The screams of children echoed. Everywhere. The screams travelled through the sidewalk cracks, up the barks of shedding Pin Oaks, and most of all, the screams tore through parent's wallets like an overweight child in a tight pair of pantyhose.

There were cotton candy booths, candy wrappers all over the floor. Stuffed animals with smiles sown shut, dangled on hooks way above the reaches of grubby little hands. Tickets were being tossed about, left, right, above, around. Slobber on t-shirts. Snot dangling from little nostrils. A candy apple, half-eaten sticks on the ground. Flashing lights. Corn on the cob. Extension cords hidden under rubber walkways. Parents being tugged. Kids being scolded. Capitalism soaring.

All the children screams everywhere. Adults past their prime pretended to care while some forgot their age and ran through the fun house anyway. Yes, this was a carnival and carnivals should not ever exist 'just because' but here one was. In the middle of New York streets. 

Lincoln sat on a crusty bench beside the porta-potties criss-cross applesauce, head-phone in his ears blasting heavy metal. He couldn't believe he signed up for this, and it took his entire will power to wait in peace. A coworker had invited him, and he felt that saying no would be too lame so he came.

He kept his eyes closed, trying to stay as calm as he possibly could. He was erupting with disgust and he knew that if he stood up before Bill came out of that stall, something in him would burst.

Just as Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" started to play, a loud gust of wind accompanying a dull thud plopped in front of Linc.

He opened his eyes to see a porta-potty toppled over, its insides leaking out onto the floor. 

Linc's chest leaped out of his body and a replicate of his jean and sweater wearing self zippered out of him and flipped over the back of the bench.

"THAT IS FUCKING GROSS! UGH" Lincoln's Motus of disgust grabbed the original Linc with both hands and yanked on his sweater. Now that Linc's disgust was personified, he could notice that a person was banging on the Porta-potty's wall from the inside.

"We should probably help that person out." Linc said to his Motus, who kept yanking at his sweater, and then stopped, let go, and ran in the opposite direction to get away from the leaking Porta-potty. 

"Hey-wait!" He turned around, but his Motus was gone. And there was still a person trapped inside. Great

Zek ran through the fun house like an adult that forgot their age, except for the fact the Zek definitely remembered his age (he just didn’t want to tell you right now for reasons that he didn’t want to tell you right now). But he didn’t really care.

Bursting out of the place with his cotton candy stuck to his face by the caramel from the candy apple he’d had earlier, Zek was rocking a pastel punk sugar beard as he immersed himself in the carnival.

It wasn’t quite as nice as the last carnival he’d been to, but he considered it to still be pretty fun, even if it didn’t have murderous clowns and all the tents weren’t burning down. Then again, the carnival was still open for some time and Zek did have a box of matches…

A strong gust of wind blew past as Zek was taking a circuitous route to the ferris wheel. It caused his trenchcoat to flare out extremely dramatically for a moment so he stopped and posed heroically yet mysteriously, in case anybody nearby wanted to take his picture for a magazine cover. That meant Zek caught sight of two things that were perking up the carnival. Well, three things really.

A Johnny-on-the-spot tipped over with someone inside and then this dude just…puked up another him. The new version immediately ran away and Zek snickered. “Hey, can you do that again?” he said as he beelined toward the guy with cotton candy in his hand and even more cotton candy on his face.

Linc leaped off the bench and slid his earmuffs off his head. The portapotty that Bill went in was still upright but no sight of Bill. He did complain of stomach cramps earlier. If it weren't for the foul stench he would have pitied Bill, but the person trapped in the potty seemed like more of a victim. Poor thing, the door part of the potty was the one underneath. Just imagining the person inside covered in blue-stained fecal matter almost made him feel another twinge of disgust, but he remembered. 

If I lose it now, shits gonna go down if that Motus goes unconscious. Linc did his best to calm himself. Beach sands. Freshly washed bedspreads. The smell of mom's cinnamon rolls baking in the kitchen. All of these images flashed drowned out the sound of the trapped person banging on their plastic trap and the sound of mischevous laughter coming from some kids in his periphery. 

Think, Linc. Calm. Then either wait for Bill or help this guy out yourself. Just. Breathe.

Just then a voice sounded to his right, a question aimed at him. 

>“Hey, can you do that again?” A dude slightly older than Linc with cotton candy in his hand and even more cotton candy on his face stood there, calmer than Linc was trying to be.

"Excuse me?" Linc took a moment to recognize what the person was trying to ask. "I didn't topple this guy dow-- oh." Suddenly Linc felt self-concious, almost embarassed. 

Perfect. I can summon him! Linc tried channeling the feeling of utter embarrassment-- then coupled the thought with the idea that his Disgust Moti was probably making a fool of himself in public. 

This time, a slow zipping noise sounded as hesitantly, another copy of Linc popped off of him, this time hiding behind Linc with cheeks all blushed and pink.

"This is so awkward... Like, can we go home, please?" His Motus of Shame squeezed Linc's hands tightly.

"Here's the burner phone. Go. Find him, please." Linc handed his Shame Motus a flip phone that had only a few numbers in it. The most important one being his.

"Are you just gonna keep standing here? People are starting to look." The Motus grasped the phone, but kept his gaze on the passersby laughing and pointing at the fallen porta potty.

Linc ignored his Shame Motus, knowing eventually he would do what he was told. Thankfully that was one of his more obedient Moti. As for the dude with the cotton candy, Linc turned his attention to him and pointed at the toppled potty, whose bangings turned into screams.

"HELP ME! PLEASE! I CAN'T BREATHE!" 

"Uh. We should probably help." Linc steaded himself beside the toppled potty and got ready to push. His Shame Motus was still standing, staring at all the people staring back. Linc almost grew angry, but now was definitely not the time to summon Rage.

Aoi liked carnivals in theory and it helped her to strengthen her focus and to get out and socialize more. She had lost track of the others she had come with but Aoi young as she was had little fear. She had gone on a few rides which had been fun but had refused to go any of the higher ones. She had more control these days but it was not perfect and she was trying to limit her fear intake. It was nice to get out of the mansion, she had left just a few times since Halloween, when Carrick and her own animal selfs had tried to kill them and wound up fighting each other, only after nothing had been damaged and only Carrick and her seemed to recall it.

She decided to go to the bathroom which were porta potty's who smelled awful but the fair offerd no other options and with her massive food intake each day, she also had to deal with the result of that to. She smiled, she was relaxed and things were going very well so far, but she still felt she needed to find the others and as she sat to go to the bathroom took out her phone to text one of them.

The portable toilet fell over and she began to yell, her phone falling into the water. "Help Me! Please. I cant breathe"[/color] she said covered in the dirty liquid. Aoi hardly noticed at first as she began putting on several hundred pounds. Her clouths ripped and tore as her chest flatted and expanded and her arms and legs expanded. The bathrooms walls were getting tight and began to bulge from all four sides. Fir began to cover her body and her teeth began to form the ripping snout of the Polar Bear.

Menatally Aoi was swimming in what felt like thick water but the Polar bear was angry at being confined and as it tried to stand. ROAAAAAR The bear screamed as the side of the portable bathroom gave way and a ten foot, nine hundred pound polar bear rose looking around at all the noise and people like a confused predator. A confused Predator who has hungry and had prey all around it, one of which the bear glanced down and noticed standing not to far from the former bathroom Linc and took what was to it a playful swipe of her white furred paws that ended in six inch claws. A peice of chalk dangled from her neck, stretched tight

Aoi struggled to regain control of her Bear form instinct struggle against its tide of fear, hunger and so much prey. She needed to keep the bear from killing and worse eating people. She tried to force her way to the Bear's insticts but it was going to be rough and she knew it. She just hoped people would be smart and run.[/font][/font]

“Haha, yes! Awesome, dude!” Zek clapped with glee as another clone appeared. Bits of confetti-like spun sugar puffed away during the action. This time the clone didn’t immediately run away screaming but instead….lamely held the guy’s hand. And hid behind him.

Zek’s smile vanished and a look of disappointment crossed his face. This was not a good sequel event. “Laaaame!” Zek shouted. “Do another one! But be more exciting!” he added, cupping his hands to his face and getting way more cotton candy all over him. Okay so maybe downed portapotties and cloners weren’t the most exciting thing. He’d stopped for this? THey didn’t even have a multi-armed elephant man like the last carnival!

Other people were being attracted to the minor spectacle, even as screaming erupted from the portapotty. None of them did anything to help, it looked like, so Zek shrugged and followed suit. He held out a non-candied hand and a scarlet orb appeared in it. He dropped it and it flashed once before getting replaced by a director’s chair. He plopped his hiney down in it and shouted at the Dull Duo, “You got this, dude!”

Then a freakin’ POLAR BEAR burst out of the porta-john.

“Asterisk, money sign, percent, at symbol, yeah!” he shouted in his excitement. He leaned forward inh is seat, his cotton candy totally forgotten. “Now this is a carnival! Hey, is anyone getting this on camera?”

He didn’t look away - his unblinking eyes were going to capture every moment of this suddenly super fun carnival! Even if the crowd of stunned onlookers started ruining it by screaming and stuff. Lame.

“Dude! I hear polar bears like it when you offer them food!” he shouted. “Give it something!”

Sadly the man did very little to help Linc. Furthermore, his Motus didn't help either, probably overcame by the fact that their other them was still running around the carnival, most likely disturbed by everything and anything. His Shame Motus ran away, hiding his head behind his hands, doing his best to hide despite being easily seen.

Now, Linc was starting to get angry. All his emotions were out of whack, but he truly did not want to summon Rage. Rage would have easily helped with lifting the downed john, but he already had two of him missing and a situation on his hands. Everytime he tried to touch the porta potty, his hands began to sweat and he had to pause so as to not feel disgust at the foul stench emanating from the john. Then, Linc shut his eyes and took deeper calming breaths so he would not get mad at himself. All of which to say, Lincoln was stuck in stasis, trying to keep himself together.

With eyes still shut, the low growl of a bear soon woke him up from his self-induced trance. He started to back away from the porta-potty as a giant mass of white fur burst apart the plastic seams of the porta potty, spurting debris everywhere. ROAAAAAR 

Linc had no time to keep up with his emotions. Surprise. Terror. At the same time. 

"Noooooooo!" Linc screamed as two Moti split from him, this time causing a searing pain down his shoulder blades and to his feet. Shock split to his left and Fear to his right. That was four within the past ten minutes. Linc himself slunk to the ground as the shadow of the polar bear grew closer, and his two Moti grabbed him both each by the arm.

"Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope." They both said to each other as they tripped over the strewn pieces of porta potty, holding exhausted Linc in their grip. 

Just then, Shock tripped and the three of them tumbled down as a heap onto the Carnival floor, just as a giant polar bear paw came swinging at them.  After a dazed moment, Shock yelled out at the guy who had pulled out a chair to sit on.

"Are you an idiot? Run!!!"

The swipe missed and Aoi was very happy for that, the Bear not nearly so much. Their was so much action around it though the Bear was easily distracted for a a few moments. Whatever this prey was they were not seals but smelled like food anyway to it.

The Bear was hot, much to hot but their was so much prey. The Bear saw Linc separate into three but the Bear was unconcerned with them other then they were yet more food. The Bear assumed it was the biggest baddest thing in its environment. Aoi could hear somone shouting about food as she mentally tried to claw her way back to gain control over the bear's torrent of emotion. The Polar bear did not understand why it felt so warm but Aoi did. Aoi also knew she had a bit over thirty minutes before the bear would have heat stroke, something that was a secondary concern though compared to the clone men in front of her.

The Bear took a second to consider it's options lowering itself onto all four's and a glance at Zek being noisy but then the two clones and their spawner fell to the ground and the bear was in motion almost right away against what the Bear deemed as easy prey. It was use to punching through ice and ripping out baby seals. The polar bear moved on the Fear Moti turning it's jaw to try and latch onto the Fear Moti's neck and trying to bring it's left paw onto Fear's chest to prevent him from moving if the bite or pinning paw landed.

Aoi was in panic mode in the mental space she shared with the Bear and hoped the clone could out of the way fast. She had no idea what the death of a clone would do to Linc but she could not let it eat someone, she just could not let it happen. Aoi felt herself slip deeper into the their shared mental space. Clone or not she had to take control. Aoi had no idea her own panic was making it hared for to control the bear or that her own fear made it harder as well.

The bear was soon upon the now-three guys, who’d all collapsed in a pile. The bear was roaring and slashing and very soon it was the cherry on top of the clone pile.

“Duuude!” Zek shouted in amazed disbelief. “When I said to feed the bear, I didn’t mean feed it yourself! But I like your moxie, kid!” Zek’s jaw was hanging open and his smile was several inches wider than one would normally think was possible. His irises were glowing brilliantly gold and he stared unblinkingly at the scene before him, only about fifteen or so feet away.

The fledgling crowd had fled so now Zek was the only spectator around. “Dead gods, of all times to have run out of popcorn,” he complained. He had used up the last of the kernels in the popcorn maker he was storing in Zekworld just that morning. “Capybara is gonna be so sad he missed this!”

Zek figured it was time to make things a little more interesting. He flicked a glowing ball of light toward the distressed dude and bear. It bounced off the ground and came rolling toward one of the heads. “Hey, someone grab that ball, pretty please!” he shouted innocently.

Linc allowed himself to be carried by his Moti, his feet picking up speed as he walked backwards. The fact that his Fear and Surpise left him allowed him some clarity to survey the scene as the Polar Bear thrashed about, snout sniffing the air and paws flailing as if it had been summoned in a stupor. Whoever was stuck in that booth before must have been crushed at this point, since he didn't see a body. So, he was happy to be carried away by his Moti who both shared the same thought. 'Run!"

But then of course, six feet were not as effective as two, so they tripped. Upon falling to the ground his Fear Motus' instinct was to clamber on top of Linc, the self-preservation side of Fear sacrificing himself for the original. While the other worked to yank him off the ground. 

The polar bear's jaw snapped down and connected onto the Fear Moti's head. Linc watched and pure Horror seeped through him, causing the Moti to immediately go unconscious before its head snapped off, and the rest of its body fell limp onto the ground. Lincoln's Fear suddenly subsided as his Motus's death prior to its reabsorption triggered an emotional death in Linc. He fell back to the ground and instead of getting up to run away, he watched paralyzed.

"Ack!!! We gotta go boss. We got. To go!!" His Shock Motus pleaded as it too watched in horror but with the Shock factor renewed in his system, gained a short spurt of adrenaline. At the same time, the trenchcoat wearing dude tossed a ball in their direction, which connected to the now headless body of Linc's Fear Motus, causing it to disappear.

"What was that for?" The Shock Motus shouted then proceeded to struggle to bring Linc to his feet. He wasn't one as quick to throw himself into the Jaws of the Polar Bear as the Fear Motus was, so to run was his only agenda. Slowly, the two turned to limp away in emotional pain, for the sake of their lives.

Aoi felt her teeth sink into warm living flesh, felt the blood pour into her moulth and before she could mentally scream the bear casually pulled it's head back fierce enough to separate the head and body. She felt the greedy impact as the Bear bent down and bit the man in the chest. A loud snap of rib echoed through the carnival and the Polar Bear swallowed the shredded former clones meat. The Bear looked around and placed a heavy paw on the arm of the clone, interested ind defending it's kill.

Aoi was in shock as the Bear killed and began eating the man. A Person! This was so not ok. The Emotions of the Bear were strong and leaked into her own mind. She could feel it's pleasure from obtaining prey, it's assurance it would see tomorrow. It was all her worst fears come true. The reason she had a steel door on her room, the reason she chained herself to her bed at night, the reason she had isolated herself from others for so long, hid in her school work....

If Aoi could have cried as she clawed her way to the Bear's mind she would have. Her Life was over, control or not she had killed the man. Aoi Mentally shoved the Bear aside finally though barely gaining control of the Bear's instincts. She had to escape, run Where the young girl had not decided. The mansion would certainly never let her stay after such an event. Her parents might understand but had always been strict about laws. Her sister would be the worst though, she would make it something to tease. Aoi took her paw off the almost new slightly chewed corpse and glanced back at the bathroom. This of course caused screams to erupt, Even as Aoi's swiped her paw down into the porta potty and snatched a light purple backpack with several feet of chain attached and a chalkboard on the inside.

It was so hot out, way to warm the Polar Bear and Aoi came to rare moment of agreement.

There was a grizzly grisly beheading. Deheading? Extreme lobotomy? A clone died as its head was torn off by a ravenous beast. It was horrifying and seemed gory and shocking and awing and all kinds of stuff.

Zek rated it a 7 on a scale of 1 to Plum. It needed a soundtrack, something to complement the crunching of bones.

But then the headless clone toppled over onto his ball and before Zek could think straight, the ball and the body vanished.

“GYAAAGH!” Zek shouted most eloquently as he instinctively lunged backwards, causing his chair to tip back and dump him out all over the ground. His cotton candy hit the dirt and all the was left of it was what was clinging desperately to his face. “Eww, there’s a headless body in my pocket!”

Zek’s skin started crawling and his brain felt icky. He could feel feel the body and just ew ew ew ew ew ew!

“Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew!” he chattered. “Take it back!” he shouted as he flung a scarlet orb into the air in the polar bear’s direction. Once it was approximately a dozen or two feet above the bear, the orb flashed and suddenly the headless clone was falling straight down.

“Gross gross gross gross gross!”

Linc and his Motus slumped to the ground. They bear had gratefully turned a way, but for some reason his Fear Motus' dead body disappeared at one moment, then ended up flying through the sky at another moment. Way way up over the head of the running Polar Bear.

"Take me back, Linc. I can't do this anymore." His Shock Motus pleaded, as he rolled on his side on the sticky carnival floor and grasped his chest. Almost as if he were having a heart attack.

Linc hesitated, hovering over his Shock Motus, realizing that all the trauma that he just witnessed but hadn't felt would all jump back to him the moment he reabsorbed his Motus.

"Don't you dare. Take me back now!" His Shock Motus reached forward and clung onto Linc's leg.

Linc was so tempted to let the Motus die, just so he wouldn't absorb all that gunk. He kicked his Motus' hands away from his feet. "Let me go." 

"I'm so... shocked. I can't believe you would just let me die! Fuck! Do you even know how twisted that is? Let me back! Now!" The Shock Motus stood up and leaped onto Linc, bringing him to the ground. The two of them quarrelled, and even rolled over a stick of unfinished cotton candy.

"You can't make me!" Linc grunted, managing to get free for a moment.

"I saved your life!? I can't even right now." The more surprised his Shock Motus became, the stronger his grip became until it was Motus on Linc, hugging the original to the ground.

The few passersby that had hadn't run away from the bear looked on at the two in confusion.

Aoi looked around and spotted a few places she could hide but the best of course was located behind Linc. An ice cream shop with lovely cold air, though she would have to scare off the people inside it. maybe she could then apologize somehow to the guy after changeling back, She had a feeling the store did not carry Sorry i Ate your triplet cards. She would have to worry about it later, transfoorm back first she told herself trying to soothe herself. Then with a sniff the bear looked up and saw the body fling through the air.

Maybe their was one thing she could try however. Bringing her backpack arounnd to reveal the chalkboard she snapped the chalk from around her neck and quickly an English tried writing Sorry, I ate your friend" and the flipped the board around to try and show them. She wished she had a better plan but transforming was not an option and it was this or try escape. She also raised it so Zek could see. It might not apply to him, but it might help to calmed everyone down. As calm as you could be after watching a sibling die anyway. She was a twin herself but not an identical one.

Unsure if Linc saw her message with the arguing with his twin and wondering what take me back meant, she erased the message with her paw and wrote it slightly clearer writing. "All an act for a play later in the day" she said showing it to passerby's and Linc and Zek totally forgetting about all the blood on the ground on on her white fur. Bear Paws were not made for writing and though had had months pf practice the lack of an poseable thumb meant she had to use her mouth and chalk tasted awful even to the bear. She felt the body land on her shoulder and looked at it. the Polar Bear wanted more but Aoi held it back and made the Bear take a slow step back, even as she sniffed the corpse to appease her Bear instincts. She hated not having a mouth that formed words.

Zek gave a full-body shudder. Who did that? Why would someone put a corpse in his void? Okay granted it wasn’t the first time it had happened, but at least those zombies all had their heads and were still moving! At least until he’d dropped them onto the other zombies from 2-4 stories in the air. But that had been battle and this had just been disturbing.

“Ew ew ew ew ew,” he said as he slithered out of his chair. A golden ball appeared and he applied it to the chair as he stood up. A red ball appeared and the chair reappeared, this time properly standing up. Zek plopped down in it again.

“That was nasty!” he shouted at the guy who was…fighting himself? Zek frowned. That wasn’t nearly as exciting.

His eyes wandered over to the polar bear that had just casually wandered off and he saw its…sign language. Since when could polar bears write? “Since when could polar bears write?” he said aloud. And since when could they perform in plays? What a time to be alive!

But there was still one thing bugging him. “What kinda play involves decapitating a person?!” he shouted. “And are there any tickets left?”