THE CITY INBOX.

[vecna]

USERNAME: VECNA HENRY CREEL STRANGER THINGS TEXT • AUDIO • VIDEO • ACTION • OVERFLOW

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rings this in!!

[fanstheflames]

[ Tsuruno... is unsure of amusement parks. Not normally, but sometimes there's something unsettling about ones that belong to cities with no native residents. But all the same, she feels as though she could investigate (and not tell Robby about it) and probably should investigate, just in case.

Which is why she's near the entrance when she spots a familiar face. ]

Oh! Hey! Henry!!

opens my arms

[vecna]

[Well. He's not much of an amusement park person, either. It all seems needlessly silly, all strangely performative to this man's less-than-flattering lens in which he views the world. But who is he, but not a person compelled by constant curiosity and the need to investigate? To know what exactly is going on with this city and its attempts to seem welcoming, with something darker churning beneath its surface--

Oh, anyway, there's Tsuruno.]

Tsuruno.

[He turns his head to spot her from where he stands at the entrance, smiling his usual little smile. Though this time, he does hike up a brow by a few degrees.

He waves her over.]

This city keeps surprising us, doesn't it?

[fanstheflames]

Seriously... I wonder why it keeps revealing things slowly like this. Maybe it's related to the number of people?

[ The more they get, the more is revealed? Mysterious. ]

[vecna]

Maybe. Either way, it seems like they're trying to liven things up. Be more... welcoming.

[He casts his eyes towards the fair.]

I can't quite decide what to think about that, after the mall.

[Did SHE also undergo a mall chase sequence--]

[fanstheflames]

Oh, did you also get caught up in a bunch of weird chases?

[ She sure did! Plenty of them! A lot of them weren't hers! ]

[vecna]

Just one. And I chased him, instead.

[It was very, ah, unhinged on his part. But it's fine! He's normal now. Just look at this face. :) ]

Guess that makes me the weird one. Even so, I can't say it was very pleasant, and I wonder if the city is trying to make up for its... misstep.

[Or, you know, playing it off like nothing weird happened at all.]

[fanstheflames]

...

That'd be nice, but I don't think cities can feel guilty.

[ If only. ]

[vecna]

[GIRL YOU KNOW WHAT HE MEANS HE STG]

I wouldn't discount any theory right now, no matter how out there it sounds.

[Henry tilts his head towards the fair proper, its interior nothing but bright colors and other activities that might compel them to interact.]

Want to take a look around while we're here?

[fanstheflames]

Sure! What's your fair attraction of choice? Or are you more of a food--

[ She pauses and looks him over. Tall. Very thin. Kind of gaunt? ]

... So! Fair attraction?

[vecna]

[You can say it. He's a noodle.

But wow, that pause and redirect.]

...Let's see what attractions they have for us first. We can sample the food later.

[Just in case it's the kind of food with Consequences, he wants to see if they play out in any passerby's first, should they happen to run into anyone else.]

[fanstheflames]

Got it! Maybe they have one of those mirror halls, those are fun!

[ Henry out here to watch people be morons, sounds about right. ]

[vecna]

[Yeah, that's basically it.]

We can definitely take a look.

[Oh, it doesn't take much walking for them to spy something at a distance, though: it's indeed a hall of mirrors, if the scrawling script above the building means anything. But Henry pauses, gesturing in that direction, and mostly referring to the entrance which is shaped like a gawping, giant mouth of a clown.

Lovely.]

That look like "fun" to you?

[Clowns are terrifying to some people. Real nightmare fuel. Henry appreciates that at a baseline level, so his question is just a little wry, but not necessarily a rejection of the idea.]

[fanstheflames]

... Mm. I guess it depends on the clown? That one sorta looks like a nightmare, but maybe the inside is more fun?

[ ... She doesn't seem sure of this, but she also doesn't seem afraid of it, either. ]

[vecna]

[He'd be surprised to see her afraid at this point. But he does recall, now, ever so briefly, the flash he received from skimming the top of her memories once before -- the image of an amusement park, a setting not too unlike the one they're in now.]

Let's give it a try, anyway.

[Henry also possesses zero fear, almost shrugging as they wander towards the clown's smiling, gaping mouth.]

Have you been to many places like this before?

[fanstheflames]

Many...? There's one in Kamihama that I've gone to a few times. It was a lot of fun, but it didn't really have the same kind of weird... uh, maybe-haunted vibe this one does?

[ And she says this sincerely as they walk in. ]

[vecna]

[Inside, they're met with long corridors of mirrors, reflecting their frames in all sorts of strange and warped ways. It's a little disorienting, really, if one lingers on them for too long. Even Henry has to slow his gait down to 1) appreciate the novelty of it and 2) not feel too dizzied as they wander through.]

So only good memories associated with them?

[A very specific ask, huh!]

[fanstheflames]

...

Do you think I have bad memories about them?

[vecna]

I don't know. That's why I'm asking.

[Here, they stand in front of a mirror that makes them very tall and skinny. With Henry standing before it, it's almost twice as hilarious.]

I have to admit something to you, I guess.

[fanstheflames]

[ Wow he is a noodle. She's a slightly smaller noodle, but he's just Majestic and Tsuruno has to look up at him just to keep from laughing. ]

Huh? Admit what?

[vecna]

[It is... a humorous sight, even Henry has to admit to that in some far, far away section of his mind. But maybe that works for his benefit, given his admission-]

My powers aren't what they were; you know that. But enough still exists that I can gleam images, and wayward thoughts, from others if I focus hard enough.

I did that to you once, when we spoke last. What I saw was just a flicker of an amusement park, and I couldn't help but wonder why that was important to you.

[fanstheflames]

... Oh.

[ Tsuruno pauses, to process this admission... and sighs a little. ]

It's not exactly a happy subject, but it's not traumatic or anything. I don't mind talking about it.

[vecna]

[Sometimes tactical honesty works.

And somehow Henry wonders if Tsuruno would have talked about it anytime he chose to ask, too.]

I'd like to hear it. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious.

[fanstheflames]

[ You know what else works?

Tactical honesty from the other side. ]

... About a year ago, a little longer maybe... I lost a friend of mine. There was a lot going on at the time and I was just... kind of a mess. I was super stressed.

But my friends and I heard about this amusement park and thought we should go, just to focus on something else. And I think...

That was probably the first time I just relaxed, completely. Like I was so stressed from everything that I just let it go then. So it's kind of associated with a bad memory, but at the same time, it meant something like peace to me. I can't think of it as something bad, not entirely.

[vecna]

[They're both very good at this! Selective, tactical honesty.]

I see.

[He takes a moment to think that over. A place associated with loss, but also with something fond. The ability to forget about all that ails you, letting it go, if even for a day.

Henry wouldn't know what that's like, always discontent, never knowing--or remembering--what it was to be otherwise. In that vein, her response... rankles him, just a little.]

Funny how memory works like that, isn't it? [He's going to keep walking to the next "aisle" of mirrors over. The default reply would be "I'm sorry to hear about your loss", but he doesn't offer that this time.] Never so straightforward. Always interwoven with some other experience, some other emotion, like the thread in a spider's web.

So how does being at an amusement park make you feel now?

[fanstheflames]

... Like I feel like we're going to be jumped at any minute.

[ Well, this is just full-on honesty. Maybe Henry will have better experiences in the future and he can stop being a little shit over someone having happy memories! ]