Day 4 - Wagon Trouble

[erraticemphatic]

"What the devil do you think you're doing? Do you know how much a handrail costs? I'll give you a hint: it's nearly double what I'm taking out of your paycheck. You stop that right now!"

Erimosi did not have the slightest idea who this was, but it was plain that she was either someone of importance or someone who believed she was of importance. Best not to burn bridges. However, everybody was most precariously poised for a swipe.

"Oi, but, m'um, I thought fer sure she 'ad an itch both'rin 'er!" Though this false dialect was no great disguise, it was a stressful moment, and she would be sure to dress differently, shawled if possible, and carry herself on quite differently in the future to avoid the potentially important woman making a connection. With this, she persisted in her "scratching" efforts, making quick, broad swipes on Katarina's newly available sole, hoping for just enough destruction to allow her to slip away unnoticed.

 

[Relent<]

Katarina flinched in reply to the new, not-so-subtle attentions being paid to the bottom of her foot, but gritted her teeth and retained her composure. Her right leg faltered a bit, as she resisted the instinct to put her heel on the ground, but she lowered her right side just enough to support her weight on the nearest wagon roof, using her meticulously positioned elbow.
With the weight taken off of her right leg, she lifted her foot up behind her and began blindly groping at the offending labrynthian with her toes, attempting so subdue her in her grip.

It was like chasing an itch, however, for whenever Katarina's foot was near enough to her assailant to grab her, the tickling that resulted caused her to pull her foot instinctively away. She groaned, and twisted her hip in an attempt to look between her left flank and the wagon immediately beside it to draw a bead on Erimosi and evade her tricky fingers long enough to pin her arms at her sides.

Catching a fly with one's bare hand though is a difficult task, all the more so when that hand was a foot.

 

[Taj]

Finally understanding what Marcy was trying to convey, he decided he was trying to help with the situation instead of hindering it. But even the great Labrynthian Tallisman would have trouble decoding all that jiberish. However after careful consideration he decided the longwinded Ebonnian was right in slowing his assistance. Perhaps one more would only add to the confusion.

Still, Marcy's words about his fellow Labryn did concern him some. Why on earth would she try to sabatoge the gentle giant? Not to mention aiding in the potential injuries of an innocent animal. If the Tallisman council heard of such actions, she would surely be punished for it.

He continued to eavesdrop on the conversation going on some distance away and picked up an authoritive voice about the costs of damages to the equiptment. His stomach turned anxious again as he realized the possible arrival of the circus manager. This might be one of the few chances Alex had to impress the latest arrival. Turning his attention back to Marcy he answered his final question. "My concern is for both..." he hesitated as he repeated the somewhat insulting words, "...elephant and mouse." He waved his hand as he searched for words to address the others present at the precarious situation. "Plus all the other...animals that might be present there." Finally seeing a way out of being held up any longer, he nodded towards the medical tent. "You proceed to the tent for the doctor and I will try to aid the injured man." With that, he used his vocal cords to produce a noise in the hopes of distracting Marcy and aid in his escape...

 

[Relent<]

"I've more pressing matters to tend to than getting a doctor!" Marcy said impatiently, placing his finger in his ear to assuage a sudden, inexplicable itching he felt in its interior.
"You won't be of an use running into the cross-fire; make yourself useful and fetch the medic yourself. I'll hail a cab to get him to a proper hospital. After all, I'm no use in matters of heavy lifting. You'll be better to assist the good doctor in carrying that big bloke away from imminent destruction." With that Marcy continued toward the road in the opposite direction of the tent. The cab with the remainder of Mercy's luggage was still parked in the distance, where the horse that pulled it stood idly drinking from the trough at the dirt path's edge. He turned and walked backwards a short while as he called back to Alex, "You were going that way anyway, weren't you? What's one little detour?"

Marcy slowed in his brisks pace, looking around for a moment and noting his location at the promenade. Wasn't Isis supposed to be lurking about here looking for the thief that was already causing trouble? Had she sent her there on such an egregious errand?

 

[Taj]

Alex sighed in relief and began making his way towards the commotion which seemed to have increased in volume. He had already tuned out Marcy, anxious to get a look at the new comer and possibly introduce himself. Thinking better then to ask someone else to call the medic to the scene, Alex instead again used his ability to plant the idea into a common worker's ear. He repeated the demand a couple times to be sure the man followed his request. "The medic needs to visit the trailer area." He smiled to himself when the man suddenly stopped, looked about for a moment as if puzzled, then suddenly veered towards the medical tent.

Confident the doctor would be arriving shortly, Alex hurried on his way to the trailers. It wasn't long before his eyes took in what his ears had already known. There stood Katarina precauriously balanced holding a colt over her shoulders like a sack of grain. The poor animal was fussing about out of confusion and fear as she thrashed about trying to find secure footing. Looking around he saw the porter on the ground holding up his arms as if he could break the fall of the Phauxnorse who was nearly four times his size. It wasn't long before he saw the woman who appeared to be in charge. She stood as if in defiance, scolding Katarina for breaking a handrail. A trite, insignificant problem he thought to himself, but the woman seemed quite concerned about it.

Giving the handrail the once over, he figured it wouldn't take much to replace it. Plus he could do it free of charge if...the idea sprung into his head and again he smiled to himself. Pulling his deck of cards out of his pocket, he began to shuffle them as he approached the scene, making sure all were aware he was present...

 

[Carnivore]

C. Titarius McDougal sat in a plush sofa seat inside the medical tent, meandering his way through a report on his activities since the circus began setup here. He was a tall, stickly fellow in his mid-thirties, with almost bird-like features: somewhat ungainly limbs, long fingers befitting his profession, a large and prominent nose above a meticulous mustache. A hand went up to an unkept mop of dark hair before the solitary Aygomen went back to his work. Lazily putting ink to paper, the man detailed minor burns, broken bones, bloodied noses from fisticuffs... nothing really worth mention, as far as he was concerned. Outside, some kind of raucous din infiltrated its way past the open flap of the medical tent. The man grumbled, wishing whoever it was would get on with whatever it was and leave him and his ears out of it.

---
Elsewhere, Isis had by now given up her search for Erimosi. She had wandered the entire promenade twice over, and by now was completely sure that she was nowhere to be found. Isis slumped a little in defeat, having lost whatever game she was making of the attempt. Marcy had seemed keen on finding her, and she'd have to go back to him empty-handed, with no favor to lord over him. Nor would she be able to meet the pretty pickpocket again. Both prospects were not cause for jubilation, to say the least. Deciding she'd better get on with it, Isis turned back toward the wagons to try and find Marcy to tell him the bad news. Hopefully his little mission wasn't too important.

 

[Relent<]

((oh good, everyone's slowly being accounted for. Time to escalate our chaos...))
Katarina was having no luck getting her grasps on Erimosi's form, and even less luck interpreting the gibberish she'd started spouting in response to the command that the new manager had uttered in her favor. She was aware of a quiet creaking somewhere underneath her, no more so beyond her doing anything to stop than anything else in these ridiculous circumstances. But as the creaking gradually quieted, there eventually came a sudden "thump"....and then the wagon on which she was resting her weight began to roll slowly forward, taking her balance with it.
"Nononononono--!!" Katarina pleaded with the wagon, as her search for Erimosi promptly ended and she began reaching for something to affix her footing--anything at all. As the toes of her supporting foot continued to bore into the dirt, her arch fully extended like the ceramic ballerinas in children's music boxes, the toes of the opposite foot gaped and stretched, and probed the ground which was becoming further an further away. Finally, her foot found the rungs of a handrail, and with great dexterity, Katarina managed to slip her toes between them like the fingers of a comb through the prongs of a rake, and take firm hold of the handrail. For a moment, the world seemed to stand still, as the handrail creaked, and cracked....and finally was silent. It would hold her.

As the horse continued to gnash and pout and struggle, Katarina considered for a moment tearing a hole in a wagon roof, setting the horse inside it, and giving herself the use of her arms to begin getting herself out of these all too dire circumstances.
But she couldn't afford any more damage, especially with the wagon to her right already having suffered the damage to its handrail, as well as its abrupt collision with the wagon in front of it as its break had snapped and it rolled into it. Too much more commotion, and the wagon in front of it would have a similar inclination to start moving, and the entire encampment would start to come crashing down like a row of dominoes.
Katarina at the very least had to do something with the disgruntled equine so that she could use her elbows to prop herself up, rather than precariously tottering on the one elbow of her over-extended right bicep. So placing a hand firmly on the horse's rump, she used her other arm to gradually lever herself up using the wagon on her left for support. The horse slumped over her right shoulder, and for a moment looked as if it were considering using her back as a ramp. But she was still at too sharp an incline...

*********
Marcy saw a dark figure drawing nearer his periphery, and extending a hand outward, he took the figure by the hand, paused briefly to give it a turn like a ballroom waltz before pulling it along with him toward the cab and the trough.
"Fancy meeting you here," He said vaguely to Isis, checking exactly once to see that it was indeed her that he's snatched in passing. "Smashing good ruckus you've caused back there; I'd go to inspect my handiwork too if I'd set in motion the undoing of the world, but remember that I need you as far from the chaos as possible until I've remedied things. How exactly is your thief to get the key out of this? I hope she isn't planning something so macabre as to pry it from the bonnet-woman's cold, dead fingers?"

 

[erraticemphatic]

((Do forgive me, all, for being slow to participate. I've had several busy days, including a family birthday tomorrow and Father's Day today.))

Erimosi was unprepared for the onslaught of the enormous foot; she hadn't supposed that Katarina could manage that kind of concentration or balance in the midst of all this. It was both an obstacle and mildly exciting (it would become thoroughly more exciting later, in her memory, once she was not distracted by several attention-demanding crises at once). Fortunately, she was able to tickle nimbly and dexterously enough to defend herself against the foot. At length, she was successful as Katarina began a slow decline.

Having temporarily put the prissy, self-important women out of her thoughts, Erimosi was surprised to find her wrists in someone's grasp. Without any sort of deliberation or judgment, relying entirely on accute instinct, she performed a quick, not especially aggressive hold-break which resulted in the woman being turned around and a bit off-balance. She would not recognize for several moments whose grip she had broken free from, and she would minorly regret it at that point, but there was important work to be done in the practice of diversion, and the woman's attention was certainly not off of her yet.

Katarina's sensitive foot was well outstretched and perfectly vulnerable. Erimosi sprung upon it, applying movements as quick and flitting as possible as far as she could reach. Without hopping around, she was effectively limited to digging into Katarina's toes and the ball of her foot, which, with any luck, would be intensely sensitive and finally lead to her collapse.

 

[Taj]

It turned out that Marcy had been right after all. There was little Alex could do to aid in the situation. The small group were hollering and jumping about like cats on a hot plate. He shuffled his cards as he looked about for something...anything that would help ease the situation some. Speaking to no-one in particular he spoke rather loudly for his small size. "We need to get her to that clearing on the hill!" he pointed to a small clearing to the North.

His eyes scoured the scene and finally spotted the cause of Katarina's frustration. Erimosi was doing to the giantess what he himself had done to her a few nights ago. But from what he remembered, the Phauxnorse was very resiliant to the act and could somehow manage to subdue her unrest...even if it was for only a few moments. The only question that bothered him was the why of it. Were the two long time rivals? Did Katarina somehow wrong his fellow Labaryn somehow? Both scenarios seemed impossible to Alex and yet...here they were, in what seemed like a battle of wills.

From what he could see, Katarina was doing her best to keep the colt secure but if she were to fall, it wouldn't come out unscathed. Putting all else except the animal's safety out of his head, Alex began to walk towards the clearing. He felt it would do little good to holler at Katarina at the moment. Her unbalanced posture was already at risk and any more distraction could cause the unthinkable. He only hoped he could get there in time, before it was too late...

 

[Relent<]

((We're proceeding without QL. Assume she's run off in mortal terror.))

After a brief pause, and a moment to breathe, Katarina shrieked as a fresh offensive began at the base of her toes. As she reflexively squeezed them shut, the handrail on which she was attributing a great deal of her balance creaked, but did not splinter as it effectively bore the force of her toes' grip while at the same time restraining said toes from defending their less fortunate crevices. She bit her lip, and flexed her ankle as best she could without tearing the banister from the stairs, but none of this proved helpful in making her toes any less accessible to her nemesis' ministrations.

From nowhere she heard the magician's familiar voice, calling something out to them that she couldn't quite make out in the midst of the calamity she was caught in. The horse was attempting to back-pedal up her shoulder, and make his position there on her back less vertical, but with every shaking of Katarina's mighty shoulders from the steady stream of irrepressible mirth that was forced from her by the Labrynthian's teasing fingertips, it was shaken back onto its belly and forced to endure the vertigo induced by his handler's great height.

((a note, Taj: there isn't a visible clearing here, they're surrounded by wooden trailers on wheels. Secondly, if Katarina could have left by now she would have, but there's an injured man laying in the narrow path in front of her who she doesn't want to step on and injure further. I'll try to get Carnivore to bring the medic over, but it's been deduced from previous posts that it will take at least two people to move the porter.))

 

[erraticemphatic]

((How are we going to treat Mercy's leaving? Should I be after the same goals as before? Or would it be wiser to bring this chaotic scene to a close? Not sure whether to be more destructive or back off.))

 

[Relent<]

((just say she dropped the key or something simple suiting your taste. If and when I hear back from carnivore, i'll handle scene cleanup so that we can make a nice neat entry point for Mrs. Valerie))

 

[erraticemphatic]

((Alright, very doable, if a bit patchy.))

Disaster was at its peak; this was the time to back away (as enjoyable as the destruction was). She still had no idea what she wanted. She scanned the area for any opportunity to do anything whatsoever. Amidst the several people scampering frantically to and fro to get a handle on the chaos, she saw it: an abaonded key resting on the ground only a few meters from her. Fortune really had smiled on her more than was reasonable (( ... )). Very briefly, she indulged her excitement and rubbed her face into the giant foot she had been attacking and then darted for the key.

 

[Relent<]

((That'll do.))

Katarina sighed with great relief as she finally allowed her body to relax. What had just happened? She had a simple task, a relatively uncomplicated accident, and then....pandemonium. She still hadn't the hands free to put herself upright, but at least the worst of this experience was over. She untangled her toes from the hand rail, tentatively groping the ground until she found firm enough footing for her back leg, the front leg still somewhere far too close to the collision site and the porter, who seemed more-than-awake now that these calamitous circumstances seemed to be pacifying. Her knee trembled from the strain of her relatively awkward position, extended forward in a sort of yoga pose with her legs apart and her arms above her head with a weight on her shoulder.

Speaking of which, he'd grown relatively tame, humbled by these harrowing experiences. Perhaps it was simply too terrified to make a further mess. Perhaps it was unconscious?
She couldn't get a good look at its face, with how it was laying, but its tale swayed occasionally informing her that it was in fact still alive. She looked around her feet, trying to find her magician. Perhaps his magic could help her right all of this destruction.

Then she saw her. Scavenging about in the wreckage she'd caused. The louse! She wanted to knock her to the ground, but had no limb free with which to do so, and so she did the only thing she could.
"Awful creature! You could gotten me fire! Or man kill!" She barked down to her angrily, her leg still trembling a bit despite her evident lack of apprehension.

 

[erraticemphatic]

'Awful creature?' Not much coming from a pathetic creature (though one much too large to insult).

She had the key, and she happened to notice and collect a few loose coins* nearby as well. The troubling business about the key was that, though it almost certainly was of great value, she didn't have any idea what it was that the key would unlock and didn't immediately know of any way of finding out other than trial and error. But this wasn't the time for that; this was the time to make an escape before consequences for her mischief arrived. She could try her new key at the many locks about the circus grounds later, perhaps in the quiet late of night.

She took a dodgy route away from the disaster, ducking around wagons and other edifices as often as possible, making her way back to the edge of the woods.

*((Do we use coins?))

 

[Relent<]

((I can't see why not. For the sake of courtesy, though, I'm going to put off my post until someone other than the two of us makes an appearance. I don't want to put too much in motion while there are so many people still out of the loop))

 

[MistressValerie1]

From the direction of the offices a figure began to emerge, trotting toward the scene of the commotion. It was Minh Nguyen, the new ringmistress, clad in a white ao dai and wide-brimmed hat, a leather pouch swinging from her shoulder as she hurried towards the disarray. She grabbed the arm of the nearest worker and demanded, in accented English, to know who started the ruckus.

 

[Relent<]

It took the by-stander a moment to realize he was being moved, but promply recognizing the hand that pulled him so tenaciously onward, it was all he could do not to be frozen with terror.
"Ruckus?" He replied after a moment of consideration, finding it necessary to choose his words carefully. "I'm sure it's nothing, mum, I haven't any idea..."

When they arrived at the scene, it was clear that he was wrong. Though it appeared that Katarina had thrown a tantrum in the midst of the wagons, and gotten herself stuck in a malicious attempt to strike a man with a horse. The porter had finally gotten to his feet, but appeared to be injured...

 

[Taj]

With no-one hearing his words over the din of noise, Alex had taken a step back now having confirmed that Marcy had been right all along. There was absolutely nothing he could do to help the situation. He waited quietly trying not to look too annoyed as people brushed past him without giving him a second look or apology having bumped him.

Finally it seemed to start to die down some. With the exception of Katarina hollering down at the woman who had appeared to start this whole experience in the first place. He watched as she escaped around the wagons and dissapeared. He tried to follow her but with the lack of movement available to him there was little he could do to give pursuit.

He sighed in resignation and decided to offer aid as best he could. Stepping forward once again, he was about to approach the Phauxnorse when two more people brushed past him. A common labourer and a woman dressed in white. She looked far too important to be an entertainer so Alex followed them closely...

 

[Relent<]

((great turn out so far. We have a formal headcount of 4, with Carnivore still unaccounted for and another player still missing due to familial concerns. I'll do what I can with my two characters and whatever nameless laborers I can drum up to keep everyone entertained in the meantime.))

Marcy had retrieved the telegram, and secured it in his shirt pocket until it required presentation. He'd convinced Isis to go into town to fetch a proper doctor, and to check in at the hotel under his name, giving her the bouquet he'd had the notary order in his gratitude.
He looked about for Erimosi, finding her tall form rather easily in the sea of bodies that were congregating about the destructive scene she'd undoubtedly caused. He'd stayed behind to see to this half of the transaction himself, though he was unsure of what she would require in way of payment.

He approached her quietly, as if by mistake, and noticed her sifting through coins in her palm--among which he made out the little silver key.
"So what do you want for it? The key, that is." He said somewhat under his breath, his back to her, though he maintained proximity, keeping his eye on the crowd in case someone had made either of their faces. "Before you answer, you should know I barter in favors, rather than cash. Hard times and all that; but I'm not unreasonable."

 

[MistressValerie1]

Minh gasped upon seeing the disarray around the wagons. She heard Katarina shouting at someone who was slipping away around the wagons, perhaps the instigator of the giantess' wrath. Minh let go of the labourer and sprinted towards the wagons, pausing to check on the porter before calling up to Katarina, "What did you do to that railing? And what did you do with that horse?"

 

[Relent<]

((EE, Whenever you're ready, I've got Marcy set up to do a scene with you. I'd planned on putting you and Carnivore in town together, but I guess you'll be sticking around the fairgrounds for a while. I hope you don't mind?))

Katarina, looked down at the small woman in white; she recognized her from the posters. While she'd never been to the shows herself, she'd heard of her harrowing aptitude for discipline and most importantly she'd heard rumor of her devilishly daft fingers.
"I..." She began, taking a moment to choose her vocabulary very carefully. "It was ax-ee-dent...I was take horse to stable, and I hit man with knee. I try help, and I get stick on wagons..." Her syntax seemed more deplorable than usual, as she focused her powers of speech more on choosing her words than how she conjugated them. The trembling in her legs had stopped, only visibly so as she steeled her nerves and stood as respectfully as she could given the circumstances.

 

[erraticemphatic]

"So what do you want for it? The key, that is. Before you answer, you should know I barter in favors, rather than cash. Hard times and all that; but I'm not unreasonable."

Erimosi was rather bewildered, having been stopped suddenly in her getaway and unknowingly entangled in a grander debacle over that key than she was aware. His knowledge of the key itself was startling, a confrontation she could not have prepared so quickly for. This was an opportunity, but she wasn't at all sure that she wanted to part with the key before seeing what it was worth to its holder, and she was too flustered to think things entirely through. Still slightly panicked about not having entirely left the scene yet, she reflexively blurted, "Come with me. We won't talk here." Now, her fellow troublemaker would be following her to her sacred place of meditation; she would not consider this consequence until they were well on their way.

Finally having reached her haven at the end of the woods, quiet and unstirring, she returned her attention to the eccentric's request. Her shrewdness returned. "So why do you want the key?"

 

[Relent<]

Marcy followed his "broker" to the edge of the encampment, keeping a hand under his chin, with fingers over the lower part of his face to obscure his identity discreetly as they passed by the sea of onlookers. When they reached her "nest," he paused a moment to look over his shoulder and note any suspicious movements or glances. Seeing none, he turned to Erimosi and was promptly questioned.
"So, why do you want he key?"

He was taken a bit aback, and with a little laugh replied, "You're a terrible salesperson. Why would I tell you what the key is worth? What do you want for it? And might I suggest you be quick with your answer? Time is not in your favor."

He approached her a bit more closely, seeing no hostility in her immediate demeanor.
"I picked up a few pieces of choice conversation before I found you. The giantess you made a point of tormenting is being questioned by the management. She'll tell what you did, have you made out as a menace to our business--and a dangerous one at that--and it won't be long after that before authorities are involved, scouring the grounds for a woman with tattered clothes and long ears. Savvy?"
He paused, reclining somewhat in his posture. "I can make you an offer; that key for some fresh garments, and a trip into town with a place to stay for the night. I'll see to it that you get out of sight without being seen, and arrange for you to be returned to your belongings once the scent has been thrown thoroughly from your trail. Fair enough?"

 

[erraticemphatic]

Erimosi took a pause to consider all this information, which had been purposely dealt quickly. She was not fearless, but she took great pains not to let it show.

"The giantess isn't a threat. I don't think she can speak well enough to pinpoint me, and she likely wouldn't be believed if she could. But, even if they were to search for me, what makes you think I couldn't secure all that myself? You think you're the only practiced mischief-maker on the grounds? If push comes to shove, I can leave this place behind entirely; circus life was only a thought, easily a passing fancy. I have little to lose, and I don't sense that parting with this key is going to put me far ahead, whatever you have to offer--unless you can offer better than that."

She was exaggerating some on how little the circus meant to her and how sure she was that she wasn't in danger (though, as a well practiced liar, she believed herself for the time being).

((I'm not trying to direct the actual outcome of the Katarina-management situation; that is entirely left to the players involved. This is just Erimosi's prediction.))