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It is re-opening weekend for the World's Fair, which mean that there are all manner of updates to the exhibits as well as some new exhibits. The giant tire ferris wheel is turning. There are almost 80 new restaurants and food vendors, nearly doubling what there was the previous year. And among the exhibits that got a revamp was the Dinosaur exhibit.
The signs proudly proclaim — Bigger and Better than Ever! Come see them Move! Come listen to them Roar!
Outstide, people have begon to gather at the entrance which has not yet been opened.
Billy is a guy. As a guy, he likes dinosaurs. This is a genetic truth. And so, since they're going to move and roar, Billy drags Teddy out to check out the event. The young man is wearing a pair of jeans and a green t-shirt, fitted, and he carries with him a funnel cake that he's nibbling on. "This was cool before, its going to be awesome now, I just know it."
Arlo stands in line, fidgeting and looking around. "I want to see the dinosaurs," he tells Elmo. "What do you want to do after that? That ferris wheel looks pretty cool." His gaze goes to the huge ride. "And those restaurants…" He sniffs the air. "There's Chinese," sniff, "a place that does pretzels and hot dogs…" He shoves his hands in his pockets and rocks on his heels.
Elmo and Arlo are known to have a bro date on occasion. Dinosaurs are the bro-iest of bro dates. "Take one a those dinosaurs apart," he replies to Arlo, chipper. "Might have to wait till after close."
Teddy is done up in shades of yellow and brown: A patterned button-down, some slacks, and a light jacket. He, too, is excited for some dinosaurs. "There *will* be a Tyrannosaurus, right? Of course there will be." He smiles at the thought, then reaches over to pick off a piece of Billy's funnel cake, having not ordered one of of his own because it's fun to share sometimes. "When is this supposed to open again?"
Pietro was taking today as a joy ride.Giant mechanical beasts? Sounded good! Food? Better! Harassing his nephew and causing trouble withthe fun member of his family? Booooonus! He was not there though, but now? Now he was leaning on Billy's shoulder. "Yes," he mused," this is promising to be very interesting. This is Teddy? Is looking like a Teddy."
Danielle loiters near the entrance, peering dubiously at the signs boasting of so much excitement. Perhaps it's style, perhaps it's comfortable, perhaps it's a perverse wink towards irony, but the Cheyenne is decked out in denim bellbottoms, cowboy boots and hat, and a comfortable blouse, with a battered old satchel dangling from her shoulder and thumping her back when she walks. Which she doesn't, because she staked out this particular spot in this particular line, which makes it hers now.
As people begin to gather, a man announces over a hand-held megaphone, "Welcome to the 1965 World's Fair - Dinosaur's Alive Exhibit! We'll be opening up the gates in just a moment. We ask that you please stick to the paths, and while our dinosaurs are pretty friendly, we ask that small children be kept firmly by the hand and not allowed to wander into the enclosures. Everyone have a good time!"
After a few moments the ropes blocking off the path into the exhibit are removed and the crowd is allowed to begin to go inside. There are paths that have been set up, paved neatly, between large dinosaur models with plaques in front of their areas that explain what each species is, what they eat, where they were found, and various other trivia and tidbits. There are many small immobile models, but through the trees up ahead, one can see some movement and hear the sound of roaring being piped through "hidden" speakers.
Billy is cool with sharing, so he doesn't complain when Teddy swipes some of his funnel cake— but then Pietro materializes and he blinks, then laughs. "Pietro, this is Teddy, yes. Teddy, this is my uncle Pietro. Magic-mom's twin. He's like Tommy." Silver haired speedster. He then shares a dimpled grin with Teddy, "There has to be a Tyrannosaurus, has to be."
Arlo sticks close to his bro date. He's in plain jeans and a striped t-shirt, his hair a little too long to be called tidy. "But if we don't bring in small children," he says to Elmo, "how will the dinosaurs eat?" He spies Pietro and his silver hair, then asks Elmo, "Geez, what's his deal? Looks cool, though." He falls into step with Elmo, hands in his pockets as he looks aroound. Dinosaurs. Cooooool.
Keep small children out of the enclosures? More like keep small electric mutants out of the enclosures. Elmo's so interested in the inner workings of the (presumably) robot dinosaurs that he just skips the models and information—he knows it all already, anyway. "That's Pietro. He was at Purim," he tells Arlo. "And he's a wiseass." Because that's the most important fact about Pietro.
Danielle trundles along with the rest of her line as the exhibit opens, and everyone begins to move. Wisely resisting the urge to make livestock-esque noises, she begins to swim further up through the crowd, uninterested in the smaller, boring stuff she could see at the museum. Naw, she came to see the moving things. And if she has to listen to the five year old behind her talk about how Diplodocus isn't /really/ a dinosaur at all… Best if she works further in, really.
Teddy almost jumps at Pietro's sudden arrival, fumbling the piece of funnel cake a bit before popping it into his mouth. He smiles, waves, and swallows it down. "Oh, hey!" he says to the silver-haired man, offering a wave as well. "What's your go-to dino?" he asks the man. It's not every day you get to drop that as a getting-to-know-you question. Then, the crowd starts moving, and so he goes along with it.
That was best fact about Pietro: is wiseass. Very important. And herein the wiseass arched an eyebrow. "Go-to dino? Well that depends. The one that lets me ride it." He considered this, "THese dinos? They have kinds? Hmmm interesting." the grin went wry spotting Arlo and Elmo, "Huh." Iiinteresting. THey got a wave though the speedster stopped to let Dani pass un-trampled. "To be fair Billy is meaning Tommy remind him of me. I exist, before, on all accounts…I hope or will make holiday very awkward."
As they progress down the path, there are oohs and ahhs from thsoe head of them as they watch some of the dinosaurs which have, indeed, been set up to move. Some are moved manually by people inside who cause the heads to turn, or the wings to flap, but some seem to do so on their own, the mechanics inside whirring and spinning, to cause heads to suddenly raise and jaws to open.
There is indeed a Tyrannosaurus Rex, complete with brilliant gold eyes and giant white teeth. There are smaller raptors as well, a Triceratops, a pair of baby Brontosaurs, and a number of other creations, all moving in their very fixed patterns that are on a clear loop.
"Actually, Tommy is like so totally you, man, its like… genetic proof of familyhood. You and Wanda: speedster and witch. Tommy and me: speedster and witch. The genetics like totally bred true." Billy lowers his voice to say this, but he does have a grin on his features. But he is rather taken in by the giant moving dinosaurs, "Jurassic Park." he murmurs, though no one has a clue what that means, likely.
"Oh yeah," Arlo says. "I was already drinking when we were talking to him, but I remember now." He grins at Pietro and waves to him and his group of peeps. "That night was a blur, and thank God," he says to Elmo. "I remember a sea of little old ladies telling me what a nice boy I am." He pulls a face. Such accusations will not stand. "Ooh, look at that one," he says, pointing to the Triceratops. "Look at its messed up head."
Elmo waves cheerfully back at Pietro the wiseass. "Vas makhstu," he calls to him, asking what's up in Yiddish. He smirks at Arlo. "Relatives, huh? Yeah, that one, nobody knows why it's got that big frill on it. They think it's for the males to fight, like stags. Oh man, look at the babies!" Charmed, he's immediately trying to get close enough to the whirring mechanical dinosaurs to investigate them.
Once she reaches the Main Attraction, Danielle starts to smile widely. She sidesteps out of the flow of guests, so she can take a moment to drink it all in. The whole effect. "Wow…" Eventually, she starts to meander through, pausing at one display at a time, carefully studying each of the prehistoric beasties, and the way they cycle through motions.
Teddy inclines his head toward Pietro and lifts a brow. "Ok, sure," he says, letting uncle and nephew talk some while he takes in the exhibit. It's true, he doesn't catch the film reference, but he's learned to tune those things out when they don't feel entirely related to the present. At the T-Rex, he stops and moves away from the pair to take a closer look. "Groovy," he whispers.
Pietro tilted his head to teh sideand replied to Elmo, "Eeeh not… bad." Dinos were something not critical to fighting demons. He hand no clue but in earnest agreed, "We need to find one of these to ride it. Billy… maybe you make this happen. What bad that could happen?" When he left Billy's side and apparated near Dani was nothing anyone was likly keeping track of. "Wow seems understatement. Large lizard could eat whole car."
When Elmo gets close to the little Brontosaurus babies, he can indeed hear the whirrings and inner workings inside, and the way the light shines through the painted cloth that makes up some of their outer skin, he can even see some of the motion that makes their heads raise and turn.
It's about then that the Tyrannosaurus Rex suddenly turns and, bending down, lets out a bellowing roar that sounds a lot more convincing than the piped in sound that had been coming from the others. The eye that looks at Teddy looks quite a bit more lifelike than the others. That large lizard that looks like could eat a car? It's mouth was suddenly very close to the group as a whole, as it.. took a step forward. Weren't these things bolted down?
"They're not rides, Pietro. They're—" Billy stares. "What the!" Billy is up in the air a few inches or so without him even trying, because that dinosaur with its mouth _way_ too close to his boyfriend suddenly does not look like its attached to the ground. He extends his hand out to try to project a band of telekinetic force over the heads of everyone there, though its quite possible the sheer weight of the dino will overwhelm his limits.
Arlo trails after Elmo and asks, "Is it running okay?" He can hear the whirring,, but it means nothing to him, alas. Then the roar startles him and he whips around. He taps Elmo's shoulder. "Hey, man. You might want to look at this." He gestures at Billy. "That guy's floating."
Elmo might be in love with the baby Bronto. "Aww, what a good boychik," he tells it, stroking it as if it's a real animal. The fact that he can detect the surge and flow of its electrical power is a bonus. The roar—makes him jump, and he looks up, startled, to see the Rex doing things it shouldn't be able to do. "Forget the guy! I don't think that one is a machine!" He gets his hand back on the baby animatronic and surges power into it, causing it to move under his command. It toddles out of its enclosure, towards the big carnivore, all delicious-looking and unaware.
"At some point, it becomes difficult not to take this sort of thing personally," Danielle muses, eyes narrowed at the T-Rex who decides to start ad-libbing. "Can't even enjoy some wholesome science without .. ah well." She angles her way in a wide arc, putting herself towards the left flank of the distressingly lifelike dinosaur. She barely notices the Diplodocus kid, though the wee tot is staring agawp at the marvel of modern machinery. "It's fine. I'm sure it's fine. All part of the show, I'm sure."
Teddy is loving this new technology. When the dino comes down to roar in his face, he actually giggles and turns to look back to Billy and Pietro and anyone else nearby, really. "They've come a long way haven't — " He's cut off when he notices that Billy no longer has his feet on the ground. Behind him comes a thud as the large dinosaur takes its first step. Turning around, it seems like things might be getting a touch too real. And so, taking his cue from Billy, Teddy shifts into his larger, greener form from which he gets his codename. Some clothing tears in the process, but he's able to stare down the dino with a *bit* more confidence. "Uh, good dino?"
Pietro watched the animatronics, "Is a bit like Hall of Presidents only, funny enough no one ever vote for dino. Is very sad." Except teh dino looked truly… alive. Yeah okay this could be problematic. Still his nephew was floating and were they not related he might look for a reputable exorcist. This was spelling trouble with a capitol 'FUN-'. It was moments like these he loved to make last forever, mainly because the challenge wasn't avoiding danger. The challenge was see how many things he could do before riding the dino. There were hero types around that were going to ruin the entertainment and quite possibly a unrealized desire to ride a rampaging dino in his lifetime, but first thing was first. He moved the kid near the railing pointed and moved him back from teh edge of the feature, paused and curled his finger into a fist because it was not nice to point. He ran off and moved a lady and her boyfriend ner them and passed the pointing kid the string to a balloon. There something more fun to do with a rude finger. Hold onto that kiddo. In the blink of an eye he moved the mass of civilians back pausing only to write his phone number on a slip of paper, fold it, and stick it in someone's hand with an amused half-grin, "Maybe we talk later. I give you ride on giant dino? Call me." He winked and it was off to just make sure people wer eout of smapping range. To the rest of the world everyone just teleported back several yards. No sweat. Nothing to see here!
And then suddenly one of the small meachnical Brontosaurs is trundling toward the T-Rex, ambling through the psace left by Pietro as the silver-haired speedster dashes through the crowd, moving civilians out of the way. There's the sound of shrieks, some laughter, some applause, some cries of fear, as people scramble out of the way only to find themselves relocated. There's some childish giggling as well.
The T-Rex eyes the now large and green Teddy and pauses, stopping entirely for a moment and just looking at the Hulkling before it pulls its head back and rooooarrs again, tiny arms flailing as it brings its head down near the little Brontosaur, but bounces off Billy's telekinetic barrier, tiny arms flailing a bit.
Billy keeps his hand up and concentration held, maintaining the barrier as long as it can hold and people are under it. "I can't hold it off forever, people, RUN!" The air shimmers lightly from where the barrier itself holds. "THE ATTRACTION IS MALFUNCTIONING." And in order to alarm people into fleeing instead of laughing, he holds a hand up and there's a *crack* as lightning cracks into the air. It doesn't hit anything, and has almost no power, just sound. But it should get attention.
Arlo grabs at Elmo's arm and says, "That thing has a heartbeat," with a sharp nod at the roaring T-rex. He's not using his inside voice, either He tugs on Elmo to strongly encourage the idea of running the hell away. Running the hell away is how their ancient rodent ancestors survived! "I don't know what the hell is going on, but that thing's alive!"
One second, the place is crowded with delectable crunchy sightseers. The next—they're all scootched back like a huge hand reached down and shoveled them aside. Elmo can't even figure out what happened, but, whatever! "You got the right idea," he says, and he and Arlo run for it. The baby bronto continues to act alluringly helpless.
It's hard not to be entranced by a lifesize T-Rex roaring and stomping and biting. Or to be distracted by the confused push of people trying to decide whether to get closer or run away. Yet Dani has a hunter's eye, and that light giggle catches her ear, just as a hint of motion catches the corner of her eye. Swearing a vibrant oath that carries the most weight in the original Asgardian, she chucks her satchel towards an out-of-the-way corner, and tugs her cowboy hat down tight. She trots a couple of steps, gauging her moment, then bursts into a hard sprint (shuddup, Pietro). She leaps over the display fencing and charges in a beeline for one of the huge beast's legs. In stride, she kicks off the ground, leaping up onto the leg, and scrambles up a few feet, grunting and reaching for a small child carelessly giggling and enjoying the ride.
It's clear now that things have gone sideways, and Teddy feels a pang of guilt at what he'll need to do to keep everyone safe. With a slight tearing-popping sound that happens twice loudly in the room, he shifts again to grow himself a pair of dino-like wings, which flap to lift himself into the air along with Billy. "Hope there's an opening in there," he says of Billy's telekinetic force, because the next moment has him flying straight for the T-Rex's head, arm outstretched to deliver a blow. En route, he gives a quick glance down to Dani and grins.
Pietro had very important business to attend to here. This required popcorn. Oh yeah, also an evacuation. SIgh. Well he zipped through a few folks helping them evacuate more quickly. He took off around the back of the feature and set out to grab the two posts and the rope that hung between them to denote ride is closed. Well that took a second longer than it needed to. Returning back to his nephew he brought back with him the crutial tool to deal with this situation: popcorn. He took a deep breath and popped a handful into his mouth and wave his hand causally on at the rampage, and notably to Dani and Teddy who were running at the beast. "Okay is good. Now you fight big lizard. We can proceed."
If there was any doubt that things had gone horribly awry, Billy's cries and Pietro's relocations have people flooding back out the way that they came in, creating a kind of bottleneck where the crowd trying to come in meets those trying to flee. There's a bit of chaos going on there. The crackle of lightning only serves to heighten the flight reflex of the crowd.
Elmo's Brontosaurus continues to ramble around in front of the T-Rex, looking crunchy and delicious, as though trying to bait the dinosaur to eat it. Which it sort of seems to be doing, as the head comes down again, in the direction of the Brontosaurus. Then, two things happen at once.
Danielle peels the little girl that was riding the dinosaur's leg off of the T-Rex, which causes her to burst into tears and flail, but also causes the T-Rex to suddenly become wholly mechanical again. And Teddy punches it square in the face, causing its head to suddenly explode in a shower of gears, gizmos, springs, and parts, as well as some torn fabric and a couple of large glass eyes.
Meanwhile, Pietro marks the attraction as closed as the last of the crowd is finally ushered out, and the giant T-Rex crashes to the ground.
Whoa, Teddy-punches are impressive, and as parts explode, he throws his hand out to form another TK shield over the heads of anyone who remains in, in case shrapnel might get them.
Arlo stops running, before getting ushered out with the rest of the crowd, and his eyes widen as the T-rex's head explodes into mechanical detritus. "Oh my God!" he says, clamping his hand to his mouth. Terrifying, sure, but also? So cool. He asides to Elmo, "I don't think he's going to be eating anyone any time soon. Geez, I swore I heard its heart beating."
Elmo ducks instinctively. When mechanical things explode, there's always shrapnel. "That wasn't a machine," he insists, angry at being proven apparently wrong. "It moved all wrong!" The baby dino is still shuffling around. He pulls a little homemade gadget out of a pocket and flips a switch. The baby whirrs to a stop, slowly freezing in place. "Well, nobody got hurt," he says, but he sounds so cranky.
Danielle ignores the flailing arms and legs as she drops off the mechanical monster and scurries a safe distance away just as the thing collapses into a heap. After a moment to catch her breath, it dawns on her that she's still holding the girl who, apparently, is the cause of all the hubbub. And by 'holding', one might well read 'by the scruff'. At arm's length. "Uh. Easy, kiddo.. Easy. Um." She frowns in that vague 'what do I do with this child' sort of manner, and looks around. "Does this kid belong to anyone? Anyone?" she calls out, with only the faintest hint of borderline desperation.
When Teddy makes contact with the dinosaur, he he can feel the machinery underneath. This comes as a relief to him, because having to punch out a dinosaur, even a terrifying one, would be like doing a disservice to his boyhood. Robots, though, are fair game. And so he bust apart the Mechanical Rex in a rain of wiring and metal. "Heads up!" he shouts, still flapping around up there and surveying the scene below.
Pietro watched fascinated by the show moving only when he had to. He had popcorn, he got a show and the world moved in slow motion enough for him to dodge the debris. "Very impressive." Hey he had to compliment them. They did all teh work. Thumbing back towards the front he answered Dani, "I would probably say is probably only screaming people try to get back into attraction would be what I am guessing."
"Emily! Emily!" A voice shouts from the crowd as a woman pushes her way through the ropes and into the dinosaur exhibit. When she sees Danielle holding onto the little girl, she rushes over and gathers her up in her arms. "Oh, thank goodness. Thank you, Miss, for finding her. We were waiting in line for popcorn and then I turned and she wa sjust gone!" The woman looks so relieved. Emily clings to her mother and continues to cry, loudly.
The operators of the attraction look around in shock, and then at the group gathered. "What the hell happened?" asks one of the mechanics, surveying the debris. "Call Jim and Mike. We're going to have to clean this all up and put it back together again. Shit, the boss is going to be pissed. Come on, all of you, get out of here.. exhibit's closed."
Arlo ducks the debris, though he's not quick enough to dodge all of it, and he gets a small cut on the chin for his troubles. "Ow." He rubs at the miniscule wound. Then he eyes Elmo. "They want us to leave just when everything started getting cool." Wasn't he just trying to run for his life a moment ago?
"We'll come back," Elmo says. "Maybe with a truck." He really is in love with that thing. It's a machine AND it's adorable. What's not to like? For now, he lets himself be shooed off.
Billy waves a hand, shifting that electronic and mechanical shrapnel he had captured off to the side, and then lowering himself to the ground. He looks up at Teddy, calling out, "Situation clear." And his attention goes over to the woman and the little girl. He approaches, looking closely at the girl, "Hi." he greets, "My name is Billy."
Danielle manages not to fling the child to her mother. Instead she carefully makes the handoff, mumbles something vaguely polite, and trots away hastily to retrieve her satchel. Hoisting it back to her shoulder, she shoots a glance at the assorted men'n'lads who helpfully punched and zapped and .. all that hero-y stuff. She tugs a light salute on the brim of her hat, before she lets herself be herded out by the mechanics.
Pietro clapped at teh reunion, the heroics, oh damn all of it. "Com on Billy, Teddy, I think our friends are having the right offit. Maybe rest of park will be as good. This place has everything." Undaunted he followed his family out eating his popcorn. What a day.
Teddy returns to the ground in a controlled descent, shifting to his default form once his feet touch the floor. His clothes are in tatters, so he has to hold on to the waist of his slacks in order to keep it together. For the children's sake. Situation clear, indeed, he thinks as he looks around to make sure nobody got hurt by any of the shrapnel. His gaze falls on various members of the crowd, including the Arlo/Elmo pair, to whom he offers a sheepish smile and wave. Danielle is eyed on her way out, but for now he doesn't follow the mechanics out of the exhibit.
The little girl stops crying when Billy comes up and addresses her directly. She looks at him with wide eyes for a moment and then gives him a little wave with her fingers. "Hi, I'm Emily."
No shrapnel seems to have injured anyone since the crowd was ushered out just in time for the head to explode. Fortunately, it seems like there were no injuries due to the quick thinking of all involved.
Arlo nods to Elmo solemnly. Yes. Under cover of night, with a truck. He gives Elmo a surreptitious low-five. Then he consents to leave. Nothing to see here, just two young men leaving the exhibit with no ill intentions whatsoever. Honest. He catches Teddy's wave, and not at all guiltily, he smiles and waves back. Nope, no plans going on here.
"Hi, Emily. That was fun, wasn't it? Riding the dinosaur?" Billy grins a dimpled smile at the girl, lifting a hand up to wave back, and as he does so he murmurs, "Mark, mark, mark, mark, mark." Pause, he nods to the girl's mother, "You should take her home, ma'am." And with that Billy steps away.