#i'm more just saying. hey those memory loss potions. hey those killing impulses

[theminecraftbee]

Joe has been wandering around Cogsmede recently. The way he figures, he's set up an apartment and everything. If he's going to be living here for the foreseeable future, he needs to explore, after all! It wouldn't do to be a citizen of a nation he knows nothing about. He's got to have proper civic consciousness! Has to get the lay of the land!

He's also very nosy. Like, okay, the thing about civic duty is true, but he's also nosy, likes flipping levers, and has been very curious about everything going on here ever since he did that job for False. Like, okay, he gets why False hasn't explained yet, given that she has memory loss and everything and like, had been asking Joe to figure it out because she didn't know either? But... he's nosy. There's gotta be more going on here, right?

So he's been wandering. He's been hitting levers. He's been curious. He wants to know what he can find.

He finds something one day when, while wandering through a storage area, he sees a lever, and he hits it, and a hidden block opens.

Now, Joe knows all about people trying to keep things secret. He tries to keep things secret himself. He only sometimes succeeds? People go through his things all the time even when they are a secret. That's just, like, what having friends is about.

He goes inside and -

Okay. So Joe is friends with Cleo. So this shouldn't be - she has a collection of heads herself. Joe even gave Cleo a lot of them. So this really isn't that concerning, he thinks, glancing back at the tunnel he'd crawled through before looking forward. False's head is in a glass case, true, which - is that self-harm of self-love, he's, he's very much avoiding looking at the thing that's thrown him off and that's fine, his eyes can keep on skipping over that. Like, okay, listen, this is basically nothing compared to what Cleo amassed in Season 7, and everyone had loved that!

It's - his eyes keep skipping over the thing he very much doesn't want to look at - not that bad of a collection. Some of them are still a bit - gorey - which. He can probably even... give advice on how not to do that! To get the nice clean player heads, instead of, uh, messy. Messy decapitations and trophies. That's - it's fine. He's not looking at it. There are some rare heads here, like that guy who came to visit and help them build that undersea kingdom. Like that!

Joe remembers that. That had been a business-as-usual, playing sort of getting someone's head. It's nice and clean and intentional and a player head, not a -

So, look, the thing he doesn't remember is -

He rubs at his neck. He's just. Sometimes that's what someone gets for wandering around, right? They find things they don't want to, like about six of his own head, in various states of clean-to-mangled, carefully catalogued. It's - really, he's friends with Cleo. This shouldn't bother him! And, like, surely they have traders here, right? Yes. Wandering traders sometimes, uh, have player heads, although they're normally less - well, they're normally more the fun kind and not - well - he doesn't want to look at it.

Maybe they just have very violent traders here. He's not sure... how or why they'd have - it still doesn't really explain why Joe doesn't remember - well, it would, theoretically, except injuries like that could have only been sustained while alive and Joe really, really thinks he ought to, given the fact some are, uh, those injuries are - are more than a decapitation is all he's saying some of them are - he doesn't -

He yelps as he hears a thump behind him, realizes the narrow passage was the only way out or in, and turns around to see False.

"Joe?" she says. She sounds concerned.

"Uh, hi False!" Joe says. "Sorry, I tripped on a lever, you know how it is. Do - do you know -"

He cuts himself off, because he's not. Really sure what he's asking about? He rubs at his neck again. Yeah. Not really sure...

"Awfully high to trip on, don't you think? Don't worry. I can help you get back to your room," False says.

"Oh, good," Joe says. "That's good. I, uh - I mean, I can't help but notice -"

And then Joe wakes up back in his room.

He blinks. His head hurts. He's lying on his pillow. There's a note on the dresser; he must have caught something. That's - he doesn't remember how he got back here, but he must have fallen ill. He's been working very hard. False has left him some tea. It's nice of her. It'll feel good, since his throat hurts so much.

His throat really hurts too. It's hard to describe. Like something's been pulled through the inside of it. Or he's been screaming.

He'd remember if he'd been screaming, though. After all, what is there to scream about?

Best to wait until he feels better. Then he can get back to exploring, and picking up new jobs, and leading cats to help open the Rift. Yeah. That makes sense. His head still hurts, and everything is awfully foggy. At some point, he lost his levels. He's been doing that a lot lately. He's not sure how.

He's sure it's fine.