Order and Chaos

Turn out to have a instant and immediate natural talent for being really good at this, and play the entire album Songs of Innocense, by U2 on the keyboard organ pipe piano thing

Yes! I am great at things, so it naturally followed that I would be great at all the things. They say it's easier to learn new instruments when you already know a bunch anyway. I put my fingers down on the keyboard and slam them!

The organ squawked:

"GUILTY AS SIN."

Oh. So that's how this works. Fairly efficient. I'm learning so much already!

"Well, that's what you get when you plead innocent as sin," the judge smirked. "Let it be shown that the defendant was found guilty, if not of the crimes they are accused of, then at the least an original sin or ones inherited through ancestry, which is just as bad." He banged his gavel.

Shit! I didn't think about the fact that my entire life is built on the horrible, bloody legacy of my father.

"The sentence is house arrest. Do you have a house?"

I shook my head. I had a castle, sure, but not a house.

"Of course. If you do not have a house, one will be provided for you. Alexis?" said the judge.

Alexis, the lady in the cut-off knight armor, grabbed me by the arm and put me in handcuffs again, then led me to a district of the town filled with rows and rows of identical houses. It was eerily quiet. Finally, she stopped and gestured to a home.

"This is your new house," she said, releasing me from my handcuffs. I took a tentative step towards it, and she yanked me back by the wrist. "What do you think you're doing!? That house is under arrest. You are free to go, except under penalty of death you may never go inside your own house. Anyone else can. How does it feel? How does it feel to have your freedom, your home, snatched away from you, you sinful monster!?"

I imagined it would feel considerably more brutal if I actually lived here. Alexis left me to my own devices, so I went back into the forest so as to not get prosecuted again.

"Oh boo hoo," I heard a man sob in the distance before too long. "Oh boo hoo hoo!" He cried. "I'm sad! I don't know what to do! Boo hoo hoo!" He blubbered.

I worked my way through the forest towards the old man's voice, until I finally pushed through some bushes and found him. He was sitting on one stump in a large clearing of stumps, wearing a tuxedo, stovepipe hat, and a sash that read "MAYOR."

"What's wrong?" said I.

"I'm so sad! I don't know what to do! My city's ruined!" said the man who could be safely assumed to be the mayor.

"How?"

"Look around you!" he gestured to the stumps. "In my town, all our money is made of wood. A long time ago there were only 4 trees, but every time we cut down one, we'd plant two more! When I was a little boy this whole forest was but an empty field! Pretty soon it became obvious that the only way to keep the economy from entering a disastrous inflationary spiral was to slightly dull all the lumberjack's axes, and when we couldn't any longer, convince them to use the back of their axes and other blunt instruments! But this morning, some random stranger rolled into our town and ruined the whole dang system. They're going to be madly rich until the markets catch up, then it'll be more like everyone who isn't a lumberjack will be destitute, relatively, unable to afford even bread and crushed under the boot of the lumber oligarchy! It's happened before. I don't know what I'm going to do! I'm ruined! A-boo hoo hoo!" He broke into sobs again, then, he looked at me. "Unless... you can think of something, random stranger?"