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July 14, 1891 London, England
Grian watched as the man on stage produced the bird he had previously made disappear from his sleeve. The audience clapped and the man took a bow as his assistant took the bird off stage.
“For my next trick, I will need two volunteers.” A mustached man came out from the wings and examined the raised hands in the crowd as another man pushed two cabinets onto the stage. One on either side of the magician. Grian hesitated for a moment before making eye contact with the man and raising his hand. The man nodded his head and pointed at him, beckoning him on stage.
“Now would you two gentlemen please examine these two cabinets and tell me if you notice anything out of the ordinary.” Grian examined the cabinet. The wardrobe sat flat on the ground with a clear false bottom to conceal a trap door. He was surprised people hadn’t figured it out sooner though the audience probably wasn’t really looking. They want to be amazed.
“Excellent! Now, if you would each stand by one of the contraptions to ensure no foul play.” Grian walked to the other side of the stage, letting the man next to him take the closest one. The assistant walked back on stage and opened the box next to the other man and stepped inside, closing the door behind her. The man tapped on the cabinet and ran over to the other one, opening the door for the assistant to step out exactly the same as before. Or, at least, that's how it looked to the audience. The magician bowed and gestured for Grian and the other man to return to their seats.
…
“Grian, what were you doing?! I almost had to pick some random person. People get suspicious if it takes too long.” Grian rolled his eyes and began taking off his disguise.
“I’m telling you, it builds suspense,” he shouted.
“Since you won’t let Doc make us something to build the theatrics. I could tell we had a smaller crowd today, even from the audience. We need this.”
“Absolutely not,” Mumbo stared daggers at Grian. “We cannot risk that man’s insane contraptions. Gem could get hurt, or worse. Do you know how hard it is to find a new assistant in this day and age?”
Gem waved from where she was sitting. “I agree with Mumbo. As much as I agree with the show needing something more, I also agree with not dying at work. There are plenty of other ways to draw in an audience that are… less dangerous.”
“Oh, c’mon guys, Doc’s machinery is a work of art. It wouldn’t even do anything. Just shoot a few sparks and make some noise and boom we’ve got a bigger crowd than ever,” Scar called out over his shoulder.
Mumbo shook his head as Skizz and Pearl walked in.
“Hey Mumbo, can you help me get this other cabinet beneath the stage? Impulse had to get going to a meeting and I can’t get it down the stairs by myself.” Mumbo nodded and looked back at Grian and Scar.
“We are not going to Doc. End of discussion.” He turned and followed Skizz towards the stairs. Pearl watched as Mumbo walked off, his annoyance showing in his stride.
“What’s his problem?” She gestured over her shoulder at where their Ingenieur had stood moments prior.
“Mumbo’s jealous because we want to go to Doc for a trick.”
“Yeah but we aren’t actually going to Doc for a new trick. We’re just dressing up what we already have,” Grian looked at pearl. “Mumbo just doesn’t seem to get that.” She shrugged and went off to the area designated as her dressing room.
“I say we go to Impulse with this. Mumbo may be our boss but Impulse is his. If he says yes then we go through with it.” Scar began to take off the remnants of his disguise. Grian thought about it for a moment before nodding. Gem looked at the duo nervously.
“I dunno, I think Mumbo’s just trying to look out for us. What if something does go wrong? Even if I'm still in a good enough condition to work after, that incident would be a huge turn off for our future audience.”
“But that's the thing, nothing is gonna happen, Gem. Mumbo just likes to worry and you just like to believe him. Trust me, going to Doc is going to be revolutionary for our act.” Scar held out his arms like he was on stage taking in the crowd. Gem sighed.
“Pearl doesn’t seem to care, so I guess if you can convince Impulse to go for it then I’ll do it.” Scar stood up quickly and grabbed her hand, pulling her into a spin.
“Gem, you won’t regret this. This will be the best act of magic anyone has ever seen!” She chuckled as Scar let go of her and she tumbled back into her chair.
“Well, I should get going, you boys take care now.” She grabbed her bag and headed up the stairs and out of sight. Grian turned towards Scar, finding it hard not to feel some sort of joy himself at the man's award winning smile.
“So, how do you suppose we pose this to The Great Impulsesv?” Grian smiled devilishly.
…
“Scar, I don't think this is such a good idea.” Grian followed the man into the restaurant as he scanned the room.
“You were the one who agreed to go to Impulse with this.”
“Yes, but I didn’t know you meant now!” he growled. Scar just shook his head and pointed at a table in the corner of the room.
“There he is.” Without waiting for Grian to even register his words, Scar began walking off towards the two men.
“Scar! Wait!”
“Impulse, I’m just not sure if you’re bringing in enough of a crowd for your show to be worth my theater's time.”
“Trust me Xisuma I can-”
“Well, hello there.” Scar walked up next to the table as Grian stood awkwardly behind him.
“Scar? Grian? What are you- can’t you see I’m a bit busy?”
“But what if I told you, Impulse, that I had a business proposal for you that might just help out with our little audience issue?” Scar put his hands on his hips and closed his eyes with a pleased smirk, waiting for a prompt to continue. Impulse turned away from the duo towards Xisuma.
“I apologize X. Scar, don't you think we can discuss this later?” Scars face dropped at the lack of excitement for his proposition.
“It’s alright, I need to be going anyway. If you manage to figure out a way to draw in a larger crowd, let me know and we can discuss you using my theater.” Xisuma stood up from his chair and shook Impulse's hand. He turned and looked at the intruding duo and held out his hand to each of them as well.
“It was nice to meet you both. Hopefully I will be seeing you again for a show in a few weeks.” With that he turned and left the restaurant. Scar rounded the table and took the seat Xisuma had previously been in and motioned for Grian to sit down next to him.
“Now as I was saying, what if I told you I had a business proposal that could fix our lack-of-audience problem.” Impulse sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“What’s your idea, Scar?”
“Actually, it was more my idea.” Scar waved off Grian.
“Technicalities, G. Now Impulse, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but our tricks seem to lack a bit of theatrics. They are works of art, don’t get me wrong, but what if we could add something more… exciting.”
“And what is this ‘something’?” Impulse prodded. Scar smirked as he finally got the prompt he had been looking for.
“We go to Doc and get him to build us a machine. Something that shoots a few sparks and makes some noise to build up the theatrics of our act.” Scar looked hopefully at Impulse as he gently shook his head.
“You should go to Mumbo with this. He knows more about the actual mechanics of tricks than I do, I’m just here to act them out.” Grian and Scar looked over at each other from across the table.
“Well, we actually did go to Mumbo first.”
“And what did he say?”
“No.”
“Well then I guess that's my answer too.”
“But you're his boss Impulse! You should have more of a say than he does.” Scar gestured wildly towards the door.
“Yes, but as his boss, I give him full control over this decision and if he says no then that's it. I’m sorry guys, I really am, but you’ll have to figure out something else for this.” Scar huffed and stormed towards the door, his chair pushing back with a scrape as he went. Grian stood up and reached towards him.
“Scar, c’mon, don’t be like this,” he dropped his arm and turned towards Impulse. “Impulse, I’m sorry about him. He’s just a bit… passionate about this. I’ll go talk to him, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Grian didn’t wait for a response before he was chasing after Scar.
He found him sitting outside on the curb beside the restaurant looking profoundly dejected. Grian collapsed next to him and leaned back, palms digging into the cobble of the sidewalk. They sat in silence, listening to the hustle and bustle of the London night life before Scar spoke up.
“The show is gonna go under. I can feel it. It’s only a matter of time before we are replaced by some up-and-coming hotshot that can do what Impulse and Mumbo are too afraid to do.” Grian listened to him rant and looked up at the stars in the sky. He cocked his head slightly. “C’mon G, say something. I feel like I’m the only one who cares about this.”
“It’s a new moon.” Grian turned to face him. Scar hesitantly looked up to examine the sky.
“I suppose you’re right. What’s that have to do with anything?”
“New moon symbolizes new beginnings.” They sat in silence for a few more moments before Grian continued. “We could start our own show, y’know? You could be the performer, I could be your assistant. We would just need an Ingenieur and an audience plant or two. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about getting anyone's approval.” Scar continued to stare at the sky, almost as if he didn’t hear Grian at all. Grian moved to get up, believing Scar just wanted to continue to sulk alone when he noticed the smirk on the man's face. He turned to face Grian.
“Y’know G, I think you’re onto something.”