Chapter 2: The Clowns

There were three people outside at the base of the tower, that Innocent could see. They were dressed in, well, more or less red and yellow - one of them was wearing baggy overalls, and the one standing next to him was bald and had what appeared to be an extremely large upside-down flowerpot on his head. The third man had messy gray hair and looked vaguely familiar to Innocent - he was the one who... had... put... a... crown... on... Innocent's... head... last... time... right?

There was also a rather large and floppy-looking dog.

Innocent waved to them somewhat doubtfully, and they all shouted at him in greeting at once. "So the kid's back!" the bald one squeaked - he had an extremely improbably high and squeaky voice. "Hi, kid!" Innocent waved at him, for lack of anything better to do or say.

"Is... uh..." The man with the messy gray hair indicated a swirly pointy hat and general tallness. "...He up there with you, kid?" Innocent worked this out, and nodded. He was slightly worried for the three (four? He wasn't sure where the dog came in) of them down there - what would happen to them if the creatures came back?

"Come down here so I don't have to shout at you," the messy-haired man commanded. The Innocent looked over at Trickster in the hope of getting a confirmation or denial of the probable safety of doing so. The red-suited man looked at him through half-closed eyes and nodded. Innocent trusted him to know, so he clattered down the metal staircase and went out to where the slightly odd newcomers were standing at the base of the tower.

"Hi, kid!" the squeaky one squeaked. The Innocent gave him a wave for the third time.

"What's he doing here?" his counterpart, the overalled one, asked. "Has he got candy?"

"Let's search his pockets!"

Innocent stood bewildered as the men tried to search his nonexistent pockets, and then fell down as the messy-haired man gave them a wallop alongside the head - from three feet away.

"Idiots! This is his kid!" The messy-haired man indicated the tower. "What are you doing?"

"He's got a kid?" the overalled one asked. "He's not even married!"

"Shut your mouth!" the messy-haired man snapped. The overalled man shut his mouth.

The messy-haired man turned to Innocent. "They're a pair of complete doodoo-heads. Ignore them. I am... the King!" He flung his arms out in what was probably supposed to be a dramatic gesture, but only succeeded in whacking the Innocent in the head. "Oops! Sorry!"

Innocent waved the apology away politely. He really wasn't sure what all this was accomplishing.

"I'm Sergei, and he's Pete," the squeaky one squeaked, getting up off the floor.

"Am not!" his companion protested. Sergei ignored him. "What's your name, kid?" he squeaked at Innocent.

Innocent shrugged apologetically. All three clowns - they were clowns, he was pretty positive of that - looked at him strangely.

"Do you talk, kid?" Sergei squeaked. Innocent shook his head, smiling apologetically.

"Can you talk?" the King demanded.

"That's kinda a personal question, isn't it?-"

"Shut up!"

Pete (or possibly-Pete) went flying back into the floor. The King turned back to Innocent, dusting his hands off. "I rephrase my earlier question. Can you talk?" Innocent nodded.

"But you don't?" Innocent nodded again.

"Why not?"

Innocent shrugged. He would be the first to admit that he was not intelligent, but even for him that question was very near the top of his Stupidest Ever Questions To Ask list.

There was awkward silence for a moment, while the King and his cronies worked this out. "Well," the King said eventually. He shifted gears, and looked at the Innocent suspiciously. "Are you by any chance connected to the three large birdy things which are wandering around this place?"

Innocent looked around, semi-panicky. "Ooo, he looks guilty!" possibly-Pete exclaimed gleefully. "Interrogation time!"

Actually Innocent had been worried by the reminder of the creatures, not by the King's question, but he didn't think he could get that across in mime. He watched bemusedly while the three clowns configured themselves around him in an extremely rough approximation of a courtroom. The King cleared his throat. "Is the court in order?"

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

"Your Honor!" possibly-Pete hissed.

"Your... Honored Majesty!"

"Good. Now... were you in, or about, this... tent... at any time on the - oh, what's the date today? Don't just stand there, someone get me a calendar!"

At which point someone cleared their throat.

It wasn't a loud sound. All it did was command immediate ceasing of all other sounds. The King stopped.

The Trickster was leaning on the railing around the second level of the tower, watching them. He didn't look quite as bad at this distance, but even someone extremely stupid could have seen that something was wrong.

He snapped his fingers at them, and vanished inside again.

There was a change in the air. The King blinked. "Oh," he said.

"Oh what?" Sergei squeaked, puzzled. "Shut up," the King told him quietly. Sergei shut up.

"What happened to him?" the King asked Innocent, his eyebrows getting closer together. Innocent shrugged hopelessly.

"Did you take his wand again?" the King asked suspiciously, as if he thought that the Innocent had somehow caused Trickster's incapacitation. Innocent shook his head. The King stared at him.

"So... he still has it, then?"

Innocent shook his head slowly.

"Where is it, then?"

Innocent shrugged.

"This," said the King, starting to pace back and forth, "is not good." He spun on Innocent. "And where did you come from?"

Innocent shrugged again. He had no idea how he had come back to Kooza, or how Kooza had come back to him.

The King sighed. "You know," he said, "it would really help if you would talk..."

Innocent looked apologetic. The King was probably right.

"All right, let's figure this out." The King kept pacing. Sergei and possibly-Pete stared at him from their seats on the floor; the Innocent got the feeling that they weren't at all used to seeing their boss thinking rationally. From what he'd seen up till now, he didn't blame them.

The King stroked his beard thoughtfully, and looked out at the empty auditorium, only the few of them in the entire tent. "And everybody but us's disappeared. That's not a good thing. See, kid..." He lowered his voice. "Everyone here, in the show, we're all..." he nodded toward the tower "...his. He made this world, see, and everyone in it. So no boss, no other people, and maybe even..." he glanced around "... no world. But see, me and those idiots and the dog, we're clowns. Chaotic and crap, you know. So we're his, but we're ours too - we can go in the audience, maybe even outside, though I don't know about that. He doesn't have to call us for us to be here. And what about you, kid? Where d'you come in? Are you a clown too, or what? You're not one of his people, he didn't make you, did he?" The Innocent shook his head. He didn't think so.

"Hm. You look like him, in that outfit. Is that inten - supposed to be?" Innocent nodded.

"Huh. You do have a clown nose, kid." The King clapped Innocent on the shoulder as he was trying to look at the end of his own nose. "In that case, you can be an honorary clown. Welcome to the court."

Innocent blinked. All right then.

"And..." The King frowned. "You aren't connected with those birdy things, are you?" Innocent shook his head.

"Is he?" Innocent shook his head. One of Trickster's creations would not have tried to attack its creator.

"Do you know who is?" No again. The connection had just occurred to Innocent, and he waited patiently for the King to make it too.

"Sooo," the King said slowly, "there are a bunch of unclaimed birdy things wandering around, annnd... the boss's wand, which creates stuff, is missing. And bad stuff is happening to the boss," he added.

"Those could be connected!" Sergei shouted suddenly, as if he'd had an amazing brainwave. The King stared at him.

"Ye-es," he said slowly. "They could be." And Innocent actually couldn't tell whether he was being sarcastic or not.

It was just his luck, he thought: something very bad indeed had happened, and now it appeared that the stupidest people in the world were the only other people (other than Trickster) who were left in the world.

A/N: All right, time to discuss nonspeaking roles and their significance.

The Innocent is rather obviously (to me) a mime role. He doesn't talk. It's not that he can't talk, it's that he chooses not to. Perhaps there's some reason why he doesn't want to put his voice out there, perhaps he's too shy and prefers mime for expressing himself, perhaps he just feels he has nothing to say and sticks to not saying it. In any, case, there would have to be some very big reason indeed for him to ever open his mouth for it.

The Trickster, on the other hand, quite possibly cannot actually physically talk. He's not actually human, after all. But it's equally likely that he chooses not to in order to appear more mysterious and powerful. In any case, neither he nor Innocent is going to be saying much in this fanfiction.