Journey without end

[Elyd]

Dari sat stiffly with the others in the dining room, watching on as Colleen snuck off with the captain and Nari and Damian went to save the ship. Dari still didn't believe this was happening. If she weren't so well in control of her emotions, she would be scowling. This is impossible, she repeated in her head. Time changed depending on how fast you were moving, that was true, but time could not go backward or forward. Time was too fluid for that, and humans were too linear. Dari had enjoyed her first year physics classes, unlike her sister, and was pretty sure that their father hadn't been working on anything related to time, either. He was a chemist, usually. Perhaps this was just a delusion.

Yes, that's it, Dari thought. A delusion. With my sister. Who is having strange feelings for the fellow characters in this delusion. Dari shook her head slightly, attempting to clear it. She might as well relax into this. Nari had taken her computer to use, but she had looked up what a circus freak was before the computer was taken away. It was getting late, and the fellow passengers were glancing expectantly at the remaining troupe. Dari stared hard at a few of the passengers, willing them to wonder about her eyes. She was sure not many people would have mismatched eyes in this time period. Especially light pink ones.

She cocked her head toward the Doc. "The people here wish to see a performance," Dari said softly. "Shall we create a distraction while the others execute their roles?" Dari was not nearly as good at acting out without her twin, but Nari had more important things to do, if this ship really was about to kill people. Perhaps her robotic demeanor, youth's body, and scanty clothing would be enough. Her clothing certainly was scanty by the audience's standards. "We can at least attract some attention so that no one leaves and discovers the others," she said aloud again.

 

[Selenite]

Colleen instantly hunched backwards as she saw Damian and Nari entering the room. She did well, as soon the action got started; kicks and punches and it did not take long before the first shots were heard. Damian moved, as usual, swiftly, but Colleen was not going to sit and watch- she instead took cover behind the side of the bed, crouching, and covered her ears.

She closed her eyes, too, and she opened to see some bullets roll towards her, scattered randomly.

Right, she said to herself. She wasn't sure whether or not she should have seen how did that happen. But when she noticed things were more silent, she rose up from behind the bed, just in time to see Damian smiling nervously at her in front of the guards' knocked-out bodies. The twin seemed to know her part pretty well, too, and Colleen simply followed them with her eyes as they got to the next room.

''Woha. Sick!'' she said, as she carefully stepped over the bodies, and closed the door.

Then she stomped over the bodies again, lifting her dress so that she wouldn't step on it, and went to the control room where the other two time-travellers were.

 

[Stacisaur]

Time had passed like a calm tornado over Zakia. Barely had she even noticed all that was going on, but that shouldn't be surprising to any who knew her. And, the only one to really know her was the Doctor. Others may see her as just that one crumbling cookie that needs to be wrapped up in semi comfortable white bandages and laying against a soft, padded wall. Even though that would sound like a pleasant time, she would disagree. Why would someone want to be in a padded room when there could be a room full of tea and crumpets nearby? The imagination knew no bounds, and all was possible.

This was completely besides the point of 'now' in the story unfolding.

Finally entering the room where the majority of the group was idly staring about, Zakia smiled, weaving through unknown, elegant bodies waltzing around and chattering across her ears. Stepping up in front of the young woman that was from the far, far Future, she came to blend with the conversation. A show, of course. Of course that would be the most splendid idea. Nodding her head, really to no one in particular, her colored dreads bobbed against her jawline.
"I don't mean to upturn my nose to anyone, but I am quite acrobatic and rubbery when it comes to imitating those in the circus."
While speaking, Zakia had held up an arm over her head in a slight curve at the elbow, back straightened with poise. Her right leg began to raise behind her a bit as the toes pointed down, one line of a limb showing through.

When they were ready, she would be ready. She was ready to perform and convince the strangers around them that they were who they claimed to be.
Zakia absolutely adored playing pretend.​

 

[Elyd]

Dari turned slowly to stare at Zakia, both bewildered and amused by her sudden acrobatics. Perhaps Zakia would be a good enough substitute for her twin, someone Dari could feed off of with strange movements and remarks, at least while she and her twin were separated. Zakia had spent the time earlier staring at walls, after all. She certainly could be a good enough competitor for the twins in "off-putting". Dari made a mental note to keep an eye on Zakia later, to make sure she didn't upstage the twins in strangeness. She still couldn't get over how the people just shrugged at their two-colored eyes and fresh, young faces and polished-shiny skin. As if these were people who had spent time under a surgeon's knife themselves, which Dari found hard to believe. She couldn't imagine someone choosing their skin, eyes, and hair if they'd had access to something else.

Slowly Dari nodded at Zakia. "You and I will ... perform," she said quietly, cringing inwardly that she was actually about to work with these people. "What else does one do in a ... circus?" Dari stumbled over the last word, having never had a chance to try it out before. She wanted to roll her eyes, but years of practice kept her face neutral, robotic. "My muscles have been augmented, so I will be able to perform whatever feats are necessary to keep eyes on us." Not, she thought to herself, that it was all that difficult. They were staring already. If only she had her twin - then the passengers would really have a sight! Two robotic girls with strange eyes! At some point she'd have to say something about her studies to impress them even more. She wondered what 14 and 19-year-olds her companions were used to were like and whether she and Nari were anywhere near like them.

To get the show started, Dari stood up from her seat at the table and slowly and mechanically turned her head from one side of the room to the next, taking in the group's surroundings and holding eye contact with each passenger that looked at her. She nodded at some of them, mouth straight, posture upright. Once she had taken in the whole room, she turned to Zakia and held her hand out to her to take. "Lead," she mouthed at the girl, hoping there were more acrobatics that the two could perform.

 

[Effort]

Damian started to relax when he saw the icebergs passing by the giant boat, a safe distance away. Carefully minding his wound he plopped himself into a chair and let out a huff of breath before he got around to worrying about how long the guards would be unconscious and when the next jump might be. Traveling on a tangent of thought, Damian realized how handy it would be to be able to communicate remotely amongst the group, in case they managed to become separated unintentionally. He stowed this idea away for later contemplation.

"Ay we do some good team work" he said aloud to Nari and Colleen, grinning. Nari seemed really smart for her age, but then maybe all kids her age were so smart in the future. Colleen looked good in this outfit, especially since he hair wasn't so funky looking now. Damian put his hand on Nari's head as recognition for her part in the whole plan, and a sly wink to Colleen for hers. It may provide some measure of personal expansion to get to know the times they were from, maybe he'd start with Colleen first. Resting his elbow on the arm rest of the chair, he leaned to Colleen's direction, a slight arc in his brow "So Colleen...."- he didn't get anything else besides that, something distracted him. A persistent, unpleasant sensation, like trying to remember something important.

Looking around and lifting charts and maps until he found it, he put the spyglass to his eye and looked out ahead. Dread seeped into his expression, of course there were going to be more icebergs. "Mierda." Tossing the spyglass onto the desk he called out the angle at which he was turning the wheel for Nari to record and hauled himself up to the wheel, giving it a sharp turn. He hoped the turn wasn't so sharp as to dislodge passengers from beds or seats, or luggage from compartments. But it had to be done if they were going to survive this field of glacial giants. "Nari, can you find a way to-" he gestured impatiently yet vaguely at the field of icebergs they were traveling farther into "-to find a good way through esa catastrofe with your fancy technology?" If they couldn't find a way to predict ahead of time what kind of path to take amongst these deathbergs their chances to survive would be that much slimmer.

 

[Stacisaur]

Many different pairs of eyes were laid upon the two, all fixated with confusion, wonder and curiosity. However, Zakia didn't feel like she was being watched at all. It was probably because she was use to this kind of reaction when she was in a room. Or, it could have been because she often did not focus on what others' thought. As long as there were no pitchforks and torches, everything was splendid in her opinion. Gazing to the hand before her, she found herself admiring the skill of holding such a stern face. It was extremely difficult for Zakia not to smile, so she just had to give credit to the young woman for staying so stone-like in her expression. Flashing a quick grin, dark toned fingers gently placed themselves against the offered porcelain palm. A light squeeze to the hand was given before she had withdrew her own back to her side.

And so it began.

Pointing her toes to step forward a few inches, a graceful twirl moved the lanky figure along, sending some dreadlocks up into the air. Gently bending her arms in front of her at the elbows, her form was straight while in motion, focused on the complicated physics of balance in her mind. Coming to a halt, Zakia figured some simple acrobatics would be essential this early in a performance. Something just to make the crowd go 'oooh' and 'aaah', nothing too serious... yet. Eyeing the floor in front of her, like binoculars, her eyes worked on isolating a particular spot. Reaching out with her arms before her once more, even her fingertips were increasing in length, it seemed. Her right leg lifted behind her as her waist kept still, hinging at the hips softly until her nails touched the clean wooden surface. As her hands inched to flatten beneath her, the leg raised bent backwards, still moving until it was straight above her head. Feeling stable, the other leg began to lift, slowly but surely. Yes, it was gradually turning into a handstand.

Once she had reached the point of being vertical, Zakia's legs, one by one, began to bend forward to come down in the other direction. Looking like an awkward, yet dainty, crab at one point in the progression, she made use of her abdominal muscles to bring her body up into a standing position once again. And, still, she held a smile, turning her head to find the crowd watching. There was amusement in some eyes, and others waiting for more. More would be what they would receive. Feeling a bit more limber, Zakia tilted her head back to look at Dari behind her. "Your turn", she mouthed silently, an arm coming up behind her torso, finger curling to beckon her comrade to come forth.
Her mind was already working, and if they needed to use equipment for some sort of act, they could certainly do the old chair stacking, balancing skit. Every circus played with chairs. It was as if chairs were some sort of secret weapon of mass amusement. Actually.. that made chairs sound kind of dangerous. But, no! It could be fun! If neither of them fell, of course.​