Dusk had fallen over the park, but there were still a few hours to go before the place closed. Violet was waiting inside the main entrance, shifting her weight from one sandalled foot to the other as she waited for Dave to arrive. She had on jeans, and a grass-green t-shirt that hung off one shoulder (purposely). Her hair was in a single tight braid, the purple streak now blue because she'd felt like a change.

Around her people were streaming in and out of the park - mostly teenagers and older, because the families with younger kids had already left. The park was so brightly lit that she couldn't see the night sky - nothing new, really. There were a few darker corners in the in-between places that she couldn't help but look at every so often, as if she expected something to come out of them.

She'd arrived a few minutes earlier than the planned time, but now she was getting a little antsy.
Wonder when he'll get here... she wondered.

Right now, of course.

He walked, this time. For some reason. Maybe it was because he felt like taking a lazy stroll instead of the daredevil tricks he did on the motorcycle... Nah. Maybe it was because his motorcycle had a flat and he hadn't had time to replace it. (Which was true.)

"Violet, hey!"

He sported a (remarkably non-splattered with paint) grey t-shirt with a loose jacket overtop--because the evening could get cool, if they stayed out very late--and a pair of (slightly torn) jeans that did have paint splatters. (He probably had exactly one pair of jeans that didn't.)

And he was grinning. It helped that he liked her outfit, and that he had not yet had to deal with the threatened disaster from the faery that was now in a jar in his bedroom. (Why his bedroom? I don't know. You'd think he'd be worried that Wick'd be furious and give him nightmares or something.)

"Hey, yourself," Violet said, smiling and offering a tiny wave as she walked over to meet him, "I wondered when you'd get here, slowpoke."

She was only teasing - that much could be seen by her smile, which was wavering between an gleeful grin and a mischievous smirk. She crossed her arms, glanced briefly at the ground, and then back up at Dave.

"'S good to see you. How's it going?" she asked.

"Good; I always forget what it's like to get a decent amount of sleep during the run of a show and spend the next week rediscovering what it's like to sleep more than four hours a night. 's great."

He grinned. He was exaggerating, a little. He got closer to five hours a night than four, during a show. But who's counting?

"Yourself?"

"Ummm... Okay, I guess," she replied, scuffing the heel of her sandal against a crack in the pavement. She frowned slightly, and kept back a sigh. She was going out with Dave, and that wasn't quite the same as his being a 'friend'. But she had to tell someone this, and well, he was close right now.

"One of my friends..."

Ran away? Disappeared? ...

"-Moved, recently."
She didn't know why she'd said that - why should he have to know?

She smiled brighter to cover it up, and rapidly changed subjects. "So. Let's have some fun, huh?"

It is very likely that she would have a bad reaction if she knew that the friend in question was sulking in a jar in Dave's bedroom. But, oh well...

"Eh, that sucks." But, since she obviously didn't want to talk about it, he didn't pursue the thought, instead agreeing with her.

"Yeah, let's have some fun. You can laugh at me while I try to beat the rigged games. Or... if you want, we could go on a ride or two, first? The lines shouldn't be too bad, this late."

"The rides are the best part - let's save that until last," she suggested, looking around - there was a whole park here, and it was going to be their playground for a little while. "I'll watch you try and beat the rigged games - maybe I'll try a few myself."

She rested her hands lightly on her hips and turned her head so that she could look over her shoulder at all the activity going on behind them.
She was going to have fun tonight, she told herself.
Her gaze turned slowly back to Dave, and she grinned. "Where to, first?"

"Let's just walk around and see if we can find anything that might be not quite as rigged as the rest of 'em. Something a clumsy oaf like me can hope to beat."

You know, he really isn't all that clumsy, not in the way he's implying. None of that awkward adolescent stuff for him, because he's finished all his growing. And you really shouldn't be clumsy when you work with lots of sensitive and rather delicate equipment, hey?

But he's definitely boyish in other ways.

Like the way he took her arm and sort of tugged her along the boardwalk--why's it called a boardwalk, anyway?--with a wide grin on his face. Dave likes amusement parks; they're almost as much fun as making a mess of himself while building a set.

"You're a clumsy oaf? Bah," Violet laughed at him in disbelief, "If you're a clumsy oaf, I'm a - well, worse than that, anyway. "

She just allowed herself to be pulled along, walking with a skip in her step so she could keep up. It wasn't that she didn't like amusement parks, she just didn't like crowds. And it wasn't too, too crowded this time of evening, so everything was going to be just fine.

"Well, thanks, but I stand by it. Oh, here, how 'bout this one? I'll win you a bear... you like bears, right?" Aw, isn't he cute? Just like the teddy bear he's going to attempt to win for her. Please note the use of the word 'attempt.'

He's already reaching in his pocket to pull out his wallet and shell out the necessary money to play the game.

These games really are a waste of money, you know?

The games are a waste of money... but it doesn't make it any less fun. The challenge, especially.

"Of course I like bears," Violet smiled, locking her fingers together behind her back and .. standing back just a little, to give him room.
"Go get 'em," she teased.
... I could just melt...
Obviously no one had ever tried to win her a teddy bear before.

He grinned and bowed with a flourish. "Anything for a fair lady." And then he handed over the necessary cash and was given the darts.

The point of the game, you see, was to throw darts through the mouth of variously sized faces. The smaller the face, the bigger the prize. Or, supposedly, since winning might not actually be as easy as it first appeared.

He took aim at one of the medium sized faces--which would require skill, but not so much that he would make a fool of himself--and hit the nose.

"Damn."

Aw. Missed.

Violet took a tentative step forward, and nudged his arm.
"Tell you what-" she said quietly. There was a jubilant, mischievous glimmer in her eyes that didn't match her shy smile. This wasn't like her,... most days. But right now,.. well, that was a different story. "Get the next one in, and you get a kiss."

Besides, a little incentive never hurt anyone.

Definitely incentive. A wide, slightly goofy grin.

He aimed a hair lower this time and took a bit longer to sight along the dart before throwing. (He can probably be forgiven for making a show out of preparation, don't you think?)

And it went in.

Of course. It's amazing what a little incentive will do.

He turned to her with an even wider grin.

"There. Now you get the bear, and I get the kiss."

"Seems like a fair trade to me," she laughed, looking a little embarrassed now for having thought that up. After a moment's hesitation, she leaned close, and kissed him - lightly, as if it made her nervous.

Which it did.
She was relatively new to this sort of thing... but she thought she wasn't doing too terribly, so she kept smiling.

Hey, he didn't mind nervous. He wasn't aware that he was her first boyfriend, exactly, but he had dated enough girls--usually on a pretty casual basis, true, but still--to be able to recognize her inexperience. And he could be patient.

Thus why he didn't try to take her light kiss and turn it into something deeper and fiercer. Just an equally light kiss back.

The game attendant was apparently used to this sort of thing in front of his booth, since he handed Dave the teddy bear in question without even seeming to notice what the couple was doing.

And Dave handed the bear to Violet with a boyish grin.

"Thanks," Violet said enthusiastically, blushing. She hugged the bear tightly, nuzzling her face against its synthetic fur. It reminded her of one she'd used to have as a kid. It had fallen to pieces some time ago and had been tossed in the garbage. This meant she was going to take really good care of this bear.

She held it away from her.
"He needs a name," she said firmly.

"Um..." Dave looked stumped. That's because he was stumped; he knows that girls like stuffed animals, and he occasionally makes use of that, but he really has no idea what to call one of the things.

"He's your bear."

That means, 'I have no idea what to name the thing, but he's yours and you wanted to name him, so... your call?'

"Mmkay," she said, wrinkling her nose a little as she frowned at the stuffed bear - this had to be taken seriously.

"I'll call him... W..."
No, not that. That's just silly.

"Jojo the Second," she said, and hugged the bear as if that clinched it. Then, turning back into adult mode, she smiled at Dave, shifting Jojo the Second so she was holding it in one arm. "There... So I guess you're not a clumsy oaf after all, huh?"

"Guess not. You wanna try?" Not that he would have any idea what to do with a bear, since he's not a girl and into cutesy things like stuffed bears, but if she wants a shot, he's perfectly willing to pay for it. He set aside a rather good sized portion of his last paycheck for this outing; amusement parks eat cash.

She looks very fetching, cuddling the bear like that. He has a strange urge to take a picture, or something.

He wonders if one bear's enough for one night, or if he should try to win her more than one.

"I'll... give it a shot, I think," she said thoughtfully. She didn't stand much of a chance - she had, she claimed, the accuracy of a blindfolded drunk when it came to games like these. That didn't mean she couldn't give it a try. Just once.

Oh, and Violet was more than satisfied with just the one bear.

"'kay then." An impish grin. "If you miss, I get to kiss you again." There's a tiny bit of uncertainty there, as if to let her know that she is by no means required to give him what he's asking if she doesn't want to. He can take things slow, you know.

(Much better than certain other people I could mention.)

He paid for the use of the darts again and handed them cermoniously to Violet. "Want me to hold Jojo?"

Well, Violet thought, I've got to try to get it in. If I miss, that's too bad. Well, not all bad.

She wouldn't say no, if it came to it,... Violet rarely outright said 'no' to anyone unless it was something important. Kisses were,... an emotional kind of important, but there was no harm in them.
So, maybe she was a little uncomfortable about it,... she couldn't refuse, though.
She'd started it, after all.

"Yeah, please do. Thanks," she said, smiling as she took the darts and handed him the bear. Then she turned and closed one eye, trying to take aim. It was difficult. After a moment's staring hopelessly at the targets, she just closed her eyes and tossed the dart. There was no sound indicating that she'd hit anything - she cautiously opened her eyes. The attendant handed her a little red bear on a keychain - the dart had gone through one of the larger targets.

"Yours," she said with a self-mocking grin, presenting the keychain to Dave.

Dave laughed aloud and accepted the keychain with merriment sparkling in his brown eyes.

"Talk about beginner's luck, eh?" he joked as he actually pulled out his keys right there and attached the bear on a chain--how appropriate; they both won each other a bear--immediately. There.

"Does this one need a name too, or can I just call it keychain-bear?" He's teasing, of course, but he doesn't mind at all if she wants to name this one too.

"Keychain-bear is fine," Violet giggled, and tucked a loose strand of hair (how did it escape all the time?!) behind her ear. It was Dave's bear - he could do as he wished with it. If it had been Violet's, she would have called it something like Tamale or Pidgin. She was pleased to see him put the little bear with his keys, right away. It meant he wasn't going to just toss it out first chance he got.

"What next?" she asked, - they couldn't possibly get to everything here, but they could have fun trying.

Of course he wasn't going to toss it out first chance he got; Dave is not a fool, and doing something like that, after Violet won the bear for him in the first place, would be very foolish... Actually, strike that. He's not a fool when it comes to girls.

"Let's see... I still have plenty of cash, so if you want, we can get some cotton candy or something... Or we could see how many of the rides we can get to before the day is over. Your choice."

She pursed her lips in a way that, with her, meant she had a decision to make.

"Ummm..." she mused, looking around. Cotton candy would be nice,... but,... if they did that and then went on the rides, the result might not turn out to be very pretty. Violet didn't have a weak stomach, but if she wanted the fun level to stay as it was, she'd rather not take chances.

"Let's check out some of the rides - do you know of any really fast ones?"

A grin.

"Well, there are the roller coasters. Do you prefer the ones that go upside down or the ones that don't?" He likes anything and everything that goes really fast and gets the adrenaline pumping. (That's why he has a motorcycle, after all.) And roller coasters definitely fit the bill.

"There're a couple of the upside-down ones that way," he pointed.

"What's the point of a roller coaster that doesn't go upside-down?" Violet said jokingly. She liked them both - but if she was talking about going fast, then the upside-down ones were definitely the better choice. She started towards the roller coasters, and, without looking, snagged her fingers in Dave's sleeve so she wouldn't lose him. There was a somewhat larger crowd over there, and she didn't want them to get separated.

"Hell if I know," Dave answered with a grin, walking along with her... But he took her hand off his sleeve and laced his fingers through hers. Too forward? Maybe. But if she didn't like it, she could always let go and he certainly wouldn't push it.

And he headed to the line of the slightly larger one, also.

Violet didn't complain - a smirk even flickered on her lips when he took her hand. She liked the feeling, and she liked that he'd done it first. She didn't want to make him feel like she was clinging to him, by doing that herself.

Once they reached the lineup for the roller coaster, Violet stepped slightly out of line to see how far they were from the ride's entrance. It wouldn't be too long to wait, thankfully. A minute or two. She gazed up at the machine as the passengers went screaming past, high overhead. Just thinking about herself being in their place gave her the shivers... Pleasant shivers, but shivers nonetheless.

It probably helped that Dave's hands were warm and dry--a bit rough and calloused from working with wood and things in the scene shop, but not at all unpleasant to the touch.

He looked up at the roller coaster with a silly kind of grin on his face--the silly part was probably because he was enjoying himself and holding Violet's hand certainly didn't hurt that feeling, and the grin part was probably anticipation of hurtling through the air at very high speeds.

They moved forward in line.

The roller coaster rumbled to a stop. The other parkgoers exited, laughing and breathless, and some of them an interesting shade of pale green. The attendant waved those in the line over. Dave and Violet found themselves side-by-side in the second set of seats.

"Here we go," Violet said, with a nervous giggle as she re-checked the restraints, after they had been fastened in.
What if it breaks partway through or it derails or it stops or we fall out and...
Stop it. That won't happen.

He glanced over at her with a grin.

"Not scared, are you?"

It's only a ride.

You know, they're far more likely to crash and die on Dave's motorcycle than they are on the roller coaster. That's probably not all that comforting, though.

"I'm not if you aren't," Violet replied, settling back in the seat and blinking up at the sky as she waited for the other people to get set in. Of course she wasn't scared,... there are always those last-minute thoughts before you do something dangerous.

It's a good thing she'll forget them once the ride starts.

Which it does, with that annoying rumble and creaking that always accompanies that first hill--the one that gives the ride its momentum for the entirely way--as the chains and gears underneath the train sent it moving along its way.

It climbs the hill slowly... and then, it stops, with the first car about ten feet from the top of the hill. And it doesn't move again.

Dave frowned. "What gives?" He twisted in his seat a little--as much as the restraints would let him--and tried to peer down along the track behind them to see why they'd stopped.

"I'm guessing this isn't supposed to happen," Violet said, her voice absurdly calm to compensate for the million frantic thoughts that were competing for her attention. About half of them were screaming something like, We're all gonna die!, but those were easiest to ignore.

This shouldn't be happening-
What's happened? Why'd we stop?
How long are we staying this way?
Is it going to slide back?!
When is it going to move again...?

Her white-knuckled left hand, gripping the restraint, was shaking ever so slightly.
She wished she hadn't had to leave Jojo the Second on the ground. Stupid rollercoaster rules have you leave your teddy behind and, that, of course, is when you wind up needing it...

"No, 's not. Must be some kinda glitch... Hey, you okay?" That, of course, was the moment when he turned back to look at her and saw her white knuckled grip on the restraint.

He put his hand on top of hers.

"It'll be all right; they'll fix it, and then the ride'll keep going, and nothing'll happen." He sounds absurdly sure of himself; probably because he isn't so much frightened as annoyed that when they get on the ride, suddenly it stops working.

"Don't worry."

"I'm fine. No worries," she said, offering a thin smile.

I am such a liar.

"Y-you'd think they'd have checked to see if it was screwed up before we started," she said, trying to make a joke out of it, but failing miserably.

He gave her hand a squeeze.

"Well, it was working fine a minute ago... Guess they didn't think they needed to check it." He shrugged.

"I don't think this happens so often that it's a routine check they do, but often enough that they know how to fix it."

It's never happened to him before, but he's confident that there's no immediate danger to life and limb. After all, they aren't even moving.