Retrieving the sword
31 May 2017 | Danny RocketJenny sat in her studio appartment on the third floor well above a local eatery in the heart of Boise. Her black cat rubbed up against her leg as she took notes on her laptop–her eyes stuck fast to the book next to her on the sofa.
It’s amazing the things found in books. Exciting things, mysterious things, distracting things, and occasionally, the very thing you need at the time when you need it. Jenny had found such a thing, but let us not disturb her for now. First some backstory, because really, every story ever written is a fantastic ending with some great backstory.
Unlike Danny, Jenny had a full time job as a software developer. She didn’t have time to go galavanting around with mythical creatures–except on nights and weekends, which she spent mostly researching, gaming, and exercising.
The research started when she received the pamphlet in Minecraft from a fairy after killing a dragon with her magical sword. She knew that the sword and fairy weren’t part of the original game, and after some research found that it wasn’t part of any modpacks available on the internet. She did, however, locate the pamphlet binaries on her computer and printed it out. To her, it was another puzzle–the kind of puzzles that got her into programming to begin with.
The pamphlet didn’t teach magic explicitly, but it did give some pretty strong clues to what kinds of literature woudl contain functional magic over the mythical kind. She figured out the lightning spell first–not a very forgiving spell to learn first, and she quickly decided to never try to learn a spell in her apartment again.
After building up a consistent lightning shock, she studied up on a few other minor spells that may come in handy later. Then she had a crazy idea. And she even dared to try it in her apartment.
She finished writing the script and ran it. The program sprung to life, and the sharpie marking all the way around the monitor glowed a smoldering green color. She tabbed over to Minecraft, which was running in the background.
The screen looked differnet. It looked richer, deeper, and more real than it had ever before. The chest with the sword was open, and she reached into her laptop screen. It bent in, like plastic wrap over a bowl of chocolate pudding. Then her hand passed through and into the game. She felt something hard and grasped the handle.
Breathing hard, she slowly pulled the sword from the computer screen and set it down. She reached in again and pulled a second sword from the chest, and just as the last inch of blade came through the screen, her laptop died, and the scribbles on the monitor melted into the plastic illegibly.
She sat grinning, and staring into space.
Now she could win this thing for real.