#idk why my brain decided to think about Kracko but it’s worldbuilding so I can’t complain djcjnejxkwk

[firaknight]

Ok my brain wants to talk about Kracko today so I’m gonna!

Kracko is one of many. He’s a sentient cloud being that has the powers of a god. Weird that he’s such a pushover most of the time, right? Well, those aren’t the Kracko. There’s other Kracko out there!! If clouds clump together enough, there’s a chance one can form. Other planets even have one (See: Planet Towara boss fight)!! The original, real, genuine Kracko lives in Cloudy Park! He’s hidden at the top of a really dangerous mountain that’s known to have the most fucked up weather patterns of anywhere on Popstar. There’s a shrine up there he calls home and people go visit him a lot!

While the mountain is dangerous, there’s a path that’s usually very clear that people take. Kracko himself carved it during a fit of rage and it tends to be mostly free of the abnormal weather patterns. It leads directly up to the shrine and its traveled quite often! People leave little talismans on the trees as they pass. The talismans have inscriptions of hopes and wishes from the people who travel along the path. While Kracko can’t grant wishes, he can manipulate weather, so he does pay special attention to talismans relating to that.

It’s also customary to take newborns up to the shrine. Think of it like baptism. People take their newborn child along the path and up to Krackos shrine and ask for his blessing. That child will have his protection whilst in the boundaries of Cloudy Park and will hopefully be exempt from his fits of rage (more on that later). He’s usually very calm and courteous when brought a newborn, since they’re small and fragile and probably scare easily and he doesn’t want to frighten them. However, he wasn’t like this when Ado showed up.

Ado brought Adeleine with her when she fled her home planet, and, while Adeleine wasn’t a brand new baby, she was still little and deserved a chance at habit Krackos blessing, so she carried her up to the shrine. Now, keep in mind that, while Kracko has been alive for thousands of years, he’s never once met a human. Not a single one. This meant that he was more than freaked out at the sight of one entering his shrine. He wasn’t mad! Not at all! But a weird squishy being that’s tall and big and haS A BABY??????? Yeah that’s frightening. Once he realized that baby Adeleine just a little sweetie, he warmed up to her almost instantly. Literally picked the child up and out of Ado’s hands and just floated around to room like a joyous goofball with an excitedly squealing child on him. After that day, Kracko dedicated every second he could get (when he was pissed off) to making sure that Adeleine was happy.

At first, it was small things, like slowing down lightning so she wouldn’t be scared during a thunderstorm, but it quickly grew to “I’m going to give my entire life up for this kid if I have to.” She gets to be a bit older and decides to go run into the forest to play! Problem being that she’s an easy target for predatory creatures like Pacto, which are big enough to swallow her whole if one wanted to. She gets spotted by one and absolutely can’t outrun it. Ado is far enough away to not hear the commotion, but Kracko notices. He may be all the way up in his shrine, but he can just sense when someone’s in danger. Almost immediately, a thunderstorm rolls in and he uses this as a cover to scope the forest, spotting little Adeleine running from a group of Pacto. Without a second thought, he strikes them down with lighting (despite the fact that he could’ve hit her by mistake if he wasn’t careful), flies down between Adeleine and the Pacto (just in case the lighting didn’t do the trick), and then promptly picks up Adeleine and flies her back home. This tends to happen a lot when she’s little.

After the events of Crystal Shards, Adeleine stays on Ripple Star for a few years before returning home to work on art and be closer to friends. Kracko is overjoyed to have her back and adjusts wind patterns and weather to make sure her first few day back are lovely. He now also has a habit of straight up redirecting weather when she’s painting. It’s about to rain? Cool lemme poke a fat hole in the clouds so this kid doesn’t get rained on. It’s cloudy? Lemme break the clouds so more light shows through. Kid wants to paint a storm? Lemme aim one at the stormy barrier around Cloudy Park and maintain a very specific bolt of lightning for an hour so she can paint it. Its pouring rain and she needs to run an errand? Sure thing I’ll just break a hole in the clouds above her and manipulate said hole and clouds so the hole is always over her and she doesn’t get rained on. High winds? Not in my territory :)

He also becomes super protective of her. Susie comes to invade and mechanize Cloudy Park during Robobot (she wants the resources and data since Cloudy Park is a secluded floating island that’s hard to get to) and gets a few Robobot Armors in to try and get things under control. Adeleine steps up to help alongside Ribbon and gets her ass kicked by one of the Armors. It’s at this point that Kracko hits an anger point he’s never hit before. He destroys every single Robobot Armor that made it past his barrier and then goes after Susie, who’s making her way through the barrier and into Cloudy Park. She doesn’t even make it halfway before Kracko ups the strength of the barrier and chases her out. She sustains serious damage to her Business Suit and crash lands not far from Nutty Noon. Kracko proceeds to chase her all the way back to Dreamland and give her a couple extra warning lightning strikes to make sure she knows to stay the fuck out. Adeleine winds up being fine, she’s just got a few bad scratches and a nasty bruise, but she’s otherwise ok! Kracko carries her up to his shrine to keep her safe and stops her from leaving unless he’s positive that there’s nothing that could do her harm (the leg from the Access Ark is just across from Nutty Noon, meaning they’re in harms way 99% of the time).

Moving on from that: Kracko tends to have a bad temper. When he’s angry, he forms impenetrable thunderstorm clouds and rains lightning on Cloudy Park. Said anger comes from losing to Kirby so often but sometimes it’s from other things, like Susie trying to invade his territory. Adeleines house has been struck more times than she can count, but repairs take no time at all. Kracko tends to feel bad for striking homes (he gets blinded by rage and doesn’t realize what he’s hitting half the time. He tries to aim for desolate areas but his blinded rage can take him elsewhere) and works to help by keeping work-hindering weather at bay until said work is done.

Also, to elaborate on the barrier thing:

Cloudy Park has a huge barrier of clouds surrounding it. The clouds hold it up and stop it from plummeting into the land below, and it serves as a barrier to outsiders. Kracko is the one that formed those clouds and maintains them, putting some of his energy into keeping them around. The clouds are usually so thick you can’t see where you’re going, and Kracko uses this to confuse intruders into turning themselves around and coming right back out the way they came. Stops him from having to fight anyone and keeps his bad temper at bay. However, some threats are persistent and don’t leave so easily. Susie and the Robobot invaders were one of these threats. This leads Kracko to use a defense system in the barrier: storms. He fuels his energy into the clouds in the barrier and creates storm clouds out of them. Lightning jumps from cloud to cloud and thunderclaps sound from every part of the barrier. High winds also tend to show up that can push most beings away if they’re not careful. If the threat still persists, Kracko takes on the threat himself. He blends in with the clouds, with only a spike or an eye being visible in the stormy mass. He rains lighting and high speed hail upon the threat until they back off. If the threat even so much as slows down, Kracko ups the force of his attacks until he’s chased the threat out completely. He occasionally takes on a different move: warping the entirety of Cloudy Park to a different location. Kracko may be fierce, but he knows when he’s beat. If he feels his territory is in danger, he can use the clouds and innate magic of the land itself to physically warp the landmass that is Cloudy Park to a different location. He only does this under extensive threat like the Dark Matter invasions. Both times he moved were when he believed that Cloudy Park was at risk of being overtaken by Dark Matter. The warp is fast, taking less than an hour to do. The barrier of clouds around the island fully encase it, creating a sphere of clouds around the landmass. The clouds begin to spin and close in, high winds usually following, and then everything warps. Cloudy Park is physically warped to a new, temporary location. The first time it was the Rainbow Islands, and the second was to the outer reaches of White Wafers, hidden amongst mountains as a secondary protection. While this move usually takes Cloudy Park to safety, it leaves Kracko incredibly weak for a while. The landmass floats very close to the ground (sometimes floating in water to alleviate the stress on Kracko) and the barrier of clouds are weakened to a point where just about anything could get through. Kracko also must return to his shrine to rest and regenerate lost magic used in the warp. It can take days to fully heal up and it leaves Cloudy Park vulnerable to threats. Dark Matter took advantage of that and broke through the weakened defenses to wreak havoc on the landmass. Both times were just a day after the warp. Had the Dark Matter waited a few more days to strike, Kracko could’ve kept Cloudy Park safe.

The warp back is far less taxing, as it’s simply returning Cloudy Park to its original location. Magic is tied to the land that keeps it connected to its origin crater (the crater left from the land rising up out of the ground) and its incredibly easy to find with the right magic prowess. Kracko has such prowess and it’s very very easy for him to warp back. He simply follows the magic that connects the two and uses it as padding for the warp. It takes the magic stress off of him and makes it go faster. The warp home takes maybe 30 minutes at most, but usually less if Kracko is in good health. Once the warp is done, Cloudy Park usually returns to its origin crater and rests there for a day. Magic regenerates incredibly fast when this is done and it allows Kracko to focus on healing up. Since the 2 lands are tied by magic, a naturally occurring barrier forms over the land while Kracko is down to keep it protected while he heals so he doesn’t have to try and maintain his barrier. This connection can’t be done unless one land is weaker than the other. Think of it like trying to stick two of the same magnets together. It doesn’t work. Cloudy Park works the same. If both lands are at full health, they can’t stick together. If Cloudy Park is weakened but the origin crater it came from is at full health, or vice versa, they can stick together.