AU: Runawaystuck
Disclaimer: is dumb. But anyway, yeah, not mine, Hussie, blah blah bluh.
The main roads were the same as always, full of people and cars. Such a convenient invention, cars. Pity they were so expensive. This thought ran through John Egbert's mind as he made his way down the sidewalk, combing the city for a job. Standing at nearly nineteen-years-old, he was a rather tall individual in dire need of money. Why he did not have money from his parents was a matter that he would not share for a while.
So caught up in his thoughts, he did not notice the person coming right to him until they collided in a matter most unpleasant and rather painful.
"Sorry!" He exclaimed, giving the individual an apologetic glance. They just sneered back. He was yet again swept up by his ever-present daydreaming, that time about how rude some people are.
He walked without paying attention to exactly where he was going, his thoughts fluctuating from the behaviour of people to the daily attire of said people to something odd about ponies he'd rather not reflect on.
It was not until he collided face-first with it did he notice the large gateway blocking his path.
"What..." He rubbed his nose in surprise as he scanned his surroundings.
He had long since left town, and was now facing a large castle lying on the outskirts of said town. The gates were old and rusty, no lock keeping them together like he'd expect. The walk to the castle itself was very long, making it very overdramatic and quite ridiculous. As for the castle, it was, for lack of a better word, gigantic. The tips seemed to reach heaven, even though the castle itself looked like it was taken straight from hell. Most of it was in shadow, and it looked haunted. This was not a pleasant castle.
With one final glance, John walked away from the castle and down the road the other way.
He walked for about half an hour, or what he judged was half an hour, for he had no pocket watch on him. A group of younger teenagers began to mock and throw things at him for his 'unmanly' looks, but he ignored it, fighting with children being the last thing he wanted to do. He'd always been a nice person. Thoughts once again began churning in his head, mainly about why these children were not home at such a dark hour.
He saw the lights before the village. Yet instead of a village, he was greeted with a circus, surprising him. He'd been this way before. Surely there was never a circus here before...was there? He approached this new site warily. One simply does not barge right into the unknown without observing first. While he peeked around a tent, checking to see if he had been seen, he nearly jumped out of his skin when a voice sounded sharply behind him.
"Hey! What are you doing here?" A black-haired girl with peculiar red glasses stared down at him. He spoke while attempting to calm his breathing, fixing his crooked cap.
"I-I'm sorry, I was just looking around-"
"It costs money, you know. The circus." She interrupted him, holding out her hand with a rather large grin.
"I've, uh," he turned out his pockets, "got none."
She seemed to think this over, placing one hand on her waist and another by her chin, her index finger and thumb framing it.
"Got any red chalk?" She asked suddenly, grinning.
John looked at her in bewilderment. Such a random question, he thought. Why on Earth would he have chalk? It was then that he remembered he had picked up something the children threw at him, and in his hand was, in fact, red chalk. How strange...
"Why, yes, I do," The astonished look did not leave his face, even after he handed her the chalk.
"Thank you. You're free to go." She snickered, tossing a ticket to him. As he started to walk away, he took a look back at the odd woman, just in time to see her take a big bite out of the chalk. His eyes widened at the sight. Such a weird person!
He did like abnormal people, though. They were interesting. He really wished he would've gotten her name. Maybe she is part of the circus? What is the name of the circus? How many people are in the circus? Oh jeez, I'm rambling again...
He passed by more strange people; a very tall and very intimidating clown on a unicycle juggling clubs, a boy with a strange streak of purple in his hair and a girl with some type of glasses floating in a pool of water (Are those gills?), and a very muscular man bending different types of metal while a very cat-like girl babbles on about something to him; before he just decided to stop and try to ask someone what he was doing and what he had a ticket for.
"You! What are you doing here?" An angry voice called. John searched around for the voice, eventually discovering it came from the short man he had bumped into earlier. "This is backstage, no fucking guests allowed! Also, you're an ass." He added. He sure had a mouth on him.
"I'm sorry?" He meant to state it, but it came out as a question. "I mean, I'm sorry for earlier, bumping into you like that," He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
"Yeah, you should be! I could've died or something," He grimaced.
I highly doubt that. John's mouth went crooked in disbelief.
"Wipe that stupid expression off your dumb face. Why are you back here?" He sighed, his patience obviously wearing thin.
"Well, I was hoping you could tell me-"
"Why the fuck would I know?" He interrupted him, with an angry questioning tone to his voice. What is with everyone interrupting me today?
"Well, I got this ticket from someone with red glasses, and I don't know where to go..." The man sighed in exasperation. "What?" John cocked his head slightly.
"I told her to report wanderers to me! God damn her, I swear, she does this just to anger me..." He walked away mumbling before John could ask him a thing. He scratched his head and sighed, attempting to ask others before giving up and slumping in the grass next to a tent, resting his head and arms on his knees.
"Something wrong?" A bubbly voice greeted him.
He looked up to see a girl with dog ears smiling down at him. Wait...dog ears? He couldn't help but stare, even though it's rude. Her smile never wavered, just simply pulling a hand up to point to them, like she was used to it.
"Accident." She giggled.
"O-oh, alright," he giggled nervously to himself, as unmanly as that sounds, "um, where am I supposed to-" He halted as she placed her fingertips on his face.
"You're so pretty..." She said in awe. Not this again, he sighed.
"Thank you. Now-"
"How could you possibly be so pretty? I wish I was that pretty!" She sighed loudly. "It's okay, though! It's not like I'm ugly, right?" She smiled.
"No, of course not! You're beautiful," he reassured her quickly. She was indeed pretty, albeit a little different looking, what with her ears.
"Thank you. That means a lot." She pinched his cheeks for good measure before standing back up, her long hair ending just under her tush, he observed. Not that he was observing her in a sexual way, definitely not. That was rude and inappropriate to do to a lady.
"Can you tell me where to go?" He asked quickly before she could get a word in, standing up next to her.
"Go wherever your heart leads you," she sighed. He looked at her strangely. "Hee hee, just kidding! What do you mean?"
He held up the ticket.
"Oh!" She placed a hand over her mouth in overdramatic surprise. "This way!" She took his hand and led him to the large tent. Finally, someone is helping!
The interior of the tent was extraordinary. Brilliantly coloured trapezes hung from the top (without a safety net at the bottom, he noticed), large balls were being rolled about (with the clown he saw from earlier walking on one), a few female aerial contortionists practising with their richly coloured silks, and more people were setting up other decorations and ribbons around the set. The stands surrounded the entire middle, none of which were filled.
"You can just sit wherever you like, as long as it's in the stands. Wow, are you early or what?" She giggled yet again, waiting until he sat down to say her goodbyes and leave.
It wasn't long until he got bored and got up again. Now that he knew where to go, there was no harm in looking around a bit more, was there? He dug his hands into his pockets and headed for the door...
And smacked into someone yet again.
He really should watch where he was going.
"I'm sorry!" He shouted, scrambling a bit comically to get back on his feet, then holding a hand out to help the other person up.
What grabbed his hand was not a hand, but a feathered...thing.
It took all his willpower not to recoil with a gasp.
He looked up at the person, finding it to be a male around his age (then again, everyone here is), and a little taller. The man had strikingly red eyes, blonde hair, and a little black nose that John couldn't help but think was adorable (in the platonic way, of course). Feathered black wings; not to big, not to small; framed his figure. He wore no shirt, just long red shorts. Heh, oxymoron. His arms and legs were feathered black; his hands better looking than his feet by a long shot.
He was brilliant.
"Who are you?" John asked after a long silence.
The bird-man's response was a shake of his head and he silently brushed past him.
