Cirque Nocturne: In-Character

Happy World Elephant Day.

I like elephants a lot. The smallest living elephants are found in Borneo but small is relative since they're still 8 ft tall. But the smallest ever elephants (which might also mean they're the best elephants, but I don't want to pick favorites) were the prehistoric dwarf elephants that lived on islands around the world. Some of them were only 5 ft tall (which finally makes me taller than an elephant.)

There's this cool thing that happens on islands called 'insular dwarfism' which basically means that big mammals travel to islands and because of ecological pressure and stuff, they get smaller. I can't remember the exact details and I can't be bothered to google it, but it's probably about competition or predators or niches. Ecology loves niches.

It doesn't have to only be islands either. It just has to be somewhere cut off and islands are really good like that. Insular dwarfism is one of my favorite things because, like I suggested up there, I like when big animals are small.

Islands are kinda weird though, cause when big animals go to them they get small, but when small animals go to them they get big. ('Island gigantism', which I'm ashamed I had to google the name of because it is exactly what it says.) This is why Mauritius had the dodo which was basically a massive pigeon, and New Zealand had an eagle with a wingspan of 10ft, and islands in the Indian Ocean have coconut crabs that are almost 3.5 ft leg to leg.

No one is interested in any of this and I don't know why I'm still-

What's either your favorite animal or your favorite island? It's going to be bonus points for island animals obviously.

WHO Nevenka & Jianfan
WHEN Friday, 12th July
WHERE Somewhere on the cirque grounds...
WHAT A second unasked for meeting
WARNINGS sexual references, violence

( Nevenka and Jianfan had planned something of a breakfast date )

WHO Nevenka & Cordy
WHEN 27th June
WHERE Vice & Virtue
WHAT Introductions with the new girl
WARNINGS tba, probably not much

( She was brought out of those thoughts but the appearance of a young woman in the doorway )

Happy Chocolate Day! And if you have something that is weighing down on you, today is the day to let it go and tell your friends because it's Tell The Truth Day. Don't let stuff fester cause you'll only feel worse about it. Even if it's something your friends might not like to hear it's probably better said anyway. What's that quote? 'Better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you're not?' Hey, it's Global Forgiveness Day too so are they even allowed to be mad?

But maybe hey please don't take my advice seriously because I'm not a therapist, I'm just a girl reading a website that's telling me it's both Macaroni Day and Strawberry Sundae Day and those are a lot less heavy than The Truth.

It's also real dumb for me to be all 'speak your truth, girlfriend!' cause I don't really have any deep dark secrets.

So maybe just pretend this whole post doesn't exist and celebrate Build a Scarecrow Day instead.

[Kit]
Happy Birthday :D

July is ice cream month according to those people who make up the days but I love ice cream so I'm going to go along with them.

Have you been to the Creole Creamery? I love it and their instagram is almost too much for me to take. (The blueberry pie and mexican hot chocolate are their best ones.) If the tea shop goes bust, then I'm going to go work there instead. Wish me luck!

WHO Lamb narrative & then OPEN
WHEN Monday, 1st July, late afternoon
WHERE The Dining Hall
WHAT Backstory and then wandering to meet people
WARNINGS literal self-injury, dead bodies, mentions of cannibalism,

( shoving a handful of sausage into her mouth )

WHO: Nevenka, A Big Scary Beast, & OPEN
WHEN: 23rd, around dawn.
WHERE: Somewhere between Vice & Virtue and the Plantation House
WHAT: An unknown monster attacks.
WARNINGS: monster attack, bit o' blood and violence.

( But even if Nevenka had been paying attention, she wasn't sure later that she would have been able to avoid it )

Finally it's a day relevant to some of the circus - Happy Fairy Day!

Today is also Please Take My Children To Work Day, but I think a lot of the jobs here are not really ones you should take other people's kids to work with you for.

(And it's Swim A Lap Day and Pralines Day. I care about one of those more than the other...)


[Kit]
My dress is green.


[Prim (added after talking to Kit)]
We're going to the ball with Kit officially, like as a group of three. I asked him but I said it was your idea.

This upcoming ball sounds amazing. Who is going to it? I want to go kinda but I don't know what I'd wear or even how to dance and I think there's lots of dancing? And would it be embarrassing to go without a date?? I don't think I'm fancy enough for a New Orleans ball.

Today is both Ice Cream Soda Day and Vanilla Milkshake Day. So you have to get both. It's the rules, I don't make them.

I should have made a proper tea to suit but didn't think ahead. But I do have a delicious vanilla black tea blend and it's delightful. Yes, I'm selling myself, come buy tea from me. (Except I feel bad and kinda silly about charging circus people because the money goes back to the circus so... I don't know, no one ever gave me instructions on that when I started here so now it's a mystery.)

Happy Blueberry Cheesecake Day, Dracula Day and Paper Airplane Day! You're allowed to celebrate them all seperately but wouldn't it be the best if you made them all together? I looked it up and there's no Vampire Day so you might just have to share Dracula Day.

And do you know how many things this MONTH is?

Get Caught Reading Month, Hamburger Month, Barbecue Month, Asian Pacific Heritage Month, Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month, Golf Month, Lupus Awareness Month, Military Appreciation Month, Deck Safety Month, Bike Month, Lyme Disease Awareness Month.

I'm not sure all of these things need a whole month.

Anyway I've been wasting the last hour on this site and it has all been worth it. Except I found out that my birthday is Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day so... I guess that's a thing.

I love the idea of birth flowers. In my family a specific flower was assigned to each child as they were born, but even the humans like the thought of it. They only pick a month and then go with that, but it's a nice thought anyway. Do you know your birth flower? Does it suit you? You should choose a new one if it doesn't, something that speaks to you. Flowers have so many meanings.

( list )

WHO Khalida [narrative]
WHEN Sunday, 3pm
WHERE The kitchens
WHAT Tormenting a poor npc and having a very bad day.
WARNINGS language, talk of violence

( Last night she'd slept terribly after the forth night of horrific nightmares in a row )

WHO Mona & Dia
WHEN Monday, 13th May, just before midnight
WHERE Inside the circus grounds
WHAT Highway robbery without the highway
WARNINGS light violence, knives, a small measure of break the cutie.

( Mona wasn't good at learning that just because something seemed safe, that didn't mean that it was. )

Does anyone have a guitar lying around that I can use for a bit? I didn't bring mine with me when I left home because it was too big and difficult, but I kinda miss playing it. And I guess if anyone is interested in just sitting around and doing music stuff sometime, that would be cool too.

(I would say the same for a piano but that's not really a thing that I can take back to my room, and I'm not good enough at piano that anyone wants to hear my trying to play things in a public area.)

Do you remember how I had that new finger? The greatest finger? You should remember, I put a video!

Wait, I'll show you

( non-gory drawing under the cut )

Like that? Remember? It could wiggle and wave but now it's gone, got broken right off and now I've got a dull number of fingers again. Yes, it's one less than most have and that's somewhat exciting but everyone's lost a finger before, it's not new. Having a special one in a special place was new.

I miss my special finger. We'd become very close. It was like a part of me.

Who: Khalida & Rex
What: Setting things straight
When: May 4, after this
Where: The Kitchens
Warnings: Talk of domestic violence
Status: Complete


( Everything out in the open )

[Filtered to Rex]
We need to sit down together and talk when you have time.

[Filtered to Nadine]
I've managed to get into contact with one of the witches from outside the cirque to talk about telepathy spells and charms. I'll let you know if anything comes of it.

I speak French well enough to hold a conversation (although I understand it/read it better than I speak it and my accent is terrible) so it's really interesting all the French influences around in New Orleans. I've been noticing a lot of differences between the French I learned and the French they speak here. There are some grammatical constructions that would be considered 'wrong' in standard French that are apparently normal for Louisiana French. Some of the sentence structure is all mixed up as well, like it's been more influenced by English, and they sometimes skip out the subjunctive all together. When they're speaking it, they roll their Rs more, which is maybe a Spanish influence?

I've been going to a lot of French poetry and book readings in the city on my nights off, is what I'm saying.

This probably isn't very interesting to anyone here, or it's probably just things you already knew about but I just thought it was kinda cool, languages evolving and stuff. I haven't heard much creole yet so I don't really know about that. It would be even more different, I might not be able to understand most of it, but I'd be interested in learning.

I don't know, it's kinda dumb. It's just some stuff I thought was interesting.

Ugh I'll probably delete this later, it's dumb

( ... )