Day 15 – The Creator Appears
That morning, Sketch and Heather were outside trying to fix up the bushes outside their house. Broom saw them working and decided to check in on them After they all said their hello’s, Sketch decided to start the conversation.
“You know, Broom,” he said, “I kinda noticed something recently.”
“Well, you hang out with Copper a lot, but it’s rare you ever chat with either of us.”
Heather nodded. “I mean, we’d like to get to know you better too, you know!”
“Oh, uhh…” Broom looked a little uncertain. “Well, I… how do I put this…”
Sketch raised an eyebrow. “You happen to have a thing for Copper?”
Broom was shocked at this suggestion, his face blushing brightly. “What?! NO NO! It’s nothing like that! It’s just…” He began to look a bit somber. “Well, most of the friends I made shared the same interest I have.”
“Yeah! They all have the same fascination, so we have some common ground. I…well, I don’t really have much beyond that. But I figure you guys already know that, what with the Clarity and everything.”
“Oh?” Heather seemed confused. “I figured Clarity mostly showed the significant memories.”
Broom shrugged. “Well, that’s the thing. Outside of my video game interest, I don’t have a whole lot else going for me. In fact, I’m more or less just a weird, awkward guy. And even though I know you guys are nice, I…don’t think you’d find me that interesting to be around.”
Sketch crossed his arms. “C’mon, you’re not even giving us the chance to find out! I mean, yeah, we’re not ‘gamers,’ but I want to think we can still make some connection with you.”
Broom turned away. “Well, that’s another thing… It’s kinda hard for me to make conversation. I don’t really know what to talk about, and I often feel so out of the loop about so many things that I find myself quiet more often than I’d like. But I don’t really want to sound stupid, either, so it’s pretty tough.” He turned to look at Copper’s home. “I know that’s something Copper struggles with too, but he’s been criticized by his peers about his awkward missteps often enough that…he just flat-out avoids interaction entirely when he can.”
Sketch shook his head. “Yeah, he doesn’t have a lot of confidence in himself…”
“I owe him a lot,” Broom continued, “and the least I want to do is help make him feel better. But I feel like I don’t have what it takes to really do that. I try my best to raise his spirits, but a lot of the time it doesn’t feel like it’s working. I’m…I’m afraid of failing him.”
Sketch knelt down and grabbed Broom’s shoulder. “I can tell you’re trying your best. And I think he understands that…it’s just difficult for his mind to accept it all. The fact that he’s willing to hang out with you as often as does tells me he at least accepts you as a friend.”
“He trusts you, at the very least,” added Heather. “He doesn’t think you’d hurt him.”
“Yeah…but…I was hoping that maybe he’d actually start feeling better.”
“You’re doing all you can already, Broom,” Sketch replied, “and that’s all one can expect. What he’s got going on isn’t easy to shake off, so don’t be discouraged if it’s taking time for him to heal. After all, you’re no doctor.”
Heather saw someone in the distance. “Speaking of which, look who’s out and about.”
They all turned to find Dr. Raz exiting her house, with Bits and Holly close behind. Sketch and the others walked up to meet them.
“Hey, guys!” said Sketch, smiling. “Hope you’re all doing well.”
Dr. Raz appeared unsteady. She rubbed her eyes as she tried to get herself together.. “Mmm…”
At the sound of her response, Sketch suddenly noticed her disheveled appearance. “Whoa,” he said, looking concerned. “Dr. Raz, you don’t look so good. What happened?
Dr. Raz began to yawn. Her eyes were barely open. “I spent all of last night putting those printouts together. Even with help from these two it took hours to get it done, and I had been looking through those blueprints since.”
Heather was stunned. “You haven’t been able to sleep, doctor?”
“Not for the last two days, Mrs. Brittania,” Dr. Raz responded. “But it's not that it haven’t tried. It’s just…for whatever reason I just can’t get comfortable in that house's bed no matter how tired I feel.”
“How in the world are you still standing?” said Broom. “You gotta be near the point of passing out!”
“True, but that’s where Bits came in handy. Speaking of which…” Dr. Raz raised her arms, as though waiting for a hug. “Bits, would you help me with this?”
Bits nodded. “Sure, Razzy…” And he ran to hold Dr. Raz. He was only tall enough to hold her by the legs, but the doctor didn’t seem fazed by this. Suddenly there was an odd glow that rippled across her fur. Within moments, she opened her eyes, and she appeared fully awake.
Sketch was confused. “Wait, what was that? You look…more refreshed than before.”
Heather made a realization. “Wait, does Bits have healing powers?”
Dr. Raz shrugged. “It seems that way, at least. Granted, I still feel a little tired, but the effect his power has is comparable to a major dose of caffeine.”
Sketch sighed. “That can't be healthy, Dr. Raz.”
“Perhaps not, but it's what’s been keeping me going so far. Until I discover a proper solution I may be stuck with this situation. But enough about me…” She then pulled out her notepad and pencil from her coat pockets. “Since you’re here, I was hoping the two of you would be willing to answer a few questions about yourselves. During our, um…hangout session the other day I witnessed things that left me rather curious.”
Sketch and Heather looked at each other. After a brief moment they both shrugged. “Uh, sure,” said Sketch. “I don’t see why not. What did you want to ask us?
Dr. Raz got her pencil ready. “Well, for starters, I was wondering—”
The booming voice echoed through the Blocks. Everyone froze for a few seconds before looking around. Suddenly Copper came out of the house, looking very confused.
“What was that?” he said.
He then looked towards the sky and saw what appeared to be a huge, angry individual peering down at them from the sky. As soon as Copper saw this, he was so startled that he fell over backwards, and was too stunned to stand back up.
“W-w-what IS that?!” he asked, trembling.
“I-is that a giant?!” said Bits, staring in amazement.
Holly was struggling to comprehend the phenomenon. “...Is that a GOD?!”
WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY WORLD?
Heather looked over to Sketch. “W-what do we do?”
Sketch took a deep breath, and funneled his hands in front of his mouth. “YOUR WORLD PULLED US HERE!!” he shouted.
The person appeared uncertain what he heard.
Heather and Bits joined Sketch. “YOUR WORLD PULLED US HERE!!”
The person shook his head. Hold on, this isn’t working. I can’t hear you.
He raised his finger and pointed towards “The Spot” – the flowery field with the cement circle in the middle. Suddenly a microphone stand appeared in the center. Everyone looked in amazement.
Alright. Step up to the mic.
They slowly approached The Spot and soon stood around the mic in a circle.
Sketch got a little closer. “Can you hear us?” he said calmly.
I can now, the person said, nodding. His expression then reverted to anger, though a little calmer. Now, I will ask again — What are you doing in my world?
“Your world abducted us!” Broom replied.
The person was baffled. ”Abducted” you?! What are you talking about?!
And so, Sketch and Heather told the person the details of The Situation™…
The person was in disbelief after the explanation. You gotta be kidding me.
Sketch shrugged. “That’s what’s been happening.”
As he processed what has been happening, the individual cycled through emotions of uncertainty and confusion, before it finally settled on rage. He once again pointed his finger, and at the other end of the path by The Spot spawned a red portal. Everyone looked at the portal for a brief moment, then to the individual.
Heather’s eyes grew wide. “Wait, what?!”
Sketch held out his hands. “Hold on! Please, calm down!”
Broom looked back at the portal. “Where does this portal even go?”
The individual gritted his teeth, his eyes starting to bulge.
I DON'T CARE where it takes you, JUST GET OUT!!
“B-but the universe is too unstable!” Sketch replied, looking nervous. “Don’t you think the red hue of that portal seems odd? If we go through there, we won’t survive the trip! We’ll just explode into dust!”
Hearing this, the person threw his hands in the air, utterly frustrated.
WHAT DOES IT MATTER?! You're all just a bunch of accidental copies anyway! No one is gonna miss you if you’re gone.
Hearing this, both Sketch and Broom suddenly turned to Copper. The Teijru’s head started to sink after hearing what the individual said. Sketch walked up to Copper and patted his shoulder.
“Don’t let him bother you, Copper,” he said. “He might not be thinking clearly.”
Copper glanced at Sketch for a second before looking down at the ground. “He’s not wrong…”
Dr. Raz crossed her arms. “If we’re really that much of a bother to you,” she stated, “why not just wipe this universe clean and start over?”
Everyone turned to her in horror after she said this, apart from Copper. The person in the sky raised an eyebrow; he hesitated to respond for a few seconds.
Because I put too much effort into this place to just throw it away. Each of these houses took hours to put together, and I hadn't even finished them all.
Heather looked surprised. “Hours? They look so well-made, though! You must be quite the architect to come up with so many designs!”
The individual shook his head. I'm not. I just borrowed a number of various blueprints from my world and replicated them here. The only thing I had to come up with myself was the furnishings since they weren’t detailed.
“Well, they still came out great despite that!” said Broom. “Even with a blueprint, most folks would need a whole construction team to make the building a reality, and you got it all done on your own!”
The person crossed his arms, unamused. You're just trying to flatter me so I don't force you to leave. I'm not stupid.
Sketch clasped his hands together and raised them above his head in a pleading gesture. “Sir, please… I'm sorry this happened. But none of us want to do any damage to your world!”
‘Damage’ is not the issue. I put this universe together to experiment with my terrestrial magic without disturbing the lives of other people. They’d fuss about their property being tampered with, so I put this pocket universe together.
The person grew angry again.
But now YOU people suddenly pop in, and now I’ve got the SAME situation I wanted to AVOID, except this time YOU are the ones on MY property!
Sketch nodded. “Yes, and again, we’re sorry! We had no control over this situation!” His hands slowly started to lower as he began to make a realization. “…And come to think of it, we still don’t. Whether we’re here or not, you still have the power to do whatever in this place, and there’s not much we can do about that.”
The others looked to Sketch in fear as he made this statement, and they quickly turned to the person in the sky, who was in deep thought.
He started to stroke his chin.
You know, it's funny…when I told a friend of mine about this little universe project, he's since called it my ‘dollhouse world.’
A grin started to grow on his face.
This development just became a LOT more interesting…
Heather looked nervously to Sketch. “I don’t like where this is going!”
“Sir, we want to be friends!” Sketch said desperately. “We’re not looking for trouble here. Please don’t start trying to hurt us.”
The person was in deep thought for the next few minutes. Everyone in the neighborhood paused, waiting for his next move.
Hmm… I still don’t know how to feel about people suddenly living in my world. But for now…I suppose I'll leave you be.
With that, the red portal vanished. Just about everyone sighed with relief.
May as well get comfortable in those houses while I think about this. I take it you’ve all settled in well by now…
Dr. Raz shook her head. “Not entirely…”
As the person heard this, he looked a little peeved. ‘Not entirely?’ I take it your true thoughts about my handiwork are finally coming to light.
Dr. Raz sighed and adjusted her glasses. “Sir. As nice as these houses are, none of them could ever compare to my true home.”
Is that right…and what’s so special about this home you speak of?
“A number of things,” she replied. “It was designed fully by me, and built with the aid of robots I also put together. The home itself is actually a research laboratory situated underground.”
The person’s expression suddenly changed from annoyance to mild fascination. Huh. An underground laboratory… That's pretty out of the ordinary even in my realm. I’m not creative enough to make up one of those, so you may be out of luck.
Dr. Raz turned to Holly. “Holly, if you would…”
Holly nodded. “Yes, doctor.” She quickly dashed to Dr. Raz’s house.
The person raised his eyebrow again. …You just happen to have blueprints for your lab lying around.
Dr. Raz explained. “Holly – the robot I just sent to get them – has all the notes and screenshots I ever made backed up in her memory, and that included my lab blueprints. I spent all night putting them together to analyze changes since I last remembered them.”
Holly returned with a large quilt-like assembly of printer paper, featuring the entirety of the lab’s blueprints in full detail. The others were shocked at the size of the assembly.
Dr. Raz nodded. “Thank you, Holly.” She held up her blueprints toward the person in the sky. “Here they are, hopefully with enough detail to prevent any confusion. I'm not sure how you'll be able to read it though…”
The person held out his hand, and suddenly another hand – a smaller, glowing replica – formed just above the others. It grabbed hold of the printouts and lifted them into the sky. Suddenly the hand and the blueprints began to expand in size, enough to allow the person to read. They became so big that they eclipsed the sun.
After a quick glance, the person looked to Dr. Raz. …You're excessively thorough. You even noted the furniture in the place.
Dr. Raz nodded. “It’s meant to be a work space and a living space, so I had to account for every detail. Granted, I suppose the schematics might be too complicated for you to follow…”
The person looked a little annoyed. We'll see about that.
With that, he replicated his other hand, and he grew it large enough to completely cover Dr. Raz’s current home. The area his hand covered was suddenly contained in a glowing pillar, extending far into the sky. No one could see anything within.
Anyone else asking for wishes to be granted? The person asked somewhat sarcastically.
Bits raised his hand in excitement. “I wish for a million wishes!”
Wish denied. I’m not a genie.
Bits lowered his hand, his ears drooping. “Aww.”
Broom turned to Copper. “What about you?”
Copper hesitated, and turned away. “…I'm fine.”
Broom looked concerned. “You sure? I mean, you could maybe ask for a TV, at least! Your house doesn't have a whole lot in it.”
Copper closed his eyes and shook his head. “No, I…,” his voice was shaking slightly. “I don't want to bother him…We seem to be enough of a problem.”
The person was confused. What's with him?
“I think you hurt him,” Broom replied. “That whole thing about how no one's gonna miss us if we disappear…”
The person sighed. Oh…never mind, whatever. He turned his attention back to Dr. Raz as the glowing pillar began to disappear. Anyways, miss, I got your little lab assembled. I had to take a few liberties, but you're lucky I even bothered in the first place.
Dr. Raz bowed to him. “Yes, sir, thank you.”
“By the by,” Heather suddenly asked, “do you have a name we can call you?”
The person paused for a second.
He then turned his attention to something the others couldn’t see. …What? Oh, alright, I’m coming. He turned back to the others. I gotta go, there’s other matters I have to tend to.
Sketch panicked. “AH! WAIT! I wanted to ask you something!”
But Stern began to disappear. Save it for next time, whenever that is. I'm out.
And within seconds, he was gone, and the sky was back to normal. The blueprints began to float back down to the ground, restored to their original size.
Sketch snapped his fingers. “Doggone it.”
Heather looked at him curiously. “What were you gonna ask him about?”
“I wanted to know what the deal was with The Void.”
Hearing this, Heather snapped her fingers in annoyance too. “Aww, doggone it! I didn't even think about that!”
Dr. Raz’s ears perked up. “Void? What are you talking about?”
Sketch began to explain. “There's a house here that has no proper inside – just a set of stairs leading to complete darkness. Copper actually went in, and he found what seemed like a different universe at the end of the staircase.”
Dr. Raz rubbed her chin. “Is that so…”
“Doctor, please don’t think about going there yourself,” Sketch quickly replied. “Multiversal travel can be dangerous, and no offense, but I don’t think you could handle it.”
Hearing Sketch’s concerns, she shrugged with a slight grin. “Well, if I do decide to look into it, it probably won’t be for a while.” She turned to where her house was, which appeared exactly the same as before. “Right now I want to see what this Stern person actually did regarding the blueprints, as I see no differences from here. My questions for you and Mrs. Britannia will have to wait for now. Holly, Bits, come along, please.”
“I’m not sure how to process what all just happened, doctor,” said Holly, who retrieved the blueprints on the street.
Dr. Raz raised her finger. “Just stick to observations, Holly, we’ll assess any other details later…”
Bits waved to the others as he followed Dr. Raz and Holly to their home. “See you later, guys!”
Sketch smiled and waved back. “So long, Bits!” He then turned his attention to Copper, who was looking rather dejected. “You alright, Copper?”
Copper took a moment to respond. He didn’t make eye contact. “I’m fine. I’m…just gonna go home.”
Broom looked worried. “Is it alright if I come with you?” he asked. “We can talk about things if it’ll make you feel better!”
“I…I don’t really feel like talking right now.”
“Oh… I see…” Broom looked sad. “W-well, will I see you tomorrow?”
Copper looked to Broom and the others for a moment, then turned away again. “…Maybe.” And with that, he walked back to his home.
Broom turned to Sketch, a slightly panicked look on his face. “I don’t like that answer, guys. I’m really worried.”
Sketch held his hands out in front of him. “Calm down, Broom. You did all you needed to.”
“But I’m a little scared that he’s gonna hurt himself!”
Sketch nodded. “I understand that. But honestly, I’d just wait and see. I think he just needs time to process all that’s gone on today. There was a lot to take in.”
Broom thought about this and sighed. “…I guess you’re right. I think I’m gonna go home myself and…see if I can put my mind at ease somehow.”
Sketch nodded, patting Broom on his shoulder. “Take it easy, Broom.”
“Sure…thanks, guys.” And thus he made his way back to his home.
Sketch then turned to Heather.. “Well, this was certainly a development.”
Heather nodded, smiling slightly. “We got to see the Builder of the Blocks himself.”
Sketch chuckled slightly. “Maybe we shouldn’t call him that.”
“So just Stern? Or should it be Mr. Stern?”
Sketch thought for a second. “Maybe Mr. Stern. It sounds a little more respectful, anyway.”
Heather looked up to the sky. “I wonder what he’s got planned now that he knows we’re here.”
Sketch look up as well. “I suppose only time will tell…”
As Dr. Raz and the others went into their home, they noticed an elevator situated on one of the walls. They pressed the button to open the doors, and they rode it down to the first basement. When the doors opened, their eyes opened wide in amazement.
“Doctor, he truly did it!” said Holly. “This is your lab!”
Dr. Raz held back her excitement, glancing over all the details. “It’s a reasonable facsimile, at least. Not sure I like how he situated the elevator in the house instead of isolating it outside like I designed.” She walked up to the big computer and turned it on. She waited to see what would happen. “Hmm. The computer works, but unsurprisingly there’s nothing installed.”
“I may be able to restore the most recent backup of your lab computer,” said Holly. “It will take some time to complete.”
Dr. Raz nodded. “I would appreciate that, Holly, thank you. Meanwhile I think I'll explore this space a little more.”
With that, Holly grabbed hold of a connection cable and plugged herself into the lab computer, beginning the restoration process. Meanwhile Dr. Raz and Bits went a bit further to the back portion of her lab, passing the kitchen area and reaching a short hallway with a few doors.
Bits looked confused. “Is it me, or is there one more door than there was before?”
Dr. Raz turned to Bits. “According to the blueprints, that's meant to be your own room.”
“WHOA, FOR REAL?!” Bits became very excited. “My own room?! I don't have to sleep in your dresser drawer anymore?
Dr. Raz smiled a little. “That's correct, Bits. Go ahead and take a look..”
As Bits rushed in to look around, Dr Raz opened another door to find another familiar sight.
“He even managed to fully replicate my bedroom. I wonder…”
She walked up to her bed and decided to lay down. A moment later, Bits opened the door in excitement.
“Hey, Razzy! My room's even got a TV!”
When he looked closer, he noticed Dr. Raz – still wearing her glasses and lab coat – in a deep sleep on her bed.
“Oh!” He slowly walked towards the door. “I think I’ll tell her later…” And he quietly closed the door.
Ah. It’s already night. Guess everyone’s asleep in their homes. I never did finish furnishing that big house…let’s open it up and get a good look.
Wait, one of them’s actually living in here?… Hmm. It’s the tall, moody one… Some of the others did seem concerned about him…
Well, I think he’s in for a surprise…
