"M'welcome." Dravius hid snithed a heart out of the spun sugar, and currently had his tongue wrapped around it. It was hard to remeber anything so long ago, but the town did give him an overwhelming sense of nostalgia. Swiftly snapping the candy in half and swallowing it, he looked at Maya when she spoke, agreeing quickly with a knod. "Alright, but where're we going?"

As it didn't take long to get there, Dravius's quistion was completely irrelevant. Shrugging, he surveyed the small stand on the side of the road. "I didn't eat all of them, did I?" He grinned and looked surprised when she rushed inside. He surveyed the road and the people, a few of which were giving him odd looks. Huh. Maya had freaked out when he asked if she had lived here. He then decided to see why. He thought hard, eyebrows furrowing. Maybe, someone in her family didn't like her? Uhm. Dravius gave it up at Maya's re-appearance, taking the strawberries and examined them, flashing her a smile. "There's so much stuff for Valentine's day." He remarked, biting one of the strawberries in half, licking a flick of juice off of his chin afterwards. "Thank's," He said, inspecting the oddly-shaped strawberries.

"Mmm. Can we sit down a while?" Dravius asked, pointing at a bench across the street. Then he turned his face to look at Maya, remarking, "You're cute when you blush." He straightened up again and crossed the street, flopping down on the bench and picking through the strawberries, grining vaugely. It was nice, Valentine's day this year, although Dravius was still trying to puzzle out what had bugging Maya.

((Let's make it to page 100. O_O 2000 posts. *O*))

"Well. If that's what you want, I guess. I honestly don't think he'd mind me telling him later though, seeing as your actually looking after Ana as it is," Karene shrugged, raising an eyebrow at Florence. "It's not like she walked up here on her own, after all."

Biting her lip slightly and glancing at the stern faced young girl, the caramel haired young woman thought over the fact that Florence, having being a member of the Circus as it was, was probably more than enough to get Ana settled. Raphael usually dealt with those who had come without any family links, introducing them to Circus life and whatnot. With Ana, well. She had someone to do that.

She snorted quietly at the Dark Clowns vague deion of the place, then rolled her eyes and chuckled under her breath. Honestly. You'd think this "place" was a prison camp going by the reactions of some people. It really wasn't all that bad, but as far as Karene was concerned, if it was that bad then people wouldn't be here. No-one was ever forcefully stopped from leaving if they wanted to. That was the beauty of this place. It wasn't just a home for those people who needed it, but rather a community in which everyone took part. Raphael, for example, did not run this place on his own. He had founded it, yes, alongside his "may-as-well-be-brother" Dravius, but those two worked with the Circus, rather than acting like slave-driving leaders. Julian, for example, played a huge part in the running. As did those members who moved the vans and kept track of the documents, the construction workers and the performers. Everyone played their own part, though of course, Raphael and Dravius were usually the ones to bear the brunt of complaints. She had to respect both of them for that.

Shaking her head, she looked back towards Selvai as the magician introduced himself to Florence and Ana, then waved at Violet having completely missed her approach earlier before looking back at the new girl when she spoke. The young womans face looked momentarily surprised, then she sighed, her eyebrows curved slightly. "Oh dear... I'm sorry, Ana," She responded, her tone genuinely concerned.

"Perhaps I should have worded that better... This Circus isn't... Well, like any other Circus. The people here are..." She paused, attempting to think up a word that would in no way offend the girl. "...Unusual, unique." She inhaled slowly through her nose. "People here have abilities that aren't in any way "normal", going by what people beyond these boundaries would catagorize. I as.sumed, seeing as Florence brought you here, that you'd probably harbour the same sort of differences. I apologise if I offended you."

Whne Florence decided to speak, Karene looked at him, then raised an eyebrow slightly. "I'd prefer to ask, first." She responded with a slightly twisted smile. "Burrowing through people's minds without permission is... Just overstepping the mark a little, considering I can't do it without making the subject live through certain memories again. It's not usually a pleasant experience." She shrugged, glancing off in the general direction of the town and answering Selvai without looking at him.

"Sorry. I'm not sure where Dravius is," She glanced over her shoulder at him. "But... He's not the only one here who can check out your arm. There are quite a few people here pretty good with that sort of thing, Dravius is just considered the best." Smiling slightly, she turned so that she faced him, shrugging. "Raphael can deal with injuries, Dravius after all, had to learn somewhere, and then there's Yuda. He used to work in a hospital before he came here. Chucked him out after they found out about his "ability" to control blood. Freaked them all out, despite the fact that ability actually stopped people bleeding to death."

Karene shook her head, then blew at her hair as Florence decided to choose that moment to talk about Dravius. Smiling, she looked back at Selvai. "I can take you to either of them, if you'd like. Although I'm pretty sure you already recognise Raphael's van."

~~~


"Well... Maybe all was a bit of an exaggeration, but you did eat most of them." Maya responded to the Co-Masters earlier question, rolling up a small amount of cotton candy before popping it into her mouth and  focusing her attention on fishing out another one of those candy hearts. The young woman had a bit of a suspicion that Dravius had probably taken most of them at some point, seeing as he seemed to enjoy snitching foodstuffs, particularly where sugar was concerned.

The butterfly winged teen carried on walking, slowly demolishing the confection she carried and surveying the town they walked through, feeling much happier than she had earlier. Currently, they were one of the larger streets, one that played host to a number of stalls, a few of them Valentines related, though there were still those who existed there all year round. There were stores either side of the street, many with large windows and pretty displays. The street itself was actually quite wide, and the stones of the sidewalk were bright with the afternoon sun, a line of dotted trees splitting the street down the middle. There was a constant, quiet babble of people walking this way and that, though most of them had swarmed around the stalls back where Dravius had bought the cotton candy.

At his somewhat sudden suggestion, Maya glanced over her shoulder at him, then "mm'd" quietly in agreement just as he decided to comment on her blushing. Damn it. She had been pretty sure she'd stemmed that already, though the whole thing was probably in vain now anyway, seeing as the Co-Masters comment just served to make her blush again. Not to mention, he always seemed to notice, despite Maya's efforts to prevent it.

Shaking her head quickly, she followed him across the street, disposing of the leftover stick from the candy as she pas.sed and pausing momentarily to look at a nearby store. The young blonde, eventually, pulled her attention away long enough to get herself moving again, and settled on the bench next to Dravius, lifting her legs and crossing them. The store had reminded her of something she'd bought for Dravius last year, though of course, she hadn't been anywhere brave enough to approach him with it, despite the fact it wasn't really Valentine orientated. She was pretty sure, though, that the thing was still in her van somewhere. She'd probably have to go looking when she got back.

"You know." She said, placing both her hands on her ankles and looking up and down the street. "This place doesn't seem any different than it was all those years ago... If you take away all the pink fluffyness." She smiled at Dravius, inwardly wondering if she'd actually be able to remember a route home from here, before turning her gaze back to the street.

She spent a few moments looking, then caught sight of Dravius' somewhat thoughtful ex
pression, despite the fact he was still grinning like an idiot. "What's bothering you?" She asked, eyes wide, before lifting a hand and stealing one of his strawberries.

Kanec beat his wings to reach the top of the flock, then locked his wings and dropped to the bottom of the group lazily. Of course, it was all he could do to not get run into by a crow, oftentimes he would anyways. After a moment, though, he caught into the pattern of mayhem, and was able to dodge the crows with great accuracy. At Disera's protest, he let out a caw of laughter, swooping and diving as he did. "And who says that? Is there a law to love of which I have not heard?" His voice was suprisingly calm, and somewhat more joyful than it had been in a long while, as if he'd let go of his worries, or gone insane. The latter was more likely, considering how he'd been since his hiatus from the Circus.

Finally, he dove out of the group, spiralling down and shifting into his human self again, still spiralling and circling, if at a lower altitude. But he soon beat his wings smoothly to rise above the crows, at a height that had caused him to get his jacket in the first place. The chill wind affected his wings little due to the thick la
yer of feathers they were covered in. Once at a good height, he flipped onto his back, looking at the clouds as he flew.

~~

Nylat glanced over at Kioko as she fopped down on the ground, and watched her play with her fire. After a moment, she glanced back across the street. Something was very familiar. Quite familiar indeed.... At Kioko's wishing of a happy Valentine's day, she grumbled, but repeated the phrase out of courtesy, not taking her eyes off of the other side of the road. What was it...

Dravius blinked and pulled his attention back to Maya as she spoke, nodding through a mouthful of fruit. "I've a terrible memory, but if feels just the same." He licked a drop of juice off of his finger, smiling back at her. "And, nothing's bothering me, exactly." He answered, rubbing the side of his head a few times.

"It's just, I was trying to figure out why you freaked out earlier. I figure it has something to do with you living here, and then I thought that maybe it had something to do with your family, but then, I remembered that, as far as I know, none of them are still alive," Dravius took a deep breath, and then took another large bite out of a strawberry. It was taking him quite a lot of concentrationg to try and figure this out, but he couldn't really see any reason for her to be upset, and it was kind of making him anxious, so he decided to just drop it.

Sighing quietly, Dravius raised an eyebrow as Maya decided to filch some of his fruit. He set the box on his knees, which he had brought up and crossed in a fashion similar to Maya's, tucking his bare feet under his legs. It was unseasonably warm for February, and there were plenty of people out and about, walking through the streets hand in hand. He took a folded sheet of paper out of a pocket and folded it quickly, making it into a kind of origami flower, following it up with several more, and then, with a flush creeping gently up his cheekbones, offered them to Maya. "I think....they'll last longer than real ones."

"Don't look at me like that... You stole my lunch earlier." Watching people with a strawberry in her mouth, Maya pulled her gaze away from the street to look back at Dravius when he answered her previous question. Blinking, her eyes followed a nearby butterfly, one that chose to perch itself on the back of the bench as she responded.

"Oh." Swallowing the fruit, she pulled her gaze away from the little insect to look back up the street, still listening to Dravius and frowning slightly. He'd got rather close there, though whether or not he'd guessed as such she didn't know. She chose then to tell him, though she was going to tell him anyway... Probably on the way back, though. Right now, she kind of wanted to steer away from it.

"It's understandable, and I did not freak," She pouted, stealing another strawberry. "I just... I used to live here, how did you expect me to react?" Smiling slightly, she raised her eyebrows at the Co-Masters somewhat worried ex
pression. Well, that's how he seemed to be, anyway. "It's alright, you know. Im not upset?... You don't have to worry." She smiled at him again, shortly turning her attention back to the street and trying to mentally decide whether or not she should say something now, if just to put him at ease.

Sighing, she looked back at Dravius. "I suppose. It was just a shock... I hadn't expected to come back here and-" She paused. "It's... Complicated...  Can I tell you on the way back?" She asked with a lighthearted smile.

The butterfly, still situated on the back of the bench, took off at that moment and fluttered around in front of the blondes nose, before taking off, probably to find the closest flower stall. Maya then glanced back at Dravius, looking curious at whatever it was he was doing with that piece of paper. Making flowers, by the looks of it.

Scooting over to him, she knelt her elbows lightly on one of his crossed legs, placing her chin in her hands and watching the paper, probably with more concentration than was necas.sary. She watched as he made a bundle of the things, then looked slightly taken aback when he offered them to her.

Taking them, she smiled at him, looking amused by the fact he was blushing a little, and blushing a little herself. With a quiet laugh, she leant herself over slightly and kissed him softly on the cheek. "Thank you," She responded, placing the makeshift flowers in her lap and idly inspecting one of them, before smiling back at Dravius.

Kanec glanced over at Disera, noting her wings wrapped around her, he smiled a bit. His wings grew sore from the stronger backstrokes required to keep him alot while upside down, so he rightewd himself, over-exaggerating his downstrokes to hopefully relieve the soreness from his wings. After that was accomplished, he managed to slip off his jacket, after much flaring and maneuvering of his wings to free them. Shivering slightly once left in his t-shirt, he held out the jacket to Disera. "Here. You could probably make better use of this than me. I'm used to flying without it. Didn't get it until a few months ago." After a moment's thought, he shifted into a red-tailed hawk, one of his more common forms, holding the jacket in his talons. With his shorter wingspan, he was able to fly closer to Disera, allowing her to reach the jacket easier. Also, as a bird, he was better suited for high-flying than he was without his jacket.

~~

Nylat shook her head, dispeling her thoughts. "It's nothing, really. Just thought... Nothing." At her mention of it being Valentines Day and to not be sad, she snorted, giving her a sidelong look. "For one such as me, that's all the more reason to be upset. Tell me, how many hybrids do you see running about here? I'm doomed to be alone. And you can ask Maya or Raphael, or pretty much any of the older members. Valentine's Day has never been a good day for me." With a flick of her ears, she sniffed, knowing that scent wouldn't help her figure out what it was about this place. If it was where she had thought it was, their scents would not still remain. "Anyways, let us not tarry on dark subjects."

Anaconda stared at Karene. Long, and hard, without saying anything. And then she promptly turned around and started walking back towards town. Utterly nuts was the reason. Being ignored was one thing, but having to suffer through living with these weirdos? No thank you. She'd rather take the family abuse. Or being homeless. What other somewhat relatives lived around here, who wouldn't mind smuggling her out of the country?

Florence swore, but in a very light-hearted, on the whim manner as he watched Ana walk away. "She's very sensitive about the... "unusual and unique" thing. And now she thinks we're all weirdos." He knew they were weirdos, so of course, this did not bother him. Some of them were a bit sensitive about being complete freaks, however. Like Anaconda. "Dear," He said, looking at Karene. "She can see everyone in their last moments. And depending on the violence of the death you can imagine this is very unpleasant. Mine is apparently wicked unpleasant. Holes everywhere.

"Years of therapy and trips to the psych ward have... made her not want to admit it." Another reason he hated talking to Raphael. Oh what do you do. We need to know. Are you special. On a scale of 1-10 how much would you rather be dead then have this affliction? That was the worst part of this stupid thing. Having to get over that first hurdle of telling everyone what your curse was. "So. I'll go get her, and no more talking about how unusually unique and wonderful everyone is." Because she might tell you in detail what you looked like when you bit it, and that's usually not very nice.

They had a brief discussion, standing over there by their lonesome. Somehow, Florence managed to coax Anaconda back. She however looked like he had shoved a lemon down her throat, and she made no effort to dismiss the ex
pression. She also made no effort to speak. All the while, DeeDee continued to tug and mess with her ribbon. "Anyway," Florence said, "We were talking about injuries. I was a doctor once. Well, not really. But I can dig out a bullet and stitch the hole shut."

In his old profession getting shot or stabbed was a common occurrence. For other people. In fact he was usually on the dealing end of shooting and stabbing. He suddenly realized that he felt like he needed Karene's permission to go anywhere. He sure knew what Raphael's stupid van looked like, why not just drag Ana down himself? But no he was talking to Karene. "Anyway, Raphael, yes? Let's get on with hunting him down."

((MAYA.))

(( o.o I'm so sorry. Band trip to Disney and stuff. I will post Maccus wriggling out of the hug, make Zephyr see spiders that aren't there, and continue stalking everyone.))

Still frozen in shock, Maccus stared oddly at the little short dude hugging him. Cautiously wriggling out of the bear tra- EMBRACE, Maccus turned and gazed deeply into Zephyr's eyes, as if he were to kiss him. "You will see spiders around you, crawling over your body. You will be terrified by these abominations, and will think twice about hugging me. You will gaze at these spiders until you hear the song of a whooping crane." He intoned softly, pupils dilating. He honestly hadn't tried hypnotism before, but hey, he was an illusionist. He might as well try. Done with the deed, Maccus slipped into the undergrowth and found a new target to spy on- Ana.

Then he stopped short. "Whooping crane. Where the heck am I gonna find a whooping crane? Uh..." Pulling at his pockets in slight panic, Maccus realized the idiocy of his situation. "Might as well watch and see if my freak powers work." He shrugged, and sat quietly in some bushes, watching Zephyr. Several minutes- Or was it hours?- later, Maccus grew bored and imitated the bird call perfectly, projecting his voice so it seemed like it was coming towards the sky. Pleased with the outcome, Maccus started testing his birdcalls, imitating a robin, then a swan, then crows and ravens, eventually ending in the piercing screech of a hawk. All of them sounding as if they came from the sky. 

[[Zephyr would just hug Spider. because this is how the unicorn boy rolls. irrational fear doesn't stop the hugs. unless the fear is the fear of Julian.]]

Spiders? There was something odd about all this. Zephyr raised his arms and stuck his lower lip out. And then he intoned a question. There was no response. There was no response because these were not real. A flimsy apparition at best. "You'd have to do better than that, you strange stalker man." With all the illusions he had to put up with on a daily basis, an odd mans attempt to scare him with cute arachnids was not going to work. Now where did that weirdo go? But Zephyr couldn't looked around, he was busy staring at the spiders. Not much variety. He was expecting more tarantulas. His eyes narrowed in concentration, and he thought for a moment about how disappointing it was that these spiders were fake. They held some pretty good conversations.

What was a whooping crane anyway? Zephyr did not believe he'd ever seen one before. But he guessed that was the call. What eloquent birds. Zephyr dropped his arms and pursed his lips. Ah, looks like his stalkees stalkees had wandered off. Zephyr had the distinct feeling he missed a chance to attack— hug Dravius.

As talented as Maccus was in his bird noises in the sky, it didn't take all that much effort to realize that all of these various noises were originally coming from that bush over there. Especially with ears as good as Zephyrs. Honestly, you can't trick a unicorn. Unless you're a fair maiden. But Maccus was not. Zephyr barely noticed the spiders had disappeared as he wheeled around to stare at Maccus's hiding place. He decided there was an equivalent exchange in order. And so Zephry pried his way into Maccus's mind and started a conversation. "Hey." He said, without moving or seeming to be very interested in Maccus's hiding place.

"That wasn't very nice. If you asked me nicely maybe I would have considered not hugging you." But you have made a terrible mistake. There were only a few people Zephyr did not hug, for various reasons.  Mostly because they disliked him. Julian was one of them were an attempt had never actually been made, because it would almost surely result in silver blood spilled everywhere. Zephyr didn't truly believe Julian would cut him to pieces, but decided to be cautious anyway. The others he didn't hug were the ones that probably liked the hugs too much. It made Zephyr a little nervous.

Dravius had also been giving a certain amount of attention to the butterfly flailing about in front of Maya, then turning his one-eyed gaze to the girl beside him. "You did freak, and I didn't expect you to freeze up and look as if someone had just told you somemone died. I mean, I used to commit major crimes in Southam, but I wouldn't be overly worried about going back." He shrugged and ate another few berries in short order, not taking his eyes off of the girl as she seemed almost conflicted. "Alright, then. Tell me whenever." He fiddled around with some more paper, looking at several couples walking past them.

Draivus shot Maya a smile when he felt her lips come into contact with his face, and then held up a butterfly made out of several peices of paper, pulling a small tab on the body to make the wings flap twice. "Look at how great I am at useless things!" He said, putting the paper insect on Maya's head. He jumped hugely when suddenly, a loud torrent of garish-sounding, pop-music-y, love songs rounded the corner, followed by a huge float, covered in flowers and shaped like a huge heart. "What?" Dravius sounded bewildered, and his working eye had gone wide, as he looked around. He seemed to be on sensory overload, gripping the edge of the bench with an iron grip. "What's happening?" He asked Maya, looking at the now-proscecion of floats and people in costumes trooping past. He looked even more confused while nearly getting hit by a handful of candy an a plastic bead necklace. "Why are they throwing things?" He nearly shreiked, voice drowned out by the cheesy music.

Having try her best to explain without meaning to offend, Karene decided the bext approach on Ana's somewhat irritated departure was to simply refrain from saying anything. If the girl took offense there, she might have a bit of a problem here. After all, many here were constantly faced with the fact they were different.

Sighing, she flashed a somewhat apolgetic smile at Florence as he spoke. "We are." She responded in regards to his "weirdo" comment. Well, no-one here could say they were normal. Looking back towards where you yellow dressed girl had headed, she glanced sharply back towards the Dark Clown as he continued. "My goodness..." 

Well. Suppose that explained it. There were a few who had abilities that most certainly were not easy to speak of. She really should have expected it with Ana'a reaction. Shaking her head, she watched Florence leave, doing very little as he attempted to talk Ana back around, then exhaling through her nose on his return. "Alright." She answered, glancing towards Selvai then turning and walking back towards the vans.

Finding Raphael's wasn't hard,and the young woman quickly knocked and entered, pausing as Raphael looked up from where he sat at the desk. "What is it?"

"Florence is back, and he's brought a little friend with him," Karene responded with a slightly twisted smile. "Yes, she's like us, probably best not to mention it though." She shrugged, stepped quickly back outside.

Raphael blinked, then stood, following the young woman out of the van and lifting a hand to cover from the suns glare as he watched Florence's approach. "Well hello there. Nice to see you, how've you been?"

~~~

She did not freak. It was more... A silent battle.

Maya, having been listening to Dravius, pouted at him the entire time, sniffing when he finished and glancing off down the street. "I felt nervous. That's all..." She mumbled, pouting at the wood of the bench as though the seat had done something offensive.

She looked back up in time to watch Dravius build a butterfly of paper, raising her eyebrows at his comment and blinking when he placed the thing on her head. It was looking like she'd failed in preventing him from getting at too much sugar. She watched him silently for a moment, then turned her head at the sound of that music. Blinking at the arrival of the float, she murmered under her breath, "Hunh... They certainly went all out this year," before removing the butterfly from her head and placing it on top of the small collection of flowers in her lap.

The young blonde went back to watching the float for a moment, then frowning over at Dravius at his rather loud exlamations. "Dravius," She said calmly, brows furrowed, nudging him in the side with an elbow. "It's only a parade. You know... People celebrating." Maybe he had eaten too much sugar, after all. Sighing quietly, Maya unfolded her legs, stretched them out in front of her, then got to her feet, spending a minute gaining her balance seeing as her legs felt a little numb. She eventually just went back to watching the pas.sing parade, stood just in front of the bench, her arms wrapped around Dravius' paper flowers and butterfly.

((SO BAD. But 'm tired. *Facefloor*))