#m.event03

[containatrocity]

It's not like Mercy particularly enjoys engaging with the unwashed masses of Huntsville. All things considered, he likely would have stayed home today, if he hadn't been well aware there were very few opportunities for him to get to practice his circus-related skills- there weren't many places for a magician's talent set in a place that relied as heavily as this one on self-sufficiency. It made hustling hard, and being Mercy even harder, but with the prospect of people being willing to engage in the fiction of the fantasy medieval times the town's heads had laid out, there was always the prospect for his feats falling in amongst the folly. So he'd dressed up, dragged himself out, and was in the midst of a performance with a small crowd. "Ah, remember, ladies and gentlemen! I am a skilled professional, those without my specific talents will find themselves injured or dead in the face of attempting anything you've seen today!" He declares, leaping up onto the box in front of himself, blue eyes focused through his mask on the daggers he's juggling, joking and chattering with his crowd before catching each blade on the way down- throwing them sharply into a nearby board just behind them, each landing with a heavy 'thunk!' into the thick wood- whizzing past enraptured viewers. "And your risk here? Not exactly minimal! Best to tip your performers- a good meal means a steady hand, and all that." He grins- the action pulling the full-mask up his face slightly as the crowd begins to dissipate, depositing tickets into the violin case by his feet. He turns to a straggler, raising a brow under his mask. "You need something, dollface? you look a little bit like you could use a cheering up. Granted. I'm not that sort of Jester."

@lxvenderhxzehv

[containatrocity]

“I keep my tabs on people who might have use to me, nothing more, nothing less.” Mercy declares flatly. “That's been the case here, and before here, and it will never change. I know your name because at some point, I decided there was something you had that I wanted. Let's not delude ourselves into thinking that makes anyone special- Which means you've made a good start.” She looks briefly upset he's turned down the pay, at least, until he makes it clear he's not asking for an exchange of money in this chance meeting. “Don't sound too excited, you'll give people the wrong impression about my company.” He shifts, tucking his belongings back into their cases and crossing to one of the adjacent mead booths, leaning against the counter and chatting up the person behind it, their blue hair braided and bright in the afternoon sun. She spares a glance to Josie over the man's shoulder, taking his violin and other kit to place it behind the booth, something akin to a long-used to this- but still not supportive of it- expression on their face as Mercy returns.

“Shall we?” He hums, motioning up main street toward the oddity shop. “Hex will keep an eye on my things in my absence.” He declares, already falling into a leasurely pace. It's not a very long walk, and it's through the back door to the shop that he slips the duo inside, flicking the lights on as the smell of dust and old paper replaces that of food and drink. “Ah, Hellhole sweet hellhole.” He glances over his shoulder with a slight smirk as she follows him in, easing the door closed behind them with a foot and turning the lock once again. “I'm afraid this is about as private as I can offer on short notice.” He catches a glimpse of himself in a mirror on the wall, laughs under his breath. “You should probably work on an explaination for all the black smears on your skin now, dollface.”

He had a point, Josie was almost always more interested in the more surface levels of a person. Never really getting close enough to get to know more or to see more. Keeping someone at arms length was close enough. Josie knew what he was doing and she didn't really care. He had set the trap and she fell right into it willingly and knowingly. So perhaps she wasn't as disillusioned as she thought she was. Maybe his smoke and mirrors work on her in one way or another. Josie scoffed when he rejected her offer, she found it near impossible that he hadn't taken money for a proposal like this. Besides, she had enjoyed at least a little bit of his his public display of entertainment. "Who says I'm not Smart enough to know exactly that being here right now means nothing? I've had my eye on you for long enough, I was bound to find my way to you eventually. As I'm sure you've found your eyes on me from time to time. Considering you knew my name before I even introduced myself to you. We were bound to bump into each other eventually. Weren't we?" Josie's eyes lingered on him, she'd play the part, The helplessness shown on her face. She was in to deep now, if she said no would she really go back to Festival like this while interaction never happened? sure it was easier for a woman to hide the fact that she was hot a bothered but that didn't make it any more enjoyable. "Lead the way..." She said simply.

[containatrocity]

"And, do come again- there's no harm in a peek beyond the veil after all- or in funding your charming guide's next drink." He calls after a departing group of faire-goers, the hard porcelain of his mask- a Jester grinning and frozen- hiding the scowl beneath as he counts his funds from the last performance. He sighs, tucks meager tickets into his pocket, and pulls his mask from his face, sitting it aside on a nearby picnic table and scratching absently at the black paint on his cheek, a second more flexible grin marked into pale skin. "I swear, you spend 11 years trapped in a shitty little town and you forget how to tip apparently." He mutters, picking up his violin and beginning to tune up. He's dead to the world for a long moment, the violin case on the ground by his feet closed to indicate he's not performing at the moment. But he catches eyes on him- or perhaps eyes on the forest just over his shoulder- and shifts his own glance to be eye to eye with the source- He's seen her around before- looking troubled, more often than not. "I've not got another performance for a while, love, I'd hate for you to linger around and get the wrong impression of me as an artist." He insists. "... Odette, yes?" He questions, one dark brow arching. "Do you always look as if you're a deer about to meet the vicious front end of an 18 wheeler?"

@odette-abbott

[containatrocity]

"Mm. Because it's my name." It wasn't, of course- born Roewan Sidon, he'd only cast it off in an effort to further distance himself from his brother, from everything the Sidon name had wrought, scars mental and physical he'd never quite break free from, made weapons to inflict something not unfamiliar on other people. "I 'go by' it because outside of my circus, none of you know if I was ever anything else, really." He gives her another silent once-over, follows her gaze to the woods. "They're trees, girly. Ain't gonna jump out and get you. I think you can drop the vigil." He picks up one of the bottles of mead from the table beside him, pulling the cork and taking a long swallow. He takes a look around, clicking his tongue against his teeth a second later. "Hm, we look fresh out of hurtling semi-trucks, I think you're safe." He settles, treating his violin bow absently, examining it with careful blue eyes. "But that doesn't explain why you're staring at the forest like it's about to rise up and eat you."

odette had been walking around the ren faire, desperately trying to keep her mind off the looming tree in the woods. unfortunately for her, the tree had a different idea. she had been staring at the woods, sizing them up and waiting for something to jump out on her. she felt like the woods had been mocking her every since the flower festival, every rustle from the trees a whisper to another about her. those gossipy bitches. and yet despite the fear, she was still entranced. feeling a pull to the tree that she was logically trying to avoid. it wasn't until someone came into view blocking her vision did she snap out of it. "oh, uh, sorry. i wasn't staring at you, i didn't mean to make you uncomfortable or anything" she rambled her apologies "umm that depends if there's a vicious front end of an eighteen wheeler coming my way I guess" she had those big green doe eyes that sweet old ladies were so quick to point out right before they pinched her cheeks. "but to answer your first question, yes, i'm odette. and you go by mercy, right?"

[containatrocity]

"Mm, no, you prefer my looks, which at the end of the day, is a mask all the same. There's not a soul on earth who prefers anybody at their truest self- It's why at the end of the day, we're all liars and whores- the difference is that I'm aware of that fact. You're right. I am painfully smart, and what have I chosen to do with it, beyond parlor tricks?" Quite a bit, even if it wasn't clear, he was playing her just as easily as the fiddle in his hands, and when she holds up the ration cards, asks for a private showing- He rolls his eyes. "Come on now, I've not sunk so far as demanding a fee for my company. I told you- existence is transactional. I'll get something out of you that's not pay- a transaction means only that something exchanges between us- not always that one of us leaves with more funds. Besides, the town's government frowns on prostitution, and I've a reputation to uphold. No, see. What I'll get from you has no monetary value. It's the recognition that for as smart as you claim to be, you're still ending up here."

He doesn't miss the shiver, a whirl of color and motion before he's stood in front of her, larger frame looming as one fingerless gloved hand shifts to catch her jaw. The grin he flashes after is vicious, wolfish- a predator set on a blood trail. "But if you're playing along, little girl, I've got an hour of free time before my next set-" he pulls a key from a chain around his neck. "And the key to the back door of the antique shop with me. It's your call. What's more important? Being the smartest person in the room, or forgetting that's something important to you for a little bit?"

"Truthful or not, I prefer the man under the mask much more" She smirked. "Just like for mine its the opposite. People don't like sad it's ugly...unbecoming my mother would say..." her tongue was sharp and she knew she wasn't wrong. When she was sad she was alone but when she smiled and acted the part people flocked to her. She narrowed her eyes at him "You're more than just that....you're incredibly smart, as you know I am too...perhaps a little too smart for our own good? Wouldn't you agree?" she knew there was way more to him than what he showed off to the average person, not that she really cared she was more concerned with his more phyical attributes. Josie help up a few ration cards between her fingers "Is this enough for a personal show? I can always offer a bit more if I have too? unless you should be paying me?" It wouldn't be the first time, but she didn't do it often.

She got chills down her spine as he lifted her chin with his bow. He was bad and yet she still wanted him. Every other part of her was telling her this was wrong, but she was never one to listen to logic even if it was the foundation of her very strong mind. "I couldn't agree more..." It was perhaps the first thing they had agreed on.

[containatrocity]

"Ironic, isn't it? Admonishing me for a mask before declaring your own?" Mercy questions, taking his violin up from beside him, spinning the bow in one hand before starting to play, something deceptively bright- eerie, despite it all. "We all wear masks, darling, the Jester's face is just the one I've decided serves me best for now. Just like you seem to believe that your false joy is tricking anybody but yourself. We're all a little rotten- the greatest and only trick is the delusion to the self that at our core we're not termite riddled and laden with sin. In that, my mask is honest. What am I but an entertainer? A grinning fool for the masses to gawk at?" He drags the bow down hard once- the strings of his violin growling, screeching as he leaps onto the table in front of him with a flourish, leaning down to frame up into Josie's space a moment later. "Fact is, babydoll, it's not on me to prove I'm not all smoke and mirrors. Or to bring you any sort of joy out of the kindness of my heart. Existence is transactional, even in this hellhole of sharing and caring."

There's a pause, smoke rolling from his lips as she onces him over- as he does the same. "But if we're both playing pretend today, that I'm the fool and you're not running away from yourself- I think we can help one another, hm?" He shifts, the tip of his violin bow settling beneath her chin- tilting her gaze up to meet his own. "It's a shame, after all, to let recognition on reputation alone go to waste, isn't it?"

"Maybe, though I didn't see it." She took another drag blowing the smoke out opposite of his face "I guess entertaining my Vices was a bit more Important than your little show" a condescending smirk pulled at her lips. Maybe she couldn't do it, but she still thought he was still full of it "knowing a few tricks doesn't make you a professional, you know enough to get by though. You certainly had the majority of the masses at your full attention" She raised her brows at him. "Maybe you could show me some of thease skills privately then if you have so much faith in them" She suggested.

Josie actually barked a laugh at his boldness. "Well, isn't that what your shows supposed to do? Provide me entertainment, Spark joy, and what ever other shit they say?" She shrugged crossing her arms meticulously. Josie smile didn't waver rolling her eyes though when he argued that he calls his hot customers hot simply becausehe wasnt stupid. "Well aren't I special. Though it's not lost on me how easy on the eye are yourself" She slipped back with smirk "it really is your saving grace you know....such a pretty face and you hide it under that mask" She brought her cigarette to her lips nearly stopping in her tracks as he had mentioned her name. He knew her? It wasn't the sort of Ego trip she needed "yes...and you're Mercy..." She nodded simply "I guess our reputation precedes us" she looked him up and down. She was growing bored of the back and forth. "It's all for show...you know? The peppiness..."

[containatrocity]

“You think there's some sort of trick to hucking a dagger into a crowd and hitting no one, there, sweetheart?” He's got alarmingly good hearing, if anything, and as he jumps down from his perch, bends to swipe the tickets from inside his violin case, he removed his mask, the grin more malicious beneath it, painted in casts of black and silver across suntanned skin. He starts counting, blue eyes focused on the task at hand as he continues to speak. “Because I welcome you to try the same thing and not land yourself with a medical bill or an arrest warrant.” He hums, crossing to the target and plucking the knives from the center- sliding them into place in sewn-in rings in the silvery blue tailcoat. “I'll give you one thing, the cardistry, the disappearing jewelry, that's all bullshit, sleight of hand, it always has been. That's why I don't do it that often. Juggling knives, swallowing a sword, spitting fire- there's no trick to that- it's skill all the way down.” He kicks the lid of his case shut again.

“but that doesn't answer my question- and it's not that I really care, but it is fact alone that you standing here and looking generally miserable kinda harshes my whole deal.” He wastes little time, lights up, the black paper of his own cigarettes catching, curls of smoke spilling a moment later. “And It would stand to reason, sugar, that I only call the hot customers hot, hm? Self-serving son of a bitch I might be… but I do have functioning eyes.“ He hums. ”It's Josie, right?“ He doesn't often bother to remember a name- typically only the ones he thinks might get him something later. ”You usually look … more insufferably peppy, is all.”

Josie Rolled her eyes watching as the cowed ooo'ed and Ahh'ed at his 'Magic Tricks'. Maybe if she had been 20 years younger and whole like dumber she would have actually enjoyed it. But She knew by watching him what tricks he was going to pull or at least the jest of it. Most of them time they had their own twist on thing. Though despite the magic show part of the performance was lack luster the magician performing however had caught Josie's eye. She knew his name was Mercy and that he owned the oddities shop in town. If she had know he looked so good even with a mask on she would have been shopping there a lot sooner. "skilled professional? give me a break" She mumbled under her breath as she watched along with everyone. Josie had pulled a way a little to light a cigarette. She heard the thud and jumped at little at the gasp from the cowed. As they began to clap and cheer they also began to part. When he had addressed her as Doll face she smiled taking a drag from the paper stick between her fingers. "You call all your audience member that or just the pretty ones." Another drag and another smile "Maybe I am, though no magic you posses can cure that I have going on..."