The Carnival

[Ashe]

Takes place after the conversation between Belle and Kaden.

"Next!" the storage clerk called out into the crowd.

Like most theme parks, this one came located with digital capsule lockers to allow the storage of a large number of items. Unlike most theme parks, this one had a pink haired participant that loved shopping - even if it meant it had to be from the vending machines. The moving mass of items slowly shifted its way forward and stopped in front of him. "Hi there!" a cheery voice chirped.

"Uh..." Leaning around the side of the items, the clerk adjusted his glasses to allow for a better look. Somewhere in the center of the stack of items, a pair of green eyes peered back at him as if through a window. "Can I help you?"

"I'd like all of this placed onto my account and mailed to my residence, please! The one on Kajin Rala!" the voice clarified from behind them.

The clerk leaned back a moment and braced himself. "I see... I hate to inform you, but everything here is for digital purposes only."

"Ok!" she replied just as cheerily.

Yeah, she was going to make his job a bit more difficult on him.

"Well, what I mean is that none of it exists outside of this game. It's all digital data within the game itself. So anything you have received is limited to the confinements of the festival," he explained. Leaning around the backside, his brow rose a bit. "Did you... somehow balance more items on your hip bone?"

"Of course, I'm a professional at this kinda' thing," she informed him. "And what do you mean I can't keep any of this stuff? I won all this!" she insisted, dangerously.

A moment of silence passed between them before the man sighed, knowing what this was really about. "Alright," he finally decided. "Place it on the desk before me."

"Place what?" came the innocent response.

"The Twilight book."

Another moment flittered by. "But it's mine," was her answer.

"That's what this really boils down to, isn't it? I told them to remove it from the list," the man complained for a moment, his ramblings falling on deaf ears, "but now legal says that we have to send a physical copy to your residence of this one item. It isn't really worth the fight on our side to not do it," he admitted, extending his hand.

"Oh thank god!" Ashe swelled, dropping everything else around her as if it all was suddenly meaningless. "I really didn't want to have to hurt someone."

"Yeah," the man replied, lifting the digital book copy up with a pair of tongs and setting it into a discarded plastic bag. "We'll be sure to properly dispo-" he began, coughing suddenly. "I mean, deliver it, to your residence for you. Is there anything else I can assist you with?"

Scanning over the large pile for a moment, Ashe finally reached up to the top and snatched a strawberry and cream flavored Creamsickle, quickly returning the unwrapped paper to the top of the pile before popping the treat into her mouth. "Mmm..." she droned, forgetting completely about the book now that she'd been appeased. "I know that when I put this into my mouth, the system tells me its good, and that it doesn't really exist. But something I've learned in these things... Ignorance is bliss," she admitted. Her eyes suddenly snapped to one more thing and she swiped it from the pile while the ice cream bar hung suspended by her lips. "What's this?" she tried to ask, giving out nothing more than a series of muffled noises.

"Err, I'm sorry? Miss, is there anything else I can assist you with?" he asked once more, but she turned and walked off without offering him another glance, her attention split between the frozen treat and the sphere in her hands. What was it? What could it be used for?

Oh the possibilities...

---

"Sigh..."

Kaden ran both hands through his hair, pulling it back a bit before releasing it to cascade back into place. It usually seemed to just do its own thing anyway, he noted. His back popped as he leaned back on the board, listening to the cool sound of the waves moving back and forth beneath the extended board he'd climbed onto in a quieter section of the park.

"Girls..." he muttered under his breath, despite being alone. "Can't live with 'em," he began, changing the old adage up a bit. "And when they die, they just come back to haunt you."

It wasn't that he didn't want to see Sophia, really. But with girls, it seemed like impending doom was guaranteed, regardless of how one responded to the situation. They must've come pre-programmed with Malcontent Mode, he figured. Maybe that's what Belle always insisted was Menstu Ration, though if it was, he'd be surprised how close he actually was.

Still, he wasn't usually one to soak in depression. He held a hand up before him created a small ball of ki within it, rolling it around the palm of his hand with small amusement. His eyes began to shine a bit and he looked to the starlight above, feeling the cool air pass through his lungs as he held up his hands, imagining himself to be lying under a basketball goal, before he shot the ball upwards, the ball on a directionless goalless path to simply escape the current situation - to blast off to the stars. It was almost poetic, in that he was basically releasing his pent up frustration in one movement and expelling it from himself before it bothered him much more.

The ball moved upwards, hurtling towards the stars, intent on bursting at its apex in full symbolic climax... That was when the world gave way, and he suddenly found himself in a freefall before plunging into icy reality.

---

"Man, I love these things," Ashe grinned, cleaning the last bit of the iced delicacy from its stick with her tongue. When nothing was left beyond the stick itself, she spied a nearby trash bin and headed towards it, still studying her red and white shaped ball keenly. It wasn't until she had thrown the trash into its container that she realized she'd wandered a bit off her intended path.

Just across from her, she saw a series of glowing lights in the air on one of the machines, shining like a series of stars before one of the balls of light separated from the others to rise to meet its brethren. She approached the setup quietly, unable to really make out who or what was sitting within its structure. Her eyes scanned across a sign directly beside her that seemed to become better lit as the ball of light rose into the air. "Step right up and throw a ball, hit the spot and the idiot falls!" she read quietly. "Oh, one of these things!" It was hard to not grin mischievously upon reading this. Whoever had climbed up onto that platform was simply begging to be dunked, even if they were out here by themselves in what appeared to be an abandoned section of the park.

The ball of light rose higher, prompting Ashe to forgo her search for an official throwing ball and simply deciding to instead launch the one in her hand. It arced through the air gracefully, cutting directly above the water until it struck the center of the target perfectly, a guilty glee passing through her as the platform immediately gave way. The ball exploded into a small fireworks display at the exact moment that the shrouded figure struck the water, the liquid quickly stifling its surprised screams. She felt a short pang of guilt, but, she reasoned, they were asking for it. A squeal of laughter burst forth from her and she ran to the ladder quickly to figure out how they'd gotten in the cage themselves.

---

The shock of the drop had cut through him far sharper than the cold itself, although neither was very welcome. Whatever had happened, he could either take it as a rather dick move to get him to stop brooding, or he could laugh at the... Nah, dick move all the way. Whenever he got out of there, he was going to have to exchange a stern series of words with the perpetrator. By that, he meant through his fists. And by that, he meant metaphorically. Maybe.

In that moment, the sun appeared to suddenly rise, causing the entire pool of water to turn into a blinding white that forced him to close his eyes quickly before his arms found their way to shield him. A small rounded orb floated through the water just above him, catching his attention only due to its almost terrifying familiarity. What had been awesome before was just... unfortunate now.

His mouth opened, a series of bubbles quickly rising up to meet the sudden release of energy as the ball activated, the enormous beast within escaping.

---

"Ugh, lights ON!" she grunted as she fumbled with the large switch she found next to the cage siding. A sound like a scratched record suddenly began, fumbling on itself before settling into typical carnival music as a series of lights erupted all around the machine. "That's better," she figured, quickly brushing the dust from her hands off on her shorts before looking back at the cage door. A large metal lock on a chain was draped around it, preventing the stairs from being used at all.

It took a moment to sink in. "Oh, yeah, ok, I guess they climbed in there the hard way," she supposed.

"MmglsllSHIT!"

Her ears caught the strangest sound breaking the surface of the water as a massive blue form suddenly appeared inside of it. "Uh oh," she moaned, running around to the front of the machine and quickly jumping onto it. "Is that a shark?" she wondered, holding on to the cage before realizing that, no, the mammoth mammal beneath her had a few too many arms and legs to be an aquatic warhead of certain death. A moment later, her mind recalled the figure that'd been hanging around on the platform.

"No way, this thing is way too fat. I totally didn't dunk this dude," she rationalized.

"MmghELP!"

She was dead, she supposed. Well, unless the dunked person - who she now figured was trapped beneath the monstrosity in the water - died from lack of oxygen first. Thankfully, moments later she found herself suspended within the cage and her hand pulling a familiar figure out from the cold water by the arm, holding on to keep herself out of the water as well.

The student and courier exchanged looks before Ashe sheepishly greeted him. "Hi..." she began.

"Hi."

Shifting her attention to the cooler thing in the water, her head tilted to the side before following up. "That thing... looks asleep. Underwater," she added, incredulously.

"I noticed."

They both quietly made their way to the front of the pool before letting go of the cage to both sit down on the edge of the platform. Ashe's chewed her lip for a moment before her hand reached up to salvation. She grabbed the edge of the large jester hat she'd won, pulling it down until it covered her eyes, helping her pretend that where ever she was, it wasn't here, and it wasn't Kaden that she'd just dunked.