Screamland

“I don’t have time…” The tall blonde man started. He cleared his throat and looked at his shorter purple haired companion.

Both sets of eyes met. One was a never ending pile of highly expressive masks tumbling upon each other. The other, markedly deep blue eyes that pierced anyone that dared to stare too long at them.

“Don’t have time for what, Popee?”

“I… Keda… I don’t don’t think the world has time to deal with fantasy anymore. No one cares about the circus anymore. No one has time for fun. For magic. It’s gone. The magic is gone.”

“You used to care.”

Kedamono’s expression was concern, not admonition.

“Care?”

Popee walked closer to his friend.

“Care, care about what?”

Kedamono took a few steps back. “About this.”

“Well, my dad left. He left you. Therefore, he left me. You know that.”

Kedamono remembered the day his worst fears came alive. How that frog kept yelling about his real face under his mask and how he looked just like his mother. His notorious mother.

The White Wolf.

Like a legend. A horror story.

Everyone abandoned him.

Just like his own mother did.

Except Popee.

They both left the circus, fantastically called, Wolf Zirkus, after that, in the desert, trying to find their own path.

“Yea. I know.”

They finally found a decrepit old room inside of a possibly pre-World War One building to rent out in a town about thirty miles away from the dry “Dessert desert,” that was their old home. Popee’s father had set up camp and their semi-permanent circus tent there. They had one bathroom to share. No bed. No furniture.

“Well,” Kedamono said as they entered the damp and depressing premises, “At least we get WiFi here. We didn’t get that at Wolf Zirkus.”

“Correction, we would’ve gotten it, sometimes. If dear old dad would have taken our circus to nicer, richer areas,” Popee sighed.

“Let’s not worry about that.”

“I can’t stop thinking about it though.”

Popee slumped on the dusty floor of their boarding room.

“I’ll… there’s… don’t worry,” Kedamono tried to speak and console his friend, but the right words would not reach past his tongue.

Popee huffed, putting his blonde hair up in high pigtails.

Kedamono smiled, “Looks good. Wanna unpack?”

“This is shit, Keda.” Popee stood up and brushed himself up. “Look around us. We have nothing. Nothing to do. Nothing to unpack. Our lives are just blank slates. What are we? Who are we?”

Kedamono went over to him and sighed, “You are Popee. My friend. I’m me. Kedamono.”

Popee scowled, but then turned his head and secretly smiled. “That’s too simple.”

“I don’t care if it’s simple.”

“That’s naive.”

“Then I’m naive. Oh well.”

“That’s infuriating! Why are you okay with that!?!”

Kedamono laughed. “Popee, it’s okay. Look, the landlord told us we can pay our rent by doing work around the building. That’s covered. But,” Kedamono looked determined and put his hand on Popee’s shoulder. “We will… I will buy us furniture and get us a better place. I’ll get a good job. Okay?”

Popee had a red face by the end of Kedamono’s passion filled claims of betterment, and nodded slowly.

“Really?”

Kedamono nodded.

“And… you should go to school. I know you want to be a scientist. To work with robots. Right?”

Popee’s face lit up. “Yes! I do.”

“Then do it,” Kedamono grinned. “I’ll support us until you make the big bucks.”

Popee laughed. “No way. Scientists don’t make a lot of dough. You know that.”

“Oh, then I guess I go back on everything I just said! Whoops!” Kedamono said goofily, making Popee laugh so hard he fell down.

As Popee felt a burst of warmth for his friend, he felt a strong sense of relativity in regard to his surroundings and how he used to live.

As a young child he would dip in daydreaming often as he was often lonely and depressed, in that desert wasteland of his life. Living in an actual desert, Popee would never feel safe and his father was never around to just talk to him. It was only to practice their circus acts and secure shows. It was a never ending struggle of sorts to keep his childlike spirit alive in a place he never felt comfortable or secure.

Kedamono looked over at his friend, perplexed by the change in his demeanor.

“What’s wrong?”

Popee sighed. “I always fear that my life will end in a crazy, lonely way.”

Kedamono nodded. “I think I understand this.”

Popee scrunched his nose and his eyes went downcast. “I think that my violence against others, and you… well, it served a dual function, as horrific as it sounds.” Popee looked at Kedamono, noticing his purple haired companion’s features fall. Popee continued, “I felt I would eventually destroy myself in the end. I heard once that whoever lives by the sword, dies by the sword.”

Kedamono smiled weakly. “I have also heard that the pen is mightier than that sword.”

Popee chuckled but it sounded mirthless.

“Well, that’s all well and good, I guess. Perpetual doom lingered in my heart, and I felt doomed.”

Kedamono understood this level of pain and fear as well, as his identity was always a mystery and a very difficult one to deal with.

They were both silent for a moment.

“What did it feel like, Popee, honestly?” Kedamono asked him after much silence. Popee looked down, shut his eyes tightly, and as he looked up, tears were forming in his deep blue eyes.

“Engulfed in the desert's parched silence, I was nothing but another grain of sand in the wind.”

***

Author note:

This was chapter one of my first Popee the Performer Fanfiction, chapter two coming out soon! Owner of Popee the Performer anime and manga by all respects is Ryuji Masuda. I just own the writing.

Popee is about nineteen years old in this story, Kedamono is about twenty seven years old.