Grian stood there, in his base, staring at the strange purple crack in his wall. Or rather, through it. Because he could have sworn that he'd just seen his friend Gem on the other side. The other hermits would have told him that he was imagining things, that no one could see through the distorted purple ectoplasm that made up the portal. But Grian had better eyes than they did. So that was how he was able to see her. The question is, why is Gem on the other side?
Suddenly the figure who looked like Gem vanished. Grian blinked. He hadn't seen her move. She was just gone. Like she teleported. "What are you staring at, Grian?" Grian nearly jumped out of his skin when Gem suddenly materialized right next to him. "Gem!" She giggled. The elf could be very sneaky when she wanted to be. Or maybe she teleported.
"Did you just teleport here to scare me?" Gem tilted her head at him, her deer antlers swaying. "What do you think?" She glanced at the giant portal. "This is the thing we're going through?" "Yeah," Grian said. "It's been sitting here long enough and we haven't done anything with it yet."
"Is it safe to go through it?" Gem asked. "We don't even know if it leads anywhere, or if we can get back." "Well, things have been coming through," Grian said. He'd been so surprised the day when he found a fox and a pig just wandering around in his basement, and he'd attributed the incident to them wandering through the portal from the other side.
"And Grumbot says the portal leads to another dimension." "You told me he also knows nothing about it," Gem said. "Which is why we're going!" Grian declared. "I mean, why not?" He didn't understand why Gem was so against the expedition.
Gem just sighed. "Well, I'm not going." Grian blinked. "Aw come on, Gem, why not? All our friends are going!" "I'm staying here," Gem said with a tone of finality, activating her elytra and flying off. "Please remind False that we're going through today!" Grian called to her. He frowned. Gem was one of his closest friends.
Not his best friend, of course, his best friends were Mumbo and Scar, but after them, she was the closest. He knew what she was like; her favorite things, her mannerisms, and all that stuff friends knew about each other. And the way she acted about the portal was waving bright red flags in his face.
Grian looked at the portal again, and then an idea popped into his head. Why hadn't he thought of it before? He ran to his storage room and grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil. He scribbled 'new portal, who dis?' on it and then tossed it through the portal. As soon as they made contact, the paper was swallowed up by the sea of glowing purple. Grian, satisfied, went to get a chair and sat down in front of the portal, waiting for a reply. Surely someone would find his note soon.
It was even sooner than he expected; just as he sat down another sheet of paper flew back through and fluttered to the floor. Grian noted it was too big to be his note. He picked it up and saw that it had writing on it. He tried to read it, but the letters were confusing and indecipherable. They weren't even printed in a neat line. "Toy mica jam is nifty?" Grian blinked. The message made no sense. Maybe it got scrambled by going through. At any rate, he definitely needed to get the expedition to the other world started soon.
---
False was in her lab, surrounded by countless experiments and scientific tools. On her left was an electron microscope. Next to that was a jar full of pickled lizards. On the table behind her were strange electronic devices that only she knew what to do with. Built into the wall were shelves full of scalpels, DNA sequencers, electrometers, and the like.
A scientific calculator also acted as a paperweight to a stack of papers with notes on the results of various experiments. In the corner of the room was a strange glass cage that just sat there, empty and unused. It wasn't always like that; the cage used to have an occupant. But the occupant was long gone by now.
False watched the cardboard maze that she'd set up in front of her. She'd placed her lab rats in various spots around the maze and was now noting their behaviors. Little bands around their necks tracked their heart rate and stress level, and the results were being transmitted to the inventor's phone, where it would be recorded for her in case she didn't quite catch something.
One of the mice was standing on top of another one and was using the boost up to try and scale the wall and get out that way. False carefully knocked it back down again. "Sorry, you guys can't escape yet until I'm done with the experiment." She told them. Boy did she know from experience how much trouble an escaped experiment could be.
Just then, she heard someone come into the lab. False groaned. Why do the hermits have to interrupt me all the time? She got up and turned to meet whoever was bothering her this time. The hermit who'd come in had an off white polo shirt covered mostly by a brown vest with gold buttons.
She wore a light green skirt and leather ankle boots. A pair of deer antlers and pointed ears poked out from her bright red hair that had been braided with sunflowers. She waved. "Hi, False." "Hi, Gem," False replied. "What's up?" "Grian told me to tell you that the expedition through the rift is today." Gem said.
False smacked herself in the forehead. How did I forget about that?! She'd been delivered a compass with a note tied to it telling her to follow where it lead at 8:00. She'd seen where the compass needle pointed to and was immediately worried when she realized it was pointing towards Grian's base. Because she knew what was in Grian's base.
"We're not supposed to be messing around with portals!" The inventor exclaimed. "It's really dangerous! Who knows what could be on the other side? An alien? A giant tentacled monster?!" Or a certain escaped experiment. "How much time left do I have to talk him out of it?!" She glanced at her watch and did not like the fact that she read '7:52'.
Gem sighed. "I tried talking Grian out of it already. He's too interested in the rift to not go through." False gulped. "Well, I guess I'm going through, then, if only to make sure that the other hermits are safe." Gem smiled. "They'll be fine." Why is she so sure? False wondered. Gem, catching the look on her face, quickly added, "Especially with you there, you're the best pvper."
Hm. Gem's acting odd. "Well, I'd best get going," False said, keeping up her experiments and putting them away for safekeeping. "Are you going too?" "No," Gem shook her head. "I'm not messing around with portals." "Okay, uh, make sure no one pokes into my lab while I'm gone. Thanks!" False called over her shoulder as she left.
Soon False was standing in Grian's base with twelve other hermits, looking at the portal embedded in the wall. Grian's massive cavern was made mostly of stone, and it would be empty if not for the piles of chest monsters and the strange machinery in it, including the AI supercomputer that Grian made known as Grumbot.
False would have liked to take apart some of the complex electronic wiring in here for reverse engineering, but she was too busy worrying about the portal right now. She looked to see who else was there. Grian, obviously, because he was leading the expedition, and there was Cub, Doc, Scar, Pearl, Cleo, Xisuma, Tango, Impulse, Keralis, Joe, and Jevin. All were looking at Grian and the rift.
Grian cleared his throat importantly. "Okay, so as you know, there's been this portal stuck in my wall and we have no idea how it got here. Well, today, we're going through it." There were a couple cheers from some of the more chaotic hermits. "One thing first," Grian raised a paper. "Does anyone know what the message 'toy mica jam is nifty' means?" There were murmurs of confusion. "Okay, then, if no one knows, let's go through!" Grian said. "Come on, all at once!" All the hermits held hands and walked through the swirling purple ectoplasm.
False was at the end of the human chain, so she had the chance to break away and not go through. She was having second thoughts about messing with portals. What if it's the same place I sent her to? False fretted. But she strengthened her resolve. The hermits were her friends and she had to protect them, not run away because she was scared. Especially if they were heading to the place that she'd sent her to, although what were the chances of that, anyway, in such a big multiverse? So for better or for worse, False stepped through the portal to another world.
---
False couldn't sleep that night after she'd come back from the rift festival. The sight of the rift had stirred something in her, and she was as wide awake as she would have been if she'd drank three gallons of coffee. She felt her mind straying back towards home. Not Cogsmeade, even if it was also her home. Her old home. The one she could barely remember, in another world.
False could feel her curiosity about other dimensions growing. First Jimena had awoken in Cogsmeade out of nowhere, just like False had. Maybe she was from another world too, or maybe the grand architect was reaching. And then Sausage had started getting dreams that involved other dimensions. Not to mention False's own dreams about her lost memories. What was it about dreams and other dimensions that were strangely linked? And then the rift had sent something through from the other side. Where was the other side, anyway? Another world of some sort?
False had so many questions and too few answers. Her biggest questions were mostly about how to get home, but the ones right after that involved her missing memories. Why was she so... different in those memories? From what she'd seen, she'd set buildings on fire for no reason other than to cause chaos. And then False remembered her attack on zombie Sausage and the bloody horse.
What if she was the one who'd attacked the mare? False had, after all, slain Sausage without a moment's hesitation, but maybe that was because he was a zombie and she was caught off guard. But the memory of the way she held her sword and brutally sliced him up flashed through her head. That was sheer unmatched skill, combined with a desire to kill.
False wasn't sure she liked the way her mind was going. She turned over in bed, trying to think of something else. But her curiosity had opened a Pandora's box of questions concerning her past and other worlds. First thing tomorrow, I'm going to ask Sausage a few questions about other dimensions. And maybe check on that rift.