Upon entering the forlorn property, Jasper felt some relief in his choice of attire. The rapidly approaching night found him favoring a long-sleeved black shirt, a pair of jeans, and a sturdy pair of brown work shoes. The treacherous earth had coagulated into a thin muck, hungering for the opportunity to despoil footwear and clothing alike. Some of Jasper's footsteps were met with a noisy squelch as he successfully located some of the deeper pools of mud.

I hope that will wash out..

Muttering softly to himself, Jasper continued up the path to the previously abandoned site. There were worse things for him to do than investigate a nocturnal carnival and its strange mistress. Though the skies darkened ahead, there was not a trace of trepidation to be found in the young man. Mud puddles aside, his footing was steady and unwavering in the dimming light.

He was either comfortable with the nighttime sky, or preparing to greet it as a close friend.

Kiyoko froze when she looked up and saw the old tents and deserted paths. And this is really said to be a famous travelling sensation? I think I know now why I never visited a carnival earlier. Completely attuned to investigate the place, she was quite disappointed when she saw that there wasn't anything to investigate. No one - except her and the other girls who waited in front of the gates - was on the grounds of the carnival and the stalls seemed to be abandoned as well. At least she assumed that after she heard the blond girl asking if anyone was there.
 
But to everyone’s surprise they eventually found someone else except them: a grumpy, old janitor who didn’t seem to be very nice. Kiyoko looked around. Why was no one there? Even the animals sought refuge in the forests. “I swear, Vulpix, there is something shady about it,” she said with a slight anxiety in her voice. “I never visited a carnival before. But I know that it should be funny and loud here. And this is definitely not the case!”
 
She suddenly noticed something shivering on her shoulder. “Hey, what’s the matter?!,” she asked him a bit worried.
 
Apparently he wanted to leave this place just like the other animals that just ran into the woods. “I– I f – feel unwell here, Kiyoko,” the little fox answered. “Can we please go back home?”
 
“I know it’s a bit scary here. But that’s exactly the reason why we’re here! We want to investigate this area, remember?” Kiyoko paused. “And after all you were the one who brought this place to my attention. So pull yourself together – I’m sure we can leave soon, okay?”
 
With the shivering fox on her shoulder Kiyoko went on and searched for anything that might help. But except the janitor and the girls, no one else was here. “Maybe we should go with the girls? Maybe they get the janitor to tell us something about the carnival. You know…Why it is…the way it is.” She noticed a questioning look from her guardian. “I know, I prefer doing it on our own too. But what else should we do? Do you have anoth–,” she suddenly interrupted herself. “Okay, I could try something else before we go to them. Let’s go to a forlorn place. I want to meditate.”
 
If she had learned anything through her years as Sailor Soldier, it was the fact that reconsidering the recent events could be a great help. Rule No. 1: Acting recklessly can get you into a real mess, she reminded herself in her thoughts. It was the first thing she learned when she became a Senshi.
 
“Meditating? There is no time for meditating,” Vulpix shouted at her.
 
“Psst,” she whispered and put her forefinger in front of her mouth. “The girls are here,” she said after she saw that the girls group was in close vicinity to her. Inconspicuous she continued with walking down the path. But suddenly she saw the janitor again – and this time he was…normal?! “It’s really fishy here. How could the janitor’s mood change so quickly?!”
Vulpix was right. There was really no time for meditating. The carnival was more than suspicious and she didn’t see another possibility at the moment than joining the girls. With a friendly smile she walked towards the group. “Hey! Maybe you already saw me in front of the gates…I’m Kiyoko!” She paused for a few seconds. “Are carnivals always like that? Admittedly I have to say, I never visited a carnival before. But nonetheless it doesn’t look as funny as people always describe it.”

Sailor Nocturnus

Pamina, lips sticky and pink from the cotton candy, glanced up at the brown-haired young woman, surprised by her nearness and loud voice. She had heard the woman approach (she wasn't exactly stealthy), but the smaller girl had not expected to be approached by a stranger, judging from how the gathering at the main entrance had gone. This person was not someone she knew as a sailor soldier, although that didn't mean the stranger couldn't necessarily be one. It did mean that Pamina would need to be careful about what she might reveal about herself.

It was obvious that the woman was not from this country. It seemed somewhat comforting, as she was a foreigner herself to this place and time. Knowing that made her less frightened than she might have otherwise been. Of course, not wanting to be on her own at this creepy traveling festival helped, too.

"I'm just waiting for my friends," she replied, peering up at the woman above the cloud of spun sugar in her hands. "We're going to get our fortunes told, but not right now."

"Is that what you're here for, too?"

"Okay!" Amber said smiling at Yumi, "I could go for some food. What would you like to get?" Amber continued to walk with her friend around the carnival. As they were walking she thought about how creepy the carnival was. It was getting darker out and things were very dimly lit. What if something jumped out at them? What if she tripped and hurt herself? She didn't like being scared and she didn't want to get hurt. 

As they walked along things started to look funny to her, she was scared by almost every sound, sometimes her ADHD had it's downsides. Yes she was easily distracted, but sometimes she just didn't want to be all over the place. There were some pretty things about the carnival that she started to notice. There were lots of cool illusions and she had to pay very close attention to things to tell if they were real or not. Yumi had pointed out an illusion on the tent earlier and it was pretty cool so Amber started to notice those more and more. 

All of the sudden as they were walking something fluffy caught her eye. She wandered away from Yumi to go investigate a stall with stuffed animals!!! There was a really cute light blue bear hanging up and she wanted it. "Yumi! Can we play this game really quick?" She called. Then she realized there was no one at the stall... She looked around a bit and then suddenly a man came out of no where and scared her! Suddenly a blast of orange light came out of Amber's hand and she had to think long and hard to make it stop. She hoped no one else noticed it, well at least no one who wasn't a senshi. She stepped forward and asked the man to let her play whack a mole. He told her how much it cost and she payed him and prepared to play the game.

Also, I want to clear up some things: 
The carnival isn't this dead lonely place with no caretakers or visitors. It is a normal active carnival that happens to be held only at night. Also, the carnival opened properly, right when the sun had set. Please keep these things in mind when posting.  It is a fairly lively place, just dark, but not broken or in poor condition. (except for the old buildings, of course) 

Quote :

"I could go for some food. What would you like to get?" 

Yumi pondered for a moment, bringing her hand to her lips as she looked around. "Fried Pickles." She grinned as she wandered away from Amber for a moment to fetch her noms. (HAHAHA look I used the word noms in a RP! ok ok lol) She soon heard her friend yell if they could play some sort of game, and when Yumi walked over to the game stand Amber was at, Yumi was surprised to see the small light leave her hand. "Careful." Yumi giggled, not thinking much about the situation.


An old grandfather clock struck out from somewhere on the grounds. It amazed Yumi that such an old place with history would still have a working clock. The girls had a half hour before their reading would begin. 

Just like earlier when the wind picked up and took away Yumi's pamphlet, it once again made it's presence known. Yumi's hearing went silent as a ghostly sound filled her ears.

The younger girl’s seemingly cautious demeanor was understandable to Nikolina; she too would have felt the same way had a stranger approached her when she was a child.

“Waiting for friends? That’s good,” Nikolina replied, smiling warmly. At least the girl's friends planned to meet her. When Pamina asked about the fortune-telling, Nikolina needed a moment to gather her thoughts together. She did not believe in allowing such nonsense to control her lifestyle; magical and superstitious things made people -especially her grandmother and mother- paranoid of too many things like the propuh and vampires. But Pamina and the other girls at the carnival gate seemed very excited to hear their fortunes. Nikolina did not want to kill the mood for the others, so she kept her thoughts on the subject to herself.

“I was actually more interested in the history of the site,” she admitted, “But since I am already here, I guess I could give it a try. Do you think palm readings are involved? Or will they tell your fortune from a deck of cards?” As she asked this, she pulled her right hand from her back pocket and inspected her palm carefully. All traces of the flame had vanished. Sighing in relief, Nikolina flipped her palm upward and shrugged. She could not help but wonder why the flame always seemed to spontaneously appear whenever she felt hungry. At the very least, it made toxic berries edible, but it couldn’t light cigarettes and it couldn’t burn people, so what use was it anyway?

Just as Nikolina was about to speak to Pamela again, the creaking gate forewarned her to yet another one of nature’s unpredictable disturbances. This time the woman braced herself for another sudden gust of wind, crossing her arms protectively over her chest.

"See yourself, can you see yourself? HOW DO YOU SEE YOURSELF?" the wind seemed to whisper eerily as it blasted Nikolina in the face and messed up her hair again. After the gust passed, the brown-haired woman looked around but saw nobody else in the vicinity with an appearance to match the eerie voice.

Strange. Either the Arcanum decided to talk or I am desperately in need of something to eat… I think I am in desperate need of something to eat…

It must have been her imagination. Wind didn’t talk, it howled.
 
After a long pause, Nikolina attempted to re-initiate conversation with the girl in hope of forgetting all about the strange voices presumably in her own head. “…So are you an international student here?” That might explain why Pamina wandered around the carnival without parental supervision. But wouldn’t she have a host family? Nikolina would have asked more questions, but decided not to chance creeping girl out. She was a stranger after all.

Minako shivered-that gust of wind was quite sudden. She looked around again. How many times has she overlooked the same set of tents? Minako opened her communicator again-no new messages from Ami. 

This was getting stupid. She was hoping to find Ami with Usagi and VesVes to share their findings, but no matter how many times she called out her name and called her communicator, Ami never picked up. Where was she? Didn't she notice how odd the place was?


Minako wasn't going to worry about her anymore. She was a senshi-she could fend for herself if it came to that. Minako turned to the other two. 


"You know what? Forget about Ami. Let's just investigate the place ourselves." Just as she turned her back to them, ready to jumpstart the investigation-she hesitated. What the heck was that? Where did that come from? Her heart pounded quickly in her chest as she returned to where they were. 


"Hey, hey, c'mon, I was joking!" Minako waved her hand and laughed-and hoped her laugh came off as authentic. "Of course we're not going to leave Ami behind. Usagi, try calling her-she might pick up for our princess. In the meantime, we should keep moving-staying in one spot hasn't helped us."


Minako knew somehow deep down she wasn't joking-for a solid second, she was dead set on leaving Ami behind. For that single, split second, she didn't care. For that second, she was ready to abandon her friend and comrade because the lack of contact was slowing her down. 


Minako gritted her teeth; disgusted with herself. She was the leader of the inners! How dare she have such horrid thoughts! It was the dark-yeah, that's it. It was the dark and dank atmosphere, maybe the cold too. The lack of shopping was getting to her. Pushing that horrid and out of character intrusive action aside, Minako started moving. 

Jasper continued his dilettantish tour of the carnival, attempting to find the appeal in the nature of these events. Was it the overpriced food, the attractions, or just the atmosphere of the place? The fault may have lied within himself; his childhood memories were extremely hazy at best.

In an effort to relax, Jasper pushed aside his shrewdness long enough to purchase a bottle of soda. A few controlled purchases wouldn't hurt him, and he could stand to dwell on something other than the glaring gaps in his memory.

*FWSSSHHT*

Opening the bottle was a quiet moment of joy; it kept his hands comfortably cool even while singing promises of a fizzy paradise. Tilting the container up to his mouth, Jasper drank half of his beverage in one long draught. He paused to reflect on the cola's dark flavor, sweet with just a hint of bitterness. Maybe he would find something that interested him in this carnival. With a shrug of his shoulders, Jasper lifted the bottle again to quaff the remainder of its contents.


"See yourself, can you see yourself? HOW DO YOU SEE YOURSELF?" 

Jasper's nasal cavities suddenly gave way to a torrent of sweet carbonated water. He coughed violently, having lost his mouthful of soda to the ephemeral speaker's unwelcome inquiry. Fortunately for him, no one was standing in range of his sugary spittle. Though that spared the young man some embarrassment, it also meant that the mysterious speaker did not simply whisper into his ears from close proximity.

He didn't appreciate these intrusive questions, especially not when the speaker was hidden from view. To Jasper, it was as if a tormenting voice from the past was trying to reinsert itself into his life. He had escaped the bullying of the Dark Kingdom's minions by meeting their aggression head on; since then, he vowed to never again be swayed by fear.


Upon recovering from his coughing, Jasper quickened his footsteps and sought out the nearest signs of life - a pretty young child with dark blue hair, and a brown-haired woman who appeared to be in his immediate age group. The little one in particular seemed to be startled by some unknown thing. Did she hear the voice too? It couldn't hurt to ask.

Sucking in a deep breath through his nose, the young North American man spoke to the ladies with a hastily composed voice. "Did either of you hear something just now?"

"Ami-Chan!" Minako breathed in relief. "Oh thank goodness you finally picked up! I'm here with VesVes and Usagi-you were right after all. There's something not right with this place. The animals have been acting weird upon VesVes's inspections and Usagi actually had to heal someone. The janitor was ignoring everybody until she did. That means he was under some type of influence, otherwise he wouldn't have had such a drastic change in mood. "

Minako looked around-now there were employees in every stand, including the one she was inspecting. He was setting up the cups just right in order for them to be knocked over, and another person was standing with a megaphone announcing the games opening up. 

So the place wasn't as abandoned as she thought. She just got stuck in a spot where the employees were slacking off getting the games ready. So there really wasn't anything suspicious with the lack of people earlier-that was a bit of a relief. So the place wasn't as shady as she once thought. But between the animals and the woods and the janitor actually responding to Usagi's healing, something was definitely up. 

Suddenly, VesVes seemed agitated. She swirled around and demanded that some invisible force fight her. Noticing Minako's questioning gaze, she stammered and changed the topic. 

"You heard something?" Minako took a brief pause of updating Ami of the situation. VesVes was not the kind to act ready for a fight over just anything. Sure, she had a bit of a short fuse-but her body language when she swirled and the look in her eye as she glanced around for an invisible opponent was too intense to be just a simple moment of angry outburst. 

"What happened?" Minako then turned to her communicator. "Ami-Chan, I gotta go, something just came up. Ves might have heard something the rest of us didn't." She paused-then added: "I don't know what took you so long to pick up, but I'm glad you're okay. I'll call back ASAP once I talk to Ves about whatever-the-heck just happened." She clicked her communicator shut and gave VesVes her full attention.

"I didn't hear anything. Did you, Usagi?" There was a pause, then: "Look, I know you're not the kind of girl to just act up like that out of nowhere-at least not with that much anger. You looked like you were ready to deck someone."

Sailor Nocturnus

"Was it a strange voice?" she asked in a hushed whisper, holding her long hair close to the sides of her face, almost muffling her soft voice.

It didn't even occur to her, in this moment of fear, that she should be on the alert for talking to strangers. She was already engaged in conversation with one--adding another when distracted by inhuman-sounding voices posed no issue. If she had been less frightened she might have been amused to see that this tall man also appeared non-native to Japan. It was as though the foreign-looking parties had collected together somehow. Pamina herself didn't give the impression of belonging to any one particular place, but her brown skin often marked her as an outsider regardless of the location.

"Oh!" Minako jumped-a girl with the lightest blonde hair she had ever seen seemed to creep up on the group. Minako quickly made sure he communicator was closed and stopped all conversation-she hoped the girl didn't overhear anything. It would blow their cover. 

"Haha, sorry sorry!" Minako laughed nervously. "You startled me!" 

"Oh! You're name's Kiyoko? Nice to meet you! My name's Minako-Minako Aino."

Minako couldn't help but laugh once the girl told them about this being her first visit to a carnival. "Man, did you choose the wrong place! Carnivals are normally waaaaaay more fun and active then this! Not to mention less creepy. There's normally more snacks and less abandoned buildings."

Minako hesitated. This girl-a civilian- was the first and only one to approach them. Should she ask Kiyoko if she noticed anything strange, or if she saw Ami? Minako would have to tread lightly if she was going to try to get any information out of her-she wouldn't want to put this girl in a dangerous position. 

"But man," Minako decided a casual approach would be best. "Have you noticed the animals in this place? They've gone nuts! I've heard a rumor that animals can sense evil spirits. Do you believe in any of that?"

"Yeah," Ves replied, nodding in response to Minako's question. "It was weird...something about knowing myself? But not in a motivational way, it was like an 'answer-me-or-else' kind of way. I don't know, it was creepy! Like the wind was talking! There's gotta be something going on..." She cracked her knuckles. "Something that hopefully I can teach a thing or two to...if ya know what I mean. I'm surprised the rest of ya didn't--"

She stopped immediately at the appearance of a civilian. Oh man, how much had she heard? Hopefully not a lot. Hurriedly, Ves in clenched her fists, though still looked apprehensive. Then suddenly, it was almost as if someone had flipped a switch.

"Oh my goooodddd!!! That fox is so CUTE!! What's his name? Is he yours? I just...oh, I love foxes! Well, all animals really, but foxes are so adorable!" She said this all really fast, bouncing on the tips of her toes. "Oh, by the way, I'm VesVes, though you can just call me Ves," she added, addressing the girl. "Nice to meet ya, Kiyoko!"

When Kiyoko joined the group she felt more like a disturbing factor. The blond and the red-haired girl were talking about something and as it seemed it was a quite serious conversation. “Oh, I’m sorry – am I disturbing?,” she asked when she saw the blonde girl startling. Maybe I should have stayed where I was. What was I just thinking?
 
“Nice to meet you too, Aino-san,” she friendly said after the girl cooled down and introduced herself. “Yeah, I was already wondering if this is the right place. When I walked down the streets I only heard good things about this carnival from the other people. Could it be that we are in a wrong area of the carnival?”
 
When Minako asked her if she believed in the rumors that animals can sense evil spirits, Kiyoko wasn’t sure what to say. “Well, actually I never devoted myself to that topic,” she said and smiled. Do I believe in that?, she asked herself inwardly. She really had no idea what to think of that. “Everything I heard was that animals can sense earthquakes and such things. But I’m not sure about evil spirits.”
Suddenly the red-haired girl joined the conversation as well. She spoke very fast which made it quite hard for Kiyoko to understand everything. “Oh, thank you,” she smiled. “This is Vulpix. I got him when I was 16 years old.” She paused until the girl introduced herself. “The pleasure is all mine, VesVes-san!” Kiyoko felt a bit uncomfortable to call her by her first name. She felt so…impolite. After all, they didn’t know each other. Nonetheless she hid her awkwardness – it would be even more impolite to show it.
 
“Where is your friend…if I may ask? How was her name? Oh yeah, Mizuno-san!” After telling VesVes the same things she told the blue-haired girl earlier, she noticed that she wasn’t with the girls. “I thought she was with you – well at least she stood next to you in front of the gates.” Maybe I shouldn’t have asked that. Why am I asking such impertinent things? I don’t know them, I should be discreet! Kiyoko regretted that she asked them about it. It was absolutely not like her. “I– I’m sorry. You don’t have to answer that. I was just worried because I haven’t seen her in a while. Sorry for my curiosity.” Deeply ashamed she noticed how she blushed.

Amber looked over when Yumi came back. She had a fried pickle in her hand and now she wanted one, but she really wanted to play the game too! She really wanted the blue stuffed bear. She heard Yumi giggle at her almost showing her powers and Amber pouted a bit. "It's not funny." Amber said to Yumi. Then the man at the post told her the game was about to begin and she turned her attention back to whack a mole. As soon as the game started she was off. She was trying really hard to win and was super close when all of the sudden, she was distracted by the clock chiming. 

"Aww! I really thought I was gonna win. Stupid clock." Amber said blaming the clock for catching the attention of her ADHD and distracting her from claiming her prize. She asked the man to let her play again. This time she'd try REALLY hard to focus. Maybe then she'd win the bear. This time weirdly enough as she started the game it was like she was able to focus really hard. She didn't notice anything going on around her as she tried her hardest to hit all of the moles as they came out of their holes. The bell dinged for the round to be over and Amber seemed to snap back to her easily distracted self.

The man told her she won and she jumped for joy and picked her prize. She happily got the fluffy blue bear and showed it proudly to Yumi! "Alright I'm hungry now, where're those fried pickles?" She asked Yumi and happily started walking with the bear to the food stands.

Minako couldn't help but giggle. This girl with her pet fox was a cutie. She was fairly clueless and fumbled with her thoughts a lot, and seemed rather shy. 

"Don't worry about it, Kiyoko! No need to get all quiet and nervous on us!" She patted the girl on the shoulder reassuringly. "We're all friends here, just came here to enjoy a weird carnival is all. Would you like to come with us? We'll show you all the good spots! Usagi here is great at scoping out the best food stalls, and I, for one, am best at scoping out the games. You'll get the hang of it in no time!"

Minako hoped the other two senshi didn't mind having this girl stick with them. This carnival clearly had something dark amiss, and this shy and bumbling teenager wouldn't last a second if disaster were to strike. The safest place for Kiyoko to be was with them. Besides, she took notice of Ami and knew what she looked like. The more help to find her, the better.

Yumi munched on her fried treat as she watched her friend play her mole game. "Wow" Yumi mumbled between mouth fulls of food. Amber was good, really good, at this game. Her reflexes were so fast, and the moles vanished quicker than they appeared. 

Yumi went to congratulate her on her victory when she heard the eerie howl in the wind. 

"See yourself, can you see yourself? HOW DO YOU SEE YOURSELF?"

Had the younger girl really heard the same voice? Nikolina, lost in a slight daze, scratched the back of her head in confusion. None of this made any sense to her. Somebody had to be playing a prank on them.

“Strange voice?...I-” Nikolina suddenly froze in place. Every muscle in her arms tensed up as an unfamiliar masculine cough pervaded the eerie stillness of the evening air. Was it the same voice from before!? But wait, it was inquiring… about itself? Startled, the Slavonian woman whipped around with her fist raised, nearly punching the approaching American man in the face for sneaking up on her; but when she realized he had no intention of grabbing her, the fear in her cold brown eyes melted away. This man--the first man she had seen all night--sounded equally as concerned about the noises as Pamina. So the strange voice couldn't have been her imagination. Weird. Nikolina lowered her fist and apologized to Jasper for the hostile response, but made it clear that she did not trust him by taking a few steps backward when he stepped closer.

“I think I heard it too, but I don’t think it is something to worry about,” Nikolina replied noncommittally to the other two people. She had yet to hear a believable explanation for the sudden bursts of wind and the mysterious whispers. There was absolutely no point in getting scared...yet. “I don’t believe in the propuh; wind doesn’t talk, it howls. Wind also doesn't damage kidneys… Somebody must be making a prank.” The Croat paused for a moment, reflecting upon her “reassuring” words. Was it making a prank or making a joke? Foreign languages were hard…

Cosmos-Hime wrote:

"Ami-Chan!" Minako breathed in relief. "Oh thank goodness you finally picked up! I'm here with VesVes and Usagi-you were right after all. There's something not right with this place. The animals have been acting weird upon VesVes's inspections and Usagi actually had to heal someone. The janitor was ignoring everybody until she did. That means he was under some type of influence, otherwise he wouldn't have had such a drastic change in mood. "

[...]

After listening to Minako over her communicator, Ami becaame worried.  Ami had only pointed out one thing that was wrong with this carnival.  For Minako, arguably the most fun-loving of their close-knit group of five, to find enough other things wrong with it to generalize it to the whole place really meant a lot.  A small shiver of fear ran down Ami's spine.  What had they gotten themselves into?

Suddenly, Ami realized she was all alone in the dark in this spooky place.  As a result, a little bit of her power flashed out into her immediate vicinity, causing a nearby pond (placed there for decoration) to start to freeze over.  So when Minako hung up the communicator call, Ami started moving again, both to explore some more and hopefully to find some other people's voices that she could join with.

Before long, Ami heard a female voice that seemed to be talking in an Eastern European accent about a strange voice and a prank.  It wasn't exactly the most reassuring thing to hear when you're alone in the dark and starting to get a little scared, but she figured being with other scared people was better (or at least less bad) than being alone.  So the blue-haired teenage girl headed to the source of that voice.

Soon Ami found the group in question.  It consisted of a tall American young man, a woman who kind of looked like a gypsy herself (who Ami figured must've been the source of the voice that drew her here), and a younger girl with blue hair (not the girl with the fox on her shoulder that she had met outside the entrance gates).  Ami tried to sound confident as she greeted the group "Good evening, all of you.  My name is Ami Mizuno.  Would you mind telling me your names?"  But a slight hint of her fear was present in her voice as Ami said that.

Hotaru stood by the gateway entrance to this remote circus. The creepy background music could be hears in the distance, the characteristic sound of fast tempo music, namely "Entrance of the Gladiators", played under crispy speakers.

The carnival itself was a beacon of light in the middle of darkness, the bus who brought Hotaru to this isolate place turning and heading back to the city. Hotaru worn a long sleeved black shirt, a worn jeans vest over it and dark brown cargo pants. She carried her red backpack with the bare necessities on her right shoulder.

As was the case with her, dreams of this mysterious carnival had plagued her nights. Something about it beckoning her to come. She knew it was her duty to come and deal with whatever lied in wait here.

"A pittance to enter, a lifetime to play", she said unto herself. A strong gush of sidewind blew over her, shaking her short hair. "See yourself, can you see yourself? HOW DO YOU SEE YOURSELF?"

The voice had come and gone. Hotaru slowly turned around into the pitch black darkness that was now the way back into the city. This only confirmed her intuition right, once more. She turned back to the circus, unafraid.

Sailor Nocturnus

It was slightly reassuring to hear the young woman dismiss the idea of ghosts. (Although she was distracted for a moment to ponder the words about kidney damage. Pamina was vaguely aware of kidneys as important body organs, although not much on their specifics, and she wasn't sure if this was something she needed to worry about. There was something about the slight uncertainty in the woman's tone that--rather than making it clear Pamina could automatically dismiss such a notion--left it as a suggestion of possibly something to consider. Maybe it was something she'd have to look up, later. After... after whatever was going to happen at this carnival.)

"I'd feel better if it was just a prank," she admitted, reflecting on how much she generally disliked tricks. She didn't exactly think that being scared by something was funny, but she knew that other people disagreed.

Pamina was waiting for the man to reply when another stranger approached them. This was a teenage girl with short blue hair. Almost immediately she introduced herself by name and asked for their names. Given the atmosphere of this carnival, the child hesitated to answer right away. Wasn't there a saying that telling your name could give someone else power over you? She glanced back and forth between the less-new strangers, waiting to see how they would react to this newcomer.

Kiyoko was glad when Minako took it easy. If someone would have asked such things to Kiyoko, she would have reacted somewhat cold to this much curiosity. However, these teenagers didn’t seem to be very withdrawn which made her feel a bit better. “Thank you,” she said with relief when the blond girl told her that everything was alright. “Ummm – sure,” Kiyoko later answered to the question if she would like to join. “But I don’t want to bother you…I can understand if you don’t want to hang out with a complete stranger.”

She knew something was odd about these girls. The things Kiyoko heard earlier from them seemed as if they were special agents or something like that. Maybe even Sailor Soldiers. But since it was quite improbable she would take the thought aside at first. However, they didn’t seem to be agents at all. They were so…ordinary. Kiyoko was curious who they really were, so she eventually decided to join them.

The rest of the group was getting food at various carnival stands.  Usagi stood where she could still be seen by the group, but she didn't get any food, not that she didn't want to, Usagi loved food, but she was still full from dinner with Mamoru and was not hungry enough to eat the carnival food at the moment. 


Usagi gazed up to the stars, to the moon and smiled, it was such a clear night and the lights of the carnival added to the happiness she felt, even if the carnival was just a bit eerie.

The clock had finally struck the hour of their reading. Yumi tossed her food stick into a nearby trashcan and turned towards the purple tent. Some dry leaves that had fallen with the recent wind crunched under her feet. As she approached the tent her wrist ached, something was off, but she convinced herself that it was just her imagination. She didn't want to bring up the wind chill to anyone else, she didn't want to seem crazy.


One by one the girls entered the tent and sat around an old wooden round table. The table had a dark purple cloth laying over it, but the cloth was a square. This caused four of the corners to slightly lay off of the table, and the sides of the table remained bare. In the middle of the table laid a golden stand that housed the crystal ball. 


The girls waited patiently, time seemed to slow down. As Yumi looked around the room she noticed that the walls were all covered, as if hiding something. A black cloth flowed around them, sometimes waving at the bottom from the wind. What was behind the curtain walls, and between the actual tent? An older woman entered from an attached room. She was wearing several layers of brightly colored clothing and beads that clanked with every movement. Her hair was pulled back under a babushka. 

She never mentioned her name, but simply sat down and said one simple sentence. "Let's experience yourselves." She placed her hands over the crystal as the room became darker. Yumi was sure of it, something was behind the black drapes that covered the walls.


Yumi instantly saw herself, but she wasn't quite herself. Something was off with this Yumi in her mind. The Gem of Aqua was on the opposite wrist and the girl's Fuku was darker than Yumi's pastel shade of blue, but Yumi kept her mind focused on the other Yumi's gem. Something was off about it, something sinister. Sailor Splash, Yumi's other self, was wearing the symbol of The Second Moon of Aqua over the gem. 


Task
Describe what your opposite self would be/ how they would act. This is the image that you see in your mind.

{{Seating order does not matter, so please don't comment on this. Nothing rash should happen either, such as don't go breaking stuff and starting a fight with the gypsy that entered the room. You are all basically in a daze.}}

Sailor Nocturnus

Pamina could only stare at the girl, who seemed both too familiar and too strange.

This "Sailor Nocturnus" physically resembled herself--they shared the same dark skin, black eyes, and navy hair. That was where it ended. This sailor soldier was older, at least a teenager if not a young adult. Her poise and expression seemed confident and self-assured, as though she had truly come into control of her powers. Her uniform was not what Pamina wore as Nocturnus--instead of black and blue, this sailor soldier wore dark gray and peach. Although she was decorated with stars, they were not gold stars, but instead bright stars of a tangerine hue... and she though she saw something glittering in the center of those star-shaped jewels...

If she had not been in a trance, Pamina would have screamed. This "other self" proudly wore the symbols of her mother's enemy... Sarastro!

Kiyoko was puzzled when she saw someone in front of her who had exactly the same appearance. The same eyes, the same skin tone, the same hair color. It could have been a clone. However, the aura around the double was a different one. She seemed to be blithe…confident… joyful. That was absolutely not like her. But who was she? Suddenly lots of people came in the picture, they all stood around her. The girl was in the center of the circle. Talking. Laughing. What is going on?
 
She had…friends? They all seemed to enjoy the time and joked about everything. Who were these guys? And who was this extroverted girl who looked exactly like Kiyoko?