Step Right Up (Tawny)

[Ϛ The magician]

The Magician knew he didn't have much longer before the men with the guns and the uniforms put his face all over everything and people started giving him angry looks and calling for the siren cars whenever he came around, so he was taking advantage of what little time he had left to get some last minute performing in.

So he'd set up on a street corner, as far from the police station as he could manage, and began flaunting his wares. It was like a children's birthday party on the street corner, and he was surprisingly popular. That is, until people began noticing their money was going missing. Of course, they couldn't prove he'd done it himself, seeing as he was feet away and otherwise occupied, but they mostly suspected he had an accomplice in the crowd, and after murmurings of dissent split the crowd, they began to disperse.

Soon he was alone, a balloon half-blown up in his disappointed hands. Sort of like a 'sad clown' painting acted out in real life.

And then a girl happened along.

"Hello there, little girl. Do you like balloons?" he enquired, his grin wide as a shark's.

[tawny]

She was skipping down the street, throwing up her old-fashioned black hat and trying to catch it, when a man called out to her. The question caught her so off-guard that she jumped, emitted a curiously high-pitched squeal, and tossed her hat high into the air.

She spun in a circle, searching for the owner of the voice, because if she didn't answer it would be mean, and she didn't like that, and then she saw him. He was holding a half-inflated balloon, and he was dressed really funny, like someone out of a movie, and she immediately clapped her hands together in delight. She'd never seen anyone wear so many colors at once, or smile so wide, and she just knew someone like that had to be a nice man.

"I like balloons!" She told him excitedly, in part because he was a very exciting-looking person, which made her excited, and in part because she remembered what a 'balloons' was. She'd only seen them once or twice before, when she was still in school, and it was someone's birthday, and they didn't look like that, but maybe balloons looked different like people did?

Her hat fell at her feet, and she pounced on it, holding it close to her chest, like she was afraid it would suddenly escape her. Once she was certain that the hat wasn't going to try anything, she held it out before her, blew into it, and stuck her head inside, looking around for anything suspicious that might have gotten in it from it's encounter with the ground.[/font][/size]

[Ϛ The magician]

I'm assuming her clothes match her hat.

"Good!" he replied, his own excitement feeding off of hers. At this rate, they'd be rising exponentially before long. He loved her demeanour, even if her clothes were noticeably drab and dull. Her clothes could use a touch of colour, but her personality was splendid. Something within the magician sensed the childishness, and latched onto it, so that even though he was looking, essentially, at a grown woman, what he saw was the child.

Balloons were, granted, mostly a clown trick, but the magician liked clowns almost as much as he liked magicians, so he didn't mind the overlap much. Besides, he had a more 'magiciany' approach to it anyway. He blew up the balloon and held it up in front of him for Tawny to see. Then, he flicked it, and in an instant, it turned into a surprisingly good balloon-model of a white poodle. It looked like, perhaps, another balloon had even come out of nowhere to help make the animal.

"For you, miss," he said with a slight bow, holding it as he held the balloon out to her. "And you may want to take another look inside your hat." If she decided to look, she would find a few small bills. His reasons for this were plentiful; for one, he hadn't had anything more interesting to put in it, but also, people seemed to always be throwing the money things in hats, and lastly, they always seemed to appreciate receiving money, too. He sure didn't mind giving it away, either. He had plenty of the stuff, and it really wasn't that useful.

Short, but I'm braindead right now. The next one will be better

[tawny]

They do. She always wears the same thing: black, long-sleeved dress, old-fashioned black hat, shiny black maryjanes...

Tawny stared at the balloons intently, and gasped when it suddenly took the form of a white poodle. She jumped back in alarm, and pointed at the balloons, letting the curious man know it had just changed, and she saw it!

"Look!" She whispered enthusiastically, waving her pointer finger at the suspicious object. She thought that there had to be some kind of magic involved, for the balloons to have turned into another one like it did, and little girls loved little more than magic. When she was instructed to look into her hat, she nearly dropped it in surprise, eyes wide with wonder.

"You...Magic!" She announced, knowing that if it was the balloons that was magic, there wouldn't be money in her hat! Of the two things offered to her, she accepted the poodle balloons sooner. She kept the money in her hat, and placed it securely back on her head.

"Rrrr..." She wiggled the poodle so it was walking on the air, and it came to a stop before the magician's face. "Rrr..." She repeated, voice low and poodle-y, and it shook the poodle so it looked like it was sniffing the man. Then, the poodle suddenly bopped him right on the nose, and Tawny giggled merrily.

"He liiikkeess you!"[/font][/size]

[Ϛ The magician]

The magician jumped back just as Tawny did, almost like a distorted mirror image of the girl's own movements; a sort of 'fun-house mirrors from hell' effect. Whether or not he jumped from alarm, as she did, was contestable though. More likely than not, he was just being crazy.

He stared at the girl for a moment, but when she told him to look, his head slowly swivelled to follow the trajectory of her pointed finger until it reached the balloon animal. Upon seeing that there was a dog made of balloon in his hand, his eyes went momentarily wide. While Tawny found the money inside his hat, he stared, frozen, at the dog, as if it would attack him the moment he moved a muscle. However, when Tawny accused him of being Magic, he turned his head toward her to address the comment.

But in turning he moved the dog slightly, and apparently surprised himself doing so, because he flinched and threw the dog in the air. Luckily, Tawny had been just about to accept it, so it's flight was very short lived as it fell right into her grasp. To a casual observer, it might have looked like he simply dropped it into her hands, albeit with a bit of a flourish, but the fact that he quickly took a few steps away from the dog and girl betrayed his sudden discomfort.

He froze again though, presumably out of fear, as the dog, now growling, advanced upon him. He smiled at it as it reached the in-your-face threshold, as if to tame or sooth it, and very quietly added, "Nice doggy?" When the dog bopped him, he recoiled and put his hands to his nose as it to stem bleeding, looking about to cry out in pain. But the girl's announcement that the dog liked him seemed to change his mind, and he instead tenderly touched two fingers gently to his nose, as it the dog had kissed him instead.

"Nice doggy!" he said again, with considerably more conviction.

[tawny]

Tawny tilted her head to the side, puzzled by the magic man's peculiar behavior, and patiently watched him, eagerly waiting to see his next action. It was almost like he was really afraid of the balloons-poodle, but Tawny knew that couldn't be the case! He knew the poodle was made of balloons, because he made it, so he must just be playing along! She gave a delighted laugh, and beamed at her colorful new 'friend.' Not only was he a magic man, but he could be in movies, too! She met the nicest, most funnest people!

"Yup yup! Is nice doggy! He no bites!" She smiled down at the balloons-poodle, and patted it on the head demonstratively. It made a content "rrr" in response, almost as if it was purring; clearly Tawny hadn't seen many dogs.

"I'm name him Mr. Magic Doggy, 'cause he is!" Tawny declared triumphantly, and the balloons-poodle nodded at her appreciatively. "I'm Tawny!" She added quickly, and so loudly that she startled herself and jumped backwards, tripping over her own feet and landing painfully on the ground. Mr. Magic Doggy fell with her, and scraped the ground harder than she did; he was slowly deflating, with a tiny hole in his balloony side.

"Uh-oh! Mr. Magic Doggy has a boo-boo." She told the colorful man mournfully, lying flat on her back and gently poking the deflating balloons.[/font][/size]

[Ϛ The magician]

"He rrr's," the magician said, nodding at the fact that the dog does not bite. His imitation of Tawny's noise-making was surprisingly accurate, as if the man did impressions as well. It wouldn't be surprising, though; the man had quite the impressive repertoire. He was, at different times, anything from charlatan to clown to comic to criminal.

He may have went on another name spiel then, had Tawny not fallen just then. He would have been forced to admit, though, that Mr. Magic Doggy was a very sensible name compared to most, though he would have gone with Mr. Balloon Doggy instead, himself. Tawny, too, was not bad, as he seemed to recall the word meaning brown, and the girl indeed had brown hair. Of course, none of this matters, because Tawny did indeed fall just then.

He covered his eyes as they tumbled, wanting to do something but paralyzed by some feeling he couldn't place. He winced at the mere thought of it and only looked once he was quite sure they were already on the ground. Upon seeing poor Mr. Magic Doggy taking his dying breaths, he rushed over and picked him up.

...And promptly squeezed him between his hands, forcing all the air out. Tawny might object to this treatment of the balloon animal, but a moment later, the magician opened his hands in a flash of movement to reveal what appeared to be the very same Mr. Magic Doggy, sans hole in his self.

"Mr. Magic Doggy has no boo-boo. Does Tawny have a boo-boo?"

He offered the hand that wasn't holding the newly healed dog to Tawny, to help her stand up.

[tawny]

Curiously, Tawny watched the colorful magic man as she rushed to Mr. Magic Doggy, as if expecting another spectacular display where he would save the balloons-doggy's life. To her surprise, he did just the opposite, mercilessly squeezing the life out of the wounded Mr. Magic Doggy until he was no longer recognizable.

Her mouth hung open in shock, and she stared at the deceased Mr. Magic Doggy, then at his murderer. She wasn't sure what to do, so she froze, now sitting upright, and stared. Could Magic Man be a scary monster in disguise, come to eat her up?

She was thinking that she really didn't want to get eated, that there must be some way for her to escape the clutches of the hungry shiny-man, when suddenly, Mr. Magic Doggy mysteriously returned to life. And his boo-boo was all gone!

"Magic!" Tawny gasped in wonder, smiling excitedly as she looked over the newly-revived Mr. Magic Doggy. In only a few seconds, she decided that Magic Man was her friend again, and she ignored his offered hand to joyously launch herself at his chest, exclaiming, "You saaaveeeddd him!"[/size][/font]

[Ϛ The magician]

At Tawny's declaration/accusation of magic, the magician promptly did a double-take. "Where?" he demanded, and decided that the best place to check for the magic Tawny had seen was under his arms. He found no magic there - apart, perhaps, from the fact that he was not sweating after all this activity in his heavy costume - but the gesture did leave him wide open to Tawny's devious and dangerous attack.

Which turned out to be not so bad, really. Most times when someone came at him that quickly they were trying to hurt him and ended up with a knife in their gut, but the magician had been caught off guard, and on top of that, he somehow felt like the girl didn't deserve that fate, even if she had intended to hurt him. Still, though, the gesture was foreign. He didn't even know what exactly it was, but if he did, and he remembered, he would have been able to tell you that it had been years since he'd last had a hug.

It felt good.

However, he didn't even know how to return the gesture even if he wanted to, which he didn't, because it didn't really occur to him that he could. So he just stood there and enjoyed it.

"I saved him?" he mirrored, a little on the puzzled side. He wouldn't quite have called it that, but it seemed like a good thing to do, so... "I guess I did, didn't I?" He followed in with one of his wonderfully insane, overzealous laughs. He was really very happy, and all due to... whatever it was the girl had done.

Was this magic?

Sub-paaaaar, and if she didn't actually hug him, none of it makes sense. Woot!