#bluemonkeyyt

SquidMonkey shrieks again, hopping up and down in a furious tantrum before throwing himself at me in another Blue Rush, rolling straight for me.

This time, when I brace my legs to block with the Butter Blade, I don't get thrown by the impact of the boss mob. And I'm not so scared now. Because I can read him so clearly, understand what he's planning and how he will attack, and I know all the ways to counter and fight back. For this bit of time, I'm not AvecPardon, terrified out of my mind; I'm not BluePardon, operating in BlueMonkey's shadow to dodge and survive. On this new level of my talent...

"I AM BlueMonkey!" I roar out in that same British voice and accent, "Now back off and lemme show ya how real boss animation looks!" I shove the sword forward, forcing SquidMonkey backwards and popping him out of the Blue Rush. He lands on his feet, angrily chattering at me.

Yeah? Well, two can play that game, bugger. Accessing BlueMonkey's pattern to guide me, I dive forward into my own charged roll attack, the very same Blue Rush. The world is a dizzying blur of color and motion until I hit something very hard. A screech of pain hurts my ears, and I can distantly hear my commentators arguing or panicking over the noise.

Snapping back to my feet, I look around quickly to reorient myself and spot SquidMonkey making a run for the trees. The Damage Indicator updates, showing me his current health as the damage number drops and disappears. So the Blue Rush did 18 hearts of damage; that should have finished SquidMonkey, but he's somehow healed enough to cling to 3 hearts. This should be the last attack. I give chase to try beating him to the trees. If he reaches them, he'll do his own Blue Banana Blade Drop on me and I won't survive that kind of blow.

"Avec! Hey! Hey!! How did you do that?!" Squidie cries in shock from his bucket still tied to me, "You look like BlueMonkey! You sound like him too! How'd you do that?!"

---

"Did he change skins?!"

"A fucking skin change doesn't change their voice! Or their entire fighting style!"

"Shit, dude, dude, it's like he became BlueMonkey! Like he's really BlueMonkey! What the fuck was in that mod?!"

---

I whip my new tail around to grab the Butter Blade from my hand so I can flick over to my bow. SquidMonkey has beaten me to the trees, so the best I can do is distance attacks. I draw back on the string, letting an arrow code into place as I use the Damage Indicator to try and track him in the foliage.

I've only got one shot at this, and I don't want to miss by freaking out over the fact that I have a prehensile tail or that my arms are thicker and covered in blue fur and completely not mine....

---

"I don't... it wasn't... Seto said he would be able to find enemy weaknesses... by mimicking them.... This isn't...."

"What was in that mod?!"

---

The Damage Indicator pops up in time to let me see SquidMonkey make his leap. He clears the treetops, banana brought forward in the stance for the Blade Drop, and shrieks in unholy rage, red eyes gleaming bright.

Squidie utters a little cry of alarm as I quickly raise my bow and fire the arrow. SquidMonkey grunts in pain and the arrow only does a single point of damage, but it also throws him out of that stance. That's what I was really after.

His attack stance interrupted, SquidMonkey leaves himself open for a follow-up counterattack. I can see with BlueMonkey's eyes and thoughts where to strike, where a single blow can destroy a weakened model.

I leap up in a spin, lashing out with my tail still gripping the Butter Blade, and bring it down on that very spot, the core of SquidMonkey's body. He lets out another shriek, outrage and pain and shock all rolled up in the sound, and then he bursts apart in a cloud of pixels and code. As I drop back to the ground and take the sword in hand again, a click goes off not too far away. Right near the glass prison, actually.

...Nngh.

The world gets hazy and I find myself dropping to one knee, holding myself up with the Butter Blade stuck in the dirt. The smooth gold feels cool against my forehead, and I don't feel as dizzy and disoriented. Wha-what's wrong with me? My reflection in the gold isn't mine, and seeing BlueMonkey's face staring back at me is getting to be terrifying. How did this happen? How do I go back to being me?

-----

Install Mimic Recall. Run Recall. AvecPardon File Damage: 15%.

-----

As if understanding my dilemma, my knowledge of mimicking is updated with the instructions to reverse the transformation. I follow them, releasing the mimic of BlueMonkey and lifting a hand to see it become my own again. Whatever this is, it's enhanced... no, it's modded me so that I very literally become who I'm mimicking. Unfortunately, it seems to come with a pretty nasty energy drain.

"Avec?" Squidie's voice is quiet, small. Oh. I very nearly forgot about the little guy. Wonder how he managed to keep himself and the water in place during the Blue Rush?

I look down at him; he looks up at me with an uncertain expression. "You turned into BlueMonkey," he says in a strange tone. I nod. In a manner of speaking, that's true. "You took out SquidMonkey." Yes. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, but I managed to kill that boss mob. I nod again. "Are you going to let the other BlueMonkey out?"

"Um, yes? I was asked to rescue the members of the Sky Army High Council. BlueMonkey, the real BlueMonkey, is one of them," I reply. Why is he asking such odd questions? He knows I'm not a Squidling, not one of his side's soldiers.

He sinks back down into the bucket, blowing little bubbles as he uncurls his tentacles from the lip of the bucket. Strange. This isn't normal for Squidie. I'll see what's wrong after I open the prison for BlueMonkey.

I'm still a little dizzy from whatever that Mimic Mode thing did to me, but I manage to make my way over and see that part of the glass chamber was somehow removed. The screen with the duplicate code seems to be gone too. I hurry over and crouch down by BlueMonkey as he stirs and gets up slowly. He blinks sleepily at me, scrunches up his face, then yawns.

"Hello, BlueMonkey," I greet him cautiously, "what do you need?" ....Oh? The strangest sense of deja vu passes over me. Like... I've said those words before. Who did I say them to?

-----

Isn't that-?

Shut up.

But he-!

I don't want to hear it!

------

"A stiff drink, but I'll settle for a banana." BlueMonkey grumbles as my attention wanders from the hushed, harsh whispering of my commentators back to him. I'm just a little bit lost. A banana? Where am I going to find-? ...Oh, I can't believe how stupid I am at times.

"I'll see what I can do." I tell BlueMonkey and hurry back to where I had defeated SquidMonkey. The clone had a banana for a weapon, so maybe it was dropped and left behind?

I don't have to search very long. The bright yellow of the banana stands out against the dark green of the grass. As I grab it, my knuckles brush against something small and metallic. Huh. What's this? I pick the item up and turn it in my hand.

It looks like a key of some kind, and not like a button or lever assigned the designation of 'key'. This is a genuine key. A modded mob drop, perhaps?

I place it in my inventory where BlueMonkey's book used to be and go back to the prison. In the time I was away, he's already gotten to his feet and is now looking over his own code on the screen.

"I feel like a right shitty mess, but my code's still fine. No sign of infection, thank Notch for small wonders," he tells me, whisking the banana out of my hand with his tail and placing it in his own.

"Hey, is he-?" Tired Voice trails off warily, like he doesn't trust BlueMonkey.

"He's clean. Of the Squid Virus at least. You?" Dry Voice replies shortly, as if focused on something else.

"I can't see the Virus, but he's not showing symptoms," Tired Voice mutters, "It's not reacting... should be fine...." He sounds faint as his voice fades and Dry Voice mutters a sharp curse under his breath while I wince. He must be pretty bad off if he can't keep up a rant and Dry Voice seems to be really worried. Wonder what they were talking about?

"So, thanks for the resue, but who're you?" BlueMonkey asks, closing his screen and looking down at me with a puzzled look.

"AvecPardon Illuminaris." I reply. He blinks.

"Never heard of ya."

I sigh, my shoulders slumping. I shouldn't feel bad that I'm unknown to a Council member, but it still hurts to hear my work doesn't precede me even a little. Oh well. I'll live.

"That's 'cuz you're stupid!" Squidie suddenly pipes up, peeking over the lip of the bucket to glare at BlueMonkey. "StupidMonkey! That's you! Yeah! Whatcha gonna do 'bout it?!"

Cripes, what is with this little squid?!

BlueMonkey points at the bucket while I'm still staring in shock at it. "You have a lil somethin' there, on your leg," he comments wryly.

"This is Squidie. He's a, ah," I hesitate, not sure if calling a squid a friend won't have BlueMonkey attacking me next. "He's helping me get through this place."

"No I'm not! I'm showing off the Squid Army's awesome new soldiers and stuff." Squidie counters indignantly, then pipes out, "I'm a squiiiiid~!" before ducking back down.

"A few minutes ago, you were just as freaked out by SquidMonkey as I was!" I point out to him. Dear Notch, why am I surrounded by insanity?

"Okay...." BlueMonkey stretches the word out, looking at me askance, "Well, mate, can't say it's every day a Squidling lets his enemy go...."

"I'm not a Squidling," I correct him with a frown. "I'm an agent of the Sky Army." BlueMonkey just laughs incredulously as Squidie blows more bubbles from within the bucket. They sound annoyed.

"You? A Recruit? You hang out with a squid and can hear 'em when the only Sky Army Avatars that can hear squids are Husky, Deadlox, and Sky." BlueMonkey gestures in my direction with a rueful grin, "Mate, you got Awakened wrong or something."

"Can you get in touch with SkythekidRS?" I ask in return, wanting off this subject and on to something more relevant. "Let him know your coordinates so he can TP here with some extra Recruits and save the rest of you."

"Eh? Yeah, good point." BlueMonkey swipes open a window and starts typing in the command screen. He frowns after a moment. "This can't be right. It's saying an Avatar with that name can't be found," he remarks, a concerned expression on his face.

Okay. I was on Twitter when Adam's tweet went live. So I was there when he announced he'd left the team. And I was still there when James/BlueMonkey also declared he'd left.

But my focus has always been Adam, and you my Readers know this and must be wondering what'll happen. Here goes.

First, I was stunned. In disbelief. When you hear TeamCrafted, Adam's face, his name, is the first to come to mind, isn't it? SkyDoesMinecraft, the Butter King, the man with the 9 million Recruits; TeamCrafted's Golden Boy. Now he's no longer under that flag.

So, yes. I was startled. But to be honest, I couldn't care less about the flag. I love Minecraft because of learning about it through Adam. I love Adam for making me laugh when I was in pain. When he's happy, I'm happy. When he's sad, I'm sad. When he's angry, I want to take that anger away so he can be happy again.

Since TeamCrafted became official and branded, he's been feeling off. I can't mimic him so accurately, so I've been using old videos to get a feel for him and then writing with that onto the new vids. He's been having trouble sleeping, he's been getting sick, his eyes don't seem to shine as bright when he smiles or laughs.

I care first if he's healthy and happy. Whether or not he's TC doesn't matter to me. I can fix that in fics, retcon the entire series to match, or mark it as AU even more and leave IoM Adam in TeamCrafted. That's the beauty of fanfiction. The real Adam can't be 'retconned'; what he chooses to do for himself is something I can't control and I wouldn't want to. If his choice makes him happy, then I will accept it just as happily.

My stories will continue as they are until I decide whether to retcon or mark as influenced AU -I'm leaning towards the AU one since it allows the ChristmasCraft events to remain true, which I need to have happen to let the rest of the Avatars appear- so don't worry about them. That's my thing to deal with. Just like Adam's future is his thing to deal with. Yes, it will affect us as fans, this is a massive rock thrown into our pond. But as a writer, as a Recruit, as someone who respects Adam as a person first, YouTuber second, I am fine with him leaving the Team. He's eating sushi again, he's feeling much happier, if still a bit tired -and this I'm just picking up from 'reading' him- and that's what matters to me.

"I don't think that's going to work, Squidie. He's pretty pissed off," I tell him between huffs for air.the glass chamber isn't far from me now. Just a few more meters!

"This isn't going to work. We should have thought of something else," Dry Voice mutters, and I can hear the undercurrent of panic in that otherwise flat tone. "We should have thought of something else!"

"Stop repeating yourself!" I yell in the same breath and inflection as Tired Voice, and a flash of heat stops me in my tracks. Wha-?! My head... for a second, it felt like I wasn't myself, or something. So strange.

"Avec, I didn't repeat anything," Squidie says in a puzzled voice as I shake my head to clear that strangeness. "Who are you talking to? Yourself?"

SquidMonkey's getting closer. I don't have much time left. I run up to the glass chamber, this time jumping over the tripwire. Even if there aren't any blocks to summon another boss mob, I don't want to tempt fate. Bad enough there's one crazed copy chasing me for no reason; don't need a second one terrorizing me.

BlueMonkey is still huddled in a ball on the floor. He shivers every now and then, the two screens hovering over him still linked. I kneel down and reach out to touch the glass, spreading my hand open to fully contact it. It feels cool against my bare fingers. With my free hand, I flick back to my book on him, open it up, and begin reading to myself.

BlueMonkey, this is who you are. This is all I've learned, all my Player has learned. These are your skills, your abilities. This is your heart, your mind, all that can be gleaned from the data you shared with the world.

The words on these pages, the feelings you project; let me read them, BlueMonkey, so I can put myself in your place and mimic you.

Everything feels fuzzy... faint... there's a tingling, like the other times... not normal....

Almost there....

Crashing noises... sound close....

SquidMonkey screams in rage, an animalistic howl....

Ah. Got it.

------------

Core File Mimic Mod Initialized. Install Level 1 Writer File: BluePardonYT. Install Complete. Activate.

------------

I bolt from the glass chamber, flicking from the book back to the Butter Blade, ignoring a sudden squeak of shock coming from my side. SquidMonkey barrels towards me, shrieking, banana still in his grip like he was aiming to bash me in the head with it.

Animation's a bit wonky, like the key frame timing is off by a half-second. (I'm still scared!) My eyes narrow as I study the copy, running to stay to one side, circling the meadow while the Damage Indicator updates itself. New data scrolls into place and I glance over it.

SquidMonkey. Hostile boss mob. Ability: Tree-climbing. Attributes: Strength. Boss Animation.

(I'm really scared. What's going on?)

Boss animation? Oh, please. That rig looks like it was ripped from a first year university student's hobby reference collection. It could fall apart if I were to hit it... right about... here!

-BlueMonkey's strength focuses through his right arm; he punches towards his left to direct it. Dodge.-

He's going to punch left; I strike out with the Butter Blade in the gap of time between his movements, when his motion is that tiny bit off. It strikes beautifully, and I smile as SquidMonkey bellows in pain and surprise. His health bar in the corner of my vision drops, green turning red. 30 hearts gone right there. (Oh, thank Notch, the sword's bonuses work.)

Good sword.

"Wait, wait, what the fuck is this?! He wasn't moving like this earlier!" Someone's voice sounds pretty startled. "Dude, what the hell? What's this? What's this? What is dis?!"

"I don't know! He was just supposed to know how that mob would think! I thought that's what his copying did!" Another voice sounded even more panicked and confused.

(I don't copy; I MIMIC!)

SquidMonkey pounds his chest as I take a few jumps back from him to gain distance and contemplate my next attack. He doesn't give me that chance, rushing right at me with his shoulder braced for impact.

-BlueMonkey has considerable power for being a Balance Type, when his strength is focused into a single small area for greater effect. His Blue Tackle, for instance...-

I raise the Butter Blade to block and disperse the attack, bracing my own legs apart to hold fast against the oncoming blow. (That isn't going to-!)

Aaaagh!

My back hits a tree trunk and a jolt of pain stuns me, a few hearts gone as my armor takes the brunt of the attack. Wha-?! Why didn't it-?

-...is part of a multi-hit combo that utilizes the smoothness of animation to follow up with the Blue Rush speed attack.-

(He's going to follow it up!)

I throw myself aside just in time to avoid a ball of squid blue fur rolling forward at full speed to smash into the tree I'd been standing under just moments ago. "Okay, okay! Animation's a mite smoother, but still not boss!" I yelled at him, even as I tucked myself into a roll to flip up onto my feet more easily.

"Eep! Hey! Watch it! Avec, what are you doing?!" A tiny voice yelps in a panic. I stumble, nearly falling (Keep him safe!), then start running for another tree, flicking to a stone axe as I cast a glance back over my shoulder.

-BlueMonkey's special attack requires gaining height, more than a single jump will increase the damage potential of the Blue Banana Blade Drop.-

"I'm trying to keep us from getting killed!" I shout back, pulling up to the tree and quickly chopping away enough blocks that I can jump into its place and pillar jump to the top of the tree. (Beat him to his own special!)

While SquidMonkey prowls around, beating at the ground at random in his search for me, I look down at my side to see what's been talking to me this whole time. A tiny squid in a bucket blinks up at me. (Squidie.)

...Squidie!

And with that it feels like my view of the world has clicked back into place. What just happened? It felt like I wasn't myself for a bit there. Had I been running on a different processing pattern? I only do that when mimicking to write, so....

If I shift my focus just a bit, let my awareness recede just a little, I can pick up on the other pattern.

That's... why is this pattern filenamed BluePardonYT?

What the hell is this?! This is streaming my writing pattern in real-time alongside my own thoughts, and can even override me! How did that even-?!

(He's caught on that we're in the trees. Probability of Blue Banana Blade Drop failure increasing to 30% every three seconds!)

"Aah! Imma squid; I don't like jumps~!" Squidie wails as I pinpoint SquidMonkey's location, run to the edge of the tree, and leap off, flicking back to the Butter Blade as I go. At the peak of my jump, I spin it around and point downward, bring my weight and the force of my landing behind it.

SquidMonkey shrieks again on impact and I hurl myself away, sparing him a glance to update the Damage Indicator. Cripes, he had healed back 5 hearts; the numbers dropping from him say I dealt 40 damage, but he's only down to 15 hearts. (He's going to be angry. Low health creates desperation; damage output now doubled.)

It's too bizarre to have BlueMonkey's thoughts -or a really good replica of them- running alongside my own. Like I'm able to think normally as well as think like him. That doesn't really happen when I mimic to write; usually the other pattern just kind of guides my writing so I'm more accurate. I think? I guess I can explain it better when I'm not running for my life!

I check my hearts quickly as I flee from SquidMonkey's fury, and notice that my movements feel different. ...Wait, they are different.

Is this how it feels to move like BlueMonkey? This feels like a higher grade of mimicking than I usually do.

The Voices are babbling at each other, not sure what they seem to be going on about, and Squidie keeps giggling in a little panicky voice. As great as it is to have the BluePardon file give me an edge in keeping away from SquidMonkey, I need to disconnect him from the real BlueMonkey. Am I going to have to actually defeat SquidMonkey to do that? BluePardon isn't going to be enough.

I turn on my heel and raise the Butter Blade to point it at SquidMonkey as the copy rages. BluePardon can help me analyze him, but not fully combat him. The tingling that's been crawling over my skin is just going crazy now. Why is it doing that? What's happening?

While I panic, glancing around to look for something to help me in this situation, I happen to see BlueMonkey in his glass prison. Poor guy. If only he were actually out here to fight this thing- (Initialize BluePardon Full Mimic.)

Ah.

"I read you, BlueMonkey," I murmur, watching SquidMonkey carefully for any sudden movements. The record of BlueMonkey drops out of my hotbar and opens, pages tearing free and flowing over to wrap over my body, paper pressing against my limbs and clothes. "I read you and write you onto myself." The pages dissolve into code that fits into my own code, into places that I didn't even know had gaps.

-----

Mimic Mod Upgrading. Installing Mimic Mode: BlueMonkeyYT.

-----

The book on BlueMonkey is completely gone now, all its data integrated into me. Ah. Now I really have it.

"Beyond AvecPardon, beyond BluePardonYT, to the very depths of who you are, that is who I will be!"

-----

Install complete. Activate.

-----

"What's that? What is it?" Squidie asks in a frightened tone, peeking over the lip of the bucket. "Is that a mob spawner? Did it spawn a mob?"

"I, uh, I think we're gonna see what your books helped the squids make," Dry Voice says in a faintly grim tone, Tired Voice giving off an odd little whimper.

My grip on my pick tightens while I watch the machine light up. The piston fires, placing the strange blue-black block on top of the two wood ones, and I'm pinged by the server just at that moment.

/Commencing duplication process./

"Squidie! What did the Squid Army do with my books?!" I cry in horror as the stacked blocks light up, energy and code swirling around them.

"They tried to use them to recode the Sky Army!" Squidie yelps, ducking back down into the bucket again. "When that didn't work, they created Squidling clones, but they have to be connected to the Sky Army to work!"

Ah! The two screens I saw in the glass chamber; that must have been the duplicate copying BlueMonkey's data to stay stable!

The glow of the blocks is dying down, reshaping itself, and behind me BlueMonkey gives a small, shaky gasp. I don't look back to check, don't dare take my eyes off what's in front of me. The light fades and, where there used to be three blocks in a totem, there now stands a copy of BlueMonkeyYT, fur faded to squid blue, tie dark blue in color, and empty eyes the color of murky water. Squid blue. He's holding a banana in one hand.

The Damage Indicator goes off with a warning, blinking a red icon in the upper left corner of my field of vision to grab my attention. I shift focus to it quickly, speed reading the data I'm given.

SquidMonkey. Hostile mob.

Okay. How is any of that going to help me?

Health: 80 Hearts.

I can feel mine sinking into the ground out of dread and SquidMonkey just stands there, blinking at me with the banana now stuck in his mouth. Well, that's lovely.

Maybe he's not really hostile? The Damage Indicator marks him as a hostile boss-type mod, but he's not behaving that way. It could be wrong. Maybe. I could use the standard signal of peace in Minecraftia to show him I don't mean him harm; the fan.

Fanning can only be done with a sword, so I flick to the first one that pops up in my hotbar and give it a wave. "Hiyo, SquidMonkey!" I call out while making the motion. The shimmering gold catches the sunlight as I fan the Butter Blade. SquidMonkey blinks again. "Yes, pardon me, but might it be possible for you to disconnect from BlueMonkey and let him out of this prison thing?" I ask as politely as I can. Then, as an afterthought, I add, "Please?"

"Oh, Notch, this kid is gonna fucking kill us all. We're dead, we're so dead, why did I agree to this...?" Dry Voice groans softly. I ignore him and continue hoping I can just talk my way through this. Just to be on the safe side, I fan the Butter Blade a couple more times.

SquidMonkey blinks again, but this time his eyes glow bright with that squid blue color and I can 'feel' a definite shift in the air. Like the field of emotions has gone from neutral to hostile. Oh, cripes....

"Priority One Enemy located! Destroy!" SquidMonkey declares in a strangely accented voice. UK, British, the soul-link offers, but the words hold no meaning, give no definition, just a label that's as empty as the tone in the Squidling's voice. He drops his banana and beats his chest a few times, shrieking in sudden aggression.

"What?!" I cry in alarm. What the hell is this?! I fanned peace; how does that make me an enemy?!

"Huh?!" Squidie echoes my confusion, then panics and ducks into the bucket again, "Run, Avec!"

Don't have to tell me twice! I bolt for the forest as SquidMonkey scoops the banana back up and charges after me in a rage. I can hear him crashing through the underbrush behind me, screeching almost constantly.

I don't want to fight! I can't! He's got so many hearts and I have unenchanted armor and so few hearts by comparison. I won't stand a chance! That copy's going to kill me!

"Hey! What are you doing?! You can't just ditch BlueMonkey like that!" Tired Voice yells in my ears, and I'm very much tempted to mute him again.

"In case it escaped your notice, there's a boss mob chasing me! And I'm fairly certain it wants to kill me!" I snap back instead. The crashing sounds are still going on so I take a chance to hide by crouching behind a tree. Ugh, I'm starting to get near starving levels again. Good thing I have food in my hot bar.

It's while I'm eating -and ignoring how Tired Voice keeps muttering 'Om om nom nom num' as a sound effect- that I realize the crashing sounds have stopped. This is cause for alarm. SquidMonkey could be hiding, waiting to ambush me. My eyes seek out the trees around me in sheer distrust, but I can't see anything.

"I don't want to die here," I mumble, curling up to hug myself, no longer hungry. There's a gut-wrenching feeling in me and my eyes feel hot, my vision blurs, and I can feel it. My tears, they drop to the ground, carrying with them all my hopes for escaping this place.

"You're not going to die!" Tired Voice sounds so determined and confident despite the soft and weak volume. I guess he's used up his strength yelling. "Look, all that stuff that's been messing with you when you copy... that's kinda my fault. I had Seto make a file that would, um-"

"Enhance." Dry Voice supplied flatly.

"-your talent for that. So just do to SquidMonkey what you usually do and you should be good, yeah?" Tired Voice finishes, not even missing a beat from Dry Voice plugging in the missing word. I roll my eyes at his words.

"Like I'm really going to be able to kill that thing with this," I growl back, flicking to the book on BlueMonkey and holding it up like the two idiots could see it.

"Are you arguing with yourself?" Squidie asks, blink up at me. "Y'know, 'cause it's cool if you are... just sayin'. I mean, I argue with myself all the time, too. ...No, I don't. Yes I do! See?" He giggles nervously.

I sit back and hug the book tightly in my arms, laughing softly at Squidie's attempt to comfort me. He really is a funny little mob. I'm glad to have him with me. But... my smile fades some. What will happen to this tiny squid if that mob kills me? Will he be spared and taken back by virtue of being a squid?

"What? No, just... agh! Listen!" Tired Voice exclaims in exasperation, "I don't really get this shit, ok? I'm stupid with this. How you do what you do, this thing where you can think like us, talk like us; I don't really get any of it. Frankly, it scares the shit out of me."

"You're some comfort," I tell him. Mute looks like a better idea every moment. "And I don't 'copy'. I mimic. There's a difference." I give my surroundings another look around, and this time the Damage Indicator picks up SquidMonkey, displaying him in the tiny window in the corner of my field of vision. Guess he was out of range earlier. "And my talent is writing. How do you enhance writing to combat a boss mob?" The image displays SquidMonkey in a crouch, moving carefully forward. His ability is tree climbing, so he must be aiming for surprise attack from above.

"I wasn't done," Tired Voice growls, and chest feels briefly hot, like something burning sitting there doesn't belong get it off- "Avec!" I jump in place, uttering a squeak. My hand, which had been raising to rub at that burning spot, jerked away. But the burning was gone. Was that just in my head? "I was trying to say that whatever it is you do that lets you think like us... do that to the squid mob."

I blink, confused by his words. SquidMonkey is getting closer, so I get up to make another mad dash to safety. "The thing I do to-? So you are talking about my mimicking. You want me to mimic SquidMonkey?" I ask incredulously. Really? He wants me to mimic that brainless lump?

Okay, SquidMonkey. That's close enough.

"Why the fuck are you running?!" Tired Voice yells as I run back to the clearing, "Just copy that thing, figure out its weakness, and kill it! Why does this asshole keep running away? Somebody explain that shit to me...." Oh, I can hear crashing again. SquidMonkey?

"Priority One Enemy! Destroy!"

Yep, that's him.

"Wow. He's really stupid," Squidie comments and giggles. "There's only one Priority One enemy, and it's definitely not you!"

"Yeah? Tell him that!" I declare, catching sight of the glass chamber up ahead. Okay, I've got an idea what to do. Tired Voice says I can learn to beat that thing if I copy it until I see a pattern in it. But that's not how my mimicking works at all. I don't copy data from a mindless source, especially an unstable one like SquidMonkey; what if it corrupts me? Hah! From SquidMonkey, that's asking to be corrupted on the spot. No, a copy of a copy is useless. To beat a copy, you need the original.

I look into the bucket to ask Squidie, but he only peeks over the lip of the bucket just long enough to declare he is a squid before ducking back down with a frightened squeak. The sound makes me feel a bit guilty for dragging him along.

"So, any idea what's with this place?" I ask aloud, knowing Squidie would think I was directing the question to him and not my commentator companions.

"Ah, I dunno. Never been up out of water before. Nope!" the tiny squid chirps, huddling near the bottom of the iron bucket.

"We don't know either," Dry Voice adds grimly. "Like we said, you're the only one who made it this far, and we don't have any pages left."

"And I don't have my memories so I'm pretty much going into this blind. Cripes." I sigh. I don't like this sense of dread that comes over me at the thought of going to each mini-biome without any advance warning of what could be there.

Just to be on the safe side, I look over the track that had brought me here, tracing it back to the end station where I had spent the night.

Dozens of squids and Squidlings spread out from the platform in another search pattern, two Squidlings standing on the platform as the obvious leaders directing them. No doubt as to who they are; Savoy is creepy as hell with whatever plans he has for me and my talent for mimicking, and LadyEnchantress just has it out for me over a stupid phrase I didn't even mean to say.

Savoy is checking out the crafting table I'd left behind. Ugh... and I had a portable one in my inventory, didn't I? Panic makes me forget important things, I guess. Wonder how panicked I had been the night I was Awakened?

I don't want them following me, so I look along the track again for some idea of what I can do to buy myself time and distance. Oh! Something I had missed during my ride here, what with my panicking.... There's a fork in the mine track, one branch heading into a constructed tunnel that vanishes into the water. A lever wired with redstone on a mini-platform was set by the side of the main track. If I could hit that with an arrow....

I fire a few shots to gauge the right arc and account for the wind, and it's a miracle I don't hit anything that could raise an alarm. Once I've got an idea of where to aim, it takes another few tries to actually hit the lever and flip it. I never said shooting was my strong suit, just that I prefer it over swinging a sword around like a nutcase. In any case, I manage to flip the switch and change the tracks so I have a bit of breathing room again.

Now, to figure out what these mini-biomes are supposed to represent. But first, I reach back to tap at my backpack and open the double inventory again. I want to keep Squidie with me, but I need my hands free too. Putting the bucket down on the ground would be dangerous; what if it got knocked over? Or the server decided it was a loose entity and ran the ClearLag command? Squidie would be done for.

But if I used some of the string I took from the Squid Stronghold to tie the bucket to myself, well that would keep it tethered to me, right?

Making something that doesn't exist within the crafting grid database is hard, but I eventually rig a kind of holster for the bucket, hugging it in a sling that lashed it to my hip and held on to the handle for me. Squidie examines my little invention, tentacles thrown over the lip of the bucket so he can hoist himself up for a better look. He giggles, letting himself drop back into the water with a plop and splashing me. Not fond of that, but there's nothing I can do about it, not with the way things are now.

"Hey, this is pretty cool! It's not bad, not bad at all!" he exclaims in a pleased tone.

"You couldn't drop it into the ocean? Just, y'know, push the annoying little thing off this island?" Tired Voice grumbles in my ear.

"Right now, you're the more annoying one." I mutter into the microphone, one hand cupped around it so my words don't carry down to my little companion.

"Ooh. Burn. Heh heh heh." Dry Voice laughs in that soft, breathy way that sounds so familiar, like I should know who laughs that way but the knowledge just flickers away before I grasp it. I mimic it, just for the sake of curiosity, huffing out air until I can match the same almost-breathless quality of those chuckles. A strange tingle runs over my skin as I do that. Weird.

"Hey! Don't... don't do that," Tired Voice blurts out, sounding faintly alarmed. I don't hesitate to stop my experimenting at hearing that, but now I wonder if whatever is messing with my body is being triggered by my mimicking attempts. That's not good. I need to be able to mimic to write. Without my mimicking, how am I to capture the voices and natures of the Avatars I write about? These guys better follow through on their promise to have this Seto guy fix me, or I'm going to be putting arrows in somebody.

I shake my head to dislodge those thoughts. Gotta focus on what I need to do here and now, which is pick a mini-biome and investigate. Out of all of them, the cave-like biome looks the most dangerous, so I'm going to leave it last. Between the plains and the forest I'm more fond of forests, so I'll check that out first.

-----

The small forest of oak trees appears to be oddly sinister, more than the cave-like mini-biome. As the waning sunlight dapples over the undergrowth and peeks between the trees, I walk cautiously closer to the glass chamber, my bow and an arrow ready to fire.

Squidie pops up from the bucket every now and then to say 'Hey!' or 'I'm a squid!' as well as giggle. The first time he piped up and shouted 'I'm a squid!', I bit into my bow to block my startled scream. After calming down somewhat, I shushed him while Tired Voice muttered under his breath in irritation. While Squidie continues to spout his phrases and giggles he at least does so more softly, and it soon becomes a bit of background noise I can easily accept as normal to hear.

The forest finally opens up into a small meadow where I can see the glass chamber, as well as the strange construct that accompanied it. There doesn't seem to be any mobs around, but just to be safe I place torches on the trees all around the perimeter of the meadow. Once the area is well lit, I make my way to the build first, as it's the more interesting one. There is a large blue lump inside the glass chamber a short distance away, which is kind of intriguing but less so compared to these unidentified blocks.

At first glance, they look just like a pair of oak logs stacked on top of each other. But, unlike the trees around me, these blocks have pictures of a bright yellow curved shape on all faces of them. Huh.

Banana, the tether supplies the information; it's a type of food commonly associated with monkeys and apes. Odd. Why would there be wood blocks bearing banana graphics stacked like this?

Above the stack is a sticky piston embedded into a rough machine-like build that frames the stacked blocks. Attached to the sticky part of the piston is an unusual block, dark blue and black with edges of gold. It's positioned directly above the two wood blocks with the graphics. Walking all around the construct, I can see the shimmer of redstone circuitry attached to the blocks and piston. It trails down the obsidian platform and across the grass.

"What the hell is this?" Dry Voice mutters and it strikes me as a bit off how he says that. Him and Tired Voice, there's something not right with how they talk. But I don't get much further in my musing, as Squidie gives a frightened squeak that isn't normal for him.

"This doesn't feel safe!" he squeaks from inside his bucket. "What kind of Squid Army soldier scares the heck out of the squids it's supposed to fight for?! That's not cool! It's crushing my dreeee~ams!"

"Maybe the squids shouldn't have tried turning the Sky Army against itself," I point out as I follow the trail of redstone dust. Where does this go? ...It's leading right up to the glass chamber with the lump of bright blue. Why?

"It seemed like a good idea at the time...." Squidie mumbles, blowing bubbles in the water. Heh, it kind of sounds pouty. Cute.

As I get closer to the glass chamber, I can see that the lump of blue is actually a large and furry Avatar, curled up and huddling on the floor of the chamber, its face hidden from view. A pair of screens float over it; one screen displays a large amount of code scrolling rapidly, the other seems like it's exactly the same code, but it randomly corrupts and then copies code from the first screen to repair itself. Interesting.

"BlueMonkey! That's BlueMonkey!" Tired Voice blurts out and I jump in place with a little yelp. Why does that guy yelling seem to put me on edge? Halfway between wanting to flee for my life and fall into a puddle of goo where I stand?

"Hey, hey! Don't rock the bucket!" Squidie yips, ducking back into the water and covering himself with his tentacles.

I reach into the bucket and give him a comforting pat, ignoring how Tired Voice seems to grumble and growl, like he knows what it is I'm doing and doesn't like it.

So, this is BlueMonkey? Hm. He's one of the Sky Army High Council, right? Then I should have a record on him. I reach back to tap my backpack and look over the books I've reclaimed. Tapping each one lightly has the title appear briefly, allowing me to see which book is which.

Ah, here it is. 'A Record In Progress of BlueMonkeyYT, Version 2'. Not Version 3? In Progress? I guess I was still gathering data when this book got stolen. I take it out of the pack, swapping my shovel to let it take space in my hotbar.

"You're the one who stole the Sky Army records?" Squidie asks suddenly. I look down to see him blinking up at me from the bucket. He has a puzzled look on his face, like he's not sure what to think, so I show him the cover.

"I wrote the records, remember? You even said so yourself!" I remind him, "These books belong to me and no one else was supposed to ever see them." Seriously, does he just conveniently forget things until it becomes relevant again?

He just blinks at me again. "Why?"

"Ugh, because," I begin and then I stop because I'm not sure myself why I even have these records. Why did I go through the trouble of recording data about the Sky Army when it was obvious that it would only be useful for learning about them? What had been the point?

I pass my hand over the hard cover of the book before opening it to read. The pages are intact, my handwriting filling them with all that I had learned and known -once upon a time- about BlueMonkeyYT, possibly with every member of the Sky Army High Council. Everything about BlueMonkey was in this book, even little details that seemed as though they'd be of no military use at all.

And then I realize it. My records were never meant to be used for war. I'm a writer, not a fighter; what's the most obvious use for these records in the hands of a writer?

"Because they're to help me write stories, Squidie, me and my Player. We wrote these records so we could have a reference to mimic the members of the Sky Army!" I tell the little squid as I finally grasp a piece of my own memories. "They're no good to anyone who can't mimic like me!"

Squidie just blinks a third time at me. "Oh," he replies simply. "Guess that's why the leader squids went with this version of the plan."

This version? Not sure what he means by that but it doesn't matter. I need to get BlueMonkey out of this thing. My commentators are bickering softly with each other and I don't need that to escalate for any reason; I get headaches enough as it is with messed up dreams and fragmented memories that don't belong to me.

Flicking through my hotbar, I select the stone pick, hoist it up as Squidie panics and demands to know what I'm doing, and step forward to break the glass.

My foot breaks a tripwire.

My heart stops as I freeze in place.

My commentators fall deathly silent.

Squidie yelps 'I'm a squid!' before ducking down into the bucket.