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Post by Bobby Drake on Oct 20, 2010 9:36:31 GMT -4
It was a crisp autumn evening in mid-October, the temperature dropping from moderate and warm in the daytime to brisk and cool in the evening. Throughout the city the trees had started to fade from a verdant green to a variety of fiery colors as they prepared for a long winter nap.
But New York was the city that never slept. Bobby was all about that kind of action.
Putting his nose to the air, he took a deep breath and held it in. Popcorn. Cotton candy. Smoked meat. The cold never bothered Bobby. He was the freakin’ Iceman! Pretzels. Nachos. Humanity. Lights and noises filled an already lit and loud city to capacity.
This was the time of year he always looked forward to. The carnival was in town, and he made it a point to pester everyone within earshot about it at the school until they agreed to organize an off-campus field trip to the festivities.
And here he was, in the middle of it all. He looked around with a big goofy grin on his face, watching as lights spun around in circles and large masses of people moved from attraction to attraction. There were people calling out from behind booths, beckoning to the opportunity to win big…which he so was going to do before the night was through. There were guys in old-fashioned tuxedos and large top hats that looked like they stepped out of the history books. And the girls…how they managed not to freeze in those skimpy little things he had no idea.
Not that he was complaining.
Bobby looked over at Kitty and then back at the rest of the crowd with his grin still fixed in place. “So…what should we do first? We have the rides, the games…a haunted house looking thing over there, mazes, shows, “ his eyes followed a busty attraction that walked right past him, “aaaalll kinds of stuff.” She turned and smiled at him and he put a hand to his chest. Then he looked back at the group with an even bigger smile. “Come on! Who’s ready to have some fun?!”
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Post by Christine MacTaggart on Oct 20, 2010 12:01:29 GMT -4
She shivered, wishing she had worn a slightly warmer jacket - but these days she had taken to wearing that black leather jacket with the red gold gem studded Phoenix on the back. There was no rhyme or reason why she felt drawn to that particular jacket - it just felt *right*. With a mental shrug, she turned her attention back to the King of Frost and listened to his questions, before rolling her eyes at his sudden appriecation of the female form. Typical, she thought with a warm exasperated sigh.
"Bobby," she began, a light laugh in her voice. "We wouldn't be here if we weren't ready." She smoothed the fabric of her knee length skirt - the soft cream color being offset by the dark brown, nearly black riding boots. Her blue eyes darted about, taking in the group.
She brushed a stray chocolate lock off her forehead and examined the rest of the group detachedly.
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Post by Kitty Pryde on Oct 20, 2010 19:32:37 GMT -4
Finally, something fun! The school was just so dull lately, and stressful with everyone being all weird and avoid-y about dreams and people were forgetting things, or pretending not to know anyone and it was just not fun at all! So when Kitty had heard about the carnival coming to town, she had practically single-handedly arranged a school outing for anyone who wanted to go. And now here they were amidst the sounds and the smells and the lights and she was practically bouncing on her toes with excitement. She didn’t even notice Bobby being a perv, so she must have been distracted.
“Ooh, let’s do some rides first!” she exclaimed, tugging on Bobby’s arm. “Some of the ones that spin so fast you can barely scream and make you so dizzy you want to puke!”
Alright, so maybe that didn’t sound like much fun to a lot of people, but it was so thrilling! Besides, they had all night! If they started with the rides then when they got feeling queasy they could do something tamer but still scary, like the haunted house. Then they could play some games and watch a few acts and eat super sweet and tasty food that was really bad for them. It was going to be awesome!
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Post by Guido Carosella on Oct 20, 2010 23:06:58 GMT -4
One nice feature about having big arms was you could carry a lot of food. And oh, how Guido loved carnival food.
He didn't have to worry about it spoiling his girlish figure; his amped-up metabolism would burn through that junk in no time. Although the chili dogs might prove to be a problem of a different sort later on that night.
He walked a step or two behind the rest of the group, smiling to himself as they chattered. Ah, the recklessness of youth. Technically, Guido was there as a chaperone, but that was more due to his age than his actual level of responsibility. He fully intended to kick up his heels just as high as anyone else.
He paused to flick a stray nacho off the sleeve of his oversized Yankees letter jacket, made with enough material to house an entire pack of Cub Scouts. His ears perked up at the mention of rides. Rides were awesome. And he had no trouble meeting the minimum height.
"Hey, yeah! See if they got a Tilt-A-Whirl somewhere here!"
He frowned at the sudden blooorp noise his stomach made.
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Post by Christine MacTaggart on Oct 20, 2010 23:12:21 GMT -4
"Tilt-a-whirl?" she repeated, cocking an eyebrow in confusion. "What's that?" she asked, clearly not one who had been to a carnival in any recent history - one that was not exposed to the glories of some of the rides.
She looked up at Guido, hoping he'd clarify what the ride was. After all, he was older and had more experience with things. Surely, if anyone had an answer - logical or not wasn't a key factor right now - it'd be him. Hopefully it wasn't like the rides that the other girl had described - she wasn't sure if getting dizzy was a good idea. Something about it just gave her nightmares.
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Post by Guido Carosella on Oct 20, 2010 23:25:27 GMT -4
Guido cocked an eyebrow, not sure if Christine was serious.
She was kind of hard to figure out sometimes. Guido didn't know much about her; they hadn't spoken a great deal apart from pleasantries here and there around the mansion. She seemed pretty bright, but also pretty clueless about most worldly things. She must have had a pretty sheltered upbringing.
Or been locked in a box. Stranger things have happened.
He stopped to consider her question, and was surprised at how difficult explaining a Tilt-A-Whirl was.
"Well, ya know. There's these seats on this big platform that spin around. Or whirl. And the whole time tha platform is spinnin' An' then it tilts, all the while still whirlin'! Get it?"
It made perfect sense to him, but it still sounded ridiculous.
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Post by Christine MacTaggart on Oct 20, 2010 23:32:26 GMT -4
"I ...see," she began slowly, a vague look of comprehension on her features. "But if the seats are going one way and the base is going another, is it really safe to be riding it? It doesn't sound structurally stable to be used as a ride," she mused.
She knew she shouldn't worry about such things but there was that ever present need to protect those she cared for, something that was so ingrained in her mind, in her soul that it felt weird if she didn't try.
Her expression changed as the guardian aspect from some distant forgotten past, present, future wiggled and wormed its way free. She got a guarded, serious expression and her gaze grew clinical, detached before she blinked her eyes and returned to her teenaged expression of utter confusion. Nothing seemed to be making sense but she was trying.
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Post by Tatiana on Oct 20, 2010 23:44:42 GMT -4
Tatiana was waiting in line to get one of her favorite treats. A large caramel apple that was just dripping in sprinkles. She had been dreaming of one ever since she had heard that this event was coming to town. This lovely stand would put whatever topping you liked on your apple. All kinds of candy choices. But she would stick with just lots and lots of sprinkles. She would save the chocolate dipped cheesecake for later.
Glancing over her shoulder, Tati rolled her eyes. Of course, there would be the group. As long as none of the kids spotted her she would be ok. She didnt need to explain for millionth time that she could not heal an upset stomach that a kid had gotten from eating too much fair food, then going on rides.
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Post by Bobby Drake on Oct 21, 2010 8:47:38 GMT -4
“Holy cow,” Bobby exclaimed when he saw Guido approaching with a concession stand’s worth of food in his big arms. But actually that sounded like a pretty good idea. Everything smelled so deliciously…greasy. He snagged a cheese covered chip and shared a confused look of disbelief that Chris didn’t know what a Tilt-a-Whirl was.
“Safety Shmafety,” Bobby said with a wave of his hand. “This is a carnival! They put these rides through the highest standards of safety. I mean what could possibly go wrong?”
Besides. They were superheroes for crying out loud! What? They were prepared to fight bad guys but couldn’t handle a little tiltin’ and a whirlin’? Come on!
He nodded at Kitty who also seemed to have the right idea and then looked around the fairgrounds for the spinniest thing he could find. “Hold on,” he said as he focused in across the way. “What have we here? Jackpot!” That’s what. “Guido you better scarf that stuff down. I think I found our Tilt a Whirl.”
With an all encompassing gesture, Bobby led the way to whoever was going to follow. On his way past, he included the stray. “Come on Tatty. None of this outsider stuff tonight.” He hooked arms with her and led the way.
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Post by Christine MacTaggart on Oct 21, 2010 9:02:50 GMT -4
“Safety Shmafety,” Bobby said with a wave of his hand. “This is a carnival! They put these rides through the highest standards of safety. I mean what could possibly go wrong?” Christine had wanted to say something - something along the lines of what could possibly go wrong but decided against it. She did, however, choose something different to say. "Bobby," she began, her blue eyes looking at him. "Didn't anyone ever tell you those are the worst words to say? That's like, like an invitation for trouble." The last thing they needed to hear from someone was that - because God loved, *loved* to use those words to reek some form of havoc on them. Hadn't they had enough trouble already? Did they really need it being added to because of the speaking of those troublesome words? |
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Post by Kitty Pryde on Oct 21, 2010 16:11:13 GMT -4
Kitty rolled her eyes at the conversation going on between Christine and Guido, but to her credit she managed to keep from smacking her forehead with her palm and audibly growning. Structurally stable? Really? Chris could be a real stick-in-the-mud sometimes. Guido had the right idea, though... at least about the rides. Kitty wasn’t so sure that eating first was in anyone’s best interest, though.
“I thought you were ready to have some fun?” Kitty said pointedly to Christine, with maybe a snide hint in her voice. Really, if the rides weren’t safe they wouldn’t be here; everyone was so sue-happy lately they would have the place shut down and drained dry if anything went wrong with the equipment. Obviously Bobby had reached the same opinion and stated it outright, even if he did use that dreaded phrase. Which, of course, Chris had to comment on. She was just determined to bring them all down, wasn’t she? Whatever, it didn’t matter. All that mattered right now was some good old fashioned fun free of drama and weirdness and stress!
“Everyone got their bracelets?” Kitty checked, holding up one hand to show the plastic band around her wrist. All the rides for one (probably ridiculously high) price. Buttoning her corduroy jacket, she stuffed her hands in her jeans pockets and followed after Bobby.
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Post by Christine MacTaggart on Oct 21, 2010 16:17:51 GMT -4
Christine bristled, finally showing something of an emotion. "Forgive me, Princess," she bit out, "if my concerns for my family's well-being and safety ranks slightly higher then my desire to have fun. It was what I was trained for." She fixed the other female with a look before giving a tiny huff. "And yes, I have the bracelet. If you'll excuse me, I'm not feeling terribly social right now. I'm going to go explore."
She turned on her heel and vanished into the crowds, intent on finding something to distract her from dealing with the Princess.
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Post by Kitty Pryde on Oct 21, 2010 16:38:32 GMT -4
Princess.
The nickname made Kitty’s blood run cold. Why did people keep calling her that? A million images flashed through her mind causing her to stumble a step. Stopping in her tracks, she turned, her gaze meeting Christine’s. Oh, that blood that had run cold a minute ago? Now it was boiling.
Where did little Miss Priss get off saying something like that? Like Kitty was some stupid airhead that didn’t care what happened to anyone as long as she had fun? That Christine had trained harder and was so much better because she didn’t have a sense of humour and didn’t know how to loosen up?
“Oh no, forgive me for thinking the people here were competent enough in their own jobs that we could take one night away from worrying and just have a little fun!” Kitty sneered back, pushing through the others and following after the retreating Christine. “I had the same training as you! And don’t even pretend that you’re sooo much more caring than me. You didn’t even remember any of your so-called family a week ago!”
It was all getting to her. All the dreams, the lack of sleep, the weird feelings, the fear for her sanity... it had all been building up in Kitty, and like most things it just all finally exploded.
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Post by Christine MacTaggart on Oct 21, 2010 16:47:12 GMT -4
Christine didn't pause in her stride, didn't bother to stop. She allowed a neutral expression to slide across her features when she finally turned to look at Kitty. "You have your orders, I have mine. My orders were clear. To protect." She gave her a little psychic push to let her know exactly what kind of training she had - and how what she experienced was vastly different then Kitty's training. "If you don't mind. I'd like to get back to work," she said, slipping further into the crowds, away from Kitty and the others. She needed, wanted to be alone. |
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Post by Fate on Oct 21, 2010 21:18:59 GMT -4
But then, it was a very difficult place to truly be alone. Lights flashed all around. People called at her to try their games of chance.
A clown towing balloons nearly ran into her in the bustle of the crowds. He gave her a burst of laughter, tipped his hat and bowed in apology. In violently bright colors and large polka dots, he balanced on one foot and gave every impression that his bundle of balloons was all but lifting him off the ground. Pulling a red one from the rest, he offered it to Christine with a grin.
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