The City That Never Sleeps
May. 17th, 2007 04:44 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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elseworldexilesA soft pop precedes the Exiles appearance.
They're on a busy streetcorner, standing at the side entrance of a massive steel and granite museum building. The Empire State Building dominates the skyline, but it's a skyline from another New York, out of another era.
The street is packed with Studebakers, Cadillacs, Crossleys, Fords - all with the windows down to let out the heat. On the sidewalk, women in knee to ankle length skirts and heels click-clack down the nearby subway entrance. The men all wear suits. Everyone over the age of 12 is wearing a hat.
"Poppa! Poppa! It's a traveling circus!" A little girl strains on the tether of her father's hand, pointing at them with her free arm. "I hope they have a monkey!"
"Hush." He covers his daughter's eyes, glaring at the naked blue teenager surrounded by what looks like a high wire act, some jugglers, and maybe a magician. Hard to tell without the plaquards. "We don't need those kind of shows around here, missy. The rest of you should be ashamed. If that's what it takes to sell your circus, then you must be darn poor performers."
He drags his daughter away, but the two of them are replaced by a large, curious crowd.
"Let's see ya juggle, mister!" Shouts a heckler
"Ooh! Ooh! Have they got bendy people? I love me some contortionists!"
"Nah! Nah! Itsa magic act! Right, right?" A guy's already holding out a bill, smiling eagerly. It's right at five o'clock, a great time for some cheap street theater before hopping on the subway home.
They're on a busy streetcorner, standing at the side entrance of a massive steel and granite museum building. The Empire State Building dominates the skyline, but it's a skyline from another New York, out of another era.
The street is packed with Studebakers, Cadillacs, Crossleys, Fords - all with the windows down to let out the heat. On the sidewalk, women in knee to ankle length skirts and heels click-clack down the nearby subway entrance. The men all wear suits. Everyone over the age of 12 is wearing a hat.
"Poppa! Poppa! It's a traveling circus!" A little girl strains on the tether of her father's hand, pointing at them with her free arm. "I hope they have a monkey!"
"Hush." He covers his daughter's eyes, glaring at the naked blue teenager surrounded by what looks like a high wire act, some jugglers, and maybe a magician. Hard to tell without the plaquards. "We don't need those kind of shows around here, missy. The rest of you should be ashamed. If that's what it takes to sell your circus, then you must be darn poor performers."
He drags his daughter away, but the two of them are replaced by a large, curious crowd.
"Let's see ya juggle, mister!" Shouts a heckler
"Ooh! Ooh! Have they got bendy people? I love me some contortionists!"
"Nah! Nah! Itsa magic act! Right, right?" A guy's already holding out a bill, smiling eagerly. It's right at five o'clock, a great time for some cheap street theater before hopping on the subway home.
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