The idea was to surprise the Jimmys with a birthday party for the two of them.
It was the the past fWhip's idea, along with the short Joel and the elf Scott. They'd found out that the sheriff's birthday was fast approaching, and after witnessing how he barely got any respect, they wanted to be nice and throw him a big birthday bash. Everyone chipped in. Scott's past self had helped with the preparations a lot, considering that he and the Codboy had gone on an impromptu date once, and he knew what he liked. Then the Ocean Queen came up with the idea to include her little brother in the surprise party too, because she said that he didn't know what a birthday was and that she didn't know his birthday for some reason so it was about time they decided on the date for it. Scott of Chromia was pretty sure she was just joking.
Sanctuary had offered a building to host the party in, Oli provided music, the Katherines and the Gems made the decoration, Pearl and the Joels put up the decorations, Lord Sausage made invitations for no reason because everyone knew but Jimmy where and when to come, the Pixs, fWhips, Mayor Lizzie, and False worked on some technical behind-the-scenes redstone to make the party more fancy, Shelby and Shrub worked on catering, Joey flat refused to help at all and no one asked him to, and Scott and Joe's job was to get the Jimmys to the surprise party without them realizing what was going on.
Scott of Chromia flew off to Tumble Town, searching for the tiny sheriff. It wasn't very hard, which was surprising considering his size, but there was something about Jimmy that just attracted chaos, either caused by him or caused by others and aimed at him. Scott found the sheriff wrangling with some kind of blue plant sprouting all over a small section of Tumble Town. "Jimmy? What kind of monstrosity did you plant in your garden?" Scott asked as he landed. Jimmy looked at him, tired but relieved. "Scott! Thank goodness you're here. And this isn't my fault, it's those Fae! They planted something here in Tumble Town and it started growing so I boxed it in but now they've broken through the box and I'm worried." Scott looked at a giant glass box that now had several holes in it with the blue plant growing through, and noticed the little black and pink figures floating around inside it.
So Jimmy's telling the truth. For once it's not his fault. That's a weird thing to happen.
"Jimmy, don't mess with the Fae, it won't end well," Scott said, tugging on the sheriff's shoulder. He ignored him, hacking at the plants with his ax. "But it's ruining Tumble Town! I'm not sure how much longer this place could last with this stuff growing all over it!" "Have the Fae ever done anything bad to you, Jimmy? That isn't in retaliation to anything you did?" Scott said. Jimmy thought for a second. "Um, no, what are you getting at?" "Your empire will be fine, the Fae won't do anything bad. Now come on, there's stuff we've got to do." He lifted off into the air and beckoned for Jimmy to follow, which after one last worried glance at the blue plant matter, he did, activating his elytra and flying alongside the colorful collector.
Jimmy, being Jimmy, didn't think anything was up when they landed in Sanctuary. He was under the impression that Sausage needed something and that they were there to help him with it. He doesn't suspect a thing, Scott thought, proud of his wit and cunning. The two emperors walked to the building designated for the party, and as they neared it they found Joe lugging a giant sack with something heavy in it. As they got closer they could hear muffled noises coming from inside the bag. "What are you doing?" Jimmy asked, suddenly suspicious. "What's in that sack?" "The past you," Joe said simply. The other two goggled at him. "Wait, what did you do?!" Scott asked. "You asked me to bring the fish Jimmy here without him realizing what was going on. So I did." "Well we didn't want you to kidnap him!" "Okay, Scott, what is going on?" Jimmy asked, narrowing his eyes. Scott sighed and opened the door, pushed Jimmy and Joe in, and opened up the sack in a way that the Codboy inside tumbled out into the building too.
"SURPRISE!" Everyone shouted, jumping out of their hiding spots. On cue, the dispensers shot up dozens of different colored firework rockets, which Scott had provided the dyes for. The Jimmys yelped and jumped backward in surprise, bumping into each other and falling over. After the initial shock had worn off, the Jimmys immediately got up and asked what in the world was going on. "It's your surprise birthday party, Jimmy!" Lizzie said happily, bounding over to hug her little brother. "What's a birthday?" He asked blankly. Scott blinked. Wait, Lizzie wasn't joking? He literally doesn't know what a birthday is? Does that mean he's never had a birthday party in his life? Poor Jimmy.
And then when Pix had to explain to an amnesiac fish god again what a birthday was and how they were celebrating his birthday party, Jimmy began to sputter, "You call this a birthday party? He literally kidnapped me!" "Codnapped," Lizzie corrected, but everyone was looking at Pirate Joe, who shrugged. "I only did what I was told, don't be so annoyed." Katherine facepalmed and Sausage tactfully decided to have everyone move on to the actual party. The Ocean Queen brought out some cake that she had baked, but for some reason the past emperors all declined, saying that they had too much already. "Ah, well, your loss, and more cake for me!" "Let them eat cake," Sausage giggled. As Oli sang and played his lute to the tune of Happy Birthday, the Jimmys blew out their candles, of which the sheriff had twenty-seven but the Codboy had a couple hundred and it was a wonder the cake didn't collapse.
"That's because I baked it," Shrub said, in response to some people asking. "Gnomes live for a long time; we've learned how to make cakes sturdy enough for that many candles." "How old are you exactly, Jimmy?" Someone asked, to which the Codboy replied, "I don't know, all I know is that I'm older than almost everyone here." "He's a couple hundred years old, if the candles didn't give you a clue," Lizzie said casually. Then came the presents. Some of them were rather mediocre, but others were really sweet, like the cat that the elf Scott had showed up with.
"I'll name it Norman Junior!" The Codboy happily declared, cuddling the kitten. And then fWhip had produced a replica of the Codfather head from somewhere and Jimmy could barely even speak when he looked at it. He muttered something that sounded like, "But I don't deserve that..." and refused the gift to the shock of everyone until Lizzie jammed it on his head and he was unable to take it off due to the binding curse.
"Why don't you think you deserve it?" Pix asked, resting his ghostly hand on the Codboy's shoulder. "Is it because you were demoted to Codboy? The history books I read said that right before the Rapture the Cod Council had granted you the right to become the Codfather again." That discussion took a while to explain, and it ended with Jimmy feeling a lot better about himself but still thinking the Rapture was his fault. Scott didn't really give a hoot about it; this whole party was leaving people needing context and he was trying to not drive himself crazy. And then Shelby gave the sheriff a potion that was supposed to bring him back to normal height, and he quickly drank it, to the dismay of some people, but everyone roared when the potion only worked halfway and Sheriff Jimmy was now hermit-sized rather than fully grown. "Oops," Shelby said, turning red. The goblin fWhip also returned Jimmy's sheriff badge back and he was pretty happy about that.
After all the presents had been passed out, everyone moved on to lunch. There were empanadas and mojitos from Sanctuary, froglight fruits from the Ancient Capital, slimed roast chicken with berry sauce from Animalia, mushrooms and potions from the Evermoore, sushi and squid ink pasta and rum from the Eversea, honeyed tea and lemonade from Dawn, cave pickles and roast pork from Gobland; a whole plethora of amazing dishes suited for many different empires and cultures, so everyone found something that they enjoyed, even False, who was picking at her food and testing everything for poison before she ate anything. During and after lunch everyone had fun gossiping but Scott was feeling slightly bored. He wanted some entertainment. "Anyone know any party tricks?" He called out, and everyone was silent for a few minutes, thinking. "It means you have an excuse to show off," Sausage added helpfully, and a couple people stood up.
Joel went first. "Mind your heads," He said, as he snapped his fingers. Lightning zipped all around the room, bouncing off the walls in eye-pleasing displays of light. Then the lightning bolt zipped out the window and Joel sat down to jovial applause. Katherine stood up next. "Does anyone have a few iron ingots?" She asked. False hesitantly gave five to her. "Why do you just randomly carry iron ingots with you?" Someone asked. "They're good for knocking someone out," False answered, and no one asked another question about it. Katherine took the ingots and started bending and twisting them into one solid hoop. Then she played with the hoop for a little bit, tossing it and catching it, and spinning it around her forearm, before she ended her turn and everyone cheered, mostly Shelby and Joe.
Scott of Chromia participated too, doing a few backflips and turning a cartwheel, even though he was the one who asked for party tricks to be less bored. Like Sausage said, this was just a good excuse to show off. False had her turn next, contorting herself into shapes that no human being should have been able to accomplish. She returned to her seat, everyone staring at her and questioning if she was even human. Lady Katherine took a pot with a feeble, pathetic little flower in it, and made it grow to a foot tall before their eyes. Count fWhip of Gobland bit into a rock and ate it. "Mm, basalt, my favorite..." He murmured.
"I knew you chewed on my wall!" Princess Gem suddenly said, and fWhip hurried back to his seat. The Ocean Queen then had her turn and she asked if anyone had a sword or ax with them. Most everyone did. "Does anyone want to try cutting my arm off?" She asked, and Joey immediately jumped up, waving his sword. "Okay, you have my permission to do so," Lizzie said, and Joey immediately slit her blue skin by her shoulder, leaving a deep cut. Lizzie winced, and everyone leaned forward in their seat.
Within the span of a few minutes, right before their eyes, the cut closed up and it was like Joey hadn't done anything. "Axolotls have incredible healing abilities," Lizzie explained. "It just takes a while, so it doesn't usually do anything in pvp." Then Sausage splashed himself with a weakness potion and took a golden apple out of his pocket. Shelby suddenly retreated to the back of the room. "Oh, I know where this is going," She said, just as Sausage finished the apple and started decaying. Soon he was a zombie, and smiling eerily at all of them. "Don't worry! I can turn myself back to human!" Scott had no idea what to think of the route his supposedly harmless party trick idea had ended up going. I didn't expect the 'party tricks' to be so freaky...
Then Mayor Lizzie came in, dressed up in her fortune teller garb. "I am Mystic Mary," She said in a hollow, mystical voice. Then in her normal voice, "Also known as Mayor Lizzie of Critter City, Animalia. I'm a fortune teller, and I'm here to see the future." Pirate Joe let out a snort. "Don't listen to her, she's a scammer." "Yes, I was scamming you that day at the festival, but this time since I don't get any money, I'm actually going to tell the future." The cat produced a crystal ball from her voluminous robe and peered into it intently. In a few seconds her eyeballs rolled to the back of her head and everyone could see her sclera, which was rather unsettling.
"There is a dark master here," She said, in the same hollow voice. "There is danger ahead, his power consumes. Dark days..." Then her eyes went back to normal and she switched back to her regular voice. "Also, an anvil is about to fall on your head, Pirate Joe." Just then an anvil fell on Joe's head and a few people screamed. "She really can see the future!"
And then it was found out that Lizzie had set up a redstone contraption an hour ago with a timer set to release an anvil, which was named 'Got you, Pirate Joe!' from the ceiling in an hour, which at first seemed to prove to everyone that Lizzie had just set it up to scam them. "But," Lizzie pointed out, "How did I know that Scott would ask us to do party tricks? How did I figure that I was going to do a fortune telling act today? How did I know Pirate Joe was going to sit there, directly under the anvil trap?" She's actually predicting the future, Scott realized with a jolt. It's not just a scam. Or so he thought.
"And by the way, the danger I predicted is still real, so please take these amethyst crystals with you to protect you, at the low, low price of one diamond each!" Lizzie proclaimed, taking out stacks of crystals. "Shame on you, scammer," Joe said through gritted teeth, but Lizzie's prediction had rattled him more than he let on and he grudgingly took an amethyst shard and paid for it. "Amethyst crystals are magic, you know," Wizard Gem pointed out, taking out a shard of her own from within her bag.
And then Princess Gem stood up and walked to the middle of the room. "Time for my party trick," She said, with an odd expression. Then with a burst of light, she transformed into the elf Gem from Hermitcraft. "You're a shapeshifter?" Shelby asked, just as Sausage said, "You're a quick-changer?" Everyone looked at him. "What?" "Yeah, I'm a shapeshifter." Gem said. "I'm a celestial being, actually. I travel the multiverse, and I change and pretend to be different people in different worlds. This is the character I portray in Hermitcraft."
"Why are you an elf?" The elf Scott asked. "And deer antlers too? You're taking my whole schtick." "You're taking my schtick too!" Sausage said. "I'm the one who's supposed to jump around the multiverse!" Gem cracked a smile. "You're taking this better than I worried you would; I mean, I've basically been lying to all of you about my whole life." "Don't worry, we're used to dramatic secrets and dramatic secret reveals," Scott of Chromia assured her. Gem sighed with relief. "Good, and speaking of dramatic reveals, I should probably mention that Xornoth's here." There was an instant uproar.
"Why is it every time I host a party there's a dramatic announcement that totally ruins it?" Scott of Rivendell sighed.