2024-12-08 - No Glitter

A fire is lit in the fireplace since it's chilly out and it makes the living area warm and comfortable. There's a layer of snow out on the fenced-in patio behind the apartment and a few flurries slowly falling outside the glass doors. Having the day off, Rigel's been cleaning the apartment and is currently putting away the last of the dishes. He's dressed in a pair of comfortable loose linen pants in a dark green and a tank top, his hair pulled back, the top of it twisted into a knot at the back of his head. He's humming some music from their show as he closes the cabinet of glasses.

Days off are relaxing! Unless you're Nova today who has decided that she is going to instead obsess about the broken prop she took to get fixed yesterday. It was fixed, there's no doubt about that at all, but because it broke she's now been messing around with it all afternoon to reassure herself that it's not going to break again in the middle of their act.

Spoiler: It won't.

But that doesn't seem to prevent her from flourishing the little walking stick over and over to make the bouquet pop out of it. The prop looking more like it'd be at home in a magicians set than a jesters.

Rigel glances over toward Nova as she pops the little bouquet out of the stick for the umpteenth time and smirks, "You know if you keep doing that, you will eventually break it again." With the dishes done, he grabs up the dishcloths and towels and throws them in a hamper of laundry sitting by the door to take down to the laundromat later.

Then he makes his way into the living room to pick up a few things, putting them back where they belong. There are afternoons where he can't sit still when it's a day off and has to simply keep moving, like a shark. Today is one of those days where he hasn't really sit down since he got up, just moving from one task to another.

"I just want to make sure that it's going to work like it is supposed to work." Nova points out with a quick amused smirk, the stick being lifted up in a salute before she sweeps a bow to her brother as he moves through the living room. Then when she straightens she tosses the stick onto the couch, following it shortly after to sprawl out and watch as he moves around from task to task without any actual worry that he hasn't stopped moving.

After a little while she does throw a bone out, though, "I saw there was a movie on that you'd mentioned wanting to see. We could grab something to eat, watch the movie, then go do laundry tonight when hopefully it's empty of most people."

There's not really too much to worry about. He'll stop when he runs out of things to do or whatever possessed him to start doing them all runs out -- one or the other. But when she mentions the movie he glances over at the clock on the microwave in the kitchen and then toward the windows as though mentally doing the math regarding how much time it would take to watch a movie and eat before going to the laundry.

He nods in agreement and says, "I don't want to go until late. It's better when it's not crowded." Which means that there's plenty of time for dinner and a movie. Then there's a look back to the kitchen that he just cleaned. "Want to order something?" Because the idea of cooking is not appealing to him at the moment.

The kitchen was just cleaned....what monster would want to make it dirty again? Not Nova. She's far too kind for that. At least, in this. So the suggestion of ordering something is greeted with an agreeable nod, "We could...but that means we're going to need to figure out what, and agree on it. I'm not ordering from two different places....that's silly."

It hasn't stopped her from ordering from two places before. But today? Today is nonsense. So she reaches for her phone, ready for the ordering part, "What are you in the mood for?"

"Chinese," Rigel says. "Chicken lo mein, two spring rolls, and crab rangoon."

He then begins to wander back toward the bedrooms to collect the laundry bags from the other hampers to set them by the door for later. "Or if you don't want Chinese, you pick and I'll give you a different order," he calls out as he vanishes into the other rooms for a moment and returns, setting the laundry by the door, ready to go.

"Chinese is fine." It saves her from having to come up with any other options, after all. So she unlocks her phone to go about placing the order while he's gathering up the laundry from the other rooms and ferrying it to the door. When she's done placing the order she resumes her lounge on the couch, but keeps the phone close, "They said it'd be about twenty minutes."

She then points towards where the remote is, way, way over there out of her reach. "Have you thought about any changes to be made for the winter season in the act?"

Once all the laundry is sorted, he wanders off to wash his hands and then makes his way to the living room. There's a quick stop to grab the remote which he tosses to her as he makes his way over to the couch and sprawls comfortably on it. "I have been testing out the new Jack Frost style costume that wardrobe has come up with for the winter season and I have done some work with the contact juggling snow globes. I'll be working those into the act some, as well as some small special effects for creating bursts of frost and the like."

When the remote is tossed in her direction she catches it, turning her attention towards the television to turn on and search for where the movie is streaming. It's not that she's not listening to what he's saying, just that she's focused for the time being on what she's doing so that she doesn't respond to him right away. After putting the movie on to play, adjusting the volume and setting the remote to the side she glances over at him, "Jack Frost, huh? How very seasonally spirited of you. How're you going to make with the bursts of frost and the like? Without glitter....please, no glitter."

"That's the idea," Rigel says with a low chuckle. "Illusion," he says when she mentions the bursts of frost. "No actual glitter will be used in the forming of these special effects." He lifts one hand and then flicks a spray of frost from his fingertips that dances through the air for a few seconds and then vanishes again with nary a drop of glitter or condensation on the furniture.

"So for a little while, I can do a bit of frosty frivolity around the regular act for the winter celebration season. What about you?"

Nova shakes her head at the question, "None so far for me...I'll just swap out for blues and whites and call it a day." She doesn't seem overly worried that she's not being as in theme as others around the park might be. Maybe she can't think of a silly fun idea for the holiday? "I like the idea of the illusion, though....and the no glitter."

No glitter is important because glitter gets everywhere and never really goes away.

"Lazy," Rigel says with a sidelong grin over at her when she says she's just going to swap out colors and call it a day.

"I'm well aware of your aversion to all things glitter," Rigel says. Not that he has any great love of glitter, himself. "I'll work on some other illusions to go along with it, some for the night shows, and some for the early shows for the kids."

He doesn't seem worried about it. Ever since they came to the park, his illusions developed rapidly from brief little things to much more elaborate displays that lasted longer from time to time, and they became easier and easier to do.

There's a bit of a bemused smile at the tease, but she doesn't argue with him about it. Instead, all she points out is, "Butterflies are not meant for the cold weather."

Then she lapses into silence, watching the start of the movie play out for a few moments before she makes a few suggestions, "More snow....Maybe a little parasol with snow falling from it during the day? Glints and glitters of light or something." She reaches over for the remote, picking it up to turn the volume down just a little, "Not sure what else there could be."

"Neither are hummingbirds," Rigel points out, "But we are here now, performing in Michigan instead of Nevada, so we adapt."

"Perhaps," he says to the additional suggestions. "The sound of sleigh bells, the smell of peppermint, or pine, or a crackling fire, perhaps some of santa's elves running around, or an animated snowman of some sort.."

But then he falls quiet to just watch the movie as it begins, his attention drifting toward the screen as he finally relaxes for the first time today.