bakerstreet | The Carnival Meme!

Entry tags:

[meme] fluff

The Carnival Meme!

The Carnival Meme

Who doesn't love a good carnival? The sights, the sounds, the...well, maybe not so much the smells. Going with your young siblings? Maybe you're taking your date for a good time! Maybe a friend dragged you along. Whoever you're there with, the important part is that you're having a good time!

[Rrrrrules]
1. Post with your character, canon and preferences in the subject line. Or! Pick/RNG a scenario and write up an opening post! Encouraged, but not required.
2. Tag others and get your RNG on or choose a scenario (if needed).
3. LET'S THREADING
4. Fun times ensue!

1. The Midway!
Oh god, you want that stuffed unicorn so hard, it's just so incredible. Or perhaps you just want to show off to everyone else how AWESOME you are. Test of Strength? More like...Test of....Getting Owned With a Hammer. Whatever the reason, you're slapping down your cash and winning those games! ...If it's possible to win, that is.

2. Haunted House
PFFT! Who's scared?! These things are never that scary! ...Are they? That...That's not a real mummy, right? What was that sound?! ZOINKS!

3. Ferris Wheel
Did you ever wonder what the carnival looks like from such a high place? Or maybe you just want some alone time with your date. Do you find yourself thinking that this is a lot higher than it looked?

4. Fun House
What's so fun about it?! It's impossible to get through this stupid Hall of Mirrors! Agh, this tube is spinning, how can anyone stand up in this thing?! Wait, isn't that the same way you came from?!

5. Tunnel of Love
Awww, yiss. You're lookin' for a little bit of alone time, even if it means getting into a tiny, bird-shaped boat surrounded by shallow, dirty water. Or maybe your friends shoved you in before you had time to react. Have fun, love birds!

6. Carnival food!
Cotton Candy, corndogs, popcorn, ice cream, candy apples...! It's all so terrible and bad for you, but it tastes so good! You don't even know what that over there is, but it's deep fried and looks delicious in the most disgusting way. Be careful that you don't make yourself sick!

7. Petting Zoo
CUTE ANIMALS! You want to pet all of them! Or maybe the person you're with wants to. Though, whether the animals really want to be petted or not is another matter.

8. GRAVITRON!
Standing inside a giant ring that’s spinning at high speeds with no restraints. Yes. This is a good idea. Somehow. Hope you didn’t eat first.

9. Working
You’re not having fun because you’re WORKING here. Somehow, you got roped into this. Maybe you LOVE working here! You're making everyone so happy! Or maybe you’ve had enough of being in the dunking booth or wearing that doofy animal costume. Hopefully, your friends won’t laugh too hard at you.

10. Other
You have other ideas? Play out those Carnival shenanigans!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only | Expand All

[ Do you want me to take up more of your time and tags? ]

((Do you seriously need me to answer this?!))

[ IT IS ONLY POLITE besides they could use some close to home downtime after ALIENS AND DINOSAURS. ]

((Then set us up some fluff))

It's been a few weeks since they since limped home. Bruce packed his bag three times, and has only unpacked it twice. For all that they came home successful and safe, he's still thinking of things that were said. He's fairly certain he knows why they were said, and what they meant, and why he needs to leave... but it grieves him. He hadn't had a place to call home in seven years.

With Loki asleep in his crate -- house training the little bugger has proved nigh impossible -- Bruce through caution to the wind, and headed out. A double text to Pepper and Tony (because telling one basically meant telling the other): Going to Coney Island. Back in a bit.

It was time to eat bad food, get lost in a crowd and think really hard about a few things. He needed time away from the Tower-- and Tony more specifically-- to do that, ad you couldn't be in the tower without Tony, or by extension, JARVIS, being there, somewhere. They'd had a lot of time together... Now? He figured it was time to prepare for the absence.

Still, when he got off the ferry, he was honestly not surprised that Tony had, since he didn't take the bus to reach the ferry in the first place, beaten him there to Coney Island.

Welp. So much for moping and soul-searching.

"You hear for the bad food, the bright lights, or the the easy women on the boardwalk?" he asks as he gets closer.

Edited 2012-09-20 22:32 (UTC)

"All of the above." Tony's as dressed down as possible, hair a little more ruffled than he likes it, jeans ripped on one knee, sneakers having seen better days. He doesn't want to be recognized. Well. It's not really possible not to be these days, but at least with everyone sporting the 'Stark' facial hair, or some variant, he can blend in. Just so long as he's not in a suit.

Each time Tony's seen that bag in Banner's room, he's gotten ahold of too much alcohol and waited for that bag to go away.

They've been okay. Sort of. Tony gives Banner his space most of the time and they still have fun together, usually late at night when Loki refuses to sleep and mimics whatever had been on television last or, lately, the things Tony says.

He wants to strangle it.

Tony grins behind his shades at Bruce though.

"Why Coney Island?"

The bag was still packed. Bruce knew it. Bruce knew Tony knew it. He wasn't sure if this was a psyche up or another talk-himself-out-of-it moment, but only time would tell.

Bruce stops just outside Tony's personal bubble, looking across at him; they were a like height; Tony had an inch on him, but that was all.

"Unhealthy food. Never been to anything like this," he said. "Figured I might as well. It was there." Also, he got tired of Loki screeching in Tony's voice. If he leaves, Loki is staying in Stark Tower.

Tony's eyes are kind as he watches Bruce move up to meet him and then turns them away, shrugging it off easily. Nothing is right and it probably never will be but a guy can hope, right? Hope is usually the only thing that Tony's got going for him when he straps himself into that suit to do his patrols or pushes left over pizza to Banner when he finds him in the lab working alone.

"You've got to get a hot dog first then. And cotton candy. And funnel cake. I brought the handy wipes."

Of course he did. Tony kept his shoulders loose and his hands in his pockets. He really can't do much more than make small talk. That bag's been packed for days now. It's only a matter of time that he wakes up and Banner's gone.

"Will you ever explain this source of hypochondria?" he asks, as he steps aside. He says nothing about the bag, his plans, or-- the inevitability of what it suggests.

He leads on toward the mess of the midway, step light. He dodges kids a little, bringing his shoulder close into the bubble of the other man's space, but then he's back and walking toward one of the vendors. He's hungry. Food's a luxury, a sensual pleasure, and if this is his last night in New York, by God, it'll go out with a bang.

Or at least, hot dogs and cotton candy and funnel cake. Whichever.

It's not hypochondria if it's real, Bruce! The germs will get him, the germs are already getting him. There's so many kids here. Not the kind that line up, awestruck, for autographs, but the measely, mucusy sort that have the dirtiest hands in the world.

If you really are leaving, go somewhere with dysentery and Tony will never follow you. Maybe. Obsession does strange things for people.

They get themselves some hot dogs after Tony laughs away the question and sit on a rickety old bench to watch an even more rickety old rollarcoaster dance in the afternoon sun.

"How 'bout it, Banner? Wanna risk death for a little thrill?"

Kids aren't so bad. Once upon a time, Bruce really wanted them. Really badly; had names picked and all that shit. Totally a girl about it all -- Betty thought it meant he was good dad material.

Bruce knew the truth: that he wasn't, and was desperately trying to make up for it all. Shit, he's already thinking of how to leave his chatterbox pet behind and how will Tony take care of it or will he be shuffled off like Bruce was? Will Pepper end up taking care of the damn thing? In the end he realizes he's overthinking it, over playing it, and feels stupid for even letting his brain run that track.

Instead, he thinks about hot dogs. Goddamn they're tasty. Grilled and covered in delicious toppings and made just the way he wants them and paid with rumpled bills and everything. But he glances over when Tony distracts him, and then shakes his head once.

"I'm all thrilled out. I honestly came mostly for the noise and the lights." Something less shiny and sterile than Stark Tower; something less future and more past. Something decaying, broken. Coney Island is a relic. He needed to see if he could get his taste for it again.

"Yeah, I know," Tony says as if he knows more than that too, but can't manage to admit it out loud. If Banner's going to go, then they're not going to mope and pout and stare at one another. They're going to have some fun.

Tony finished his hot dog and pulls Bruce up to his feet. His smile reaches his eyes and it's not a lie. Not a mask.

"Don't be a chicken, Banner. Ride the roller coaster with me and I'll win you something big and probably flea ridden for Loki to tear apart."

"I don't need any souviniers of Coney Island -- flea ridden or otherwise," he says, but he does not resist the grasp, the grab, or the haul to his feet. It puts him right in Tony's face for a scant moment, before he retreats an inch or two.

The mask. The mesh. He remembers. He wants to ask. But--

No.

No. Tony Stark takes what he wants. Bruce doesn't even know what that means but...

It's the truth.

"How will it compare to space and plane crashes? Dinosaurs?" If he tells him he's honestly never been on one, Tony will flip all the tables Thor style to get him up there.

For a moment there, Tony was sure that Banner would pull away. The seeming lack of humor about the stuffed animals that floated and bobbed along the midway almost makes Tony lose his smile. Their last night before Bruce goes God-knows where is important to him.

"It's going to be more fun, less death or strange things trying to kill us. Try not to be too disappointed."

Tony doesn't try to butt into line. He does get funnel cake to ease the wait time, though, chattering away about the physics of the ride because-- Well. They're both physicists. And who else can Tony gush to about beautiful radicals?

Science. Beautiful science, their shared love. Bruce is happy to stand there and talk science, between bites of funnel cake, though there are kids ahead of them giving them the You Two Are Talking Weird Shit look as the line inches along. Thankfully, it is a breezy summer Thursday -- making the rickety thing creek like mad -- and so there's not a lot of people here.

The funnel cake is eaten, though, and now? Now they're closer to the head of the line than the end of it, and Bruce says, knowing that it's inevitable now: "I've never been on one of these at all, you know."

Mom never went into this sort of thing; after she was gone, Dad certainly wasn't, and his aunt and uncle... well. They couldn't afford stuff like this. They had other concerns, like the new kid to go along with Jen. But he got a friend out of it...

...who'll turn up needing a blood transfusion any day now.

"Really?" Tony's eyebrows arch up and he laughs with the shake of his head. Bruce, Bruce, Bruce. "It's not as good as flying, but you can really feel the G-forces. It'll make your head spin. In a good way."

There's no need to Hulk out on a ride. If Bruce has been able to more or less call the Hulk at will lately, there doesn't seem to be a problem with him experiencing a little of Tony's speed demon version of fun.

With clear by brown eyes, Tony hands over two tickets -- has to sign them both for the operator who recognizes him -- and gives his signature peace sign for a picture before being loaded up in the car.

"Smile Banner. I know you can do it."

Bruce feels relatively safe about the whole thing, honestly. He just-- doesn't like to tempt fate. Surely, though, if he can survive airplanes, running around like a nut, and more, he can totally survive this. Seriously. He's not afraid of that. He's -- afraid of a lot of other things, but not that.

He lets Tony ham it up, ducks his head a little because Tony -- famous Tony, smiling Tony -- shouldn't be seen with him, lest they put two and two together. But once they're in the car, things secured-- he glances over, and then he smiles.

Well it's better late than never, Tony decides, the wind in his hair and the smell of the water covered up by the fried and horrible for you foods nearby. He's never not enjoyed Banner's company, not even when he's angered the man enough to make him storm out -- before he storms in -- or when they're probably about to meet their end. It's not always been fun, but there are no regrets.

Well. Maybe just one. Back in the cave. Tony's attempt to push Bruce away is leading up to their return to the Tower were Tony will tell Banner he'll see him tomorrow... And it will never happen.

Tony already knows he'll stay up for it, for when Jarvis lets him know that Banner is gone, and he won't go running after him either. He'll just have a scotch and go to bed.

But that for later. Hours from now. It's hard to think of that anyway when the car starts to wind its way to the top of the first hill.

When the car engages and the near gun-shot loud clacka-clack-clacka-clack of the old, chain-based coaster starts Bruce jumps a little, not knowing what to expect. He feels the tilt, the rise-- and then the sudden drop --

-- but does not scream. There's merely a moment of eyes wide and his hands on the safety bars and the rush that gets his heart pumping...

...but he stays safe. He stays safe through every rise, dip and fall, every sharp turn. Sure, his curls are all wild now, but... oh well. Once stopped and dis engorged from the car, he's... still smiling.

"Well, then... that's one off the bucket list."

"Good man," Tony says with a sort of higher than usual, high spirited laugh and hops down the last few stairs and onto the boardwalk again. It's just after midday which means that, soon enough, the boards will fill with kids released from school and moms with their little ones are thinking about heading home or to a nice little family friendly restaurant to eat.

And Tony notices the way Banner glances at the kids. Not like they're disease carriers or anything, just like...he thinks it might be nice to be around them a little more often.

He just doesn't feel the need to bring this up at the moment, not when there's cotton candy to be had and a giant Hulk stuffed toy to win at the end of the midway.

But needless sugar first. It's the dip your own sort and Tony happily hands over a paper cone to his friend.

It would be nice. It's the sort of nice that's off the table -- after all, he's not capable of siring any, right? That sort of radiation should have killed him; leaving him a functional man is probably a little too good to be true (...little does he know). And even then, even then, does he want to pass on this mutation? Can the Hulk, the reaction from these damaged and mutated cells his body now replicates...

...will little Bruce Junior be green and angry, punching his way out of the womb? It's the stuff of nightmares. No, really. He dreams about that sort of horror.

So when he's got a bit of candyfloss fluff, and he's enjoying the sweet, but completely non-nutritional stuff, it shouldn't be surprised that he sees the lost boy first, squalling for his mother. People are just filtering in.

Bruce approaches; despite that there's a green and lurking rage monster in there, he is small, soft at the edges, unassuming and ultimately, the least threatening dude on the planet if you don't know what's really going on in his head.

He kneels down; there's a short exchange; kid doesn't even speak English. Not uncommon - New York's Puerto Rican population's pretty huge. He switches language, and quietly beckons Tony over with a gesture, and he says, among the maze of Spanish and soft tones, two words to capture trust: Iron Man.

The boy looks at Tony like he's a God, tilting his head. Tears dry up and Bruce straightens, offering him a hand, before he points at one of the many 'lost kids and first aid' booths that dart the midway and Coney Island.

"Let's go see about getting Roberto here to his madre, before we can go on with our day." Date. Whatever this is.

Though Tony is fluent in entirely too many languages, Spanish being one of them, he lets Bruce handle this because-- Well, look at the man! Look at the way he takes the kid by the hand, lightly thumbing the back of his knuckles reassuringly and deflects himself as the hero. Tony smiles but everything Banner does these days leaves him, frankly, dumstruck.

Tony let's them hang around until Roberto's mom actually shows up. He signs autographs and takes more pictures because that's what everyone expects of him and in reality, he's mostly just thumbing about Bruce's thumb against his knuckles and having hot chocolate with him in beakers as they wait for the results of a rendering of a design they're working on together so that they can squabble about meterial or color choice.

All right, so Tony's ideal domestic life is a little crazy. And includes lasers and welding machines...

Once the ordeal is over, once Banner stops shrinking away as if he had nothing to do with any of this, Tony shoves his hands into his pockets and suggests that they go somewhere airconditioned for a little while.

He'll win Bruce that toy later.

If Bruce could meld into the wall, he would. Sink in and become part of the scenery and simply watch. Tony loves the spotlight, and soaks up celebrity like a dry sponge does water, and Bruce wonders what it's like to have that much-- anything. Maybe it's just force of personality; Thor's the thunder god, but Tony is a thunder head, rolling in, crackling with energy.

"Like where?" he asks as he unfolds from himself, with less hunching and smallness. "There's a museum, uhm, and the various- show, things." He doesn't know any thing that's out here, really. This was a burst of whim, unresearched and unchecked. Allowing himself, briefly, not to overthink everything he did for the day.

"C'mon, let's go see some of our brethern in action." He's talking, of course, about the sideshow. But it's nice in there, a little run down but that adds to the charm, and the peeling paint is sort of what makes this place charming. He's got them both hot chocolate too -- shut up, let him have his moment -- and though they're mostly crammed in with teenagers in the main theater to watch the performance on torn red velvet seats, Tony doesn't make a big deal about anything.

He's still pretty damned quiet, for Tony, and that probably means he's imagining turning that old prop canon into a salad mixer or giving it eyes and an AI component to make it deliver candy at timed intervals.

Who knows what sort of things go on in there when his hands are still and his eyes slightly unfocused in the distance?

The performers come out one by one, all of them interestingly tattooed and fond of swallowing or laying on or being stuck through with objects. Tony is distracted but he laughs and claps at the appropriate places.

This? This is new and weird and different and Bruce is -- sort of amazed. Really, he's seem some strange things in the places he's wandered. He watched the Aghori eat a putrified body from the Ganges as a test of faith, to take in the filth and purify it within their bodies. He has seen tattoos, scarification, and more. He has seen strange foreign standards of beauty, and he has seen amazing things happen through tests of faith, self-control, and devotion.

This is not dissimilar, but it is not quite the same.

He is briefly rendered ignorant to Tony's personal damage. He tilts his head, his brows screw up, and he claps awkwardly. It is, to say the least, a mind-blowing experience, even if they have seen wonders outside this world.

"So," he says, after they leave the theater, as sunset paints the sky in the colors of Iron Man, all lurid reds and gold. "That was-- definitely different."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

fluff with bruce are you insane. bruce is the antifluff.

Gasp! Lies!

not lies!

Banner is a cuddle bunny! HIS HAIR PROVES IT!

it does beg to be played with

Let him play with your hair, dammit

play your cards right, Stark.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject