[open] Magic in the Park

[fucking_ebay]

It doesn't take much to make a street show. Peter's not completely incapable of investing his money in things other than takeaway and booze, so by now he's picked up a few props. There are the usual decks of cards, homemade trick coins, and so forth. Compared to the pyrotechnics and trap doors of his Vegas show, his erratic set-up in Central Park is depressingly simple. There's no story to it, no real glamor, just a skinny man in a cheap winter coat doing parlor magic for whatever people will drop in his hat. It's humiliating, if he's honest with himself, which is one of the reasons he so very rarely is. It's this or live on only the piddling allowance given him by the rebels, though (the third option, that he get an actual job, is entirely laughable), so he's out here several times each week. Today he's having a hard time of it, so lookers-on who don't pay are even less welcome than usual.

"Oi! You in back!" He's just done a rather impressive bit with a borrowed Rolex (whose owner is rather relieved that it is not smashed to pieces after all), but has noticed someone hanging back and watching without coming within paying range, which is just not on. "Get your cheap arse over here; you're next!"