The spotlight shines on the center platform and there he is in all his wicked glory, Hisoka. The applause rings out and everyone's waiting with baited breath for the speech that they may have heard a million times before. Knowing him, Hisoka finds some subtle, bullshit way to make it new every time. "Ladies and gentlemen, we live in a dangerous world of many wretched horrors. Lions, beasts, snakes, bills! It all seems to never end, but now I present to you a young man with the strength to conquer at least three of those things, five times over - Gon, The world's youngest master hunter!"
A new day, a new dazzling performance. The rainbow lights are shining, the place is full to bursting with happy crowds and the lions, street peddlers and musicians can all go to hell. Hisoka can steal every part of him away but this performance will always be his time to shine.
He's already prepared when the spotlight flashes to him, standing on the side of the arena with a confident ear to ear grin. Fishing pole on his back, a plastic knife in a holster on his right side that he's never used, 'aesthetic' Hisoka said, and his embarrassingly tight outfit that the women behind him can't stop commenting on and makes it pretty clear that Hisoka is deriving some enjoyment out of all this too.
Near center stage, the caged up foxbear is set up by the clowns. Another spotlight comes down on it as well, it's fur is matting, bubbly drool drips down the chin, eyes are something wild, the cage is littered with claw marks. He lets out a fierce shout, something coming from the very depths of his belly and the crowd gasps.
The muttering never ends, 'is this okay', 'is this legal', 'how old is he, I'm worried'. A crowd member shouts for him to be careful and he flashes a tiny smile, giving the crowd a thumbs up. The poor thing isn't even rabid, its just hungry. The cage door lifts and its time once again for him to dive into the fray. He jumps to the ground and strides towards the center of the arena. The whole arena goes silent, only to scream in terror and fervor when the foxbear gallops out at full speed.
He pauses, furrows his eyebrows, pouts his lips together, tries to make it look at if he needs to try. This is all a bit too easy at this point, hell, with how exhausted the thing looks he could kill it with his bare hands if he wanted to but you have to make it look good for the crowd...
An arm's length away is all he has to jump up and grab a loose piece of skin to throw himself up into the air and onto its back. The foxbear shakes wild, its not feigned resistance and he has to grab all the right places to calm the creature down, though its more in pain then anything else. Gon pulls a patch of hair behind the right ear and guides him into a trot around the edges of the enclosure. The applause ascends and he stands, takes a bow and the cheers rise louder, not many know the ride is deceptively smooth if you know where to stand. But he knows, that's why he's so damned good at it.
He rides the foxbear to the cage, where he dismounts and pets it, feeding it a small treat - its the most the poor thing will get fed for quite some time. The animal comes to kneel, lick at his knees and feet and he rewards it with a soft petting over all those sore spots he made moments before. Some members of the audience let out a typical 'aww' at the sight of the tamed beast doing what it should be doing. He guides it back to the cage as the spotlight drifts away and gets into position, a few feet in front of where Hisoka stands, next the the bowl.
This is the worst part of the performance.
"As you can see, our dear boy can master the ferocity of the foxbear, but I'm sure you're thinking 'can he handle the salaciousness of the snake?!'" Hisoka points above, where at least five colorful snakes have made their temporary homes on the thin strings. That's a new one, someone usually just dumps them down in a huge bucket. The crowd 'oos' and 'ahs', still yet he can hear the objecting call, the doubts and fears of their patrons. That will end soon, in time.
The lines shake and the snakes drop down, one after the other, he catches them all on his shoulders and they wrap around him at once without hesitation. One wraps twice around his neck, he can feel his own pulse raise. The scales stick to his skin and his skin crawls in turn- this, is what its like being in Hisoka's line of sight. The crowd shrieks, they can't tell they're not poisonous and trained to not bite and, even more so, he's got the antidotes in case one of them turns out otherwise.
He handles them all easily, petting them in a v shape, starting from the tip of their snouts to the back of their heads. They calm and he guides them into the bowl, occasionally petting one back down, never raising his hand against them. The crowd watches in awe until he turns and gives the thumbs up again, then they give him a stunned applause. It's all simple animal control, in the end.
"Ah yes, even the snake too, comes to be charmed by the master hunter, but ladies and gentleman, we have a special treat for you tonight. For our final night in town, Gon, do not be lax in the presence of the lion!" Hisoka manages to both bow and point towards the opposite side of the arena, where a lion led by two struggling clowns enters the arena.
That's right, he almost forgot it was closing night.
It comes striding out with its teeth bared, mane alight with pride. Gon lowers his head in respect for the creature as the crowd chants his name, all signs of doubt either droned out or removed. His body drops to the ground and he stays low. This is the one act that is, honestly, dangerous. He walks slow towards the lion, the chants fall and fall until they're faded and all that's left is him and the predator.
There's a moment when the two lock eyes and there's an understanding, something going beyond mere hunter and prey but an honest moment of understanding. It roars, with all the strength its lungs could have, trapped in a cage and fed only the bare minimum. It's enough for the crowd - and then he dashes. The lion meets him head on and he slides underneath, he wins again.
He lifts the beast far over his head. Aside from the fact that the thing is damn near bone skinny, there's no tricks or fudging here, all of its pure skill - what little skill it takes to raise a starving lion over ones head anyway. He sets the creature down non to gently and puffs out his chest to the crowd to their screaming applause. He takes one last deep bow to the delight of the crowd, for the first time in not a long time flowers are thrown which he personally collects with a blown kiss to the crowd. Can't ignore the fans, after all.
"And that ladies and gentleman is the skill of a master hunter and with that, we leave you, good morning, good afternoon and good night!" Hisoka disappears in a puff of purple vapour and he walks away while the crowd cheers for an encore they'll never get.
The crowds dispersed into the night. Now came the time for bouncing his giant colorful ball out the empty lot, watching the clowns tear off their rainbow wigs and walk away for their smoke breaks and veering clear of the the spare hands while they clean the shit stained lion's cages. He didn't let the glowing joy and wackiness of the circus blind him to what kept the magic going.
He did, when he was nine and full of bright lights and stupid jokes, perfectly fine with his own ridiculous outfit of forest green booty shorts and cross laced up high boots that made him stand out from the rest of the performers. The strings of soft lights overhead, the cheering of the crowds and the repetitive drone of happy music made him feel so safe and at home. Walking out of the ring after a killer performance, covered in his own sweat and dirt to smell sugar covered funnel cakes and fried foods.
The Ringmaster would look down his nose at him with all the disdain of those 'jerk adults' make him feel so upset, so annoyed and tiny in this huge circus. He'd run off to go sulk or be sad on his own and like clockwork there Hisoka would be, with a wide cheshire grin and treats to flatter him with attention and compliments.
But he wasn't nine anymore, he long moved past that stage of having eyes too big for his face and into having to grow into his own underdeveloped body. Now his life was getting used to awkward long limbs and bumping his head on doorways. He knew it was wrong now, when Hisoka would find him and grab him in places he no longer felt clean no matter how hard he scrubbed.
He doesn't know when Hisoka stopped being the fun, edgy, cool adult that would give him candies when the other adults wouldn't, take him out for ice creams, spoil him rotten. One day he just started being the source of most of his terror in the time spent here. The first day he noticed the hint of flame, of darker, more intent decision in Hisoka's eyes wasn't any different then the last. When he would run up to meet the clown leader now he did his best avoid him, as best he could and, worse, it was becoming obvious.
He could only dodge the man for so long, but the moment he saw Hisoka he decided, that 'so long' could continue for a little while and left the stadium in favor of the empty lot, filled with flattened popcorn boxes and party favors. He headed towards the back of the empty lot, that's where their trailers were. His was wide and meant only for him where all the others, save the Ringleader and Hisoka, shared theirs with friends. It was tucked away a few feet away from Hisoka's, nothing he could do about that, thankfully he earned the right to lock the door.
Really, it was less 'earned' and more 'just assumed he could do that now' and if Hisoka figured out he was using that 'right' to avoid all non-public contact with him he didn't do anything about it. Hell, Gon wouldn't complain. Hisoka wasn't bothering him.
He approached his trailer, and there stood a blonde young man with wide silvery eyes, looking around. Must've been a tourist, all he had to do was tell the guy that they were packing up and leaving town tomorrow. The guy must've noticed him, because he made a light jog towards him and, wow he was skinny.
"Ah, Gon right? I saw your performance, not bad but, ah I'm sorry I'm new here, my manners have slipped - my name's Kurapika." He presented his hand without another word, and ugh- that hair and those eyes. He must get girls crawling all over him twenty four seven.
"Nice to meet ya." Gon took it, gave him a nice hearty shake. He seemed nice enough, had that charming princely smile and the typical 'proper kid' air about him. Which would be the last type of person he's expect to be here, of all places, slumming around with a bunch of circus freaks. "So, what exactly...do you do here?" Snake charmer, girl wooer, perhaps 'stereotypical attractive smart kid'.
"I'm going to be one of your new acrobats." Everything blew out of the water at once, this guy at least two heads shorter then him with not a visible sign of muscle was going to be in their circus.
"Oh, alright then." He didn't have much to say about that, except 'what the hell, this came out of nowhere' but that would be rude, wouldn't it?
"What's the matter?"
"I thought the clowns were the only ones who did the flipping around and stuff, is all?"
Kurapika just laughed and shook his head. "Ah, no. Those trapeze ropes at the top of your tent? Those are for me, I'm an aerial acrobat."