Rosa Evangeline's Story

She was laughing, a sound that was quite pleasent to the ear, at his speech. At first he was a little confused - perhaps she was laughing at him? - but then he caught on that she just found the entire thing humourous, and he smiled back. She then leaned against the cage more and spoke. Sorry about that. I like imagery and stuff. It's good in books, helps to get you to imagine something and picture it in your head." Herrick nodded, her apology was easily taken by the mutant. What was obvious was her love for imagery - it would make sense for one that could not hear to love to see. She paused for a second, using her other hand to brush away a few strands of her interestingly coloured hair, and then stated a question he would have rather not heard.

What kind of things do you do when the Zoo's closed? For fun I mean? Zero's eyes darkened (how was that possible, Zero is not sure.) and stared off into the distance. It was a difficult question for him to answer, for not only was it unpleasant to hear or think about, but the possibilities of what could happen after the zoo were endless. "That strongly depends, Miss Rosa, on Jack and our performances. If Jack is happy, we pack our things and await for his order to move to the next city. If he is not..." He let that one hang, unsure of what to say. Instead of being blunt as he normally was, Zero took a vague approach. "Punishments are given out." Zero couldn't give her the correct answer, even though it felt quite painful not to. Zero wasn't sure if he should make a mental note of that, or just ignore it.

"Punishments?" Rosa's face dropped drastically and she squeezed his hand a little as she frowned at him. "He can't punish you too much, I mean, you're partially human, you have rights." she bit her lip, noticing how much his expression had changed within a moments notice. He'd gone from smiling along with her, to looking downright miserable. Her thumb rubbed the back of his hand again and she gently squeezed his hand again. "What kind of punishments does he do?" she asked, not knowing if she wanted to know or not. These poor mutants, being humiliated by crowds and then treated like garbage. It just wasn't fair. She looked to his lips though, unable to stop the curiosity that always got the better of her...

"What do you think is the meaning of life?" Dawn looked up, a small frown set on her face. Meaning of life? "Honest answers are greatly appreciated." She tried to think of what to say. Nobody has bothered to ask her a question like that since... Well, since ever. She ran a hand through her hair before deciding the suitable answer that Jack always used. And, the one all of the older freaks used to describe themselves.

"To entertain. It doesn't matter if we want to, or don't want to, but we have to entertain." Her eyes never strayed from a spot on the ground, and she could hear Freya's voice fill her head with thoughts at what she had just said. She flapped her wings, enough to have her hover a bit over the ground but not enough to be out of sight. She looked down at her current audience member. Only audience member, at that. Where was everybody? She looked around, finding them crowded around Ridley's cage. And Jack... Wait, Jack? That must mean that she had done something wrong. And sure enough, there was soon a web covering the bars of her cage. Oh, no. She wouldn't be leaving without bruises.

"I don't mean to cut our conversation short, but the zoo is closing soon, Freya. I thought you might like to know." Still quiet. But this time, Dawn look up. Over Freya's head and to watch the sunset. It was beautiful, she watched it every time. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair again. Habit.
---
Jack looked at Jetta, saw the rib sticking out. Saw Widow shoot the web. He had had just about enough. He shot a look to everybody that was dangerously evil. He was losing his patience. And you didn't want him to lose his patience. He looked at Timothy one last time, nodded, before heading off to his office. It was still as clustered as ever, maybe even more messy because he had left a window open and the breeze had blown papers everywhere. As soon as he locked the door behind himself, the phone rang, but he didn't recognize the caller. Instead, he walked over to it and listened to the message.

"Hello,this is Jennifer Cross. I was just wandering if it would be possible to interview you when you arrive at Vancouver,possibly other staff member and maybe a few of your 'exhibits'. This would be a really interesting story and I would love to work on it. Thank you. Bye." Jack looked down at the answering machine as the girl (Jennifer Cross. Name sounded familiar) hung up and a series of beeps told him that. He looked around. The newspaper, that's where she was from. And she wanted a story on them. Which would populate them. And then cause him to earn more money.

"This is The Owner of Freaks Galore. We will be arriving at Vancouver in two days, you won't miss us. There will be flyers all over town. But, if you'd like to interview us, that would be wonderful. The freaks you should probably interview are our most populated ones, which are stated on the front of the map when you get here. If you'd like to know their names ahead of time, here they are; Angel, Black Widow, Jetta, Romulus, and Zero. Staff, I'll introduce you to when you arrive. We'll cease to entertain you." With that, he hung up. Somebody had answered, but that was all he had said. And that would be enough to catch their attention.
~
"Attention! The zoo is now closed. We will be here tomorrow also, so if you wish to come back, please do so. After that, we will be heading to Vancouver. Please clear out, or my guards will have to help you." Jack called out, the last part dead serious, but he smiled as if it were a joke. He ushered a lot of the onlookers that were talking to the freaks with his hands. Amoung them was a redhead, a girl in pigtails, a french guy, and some dude dressed like a girl. He nearly pushed them out, but did it with the same joking smile.

After all, he had to get to his freaks. They hadn't exactly done a good job today.

Rosa looked up to The Owner as he began to usher herself and many others out of The Zoo. She frowned slightly, thinking closing hours had seemed to have come serenely early. She quickly turned back to Herrick, leaning in close. "I'll come back tomorrow. I want to finish this conversation." she said, before saying a little quieter, "Please don't let him hurt you too much." Before slowly releasing his hand and pulling her arm out of his cage, pulling away amg giving him a small smile and a wave as she glanced back to Jack and then headed towards the front gate, wishing she could stay to see what happened when people weren't around.

Zero couldn't answer Rosa's questions about punishments - how could he? They struck close to home, as the expression went. He knew that Rosa was simply a curious lady, and wanted nothing more but to understand their situations, but Herrick saw no way that she could help or understand their predicament. Especially his own. How does one explain that he originally started hating the place when he was younger, but now he couldn't even leave his cage without becoming paranoid? That wasn't very explainable in any way, none that Herrick could think of anyhow.

What tore at Herrick the most was how distraught Miss Rosa was. She seemed so ready, so willing to help in any way that she could, yet the lady with red hair had no power over what was coming for most of the freaks after the show. Instead of answering, he simply stared out at the crowds, pensive about later on. Normally he didn't let himself think into the future - it was highly depressing, and quite lethal to the veterans of old - but he couldn't help himself. Rosa's constant inquiries of his future and the entire show caused him to wonder that simply question he was sure most humans asked themselves: What was next in his life?

He heard a voice beginning to yell, and instantly turned to see Jack. Zero cringed slightly, noticing that Mr. Jack's smile was more phoney than normal - a telltale sign that he was significantly unimpressed by today's performances. Herrick could only imagine what horrors would befall on those that displeased him, but he instantly threw those thoughts away: Now was not the time for meddling with thoughts of the future. He began to recall all of his mental notes and then quickly looked down to see Rosa saying a few words before leaving: I'll come back tomorrow. I want to finish this conversation." Zero nodded to her slowly, knowing that she probably hadn't a clue that they were off to Vancouver tomorrow. Normally this was a closely guarded secret by Mr. Owner, but many staff members were known for 'running their mouths off' as the expression went. Please don't let him hurt you too much. Zero wondered if he had much power over that, but gave her a sad smile instead. As she turned to leave, he quickly whispered to her "Our next destination is Vancouver. Two days time." And with that Rosa was ushered out by Jack.

Herrick looked around the zoo one last time before going back to his neutral position - he recrossed his legs, readjusted his spot in the cage - back into the perfect middle - and tipped his hat down low. This was how he began and ended ever show until Jack was done with his fits of anger.

Dawn looked up as everybody was ushered out, before looking straight ahead. She saw Herrick, since his cage was right across from her own, but he wasn't looking at her. After the show, his hat was back on, and he didn't speak. Well, usually Dawn didn't either. But for some reason, she wanted to talk today. She wanted to ask him about the girl he had spoken to. They were close enough together he could hear her when she spoke normally, so she looked for Jack. Still near the gates. She crawled a bit closer to the bars, before sitting cross legged again.

"Herrick? Who was that? Is she coming back?" She spoke only as loud as she needed to, looking at him with a curious expression. She usually didn't talk to people, why was she starting now? After all, nobody here wanted to be her friend... Freaks didn't have friends... She tried to shake the thought out of her head (literally) but it continued to echo in her mind. A small frown crossed her lips, but she tried to act neutral again as she looked back at Herrick, where his eyes would've been if that hat wasn't tipped so low.

As she waited for an answer, Dawn took time to kick off the flats that were part of her costume. She looked him over one last time. She had watched him the entire time, and to be honest, this girl seemed to make him act like a different person. Which took a lot, for anybody here. Well, not like it was a shocker. The Owner tended to suck the life out of them, at a very young age.
---
Jack locked up the gate with one last smile, before turning around and facing the cages. It was quiet now, besides the sounds of cars staring to life and freaks that dared to talk to each other before The Owner came along. His foot steps seemed to echo on the cobblestones as he approached the cages, not bothering to look at the freaks. He was ticked off. Very ticked off. He finally stopped, in the center of the zoo where everybody could both hear and see him. He circled around, before finally opening his mouth to talk.

"I'm not happy. You didn't do a good job today, freaks. To start, Miss Widow didn't perform at all today. Oh, and Jetta. Broken rib? But let's not forget my fruits. Talking back isn't allowed here, thought you would've have learned that by now." He took his time to stare at everybody he was talking about, before looking around again at some other faces. Jaws. Zero. Angel. Romulus. Kat. They hadn't done anything wrong, for the most part. He gave a look of disapproval at all of them before continuing.

"There wasn't a lot of performing going on today, either. Quite a lot of chatting, don't you agree, Zero?" Jack approached the scorpion, whom he didn't have a problem with most of the time. He tended to follow the rules. But there were still times. He gave the freak a warning glare before returning to the center again.

"Widow. Jetta. Blueberry and Strawberry. Expect to see me later. I'm not happy. Not at all." With that, he was off again. You had to leave them scared.

Katerina heard every word The Owner said. She shivered slightly at the sound of his voice. It always gave her goosebumps when he was angry. Thank God it had nothing to do with her. Just keep him happy, and nothing would go awry for her.

After The Owner left, there was silence. An eerie silence. Katerina crawled to the bars of her cage, looking to Taylor's tank. She rested her head on the bars and got in her usual sitting position on the edge of the cage. She made sure The Owner was long gone before she dare speak to the others.
"So what now?" she says loud enough for all the other freaks to hear her.

Rosa was rested against her motor scooter, eating a wrap and patiently awaiting the snail-like traffic to leave the car park. Vancouver... she knew she'd go, but she had no idea for how long she could just follow The Zoo like that. Like a Zoo groupie. She cringed slightly, definitely not groupie. But still, as much as She wanted to talk more to Herrick, and possibly many other of the mutants... Well, she knew she'd stopped Herrick from performing for a very long time, and she didn't know, were there rules about not holding hands with mutants? She bit into her wrap, lettuce and salad crunching in her teeth before she noticed the queue was moving more. She finished the food an then got on, following the crowd and making her way onto the road.

It was just... Tricky. Sure, by visiting the Zoo a lot, she was bringing a lot of money into the zoo, and was also burning a hole in her wallet, but how long would it be before she was considered to be 'distracting mutants'. It was obvious they weren't being shown kindness, and kindness is what she was showing to Herrick. She worried that if he became more happy and gained more confidence, would The Owner dislike that? She just couldn't tell. For now, she just had to pack her things, and convince her dad to give her her credit card back. She'd need to be getting out some more money...