The canvas big top was striped with royal colours; Deep violet next to bright magenta, with the occasional blue in between. A flag stood tall from the tip, it flew a royal tyrian purple. This place obviously was upper class, only catering to the higher up in society.
He couldn't shake the feeling he didn't belong here. If that pushy blue-blood with the cane hadn't forced him, he wouldn't be here at all. He would be back at his hive with his lusus watching movies or playing games or…
Or well not being here. Where he didn't belong.
"Move along buster" Something stabbed him in the back, the words tipped with venom.
Turning, he gazed upon the pushy blue-blood from the street.
Black hair cascaded down her shoulder onto her black and blue dress. Mostly black, all the seams and edges were blue. Lace hemmed all the edges, also blue.
With her dress cutting off mid-thigh, she wore semi-transparent black stockings to make the outfit seem more appropriate for the street. The heel of her black leather boots stabbed into the ground, leaving deep scary footprints behind her.
He swallowed hard, "I uh…didn't know where I was uh…"
"Yeah can it bub, that way." She stopped him and pointed with her cane.
The walking stick was as scary as the rest of her. Black polished wood with a blue stripe down the side. On top was a spider shaped handle, sapphire eyes matching the rest of the blue motif.
Couldn't be very comfortable to hold.
The end of her cane, which was unnecessarily sharp, was pointing toward the big top.
"But I…Its all highblood colours and-"
"Do as you're told gutterblood." The pushy blue-blood scolded him.
This was the same attitude that got him in this trouble in the first place.
He had seen her on the street; she was standing on a box, waving her cane around shouting about the circus being in town how could you dare miss it!
"Hey you!" She shouted, pointing at her cane at him.
"YES YOU! Come here." She beckoned him with her hand; a careful lacey glove covered most of her grey skin. Her nails were painted blue to match her outfit.
He obeyed, as that's what he did best, and walked over to her. She leaned down, whispered in his ear, "You got a job kid?"
He shook his head.
"You want one?"
He looked at her. Her eyes were striking, staring intently at him. Both blue, but one with eight dark pupils.
A hand snaked up and held tight to his shoulder, her nails pricking him hard.
"Now now, don't leave a lady waiting."
"Uh well…what would I be do-"
"Does it matter? It pays and you'll have a place to live."
"I have a uh…place to live now…"
"This one is better."
"Okay but what would I-"
"Good, go down there and talk to the angry man in the top hat."
"But I-"
"GO"
After that, the little troll scurried down the sandy walkway of the circus. Passing various tents in the same colour pattern as the big top. There were some vending food, some with curtains closed and scary trolls standing out front of them. A few emitted frightening noises.
He stopped in front of the big top, looking up at the flag made him feel wrong. He was gazing upon a colour he should never even be near with his low blood. He would just wriggle back to his hive like the lowblood he was.
Then the scary blue-blood stabbed him and he snapped out of his trance.
She told him to go into the big top. There was no way he could-
Okay, pushing worked. If he was pushed maybe he could go in.
Landing on the dirt face first wasn't very pleasant, but he shouldn't have been in here with his blood so he didn't care.
Looking up, blinking dust from his eyes, he saw shiny boots. Following his gaze up, the boots lead into black pants with grey stripes up the side, which lead into a fancy jacket hanging near his waist. The troll wearing all these fancy black and grey clothes was glaring at him. The pushy blue-blood was right; he was wearing a top hat and looked rather angry. This must have been the man in charge he was to ask for a job from.
Not something he really wanted to do at the moment, considering that scowl was about to burn a hole in his face.
Through clenched teeth the angry troll asked, "Who are you…and what are you doing here?"
"I was uh…sent by the scary blue-blood on the street."
The angry troll's hand balled into a tight fist. His hands were covered in clean white gloves with silver stitching.
"Who…the fuck…are you?" He was obviously trying to control his temper, which he wasn't doing very well.
"T-Tavros" the troll chirped out, he began to worry about being stomped on if his name didn't appeal to the angry troll in the top hat.
"And why the fuck are you here?" Finally the trolls hand unclenched and he was talking somewhat normally. Tavros guessed this was as calmly as he ever talked.
"That blue-blood on the uh…street told me to talk to you…about uh…a job."
"A… JOB?"
Tavros cowered.
"Yeah…maybe you'll be good. Listen to me. I want you to find a troll that sweats a lot; he'll be tending to the musclebeasts outback."
He silently wondered if this day could get any weirder. He didn't want to jinx it, because if he said it out loud things would just get worse.
He left the big top the same way he entered, only this time on his feet and to his own accord. Being face down in dirt for most of his time within the tent he didn't get to see much of it. It was probably spectacular, being run by highbloods and all.
He shouldn't be here, he didn't belong.
Around back was a stall full of musclebeasts, attending them was a sweaty troll in a tank top. A black jacket was thrown over a post, it was dripping with sweat. Whatever this troll did with musclebeasts must have been quite a workout.
The troll had straight shoulder length black hair, one of his horns was broken, and all his duds were striped with blue.
Another blue-blood, but this one looked higher up because his shade was darker.
He was holding the hoof of one the musclebeasts, patting it gently. Was he…Cooing at it?
Tavros shuddered; this guy gave him the creeps. He was starting to get the idea the guys sweat had nothing to do with his routine in the circus.
"E-excuse me?"
No response. The guy just kept petting the hoof, staring into the eyes of the musclebeast, cooing fondly at it.
For the first time in his life, Tavros was glad to be a 'gutterblood'. Especially if this is how highblood acted.
Without warning, as he was watching the creepy overly sweaty troll pet the musclebeast, which was something he thought he would never see in his life, another troll tackled the blue-blood.
He must have been strong, he didn't move an inch.
The troll clinging to his back was wearing a short green dress covered in rhinestones. She had high heels on that matched the green of her dress and shimmering green tights. Her hair was an obvious mess, contrasting to her pretty dress.
She seemed out of sorts in an outfit like that. Her hair, the way she pounced and clung, her horns even, she just seemed wild. Not the kind of girl to be in a sparkly dress.
"Equius! What did you do to his paw this time!" She growled at the sweaty troll.
"Excuse me Miss Nepeta, this is a hoof not a paw. And you shouldn't go jumping like that in your performing outfit."
"Eeeeequius! You're such a fuddy-duddy!"
The sweaty troll, Equius he guessed, lifted the female troll, Nepeta, off his back with ease. He set her down to look at her. Tavros was shocked at the height difference; she was almost two feet shorter than him. He shook his sweaty fingers at her, "Please don't go jumping around like that in those clothes, you'll rip them again."
"Fiiiine, I'll go change."
Nepeta seemed to growl and stomp away, she wasn't happy with the other troll treating her this way he guessed.
Tavros hadn't noticed, but why was a green blood working at this circus? And displaying her colour so proudly?
"Can I help you?" The sweaty troll asked so angrily Tavros was surprised he asked at all and didn't just throw him out.
"The uh…angry troll with the…uhhh top hat, he uh…"
"I don't have time to deal with such lowbloods mumbling about. Spit it out, now."
Tavros swallowed hard, worried his hands and tried to talk as fast as he could, "He told me to ask you for a job."
Equius' demeanor seemed to do a 180.
"Oh! Alright, come this way."
Equius lead him to another tent behind the big top. It was full of animals in cages, all making terrible noises. The stink hit him like a brick, almost knocking him off balance.
"Your job will be to clean up after these." He waved a hand at the various cages.
"You will also act as a vet if we cannot find one, are you incompetent?" He perked an eyebrow up at the Taurus covering his nose in disgust.
"You'll get used to it, now get started."
After spending about an hour scrubbing one cage, he was finally okay to not cover his mouth. It was still quite possibly the most disgusting thing he had ever smelled or been around, but the sweaty troll was right. He was getting used to it. Oops. Equius, he would have to remember his name if he were to work under him.
Tavros couldn't believe this had happened to him, how could he be here right now, doing this? How would he get home? He had to tell Tinkerbull. He couldn't just run away from home like this.
He was too easily influenced. He was pushed around all his life and he let it happen. This was all his fault, it would serve as a rightful punishment if he had to scrub poo the rest of his life for a circus of highbloods. Tinkerbull should have had a better troll to take care of, poor guy. He should be happy Tavros is out of his life.
"You're doing a purrfect job."
Nepeta, the troll in green from earlier, was now wearing dark jeans and a T-shirt with a green symbol on it. She must have changed like Equius told her to. She would have to listen to him; she was lower than he was.
"T-thank you." Tavros could feel his face brush a burnt-orange like it always did when he was embarrassed.
"No pawblem buddy. So you're new here?" She asked, walking over to him. She ran over finger across the clean cage bottom, obviously impressed.
Tavros nodded, "Y-yeah the pushy blue-blood in the street-"
"Vriska"
"What?"
She giggled, "Her name is Vriska silly, and if she hears you calling her pushy you won't hear the end of it. SO, better learn her name now before you get a face full of boot."
Okay, her giggles creeped out Tavros, he wasn't sure why, but something was off about it.
He agreed to remember her name; he surely didn't want her spikey boot in his face.
"We ship out tomeowrrow night. Have you said your goodbyes?"
Tavors abruptly stopped scrubbing, "What?"
"We leave; pack up the train and leave. Next town, next show. That's how the circus goes. So have you said goodbye?"
"I'm…Uh not coming with you."
"Oh yes you are."
"No I…don't want to."
"Then tell that to Vriska."
Looked like Tavros was going on a trip.
With permission from the pushy blue-blood, uh he meant Vriska, he went home.
He took a few bags of his things and hugged Tinkerbull tight. He said he'd miss him, and he would. Tinkerbull was the only friend Tavros had ever had. He was everything to the troll, and now he was leaving him. They reminisced about when Tavros was a wriggler. When he designed this hive. When he almost crushed Tinkerbull when he fell down the stairs once.
Of course, they were both crying in minutes. Tavros promised to write if they would let him, and Tinkerbull smiled and nuzzled his forehead.
He gave his hive and his lusus one last look, and walked back to the circus. What was he doing? He was leaving his life and his lusus behind because some troll scared him. Why didn't he just stay? She wouldn't come looking for him, and it would most likely be better than cleaning up poo for a living. Not to mention living on a train. He wasn't even sure if he had a recuperacoon for him on that train.
Maybe it was more than Vriska scaring him. Maybe he craved the adventure. He was almost eight sweeps now, it was time to grow up and make a name for himself.
Back at the circus he ran into a troll. Literally. He was watching his feet as he walked and one of his horns whacked the troll in the stomach. He looked up, started to chant about how sorry he was and-
She held up a hand, "Its fine, really."
The troll walked off; once she thought he stopped looking she covered her stomach with her hand.
She had been wearing a segmented dress. All of it a deep shade of pink covered in rhinestones.
The top half had short sleeves, a deep V neckline, and exposed most of her belly. The bottom was a short skirt and short pants underneath, both of course pink and covered in shimmering rhinestones.
The only reason Tavros called this outfit a dress was because the back wasn't open, connecting the two pieces. Her shoes were pink ballerina slippers.
Tavros couldn't figure out what her act was by looking at her, but the way she hurried to the big top made him guess he was about to see it.
He had spent the night at home, and arrived back at the circus midday, he hoped Vriska wouldn't punish him for being gone so long.
The circus grounds were deserted, the main acts must be going on soon.
The troll at the ticket booth was glaring at him hard.
Her horns curled into circles on her head, her hair was neatly brushed, but her eyes lacked soul.
She looked like she had never enjoyed a single good day in her short life.
"I'm uh…I work here now." Tavros told her.
She watched him, not saying anything. Not moving.
"Can I uh…go in?"
She kept staring. Not blinking, not moving. He thought he saw her breath, but that could have been his imagination.
"So I'm uh…gonna go now."
She watched him walk into the tent. Her eyes never blinking.
The big top was full of trolls. The seats that lined the walls were packed; some people even had to sit on straw in front of the seats.
Tavros stepped off to the side and watched the show. The angry troll in the top hat was standing in the middle of the ring on a podium; he was yelling something about this being the greatest show in Alternia.
How we would all be amazed and stupefied.
He waved his arms around and introduced the first act.
"First tonight we have the lovely Nepeta and her lion Pounce!"
Tavros quirked his head, so much was wrong with this scene. First off, no way was this troll really that nice as to call someone 'lovely', and that was not a lion, it was a cat with two mouths.
Nepeta was dressed in her sparkly green dress; she came in riding on the cats back. Pounce? What a weird name.
The 'lion' ran around the ring, and Nepeta gracefully stood on her back. She tipped to one side, appearing to almost fall, but her face was calm and she was smiling. As she tipped she let one foot go into the air, she grabbed it with the hand on the same side.
Pounce jumped over nothing and Nepeta stayed on.
She stood straight, then tipped to the other side. Pounce jumped again and she stayed fast on the 'lion's' back.
After a few circles around the ring and more odd stretches on the 'lions' back, they came into the middle. Nepeta jumped off Pounce's back and landed gracefully on the podium that the angry troll occupied earlier.
She threw her arms up in the air, and Pounce sat quickly. She was fast and attentive. She had her wrapped around her finger like a ring.
"Open!" She yelled.
Pounce opened her top mouth.
The crowd gasped as Nepeta places a foot on her tongue.
She leaned in, poked a sharp tooth and pretended it really hurt her.
She looked scared, but climbed into her mouth anyway.
From where Tavros was watching, he could see her whisper something.
Pounce snapped her jaw shut and swallowed.
The crowd freaked out. They were screaming and it looked like an older troll had fainted.
Pounce calmly stepped onto the podium. She sat and looked at the ceiling.
She smiled, her whiskers twitched.
This couldn't be real, did this seriously just happen? If he were sitting down, Tavros would have been on the edge of his seat.
Without warning Pounce let out a mighty roar and out jumped Nepeta.
Fine but covered in spit.
The crowd went wild again, but this time they were cheering and whooping.
Nepeta bowed and Pounce mimicked her.
As the two rode out in the same style they rode in, the angry troll took the center again.
"I hope you all enjoyed that disgusting display of animal control. Next we have something that most likely won't give you a heart attack. Here is Equius and his musclebeasts!"
The angry troll seemed to clap grudgingly as he left and made way for Equius.
The troll rode in on a white musclebeast, followed by two black ones and three more white, all forming an arrow. He donned a black jacket with dark blue trimming, a black and blue top hat with a green flower sticking out of it, and black and blue pants.
He rode in with his arms up and was they rode by the trolls in the audience cheered.
It was like a wave of sound as he rode around.
Equius lead the arrow of musclebeasts through the circle and back around. As they moved the black and white musclebeasts changed position. They were effectively doing a figure-eight as they rode around the ring.
The lead musclebeast with Equius on him jumped, the five behind it jumped in a wave.
They spread across the ring, intermixing black and white, riding once around to say hi to the audience again, then circled around Equius in the middle.
Tavros hadn't noticed till he got a better look, but the musclebeast Equius was riding seemed to be smaller and older than the rest. It even seemed to have a mustache. This act just kept getting weirder.
Once the five musclebeasts were surrounding Equius in the middle, he jumped and landing on his hands.
The impact obviously strained the lead beast.
He then did backflips onto each musclebeast, ending on his main again.
They rode around the ring once more, did a few more figure-eights then rode out.
Tavros wasn't as impressed.
The angry troll came back, he must have been the ringleader or something, and announced the next act.
"The wondiferous acrobatics of Feferi and Eridan! Please avert your gaze to the sky!"
As he told them where to look, the spot light moved up there.
The troll Tavros had stabbed earlier was standing on one side of a tight wire. Her hands were in the air much like Nepeta and Equius' had been.
Across from her was a male troll. He was wearing purple tights and a purple cape. He was shimmering and sparkling like he was covered in rhinestones, but he was too far away to be sure.
Music started up, something funky and upbeat.
Feferi and Eridan bounced on the balls of their feet in time with the music.
In sync, the two jumped from the high beams.
They grabbed handles that were hard to notice and swung at each other.
The girl put her legs up and the boy used his to grab her waist.
As they should have been swinging apart, Feferi let go and was hanging by the legs of Eridan.
She looked down and waved at the crowd.
On the swing back to her side, Eridan let go and she flew through the air, landing perfectly on the high beam she started at.
Eridan swung back and jumped back into his own beam.
The two nodded at each other, still perfectly in time with the music.
Feferi put a foot up, Eridan mirrored her.
They stepped onto the tightrope in perfect sync.
Tavros couldn't even imagine how long this took to practice.
He wondered how many trolls died doing this.
The two walked toward each other, their arms out to balance them.
When both were half the way to the middle they stopped. Feferi bounced a little.
She jumped at Eridan, grabbing him by the stomach.
The two free fell for a while. The crowd had seemingly stopped breathing at this point.
Eridan grabbed another suspended handle and the two began to swing, completely unharmed.
They swung harder and harder. Either could easily land on their beams, but Tavros guessed that wasn't their target this time.
Feferi let go but the spotlight followed Eridan who was now swinging alone.
The crowd freaked out, where was Feferi!
When Eridan landed on his beam he seemed to want to know the same thing.
He was looking around, one hand on his brow to improve the theatrics of it.
Suddenly the spotlight shone on a supporting beam of the tent, where Feferi was hanging nimbly upside down.
She threw her arms out and the crowd cheered.
Without warning she let go.
Dropping into the crowd.
Eridan, whom had apparently jumped back on a swing, swung by and caught her by the wrists.
He swung her back to her beam, landed back on his, and they bowed.
The crowd went wild, cheering and clapping and screaming their names as the music ended.
The lights faded and were repositioned back to the center ring, back on the ringleader.
"Finally, here's something to lighten the mood. Please welcome Gamzee the clown!"
The aforementioned troll came rolling in on a ball. He was balancing and running backwards, making the ball take him forward.
He had wild hair and whirly horns. He wore clown makeup a shade lighter than his face, giving him a permanent smile. His clothing was shimmering and purple, though a more blue shade than Eridan's.
He wore long baggy pants with non-shimmering purple spots; his shirt was tight to the chest and billowing around his arms.
He came in juggling pins of various colours and a horn.
Every time the horn was grabbed it would honk.
He rolled around the ring, laughing all the way.
Tavros guessed he intended to go into the center of the ring, but fell off his ball and onto his bum when he was almost there.
The items he was juggling fell with a thud and a honk, his ball bounced away.
He smiled and jumped to his feet.
Rubbing his hands together, he snickered.
Placing a finger on the end of one sleeve, he pulled it down. Nothing in his sleeve.
Oh look, nothing in that one either.
He shook himself, then ripped off his shirt.
Underneath his clown shirt was a tight purple tank top.
Well, nothing in his shirt at all.
The crowd laughed but Tavros didn't find it very funny.
Gamzee reached his hand into his pants shamelessly, and pulled out a rag.
It was tied to another rag of a different colour.
He pulled and pulled, rag after rag.
He seemed shocked, when would they end?
After pulling the rainbow out of his pants at least four times, he got to the end.
At the end was…nothing.
It just ended, he seemed sad.
The crowd laughed.
He stomped his foot and threw down the rags.
Looking at his shoe, which was sadly his size and not oversized like most clowns, he seemed to get an idea. It was obvious because he threw his finger up and you could practically see the light bulb over his head.
He took off his shoe and patted the bottom. A ton of sand poured out, it seemed to never stop.
Gamzee got impatient and tapped his other foot.
Finally it stopped when a little shovel fell out.
The crowd laughed, Tavros still didn't think it was that funny.
The clown did the same with the other shoe, more sand and this time a little flag.
Oh how cute, make a sandhive why don't you?
The clown, now shoeless and standing in a foot of sand, rubbed the back of his head and laughed.
The crowd laughed with him.
He shrugged, waved, and left the stage.
That was it? Tavros didn't think he was very funny and his act was really short.
Before being able to contemplate this, the angry ringleader thanked everyone for coming then asked them to leave.
The lights returned to normal so people could see where they were walking and everyone filed out.
There was a lot of pushing and snarls, but they were trolls, what did you expect?
After everyone had cleared out, the ringleader came after Tavros.
"So he gave you a job did he fuckass?"
"Uh I uh…yeah."
"So why the hell aren't you doing it?"
Tavros looked at him for a moment; his eyes were a bright red, not something Tavros had ever seen.
His eyes were also very angry, and he felt like if he did not leave right now, he would be hurt. Badly.
Before another word could be said, Tavros turned heel and ran to the animal stalls.
It stunk. Poo in a hot tent all day. This would be a smell Tavros would just have to get used to.
No one was in the tent with him; thank gog, so he set off to scrubbing the cages.
As he was working on the last stall, some trolls came in and started to take the cages away. They were strong and angry, so Tavros didn't ask questions.
He finished his job and stood out of the way while they packed up the animals and the tent housing them.
He managed to slip out and started to walk around the circus as it was being dismantled.
He saw the angry ringleader yelling orders at people, and decided that was not the way he wanted to go.
Turning around he ran into Feferi, again.
"OhmygoshI'msosorry!" His words fell from his mouth faster than he could think them up, they made no sense and she was shushing him with her hand again.
"It's fine, I already told you that." This time she was wearing a simple pink sundress, it had her symbol in a darker pink on the front.
"I'm sorry about uh…stabbing you."
Feferi giggled, "Its okay, really. I get excited and don't look where I'm going sometimes too."
"But I wasn't really uh…excited I just…uhh…"
"I'm fine, I promise. So you're coming with us, right?"
Tavros nodded and she walked him to the train.
The train was sprawling, across the side it read, "Karkat's most amazing show on Alternia!" which wasn't a very good name in Tavros' opinion but he was sure no one cared about his opinions around here anyway. The metal was purple and the words were light grey. It wasn't very pleasing to the eye, it just looked off. There were crude drawings of all the acts and some he assumed to be animals.
The train advertised fortune reading and freaks, neither of which Tavros had seen.
The whole side of one of the cars slid open, inside was Equius.
He was wearing his suit sans jacket again, sweating profusely.
"Are you coming in? We're leaving soon."
Feferi smiled at Tavros and took his wrist, pulling him along.
Equius helped her into the train, and Tavros had to pull himself up.
Inside was musty smelling. Stalls occupied more than half this car, each with a musclebeast inside.
The older white one, with the mustache, was in the first stall. It was covered in clean straw while the others got old and dirty straw. His stall had the best lighting and most space. He was obviously the favorite. There was a recuperacoon across from the stalls, almost directly in front of the main musclebeasts' stall.
Equius closed the door and Feferi lead Tavros through connecting cars to the sleeping car.
This car smelled less disgusting than Equius'. At one corner was a recuperacoon surrounded by horns and empty pie tins. Across from that was a green blanket on the floor. Pounce, the so called 'lion' from the show slept on it, Nepeta was curled up to her tummy. Another recuperacoon was in the corner next to the one with all the horns, but it seemed empty.
"That's your recuperacoon. I hope you like it."
"Where do you…uhh sleep?"
"In another room with Eridan and Vriska."
"What about the angry ringleader?"
"Karkat. He sleeps in a room with his second in command, Terezi. And our seamstress, fortune teller and tech guy all sleep together in a car down that way." She pointed behind them, must be past Equius' car.
"So sleep well and enjoy the ride."
With that, Feferi walked past him and exited into her car.
Tavros looked over this car. Nepeta was breathing softly in time with Pounce. That must have been her lusus, there was no way she could connect that well with any other animal. Tavros couldn't even do that, and he had a special thing with animals. Seeing them together made him miss Tinkerbull even more. The recuperacoon surrounded by horns and pie tins was empty, but he guessed it belonged to that clown, whose name escaped him. His performance was mediocre compared to Nepeta being eaten by Pounce and spit back up in a roar and Feferi almost dying.
It was late, and Tavros was sore from scrubbing dirty cages all day. He climbed into his recuperacoon and decided to try and sleep. Maybe this was all a dream, maybe he'd wake up and be greeted by Tinkerbull saying good morning with a forehead snuggle.
Tavros seriously doubted this by hey, this was all he had.
As he was almost asleep the train jerked forward.
After a rough night with very little actual sleep, Tavros was awoken to a very loud HONK in his face.
He groaned and opened his eyes.
Standing in front of him was the clown, hair crazy and makeup amiss oh so slightly.
"Morning mother-fucker."
Tavros groaned louder, "What?"
The clown slowed down his speech, "Good…Morning…Mother…Fucker…"
The Taurus rubbed his eyes, getting slime everywhere in the process, "Motherfucker?"
"Yes you motherfucker. Get up, get out, it's time for miracles."
Tavros did what he did best and did as he was told. He got dressed and brushed the little bit of hair he had.
He turned and looked at the clown, who was tapping his foot impatiently. It was odd; his normal clothing almost seemed like a black version of his performance clothing. Only thing really different was his shirt, it was a normal T-shirt with his sign.
Tavros didn't even question why he was still wearing makeup.
"Miracles motherfucker."
"Uhh miracles?"
"Fuck yes motherfucker, like that shit I pulled at the show last night. Mother fucking…" he paused and smiled, "Miracles."
Tavros looked at him, "You just uh…pulled a rag out of your pants."
"I know motherfucker! It was a miracle wasn't it?"
Tavros was confused but didn't question it.
It was breakfast time, the group sat together at a big table in another car.
Tavros counted twelve people with himself. He couldn't believe this was enough to run a circus, let along the most amazing on Alternia. This must just be the actors and…Poo scrubber. Yeah he didn't understand that one, but he wasn't complaining.
Karkat, the ringleader, sat at the head of the table and scowled at everyone else.
The rest sat next to obvious friends. Nepeta next to Equius, Feferi next to Eridan.
The scary lady from the ticket booth was even here. Oh boy.
Sitting to the right of Karkat was someone Tavros hadn't seen before.
She had black hair and pointy horns. She wore bright red sunglasses and kept smelling the air as she talked to Karkat.
A few other new faces were in the crowd, but no one Tavros cared about right now. Right now he wanted to know where to sit.
"Sit here motherfucker, next to me and let me show you miracles!"
Well that solved that problem.
The table was littered with food and plates, everyone was grabbing at everything else. Quite a mess.
Gamzee grabbed a plate and a roll, he waves his hand under it like it was a showcase item.
"See this bread motherfucker?"
Tavros saw it.
"Watch it…DISSAPEAR!"
Gamzee stuffed it in his mouth and chewed fast, swallowing before it was small enough not to hurt that much going down.
"Miracles motherfucker" He told Tavros with purple bristling at the corners of his eyes.
Tavros noticed his sleeping car lacked windows. Whether this was intentional so that performers could sleep during the day, or him merely sleeping in the worst car, he had no idea. Craving something to do after breakfast, he wondered from car to car. Past the musclebeasts and mess hall.
Exiting a storage car, he saw Gamzee sitting on the floor, his feet dangling outside the open door.
"W-what are you doing!" Tavros was frozen.
"Watching the motherfucking miracles fly by." The clown looked back and smiled goofily. Not a care in the world, even with possible death so close by.
He patted the metal next to him, "Come sit motherfucker."
Against all his better judgment, Tavros complied. He kept him knees close to his chest, scared of the ever present danger in their chosen seat.
"What did you think of my performance?"
The Taurus looked over, what would he say? The clown was smiling ever so slightly, awaiting a response. He had to lie, there was no other way.
"It was uh…great!"
Gamzee slapped him on the back, making him jolt forward and have a mini heart attack.
"Glad you liked it motherfucker! It all came to me in a dream. I saw it and thought, yeah, this was funny shit."
Still trying to recover from almost dying, he just shook his head. Yeah great, dream, whatever.
Watching the world fly by at such a high speed, all Tavros could think of was death. What would happen if he fell, how long before he'd hit. The impact, the pain.
His life over in a blink, and no one would care. He'd have no formal death celebration, as was custom. His lusus would never hear from him again and possibly never know. Such a terrible end, even for a lowblood like himself.
"Chill out motherfucker, you're gonna be fine."
Gamzee patted him on the back again. What he TRYING to kill him or something?
Too panicked from almost dying twice, Tavros couldn't say anything.
He nodded, yeah okay, he was gonna be fine. Gamzee wouldn't let him die…Would he?
After he calmed down, which took about two hours and Gamzee patting him on the back three more times, Tavros finally let his legs slip over the edge.
The breeze felt nice, and the scenery really was beautiful. He had missed so much of the country side being scared, he wondered how much else in life he had missed out on because he was scared.
Gamzee told him a story from his youth, since Tavros wasn't talking and he seemed like he HAD to fill the void somehow.
He told him of when he was barely out of his wriggly stage. He told him what it was like growing up in such a wonderful castle. He could be silly and experiment with his creativity all he wanted. He drew pictures ,but that didn't work out. He tried writing, that didn't work either.
He tried instrument after instrument. The flute, the piano, guitar, even the piccolo. Nothing was right for the young Capricorn.
One day, only a few sweeps old, he discovered "miracles" and "pie". Gamzee didn't elaborate on either of these things, what they meant or how he found them, but just continued on with his story.
He told Tavros of his school years, how little friends he had.
He had good grades, but at what cost?
Apparently the same year that Gamzee discovered "Miracles" he became the class clown. He had so many friends after that. Tavros smiled, asked him to continue.
Gamzee leaned back, looked at the sky. Funny how the world zoomed by so fast, but the sky hardly changed at all.
"One day Karkat's circus came to town. I knew I had to join, it was where I motherfucking belonged."
"What about you're uh…Lusus? You haven't said anything about him yet."
The clown sat up, his temperament darkened, "Don't ask about him okay."
Before Tavros could apologize, Gamzee stormed off to another car. Leaving the poor poo scrubber by himself near the open door.
The fright crept back into him, hugging his knees to his chest he groaned.
Gamzee didn't speak to Tavros the rest of the day. At lunch and dinner he completely ignored him. No more miracles at the table.
The rest of the group went on as normal. They chatted and stole food on each other's plates.
Karkat growled at Eridan for some reason, Terezi patted him on the shoulder and whispered in his ear.
Tavros watched Gamzee eat. He was solemn, letting his hair fall to shade his eyes. His makeup was smeared on his cheeks.
He didn't eat much at either meal, then left to his sleeping car.
No one said anything about it, like it was completely normal behavior for the troll.
After dinner, Karkat made a speech.
He told everyone how in the morning they'd arrive at the next town, when they should set up and gave everyone orders. He told them their last show was terrible, do better! Tavros couldn't believe such harsh words; he rather liked the last show.
He guessed that's just how you have to handle your performers if you want to run the most amazing show on Alternia.
The crew seemed not only unfazed, but uninterested. They chatted among themselves, ignoring the ringleader like he wasn't even talking.
His angry steadily grew until he was yelling obscenities, and yet no one cared.
Feferi even had the gall to start giggling at something another troll said.
Tavros guessed this was the techie troll. He wore a yellow and white plaid shirt, his hair was neatly groomed, and he wore the most peculiar glasses. One lens was red and one was blue.
Tavros also noted that he had four horns, not two. He was one of the more interesting looking trolls of the bunch. He wasn't sure why this troll seemed like the techie, he just did.
Just as Karkat was screaming about what he'd do to Eridan if he didn't start to listen and improve his act, the troll with the pointy horns and red glasses next to him patted him on the shoulder, shushed him into submission.
The angry ring leader sat down in a huff and was silent as everyone else exited to their rooms.
Tavros remained alone, he was worried about Gamzee.
Something in his story upset him so much, Tavros asked him something and he freaked out but…
What could he have asked that would have struck such a cord?
When Tavros entered the sleeping car Gamzee was already passed out. Bittersweet he told himself.
If Gamzee were awake he probably wouldn't talk to Tavros anyway, but him being asleep meant he couldn't even try. Who was he kidding? If Gamzee was awake he probably wouldn't try to talk to him anyway. He was too much of a coward to do that.
Nepeta was slowly brushing Pounce's fur. The cat purred and kneaded her claws against the green blanket they shared to sleep on.
"Does Pounce like that? Yes she DOES!" Nepeta was giggling to herself. She was like a wriggler with a toy.
A pang of gilt struck Tavros' heart. Nepeta brought her Lusus, why didn't he bring Tinkerbull? He was small; he wouldn't have got in the way.
He should have thought of that before he left the poor guy behind, all by himself.
Climbing into his recuperacoon, Tavros thought about how much he missed Tinkerbull. All the time they spent together, all the memories. What if they never saw each other again? Tavros couldn't bare the thought.
He was so stupid for not asking him to come along. Who knows how long it would take for the circus to come back to his hometown?
Then it hit him. This was the first circus that had ever come to his town.
He fell asleep with a bitter taste in his mouth.
HOOOOOOOOONK.
Tavros groaned and covered his ears, "G-Gamzee?"
"You betcha motherfucker! Wake up or you'll miss breakfast!"
The clown was hopping on the balls of his feet, prancing around the room honking his horn. Quite the change from yesterday. Whatever was bugging him must have passed.
Tavros climbed out and got dressed for the day, soon he'd have to do laundry. Where would that get done anyway?
Following Gamzee to the mess hall he was surprised to see it empty. No food or trolls. Gamzee didn't even pause at the sight, he just kept on walking.
After gawking for a bit, Tavros figured it would be best to follow the clown. Even if that could end up terribly, not like he had much to lose.