All Roads Lead

[tezcatl_ipoca]

Late evening/night, Day 36
Location: Carnivale Diabolique

I tried to leave you
I really tried
I closed the book on us at least a hundred times
I wake up every morning by your side...Fucking Excolo

Comments

[Faith]

[hopeorfaith]

Been quiet tonight, not many rubes in. Not surprising, given that surely every bugger in town has been to the carnival now. Don't make no sense, staying put so long, but it don't seem like no one can leave. Heard rumblings of it from more'n a few carnies, but everyone's always here come morning. But there ain't no point dwellin' on it. Management'll lead us right, I reckon. He ain't failed us before.

We goes for a walk through the backlots, cos it's a warm night an' I'm feelin' restless, an' Hope don't mind a walk neither. I sees a familiar face stumblin' out of a truck. Tez ain't done the magic show in days, an' I don't know how the boss ain't whaled on him for it. Something funny's goin' on with him, I reckon - funnier than for the rest of us, an' given what this town's like, that's sayin' a lot.

"You look like shit, mate," I says cheerfully, and I pull out a pack of cigs. "Want one?"

Re: [Faith]

[tezcatl_ipoca]

Sounds like Faith; Hope doesn't swear much. I take the cigarette gratefully, my hands only shaking a little. Can't remember when I last had a drink, but there's nothing crawling in the edges of my vision so it can't be too long.

"Thanks, sweetheart." I take a long drag. "Didn't think I'd be seeing you two again."

Re: [Faith]

[hopeorfaith]

"Didn't think I'd be seeing you two again."

"Why's that, luvvie?" I ask. "We're hard to miss, so we are." I tilt my head and look at him sidelong. "Ooh, were you plannin' to do a runner?" I light up my own ciggy and inhale. Nice sweet tar on my lungs, though Hope says she'll kill me if I give us cancer. Well, life's full o' risks. "What is goin' on with you, sunshine? You've been actin' queer for weeks."

Re: [Faith]

[tezcatl_ipoca]

"What is goin' on with you, sunshine? You've been actin' queer for weeks."

You don't know the half of it.

"This town's been bad for me. Trouble - well, trouble from the past catching up with me. Bad memories." I shoot a quick glance at her sideways, judging how much to say. "Religious differences, you could say."

Well, now. Faith is good people, for all her edges. "Wrap that up with - ah, with man troubles, and you've got more than a reason to leave town, and fast."

[docconstantine]

"Tell me, girl...you been up to the Tower yet?" I hear Tez ask the twins as I come around the corner, putting a cigarette to my lips and inhaling.
"Last place I'd ever want to be personally." I add, leaning against his truck, giving him a good once over. Yep, power still shimmering off him like the heat off of metal. Fuck. I wasn't imagining it that day, he's been this all along, but hid it well enough for me not to notice for years.
"You are a hard man to track down, friend." Not to be impolite I turn to the twins with a smile and a wink. "Hello Hope, hello Faith. How are the loveliest sisiters I've ever met doing these days.?"

[faith]

[hopeorfaith]

Tez looks up at me, and for a minute somethin' gleams in his eyes, fish showin' a fin, an' I know that sort of look and so I give him my own dipping smile.

Then the good doc shows up. More polished look to him, I reckon, now he's of the town; but his hair's still long 'n fair, an' there's still somethin' electric about him.

"Hello Hope, hello Faith. How are the loveliest sisiters I've ever met doing these days.?"

Hope smiles and bobs her head and says she's very well, an' I grin and say:

"Reckoned you might've sodded off an' left us, Doc, now you've got your office an' all. Met the redhead who's took you there - she ain't half somethin'," I says, an' I give him a wink.

I look back at Tez.

"Ain't been to the Tower. Dunno what I thinks of it. Makes my skin shiver, it does, sort of bad and good at once." I look at the doc. "What's you know about it, Doc? You sounds like a man who knows a few things," I says. I know the gleam in his eyes sometimes don't come from firelight. Least not the regular kind of fire.

Re: [faith]

[docconstantine]

"Reckoned you might've sodded off an' left us, Doc, now you've got your office an' all. Met the redhead who's took you there - she ain't half somethin'," Faith chides me with a nod and a wink, and I can't help but grin. "Ah, you see, I've been travelling with the show just to track her down, and now that I've located....wait...when did you meet her?" That's confusing. When we went to the Carnival last week, we only hit the rides and the games, we were no where near the girls caravan. I want to question her further, but the topic goes back to the Tower

Re: [faith]

[tezcatl_ipoca]

"I've said it before, and I'll say it again, if you can leave.....leave. Don't look back."

Here's the Doc, all spit and polish these days. And he knows what's in that Tower, even if he doesn't know it by name.

"Funny you should said that," I say, a little sourly. "Turns out all roads lead to Excolo these days - even the ones out." The words leave a bad taste in my mouth, a bad-luck taste, and I spit to one side to get rid of it.

[docconstantine]

Zann perks right up at the idea of a party, and even more so at my discomfort, but Faith's eyes narrow slightly.
"Reckon if we shows up anyone'll throw rocks? We got chased down Main Street, so we did. Real tough boys, I reckon, makin' us limp down the road." Faith spits out, and out of habit and the sense of family I still feel for these people, my head whips around, eyes blazing red.
"If you can point them out to me, I'll make sure they never disrespect a lady again." I growl with a feral smile. It takes a good moment for the hellfire to go down. "And if it's any consolation, I nearly burned down the local brothel, so I'm pretty sure the madame would like to see me run out of town, and the local schoolteacher has a pretty low opinion of me too, so you really can't do much worse."

[tezcatl_ipoca]

Zann's enthusiasm is making my head hurt. I'm starting to hope that Lucien's comment about worshipping me or buying me a drink wasn't a joke - well, not the drink part, at least. Party in town, everyone invited, happy couple; the conversation's taken a whiplash turn from those remarks about the Tower and the fire flaring in Lucien's eyes. Or no, there it is again, rising up protective of the twins. Thought this town had treated those of us a bit different better than most; guess they're the same smallminded rubes we've found the world over

[docconstantine]

"Last party I went to in this town didn't end well." My eyes slide to Tez who's been silent for a while now. I search my mind, trying to recall which party, wasn't the wake, he'd already been affected by then. Wait, Valmont's party? I didn't make it, too busy making sure Maryk lived while Kora lie dead in a heap on the floor. Wanda mentioned she saw him there, talking up a fair haied blonde boy---Fuck. That had to be it. Except for Wanda, everyone seemed to have a bad night that night, something 'wrong' in the air...
"The Whitechapel Inn across the bridge has a bar. Not the quality stuff at the Tavern, but I'm willing to bet it's quieter. Can I buy you that drink?" I ask Tez pointedly, taking another hit of my cigarette.

[tezcatl_ipoca]

My lips quirk: "You really think I'd say no to that offer? You *have* been down in the town too long." The Whitechapel: I remember the place.

I wonder if Iblis' blood still stains the wall and ground in that alley by the Inn.

I push myself to my feet, still unsteady. "Excuse us, ladies."