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Up To No Good; Tag: Evey
Topic Started: Mar 9 2010, 12:12 AM (367 Views)
Pila Xiahou
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The Bǐng Quān was massive, luxurious, beautiful; everything that Pila's jail cell on Highgate had not been. She was able to wear what she wanted when she wasn't working, and that was a blessing she had forgotten all about during her stint on Highgate. Today she was clad in a pair of colorful yellow slacks with orange print along the bottoms, a pair of flip flops, and a white t-shirt with a smiling sun printed across the chest. Her hair was held back by a reddish colored bandanna, faded almost to a pink shade. She wore no makeup and was doing her best to focus on her work, which was currently practicing her fire-breathing. She stood in one of the side rings of the main hall where the circus performed, first juggling the sticks of flame. She would catch them and "breathe fire", spitting alcohol into the flame. At the end of her short practice, she caught the sticks and extinguished each flame individually in her mouth, a trick that took great practice.
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Evey Zheng
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The first three hours on board the Bǐng Quān, Evey spent it sulking about while taking care of her 'reservation' ("Well, looks like everything is in order, Miss Evergreen. Hope you have a great time with us") and rolling around the bed in her room, which she grudgingly admitted was pretty fancy. Her usually cheery and excited face was cringed into a frown, and she kept scratching her hair irritably as if it was a habit of hers.

It wasn't that Evey was being unreasonable or spoiled; she was simply annoyed with the situation. The big heist on Sihnon, which she was barely involved in, was becoming a major pain in her rear. Granted, she practically proposed it, planned it, and even messed with the MedAcad's security system to help the other guys have an easier time stealing medicine and private medical records, but all she could think was just how unfair the Alliance was being with her.

'That was ages ago!' she complained pointlessly to one of the crime bosses on Persephone as he informed her that an Alliance investigator was sniffing around for clues. Shrugging at her typically childish complaint, he offered her an extended stay at some luxury cruise. 'Trust me, mei mei. You'll love it.' Determined to hate every minute of it just to spite him, Evey started to sulk the moment she got outside the boss's office and kept it up throughout the trip.

"Whoa!" That is, until she saw a great stream of flame that popped out of nowhere. Actually, Evey was just wandering around aimlessly while not paying attention to the surroundings, but the dramatic effect wasn't lost on her. Tracking the smoke to the source of the flame, Evey's eyes went round as she saw a plain-clothed woman around her age literally eating a flame at the end of the stick. Conveniently, her brain decided to remember a word that the crime boss said to her when she was too busy sulking to pay attention.

"Circus!" Running towards the fire-breathing and eating woman, Evey's face lit up with her usual merry spirit. Stopping right in front of the woman, she excitedly exclaimed, "That was so da bian hua! How did you do that?! Aren't you worried that the fire might lit back to your mouth? Did you burn your tongue? Do the smoke make you cough?" all in one breath.
 
Pila Xiahou
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Pila looked at the woman before her with a smile. They were of a similar build, close size, and strangely enough, a similar genetic descent. The fire-breather grinned as the young woman unleashed a string of questions. It was nice to be noticed, even nicer to be admired for something.

She nodded her head just slightly in greeting, not being one for a more formal handshake. Besides, she had her torches in both hands and didn't feel like trying to shift them all to one. "Thanks! I can't tell ya exactly how I did it or it ruins the trick, but I can tell you that no, I didn't burn my tongue, the smoke doesn't make me cough, and yeah, sometimes I worry that the fire will go down my throat. It's called blowback and it can land ya in the hospital or worse."

With a grin, she pointed to a dark spot on her lower lip, a little crispy around the edges. "That's from just a little tiny blowback, caught my lip on fire. Now that burned." She laughed after she spoke. "So, uh, I'm Pila. Who're you?"
Edited by Pila Xiahou, Mar 10 2010, 06:00 PM.
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Evey Zheng
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"Ooh, that looks painful." Evey muttered without thinking as soon as the performer pointed at the little burn, her expression still unchanged from fascination by the fact that the woman didn't burn her tongue when she swallowed a flame ('A flame!' part of her mind still exclaimed). Her restless mind immediately wondered how painful being burnt by a flame would be, then began to make comparison to the pain she had felt when the incident that put the little scar on her hand happened. 'hmm... I can't really tell. I hope I don't find out though.'

"Pila? I'm Evey Zhe-" Her eyes went round, then scratched her head. "Haha... no, that's my... nickname. I'm Miss Evergreen. I mean, I'm Hana Evergreen. And I'm taking a vacation. Uh... from my job." Nodding her head seriously as if trying to confirm that she is who she says she is, she quickly moved on. "I didn't know there was a circus here! You're practicing for a performance, right? Is it tonight?" She asked, heart in her throat.
 
Pila Xiahou
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The fire-swallower chuckled at Evey's mutterings about her lip. It definitely hurt, hurt like six kinds of hell, but she had suffered worse. "It hurt a helluva lot worse when it happened, but it's pretty okay now. Only hurts if I eat something spicy!"

She smiled and tried not to look confused as the girl stumbled over her name. How could a first and last name be her nickname? More than likely, she used multiple names for multiple reasons, could be she was like Pila and had to keep aliases. She didn't care either way, it was just sort of amusing to see the girl fumble over something as simple as her name.

"Yeah, I'm practicing for the show tonight. You should come! I'll see if I can get a spot saved for you in the front row! We put on a really good show, and you can see the gnarlier stuff that I can do. Afterward maybe I can sneak you down here to meet some of the other freaks I work with." She wasn't sure why she was being so nice to the other woman, perhaps it was because they were similar in a way, and besides, she needed a bit of company. She got mean when she spent too much time alone.
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Evey Zheng
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"Yeah, I'm practicing for the show tonight."

Instantly, two parts of Evey's head exclaimed 'Yes!'. One came from the relief that Pila didn't make a huge deal out of Evey's problem with her own name, and the other, more exuberant exclamation came from anticipating the show. That part of her mind went positively nuts, however, when Pila invited her to see the show in the front row and even take her to meet other performers.

"I would love that! I've never seen a circus live before. It's going to be amazing! Well, I guess I never saw one in cortex either. Just little clips here and there when I was little. Oh! Do I have to wear a waterproof clothes just in case there's a water performance too? Oh, but I guess I don't have any fancy clothes to worry about. It's going to be great!" Evey was too excited at the prospect of seeing a real live circus that she still didn't know where it was actually going to be held at tonight.
 
Pila Xiahou
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Shortly after meeting Miss Evergreen, Pila had been called to one of the other training rooms for a quick briefing. As such, she had to bid adieu to her new friend and offer promises of good seats and an invitation to the after-party. With that, Pila had run off to work, hoping to see Miss Evergreen in the stands that night.

Just as she had promised, she had gotten her new friend a nearly front-row seat, just three rows back and reserved just for her. Pila waited backstage, anxious. There were all sorts of new folk coming into the circus soon, it was going to be crazier than usual! She peeked out through the curtains, hoping to see the little Asian woman in the stands.
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Evey Zheng
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"Y-yes, they're quite good, aren't they?" Jenkins nodded with a textbook polite smile as the young woman he was unfortunate enough to be seated next to kept talking in that rapid, hyper manner. It was adorable for the first ten minutes, then he began to feel his age... of 33. Though he was rather handsome and looked young for his age, the crease under his eyes were already causing him to look like a middle-aged man. He paid good money to come aboard this cruise (which he couldn't get reimbursed for, as this technically wasn't part of his job), and he was partially glad that his persistence and thoroughness had paid off by giving him an opportunity to get onto such a luxurious ship. And yet...

"And then she said she burns her lips sometimes, but she never coughs from the smokes or burns her tongue when she swallows the flame! How crazy is that? Oh, and she only burns her lips when there is a blowback. Did I tell you about the blowback?"

YES! He wanted to scream out loud, but the years of education in etiquette engraved in him forced him to nod and smile politely yet again. "It must be quite painful when it happens." Though the firebreathing performer wasn't technically at fault, Jenkins felt rather bloodthirsty after having to sit through what is now twenty-five minutes (and 35 seconds) long description of the person that often repeated itself. Incessantly.

"Oh, it's going to be great." The girl seemed to be jumping in her seats (literally, at times). "She said it was going to be even more amazing than the practice. But it was amazing to begin with, you know? She swallowed a whole flame!" 'Again?'

The music suddenly changed with spotlights coming to life, indicating that the circus was starting. Just as soon as Jenkins blurted out "Oh, thank merciful God!" and awkwardly following it with "that this amazing circus is starting", the girl next to him stood up in a standing ovation while clapping wildly. Hearing the complaints from the back, the girl surprisingly blushed and sat down quietly. 'Little inconsistent, aren't we?' he bitterly thought.

"Sorry, I guess I was a little excited." The girl said with a much calmer voice. Biting back the snide comment 'a little?', Jenkins waved his hand while smiling. "I'm Eve...rgreen. Hana. Evergreen." The girl said with a much more charming smile (now that she wasn't speaking two thousand words a minute) while offering her hand. Shaking it, Jenkins introduced himself while pondering the strange pronunciation of the common name 'Evergreen'.

'Hana Yeeve-er green, huh?' Thinking that the name sounded strangely familiar, the 33 year old Central Cortex Regulation Enforcement Officer from Sihnon soon forgot his troubles and enjoyed the fascinating show in front of him. The girl next to him was already mesmerized, it seemed.
 
Pila Xiahou
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Showtime! The lights, the music, it was what Pila had come to live for in the past weeks. It was definitely less painful than her life of crime had been, and she was a helluva lot less likely to end up back in the slammer. After all, she was behaving well these days, and the accommodations were too good to pass up! When she spotted Miss Hana Evergreen in the audience, she smiled. It was nice to have a fan, someone who was paying attention to her.

Pila's costume was simple but dazzling, starting a skin-tight top of sparkling fabric, shifting in colors as a flame would. It started a deep red at the bottom, then faded to orange and finally bright yellow near her shoulders. The piece was sleeveless, showing off her dragon tattoo. Her pants were much looser, a somewhat billowy fabric of deep red that swirled around her legs as she moved. Her feet were bare, though the careful eye could see that her toenails were painted bright orange. Her hair was held back by a bandanna similar to the one she had worn at practice, though this one was the same color as her pants.

She entered the circus arena with a quirk of her lips, her entrance music revving her up. She held four small torches behind her back, pulling one out and holding it in front of her. An assistant came out and lit it for her, and then the show really began. She spun the torch wildly, making circles of flames as she danced with it. Tucking the unlit torches into the back of her pants, she snatched a flask from her pocket and poured some of it's contents into her mouth. Then, in quick succession, she pulled the torches out and lit each of them with a burst of flame from her lips. Once all four were lit, she began to juggle, spinning them in the air and doing all manner of tricks with the four flaming sticks. As the crescendo of the music playing signaled her, she grabbed the torches so that she had to in each hand, overlapping so that she had flames on either end, spinning them around her. Just as the music was coming to a close, she started juggling them again, and one by one, she extinguished them in her mouth.

The music ended, and holding four extinguished torches, she took her bow. Crossing one foot over the other, she held her arms at length and bowed, winking at Miss Evergreen before she ran backstage and let the other performers have their time.
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Evey Zheng
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Evey wasn't sure when Pila would come on to the stage, but waiting certainly wasn't boring or uneventful. The circus clips that she saw during her childhood were nothing compared to what was happening in front of her eyes. The acrobats, the animals, and other strange, interesting performers kept her attention, and she even forgot to make excited comments to the nice gentleman sitting next to her. She clapped vigorously each time a performer finished his or her act, and just as the last of the amazing acrobats exited the stage, the light suddenly dimmed significantly. Before Evey could figure out why that had happened, a familiar face walked onto the stage.

Pila was wearing something entirely different from earlier, an outfit that made her look like a flame itself. The tense yet fast-paced music made everyone in the crowd suddenly go quiet, and for a moment there Evey could swear Pila smiled briefly just as their eyes met. She waved excitedly anyway.

As the music became faster and louder, the torch in Pila's hand began to spin around her in elaborate patterns. The dimmed light accentuated the path that Pila was taking the torch, making elegant red-orange streak as Pila moved faster and faster. It looked like a fleeting image of a beautiful orange flower presenting itself in a fickle manner.

The audience, in a trance, suddenly jolted (some even gasping) as a sudden explosion of flames brightened the entire room out of nowhere. Evey was amazed to see that now Pila held four torches in her hands, and that she was juggling all of them in complex movements and patterns. Unlike the previous presentation of flame in streaks, the torches now formed various geometric patterns that really appealed to Evey, who was partially worried about what would happen if Pila caught one of them on the wrong side.

As the music came to its final part, Evey clapped a bit prematurely as Pila began to swallow each flames and extinguishing it. Astonished gasps and cheers spread throughout the audience, and just as Pila took a bow, a thunderous applause filled the audience's seats. Evey once again waved frantically as she definitely saw Pila winking at her.

"Wow!" Evey exclaimed as the audience began to walk out after the last of the performance finished. "Wasn't that amazing? Especially Pila! That was nothing like what she showed me earlier today! Oh, I can't believe my luck!"

"Y-yes, quite good." The nice gentleman said in an accommodating manner. "Well, Miss Yeeve-er-green, I must say good night for now."

"Wait!" Evey shouted, and the nice man turned with a strangely polite but tense face. "I didn't catch your name."

"Like I said before, it's Ebry Jenkins." Jenkins let out while controlling his frustration at the fact that he had, in fact, introduced himself a while ago.

"Ebry? That's a strange name. Sounds kinda like my first name." Jenkins' eyebrow rose as the peculiar young lady cheerfully said good night, then ran towards the backstage and screamed 'Pila! That was amazing! It was so beautiful! How did you learn to do all that?!' followed by what he discerned was another fast-speed babble that he was unfortunate enough to be subjected to earlier. 'Her first name is Hana, is it not? How is that similar to Ebry?' He pondered for a moment. 'Ebry.. Hana... Yeeve-er-green... bah!' Tired and annoyed despite watching a spectacular show, Jenkins decided to call it a night and slowly slumped towards his room.
 
Pila Xiahou
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Pila smiled when she saw the young woman that she had met earlier rushing backstage to see her, a barrage of words flying out of her mouth. The fire-eater laughed and bowed her head in greeting. She didn't particularly care if any of the other performers had a problem with her bringing Miss Evergreen backstage, after all, they often brought friends and acquaintances backstage themselves. Some even went so far as to bring people impressed with the show backstage for some rather inappropriate celebrating. The idea of circus groupies was an odd one, to be sure.

"I'm glad you liked it!" She responded, using a warm, wet cloth to wipe some of the makeup from her face. "I learned to do it from another fire-eater, that's the only way anyone can learn is by apprenticing. It takes a lot of practice and a lot of times getting burned, though."

She laughed and tossed her wash cloth onto one of the vanities nearby. "How long are you going to be on board? Maybe before you leave I can teach you to juggle, at least. No chance of getting 3rd degree burns there..."
Edited by Pila Xiahou, Mar 18 2010, 10:46 PM.
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Evey Zheng
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"Me? Juggle?" Evey laughed at the thought, fully aware of her shortcomings in most activities involving hand-eye coordination. "Oh, there's no way I can do something that complex with my hands. Well, I mean, except for my job, which I guess involve doing something complex with my hands. But nothing like juggling."

She looked around the place once, taking in the noisy excitement, bursts of congratulations and admirations, and the general chaotic atmosphere that was absolutely delightful.

"I don't know how long I'm staying, actually..." The organization's boss told her he reserved the spot on the cruise for her for a week, but Evey was really hoping that it wouldn't take that long for everything to sort out. 'It's not like that place is going to run out of supplies any time soon...' She almost pouted before focusing on how long she would be there. 'Can't be more than a week.'

"Probably a week. But, umm..." Evey became uncharacteristically hesitant. "But can I come by and hang out anyway?"
 
Pila Xiahou
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"It's really not that hard, even if you're kinda clumsy. I mean, it's not really your hands doing anything complex, it's just your brain being able to catch up!" She said, trying to encourage Hana into trying to juggle. She was sad to hear that the young woman would only be around for a week or so, but glad that they at least had that much time to get to know one another.

"Of course, you can come by anytime! I can't promise you won't get your eyebrows singed around me when I practice, but you're more than welcome to visit whenever you want!" She was teasing about the eyebrow bit, but she did want Miss Evergreen to visit. She hadn't made many friends in the circus yet and was rather lonely as such.

"I'm starving. You wanna go get some grub?"
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Evey Zheng
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Evey considered it for a moment, and wondered whether she would be able to learn to juggle even though in the back of her mind she was going to ask Pila to teach her anyway. 'It would be so cool! I'll never get bored as long as I have three things to juggle with!'

Though slightly taken aback by the eyebrow comment, Evey was nonetheless ecstatic about being allowed to come back and hang out with the coolest person on this ship that she knew (while not thinking at all about how the only people she knows on the ship were Pila and that really nice guy who sat next to her)

"I'm starving. You wanna go get some grub?"

"Mmm..." Were the kitchen open this late? "Sure! I mean, they're still open, right?"
 
Pila Xiahou
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The fire-eater nodded her head in affirmation. "Yeah, they stay open late on nights when we have performances, both folks watching and folks performing tend to get hungry after a show."

She grinned and led Evey toward the main dining hall, going back through the double metal doors that led into the kitchen as if she owned the place. A little dark haired man was there, cooking at one of the massive stoves that were lined all along one wall. He was very small, dark-skinned with wide eyes and a kind smile. Pila waved at him and pulled Evey further into the kitchen.

"Miss Evergreen, this is my friend Emilio," she introduced the young woman to the cook. "Emilio, this is Miss Evergreen. We're both STARVING."

The small man grinned and nodded to both of the women. "What can I get ya then, Pila? Some more of those chocolate chip pancakes you like so much?"

The fire-eater grinned. "You know it! What would you like, Miss E? Emilio makes a wicked crepes susette..."
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