There are many things that can be used to describe this carnival, depending on who you ask.
Ask a child and they will see lots of fun rides and games, prizes to be one from cheerful painted faces.
Ask an adult and they might see a place to hang with friends, take a date, show how brave or competitive they are.
What the average person will not describe is what I see. The hidden reality of it all.
The games are all rigged, unless the guy running it takes a liking to you that big stuffed dog will never be yours. And you really don't want him to take a liking to you.
The rides start as fun at first, but suddenly you notice a loose screw or a bit of metal that juts out wrong. You realize that this metal contraption is not a ride at all. It's a death trap. But some like that bit of adrenaline rush, that attempt to cheat fate. "It won't break down this time I ride it", you think, "I know it's bound to happen, but definitely not with me."
The cheerful, painted faces are the ones you need to watch out for most of all. I see what lies behind those eyes. They are sad and lonely people, at best. Demented and sinister at worst. People to be watched. Because they are disguising themselves, putting everyone at ease. Who knows for what reason, maybe it's just so that people will spend their money. Maybe something more, like that game runner I mentioned before.
Remember, I said you don't want him taking a liking to you. But you just had to have that big stuffed dog so you smiled sweetly and spent a bit of money. Congratulations, you won! He's staring at you now, watches every time you pass his booth. I see the grin on his face, see the wheels going behind his head.
Hope you don't turn up on the morning news.
And the Carnival can be ANYWHERE! And the hidden realities don't have to happen to you, necessarily.
Observe: The happy, smiling faces on the costumes at Disney World. Look how jolly it all is! Watch smiling parents and teenagers abuse them! You can't even see or hear them weeping inside the Goofy or Mickey Mouse head!
And not just at amusement parks!
Observe: The waitress at Denny's or Appleby's or whatever. All the smiley happy buttons on her suspenders! She really must like working here. Watch as the table of 5 stiffs her on a tip, and how the guy reading the Wall Street Journal leaves $2 on $20 tab.
Creepy. I like it. I think this one has legs.
And rigged games? We can do THAT, you know, here in America.
Observe: A woman has applied for a job in the trades. She's emminently qualified. But the job goes to some guy with half her skills, for very good reason. There's always a good reason. Even if that good reason has to be manufactured. And then the boss says to one of his employees, "Well, she looked good on paper, but her background check came up hot." He never saw her background check. He just took the placement agency's good old boy's word for it.
It's like Vegas up in this shit!
Observe: The man with two broken arms applies for workman's comp. There isn't any left, because of budget cuts. Cut to Lloyd Blankenfien, eating at a 5 star restaurant, on the taxpayer dime, to celebrate a bailout he recieved on the taxpayer dime.
The Carnival is EVERYWHERE.
Observe: The student raising his hand to give an answer. The teacher sneers at him and says "You're just going to guess." During the parent/teacher conference, the teacher says "He simply doesn't seem interested in participating anymore." The teacher probably has no idea what's wrong with the kid.
I like the loose screws bit. We don't often stop to think just what holds this thing together, and it's a good thing we don't, because it isn't something we really want to know about. If I knew that the only reason that part I stuck in my car to fix it the other day is only reliable because the factory burned through ten 15-year-old kids trying to support their families by the time my part was made, I might feel uneasy. If I knew that the guy who smiles and makes pleasant small talk in the morning as I blow $14 on cigarettes is $100 short every month on medicine to keep his wife's kidneys working, I might feel like I was taking advantage. I don't want to know these things, and neither do you.
Quote from: V3X on October 16, 2012, 09:12:39 PM
I like the loose screws bit. We don't often stop to think just what holds this thing together, and it's a good thing we don't, because it isn't something we really want to know about. If I knew that the only reason that part I stuck in my car to fix it the other day is only reliable because the factory burned through ten 15-year-old kids trying to support their families by the time my part was made, I might feel uneasy. If I knew that the guy who smiles and makes pleasant small talk in the morning as I blow $14 on cigarettes is $100 short every month on medicine to keep his wife's kidneys working, I might feel like I was taking advantage. I don't want to know these things, and neither do you.
One guy did, and they nailed him to a stick.
But the SADDEST part is, if you DON'T take part in the comsumerism feeding frenzy, the economy stops and then EVERYONE'S in that boat. Nice little trap we made for ourselves, eh? Anyway, stop worrying, and enjoy the ride. Look at the flashing lights. Tell yourself that the screaming is coming from happy families enjoying their night out. Everything is FINE.
Not even the carnies are missing any teeth, these days. Full, genuine smiles. Their eyes are a little empty, but at least they're not high. I heard some thumping behind the Tilt-A-Whirl at the far end of the fairway. Probably nothing. No worries. Look, even the cops are having some cotton candy. What a place.
Thump.
Holeeeeeeeee FUCK!
We're back in Coney Island! How the fuck did THAT happen?
We'll take a trip up to the moon
For that is the place for a lark
So meet me down at Luna, Lena
Down at Luna Park
\
:horror:
(Lyrics Bill Murray, circa 1905)
The carnies are the least of your worries. They have to walk the Midway, same as you. Sure, their rules a a bit different than yours, a bit more... lenient... But you can see 'em coming, circling like sharks.
Those guys in the doublewide, the hulking shapes with their odd hats silhouetted behind drawn, ratty shades-- THOSE are the fuckers you have to watch out for. It's their thumb on the scales, after all. You're here at their pleasure.
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on October 16, 2012, 09:34:31 PM
Those guys in the doublewide, the hulking shapes with their odd hats silhouetted behind drawn, ratty shades-- THOSE are the fuckers you have to watch out for. It's their thumb on the scales, after all. You're here at their pleasure.
And if you DO see them up close, they look REALLY FUCKING FAMILIAR.
Well, you're a customer. And if that's what you stay, well, that's why you're here. You're as welcome as your pockets are deep. And if you run out of cash to spend? There's a petting zoo that can use some cleaning up. And there's... something that got caught in the gears on the Ferris Wheel... suffice it to say, you can make yourself useful. You're here to have a good time, after all. Just like everybody else.
Just don't go looking behind the cardboard signs. And when there's a sign that says "keep out," that means you. Nothing interesting back there anyhow, just some wires and generators -- dangerous stuff. Just stick to the fairway and you'll be fine. Have a corn dog. What's in it? Well... it's a corn dog. Never you mind what the secret ingredient is.
What's that? You'd rather be somewhere else? Well, we have a fix for that. Here, sit down on this carousel horse and just take a spin. Only 8 tickets! Just sit there. Good boy. Now close your eyes, and let the carnival music waft through your brain. Imagine this horse is galloping out there, somewhere. Someplace free. Imagine you're taking this horse and getting the heck outta --- oh. Okay, time's up. File off now. No, that's 8 tickets' worth, file off.
First, seriously, who the fuck is Sita?
Do I not remember this person because they weren't enough of an asshole?
Second, why the fuck did Sita question posting this?
Bravissimo
"Hey, how many people died on this thing?"
You get pretty high up in that bucket and you go around twice and it stops a few times besides to let the others on and off. You get to the top and you can see the whole carnival, a million lights blurred together, an infinite rainbow swirl dotted by flashes and bursts, illuminating vendor carts their words all running together get a loaded baked potato corn dog deep fried snickers beer dough. The noises run together too and they shouldn't, it's not that fast but the laughter and the wretching and the shouts get cacophonous, they play with the lights, getting louder as the other dims and growing silent while you're blinded.
It's two whole revolutions and all the stops in between just like the sign said you weren't lied to it's exactly what it said it was. You count them and they're all there. Stop swing creak creak grind stop jerk fly swing stop the ride it's dizzying you're flying and it's just a bucket on a pole on a big metal wheel and it's just some kid at the lever some other kid at the gate and they're both grinning at you behind all the lights. The blurred lights blurring in front of their faces their eyes are spots and their teeth are flashing but the lever he pulls looks solid as it moves you about, around a million times in those two revolutions.
You're laughing when you get off and you could've sworn you got on with a few of your friends and you didn't think the carnival closed so early where'd everyone go. It's harder to move than you remember you must've got dizzy spinning that lifetime around. The kid opens the gate for you and he shows a lot of teeth and he answers a question you don't remember asking.
"All of them."
Vex is on a roll, and EoC is bringing the fire.
And Hunter, fuck off and search Sita's old posts.
I mean, shit. At least do your research.
Quote from: Sita on October 16, 2012, 08:47:48 PM
There are many things that can be used to describe this carnival, depending on who you ask.
Ask a child and they will see lots of fun rides and games, prizes to be one from cheerful painted faces.
Ask an adult and they might see a place to hang with friends, take a date, show how brave or competitive they are.
What the average person will not describe is what I see. The hidden reality of it all.
The games are all rigged, unless the guy running it takes a liking to you that big stuffed dog will never be yours. And you really don't want him to take a liking to you.
The rides start as fun at first, but suddenly you notice a loose screw or a bit of metal that juts out wrong. You realize that this metal contraption is not a ride at all. It's a death trap. But some like that bit of adrenaline rush, that attempt to cheat fate. "It won't break down this time I ride it", you think, "I know it's bound to happen, but definitely not with me."
The cheerful, painted faces are the ones you need to watch out for most of all. I see what lies behind those eyes. They are sad and lonely people, at best. Demented and sinister at worst. People to be watched. Because they are disguising themselves, putting everyone at ease. Who knows for what reason, maybe it's just so that people will spend their money. Maybe something more, like that game runner I mentioned before.
Remember, I said you don't want him taking a liking to you. But you just had to have that big stuffed dog so you smiled sweetly and spent a bit of money. Congratulations, you won! He's staring at you now, watches every time you pass his booth. I see the grin on his face, see the wheels going behind his head.
Hope you don't turn up on the morning news.
Great post, Sita. Thank you for posting it! :)
Sweet good goddamn! :aaa:
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on October 17, 2012, 03:12:44 AM
I mean, shit. At least do your research.
If I wanted to do research I wouldn't be here begging you guys to do my homework, now would I?
Sita: prepare to be searched
So I took a walk into the mirror tent the other day. Good looking chick was checking herself out in a mirror that made her look short and fat and crying her eyes out. Fat chick was looking at herself in a skinny-mirror and crying her eyes out, stuffing her face with candy apples to try and put on some weight.
Every mirror had someone stood in front of it sobbing and sniffing up snot and feeling like shit cos the mirrors were lying to them but, even though they knew this on some level, they still believed it. Then there was this one little guy, he was ugly as shit, fat little body, skinny little legs and a face that looked like a malformed pizza with eyes. He was just standing there with his trousers round his angles, laughing his head off and wanking. Little bastard wasn't even looking at the mirrors.
There used to be tents where you could see all kinds of stuff. Fifty cents. A lady with just hands where her arms should be and no legs, they said she was the result of an unholy union between a woman and a seal. She used to sit on a stool and some guy would comb her hair. She never looked at anybody. There were people with other deformities too, always attributed to bestiality.
You don't hear about sideshows anymore. We're nicer than that, now. The lady with hands where her arms are supposed to be and no legs is sitting on a flattened cardboard box in front of an office building downtown, and it doesn't cost anything to see her. She has a cup for spare change, but it's best to ignore that, since she might spend it on alcohol.
:horrormirth:
Dear Lord, I'm going to have trouble contributing something half as good as this when I get home.
That's not going to stop me, it must be added.
(http://imageshack.us/a/img21/5944/img7376n.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/21/img7376n.jpg/)
Teeth? Why sir, we've always had teeth.
"Me, I been here all my life," said the guy dumping a trash can into a larger trash can. "It ain't an easy life, but it's a good one. Fun too, when payday rolls around. I been around here long enough to know how it all ticks." He sort of trailed off a little as a kindhearted, if somewhat nervous, grin spread across his face. His gaze drifted toward the wall on the far end of the fairway. "I dunno what's out there. Never seen it. Don't care to, neither." He snorted and spat an impressive wad of mucus, as discreetly as he could, just under the fence that kept people away from the guts of the Ferris Wheel. The half curious light left his eyes as quickly as it had come, and he wrinkled his eyebrows with a different kind of curiosity. "Why you askin' anyway? Ain't nothin' outside the Carnival that's any good. You seen the lines of people stacked up to get in here? I reckon they wouldn't line up like that if there was anything all that great out there. Now get lost, kid. I got work to do, and you got too many tickets in yer pocket to be wandering around asking questions like that."
You walk past all these mirrors and you're distorted, stretched out and squashed flat, pulled and compressed and bent. It's a funhouse it says outside and as you watch your face warp up and down along the hall it's all that you expected for a few left over tickets. At the end of the hall is a big room full of mirrors and you know you're going to get more of the same.
Then when you get there, it's not what you've expected. It's you, images bouncing off one another and fading into endless reflections, trailing off as they follow your every move. When you turn your head they all turn their heads. Except just barely within your field of vision they don't look so much like you think you do. Some look beaten and worn, bruised and hopeless, like they've given up. Some look exuberant, thoughtful, bountiful but you can't really make it out, just that flicker of suspicion while you take the room in while the room takes you in.
They've all got different uniforms, soldiers and inmates and protestors, clergy and kings and bankers. You hate them, you admire them, they hate each other, they're opposites they're you they're wrong they're maybe they're someplace else, somewhere else. There's blood. Your own blood surrounding you, a drop in one mirror a splash in another, a puddle a spray. Too many you, too much, a million of you, more, infinite you all you, you trying to leave you looking around wildly for the spot where you aren't to leave you behind.
When you finally find it there's a bare room just before the exit but for one final mirror in the center. It's an old one, on a stand and very ornate. A thick golden frame surrounds the stained oval surface, holding within it this complex thing. This great unknowable thing.
This has been sitting on my desktop for months. It was supposed to be a followup on the OP but I just can't seem to work it out. Figure might as well post it anyway.
The park has changed lately. New rides, exhibits. New fools being parted from their money.
Some higher up is thinking that all the place needs is a new coat of paint and a few shiny things and everyone will forget what happened.
Maybe for a while it will work, for people are quick to try and forget things they don't like.
But the place remembers and it will not be happy letting others forget.
Now one knows precisely when it began, but most agree that everyone took notice when that girl disappeared.
She was a friend of mine. She actually disappeared twice, only the second time was well known.
Saw her one day before the second disappearance. She appeared to be happy and had not a care in the world.
Until I saw her eyes. Cold and dull they were. There was no life there, none at all.
Asked her what happened. For the longest time all I got was a blank stare. When she did respond everything was fine. Nothing had happened.
It was so much easier to pretend the time didn't exist. The world is all sunshine and lollipops and nothing bad can ever happen.
Laugh, even if you are screaming inside. Smile because the world doesn't care if you feel like crying.
Quote from: Sita on October 18, 2012, 02:46:41 PM
This has been sitting on my desktop for months. It was supposed to be a followup on the OP but I just can't seem to work it out. Figure might as well post it anyway.
The park has changed lately. New rides, exhibits. New fools being parted from their money.
Some higher up is thinking that all the place needs is a new coat of paint and a few shiny things and everyone will forget what happened.
Maybe for a while it will work, for people are quick to try and forget things they don't like.
But the place remembers and it will not be happy letting others forget.
Now one knows precisely when it began, but most agree that everyone took notice when that girl disappeared.
She was a friend of mine. She actually disappeared twice, only the second time was well known.
Saw her one day before the second disappearance. She appeared to be happy and had not a care in the world.
Until I saw her eyes. Cold and dull they were. There was no life there, none at all.
Asked her what happened. For the longest time all I got was a blank stare. When she did respond everything was fine. Nothing had happened.
It was so much easier to pretend the time didn't exist. The world is all sunshine and lollipops and nothing bad can ever happen.
Laugh, even if you are screaming inside. Smile because the world doesn't care if you feel like crying.
Fuck me, I'm stealing that last line.
Quote from: :regret: on October 18, 2012, 06:07:01 PM
Quote from: Sita on October 18, 2012, 02:46:41 PM
This has been sitting on my desktop for months. It was supposed to be a followup on the OP but I just can't seem to work it out. Figure might as well post it anyway.
The park has changed lately. New rides, exhibits. New fools being parted from their money.
Some higher up is thinking that all the place needs is a new coat of paint and a few shiny things and everyone will forget what happened.
Maybe for a while it will work, for people are quick to try and forget things they don't like.
But the place remembers and it will not be happy letting others forget.
Now one knows precisely when it began, but most agree that everyone took notice when that girl disappeared.
She was a friend of mine. She actually disappeared twice, only the second time was well known.
Saw her one day before the second disappearance. She appeared to be happy and had not a care in the world.
Until I saw her eyes. Cold and dull they were. There was no life there, none at all.
Asked her what happened. For the longest time all I got was a blank stare. When she did respond everything was fine. Nothing had happened.
It was so much easier to pretend the time didn't exist. The world is all sunshine and lollipops and nothing bad can ever happen.
Laugh, even if you are screaming inside. Smile because the world doesn't care if you feel like crying.
Fuck me, I'm stealing that last line.
Cry and they'll get on the cell and get somebody to
help you. Because you're obviously not stable. You don't belong here with the
norman people.