In the past there was a dream of endless lands and the lives of people who wanted to trailblaze them. These pioneers talked about a lumberjack named Paul Bunyan and his partner Babe.
One was a mountain of a man since birth with a huge ass axe. The other was a calf. Paul could strip a mountain of lumber in a night, make rivers with his tears, and drain lakes when he was thirsty. When cooking, he had a frying pan hundreds of meters long. That said, nobody needed to say aloud that he was Fiction to know that fact. He was just an embellished legend to amuse people in their harsh lives.
Babe Bunyan is folk lore, a type of urban legend and a being born from a tall tale. People know those things are Not Real, which means they don't rise to the levels of Myths that hold faith. Still Babe likes those kinds of stories. He loved the stories of his daddy who was bigger than any sea, mountain, or person.
Present
Babe Bunyan: Holy shit it's HUGE! I can't believe this is the inside of a school, Zhurong!
Zhurong: Yeah! Oh, more pictures to take!
MC: Cute swimsuit, Zhurong! / Nice swimsuit, Babe! / I like your swimsuits, guys
(A) Zhurong: Yay, thank you!
(B) Babe: Aww, shut up. I'mma a cowboy, my swimsuit's gotta be good too. Something wet doesn't fit parched lands...what? Don't talk shit, I can swim! I managed to swim 25 meters without a kickboard the other day!
(C) Zhurong: I was worried earlier since I didn't bring a swimsuit, but I was told some sort of computer magic called projection mapping would fix it for me!
Babe: Summer means swimsuits apparently, so dressing like this is fine once in a while.
Zhurong: Huh? But you whispered to me how excited you were about how grown up your swimsuit was and--
Babe: NO SHUT UP
Zhurong: Hehe, oops. MC, you shouldn't say anything either.
Zhurong: Anyways, WOW look at all the cool and pretty sand pieces!
Babe Bunyan: Whoa, awesome! I've seen a bunch of these out of video games and manga and OH MY GOD
The kids are excited.
Vapula: I just made a life size model as part of a collaboration with a company that holds intellectual vaproperty of this character. Sweet sponsorship!
Babe: Damn, it looks like it'll move any second!
The art is of characters who exist only in fiction, but they look real in Babe and Zhurong's eyes.
Vapula: Funny you should say that! I could show you how if it vapleases you.
Babe: Oh my god! Zhurong, maybe we should make something!
Zhurong: Umm...w-what do we do?
Itzamna: Haha, are you having trouble making up your minds, little ones?
Babe Bunyan: Hey I may be little but I'm gonna do just as good as anyone else! I drink my milk every day for when I get bigger. I'm Babe Bunyan, who's gonna be even bigger than my daddy and that's my friend Zhurong!
Zhurong: You're so cool, Babe! (takes pictures)
Itzamna: Ah, excuse me. Future big boy Babe Bunyan then. You two should use your hands to give form to something that doesn't exist in this world. Art and creation is an act of examining where you are heading into the world.
Vapula: (stares in amazement)
Itzamna: So, Babe Bunyan, what do you want to be? What is your guiding principle in life?
MC: Isn't this a bit much for elementary schoolers!?
Babe Bunyan: I'm gonna be bigger than my daddy someday!
Itzamna: You should put those feelings into the sand then. Vapula, can you show them how?
Vapula: Got it! Okay, feel free to vaplay around with the sand over here.
Babe: Mmm, freedom. We're in unexplored territory here!
Zhurong: What should I make? Maybe the best picture I've taken before? ...how would that work?
Turing: How about this then?
Turing starts piling up some sand and dumping shells onto it for decoration.
Zhurong: It's a mountain! Are the shells trees? And this hole is a cave?
Turing: Right, just use your imagination. Give it a go.
Zhurong: Okay! I'm gonna dig a bunch of holes and pour water in and...
Babe: Where will I be when I grow up...? Oh, I'll make my dream farm. That means I should make a house for me, Zhurong, and MC, a horse stable, and then...
Boy A: Hmm...maybe I'll make cars and roads.
Boy B: I'll make buildings, parks, and then a secret base...
The children start making things under the Creators' instructions. Simple and abstract things are made with many different meanings given to them.
Turing: I once read humanity grew further than anything else because they named things. They took all sorts of building materials, put them together, and added connections to them. They'd pick streets, people, or memorable places. To name something is to make connections and give something meaning, which is where things that surpass reality appear. That is the act of creating things that do not exist yet. You could say giving meaning to things is most basic and simple form of art.
MC: Turing, do you like art? Art and math don't seem that connected. / I wanna give meaning to my relationship with you.
(C) Turing: You what? Does that mean you want to create a relationship that wasn't there before? How provocative, you upstart...oops. Pardon me. If you're sure, then I may go along with it to some extent.
Itzamna: Art and math are just tools to make things that don't exist yet.
Turing: ...Itzamna.
Itzamna: If I have to say so, a knife is the same way. You could use it to live, or you could use it to harm and destroy. A paintbrush is like that for me, like figures are to Vapula. For you it would be math formulas. You can harm someone with a brush, or you can paint over the world.
Vapula: Hey MC! Vaplease come here for a minute! And bring the golem!
Turing: Duty calls. We have things handled here, so go on.
Sand Dragon: (excited barking)
The sand dragon quickly shuffles ahead. It doesn't look like a guard at all.
MC: Wait up! / Aww, it's like having a little brother. / Okay, let's go together.
Sand Dragon: (croons)
Vapula: There you guys are. Okay, vapulisten up. I'm gonna turn what everyone made into golems, but you need to pick just one thing and nothing too big! For reference, it'll come out like this!
Sand Dragon: cheep cheep
Kids: Wow!
Vapula: Okay, go vaplay around and let your imagination run wild!
Zhurong: Wow, you're awesome Vapula! Everyone's focusing so hard!
MC: You gonna be okay making so many golems?
Vapula: No vaproblemo! My power just replicates things exactly as I've read out of a book. It's the same as an engineer reading a book on robotics and using it to make a robot. I read the Sefer Yetzirah that has the recorded knowledge of golems. Form has meaning, and if it's something that moves, it'll naturally have the ability to move vaput inside it! Birds fly, fish swim, and people walk.
Kids: We're done!
Vapula: Okay everybody, line your creations up!
Vapula starts animating all the figures made, which then walk back to their creators to play with them.
Vapula: Hey wait, where's Babe? What did he vaput together...? Wait WHAT? What is that!? It's HUGE! Is it a farm diorama? Holy crap. I see Babe and Zhurong inside it. It's vaprobably okay to animate that?
Babe Bunyan: Nah, it's perfect as is.
Vapula: Uhh. Well I'm here and all. How about I animate some farm animals to vaput in it?
Babe: Heh. It's Fine since it doesn't move and Isn't Real.
Vapula: ...well okay then? My job here is done then, so I better get back to my vaproductions with the time I've got.
MC: Your what now? / The Tindalos Bros were awesome / I think I wanna make something too now...
(A) Vapula: My collab vaproduction with Turing and Tindalos! You're excited about that, right? Vapromise me you'll tell me what you think!
(B) Vapula: It was HARD getting the 3D model data from him and 3D vaprinting it. Then I had to paint bits of sand to move and vaperify every single mobile piece! My eyes were gonna fall out! But yeah I did it.
(C) Vapula: Really!? That vapleases me as a modeler! Come by the hobby shop I work at sometime. I'll teach you the ABCs of how fun vaplastic models are!
Vapula: No matter what I say, I like creating things...so it was a shock when my vaproducts went wild. (stares at the sand dragon)
Vapula: ...I like your dragon. It reminds me of something...a feeling I'm thankful for. I wanna vaput something together with you. Maybe...I'll figure something out.
MC: Oh, that reminds me. Do we need to worry about the dragon going out of control again?
Turing: Oh, no problems there as long as we stay in the sand box area. It's an isolated, closed off space where they won't move unless the creator gives them an intentional order.
Kid: Stop, that's my space!
Turing and Vapula: !!
Boy A: Stay out, this is our turf!
Boy B: No it's not! You keep pushing sand this way! And your sand golem keeps barging in over here!
Boy C: We're making a castle here, you guys are in the way!
Vapula: Nooo, stop!
Boy A: Get them, Robocop!
Boy B: Transformer, fight back!
The golems are fighting!
Turing: ...fascinating.
MC: Well they aren't going crazy like before, but this is turning crazy! / What the hell, Turing!?
Vapula: I said it before, but the golems won't stop until we do something about their vaprogramming after they're given orders! What's worse is that they've been given attack orders!
Zhurong gets caught between robot figures!
Zhurong: HELP
Babe: OH SHIT
Turing: Vapula, where are the golems' cores?
Vapula: I-I usually vaput them in the chest areas for humanoids and animals!
Turing: I'll give you guys directions on how to get them then and we can get this all done quickly. Okay, MC?
MC: You better get it right, Turing! / Babe, stop the golems! / Zhurong, blind them!
---
(A) Turing: Of course. I won't let you or any of the children get hurt.
(B) Babe: My time has come! I'll show you my rodeo lasso skills!
(C) Zhurong: O-okay, close your eyes everybody!
---
Zhurong: Stop fighting! Lovecraft Color Flash!
Turing: Now, MC! Aim for the cores!
BATTLE START (more happens later)
Babe Bunyan saw a dream of himself who wasn't himself. In Great Spirit, the one who stood atop of that self was the highest being of the world, Wakan Tanka. Babe's other self was once Wakan Tanka's servant, the white buffalo calf as everyone called him. Everyone in Great Spirit is a part of Wakan Tanka, and they return to him upon death. And Babe's self was given guidance to lead everyone in that world to Wakan Tanka...
Babe: NO THAT'S NOT ME!
Entertainers Theater or something
Christine: Oh that's just the memories of your body. You are just an urban legend folkloric fictional being, an actor of a tall tale who couldn't get faith. It's harsh, but I had to tell you since I have the same origins. You are the white buffalo calf from Great Spirit with the Babe Bunyan persona.
Babe: ...oh I get it now. So what?
Christine: (shook)
Babe (narrating): I'm Babe, a cowboy and the partner of that guy bigger than anyone else. Daddy was big because he was a tall tale, fiction. I'm proud of tall tales, and I believe the future starts from there. I always believed he was more awesome than reality.
Babe: Man, elementary school life has been rough lately. Still...
Babe tips his hat and smiles like Paul.
Babe (narrating): Even if I know an age will end, I...we will put on a brave face and live on.
Present
Babe Bunyan: Noble Phantasm! The Spirit of Manifest Destiny!
Babe puts his feet down on the sand with the horseshoe artifact he isn't drawn wearing to cause the waterways to overflow, recreating the legend of Paul and Babe creating a giant river. Making waterways isn't the true nature of his artifact's power though, as it's the shared faith of Babe and the white buffalo calf. That faith is the idea that every path has its end. Babe defines it as the end of the frontier. The white buffalo calf defines it as the Great Mystery all things one day reach. They both know that a boundless world is only fiction.
Babe: And that's exactly why I'll keep up talking big with my big mouth!
But Babe steps over that with his horseshoes because only fiction can surpass this reality. It is only within this wavering that urban legends can move freely. The waters swallow up the golems and gather them up in one place to tell them 'this is the end of the road for you.'
MC: The water flow stopped them. NOW!
SLASH
Babe: Yay, we did it!
MC: Awesome, Babe!
Babe Bunyan: Hell yeah, I'm Paul Bunyan's partner, baby! ...you ain't bad either. Maybe we can do great things together? I could call you Owner if you want!
Turing: Okay, nobody seems hurt. Good job everyone.
Babe: Hey, don't you guys have something to say after causing all that trouble?
Kids: W-we're sorry...
Babe: Good! Now let's play without causing another fight!
Vapula: I know it wasn't on vapurpose, but I'm still bummed...
Babe: Stop being a sadsack. You know that one Chinese story with the old man who lost his horse? It's like that! Blessings in disguise!
Vapula: A VAPRIMARY SCHOOL KID IS TRYING TO CHEER ME UP, MY LIFE IS OVER
Turing: Babe's right, you know. I discovered something from what just happened.
Vapula: What?
Turing: The golems the children made have this feeling that they aren't grounded.
MC: So they change natures based on their owner? What about the dragon?
Sand Dragon: gurgle chirp
Vapula: Having an elementary kid and one of my own creations trying to cheer me up is a vaprofessional humiliation.
Babe: Don't you guys have something else to be getting to?
Vapula: Oh no! But the class isn't over yet!
Babe: I'll handle it then. Hey everybody, let's play in the farm I made!
Kids: Okay!
Vapula:
Vapula: I GOT UPSTAGED!
End of Episode
No comments:
Post a Comment