Zoinked lil freak

Since Ivor's Witherstorm demonstration actually went according to plan, the cast's town (which I call Warrior's Keep) remains intact. Only the town hall is destroyed, but it's nothing that a couple of days of hard work can't fix. However, the damage wrought to the Order of the Stone's reputation is irreparable. Magnus and Ellegaard don't suffer from Ivor's reveal too harshly because they have proven their abilities to their towns' residents, but they still face a massive loss of trust. Soren, in his isolation, doesn't know and doesn't care about it, lmao. Gabriel, who doesn't have a town of his own and relies the most on his reputation as a member of the Order, suffers the most. The Order admits its lie and devotes itself to regaining people's trust. It's a slow journey, but public opinion regarding them slowly increases over time.

The Witherstorm and subsequent uproar about the Order of the Stone does have one positive effect, however: it brings Endercon into the limelight. Originating as a small, local competition for the residents of Warrior's Keep, Endercon rapidly increases in popularity and size as more people become aware of it. After several years, it becomes Warrior's Keep's biggest event and the most famous festival for thousands of blocks. Thus, its building competition has become WAY more serious than it used to be. That's why Jesse and his crew are so intense about it. Over the years, they've refined their building technique and become one of the best teams in the area, but they always fall behind the Ocelots, who have easily become one of the most popular teams in the competition.

Over time, the Fellowship of the Pig's (hastily renamed after the Witherstorm fiasco) feud with the Ocelots becomes increasingly polarized. The Fellowship begins to think of the Ocelots as their worst enemies rather than people in their own right (and, to be fair, the Ocelots still bully them mercilessly, so that thought process is not entirely unwarranted). After the events of TRE (my Jesskas fic featuring Jesse, Axel, Olivia, and Reuben from the Nothing Happened AU), the Fellowship begins to see the Ocelots (particularly Lukas and Aiden) in a new light. Aiden turns out to just be a dick in their universe (I haven't decided if he'll change in the Nothing Happened AU, but I'm leaning towards making him an antagonist), but Lukas turns out to be more complex than Jesse thought, and the two start to develop a strange relationship that only increases in complexity and tension as Endercon slowly approaches.

I'm not sure how their relationship starts and develops, but it will be facilitated by the Endercon building competition! I think, in the end, Lukas will withdraw from the Ocelots, leading Aiden to rebrand the Ocelots as the Blaze Rods. The Fellowship of the Pig ends up winning the competition for the first time in ten years! I don't know if Lukas will join them for the competition, though; it would be nice to have him work WITH them instead of AGAINST them, but I also want the Fellowship's success to be entirely because of their own hard work, not because they got a new member. Maybe he could give them tips, or help them train and battle Aiden's incessant torment.

Even though I'm still uncertain on specifics, I DO want Jesse and Lukas to strike up a friendship (and maybe even something more!) while trying to keep their friends from finding out. Jesse and his friends are strolling through town, and Axel and Olivia start trashing Lukas and the Ocelots, and Jesse is just like, "Yeah... no, yeah, I totally agree..." while thinking about Lukas' brilliant blue eyes or something like that.

Little note about Petra: she is not a part of the Fellowship nor the Ocelots/Blaze Rods. She is a neutral party between the two groups and often supplies them with hard-to-get building supplies. This results in occasional arguments between Petra and her friends, but she firmly maintains this boundary. In her eyes, she's not letting a stupid competition stand between her and her friendships, even if it does make those friendships difficult to manage sometimes. She is a good source of advice and often offers a listening ear to Jesse and Lukas throughout the story!

Another side note: I'm not sure how heavily the Portal Network + Season 2 characters will feature in this story. I imagine Jack and Nurm or Ivor could have eventually found the Portal Network, but without a major hero arising post-Witherstorm, Romeo has nobody to give his gauntlet to, and thus S2 never happens. I don't have a good reason why Ivor would feature in this story yet, but I am determined to come up with one; I love him too much to exclude him from anything.

Overall, the plot of this AU will center on Jesskas and be much fluffier and lighthearted than TRE and Bedrocked! It's definitely the slice-of-life comedy story of the three of them. They're kind of a spectrum when you put them all together: Nothing Happened on the comedy side, Bedrocked on the angsty side, and TRE in the action-adventure middle! This isn't to say that Nothing Happened won't have any angst--because it definitely will--but that won't be the overall feel of the story. :)