The Carnival

[Ashe]

The bubblegum haired girl strolled through the park, unable to shake the eerie church organ music that seemed to be playing throughout the park. "Kristanna, where did you send me?" she questioned out loud, realizing now that she hadn't been asleep and dreaming of terrorist related video games.

"Welcome to Kill Town!" a voice called to her right, almost singing it for her. Ashe's eyes followed the sound to a brown haired woman in a navy blue suit that Ashe half expected to light up with red, yellow, or blue lights. The girl swung her legs off the wall of the carnival game she'd been sitting on and made her way towards the student. "I'm Mixie!"

"Mixie? Ok, I'll bite. What's the deal with Zombieland here?"

"Oh, you weren't in the zombie game!" Mixie responded, not catching the reference. Ashe's eyebrow rise, unsure whether to follow through with the line of conversation or to let it go, but the assistant continued without her. "You are in a great carnival known as Kill Town!"

"Oh, I see," Ashe sighed, mumbling under her breath. "Thanks, Kristanna, for deciding that I needed yet another trip to play in some psycho's game for television."

Mixie shook her head as she reached the girl, spreading her arms as if to show off the park's grandeur. "This won't be on television!" she corrected.

"Fantastic," Ashe dripped sarcastically. "So which plan is this one? We kill each other while some dude gets off in his office or is this one where we fight for our survival against nightmarish creatures and henchmen who want to rape us?"

"Actually, Ashe," she instructed once more, leaving the girl in no way surprised that Mixie knew her name. They always did. "You'll be taking part in a series of fun games of fantasy and adventure!"

"Zombies are kinda cool, I guess," she mused, remembering the earlier comment.

"Oh, that one's already been done, I'm afraid, and I can't really tell you if it'll happen again. Nor can I even give you specifics of the games themselves."

Ashe approached an abandoned game hut and reached down, picking up a dart from the table. "Then what help are you?" she asked softly before taking aim, throwing the dart.

"You missed!" the helper announced cheerfully, leaving Ashe to snatch up an entire fistful of darts and fling them angrily at the board, a rattling series of balloons popping to break the silence that followed. "Congratulations!"

Throwing her legs up onto the hut in a manner similar to how she'd first seen Mixie, the pink haired girl scanned the other woman from top to bottom. "Who are you? And I already know your name," she reminded the woman, interrupting her first breath.

"I'm a computer programmed AI that was created specifically to assist the players in finding their way around Kill Town and to learn more about the games inside. Your first event," she continued, pointing at a small device at the girl's waist, waiting for her to grab it before reading it in the girl's hand, "was called S.W.A.T. You were playing the role of an elite police force unit, expected to break into the terrorist building and save the hostages, as well as disarm one bomb and defeat the bad guys!"

Ashe studied the device intently, noting that it had her name that listed her as being first place in her event and having "Monies: 40" listed just below. "What's this about?" she asked, turning the display to show it to Mixie.

"You were the highest placing champion of your unit in the previous game. First place wins the most monies, which you can use to buy a variety of items from the various queues and shops located around the carnival," she answered, pulling out a brochure from her pocket and sliding it across the shelf. "There's a list of items included in here, as well as a map to help you find your way around the park."

The student turned it around in her hands, scanning it up and down curiously. "Ok, well, I guess that's all I really need to know for now," she decided, rolling the pamphlet up momentarily and looking over Mixie's shoulder as people walked by in the distance, including yet another girl with pink hair accompanying what looked like a dinosaur. "So we'll just be jumping from game to game and these are all just for fun?"

"Yep!"

"And what if we want to leave?" She knew the question would be met with some resistance. It was how these things worked.

"I'm sorry," the AI immediately responded with a sad smile across her face. "I'm afraid that we can't allow that for now, so I'd just enjoy the time you have here! Was there anything else that I could assist you with?" she asked, catching the hint that Ashe was ready to move on. Receiving nothing more than a sad shake of her head, the assistant grinned cheerfully. "If you need anything at all, just call my name and I'll be there just..." she continued, snapping her fingers. "Like that!"

Her image faded away slowly, startling Ashe just a bit. Taking a deep breath, the girl pushed off the festival hut and moved through the plaza in search of something of interest. "WELCOME TO THE CIRCUS OF VALUES!" a creepy voice screamed from a clown head adorned on one of the nearby vending machines.

"Ugh, I hate clowns!" Ashe screamed, kicking the machine after gathering her wits back. Looking over the machine, she realized that it was one of the venders to spend her monies at. "Let's see... There's something here to buy Badges from, and something here to steal them from other people... Whoever has the most Badges when the games finish wins... Something that costs more monies to buy than the monies it can possibly steal from another player... Mystery Capsule?" she questioned, stopping momentarily to lean in closer. "Can be practically anything inside, just give it a try!" she read. "Kinda cool, I guess."

"WELCOME TO THE CIRCUS OF VALUES!" the voice screamed again, directly into her ear.

"KAMI'S BALLS!" Ashe cried out in surprise, kicking the machine hard again in anger. Whirling around, she decided to worry about buying an item later. For now, there were a number of rides to spend her time on and she didn't know how long she'd have to enjoy them before the next game started up.