Sh'Yama barred her teeth, making a low hiss. She had no time for clearing up! Maybe you should ask the one responsible! "You're just going to let him go? You people are unreal." She snarled, shoving hair out of her face so violently it was a wonder she didn't rip it out of her head. "I get enough of this madness at home. Nobody seems to care when something bad happens; it gets pushed under a rug and not addressed properly! This place has more problems than a math book! Boy gets little more than a slap on the knuckles when he has a severe mental breakdown and kills someone!" Growling to herself, Sh'Yama turned, leaving Raphael and Nylat behind as she stomped off into the woods, heading back to camp.

 Zinc whistled low as he walked up. "Somebody is cranky." He said, shoving his hands into his back-pockets. "I'll clear it up, Raphy. Break came back, giant mess causing poofter... So I brought Yama down to keep the peace in case he did something naughty again. We show up and bam! Dravius leaps on him like a pecan from a nut factory. As far as I could tell, he was dead. Break, I mean. Couldn't help but make sure, if you don't mind. You guys are terrible at cleaning up after yourselves. Then he got all stupid and nuts because he's Dravius and he's an idiot and lives here with the rest of you on the funny farm. I was going to hit him with a stick. And still might if you don't address his little problem. Because I doubt you want anyone frolicking around in his nightmares." Zinc shrugged. He'd seen this kind of behavior before. Crazies everywhere. At least some of them were fun to be around, though.

 - - -

He might have said hello, but Dravius was all bloody. And that wasn't good. Spider didn't want to talk to someone who was bloody. Did his sister do that? He had a feeling she didn't; Dravius's head was still attached to his body. Fearing being spotted, Spider did the Spider thing and hid. So who did do that? Ohhh, this is why he minds his own business. He crouched down and pressed his hands to his head, as if to cover his ears from horrible sounds. 

But he heard Maya, and moved his hands a bit. Was he alright? Well, he was all bloody... and even if he couldn't feel pain... Spider didn't think he was alright. Who screamed? Legs shaking, Spider pressed his forehead to his knees and started counting to ten.

Dravius stopped as he heard Maya's voice, giving a strained smile at her question. "I'm okay, just a little shaken, really. Oh, what happened to you splint?" Dravius asked, kneeling on the beach to take Maya's hurt wrist gently in his hands, pulling out a large roll of dark orange gauze, gingerly removing the ruined bandages and replacing them with clean, dusky orange ones. "There you go. Did I do that, or did you?" He asked, brushing the wet sand from his knees with a slight smile. "Ugh, I've got I-don't-know-what on my feet. Ew. I do belive I have part of Break's skull in my heel. Hang on," Dravius murmered, stepping into the surf and stooping to pull a piece of bone from his foot, washing the blood and guts from his legs and feet with a slight sigh.

Spotting a sandcastle, Dravius walked over to and bent down, looking at the rather pretty structure, tilting his head at it. "Huh. Someone was here," Getting back up, Dravius yawned and turned back to Maya, digging his toes into the sand and saying, "Hmmm. That didn't get any better the second time around." Dravius rolled his shoulders one at a time, looking at the glittering stars sitting next to the huge round moon resting in the sky. "That's actually the rather unfortumate way he and I met. I was robbing a jewlrey store at the time, and Raphael saw fit to stop me." Rubbing his palms together, Dravius yawned again, clapping absentmindedly. "Oh, it's getting cold, isn't it?" He asked Maya, rubbing sea water on his face and arms to remove any gore on them before stretching his arms above his head and saying, "I feel like yelling, although my throat is all tingly from screaming."

Humming a quick song, Dravius put his hands in his pockets, looking hugely drowsy as he stood with waves licking his heels. "I could just fall asleep on the beach at this point. Mmmph," Crossing his arms casually, he closed his eyes, yawning once more. "You'll have to tell me later what happened Maya. I have no idea what went down, and that's likely a problem." 

Shaken by the entire experience, Kioko flinched at Yama's angry tirade before the tall girl stormed away.  At least everyone seemed to have forgotten she was there.  Let Zinc deal with the explanations.  He liked being noticed by everyone.  She just wanted to go back to her van and curl up under a blanket for the rest of the night.

She slipped away without saying anything, stumbling in a random direction that she hoped would lead back to the circus vans.  The dazed girl had made it a few yards before everything came crashing back to her.  Gasping for breath, Kioko cupped her hands around her mouth and tried to fight off the incoming panic attack.  Unsuccessful, spots began to bl
ink in front of her eyes as she doubled over, and they were soon replaced by total darkness as she fainted.

---------------------

"What was that?" Disera growled as she jerked awake, startled by Dravius' scream.

"I don't quite know," Selvai murmured, one hand petting her head in a soothing motion.  "But let's not worry ourselves about it.  I'm sure the Circus Master will deal with it if need be." 

"Fiery sort of person, isn't she?" Raphael murmered as he watched Yama storm off, his ex
pression unchanging. Her words did not really bother him, and made no effort to explain, he figured she probably wouldn't understand, anyway. It wasn't nearly that easy. Running a Circus was a task in itself, add people with abilities to that equation, and it simply made that task a hell of a lot more difficult.

Besides, the Ring-Master had not let Dravius get out of it that easily; The pain he had caused was amplified in Dravius's case, simply because the white haired male was not used to it. It was punishment enough, for now. He would, however, address it further, just as soon as he found out what had happened. He couldn't full well ask the Co-Master knowing the kid would be unable to remember.

He sighed through his nose, turning to Zinc with a slight frown as he listened to the bogeyman's account. Alright... Most of that made sense, he supposed. What he didn't get, was why Dravius had, essentially, lost it. Surely facing Break again had not caused that?... Not unless the now retired street performer had made it mentally difficult for him, which suddenly lead Raphael to believe he'd been mistaken about his previous as.sumptions. Break had still had some sort of control over the boy, despite Raphaels efforts to severe the link.

His face darkened considerably at the thought, before he turned on his heel and started walking in the direction Dravius had taken, sliding his hands into his pockets. Best get this out of the way. With any luck, the Circus might actually have a vacation by the time the week was out. He'd barely taken a step away however, when he spotted Kioko leave, and frowned at her obvious strain.

"Zinc," He said, glancing over his shoulder. "Would you do me a favour and make sure Kioko is alright?... Only I do have something to attend to," He gestured off towards the beach, his face still serious and shadowed.

~~~

Maya let loose a very small sigh of relief. Dravius seemed normal, atleast, or so his tone of voice seemed to portray. She paid little attention when Dravius dealt with her ruined splint, shaking her head slightly at his question. "No. That was me," She murmered, looking distractedly at the now orange bandage.

Strangely enough, she wasn't too non-plussed by the Co-Masters revalation of having brought a little bit of Breaks skull with him, though she did shudder slightly at the thought of the city streets and what had taken place. She watched him in silence, listening to his voice and nodding at his statement regarding the temperature. She hadn't really been paying much attention to it, all things considered, but the mere mention brought the cold back in full force and she shivered visibly. "Being hurt never gets any better," She said quietly, looking out over the ocean, before pulling her gaze back to the beach.

The butterfly winged teen stared at the sand for a moment, then looked at Dravius again when he spoke about yelling. She frowned deeply. She may have been mistaken, but there was an awful lot of deja'vu going on today, and she sniffed, bringing her newly gauzed arm back to her face, ignoring the tell-tale ache in her eyes. The whole thing had just got too much, by that point, every emotion and god knows what else crashed over that already brittle dam. She didn't even think as she sprinted towards the Co-Master, using her wings to give her a slight lift before she crashed into him, folding her arms around his neck and hugging him for all the world as though she refused to let him go. Silent tears made their way from Maya's now closed eyes as she clung to the tall, white haired male, her voice quiet and wan as she addressed him with a single word. "Idiot,"

~~~

"Excuse me for a moment," Julian murmered quietly to the group around the fire, his eyes flitting from one face to another. He inclined his head, then turned and walked, following the silent steps of Spider, whom he had seen pas.s without much interest.

He paused when Spider threw himself into the shadows, his eyes glancing fleetingly at the Dravius on the beach, before he turned back to the nervous male. He'd made some quick guesses about what had happened, considering the Ring Master was also absent, and raised his eyebrows before speaking. "You might want to move. People may get the wrong idea if they see you crawling around in the shadows like that," Was all he said before he turned and walked back towards the camps fire. Honestly. Though he had to give credit to the nervous kid for having the strength to walk towards a scene of seeming commotion.

"It would seem our Co-Master was having a lesson," He said blithely, sitting himself by the fire and glancing at Selvai and Disera. "I don't think you need to worry," He then looked pointedly at Jesca and Felix. "My name is Julian, by the way. Pleasure,"

‘Oh,’ Jesca breathed softly, her eyes growing wide as the man’s scream pierced her ear. ‘Felix, what was that…inhuman shriek?’ Glancing over to her friend Jesca’s face fell into a frightened frown. ‘Felix! Oh my goodness! Are you alright?’

Her friend was hunched over with his face screwed up in pain, clawing lightly at his ear. ‘God,’ he hissed, scrunching up his eyes at the sound. ‘My ears…too strong for them. Agh—‘

He could feel that noise pierce his overly-sensitive ears, tribute to his gargoyle form. Even after a few minutes his ears still retained their natural hearing capabilities, and it was killing him. The loudness, the pitch, screaming into his ears at a hundred decibels. Felix couldn’t even discern if it was human.

‘If there is nothing to live for, then why am I here? After all, there seems no need for my presence. Though…I rather do enjoy staying alive for those simple pleasures life gives me. Say Xhamar, what think you? Do you believe that life itself has a meaning? Or that we a simply puppets to a greater purpose.’

Kissing the snake on its head a miniscule, even pixie like, female padded down the road with the air of a person without a purpose to pursue. Flashing her yellowed, feline eyes the girl, for she was still young, favoured the white snake draped about her neck and shoulders a quick smile, revealing white slightly pointed teeth.

‘You my dear, what are you?’ Giving a little laugh the girl listed off the facts about her snake so quickly one would be amazed, and slightly perturbed by the sight. ‘Everyday name Bull snake, of the Animalia kingdom, Chordata phylum, Reptilia cla.ss, Squamta order, Serpentes suborder, Colubridae family, Colubrinae subfamily, genus Pitouphis, species P. catenifer and subspecies P. c. sayi.’ Giving a slight tsk the girl stroked her pet gently. ‘What a magnificent string of names for you dear. Even so, why not for one of the few truly albino bull snakes?’

Sending the sky a forbidding glance as her keen ears picked up minute traces of rumbling the girl heaved a large sigh. ‘Oh Xhamar, at this rate I shall never finish. Look, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…no, 1, 2, 3, and 4. One more to go, then I has a square fifty. Mm…a nice even, round number. Forty-nine isn’t pretty like fifty is.’

Letting out a winsome sigh the girl continued to speak to her snake like one would speak to a mentally deranged a human, not exactly expecting a reply of any sort, but simply because it was an easy way for her to talk without interruption.

‘Oh look!’ she said, brightening. ‘The beach! Ooh…perhaps someone will attack me there and I’ll get fifty!’ She said this with a slightly forbidding tone, leaving one to wonder what she meant by such a statement. ‘And if not,’ she added thoughtfully, ‘I can simply enjoy the beach. After all, there are so many interesting specimens to be found in sea areas.’

—Little While Later—

‘Well, we’ve made it,’ the girl said happily as she walked barefoot onto the light brown sand, squishing the little grains between her toes. It seemed that the sand was slightly wet, but the girl decided that it was to be expected. Especially as she was standing by the shore. A bit obvious, no?

Letting Xhamar down she let the white snake slither off, no doubt to find some poor sea animal to be his prey. The large white snake ate anything edible…or not.

The chains wrapped around her body clanked loudly and made the girl sigh with frustration. ‘I want these off,’ she growled to no one in particular, yanking at the steel collar wrapped around her neck. But again, nothing happened. She simply wasn’t strong enough, and no metalsmith would want to help a girl wrapped up in chains and bandages. Human instinct, she had thought dismissively as she has killed the impertinent metalsmith.

Her frown faded at the remembrance of that certain memory. It had been a clean kill, for after all, she had made sure that his son had been the accused. It had been difficult, but worth it.

"Ah. Hey, leave it alone. I'm runing out of this stuff. That's why it's such a weird colour," Dravius smiled, tucking the orange bandages into his hip pocket, and watched her shiver, then shook his head and replied, "No, I don't suppose it does, but I never expected to feel it again." Scratching the back of his leg with his other foot, Dravius shifted in the sand, the waves moving slowly higher as the tide swished in, bending down to pick up a white and red peice of rock from the shallows, turning the round, smooth stone in his hand, A slight smile still on his face, as he studied the bright lines tracing around the smooth ob
ject.

Looking back as Maya sniffled, his eyes went wide as he was hugged hard, smiling widely as Maya wrapped her thin arms around his neck, feeling her tears streak down the front of his shoulder, as he brought his arms around her to hug her back, sliding her arms under the connection points of her wings and satying to her, "Oh, I know."

[[pfft Julian, Spider can be a creeper if he wants.  it's cool to be ninja. also the urge to have Spider call Julian "buttface" is so tempting, but, he would never do that. D:< blast.

also oh no an other X-named weirdo. hopefully not related to the Blodwen family.]]

 "Yeah, take care of things. Gotcha. And babe, seriously, like you needed to ask me." Zinc waved a hand at Raphael and rolled his eyes before trooping after Kioko. "Oopsey-daisy," He blurted, managing to almost not catch Kioko at all as she fainted. "Poor kids having to be around all this crazy crap. I should open an orphanage. An orphanage for all of the special children." He nodded, shook his head, and tried to remember what you did when someone fainted. In his case, he believed the answer was to take the patient to someone else. He was not a doctor. 

He contemplated just throwing Kioko over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, but he was no barbarian. Bridal style it was. She was so tiny and cute. Zinc wished he had an albino midget that he could carry around everywhere.  Sh'Yama was super angry right now, but she was a woman. And women knew what to do in these situations. Besides they shared a van. Zinc headed in that general-ways.

- - -

Spider balked, barely having time to react before Julian skipped back down to the beach. Oh, yeah, like they'd expect any different from the Spider freak. Sure. Yeah. I'll get right back to being normal. Spider scrunched his face up in a scowl, looking for the clear before mumbling under his breath. "Maybe the wrong idea would be the right idea! Because I'm so dangerous. I might cower in a very threatening manner! Aaaah. Not a spider or anything. Don't give a glance at the dude COVERED IN BLOOD. but yeah the kid whimpering in the shadows. Jeez." 

He slowly put his hand over his mouth. Was it possible that talking to yourself was contagious? That sounded like a sarcastic Zinc tirade. Was Zinc's personality contagious? Spider sure hoped not. Well he certainly wasn't going back to the beach with the rest of the normal people who don't skulk in shadows because they are not Spiders who are deeply concerned about blood-curdling screaming coming from the woods. Where was Zinc? He was the only person around here he could talk to! And he was a pink closet monster! 

But he was sure Zinc had the answers to any and all questions, because Zinc had been acting weird, and because the pink man liked eavesdropping on people. Spider stood, glanced at the beach in memory of his sandcastle which would surely be destroyed without him, and used his very poor stealth skills to get back to his van. Skills which were made even poorer considering his van was quite near the part of the beach he had been lounging on, in full view of a bonfire. Oh well.

[[Spider was skulking around in the bushes. He is now heading to his van, which is situated near the beach.

snakes could be related to the Blodwens. i mean we have spiders. and man what happened to normal names. The next freak I'm making is going to be named Bob or something. Robert Jones.]]

[o-o Youd do that Zombie. xD]

-coughs-

Looking up with a dark look in her eyes at the man who had just pa.ssed nearby. 'Xhamar, who d'you think that is?' she whispered in a low voice, beckoning her snake with one pale long-fingered hand. The snake hissed gently and coiled up her proffered arm, resting his cool white body against her neck.

'Perhaps your right. Maybe he'll be my fiftieth. But he doesn't look dangerous. Well, I suppose I ought to go talk to him now. He looks so interesting. Gangly like a spider.' Giving Spider an appraising glance the girl started up the slope towards the man, taking care to make sure she had an escape route.

'Not that I'll need it,' she confided in Xhamar. 'But then again, he might use it so I'd best figure out where they are.'

Resting her left hand on her right forearm the girl gently ran her fingers over the minute distortion in the cloth wrapped around it. Dipping her fingers skillfully under the cloth the girl gently wrapped her fingers around the knife she kept there.

'Quick and easy,' she muttered to herself, keeping her voice low so the man wouldn't hear. 'No butchering. Makes a frightful mess Akhi.' 

She seemed to be instructing herself as she pulled the knife out swiftly from the bandages wrapped around her arm, tucking it into the palm of her hand.

((If he called Julian buttface he would get a knife to the head. o-o And. Bob. xD! What a name.))

[[what's wrong with Bob Jones? D:<

Julian deserves name calling every once and a while. maybe Zinc will do it. he can shake off a knife to the cranium. spider can not.

man, so many people out to get Spider lately. well, one. but that's a lot in my book. Sh'Yama is having a rough day. Also so is everyone else if Spider is harmed in any way. apocalypse!]]

[Kez~]

[Like I said, the Wild Julian is a vicious creature known for attacking without provocation. o-o]

((Being called buttface IS provocation Det. o-o And oh dear. Someone should save Spider~

And nothing, Zombie. Bob is awesome. Everyone knows that.))

It was that weird feeling you get, the feeling where the hair stood up on the back of you neck. Spider was used to it. Someone was looking at him. And not in a good way. He was very close to Sh'Yama's van. If someone did something stupid... Spider didn't even mind if someone did hurt him... after all, he was just a spider who nobody cared about except two psychopaths he known for a couple weeks. But Sh'Yama would be upset, and she would do something bad. And bad things had a way of getting out of hand if left unchecked. And if Spider wasn't around to tell her NOT to stab someone with a fork (again), what would they do?

[Homg, Spidur is funneh <3]

Co.cking her head to the side the girl bared her teeth in a silent ex
pression of fury. Hissing gently in her ear Xhamar calmed her down before she acted rashyl, the tip of his tongue gently stroking her cheek.

'Right,' she said softly, sighing with regret. 'Self-control.'

Gently lifting the bullsnake off her neck she placed him on the ground, letting him slither away silently to whatever nook or cranny he had found. The girl then steeled herself for the words she was about to say next, which went against her entire being.

'Sir,' she piped up gently, hiding the knife in a fold in her skirt. 'Sir, d'you know where I might be? I think I may be lost.' Biting her lip in an act of maidenly confusion the girl cast her eyes down in a show of modesty, though the murderous look in her eyes said something different. 

'This be the beach, right?' Gods, how the girl hated her voice, All tinkly and bell-like. So high-pitched it was ridiculous...ridiculously easy for her to fool others with it.

Clasping her hands together in a show of anxiety, Akhi lifted her head slowly, a lock of auburn hair covering one of her eyes. Attempting to make herself look winsome was not easy when you hated the world. And the person you were trying to fool.

Ugh...people.

Julian had been sat with his head resting on a hand, staring into the fire without any real attention. He was busy contemplating just what had happened to the Co-Master, despite the fact the kid seemed to be in no real danger. He was still pretty sure Raphael had been involved somehow. Call it intuition.

He glanced fleetingly at Jesca as she spoke, then turned his gaze back to the fire. "I'm afraid I couldn't be sure," He replied, closing his eyes. "Perhaps someone will tell us when they return,"

~~~

Maya snorted quietly at Dravius's last words of agreement, keeping her arms firmly wrapped around his neck, her chin on his shoulder, and her wings flaring slightly when he moved his arms around her. Well, atleast he was brave enough to admit it, she supposed. Not that he'd be saying that if Break had managed to leave with him.

She had no idea how long she held onto him, though it wasn't long, just long enough to give her time to get ahold of herself. After, naturally, she'd soaked the white haired teens shirt with her tears. Hell. She hadn't though this through at all. She'd paid little consideration to Dravius, for all she knew, this was an uncomfortable experience for him.

Opening her eyes over the males shoulder, she sighed through her nose, then pulled herself away from him and took an unsteady step backwards. She was looking somewhat uncertainly at the sand, managing to look sedately ashamed of herself and shivering at the recurring cold. With another quiet sigh, she eventually looked back at him, her ex
pression again sad. She frowned at his smiling face. "I'm glad you find this amusing," She murmered. She shook her head, and brought the heels of her hands to rest over her damp eyes. "You really need to stop doing this to me," She said quietly, referring entirely to Dravius's peculair ability to always end up in potentionally devastating situations. He was probably completely unaware of how much this effected her.

She dropped her arms, then looked him full in the face sadly. "The Majikus wouldn't be all the same without you, you know," She added, her voice subdued.

~~~

Raphael raised an eyebrow at Zinc, watching the pink haired male walk away. Mimicking the bogeymans action and rolling his eyes, before turning away from the woodland clearing, grumbling under his breath as he went.

((Woo. I ran out of juice here. Oh well.))