Post by Shoki on Apr 21, 2021 23:08:57 GMT -5
Thread PL: 5,000
Shoki had been on Earth for only a few days, and so far his investigation into its particular weather system had so far been for naught. With the help of his trusty magic staff, the Scepter of Seven-Hundred Skies, he'd flown all around the westernly portion of the planet and meditated at many brims, where one climatic region rubbed (or sometimes crashed) against another, and still didn't have a good grasp on the world's myriad currents and complexities. In short, he'd mastered redirecting and riding the winds quickly, but he hadn't yet come up with a way to reliably control the weather. Like outside observers of any major discipline or science, those who'd never been part of the Core People's Weather Bureau vastly underestimated the complexities that could be involved with something as simple as creating a cloud, for instance. There were many factors involved -- rates of temperature and pressure changes, the peculiar chemical composition of the atmosphere, and how his magic interacted with each component.
When Shoki first tried to make it rain, instead of the pristine water droplets he expected, a torrent of donuts fell from the darkened sky. Sure, he'd been thinking of donuts at the time. They were a delicious Earth delicacy, too tasty for their own good, and they came in so many different flavors! But merely thinking of donuts shouldn't have thrown his magic off so wildly. It meant that the climate-sphere of Earth was delicate, and highly responsive to spiritual and emotional input. With such a responsive planet, Shoki might further his personal hypothesis while here, on how the souls of the living and the undeparted dead changed the weather and, over time, the broader climate, but he had to take care with being overly frivolous. The big wheels in Otherworld expected him to make sure what happened to Konats and what happened to Sadala didn't happen here, or at least, provide a succinct explanation if it did, and he couldn't lose sight of that.
Getting fired again would be a major let down.
But much like the winds he studied, Shoki's paths were sometimes chaotic. At the moment, and for the past two days on Earth, Shoki had spent more and more time coming back to his new favorite place in the world.
Sparking World.
"Hey!" The pudgy-platypus man growled around his cigar. "Are you just gonna stand there forever?" He asked, huffing haughty little puffs of smoke around his tar-stained bill. "Or are you gonna WHACK IT?"
Shoki startled, breaking from his thoughts.
The Whack-It! game was between the Tilt-a-Swirl and The Porcupine Express, but it wasn't a ride like those two, it was a game. The object of the game was to take a ridiculously-proportioned foam hammer, and to "whack it" into a lever. Whacking the lever sent a small silver bell up a corroded-looking track, and, in theory, past the prize line. Shoki had picked this one because it awarded a high amount of Spark-Bucks. Spark-Bucks were a bit like Zeni, but you could spend them on anything in the park. Including at the donut kiosk.
He could probably counterfeit the Sparkbucks with magic, they looked similar to Zeni in format anyway, and he had some mixed luck on those already. But where would be the fun in that?
"Sorry about that!" Shoki said, "I was lost in the clouds," He explained, stepping up to the Whack-It! tower. Lifting an arm, he slapped the foam hammer down onto the lever. The silver bell soared, a bullet launching up against the gong at the top of the tower before exploding through the other side. Shoki watched with some fascination as the bell twinkled off into the budding twilight of the late afternoon, a new star in the sky.
The platypus-man gawked, cigar tumbling to the concrete, and Shoki took his Sparkbucks. "How... just what in the Hell are you?"
Shoki smiled. "Not Hell," He explained gently, "I was born upon the thrones of Heaven, from the fruit of the-"
"It's another alien!" Someone in the crowd exclaimed, half shocked and half angered.
Shoki cleared his throat, his mind searching for a new explanation. He'd forgotten that these mortals could be quite xenophobic. "Actually, I'm from, uh, Penguin Village." Shoki said, recalling the name from the planet's news service.
"Lots of weirdos from Penguin Village," The platypus-man agreed, casting Shoki a wary look as he retrieved his cigar. "Anyway, you'd better get back to work before the boss spots you."
Shoki had forgotten about that. His Shinjin attire had been mistaken time and time again for the costume of a ride attendant for one of the park's larger attraction's, Mister Hell's Wild Ride. He'd barely been in the park for half a day before being press-ganged into service, sussing out lines, calling out cutters, handing out refreshments, etcetera. He mainly went along with it all out of curiosity -- he was here to study not just the planet, but it's people, too, but the work itself was getting a little monotonous, and he hoped that something more interesting came about from it before he moved on.
Shoki agreed with the platypus man and quickly returned to Mister Hell's Wild Ride. There, at a broad pedestrian plaza lined with little shops and food kiosks -- including the delightful donut den, brooded a castle fit for a demon prince. The cartoon image of a great striped snake wrapped itself around the parapets, glaring down with sinister glee at the patrons waiting for their chance to be jostled in rickety carts and listen to weird rock music while being spooked by screeching cardboard cutouts.
"There you are!" His boss, Gumbo, said. He was a gray bear-man, large and imposing. "I've been waiting on you to come back! Just what in the Hell were you doing this whole time?"
"I was whacking it," Shoki explained.
Gumbo startled. "What you do in your time off is your business, but when you're on the clock, you're expected to work!"
"Okay," Shoki agreed meekly, taking his place on the line. Working was a good way to meet people, and to earn Zeni besides. He hadn't gotten the knack for counterfeiting the money on this planet down just yet, and didn't want to get in too much trouble with the local constables. One was already on his case for passing off a fake fiver for a donut this morning, he suspected.
Watching the line, Shoki categorized his favorite donuts by color, taste, and mouthfeel while he waited for the hours of his shift to fall into the melting daylight.