Marin Korvis's Story

6:00am, a time when many were awaking from their beds, wiping the sleep from their eyes to go about their daily routines - but not Le Cirque, oh no, the freaks had been up for hours, helpers setting up the bigtop and other attractions, vendors stocking their wares at their stalls, performers practicing for tonight's show. You see, The Circus never truly sleeps, nobody's ever truly resting, it's much too busy for that. 6:00am, on the dot. Madame Merciless strode forth from her tent, a wide grin taking up her face as she skipped her way toward the now fully-constructed big-top.

"Good morning, my freaks!~" the woman's light, bouncy voice travelled through the empty insides of the tent as she made way into the center of the ring, her eyes scanning around at the few faces gathered upon her usual morning roll call. She'd pause ahead of the group, her grin falling to a content yet mischievous smile as she mentally listed all present acts, nodding to each in turn. Had any been late or missing, she'd also make note to 'have a word' with them, as she often did with those in particular who found it common practice to disobey her.

Once done registering each face she saw with the names upon her mental list, she'd clear her throat; "Now now, calm yourselves" she chuckled, hushing any chatter that may have broken out whilst she was doing her mental preparations, "Today is quite important. Our first show in Abilene - one step closer to Chicago." Madame seemed to swoon at the very mention of Chicago as the word rolled across her tongue, "And so!" she'd quickly snapped back to her usual bossy nature, "I expected you all to work your hardest these next few days, to show your full potential!" a nod accompanied her words, and with a final grin she'd bow, "Back to practice" then leaving the performers and heading out of the big-top, leading them through to the practice yard and following through to an off-set, enclosed section of the yard where her freshly-picked corpses lie, all in a neat row, awaiting the awakening sting of her toxin.

Note: If your character is new to the circus (i.e, one of the "freshly picked corpses") you will be resurrected in my next post, so for now you will be skipped. The current corpses belong to The Animal Man and The Twisted Child. Please let me know if your character is new so that I know whom to wait for and whom to skip.

William emerged from the same tent, a polite amount of time after Madame Merciless. He dressed himself fully-hat with a wide brim, coat that reached halfway down his calfs, button up white shirt, boots that jangled, some new-fangled invention that riveted rough coveralls together with copper studs called "blue jeans"-concerned rightfully that walking out of a lady's sleeping space wearing anything less would be the start of rumors he had no wish to inspire.
William's coat made no effort to cover the holster that kept a revolver on his hip. Of all of his duties in Le Cirque, arbitrator was his least favorite. He hadn't yet ever had cause to employ his trusted sidearm against any of his fellow freaks, but it wasn't uncommon for every other town the circus had seen in its two years to have some drunk, holy roller, or thief to give trouble to its guests or staff. It was unfortunate (William was no fan of conflict), but he wouldn't have deputized anyone else. They were busy enough practicing or keeping their boss happy without doing rounds every night looking for vagabonds.

William followed Madame Merciless after a fashion, approaching the unofficial morning conglomerate of performers. "Good mornin' everyone," he offered after the big boss left. He tucked his thumbs into his belt and lowered his shoulders, being the usual easy-going, easy-to-approach middle manager that kept everyone happy and the circus running smoothly. "Sorry I'm a bit late. As you all know I'd normally have my sleeves rolled up and I'd be erecting tents and preparing for our big show along side you. Unfortunately I'm going to be even later as Madame Merciless has newbloods for the show and she's asked for a hand with reintroducing them to the living, breathing world. Keep working and I'll be back as soon as possible to pick up the slack. Is everything going alright so far?" He turned his head, looking east, where the sun would break in another fifteen minutes. He didn't expect anyone to have any issues to report, but he waited long enough to field any complaints or concerns before turning back and nodding to his compatriots. "Best not to keep the Madame waitin'."
William excused himself from the group and walked to his own private tent. He paused to regard the Stars and Bars hanging in full view of the tent flaps before dropping his coat, grabbing a bundle of rope, and a rudimentary set of handcuffs. He unbuttoned and rolled his sleeves up as he walked to the waiting Madame Merciless. He didn't look directly at the bodies. "Alright. So how're we doing this?"

Luna stood wobbly and slowly walked with the woman that had just brought her back to life. when the woman released her Luna plopped to the ground and just sat there, looking like a rag doll as the woman spoke. When she told everyone to come to the practice yard Luna slowly got to her feet and walked behind her, her bones in her legs still cracking and popping every now and then. As she walked she saw eyes peeking out of what she guessed were living quarters. As she looked longer at them they seemed to zoom in on all of them and then finally landed on her, Luna felt her stomach turn and suddenly was on all fours dry heaving. She sucked in air through her teeth and sat back on her knees trying to calm herself. She didn't like this feeling, she felt empty and hollow. It was almost scary. As she calmed herself she looked up and saw that the eyes were gone, maybe she had been imagining them.

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Trenton had calmed down and was now being untied and slowly sat up rubbing his head and looking at himself. Animal DNA? that was crazy, this whole thing was crazy. Trent had died, he remembered dying, so how was he here. "This is madness..." He whispered as he slowly got to his feet. As soon as he stood upright he got light headed and fell to his hands and knees. As the man came to help him up a low growl burst from Trenton's chest, maybe he did have animal DNA in him. He softly pushed the mans hand away and stood up again this time taking it much slower. He walked forward, his balance coming back to him. Everything looked so new to him, the sun seemed brighter, the air smelled different and it even felt different.