"Having fun over there," Doku asked Saoirse playfully as she walked into the tent. She had just gotten ready for the day and had decided to go grab a drink with Star hanging around her neck. Doku seemed much more serious than Saoirse and seemed to maintain a cold glare even when she was joking around. Star let out a small hiss as if speaking greetings to Saoirse.
Abel listened to the banter of their comrades, throwing knife after knife into the well-worn wooden tower. Technically, the tower was used for the support of the tent, but they didn't really need that, did they? A bubbly laugh escaped their lips as one knife bounced off the wood and ricocheted back towards their head. Abel caught the knife with their fingertips by the blade, and then hurled it back at the beam with a little more force than truly necessary. The dagger stuck into the wood with a loud THUMP, the noise rendering the tent momentarily silent.
“It is morally inconsequential to hit a witness.”
Oni paused as he realized what he had just said. He then burst into a fit of laughter.
It took him a moment to calm down. He then noticed the black stick fly by Grev and he couldn’t help himself.
“Watch your head!”he called to Silas and Grev. He burst into another fit of laughter.
He stood near the tower Abel was throwing knives, rehearsing as much as watching. When Abel threw a knife a bit too hard, he paused in his laughter, then almost immediately resumed.
“Nice shot! I do believe we have a winner,”he commented with a goofy accent.
~~~~~~~
Eschar sat in his caravan, completing a new play and plotting against Oni. He had kept the guise of friendliness up, just to be sure, but he suspected that Oni already knew something was wrong.
What to do? What to do? How could he get to Oni without the little weasel figuring out his plans?
Eschar sighed, then resumed writing his play. An idea came to his head, one that would fit the play perfectly, and allow him to finally kill his fool rival, Oni.
Saoirse stopped jumping around and grinned at all her fellow performers. She waved her hand high in the air as a greeting, already running to where they had thrown their stick. They were normally pretty energetic, but she was especially hyper when excited for performances. Reaching where her stick landed, they quickly picked it up from the ground and faced Silas.
"Sorry about that, it has a mind of its own! Bad stick!" She said as she pretended to scold the black stick. Turning to the Grev, they bowed her head as if the bird was some sort of god. "Didn't mean to scare you, Grev! I promise I'll make it up to you!" They said to the bird, almost enthusiastically.
"We can have a tea party or something, it'll be way funner than hanging out with this guy!" She quickly added with a giggle before running back to the center of the stage, turning around to stick their tongue out at Silas. These childish antics were pretty normal coming from Saoirse.
High above the ground inside the tent, Peppermint tiptoed across the tightrope, clutching her parasol. She donned a more simple dress than her costume, but it still matched the pink-and-white color scheme of the rest of her clothing. She lifted her parasol up in the air, hitting the button that activated the lighter in the tip, and began spinning it as the fire spread to the edges of the parasol.
The girl lifted one leg off the rope, balancing on tiptoe and one foot, but she didn't dare look down. That, of course was much too scary for her.
As she reached the other platform, she clambered down the ladder, her parasol still alight. She was planning on learning to float down with the parasol, but she would debut that trick at their next stop.
Silas shook his head with a sigh. Grev mimicked him, shaking his own head and letting out an exasperated squawk. He continued to read, tapping his foot on the ground. He didn’t mean to do this; his legs just did it. He stopped once he noticed it, a little nervous that the tapping would annoy one of his coworkers.
Tess started across the tightrope as Peppermint descended. She threw in a few cartwheels until she reached the middle of the rope, then balanced precariously on one foot, looking down at the others below her. She righted herself and noted a trampoline placed conveniently underneath her.
Taking a deep breath, she let herself fall backwards off of the rope, somersaulting in the air, bouncing up off the trampoline with a backflip, and landing on her feet in the sandy ring with a triumphant grin. Of course, she had a few more daring tricks planned for the show. The audience seemed to love the little twists Tess threw into her performances, and who was she to deny them the entertainment they came for?
Ray and Lor were warming up on their own; both were doing stretches and talking back and forth, though Ray was the only one talking verbally. Lor would sign in between stretches. Ray's burned forearms still shifted and rippled with muscle, the burns old enough to have healed over enough by now. Lor also interrupted her stretches with fire, using oil and a match to spew giant bursts of flame. She was careful to aim it away from people. Except for Ray, who was perfectly spaced for the flame to come within a foot, but not burn him.
(Curse you time zonessssss!!!!)
Hearing a lot of loud sounds coming from the performance area, Enrique finally woke up from his little four-hour nap. He yawned as he walked out with Luca tied to a lead. As requested by, well, everyone, Luca had to wear protective wearings on his horns which Enrique was fully against at first but eventually, he accepted it after Luca had gotten used to wearing them.
Walking out, he looked around before walking over to in front of the stand where Silas was sitting, waving to him. “Hellooooo~” he smiled brightly, and tiredly, to him before he turned to the other performers for a moment, not sure if it was okay for him to practice his fight with Luca while the others were training. His own act did take up the entirety of the area after all and he thought it was rude. He stepped closer to Saoirse, smiling politely. “When it’s mi turno, please tell me,” he spoke. “I’ll be just outside with Luca,”
(Ah yes, time zones, the destroyer of rps. Going to sleep now btw)
Saoirse had been watching the other performers practice before cheerfully smiling at Enrique and Luca. "Alrighty, I'll let you know!" His act was one of their favorites to introduce during shows, she loved seeing the crowds' surprised faces when they saw the large bull.
Saoirse was often tempted to get Luca riled up, imagining how thrilling it would be to get chased by a bull, but always realized that doing that would probably end up getting them crushed. So for now, watching him was fun enough. "Hope you and Mr. Bull have fun!" They giggled, referring to Luca by a nickname she liked calling him.
(If I get overboard, just let me know. Oni does a lot of insulting and dirty jokes. He also does curse a bit, but right now he’s being mellow in that regard)
After a moment to watch his surroundings, Oni snickered and walked past the tower while Abel was still stunned. He snatched the dagger from the tower and tucked it away.
He then noticed Enrique and Luca, bursting into laughter.
“There goes the bull rider! And that’s not all he does with him!”he called.
He glanced back at Abel, waiting for the inevitable reaction.
~~~~~~
Eschar added a few more details to his play, then headed for the tent to rehearse. He would act this time, but during the actual performance, it would be real.
A sly smile came to him as he entered the tent, looking for Oni. He overheard the man’s cry, and fought hard to keep his smile up at the sound of irritating man’s voice.
Abel watched the performer with narrowed eyes, a wide grin spreading on his face when Oni had stolen one of his daggers. The knife thrower laughed, tossing a blade in the air before catching it by the handle and hurling it mere millimeters away from Oni's nose. The knife stuck into the bleachers behind the jester, metal blade vibrating from the force. "Watch where you're going, Onny!" Abel laughed, tossing and catching another blade in his hand. "Would be terrible if there was an accident." Abel's smiling expression never wavered, their singular blue pupil contracting in size.
Enrique nodded politely to Saoirse. “Gracias, Saoirse! I will be back at the sound of your call!” He claimed before pulling Luca along, looking at Oni as he passed by him. He was a bit surprised by the sudden knife throw by Abel, but it was all good.
“No idea what you are saying but I’d rather not have Luca’s horns be stained with disgusting blood today,” he smiled innocently despite him actually meaning for it to come out as a threat. “Ten cuidado con lo que deseas, amigo,” with that, he and Luca left the tent, passing by Eschaton on his way out. He was simply going to just sit with Luca outside, maybe upping the stakes of his act by cleaning and sharpening Luca’s beautiful horns. Though… he was definitely not waiting for a certain someone to walk out and read him a poem or a story. No, definitely not.
(snickering. Chaos)
Oni paused at the sight of the knife, then grinned.
“That’s Oni to you! Besides, I get in accidents all the time,”he laughed.
He snatched the dagger that had nearly hit his nose and eyed it for a moment. He then heard Enrique.
“Do you not get a dirty joke? Have you no brains in regard to riding a bull, or does he ride you?”he called to Enrique, completely unfazed by the threat attempt. He then noticed Eschar.
“Well, hello, my dear playwright! What do you have?”
Eschar smirked and shook his head, pointing at Abel. Oni sighed.
“Oh, alright, old man.”
Oni moved over to Abel, holding out the daggers, hilt first.
“Remember, knife thrower, if you are going to cause an accident, don’t announce it. It ruins the fun,”he said, his eyes flashing with mischief.
A big grin then split his face and he snickered.
“But, here you go, ol’ Eschar over there won’t show me his play unless I play nice,”Oni added.
(Um, probably a bad idea here, but uh, how would Enrique feel with Oni giving him a rather obnoxious nickname based on their interactions so far?)
(Enrique is a sweet yandere boi, don’t worry. He won’t be mad, but he’d probably try to hurt Oni ’by accident’ one way or another :)
(Well, the idea was, Oni starts calling him Bull-Humper, and refuses to quit calling him that. Hence the question, because I just want to make sure with both player and character)
(And lol on the by accident)
(Go ahead! Both Enrique and I won’t mind. I just won’t promise anything concerning On’nyosh’s safety from that point on)
(Cool. That’s still funny, and so very typical of Oni. He’s gotten into trouble so many times because of his mouth, lol)
(Edit: Oni is going to start nicknaming people now. I can’t stop laughing, because he’s likely going to get pummeled by everyone!)
Dakota stretched their arms up, working away the sleep that clung to their limbs. They had spent the night and most of the morning with one of their precious lions, Garcon, training him in a new act for their next show. "Good morning, amoureux!" They called into the tent as they walked in, Garcon and another lion, Poulet, close at their heels. "How are all today!" The animal trainer asked in their heavily accented voice, reaching behind them to scratch behind Poulet's ears, the lion purring like a housecat.
(Ooh, I love lions)
(I’m going to be adding a couple more details to Oni… more of a major detail that I completely forgot until now, so yeah. It’ll explain a lot. And to be specific, I added a detail to the end of his personality, and another paragraph in the Other section)
(I kind of feel a bit like a dingbat right now for forgetting it, but it’s one of those ‘subtle but vital’ details. Ugh, such a nightmare sometimes, but anyway)
Silas sighed. It was getting a bit too crowded in here for his liking. He stood up, putting a red slip of paper between the pages where he left off. He began walking, holding out a hand for Grev to hop onto. He began to walk out of the tent, tucking the book under his arm and letting Grev perch on his shoulder. He noticed Enrique and Luca sitting outside, and slowly walked up to Luca to pet him. He didn’t know a ton about mammals, but he knew how to not get attacked by Luca. Silas gave him a gentle pat on the head before waving at Enrique.
“How’s it going?”
Luca huffed out when he was pat but he didn’t attack Silas just because Enrique would be upset at him if he did.
Enrique turned to Silas before smiling brightly. “It is going okay, Silas,” his smile remained the same as he pat the space beside him, wanting Silas to come sit with him. “Free space for you,” by free space he meant the already empty space on the ground. “Grev can sit on Luca.” He smiled, his cheeks slightly flushed. If he was a canine, his tail would probably be wagging vigorously at this point because of how excited he was.
He nodded, sitting down next to him. Grev sat atop one of Luca’s horns. Silas started reading once again, his left foot tapping on the ground.
Enrique peered his head at the book before he frowned. “I can’t read it…” he murmured before he looked at Silas. “Can you read out loud to me what you’re reading?” He asked, smiling brightly before he made himself comforting by laying his head supinely on Silas’ lap. “Don’t mind me, cariño,”
Silas blushed a little, nodding. He opened his book to one of his favorite poems. “This one’s called Antigonish, written by Hughes Mearns in 1899. When I was little, I always thought it was a play on the word antagonist, which means villain, but Antagonish is actually a town in Canada. I’m not sure exactly why Mearns decided to name it that.”
“Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish, I wish he'd go away…
When I came home last night at three
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall
I couldn't see him there at all.”
Grev hopped back onto Silas’ shoulder. He liked mirroring his behavior. Silas wondered if the crow could read the poems, or if he just liked being close to him while he read.
”Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish he'd go away…”
Abel laughed, grabbing the knife from Oni's hand. "It'd certainly be a shame if the surprise was ruined, huh?" They winked at the jester and, without looking, threw the knife into the wood, the dagger completing a perfect circle of knives on the wood.
"Anybody wanna have knives thrown at them?" Abel called, the smile on his face now replaced with a serious expression, eyes narrowed and searching the crew. "And I'm going to need to borrow somebody's fire."
Enrique listened to Silas’ poem, understanding certain parts but for the most part, he was clueless what each part meant. He looked up at the other man with an innocent smile on his face. “Can you tell me what the poem means? I don’t quite understand how to interpret it,” he said, as oblivious as can be which was perfectly normal in his case.
Peppermint climbed up to the tightrope again, deciding to practice jumping off. She clicked the button on her parasol again, and the fire went out.
Tiptoeing to the middle of the rope, she leapt off, twirling in the air and holding her parasol above her. Her fall was slowed, but not enough for her to safely hit the ground, so in midair, she hooked the top of her parasol over the tightrope, dangling from the handle for a moment before unhooking herself from the rope, closing the umbrella as she fell, and landing on the trampoline.
The girl bounced safely to the ground, giggling with glee. “That was fun!”
Ray leapt up to get to work on warming up on trapeze, body arching as he threw himself across the gaps between bars, turning flips and somersaults as he did. Lor continued to warm up on the ground, stretching and blowing fire from her lips, gaze narrowed in concentration.