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Chapter 47 -
Great Expositions
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“A pleasure to meet you, Dr. Alcott St. Croix.” The greeting came out bittersweet from you and you slightly bow.

Dr. Croix humphs, “Yes, a PLEASURE.” His hands are behind his back and walks past you, “Now where is my room.”

You restrained from saying anything and walk a little ahead of him, “Right this way, Dr.” You take him to his room and he frowns, “This is it? I've stayed in more better places. When is my personal security detail show up?”

“Soon.” You glare, “It's not like you'll be in danger IN your room. When one security detail is found, they will be here to pick up from your room. Good day, I have other business to attend to, Sir Know-It-All.” You didn't bother staying and quickly left.

Down the stairs and into the courtyard, you had to pick up the ribbons and custom made medals from Xavier and the Seamstress.

Cassandra had a rolled up banner in her hands and a ladder as you pass her.

“Xavier!” You call happily.

“(____), good thing the Seamstress left the ribbons here. Now you can have the medals and ribbons in one pick up.” Xavier holds up a small chest.

“Thank you for doing this, Xavier.” You hug him and jog away, “Give the Seamstress a thanks for me!”

“Cassandra’s gonna be here right? NOT that I'm doing this for Cassandra.” Varian turns away, laughing nervously in his hand and seems worried, “She is gonna be there, right?”

Just as Varian looked at Eugene and Rapunzel, his eyes widen toward the entrance. Rapunzel glances at Eugene, who shrugs and they both look in the direction Varian is staring.

You pant, but head toward the stage to lock the small chest in the wooden podium for later.

“It's….been a month since you seen (____), right?” Eugene asks, but Varian doesn't answer. “Varian?”

The couple see Varian with a far off look and Eugene snaps his fingers, “Varatos!”

Varian jumps then laughs shyly, “What?”

You wipe off an imaginary sweat and spot Varian as he smiles shyly in your direction. You smile, jogging over and hug him tightly. “Varian! I knew you weren't going to miss this.”

Eugene chuckles and gently pulls Rapunzel to look at other people's invention.

“Is that your invention?” You ask, reaching to peek under the cover.

Varian takes your hand, grinning, “Not yet, it's a surprise and of course I wouldn't miss this chance to promote the merits of alchemy.” He gently pats the covered invention, “I just hope my dad comes to see when I win first place.”

“Very confident as always.” You swing your hands which Varian still held.

The two of you chuckle awkwardly. “Want to look at other people's inventions with me?” You ask with hesitance. You had no idea why you were afraid that he'll say no.

“Sure sounds fun.” He let go of your hand to hold onto the cart his invention rests on. “Shall we, Milady?”

You roll your eyes, smiling and nudge him, “Come on, Flynn Jr.”

Varian pushes his cart, sarcastically laughing, “Ha, ha. Funny.”

With each tent you stopped by held good creative inventions. “They all put a lot of effort into their inventions.” You say.

Varian felt annoyed, “Sure, you can say that. You know, I think you'll LOVE MY invention.” He waves his hands in front of him, “It's MAGICAL.” His eyes glance at you, hoping to grab your attention from the others.

You blink and grin at him, “It must be amazing if you say its magical without regret.” You giggle and walk by another invention, seeing it's just a guy with springs on walking sticks.

Varian quietly lets out an irritated breath.

You walk along then yelps when you bump into Varian's cart. “Varian?” He wasn't beside you and he wasn't anywhere around where you were walking.

A tap to your shoulder caused you to turn and popcorn is in front of your face. Varian smiles softly, “I got you popcorn.”

You smile, “Aw! Thank you.” You take the popcorn and munch it happily.

It didn't take long, but you were done silently judging everyone's inventions, “There's still a lot more time until the judging. Do you want to put your invention in my room?”

“Yeah, I have to make sure no one messes with this or it can turn to catastrophe.” He chuckles a bit.

In the hallways, you help Varian carry the cart up the steps and the two of you continue down the halls. As you pass the banquet hall for parties, Varian stopped you.

“Wait, I gotta talk to Cassie!” He takes off and you see Cassandra in the banquet hall, ironing the tablecloths.

“Varian! Ugh….” You push cart and follow Varian inside.

Varian laughs nervously, “Oh you, seriously.” He grins shyly at Cass, “I'm getting ready for the expo and I think you'll be pretty impressed with my invention.”

You slightly pant at how heavy this cart is and wonder how strong Varian actually is, especially pushing something like this around by himself.

“Yep, the only thing is….” Varian puts his hands behind his back with a coy attitude, “...when I present it to Master Dr. St. it's going to take two people to operate it.”

You raise a brow because usually Varian doesn't……..you stop your thoughts and feel irritated.

“Hey! Want to be the assistant for my demonstration?”

“But I'm usually your assistant.” You mumble quietly.

Cass pours grape juice into a cup, seeming confused about the question, “Assistant? Why not ask (____)....I just…..no, look-” She gasps, over filling the cup and groans stressfully, walking off to get a washcloth. “I can't catch a break today.”

“Varian, Cassandra is sorta busy. Maybe finding a different assistant who will be willing to help.” You suggested.

Varian calmly dashes a hint of a rocky substance that absorbed into the juice, “She'll do it. I know she will.” He take the bouquet of flowers over the juice and a drop of water lands on the purple liquid before the whole thing vanishes.

“Wow.” You say in amazement.

Varian glances at you and smiles softly.

Cassandra narrows her eyes at Varian while wiping the table, “Varian, thanks for stopping by, but-”

“I think the table is clean enough.” You say, chuckling.

Cass looks and she is in disbelief, “Whaaa? Huh? The stain, it's gone! But how?” She holds her head.

“Oh, simple.” Varian started.

You smile warmly as he goes into genius mode and waves his hand to explain. “Grapes are acidic. By combining the alkalinity from flowers barley grass with rock salt, I was able to stop the states adhesion.” Varian puts a hand to his chest, “Alchemy.”

Cass smirks and you pray she won't take advantage of him. You shake your head and she rolls her eyes.

“So you've got a knack for this kind of thing. Any chance you’d want to-”

Varian leans in almost desperate, “HELP YOU? Yes.”

You stare wide eyed at Varian and cross your arms, turning away.

Varian stumbles over his words, “I mean, I'd love too.” He chuckles then gasps, “Hey! If I help you, you can help me and be my assistant.” His voice shyly wavers. “It won't take a minute.”

Cass hums unsure, looking between you and Varian. Though Varian’s big pleading eyes made you fail, “Deal.”

“Great!”

You clench your teeth and you're about to stomp off, but Varian pulls you back with an arm around your shoulders. “We can be a co Ladies-In-Waiting.” He laughs goofily, “Right (____)?”

You were going to answer, only to have clothes thrown onto both of you and hear Cassandra’s muffled voice. “Let's not put a label on it.”

Cassandra harshly tries to shine the silverware and you see that Varian had made an automatic polisher. That slightly impressed Cass as Varian grins innocently, though he frown a little when you continued to use a cloth.

In the hallway, Cass brings out the mop and bucket of water to clean the floors which somehow had gotten mud on it. Varian taps her shoulder and you're leaning on the wall, not looking.

Your eye catches the floor being covered in blue foam before a small yellow chem ball is tossed and explodes brightly.

The floor is spotless.

Varian yells and you panic when his arm is on fire. Quickly, you pat it down in worry and look up to see Varian staring at you. You turn away and walk off back to the banquet hall.

One of the bouquet of flowers had withered, but Varian drops a blue chemball into the flowers which made the flowers come to life again. He hands it to Cass, smiling tenderly as she sniffs the flowers before putting it away.

Varian spots you pulling off petals from a single flower, causing him to get worried again. You sigh mentally and see Cass pull Varian out to the halls, so you took the liberty to push Varian's invention into your room.

It was a hassle though you managed to get it into your room. You fall onto your bed and take off your glasses, groan.

You think back to Dr. Croix. He was such jerk, even thugs and ruffians are more well mannered than him. There was something itching in the back of your mind. Today did feel abnormal now that you think about it. You've been so caught up with Varian that you didn't pay attention to your uneasy senses.

“Something changed.” You said to yourself, then rub your temples after a headache hit you. “Nothing is supposed to change here….it isn't part of how it's supposed to go.”

You really wish you could remember what happened to you in the past, if you did have one, so this all could be easy for you.

“It's a slight change, but what?”

Suddenly it hit you. Dr. Alcott St. Croix isn't supposed to have a room to stay in. Your eyes look to the clock, “He was supposed to arrive later.”

You start toward Dr. Croix’s room and hope he isn't there. Luckily, he isn't and you glance around the room. There is only a small hand bag and something sticking out of it. A leather journal.

It was thick, especially with papers folded inside each page. You pull one out to see it's a design for an invention, “His Inventions?” The name on the corner was a different name.

With more unfolded invention papers, they all had different names and different writing styles. You grew confused and decide to read an entry you were open on.

“These idiotic morons think they're so smart. I beg to differ. It is very amusing to see them fail in front of whole crowds because of me.”

“I watch all their ideas and I do get loads of riches from the fools invention designs. They throw it away when I don't chose them for first place. Fernanda does a very spectacular job in acting as a science lover.”

“A good show everywhere I go. Messing with their inventions is fun too and when they break, I leave. Simple. Having them all believe something that isn't true, is quite entertaining.”

You slam the journal closed and try to keep calm. He was going to make a fool of every inventor, the science lovers just for entertainment and riches. He makes them all doubt what they're really capable of. They would've been able to do what they love, but because of him. He crushes it.

Fernanda and Alcott St. Croix were frauds. Con Artists. This is Giovanni all over again, but worse.

Your heart stops, “Varian.”

The clock showed that it the contest was already going on. You were looking through the journal for a long time. Varian most likely took his invention out of your room.

You run out of the room and hope you can stop this before there's much damage done. This journal needs to get to the King.

-

Varian walks away in a depressed aura and sits at the fountain as the cheers go on from the first place winner, Fernanda Pizzazo. He shuts his eyes, slouching over.

“You should've won.” Cass says, sitting by him and feeling back she didn't help him before.

Varian sighs sadly, “It doesn't matter. The truth is….. all I really wanted to do was to impress you.” He stares at the ground, “I thought if I showed you what I was capable of you might see something in me. “

He glances at her with shame and looks away, “Something…..special. I was just being dumb.”

Cassandra smiles softly, “But you did impress me. Varian, you're a great kid. You're smart, you're compassionate, you're unique.” She places a hand on his shoulder.

Varian smiles lightly, “Thanks for saying that.”

Cass frowns a bit, “Varian, I know you like me, but please don't waste what you have on me.” She smiles warmly, “You have made a bigger impression on someone else and they think VERY highly of you.”

Varian looks confused, “What are you talking about?”

“Why do you think (____) is always around you? No matter what anyone else thinks of you, SHE was the one to actually defend you even when you aren't here.”

Varian listens and glances away in thought.

“(____) does things over the top for you. There's the keeper right there, kid. There's a lot more words and actions I can't beat when it comes to her.”

Varian smiles to himself, "Yeah."

“YOU HAVE NO PERMISSION TO MESS WITH THAT, EGGHEAD!”

They both jump and turn to see you and Dr. Croix fighting over Varian's invention.