The Circus

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?"

The siblings were first, simply bones. Fragile, slightly burn, two-century-old bones from a darker time than the years they were being introduced to as the reviving process began. The immense feelings of pain and memories of being burned alive were fresh on their reforming minds, fresh on their voices the moment they had lungs and a voice box. Their first screams of pain were odd, more alike to a beast's shrieks of death with a slight rasp. Their nerves had formed first, giving terrible shocks to the two siblings as they couldn't see, taste, smell, or hardly steady their breathing until other vital parts of their bodies formed. Katheline and Kane writhed and shook upon their bodies nearly completely forming, appearing as they had moments before they had actually died... their flesh mainly a burnt and bloody red, though segments were charred black and they had no hair. Then their flesh began repairing, knitting back together, removing itself of all burns and scars as the drops of mysterious toxin did their work.

Kane calmed himself first, drawing ragged breaths and searching the area with his new eyes, wondering how he was still alive and in such a... strange, unknown place all of the sudden. His bones ached, a pain a-like to the bone-growth pains you would get as you began to grow. But most of the pain began to fade, except for in his back and gums, where the pain from the rest of his body seemed to gather and began to multiply.

Katheline had not been so contained, due to the fact that she had been sobbing the moment her tear ducts worked. Her weak voice, pained cries, and inaudible mutterings mashed into a sound of sorrow and anguish, but also a slight undertone of anger. The pain began to fade and refocus on her back and in her gums, as it had within Kane, but before she could realize this in her frantic state, a hot energy appeared to build within the deepest nook of her body and spread rapidly. She began to quake and writhe as a foam seeped from between her lips. Her light green eyes began to glow with an unmistakable light which seemed to then seep into her pale blonde hair.

A somewhat similar thing happened to her twin, similar, but so different at the same time. Kane began to writhe, clawing at the bed below him as his warm brown eyes seemed to become dark, endless pits and his short, brown hair darkened into a deep black. Shadows seemed to settle over him as light came from within his sister, whom he'd only just noticed was there and was now gripping her hand with his own. A foam roiled up from his throat and he twisted about, once again unable to breathe as a different process took shape.

Uncomfortable, painful protrusions began forming on the sibling's backs, first merely mounds under the skin. Then, the skin ripped to make way for a pair of delicate, still-forming structures awkwardly bent by the writhing on their backs. The canine teeth of each sibling, visible due to the silent screaming of each, became longer and sharper in appearance. The lights faded from Katheline, leaving her eyes silvery and her hair white while the shadows seeped more thoroughly into Kane, giving him a sort of aura but leaving his eyes to be the same silver as Katheline's. The only difference was the dark ring around his irises. And by the time this happened, the structures on the backs of each young adult had rapidly grown and took the unmistakable shapes of wings. Not the feathered bird wings of any scripture book angel, but the batty, scaled wings one might imagine on demons or dragons. Katheline's were a sparkling, silver-white while Kane's were a glittering, deep charcoal black.

Neither of the siblings realized these changes that took place, only the pain they thought would never end and the feeling of clutching eachother's hands. A final shudder exited both, leaving them limp and gasping for air with their fresh lungs while their new eyes scanned the premises. A muttering left Katheline's lips, finally clear as the process finished, and with it came a sobbing breath as she uttered the words she's been unable to the moment the fire claimed her and her brother's lives.

"You'll all burn in hell."

It was late, late by about two-hundred years and meant for the Puritans who had cheered as they were tied to the stakes. But they were on their lips as she died, and so they were the first words she spoke in her new life. Silence engulfed the twins, who's senses picked up the presence of more than just the one that stood watching them, and the silence left them to gain breathe and composure they'd lost centuries ago. Finally, Kane spoke, his voice new and nearly unused except for that hint of breathlessness.

"Where are we? How are we alive?"

William jumped, then closed his eyes and removed his hand from his revolver. Sudden screams of anguish had that affect on him. It reminded him of his life before this, and that was an uncomfortable sensation. Not nearly suddenly being reformed and the sensation of whatever killed the trio playing over again, but he pushed that thought out of his head and didn't open his eyes until the screaming stopped. He tried to force a smile as he stood over the three undead, strapped to their beds (and in the twins' case handcuffed together). "Good morning, folks." He offered simply. "And welcome to Le Cirque. My name is William DuChamp." He waved, trying to gather all of their attentions at once. "That lady there is your new boss, Madame Merciless. Now there's probably a whole mess of questions you have. To answer many of them as simply and quickly as I can: Yes you died. You aren't dead anymore. By the wonders of mad science or witchcraft or whatever slapjaw your local customs call voodoo, you've been given a new lease on unlife. Now, I'll untie all of you in due course, but I want you to promise me that you're going to be rational folks when I do. This is understandably traumatizing but it'll go by much more smoothly if you take a deep, pointless breath and listen to Madame."

Madame was giddy as she heard the cries and screams of her new acts, finally awakening from the dead. Her sharp-ear caught the distant crackling and snapping of the future contortionists bones as she awoke and figured it was time to go and bring her into joining the rest of the group. As William gave his short speech, Madame quickly hurried off to retrieve the girl, mumbling a quick, "Come with me, dear. All will be explained soon" to get the confused soul to follow her through to the other portion of the tent where the other newbloods lie, strapped to their tables, all now fully resurrected, one of the twins even spoke - "Ah! Excellent! I was worried your vocal chords may be a lil' rusty after all those years" Madame released the hold she had on the contortionist girl and stepped closer to the twins, squinting her eyes and bending and the waist to inspect them, checking for any damage the years may have done to their bodies that the toxin may have missed clearing up.

"Anyway" Madame stood up straight, and stepped back to the center of the room, clearing her throat as she then addressed the newbloods, "I'm sure my lovely second-in-command has given you a brief explanation of the who, what and how, so I'll just move on to the why" she grinned as she spoke, her eyes scanning delicately across each new act wondering how much excitement and awe they could each bring to Le Cirque, and of course also how much more money they could bring in with fresh talent, "I personally have dug each of you up from your graves and enabled you life and a few abilities in order to aid me here at Le Cirque. Your abilities mean you will each have your own act and role to play during the show, I'm kind so I will let you decide on what you will do for your segment, but if you need any help, I'm sure Mr. DuChamp here will be happy to help come up with some ideas." her tone sounded almost uniform and doubled with the way she paced the walkway between each table, it wasn't hard to tell that she was used to being the boss of things. Once finished with the explanation, she'd wait a moment for any raised hands or questions to be asked before continuing on, now starting to address each individual directly, "You!" she pointed to the male, still bound by rope to the table, "I've mixed in a few samples of animal DNA within your dose of toxin, meaning you will be able to alter your form to resemble whichever animals I pair you with. Be warned, it will hurt. A lot." her pointed finger swept across the room, landing on the nearest twin, the male, "You. The Son Of Darkness. Like the name? I thought of it myself" she gave a proud little giggle before continuing, "Your ability allows you to control darkness. You can melt into the shadows, bring darkness where-ever you go." her eyes landed on the female beside him, "And you. Your ability counteracts your brother's. You control the light, you could literally blind people with your beauty." another chuckle came from Madame's lips, she was obviously having fun. Last but not least, her pointed index finger landed on the final act, the secret corpse that Madame had kept hidden from William up until now, "And this little lady is the grossest of them yet. I know you don't like the guts and gore William but I couldn't resist. This one is able to contort her body into all sorts of shapes and sizes, almost as if she were made of rubber!" Madame chimed, her smile beaming bright, hoping to distract William with her happiest so that she could avoid a lecture from him, but she knew that was likely impossible. "Right. Now. I'm sure you're all very curious to try out your new powers, so I'll have William untie you all and then we'll head out to the practice yard. Sound good?" the tone Madame used and the way in which she explained things was much too casual for the situation at hand, but in her mind it seemed perfectly rational, and she didn't understand why people were always so freaked out once she brought them back, you'd have thought anybody want to be alive again, given a second chance in life and given cool new powers on top of that, right?

Note: I apologise for disappearing. Again. I understand if you're mad or upset. Please take any inquiries or questions to PMs, as I'd like to keep OOC clean. And I promise from now on to make a better effort to be online and posting more. or atleast to let you all know before I go wandering off. Again, I'm sorry.