Putting Together A Circus Act (Open)

[Danerec]

TS: 13th Candlemark 2nd Cryxatum, Season of Summer
Era II of Celestine Mandate
Era XIV Post Fractum

Danerec and his assistant Carla stood outside the performer's tent. The former was a male half elf, dressed in worn brown breeches and an equally worn green shirt. He was of medium build, his syl'vyn blood clashing with his kemite to find an in between size. Carla was a human girl slender and kind of short, with chestnut hair. She wore modest clothes, like something the circus hands might wear, but was still fairly pretty.

Random sized crates were stacked everywhere, making a wide path between the tent for the performers and the tent where shows were put on. Danerec had cleared a few of the crates, moving them back to for a wider area within the path, almost circular. From the supply tent he had gathered two circular wooden targets and mounted them both on two wooden tripods, one leg longer than the other two to make them stand almost with the target flat to the front. Carla stood nearby and watched nervously. Months before Carla and Dane had been attacked by a crazed knife thrower, and Carla had suffered a wound. Danerec wasn't sure if it was healing that made her wait so long to come back, or the reluctance to have knives thrown at her again.

"So how's this gonna work?"

Carla rubbed her arm nervously next to Danerec as he held his throwing knife loosely in his right hand, narrowing his eyes as he judged the distance to the first target. The second target stood a foot behind him. Dropping his arm to his side, Danerec smiled at Carla as he described how the act would work.

"First, I begin standing here. My knives are in my belt, which I draw one at a time and throw at the opposite target."

"And where am I?" Carla cut in.

"You're standing off to the side, kinda like you are now. I'm not sure what you should do until later in the act when-"

"When you throw knives at me?" she asked.

"No, when I throw them around you. Now, after I finish throwing my knives, I do a forward roll. Maybe I can change that to a front handspring when I can do one correctly. I reach the opposite target, and face it. I grab one dagger at a time right handed, turning left and throwing at the second target, then continuing the turn to draw another one from the target. Sometimes I'll throw two, left and right hand. When I've thrown them all then, you come in."
Carla gulped and nodded.
"I'll gather the blades, and inform the crowd what I'm about to do. I'll perform a backwards roll as you step up in front of the target. When you're ready, you'll raise both arms. Not straight out like a 't,' but raised a bit higher. Then I'll throw 5 knives. The first is going under your right arm. The second will be under your left arm. The third and fourth will be above your shoulders, but well away from your head. The last will be above your head by three or four inches. Got it now?"

Carla nodded, and took a step back to watch. Danerec turned back towards the far target. It was well within throwing distance, and he had no fears about missing the target. Accuracy isn't what you're going for here though, it's consistency and precision. he thought. Taking a deep breath, Danerec dropped his hand to his knives around his waist, grabbing one on his left side with his right hand. Raising the hand above his shoulder, Danerec aimed and threw the blade at the target.

He had aimed at the third ring, low and to the right, and the dagger stuck into the wooden target exactly where he wanted it to. Dropping his right hand as soon as the first dagger had left it, Danerec drew another blade and let it fly, aiming towards the lower left of the third ring. he drew a third blade, but cursed when he saw that the second one had gone too far left, hitting the outside ring instead. Now why'd that happen? he thought as he threw the third knife towards the top of the target in the center. The blade sailed through the air, poking its tip into the wooden target three inches lower than he planned. Danerec was nonplussed. The dagger had hit the bullseye, but Danerec was aiming for a higher point on the target. There's no wind, he thought, stopping momentarily to see if he felt one on his face. Why am I off? Danerec checked the knives at his belt, and he realized the one he had just thrown was one of his newer ones. Oh...the crazy guy's knife. That would explain it, these ones were heavier. Better, but heavier.

"What's wrong?" Carla asked. Danerec realized that he had stopped throwing for a minute, and that Carla was watching him. "Wrong knives," he explained. "These three knives I have are weighted differently than my others. They're slightly heavier, and the weight's distributed to be thrown better than the others I have. I had to compensate for the weight in mine, but these three I can throw with less of a compensation. So pretty much I overthrew two of them, and didn't hit the mark that I wanted to." Danerec walked over to the target and took his three knives back. "I really should trade out my old ones for more like these. Until then though I've been keeping them in the back of my order. I guess they got moved up when I was practicing earlier." Carla nodded shakily, and Danerec remembered that he'd be throwing at her later. "Don't worry," he said, smiling. "I'll leave those three in my tent when we perform."

There's no need to tell her that these were the blades that were thrown at her, and the one that dropped too low into the bullseye was the one that hit her, he thought. Shaking his head as he rearranged his blades, Danerec tried not to look at Carla. If I ever find that guy...

[Danerec]

TS: 14th candlemark

Danerec threw a fifth dagger and hit dead on to the right point of the pentagram he had formed on the target. Paint chips dropped from around the tip of the blade, and Danerec grinned. Only took me hitting that spot ten times for it to chip the paint. Danerec dove and rolled forward, coming up onto his feet and taking a step towards the target. He turned the target slightly to an invisible audience, practicing how his show would go. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Carla dancing to pass the time.

Well, that's something she can do...as long as it doesn't draw attention away from the act...

Turning the target back to its original position, he drew a dagger right handed and spun around, raising his arm to be ready to throw as he did so. Slowing his spin long enough to focus on the far target and aim properly, he straightened his throwing arm, pushing out with his his forearm as his elbow unbent and popped up slightly. The dagger began to spin as it left his hand, making three and a half revolutions to drive it point-first into the wooden target.

Danerec continued to turn himself slightly before he saw the impact, catching it out of the corner of his eye. Grabbing a dagger with his left hand and his right, he turned back towards the far target, spinning left with the same side arm raised to throw.

Danerec wasn't as skilled throwing left handed as he was right, but not for lack of the ability to. Most of the time he only needed to use one hand, never needing to get throws in faster than someone else. The only time he'd squared off against another knife thrower was the crazy one in the ally whom he didn't even know. He didn't often practice with his left hand therefore, and thought it was about time that he did.

Slowing his turn when he faced the target Danerec aimed carefully and whipped his hand forward, the knife spinning gracefully towards the target. Just before the blade reached it, however, the point dipped down, and the dagger stuck at an angle. If that were a living target, I doubt that would have pierced too deep. he thought. Not to mention it being the difference between hitting a space between the armor and the armor...

He let fly the knife in his right hand, and continued turning left to grab more.

[Danerec]

TS: 15th candlemark

Danerec turned from the second target after drawing two from it, and let fly with both hands one after the other. He had stopped working on his act to practice throwing with his left hand for the past hour, turning and throwing with his left hand only. Carly had grown tired of dancing while off in her own world, and stopped to watch him throw. Her eyes distracted him often as his aim varied once in awhile and they seemed to grow three sizes bigger. He wasn't too worried about it, though. Danerec was shifting his targeted area, trying to get each one without needing a second throw. If I wait for a second throw to be accurate, I'll always need a first one to range my second off of...there'd be no growth there. I've gotta make this almost like instinct, he thought.

"How long have you been throwing, again?" Carly asked after Danerec missed the target completely trying to hit the upper right after a throw to the lower right. Danerec gave her a look as if to say, very funny! Moving across the area between the targets, Danerec retrieved his knives, then walked around back of the target to find the one that missed.

[Danerec]

TS: 18th candlemark

thwack!
thwack!
thwack!
thwack!

Danerec smiled as the last blade sank into the target where he wanted it to. The sun's rays were beginning to dim, but he could still see the the top of the bright orb of light slightly above the crate stacks. Carly had grown bored of watching Danerec throw dagger after dagger, and had gone home about an hour ago.

Pulling the daggers out of the target and replacing them on his belt, Danerec wondered how many more he'd have to throw before his aim improved. Probably quite a bit, he though.

Well, save that for another day. Danerec went into the performers tent to get some sleep.