Tiana didn't take much convincing, "come on, let's go get your girl", and they snuck back into the big top. It was completely empty now except for the two figures facing the stage, their backs to the girls. Anna quickly recognized them and their vastly differing outlines as the strongman and the ringmaster. They were sizing up the mess onstage where shards of ice were still splayed out, curiously intact and not melting. Anna wasn't sure how, she recalled that it was definitely hot up in that stage. Though, now that she thought about it, it really only got hot after she looked at Elsa and Elsa looked back at her with those big baby blues and called her pretty and— oof. Anna's face was getting warm once again, this time just from the memory.

The men ahead were still mumbling and grumbling, and the only words that she could hear came after a loud sigh from the grumpy leader. "God. Damn. It. Alright, meet back in the family tent. Let's regroup and recoup and ughghghh—" and then his words became lost in grumbles as he stalked to an exit left of the stage. Once he'd dipped out, Anna wasted no time in running down toward the stage with Tiana in tow. She and her companion were still unseen by the strongman, even as she approached him with a meek "Excuse me—"

"Sorry, no meet and greet after tonight's show," he said without turning around. It was then that Anna realized the size of this guy. He was absolutely massive. Someone had definitely been eatin' his Wheaties. He was like, two or three of her stacked up. He could've folded her in half and stuck her in his pocket. His gargantuan pockets.

When she hadn't answered him (because she was so focused on how absolutely puny she was compared to him), he turned around to look at her. Then he pointed at her and pursed his lips like he was trying to place her.

"Wait. Hold. You are the girl, ja?"

"The, uh?" Now she was distracted by this massive hand that was pointing at her. It was bigger than her head. It looked like it could comfortably hold her head and use her teeny tiny melon as a baseball.

"The volunteer? Yes, follow me," and he headed off in the same direction the other guy went, not really looking to see if they were following behind. Anna and Tiana shared a look, Ti shrugged, and off they went. The exit was a small slit in the far edge of the tent. Mister Big Man had to duck below it and then he held the side open for them.

"Vere you injured?"

It took Anna a minute to realize that he had a thick accent, and another to realize he was talking to her. "No, no, I'm fine."

"That is good. I am Oaken."

"Anna. And this is my friend Tiana." Tiana gave a tiny wave.

"Sorry for all of this violence. I'll add on tickets for good feelings, ja?"

"It's all okay, really. I want to prove it. Can you take me to see Elsa?"

"I will take you to see them all."

They stopped outside a smaller tent framed with fairy lights and retro carnival signs and a bunch of other hippie shit that Anna loved, and could hear a dull roar of commotion coming from inside. Oaken pushed the entrance flaps aside.

"What happened out there?" Hans was pacing back and forth in front of the group of carnies.

"I don't know." Elsa spoke up. She was sitting on a couch, squished between the bearded girl and the albino guy. "Some weird energy. It wasn't like, voodoo energy or anything bad, just... the way that girl was looking at me sent a chill down my spine."

"Do you know how ironic that sounds, coming from you?" The acrobat on the other side of the room said as he leaned forward in his stool. He didn't seem unfriendly, though. Just an asshole.

Something about this moment made Oaken think this was a good time to interject. "Hoo hoo! Hi family!"

Scattered, dejected replies of 'hoo hoo' followed. Hans looked up from the rut on the floor he'd made with his useless pacing and his eyes landed on Anna. There were some quick emotions that ran through his face; confusion, recognition, anger. But he settled on some pitifully crushed hostility and stopped running his hands through his hair.

"Are you here to sue us? 'Cause you'll have to get in line." Anna thought she heard him mutter and it's a big line.

"No! No, I'm here to make things alright! I know why things went wrong." She tried to make eye contact with Elsa but every attempt was met with a shy averted glance elsewhere. The performer no longer had that confidence she'd had onstage, instead she just looked sad and, honestly, kind of ashamed.

"Hey, Elsa, right?" Anna didn't really need to ask— the name had been etched into her gay brain since the moment she heard it— but she didn't want to come off creepy. Finally performer looked up from her staring contest with the floor, albeit cautiously. "This wasn't your fault. I noticed before that the wooden structure was off. It broke because it wasn't built properly."

The acrobat spoke up and gestured to the girl on the couch. "No, it broke because the snowman over here couldn't control herself."

"Guys I didn't break anything today, I promise. I really made sure!"

"Not you, Olaf."

"Kristoff's our builder," the bearded lady pointed out, "if it was a set error, shouldn't he be the one to take responsibility?"

The puppeteer, Kristoff, just scoffed from where he sat spread out on a second couch. "I built the best I could in the timeframe I was given, with ONE ARM." He waved his cast-clad arm around for emphasis. "It's Hans' fault for not giving me more time. And all of your faults for putting this all on me when none of you thought to help."

Everyone was talking over each other. There were a lot of strong personalities in this one room and all of them were distressed. Anna had to make things right.

"Hey," she said over everyone's quabbling, "I do construction work. I do set design. I saw some things that could be fixed and tonight's disaster could've honestly been avoided entirely. I'm not gonna take any legal action because I feel like I could help you guys."

"Help us? Wait—" Hans interjected. "— what are you saying?"

"My name's Anna and I'd like to work for you."

The onslaught of voices had fizzled to silence as everyone stared at her. Even Tiana, who'd previously been standing aside as support/wingwoman, couldn't help her baffled expression.

She huffed. "Look. I know how to build stuff. You need someone who builds stuff. Ergo—" and here she gestured to her whole being, from her head to her toes, "—ya need me. What do you say?"

Hans looked dumbstruck. Anna can see where he's coming from, though. He was really expecting this random chick to storm in and sue him and instead she's asking for a job? But his face returned back from the surprise and he blew air out of his mouth.

"Look, we're in town for a few weeks. Why don't you come back tomorrow? We can talk then. Tonight's... tonight's been a long night." One of his hands came up to run through his hair, but at least he didn't look like he was gonna start pulling at it again. "That sound good?"

Anna was overjoyed that Hans seemed to actually consider this and squealed a dorky squeal. "Hell yeah. See you all tomorrow," she said with a small little wave, making sure to give extra attention the ice blonde magician still hunched in her seat.

When she and Tiana were far enough away from the tent, she breathed out a few enthusiastic giggles. "I can't believe I did that!"

Tiana finally faced her with frantic bug eyes. "I can't believe you did that!" And then she laughed a single bark of a laugh. "Wow. Working with a group of carnies. Offering to work with a group of carnies. How's that for a first circus experience?"

And, you know, Anna had to agree.