Lucien walked through the grounds, making his usual rounds around the circus. He and the others had grown used to a relatively steady flow of people. While not all towns proved to be an extreme success like Vegas, it was still much better than before. He understood it varied by the circumstances the people there were living day to day. The day had been relatively peaceful. Geralt had made himself scarce, but this was something the troupe was used to by now. He still didn't understand the reasoning behind it.. but at this point trying to inquire too much of the man didn't lead them anywhere. It was honestly unfortunate... that they still knew so little about him.
It was then that something unusual snapped the Ringleader out of his thoughts. The line gathered at Geralt's tent was still there. He took out his pocket watch to look at the time, eyebrows furrowing slightly. It was about five minutes to showtime, why were these people still outside?
He approached the carnie in front of the entrance of the tent. Now getting a better look, he appeared to be quite nervous, even more so when he saw him.
"Oscar, should these people not have gone in by now?" He asked him.
"Er.. yessir but.. Geralt's.. not here yet." He said, eyes darting around the area.
This caused Lucien's eyebrows to furrow. It was true that Geralt had not been seen all day, but that wasn't that odd for him. Despite him having made himself completely unseen at other times, he was always back in time for the show.
"I will return shortly." He said, quickly making pace toward Geralt's trailer, giving it a knock.
"Geralt, it's almost showtime." He called out, but received no response. Knowing how the man was, he knew not to linger there any longer. If he had been inside he surely would have answered. He walked away from the trailer and spoke to another Carnie.
"James, have you seen Geralt today?" He asked.
The man shook his head. "I haven't sir.." He responded.
This was bad. Two minutes left until showtime, and the Magician was nowhere to be found.
"Please look for him, tell the others to let me know the moment anyone see's him." He said, before hurrying back to his performance tent. He still hadn't arrived. He doubted the man would be running late, it seemed after the discussion they had that he was well aware that wasn't something he tolerated. Was he really going to miss the show? A frown formed at his lips. Despite all the thoughts running through his head, he could not afford to wait any longer. The people would not want to wait, and they were normally seated about 10 minutes before show start. He could not afford to make them wait any longer.
This was something Lucien never thought he would have to do. Granted someone falling ill was always possible. He would never make someone perform in such circumstances, but there was always some kind of warning beforehand. That was not the case here. Nothing about Geralt had been weirder than normal. Even if.. the world 'normal' was relative to him. Had it been worse than he thought and he simply not noticed?
He shrugged off the thought for now as he arrived back at the man's tent. Although reluctant, he would have to give some sort of excuse for his absence. If they had not found him now, then there would be no reassurance that he would find him before his next show, if he wasn't on the grounds.
"I am terribly sorry for your wait." He addressed in a clear voice. "I'm afraid that our Le Magicien has fallen ill, and will be unable to perform today. I offer my sincerest apologies for this inconvenience." He said with a deep bow.
"I know some of you came very much excited to see him, and I assure you the last thing he would want would be for you to leave disappointed. To make it up to you, all of you here will be given free access to two additional preformances here of your choosing. I humbly ask for you to accept our apologies for the time you took to come here." He said to them all.
There was a clear disorder among the public. There was clear disappointment among them, but some had taken it better than others. There was a group of people that had been satisfied with the reimbursement they were given, but others.. not so much. These people were the most difficult for Lucien to deal with, and those who were set on wanting to see Geralt's show, because that's why they were here. Only being left with the opportunity to see it on their final night, Lucien's hand was forced, and he was obligated to provide that small group with free tickets to the final night. That.. was a much bigger loss he hadn't been expecting, and it had certainly soured the Ringleader's mood. Even by the time he had finished dealing with the unfortunate situation, Geralt was still nowhere to be found. The entire performance night went by, and the Magician was nowhere to be found.
By this point, Lucien's displeasure had evolved into an emotion the troupe was not used to seeing. At one point he had thought, what if something happened? What if he got hurt? But thinking about who he was talking about, he thought it unlikely. The man had the skills to slip out of any troublesome situation he could get into. So why wasn't he here? A scowl was clearly seen on Lucien's face as he made his way back to his trailer once the shows were over. He didn't like showing this side of him to the troupe, and preferred to be alone at times like this. Even if they asked him about it, right now there was not much he could tell them.
His curtain lay wide open, within sights of the entrance to the Magician's trailer. If he arrived, he'd see him. There was no way he could let something like this slide. Such irresponsibility was not something Lucien was willing to tolerate. The Ringleader was not pleased.
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