“Vladdy! Just the man I wanted to see!” Luka said, walking over to his son-in-law.
The man pursed his lips and scrunched his nose. The nickname, while embarrassing and private, somehow had spread through the village and to everyone working for the park. It was a pet name, something between him and Annie—his wife.
“I am so going to poison that goddess,” Vladdy muttered, referring to the Goddess of Brews and his personal patron, Bylow. The goddess had taken the newest World Walker under her wing when he was first reincarnated, even going so far as to oversee his ‘body-choosing.’ And as much as Vlad appreciated that, he knew deep in his heart that she had spread his nickname just to mess with him.
Luka scanned his son-in-law the same way he always did—begrudgingly. Vladdy wasn’t human anymore, at least in appearance. He chose to change his body after reincarnation, and luckily for everyone, chose a race close to human in shape and size. Vladdy was now an elf—an elf as lean as he was tall. He had pointy ears, fluted nostrils, and high cheeks. Silken blonde hair cascaded from his shoulder, and he radiated a sunny glow.
And, since meeting him, Luka didn’t know how he felt about the body change. On the one hand, he knew he shouldn’t care. On the other, he felt strange knowing his daughter okayed the change.
He shivered and locked the thought away. “Is the new batch ready?” he asked.
Vladdy nodded and departed from his brewing station. They were inside one of the employees’ lounges, a place where people could take breaks and/or get away from the chaos of the park. It was off limits to normal guests and fitted with amenities and snacks. This particular lounge also housed Vlad’s workstation for the time being. Like most things in the park, it was a work in progress right now.
Vladdy gave a cauldron filled with thick, brown syrup a stir, making sure to scrape the bottom. No one wanted a burnt soda… although the flavor might be interesting. He grabbed two glasses from a cupboard and reached deep into an enchanted box. Freezing glyphs blasted the inside of the box, chilling everything to ice-cold within minutes. It was fittingly named the blast freezer.
He returned with a metal keg of soda and released the tap and poured two cups.
“How’s the keg working?” Luka asked, giving his drink a swirl before inhaling the vanilla aroma. Root beer wasn’t his favorite flavor back on Earth, but after tasting the real, fresh thing, he might have changed his mind.
“It’s good,” Vlad said hesitantly. “Though it’s still not what we used at the factories. See here?” He pointed at the valve mechanism. “There’s too much pressure for the feed spear. That’s why it came out so foamy.”
“Isn’t root beer supposed to be foamy?”
“It is and it isn’t depending on the batch. Today’s wasn’t supposed to be foamy and was supposed to be very mild in bubbles. Smooth root beer is my personal favorite compared to that artificially carbonated crap.”
Luka slowly nodded, then reached out with his magic. A shelf a few steps away held a dozen different strips, ingots, and shapeless masses of metal. He twisted and contorted, flattened and rolled. In moments, a new keg was created, one with a better pressure regulator.
“Try this one and let me know what you think.” Then, Luka tried his drink. It was sweet, a bit too foamy, but rather smooth. Aged wood hinted on his breath, and a forward honey taste lingered after the fact. “Honey?” then asked.
Vladdy smiled. “Exactly. I used all honey for the syrup and boiled it with charred oak pellets. I think I got the flavor down.”
Luka took another sip. “It’s good.”
“It’s great.”
He chuckled. “Okay, okay. It’s amazing.”
The son-in-law gave a curt, mocking bow. “Thank you, thank you.”
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“Any interest in wooden kegs? I can make you a few.”
“No, not right now. I don’t trust myself not to make mead or beer and I don’t want to—”
Luka held up his hand. “I’m not that man anymore. Whatever Annie told you, I’m not a drunk anymore—Tippy made sure of that. You can make alcohol; I’m just not going to be your taste tester.”
On Earth, Luka had died with a bottle of booze and a dozen pills in his stomach. He spent his last few years alone, drunk, and freezing. And once he was reincarnated, Goddess Tippy made sure he couldn’t relapse. Alcohol smelled repulsive if he so much as thought about taking a sip.
Vladdy gave him an assessing eye before nodding. “Then I’d love some wooden barrels.”
“Good. I’ll tell Todd as well. He’s always looking for something new to sell at the bar.”
“If you have to…”
Luka raised an eyebrow.
Vladdy quickly said, “He calls me ‘elf-boy.’”
Luka’s mouth opened and closed a few times. “Is that better or worse than ‘Vladdy?’”
He considered before sighing and changing topics. “Have you seen Annie today? She wanted to start terraforming.”
It was Luka’s turn to sigh. “I told her not to rush—”
“So did I.”
“But I get it. Magic’s amazing, and she has something special going on in her bones.”
Vlad nodded along. “Don’t I know it?” He reached over to the keg and poured another glass before setting it at the edge of the counter. He then placed his hands together, like he was praying, and said, “Oh, my wonderful Goddess please accept this stupid World Walker’s fizzy drink as a sacrifice and give me your wisdom.”
Distantly, laughter echoed through the room. The light glyphs flickered, turning the place dark, before coming back on. The glass of root beer was missing, and in its place, a handwritten note about flavor complexities and brewing temperatures.
Vladdy read the ‘wisdom’ over, sighed, and said, “The least she could do was leave the cup. We’re running low—” The lights flickered again, and when they came back on, the glass was back. “Thanks,” he muttered to the open air.
Luka patted him on the back. “The gods are characters, aren’t they?”
“Yeah, especially the one who demands Earthen soda as payment for ‘guiding’ me.”
“Yeah, well. Better than sacrificial murders or something.”
“Is that a thing in this world?”
Luka paused. “I’m… not sure, actually.”
Vlad stared at him, coughed awkwardly, and said, “Well, come by for dinner tonight, yeah? Annie won’t admit it, but she wants to spend more time with you.”
“I will.” He hesitated at the doorway. “You’re not using your magic, right?” He was referring to the special divine World Walker magic every World Walker got. Luka’s own dealt with fabrication. Annie’s with terraforming. And Vlad’s with… unspeakable things.
The elf-human shook his head. “Once was enough, thank you.”
“Good. See you later.”
The next place to check on was the Constellation Kingdom’s second and the newest ride: Monolith. The ride towered over the park, a hulking frame of black metal and twisting red magic that cracked the smooth surface into countless ravines. It radiated fear and anxiety, a perfect thrill ride for all ages. It sat firm on a bed of stone, like a throne in the king’s court.
Luka followed the path, stepping through the line like earlier. White, clean research buildings sat along the trail, each named something akin to “RS 1” or “FS 3” for “research 1” and “field supply 3” respectively. In this land, they were nothing more than dust shacks—an excuse to use leftover supplies. But boy oh boy if Luka wasn’t proud of them.
The lunar modules fit perfectly into the dark, dreary atmosphere of the alien world. They were beacons of humanity, “weenies” to pull guests through the paths.
Coined by an Earthen man, the term “weenie” meant exactly that—a draw to move guests further into the park and to break up bottlenecks. It could be something as simple as a castle at the end of a main street or something more subtle, like a clean, white research shack amongst a sea of dead stone and alien wilderness.
Monolith was a drop-tower style ride. Riders sat in their seats before the seats pulled everyone up through the center of the rectangular monolith. They slowly spun, the cracks in the monolithic shell like windows into the park—or in this case, the alien world. Eventually they arrived at the top, where they hung for a few moments before dropping back down to the ground in a freefall. The ride, of course, caught them, but not after guests screamed their heads off.
Luka inspected the braking system at the base of the tower while it slowly carried guests up. He knew the timing like the back of his hand and safely got out of the way when it came crashing down. He marked his clipboard and moved on.
The issue with a ride like Monolith was the lack of computer control. On Earth, countless systems went into ride creation, and if any of them tripped a red flag, the ride would shut down. There were ways to mimic the effect with magic, but Luka didn’t know them… yet.
He shuddered at the thought of working with the Guilds. They had brought him to court, ran him through the wringer, but eventually let him go after forcing a partnership deal on him. But that was for later.
It was time for his favorite part of the day—meeting his three favorite people in the whole world.