#cdf!open

[ partner :: open ]

Emrys wasn’t one to usually stay cooped up. He liked people, liked making friends, and genuinely just enjoyed being around groups of people -- especially in the circus setting. Now that it was dark and the performances were in full swing, he was walking through the crowds, giving people small shadow shows. His tent for performances was closed down for the rest of the night, some kid had puked everywhere from overeating junk food so it was currently being sanitized. He had been told to take the night off, but he figured he could at least be of use elsewhere.

Currently he found himself surrounded by children, looking at him with what he could only describe as ‘sparkling anime eyes’. The arm movements he made to look like he was controlling the shadows was absolutely unneccessary, but the children seemed to love it. He couldn’t help but grin as he told the story of the tortoise and the hare in his best Japanese, manipulating the shadows to show it. He had attracted quite the crowd while doing so, but he didn’t mind. The kids seemed to love it.

When the story ended, laughter and clapping filled the air around him and he bowed before laughing and thanking them in Japanese. They called for another story, and he quickly launched into Red Riding hood. Finally, after that and Goldilocks and the Three bears, he managed to pull away from the crowd of kids (much to their apparent dismay). He sighed in relief as he walked to one of the snack booths, getting a water bottle from the kid who ran the booth before disappearing behind it to take a small break. He leaned against the wooden side, sighing and closing his eyes, a small smile on his face.

[ partner :: open ]

Not a lot of the members of the circus was aware of it, but Somi had a massive alcohol problem. Nearly every early morning after performances were over and everyone was going to sleep, Somi could be found in the back office part of the medical tent with a bottle in her hand. Functioning Alcoholic was what Emrys called her, though he tended to keep that to himself. That was where somi found herself now, hat from her Ringmaster costume thrown to the ground next to her, an empty bottle of vodka (that she had started the night before) sitting on her desk with another nearly empty one in her hand.

She was leaning back in the chair, head hanging back as she stared at the roof of the tent, trying to rid herself of any possible thought. Her face was flushed and she was obviously drunk, as clear emotion showed on her face -- alcohol being one of the few things that could bring it to the surface.

Pain was washing over her as she thought about the times with Hyori, the times she had spent shadowing the woman in her duties running the tent. And now here Somi was, doing it without the woman who had saved her from the streets, not knowing where Hyori could possibly be. She had been abandoned when Hyori had left, no matter how anyone else tried to play it. Somi was usually strong enough, but in those rare moments that she was alone now, she could not bear the pain.

Tears silently slid down her face, half in anger half in grief at the loss of the only parent figure she could remember. While she hid it well, Somi didn’t do well with abandonment. She needed people around her to remind her she wasn’t alone. It was as she was lost in these thoughts that she heard the tent flap move and footsteps. She jumped, dropping her bottle to the ground and knocking the other one off the desk, both of them loudly shattering. “Shit!” She hissed, jumping back to avoid the glass. Of course, she was trapped behind the glass and too drunk to properly get across it without hurting herself. “Hello…? Is someone there?” She called out, slight annoyance in her voice.

[partner :: open ]

While his ability allowed him to travel easily, it was something that he wasn’t incredibly fond of doing. Because of his past experiences and being stuck for as long as he had been, he only did it in times of great need. One thing people didn’t realise happened was when he got nervous, he could actually get stuck half in and half out of a shadow.

As he was at that moment. He frowned, looking around and trying to yank his arm back out of the shadow. He had been trying to get away from some guests, female ones at that, and he had managed to get himself completely stuck between the normal world and his shadow world. “Ahh, I wish Dahye were here...” He muttered, flushing at the thought of his new girlfriend. “She’d be able to help pull me out...”

[ partner :: open]

It had been a particularly cold set of days in the circus, and living in canvas tents made it nearly miserable. Because of this, Somi had made the long walk to town with Emrys and had purchased extra blankets -- and a few extra coats for those who hadn’t shown up with much. She was placing an extra blanket on each bed and offering out the coats to those she saw with none or just a thin one. It was hard work, but Somi took it up without complaint -- it was her job to take care of everyone there, after all.

However, she was not paying very much attention to her own body temperature. She didn’t notice the bumps on her skin or the shivering shown in her hands. She didn’t notice her lips turning purple. Out of everyone she was taking care of, she wasn’t the best at taking care of herself. When she was done handing things out, she caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror and blinked, wishing that fires could safely be allowed on the circus grounds. “I gave away the last jacket too…” She muttered. She was too cold to go look for Alexia or Zelos, and far too cold to walk all the way back to the living quarters. 

[partner :: open ]

Flashback

“Big sister!” The small voice of a young girl called out to her. A face she somehow knew but could not fully remember.

“Bomi!” She could hear her own voice call it. She wasn’t in control of herself, it was like she was looking through the lens while someone else was in control. Another version of her. One that smiled too much. Her hands reached out and picked up the girl who only looked about 5 or 6. She felt the smile on her face as she held the girl, but she saw her torn sleeves and dirty hands. She herself was probably only 11 or 12. Is that what her hands looked like so small? She didn’t like not feeling in control of her own body.

“Big sister, did you find dinner?” She could feel her own smile falter at the young girl’s question. She had a stale loaf of bread, and only enough to feed the young girl.

“Yes, little one. I have something.” She held out the piece of bread and the young girl took it and took a bite before holding it to her. She shook her head and smiled. “I already ate.” Her stomach silently grumbled in response to her lie, but she couldn’t let the girl starve on accord of her own stomach. She put the girl down and she happily munched on the bread even though Somi knew that it couldn’t taste all that good. And suddenly, the happiness changed.

The young girl dropped the bread and started to cough. She placed her hand over her mouth and continued. “Bomi?” She moved up to young girl, kneeling with eyes wide in fright. The girl pulled her hand away from her face, blood on her sleeve.

“My stomach hurts…” The small girl whimpered. She watched as Bomi’s skin started to turn ashen.

She looked down at the bread, eyes widening as she saw the green tint on the inside. Someone had poisoned it and placed it somewhere to be found by people who lived on the street. And she had given it to someone she loved. “Bomi!” She yelled out, as the girl fell over into her arms, coughing and bleeding from the mouth. Somi’s consciousness stared through her own foreign eyes, horrified as the scene played out.

Without another word, she felt warmth surge through the foreign body that she was in. She could feel Bomi’s cells quiver as her own power was being used. This body, it was hers from so long ago. But why was she using her power for something she could not hope to heal? She could only heal physical ailments and poison was entirely chemical. She tried to cry out to herself to stop, but her body would not listen.

“BOMI!” She cried out, intensifying her power. After a few minutes, she felt her body weakening. All sounds around her started to slowly mute and her vision started to darken. In the distance, she saw someone running towards her. Hyori. But that did not stop her from using her abilities. The girl went limp in her arms, the poison taking its course. Somi let out a scream, now one with the foreign body that was also her own. Everything went black and she felt her body hit the ground just after the thud of a small body hitting the ground before her. She heard the faint voice of a woman and then…. Nothing.

Somi had been carrying fabrics to the costume tent, intent on finally rearranging things so that everything could easily be found. After last night’s performances, too many people had come to her complaining that they had to settle for a different costume because theirs had vanished. She was intent on putting everything where it was supposed to go as well as labeling each area for each member so they couldn’t go wrong. It had been a foolproof plan, at least, that was until she felt the tingling and warmth in her head. She had only enough time to gasp before her own vision went blank and the flashbacks started.

He was nervous as he sought out an open empty space. Somi had been kind enough to let him stay while recovering, without doing anything to help out, and he knew he couldn’t let that continue on. It was time for him to start earning his keep.

Once he’d found a large enough area he started undressing. Zelos and Alexia had been kind enough to bring him all new clothes, and he didn’t want to damage any of them. His upper half bare, he shivered slightly in the March air. His back and shoulders were covered in scars- long and thick between his shoulder blades, with small round scars radiating out from there over the rest of his back and shoulders. 

He braced himself as he concentrated. Having a giant pair of wings sprout from seemingly nowhere was an uncomfortable situation at best, and after not having let his wings out in well over a month meant it was incredibly painful. 

He couldn’t stop himself from dropping to his knees, panting through the pain. Iridescent blue feathers covered his wings, and spread along his skin in the exact same pattern as the small circular scars he had- remnants of having plucked those feathers out by hand over and over again in the past. 

Shortly before dinnertime that Thursday night, anyone that was out and about near the kitchen tents would hear a rumble in the woods, the sound of a large truck getting closer and closer. Though there aren’t roads around the campground, the ground is clear enough to allow for the large white truck to make it through and to the circus area.

The truck comes to a stop behind the kitchen tent, and Zelos climbs out first, followed by Alexia and Somi. “We’re back!” he announces happily to the gathering crowd. “And we now have a proper functioning kitchen to cook in!”

(partner :: open)

Paige arrived to the camp grounds late last night and was able to take in the sights and sounds of the circus. It might be cliche but the only word she could use was magical. She had to admit that when you worked in a meta-normal (her own term) circus it was hard to keep your gifts under wraps.  Everyone believed that her silks were shipped in from a special suppler.  They would ask her, ‘Who’s your source?’

‘Do they think they can design something for me?’

‘Do they only work in flowers and vines?  How about Lycra or Teflon.’

‘Are they flame resistant?’

It was funny how everyone wanted her to be a sideshow, but wanted to give up her secrets to build their own success. It didn’t make sense to her that she would want to help them in any way, when they just pushed her to the side to be the star. This was it though, her big break and she wasn’t going to squander it. It was important that she got this right, so she decided to pull up a seat at a picnic table outside and get to work designing her stage. When Paige found out that they were going to be in the northern part of Japan, she decided to do some research to find out what natural flora was going to be in the area.  It would help her maintain her set design and to find last minute seeds in the area.