Hello there!
Oh, no, I haven't posted anything for a week or two! I actually fell off of the front page! Dang! (I try to use the front page as a marker for how frequently I should upload. My goal is to never fall off of it. I was on a roll for several months there. I think December-January was the last time it happened. Ah well…)
Jokes aside, I'm back again with another one-shot for you today. As of lately, I've been contemplating sort of… beginning a new sort of way of writing one-shots. Before, there used to be some ideas that I would refrain from writing because they were difficult to tie into KFP, or, more specifically, they were difficult to tie into Po or Tigress' characters.
I have decided that I am no longer going to care about that. So, if there's a story I want to write, but I can't mold it to fit their characters, then I'm simply not going to write the story about them. After all, this is the "KFP" fandom, not the "Po and Tigress" fandom. Now, we're taking this idea slowly, but… we might just get pretty crazy with it eventually. Maybe, maybe not… Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'll never write TiPo stuff again, but… ah, you get it.
I'm starting to ramble, so I'll get to the point. This one-shot is inspired from David Bowie's Life On Mars. And just like the song, this one-shot has absolutely nothing to do with aliens, or space, or Mars :) In fact, I have no idea why it's called that. So what is it about then, you ask? Well… read to find out!
This one-shot takes place post-KFP 3. I don't own KFP or Dreamworks, and, umm…
I think that's it!
On with the show!
Her name was Shi. She was nine years old. Although, if you asked her, she would say she was nine-and-eleven-fourteenths. She was good at math like that.
Some say there are two kinds of people: those who see the rising Sun as a natural occurrence. Something that was supposed to happen every day, without fault. The Sun didn't care if you were there or not to witness its radiant glory. It would shine either way. It was indifferent to all. It had shown for people long gone, and would continue to shine after they died.
The other group saw the rising Sun quite differently. They saw it as a miracle, a blessing from the gods. It was as if fear gripped their hearts with every sunset, as if there were the possibility that it may never rise again. After all, why should it? What incentive did the Sun really have to shine upon such a corrupted and twisted species that roamed the planet as if it belonged to them? No, the rising Sun was a promise to these people. A sign that even when everyone gave up on you, the Sun would be there to warm you like a friend.
Shi was definitely one of the people in the latter category.
Speaking of the Sun, its rays were beginning to seep through the little bunny's curtains. Its gentle light stirred her from her slumbers. Her eyes fluttered open, and the ceiling of her room filled her vision.
A smile crept on the girl's face as she recounted the dream she had been having. Shi could recall it quite easily, every detail vividly coming back into her mind. She had been walking the streets. Shi wasn't sure how she could be sure, but she felt as if she had been leaving the Valley Park and was heading back home.
Shi had not been alone. In her left paw, the gentle grasp of her mother guided her on the path home. Her mother had had some of the softest paws she had ever felt.
The girl could distinctly remember that neither of them had said a word. Only that she had been happily skipping along, whistling some nameless tune. She frequently turned her head up and to the side to look at her mother, who would always look back at her daughter, and smile. Shi loved seeing her mother smile, especially when she was the cause of it, and so she continued to merrily skip and whistle.
They had almost arrived home when she had been torn away from the pleasant dreamscapes.
As the realization that her dream had been nothing more than a dream, and as the reality of what today was going to be like began to set in, joy was leeched from her. Shi quickly threw the sheets off of her, hopped off the bed, got changed, and headed out of her room, through the hall, and into the kitchen.
She took a few glances around and strained her ears. There was nothing stirring within the house other than her. A small sigh of relief escaped her lips. She always had to be careful not to oversleep. Whenever he woke up first and breakfast was not already on the table, he would always fall into a rageful fit.
Fortunately, he was not an early riser, so that wasn't generally an issue.
The small bunny placed a lidded pot from one of the cabinets upon the stove, found the box of matches, and lit the oven. She removed the lid, scurried about the kitchen, and began preparing the ingredients to make a simple vegetable stew. Or rather… an attempt at stew.
Considering the fact that she needed a stool to look over the pot while she stirred it, one could say it wasn't half bad since she was far too young to be making it.
After she gathered, sliced, pounded, and poured the necessary ingredients into the pot and added some water, she began to slowly stir the mix with a large wooden spoon, standing atop her stool.
"I sure hope Daddy'll like it," she told herself, although she wasn't sure why. He didn't like it the last time she made it, nor the time before that. In Shi's mind, each of her attempts at the stew should have been better than the last, so he was bound to like it eventually.
The girl continued to gently stir the concoction inside the pot, when, from across the house, she heard some groaning noises, accompanied by heavy footsteps. Shi felt her stomach tighten and felt the fear grasp her small heart.
There was some rustling and banging, getting closer and closer, until the girl's father entered the kitchen from the hall.
The middle-aged rabbit slowly shuffled into the room, his back hunched over and his head pointed towards the ground. His eyes were half-lidded, and the visible portion of them was blood-red. Down in his left paw, he held a bottle of alcohol, which explained why his eyes were that way. His nose twitched continuously, as if there were some scent he was trying to pinpoint, but his blank eyes did not support that theory.
He entered the room without so much as glancing at his daughter. The rabbit shuffled over to the table, where he, with some difficulty, pulled his chair back and sat down. He folded his arms on the table and rested his head down on them, face first.
Shi had been watching the entire time, and all hopes of a pleasant day vanished into air. She glanced back at the stew and realized it was ready. The bunny grabbed two bowls from the cabinet next to the stove and filled them with their breakfast. She grabbed two spoons and slowly took the bowls to the table, careful not to spill anything on the floor.
The bunny gently placed one bowl in front of her father and set one pair of chopsticks beside it before taking her own place at the table. Hopping up to her seat, she began to lift the food up to her lips and blow on it in an attempt to cool it down.
While she did this, her eyes continuously darted back and forth from her meal to her father. He did not stir when she placed the food in front of him, and he made no sound.
Hopes high, she took a bite of her creation. Her lips curled downwards into a frown as she realized it was no better than last time. She herself did not like it, yet, it was the best she could do.
Finally, the rabbit stirred, lifting his head up and staring down at the food in front of him. His face scrunched up in disgust, and a hoarse voice came out of his throat.
"What…" he mumbled, "What is this shit?"
Shi gulped, keeping her head down to avoid his gaze. "It's… it's breakfast, Daddy."
The rabbit continued to frown down at his meal, until, all of a sudden, he snatched the bowl with his paw and slung it across the room until it hit the wall and shattered into pieces, the vegetable stew spilling everywhere.
"What, you want me to starve!?" he shouted out. "Now I'll have to go to work hungry!" He slammed his clenched paws on the table. "Again! Is that what you want!?"
Shi furiously shook her head back and forth in quick, tight motions, her gaze still glued to her own food so that she did not have to see the fury on her father's face. She was biting her lips so hard they began to bleed, trying to prevent herself from crying, for she knew if she started, things would only get worse.
"I give you a home, a bed! All I ask is one thing, one little thing! You can't even do that! You're useless!"
"I'm… I'm," the little girl stuttered, "I'm sorry, Daddy."
"You're sorry!?" he exploded, standing up with his palms on top of the table as he loomed over the small bunny.
It was too much for Shi, and the sobs began to escape her. Still, she refused to turn her head upwards.
"Oh, here we go again! I'm so sick and tired of - oh, get out of here!"
The bunny froze, unsure of what to do, but he slammed his fists on the table once more and shouted -
"Now!"
Shi bolted up and scurried out of the kitchen. As more sobs escaped her, she passed through the living room and unlocked the front door, opening it, stepping through it, and closing it behind her as she turned around to face the outdoors.
The morning Sun had now risen a little above the horizon, enough so that the morning haze was gone, and the sky had shifted from the reds and oranges to its more relaxing light blue. Clouds occasionally floated by and covered up the Sun, and the wind moved around like a child who could not sit still. Gusts of wind kicked up for a few seconds before calming down, only to kick back up a minute later.
Signs of a coming storm.
Shi lived in a house on the street along with many others. She was standing on the street the second she stepped out of the front door. There were small groups of people, family and friends, as well as individuals who all seemed to be headed up the street.
While they moved along, Shi was trying to contain her sobs. She was gripping the crook of her left elbow with her right paw in an attempt to hug herself. The girl continued to stare at the ground as she tried to push the thoughts of her father out of her mind.
Nobody stopped to ask her what was wrong.
When she finally felt calm enough, she headed in the opposite direction from where the other people were going. Shi wasn't sure where they all were going, but something in the back of her head made her feel as if she should. She had heard about it a few days ago…
Pushing the thought aside, she continued on her journey down the street. The girl had a friend who lived only one block down. It was another girl, a young goose, who was about the same age as Shi. They were friends, but, to the young bunny, she was something more. She was a manifestation of safety. Someone who she could go to to escape her problems at home. And the gods knew those problems were many.
Yet, it wasn't always that way.
As the young bunny made her way down the street, she came upon a familiar door. Shi stepped up to it, raised her paw, and knocked.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
She backed up a few steps in anticipation, staring up at the bamboo door, painted simply with a coat of green.
Time passed, but no one came to the door. The girl knocked once again, but, once again, there was no answer.
Shi's ears slowly fell back and flattened against her head as she realized that no one was home. She turned back around to face the street and looked around. There weren't too many people, but a small family caught her eye. They were traveling in the same direction everyone else had been.
The girl strained her memory to recall what it was that was happening today. When she could not remember, she began walking the way she had come, determined to find out.
As she walked, Shi tried to recall the times when life had been better. Before, the three of them used to live happily together. But, then, about a year ago, her mother had fallen ill, and there was nothing the doctors could do for her.
As her thoughts turned to this memory, Shi had to fight once again to hold back her tears. Her gaze turned back to its safe spot: the ground.
When her mother had died, it had been devastating for the bunny, but she felt as if it hurt her father even more. For weeks after her death, he retreated inside himself. He hardly ate, and he spent most of his waking hours in bed. When money finally started to run short, he had returned to work, but he was not the same. He began drinking, and Shi could curse that first day he had come back home with a bottle in his paw.
At first, he had tried to not let his daughter see him that way, but, over time, he began to care less and less. The girl didn't know this, but the very sight of her reminded her father of his late wife, and, more importantly, of how the gods had taken her life away. He had given his heart to his wife long ago, and she had taken it with her to the Spirit Realm.
He had hit Shi for the first time about six months ago. The first time, he had been so apologetic, and seemed so earnest about it that the small bunny couldn't help but forgive him almost instantly. The second time, he hadn't apologized until the next day, after his drunken haze had passed.
By now, there were many blows that went unapologized and unanswered for.
That's why walking the streets by herself didn't frighten her at all anymore. She was quite used to it by now. Day or night, the sight of her traveling up and down her block was a frequent sight. At first, it had scared her: being all alone. Whenever she had to leave her home, she usually went to her friend's house and was able to have some company, but sometimes, Shi knew it was better to be alone than with her father.
On those first few times, she had always walked cautiously, looking everywhere and turning her head to face every single sound that made its way to her large ears. But now, the situation had become so commonplace that she found her mind wandering to far away places, places where she could be free of the pain of seeing her father that way.
Sometimes she pondered random things, like how long it would take her to dig a hole to the other side of the Earth, or she would look up at the sky and wonder if there was life on Mars.
Eventually, Shi was pulled out of her thoughts when voices began to cut through her mental words. She looked up and took in the sight before her.
In the Valley Square, many people were gathered about. They were all standing, all facing one direction. She turned to look, and saw a stage that had been set up near one of the walls of the square. With a sudden flash of remembrance, the bunny recalled that there was supposed to be a show here today. A play. And not just any play. The Furious Five had been invited to participate and it was said they had some small role in it, too.
Eager to see this sight for herself, the girl headed towards the crowd so she could watch. Up on the stage, people were running back and forth, throwing curtains up and putting everything into place. Stepping into the crowd, Shi realized that she could see very little, so she worked her way to the outside edge of the crowd so she could see over everyone's heads.
After the last-minute preparations were all finished, the curtains in front of the stage were closed, and a hush went over the crowd. Then, they opened, and the play began.
It started off with a husband and wife who were having a light argument. Shi tried to watch, but every passing second of the play only reminded her of what happened in her own home. In fact, now that she thought of it, wasn't there something her father had wanted her to do? Yes, yes, she remembered now. They talked about something yesterday. Something important. But what was it?
She could not remember.
As she tried her hardest to come up with the answer to her question, the play went on. The main characters continued to argue for a bit. It got more and more heated before both husband and wife stormed off. Then, in the next scene, a spirit appeared to each of the characters: gods of some sort.
The second scene had everyone cheering, as, while the husband angrily muttered to himself while sitting on the edge of his bed, there was a woosh of air as the "god" appeared to him. The actor was none other than the Dragon Warrior himself, dressed in fancy, flowing gold robes. It wasn't hard to tell that he was trying his very hardest to not crack a wide grin.
The crowd finally settled down and eagerly watched as the show went on.
Then, in the next scene, a similar occurrence was happening. The wife was pacing back and forth in a room when another woosh of air came, bringing a goddess along with it. The crowd burst into cheer once again, for none other than Master Tigress was the actress. While Po looked like he could hardly contain his laughter, Tigress' expression was a good bit different. It seemed that she wanted to try something new, but that she was also strangely embarrassed to be in front of these many people.
While this happened, Shi was still at the side of the crowd, desperately trying to remember what it was that her father wanted her to do today.
Suddenly, her eyes went wide and she stood straight up as she remembered.
"Oh, that's right! He wanted me to - "
"Shi!" a loud, angry voice shouted out.
The young bunny's stomach dropped as she recognized it. Heads in the crowd turned to see a drunken middle-aged rabbit come stumbling along down the road, eyes red and paws clenched into fists. The two characters on stage, the wife and the goddess, turned for a quick look, but tried to continue with their lines since they hadn't expected such a situation.
"What are you doing here!?" the girl's father shouted as he approached the small bunny. "I told you I was taking you to get a job today so you could pull in some extra money! Get over here!"
Suddenly, a middle-aged goose stepped in front of Shi, between her and her father. By now, the play had stopped, and all heads had turned to get a better look at the commotion.
"Excuse me, who do you think you are?" the goose told the rabbit. "You can't talk to her like that! You should be ashamed of yourself!"
"Get out of my way!" the rabbit yelled back. By now, the Dragon Warrior was cutting across the crowd, still in costume, and Master Tigress was also getting off of the stage.
The goose stood his ground as the furious rabbit neared him, and when he refused to budge, the rabbit reared back his paw and hit the goose right across the face, knocking him down to the side.
"Come here!" he shouted again, roughly grabbing Shi's arm and beginning to drag her along. The girl's eyes were wide and her mouth, too, but she was too shocked by the whole situation to cry. Her gaze turned back to the goose, who lay on the ground, clutching his beak.
"Hey!" the Dragon Warrior suddenly belted out, stepping in front of the girl's father. "What do you think you're doing?"
"You!" the rabbit shouted back. "I'm not afraid of you. What are you gonna do!? You gonna "kick my butt" like you do all those bandits!?"
Po bit his lip and took a deep breath; the gesture implied he was feeling something along those lines. Meanwhile, Shi kept trying to pull her paw free of her father's grasp, but it was just too tight. She hated being here, in the spotlight, with her father's behavior laid bare for everyone in the Valley to see.
"How dare you stand in my way!" the rabbit continued. "You're nothing! Just a glorified soldier playing a god!"
"Hey!" yet another voice called out. By now, Master Tigress had cut through the crowd and taken a spot right by Po, blocking the rabbit's path even more. However, still in their costumes, it presented quite a sight. "You watch your mouth! You know nothing about Po or any of the rest of us! He's a hundred times the person you'll ever be!"
"Oh, really?" he asked. He then turned and shouted out to the crowd -
"Get on your knees, you heathens! Don't you know your gods when you see them!? Behold! I give you the residents of the Temple of the Valley of Peace!" He turned his head back to Po and Tigress, a snide smile on his face. "After all… aren't temples for gods?"
"Now you listen to me, you little - " Tigress began, stepping forward and looming over the comparatively tiny rabbit, but she was interrupted when he boldly stepped forward himself and spat right at her feet. The crowd gasped in shock at the gesture, and even Tigress herself was taken off guard. Po shifted forward as if he were going to perform some serious bodily harm upon the rabbit, but then stopped himself as he thought better of it.
"You disgust me! You only come down here among us mortals so we can stroke your egos! The spend the rest of your time up in that wonderful palace of yours! So much money, all so you can live nicely. It's sickening. If you really gave a shit about us, you might just try and help us mere mortals a little more. All the money stored in the palace, yet our Valley doctors are like something out of a history scroll!"
Then, the rabbit stepped back, his daughter still fruitlessly trying to pull away from him. The rabbit had tears in his bloodshot eyes as he spoke his next words. Unlike nearly all his previous words, he now spoke in a low whisper, and only the people near him could make out what he said.
"All you know how to do is destroy and kill. You mess with sorcery that you don't understand. So, since you're all so powerful, can't you bring my wife back?"
The crowd had already been silent during the entire exchange, but somehow, it was if everyone stopped breathing for a second, and no sound was heard at all. Some of the anger on Po and Tigress' faces ebbed as they finally understood why this rabbit was so angry with them.
Meanwhile, the rabbit himself was now shaking with rage, his teeth gritted.
"CAN'T YOU!?"
As he shouted out these words, he threw his paws up in the air in fury, and, as soon as he did so, Shi bolted away from him, straight down the street.
Po and Tigress, her father, and the whole crowd could only watch.
Well, congratulations, you now know what Life On Mars is about.
This one-shot was… strangely refreshing to write. It was a little less of the TiPo romance and a little more of a universal story. A little less fun antics, a little more deeper symbolism (or an attempt at symbolism, anyway. Maybe it sucked and I didn't really get the message across that I wanted it to).
Really, this one-shot was inspired by the idea that Po and the Five can't help everyone. I've seen a few one-shots that tackle this idea, but I thought I'd put my own little spin on it. Plus, it was really fun to create a new character and write from a fresh perspective.
Also, you may (or may not) be wondering why this isn't inside of a collection. Well, to be honest, I'm ending my one-shot collection system. All my one-shots from now on will be posted just like normal. Why, you ask? Well, the answer's a little strange, but here it is.
Remember how I claimed I was going to create seven one-shots for a collection, and one of them was going to be the "feature" one shot, kind of like how "Supper's Ready" was the feature one-shot for the "Supper's Ready" collection? As it turned out, I didn't like being forced to write one-shots just so I could get to the next collection and start working on the next "feature" one-shot, which I'm really excited about. I didn't like setting unnecessary boundaries for myself. So, I got rid of them. I like to be able to choose what I'm writing about, and if there's no real reason for having a boundry, why should I have it?
Anyyyyyyway, I hope you enjoyed this one-shot!
Keep being awesome!