Now the centerpiece of the lavish playroom, Adeline could have been any one of Dandy's impeccably crafted toys, remaining entirely motionless, waiting. She concentrated on the dark red of her fingernails, face cast downward, intent upon ignoring him until he sat down on the bench to pay attention. He had stopped beside a mirror against the wall, and while she could not see his face, she was quite aware of his eyes on her and his hands on his hips. Then he was strolling…. prowling, rather, towards the stage. She was aware of a glint out of the corner of her eye as she drew breath in her costume and the beads on her bodice sparkled in the glow of the stage's floor lights. In many a hurricane she had seen the way that tent canvases had of billowing and flapping, and by the sensation she now felt in her chest, she thought her lungs might have looked just the same should someone carve into her chest and cleave apart her ribcage. He had drawn nearer now. Still unable to make out much out of the corner of her eye save for general colors and outlines, Adeline was yet aware of his hands now in his pockets as he rocked back and forth on his heels a few times, watching her, seemingly in appraisal. After what seemed to Adeline an eternity, he moseyed over and turned about, seating himself on the bench. It was at this point that Adeline slowly turned her head to face forward and reward him with attention. With a gracious smile and a flutter of her eyelashes, Adeline raised her knees to carefully lift the balls of her feet inside the gold scalloped lip by the lighting and place them on the stage floor in front of her, pushing off to stand upright with practiced fluidity. She was frightfully unnerved. He was terribly, leathally handsome for such a brat. He had been awful to his poor mother in the few short moments she had observed of them together, and she should have been disgusted by that behavior, but she found herself wondering exactly how wonderful he smelled and how soft his cashmere sweater vest would feel against her cheek. She spun, walking the few paces to duck behind the curtain and crouch by her record player.
Dandy had his doubts, at first, that she was real. She hadn't moved at all, it seemed, since he and mother had entered the room. And now that mother was finally gone, he could examine his new playmate. Drawing nearer, he took in every detail. Her ghostly skin looked to him like a doll's…and he couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from her perfectly painted pleasantly plump mouth. Such exquisite potential. She had to be real. Her chest was heaving slightly and was she…trembling? How delightful. He sensed that the atmosphere in the playroom was entirely changed. It was not simply the slight rearrangement of the layout, which had not gone unnoticed, and with which he was mildly irritated, but the palpable change in the charge in the air itself. She fit in perfectly with his collection. Where had mother found such a creature? Certainly not at that wretched Freak Show. Mother had said she was going to entertain him. Could it be possible that she was...herself…some kind of freak? Or…a thespian? Dandy had the impression that she was waiting for something. She certainly looked ready to perform. He decided to play along and let her attend to his boredom….if she had any other function than simply looking like something he would readily, permanently possess.
Adeline carefully placed the record, noting the label to be sure it was the correct one.
"No. 13 V Pas d'action - Second Dance of the Queen (Andante) – Swan Lake"
She had ten seconds before the track would begin, so she ducked, elegantly, back out onto the stage and avoided Dandy's gaze, kneeling carefully in the center of the stage arc, sitting back on her heels. She breathed in and out a few times, clearing her mind of any lustful thoughts that might have been creeping up in the pit of her belly. She put her hands together in a prayerful pose, tipping them, and her arms, down and to the side so she could lean forward and place her cheek upon them, pretending to have fallen asleep. Then she waited.
This performance was once carefully choreographed under the guidance of her mother, which they had worked on, modified, and perfected over the years, but which she would now alter on her own once again, based on the response she received. She did, after all, have a single audience member. It was an obvious choice, given her deformity. A variation on the Swan Lake story from which the composition came, it depicted Adeline as an adaptation on Princess Odette, awakening to have found herself turned into a "swan," much to her surprise. The feathers she used in tandem with the prominent display of her deformity to suggest those characteristics of a real swan. Her hands were not meant to be noticed by the audience until she herself noticed them, and thus were cleverly disguised in her movements until the moment of revelation. The choreography was designed to be excruciatingly slow, and thus it was not a performance she was always able to give in a packed tent of individuals hoping to experience a lot of action and excitement as part of a ten in one or a complete circus lineup. She was pleased to be able to present it once again.
Dandy had watched with rapt attention…she certainly behaved professionally. Her movements on the stage were practiced, intentional, and fluid. And he couldn't help but smirk, watching the sway of her hips and her bottom in that remarkable costume as she turned away from him. He couldn't remember seeing beadwork like that outside a professional theatre company.
When her music began, Adeline slowly raised her head as though she were awakening, and while she made eye contact with Dandy when she blinked several times, facing forward, she did not acknowledge him in character. She simply raised her hands, balled now in fists, up to her face, partially covering her mouth when she theatrically yawned, raising her fists upward in a languid stretch as she pushed them straight upwards and slowly arced them back down to her sides. She leaned forward and stretched her fists out in front of her, dipping them low, in front of her knees, then spread her fingers out, out of sight. She opened her eyes wide in alarm, looking down at her still obscured hands, and looked up, directly at Dandy, her dark red mouth dropping open in shock.
Dandy suppressed the urge to grin at her and settled for a hint of a smile instead. How charming she was! Cheeky thing. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs and his chin on his hands.
Then she splayed her fingers apart as far as they would stretch and raised her hands in slow, deliberate display, the look on her face one to suggest to him tremendous surprise on her part, as though she had not been looking at this same deformity all her life. Dandy thought his heart would stop. A freak! She rotated her wrists, peering at them from different directions, and then with her first finger and thumb, pinched the webbing between the same digits on her opposite hand, making a show of pulling at the webbing as though challenging its existence. He gulped, his own fingers twitching. He felt himself beginning to perspire. She may as well have been tugging elsewhere, on him, for all the embarrassing the effect it was having. Wicked, naughty thing.
She retained her look of dismay, improvising now with the lights on the stage, holding her hands out directly over two of the lights in front of her, illuminating the webbing so that the delicate skin glowed pink between her fingers. Dandy studied her with heady fascination. He wondered how soft and delicate her webbing might be, what it might feel like to sit with her here on the bench and run his fingers over every single available place on the surface of her hands. She examined them further in character, alternating with different movements and angles of examination, seemingly adjusting to her newfound state. She rolled her hands from wrists to fingers, taking a bit of joy in the elegant movement she created, like wings flapping. Then she acted inspired, as though she'd had a sudden thought. When the composition shifted from harp as the focal point, to solo violin, she turned to look over her right shoulder, hands still up, and drew Dandy's attention, by shifting hers, to the shadows cast on the curtain behind her. She proceeded then to move her hands about in a kind of strange puppet show, alternating and varying her slow, graceful movements to create interesting shapes. Dandy was delighted with her cleverness. A puppet show! How adorable! Projected and magnified, her hands were quite the spectacle, but she conducted their action in such a fashion as to suggest they were to be admired, not gawked at. When the wind instruments came in over the phonograph, Adeline peered down by her sides, seeming now to have only just noticed her feather fans. She reached up and pulled the single pin from her hair, shaking out her voluminous pin curl waves, and Dandy wondered then what that beautiful russet color would look like against the stark white of his silk pillowcases. Her mouth dropped open again, this time in a wide, excited smile, and she met Dandy's eyes once again, raising her eyebrows once, briefly. How he'd like to put her on his lap and squeeze her until she giggled. Or until she gasped and pleaded with him, he couldn't decide. She dropped the pin discreetly to the stage, reminding herself to pick it up later. She reached carefully down to pinch the fans in each hand, spreading her fingers out along the gilded grip section. When the violin returned again, Adeline raised her feather fans, first sweeping the right in front of her face, and then the left, keeping her tempo slow despite the increase of such in the music. As much as her movements were practiced and fluid, she also portrayed a character delighted at having discovered newfound swan wings, which translated in the way she chose to move the fans through the air above and beside her. Dandy was entirely enchanted. He wondered what it might feel like for those feathers to run across his bare skin. Would that saucy little smile appear on her face again, in that moment? When the wind instruments returned again, Adeline raised herself up from her kneeling position, spinning carefully on the ball of one foot, her other leg extended out, toes pointed, as she floated the fans around her with an ethereal quality accentuated by the shadows behind her. The strings returned again, and Adeline began the slow, sensuous movement of the fans in varied directions, a poetic, dreamlike quality to the way she lost herself in her props, accepting them as an extension of herself. Her movements on her feet were balletic, emphasizing slow grace. When the music changed again, the strings and the wind instruments conversed with one another back and forth, and Adeline took this opportunity to play upon her character once more, raising up onto her feet and pulling her fans back behind her to suggest tail feathers, flipping them about in different directions, holding them there for several moments in between, wiggling coquettishly with a hooded, sly glance every now and then over at Dandy. When the music concluded, Adeline lowered herself to the floor again, covering herself with the fans as if folding herself up to sleep beneath her wings. Dandy's mind was racing. How could she be so innocent seeming and alluring at once? And for how long had mother procured her?
All that could be heard was the crackling of the phonograph, and Adeline hopped up again, thinking perhaps she had heard no applause because Dandy was aware she was not yet finished. In reality, he was stunned. He had absorbed as much as he might when she had been in the midst of her performance, and now that she had finished, he was baffled by what he'd seen, here in his very own playroom. Mother wasn't entirely useless, it was now apparent. But he was furious and frustrated that the performance was over. Or was it?
She dropped her fans and switched the record, to one of more up-tempo, traditional circus act pieces, aware of her similar time delay and, snatching up her hoop, hurried down the stairs and out the stage door. As she closed the door, she flipped on the lights by the wall, illuminating the half of the room she and Dandy were in. Adeline did her best not to look directly at Dandy, neither wishing to break her concentration or indicate to him that she found him completely disarming.
Directly in front of him, Dandy couldn't decide where on the girl to look first. Her flawless, freakish hands, the breathtaking symmetric perfection of her uncommonly beautiful face, her fair, unblemished skin, her little red painted toes…. could they webbed too? He satisfied himself by taking in the entirety of her curvaceous shape in her hypnotic costume. It must have been tailored just for her. Did she have others? She must have others.
As her music began, Adeline immediately started to spin the hoop around her right wrist, working up her speed as she worked it down her arm towards her elbow. She threaded her other arm through and spun the hoop faster to gradually move it past her shoulders and chest, down around her waist. She rotated her body slowly as she spun the hoop, aware of the fluid, slightly carnal rolling of her hips and shoulders, and by extension her chest, which she generally attempted not to incorporate into her act. Dandy felt a familiar dampness in his spine, the familiar sensation of sweat beading beneath his shirt. She had far too much power. He was torn between admiration of her supreme talent and anger at her for her effortless ability to have such a profound effect on him. The alternating clatter and arc of her beads as she spun was one of the only sounds in the room. The other was Dandy's intense, labored breathing, of which he was not even slightly aware. In those moments when she did manage to look over at him, she was shocked to encounter a stare so carnal and intense she was surprised her knees had not gone weak. She let her hoop rotate around her hips above the swell of her bottom for far longer than usual, then she gradually worked it down her thighs, spinning he hoop on one thigh as she pulled up her knee and lifted her other leg through, gripping her ankle with her right hand and pulling it upwards to stretch it up by her ear. She released her leg, slowly lowering it behind her. She placed her right foot down behind where the hoop spun, for balance, as she lifted her left leg and rotated the hoop down until she was spinning it on the ankle of her outstretched leg. With a pointed toe, she tossed it up to her left hand, catching it expertly as she positioned it in both hands, spinning on one foot as she lifted her other leg up, bending her knee to steer clear of the hoop's orbit and position her toes inches from the back of her head as she spun several times in place on the ball of her foot. Dandy was absolutely entranced. His imagination was concocting fragmented scenarios inspired by her varied positioning, and he was becoming overwhelmed. Adeline tipped herself forward and hooked the hoop onto her left ankle as she lifted it, placing both hands on the floor in front of her, slowly falling into a horizontal split, legs parallel to the bench as she spun the hoop. She stepped forward with her leading foot, out, and through the split, catching the hoop around her waist with her hands, pulling it upwards, catching the ankle of her back leg inside so she could use the hoop to draw her leg up to her ear. Placing her wrists on opposite inner sides of the hoop, she tipped diagonally forward, rolling the ball of her other foot so she could spin through, stepping out to leave the hoop spinning on one extended wrist. She diverted to some of her more basic tricks, several different artful spins on the balls of her feet while rotating the hoop on a wrist above her head, a toss of the hoop in the air and a roll forward onto the floor culminating in a catch of the hoop on her ankle. Against her better judgment, she remained on the floor. Not terribly useful on stage where she needed to be seen by an audience, Adeline practiced quite a bit on her back to keep her legs limber. She couldn't resist the temptation to look up at Dandy from his position above her and widen her eyes, occasionally granting him several seconds of intense eye contact. She hadn't realized that her lips were slightly parted, her neck tipped back. She spun the hoop on her left ankle, toes pointed, the cold marble of the playroom floor pleasant on her upper back and shoulders. She slowly arched her back, drawing her chest upwards and balancing on her tailbone and the top of her shoulders. Her hair pooled out on the floor around her face, she avoided it when she placed her palms back beside her head, pushing off to raise her bottom and her back off the floor, rising up slowly into a handstand, bending one leg artfully to keep out of the way of the hoop. She separated her legs again, falling into another horizontal split, which she stepped out of, extending the ankle around which the hoop fell so she could start it moving again. She stepped the other foot into the same hoop and began her full body spins again, this time raising the hoop upwards instead of lowering it. As she worked it gradually up her thighs, Adeline improvised. She spread her fingers out again and crossed her hands over one another, running her first fingers and accompanying webbing along her jawline, crossing them over again as she stroked her fingers down her neck, dragging her fingertips over her throat, then down along her collarbones towards her chest, stopping when the heels of her hands reached the top of her bust. By now she'd raised the hoop up around her lower hips, the steady clicking of her costume's beads against the hoop quite audible as she spun faster and faster, winding her core around in circles. She raised her arms up, extending them as far as possible and crossing her wrists, placing her hands palm to palm. She worked the hoop higher. Utilizing mostly her ribs and shoulders, she spun the hoop directly beneath her bust, allowing it to linger and draw attention for a bit, maintaining the roll in her hips all the same. She worked the hoop up her shoulders and arms, allowing it to spin a bit before she dropped one hand and stopped the hoop with the other, gripping it in her left hand to roll it backwards on the floor behind her as she tipped forward, snatching up the hoop with her ankle as she rose the leg upward into a vertical split, her legs a perfect, straight line as she spun the hoop around her foot. As she had for Elsa and the troupe, she pulled her hands back and spread her fingers, flapping her arms slowly like wings. She spun the hoop a while longer, then tossed it forward, catching it in one of her hands. She spun around and faced Dandy, crossing one leg far behind the other as she dipped forward in her bow, drawing her arms out once again like wings, beside her this time, flipping her wrists at the end in flourish.
She heard the enthusiastic applause before she raised her head, and surprisingly, for the first time during their exchange, Adeline blushed. Trained as she had been in stage presence, and drilled in the finer points of shrugging off nerves and apprehension, now that the performance itself had ended, Adeline felt ill equipped to confront whatever had happened during the course of her brief display. That unsettling look on his face…Adeline's exposure to big cats had been extensive….and she could not help but be reminded of those cats she had encountered who had not had the fortune of being raised with discipline and structure. Spoiled, impulsive, vicious animals. She was reminded of a black leopard. The scratching of the needle against her finished record was a welcome excuse and Adeline pointed in the direction of the record player to suggest she was going to address the problem. She hurried off back stage.
Dandy had endured quite enough of her narcotic magnetism without the privlidge of engaging her. Silently, he rose, and, reveling in the prospect, he stood in the stage doorway, out of sight. Thinking she was keeping her host waiting, Adeline discarded her hoop and switched off the record player, turning to rush down back down the stage steps, nearly running right into Dandy. She stopped short, nearly toppling over backwards, and her right hand, webbing exposed through stretched fingers, flew to her heart in tandem with her frightened, audible gasp. Dandy smiled slyly, briefly, for just a moment, thinking if she were his plaything and this exchange a game how he'd like to snatch up both of her wrists and put pressure on them as he gently grasped her blood red bottom lip with his teeth and slowly applied pressure until she yielded with a breathy, desperate whimper.
Instead, he smiled his most charming, cordial smile and, leaning his raised forearm against the doorframe, purred at her "You….are mesmerizing."