Mutated Ectoplasm

45. Clown Code

You know, something I've been meaning to bring up; plenty of the characters and their traits (replaced or not) are sometimes mixed with other characters in specific ways. I'm not sure if anyone fully realized that before, but you'll find that some of the traits exhibited by certain characters or backstories are changed for plot reasons.

Do with that information what you will. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Karkat wasn't sure whether he liked the circus. Both in general, and right fucking now.

Aradia and Sollux had called him over to check out the place after nearly getting scared to death by one of the workers after they tried to sneak a peek. Something he was going to talk to them about, for sure. The Makara's Traveling Circus didn't exactly have a great name, but it was distinctive in its style at least.

Karkat would describe the entire theme as gothic, with a lot of horror elements thrown together. While the fair games that were still being set up looked normal, the prizes were stuffed animals in the shape of predators or monsters. Circus tents were darker shades of purple instead of red, all the workers wore black, and the music being put on was more than creepy.

It was memorable, though, so he figured this place must have some success. He could respect that.

What he couldn't respect was his friends acting like idiots and getting caught sneaking onto the premises.

The halfa had been pointed towards one of the trailers when asked where he could find them, much to his annoyance. He stomped towards the one for staff, wondering if he should punish them for doing this or thanking them since it got him away from Feferi and Kanaya for a little bit longer.

Trying to avoid it wouldn't last long, but he needed to figure out some stuff first. Mostly about the superhero thing.

Karkat sighed, putting the thoughts aside for now. He had more present problems to deal with.

"Alright, I'm here!" Karkat knocked on the door as gently as he could. The damn thing still rattled at his touch. "I'll gladly take those idiots off your hands! I'm sure they won't do it again for a couple of months."

He could hear some shuffling on the other side before the door opened. He looked up to find a slightly taller, lazily smiling guy his age looking down at him. Other than the crazy hair, he didn't seem to be dear god, why the fuck did he smell of smoke?

"You Karbro?" Yep, this guy was a smoker of something. Honestly, it was like he came out of a bad drug PSA. "Your friends are inside. They ain't in trouble if you're wondering."

"Not in trouble yet. Thanks for not turning them in, uh," Karkat looked down and saw a name tag. The guy's name was Gamzee Makara, apparently. Guess this was a legacy type of thing. "Gamzee. I'm guessing your family runs the place."

"Pretty much. Me and my bro held dad with all of the setting up, usually." Gamzee simply turned around, heading inside. Karkat hesitantly followed him, noting that Arada and Sollux were sitting on a couch just fine. "They didn't really do anything, so we're just letting them chill here."

"Hey Karkat! Enjoying the circus so far?" Aradia didn't seem to care about Karkat glaring at the two, looking over some of the props Gamzee apparently had. He was fond of juggling clubs, apparently. "Did you know there's an entire clown code? I'm not joking, there's a club and everything based on it."

"I think one of the rules is not scaring the hell out of people." Sollux was a little uncomfortable since the place was decorated like a horror show. "No offense, but the face paint is creepy as fuck."