Solo Up and down and up again

[Kassius Selacs]

9rd of Winter, 512 AV

Alvadas was a fickle city, with it’s good days, and bad days. Today, well, it wasn’t a bad day, not yet, anyways. Whether it would be a good day remained to be seen. At least it wasn’t too cold. Yet. Trusting the city to take him someplace good, the Dhani meandered through the streets, not sure what he was looking for, but sure he’d know when he saw it. He wandered passed the Bizarre, hurried past the House of Broken Mirrors, and finally came to a stop near the Sanity Center. Well, he supposed, that was as good a place as any. Hopefully new arrivals would be more generous than the locals, before they realized exactly how many performers there were in the city. Looking around, Kassius made eye contact with as many people as he could. A few gave him looks, and he winked, and swept into a low bow. He caught his cap as it fell off his head, pulled a bag out of it, and let the cap fall to the ground, facing up. Grinning at the few bystanders watching, he dumped three juggling balls into his hand, tucked the pouch into a pocket, and began juggling. “Care to help a poor performer out?” he asked them cheerfully. Judging by their faces, they were not particularly impressed. Ah well.

He had started with a basic cascade, but Alvadians were a tough crowd to please. He switched to a reverse cascade, sending the balls backwards, then switched back. He brought his hands out, sending them further out, then brought them close together, before returning to normal. Now, the hard part. He had worked out the kinks in this pattern a few days ago, but hadn’t performed it in public yet. Switching back to reverse cascade, he settled into a comfortable rhythm, then switched back. But only his right hand. Now, his left hand was going outward, and his right inwards, and he prayed to Ionu that he wouldn’t petch this up. He didn’t. Kass held that rhythm for a while, then let it fall back into a cascade, then threw them all up into the air. Quickly pulling out his pouch, he tugged it open, and caught one, two, and... nope. The third one fell further, so he reached out, grabbed it out of the air, and dropped it back into the pouch. “Don’t worry.” He smiled at the bystanders. “Show’s not over.”

Reaching into another pouch on his waist, he pulled out three sashes, each a different color. He started slow at first, just another cascade, then began to speed up. Pulling out another scarf, he broke out of his cascade pattern, doing more tricks. He whirled around, snatching the lowest floating ones out of the air, tossing it behind his back, ducking under them, throwing them under his leg, snatching back those that went too far. He was breathing harder now, growing tired. He just needed the perfect way to end this.... there.

A breeze blew one of his sashes up close to the wall, just out of his reach. Snatching the other sashes up, he turned, took a step back, and ran at the wall. He leaped up, sprang off the wall, and just managed to snag the errant sash. Dropping back to the ground, Kass bowed deeply, ending his performance. The clink of coins into his cap was music to his ears as he carefully and slowly tucked the sashes back into his pouch, giving the remaining bystanders time to be generous. He only picked his cap back up again when his audience had dispersed entirely. Emptying the coins out into his pocket, he turned to head back to his home. He just needed a drink, and a quick rest, then he’d be back out on the streets again.

[Kassius Selacs]

Alright, so his quick rest would have to wait. Kassius glared at the giant brick wall standing between him and his house, willing it to disappear. Unfortunately, the awesome force of his death glare was still not enough to melt the wall, and so he plopped down on the ground before it. Petching fickle cities. Locking his fingers together, he stretched his arms up above his head. Well, since he evidently wasn’t going to be getting back into his house for a while, he might as well make the best of it. Back to performing it was then.

He soon found himself back on the streets, weaving between people, looking for a good place to make some more coin. Most of the good spots were taken already, but there had to be something. He sighed, leaning against a fence. Well, he’d take what he could get. The top of the fence was around his eye level, low enough for him to be able to hoist himself up. Hmm. If he knew his body, and he did, that should be just the right hight for quite an interesting ending. Still, that would have to wait. Balancing himself on the top of the fence, legs apart for stability, he tossed down his cap, and pulled out his balls.

Again, Kassius started with a simple cascade, slower than he would have liked. He was in a rather precarious position, and while a fall from this hight wouldn’t hurt him, it would hurt his coinpurse. And also his pride, he supposed. As be grew more comfortable, he picked up the pace, sending the balls higher and wider, then bringing them back in. Since he was keeping it simple, the juggling came easily, and balancing was really just a matter of not moving too much below the waist. As he grew more and more confident, he began to look up more, grinning and winking at the few people watching him, and trying to look as confident as he could, regardless of how focused he really was. It probably wasn’t working, but still. Presentation was, well, not everything, but quite a lot of the metaphorical things.

Still trying to fake nonchalance, Kassius shifted into a reverse cascade. That turned out to be a less than stellar idea. The outward motions had the exact opposite effect that the inward ones had, sending him off balance. Stopping, he steadied himself, and took a breath. Rather than continuing, he pulled out a fourth ball from his pouch, pretending his mishap had simply been a transition.

Columns were his favorite two ball tricks, but he really wasn’t good enough to trust himself not to make a mistake. Instead, he began to demonstrate the relatively simpler fountains. Both hands moved together, as if mirrored, tossing the balls up and down, circling them inside to out. Then, his left hand slowed for a moment, and he began alternating tosses. Slowly, he brought his hands closer, and leaned forwards slowly, his legs hooking into the railings for security. He held that pose for a moment, before leaning back and letting all four balls drop back into his hand.

“Thank you for watching, my friends.” He purred, tucking the balls back into the pouch. He swung his legs over the fence, and sat with his back facing the streets.
”I don’t suppose” He leant back, hands on the railing.
“you could find it in your hearts” He let go, and began to lower his torso, his legs still hooked over the rail.
“to help a poor performer” He was hanging upside down now. Bringing his hands down, he was delighted to see he hadn’t misjudged the distance after all.
“keep from starving?” Straightening his arms, he shifted his weight from his legs, and carefully lifted them straight up so that he was in a handstand. Upside down, he flashed his audience a grin, and carefully dropped down from the handstand into a crouch. Whirling around, he bowed low. A few more coins were flipped into his cap as he straightened out his clothes, and pushed back his hair. When he was certain there was no one else who would suddenly decide on an impromptu donation, he picked up his cap, dumped the coins in with the others, and pulled out his house key. Time to be headed back. Hopefully the city would be feeling more co-operative.

Fifteen chimes later, he found himself at the bottom of a pit, with no visible way of getting out.

"Lovely."

[Fallacy]

XP Award! Name:Kassius XP Award: +2 Juggling +2 Busking +1 Acrobatics +1 Observation Lore: Putting on a Show Finding Yourself in a Pit Notes: +5 CM http://www.mizahar.com/forums/topic28226.html <--- SS Thread link. Please link this to your profile ASAP! Any questions or concerns about the rewards gained please send a PM