we need -"

Let's finish our current projects, first. Wouldn't want to get too ahead of ourselves.

"Right, of course. Anyway, I'm thinking it should go through the shopping district - lots of bobbing and weaving, y'know? And maybe some..."

The Watcher groaned. Here we go.

-------

They didn't build a flight course, but they did begin constructing an Architechs meeting room that Grian was calling "the infinity room."

It was a completely white room, made of sea lanterns, item frames, and white maps. There were no shadows or creases, and without any blocks to use as reference points, it looked like the room went on forever.

Grian stood in the middle of the finished room, staring around and admiring it. "Well? What do you guys think?"

Reminds me of where I lived before we left Evo, the watcher remarked. It's nice.

"Poult? What about you? You've been awfully quiet this whole time."

i...

Grian went from pleased to concerned in the span of a second. "You okay?"

can we leave, please?

"Uh, yeah, sure. Lemme just..." He felt around for the exit. When he found it, he slipped through the gates and up the bubblevator.

"What was that about?"

i, ah, it reminded me of the Void.

The Void? Like in the End?

yeah. i was stuck there before i found you guys. i didn't... i thought i was going to be trapped there forever. alone.

"That must have been terrible. I can't even imagine."

You aren't alone anymore; you have us. We won't ever let you be alone again.

i - wow, it almost sounds like you care about me.

Hmph, they sniffed. I may not like to admit it, but I do.

"So do I. We're here for you, Poult, if you ever need to talk."

Yeah. We're a team.

team idiot, he quipped.

"I know you are, but what am I?"

hey!