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If fWhip hears one more song from the cage, he's going to cut the chain and let it fall into the Deep Dark.
He's not sure if the man is Chosen or not, but he deserves it after all the noise.
But alas, fWhip is not a murderer of those not Chosen by the universe, so the pork will have to do.
fWhip reaches the bottom of the ladder up towards the prisoner, pork wrapped in his bag. Another set of strange cheering and clapping comes from the cage and the prisoner says, “I'm- I'm taking requests today. Kst, they have to have ‘cage’ or ‘trap’ in it.” He snorts lightly. He keeps talking to himself as fWhip climbs the ladder, strange music and sounds coming from him.
As fWhip stands at the top of the ladder, he notices that there are a few things that look like purple music notes floating around the prisoner and that he's wearing a strange visor over his eyes. And he somehow has a thin piano, but fWhip has seen Sausage and Joel get stranger things out of their bags, so who's he to judge. fWhip grumbles and lifts the bridge over to the prisoner.
“...I need to make my own set list.” Flute music starts playing around the prisoner. “I don't think you guys are ready for me to be in a cage!” Booing starts over the music. “You weren't ready for this at all!”
“Hey!” fWhip says. “Come get your food.”
The prisoner jumps and everything stops making noise. He turns to face fWhip. “Oh, hello! Thank you little man.” He gratefully takes the pork from fWhip. “May I be released soon?”
“No,” fWhip says. “The Sheriff has to see you first.”
“Oh. Alright.” The prisoner looks dejected, shuffling his feet. “Can I have something warmer?” He smiles, waving the particles away. “Kst, my shirt isn't very warm in the caves.”
fWhip crosses his arms, unimpressed. “You have a bedroll.”
“...You still wouldn't have any large shirts that would fit a big boy Player like me?”
“What's a player?”
The prisoner falters, causing a strange scratching noise to sound. “Uh. Um. Well. I'm not entirely human, you know? My sounds and music aren't something a regular human could do. So I play them. So I'm a Player?” The lines on his visor scroll fast and the music notes flash. The prisoner waves them away.
“I think you're lying.”
“Well I'm telling the truth,” the prisoner says. “I'm not entirely human and I'm a Player.”
He's obviously hiding something but fWhip is too annoyed to care. “I'll get you a cloak,” fWhip says. He retreats back towards the ladder, lowering the bridge. He descends as the prisoner whispers frantically to himself.
“He doesn't know what a Player is! This is bad! Is this a hardcore universe? I might not be able to…” His voice fades as fWhip walks away.
It's none of fWhip's concern. He just needs to wait for the Sheriff to get a good look at the prisoner.
fWhip does find a cloak in his house. It's too big to belong to any of his kind. It looks a lot like Sausage's. He hopes the guardian of Sanctuary doesn't mind if he gives it to the weirdo in the cage.
fWhip walks back towards the cage, the cloak over one arm. The prisoner is still talking to himself, although the piano is gone.
“...Kst, yeah, still in a cage. Still in another universe. That hasn't changed.” The prisoner looks at the particles. “Have I gotten in contact with anyone yet? Ah! Yes! Scott told me who he will replace me with in MCC if I'm not home in time, kst.”
How does the prisoner know Scott? fWhip shakes his head and starts climbing the ladder.
He gets to the top and reaches to pull the bridge up. “Was that goblin who gave you pork chops one of your friends? Yeah it was alternate dimension fWhip,” the prisoner says. fWhip freezes, looking up to stare at the prisoner, who is not looking at fWhip. How does he know his name? “I don't think there's an alternate dimension me. This is what we had planned actually, kst. I mean, the ‘pretend to not know me’ and ‘put me in a cage’ bits. Not the ‘actually leave me in here twenty-four seven’ bit.”
fWhip stares at the prisoner. What on earth? He's got to know more.
“Have I tried- of course I tried leaving the server! Wah, are you silly? There's no World Hub to connect to! Woe is me, Oli OrionSound, trapped in another dimension!”
The prisoner pauses for a long moment. “Yeah, it's a good MCC team! Kst. I hope Scott can forgive me for being abducted by god.
“I did talk to Pearl! I'm pretty sure everything up to the Universe's message was in our universe.
“What- what do you-?” The prisoner spins around to face fWhip. He steps back. “Ah! Little man! Did you bring me something for the cold? It's awfully drafty in my poor cage.”
“How did you know my name?” fWhip demands.
“What? No, I don't know your name. I've never met you before in my life.”
“You're lying!”
“I've never met you!”
“Then how did you know my name?”
“I demand to see a lawyer,” the prisoner says. “I invoke my right to a lawyer. Or whatever goblins have.”
“What is a-?”
“Aether above and Void below,” the prisoner interrupts. “Just take me to the Sheriff.”
fWhip raises the bridge, tosses the cloak in, lowers the bridge, then scrambles away to retrieve the Sheriff from Tumble Town. If the prisoner wants to talk to the Sheriff, then fWhip and the Sheriff will make him talk.
~~~~~
It doesn't take a lot of convincing to get the Sheriff to return to the Goblands once fWhip tells him that the prisoner willingly wanted to talk to him and all the weird things he's said. When fWhip and the Sheriff return to the Goblands, they find the prisoner standing and facing away from the main development of the city. His eyes are half closed and he sways slightly. “Hey!” fWhip yells. “Wake up!”
Silence. The prisoner does not show that he heard him.
“Hey!”
Nothing.
fWhip grumbles but raises the bridge and unlocks the cage. He shakes the prisoner, who blinks, startled. “Oh my, what a way to wake up! It's not polite to wake someone from AFK like that, you know.”
“Oh, is there a better way?” fWhip says, unimpressed.
“You say their name, or gently shake them. Or curse of binding a helmet on their head as a prank and come back later!”
“Do you want that to happen?”
“If it gets me out of the cage. Can I leave the cage now?”
“What say you, Sheriff?” fWhip says, leaving and relocking the door. The prisoner does not follow. fWhip retreats and drops the bridge anyway.
“fWhip says you're acting weird,” the Sheriff says. “Answer some questions and then we'll see.”
“Questions! I can answer questions!” Peppy music starts up from nowhere. “What have you got for me?”
fWhip scrunches his nose, ears tipping back. “Can you stop with the noise?”
“Oh, I can't control that usually,” the prisoner says. “It just happens.” The music stops anyway.
“What's your name?” the Sheriff asks.
“Ol- Um. OrionSound.”
“That's not a real name!” fWhip says.
“I'm not telling you my base name,” OrionSound says, seemingly scandalized. “You've trapped me in a cage! What's so different from calling me OrionSound and him the Sheriff?” He gestures at himself then at the Sheriff as he says this. He pulls Sausage's cloak around his shoulders and pulls on one of the ends of his hat.
A short silence. Alright. Sure. He has two names like the Sheriff. The Sheriff clears his throat. “OrionSound. fWhip says you knew his name when you were talking to yourself. Is this true?”
OrionSound hesitates. “Yes.”
fWhip wants to know more about this! Why is he hesitating? What's so distracting?
“How?”
OrionSound tugs on the ends of his hat. “You would never believe me.”
“We have all day,” fWhip says.
The Sheriff checks his watch (fWhip has got to get Pix to give him one of those someday!) and says, “If it's going to take long, let's get him to a more comfortable cell, fWhip. This can't be very healthy.”
“Oh, it hasn't been, Sheriff!” OrionSound agrees. “It's awfully drafty, kst, and I miss my Olipelago and my poor strider boy.” He mumbles something more to himself that fWhip is sure the Sheriff can't hear but he can hear loud and clear. “Well, if he's here in this world…”
“There! In this world! Alternate dimension fWhip! What are you talking about?”
“fWhip,” the Sheriff says sternly. “We are taking him to a more comfortable cell first.”
“So I can leave the cage now?” OrionSound asks.
“Yes,” the Sheriff says.
“Great!” OrionSound flips one of the coverings of the cage up so he can balance on the bars of the cage. To fWhip's both surprise and anger, he climbs onto the cage.
And he jumps.
He jumps?! That gap is over twelve feet!
OrionSound lands next to the Sheriff, the only indication that he just accomplished the impossible being the fact that his hat is askew.
fWhip is going to lose it. He tugs his ears down in frustration. “You could have escaped the entire time?!”
“Oh yeah, it's not that hard for a parkour sweat like me, kst,” OrionSound says. “I just wanted to stay on the right side of the law.”
There is silence as they lead him to the Sheriff's room.
~~~~~
OrionSound sips at the warm drink fWhip got him. fWhip didn't really pay attention to what it was, he just wants to know what is going on with this strange man. Soft music plays around OrionSound, making the mood strange. But he's now in a cell at the bottom of the cavern, much more comfortable than the rickety cage.
“So,” the Sheriff says. “Where did you come from?”
“Have you ever heard of the multiverse theory?” OrionSound asks. He summons a spoon out of nowhere and stirs his drink. By all the gods and titans, how did he do that?
“No!” fWhip says, leaning forward on all fours. “Stop speaking nonsense!”
The Sheriff gently pushes fWhip back down to his seat on the floor. “The idea of infinite universes, all different from each other in infinite ways. Pix told me about it two days ago.”
“Classic Pix,” OrionSound says, sipping his drink. “Telling you exactly what you need to know just before you need it, kst.”
“What about the multiverse theory is so important?” the Sheriff prods.
OrionSound gestures with both his hands and, slightly hysterically, fWhip realizes that his drink is staying perfectly inside his cup. “The reason, dear sheriff, I bring it up, is because I'm not from this universe! I'm from one where I'm already your friend.”
“That's bu-!” fWhip starts.
“fWhip,” the Sheriff says. “If that's true, you would know my name.”
“Well, fWhip doesn't know your name. I'm being respectful, ah? It's not polite to share base names without permission, kst.”
“What is my name?”
OrionSound stirs his drink, reaching up to tug at his hat. “...James. Your friends call you Jimmy.”
The Sheriff sucks a breath in. “Explain further.”
“In my world, you're just characters we play. You're real here, of course.” OrionSound laughs. “I'm sure that there's some universe where I'm the fictional character myself, kst!” He looks over fWhip's shoulder, raising his eyebrows with a smile.
fWhip turns around, but all that's there is the wall. “What are you looking at?”
“Nothing,” OrionSound says, looking back at fWhip. “There's nothing we can see here! Maybe, maybe in a different universe there would be a camera! And in another the Sheriff's name wouldn't be Jimmy, it would be some nonsense like… Wyatt or Henry.”
“Wyatt,” the Sheriff says slowly. “There is a Wyatt in Tumble Town, for your information.”
“Very western, very thematic.” OrionSound brings his closed fingers to his lips and kisses them while bringing them away. “Chef's kiss for sticking to the guidelines.”
The Sheriff sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “The other dimension, OrionSound.”
“Right! You're a lot better at this than Jimmy, kst. In my dimension, we're all Players, those gifted by the Universe to come back from death.”
Silence. fWhip tugs on his ears. He had a feeling but hearing it spelled out clearly is another thing. He trapped another Chosen in a small swinging cage and thought about dropping his Spawn into the Deep Dark. Anyone can go into the End and kill the dragon or run from the Warden. Only those Chosen by the Universe can return if killed.
“Right! That's fine,” the Sheriff says. “Do you have any ideas why you got here?”
“Nope!” OrionSound says cheerfully. “I was listening to the Universe's message then there were lots of words I was seeing visually and it was going on for at least fifteen minutes so I decided to go AFK.”
The Sheriff opens his mouth to ask another question but OrionSound's watch starts buzzing. OrionSound stiffens, a panicked look settling on his face. “Just a second,” he says to fWhip and the Sheriff. He removes the watchface from the band and it changes into a device about the size of his hand with fingers half spread. He presses something on it and holds it up to his ear. “I'm in the middle of something,” he hisses. “Can you call back in fifteen minutes?”
“Hello to you too. Is there a me there?” Scott's voice comes faintly from the device.
“What is that?” fWhip says. “Is Scott inside it?”
“...Ah. I'll call back in fifteen.” A set of beeps.
OrionSound holds the device next to his watch strap and it returns to being a watchface. “This is uh. It's my comm. It's how I talk to other Players back home. Somehow it works across universes? Kst.” He laughs nervously.
Silence. The Sheriff stares at OrionSound, his face unreadable. OrionSound shifts uncomfortably under his gaze, “You're a lot more intimidating than Jimmy, kst. How do you do that? He's not scary at all!”
“Do you promise by the titans who created this land that you will do no harm if I release you?” the Sheriff says finally.
fWhip startles and stares at the Sheriff. “What?! You're letting him go!?”
“He clearly did not steal from you on purpose, fWhip,” the Sheriff says. “He is from another place with different rules.”
“But- but!”
“On the Gods of Mojang, I will do no harm.”
“Sheriff you can't actually-!”
The Sheriff unlocks the door to the cell and, with the sound of a fanfare, OrionSound is free.
“Thank gods,” OrionSound says. “If I stayed in a cage any longer I think I would have done something drastic. A man needs his space, you know, kst.”
“You must stay in the Goblands or come with me to Tumble Town,” the Sheriff says. fWhip starts to protest, he doesn't want to watch OrionSound any longer! He'll go mad!
“Get me out of this cave before I lose it,” OrionSound says. “I don't know how fWhip, not you king, can stand it.”
fWhip gets the feeling OrionSound is not using his title when he calls him king. "Well, glad he's off my ha-!”
“You're coming too, fWhip,” the Sheriff says. “There need to be two people to transport prisoners, even ones that will do no harm.”
fWhip is going to lose his mind. “I- Sure.”
They start the trek. fWhip saddles Snort, climbing on, and once outside the Goblands, the Sheriff saddles Arrow. OrionSound looks up at them oddly. “And what shall lil ol me do?”
“Ride with me,” the Sheriff says from atop Arrow.
OrionSound raises an eyebrow and grins. “Don't mind if I do!” He climbs on.
The Sheriff glares at OrionSound over his shoulder. “Don't think I won't leave you in a cell,” he warns. “I don't like teasing.”
“Pfft, me? Teasing? No, I'm a very respectful man.”
The Sheriff scoffs. They set off on a gallop that Snort can follow.
At some point, fWhip realizes that they're not actually headed towards Tumble Town. “Sheriff, where are we going? This is not the direction of Tumble Town.”
The Sheriff pauses, halting Arrow in his tracks. “...I don't know.”
“That's the direction to Spawn!” OrionSound says. “Pix is building near there in my universe.”
A short silence. The Sheriff urges Arrow to continue riding forward. “...I need to talk to Pix.”
“About me?” OrionSound asks.
“...I don't know.”
OrionSound hums. “Interesting.”
fWhip is going to die of both boredom and intense curiosity. He wants to go home. The Sheriff won't let him go home. OrionSound keeps saying weird things. fWhip didn't even get to put on sunscreen before they left! He's going to turn into goblin bacon!
OrionSound's comm starts buzzing again and he picks it up to talk to the other Scott. fWhip directs Snort to stay next to the Sheriff and OrionSound so he can eavesdrop, but it's not very exciting. It's about an “MCC” and some “watchers” and a “Grian”, but fWhip feels vindicated by the fact that OrionSound looks crestfallen when the other Scott mentions this “MCC”.
Eventually the other Scott says goodbye and OrionSound puts his comm away.
“There's Spawn!” the Sheriff says. “We're very close to the archeologists’ homesite.”
“My ride should be able to get here in a day,” OrionSound says out of the blue.
“What?” fWhip asks.
“Scott just told me that my ride back home should be here soon.”
fWhip should've paid more attention. That could've been so informative!
“What do you mean, your ride will be here soon?” the Sheriff asks.
OrionSound hums, tugging on his hat. “Right. No Devs or Watchers. Only gods and titans.” A sound that fWhip can't place plays next to him as he thinks. “The Devs of Mojang created our worlds and the Watchers Watch each one to make sure nothing goes wrong. Me being here, for instance, is something going very wrong, kst. That's something the Devs need to patch. But either a Dev or a Watcher needs to come retrieve me before they patch it, or I'll never be able to go home at all. Most of the time, they're just regular Players like everyone else.” He giggles at that, like he just said a joke.
That sounds like a lot of work. fWhip is already king, to be someone who watches over all the Empires at once on top of that? That sounds more like something the Sheriff or Joel or Mister-- Doctor? Professor? fWhip isn't entirely sure-- Pixl Riffs would do.
“I think Pix is voluntarily assigned to the Hermits and their offshoots,” OrionSound muses absently. “Probably helps with Recap, kst.”
fWhip is going to lose it. “Now Pix is a god?! Is the Sheriff?! Are you?!”
“Jim's a Listener!” OrionSound says happily, like that makes sense. “They're like Watchers but less hands on. He can't come get me because he doesn't have the ability, kst.”
“If you didn't promise on your gods you'd behave,” fWhip mutters, “I'd be fighting you like real goblin men do.”
They arrive at the archeologists’ homesite and OrionSound looks overwhelmed at the amount of people. fWhip feels vindicated by this. He leads Snort to his trusty post and ties him down.
“Oy Pix!” the Sheriff yells, dismounting and helping OrionSound off. “You remember that conversation we had about the multiverse? I have a puzzle for you!”
fWhip picks up a rock, tossing it hand to hand, and side eyes OrionSound.
Mister-Doctor-Professor Pixl Riffs comes out of the crowd of researchers. “Oh, hello there, Sheriff! That's a strange way to come in, but I'm no better. What's this about the multiverse?"
fWhip does not throw the rock at OrionSound, but he does mime doing it for a few seconds before the Sheriff sees him and sends a disappointed frown in his direction. fWhip reluctantly puts the rock in his pocket.
“There are a lot more Figm- hmm. You probably don't call them that here- not Players here than Pix was planning to have in his base back home,” OrionSound says to Pix.
“You can tell?!” fWhip yells.
“You can't?” OrionSound stops whatever he's going to say next with a mumbled, “They don't have that, do they?”
fWhip decides that one is too much for him and complains to Pix, “He said you watch things and know about different dimensions, make him leave!”
Pix stares between them for a few seconds. “Let's go to the campfire.”
~~~~~
‘Let’s go to the campfire’ means ‘go to Spawn and ask OrionSound many questions until it's dark.’
He can't answer who built the ruins, because in his world, Pix built the ruins. He doesn't know who built any of the Empires, because they were all built by their leaders in his world, but he can tell them stories about their alternative selves for minutes on end. He doesn't know why the Nether is like that. Or the End. Or the Deep Dark.
He does know what caused the Rapture.
“It was fWhip and Jimmy,” OrionSound says cheerily. “They were messing with their Story and hit progression. They were getting Jimmy's cod head back and making peace, Jimmy was the Codfather by the way, kst, and smushed a salmon and a cod together and the reactor blew up and destroyed the city. Dunno how it translated to here!”
fWhip and the Sheriff look at each other. “If you make a mistake, I'll forgive you,” fWhip says.
“Me too.”
As a researcher, Pix leans back on his log and takes that fact in. “So they were trying to save it and ended it instead…”
OrionSound procures the drink fWhip gave him back at Gobland and sips it. “That's the thing about Stories, they'll be told if given any chance.” OrionSound pauses then facepalms. “Aw no, I got sent here with Story magic.”
“Is that bad?” Pix asks, leaning forward, his goggles glinting in the firelight.
“No,” OrionSound says glumly. “It just means it can't be patched.”
"Which means?" Pix prods.
"It could happen again."
The thought of OrionSound leaving then coming back to torment them more makes fWhip want to scream and throw rocks at someone. So he takes the rock out of his pocket and throws it at OrionSound.
OrionSound yelps as he goes down, landing on top of his comm.
"fWhip!" the Sheriff says, looking at fWhip with slight disappointment. "That was rude!"
"If he manages to leave and then comes back, I'll-"
The sky fills with a loud crack and a bright purple flash over the Spawn campfire. Something appears that has many many floating eyes, but whatever it is is wearing a red sweater and blue jeans. It speaks with a voice that fWhip has never heard but yet sounds incredibly familiar. “Oli, I swear to all the Gods of Mojang-”
“Grian!” OrionSound says excitedly, stumbling to his feet, the sound of fireworks going off filling the air. “You've found me!”
“You managed to get three universes out,” the whatever it is complains. “We couldn't convince Lime to come after you, he claimed he was too busy.”
“I don't know Lime personally, kst, so that's fair-”
“You're still one of the Players and he's a Dev, he should be more-”
“Excuse me,” the Sheriff says sternly, shutting them both up. “OrionSound, who is this?”
“Ah! Yes! fWhip, Pix, Sheriff, this is Grian. Grian, this is King fWhip, Professor Pixl Riffs, and the Sheriff.” OrionSound first gestures at Grian then at fWhip, Pix, and the Sheriff. “fWhip and the Sheriff have been very polite captors. Better than our fWhip and Jimmy would ever be.”
fWhip still wants to kill this man for the noise. He would like to figure out where OrionSound thought he was polite and get meaner.
“Do you have everything you want from this world?” Grian says, the floating eyes staring at fWhip and the Sheriff as he faces OrionSound. It makes fWhip want to run away as fast as possible. “I don't want to stay here long.”
“I have my dragon egg, I have my hat, that's all I need!” OrionSound says. He tugs on his hat and holds out the egg.
“Wait, that's our egg!”
Grian stares at the egg. “No. It's definitely from our universe. It has code.”
“It has… Is my egg going to hatch!?”
“It might! It's not a null egg.”
OrionSound takes Grian's hand. “I thought you specialized in Player types,” he says. “Why were you assigned and not Pix?”
“For goodness sakes,” Grian mumbles, reaching forward and tearing a long purple slit in the air. He tugs OrionSound forward as he walks. “You know I specialize in worlds! It's how I-” The two disappear into the slit and they're gone.
Silence.
“What was that?!” fWhip stiffens and turns around. There's a SECOND OrionSound. This one looks different from the one that fWhip just had locked in a cage. His ears are pointed with purple on the end, and his arms are black up to his elbows.
“There are two of you?! Where did you come, OrionSound?” fWhip demands.
“Who the heck is OrionSound? I'm Oli! You know that! Why are you short and green now?”
fWhip gets the feeling that his headache with interdimensional travellers is not over yet.