The Carnaval RP (Open)

[Furry64]

A traveling circus called the Harper Circus houses many mysterious things, from twoheaded wonders to supposedly a real dragon, you never know what you willl see next. But behind all that wonder and amezment lies some dark secrets, with a cruel and uncaring ringmaster the performers of the circus must fight to survive or be left behind.....


-Shadow woke with a start, he heard shouting in the distance and then all of the sudden someone was banging on the bars of his cage. "Wake up you lazy mutt the shows about to start!" shouted a worker. Shadow looked and saw the tent already alight. "I said GET UP!" The man shouted again. Quickly Shadow ran stumbling over his long tail to grab his bandanna, his good luck charm. He then ruining swiftly ran into the tent to prepare.

[Hunter568]

Hunter roused himself from his sparse bed of straw, shaking the sleepiness out of his eyes, as a high-pitched clanking rang in his ears.


"Time to get up, sleeping beauty!" Yelled the belligerent carney, rapping on the bars of Hunter's cage with a metal rod.


Hunter set to work preparing the bottles of oil and torches he would need for his act.

[Furry64]

Shadow quickly ran into the tent and prepared his act, as he greeted his coworkers. Yawning he slipped into his costume and began to apply white powder to his face. The powder irritated his eyes and made them water, but he had to hurry; he was the second act. "GAH!" The stupid powder made it hard to breathe, it tickled his nose and, "A-A-ACHOOOOOO!" Powder flew everywhere, it left a thick cloud like a ghost, right on the front of his costume! "Oh Great!!!" He mumbled. "The Ringmasters's gonna kill me!" Grabbing his Big Rubber nose he raced to find something, anything to clean his costume! Just as he found an old rag he heard the door open. "Crap!" He yelled as he turned around, to face the new comer.

[Hunter568]

Hunter stepped through the door, searching for the case with all his materials, and was instead greeted by the circus's clown, Shadow. "Crap!" yelled Shadow, and as he turned Hunter understood why. His entire front was coated in powder.


Hunter quickly shut the door behind them. If the Ringmaster or one of the staff walked in right now, they'd both get beaten. "Alright, lets get you cleaned up then," Hunter sighed. He located his case and pulled out a spare cloth that he usually kept in case of oil spills. Oh well.


He started helping Shadow to mop up the spilled powder.

[Furry64]

"Oh it's you." said shadow relaxing a little. "Sorry bout that." He said with a sheepish look. "Alright, lets get you cleaned up then," Hunter sighed. Still looking sheepish Shadow quickly help Hunter clean the front of his costume. Soon the costume was clean enough where you couldn't see it from afar. Shadow made a mental note to clean it more thoroughly later. "Thanks Hunter, I really apprecit-" but he was cut off by a loud bell overhead. "Uh-Oh! We have to go, that's the five minute bell and if we're late, the Ringmaster will have are skins!" said Shadow, hurriedly grabbing his nose and straightening his  3 orange pom-poms on his chest. "Come On!" shouted Shadow, beckoning panicky as he ran out the door, his collar making a jingling sound as he ran.

[Hunter568]

Hunter barely had time to grab his case and follow Shadow out as another carney walked up to them, shouting and waving a baton at them to hurry them up. He ran along with Shadow to report to the Ringmaster.

[Furry64]

The Ring Master turned as they ran panting for breath. "You are very nearly late!" said the Ring Master with a stern look. "S-Sorry Sir!" said Shadow in a nervous voice. "I don't want to hear apologizes, just get going, the shows about to start!!!!!" The Ring Master yelled, smacking his riding crop against his thigh. "Y-Y-Yes sir!" squeaked Shadow, eyeing the crop warily, as he quickly ran away, shuddering at the thought of how close they both had gotten, to being whipped.

[Hunter568]

The crack of the whip made Hunter clench his teeth in rage. He chafed under the Ringmaster's tyranny, and every time that whip was brandished, he felt the insult anew.


The Ringmaster noticed that Hunter had not yet moved, and was instead standing in a sullen, angry silence. "What are you doing standing there?! Get moving and get your costume on, mongrel!!"


Hunter begrudgingly moved on, taking a different path than Shadow, who was already dressed to perform since his costume was compact enough to store in the storage room near their sleeping quarters. Hunter's was a bit more...cumbersome. The Ringmaster forced him to wear a pair of overlarge, plastic dragon wings. He claimed it helped with the theatrics of Hunter's performance.


To Hunter, the wings were simply an annoyance which got in the way of his movements and hindered him from delivering the best performance possible. He couldn't deny that the audience seemed to enjoy them, though.


Despite all his complaints about the Ringmaster, however, Hunter still truly loved performing his act. Even now, he felt himself filling up with the usual pre-show butterflies. He tried to put the Ringmaster and the Carnaval itself out of his mind and simply focus on amping himself up.


Of course, this proved difficult, since he noticed an armed stagehand blantantly trailing him from about ten feet behind. Likely the Ringmaster was trying to keep an eye on him after his escape attempt last week. Hunter didn't mind the tail too much. Honestly, he was lucky they hadn't just beaten him to death.


After Hunter finally managed to struggle into his ungainly costume, he heard the bell which signaled the beginning of the show. He slipped the bottles and torches from his case into the belt that came attached to his costume, and ran towards the staging area to prepare for his cue.

[Furry64]

As the bell rang, they all lined up outside the curtain, prepared to begin their act at a moments notice. Shadow heard the Ring Masters booming voice welcoming the people to the carnival, and introducing the first act. As the act trooped out Shadow meant to say"Break a leg!", but what came out instead was a mumbled "B-B-Break a l-leg." Shadow had know these people for almost as long as he had lived and still couldn't have a full conversation with anyone. "He tried to make himself feel better, telling himself that at least he had said something right? He was making progress, right?" Wrong! He thought angrily. His social skills had not improved one bit since he had come to the circus. Then he thought of his sister, Sarah had always been able to say hi to people, Sarah never stuttered Sarah-........was gone. He stood there for a minute lost in memories when he heard a carnival worker shout, "Come on Mutt!, Your UP!!!!" Shadow was quickly jolted out of his thoughts and now heard the Ring-Master shout is his stupid loud booming voice "Now for are Second act The Harper Circus Clowns!!!" Quickly Shadow ran outside to begin his act.

[Hunter568]

Hunter stumbled over to the pre-show lineup just as Shadow and the other clowns were disappearing through the curtain that led into the stage. He inched forward with the other performers, trying to peer around the heavy curtain and watch the clowns' performance unfold while he waited.

[lightstone]

slowly and surely Light stood up now suddenly in a cage by a circus

[Furry64]

As the clowns ran on the stage, shadow heard the roar of laughter from the audience. The hundreds of eyes bore into him like tiny drills. He could feel his collar tighten as the nerves kicked in. "Come on" Shadow thought to himself "The sooner you do this, the sooner you can leave the stage and all those Darn Eyes!" So Shadow put on a goofy smile and started to dance around, collar jingling and nose honking. As the clowns performed one act after another, he began to relax, he was even starting to enjoy himself. Finally the clowns reached their final act of the night; Shadow had to hand a pie to the Ring-Master who would chuck it at him and the other clowns. Not the most comfortable experience, but hey this was show biz, there were worst things. So Shadow summing up his most goofy smile and skipped over to the Ring Master and.....tripped. He fell head first into the pie. As if the problem with the costume hadn't been enough, he thought angrily, maybe he could play it off as if it was on purpose, but as he got up his heart sank. The Ring-Master had been sprayed with sticky white frosting and pie filling. Shadow panicking, searched his pockets for a handkerchief. Finding one he yanked it out but quickly realized it was a string of handkerchiefs. Hastily uniting them he nervously tried to mop up the Ring-Master's uniform, who now looked like he was gonna burst a blood vessel. Pulling Shadow closer, he said in a bearably audible whisper "I'll deal with you after." As the Ring-Master dropped him he panicky stood up and scampered off the stage as the next act came in.

[lightstone]

Light could here the laughter coming from the stage still no clue why hes in a cage now "i was just hunting" he said to himself, not knowing he said it out loud "feeding my family afterward, and there i went to sleep, why am i in a cage noe"

[Hunter568]

Hunter observed helplessly as Shadow blundered into the Ringmaster during his performance segment. Poor guy. He was likely going to be beaten after tonight's show ended. Hunter would've like to help him, but if he tried to intervene while the Ringmaster was punishing someone, he'd just make the situation worse. His only hope was to escape this place someday, and bring back help for the others. Untik then, he had to look out for himself.


While he was pondering all of these things, his cue came up, a stagehand lighting his first torch for him. He braced himself for the stage and started to assume the character he was to play. As he stepped forward, he puffed out his chest and began lengthening his stride, giving off an impression of great size and supreme confidence. He heard the Ringmaster roar: "Ladies and gentleman, prepare yourselves for one of the Carnaval's most fearsome and dangerous creatures, the legendary Firebreathing Wolf!"


Hunter strode through the center of the ring, and wasted no time in caoturing the audience's attention. He deftly uncorked one of the bottles at his waist and poured the paraffin oil into his mouth, bringing the lit torch up in front of his face and brandishing it like a sword. He spit a great gout of flame right towards the audience, controlling it carefully so that it would come just close enough for them to feel the heat without actually being singed.


He heard loud gasps from the crowd as their earlier laughter fell silent. That old trick never failed to get all eyes on center stage. As the routine went on, his firebreathing became more and more elaborate. He had assistants who brought new items for him to light up with flame, or who set up hoops and targets for him to use. He juggled lit torches and continously blew fiery breath through the ones still in the air, all without burning himself. He would pretend to almost set his assistants ablaze, while they dove to the ground and pretended to fear for their lives. All was in service of presenting his character as callous, powerful, and dangerous. It kept the audience excited and nervous, clinging to the edge of their seats


Hunter loved the rhythms of his act, constantly building the audience's expectations and fear higher and higher. And to finish it off, the assistants wheeled in an overlarge dummy in the shape of a dragon. He used up every remaining drop of oil spitting scarlet flames at it, over and over, until the thing was a smoldering pile of ash. He finished with one last flourish, spitting some fire at the audience again and catching them off guard. As he strolled out of the ring and towards the backstage area, thunderous applause erupted behind him. For just a moment, Hunter truly felt separated from his miserable life outside of the show, and basked in the cheers and the afterglow of a perfectly executed performance.


Then he was smacked in the head with a piece of wood and told to "Pick up the pace, ya filthy animal!!!", and everything returned to normal.


        ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Hunter walked out of the tent and into the cool night air. His act only featured once during the show, and he didn't work as an assistant or an extra in any other segment, so until the show ended he had a little bit of free time. As he rounded a corner on the path leading back towards the other tents, he came upon an isolated cage. Inside was a fox he didn't recognize.


"Hello there. Who are you? New addition, eh?" he asked.

[lightstone]

"addition?" Light said in pure confusion "oh sorry. I'm light, do you know how i came here?" Light asked the wolf, since he seems to be nice at a first glance