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The moderator of Mindcrack Love ([personal profile] mindcrack_love) wrote2012-09-09 01:35 am

To Hear the Words: general plot outline, worldbuilding notes, and so on

Because apparently I'm better at meta on fanfiction than actually writing fanfiction. All criticism and help welcome!



General plot outline:
Jason has one last loving moment with his wife and daughter, then goes to sleep. He wakes up in the Mindcrack world, spends the day trying to learn the rules of the road, and believes honestly that he is just lucid dreaming. When sunset comes, he meets Bdubs. Bdubs thinks Jason is Guude; Jason thinks Bdubs is John.

Sexy times happen - again, Jason thinks he's just dreaming, but it's crazy vivid with detail he never thought possible in dreams.

Jason falls asleep. He dreams of the Sky Dimension and the Red Dragon, who tells him some more things about the world. Jason has to retrieve the dragon egg and take it through the End Portal to get switched back - but if he chooses not to take the egg through the portal, he'll stay permanently. He has a limited amount of time, but it's somewhat flexible (as fits the plot, basically). Dying would be...unwise, so getting help from others would be smart. He learns that the worlds have been switched, and Bdubs is in love with Guude, not him necessarily.

Jason tries going to the Nether, thinking the server must be set up exactly like the regular one. This is not true; Jason gets spooked by the dangers of the Nether and leaves. He tells Bdubs he wants to go to the Nether to collect resources - Bdubs refuses to let him go alone, and insists on them hiring a guide. Guude sends out an ad through MC/Good Morning Mindcrack. [Side Story 1: MC and Nebris' past history and current relationship, where they basically constantly dance around the fact that they like each other and Nebris is a merciless tease.]

Three offers: Etho, who asks for control of the area around the blaze spawners; Zisteau, who asks for permission for some of his brethren to be able to go through the portals regularly; Nebris, who asks for glowstone. When they hear the full details of Jason's plan and realize they have to work together, they're a little weirded out; Jason offers to teach them a secret for infinite Ender pearls with some effort.

The Nether is explored, and Blaze rods are had by the bucketload. Bdubs is starting to get suspicious. Nebris notices how all the portals are closer together in the Nether than they are in the overworld; initially thinks about abusing it for personal courier jobs, but Jason convinces him to consider opening it up to everyone and creating the hub.

Together, they go to Baj's, and convince him to let them dig under his house in exchange for the secrets to the Nether portals. Jason knows where to dig without throwing Eyes of Ender and that makes Bdubs even *more* suspicious.

There's room here for "filler" - more like "emotional exposition", as Jason delays going to the End to sort out his feelings. Somewhere here either Bdubs figures it out or Jason can't stop lying to Bdubs anymore, which starts its own sequence of emotions.

Eventually, everyone on the server - all 23 - meet to go to the End, and an epic battle is had against Glydia. Bdubs encourages Jason to take the egg and return - to reunite with his wife and daughter, who need him, and to bring Guude back to their world as well. Jason does, with a bit of a heavy heart, but he does - and he leaves Bdubs in a sequence reminiscent of the beginning sequence with his wife and daughter.

Finally, there's an epilogue which has already been written, an edit of the End Poem to suit Jason's situation, with a hint that Jason's world may be a little happier than he thought.

Rules of the Road/Fantasy World Notes

"Permadeath is on" - just like our world! It influences the Mindcrackers' opinions on things and gauging danger. People do have Nether portals and get glowstone and fight Ghasts and Blazes - just in extreme moderation. (Nebris likes insulting the Ghasts as well.)
Measuring time: "x days after y rains after z update": "It is the tenth day of the fourteenth rain since the cocoa grew!" Time significantly dilates in the Nether and the End.
"Guude, in Jason's body, will wake up in ten rainstorms".
Common jobs: acting as courier, building assistance, resource gathering. Mostly diamond based transactions, though bartering and service-for-service transations are common. Nebris always asks for glowstone instead of diamonds for some reason; similarly with MC and lapis.

Cookies and melons are delicious; fresh and addictive, can't eat just one.
Clothes magically appear on people as need be. Bathing does help keep a person feel decent, though.
"Thick Potions" act as lube. :P

Just like how in our world we simulate Minecraft experiences, the people in "the other world" have frequent lucid dreams of events in our world, so they're not completely unfamiliar with real world concepts. Still, it's imperfect, and even if the red dragon tries to teach Guude as much as possible as quickly as possible, if he wakes up he will not be in perfect shape to be Jason's replacement.

Relationships: OOG is canon; PauseUnpause is also PolyUnpoly with all of his boyfriends; many other ships are at that delicious "will they or won't they" stage (Doc/Etho, MC/Nebs, Single Malt).

Inside Jason's Head

Jason is not generally poly, and he's usually more attracted to women than men...but John gives him all the feels anyway, because, um, yeah. He's convinced that if he had met John back when they were both single things would be very, very different.

Sometime at Minecon, possibly while sober but certainly while not really thinking (potentially right after the "before the Minecon sex tape" vid?), Jason confessed to John that his feelings were not purely friendly in nature. John rejected him, in a sort of obscure and gentle way, trying very hard to let him down gently and preserve their friendship. While they're still close and still able to joke about things such as these occasionally, it's not quite the same as it used to be - because of this block between them.

Jason is also dealing with the complications of Youtube fame and generally getting older - the increasing uselessness of the comments, the rising trolling and hatred, the people trying to use him to jumpstart themselves. He also worries about his daughter's future, how to raise her the way he wants her to be, how to give her the education and future she deserves. His wife is sweet and does what she can, but doesn't quite understand everything he's feeling.

So this Minecraft world, as imperfect and strange as it is, is not difficult for Jason to understand and deal with - and he has the relationship with Bdubs, which he'd never get otherwise. So the decision to stay or to go is definitely a hard one.

Resources (mostly notes to self)
The map as of May 30:
Useful for semi-realistic estimations of overworld distances. Sadly, no sign of where Millbee would be. GenerikB is assumed to live in the shadow of the Arena.
Episodes worth finding for the main sequence: when Baj finds the Temple; when Guude and Bdubs move in together using the same portal; the fight against Glydia.
Stuff worth finding for Jason's feelings: "Sometimes I get sad" on the Reddit and related Mindcrack episodes; all of the Jason/John things at Minecon; the MineZ episodes where idiots try to advertise themselves in their chats; the Minecon episodes about educating his daughter
Episodes worth finding for the side stories: Mindcrack at Dusk August 8; Team Cupcake RFW
Non-Mindcrack things to find: a hardcore SSP (or even SMP?) Enderdragon run; people's old theories on the abandoned Sky Dimension and Red Dragon
Non-Minecraft influences: Steins;Gate episode 22: Kurisu's speech on what happens when one jumps between worlds; the End Poem

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