The Smiling Fool's Oasis
By @john1208
The engagement banquet of Bessa Makkal was the social event of the season in the rural village of Oma-Kuri - until her famously airheaded brother, Pipo, cheerfully raised a glass to announce that a catastrophic drought would soon bake them all into human jerky. Laughed out of the plaza by his snobbish siblings, Pipo skips home to begin digging a massive crater in his yard. Everyone thinks he is a smiling idiot, but Pipo has a secret: he already died in the impending Great Desiccation, and his regression was orchestrated by his ruthless, time-traveling past self. Guided by a magical journal filled with the insulting, hyper-paranoid instructions of 'Dead Pipo,' the seemingly naive boy is secretly building an impenetrable, self-watering fortress. When the rivers turn to dust and his mocking family comes begging for a single drop, Pipo's sunny disposition masks a brilliantly vindictive plan. He will share his water, but only if they agree to pedal his ridiculous irrigation pumps while singing apologies. Yet, as violent raiders approach, Pipo faces a terrible choice: can he balance his past self's ruthless revenge with his own humanity, and is it possible to save the bound temple priestess he secretly loves before she turns to ash?
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