Genessia Carnival
The week of the carnival has arrived! With the combined effort of paid workers, volunteers, Azura, and those Azura decided were going to help her (Looking at you Fam), the setup has gone without a hitch. Those who come by the large park in Genessia City during the morning and afternoon of the 16th will see the carnival in various stages of completion. It isn't the sun starts to set and the sky begins to burn the colors of pink and orange with a topping of blue that the lights on the carnival tents and other structures come to life.
THE CARNIVAL IS ON.
It's clear that the carnival takes up almost all of the park; it's setup done so that the rides, attractions, booths and other assorted portions of the carnival are setup around ponds and lakes and take advantage of paths in the park. At the entrance are a myriad of food stalls, while the bigger rides are further in the back. In between are smaller attractions like games, but more importantly this is where all of the booths for the residents are set up. Several rows deep, the offerings here are wildly different and each engaging in its own way. Lastly, the larger attractions of the Carnival are organized in the large central portion of the carnival where a large area has been cleared and sectioned off in 4 large rectangles to house each with plenty of room.
Carnival Fare
- Food And Drink - There are so many smells that sometimes your nose might be confused. From the scent of roasting meat, to the smell of sugary sweet cotton candy, the myriad of scents mingle throughout the whole carnival. There's an entire section of picnic tables for carnival goers to take a load off and eat their fill. The admission ticket even paid for complimentary drinks! However, there are plenty of stalls that are offering much more interesting options, including alcohol (for adults only!). Food ranges in price of course, and unfortunately there are a few stalls that might be overpricing their food...
- Rides and Attractions - The carnival isn't complete without classic carnival rides. There's a ferris wheel, teacups, several different merry-go-rounds, as well as a SUPER ROMANTIC Tunnel of Love. For the more adventurous there's even a few smaller sized roller coasters as well as an interesting looking magically powered water slide that's powered by a couple of local wizards and a "Doctor". One of the most popular rides seems to be the bumper cars, where each car has the chance to change shape on impact. Lastly for those who are brave enough there's a 2 story haunted house of mirrors full of jump scares and atmospheric music.
- Games and Stalls - THIS is where all of those stalls that were signed up for are. Of course, they make up the bulk of stalls, though the ones that are food oriented border the area mentioned earlier. Other booths such as shooting ranges, pingpong ball toss, fortune tellers, toy building booths and even a couple of booths where you can fish up your own little fish pet are here. Careful though, some of these booths are lowkey ripoffs, since they were largely built by volunteers. Should you get scammed it's wise to try and find security rather than handle it yourselves.
Main Attractions
- Randomized Plays - These plays are held nightly, but they're not your traditional plays. Participants are chosen from the audience who paid admission! On top of that, the roles are randomly assigned. You never really know what you're going to get, so in the end the plays come out a lot like improv. They're also largely hilarious, unintentionally or otherwise as often the two plays wind up intermingled! Once, Rumtumtugger wound up playing the part of Belle, while Gaston had to do a solo song all on his own... In the end, it'll be up to you what role your character plays, but it's never quite what's expected. Behind the scenes must be a riot no matter what!
- Obstacle Course - One attraction at the center of the carnival seems to weave around the other three, and out into the grounds itself. It's a complicated series of obstacles, from a pit of inky, oily water, to slippery bridges and swinging portions that need to be dodged. Portions of the course are even quite vertical, offering a strenuous climb as part of the challenge. This course is not for the faint of heart, and many will find themselves having to give up halfway through, or even being disqualified by being knocked out of the course. Those who choose to work together might make it farther but in the end only one can win. Be prepared for betrayal if you take that route...
- Eating Competition - There's not just one eating competition during the week of the carnival. Instead, several are held throughout the week. Hotdogs are first, followed by pancakes, then burgers. After that, towards the final three days of the carnival the bigger competitions start.
- Hotdogs - how many can you eat in 5 minutes?
- Pancakes - how many can you eat in 5 minutes?
- Burgers - how many can you eat in 8 minutes?
- Whole Chickens - You have 3, can you eat them all in 12 minutes?
- Whole Turkey - You have an entire turkey, how much can you eat in 10 minutes?
- 6 Tier Chocolate Cake - Finish the whole cake to win. (Hour Time Limit)
Those who have supernatural abilities are given an extra challenge to make things fair. For those who eat themselves sick there is a medical tent nearby, and of course plenty of room for a crowd of spectators.
- Jousting Competition - The colorful, campy and overall cheesy look of this jousting competition almost looks like a childish version of the competition. However, the prizes are real. Instead of the prize for the winning "knight" the winner of each match will be able to earn a fair sum of redbills! It's enough to cover the entry fee paid for the competition and then a couple hundred on top of that. Each participant chooses their weapon, but they all have different strange additional abilities depending on their color...
- Yellow - sparkles on impact
- Red - screams upon impact
- Green - slimes whatever it hits
- Blue - freezes what it touches for 3 seconds
For this competition special abilities beyond that of a normal human are dampened by special units hidden in the ring. Disabling them would of course, wind up in the participant being disqualified.
|
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
B. - OTA
Freedom for my children, and for them to know that I love them, she writes, and then because there are no instructions and no one can tell her not to, she turns over the strip and writes their initials -- HDM, RH, EQ, JK, O-EQ, O-JK, EJK, ASoW, SW/MMC. As a final impulse she adds, and any I choose in the future, especially but not only, CMcG and MH.
It's a huge wish, but since it's not really for her, she feels all right about that.
Re: B. - OTA
Tonight, the shrine caught his interest, the spirit of it reminding him of the temples of the Ancients that littered the Five Realms. The idea of offering up wishes wasn't a totally alien concept--like offering up prayers to those that came before.
He'd just walked into the tent, thinking about whether or not he wanted to leave one when a familiar figure caught his eye, drawing his attention the way she always did, without even trying.
Neil walked up behind her, scuffing his boots with each step so he didn't surprise her before he reached out to slide his palm across her shoulderblades in greeting.
"Hey, Angel."
Re: B. - OTA
Although she smiled and leaned into his irresistibly gentle touch, she murmured, "Not in public, Neil," of that particular endearment. The press of her lips against his jaw as a return greeting said it wasn't the affection or the intimacy she objected to, so if he didn't understand, at least he wouldn't worry he'd done something irreparably wrong.
Re: B. - OTA
"Beautiful." he amended, twisting his head to kiss her, a quick peck of greeting after she kissed his jaw. Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, he tugged her gently against his side and nodded to the paper in her hand with a curious look.
"Wishing for something? That's what the guy outside said this was for, making wishes, right?"
Re: B. - OTA
A brief stopgap, since it took her only an instant and then she was settling back in the circle of his arm. It hadn't taken her long to become comfortable with the public intimacy he enjoyed; if he had his arm around her, it saved her being possessive or shooting death-glares at women who paid him too much attention.
"Mmm-hmm. Safer to do it this way. Wish magic is too powerful in my realm."
Re: B. - OTA
"Never seen wish magic before--closest I've come is the Night Dragon." he mused, squinting at her little scrap of paper dangling from the bamboo. "Told you, he can see the hidden? When I first came to Nocturne and he'd ask me what I wanted for my name day--birthday, for people who don't have one--I'd always lie and say I didn't want anything. Wasn't used to people being nice to me, and he still kinda scared me at that point...used his powers every year to figure out what I wanted, and gave it to me if he was able. Finally stopped fighting him on it when I turned eighteen, since he just figured it out anyway. Kinda like having a wish granted, I guess."
Re: B. - OTA
She waited for him to take her cue and navigate them out of the smallish space of the tent before she answered him. Still in his arms, she tilted her head back against his shoulder and murmured, "A want is to a wish as a like is to a love. When you wish for something, really wish for it, it comes from from your heart, the same as a curse does." Which was why a curse had to be powered by the sacrifice of what you loved best. It had to annihilate love to work.
"When is your nameday, love?" Because if he had one, he didn't have or didn't remember his birthday and she didn't want to lean on a painful memory.
Re: B. - OTA
What she said made sense, too, about wants and likes. He'd gotten everything he ever wanted after he left his world and went to the Five Realms--power, strength, even fame and fortune of a sort. The big things were always the wants...the wishes came with things like having private quarters of his own, a room with a lock on the door, something as stupid as a birthday...
He wondered if there was something stronger than a wish--something a person could want so badly they didn't even realize it, something they never thought about...then had it fall into their lap.
Or nearly teleport on top of them.
He shook off his introspection when she asked about his nameday. Tightening his arms around her, he bent to press a kiss to her neck as he tried to figure out the answer.
"Day before the Harvest." he replied simply. "I'd need to do some math to figure out the date on a real world calendar, but rough estimate is either last week of October or first week of November. Chose a nameday 'cause I'm not sure when I was born. Didn't really celebrate birthdays in the group home, and even if they did I was abandoned out the gate. If there's an actual, legal birth record somewhere, I've never know about it."
Re: B. - OTA
"We'll do the math," she murmured, making a caress of her voice, too. He was so generous with her, so considerate of her desires and her quirks, it made her hunger to do the same for him. But saying, "The day you became the person you are is one I want to celebrate," wasn't scorekeeping or quid pro quo. It was a simple truth.
Knowing it would make him feel good, loved, she was hesitant to press any questions about his life in New York, but if she never asked, she would never know. Worse, he might think she didn't want to know, or care. So, frowning mildly, she asked, "What do you feel when you think about your life before the Night Dragon?"
Re: B. - OTA
Like his nameday was as important as the dragons believed it was.
He couldn't think of what to say, so he just kissed her quickly before she asked about his life before he'd been taken to the Five Realms. It was nothing he really thought about much--he didn't like to think about it, but nothing in him was off limits to Regina. She'd shared so much with him since day one, he didn't feel he had a right to hide anything from her--and she was proving that it was a good call, every single time.
So he blew out a breath, cheeks puffing with the action...and he really let himself think about it for the first time in years.
He thought about the bullying, the fighting, answering to his elders because they were responsible, not because they cared. He thought about the parade of kids that went through the group home, the good ones never staying long enough to make friends and the bad ones always dogging his every step.
He thought about the broken arm that doctors said needed pins--then didn't because the bones were fusing faster than they should. He thought about the blows thrown in anger that left kids with burns from just the touch of his skin. He thought about the time spent in hospitals because of the fevers that came from his own body trying not to be swallowed by dragon fire.
He thought about it, not realizing how his arm had tightened around Regina as he did--not painful or desperate, but closing every inch of space between them, hand splayed against her back, low-key tension humming through every muscle.
"Lonely. Scared...lost...hollow." he admitted finally, gaze fixed somewhere in the middle distance as he lost himself in memory. "Not a word I use lightly, but...hopeless. I had no future, no ties--I had nothing. When he came for me, and I said I'd go with him? He told me to get my stuff and he'd come for me in the morning. I told him not to bother, I left that night with three bucks in my pocket and the clothes on my back--and I burned the clothes the moment I learned to summon fire."
He paused, snickering softly at the memory--something less painful, something that brought him away from the past and closer to the present.
"Burned the three dollars, too. 'Cause destroying currency's a crime? I was a real little shithead in my teens, man..."
Re: B. - OTA
By the time he'd finished speaking, her eyes gleamed with unshed tears. No pity, he was far too strong to call that from her. Genuine grief for everything he hadn't had and the fear he'd felt. She knew that humor helped him, and that, too, was familiar. Her sharpness did similarly for her. So she let him have that, smiled at his self-assessment, although it didn't quite reach her eyes.
I love you, that was what was in her eyes and she didn't hide it any more than she had since the other night when his arm had kept him awake. But she didn't, couldn't, say it, either. Instead, she said, "I'm glad he found you, even if I don't think much of his parenting skills," which, considering how little she liked his king, amounted to the same thing. I'm glad you are who you are because of him. I'm glad you're here now. I wish you'd never suffered, but you're here now and I love you.
Re: B. - OTA
He could see the I love you in her eyes, even if he couldn't see the smile, and that was enough.
Neil didn't comment, but he did let her go so he could cradle her face between his hands and tip it up for a kiss--then brushed his lips against each of her eyelids, thumbs straying to sweep away any tears that might fall when they shut.
"He made me strong." he replied, a reassurance that the trials he endured under his king's harsh will were not true suffering in his eyes. "Strong enough to survive...so I could end up here and meet you."
My mate. The words sat in his eyes, open and raw on his features. The heart I held onto for so many years, never knowing the shape of it was in your smile.
Re: B. - OTA
She tipped her mouth to his again, kissed him softly. If she let herself, she could believe this was destiny. They'd found each other in two worlds, after all. But she almost didn't want to believe it. Instead, she preferred to believe they'd been lucky and chose each other; somehow it didn't feel like they had as much of a target painted on their love if they chose it.
But she hadn't worked out how to say any of that yet without it sounding inane. And the way he looked at her now, love naked, real and raw in his face and yearning in every line of his body, she didn't want to blither at him. She only shook her head softly, smiling, and said, "However it happened, I'm glad it did."
Re: B. - OTA
For just a second, it was nice to just hold her, share some of her body heat, breathe in the smell of her shampoo. It cleared away the shadows of the past that thoughts of his native world brought, brought back the sharp edges of the present, crisp as rays of sunlight and bright as diamonds.
...or the glitter of an enchanted pennant flying outside the entry to a Harvest festival...
"Hey, I almost forgot!" he murmured, coming back to life as he lifted his head and drew back enough to look down into her face. "I didn't come here to have fun, I came here to do recon--so I can have fun with you. You busy tomorrow night? You and me, hit the carnival. This place is a lot like a Harvest festival, great place for a date night. We'll check out some rides, play a few games, it'll be fun! You game?"
Re: B. - OTA
So it wasn't precisely a surprise when he asked if she'd join him here for a date. It wouldn't be a gleeful secret, sneaking away from family and friends to be alone together, but a proper date set at the carnival because the carnival was here, in the same way they might have gone together to Miners Day in Storybrooke. And while her inner Evil sneered at the insipidity of it all, Regina was delighted by the idea.
"Date night, hm?" She smiled up at him. "No kids, just us. I like it. Next time, I'll do the recon and choose the place."
Re: B. - OTA
"But this time? We're doing this, and I'm gonna find out if they have any contests like they do at the Harvest festivals." he went on, shifting to tug her against his side again so they could start walking. "Before I was given a position at court? I took the combat tourney three years in a row...if anyone ever discovers a way out of this place? I'm takin' you to the Five Realms to show you. No one would ever be able to outdo you at the sorcerer's gala."