2nd Annual Charity Carnival and Celebrity Date Auction!

[stanleecameo]

Who: Everyone
What: 2nd Annual Carnival and Date Auction Charity Benefit
When: the week of July 4th
Where: Gotham
Interactions: OPEN
Warnings: This is an open event thread. Thread jacking, hopping, character romance, violence, and any and all things in between are possible. (But if you're going to do some private intimate things please make a separate thread about it)



The first most noticeable thing was the lights. In a perpetually dreary place like Gotham they could stay on no matter the time of day, casting a warm glow all about the streets and parks that had been connected to create the Charity Carnival. The streets were opened up during the day so that people could get to and from work, then in the evening they were blocked off so that pedestrians could meander about freely withoiut worrying about the cross walks. But whether in cars or on foot; they could always see the lights.

In the inter connected parks scattered around the Wayne Resilient tower there were myriad attractions:

Boothes where games could be played for prizes,
Rides,
Foods of all kinds (mostlly either fried or sugar coated),
and even a small section where locals had rented tables to sell arts and crafts that had been hand made.

And at the center of it all was the Wayne Resilient tower which contained a 5 star restaurant that was the staging area for the Celebrity Date Auction to be held later in the week.

Even the first two floors of the building had been repurposed into a kind of exhibit featuring current and upcoming Waynetech devices designed to improve the lives of the people who used them. Including the prototype for a brand new line of Waynetech smart cars. The event was in honor of the 4th of July but the entire week had been scheduled and included things like live music, fire breathers, gymnasts and a petting zoo.

And on the night of the 4th of course; a fantastic fireworks display arranged by Wayne Resilient with another new innovation of theirs; safe fireworks. Specially designed for sound and color and burst with no heat behind it to endanger fireworks handlers or civilians.

With everything that had been planned and all the staffing involved it was truly looking to be a week to remember.

Comments

[purplehazegirl]

What kid could resist a fair? She tried to tell herself she would go only to keep the peace but as soon as she stepped on the grounds she was overcome with child-like excitement. She bought tickets and immediately started towards a merry go round but veered off course when she smelled the churros, then again when she heard the ping from the shooting gallery.

She stood in line with her tickets and waited until it was her turn to handle a toy gun.

[midnighterknows]

A civilian dressed (but not necessarily civilized) Midnighter was already taking up one of the stalls of the shooting gallery. While other patrons came and went from using the other air guns the vendor had for use, Midnighter maintained his corner position, trading in lower grade prizes for better ones with each round. It was how the system worked. He could just as easily buy the top prize at a normal store, but that wasn't the point.

The air guns at the booth were cheap things, each with their own flaw to benefit the vendor instead of the customer. But that was the system and today Midnighter was a civilian and he would play within the rules as such. Apollo would be proud.

Waiting for the other patrons to take their rushed shots, some boyfriends trying to impress girlfriends, some kids getting their first crack at holding something that resembled a weapon, Midnighter took his shot in his own time; waiting to hit the higher valued targets whenever they popped up.

[voted_dead]

Sometimes life had a funny way of inauspiciously gathering people together. Those who wore masks and gallivanted about at night were especially familiar with this, but even then the masked vigilantes and villains weren't often aware of such stirrings themselves.

This was definitely one of those cases, as even Jason Todd had ventured out as a civilian, unable to resist the call of the shooting galleries he'd lost money to as a kid and fighting the temptation to blow away the competition and gallery alike.

Still, winning decent if not the best prizes was some consolation. He knew there was no challenge here for him, but games weren't the reason he'd come anyway.

[agentslipper]

Cindy took a break to hang back and get a lemonade before the teenager manning the carnival booth asked her number. She stood back near a mallet game for a while, people watching and "sizing up" the other customers. Quite a number of folks seemed to be far better with a firearm than they were displaying as far as she could judge from stances and other tells.

She stirred her drink with the straw. She would not mind a REAL shooting competition-- as real as air guns would let it get. Perhaps she could inspire one of these fine young people into showing what they were really capable of. Or at least have some fun at their expense.

Cindy threw out the remainder of the lemonade and handed over her tickets before taking a spot available near the sharpest two in the gallery and the brown-haired girl. She took aim and, smiling to herself, proceeded to take shots on her targets, hitting at precise corresponding points to the marks they made (or missed) on their own perspective targets, though never mirroring both at once.

[purplehazegirl]

Mindy cracked her knuckles as she stood behind her rifle and took it in her hands. It was weighted weird, unbalanced, and she found that annoying. At one side of her she felt a familiar presence, and her mind flashed back to the day where she hugged the man she thought was her dad in the middle of the street, but it was just some Cape. She glanced up and observed Midnighter. So, that was him behind the mask.

She looked back at the range and lay her finger next to the trigger in wait. As soon as the first targets popped up she forced herself to miss, aiming wildly and firing too rapidly. She only hit one target, though she wanted nothing more than to ace the game. Her father would be proud if she did, even if it was just a stupid game.

Hiding who she was was stupid.

[voted_dead]

"You're a good shot," Jason remarked, moving next to the girl to take up his own rifle again, "but you're lousy at pretending to be a bad one." This last part was whispered, but still said in just as amused a tone.

Jason remembered his lessons well. Stay invisible. Do enough to be okay, but don't stand out on either scale. The sight on the rifle was no help; it had been deliberately misaligned, just like the stock had deliberately been weighted to one side, unbalanced. With a slow sigh, Jason squeezed the trigger until...

Ping. One target down. Jason continued doing okay, making a slight show of his excitement getting the best of him and missing several others before making his last shot. A good prize, if not the best. When he chose the large wallaby doll hanging from the game's side, Jason instead held it out to Mindy.

"I'm Jason," he said. For him, it was a positively friendly greeting.

[purplehazegirl]

As she was paid the first compliment, Mindy side-eyed the young man next to her, as if she were sizing him up. When he got near her ear, Mindy felt her cheeks redden. Due to her temper, of course.

She watched him, studied his stance and his focus. He had already showed his hand by admitting he knew that she knew what she was doing. Therefore he must have known she knew that he knew she knew. And that she knew that he knew what he was doing.

She looked at the wallaby as Jason offered it, leery.

"...My daddy told me not to take things from strangers."

[voted_dead]

"Smart man. Sounds like he has good advice. ...Is he here?" Because whomever trained this little girl in marksmanship, Jason wanted to meet. Her stance, positioning and breathing had all been tells, tells that someone skilled had taught her. Nobody picked up those kinds of tips from Halo.

"Maybe it'd be better if I held on to him, then ... until we're no longer strangers anyway. Like I said, I'm Jason. Jason Todd." His hand went out this time to Mindy, sans doll.

[purplehazegirl]

"He's..." Jason could have been a villain, but he didn't scream villain, but one could never be too careful. She glanced at civilian Midnighter. She could claim he was her dad...but...

"He's..." Dead. But that wouldn't be a wise answer either. "You know, you ask a lot of questions."

[voted_dead]

"What, me? I ask one question, and I might as well be part of the press." Jason's smirk never left his face, actually. He knew all too well she was suspicious, and more than that, that she was probably intelligently suspicious. Good girl.

"But if you're not here with an escort, I insist on at least accompanying you around the carnival. If you disapprove, feel free to kick my ass. Every other woman I know does."

[purplehazegirl]

Mindy was confident that she could indeed kick his ass. She didn't think she sensed any powers about him but there was...something unusual about him all the same. But lately, her powers couldn't be trusted.

"...Mindy." She finally answered his earlier question. She looked past the games and strained onto her tip-toes. "Are you going to go up and be a date?" she asked.

[voted_dead]

"Depends on who's bidding on me," Jason replied, "not that I'm all that worried. I am worth the price, if I do say so. Besides, Mindy, it'd be a little difficult to fulfill my self-appointed duty as your escort around the carnival if I go up on stage." Plus the whole calling attention to himself thing -- while the vast majority of Gotham didn't know his face, the Bat-family did, and that would be the last thing he needed. May as well just tie balloons and build a neon sign screaming 'I'M BACK!'

"But if you're here for the auction, by all means, I'll go up on stage too. I just didn't realize that was your end-game."

[purplehazegirl]

She screwed up her face. "Pfff! NO! Ew! Dating is gross! And I'm only a kid! You just seemed too old to wanna play games so I figured that's why you must be here. Besides, I guess it's for a good...cause...? What is the fund raising for anyway?"

[voted_dead]

"Some kind of charity benefit. Beyond that, I have no idea. Could be Red Cross, could be Kony 2012 for all I know." Charities weren't something Jason exactly kept up on, but now he honestly felt a little bad about it. As dedicated as Batma--Iron Bat seemed at times to his mission, he still found time and money to dedicate to other worthy causes.

"And you're never too old to want to hit the tilt-a-whirl," he continued. Even if it was a little tame now.

[purplehazegirl]

"I guess that's true," Mindy conceded. "Do you live in Gotham? Or just visiting for the carnival? What do you do when you're not shooting targets or making friends with underage girls?" She smirked a smirk that rivaled Jason's.

[voted_dead]

"Ow. I guess I do owe some answers if I don't want a visit from Chris Hansen. Yeah, I do live in Gotham, though I was taking some classes at Metropolis University. And ... as of right now, I mostly just live the life of a trust-fund kid. There's not much to it, believe me. Well, besides the target-shooting and making friends with underage girls."

Jason's smirk? Seemingly permanent. He could take it as well as anyone, and hell, this conversation with this little Cape (she had to be a cape of some kind; Jason was now convinced on this front) was some of the most fun he'd had in weeks.

[purplehazegirl]

"I used to live in New York. Then I moved to Metropolis. Almost moved to Gotham but it's...well..." She looked around and curled her nose. Even among the carnival games and smiling faces and the smell of deep fried twinkies, there was an atmosphere of unease, of grit and danger. "A little too grim-dark."

...Damn, Deep fried twinkies sounded good. "C'mon!" Mindy's hand shot out and she grabbed Jason's wrist. "I want a snack, let's get a snack." She started to pull Jason after her. She was so suddenly excited that she forgot to watch her strength and the result was likely that of being pulled after a racing car, just not at the same speed.

[voted_dead]

Holy shit-- Okay, Jason was right, the girl was definitely a cape or at least a mutant with lots of training as she veritably dragged him along for the ride. "Whoa, okay! Let's get something deep-fried and suspicious looking," he commented, making a rather more pointed comment than he usually would about carny fare.

Back when he was a street urchin, carny food was something he relished the rare opportunities to get ... even if his stomach might have hated him later for it. "I totally get you on Gotham, by the way. Sometimes it's hard to tell we have even more superheroes than Metropolis patrolling it."

[purplehazegirl]

Mindy selected a snack booth then hopped from one foot to the other, eagerly awaiting their turn to order. "Yeah, but Metropolis has the ones that fly and can lift up buildings with their pinkies and have lasers coming out of their eyes. Gotham has rich guy wanna-be's, glory hogs and good intentions." She ordered a deep fried twinkie, a large soda and pizza. She pulled out money from a cute triceratops wallet.

[voted_dead]

"Hey now, hold on. I may not have lasers coming out of my eyes--" Something Jason appreciated every time another asshole managed to buy an AMAZO knockoff to try and off him. "--but I do know it's extremely rude to let the lady pay. I'll take care of this."

Small cost, really, for the chance to verify what he suspected, and also get a handle on her feelings for certain kinds of vigilantes. "It's harder, I guess, to make people fear you when you're not a living god from another planet. You want some cotton candy, too?"

[purplehazegirl]

Mindy blinked. She honestly couldn't remember the last time anyone paid for her food. She had forgotten who paid when she ate with Powergirl that one time, and she'd never had a boy pay for her. Her cheeks grew pink again and she tugged on the hanging string of her hat to distract from it. "Thanks. And yes...please. I wanted cotton candy too but I only have 2 arms."

[voted_dead]

"Well, I have two arms, and right now all I want is one of those awesome spicy corndogs. Huh? Yeah, what she said, cotton candy and corndog." Besides, one didn't go to a carnival without getting lots of swag. Even Jason knew that.

"So after this ... do we find the fastest ride or just the one with the greatest number of loops in a two-minute period?"

[purplehazegirl]

They received their treats from a zit-faced teenager who was probably saving up for a car. Mindy's hands were full with pop and twinkies, a balance of hot and greasy and cold and drippy. "Maybe a table would be smart." As for the rides, it was incredibly hard to find any that were the least bit thrilling. "Roller coaster." She said. It seemed like the 'proper' thing a 'normal' kid would think was exciting.

[voted_dead]

Jason nodded at the 'roller coaster' option. It was normally a fair suggestion, but then he caught sight of it...

No loops, two turns, and a few short 'hills'. Oh yeah, his heart was all a flutter. "Are you sure? Maybe you want something a little more hardcore: like the carousel."

[purplehazegirl]

(Desquish)