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The time was drawing near. She could feel it deep in her core, something strong stirring inside of her. It seemed that this always happened when her act was coming close.

Anastasia was dressed and seated in front of one of the mirrors, fixing her long dark hair. She was curling it tonight, but only loosely. It was quite a task to complete, but she had become used to it.

Once her hair had become little ringlets, framing her small face, she stuck a little red flower in her hair. Perfect she smiled brightly at her own reflection, before standing up from her seat and slipping out of the tent. She had a friend to visit.

It had become a custom for the little dancer to visit her favorite person in the entire circus. She carefully, but quickly made her way to Leopold's tent, only being careful to keep her dress intact. Since Leopold's at was near the beginning, she couldn't stay long.

After a few moments of bobbing and weaving through the incoming crowd, the petite girl had made her way to her destination and knocked lightly on the entrance, silently hoping someone would answer.

J'espère que Leo n'est pas en colère contre moi.. Anastasia's mind fluttered silently, hoping the big cat had forgiven her for earlier. For when she was in her dizzy state of mind, she felt something large nuzzle against her leg, but noticed only too late what it was. It was very unlike her to ignore the old lion, however it was pretty routine for Anastasia to space out like that.

With a sigh, the girl drifted more into her thoughts. "Plus tard, peut-être je vais voir Esme." she mumbled quietly. The snake charmer was one of the few people the dancer had much in common with, besides the silk dancer, Gina and maybe Leopold and his love of large felines.

Mostly, she talked to Esme for the fact that they both spoke French and Anastasia couldn't really communicate with anyone else very well. She'd probably stop by later.

As she shuffled her feet a little, becoming bored, she knocked on the door again, this time a bit firmer. It was likely that no one had heard her the first time. The dancer could vaguely hear the patter of four paws near the door, sounding as if they were pacing.

A part of her, at that very moment, wished that cats had opposable thumbs.

But, of course, that would be stupid to imagine.




Note!
J'espère que Leo n'est pas en colère contre moi .. - I hope that Leo is not angry against me..
Plus tard, peut-être je vais voir Esme - Later, maybe I'll see Esme.

Leopold was putting the final touches on his costume when a knock came at the door. The cats immediately reacted to the noise, with Arrow and Fletcher immediately padding to the door and growling quietly, Bobo hiding, and Lynx, Kitty, Sasha and Leo just staying where they were. In fact, Leopold could have sworn that he could hear the big lion snoring.
Smiling quietly to himself the tamer struggled into his second set of trousers – his act required a two – layer costume; hard to get into, but well worth the effort in the long run.
He had to have several copies of the over costume as well, they always got torn off somewhere in the show. The when, where and how of the matter always changed though, the Russian acted by feel, not routine.
By the time he was decent whoever was at the door had knocked again, and this time Sasha yowled at the man. “Yes, yes...” He muttered, before staggering over to the door, weaving through cats and debris to get to the heavy portal. Leopold’s residence was probably one of the few places in the entire place that actually had a door. It was needed.

Leopold opened the door cautiously at first, but when he discovered who it was he flung the portal wide, welcoming the green – haired silk dancer with a grin. “Preeyawm*; ahh... Hello.” He said, stepping out of the shadows and revealing himself, and his gaudy nightmare of a costume to the dancer.

It was bright red with purple sequined stripes; a matching one piece suit with a red cape that flared out behind. On the table behind him was his top hat and whip, each decorated to match the horrific costume that was actually designed by the lion tamer himself.
Not to worry; the clothes underneath were much, much more stylish.

“I wondered if you’d come.” He said quietly, moving back into the room as The cats approached. Sasha welcomed the newcomer with a twitch of her whiskers and a sneeze, more than what the other cats gave her, which was the best – case scenario. Arrow used to take a swipe at her every time she came in the place like he did to everyone else, but Leo had quickly trained the tiger out of it. “Leo is ower there.” He said quietly, miss – pronouncing his ‘v’’s as ‘w’’s as usual.
He had no doubts as to who the dancer had really come to see, and it wasn’t him.



* "Welcome" - Leopold speaks in Russian, which has a different alphabet. This is phonetic Russian.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx

Zerah seemed doubtful that the two of them could control a blaze if it broke out- which meant the trickster would have to get Felix to agree with her reckless plan. Well- she'd made it this far, right?

As if on cue, the pyrotechnician appeared, a box of explosives in his arms. The young woman didn't raise her mask as she knelt down with him over the fireworks, but a smile was evident in her voice as she responded to him, "Will do." Felix then went on to explain in detail what each explosive did, and how they would be used. She thought briefly about pocketing a few of the smoke bombs in case an emergency escape would be necessary, but she wasn't sure how much good that would do when running from Samara- and anyway, that took all the fun out of it.

As he finished, he looked up at her with a silly smile, and warned her not to catch any of the tents on fire. The impish smile on her porcelain face turned briefly toward Samara's tent, and then back to Felix- a simple gesture that made her intention perfectly clear, "I want to blow up her tent- just hers. Do you think you can do that?"

Of course he could- but would he? Deciding that she wouldn't leave room for argument this time, she stepped over to him and pointed toward the big top, "I need the loud flashing ones set off near the big top, to get everyone's attention." She then linked arms with Felix and spun him around to face the other direction, this time using her free hand to point toward the knife-thrower's tent, "The showy ones we'll be setting off right above the tent, so our friend Samara knows exactly where the ruckus is coming from."

Unhooking her arm from his, she did a neat flip toward Samara's tent, "As for the the rest- you can decided how we're going to burn the thing down. Now- you set up-" She turned back toward both the anthroparion and the pyrotechnician, walking backwards into Samara's tent as she spoke in the knife thrower's cold voice, "I'll be right back..."

With an ominous little flourish, the trickster disappeared through the tent flaps, almost immediately swallowed by the darkness of the knife-thrower's tent. Obviously no one was home, and that suited Demon just fine. Not knowing exactly what she was looking for, the trickster wandered about the tent snooping through various things, stopping as she came upon one of the knives Samara apparently had decided to leave behind for tonight's performance. Demon plucked the thing from it's resting place, and twirled the sharp blade up in the air briefly. As it came down, and she made to catch it, she accidentally fumbled, and in scrambling to catch the damned thing, it slipped through her fingers.

The sound of steel meeting porcelain caused the trickster to flinch involuntarily, and the blade fell to the floor as she withdrew from the sharp object. After a moment, she very carefully picked up the weapon by it's handle, and as she exited the tent, also removed her mask. Studying the porcelain face, she was relieved to find the blade had left only a small nick on the otherwise smooth surface. It had only barely missed one of the delighted eyes on that devilish face. Well- it certainly could have been worse.

"So- are we ready to get started?"

Anastasia hastened into his room the moment the tamer opened the door, pausing once to flash him a brilliant smile, before she shifted her entire attention onto his cats.
She gabbled at them in English, mangling the words to a point that Leopold could barely understand what she was saying. It sounded like a greeting. Leopold just smiled in response – it was usually the right response, and the worst that would happen would be that people would think him a simpleton.
Not that that would affect him in any way, really – when he went out and about, it was not Leopold that they spoke to; it was the cats.

This was a fact that the tamer had lived with for a very long time. He was not hot-headed or very loud – in fact; he hardly ever spoke at all. He didn’t smoke, or drink, or party - he didn’t irritate the others, or set fire to things, or challenge Carlisle. He didn’t even harass the punters, even when they harassed him.
He just wasn’t interesting.
But the cats were.
Brilliant, graceful creatures plucked out of a dream right there in front of you, almost so close that they could be touched. Vicious animals plucked right out of the deepest, most dangerous habitats on the planet - and they were tame. If you could tame such beasts. They had personality, they were noticeable, they commanded your attention, and held it. People never thought of Leopold himself, it was always Leopold and his cats.
And, isolating as it was, he liked it.
He was not interesting, he did not like attention. Better that those who deserved that sort of thing got it. If it weren’t for them, he wouldn’t even be in the circus at all (Even though Leopold couldn’t quite decide whether that was a good thing or a bad thing).
Anastasia almost fell upon the big old Lion as soon as he was pointed out to her. Dress and all (It was quite a dress indeed, Leopold thought to himself) she knelt on the floor, green hair falling in a curtain around her face and shoulders as she buried her face in the lion’s rough mane.
Leo accepted the hug with resigned grace, blinking sleepily at first the dancer, then Leopold. Leopold just continued smiling. It was good for the old lion to have such affection, and it really seemed to bring the youth back into the old man, having a young cub like this dancer to look after. Leopold and the Lion had a strictly professional relationship; they were just too different to make it anything else.

The lion made a strange noise in his throat as Anastasia pilled back, then closed his eyes as she started scratching his ears. Purring softly, he leant his great head against the dancer’s torso.
“He will ruin your dress.” Leopold said quietly, but the dancer appeared not to hear, and just smiled as she stroked the Lion’s mane.

Leaving the two at it, Leopold went back to his pre – act preparations. Bobo had to get into his costume yet, and Arrow had to be locked away.
As the tamer went back to work, Anastasia seemed to come to herself.

“H-He iz seeming tired mor' often." She paused, which made the man look up at her in return. "Is.. is not good? Is..bad?" Leopold couldn’t really understand what she was trying to say. It was about Leo, that much was obvious, and she was concerned.

"H-He iz ok, oui?" Anastasia looked up at Leopold, her eyes pleading and sad. She really loved that big old lion, he was the last of what was left of the old Lion tamer. It must be about his age, he was slowing down as of late, and he was really a very old man.

Leopold left off preparing Bobo and went over to squat down beside the dancer, hitching up his hideous trousers before he did so.
“Leo is old.” He started, speaking slowly and carefully to the dancer. “He has had good life, but is slowink down. He ees hokay, for old lion.” The old circle of life talk was a hard one to give, especially to a girl as attached to an animal as this one was. “Eventually, he will slow down. He will find it hard to move, andt will need to go.” He put a hand on her shoulder, and looked deep into her eyes. It would help her to see his tears, to let her know that he was sad to. “Eeet will be best.”
With that he stood, and began ushering Arrow back into a secure cage. It was time for his act, and he wasn’t used to making speeches.

It took the tamer only moments to finish his preparations, and gather his cats. “Leo will be performing tonight.” He said quietly to the dancer. He would be there just for show; there would be no jumping and leaping about for him. “We need to go.”

Silence was all that seemed to be coming from a certain performer’s tent. This was something quite odd as normally music would be playing, unless something quite unnerving was occurring within. It just so happened to be one of those days. Of course, no one had seen the performer today so their only assumption could be that he was no doubt inside doing something to keep himself entertained.

The entertainer was a young man by the name of Benjamin Cullington, otherwise known as “Cookie” to his peers due to his child-like behaviour and insatiable desire for biscuits. You really couldn’t find him without some sort of treat in his possession. Mind you, he was a mute so he had no uses for his mouth apart from expressions and sticking things in it. He had golden blonde hair that shaped around his face quite naturally, and some of the most incredible blue eyes that one could find.

Soon, the silence about his tent formed into a very faint hissing noise-

BANG!

A massive black cloud billowed from any and every opening in his tent. But this wasn’t quite smoke. No, it was much different. This particular cloud had a horrific stench, like a huge, dark fart cloud. Seriously, it smelled like somebody ripped one so bad that it made your eyes water, and that’s exactly what our beloved Ben’s eyes were doing.

A figure ran from the cloud as quickly as its skinny legs could possibly handle, trying to find some sort of haven from the incredible smell.

The cloud sort of dissipated slightly, yet the main bulk of it was still there. What was it? Who knows? Why did it happen? I can explain that one. Earlier today, exactly 3 minutes and 24 seconds ago, Ben had decided to try his hand at chemistry. God help the girl that actually decides to take up the challenge of dating him. Now, given his gifts, he should have been able to pull off something successfully. Yet, given his naivety, he’d unwittingly mixed the wrong chemicals. He had no idea which ones, but of course this wasn’t going to stop him from trying again at some stage. Anyone who knew the boy personally could tell you that.

Anyway, as the body of the cloud slowly – and very minimally – the young blonde poked his head from around a nearby tent. He looked like what you’d expect him to look like, covered head to toe in soot at the front and his hair blown back with eyes as big as dinner plates. Could you blame him though? Yes, yes you could.

Let’s just say that Ben has a reputation around the circus for being out of control…

Without even thinking for another second, he stuck a lollipop in his mouth and walked away. Still covered in soot and a less potent reek, he simply strolled aimlessly past the other tents and stalls. He had no goal, nor did he care, he rather the thrill of finding something or someone of interest along his journey. It was like he was there just because of the fact that every day was an adventure to him.

The boy could be seen staring blankly into the distance as he moved while one hand never left contact with the stick of his lolly, seeming as if he was defending it from the grasp of anyone that was dastardly enough to steal his sugary treat that he believed he was deserving of. In fact, it was quite a sight to see a boy his age so filthy and smelly sucking on a lollipop without the slightest hint of expression on his face. It still stumped even his fellow performers and close friends to this day that he was like this. But they accepted him as family, as he had accepted them.