[I'll reply D8 I'm just..eh. T.T I can't seem to get any energy to post on some of the role-plays I'm part of.]

[>< Posting now I guess. Iunno. :/] 

During most of this conversation -excluding that painfully embarra.ssing moment a few minutes earlier- Violet hadn't done much except for fiddle with the ties on her black sweater and darting her eyes about nervously, flickering from member to member as she strained to recall if Raphael had ever mentioned their names. "Darned memory," she muttered, though her eyes lit up at the prospect of helping out, smiling slightly as Raphael announced that they were going to go help look for the watch. Her mouth twisted slightly as she debated on what to do next. It seemed obvious that this pocket-watch was important to the short, blonde-haired man, and this concerned her. And he was talking to himself. Something about disappointment. "I can help," Violet said slowly, twiddling her thumbs together nervously. "I mean..." The necromancer was at loss for words on how to explain exactly how she could help. Uh...I can raise the dead and send them scurrying around searching for this pocket-watch? Somehow I can't see anyone taking that very graciously, the girl mused. Flushing as she fumbled around for suitable words Violet managed to squeak out rather timidly; "Garrett could help. I mean, I could force him to help. He's not a really gracious kind of person...thing...it?"

It took her a few heartbeats to recall that no one knew who in the world Garrett was, but it was too late to explain herself. I'll let them ask, she decided, setting her jaw firmly. If they don't care, there's no point in going into a huge long-winded story.

((Oh my gooooooooood. I'm so tiiiiired. -Pulls blanket over head-))

"No, not part monkey. There's just somethin' about being able to look up  at the sky through the branches, you know?" Dravius huffed quietly, watching Maya roll her eyes at him. "Well, it wasn't just clear glas.s... it was quite a lot of rather nice colours. And not the whole window. Half, at the most," He poked Maya gently in the shoulder, grinning playfully. "Are you sure? If you're alright with it, we should go back..." He trailed off, rubbing the upper bit of his right arm.

"I'm not being flippant," Dravius took a step back and fell silent, watching Maya with his hands in his pockets. "No, its alright, we'll go." He answered Maya quietly, sitting back onto the bench he had settled on before, and tugged off the bloody cloth, yanking thread and needles out of a pocket. He sewed with a cold sort of prescision, with the look of someone who went through the motions entirely too often. Biting off the end of the thread, and after a quick surgical knot, Dravius tugged a shirt out of the bag on the ground, long sleeved with thumbholes in the sleeves. It was mainly a deep red, with tire tracks circling the torso and arms. Finished, the Co-master swiftly folded his cut shirt quite neatly, and slipped it into the black bag.

"Alright, now we can leave," Dravius murmered, turning back towards the circus, gently taking Maya's hand in his and sighing gently through his nose. His step was shorter and slower than usual, more of an amble than anything. "It looks as if it's going to rain..." He muttered, flicking a hand at the dark grey clouds roiling in the dostance. "That'll be nice," He said, sticking his free hand into his pocket. His guitar thudded gently against his lower back, battered body gleaming darkly in the sunlight.

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

The circus wasn't far, and it didn't take long at all to slip back through the streets, towards the brightly coloured flags and bits of cloth fluttering in the circus grounds. Dravius withdrew his hand from Maya's to cough, adjusting his hat lower on his forehead. He was still wearing the tattered shoes, and his old pants, but somehow the red shirt didn't look new next to his other clothing, already looking frayed around the edges, as if that were possible. The sleeves of the garment ended only a few inches from the end of his long fingers, and the collar was so wide that Dravius had difficulty keeping both thin shoulders covered.

Dravius spotted a head of carmel-coloured hair bobbing about not too far away. The face below the hair was one he recognized, and hadn't seen for quite a bit. "Hey there, Ree." He flashed a grin at the girl, looming a bit over the five-eight woman. "Where you been?" There were still some small darker red splotches around where his stitches are, and he he rubbed his jawline breifly, blinking his ggod eye at Karene.

((Aww. D: *Snuggles Dravvy*))

"Wouldn't surprise me if you were," Maya murmered under her breath after Dravius spoke, a smile playing on her face. "You look enough like a monkey anyway." Snorting quietly in an attempt to keep herself from giggling at him, she glanced off down the street, her ex
pression becoming thoughtful as she watched the townspeople go about their daily business. "And that's understandable."

She smiled over her shoulder at the Co-Master, raising an eyebrow at his next words. She had no idea why he'd gone and highlighted the colour of the glas.s though, she was pretty sure she hadn't mentioned it. With a smile, she shook her head slightly as he continued. "Dravius," She replied, clearly trying not to laugh. "I don't think that's possible. Have you seen yourself?" She returned Dravius' prod with her own. "Your too big to miss half a van window, and I doubt you were paying much attention when you went and jumped through it." 

She grinned at him, then shrugged. "Either way, I don't mind. But you really should sort those out first," The young woman pointed to the wounds on his chest, then frowned slightly at him when he'd mentioned he wasn't being flippant. Of course, he would see it that way. She was pretty certain if he could feel it he'd be singing an entirely different tune. No point in saying so though, she knew Dravius too well. "This isn't a performance, Dravius..." She murmered in reply, her face concerned. "You could have been seriously injured, or worse."

Maya continued to frown slightly at the Co-Master as he decided to head back, watching him as he dealt with his wounds in a practical and practiced manner. She eventually turned her eyes back to the street, watching the people with interest. The place seemed much more pleasant without the presence of those goons, tidy and welcoming. Blinking, the young woman turned her gaze back to the glas.s store, only looking at Dravius when she felt him take her hand. 

"Nice shirt," She smiled, walking alongside him willingly, and glancing skyward when he mentioned the possible rain. It certainly did look that way, though Maya wasn't all too fussed. She didn't really mind wet weather, so long as she could keep her wings out of it. They got somewhat heavy when wet, and having been used to their light and practically non-existant weight, it usually proved somewhat uncomfortable. Still, the change would be pleasant.

~~~

The group of interested bystanders outside the Circus grounds had begun to disperse by the time Kanec arrived, though the majority had remained, and Karene watched the Shifters approach with a slight smile. Her attention almost immediately fell on the young blonde boy and the animals who accompanied him. "We probably will," She replied, watching the kid with an obvious interest and a raised brow. "And I don't know where he is. If he did head to the food van though, he might still be there," She shrugged slightly, then pointed a finger at the blonde kid sat not too far away.

"Kanec?" She asked, frowning slightly. "Who is that?" Before the Shifter had a chance to answer however, a movement caught the womans eye, and her green gaze turned to watch as the Co-Master and Maya approached from towns direction. Well well. It certainly was a pleasant surprise. Karene, afterall, had not seen Dravius since he chose to lock himself in his van eight months ago, it was quite a relief to see him up and about outside show times. As for Maya, well, she was pleasant to see most of the time anyway.

"Why hello there, my dear Co-Master," She replied, smiling at him as the two younger members came to a stop in front of her. "It's nice to see you. Last I knew, you'd condemned yourself to living out your life in isolation, surrounded by rusty nails." She laughed quietly, greeting Maya with a wave of her hand as she did so. The butterfly responded with a smile, crossing her slender arms behind her back. "Welcome back Karene," She responded, smiling at the caramel haired woman. "You certainly took your time, and hi Kanec." She waved towards the Shifter before returning her gaze back to the older woman.

Karene chuckled quietly. "So everyone keeps saying, and yeah. That had been the plan, pretty much. Had trouble finding he new location of the Circus when I headed back though. Seems you all moved off earlier than planned."

Maya blinked, before she nodded slightly in response, prodding Dravius lightly in the side as she turned slightly to look up at him. "I'm gonna go find Nylat and Kioko, I need to talk to them. I'll see you in a bit." With a smile, the butterfly stood herself on her toes and wrapped her arms around Dravius' neck, hugging him while being careful not to dislodge the new stiches on his torso. After a moment, the butterfly pulled away, gently moving her arms from the Co-Masters shoulders and waving once at Karene and Kanec; Shortly heading off towards the vans in search of the Hybrid and the Pyro.

Karene watched Maya leave with a strange sort of smile. "Sheesh. I seem to have missed everything this week, huh?" She murmered, Glancing at the kid who had accompanied Kanec before turning back to Dravius and raising an eyebrow, her face amused. "So, Mr.Wolfe, what's going on with you and her, exactly?"

Nylat nodded, heaving herself to her feet. "Mkay then. And I wouldn't let him get within ten feet of my food." She watched Kioko leave, then glanced down at Sid. "Well, she said stay with me. So..." She took Sid's collar between her teeth, carefully picking him up and making her way out of the food van, slowly padding toward her own. She flicked her tail occasionally, before setting him down outside her van, glancing at it. How was she to manage to get inside? Granted, earlier someone had been around but now.... She glanced around to find no one around. She usually would jump up and place her paws on the door, opening it with her snout, but that was not going to work right now. Sighing, she wandered around and found a good sized rock. Taking it in her teeth, she went to the left of the van and tossed the rock through the window. Carefully, she jumped in after it, nearly falling. Three legs are not easy to balance on. After she was inside, she opened the door and sat down near her bed.

~~

Kanec glanced at Daniel when Karene mentioned him and shook his head. "Long story. It'll have to wait for now, though. And I'll check the food van, then." With that, he beckoned to Daniel, shifting into a white tiger as he padded alongside his brother. They made their way to the food van, where Kanec shifted back into his human self, opening the door for his brother. "What do you want to eat, Daniel? You look half-starved."

"Hm...Cake and ice cream!"

"Of course. Fine, I'll be right back." After a moment of conversing, he returned to Daniel with a plate of cake and ice cream. As he got Daniel situated at a table in the corner, he muttered under his breath, "You owe me." As Daniel dug into the cake, Lily scampering around the table, and Snap scurrying around the floor of the van, Kanec seated himself at Raphael's table. With a glance back at Daniel, who looked so much like his older brother, if a smaller version, he turned back to the Ringmaster.

"Hey, Raphael... Think we have room for one more?"

Raphael nodded at Disera, and had been about to head out into the ground when Kanec showed up, raising an eyebrow at the Shifter. "Uh... I don't see why not?... Who is this new person, anyway?" He asked, turning his head slightly. Without waiting for an answer, Raphael shook his head. "I'll talk to you when I get back, Kanec. Right now, We're going on a bit of a treasure hunt,"

~~~

The search for the missing watch took all of half an hour, simply because there were so few in the Circus. Unfortunately, the watch that had been described to them had not been found, and the Ring-Master flopped heavily on the stairs of his van once the search had ended. "Well, that went well," He murmered, glancing up towards Disera. "Guess we'll just have to let Evan know next time we see him... He won't like it, but there's not much else we can do... We have no clues regarding the matter outside the range of thieving members."

The blonde stood, working out a kink that had formed in his right shoulder and looking over towards the food van. "Well. Id better go see what Kanec wanted."

He glanced skyward, just in time to recieve a water droplet in the eye. "Mm. Weathers not gonna turn out too good by the looks of things." With a quiet sigh, the tall Illusionist shrugged, then headed back towards the food van, hands in his pockets and looking somewhat downhearted. The day itself had merged from afternoon to evening, and the quickly darkening sky was tinted with dark clouds, threatening rain at any moment.

((SO BAD. xD))

"Rude?" Will asked, turning to look at Selvai with a cleverly disguised twinkle in her eye.  "I'm never rude, don't be so stupid, you dingbat." She said, waving her free hand in the air expansively, and then nudging Selvai on the shoulder lightly, aware punching him in the arm  good-naturedly might not be the best idea.

She smiled in a friendly way, hoping he got the message that she was just goofing, and not name-calling. "I mean no ill-will, dear! It's just a saying! Though your defense is quite charming. Is she one to be flattered by such things?" Will wondered if that would work to their advantage, but she didn't think there would be very much trouble.

"I doubt she'll be angry. As long as we don't decide to hold her dear brother hostage or some such thing, she'll probably be fine. But then, I've never witnessed an outburst. Funnily, with all the talk that goes around... most think she's lovely and harmless, and others are terrified of her. Hard to say which is the more true disposition; harmless or harmful."

Will hummed to herself as she strolled up to the web covered van. There was a weird feeling about it. Despite this, she knocked. There was a tiny, almost dagger like zap of pain. Squawking, Will pulled back her hand and rubbed it on her coat, looking more interested than startled. "Sh'Yama Blodwen, are you in there? We've come to be of a.ssistance— and brought pancakes."

The clouds were rolling ever closer, boiling and pouring over the horizon. The dark grey colour almost looked soft, like velvet or silk. Clouds always managed to look like the best place to snuggle into in the world. Too bad the were kind of...wispy.

"Don't be ridiculous. I was merely planning until the end of the year," Dravius snorted, appearing completely serious as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. The Co-Master waved briefly to Kanec, looking slightly confused at the menagerie perched on his shoulders. "Do we know what's happening? And why Kanec is carting around a miniature version of himself?" He shrugged, then blinked at Karene. "Oh, we've had some recent....difficulty. I'll tell you about it in a bit," Draivus glanced at Maya as she prodded him, returning her gentle embrace and nodding. "Mmm. See you in a bit."

"You honestly didn't miss all that much, Ree. Besides from a few kidnappings, and an effeminate man scratching bits of skin offa my face," Dravius shrugged again, raising his eyebrows into his shaggy bangs at Karene's next statement. "Nothin'," He coughed slightly, tugging his feet out of his shoes and digging his toes into the long gras.s. "She was thinking about leaving..." Dravius began tugging of a loose bit of skin on his third finger, ripping shreds of flesh off absentmindedly. "Where've you been, anyways?" He cursed quietly and slapped a fly hovering on his hand. "Bit me..." He murmered, pushing the shirt's sleeves above his elbows quickly.

"I do hope it rains.." Dravius mused, then flashed a grin as a fat drop of water plunked onto the bridge of his nose. "We'd better get inside or get soaked, huh?" He blinked, then remarked, "I'd like to see where Kanec went, the dodgy git. Looks like the food van..." He tugged Karene's sleeve gently, tucking his other hand in his pocket.

The food van had cleared out rather quickly, members fleeing to batten down all the hatches in their vans. Dravius ducked inside, looking around for Kanec. Was hard to miss, considering the ears....and the wings...and then his gaze was attracted to a small boy sticking his face into a plate of food entirely inappropriate for lunch-time. The boy resembled Kanec to an almost extreme amount. The Co-Master p*censored*ed by Kanec and sat at the corner table, silently examining the child. He then shot a stern look at the kitten, who was creeping about the table. Without a noise, Dravius gently stuck a finger into the pile of icing on the young boy's plate and withdrew his finger into his mouth, coughing immediatly after. "Jesus. That is pure sugar," He murmered, followed swiftly by a few curse words. "How d'you eat that?" He asked the boy sitting across from him, tugging on the hoop hanging from his ear. "And, as a side note, whatcha doing here?"

((Dravvy! Don't scare Daniel! D< *beats with a tree*))

Daniel was nearly done eating when suddenly a finger appeared, taking some of his icing. Turning slightly, he scowled at Dravius, completely unaware of who he was. "Don' take mai icing. And I hasn't eatin' in days. I can ea' any'hing when hung'y." He finished up his cake and ice cream before answering the last question. Even so, he spoke around a mouthful of icing. "Kane' brough' me 'ere. 'Aid the 'eople here are nice. 'Ven a few animals, he 'ays." He swallowed hurriedly, scrubbing his face on his tattered shirt. Completely unafraid of Dravius, he leaned across the table to jab him in the chest, his bone dagger slipping from his belt loop and sliding onto the table. "Who's you, any'ays?"

Lily mewled to him a few times and he sat back down, picking up the kitten and stroking her, whispering softly to her, "Okay den, Lily. I won't get 'ustrated." He took the bone dagger from the table, slipping it back in his belt loop before picking Snap up as well, holding one animal in each arm. Lily mewedslightly in pain, shifting so her midsection was not twisted as much. "Oh, 'orry, Lily. Forgot 'bout that."

Not really having an idea where exactly Kioko and Nylat were located, Maya walked the grounds without much of an objective. Nylat she knew wasn't really one to follow your typical day schedule, so breakfast for example, when the members usually situated themselves around the food van, the Hybrid could still have been anywhere. She was never an easy one to find.

Kioko would probably be an easier target, but Maya had figured there wasn't really any rush to find the two, despite the fact the now gray sky was clearly getting darker. Stretching her arms and wings, Maya carried on through a row of Circus vans, glancing at each one and reminding herself who owned them. She eventually dropped her wings, folding them tight against her back so that she was able to draw her cloak around her a little more. The oncoming night was bringing a distinct chill.

With a sigh, the young woman silently resigned to heading for Nylats van in the hopes of finding the hybrid, but was stopped short when she heard Kioko's voice. She watched the oncoming girl with a smile, and nodding at her question. "It was... Nice. I guess," She shrugged, folding her arms behind her back. "A couple of setbacks... But nothing that hasn't happened before,"

One bright red and orange wing flickered slightly, and the butterfly-winged teen ended up stretching them again, her cloak almost being pulled from her shoulders. "Oops." She eventually just pulled the cloak off and folded it over her splintered arm, the orange material becoming obscured by the light gray of the cloak. "What are you doing out here, anyway?"

Blinking, Maya shuddered slightly when she felt a small, very cold drop of water hit her in the back of the neck. "It's going to rain..." She mumbled, glancing skyward just in time to catch the first few drops on her face. "Nn. Hey, Kioko?" She asked, unfolding her cloak and throwing it haphazardly over her head. "Have you seen Nylat?... I was just heading for her van, I kind of want to talk to her," She added, glancing one more at the sky before sighing and shifting the cloak further over her head. 

The sound of shattering glas.s caused the teen to turn her head quickly, coming to face the general direction of the sound with a concerned frown. It had sounded like it had come from where Nylats van was situated.  She glanced at Kioko, then beckoned with a hand before walking over to the hybrids home. It wasn''t easy to miss the smashed window, and Maya swiftly made her way to the open door. "Nylat?... Are you in here?" She blinked, then made her way up the few stairs, stepping lightly into the fur covered space. "... What happened to the window?"

~~~

"I don't think you need to," Karene replied to Dravius when he mentioned about filling her in later. She listened to him in silence when he mentioned the kidnappings and such, eventually going on to answer her question. The young woman snorted slightly. "Right," She responded, raising an eyebrow at the Co-Masters added words.

"Raphae already told me about that. He's a little unsure of just what's going on with you and her, but he managed to tellme everything else. Break, the so-called vacation. The lot of it. You needn't explain," She smiled slightly, then ran both hands through the caramel strands of hair that hung over her forehead. The rest was tied back, falling over one shoulder in a small wave. "So yeah. I missed quite a lot," She smiled at Dravius, then shrugged used one hand to move her hair from over her shoulder.

Karene raised her eyebrows at the tall males next statement, then shrugged again. "Same place I usually go when I leave the Circus grounds. My home town. As I said earlier, my lateness getting back was becuase you lot moved without telling me. I was tailing you for a good few days after you left that last town."

"Ah yes. Wet weather." She blew another stray strand of hair out of her face as she looked at the clouds overhead, pulling her eyes back when she felt Dravius tug on her sleeve. "Alright. And probably... He never did answer my question." Figured, really. The Shifter seemed to be in some sort of rush.

 She followed Dravius without much prompting, slipping into the food van and standing by the table as Dravius settled himself. She tsked at him when he started to swear, her eyes on the blonde kid who sat by Kanec. "You know, you shouldn't talk like that around kids his age. Talk about being a bad influence, also... I'm pretty sure Kanec brought him here," She  murmered in response to Dravius' question, throwing a grin in his direction before looking at the Shifter. "Alright, Kanec. I think you can get on with that "long story"..." She waved a hand at Dravius. "He runs half this place, and if your wanting that kid to stay, which I think might be your intention, then speaking to him is just as well as speaking to Raph,"

Nylat flicked her tail, sniffing around to make sure nothing had gotten too harmed by flying glas.s. She was about to settle herself on the bed when Maya suddenly appeared and she grinned, padding back to the end of the van. "Oh, yes, the window. Well, no one was around. And I needed in. Soooo. Yea." She sat down and scratched behind her right ear, taking a moment before turning her gaze back to Maya. "May I ask where you've been?" She shook herself, fluffing her fur out.

~~

Kanec glanced over at Karene as she approached, and grinned. "I was going to get to that. Anyways. Daniel's my brother... I haven't seen him in at least eight years, after I left my family. He can talk to animals, hence the kitten and rat. But, I believe he's been on the streets at least five years. Which would explain his poor education. He might have horrible manners, and a worse attitude--he's not that trusting of humans. They sorta killed his first true guardian. But I'm sure those little flaws could be worked out, no?" He'd started out slow, but by time he was done, the words were tripping over each other, almost incoherent.

Feeling unsure about what to do and a bit flustered, Violet simply hung back at the end of the group, dithering about behind them uncertainly. Thanks to her two years away from the circus and it's ever changing layout and location the raven-haired woman didn't even know where to begin looking, and simply flicked her eyes from side to side nervously, hoping that somehow the pocket-watch would reappear in front of them or something so they could stop looking.

Alas, and quite unfortunately, the precious ob
ject couldn't be found and the search ended. Raphael disappeared into the food van and Violet hovered around anxiously, not sure of what to do now. Following the circus master would only make her seem like an annoying limpet, trailing after the man like a person possessed. So instead Violet stayed, and waited by Raphael's van.

[Sorry about the weird post, and besides that, I think my writing style went all different in the second paragraph. o_o Just as a question, is anyone located near Violet? I'm reading the posts and honestly I can't figure it out. ><] 

"Well, not eating in days tends to stunt your growth, young man..." Dravius said distractedly, inspecting a set of dark stitches near his thin right hip. "Hmm. You look a lot like 'im." He nodded, raising an eyebrow as he was poked in the chest. "You should be careful about pokin' people, kid. Some of 'em snap back. And these stitches need to come out...." The last statement was muttered, and Dravius pulled a set of small silver scissors from his pocket, snipping tidily through the line of stitches, tugging the black thread out with two fingers.

"Who's me? I'm Dravius, nice ta meetcha." The Co-master answered the small boy, leaning his chair back in order to settle his feet on the table. "Jeez, you look as ragged as I did when I was your age. Are you gon' stay at the circus? If y'are, I'll need a name, first required, last if ya have one...age, ability...etcetera..." Dravius prodded the slight gap that had appeared when he had tugged the thread out of his skin, tsking at himself. "Left them too long. Skin's all red. Goddammit." That last word was growled as Dravius tugged a large bit of skin off of his third finger, pushing his hair away from his eyes with his other hand.

He hissed rather angrily, sticking his hands into his pockets. Dravius cocked his head towards Karena and laughed slightly, "Who ever said I was a good influence?" This was followed by a snort, and a sharp grin, placing his feet back into the floor. "Who're they?" He gestured towards the two animals under Daniel's arms, then frowned slightly at Lily's meows. "Is she hurt? I'm a bit of a fixer-upper."

((TERRIBLE....))

Relaxing slightly Violet smiled at the shifter who was currently perched on her shoulder, the ebony raven reminding her closely of Garrett, her own familiar of sorts. "You're kind," Violet murmured softly, looking up at the roiling sky. Already the last shafts of light were being snuffed out as surging thunderheads blanketed the sky, casting a shadow over everything. "If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to stay with you." Violet gave a nervous, shaky laugh. "Thunderstorms aren't my thing, not ones this big at any rate. And besides, it's nice to be among...friends."

Standing carefully as to not overbalance Disera Violet glanced around the camp in consternation, her brow furrowing. "Which one's your van?" she asked. "If you like you can stay on my shoulder, I guess. Which reminds me, what's your name? I'm Violet Okazawaya." Placing one pale hand on the van wall she bent over slightly and grabbed her shoulder bag, slinging it over her unoccupied shoulder quickly before it got too wet from the droplets sprinkling down from the sky.

[Thanks Mych <3] 

Yama pointed her fork at Selvai at his "thank you.". As if she was warning him that she might very quickly toss him out. She'd point out she was allowing them inside for the sake of Zinc, and only because poor Spider was so upset about it, but... Good riddance to the pink haired buffoon. "I wasn't here. I was—" She paused. Well it's not like it was his business she had been interrogating his brother. Maybe later. The information that she had received from him probably wouldn't interest Selvai, since Cersis had spoken of a Blodwen. Or someone who just looked like one.

"I was not here," Sh'Yama repeated. "The witnesses to Zinc being ripped out of this world were Spider and Evan. Who, as I'm sure you can imagine, wouldn't like to talk about it. If later, you wish for specific details you may ask one of them." There was an unsaid warning that she might eviscerate either of them if they made Spider cry. She didn't mind much if they made Evan cry. He was a big boy, he could deal with it.

Sh'Yama took a bite of pancake and sighed, "From what I heard, they were packing. Zinc and Spider, I should say. Fed up entirely. Evan came in to inform Spider of the situation with Maya, and that's about the time Zinc disappeared. From what Spider told me, Zinc was aware of what was happening before it happened, but was unable to fight back." It didn't take her very long to finish the pancake. Hungrier than she thought.

"There was an odd smell. You can probably still smell it. I'm sure it was just the fault of Zinc's body being instantly burned up, but I could be wrong. And a feeling. One Spider could only say was "scary". But more than that. Unexplainable." She shrugged a shoulder. "The art of destroying people using magical means is not one of my talents, so the most I can explain is that it certainly is magic."

Spider rubbed his eyes. He had left Evan alone, that wasn't good. Someone might hurt him again. Or what if he disappeared too? He blinked his puffy eyes and then sat up, with a look of quizzical confusion, as if something had just dawned on him. Disappeared. Kind of like how Evan disappeared. Poof. Gone. Was the watch more than a special present? What if... the reason why Zinc couldn't come back was because of the poofing power the watch had?

There were holes in his theory, but it was something! He stood up. There was a tiny feeling of hope, like he might have figured something out by himself for once. Evan would be able to tell him why the watch was so special. Why could he disappear and how and where? As he turned around the feeling of dread started to boil in his stomach again. He wasn't sure why. He thought it was seeing all of those happy people, and yet, knew that wasn't the reason.

Something else was wrong. But it wasn't a feeling like there was something wrong here, like something bad was going to happen, but a feeling like something bad had happened, long ago. Something was wrong with him, not the people at the circus. Spider pushed it out of his mind. He needed to find Evan! He could deal with his issues later! Whatever the issues were! Spider went to go find Evan.

Still, it did please him a little when everyone started to look up in disappointment and flee from the rain. He felt a little bad about it, but would rather not have to move pa.ssed all of those happy people. He pulled the collar of his coat up and stuck his nose out at the rain. A little rain wasn't going to stop him.

 - - -

Oh bother, rain. At least the sun wouldn't be blinding him anymore. Evan sighed, scooting himself back a few places in the gra.ss so that the rain was only splattering him a little bit. He could go inside. But where? No, he couldn't go inside. Better to wallow in the rain. Besides he didn't feel good. The rain was cool and refreshing, though threatening him with the prospect of a cold. Thank goodness he didn't have his watch. If he did, he would have fled from the rain quicker than a rabbit that spots a wolf. Evan sighed and rubbed his uneven facial masterpiece.

Perhaps he could borrow a razor off someone and fix his unshaven face. Shadow and a goatee was not flattering at all. It was either properly maintained or he wouldn't be allowed to have one at all. Why did he bother being presentable anyway? It's not like he needed to look good for a job or other people. He'd never worked a day in his life and he didn't want to attract people. Evan rubbed his temple, willing his aching head to stop aching. Mumbling to himself he pulled his gla.sses off and brushed water droplets off on his handkerchief.

Maybe he just wanted to look good for himself. Penelope had never really liked the goatee, had she? In fact, even Gervaise had disliked it. Well, he couldn't please everyone. Perhaps secretly he didn't care and wanted to have something he liked for once. Thinking about it, neither of them really let him live his own life. Pushing and pulling and living his life for them. Oh yes, Ger had said he was on his side, but really he was just like Penelope.

Perhaps that's why they disliked each other so much— people rarely liked those who were just like themselves. And yet when he gets his wish to be left alone, he can't let them go. Was it guilt? Yes, Gervaise says. And he thinks you should get over it. But Penelope, no no no, she can't let you have your way, can she?

Evan didn't like to think about it. He was happy, wasn't he? No. He had his clocks and his house and he was— terribly, utterly and inescapably alone. But even if she made him miserable, he still missed her so very much. Sometimes you don't get to choose who locks your heart away. And as that went, you didn't get to choose your siblings, either.

[[kay i am excused from not posting for awhile.]]