A Fishy Business

[adeckfullofcards]

Running away to a circus just wasn't really an option any more. Cirque De Soliel and all those Vegas-style shows certainly weren't made for amateurs. However, there were other, less glamorous options.

Le’Rogue Revue was one of them.

It was fashioned after the old shows of vaudeville, with a kicker: it was mostly about burlesque. Attractive men, women, and well, just about whatever else there was in this big old world was welcome to display themselves and their talents to the world. Any act would do, so long as it kept with the overall theme: sensual entertainment.

That didn't mean, of course, one had to do anything off the wall. Bianca didn’t like a gaudy display, and since she was the owner, she called the shots. Really it was more about fun than anything else. The performers were happy people, a collection of outcasts and people who preferred to be strangers in strange lands (or counties, at least).

The set up was usually a small, dive sort of place, decorated to the nines once the group made its way in there, replacing any curtain their own sumptuous red velvet. They always brought a little bit of class to a place, even if it wasn't the classiest place (which is never was).

Currently there were a handful of performers, including: one woman who did a tantalizing strip tease while swinging from rope to silken rope, a wall of man who could flex and cause a crowd of women to swoon, and a rather petite (more than petite) a child-like woman who could sing and dance and tell a joke from here to hell.

At the moment, the three mentioned were getting ready back stage, three other acts had already gone on. Only last week they'd lost their mermaid, well, she'd considered herself a mermaid anyway, Andrea, who decided she wanted to stop traveling and get married. The show lost not only a show stopping act, but also a crew chief that had been working with them for years. The crew chief was easier to replace than a mermaid, who had also left behind a 5,000 gallon tank that traveled with them, but that no one else could use. Andrea's departure had left a hole in the group, but there had been rumors that Bianca had hired some unusual fare to replace Andrea.

“Do you think it’s another mermaid?” Paul, the strong man said, as he admired his well oiled physique.

“Maybe, I mean, who else is gonna use that thing? She’s gotta hire someone to use it. That or she’ll sell it and try to make up the difference in some new act.” Tina, the rope dancer shrugged as she finished applying her lipstick.

A brassy voice sounded from behind a lacy black privacy screen. “It was silly to spend all that money on that thing anyway, if you ask me. Could have gotten her a kiddie pool for cheaper and let her flip her tail around in that, least then we wouldn’t be stuck with the thing.” The other two gave a slight laugh and finished getting ready. Tina was the next act up and so she was out the door with a wave her costume, a mix of colored silk scarves, flowing behind her as she left leaving the dressing room to the last two.

Comments

[adeckfullofcards]

Mary stared at him a moment. "Was starting to think you were a weirdo with a mask fetish." Mary laughed. "The hands were pretty much a dead give away. Then again, I guess most people don't have the same angle on the situation that I do." She moved to start out of the dressing room, closing the door behind him and heading up a side stairwell. "Glad to finally meet you face to face, Abe."

[bprd_fishman]

Well, that was pleasingly anticlimactic. Perhaps he'd found a kindred spirit after all. Abe followed her up the stairs, smiling in a way that couldn't reach his face.

"The same to you, Mary. I appreciate your hospitality, it's been...a very long week and I'm still very unsure of my place in it."

[adeckfullofcards]

"I bet." Mary said, she'd chosen a room at the end of the hall. "What with all the press and what not. I'm surprised you didn't have the big red guy with you." Yup, she'd watched the news, it was most likely one of the reasons Bianca had hired him, and then of course he'd gone and wore the mask.

"Is he a ham? He seems like he would need to show off. I never really got why guys like that needed to show off. Guess it can't be easy to mix into the crowd though. Guess it's better to give them what they want in the end." Not that most people were nice about it.

"Did Bianca give you a room yet or will you be hanging out in the tank mostly?" Mary unlocked her door and invited him in. The apartment was small and sparsely furnished with only a coffee table, a small kitchen, and a back bedroom. Mary had chosen to put some brightly colored pillows on the floor for sitting, but other than that the place was devoid of much color or personality. The smell, however, coming from the crock pot in the kitchen, was amazing. The air was filled with the smell of pot roast that had been cooking for hours.

[bprd_fishman]

"Hellboy and I have parted ways--not in an argument, we're just spending some time in different places." He needed to cope with matters, and Hellboy needed to arrange for his children. They did stay in touch via cell phone and matters seemed to be going well so far...though Abe did admit to some concern over the mixing of the bloodlines and the effect on the childrens' health. "He's not so much a show-off as completely uninterested in what others think of him. One might call it confidence or rudeness, I find it to be somewhat in between."

Abe wasn't a big fan of meat but the smell of the pot roast made him salivate. His hand automatically pressed to the wall of the apartment, seeking out its past and the past of its owner. "The tank, I believe. I'm more comfortable there."

[adeckfullofcards]

Mary nodded. "Must be hard, dealing with the human world all of a sudden like that, I mean, I assume since no one had caught you guys before that you didn't live in the suburbs." Mary pulled a step stool out so she could be level with the counter as she checked on her pot roast and threw in some extra spices and threw in some potatoes.

"Go ahead and have a seat anywhere. This will be ready soon." Mary stepped off toe stool and moved to the fridge to figure out what she had to drink. "I'm not one to judge. He saved all those people, despite them not being appreciative, but then, people rarely are." The apartment had changed over many hands in all the years it was in use, the longest resident was a pair of women who had died here within days of each other, not able to cope with the world without each other.

"I totally forgot to ask if you were ok with meat. I know some people aren't. I could always throw something else together. This will keep." She wondered if he was a vegan or something, would a fish man eat fish? It was a conundrum that almost made her laugh.

[bprd_fishman]

"I'm omnivorous, though I usually default vegetarian. Pot roast is perfectly fine." He attempted to look excited about the meal, fingers wiggling slightly as he sat. "I appreciate your hospitality. It's been difficult for me these past few days, I'm not used to functioning in...well, in regular society."

[adeckfullofcards]

"Well, I'll keep that in mind for next time. God, think if I'd had fish on the menu." Mary laughed nervously, she sat the last of the veggies to stew in the pot and then moved to sit with him.

"But then fish eat fish in the ocean anyway, so I guess it wouldn't have been that bad." Mary shrugged. "I understand. I was very sheltered too, for a long time." Her size could be enough of an explanation for that.

[bprd_fishman]

Yes, I know. I can read you. I know your name, your parents' names, I know what you have been through and I judge you for none of it...

But he couldn't say that out loud. Humans got scared when they couldn't keep their secrets locked away behind their skin. As in many things, Abe had long learned to keep his mouth shut.

"It's amazing, what unexpected difficulties you find once you're out in the world," he said, folding his hands into his lap. "Choice is a gift but it's also quite a burden, even on small things on what you're going to have for your next meal." And how you'll get it in the first place.

[adeckfullofcards]

Parents names would contain only one name and a vague imagining of what a father would have, could have, been. It was obvious Mary was a very secretive person.

Mary nodded solemnly. "I understand that. I was sort of kept inside a lot when I was younger. My mom didn't think the world was a very safe place." It wasn't, but that was really no excuse to keep her away from people.

"When I first left home it was really hard. It does get easier though. You're lucky to have come here. The people are nice and understanding. I bet you anything if you didn't wear your mask in front of them they wouldn't care." And if they did? They'd have to get used to it. He was part of the family now.

[bprd_fishman]

"I know. It's just that I've spent so much of my life being told that I could not be accepted as I am, and I think some of it's still with me. It does help to have someone who already knows the path."

He wished he could smile. It would make communication so much easier.

[adeckfullofcards]

Mary could definitely relate to that feeling. She smiled enough for both of them at the moment and nodded.

"People always say that, especially when they want to keep you from other people." Her mother had said it was for her own good, but Mary had a feeling her mother simply didn't like being upstaged.

"But you're out here now. Eventually people will have to accept you." Whether they like it or not. There was no way around it.

[bprd_fishman]

"Will they?" He didn't sound sure about it. Abe's hands flopped over each other, unsure where to move. He was only saved by the finalization of the stew on the stove next to him.

"I believe we're ready to eat?"

[adeckfullofcards]

"Will they, won't they," Mary shrugged. "Either way you're here now. People can either get used to you or get out. But that's just my way of thinking. You live in this world too and people have to accept that." She sniffed the air and nodded. The tiny woman moved back into the kitchen to fill bowls with the soup, giving Abe more vegetables than meat.

"I'm always ready to eat. When I have an oven I bake all the time."