"Oh boy, I can't wait to talk to Master Lace so I can finally learn how to tie my shoes!" declares a boy named Billy. "If I remember right, he's at the top of Velcro Mountain." Billy suddenly feels a mean old tap on his shoulder, and turns around to see a jolly looking lad of varying line thickness with an abnormally elongated thumb, who goes by the name of swordo.
"Didn't you hear? Master Lace is vacationing on the flipside this time of year." swordo informs Billy, who gasps in surprise.
"Oh no! Not Flip-Flop Plateau! Who can I get to teach me to tie my shoes now?" Billy exclaims, clearly deeply concerned about this.
"Well, you were headed up Velcro Mountain, weren't you? Why don't we just go up there and get some kick-ass velcro shoes forged instead?" swordo suggests.
"But if I don't learn how to tie my shoes, I'll be the laughingstock of the playground!" cries Billy.
"You don't get it. The velcro shoes will let us go down under into the flipside so that we can find Master Lace ourselves."
"But he's on vacation! What if he doesn't pay attention to us?"
"If we best him in combat, he'll have to notice us, right?"
"Combat?"
"Shake him up a little bit, you know? That guy's like a solid pot of coffee when he's on vacation; words don't reach him."
"But I don't wanna be seen with velcro! I'll get made fun of!"
"Would you rather DIE?"
"Can't I just wear the shoes my mom tied for me?"
"Not if you go down into the flipside; they'll eat you alive down there."
"Wait, I know, I'll just go over to Slipper Slope and get one of those!" as Billy says this, swordo looks him dead in the eyes, his outline fluctuating.
"Are you destined for greatness or eternal chumphood?"
"I'll be at the top once I learn how to tie!"
"Listen, Billy, you can't indulge in delusion any longer. We either see this quest through, or we'll have to do something about your personal info being leaked online."
"I have personal info online?"
"How else do you think I know your first name?"
"Because it says it on my hat?"
"Billy Child Wallace. Bam, identity stolen."
"That's not my name!"
"Shhhhut up. Do you want to tie your own shoes or not?"
"Yes! In any way that doesn't require wearing velcro!"
"Do you really think you can survive in the flipside without quality equipment?"
"Yes, I do!"
"Fine, then let us descend."
"We have to get the slippers first, so we're actually going to be going up."
"Very well." swordo and Billy head up the gentle incline of Slipper Slope. "This hill isn't even hard to climb, you could've done this three times in the time it took us to have that conversation." swordo says, and due to calling the slope a hill, he is sent to the bottom. Billy reaches the top and swordo climbs back up the slope without saying anything about it, and both of them obtain a pair of slippery slippers to slip and slide down the Slipper Slope. Billy heads towards Flip-Flop Plateau, and when he gets there, he realizes that his map had a misprint on it the whole time, and that this place is actually called Flip-Flop Field.
"Guess we didn't need slippers after all, then." Billy remarks.
"This is not where Master Lace is, Billy. This is just the second stop on the journey."
"But you said…"
"There is something we need to do here first, this is true, but Master Lace is down in the inverted Flip-Flop Field."
"What exactly is it we need to do, then?"
"Acquire flips so that we can flop to the flipside."
"Oh! I got one pair in my bag! How do you activate the flopping?"
"Slaying a minor elder god should suffice in most cases."
"Actually it says right here that you just need to click your heels three times while wearing them."
"That can't be true, I had the 1983 edition back in 1983 and that's how they worked."
"Dang, you're old." Billy puts on his flips and clicks his heels three times, and sure enough, he flops right into the inverted Flip-Flop Field. Billy is on his own in this inverted field for the time being, and he ignores all the warnings swordo told him about this place, since he already forgot them all anyways. Billy feels himself being engulfed in darkness as the shadow of something massive looms over him, so he turns on his light-up shoes, which proves to be effective at repelling this dark force for the time being. Back in the normal Flip-Flop Field, swordo heads over to the flip-flop shop.
"Hello, I'd like your flippingest flip-flop." swordo declares.
"That would be Frank's Flipping Floppers." responds the shopkeep, taking out a pair of flips.
"How much?"
"This much."
"Thanks." swordo gives the shopkeep that much, and then runs to the spot where Billy flipped, before flipping himself into the inverted Flip-Flop Field. It doesn't take long for swordo to find Billy sitting around with his light-up shoes turned on. "Billy, listen to me, this place isn't safe. Just keep your eyes down and keep walking forward."
"Uhhhh, where's that vacation place anyways?" Billy asks.
"The Sole Fountain. It's directly straight from here." swordo says, and Billy immediately starts running forwards, prompting swordo to hiss at him to walk slower. Billy has already reached the Sole Fountain, though, so swordo is forced to disobey his own advice and run to catch up to him. "Billy, stop! You'll get lost in the visions of the Fountain!"
"I'm not looking at the Fountain, am I?"
"Just don't do it, all we need to do is get you a shoe tying lesson." swordo says, and gestures towards a person sitting near the Sole Fountain, who both swordo and Billy assume to be Master Lace. swordo walks over to the napping figure and gives him an uproarious tap on the shoe, which jolts him awake immediately.
"What do you want?" asks the figure.
"Can you teach Billy here how to tie his shoes?"
"Why would you ask me?"
"Er, you are Master Lace, correct?"
"No, he went back to his place on Velcro Mountain last week." says the figure, revealing that they are in fact just a random hobo. swordo is taken so far aback by this revelation that he stumbles directly into the Sole Fountain, and is subjected to the soles of the shoes of souls which were stolen to make the Sole Fountain. Billy sees this and, rather than helping swordo, clicks his heels again, allowing for him to return to the normal world. Billy heads back towards Velcro Mountain, while the hobo leans over the edge of the Sole Fountain to see how swordo is faring. swordo is overtaken by the shoes and becomes occupied by conflicting stylistic ideologies, causing him to be transformed into a being filled with rage, known as nordo. The hobo starts to ask if nordo is alright, but before he can finish, nordo gets up out of the Sole Fountain and harvests the shoes and life of the hobo. While nordo uses an advanced flipping technique to return to the surface world, Billy reaches the top of Velcro Mountain, and confronts Master Lace himself, hoping to finally learn to tie his shoes. While walking around aimlessly, nordo sees somebody in the distance, and as he approaches, it becomes clear that this is in fact the Canobie Rabbit, which stares at nordo, seemingly considering if he would make a worthwhile meal. nordo stares back at the Rabbit, clasping his blade-like thumb with both hands. The Rabbit lunges at the thumb and chomps, snapping it in two and causing it to bleed uncontrollably. nordo hops to the side and impales the Rabbit with his fractured thumb bone, since his bloodlust makes the pain do very little to quench his anger. The Rabbit begins devouring the entire arm, and nordo uses his other arm to sock the Rabbit in the face, which does little to deter the beast. The Rabbit finishes eating the first arm and moves on to the second, and nordo uses the soles of 80,000 shoes to deliver a nasty kick to the Rabbit's jaw. The Rabbit decides to just go directly for the jugular, but finds it to be very solid for some reason, which nearly breaks one of the Rabbit's teeth. The Rabbit instead slashes open nordo's gut, causing thousands of soles to spill out with a very high pitched sound, which also collectively take nordo's soul with them, leaving a lifeless and shoeless husk behind where he once stood. The Rabbit consumes the rest of the body, and uses the hard jugular to sharpen its teeth in preparation for its next feast.