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" Good morning, it's seven am and sunny in -" With a small thunk Cassie slapped her hand down on the top of her alarm silencing the machine as part of her normal morning routine. Cutting off the cheery voices of morning radio show hosts was habit by now. Cassie had long ago learned she didn't actually wake to the sound of music playing out of the alarm clock and insistent beeping alarms made her grouchy in the mornings as they made her ears ring.

Although technically by now Cassie figured it was less the radio on the alarm that woke her than habit of having to be awake at this hour for the past several years. She imagined that if she ever left this life it was going to take ages to set any new sort of sleeping and waking pattern

If there was one thing Cassie didn't enjoy about her life as a semi nomadic entertainer it was days in which the Circus had to be broken down and packed up for a long haul to it's next semi permanent location. It always felt so much longer than a regular day and the work was a hell of a lot harder. Even now it never ceased to amaze the young woman just how much stuff there was to be taken apart and carefully packed into trucks.

The brunette stretched in bed and closed her eyes for a moment as if trying to catch a few last seconds of rest before sitting up and rubbing at her eyes. For all that she was used to being up at this hour Cassie still needed coffee before she was going to be of any use to anyone.

A few minutes later though she was dressed and happily sipping dark caffeinated ambrosia from a mug, no milk no sugar. Instant coffee had become a dear friend to Cassie during late night study sessions in high school. Today its convenience still made her favour it even when she had the option of properly brewed stuff. Well that and the fact that the no name brands of it were cheap and just as effective.

Carefully holding the warm, powder blue, ceramic mug in one hand Cassie opened the door to her trailer and looked outside to check on the weather and see who was already up. The air was warm, muggy and smelled a bit like mud evidence of the light rain they'd gotten at some point over the night. A few people were up and moving about the lot, most still seemed to be in their trailers in the back yard though taking advantage of those last few minutes before the hard work of break down began.


About to step back inside to finish her coffee Cassie's eyes strayed downwards to make sure there were no puddles or mud patches directly beneath her trailer's steps that she'd need to wear her rubber boots to get through. There were no puddles or mud but on the step to her trailer was a small, black, square box with a pristine white ribbon wrapped around it like it was gift of some sort. “The heck?' Cassie's eyes narrowed as she peered down at it for a second and noticed the note seemed to be being held down by it the only thing legible at the moment being the signature 'Rethe Phonne”.

Cassie bit the inside of her cheek as she tried to remember where she'd heard that name before. As she bent down to pick up the mysterious box and it's note, mousy brown hair fell forward to form a sort of obscuring curtain that reminded Cassie she needed to pull it back still for the day.
Ignoring it for now the woman stood with the items and stepped back into her trailer. The box was placed on the counter of the kitchen section while Cassie looked over the note that had come with it.

“Good day dear lucky Sir or Madam, or Sir and Madam!
I am here to grant you life, please take care not to disturb the sleeping sound within this orb.
It will be relying on you from now on.
Take care!
Rethe Phonne”

" Life..orb" The girl's eyebrows furrowed. “********." Hazel eyes strayed over to the ribbon wrapped box. She did not need this right now; she was NOT dealing with this right now. Sh-


“Cass you ready?" Mark's voice filtered in from outside cutting of her train of though.

“Yeah be right out." Cassie called back and reached to place the note back on top of the box. The circus clown slipped into her shoes and opened the door to the trailer again." She flashed a smile at Mark, the tall redhead was her best friends here for all he was a good five years older than her, and perhaps she'd talk to him about whole orb thing while they worked.


~

“Seriously?" Mark's voice was a little incredulous.

“Yep" Cassie nodded as she stood a few feet away from the man; the two were part of several people assigned to the canvass team that was taking down the smaller push pole tents. Not that they were by any means horribly small themselves but they simply weren't anything compared to the big top which required a lot more people and equipment to dissemble.

“What’s it look like?"

“Didn’t open the box, didn't have time." For which the brunette was thankful, actually seeing the orb would make it all the more real to her. Not that she wasn't treating it as real but for the moment it was just a little less pressing a concern because it was still in the box.

"Could be fake then, someone trying to mess with you, give you a scare." Though Mark's tone clearly betrayed that he doubted the suggestion.

“Who though and why?" Circus folk generally banded together there was no reason

Mark shrugged and the two went back to lifting poles and removing them from the tents while others worked on the ties and pegs.

~
Eventually Cassie made it back to her trailer having made it through the day without dwelling too much more on the morning’s mail. Now though as she sat on her bed and slowly turned the box in her hand she was forced to deal with it. With the possibility that there was really a strange magic orb inside that could turn into a child; there were reports of it happening after all. Cassie was only twenty six and still trying to hammer out a firm future for herself, she had no plans to start dating yet never mind have a kid.


The young woman supposed she could pass it off on another or hand it over to science or something. The idea gave her chills though, she'd been raised in a happy loving family and even though she didn't know why she had been chosen, assuming this really wasn't a gag, turning away from a kid seemed sort of wrong. Even if her personal lifestyle was not one she felt was suited for adding a kid too.

“Well at least raising a kid in a circus is doable" she muttered. Several of her fellow performers had children; maybe they'd be able to help her out with this if it turned out to be real. Which she should really find out.

Biting her slower lip Cassie slid the white ribbon off the box and then carefully lifted the lid. Nestled inside on a bed of cotton fluff was a small black and white orb perfectly divided and not mixing into gray at all despite the fact that whatever coloured the thing was inside only and not a solid. Never mind the fact that sound was supposed to be colourless.

Ok, so it was real or as real as she could verify without touching it and that was something Cassie wasn't going to risk doing.

Her hazel eyes softened a little as the idea that this was reality sunk in and a small smile tugged at her lips. Tomorrow, she thought, tomorrow she was going to call her parents and tell them she was kind of pregnant

A tall, tanned, man with auburn hair ran clearly calloused fingertips lightly over an expensive burgundy silk tie. He stood on a paved driveway in front of a rather impressive white mansion and swallowed visibly. Whether he was nervous about what lay inside or just not good at situations that called for formal wear Cassie didn't know. Didn’t much care either, between the music and way he was standing she was positive what she was watching was a soap opera rerun and soaps weren't something she liked. The brunette might not have been a teenager for a while now but she considered soap operas boring and for old people with no lives. Then again she still liked to watch cartoons sometimes so most people probably wouldn't put too much stock in her opinion.

Regardless Cassie pressed the channel up button on remote and waited to see what the next channel would bring. The satellite atop her trailer gave her a great deal more channels than she needed as well as a guide she could use but Cassie preferred to scroll through channel by channel. At least late at night anyway when she didn’t care if she was going to be entering a show ten minutes in.

With the circus caravan parked in a large field for the night Cassie was trying to find something to watch before she went to sleep. Lauren and Roger had made up though and she was driving herself tomorrow so she was really only looking for something to entertain her for the next half hour or so because she did need sleep..

“You’d think with over two hundred channels there would be something on." There was no one else technically living in the room, the woman’s conversational stone and statement were instead directed at the orb which she had out, laying upon the star print comforter on her bed.

Predictably it did not respond, not even shifting colour to acknowledge her presence.

Cassie frowned unsure of if it was asleep, ignoring her or simply unaware she was trying to communicate with it. It was, in her mind slowly becoming far less cool to have a magic orb than to be pregnant. At least from what she’d seen and heard there was some interaction you could have with a baby.. fetus.. thing. Of course Cassie was trading the gestational interaction aspect for the ability to not be fat, have morning sickness or get screwed during work so really she didn’t have much to complain about.

Still as her hazel eyes stared at the yin-yang like orb she really really wished it would do something. Maybe she was fickle but her excitement about being a parent of sorts seemed to come and go mostly based on when she caught the orb making noise or shifting it's colours. When it just sat there all unassumingly it was well boring and Cassie had never done very well with things that were boring.

“Hot girls are waiting for you to"

Nope not that channel either.

"Comment est-ce que cela s'écrit ?"

“Non" Cassie had rather embarrassingly forgotten almost everything she’d ever learned in her mandatory French classes. She glanced over at the still unresponsive orb." Guess you won’t be a cool kid who speaks two languages, sorry."

Actually it made the young woman feel a little guilty as much as she joked, what if her kid missed out on opportunities because she lacked the skills to teach them. As it was she was going to be his or hers personal home school teacher, anything the curriculum books didn't teach her child would have to be clarified by her and Cassie was never a really good student, not piss poor but not tutor material either.


A few channel flips later and Cassie settled on a nature program for a moment. Usually these were pretty interesting. There were no animals in sight at the moment though. Instead the camera was panning over a desert. The wastelands were truly different from the mostly flat, short grassed human cultivated areas that Cassie was used to seeing these days. With no one to tend to them or force things to grow in certain ways deserts were truly wild places.

The arid wastelands contained steep slopes of craggy reddish orange rocks as well as dry loose soil that produced small dust clouds when the wind swept across the plains. The angle of the camera shifted suddenly and Cassie was given a view of the area's general disbursement of sage brush, low lying thorny bushes, cacti and other native flora. Pretty but not all that interesting, she wanted to see animals.

" The desert hare"

Cassie changed channels, she had no real interest in the life of a rabbit or hare as the case may be; at least not right now anyways. The rapidly tiring woman ended up on the Disney channel right at the start of a musical number from some movie. She was about to change the channel again when the colours within the orb began to shift rapidly catching her attention. The young woman’s eyes widened in surprise; could it hear, was it finally interested in something, if so why this?

The orb of course provided no answers and merely continued to show it’s approval of the song while Ratcliffe prance about and sang.

“O come on really? Disney’s bad for you though, all those princesses needing prince charming for a happy life, butchering of perfectly good fairy tales yo give em a family friendly ending." Cassie felt a bit bad pleading with it to stop now that the orb was actually reacting. Admittedly the song wasn’t all that bad, kind of catchy and well as circus folk it entertained her but dammit it was Disney.

On a more important note the sound orb colour shifts almost seemed to match the rhythm of the song and it.. It was mimicking the music or was… No that was the tune it kept playing bits of earlier. Cassie's orb was a crazy Disney song playing thing.

“Well ******** the hell did that mean the kid was going to come out at as? Ratcliffe? A crazy jester, Pocahontas being the belle of the ball..what?

Cassie just knew she was going to have nightmares about the possible outcomes now.

Double trouble
* Actually occurred late august 4th/ early august 5th
Hot water poured from the shower head and cascaded down onto Cassie’s body. The heat from the water and steam surrounding her was relaxing for the young woman. Gods did she ever need to relax. They’d arrived at their lot today and set up immediately even if they didn’t open for another few days. It had been back breaking work and there was no muscle in the brunette’s body that didn’t ache. All she wanted now was to shower and then sleep.

Cassie placed a small amount of crisp yet chemical smelling blue liquid onto her hand then raised it to her head and began massaging the shampoo into her hair. Though her hands and fingers were ungodly sore her scalp clearly appreciated the attention as some of the headache she’d had since noon faded leaving behind only a dull throbbing in her temples.

At least the weather had been nice today Cassie mused, warm but not blisteringly hot. Of course that wouldn’t have been an issue had they booked Madison square garden or the Nassau expo center like some other circuses did. Then again Cassie was sort of proud that the Harper’s three ring mudshow was too big and too proud of tradition to go indoors when a perfectly good large fairground was available for use. Well at least until the winter months set in and then they had no choice but to moves indoors and downsize a lot. Cassie would still have her job but a lot her companions would be leaving to take the winter season off around the end of November.

Suds from the shampoo ran down Cassie’s body chased by small torrents of water from the shower. With her eyes closed to prevent the frothy foam from getting in her eyes the young woman was more than a little terrified when she heard a loud crash from inside the bathroom. “ Eeeeah” she jumped her heart jack hammering. She slipped and managed to not land on her a** only by the grace of god and the strength of the curtain rod. Just as she was steadying herself there was a second crash followed .

Cassie’s eyes burned a little but fortunately only a few suds had gotten into her eyes. Blinking past a few tears she tore the shower curtain back and stared for a moment in silence. Seconds ticked past as Hazel eye were locked onto two pairs of grey. The shower continued to pour water down upon the naked young woman as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing.

Her everyday makeup case and ceramic toothbrush container were now on the floor the ceramic container now in pieces. More important though there was a baby in her bathroom sink and another on the counter beside it. Their skin’s were a soft pink and blue like cotton candy. Cassie was still in shock as she looked over them, managing to remember to turn of the water and step out of the shower let the little blue one roll off the counter.

“ I.. I don’t get it” she murmured staring down at them. The blue one had long silvery hair and black feathery head wings, dark lips and equally dark markings placed sporadically on it.. his oh god bits he had boy bits. Cassie closed her eyes then opened them realizing she couldn’t afford not to see him. Still she kept her eyes away from his nether region not particularly ready to deal with that just yet.

A quick glance over tat the other infant revealed she of the short black hair and draconic like head wings to be female. It was a relief to say the least.

~

An hour later Cassie was still a bit out of it but partially composed now. She and the babies, the still unnamed pink and blue skinned, horned ! infants were sitting on her bed. All of them were now clothes, the strange former orb twins wearing slightly loose castoffs from Dana’s boy who was now a toddler. She owed the big cat trainer a lot for the immediate help she’d provided with no questions asked. Clothes and bottles had been provided and the woman had even run into the city late at night to get formula and diapers for her. Cassie had paced back and forth while waiting, she learned very quickly that infants were heavier than they looked.

Now though the little ones were propped up on her pillows drinking happily from bottles while Cassie’s arms and body threatened to give out just watching them and holding the bottle. It was going to be a long night though or so Dana had said and Cassie had no illusions about getting any sleep tonight. Although it appeared she’d be waking up less to the sound of babies cries than that weird Disney song. Not that they could speak the words oh no now it was just the tune they seemed to coo.

Why there were two of them Cassie didn’t know , maybe once they were asleep she’d break out her laptop and post to that facebook group. She could sure use some support about now and while there were few hundred odd people she had as co workers just outside that she could turn to most of them were dead tired and sleeping and would have no idea what to do either.

Though she would rely on them soon, sharing her former secret with them and trusting that the bond of circus folk would keep them from harming the children even if they were ..special.

How special Cassie wasn’t sure yet , all she knew for sure right now was that they were here and she had to take care of them. Already she knew it would be strange and awkward and stressing. Just the fact that one of them was male made her more squeamish than she’d ever imagined. Bathing and changing him was going to be a nightmare till she got over that

Still there was something in his eyes that drew the young woman to him and made her smile. The same with his sister. Something about their small fingers and toes with their black little nails. They were so cute and sweet while at the same time looking off and creepy especially with the dark circles around their eyes.

They were unique and they were hers. Both of them. What the hell was she going to do now?

Working family


The temperature inside the main tent was uncomfortably warm and the air was thick with the smell of popcorn and sugar. Still the crowd clapped and cheered happily for Dana, clearly unconcerned about heat or scent. In general the atmosphere under the big top was electric, the audience pumped and the performers more than ready to go.

Behind a curtain Cassie waited, she was in full costume including a curly lime green wig and ready for her act. It was never ever easy going after an animal act because the crowd especially children loved them so much. Sometimes Cassie thought Dana and her tigers were perhaps the hardest act to follow, there was something awing about the way she commanded the regal looking big cats. Equally impressive was how well trained they were and yet how much they remained wild and powerful looking. There was a lot of hard work and respect on both parties to make a big cat act look so effortless.

They were why a clown act was needed though, to keep the crowd happy but to bring them down from the level of excitement they’d been at before. It was a bit less of an impact if you went straight from tigers in fiery hoops to people flipping through the air. Clowns were entertaining without generally doing anything that startled or moved the crowd. They brought out the laughter and fun factor Circuses liked to play up.

Cassie was an auguste style clown meaning the dominate colour of her face paint was red. It also meant she was the one who took the pies to the face, make the silly mistakes and generally got the short end of the stick during performances It didn’t bother Cassie at all though, every type of clown was important and as long as she got people to smile and laugh she’d been successful. Being a circus clown was about acting for the audience’s entertainment not for their praise.

A few minutes later and Cassie was out before the crowd juggling and acting for all the world as if tossing a and catch a few rubber balls was the most spectacular feat ever. It was all part of the gag though, the hubris her character showed. Prancing about and showing off.

Then came in Terrance who began to order her to do all sort of things, like hop on one foot or spin in a circle. His character trying to make hers falter but only succeeding in making her look more talented if silly with each task given. The audience laughed, obviously interested to see where this would all go.

It moved to Terrance lobbing balls at her that Cassie hit back with a big red kiddy baseball bat. Their rhythm was steady and in a way it still looked like they were jugging. Then came the surprise While Cassie spun around on orders to make things more difficult between swings a mysterious extra ball was pulled from Terrance’s pocket. The spectators didn’t really get a good look at it before it was in the air and Cassie swung for it.

Fwoosh

The ball turned out to be a water balloon that broke upon upon contact and splashed Cassie who looked utterly confused.

The crowd laughed, she and Terrance bowed and that was it. A short cute little act with a nice blow off. It was one of Cassie’s favorites of the many she performed.

~

“Look at them mommy they’re so cute” A little girl pointed at Madison and Mason as she dragged her mother towards the ticket trailer.

“They look kind of like cotton candy, dad can we get cotton candy?” Another child grinned and pulled their parent off towards one of the concession stands in the midway.

" They've even got costumes."

Robin grinned, it’d been like this all morning, and she was starting to think Cassie’s kids were good luck charms. Sure there'd been the odd person concerned about the fact that the infants looked like they had been covered in makeup but for the most part people love it. There was something undeniably cute about babies at the circus who looked like they fit right in.

The redhead grinned over at the pair; they were certainly doing their job at convincing people the circus was worth buying tickets to as well and inspiring some to patronize the midway. Though some people might be disappointed to find there was no place there they would find headbands with feather or dragon like wings on them. “I might have to keep you with me all the time.” It wouldn’t be all that bad either the woman mused; the pair was cute and entertaining enough even if the only words they spoke made no sense.

From his baby seat that rested on a chair beside in her in the trailer Mason gave a high pitched eerie giggle before he shoved an animal cracker in his mouth. The feminine looking boy smiled as he sucked on the sweet cookie like cracker turning it to mush in his mouth. He seemed rather fond of the treat and Robin had figured it would hurt him to have a few; it was unlikely he was going to choke or eat the whole box.

Besides she’d found it cute when he was stare at one of the carefully shaped crackers explain something that made no sense and then gesture off through the Plexiglas in the direction of the actual animal in question. Certainly Harper’s three ring mudshow didn’t have all the creature available but Mason seemed to be able to recognize the ones they did have, even in tiny edible form.

Before Robin could respond to the boy, Madison who was on the other side of her echoed the laugh though hers was just a bit less well …creepy. Vaguely the woman wondered if the two were mimicking each other when they did this of if there was meaning in the sounds they made, if even at their young age they were capable of some sort of communication. They were rather special after all, twins having come from one source and yet being so very different.

Robin thought Cassie was lucky to have them, even if she’d agreed with the other woman that raising them on the road was going to be no easy process. Still, Cassie had been gifted with life in the strangest of ways and very unique life at that. It made Robin a bit jealous to be honest.

She had little time to dwell on such thoughts though before another small tide of people spilled out of the parking lot and headed towards the ticket booth. “Alright you two smile and wave, its show time."

( ticket trailer is like this )

Thoughts and things.


“Your sister is not a pillow Mason” Cassie muttered as she looked down at the twins in their pack n play. The divider had been removed and the two were crawling about playing while they digested their dinner. Or they had been anyways, now Madison was chewing on a large purple snake plush prize from one of the midway games and Mason was laying with his head on her diapered butt just sort of staring off into space making weird face from time to time. Snake chewing and daydreaming, the more time she spent with them the less Cassie actually understood her own children. She wondered if this was something all parents had to deal with, if children were uniquely designed to confuse the hell out of adults.

“Yea.” The response was a single soft spoken word coming from the dark horned boy.

“Are you arguing with me?” Cassie’s eyes narrowed a little as she shifted her attention back and forth between washing the dishes and watching the twins. Her tone was more curious than anything though, wondering if he was actually responding to her.

“Nay” Another quiet reply accompanied by the wiggling of Mason's toes.

“Do you have any idea what I’m saying?” The woman inquired.

Mason just giggled and continued to stare into space, not really answering his mother’s question at all.

Madison gave a muffle noise from around the snake plush then went back to chewing. Cassie didn't know if she was teething or just one of those kids who liked to bite stuff, though the behavior was new.

Warm, soapy, pine scented water sloshed about in the sink as Cassie shook her head and scrubbed vigorously at the inside of a bottle; her attention drawn back to the task at that. The twins didn’t seem to need bottles as often as she’d thought, able to handle most baby foods. They did still use them at least once daily though and there was nothing worse than the smell of milk gone bad in something. Hence the thorough cleaning since milk seemed to love sticking around in crevasses in the bottom and going bad overnight.

“ You know we’re the only species that keeps drinking milk when we’re adults.” There was calcium in vegetables and stuff and in supplements but nooo humans liked to still drink animal milk which if you thought about it was weird. Of course Cassie liked milk, especially chocolate milk so she was unlikely to give it up even if she’d come to realize how odd a thing it was. She really should stop watching late night documentaries, it made her question things she didn't really want to have to question.

She looked over her shoulder at the twins again; neither was paying any attention to her or what she was saying. Were they ignoring her or just focused on other things.. was there a difference?


~

/15/08/09

So I’ve survived the first few weeks with only relatively minor incidents. I don’t seemed to be suffering any post orb birth depression or anything. Though considering I used to think I had no free time I am now aware of just how much time I had and how much I miss it. I want to be able to pee and not hear someone cry for me, I’m not going to be gone all that long, I can’t escape the trailer from the bathroom. I’m torn between how much I Madison and Mason and wishing they’d go back to being a crazy colour changing orb. At least it was less complicated and time consuming.

My parents were right I have no I had no idea just how hard this really was. Day by day I get it a little more but every day there’s a new stumbling block too. I know it’s just not me and it’s not just parents of these Rethe phonne kids either. For some reason babies like to test the patience and sanity of their parents as if they are certain their cuteness assures they’ll be fine, which of course they usually are.

It’s not all stressing though, I’ve met some interesting people because of the twins, at least in a way. Technically I was in the right place at the right time to meet them it’s just that the twins were with me that prolonged the contact. Whatever way you put it the two guardians I’ve met of Rethe kids so far as well as their kids have been interesting.

First was Mara, she works as like a talent agent for a jazz club. She was a nice enough woman, mature, understanding and Mason seemed quite taken with her. She was pretty decent to just talk with and it was nice to meet someone who shared the same sort of parenting concerns I had. She supposed to come visit the circus and I look forward to showing her around since I already sort of got to see her world inside the club.

Her son Caspien is adorable, catlike with a little furry tail and everything. He got along okayish with Mason but mason seemed to be moody that night. Madison truly seems to adore him though, all smiles for the little blond boy and they clapped and babbled in their weird song phrase language. I think that if we didn’t have to travel Caspien would probably end up being one of those kids the twins would play with all the time; or at least Madison anyways.

I kind of hope when we leave the twins won’t miss him too much though, they're going to have to get used to the idea that we travel a lot and most friends will get left behind. This is of course assuming their memories extend this far back at all once they are older, it will be at least a year before we come back to New york and by then they may have forgotten all about Caspien becuase they are so young.


I have no idea if they will remember the other child they've met so far either. I hope not, his mother was a right c**t and i'd rather they not want to see him again becuase i refuse to deal with her.


There’s a few circus kids to play with when they get a bit bigger though so they won't be utterly lonely while we travel. Hmm maybe I should take the winter season off and settle somewhere with them till march. There's still a few months till end of main season, plenty of time to think about that.

P.S Get that damned blog up, the internet is useful for connecting to others on.

Bath times


“I have no idea how you managed to get that messy with apple sauce when it looked like you ate all of it.” Cassie shook her head as she stripped Madison for her bath. Aside from grass and dirt strains on her rosy pink skin; the dark haired girl had in a feat that amazed Cassie, also managed to get apple sauce underneath her clothes. Normally a simple cleanse with a softly cloth on the sticky or dirty areas of the skin would be all that was needed . Most baby sites she’d been to had suggested not washing little ones too often because of how sensitive their developing skin was to thing like tap water and even baby safe chemical cleaners.

Today however required a full bath treatment for both Madison and Mason to get them fully clean. Cassie’d broken out the baby shampoo and body wash as well as the teal coloured baby bath thing she’d borrowed from Dana’s son who’d had outgrown it. It allowed her to sit on the floor and bath them instead of kneeling by the tub or trying to manage in her substandard sized kitchen sink. There was the small risk of water on the floor from splashing but it wasn’t overly bad. Most importantly though it let her keep Mason close in the Pack n Play while she bathed Madison .He was happy to crawl about and watch them and she could wash Maddy without worrying about what the boy was doing.

“That’s a triceratops.” The mousy haired woman explained a minute later as she draw a soft beige coloured cloth over Madison’s back. The double horned girl was playing with a purple sponge bath toy shaped like a dinosaur. Something soft and simple to keep her amused while Cassie got her clean.

“Yea.” Grey eyes sparked with delight as Madison dunked the toy into her shallow bath water. The sponge went from a light kool aid kind of purple to a dark sort of eggplant shade, then it changed back again as the girl lifted it up by the middle and squished the water out creating a small waterfall. “ Yea yea.” The dark banded girl was clearly pleased with this discovery.

Maddy soaked and drained the sponge toy repeatedly over the course of the bath while Cassie laughed softly and Mason piped up with his own opinion on it from time to time.
Soon though the infant girl was clean and Cassie wrapped her in a fluffy blanket to pat her dry with.” I can’t believe I bought new soft towels just for you guys.” she teased. They hadn’t been that expensive really though and she understood the reasoning behind not using her old rough threaded towels on their sensitive skin. Hell, maybe she’d buy herself some new towels soon too.

Once Maddy was dried and redressed Cassie put her in the playpen along with the large plush snake the girl seemed to love so. Even as the young woman lifted Mason up for his turn she snorted at Madison practically winding around her favored toy.” I think your sister wants to be a snake charmer.”

“Nay.”

“Really now?”

“Yea.”

“And what does she want to be then ?”

Mason’s dark feathery head wings flicked forward and back and his eyes narrowed as if honestly considering the question. He grinned oddly pulling his black lips back against dark teeth “Scream.”

Cassie raised an eyebrow as she began to disrobe the blue skinned boy, the other half of her cotton candy babies. Well that was a new word and an interesting time to introduce it. “You’re crazy but I love you.” That said she went back to getting him read for his bath. She had brushed his hair earlier, after their snack but before bath time had begun. The mischievous little boy had managed to get dandelion seeds in it from when he was playing with them earlier. Brushing had also revealed a few bits of grass, a tiny half dried leaf and a twig. How it all ended up in his hair and fairly undetectable until she’d brushed it Cassie would never know. The woman had briefly debated his hair cut so stuff like that didn’t happen till he was older. It wasn’t like she was about to keep him from playing outdoors instead. For now though he had made no definite decision.

Much like when she changed him Cassie still felt awkward and weird washing Mason. He was a boy which meant he had male genitals and it made Cassie uncomfortable washing him. Although more often then not he seemed to take away the awkward and replace it with annoyance by choosing to pee on her or in the bath water. Today though he behaved and simply skimmed his black nailed fingers over the surface of the water. What, if anything he was attempting to draw Cassie couldn’t make out. Of course that could have been because she was only half paying attention.

Mostly she was focused on getting the sticky apple sauce residue off of him and removing the fine later of dust his skin had picked up while playing outside. Not enough to seriously effect it’s light blue shade at first glace, but the skin was a bit richer looking when the dust came off. “Mom was right babies attract messes.” Not that Cassie minded all that much this time, after all it was mostly her own fault they were dirty. It was also a symbol that they’d been having fun both outside and while eating

It took nearly an hour to get them both washed, dried and redressed, not that long really if Cassie was honest. Plus being in the warm water seemed to sooth them and now the two, plush the snake plush were curled up on the bed beside her. Cassie figured she’d let them nap close to her while she read. It was safe enough with her right there and them practically in the middle. Besides it was.. it was just nice in a way she couldn’t really explain.

The storm

“Are you two ready?” Cassie asked as she looked over at the twins. They pair were propped up on the bed with pillows and Madison’s large snake plush, Mason still refused to pick a special toy of his own. Her stubborn little boy was wearing footed blue camo pajamas. They made the single black horned boy look somehow menacing despite they way his long silvery hair framed his chubby face. Ok so maybe not menacing more impish because he was still kind of cute and well girly looking but there was something about his eyes and the ways his lips pursed that combined with the camouflage made Cassie think of trouble.

Still, she wasn’t about to never use the pajamas again. Especially since she’d gotten Madison a similar pair, although the girl’s pajamas were pink. The professional clown insisted to herself that it didn’t count as matching clothes because they were different colours. Besides it was cute and colour co-ordinated which made her life easier. Not that they often or always wore pink and blue throughout the day but they generally wore non gender specific clothes anyways regardless of colour. Most outfits could be swapped onto either baby without much hassle. Pajamas however were sorted so that each had a specific couple pairs.

“Yea.” Two similarly pitched voices answered her though neither turned their heads away from the Television. Two sets of grey eyes were firmly focused upon the screen and the little pause symbol flashing on it.

The hazel eyed woman laughed softly and hit the button for the remote. The video was a collage of various scenes from Cirque , circuses and other similarly styled performances. Cassie has always enjoyed watching it and she figured the twins would probably find at least most of the different acts interesting. She’d let them watch one performance each night before bed. Or let them fall asleep to it as the case might very well be.

There was a deafening crack of thunder and a torrential downpour fell from sprinklers on the ceiling. The water rained down into a large pool set into the stage. From a shadowed place up above a performer emerged and hurled themselves out into the air.

“Eeeam” Madison squealed and grabbed for her brother’s arm with a black banded, pudgy fingered hand. Mason just grinned, not at all bothered by the grabbing and clearly pleased by the sudden action

The costumed woman fell, a flash of silver in a dark storm, a glistening raindrop. She plummeted towards one of the many trampolines ringing the pool. Just a few feet above it she flipped to land on her feet and bounce back up like a rain drop bouncing off the street in heavy rain. Soon several men and women bounced up and down on the decorated trampolines, they were all little drops of water, raining down, splashing up and falling back to the ground.

Cassie admired the talent it took to perform such a feat. One of her friends in high school had had a trampoline in the backyard and Cassie had never been comfortable doing much more than just bouncing on it. She couldn’t even imagine the hours of practice it took to perfect the routine never mind the shape you had to be in.


Soon the family’s gazes were redirected to other performers as the camera angel shifted.

People mimicking ball lightning flew across the sky from trapeze to trapeze. They majestic and nearly faster than they eyes could watched as they jumped and swayed, leapt and caught. alone and in pairs. A peal of thunder reverberated throughout the stage and the audience physically watching oohed. It was as if there really was a storm in the place and it was alive.

Madison released Mason so she could clap, Cassie grinned at the look of excitement on the young girl’s face. Maybe one day Maddy would have a love for the stage and performing, it would be something they could share.

Suddenly someone fell from above, they were suspended and trailed by a silver length of rope. Precisely timed and carefully placed backlighting made them appear to glow as if they were a bolt of lightning silvery white with a yellow afterglow.

“Yea!” Mason shouted and rubbed at the budding black horn on his head. Cassie wasn’t sure what that meant but by the way his lips were pulled back and from the eerie giggle that he swiftly gave she assumed it was a good thing. Why he liked the more sudden things she didn’t know and wasn’t about to question at the moment.

Elsewhere on the stage a y young boy was twirling around. In a white and grey costume with matching long strands of streamer like fabric the ribbon dancer was a whirling dervish, wind incarnate. He stopped to lean forward for a moment and stretched out letting the ribbons flare towards the audience and camera.

Both the crowd and Cassie's family instinctively leaned back as if they had been lost to the magic of the performance. If they wind blew at them surely they must move. There was a word for that sort of condition but Cassie couldn’t be bothered to wrack her brain for it just then.

Elsewhere on stage other performers reacted to the wind as well shifting foreword and swaying as if unable to fight it's strength. Wherever the little wind boy went he was the ultimate power it seemed, the unstoppable force.


Slowly the rain became lighter then stopped altogether, the pool no longer rippling from the raging torrent. The wind died down and from wherever it came the thunder gave a last almost hollow boom. As the last vestiges of the storm faded away so did a bit of the excitement. The magic though remained.

Both Madison and Mason clapped as the camera faded to black and whined as the television was turned off.

Cassie shook her head but smiled. “ If you’re good you can watch another one tomorrow.”

There was huffing and puffing and curled up fists but the pair allowed themselves to be picked up and placed in their respective sections of the pack n play to sleep. Surely their dreams would be interesting that night.


( scene is taken from no particular production ( all scenes taken from real productions will be credited) pool set into stage idea is from a cirque performance though.)

Backdated to September 1st

Circus convoy

Backdated to September 1st

Circus convoy.

They were on the move again, leaving New York and headed into Pennsylvania. Cassie would miss some of the people she’d met there but she’d been itching to leave at the same time. She was used to the couple of day long stops that happened in most towns and cities, the month long stopover in New York had been profitable but so strange for many of the workers at the same time. There’d be no more long stops till the end of the season when they hit winter headquarters though.

That was something Cassie was still thinking over, whether she wanted to work the winter season as normal or perhaps head all the way back across the border to home. It’d be cold as Hell up there but she’d be able to let her parents meet the twins and it’d be a bit of stability before traveling started up again in march. Cassie knew Maddy and mason would have to get used to the constant moving but it wouldn’t hurt to keep them in one place over the winter season.

The brunette would end up not making any money for a few months but she’d be at home on the flipside. She’d also be able to show the twins all sorts of things and places she used to go to and do growing up. It was tempting but she still wasn’t sure yet and she had a few weeks before she needed to make the final decision and let her boss know for sure. Cassie figured she’d keep an eye on the twins a bit longer to judge their dispositions and maybe check in with the facebook group and see what they thought before she made the choice.

“Yea.” A sleepy mumbled came from behind her and Cassie smiled. The woman’s hazel eyes flicked up briefly to catch sight of the twins in her rearview mirror. She’d found way to secure their pack n play in the main part of the trailer so it didn’t move as she drove and she could keep an eye on them while they slept or played. She wasn’t quite sure yet if she’d miss that convenience once her little cotton candy babies were too big for the pen or if she’d enjoy them being big enough to sit up with her and actually enjoy the ride.

At the moment though Cassie was enjoying the relative quiet of the drive, it was just her, the twins sleeping and the sounds of the road. Well that and the sound of her stomach rumbling lightly it seemed. She debated breaking out of the long train of vehicles to get some drive through food at the next turnoff or surviving on granola bar till the next stop. If she stopped now she could feed the twins as well and then they’d be set for the rest of the day’s drive, if she waited she’d keep pace with everyone else and not have to fight for a decent spot at the lot they were staying in for the night.

The tantalizing smell of greasy but fulfilling truck stop food from up ahead made up her mind.

~

Not in the mood to fight my computer for a stable internet connection right now so I can update my lj. Maybe tomorrow or something, I can paid for a proper account then too and get a nice custom theme instead of the bland free ones. Maybe I’ll see if anyone I work with makes them or knows someone online who does.

We’re in Pennsylvania now, it’s easy to tell in certain ways but I don’t think the twins are aware, they slept almost the whole way here. I’m not sure they care either since there’s not too much for them to miss about New York as a city or state. There’s skyscrapers here too and trees and grass .The air is nicer though but I don’t think they’ve noticed that either.

I imagine what they and I will miss the most will be the people we met there. The old lady in the park we went too a few times who fed the birds, the shopkeepers in certain stores, the everyday people who stood out just a little more than others. Not to forget the guardians we met there either. Except that bratty teen b***h, I hope never to have to remember her or her kid, even if he was cute, again. I’m not sure Maddy and Mason even remember going to central park and meeting that orb boy with his powers. It’s probably for the best.

Kaithala and Vit her little wolf like boy were interesting, there was a lot of tension there but it wasn’t a horrible meeting and Kaithala herself was quite nice. She also warned me about some scumbag reporter who was in the city at the time. Next time the circus is in Seattle area I’d love to see if we could arrange a meeting and try again. Hopefully by then Maddy will know better than to fling food at strangers, she hasn’t done it since but I still don’t know why she did it to begin with. Not that Mason was on his best behavior either, that may have been my fault though since he’s repeatedly shown he doesn’t behave well when his hair is tied back.

Mara and Caspien though I know we will all miss. Maddy still gets a silly smile on her face anytime she hears anything like the sound of purring and Mason seems to look sad every time he sees orange juice but the catlike boy doesn’t appear. I think in as much as you can make friends at that age they did and now they are sad they can’t see him. If the roaming charges won’t be outrages I’ve been thinking about calling Mara and letting them babble on the phone to him and her briefly just to make things easier. Not to mention that I’d like to talk to Mara again too, she was a nice mature woman with a bit of spunk.

Arrg hand cramping can’t write more, more thoughts later.

~ Cassie