Within hours of the called performers leaving to perform before the audience, of the twenty that went, only fifteen returned, five didn't make the cut, as horrific to say, but the gallows humour among the remaining performers fit the situation.
Maestro came around to inform the other half of the performers that there'll be another set of shows soon.
He's set to host them, so whoever's chosen by the audience's at his mercy, as dry as his laugh made it, his attempt at a joke wouldn't landed if not the circumstances.
The performers who survived's allocated time to recover, for now, so they're using up their precious time off stage as much as they can before they're called again.
Seeing the injured performers nursing their injuries sustained by their dangerous stunts, Hammond shook his head in silent, displeased at the sight, and Theodore winced as he stood next to his brother, watching the performers helping each other put on gauzes and clean gashes and cuts.
"How shall we destroy them?" Hammond covertly asks Theodore what he's thinking and heard that Theodore wanted an ironic end to the audience's cruelty.
A performance to die for.
"Father would've approved," Hammond noted their father would've applauded Theodore for that pun and his brother smugly nodded before adding, "Mother wouldn't."
When there weren't too many prying eyes, Hammond snuck out his own pocket watch, a gift from their father, and opened it.
He sees the green dot behind the molded glass, K9's still in one piece that he sees, and sees that it's somewhere in the deeper part of the circus tent, where exactly, he couldn't know for sure.
"Why don't you use telepathy?" Theodore asks why his brother hadn't tried reaching out to Dorothy with it and his brother adamantly said that he didn't want the risks associated with doing so, pointing out that as far as Dorothy knows, he's ordinary.
Shrugging his wide shoulders, Theodore pointed out that with her kidnapped and in a detached circus, Dorothy finding out that her mentor's part-alien wouldn't be shocking to her, and while Hammond agreed, he also pointed out that Theodore could've sent the TARDIS after her, too.
As he nodded, his wild hair bobbing, Theodore said he could've, but he wanted to keep the TARDIS away from any danger, unless they're in an emergency that they can't escape themselves, Theodore wanted to minimize potential threats to the TARDIS.
Never know when having someone on the outside proved valuable.
"Fair point," Hammond sighed as he stayed near his brother.
Another few hours past and in between mingling among the remaining performers, talking to the injured ones, the brothers learnt more about Livingston and how the performers abhor him.
Zeppo, the depressed clown, described how Livingston came to become the stooge for the audience.
Failure after failure, the performers waited for the time when the audience sent Livingston over the edge, but somehow, he swayed them into sparring his life, in exchange for perpetually continuing the suffering of the performers.
Livingston gets the performers, the audience stays his execution, up until the last of the performers get their numbers called, then Livingston's effectively screwed, as Zeppo tells them.
So long as there's performers, Livingston isn't at risk meeting his end and that created the perfect environment for him going out and grabbing anyone who he thinks can perform, long enough that he can find the next set.
"They don't ask questions," Zeppo summed that the audience doesn't care where Livingston gets the performers, if they fit the criteria, it's all that mattered.
How exactly Livingston gets performers, Zeppo wouldn't know, ever since Livingston brokered with the audience, he rightfully stopped coming around the barracks where the performers rest, as Zeppo stated that he wouldn't last a moment with them.
The fear's enough that Livingston doesn't leave the sidelines and if not for the audience, the performers would've torn him apart for kidnapping them.
"Everyone knows he's responsible for their misery and he knows they can't touch him while the audience likes him, but God forbid, poor little Livy doesn't have a performer to hide behind," Zeppo puffed his cigarette as he looked up at the two while telling them of Livingston's role in the suffering of the performers and how they knew it was his doing.
It wasn't like Livingston could've covered it up, the seasoned performers knew what he done, and made every new performer know that it was Livingston that kidnapped them.
Then, those same performers pass it down to the next set of performers after them and it will continue until either the circus finally ends or death of the sun.
Whichever comes first.
A deep chuckle, Zeppo fiendishly grinned as he tells them how they made sure nobody walks a minute in the circus without knowing how it was because of Livingston.
He tried snuffing it out, too, but it didn't work out the way he hoped, the audience loved some of the performers who knew what he done around, and they made sure everyone that came after knew.
"Ironic, isn't it, Livingston hates that we pass it along, but if he kills us, he won't have a shield," Zeppo couldn't help but let out a deep giggle at the fact that Livingston put himself in this situation.
If he tries silencing them, he won't have a performer left to take his place when the audience grows tired of them.
He must live with that and Zeppo loved every moment of it, as Livingston deserved it.
Thanking him for his time, the brothers left to discuss the matter amongst themselves and while they don't have the exact numbers, Livingston's responsible for much of the disappearances.
It'd also explain the reasoning behind the circus no longer traveling to different universes, if they did, the audience wouldn't need Livingston.
He's purposely keeping the audience occupied that they don't get bored and start traveling again, because Livingston knows they'll have no trouble getting more performers than he can reasonably kidnap.
"He's kidnapping by demand," Theodore summed how Livingston's keeping up with the audience's insatiable need for entertainment.
Like everyone told them, the audience's fickle, due to his proximity, Livingston knew their changing tastes better than the performers, he'd know how to cater to the audience's whim, extend his existence, however long the performers last.
Troubling's that they don't know who the audience were, what they are, why they insisted on a circus from hell, and Theodore tasked Al to find out more for them, as he doubted, they're human.
If they were human, it wouldn't take much than the remaining performers banding together and descending upon them with pitchforks and torches.
With that said, it makes it difficult, since the brothers couldn't simply read their mind due to them not being human, the differences between species and all that, and they'll have their answers sooner than later.
Maestro's back, corralling the performers, informing them that the audience wants fresh faces.
His brown eyes instantly moved when he saw a girl wearing a denim jacket covered in different pins stepping beside Maestro, Hammond's mouth gap as he sees Dorothy, unalarmed, while Maestro introduced her.
She didn't recognize Hammond initially because of the makeup and Maestro asked for the performers to make sure the Monster Girl (Dorothy) gets acclimated and for the seasoned performers to help her with anything she needs for the extent of her stay within the circus, however long that may be, before he goes on to inform the performers that the audience's craving for the next show soon.
"I'll give 'em a good show!" Dorothy decreed as she pointed at herself, before Maestro warned her, "I've heard that even before you existed, child."
He pushed Dorothy forward before leaving to prepare.
Theodore couldn't stop Hammond, the short man marched forward.
Passing them, Hammond heard the snide comments from some of the performers, believing that Dorothy wouldn't last a night in the circus before the audience tires of her.
They don't even realize she's only twelve, sending Hammond in a worry.
"Dorothy!" Hammond cried out to her, she stopped as she looked at him coming towards her, confused she put on her typical facade.
She didn't recognize Hammond because of his clown makeup, as Theodore warned him, but the man's stubborn that he didn't think.
Only when Dorothy heard her name once again did she catch on.
Her eyes widened with her mouth gap as she stared at Hammond, "Pro-professor?!"
Exhaling sharply, Hammond responded, "Yes, my dear pupil, it is me. Thank god, it's not too late."
With little time, the brothers brought Dorothy somewhere private where they talked and Dorothy learnt that her mentor sprang into action the moment she went missing.
"Hang on! How did you find me?" Dorothy questioned how Hammond found her, but with their time short, he couldn't tell her everything, only summing that he and his brother went looking for her.
Theodore asked her what happened and she said that a pencil thin man with a long face randomly stopped her in the street.
She tried to get away from him, but he kept following her, she almost went far as trying to find an officer, much good that did, but he caught up to her, still.
Don't know much else, when she opened her eyes, she was in a cage, with him in front of her and he told her that she's in the circus now.
She was in there for a while but this weird dog thing found her and she couldn't believe a word it told her.
Now, that she saw her mentor, Dorothy realized that the weird dog wasn't lying to her, it was telling her the truth.
Her mentor modified it and sent it to find her.
Almost willing to believe it's all a dream, hadn't Dorothy realized that she's in a nightmare.
"We're getting you out of here," Hammond informed her that he and his brother planned on rescuing her as well as the trapped performers, but Dorothy seemed hesitated in retreating.
Pointing at him, Dorothy stated, "Professor, you heard it too, didn't you? Those creeps kidnapped others like me!"
Dorothy wanted a part in their plan striking back against the audience for their crimes.
Quick tempered and eager to fight, just like the rap sheet said, and Theodore had to jumble their plan once again, adding in Dorothy.
Hammond helped by asking Dorothy if she found anything in the circus that can help make cherry bombs and at first Dorothy wasn't sure, but Hammond reminded her that she needed to think outside the box.
"Remember, my dear, anything can and has potential," Hammond reminded her that everything around them has their use.
She nodded at this before Dorothy couldn't help but ask why Hammond dressed up like that before asking why his brother's a hobo clown.
"It's a long story," Theodore frowned, which's difficult because of his painted smile, but Hammond insisted they didn't dawdle any longer.
Pulling from his noggin, Theodore got an idea in mind, drawing inspiration from a movie he went and saw with Lila.
"You think it'll work?" Hammond looked at him as Theodore went through his elaborate plan that involved the two brothers using their pocket watches to mask the performers and sneaking them out of the circus while they're in focus.
Once they're the only ones there, then they can unleash their wraith, and make sure no one stumbles over the remains.
"Will it work?" Dorothy asks Theodore as he pondered before replying that he and Hammond practiced their routines and Hammond had an ace up his sleeve.
Time Lords adored chess so much they created their own variant that is notoriously hard for people who weren't familiar with the rules, this form of chest resulted in centuries of carefully crafting and modifying that it's almost impossible to find the first edition.
It resulted in the chess that Hammond routinely played with his beloved uncle during their holidays on Gallifrey.
"I let Al know," Theodore tells Hammond that the TARDIS's readied to evacuate the performers and Hammond used his pocket watch to remotely command K9 to prepare for a part in the plan.
With the performers, it wouldn't take long, they'll gleefully help when they learnt that Theodore and Hammond intend to make the audience and Livingston suffer for what they done.
It'll take some convincing, which Theodore and Hammond tasked Daffodil with writing a convincing speech for the audience.
Maestro's tasked with helping convince the audience into agreeing with the performance of the century.
A collaborative piece, if you will, once that the audience themselves wanted but didn't know it.
"We're new faces, so it'll work with us leading," Theodore summed that because he and Hammond were new and hadn't performed yet, they hit the audience's criteria.
Adamantly, Dorothy pointed out that the audience wanted only new faces, but Theodore assured her that he and Hammond have everything planned accordingly.