Pirates de les Cirque On San Faldo Island

Stalking the boardwalk, eying each person with a look that could send shivers down anyone's spine, Captain Jean Lafayette was on the hunt. With the way he stared down anyone who passed by, you would have thought he was evaluating their souls with one look. He seemed to know deep, dark secrets that they held. In actuality, he didn't know anything about anyone he saw. He simply liked creeping people out. It usually didn't take much effort on his part either, but it seemed that here at the "Carnival City" he had a hard time getting any attention at all. True enough, he was the only one that wore only black and white, but his over sized top hat and gaudy costume made him look like any of the other performers that lined the boardwalk.

It was the perfect place to find crew members for his ship, but with his current luck, it didn't seem likely that he would find anyone. Still, somewhere in the twisted wreckage that was his mind, he found absolute confidence that he would return to his ship with at least one new person.

Ziv had gotten on the island and immeadeatly felt that she could make some good money here. The rats were with her, and so was Abo.
So she had gotten to work right away.
"Work" meaning that she had dressed up in one of her most beautiful yet very extravagant and revealing dresses and had started looking for a good place to attract some victims.
She had soon found it.
Now she had already been dancing for some time, and had attracted her own little audience.
The poor fools would be so shocked when they found out they had been stolen from.
Especially if the thieves were simple rats.

Jackson Sorel lay curled up as compactly as possible atop a carelessly discarded wooden crate in the alleyway. A fuzzy black tail served as a shield to his face, effectively blotting out enough sunlight so that he could sleep without being interrupted by it. This gesture proved to be in vain, however, when a sudden increase of noise in the streets caused one of his pointy ears to flick violently. He simply ignored it until his ear attempted to alert him by flicking once more, and then unfurled himself from his pleasantly comfortable position. He stood up on all fours with an irritated sigh as his back leg instinctually gave the irritated ear a soothing scratch.

His waking ritual now complete, Jackson remained on the crate until he allowed his body to shift into a more humanly form. His fur was replaced with clothing as he grew in size, and his ears and tail vanished completely. Adjusting his boots and grabbing his drawstring sack, he then stood up to his full height. Since he would no longer be able to return to sleep for a while now, investigating the raising level of noise in the street now regained his priority, and he casually meandered out onto the road in the area where he thought the noise might have come from. His guess to where the sounds originated from was correct, as it normally was in this type of situation, and he pinpointed an area where a small group of people began to form.

The crowd appeared to be watching something with much concentration, and Jackson attempted to remain uninterested. He nearly walked past the group completely until he turned back in an attempt to catch a glimpse at what held the attention of the people so strongly. Jackson squeezed between two men that blocked his view with difficulty, then halted abruptly as he saw what had become the center of the group's attention.

To his surprise, a provocatively dressed woman was dancing in the center of the small throng of people. While Jackson would admit that the young woman appeared to be quite skilled at dancing, he quickly lost interest in the entertainment she provided and attempted to turn around and leave the circle of people. He frowned with disdain, however, when he realized that exiting the audience would be much more difficult than entering it. The surrounding audience had moved in closer together than they were prior to him infiltrating it, and no one appeared to have any desire to leave the show that was being offered to them. Jackson quickly concluded that any attempt to exit the circle wouldn't be worth the exertion, so he decided to stay and watch the woman continue to dance.

Ziv noticed immeadeatly that one of the men in her audience wasn't as captured by her movemnts as the others. That wasn't good. I fonly one of them would notice the rats, she would be blown in a second.
And that man somehow seemed scary to her as it was. There was something about him that told her to flee.
The instincts grew stronger, but she knew there was much more money to be earned here. Slowly, she got more nervous.
She cast the man a quick look. He'd cause trouble, she was sure. But she couldn't stop now.

Jay watched a crowd of men watching some show from a far as he bought bread from a local market. The men were entranced in what ever it was they were watching.
Jay showed an interest but made sure to keep his distance he didn't feel right about the crowd. He didn't like how close together the men seemed to be. He looked anxiously trying to see what the other men were looking at but he was too short. So in turn he ran into an alley way and quickly transformed showing his wings for only long enough to reach a roof top to gain a better vantage point.
After finding a spot on the roof where he could see he finally was able to tell it was a woman in a dress dancing quite provocatively. Jay was hardly interested knowing it was a woman but he felt the woman danced well. He ate his bread as he sat on the edge of the roof and watched. He secretly hoped some work would come of this even though he was almost positive it wouldn't.

Continuing to stalk down the boardwalk, something caught Jean's eye. A growing crowd of men had gathered between a few of the cheap carnival game booths. Perhaps something earning this much attention from everyone else deserved a little investigation. Striding over to the crowd, holding his head high, sneering at anyone who dare to meet his gaze, he saw her.

Dressed in fine fabrics, embellished with all sorts of eye-catching things, a young woman with pale skin and silky midnight hair danced in the center of the crowd. She danced with such grace-- with such passion, it was impossible not to notice. Leaning heavily on his striped staff, he lowered his head and watched her hungrily. His lips curled back into a malicious smirk. He had spotted the rats. Would he say anything? No... he would wait until she was finished with her dance. In the mean time, the poor rodent that had tried to pick his pocket would suffer a miserable fate.

Ziv continued to dance while her audience continued to grow.
She was just about to forget all about her instincts telling her to flee, when she heard a squeeking sound from an alleyway nearby.
It was a signal telling her that they had collected enough, but also a warning.
There were too many dangerous people in this crowd.
With a last turn, she stopped dancing and bowed.
A dissapointed groan went through the crowd, as she made clear she absolutely wouldn't dance anymore. There wasn't a reason to.

The sudden glance from the dancer caught Jackson by surprise. He didn't know how to receive such a look, and didn't know if she was attempting to get him more involved in the act or simply threatened by his presence. Narrowing his eyes in suspicion, he casually folded his arms across his chest. Something wasn't right about this entire situation, and it made Jackson uneasy in the slightest. He continued to watch more carefully than before, until a scent that highly disturbed him reached his nose.

The smell was that of common street rats, which was he was quite familiar with. It bothered him how strong and close the scent was, since it would mean that there were a good number of them roaming the streets near his current position. He vowed to track them down immediately after the performance, but quickly changed his mind as he felt something scurry across the end of one of his feet. With a swift glance downward, he reached out his foot and brought it down quickly upon the tail of a mouse with a death wish. To his surprise, he also noticed that the rodent carried a wallet that Jackson assumed would belong to the audience of the show.

Jackson contained a smirk with difficultly as he casually reached down to grab his trapped prey, quickly putting the wallet and vermin in different pockets of his trousers. The mouse strongly objected to being shoved in such a small space, and it bit Jackson in retaliation. He grimaced as he felt a small amount of warm blood accumulate on his hand, but resisted wrestling with the rat further to avoid drawing too much attention to himself. Finding the other mice would have to wait, since startling the crowd would only have them demanding for their money back.

As if on cue, the woman stopped dancing and bowed. It wasn't long until the disappointed crowd broke their circular formation to leave, and Jackson took this opportunity to pull the mouse out of his pocket. He dangled it by its tail, watching with an unmoved expression as it squirmed and squeaked. Since he was never pleased by the taste of mouse, he tossed it back onto the street where it came from. It frantically zig-zagged back into an alley, unwillingly leading Jackson to the location of the rest of the audience's money. While he was still confused over why a bunch of vermin without any way of using money would steal it, it didn't bother him greatly. He was already too distracted for the opportunity of money and a good game of cat and mouse to worry about much else, and Jackson began his pursuit towards the alley.

Ziv waited a little until most of the crowd had left.
Only a few men, most likely still hoping that she might start again, remained.
Especially one of them stood out to her, a man with a most unsettling look in his eyes. She cast him a quick look, not wanting to provocate him.
She had seen people like him before, and had learned to be careful. Especially when she knew he had seen her dance.
From the corner of her eye, she saw the other man walk away. The one she wanted to run away from for some reason. At first she was relieved, untill she noticed where he was headed.
It send shivers down her spine. She told herself to calm down, maybe he wasn't headed there because he had noticed...
And for nothing in the world would she turn her back to that scary individual.
She pretended not to notice him, clipped her necklace around her neck again and started tying her hair into a ponytail.
Maybe he'd go away.

After the dancer had stopped and the disappointed crowd had dispersed, Jean still gazed at her in a most unnerving manner. Her violet eyes kept flitting between him and another man. Out of the corner of his eye, he looked the other man up and down before he started down a nearby alleyway.

It seemed that he had caught on to the rats as well. Although, he seemed to think it was all the rats' doing and he had completely missed who the real mastermind was. Then again, Jean had a complex way of thinking that led him to that conclusion. Most people, they wouldn't have even considered that the filthy rodents were in cahoots with the dancer girl.

Letting the small, dead rat slip from his hand, he waited a moment before he approached her. From the look of things, she didn't want him there. Well that's just too bad my dear, He mused silently to himself.

"That was a clever trick my dear girl." he said, in a low and deadly voice, "Your dancing was a great distraction for your little furry friends. My question is, how did you teach them to pick pocket like that?" His eyes gleamed impishly, as he gave her another malicious grin.

Ziv gasped. The problem hadn't been the other man at all. It was this one.
And she knew she couldn't ever deny being behind the theft.
If he already knew that much, he'd figure that little lie out as well.
How did he find out?
She sighed. What was she supposed to do? Was he going to tell the marine?
Then it'd all be over for her. She'd never find Regina.
She folded her hands and looked at him in a pleading way.
Please, she begged him inside, please don't tell them.
She could only give him a pleading look, as she knew no matter how much she wanted to tell him anything, not a single word would escape her lips.
She reached for her neck to signalise him she was mute, her eyes still saying please, please don't tell anyone!

Raising a brow, Jean watched the girl curiously, as she motioned furiously. Mouthing 'please, please, please' he closed his eyes for a moment, shook his head and chuckled softly. Poor thing was a mute... or maybe pretending to be. Anyhow, he didn't see her explaining her feat to him anytime soon without paper and pen. Stroking his small, triangular goatee, he opened his eyes and gave the mute dancer a wry smile. Crossing his index finger over his exposed chest, making an 'X' he kept himself from snickering at the childish gesture.

"I promise not to tell a soul my dear." he said, delicately brushing some loose strands of her blue hair out of her face. "You see, I'm in the same trade as you...well, mostly. Thievery and piracy are quite close."

Ziv winced a little when he touched her hair, but she remained still.
That was, untill he spoke of piracy. That meant he had a ship?
She was excited, that was just what she needed so badly.
All of a sudden, her face brightened up. She grabbed the hand which was close to her face. Maybe he'd take her into his crew. Then she'd still have hope to find Regina soon. She smiled excitedly.
Then, suddenly, she remembered who she was dealing with here.
She wasn't sure if she could trust that man.
She didn't even know his name, and his attitude made him seem more shady and cold than trustworthy. She gave him a curious look, tilting her head a little, and started to get a nervous again. She needed to be careful.
Speaking of which, where did the other man go? She looked into the direction of the alleyway.

Upon seeing a man reach in his pocket to expose a rat Jay suddenly caught on to what the crowd was for. The woman had been stealing from the men in a very curious manner.
"Using animals what an interesting idea. So unnoticeable. but never mind that now" Jay mumbled to himself as he began to head over to the woman who was now talking to one of the men that had been watching the show from much closer than Jay. Jay knew thieves meant pirates and pirates meant a ship he needed to be on.
As Jay fluttered over to the pair he began to think of a good way to get them to take him in. It wasn't easy to persuade pirates but he'd come to be good at it in his time.
Jay stood back for a moment before diving in only to notice that something wasn't right they weren't together as he'd originally thought and she seemed as though she wasn't able to talk. Not to mention he began to sense another presence. Something was amiss

A grinning Jackson reemerged from the alley minutes after he entered, a petite sack of belli jingling as he tossed it up and caught it again repeatedly. He was quite pleased with his performance, even though most of the vermin had been able to escape before he had a chance to retaliate. This soured his mood little, as he now was in possession of enough money to last him a few days without worry.

The satisfied smirk on his face disappeared as he saw the dancer he was observing earlier communicating with a rather odd man, whom looked like a strange zebra of some sorts in Jackson's opinion. The woman seemed to be panicking over something, gesturing feverously as the man in black and white listened with amusement. They both appeared to be performers of some sort, to his eyes, and they may actually know each other. He quickly lost interest in their one-sided conversation, not particularly wanting to get involved in problems that belong to a stranger or two.

An odd sight quickly diverted his attention, and his eyes widened in alarm as he watched a young man glide down from a rooftop upon wings. Jackson blinked in an attempt to see if his vision was deceiving him. This was yet another queer occurrence that day to add to his list, which had already included thieving mice and disturbing zebra men. The man that flew down from the roof seemed to hold no interest in himself, but appeared to be watching the dancer and man attempt to communicate.

"And who might you be?" Jackson stated, walking up to the man who had sprouted wings earlier. "You don't appear to be a performer, yet you seem to be interested in the two standing over there."

"I'm just looking for work," Jay replied quickly thinking of the best excuse he could. He'd noticed someone in the alleyway but he wasn't expecting someone that didn't appear intimidating to Jay. However the air about him seemed to set him apart. He walked with a certain stride to him as he came over towards Jay.
Jay knew better though make friends not enemies with these kinds of people.
"The kind of work most wouldn't be interested in. If you know what I mean." Jay offered his basic guess as to the man's affiliation with this world. He clearly wasn't a marine and based on what Jay suspected to have been going on in the alleyway just a moment ago he knew he wasn't exactly a law abiding citizen either.

"Your accusasion of getting myself involved in such shady activities hurts," an amused Jackson replied, a note of sarcasm in his undertone. The man had a good deal of nerve to make such a risky statement to a stranger, but his comment entertained Jackson in the slightest.

"I'll have you know that if piracy was legalized and the marines weren't control freaks, I'd be quite the model citizen. You, on the contrary, don't appear to be the pirate-y type... If you 'know what I mean'," he stated, grinning slightly as he awaited the man's response.

Jay laughed he liked this guy already.
"Well if marines knew what the hell they were doing there would be no need for pirates like me. Vendetta is hardly a good thing. And don't worry about what I look like I'm perfect for the job I perform." Jay replied with an eerie smile. There was no need to run right now. He was being friendly as friendly as a pirate could be. Besides if he needed Jay had a circus trick up his sleeve like no other.
"Are you in the same boat I'm in?" Jay asked while trying to make to gauge whether or not he'd be in trouble if a fight broke out. Between himself and the man or not. But something began to go off in the back of Jay's head something that made him trust this man like he was the same as him. However it wasn't the fact that he was also a pirate.

Ziv let go of the strangers hand and took a step backwards. He certainly didn't look like a person to trust. Maybe she should stay away from him.
Suddenly, two men caught her eye. They appeared to be friends, judging from how friendly they seemed to talk.
She watched them curiously as she suddenly felt something climb up her ankle. Little, sharp claws grub into her clothes, leaving no holes since they were too small.
One moment later, Abo, her pet ferret, sat on her shoulder, nestling up against her cheek.
He had something in his mouth. Ziv reached up to grab it and noticed it was a wallet. Most likely one of the wallet they had st... borrowed from the audience.
She quickly made it disappear in her hand and looked for her coat. Something to hide it in.
As much as she loved Abo, he could really act stupid sometimes. Bringing her the loot like that... What if someone would notice?

Then suddenly from nowhere a silhouette spoke. The silhouette was slowly getting clearer and clearer. It was Gazelle Cruroar. He smiled at Ziv Hey miss. I think you are hiding something that is not yours? By the way that was a great performance . Suddenly a rat climbed his shoulder. This little fella told me about your plan. Quite impressive i might say

"You seem to have a thing for ambiguous comments, I see." Jackson smirked slightly, finding the response of the man to be pleasantly entertaining and worthwhile to continue their sudden conversation. "I'd like to think of myself as self-employed, and not looking for work as desperately as you appear to be. This sure is an odd place to be searching for such things, as you're bound to end up with some insane performers as crewmates."

Jackson cut off his statement abruptly as a furry critter caught his attention. He leaned around the man he was talking to in order to see where it was headed. Watching with an eyebrow raised in intrigue, he witnessed the creature give the dancer he saw earlier a wallet. It was if the animal was trained to do so, and stared blankly at the scene until something clicked within his mind. If the woman was able to teach a ferret to steal wallets, then why not rats? He considered the vile things to be useless and disgusting creatures, but he would admit that they can learn a thing or two if taught correctly.

"Hey, you over there!" he hollered, beginning to make his way over to the dancer and the man that accompanied her. "What exactly are you playing at? Stealing other people's belongings when you have them distracted with your dancing... With filthy rats," he added with distaste.

Not another... no, two other men.
Just how many more were going to notice? Today wasn't her lucky day.
Instead of answering, she grabbed her coat, quickly threw it over her shoulder and, without answering to any of them, made her escape.
When she passedthe man she had originally talked to, the one with the scary smile and unnerving look in his eyes, she cast him a quick look.It was a mixture of "I'm really sorry!" and "I'll make sure to continue this talk where it ended, okay?".
The rat on Gazelles shoulder quickly jumped down as she left, and fleed into an alley with the blinding speed of a rodent sensing danger.
Ziv smiled. She was good at running. She doubted anyone would catch her.
She knew she'd have to come back, be it for the ship or the loot. She would, but right now, the risk of being caught was too high.

(Yes, she's gonna return, or feel free chasing her, I dun really care, she's gonna return anyway.)

Jay launched after the man he'd been talking with. Thieving rats to think I only stayed away because I don't like crowds He felt he should help him they'd been having a good conversation and if Jay needed a friend he hoped this guy would return his favor. Then it hit him the man moved like a cat! Jay decided it was time to show his true self and do what he did best. Jay matched the man's stride for only a moment.
"I specialize in delivery and I'll give you a free look if you can keep up," Jay said quickly and then jumped a foot into the air. He then through a quick moment went from the form of a man to a large lark and flapped furiously towards the alley where the woman had just disappeared into. He could hear her footsteps. He flapped his wings as hard as he could and began to get close in on the woman as fast as he could. She won't see me coming Jay thought as he maneuvered into the alley.

Gazelle then stood up and spoke Making the great escape eh little miss? You don't get to escape that easily though. Cheetah come over here. Then suddenly a large cheetah came running from an alley. Gazelle slowly walks towards the cheetah and puts on his Vice Admiral suit. He then rides the cheetah and it ran towards Ziv. It was not long before they caught up on her. Hmm, Where are you going miss? You still not answered my question

Ziv was a little out of breath. It wasn't the first time she was being chased, but the first time she was being chased by a cheetah. She glared at the man. A marine... Slowly, she was starting to get mad.
Why couldn't those guys just leave her be?
And more importantly, how was she supposed to escape from him?
Then, suddenly, she heard a flapping sound. Sounded like... wings?
Huge wings...
She looked around, when she suddenly saw the source. Was that... a bird? Or a man?
She recognised him from somewhere, but she couldn't really... Oh, right, he was the one who had talked to the scary guy.
This might be her chance. Instead of avoiding him, she grabbed onto him as soon as he got close enough. And prayed that he could carry her.
Anything to get away from the marine...