Scene #8985: About as Funny as a Lobotomy

Owner	Pose
Razz	Down in Central Command of Lobotomy Corp, there among the golden theatrical accoutrements, a smaller stage wrapped in black velvet has been constructed before an arrangement of those godawful plastic folding chairs you see at churches established in non-church settings. Posters have sprung up in the most publicly accessible parts of the facility, each one looking about the same, but all with distinct differences, as if each was made by hand. ONE NIGHT ONLY THE IRREPRESSIBLE RAZZ M. A. TAZZ LIVE ON STAGE At the appointed time, gathered employees are treated to a tinny pre-recorded drumroll as a voice calls from the ceiling. "WHOA hey hello everyone! Hope you don't mind me... heh heh heh DROPPING IN." And indeed, there is the clown themselves. Not so much really 'dropping' as they are 'slowly lowering themselves, using one hand to grip the scarf around their neck which is hooked to something above, using some fairly impressive grip strength to hold their whole body up by it while maintaining some slack between their hand and neck so the scarf doesn't choke them.' It's only impressive for a moment however. Their grip falters, and they immediately drop, the scarf going tight and the clown emitting a strangled "Ghk!" And then their weight on it causes the scarf to rapidly unfurl and their body to spin horizontally like a yo-yo. "ebrbebebrbrbebrbrbebrebrerbbebrbe" they say as they spin, before reaching the edge of the scarf and faceplanting on the small stage. They're still for a moment. And while it would be very LobCorp for their first entertainment ever to hang themselves before the show even began, they do get up. Looking out to the audience, who can only see a featureless painted face. No eyes, no mouth, the barest rise to imply where a nose would be. Razz realizes this too, and raises their hands to their face in pantomimed shock. They kneel down and begin patting the stage, feeling around before startling, scooping at something, and pressing it against their blank face. When the hands are removed, their eyes and mouth have returned! "Well I've had softer lands but hey you know how SHOWBIZ is folks! Hello LobCorp, thanks for investing in some quality entertainment, give it up for Miss ANGELA for having me!" They applaud, a big grin on their familiar face. This is... precisely the clown in the sketch in that news article they were talking about. The one that bombed that city hall. Is this a bit too????
Kukuru	Every show needs snacks, and Kukuru's appointed herself as the one to do it, here at the one-night showing of the IRREPRESSIBLE RAZZ M. A. TAZZ! How did she even find out about their show? How did she get in here? How did she prepare enough little toasted quarter sandwiches without any of them sitting out too long and getting soggy before the show's even started? None of these questions are going to be answered, as she's already sitting in the audience with everyone else waiting for the show with bated breath and a healthy does of cheer in her heart. She looks up when she hears the new voice from above, letting out an awed 'oooooh' when she sees the unfamiliar clown with that careful display of scarf-based acrobatics. She doesn't flinch for a moment, however, when the clown starts choking and dropping, and she even giggles cheerfully at the noises coming out of them during that falling spin. Kukuru does wince a bit at the impact on the stage, though, but her cheerful smile remains all the while as she claps during the clown's rise sans face. Seeing the faceless face does have her freezing completely still as she watches their limbs instead, waiting until their face comes back before breaking into lighthearted laughter again. "Oh, how clever...! Such a lovely trick~" She chimes in while letting her hands settle atop her skirt, patting her lap with alternating hand movements idly. "He-llo, Ir-re-press-i-ble!" She calls out in a tone not unlike a student repeating a teacher's greeting, clapping rapidly when they issue the call to clap for Angela. Clearly, Kukuru hasn't heard the news, or she might not care too much yet. After all, they're putting on a show for the people of LobCorp, so how could they possibly want to do anything bad?
Petra Soroka	Rather than clogging up the busy elevator while visitors and employees filter down to the Central main room, Petra and Cinder are descending the floors between Control and Central along a dim concrete access staircase, flickering lights and damp musty smell of somewhere rarely traveled. There's not much reason for it-- it's convenient to not wait for the elevator, but really, Petra just habitually wanders the oft-unused side rooms and passages of the facility, tracing out the circulatory system of the complex as a near-meditative hobby, and Cinder is dragged along as a matter of course. ". . . so don't worry about Scorched Girl. Qetra can't do your Work for shit, but when she fails and Scorched Girl breaches, we'll just toss them both in the blast room upstairs and let them sort it out." The other convenient thing about the derelict staircases, is that no one minds when they reek of cigarette smoke. "And it'll be fun! Probably. So you, especially, can't miss out just because of something dumb like being busy." If anywhere in Lobotomy Corporation is meant to house a stage for a clown and their audience-- and certainly, nowhere actually is; the everpresent smell of blood and bleach is a tonal burr at the very least-- it's Central Command. Bright lights that aren't harsh or somber like elsewhere in the facility, wide open spaces to actually contain the stage and chairs, a noted absence of horrifying monsters within immediate sight; it's sort of like setting up entertainment in a cafeteria. Not welcoming, but functional. Petra ambles in from a door leading out of a small hallway on the opposite side of the room from where the others exit the elevator, Cinder beside her. She's in her dressed-down version of her EGO gear, a grey suit and blue glowing heart on her chest, with a black and gold armband that indicates that she's another one of the employees here, and a black and gold collar that indicates something else entirely. She's not exactly radiating cheer at the moment, though in L-Corp she's definitely not alone in that. Instead, a bit unusually for her, she's seemingly drainedly content, and the latter mostly comes from Cinder's presence. There's a restless, fidgeting to the point of muscular exhaustion sort of energy around her otherwise. Shitty chairs are a natural habitat for her, though. She swings around the back of one, plopping down in the seat with a foot propped up on the edge to slouch over her knee. To Cinder in the seat beside her, she mutters, voice appropriately lowered in anticipation of Event, "I've literally never actually heard of a clown that wasn't for, like, eight year olds. I didn't even think they were real. Who hires a clown, for adults? What does an adult clown even do?" She's in the middle of griping about how if anyone throws a pie at her, she'll perfect parry it back, when the drumroll starts and she obediently falls silent. In the brief silent moment where Razz is a hanged corpse flat on the floor, Petra is possessed by a particular impulse. She cups a hand around her mouth and shouts, as if that was the end of a trick, "Wooo!" Petra-- cannot recognize the face of a sketch she glanced at disinterestedly after a person she just met posted it in the radio a week ago. It's out of her capabilities. So at the greeting, she just waves and appropriately claps for Angela's shoutout, not necessarily putting together that she, in turn, might also not be recognized after a short conversation out of the cluster of employees via her basically-normal voice alone.
Angela	One night only! The facility is sor tof not really sure what to do with a clown. Or a circus for that matter. Circuses are not common at all in The City--enough that some people just don't know what one IS--but that doesn't mean they are entirely unheard of. If nobody has at least an idea of a circus's aesthetics, nobody can really have the connected phobias now can they? There are numerous Agents present, though there is a decided uncertainty about this performance--an undercurrent of anxiety. Most of the Agents at this point have seen a Clown responsible for one death or maiming and even though most of them, frankly, haven't though about that bank robbery in a far off world--they still have plenty of nervousness about what's going down all the same! A decided half of the Sephirah haven't shown up though Razz hasn't exactly been given a premier on what the Sephirah are. What the Sephirah are, of course, is a bunch of boxbot style beings that smell terrible and have a singular mechanical eye and their name emblazoned somewhere on their body. ACtually, the facility itself smells pretty awful. There's the decided scents of blood and disinfectant battling one another for supremacy and neither quite wins out. When Razz drops down from the ceiling, Fox (from Welfare) reaches for his revolver but is elbowed by Nonon (a big muscular lady with a giant golden gauntlet on one arm) and Fox bowls over in pain. Or perhaps... has doubled over laughing!! It's pain. Angela is seated in the back and seems to have a notepad and a ducky-pen in hand (Malkuth is next to her complaining that she wants her ducky pen back) and seems intent on taking note. Her face is wholly impassive throughout the act. "OH NO! CLOWN IS HURT!" BETTY!, a very large mechanical cyborg with multiple limbs and emoticons for a face starts to stand up--an alarm that is only subdued when Razz gets up. And then starts up again when they seem to be faceless! "OH NO DID SOMEONE ELSE LOSE THEIR FACE?" Betty frets. But once Razz's face returns, the facility seems to realize this is a goof, a gaffe, a bit! There's some uneasy laughter. Some scattered applause when Miss Angela (who is suddenly staring at Razz a bit more staringly than before) is called out. Angela raises up her notepad and takes some more notes, evnetually. "Mm." She says. "GA HA HA HA!!" Nonon of course laughs the most at the jokes. "HOW THE HECK DID THEY DO THAT?" She asks. "That's more a magic trick than clowning ain't it?!" "Shhh..." Shajo, a significantly shorter man in spectacles whispers. "It's a show you ain't supposed to talk during the show. It's rude." "YOU GOTTA SHOW YOU'RE HAVIN' FUN THOUGH!" Nonon bellows. Cinder has arrived with Petra, happy to have a break from working with the Abnormality that detonates when you mess up (Cinder is quite capable at handling said Abnormality of course but that's neither here nor there). "Have you ever been to a 'circus' before? I've never been to a circus before." Cinder mumrmurs to Petra. "Tickets are ''expensive'' even for a Nest family." But she quiets down for the show too and then applauds politely with a smile as the trick completes.
Petra Soroka	"OH NO DID SOMEONE ELSE LOSE THEIR FACE?" Petra flinches at the shouting, not because of the noise but because it's a breach of environmental etiquette, which is offensive to her on a deep gut level. Reflexively, she twists towards BETTY! and hisses, "Shut up, Betty!" as if she's at a movie theater instead of sitting on a crappy plastic chair that creaks when she leans on it to scold. She falls quiet for a few seconds, still staring at Betty, and goes on a completely different mental track for some reason. "What would even happen if we put you in the Girl in the Mirror's cell?" "YOU GOTTA SHOW YOU'RE HAVIN' FUN THOUGH!" Shifted back in her seat to face forwards, Petra slowly bends her torso in half while Nonon goes on shouting, buring her face in her knees and whining to Cinder. "Oh my god. These people are fucking intolerable to go to anything with. This'll be a nightmare." "Have you ever been to a 'circus' before? I've never been to a circus before." Rolling her face to the side, cheek squished on her knee, Petra looks up at Cinder and chews the inside of her lip to think. "Nah... not, like, a circus. I never even heard of them happening outside of, like, cartoons. With the whole, big tent and everything? Closest I've ever seen is rodeos." "I only know about clowns doing, like, little house calls." Her eyes slide over to Angela, studying her reaction to the show. "I guess this kind of is a house call."
Razz	When Razz rises, they seem more energized by Petra's jeer more than anything. When Shajo whispers that one must be quiet during a show, they suddenly snap and point at them. "INCORRECT sir! This is not the thee-ay-tRRRRR!" they say, gesturing around at the stage curtains and spotlights of Central Command, pressing on before the irony can set in. "While it is true I am trained in the ways of illusions," They produce a royal flush seemingly from midair. "And buffOONERY both," Now they produce a horn which they comically honk. "Both these professions thrive on on your response! Laughter, the discussion of how a trick was done, please don't hold back!" They also seemingly overhear Cinder and points to them next. "YES! I learned of this! That circuses are rare here, and clowns... scary? A tragic misconception, brings tears to my eyes truly," they say, producing a handkerchief from their sleeve and dabbing at their eye. This handkerchief is knotted to another red one, which is knotted to another green one, which is knotted to a yellow one. "Oh it's just SO SAD!!! AHUGH!!!!!!" Now they've dropped to their knees, and keep pulling on this long line of handkerchiefs that just keeps coming from their sleeve to wail their misery into. "But let me tell you!" The misery vanishes like a ghost, the handkerchiefs discarded into a big colorful pile, and now Razz is in the audience, hopping from backrest to backrest in a shocking display of balance and agility. "Circuses are magical places, like from another world! Not... not in the superplanet sense, more SPECIAL! Animals go to and fro! Elephants balancing on balls, tigers as meek as kittens, bears driving cars! Oh and the food! The popcorn, the cotton candy, the corndogs!" Which each food item named, they throw something to the ground which bursts in a sharp snap, filling the air with the smell of butter, the cloying sweetness of cotton candy, and the smell of cheap sausages cooked in cheaper breading and oil. "And the you go inside this big colorful tent that keeps all MISERY at bay, and oh the performances! The knife throwers dazzle you with their skill and precision, always a literal knife's razor-sharp edge away from harm!" Knives appear in their hands which they juggle as they continue their roaming. "And clowns like me deliver the laughs!" They leap from chair back to stage here, but the jump is a little short, leaving them to wobble at the edge, trying not to fall while also keeping the knives in the air. "And theeeeeeeeeeee TRAPEZE artiiiiists!" They lunge forward, dropping the knives on the stage and grab their still-hanging scarf and clinging to it, making them rotate overhead. They hoist themselves, their whole body parallel to the ground, holding the scarf with both hands before going completely vertical, wrapping their legs around it and beaming down at the audience. "Do things like this!" Eventually, they drop back to the stage and let out a theatrical exhale. "But! I am here as a CLOWN! So while I'd love to make like a candle and WAX! I'm here to make you laugh! Everyone! Shout your least favorite Anomaly you have to work with here!"
Angela	''What would even happen if we put you in the Girl in the Mirror's cell'' "...BETTY! has no idea..." BETTY! offers. Would they be unable to make their emoticon faces anymore?! She makes a ~_~ face in costernation at the very idea of losing what little facial expression she has! ''These people are fucking intolerable to go to anything with.'' "Ahah... Yeah... I'm not sure a lot of 'em have ever been to a show before..." Cinder murmurs back to Petra. #-1 FUNCTION (ANSI) EXPECTS 2 ARGUMENTS BUT GOT 1 Cinder quirks her head curiously. "House calls? ... Oh like ... for birthday parties? For kids?" Shajo startles at being told that HE's the wrong one this time--but then he relaxes and gives Nonon a shrug like 'well you win'. He isn't the sort of guy to double down on something like this. "Well I have no real idea how you got yer face to vanish like that...Takes a bit more than sleight of hand I 'magine." "An elephant balancing on a ball?! That's crazy..." Nonon says in quiet awe like she really wants to believe it to be tru but can't quite. "..." Moku says on the matter of bears driving cars. "Bear driving car...How can that be??" Mikey, Training Agent, whispers in horror. Some agents glance about, failing to find a tent. "Corn.../Dog/..." Rose adds. The smell of the circus is released, the audience calms some--these are pleasant smells after all and it's nice to have something pushing against the smells of chemicals and gore. There are ooohs and aaaahhs as Razz engages in some acrobatics but everybody has their own answer for Razz's last question. "Hundred Sins!" "Ice Queen!" "Dreaming Current!" But the two most common are "Today's Shy Look!" and "Mountain of Smiling Bodies!" Angela sniffs a little but seems to be at a bit of a loss as to write down for the moment.
Kukuru	There's Petra and Cinder! Kukuru can't not wave at the lovely couple, getting one arm high in to the air like she's totally trying to get them to wave back. She doesn't do it for long, though, because she still wants to watch the show. It probably helps that she doesn't hear Petra, either, compared to the far louder BETTY! and Nonon who both get broad waves from her as well. Hearing that she should be loud from both Nonon shouting it and indirectly from Razz correcting Shajo, Kukuru's all too eager to cheer for the clown once again. Storytime about the rarity of circuses, however, has Kukuru going quiet again so she does't disturb anyone else that wants to hear the tale as well. A confused look crosses her face at them mentioning people being scared of clowns, though, and a more specific gleam appears when she hears about so many elephants being present at circuses. "Oh, that sounds wonderful... Even if we can't eat them, watching so many animals doing all sorts of neat stuff must really build up the appetite..." And then she snaps her fingers. "That's what the popcorn and candy and corndogs are for! Oh, that's a really smart way to get people to buy that stuff..." She murmurs, visibly mouthwatering at all those smells hitting her one after the other. So what if the food is technically all cheap stuff? Food smells are food smells, and Kukuru's enhanced sense of smell makes it even better/worse for her. She practically swoons at hearing about Razz' more romantic depiction of circus tents as anti-misery fields, and it's not long before she's swaying from side to side excitedly at the mere thought of seeing such a place for herself one day. It's probably of no surprise, then, that her eyes are practically locked on the clown's midair knife-juggling, gawking in open-mouthed awe at all the acrobatics on display and forgetting that the knives were dropped to begin with. She cheers again, laughing all the while and getting up only to sate her hunger with some kind of meat pile before returning to her seat with a quick puff of dark cloudy teleportation. "Least favorite...? Um... That one nobody's allowed to look at!" Kukuru calls out, having already forgotten that one Abnormality's name in particular.
Petra Soroka	"Both these professions thrive on on your response! Laughter, the discussion of how a trick was done, please don't hold back!" This rings to Petra as so fundamentally wrong that she winces as if it causes her physical pain. Everyone knows it's rude to talk during a performance; any performance! Even at stand-up comedy-- which Petra would never be caught dead going to, of course-- you're supposed to laugh and cheer, but you're not supposed to talk! Words are distracting! It's a show, and you're not the performer. Also, emboldening Nonon to be even louder might actually cause Petra pain. Still, though, Razz is small, and up close, and they're also prompting call-and-response directly. It starts to feel more like a cross between an oddly energetic conversation and a performance, and Petra has absolutely no behavioral paradigm developed to properly react to that kind of scenario. In practice, this means she's stopped being able to scold people to shut up, but she's being weird about it. "House calls? ... Oh like ... for birthday parties? For kids?" "Mhm, yeah, like, with balloons and--" Having her conversation with Cinder directly called out by Razz makes Petra freeze up like she's been caught doing something wrong by a teacher. Unsteady and uncertain, she takes a comment towards Cinder as an expectation that she should respond too. "Uh, yeah, you know, I'm not sure where the scary clown thing comes from. It's always, mostly just seemed kind of gross to me?" Experiencers of Petra's haunted house might remember how little care she put into the obligate scary clown section, using cardboard cutouts rather than elaborate, adoring mechanisms and scenarios. "It's, like, they're a thing for kids. I think clowns are--" She leans away from Razz when they jump on the back of her chair, briefly wide-eyed and stunned. "Um... n-nice?" "And the you go inside this big colorful tent that keeps all MISERY at bay,")] After getting jarred into a half-smile by the barrage of sensory information and the torrent of upbeat chatter, Petra is loosened into being more talkative for the show. "Oh, so that's why no one ever took me to a circus." Still, though, when she leans to the side to make a snide comment to Cinder, it's extremely rare for Petra to express sarcastic self-deprecation; it usually only happens when she's in an abysmally terrible mood. But she seems... alright, now? Even Kukuru gets a wave back, a bit tiredly. "Shout your least favorite Anomaly you have to work with here!" Before answering, Petra mutters 'Abnormality' under her breath as if the correction is forced to come out of her mouth before anything else. "You guys are babies. Mountain of Smiling Bodies is fine, if you just pinch your nose and wear gloves. No, the worst is..." She's tempted to say the Girl in the Mirror, but she's avoided working with it at all. "... Nameless Fetus. Fucking ew."
Razz	Razz takes a moment to look at Shajo, smile, and swipe their hand in front of their face. Suddenly, they have no features again! But this time, they touch their neck and peel off the covering that they slipped on in that moment, tossing it to the Agent to examine. "Just a bit of sleight of hand, the ol' PRESTIDIGITATION! After I fe-after that STAGED! TOTALLY STAGED fall!" Kukuru immediately hones in on the real money-maker at a circus, and Razz points to her with a grin. "You get it! The ringmaster always said that's where the margins were at! And ever since I left due to... creative differences," They clench their hands into fists for a moment. "I've been eating better. But. I. MISS IT. Places will have fancy homemade ketchups with spices, but I want that PLASTIC they dunk the corndogs in!!!!" As the audience shouts their favorite Abnormality, Razz actually takes all suggestions, not just the most popular. At the mention of One Sins and Hundreds of Good Deeds, they pull out a couple of those gag arrows with a curve in the middle so you can wear them and look like you have an arrow in your head. Arranging them both to form a vertical cross through their head, they affect an old man's voice and say, "Now now dearie, you know honesty is the best policy. On your knees and let it all out. Oh, you killed that person? That's okay. You stole your friend's pudding from the breakroom fridge? Heh, your secret is safe with me. You didn't take your shoes off before entering my chamber? Daddy Deeds will forgive you, my child." Next is Ice Queen. Producing two long blue balloons, Razz quickly inflates them before twisting and squeezing them to create a crown and a sword. Wearing the former and brandishing the latter, they put on a high-pitched, noble falsetto. "Oh hello peasant. I see you shivering there. Too bad that sweaters aren't in the dress code eh? Oooohohoho~ Anyway, that coworker you hate is stuck in here now. Hope you're ready to duel to the death for them, three minutes before you clock out! Oooooohohohoho~" For the Dreaming Current, Razz quickly pops some candy in their mouth before letting their now-multicolor tongue loll out. They drop to all fours and mime galloping in place for a moment before bursting forward down the centre aisle between the chairs, tongue still trailing, making an eerily accurate gurgling sound to the great sharklike thing. Hopping back on stage, they begin hopping back and forward to mimic Today's Shy Look, swiping their hands over their face and shifting their expression from smiling to frowning each time. "Oooh I'm moving! Here I go, left to right! I see you waiting outside that door! Oop, I'm far left, come on i-NOW I'M RIGHT, I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOUIHATEYOUIHATEYOUIHATEYOU-now i feel nothing in particular towards you." Their shift for Mountain of Smiling Bodies is fittingly a bit grotesque. Razz begins to fold themselves up, contorting to be balancing on their hands. They then begin to make absurd snuffling sounds, like a dog sniffing a microphone. "Oh could that be... is that the delectable scent of a corpse??? Ooohhh you hadn't cleaned up yet I see........ is anyone gonna eat that?" And then they leap for Kukuru's table of treats and start scarfing it down, actually unfolding themselves to get longer like the Mountain does.
Razz	"Schadenfreude! And thank you for the meal!" Razz says in response to Kukuru, hopping back to the stage and again contorting themselves, this time into a box shape with one eye visible. "ooooouuuugghghghgh i'm sooooo ugly don't look at meeeeeee WHYAREYOULOOKINGREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" Suddenly, a bunch of knives poke out from the gaps between their body and they run on tiptoes towards the edge of the stage! But suddenly stop at the very edge, balancing on one big toe like a ballerina. "oh you're not looking anymore, oooohhhhh nooooooooo..." And then they topple off the edge, hitting the floor with a clang. Lastly is Petra's suggestion of Nameless Fetus. Unfolding themselves, they sit on the edge of the stage and start sucking their thumb. "Uwaaaaaahoooohhh~ That guy you hate messed up with me and it's time to GAMBLE~ Who's it gonna be? Oh, it's that girl who always leaves you your favorite donut? Awwww, isn't that a shame?" And then they make the most disgusting eating sounds you ever heard. "Whew, I'm stuffed! Better go have that don-awwww, the guy who caused this ate it? Oh nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo~"
Angela	Agents wave at Kukuru though some don't see her initial wave and, thus, don't wave back. Sal helpfully cleans up Kukuru's hungerdrool with a kerchief before dumping it into to the side deftly. ''That one nobody's allowed to look at!'' "Schadenfreude." Sal murmurs to Kukuru. "Weird pick, though." They make a face when Petra mentions NAmeless Fetus, clearly agreeing with Petra that at least it is ''one'' of the worst ones. Nonon and BETTY! are fundamentally unable to be quiet but Nonon seems to be settling a few decibles lower and BETTY! has just stopped talking altogether, thinking about the Gril in the Mirror. Angela seems curious when Petra mentions where ''scary clowns'' even came from and Angela has thoughts about this. "I know not the societal origin, but I think anything distilled to its purest form can be frightening. The clowns from our Ordeals are not professional clowns they are more akin to clown elementals. They are completely unmoored from treating it as a genuine profession so much as an unbending extreme existence." Angela is as usual very difficult to read for anyone but Petra. Petra can see judging by the faint frown that she certainly isn't fun and, in fact, hasn't come in pursuit of fun. She isn't laughing. Her head is cocked to the side and her eyes are studying Razz. She seems ... confused, if anything, not in the sense of utter bewilderment but confused in the sense that one might be confused if you were going about your normal day and someone grew a third limb, or spontaneously broke into breakdancing. Angela ... does not get it. She's writing something periodically. Taking notes? Maybe she sees this as educational rather than comedy, treating Razz's monologue like a lecture from a professor. Shajo gets a Faaaaaaaaaaaace hrown at him. It lands in his lap. He looks down at it. He quietly picks it up by the edge and offers it to Nonon only for Parker to steal it from them and hide it in her bag. This will probably cause trouble one day. Angela eases back when it becomes apparent RAzz has some understanding of the Abnormality, they must have used the opportunity to investigate the facility. Angela nods approvingly. She's not laughing but at least she approves of Razz's work ethic. She takes more notes. The Abnormality imitations get some applause and laughter--relieved laughter, yes, but it's a clear sign that Razz is employing the special technique...of knowing their audience! The overall mood is ligtehning up and laughter bcomes more frequent and cheerful. "...Interesting..." Angela murmurs. "They could have been a behavior analyst for the Abnormalities..." She looks to Petra, giving her a smile. Cinder gives Petra a long look but ... it's a hard read for her. She doesn't seem to be in a bad mood, maybe tired--but not exactly what she'd expect. She takes Petra's hand lightly with her own, curling her fingers around Petra's. "I think Nameless Fetus is ... maybe the cruellest right? Fitting for a big crybaby huh...?" She's sort of making her own quip there.
Kukuru	Razz pointing at Kukuru gets the sleepy lady clapping again, looking pleasantly surprised that she actually got something right! Are her efforts to become smarter finally paying off? She'll take it, of course, and she seems even more elated when Razz actually starts talking about FLAVORS. But... Wait. Is plastic bad for humans? Kukuru can't quite remember some of these things so easily, but if this lovely clown is recommending it, it has to be fine! "I've had fancy ketchups before, mhm, and they're not bad, but... I've never had one with plastic before. What's that taste like...?" She wonders aloud, letting her thoughts wander a bit with what little she knows of how plastic tastes. It doesn't sound appetizing, but Kukuru's not about to dispute the tastes of a local expert! That mention of creative differences still has her brain rolling and straining, though, and she furrows her brow to try and puzzle that out. The impression-ish show soon gets Kukuru's mind off Razz's unspoken history and her body into clapping and cheering, of course, and she's even laughing before long despite the subject material. Being able to fix most of the injured or dead resulting from mishaps with the Abnormalities helps plenty, and the physical antics involved for Today's Shy Look and Mountain of Smiling Bodies especially has Kukuru giggling uncontrollably. The physical unfolding just to get at more of that food she brought in does have her titling her head sideways to get a better/different look at how they're doing it, too. "That's just like... Oh! that really is like Mountain... Are your bones okay?" She asks with mixed awe and concern, the latter fading fairly quickly once she sees them eating. "Scha-den-freuuuude." Kukuru repeats after Razz and Sal once she hears the name twice, giggling somewhat bashfully as the latter helps her mouth off. "Aw, thank you dear... Oh. That one's just so sad because nobody's allowed to look at it. And that just makes me wanna look even harder..." She admits with a light giggle, looking over just in time for Razz to begin another contortion! Their new box shape actually has her marveling, too, tilting herself entirely in the other direction to get a different perspective on how they're making that shape. "Oh, is that what Schadenfreude looks like? That's so... Oh, that's not ugly at all. Or is that...?" More and more questions keep coming to her mind about what Schadenfreude looks like. Surely one little look couldn't...? No, Angela's still counting on her not to mess that up, even now! She'll have to settle for guessing that Razz has done the most accurate impression possible. "Namelss Fetus is... Oh, that's a real sad name, yeeeah. Did they really come from...?" Kukuru's cheer finally starts to settle down a bit at thinking too hard about the implications of the name.
Petra Soroka	"They are completely unmoored from treating it as a genuine profession so much as an unbending extreme existence." "Okay, but, like--" Intellectual conversation with Angela takes priority over pretty much anything else, so Petra immediately diverts her attention to that instead. "'Clown' is a job. Like-- it is a profession. You know, it's sort of like, devolved into fucking Party City costumes and creepypastas, but it's really weird that the premise is about something that just is a job." She drums her fingers on the back of her chair, turned fully around and legs swung around the back. "What really makes the Crimson Ordeals clowns? They're not, like, silly. They're not derived from anything clownlike at all. They don't do anything that's, you know, related to clowns. They just wear little costumes?" "I don't know. It feels like it doesn't-- calling them 'clown elementals' feels sort of wrong, right? There's no 'essence' at all, to them. There's nothing they're distilled down to. They're just fucked up guys who wear red and yellow. I still don't get where the scary clown thing came from at all." "Daddy Deeds will forgive you, my child." As the shape of the bit forms in Petra's comprehension, watching Razz start their routine, she kind of weakly smiles and appreciates the inventiveness of the props for the costume, but her mind is more set on the philosophical discussion of clown-essence than on the performance itself. 'Daddy Deeds', though, kills her instantly, and she chokes on her own gut-punched laugh and breaks down coughing. "Oh my god. That's fucked up; you can't-- you can't just say that." "Hope you're ready to duel to the death for them, three minutes before you clock out! Oooooohohohoho~" Wow! That's funny, and true! Is such a combination possible? Petra never worked with Ice Queen, but Yuri did, and--... Petra doesn't actually know who's taking care of the Abnormality now that Yuri's gone. Huh.
Petra Soroka	"Oh could that be... is that the delectable scent of a corpse??? Ooohhh you hadn't cleaned up yet I see........ is anyone gonna eat that?" Maybe it's because Petra's spent more time than anyone with the Mountain of Smiling Bodies recently, or maybe it's because she's a little fucked in the head, but she breaks out into full laughter at the snuffling. She automatically brings up the back of her hand to her mouth to halfway cover her smile, but catching Angela's eyes and seeing her own smile-- even though it's for a totally different reason, the mirror-neuron response of seeing rare happiness on Angela's face spikes up her mood again, tipping her over into giggles. Maybe it's not cool to joke about an Abnormality that's killed some of her coworkers. It's pretty fucked up of a joke, if you think about it. But cancel culture will never stop Petra from finding something funny, as long as it's sufficiently apolitical and crude, so she's not worried about that right now. Watching them eat for too long does start making her uncomfortable, though, and her giggles are on a steep decline and then trail off in relief when Razz hops off to do their next bit. "Uwaaaaaahoooohhh~ That guy you hate messed up with me and it's time to GAMBLE~" Oh, this sucks. At some point during Schadenfreude's impression, Petra slipped her hand into Cinder's and squeezed, increasingly weirded-out by the contortionism. The long string of contortionist cosplays ends at the absolute worst time possible, though, because suddenly reverting into being person-shaped and then immediately sucking their thumb in an imitation of Nameless Fetus has Petra nearly gag. She clenches tight around Cinder's hand and lets out an awkward 'Ha ha....' because this little segment was done specifically on her request, so she feels obligated to respond, but she starts to consider if she was too honest in her response about which Abnormality she hated most. "I think Nameless Fetus is ... maybe the cruellest right?" "Namelss Fetus is... Oh, that's a real sad name, yeeeah." "It's the grossest. It's just the grossest. I hate, hate, when there's, like-- fucked up babies. It's not even-- like, of course it's not a real baby. The real Abno is, like, six feet tall, or whatever, it's just... ughh...."
Razz	Razz is constantly sweeping the crowd as they do their impressions, lingering for a moment on Petra when her discomfort becomes evident. And that's always going to be the case. Everyone here has lost someone to at least one of these Abnormalities they are mocking. So after Nameless Fetus, they stop and sit on the edge of the stage. "But let me be real for a second everyone." Even their voice has gone down to the level they were using on the radio. No less cheery, but less manic. "The work you all do is important here, very. But it's so dangerous. All of you have lost someone you cared about to it. Every day you have to come in and... what do the children say? 'Peep the horrors?'" "It's sad! I wish there was a better way, so you all could take time off and go to a real circus. I'm glad if you all liked this show, but all shows must come to an end." They begin to rummage in their sleeve, and produce a big handful of golden bells on purple lengths of fabric, very evocative of Razz's entire look. "When I was preparing for the show, I noticed a lot of people working here had little trinkets based on the Abnormalities, and I thought 'Gosh, all they have to look nice are things based on the things that hurt them.' So these are for everyone, free of charge. Sometime to remind you of this show, and me. Someone out there who is rooting for you!"
Angela	"Mm," Angela agrees. "it ''is'' a job, but...Mm... Is that where the origin of... Coulrophobia, though? The 'spooky' movies? MY understanding is that even before such media is consumed, there are those that get frightened of clowns. Even before encountering the ordeals, there were a small percentage--" She crosses her arms, head dipping low as she's now thinking deeply about this topic. "The Ordeals are a cogito byproduct. They're not complete Abnormalities but they have a similar origin point, that means they should be derived from a the river of the collective unconsciousness--of course some of our recent Abnormalities seem particularly specific, so I suspect they are not always wholly derived from pure happenstance--the Abnormalities that is--but I am not sure if I can say that same particularity occurs with Ordeals, they seem considerably more ... basic." "...mm... But it is true that I do not know what circuses are like in The City. I would not be surprised if they are not particularly horrible like everything else in The City even relative to clowns in other worlds, but I would have to inquire from my Agents what Clowns and Circuses are like in the outside but it seems like most of them haven't been to them even if they know of the concept." She eventually relents, "I suppose 'clown elemental' is at least premature. It was simply a working theory but it is possible that the excess enkephalin production results in some distortions." Lower case D there. ''Oh my god, that's Fucked up'' Angela frowns, being forced to acknowledge Daddy Deeds in her mind now that Petra has put some focus on it. "Please do not refer to One Hundred Sins as daddy anything." Angela sdecides as company policy. Hearing Petra giggles makes Angela think this outing was worth it. Angela, it seems, is more concerned with laughter amongst the employees--and Petra's own laughter above even that--than her own. Angela knows that she isn't a big laugher. Or emoter, even, but she does feel her spirits strangely lifted despite not laughing at a single joke. Cinder's hand grips Petra's a bit more tightly. Cinder is well beyond capable enough to handle Schadenfreude now but she still feels like something is walking over her gravestone whenever that one comes up. Cinder looks, of course, disgusted at anything attempting to mimic Nameless Fetus because that's normal. "Yeah..." Cinder agrees vaguely with Petra, at least with the 'ughh.....'. And then Razz ges serious. The atmosphere amongst the agents become more subdued because Razz has captured their attention. Haschen bursts out crying at Razz's words, bawling about how sweet they are. There's a few sniffles here and there as Razz pries that wound open amongst agents. Others are more subdued, having their own way in dealing with their losses. But when Razz finishes their speech, there is an uproar of applause from the Agents. Sometimes a little bit of kindness hits the people of The City because of how rare it is--though of course it can always backfire. In this case, though, with a show, with little goofy gifts, and with some understanding of their plight... Razz has become a popular performer amongst the Agents! Hopefully this will be okay!!