Welcome to Gaia! ::

Daniel groaned as he got out of the packed minivan. He was dressed in camo cargo pants and a Static-X t-shirt, complete with boots and socks. He pulled out his sunglasses as the sun glared and put them on. He looked around the vast, expansive plains around, sighing as he noted that, like always, it was flat. For some reason, that expansive flatness for miles added to just how boring the area was.

Daniel turned around, finally facing their destination, the only source of amusement within a couple hundred miles: an amusement park. This place held special value to him: he came here every summer, just like now. The sun above was blistering and the air was thick with humidity, but, alas, he had grown accustomed to the climate after a few years. So he wasn't having a problem.

Daniel stretched his legs, thankful to be out of the torturing confinement of the minivan, looking back. It was a group of his friends, all smiling and looking up at the amusement park. They, too, held special memories here. Daniel counted the heads and noticed one was missing. He leaned into the minivan to find Maria passed out in the back. He didn't know whether to smirk or grimace. It was amusing to see her still in her confined pose despite her being left alone in the van, but it was annoying that she was able to sleep at all.

Daniel whistled loudly while simultaneously nudging the minivan, making it move only slightly, in an attempt to wake her up. "Oooiiii!" Daniel cried out to her, "We're heeeere! Wake uuuuup!"

Daniel moved his head out of the van when he saw a flying object, only to discover it was a book and it was -supposedly- aimed at the window. Daniel mimicked her voice as she spoke, opening and closing his hand, imitating a mouth.

The other friends chuckled at Daniel and Maria's shenanigans, they knew each other longer than anyone else. After all, they grew up on the same block when they were kids, that is, until Daniel had to move across town. But, considering that was barely a mile, it wasn't too bad.

Daniel leaned against the minivan, waiting for Maria to come out, and when she finally did he pushed himself off, muttering an 'About time' before being hip-bumped by the brunette. In response, Daniel snatched the map out of her map and hip-bumped her back, except because of the fact he was a wee bit bigger than her, his bump was harder.

Daniel began walking towards the entrance to the whole place, acting as if he didn't do anything. He began scanning the map for various amusements. As he searched, he discovered blasphemy. He gasped dramatically, and looked back at the group, wide-eyed.

"They took it away," he simply said, making the rest of his friends c**k an eyebrow, "They tore down the Timber Wolf! That was my first roller coaster, man!" Daniel looked back at the map, scanning as if trying to find out he was mistaken.

There was a moment of silence before one of the guys just began laughing. "Dude," he chuckled, "They tore that thing down years ago. Remember? You watched them tear it down.... actually, now that I think about it, it was the only time I ever watched you cry."

"Excluding George Carlin's death," another friend chipped in, earning a glare from Daniel. "That day shall never be spoken of," Daniel said, scanning the group of friends, looking utterly serious, before walking back to the entrance. After an awkward moment, he looked back at them, acting again like nothing happened. "Are you guys coming or what?"

"Well then come on!" Daniel replied in a funny voice before turning around very oddly. He slowed his pace a bit to let the others catch up, all the while going back into the usual shenanigans and tomfoolery. Make fun of one friend, make fun of another, make fun of Maria, make fun of another, make fun of Maria, make fun of Daniel, and so on and so forth.

The latest shenanigans that was happening as they reached the gates to the park was a game of Monkey-In-The-Middle, with Daniel being on one side, another friend at the other, and another being the monkey. They paused their shenanigans at the teller, unfortunately giving the opportunity for the monkey to take back his hat.

"Uh, that'll be, uh..." Daniel said as he approached the counter, only to turn around and actually count the heads again before turning back to the teller, "Eight tickets, por favor."

Only then did Daniel notice the... bizarre nature of the teller. It was a man, but he was old and withering, and a glazed and misty eye pointed far in the wrong direction. Many of his teeth was missing, and it looked like he hadn't had an opportunity to shave in a while.

"Beware..." he hoarsely whispered in an eerie tone, causing fear to even impact Daniel, despite the ridiculousness of the man, "This place is cursed... once the sun begins to fall, flee! Flee before they take you..." The teller then glanced around, obviously to check if 'they' were listening. In the meantime, Daniel turned around to everyone, crossing his eyes and stuck out his tongue, indicating he was sure the guy was nutso. This alleviated the mood a bit, making a few guys chuckle.

"Look, can we just get the tickets?" Daniel asked as he turned back to the creepy old man, only to see an empty booth. Confused (and a little shocked), he turned back to his group of friends, pointing to the empty booth. They, too, apparently failed to notice his disappearing act. Daniel turned back to the booth, trying to look around it and see if he saw the old man sneaking away or something. Nothing. Daniel turned to Maria, confused.

"Did you see any-AH!" Daniel said/screamed as a meek little female voice spoke up from the booth. Daniel whipped around wildly, making more than a few people chuckle. The meek teenager, she looked about their age, was startled to find Daniel looking wildly at her.

"Jesus!" Daniel exclaimed, "What is it with this place that just makes people appear out of thin air?!" Daniel sensed one of his friends opening his mouth to object, so he pointed over his shoulder at him. "Silence. Now, did some mental patient or something with a blind eye pointed way off to the side escape here and harassed people or something?"

Daniel gesticulated wildly as he spoke, causing the little girl to look even more afraid. She looked as if she was wondering if Daniel was the one who escaped from a loony bin.

Daniel ignored the protests from the friends as he looked confused at the equally-confused teller. Well, that was until Maria snatched his wallet and took out the money to pay. She then came up with some lame comment about kids and sugar. Daniel rolled his eyes and snatched his ticket from her, giving her a small tap on the head.

Of course, this earned a few jokes from the immature assholes of the group who deemed that Maria and Daniel should get together. Why was it that if a guy and a girl know each other for an extended period of time, everyone assumed they should be together? Daniel would have to ask his friends that someday. After they regained the ability to coherently speak.

"Domestic abuse!" one cried out before receiving a much swifter and harder swat to the head, eliciting a small cry of pain. A few others made smartass comments, only to be smacked around by Daniel. Once they were in the main area and everyone stopped teasing each other, they began to look around.

"Where should we..." Daniel began before discovering both him and Maria had been ditched by their friends, who apparently had prearranged pairs without Daniel's or Maria's consent. Daniel groaned as he began rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"So..." Daniel started, "Since it's just the two of us left, where should we go first?" Where everyone will think we're a couple, he added mentally, groaning again. Stupid assumptions.

After Maria snatched away the map, Daniel peered over her shoulder to look at the map. His eyes were lingering on the new attraction, Fear Mountain, but figured she wouldn't appreciate if he just overrode everything she not only said but also believed in, and dragged her to the one attraction. At least with the whole group they could have voted on it so it wasn't one person's fault directly.

When the go-karts were chosen, Daniel immediately gained a mischievous gleam in his eye. If the other guys were here, they would be immediately overjoyed, knowing that that look in his eye meant he was thinking bad thoughts. But alas, he was with Maria.

It wasn't like he'd actually go through with this thought, though. It was a bit too destructive, even for him. After all, jousting in go-karts could destroy expensive equipment and get them kicked out of the park for a lifetime. He personally didn't want that.

As Daniel began idly walking towards the go-karts with Maria, he picked up bits of conversation from the surprisingly few people in the park. He heard rumors of disappearances and murders. Kids going missing for months before being found as nothing more than skeletal remains. After hearing a fourth story about someone dying, Daniel turned to Maria.

"Did you hear anything about disappearances or anything?" he asked, confused. Because he sure as hell heard nothing of the sort.

Upon hearing the bet, Daniel pshawed. "Oh come on, Maria," he said, "That just wouldn't be fair. I don't want to have you buying everything." Daniel spread his arms wide as if demonstrating everything she would buy. Oh yeah, Daniel just accepted the challenge.

Daniel got into the line and sat on the iron railing, waiting for the line to hurry up and get to them. He looked around, noting the lack of people in the amusement park. He remembered the place being packed when he was a kid, so it seemed kind of eerie now. Couple that with the fact that any amusement park or carnival of any kind being nigh-deserted was creepy, and the place just began to feel more like a place for Halloween than anything else.

"So..." Daniel said, trying to break the silence, "What's been up with you lately? I haven't heard much since graduation. I see you're still running that website." Daniel didn't really know what to say, so he just fell back on the usual boring conversations.