Convictions [Transnistria/public]

"Just fill out this form and you'll be golden." The carnival hand said, then, with a snicker and an obvious shot at the man's general dreary look, "or, i guess, silver."

Cosim just clenched and unclenched his free hand. He had killed enough people that day. Well, the ratio of how much of a day had past and how many people had died by his hand was getting ridiculous.

Earlier that morning, he had strangled the guard of his chain gang. He wasn't sure of what came over him except for the burning desire to escape from what he saw as unjust imprisonment, but he had pulled apart the chains that held his hands and feet together. He left the other prisoners there stranded (because they were the real criminals) and stole the guard's car. Wherever he stopped, he got flack for the shackles that still hung around his ankles and wrists. His excuse for himself was that he couldn't pull them off, they were too thick. But on some level, he believed getting the trouble for the shackles was making up for the bad he'd done along the way. And of course, since the people that had given him trouble were going to call the police... he had to kill them too.

But what had he done, originally? He was working as a construction grunt in a large city, and had seen one of his fellow workers (who he usually respected beyond belief) get too fresh with a passing-by woman. He crushed the man's head with a steel beam. Being a large urban center, he was able to escape the whole deal relatively unchallenged. Relatively. Until someone had called the cops behind his back after seeing posters of his mugshot up everywhere. You couldn't trust people at all. He should have known. An argument would be that it was cold-blooded murder, but... he would beg to differ. He would kill to differ.

Cosim had always had a strong sense of justice over corruption (even when one had to go through corrupt lines for justice. It was a fine line which he moved for his own benefit constantly), starting in the camps when he was a child and there was nothing he could ask but why. The death of hundreds of thousands for what? It was completely unclear. he still didnt have an answer. But everything else had answers. And now he was an answer. A criminal vigilante.

But now, as he signed his name with that little pencil in his large hand on the paper that would soon become his life, he supposed he was now a carnie. After filling out some more unnecessary information (age, birthday, personal questions he didnt even bother to answer), it asked for a stage name. They had told him they needed a strongman, and he supposed he would fit that niche quite nicely. After a comment about how the hand didn't have all day, he scrawled down with difficulty in english, "Golem". Certainly not an allusion any of them would get. When he was a child, he often fancied himself like the Golem of Prague. A story, yes, but a powerful one that shaped his future. The Golem was a monster made from clay, something hideous. But he was kind, and he was just. The ultimate servant, the protector of children and the innocent. But he wasnt sure if his own self assurances would make up for what he really thought in the back of his mind.

Papers done, he walked out, still mostly in prison attire, and surveyed the carnival, setting up for the next show. Carnivals often took in convicts if they would work for free, so he wasn't worried about the appearance of his clothes. The rest of his appearance, however...

((finally got this down XD If you were wondering, this is his costume http://tinypic.com/r/ojjv2p/7 (no leotard, you are crying on the inside i know--) more of an allusion to the golem. There's a medallion inset on the golem that brings it to life and basically turns it off when its taken out, which is the medallion in the center of the cloth there B) ALLEY-OOP--))

((Some would argue that an hour is not enough time to give someone else a chance to respond. BUT I BEG TO DIFFER. :I))

No one really had to worry about appearance here. Extreme beauty and extreme strangeness (or even just downright ugliness) was what people came to these things for. No one wanted to pay to see an average Joe.

And Itakshir was just as good of a testament to that as any. How many people did you encounter covered almost entirely in tribal tattoos? And once upon a time, he'd been the only person around whose hair had gone prematurely white (or in the other man's case, gray), but it seemed he was no longer alone in that. ...He noticed all of this after one of his bears nearly ran right into the considerably taller man.

"Hut! Ash-ash, kishirekari-guru!" He shouted to the animal in his native tongue, calling it to a halt as if pulling on an invisible leash. Catching up with it, he addressed the newcomer in a disarmingly friendly tone, voice thick with his eastern Russian accent, "Sorry, man, he gets carried away. I guess we shouldn't be messing around." Laughing, he ruffled the fur on the top of the enormous animal's head.

"You're new here, yeah? I'm Itakshir," he introduced himself with one of his overly-happy smiles, as if he'd never been so delighted to meet someone in his whole life. The prisoner's wardrobe and shackles (if he even recognized them for what they were) didn't seem to concern him at all. Cosim could have been the devil in plain sight and it wouldn't have bothered the Ainu.

He wasn't quite sure what came to greet him. He had probably drunken a little too much on the drive over.

First, a bear, which was usually okay for a carnival, but to have it just run out like that... ((where was its fez and unicycle? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU_upv6wTfU lmao the first part of this--)) He knew he could fight a human, but probably not a bear.

Ah. Someone was calling for it. But it just so happened to be a pale guy covered in tattoos with white hair. Wait, what...?? And he couldnt tell what ethnicity he was, only that he had an odd russian accent (he had never been to the east). So it took him a while to respond, and fight the urge to pull his flask out of his ratty jacket. Finally he could gather his thoughts.

"Da...uh...Cosim Zahorchak..." He kept his eyes warily on the bear. Animals made him nervous. That guy's smile next to an animal like that made him nervous.

Something was seriously wrong here...

Somebody new was joining. Arash was watching, well, he wasn't just watching he was judging. He was supposed to be paying attention to what he was doing. He was curious on who this newcomer was, though. Arash was close with few people here. He was different. He had his hostile public side, and his very friendly private side. He didn't feel comfortable sharing his private side with anyone here other than his mother and brother (and his brother only got the worst of this side).

He didn't like this guy already. Arash was threatened by him. Arash hated people who were bigger and stronger than him-... which ended up being quite a few people. Arash's smaller height and weight did nothing to make him imposing. This guy must have been the new strongman? They needed one, and the guy looked like he could do the job.

Arash still watched, even when that weird white haired man with his bear spoke to the new guy. Arash didn't like the weird white haired guy- he was so... weird. A lot of these people were really weird. They were dangerous too, they actually killed people. They were corrupt. Arash never killed anyone- he just tried to...once.

...Unfortunately, his hypocritical internal monologue was interrupted by a sharp burn near his eye. That was what he got for being distracted while playing with fire. Arash's eyebrow was on fire. Again. He patted it down with his hand, frantically looking for some water. There was some near the new guy- so Arash charged towards that, mumbling a variety of swears while doing so. He threw his head in, and when his head emerged one of his rapidly shrinking eyebrows was already almost gone. Both of his eyebrows were near to being all gone. His recently burnt eyebrow had about 1/4 of it left, and the other seemed to be in the recovery stage, it was mostly gone, though it had a chunk and then some growing buds of hair. There were large bald spots on his head, where hair had burnt off. The rest of his face and his body was splashed with temporary burns, as well.

Arash obviously had not completely mastered his talent.

He stuck out a calloused hand out towards the man. He deserved more attention than the strange white haired man.

"Arash." the shorter man stated. There was no longer an 'Amirpour' connected to that name. It was just Arash now.

((INTRUDING, BABBY SAYS I CAN.))

((LMAO that whole video-- XDDD))

The second he picked up on that single 'da', he became even more delighted. He still hadn't learned that Russia was not the sole country on earth to utilize the word.

"Whoa, no shit, another Russian? That makes two of us! --Well, actually, I'm Ainu, but technically I'm not," he addressed him in Russian, while laughing heartily at his own nonsense-spewing, as if he were not actually talking about years of cultural genocide. Not that he expected or wanted his new bro (What? Of course they were bros now.) to pick up on this; opening up a conversation with depressing bits of his past was not his style at all.

He might have asked what part of Russia the other man was from (for he certainly was curious), but he'd learned by now that it was not considered good tact here to ask such questions. Some people liked to remain anonymous, which he couldn't say he understood. It wasn't like there was any racial discrimination that he could see in such a motley crew, so why the need for secrets? He told everyone that he was Ainu, and no one seemed to care thus far. The level of tolerance was amazing, he thought.

Even if he'd wanted to ask, though, he would have been interrupted by the fire-guy running past to put out his face. Itakshir kept right on grinning, totally unaware of what the Iranian thought of him. Here, everyone was automatically his friend. Whether they wanted to be or not.

And suddenly this Man who looked half like a hairless cat walked into the... Conversation...? He knew carnivals were odd... But... This much? was that guy just on fire?

He stuck out his hand, and Cosim shook it, still confused. "Zahorchak." he wanted to ask so badly how and why he was on fire, but... All in good time.

In contrast, Cosim was Russian, bu he wasnt... And he didn't have any problem saying he was. "Yes, Russian." He was glad to speak his own language... Well... One of them.

Not sure what to say but knowing full well that he didn't want to be around that bear, he asked, "So, can you both show me around...? I'm new to this whole... Thing..." he wanted to know if they had more alcohol and if it was free. Definitely, that first. He looked back and saw some painted banners of each one of them, much more dramatic than these people actually were in person. Would he get one?

"I will show you around-" Arash stated, in Russian, upon finding out that this man was a Russian speaker. When Arash was exiled, he chose to head North to get to Europe, that was safest and easiest. He had spent some time in Russia, more time than he had in America. Though shaky, he grasped Russian better than English. It still did not at all compare to his proficiency in his natural language.

He glanced at the white haired man. Arash had no faith in the man's ability, well- his intelligence and ability to show people around. Arash was not a long time member to the carnival, he came a little more than a month ago. Arash was about to say something to exclude the white haired man.

One more glance at the New guy, and Arash realized it would be stupid for anyone to want to be alone with the guy. Itakshir could fight bears, he was good protection. This new guy was large, scary, and worst of all, a criminal. Arash was a very moralistic person- or at least he claimed to be, his fellow carnies that knew him when he was engulfed in his opium smoke (and when he engulfed them in it too) knew a different Arash.

"Itakshir, put away your bear-, then we will show Zahorchak all that is here." Arash was in no way the boss of anyone here, but he was bosy. He thought he could boss them around.

Itakshir was more than used to being bossed around. And he took it quite well, all things considered. Whistling with his thumb and forefinger, he shooed his bear off, encouraging it in Ainu-itak until he could see it securely in it's cage. "Apa-shi!" He called out, and the animal closed the door by itself. He trained his bears well. Some people felt that they were smarter than the trainer...and not without reason.

"You gotta see the girls," he suggested, one of the corners of his mouth tugging up into a more smirk-ish smile, "We have a few hotties around here..." He didn't dare mention Arash's mother. Even he knew not to cross that line. (Besides, there was something very off-putting knowing that she'd given birth to a guy that was already grown-up.)

In retrospect, it was probably right for Arash to doubt the Ainu's ability to properly show the new guy around. No doubt his version of the tour would mainly involve women. Sex, drugs, and alcohol. What a lovely trio of addicts these three non-Russian Russian speakers were.

The bear was gone-- and it had taken no effort to get him away. He stared after it as it closed the door on its own cage. Whatever language that guy spoke, but it must have been magic or something.

His Russian seemed to be magic, too. Although it seemed the burned up darker guy would be better to show him around... Itakshir had said something about girls. Turning back to Arash, he said, "Can we see the girl's first?" If girls, and alcohol had been mentioned... He probably would have lost his mind. One at a time. (And of course, one of the girls here would turn out to be his not-sister-but-like-a-sister Güzäl... But she probably didn't fit into the 'hotties' category.) besides, what else did he really need to know about this place? It wasn't like he was in charge.

Before Arash even had a chance to reply, he interjected with a loud and joyful, "'Course we can!"

Where to even begin? Well, in truth, a lot of the girls here were pretty average. But everyone's tastes were different, and one man's trash was another man's Venus. Itakshir appreciated them all, so long as they weren't outright hideous.

A lot of the girls weren't in the central area now, so he decided to start with the ones that were. Pointing into the lower benches in the stands, he indicated a Mexican girl, polishing her gun in a way that suggested she was about to use it on someone. "The Gunslinger. Nice body; not too much, not too little. I'd introduce you, but she's mean, really mean," then he laughed, "Unless you're into that sort of thing."

Then to a Romani who seemed to be occupied with entertaining the small groups of people who'd shown up way early, "That's a new girl, so I don't know much about her. Looks pretty good, though. She's with the customers now; we'll get in trouble if we bother her." Some other time, maybe, he intended on getting acquainted. He could definitely appreciate storytelling.

And then, nudging the taller man's elbow, he pointed out the dancer not too far away, "That's Arash's mamochka." It was not an introduction, it was a warning. "Don't watch too closely, or your mind goes all hazy." Another warning. The middle-eastern woman was practicing for the show, and though a simple warm-up wasn't enough to put one into a full-on trance, it definitely could potentially fog up the brain.

She spun around and stopped, suddenly noticing the three, and broke into a warm smile. Skipping over to greet them, she said to Arash in rapid Farsi, "Joojeh, I didn't know we had a new person!" As if every newcomer was like long-lost family. Accordingly, she hugged the veritable giant around the middle (she would have kissed his cheeks, too, if she could reach), and stepped back to introduce herself in heavily accented English, "Salaam~! So wonderful to meet you, I'm Shahnaz." Going to put her hands around Arash's shoulders, she added lovingly, "Arash is my son."

Arash did not feel so comfortable about the tour of women as the other two probably felt. Of course, knowing Itakshir, there was no way of really avoiding the tour. He went along, figuring he would just be quiet and show what was really important, later. He was waiting for that moment when he would have to inform him that his mother was completely off limits to anyone.

And that moment came when they reached Arash's mother. "Don't touch her." Arash snapped, before Shahnaz came over and smothered her love on the crowd. There was a frown creased on his face, that was his default expression, but he had to seem friendly when his mother was there, so his face broke off into some uncomfortable smile. He kissed the cheek of his mother when she arrived.

The two were very close. Too close, it was a little awkward for others. Given her young age, and Arash's behavior it was a little weird.

"Maman- I think this is the new strongman. His name is Zahorchak-" Arash stated in Farsi. Hopefully his maman would have noticed that one of his eyebrows shrunk. Then she could throw more love on him.

He turned to Cosim, now.

"My mother" he made that word clear. Arash was not blind. He knew how other men looked at his mother. He knew just as well as anyone else, that his mother was beautiful. He wouldn't be able to beat the guy up if he tried anything, but Arash sure as hell would try. "is our dancer, you have been watching her. She is the best we have, you agree." None of that was phrased as a question. She was the best dancer in the world.

The Mexican girl may as well have been a man, the next one was roma (out of the question always) and he wouldn't ever go near someone's mother. It wasn't even that it seemed wrong, he just... Didn't like mothers.

Which was why he looked so confused and disturbed when she cameover and hugged him like you could just give those away. "Uh..." He was sure he didn't understand half of what she had said. This couldn't be how mothers really acted. Nope. She was just really odd.

"Nice to... Meet you...?" he muttered as if he couldn't breathe.

"Oh, he looks shy," she said quietly to her son in Farsi. ...In retrospect, there was no need to whisper, since he didn't understand, anyways.

"Don't worry, darling, we're your new family now," she reassured him, patting the side of his arm kindly, with a smile that made it seem like she was talking to baby Jesus, "Everyone here is going to love you!" The poor woman was terribly misguided. She was under the impression that everyone here was completely in love with everyone else.

Thankfully for Cosim, her attention was diverted as she finally noticed her son's fresh injuries. "Azizam, you burned yourself again!" She kissed it for him (as if that would magically heal it) and went on worrying over it in Farsi, asking if he needed first aid and whatnot.

Itakshir couldn't hold back a snicker. Shahnaz was the entire circus's mother, whether Arash wanted to her to be or not. Turning to Cosim, he muttered in Russian, "This is normal, for them." 'For them', he said, because he didn't know if it was normal for mothers in general. He never had one. Then, raising his voice, he addressed Arash, "I think the rest are outside, yeah? Let's go meet them?"

Yon Hee was outside, taking a break from her prediction-telling. She was feeling sick and was stumbling around. However, there were no other shamans to help cure it. But she had heard about a new guy joining them, so she stood up straight and took several deep breathes.

(Why I write so short? :I )

Arash snapped a quick glare over to Cosim, while his mother was greeting him. The greeting he gave towards Shahnaz was not satisfactory. Arash could not glare for long, though. Shahnaz diverted her attention away from the new man, and finally onto Arash's injury.

Then again, thankfully for Cosim, Arash's bitter glare turned away. He smiled when she kissed his burn. That may not have been any burn first aid- but Arash believed that her love could make all of his injuries better. He knew her love could make everything better. Well- to some extent. Her love was what carried her over here. Arash was still guilty about that.

"Na, na, I- It's normal, maman- it'll be gone in a week or so. I have some mediciene for it in my suitcase- I'll put that on in a bit. It's alright." he smiled, then going on further to reassure her. He got these kinds of burns all the time, it was fine. His eyebrow would take a while to grow back- but that was okay, he was always missing parts of his eyebrows. Hugging her tightly with an arm, he kissed the top of her head, for further reassurance.

"I think the rest are outside, yeah? Let's go meet them?"

Arash took his time to respond to Itakshir. His mother was more important, well- a lot of things were more important than acknowledging Itakshir. After a minute or so- he turned away from his endearing and private conversation with his mother.

"...Sure..." he responded back in Russian, letting go of Shahnaz, before quickly asking her if she would join.

That was definitely not how a mother and son should act. Definitely not. But before he could dwell on it more, he was led around somewhere else. He saw some Asian girl-- he only considered her worth to him, which, he decided, was not much. He wasn't much for Asian women. They usually weren't adequate enough in some places. He nodded to her, that was all.

He was seeing dogs everywhere-- was Güzäl here? He didn't really want to know... Things had been distant between the two since she had independence and he didn't.

"Not seeing your promise of women pan out, I'm sorry to say," He laughed to Itakshir, finally starting to feel at ease. He was just glad he wasn't in jail anymore.

After being convinced that Arash would be okay, his mother politely declined the offer on the grounds that she needed to warm up for the show. But really, she felt that it would be good for her son to spend time with boys his age for once. Kissing his forehead once again and waving goodbye to the other two, she returned to the stage to practice.

Itakshir led them on, giving a friendly wave to the Korean girl (any non-Japanese Asian was fine with him), "Yon Hee, the fortune-teller." He secretly did not ever want his fortune told; he was still quite superstitious, and felt like he'd rather not know what the future held in store.

As the dogs began to swarm around them, he laughed good-naturedly and replied, "It's all about personal taste, man. We should check out Mistique sometime, too; I heard they have some beauties there." To Arash, he asked (feeling that the Iranian might know, since he was smarter than the Ainu), "They're in town, too, right? We should all go, undercover. It'll be like a secret mission."

In the meantime, though, he picked up one of the dogs and grinned, "I bet that one chick is nearby. She's pretty cool. Not bad-looking." But she sometimes dressed like a guy, which was definitely not his thing.

Arash really would much rather spend time with his mother, than with the other boys here. He didn't like them much, yet. He didn't like the fact that she had to practice instead of be with him- but with a slight frown, he just took that result and left with the other boys.

The dogs were swarming, and Arash recoiled slightly. He did not like dogs very much. Especially these dogs, they were dirty. Arash didn't mind the woman who had the dogs- but he hated her dogs.

"You should look beyond just the outer beauty of a woman-" Arash muttered, half-heartedly. It was pretty obvious by the way he said it that he didn't believe that. He said moralistic and hypocritical things like that sometime. Others should follow it. There were plenty of modest, and perfect ugly women, but Arash knew he did not want an ugly wife.

Why was Itakshir even asking Arash about the women in Mistique? Arash gave the man a questionable expression. "I've never seen any of their women..." He paused, the suggestion of spying on them was a good one... Surprising for Itakshir. Arash always assumed he was just mentally retarded. "Not just for their women. They're our rival."

He listened to the two's conversation. Wasn't mystique just full of freaks and their slavedrivers? He had been there once, he had snuck in with Güzäl. Freaks was all he saw. Sad, really. He didn't really plan on going back, but would go if they asked him to. And how could these people with talent be rivals to people who were just hideous? Or so he thought.

"Yeah, I know her." He replied. "I used to live with her. She's like a sister to me." Itakshir should have been glad he'd said she was only 'not bad looking'.

And sure enough the girl appeared, overalls pulled up to theknees over an oversized white shirt. She had two smaller dogs, one under each arm. The both of them were wet, and water had splashed onto the denim of her pants. "So I heard there was a..." Her eyes fell onto Cosim, and she put the dogs back on the ground. "New guy..."

"...Güzäl..."

"Cosim..."

A smile grew on his face, something he didn't expect. "We should go drinking sometime. Catch up."

"Yeah."

And that was all of their exchange, for now. It was too complicated to throw out all at once, but they would get there.

She turned to Itakshir. "Showing him the women?" she outlined her own chest exaggerratedly. "he'll ignore you if they don't got any... How is it... Memeler." She gave the three a raucous laugh.

The Ainu snorted and chuckled at the Iranian's holier-than-thou suggestion (not that it bothered him, but he did find it amusing), "That's only if you're looking for a serious relationship, yeah?" Definitely not his thing. He'd be happy to go his whole life without ever getting married or even having a real girlfriend. "But even then, who wants to be with an ugly chick?" He suspected by Arash's tone that even he did not really believe what he was saying. What a funny guy. Itakshir liked him.

Watching the reunion, he couldn't help but grin in surprise. What a small world it was. To Güzäl's advice, he laughed just as loudly, "So that's his thing, huh? Now I see--huh..." He thought for a moment, "Do we have any women like that here?" He didn't think so. There was one lady who was pretty well-endowed, he recalled, but she, like Shahnaz, was more of a mother-figure.

He shrugged, "Mistique it is!" Either way, now that he had the idea in his head, he wanted to go. It was a break in their routine, and seemed like fun. Dangerous fun. Like fighting bears.

"Right after our show, we should go. Theirs might still be going on...yeah... We could collect 'intelligence' on them and all that." He laughed again, but it was pretty surprising that he even knew what 'intelligence' meant.

Itakshir may have been simple, but everything he was saying made complete sense. He was beginning to like these two shorter people.

But he suspected 'intelligence' meant just fucking shit up, in which case, he was fine with that. "I'm pretty good at that, intelligence." He laughed. But it wasn't like you could sneak someone who looked like him into anywhere.

"The woman I would want would have to be a good wife." Arash snapped, his tone was defensive. This man was denying the idealogy that Arash was supposed to believe in. Arash really did look for women as people to settle with- even then, he wouldn't want a serious relationship without his mother's permission. "A good wife needs to be able to treat her husband well, and raise a family well- it doesn't matter if she's ugly!" Arash was very defensive. Maybe, he only defended this because he knew that he was not very attractive. Itakshir was weird and kind of stupid, but he could probably get a woman fairly easy.

"..." he was broken off from what would be a rant by the meeting between Cosim and the girl with the dogs. Then after they were done, she spoke about breasts. Arash had to turn away, especially when she gestured to her own breasts. He looked very obviously flustered. Was she trying to make them think about her breasts?! Arash wasn't supposed to think about breasts- even if the thought slipped in a few times.

"Er- I- I hear Mistique's shows last for hours. They're big- and have more people then us." Arash stated. It's not like he wouldn't know that if he didn't read one of their fliers. However, he liked to seem like an expert on everything. Even about things he didn't know. Like this. "But they're very expensive..." He glanced at the taller man. "You will steal tickets from someone."

The Muslim guy was blabbering on again. Who really wanted a wife, anyways? Probably not even him.

"It does matter if she's ugly." Guzal interjected. "You wanna wake up every morning to an ugly face? Oh wait-- you do, unless you don't have a mirror. Which is understandable too."

They were talking about Mystique? Maybe she shouldn't mention it... but if they were going there to sabotage, then it would be better to have her brother turn into a tornado of rage over one simple piece of info. "Dimitrie is in Mystique."

The scowl on Cosim's face could not have gone deeper. He felt like he wanted to strangle something. But, he tried to keep calm, but his fist was about one inch away from Arash's face and he had no control over his reflexes when he was angry. "Well. Then we should go then." He said through clenched teeth, then, ominously, "We don't need tickets."

((/late, sorry XD))

Itakshir just shrugged and smiled at the wife issue. It wasn't something for him to judge on, since he avoided matrimony like the plague. Besides, there was a far more interesting topic at hand here.

It seemed like the Iranian was the expert on the matter--whether or not it was good that Itakshir took the man's show of apparent knowledge at face value was up for question. This was starting to get even better and better.

"Yeaaaah, who needs tickets? We'll just sneak in or something." He was totally oblivious to the sudden tension radiating off of Cosim--he didn't know who this 'Dimitrie' fellow was, so it seemed inconsequential to him. He just wanted to see if these women were really so beautiful as they said. "We'll probably need to dress to blend in, though," he noted, gesturing at all of their outfits with a laugh. They'd stick out like sore thumbs, the way they were now.

((Should we start a new topic for this? XD))

((Probably XD but FFFF when you wrote "dress the part", I thought of this, but replace "fat" with "tall" XD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGWbt3DSje0 ))