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"Gilles, keep up!" Yelled Crazy Momma Chikara from somewhere ahead of him. Gilles couldn't tell, because he was weighed down with so many stuffed animals, giant inflatable baseball bats, styrofoam microphones, and his ducky umbrella, and Mr. Hoppo, who was sittting a the top of the mess of trinkets, chattering excitedly. Gilles panted a little while trying to catch up with his guardian. Chikara was very good at the carnival games! She already played at all three water shooting games, and beat the weight guesser, and whacked over fifty thousand moles! Gilles couldn't help but admire her carnival game prowess.

"I'm coming~" He yelled, shooting his head out from the side of the mountain of prizes just in time to see his mother turn left, towards another shooting game. The prizes included a giant plush frog, a set of fireworks, and a little red wagon. Gilles stared at the wagon. It would make carrying all these prizes so much easier! He tugged on his mother's sleeve, blinking and wincing slightly from the sun. "Momma Chikara? Can we get the wagon?" She looked at him in mild surprise.

"Gilles, you can get a little red wagon at any of these places, but this is the only shooter game I've seen that has a giant plush frog. Don't you want a giant plush frog!? WHO WOULDN'T WANT A GIANT PLUSH FROG!? Get your priorities straight, buster, or you're cleaning out the bathrooms tonight!" Gilles sighed. There was no use arguing with his mother now, undoubtedly she would win the giant plush frog, and that would mean he would have to carry that aswell. But it was alright, as Chikara was winning the prizes so that she could decorate his own room. He placed the items he was carrying on the ground and stood on his tiptoes to see above the counter.

It was a sunny, happy day out today, with enough clouds in the sky to provide some coverage. The carnival was only in town for a few days, and when Gilles saw the ad in the paper, he immediately grabbed his mother and dragged her out into the world to seek out the carnival. He didn't realize that most of the day would be spent playing games, when he really, really wanted to go on some of the rides - especially the ones where people came out looking green. He wanted his face to turn colors, too!

Gilles handed his mother three dollars, which was the cost of the game, from the small pocket in his windbreaker. It wasn't cold out, exactly, but it was windy from time to time, and his skin was delicate enough when he was out in the sunshine, he didn't need it to get chapped, too! He sighed at the thought, looking up through his ducky umbrella at the sky. His tail scratched at his head meditatively, and he turned from his mother, who was having a very loud argument with the lady behind the counter, and peered through the crowd curiously. He hadn't gotten the chance to look at people very much throughout the day, as he had been stuck behind a pile of plushies, but now that he was given the chance, he was fairly disappointed.

No one was that interesting! It was unfair! He had expected to see some of the characters that he saw at the bar, when the bartender would let him sit behind near the liquor cabinets and watch the people go by. They would always turn bright red and start laughing loudly, or slap each other on the bum and make weird noises. He thought all people were like that. It was the same on the TV and in the bookstore, lots of characters. But these people were kind of blah. Kind of boring. Kind of, I'm-not-paying-attention-to-the-kid-with-the-floating-hair. What was up with that? Gilles was about to turn back to Crazy Momma Chikara, when he saw two people who looked...interesting.

His eyes lingered on the boy at first, then they travelled to who must have been his mother. Gilles admired the two - they looked nice together, sort of like the mother-and-children groups in diaper commericals - and took Mr. Hoppo off his shoulder, so he could give a proper wave. However, as soon as the excitable rabbit had touched the ground, it zipped off into the crowd of people, straight towards the two Gilles had been watching previously. "Nooo! Mr. Hoppo, come back!" Gilles shrieked, dashing from behind the pile of prizes and into the crowd, his tail bristling and his umbrella out behind him, its fabric threatening to break. He reached the rabbit, scooping it up with one hand, at the feet of the woman.

He clutched Mr. Hoppo to his chest and glared reproachfully at it. "Mr. Hoppo! Why do you do bad things!?" Oh no, and now he would have to apologize to the lady and her son, because he probably took an eye out with either his hair or his horns. Eeeeek. He looked up, half expecting the woman to scream at him or strike him, and when he realized that she was probably too shocked at seeing a boy with bright blue hair come charging out of the crowd that she wasn't going to bodily attack him, he stood up and proclaimed, in a very fast voice, "HimynameisGillesthisismybunnypleasedontkillme." then he stepped back, waiting for her reaction.

Gilles blinked up at the woman doing her strange dance. She was dancing? People didn't dance unless they were happy, right? Gilles blinked again, and cranked out a few dance moves of his own. Granted, they were segmented and rather uncoordinated, but if the lady was dancing, shouldn't he? Gilles stopped when the lady spoke to him. He took a deep breath to explain. "I was with Crazy Momma Chikara and then we came here and she's playing games and I saw you and I wanted to say hello so I put Mr. Hoppo down and he ran away and now he's here so I had to come and get him and I'm sorry if I scared you." Gilles said, without taking a breath.

Boo?

Wait, what was boo? Like a ghost, boo? Or a boo-boo like OW CHIKARA DROVE A NAIL INTO MY HAND, DAMMIT like Alan, the bartender said before? What? Gilles turned curiously to the toddler before him, cocking his head to one side. "Boo...you?" He asked, wondering if he had accidentally impaled the boy with one of his horns. That wouldn't be good. The last time this almost happened, Chikara had to run over and remedy things.

Which sort of backfired.

((Yeah. It doesn't really matter. 8D))

Gilles smiled, glad to have had that nice conversation (even though he still didn't know what was booing) and waved, "Kay, bye lady~" before letting out a strangled cry as a hundred plus pounds of Baniru landed on top of him. He wriggled around a bit under her, but he didn't want to poke her with his horns. When he felt one of them brush against something, he wisely decided to stop. Plus, he had a stinking suspicion that his tail might - might - be broken. Which would have been...ya know...

Bad...and...stuff...

He waited for the woman to get off of him, putting Mr. Hoppo on the ground. "Go get Chikara, kay? She probably wants to know where we got to." Mr. Hoppo gave him an affectionate nibble, and dashed off towards the shooting game. Gilles had enough time to watch him disappear into the throng of people before he turned back to Baniru and son. "You shouldn't bite people." He told Karma matter of factly, wiggling around a bit more.

Gilles blinked incredulously as the toddler sped away, then accepted the hand offered. "Ah...I'm fine. D'you think--" Of course, Gilles was cut off by a certain orange-haired crazy head who was carefully coming their way, dragging a load of prizes on a red wagon behind her. Chikara had decided that since Gilles had obviously shirked his prize-carrying duties, she would have to go and win a red wagon. And yes, on top of the pile of peraphernalia was a giant plush frog.

Chikara bounced up to Gilles with a curious look on her face. "You were smushed on the ground like a potato." She said matter of factly, her hands placed firmly on her hips. "There's plenty of time to bond with dirt, but we have carnival games to play!" She whined, pawing at the child's shoulder. Oh, oh, oh~! She sounded just like Domeki. Especially in the episode with the eggies! Yes, the eggies! Exactly! Chikara giggled a bit, then dumped Mr. Hoppo back on Gilles' shoulder.

Gilles shook is head, exasperated at his guardian's single-mindedness, and turned back to Baniru. "Missus Baniru? D'you think maybe we should chase back after whatshisface?" Gilles asked, yellow eyes curious.

Chikara and Gilles looked at each other, then at Baniru's retreating form, and then at each other again. Then they shrugged, deposited their prizes behind a shooting game counter, with the promise that they would be able to retrieve them later, and dashed off behind her, Chikara squealing with delight, Gilles muttering possible places that Karma could possibly be hiding. "Chikara, do you see him?" He asked, panting, as Baniru's form came into view.

"THERE SHE IS! THERE SHE IS! SUPER MUFFIN ATTACKS THE PRETZEL BANDIT!" Chikara launched herself at Baniru with surprising strength, waving her arms around in the air, and grabbing onto the other woman's waist. "Stop, thief!"

Gilles looked at Chikara with sheer horror on his face. She just tackled this woman! True, Chikara had tackled other people before, including policemen, but this was different! That little boy could be anywhere and Chikara was...was...was...err...playing tag? Was that what she was doing? "Chikara, no!" He exclaimed, trying to drag her off Baniru.

Chikara wiggled about from on top of Baniru, then she rolled off and stood up, a patronizing look on her face. "It's very lucky I did that, I hope you know," She said, with the air of one scolding a disobedient child who ate the last chocolate chip cookie. "First of all, you're going about this all wrong. You can't just chase after children. You need a strategy."

Gilles blinked.

Chikara was making sense.

That was never good.

Chikara continued in the same voice, keeping on hand securely around Baniru's wrist as she did spoke. "There's a special way to catch children that never fails." Uh-oh. Gilles though. Here it comes. "You catch them..."

Gilles winced.

"With..."

...with? Gilles started, and raised an eyebrow.

"A..." Chikara reached behind her. Gilles looked alarmed again. Should he jump on Baniru and force her to the ground, protecting her from injury with his own body?! "NET!" Chikara brandished the overly large butterfly net with gusto, swooping it around a few inches from Baniru's face.

Gilles sighed with relief. Oh. A net.

...wait...

A net!?

Gilles sighed as Chikara and Baniru argued. God, adults always argued. Argue, argue, argue. And it was super-bad because Karma was getting away. What was up with that? Meanwhile, Chikara was more than slightly abashed. "I am not on drugs! Drugs are bad! Kay, I might've had a few beers before I came over, but I run a respectable bar, thank you very much, that doesn't sell to minors! AND YOU DO TOO CATCH CHILDREN WITH NETS! ALL THE TIME. LOOK, PEON." She swooped the net over and around Baniru, then onto Gilles' head.

Gilles just stared, and looked at Baniru with an expression that said, Yes. She's crazy. But she's my momma. And she has a point. I can't move. At this point, though, both Chikara and Baniru had been yelling so much that Gilles' ears hurt terribly, Mr. Hoppo was chattering nonstop, and his tail was fluffed up. Gilles sighed, reached out two hands and a tail, and grabbed each noise making mammal, stuffing a hand, or fluffy tail end, onto their mouths. "Karma's on the ferris wheel." He said tiredly, pointing to the child bouncing up and down in one of the carriages.