Chapter XIII. Mandala & Saṃsāra
Jafar rebooted "Replica But Disastrous", for which Hades had mixed feelings toward the news, to say the least.
Observing Jafar enjoy his live stream without the shadow himself cast was nice, Hades mused. Jafar appeared genuinely pleased during the stream, and that was what truly mattered to him. Perhaps it was a conscious choice NOT to mention Hades EVEN ONCE, but Jafar seemed to be enjoying himself. It was alright. Everything was fine.
Am I the villain in your story, Jafar?
These persistent thoughts were too heavy to bear. A sleep-deprived Hades reached for his phone and dialled Frollo's number as a ray of sunlight peeked through his window.
"Hey man, do I wake you up? You seem like a morning bird, ha," Hades walked toward the window and coiled some filaments of the curtain.
"And you do not, Mr Hades. Maybe we could learn a lesson about not judging a book by its cover as your call was a surprise...cough."
"Ay, you sound a bit sick. What's wrong? A bug in the stomach, got ran over by a truck, whatever slang to lengthen the sentence 'I am not ok', take your pick?" Hades snapped his finger, the filaments tapped the window.
"I had a little trouble with the wine cabinet, thank you," Frollo's voice was powerless, like those filaments in the air, "Could you get down to business?"
"Oh...I...Ummm..." Upon hearing Frollo was under the weather, Hades felt a bit guilty to call him so early, "I just want to check out how are Jafar and you doing, haven't you done so ever before? You know, just greeting and showing how much you care about others like A NORMAL PERSON would do?"
"Why don't you ask Jafar? Do you want him to answer?"
"Nah~he's a busy man, you know, I know. But I know better 'cause I've been there. Streaming, filming, editing, and cooking instant noodles..." Hades tried to chuckle, but from the reflection on the window, he could imagine how tense he sounded, "It's fine to just ask you since you share a bed with him."
"He is doing fine. A bit unhealthy in terms of his diet, but as his dormmate, I would do my best," Frollo answered. Hades felt like the man would run out of oxygen at any second, "Anything else?"
"Hey hey hey, don't hang up like you have a schedule of a secret agent, you and I are both retired men," Hades panicked a bit, "Is he alright during the stream yesterday? Like, did he whine about me off-camera?"
"Hades, the thing you're afraid of is probably just your imagination all alone," said a weakened Frollo, "Jafar just wanted closure, it's either that or he continues pretending you never existed in his life."
"Oh, he's terrible at acting, I ensure you," Hades whispered, as his voice became husky, "especially to me."
"Well, those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Anyway, thank you for your concern. I would pray for you and your family. Keep in touch."
Beep-
"Hello? Hello? Dang, that Frollo!" Hades subconsciously knocked on the window. Then he retracted his arm and moaned.
The first thing Frollo did after stepping into the dorm was pick up the Bible and something from the ground (it looked like a piece of paper but thicker), to which Jafar was a bit annoyed-Frollo should've just told him to help with it, the man just got out of the hospital.
"Go to bed, you old man," Jafar stormed to Frollo's side for the two empty bottles, "You now have your Bible, satisfied? I hope so because you are now going to bed!"
He watched Frollo holding onto the wall and stepping toward his bedroom, and then an idea of making breakfast for Frollo (and himself) came to him-he just made some acceptable fried chicken in the view of 10K viewers, cooking breakfast ain't harder, right?
Jafar headed to the kitchen, taking out an apron from the cabinet. He thought to himself: what are the difficulties of making a sunny-side-up? It's just cracking, frying, flipping, and done!
Humming a tune, he retrieved two eggs from the refrigerator, carefully setting one aside in a bowl away from the stove. Choosing a pan that was twice the size of his face, he positioned it on the stove and cranked the heat to maximum. With a swift motion, he cracked the egg with a single hand-and the horrifying hisses of the pan spooked him.
"AHHHHHHH!" Jafar blocked the heat wave by raising his hands in front of his face, waiting for the hisses to die down. He carefully approached the pan and flipped the egg with the wooden spatula, but the egg just stuck on the pan. All Jafar could do was watch the egg burnt, the spots of black devoured egg white like spreading disease.
"...Jafar."
Hearing the faint voice, Jafar turned his back-Frollo was behind him, leaning against the wall.
"Hey, don't you worry, I am GOOD at this, ok?" Jafar sneered and blocked the way between Frollo and the stove.
"...You fool, you forget to apply oil or butter before you fry the egg," Frollo was as blunt as usual, "Don't bother with the eggs. I am perfectly fine with just a cup of juice."
"MY EGG IS PERFECT-Fine, fine. You got me." Even Jafar couldn't lie to himself about this one. The egg was just disastrous-he quite lived up to the reputation as the founder of "Replica But Disastrious," didn't he? Jafar opened the refrigerator and pour Frollo a glass of orange juice. He watched the man sip the juice and stared back.
Stick to streaming, Jafar.
He felt like it was what the emotionless eyes of Frollo told him. At least Frollo's voice said so in his mind.
"Oh no, I had already scheduled a stream this afternoon-" said Jafar, burying his face into his hands.
After cleaning up the mess in the kitchen, Jafar realized he probably could not take care of Frollo the whole day. Hearing the concern, Frollo simply said "It's not like you could do that much for me anyway. Just call Uber Eats and call it a day." and went back to the bedroom.
"Starting the stream~" Jafar grinned to the camera, "Today I want to practice on the Minecraft Championship server and have some chat with you guys. You know, just chilling."
Jafar controlled his character in-game to walk to the racetrack for Ace Race-a race around a big track full of shortcuts and pitfalls where contestants had to sprint, jump, and fly to get to the finish line. A trident in the off-hand and a pair of elytra on the back were all he needed.
At the starting line, he gathered momentum by sprinting across driftwood, leaping from the bouncy area to propel himself into the sky, diving into the depths of the water, and soaring high by hurling the trident. The sequence of movements generated the necessary thrust for him to take flight.
He spammed the space bar to spread the elytra, gliding under several azure fences. A super chat appeared at the upper right corner of his screen:
"Thanks for the super chat from Walt_but_without_Math...ok, obscure username. 'Gliding o'er all, through all...'" Jafar read aloud, confused by the poem, "Ok, my chat is weird, which is totally normal."
Landing on a floating island, Jafar swiftly made his way to the yellow boost launchers line. With a burst of speed, he catapulted himself into the adjacent water area, a tunnel formed by golden rings with scarlet coral blocks as ornaments ahead.
"I should have read the whole thing, shouldn't I?" Jafar glanced at the corner of his screen again, "Gliding o'er all, through all. Through Nature, Time, and Space. As a ship on the waters...Brah! The super chat is gone, sorry folks, but it looks like you have to donate again for Reading Poems With Jafar."
A sly grin adorned Jafar's face as he rapidly clicked the right mouse button, penetrating himself through the underwater tunnel. The resounding sound of the trident's activation was the sole accompaniment echoing in his ears.
"Thanks for the super chat from Alt_Schwift_Flower, who said 'Is Mr Frollo doing alright today? I hope Mr Frollo won't storm into your studio with a gun in his hand.' Don't worry, he is fine. He just needs some rest after helping my stream. Speaking of which, do you guys enjoy the stream yesterday? We made some fried chicken, it was quite fun."
Jafar ascended from the water's surface, propelled skyward by the force of the trident's impact. Soaring towards the heavens, he set his sights on the finish line-this was merely the first loop of the practice. However, he decided to complete the entire course of three loops like a formal competition.
"Thanks for the super chat from DisneyLandForever, 'We are actually glad to see Jafar improve his cooking skill, at least he didn't attempt to make a snowball by the mixture as he did eight years ago.' See? I can do it now-wait, doesn't that mean 'Replica But Disastrous' is just... 'Replica' now? Hmmm," Jafar raised his eyebrow.
There was ABSOLUTELY no way he would be honest with his fan about how he messed up the simplest sunny-side-up this morning. No. He would be embarrassed to death.
"Alright, the next super chat from Wilburs_FireAlarm, 'Please read the poem, my comfort streamer.' Very well, very well.." Jafar read the whole super chat and executed a series of movements in the virtual world of Minecraft-bouncing, sprinting, diving, flying, and gliding in a closed loop.
"Gliding o'er all, through all,
Through Nature, Time, and Space,
As a ship on the waters advancing,
The voyage of the soul—not life alone,
Death, many deaths I'll sing."