paradox | mischa bachinski x female reader

adrenaline

(a/n: oh my, what's this about lines? i wonder what that means...)

y/n lines -italics

y/n+more lines -bold

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     "constance! wait for me!" you yelled, as the girl giddily skipped over to the line of the infamous cyclone roller coaster. you were winded from being forced to keep up with your friend. the rest of the choir was trailing behind you, way less enthusiastic than constance. there wasn't much of a line, surprisingly. you and constance were seated at the very front of the coaster, with your peers in the next few rows down. the carny working at the ride halfheartedly checked that the seatbelts were locked in. you peered down at the fair grounds below you and you saw father marcus waiting for the lot of you at the bottom of the ride, a churro in hand. he caught you peeking down at him and he smiled and waved at you. you gave a small wave in return as the ride jerked forward.

     "i think i'm gonna puke!" a shrill voice said from right behind you. you immediately recognized it as ocean. you were sort of confused. she had been fine on all the other rides, what was special about this one that made her stomach churn? you couldn't deny, though, you had the same feeling. the ride seemed to give you a sense of deja vu. you tried your best to shake the feeling off.

     "just- please not on me!" you pleaded with the girl, hoping you wouldn't be soaked with her vomit by the end of the ride. the coaster had many loop-the-loops that had you almost falling out of the rickety cart. you could hear constance laughing from beside you. at least she was having a good time. the cart was coming close to a huge loop and all you could do was brace yourself and hold on tight. your eyes were screwed shut until you heard the rails start to screech. by the time you opened your eyes, the cart had been derailed. the choir was screaming their lungs out, aside from constance, who was still laughing, and ricky. you were praying that the damage wouldn't be as bad as it seemed. the only sound was the ringing in your ears and the distant echo of the voices of the choir.

...

     "something doesn't feel quite right."

     "a blur of color, flashing light."

     "my heart is racing, pounding in my ear."

     "dizzy tingling's, spinning round. where's the sky and where's the ground?"

     "the rabbit comes and then he disappears."

     "total darkness, spinning black!"

     "pushing forward, pulling back!"

     "falling through the air, i wonder how could this be fair?"

     "what a load of freaking junk! that crusty carny, clearly drunk. sue that fair for everything they've got!"

     "what's the point in even suing? dead, we're done, there's no undoing. nothing left to do except to rot!"

     "sex! oh god, why did i wait?"

     "now i'll never graduate..."

     "i hope i wiped my browser history clean!"

     "why did i even go to class?! algebra twelve, kiss my ass!"

     "now i know what yolo really means."

     "carpe diem!"

     "what a lovely theme!"

     "c'est la vie!"

     "life is just a dream, just a dream! and then you're sailing through space. you don't know up from down. and you feel a little strange from all that spinning 'round. and everything you've loved, and everything you dreamed, and everything you feared, and everything that seems so, oh, so terrifying is far behind on the ground. like our far-from-the-city-little-itty-bitty-pretty hometown. just a teeny tiny dot on a wee blue ball. and we've all been spinning, all been spinning round and round!"

     "had a strange feeling from the start! bought our tickets, stood in line, a rickety cart! i did not feel safe at all. tick-a-tock-a toward the crack!"

     "felt the drop, now i know we're never going back! but what really happens? what happens after now?!"

...

     "...where are we?" constance asked, looking around the dim room. it smelled faintly of mildew and the smoke from a blown out candle. you opened your eyes and examined your surroundings. you couldn't make anything out. everyone scattered in opposite directions, each trying to get a good look at the new surroundings.

     "the twilight zone." a voice sounded from behind the group, coming from... ricky? 

     "oh my god, ricky, sweetie! you can speak?" ocean asks, a rhetorical question as she had just seen, or rather heard him do so. more out of shock than anything

     "it certainly appears that way. badass!" he states, excitedly. suddenly, the glitching noise of a machine turning on and lighting up made you jump and shriek, clutching your chest to catch your breath. the machine was the fortune teller one you saw earlier with constance, the one who told the two of you to ride the cyclone. was it his fault then? hell, what were you saying, he's a machine, he was obviously programmed to say that. the whole choir was clumped together, grabbing onto each other tightly to make them feel the tiniest bit safer.

     "greetings, children! it's time to play." the machine declared.

     "look, what's happening?" ocean asked the machine, who's name read karnak. the machines robotic head turned away from her, facing forward.

     "meet ocean o'connell rosenberg, catchphrase:" karnak introduced, referencing to ocean.

     "democracy rocks!" ocean exclaimed, putting one fist on her hip and the other in the air. ocean stumbled back, looking around. "what the heck was that?!" she cried out, as if she had been moving against her will.

     "your catchphrase" karnak began, attempting to explain to her. "in the interest of the expedition of time, i've taken the liberty of choreographing a few of your moves in advance. dont bore us; get to the chorus! our time together is limited." your head was spinning as you were trying to grasp where you were. were you dead? dreaming? what did he mean by "play?"

     apparently ocean had the same question. "you said 'play' earlier. what exactly are we playing? is this a game?" ocean asked. the whole choir was looking at ocean and the machine uneasily, shifting slightly where they stood, some having picked up random items they found in their search.

     "ocean has selected game mode!" karnak's voice changed in tone, he sounded like a sport's announcer.

     "..what?" ocean looked at each and every choir member who were all grumbling in protest. "guys! really, i didn't. what game?" she asked, turning back to karnak.

     karnak began to talk as if he were stating the obvious, very persuasively. "a game with fabulous prizes. like a stale pack of methol cools! a succulent hello kitty cupcake! the limited edition iron-maiden t-shirt, still ripe with the pong of the carny who wore it." as karnak listed all the items, the choir members who held them sprung up in an animated fashion, presenting them to the abyss.

     "look, where are we?" ocean tried again, but her question was left unanswered. you were starting to think that karank didn't know the answer.

     "perhaps you might be interested in the grand prize, ocean? one worthy contestant will be brought back to life, to live beyond the cyclone accident." his words confirmed your belief, that you were dead, and this was the afterlife. now, you were focusing on the prize, the chance to live again. behind you, a stage lit up, with draping red curtains hung around it, and unlit light bulbs above, reading "cyclone". 

     "somewhere, sunrise begins another day! begins another day" the whole choir harmonized beautifully, but still against their will. the curtain then dropped.

     "the grand prize: to live again." karnak declared.