gonna step up - step up - step right up

[couldabeenturbo]

Who: Dewey and YOUEY
Where: The Docks
When: Mid-August
What: Dewey and Friends attend the traveling festival! Open post! If you've ever threaded with him, he considers you a Friend and would have invited you in a BBS post. Feel free to start a TL at some other specific event if you want to skip the lead-up: rigged games, sideshow attractions, maybe gawking at the Manticore of Munn ...
Warnings: will be added if they become A Thing



The minute Dewey heard the rumors going around that there was a traveling festival in town, he knew he had to go. Noctis was right: it was high time he got back down into the city, despite the fact that he and Rapunzel had gotten so hopelessly lost a few weeks ago. This time, he was going prepared: a map from the library was tucked into his backpack, with plenty of room left over for cheap midway winnings and souvenirs he didn't even need, but would absolutely hoard anyway.

He left a quick note on the bulletin board, addressed to anyone he even remotely considered a friend: Guys hey let's go to the dock festival meet you outside the path to town k we're DEWING THIS - Dewey

Anyone who wanted to meet up with him could find him bouncing on the balls of his feet, too excited to stand still.

Comments

[fatedsacrifice]

He'd heard something about a festival (not hearing about the rat thieves really made him realize that he needed to pay a little more attention to the goings on) and decided to check it out.

As Noctis was enroute, he happened across Kuja, and somehow managed to get the former warrior of Spiritus to go with him. That wasn't a small thing, but on the way he explained what they were doing and where they were going. The other man was still a mystery to him most of the time but the frequency at which they seemed to 'hang out' increased. Hell they even sort of sat near each other in the classes they had together.

Soon enough the pair found themselves at the festival and the king looked around. It had been a long time (and another lifetime ago) since he'd attended one. There had been the Assassin's festival in Lestallum and the Moogle Chocobo Carnival in Altissia back home, but this was a new world.

So it was high time for a new festival in a new world with new friends.

[couldabeenturbo]

While Noctis' mind was wandering, he may not have noticed a blue and white blur barreling towards him for an enthusiastic hug of greeting.

"HI NOCTIS!"

so sorry for late!

[treno_nobleman]

Times had been quiet enough, but with the festival around, of course Kuja couldn't stop himself from wandering over to see what the fuss was all about. It was new on the grounds and he had a need to break the daily routine in his life, stir things up a bit. One of those daily routines, it seemed, had been running into Noctis, or near enough to daily that he would count it as such. On his way to the festival's location, he did just that, and agreed to walk with the man and talk with him over what they found.

What he hadn't counted on was one of the smaller duck-like people rushing them from somewhere just outside of his field of view. Having been unused to such things but sensing no real threat in the gesture, Kuja watched, bewildered but ready to jump in if needed - a surprise to himself, when he later looked back on that moment.

Always happy to tag with you!

[fatedsacrifice]

The king was looking around at the festival set up and had been talking to Kuja. It was nice to be outside and looking at new stuff. So he barely had time to register that his name was being called, turning his attention away from his silver haired companion.

The next thing he knew, he felt a blue and white coloured weight pretty much crash against his chest and down he went with his legs ending up over his head, cradling a small warm ball of feathers. Noctis was only about 5'9" and didn't weigh a whole heck of a lot. So he went down pretty damn easily.

Well, so much for being a dignified king today.

[woo_oo]

"I'm not late, am I?"

Of course Webby was along for the ride, wild horses couldn't rein her in! She was scrambling to get up to Dewey's side, bouncing as much as he was.

[couldabeenturbo]

"No way! I wouldn't leave without you."

Dewey gave her a mild noogie, beaming, then started to lead the way. "What do you think we should do first once we get there?"

[woo_oo]

"I want to do everything!" No great surprise there. "I've never been to a festival before, traveling or otherwise!"

[couldabeenturbo]

"I used to think the cheap rides were the best part, but now they're nothing compared to Launchpad's flying. Now I'm all about the food! And the music. And those sweet sweet midway games. So we definitely need to start with fried dough. Since you've never done this. That's an absolute classic!"

[healingincantation]

Going to see some rare and unusual animals had seemed like a perfect idea - Rapunzel liked animals, and Dewey seemed to like things that were different. However, it was becoming clear that conditions for the creatures at the festival were less than ideal.

Rapunzel was feeling uncomfortable, and took a step back from the cages. "...I don't like this."

[couldabeenturbo]

"They're... Not very good pens," Dewey agreed. "Back home? All the animals come from farms, where they have big open spaces, and their pens for the fair are clean and covered with all the ribbons they win. This is just..."

He looked up at her.

"We should totally set them free."

[healingincantation]

Rapunzel looked back down at Dewey. Doing something against the rules for no reason - or a bad reason - would have been dismissed immediately. Politely, but immediately. But this was different - this was a very good reason to do something wrong, and she couldn't help thinking that surely some of those she'd met back in Verens would reassure her that this was okay.

Pascal would certainly be in favor of it.

"We need a plan."

[couldabeenturbo]

"I am so good at those, too!" He beamed, beckoning her over into a quiet space between a stall that was selling 100% Vegetable Kebabs (yuck) and some kind of toy that looked like it had no purpose whatsoever than to be loud and annoying. Several students were testing them out with gusto, which meant it would be a perfect cover for their planning. He grabbed a discarded kebab stick and started to draw in the dirt.

"So here's the pen, right. And here's the guy keeping an eye on the animals. And here's the animals. And here's us."

[hyperdrivemonalisa]

"Hey, little drake, what's been shakin'? Been a bit, hasn't it?" Really, Isabel had let herself get too busy with her own studies, but that wasn't Dewey's fault. So when his invite had come over the BBS, well!

"So let me get this straight, we're going to go eat overpriced food, try to win at games we probably can't win at, and see a whole lot of weird stuff? I'm down!"

As if to punctuate Isabel's sheer enthusiasm, Chaos gave Dewey an affectionate headbutt.

[couldabeenturbo]

"Hey!" He grinned, returning Chaos' headbutt with gusto. "That is exactly the plan! You have anything specific you wanna hit up first? I know everyone has a favorite thing."

[hyperdrivemonalisa]

"You pick," Isabel said, laughing. "My parents were never big on this sort of thing, so I've actually never been."

Probably why she'd jumped at the chance, too!

"I just want to take it all in, so I'm good if we wander around a bit. Though I might want to check out the games. Not sure they'd let us too close if we've got obvious magic about us, though--they want to take our money, not have us turn the tables!"

Though Isabel was going to bank on her natural athletic prowess. Maybe she could win something cute for El, something he wouldn't be expecting.

[couldabeenturbo]

"You've never been to a carnival? Then we definitely have to do one lap around first, so you can see everything, and then pick something to start with. But there's one rule: you stop at the first food place you see that looks delicious, so we have something to eat while we look around. And then when we finish those, we get more. Because you have to be eating. Constantly. That way you get one of everything, and by the time you get home, you're so stuffed that you don't have to eat again until, like, lunch tomorrow."

He beamed, seeing absolutely nothing at all wrong with this plan, even in a land where a few weeks ago, all of the food had unexpectedly turned raw.

"As for the games, then we just keep our wands out of sight, right? That's easy. I hide mine up my sleeve all the time - and hey! Two sleeves. I can hide yours too."

Never mind that that would make bending his arms a little difficult...

[outofyourshadow]

If Lena was at all surprised to get an invite from Dewey, she didn't show it. Even though, in all honesty, she was flattered that he'd thought of her.

And okay, maybe she didn't mind showing it that much, since she couldn't help grinning a bit as she walked up.

"Hey," she said. "Ready to throw money at some games that are most likely rigged?"

[couldabeenturbo]

"You know it!" He held up a hand for a high five. Knowing everything Lena had been through, he figured she could use some friend time, time to be a normal kid... just like Webby had. After all, he was pretty sure Magica wouldn't have been big on family friendly outings.

"And we've gotta get giant pretzels or one of those bags of cotton cand that's as tall as us, too."

[outofyourshadow]

She met his hand in that high five. It was rude to leave people hanging, after all.

"Heck yeah. And then we can go on some of those spinning rides until we get sick."

She actually did not want to get sick. But playing those kinds of things was kind of fun in its own way.

[goingbythebook]

There was definitely a LOT on Huey's mind right now, and while it'd at least been addressed with the others, as was typical for him the thoughts would just keep circling, like he was stuck in a loop, or in an especially deep Worry Room track.

So what better to deal with that than a festival? If nothing else it'd hopefully help him keep his mind off it for a while, and if that failed, at least he'd be with Dewey and they could presumably talk about it.

...Jeez, when WAS the last time they had 1-on-1 brother time, anyway? This was definitely needed.

"Heya, bro! I'm here!"

[couldabeenturbo]

"He-e-ey!"

Dewey was just as stoked for one-on-one time with his bro, especially since even living in the same dorm hadn't seemed to make it possible. When Huey was in his dorm, it was Study Mode or Bust, and Dewey had been vaguely dismayed to realize, after a bit of introspection, he'd picked up the habit, too. His grades were improving, as were his magic skills, but ... his family time was suffering sorely for it, and that just wouldn't do. Maximum Goofing Off was required.

He grabbed the brim of Huey's hat and twisted it sideways with a teasing grin. "Look who finally took his beak out from behind the books! Not that I mind - I bet you earned us half our Colormarch points on your own, am I right?"

[goingbythebook]

Normally that sort of action annoyed him, but today he was going to let NOTHING get to him. So he laughed as he straightened his hat out properly- oh wait over corrected, a half inch to the left, there we go -and then returned the favor by giving him an elbow nudge.

"Well, maybe I earned a few!" A snicker through his beak, then he brightened. "So! All set for a day of fun and adventure at the festival?"

[areasontohope]

A traveling festival had sounded fun though he kept looking around as if searching for someone. But even if they didn't show, Yuki decided he couldn't pass it up. Was it something like the Cultural Festival back home? He had no idea but at least it didn't sound like it involved anything bad.

The last time the two had met, there had been healing spells involved and he followed the path to the docks to find Dewey there who seemed all excited. The differently colored banners and the oddly dressed people had caught his eye and he couldn't help but look around due to seeing some things for the very first time.

Walking up to the duck, the gray head shook. "Everything seems pretty colourful here."

[couldabeenturbo]

"Yuki! Hi!"

Dewey grinned, absolutely thrilled to see him. He hadn't been sure if he'd made the best first impression, after all, and not everyone considered people who made idiots of themselves within moments of meeting good friend material.

"Yeah, it looks pretty great. I hope it's like the Duckburg Harvest Fair, that was always a good time, even if they always had the same stuff."

[areasontohope]

Yuki was used to idiots, but he didn't consider Dewey as much of one. In fact, he'd reminded the older boy of his cousin Momiji who did things withoutht thinking, like jumping at Miss Honda in a room full of people not even thinking of the scene he would casuse by transforming into his Rabbit form.

Fortunately Yuki had bailed the Sohmas out, as he'd bailed Dewey out. "Hi there." he said in his usual quiet voice. He wasn't sure why the duck was smiling, but it wasn't a bad thing.

He continued to look around, not used to a sight like this at all, he had nothing to compare it to. "A Harvest Fair?" he asked, not knowing really what to think of any of this, but it seemed like it could be a good thing.