((Wow.  >_< Almost no one is interacting with my charrie.))

Kioko jumped at the mans' harsh answer as he hurried away.  The action several strands of her strange white hair to fall out of her hood, and she clumsily tried to poke them back into place before the group of people noticed.

"I'm s-sorry," she stammered, embarras.sed and upset.  "I shouldn't have bothered you.  I'll just leave now."    

Ariskye slipped out of her shadow and slunk across the open ground as she padded after Kioko. After a few seconds, she stopped and pounced on the girl's shoe with a small mewl. Her claws were sheathed as she playfully batted at the shoe. And her twin tails lashed around as the deep crimson stripes flashed slightly in the sunlight.

"Prrrow?" she asked in her cat-voice. Human speach had always been difficult for her when she was in her animal forms. Mostly for a reason she couldn't understand.

Kioko blinked in surprise at the strange cat now playing with her shoe string.  The animal was the shape of a house cat, but with twin tails and crimson markings against it's black coat.  Looking back to see if anyone was watching her, she knelt down to stroke its' unusual fur.  

"Hello," she said softly to the animal.  "Do you belong to someone in the circus?"  Kioko wondered if the cat had an owner, and if not, if the people here would mind if she took it with her.  It wasn't often that she found another living creature that wasn't wary of her dark crimson eyes and inhumanly white hair.  It would be nice to be around something that wasn't frightened of her appearance.

[[Meeeeeeeeehhhhhhh.]]

Spider stared owlishly at Chi. It amazed him when people found that odd. His name wasn't Fish. "Mmmmmhmmm." he murmured, though he didn't think that displaying his web spinning prowess would be good, at this current point in time. He tried to keep his attention on the two girls, and he found being able to talk to butterflies very fascinating, but he couldn't help but stare curiously at the van, which had quite a bit of commotion going on. Puppets? Spider didn't like puppets. They scared him.

He turned his attention to the stammering girl. He wondered what she thought was so special under that hood. He had white hair and red eyes too. It was quite common in his family. Even normal people had white hair and red eyes. He knew that. He had read about it in a book. Albinism. Maybe her skin is really sensitive to the sun, perhaps that was why she was hiding.

With a patient sigh he addressed Kioko. "There appears to be a situation, Miss. Please don't be offended. I'm sure, if it wasn't so urgent Mister Dravius or Mister Raphael would have given you a better answer." Though he agreed it was a bit rude she hadn't been acknowledged-- well, Mister Dravius had but he was busy. it just didn't seem very polite to get upset with people just because they didn't have time to talk to you. It was a bit like how Sera usually acted-- though he faked the innocence and shyness that this girl genuinely displayed, and that behavior tried Spider's patience. Which was nearly a bottomless pit.

 He didn't blame her though, sometimes it took courage to talk to a bunch of strangers-- but he would have hoped she would have realized by the time she was up close that they weren't exactly "normal" and had no intention of burning her at the stake for having slightly different pigmentation. He stared at the animal at her feet, and thought with worry that she might take offense to the girl a.ssuming she had an "owner".  Though a bit tired of introducing himself, he continued in a chipper voice. "I am Spider. Who are you?"

Ariskye rolled over onto her back and purred softly as Kioko rubbed her belly fur. Her twin tails swished across the ground. With her own crimson eyes, she stared at Kioko before rubbing her head against the girl's arm. "Mreow," she said as she used her paws to playfully bat at Kioko's arm. Cocking her head, her ears swivelled on her head and she continued to rub her cheek against Kioko's arm. 

This girl was different. But Ariskye liked her.

((Wow.  I didn't notice till Gravys pointed it out how much my charries pic looks like an albino *derp*))

Kioko looked up at the spindly man who had addressed her.  Now that she wasn't trying to hide her face by looking at the ground, she finally managed to notice the others more closely.  It took her by surprise when she saw that he also had bright white hair, along with red irises like herself.  Looking at the girls beside him, she saw that one of them had a pair of what appeared to be butterfly wings growing from her back, while the other had strange ice blue eyes and several black ribbons tied to her right wrist.  Oddities, like herself.  Maybe they wouldn't consider her a freak, like everyone else...

"I'm Kioko," she answered Spider in a soft voice.  "I didn't mean to interrupt your meeting, I'm sorry.  I just thought the circus may still be open." Kioko looked down at the cat that was now rubbing its' head against her forearm.  "I'll leave now, if you want."

[[Hee, don't mind him. Spider's whole family is made up of red-eyed white-haired people, so he doesn't find them odd. He says "albino" but they're not really. They're just all magical, and like looking ethereal, or some such thing.]]

 "Kioko." He said, "All apologies accepted, though you should not apologize to me, as, I do not think you have done me any wrong, yes? And you really should not ask me what I want, because I do not get to say. It is your decision, yes? But I think the Majikus Circus is going to be moving, they're packing up tonight, I believe. Or might have been. They might be delayed now because of... whatever it is that happened."

Knowing things was grand. Spider liked knowing things and being able to answer questions. And it was a very different experience to have someone apologizing to him for once, and he decided he didn't like it very much. It made him feel like he'd gotten really angry and smacked her with a newspaper because she asked something stupid. It made him feel like Sera, and he didn't like being in his cousins shoes. Unless they were Em's. But they were usually hard to walk in. 

Alto growled at Rapheal. "Yes. She's my friend Sara's apprentice, and her adoptive little sister. I would very much like it if she didn't die." he growled. His face grew somber. "Death seems to follow me...." he whispered, gazing sadly down at his friend. He turned to Dravius. "Save her." he whispered. His face was suddenly streaked with agony at the thought of loosing another friend/family. He kept his hand on the wound, but the towel was already turning red. 

Silverbane opened her eyes slightly. Everything was blurred and darkness rimmed her vision. Where was she? What had happened. As she gazed at the aura's, her blindfold still  on, everything was strangely dull. The colors. The colors were fading. She took this as a sign that she was dying. She turned and saw a bright flare of white suddenly appear behind Alto. Sara's ghost looked down at her, worry etched into her face. "Sara....." She rasped. She watched as Alto's black aura flared as he jerked backwards slightly, stunned. 'She's here?" She heard him whisper. "Sara's ghost is here?" Confusion etched his blurring face. She saw a red aura beside Alto and then a different aura. She studied this one. "You can make illusions....." She said, her voice filled with something of awe as she gazed at the Ringmaster's mixed aura. She turned slightly to the red aura. "And you cannot feel pain.... Lucky..." She breathed, smiling ever so slightly. She closed her eyes, breathing slowly.

Ariskye glanced at Maya and cocked her head as her ears flicked forward slightly. Rolling back onto her paws, she slowly padded towards the other girl as she stretched out her neck to sniff Maya's outstreatched hand. Deeming that Maya would not hurt her, she rubbed her cheek against Maya's palm before rasping her sandpaper-like tongue across the other girl's skin. She did want to tell Maya her name, but she knew that even if she tried it'll just come out in a string of meows and purrs. So she kept quiet.

Nylat followed Maya quietly, all but ignoring Alto now. He always seemed to bring some sort of trouble with him. She rather disliked the demon. She had a history of long grudges. Kanec could account firsthand for that. She padded up to the cat, her blue eyes curious. She glanced at the two tails, and the crimson markings. She prodded the cat with her paw, then coughed, trying to remember if she was capable of understanding cats.
No harm in trying.
"What is your name? Go ahead and try to tell me."
She wondered about this cat. Just dirrefent, or maybe another hybrid, like her. Or maybe even another shifter. She didn't think she'd be able to stand another shifter. The large dog growled to herself. She couldn't stand Kanec. Always thinking he was so big and bad because he'd killed a wolf. Big deal. If Nylat hadn't opened up her wounds, she'd have killed him too. And who'd given her the wounds in the first place? ...Exactly. Kanec. So, she was disgusted by his pride. She glanced up at Maya, flicking her tail softly over the tip of one of her wings.
"By the way, I'll talk to you later."

~~

Kanec made no move to question Alto as he left. He still remembered his short fight with the demon from before. Though now, it seemed as if he had it under control. But he had o time to worry about that. He glanced up at the girl in front of him. She seemed slightly unnerved by the appearence of Alto, but seemed to have recovered slightly. Kanec decided to change that. He shifted into his human self, flaring his wings momentarily.
"So, I have noticed you are different...Did you come to join the Circus?"
Fallow kept her eyes down and her hood over her face. He didn't seem too normal--after all, he had just changed. And he had wings, much like her. But, still....
"Uhm...No....I was just...Just going to get some groceries..."
Kanec was slightly confused. A 'freak' who actually fit in? This was too odd to be true. Human nature was to shun the different. He had to keep an eye on her.
"Oh...Okay then. Sorry for stopping you."
He pulled his coat around him and stepped back before flaring his wings and beating them powerfully, then spiraling high into the air. He circled for a bit above her, watching carefully. He noticed that she looked up at him, then at the other members of the Circus that were gathered, and noticed her hesitate before she continued walking. As she walked, he noticed that the few people that walked by seemed to stay as far away from her as possible.
So she doesn't fit in. Then...why's she not wanting to join...?

~~~

Fallow kept walking, ignoring Gale's nagging voice.
Fallow. Don't do this. They're different too. They would accept you.
Leave me alone, Gale. I don't feel like it.
Fallow felt a slight disturbance beside her and was frozen, unable to walk any further.
Fallow. Listen. Do you want to continue living a life ignored? You have lived 11 years like this. Why not stop that life now.
I will not be in a freak show. If I ignore the fact that I'm different, then eventually, others will too.
No. That'll never work. And you know it. What would you rather do? Sit in your house and never see the light of day, or go with them, and fly? The bird pushes the chick out of the nest, and it flies. You've overstayed your time in the nest. I'll give you a shove.
Fallow turned, and grudgingly walked back toward the Circus. She knew she had no choice with Gale around. And she knew that the shifter was stil there, above her. She glanced up, her hood falling back off of her head, and she went to put it back up, but Gale stopped her. Fallow sighed, then tucked her hair behind her ears, and slowly walked toward a small group. The butterfly-winged girl she had seen earlier was there, as well as the large dog. But there was also a two-tailed cat and a girl who seemed to want to hide her features as much as Fallow did. But her sharp sight, probably due to her slitted eyes, caught sight of a renegade bit of white hair that had managed to escape from the confines of the hood. Fallow kept her eyes low,speaking softly.
"I...I've heard this circus takes in stray...oddities....?"
The shifter, as Fallow called him, landed beside her, careful not to hit anyone.
"Decided to come back then, eh? No groceries?"
The large dog, upon which Fallow now saw a mixture of tabby stripes and fox markings, as well as scars, growled sharply and deeply at the shifter, and he gave her a frustrated look before shifting back into a tiger and moving off to the other group. Fallow wondered why they seemed to be the only two who didn't get along.

Feeling a paw prod her side, Ariskye glanced at the creature who did it. Her ears flicked back as she glanced over the large dog wearily. One of her tails flicked slightly as she cocked her head to one side. Maybe this one could understand her cat-voice. Flicking the other tail, she decided to give it a try. "Ariskye Siome," she meowed. But instead of a human voice, she let out a noise that sounded like a cross between a questioning meow and a happy purr.

Dravius was currently inspecting Silver's shoulder,and turned around, where he had placed a heap of medical supplies. Pulling out a rather large syringe, he filled it with anestesia and gently slid the needle under her skin, near her shoulder. "I imagine this will hurt." He said, pulling Alto's hands off the wound and stretching the skin around the puncture. He swore softly, and using the first two fingers of his left hand, stretched the oval hole,using his fingernails to twist a long, wicked looking bullet shell from her shoulder, putting it beside him on the table. Pouring literal amounts of antiseptic fluid onto her shoulder, he snatched up a long, hooked suture. Threading it with thick, dark thread, he made quick, prescise stitches, sewing the evil hole together, leaving a weeping line where the deep puncture once was.

"Her shoulder won't ever be the same, and she'll have a scar, but with luck, she'll live, as long as infection or fever doesn't set in." Dravius said, lifting Silver's upper body, wrapping it with soft white gauze. "I had to use soft thread, so that it didn't rip the skin when I pulled it tight, and I'll have to change the stitches in about two weeks or so." He lay the girl softly on the mattress, leaning back and picking up the long bullet. "Don't know who did it, but they had some serious firepower. This bullet is for a gun meant to bring down venison." Holding the bullet out the Alto, he stood and walked over to the other side of the wagon, shaking his head quickly. Gla.ss tinkled as it rained from his hair, glittering as it fell. "Geez, Alto, do you always end up in here?" He snorted, pulling bits of window out of his arms.

Leaving the van, he walked back to the tent, raining glas.s as he went. "May, Could you get the glas.s oiut of my face?" Dravius asked, looking sheepishly at the girl. "I had to go through the window to stitch a bullet wound." He sat on the bleachers, reducing his height to be about level with Mayanna.

Nylat flicked her ears. She had managed to catch what the cat had said. She as.sumed it was due to her being part cat. She flicked her tail, and laid down, somewhat closer to the cat's height, though she still was much taller.
"And how exactly are you different, little one, aside from being oddly-marked?"
She glanced over at the girl that had come just a few moments ago, and flicked her tail. She seemed different from the others that had joined them over the years. They all seemed to be glad to find a place to fit in. But, this winged girl, she didn't seem pleased about being there. She seemed almost...regretful to be there. The hybrid found this as odd. Nylat resolved to find out why later. She glanced up as Dravius walked past her to Mayanna.
"Oh, did you now? Did it have anything to do with Alto? I caught his scent earlier, and he seems to always end up in your van, Dravius."

~~~

Fallow looked up slightly to see the dog's sharp blue eyes inspecting her. The girl quickly lowered her head, not willing to make eye contact with anyone at the moment. She was, however, very curious. How exactly was everyone different? She knew that some were different by looks, but some, as she looked around, looked almost normal, aside from a slight visual oddity here or there.

The shape-shifter watched as the dog-like creature laid down before her. But Ariskye was still slightly smaller than the creature infront of her. Flicking her ears, she caught what Nylat. "I am a shape-shifter," she meowed, as she sat down on her haunches. She swivelled her ears slightly and picked up other conversations, but none of them seemed rather interesting to follow.

 Maya smiled at the cat, nodding at Nylat as the hybrid mentioned talking to her later. "Alright." She replied, allowing her hand to run along the spine of the crimson marked cat.

Jumping slightly at Dravius' voice, Maya blinked, turning to look at the white haired Co-Master as he lowered himself to her current height. It was strange, having him act almost like his old self, and having him approach like he had had caught her off guard... It had been too long in her opinion since she had seen him this way, and she found herself smiling in spite of his injuries.

She gave the cat one last stroke, then turned to Dravius, proceeding to gently remove the glas.s with as little damage to the skin as possible. "You should probably think before you decide to jump through a window again, you know. Not feeling pain isn't always a good thing." She said with a smile, wiping away a small rivulet of blood from the males face using a small piece of cloth she happened to have in her possession.

~~~

Raphael watched in silence, his arms crossed and a patient frown on his face as Dravius dealt with the girls wounds before turning to look at Alto. "I apologise... But you know first hand just how adept Dravius is. You can trust his skill."

With a reas.suring smile, the blonde haired male glanced around the van, his eyes lingering for a moment on the glittering of the glas.s shards that remained in the window pane. He sighed, then looked back at the girl. "Alto," He said shortly, turning to face the Demon kid once the Co-Master had finished his work. "Why don't you take your friend to Maya's van in a few hours or so, you know which one it is. She'll take care of her for the time being," He sighed. "I don't particularly want to put any more responsibility on Dravius as of yet,"

He smiled with a slight nod, before turning on his heel and following Dravius out of the van, stopping for a moment just outside the door. Raphael glanced up, judging the time to be around noon before strolling towards the little group that resided a good few feet away, glancing between both the old and unrecognisable faces.

He grinned widely, stopping next to Kanec and placing an elbow on the male Shifters shoulder. "Welcome, one and all. I see we have a few extra since I left," He chuckled, looking between the white haired Kioko, the black cat, and the new girl who was looking more than just a little nervous. "My name is Raphael for those of you don't know, Ring Master of this here Circus," He paused, then nodded at Fallow with a small, warm laugh, before addressing her and the other two new faces. "We do indeed. May I ask your names?"

With her attention caught between the talking dog like creature that was currently interacting with the black and red cat, and Maya removing glas.s shards from the white haired mans' face, Kioko almost missed the Ring Master introducing himself as Raphael, and asking the newcomers their names.

She tore her attention away from the odd sights and managed a reply.  "I'm Kioko Fuurin, sir.  It's nice to meet you, Mr. Raphael."  The girl told him in her soft voice.

Sweat trickled down the back of her neck neck under the heavy hood of the red cloak.  Kioko wondered if she should go ahead and just lower it, since alot of the people here also had white hair like herself.  Surely they wouldn't care what she looked like?  Nervously, the girl pulled the hood back, letting  the others see her face clearly for the first time.

((Meh, I figured it was about time she pulled the hood off.))