PaRappa's Hat Ties

The bad old days

“ATTENTION ATTENTION! We have just been notified that at sunrise the toxic gas will evaporate in the sunlight. Approximately at 6 to 7 o’clock. You are free to rest then. At sunrise you can all go to sleep, I repeat at sunrise you can go to sleep,” Anton’s transmission cut out.
    PaRappa sitting in Spaghetti Dinner was trying his best to stay awake by reading, but reading required a lot of focus. That was something that someone as tired as him, did not have. He told himself that he could do some exercises to wake himself up, but he never really did those. He just plucked his hand in a bucket of water that he had collected, and placed drops on his forehead so they would roll down his face. Sometimes he would try to catch them in his mouth like he was playing a marble maze.
    It was sorta bittersweet that the announcement went out. It meant that he could go to sleep at one point, but he then again it also meant that he still had a couple hours to go.
“UUUUUUG!” He groaned to break the silence.
“Woah!” Crowla responded.
“Sorry Crowla. I’m just sooooo tired! I can’t take it anymore!” PaRappa said. Crowla was playing solitaire in in a rafter. He knew it really wasn’t gas that was terrorizing HaHa Land. But he also didn’t expect to be harmed by Reaper the Grim, as he was not in his parallel universe (He was out playing pirates with Parrybo when Reaper the Grim had attacked as prophesied). He also wasn’t all that tired, he had slept longer than PaRappa. Crowla flew down from his rafter and gently tried to close PaRappa’s eyes as best he could with wings, “But i’ll get smoked!” PaRappa cried. Crowla opened his own eyes using his wings and then pointed to PaRappa, “You’ll watch me? But aren’t you tired?” Crowla shook his head, “Well, ok then, but you better not fall asleep,” Crowla widened his eyes, “Good bird,” PaRappa smiled, and then got himself  a nice thick blanket and passed out in its comfort.
    The next day he woke up at 7am, only to fall back asleep over and over again until it was past noon. Looking out his window, he could tell that it was a cooler day. The clouds floating above head making “weather patterns” in the sky. It almost looked like there was some hidden civilization in between the cumulus. Stretching first, he went outside to enjoy the day so that he could bear a horrible tomorrow. Already bored, but determined not to waste this day PaRappa looked for any way to entertain himself.
After a while of just walking around with a pinata on his head, he was noticed by a family of passing human tourists.
“Uh excuse me sir, could we see your bird?” The father asked.
“Sure,” PaRappa was a little suspicious of everyone he interacted with. That led to most people that saw him around believe that he was just naturally skittish, and afraid of people.
“What type is it?” The mother asked.
“It’s a pinata, Crowla,” PaRappa said as they all seemed to stare at the top of his head.
“Where’d you get it?” the father asked.
“I didn’t get him, he’s my familiar. He follows me around,” He commented. Their daughter went to go touch Crowla, but then booped PaRappa on his nose instead.
“Tina! Don’t be so disrespectful,” The father disciplined,“I’m sorry, where we come from there’s not all that many non humans around. She’s still getting used to it,”
“Oh that’s totally understandable. Where do you come from anyway? I’ve never heard of a place with just humans around,” PaRappa hoped he didn’t sound nosey.
“Oh we live in Ottam,” The mother said, “It’s uh, famous for it’s gigantic underground civilizations that most scientists speculate, was used to avoid the Disorder Comet that hit at the other side of the world! Some people even find ancient eroded shells of what could've been technology as advanced as ours! Most famous being what looks like a camcorder! I wonder if any video could be played from it?”
“Oh my gosh honey you are going to bore this poor man to death with this stuff,” the father said.
“I’m sorry, he just asked where we were from and it all came out!” The mother blushed.
“Um, would you happen to know where some cool events or something relaxing that we could do?” The father asked, “We just got here and it seems like everything is closed,”
“Well that makes sense. Everyone is probably sleeping,” PaRappa  almost chuckled.
“Why’s that?” The father asked.
“A poisonous gas that can only kill you while you sleep wafted over our homes last night. It evaporated in the sunlight this morning,” PaRappa said like it happened every day. Crowla rolled his eyes.
“Wow, what caused the gas? Was it a leak or an attack?” The mother tried to keep positive.
“I’m not sure. I think the announcer made it clear which one it was but I can’t remember,” PaRappa said. Crowla had fallen asleep on his head.
“Oh,” The mother said.
“If I were you I would hightail out of here,” PaRappa said. He wanted to share exactly what lurked under HaHa’s “happiest place on earth” facade,
“Why?” The father asked.
“There, there- are monsters, murderers! even, out there. Looking to take me away!” PaRappa stumbled on his own words.
“Murderers? Have you talked to the police about it?” The mother asked.
“Oh I have, and they would gladly let me die. I’ve called them before, WAIT!” PaRappa pulled out his phone and went back to the texts he got back from 121. He then showed it to the mother.