The first in a set of tales from Fun Planet (Theme Park)
(Conceived after 3 days at D*Land)
[TFs: Mermaid, To/Fro 2D character]


Opening

"Welcome to Fun Planet, the most funnest place on the planet," says the colorful greeter with an electronic device strapped to his hand.

"Ummm, isn't 'most funnest' grammatically incorrect," asks the greeted male scratching his brown hair.

The greeter counters with a question, "First timers?"

A former brown haired now blue head bobs up and down, "Oh yes. We've heard about this place and have been looking forward to coming."

The man punches a spot on the device, "Well, then, I gotta tell you that it can't possibly be grammatically incorrect if it's our motto and all over our signs."

"I suppose that makes sense," agrees the young man.

"Great. Can I convince you to take our short survey? I'll make it worth your while."

The guy and girl look at each other, then they shrug and say, "Sure," as they turn back.

"Great. May I see your tickets?" They hand them over and he swipes them through the side of the device. "So, who is who?"

The blue haired girl goes first, "I'm Raychel. There's a 'y' after the 'a'."

The fingers of the greeter's free hand fly across the screen in his other, "Got it. And you?"

"Buck."

"Are you together?"

"Friends."

"We met at a local comic book shop reaching for the same issue."

"Ah! So, you've heard of our recent acquisition of CloudVine Studio." Both nod. "I see. Well, you'll be pleasantly pleased as it has been integrated into a couple of parts of our park. It's in the Art World section and you might catch glimpses of your favorite superheroes in Future World." He punches another button or two. It's kinda hard to tell with how fast his fingers move.

"And that covers the reason for your visit. Have you purchased any goods from our stores before entering the park?" Both shake their heads no. "Perfect."

The machine on his hand shoots a beam on their shirts. Then a paper materializes there. Buck and Raychel look at each other and sees that the papers seem to be stickers with the Fun Planet logo and their names.

"I promised I'd make this worth it. Those name badges are special and allow you to have discounts on purchased products in the park and one special event."

"Thank you!" And the two friends rush off.

"Don't forget to enjoy the rides, too." Once they are out of sight, he whispers to his sleeve, "Art World, we have two coming your direction."

They run under the hover train bridge into the hub. Pausing, they look to all the paths into the various worlds. "Art World?"

"We'll go there later. Let's check out Future World."

"Okay." They look past Fiction World, Non-Fiction World, Past World, to path they are looking for. Heading that way, the road transforms with more and more metal and wires and lights. Things that defy description but appear to be from the future. Off to one side there is a building whose sky light is opening. Inside is a rocket. With a swoosh, the rocket launches and disappears into the clouds. After a moment, a dot reappears and becomes the bottom of the rocket.

Before they can watch the rest, they feel a tap on their shoulder. They look down and see an auburn, almost brown haired young man with freckles smiling at them, "Welcome special guests. Would you like your special event?"

"Sure."

"What is it?"

"I'm going to show you back stage and some of the way the place works. How about that?"

"Okay."

"Right this way." The guide leads them through a door that says, "Employees only. All others will be fundered asunder."

"Fun-dered? Aren't they taking this 'fun' grammar thing a little too far?"

Raychel just shrugs, "It's not that big a deal."

"True."

Near them a basketball player of a robot that looks like it is part truck and part centipede with wheels walks toward the door they just entered. The two friends stop following and stare. Well, one does. The other points and opens and closes their mouth like a fish.

After he leaves, they turn to each other and dance around in a circle. "That was Eighteen Wheel Earl!"

"I wonder if Lady Ricochet and Duke Gunsmoke are here."

"And the rest of the Royal Crime Fighters,"

"Pretty cool, huh? Wait, until you see what I'm going to show you. It's a secret that no one except employees know about."

"Really?"

"Absolutely. Now if you'll follow me ..." They comply.

"Here we are." There before them is two clear tubes with hoses connecting the tops and bottoms to somewhere else. Looking through the curved door, the floor is a closed iris. "Would you guys like to try it out?"

"Is that okay?"

"Shouldn't the employees be the only ones to use it?"

"It's no problem. Just remove your shirts and step inside."

Raychel presses against her shirt, nervous. "Remove my shirt?"

"Yeah, you've got a bra on underneath, right?" She nods. "It's just that extra clothes interfere with the mechanism."

Raychel looks uncertain at Buck who looks just as certain. Buck peels his shirt off one arm at a time. The guide, however, grabs Raychel's shirt in both hands and pulls it up and over her head. Shocked, she covers her bra and pants. The inside of her bra feels odd, but she doesn't say anything for fear that he will yank that off, too.

Before she can react beyond that, the guide pushes her into the tube with the door closing behind her. She bangs her head and slumps. Buck finishes pulling his shirt off and sees her in there. He storms over to the guide who reaches behind the cylinder and sticks out his foot. Buck trips.

When Buck comes to, his head is throbbing. The second thing he notices is that he is in water. Something brushes up against him. In the complete darkness, he reaches out and grabs whatever it is. It turns out to be a fish tail.

It tenses and then starts waving up and down. Try as he might, it slips through his fingers. Moments later, something brushes above him. It feels like tendrils dangling down. He reaches for it waiting for it to shock or attack him. They thicken as they descend on him. What is this beast?

???Two thicker tentacle-like things drop past his sides.??? Whatever this is, it's right on top of me. His seashell bra gets shoved to the side and his breasts get groped. Get it off! His tail fin flashes up and down propelling him forward. Whatever is above him smacks something solid right before he bonks some glass. Just before he goes unconscious, he hears someone murmur, "I thought that would work."

When Raychel wakes up, she hears Buck demanding to know why he had breasts and why someone grabbed them. Raychel chuckles, "I grabbed them. Some other mermaid said we needed to join together to ram the wall. She stayed behind as the three of us pushed against our enclosure. Once you grabbed my tail, I knew you were awake."

Buck calms but not by much, "What happened to us?"

An employee dressed much like the one who gave them the questionnaire steps forward, "I regret to inform you that one of our employees decided to make his own fantasy come to life. He has been capturing some of our employees as mermaids and taking them to his aquarium at home. He saw the two of you and decided to add you to his catch for the day. To clarify, he transformed the two of you, and two female workers, into mermaids, shrunk you down, and placed you into a mini-fish tank in his pocket until he went home for the day. Fortunately, due to your help, we were able to catch him red handed."

"What did we do," Raychel asks.

"I was a mermaid? I'm not sure how I feel about that." He crosses his arms over his chest as if he still had breasts.

"You, Raychel, carried the tracker that led us to him. And, Buck, tried to stall him, so we could find him faster."

"How do you know this? There was no one around when it happened."

"Eighteen Wheel Earl saw you enter the restricted area and doubled back to watch." After a moment of silence, he adds, "So, do you two feel like having guests?"

Raychel takes a moment to check out their surroundings. She is dressed much the same as before with the addition of a Royal Crime Fighters t-shirt with a cute chibi Lady Ricochet decoration. Buck is the same with a Duke Gunsmoke variation. They are in a sparse hospital type room with walls with pictures of various Fun Planet characters. Raychel doesn't feel injured and from the way Buck is laying on top of the hospital bed, he seems fine as well.

Raychel can't imagine who would want to see them since they came alone, but can't see why not, "Sure."

"Okay," Buck agrees.

The new guide flings the door open and many employees, almost all female, burst in gushing, "Thank you so much." Another says, "I was stuck there for weeks." "He barely fed us." "I thought I'd never escape." The praise and gratitude continues for a while, embarrassing the both of them.

The guide interrupts, "Okay, everyone, we all need to get back to work." The grateful employees groan but leave anyway. He turns toward them pulling a hand device from before and points it at them. This time a gold name tag adorns their shirt. "This gives you head of the line privileges and free food. Just go in the exit and you'll be next on the ride. Hopefully this will help make up for the half a day you lost. Also, it is just a small token of the appreciation we feel for what you have done."

Buck speaks first, "Can we go?"

"I don't see why not. You feel alright?"

"Yeah," Raychel says.

"Then have fun here at Fun Planet, the most funnest place on the planet." He exits leaving them alone.

Raychel looks at Buck who is looking at her, "Ready?"

"Ready." They get up and head out to the park where they have a blast for the rest of the day.

As the sun is going down, another guide person, similar to the ones who gave them the badges, slides up to them, "Are you guys ready for your special event?"

"The kidnapping wasn't it?"

The guide laughs, "Oh no, that was lucky happenstance."

"Then sure."

"Great. Follow me to Art World." They weave through the crowds to a building with splashes of color some of which appear to be dripping down and giant paintbrushes leaning at various angles and directions.

They follow the line into the building up to the woman calling out the last show starts now. Once they reach her, she stops them, "Sorry, we're full." Then she sees them, "Sorry, my mistake. There's room for you two as well." She locks the chain behind them. "Please come this way. We have special seats for you."

She leads them through a back door, which they are used to, having done so for all the rides and attractions. This is followed by a short hall and a door. And then they are on stage in front of an audience in stadium seating, every seat full.

Next to them, a male voice speaks, "Welcome, everyone, to the World of Drawing. I'm one of the animators here at Fun Planet. That means that I draw characters over and over. Normally, I would ask for a volunteer from the audience for this next part, but today we seem to have some very special guests joining us. We'll use them instead. Is that okay?"

He turns to the two of them stunned on stage in front of all the people. After asking again, they nod. "Wonderful. If you both will exit through the doors on the back and climb the ladders, I'll get to you in a moment."

Buck shrugs and opens the door to a white room and steps in. Raychel pauses for a moment as she watches Buck turn into a drawing of Buck. She turns to the animator who winks at her and puts a finger to his lips. Buck climbs a thick line ladder that a kindergartener would draw. The artist turns his back to the audience and faces her. He makes a shooing motion and mouths to her, "Go ahead. You'll like the result."

She shuffles toward her door wasting as much time as possible. The animator turns back to the audience, "Ladies and Gentlemen, our first volunteer has reached my drawing pad and the screen above us. You'll notice that he is composed of lines and curves. For instance, his belly is this curve here. If I were to erase it and draw a straight line instead --"

Raychel can hear no more now that she has crossed the threshold of the door. Before her is not the doodle but rather a real ladder. She climbs up and enters a large white room with a familiar figure. He looks like Buck, but he's different. For one, he's thinner and more ... dangerous? He also familiar another way, but she can't put her finger on it.

Buck continues to change and adjust before her eyes as parts of him disappear and return different. The artist is doing an amazing job with him. Then a wide brimmed hat appears on his head. She gasps in recognition.

"What is it, Raychel?"

"You. You look like Duke Gunsmoke."

"I do?

"You do."

A cigarette appears in his mouth and smoke surrounds him completing the image. "You think I can do what he does?"

"I don't know. Try it."

Buck concentrates and smoke redirects from above his head to around his hands. A rifle appears in his hands from the smoke. He pulls the trigger and a flower springs out of the barrel. In their momentary silence, they hear faint clapping.

"Cool. I wonder what they are going to do to you next." However, Raychel already feels her curves expanding. She looks down and her stomach tightens and shrinks. She tries to figure out what is happening to herself. She feels herself from her bulbous butt to her thin waist to her enormous bust. I have an hourglass shape.

"I recognize that shape," says Buck near her, "You are becoming Lady Ricochet."

"Really?"

Some starbursts appear on her in the places where the light hits her. "Yeah, and now some four pointed stars are -- You are made of metal."

"Are we done?"

"I guess there's only one way to check. Let's do their running joke," he says as his rifle dissolves into the smoke and a pistol with a heart shaped barrel appears in his hand instead. "Lady Ricochet, you need a heart and I'm meanin' ta give ya one."

"Oh really?"

"Darn tootin'." He shoots the heart shaped bullet that bounces off her hips and then off the curve of her breasts right back at him. "Have a heart, Lady." He clutches his chest where his heart-shaped bullet hit him.

"Well, I guess we're done." As they head further forward, the last of their color fills in. They climb down the ladder and exit the doors to enthusiastic applause.

"May I present to you, Lady Ricochet and Duke Gunsmoke." The applause erupts even louder. "Thank you all for stopping by our last show of the day. Please exit in an orderly fashion out the doors behind you."

The clapping trickles out as the people stand and exit murmuring in excitement. Buck and Raychel also turn and exit the doors they first entered.

There, they meet their guide again. "Well, the park is closing. I sure hope you enjoyed what time you had here."

Raychel nods, "Oh yes."

Buck agrees, "Yeah."

"Well, before you go, there's one last problem we have to solve ..."

"Oh, no."

"Was it that we saw some employee only secrets?"

"Oh no no no. Although, this could solve that as well. No, you were so convincing as Duke Gunsmoke and Lady Ricochet, that we would like to offer you both a job."

"What?"

"But?"

"I understand that this is a bit sudden."

"I'd love to, but we live far away --"

"-- and we have jobs."

"And --"

He silences them with an upraised hand, "For one, if you accept, you'll have jobs and start tomorrow. As for living arrangements, we have employee suites you can stay in until you get relocated here. And as a bonus, I'm told there is a really good comic book shop that works with some of the other employees to get whatever they want. Does that help?"

Both of them exclaim, "Yes!"

"Does that mean you'll work here?"

They repeat themselves and laugh on each other, "Yes."

After the laughing calms they grab at Buck's costume. When the hat doesn't come off, Raychel asks, "Ummm, how do the outfits come off?"

"I'll tell you once we get you some rooms."