“Ledmer?! You didn’t tell me we were coming to my resort, or I would have dressed more bossily!” Kada complained the moment they stepped out of Valen’s portal. “Quick, someone get me a business suit, stat!” She tried to cover up her usual, breezy beach-bum getup. To everyone’s surprise, an employee did show up shortly after with a suit for her which she threw on over her garb.
“Wow, it’s evolved quite a bit since we were last here,” Drim looked the most impressed of all. Not even two weeks after they’d completely terraformed the island, construction had begun. Now, not quite a year later, the Mermaid’s Reef resort, water park, and animal sanctuary was nearing completion.
Normally, a project of this size would take years, decades even. But no expense had been spared. Many contractors with greed in their eyes kept promising Kada shortcuts she could take, but she rejected them all. Instead, she hired only those that would work hard and do it right. Each company was allowed to hire as many workers as they needed, all paid extremely well.
Roque had also suggested a few contractors who had done work on their low-income housing projects, knowing how well they worked. And they produced results. There was no deadline, just whenever it was done, but it was still one of the fastest and most well produced construction projects in recent history. Only the Central Peace headquarters itself could probably match the scope and efficiency.
“We’re still a few months out from opening. I don’t know that I want people to see the resort before it’s done,” the owner began to protest the filming.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered,” Chorus insisted. “We’ll only be shooting from angles that perfectly encapsulate what’s already been completed. Most of today will be inside the event venue and some waterpark rides that are already fully built and just awaiting inspection.”
“Well, I guess that’s fine then,” Kada conceded. “But I want to review all the footage before any of this goes out!”
“Of course, as is your right,” their PR manager was surprisingly amenable, the complete opposite of how little they usually cared about their personal privacy. “And I’m sorry to say, but we’ll be splitting up here.” More staff came and approached the group. “Kada and Xard, please go with them. I haven’t told you what you’re doing yet, but you’ll want the morning to plan and prepare once they tell you. So take your time, and be creative. I’m expecting a lot. Drim will be too if you want his vote.”
There were many looks of confusion from all parties as the two were led away, leaving the siblings alone with Chorus. “Now for you two....” They launched their wardrobe at Drim first and then Phon, changing them into bathing suits. “You two are just going to have some fun.”
“Well, it’s still work, I suppose. The team building the attractions just needs to run the safety tests and certifications on some rides. But some of them have pretty advanced and otherwise dangerous features if things go wrong, so they’d like a Fiend to test them out first—less chance for a lawsuit. You’ll understand more when we get there.”
◆◆◆
“So this is my ingenious always-flat surfboard,” a rather enthusiastic scientist waited for them at one of the attractions. He was surrounded by other engineers and construction workers who also wanted to witness the testing, and he began presenting as soon as the Fiends arrived, eager to show off his work.
“It is designed to never flip over, and will keep your feet firmly planted as long as you don’t forcibly try to remove them. When it’s on a track like the one behind me, though, it won’t let the rider off unless it’s at a designated loading station. This is to keep idiots from hurting themselves on purpose.”
“But we’re also planning to have them available out in the wave simulator section of the beach. If you haven’t checked it out yet, it produces the perfect waves all day every day—with some purposeful variance of course. There, the board will release you if the wave itself flips you over, or if you try to remove yourself from it. Otherwise, it won’t let you fall into the water until you’re back on land.”
“As long as you are able to stand for a few minutes, anyone can ride this ride while having no prior surfing skills. People can also sit down if they’d prefer, and we have a wheelchair accessible variation as well.”
“And how confident are you that it’ll work?” Drim was curious.
“100% certain!” the scientist hoisted his nose up to the sky in pride.
“Then why don’t you go ahead and test it out yourself if you’re oh so confident,” Phon suggested smugly.
“99.7% certain,” the man corrected himself. “There’s always a margin of error. And while I’m very sure it will work, and be completely safe, I’m marginally worried that the error will be physical harm to my own weak fleshy meat sack. That is why we need your much stronger and durable physiques, since if you fall off, you won’t be permanently hurt, scratched, scarred, disabled, or killed, which would leave us open to lawsuits.”
Drim went first. He stepped onto the watery track of the attraction and a surfboard automatically floated over to him. The moment he stepped on, his footing felt firm, like standing on solid ground. He wiggled his feet a bit, and the board shifted in the water, but he felt secure the entire time.
“The board will allow you some movement since we want it to feel like you’re actually surfing,” the scientist explained. “But if all goes well, even if you try to swerve out of the track or tip over, it should correct the balance itself and prevent you. For this run, just enjoy yourself and do what feels natural. We will try to break it on the next one. Just lean forward a bit when you’re ready to start.”
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Drim did as instructed just until he got out of the staging area and then the current took him. It started slow but quickly built up speed, and in seconds, he felt like he was really surfing. The track was a halfpipe that winded around the entire park. It looked like it’d take a while, possibly too long for some people to stand, but with how fast he was going, the ride might even feel too short.
It seemed he could control the speed a bit by leaning forward and back, and also drift left and right by adjusting his weight. For now, he was taking it slow and enjoying the scenery of the park. Kada really had done a fantastic job designing it, and the workers had fully brought it to life.
Some parts were still under construction, but most of it was ready to go. Drim could see the main street down below, the stalls and restaurants set up. He could already imagine the smells that would be wafting up towards the rider in the future, and that alone made him hungry.
The ride itself took him through some interesting set pieces: a giant skull rock, behind a waterfall into a hidden grove, and there was even a circular tube that simulated passing through a giant wave, as if he was really surfing out in the ocean.
Not long into the ride, Phon had caught up with him, but the boards wouldn’t let her overtake him until they were in a wide enough area, though it still wouldn’t let them ride side by side. Eventually, they reached a split that took them down two separate paths, with large signs pointing in both directions.
Phon went down the path that took her around exploding volcanoes, or they at least seemed real enough. Drim didn’t really have a preference between that and the decaying ruins, so he let the board decide for him. It was a good test to see what would happen, since he aimed straight at the split. But before he could hit it, the board steered him towards the ruins.
As he sped by, ancient stone buildings collapsed around him, with accompanying sound effects and a bit of smoke and dust flying. Some parts of it were always rebuilding itself in the background, ready to fall apart for the next surfer. After that section, the track merged back into one and dropped him and Phon off at the disembarking pool. He stepped off the board and it floated itself into a slot nearby for it to be delivered to the next rider.
“That was pretty impressive, I’ll admit,” Phon gave some rare praise. “But now let’s see how badly I can break it.” She went ahead and hopped on for the next go-round. Drim shortly followed suit, and he immediately tried to crash as well.
After shifting his body as much as he possibly could, he gave up on the idea of trying to tip the board over that way. It really wouldn’t budge, even if he tried to let his body go limp and drop his full weight to one side. Whatever gyroscopic mechanics were in the board always managed to sense it and adjust to keep him upright.
So Drim had to try some external factors. He latched some vines to the side of the track and attempted to pull himself over the edge. It really fought him. With a bit more effort, he felt he could probably rip himself free of the pipe, but he was already expending far more strength than a human or even a Lesser could manage, so they wouldn’t need to worry about it.
He tried putting some roots on the track ahead of him to simulate debris, but the board just smoothly went over most of it. There was a time or two where he actually got a bit of air, but the board desperately angled itself to stay within the confines of the pipe and keep the rider safe. Maybe that scientist had every right to be so full of himself. The technology in this board was fantastic
Drim gave up trying to break it until he reached the volcano section. He attached another vine to a fake rock that flew straight upwards when an eruption happened. The chances were low, but he had the idea that it was possible a large bird or monster of prey could swoop down to try and abduct someone.
Since they’d done their mass culling, coupled with the resort's defensive measures, it would likely never happen, but he had no other ideas of what to test for. The board fought for quite a long time, but eventually it gave up and released Drim from its hold and the rock sent him soaring a bit.
The board itself started to beep, likely to report back to the staff that an incident had occurred. When Drim touched back down onto the track, that part of the pipe lit up, and the now riderless board turned around to come and get him, which he rode back to the end.
“I couldn’t get it to break either,” Phon admitted upon his return. “The only way to get anything to happen was to teleport myself and the board away. When I did that, it let me step off freely, and when I teleported back to the ride, it continued as if nothing had happened.
“Well, that was the main issue we wanted you to test,” the scientist thanked them for their service. The other employees began to line up, eager to try it for themselves. “But everything else around here could still use a few test rides, so feel free to help yourselves.” The scientist then ripped off his jacket, swim trunks already underneath, and joined the line.
“Go on ahead,” Chorus nodded to the siblings. “We still have a good amount of time, so just have some fun. I won’t crash on your sibling bonding, but I’m sure you’re aware I’ll be watching from nearby.”
Drim and Phon then went all over the park, quickly experiencing all there was currently to offer since there were literally no lines. Occasionally, an employee had to start a ride for them, but most of them were fully operational already and self-sustaining.
They rode tandem down some giant slides on tubes, and a few more where they just used their bodies. There were some faux rapids that they rode through on a canoe—with similar technology as the surfboard to make sure it stayed upright. Kada had even come up with the world’s first water roller coaster that used jet streams to move the guests up hills before they came crashing back down.
Why the hell are you sniffling? Drim asked internally to the ghost of his mother floating beside him so that Phon couldn’t hear.
“It’s just… this is almost like the family vacation that we never had, that I always wanted to take you two on,” Eleen blubbered a bit. “I hope the ghost of your father is conscious enough to see this. It’s so rare that you two genuinely have happy moments like this these days—warms my heart as your mother. Maybe someday you could invite your uncle, and while he couldn’t see me, it’d be nice for all of us to be together.”
Well, maybe that’s not such a bad idea, Drim mused on it. Having a nice trip with uncle, not anything involving you, let me be clear. Maybe after—
“Ugh, Kada really couldn’t have let them keep a single restaurant open?” Phon complained as they walked down the main street of the park. “Not even a snack cart?! I’m starving.”
“It’s great that you have an appetite,” Chorus popped out suddenly from wherever they were skulking. “Because it’s time for our next event. Right after I get you changed. Can’t have our guests, or should I say judges of honor, looking like tourist trash!”