Page 49 of Spectacle

“Have you two already met?” I look between them, and Ghosie shrugs sheepishly. “The guys put me in charge of communicating with them and telling them we were returning to Earth to bring down Agent Smith, and I asked if they wanted to be involved.”

I look at my friend. “Is everyone here? What about Mark?” I ask, knowing his parents probably weren’t happy letting him out of their sight after only having found him a few months ago.

“Yes. Aura wants Pleasure Inn back. I’m not sure what that means for all of us.” There is sadness in her eyes. “Mark and I kind of wanted to join the circus. I don’t think we’re cut out to run a brothel. We both want to use our medical skills, and I have some cool new abilities that may come in handy.”

“You got powers?” I gasp, and she nods her head, looking shyly at Magenta.

“Yeah, turns out I can fly, amongst other things.”

“Whoa, yeah, girl!” Mags holds up her hand for a high five. “I can totally work with you on that. Maybe we can turn my act from a solo to a double. It would be fun to change things up a little and have another person to help with Saxon’s act if the Vilaxians choose to be uncooperative.”

My heart is almost overflowing with love right now. My two best girls are here and not going anywhere for the near future. Both of their lives seem to be chaotic, but I’m here for them. My grandma is getting close to waking up and making my grandpas the happiest men in the galaxy, and I’ve locked down all but two of my men, with only one of them being a work in progress, which only leaves the mysterious god. We have our upcoming date, which I’m excited for but also super nervous about, and hopefully on our flight from Skarr to Earth, we can get to know each other a little better.

“Okay, shall we get started?” Ghosie says, tapping the tablet. “I’m not going to give you any insight to the act. We’re going to watch it, and I would say it’s the best way to judge whether it wows us or not, right?”

“That sounds great,” I tell him, desperate to pat his hand. One thing I’m going to do when my grandma wakes up if she turns out to be the goddess of life as well, is beg her to help the Carevasta bears and the Aaz’axians—not that there are many left. Both races have suffered long enough, and it’s been close to seven hundred years since the war.

“Audition one can start,” Ghosie calls to the stage manager, who is assisting with the auditions.

I watch with barely contained excitement as the house lights drop, and the ones on stage light up.

A female walks out onto the stage. She is humanoid, but on her head, she has a mohawk of fur. On either side of it, her head is bald, but it has patterns like a leopard. She has a thin, whip-like tail, and I can see webbing between her fingers. She’s wearing a bodysuit, which hugs her body, and she has two sets of breasts and wide hips.

“Oh, an Elgrug.” Magenta leans forward, and I can feel her excitement. “This should be good. She can take the place of my act if I end up helping Saxon.”

She places her hands together and starts rubbing them back and forth. I can see something is happening but can’t make out what. She starts singing a hauntingly beautiful melody.

“Elgrug are an amphibious species who make their homes around lakes and rivers. The females are the hunter-gatherers and are fierce. Their men are pampered little princesses who have their every need catered to.” Magenta rolls her eyes, not taking them off the female in front of us.

Her hands stop rubbing, and she begins to pull them apart, forming a large, adult-sized bubble. She flicks her wrists, and the bubble detaches and floats on the spot.

“They use the bubbles to catch prey and entice mates.”

“Entice mates?” Susie asks, sounding bewildered.

“Yes. If they can catch a male and keep him inside their bubble for fun times, then they are likely to be a good provider. Their bubbles are good and strong, and if they stand up to vigorous fucking, then they can trap any kind of large prey animals. Females will create life- sized bubbles and trap potential males for weeks at a time, hoping they will accept their suit.”

I frown, watching as she taps the bubble, and it bounces in time to the music. “But I’m not sure that is going to make a good act. We’re not providing adult entertainment.” Although I must admit, I am intrigued. I’d like to coerce one of my mates into the bubble for some floating fun times.

She waves her hand, and the stage manager steps back onto the stage, looking a little nervous. She keeps singing but gestures for him to stand still. She then pushes the bubble at him, and it speeds toward him, surrounding him with a large pop. The stage manager waves to us through the translucent bubble. She does a quick little dance around him, shimmying and shaking until she gets behind the bubble, then she lifts it into the air and gives it a push. It gently floats out over the audience. We follow its trajectory for a moment before we notice her forming another bubble. She steps into this one herself and is able to make it move by gently applying pressure in the direction she wants to go.

We watch as her bubble also drifts out over the audience. She is able to control the other bubble from inside hers somehow, and they dance together in a breathtaking motion of sound and movement. They eventually come to a stop above us, pressed against one another, and she steps from hers and into the bubble of the stage manager, letting hers pop above us. I gasp and applaud as the bubble now containing them returns to the stage.

It pops, leaving the two of them standing on the stage unharmed. The volunteer looks slightly green, but that’s nothing that can’t be trained for. She will need an assistant or maybe a volunteer from the audience.

“I can make and add as many bubbles to the act as is required to make it longer,” she calls out, her voice as melodious as her singing was. “I can also put any number of objects in them to wow the audience. I would really love to travel the galaxy with you.” That last declaration sounds kind of desperate. “I’m not ready to settle down and join our mating season. There is so much I’d like to do first, and I also don’t want a mate that I have to fawn all over. Is it wrong to want an equal relationship where he cares for me just as much as I take care of him?”

God, I feel for her and completely understand. It must have been so hard for her to come here today to audition and go against her society to want something more.

“As long as you can clear our background checks, I would love to offer you a position,” I call out, not even conferring with the others.

“Could you give her the relevant forms to fill out?” Ghosie asks the stage manager, who quickly agrees and escorts her off stage.

“That was thrilling,” Susie says, her eyes wide with amazement. “It’s so exciting seeing it with the truth.”

I hated that we had to erase her memories the first time around, so it’s wonderful for me that she can be here and know the truth.

The next act is adorable. There are these small German shepherd like creatures that have sheep faces, but they have green leaves on their bodies instead of wool. The tip of each leaf and both cheeks have pink spots. Their trainer has them doing typical kind of agility things, but then the act changes and they start to merge with one another, and they create a horse-sized leaf sheep creature. That’s when the trainer climbs on its back and performs jumps and dressage movements to music. It’s not quite as elegant as dressage, but it’s still fun. He then jumps off, and the stage manager wheels a large hoop onto the stage. He steps out of the way, and it lights up with flames. The large creature leaps through it, and it sets his leaves on fire. I scream and stand up, about to use my warlock powers to conjure water to put him out, but the trainer waves me away. The creature seems to absorb the fire, and his leaves turn from green to red, and instead of pink tips, they have little flames at the end of each leaf. The creature then separates again into seven miniature flaming versions. One by one, they cough up a ball of flame that dissipates before he sets anything on fire, and they return to their green color again.

---