Guest: Nörthfölk is made up, obviously. And title of the Deathfest festival comes from a real-life heavy metal music festival of the same name. However, the Deathfest in this story will be something purely fictional and will only share the name.
Disclaimer: Turning Red and it's characters are the property of (c) Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation Studios.
Elements are borrowed from God of War (2018) and Ragnarök, owned by (c) Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Camp Watkikeeka.
Located up north in the Boreal Forest next to a large lake, clean enough to swim in.
What a quaint place it was. So very lovely out there in the vast Canadian wilderness with nothing else left beyond but the woods and the trees and the mountains far up ahead where Mother Nature lurks around every corner and every spot and every edge you find. The camp itself was impressive. They had cabins for only 9 people each, a gymnasium, a mess hall, a swimming pool, an amphitheater, a volleyball court, basketball court, an archery range, spots to have a campfire, so much to see and do. The 4*Townies were all sharing an expected round of excitement to them. They've been wanting to come to camp together for a long time now and where they were, ready for the time of their lives.
But none of them were more excited than Mei. Long ago, her mother might've scoffed at the idea of her doting daughter going away to camp for the summer, even for a couple of weeks, probably would've said something like 'it was too dangerous to be enjoying herself out in the wilderness during the summer', but take a look at her now.
"Wow! Just look at this place!" Mei gasped with a huge smile and gleaming eyes while they followed the rest of the campers toward the amphitheater.
"This is totes amazing!" shouted Abby, carrying all her things with her.
"Every fiber of my being is literally tingling with joy." Priya droned with a mellow smile.
"This is gonna be a time for sure." said Miriam with a smile, revealing her braces.
But there wasn't much time to sightsee right now. Not until they were assigned their cabins first, that is. All had mobilized at the amphitheater, which was amazingly huge, not unlike that of a Greco-Roman coliseum, circular seating which was widely-spaced and sparse with everything made from concrete, even the seats like they were sent back to Ancient Greece in the midst of a gladiator battle, right in front of the proscenium which formed a large stone arch just above the stage and also where the microphone was placed. The girls giddily sat down together in a spot that had a better view of the stage from a short distance.
"Hey, dorks." A new, familiar voice gave it away as their new friend and former enemy, Tyler Nguyen-Baker.
"Tyler!" Miriam gasped.
"That's right. My folks sent me here, too." He smirked, sitting next to them.
"Well, I guess that's all the 4*Townies together." Mei shrugged good-naturedly. "Let's see what camp has in store for us."
"I'm up for a little basketball myself." Tyler boasted. "Since we all know I'm a demon out on the court."
"Yeah, we get the idea." Priya rolled her eyes with a chuckle.
"Just wait 'til you see my new power move; the Prime Slam!" bragged the Vietnamese hellion. "I've been practicing it all month. Not to brag, which I will anyway, I've mastered it really damn good."
"We'll see about that." Abby retorted with a jab.
"I'll take that bet." Tyler's obnoxious smile and wholesale self-aggrandizing mien was nothing too unfamiliar to the girls at this point that it was practically a universal constant.
Then the camp director, Marty Koulz, stepped out onto the stage with a few other counselors to address the crowd before him with the suave grace of your average outdoorsman.
"Welcome, welcome, welcome, happy campers to the peaceful and wondrous Camp Watkikeeka!" He said over the microphone with a welcoming smile. "Hope you have a fun ride over here, because we're all excited to have all of you here in the great outdoors. Well, to start things off, we're for sure gonna have so much fun these coming weeks and there's gonna be tons of fun activities to do here and each of you will be split off into group of nine as we only have cabins that hold only nine campers at a time and of course, each of you will be assigned a counselor to guide you along the way. So as said before, we'll much to do here, including, but no limited to, swimming, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, bird watching, backpacking, fishing, there's archery, basketball, volleyball, tennis, yoga, we go spelunking in the caves just up northwest, we go camping out in the woods and roast marshmallows and hotdogs by the campfire,...hmm, what else? Oh, yeah, then there's ziplining…"
"Ziplining?" gasped Miriam with a pale expression.
"...arts and crafts, candlemaking, stargazing, a little bit of performing arts, capture the flag, a night hike even, tying knots from ropes, some trivia and even a movie night at the gymnasium. We'll let you all vote on what the movie will be. And that's pretty much it. As far as I'm concerned, we'll be pretty busy here, which if you ask me, sounds like a good thing." Director Koulz explained, holding up a sheet, presumably with all those things jotted down. "Now, every one of you will be given a color-coded bracelet that will correspond to which group you'll be in and I sure as heckfire hope that you all will have as much fun as we will these next couple of weeks. Before we do so, let's close this off with a little Camp Watkikeeka theme song. Counselor Clemens?"
A middle-aged woman with dark hair stepped forward to the microphone with a guitar and cleared her throat before strumming the instrument as she sang the lyrics along with everyone else.
"~ Oh, wide open spaces, happy little faces
Camp Watkikeeka!
If you're chased by bear, then you should beware
Camp Watkikeeka!
Mosquito bites and nature hikes
Camp Watkikeeka!
When you're out all alone,
Scared and chilled to the bone
Have no fear!
Trust a friend and a pal
Recognize the locale
Camp Watkikeeka!...~"
Mei and her gal pals didn't actually sing along with the other campers, only clapping to the beat like the rest since this was their first time here at Camp Watkikeeka (as well as camping in general), so the theme song was unfamiliar to them. Regardless, with all the activities listed off for them all, Mei was sure she was going to have the ultimate summer camp fun blast without a single doubt in the world. She's never once gone camping before, so you can bet that she'll be all out for it.
And at the same time while their fellow campers sang along together as a chorus, Mei was deep in thought and wondered to herself how Kris was handling his summer back at home.
"I wonder what daddy is up to." Mei said to Kris Jr., which she brought along with her, in a cutesy baby voice.
And what a busy week it's been for our intrepid, motivated summer worker.
From that moment, Kris plunged himself into dedicated workmanship and perseverance and determination and without a lack of initiative to try and save enough cash for the festival. It was a fight to the finish for him and he's been all around town going after one temp after another, putting up more than a sufficient good first impression each time. Thankfully, he managed to keep his powers hidden. Who knows what they'll say about a kid with the powers of a thunder god. It would make finding a job a lot tougher and just make things more complicated.
It was like trial by fire, selecting and jumping from one job to the next. It was all about looking his best and acting his best in order to win over potential managers.
Kris decided to start off small, going for one-time gigs like babysitting, dog-walking, food delivery (using a three-wheel bike with a basket in the back since he's not ready to ride a two-wheeler) and house sitting. There have been a few surmountable mishaps, but he never gave up. His showmanship never wavered once, because if he ever fell down, he would just get back up again. Dog walking wasn't too bad. Kris loved dogs and there have been countless mutts that love to have a little fresh air and exercise, though some can be tough to handle, like if you're walking a bunch of dogs at the same time. They can be a bit rambunctious, even more so when in a group. And then there's having to pick up after them, too. Babysitting was slightly easy, but still not without headache-inducing struggles like trying to keep the kids out of trouble, making sure they're in bed on time and some kids - you know them, don't you? - they just love to make your job harder and harder. And house sitting was no small task, either. As easy as it looked, you had to stay on top of things like keep all the doors and windows closed, mainly after dark, keep any possible intruders out, take care of the pets (if they have any) and above all else, make sure the house remains in tip-top shape while the owners are away. And if anything, the pay was adequate.
Right now, Kris was doing some temporary service for Pizza Planet, having his bike pumped up and ready to go for the ride to make his last delivery for the afternoon by sending in a final order. And boy, what an order it was.
A huge one at that.
Ten large pizzas - three plain cheese, three pepperoni, one Hawaiian with pineapple, jalapeño and mushrooms, one all veggies and two meat-lovers - a side order of ultra hot buffalo wings (20-piece) with extra ranch and a 2 liter bottle of Diet Pepsi.
The address was 2619 Russo Dr. and the overall price was $89.120, plus taxes.
Must be for a big party going on.
Kris has delivered large orders like this before, so it should be that difficult. Though, the smell of the hot food would make it difficult for anyone to focus on the job and not give into the temptation of sneaking a nibble. But Kris was firm. He had a mission. He needed the cash. Not going to let a minor thing like this distract him.
He rode down the streets with the mountain of food stored neatly and securely in the basket, thanks to bungee cords that he brings along with him for just such occasions and kept his focus solely on the road ahead.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! A RAT!" A woman screamed bloody-murder nearby, which almost made Kris serve out of control, but kept the food from falling off and pulled over into the bike lane, just to see what was the matter.
"GET AWAY! GET AWAY!"
"Madam, wait a moment! No, wait!"
Kris didn't move a muscle. Why did that voice sound so familiar to him?
There came a sharp, whacking noise and then a small yell that came closer and closer when a small creature came flying in from one direction, zipping past Kris overhead and landing directly into a nearby trash can.
"Ow. It's like nobody's seen a squirrel before." The voice complained from inside the can and at last, after some amount of deductive thinking….
"Ratatoskr?" Kris asked with more surprise than shock mostly.
With a groan, Ratatoskr climbed himself out of the trashcan to reveal himself to the boy on the bike, snapping himself out of his daze after being swatted like a fly. His eyes widened and he gasped with delight at seeing the boy that he recognized at an instant nearby. The same boy whose body was in a comatose state for up to seven months three years ago and left roaming aimlessly in the Nine Realms. With this, the World Tree squirrel shot out of the trash to go greet Kris.
Only he looked much more like an ordinary squirrel.
"By Ymir's breath, methinks, is that truly you, o' Son of Bengt?" He asked him with a beaming smile and a gleam in his eye, jumping up onto his bike's handlebar to get a better look at Kris. "Goodness me, you look like you've gotten older since last we've met. Oh, this?" - He gestures to himself - "...this is what I look like in the real world."
"What are you doing here? How did you get here?" Kris was baffled beyond belief seeing the mythical talking squirrel here in the real world and running around Toronto, no less.
"Oh, just exploring." Ratatoskr hopped on top of Kris's head, his head looking all around and behaving like a normal squirrel just to appear inconspicuous to the public eye, then started crawling all over his body. "Being Yggdrasil's closet guardian - a very close and personal guardian, may I add - I've been blessed with the power to come and go as I please. I can appear anywhere in this world I so choose. I just got back from a place called Manhattan. Oh, tremendously large place that was. So many people wandering about, so many large buildings, so much food. Those pigeons are a real pain in my ass, but I digress. Ever heard a…hot dog?"
"Uh, listen, I don't really have time for-" Kris tried to shoo him off, but then the curious squirrel hopped on top of the stack of pizza boxes.
"My word! Is that-?!" Ratatoskr sniffed the glorious smell of the food and moaned with ecstasy. "Yes, it is. They had tons of these down there as well. Such deliciousness. Pizza Planet? Hmm, a perplexing name."
"Get away from that." Kris tried grabbing at him.
"You don't mind if I sneak a nibble? Just-Just a little bit?" Ratatoskr asked, the smell making him hungry, but Kris snatched him up and ripped him from the boxes.
"No. I need to deliver those to somebody right now and I don't think they want their food half-eaten." He informed the squirrel earnestly, putting him down on the ground. "And I gotta get going or else they'll get mad."
As Kris returned his bike and started pedaling off, Ratatoskr followed him and began scurrying up the telephone pole, scuttling across power lines as he kept talking.
"You know, I never could have imagined that fate would ever allow you and I to meet in the same place at the same time. It's like our destinies are interwoven, you know what I mean? Uh, could you possibly slow it down a tad, if you please? You're pedaling so fast, it's hard to keep up."
"I'm kinda busy here, if you don't mind." Kris quipped, keeping his eyes on the road ahead, but the squirrel jumped back on top of his head.
"You deliver food now?" asked the rodent curiously.
"It's just a temporary thing, okay? And no offense, but you're kinda distracting me." And Kris was certainly sounding like his patience was dissipating.
"Well, may the gods forever be in your favor, my comrade." chuckled Ratatostr.
"I don't wanna hear about gods right now." Kris deflected, tensely.
"Oh, that's fine. I don't either. Well, anyways, I guess I'll probably go on my merry way. Don't let me drag you down with me." Ratatoskr finally jumped off and landed on his feet on the concrete sidewalk and watched him take off. "And tell that bitch if you ever find her to not call me a rat next time! I'll be around!"
So then, the plucky little squirrel and guardian of the sacred Tree of Life scurried away and his cute little feet in a form that only normal people of this modern age would not find off-putting and peculiar. Hopping from the brick walls and the dumpsters in alleyways, he finally found a tree good for climbing, which he, in fact, did just that; scrambling up the bark before disappearing suddenly in a - ZWIP! - of blue light out of sight. This he has done before when traveling the world.
At last, he made it to the address.
And you can probably imagine his surprise when he saw that it was a large, glorious mansion in the high class neighborhood with numerous cars parked all around. It was at the center of a huge cul-de-sac like a royal castle fit for a king resting in the center of its kingdom. A three-story story with numerous bedrooms, Greek-style pillars by the front door like the entrance to a large, ancient temple and there were the most expensive looking vehicles parked by the garage, that one would wish they would have, but never have enough money to afford, chiefly the large, yellow Hummer H2 half-way up the driveway, which looked familiar.
'I think I've seen that Hummer before.' He thought quizzingly.
And the place was a mess, too.
Toilet papers around, empty beer bottles, there was a condom wrapper or two, much to Kris's disgust, and not only that, but there was music playing inside at full volume with dozens of people inside either chatting, dancing or doing idiotic stuff and lord knows what else. And there some people outside the house as well in the lawn, probably to get away from the crowd and the loud music inside to chat in peace. Whoever lives in that house in this neighborhood, Kris figured the parents will be really embarrassed and he truly felt sorry for the neighbors having to put up with all this chaos taking place.
Theory confirmed, indeed.
"It's definitely that kind of party." Kris mumbled to himself as he got off his bike, retrieved the food and marched up the steps, ignoring one partygoer nearby throwing up after undoubtedly one too many drinks. Just keep going, eyes on the prize, just focus on your job. Deliver the food and go home, easy as pie.
He rang the doorbell and hoped they heard it over all that music.
Thankfully, somebody did, because Kris could see the silhouette of a person approaching through the door since it was composed of obscured glass and then it was opened, the music growing louder when it did and revealing one hectic party it was inside than it was outside. They were really tearing the place up and that was no exaggeration, because a bunch of broken items, balloons and a nameless bunch of other trash were strewn about the floor and the stairs railing and everywhere else. Some were getting high on cocaine, having drinking contests, some couples were making out, some idiots doing reckless stuff like trying to dive off the banister and one guy was running around in his birthday suit, making Kris avert his eyes until the guy answering the door to retrieve the food spoke up.
"It's about time ye got-!" The person cut himself off when he answered.
Make no mistake. Once the door flung open, Kris nearly dropped the food in shock when he came face-to-face with a face he remembers too well. That fat gut, the long and black curled locks and the unibrow, which looks to have been shaved to form two eyebrows.
"Moose?" He chirped, eyes the size and shape of golfballs, pupils the size of specks.
"Oh, mah god! Kris?!" said the towering behemoth, the immensely colossal goliath and the oversized giant that Kris remembers as Moose, the person who used to bully him back in middle school before he put the wide load in the hospital that one time with shock of his own. "Ye deliverin' pizzas now?"
"It's just for a one-time gig." said Kris, putting the pizzas down. "Some party this is, huh?"
"Yeh. Lotta shit goin' that, dat's for sure." Moose shrugged sarcastically. "Jus' waitin' for th' neighbors to send in their noise complaints or somethin' like that."
"No shit." Kris muttered, unmoved.
"Uh, ya know ya like 20 minutes late, right?" Moose remarked, taking the pizzas from him.
"Never escaped me for a minute." Kris rolled his eyes, not concerned in the least. "I ran into a little trouble along the way."
"Hey, fat-ass! Hurry up with those damn pizzas before I start eating my own stomach!"
That was Booker's voice and all of the sudden, it hit Kris and made more positive sense, thinking back to the Hummer in the driveway. That was his car. And Kris knows this because he's seen him drive it to school with him more often than not.
"This is Booker's place?"
Kris shouldn't be too surprised by this, though. Everyone knows that Booker comes from a rich and highly influential family with a privileged lifestyle.
"You know dat guy?!"
"Sadly, yes. I go to school with that dumbass." conceded Kris with a long-suffering sigh.
Then Moose shut the door with a face that seemed to suggest that he was in a jam and got a little closer to Kris and brought his voice down to a whisper.
"Look, don't tell him this, but ah wasn't invited t' this thing." He admitted. "Ah had to sneak mah way insahde, because I nevah get invited to anything."
"Well, okay." Kris breathed. "If I know him, which I do because I deal with him everyday at school, he'll probably be too dumb or too drunk to even notice."
"He's only had one drink so far." brought up Moose with a hint of worry.
"Just relax and try to enjoy the last few minutes of this nuthouse before he notices. Now go ahead and take the pizzas before Billy Madison loses his shit." Kris informed him.
"A'right." With a submissive sigh, Moose pulled out the money he was given by one of Booker's friends (and co-players from the football team), which was, as Kris counted, was a 12 dollars less than what the food costed, which is not unusual considering that Kris showed up a little late than when he was supposed to. However, Kris noticed Moose secretly digging into his wallet and sneaking something inside of Kris's pocket while looking around to make sure nobody was watching, then picked up the food.
"Bye now. Take care." Then the door was slammed shut.
As Kris began to take his leave, he fished out what the big lug snuck into his pocket and saw that Moose covertly gave him a few extra bills and coins, possibly for his troubles. And the boy actually let a grateful smile appear.
First, Kris visited the Daisy Mart to grab a few things with some cash his mother gave him, but not with the money he's earned. Some groceries, no big deal. The new cashier replacing Devon after he lost his job thanks to the whole Ming incident that took place years ago was a man; a much older gentleman in his early 50's named Donald. While he was paying for the stuff at the cash register, he let his eyes wander around until he noticed the place on the wall behind the counter where polaroids of people banned from the store are kept, one of which was of Ming, who had a surprised face, likely due to having her picture taken suddenly. Kris was less than shocked. After all, it's thanks to Ming and her impulsiveness that Devon wound up looking a fool to his coworkers and his peers and making everyone else at the Daisy Mart look bad for "having a rapist among them" and Ming was most definitely banned from ever coming near the store, being the cause of all the craziness and the reason they lost a cashier when it was found out that her accusations were false to begin with.
So afterwards, Kris walked home that afternoon with his hard-earned cash, intending to find the nearest bus stop. It has been a long day of work and he's really desperate for some food and some rest. All the while, a car was pulling up near his location as he meandered down the sidewalk, slowly hovering over to the boy as he walked without him noticing at first before the driver of which made their presence known by honking the horn, finally making Kris aware that someone was tailing him from behind. The car stopped and Kris looked to see Jin driving the car.
"Wha-...?"
"Hey, Kris!" Jin waved at him. "Mind if I give you a ride?"
Kris wasn't sure he liked where this was heading, but this kinda beats having to walk around aimlessly looking for a bus stop to get back home. But he only hoped that Jin would take him back home.
"Yeah, sure." He hesitantly agreed, marching over and hopping into the front seat of the car.
"So what have you been up to today?" asked Jin, driving down the streets.
"Doing this, doing that. Trying to earn some money." Kris said, looking out the window.
"For what?"
"Just something I wanna go to this summer." The boy admitted, leaving it at that. "Nothing fancy."
"Huh. I see." Jin nodded, then took a deep breath before getting real. "So listen, Ming kinda sent me to go look for you because, well, we're having a family dinner tonight and she was hoping to invite you."
"Me? Why?" Kris finally turned to face him.
"Oh, well, why not? She just wanted to include you, you know? Besides, we made quite a spread back over at our place." Jin explained, slightly braggingly at that last part. "Hope you don't mind. You interested?"
This came out of nowhere, that's for sure.
Of course, Kris wasn't about to agree with this right away for the most obvious of reasons and he wasn't even planning on visiting the Lee Family Temple any time soon, because of the bad memories he's had there. Working there was no different and no easier either when you have a cruel, nagging, narcissistic dragon lady for a boss. However, this didn't mean he wasn't going to allow himself to be within Ming's sight range, much less her presence. He wasn't unaware of the changes in her character and how much considerably different she was from the mean manager he used to know her as. And this wouldn't be the first time he's eaten with the Lees at their place, so perhaps it wouldn't hurt.
"Okay, I guess I'll come." He nodded, successfully covering up his reluctance.
"Great! That would be just great!" Jin smiled.
Even though Kris may soon regret this decision, he wasn't going to complain about it. He was going to be flexible about this, through and through. They pulled into the Chinese section of the neighborhood until they arrived at the temple while Kris tried to force down those dark, unpleasant thoughts and memories whenever he gazed upon it. He was just going to have dinner with the Lees and take off. He barely even needs to be there. Jin parked the car and led the uneasy boy, carrying his groceries with him, past the house and through the gate into the temple while Kris kept it together the whole way there and it's there that a large, round table rested at the center full of Asian dishes and delicacies. And who was at the table, you ask? Most of the Lee clan, namely Ping, Chen, Lily, Helen (who is four months pregnant with hers and Adam's first child together) and including Ming Lee herself in the flesh.
"Kris!" She chirped gleefully as she brought the boy into a tight, motherly hug. "So glad you actually came! I was really worried you'd refuse."
"Well, I'm here." He stammered gently and carefully.
"Hi, Kris!" Lily waved at him.
"Good to have you join us!" Chen grinned.
"Come sit." Ming eagerly took Kris by the hand and brought him over to a waiting chair reserved just for him. He allowed himself to be placed at the table while he placed his groceries on the floor. He couldn't deny how delicious everything looked, such as the chicken potstickers, the Xiǎolóngbāo, the Ma Po tofu, the Szechuan chicken, the sweet and sour pork, the Char siu, the fried rice, the Zhajiangmian and the wonton soup. It was like a buffet, a divine smorgasbord of the loveliest Asian cuisine you'd ever want to sink your teeth into. So with these succulent dishes in his viewpoint, Kris instantly forgot all about his troubles straight away when his hunger took over. With his plate, he grabbed at least one of everything, because everything looked too good to pass up.
"Jin, you've really outdone yourself this time." Helen smirked at her cousin-in-law, already diving into some food herself, due to pregnancy cravings.
"Go easy yourself over there, Helen." Ping reminded her cousin strictly. "It's not good for the baby."
Minutes passed while everyone ate together in peace and most of the food was just a third of the way gone, mostly in thanks to Kris. Theoretically, possessing the power of Thor must also mean Kris has his metabolism. Always has room for more food. Almost never full. Regardless of being here, Kris thought it nice to be eating dinner with his family. By that meaning that since Chen and Helen married his two uncles, respectively, technically that makes them both his aunts-by-marriage and it's through mostly Chen that pretty much makes Ming Kris's new surrogate aunt. However, Ming still acts like a second mother rather than an aunt to the boy, nonetheless.
"Me and Adam have been thinking about what to name it." Helen patted her developing abdomen housing her unborn baby. "Boy or girl, we don't know yet. If it's a boy, we were thinking, I don't know, Richard. But we haven't thought of any girl names, though. We did kinda narrow it down to either Wanda or Cecelia."
"How cute." Lily gushed. "Wonder if he'll have your eyes. If it ends up being a boy, that is."
"Cecelia." Kris spoke suddenly, making the pregnant woman look towards him in curiosity.
"Come again?" She asked.
"I like Cecelia better. Or maybe "CeCe" for short." He elaborated for her yearningly, knowing his uncle well enough to know, remembering the nicknames he already gives Izzy and Jaz.
"CeCe….." Helen gave this a good thought for a moment and figured how cute that sounded. "I don't see why not."
"That actually sounds way better and much cuter than Wanda." Chen commented.
"It's got a nice ring to it." Ping offered, letting the world roll off her tongue. "CeCe."
"I'll put a pin in that one." spoke Helen, sipping her non-alcoholic drink.
"So Kris, how have you been so far?" Ming asked the boy in question, really wanting to start a conversation with him most of all.
"I just got off from delivering pizzas." He answered, steering his focus away from her while still awkwardly sneaking a few glances back at her.
"Ooh, really?" Helen asked.
"So you…you got a job? A summer job?" Ming feebly asked him, trying pathetically not to sound hurt at the notion that Kris has already found new employment elsewhere like she implied that he would and should years back.
"Seriously?" Ping's face rearranged itself to an expression with a hovering eyebrow.
"Well, not really." Kris explained, picking at his food. "It's just a one-time gig, specifically. I've been doing other kinds of gigs, too, the past few days since school went out, like babysitting, taking out trash and walking people's dogs."
"Oh, my." Chen chuckled, hand to her chest. "You're so dedicated."
"And ambitious." added Lily, popping another pork in her mouth.
"Then you've been really busy these few weeks." replied Ming. "Busy, busy, busy. But I hope you're making time to relax and enjoy your summer. It's not really fair to just spend your entire break doing nothing but work."
"It's just a few days. It won't be for long." said the shaggy-haired boy. "I'm looking for a temporary job to pay for something I wanna do with my friends."
"You don't say." Ping hummed.
"He told me about that on the way over here." Jin pointed out, budding in.
"What do you plan on doing exactly?" asked Lily.
"This." Kris reached into his pocket to pull out the flier that he keeps on him as a reminder of his mission. "The Deathfest Black Metal Festival coming this July in Montreal."
All Lees at the table observed the sheet of paper in his hands with wonderment and curiosity, equal-parts uneasiness by the gothic and explicitness of the flier's artwork. For as long as they've known him, Kris has been a death/black metal fan for all his life and it's basically the one thing they remember about him so far. Nobody had a silver of a doubt that Kris would want to go to an event like this.
"Um, wow. That's neat." Ping adjusted her glasses.
"It's where my favorite band, Nörthfölk, will be performing live on stage." Kris explained.
"Oh, yeah. I figured that." Helen gave half of a smile, though she, like the rest, had meager information on this band. "What's this band all about, anyway?"
Right then and there in his own head, Kris's world deteriorated and shifted in the blink of an eye as he imagined himself in an violent, macabre and quasi-apocalyptic environment that matched accordingly to his personalized taste in music, no less fitting for a black metalhead such as himself. A setting that burned in a fiery inferno like the depths of Hell were rising from above the ground to wreak havoc and bloody mayhem on all of mankind to bring about the end of their world as they know it. Armies of vicious demons tormenting sinners, undead zombies walking the streets hungry for flesh and skeletons working instruments and thrashing the most unbelievable shriek metal ever with the member of Nörthfölk at the base of it all, standing tall and with pride.
"The world's greatest and most awesomest Norwegian black metal band that's ever risen from the heart of Scandinavia; Nörthfölk." Kris dramatically declared. "Rocking out to sticks like demons from Hell all over Europe since 1990. Forged by blood and fire - Stefan Ingebretson, Diana Birk, Georg Johannessan, Hrafn Hjarnarsson, Lars Piet Plaggenmersch and Marvin Fuchs - Warriors of the Devil's Night, bred by the gods above and sworn by oath to bring the world the most metal anyone's dared to see. Come this July will be part of their 'Evil Be Thy Name' Tour throughout Canada."
With Kris's quirky, yet hauntingly melodramatic dialogue, everyone looked at one another with unreadable glances, unsure of how to react. None of them were fans of this kind of music, not even as big of a fan as Kris and his friends were. Though, none were about to question or judge the boy on this.
"Cool." Lily broke the silence. "Cool, cool, cool."
"Deathfest." Kris carried on. "Featuring most of the greatests known by many. Including, but no limited to; Mǫrdrhaus, Blüdgasm, Witches' Coven, Fallen Angels, Tears of God, The Kursed Ønes, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, S/ash, The Devil's Rejects, Deth-Wysh, F**kpig."
And unsurprisingly, everyone gasped at how vulgar, uncouth and inappropriate the name of that last band sounded.
"Yeah, I know. Sorry." Kris blushed, clearing his throat. "They're actually not that great. Their songs are tough to listen to. The lyrics they use are way too crude, even for us fans. In fact, those guys were nearly sued in court for their illicit songwriting last Autumn."
"I don't doubt that for a second." Chen cringed.
"Where do they come up with all these names? And why do they have to sound so….ghoulish?" Ming took the flier from Kris to read it over while sharing it with her husband, both tentatively reading the bands listed off, then passing it off around the table for the others to see.
"It's just the way of black metal, my friends. It is what it is." shrugged Kris, unbothered.
"The Four Horsemen?" Lily groused, since it was common belief among them that the number four was bad luck.
"Yeah and there's four of them, too."
"Hmm, well, at least they have a band name that makes more sense." Ming snorted in an unconsciously snooty kind of way, thinking back to Mei-Mei's favorite band, 4*Town, which consisted of five members instead of four like their name seemed to suggest.
"Are you actually….into this kind of stuff?" asked Helen, pointing at the flier.
"Of course, I am. My dad was obsessed with these guys, just like my mom." Kris intuitively expressed. "And my mom agreed that we could go as long as I pay for my own ticket and one for each of my friends."
"Is that why you're working this summer?" asked Chen, now taking her turn at looking at the flier.
"Yeah. I'm starting off small with a few short jobs, like delivering pizzas." Kris explained, taking the flier back after they were done with it. "I just got back from my last delivery for the day. It was a pretty big party. Lot of people getting drunk, snorting coke, doing dumb stuff like jumping off the roof, shit like that."
"Mercy me." Ming gulped. "Has anyone tried, you know, attacking you or harassing you?"
"Not really." Kris shook his head. "They got the food, at least, and I got the cash. So it was more than worth it."
Ming welled herself up in her thoughts inside of her head and started wondering if she could do anything for him. If the boy's that desperate to go attend this musical event in Quebec, then maybe she could provide him some financial support if needed. Remembering a long time ago when her daughter wanted to see the 4*Town concert and Ming refused to allow it, then all the insanity that went down that had left a mark in Toronto history. Hopefully, in essence, Ming could fix this error.
"So you really wanna go to this Deathfest, huh?" Ming started off with, drying her lips.
"Yeah, I do. I know it will be very fun." The boy responded to her.
"Well,..." Ming sucked in air through her teeth. "I was just thinking that maybe I could help you out on this little mission of yours. Do you think maybe you'd wanna consider….coming back to…..work for me again?"
A great silence fell onto the table and the entire temple surrounding them.
Every one of the Lee folk were dead silent when Ming said this to Kris and instantly thought back to when he used to work for Ming before he was fired. They gave one another edgy expressions, each one of them with barely enough strength to comment on this in any way, their guts all telling them that this probably won't end the way Ming is hoping.
"What….?" Kris peeped, stone-faced.
"I'm saying that I'd, uh, like to offer you your old job back." Ming hesitantly clarified. "But this time, I'd like to change it up a bit, you know? Better pay…"
"Uh, Ming?" said Ping, trying to get a word in.
"...better hours, all that. It's the least I can do after…unfairly firing you long ago." But Ming ignored her sister, all of the sudden hell bent on undoing what happened between her and Kris back at the party blowout.
Kris grew quiet when she said this to him, offering to rehire him. But then without warning, since she brought all of this up to him, his mind raced backwards in time to when he used to work for her, all the way back to when Mei begged her reluctant mother to hire Kris and how ever since then, the woman was never kinder to him, treating him as inferior and practically making a slave out of him. Kris couldn't control it, he couldn't stop remembering every cruel word she ever said to him, every threat, one time when he was sweeping the floors, she purposely tripped him with her foot and scolded him harshly as if she didn't have anything to do with it. His heart raced, his throat went sore and his brain felt like it was about to snap into two when suddenly, he felt himself shaking.
"Kris? Kris? You okay there?" Chen gently shook the boy out of his nightmare-induced reverie, bringing him back to the real world.
He looked around at all the faces, including Ming's, who looked a bit desperate. And then he finally made up his mind.
"I'm sorry, but no." Kris hurriedly said, grabbing his groceries off the floor and got up ready to leave. "I'm gonna go now."
"Wait, Kris!" Ming instantly shot up and grabbed his arm to stop him before anyone could try to stop her from doing so. "Think about this, please."
"This was a mistake. I shouldn't have come back here." Kris yanked his arm back and continued his way to the door, but Ming still pursued him, increasingly desperate.
"Ming, leave it!" Helen attempted.
"No, Kris, come on!" Ming begged him. "I know I haven't been a great boss, but I'll make it better for you. I'll start paying you more instead of less."
"No."
"I'll make it however you want. You can have some time off if you wanted." Ming persisted continuously.
"No." Kris was looking like he was about to explode.
"And you can have breaks, too. Just, you know, make sure you remind me first before you take th-"
"I SAID NO!" Whipping around around to face her as she came close enough to eliminate space between them until they were almost touching faces, Kris, red in the face, screamed angrily right into her face like a nuclear bomb going off, his furious and annoyed roar echoing around the walls of the temple and could almost be heard for miles if one was so still and silent for about a moment when it ruptured the calm night air. All seated at the table froze instantly, watching them mouth agape.
Ming, for her part, felt her saliva fall back into her throat and her heart stop as she looked toward Kris with an almost terrified expression that genuinely dropped into one displaying hurt, sadness and even reared back when he screamed like a banshee. Never has he ever raised his voice at her like that. Kris, however, panted as if he had just ran a marathon before calming down, almost looking guilty for yelling at her like that. But he could find it in himself to take it back now. The memories were in his brain now and forgetting about them will take some tedious time. Instead, he clenched the bag tightly in his hand and turned away from Ming, who didn't bother trying to stop him, and marched out of the temple, slamming the doors behind him.
As she stood there frozen and in disbelief, Jin rushed to her side and held her arm comfortingly.
"Just let him go. Don't force it, okay?" He informed her.
Ming looked at him sadly and looked like she was ready to cry, but fought her tears as best she could.
Meanwhile, Kris stormed down the street with his bag, not once looking back at the temple. Granted, he was beginning to feel some sort of guilt for snapping at her like that and turning her down harshly, but he has spoken. Not once is he ever going back to where his suffering was born and where he had the worst boss in the world. It was unbearable, the horrid memories were inescapable. He tried to calm himself down, steady his heart rate and focus on something positive, but all he could think about were the bad times he's spent as the Lees' cashier and the flashback of Ming slapping him in the face and telling him coldly that he was fired and to stay away from her, Mei and temple or else. So he would do just that, even though he needed money to get into Deathfest.
At the part of the neighborhood where Stacy Frick lived, the horde of shadowy mares were closing in on her house, all of them neighing demonically and threatening as they fast approached the household where their target was and sleeping peacefully in her bed. However, it wasn't going to be a peaceful sleep for much longer because there were such dangers waiting outside for her, waiting to get her at a moment's notice. And they were nearing her house, nearing her bedroom.
And when they did, her pleasant dreams were gone and now only dread and terror plagued them like a flesh-eating virus.
She tossed and she turned in her bed with snowflakes appearing everywhere and all around the indoors whilst the temperature dropped to zero degrees below, matching the climates of a polar cap. And everyone started to freeze and shiver from the cold air while trying to make sense of why it was suddenly so cold in their house, even during the summer.
The mares got closer and closer until a cape of darkness enveloped the girl's bedroom.
Josh came knocking at the door to see if his sister was okay, while not understanding where the snowfall came from, he opened the door and screamed, alerting his parents from downstairs. They came rushing upstairs when they heard it and rushed to Josh's aid before looking inside Stacy's room.
"Snow?" Mrs. Frick was taken aback by this odd phenomenon. It was, in fact, snowing inside of Stacy's bedroom, piles of frozen white fluffiness covering the floor, the vanity, the toys, everywhere and icicles formed everywhere as well like the window for example as if it was winter on the inside. Even the girl's bed was covered in snow.
"Stacy?" The mother marched over the bed, doing her best to ignore the biting chill in her bare feet as she marched across the snow-covered floor and the frigid air gripping her body as he approached her daughter's bed to check on her.
However, as she pulled the covers back,...she gasped with horror.
Stacy Frick was gone!
.
.
.
.
.
Where was she?
She didn't know where the hell she was. She groaned as she awoke with her eyes uncontrollably bugging open when she realized she wasn't in her bed anymore. In fact, there was no way for her to tell for certain where or even what this brand new location was. There was no word in her personal vocabulary to even describe this dark and odd locale.
"H-Hello?" She called out, wondering if there were other people out there. "Is there someone there?"
Her head darted frantically in all directions, nothing but dark and endless hallways all around with one only wondering where they could lead to. But the question of where she was still remains.
But then she thought she heard a whisper calling out her name.
"...Stacy…." It said, sounding near.
Gasping with surprise, Stacy looked to where it came from and to her knowledge, a large, rounded silhouette of a figure was at the end of one hallway, slowly and ominously coming forward, making a slow beeline for the lost girl. Stacy stayed still and tried not to make a sound as the figure came closer and closer with a crippling, icy fear of what might or could happen any second now clung to her and yet, no matter how close the figure got, Stacy still did not move a muscle or make a single peep.
And finally, the figure came close enough for Stacy to discern its features and its general appearance. It was a giant red panda, not unlike Mei's red panda.
Only it didn't possess that inviting, adorable outlook the girl was used to seeing in Mei's panda. To that end, the red panda figure had a blank stare. Regardless, Stacy wasn't afraid anymore.
"Oh." Her tiny little voice said, her fear being replaced by familiarity and a keen sense of security at seeing something that has brought her comfort and love with the power of panda cuteness.
What occurred next, however, was the last thing Stacy had excepted from the one thing she loved with all her heart.
The red panda slowly raised its paws up to its face and put them both inside its mouth, gripping both top and bottom jaws tightly before….
CRACK!
…..it legitably ripped its own head in half by the mouth from ear-to-ear and what's even worse is that when it did, it revealed a gigantic maw filled with rows of sharp, gnarly teeth like a moray eel from Hell that belonged to a demons monster ready to feast upon human victims and not a cute and cuddly red panda.
And with that, Stacy screamed.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Hel heard it.
Surtr heard it.
The gods heard it
All of the Nine Realms heard it.
But what nobody else realized outside of Hel was that by doing this to the poor girl, she would be successfully unlocking her own godly powers from within her at such an alarming, unprecedented rate that could lead to massive, catastrophic consequences. Because back on Midgard, every single one of the mortals looked up when the air suddenly felt chilly and cold, which was because of something that frightened all humans when they laid eyes upon it in the distance from the north, coming in fast and completely out of nowhere unexpectedly and it sent them fleeing back to their homes, rushing for safe cover and trying to make it out of the direct line of fire for it was gravely so.
A massive snowstorm that materialized in the skies, blinding the hot and clear summer sky with giant gray clouds, spewing the heaviest and most powerful snowfall ever in recorded human history and pretty soon, very soon and without a moment to waste and waiting for no man, it enveloped the land, shielding the sun from sight, bringing about an overcast darkness all over the land, covering all with the hardest fall of snow that showered down with such unnatural aggressive, vigorous brutality until all was buried deep within whiteness everywhere to the point where anyone unlucky enough to still be outside by the time it hid would be an instant goner in the deep freeze.
However, the god above knew exactly what this had meant as did Hel herself for this sets the stage of the events ushering in Ragnarök. The very first stage that leads to the end of the world in the first place, the prelude to the once-prophesied apocalypse that spanned perseveringly and unrelentingly over three years.
.
.
.
.
…..Fimbulwinter (Old Norse: Fimbulvetr), the endless winter that bedeviled the lands of Midgard until the end of the days were upon it.
Mei and her friends have arrive at their summer camp and things for them are looking just fine on their end. And Tyler's there with them. So there will be tons of stuff for them to do out there in the great outdoors.
Meanwhile, Kris is starting off with one-time gigs in order to build himself from the ground up. No matter the challenge, he will not give up because Deathfest is counting on him. And yes, Ratatoskr is exploring the human world in the form of a regular squirrel because it's thanks to Yggdrasil that the pesky squirrel has the ability to travel from one point on the globe to another via tree from the roots in the ground and it's by some coincidence that he happens to run into Kris during his last delivery. And speaking of coincidences, his last delivery is at Booker's place, throwing a wild party and surprisingly enough, Moose happens to be there. And just to show how far in his character arc he's gotten, he slips Kris a few extra dollars even though he showed up late.
That part where Ming is banned from the Daisy Mart, think about it. It's because of her that Devon is dealing with a reputation of being called a rapist or a child molester, resulting in his firing and it's because of her that the Daisy Mart lost a good cashier, so now she's been prompt banned from ever even coming near the store just to keep this from ever happening again. And Kris finally opens up about his plan to go to Deathfest with everyone at the table. Even though Ming offers to rehire him, Kris still refuses to go back to working for her, because he just can't stop remembering the bad times he's had at the temple and all the times he's been abused and bullied leading to his termination.
Though Ming should really learn to respect boundaries if she ever hopes to accomplish any sort of peace between them.
Circling back to when Stacy was abducted, Hel is clearly tormenting her with the most horrific nightmares to scare the poor girl out of her wits, unleashing an innate godly power within her that results in heavy consequences that comes in the form of the prelude to Ragnarök that is the three-year long winter called Fimbulwinter.
As for any Easter eggs, the address to Booker's house; 2619 Russo Dr.; that's a reference to the date Avengers: Endgame came out in theaters and the directors behind the movie itself, Anthony and Joe Russo.
Next Chapter: During a housesitting job, Kris is brought to the Nine Realms unexpectedly before the moment Fimbulwinter happens and encounters Fafnir, the dragon. Meanwhile, Björn rescues Stacy from captivity in Helheim.
Next Update: June 30, 2023