InsaneJournal

Jake hadn't been sure what to expect at Joyland. As he told Faith, any sort of amusement park had been out of the question growing up, everything turned into the war against the kaiju, and then by the time he saw one it was post-war, nothing worked, and it had been abandoned for years.

So he was making the most of this experience, going on any ride he could get Faith to agree to, lame or not. They'd won each other stuffed animals, competing at games and stopping only when Faith pointed out that there wasn't anywhere to stash the larger stuffed animals as they walked around the park.

Which was a good point.

Now they were in line for the Tunnel of Love which might have had memories? Bits and pieces of conversation drifted through the line in a way that didn't make sense, but Jake figured it would probably be some lame history museum type ride if it was memories. He had no idea what a tunnel of love would be, other than undoubtedly cheesy. Either way he was grinning, and willing to find out.

"I'm still kind of surprised you said yes," he said. "Thought you might have thought of this as too much like a date," he teased.

Faith hadn’t been too sure about going to the amusement park, but it seemed like a good way to kill some time and deal with boredom over the summer, especially since there wasn’t much else to do in Dunwich. Plus, Jake had really wanted to go and take her with him, so Faith had finally agreed.

Absently shifting the neon orange sloth she carried under one arm, Faith shrugged at Jake’s words, then smirked over at him. “Hey, it beats wandering around town waiting for a vampire to poke their nose out,” she said drily.

But honestly, this did feel like a date - and she didn’t mind it too much.

Faith had a point. Outside of work, support group, Todash, and riding his motorcycle around, Jake probably needed to find more hobbies. But Joyland had proven entertaining so far. They crept closer to the start of the line, to where they could see people exiting, including one dude, who was crying.

"What do you think that's about?" Jake asked, quirking a brow upward. Not that he gave it too much thought. Everything about Dunwich had the potential to be weird, especially the locals.

“Maybe some chick just dumped him for taking him on this cheesy ride,” Faith said with another smirk as she glanced in the direction of the crying guy. Whatever happened, it was weird but she figured his heart had just been broken.

Or he was allergic to something on the ride.

Without thinking too hard about it, Faith moved with the line to the start, and watched as the couple ahead of them was helped into a boat, then headed on into the tunnel. “Last chance to ditch this.”

"You can't dump me since we're not dating," Jake pointed out. It was solid logic. "So I think I'm good. Brave enough to try it, anyway," he teased. Though he had no idea what he was getting himself into. He couldn't have known.

They were guided onto a swan boat and Jake grinned at Faith. "You're right, this is probably going to be cheesy as hell. Can't wait."

“Lucky for you, ‘cause I’d push you out of the boat if you brought me on here for a date,” she joked, then rolled her eyes as they climbed onto the boat and she stashed her stuffed animal down by their feet.

“After this, we’re getting funnel cakes and corn dogs,” she told him, still smirking as the boat glided into the tunnel ahead. At first, it was just what she’d expected - barely lit, cheesy hearts and lovey-dovey images to the point where she was about to make a joke about all the red looking like blood - when there was a flicker on the wall and she frowned. The flicker became an image, and after a moment it coalesced into a younger version of her - but something was off.

In the images, Faith was sitting in Mayor Wilkins’ office, snagging a cookie from a plate he offered up, and instead of leaving with the cookie like she had originally in this particular memory, she settled into her seat and they started to talk about her upcoming birthday and the party that was being planned - and that all of her friends were apparently attending?

“...What the fuck?” She muttered, staring at the wall and even turning to keep watching as they passed by.

That was definitely Faith on the tunnel's wall. Younger but easily recognizable. He was about to ask her what she meant when the image changed. Jake was in uniform, talking to Mako. She told him she had requested his jaeger to be present in Sydney, and he'd be co-piloting with Nate. He joked about how upset Nate would be with his handsome face, but then he grew serious.

"Thanks, sis," he said in the projected scene. "I know I complained about coming here, but now that I am here, it's good. Got something to do. Might be able to figure out a different direction from here so you're not always having to bail me out."

Jake watched Mako nudge him, and say, "Almost like I planned it this way," before the scene ended.

"Shit."

He turned to Faith. "Yours different than you remember?"

Faith was still frowning, though she’d caught Jake’s scene too, and filed it away as her eyes shifted to land on her not-boyfriend. “Yeah…it definitely did not go that way. What was all that?” The boat glided out of the tunnel and back into the sunlight, and Faith stood to get out, grabbing the toy on the way.

“Where’s the guy running that thing? How did they recreate that whole…everything?” Her eyes scanned around for someone to blame for the weirdness she was feeling.

“No idea who’s running everything and probably the kid in charge of making sure people get in and out of the seams isn’t it,” he pointed out. “He might know, maybe.”

He turned to her, feeling uneasy about the entire experience while still wanting to see Mako again. But he knew it was some sort of illusion or conjuration and that chasing it would be like chasing a dream. Fruitless and ultimately frustrating.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

Feeling a little better once both feet were on solid ground again, she was glaring in the direction of the kid he’d mentioned, half tempted to kick the guy’s ass. Instead, she took a deep breath, then let it out and turned her attention back to Jake.

“Yeah, I’m fine. You?”

Jake gave her a shrug. "That was my sister. Last time I really talked to her. Amara and I got that dvd but this was different. More of what I wish I could have said that I didn't."

Relieved that Faith didn't look like she was gonna go after some kid, he asked, "What was that?"

“You never really told me what was on that dvd,” Faith said absently, then frowned as she turned to stare at the tunnel mouth, turning things over in her head.

At the question, the Slayer shook her head. “Nothing important. An old boss who treated me like his kid a little bit. Long time dead now,” she added with a shrug. “Just weird seeing him again after all these years.”

"Just the last week of my life at home before I ended up here. Not the last last week… whatever," Jake said. "I'll get it from Amara if you ever wanna watch it. Part of it. You got a glimpse just now."

He looked at her, not pressing for details, but his expression softening. "C'mon. Let's get away from here," he said, draping his arm around her. "Find something to take our mind off this."

“Maybe, if you don’t mind if I do.” Briefly she wondered if anyone had ever figured out what all that was or how any of it had shown up in Dunwich, but she brushed that aside for now. When his arm draped around her, Faith found herself relaxing and even leaning into him a little. It was still vaguely weird, but she’d gotten used to having him around, and she’d pretty much started only sleeping with him lately, and not anyone else.

But that probably didn’t mean anything, right? “Yeah.” Lifting the neon sloth, she gave it a little shake, then shook her head. “Here. You hang onto this.” It was her way of giving him some kind of token of her affection, even if it was just a cheesy stuffed animal won at the carnival.

Jake had a smaller blue and orange crocodile but he exchanged that. "Next time I'm playing a better game than the milk jug ring toss. That had to be rigged. Anyway, are we going to the horror house, or was that tunnel enough for you?"

Faith blew out a breath as they walked away from the tunnel, then glanced down as he held out the crocodile in return. After a moment, she took it. “They’re all rigged. Most places like this are,” she replied, then shrugged at the question. A part of her knew she might as well check it out, but after what just happened in the tunnel, Faith wasn’t sure she wanted to see whatever might be in the “horror house”.

“Let’s get out of here instead.”

"Yeah," Jake agreed, "Let's go."

He wasn't going to push her to understand what he'd just seen. If it was anything like his own memory, it was getting a glimpse into what she wished had happened. And that felt weird, as curious as he might be.