change your mind / human disneyland au

[selby roux !]

[align=center][div style="width: 51%; text-align: justify; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: -1px; font-family: georgia;"]Selby let out a long suffering sigh as he turned into the final exit to their destination. A long car ride was always a bit stressful, but when one takes into account the occupants of his van... well, it became about ten times worse. He loved them all dearly, but he would never recommend being trapped in a small space with them all. It was a lot to say the least.

Though everyone in the car seemed absolutely pumped for the trip, Selby could not seem to muster the same enthusiasm. School had been a lot lately, and though he had cleared his absence with his professors first, the homework load had been heavy lately, not to mention that his midterms were lined up for him upon his return. He’d have to sacrifice a lot of sleep to prepare for them, especially considering his poor scores on his last few practice tests. The nursing student was not excited for a sleepless Disneyland experience, but they had all been planning this trip for a while. He couldn’t bring himself to ask the group if they could postpone, so here he was.

Adding to his immense amount of stress cane parking, which was a nightmare to say the least. The lot was absolutely full to the brim, and it felt like he was spending an hour just driving around aimlessly. However, soon enough, he came across an empty spot, and though it would be an understatement calling it a tight squeeze, it was a spot. Selby had nearly cried tears of relief upon spotting it, and if he had sniffled a little, that was his business.

"Alright gang," he announced as he put his ancient SUV into park. He drummed his fingers on the prindle absently for a moment before continuing. "We have to be strategic about this. It’s Disneyland. Everything is gonna be crowded. We need to make the most of this. I tried my best to make an itinerary but... we’ll see how it goes." Selby turned around to face his passengers, fixing them all with a serious gaze before he cracked into a small grin. "Let’s go have fun, guys. Oh, and be careful getting out. I can’t afford to pay for damages." He opened his door as far as it could go (about three inches) and shimmied his way out carefully. He paused by the back of the car, waiting patiently for the group.

[wormwood.]

It wasn't particularly often that Aethelred – affectionately nicknamed "Worm" by all of his friends – actually got to take a break and relax during the school year. He would never dare to even come near Disneyland during the summer, considering it would be boiling hot and full of kids on their summer vacations, but it wasn't exactly easy for an English professor to just leave so soon before test time. It had taken a lot of pleading and quite a bit of thoughtful searching for a substitute that could match his high class standards – standards that the professor insisted entailed him usually going spectacularly off the rails into a completely unrelated topic, ignoring the actual lesson plan and then giving fifty pages of completely random homework – but eventually he had, and that meant that he got to go on his trip with everyone. If he was being entirely honest, he probably would've preferred a smaller trip, with him, Roy, Rhea, V, and maybe even Red, if he wanted, but this was good too. More people just meant more fun, right?

Well, that certainly wasn't true of a long car trip. Stuck between two of the other Tangle group members, he had been trying his best to ignore the growing headache from people speaking loudly over each other, and the motion sickness that usually came to him when being in a car for a long period of time. He had spent most of the time desperately just trying to sleep, because if he wasn't awake, he couldn't get motion sickness. He had stayed up a couple of times to explain things to Roy or tell him about what could be expected at Dismeyland. He had chatted with Red a couple of times, but since the professor wasn't willing to raise his voice beyond a moderate volume, these conversations never lasted particularly long. For the most part he was sure that Selby was suffering far more than he was, having to both focus on the road amid all of the chaos and stay awake over the long drive, no doubt with a great deal of stress hanging over his head. He'd be sure to thank Selby for that later, when his legs weren't so shaky and his head wasn't vaguely spinning as he stared up at the ceiling of the van for a long moment. His eyes traced over a couple of faint scratched along the ceiling of the vehicle before taking a deep breath once one of his seat neighbors was out of the car. He moved out after them, carefully shimmying into the outside world and leaning back against the van so that he didn't fall over.

He had vaguely heard what Selby had said while they were still inside the metal clown car, but it was only now that he finally responded, closing his eyes briefly so that his head wasn't spinning, "Sounds good to me, Selb... although honestly I don't think that itinerary will actually be followed that strictly." He said the second part in a slightly softer voice, not wanting Selby to immediately freak out in a panic. He just wasn't entirely sure that any of the people in that car would actually care about any sort of plans that Selby had in mind. After many years of dealing with young people, he knew that they could do very well at not listening, and while not everybody in that vehicle was a young person, he still didn't have much faith that they would actually listen particularly closely. If he was being honest with himself, however, he wasn't sure he would focus too much on any sort of plan either. After all, this was his vacation, and he kinda just wanted to go where his feet took him... provided they could actually keep him upright.

When another of the doors of the van opened, Worm glanced over and smiled softly as he saw Roy hop out, always happy to see his adopted son. Honestly Roy was a large part of the reason Worm had decided to come, and he really hoped that the boy had a good time on this trip, and it wouldn't be too stressful. The professor knew that if he had gone to Disneyland when he was a child, he would've been far too stressed out from the crowds to enjoy himself at all, but it didn't seem like Roy was much like him when he was a kid, and that was something he was very happy for. He didn't want Roy to show the same sheltered abused tendencies that he had shown as a child, and him being happy reflected that Worm was actually doing a halfway decent job at his parenting job so far. Warmly smiling, the male held his hand out to Roy if he wanted to take it, his legs still slightly wobbly.

[glow=black,2,300]YOUR CHANNEL IS UNREACHABLE[/glow]

[arcy]

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[glow=#000,1,400]all you've ever been is a noose to hang on to — ｡+ﾟ.[/glow]

[div style="width: 480px; height: auto; text-align: justify; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 13px;"]Crowley* was fucking pumped. He's changed out his sunglasses out for even stupider looking ones, and put on a ridiculous brimmed hat. His somewhat ridiculous fashion, of course, intentional -- anyone who knew Crowley knew how obsessed he was with looking good.
*technically, his name was anthony. Nobody called him that, though.
Leaned up against a window he had artfully stolen, the florist had been quiet throughout the ride, aside from the occasional snarky remark. See, he didn't ... know ... anyone here all too well. Honestly, it was beyond Crowley as to why he'd been invited, especially since everyone was packed like a can of sardines without him.
"No, but I can!" Crowley tells Selby gleefully as he hops out of the car.** Crowley raises his arm above his head as he stretches, leisurely moving out of the way to allow the others out of their sardine prison cell. He had no intentions of causing too big of a ruckus, but a Crowley left on his own was a mischievous Crowley. And, considering that he didn't actually know anyone here well, he had no intentions of sticking around for too long. For a little while, at least.
*Crowley had long since inherited his family's wealth. Nobody was quite sure why he was doing that florist thing.
**Crowley had Regrets about not bringing his own vehicle.

[fulzanin]

WE'LL MAKE A WAY WHERE YOU CAN FIND YOUR PLACE
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“We’re here! We’re here!” Came the near shriek from Feza. Her name, in truth, was Alison. Did she use it? No. Never. She liked the term Feza ever since she’d come across it in middle school. It was a word she’d declared her own, her own name. She declared it to be just as peppy as she was. She had been fidgeting over the past while of the car ride, ready and prepared to barge out of the vehicle the moment that the doors were opened. Yes, she almost collapsed on her face when she almost tripped over the tassels of her boots. “Itineraries are for cowards. We’ve gotta ride everything at least a few times over!” Feza clapped her hands together, and an exaggerated nod of her head followed.

//sucky mobile track post

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THE EMPTY CHAIRS WILL BE RESERVED FOR OUR PITY

[RED]

[align=center][div style="text-align:justify;width:55%;font-family:verdana;"]The fact that they’d all made it in one piece was a miracle in itself. The traffic was a suicide mission, sure - but Selby’s stifled rage, bordering on a vicious mania, was far more lethal. That hadn’t stopped Beck and Red from chanting McDonalds! McDonalds! McDonalds! from the trunk, though, and by the time they’d pulled out of the drive-through, Selby could do little more than watch the road with a thousand-yard stare. He gripped the wheel with white knuckles, and nearly rear ended somebody as he pulled up to the light. He might’ve cried in the bathroom a little bit, Red thinks.

(Didn’t matter, because he had two orders of large fries and a couple of those nasty little apple pies to split with Beck for the last hour of the ride. It wasn’t a fair split. Red was kind of a big guy.)

Around the half-hour-to-ground-zero point, someone had passed the aux cord back in his direction, and before Worm could snatch it up for another round of Chopin to knock everybody out, Red had snagged the wire. Twenty minutes of Kesha’s Tik Tok ensued - that is, until Selby pulled over and demanded their two trunk passengers got out of the car. They spent a good chunk of time arguing in a gas station parking lot (that’s precious time, Selby had almost screeched, and you wasted it on deciding between hashbrowns or fries,) before Crow finally held an intervention. From that point on, nobody was talking. The radio was set to some scratchy weather channel until further notice. Red didn’t even dare to petulantly chuck a french fry at Selby’s head, though the urge remained ever-present.

Now they were in a parking garage, Worm and V looking rather blanched as Red clamored out of the car and gestured for Beck to come with. It immediately hits him that California is much, much hotter than their air conditioned minivan, and somehow louder than their exchanges inside the car. He ran hot, sure, but this place reeked of sweat and sunscreen in a way he'd never seen (or smelled) before. No wonder everybody looked so exhausted, a line of zombies with strollers shuffling towards the entrance. He’d loaded up on caffeine that morning, though, and popped a few pain relievers for good measure - he could barely feel the effects of the hotel bar he’d taken a visit to the previous night. It’d take a damn freight train to stop him now. Or heatstroke, maybe.

“You’re looking a little pale, buddy, you alright?” Red aims to clap Worm on the shoulder, maybe a little harder than necessary, just to make sure he’s all the way there. They couldn’t have anyone dying, now, could they? He didn't think Selby had worked that possibility into their schedule. He leans against the back of the van with the lot of them, resting a heel on the bumper as he waited for the rest of the group - it wasn’t hard to keep count, with the matching TANGLEWOOD SUMMER VACATION 2019 tee shirts Selby had insisted they all wear, “just in case they got separated”. Red had added a cheesy, plastic sun visor to the outfit, if only to complete the Look. Beck might've stolen the fanny pack somewhere between rest stops to pick up dead lizards off the road. Rapping his knuckles against the back window, Red calls over to the others, “Come on, guys, we don’t have all day! Selby only delegated five minutes to getting out of the parking garage!”

If Selby wanted to make this trip a living hell, Red would make him sorry for it.

[suvi.]

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SUVI KIIRA NÍ FAOLÁIN

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The walls of Selby's SUV seemed in a constant state of closing in.  Voices overlapping constantly, save for the moments a breaking point finally reached, and the bodies all together, too close.  She found some safety, nestled beside a window she barely managed to claim, and Torren, of all people.  Someone fairly new in her life, yet friendly and, in this environment, somewhat calming.

While the break from school felt welcoming, Kiira decided almost five-minutes down the road she hated this.  Why?  Why did she agree to this?  More than once, on accident, she found her and grabbing hold of Torren's, when her breathing felt dangerously uncontrolled.  She thought of an uncle (more like fourth or fifth cousin) who grew up with asthma; she wondered, warily, if she'd managed to discover what an asthma attack felt like and made a mental note to visit him, for it'd been some time.

She possessed enough sense, at least, to bring her kindle.  The small paper-white contained hundreds of books she'd downloaded prior, many of which she'd already read, to seek some solace in throughout the drive.  Torren, a fellow bookworm, offered her some breaks from reading in the form of someone to discuss with.  The SUV finally slowed to a stop half-way through her re-read of The Hobbit, one of her father's favorites.

The college freshman felt her chest shudder with a relieved breath, suddenly eager just for air, rather than exploring the renowned Disney park. 

The professor she found the most trouble with, ironically, was her father.  He taught theology at the university she attended and practically choked when she'd put up the notion she'd be going on a trip to California, during the school-year, to have fun with friends.  She didn't blame him now, as she pulled Torren out of the SUV, practically slumping against the old vehicle the second her feet touched the concrete.

Itineraries, t-shirts... The young woman (not even out of her teens quite yet), hardly cared.  She kept quite during much of the planning, even, too antsy to bring up much of her own interests or questions.  She should've put up the idea of traveling in multiple cars though.  She regretted that immensely.

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© MADI

[wormwood.]

As the rest of the group began to flow put freely from the vehicle they had all been crammed uncomfortably into for many hours, Worm watched everybody else before Red emerged, and suddenly a large hand clapped him on the shoulder. Thoroughly jostled, the male looked up at Red and tried his best not to still look vaguely queasy, mumbling in a sickly voice that he knew would fade with time, "Yeah... yeah, I'm alright. Just a little bit of motion sickness." He was touched by Red caring enough to ask, but he also remembered quite plainly still being stuck in the large vehicle, pinned as he listened to the cacophony of noise around him, too scared to disturb V to actually end up moving at all, so he couldn't quite show his appreciation at the moment. He pressed one palm against his temple to steady himself before reaching down in his pocket for his wallet, pulling it free and pulling out a small container he kept for headache medicine. Quickly swallowing a couple of the pills to help combat the pain, he offered Red a steady smile, snorting in faint amusement at the other man's comment on Selby's itinerary before looking over the rest of the group.

He noticed Crowley at first, noting the male with a bit of a nod and a shake of his head at the stuff about damages. Squeezing out of the car had been a hassle for his taller frame, and he was silently very glad for the fact that Red had been seated in the trunk, since he probably would've absolutely destroyed Selby's door trying to get out. Back to the subject at hand, he didn't know Crowley absurdly well, but he knew an enormous variety of people had been invited on the trip anyways, so he just smiled a little at the stretching male. His eyes then went over to V, who was silently slipping out of the car with her possessions in hand, looking as worn out as he felt from the trip they had just endured. He waved a bit at her, as if he was jokingly reminding her that she had used him as a bed for most of the trip, even though he hadn't truly minded. He was always happy to help V, and he had been glad she had thought to plan ahead and bring her book so that she had something to occupy her mind when she wasn't asleep.

The man winced a bit when he heard Feza's excited shrieking over the fact that they were there, and he was suddenly struck by the juxtaposition of Feza and Kiira standing in such close proximity and showing such differences. While Feza was practically vibrating with the level of excitement she was full of, Kiira looked anxious and almost sickly. He couldn't blame her if she had gotten motion sick, or some sort of headache from the ride, but honestly it sort of seemed like she just already wanted to get into the action of the parks, just so that she wouldn't have to be back inside the car, or didn't have something occupying her mind. He offered the younger girl a smile of sympathy before chuckling weakly at Feza. In the short time he'd known her she had always been excitable and loud, as if she was constantly full with as much sugar as she could possibly fit inside of her body. He could understand being excited, but he was pretty sure he could never reach Feza's level of excitement these days, or if he had ever even actually been that enthusiastic about anything.

Turning his attention back to Red, a faint smirk came to the professor's face, and he put his hands against the much larger male's back, pushing him towards the entrance and saying with a hum as he jerked his head towards Selby, "Well then big guy, if you're so concerned about Selby's little itinerary, you lead the way! After all, you're strong enough that you can shove all the other families out of the way for us, right?" He was teasing of course, and he hoped to God that Red got that fact. Usually he could trust Red to use his common sense, but with Beck here being his usual bad influence self, Worm wasn't entirely convinced that Red wouldn't just start actually picking people up and slinging them across the park, leaving he and V to watch in horror while Selby just cried.

[glow=black,2,300]YOUR CHANNEL IS UNREACHABLE[/glow]

[spacexual]

i heard you were looking like the moon — tags

Going on such a long trip, Roy had found himself mostly staring out the windows the whole time, watching the world as they passed it. When others got rowdy, he would gladly take part in some board games on the road - like a new one he'd just learn - punch buggy. Although, that one was not exactly fun when certain individuals got a little...uh, too competitive. But, there was other games too, like I spy, 20 questions, would you rather, and whatever else they came up with. His feet tapped the ground of the car quietly as they waited, anticipating what they'd end up doing and what they'd see. This entire event would be very new for the boy, having never been to anything even like an amusement park before.

When they finally arrived, though, he would be quick to jump out of the car and skip towards Wormwood. He stretches out, being a bit cramped up after the long car ride. The preteen fixes his pale blue collared shirt and straightens out his white shorts. Obviously they were not inside just yet, but being so close caused a healthy dose of butterflies to enter his stomach. He could already tell from the traffic, the cars, and the noise, that there was going to be a lot of people here. More people than he's ever been around at once. He adjusts his round glasses, blinking a few times.

This whole place was a little daunting to the boy, but more excitement overcame him than fear. He remains close to his father's side, looking around with wide eyes. They may not be inside the actual park yet, but there was already a certain aura he could feel, just looking in the distance towards the various sights of Disneyland. Having little knowledge over the whole cultural phenomenon as Disney was maybe not very helpful in this situation, but he cannot help but feel a childlike wonder arise in him through it all. The skinny boy remains silent, simply taking in the sights. If he were to not see the insides of any buildings or shows or even get to enjoy any rides, he likely would not mind. The experience alone - just being here - was something to behold for him. (And they were only in the parking garage! Imagine how he'll feel inside the actual park.)

He only vaguely listens to the talk of schedules and timed events, turning his head slowly towards the others as they seem ready to start moving. "Are we gonna see that talking mouse guy?" the boy asks softly with a smile. Ah, he can't remember his name. Maybe he should have watched more movies before going on this trip.

[fulzanin]

WE'LL MAKE A WAY WHERE YOU CAN FIND YOUR PLACE
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"Of course we're gonna see the talking mouse guy," Feza said as she sat up from her face-plant onto the pavement. A long trip had ruined her sense of balance, or so she would say. After being cramped up for so long, she couldn't help but be even more confused as to why no one else was absolutely bouncing off the walls. She placed her hands on her knees and stood back up, bouncing upright fully when her weight was moved back to her boots. Out of them all, Feza was downright a menace in the game of punchbug- especially when her concept of what a punchbug was happened to be 'any car that is smaller that a van'. She squealed as she tapped: thankfully not one to actually punch in the game of punchbug. "If we're doing everything then we better see talking mouse guy. If we don't, then, then, uh, er, yes!" She sputtered and chopped off whatever else she had been about to say. She twirled a loose strand of hair, her fingernails that were covered in glitter glue and self-made acrylics clicking together as she did so.

She wondered if they had an arts and crafts center for her to use. She would love to make her own souvenirs while they were here. Did that fit in the itinerary? Likely not. Did Feza care? Equally so. She was bouncing about, working off the energy that had been built up by sitting in a car for hours upon hours. "Yea, we need to get going, if we're gonna do everything!" She shouted. A clap of her hands followed, spinning on her feet, and then electing to rapidly point at where she thought the entrance of the mythical park was. "We gotta get going if we're gonna do everything and we've gotta do everything so let's go! It's a parabola, let's go!"

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THE EMPTY CHAIRS WILL BE RESERVED FOR OUR PITY