(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

[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.

[cutting_edgex23]

"No," X agrees, reaching over to very carefully take a handful of Duo's popcorn, "I do not think they do."

[3nanashi]

Trowa does this act mostly because that's what happens when you're the human who gets along best with a pride of circus lions. He doesn't dislike the performance side of things, but he doesn't really care much about it.

It's part of the job. That's all.

Anyway, down on the stage, all three lions have been obligingly prowling around Trowa, jumping through a series of hoops, and sitting still to allow him to put a hand in their mouths. In just a minute more he'll direct them offstage one by one, though, and cede the stage to the sword-swallowers and fire-eaters. (Roy, he of the basic tightrope moves, will be among them and in his element.)

[maxwellsdemon02]

"Yeah, there's another job he can keep."

Duo is also betting there aren't many takers even among the circus staff.

[cutting_edgex23]

X turns to look at Duo, silent and still for a very few long seconds.

Then --

"Sometimes you are very boring."

Yeah, X is that kind of adrenaline junkie.

And she still says 'boring' like it is a foreign word.

[maxwellsdemon02]

Eventually, Duo will probably stop reacting in amusing ways to being ribbed by X. Today is apparently not that day.

"Just because some of us can grow back fingers-"

[cutting_edgex23]

"Today I did not have to," X says.

Someone who knows her less well might almost think she sounds proud.

[3nanashi]

Meanwhile, on the stage, people are swallowing swords and spitting fire. As you do!

Up top, there's a woman on a unicycle balancing her way across the lower wire. She's in her 40s, which (in combination with a few past injuries) is why she mostly sticks to the unicycle rather than bounding acrobatics these days, but both her costume and the act disguise that well.

[maxwellsdemon02]

"I wouldn't mind learning to eat fire, though. That could be fun." Okay, so you risk burning your face off instead of losing fingers. But Duo is far more comfortable around things like energy weapons and welding torches than large animals.

[cutting_edgex23]

"You could ask Trowa."

Beat.

"For the name of a teacher."

That would be X's strategy, at any rate.

[3nanashi]

Duo could! However, he hasn't in seven years, so perhaps he'll continue to not bother.

At any rate, several more acts pass before Trowa and Cathy emerge again. (Trowa's wearing another ridiculous outfit. There are stripes. And also polka dots. Cathy's got a fluttery short skirt and bodice and quite a few rhinestones, and feathers perched jauntily in her hair.)

This time: knife-throwing!

This involves a lot of skill and showmanship on Cathy's part. She plays the part well, posing with the lights glinting off her costume and blades. Trowa gets to mostly demonstrate his skill at standing very still and not flinching when sharp things are thrown at him.

Unsurprisingly, he's good at that.

[cutting_edgex23]

X is likely to spend most of the knife-throwing studying Cathy's technique -- the parts aside from the showmanship, that is.

Surprise!

[maxwellsdemon02]

Duo is pretty familiar with this one, being both a frequent visitor and a knife guy himself.

So he amuses himself by trying to catch Trowa making an expression.

(No dice.)

[3nanashi]

Cathy's technique is, unsurprisingly, excellent.

(It would be lethal, that competence, but -- she's Cathy, and that's not how she thinks. Cathy is the kind of person who will always aim around a person-shaped target, and never at.)

One last dramatic pose from Cathy, and they're off. Several more acts pass before either of them reemerges.

This time, it's the trapeze. And where highwire was Cathy's element, this one is Trowa's -- even if some of the time you'd have to know how to look to see which of them has the harder part.