|
|
Post by alice on Jun 13, 2011 23:51:43 GMT -5
 well i feel like they're talkin' in a language i don't speak
and they're talkin' it to me[/size][/center] Beaches. Beaches beaches beaches beaches... Alice chanted in her head like a mantra, finger tapping her chin with each word. Don't remember a beach party in Alice in Wonderland. I don't see how this is gonna help me wake her up, she sighed wearily and dropped her hand. Alice looked at the Frollo Hall bulletin board one last time, reading and rereading the lines of the Summer's Last notice pinned over the ads for tutors and missing dining hall passes. The gaudy purple and pink lettering on the notice did nothing but catch her eye distractingly, and Alice found her eyes jumping back to the bold headline (which was frustrating as this kept making her lose her place, though that might just be an undiagnosed case of ADHD). Awe hang it all. I'll go anyway. Alice can't keep silent forever.
It had been a fruitless few weeks since Ray and Alice's tea party. The spirit in her head hadn't woken up but Alice was more determined than ever that she was playing host to that curious girl. But instead of being reassured in this fact, it only made her more desperate to awaken her. Alice had thought of little else since first meeting Ray, and that hadn't exactly done wonders for her mood. Normally a happy, if slightly stupid, girl, Alice had found herself in a funk she couldn't shake, and all because she was jealous of the other schizophrenics in town.
Well, hopefully, this town-wide beach bash would lighten her mood. Alice did, admittedly, feel that itch of curiosity burn when the RA posted the notice, and she wasn't one to pass up a party. Of any sort. Even something as tame as this.
So introspective debating aside, Alice returned to her dorm briefly to change out of her pj's (Ray still asleep on his side of the room, as it was only about 8 am) and into her light blue one piece bathing suit, denim shorts and a flowing, white, hankerchief-cut tank top thrown over it and pair of Birkenstocks on her feet. She grabbed her bag (large, shapeless, and still containing items from about the fifth grade) and left the room to scout out the goings-on at the beach before the official opening hours.
It wasn't too far a walk from the Academy to Shipwreck Pier, but long enough that by the time Alice got there, there was only about a half hour until the Summer's Last started. Still, not too many people crowded the sidewalks and the roads were still about empty (though the town was small enough that no one really used cars anyway). So Alice had a perfect opportunity to snoop around the place, unimpeded before anyone else came along, and thus temporarily quench her insatiable curiosity.
The gates were closed and locked to the Pier still, and Alice could see carnival workers milling around inside ("Any chance you gonna let me in?" "We ain't gotta open up til 9, kid, scram."), but no luck there. Not to be defeated, though, Alice dropped from the boardwalk to the sand below, backed up a few paces and considered how difficult it would be to scale one of those posts up to the railings...
But she backed up a little too far. "Oh-!" Alice backed into someone and promptly squeaked out in shock, pinwheeling her arms and throwing out a leg to catch her balance. She managed it (ungracefully), and turned around to see who she nearly flattened. "*Hnrk* oh my god, sorry," she snorted more than laughed. "You okay?" |
|
|
|
Post by aurora on Jun 14, 2011 1:02:41 GMT -5
 
And all Rose could think of was how she had left her favorite pair of sandals in the back of her closet.
It was early—early for her at least, and the thin silver watch on her wrist ticked closer to 9 o’clock. She had arrived in Memory late the night before, blinking wearily from behind the wheel of her ugly station wagon as she drove down the main drag. The nearest parking lot was as good of a spot as any for her to sleep for a few hours, and when morning did arrive, Rose was rewarded with the most beautiful sunrise she had ever witnessed. Living on the west coast had provided sunsets, but there was something magical about the way the light slowly woke everything around her.
Even thinking about how poetic the sight was made her fingers itch for her guitar, but that, along with the rest of her worthwhile material possessions, was locked in the back of her car, her keys a welcome weight in the pocket of her faded jeans.
From the look of the pier at her right, there was some sort of carnival going on, or at least would be going on as soon as the gates opened. The workers were busy stringing up the last of the colorful paper lanterns and checking the bulbs on all of the concession stands. It had been ages since Rose had gone to a carnival—her domineering aunts had warned her endlessly about the dangers of fair rides. Their strict rules and even tighter leash were things Rose definitely wasn’t going to miss.
Her thoughts were jarred when a girl, who looked to be around her own age, soundly ran into her, and offered a laugh in apology. "You okay?"
The girl in front of her was smiling easily, and while it was certainly too early for Rose to be as affable as her, she couldn’t help but return the smile, if with less wattage.
“Oh yeah, I’m fine,” Rose assured her, dusting the sand off of her jeans as she regained her footing, “just thought I’d take a swan dive into these dunes. Part of my daily regimen, you know.”
|
|
|
|
Post by alice on Jun 14, 2011 14:52:18 GMT -5
well i feel like they're talkin' in a language i don't speak
and they're talkin' it to me [/size][/center] See, now most people, after running into someone and apologizing, would simply walk away and continue about their business. In Alice's case, that would be determining how to sneak into the Pier early to get in a few rides before the rest of minuscule population crowded the boardwalk. And most people, after getting run into and being apologized too, might say "That's alright," or "No harm done," or something equally similar and vague, and continue about their business. In that other girl's case, that seemed to be looking dreamily out onto the Atlantic waves and poking the sand with her shoes. But apparently neither of these girls were normal people, and they weren't really in a normal town under a normal town's circumstance, being that they were, in fact, both probably going crazy and oh yes, there was also a beach bash to be had. In short, "normal" had nothing to do with anything in Memory.
Alice slung her bag back over shoulder and looked at the other girl, her mind already coming up with interesting back stories and wild personality traits for the girl. Why did she look so tired? Well of course she's been up half the night picking wildflowers by moonlight and stringing them together to make a rope of roses and daisies marigolds. Why was she looking so eagerly out on the ocean? She from the deserts of Nevada and the only ocean she knows are the windswept waves of sand. Alice was so caught up in imagining this new person's history that it took her a moment to come back to real life. She blinked back her daydreams and once again focused herself on the girl.
“Oh yeah, I’m fine, just thought I’d take a swan dive into these dunes. Part of my daily regimen, you know.” The girl returned with a smile and Alice about giggled her head off (of course, imagining that this was, in fact, part of the girl's daily regimen and what it would feel like to dive headfirst into a sand dune. And then what it would be like if a swan took a swan dive into the dunes, and what it would feel like to be a swan, with or without dunes...). "Well that works out. Cause I'm in the habit of knocking people flat on their asses at..." She leaned over and read the other girl's watch, "8:47 in the morning. It's just a thing. Y'know." Alice smiled again and then stuck out her hand to shake (see? Her parents did manage to shove some manners down her throat). "I'm Alice. And you're new, yeah? Never seen you in school before." |
|
|
|
Post by aurora on Jun 14, 2011 18:37:10 GMT -5
"Well that works out. Cause I'm in the habit of knocking people flat on their asses at..." The girl leaned over and read Rose’s watch, "8:47 in the morning. It's just a thing. Y'know. I'm Alice. And you're new, yeah? Never seen you in school before."
Rose took the offered hand and shook it—her first human connection in this strange place. Alice smiled distractedly again, as if the very act of smiling was some sort of philosophical phenomenon she couldn’t seem to put her finger on, and searched her face for answers.
A small voice in the back of her mind, which sounded upsettingly like the shrill tone of her Aunt Louise, warned her about talking to strangers and accepting candy and rides in vans and chloroform soaked rags and—she stopped that train of thought before it derailed her completely. She was an adult, in the eyes of the law at least, and there certainly seemed to be nothing harmful about Alice. She was actually pretty charming, if in a slightly vacuous way, which was countered by the way in which she seemed to radiate a curious amount of energy.
Still, it was way too early for Rose to be as coherent as Alice, though she tried valiantly to come up with a reply that at least made her sound like she had, in fact, completed her secondary education.
“I’m Rose, well, actually Aurora, but I’ve never… I mean, no one calls me… I just go by Rose. And if it looks like I’ve slept in my car, it’s because I’ve slept in my car,” She supplied sheepishly, quirking her lips in a small smile, “and the reason you’ve never seen me before is because I just got here from Washington... state. Seattle, actually. I graduated in June and well, this is me… uh, carpe-ing the diem.”
She topped off that inspiring speech with a small raise of her fist, and watched as Alice burst into another fit of infectious giggles. |
|
|
|
Post by alice on Jun 22, 2011 23:54:26 GMT -5
well i feel like they're talkin' in a language i don't speak
and they're talkin' it to me [/size][/center] Alice smiled pleasantly as the girl took her hand, and shook it soundly with a happy, daft sort of nod of her head. The girl introduced herself as Rose (or "well, actually, Aurora") and explained that her nickname was what she went by. Alice couldn't suppress another giggle/snort at the way Rose said it, hesitant but bluntly funny at the same time. Quickly, Alice was beginning to like the stranger.
"And if it looks like I slept in my car, it's because I slept in my car," Rose went on, and Alice looked her over quickly. Yeah, maybe her clothes and hair were a bit rumpled, and Alice could guess that there may be dark circles behind those aviators, but she wasn't exactly one to judge. Her own clothes hadn't seen the inside of a washing machine in probably too long to be publicly acceptable, and her hair was a veritable rat's nest at the back of her neck. Alice tugged idly at a twisted lock of hair that fell around her shoulders as she thought of it, but then flipped it, and the rest of the hair, behind her and shrugged. "No biggie," Alice said and smiled at Rose's own little smirk.
"Oh! I graduate this year!" Alice exclaimed when Rose mentioned she'd just done so herself. "But jeez, Washington? That's quite a haul - I'm totally jealous. Road tripping coast to coast like that must have been so cool," she enthused, her imagination ten times ahead of her voice and already in the Midwest as she pictured her own one-man adventures. But then Alice pulled a face when she completed her thoughts and actually understood what Rose was saying. "But why'd you leave Seattle for this place? I mean..." Alice raised a hand to gesture at the tiny town behind them, complete with moms pushing kids in strollers and cutesy, season-appropriate banners on every light post. "It's hardly urban city material." Alice quirked a brow back at Rose curiously, knowing what it was like to leave a large, crowded city and end up in the sticks. If it wasn't for the promise of some cool cartoon potentially taking occupancy in her head, Alice would never have dreamed she'd find herself living in a town you could walk the length of in less than an hour.
But then, slowly, as these things often dawned on the girl half way through the point she was making, Alice realized what must have brought Rose here. She must be playing host to her own character! Alice's face immediately lit up again, excited. Because as bizarre as Memory was for being a town that practically single-handedly kept psychiatrists in business, it also was partially a normal town for normal people. Not everyone who lived here was a cartoon-carrying crazy, and it was still a relative surprise to find people outside the Academy hosting a spirit. And Rose had said she's just graduated, so...?
"Ooo~!" Alice suddenly squeaked, making her hands into happy little fists that she shook in front of her. "Are you here because of the uh," Alice tapped a finger to her temple, "Disney thing?" |
|
