open post ● we're about to get up and burn this floor

[boomvox]

Who: Everyone.
What: The Grand Re-Opening of the Gravity Falls Station.
Where: Babylon.
When: Veerdi to Sukkardi.
Notes: Party post!!! Go nuts y'all.
Warnings: Probable alcohol (and drug?) use. Flag stuff in subject titles if it needs a warning and I'll edit it up in here.

It's clear from the first moment anyone even gets on the Skyrail tonight that the Stratosphere Entertainment Group's pricey investment is going to pay off - every rail car is crowded with people decked out and excited for the event. To natives of Baedal, the idea of a holiday is days off work, maybe some camping - escape is alien, a little frightening, and completely thrilling. Even when the Gravity Falls station had hosted other venues, it was nothing so ambitious as to capture the imaginations of the city as a whole. And to immigrants to the city who no longer have the luxury of even simple trips out of town - well, it's priceless. A bittersweet but suddenly vital excursion.

Doors open just as the sun begins to set, the light reflecting off the water of the ocean illuminating the great floating platform as if the entire sky was on fire, before slipping into deep purple then black, the ceiling of their experience dotted with brilliant stars. Staff members wrangling the hazards of the first night are anxious but excited, kind and helpful even if they end up frazzled by the overwhelming turnout. There is security, all sporting neon purple shirts with lion logos, but even by their own admission, they're only there to breakup fights - and even they're smiling all night, too.

Comments

[caballero]

"You'd be surprised what they teach you in boyscouting," he says - and of course Bruce has done enough research to be able to pass himself off as a legitimate member - as they walk. "I've found myself doing it more often since showing up here. Baedal has more weird stuff than Maryland."

Maryland: completely harmless, east coast, plenty of pleasantly middle class towns. (It's also where Sol is from, so yeah, Bruce is kifing some of his friend's context, which got a little weird when the Sol in Baedal turned out to be an alternate.)

[gotbottle]

"I bet I would be, since I was never a boy or a scout. The things I miss out on, man. Also, I thought California had cornered the market on weird."

It's probably been evident to Bruce all along that that's where she hails from, Southern California accent/word choices/cadence with the odd San Francisco pronunciation here and there. So she has no idea about anything in Maryland, and takes his suggestion of there be weird shit at face value.

"Though not even California compared to this place."

[caballero]

"Everywhere has its margin for weird," and he sounds so normal saying it - reflective, almost. Not like someone who's been to every corner of the planet, neck deep in insanity. "I keep telling myself I don't want to know what qualifies as genuinely insane here. Hotel rooms can't hurt, right?"

[gotbottle]

"After some of the things I've seen? Hotel rooms can't hurt at all." This city. After a moment, she adds, quietly: "...I guess I worry for the day, if it ever comes, where I don't think most of the things here are weird anymore."

They're nearing the end of the alley and where it opens onto the area leading up to the hotel. "It's good it's so busy tonight. The two of us appearing out there from here probably won't be noticed."

[caballero]

"There's nothing wrong with being acclimated," he says, sort-of-gentle. "It's self-preservation. And someday you'll go back and have this whole mess of experience."

Big words for a guy who's been through fucking Stockholm Syndrome, but he feels it's a worthy distinction. (Or maybe he's just jaded. Eff off, Cthulhu.)

"I'm sure we could have played drunk for that, too." But it is easier to just slip back into the crowd.

[gotbottle]

"I guess that's true." She just doesn't like the idea. Settling in and coping is one thing but somehow giving up on the idea that this place is weird and things are weird feels like giving up too much.

"We probably could've. I know my make-a-scene strategy is less useful in a huge crowd. You're less intimidating that way." ...Look, she really is a nice person, it's just that sometimes she really really wants her way, is all.

i thought i replied to this ages ago.. /slide in to wrap

[caballero]

Hey. It's good to have these life skills.

Bruce nods in agreement. Then offers up one hand. Fistbump for a job well done?

never fear, it is all good

[gotbottle]

Fistbump for a job well done, incoming. And then she waves, stepping away--look, if he's followed along all this time, he gets that they can't stay together out here in front of the hotel, just in case security comes looking.

She'll look him up again sometime.