This thread is for plot focused on the young magician Darko as he learns the horrible truths of his past. The initial scene will be open to anyone who wants their characters to attend, although they should probably know Darko. There will be multiple scenes within this plot, hence making its own thread, so you can still take part even without your character attending the initial event. A brief overarching Content Warning is as follows:
Mentions of violence/gore
Light body horror
Misgendering/Transphobia
General Angst
That's all! Enjoy the show!
Act One: The Show
Darko has been busy.
Of course, he's been learning how to do stage magic for the past several years, but rarely has he performed for a real audience. Occasional tricks here and there for his friends, entertaining the kids at GLoG, busking on the street for some coins. But nothing like a true magician, entertaining vast crowds, making a spectacle of it. He's never felt confident enough, good enough for that.
But getting that Houdini book from his friend Eddie was the last push he needed to start planning in earnest. He had needed something better than card tricks, something with more oomph to really wow people, and now he's got it. Over the last few month he's worked on creating a real routine, spending countless hours practicing every move, every slight of hand, preparing his contraptions, sawing and hammering and building.
And finally, last week, he distributed flyers around the PREP campus.
► SHOW SPOILER
The Verdant Stage is one of PREP's several outdoor theatres, known for its overgrown appearance. Rather than seats, a small hill has been landscaped to form natural tiered benches covered in dense, comfortable moss. The stage itself is made of stone, exceedingly wide and flat, velvety smooth from wear. Each side has a large tree growing on it, their branches forming a natural canopy above. Darko chose this location because of its open, rustic nature- he needs a bit of a break from indoor Theatres.
As the sun sets, garden lights flicker on, illuminating the rows of hill seats and the stage alike. Students are trickling in, as well as some people from outside of PREP who've been drawn in by word of mouth. Darko sits at the edge of the stage, watching nervously as people approach. He's certainly not dressed as a magician, with his favorite skeleton hoodie pulled up over his head. The bag of tricks he usually carries has been traded for an old black suitcase, which he leans on with one arm as he searches the small crowd for any familiar faces.
The stage is set. Soon the performance will begin. And it will certainly be a night to remember.
The empress is, of course, in attendance. Aikobaz wouldn't have missed this performance for anything; it's her solemn duty to support both her fellow theatre students and Darko in particular. She can be seen near the back of the middle section, sitting calmly and almost exactly centered with the stage. She's dressed for the occassion as she might if she were attending the opera, in a long, black dress with matching gloves, silver diadem displayed proudly on her brow.
And like any empress, she brought an entourage, whom Darko might recognize individually but likely hasn't seen all in one place before. The seat immediately to her right is filled by a girl in a shiny black dress, who briefly emerges from a deep, mumbled conversation with Aiko to give Darko a cheerful wave. To her right, there's an apparently empty seat. Next to it, a silver-plated android with a pair of cat ears, sitting and watching the stage stoically, with a little red light blinking behind his ear. Next to him are a pair of girls that appear nearly identical, save for the halo and dove wings on the one and horns and bat wings on the other. Both appear equally unhappy about being here. And finally, to their right, occupying three seats by himself, is a three-headed ogre(?), watching the stage with rapt attention and giving a fervent six-handed applause the moment anything happens.
Aiko had asked her family to attend, too, but if the Bloodplunders are with her and who can make it are entirely out of her control otherwise.
Who're you? ...Don't matter.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
Also in attendance, further back with a safe distance between herself and Aiko, is the very recognizable figure of Mary, Princess of the Scorching Depths, dressed much more reasonably in her school uniform plus her golden circlet.
She'd love to make fun of Aiko for wearing an opera dress to a school magic show, or heckle Pippi and Poppi about how when they graduate, she'll be the obvious choice to take over as cheer team captain, but it would be rude to cause a scene during the show.
Darko? Mary only knows that he's Aiko's boyfriend and also the nice but kinda awkward kid who seemingly out of nowhere gave her a pretty jeweled comb for Thanksmas. So she can show up at his show out of nowhere.
Well, not out of nowhere. He did advertise it quite a lot.
Eddie, meanwhile, was firmly parked front and centre, wearing exactly what he usually wore, red hoodie shadowing his face so that only his glowing eyes were clearly visible.
Darko got a grave, distinct nod and the brief flare of an Eddie-wink before the little golem settled into place and waited patiently. He was honestly kind of looking forwards to what the magician did, since sleight-of-hand (at least as entertainment) was still quite new to him.
Of course Aigothurz is here! Nana isn't, because if she doesn't understand it, it's magic. She doesn't see the point in 'a magic show without magic', because either she'll understand what's going on and get bored, or she won't and it's magic.
Aigothurz isn't sat too close to Aikobaz, though. He's flanked on either side by Gemini, looking a little awkward. Things... aren't going quite as well as he planned, as Gemini carries on two seperate conversations on either side, and he's not in either of them. Aigothurz is a muscular young mostly-orc, with orange-brown skin and black hair, wearing a uniform he's ripped the sleeves off and with a hatchet at his waist. Gemini, meanwhile, is a human girl with two identical bodies; both olive-skinned, with green eyes and long black hair. Her alterations to the uniform include subtle tailoring, and the only difference is she's wearing a skirt on her left body and trousers on her right body.
To the couple's left, and talking to Gemini about archeology and exploration, is Mat the Squirrel. She is, as her epithet suggests, a humanoid and human-scale squirrel, with thick red fur, white down her front, tufted ears and a bushy tail. She's wearing a surprisingly light uniform for the crisp spring weather, but her winter coat of fur makes up for it. On the ground next to her is her sword, a Valyrian steel bastard sword with an acorn-shaped pommel, named Oakheart.
Avatar provided by Happyturtle. Still using it, after all these years.
Mai the janitor is busying herself just outside the crowd of onlookers. Will something weird happen today? She can't be sure, but she has a feeling it will. Might as well be here in case she's needed.
Off to the side is Rowan Quickbeam in his usual apron and hat. Though also carrying a large box of sweets and walking up and down the side of the seats. "Bonbons! Warm bonbons, last call before the show starts!" he calls, stretching his feathery wings.
Not found under his hat though is his familiar, Ratticus. Ratticus is waaay over there, spying on the proceedings from the rooftop some distance away. After all, anything can happen at these protagonist schools. He has to be ready for when some supervillain storms the place or a meteor specifically drops on this exact spot.
Perhaps because of its overgrown appearance, Seraphina manages to finally stumble out of the wilderness to the Verdant Stage, and finally returns to civilization: she's amazed that there's so many people in one place (she's been...well, it's a long story. Long story short, she's now 0 for 5 on taking the Riftline train system and arriving somewhere as opposed to nowhere. And this time it nearly took a whole year).
Unfortunately, Seraphina isn't a teenager: she's an adult so she feels a bit awkward here with so many teenagers but she's confident the moment she leaves she'll somehow still not find the way to Vigil. As such, staying here is probably the best move to not get wrapped up in any weird or horrifying situations again. Plus! From the context, she can tell this will be some kind of magic show, so it's probably something worth staying for. It's been so long since she was last at a theater, after all, so it'll be perfect.
Somewhere on the side of the seating area, she sits down on the hill and looks up towards the stage.
Seraphina, by the way, is a woman - very androgynous-looking - with somewhat short red hair, and is wearing a cloak with its hood up: it's definitely a cloak that's worse for wear. It's got a couple holes in it, and is a little frayed at the edges. Plus, she's got a dash of dirt on her cheek, befitting someone who literally just came out of the wilderness to this place.
And so the audience assembles. As the last people begin to trickle into their seats, there's the faint buzz of conversation, the expectant charge that something is going to happen. The calm, as it were, before the storm.
Darko scans the audience, full of familiar faces. Somehow it's more nerve wracking performing in front of the people he knows and cares about rather than complete strangers. Perhaps it's because, were he to mess up somehow, he'd care so much more about disappointing them.
Beyond that, it's a much larger crowd than he expected. That's a lot of pressure, and a thrill of nervous fear goes through him. As he stands up, and the crowd begins to quiet, he looks a hair's breadth from shaking, a deer caught in headlights of his own making.
Then he looks up, grins, and throws his hand down, creating a cloud of red smoke. And when it clears, he's changed.
Literally. He's changed his clothes. Gone is the baggy hoodie and ripped jeans. Now he's dressed in an outfit befitting a magician, with a blood red vest, a half cape darker than the evening air, and a shining black top hat. In one hand twirls a cane tipped with a shimmering violet crystal.
But more than that his demeanor has changed. Gone is the nervousness, replaced with a cool, winking confidence. He bows, gesturing languidly to the crowd.
"Lords and ladies, creatures and comrades, welcome all! On this stage you will see wonders, terrors, your every whimsical desire brought to life. In a world of magic, the mundane itself can be the most magical thing of all, and I assure you... everything you see tonight is as real as the ground under your feet and the blood in your veins."
Holding one hand out in front of him, Darko snaps his fingers, and a deck of cards seemingly materializes out of nowhere. He holds it up as if to shuffle it, then seems to realize that his other hand is occupied by the glowing cane. Weighing them with a look of frustration, he shrugs, and tosses the cane straight up- and it doesn't come down, vanishing into the night air.
Now with both hands free, he shuffles the deck, cards moving like lightning through the air. He goes to spread them out- but there's no place to put them. With a snort of frustration, he unclasps his cape and snaps it out before him. The fabric settles into a flat surface as if thrown over a table, but with no visible means of support. Finally, he sets the deck down on the cape after knocking it to show that it's solid.
"I appreciate you bearing with me despite the technical difficulties, folks," he quips, "Now, before me is a deck of ordinary cards. You can get them at any corner store, any supply shop." Lifting them up again, he fans them to the crowd, showing that they are in fact a standard pack.
"I could do any number of slight of hand tricks with these, hiding one card, making it appear somewhere else. But you've seen that kind of thing before. I know you want something bigger, grander. But to do that I'll need your help, so please, I want someone to shout out the name of a card, could be any number, any suit. When you hear the first person say the name, I want everyone else to shout out that same name until you're all chanting, okay? I need your energy to really help make this trick big!"
One of the first audible "ooh!"s Darko's opening theatrics gets come from a little nearer to the stage, where a young woman with long ruddy hair and a shock of fox tails leans intently in her seat. May's made it to the show too, and though she's not dressed up anywhere near as fancy as Aiko, she's still made it a point to put on one of her nicer blue dresses. Putting in the effort is its' own way of support, after all!
Beside her, however, is a "new" face - a girl that looks almost exactly like May, right down to the tails. Unlike May, however, she's pulled their long red hair into a quick bun, and thrown on a nice green flannel to go with a pair of jeans and a faded t-shirt that seems to advertise getting brain surgery at Mallside. As Darko shows his hand and asks for the audience to pick a card, any card, a hush falls over the crowd. May, so rapt in attention, practically jumps as Scarlet elbows her. The two exchange a couple of looks as Scarlet urges her headmate before, tentatively, May raises her voice.
"Um - two of hearts?"
"Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not, we never are. But that's not the right question. The question is: are we living a life that is worth the harm?"
~Welcome to Night Vale
SliiArhem wrote:Arkh I may be slightly delirious but I don't think that would make sense even if I was coherent.
Meanwhile elsewhere in the audience, Aiko's entourage look to her at the prompt. She's the magician's girlfriend, after all, and between the lot of them, if they coordinated, they could probably get a good chant going.
Aiko, for her part, just smiles and waves her hand dismissively. She could always ask Darko to do this trick again in private. No need to hog his attention here.
Without a prompt from her, each of them decides to take their own shot at getting the chant started.
"Two of hearts! (of hearts!)" The twins call, slightly out of sync with one another.
"Jack owof Clubs!" The catdroid chips in.
"THREE OF CLUBS!" The ogre's three heads call simultaneously.
Aiko chuckles and shakes her head. It now occurs to her that the crowd being so chaotic may well be part of the trick, as well. She'll wait patiently to see the way Darko plays it.
Who're you? ...Don't matter.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
That's some pretty impressive sleight of hand. Instinctively, Mary's supernatural senses are on edge for any real magic. If Darko can do all that with just trickery, she'd be very impressed.
And now he's asking for suggestions from the audience. She's about to blurt out, "Queen of Diamonds" when she hears a faint voice from the front say "two of hearts."
That poor, shy-looking girl. Her voice is already being drowned out by the crowd.
Fortunately Mary has some sway with these people. As much as bully club tries to drag her down, the succubus princess is a well-known face. "Two of hearts!" she calls out loudly, shooting May a wink and a nod that probably won't be seen, since she's several rows back. A few students sitting around Mary echo her.
Gemini ends her disparate conversations to focus on the show, and Aigothurz leans forward eagerly, forgetting the fact his date abandoned him to talk to her other neighbours. Mat takes a swig from a bottle of water she's got with her, and is quick to applaud-especially after the cape is turned into a table.
Mat the Squirrel ignores the bully club's choices, and instead joins Mary, yelling "Two of hearts!" at the stage. Gemini joins in shortly after, her two voices in far better synchronicity than Pippi and Poppi's. "Two of hearts!" and it's only after she joins that Aigothurz adds his voice to the mix- making the girls next to him jump. Aigothurz has a deep voice, and his father taught him how to truly project his voice. Intended to be used on the battlefield to make orders carry far, it proves its use here, too. "Two of hearts!"
Avatar provided by Happyturtle. Still using it, after all these years.
Rowan moves to the back of the room, getting his crate of sweets put away until the halftime break.
He stays in the back instead of in the seats, leaning against his staff with a toothless smile.
He decides, after a few moments, to silently mouth the words along with everyone else. But given that he's the catering of the event he feels like he's just a bit separated from the actual audience, and doesn't actually say them. But he flashes Darko a thumbs up.
Seraphina doesn't want to be the first one to call out a card. It'd probably be better for another teen to do that, yeah? But...well, once someone already does she better call out as well. After all, she knows that audience participation is what makes tricks and shows like this actually be interesting.
She listens to hear what card is being called out the most, and then calls it out as well: "Two of Hearts!" she also calls out.
She adjusts how she's sitting, sitting more on her leg than just the ground, so she can watch better. Especially after that cane disappearing, she wasn't paying enough attention to see where it went. By sitting like this, she's sure she'll be able to pay attention better and see how the tricks work. (It's stage magic, of course! Seraphina doesn't quite get 'real' magic so this sort of thing is even more impressive. Well, she still doesn't quite get how the cape thing works, either, but she assumes it's some kind of wire? Regardless, looks pretty neat.)
Eddie's eyes are blazing under his hood, a brilliant electric blue. If there's real magic happening, he'll see it.
But... he doesn't actually expect it. He'd read a library copy of the book he'd bought for Darko, after all, and there was an amazing amount that could be accomplished through simple misdirection, obfuscation, and speed. Although the little golem thought that he might be able to catch some of the speed stuff, given the reflexes and visual acuity he had to have to move the way he did.
He obediently joined the chant, saying "Two of Hearts." in his normal speaking tone, which Darko might be able to hear since Eddie was only a few feet away from him.
... of course, there's also a part of Eddie's brain that's on perpetual alert for trouble of some kind. He still wasn't sure he bought the whole 'life is a story' theory, but bring this many people with protagonist traits together and there was a better-than-average chance of something incredibly weird happening. That and long experience as an adventurer meant that his guard was never really entirely down, even at his most relaxed. All that being said, though, his attention was fully on Darko, his interest in the tricks possibly dulling his awareness a little.
As the crowd erupts into chanting, those who are on the lookout for any actual magic at play... will find there is none. Well, the glowing crystal at the tip of the disappeared cane was magic, but it's unlikely that had anything to do with the trick. No, a clever observer might have noted the choice to do this in the evening so the light is low. A very clever observer might notice that the tree branches that make a canopy over the stage would be ideal to hang some thin thread from, with which to yank something like the aforementioned cane up out of view.
But of course, there's no way of knowing for sure.
Although May's initial chant might be quiet, it's soon taken up by others, and the various other cards are drowned in a sea of voices declaring that the Two of Hearts is their choice. Well, a lake of voices at least. Darko playfully cups his ear towards the crowd before nodding in satisfaction.
"The Two of Hearts- two hearts, two souls, beating as one! The card of connection, and desire. Well, if that's what you want, who am I to say no?" He picks up the deck from his makeshift table and fans it out to the audience, showing once again that it is a normal deck. Peering around at the front of the cards, he selects the Two of Hearts and pulls it from the deck, holding it up for everyone to see.
"I'd give my heart to my audience but alas, it doesn't belong to me," he says, with a wink towards where Aiko is seated, tucking the card into his vest pocket, "But luckily... my deck here has many hearts to give!"
Gripping the deck tightly, he hurls it into the air over the audience. It bursts apart, cards scattering this way and that, raining down like falling leaves.
And every single card that falls into the audience is the Two of Hearts.
As shouts and laughter go up, Darko smiles widely, giving a theatrical bow. He's practically glowing with excitement at a responsive crowd and a trick well done-
"He probably planted some people in the audience, told them which card to call out. Even a kid could figure that out!" The voice is just loud enough to carry over the rest of the applause. It comes from off to one side, where a person in the front row is shaking her head disparagingly. She's dressed in a torn suit jacket and baggy pants and has a tired, disheveled look to her, making it hard to guess her age. Her blonde hair is greasy and unkempt, and there's an unkind grin on her face as she picks at the bench with a sharp, dirty fingernail.
Darko blinks, a look of dismay crossing his face at the intrusion. But then it's gone and he's moving on, kneeling to unlatch the suitcase that's been sitting onstage this whole time.
"Card tricks are all well and good, but there's far more in store tonight," he says, lifting out a coil of green rope, "For this next trick I'll need three brave volunteers willing to come up onstage with me!"
Immediately the naysayer in the front row shoots up a hand. One of three spots are taken.
Aiko smirks as Darko completes the card trick, politely clapping out her appreciation and encouraging those in her immediate vecinity to do the same. That must have taken a lot of advanced preparation, and while she might grill him for details later (surely girlfriends are exempt from the rule about magicians never revealing their secrets), for now she can just enjoy the show.
Until the heckler speaks up.
"...Vivian?" She prompts quietly, before shaking her head. No, the poltergesit hasn't moved since the show started. The chill that ran down her spine just now, that had to be from something-
Danger! Danger! Very bad girl very close by! Darko's gonna get hurt if you don't step in!
-else.
Intuition isn't normally the most reliable guide she has, but this time, for once, she feels the need to listen.
So when Darko starts asking for volunteers, and the girl with the shivery voice puts up her hand, Aiko stands and begins making her way to the stage, not waiting to be called on. If possible, she wants to be up there before the heckler is, and will move with a certain sense of urgency regardless.
Last edited by Ironsmith on Jan 18, 2025 4:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Who're you? ...Don't matter.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
The cards flutter down, and May bursts into applause, marveling at the stunning storm above them. How did he do that???? Did he have card decks for every option? No, that'd be insane! Did he just - how??? Scarlet, meanwhile, whoops in support. That wasn't bad at all!
This is ample reason for both alters to swivel to the heckler - May with shock, Scarlet with a stern, disapproving glare. She almost starts to fire a retort right back when Darko finds his wind and breezes through, but her ire lingers before she returns her focus to the stage. Sensing another ploy to foil the kid's performance, Scarlet raises a hand.
"Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not, we never are. But that's not the right question. The question is: are we living a life that is worth the harm?"
~Welcome to Night Vale
SliiArhem wrote:Arkh I may be slightly delirious but I don't think that would make sense even if I was coherent.
Gemini nearly volunteered, but doesn't; her unique-ish nature would make her considerably trickier for Darko to work around, and she'd hate to take two positions. She does clap with one body, whilst her other catches a Two of Hearts and puts it in her pocket. Maybe Darko would like a glamourous assistant next time? She could maybe do that. Aigothurz is also enjoying the show, and claps somewhat more sedately. He's made enough of a show of himself with that war-bellow, so he's trying to tone it down a bit now.
Mat, however, eyes wide and clapping enthusiastically, raises her hand to volunteer. She was distracted enough that she's not amongst the first three, so she's not going to get the place. But, well... She'll have to volunteer again, every chance she gets. Hopefully there'll be more opportunities for audience participation.
Avatar provided by Happyturtle. Still using it, after all these years.
Mary's hand goes up. Third, unfortunately, and after Aiko is already marching to the stage.
But she doesn't put it down. Darko doesn't have to pick the first three volunteers. And it would be foolish of Darko to invite that rude heckler on stage. Mary briefly considers cursing the creepy girl's lying tongue to swell out of her mouth, but that would be bringing real magic into this fake magic show.
While Seraphina does consider the canopy of branches above the stage, her first thought is not fishing wire or something like that: she wasn't paying attention enough back then, but she (falsely) recalls that he waved the cane around in such a way that would completely make a fishing wire impossible. Rather, she's now thinking he must've just...thrown it up and aimed it at a branch so it caught onto it? Or something like that. But practiced in a way to make it not look like he did that, so...regardless, pretty impressive.
She glanced in the direction of the heckler and rolls her eyes. Obviously it's a trick. It's much more impressive that it's a trick than if it were real magic or something. Clearly that person doesn't really 'get' the point of magic...
It's with that thought that Seraphina realizes something.
The heckler is probably actually in on the trick. A 'heckler'. Shouting that out with perfect timing to get the entire audience sympathizing with the magician, all while making it appear they were antagonistic. She glanced at all the other students: this was probably obvious to them, since they likely already know that the magician and the 'heckler' are on good terms. That's...yeah, that makes sense. And throughout the show, the 'heckler' will continue to pretend to antagonize, drawing the attention towards the 'obvious' solution to the magic tricks thus helping obscure how he's actually doing it.
Yeah, that's some pretty clever preparation. Definitely deserves some applause.
Seraphina claps and then - worried that the excitement of leaning in for the trick messed up her cloak hood - pulls the hood further down over her face.
Rowan swallows his urge to do something about that heckler. He needs to respect Darko to handle his own battles.
He does take a few steps forward to get a better spot viewing the stage.
He claps enthusiastically as the trick is performed. For now though, he waits to see what's going to happen.
A smattering of hands goes up, and immediately Darko is faced with a difficult decision. The fair method would be to call on people in the order they volunteered. That's not just fair, that's traditional, and if he just picked whoever he wanted it would make calling for a volunteer pointless, as well as call into question the validity of his tricks. After all, it wouldn't do for people to think he was using audience plants.
But if he's being fair, then he has to choose the rather unpleasant heckler girl. And doesn't she seem strangely familiar? He's seen her somewhere, not too long ago, but he can't place it.
Well, time to roll with the punches. He beckons her, then- oh, Aiko is marching up. Well, that's not traditional either, but the thought of turning his girlfriend away from the stage just because she didn't raise her hand is more horrifying than any break in tradition could ever be.
And then May! She's very nice, no problems there. And luckily she was faster than Mary, because her and Aiko being onstage at the same time seems like a recipe for disaster.
Pointing at May as well, he addresses the crowd. "Lots of eager people here! I love that, you're all great. Don't worry, you'll get your turn, but for now... just sit back and enjoy what comes next."
Once all three volunteers are up onstage, Darko holds out the coil of rope. Spinning his wrist, he uncoils it, spiraling out like an emerald snake. He swishes it back and forth.
"As you can see, it's a normal rope. Perhaps a little more stylish, but normal," he says, pulling it up to hold both ends. He offers them to May and the blonde girl, who's watching him with a strange, excited look on her face. "I'd like each of you to take these, and tie them around the trees on either side of the stage. Good, tight knots, and pull it taut between the tree."
Once they've both accepted the rope, Darko reaches into the suitcase and pulls out another item. A machete, the cold steel glinting in the garden lights. He winks and holds it out to Aiko, hilt first. "You get the most important part of all."
It doesn't occur to Aiko until she has one foot on the stage that maybe, just maybe, her coming without being called might have an effect on the perceived integrity of the show. If anybody's thinking about a potential plant, her coming up without even waiting for the appropriate prompt, especially in the context of being his girlfriend, makes her a painfully obvious one (despite not knowing at all in advance what this trick is going to entail).
...But then, she didn't think about it because it doesn't matter. Something is off about that girl, and standing back and letting something happen to Darko is not an acceptable course of action. Besides, he's showing off his ability to be tricky; even if she were a plant, it wouldn't mess up the show.
Probably.
Her expression remains stoic as she accepts the machete, running her finger along its tang to test its sturdiness. This being a magic show, it may well be tricky in that regard, and the threat this girl presents being largely unknown, she may well have to use it anyway here in a few moments. And failing that, it's something to bear in mind while helping execute this trick.
Who're you? ...Don't matter.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
Mary isn't too upset that she wasn't called. She'll have other chances. But she definitely thinks something is wrong with that heckler girl. Darko should not have invited her on stage. And it's not like anyone would blame him for it.
Seraphina leans forward to watch closely. She tries to figure out what trick this could be: rope...machete?
She can't recall if she's seen a trick that uses these tools before.
She places her chin on her hands (her elbows on her knees) to rest her chin as she thinks through what it could be. Some kind of...knot thing? Cutting a rope but then the rope isn't cut? Or perhaps some kind of loop related magic?
It might take a moment for Darko to fully realize that the girl he's called up is, in fact, not May - well, not exactly at least. There's clues for those who know what to look for - how Scarlet carries herself as she sinks her hands into her pockets and lopes up towards the stage, or the way her red eyes scan from one side of the audience to the other, casual as thought. Aiko might feel them rest on her for a moment as Scarlet watches her stride forward.
Hm... headstrong, definitely concerned. We might be able to work with that.
...right, forgot you're not here. Feels weird when I'm usually in your head all the time.
Scarlet looks off towards Darko as she steps on stage, offering a casual wave before she turns and heads on over. She takes a moment to turn her end of the rope over in a hand, coiling the colorful fabric once, twice more round the width of her palm. "Right. Sounds easy enough. Lucky I've got good practice with this." Scarlet favors Darko with a crooked, fangy grin - but the roguish playfulness of the smile only reaches the eyes briefly before her eyes drift towards the stranger to her left. That look... it doesn't feel right. Her eyes drift towards Aiko, as if to confirm.
The other kitsune, meanwhile, fidgets nervously with the bracelet on her wrist. May didn't want to miss the show, but some anxious part of her can't quite help but worry. Maybe she shouldn't have insisted they stay split after all.
"Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not, we never are. But that's not the right question. The question is: are we living a life that is worth the harm?"
~Welcome to Night Vale
SliiArhem wrote:Arkh I may be slightly delirious but I don't think that would make sense even if I was coherent.
The machete in Aiko's hands is, at least as far as she can tell, the real deal. It's old, but still very sharp, and entirely non-magical. Whatever trick there is, it isn't this.
As Scarlet accepts the rope, Darko does a double take, blinking. Wait, it's not May, it's her... twin? He's aware of her mental situation- two people in one body. But the 'one body' part is what's confusing him, because there's clearly two here. Well- stuff like that happens all the time in the Nexus. It's no surprise, really.
The heckler, meanwhile, accepts the rope without comment, winding it around her hand before limping over to the tree on stage right. She moves gingerly, hunched, as if every movement is just a little bit painful. But it doesn't show on her face as she loops the rope around the trunk and ties it, barely taking her eyes off Darko for more than a moment.
Once both ends are secured, there's a taut rope crossing the stage a little above waist height. Darko pulls on it, testing to make sure it won't immediately slip. Perfect. He's been working on this one, and it's time to see if it looks as good in front of an audience as it does in the mirror.
"Funambulism! Have you heard the word?" he calls out, leaning forward on the rope, "It's the art of tightrope walking. It's been done for many years, in many places. Usually, the higher up, the better. No one cares about someone walking three feet off the ground, right?" A wink. "Wrong."
Walking over to Scarlet's side of the stage, Darko steadies himself against the tree and hops up onto the rope. The first steps are wobbly, and he holds his arms out for balance as he makes his way towards center stage. It's decently impressive, but like he said- three feet is not a particularly noteworthy feat.
"Now, what you're about to witness may seem like like real magic, but I assure you, this is no trick of the arcane. Like everything else, what I'm about to do comes from skill alone."
Darko gestures grandly at Aiko. "If you would do the honors, your majesty. Please take your place between me and either tree and then- cut the rope."
Aiko starts slightly, belatedly responding to Darko's cue and marching over to a chosen spot on the tightrope. She's not too far from where he's currently standing, maybe about twice arm's-length, such that when she cuts the rope, it'll be at the exact midpoint between them. She's further from Scarlet than Darko himself is, but a good brisk walk from the heckler at the other end of the stage; without any idea what her game is, exactly, she's not going to risk bringing a very real machete within arm's length of her, lest she inadvertently arm her.
Aiko doubts that was the plan, but she's not about to present the opportunity.
The empress raises the machete, giving it a theatric flourish for those in the back, choosing an angle that makes the gleam of the stage lights visible even there, before swiping it across the rope, with sufficient force to cleave through it. She holds the machete down with her follow-through, still visible to the audience but clearly in a different position, in case the severed rope is not itself enough of an indicator of what just happened.
And at the ready if that girl at the other end of the rope is preparing to try something.
Who're you? ...Don't matter.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
