The Past Ahead - an Empires SMP AU

Chapter 8 - Twin troublemakers

           Then an old man wearing wild western garb ran up to Jimmy, likewise with weapons out. "Now, now, what's the commotion?" He called. "Old sheriff!" Jimmy replied, and to fWhip he sounded slightly happier. "They're disrespecting the sheriff by calling me a toy again!" The old sheriff frowned. 

           "Hey, I didn't call you a toy, my future self did," fWhip corrected. He glanced at goblin fWhip. The goblin's expression was hard to read. "Hey, I thought you wanted to bother Jimmy." "Yeah, but..." His voice trailed off. He didn't really know what to think.

           He liked toying with Jimmy, pardon the pun, but this version of Jimmy seemed really upset at being called a toy, a lot more upset than when his past self had his music disc and Codfather hat stolen. He looked at his future self again, and then did a double take. Was it just him, or did the goblin's blue eyes turn red? 

           "At any rate, stop calling the sheriff a toy," The old sheriff ordered. "You're disrespecting him and his feelings and his status as a perfectly normal human." "He's a toy, and will always be a toy, no matter how many times he denies it or whatever he does to cover it up." The goblin fWhip said, and the other fWhip was shocked at how cold he sounded.

           Then he looked at Jimmy and was even more surprised to see the sheriff was actually crying a little. Jimmy noticed fWhip and Joel looking and tried to surreptitiously wipe his tears away but it was too late. They had noticed. Joel stepped forward, hand on his sword. 

           "Look, I know that I bother Jimmy a lot too, but I at least tried to be nice to him all the other times and what you're doing is just sick and mean. You're hurting his feelings and dehumanizing him. It's just wrong." Joel said, and Jimmy looked at him, surprised but grateful. Count fWhip of the Grimlands then made a decision and stepped up next to Joel, the two of them between the sheriff and the goblin. "Yeah, you're just being mean to Jimmy, leave him alone."

           The goblin shrugged, and then blinked a few times, surprised. fWhip noticed his eyes were blue again, or maybe it was just his colorblindness. The goblin shot a double take at Jimmy. "Huh, I didn't know toys could cry." "I'M NOT A TOY!" Jimmy roared, and he started waving his weapons at the goblin, who sprinted away much faster than anyone would have expected him to with his tiny legs, and trampled some crops on his way out. The old sheriff moved to follow him, but he stopped a second to talk to Joel and fWhip. 

           "Look, I don't know you two that well, but I appreciate you standing up for the sheriff. He doesn't really have that many friends and everyone else disrespects him by calling him a toy. Now, I'll see ya folks later." The old sheriff started running after the goblin and sheriff, but his rheumatics were preventing him from going as fast as them. fWhip and Joel looked at each other. 

           Joel shrugged. "Jimmy told me that everyone keeps on pranking him with Toy Story-related things and that no one respects him enough to help him out with this stuff, but I honestly thought he was exaggerating. Then again, that explains all this stuff." He gestured at the giant snake in the boot, the three-eyed alien statue, the wall that looked like the wallpaper in Andy's room, the claw machine, and many more.

          fWhip had no idea what to think anymore about Jimmy's relationship with the other emperors in this time. A thousand years ago when he was Codfather Jimmy, he had so many friends that the whole server had practically been split in half when they went to war. The count of the Grimlands had honestly assumed it was the same in this time. But now this little interaction had painted him a picture of a sad, pathetic little sheriff who was trying to gain respect but no one else payed enough attention to stop belittling him. 

           fWhip shook his head. He didn't want to think about how mean he could be in the future. Right now he had to think about how to get back to Gobland now that his future self had run off. Joel thankfully offered to walk him back to the underground empire, having gained a rough sense of direction of where all the empires were located as he walked all over the map looking for Lizzie.

           At first as they went back they didn't really talk about anything, then as they were passing through Dawn, fWhip remembered something. "Joel? What color were my future self's eyes?" "The goblin's eyes? Why are you asking that? You're the one who lives with him." "Yeah, well, I thought I saw them turn red right before he started being really mean to Jimmy." "I wasn't really paying attention, but I'm pretty sure they were blue the whole time. Maybe the sun's in your eyes." 

           "Yeah, maybe." But fWhip wasn't convinced. Then a lady in a pink dress landed in front of them, flapping her monarch butterfly wings. It was Princess Gem. "Did I hear you say something about red eyes?" She asked, trying to appear curious, but fWhip noted she looked slightly worried at the same time. "Yeah, I thought the other fWhip's eyes turned red when we were talking to Jimmy, but it was probably just my colorblindness."

           "Er, yeah, probably." She flapped her butterfly wings and took off, a little too soon, in fWhip's opinion. His twin sister usually didn't end conversations that soon. Then he shrugged. If his encounter with Jimmy taught him anything, it was that just because you reincarnated into a certain person, that certain person wasn't necessarily like you. 

           When he got back to Gobland fWhip immediately asked his future self if changing eye color was a thing goblins did. "What gave you that idea?" "Well, I saw your eyes turn red right before you were being really mean to Jimmy." "What are you talking about? I wasn't being mean to Jimmy." "You don't think that was mean?!" "What was mean?" "The whole thing you said, that Jimmy would always be a toy, no matter how many times he denied it."

           Goblin fWhip frowned. "I don't remember saying that." "Well I remember you said that." The goblin frowned again then quickly changed the subject. "On the subject of eyes changing color, I don't think any of us have ever done that except for when Jimmy went on his villain arc and his eyes turned red, and oh wait, there was that one time Cub and Shelby were corrupted by the sculk, but their eyes turned dark greenish blue, not red." "Wait, what?" "But also, speaking of Shelby, do you want to tease her about her enormous hat with me?" 

           "Wait, Shelby has a giant hat that must be teased about too?!"