I own nothing not even this computer please remember to read and review. This is filling out a request from Babacar for his circus AU. Sorry for the very very very long wait and thank you for being so patient, I have been very busy.
Dipper took a few deep breathes, he felt light headed. Tonight was the night, in fact tonight was the very hour. He didn't have a lot of time left. He didn't know why he had kept the cape, it made him look dumb. Mabel was the only one in the family who could pull off the cape look. But she had also made his outfit, and that included the cape.
The Mystery Circus grand act, with people from all over the town coming to spend money on junk that would break within the week and was grossly overpriced. The best part was probably the show, and even Dipper knew that it was just because Stan was an incredible showman. The audience looked as if there were more people in it then usual.
Dipper ducked back behind the curtain and went through his plan again. It had taken a little bit of convincing but Stan seemed to accept the magic show well enough. Dipper just hoped that he wouldn't have a panic attack on stage. Then again he was actually pretty good once he actually did something and it was mostly just the anticipation of going on that gave him anxiety. Once he was out there in the lights and the circles he would be all set. He just had to sit through Grenda's weight lifting act and Mabel's cannon ball act and he would be on.
Dipper peaked out through the curtains again. Grenda was sweating and roaring under neath a barbell that she could easily lift. The entire point was the spectacle though, no one wanted to see something done easily, that would be no fun, the real enjoyment came from seeing a person put in a little bit of effort.
"Boo." A voice came from behind him. The smell caught him first, like champagne, gunpowder and cigarette ashes.
"Hey Pacifica." He said over his shoulder to her. She leaned her chin on his shoulder and looked out at the audience.
"Full house tonight." She stated noncommittally.
"Yeah Stan is pretty happy about it."
"You nervous?"
"No. You?"
"I don't get nervous. All I have to do is walk out and light a silly string. Before that I just had hatchets flung at me. So no a few hundred eyes mean nothing to me." She had been the assistant to pretty much everyone in the circus, when she wasn't lighting Mabels fuse she was being used for a pretty target for Wendy to fling axes at.
"I'm just surprised that we did a show so last minute, we were supposed to be on the road tonight."
"You shouldn't be complaining. You get the chance to show off your magic tricks right?" Dipper nodded after a beat. She had a good point about that. It was his first night showing people outside of the circus what he was able to do. He just hoped that he had enough props. He had the cape, a few pigeons hidden in his sleeves, and an enormous box meant for the disappearing act.
"And that monstrosity was Grenda the insatiable!" Stan shouted as he entered the ring and Grenda took a bow. He shooed her off stage and stood in the center soaking up the limelight.
"Now onto the next great act! Mabel Pines the human cannonball!"
"Is she a cannonball?" A voice shouted from the audience.
"No she's a human that acts as a cannonball." Stan shouted back.
"Does she look like a cannonball?" The voice shouted again. Stan rubbed his face, his big nose almost getting caught on his golden rings. His make up was smearing and his wrinkles were showing through.
"NO! What are you not understanding about this? She is a human cannonball-I-why would you even need to ask me that-ugh forget it. Here's Mabel Pines, throw money and applaud or whatever." He frustratedly stomped out of the ring and towards the side of the tent. Mabel stood at the top of her cannon as it was pulled in by Waddles and Soos. She waved and threw kisses, relishing in the amount of attention that she was receiving. If there was one thing that people liked, it was watching another person getting shot out of a cannon at break neck speeds.
"THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" Mabel shouted bowing and blowing some more kisses. "I will now launch myself across this tent at speeds close to seven million G forces!" The entire crowd oohed in awe even though what she had just said was complete and utter gibberish. "But first I will need the assistance of my lovely assistant Pacifica Northwest!" She gestured to the tent flap.
Dipper gave her a thumbs up and she smiled demurely back before sashaying out into the ring. He could hardly keep his eyes off of her golden hair, bouncing in long ringlets down her back, like a waterfall. She bounced forward, her purple outfit sparkling with sequins, her white gloves as pure as ivory, and her lit cigarette glowing at the end of her hand. She paused and took a drag, relishing the flavor. She stopped halfway between Mabel and Dipper. She was looking into the stands, frozen, her eyes widened and her lips went slack. She then stood up straighter and walked straight for the cannon. She mechanically held the cigarette to the fuse and walked away, not even seeming to care if it was lit or not.
She power walked back to where Dipper stood puzzled. She looked scared. Actually frightened of something. He looked into the stands to see what had gotten her attention, but there wasn't anything there that he could see.
By the time that she got back to where he was she was breathing heavily and holding onto her shoulders. She was looking over his shoulder like she had just seen a ghost.
"Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no." She said nervously, she was wringing her hands together and was shivering. "I'm dead. I am so dead."
"What is it? Pacifica whats the matter?" He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close until her shivering passed. She took a deep breath and looked back through the small flap between tents.
"My parents are in the audience. And they have the police. They're going to try and take me back. I just know it." She was shivering again. Dipper looked between the flaps and scanned the crowd, the only people who stood out were in fact surrounded by police. While everyone else in the audience appeared to look like some sort of uneducated country bumpkin, these people were wearing high class clothing, without a patch on them. And on top of that they looked as if they were completely miserable, as if every second of the show was a bore. The man winced and held a hand up in disgust, he must have been sitting on a sticky portion of the bleachers.
They had a small squadron of police surrounding them, with their fancy hats and fancier nightsticks.
"What am I going to do?" She whispered to him, she was holding onto his back like a small koala, he felt her shivering in terror.
"Disappear." He responded turning to her with steel in his eyes. "I have an idea."
Dipper walked into the center of the ring and bowed deeply, his messy mass of hair brushed against the dirty dusty floor.
"Thank you for coming out tonight my friends!" He shouted before releasing the two pigeons into the air. He spun around and made a small sound in the back of his throat, he knew the spell pretty well. Of course it was just a flashing illusion, they would probably just think that it was incendiary paper or something. Dipper wished that he could do something darker that would impress everyone and they would applaud his powers. But all of those spells were too advanced. He would have to stick with simple and slightly cruddy illusions.
He did a few ball tricks, making them disappear and reappear, he did a few simple card tricks, he could tell that he was starting to loose a few audience members. He saw Stan on the edge of his vision waving his hands for him to up the ante. It was time. Whether he liked it or not.
"And for my final trick I will make my lovely assistant Pacifica disappear!" The police perked up at this along with the richly dressed man. Pacifica walked out pushing the trunk in front of her on a set of wheels. When before she had stride across the rings now she was walking slowly and meekly. The sheer existence of the people in the stands made her terrified.
Dipper gestured to her and then to the trunk. He opened it and slapped the back and sides before allowing her to slip in.
"It's going to be okay. Just stay low." He whispered to her. She took her cigarette in her mouth and took a shaky breath. She blew out a small puff of smoke in the shape of a heart.
"Dipper. Thank you." She said and he smiled and blushed back before closing the door. He turned to the rest of the audience and opened his arms wide.
"Disappear. RAEPPAISAD! RAEPPAISAD! RAEPPAISAD! RAEPPAISAD!" With the final word Dipper pulled open the trunk lid and showed the emptiness to the rest of the audience. He received a standing ovation for that one. Dipper smiled and bowed happily.
"Where is she?" A voice roared from the stands. The police were pushing their way through the stands. Dipper just paused and allowed them to come to him. Stan and Soos walked into the ring, feigning innocently.
"Where is she?! Bring her back!" The man shouted in Dippers face.
"Okay first off rude." Dipper said "And second off I don't know how, I can just get folks to disappear not reappear." He shrugged "Sorry but who are you again?"
"I am Northwest! I am the owner of everything within this city! Including her. Now tell me, where is my daughter?" He bit out every word. Dipper only shrugged again. Mr Northwest turned to Stan in anger and poked him in the chest.
"YOU! I paid you to do another show! And this is how you repay me! Where is she?!"
"Look money bags I was just told to do another show. I ain't in control of these animals. They do what they want. And anyway the show is over. The kid was the closer." With that the house lights went up and people began to groan and complain and depart. Dipper and Stan just stood in front of the fuming Northwest as he began to bark at them in rage.
"Look if you've got nothing else to say then just leave. We got to get on the road now." Stan turned around and began to walk away, Dipper scurried to hurry up after him. Northwest turned and kicked the trunk hard enough to split the wood and flip it over. He then stormed out the front tent flap shouting obscenities.
"Whoa." Mabel said walking up to Dipper, a bit of her hair was flaming from the blast. Dipper slapped it out without looking, he was used to this. "What a jerk."
"A real piece of work. Is she okay?"
"Yup. Want to see her?" Dipper followed after Mabel as they walked to her cannon. Crouched in the bottom of it and looking up was a wide eyed and soot covered Pacifica. She was fumbling with an unlit cigarette between her fingers. She raised an eyebrow and Dipper smiled down to her comfortingly. She returned it and sighed, falling back into the bottom of the cannon. Safe.
"Hey! HEY! Let's get a move on! We're escaping from the law here!" Stan shouted at Mabel and Dipper, clapping his hands to get them moving faster. They quickly turned tail and began scampering around packing things up. It wasn't the first time that the Mystery Circus had to run away in the middle of the night.
Sorry for how short that was, and quick, and to the point. Next chapter is the last one. Please review. Thanks for being so patient. I own nothing not even this computer.