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Closed Masque Carnivalia

Connor was surprised that Celest had started moving so quickly. He blinked, then picked up his own speed. Once he managed to catch up, Tess was already being fed. He smiled a little. "Well!" He clapped his hands together. "Now that this little ordeal is done, I think that we should all set up the buddy system. There are six of us, so it should work out prefectly... Wait... Five. Five? No, Ally's missing." Connor looked around briefly. He couldn't see her in the immediate vicinty. Damn.

He frowned. He shook his head. Tess was probably cold as hell after being all alone out here. And the fire was probably out. He sighed. "You think Ally's nearby?" he asked. He scratched his neck, kicking at the ground.
 
Celest got to her feet and gasped silently. Where was Ally, anyway? She furrowed her eyebrows, thinking hard. But nothing came to mind concerning Ally's whereabouts. "I... I don't know," she admitted, looking at her feet in shame. I haven't seen her since we were at the tents. It's possible she's still there... Maybe I can sense her."

Taking a deep breath, Celest closed her eyes and focused. The auroric vision returned, and the scene around her turned a soft blue. She saw the outlines of her friends in a pearly gray, and pressed on forward back to the tents. The scene bounced on, and she carefully searched for Ally. Finally, after seeing the short outline of the Ghost type, she opened her eyes and returned to the clearing. "I found her," she answered simply. "She's near the camp, maybe a few feet away."
 
Celest and Connor had turned away, talking about Ally. Ally! Where was she? And Kiara was nowhere in sight, either. She hoped the two other Carnies were okay. Tess tried to stand and was painfully reminded of the many thorns in her side.
"Uh, guys..." she began is a whispery voice, "Do you think you could help me with these thorns?"
 
Celest turned back to Tess and nodded. Obviously those thorns had to go... She might get infected or something, after all. And Celest was well acquainted with infections from her own self-inflicted wounds. Kneeling down by her, she softly began to pull at the thorns, carefully plucking them out. She tossed the ones she pried out away and picked a few more. "I... I'm not hurting you, am I?" She looked up at Tess as she was about to grab another. "Because if I am... I'm sorry. Terribly sorry..." She looked away, feeling guilty that she was giving Tess even more pain.

Celest sat back on the cold dirt floor, her legs pulled up to her chest and her arms resting on her kneecaps. She shivered a bit as a cold breeze sliced the air. Feeling her cheeks become rosy, she looked up at Connor. "What should we do after we find Ally, you think?" she asked him, blinking her red eyes at him. "I mean, do we eat, or...?"
 
Celest knelt and began to pull thorns from Tess's side. She winced, and Celest looked at her with concern, asking if she was hurting her. Tess gritted her teeth and shook her head. She glanced up at Connor, where he stood above Celest. Speaking through clenched teeth, she asked him, "Kiara...Where's Kiara?"
 
"Right here. I was about to leave to find you when I heard you were over here. I'm ok, but we gotta find Ally" Kiara said, answering her question. She knelt down next to Tess. "Are you ok?"
 
"Boy." Connor clicked his tongue. "We sure are disorganized for this to happen the first night." He crouched down next to Celest, thinking about how different she was from just yesterday. If she kept going this direction, she'd end up being some influential person with world-wide power and leadership. She was already a world apart from the girl huddled up in a tent with her own blood on her.

"Well," He said in response to Celest. "Food sounds pretty good. I feel like I haven't eaten for weeks." He laughed, and picked up a pebble, tossing it up repeatedly. He began twisting it over in his hand. "And, Cel? You still owe me a field trip. I'm holding you to that. Sooner or later, I'm getting me a field trip."
 
Celest smiled softly. "I'll put it into consideration," she answered, staring deeply into Connor's eyes. After a while she turned back to Tess, and her smile faded away. "Alright... Do you think you'll be okay from now on?" she asked her. "Because if you aren't, one of us will need to stay here with you while we hunt down Ally. Unless you feel up to finding her with us, of course."

The Lucario girl got to her feet, brushed off her yoga pants and sighed. "I sincerely hope she's okay... I mean, we haven't seen her for a while... Ally, I mean." She looked over at Connor. "Let's get a move on," she proclaimed, looking off into the distance. She felt her tail flicker at the chilling feel of another cold wind, and she shivered slightly.

[Hey, guys... I saw Mystic say she's gonna be on a haitus... So we gotta try to sidetrack for a while...]
 
"We sure are disorganized for this to happen the first night," remarked Connor.
"I...I'm sorry guys." Tess hung her head. "When we were walking back to the tent, I started drifting off. I fell asleep on the path, and when I woke up, it was dark. I panicked and...and..." She trailed of, ashamed.
Tess looked up again when Celest asked if she was okay.
"I...I'm not sure," replied Tess. "I think so."
 
Connor blinked at Tess. He didn't understand why she apologized for this. It's not as though this sort of stuff wasn't bound to happen here. He shrugged it off. It didn't matter anyway, not anymore. Celest said Ally wasn't too far.

He stood and went with Celest, and grinned. "You see? No dead weight at all. You damn well saved the day. I was totally right." He grinned. Celest shivered. "Hey, how about this? You can send someone else after Ally, and in the meantime, you can start with the training and stuff! Maybe you can learn Aura Sphere, I can learn Blaze Kick, Logan can learn, uh... I don't rock-types that well, but you get the picture!"
 
Celest nodded when Tess said she was okay. "That's good," she sighed in relief. The Fighting Carnie turned to Connor, blinking. "Me?" she asked. She was very well confused at this. Since when was she promoted the leader of the Carnies? Connor was speaking to her as if she had to make all the decisions. Celest scratched the back of her ear, her head tilted. "Uh... I, umm... I don't know, Connor, I'm still skeptical on the training idea... I mean, why me? I'm certainly nothing special..." She looked away, her tail tucking in between her legs. Her self-esteem had just started getting better. And now it was eroding again.

Celest rubbed her temples for a brief moment, then looked back up at him. "But, I mean, if I have to... I guess we can start now..." She looked at Kiara and Tess. "As much as I hate to admit it, I don't think we should leave this forest until later," Celest stated sadly, feeling guilty leaving Ally out, "Maybe we should get something to eat before anything else. There's some more Oran berries... and a few other ones, too."
 
Aaaand there she went again. Nothing special. Pfft. He slapped his forehead. "Look, Cel, don't give me that crap. First off, you're the fighting carnie here, so you're bound to be a bit more... Talented. Second, you're pretty much the one who's gotten the most use out of your powers. You've located three people, and we've found two of them. My stupid little fire isn't even getting used. Probably out by now, actually."

Which reminded him. If they'd be staying here for a while, he should get on that. He pulled a few dead branches off of their trees. He dropped the pile near Tess, where the fire had room to breathe and for them to have space to be around. He lifted a small cluster of stick, and took in a breath. With a satisfying whoosh, he let out a small string of flame that stretched out about a foot. He coughed, his throat feeling dry, as he put the ignited twigs into the pile, and the other pieces caught fire. A bit of smoke leaked out of his nostrils. He coughed again, and grinned at Celest. "Okay, camp is officially set up. How's it work Cel?"
 
Annie heard a clatter as she accidentally dropped one of her shoes. She glared at it for a moment over her shoulder, then snatched at it. "Stupid heels." She muttered. She had tried walking in these shoes for about an hour after she got in this godforsaken place. Now it had been a whole day and night of walking, basically in circles, alone. Still. Alone.

She couldn't even feel her legs. They moved automatically at this point, on their own. That may have been the reason she had passed the same tent with the same cot with the same pillow that had the same rat pee stains on it at least thirty times. Her eyelids felt like lead, her feet were half-frozen, her hair was already getting greasy, she couldn't brush her teeth, and above all, she didn't have any clean clothes.

She took off her glasses, wiping her eyes with her forearm. "You suck, sun. You're too bright too early, go away." Talking to herself. Spectacular. She still held her glasses in one hand, her shoes in the other. There had been sounds on the other side of the carnival, but she just didn't have the drive to find the sources. So, she did the next best thing. She screamed. She poured all her anger, frustration, and anguish into a single, blood-curdling shriek of death.

And there was no answer, no replies. Just a little breeze and the smell of rotting fruit. She fell down, sitting in the middle of the little road, her hands balled into fists. A little dazed from her scream, she stared up at the tallest thing in the carnival: the ferris wheel. "I hate you." She cursed the ride.
 
Flinching at the gravely unexpected shriek from afar, Celest whipped around to face the north, not caring to respond to Connor at this point. Was... Was that Ally? ... No. It was too old to be her. It was a scream of pure anger and agony, it seemed. Rubbing her poor, sensitive ears, Celest looked over at Connor. "... I knew it," she stated monotonously, "I just knew there was another... for some reason." The Lucario Carnie vaguely thought it was because she could sense aura, but the musing was soon thrown away as she began to panic.

By the sound of it, the other female Carnie didn't seem like a happy camper. Would she be mean and stuck-up, and criticize everything Celest was? She had dealt with it before, and the thought sent shivers up the girl's spine. It was solely because of such snobby people she would cut herself at night, with the exception of her drunken father bringing home a new hooker every night for his own pleasure and her older step-brother's. She took a step closer to Connor, her arm pressed up against his.

She furrowed her eyebrows. Should they go and venture to find this other forgotten Carnie? A daunting task, in Celest's mind; she was still fearful of bring eaten. Or should they carry on as if it never happened? Had this been the case, though, the other Carnie would probably tell them off later, puting everyone in a foul mood. She turned over her palms as she thought about all this. The dried up blood were now uneven circular scabs. ... She didn't want to hurt herself that much anymore. Ever since being accepted by Connor and the rest of the crew... Celest felt a sense of belonging.

The Fighting morph made up her mind. Thry would go and find the other Carnie, one way or another. It might be a challenge softening her up, but in the end, Celest reasoned, it would all work out all right. She blinked up at Connor. "Surely you heard that, right?" she asked him quietly. "... We should go find her. So she won't live alone... but die together, I suppose." She made a distant reference to a remark she made to Connor when they first met, though she doubted he would remember.
 
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Connor's head turned a little at the sound. It was faint, to him, but he was sure it was quite different for Celest's ears. She probably felt close to deaf by now. He stared in the direction he thought it came from. "Well... She sounds like she's having fun." He whispered to himself.

"Quite the word choice, Cel. That's just how I've always thought of it. But you knew that, huh?" He smiled at Celest. So he was getting to her enough for her to remember conversations. "Yeah. I heard. We should go, and we can keep on quoting great lines of the past while we're going!" He laughed.
 
"Okay, well, umm." She looked up at Connor expectantly. She glanced back from the path leading from the forest and where the scream was heard. Then, after realizing Tess and Kiara had nothing to do, she turned to them. "Kiara... Stay here with Tess. She's not badly injured, but... Connor and I will go. You two just... stay. ... Alright?" The Fighting Carnie hoped the Squirtle girl wouldn't object. She looked over at the trees. "The blue berries are helpful. I would suggest giving them to her if the pain should return."

She looked back at Connor, half tempted to tell him to lead the way. But how could he lead if he had no knowledge of the other girl's whereabouts? He didn't even hear her scream that much, after all. So, being stuck with knowing she would have to lead the way, Celest took a deep, raspy breath and closed her eyes, focusing solely on the memory of the deafening scream. The blue hue slowly made a vision in her mind, and Celest began to walk onward. She pinpointed the girl's aura quickly, and, before she knew it, was step-hopping quickly through the forest, destined to escape the thick brush and enter the main park again. She was oblivious to the fact Connor was left behind at this point, and finding that Carnie was her single, unconcious goal.
 
Annie sighed, holding her cardigan up in front of the sun. She was still laying down, staring rather blankly at the pink fabric of her garment. She draped it over her head, wishing she had the capacity for self-pity. Or was she already pitying herself? She wasn't even sure anymore. How dare those freaks in capes abduct her. They'd get a serious ass-whooping as soon as she saw one.

"Why me?" She moaned under her cardigan. This was just ridiculous. She had nothing but this stupid dress and heels. They weren't kind enough to allow her even to have a pair of sandals. Even flip-flops would be preferable. No, here she was, left to die in a place where there was nothing to eat, drink, or... Well, there wasn't anything here but a bunch of junk left behind for probably at least a decade.

She didn't dare say that it couldn't get any worse. It could always get worse. As she sat up, pulling the cardigan off her face, and sneezing, she began to wonder if the other people-carnies, were they called? Well, she wondered if they were just part of a dream, and if maybe she was the only one here. But... Maybe this was a dream. It was too long, then. She pinched her cheek, but found nothing changed when she opened her eyes. "This sucks." She fell backwards, sliding the jacket under her as she did, using it as a pillow. "I should have kicked that little brat when I had the chance." She muttered.
 
Connor looked first at Tess, then Kiara, then Celest. Sure has been a wierd day. Not wierd like yesterday, where we were turned into freakish hybrids, but wierd that Celest is so different already. He grinned, and clicked his tongue at Logan before following Celest. She took him by surprise when she took off, and he had to sprint to catch up.

"Hey, Cel! It's this way? Sweetness. You'll have to run faster than that if you want to be better than me, though!" As he powered through the dead brush, he moved far less gracefully than Celest. Branches whipped at his face, and one even broke the skin, while the dead shrubbery stung his legs through his pantlegs.
 
Celest was close to laughing at this as her eyes opened, the Auroric scene dissolving, but merely smiled as she matched his speed. "Despite that, Connor, you're ruining yourself," she remarked, vaguely running the back of her hand across his cheek as they ran on to prove her point. She looked forward again as her small beam faded, and her eyes narrowed. She suddenly stopped as she reached the far less familiar side of Masque Carnivalia, and distantly darted her blood red eyes around. Her eyes glazed over a figure laying in the middle of the dirt, and she did a double-take. ... Was that her? She expected someone far more intimidating.

She looked back for a brief moment before silently taking a cautious step forward, weary of the figure. She took another and another until she was maybe seven meters away. Her breath was caught in her throat, and her mind searched desperately for a good way to introduce herself. Celest wasn't used to talking to new people that much, as shown when she met all the others, so she merely took a few steps back, careful not to make a sound.
 
Well, well. She was smiling more and more often. They were little smiles before, but this one was a good size. Connor grinned stupidly with pride. "Just imagine if I had a clear path, you'd be smoked in seconds... Uh, no pun intended." He laughed. He tied with her coming out the forest, telling himself it was only because of the difference in path quality.

He followed Celest up until she slowed down. Connor slowed only to walk, and stepped over to the woman, leaning over with his hands folded behind his back. His long hair immediatly drooped over his face, and blew a few hairs out of the way so he could see this strange woman. And strange she was. "Well." He clicked his tongue as he stood up straigh. "You certainly aren't what I expected." He motioned for Celest to come closer.
 
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