(MA) You bought the ticket

[the_death_card]

The carousel in Central Park has been one of Jack's favorite places for as long as he can remember. He and his mother spent a lot of afternoons in the park; it was somewhere fun to go that didn't cost money, and a ride on the carousel was usually something she could manage even when money was low.

After her death, Jack stayed away. He had too many memories of going there with his mother, and most of his fosters didn't have the time or interest to take him anyway. As he got older, though, and started spending more and more time on the streets, that changed again, and he began to find himself drifting back. There was something warm there that he needed and had a hard time finding anywhere else. A lot of homework got done on the nearby benches when he couldn't bear to go back to whoever Madeline had stuck him with this time.

Again, the carousel becomes synonymous with safety. He again finds himself there more and more, especially when he starts doing street magic in the park to get extra money. (He never picks pockets or hustles near it; that feels like blasphemy somehow.) There are always enough people in the area around the carousel for him to draw a decent audience, and he feels like the staff approves, considering he's noticed the girl in the ticket booth watching him on more than one occasion.

The first few weeks he lives with Dylan, he doesn't get to the carousel much. He's trying to give it an actual shot, trying to set some kind of routine that will give him an actual idea of what kind of foster parent the man is. When Dylan misses their meeting with Madeline and Jack throws out all the alcohol in the house, it's the carousel he runs to, out of fear of what Dylan might do. He finds out soon enough that he didn't need to worry - and then finds out just how appropriate his fascination with the carousel actually is.

After their time in Vegas, it's a little bit of time before he gets back to the park. He has homework to catch up on from his time away, and he wants to spend time with Dylan - with his dad - to regain their equilibrium.

When Dylan goes back to work, Jack starts spending time in the park again. He goes back to his street magic but stops hustling and picking pockets altogether - though he finds a magician on MySpace who uses pickpocketing skills in his routines, and that opens up a whole new world.

The weather's just starting to get cool on the afternoon when he goes to pay for a ride on the carousel and the girl at the ticket booth glances up at him, pops her gum, and pushes his money back through the slot. "You're good."

"I'm... what?" he stammers, and she sets her magazine aside and reaches to pick up a coin, sliding it to him.

"You're good," she says again and taps the coin with a nail painted with silver glitter. As she does, Jack sees a faint spark, and the image of an eye glows faintly on the coin. She pushes the coin forward a little more and settles back in her chair, reaching again for her magazine. "Just use that like a Metro Card or whatever."

"Oh, uh. Thanks," Jack manages after a moment, and she pops her gum again and nods as she goes back to reading. Jack picks up the coin, heading for the turnstiles. Part of him is convinced for a moment that it's not going to work, but the kid at the control booth just offers him a nod as he approaches. Jack touches the coin to the top of the turnstile, and the mechanism unlocks with a clunk before he pushes through.

"Cool," he mutters and hears a chuckle, and he looks over to see the guy at the controls grinning. Jack just smirks back and steps up onto the turntable, heading for his favorite: a sleek black horse with gold and green trim and a red saddle.

The next time he knows Dylan is going to be late getting home, he takes his backpack with him onto the turntable, claiming the back seat of one of the chariots and spreading his reading out on his lap. He's lost track of how many runs the carousel's been through when he becomes aware of someone sitting down in the chariot's front seat, and he glances up just long enough to register the balding head in front of him before he goes back to his history book.

Comments

[queen_ofcups]

The man who sat down, one Will Bennett, sits in silence for a long moment, giving Jack time to get to what he imagines is a good stopping point and just enjoying the ride, otherwise. When he judges Jack as having had enough time, a series of glances thrown over his shoulder guiding his decision, he turns in full, summoning up an easy smile.

"Homework again?" he guesses, voice carrying a hint of an accent, mostly lost to time but not yet ready to die entirely. This isn't the first time he's seen Jack here, after school. This is, however, the first time he's seen him, knowing who he actually is. News has taken some time to get around, if only for how much distance Dylan has put between himself and the Eye since his joining. He suspects there's a reason for that and that, like any good magic trick, all will be revealed in time. That's fine by him, he can wait, but in the meantime, he can introduce himself to Jacob Shrike's son.

[the_death_card]

Jack glances up again at the sound of the man's voice, glancing back down at his book again for a moment before he nods. "Uh, yeah," he begins, a little startled by being spoken to. "Thought I'd get out while it's still nice since it's been starting to get cold and everything."

[queen_ofcups]

Will flashes him a brief, apologetic look, the fact that he startled him not something it'd take a rocket scientist to notice. When it fades, the smile returns warmly, and in full.

"Not much longer before we start seeing snow, even if it's only flurries," he says by way of agreement. It won't be long after that that New York sees it's first real snowfall, and while he's not necessarily looking forward to that, since it means not being open every day, he still likes the idea of seeing frost on the top of the carousel's housing. It's just as magic as anything else around here.

[the_death_card]

Jack doesn't particularly show a response to the apology, though he does relax again as Will goes on. "Yeah. I always kinda like the first times it snows. Sometimes it gets old after that, but..."

He does like what the snow does to the city at first. It gets old quick, between the snow turning to slush on the streets and the lingering cold and everything - though he fortunately doesn't have to worry about that part of it anymore.

[queen_ofcups]

He hums, understanding, again having had the same thought, and smiles a little wider, a little more wistfully. Has he mentioned the part where he loves that first touch of winter? "I'm glad it's not just me."

He pauses, that said, and turns a little more fully, leaning over the back of chariot so he can hold out a hand. "Will Bennett, by the way." Another beat. "And you're Jacob Shrike's kid."

[the_death_card]

Jack shifts a little to balance his book and reach out to take Will's hand, to shake it. He pauses a beat when he goes on, blinking at him, surprised by that. A moment later he smiles, though. "Yeah," he agrees after a moment, because he is, but that's still new, and he's still getting used to being someone's kid - and he's only met a couple of people who know who Dylan really is, too. That's beside the point right now, though. "Yeah, I am."

He pauses another beat. "Uh... Jack, though."

[queen_ofcups]

"Jack," Will repeats as he takes his hand back. He folds his arms over the back of the chariot as best he can, leaning into it idly, and after a beat, offers, "And in case it isn't obvious, I'm not going to ... " A vague gesture follows. Yes, he knows who Dylan really is; no, he's not going to say anything to anyone. Again, he understands that magicians like their secrets, even if he doesn't quite follow the reason for that one.

[the_death_card]

Jack sets his book aside as Will resettles, giving the other man his full attention. "Yeah, no, I, uh... I wasn't worried?" He means that, too. "I mean, obviously everybody knows who we are but it's still a secret or whatever."

He means the Eye in general, but he doesn't want to just say that outloud when there could be other people around on the carousel.

[queen_ofcups]

"Just making sure," Will tells him. "I don't think any of us would say anything until your father was ready, but ... well, the lot of us who work here, doubly so." Running a carousel doesn't seem like much of a job, but it's as important a job as any, here, considering this place is still very much Lionel's. It's a place of history and everyone who works here takes that very seriously.

[the_death_card]

"This place is, uh... I told him, even before I met him, I loved coming here." He's not going to get into the fact that he and his mother used to come here or that it feels safe for a handful of reasons when he doesn't know Will yet, but he's not particularly closed off, either.

[queen_ofcups]

"There's something magic here," Will agrees. Real magic, though even he's not sure if it's because Lionel Shrike spent so much time here or because the Eye did something, after his death. Either way, there's a warmth here, a light, and it attracts the people who need that. He's probably contributed to it, himself, without specifically meaning to, over the course of his tenure here. Dylan probably has, too, to be honest, and that in mind and after a beat, he continues, "He spent a lot of time here, too, especially when he was younger."

Dylan's visits have become less frequent over the years, maybe because it hurts too much, maybe because he's trying to distance himself from the Shrike name, but still. Jack and Dylan have that in common, too.

[the_death_card]

Jack nods. "Yeah, there is. I mean, I didn't know that was an actual thing until like... a month ago or whatever? But it's just... this is definitely one of those places."

There are other places around New York that he gets the feeling from, but there's more warmth here than at some of the others.

[queen_ofcups]

"How'd you find out, speaking of?" That magic was real, he means.

He's not here to police anybody, if Dylan outright told him about the Eye, he's just curious. Everyone's experience with finding out magic is a thing is a little different, but it basically can be boiled down to a few generic categories, and he wants to know which Jack falls into.

[the_death_card]

"Uh," Jack begins hesitantly because he's not sure if he should be spreading this around and is trying to find a way to answer that without getting into the whole lead up.

"I kind of... Some stuff happened, and someone thought we were in Las Vegas, and I almost told them we were in New York, but then we had to actually go to Las Vegas, so...."

He trails off with a shrug. There's obviously a lot he's not saying, and it has more to do with respecting Dylan's privacy with his recovery than any other kind of secret.

[queen_ofcups]

"So, he opened a door," Will concludes, nodding. After a beat, he offers, "I was older, myself. I'd just joined up, and it all sort of went from there." Like many people, he didn't know that when they said the Eye were the guardians of real magic, they meant real magic.

[the_death_card]

Jack nods in agreement with Will's summary - and then smiles crookedly. "You didn't know the whole 'real magic' thing wasn't bullshit? How'd that go when you found out?" He pauses a beat. "Uh, if that's not too personal."

[queen_ofcups]

"I had a hope, maybe," he answers, shaking his head faintly. He'd heard of the Eye, yes, knew that they were the supposed guardians of real magic, and when he got his instructions, when he realized what they were, a test, and who he was testing for, he'd hoped it was more than just colorful wording for the sleight of hand he already did, but he didn't know for sure.

"It made a sort of sense, after, though." When he'd found out that, when they said real magic, they'd meant real magic. "Turns out a lot of us manage to tap into that magic, beforehand, without realizing it." And he had, so the whole Morpheus to Neo conversation he'd had with his mentor, after, hadn't been as startling as it might have been, otherwise.

[the_death_card]

Jack nods. "Yeah. I apparently did. I guess it's part of why I got Dad's attention or whatever?" It had been plenty startling for him when they had discussed it after everything, but it also hadn't been that much of a surprise considering how much sense it did make.

[queen_ofcups]

And now it's Will's turn to nod.

"If you hadn't gotten his attention, you would've gotten someone's," he tells him after a beat. The Eye keeps, well, an eye out for people with the talent, whether they realize they have it or not. It might have taken them a little longer to get to Jack, like, say, another ten years, but they noticed, they knew. It would have happened sooner or later.

[the_death_card]

That's actually kind of a relief, to know that he would have had something sooner or later. He's obviously glad it's happened sooner and wouldn't trade away anything that's happened lately for could-have-beens, but that's still nice to know. "Cool," he says, simply and with a smile.

[queen_ofcups]

Will smiles, too, another nod and a hum accompanying the expression. A moment of pause follows, that said (or not), and then, as the smile fades, he tells him, "Well, I ought to let you get back to your homework."

He just wanted to say hi and let Jack know, if he didn't already, that he was absolutely welcome here.

[the_death_card]

Jack glances down at his book and then back up at Will with another smile. "Oh, yeah, probably. And, uh. Nice to meet you?"

Despite the fact that that comes out sounding like a question, it is nice to meet him, to meet other people in the Eye, to get used to knowing he's not alone when he's felt like it for so long, now. He appreciates the greeting.

[queen_ofcups]

"Nice to meet you," Will confirms, a lot more surely. He offers Jack a smile, that said, sticks his hand out for another, brief shake, and then, once that's done and unless Jack has anything else to add, starts to get up, to return to his post and leave Jack to his homework, as promised.