The Chained Watcher

Strange Occurrences

~~~

Grian was crouched next to a sign, reading it before looking at a chest next to the platform. He walked over to it, and with his wings out of the way the sign came into view. 'Always remember to place a flower.' The ink was faded, and the wood bleached by the sunlight, but wasn't that quite a throwback? That sign has been around for a long time.

Grian pulled out a single red flower from the chest, placing it on the grass of the summoning platform. Ah, if only that would work. The original ruler had moved the platform several times in the past, but it never worked for anyone else but them. They had tried to replicate it before, since the ability to summon another Listener would be amazing for infiltration and surprise attacks, but not once had it worked. 

The Listener it had originally summoned had looked at it and said that theirs was technically the same, but wouldn't work. Something about resonance and purity of intention, just a load of mystical sounding terms that could be summed up as, 'Only he could do it, it doesn't work for you.' It wouldn't work even if they used the original platform, unfortunately.

Grian wandered off to the testing area, murmuring something about the block palette and "It looks like someone fought a Wither here..." while exploring. They were about to follow when their communicators vibrated. Freezing, they exchanged a look before checking to see who had messaged them. Their communicators, although they had been calibrated to work like everyone else's, had a unique vibration for when a Listener sends them a message.

There's just one problem with this. Minecraft isn't currently connected to any of the main planes, so how did they get a message from another Listener? It had already been proven that the disconnect prevented messages from reaching them back when the hub first disconnected.

(Lore has developed to have Taurtis as a Listener, though I can't figure out exactly how that came about. One thing led to another, then Bam! This happened.)

<Taurtis>: ???

<Taurtis>: Wat did u do?

Several seconds of blankly staring at their communicators later, they snapped out of it and rushed to reply.

<Solidarity>: How???

<InTheLittleWood>: Its not our fault!

<Taurtis>: Then who else could it be? You two are the only ones who like to mess around making a summoning platform, and nothing else has that same feeling.

<Solidarity>: Wait, you're saying you felt the resonance thingie?

<Taurtis>: Yes, what did you do?

<Solidarity>: We didn't touch it!

<InTheLittleWood>: You know how last time we made contact we mentioned traces of Watcher magic? We found the Watcher. They're pretending to be a normal player for some reason.

<Taurtis>: How strong? Do you need backup?

<Solidarity>: Only one pair of wings, plus they haven't found out we're Listeners yet. We haven't tried to fight though, cause the Watcher's acting weird.

<Taurtis>: What do you mean "Weird"?

<Solidarity>: By weird, I mean, blending-in-so-well-if-we-couldn't-feel-their-magic-we'd-think-they-were-a-normal-avian weird. We were tailing them to try to catch them acting out-of-character or doing something morally wrong when they found the place we used to live.

<Taurtis>: Wait, ur saying u found the old world?

<InTheLittleWood>: Ye, but it's all overgrown. The Watcher doesn't seem to know what this place is, and pestered us for a tour. They honestly look a little like a kid, running around to wherever caught their attention and pushing all the buttons.