Enter a strange and amazing new world you've never seen before, but you most likely already live inside. Follow Theodore, a lonely kid who has to Travel through the 7 Layers of Space in order to find a brick and probably save the universe. Unfortuna...
Anyone who moves between Layers has a distinct point of origin. Traveling changes a creature as they move, and they are marked by it. They gain new traits while losing others, sometimes subtly, sometimes obviously.
This is arguably most true of all for those rare beings who've originally come from the Layer of Sock.
To put it bluntly, everyone who lives in Sock is a sock puppet. When an entity from Sock appears in another Layer, it is very hard to shake the sensation that they have uncanny resemblance to a sock puppet. While they'll now have arms and legs, they are still quite...sock-ish.
Such was very definitely the case with the sort-of-legendary Terrycloth Green.
***
"Welcome!" the little man repeated from behind the black podium, louder than necessary and sounding a bit angry at not being warmly greeted back.
Theodore and the Buddy Bot sat collapsed in a heap under a huge towel, panting, but suddenly seemingly safe, or at the least out of the hands of the Time Ghosts.
"They can't get in because I'm awesome," the little man assured them, anticipating their fear.
But before he could get his bearings, a cold pain shot through Theodore's right leg, just above the back of his knee where the creature had grazed him. The sensation escalated quickly from a slight sting to feeling like a thin knife of ice had suddenly stabbed him, and with it came a burst of dissonant violins in his ears like those he'd heard outside. While the spot of the sting and the pain was precise, his whole body jumped at its severity, but it passed like a quick little storm. He shook his head to try and understand and responded, "Um, yes...thank y-"
"Hold completely still!" the squat green man abruptly yelled from behind a little television screen that sat upon his desk.
The pain had fled, but he shifted his body and it returned to his leg with another cold quick stab, so fierce it made his vision swim, punctuated by a quick discordant burst of more violins. He held still in instinctive fear of another jab.
The green man's little black eyes poked up from behind the screen to survey. "Standby!" he shouted. A button clicked and a short panel at the bottom of the podium slid open. Three small robots wheeled straight towards Theodore with purpose and a steady beeping sound. The robots looked like miniature rockets had fused with some misunderstood mice who rolled and bumped on tiny white wheels. They paused at his leg and the pitch and frequency of the beeps increased to a steady tone.
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"Friends of yours?" Theodore asked the Buddy Bot while gripping his leg.
"More like family. They are predecessors to both The Hornculon and Grab-lax, called Spimflers. Designed to survive on refuse from The Red Waste and other null zones. Professor Hero has since recycled or donated most models."
Two of the so-called Spimflers wheeled off, circling them and generally blow-drying the area, while one of them scurried up Theodore's leg. The pain had ebbed for another moment and he looked at it nervously. It moved about a bit, beeping, and then stopped exactly where he had felt the frozen touch of the Time Ghost. It flexed its wheels inward to hold itself in place.
