Work Text:
May 5, 2002
Another year, another operating season. Another year of sitting on the beach, the only source of entertainment during her working hours being the guests traveling between the three sectors of the park and the lake in front of her. The ebbs and flows of Lake Erie brought a familiar comfort to her. It had been her home for over a decade, after all- tucked away as a centerpiece of human ingenuity. She had faded into the background to make way for her newer, faster, longer coworkers. However, she at least had the shoreline to keep her company during her many days, and this was one of them.
A new attraction had opened on the other side of the park. From this vantage point, she could almost see her new acquaintance from across the peninsula, but due to their locations, it was a comparatively slow opening day for her.
So here she was, watching the ebb and flow of the Great Lake before her.
Swish. Swish. Swish.
…
“Hey, you there?”
Magnum XL-200 was startled right out of her trance from the sound of an unfamiliar voice right behind her. Was this the new attraction everyone was talking about?
Magnum turned around as slowly her eyes adjusted to the sunlight now in front of her, and immediately her jaw almost dropped to the floor.
This must be a dream. Has to be, she thought.
The woman in front of her looked almost like a goddess with the setting sun behind her, softly lighting up her features. Only a little taller than Magnum, she had steel gray curls done into a small ponytail. She wore a yellow blouse underneath a pair of green overalls that went down to her ankles, with light vitiligo in the shape of swirls going all along her exposed skin.
Just as soon as she had appeared, Magnum was already head over heels.
“… Oh! Uh, yes- I’m here. Yep… who are you exactly?”
“Oh, my bad! The name’s Wicked Twister. You probably already guessed, but I’m the new guy. From what I’ve heard, you must be Magnum.”
“yeah…” Magnum mumbled absently, before quickly snapping back to reality. “No, uh, yeah, that’s me.”
An awkward silence settled between the two of them, the only sound coming from the ebbs and flows of the nearby lake. It was eventually broken by Wicked Twister.
“…Well, I just wanted to come say hi since the park’s closed, but a little birdie told me that the gals are planning a welcome bash for me. You wanna come with?”
Magnum blinked away couple of times and fell into an easy smile. “Sure.”
-
The party went about the same as any other welcome bash at the Point. Mean Streak had a little too much to drink. Gemini held her hair while she somehow vomited and cried at the same time. Iron Dragon spent the entire party cheating at Poker, much to Demon Drop’s outrage (despite Dragon’s known cheating, Demon still played with her for some reason. She ended up flipping the table.)
It was tradition for everyone present at the party to take a photo together on the beach as a way to remember the new coaster. Twister’s welcome photo was no different, but in this one, if you looked very closely at Magnum’s eyes, you would notice that she was not looking at the camera. No, she was instead looking directly at Twister, completely infatuated with the new arrival.
***
March 19, 2006
Wicked Twister, as Magnum had learned, loved taking pictures.
She had about three Polaroids for every minor event she had ever experienced, and she kept them in little labeled boxes for the corresponding year it was taken, with sprawling captions written on the backs. However, select photos got the privilege of being added into scrapbooks, particularly those that corresponded to major happenings. One such scrapbook was a chunky one with a red cover entitled “Us.” This one was filled solely with pictures of Magnum and Twister together across the almost three years they had known each other. From their first meeting to their first date to what Magnum had for breakfast that morning, Wicked Twister had meticulously documented their relationship in this hefty scrapbook.
So when the time came to pick out a new scrapbook for the second volume of “Us,” Magnum XL-200 and Wicked Twister set out to their local Pat Catan’s to locate the new home for their future photos. As they perused the seemingly endless aisles, Wicked Twister picked up a book with a sunset theme, its cover sprawling with orange, yellow, and white clouds
“This one reminds me of you.”
Twister, despite her extroverted nature, always condensed her speech into exactly what she meant when she was relaxed. Nothing more, nothing less.
Magnum eyes settled on the book held in her partner’s hand, eyes tracing the contours of the skyline and fluffy clouds.
“How so? I mean, I’m not the one who literally has clouds bundle around her head.”
It’s true. Wicked Twister collected clouds around her head when she didn’t move for a while. It was just something that kind of happened, thanks to her height and theming. A similar thing happened to her half-sister Mean Streak, only with thunder clouds instead of mini tornadoes.
“Your hairclips. They look like a rocket taking off. They’re really cute.”
This remark instantly had Magnum’s face heating up faster than the peninsula in the summer, a light red dusting her face.
“Oh, well- I suppose that… um, does make sense… you think they’re cute?”
“Yeah,” Twister said with a contented smile on her face as she watched her girlfriend practly melt into the linoleum below them. “I really do.”
Magnum averted her eyes, embarrassment coating her expression. “… Let’s get this one then.”
The first photo in the second edition of “Us,” as it would turn out, would be of the very beach that Magnum and Twister met on. Magnum liked that picture.
***
November 29, 2011
Magnum XL-200 and Wicked Twister’s Wedding Day
Magnum could not remember most of the early half of her wedding day, to be quite honest. It was primarily filled with frantic planning and stress (it was the Point’s first and only wedding to date, after all), and she mostly blocked it out right up until she walked down the aisle. Magnum had not seen Wicked Twister since last night, with her partner’s half-mother, Blue Streak, barring her from even being in the same building as the bride to be. However, within these twelve hours, she had missed her fiancé more than words could even begin to describe.
Magnum was hastily readjusting her bowtie and hair for the thousandth time when she got a discrete knock at her door. She glanced through the peephole to find her partner, in full makeup and hair but still in her jacket, trying to get in.
“Open up!” she hissed. “Before Blue locks me in that damn dressing room again!”
Magnum didn’t need to be told twice and hastily opened the door, dropping the comb in her hand as she fumbled with the knob.
“Oh thank god, I thought I’d never get to see you again.”
Magnum wrapped her arms around her future wife’s neck, giving her a peck on the cheek as the grey-haired woman giggled. “Love, we get married in two hours. You would have seen me eventually.”
“Yes, but I couldn’t wait! It gets so boring having an old hag fussing over you while your half-sister argues with a florist over the phone for an entire hour.”
“Don’t talk about your half-mother like tha- wait, why was Mean Streak arguing on the phone?”
“Apparently the flower shop forgot one of the arrangements for the pews and she’s threatening to sue.”
“Over a single bouquet?”
“Yup,” Wicked Twister said with a popped p. “I will never understand that woman. Always finding something to say or do, for better or for worse.”
“You said it,” Magnum mumbled as she settled herself in her partner’s lap. “Shouldn’t you be putting on your dress right about now?”
“Yeah, but I wanted to pay you a visit first before I really wasn’t allowed to. The dress can wait, but I can’t.”
Magnum sighed as she slowly removed herself from her bride’s embrace, moving her hands to Twister’s face as she cupped her cheeks like her head was made of the finest china.
“As much as I love you and your company, you really do need to go. Blue has most certainly realized you’re gone by now, and she’ll find a way to blame me for it.”
Wicked Twister looked up at Magnum with nothing short of the look of a wet cat as she slowly stood. “…Why must you be so responsible all of the damn time?”
“Because otherwise your unruly ass would have been six feet off the pier five years ago.”
“Alright, I’ll go. But first…”
Wicked Twister leaned in for a kiss, but Magnum put a single finger to her lover’s mouth instead, almost as if shushing her.
“No. The only things that will accomplish are me ruining your makeup and not letting you leave. Now go.”
At this, Wicked Twister just smiled and left the room, the only evidence of her ever being there being her foundation residue lightly staining Magnum’s temple.
-
Their wedding album ending up being just under two volumes long with pictures for just about everything and everyone. Magnum’s personal favorites consisted of their vows, the cake cutting (Wicked Twister flicked one of the icing clouds onto Magnum’s face in one of the photos, the betrayal!), and the flower toss. Top Thrill Dragster hoisted Millie up by the waist and she ended up almost falling on account of Mantis accidentally tripping the poor strata. Thankfully, no one was hurt and Millenium Force practically screamed from excitement as she clutched the bouquet in her hands.
***
September 6, 2021
R.I.P. Wicked Twister. Intamin, 2002-2021. Beloved wife, daughter, mother, and friend.
These photos had no album. Instead, they were stuffed inside a small shoebox along with dried flowers and stale taffies. Hidden memories of the most painful day of Magnum’s life– the day her wife was taken from her.
September 6 marked the last day that Wicked Twister was on this earth. After her last rides of the day, a funeral was held by the park gate as was customary for the attractions. A last goodbye before she was scrapped and cast away like a broken doll.
Wicked Twister looked so beautiful up there in her casket. She always looked so very beautiful to Magnum.
Neither Pipe Scream nor Magnum cried when she was gone. They silently stood by her body, their grief subdued but palpable nonetheless. Like mother, like daughter, one could suppose.
Magnum took no photos of the body. They were too painful to remember. She would much rather remember her wife as the woman she was alive than she was dead, as she said during her elegy. Instead, she took photos of the surrounding service. No one questioned it. It’s what Wicked Twister would have wanted.
Aside from the words given at the start of the funeral, Magnum did not utter a single sentence the entire proceeding. She dared not think or move, lest the entire experience become real in her mind.
She did, however, press the flowers held so carefully in her wife’s hands. They were lilies of the valley, tall and spiraling, just like her. They resided in a small tin in the shoebox alongside a jar of stale saltwater taffies she collected from the funeral home, a small piece of wood she chipped gently off the casket, and the funeral CD they showed during the viewing.
The most important photo by far in this box was the picture of the small headstone they erected right where Wicked Twister used to reside, right on the Lakeside Midway where she worked and lived. Once a week, every week since then, Magnum could be found walking along the beach, sometimes with Pipe Scream in tow, down to the midway to watch the ebbs and flows of Lake Erie with the woman they loved.
They never said anything. They didn’t need to.
***
Magnum closed up the albums and shoebox with a sigh. The early hours of morning were upon them, and she still had a job to do. No amount of mourning would change that.
Wiping tears she didn’t know fell from her eyes, Magnum XL-200 began yet another day at Cedar Point.