One Blocky Hussar

Pestilence drones for a moment, smiling when she draw a motion, but then tilted his head slightly, watching her making motions. Again, he didn’t quiet understand, but he shrugged.

      “A . . Are y . ou?”

      Being a being that knew weariness and possibly every ailment known to exist, the enderman seemed to somewhat understand what she was saying. The family he lived in before he was given a body had some strange ways of communication, and this was one. He didn’t always understand, but a few snippets here and there he understood.

      “I am … OK.”

      He reassured the other that he was fine, giving a wary glance around him to see if any of his three brothers were around, giving him a glare and come to drag him back to the cavern. He was known to wander too far sometimes, and he did get lost. But the eye of ender always led him back.

"A . . Are y . ou?"

Between the Enderman's shrug and most likely choice of words, it looks to Ziven like they are trying to avoid answering her question. Well, that or at least one of the them is misunderstanding the other. Flexing her fingers and starting to raise her arms to reply she stops when Pestilence starts to talk again.

"I am... OK."

Possibilities as to what he said, what he meant, rattled in her skull. Was he claiming to be alright? Confirming that he's lost? ... Telling her his name? The cautious glances he casts after the comment leave Ziven doubting that's his name, but the other possibilities? Needing more time to think on the matter she starts signing an answer to his probable question.

Using only her right hand at the start, she begins with a knocking motion with a palm-out fist. Rotating her palm back in towards her self and spreading out her fingers, she moves the hand in front of the left side of her chest and sweeps it in a straight line to the right, closing her fingers as she does so. Twisting her hand so that the palm is out again she curls her last two fingers in while using her thumb and first two fingers to make a sort of pinching-clawing motion.*

After a brief pause in her signing to let Pestilence catch up she continues. Still using her right hand at the start she makes what looks like a salute while tapping the rim of her helmet, her fingers straight but bent in slightly towards her palm. Moving the hand back down to breast-height she locks her pinkie and thumb to make a bizarre three-eared bunny before spreading both hands flat and parallel to make a wavy motion. Repeating the first motion she made after her pause Ziven then places both of her open hands in front of her, parallel to one-another as if holding a small invisible box by its sides and holding it out towards the Harbinger.**

For the last of her signs she almost does not use her left hand again. Casting a few glances of her own as she signs she uses her right hand to point with a single finger off towards her left and stretch her arm the way it's pointing. Moving the hand back in front of her sternum she curls all of her fingers into her thumb except for her pinkie, keeping it ramrod straight as she moves the hand away from her chest and towards Pestilence. Lastly, finishing with her scanning jointly with her signing, she curls her left hand as if gripping a handle or rod while using her right to swipe along its top.***

Lots of words, but a lot of time to ponder on his words too.

*Yes and no.

**Know river know road.

The endermen of pestilence, Pestilence (creative naming, I’m sure the End King got a kick out of that), watched her. Why wasn’t she speaking back to him? Could she understand him? Oh golly, he hoped his whispering echo of a voice wasn’t too hard to understand! But what was this?

      It took a long time for the enderman’s thoughts to process what was going on. What were the hand motions? He didn’t get it. But watching her move them, caused him to become very curious, but he’d let her finish first. If time wasn’t moving so slowly, he’d have figured it out by now, but the drastic delay in his processing made him stare at the hand outstretched before him.

      Cautiously, as if wary of the other, he reached out, slender needle fingers twitching before curling around that extended hand. Without any control, his lips peeled away in a smile, as if saying, nice to meet you!

Ziven gently squeezes Pestilence's fingers as he wraps them about her hand. An effectively giant Enderman looming over a winged skeleton, each shaking the other's hand: You could not stage so strange a sight.

Craning her neck so as to look at something other than his Eye of Ender Ziven raises her free hand in front of her helmet's visor. With a single finger out she draws a smile in the air for him, improvising the sign as best she can. From there she moves the hand down to the base of her sternum cupping it upward and inward. Rotating the hand clockwise and spreading out its fingers* she asks her silent question and awaits an answer or further action from Pestilence.

Mod: One moderately long OOC / Mod musing coming up. Unless I get a few Answer responses I’ll probably punt it to Alphinci or such in a few days to avoid needless clutter.

Mod: One moderately long OOC / Mod musing coming up. Unless I get a few Answer responses I’ll probably punt it to Alphinci or such in a few days to avoid needless clutter.

DISCLAIMER: This post is intended to serve as an OOC, critical evaluation of the Ender War and not an attack on its creators, those who utilize such in their character concepts or headcanon, etcetera. Furthermore the artists best known for developing the Ender War have specified that they had no intent of their work being used for anything other than their own, self-contained stories, and as such this discussion is not about their versions of the Ender War(s) but instead the more watered down “generic” (no offense intended by choice of word) version used overall.

Furthermore, it's a good example of how much of a force multiplier teleportation and overall significantly superior physiques can be (killing Endermen quickly being difficult, Endermen rapidly disarming communities or planting TNT without having to worry about Walls or other defenses, etcetera) in a War-like scenario. You show that Endermen were not were (EDIT: UN, you show they were not UN)divided, and similarly tell that - while the majority of the community went along with it - they are fighting predominantly because they trust their leaders to have a good reason, one that likely involves protecting their community.

Drawing from real world socio-politics was an idea I had for resolving this as well. I haven't put much thought into it since I made that post (or really fleshed it out), but one alternative theory I had was to use something like the Opium Wars (only, in this case, Redstone Wars) tweaked to be slightly more morally ambiguous. For example, Traded Redstone has a very large number of practical uses, and not every Miner / Testitificate digging up the stuff will be aware of how some Endermen use it. But at the same time, it would still be a highly-in-demand material that many merchants gleefully sold without remorse (knowing full well how their buyers were using it) because it turned around the trade market on a race that could effectively circumvent most transportation costs, mine in places Humans would be killed-on-sight by mindless Mobs, and so-on.

A quiet one, Ziven: As silent as the grave. Not an easily cowed listener either what with being as deaf as a doorknob. Why, she doesn't even have the guts or fiber to become nauseous and fatigued. Thus, a perfect conversational partner for Pestilence, at least once she's familiarized with their slow speech pattern and assuming they understand sign.

Raising her right arm so that its top half is level and in line with her shoulders, she lets her forearm dangle low with her fingers splayed wide. Adjusting her arm and fingers after keeping the pose for a second she holds it out almost as if carrying an invisible mug, thumb and pinkie still straightened but other digits cupped in. With a quick rotation of her wrist she turns her hand to be palm-down and moves it slightly forward before raising her left hand just so she can quickly slap her right against the top of it.

Still "talking" she brings her left hand up to her right and moves it downward pretending to tap her fingers along the length of its palm and forearm. Placing both hands in front of her face with their fingers forming an L-shape she waving each out and away from one another then finally returns them to her hip and grip.* Almost as a forethought she raises her right arm to hold an empty hand out to Pestilence.

((M!A Flappy Armor 2/5))

((The story thing right here is by askcinni . this is a “what would you do” kind of story so yup cx your welcome to show me your answers on what you would do in this situation uvu enjoy ))

Silence ensued as Raph had finished off a few of those mindless Enders who had been lost souls, sent to kill anything and anyone in their way. It was the best long distance security system the End could forge. Besides that, the handsome blue eyed enderman ventured on through the quiet forest, fireflies flicking on and off in the distance as he turned around a tree, he heard a hiss and a boom..

It went black. ‘What… What happened? Where did I go?’ He asked himself in the darkness of this new ‘world’. He heard a ringing in his ears, echoing the annoying diiiing into his senses and giving him a major headache. ‘Ah… Dang it… What happened?’ He thought with a flinch of pain. He started feeling something.. Strike right through his chest, a sick crack of.. His pearl. His hands reached, tearing ender skin as he wriggled in pain, the shards of what used to be an ender pearl slowly evaporating and sticking to close organs. Every movement was hell… Until.. He just..

Went limp.

ask-felix-ender askcinni endatheenderman reed-rps oneblockyhussar fuluv

After the third passing the Endermen become her concern. Darting between trees Ziven draws her saber and approaches what few auras remain. She has to double back twice on the way, the enormous feathery wings fused to her armour forming an unaccustomed and unwelcome hindrance to her travels on the ground.

She is almost there, a very-much-recently deceased Endermen visible from where she stands, when the ground shakes and there's a flash as a Creeper's aura blinks out next to that of the sole remaining Enderman's.

Crap.

~ ~ ~

By the Two, they're in sorry shape.

Carried a couple meters by the blast, his hands resting over a bleeding hole in his chest, Raph looked terrible. Crouching down and grabbing his hands she pulls them aside to-

Yes. Definitely dying. Fast.

His pearl was a wreck. Or more accurately, what little was left of it. Only a few pieces remained, hissing up vapor as they faded in turn with his aura. Soon he would be too far gone, and with him any possible answers. Unless...

Ziven was no expert on Enderman biology. Nether, outside knowing where to stick one to get its attention she had no formal education of their kind to speak of. But she did know that their Pearls were the core of their being, and that there was reason to believe something remained within their pearls even after their host's body had passed away. The bandaged Ender was well on his way to being an exception, but what of the other Endermen? Whose bodies had not yet cooled?

Leaving Raph's side she moves to evaluate her options. Too tall, pearl would never fit. Maybe... no, chest damaged. Pearl probably done-in too. The process of elimination settling matters for her, Ziven settles on the final purple-eyed Ender and begins the macabre ritual of carving out their pearl. Backed by some years of experience in that regard, it's barely a minute before she's pulling it free of the last stubborn ligaments and veins.

Either you're getting a second chance or your friend's about to be a happy Ender. Assuming this works, at least.

Crouching beside the bandaged Ender again Ziven does her best to carefully plant the other Enderman's pearl within their chest. It was a long shot, but it was that or finding a legitimate spirit seer. Not that she couldn't work to improve the odds of both at once.

Up we go, the skeleton thinks as she lifts Raph from under his arms. Heavy sod for one that just ate a Creeper's bang. Slinging one of his arms behind her neck, a wing unconsciously folding around him for protection, Ziven starts to drag him with her as she delves deeper into the woods looking for a stilted hut.

Mod here: I feel like I joined them fandom late; I look back at all the other blogs when they were new, and see the activity just bleeding out of the screen, it’s literally everywhere.

Namely, the "core" of the Minecraft Fandom (several of its oldest blogs and bloggers) is increasingly dwindling in activity and size. Of the "big" blogs when I first took note of the tumblr MC community (~12 months ago), maybe two of them are still active and supporting a MC-related blog. The rest have, as you said, been bogged down in personal matters or seemingly lost interest, or if still active post less frequently than they did at their peak.

But at the same time, I must disagree with the conclusion that the fandom is dying and instead postulate that it's changing. Four of the biggest changes I believe can be cited are as follows:

1) People are no longer quite as afraid to buck the narrative trend. This may seem crazy for newer members to the Tumblr MC community, but if you went back six months ago you would literally find (anonymous) people sending death threats for disregarding or alternatively interpreting the canon of the aforementioned community "core".

2) We are seeing a dramatic increase in both number of and interaction between non-Endermen blogs (big note: This is NOT a knock on Enderman blogs). I was here for the Summer-Fall of 2013, and while I won't say we had no blogs that were not Enderman-centric / -specific, I will say that they were effectively a footnote when compared to the Core. To the point that an OC was more likely to run into their disliked species (Miner, Creeper, Squid, etcetera) as an Enderman hybrid than they were a full-blooded version. 

3) Anonymous Asks are on the rise, Account'd Asks are on the decline. This is a huge one, in all honesty, and ties into both of the above (as well as feeds the change below). While Anonymous Asks are great for asking tough questions or interacting with the world with a Mod's eye, they do not help to connect Bloggers with their followers. How does this connect to the above and below? Characters have conflict with one another instead of outside threats created on the spot. Stories do not mesh in sometimes irreparable ways. Thus the above are why the rise of Anonymous Asks are the case, and the below is both a consequence and further feeding the behavior.

4) There are no more "hub" characters. If you went back a year ago and visited a "core" blog's livestream, you would often find yourself in the chat with dozens of other guests that ranged from fellow "core" bloggers to minor blogs with only a handful of followers. If you looked at their list of posts, each question was often attached to one or more account names. You could, with very little effort, find other blogs in the community, and more often than not (returning back to "same race same world canvas all living within a day's walk of each other") you could have both of your characters interact like born-to-be-friends in just a few minutes.

This "everyone's physically close, everyone has shared interests, shared in their trials, grown with the same historic backdrop" is gone now. People are writing their own stories from the ground up, developing a world how they want to (and that's good)! But by doing so, the synergy that existed within the community on a macro scale has evaporated (and that's bad).

I guess what I'm saying, before I ramble further, is:

+Yes, the old guard is fading away.

+Yes, things look to be less active from a casual glance.

+No, the fandom is not dying, and is at least as active as before.

+The fandom is fracturing from one homogenous mass into several smaller ones.

Pausing under a gap in the leafy canopy, Ziven turns their neck this way and that evaluating her surroundings. There are a few mobs some chunks out that she goes on to glance towards but otherwise nothing catches her attention. Their bearing regained and threats evaluated she is about to move on when she senses a new aura: Human, alone, approaching.

With a small wheel she faces them - him - as they walk closer, almost immediately focusing on his exotic outfit and diamond weapon. An adventurer on the road, maybe? Looking up, now several chunks closer, she focuses on the stranger’s mouth as he speaks. At his current distance and with her face practically parallel to his Addie can probably see that there are no eyes beneath the helmet’s rim.

Cupping both her hands and pointing them in towards her breast Ziven then drops them to her side while flipping them over*. After that she turns at her hip to gesture back in the direction she came from. Her other hand still signs as she does so, making a V-shape that is first held up palm-out then lowered at the wrist to rotate in a circular shape, middle finger slightly lowered and index finger slightly raised.

The V see one more use as she keeps signing, her gesturing hand coming back in front of her sternum as a fist and the bunny ears resting on the hand’s back. With one last sign she extends all the fingers a hand and places it in front of where her nose would be. One slight chopping motion later** and both her hands are resting at her side again.

*Lost

After some silent moments, he steps forward into the semi-open clearing in the forest. With the tip of his sword he begins to write upside down in the dirt at his feet, large enough for Ziven to read from the distance: A-D-D-I-E. “I’m Adereth,” he says when he’s finished writing. “But everyone calls me Addie.” At that, he takes the diamond sword and sheathes it at his hip, hand still resting on the hilt in case things go down.

During the semi-awkward quiet that follows Ziven finds herself with an excess of time. Time to be spent in thought, casting glances towards mobs that have come into or moved around within her -sense’s radius, and pivoting back towards the wanderer as he moves towards her and into the clearing. Ziven reaches for her saber’s grip when the wanderer brings his sword forward, only just stopping short when he neither takes a stance nor advances but instead starts writing into the dirt.

A-D-D. A-D-D-I. A-D-D-I-E. Addie. 

Diamond blade now still Ziven looks up at Addie’s face in time to realize she missed him saying something. Nothing important hopefully, but between the exchange ending with his name and him sheathing his sword she would put money down that it wasn’t. Any immediate threat gone her second hand leaves her scabbard to rest limply at her side.

"Is…" Ziven’s head tilts when he stops to put several fingers to his mouth. Waiting until he’s finished speaking the road warden raises her hands to hip height and moves them about as if gripping invisible reigns. From there a hand rises to point at Addie at roughly shoulder height, her arms move out some, then the limbs quickly come back in to move around each other in a wide circle motion, both stretching out only a single finger.***

What follows a bit more crude - if straightforward - than her previous gestures. One hand shapes and moves itself similar to a blabbering mouth while the other rests some fingers against the talking hand's thumb. Doing so for a few seconds Ziven then has the other hand point its thumb at self, her eye sockets, the still-speaking hand, then Addie. After repeating for emphasis she points to her helmet's flaps and slowly shakes her head. It would be mildly inconvenient if they had to have a conversation entirely through dirt scrawling.

*Yes

**Sort of / so-so.

Pausing under a gap in the leafy canopy, Ziven turns their neck this way and that evaluating her surroundings. There are a few mobs some chunks out that she goes on to glance towards but otherwise nothing catches her attention. Their bearing regained and threats evaluated she is about to move on when she senses a new aura: Human, alone, approaching.

With a small wheel she faces them - him - as they walk closer, almost immediately focusing on his exotic outfit and diamond weapon. An adventurer on the road, maybe? Looking up, now several chunks closer, she focuses on the stranger’s mouth as he speaks. At his current distance and with her face practically parallel to his Addie can probably see that there are no eyes beneath the helmet’s rim.

Cupping both her hands and pointing them in towards her breast Ziven then drops them to her side while flipping them over*. After that she turns at her hip to gesture back in the direction she came from. Her other hand still signs as she does so, making a V-shape that is first held up palm-out then lowered at the wrist to rotate in a circular shape, middle finger slightly lowered and index finger slightly raised.

The V see one more use as she keeps signing, her gesturing hand coming back in front of her sternum as a fist and the bunny ears resting on the hand’s back. With one last sign she extends all the fingers a hand and places it in front of where her nose would be. One slight chopping motion later** and both her hands are resting at her side again.

*Lost

Addie stops walking faster than his mind can comprehend what he’s seeing, and he awkwardly stumbles over his own feet before half ducking behind a tree. He watches the armoured skeleton gesture at him, its hands moving in a strangely graceful way despite the fact that it’s, well… a skeleton. 

"Oh Notch," Addie says to himself, lifting his sword. He scans around the skeleton for a bow, arrows, anything to signal an attack, anything to be used as a weapon. "I’m going to die here," he says in a whisper, sinking down on his haunches, ready for anything that might jump out at him. From the corner of his eye he can see a few mobs under an overhang a few chunks away, too far to notice or ambush him, and he lets out a heavy sigh of relief that there’s only a single mob nearby.

As he prepares himself for whatever attack he feels will inevitably come, he notices a feathery set of wings attached to the skeleton’s back. It’s unnerving, something Addie has never even thought of before, let alone seen. A flying skeleton? He lowers his sword and takes a good hard look over the mob ahead of him. Strange armour, no bow, wings? 

Ziven repeats the gesture once in full and is partially through a third go when she stops, orbits focused dead on Adereth's blade. A raised diamond sword was never a laughing matter. Taking a cautious step back she slowly reaches for the saber secured at her side without making any sudden movements or taking her eyes off the lone wanderer.

Fortunately she does have to go any further. Before she can even start to draw her weapon Addie lowers theirs, his eyes seemingly scanning her up and down.

"What... who are you?"

Good, good. He's willing to talk. Taking her main hand off the saber's grip Ziven raises it up to spell something one letter at a time. A pointer finger moving in the air in the shape of a Z. Clenching all her fingers to her fist except her pinky. Making a pair of rabbit ears again. Resting all four of her fingers on the top of her thumb by their nails. Squeezing her thumb between her first two and last two fingers.

The armored skeleton almost leaves it at that before starting over from the first letter. This time, instead of clenching her hand this way and that after, she simply continues to write out in the air. Z-I-V-E-N.