Work Text:
"I'm waiting for my mom to come home, and for my laundry to finish. I'm finally done with chores and can play on the server. (sighs) Today I have to finish my base and gear set."
On the login screen, you see Kolb's virtual reality keyboard as he types in Kolbert21337, and then a bunch of dots appear in the password space.
The loading screen is 30%, 45%, 90%, and 100%.
There is a red tower made of polished deepslate and red glass. As it begins to load in, you see a castle, made with stone, deepslate, and a bunch of different red blocks.
"I don't have a single clean shirt; the shirt I'm wearing, that I've worn 3 times. My mom is never home, so I always forget to do the laundry. Despite being the legion's leader, I don't have any friends —only Ione. Maybe Leo, but I'm just kind of his mentor. Life is sad, you know? I don't even have a single cousin. My family either ran away or died. I don't even know who my dad is. My mom's job isn't enough to support both of us; I have to help the administration write Lore for money so I can eat. We don't even have school anymore; we just do a few assignments per week. A 30-year-old guy said this was like during COVID-19. What even is COVID? It was like a bat thing or whatever. One upside in my life is that my complaint to the Aetheria Server Mod about the spear was accepted, since people in the server don't even use the weapons they get anymore. Ever since they added it to the server, they all just have spears and elytras."
You see, Kolbert starts walking towards the outskirts of the base and starts building another tower. Then sees a chat message from Leo saying, "Do you want to go fishing?", to which Kolbert replies, "No thanks, I'm working on my base."
It is now nighttime, as the sun begins to set in the west. Kolb sits and admires it. "My life might be bad, but at least there is a community on this server. I just wish I were less lonely. I get sad every time someone mentions family. I kind of feel like I don't have any."
"I barely eat anything, I can't even cook. Sure, Ione came over to my house and taught me how to cook. I don't have motivation for life anymore; I just want Aetheria to be real life. It's always a dream, I want to have to battle an enemy that matters beyond the loot. I want to be able to have a purpose. If I only get gear for stats, it might be fun, but I want to be a cool legend from stories from a thousand years ago.
After the tower is finished, Kolbert flies down with an elytra. He starts building a wall with black glass, quartz, and white concrete.
"At least I started doing exercise. I got the stuff on my walls that lets me sit better when playing on Aetheria. (laundry bell rings in the background) Wait here, my laundry is done, I have to put it into the dryer."
The screen is still; there are laundry machine sounds.
"Alright, I'm back. I've been procrastinating getting groceries, but my fridge is out of food. I might have to go soon. It's unfair, you know, the rich kids get to sit around all day while the whole world is in debt. The literal government is run by rich people, since only they can afford the education. Reminds me of the French Revolution that admin named Arrows was talking about."
He opens a shulker box, gets more materials out. There is a ring in the background, followed by a door creaking open.
"My mom is back, probably going to sleep after eating the food I microwaved. The laundry is done drying, too. I have to go fold it now, bey."
The quit game screen appeared, and the quit game button was clicked.