Balloons in the Air

Kiljong stared out at the tent, holding the bars of the cages. As usual, her bandages were off and the people gawked at her half-rotting face. She couldn't care about them less. No, because beyond the crowds, were colorful and wonderful balloons. And they were floating around, in children's hands and drifting off to space.

She reached out her hand, in a desperate attempt to magically grab onto one of them. Her hand suddenly felt a sharp pain. She glanced around and saw a few people that moved back. As soon as they moved on, she only stared at the balloons. She couldn't focus on anything else. She could barely remember the day she was left here, but she knew she saw balloons and was holding one when they left.

She tries to reach out to them again, stretching out her arm as far as possible.

(Holy derp. :I I'm so lame...)

((No you're not c;))

People gasped in horror when the girl with the rotting face extended her hand from her cage, many thought that she would try to snatch at them. Not that Eleri could blame them, the girl was mildly unsettling having never spoken a word to any of the fellow freaks. At first the young fish girl thought it to be a simple case of language barrier that most of the circuses residents faced. But then she realized it was lack of response on the girl parts after having watched a incident with a mouse and the rotting girl's foot. Which was even more unsettling. Still Eleri made an attempt to understand her, in a very sad way and under different circumstances Eleri could possibly admire the girl's lack of complaining.

Inspecting the girls line of eye sight she noticed that she may have been reaching for a balloon that festered this hellhole. She decided to test this theory when one happened to wander in to her range and she could pull it for the sky while standing on the edge of her tank. Then after jumping down from the ledge she picked up a small stone to weight the balloon with and set it with much difficulty (can't walk right now can she?) next to the girl's cage before a stage hand yelled at her to get back in her tank.

(Thanks. ;v; )

Her hand opened and closed, longing to see the balloon in her hands. She only drew her hand back when she could hear the crowd's gasps. She didn't understand why they reacted like that. She only wanted the balloon. She tried again, only to get more sharp pains on her hand. Again she looked around for the source of the pain. She eventually saw a man with a stick, glaring at her and her rotten hand.

Shw withdraw her hand completely and simply stared at the balloons when something caught her eye. she moved her head to right (since she couldn't see out of her right eye) and crawled towards the balloon just outside her cage. She reached her hand out to it, it was closer than the others. The stagehand hit her hand once again. "Stop that! You're scaring the crowd away!"

The stagehand then noticed the balloon next to her cage and grabbed it. "What is this? How did that get here?" He jabbed it with the stick and the balloon burst. Kiljong simply stared at him and then faced the crowd again.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Eleri still hadn't made it back into her own little fish bowl wanting to see the girl's reaction. But now she was just immensely pissed off, the girl in the fish tail lunged for the stick and quickly took it off him. There was no excuse for hitting an innocent, it reminded her of horror stories back home of Welsh nots and bel's tear-streaked face and lashed hands. She smacked the stick in to the stagehands side “How do you like it you little bugger?” Immediately the stagehand tried to retaliate but got a quick tap to the head. “Do you honestly think people enjoy that?!”

The stagehand screamed back “But you're not people!” and Eleri's blood began to feel like a volanco's and she found herself kneeling next to the fallen man and whispering in his face with another trademark sinister grin “You're right lad....I'm your worst nightmare, that will haunt you even on your imagined wedding night.” A puddle of fluid came off the man's crotch and she wrinkled her nose in disgust. Eleri barked orders at him to get up and get the girl another balloon before she really got angry. And he complied, but just as he left Eleri let out a sigh of relief that none of his buddies had been around, otherwise she would be in big trouble. The crowd had left at her first proclamation and she knew that she would get a visit and a punishment from management soon.

Still it was Eleri's right to fight back, in whatever way she deemed fit, because deep within the back of her mind she knew that most of these freaks didn't even know what a contract was much less how to sign one. It wasn't leverage, because no sympathy would ever be invested in their cause but justification to bite a hand that fed her poison. Still she was sometimes scared of the recoil of said hand, but under no circumstances would she admit that to anyone. Turning to the girl in the cage she offered an apology on the man's behalf. "I'm sorry about that dear, the man will come back with a new balloon soon though."

She jumped as soon as she heard the screams of the fish-lady. she didn't understand why the lady was shouting like that and what she was shouting about. She moved closer to the scene, even though she flinched at every shout. She stared at the scene, then the stagehand yelled something else. It seemed to made the lady angry and she did something to make the man go pee pee in his pant. She giggled at the very sight. Men don't do that.

The man eventually ran away, leaving the scary lady and her. She looked around. She didn't see anyone else. When she turned back, the lady was talking to her in a strange language. She tilted her head and extended her hand towards her. She didn't know what was being said, but the scary lady was nice to her, She petted her face, she could be nice too.

(OTL I feel horrible for treating them badly.)

((don't worry about it just sets the tone for Mistique C: ))

This girl was.........cute in a horrifyingly creepy sort of way, like a teddy bear trying to strangle you. Eleri smiled a little bit uncertain as to what to do, she allowed for the girl to keep petting her till the man came back with another balloon. She then broke contact with the girl by slowly easing her hand down and proceeding to snatch the balloons away from the terrified man. Playfully she lunged at the man in hopes that he would flinch and he did, beautifully, before he tripped on his own feet while trying to run away.

However Eleri did not laugh, this man was pathetic, she chose to ignore him instead to pick up another small stone and tie it to the end of the balloon chord. She slid the balloon into the girl's cage allowing the rock to work properly so the girl could play with it without worrying about it flying away. The young fish girl reached yet again in to the cage and patted the girl's head as a small gesture of comfort.

Kiljong petted her face until the lady moved away and jumped at the man. She tilted her head again. Why did she do that? The man ran away and the scary nice lady gave her the balloon with a rock on the other end. She bounced the rock up and down, amazed to see that the balloon moved with it.

She felt a hand on her head. She relaxed slightly and petted her hand. She then looked at the colorful balloon again. Oh yeah, the fish-lady got it for her. She searched around for something she could give back to her. She dug under the smelly hay in that one spot and found what she was looking for.

She moved back to the lady and held out a small scrap of a blanket. She wanted to thank her, but she didn't speak what she spoke. So she gave her her baby blanket.

Freaks did not have many personal possessions, it was a fact really everything they could carry with them was a keepsake which is why she didn't accept the girl's rag. It occurred to Eleri that it likely wasn't a rag but a piece of cloth that once belonged to something of greater importance. She closed the girl's hand back around the blanket as a gesture that she would not accept it. She instead smiled again, to comfort the girl, “Keep it.” Eleri doubted the words would have any affect on the girl, since they spoke completely different languages but that is what all that mattered to her. It was almost closing time and soon they would be separated.

Kiljong pushed the scrap back to the fish-lady. She wanted her to have it. She had the balloon after all. She needed to give something to the lady as a present. And hay isn't a good present. And she may never see her for a while. So a good time was now. Then she looked around, was iy time to close already? She patted the fish-lady again and smiled at her.

((WHY IS THIS SO SHORT. OTL KILL ME.)

Eleri was forced to accept the scrap of blanket but something about doing so didn't feel right to her. The end's were frayed and a grunge had set in to the coloring, maybe she could fix it? Her tank had enough chemicals in it where a few dips would have it clean and no time. And if she stowed away in to the costumiers room one evening perhaps she could make a quilt from the fabric and re-gift it to the girl. She had no use for it regardless, because her body adjusted to whatever temperature was in her tank. She didn't stay on land for maybe but a few hours at a time when her skin became to coarse to stay any longer and the fish girl would go insane. So she tucked the blanket away in the hole in the hem of her robes and bowed to the girl as a universal sign of gratitude before the more stagehands descended to take her away.

((If you're having trouble posting just relax and don't worry about it ))