Willen had approached Sylvia with a flyer in hand. Whether the flyer was of more use to keep her hands from shaking or to actually inform the lady of Yearling Brook to the matter was up for debate. Still, with more firmness to her voice than she expected, Willen asked, "Your Excellency, lots of the recruits here are folk of RhyDin, and we were hoping, that is if you were inclined to allow it?"

It was the first day Sylvia had dressed and sat at her desk. By this hour of mid-afternoon, she was aching and not in her most patient frame of mind. "Willen, do get to the point, please. I see you have a flyer for the RhyDin Carnivale. I gather your request has something to do with it?"

"Yes"m. We would like to create a float for the parade."

"Yes, by all means," Sylvia smiled at the apparent relief of the girl.

"Thank you," she bowed and strode out the front door.

Sylvia looked over her shoulder through the window to see a group of four other guards waiting for Willen's return. Their elation at her news showed broad smiles and a few rounds of hand shaking. The task begun, Sylvia turned back to her work.

So it was that Yearling Brook guards started construction on their float for the RhyDin Carnivale Parade. They boasted of their project when they visited their favorite haunts in town and shared cards or a pint or two with friends. The Yearling Brook float, they claimed, drawn by horses in their own costumes, would look like a forest come to life made from branches, paper, and just about anything they could find. Red lanterns would hang about the edge. It would even have " they exclaimed " a moon hanging above! All without magic, yes, they nodded, all without magic. It was, evidently, a point of pride in that.

((Want to get involved" Place pictures, drawings, or descriptions of floats as well as observing the parade here. February 20th intended parade time.))

"You're missing some black." Before Katarina had a chance to inspect her face, Christine was already leaning over to add more black to her lips. Rather than squirm away and risk the black smearing the white that encompassed the rest of the her face, she stayed motionless. She tried to not lick her lips either, for the makeup tasted something awful.

"Thanks." Muttered, she turned away to glance at herself in the mirror. The white makeup was not as startling as the black around her eyes and her lips. Satisfied, her hands reached up and adjusted the beret, tilting it to favor her left side. Her attire was hardly usual, a shirt with thin horizontal black and white stripes tucked into black slacks. On top of the shirt, was as fitted black vest. New, black ballet slippers were already set upon her feet, and Katarina had taken extra precautions to tape her toes to endure the long day ahead of her. As she carefully placed the last piece of the ensemble on "a pair of white gloves- she heard a woman's laughter, and smirked. "Mime's ar" supposed ta be silen" fer a reason."

"Have you seen the men?" Whitney giggled to Katarina, their costumes mirroring as she waved Rini over. Raising a brow, she moved from her mirror to see what was so funny. She had heard that the men were to dress as clowns, but she was not quite ready for the scene that she saw. Their makeup had white around the mouth and eyebrows with cherry red lips that forced a smile and hearts upon their cheeks. It was like looking at a rainbow that had been wrapped around in several knots. Florescent green jackets, yellow vests, with shirts of varying colors and stripes. The pants were cut to the calves, also having bright colors stripped in an opposite direction that the shirt, and socks that reached pasted the pants; these also in alternating stripes and colors. Each "clown" had a different set of bright dance shoes to complete the look.

Katarina made one of the embarrassing sounds of trying to hold laughter in, and it only caused the girls around her to laugh all the more. "Yer distractin" me. All y"all need ta laugh now so you dun do it durin" the parade." Carefully placing her finger over lips to create the look of silence, Katarina dug deep to pull up her performance face, and resisted to urge to laugh at the ridiculous looks of the costumes.

"Now, when the parade starts, Christine and Raphael will start on the stage. Does everyone remember the rotation?" The woman nodded, falling into character, while the men honked horns and rang bells that were given to them. Katarina felt the corners of her lips try to pull up. "Don't try too hard, we don't want any injuries with the opera only a month away. Let's move out, and bring the show with us."

The dancers of the Rhydin Theatre and Opera house moved to their place before the parade was to start, their own float contrasting as much as the costumes between genders. It was a replica of the stage in the theatre, half of it in the black and white of the women, and the other half revealing the humor and colorful nature of the men. On the top of the float displayed the common sign for theatre, with the masks of a smile and frown, each set on the proper side of the float. The stage could hold two different dancers, while the rest would perform on the ground in front of the float, and rotate throughout the parade..

"Places, everyone!"

Katarina pounding the hard top of her shoes against the cobblestone, before smiling to the women next to her. Small bags of candy was given to everyone to pass out, and the true mime nature was cloaked over her.

((Images of the costumes can be found here, here, and here.))