The Carnival

[Orion]

Human mythology was perplexing. Why have such ordinary characters like a woman, her pet, a robot, a straw based life form and an anthropomorphic lion in a mystery world where all they do is skip down a golden tiled street all in the purpose of reaching a giant disembodied head? Where was the moral in it? Do humans often partake in long-winded journeys to meet these all knowing "Wizards"? Were they like the earthling equivalent to a genie? Orion tried not to think about it; it was making his head spin.

He was ecstatic to be free of that furry orange body suit. Despite not knowing what a lion was, the saiyan mercenary felt he was a premium example of one. Not that he was immersing himself in the role or anything; no, far from it. Since he was a saiyan, one of his chief tasks in life was to be fantastic at portraying the essence of power and intimidation. The lion in that play was definitely those things. He almost caught himself laughing. How terrified the cowardly humans must have been of him.

Now he was stuck in the carnival again, whiling away the time until the Gamer summoned him to the next event. It was still as populated as ever. The metaphorical stench of humanity assaulted his nostrils. He knew this was only a simulation, but Orion's racist tendencies saw past the binary units and into the horrid creation that they formed. If only there was something he could busy himself with until the next moronic hoop jumping began.

As he scanned the crowd, a young woman caught his eye. She sat alone on a bench, bringing a cone of red slush to her mouth and licking it. Her contempt for her own appearance was obvious, judging by the crimson stain around her lips. Orion had seen enough putrid piles of bloodied flesh in his time to recognise it when he saw it. Even his savage, battle ridden history never saw him digest his victims, save for that one battle against an Arlian raiding party; even then he only took a bite because his teammate wouldn't shut the hell up.

To see a human calmly consuming a handful of excised flesh ruined his stereotyped image of them. He had to find out what was different about this woman. Besides, there wasn't anything else to do. Beating humans at the shooting range had lost its appeal around the time he took the gun from the stall and started aiming at the carnival attendants.

He approached the candy haired girl, stopping a few steps from her. At first, she was oblivious to his presence, lost in her own sadist enjoyment. Orion eventually cleared his throat, ripping her away from her silent introspection. Her eyes nimbly jumped from the saiyan's face to the space above his head, where they halted.

"Human girl," Orion started. "Why are you eating that?"

"You have a halo," Victoria mentioned. "Why is that?"

"Hey! I'm asking the questions here," the saiyan rebuked. "Now tell me what I wish to know!"

"I'll tell you when you tell me," she answered coyly, returning to her cone of granulated skin.

Orion elicited a haughty sigh. "Fine. I'm dead. Now-"

"You're dead?!" Victoria asked incredulously. "Are you a ghost?"

"What? No!" the warrior elite shouted. "I'm here because I'm a brilliant fighter."

"I don't understand."

"I've been given a day of life so I can participate here. Does that make sense?"

"Oh, OK," Victoria answered, although not really sure what that all meant. How did a dead person arrive in the world of the living while they were dead? Wasn't that an oxymoron? Her fascination with the shimmering halo deepened, but she wanted to let this man speak.

"There," Orion stated firmly. "I told you. Now tell me why you are consuming that."

Victoria shrugged. "It looked nice. The lady told me it was like ice-cream, but not like ice-cream. I was confused at first, but I like it."

Orion's face contorted in shock. "Ice-cream?! You think flesh tastes like ice-cream?"

"Flesh?!" the android repeated. "No! It's called a snow cone! See?"

The saiyan leaned in closer towards the icy snack. He inspected it quickly, concluding that it was indeed a collection of flavoured ice particles and not a cone of rotting meat, as he had suspected at first. That was disappointing; the one human who was doing something out of the ordinary was eating coloured ice.

Orion went to leave, but Victoria grabbed his robe. "Wait! You're not leaving yet, are you?"

"Of course I am," the veteran warmonger returned. "Why would I stay?"

"I was hoping you'd tell me more about being dead," she continued, her bright sky blue eyes on him. "It sounds interesting."

Orion was about to dismiss the concept out of hand, but a thought struck him like a bolt of lightning; something to pass the time, anyway. This human girl didn't know who he was. In fact, she was probably clueless as to what a saiyan was. Perhaps he could spin a tale of his 'heroic' deeds, detailing the exciting and altruistic life of a wandering space traveler who eventually met his end saving an orphanage of humans on a space station somewhere or something. The specifics didn't matter right then; he could fabricate them as he went along. However, the idea sounded fun. Maybe at least one human would celebrate his passing, declaring to the universe the selfless impact Orion the saiyan had on so many lives.

The one eyed warrior smirked. "You know what? I'd love to." He turned around and sat down beside the magenta haired girl. "What's your name?"

"Victoria," she answered in between slurps of her snow cone. "What's yours?"

"I'm Orion," he replied. Cunning filled his one eye. "So, you'd like to know what it's like to be dead?"