Welcome Home Carnival?

[Aureus]

"Yeah..." Aureus responded, a bit saddened by his own lack of fun childhood memories. "As you know, my foster parents before Ashley...weren't the best, so yeah..." he continued, still a bit depressed. He hated thinking about the past.

Her tugging pulled him back into the present and he jumped up after her. "Haha, alright, sounds like a fun time. There won't be homework, will there?" He laughed as he started towards the main entrance. Heh, my first carnival...

[chihiro]

"Only if you don't be good. Now, keep up! You have a lot to learn." She let go of one of his hands, though kept the other linked with her own. This was going to be fun. They made it up the smal slope to the boardwalk, meeting the stands of games. "Lesson one. Games. There are many games here from dart throwing to basketballs and pingpong balls and rings. What one do you want to start with?"

Her chocolate gaze cast around the booths, the strip shirted employees calling out to passing couples to 'win the lady a prize.' Many of the couples would just laugh and pass on, having already experienced the trouble of the carnival games.

[Aureus]

"I'll try my best, Miss Amuri," he said, following her until they were standing at the center of the area with the games, his hand still linked with hers. The first thing that caught his attention was the shouts from the employees. For a moment, you could see Levi in him...

"Well, which one has a prize you want most?" The Pillar asked, oozing confidence. All of the games seemed pretty easy. He wouldn't have any problems, at least he hoped.

[chihiro]

"Hmmm..." The dark haired girl looked pleased at his confidence, looking at all the prizes. "Pop quiz, which do you think I'd want?" She asked, smirking again and giving his hand a squeeze. It was a terrible trick to play but frankly, she was a bit curious. At one booth the prize was a flopsy pink monkey or a giant blue bear, another there was a green hippo and a pink tiny bear, and the third they were facing housed an array of plush ducks in varying colors. She looked steadily between the three stands to keep from giving it away, and she would look back to him to await his reply.

[Aureus]

It didn't surprise Aureus that Chi would pull something like that, and so he looked around carefully at each of the prizes the stands had to offer. After a few moments of silent concentration he made his reply. "I'm gonna say...you want a...duck?" He asked, somewhat sure of his answer. The ducks gave him a gut feeling, though he wasn't sure what color she wanted. The game itself was one of the ol' throw a ball at a stack of milk glasses.

[chihiro]

Chi nodded in an approving manner. "That'll work. Do you think you can win it for me?" She crossed her arms in a smart fashion before saintering up to the booth. The carny worker took one look at her and grinned toothily. "Hey pretty lady, you want to win a prize? How abouts your boyfriend steps up and wins one fer ya? Hit em all down once, and you can get the prize'a yer choice. Howzat sound?"

Chi smiled innocently, looking wide eyed at the prizes. "Really, wow that sounds swell. Aury, baby, could you win me one, pleaseeee?" She turned back to him, winking as she clasped her hands in front of her and pivoted her foot in an innocent overly girl like fashion.

[Aureus]

"You know it," The dark haired boy said with a smirk. Judging from the way the stand worker tired to butter Chi up, the game was probably rigged, but he had already guessed it would be. The best part was Chi's whole innocent act. The Pillar had to stop himself from falling over laughing. "Swell?" he mouthed at her when she turned to him, laughing just a little bit.

"Alright, I'll have a go at it," Aureus said, pulling a five from his pocket and handing it to the man. Three balls was all he got, but it would be more than enough. In fact, he planned on having fun with it. Tossing the first one up a few times, he focused on the stack of milk glasses. Half heartedly he chucked the ball towards them. It was a dead hit, but as expected, they didn't fall. Acting frustrated, he shot an angry glance at the man. "Better luck next time, eh?" the greasy haired man offered. "Yeah, yeah," the teen muttered. A second toss, and the same old result. "Damnit!" he yelled, turning back to Chi and offering her a wink of his own.

Pulling up his right sleeve, the schizo picked up the final baseball and squeezed hard. "Better step back, slick. Wouldn't want you to get hurt, ya know." Aureus said calmly with a smile. "Oh yeah, I'm sure. Real scared, tough guy." The carny retorted. "Fine, have it your way..."

Stepping back slightly, the Pillar ignited the glove holding the ball. As the flames engulfed it, Aureus threw it as hard as he could towards the stack. Boom! The ball shot straight through the center and embedded itself into the wood of the stand. Jeez, the bastard really musta used a lot of glue to get them to stick like that. Heh... "What color duck you want, Chi?" He asked as the carnival worker was busy patting the fire off of his shirt.

[chihiro]

Chi supplied the appropriate 'Oooh's and 'Awww's at his feat. The game had been obviously rigged. SHe snicked however, when his glove lit up and he threw the ball at the bottles and it lodged itself into the glued pile. She gave an innocent also uber-girly giggle at this, even bringing her hands up to her mouth. "Well, I'd like that cute pink one right there. Can I have it, mister?"

"Yeah, yeah, just get outta here, kid." He was stil occupying himself patting off his now slightly charred shirt as he took off the pink duck from the display and tossed it to her. She grinned, catching it deftly and cradling it under her arm. "Well, golly thanks mister. You were great, babe." She smiled, leaning over on one foot and placing a kiss on his cheek. "Where to next?"

[Aureus]

"You and your pink..." The boy muttered as his girlfriend caught the duck. He was a little disappointed that the man didn't put up more of a fight about the duck. He had a strange urge to fight someone, but ignored it.

"I was great? Really? Because your girlyness was matched only by that duck's pinkness. But I suppose it's alright since I got a kiss out of the deal. Anyways, how 'bout we go on a ride next? So many to choose from..." Aureus said as he began to walk away from the stand.

[chihiro]

Chi laughed, her overly girlyness falling away. "I was simply doing it for your entertainment, you should know that." She took his hand again with her free hand, swinging their linked hands in a slow, carefree sort of way.

"Well, we could go on a fast ride like the scrambler or that one that looks like a ufo or we could do something slow like the ferris wheel, or we would go on a pseudo-ride like the bumper cars. Which would you like to tackle first?" She was going to let him make the choices here, since it was his first experience.

[Aureus]

"Yeah, I know, it was funny, but I'm saying, YOU'RE the great one," he laughed as they walked along. Putting his free hand under his chin, the Junior pondered what ride they should start with.

"Lets go with the scrambler, it's nice, fast, and exciting," Aureus replied, starting towards the spinny ride. "Heh, hope it's as fun as it looks."

[chihiro]

She laughed again, the whole scene running through her mind again as he began to pull her over to the scrambler. "Okay, haha. Have you ever been on a ride like it before? Its tosses you all around to this one side and it feels like your heads gonna fall right off your shoulders! Loads of fun." She skipped up to the ticker taker and handed him two tickets. "Come on!" She had let go of his hand at this point and she skipped up the stairs, slowly making her way around to find which seat they wanted to sit in.

Finally she picked one at random and sat down. She sat down to the left on the seat because the arrows told her to, because when the thing begins to spins, everyone will be shifted to the right and she didnt wanna get squished. She sat the pink duck down to her right to fit snugly between herself and Aureus so it wouldnt fly away. "Ready?" She grinned to him, waiting for him to sit down.

[Aureus]

"Nope, first time. Seems like a good time though," Aureus replied while following his girlfriend through the ride's gate and up the small set of stairs. She picked seat number 5, a bright red contraption that looked like it was about to fall apart. Then again, all of the seats did. I suppose it's just part of the carnival experience. The teen thought, sitting down on the right.

Although he felt a bit childish running around the carnival like this, it was exciting at the same time. Not to mention, something about the energy Chi gave off. She always made everything more exciting. And then, the ride started...

[chihiro]

After theyd sat down, the conductor (is that what they were called? She pondered) came around and made sure all of their harnesses were down, as well as those of the few empty carriages. Their harness consisted of a metal bar that came down horisontally across their midriffs, though there was a good foot or two of space between them and the bars. The ride didnt go that fast, and what gforce there was would keep them in their seats. Theoretically. Then as the music coming from the rides control center rose to almost blasting, the rie began to turn, slowly at first as it gathered speed. It was spinning double fold, first in a circle, and each individual arm, which held four carriages spun in their own indepenant horizontal circles. "Wooo!!" She cheered enthusiatsically, throwing her arms up even though they hadnt reached top speed yet. CHi had found that rides were a lot more fun when you didnt hold onto the handle bars, as they normally didn't go as fast as regular higher quality amusement park rides.

[Aureus]

The music wasn't the best, but when the ride started spinning, Aureus forget all about it. The centripetal force caused Chi to slide into him, which in turn pressed him harder into the side. It was slightly uncomfortable, but the rush he got from the fast spinning made up for it. For a few seconds, it felt like his stomach was going to jump out of his body. Laughing a little bit, he let go of the metal bar and enjoyed the ride.

Once they had come to a stop, he turned to Chi. "Wow, you were right; that was fun. Thought I was gonna die with you squishing me into the side though. Did you put on weight in Seattle?" The boy teased, poking her stomach.