"And I'll see you guys Friday for the next stream. Go scatter to whoever you want to watch, don't spam raid, just go be pog. I'll see you later okay? Bye, byeeeeee!" Phil went through the usual ending routine for his stream, pressing the button for the Outro to play, leaning back in his chair as he sighed and stretched. He groaned a little as his back popped, finally able to relax a little after hours of sitting in the same position.

The hardcore stream had been very productive, finishing a huge chunk of his birch forest that he has been messing around with for a while. He had only planned to do maybe four hours and go to bed so he wouldn't be too exhausted in the morning, but then he had gotten distracted and ended up doing almost 7 hours instead.

He also knew that Kristin already went to bed almost an hour ago, after she had brought him a snack and told him she would go to sleep now. She really was an angel, happily dealing with his late-night streaming chaos when chat gets especially distracting with their suggestions and storytelling.

He doesn't even remember what caused their two hour back and forth about school subjects and, eventually, stories about his own time in school. Not that he hasn't already told most of those stories at least twice, but the chat seemed to enjoy them regardless and there are always new people that haven't heard them before.

Quickly shoving the rest of his snack into his mouth, he ended the stream once the Outro was over and he was done playing with the emotes on screen. For a moment he just watched the now offline chat continue spamming emotes for a few moments, laughing when Ian decided to join in for a bit. Slowly the chaos died down, people leaving to go annoy another streamer or to go back to the chores of day-to-day life. He still can't quite believe that this is his life, his job. Just having fun with his friends, entertaining chat with silly stories and smp roleplays.

Once his plate was empty, he got up from his chair, stretching again. He quietly walked downstairs to bring his dishes into the kitchen and check if they had turned off all the lights for the night. Cleaning the dishes can wait until tomorrow, but he might as well not leave them at his desk. He'd rather not forget about them and be forced to quickly clean up before stream.

He started to get everything ready for the night, which wasn't a lot considering Kristin did most of it before going to bed. Lights turned off, windows closed, quick bathroom routine, saying hello to Gus as he brings out the trash. He laughed as the cat rolled onto his back and begged for more pets. Seems like today was a 'I don't want into the house day', as Gus happily stayed outside for his daily attention. Not that it was a bad thing, it was actually really appreciated since Phil was too tired to follow the cat around his house for twenty minutes.

But Phil was getting really tired at this point, so the little guy only got 5 minutes before the blonde decided to go back inside and finally head to bed. He climbed up the stairs and yawned, shutting off the last few lights in the hallway and was finally able to crawl into bed with his wife and sleep. He nuzzled close to Kristin, smiling when she just grumbled and cuddled more into the soft sheets.

Oddly enough sleep came almost instantly today, dragging him away from reality and into the realms of dreams.

---

Phil groaned as bright light hit his face, ripping him from his dreams. He desperately tried to hold on to wisps of endless blue and a flying structure, but it was lost within seconds. And it was such a good dream too... Didn't he close the curtains last night? He had been pretty certain that he did.

With an annoyed grumble he turned on his side, attempting to block out the light with a pillow or Kristin's hair, but nothing changed. In fact, Kristin wasn't even laying next to him. He almost whined and blindly reached around trying to find her. She never got up before him, at least not without waking him up first, either on purpose or accident. The only times she leaves him sleeping is when she gets up early for a trip to meet with her family or friends, and even then Phil still gets up so he can kiss her goodbye.

Reaching around the bed one more time, he noticed that it felt... off. Almost prickly. And the mattress was rough too. Without really wanting to, he started to blink his eyes open, rubbing the sleep out of them as he yawned. Only to immediately freeze and squint at what was in front of him. Was that... grass?

Slowly lowering his hand, he started looking around, pushing himself up to sit. He was sitting in the middle of a grassy field. A good distance away he could see a river, behind it some trees. When turning around, he noticed another river, boxing him in. "What the fuck..." He stood up and turned in slow circles, still not understanding what the fuck is happening. The river rushed by on all sides, forming a little island in the middle. An island he was standing on.

Is this one of these lucid dreams he heard about? When you know you are dreaming? But... hadn't he just woken up from a different dream? Or was it a dream inside a dream... Phil frowned at the thought and looked down at his hand. One, two, three, four, five... nope, counting fingers still worked. Other method then. He reached to try and pinch himself, but stopped halfway. Hold on a minute... those weren't his clothes... or any normal clothes for that matter.

He was met with long green sleeves, large and hanging loose over his wrist. His hands had weird black glove things that only reach to his middle finger. Following his arm up, the sleeves were connected to a long green robe, the ends of it falling past his knees. The edges of it were lined with a lighter fabric, including the cuffs. There was a red cloth belt securing the robe half closed around his waist. Beneath the robe was a black shirt and dark pants. He even felt his usual wristbands under the long sleeves and could see something red attached to the collar of the black shirt. "The fuck..."

Now, this wasn't the first time he dreams about anything Minecraft related. Most of his building ideas come from dreams about places looking similar to it. He even dreamed about flying around with his Elytra once or twice, though he usually wakes up pretty quickly from those with this weird 'falling onto your bed' moments. But this? This was new. He can't remember a single time he dreamed about wearing the clothes of his skin.

After a sudden idea, he looked over his shoulder and was both relieved and disappointed when there were no wings present. What a shame, that would have been fun. He did see a familiar hat laying on the ground though. It actually looked pretty good too, not like the crappy one he has stashed in his room from his Halloween costume. He carefully picked it up and turned it over in his hands. There were some little trinkets attached to it, like a small feather, some flowers. Those weren't part of his skin... but hey, it looks pretty. He brushed some dirt off of it and placed it on his head, appreciating the shield it provided from the bright sunlight.

Alright... so he was in a weird realistic dream, wearing his Minecraft skin's clothes. Could be worse. Kristin sure as hell will have fun laughing at his dream once he tells her. If he'll remember this one. With nothing better to do he began walking around, deciding to go towards the river bordering against a forest. Grass changed to gravel once he got close enough and once again Phil frowned at just... how he could feel the gravel crunch under his boots.

The river was wide, but not necessarily deep. He could see the bottom clearly, the water clear and sparkling in the sunlight. There were even some fish swimming by, following the current downstream. Phil couldn't spot any way across that doesn't involve crossing through the water. Great.

He did one last round around the little island, checking the river all around. Then he picked the spot that looked the most shallow and started to wade across. A startling chill shot up his spine when ice cold water seeped into the fabric of his pants. He froze in place, all his attention focused on the fact that he can feel the water, currently up to his knees. You can't feel in dreams... you just can't. Right? Even in vivid dreams? "What the fuck..."

No, this can't be real. It doesn't make any fucking sense. It's just a very realistic dream. Nothing more. Just because he never felt things in his dream doesn't mean it's impossible.

Phil shook his head, pushing back the nagging thoughts that this wasn't right. He continued to wade across, feeling the icy water rise up to his waist, then his chest. Okay... the water was deeper than he thought. The current almost swept him off his feet multiple times as he fought his way across, the gravel under his boots slippery with water and algae, until he finally was able to climb out the other side.

Despite the warm sun and general high temperature, he was shivering in his wet clothes. The icy cold stuck to his bones, chilling him from the inside out despite being in the warm sun again. "This was a great idea... just take a swim in the cold water..." His clothes will dry relatively fast, he knows that, but it won't change the fact he's cold now. And he can't even take the coat off because he would get a sunburn within the next hour!

Well... would he get a sunburn? This is just a dream, so he should be safe? But he is also freezing cold and that's usually not part of a dream either. Fuck this is hurting his head already.

Something glittering in the distance caught his attention, pulling him out of his spiralling thoughts. A dark splotch of colour with something bright on top, reflecting the sunlight. Phil hummed with interest and began to walk upstream towards the object, making faster progress the more his clothes dried. He stayed away from the line of trees to his left, which mark the beginning of a dense forest. While they would offer shade from the sun, something about them just didn't feel right.

The shadows seemed to move with every step he took, and he could have sworn he saw something moving between the trees. The leaves rustled with the wind, or perhaps something else was moving them. A stick snapped somewhere deeper in the forest and a single loud caw from a crow made him flinch, before walking a little faster.

This place was fucking creepy.

The closer he got to the object he had spotted, the more he realized that what he had found wasn't an object, but a structure. A tall structure of dark stone, balanced on a base of red, burning stone. On top of the dark structure sat a solid block of gold. He had found a ruined Nether portal. It sat half just by the shore of the river, some parts of the netherrack covered in water.

For a moment he just stared at the structure, taking in the size and the fact that it was real. The normally expected chest sat innocently beside the obsidian frame, waiting to be opened. He hesitated for a bit, checking exactly where it looked safe enough to step before slowly making his way over to the chest.

Despite his boots, he could immediately feel the heat emitting from the red stone. The general temperature around him seemed to have increased as well, with two small lava pools lazily popping way too close for comfort. His clothes are definitely fully dry now.

Carefully, he placed a hand against the obsidian so he could have something solid keeping him steady. It was warm too, while also emitting a weird... pulsing against his palm. Not the stone itself was moving, but something about it was just off. Maybe because obsidian was technically magic, both used for portals, the enchanting table and to support end crystals.

Phil turned to the chest, kneeling down so he could safely open it. The lid gave way without much complaint, revealing a small collection of objects. A handful of what he assumed are gold nuggets, a clock and an iron pickaxe, he thinks. It looked like iron. It sat heavy in his hands when he pulled it out of the chest, watching it reflect the sunlight. Then he looked at the gold block on top of the portal, frowning. "How do I get to you...?"

He experimentally stretched up as much as he could, barely able to tap the pickaxe against the obsidian just below the gold. Okay, so he definitely needs at least one block below himself to be able to reach. For a moment he considered maybe climbing onto the chest to reach far enough, but decided against it almost instantly. He won't risk falling near lava for a gold block.

He will take the rest of the items from the chest though, putting the gold nuggets and clock into his pocket while he continued to carry the pickaxe, balancing it over his shoulder as he took one last look at the portal. What to do now...

Another loud caw made him flinch, turning around to try and see if he could spot the bird making the noise. He couldn't see anything, but he did notice something else further upstream. Another structure, nothing more than a grey blob against the blue sky.

With nothing better to do than exploring, he left the portal ruin behind and continued to walk upstream towards the next structure.