Chapter Text
Waking up in his home in Vi's valley, kantje yawns, picking himself up and scratches chin. kantje then sighs, feeling the presence of the audience greet him. 'Here we go again...'
Resigning himself to his fate of another Pariah-sanctioned multiversal adventure, kantje greets the audience back.
"Heyyyy chat! How we doing today? Well? Great? That's good."
Content with his welcoming of the audience, kantje decides to say hello to Onion before he leaves again, unwilling to leave for another adventure yet again without informing her.
Quickly enough, kantje finds himself at the door of Onion’s residence, an apple held behind his back as a parting gift before he leaves, hoping that it’ll tide her over until he’s back from the Pariah’s nonsense.
“Onion! Where are you, sweetheart?” kantje calls out, after having opened the door and welcomed himself inside the residence.
“Coming!” Onion replies, yelling from somewhere in the house, half muffled by something in her mouth. Probably an apple, kantje assumes, chuckling.
After a brief moment of Onion presumably chewing, Onion comes out of a nearby door giggling and with a half-eaten apple held gently in her hand. Greeting kantje cheerfully, she briefly waves her hand and then speaks, her mouth clear of any apple for the time being.
“So... can I come?”
kantje raises an eyebrow. “Come where?”
“On the adventure! With you! Silly.”
kantje winces and grits his teeth, aware that his next words will have to be very carefully curated.
“Onion. It’s dangerous. You know that. You’re better off staying here, safe.”
“But- I don’t care about safety. I just want to be with you instead of doing nothing in this house all day.”
kantje sighs, and pats Onion on the head. “I get it, and I’ll think about it. But not this time, okay? I have a bad feeling.”
Pouting, Onion dejectedly nods her head, and hugs her dad.
“Stay safe, kiddo.” kantje says, tossing her another apple as he heads out, spotting a soft smile appear on Onion’s face just before he closes the door. Whether that smile was due to the conversation or the apple, he doesn’t know.
Taking out his trident, kantje slashes it into the air infront of him, spawning the portal to his midway just outside the home. kantje walks through and into the portal, teleporting him to the Midway.
kantje takes a few seconds to blink as his eyes adjust to the sudden change of environment, glancing around and seeing that the birdcage is the same as ever, including the presence of the Pariah.
Star wastes no time in speaking, star’s booming garbled voice echoing throughout the midway. “After the regrettable debacle of Redacted, this adventure will be a bit easier for you. Do not mess up again.”
Used to the Pariah’s somewhat abrasive manner of speaking, kantje isn’t thrown off. “Fine, fine. What’s the adventure this time?”
“It’s similar to Redacted, a place dealing with corruption and abnormalities.”
The second immediately after the Pariah explains the adventure to kantje, the audience explodes, seemingly fully aware of where kantje is headed, censored message after censored message appearing. kantje sucks air through his teeth. ‘Oh that’s not a good sign. I have a bad feeling about this.’, he thinks.
kantje raises an eyebrow. “Could you... be a bit more specific than that?”
The Pariah shakes star’s head.
“Alright. Thanks. I guess I’ll take my leave. See you around, Star.”
kantje walks out of the portal, his trident in hand as he scans his immediate vicinity for signs of life, finding it immediately.
A tall, three story building made out of smooth stone, adorned with wood logs and a basic primitive farm on the 2nd level. Through the windows, kantje sees two people talking to eachother on the top floor, as well as a third leaning against the front door on the ground floor. The third appears to be an impossible-to-determine-the-age-of wither skeleton wearing a red jacket with a white shirt underneath, meanwhile the other two are further away but kantje can just barely make out that one appears to be a Steve wearing a black shirt with a red tie, and the other has long spiky white hair and another red tie on black chestpiece combo. Elsewhere, the landscape around them appears to be entirely untouched, the grassy plains stretching out as far as the eye can see.
Humming loudly to themself, the sudden appearance of the portal draws the attention of the third person, as kantje watches them skip over to him merrily.
"HI!" The person exclaims loudly. 'Ow, my ears...' kantje laments inwardly. "My name's Whyer! Who are you? And what's that thing you're holding?"
'Wow. This guy really reminds me of Saturn.' Kantje thinks, smiling at the thought of Saturn. "...who's that?"
Eyes widening as he realises he spoke out loud, kantje shakes his head and tells Whyer not to worry about it, before continuing after putting his trident away to prevent any further questions.
"Why are you a wither skeleton?" kantje inquires, before immediately realising that that may have not been the smartest thing to say, his face dropping in embarrassment, wishing a hole would open up beneath him and swallow him whole to avoid the shame. An awkward silence fills the air, but before kantje can stammer out an apology, Whyer responds in a bizarre fashion.
"...What's a wither skeleton?"
kantje's jaw drops, taken aback. "Uh. Um. ...what you are?" kantje answers incredibly pensively, unsure if he had just heard correctly.
Beaming, Whyer exclaims, "Oh! Well I'm not sure how you knew that, but I'm glad to finally know." Leaving no time for kantje to reply, Whyer continues. "Soo... who are you? How'd you find our base? We haven't seen anyone around other than us and that meanie Overlord and his clan in like... a week!"
"My name is kantje. I guess I just stumbled upon your base by accident, sorry for that." kantje says, chuckling awkwardly at the end, knowing he can't reveal why he's actually there. Elaborating, kantje opens his mouth again. "So what is this place? Seems like you've got a pretty good operation going on here, what with your friends I see up on the roof."
Grinning, as if proud to have the opportunity to explain, Whyer talks kantje's head off about the location/this place.
According to Whyer, the building is known as the clan build, the "clan" referring to Whyer, and his three teammates residing there alongside him. The two on the second level are Ram and Dye, with the final person (that kantje didn't see initially) being Revuxor, who has been renting out a room on the first floor since he found the clan build a week ago homeless and unequipped, and was taken in with the promise of paying the clan back for their kindness.
'This is a bit of a smaller scale than i'm used to... this can't be all there is to this place, right? Why else would I be here?' kantje ponders, knowing better than to ask the audience, aware that they would be censored.
Before they know it, kantje and Whyer are at the front door, opening it wide, allowing the two to walk inside. Giving kantje a tour of the base, he first takes him to the room that Rexuvor is renting to introduce them. However, when Whyer carefully opens the door to the room, he sees that Rexuvor is sleeping. Despite a week of healthy living, he looks quite pale, his short dark curly hair having some knots and tangles in it, and his dim discoloured clothes being quite baggy on his thin frame. kantje and Whyer decide to let him sleep, knowing he needs it and that kantje can always meet him later when he’s woken up.
Taking kantje up to the second floor to meet Ram and Dye, along the way kantje takes mental note of the pool for later, as he’s always appreciated a good swim.
As they make their way up the stairs, Dye is already at the peak of the staircase, waiting to greet them.
“Hey! Who are you? I presume you’re nice, given that Whyer’s been giving you a tour. But... well. We’ve had problems with some people recently and don’t really know who to trust. So I’d like to talk to you myself to ensure we’re all good. Besides that, welcome to the clan build!” Dye states, gently smiling but oddly giving two contrasting statements in one.
“That seems reasonable to me.” kantje replies, aware of how much he stands out in this place.
Dye, seemingly the leader of this place, or atleast someone that everyone looks up to, begins his spiel. “So. One. My name is Dye, you’ve already met Whyer and Rexuvor, and next to me is Ram. Two. How’d you find us? We don’t get visitors often, and when we do... they’re not particularly kind. Three. What’s your business here? We’re happy to house you for the moment, but we haven’t been doing great after Overlord’s raids. Also, I’ve made the realisation that you aren’t with Overlord’s clan, particularly because you. Um. Don’t look anything like how they operate, given Overlord’s no-fun allowed functionality over form rule of aesthetics.”
kantje takes a brief moment to take in Dye’s words, breathes, and then replies. “Well, my name is kantje as Whyer already knows. I kind of just stumbled upon this place, really. Was just on a stroll when I saw a building distance and decided to check it out. And my business? Well, I guess I’m just happy to help you guys out if you need, and it appears that you do need some help.”
A period of silence fills the air, as everyone listens to kantje speak. After about 45 seconds, Dye welcomes kantje to the clan build. “Well in that case... welcome to the clan, kantje!”
kantje smiles, and then has a lightbulb moment, speaking again, “Oh, and who’s this Overlord you mentioned?” Upon hearing this, the until-now silent Ram can’t stay silent anymore, something something outburst something, “That arrogant fuck Overlord and his clan has been screwing us for months, they stole my- our old base and have been trying to take this one too. He and his shitty suit of armour think they’re so high and mighty, but they’re just a bunch of losers!”
Ram’s aggressive words leave a tension in the air. For some reason unknown to even himself, kantje shudders, a chill going through his body as he hears Ram speak. There’s some odd feeling he gets; some tinge or emotion in Ram’s speaking and body language that feels wrong, abnormal.
Dye sighs, as if he expected this to happen, and sheepishly takes hold of Ram’s gloved hand and together go up to the roof, mouthing ‘sorry’ to everyone in the room. An awkward feeling is present in the room for a few seconds, before Whyer takes a breath and apologises to kantje. “Sorry about that. Ram’s been a bit... shaky, recently. I think Overlord’s raids has affected him more than he likes to admit.”
kantje understands. “Hey, do you want to go rent a room? We have one spare.” Whyer says to kantje. kantje agrees, and Whyer leads him back down to the first floor, to a room next to Rexuvor’s. In the room are the basic necessities. A crafting table, a furnace, a double chest, and a bed. The lack of anything else makes kantje fully realise that this world is stuck in the past, they’ve never seen a trident, don’t know what a wither skeleton is (although they should surely exist in this world), and would likely be completely puzzled if he brought out one of his shulkers. ‘I’m gonna have to be careful around here, I don’t want to say something that I’ll have to explain.’, kantje thinks, deep in thought enough to have to be interrupted by Whyer asking if he was okay. kantje assures Whyer he is, and then gives Whyer the rent for the week, which was 2 iron ingots.
After Whyer leaves kantje to himself, kantje shuts the door, takes a deep breath, and talks to the audience, having not spoken to them since before he arrived. “Hey chat. This place is weird, huh?” A chorus of affirmations and censored messages follow shortly after, kantje briefly wincing as the cacophony of voices occupy his head for a few seconds.
kantje nods, satisfied, although in his gut he’s still worried about why the Pariah sent him here. ‘Why am I here? What’s wrong with this place?’ He ponders.
For the next few hours, kantje relaxes in his room, content to leave the day as it is and see what he can do in the morning, talking to the audience intermittently during this time. However, this period of calmness is interrupted, as kantje spots a bright light appear in the distance in the dead of night through the window in the corner of his eye. Walking over to the window and putting his face up to the window, he can just barely make out a figure emanating the light far away. Taking out his trident, he slowly opens the door to avoid waking any of the others, opens the front door (again, slowly and carefully), and sneaks forward to get a closer look at the figure.
Squinting so he can see past the incredibly bright light, the figure appears to be wearing entirely pale colours, apart from the dark cloak and a spyglass on their side, an item that shouldn’t exist in this world yet. There’s a pair of goggles on their head, albeit they would serve no purpose as the figure doesn’t appear to have any facial features (eyes, mouth, nose, etc.).
As he gets within 50 blocks of the figure, it disappears along with the bright light it was emanating, and gives kantje a headache worse than any he’s ever had before, it hurts so much he can’t even hear his own thoughts as he groans and lets out numerous expletives for about 30 seconds until it suddenly disappears in a flash.
‘That... was not a normal headache. That was like an earthquake.’ kantje then cracks up as he has a dumb thought. ‘Heh, I’m dubbing that a headquake.’ kantje laughs at his own dumb joke for a few seconds, before retreating back to his room, and getting into bed. He’s had enough for one day.
Just seconds before kantje drifts off into unconsciousness, a small dim red light appears outside his window.
kantje falls asleep.