Job Hunting With Discord: Part 2
Time: 7:45pm
I would have never known it if I hadn't seen it. But, Las Vegas is absolutely stunning at sunset. All the sites, the sounds, the people. I could see now why Discord decided to work here; despite it's beauty, Vegas was sort of chaotic. If you looked at it from a different view point, that is.
Besides, there was a reason why they have that saying: 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas'.
As we drove down the Las Vegas Freeway in a Toyota Discord made via magic, he told me more stuff about his life, before he had married my mom. I always found the his stories interesting, but who wouldn't when their stepfather was pretty much an alien from another dimension.
He also had the radio playing, but the songs were what most would call one of the classics. Like smooth jazz and Dean Martin, it was never something I'd have ever thought I'd find him listening to. I always thought his taste in music was a little ...chaotic, like DubStep.
"-So, long story short, I ended up being turned back to stone, again." Discord finished, as he stopped at the next light.
I patted his shoulder, showing my empathy. "Damn, that's harsh, Bruh. Out after a thousand years just to get put back in the same situation." I commented, glancing out the car window, before turning back to the spirit. "They have some weird name, though. I mean, Twilight Sparkle, really."
"Well if you think that's weird, her brother has an even better one." Discord said. The light turned green and we were moving again.
"What is it?"
"Shining Armor."
I gave him a blank look. "Seriously? Your bullshitting me, right?"
"Nope, I'm quite serious."
My expression became a grin as I started laughing. "Ah ha ha~ Shining Armor! Who name's their kid something like Shining Armor, it so fairy tail sounding it's funny! Even for a unicorn!"
"Maybe one day you'll meet him. Nice guy. His wife doesn't like me so much, though."
"It could be because you used to be evil." I was just throwing that out there.
Discord gave a thoughtful expression. "Evil? I won't say I was evil, more to the point ...misunderstood. Not everyone can appreciate my type of magic like your mother does."
"Yeah, mom's weird like that." She truly was.
The drive lasted for about ten minutes after that, until we pulled up to a place that looked like a old fashion restaurant with a sign on the front that said: Johnny Rocket. We both exited the car and made our way to the building. When we entered, I was surprised to see it was one of those old fifties diners.
I've never been in one, but the smell of the food and the music made it seem like I was taken back to the American golden age. They even had a dance floor, with some couple in the middle of a crowd of people doing The Swing.
"Um, Discord, what is this place?"
"It's your new job, of course. Wait here for a moment." Discord didn't say anything else and walked off into the crowd towards the kitchen area, leaving me here to look around some more. I made my way into the crowd of people on the dance floor; the music had changed from jazzy Doo-Wop blues to a slow song. I felt sort of out of place, everyone had a partner to dance with but me.
That was when I felt a tap on my shoulder. Turning around, I saw that it was a girl around my age. She was shorter then me, with long dark hair and black eyes, wearing an white waitress's uniform. The only way to describe her would be doll face; like a Chinese glass dolls.
"You know if your not dancing, you should probably move off the dance floor." She said, softly. Her tone told me that it was more of a suggestion then an order.
I starred at her, nodding like an idiot. "Uh ...right, sorry." God, this girl was cute. I really hope I don't make a fool of myself.
Once we were off of the dance floor, I took a seat at one of the booths and waited for Discord.
"So are you ordering anything?" The Asian girl asked.
I shook my head. "No, I'm just waiting for someone. That's all."
"I could get you some water, it's free."
"No thanks, I'm fine," I declined the offer polity. "Thank you, though."
The waitress sighed, but nodded. "Alright, then." Then she left to wait another table that was on the other side of the restaurant. The place was pretty busy, sure I was a little thirsty, but I didn't feel the need for a drank at the moment.
After almost fifteen minutes of sitting and waiting. The spirit of chaos finally returned, with a slightly younger looking women trailing behind him. I stood up just as the two stopped at the booth. The woman was looking me over, inspecting me with stern brown eyes. It was making me kinda nervous.
Then she spoke. "So, you're David's stepson I've heard so much about?"
"Um, y-yes ma'am. That's me," I answered.
"David tells me you need a job. Just so you know, I don't employ slackers. You have to be here on time everyday." She paused for a moment, before continuing. "You don't have a police record, do you? Anything I should know about?"
I shook my head. "No ma'am. I have a clean slate." And it was something I was pretty damn proud of, too. Not many people I know can say they've never had a run in with the police. For something bad, at least.
"Hm." The lady starred at me, blankly. Then looked over towards Discord for confirmation. "No record, no drug use? Can you vouch for him on this, David?"
Discord nodded. "He's not lying, Julie. Boy's got a cleaner slate then most his age, I can say that for sure."
"I'll take your word on it." She turned back to me, a small smile gracing her face. Julie took my hand and shook it. "Looks like your in the Johnny Rocket family now, kid. I expect you here at eight o' clock sharp starting tomorrow, got it."
I smiled. "Yes ma'am. Thank you."
"Good. I'll be seeing you at your next show, Discord. Keep safe now."
"I always do, Julie. You have a goodnight, now."
The woman, Julie, walked back towards the kitchen area and me and Discord left out of the diner. The old time music fading behind us when the doors closed. Once we got in the car, that was we I took notice of what the manager had called Discord.
"Hey, why did that lady call you by your real name?" I asked.
The draconequus grinned. "She thinks it's my stage name. Discord The Chaotic." He answered as he started up the car. "She was actually the one who came up with it after my premiere show. I think it had something to do with the card trick involving the mini atomic explosion."
That made sense, I guess. Though I still had one thing that needed answering. "Also, If you haven't noticed, we're in Vegas. But, we live in Philly, how in the world am I suppose to get to work all the way across the country?"
"Oh, that's easy, getting here can be as simple as opening up a door~!" Discord said, smiling widely.
I raised an eyebrow. I didn't get it. "That doesn't make any sense." I replied.
Discord gave a chuckle. That was laced with a slight bit of evilness to it. "Justin, I'm Discord, nothing I do ever makes sense." He stated, as if that explained everything. "Besides, what's the fun in making sense."
"It might not be fun but at least it gives people an idea of what you're thinking, jeez."
XxxxX
The house was quiet, a little bit too quiet. Usually, you could hear the TV or Taylor throwing his blocks around. But, there was nothing, not even the sound of the television. We were making our way down stairs when we noticed that no one was in the house. I couldn't be sure though because the living room was too dark to tell.
As we got to the bottom of the steps, I turned to Discord. "Where is everyone?"
Discord shrugged. "You're asking the wrong person. Though, I do have a few ideas." Then he flicked on the light switch.
I was caught totally off guard by the state the house was in. It wasn't the fact that everything was a mess, it was the fact that the entire house just looked different ...bigger. Like someone had turned in into some type of huge child's playhouse. There were huge over sized letter blocks on the floor, taffy trees, balloons floating high up on the ceiling that was about as high as the sky, and I'm not just saying that. There were literal mountains of chocolate cake, and the ceiling fan was turn into a smiling sun with a toy clown head sticking on each of the fan blades.
Creepy. I probably thought that because I hate clowns with a passion.
"Ahuck~ come play with me!" ...Wait, did the fan just talk? "Come play with me~!" Yep, it defiantly talked. And, had the nerve to sound like Penny Wise. I'm hating this already.
But, where as I was taken by complete shock, Discord seemed to be a little ...was that pride?
"Well, this is surprising. To think that Taylor would still be able to do all the this with the bracelet on." The chaotic spirit, uttered. "He's done an excellent job for one so young, if I do say so my self." He took a hand full of chocolate cake and ate it in one bite. "Marvelous~!"
"Um ...shouldn't we be finding the boys and Annie?"
"And we shall. Right after I finish off this delicious cake."
"Discord," I muttered. "I mean, like, right now."
Discord groaned and dropped the cake he was about to eat. "Alright, fine. You always have to ruin the fun."
And so we began our walk through the candy forest, which was easy since there was a long peppermint trail leading between the trees. It only took us about five minutes until we got to the end, and there we found Annie, John and Taylor sitting in the middle of a clearing having so type of picnic. Taylor was eating ice cream, totally ruining his clothes in the process. John was stuffing his mouth with strawberry short cake. And, Annie had a carrot salad with a ton of other vegetables.
While making my way over to them, I enjoyed the scenery. Despite being a chaotic mess, it was a work of art compared to what Taylor had done to the house the last few times. At least there were no man eating gummy bears trying to kill me this time. You'd think that gummy bears wouldn't have teeth, right?
Well, you would be wrong. Taylor made sure they did.
"Oh, hey bro, Discord! Welcome back!" John waved at us with icing covered hand.
"Hi guys," I greeted back, before adding. "So ...what's going on around here?"
"You know, the usual. Taylor had one of his tantrums, again," the per-teen said, shaking his head. "But, at least it's only the house and not on a country wide scale this time."
I gave a nod. "I can't agree more." If the public could remember, the one time chocolate rain fell from the sky and flooded the streets was one of the worse things that happened in the last decade. And the midget alien invasion made it slightly worse. Don't ask how, just don't.
"Dada~!" Taylor exclaimed, a pair of small wings forming on his back. One similar to an angel wing, while the other looked closer to a bat's wing.
I watched in slight envy as the toddler took to the air and floated towards Discord, landing in his arms, laughing and giggling. Flight, it was one of Taylor's many gifts. As a little kid I always dreamed of flying. Shoring through the air, being able to go anywhere I wanted at any time. Taylor was lucky, once his magic started to awaken as he went from a few months old to the big number one, he'd fly himself all over the place for short periods of time. Discord said his wings weren't that strong yet, which made sense, since he was so young.
Despite being the chaotic little trouble maker he was, Taylor was my little brother, and as such I always tried to help him fly better. That's what big brothers do after all.
"Ah~ if it isn't my little bundle of chaos!" Discord cooed, holding up the laughing toddler, before turning to Annie. "He wasn't a too bad today, was he?"
Annie continued to nibble on a carrot and made a so-so gesture with her hand. Discord nodded, then went back to continuing to play with the baby, making different funny faces that would have been impossible for a human to do to get more giggles out of the toddler. It was during that time that the thought came to mind, again.
If my new job was all the way in Las Vegas, how was I suppose to get there everyday? It's not like I was magic or anything, and taking a plane was out of the question. I was beginning to think that Discord didn't think any of this through at all.
"Discord, mind telling me now how the hell I'm getting to Vegas all the way from Philadelphia. I doubt you'll be taking me everyday."
"Your quite right about that. I'm just too busy, so I came up with a little something to help out." Discord then reached behind his back, and pulled out a card. It looked like a normal card, but knowing him, this was something more. "You'll use this. A sub-trac card, for all of your sub-space traveling needs. It's also Discord approved."
I took the card from his hand and examined it. It was about as big as a debt card, with a key ring in the left corner and a huge yellow star in the middle. There was also a logo on the back, a big stamp with a picture of Discord in his normal form, giving that goofy smile he always gives. The words under it said 'Discord Approved'.
So, this is what happens when you let a spirit of chaos read your graphic novels. They get ideas, that is one thing I'm happy for.
"You got this from the comic book I let you barrow, didn't you?"
Discord nodded. "Why yes. Yes I did. A very interesting story, I might add. What was it called again?" He gave a thoughtful expression. "Something Pilgrim vs. The World?"
"His name's Scott, dad," John said.
"Right! that's the one, Scott Pilgrim."
"So, anyway, I just use this card and I can travel through sub-space using doors?"
"That is the idea."
"So how does it work, exactly?" I asked.
"It's quite simple, you think about the place you want to go, open the door, and you're there. Though, you do have to take the sub-space highway at times for long distances." Discord answered. He snapped his fingers and a door appeared in the middle of the clearing. "Why don't you give it a try."
"Alright."
I made my way over to the door. If this was anything like Scott Pilgrim, all I had to do was turn the nob. So that what I did, I grabbed the door handle and turned it, but didn't open it just yet. I turned back to Discord and gave him a look. He waved at me, then went back to paying with the flying toddler.
Pushing the door open, I sighed as I stepped through. Thinking of one of the many places I'd always wanted to visit.
In front of me was a weird looking highway. it had a glowing checker pattern for the road and it was snowing for some reason, but it wasn't cold at all. I began my walk across the bridge and ended up at another door at the end with a star painted onto the wood. I grab the nob and pushed the door open.
One moment ago I was in my chaotically transformed house. Now, I was standing in the middle of a crowded sidewalk and ended up bumping into someone. The guy turned to me, yelling. But, it wasn't in English.
It was in Japanese.
I was taken by surprise, then something caught my eye. I glanced up and saw, standing in all it's glory, the Tokyo Tower. I was in Japan just like I wanted to be.
"Well, that's ...unexpected." I uttered. My shocked face then turned into a grin. I looked down at the card in my hand, before shoving it into my back pocket. I was already here, so I might as well give myself a small tour of the city.
As I started walking down the crowded streets, I thought back to the great day I was having. I got a job, in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas, just a few hours ago, and now I'm in Tokyo. What's not to be happy about! This was love right here.
"This is gonna be so fuckin' awesome~!" I exclaimed, pumping my fist into the air.
A few people stopped and starred at me, rather any of them knew English or not was completely beyond me. I felt my cheeks heat up and I made continued down the street with my head held down. That was embarrassing.