Break for a Magician

[Damon Walker]

A quiet echo sounded, tapping against the walls here and there, as his black shoes made contact with the floorboards of the stage. His black hair was lazily brushed backwards with his own hand, letting it seem like it formed many little spikes on it, and his black sunglasses glistened in the light that still remained on the stage. Another echo sounded as his other black shoe clapped against the floorboards, sending the sound to bounce out into the empty auditorium. While the young man walked across the wooden stage, he allowed his long leather duster to slip off of his shoulders, down his arms, and then into his hand where he brought around him, swishing and swaying, to the front.

His long sleeved black shirt now could be seen, tucked into his black belted black pants. Moving toward the middle of the stage, Damon let his steps take him to the apron, where he let his duster fall to the ground. He was mentally and physically drained for some reason, possibly from his last act where he had put a lot more effort into it than normal. That was what he got for not preparing in advance.

When his feet were almost touching the edge of the stage, Damon bent down and let his feet swing over the edge, where he sat, dangling his legs for a while. The young man closed his eyes and grabbed reached up to his face with his right hand, clasping his sunglasses gently between his index finger and thumb, and then pulled them off. Without opening his eyes, he set the sunglasses gently on the wooden floorboards next to him and moved his hands to his face and rested his head in them. There, he rested for a moment, trying to let his mind take a break from the world just for a little while.

[Aurèlie Moreau]

<sub>Aurèlie had checked to see if any of the stages would be empty today and to her luck there was one that would be in use. Aurèlie wanted to practice on one of the stages, but she didn’t get the chance to often, because when there were no shows occurring, there was usually a group of actors rehearsing and unfortunately for her, the actors apparently took precedence over dancers.

When Aurèlie walked into the dark theatre, she noticed a man, head in his hands, sitting on the stage, “Hello?” she called out.</sub>

[Damon Walker]

Upon hearing the voice, Damon reached down to his side. His head now was resting in his left hand as his right searched for his sunglasses once again. After he found the sunglasses with his hand, he closed his hand around them, being sure not to touch the lenses, and lifted them to his face. There, he slipped the hooks of the sunglasses through a small tuft of hair until it wrapped around his ears. Then, when he felt they were securely around his eyes to block out all of the light, Damon opened his eyes to see who it was.

His eyes fell upon a girl that he hadn't seen before. One of his eyebrows perked up in slight confusion, he responded to her question-like greeting with a greeting of his own. "Good evening." The young man pushed himself from the stage and landed gracefully on the ground before it. Walking toward the young lady, he commented, "I don't believe I've had the pleasure," as his usual statement by way of asking, 'who are you' but in a somewhat nicer fashion.

[Aurèlie Moreau]

<sub>Aurèlie watched the young man fiddle with his sunglass with his eyes closed curiously. She was about to ask what was the matter when she realized that the light must affect his eyes. She didn’t say anything about it though, she figured he probably didn’t want to talk about it; he looked like he was having a rough day.

“I’m an opera dancer here,” she replied when she heard his polite version of ‘who are you?’, “My name’s Aurèlie Moreau,” she held out her hand as was custom.</sub>

[Damon Walker]

The young man's hand smoothly moved into the air and gently clasped her as he bowed. Bringing her hand to his lips, he kissed the back of it gently before letting go and standing up straight once again. "I am Damon, the Demon Walker," he responded to introduce himself. "'Tis a pleasure to meet you, milady." He carefully stepped away from the young Dancer and made his way back to the stage. On the stage floorboards, he saw his long black duster, lying there.

Curses, he thought to himself silently. He had forgotten that he had taken it off, but it didn't matter much. After a few steps toward the stage, he asked the girl, "So what are you doing here now?" He didn't remember any scheduled times for Dancing rehearsals, although he never actually looked. Perhaps he simply mistook his own common judgment in assuming that no one would be here at this late hour.

[Aurèlie Moreau]

^{Aurèlie smiled as he kissed the back of her hand, “And it is a pleasure to meet you as well,” she replied politely. She watched him walk to the stage and was about to ask what he was doing here so late, when he cut her to the chase, “Well…” she paused, “I was going to come and get some extra practice in, I could always just go to one of the practice halls, but I like the feel of the stage better..” she explained…}

[Damon Walker]

He listened to her explanation her her being here, and smiled. Once past the first row of seats, Damon turned and walked toward the steps of the stage. "I see," he replied to her explanation. While he didn't exactly approve of everyone stealing the stage from him, he understood why they needed it. To himself, he wished that the theater would have grown more so that there could be more stages than just the one that all of the actors, the magicians, as well as the dancers and opera singers had to use.

Alas, their part was greater than his on society. They brought inspiration to all of Paris, showing them the art of dance, and also teaching lessons in their way. He on the other hand, steered mankind into mystery, causing them to wonder if there was more to life than what could be seen on the streets. Damon was a magician, but not like others. He performed magic in a way that it caused the audiences to almost believe it was real, but left a slight hint of doubt so they would be just satisfied in their wake.

"Mind if I watch?" he asked as he took the first step. He hadn't attended any of the operas at the theater. They had never interested him, so he simply stayed in the back to study or moved to a practice room where he knew would be empty at those times.

[Aurèlie Moreau]

<sub>“Not at all…” she answered him, “I like having an audience!” she said, walking off to the phonograph next to the stage. She pulled a record disk out of her bag and put it in the machine. She didn’t turn it on though, “I’m going to have to change really quick, so I’ll be back in a moment,” she said quickly before rushing off backstage.

Before coming back onstage she had changed into her black leotard and short, but flowing black tutu. And on her feet she wore her raggedy, tattered pale pink pointe shoes. “I’m ready,” she said a smile as popped out from behind the curtain.</sub>

[Damon Walker]

Damon walked up the rest of the steps as she spoke and placed her record in the phonograph. When she told him that she needed to change, he nodded to her and watched as she left. The young man walked over and picked up the black leather duster and brushed it off just by habit in case anything had gotten on it. While he swooped his hand down the duster, he made his way back to the steps and walked down them, and then moved to the chairs. Draping the coat over his one of the seats, he sat next to it and faced the stage.

The young man then held his hands together, thumbs facing each other, and pushed forward with his index fingers. Cards began to form and shuffled themselves into a deck. Just to pass the time, he shuffled the cards over and over, waiting for the girl to come back to dance.

As he noticed the movement from the corner of his eye, he looked up to see the young girls outfit and smiled. After she said her words, he responded with, "So am I."

[Aurèlie Moreau]

_{“Could you turn the music on please?” she asked him, [[ooc: I know it say no god-moding but he’s not even like doing anything and if I didn’t I’d have a one-liner.]] as he moved to the record machine, she moved into her starting position. When she heard the music fill the theatre she took a deep breath in took the first step in her dance. She moved gracefully from an attitude, into 4th position, then to sauté. Her facial expression and body movement matched the mood of the music perfectly. Pirouettes, arabesques, pat de chats, she did them all with elegance and ease. Finally, the music was coming to a close and she ended with a high sauté, landing an en pointe arabesque. She held the pose until the music completely stopped.}

[Damon Walker]

When asked to turn on the music, Damon nodded and stood from his seat to walk over to the phonographer. As he stepped, he watched how she moved into her starting position. Damon slipped his finger down to the switch and flipped it upward, turning the player on, and then he moved his index finger lazily under the arm and lifted it onto the record to where the first line should have been. After a soft thump and beat in the record, the music began to play for the Dancer, and the young man allowed his gaze to move from the music machine to the actual performer.

Watching as she moved, he smiled, but wasn't very impressed. Granted, dancing was an art, and he knew this. Not everyone had the talent to dance well enough to do it on stage in front of hundreds of people, but it wasn't something that he himself would be interested in sitting through an entire play for. Aurelie's movements were smooth and graceful, which was expected from a dancer who was to perform in a play or opera of any kind, but she made everything match with the music perfectly as if it were rehearsed a thousand times and more before this one.

Damon's hand moved up to his chin and the elbow attached to that hand rested on his other arm. Stroking his chin gently, he allowed the deck of cards to dissolve into smoke while he watched. Occasionally he nodded, approving of the technique or movement used in that certain point, but for the rest he merely stood there gazing as an appropriate audience might do. Soon, the music came to an end and she finished dancing, holding still before it was finished. An eyebrow perked up, but he didn't question it. Again, dancing was an art, but it wasn't his. He may as well not question the ones that that art belonged to.

After the music stopped, Damon flipped the switch again so it pointed downward, stopping the record's spinning, and then he moved the arm of the phonographer to its standby position. The young man looked up from the phonographer and clapped in light applause, deciding if she were good enough to work at A La Amour Theater for Mr. Pomeroy, then more then likely she was a good dancer. "Bravo," he called to her as he walked to the seat he had been at before, "Bravo. How long have you been working on that piece?"

[Aurèlie Moreau]

<sup>[[yeah this post is wayyyy short but im tired and cant think of any thing to write.]]

Aurèlie grabbed her water from her bag and took a large sip. “About 6 or 7 days…” she replied smiling, “I absolutely love this song…”</sup>