I am no good at writing a circus, I apologise. On another note, they will use modern speech while talking, since I am completely useless at writing dialogue from the 1920s.
The circus was magnificent, to say the least.
The man John had seen earlier who was bending metal - The Magnificent Equius - lifted so many items at once, John was afraid that he would lift the entire circus off the ground. But, of course, no such event occured.
After The Magnificent Equius came many more wonderful acts, including a man with strange dual-coloured glasses lifting a woman into the air using just his mind (John sensed tomfoolery, but he had a shocking lack of evidence to uphold his claim with), Jade's (as he later discovered her name to be) act, and the weird clown's enthralling yet disturbing performance. Though what gripped his attention the most was the bird-man's act.
"Introducing, Dave." The ringleader - Karkat - said.
Dave? Just Dave? No Dave the Amazing Bird Boy, or The Mystifying Dave? How unusual. John shook his head free of distracting thoughts as Dave walked to the center of the ring, wearing a black tank top that time. He lifted his head and scanned the audience, before lifting his wings and zooming in a random direction. John could hardly keep up with his swift and quick movements, his flips - his overall strange, yet exciting aerobatics.
Upon landing, he let out a very loud "CAW!" and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
Then it was over.
John really did not know what to think. He'd never seen such a circus, and something about it was unnerving. He mulled it over as he sat in the grass, his guard once again completely down and susceptible to sneak attacks.
Which is what Jade did, more or less.
"How'd you like it?" She asked suddenly from behind him, and of course, John had not heard her come up, so he was scared out of his whits for the third time that day.
"Oh, it's you!" He regained some colour in his paled face. "I enjoyed it very much, er, Jade," He grinned.
She brightened, though her face was impossibly bright to begin with. "You remembered my name! Thank you, good sir!" She giggled.
"Yes," he nodded, before a thought occured to him. "Could you take me to see someone?"
"Er..." She stopped to think about it. "I'm not acquainted with any of the guests, so I can't-"
"No, not a guest," now he was the one doing the interrupting, "a performer."
She shook her head slightly. "I don't know about that. Guests are generally not allowed backstage without special permission." John frowned and sighed. Jade frowned as well, unhappy with his unhappiness, before putting her hand to her cheek in a thoughtful motion. "But I suppose since you're so pretty, I could handle an acception to the rule." She smiled sweetly at him.
"Really?" John grinned, much too excited by her agreement to dwell on her comment about his physical appearance.
"Yes, John. I wouldn't just lie like that!" She tossed her head cutely.
Yes, quite alright, now- wait, what? How does she know my name? Is she psychic? Can she read my mind? That's one of my biggest fears, please don't let it be true!
His scattered thoughts must've been obvious on his face, because Jade put a hand on his shoulder and looked at him with concern. Or maybe she read my mind.
"Are you okay?" She asked, then she smiled as a look on knowing crossed her face. "You must be wondering why I know your name, aren't you?" John nodded, and Jade giggled. "It was on your ticket, silly!"
Oh, that makes sense. Okay. Wait, how did it get on my ticket? I never told the lady my name!
He shook his head again and frowned in defeat. These people were scary.
"Could we just go to see him?" He sighed, getting up and trying to somehow brush off the wetness from the grass off his bum, which turned out to be an understandably fruitless effort.
"Which him? There are seven him's." She walked ahead to the tent as she talked.
John fell into step beside her. "Dave." She stopped.
"Oh, no, no. You mustn't go see him. It'd be pointless. He doesn't talk to anyone, just mutters to himself in his cage. He's the most unhappy to be here." She explained.
"Cage?" John's eyebrows knitted together. "You're keeping a human being in a cage?"
"Hybrid, not human." She corrected.
"Still! That's cruel and inhumane," He scolded.
"He'd fly away otherwise..." She mumbled.
"Maybe that's what's best for him." John held his head high, walking ahead if her back to the tent. She did not follow.
Rounding the tent, he found the performers taking out their and other's props, most likely to practice on outside of the circus. He saw no point in taking them out otherwise. He searched through the group of people, ducking under and dodging various items all the way, looking for Dave, until stopping on the other side of the madness. No luck.
"If you are just so set on hanging around here, sweep up the fucking tent or something!" John spun to be greeted by the cheerful sight of Karkat, smiling brightly as usual and holding out a broom to him. Heheh, sarcasm.
John accepted the broom in confusion, but before he could ask anything, Karkat was gone. John's mouth flatlined, and he went into the tent to start the dirty work. My, it was...well, it wasn't really that bad, actually. He set to work, humming lullabies and various songs he knew until the job was done. He stood up and wiped the light sweat from his brow.
"So you're the new chore boy?" Came a voice from the darkened end of the tent..
John jumped in the most uncool way imaginable, eliciting a chuckle from aforementioned voice.
"Wh-who's there!" He held up his stick like a weapon.
"The boogeyman. I've come to eat you." His voice held little emotion, John observed.
"Oh no, whatever shall I do?" John faked fear, then walked in the direction of the voice.
"Oh, that's smart. Freak out, then come toward the enemy. You must want to die, why else would you be here?" His chuckle was dry.
"What do you mean by that?" John stopped before the darkness, it being slightly easier to see when he was closer compaired to farther away.
"It just sucks here, that's about it." The strange sound informed John that the person possibly shrugged their shoulders.
"Oh." John frowned, then looked into the darkness, searching for the one he was talking to. "Have you seen Dave?"
"I've heard of Dave. Pretty cool guy, the coolest of the cool. He's so cool, you could use him as ice. Pop it in your cup of cola, keep it cold all day. Why you'd pour the cola out of the cool bottle it comes in is beyond me, though," He said. Wow, this guy liked to ramble.
"So you're Dave." John chuckled.
"In the flesh," he paused briefly, "and feathers."
"Well, I'm John." John held out his hand to shake.
"As much as I'd love to expose my hands to your grime-covered ones in an acquaint handshake, I can't." He slumped back. At least, that's what it sounded like.
"Huh? Why?" He pulled his hand back sadly.
"I don't know if you heard, but I'm not the most stationary person."
"What do you mean?" John cocked his head. Dave sighed.
"I'm in a cage, dipshit." He rattled the door for effect.
"Can't you just...reach around and open it?" John waved his arms in the motion he was implying.
"If I could reach out between the bars, then I would've shaken your hand. Besides, it's locked with a padlock." John bent down in front of the cage, finally able to see Dave almost clearly. He looked at the cage Dave was contained in with sadness.
"That's so cruel, keeping you caged up like this..." He sounded like he was close to tears, though he really wasn't, he was just very melancholic.
"Yeah, no kidding. Think about how it feels to be the one in it." He sighed again. John sat and thought for a bit, before suddenly perking up and gripping the cage bars the best he could, making Dave jump back a bit in surprise.
"I could bust you out!" He exclaimed. Dave laughed hollowly.
"Yeah, how're you gonna do that? Turn your finger into a key?" John shook his head.
"Just trust me on this."
They stared at each other for a few seconds, before Dave dropped his head and chuckled again.
"Okay."