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 Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 6:54 pm
Lucrezia frowned as she surveyed the circus grounds and sniffed the air. It smelled foul, polluted, smokey. Not like the air in Rome. The air in Rome was clean. On hot days the sewers could stink a fair bit, but it was at least a human stench. Not a mechanical one.
This whole world seemed mechanical. Even the people seemed mechanical. Though, she reflected, that could have been because she didn't know anyone. Sighing, she surveyed the grounds again, scanning it to see if anyone was around. Of couse no one was. The show was over for the day, and the crowds had flocked off. All the other employees had returned to their trailers.
The phrase "other employees" still sounded odd to her. She'd joined at the last stop, thinking a travelling show would be something interesting, but so far she'd had no real indication that anyone even remembered she was there. She sure hadn't been assigned anything to do and she had no idea who anyone was.
Her hands itched metaphorically beneath her grip wraps. She wanted a task. Something to do. A job to complete.
And she had no idea where she was needed. The idleness bugged her.
Sighing, she leaned back against the trailer. Maybe, if she waited long enough, a task would find her.
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Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 7:04 pm
"Hey! Hey, you!" Aiden flashed a trademark smile at seeing the new girl. He hadn't recognized her yet, but that could just be a lack of interest. Nothing that she had done had stuck in his mind.
Or was she new? He just couldn't remember.
"You missed the show, you know. You are new, right?" Aiden figured that asking that would seem casual, and straight-forward enough to make sure that he wasn't going crazy. "I always say that it's good to watch performances, to see where people screw up, and learn from their mistakes, as opposed to yours." He laughed to himself, finding what he said as being particularly funny.
"So...what act are you? A few people have left...and I'm trying to make sure that everyone is all situated and the like," He glanced away, as if to survey everything going on around him, and to see if there was anything more important to attend to. Not seeing anything, he continued with his currently one-sided conversation. He would speak until he feels like it was needed that this girl speak.
"Oh. I'm Aiden, by the way. The ringmaster. But you should know that all ready. If you are new, though, I suppose I can cut you some slack."
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Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 7:22 pm
Lucrezia felt embarassed and quite stupid for a moment. Be careful what you wish for, she thought naggingly to herself. And yet, she found herself laughing slightly at the remarks. Though she supposed it was natural to laugh at the ringmaster's remarks. After all, that was what you were supposed to do.
"Lucrezia Falco," she replied, trying to hide that she had missed a beat in the introductions. "You're right, I was just signed in the last... world?" To be honest, the whole concept still confused her. A lot.
What act?
"I used to perform on trapeze and aerial silks at the stationary cirque in Rome, is that's whay you mean."
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Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 7:32 pm
"Falco....Falco, Falco," the name sounded vaguely familiar, as if he'd heard it before. Probably from when one of his assisstants was running him over the new recruits. So she was new. And an aerial performer at that! What a find.
"Aerials, eh? How long have you been doing that for?" He made sure to chose his words so that they wouldn't reflect the fact that he saw her as an attraction for the people as opposed to a colleague.
"So.." he added suddenly, realizing that he'd been forgetting to get around to all of the new acts and ask them this question. He decided he'd start with Miss Falco, "What do you have in mind to do...well, before you perform in the show? What job are you thinking of?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 7:43 pm
How long? Lucrezia nearly smiled when he asked that one. Here was a great chance to make an impression. "Since I was old enough to grip a trapeze," she replied enthusiastically. Those were rather fond memories for her, the long hours in the practice tent with the trapeze rigged to be about five feet above the ground while she had tried to flip her little three-year-old self over the bar with much help and spotting from Paolo.
"I could work on rigging and tent set up," she added. "I know silks and trapeze really well and hights don't bug me."
She fell silent. Maybe that had been a little boastful.
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Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 8:13 pm
Aiden smiled at the "grip a trapeze" remark. This was the type of personality that made for dedicated workers. A personal favorite of Aiden's.
"And how long has that been? Have you ever done it professionally before?" he remarked, as though challenging her. And then came her answer for what she could do. Rigging the tent. Just what they needed! Aiden was positive that he already liked this Miss Falco.
"Rigging the tent? Really? That's wonderful, actually. I can't seem to get anyone else to do that. They are all too afraid of falling. Though, I suppose with your talent, you can't really be afraid of heights, can you? Haha!"
Aiden took mental note that she seemed eager to please, and somewhat fearless. This was the type of person that they needed at Cirque.
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Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 3:49 am
Lucrezia paused, counting backwards in her head. She had never really asked herself how long before. Since she was two or three? She was sixteen now. "Thirteen years," she answered, giving a very conservative estimate. "And yes, I've performed professionally. In Rome there's a stationary circus all year round. I grew up there."
For now, she decided the rest of that story could go unmentioned. It was terribly long and boring.
She laughed a little at the ringmaster's jokes, even though she'd heard them from dozens of people over the years.
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Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 7:51 pm
Aiden raised his eyebrows a bit, allowing them to creep up into his hairline.
"Really? A stationary circus? Hmm," He paused for a second, deep in thought, and then continued, "Well, do you need a tour? Or do you need to know how things work? We certainly aren't stationary. And we're getting new people in our troupe, so, it might be a bit rough getting around at first."
Feeling generous, Aiden added, "Plus someone with thirteen years of experience should know her way around quite well. That's impressive, and we wouldn't want you to mess up not knowing where the dressing rooms are, would we? Well, when you get a dressing room, that is." His corny jokes and somewhat glazed-over flattery seemed to mingle perfectly with his persona. Showy, attention-loving, and charming. The trifecta of a ring leader, and that he was.
Plus, he felt good. It wasn't everyday that people get offered tours by the leader himself. That should give him at least a little karma for the next show to go flawlessly.
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Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 3:45 am
Lucrezia weighed the options and decided a tour would be nice. And especially from the ringmaster! That had to be something special!
"Things seem to work a little differently around here," she sighed. "I'd like a tour very much."
She watched him intently, but let her eyes wander a little. Things did seem rather different around here. She'd seen very very different kinds of people. The sort she'd never seen before. There was so much begging to be learned!
"I suspect there are slightly different acts here from what I'm used to."
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Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 4:22 pm
Aiden nodded and began to walk briskly towards the larger tent. He glanced around, nodded at a few passerbys and then looked back at Lucrezia. He had to make sure that she was following before he decided to speak.
He half-smiled when she stated that she thought that there were acts that she hadn't seen. "So," he began, speaking just about as fast as he was walking, "What acts are you 'used' to?" He stopped suddenly, and then decided where to go.
He could either show her the larger tent first, or the sideshow tent. He instantly made his desicion, and began walking elsewhere.
"These are probably the acts that you aren't too...familiar with," He lifted the tent's flap wide with his arm, with a smile not too different from a cat, who had a plan for its prey.
"This is the sideshow tent. There are many oddities and wonders, if you will, here."
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Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 4:44 pm
Lucrezia looked around the tent and almost shuddered at the sight of some of the "acts" within it. She glanced at Aiden and noticed he was smiling.
"We definitely didn't have one of these back home," she stated, trying to hide her mix of revulsion and amusement. There was some morbid satisfaction in the freak show, she was quickly discovering as she took second looks.
"We only had the main tent. Permanent acts, some traveling..."
Another thought crossed her mind.
"Are all these people here voluntarily?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 4:53 pm
He glanced at her, and quickly began thinking of her question. Aiden took her by the arm and began to walk out, realizing that it wasn't exactly tactful to be talking about the people in the tent while they were, well, in the tent.
"Yes," he said, after they got outside, glancing backwards, just in case, "They did come here voluntarily. But really, do you think they would've had a good home elsewhere? They would've been treated as freaks!"
Aiden got slightly nervous, and let go of Lucrezia's arm, and put his hand on his temples. He seemed to be a bit of a hypocrite now, and he had to pull himself together. He took a deep breath, and then continued,
"I mean, well, they are in the freak-sideshow, but they did choose to be here. And we give them a place to stay and...Well, some of them are even," He lowered his voice to a whisper at this point, "frauds. Well, at least I think they are..." He looked backwards one last time, and then turned an emotional three-sixty.
Regaining the excitement in his voice, he smiled and asked, "Are you ready to see the big tent?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 5:16 pm
Lucrezia's face lit up. "Would I?" she repeated excitedly. "Of course I would!"
There was something magical about big tents, she'd always thought. There was always a tangible air of excitement, and perhaps the tangible smell of animal and human sweat. But mostly excitement.
With an extra little bounce in her step, she followed him towards the big top.
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Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 5:42 pm
Even before he said it, Aiden knew that she would love the big tent. Everyone did. Though, it seemed particularly important for an aerial performer to enjoy the big tent. Without love for the set, there is no love for what one does, as Aiden said himself.
He quickly moved through idle workers talking and smoking and practising toward the large tent. It was brightly striped, and it seemed as though no one could avoid the pull that it had.
"Up there," he pointed, "Are the trapeze, and all of that type of thing." He quickly walked to the center of the tent, to show exactly where things were.
"There's usually a net here for practice. If you want to use it during your show or not it up to you. Animals are normally put over there in cages," he pointed off to the left a bit.
"And the audience sits all around. See? The stands are set up in a circle, for all to see." Seeming a bit less enthused, he thought of something else that he had to show her.
"While this isn't exactly the most exciting thing ever, everything for rigging is up there. I won't be able to help with that much, but I figured that I might as well show you," he paused, deep in thought. "Is there anything else in here that you'd like to see? Or anything else in the circus, for that matter. Or do you just want to take in the Big Tent for a while?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 6:04 pm
Lucrezia was in heaven. It was so nice to be in a big tent again! She could already imagine performing here. She took a few minutes to walk around, look at things from different angles. It was very difficult to resist climbing up into the rigging right then and there.
She managed to restrain herself, promising that she'd get up there eventually and see how they worked around here.
Finally, Lucrezia found her way back to Aiden.
"I'd like to know about sleeping arrangements," she stated. "Because when I signed on, they didn't tell me anything and I wound up squashed in one of the equipment carts."
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