One afternoon, Midori called an emergency meeting of the Circus of Wayward Wonders. Once everybody was present, Midori began, “It has come to my attention that some of you who didn’t start out in the Celestial Menagerie didn’t read my memoirs to get up-to-date with my backstory.” She pulled out a huge binder filled with hundreds of pages of paper, shook it at the group, and let it fall to the ground with a resounding thump. “Granted, I haven’t even finished chapter five or started chapter six, but still!” She gave looks of mock disapproval throughout the tent.
Protests erupted from the group:
“That’s a lot of story to get through!”
“I had too much work to do!”
“I CAN’T READ!”
Midori held up her hands. “No matter,” she continued, “You know I love you all! So I have prepared a summary, which I will now present to you. Maestro, if you please!”
The band struck up a tune heavy on the bass and percussion. Midori swayed her hips in rhythm to the music and hopped from one foot to the other. She called this music style “Hip-Hop.”
Midori began her spoken-word performance:
Now this is a story all about how
My life got flipped, turned upside down
And I’d like to take a minute, just for this purpose
I’ll tell you how I became the ringmaster of this circus
In West Minkai Empire born and raised
With my siblings was where I spent most of my days
Travelin’ with our parents to places quite random
And one day we found ourselves traveling to Absalom
When a group of terrorists, up to no good
Started making trouble in the neighborhood
They had beef with my parents, blew up the embassy
I was the only one left to carry on our legacy
That night when the search party left me for dead
Dusklight and her creepy clowns found me instead
She pulled me from the rubble and wiped off my char
And said, “You’re movin’ with your new circus family to Escadar”
I begged and pleaded with her day after day
But she whipped me and beat me and said I must stay
She cast spells on me to make me comply
I put my uniform on and said, “I’ll stay till I die”
Carnie life, yo this is bad.
But Dusklight’s boyfriend Myron, I made him my dad
“Papa Thunder” saved me from bad guys givin’ me a fright
Hmm, this might be all right
But wait, Dusklight got pissy at Myron and all that
So he packed up and left that mean old cat
I tried to go with him, but she stopped me. Why?
She said, “Midori, just try it and I’ll make you die”
Nine years of my life I spent at that place
Learnin’ the circus biz at a breakneck pace
I grew to adulthood in the Celestial Menagerie
And got promoted to barker, it suits me, don’t you agree?
But then one night, I remember it well
I saw Dusklight kill my friend and it broke her spell
I stood up to her, sayin’ “Why I oughtta”
But her guards woulda killed me if I had fought her
So instead I challenged her skills
An epic song battle, a skirmish of wills
My kitsune magic worked into my song
And broke Dusklight’s spell over my friends before long
We all stood together, a unified front
But her goons outnumbered us, so we pulled a stunt
Bufurug the druid knew the spell Ferocious Shape
He broke us out of there and we made our escape
Now runnin’ thirty miles to Abberton
To get to Myron’s circus, we’d all be done
We had no food, we were unarmed
But Bufurug got us to a safe town unharmed
We called for a cart and when it came near
The driver was Myron, Papa Thunder was here!
The druid had sent word to him that we had arrived
So Myron came to get us, it was just a short drive
We pulled up to the circus about seven or eight
Saw everyone settin’ up and I said “This is great!”
Looked at my new home, I was finally there
The Circus of Wayward Wonders, my new family, I declare!
Well, uh, opening night came and when we got ready
Axel ran backstage lookin’ really unsteady
He found Myron dead, killed by a snake bite
And we started to think we’d have to cancel tonight
But the Professor said “Now hold it a beat!
The audience is packed and we still need to eat
We can’t afford refunds, gotta please the town
So put on your makeup and send in the clowns!”
He covered poor Myron with a black silk cape
I fell down crying like my poor heart would break
But I wiped off my tears, hopin’ no more would spawn
And I put on Myron’s hat and said, “The show must go on!”
So now this is my circus and these are my monkeys
And I’ve recruited new talent that’s really quite funky
So look at my kingdom, it’s kind of a disaster
But I sit on my throne, the new circus ringmaster
The song’s outro played and the music ended. Midori asked the group, “Any questions?”