The last few balls spun through the air, dropping one by one into pockets, into the nearby fountain or unexpectedly exploding into a multicolored display of fireworks. The dark haired street performer at the center of it all knew that it was always a good idea to leave the crowd with a bit of flash. They usually gave more money that way.
"Thank you everyone for joining me for the last few minutes," she said over their applause. "Thats all I have time for today, but I will be back here tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of your day and, please note the small hat on the ground next to me. It gets extremely sad unless it has money in it. And you wouldn't want to be responsible for making a hat sad, would you?"
That last line usually got laughs, not to mention bringing in an extra Dollar or two. Another trick she had learned was to leave them feeling good about themselves. If that was something as silly as dropping a quarter into a hat so it wouldn't be 'sad' then so be it. The important part was that they left in a better mood. And, if they're in a better mood, I have fewer headaches. That alone is worth all of the trouble.
She would never get rich off of the tips that people left behind, but on a good day like today, she could make enough for a decent meal and to feed her Espresso habit. She was fortunate that she really didn't need the money. Thanks to the foresight (literally) of some of her ancestors, she was the inheritor of a small but comfortable amount of wealth.
Cassadega Delgado had become something of a fixture on the streets of Paragon City over the last few months. She had claimed a corner of Atlas Plaza and begun a simple streetcorner magic act. Her songs, puns, card tricks, stories, and bad jokes had gone unnoticed at first but slowly, more and more people took a few minutes out of their day to watch her act. It almost seemed that, in a city filled with superhuman men and women who could fly, or shoot flames from their hands, or lift buildings, there was something comfortably normal about a dark skinned gypsy street juggler.
Oddly enough, it wasn't just the general public that started to take notice. Some of those same superheroes started hanging around her shows. Discretely, of course. It just wouldn't do much for their image to be seen gawking at something so mundane as a juggler. Cassadega welcomed their presence since it all but insured that the local street gangs would leave her and her audience alone. The Paragon City gangs were generally considered to be slow learners, but word got around quickly... "Leave the juggler alone. Unless you like pain."
It took a few minutes for the crowd to disperse. It was getting near the dinner hour and many of them would be heading for the trains and home. Atlas Park may have been the administrative hub of the city, but most of the people who worked there actually lived in the older brownstones of Kings Row or the high tech condos that made up Steel Canyon. The few residences in Atlas were several blocks away from the plaza. Once City Hall closed up for the night, the plaza was all but empty. Cassadega waited a few extra minutes to make sure she was completely alone before she spoke quietly to the air around her.
"Ok kids, time to wrap things up. Come on now, All -y All-y, all's in free..."
From where they had landed earlier small balls of light, fire and lightning rose into the air and settled into orbit around her. The air was filled with the faint sound of excited chattering and Cassadega smiled. Although she used them in her act, and even referred to them as pixies, most people just assumed they were illusions or slight of hand. In reality, they were all the small nature spirits that Cassadega had been taught to see and summon many years earlier.
She had used the spirits as part of her act from the beginning. They allowed her to do tricks that the simple physics of juggling could never match. Although they were just lesser spirits and therefore not too intelligent, she was able to make them understand what she wanted them to do. Once they got the idea however, it became more of a trick to rein them in. Somedays, when they got particularly exiteable, it was all she could do to keep her hands moving fast enough to keep up.
The spirits were one of the things that Cassadega wanted to keep secret. Neither the spirits or her would be in danger if people knew, but she would lose an important edge. Even without the spirits she was an expert juggler, but so were a lot of other performers. A good magician never reveals her tricks. And good Espresso is expensive..
She let the spirits circle for a few moments more before raising her hands palms out and reciting the words of release,
"I let thee go, in joy and good cheer. Return now in peace to your places untill I call thee again."
With those words the spirits faded or, in a few cases, popped, out of sight. She had built up good Karma with the spirits and knew they would be there when she needed them again.
The last few balls spun through the air, dropping one by one into pockets, into the nearby fountain or unexpectedly exploding into a multicolored display of fireworks. The dark haired street performer at the center of it all knew that it was always a good idea to leave the crowd with a bit of flash. They usually gave more money that way.
"Thank you everyone for joining me for the last few minutes," she said over their applause. "Thats all I have time for today, but I will be back here tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of your day and, please note the small hat on the ground next to me. It gets extremely sad unless it has money in it. And you wouldn't want to be responsible for making a hat sad, would you?"
That last line usually got laughs, not to mention bringing in an extra Dollar or two. Another trick she had learned was to leave them feeling good about themselves. If that was something as silly as dropping a quarter into a hat so it wouldn't be 'sad' then so be it. The important part was that they left in a better mood.
And, if they're in a better mood, I have fewer headaches. That alone is worth all of the trouble.
She would never get rich off of the tips that people left behind, but on a good day like today, she could make enough for a decent meal and to feed her Espresso habit. She was fortunate that she really didn't need the money. Thanks to the foresight (literally) of some of her ancestors, she was the inheritor of a small but comfortable amount of wealth.
Cassadega Delgado had become something of a fixture on the streets of Paragon City over the last few months. She had claimed a corner of Atlas Plaza and begun a simple streetcorner magic act. Her songs, puns, card tricks, stories, and bad jokes had gone unnoticed at first but slowly, more and more people took a few minutes out of their day to watch her act. It almost seemed that, in a city filled with superhuman men and women who could fly, or shoot flames from their hands, or lift buildings, there was something comfortably normal about a dark skinned gypsy street juggler.
Oddly enough, it wasn't just the general public that started to take notice. Some of those same superheroes started hanging around her shows. Discretely, of course. It just wouldn't do much for their image to be seen gawking at something so mundane as a juggler. Cassadega welcomed their presence since it all but insured that the local street gangs would leave her and her audience alone. The Paragon City gangs were generally considered to be slow learners, but word got around quickly... "Leave the juggler alone. Unless you like pain."
It took a few minutes for the crowd to disperse. It was getting near the dinner hour and many of them would be heading for the trains and home. Atlas Park may have been the administrative hub of the city, but most of the people who worked there actually lived in the older brownstones of Kings Row or the high tech condos that made up Steel Canyon. The few residences in Atlas were several blocks away from the plaza. Once City Hall closed up for the night, the plaza was all but empty. Cassadega waited a few extra minutes to make sure she was completely alone before she spoke quietly to the air around her.
"Ok kids, time to wrap things up. Come on now, All -y All-y, all's in free..."
From where they had landed earlier small balls of light, fire and lightning rose into the air and settled into orbit around her. The air was filled with the faint sound of excited chattering and Cassadega smiled. Although she used them in her act, and even referred to them as pixies, most people just assumed they were illusions or slight of hand. In reality, they were all the small nature spirits that Cassadega had been taught to see and summon many years earlier.
She had used the spirits as part of her act from the beginning. They allowed her to do tricks that the simple physics of juggling could never match. Although they were just lesser spirits and therefore not too intelligent, she was able to make them understand what she wanted them to do. Once they got the idea however, it became more of a trick to rein them in. Somedays, when they got particularly exiteable, it was all she could do to keep her hands moving fast enough to keep up.
The spirits were one of the things that Cassadega wanted to keep secret. Neither the spirits or her would be in danger if people knew, but she would lose an important edge. Even without the spirits she was an expert juggler, but so were a lot of other performers.
A good magician never reveals her tricks. And good Espresso is expensive..
She let the spirits circle for a few moments more before raising her hands palms out and reciting the words of release,
"I let thee go, in joy and good cheer. Return now in peace to your places untill I call thee again."
With those words the spirits faded or, in a few cases, popped, out of sight. She had built up good Karma with the spirits and knew they would be there when she needed them again.
Writer of In-Game fiction: Just Completed: My Summer Vacation. My older things are now being archived at Fanfiction.net http://www.fanfiction.net/~jwbullfrog until I come up with a better solution.