+ Somewhere a Grandiose Carnival Was Going on in the Sky +

[vitaelamorte]

Who: Everyone!
Where: The grounds of the Mansion
When: March 9-16
Rating: PG-13 (warn if you go higher)
Summary: The Red Queen has thrown a carnival for everyone!
The Story:


From Friday, March 9, through Friday, March 16, the gardens and grounds of the Mansion will be a sprawling a carnival. The masked, unspeaking vendors will be selling trinkets and running free game booths. Carnival rides, exhibits, and foods represent all of the various cultures of those currently residing in the Mansion.


Of particular note, and perhaps incongruously, everything is decorated with red hearts.

Use this log for any and all of your carnival needs!

Comments

roller coaster

[mypartnerintime]

Max is similarly staring at one of the rides- a roller coaster that looks steep enough to turn her hair white- with a rather disbelieving look on her face. She glances over as she notices Tim staring as well.

"I can't believe this is legal," she says, sidestepping closer to him. "The g-forces would probably disintegrate your internal organs. Which sounds awesome in theory."

[postictal]

His internal organs have been disintegrated enough by virtue of being inside him, thanks. That statement, far from reassuring, works the corners of Tim's mouth down into a grim, nervous line.

"Do people actually have heart attacks on these things?" Now that George has suggested it, he can't forget it very easily. Thanks, George.

[mypartnerintime]

Wow, do they? Max looks bothered by the idea but pushes it aside easily enough. "I doubt it? I'm sure there are all sorts of safety laws... well, not here in Wonderland." She shrugs.

Her gaze shifts and she gestures at a ride several yards away. It's so tame as to hardly be called a roller coaster. Not a loop or corkscrew in sight. "But if we want to play it safe we can always go the chicken route."

[postictal]

“I mean, it’s not like I’ve got a bucket list here.” He could totally walk away, except Wonderland doesn’t usually allow for this kind of fun without a hefty price being involved. Granted, the Mirrors are probably a part of that price, but he’s not so antagonistic toward them out of principle so Mach anymore.

Bottom line, this might be a one time thing. It’s not big enough to haunt him if he doesn’t take the opportunity, but why shouldn’t he?

“But, uh. I guess I’m wondering if this is the only chance I’ll ever get.”

[mypartnerintime]

"To... die?" She'll probably regret her poor joke later, but... he's actually considering the disintegration one. Max looks worried- the passive peer pressure is real.

"Or... we could go with the nice one..." Her voice trails off weakly as she gestures once again at the much calmer roller coaster.

[postictal]

To die. Yeah, no, he's had plenty of chances to do that. Chances he's taken, chances he's skated past for one reason or another. He doesn't trust himself to answer that one well, so he elects to say nothing at all.

"To get to experience something like this," he clarifies, still frowning at the utterly batshit twisting mess.

Something normal.

[mypartnerintime]

...But the nice one...

Chloe would laugh at her. And then do her best to drag Max along for the ride. In fact she can almost hear it- someone laughing.

"That's an experience I can cheerfully pass up," she states, her tone a little higher than usual. It's certainly not cheerful. Maybe amused. "Want me to stand watch down here and help you recover?"

[postictal]

That manages to draw his gaze from the coaster at long last, banishing the last of that specter of wistfulness that was, perhaps, ill-placed.

"What does that kind of thing entail?" No offense, but recovery is something he tends to prefer to do on his own, far away from other people. In theory, anyway. That's not exactly been the case since he got here, and even before then.

[mypartnerintime]

"I dunno. Barf bags?" she says, but the tone has changed somewhat. His earlier wistfulness becomes more appareny by contrast, now that it's gone. "Anyway, aren't there crazy roller coasters in Alabama? It's not like they're unique to fairy tales."

[postictal]

"Probably." He shrugs. "Never really had much of a chance to see one up close. Hospital wasn't much for field trips."

He forgets, at times, how much people here know about him and who knows what. But given that Jay's here, and that Jay has next to no qualms with sharing his medical history with thousands of faceless, nameless YouTube viewers, he knows better than to assume that his secrets are worth keeping at this point.

Besides. She already knows he's a freak.

[mypartnerintime]

She looks down at her feet, giving him space by averting her eyes. If she'd thought about this more, she could've avoided this topic.

"...I meant when you get back home. You could always ride one."

[postictal]

"Wouldn't remember to try." And why would he? He was pretty set on living a meritless existence, dragging himself through each monotonous day, as if that might begin to atone for everything he caused and left behind and never really had to pay for.

He was never much of a thrillseeker by nature. Particularly now.

[mypartnerintime]

Ugh, god, this conversation has gone in a completely different way than Max wanted. And the worst part is she doesn't even fully get how it happened. But somehow she's turned riding roller coasters into a one-time attempt at normal living. Which shouldn't be how it feels, right?

So.

Sorry, Tim.

She raises her hand, palm outward, fingers spread. A familiar sensation tugs at the air around her as the carnival's rushing colors all at once lurch backwards, blurring together. The noise around them becomes nonsensical as it winds in reverse, until finally she finds something she can reply to.

And then all at once everything snaps back-

2/2 hope this is ok!

[mypartnerintime]

-to normalcy.

Max exhales sharply, letting some of the tension out of her lungs. Then she turns to Tim.

"There's one way to find out, right?" It bugs her that her voice is a little too loud. Leftover adrenaline from the rewind. A small part of her thinks this was a completely irresponsible use of it, to fix such a minor thing. "But I'll tell you what. We can start with a more normal looking roller coaster and work our way up to a heart attack."

ye!

[postictal]

Gone is the blinding shock and realization that prefaced the lift of her hand, the way time skittered back. Gone is the moment where his mouth parted in confusion, on the verge of understanding what was about to happen, until it never happened at all.

Tim shrugs with his hands sunk into the pockets of his jeans, once again vaguely curious, slightly trepidatious, and plainly wistful.

“Not one for going all out first try?” he says, unknowingly skirting that reflective mourning of a normalcy he never had.

[mypartnerintime]

"Nah." She gives him a smile, more at ease now that she knows what to say. "I reserve the right to call it quits at some point."

Some point before she starts throwing up, preferably. And she's certain she'll stop the roller coaster binge before she ever reaches The Big One.

"That's fair, right?"

[postictal]

He only considers it for a moment before he shrugs, tiredly. He has no idea, of course, just how close he might have just gotten to a vein of conversation that would have been truly uncomfortable for the both of them. And was, for one of them. Instead of considering the absence of carnival-based nostalgia, he makes for one of the roller coasters of the lighter fare instead.

"To each their own, I guess." A pause, and...yeah, well, she implied she'd be coming with, but he doesn't wanna assume. "You...don't have to, to come with me if you'd, uh, rather not."

[mypartnerintime]

"Well if you're gonna force me to..." Her voice drips with fake sarcasm, as she moves to catch up with him. She gives a cheeky smile. "I'm just kidding. I was sort of inviting myself this whole time."

She warily eyes the roller coaster that they seem to be heading toward. "But if I stick to my calling-it-quits rule, then you might not have to put up with me for too long." Because even this relatively tame one looks a little scary.

[postictal]

"You've never...been on one of these before, then?" He can appreciate the lack of needing to stand in line, at least. That's one key part of the ride-going experience that he's pretty sure he can go without, no matter how authentic it might be. He steps into the car, surveying it dubiously for a moment before glancing at the seat beside him.

Not that she...has to. Sit beside him.

[mypartnerintime]

The fact that they can get into the ride so quickly is a plus and a minus. Plus because she doesn't have to agonize over the long wait in line, slowly coming to regret the decision more and more. Minus because... well there's no real time to back out.

"No, I have. Just... not in a while." She sits down next to him and exhales slowly as the restraint lowers into place. "It'll be fun," she adds, in a voice that sounds entirely unsure.

[postictal]

“Yeah,” says Tim, without any confidence whatsoever, sounding an awful lot like he’s trying to convince himself more than he is anyone else. “Fun. That...I mean, that’s why people get in these, right?”

The ride lurches forward with an abruptness that wrenches his gut. Though that might just be the nerves talking.

It probably is.

[mypartnerintime]

"..."

The ride crawls slowly up to the peak of that hill- where they'll have a chance to look out over the carnival and stare down at the ground a long, long way away. The anticipation is likely worse than the fall that will follow. Max feels her hands begin to sweat as she grips the restraint.

"I swear, this was less scary when I was younger," she says, mostly to distract herself as they near the peak. "I'm gonna close my eyes."

[postictal]

Fortunately, Tim has no hangups about who witnesses him being an abject coward, as he's pretty certain that he is one, through and through. He's not ready to screw his eyes shut just yet, but his heart is already thundering in his chest, and this slow, creak-cracking ascension up the coaster's slope is unbearable.

"Here it comes," he says, more as a warning to himself than to anyone else. If this is how he handles a much more shallow incline, compared to the larger beasts, how the hell is he going to manage those as well?

The thought is snapped clean from his head when the cart swoops down the incline with a rush of air and a skip to his heart.

[mypartnerintime]

She closes her eyes- and then forces them open again. Chloe would never let her hear the end of it if she chickened out of watching. The view that meets her is rather distressing as the cart is now tilted downward, and man people do sure seem tiny from up here... at this alarmingly high altitude.

(It's not that high, really, but it always seems higher when you're up there.)

"Holy-"

And then, with an unceremonious jerk, the entire ride shifts into free fall. Her curse is cut short as the breath is pulled from her lungs in a gasp. More like a forceful wheeze, really.

Her hands grip the restraint, knuckles white. As the ride picks up speed she wonders why any sane person would subject themselves to this.

[postictal]

Funnily enough, Tim is wondering the same thing. The adrenaline hasn’t caught up to him just yet, his mouth dry and his heart thundering, breakneck. The sensation of being very high up off the ground does not help. Nothing helps, in fact. Every part of this is terrible.

He wants off this wild ride, he thinks. He might actually be sick.

At this point, he’s just locked himself down until the whole thing is over.