You may think this is heaven -- it’s not that at all...

[playonforever]

On the midway, tucked between two tents - or rather, rearing up between them - there is a building that looks like a wooden palace. It's almost four stories tall and exploding with color. Across the front run depictions of heroes of the Wood, fae and humans, fighting monsters and mostly winning. Statues, perfect in likeness to the things they

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[whateverthemess]

Murphy reaches the top of the ramp and eyes the cars leading into the ride with distaste. This is not going to be fun. How not-fun, she doesn't know, but... If the start of the evening is any indication, she's going to be wishing for enough booze to put her out before the night is over.

She turns to the attendant - and freezes.

White eyes. Safe as houses.

"Motherfuck," Murphy snarls, and jumps into the nearest ride car.

[painhumbles]

Gabriel bristles in the direction of the attendant and follows Murphy to the car, glowering over his shoulder as if he's worried about leaving his back to the bastard for too long. It's not like he didn't anticipate this, but there's walking up to the guy and then there's walking right into his trap.

And yet his tip-off came from someone who claims to hate the guy... You can never be so sure with these fairies.

"Nothing could possibly go wrong with this," he scoffs, yanking the lap bar down and making himself comfortable. This is going to suck. He might as well make the most of it and brace himself.

[playonforever]

White Eyes stares at Gabriel with a kind of disgusted fascination, his form warping and shifting from a child into the lanky, skeletal, shadow-clad creature that Murphy saw once before. No one on the Midway seems to notice the change, or even the funhouse now.

When White Eyes speaks, it's in that bass-drum echo of a voice. "Whose hand have you taken, mule?"

[whateverthemess]

Murphy freezes again, looking from Gabriel to White Eyes with even more of an 'oh fuck' feeling than before.

The car rumbles forward, but she can't shake the feeling that he's watching them until the funhouse doors close, and even then. Murphy shivers, then gives Gabriel a sharp look.

"What was that about?"

[painhumbles]

Gabriel twists back around, looking altogether smug at White Eyes' reaction. ...Smug and a little nervous. He hadn't really anticipated getting his horn blown so soon. He just waggles his eyebrows in White Eyes' general direction in an expression that can only mean one thing- Jealous?- before facing the front as the ride starts.

"You mean besides the fact that the guy's got it bad for me?"

See Gabriel. See Gabriel evade. EVADE GABRIEL EVADE.

[whateverthemess]

She growls. "Gabriel-"

And that's when the drumming starts. Murphy goes pale and her grip on the car's lapbar tightens. "Oh God. You've got to be kidding me."

A jerk and a roar and the car is thundering along the tracks, surrounding them with a screaming mob of cartoonish nightmares punctuated by humans fighting for their lives. Murphy almost closes her eyes, not wanting to see all of this again. Seeing it in White Eyes' mirror was bad enough - seeing it here, with the noise of Chichen Itza roaring around her and the vampires made somehow more horrible by the distortion of animation almost makes her panic.

And then she sees Lucifer, a backdrop to the bloodshed of Chichen Itza, tearing through what can only be the 'so-called gods' he mentioned before.

[painhumbles]

Gabriel never thought he'd be thankful for B-movie horror... Then again, once it starts, he has to think that he'd rather have bantered with Murphy about the topic until she was blue in the face, because this isn't just B-movie scares. This is a juxtaposition of his life mixed with what can only be Murphy's and even grasping what her experiences were just from what he could sense on her soul, it's nothing like seeing it- even if it's a caricature.

At Lucifer's appearance, he has to shut his eyes- mostly so he doesn't have to see him tearing through the closest thing he had to a family on his way to Sam and Dean. He'd seen the bodies on the floor when he finally sacked up to face Lucifer- that was enough. On top of it all, almost mockingly, he can hear his brother's voice ringing in his ears, that tinge of mild disgust and disappointment as clear as it was when he heard it the first time, For a girl...

[whateverthemess]

As soon as the car stops, Murphy staggers out and braces herself against the nearest fake tree, trying to keep from being sick.

Deep breaths. Just deep breaths. She shakes her head. "I hate those bastards," she whispers. She could mean the vampires, she could mean Kitsune and White Eyes - she's not sure, but she thinks she means both. Without another word about what they just went rolling through, she starts walking again, along the path into the fake trees.

[painhumbles]

Gabriel remains eerily silent, remaining in the car for a moment or two, climbing out just seconds before the ride actually dumps him. He half wonders if Murphy saw any of his little montage or if she was too distracted by her own... He also really doesn't want to ask.

So he'll avoid the point and stand awkwardly nearby, looking around at the fake forest. "Did we miss the all-fairy production of Wind in the Willows or what?" He scoffs and takes Murphy gently by the arm. "C'mon. Before your boyfriend gets eaten by a giant mole or something."

It's a valid concern and if Murphy stays on task, then they can ignore the painful truths and just move on with their lives... And not think about what kind of game White Eyes might be playing here.

[whateverthemess]

She pulls away from him and keeps moving despite the vertigo that the apparently uneven floor gives her. This place is making her skin crawl, and after that little trip down memory lane she's almost expecting vampires to come swarming out at them.

She should have brought the sword.

Murphy shakes her head. She's fine. Nothing has happened yet. This is just that bastard messing with them, and somewhere in this stupid nightmare, Harry's waiting. Murphy pauses, needing to stop for a second to steady herself next to the cut-out of a hatchmarked tree with a noose hanging from the branches. She glares at it. "Cute."

[painhumbles]

Gabriel makes an unhappy hm noise when Murphy pulls away that's less at her and more at the big picture- and the fact that she's looking like someone out at sea and he's walking around fine, but that's not really a major concern. His animal hindbrain is on full alert in this place and he keeps glancing behind him every few minutes as if expecting to see something watching.

He picks up the pace to be even with Murphy and flicks the noose just to watch it swing back and forth, avoiding the urge to give her a gentle shove forwards this time. "I dunno. I think it kinda ties the whole thing together."

He keeps walking until it feels like the scenery is shifting, swirls of color and darkness, and then...

A hall of mirrors.

Gabriel's only response is to clap sardonically.

[whateverthemess]

Murphy staggers, grabbing his sleeve to keep from falling over from dizziness as the world around them starts to spin. The fact that Gabriel doesn't even seem to notice is aggravating and kind of worrying, if she lets herself think about it. Right now she can't let herself think about it.

She gives him an impatient look and steps into the maze, recoiling from a reflection of herself holding a shotgun, spattered with blowback and grinning. She has to close her eyes in order to turn away, and then it's an image of her getting a commendation from the Mayor, her in an FBI office - she snorts at that one. The further into the maze she moves, the more her skin crawls. She stops at the sight of herself, pregnant and asleep on a bed in what looks like... Looks like her room if Harry had a hand in decorating it.

Murphy growls around the lump that's knotted itself into her throat, reaching out to touch the mirror in spite of herself. It ripples like water and her fingers slip through.

She yanks back. That can't possibly be good.

[painhumbles]

Gabriel hangs back at the entrance, staring at the his reflection in the first mirror. It has a look about it like someone's been shining a spotlight onto it, distorting the features of it, but the sense of what it is is very real- an archangel at full power in the midst of battle. He shakes his head and presses forwards, keeping his head down. He needs to play This Could Be Your Life like he needs a hole in his head.

He stops just short of the mirror Murphy's in front of and watches her yank back her hand as it passes through. "You gotta be kidding me," he mutters and then reaches forward to see if the mirror as the same effect on him, but all he touches is solid glass.

"'Til creepy mirrors do us part." He sighs dramatically and looks down at Murphy. "Does this smell like a trap to you?"

[whateverthemess]

"Yup," she says. Her expression hardens. On impulse, she tests the next mirror. It's solid. She still yanks her hand back as the reflection on the other side - a scarless, stunning version of herself with an extra set of glowing green eyes - throws itself at the mirror. "I hate carnivals."

Murphy takes a deep breath and looks up at Gabriel. "Wish me luck."

Before he can, she's plunging straight into the liquid mirror and whatever lovely trap White Eyes has waiting for her on the other side.

[painhumbles]

Gabriel's transfixed by the image of himself in the mirror to the right- his wearing a different vessel, this one dark-haired and pallid with ice-blue eyes, dressed to the nines and holding a blade to another angel's neck. When Murphy speaks, he has to tear his eyes away. "Goo- What? Hey!" He reaches out to grab her by the arm and pull her back, but she slips through his fingers and he's left staring at nothing more than his own reflection- this one showing him sprawled lazily in some great hall like a god, surrounded by women and food.

He closes his eyes and swears under his breath before glancing down the hall of mirrors, only to find a hundreds of versions of him staring right back.

"What the hell are you lookin' at?" He snaps.

[playonforever]

Without a word, they all point at him in unison.