2025-02-01 - Rainbow Tiger, FTW!

The evening is young, chilly, but young. That gives the pair of Ruby and Roman plenty of time to explore the Midway. And there is lots to do and see as well as games to play.

While Roman has seen most of it, the shows, games and such frequently change with the season, so there is bound to be plenty he has experienced. "What do you want to do first?" He is dressed for the chilly evening weather for once, actual jeans instead of swim trunks, a hoodie under a denim jacket and sneakers. He even wears a beanie on his head.

"Hmmm," Ruby thinks, tapping the tip of her nose which, along with her cheeks, is flushed pink from the cold. She's gotten wise to the temperature, trading in her preferred off duty uniform of a hoodie for a blush puffer jacket and a cream colored beanie with a pom pom on top. It might be a bit much, but being freezing was the worst.

"Maybe a game? I haven't actually gotten to play any yet. Last time Brandon just won it for me," she tells him. Which wasn't the worst thing, but she could do it too.

"That was very 1950's of him." Roman says stifling a laugh at the man doing such a thing to impress his sister "Does that even work anymore? Were you impressed?" to be fair he has done stupider things to impress people he has liked, so he doesn't have much room to talk.

"You are welcome to win me all the prizes you want!" he points to several options "You can knock down bowling pins, pop balloons with a dart, blow up balloons with water..." and countless other games "Lead on McDuff."

Ruby laughs freely. "Yeah, it kind of was," she agrees. "He's surprisingly old school... considering he's a celebrity and a rock star," she chuckles. "Well, yeah, it did," Rubes admits as a hand slides through her hair. "Avery and Bam were also playing. It was more Bam vs Brandon than anything else. Avery and I both wanted the rainbow giraffe and there was only one," she rambles, adding color to the story.

"Oh, the one with the water gun!" She says. "Those are always the most fun," there had to be one of those water gun games that made rocking horses or whatever the Spellbound themed equivalent race across a scene somewhere. And sure enough, there is one not far staring the park's mascot Yarbo. "Hows your aim?"

"He's pretty okay." Roman admits readily enough. "I have ran into him a couple of times since you two started dating. I think I intimidate him." nothing he did on purpose, he's just tall and athletic, and that can be intimidating to your sister's boyfriend, even without trying. "Who got the giraffe?" that's the important part of the story, and she hasn't told him.

"Sure, sure!" what Ruby wants, Ruby gets and he goes with her over to that game. It is one of the most popular ones but there are a few spots left. "Just as awful as it has always been." while he is athletic, that doesn't reflect in aiming skills.

"He's terrified of you," Ruby confirms with a smirk. "He knows I care what you think... that and," she gestures broadly at Roman. He could probably take Brandon out if he really wanted to. "I did," Ruby tells him with a little puff to her chest. "But I felt kind of bad about it. Avery and Bam were there first and Brandon just smoked him. If we see another rainbow giraffe, maybe we should try to win it for Avery," she suggests. But maybe that would just make it weirder.

The little stools that each player has to sit on are tiny. Ruby fits well enough, but Ruby is also 5'5" and slender with not much going on in the booty department. There were no giraffes being offered as prizes here, mostly just Yarbo stuff. "What have you been up to?" She asks as she lines up her shot. The game hasn't quite started yet.

"I don't know why." they are kind of flabbergasted, especially since Roman assured Brandon that he was cool with him "I'm harmless." he is mostly, sure he knows how to throw a punch, and wrestle, but anyone with as many siblings and cousins as he has does. It's just part of the family dynamic. "Sweet!" he exclaims about her getting the prize.

It's not so much the small stool that's the issue for Roman, though he does cover it completely, it's how he has to stoop down to look down the water gun sights so he can aim properly. "We are working on a new show for the summer season over at the water park." he only does Venture Cove when the Mermaid Experience at the water park is closed for winter. "There is some debate on the theme, but that's a them problem, not a me problem." he isn't part of the creative team that writes the shows, he just performs in them. "What about you? How are classes going?"

"I know why," Ruby states. "You're tall, and could probably really mess up someones face if you really wanted to. But really, I think for Brandon it's more that your opinion matters to me. I don't think I'd ever be able to take a guy seriously if you or my family didn't like them," she admits. "I haven't told my family about him yet," she tacks on, a bit sheepish about that fact.

Ruby lowers herself to line up her shot, ready for when the game operator starts the race. "What kind of classes do they do there? Will you still be a mermaid?" She asks. Classes get a shrug. "I'm pretty much done with classes outside of my dissertation on fin rot and a few lectures here and there. I submitted the most recent draft on Thursday. The rest of my credits are coming from working at the Marine Center since it's considered practical experience and marine veterinary sciences aren't really a thing." Ruby is really studying veterinary sciences with a focus on marine biology, but why split hairs? Sea mammals needed dedicated medical care just like any other species in order to release them back into the ecosystems that needed them.

“I probably could sure, but why would I want to?” Roman mostly gets it, especially about how what he thinks counts for something. “All I can do is bust his nose, you are the one that can really hurt him, mentally and emotionally.” Thankfully he isn’t ALL good looks, he has an inch of common sense. “Oh, we are keeping it secret….” Sounds like he may have told his family. Good thing her family and his family don’t keep in regular contact with each other.

He pays the game fee to the attendant before rolling his shoulders to get more comfortable in his hunch. “It’s not so much classes, as rehearsals. Learning the lines, songs, cues. That sorta thing.” He glances as her, “Should I be a mermaid? I could probably make myself look like a female from the waist up.” He looks down at his chest “I have never tried.” Just like he has never tried to make himself a merfolk like a few of the other merfolk performers have. He is teasing her and realizes she is using mermaid as a catch all for merfolk in general. Everyone does it, he is used to it and it doesn’t bother him.

Roman is clearly proud of Ruby’s academic accomplishments, she has done a lot better in the higher learning area than he has. He didn’t even sign up for classes this semester. Something he did not tell his parents. “So when do I get to yell and cheer as you walk across the stage and accept your degree?”

"Hopefully, it doesn't come to that," Ruby says, about hurting Brandon emotionally. "He is an artist. The breakup songs..." She shakes her head. "They'd be brutal. I wouldn't be able to even listen to them without being riddled with guilt." While she'd been kidding at first, there is truth in there. She does not want to hear those breakup songs. Not when she feels how she does.

"I mean... it's not a secret just.... I don't know. It's new. I still keep waiting for him to change his mind or something," she admits. "I've never really had a boyfriend. It's all new."

Ruby rolls her eyes and turns the squirt gun at him pulling the trigger for half a second to wet his hand unless he pulls away. She then smiles cheekily. "You know what I meant," she laughs. "Don't be a mermaid. We need more mermen in the world."

"May," Ruby tells him flashing a smile as the game operator begins to speak, explaining the rules of the game. "Assuming all goes well." It would.

"Oh shit." Roman never thought about the breakup songs "He better not be recording and releasing break up songs!" He may toss his give peace a chance if that ever happened. May! He's a big cinnamon roll at heart.

"I get it. Why get people's hopes up when you have only been seeing each other a few weeks." Roman gives her a light shoulder bump "And you bagged a baddie, your first go." He stifles a laugh at that.

Roman shakes the water off his hand, "Okay, okay. Merman it is! Being one of the only ones is hard though." It's definitely a female loaded position.

"All will go well." Roman can be confident enough for both of them. "I'll save the date." The light spins around signalling that the game is about to start, and then it's the buzzer count down, and then the bell. Everyone hits the triggers, guiding the stream of water into the target to make the horse go.

"No breakup songs as of yet," Ruby assures him. "The songs he's shared with me have been so sweet." She doesn't share what kind of songs those are, but surely Roman can guess.

"That and I don't want my brothers flying in just to intimidate him. Jason's been eagerly awaiting his moment to intimate any boys Jade or I bring home for an embarrassingly long time. I can only imagine Kyle will try to one up him," Ruby grimaces. "Just don't want to put Brandon through that yet. He might run."

Ruby only has enough time to flash him a smile before they're off and the race is on. She lines up her shot and pulls the trigger with surprising accuracy. The lack of time spent on correction gives Ruby an early lead against the full group.

"Do I need to intimidate your brothers to not intimidate your boyfriend?" Roman sounds all serious as he asks the question. "Brandon seems like a good guy, can't have him running off...or would you rather i just hide Brandon should the inevitable happen?" he really could go either way on that way. Or both, both is good.

The bell rings and Roman starts to spray the target with the jet of water from the watergun "Come on!" he yells to the horse that he is propelling "Go! Go! Go!" all the horses move up and down at a faux gallop as the mechanical stuffs built into the machine moves them with the. But Ruby and her unerring accuracy wins the game.

"It's hard not to like Brandon. I think they'll have their fun then end up preferring his company to mine," Ruby says, calling off the hounds. "I'm glad you like him, Ro."

The second bell rings and the game operator crowns Ruby the winner. The prize selection is a little bit limited, with just various plushies of Yarbo in different outfits. Ruby gets the biggest Yarbo dressed as one of the knights from one of the shows. They'd have to do a bit more hunting to find another rainbow giraffe, but the day was young.

“Like you said, it’s hard not to like him.” Roman gives a shrug “And right now he is in the wanting to impress me stage, so there is that.” He gives a brief mischievous grin, but then shakes his head “I won’t take advantage of that. I may even have to go have a talk with Walter to get him to chill out with the guy.” Not that he can talk to animals like Ruby can, but he will make an effort to attempt it.

“Yarbo my man.” He says to the plushie that Ruby takes while patting it on the head “So you do you think I would have to talk too, to get a Kai plushie done up.” Of course he would want a plushie of his character. “Let’s look around, see if we can find a rainbow plush.”

Ruby has to laugh when Roman brings up Walter. "Walter can just be... Walter. He's raised a lot of calves and has opinions about..." she really doesn't want to say it. The word is just kind of creepy outside of chick lit and fantasy novels. "Mates." She says, shuttering a bit. "He sees Brandon from that lens. He's acting like my dad," she laughs. "But I think he's harmless. Gretchen is a fan." And Iggy, the baby, was a fan of anyone who gave her treats and attention so all good there as well.

"Hmmm... not sure. But maybe pick an animal and we can visit Tank and see if a little costume can be made?" Ruby suggests. "There is a distinct lack of aquatic plushies here though," Ruby pouts. "This is why the Marine Center doesn't get the love we deserve. We're neglected by the marketing department."

"Well it's not everyday that Walter gets to meet somebody that speaks his language." While there are plenty of people that can talk to animals around the park, most of them are talking to horses, or birds, not the manatees at the Marine Center. "Pretty much harmless yes." he has never had a problem with Walter, but he also has different vibes than Brandon.

"It would be a start." he guesses, not quite the merman plushie Roman was wanting, but gotta start somewhere. As they walk around, he is looking for what plushie to win next and notices "Need more manatees, and merfolk." he points over to a game "That one has rainbow plushies, no giraffes though."

"No, it's not," she agrees. Roman has a point. "At some point I'll have Brandon get in the tank and meet him properly. So far, they've only looked at each other from afar... I can't believe I'm stressing about a playdate between a manatee and my boyfriend," she says. "This place is too weird."

Ruby surveys each game they pass looking for the best prizes. There are some knockoffs of popular IP, a blue hedgehog that definitely isn't Sonic, a mouse that isn't quite Mickey. Amazing that they get away with that. "I'd even take a dolphin," Ruby notes.

A nose wrinkle when they spot rainbow plushies but no giraffes. "I might have gotten the last one. Let's see what else they have though? Maybe there's another one worth winning."

"He hasn't even gotten into the tank yet?" Roman didn't get the whole story apparently. "He's worried about a manatee giving him the stink eye." He has to take a moment and laugh that one out "That's to funny."

"How about the rainbow tiger? Or rainbow unicorn?" that last one may be a bit too on the nose, but he has seen a few people walking around with it so it must be a popular one. "How good are you that the ring toss?"

She shakes her head no. "Not yet," she chuckles with Roman. "It's the stink eye for sure. Powerful thing. I also don't think it helped when he saw Gretchen take me on an adventure. But I can breathe underwater, and Gretch knows that." In other words, Brandon had nothing to worry about but a Walter's stink eye.

"I like the tiger!" How good was she at ring toss? "Questionable. You? Never been great with things that involve throwing things."

"Well if you need a buffer between Walter and Brandon, let me know. Maybe Walter won't be so territorial when there are three of us." Roman offers, mostly for Brandon's sake.

"Also questionable, but I am willing to play until one of us gets the tiger." Or they run out of cash for the game. He watches some of the others guests play, trying to get a feel for technique and form for a successful throw. "Wow, not many people are good at this." At least none that are there right now.

Ruby considers the offer and nods. "I think that's a really wonderful idea," she smiles over at Roman. "I think it might help Brandon too," she says as they make their way toward ring toss.

"How much did you bring?" She asks. "I have... maybe $30?" More than that would be ridiculous anyway. That was also her snack budget. "$25... I really want to get a cake pop or something sweet later." But that was nothing new. Ruby was like a hummingbird. She'd survive on sugar alone if she could. She surveys the other guest's techniques. One after the next, the rings skirt the bottles. "No, it's probably why they have the good prizes here." They step up to the edge of the booth, and Ruby puts enough down to cover both of their games. They get three rings each, and the bottles are color-coded according to the number of points you win per bottle. Three gold bottles are in the middle. "I guess we go for gold."

"I'll let you figure out the details in that one." All Ruby has to do is tell him when and he will be there.

Digging into his pocket Roman pulls out a handful a mixed bills and some change "$47 ish." He already dropped some for the other game. He separates a ten from the rest "I'll save this for a snack later." It gets shoved into a different pocket, the rest goes back into the pocket he pulled it from.

Taking the rings he laughs at going for the gold. "I haven't been told that since the junior national surfing trials." He got injured half way through so couldn't finish the competition. He's not overly competitive though so it didn't bother him that much.

He spins the little ring on his finger before doing a toss flip and aiming at one of the gold bottles.

"Within the next couple of weeks, I think," Ruby says. "I have to still see his show. I feel so guilty that that hasn't happened yet." Schedules just hadn't lined up. She also might have been a little nervous. Brandon had promised to make Ruby the Queen of Love and Beauty, or whatever they call the audience member who gets a flower from the knight during the show, and that was more participation in front of a crowd than she typically liked. Sure, she sometimes would participate in the mermaid show as a pink dolphin, but that was completely different. She wasn't recognizable then.

Ruby smiles over at Roman. "You would have won too," she says. She doesn't have to elaborate on why he hadn't. Not how anyone wanted to end a competition. Ruby watches as Roman takes his first shot, and makes one shortly after. Ruby's knicks one of the gold bottles before flopping onto a blue one, which wasn't great. They'd need at least two golds to win the tiger.

"You haven't seen his show yet?" Roman is shocked. S-H-O-C-K-E-D! "Even I saw his show. He doesn't know I saw his show, but I did." with his abilities it is pretty easy to not be recognized, especially when the other person doesn't know him well yet. "You need to go. He does great!"

Roman shrugs, it didn't really bother him then, and it certainly doesn't now. The second ring is tossed and he winces with a groan as the ring bounces of the side of a bottle and falls into the space between the bottles on onto the platform they sit on "We may be here a while at this rate." They do have all evening, but only so much money to spend on games.

"No," Ruby admits with a grimace. "You did?" It's worse than Roman had. "I'll go soon," she promises. "The very next one that doesn't conflict with work. Am I terrible?" She kind of felt like she was. "It really had been a scheduling thing, mostly."

Ruby exhales through her teeth when Roman's ring evades the golden bottle. "Yeah. I'm starting to wonder if it'll take less time just to order one on Amazon," she jokes, tossing her ring out as she completes that thought. Ruby's mouth snaps shut. The thing went around a gold bottle and she seems absolutely dumbstruck. "Or, perhaps our fortune has turned."

"You aren't terrible." Roman goes to put an arm around Ruby's shoulder to give her a one arm squeeze. "Brandon isn't expecting you to ditch work to go watching him bang swords with someone." Roman drops his arm so he can get into position to toss his last ring "It performs several times a day, several times a week, you will see him sooner or later."

"We can always trade up prizes. At least if we keep playing and keep winning." Other games will let you trade up, so he assumes this one does, but it may not. He tosses the ring and gets another ring on a blue ringed bottle. So that's two blues for him. "You mean your fortune has turned." his is still going the same direction.

Ruby gives Roman an appreciative look. She should still make it a priority. She would. "Did you want to come with? Keep me from sprinting out of the arena when he makes me the queen of..." what was it? "Flowers? Flowers and Beauty? Love and Beauty?" She really was nailing it with this whole girlfriend thing. "I can only imagine what kind of can of worms that will open in internet land," she rolls her eyes. And while it sounded like an irrational fear, Ruby had been published more than once in the tabloid since she'd met the former musician. It also didn't help that Ruby had a decent online presence thanks to her family's defunct channel. Plenty of fodder for the trolls to dig up, and they did dig up everything.

"Oh, we can?" Ruby lights up. "Great! Maybe we won't go bankrupt then." she says, glancing at the prizes on the middle rung. With all the smaller bottles they're getting, they might even be able to get a second prize.

She casually throws the ring again, hoping that if she keeps calm and cool she'll get another gold bottle. But no dice. Blue. She frowns. "That was my last ring."

"If you really want me there, sure I will go with you." Roman frowns about the whole social media risk that comes with Ruby being made the queen of whatever it is. "Go in disguise? I am sure one of the costume, and makeup and hair people can make it so people wouldn't recognize you. Just tell Brandon ahead of time. He will know you since you are sitting next to me." problem solved!

"Yes." Roman looks at the various signs that hang from the game that talk about costs, rules, and prizes "Yeah. We have to have three red prizes to get one of the gold prizes." all the other trade-in details are all there. "Did you want to keep going or try another game?"

"Is that overkill?" Ruby asks, really not knowing. It's a catch-22. Does she want to dress in a costume to see her boyfriend's show? No. But does she want to really be a featured post on TMZ's socials? Also no. "But it could be fun to dress up," she says. "Or just accept that in a world where everyone has at least one camera on them, these things come with the territory."

"Let's give this one another try. We're close," they only needed one more gold bottle and they'd be able to trade up.

"Maybe? I don't know. It gets the job done so does it matter?" Roman can only lift his shoulders "Doesn't his performances get recorded and posted on socials all the time anyways? Maybe people are bored of seeing him do the knightly thing, and no one will even notice." He is trying to be helpful.

"Right on." Roman pays for another game for each of them, and the rings are passed over to Ruby and him. "Okay. We can do this. We can get the gold." he grins at her and raises one of the rings to bring it to his lips, but considering how many people touch the thing...well decides against it "Come on gold!" her says as he flips the ring through the air toward the bottles of gold. The ring flips through the air and miracle of miracles, drops onto the gold bottle, twirling a bit as it falls down the neck. "That's how you do it!" he says as he does a little dance.

"Yeah, a lot of them do," she confirms. "I think the novelty is wearing off." She's just being dramatic. But she has good reason to.

Ruby smiles, believing as much as he is. "Go for gold, baby!" She says, encouraging him. She leaps up and screams when Roman's ring actually lands on one of the gold bottles. Her arms fling around him and she's jumping up and down. "We did it!!!!" she says. "Hell yeah!" She actually can't believe it!

Amd while Roman is the voice of reason at times, strange as that is. He will let Ruby have the drama too. It's her prerogative after all.

The one foot size difference doesn't allow him to do any jumping for joy with her, but that's fine, he'll just bounce in place, an arm around her. There is laughter at how excited winning a rainbow tiger has gotten her. "You did most of it, but I will go along with joint effort. Wanna give the rest of the rings to one of these kids and go get your cake pop?" He gestures to the usual kids watching people play the games.

"You brought us home!" She is quick to remind him. It was a joint effort. Ruby gleefully accepts the rainbow tiger as the game operator takes it off of the wall. It's massive, forcing Ruby to hold it with both arms. The idea to pass along their rings to the kids eagerly waiting for their turn is met with a nod. "Love that idea."

There are a handful of confectioners in the park that sell sweet treats, including cake pops. Normally, Ruby was an ice cream girl, but it was still too cold at Spellbound, even with the canopy of magic that shielded the park in warmer temperatures than this time of year should be.