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 Posted: Fri May 24, 2013 3:07 pm
Arian scanned the little placard next the bear’s cage, curious about its story. Around him he could hear snippets of conversations coming from some of the others in the animal pens, the mood generally seeming quite buzzy – a happy buzz. Arian was enjoying himself, glad that he’d decided to come check the carnival out and happy he’d manage to bump into friends. His stomach rumbled and Arian contemplated asking the others, Sirsce included, whether they wanted to check out the Games Boardwalk next on the off-chance that there’d be some food stalls there. Mayhaps he’d pick up some cotton candy or… His thought trailed off as he heard the sound of a metal clang and Arian found himself looking around absently in an attempt to find the source. [Arian exit post – continues here]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ As he had waited for a response from either Ricky or the kid, Marlin had thought that he had heard a noise coming from somewhere up ahead.
Frowning slightly he’d put it down to perhaps his imagination playing tricks on him until he heard the sound. Neither of the other seemed to have noticed it, so Marlin put it down to the music that seemed to have suddenly turned creepy and tried to ignore it.
Well that was until he heard what he could have sworn was the same noise for the third time. Mentioning that he was going to check out something ahead Marlin headed off in the direction that he thought he’d heard the noise coming from.
[Marlin exit post – continues here]((posting wraps here as totally forgot to do it earlier))
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Posted: Fri May 24, 2013 6:59 pm
Carnivals were fun, right? Roller coasters and ferris wheels and merry go rounds. Popcorn and cotton candy and funnel cake. Games and prizes and laughter. Those were all things that Tara Kavanaugh needed in her life. She had been noticeably distraught for a while- ever since a night of laser tag with Laney had gone horribly wrong- and could barely remember the last time she laughed and meant it. Neither could her brother Kent, which had prompted him to look into fun diversions. This carnival outing was meant to be something fun for the two of them. At least, until the network at the law firm where he worked underwent catastrophic existence failure, necessitating an all-nighter.
Tara, already at the carnival, wasn’t sure what to do. Slowly she turned her phone around and around in her hands. She already knew that Yvette and Laney were both busy, having tried to invite them along before. There wasn’t anyone else that she really wanted to invite. Since she had closed herself off to the world what felt like ages ago, she had let many of the casual friendships that she’d taken for granted for so long fade, until there was nothing left in her phone but a list of names that she couldn’t assign faces to. It took work to keep relationships going, and she’d quit that line of work when she’d tried to quit her night job as well. As that ill-fated outing with Laney had proved, it wasn’t safe for people to be around her. They would either be dragged into the war as well, or end up dead.
The other people she knew were tied to that job, and so she didn’t want to see them. Not when she was just trying to get a night in peace. One night where she wasn’t constantly looking over her shoulder, waiting for a blade or a bullet or a claw sinking into her back. One night when she could forget that she was Sailor Aquarius, Eleventh of Twelve and assigned a sacred duty to protect a mystical barrier in the depths of space. She did, on occasion, have nights like that, but they were few and far between. There hadn’t been anything like that since Laney had awakened as a page, and Tara felt that she was due.
Or rather, she felt that way when she wasn’t still beating herself up over it, when guilt wasn’t threatening to swallow her whole.
“No,” she told herself sternly. “You came here for a purpose. Just because Kent isn’t coming doesn’t mean you can’t still have fun. In fact,” she went on with feigned joviality, “you’ll probably have even more fun without him along, dragging you down. Right?”
Nobody answered, of course. With a sigh, Tara trudged along, feeling hopeful- but not overly so- that the carnival itself would be enough to lift her spirits.
If the definition of “getting out” meant going for a night on the town, then Sophie Hawkins didn’t get out much. She was busy, sure, but that was with various projects. If she wasn’t helping out with one of SCYDC’s programs or at DC Cubed, she was working on the community garden or fundraising for one of the causes she championed. And that was just in the afternoons- her mornings were filled with classes at DCU, so that she could work her way towards another degree that she wasn’t convinced she needed. She wasn’t even sure what her major was going to be yet. But education was important to her mother, who had managed to convince her that she would be sorry if she didn’t at least get a bachelor’s degree.
And then there were the nights. When she wasn’t studying or volunteering, Sophie still took to the streets, trying to hunt down more so-called terrorists. To her, that was a more important education than anything that DCU could teach her. It still boggled her that things of such importance went on in her city, while most of the population went along with their daily lives, unaware as to the gravity of the situation. That people were fighting some sort of secret battle over something that she wasn’t sure about just yet. That they had actual, real-life magic. Most of the time, when Sophie set out to meet more of the conspirators, she came away with nothing. But the few that she had met had opened her eyes, and she wasn’t willing to shut them again anytime soon.
It was hard for her to juggle all the balls that she had picked up. College was the ball that was dropped the most often. Sophie would miss an assignment, or sleep through a class. Then she’d have to work extra hard to catch up, and drop another ball. Volunteering made up a number of different balls, and as unwilling as she was to relinquish her grip on any of them, she did find herself having to cancel occasional afternoons to get other work done. Her late night strolls were dropped as well, but she managed to find time to take a quick spin most nights, even if it was only for fifteen minutes or so. If she didn’t try to find out more, she couldn’t very well call herself dedicated to this cause, now could she?
That aside, though, sometimes she needed to take a break. Let off steam. Forget that she was on a mission to save the world. A carnival was just what she needed. Sophie checked her purse, making sure it was secure, and then made for the nearest food stall. If this place sold chocolate in any form, she was going to find it.
Not so long ago, the Carnival of Souls would be the sort of event that Lydia Sfakianos looked forward to. It wasn’t a trip around the world, or even around the country, but it still looked like a lot of fun. A month ago, she would have called Cass and asked him to go with her. They would have shared a bag of popcorn, one of the few carnival foods that she knew she could eat without being in danger of blowing up like a balloon. She would have suggested the ferris wheel, then let him talk her into the bumper cars instead. Maybe they would have tried a game on the boardwalk, or maybe they would have headed straight for the Big Top to catch a show. The possibilities were endless- or at least, they had been.
Of course, Lydia had invited Cass anyway. She hadn’t expected a response, and sure enough, she hadn’t gotten one. The total lack of communication worried her, but the anger and pain she felt at her rejection hurt her more, and so she didn’t hunt him down at home. If he didn’t want to see her, she wasn’t going to force him to. She would just text him. Repeatedly. Until his only choice would be to face her, and explain his actions. This, she felt, was the perfect plan.
That left her without anyone to go to the carnival with. She had school friends, but she didn’t really feel like calling any of them. Ever since she had awakened as a senshi, she had felt a bit isolated from most of her schoolmates. The Asteroids were always possibilities, but Lydia was avoiding them for the moment, afraid that one of them would discover her new found habit of doing solo patrols on the way home. So she didn’t call Ellie, or Ridley, or Evelyn, or any of the others. She was at a carnival, for crying out loud! Surely she would find somebody to hang out with... right?
Sure enough, someone familiar showed up before too long. Just not anybody that Lydia was expecting or particularly hoping for. Still, familiar was familiar, and this wasn’t someone that she was comfortable leaving alone anyway. “Dana? Is that you, Dana?” Before Lydia could close the distance between them, a crowd pushed by. A lady to the end, she stopped and nodded graciously as they streamed past, standing on her tiptoes to try and keep the younger girl in sight, to no avail. When the group had passed, Dana was gone.
“Oh well...” Lydia sighed. It wasn’t like Dana hadn’t proved that she could handle herself on her own. It was just a carnival. What was the worst that could happen?
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Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 5:16 pm
For a long while Jessie moved slowly from cage to cage, watching the various animals at rest or moving restlessly depending on their personality. She read the plaque provided by the bear and imagined what it would look like if the horses were running free across an open plane. Briefly she wondered who would win in a fight, a tiger or a lion? But that thought slipped away as she realized that too many issues would actually factor in before a winner could be determined like, were they in the tiger’s home of dense Indian jungle or the lion’s broad savanna? Were they two females fighting or two males or a male and a female… and if it was one of each gender which one was the lion and which the tiger. Were the females protecting cubs or the males proving their fitness as a mate? Were they fighting over territory or were they fighting like the gladiators in ancient Rome, because they had to? So many questions and all of them hypothetical since it would not only be subjective but inhumane to pit too of the most beautiful creatures against each other.
With her thoughts bouncing from the Latin names of the animals, to the likely treatment of them, to the odd wonderings of who would do what in a fight, Jessie sighed and looked at her watch…. She had only been there for twenty minutes but already it felt like a lifetime with the swirl of the crowd dancing around her. She knew that twenty minutes was not enough time for her mom to be satisfied with Jessie’s experience of the Carnival. So with a second sigh Jessie turned from the cages and started to people watch. Wondering who all these people where. Were they going home to a wife or a husband? Were they doing good at school? Were any of them members of the secret war? And if so for which side? Was the negaverse really that bad? After all isn’t it said that the history books are written by the winning side, meaning that no one bothers to tell the other side of the things…. For every action there is a opposite reaction. Could the ‘order’ side really be the bad guys while the ‘chaos’ side be the good?
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