18. encourage kids to make bed

Now, here’s the tea. My older brother (20M) is the ultimate Minecraft pro, always flexing his diamond armor and bragging about his redstone creations. But he also has a bad habit of griefing my builds and stealing my loot. We’ve never been the best of allies, he thinks I’m too noobish, and I think he’s a bit of a blockhead. So when Romeo passed away, I thought maybe he’d understand my pain. I mean, even if he didn’t care about my virtual dog, he could’ve at least respected my grief, right? Wrong.

Yesterday, I was mining in my virtual living room, reminiscing about the good times with Romeo, and tbh I was shedding some virtual tears. I thought I was alone in the server. Then my brother logged in, took one look at me, and started laughing like a Minecraft villain (think Herobrine vibes). He said things like: “you really crying over a virtual dog?” and “man up, it’s just a bunch of pixels.”

I tried to ignore him at first and asked him to stop griefing me, but that just seemed to make him more of a troll. He kept going, saying things like, “What’s next? You gonna build a shrine for him?” and even pretended to cry in a mocking way with his pixelated avatar.

I don’t know what came over me, but I snapped. I was hurt, angry, and just so fed up with his trolling. I remembered that not long ago, his favorite Minecraft server had shut down, and he’d been sulking ever since. So I looked him dead in the pixelated eyes and said, “at least my ‘just a bunch of pixels’ loved me, your server clearly didn’t love you enough to stay alive.”

He froze, completely silent. Then his character went red with embarrassment, and he rage-quit the server without saying a word.

Later on, our Minecraft parents heard about the drama (thanks to him, of course) and told me I was out of line. They said I should apologize because what I said was harsh. But here’s the thing, I don’t feel like I owe him an apology. He griefed me while I was grieving, dismissed my virtual feelings, and only stopped when I hit him where it hurt in the virtual world.

Now our Minecraft parents are pressuring me to “make things right” with him, but I don’t see why I should have to apologize when he was the one who started griefing me first. So, fellow gamers, AITA (Am I The Avatar)? Join our server for more drama, griefing, and epic showdowns!