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 Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 8:19 pm
Ah, the park! Such a nice place to visit regardless of the time of year. The day was overcast and threatening to rain, but it did not seem to stop the local citizens from escaping the confines of the inside world. People strolled about, children scampered about, and everyone seemed to generally be having a good time.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls!"
Vendors and performers lined the walkways of the park, a familiar habit that had been around nearly as long as the park had been. Food stalls in a surprisingly wide variety could be found, and even wider was the number of street performers.
"Come forth and step behind this sheet to see a wonder, a marvel!"
Some of these performers were professionals who somehow manged to earn a steady income from their work. Others were students and young adults, playing their routines for nothing more than simple fun. More than a few performers were homeless vagrants, simply trying to earn themselves some spare change for food or a place to rest for the night.
And then there was Leraje.
"Is it a man? Is it a monster? Surely, this creature behind the screen is a unique creature, the likes of which have never been seen before in all the world!"
He was one of the vagrants- a familiar sight in the park, really. Today he seemed to have come up with a new scheme, having rigged up a complicated set of sheets to form something of a cubicle, effectively blocking off the contents within from the outside view.
Today's scheme, it seemed, was him selling his ward Ferox as a freak show.
"Daddy?" The voice called from within the sheets during a lull in his calls.
"What?"
"I don't think I like this show business stuff. Can I come out now?"
A sigh, as if this conversation had been dome a thousand times before. "No Ferox. Not for a while longer. Be patient..."
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 9:04 am
Phoebe was walking through the park with her J-Mama, tugging insistently at the toddler-leash that enclosed her wrist, and whining about its presence. "J-mamaaaa, why do I haff to wear this?" Her dark elf parent showed no sympathy to the toddler's plight, but she reached down and patted her on the head regardless, an amused sparkle in her bespectacled golden eyes.
"Well, you have to wear this because you'll run off again without it, and I don't want to spend all day chasing you down. Again."
Phoebe's response to that as just to pout. Then a devious little smirk showed up on her face, and she pointed over at a big box made of curtains - it had someone inside it, she could smell them.
"Can we go over there, J-Mama?" She asked sweetly, batting her eyelashes in the manner that never, ever failed to get her what she wanted. Sure enough, Jadyn sighed a little and caved, leading the toddler to the miniature 'freak show' - and. . . what in the world was going on here? Did the voice in the box say 'Daddy'? She wasn't the world's greatest parent, but to make your kid a freakshow object. . . ?
Jadyn was so irritated with the man - and seriously considering going over and giving her a piece of her mind - that she didn't notice Phoebe plopping down onto the ground, slipping off her little sandal, carefully hefting her leg up and slicing through the child leash with a toeclaw.
Free at last, the pigtailed pride-child slipped her sandal back on and took off over to the box made of sheets, investigating it and then pushing her way through. "Hey! Come out! You, come out and play with me! Now!"
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 5:03 pm
It was obvious that Leraje's attempts to try and sell off his ward as a local attraction was not working, for he perked up considerably when he saw the pink-haired girl come bounding over. Well, he shouldn't have been so surprised his latest scheme had been going poorly. While freak shows and the like were prevalent a century or more ago, it certainly was not something that was in favor with the public now. And with the wide bizarre assortment of races and half-breed children running about Gaia in the recent population explosions, someone like Ferox really wasn't special enough to warrant a show anyways.
"Hello little girl!" he chirped, despite the fact that she was far more interested in Ferox behind the sheet. "Are you lost?"
Little kid + lost = reward. Hopefully.
Unfortunately for him, she just barreled on through his flimsy setup. "Hey!" That was it! His fees were to be doubled for this!
Ferox reacted in similar surprise when Phebe came pushing through the sheet and demanded to play. However, hsi reaction was much quicker and far more enthusiastic in comparison to his guardian's.
"Play? Sure!" Oh boy! He never got much of a chance to play with anyone! "What are we going to play?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 5:58 pm
Jadyn noticed the absence of pressure on the kiddie lead fairly quickly, and looked down only to see the severed end of the pink leash waving in the breeze. This time, however, she knew exactly where to look for her wayward child, and moved over to the 'freakshow' owner. Phoebe was fine for the moment, and this fellow needed to learn that you just didn't do something like this!
"How can you sit there and offer your own child up as a - a sideshow exhibit?"
Phoebe's ears twitched as she heard her J-Mama outside the blanket covers, talking to the big person there. She smiled at the boy she ran into, feeling a mild sense of recognition for him, and reached a hand out.
"I'm Phoebe, what's your name? And want to play tag? Or race? Or, um, maybe pretend?" She didn't get to play with other kids too often, so she wasn't quite sure what he would want to do. But anything would be nice, especially if it got to keep her from being taken home too soon!
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 6:27 pm
Leraje was just turning to protest the girl's barging in on the so-called exhibit when he found himself approached and verbally assaulted by a dark-skinned woman. Dark elf, from the looks of her pale hair and pointed ears. He was slightly annoyed by the question she presented him, as it had not been the first time he had been pelted with that sort of thing today. But, it took quite a bit to annoy the redhead, and he managed to match her gaze with impassive green eyes.
"Easy," he responded with an unsettling flatness. "We need the money, and he agreed to it. Gotta eat somehow, you know?" He shrugged lopsidedly. "Besides, its not like he's being abused or hurt or anything." Not to mention, Ferox rather liked the attention he got from the few poor saps who had fallen to Leraje's charms in the past.
"Ferox!" The dark-haired hybrid chirped in equal enthusiasm. He glanced quickly at Leraje to see if this sort of thing was a llowed, but the sheet obscured most of Ferox's view. Oh well! It sounded like daddy was talking to someone outside. Best not disturb him.
"Let's race!" Racing sounded fun! He was an awesome runner! But... um... didn't daddy say to stay put? Hm. "Uh... how do you do pretend?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:49 am
Jadyn wasn't impressed in the least by this so-called 'father's' attempts to justify what he was doing, and it showed as she raised an eyebrow and looked around the park idly, golden gaze taking in the lack of crowds, and the occasional odd stare from passerby - not curious as to the 'sideshow', but rather the argument itself. At last, she turned her gaze back to the man and smirked just a little - only a little, mind you, she wasn't the time to be particularly sarcastic. . . not usually, anyway.
"And how well is it working for you then? I suppose, of course, if you wanted to catch a pigeon for dinner, you're doing all right."
She hoped that wasn't actually his intention, because if it was. . . eugh. She might wind up having to take pity on the bum's kid - not him, just the child - it wasn't fair that a boy - and the man had said he, she was sure of that - go hungry just because his father was too lazy to do anything with his life!
Inside the curtains, Phoebe tilted her head and thought for a long moment.
"Y'know, I dun really know, I never did it afore," she said, shifting from foot to foot, her pigtails springing softly with every movement. Her eyes lit up and she tugged the curtain away from her new friend, Ferox. "Come on! I know what we can do! Let's dance! People'll watch us!" She giggled and gestured to the exit of the cloth box, beaming at her new friend. "They'll watch us, and we'll dance, and maybe they'll give us PRESENTS for being so good at dancing!"
In her mind, there was no 'maybe', for her at least. She knew she'd get presents for her wonderful dancing, she was too special not too. She just didn't know if the other kid would get any or not, especially when she was the better dancer of the two of them! But then, she was the best dancer in the world anyway.
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Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 9:58 am
If the comment had been intended to get a rise out of Leraje, the drow was going to be rather disappointed. Now that he had gotten a moment to get his composure back, Leraje sighed and shrugged casually. "I've had to do with worse. If pigeons are what's for dinner, then pigeons it is."
Not that it would come to that, of course. Leraje still had a few tricks and scams to pull before he had to resort to chasing critters down for food. There was also thievery, but with Ferox trailing after him that often made things more difficult. Damn kid.
Dance? That was another word Ferox had only a vague familiarity with. His figure wasn't exactly made for dancing, after all. Regardless, he nodded vigorously, swayed by the magic word of presents. He liked those! Didn't get them often, BUT. "Yeah! Yeah!"
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Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 7:24 pm
Jadyn made a face at that thought. "You know, that's a rather disturbing concept," she said, frowning. Then she blinked as her daughter came out of the cloth-box, dragging a rather odd little boy with her. "Phoebe," she called, "Phoebe, what are you doing?!?"
The little girl ignored her, continuing to lead the other child out into the open. "Come on, come on," she encouraged. "Dance! Like me," she chirped, and then started spinning and spinning around, adding a little leap here and a bobbing jig there; a very juvenile performance but still cute nevertheless.
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Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 12:12 pm
Leraje only offered a shrug in response. Disturbing? Eh, maybe a little. "Meh." He seemed disinclined to offer any sort of retort, which was probably good, because it was just then that the girl (Phoebe, if he'd heard the woman properly) came out dragging Ferox. Hunh. Should he try and dissuade them...? Nah.
In a slow awkward attempt, Ferox certainly tried to mimic the dancing moves that Phoebe showed him. Emphasis on tried- his legs were certainly not built for any fancy kind of footwork, and it wasn't long until the older child went tumbling down on the grass. Irritation flamed his face for a moment, before he doggedly got up and tried again, this time doing a goofy spinning series of hops. There! "Whee!"
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Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 12:07 pm
"Phoebe! This isn't the place to go through one of your dancing routines," Jadyn said, marching over to her daughter and intent on catching her. The pride child merely danced out of her way, however, and giggled.
"Gotta do better than that, J-Mama," she chirped, then twirled in place, catching a flower someone threw to her. "Ooooh, pretty!" Looking over at the other child's hopping dance, she giggled again and stuck the flower in her hair before joining him in the new dance.
"I don't know this dance! It's fuuuun!"
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Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 10:07 am
Ferox laughed, slowing in his hopping 'dance' so that he could have an easier time talking to his new friend. "It's cause its my special dance," he bragged, with far more emphasis than most adults would consider polite, but was perfectly fine to kids.
He bounced around a bit more, before finally giving up and plopping on the grass with a huff. Ferox was not a creature of the greatest endurance, even with all that little kid energy. "What next?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 1:56 pm
Phoebe could have danced for longer, but she happily flopped onto the grass with a small 'oof' and a happy smile. "You pick! It's your turn," she chirped, reaching out and tapping at Ferox's tail. "I bet you can think of somethin' really really really fun!"
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