(Untitled)

[off_the_grid]

Quorra couldn't quite believe what the island had turned into overnight. She'd come outside in the morning, and the place was all covered with noisy machinery that she didn't immediately grasp the purpose of. After a few moments of observation, she realized these were rides, and, while not quite as exciting as a lightcycle under her own control,

Comments

[a_swan_diver]

Bella couldn't exactly say she was surprised when she'd stepped outside and walked directly into an amusement part. Okay, she'd rubbed her eyes a few times, even pinched her arm once. When the first hadn't changed anything and the second had given her a bruise, she'd just shrugged and gone with it.

She was in the middle of walking around the game section with the remnants of a funnel cake in front of her and stopped next to another girl, one she hadn't met yet, standing alone. Normally, she'd have just continued along and kept to herself, but this place was different and she was determined to be different along with it.

Stopping just beside the woman, she smiled and spoke softly. "Crazy, isn't it?"

[off_the_grid]

"It is, but it's very exciting! I've never seen anything quite like it, with all this food and all the people screaming and liking it." So many things set up just for fun was something Quorra was very interested in.

She looked curiously at the girl's funnel cake. "What's that? There are so many foods here I've never seen."

[a_swan_diver]

"My dad took me to Disneyland once, during one of our summer trips to California but even that wasn't like this. This is like a State Fair on steroids or something."

Bella looked at her plate. She'd never seen a funnel cake? Since most of this stuff was common carnival fare, she started wondering where this woman came from. Remembering what Bill told her, she just held the untouched side of the cake out to the girl. "It's funnel cake, one of my absolute favorites. Want a bite?"

[off_the_grid]

"It doesn't look like a funnel." Quorra accepted the offered piece, ate it, and smiled. "It's really good. I"ll have to get one of those of my own. It's really different from anything we had where I'm from, but that's true of most things here. I'm Quorra."

[a_swan_diver]

"Nice to meet you, Quorra, I'm Bella," she smiled back. "Where are you from, if you don't mind my asking? I've met people from so many different places, it's almost hard to keep track sometimes."

[off_the_grid]

"Me, too! It's so interesting here, meeting people from so many places I never even heard of before." It was one of Quorra's favorite things about the island, even more than the food. "I'm from a place called the Grid. It's inside a computer."

[a_swan_diver]

"It is that, for sure."

Okay, that was something she wasn't expecting. Again, though, in this place, it wasn't exactly strange. "Wow, well, you're my first computer person. Was it nice there, inside the computer? Or is this place better?" She was thinking of the few people she'd met who'd come from scarier places than even her world in Forks.

[off_the_grid]

"No, it wasn't 'nice', exactly. Some people were, but a lot weren't. Here is better, for people being nice." She was pretty sure the chance of some group of people being purged from the island was very small here. At the very least, with so many different types of people, it wouldn't be something that made a lot of sense for anyone to try. "Things move so slowly here, though. Even if we had many vehicles to drive, there aren't many places where you'd be able to go very fast."

[a_swan_diver]

"I think that's pretty much everywhere, though, isn't it? Or at least it was for me. Some were great, some not so much. Sounds like were both in a better place, then, I think."

Bella laughed. "Have you been on any of the rides yet? Might not be the same as driving fast, but the adrenaline rush is about the same."

[off_the_grid]

"I haven't yet. I'm trying to decide which one looks like the best to start with." Quorra's method of determination was mainly based on the volume of the joyful screaming of the people currently riding when she watched. "What do you recommend?"

[a_swan_diver]

"I've always been a rollercoaster person. The ones that spin you around and make you dizzy?" Bella's nose wrinkled up. "All those do is make me sick. I like the drops and speed on a 'coaster a lot more."

She hadn't been on one since....since she'd experienced a different kind of speed. And she was a little anxious to see if a roller coaster could match up to her memories.

[off_the_grid]

Quorra was definitely a fan of speed. She didn't think she was opposed to at least trying the spinning things to make her dizzy, but those could wait until later, with someone else who might like them.

"I want to go on the fastest one."

[a_swan_diver]

"You're in luck, then. When I went on the monorail earlier, I checked everything out and the one just up there looked like the fastest. it's where I was headed before I stopped for the funnel cake. Want to come ride it with me?"

[off_the_grid]

"Yes, I would like that." Quorra looked up at the nearby coaster, assessing its loops and dips and the audible reactions of the people currently riding it. "I don't have a lot to compare it to, but it looks like a good one."

[a_swan_diver]

"It's better than nothing, and I'm sure it's fast if it's got loops in it. We're going to get our hair tangled for sure on this one."

She found a trash can for her leftover funnel cake and headed for the coaster's entrance, laughing the whole way. "Another thing to be happy for. No lines!"

[off_the_grid]

"Should there be line? That doesn't seem like fun. Maybe this island amusement part has even more good points than I knew to be looking for."

Quorra studied the seat restraints and frowned slightly.

"They sure do want to strap us in there, don't they? Where's the fun in that?"