Tags: Riven, LeBlanc
The tanned bunny Vastayan takes another long drawn-out drag on her almost spent cigarette and then slowly exhales the smoke through her nostrils. Melancholic maroon-colored eyes staring across the small nests of wandering pedestrians down below her vantage point on the decrepit balcony of the old Magix theater.
"Why are you staring at them?" A familiar feminine voice questions as the white-haired bunny Vastayan crushes the burning butt of her cigarette against the rusty railing of the balcony and then lets gravity send the small object plummet down a filthy dark alley.
"I am just trying to guess how many drunkards are gonna show up at your next breathtaking performance." Riven jokes as she grabs a wrinkled red bowtie from inside her pocket and proceeds to attach it around her tanned neck. Riven really despised that stupid thing since it made her look like an escort that's fishing for a client. The theater's patrons would also mistake her for one too…
Not that it mattered really, of course, the snow bunny's current skimpy outfit would earn her enough tips as it was, but adding a few slutty details and overselling the whole 'sexy bunny' theme wouldn't hurt LeBlanc's show.
"You mean our performance," Evaine LeBlanc shows her partner a mirthless fake smirk, and Riven flips her the bird as she silently follows the stage magician to the main room downstairs.
"No, you are the Magnificent LeBlanc," The bunny Vastayan states, irony thick in her voice. "I'm just the eye candy, Evaine."
The black-haired stage performer pauses in front of the big purple curtain that's separating the two rivals from the crowd. Evaine straightens the crinkles on her faded outfit and checks that every and each one of her playing cards, trick coins and handkerchiefs are all in the right place, before nodding at her stage partner.
"Then start acting like an eye candy and learn to use your mouth less, Miss assistant." The stage magician growls while putting a friendly smile on her crimson lips.
"But of course... as soon as you manage to make your horrible manners disappear." Riven readily replies in a faint whisper as she lightly grabs the dark purple curtain determinedly.
"And nooow, Ladies and Gentlemeeen! It is time for what you've all been waiting for!" A loud voice bellows from the other side of the soft purple barrier.
"A harlot in high heels that's wearing buckets of mascara." Lowly interjects the tanned bunny Vastayan under her breath.
"An animal dressed as a broke second-rate stripper." Quickly responds to her, Evaine, also in a slight whisper.
"Please, welcome the Magnificent Evaine LeBlaaaanc and her beautiful assistant Riven!"
The two performers grasp each other's hands and simultaneously pull the curtain away revealing their smiling visages at the seated spectators. The gathered crowd of less than twenty snoozing or semi-inebriated people welcome them with a short wave of lukewarm clapping and a lecherous comment or two about the duo's seductive appearance. The plastic smiles plastered on the performers' lips remain there like strips of old paint on a poorly sanded wooden surface. The show has to go on.
QQQQ
"Today was a disaster..." Riven mutters as she lies down on the creaky naked mattress next to LeBlanc. The black-haired stage magician nodding in agreement as she turns off a dusty lamp that's almost as battered and nondescript as the tiny apartment the two of them share in a rundown concrete three floor building downtown.
"This whole week has been a disaster." Evaine corrects the bunny Vastayan, pressing her back against that of the other woman for warmth while trying to fend off the cold with her half end of her thin ratty blanket.
"Did that old wanker Kled even pay us this time?" Riven wonders out aloud between shivers as she also wraps her share of the blanket around her quivering tanned frame, the warmth radiating off Evaine's back the only respite the bunny Vastayan can afford from the chill winds that are entering from the broken bedroom window.
"Yes, the sleazy fuck pompously tossed a few low-currency bills my way, and even made it look as if he was making me a favor." The frowning ravenette mutters in clear distaste. Riven feels Evaine's back reverberating with each angry word. "He also had the gall to propose a new act where I would be making out with you on stage after each trick, in order to gather more patrons, as he put it."
The bunny Vastayan snorts at the absurdity of the weird suggestion. Evaine herself chuckles in the dark for a moment or two. A few seconds later when their breathings subdue, the white-haired female half-turns towards Evaine in order to glance the entertainer's way with one open maroon-colored eye.
"I'm pretty sure Kled is just trying to turn our magic performances into adult shows without us noticing. Remember how conserved our first stage attires used to be? Now we could as well be standing there in only our underwears."
Riven more feels than sees LeBlanc nodding her head in agreement.
"I know what you are talking about." The older woman admits after a little while. "Kled's patrons are eyeing us like we are pieces of meat. I occasionally go down to get a drink at the bar while you are sorting out the equipment, and some drunkard would always approach me and ask for a lap dance or a quicky in the restroom.
The bunny Vastayan sighs as she gruffly turns back at her pillow, staring at the dark concrete wall opposite to her with two tired and irritated eyes.
"Same here, I get out for some fresh air and a quick smoke and a horny inebriated sod just has to follow me on the rooftop hoping to get some extra service for his oh-so-generous-patronage.
"It is because of your stupid bunny ears and paw-hands." LeBlanc abruptly hisses over her hard pillowcase in the dark. "They make you a freaking magnet for all kinds of clown shoes and closet perverts."
"Fuck you. They are my ears, I can't just take them off, you bitch." Riven grunts under her breath even as the snow-haired woman closes her eyes trying to ignore the chill wind blowing inside the little bedroom.
The stage magician snorts in response." No dice, Sweetie. Not even for a hundred sold tickets. I said the same thing to Kled."
"Get Taloned, Evaine…"
QQQQ
The young white-haired woman wakes up to the sound of the radio coming out from the kitchen. There is a forgotten blues song playing on right now. One of those long instrumental pieces with slow saxophone solos that Evaine enjoys letting play in the background as she does housework around the apartment or washes the dishes.
Still yawning and wobbling clumsily like a zombie on the prowl, the bunny Vastayan follows the smell of fried eggs that's wafting from the kitchen, and unceremoniously lets her body collapse on top of an orange folding chair. Evaine, dressed in a short elastic pair of black shorts and an equally skimpy black tank top that lets most of her pale stomach exposed doesn't even look up from her newspaper as she slides a plate of sunny side-up eggs towards the hungry snow bunny.
"Eat," The drop-dead, gorgeous ravenette entertainer says. Evaine's face hidden behind her open newspaper. Riven happily obliges the older woman. For the next several minutes the sounds of the white-haired bunny assistant shoveling fried eggs in her mouth and the occasional turning of a page are the only sounds emanating around the two women.
"Kled said that we won't be appearing today. Some tall tail about renovations and a drunken Ursine client." The stage magician suddenly muses aloud without a warning.
"He is probably holding auditions for our replacements." The Vastayan bunny offers thoughtfully between big mouthfuls of fried egg yolk.
"Perhaps..." LeBlanc considers with her frown hidden behind an article about a recent series of thefts in a nearby neighborhood. "Either way, we won't be appearing this evening." The older woman drawls tersely. Evaine lowers her newspaper enough to stare at her partner over a bolded macabre headliner about a wanted yordle bomber. Intelligent amber-colored orbs lock with two curious ruby Vastayan eyes.
"So don't go starting trouble while I am away, ok? Oh and please, keep your flirts away from our bed. If I find another blonde strand of hair on my side of the bed, I am kicking you out. You've been warned."
"Alright, mom." The white-haired bunny Vastayan demurely mutters in a mocking tone as she finishes her food, but Riven knows not to push the subject or challenge the ravenette further, lest she ends up on the streets living inside a cardboard box and begging strangers for spare change.
Likewise, Evaine blatantly ignores her roommate's sarcasm and mockery and turns another page on her newspaper to browse through another boring article about taxes.
"I don't really recall giving birth to a brutish smart-mouthed fleabag of a brat, but then again perhaps that's why I chose to forget it in the first place.
At that point the white-haired bunny Vastayan simply flips the stage magician the bird and then asks for another helping.
Evaine pretends that she doesn't notice it.
Day21: A humorous little experiment from my part, reinventing Riven and LeBlanc as two broke entertainers trying to make a living as stage performers and barely making it by. There wasn't much of a plot behind this oneshot. I didn't know how to end it and I could have cut it at half the length it is now, ending it with the pillow talk scene. It was just an interesting concept I wanted to peek at really. I could have forced a little more juice into the story if I had wanted to. Make Lb get a loan from the wrong kind of people (GP? mob boss MF?) and have things go South. Reveal that Riven run away from her abusive home a few years ago and that Lb found her starving on the streets and took her in as her assistant with a stern sort of kindness. Make Riven's feelings of gratitude gradually turn into love and concealed antagonistic protectiveness. Lb usually harsh and cynical acknowledges Riven's feelings with a soft and awkward kiss after the two of them successfully get through some ordeal. Lb kissing Riven even though Evaine isn't sure if she feels the same way about the bunny Vastayan. Maybe she just respects her. Or have the gangsters make LB pick between them hurting Riven and her breaking her own fingers with a hammer, thus forever forfeiting her career as a magician. LB enters the holding area after a while with bandaged hands stained crimson. Riven can barely believe her eyes. Didn't Evaine just want to use her to attract patrons?
Still, I think that this story's charm is that it is meant as a simple quick dose of normalcy with dark-grey undertones. That it is a quick and indifferent read that doesn't delve into long scenarios involving intense dramatic scenes and intriguing riddles.