While everyone was searching for any kind of clue the curse didn't leave the Arcobaelnos unaffected.
Verde completely buried himself in his research, becoming colder and only focused on his experiments. Trying to get any kind of results on the pacifier or how it really affected them.
Viper's became more cold hearted, their prices skyrocketing and nothing they did was for free anymore. They joined the Varia, taking up the mist officer position no matter what boss the famiglia had. Relying on the connections to collect any hint and rumour about their curse.
Lal broke up with her fiance, purely focused on working and achieving perfect results, even going as far to join the CEDEF. Therefore being in the centre of one of the most central and informed organisations and using this as the base for her search for a cure.
Colonnello became desperate, yearning for his former lover and trying everything to keep on holding onto her but fleeing to mafia island as he himself could barely bear with it, especially not when he saw how much she suffered under it. He took the mafia hotspot to get a chance to find out about any gossip or leads.
Fon kindled his already feared reputation, wreaking havoc on any enemies of the triads. His name 'eye of the storm' got a new meaning. He no longer was collected and calm to pride himself of getting over the storm stigma but because he knew one slip in control would unleash his flames with no turning back. He was searching for hints in Chinese lore and between his clansmen.
Reborn got plain and simply crueller and more violent. At first he took on hit after hit, finding out any kind of person that could know something and even torturing them to get answers, not that it was fruitful. Reborn had never been a man of torture before, he had preffered to take on clean hits, it changed.
Another thing the sun took up was looming over Luce every time he got time off. Reminding her of what she had done and just watching her as she was wilting.
The sky couldn't even protest when he took over to care for Aria, not letting his rage out on her but grooming her to be a better person than her mother could ever be and therefore making her hate her mother and turn against her completely.
Luce herself suffered greatly. She had lost her guardians, unable to bond ever again and everyone left her.
She tried to reverse it. She didn't understand what Skull did to her but she knew that it was because of the cloud. She tried to warn everyone, to tell them what Skull was capable of doing but no one listened. She even tried to get Reborn to listen, to warn him off the cloud only to get shot down. Nothing Luce tried was fruitful and Aria was taken away as well. Her daughter's first word had been Reborn, she walked in the presence of the hitman, gifted him her first laughs and aided by the poisonous teachings of the sun Aria never learned to love her mother, not even as a baby.
Aria had screamed when her mother tried to hold her when she was born and it got worse the more Aria aged up, crying when Luce entered the room and refusing her with her whole being.
It took a few months until the Arcobalenos connected again, driven by the need to inquire if anyone found out anything. They kept in close contact afterwards. Meetings were set into place, regular phone calls and group chats got formed, only one person was missing.
No one heard from Skull since the fated day, none of them had any way to contact him. Tracking the cloud still didn't work and in comparison to the last time Skull seemed to have listened to Lal's advice. He wasn't found at the circus, neither as a performer nor staff. It was like the earth had swallowed the cloud and no matter what they tried no hint of Skull even still existing was surfacing.
Leilani hadn't dealt well with the curse. She had stayed on top of the mountain for hours, still crying and mourning the fact that she had no way of getting back. It had been night when she had finally made her way down the mountain. It had been a harsh walk, her tiny legs and exhaustion making her stumble the way down more and more.
The cloudflames now permanently fused to her skin flooded out at the slightest injury, way more sentient and intune with their mistress and healing every last cut and injury no matter how tiny.
Leilani had tried to get rid of them, to part herself from the colour tinting her eyes and hair, the colour that got mirrored in the pacifier around her neck but the flames refused to leave. Not wanting to abandon their mistress for even a second, trying their best to protect her now after everyone had failed her.
She didn't know what to do and in her trance and shock she made her way back to the circus. It took an eternity only for her to stare at her trailer. It hadn't been moved. The crack in the damaged door was still obvious and she entered, her eyes falling onto the chair Reborn had sat on, the one she had wanted to get rid of.
She immediately started to walk towards it, wanting to throw it out only to falter in her steps as tears resurfaced again.
Why was she even here? She couldn't stay here. She wouldn't be able to perform… she wouldn't even be able to explain to anyone why she was a toddler now. She had no place here anymore and the only thing that would happen was that she might bring more of the mafia to them or that she would be found again for who knows what this time.
Still, she took a few hours just sitting in her trailer and mourning again. Mourning for the second home she had lost. The home she was now leaving on her own because of her choice being taken away from her over and over again.
Leilani had loved the circus. She truly had and it hurt to lose another thing she held so dear to her.
She picked up her backpack, it was too big for her, almost gracing the floor but she didn't care as she started to pack it. She didn't have a lot of personal belongings but nonetheless she packed any kind of trinket that meant something to her.
Her wandpieces, clothes which she shrunk with her magic, her money, all of her make up and the small gifts she had gotten. Like the tiny, wooden owl figurine Darix had carved for her.
It was hard to not stay and see her friends for a last time but she knew there was no way she could manage to actually leave them under this instance and so she quietly went away.
Leilani found out that living as a toddler came with even bigger obstacles than just being a young girl. She wasn't able to book hotel rooms or rent a place. Maybe even for the better, as she didn't really have a huge amount of money.
While the circus had been successful it didn't change that it was cheap to visit them and the pay was split between all of them while the majority went into keeping the circus alive and used for the travels. It hadn't been like any of them actually needed to spend money on much and so her stash wasn 't even big enough to rent a place for a few months.
It was hard to buy food or any other article she could need as well. Honestly, this was way worse then when she had first arrived in this world, even while she now had a small stack of money.
In exactly this time she finally figured out one of the uses for her sky flames. She had been very desperate. She really wanted to buy a tent, sleeping mat and blanket. It wasn't like she could stop sleeping outside but she really wanted the tiniest bit of comfort at least, especially as she didn't know if the curse would ever stop.
None of her tries to work on it with magic had worked after all and she wasn't as stupid to believe that luck would strike and she would casually find the cure on the sidewalk and so she really tried to be future oriented and if she couln't find a place to stay than at least a tent that would protect her from the weather.
The store clerk didn't want to sell it to her though. He constantly asked for her parents and when they would be here. She was sick of it, she just wanted to buy it. She had the money! She had even showed it to the man but he didn't sell it to her.
Her magic reacted to her plight and with a soft nudge she could feel her sky flames perking up. They had always stayed close, even with her refusal to use them. They didn't manifest physically but from the time she experimented with her flames and magic she knew that her eyes probably had more than just an orange tint.
The clerk in front of her seemed to freeze, completely enraptured with her eyes and in all honesty it reminded her majorly of the imperius curse.
She repeated her wish to buy the tent and equipment again and this time the clerc scrambled, instantly helping her get the stuff and taking her money.
Leilani felt bad when she left the shop. Yes, it wasn't exactly an imperio and she hadn't stolen but it was too close for her taste. She had made someone do something for her even though it went against their wishes. She knew it had been necessary and it was for the better but it didn't help with how she went against her own principles.
Still in the end she had to rely on it to get a few necessities. She was -thanks to herbology classes -not completely lost with foods she could find in the wild but it didn't change that she wasn't convinced she could manage to solely live off it.
She just hoped she could stretch her money long enough… for what she wasn't even sure.
Maybe she would find a way, a cure or something similar.
But for now she would find a place to camp.
