Can't Stop The Big Top

[Leroy]

"Whoa, I want to learn how to do that!" Leroy was watching someone 'breath fire' into a big burst of flames. It was so long since he had been to a circus that he almost forgot how cool they were. Even someone who could change into animals at will was still amazed by the more ordinary weird stuff.

It was Leroy's day off from work today (he only worked every other day) and he decided to go see where Nicolai and Nadia worked. So far he was a bit jealous, seeing as how they got to spend their time around such neat attractions. "What do you want to look at next?" he asked. Obviously he had not come by himself.

[Nate]

"I've heard the conjoined twins are pretty hot," suggested Nate, who was also stuffing his face full of cotton candy at the same time. "We could find them."

He was pretty jazzed himself (part of that being the affects of the sugar kicking in already). He hadn't been to a circus or fair in a long time. When he had gone in his younger days, he'd been strictly supervised ("No Nathaniel, you cannot join the acrobats!" the nanny had scolded), definitely dampening his enjoyment of the whole experience. This time, however... this was on his own terms. He couldn't help but grin from ear to ear at the possibilities.

[Leroy]

"Ha ha, maybe we could go on a double date," Leroy joked. Nate seemed to be a fairly energetic and fun guy to hang around. Leroy still hardly knew him, but already considered him to be a friend. "If you see them, let me know."

"Hey, look over there! Elephant rides! Ok, so maybe it isn't so much a ride as it is 'sitting on an elephant while it stands there and you get your picture taken.' But how often do you get the chance to sit on an elephant?" Leroy kind of wanted to go sit on one, but wasn't sure if he wanted to spend the $15 to do it. He didn't have much extra cash.

"Maybe I won't..." He saw someone patting the elephant while they were getting their picture taken and got an idea. "... will get my picture taken. You only live once, right?"

[Nate]

"Oh you know it," Nate grinned, pulling off more cotton candy from the stick. "You know, nothing like a bizarre foursome to really get things exciting." He popped the candy in his mouth and hopped out of the way when a man with a pony came hurrying by.

Nate glanced at the elephants when Leroy pointed them out. "Oh, sweet!" When he caught the glint in Leroy's eye, he began to figure it out. He smirked. "Maybe you could write the ticket cost off as a business expense and try to convince SPE--" he stopped himself immediately when he realized he probably shouldn't be talking about SPECTER out loud in a public place. He glanced around cautiously, just in case, and then continued. "...I mean... convince our 'boss' to pay you back. Part of the job, right?" he joked.

[Leroy]

Leroy liked the sound of that idea, but somehow doubted it would fly. "Think they would cover the cost of a fancy fish tank for the apartment too? You know, the kind with little sharks and starfish in it." Not that Leroy needed to spend any more time around fish tanks since he worked at the aquarium.

It was Leroy's turn next, so he stopped talking to Nate for a moment, then handed over his money. He climbed the little staircase they had set up as the elephant trainer guy explained the rules. Then he hopped up onto the elephant-sized saddle, waved at the camera with one hand, and reached out and touched the elephant's hide with the other.

As it was all over so fast that he almost wondered if he had acquired it at all. The elephant was so tranquil that it was impossible to tell if it had gone into a trance. Leroy thought it over as he went to go grab his picture.

A bunch of spit flew out of his mouth as he unsuccessfully tried to hold back a laugh. In the picture his eyes were half closed, he wasn't even facing the camera completely, and he completely forgot to smile. For the life of him, Leroy could not remember taking a worse picture. "Fifteen dollars well spent", he said as he handed the picture to Nate. "This is going up in my room for sure.

[Nate]

Nate had fully intended to get in line as well, but his attention span had quickly switched to something new when the knife thrower caught his eye. "Holy crap they still do that?!" He exclaimed, and wandered over to watch the man who was tossing knives at a woman strapped to a spinning wheel. Part of him almost hoped he missed. It would have kinda been funny. Okay maybe not. But at the same time... yeah still funny, actually.

When Leroy approached and handed him his Elephant picture, Nate snickered. "Oh, you gotta make me a copy of that. I'll keep it lovingly in my wallet. OH HEY! Candy apples!!" And with that, he hurried off towards the vendor he'd just spotted.

[inyx]

Inyx was doing her very, very best not to smear ice cream all over her face in the process of eating her cone. Some skilled worker had managed to glom at least four heaping scoops of icecream in her fat waffle cone--they ranged in a multitude of colors, apparently chosen for how bright they were rather than adhering to any sort of flavor combination.

Her red hair was thankfully tied back. She'd found that it tended to get plastered to her face if she ate messy foods; she was getting better, at least. It was hard not to be overwhelming for the desire to experience taste, but the goal of secrecy was demanded it. That, and she still felt estranged from her team mates. She wanted to do her best to blend in with them.

She was still planning how to devour the tower of ice cream when she saw Nate and Leroy pass by.

[Leroy]

Leroy rushed after Nate, trying to keep up with him in the crowd. It wasn't easy, but then again it wasn't really vital that they stay close in a group. When he was almost to the candy apple stand, Leroy caught a glimpse of red hair and a familiar face out of the corner of his eye.

"Hey Inyx," he said, stopping short of his destination. He noticed she was alone at the moment. And she had food. Andalites had become notorious for losing control around food. He felt almost as if he should babysit her, but he couldn't watch her 24-7. And besides, it wasn't like she was gorging herself right now, so maybe she had more control than he gave her credit for. "We're going to the candy apple stand, I guess, if you want to tag along." That reminded him, he was following Nate...

[Nate]

"And that, my friend, is a perfect candied apple!" Nate stated in awe of his most recent purchase, a shiny and incredibly sticky looking treat on a stick. "...I... I almost don't want to eat it. It's so beautiful..."

He glanced up then, and noticed Leroy hadn't joined him. He scanned the crowd and finally spotted him with Inyx, standing off to the side of the path. "Hey! Inyx!" As he headed towards them, he noticed the treat in her hands. "Holy crap, where on earth did you buy that?"

He decided not to say anything about the ice cream across her cheek. It was far too amusing an image to take in and comprehend to ruin with a polite napkin hand-over. Inyx was a strange one... sometimes it was hard to remember there was really a blue furry alien under the human disguise, and sometimes it was far too obvious there was something not so normal about the cute yet awkward redhead in the group. If anyone had told Nate when he was younger that he'd be hanging out with an alien one day... he'd have asked them what on earth they were smoking... and where he could get some.

"Did you come with anyone else?" he decided to add to his other question. He was anxious to know if any of the other group members were around.

[inyx]

"Hello, Leroy!" She was puzzled at the term candy apple. "I know what candy is, and I know what apples are, and each are very delightful--except for the pit part, well only apples have that. Well I think so. I haven't eaten any candy with an undesirable core-" She never got to the actual question she meant to ask, namely, what a candy apple was.

Instead, she saw Nate approaching, and he was holding a creation that looked dazzling and alarming. "Hello Nate," she said with a wide smile, eyes still focused on the thing he was holding.

"I purchased this ice cream creation at the stand 13.672 feet west of our current location. They had many flavors, but I was limited to four for this cone." She frowned momentarily, as if this was a significant disappointment. "I am practicing proper ingestion habits, but this is one of my more difficult endeavors." She sighed a little, eyeing her daunting tower of ice cream.

"I have not seen any of our companions." With that, she attempted to eat some of the top portion of her ice cream cone. Mostly she ended up sticking her nose in it a lot. Stupid thing did nothing but get in the way, the human sense of scent wasn't even that powerful!

[Leroy]

A grin crossed Leroy's face as Inyx spoke. He found it amusing how technical she sounded when she spoke. It wasn't good for cover, but it was good for cheap entertainment. His grin only widened as she got her nose in her ice cream cone.

"You have to lick it," Leroy said. "Like this." He stuck out his tongue and pantomimed the licking of an ice cream cone. He figured he looked strange, but if anyone questioned him, he would just claim that Inyx was a foreign exchange student that never had ice cream before. Or something. It was sort of true, minus the student or exchange parts.

[inyx]

Inyx watched Leroy stick his tongue out. Tongues, by far, were the strangest of all human organs. They were strange stretches of highly pliable flesh only meagerly anchored to the floor of the mouth, and they were incredibly strong for their size. On top of that, they were also highly sensitive, and responsible for the glorious sensation of taste. She watched half in wonder at the organ itself, half trying to note what he was trying to teach her.

"Hmm. I will attempt that methodology. Thank you for the assistance." Inyx stuck her tongue out, and licked her ice cream cone. The action was too tentative though--her tongue didn't come far enough out, and she still managed to get a cold nose for the effort. After a few experimental trials, she tilted her head back slightly as she licked, and found that this greatly facilitated the process.

And now that she was assured that she was consuming her treat like a normal human being, she wasted no time in continuing to eat the ice cream.

[Nate]

Nate couldn't help but snicker childishly. "Heeeeey Leroy, looks like you've had some practice there..." He grinned as he watched Inyx attempt the same motions, fighting with all his strength not to start giggling like a school girl at all the inappropriate images in his brain.

He paused then, and glanced at the still untouched candy apple in his hand, and suddenly a thought popped into his head. "That's it Inyx! You've almost got it. But watch!" and with a mischevious glint in his eye, he set to running his tongue across his own dessert, as sloooooooooooooowly as possible...

He assumed Inyx wouldn't get it at all, but he figured even if Leroy didn't laugh, getting him as uncomfortable as possible in such a situation was also enough of a win in his books!


((*FLAAAAILS* did I pass? LOL))

[Johnny]

In a smaller tent, pretty close to the Big Top, he bird show was almost over. Johnny was almsot sad aboutt hat. It had been pretty good so far, watching the parrots hold conversations, watching falcons catch ping-pong balls, and eagles picking up cats. It was pretty cool.

Rows of seats were set up around the center of the tent and a woman strolled out into the center. She was covered in feathers. She spoke into a microphone that was attached tot her collar and said, "Ladies and gents, this show's been fun but we now only have enough time for one more trick. May i get a volunteer from the audience, please?"

Not many people volunteered. In fact nobody did. The woman was looking around, obviously waiting for somebody. suddenly, the girl behind Johnny dropped her soda down Johnny's shirt. With a yelp, he hopped up and began shaking as the ice slid down his back. The woman quickly saw him and said, "Thank you mister. We have a volunteer! C'mon down, mister."

Reluctantly, johnny walked through the aisles until he was standing in the circle. The lady commanded him to stretch his arms out in front of him. The lady told him to close his eyes. He did both. suddenly, a massive weight landed on his arms and he heard the crowd gasp. He peaked his eyes open and gulped. A massive golden eagle was staring directly into his eyes.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to show you how well trained Melissa is..." Johnny didn't hear anything else. All he was concentrating on was how easy it would be for the eagle to peck his eyes out. Then, the eagle looked drowsy for some reason. It swayed back and forth on his bare arms. Strange. It looked...like it was in a trance. Did I acquire the bird?

Then the bird shook its head and flew across the circle and preformed several tricks. Johnny didn't wait to see the rest. He walked out of the tent quickly and headed for the Big Top. Ice cream sounded good so that was where he was heading then. Also, he didn't think anything in the main tent would be as life threatening.

[Leroy]

Leroy gave Nate a weird look as he showed Inyx how to lick stuff. Why was he- Oh that was completely unnecessary and inappropriate. And a little funny, but Leroy tried to hide the fact that he was amused.

"Well, if Nate is done 'correcting' my instructions, then maybe we could go see what else is happening at this place. Was there anything else in particular that you two wanted to see?" Before they could answer, Leroy spotted another familiar face. "Hey Johnny, over here!" He waved his arms in order to get Johnny's attention. Who knew they all would have decided to go to the circus on the same day? Or did Leroy mention that he was going? He couldn't remember.