The streets of New Pork City seemed so much more friendly now. Before , I looked at it with fear. Now, I look at it with admiration. The streets are so shiny and clean, with so many advanced buildings. I'll admit - I've been somewhat apprehensive towards technology beforehand. Scared that it could run rampant and take over, decimate a place and rip nature apart. But Porky has shown me that technology can be used to preserve nature, as he did with both myself and that Drago. Technology has been used to enhance buildings, protecting those within it. Buildings stronger than the ones at Tazmily. Those buildings look so flimsy, a mere lightning bolt from me could take them down to rubble.
And they'd deserve it.
Although now I must wonder, nature does seem a bit lacking here. Surely this place must have been luscious before? And now it's all gone…
"Soooooo? What do you want to do first?" shouts the overly excited king.
"What to do first? I'm not sure?"
"Ah, well how about the grand tour? It'll be great!"
"All right."
"Well, first off is the place where any kid must go to. The arcade!"
Porky and I walk off – or rather he skips out in front and I hesitantly follow. I may trust him more than I did before, but he still… not right? It's hard to describe, but I always feel uneasy around him. Even though he's a good guy. I suppose it's his appearance more than anything else. Still, he has the youth of a child in his mind. It's strange. Still, I suppose with time, I'll get more comfortable around him. At least I hope.
The arcade's a bit of a walk but I don't mind. In fact, it's the strangest thing, I don't feel tired at all. I suppose it's the modifications. Or maybe it's just because I'm a kid and have lots of energy. Or both.
Either way, the whole being a kid and having lots of energy doesn't seem to apply to Porky – frequently he'll stop and just pant or cough. He doesn't look like the most athletic kid in the world – not by a long shot, but even still, his lack of stamina is astounding. After the seventh time (I decide to count for fun), I decide to ask him.
"Why are you so..." I try and think of a polite way of saying it.
"So slow? It's okay, I know you were thinking it." Porky doesn't look as offended as I thought he'd be. Still, I can see some sorrow and I immediately regret what little I said. "Look at me. Ghostly white. Need a capsule to help me. And I'm just a kid. You've gone through some bad things. I have too. And just like you, my life has been changed."
What happened to him? Sure, I've gone through some horrible things, but losing an arm and an eye, and having to undergo this surgery pales in comparison to what he must have.
"What happened? Why are you…"
"There's a time and place. And this is neither. Please, don't think about it."
I continue to follow him. Now I'm just angry at myself. You idiot! You brought back so many unpleasant memories! And now, just look at him! Porky keeps going, but he's just sliding his feet, head down. We continue to walk in silence. Thankfully, we reach the arcade soon and go in.
The first thing I notice, is all the noise. All sorts of zaps, cars and chatter fills the air. There's so many games here. And if I'm not mistaken, Porky seems a little brighter.
"Lots of games here! But my favourite is this one right here!"
He points to a small booth with 2 controllers and a screen. We take a seat here. I take a controller and start pressing buttons, only to see that the screen doesn't change at all.
"Why isn't it working?"
Porky rolls over in laughter for a minute before answering. "You have to pay money to play! Look up there." he says while pointing at the screen.
Indeed, the screen says 'Please enter 30 DP for 1 player, 50 DP for two.' DP? What is that? Actually, Porky used a word called 'money'. Is DP 'money'? I'm wondering whether this is just my memory loss, and while it very well could be, I simply can't think of anything.
It's weird – I can remember concepts. Well, I couldn't remember quite what swimming was when I first awoke but I can now. I know what buildings, food, cities, instruments and all the rest are. But I can't remember specific things like people. Personal things. Maybe Porky only erased those memories, because he knew those would hurt the most?
But even if that were the case, money should fit into the first category of memories – something which is a concept, yet I have no clue what it is or what it means. So is it that I've simply never heard of it? But money is evidently an important thing in New Pork, if all these arcade machines require it. Sensing I'm about to add another foolish question to the list, I ask Porky what money is. For once, he doesn't laugh.
"You're from Tazmily so I suppose it makes sense you don't know. The people of Tazmily operate under the barbaric logic of take what you need no matter the cost. Here, at New Pork, we have people that provide all sorts of services without disrupting nature. But they need to repaid somehow right? So we have money. Basically, someone does something for you, and you give them money. They can use that money to have other people do stuff for them. For example, you want an orange, so you give someone money and they give you one. But of course, some things are harder than others. A pineapple is harder to grow and find than an orange so you'll have to pay more money for a pineapple."
"So the more money you have, the better?"
"There you go! You really are a quick learner!"
"So what is DP?"
"DP is short for Dragon Power. It's how we quantify money. If you want an orange, you pay 10 DP. If you want a pineapple, you pay 50 DP. This is what money looks like."
Porky takes out a bunch of things from his pocket. Some metal pieces and slips of paper.
"These are coins. These are notes." he says, pointing to the metal and paper respectively. "The coins are worth 1 DP. The notes can vary, but you can tell by looking at the number on them."
Some of the notes have a 5 on them, others have a 10 or a 20, and I think I see one with a 50.
"So these are worth 5 DP." I say pointing to a 5 note.
"Good! Now then, put in the right amount of money for 1 player. I'll let you have a go on your own first – it wouldn't be fun to beat you straight away!"
I take a 20 and a 10, placing them in a slot on the machine. The machine eats it and the screen changes. 'Select your character.' it reads. There's 6 characters to choose from. First is a chubby boy, not to the same extent as Porky, but still rounder the most, with a blue and yellow striped shirt and a red baseball cap. He's holding a peace sign. The next up is a girl, the only girl on the list, with a pink dress and blonde hair, a ribbon tied into it. After is a boy, dressed with a green uniform and tie. He looks smart with those glasses. Actually, he looks like a younger version of Doctor Andonuts. Could it be?
Next is another boy, with a white karate uniform and a black belt. He's almost bald, save for a few strands. He's the tallest character and seems older than everyone else. Next up is another chubby boy, with blue shorts and a black shirt with a white M on it. His blonde hair almost covers his eyes. He looks similar to Porky. Last up is another chubby kid with blue overalls who also has blonde hair, although it isn't as long as the previous character's.
These two seem related. Is one of them Porky and the other a relative? A brother perhaps? Remembering the statue, I take a good look at them both and I think the second is Porky? He looks normal here. How did he change so much? Does his family know? I decide these are questions for later and pick the boy with the red baseball cap, since he's the first one in the list and the one my cursor defaults too.
"Good choice! He's my second favourite character. After me of course!"
So that boy was him?
Next, I get to choose a stage. There's all sorts of places with names I don't recognise – Onett, Twoson, Threed, Fourside, Deep Darkness, Scaraba, Daleem, Summers, Winters, and a strange white cave that's just called '?'. Once again, I decide to go to go with the default – Onett.
The screen changes to a city, with the boy I chose in it, wielding a baseball bat. The city seems to be a strange hybrid between Tazmily and New Pork. Not as advanced as New Pork but more advanced than Tazmily. I explore the place and find a number of buildings – a town hall, a burger joint, a bakery and a hospital. Like in New Pork, there's an arcade. But as soon as I approach, these weird people approach me. A purple man with a hula hoop, a green guy on a pogo stick and a grey guy on a skateboard.
"It's the Sharks! Quick, whack them with your bat!"
I do what any good person does- start randomly pressing buttons. My character starts all sorts of things – swinging his bat, jumping, shooting fire, thunder, and finally, a flash engulfs part of the screen, causing some of them to start crying, other to start attacking each other and some just lay on the ground.
"Well, I suppose that works as well. Maybe a lesson in how to control the characters is in order. You press the A button for your normal attacks and the B button for your psychic powers. But the direction you hold can change your powers. Like, if you press B on its own, you'll do that flash attack but if you hold left and B, you'll use fire."
A strange control scheme to say the least, but I suppose I can get used to it. I do a bit more walking and see another group of foes – Sharks according to Porky. I thought sharks live in the water. I run up to one and bash him with my bat. A group of three comes from the left. Following Porky's advice, I shoot fire at them, sending them into the sky. There's some on the platform above me. I try holding upwards and using my psychic powers, the boy shoots… lightning. PK Thunder? I can manipulate the lightning at them but I wonder what would happen if I had the lightning hit myself. I go skyrocketing into the air, hitting one of them.
"That's it! You're a natural!"
I play some more but eventually I take mortal damage and fall. Still, it was fun while it lasted.
"All right then. Let's see how you do against me!"
Porky enters a 50 DP note into the machine and picks up his controller. I decide to go for the same character again and Porky naturally picks himself. Porky decides to pick the white cave. The two of us emerge. The strangest thing is that Porky is in a machine of sorts. It's not like the bed machine I saw either – rather it looks like a spider of sorts. The two of us start to fight, but I realise just how good Porky is. He easily stomps on me – both figuratively and literally. My fire attacks barely do anything. Glass is a terrible conductor of electricity so PK Thunder won't work. Porky sprays some weird gas at me and now my controls are inverted. Porky decimates me. All with a smile on his face.
"Haha! I win!"
Still, at least he's happy. We leave the arcade soon after.
"Okay, so next up is the theatre. There's one movie in particular I'd like you to see."
The theatre's only a short walk from here. When we get there, Porky decides to get 2 tickets for a movie called 'Earthbound', as well as some popcorn. We take a seat and the first thing I notice are the four people on the title screen. They're exactly the same as the ones on that game. The boy with the baseball cap, the girl with the pink dress, the young Dr Andonuts and the karate kid. The only two who are missing are Porky and the person who looks like his brother.
The movie starts and while it's certainly entertaining, for some reason, I can't make sense of most of it. Apparently, these boys and this girl are on a quest to defeat the evil known as Giygas. Or is it Giegue? I swear, the actors say it both ways throughout the movie.
Lots of strange things happen – including, but not limited to, giant ants and sentient piles of barf attacking the kids, a group of strange, yet adorable, creatures known as the Mr Saturns (which like the word 'Boing'), a police force that assaults the boy in the cap (for trespassing), a cult that really like the colour blue, a band that somehow gets conned into a rubbish deal, and has to be saved by kids, twice, a group of moles that all think they're the third strongest, a piece of magic cake that the heroes really shouldn't have eaten, the nightmare that is Moonside, Mu, a kraken and a badge that can somehow reflect lightning back at the user.
All the locations on that arcade game appear in this movie as well. I suppose this movie must be really popular if it has its own arcade game based of it. But here's the thing – I haven't seen Porky once this movie, or his brother (an assumption, albeit a somewhat justified one), yet both appear in the arcade game. If the arcade game is based off the movie, why are neither of them in it?
There are some exciting parts as well – I remember the boy in the cap smashing a spout in the stomach. The Dr Andonuts lookalike breaking into a lab and steals a flying device, to help reach his friends. Seeing the girl defeat a mole by bashing its head in with a frying pan is also one of the more interesting parts, if a little humorous given the weapon she's chosen. And the karate boy suplexing a taxi, just because he can, was certainly quite the show of power. The kids don't have an easy road to stopping evil, and many foes block their path. Which of course gives them a chance to show off their powers.
You'd think the strangest thing would be the psychic powers these children but I suppose after all I've seen, it comes as very normal. Still, the movie serves as a nice guide to all the different psychic powers and I get to learn the names. Some of these are really powerful as well - the baseball boy… actually, I should probably stop calling him that. What was his name… Ness? Right, Ness has PK Flash which can confuse people, cause them to cry or just faint and this unique attack called PK Rockin which just decimates everything. It is, quite literally, mind blowing. I thought shooting 1 thunderbolt was cool, but this girl Paula can shoot up to 3 thunderbolts, as well as being able to use PK Fire and PK Freeze. The karate prince, Poo… how many times did the actors have to redo lines because they couldn't keep straight faces while saying his name? Seriously, did his parents hate him?
Then again, mine did leave me to die so…
Poo can use this PSI called PK Starstorm. The name tells me everything I need to know. What the PSI actually looks like is just a bonus. I'll admit, seeing these psychic powers is easily the best part. Someday, I want to be able to do all that as well. The only person who can't use PSI is the Dr Andonuts lookalike, Jeff. Jeff? Wasn't that the name of Dr Andonuts' sun? Is this coincidence? No, it must be, Dr Andonuts hasn't appeared at all in the movie, and surely he would if they were related.
Porky's expression is by far the strangest thing. He looks enraptured with the movie, as if he's never seen it before and yet he looks like he's seen the movie numerous times. I wonder why Porky wanted to show me this in particular.
Right now, Ness is at another 'sanctuary' – according to the movie, it's a place where Ness will gain the power to defeat the ultimate evil because this child is 'the chosen one'. A tad cliché, although I suppose having kids fill the role puts an interesting spin on it. And he gets to complete a song with it.
The boy goes to a place called Magicant - another thing to add to the list of strange things, in order to conquers the evil within himself – another overused cliché. How about a movie where someone has to overcome the good in themselves? I mean, they'd be the villain but… actually, that wouldn't work at all.
The boy learns advanced teleportation (another cool PSI ability) and they go to a cave where Giygas supposedly is. They reach him and… it's something that needs to be seen to be believed. It's a long and hard battle, but eventually they win.
Which was a mistake. Everything starts to collapse. The four try and make it out… but they fail.
They die.
And that's where the movie ends.
"So then, how did you find the movie?"
"It was… interesting."
Yes, interesting seems like a very good way of putting it. The movie itself was by no means a masterpiece, nor was it a complete failure. There are some inconsistencies – Jeff steals a flying device, but acts incredibly scared throughout the rest of the movie. Why would someone who can steal with no fear be scared of a Mr Saturn? The movie leaves so many questions unanswered. Why did the cave start to collapse? What is Giygas?
Many humorous things happened, but with a level of oddity that can't be described. For a movie called 'Earthbound', it isn't very down to Earth. And the fate of the children was incredibly sad.
I suppose an accurate summation would be strange, funny and heartrending.
"An interesting answer. So to answer your questions…"
"Are you a psychic?!" I ask. How else would he know that?
"I wish. But no. I had you watch that movie as a lesson. A lesson to not assume. It seemed like Ness and his friends were the good guys and Giygas was the bad guy."
"Is this movie real?"
"No. But it is based of some actual things that happened. You see, in the movie, Giygas was actually the protector of this planet, and the bee lied. By killing Giygas, the planet was weakened. Severely so. And the four who killed him were the first victims."
So Giygas was the good guy? I suppose it makes sense – like how I once thought that the Pigmask Army were the bad guys as well.
"What about this movie is real?"
"Ness, Paula, Jeff and Poo..." Porky takes a second. "They are all real people. They are also dead."
"How did they die?"
"Age. They grew old and died."
"And Giygas?"
"Doesn't exist." I think I hear Porky mutter "anymore" but I could be mistaken. "But they were still the bad guys."
"How?
"Bullies. I grew up with them."
"Did they bully you then?"
"Everyone. But me in particular. I was chubby and weak. I just wanted to be their friend. But everyday, they would insult me. Call me a pig. Call me Porky. Deny their friendship. Use their bad powers. They were all really bad. But I always felt sorry for Ness. He was actually a good kid. We were actually friends once. Then he met the others. He became bad like them. But I always thought he could be good again. I was wrong. And I learned the hard way."
Now I'm scared. I was feeling empathetic for Porky, since I had went through the same kinds of betrayal but I can tell he's leading to something big. Then…
"Have you ever wondered why I look like this?"
Of course I have. But I didn't think I'd be getting an answer.
"They did this to me. Psychic powers look cool. But they are capable of doing so much damage. You know this better than anyone else. The fire scorching my body. The stars raining down on me. And Ness with his devastating powers."
They… they look so innocent, they're only kids! But so was Porky.
'I had you watch that movie as a lesson. A lesson not to assume.'
Porky's words echo through my mind. I realise, there's more meaning to them than I originally thought.
"Over and over. I couldn't get help. We didn't have money for hospital. Ness's family 'borrowed' a few hundred thousand pounds from us. We never saw it again. My body was never the same."
"How are you still alive?"
I can understand how Porky became like this. But how is he still alive? PSI is incredibly powerful and continuous use of it would kill a child.
I had a little help from Dr Andonuts. He had something called the Instant Revitalising Device. Supposedly, it can heal any wound and fully refreshed you, as if you've had a good night's sleep. As it turns out, this was wrong. My body had suffered so much, that not even the Instant Revitalising Device could fully heal me. I had to have surgery done to restore my face and body.
How serious were those injuries then? How powerful were those children? Am I just as powerful?
"Like you, I needed support – which Dr Andonuts provided with my bed mecha. I need to be in it almost all the time. Being outside of it, even for an hour or two like now, takes a toll on my body. But the doctor's work was too good. The machine kept me alive for a long time. Longer than any of my family. Longer than Ness and his friends. They all died while I lived on. I dare say, I'm immortal, so long as I use that mecha.
Immortal? Nothing can live forever. Yet, despite Porky's childish appearance, he bears the marks of someone who is as old as time itself.
"Mind you, I've been trying to think of something more durable. Something that's absolutely safe. I've lived for so long that I can't remember my age. I can't even remember my own name. But I never forgot Ness or any of those others. It's strange. Even though I forgot my own name, I remember clearly what they used to call me. Porky. Over and over."
So he doesn't know his own name either. Just like me…
"Dr Andonuts can't be that old though. Unless he's not a…"
"He's human. Technology advances rather quickly. Time travel." He adds seeing my confusion. "I knew that in order to make the utopia you see before you, I would need help. Dr Andonuts was willing once I explained the situation to his younger self. The promise of technology beyond his wildest dreams certainly helped in motivating."
"What about his family?"
"He only ever had a son – a son who was partly responsible for my condition. Jeff. He could not love such a person. There was nothing left for him in his time. So I gave him the opportunity to help in a different one."
"And so with his help, you built this. You built New Pork City."
"It took a great deal of work. Two people alone can't make a city. We recruited others – Fassad, I remember was one of the we eventually finished. It's a place of prosperity. But I decided that the past must be remembered as well. Retelling my story to the average person would induce many nightmares. And I don't want people to pity my either. So I made a few tweaks and created Giygas. But the core message remains the same. No one is what they seem. Behind the kindest face may lie a monster."
The people of Tazmily… simple as they look, a monster lies underneath. Ness, Paula, Jeff and Poo… simple children, with hearts more terrifying than Giygas. But the opposite applies as well. Porky… ghostly as he may look, he's a broken child, made to suffer more than anyone should. Denied a childhood, friends, family and his own identity. His own name.
We're not so different. Not so different at all. We've both lost things. The same things. Yet, the two of us still managed to make something of our lives. No… that's only partially true. Porky was able to make something of his life. I have not. Not yet. But I will. I owe it to him. To Porky, I owe the life he has given me and the life he has saved me from.
"Porky. I can't pretend to know the same pain you felt. Because your pain runs deeper than mine and it is a pain which can't be described. I want to help you. I will help you in whatever way you deem best.
"Why? Many have wanted to join me. Some for money. Others for power. What motivates you?"
"Because you are… a friend. And friends help each other."
A piggish snort opens the gate to tears.
I embrace Porky. For that moment, everything was fine. The words he spoke will forever be my guide.
'No one is what they seem. Behind the kindest face may lie a monster.'
A/N: Some more 'exposition' - for those wondering, I believe this is how Porky gained his immortality and his name change (save for the fact that he forces Dr Andonuts to work for him and he probably adopted Porky as a form of irony).
Him blaming Ness and co for his state isn't a complete lie either - while his excess use of time travel could have caused it (assuming Phase Distorter principles still apply), they do fight him at the end of Earthbound - and personally I always used my most powerful PSI on Pokey as revenge, especially since it's useless on Giygas.
Next time, Claus begins his training in the Pigmask Army.