"Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" The man yawned loudly, stretching his arms and legs while sitting on the small seat. The quiet, slow, rythmical rumble of the train compartment has made him doze off, despite all the catching up he still had to do. Blinking lazily, still trying to adjust his vision, he looked around. The compartment was empty aside from him and the puppet conductor he could just see his small room to the front.
"Man, you'd think the place got a little more lively while I was gone" he thought to himself while scraching his cheek. Straightening in his seat, he looked around on the ground to find his phone. The little devil slipped out of his hand as he was napping. "Ah, there you are you little shit..." he grumbled as he noticed it behind his small backpack. Picking it up, he paused for a moment, staring at his reflection in the blank screen.
"Shiiiit, I look like that? Goddamn, gotta cut my hair sometime soon..." he muttered as he ran his fingers through it, getting it under control somewhat. The moment was interrupted, however, as the small train finally made it out of the cloud, and the sudden sunlight flash momentarily blinded him.
His brow furrowed, letting out an audible sigh. "Can't even try to get myself pretty, eh big man?" he asked while throwing a glance upwards. "Fair enough, I got shit to do anyway..." Looking back down at his phone, he turned it on and opened the worldbuilding tab.
"Alright, let's see here...timeloop...arguing...oh Alice is going to war again...another timeloop...OG is still a slut for Rosebro...more arguing...O, nice story there, deadbeat..." Slowly scrolling down through the backlog, his eyes were once again slowly closing. This constant shitflinging was getting tiresome. "Annnnd that's it, I'm done, I'll just ask the gnome for a quick rundown when I get there." He let out a big sigh while showing the phone into his pocket.
"We will be there in 5 minutes, sir." The robotic conductor's voice could be heard from the small room, notifying him that the cozy ride was coming to an end.
"Thanks, Pete!" the man yelled back.
"My name is not Pe-"
"I Know it's not Pete, but I never bothered to remember what it was, so I'll just call you Pete from now on, k?"
"Pete it is, thank you sir."
"Good bot."
Leaning back on his seat, he decided to spend the last few peaceful minutes relaxing, taking in the hypnotic rumbling of the old train.
"Hrrrgh, ptu!" The man cleaned his throat and spit on the ground as the doors of the small train closed behind him, and the old thing slowly took back to the skies. Putting on his backpack and showing his hands down his pockets, he slowly started walking across the large, mostly empty plaza.
The Sky Embassy of the Worldbuilders was still the same as when he left, multiple different building styles clashing horribly in the bright sun, the golden everything shining annoyingly. On the edges of the plaza, he could see the myriad of automaton merchants opening their stores and getting ready for the day. They did occasionally get a tourist or two up here, and they needed to squeeze as much money out of them before they got bored and left.
Off to the side he could see a large man, clad in golden armour, sitting at the base of one of the pillars, leaning on his large blade. Noticing his stare, the golden man gave a small nod, and the man gave a lazy handwave in response. "I see waranon is still kicking." He thought to himself with a small smile.
Stopping before the large golden staircase, the man couldn't help but be impressed. It has grown exponentially since he left, even with all the timeloops.
"Reading reps getting bigger and harder to climb as time goes on, I guess. Fuck if I'm doing it right now though." He said as he once again pulled out his phone, and started typing away. After a moment or two, an escalator materialized off to his right, and the man audibly chuckled. "Heh, there we go. I still got it."
Before he could get on though, a large figure, clad in a whispy black cloak approached him. "Areeee...you a...writeeeeer heeere?" It spoke slowly, his voice like a thousand needles.
"Yea, whatchu need janny?"
"Weee...neeed theeees... documeeentsssss ssssigneeed..." It said, a large hand holding a batch of papers appearing from under the cloak.
"Oh, you new on the block? Your guys didn't give you the password to get into the hall?"
"Weee...Apologiseeee...."
"Eh, it's no problem mate. Gime em here, I'll sign in place of the gnome. So what we getting today?" The man said while looking at the papers. "Oh, some trolls today beside the usual goblin schizos, huh? Oh and a grand shaman. Now ain't that pretty? Founder gonna be eating good today."
"I appreeeciateee... itttt..." the dark spectre said as he was handed the signed documents back.
"It's all cool. Drop them off in an hour or two yea? I would guess the guys up there are still waking up as well."
"Willll dooooo...."
As the dark entity dissipated the man finally got onto the escalator, which slowly took him to the top of the large staircase. Once it dropped him off at the top, the man couldn't help but turn and take in the sight. Even if all the gold was tacky, he couldn't help but like the view of the embassy from up here.
Turning on his heels and walking to the centre of the large platform, he stopped in front of the short stone column. Unlike everything around it, this was not made out of gold, but out of weathered old rock. It was nice, reminded him of simpler times. Placing a hand on it, it started gently glowing before large pieces of golden blocks started moving around, creating a grand arch. As it completed itself, a translucent veil started slowly moving around within it, gently dancing in the wind.
"Welp, guess my vacation is finally over..." the man said while walking forward through it, entering the Worldbuilding Embassy proper.
The change in atmosphere was immediate. Dozens of voices, all talking over each other, some quietly, some loudly shouting. "Ahhh, nothing quite like home," the man thought to himself while rolling his eyes. Making his way through the large decorated hall, he couldn't help but notice a few familiar faces here and there.
There was Alice, suprisingly not the one arguing at the moment, sitting dilligently on her booster seat, writing down notes and discussing it with a similarly small girl next to her. "Oh god, they are multiplying," he couldn't help but chuckle, slightly afraid.
Opposite of them was a small man, looking down at a map, a hand under the table. Was he..yea, yep, definitely jerking it off to a map.
Next to him, a Kronie, Deadbeat and a Meathead were discussing what was most definitely some fucked up sciency shit nobody will pay any attention to in the future.
Further still, a pair of Hoomans were staring lustfully at an Onobot, who was sorting through a large pile of documents at an extreme pace.
Walking along, he passed the doorway of the large interior gardens they had installed some months prior. For relaxation they said. And there was definitely some relaxation going on, what with the steamy threesome of OG, Rosebud and Kindred that was currently taking place. Giving the dark haired lady a small wave, he made a small detour to the kitchen. There, a small bread dog and a large architect were dilligently trying out new recipes, as always.
Picking up a couple of glasses, ignoring another Meathead doing god knows what in the corner, filling them with ice and grabbing a bottle of whiskey, he was finally fully equipped to start the workday.
Barely dodging the amorphour mass that was currently in a savage brawl with a grey haired man, and a...penguin? he made his way to the large seat on the far end of the room.
"Here's the list of the schizos they are dropping on us today, Nisse. The guy was a newbie and they didn't give him the password."
"Oh, thanks for that, I'll get to it after...this settles down."
"How long have they been at it for?"
"6 hours. I suppose they should be getting tired sometime soon."
"Hm."
Finally getting to his seat, he took a deep breath and blew most of the dust off the documents. "Thanks for keeping it clean, ya fucks," he thought to himself as he set the two glasses on the table, and generously poured some of the hard liquor in them. Sliding one to his neighbour, who was probably taking his third nap of the day, he did a small toast, before sitting down and gulping it down in it's entirety. As he poured himself another one, he picked up one of the papers off the pile, and quickly scanned it. Nothing important.
Getting one last stretch in, he brushed some more dust off the table, a holographic keyboard and screen appearing in front of him. Cracking his knuckles, he leaned back and placed his hands on the keys.
"Now, how about we get to writing, eh?"