Carnival
| Carnival | |
|---|---|
 | |
| First appearance | Love My Way, page 11 June 27, 2007 |
| Related characters | Mike, Daisy, Paulo, Lucy, Abbey, Augustus, Mina, Cassidy, Courtney, Sue, Alec McCain, Emma |
Carnival is a traveling night carnival held on a lot beside Roseville Park.[1] Entry is paid at the gate, with visitors wearing admission wristbands,[2] and the freshman-year opening night came with a special ticket for couples only.[3] The comic visits the fairgrounds twice, two school years apart, and both times for a one-on-one date that ends badly.
Grounds
The carnival occupies a grassy lot at the edge of the park, close enough that its lights glow above the treeline after dark.[4][5] Visitors come in under a big “WELCOME” sign strung between two ticket booths with striped awnings.[6] Emma, who also works at the Roseville cinema, staffs one of the booths during the junior-year visit.[6]
The midway itself is a stretch of tents, game stalls, banners and bunting, only ever seen at night and always busy with crowds.[2] Picnic tables and covered trash cans sit among the stalls,[7] and a fireworks display goes off at a set time in the evening.[8]
Rides and games
The rides on offer differ between the two visits. The freshman-year carnival has a funhouse full of distorting mirrors, a boat-borne dark ride called the Scare-O-Meter with a pop-out dragon, and a shark-themed roller coaster.[2] There are also go-karts, a haunted house, and a Tunnel of Love, whose swan boats drift into a heart-shaped tunnel beneath a sign reading “Predictable ride this way →”.[8] The junior-year carnival has spinning teacups and a ride with cartoon-bee seats,[10] along with a brilliantly lit Ferris wheel whose open two-person cars rise clear above the treetops.[5]
The game booths pay out in plush toys. A ball-toss stand stocked with bears, bunnies and cats appears at the first visit, next to a photo booth.[2] The second visit has a bottle ring-toss run by a mustached man in a cap,[10] and a strength tester whose operator reads a newspaper right up until somebody rings the bell.[11]
History
Several familiar faces turn up in pairs on opening night in Love My Way. Sue rides the roller coaster beside Alec McCain, with Mina, Cassidy, Craig and Courtney in the cars around them.[2] Mike and Daisy arrive on the couples-only ticket, and for a while the not-a-date goes fine, taking in the funhouse, the coaster, the photo booth, and a teddy bear Mike wins her at the ball toss.[2] Daisy keeps pushing for more, though. Mike flatly refuses the Tunnel of Love,[8] and Daisy talks him into staying for the fireworks. When she clings to him under them, he shoves her away and storms off the grounds.[12]
The worst of that night actually happens next door. Mike stomps out of the carnival and into the darkened park.[4] Among the trees, he rejects Daisy outright and she forces a kiss on him.[13] Augustus then corners and assaults her, and Abbey breaks down over his own father while driving Augustus off.[14][15][16] None of it takes place on the fairgrounds, but Daisy later refers to those events as “that night at the carnival”.[17] At closing time, Daisy tugs Abbey back toward the entrance, promising “I’m sure they’ll let us through when they see those cute bunny ears of yours!” and the two of them end the night together on the roller coaster.[18]
Two school years later, in After You, Paulo takes Lucy to the carnival on a date after her return to Roseville, proudly covering both admissions with his Burger-Tron wages (“Oh, I’m a working man now!”).[6] The evening starts out genuinely sweet. Lucy casually cleans out the ring toss, and the two swap the teddy bears they win each other.[10] Paulo hammers the strength tester to a perfect hundred.[11] Over shaved ice at a picnic table, he fills her in on everything she missed, including the whole Abbey and Daisy fallout.[7]
At the top of the Ferris wheel, Lucy is honestly taken with the view of the lit fairground below,[19] but when the mood turns romantic she cuts him down hard: “If I wasn’t LEAVING I wouldn’t have done ANYTHING with you in the first place! YOU NEVER HAD A CHANCE!!” Paulo rips the head off his teddy bear and pitches the body out of the car.[20] Lucy isn’t finished with him, either. Before they reach the ground she browbeats him into promising to show his face at Daisy’s party.[21] As the wheel spins, he howls “Why do I keep letting cute girls CONTROL ME!!” into the night air.[22]
Trivia
- Veronica’s commentary identifies the admission wristbands as “those ‘Free ride’ bracelets.. the kind Daisy was mentioning in ‘Rising Temperature.’ They didn’t leave a hospital, I swear!”[2]
- While working on the rides montage in After You, Veronica rewatched the Teen Titans episode in which Beast Boy and Terra visit a carnival.[10]
- Only two school years pass between the two carnival dates in the story, but nearly ten passed in real time: Love My Way ran in mid-2007, and After You in mid-2017.
See also
References
- ↑ Chapter 96: Unspoken Rule, page 28
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Chapter 39: Love My Way, page 11
- ↑ Chapter 38: Rising Temperature, page 14
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chapter 39: Love My Way, page 14
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Chapter 97: After You, page 17
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Chapter 97: After You, page 7
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Chapter 97: After You, page 10
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Chapter 39: Love My Way, page 12
- ↑ Chapter 39: Love My Way, page 11
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Chapter 97: After You, page 8
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Chapter 97: After You, page 9
- ↑ Chapter 39: Love My Way, page 13
- ↑ Chapter 39: Love My Way, page 15
- ↑ Chapter 39: Love My Way, page 17
- ↑ Chapter 39: Love My Way, page 18
- ↑ Chapter 39: Love My Way, page 20
- ↑ Chapter 46: New Beginnings, page 1
- ↑ Chapter 39: Love My Way, page 22
- ↑ Chapter 97: After You, page 18
- ↑ Chapter 97: After You, page 23
- ↑ Chapter 97: After You, page 24
- ↑ Chapter 97: After You, page 26