Sarah smirked as she dropped another letter from her parents into the shredder. She would've preferred to be using an assumed identity, but being able to constantly give her parents the proverbial finger was fun too. But she didn't have time to muse on that right now, moving on to the next envelope in the pile. Volunteering to do office work between shows kept her busy, in the loop, and with a little extra cash in her account. She appreciated all of that, but it was also tedious and could be stressful at times.
Outside of the letters addressed to her that had gone straight in the shredder (after ensuring that there wasn't anything like money or checks in them, as unlikely as that was) she had everything sorted into suitable piles quickly enough. Going through the bills was going to be next, possibly followed by getting on the phone to their next couple of stops to ensure that things were still going to be ready for them.
She hadn't anticipated joining the circus when she'd run away from home, just wanting out, but it had worked out amazingly well for her overall. And this particular circus had enough muscle to keep her parents, not to mention anyone else that wanted to get their hands on her, very far away. Only the letters that came every other stop, and that she did her best to ignore. Sure, the group was benefitting from her powers, but they insisted on doing so on her terms and she got her fair share of the profits for when she reached legal adulthood. More so, they were serious about letting anyone that joined up leave whenever they wanted to.
Though she wished that Kurt would swing back through soon. He was much better than she was with the finances, even if she got better with every lesson that she got from the man.
Rachel frowned as she checked her supplies. She probably shouldn't be surprised that she'd gotten things wrong when estimating how much more food would be needed as the pups grew, since despite the help they gave her she still wasn't good with math. But there was a good chance that Sarah already knew that they needed more food for the dogs, so it was probably okay. Still, she didn't want to depend on Sarah keeping track of this for her, so she pulled out her notepad and carefully wrote out 'more dog food' on it as a reminder.
The notepad and pencil went back into the pouch on her belt before she moved down the line of supplies. She had plenty of treats, so that wasn't a concern, but the notepad came back out as she looked through the collars and leashes she had available. She was going to need some larger collars in a stop or two as the pups grew, and she'd found damage on a couple of the leashes so getting replacements would be a good idea. Getting '12 adult collars' and 'leashes' written out took her a couple of minutes, but it would ensure that she didn't forget later.
Nodding, she finished looking through things before heading back out into the yard area that she was using. It shouldn't be long before all of her dogs had finished eating, and she still hadn't determined which of the pups would be sticking around versus trained to go elsewhere. Selling off her dogs as pets was something that she didn't condone, having seen what some people did to them, but service dogs were much better treated and helped bring money in to take care of more dogs.
She was distracted from that thought by a couple of the dogs barking, and when she looked for why she saw that Ryan was back. Which meant taking some time to go over her act. Changing things up had noticeably increased the people that paid to see her trained dogs, which was another source of money to help more dogs with. It was also fun for her and the dogs, which was very nice.
The only problem with being in the circus was the constant moving, and lack of territory that resulted in. But that was tempered by the constant new experiences and the changes in the crowds, not to mention the help in keeping the police from throwing her in prison. She didn't know how they'd gotten the police to stop chasing her, but they had.
Jean-Paul amused himself as he usually did during his downtime when they weren't on the road, by doing his best to piss people off in video games. It was much less direct than his normal gig on show days, screwing with people just enough to keep them from winning the otherwise not rigged carnival games, but it was enjoyable anyway. Especially when he could get people into voice chat, and triply so when his siblings tried using games to 'reach out' to him.
They weren't crazy enough to attempt to get at him otherwise, and none of them took losing well, which meant that when they did find him in-game it was very enjoyable.
Though he did need to pick up a couple more reference books for the next time they were on the road. Who knew that understanding the nervous system would help him manipulate it in more subtle ways, and thus infuriate people with less obvious tells that they weren't in full control of themselves? Just the idea of inducing ever so slight transmission delays had been a godsend there.
Missy nodded to herself as she looked over the new VW Beetle. They'd significantly up-rated the engine and suspension, not to mention removed most of the interior just for the weight reduction, but the windows still needed to be painted over. That would come later, for now she needed to make sure that she could work with it safely. She climbed in, having no problems due to her own small size, and examined the entire interior. They'd put various bright yellow markings in place on key supports for her to refer to as she did her thing, but the more familiar she was with the space the easier she'd be able to work with it. They were also trying a new trick and had a series of yellow dots on the ceiling, where they wanted to put grab-straps.
Eventually she nodded and cracked her knuckles, not that she needed to, and reached out with her powers. The inside of the car expanded significantly, the grid of yellow dots on the ceiling spreading out but not deforming. It took more concentration than she was used to, but that was okay. This was partially an attempt to stretch her own limits, after all. Eventually she hit the limit of what she could do, and she ensured that she could hold it without too much strain. It would be nice if she could anchor these changes, but that hadn't worked out.
Nodding, she waved to the group outside of the car, then moved into a position where she wouldn't be in the way. The rest of the clown corps moved in, ensuring that they could all fit in without issue with all of their props. With any luck the grab-straps, once installed, would make it even safer for when the vehicle was moving. They could probably do even better if they could get their hands on a tinker that dealt with vehicles, but hadn't run into any willing to join up yet.
It wasn't long before the entire clown corps was in the car, more than they'd normally drag in, with their props. Minus Missy's own props, admittedly, but they kept her load light so that she could focus on the expansion of the car. Probably because of her age as well, admittedly, but they never tried to use that as an excuse beyond things that were legitimately dangerous. She disliked, but understood, why they insisted on the adults handling things like fireworks in states that let them set them off.
With proof that everyone could fit in the car, with the driver on the collapsing milk crate, they congratulated her and cleared out. She now needed to hold the change as long as she could so that they'd be able to apply proper safety margins time-wise. Safety was a very big deal in the circus, after all, even if it frequently looked like they were incredibly lax with it.
Jacob watched the door shut as Sarah left his office, having dropped the bills and other mail that she couldn't deal with for various reasons on his desk. Running a circus with more runaways than normal hires generated an annoyingly large amount of paperwork, but being able to prove that he was 'rehabilitating' the parahumans that might otherwise be causing problems for society had granted him an amazingly large amount of leeway.
Having accumulated the single largest collection of parahumans on the continent didn't hurt, of course. It wasn't what he'd expected to find after he'd killed his own parents, but running into the then-failing circus had turned his life around and provided him with a new purpose. That most of the parahuman recruits joined up while trying to escape problems with their own parents, that the Wards wouldn't be able to help with due to government idiocy, had originally seemed to be an accident.
Sarah had assured him that it wasn't, and that his own powers had something to do with finding all of the lost souls that needed help. It was now part of why they never planned more than three shows in advance, because he needed the flexibility to direct them to where they were needed. It also made their shows oddly more popular, because people jumped at the unpredictable chance to see them. It also helped explain how he seemed to be able to drop people into roles that they'd do well in.
Now if only he could convince a couple of the parahuman asylums to work with him. He was certain that some of the 'patients' could benefit from the circus, if only they could give them a chance.
