False glanced at the shelves stacked with glass phials, each full of a different colored liquid and sorted accordingly. They were all helpfully labelled, too. False went for a closer look. She was surprised at how diverse the supply was. Potions for growing hair, for putting people to sleep, for love... There were potions that False hadn't imagined existed. She glanced at a few bottles labelled 'amnesia', and something suddenly came over her. She surreptitiously took the whole supply of amnesia potions and slipped them into her bag.
Shelby hadn't noticed. She put some strange-smelling flowers into the brewing stand and let it stir itself for a little while before she poured in another potion to mix. "If I'm right about this, this potion should work," The witch told Jimmy. "If?" False asked cautiously. "Well, some of my potions haven't exactly gone the way they were intended to," Shelby admitted vaguely. "I grew fWhip's ears twice when I was trying to make him fly."
"Uh, this doesn't sound so safe," False said. "Yeah, Tim, maybe you shouldn't drink a potion," Grian said. "No!" Jimmy snapped. "I'm going back to normal and that's that!" "Okay then," Shelby said, just as the brewing stand made a funny whistling noise. "Oh! The potion's done." She grabbed an empty glass bottle and put it under one of the three spouts the brewing stand had. Turning a knob, the spout opened and out gushed a clear brownish liquid that soon filled up the bottle.
Shelby took it and handed it to Jimmy. "Drink up, if you're sure," She said. Jimmy was quite sure. But there was one slight problem. "He's a toy; he don't have a mouth," Grian pointed out. Jimmy touched his face and realized that the hermit was right. His mouth was a wooden block that swung on a hinge. And I'm pretty sure I don't have a digestive system... "Just turn it into a splash potion," Jimena said.
"Oh- oh yeah, right," Shelby said, embarrassed that she hadn't thought of it herself. One trip back to the brewing stand with a handful of gunpowder later, the witch was ready to pour it onto the toy. "Are you really, really sure about this?" She asked for the final time." Yes!" Jimmy screeched. So Shelby tipped to contents of the phial onto his wooden head and everyone waited for something to happen. And something did.
Jimmy started growing. And growing. And growing and growing and growing. Soon be was even taller than he had been as a human. He felt funny and peculiar. "Shelby..." Jimena said, her voice rising. "Oh, I knew something bad would happen!" The witch wailed. Jimmy looked at himself and realized he was turning gray, and that his nose was growing longer. And his ears were bigger too.
"From Woody to Pinocchio," Grian chortled, pointing at Jimmy's nose. "I'm sorry, sheriff, don't arrest me! I swear I didn't mean to turn you into an elephant!" Shelby wailed. And that was when Jimmy fully comprehended what had just happened to him. "I'm an elephant?!" He trumpeted in horror. Grian was rolling on the floor in laughter. "I've got to show Joel!" The hermit cried over and over again.
"Shelby, turn him back!" False told the witch, who scrambled to find what she called an undo potion. After brewing milk in the brewing stand and pouring it all down Jimmy's throat, he was back to being a toy. "I'm sorry, I don't think I can turn you human again," Shelby said sorrowfully. "Can't you use the undo potion?" Jimmy asked. "No, it only works on potions that had been drunk in the last hour. You've been a you for much longer than that."
"Well, this was a waste of time," Jimmy said angrily, leaving the potion shop. "Sorry about bothering you," False said as she followed the sheriff. "I'm just going to go check on some things now." "Just come back some other time!" Shelby called after them as the four of them left. "I'll probably have figured out a counter potion by then!" I hope she does, Jimmy thought heavily. Because otherwise I'm a toy forever.
---
False left her truck in Cogsmeade and then flew to the L.O.R.E. building. She'd been meaning to check in with her new teammates for a while now, but as it happened, she usually ended up oversleeping and missing the meetings. But at least I'm going now. She landed on the doorstep and went inside to the sound of discussing voices that stopped when they noticed her.
"False! You're finally here!" Sausage exclaimed excitedly, running over and kissing her platonically on the cheek. False managed to not wrench herself away this time; she'd learned to get used to it after learning that it was how Sanctuary citizens greeted each other. "Hi, False," Pix said from behind Sausage. "You're just in time to hear my theory about the multiverse." Theory about the multiverse? False thought, her excitement rising.
"Come on in!" Sausage said, leading her into a room where Pix had set up a redstone contraption. "Okay, so my theory is that the multiverse has something to do with dreams," Pix said. "Dreams?" False echoed. "Yes, dreams," Pix said. "It's like how Sausage dreams and then he teleports into another world." "It does happen a lot," Sausage said, nodding. " I have weird otherworldly dreams too," False blurted before she could stop herself.
"Oh, really?" Pix tilted his head at her curiously. "Do tell me." False soon found herself recounting about how she was certain that she was from another dimension and then consequently dreaming about the other world. She didn't say anything about her nightmares; the ones where she burned down houses with people inside and saw her hands and sword covered in blood that wasn't her own. It was too personal to talk about.
"This just furthers my theory, I think," Pix said. He gestured at the redstone contraption. There was a block of glass placed on top of a huge was of black wool next to an unlit redstone lamp. "This here is a little visual guide." He said as he turned it on. A piston pushed the wool and consequently the glass atop it upward. Suddenly, the previously unlit lamp was alight.
"The redstone current can't pass through the glass, but it can through the wool," Pix was saying. "See, the glass represents daytime, when we're awake. And the black wool represents night, when we sleep. As you saw earlier, the lamp wasn't lit when the glass, or daytime, was activated. But now that it's out of the way, nighttime let the redstone signal pass through and light the lamp." "And what does the lamp represent?" False asked.
"Uh, look, my theory is, when we're asleep, were more susceptible to other worlds. That's why Sausage's weird powers have so far only activated when he was dreaming and why you dream of your home dimension. And the thing is, it's only going to get worse." "What will get worse?" Faksle asked, sounding slightly quivery.
"Sausage's teleporting incidents have only gotten stronger and more often with the hermits and the rift being here. And when you try to turn the lamp off..." Pix trailed off as he saw Sausage trying and failing to turn it off by rapidly flicking the switch from on to off and then back again over and over. "Nothing happened, see? The lamp is still lit." "So the lamp represents..." False prompted, but Pix either didn't have an answer of he was ignoring her.
"I think I know why it's getting worse. False, you know Gem, right?" "Princess Gem of Dawn? Yeah, I've heard of her," False said. "Well, Gem started this sun religion where we all worship the sun and wear sunglasses and sleep as much as possible to get it back to daytime. Emphasis on how she's been wanting us to sleep. You see where I'm going with this?" Pix pressed.
"You think she has something to do with this?" Sausage asked. "But Gem's my friend; she's nice!" "It might not be on purpose," Pix said, "But her sleep antics are definitely doing something to the multiverse." "Wait, she gives you guys sunglasses?" False frowned. "Don't those protect you from the sun?" Pix and Sausage looked at each other and conceded the point. "Weird for a sun religion; trying to protect the followers from the thing they're worshipping."
"Now that I think about it, Gem's church has a roof, and not even a sunroof," Pix said. "How much does she care about her religion, exactly?" False asked. "A lot," Pix said. "Well, not enough to put much thought into it, apparently," False mused. It seems really weird. "Gem is getting more and more suspicious," Sausage declared.
"So, uh, what are we going to do about it?" False asked. The emperors looked at her and then each other; blinking oddly, like they hadn't understood her. "Honestly, I don't think I thought that far," Pix confessed. "Let's interrogate her!" Sausage roared happily. "Well, that seems like a good idea," Pix agreed. "But not right now. Let's do it some other time; when all the team L.O.R.E. members are here." False and Sausage agreed and all three left for home.
False was passing by Hermitopia when she spotted some hermits playing nearby. She decided to drop down and greet them. "Hi, uh, Jevin, right?" She asked, landing next to a humanoid blue slime. He looked pleasantly surprised. "Yeah, that's my name!" He said. "Do you need anything?" False opened her mouth to say something, but something other than what she intended tumbled out of it.
"I recently built a tavern in Cogsmeade; you should come visit it," She said smoothly, like she'd been practicing. False frowned. What? Why did I say that? She shook her head. It didn't matter. "Okay, sure! Why not?" Jevin replied amicably, and he got his elytra and rockets to follow False back to her empire. Soon the two of them were at the Stupor Saloon and False was checking him in.
"I haven't hired anyone yet, so I'm kind of the receptionist," The architect explained. She frowned. Why again couldn't I hire anyone? Some people... left Cogsmeade, right? Wait, why did they leave? Why can't I remember? "Uh, anyway, what kind of room would you like?" She asked the slime. "Nothing too classy; I just want a comfortable room," He said. "Okay, there's a free one this way," False said, leading him upstairs to the room farthest away from the stairs.
Jevin beamed at his surroundings and immediately crashed on the bed. "Wow, this bed is so soft," He said dreamily. He glanced at the clock and whistled in surprise. "Huh, night already. Time flies by when you're cozy." He leaned back on the pillows and relaxed. "This really is a comfy bed." "That's because it's your deathbed," False informed him casually.
She unsheathed her sword and stabbed right through his chest. Jevin immediately leapt out of bed, yelling. "What- False- what are you doing?!" He yelped. He moved his slime around the blade and extricated himself from it completely unharmed. "Oh well, guess I have to kill you some other way," False mused, grinning manically. Jevin's eyes widened and he pulled out his own sword and managed to nick the tinkerer; blood splattering into the walls and floor.
She shrugged off the pain. No matter. Even if he fights back, I can kill him easy. She pulled out a phial, uncorked it, and lobbed it at the blue slime. Jevin dodged, but the second one False threw his way hit its target. The blue slime started screaming; False had hit him with a harming potion. In pain, he slowly lost control over his amorphous features and he descended into a shapeless mass of blue slime on the floor. False grinned and stood over him, wielding another potion. The harming potion would kill him soon.
Jevin gasped and tried to remold himself into a humanoid shape; he collapsed onto the floor again, rolling away from False. He wasn't fast enough. "Can't have you remembering this just yet," False whispered, and poured an amnesia potion onto the translucent blue mass. Jevin jerked and then lay still in a forgetful stupor. And then he disappeared in a pile of items.
Respawned back at Hermitopia. He'll come looking for his stuff soon. False thought, but then she let out a bloodcurdling laugh. It didn't matter. He wouldn't remember a thing, but she would most certainly notice. There came a knock on the door and False opened it, making sure to walk thorough as quickly as possible. There stood a wandering trader in a blue woolen cloak, eying her oddly.
"I came for a room; are you the receptionist?" The trader asked. "Yes," False said calmly. She closed the door behind her, concealing the room full of blood splatters, slime splatters, and Jevin's items. "You can't have this room, though; it's due for cleaning."