[img]http://i.imgur.com/ZEQcnsM.png[/img] [u][b]Phillis Circus: Approaching the Fortune Teller's Tent[/b][/u] “You said you saw Eric go in there?” Xandra asked, following after the others as they quickly moved to escape the restricted section of tents as fast as they could. With the noise they had made inside, the look from one of the circus’ employees and the disappearance of their new companion Eric, a hasty retreat was in demand. The further they could get from the scene of the crime in which they had ruined that bizarre shrine to their friend Amy, and the quicker they could find the easily distracted Eric, the better. Syed managed to spot a man matching Eric’s appearance enter a nearby tent, and it was that which they dashed towards first, with Lute taking the lead and sprinting slightly ahead of them, entering the tent first whilst the others ran to catch up. But then all three of them came to a screeching halt as something big and powerful crashed into the ground before them. Xandra, Syed and Moira all jumped back in startled surprise, Moira sharing another expletive as they did, their eyes slowly trailing up, up, and up at the strange curiosity that had interrupted them. Standing on long, spindly sleek and black mechanical limbs was a man dressed in a black and grey bodysuit, an almost completely smooth black helmet with visor obscuring their face. A red glowing bead of light moved from the centre of the man’s visor, moving slowly in turn over Moira, Syed and Xandra, the man beneath silently considering all three, as the image they witnessed projected on the inside of their visor zoomed in closer and closer, to such depth, precision and clarity it could even register the sweat dripping down Moira’s face. [img]http://i.imgur.com/m6NfTjF.png[/img] Finally, after a time, and still saying absolutely nothing, the man on stilts continued to walk on, its legs stomping on the ground one after another as it resumed its particular duties. “That…” Xandra exhaled suddenly. “…was different. What was that?” ---------- [img]http://i.imgur.com/2uDBgEK.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/J8VStXo.png[/img] [b][u]Phillis Circus: Big Top[/u][/b] “This whole place is full of whackos, yeah? Hey hey, maybe I should use one of my summons and go join her teaparty!” A small snicker escaped Lucien’s lips as he and the others discovered the peculiar teaparty occurring in the room on the other side of the partitioned curtain. Fortunately he was quiet enough that the woman inside, absorbed as she was in her fantasy world, didn’t notice. Moreso when Estelle shot her hand out around his mouth and pulled the mumbling man away with a quick shh! “Don’t forget, we’re trying [i]not[/i] to be caught!” Estelle grimaced when they got further away from Guinevere’s room. After a quick scan of their nearby surroundings and feeling confident that there was no one else around, she breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Her eyes turned back in the direction where they came from, and the ominous room they had witnessed. The strange, regal and beautiful older woman who had to be in her mid thirties at the least, playing and hosting a tea party for a bevy of stuffed toys… she didn’t know what to make of it. Estelle absolutely adored and loved stuffed animals, and would probably happily do the same thing as the woman if she had the chance even now, but there was something very disturbing about doing it at the woman’s age… and something else as well. Something Estelle couldn’t put her finger on. What was it? "Are you sure you know where you're going?" Aria asked after they, following Crispin’s lead, began to quickly check rapidly opened and closed curtains one after the other to little avail. The youth in the baseball cap waved his hand back at Aria, flashing a confident and determined grin, insistent he knew what he was doing, but Estelle couldn’t be quite so sure he did. “Sure, sure, I know, just give me a sec, yeah?” Following the comments from earlier, Estelle had remembered Crispin as their chef from Los Paraisos, but that just filled her with even more confusion. Why would a chef at a fancy and ritzy island as Los Paraisos be here, at a circus like this? “So what was your plan?” Estelle asked, focusing once more on the situation. “You got cut off, earlier.”