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Unaware to all, the rift shifted. The glass shied away, pulling itself apart for the figure who was crossing through.
A woman stepped out, blindfolded, and out of her pink hair buns grew two demon horns. She looked around, humming in curiosity at her surroundings.
Her cloak shifted, and she vanished, unaware and unseen by all.
Jimmy finished updating the sign on the Tumble Town railroad, sighing. The moon was high in the sky now, and his eyes felt heavier than several anvils. He should probably go to sleep now.
He stretched on the way to his small home, yawning. He paused when he saw a strange figure shifting around the railroad, crouching beside it. All of a sudden, he felt wide awake, ready to interrogate the troublemaker. Was it Scott again?!
“Hey!” He shouted. “Hey, you! What’re you doing here?”
The figure looked up. Jimmy froze. They almost looked like Lizzie. Pink hair tied into two small buns, and the exact same length. However, unlike Lizzie, this woman had a blindfold on, and two small horns were poking out from her hair buns.
Distantly, alarm bells started ringing in his head, as if warning him that this woman was dangerous, but he ignored the inherent feelings of wrongness to listen to her.
“I’m sorry,” not-Lizzie tilted her head, humming. “Is this your area?”
Jimmy regained his footing to respond. “Y-yeah! This is my kingdom, Tumble Town! Why are you here? I don’t recall seeing you around these parts.”
“Ah, I’m sorry.” She bowed her head. “I’m just a wanderer who got a tad lost. I was on my way to someplace else, and I couldn’t help but notice the large concrete box on my way and got a bit distracted.”
Jimmy groaned. Right, the stupid prank Joel had played on him. He had hoped to take it down sometime soon, but with all of the festival and rift stuff, he didn’t have the time.
“Right, well, just ignore that.” He huffed. “That’s just a stupid prank played by a stupid god. Here, I can give you a place to stay for the night. Just don’t make any stupid Toy Story or Woody jokes and we’ll be fine.”
The traveler nodded. “I see, I see. Wait, you mentioned a god? What’s that about?”
Jimmy rolled his eyes. “He thinks I’m a toy. I’m not, by the way. But he started this stupid ‘Toy Jimmy’ joke, always asking me about where my owner is and telling me I don’t have rights, and now everyone else plays along, and my own ex deputy is going along with it too! He just couldn’t handle being fired, I guess.”
She nodded along. “Yikes. That’s gotta be annoying. I know I’d hate it if somebody kept dehumanizing me like that. Have you tried to do anything about it?”
Finally, somebody got it! “No. I’ve tried stuff like suing him, closing down this stupid toy store he made to mock me, but nothing works. Everybody just thinks I’m a joke.”
“Oh, dear.” Her face frowned in sympathy. Not pity, which was amazing, but sympathy. “That’s awful. Seriously, some people just can't grasp the fact that dehumanizing others isn’t a funny joke.”
“Exactly! And- and everyone else thinks it’s hilarious too! They all mock me, behind my back and to my face, and I don’t know what’s worse! My own deputy is trying to overthrow me and claiming I’m corrupt!”
He kept ranting to the kind stranger all the way to his home, and the entire time she would nod and chip in her own personal thoughts, but never once did she regard him with pity or mock him for not having a spine, as the others like Gem or Katherine did everytime he ranted to them.
“This is my place.” He waved around vaguely. “It’s not grand, but it’s home.”
She nodded, and grabbed something from the inside of her cloak. She set a beautiful, shimmering crystal that looked like amethyst on his table. He looked at it in wonder.
“What is that?” He asked curiously.
“Oh, just a gift from a friend.” She waved him off. “He loved these crystals. One could say he was covered in them.”
“I can see why.” Jimmy commented idly, staring at it. Something about it just felt like it pulled him to it, as if it was speaking to him.
“So, when you were talking about every other ruler making fun of you for allegedly being a toy, why haven’t you used any… physical force to stop them?” The wanderer asked casually.
Jimmy recoiled from the gem in surprise. “Woah there!” He waved his hands. “I’m not trying to hurt anybody here! I don’t want to wage any wars or anything, I just want to be respected! Now, if I could intimidate them into respecting me, that’d be different, but Joel is literally 11 feet tall. I’m not even intimidating to my ex-deputy, who’s several feet shorter than me!”
“Well,” the wanderer chuckled, “I believe I may be able to help you with that.”
“... What? How?”
“Well,” she chuckled. “You want to be respected. Understandable! Don’t we all? Don’t we all want to live without our personhood being trampled on? To live happily, respected by those around us, and not mocked, scorned, and laughed at at every opportunity. Tell me, Sheriff…” She leaned in. “Do you want to become strong enough so that nobody will disrespect you ever again?”
A voice in Jimmy’s head said this was shady. Several voices, in fact, and they all took the form of the other rulers. They also said stuff like how Jimmy would be stupid to agree to something so obviously sketchy, and another one that sounded like Joel said a toy boy like him didn’t have a brain to think about such things.
His eyes hardened. “Yes.” He said firmly. “Yes, I do. How can you do that?”
“Well, keep the gemstone.”
“What-” he blinked, before scowling. “Is this another attempt to make fun of me? Did Joel or Scott or Lizzie hire you or something?”
The traveler chuckled and shook her head. “No, no, no. Don’t underestimate my powers. This crystal isn’t just a crystal; it holds great magic that could help you get what you most desire.”
“But I don’t understand how a gem could help me with this. A-and besides, how could you know what I most desire?”
The traveler leaned in, and he could feel her blindfolded eyes staring at him intensely. “Because I’ve felt that exact same pain.” She hissed. “I know what it’s like to be dehumanized, mocked, and insulted by everybody around you. It’s only after I inherited my power, and established myself as somebody to respect and fear that nobody crossed me. Because, little sheriff, let me tell you a secret.”
She grinned. “Respect doesn’t exist. Only fear does. If somebody fears you, they ‘respect’ you, and do whatever you please. Why do you think gods are so scary, so looked upon? Because their power can strike fear into the hearts of the people, and the peasants construct grand temples in their honor in a feeble attempt to be given mercy.”
“I-” He gulped. “I don’t know if I agree with that. I mean, I think you can respect somebody without fearing them.”
“If that were true, why does nobody respect you, an unintimidating and weak man?”
“Hey!”
“Think about it, Jimmy!” She stood up. “With this, you’ll be finally exalted above all of those other rulers who disrespect and mock you! For once in your life, you’ll know what it’s like to be feared! You just have to be strong, and know how to correctly use the strength given to you.”
“I… I could be strong?” Jimmy asked in wonder. He knew he wasn’t strong, was weak, and pathetic. He was told that plenty of times by his fellow rulers. So the idea of him, Jimmy, being strong… It seemed like a bad joke.
“Yes!” She grinned. “You’ll be free from their mockery, their pitying eyes, and their lies! Don’t you think they deserve to see what kind of power you could hold, don't you think you deserve to be feared?”
“So if I’m feared, I’ll be respected! Because fear is respect?”
“You got it.” The wanderer smirked. “You’ll be the most feared in this land, and like me, nobody will want to cross you.”
...
Whilst a devilish deal was being done, an angel made of vengeance and fury awoke.
He flew through his church, haunted by nightmares of an enigmatic demon. He gazed at his lovely tapestry, and stopped in horror.
In the middle there was a tear, a missing piece.
He spread his crimson wings and flew through the lands of Afterlife, searching for any sign of an enigma that was long gone.
...
“So, keep the gemstone, little sheriff, and I promise you that great power will come to you. You’ll be stronger than the stone that makes up deepslate, and tougher than the diamonds themselves. I know it sounds strange and silly, but don’t doubt me. Soon, you’ll have all the fear you could ever want.”
“That sounds nice.” Jimmy chewed his lip. “But what do you want from me?”
“Simple.” The traveler woman flashed a grin, and held out a slimy hand for him to take. “Allianceship. Shelter. I’m new around here, and I would like to know that I have a strong ally backing me to make sure I don’t die on my first day out, or to protect me from any enemies that may wish to harm me for being new.”
Jimmy felt himself puff up with pride. She believed in him to keep him safe! That’s all he ever wanted, all he had hoped to do. He wanted to keep the people of Empires safe, and be a friendly yet respected authority figure for people to rely on.
But… then came the toy jokes, and the laughter, and the mockery…
He looked at her, and at her outstretched, slimy hand. He took it.
“We have a deal.”
“Excellent!” The wanderer cackled. “Keep the gem close, and all your wishes will come true. When the time has come for me to require your allianceship, you’ll know.”
And he blinked. He blinked, and she was gone.
Dimly, Jimmy realized that he never even asked for her name.