Private/Closed Murder in the Circus?!? ((FINISHED))

[Merciless Medic]

Relaxing a bit, but still feeling horrible for the poor man, he patted him on the shoulder and quietly and solemnly said: "Maybe you deserve to have several drinks now. But may I see this letter and knife? Or would it be too personal for me to see it?"

Wondering if the ringleader had always knew how nosy Salazar got, he had also wondered how Ben thought of him for all these years he'd been working under him. He absorbed in as much information he could like a sponge. Tyler, one of the girls Chad had affiliated with, or someone working to bring Ben to his knees. If the latter was true, he should be protected. He knew that he had Pokemon, but he didn't know if they were going to escape from their Poke Balls if something bad happens, or if he'll even have them out in the first place.

Worried for his own boss's safety, Salazar took out the contacts that were bothering him to give the man some time before he said something again, and he put his contacts in a little container he had in his pocket. He then suggested: "Maybe you should also keep a Pokemon out while your drinking away your sorrow. To protect you if someone definitely does have some vendetta against you. I would hate to see another member of this circus get hurt, especially if it's someone who had taken care of all of us for years and had been our mentor and sometimes acted as a fatherly figure."

He then remembered the first day Ben had started to drink. Was it just sudden alcoholism, were the performances not enough for the money, or was it from the threat and something else? He didn't know, but he didn't want to pry for anymore information. The man looked to be at his breaking point, and he wanted to leave him alone, as soon as possible. He then asked before he left: "Someone would be calling the police soon, if not then. If nobody has, should I call them myself? I'll need to get access to a phone, and I don't have an idea of where it is."

 

[FrouFrou]

Ben harrumphed at the idea that the police ought to be involved. As far as he was concerned, the only people who ought to be getting any revenge for his nephew were those in the circus - especially if it was someone in their ranks who had done the deed. And besides, he knew the law well enough to know he wasn't exactly on the right side of it. If the police were to become involved with Ben's affairs, then the whole place risked being shut down. And that wasn't even taking into account certain things that might get Ben accused of killing his nephew, by those who didn't know him well.

...On the other hand, if the killer was someone from outside of the circus - perhaps from another circus, or some fucked-up audience member - then there was no way the circus staff could find the culprit on their own.

With a flourish, he let out two of his Pokemon, to protect him for the walk back to his cabin: a Luxray and an Arcanine, both fluffy and greying. The third was a younger Pokemon, but its presence would likely have panicked the Ponyta all over again, and Ben really didn't need that in his life right now. "Fine, call them. But you're not to tell them about the knife, and you're not to let them think someone in my company did anything... Knife's in the top drawer of my office's desk, if you want to look."

And he ambled off, in search of a good, long, drink.

 

[Merciless Medic]

Salazar nodded politely as he walked to Ben's caravan, slinking inside and looked for the drawer. The space was quite cramped and there was hardly any place to move. There were empty beer bottles strewn everywhere. There were a couple of fixtures and furniture in the caravan that you can't tell what they were due to the age, wear and tear, and all the litter around the place. He finally found the drawer with the knife on top of it. He had to take really high steps to avoid tripping on the dirty floor filled with more beer bottles and dirty clothes. He took the knife and the note attached to the bottom and read it.

While he was reading it, Jalorda, Sevi, and the now recovered Arbo, left Salazar's personal actor room, slithering their way around the area for a good jaunt. They found Kit, obviously in search of someone or something. They slithered to her and Jalorda asked what she was doing, knowing full well that she could understand the gist of it. Because of how close these snakes were, they took comfort in wrapping around each other. Even the normally bunched up Sevi would like to be cuddled by the other snakes. Arbo and Sevi had both slightly wrapped around the Serperior, earning them a slight smirk of amusement from Jalorda.

 

[FrouFrou]

This might be why Ben did not mention a letter, yet wondered about blackmail; there was a piece of paper in the drawer, but it was blank. Who would do such a thing, and why-?

The knife, meanwhile, was no ordinary knife. It was a throwing knife, and no run-of-the-mill item at that. This one was gold, with fake jewels set into the handle. It didn't look like it was the easiest thing to grip or throw. Curiously, it had rather a lot of silver scratch marks around the tip of the blade, but on attempting to stick it back into the slash in Ben's desk, Salazar would find it went in all the way up to the hilt.

It should probably be noted that the other drawers in Ben's desk were firmly locked. If he wanted them opened, Salazar would either have to break some locks or just get the old guy really drunk.
---

Kit huffed and folded her arms, reverting to her typical meanness now she was chatting with some familiar faces. "I'm looking for that no-good loser pig bitch, Sky. Have you seen her?"

 

[Merciless Medic]

He looked in awe at the bedazzled knife. Man, was this pretty. But when he put it back in the spot in the drawer, it went all the way through. Was this a lock mechanism or something? He tried turning after he tried to get the drawers open, but they wouldn't budge. After turning the knife in the slot, he looked at the blank page. Why a blank page? Was there invisible ink on it? There were no candles around, so he'd have to go back to his place. He hated electronic lights, and wore the contacts to help shield him from the lights. He would rather use candles to light up his dreary little room. He folded up the paper and stuck it in his pocket, seeing if turning the knife did anything.

The snakes looked at each other and shook their heads. They thought they heard her over the megaphone a ways away. Like in the front of the stage. Jalorda then replied: "After the incident, Sky went outside to calm everyone down, but they were all leaving. She followed them outside, and is still trying to calm everyone down. A clown lady, forgot the name of her, had ran away from the rather large crowd, while Stan's outside. What did Sky even do wrong? She might not have done anything. You can't trust one witness. You might've heard them wrong."

Jalorda asked with a cold stare. Serperior were known for piercing people through their eyes and even causing Pokemon to become subordinates with their terrifying gaze. He wanted to know the answer, but didn't want Sky to go anywhere. They knew how impulsive she was, but she didn't want her to leave just yet. If they did, well she knew how powerful their wrapped coils were. She was having quite the upset of a day last year and got on Salazar about something trivial. All three had to coil her and throw her outside of his little abode just to keep him safe from the psycho lady. Right now, it was very evident in all three snakes' gazes that they didn't want her going anywhere yet. The wanted answers.

 

[FrouFrou]

Turning the knife didn't do anything, in part because the knife was not keen on turning in solid wood. It just seemed to have been stuck in Ben's desk, all the way up to the hilt, and presumably that's how he found it. Like... who would even do that. Why not just stick it in a little bit? Or halfway?

Kit tossed her ponytail back over her shoulder, pretending not to care about, uh, the sort of... threat she was registering here. She couldn't be sure, but it seemed like the Pokemon meant business. And Kit was not too interested in getting nearly strangled again, thanks very much. "C'mon, like... It's not just one witness. You know damn well that Sky checks that chariot right before her boyfriend goes on, every single show. You know, her boyfriend who's been cheating on her with a bunch of guys?" She took a step forwards, eyes narrowed. "I've seen the break. There's no way Sky didn't see that thing, when she was going over the chariot before the accident. It's huge."

Even if her enemy wasn't the killer, there was every chance they hadn't stopped the plan from going into motion, and to Kit that was just as bad as sawing the beam in the first place.

 

[Merciless Medic]

Bummed out that it didn't contain any other secret, he hid the knife in the inside pocket of his revealing jacket. He then walked out of the caravan. He needed to find Ben to figure a way into those drawers. A blank piece of paper, huh? Well, that can't be the only thing there. He wondered if he still had some alcohol left in his personal room.

He was walking back when he noticed all three of his snakes were engaged in conversation with Kit. When he got closer, he overheard her talking about how Sky was the one who sabotaged the chariot. He walked over and patted his snakes on the head, chuckling at how curious they were. Man, how they acted was so reminiscent of himself. He looked over at Kit, and said with a slightly upset frown: "Even if Kit did do this, there were other people Chad had angered. He angered Tyler by being the better performer, or somebody else got angry and they tried to blackmail Ben by killing Chad. Tyler could've sabotaged it after she checked. Plus, Brutus was acting funny. Not sure if he had seen anything, but I would guess so. I saw the break, too. It's enormous. But a Pokemon who can cut into things easily could've made the cut within a second. If anyone borrowed a Pokemon with really sharp claws or a sharp appendage, the chariot could be brought out after Sky was done checking it, making her oversee the 'huge' saw mark. It couldn't have been my Seviper, since she was with me during the performance and during the entire time Arbo was sick, so don't think it was my Pokemon. Also, there were strange thin lines that looked like they were burned into the fire proof coat of the chariot. How? I don't know. Something with a powerful and precise Fire-Type or a laser could've done it. I could be wrong about that, but there are other people who were angry with Chad and probably wanted him dead."

He just realized that by saying all this information, he could've been branded as the next person to get hurt or targeted. Yes, he knew too much, but he didn't know who could possibly do this. He then quietly asked her after looking about, making sure nobody overheard that: "I want you to see something. I see that you are the only one I can trust at this very moment, and I need an answer. Come to me to my room. After you answer my question, you can see Sky."

Knowing full well that Kit didn't believe him, he wanted to make sure the knife didn't belong to anyone in the circus, and was already leading the way to his room.

 

[FrouFrou]

At present, Ben was quite loudly asking Sky if she could go on a booze run for him, in front of all the Trainers attempting to leave, since there were only a few beers left in his office. How very dignified of him. Sky pretended that he wasn't at all related to her, until eventually he became much too irritating, and she decided to rat out the clown.

"Alex's working on her cocktails, you know. Why don't you go over there?"

Stan made a hell of a noise when he heard her say that, but honestly the relative peace was worth it.
-----

Kit rolled her eyes, following more out of curiosity than any real belief Salazar was onto something. After all, as far as she was concerned, he was completely wrong. "I mean, whatever... but when Sky checked that thing, it was out in front of the whole audience. The chariot had to be cut beforehand, especially with all those lines on it. Nobody could do that too fast to be seen in front of hundreds of people, not even a Pokemon."

So therefore, if Sky wasn't somehow responsible, then the whole thing was entirely impossible. To Kit, this was a problem with only one solution, and she did quite like the answer she'd arrived at. She ducked into Salazar's room, and thankfully didn't 'comment' on the curtains (read: start screeching about them). She'd learned her lesson from last time; if the guy wanted to have such awful taste, then she just had to put up with it.

 

[prince~]

Ryuji reunited with his pokemon, decided to do some investigating of his own. "Daveis, scout the area and look for anything suspicious." He commanded the Petalossum. "Petal!" He said as he floated upwards. " Alanedra and Pandora, come with me and Aquamrine and Orchid, walk through the crowd for anymore info." They all went there separate ways, but the pokemon weren't scared to be alone because Pandora could contact them at any time with sound waves. "This couldn't have been an accident, the missing parts, the dead body gone, and that beam..." He tried looking as normal as possible.

Daveis floated above the crowd. He noticed Kit and Salazar walk into the dressing room, he flew down to the window so he could hear what they were talking about. Daveis knew it had to do something with the supposed murder. Why else would they need to talk in private?

Orchid and Aquamarine casually walked through the crowd. They over heard stupid rumors until one in particular caught there eyes. A woman was supposedly saying that the man who'd been killed was one of the others boyfriend. Aquamarine then told Orchid to follow him, he had a plan.

 

[Merciless Medic]

Salazar turned to face Kit and made sure no one was looking through his abode. He then pulled out the spectacularly bedazzled dagger from his inside jacket pocket. He then gave it to Kit for her to look more closely. He then asked: "Do you know anybody who had this? This was found on Ben's drawer with a note. Ben said it was some kind of a death threat. I would ask Sky about it, but from how you were suspecting her, I wouldn't want to trust her giving me an honest answer. Would Sky even have such an impractical dagger? It looks like you can't even throw it with precision, even if anyone tried. If there is a murderer, I want to keep you alive. Mainly because Brutus said something that caused the Ponytas to flip out, and I think you are the only sensible person here besides me. What did you think he said? You are the Pokemon whisperer after all. Well, your translation skills could use some work, but they are good enough for right now. I don't expect you to get better within a day, much less an hour. I'm suspecting Sky as well, but right now, everyone and anyone could be the murderer. Tyler and Sky could be working together, and maybe have Stan as their loyal puppy dog. It could be some guy Ben had met years before I joined and have angered him somehow, and now the guy is out to get revenge. It could literally be anyone within and outside the circus."

After he was done with his rant, he could feel his snakes getting slightly uncomfortable with how they wrapped around each other. Something wasn't right. While Kit was looking and talking, he went over to one of his already burning candles and held up the seemingly blank note he had found on the drawer, as well. If it had invisible ink, then it will be amazing. If it doesn't, then somebody didn't have enough time to write, didn't know how to write, or just wanted to show how sharp that dagger was. He looked over at his Pokemon, who were looking at something through a draped window. Arbo slithered up to the window, went in between the window and the curtain, and it's fearful pattern on his cape began to glow as his Intimidate ability activated, trying to scare away the strange Pokemon he had never seen before. It looked tasty though. Reminded him of flying Pachirisus his trainer would sometimes feed him.

 

[prince~]

Daveis launches a bullet seed through the window when the Arbok surprised him. Whenever he got scared, he would go straight into defense mode. Daveis thought running away to Ryuji would make him suspicious so he just flew in and landed on the desk instead "Petal?" He asked as he turned his head.

Orchid and Aquamarine went up to the nearest performer they could find, which oddly enough was Sky. They began shouting and jumping. They tugged on her clothes Aquamarine even used a light water gun on her.

Ryuji found himself wandering about backstage. Alanedra and Pandora watched his asides and back. If there was a killer near by, they would definitely think it to be suspicious for some kid to be roaming back stage. Ryuji knew the risk and decided to take it.

 

[Merciless Medic]

Arbo got surprised as shards of glass fly around and hit Arbo's tough scales, hardly leaving a scratch. The Bullet Seed hardly affected his tough exterior and brushed it off as normal. He was about to strike, until Sevi started to hiss madly.

Seeing the intruder, the Seviper instantly lunged for it, her two red fangs glowing with a purplish aura as the Poison Fang was now activated and ready to seep its venom through the creature's body. The Seviper had lightning fast reactions, and lashed at it as soon as it landed.

Seeing the strange creature land on the desk, Salazar got surprised and heard his Seviper was about to strike. He let her attack as he backed off, not sure what the creature was going to do when attacked. Salazar was just about to hover the note over the flame for the writing to appear (or not), but he swiped it back and folded it and set it back into his pocket. Seeing his Seviper strike, he then got reminded of the symptoms when bitten by her venom. The venom that Sevi's tail and fangs excrete is a hemotoxin, which destroys the red blood cells of an individual. It causes blood to clot, organs to slowly die, and some tissue damage near the site of the bite. It's accompanied with severe amounts of pain, with permanent damage to the body (and possibly the loss of an affected limb) and sometimes death. Seeing how small this creature was, it wouldn't be long before the venom would cause the creature to die, if it ever did get hit. It seemed that the creature was from a trainer, so if it did get bitten, he'll have the antidote ready.

Seeing Sevi was striking, Jalorda and Arbo stayed at the ready.

 

[prince~]

Ryuji heard the crash. "Huh?!" He ran over and saw Daveis lying on the floor, poisoned. Alanedra saw what the Seviper had done and reacted with out thinking, she used psychic to throw it against the wall of the room. She then prepared a Shadow Ball. "ALANEDRA! STOP!" Alanedra stopped charging the Shadow Ball and started at the trainer and his pokemon. This would've surely caused a lot of attention.

Pandora went over and picked of Daveis. She the then used Heal Pulse on him so he regained his health back and her ability Healer went into play, curing him of his poison. Pandora handed Daveis over to Ryuji, he was still weak from the attack.

Ryuji inspected the area and then returned Daveis. "I'm so sorry!" He bows. He knew it was Daveis's fault, seeing that the window was most likely shattered by a bullet seed, he knows this because Daveis has done it too his house more times then you can count. "Um... I'll pay for the window!" He says.

 

[Merciless Medic]

The Seviper dodged the Psychic-Type attack, her lightning fast reaction was too quick to get hit by this psychic energy wave, and being the oldest out of the three Pokemon Salazar owned, she was the most experienced, in the show and in a battle. Salazar looked up and saw the guy, the guy who he had stole the popcorn from. Interesting. He only started ticking, and his snakes fell back behind him, Sevi looking extremely angry, as she hissed at the trainer and his Pokemon.

Salazar then said: "Leave. You don't belong backstage or in my private quarters. You can help me pay for the window later. For now, it's too dangerous for you to be wandering around here." He then menacingly stepped forward before continuing, his hazel eyes only squinting as he his raspy voice hissed out his warning: "You don't know what we are dealing with back here. I suggest you leave, take your adorable Pokemon with you, and get out of here before they get hurt again. And it won't be from my Pokemon. They were only defending their home; their territory. The person roaming around here is here for cold blood. You leave before you become next."

He didn't care if this guy was a foot taller than him. A guy like him shouldn't even be here, let alone be here with Kit and himself, when his Pokemon were obviously dangerous enough as it is. He ignored his Pokemon, who were probably growling at him at this point for threatening their trainer. Then again, he couldn't hear them.

 

[prince~]

He flashed the mega bracelet at him. "I'm pretty sure I can handle myself, but anyway, thank you for your concern." He tossed about 1000 pokedollars on the table where Daveis was sitting before the attack.
"Well... I got what I came for... cya." He walked out of the room. Pandora and Alanedra walked with him. Alanedra gave the Seviper a hard cold stare, one that almost matched his Serpiors, and then turned her head and continued following. "He was so cute! He was so small and trying to act all tough!" Ryuji said to himself as he walked away, he was clearly smirking, about to break out into laughter.

Pandora was worried, she knew that Salazar was too, but about what? Her ability to read feelings has been enhanced since she took after a child for so long. Pandora looked at her mega necklace, wondering if she was really ready.

Alanedra was pissed. Words couldn't describe how angry she was. "That idiotic brainless snake! I'm gonna tear his head off!" She said that over and over in her mind. She is REALLY overprotective of the pokemon so when they get hurt she goes bat shit crazy.

 

[Merciless Medic]

Salazar humphed at the gift, and wasn't impressed with the Mega Bracelet, and clicked for Arbo to follow them out. He knew better than to have Sevi follow them out, as she was still hissing madly and staring down Alenadra before she left. Arbo slithered out and watched from behind a curtain to see if they'll leave the backstage area, quietly hissing to himself.

Salazar then looked at Kit, his demeanor completely changing to someone just having been done with a chore. He then said: "Anyway, what about the dagger and about what Brutus had been saying?"

 

[prince~]

Ryuji left the backstage area. Knowing full well that his 3 fairy types don't stand a chance against 2 poison types. He yawned and sent out Daveis. "So whaddya find?" He asked as they walked. He was completely fine with them doing it in the open, as Daveis would tell Pandora and Pandora would tell Ryuji via aura reading.

Daveis told Pandora they had been talking about some kind of dagger, some people who seem to be in the circus, and a... blank sheet of paper? Daveis didn't quite understand that part. Neither did Pandora nor Ryuji.

After Pandora told Ryuji, Pandora could read Ryuji's feelings, she got a strong sense of mischief. Pandora warned Ryuji that it wasn't a good idea, whatever he was planning. But it was too late... the gears in his head had been turned on.

 

[FrouFrou]

Kit seemed to have taken the whole... thing... relatively well; she just sort of leaned against a wall and wished for once she'd brought her other Pokemon with her. This was presumably what Salazar meant when he said he couldn't trust anyone else: random Pokemon barging in and maybe trying to kill them or something. First disappearing bodies and now broken windows; this situation was just so chaotic.

She'd certainly never seen a random trainer come running into Salazar's room before - usually Kit was the one who did that, and paid the price. She figured he was the one she'd sent Honey to find, though, since the Cutiefly came flying in after his entrance. Almost felt sorry for the guy; he'd just found his Pokemon (presumably) and was instantly in trouble again!

When the commotion calmed again, Kit sighed, knowing what she said would likely implicate her. She didn't particularly care for Salazar's opinions, though. "That's mine. It's from some dumb kiddy contest I won, years ago - but I haven't seen this little fucker in years. I-I thought..."

An echo of an old memory, buried deep in her mind. Kit shuddered. "So what, Ben fucking had it the whole time? I could strangle him..." She turned her beloved knife over, and tried not to look too happy about having it back, instead scowling at the scratch marks on the pointy end of the blade. "Did you do something to this? Looks like someone's been trying to sharpen it or something. Only they did a really shitty job and like, ruined it."

The piece of paper didn't have invisible ink, but you could see the impression of writing in the candlelight. Not that there were any actual words, just a bunch of seemingly random lines and squiggles; but hey, it was something. This sort of impression could have been made by writing on top of the piece of paper with another piece, or this might just be rubbed out stuff.

If you were to take the marks and make a hilariously shitty MS Paint image out of them because you could not be bothered using your tablet to make something nice, you would arrive at something like this:

Apparently the murder had something to do with footballs.
---
Tyler was currently taking a long walk of shame around the back of the circus with Brutus, who seemed utterly mortified. To both of them, Kit was scary and embarrassing.

"...I totally had that in the bag. Right?"

Brutus just huffed to himself, bad-tempered but at least somewhat calmer. Unfortunately for Tyler, that meant he was starting to think... and starting to want to go off and do his own thing, when the acrobat really just wanted him to get in the stables and stay there. Brutus sidestepped away from Tyler a few times, seeing how far he could push things before he'd be yanked back in line.

The rest of the suspects (?) hadn't moved, though. Sky and Stan were still out the front of the tent and trying to control the crowds, while Ben and Alex were... hopefully not drinking overly hard in Alex's caravan.

Sky lowered her megaphone briefly, having heard something about someone wanting to help Alex. She was honestly worried about Alex, and knew Ben was unlikely to be much use. In fact, he'd probably make it all worse. Guilt set in rather quickly - not only had she sent him over there, she'd pretty much encouraged him to drink.

Not that she wanted to actually go over there and try and sort out that whole mess, of course. Sky told herself she was needed much more here, anyway. "So... Does anyone want to help that poor girl who you all made cry? Or are you planning to stand around demanding your money back? That is rather greedy, you know."

Sky stared right at Stan as she said it, of course, hoping he'd kindly offer to take care of the whole Alex ordeal. He didn't, possibly because he was too thick to understand what she was trying to get at, leaving Sky in a situation that was potentially even worse: letting some random trainer into a caravan containing a PR disaster.

 

[vanillathelopunny]

(omg i've been so far behind 0.0)
After a while, including Ariana being knocked to the floor by a random trainer, Ariana finally decided to go into the circus tent and try and figure this murder out herself. She wondered around the tent, trying her best not to be spotted and kicked out by staff, searching for clues. "Sylveon , buneary return!" She put them back inside their balls and kept walking around with Meowstic. "you're probably the most useful in these situations." She smiled at the meowstic as it purred and nodded back.

She saw multiple members of staff talking to each other about the girl that had cried and watched them eagerly. She crouched behind a chair and listened to them.

She heard a woman talking about helping the girl who cried and quietly said, "I-I think I could help the 'poor girl'...." Ariana didn't know particularly know what she wanted help with, but felt like speaking up anyway.

 

[Merciless Medic]

Salazar humphed again, and clarified: "Someone had stabbed this knife through his drawer. So hard that it went all the way to the hilt. Maybe the scratch marks were from the person trying to stab it repeatedly in the desk in the same spot. Probably not, but it could be likely. If people were that accurate in stabbing things. But since I've gotten it, I haven't tried to hurt it. I just kept it safe in my pocket until I found you. Anyway, now we know someone had taken your knife and used it somehow... Do you know who it was? Or can you at least tell me where you were when you got it and when you first noticed that you lost it? I know, it must've been years ago, but if we find clues, then we can solve this murder ourselves and not have to call the cops. Ben did something to get this place up and running, and it was apparently illegal. I think of Ben as a surrogate father, so I don't want to call the cops unless its completely necessary. Like if the person who had killed Chad was from a rival circus or just a random civilian."

He then took out the note and saw a faint imprint, especially when looked through at the light. While she was talking, he placed it over the fire to find the impression, and draw it out. Well.... This was interesting. Why did it look like a football? When she was done telling him, he showed her the picture he traced out. He asked: "Either I traced it wrong, or that person has a really bad drawing hand. What does this mean? It kind of looks familiar, actually. Is this the chariot that broke, or is this the stage?"

 

[FrouFrou]

(Aren't timezones gr8?)
Sky stared at Ariana for a long moment, sizing her up as best she could. She wasn't able to see much of the trainer due to the chair, though the Meowstic did get Ariana a thin smile. "...Come here, then."

She could have just told Ariana where to go, of course. But she wanted to give Stan as many chances to somehow intervene and save her from her own mistake. He seemed to think the whole thing hilarious, unfortunately. Or maybe he just didn't particularly mind Ariana comforting Alex, for reasons of his own. Whatever the reason, he was smirking. Sky shot him a desperate look.

"How strong are your Pokemon?", she asked Ariana sternly, hoping to scare her off. "Alex's Pokemon are very fierce. If she's in a state..."

Stan had to turn away, but she could see him shaking with laughter. So, he thought her actually about to do something wrong by Ben was funny? Bastard!
----
"Stabbed?" Kit blinked, her eyes widening slightly. "The fuck did that old desk do to anyone... Well, it was the day after I first got it. Sky placed second in the stupid contest - I know she fucking took it, but I could never get it back. She was, um... too tall." That wasn't hard to imagine; Kit had always been small for her age. "After a while I stopped trying to get it off her, and just settled for hating her. After all, Ben always said we weren't allowed in other people's caravans... I guess if he was doing something bad, that's why."

She turned it over a few times, lost in thought. Only when Salazar brought up the drawing did she squint at the drawing, unimpressed. "You both suck, probably. Someone doesn't know how to fucking draw a tally..." She shrugged. "I guess we should check the chariot and the stage again? Brutus's probably still fucking around out there, too. I don't really see Tyler managing him, heh."

 

[Merciless Medic]

Salazar nodded and he clicked for his snakes to return for him. Although, his Arbo didn't hear him, and was stalking Ryuji and his Pokemon, making sure they leave the Big Top. Jalorda and Sevi slithered behind Salazar as he made his way to the stage. Tyler and Brutus weren't there. Maybe he was getting Brutus to the stables. If that's the case, then they could just meet them out there. Salazar didn't waste time to wait for Kit as he lightly jogged, with his snakes slithering behind him rapidly to keep up, and they headed off towards the stables.

Meanwhile, Arbo was trying to keep quiet. He saw his trainer leave the Big Top, but wanted to stay to keep an eye on the tall kid. He slithered from one dark corner to the next, careful to keep in the shadows and to keep silent, as well as staying far enough away to where the kid or his Pokemon won't sense somebody nearby.

 

[FrouFrou]

The stage didn't seem to have anything to do with the paper. That said, Kit seemed interested in the chariot, and knelt down to have a look at the marks on it. She'd catch up with Salazar shortly; she just hadn't gotten a particularly close look at it, and certainly hadn't seen the paper last time.

Tyler was indeed still trying to wrangle the Rapidash near the stables. Brutus kept on trying to sneak away from him, and get his head out of the harness somehow, but fortunately wasn't making an outright run for it. Tyler would likely not survive such a thing. The acrobat sort of half-waved at Salazar as he approached; while the Snake Man wasn't that great with horses, pretty much everyone in the circus was more competent with Pokemon than Tyler. Hell, maybe everyone in the city was more competent; it wasn't much of a stretch to imagine. The most placid Pokemon bit him, and god forbid Tyler ever raise something.

"Hey, a little help over here?"

 

[Merciless Medic]

Salazar couldn't help but chuckle at this amusing sight before him. He rushed up, but slowed down immensely so that he wouldn't spook Brutus the instant he arrived. He walked up calmly, trying not to make any sudden movements. He then took a part of the reigns and patted Brutus on the neck, shushing him and saying that everything was going to be alright. His snakes trailed behind, not wanting to get in the way or spook the rest of the horses. Salazar also wasn't sure how Brutus would react to a person acting a bit like a Pokemon showing affection, but it was worth a shot. He headbutted his head lightly on Brutus' neck, hoping it would pacify him further.

Salazar just kept patting Brutus' neck, soothing him down like he did with the Ponyta. Even though he never been around horses all that much, he'd seen how Chad and Ben treated them, so it was easy to replicate. He just never put into practice. He patted the horse hard enough to where he can feel it through his thick skin, but not hard enough to cause discomfort. It would feel like a regular ol' pat to a human.

 

[FrouFrou]

Tyler certainly raised an eyebrow when Salazar started headbutting the Pokemon - wasn't that going to get him killed? - but weirdly enough, the Rapidash didn't seem to mind. The acrobat was happy to step away from the big horse and just let Salazar do all the work, already glancing back to where they'd put his beloved ute. Now that Chad was like, super injured or whatever, he'd have to repair his vehicle quickly so he could provide all the crazy stunts.

Calming Brutus wasn't too much of an issue as it was just getting him to walk in a freaking straight line. They were only ten or twenty metres from the stables, but the horse kept on pulling and stepping to the left, either not wanting to go in his stall or simply wanting to go and do something else. He was one stubborn horse, able to just stand there if he didn't want to go forwards, which as they got closer to the door, was certainly more frequent. Eventually, coaxed five metres from the stall's door, Brutus simply dug all four hooves into the ground and refused to move outright.

Tyler scratched his head, frowning. "So... guess we just shove him in?" If they could reach around the whole flaming tail issue, of course.

 

[prince~]

(I'm trying my best since I missed so much)

At this point, Ryuji was at a stump. He honestly didn't have any leads besides this golden knife thing, the body missing, and some of the chariots parts were missing. Seeing as this wasn't some kindergarten game of hide and seek, that wasn't much to go off on. And plus, all three of his leads just lead to him thinking deeper than he should. He then overheard Ariana talking with her pokemon. "Maybe she'll help me out?" He said as he slowly approached Ariana.

Orchid and Aquamarine were still by themselves, they couldn't find anything either. It was just utterly useless. The looked around trying to find Ryuji, and didn't succeed. They then took a break by the popcorn machine and relaxed.

 

[Merciless Medic]

Salazar shook his head, not wanting to hurt the horse or cause him to get angry. As he spoke, it sounded like he had seen Brutus in action before: "Well, that wouldn't be wise. If we tried shoving him in from behind, he'll kick us. I don't think you were here when it happened, but when Brutus was a Ponyta, Ben told me that he almost got hit from his hoof when he tried to shove him into his stable. We'll just have to do this."

As soon as he just ended his sentence, he clicked. Hearing this Jalorda quickly slithered off in the stables. Even though he was a snake, he was a Grass-Type, easing the Ponytas just slightly. He then found a backpack with a carrot. He then slithered back and handed Salazar the carrot and the backpack of treats, to which he slung over his shoulder for easy access. He teased the carrot against the Rapidash's lips as he guided him slowly into the stable.

Seeing that Ryuji was outside at this point, Arbo quickly slithered toward Kit. Even though she was a little psycho, she was quite nice at times. Out of all the snakes, he was the one who had treated her a little nicer. He slithered up to her and spoke to her in his own unique Poketongue. "Find anything?"

 

[FrouFrou]

Brutus was admittedly more a fan of apples, but carrots were quite acceptable. He walked placidly into his stall, and even knelt in an effort to get at the carrot when it was dropped. Tyler just rolled his eyes at the whole thing, because clearly his idea was 100% better, or at least 200% more badass. "Always with the sneaky bribing stuff, aren't ya..."

Kit jumped a little. Having a sudden giant snake pop up behind you was really not something you ever got used to, unless maybe if you were Salazar. "Maybe. But don't ask me what it's fucking supposed to mean..."

She'd wiped the ash-lines off the chariot, showing that underneath were shallow cuts; basically grazes. Presumably, in the wreck they'd caught fire as they weren't protected by coating, resulting in the ash. Since the beam was painted black, the ash would have lent a form of camouflage to the grazes; Kit herself'd had trouble spotting them until she'd been told they existed. If that was intentional, it meant the marks were important.

"You know that really shitty drawing? I think those lines in the oval thingy are meant to be the lines on the chariot. No fucking clue why anyone would draw 'em out, though. Or hell, put them here."
-----
Sky looked quite relieved to see someone coming to distract Ariana, but Stan wasn't having any of it. If this guy was going to get in the way of Sky screwing up in a thoroughly hilarious (and harmless) way... well, he wasn't about to let that happen. He hastily moved in front of Ryuji, which was pretty easy given how slow the trainer was moving. Since Ryuji was quite tall, Stan didn't exactly get to tower or intimidate, but then again, he didn't seem to be trying to. At some point during the chaos, he'd put on his little round spectacles, which did admittedly make him look a little less fierce. (And a whole lot stranger, but nobody seemed up for telling him that.)

"Ay... Can Stan help you?"

He was half-genuine about it, too. Sure, he mostly just wanted to see Sky stuff up, but he felt like he'd perhaps seen the trainer out here earlier. If Ryuji did have a real problem, Stan wanted to help with it. Because, you know, that would only embarrass Sky further.

 

[Merciless Medic]

Salazar smirked as he fished for an apple from his backpack as soon as Brutus was done eating the carrot. He set the apple in a more easy to reach area, like near the feeder, and he carefully and silently walked out, closing the door and locking it quietly. He then set the backpack back on the rack Jalorda found it on and walked back to Tyler, a smirk forming on his face. He then commented: "It keeps me from getting broken bones and bruises, buddy. I say you learn it from the 'Sssnake Man'," he teased, playfully poking his shoulder. Even though he thought the guy was a bit of an ass at times and extremely reckless, he did like to tease him from time to time. Of course, playful behavior like this was quite common coming from Salazar, and it was usually used to bring people out of a particularly bad mood or to put their thoughts away from a horrible event like several moments ago.

Arbo nodded, as he recollected that he saw the drawing. He leaned in to see the marks on the chariot. Interesting. He then said: "Maybe it was to forewarn. Salazar did say that the note was a death threat. From that, I can deduce that Ben was close to shutting down the circus, but 'the show must go on', as he has said numerous times in the past. I don't think Ben had an idea of what it meant, though. The person who gave him the death threat wanted to give him a chance to stop, but he didn't, and it ended up in the death of his nephew. No wonder he'd been drinking booze. I'm pretty sure he got the death threat and then soon after, he began to drink the booze. How long has he been drinking again?"

He scratched the top of his head with his tail, trying to remember the event. It's been awhile. Funny thing was, this was the most talkative Arbo had been in the past week. Something was bothering him and he didn't know if anyone else felt that. Maybe it was all culminating to this point. Weird.

 

[FrouFrou]

Tyler grinned at that, relaxing now Brutus was no longer running amok. Salazar had pretty much done his job for him, and now Tyler could slack off for the rest of the day. Work on his ute with nobody bothering him, perhaps-? That sounded pretty good. "What about battle scars? A bit of daring can be pretty good... I've gotta look tough, y'know~"

"How the fresh hell is it a death threat if you can't fucking read it?" Kit snapped. "There's no point in sending something he can't read. Either Ben knew and he ignored it, maybe 'cos he was drunk or something... but then there was the knife, and you'd think that'd be pretty fucking obvious. Maybe this isn't a death threat and it's... it's... it's something else, I don't bloody know...."

She shook her head slightly; the mounting headache didn't go away. The scattered pieces of this whole thing just didn't seem to have anything in common. Everything seemed to end in a stupid question: how could Sky not notice a giant cut in a chariot? Hell, how come Chad didn't notice? Why were there weird marks on the knife? Why, oh why, would you not just write a death threat in plain fucking English? The list dragged on and on. "Ben's been drinking the past... uh... I don't know, he's always drunk? It's been getting worse the last few years, though. I think?"

 

[Merciless Medic]

Arbo, sensing that Kit was getting a little angry and tense, nuzzled against her shoulder. He didn't know if she'd appreciate this kind of affection, but it was worth a try. His smooth scales felt nice to pet anyway, well for Salazar at least. At least his scales weren't rough like Sevi's, or leafy like Jalorda's. Arbo then replied with: "You're right. Maybe they drew the impression to make it harder to see and we'd think Ben would know everyone's handwriting. We should probably stop looking for a bit and rest. You should probably take something, since I can sense that you're hurting. Go take a pill if that's a headache." Funny thing was, Arbo had never shown this kind of affection or care for anyone besides Salazar and his fellow Pokemon. He just seemed to like Kit a lot, for some odd reason.

Salazar just chuckled at that, since he couldn't compete with that. He commented: "Well, battle scars are good. They tell a story. Until they become 99% of your body. Nobody would know who you are anymore, though. They would call you 'scar-face'."

He could just imagine Tyler getting all scared up from his cars and stunts, getting gnarled up and everybody asking if he was Tyler or not.

 

[FrouFrou]

Kit absent-mindedly stroked the big snake down his spine. "Ugh... I'm just scared, is all. Soon as the police show up, i'm gonna fucking get arrested, 'cos that's my knife and-! Wh-whatever..."

Her emotions churning yet again, she stood, and hastened towards her caravan without another word. Arbo was right; she needed a break, or she was really going to lose it.

"Awesome", Tyler breathed. In all his years working at the circus, he'd never been hurt no matter what ridiculous stuff he did - and he did a lot of dangerous and stupid stunts. Whether it was skill, luck, both, or... something else altogether, the average-looking acrobat had not a single scar to make him look any less average, something which he was kind of annoyed about. "I would rock a name like Scarface, let's be real."

Strolling away from the stable and towards his beloved ute, with Salazar presumably following, he seemed to finally realize he was still in that stupid Moltres outfit. Tyler hesitated, yes, but then kept right on walking. "So... hope your act went okay?" It was wedged between two career disasters, after all, so he figured he might as well check.

 

[Merciless Medic]

Arbo hissed affectionately, seeing that she made it to her caravan safely, slithered along the cold ground and made his way back to Salazar and Tyler, seeing his fellow snake friends following their trainer. Salazar looked and saw his snake coming into view, and he waved before catching up to Tyler. He knew at the back of his mind that Tyler was a suspect, but he seemed too chill to be the killer. Well, he had seen people were sweet and gentle as can be get arrested for messing with the wrong kids...

Salazar just chuckled at this guy's enthusiasm for scars. He had to bite back a light-hearted, yet mean retort. He decided to go for something with a little more tact. "Well, you would, and then your real name would just be sad compared to your newer, cool name."

Upon hearing the question, he nodded as he finally caught up beside him. "Yea, it went alright. Could've done better, but I didn't want to push my Pokemon. Arbo got sick in my room because that was the first time he ever regurgitated anything on command, or ever swallowed anything that large in his throat. I mean, look at me: a 6 foot, skinny, yet muscular young man gets swallowed by an Arbok, and then regurgitated on-stage. It was gross, yes, but it was cool. I always had a thing for shock value. Although, I felt bad, but he did really well. He's better now, though. Thanks for asking. I'm assuming your act wasn't supposed to be that short, yea? Luckily, you and Stan didn't become another accident."

 

[FrouFrou]

Tyler winced at that... description. He was pretty cool with Salazar, but the guy's fondness for Pokemon - and in particular, large intimidating snake Pokemon - freaked him out. Tyler was the sort of guy who couldn't stand even the small and cute Pokemon; or at least, that's what he claimed and he'd never been seen with anything, as far as Salazar knew. So you can imagine what he thought about giant snakes - the disgust that flickered over his features as Salazar told his tale sort of said it all.

"Yeah, about that... accident." He frowned. "Don't tell anyone, but - somethin' bit me in the neck, so I floored it. I dunno what it was, but... I'm telling ya, some Pokemon are real feral. Not like your Pokemon, but like, y'know. If that Incineroar hadn't been there, I'd probably be in jail or somethin'."

He nearly asked how Chad was doing, but decided not to. Tyler didn't exactly want to look like he cared even a little bit about his arch-rival. Besides, Chad was probably doing amazingly anyway.

 

[Merciless Medic]

Salazar couldn't help but chuckle at his wince. Oh, how he wasn't a fan of Pokemon. Funny, since they're surrounded by them. Salazar raised an eyebrow. Something bit him? Was a Pokemon out to get them? Weird.... He then asked: "What did it feel like? Like, how many teeth do you think? And was it quick and painless, or painful? May I also see the mark?"

He was getting extremely curious and he didn't mean to drown the poor man with questions, but he had to know! I mean, they were practically roommates, with their rooms set just across from each other backstage. He then reassured him with: "Look, I won't tell anyone. I promise. I even cross my heart. You know how I am with keeping my word."

And he was right. There wasn't a person he would tell a secret to. Maybe he would tease the opening of a secret or hint at it when the person who trusted him with the secret in the first place was around, but only to get a reaction from them. He only did it with Kit and Alex, though, since they would hit his arms to keep his mouth shut. He would mostly talk about it in earshot with Tyler around, even though that was a rare occurrence, since he knew he liked to see some kind of daring action done upon the girls to make them go crazy. It was quite funny. He just acted like the trusting and caring friend of most of the circus though. All the tales and stories they can share off the bat, how much memories they've shared together with each other, even though this job was quite the harrowing job choice, he loved the company here. The only people he couldn't exactly connect with was the fire-ring man, who jumped through flaming hoops with his Grass-Type Pokemon, and Sky. Even Chad was hard to like or even connect with. Salazar just had to settle with respecting him from afar.

He just thought of this now, but after he joined a couple of years ago, everything just seemed to go uphill from there. He was the newbie of the circus, yes, but he brought with him the light-hearted jokes he had been wanting to share with people for so long and his sincerity. It was probably the reason why Ben wanted to hire him. Everyone didn't seem to mind his tattoos or harass him for it, as well. It felt like home.

 

[FrouFrou]

Salazar was to Tyler the closest thing he had to a friend around here, even if Salazar did insist on all those freaky snakes. He was happy to trust Salazar as much as he would a friend, then. Not completely, always a little cautious, never revealing things like where he'd come from or how the hell he'd never gotten injured, but Tyler trusted him mostly, and mostly was as close as you could get with Tyler. Salazar always knew about his latest dumb stunt plans, or costume designs well ahead of time, and on several occasions had even warned Ben of what was coming his way.

"It felt like some sorta jab. Hurt like hell, that's why I floored it..." Tyler nodded at the Snake Man's request, turning and pulling his costume's hood back so his neck was exposed. There, in the back of his neck, was a large raised bump - a bit like a mosquito bite, only much larger. It didn't look particularly nice.

"I knew I shouldn't have gone to work today", he grumbled. I mean... Chad had gotten some spectacular accident that he'd get cool scars from and stuff, and Tyler had gotten some sort of dumb giant mosquito bite? Laaaaame.

 

[Merciless Medic]

"Well, at least you didn't die from your vehicle. It could've been worse. It kind of looks like a bug bite. Like a Pokemon used Leech Life or Poison Sting. Does it hurt and is it warm? "

He wanted to poke it, but that would've been getting into Tyler's space, and if it did hurt from him poking it, Tyler would've floored him. Even though they were both muscular and pretty good friends, Salazar's muscles were more toned as they were used to hold up his own weight. Tyler's on the other hand.. His were stronger, since he would have to lift heavier objects. If he had gotten punched by Tyler, it would've felt like having a large sack of bricks getting thrown at him. He wouldn't like that. Plus, they had their own quirks they needed to respect, like personal bubbles. He just settled with keeping his distance from the bump he accumulated and just asked the questions.

His snakes decided to let the boys have their alone time and head off toward the Big Top's backside. They then huddled into a little ball and watched the area. They knew something was nearby, but they didn't know what. Maybe the perpetrator was with the crowd. Maybe. They would just have to find their scent. Seviper had a better sense of smell than all three of them, mainly because they weren't as old as her. They just settled on staying there for the time being.

 

[FrouFrou]

Tyler shrugged, turning back to face Salazar. "Uh, it itches? It's sort of warm, but it's not hot or anything. Or hurting..." He scowled, rubbing briefly at where it was. "Bet it was a Leech Life. I eased off the pedal soon as the pain went away, 'cos I was getting sleepy. That's how I know it was a Pokemon, 'cos of that weird side effect..."

He glanced towards his ute, then shook his head, then glanced towards it again. There seemed to be something he was... tossing up on. Perhaps he ought to tell Salazar something, if only to shut him up later.

"So... soooo... The bump's pretty noticeable, right? You think people will like... notice?"

 

[Merciless Medic]

Salazar nodded. It protrudes an inch and a half out. Hopefully, it will die down soon. Luckily, he knew how an attack like this works. He just simply replied an answer to his problem: "Well.. You could ice it. It would get rid of the venom. It's not bad, though. The venom is not going to kill you. It would just calm you down into sleep. Well, this particular one, anyway. Weird, though. Pokemon don't usually have an attack like that that would cause sleepiness... Maybe it had Effect Spore as its ability. Or someone could have just simply spat a sleeping dart at ya. If that's the case, then ice it. Icing stuff works, especially with anything that has to do with introducing anything foreign to your body. You should probably take it easy afterwards. Glad I took that horse from ya. You'd probably worsen the sleeping stuff anyway if you tried to exert yourself. If you're planning on working on your utility vehicle, I suggest you don't do any heavy lifting. You might accidentally fall asleep and hurt yourself. Anything else? Something seems to be bothering you."

With that, Salazar backed off a bit after inspecting it. Since they were back at Tyler's little car parts and repair central. Looked almost akin to a junkyard, with his prized possession being in the middle of all of it. He had to admit though, his ute was pretty rad. Of course, if it had more snakes and scales on it, he would love it even more, but he knew that if he defiled the poor thing, he was going to get destroyed by Tyler. Although, that doesn't seem to be a half bad prank to pull.

 

[FrouFrou]

(Spooner Screws Up: I thought I would be all clever and indicate it was Leech Life by saying he got sleepy (because his energy was literally drained!), forgetting about the status effect. Have it for free; it's Leech Life and I probably should have just said that in the first place, haha. )

Tyler nodded. "Yeah... Sky might have some ice in her caravan. I'll ask her about it later." He'd never go in there, god. Sky's Pokemon were absolutely the meanest and scariest creatures roaming the circus grounds, with maybe one exception. And they didn't take well at all to anyone going through their mistress's stuff.

Rummaging around in the ute, the acrobat found a gaudy rainbow scarf from his, ahem, rainbow unicorn costume, and tied it around his neck to prevent himself from scratching it. He didn't want anyone else to see it, either. It was ugly as sin, after all. And... in the show tomorrow...

Well, Salazar knew about the lump, and there was no way he wouldn't spot the lack of a lump when Tyler next went out onstage. He looked over at the guy, his face unusually serious. "I dunno if you're gonna laugh or yell at me or what, but. Uh. I've been... cheatin'?" He shifted his weight from foot to foot. "Well, not like. Cheatin' cheatin', like, with games 'n' stuff. But, cheatin'."