So no one told you life was going to be this way.

[cukoolanded]

Day: Two
Who: Ash, Zoey, and Michael
When: Mid-morning
Where: Group 1, Tent 4
Any Warnings: awkwardness?

Comments

[cordelisse]

Zoey started getting dressed, her nightmare still looming in the back of her mind. She usually had a little trouble figuring them out, but they’d never been so... devoid of details before. A shiver ran down her spine. What did that MEAN?

With a firm shake of her head, she shimmied out of her pyjamas (an oversized tunic with the words “We’re all mad here” emblazoned on it) and slid into another sleeveless unitard (she seemed to have a near endless supply of them; this one was purple and had Capri-length legs), a pair of black shorts, and a red tank top. Over that she threw a loose weave sweater, also in red. She didn’t bother with shoes.

Making sure she had a handful of hair ties on her wrist, she ducked out to meet her new tent mate.

Better make that tent MATES, she amended wryly, taking in the awkward young man in the white suit as well as the young blonde girl dressed in very bright colours. It obviously hadn’t been the man who had asked her if she was all right, which left the girl.

“Hi,” she said, greeting the both of them with a small wave of her hand. “So... looks like we’re going to be living in one another’s pockets for the foreseeable future. I’m Zoey.”

[curseofverse]

The odd young man hesitated as he was approached - stormy eyes fixing first upon the blonde. The way she was dressed was, perhaps, a touch unusual...but they were at a Carnival, and besides, he had certainly seen more than his share of odd in Greenvale. When still another woman walked out, he took her in, too...and he couldn't help but feel out of place. For one, he was wearing a white suit amongst all these colors. For another, he was the only guy here.

...Which made his eyes widen when Zoey mentioned they would be living together.

He didn't speak, looking around, and then down to the cuff on his wrist. No, this wasn't right. He had to get back to the Mansion right away. He wasn't going to be staying here. Worry was plain across his face.

[cukoolanded]

She looked between the two people she was apparently going to be living with. Zoey seemed nice enough (Ash absentmindedly wondered what her nightmare had been about), but she wasn't quite ready to believe that the both of them wouldn't start ignoring her the first chance they got. It was what always happened.

"I'm Ashlin." she said, giving them both a bright smile. Her smile quickly morphed into worry though as she looked back at the man in the white suit. "Are you okay? You look like you're going to be ill." Bo-Bo trilled floating out to look at the two new people his human would apparently be staying with. The orange and white Shadow wasn't really sure what to think of the pair yet, but he knew he would be more than happy to cause some mischief if they were anything like the people Ashlin had known in her school days.

[cordelisse]

The young man looked decidedly... nervous when she had mentioned them living together. Maybe he hadn’t expected the co-ed nature of their living quarters, Zoey didn’t know. It could just be that he was newly arrived. He might not know that it was apparent that the Carnival wasn’t someplace you could just walk out of. It wasn’t going to be that easy.

He would need to be filled in at some point, before something... bad happened. Because it would, every instinct was screaming at her that it would. Perhaps even if they DIDN’T try anything like escaping. Her conversation with the Carnie the night prior ran through her mind, and she shivered.

Oh yes... Something bad was very, very likely.

“Hello Ashlin,” Zoey said, answering the girl’s smile with one of her own. She felt rather badly for her nightmare waking her up, though it wasn’t like she could exactly control them. Though she wished she could. She glanced at the young man. “What about you? What’s your name?”

[curseofverse]

Hesitation. Bewilderment. He tried to pull himself together as best he could, though...in his efforts, his eyes fell upon the flickering, vague image of Bo-Bo. His shoulders tightened. That was nothing like any Shadow he had ever seen before.

Drawing a steadying breath, he bowed at the waist, the motion stiff and mechanical.

"I am all right just...I cannot stay. Mister Stewart will need me, I cannot be away." More rhymes. His first words were not coincidental. "But...pardon me for being rude. My name is Michael - pleased to meet you two."

[cukoolanded]

Ashlin was pleasantly surprised when Zoey returned her smile, and gave her another shy one back. Maybe things would be different here. Her smile dropped however, and her expression turned sad as Michael explained that he couldn't stay. Didn't he know. . .? "I'm sorry Michael, but, well, I think you're trapped her the same as us." she looked to Zoey hoping she might be better at explaining this than she was. Ashlin really wasn't very good at talking to people at all. She only distantly noticed Michael's rhyming not really to concerned with what others might think of as a strange manner of speech.

[cordelisse]

Zoey inclined her head slightly at Michael’s bow. He was... oddly formal, wasn’t he. This was going to be an interesting time in the tent. He was going to be disappointed when he fully realised that he wouldn’t be leaving; NONE of them would be leaving. Not until they could figure the Carnival out.

She noticed that Ashlin had looked to her when she tried to explain that very thing. Well, it looked like it was going to be up to her. “I... don’t think that’s an option. None of us can leave. We’re... in the Carnival’s employ, whether we like it, or not. I wouldn’t... It would be very bad for us to try and leave, I think.” After her vision in the practice tent she was damn certain that if anyone did it wouldn’t end well for them. Especially if they tried repeatedly.