(no subject)

[3nanashi]

It's late afternoon. The first show is at 6:00 -- 1800, Trowa still thinks of it really, but the translation is easy -- and most of the circus is making early dinners or otherwise enjoying the downtime before they have to get ready.

Trowa opens the door from Milliways into the trailer he shares with Cathy, and lets X follow him through.

It's a narrow room, combining kitchen and common room in a compact and tidy package, with doors to Trowa's room, Cathy's, and the bathroom. (And, behind them, to the outside.) It's all lived-in, in an impeccably tidy way.

Comments

[cutting_edgex23]

X considers that, breaking off a piece of funnel cake and chewing slowly.

Then --

"I do not know how much he talks to you."

For one.

[maxwellsdemon02]

Duo sighs, thumping his head gently against the sound booth behind them. "I see how it is. You're ganging up on me. I never should have introduced the two of you. Next thing I know, Havelock will join in, and then I'll really be doomed."

He moodily eats some popcorn. His life is hard.

[cutting_edgex23]

X's expression remains composed.

"Maybe you will learn to think it is funny."

If anyone can do it, Duo can.

Right?

[maxwellsdemon02]

Duo points the popcorn box at her, this time. "I've gotta teach you some bad knock-knock jokes or something. You're throwing me off my game with all this deadpan snarking."

That's his job, X! Well, that and being ridiculous.

[cutting_edgex23]

X tilts her head for a moment, assessing Duo's offer, as it were.

Then --

"I like it that way."

Even in the midst of snark X is honest. It is a skill.

[3nanashi]

Back on Earth, centuries ago, the tradition of three-ring circuses developed so that different kinds of acts could be run simultaneously to hold the audience's interest. Comedy in one ring, skill in another, death-defying acrobatics in a third, for instance. That's considered old-fashioned nowadays, but some of the circuses on Earth still do it -- mostly the ones with a permanent, fixed location.

The Armstrong Circus is one that travels among the colonies as well as around Earth. Space is at a premium.

Accordingly, they only have one ring, and the audience in a wide circle around it. The way they manage simultaneous acts is vertically.

So when the lights lower, the first act -- two elephants, and several spangled people perched atop them -- bursts onstage to jaunty music and applause, and it's only a couple of minutes before a long expanse of silk ribbon descends from the catwalk with an acrobat artfully tangled in it.

[maxwellsdemon02]

"Sparkly," Duo says with some amusement and approval. He likes the circus!

"You should have seen the outfit Trowa used to wear."

[cutting_edgex23]

X appears, to most casual observers, to be engaging in rapt contemplation of the scene.

More than the spectacle, however, she is making careful note of the cues and adjustments that keep everything moving -- and that keep the audience's attention focused on the biggest spectacles at the appropriate times.

She has enough focus to spare a little for Duo, however.

"It did not have sparkles?"

Beat.

"And there are no photographs?"

[maxwellsdemon02]

"No sparkles. Ask Cathy though," Duo says with a grin. "There might be a publicity shot somewhere, from after the war. I doubt he would've let anyone near him with a camera, before that."

[3nanashi]

There are a couple of publicity shots, in fact. Trowa's face is obscured by hair and a clown mask in them, but the giant polka-dotted pants and sleeveless ruffle-necked shirt are clear to see.

He would defend the strategic logic of performance fashion, in any case. (And it must be said that when he comes onstage, X will see that his circus outfits are still pretty ridiculous. The sanest one is shirtless spandex.)

Meanwhile, the ringmaster, dapper in his red frock coat, is welcoming them to the circus. One elephant and most of the sparkling folk make a strutting exit, while the other and his handler settle down to perform tricks.

In a few minutes, the aerial act will give way to the highwire.

[maxwellsdemon02]

If X was anyone else, Duo would be elbowing her to get her attention. He wisely sticks to just talking.

"Trowa's up soon. Well, he and Cathy. I think he's mostly spotting her up there, this time."

[cutting_edgex23]

X's attention sharpens, though she does spare a moment for a sideways glance at Duo.

"He showed me how to do that. The flips. Earlier."

Beat.

"You have tried, too?"

[maxwellsdemon02]

"Flips? I can do flips. But I'd rather do them on the ground." Some of us aren't crazy aerial combat specialists, and don't practice flips every day.

[3nanashi]

But why? Flips on a tightrope are much more interesting!

Especially 13 meters above the ground and with no safety net.

(It's possible that neither Trowa nor Cathy has quite a normal perspective on this kind of thing.)

Cathy's the one doing more flips here, though. Trowa does some tricks, but his primary role here is to be a supporting partner for Cathy while she shows off. Roy, who only began performing with the tightrope act this year, doesn't make an appearance until the end, and his role is discreetly kept to simple feats.

[maxwellsdemon02]

"Yeah, no," Duo says. "I like having the ground nearby, or a lot of metal and some booster jets between me and the ground."

Zero gravity, on the other hand, is awesome. Heights don't count when you're in space!

[cutting_edgex23]

"That is because you are boring," X says equably.

She follows this up by taking a handful of popcorn.

[maxwellsdemon02]

Well, fine! Duo steals a piece of funnel cake in what is probably not a very effective revenge.

[3nanashi]

It's okay, X. Sensible people appreciate highwires and lion-patting!

These sensible people, however, have just completed the showy finale of their act, and are working their way offstage. In their place come two clowns on a much lower wire, with broad pantomime instead of acrobatics. Down below, three jugglers are halfway through their act.

X will be glad to learn that the lions come after the jugglers, though.

[cutting_edgex23]

It is not that X does not appreciate jugglers, but --

Okay, she will make allowances for when the juggle fire. Or swords.

That is interesting. The pins and oranges and common household objects -- not so much.

"It is not difficult to learn?"

Beat.

"That."

What?

[maxwellsdemon02]

"Juggling? No. I can teach you to juggle, you'll pick it up in five minutes."

She's got excellent hand-eye coordination, after all.

"Just don't start with eggs or plates and you'll be fine."

[cutting_edgex23]

X looks sideways at Duo.

Her expression is perfectly composed.

"You have tried that before?"

It does not seem impossible. Or unlikely.

[3nanashi]

Onstage, the jugglers have given way to . . . nothing for the moment.

Hey, it's a lion! The older male X met, no less, and Trowa in a new and less colorful outfit. (It's still very much a circus performer's outfit, though, and thus kind of ridiculous.)

Up top, the clowns artistically wobble their way off the wire. They'll be replaced shortly by another aerial fabric act, this one rather more leisurely and staid than the first. Startling lions is a bad plan.

[maxwellsdemon02]

"Not for a long time. I did juggle some fruit when I bartended, remember?"

We will not discuss the events that occurred when Duo first tried to juggle breakable things.

"Hey, check it out. Did Trowa introduce you to his lions?"

[cutting_edgex23]

"Yes," X says.

The transition of her attention from Duo to the lions is unmistakable.

This is only a little deliberate.

"You have met them, too?"

[maxwellsdemon02]

"Well, we didn't shake hands," Duo says, dry. "But yeah. I don't think they like me as much as they do him. But I'm pretty sure they don't like anyone as much as him."

Duo also occasionally wonders if Trowa is a mutant, just if X wanted to know.