She shoots colors all around, like a sunset going down

[knightsdaughter]

Molly Carpenter wanders through the carnival at Xanadu, more curious than concerned. She wouldn't be entirely surprised to see someone she knew, but hasn't run into them so far

Comments

[returntous]

Mabel has bad memories involving carnivals. On the outskirts of the town her aunt lived in, there was an old, run-down amusement park. It was shut down, had been for years. Rumors went wild about why, teenagers broke in and spray painted crude messages on decaying statues of nursery rhyme figures, but even they didn't stay long.

Mabel eventually found out why.

This carnival was no better. It was full of people and laughter, color and sound. She's standing in the middle of it, forcing the crowd to part around her. She's very still, brow furrowed in concentration.

Something was screaming, and she was the only one who could hear it.

[returntous]

"Oh, uh, Mabel. Sorry, I should have said that sooner." She stops just under the Ferris Wheel and squints up at it. To her, she could see something small and obviously dead, with rotted flesh and a rotted face, clinging to the side of one of the cars at the very top. This was how the dead appeared to her, always - it's nothing that alarms her.

She's more used to them than she is to most people.

"He's stuck," she mutters, forgetting that Molly was there and already trying to figure out how to make them stop the Wheel. "Poor thing."

[knightsdaughter]

Molly could probably hex it stopped, but that might not be the best solution. She squints in the direction Mabel was looking, though of course she doesn't see anything right away.

She considers using the Sight, but decides not to just yet. If Mabel was seeing something supernatural, it might not be something Molly wanted to remember with perfect clarity forever.

[returntous]

"Think we can get them to make it stop?" Mabel doesn't seem to care that Molly can't really see what she sees, or might think she's crazy because of it. Partly because she's used to that, and partly because the dead boy wouldn't stop screaming.

"I need that top car to come down. I'd usually come back later, but..." And this is why she has a criminal record.

[knightsdaughter]

Molly bites her lip and says, "Give me just a second. I'll be right back, I promise." And with that, she's off into the crowd to find someplace she can step behind a tent or beside a building. Someplace out of the way enough she can get a veil up without getting noticed.

It's only a minute or two later she's lightly sprinting back toward the ferris wheel, totally hidden from mundane senses. She's going to need to distract the operator first, and then she's going to try and get the car down. Go go gadget invisibility.

[returntous]

"The kindness of strangers," Mabel remarks to herself, watching the Ferris Wheel with a frown. She can't tell from this distance, but given the level of decay, the thing that used to be a boy had been up there for quite awhile.

Screaming, just screaming the whole time.

[knightsdaughter]

Right, distraction first. Molly decides to go with something fairly obvious, since she knows nothing about the operator and something more subtle might or might not work.

So an illusion, then. Suddenly, there is a woman about a foot away from him, in the crowd around the base of the ferris wheel. "God, help! Please, sir, help! My child is missing!" She's pretty hysterical, and looks completely real. The woman is clearly addressing the operator directly, making it hard for him to ignore her.

[returntous]

Mabel blinks. She can tell the woman isn't real (why, she doesn't know. It's just one of the things she can do). Which makes her new friend decidedly interesting.

Still, she has to wonder if she should have waited until night. It would be easier to do what she's about to do, which is sneak around the crowds and try to get to the equipment.

Hey, maybe she can start a criminal record in another world entirely!

[knightsdaughter]

Molly was originally going to try and get the equipment herself, but she sees Mabel going for it, which makes her job... both easier and harder. She doesn't want to veil Mabel without warning, because it can be disorienting if you're not used to it. On the other hand, she was going to need a bigger diversion, if someone could potentially see the person messing with the controls.

So... while everyone is looking at the illusion of the woman, who is incoherent in her grief and panic, Molly takes a new tactic, ducking to the side and changing the veil for a seeming. Now she looks professional, her hair blond and twisted back, her eyes behind glasses, her features sharper, older and different than Molly's own.

All this magic on the fly was going to wear on her, but a small part of her had to admit... it was kind of fun.

[returntous]

The operator looks frazzled, but not enough go far from the controls. Damn, she thought, she probably should have figured out a way to communicate with Molly before this went down.

She decides to risk it, creeping forward anyway. This wouldn't be the first time she's hijacked a Ferris Wheel, strangely enough.

[knightsdaughter]

Molly, in the new persona she's adopted, strides forward with a clipboard in hand. "Excuse me," she says, with a slight Boston accent. "Excuse me, where is the Ferris Wheel operator?" When his attention is on her, the fake woman slips off into the crowd and disappears.

Molly isn't quite sure where she's going with this, but hopefully it will buy Mabel time.