"I'm not a doughnut. I can't even eat them." Dravius snorted, flopping onto his side and grinning up at Maya. The tall Co-Master's mood swings were like to give people whiplash, but at least he cheeered up quickly, as he was smiling hugely and he pushed himself up on his elbow, letting out a short laugh as the fluffy covering fell over his head, the white pillowed surface piling on his shoulders. The man shook his head, his shock of dark hair distinct against the duvet. "No, I'm alright. I'm not the 'just almost died' party in this situation." He used air quotes, laughing and scooting away from Maya's prodding, then standing up, ducking instinctivley, then straightening up, the top of his mussed hair just a few inches from the ceiling. Draivus laughed quietly, batting at the young woman's still poking fingers, raising an eyebrow.

"I guess I can go with Raphael," The Co-Master folded his legs on top of one another in the chair, leaning to put his elbows on his knees and look at the butterfly-winged girl across from him. "I need all new everything. It'll take me a while to replace all the instruments." He looked thoughtful, then leaned back against the backing of the chair, wrapping the duvet around his shoulders, toes poking out over the edge of the peice of furniture he was sitting in. "I have a feeling you're up to something. You get this look on your face, Raphael always called it 'The cat who ate the canary'..." Dravius gave a wolfish smile, sticking the corner of a chocolate covered pretzel in his mouth and then searching his pockets, pulling out the marbled vial of ink that he had tucked there earlier, then holding it up to the dim electric light on the van.

The light illuminated the creases of white throughout the black ink, and the CO-Master took a thin brush from a pocket and gently dipped the tip into the ink, leanin over the side of the chair to ink something in the shadows of the furniture. The darkly shimmering ink spelled out lyrics from a song, proclaiming, "One million and one thousand things are screaming in my head, and I can't seem to forget, can't stop thinking about you. I could ride across the sky in a bicycle built for two. Could you teach me how to ride, like you taught me how to feel alive?" in the male's spiky, scrawling, meandering handwriting, slanted upwards as if the words wanted to rise. Dravius nodded and sat back in the chair, settling in with his long frame folded to fit in the chair, eyelids lowering, before his breathing deepened and he snuggled his head into the corner of the chair and fell asleep, an unusually deep one at that, his pale skin almost seeming to glow in the dimness.

The morning after, as it usually was for the Majikus, was an early one. The only exception to this was show nights, in which the late finishing hours usually meant a late morning for the members the following day. Save of course, for those who chose to hit the sack before the performances ended, or even started in some cases. So there was always the select few who woke pretty much before everyone else.

Raphael, who had been one of the early risers, sat outside his van on the small set of stairs that resided just outside the door, sifting through a number of papers that held information about the performing members. He'd ensured that the members who had been planning to take part in last night's show were moved to tonight's, except for the one performing member who had been bitten yesterday. Although, admittedly, she seemed perfectly fine today, he had suggested she swap her slot with a member who was performing tomorrow night, which seemed to be fine with her.

Yawning, Raphael straightened the papers he held on a stair, before pushing himself to his feet and heading into the cool shade of his van. Despite it being early morning, the weather was proving, again, to be incredibly warm, and no doubt it was likely to only get hotter as the day wore on.

Sliding the papers onto his desk, the Ring-Master quickly double checked performance times and other such things, before heading back outside and re-seating himself on the stairs, waiting on the arrival of Dravius. He'd already spoken to Julian earlier that morning, asking the Sword-Master to deal with the minor runnings of the place until he returned from his promised trip into town. Julian, naturally, had no objections to doing it, though it wasn't a particularly difficult thing for him to do in the first place. The members usually did what he asked as soon as he asked it. Probably something to do with the way he looked at them otherwise.

The few members who had been keeping watch throughout the night had retired to their beds by this point, to be replaced with other members who had also offered to take up the post of security within and outside the Circus grounds. Raphael himself was debating whether or not he should invoke his own ability to heighten the strength of the security. The problem there was his inability to keep up two, very complicated illusions at once. He would probably have to forego his perfomances if he chose to use his illusions elsewhere.

Sighing through his nose, the tall blonde folded his arms behind his head, leaning gently against the side of the door and watching a couple of nearby members without any real attention. The current level of security would be just fine, he silently as.sessed, considering the sheer range of abilities now in place to safeguard the grounds.

Yawning again, Raphael inhaled slowly, waving in response to a few pas.sing members as they greeted him good morning before holding a hand over his eyes. It really was rather warm out here.

Nylat knew it was going to be a bad day from the start. To begin with, she'd been plauged with nightmares about before. She hated it when she dreamed about them and there. It happened rarely, but it had happened after her run-in with Jevak, and now, after meeting Zyano. She guessed it was just meeting another hybrid brought the memories back up. Memories that she buried so deep she'd thought she'd forgotten. But she couldn't just erase eleven years of her life. That was her problem.

To add to her already-grumpy night, she kept waking up, trying to shake the nightmares, trying to slip into something more peaceful when she slept. But that didn't work. Then, when she finally did wake up, her side was killing her. Probably from all of her running around the day before, and then the restless night. She scratched at her side wealky, then buried herself in her blankets, groaning, her tail the only part of her visible.

When Kioko greeted her, she murmured something in a cat language, then grumbled, her reply muffled. "What's so good about this morning?" She flopped over on her side, still wrapped up in her blankets, and nosed her head out, shaking off the cloth that covered her eyes so she could look at Kioko. "Can I just sleep all day? It would be better than trying to face the world--No, I can't do that. Gotta be the peppy little hybrid everyone knows and loves." Her tone was harsh, and she slipped into the rough tones of wolf often, as well as the smooth dialect of fox. She sounded disgusted at the fact of acting happy, but she stood, shaking off the rest of her bedding, then sat, licking her side, wincing every time she crossed one of her scars.

Dravius had spent an unusually restful night folded up in the large chair next to Maya's bed, muttering in his sleep and generally managing to twist the duvet around him until only his face from the nose down was visible. He eventually awoke with a bit of a start, disoriented at the brightness of the van, the insects that had perched on the chair over night scattering from their sleeping places. The tall man unfolded himself with a series of cracks, blinking at Maya sleeping on top of the rather large butterfly he had made for her only a day before. The man laughed quietly and pulled a slip of paper out of his pocket and scribbled a note stating that he'd started into town with Raphael, and gently and carefully balanced the note on top of the young woman's head.

He ducked into Maya's bathroom to grab his now-dry shirt and pull it on, pushing the huge sleeves over his elbows and padding out of the van in barefeet, blinking in the early morning sun. Dravius was usually an early riser due to the fact that he was an awful sleeper. It was fairly late for him, as the sun was already hovering well about the horizon, and he could tell that it was going to be a wickedly hot day.

The Co-Master shaded his eyes and looked for Raphael, finaly just walking in a stright line towards his friend's van, blinking quickly. He looked rather groggy, his hair poking up in the back from rubbing against the back of the chair. Dravius grinned when he caught sight of the blond Ringmaster, waving and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Mmmmhi." He mumbled, yawning hugely. "Why'd Maya ask you to go shopping with me?" He asked, tilting his head to the side. He could tell that Maya hadn't just been asking Raphael about members, and that was his next best as.sumption. He yawned again, covering his gaping mouth with a pale hand. "She looked like she was up to something, and frankly it makes me nervous." He laughed quietly and grinned at Raphael, blinking lazily in the strong sun. "Bound to be hot, nnn?" He asked, equally lazily, smiling lopsidedly.

Dravius gave Raphael a blank stare at his "Sleeping Beauty" comment. Wasn't Sleeping Beauty that woman in the pink dress in those disney movies? He shook his head and concentrated back on what the shorter male was saying, then responding rather sluggishly with, "Oh, I suppose that makes enough sense." He yawned right after his sentence was completed, still looking rather bleary. "I got up, like, five minutes ago. I'm still a bit....out of it." He explained, rubbing his eyes with both hands. "Mmmyes. Early to go, early to get back, no?" He stretched his arms above his head with a grunt, still getting the vague suspicion that Maya was up to something, but, at the moment he was too lazy to be obstinate enough to investigate.

"Yeah. I wasn't planning to haul a dozen instruments back," Dravius snorted at Raphael and began marching rather spiritedly towards down, hair still askew in the back. The town was not all that far away, a five minute walk at the most, although the change form gra.ss under his feet to stright concrete was a bit abrupt for Dravius, and he illiceted more than a few suspicious looks from some townspeople, who apparantly didn't appreciate the late cancellation of last night's show. The shoestore, only a few feet away, was were Dravius first hopped into, sifting through the huge wall of shoe boxes to tug out shiny new red converse, in a size nine, and held them up with an examining eye. He really only needed one pair of shoes, considering that he almost never bothered to wear them. He snorted and continued poking through the many shoes, humming the same tune he had been the day before, whose tune happened to be the one to the words he had written on Maya's wall, reaching out the reach the very top of the wall of boxes, tognue poking out slightly in concentration. He rebuked any attempts by the overly-friendly male shopwroker, insisting he didn't need any help finding shoes, and looking a bit skeptical. With two pairs on converse, one white and one red, he settled them on the counter and paid quickly, saying to Raphael, "Done with shoes, at least."

"Nope, no black this time. Trying not to be as depressing or scary. People always seem to be scared of me. Maybe less black will help." Draivus shrugged and paid quickly. He slid the boxes under one arm and grinned at his friend, then letting a slightly confused ex
pression come over his face. "Demonstration?" He coughed quietly, looking at the surrounding people. "That's true. I hate having people mad at me..." He trailed off, looking slightly worried. "We could do it. I suppose." He shifted his feet and stepped outside the door, blinking in the blazing sunlight. Bloody hot already.

Dravius set his shoeboxes down next to the shoestore, and reached into the box for a moment, coming up with a long white shoelace. He also fished several small, darkly varnished boxes lined on the inside with glas.s from his pockets, full of a bright blue liqiud that was actually a strong antiseptic. He dipped the shoelace in the antiseptic, watching the cloth fizz slightly, then dipped a long, wickedly pointed skewer in the strong-smelling stuff. He was still humming that tune as he prepared four more metal rods, then stood up with them inbetween his fingers, and stuck his tongue out to it's full, unnatural length, tying the shoelace onto the end of the skewer.

Picking a spot on the bottom of his purple tongue, he gently pressed the skewer to the dark flesh, suddenly shoving hard enough to travel through the entire height of his tongue, pulling the fiber shoelace after it, untying it and pressing it to the side of his jaw, calmly twisting the metal through his face, poking it out on the other side of his face, protruding just above his bottom set of teeth. More than a few people stopped and stared with slight looks of revulsion and fascination as the tall male worked another peice of metal through the skin between his bad eye and his nose. He was still humming, the shoelace snaking out of one side of his mouth. With all five skewers in his face, Dravius sterilized a needle and a length of thread and started sewing something up the length of his forearm with short, prescise strokes. He was completely relaxed, eyes slightly hooded as people gathered around. The word "THE" had already been embroidered on his flesh, with an "M" forming swiftly.

Dravius had quietly gone on with his embroidering, although he was getting a terrible itching sensation on the surface of his tongue. Probably from the cloth. He flicked his eyes to Raphael for a second, a brief smile making the skewers twtitch. He had no visible reaction to the abrupt scenery change, blinking once very slowly and taking the place in. It seemed vaugely familiar. It was probably stolen from something, if any other towns were a judge. He snorted at the shrieking townspeople, biting the thread that had completed the name of the Circus on his forearm in blood red thread. Uff. Why did Raphael pick somewhere so hot? He wasn't exactly dressed appropriately for it. Shoving his sleeves up even farther, the tall male sighed internally. Turning his head to his slightly shorter friend, and returned his short grin, his with the bright white shoelace still snaking out from his sharp teeth.

Dravius snorted again when Raphael moved on, raising an eyebrow at the still as.sembled crowd. "No, no, I'll just march around with skewers through my face. Better not give me any time to pull them out or say, stitch them up, you twit." He called teasingly, wrapping the shoelace around his fingers and giving it a sharp tug. It came out slick with blood, and a few of the more squeamish townspeople let out small screams as he stuck the length of cloth in his pocket and eased a skewer out of one side of his face, other hand ready with thin medical thread and a suture. His stitching was so swift the blood barely had anytime to start ozzing out of the wound befrore it was stitched up, on both the outside and inside of Dravius' cheek.

The other skewers went the same way, and the Co-Master worked his jaw back and forth. He hadn't bothered to stitch up the hole in his tongue, so a thin trickle of red was working it's way from either side of his mouth. "Well then, pip pip cheerio and all that." He said quickly, pivoting on his heel and walking away with both pairs of shoes, quickly catching up with his friend and shoving him to the side, snorting, "Gee, no, thanks for waiting up." He flicke dhis head to get a lock of hair out of his eyes and raised his eyebrows at Raphael, grinning hugely.

The entire process of recreating Dravius' holed floor didn't actually take all that long, despite the sheer of holes needing to be drilled into the dark wood. Clarisse, who had memorized the nail pattern from a mere glance, had had most of the spaces drilled in a short space of time with both Maya's and Zephyre's as.sistance.

While the new floor stood outside the van, Clarisse went on to completely remove the old, ruined, paint spattered floor, as Zephyre suggested going to find and retrieve the new furniture and wardrobe doors, as well as a new bed frame and other bits and bobs, such as the candles and whatever else.Maya watched the blonde leave, about to follow and help, before catching sight of the oncoming Kioko.

She looked momentarily surprised, then smiled hugely before running up to the younger girl. "Hey, Kioko!... Where's Nylat?" She asked, stopping to look over the pyro's shoulder. She had thought the hybrid would have come along with Kioko, but going by how she looked this morning, the butterfly hadn't been too sure about her showing up. She sincerely hoped she would, though.

Sighing through her nose, she looked back at Kioko and smile again, a warm, reas.suring sort of ex
pression on her face. "Come on," She said, hugging the girl briefly before gently taking hold of one of the pyro's hands, careful not to pull in case she'd taken hold of the previously injured arm. Maya had still remembered what she'd been told, and she didn't particularly want to accidentally agitate the girl's bruises, having known exactly how she felt.

"We've done the floor." She pointed out, smiling brightly at the pyro over her shoulder. "Clarisse is going to fit it once she gets the old stuff out. And the outside is done, too, more or less. Zephyre's gone to search for furniture." The butterfly stopped outside the van, smiling at the now smooth metal before brushing wood dust from her black cargo-style capris; Probably due to when she'd helped drill those darn floor holes. Pausing, she looked thoughtful for a moment, trying to count things off the list of "to do" before walking over to the black bucket of paint. She brought it back, then gently placed it on the floor beside the van.

The outside was almost done, thanks to Zephyre and his ability, so all that needed doing on this end was the painting. The inside needed a lot more work, though most of that was being completed with the introduction of the new floor and a few new wall panels. The walls weren't so bad... 'Cept for they needed repainting. And then, there was only the furniture to go.

Feeling like they were finally getting somewhere, Maya very gently eased the lid off the bucket, then looked at the van. "If you want..." She murmered, standing straight and smiled widely at Kioko. "You can help paint the outside?... I don't want you to hurt your arm too much by pulling things around... Not unless you want to and you feel you can. I'd like to help Clarisse with sorting out the inside, then I can help you."

Maya looked at the bucket, then walked off only to return with a couple of brushes. "I know it'll take time." She murmered, looking somewhat sadly at the younger girl, before bending slightly to dip the brush in the black paint, catching sight of the little marks on her ankle that had almost been fatal. "It's not easy to forget some things. But being busy means we have less time to think about it, right?" She added, standing straight and holding the brush out to Kioko, the orange gauze wrapped firmly around her healing wrist bright in the light. "It'll get better. Promise."

~~~

Nylat had remained silent until Maya had left, and had remained where she was when Kioko had left, acknowledging her with a flick of her tail. She stared at the floor, debating on whether or not to follow. Finally, with a sigh, she pulled herself to her feet. She grimaced as she stood up on her back feet, pushing open te door. She stepped out, snapping the door shut with her back feet. Of course, by now her side was killing her, so she just sat outside for a short while, until the pain subsided into a dull throb. Then she got back up and started off toward Dravius's van, meandering at a clam pace, not paying attention to anything around her, not even noticing Erik and Zyano as she passed them. When she caught sight of Maya and Kioko panting the van, she grinned to herself, then summoned up what energy she had and dashed forward, dipping her tail in the paint as she passed and jumping up on top of the van, flicking her paint-coated tail over the side of the van. "Miss me?" She grinned, looking back over her shoulder at the two, letting the slight flash of pain in hr side subside.

~~

Kanec yawned, displaying unnaturally sharp teeth, two long fangs the crown of them all. He'd wken up extremely early that morning and moved onto the roof of his van, falling asleep as a sabertoothed tiger. However, one thing had changed since he'd fallen asleep. He hadn't fallen asleep with Daniel leaning against him, but here he was. Kanec sighed, slipping out from under the boy, careful to not wae him as he gently lowered him to the roof, jumping to the ground. Under other circumstances, or with any other kid, he's have been morecareful about leaving him alone, but Daniel had yet to run off and not come back, and he'd taken care of himself for years. So he didn't mind leaving him alone. Anyways, he had his kitten and rat to take care of him. They seemed to do pretty well in guiding him.

He shifted into his 'normal' self, shrugging his shoulders a few times before taking off, wheeling a few times to stretch his wings before shifting into a bald eagle, flying higher with stronger wingbeats. He then glided on the wind currents, just enjoying the warm air and the updrafts it created.

"I could call you worse, but May always tells me not to swear." Dravius shot back, ruffling Raphael's hair into tangles at the top of his head with one hand. "Like you can carry me. I might be light, but you make up with that with being weak." He teased, scrubbing the blood off of his face with his wrist, shaking his sleeves over his hands and sneezing violently, blinking hard after it.

"Nnn. I must be allergic to something," Dravius muttered, shaking his head like a wet dog and looking back at Raphael. "Yeah, a little uncomfortable in heat...." He echoed. "You're probably right. Also need to get more hats. They even ripped those to shreds. Y'know, I'm REALLY not looking foreward to starting to clean up my van." The tall male sighed, sticking his hands in his pocket and pulling out his sweets box, stuffing another chocolate covered pretzel in his mouth.

Dravius followed Raphael's gaze to the shop window, immediately drawn to some of the shirts in the top corner of the window. He grinned and nodded, ducking in and quickly collecting a large heap of clothing ranging from his usual black cargo pants to t-shirts in a variety of colours. All this took him maybe fifteen minutes, and he dumped the clothing on the sales counter, staring at Raphael. "Didn't you say you needed something?" He blinked once and paid, watching the teller place items into a large bag, which he hefted and slipped his shoes in, turning back towards the door and pausing on his way out. "We should head back. I feel like I should check on Maya." He looked slightly confused, batting an insect away from his face with a free hand.