The circus was beautiful. I had expected it to be interesting, but not beautiful. There was a sort of dark ambiance to the place that made it impossible not to scan the crowd and the attractions constantly. Aside from the morbid aesthetic, the most impressive thing about this place was that every attraction seemed to add a bit to the whole, despite being wildly different and unique.

There was food stands, art, games, rides, and every single one of them was totally unlike the others, but in such a way that it added to the whole. Like a mosaic, where each tile is a slightly different image or material that are all just close enough to complement each other, while also making the whole picture into the image that it's supposed to present at the same time. It was absolutely breathtaking.

The most beautiful part of it though, was the expression on Callie's face. She was rapt as she stared at everything nearby, and despite it being my first circus, I was infinitely more interested in viewing it from her point of view. It was a rare thing to stare at my girlfriend without her mask, and I found myself bowled over by how lovely she was, smiling and excited like this. If nothing else, coming here would be worth it just to see this look on her face.

She pulled me back and forth, stopping to get some cotton candy, then to do a ring toss, then a ridiculous game where we had to shoot a thin stream of water into a small hole for long enough to fill a meter. Even with Callie's Perception we didn't manage to successfully complete the challenge, which had something to do with the hole being on a spinning pinwheel that whirled around on an arm, sometimes dipping behind other cutouts to prevent us from getting a solid hit on the game target.

I was pretty sure the game master had cheated, but I also didn't care, because it was only a single I ranked chit to play. I hadn't even seen an I ranked chit before, and they made change for us, so I didn't mind wasting a bit to make Callie happy. She got so excited playing, and I was worried she'd be upset at the loss, but she just laughed it off and grabbed my hand, dragging me to the next booth to buy a funnel cake.

We stopped at one booth where an artist was drawing caricatures of people with overly large heads, and Callie paid for the picture, pushing me down into the seat and dropping in my lap. She stared ahead raptly as the artist began to draw, trying her best not to move, but perfectly happy to speak as we waited. "So. I figured after we finished this we could do some of the rides. I want to try the tilt-a-whirl, and maybe the tunnel of love, oooh and the haunted house!" She spoke rapidly, her excitement clear in her voice.

I laughed and wrapped my arms around her middle, burying my face in her shoulder from behind. "Whoa there. What's got you so excited? I know we haven't been to the circus before but you don't need to rush. We can take it one thing at a time. There's no hurry." I didn't add that I thought her excitement was adorable, because I thought there was even odds she would be embarrassed about it.

She chuckled wryly, letting her body slowly relax back against me. "Sorry, sorry. I know I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. It's just..." She blushed. "This is kind of our first date. Especially as civilians, being out together like this. I've never really done anything like this before. Just...spent time with someone out of costume. Like obviously I've spent time with people, but not WITH someone."

I nodded against her neck. "I get it. I'm the same way. I'm excited to be here with you too. But we'll have plenty more nights like this if you want. Hell, we can come back here specifically if you want, and try out everything there is to do. It's not like we're short on money or time. It would be easy to fit in visits between training. Just focus on having fun, as long as you have a good time I will too, and we can get to everything in its own time."

She leaned over and kissed my forehead. "Good. And you're right." The artist finished up the caricature, though I got a small glare for wriggling around so much. Still, Callie folded the picture carefully and slipped it in a pocket before dragging me off again, this time much more slowly, to the next stop on our tour. The next place we stopped was a big scale type thing with a mallet where people could test their strength.

I decided to try this one. Granted Callie had a higher Might than I did, but I had skills to boost it. I was surprised to find that this was an Ascendant meter, though much less so to note that it was within the G rank spectrum, with the tester maxing out at a thousand Might. it was such a random use for Ascendant materials that I kind of figured the thing was created via Inventing. Still, I was determined to make a good showing of it.

There were prize levels for every hundred points, and the one hundred mark had this cute little stuffed hummingbird Callie was staring at. When I volunteered she grinned and put her hands up, surrendering her dreams of getting the stuffed bird to my capable hands. With ninety seven Might I was a shoe in, especially with skills, but I suspected like the other games here this one might be slightly weighted in their favor.

Knowing I couldn't break it I hefted the surprisingly heavy hammer. I hauled back, engaging all my muscles, and triggered Mercy Kill and Flurry of Blows, adding the enhanced speed to the flat damage increase to boost the impact of the hammer. I'd been right to assume they would rig the thing, even with the extra boost I barely hit the one hundred mark. Still, it was enough, and when I handed her the hummingbird Callie squealed and threw her arms around me happily, which was definitely worth it.

Once we finished we headed off to walk around for a bit. I saw Callie scanning the circus grounds, looking for any sign of our targets. When she saw me looking at her she smirked. "As much as I'm enjoying spending time together we do have to at least try to accomplish the mission. Not just because of the reward, but because I know how worried you are about this too. Luckily the Jerks are less than subtle at the best of times. Based on their usual MO we're looking for behaivor so obvious they would grab less attention with an actual billboard."

I snickered at that. "True enough. But we can look more easily from higher up. How about we take a ride on the ferris wheel, and we can take a look around from up there?" I figured since she wanted to do the whole romantic first date thing, we could hit two birds with one stone by using the ferris wheel to look our over the whole circus. The view was probably gorgeous from up there.

Callie was clearly in favor of the idea, tugging my hand and almost running over to the ferris wheel. It was easy enough to spot since it was basically the biggest thing in the park, and as we drew closer I had to whistle in appreciation at the intricate carriages on the wheel. They were each wooden and carefully crafted, looking like the wooden housing on a horse and carriage. We paid the man at the base and he let us in, and we settled into a plush, padded interior made with dark woods and maroon cushions. There was even a dim bulb providing light to the car so we could see.

We waited as the wheel began to turn, slowly carrying us up above the circus proper, and Callie leaned against me as we stared out the window, entranced by the beauty of this amazing place. Of course, we were still on the look out for the Jerks and their ridiculous multi colored mohawks. I pulled her against me, and given the atmosphere finally said something I'd been thinking for a while. "Hey Cal?" She turned to look at me curiously. "That thing you said? I love you too."

She blinked at me, clearly not expecting the confession, and I immediately started trying to think of a way to take it back when she didn't respond right away because I thought she hadn't meant it and I'd made an idiot of myself. That thought quickly melted as she hurled herself against me, kissing me fiercely. We ended up riding the ferris wheel all the way through without seeing any of the Jerks. But to be honest, I wasn't really looking very hard.

When we got to the bottom I was a little dazed, and Callie looked to be a mix of smug and thrilled as she pulled me back into the crowd by my hand. We walked back out into the crowd, looking around, and I was about to suggest another ride when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I poked Callie in the ribs and pointed to the retreating figure of a huge man with no shirt, leather pants, and an absolutely nauseating bright fuschia mohawk. I raised an eyebrow at her, wondering if she knew who it was.

She rolled her eyes, looking annoyed at the interruption. "Great. The absolute most absurd person in the whole gang. Ronnie the Beef." She'd mentioned Ronnie the Beef before, though she hadn't told me anything specific about him, all I knew was that he was one of the only G rankers the Jerks had, though who knew if that was still the case. Still, we'd come to do recon, so we followed him quietly from a distance. Not that it was hard, despite being a G ranker, Ronnie the Beef wasn't particularly observant. Go figure.

Unfortunately not being subtle made following him harder in some ways too, since he didn't seem to mind bulling past all the circus goers as he made his way through the fairgrounds. Even among G rankers, this guy was attention grabbing enough to move people out of the way, given that the Jerk G ranker was a full seven feet tall, towering over even someone like me. He also happened to be much wider at the shoulders, and I wondered how much of that physical presence translated to Might stats. I bet a guy this big had a rep as quite a bruiser.

I slowed down to pull Callie slightly back. "So, why do they call him Ronnie the Beef exactly? With the Jerks it's even odds whether he has some infamous tendencies to hold grudges or likes to eat steak." I kept my voice low so Ronnie wouldn't hear. His Perception must have been low, because he didn't seem to notice a word I said, though to be fair we were pretty far back and there were plenty of chattering attendees between us.

Callie just snorted. "He once beat someone to death with a cow carcass. You were pretty close on both counts I guess." She stopped talking, eyes widening. "He just ducked into that tent. Let's slip into stealth and follow him in. I'm betting whatever is in there is going to tell us everything we need to know about what the Jerks are doing here." She took a deep breath and the two of us entered stealth, suppressing all traces of our presence as we followed the huge man into the tent. I had to admit, I was pretty curious myself. I just hoped we could get back to our date after we finished our recon.