The Distortion of Normalcy[Icicle//Adelaid Belial]

Would you like to roleplay with one of us?

  • Icicle is pretty chill...

  • Belial is fair and swell...

  • No thanks, fare thee well!

  • I SHALL DEVOUR YOUR SOULS!!!

  • I like being indecicive........but friends are nice...


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As the two approached a series of large mechanical constructs and semi-buildings with people lined up around each, Niko started to get nervous. "I hope she doesn't mean those..." he thought, frowning at the machines as if they would become intimidated by his stare. Niko pulled the ski-mask out of his pocket and hastily put it back on with his one free hand, then pulled his hood back over his head. His expression dimmed slightly when she dashed his hopes a few seconds later.

As he heard her recommendation for a "starter ride," he immediately supposed that she could see through his mask to read his mind, and quickly cleared his throat, as if rejecting his own thoughts. "I-I think that the one with the spinning.....porcelain would be fine..." he commented, eyeing the building with crashing vehicles and the giant spinning wheel with suspicion and distaste.

Once the two were in line, Niko looked over at Noelle and asked, "Do you go on these rides every year?" He knew that asking her about the ride itself would lead her to suspect something suspicious about him, as was the case with her reactions to previous questions about items like green tea and such. "It's better to not ask directly anywho...stupid politics..." he thought, looking at the ground as he accidentally stepped on a rather sharp rock, then looking back up at her as he kicked it away.
 
"I....Umm, Not this year. I went last year with my friends, because they stayed home last winter. But, no.....Like, I've only come to this city for the Academy, so I haven't lived here long." Noelle knew her answer sounded a bit wordy, but she couldn't word her answer the way she wanted. Niko didn't much of her life, so giving a blunt answer seemed a bit mean. They stepped closer to the ride, as the line moved. "Do you not go to fair rides much?" She ventured the personal question, getting ready to receive an answer, Good or Bad. There were so many people in the line, and many of them looked back at them, so Noelle focussed on them instead, staring them down..

These people didn't need to try and piece together their little imaginations of what they felt was happening. These were grown men and women....and their little kids for god's sake. 'Grow up, why don't you....' she thought it anyway, no matter how hypocritical the statement seemed.
 
Niko nodded in understanding at her comment about the city. "Maybe I am only here for the Academy..." he could not think those words without immense doubt, but he couldn't think of any other reason for why he was there. Once he was asked another question, he hastily commented, "I don't remember it if I did...but I feel a different sort of nervousness..." He stumbled ahead a few more feet, then, after the next group of people rushed out, they were finally allowed past the person at the gate. Niko followed Noelle, assuming that she knew what to do, and carefully stepped into one of the tea cups.

Once he was seated, he looked around, as if confused. "Now what?" he asked, staring at Noelle in confusion. Once the ride started up, he quickly grabbed the metal table in the middle and, after a few seconds, followed Noelle's lead and began to pull it to the side so that their container began to spin. His look of confusion as the ride ended was almost an attempt at a smile, without any capacity to fake the emotion. "I don't understand...why did we do that?" He then walked out of the ride and followed Noelle over to the exit.
 
Noelle smiled, the man who controlled the ride was finally close, the time to ride teacups was at hand. She stepped past followed by Niko, "Alright, time to test the metal." Before the ride started, she tested the small metal plate in the middle of the cup. Turning it to see if the wheel could allow for maximum spinning capacity. When she was satisfied, she looked to Niko. "You know what to do here, right? We just spin!" She smiled, hearing the whir of mechanical gears in the distance. It had to have been the ride starting up and so as to the norm, Noelle began to spin the wheel in the middle. The tea cup spun rapidly at first, but as the ride went on the spinning was less as the two began to get tired. When the ride skid to a loud stop, Noelle felt her legs give out under her. "Well, that's to be expected from spinning like that.....Ha, Niko, how'd you like the teacups? Pretty sweet right?"

She shook her head to try and stave off dizziness as she got out of the ride. They had spun too quickly, as Noelle tried to observe. She watched the world spin for a bit, "We could go to the......... to the, um~... Oh! There's airplanes! And umm, we can get stuffed animal prizes in carnival games! And we can ride in the ferris wheel~! It goes so high up! Or even the drop tower. It goes straight down!" She giggled for a bit, still trying in vain to recover her footing and focus. "Maybe we spun too fast?" she smiled weakly.
 
As the girl next to him spoke, having just left the ride, Niko started to suspect that something was wrong with her. He looked up and down her body, analyzing her skin to ensure that she hadn't been hit by anything, but she did not appear to be injured. By the time she mentioned airplanes, wobbling around like an indecisive bowling pin, Niko quickly moved up to her left side, pulled her left arm around his neck and over his right shoulder, pulling down on her limb just enough so that it would not flop around as they walked. He then used his other hand to pull her torso against his, to steady her. As he did this, his rather unamused voice mumbled, "You're a mess...you could have said that you felt dizzy before we left the tea cup..." and almost pulled her along to a bench which was situated along the walkway right next to the fenced-off area around the teacup rides, not daring to look over at her with his discontented scowl due to her face being so close in his peripheral vision.

Once they approached the benches, he freed her left arm from his shoulder and reluctantly let go of her side as well. With an expression of unease, he then guided her to the bench and helped her sit down. "If those other rides will make you dizzy, I'm pretty sure we should steer clear of them..." he commented, eyeing her with a mature suspicion, as if he was imagining the hidden motive behind why she wanted to go on another, "ride," or even the tea cups, in the first place.
 
Though blushing slightly, Noelle sighed, trying not to drag Niko down as she was carried over to the closest bench in sift. She tried in vain to not look over at Niko, which would certainly make her blush more. Not to mention that it probably gave the wrong message to the dozens of people that already had the wrong ideas in their heads about the two of them. "Tea cups are the best though.....And you spun fast too. You're just as guilty for this" She tried to counter Niko dejectedly, but in her dizzy state, it sounded rather childish. He simply carried her over to the park bench, placed her down gently, and stepped back. He had said something about not going to the other rides that would make her like this as well.

"But, going on rides that those are the best!" Noelle was smiling wide. She didn't really expect Niko to get it. She loved carnival rides, and se'd only been here once before......she didn't get it herself really. "No....I'm sorry, you're right. " She stood up, wobbling somewhat as she did so. "But, we're supposed to be enjoying ourselves, not worrying about me. Let's go to another ride." So she had had a bout of motion sickness, she'd been walking everywhere recently. She looked around, most probably ignoring the looks being offered to her by Niko. "It's Nostalgic, y'know? Like being a kid again."

With quite a level of difficulty, she began to walk around to get a better look at the rides, "It's not like I'm injured, not like he was some days ago." She sighed, through gritted teeth, "If it makes you feel better, I'm fine. I just.....I'll get some water from a water fountain and we can get on with the rides, alright Niko?" She gave him a questioning glance that seemed to border on the challenging side.
 
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Niko did not understand what Noelle meant by, "the best," especially considering her inability to stand without wobbling. His look of utter confusion slowly vanished as he suppressed the emotion and listened to her, each word and phrase confusing him a bit more. Once she stood up, Niko quickly helped her to become steady once more. Then, as she started to walk, he grabbed her hand and commented, "I'm confused.....did you used to get dizzy a lot as a child? And....you still look a bit dizzy." He walked beside her as she responded, but he was not satisfied with the response she gave, and quickly voiced his concern. "Water isn't the problem......." he started, but sighed as he saw her expression.

After a few seconds of thought, he shook his head and, with a conflicted and slightly bemused expression, he commented, "Alright, fine, we'll go on another ride, but only if it doesn't make you dizzy." His expression shifted between his bemusement and nervousness as he looked at the different rides, each one of the terrifying designs giving him goosebumps. "This place is just begging to kill us..."
 
Noelle couldn't suppress the squeal of getting a good chance at another ride. "I promise I can pick something more.........stable." She looked around, something that wouldn't give her complete motion sickness had to be around here somewhere. She found the answer nearly immediately, stepping away from Niko's hold a bit, "How about a carousel?It doesn't spin even half as fast as the teacups. And it's a wider arch for spin, making motion sickness less." She looked eagerly at the colorful painted horses, but the machine next to it was also promising. "Or the ferris wheel. It practically spins at a snail's pace, and it has constant stops. Those are my choices, Niko."

She wanted to say that she had an exact choice for a ride, but if he didn't like it, she didn't exactly want to force him into some stupid ride. It wouldn't be fun. And they'd already gone on one bad ride today. She stalled for a second, immediately whipping around to face Niko. Though it was a a belated response, Noelle still answered, "And water is the world's greatest medicine! It cures everything!" She sighed, 'That's probably the stupidest thing to say. The conversations don't match up at all.......Niko's probably so confused.'

She shook her head, sighing, "Let's just do the carousel, it's quicker." She pulled him in the direction of the carousel.

The two were heading back towards the the gates of the park, Noelle's fun was tuckered out of her today. The carousel had helped her with some of the dizziness, but her eyesight was still somewhat fuzzy around the edges. She could see the opening gate in the distance. "I'm sorry about back there Niko. If we do this again, I'll try to stop acting like a little kid."
 
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Niko didn't expect Noelle's random noise after his response, so he quickly turned to see if she was alright, briefly panicking before she began to talk, settling his doubts. Niko listened to her propositions, but, after looking at both options, he did not like either. The vertical wheel appeared much more dangerous, but the horizontal station seemed much more busy, and the line was longer. The girl's random comment caused him to look at her with a confused expression for a few seconds, but he soon remembered what she was talking about and nodded to humor her.

After a second of thinking more about her proposition, he calmly responded, "you can choose the ride..." then, after she chose the horizontal wheel, he nodded and, after wincing from her effort to tug on his arm, he followed Noelle to the long line in front of the ride. As they waited in line, Niko's attention started to diffuse from the girl he was with and off to the people around him. From the few minutes they waited in line, Niko grew to appreciate the warmth of her hand, as he noticed that his left hand was much warmer than his right one due to the cold weather, despite the insulation from his glove.

But, more importantly, he grew to appreciate her company, as the other people were reacting oddly whenever they saw him look their way. They either blushing and quickly turning to talk with the people they were with, staring for a few seconds in disapproval, or even giggling and pointing at him and Noelle before nudging for a friend to look. The entire spectacle was annoying, as Niko did not like the sporadic bursts of attention on him and the girl. All the same, the contrast between them and Noelle was quite prominent as she impatiently waited in line and talked about her experiences with rides, none of which Niko paid any explicit attention to.

The entire scene was very uncomfortable for Niko, but, with his ski mask over his face, he felt as if he had nothing to fear. After they finally got their chance, Niko swam through the torrent of little kids who rushed from behind them and let go of Noelle as she went to find a creature statue to mount. Niko found a gallant-looking horse and cautiously made his way onto the creature, then looked over and smiled at Noelle, his eyes revealing the expression, despite his mask.

After the ride was over, Niko felt precisely the same as he did aftr the tea cups - at a loss for understanding..."So what? A few statues move up and down while you spin around on a platform." Niko was starting to doubt his own feelings as he led Noelle out of the ride area again, looking over at her as he ran through his thoughts. She appeared more stable, so he assumed that the ride was enjoyable, but he could not figure out what it was that differentiated the two rides, so his eyes stared intently at hers, trying to piece it together. All which he managed to figure out was that she appeared tired.

As Noelle spoke, Niko continued staring intently at her, as if he was unable to believe what she was saying. "What do you mean?" Now, the boy was confused for a different reason - the girl was starting to change, much more significantly than she changed earlier that day. He started to reach into his pocket to pull out one of the sweet meats which he got from the meat vendor, but as he did so, he heard the sound of footsteps rushing closer to them. Niko quickly turned around to see what was going on, releasing Noelle's hand, but all he managed to see was a hand reaching for his face.

The boy squealed in freight and quickly held his hands out to stop the person, but too late. His assailant let out a delighted squeal and pounced on him, ripping off his ski-mask and slamming into him, wrapping her right arm around his neck as her pink trench coat trailed behind her. Niko lost his balance immediately and plummetted to the ground, landing with a painful thud and a grunt. The girl then started to giggle excitedly and pin him to the ground with her petite and youthful body as Niko cried, "What the- Get off of me! What are you doing?!"

She shifted her weight to his left shoulder to stop him from moving his left arm, then quickly shoved her arm into his coat pocket and pulled out one of the bags of meat. The girl then bounced onto her feet and, with a quick twirl, backed away from the two, holding Niko's mask in one hand and the bag of sweet lamb meat in the other. "I just wanted to see your delicious face once again, Nikoko!" She exclaimed, giggling immediately after as a blush slowly edged across her face, "That girl was making me jealous! I thought she stole it from-"

As the girl spoke, Niko shot towards the girl with a loud crackling sound from his legs. He slammed his foot into the ground to change his movement after the girl attempted a quick strafe to the right, and reached her within moments. The girl squealed in delight as Niko swiped the two items out of her hands, then quickly retreated a few more feet as Niko exclaimed, "No! What do you want, Julia!..."

But, as suddenly as the girl came, she started running away. As she ran off she called out behind her, "Oopsies! I overstayed my welcome! Bye bye Nikopie!!" in a remarkably feminine and cutsie voice, then she vanished behind a tent-building. Niko took a few steps, as if to chase her, but quickly stopped and took a few deep breaths. He hastily put his ski-mask and hood back on, then walked back over to Noelle, grabbed her hand, and commented, "That girl appeared the day after that event two weeks ago...she seems interested in me for some reason..." Niko frowned, then looked over at her and continued, "stay away from her.....she's suspicious..."

He then started to walk again, slightly faster than before, but breathing harder as he did so. He shivered every now and then as they walked back over to the academy, but Niko made sure to convince Noelle that he was fine if/when she asked about him. Once they were back on the campus, Niko escorted Noelle back to the girl's dorm building, then stopped in front of the building and reluctantly asked, "do you need help getting back to your room?.....If you trip and fall, it's your own fault..."
 
Noelle was confused, and to tell the truth, scared. When that little girl just came out of nowhere and tackled Niko to the ground....She thought he was done for. She knew he was still limping, and he probably wasn't the best person to be hurting more at the moment. She wanted to ask, but the girl left as quickly as he had come. And so did they. Niko pulled her quickly back to the school, simply telling her that the girl, whose name was...... Julia, that she had suddenly appeared after the "Niko Lost" event. She tried to say something, but they were walking a bit too fast and she was trying her hardest to not trip and fall on her face.

They had made it back to the school without further intrusion, and Noelle was still worried about it. That Julia girl, she had to have known something. To carelessly attack someone like that in public. She could barely contain her confusion, "But, Niko....." he probably hadn't cared to hear her object to anything even remotely involving this Julia. She was walked to her dorm building as well, She wanted to day something anything. Why was it at these key moments, she couldn't begin to gain the courage to ask. She finally released his hand, listening to his question haphazardly. "No, I don't need help getting into my building......And yes, I will stay away from Julia." She tried in vain to get more answers. "Niko, will you tell me why this happened at least, I mean it doesn't have to be right now, but tomorrow....?"

Somewhat frustrated with herself she said a goodbye to Niko and walked into her dorm building. "I've got to stop behaving like this......" she muttered, finding her way back to her dorm. She sat in the room, pulling off her heavy winter coat, and boots. Laying all her winter clothes on her chair she sat down on her bed, laying back. "There's still tomorrow..." she subconsciously, continued to open and close her hand, and continued to do this until she finally passed out. The day had been surprising enough. And of course, there was still tomorrow.
 
Immediately after Noelle answered his question, Niko nodded and started walking away from the building. He turned back around after she asked him a question, giving her his attention, but he responded with a curt, "I can't tell you what I don't know," then immediately continued to walk towards his dorm, eager to return to the warmth of his room after his long, cool journey. The evening sky was a blank slate of blackness, with only a few, moving lights shifting about in the sky. Niko's appearance, in contrast, had two bright and unmoving stars shining from his face, soaking in the quiet atmosphere of the school.

It was true - most of the students had left. Niko could only see a small number of students nearby as he arrived at his dorm and walked through the lobby, the likes of which was normally stuffed full of other students. He saw one student making his way up the stairwell as he walked over to the elevator, but he was happy to find that the rest of the building through which he walked was void of people. After entering his room and locking the door, Niko cleaned himself, applied new, thinner dressings, stored the meats he collected on his desk, and went to sleep.

-The Next Day-
Cristmas Eve

Niko woke up to the sound of a rather loud and festive alarm from the room next door. He growled in frustration after looking at his watch. 0630. He quickly walked back over to his desk and put on a new black hoodie, then opened one of the packs of meat and finished off the remaining meat within, hoping to supress his tiredness in the meat's succulence.

Niko continued to eat all of the remaining meat, then threw away the bags and walked over to the door, happy to hear that the alarm had stopped, but nonetheless annoyed. He exited his room and quickly walked over to the cafeteria, his limp totally gone. After going through the line for breakfast and walking into the eating room, he sat where Noelle was the day before and started eating, noting that the room was almost entirely empty.
 
Noelle woke up and had to blink away the severity of sleep in her eyes."I'm really going to be needing glasses soon..." she grumbled, heading to her closet to get some things ready. She ended up slipping into another striped sweater dress and some black leggings. She headed out to breakfast still have asleep, saying hello to the students that were still spending their winter breaks here. "Ah, breakfast. She has come for me. "she declared boldly, taking a first step into the cafeteria. She looked around the almost empty space, spotting some students here and there. Getting in line she ordered some pancakes and a bowl of cereal.

Noelle got out of the lunch-line and found a very familiar head at the farthest table from the lunch line. It was probably the lack of friends that had made Noelle's friend-seeking abilities, crippled with her constant curiosity that allowed her to pick out Niko almost anywhere. Noelle recalled the unfortunate events of yesterday as clear as day. Staying close to Niko for a while wouldn't be such a bad thing. Even if he didn't know anything about what was going on. They were on the same page then. Both of them knew nothing, so maybe they could find out why all of this was happening together.

"Hey Niko! How are you doing this fine morning?" She smiled, sneaking a seat right beside him as she sat down and began to indulge into her plate. she looked over to her friend, who himself was engrossed in his own meal.
 
Niko heard a familiar voice beside him as a familiar girl sat down beside him, then curtly responded, "I'm tired," as he briefly paused from his food. His tray was not nearly as full as it usually was, but Niko was eating it just as quickly as always. After finishing enough of his food to reach the bottom of one of the bowls, he wiped off his mouth and looked over at Noelle. After a second, he asked, "...I finished up the meat from yesterday this morning....it still tasted pretty nice...but a guy had his alarm set for 6:30 in the room next to me, and it played a really repetitive and loud song about sleighs..." He played with a few vegetables in one of his bowls as he spoke, then continued to eat after mentioning sleighs, unsure about whether or not he had anything else to say.
 
Noelle took a minute to think about that. Why a song about sleighs? It had to be at least- Noelle gasped, loudly standing up, "Oh holy Kris Kringle!! It's Christmas Eve!" She looked to Niko ,"It's Christmas Eve, Niko. How did I forget? I have to send out all my presents and, decorate my room, and bake cookies, and, and.........Oh my god!" She had practically forgotten all about the food on her tray. It was Christmas Eve, she had forgotten one of the best holidays on the face of the earth. And how was that even possible? The entire town of Bryerwood was decked to the nines in Christmas gear. And why was Niko still sitting like he didn't see the point of all of this? "Niko?" Noelle looked down at him for a split few seconds, then returned to her chair.

"Niko, c'mon. It's officially the holidays. Aren't you excited, or happy.....or aware of the holiday?" She looked to her friend for some sort of signal. Maybe he had been hit in the brain while he was missing and had forgotten the joys of the holidays. Because, Noelle was still trying to figure out what happened to Niko of course! But it would definitely have to wait until after Christmas. Who knows? Maybe there's something in this holiday season that could help her figure out a few things.
 
Niko quickly leaned away from Noelle with terror on his face. He had no idea what the girl was going to do, let alone why she was standing up. "Christmas...?" he mumbled, looking at his food as she excitedly started talking. By the time she called his name, he was eating once again. He looked over at her for a moment, then continued eating as she spoke. "Why doesn't the last bit of cereal float onto the spoon?" he thought, frowning at the food.

He looked over at Noelle after finishing the bowl of cereal, then calmly commented, "holidays? Is that why you wanted to go to the fair with me?" He looked back down at his cereal bowl, then dejectedly commented, "I have no reason to be happy about a day I know nothing about..." he then continued his meal by eating the food in the last bowl on his plate, his eyes staring closely at the meal, as if he was re-thinking what he had said.
 
Noelle stared at Niko, a bit disheartened that he wasn't pumped for the most spectacular holiday of the year, but tried to shake it off. "No of course that's not why we went to the Showcase. I had no idea that it was even anywhere remotely near Christmas......I might have forgotten, but I'm all good now." Noelle looked around a bit, allowing Niko to go back to his blissful eating, until he said he had no reason to be happy about Christmas. "Christmas' whole point is to be happy, Niko!" Noelle said, slightly offended.

"Christmas is the time you hang out with with your friends and family. You get to eat it a lot of awesome food. You can exchange presents with people you care for. You get to do fun things for the sake of celebrating...... It's just fun for the sake of bing fun." She got up, turning and offering a hand to Niko. "You won't get it unless I show it to you. Come on, let's go. I want to show you something."
 
Niko looked at Noelle in surprise when she defined what "Christmas" was. He looked over at his food briefly as she got up, but accepted her hand as she offered it to him. "I'd like to see what you want to show me, but shouldn't we put our stuff on the carousel first?" he asked, a sly grin covering his face. Niko released her hand after a few seconds, then picked up his remaining dishes and plates and carried them over to the carousel. After placing them onto it, he grabbed Noelle's hand once again and followed her as she lead him to....something. Niko did not bother asking, as he knew that, "either way, I won't know until I see it."
 
Noelle nodded, excited as she was able to pull Niko out of the cafeteria. She walked him through the main gate of the school. Not saying anything to her most confused friend, she began to walk back into town. Noelle sighed, she was going to the number one store in existence that would have all of the necessary Christmas stuff she was looking for. "Here we are.......the greatest seasonal store on earth. "

It was more decked out than the entire town had been. With all these various LED lights, tinsels, stockings, fake snow powder stuff and all manners of toys. It was a store that looked like Christmas had managed to throw up all over it. Children were being ushered around by their parents, running around staring at all of the possible toys they could have on their wish list. Couples were buying dozens of direction. But overall, everyone looked so happy. "This is Christmas, you don't have to care about it, but most people just do. I honestly don't know why."

She shrugged, walking over to an aisle where some toys were. "What? Was your family not big on Christmas back in New York?"
 
Niko obediently followed Noelle as she tugged on his arm, dragging him along like a lazy puppy. He could not help but feel nervous as she pulled him along, half expecting her to bring him to another array of damaging rides to hurt herself on. He was greatly surprised to find himself being led into a store full of the decorations he had seen all around the city. "A...seasonal store? As in, it changes each season?" Niko asked, still following Noelle around as she led him to an aisle of toys, his eyes shifting around like mad. "I don't think I can stay here long....too much noise..."

He grabbed Noelle's hand with his other hand after she asked him a question, hoping to stop her, and looked at her face, specifically staring into her eyes with a frown, "I-...I don't do well in loud indoor places..." he commented, ignoring her question momentarily, then he asked, "C-can we talk outside?" The bombardment of christmas songs, the overhead speaker announcing things, little kids shouting, and the various 16-bit toy music playing around them in the toy aisle was just too much for Niko. His ears were starting to pulse, but he didn't want to reach for his headset...he kept both of his hands on Noelle's to keep that from happening.
 
"Umm, it doesn't really change seasons, Niko. But the store itself will change the theme of their decorations depending on the season." She chuckled looking around at all the fun toys and scented candles and other things. When she felt Niko grab for her hands she looked over at him. "Oh...outside?....Yeah, sure we can go outside." She began to lead him through the slightly large crowd of children and parents, towards the cold sidewalk. When they had finally gotten outside, Noelle turned to her friend.

"So what's up Niko?"
 
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