Chapter 14 -Tango All Tango had wanted to do since he was younger was make games. Ever since he had played his first video game as a kid. To being a teenager, and seeing those same games brought into the realm of reality with the use of redstone. He loved it all. Now that was his job. At least, part of it was. Every day he got to work at the local fun park, helping with the various games and rides. Most of those Tango had come up with and made himself. With a bit of help from the other redstoners employed at the park of course, mostly on the building side of things. It was Tango’s dream job. One that he was about to be late for. “I can’t really leave you at the house, can I?” Grian shrugged, having come out of the guest room just moments before. “I’ll probably be fine.” Grian said. “Dude you stabbed someone, I’m not going to let you stay here unsupervised.” “What about me?” Mumbo piped from the kitchen, already on his fifth bowl of cereal. “Not important.” Mumbo looked a little offended, then dove back into the cereal. Tango was a little concerned at how much the boy was eating. It looked like he hadn’t gotten food for weeks. Although Mumbo was tall enough that Tango could probably just chalk it up to having a larger appetite. Tango made a mental note to tell one of his brothers to get extra cereal next time they went shopping. Tango looked back to Grian, who was now yawning. “I guess you two’ll have to come with me to work.” “Sure, although I’m not sure how I’ll hide these.” Grian pointed behind him at his wings. “From what I’ve been told, It doesn’t really sound like most people like hybrids.” An idea dawned on Tango. He went to his brothers’ room and rummaged in the closet for a bit, before pulling out a cloak-looking thing Skizz had used for a Halloween costume a few years prior. It had been small on Skizz— though to be fair, most things were— but it would hopefully be alright on Grian. Tango brought it back into the room. After a large number of adjustments to the cloak— by the end it still didn’t look as good as Tango had hoped— they all left and piled into Tango’s small car. The drive wasn’t that long, maybe five minutes or so. During which they all sat in pretty much total silence. Other than the occasional glance in the rearview mirror to check on them, Tango barely interacted with his passengers at all. Eventually they arrived. Tango parked the car, and got out. ‘Fiery Fun Park’ was spelled out in large curling letters above the entrance. The word ‘Firey’ had specifically been designed to imitate actual flames using various flashing yellow-orange lights. The irony that his hair was now also continuously on aflame was not lost on Tango, and he felt a smile spread across his face at the thought. “You work at an amusement park?” Grian asked from behind, head tilted up at the bright lettering. “Yep!” Tango started to walk towards the employees entrance, a small building located in one of the front corners. Just outside the fence that ran around the perimeter. “Won’t there be a ton of people inside? The cloak kinda works, but not very well.” Mumbo said, nervously glancing around the parking lot. “Hopefully not.” Tango finally came to the door and unlocked it with his key, ushering Mumbo and Grian inside. Tango found the light switch and flipped it on, illuminating a small room, covered in red lockers. Each had their own name plate, marking who’s lockers were who’s. Some of the employees who had been around longer had a few decorations magnetized or taped to the outside of theirs. Tango’s was one of these. He unlocked the door, pulling out gloves, a mask, and some goggles. “What are those for?” Grian asked, pointing to the equipment. “Protection, so I don’t accidentally get any redstone dust on my hands or anything.” Tango replied, clipping his orange name tag to his shirt. Once he’d put everything in their respective places, he marched out another, larger door into the main park area. vv Continued in N&C vv
vv Continued vv He tried to lead the two through the less-trodden areas, to avoid people. They still ran into a few however. Curiously, they stared more at Grian and his cloak than they did Tango. Probably thinking that his hair was some other attraction type thing, something meant to be admired, but not really thought about too hard. Now that he’d thought about it, the fire did look quite a bit like the park’s mascot, Torchy. Other than the fact it was an actual fire, and therefore moving, it was a great match for some of the headwear the park sold. To many of these patrons, it probably just looked like one of those, just new and improved. Tango desperately hoped his boss would believe the same. They came up to the ride he’d had been assigned to work on. It was a small roller coaster at the edge of the park. No one was really around, other than a group of children and their parents sitting at a nearby table, having what looked to be a birthday party. From the front, the ride looked perfectly fine, looking underneath however, it was apparent something was wrong. Tango crouched down, holding up a curtain covering the underside of the ride where the redstone was located. It looked like it was just a simple timing issue. He was surprised that the other guys hadn’t been able to fix it. He ducked into the small space, cutting off any light barring the red glow of the dust. He grabbed a wrench and a bag of redstone dust hanging from his belt and started to get to work. Mumbo lifted up the flap, letting light spill over the machine's components. “Er- need a hand?” Tango shook his head, forgetting that Mumbo probably couldn’t see the motion in the dark. “Nope! I’m good, besides, you don’t have any protective gear or anything.” Mumbo shrugged, “I wasn’t even aware I needed it before you told me.” Tango’s eyebrows shot up, “wait… what?” “Yeah, I mean, I've never really worn anything like that. Sometimes I put on gloves, but most of the time I just don’t think about it.” Mumbo frowned. “Should I have? From the way you’re looking at me It seems like a pretty big deal.” “Well- yeah, it is. You could get really sick if you have enough of it in you. How- how long have you been doing redstone exactly?” “I-” before Mumbo could finish, Grian’s voice called from outside. “Hey, Tango, I think there’s some kids here who want to see you.” Tango sighed and crawled out from underneath the ride, looking pointedly at Mumbo as if to say ‘this conversation isn’t over.’ A few of the kids that had previously been over at the party had snuck away, and now were clustered in front of the ride, anxiously waiting. Grian stood behind them, giving a small shrug as the kids rushed up. There were only six or so of them, but their little voices clamoring to be heard made it feel like a lot more. Tango blinked, trying to process. “Uh, one at a time?” He pointed to the first kid. “Are you Etho’s brother? Can you tell him I think he’s like super cool and awesome and-” “Sure.” He pointed to the next child. “Why are your eyes all spooky and red? “Redstone poisoning.” “How old are you?” “Thirty-six.” “Why’s your hair on fire?” This one caught him a little off guard, all the other questions were ones he got asked all the time—maybe barring the one about his age—but the current nature of his hair was so new that he was unprepared. “That’s a great question, and an extremely long story.” All of them sat on the ground, looking up at him like it was kindergarten story time. Tango heard Grian snicker a little ways away. “No- I don’t- nevermind.” Tango turned to check on Mumbo, catching a glance of the children’s disappointed faces. Mumbo peaked out from the redstone area, the lower half of him still concealed in the dark. Tango thought he saw some of the dust on the boy’s hands, but couldn’t really tell. He was about to ask about it when he heard some conspiratorial whispering from behind. He quickly turned back to the kids, and found that several of them had pulled out bags of marshmallows. It was a common item given out at the park, as most of the food and rides were themed around fire. Several also held roasting sticks in their hands, giving the overall feeling of a small mob coming to beat him up with marshmallows and tiny pitchforks. Seeing this, both Grian and Mumbo burst into laughter. Tango stood, slightly stunned, before smiling at the ridiculousness of it all. A few of the kids got him to sit down on the pavement, and before long he had become a little campfire. He supposed that work could wait. : First: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1059153057/ Previous: Next:
