The Greatest Show in Kazooland?

((Sequel to this thread.))

Kazooland, as it turns out, is a very hospitable place to bring a circus. New Pieland welcomes the so-called Greatest Show in the Galaxy, and they set up tents on the outskirts of Preferbia. The place has a look that is vaguely 1950's earth, but with other elements that make it clear people from all over have settled there. In comparison to some of the denizens of the city, some of the people of the Psychic Circus look downright ordinary, so they just may have to step up their game.
They're invited to put up posters in all the usual places, which are evidenced by layers of older posters already there. Some of these advertise 'The Steam Man Band, the singing musical Walter automatons'.

It is one of these who shows up at the ticket booth, in fact, although his look has been updated some since the photo for the posters was taken. Now he sports big metal blades down his back, and a face made of seamed metal plates with vents in the cheeks that occasionally trickle steam. He bends down a little, to reach the level of the ticket window, and gives the person there an uncertain look. "I... w-was told to ask for Mags...?" The bass voice rises at the end, uncertain.

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Indeed the circus has found the place almost like a second home, and they've really stepped up their game. They have a reputation to maintain, and they haven't come to Kazooland completely unprepared for the challenge.

Mags may have swiped one of the older posters, having quickly recognized the face of one of the members. She's been hovering around the main entrance today, having earned a day off after talking to Kingpin about her plans.

They have a new ticket booth operator, a friendly sword-swallower with a heavily tattooed face who smiles up at the robot.

"Ah! Yes!" He says in a heavy Scottish Accent. "Mags! Your friend is here!" She's quickly coming around from behind the booth.

"Thanks Pommel." She's excited but trying to keep low key. It's not often she makes a friendly acquaintance, and she never has company. "Hi. I'm glad you could make it."

Nervousness dissolves into a smile, as The Spine straightens and gives her a wave. He's excited himself, glad to be out and temporarily free of his family. They also have far too few friends, even though all it really takes to befriend a Walter automaton is to treat them like a regular person.

"Told you I'd come see you, one way or another."

She gives a shy smile and the ticket master seems to just meld back into the booth, even though he's amused and watching her. The others from the earlier rebuild of the circus tend to be a bit protective around Mags, even though they know she can hold her own.

"Do you want to watch the show first? Or would you like to walk around?"

"You're not performing yet, are you?" He gives Pommel an absent-minded tip of the hat, but already he's stopped paying attention to the man.
"Whatever you'd like me to see. I got the day free." He intends to make the most of it, too. It's not often he gets away from the responsibility of looking after his less-mature robotic family for this long.

"I got the day off. I could show you where I do my act. I do the side show for now. I'm working up to getting in the center right." She looks around a moment and then waves as a family comes in. She moves to the side to let them through.

"There's time before the main event. Let's go see the side shows."

The Spine is quick to follow her lead and step aside, tipping his hat apologetically. A seven-foot-plus robot inevitably takes up some room, gawky though he may be, and he's a little self-conscious into the bargain. "Nothing wrong with the side show. Have you been-n with the circus long?" He's ready to follow her anywhere, slightly lost in the sea of tents that make up the place.

She doesn't hurry, once the people are through she starts to head around the back of the ticket booth, leading him down a cloth hallway toward an opening.

"A little while. The circus recently started over and I've been helping Kingpin find new acts. We test them out in the side show before we bring them into the ring."

He's not a fast walker, anyway, steps slightly exaggerated, with that quiet steam piston hiss, and he has to duck through the flaps that form doorways. "What kind of acts? I haven't been to a carnival in decades..."

"Well, Pommel's a sword swallower. Larkspur is our newest fortune teller. We have a couple of acrobats from the Crab Nebula who just started. Torque Wrench just came on a few weeks back, so we finally have someone who can properly repair the robots. Right now though, he's working on a new idea for a sideshow creature."

She hasn't really talked this much in quite a while. They exit the side of the tent and enter into a small pathway that runs between booths of individuals showcasing their various talents and wares. Many of them are locals who are invited to fill the space in return for some publicity and cash. Kazooland brought them no shortage of people, and it's quite a bustle of the truly strange, and alien.

"Yeees... you did say there are other robots here..." He glances around, just a little wary. He's not sure how to feel about that. Apart from his own family, other robots tend to leave him feeling uneasy. They so often turn out to be just machines.

The Kazoolanders don't bother him in the least, though. He's been here too many times over too many years to bat an eye at the beings that live here. It's what they're doing or selling that he finds interesting.

In this case he'll likely find himself disappointed again, unfortunately. Megs takes a turn around a corner and stops to look at what appears to be an empty cage, but there's been severe damage to the bars. It looks like something has escaped and up above the cage is the sign Wolf-girl. Someone has added a hand-written note below that which reads: Out to Lunch. She snickers, and puts her hand up to her mouth to cover the sound a bit.

"They're not going to let me live this down."

Edited Date: 2014-06-09 01:57 am (UTC)

"Is that..." He looks between her and the sign, eyebrows rising expressively. "That's not you...?" He's not bothered, just surprised, because she strikes him as nothing but sweet and polite and not at all feral.

She shies away a bit, curling in on herself nervously.

"Yes. But, I didn't do this to the cage. It's been replaced, apparently someone thinks they're being funny."

He looks immediately apologetic, reaching to pat her very lightly on the shoulder, if she'll allow the touch. He doesn't want to push it. "I didn't m-mean... it's just you don't seem very... l-like somebody who'd bite." He smiles weakly, and desperately hopes he isn't just digging the hole deeper.

"...wait, somebody broke your cage for a joke? Won't that be hard to repair?" Because The Spine knows all about bent metal and the force it takes to bend it.

She looks up with a shy smile, he's not running away, which is a good thing. In fact she appreciates the hand on the shoulder.

"This is a set we've been putting together as part of a center ring act. I'm not quite ready for my part of it yet, so it's been sitting around for a while."

He's over seven feet tall and made of titanium alloy. She doesn't scare him at all.

"Oh... so it's... m-meant to be like that?" He winces slightly at his own vocal glitch, a by-product of nerves.

"Yes, just this one. Here." She touches his arm lightly and leads him back behind the display. There's a tarp over a square box and she lifts it up, glad to see it's her real cage. There are some slight bends in the bars and plenty of scratches, but nothing nearly like what's out front. Hidden in the bottom of the cage floor, which is slightly thicker than the one up front, is a lighting effect to trigger her transformation.

"The is the one I'm usually in. The one up front is supposed to be conjured into the ring while it's empty."

His expression brightens. "oh! And then they think you're... running loose..."

The Spine pauses, proceeding with care. "But are you really a werewolf? Not that it's a problem!! I just... wouldn't have guessed..."

"I am." She nods, taking a breath and doing her best to try and hold her head up at least. She's still new to this whole not being afraid of herself thing, but she's trying.

He pauses, considering this, but there's certainly no screaming or running away about to happen. He is, after all, very large, very made of metal, and above all he'd like to think he's a gentleman.

"I guess I've never met one. Is it... d-do people treat you differently, because of what you are?" Because that is something The Spine knows quite a lot about.

"Sometimes. It's not as bad now that I'm with the circus." She's clearly settling a bit now that she realizes he seems to understand. "We're all from different planets, so that helps too." As for locals, that was always anyone's guess but so far Kazooland has been quite friendly, in her opinion.

He nods, relaxing as well, since she doesn't seem about to cry or get angry, so he must have defused what he said wrong before. "Not all Kazoolanders are native. I'm from Earth, San Diego. We just visit here here regularly."