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 Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 7:43 pm
It was another bright, sun shiney morning, as it always was. Aiden partly contributed it to himself, as he made the rounds, which made him chuckle. He wasn't that conceited, he just found the coincidence amusing.
He also just found out that another girl had moved into one of the trailers. A Miss Marien Mulligen. Aiden hadn't met her yet, and figured that he might as well check up on everyone. Including Lucrezia. Aiden wished that he had more mentorees to watch over. It was rather entertaining, overseeing everyone and helping them along. Maybe Miss Mulligen needed a mentor! Oh, ho, ho!
Aiden arrived at the trailer, and knocked on the door three times. It was a cheery knock, but he decided that he would say something also. Just so that they would know who it was.
"Hello? Miss Mulligen? Marien? It's Aiden! The ringmaster..."
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Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 9:04 pm
Maxem had been a bit preoccupied. Really preoccupied, actually. In fact, so preoccupied that she never really managed to change into real clothes, and had been sitting around cleaning in her skivvies for a good part of the hour.
Not that her skivvies were anything that a modern day man would blush at. Bloomers and a short sleeved, empire wasted night top. Ooh, how racy.
Upon hearing the door knock, however, she promptly flailed about, falling over her bed completely and sending a good portion of its contents spilling onto the ground.
“Just a moment!” She nearly screeched when she realized it was a man’s voice, as she managed to wrangle her dressing gown to the floor and manage to somewhat get it around herself.
By the time she had gotten to the door, she realized she was still exposing a bit of her bloomers before she hurriedly fixed her robe and straitened it out. Her room however, would have to wait.
She opened the door with a sheepish little smile, looking fairly embarrassed at both how she and her room looked.
“Uhm… Well… Good day to you, uhm… Sir.”
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:45 am
Lucrezia, who had been intent on getting mold off the bathroom floor, poked her head out of the little side room and grinned. "I see you've met Aiden," she stated, dropping the sponge with a loud kersplick sound. She stepped out into the hall, feeling only a little uncomfortable that what she called 'normal clothing' suddenly looked like a harlot's garb compared to what her roomate called 'pajamas'.
Her knees were dripping. She frowned at them and then looked back up at her new roomate and the visitor. "He has a talent for showing up at inconvenient times."
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 7:23 am
Aiden peaked in to see who else was there. He smiled at Lucrezia, and waved slightly.
"Hello, there, Lucrezia! Good to see you," He began, but then he stopped waved, and turned back to Maxem.
"Sorry if I've disturbed anything, Miss Mulligen," He glanced at how thrown-together he looked, and just minimally, rolled his eyes.
"I came by to make sure that all of you living conditions are fine!" Aiden said, realizing himself that he sounded a bit too charming, "I just hope that all goes well with everything here. Also, Miss Mulligen, do you have a mentor? If not, I'd be glad to pick up another mentoree. See, Miss Flaco over there? I mentor her, and I really enjoy the mentor-program."
He paused to look at his clipboard. Small bits of information were scribbled down about Maxem.
"Oooh, fireworks! What all will you need for your act? Other than fireworks, of course," He laughed, at this point the charm that he used came off as a bit forced to the very perceptive.
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 8:46 pm
“Ah,” She looked at Lucrezia. Had she always been there? Maxem had been too busy to notice. Judging by her knees, though, they had had the same idea. Having spent more of her day scrubbing the walls, Maxem had finally moved onto the bed frames. Eventually she hoped to move out all of the furniture and scrub the floors.
She smiled up at Aiden. He was male. Male and charming; those were always plusses in Maxem’s books. So far, she had already met Phillipe and Charlot! This cirque was turning out to be a gold mine of good men, and she was pretty pleased. Pleased enough to not launch herself into a rant about the shoddy conditions of the trailer, even.
Her smile then faded a bit as he offered his mentorship; she already had one. “Oh, thank you, really, for the offer, but I’m afraid I’ve already gotten a mentor. Ms. Grete, actually. “
Over on her bed, Maxem’s bag was in a complete state of disarray as she tried get settled, sprawled out were some small bags of powder and a handful of sparklers. “Well, naturally power and casings, pigments to mix, a safe place to store these…. But those are all requirements for any sorts of explosives, so I’m sure you’re set already.”
She hesitantly looked up to Aiden, her eyes pleading as she blushed a bit. Yes, yes he was a bit corny, but he wasn’t too bad.
“Actually,” She fidgeted a bit, trying to look uncertain and helpless, “I really would like to know if anyone needs me. I can’t do much more than light shows and spectacles on my own, and that requires funds that I don’t yet have… So for the time being, I’m really better off just providing back up for stage acts in the big top. Accenting, one could say.”
She looked down as if she was too shy to look at his face as she asked, but then flicked her eyes back and caught his momentarily for merely an instant before letting them flutter back down to the floor.
“So… You wouldn’t happen to know anyone who could use me, do you?”
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Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 3:48 am
Lucrezia followed the path of Maxem's eyes to the powder and sparklers.
"You have explosives? In the trailer?" she asked accusingly.
Aside from that, she was mildly amused by Maxem completely collapsing under Aiden's charm.
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Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 12:06 pm
Aiden stared at Maxem for a moment, a bit bewildered. Was she... flirting with him? He smiled, and then laughed at Lucrezia's reaction to the 'explosives' comment.
"Mmm," Aiden mummbled, and raised his eyebrows just a little bit, as he scribbled something down on his clip board, "So you're mentor is Grete. Interesting choice..." And then he looked back up with a smile.
"Well, see, we do have some pigments and casings, but I'm not sure if it's exactly what you'll like. See, the supplies are a bit low. You can come by and look at them at a time that's good for you. They're probably in storage."
Aiden then thought about that for a second.
"Or you might want to go and buy some somewhere. I might be able to find a few places that sell them. As for helping out somewhere..." He paused, in thought. He tried to recall who, exactly, had asked for help.
"What type of jobs are you looking for?"
Then, he turned back to Lucrezia, trying to calm her down a bit.
"I'm sure that Miss Mulligen knows what she's doing," Aiden laughed, "I wouldn't really worry about getting blown up. Unless you make her angry, that is."
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Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 7:23 pm
Maxem let out a sign of acrimony, sitting down on her bed and crossing her legs with a rather cross look at Lucrezia. Maxem was older, and more experienced, so therefore Lucrezia should not be talking to her like that.
Or at least, that was how she saw it.
“The powder is completely stable right now, it’s just sitting there, and unless you like to take drags of cigars, Sir, “ She motioned to Aiden, giving a bit of a labored smile, “Then we’re fine. As for the sparklers here…” She personally grabbed one off of the bedspread, tapping it against her other hand like a magicians wand, “Even when lit these suckers do little more than glitter a bit; they do less damage than cigars. I’m not dull enough to bring anything dangerous in here; I know the consequences of misfires.”
With her shrewd explanation over, she pulled herself back up, dropping her sparkler limply onto the bed with the others.
“And as for shopping, I think I’ll look over the stores beforehand, and take a bit of inventory. I’ll make a list of things I’d need before going out. But really,” She looked at him intently, trying to get her point across, “It’d be too dangerous to keep a store of these things sitting around. If you ask me, honestly…”
Her hand brushed her bangs back behind her ears, but they just fell right back into her face.
“Honestly I think it would be better to coordinate and plan what I’d be doing before I actually bought things, that way the powders would be sitting for as little time as possible, and pose no danger to the crew. That, of course, requires me to know who I am helping. I can do entire night shows in the sky, but those are expensive, so it’d be better to just augment the stage a bit. Add a bit of “Oohs,” and “Ahhs”. If you have a magician, it would be rather convenient, actually.”
But by saying this, Maxem was assuming that the magician was a crock who knew nothing of real magic.
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Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 7:49 pm
Lucrezia decided that now was not the best time to explain that the magicians and mediums around the cirque insisted that they were the real thing and got extremely offended if you implied that they weren't. She also decided that it was best to not acknowledge vocally that Maxem was a shameless flirt. Furthermore, she also knew it was in her best interest not to mention she really had no idea what a cigar was.
"That's a relief," she sighed. "Though I didn't think you'd blow us up."
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Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 7:54 pm
Aiden looked a bit concered at Maxem's reaction. It was a bit violent-looking, and he didn't really want for his new recruits to begin fighting amongst themselves. Well, at least in his presence.
"Uh, girls, there's no need to fight," He said quietly, trying to act as a referee.
"And magicians. Well, I'll look around, and do what I can. Sound good?" Aiden smiled cheerfully, hoping that he was doing a good deed.
"So, are you both doing all right? Living conditions, acts, supplies, everything? Anything that I could do?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 8:23 pm
‘I’ve no intention to fight, sir. Merely reassuring my room mate.” She went back to her bag, tossing inside the sparklers with a small glare. Why did she pull them out in the first place? Hearing him talk about the prospects of her future career perked up her sour mood a bit, though, and she nodded a small “Thank you” towards him at the magician comment.
“As far as living conditions go… Well, sir, we’re in the nineteenth century. Unvarnished wood-- really?” She realized she may have been going a bit out of line, and tried to go back into proper mannerisms. “It’s not that I can’t work with it, though. I’m hoping to clean our room up a bit, if you don’t mind. ”
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Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 3:34 am
That was another thing that needed explaining, thought Lucrezia, hearing the 19th century comment. "Technically," she said slowly, "We're not in any particular century. I was in the 15th when I left my world, and Wing Ting was in like... the 23rd. No one explained that the circus time-and-world hops to you, did they?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 12:07 pm
Aiden frowned.
"Sorry about the, uh, fact that it's unvarnished," Aiden wasn't quite sure what to say. Maxem was first of all new, and secondly, was unvarnished wood that big of an issue? He couldn't seem to shake the feeling that Mazem was patronizing him while saying that she could 'work with it'.
"I suppose you can have varnished wood when you have your own trailer," He replied, feeling a bit hurt, but allowing himself to remind her that she was new.
Hearing what Lucrezia had said, he sighed a little. Everyone seemed to want to know about the world-hopping, didn't they.
"Yes, it's a bit of a... confusing process. Kinda neat, though, if you ask me," He said, regaining his charm and trademark smile.
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Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:30 pm
“Wait.. What the devil!?” She swirled around the stare at Lucrezia as if she were nutty, trying to wrap her brain around just what had been said.
Anything that had been said about wood was now far on the bottom of Maxem’s to do list and she spun back to Aiden with a look of sheer pother on her face. They had to be joking; switching entire worlds? Her time had just found how to quickly span a nation, let alone the entire globe.
“Seriously, now. Just what are you two talking about. Time and world hopping? Why that’s absurd! You just can’t be serious!”
Surely they were simply trying to mock her as the newcomer, and she wasn’t too fond of that notion. Unvarnished wood or not, she had standards, and mocking her over a tiny complaint like that was not something that would be tolerated. She simply would not give in without proof.
“If you are speaking the truth, which surely you must be, then kindly explain this world hopping to me. A demonstration would be particularly keen.”
She was being facetious, of course; she wouldn’t be sold to such an insane idea so quickly.
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Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2006 3:39 am
"I don't entirely understand it myself," Lucrezia replied, "But if you meet some other people from around the Cirque you'll get a feel for it. Think of it this way: In my world when I left, it was 1575th Year of our Lord on the Christian Calendar, but no one is very keen on that because where I'm from. The Christians aren't settled in Rome. They're in Paris. I only found out that they usually wind up in Rome by talking to people. "
She ran her fingers along the edge of the bedframe. "However, I found out that in Hadrian's world, Christians don't even exist and it's the year 2007. His world, Gaia, was vastly different than mine. Too much so to be the same one."
"And the world hopping only happens once a week when we set up camp at a new world."
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