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Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 1:07 pm
" Is there a King and Queen inside ?" Bishop asked curiously as she stared up at the building in question. It was a large concrete structure with the words " The ticket palace" on a sign in shiny purple lights. A palace should have a king and queen no matter what even if this was apparently just a place for kids to go and play games. They could be a pretend king and queen but they should be there.
Carol shrugged " I dunno honey, maybe" If so the woman felt bad for them. who wanted to dress up as a ticket queen or king, whatever costume was there could only be ridiculous, worse than any other kids place mascots outfit. A giant ticket perhaps or a man or woman in fancy clothes with a sash of noxious orange tickets to add flare.
Either way royalty or not the afternoon should be fun, as the pair walked into The ticket palace Carol couldn't help but smile. it was the grand opening of the place and thus everything was half off which was a perfect excuse for going now despite the large crowd. The lower price meant Carol could afford more tokens which would let Bishop plays more games.
Looking aroudn she noted that if Bishop got bored of the games there was also a huge ball pit and a series of tubes and netting to play in as well. All in all it looked like it should be a fun day.
Bishop merely grinned as she looked around at all there was to do. a bit nervous by the huge crowd she reached up to clutch her good luck charm. The small flower Kaimi had give her now encased in a special glass mold with enough holes to let it's scent continue to float about and calm her.
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Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 10:35 am
After the stress of the past couple weeks, with the mysterious man coming by the house and making threats, scaring Kaimi and terrifying Naomi nearly out of her wits they had both needed a break, and the grand opening of the Ticket Palace was as good an excuse as any.
It was crowded inside, the sounds of shrieking and laughing children filled the air and grated slightly on Naomi's nerves. They had gotten one of the brightly colored plastic booths and Naomi had bought tokens for Kaimi and ordered a pizza. Now she sat in the booth toying with the pizza toppings and thinking to herself.
Kaimi, for her part, was having some trouble figuring out the pinball machine. She simply did not have the dexterity or presence of mind to operate both of the triggers and watch the ball at the same time. Huffing a little with frustration, she raised her head to see if there was something easier to do. Her eyes lit on a familiar figure and a huge grin split her face. "BISHOP!" Kaimi screeched in pure delight, filling the immediate area with the bright scent of flowers. "BishopBishopBishop!" She took off across the play area towards the entrance, where Bishop and Carol were making their way inside, nearly falling flat in her haste to get to her friend.
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Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 11:17 am
The smell of flowers flooded Bishop's nose only a split second after her brain registered the sound of Kaimi's voice. Bishop waved enthusiastically at the swiftly approaching other girl " Kaimi , I'm all better now." In fact her 'war wound' was now almost a distant memory.
Carol smiled in amusement, she remembered the girl from the park and the fun Bishop had had that day. She also remembered Bishop's attempt to fly but there was little chance she could get hurt here.
As she slid a bill across the front counter in exchange for some tokens the woman's eyes scanned the place for Naomi. it'd be nice to talk to her again, perhaps share more parenting experience stories.
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Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 11:43 am
Kaimi beamed. "You're so brave!" She said, referring to Bishops injury from last time. In her head she imagined the other girl convalescing in a high tower with only the birds for company. Perhaps she had sung to them, like Cinderella!
"Mommy is here too!" She added, looking up at Carol. "Come on! I'll show you!" She grabbed Bishop and Carol's hands just as soon as the woman was finished getting tokens and began dragging them determinedly towards the booth where Naomi sat.
Naomi, for her part, looked up and smiled at Kaimi's attempts to tug Carol and Bishop her way. She stood and waved cheerfully, glad the other two were there. It would be nice to talk with Carol again. And Kaimi would be over the moon to play with Bishop again.
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Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 8:07 pm
Once again Bishop found herself being dragged about by Kaimi but as before she simply smiled. Kaimi was a nice girl and comforting to be around. That was part of why she kept the prize flower from her around her neck as a pendant.
Speaking of prizes " We have to get lots of tickets so we can get prizes" oh sure bishop liked Kaimi's mom as much as she could for barely knowing her. Still, the little girl had no intention of spending too long listening to adults talk, she did that enough at the store, not when there was prizes to be had.
Carol grinned at Naomi and then nodded to her plate " The food any good here ?" She was hungry but the thought of forking over money for greasy bland pizza was not appealing. It was best to check with someone else first. If all else failed there should be fries which was impossible to screw up.
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Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 11:21 am
Luckily, Kaimi had no intention of hanging around listening to boring grown-up talk. Once she had deposited Carol at Naomi's table, she grinned a big grin at Bishop, unable to contain her joy that her friend was here too!
"Where should we start?" Kaimi asked her friend as seriously as possible, surveying the place carefully. There was so much to do here... She jingled her little coin purse full of tokens.
Naomi grinned back at Carol. "The food is pretty lousy, actually. But we've got a large pie and you're welcome to share it with us. If you dont mind pineapple and olives, that is." Her grin turned a little rueful. "Kaimi picked out the toppings."
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Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 8:44 pm
" Over there with weird ball hoop thing." Even Bishop's wide imagination couldn't think of an appropriate fun term for skeeball. " There they are rolling the ball" she pointed just to be sure Kaimi knew where she meant, after all several games here had balls and hoops. With her free hand Bishop scooped up the tokens her mother held out to her.
" Those toppings are fine." Carol assured the other woman. " kinda putting your life in her hands though with the topping choices. I've seen kids put the strangest combinations together. At the store we have a slushie machine and gods the mixtures they make" she shuddered. Carol loved all her customers but the children and teenagers always astounded her with how different they were from her as a child.
Listening to the girls she grinned " and here I was sure they'd go off and play whack a mole or gator or whatever poor animal gets hits with a mallet theses days.." That game had Been Carol's favorite as a child and she'd always ended the day with a good round of pounding the heck of of the little plastic animals for what always seemed to be an unfair amount of tickets.
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Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 12:00 pm
Kaimi looked over towards the skeeball. "I've never done that!" She exclaimed. "Lets go!" Grabbing Bishop's hand, afraid to lose her in the crowd, she grinned.
Naomi snorted into her coca-cola. "I haven't played whack a mole since I was a kid... What sort of store do you work at?" She didn't know very much about Carol, but she was eager to get to know her better. Especially since the girls got on so well.
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Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 9:58 am
Bishop grinned as she was pulled through the the throng of people by Kaimi. It seemed to happen a lot but she didn't mind, she trusted her friend not to drag her into anything they couldn't handle.
Just as they reached the skeeball area a land opened up and Bishop Tugged Kaimi quickly over to it. Bishop just didn't have the patience to wait around and watch other have fun so this was a lucky break.
" I run a small convenience store over in the southern part of Durem. it's actually a more interesting job than you'd think and you can meet some rather peculiar characters , in fact the peculiar ones seem to be my regulars." The young woman laughed and shook her head. " It's no glamorous job but it works for me."
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Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 11:42 am
Kaimi grinned back at her friend, and then studied the skeeball machine intently. She saw the way other people were doing it... "We just roll the ball and get it in the hole, right?" She asked Bishop, certain that this had to be the easiest thing ever. Easier than pinball, that was for sure. Sliding a token into the slot, she picked up one of the wooden balls it spat out. "Wanna go first?" She hoped Bishop wanted to go first, since despite the fact everyone made it look easy, she still wasn't sure she knew what to do.
Naomi laughed and picked up a piece of pizza, using a napkin to take the grease off the top before she had a bite. "That definitely sounds like an opportunity for strangeness. Then again, when I first got here I found almost all of Gaia terribly strange and unfamiliar." She added, ruefully. Sure... it was great to laugh about it now. At the time it had been less than funny.
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Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 7:58 pm
'Sure I'm gonna get the most points so we get lots of tickets" Bishop was confident that would be easily to roll a ball up the lane, not was easy as if they'd been allowed to throw it but that seemed to be a another game.
Picking up another of the wood balls Bishop rubbed her thumb over the grainy surface before swinging her arm backwards then forward again releasing the ball on the forward swing. She came just short of smacking her hand into the front panel of the lane and was thankful for that. her eyes narrowed and watched as the ball rolled swiftly down the lane and up off the ramp. The result was far from what was desired as the ball only manged to land in the ring indicating 20 points.
" You have to throw it hard, but don't hit your hand" Bishop warned looking at Kaimi. The owl girl liked to win but she also liked Kaimi and wanted her to do well.
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Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 12:42 pm
Kaimi had watched Bishop carefully so that she'd know what to do when it was her turn. She swung her arm as well, back and then forward, and let loose the ball. A little too enthusiastically, it seemed. The ball bounced off the back wall and then rolled back down the land at Kaimi.
"I didn't do very well" She laughed, catching the ball clumsily and and swinging her arm again. This time she managed to land it in the 20 point ring as well, which, for a first try, made her perfectly happy. "Cant we just walk up the lane and put the ball in the best hole?" She asked Bishop somewhat wistfully. She was still too young to comprehend the idea of cheating. And it seemed a perfectly logical way to earn as many tickets as possible.
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Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 10:06 pm
" Everyone else is throwing it I think we hafta throw it too." Still, Kaimi's plan would surely work better, maybe they should only play one round of this game and then move to something easier.
Taking another ball she put it down on the plat form and shoved it forward, hoping for a better result. This sadly merely resulted in it just barely cresting the slop at the end and landing in the small 10 point ring. Still she giggled " Maybe this is a grownup game" After all the older people around them seem to be having few troubles.
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Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 12:02 pm
Kaimi frowned thoughtfully. She wound up her arm and rolled the ball, getting it into the 20 point hole again. But something occured to her that she hadn't thought of before. "Where do the balls go?" She asked Bishop, unsure if the other girl would know or not. Still... it must be some kind of magic. They fell down those holes... what could possibly be down there?
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Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 8:24 pm
" I dunno, maybe there's a portal that brings them back up here. Must be a magic portal. bishop said nodding, it was the only thing that made any sense, else the balls would be stuck down there forever and they'd have to make a lot of new ones and that would take a lot of trees.
With more force this time Bishop rolled her ball up the pathway but still failed to get more than 20 points. Unbeknownst to her her young age and small undeveloped muscles made this game hard to ace, her efforts were not futile but would never give her the results she wanted.
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