Info
by Mctoran.
Original concept for You Cheated by Serendipity Narwhal
It was another “day” (for lack of a better term) in The Middlesorts.
The horned Keymaster sat at the desk, drawing a long sigh as he drummed his fingers upon its surface and rested his chin in his other hand. It had been determined that his sentence would be “commuted” due to there having been an observed “change in behavior”. He found this rather ironic; in fact, he still preferred death to this. For a moment, he once held the entire Multiverse in the palm of his hand. And now, here he resided, eternally bound to the equivalent of a human’s 9-5 office job.
It would not be long before the next visitor, a blue Partygoer, approached him. They acted like – as humans would describe – a “karen”, with quite an entitled demeanor. “Take me to Level Skibidi Ohio Level 99999999 gyat sigma rizzler,” they demanded.
The horned Keymaster did a double take. “Come again?”
“You heard me,” replied the blue Partygoer with crossed arms.
“Surely you are playing a practical joke on me. Nobody would ever want to travel to such a place, especially not with a name like that.”
“If you won’t help me, then I’ll speak to your manager! =)”
“Why you little-!” The horned Keymaster lunged forth, only for the chain keeping him shackled to the desk to contract and snap into place, stopping him short as he reached the end of its length. He slumped back down into his seat with defeat, turning towards the computer terminal. “Very well. I will bring you to…” he sighed heavily. “…Level Skibidi Ohio Level 99999999 gyat sigma rizzler.” He defeatedly punched a few keys into the terminal, and a nearby door opened into the level. The blue partygoer cheered with delight as they proceeded through the door.
Molly leaned next to the horned Keymaster. “Oh, cheer up. You’ll come around in a couple hundred more years, I’m sure. Just be grateful you're here. If the staff had their way, you'd be rotting in their prison alongside Mr. Tinman.”
The horned Keymaster groaned in despair, placing his elbows on the desk and burying his face in his hands. At this rate, it was going to be a very long eternity.
The horned Keymaster’s sulking subsided into dread as the strong herbal scents of sage and saffron suddenly permeated the air. He knew all too well whose arrival such signs heralded, yet still was caught off guard when met with a tall ominous figure draped in scarlet cloth suddenly standing before the desk.
“Ah…so it is you…” the horned Keymaster growled with contempt.
“Well if it isn’t the Porter!” One of the Corpus cores exclaimed with delight.
“Come to relish in your vindication? To mock my failure?”
“Oh, don’t be so dramatic, he’s not here for you. He regularly visits to deliver knowledge about his world for us to add to the database.”
The Crimson Emissary silently reached into his robes, pulling out a twine-bound stack of parchment stamped with a wax seal. The Corpus core took the papers, passing it off to another to scan and upload them to the database.
Still, even with this task completed, the Emissary did not yet leave. He remained in place, looming over the horned Keymaster, gazing down upon him with two stars burning through the dark aether beneath his hood.
The horned Keymaster crossed his arms. “What do you want with me?”
He was only met with a silent, intense gaze.
“Sigh, I should have figured you would not tell me; you never have.”
The Crimson Emissary slowly moved backwards, his eyes nevertheless remaining fixated on the horned Keymaster. His robes parted, and from the darkness emerged two familiar beings: Philia and Maria. His Philia and Maria…the ones whom he had lost. But now, here they stood.
“Key!” Philia exclaimed, running towards him and throwing her arms around him in a hug, alongside Maria.
The horned Keymaster hugged them tightly, rocking back and forth with his hands placed behind their heads. “I-is this real? Are you real?” He softly asked, choking back tears as he was overcome with emotion.
“I…I think so…” Philia said with a light laugh, soon joined by the horned Keymaster’s own laughter.
“I don’t understand…why would you do this for me?” The horned Keymaster began to ask the Crimson Emissary as he lifted his head to look up at him. But when he did so, he found that nobody was there anymore.
The horned Keymaster looked back down at Philia and Maria. “Everything will be okay now. I promise you two…” he softly whispered, kissing their heads. With them now here, the long eternity became just a bit more bearable…