The Feathers of Laughter [Mission/bun]

At the heart of the festival stood a tall man hyping up the children for an amazing show that he had promised them. The entire idea of this performance was not to amaze people with magic tricks, but to put a smile on the kids faces and make them laugh out of pure enjoyment. Hence why the magician decided to name his show "The feathers of laughter." Just as the children began to cheer on the man as he promoted his show, colorful feathers came pouring from the sky as if there was a seemingly endless amount of confetti being dropped.

This was thanks to Pokers ability to fully manipulate feathers as he pleased. He changed the color and design of each feather so none would be identical but there would obviously be a few that looked exactly the same. While he was at it he decided to get a few of the feathers to glance and 'tickle' some of the kids so that they would get a head start on the laughing liveliness from the audience.

Poker was still in the backroom watching the magician build up the excitement from the audience as he was waiting for another person to arrive. Apparently the magician told Poker that he got another assistant to help them with their act and that she would be arriving anytime soon. All Poker could do was sit down and wait as he continuously generated more feathers from the sky making it look like a magic trick similar to a bunch of confetti falling down.

Evelyn frowned nervously as she snuck out of her taxi, looking at the cheering mass of children and the colorfull feathers raining over the audience. She had a bad feeling in her guts, that the people who had hired her had no idea what her gift was. Wearing dark sunglasses, leggings and a tank top, she made her way backstage, exercising her tired shoulders, cracking her finger and swinging her knees, working up to loosening the ties that held her ragdolish body together. She entered the backroom to find a boy there, speculating he must be the source of all of the magical feathers floating from the sky. Evelyn reached out to shake his hand, placing down her bag on a chair in front of a mirror."Hey, I'm Evelyn." she msaid, straining her ears to pick up the sounds of the carnival outside, nervous about what the odd man that entertained the group of kids outside would want from them. She had to put her trust in Beata that they had picked a sane man to handle them, but the more she thought, the more she acknowledge the subtle note that came with the description of her mission.

Keep a close eye on the magician. Ah, yes, very nice going. she thought. No big deal, she could get herself out of any bad situatoin, hopefully. She pitied the children, though. In her bag she had brough a whole box of needles, tied with strings. It was a matter of how to use them, since Evelyn never really got the time to try her contraption out in the training rooms of the academy. But they were also for stitching herself together, in case she detached her limbs for the show and she had to sow herself back together.

"Evelyn, huh? Nice to meet you. I'm Poker. Looks like we'll be working together on this one."

Poker extended his arm and accepted the handshake from the girl acknowledging his new acquaintance. They had roughly about thirty minutes before they had to be on stage so there was some time to waste till then. Every minute closer though made Poker even more nervous especially since he's never done anything like this before plus he knew absolutely nothing about his teammate. Best thing to do though, would probably talk to her and try to connect in order to see if they can work together on their act.

"We got roughly half-an-hour before it's our turn to perform so let's get ourselves acquainted till then, okay? As you could probably guess I'm the one who's responsible for all those confetti-like feathers being thrown out there. So I'm making it my job to make this act look as flashy as possible. What about you? You're from Beata as well so how do you plan to help the play using your abilities?"

Evelyn was counting through needles an moving her shoulders as if she was doing a ridiculous chicken dance. She placed her weapons/aid kit back in her bag and turned towards Poker. Again, her powers were most likely to scare the little kids to hell, but that was the time to be creative, and luckily, something new etched into her mind. The idea sounded nice, maybe she'd need a bit of patching up if things got bad, but that would not be until later. Now ever moment mattered and they had to be fast and smart. "Well, feather-boy, can you fly?" she asked, arching an eyebrow as she cracked her fingers, letting out a sound that seemed strangely muffled. She repeated the procedure with her wrists, ankles and knees. Gotta loosen up those joints or I'll suck. she thought, grinning at the idea of her number, back in her mind.

He flies me up into the air as high as he can and let's me drop. On my way towards the ground, I gather as many feathers as possible then fall. Won't hurt a bit. I hope. she pictured the number and marveled as she trew the colorful feathers at the shocked children before they saw she was alright. Let there be no fireworks.

((gosh darnit there will be fireworks you hear me ;D))

"Fly? More than easy for this guy!~ But I'm not sure if that's a good idea. We gotta make sure no one realizes that we possess powers. But if you got an idea to make sure it looks just like a magic trick, then by all means my feathers are yours to command!~ Just tell me what to do and we'll get it to work somehow! What do you have in mind?~"

Poker Became excited as he began to think of ways he could use his wings to make the children laugh. He wasn't really sure what the girl and in mind but she seemed confident enough for Poker to put his trust in. In all honesty he thought that this girl was just going to be the magicians assistant where he'd saw her in half and stab swords into her as she hid in a barrel. Who knows though, maybe this act would have something similar to that manner at the end.

(Fireworks at daytime? BLOODY BRILLIANT!)

((well we were told to keep an eye on the magic dude, maybe he likes fireworks at daytime XD
I was thinking more like when Evelyn makes her entrance, a.k.a. dropping from very high onto the stage, the magician let's off some tiny fireworks))

Evelyn laughed curtly and nodded. After all, it would have been quite annoying for a boy who could control feathers to not be able to fly. She was conscious that they were supposed to remain undercover, but there was no harm if the spectators would not be able to notice them, if they flew high enough. Then they would be able to continue their performance as if nothing ever happened, and it would leave the audience thinking she had bloody parachuted without an actual parachute. Luckily, Poker would look like a plane from high up in the sky.

"The plan is you fly me up high enough that the audience thinks you are a plane or something, and then I let go and fall out of the sky. I collect feathers on m way don and throw them on the people when I get down. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." she explained fast, conscious that the clock was ticking and the performance was narrowly around the corner. "Then we resume the performance."

"Oh~ Sounds like fun~ Alrighty! Let's do it!"

Without wasting a single second Poker began to configure a pair of wings for himself and took the girl outside where no one would see them so that he could begin to fly up into the air while carrying her. He wasn't sure on exactly how safe she was going to be when she landed but the confidence in her voice as well as the look in her eye as she gave the idea told Poker that everything was going to be fine.

"Here we go~" Poker Held the girl by holding the underneath of her knees with one arm while using his other to support her back as if he was carrying her like a princess. Without even getting any permission or safety precautions from the girl Poker started to fly up high into the air while keeping in mind that there should be no one seeing them as they took lift off. Soon after he could see people speak the words 'Up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane. No. It's-!'

Evelyn yelped as she got picked up but looked at the ground confidently as they flew higher and higher. She took a deep breath, pulling her hair in a ponytail and urging herself to not look down. Her legs turned to jelly when they stopped climbing and the time ws for her to launch into a deadly cannonball towards the ground, only that it would be merely for entertainment and not quite as deadly, for Evelyn's gift protected her from such injuries. Before he knew it, the girl plucked a colorful feather from Poker's wings and added it to her hairstyle. Another few moments she dangled from his arms and then she pushed off, feeling her guts go up as she went down. The first seconds she flailed her limbs helplessly but she steadied herself as the stage neared and picked out feathers from the sky, stuffing her fists with them as she dove faster and faster towards the stage. She could barely keep her eyes open through all of the madness. And then, that happened.

The sound of tiny fireworks being set at the sides of the stage and all of the special effects that obstructed her vision. She held her fists tighter and crashed into the stage just as she narrowly missed a tiny explosion of color and heat. Evelyn huffed, her whole body heaving, doing a mental check on her body. She had fallen with her back turned away from the audience. The girl checked her wrists to find mere scratches, barely bleeding, and smield confidently. She turned around to face the spectators and threw the multitude of feathers over the front rows, smiling and holding her fists up in a victory pose, then took a bow.

"Well would you look at that. She actually pulled it off~"

Poker was somewhat proud of the girl for actually being able to pull off a stunt like that. No normal person would even think of something as dangerous as that but that's probably why she was in Beata Academy. Now it was his turn to fly back down but only he had to make sure no one saw him. It was gonna take a while but as soon as Poker landed he rushed back towards the backstage of the act and began preparations for the next trick.

The next act was going to be one of the oldest tricks in the book. It was the sawing woman in half trick. Everyone knows that there would usually be another person on the other side of the box with their feet sticking out but when Poker went to go get the cage box there was no props in it whatsoever and it didn't look like there was going to be anyone to take the place of the legs. Unsure about what to do Poker came out to the stage with the caged box anyway hoping that the magician would have something up his sleeve for this.

Evelyn waved at the crowd one last time, feeling her heart ready to leap out of her chest. A little girl had her cheeks puffed red and looked bewildered, tears still slicking down her face, as if she could not believe the stunter was still alive. The ragdoll girl reached out and picked her up, heaving her on her shoulders and beckonng her to wave at the crowd as well. When Evelyn put her down, the little girl was laughing and clapping and she scurried to her mother smiling widely. Evelyn retreated backstage, feeling proud but at the same time the jelly-leg feeling returned. The show was still on. She left the stage and almost fainted on a chair, examining the more bedraggled portions of her wrists and pulling out her sewing kit to fix them. As she was plucking her neddle and sewing the worst cut shut, she rolled her head on her shoulders to look at Poker with an exhausted grin.

"What's next?" she asked, returning her attention to her careful work. She felt no pain, but she had to be sure she was sewing only her wounds, or when they would heal, marks would remain, She luckily did not bleed a lot and managed to pull off as if nothing had nearly made her fail.

"Congratulations on your introduction!~"

Poker clapped for the girl as she sat herself down in exhaustion. This was only the beginning though as the next trick required the girl to be sawed in half. He wasn't exactly sure how things would work out but if the last act went without a hitch then he was pretty sure everything else from now on would too. He took another look at Evelyn as she began to sew her wounds.

"Hey, are you okay? Are you sure that fall didn't do a number on you?" Poker asked as he was concerned for the girl. He saw the smile on her face as she picked up the little girl which gave the impression that Evelyn was a good woman at heart which is why Poker was worried about her.

"Oh, and the next trick is going to be an old one. It's the saw your assistant in half trick. I'm sure you've seen it plenty of times before. Only problem is that we don't have anyone on the other side of the box to stick out their legs. Do you think you're going to be ok trying to pull this one off?"

Saw herself in half, huh? Evelyn shuddered at the thought. It was true that her introduction had left her maybe just a bit hurt, but that was not a problem. On the other hand, the second trick might jus do a worse number on her. She gulped and put her needle down, examining her handywork as she spoke to Poker. "Try cutting yourself in half and tell me how that was." she hissed, but sighed, deciding on a better explanation. " Look, I don't get very hurt if I fall, but cutting as an entirely different thing. I don't know what I'll do, and I'll definitely not be able to walk it off." she said, looking at the small sewings over her wrist and imagining the same thing around her whole waist.

"How about..." she tried to remember what she had read in Poker's file. "If you can create things out of feathers..." an idea ignited in her mind. "What if you make a pair of feet and put a pair of shoes on them. I'm sure we can find at least two pairs of identic shoes in this van. Props 'n stuff. On one side you got me, on the other side the feather feet disguised as mine." she sggested, not quite sure it will work, but willing to try anything just that she would not be forced to pull that trick off by herself.

"That's actually not a bad idea, though it'll be hard to find something like an identical pair of shoes out of nowhere." Poker searched savagely for something he could use as a prop in order to fool the audience of their abilities. With the van being very small however there was actually nothing he could find as a replacement for them. It was at this stage a shining ray of light came through the door.

"Neither of you need to worry lads as I'M the magician here!~ Just follow my lead and you'll both be fine~ Now, bring that machined box and follow me outside!"

A strong and confident voice spoke to the two Beata students. It was the magician himself who seemed to of heard everything they were discussing. Just as soon as he made his announcement to calm the two down though the magician already left expecting the two to follow him with the saw-in-half box. Poker Looked at Evelyn and gave her a smile in order to stop her from being nervous. "How's about we just go with what this guy says. He feels like someone I can trust so if he asks you to go into this box just go in, okay? Don't worry, I promise you won't get hurt. Even though I'm not sure if you can even feel pain~ haha~"

Evelyn's stomach turned tight as she and Poker were urged to follow the magician. The audience was waiting, but Evelyn couldn't bring herself to walk through the door. Embarassed, she took a few deep breaths and steped outside on the stage, waving, even if her expression gave out more worry and fear than any usual magician's assistant. She pushed the box on stage, looking at the spectators and studying their expressions, most of them, already, seemed to know what the trick was about, and Evelyn might have suggested they skip it. Wouldn't want to, eheh, bore the audience, huh? Yeah? she thought, her hnds shaking in her pockets.

"Let's do this already." she sighed, stepping besides Poker and looking at the magician for instructions. If there was a time to feel nervous, this was it. But Beata put their trust in them and their failure wouldn't be welcome, even if t was not much of a tragedy.

The magician opened the top of the two boxes and instructed for Evelyn to lay down in them with her head sticking out from one end and her feet from the other. Normally this would not work out well since there would already be a pair of fake legs in the other half of the box but it wasn't the case this time. There were no replacements and no props and the magician already closed the top of the boxes to make sure Evelyn couldn't escape.

Poker was surprised that there was no preparation done beforehand but that's probably how the magician does things. He was instructed to hand the magician a Japanese katana in order for him to cut the girl in half. Poker did just that as he didn't want to raise a commotion over Evelyn's safety while in front of the audience. The magician began to cut the boxes and the girls body with the sword and miraculously actually did saw the girl in half without her feeling a thing.

Turns out that this man was actually a former Beata student that actually had the power to manipulate portals. It was a pretty handy trick for a magician one could say. As he was cutting Evelyn's body he was also creating a dimensional portal that separated her top body from the bottom. Poker could only tell this as he was able to see the powers being used at a different angle while next to the magician. If he had been sitting in the audience, then Poker would not of even been able to tell that this man was a former student.

Excited at the new ability he saw and how it was being used Poker decided to help the magician separated the two boxes from each other. He took the side of her feet while the magician took her head. To make it seem more convincing as well Poker decided to be a little sneaky and take off Evelyn's shoes so he could tickle her feet with his feathers. It seemed more authentic this way and Poker was bound to get a laugh out of her since his feathers could make anyone ticklish.