For Your Entertainment

[maladgogo]

Boston over the last few months had been frigid, and most days it still was, but with Spring well on its way, occasionally the chill was interrupted by days in the 70s, a little breezy but otherwise comfortable and warm. Warmth meant pedestrians, and pedestrians meant the buskers crept out of hiding, looking for a quick buck or, more often, just to entertain people.

One case of the latter had taken up an open, empty space at one of the massive local parks, a small speaker setup settled to one side with a bottle of water on top of it. The owner of said setup was stretching, doing small moves to warm up his muscles, tying his hair up out of the way in movements that matched the intro of the song that was playing, subtle and intensely controlled. His first acts tended to be more visually downplayed, all grace and smooth turns, gyrations and rolls. The music he danced to tended toward the electronic variety, deep bass and slow beats, sometimes flowing into faster drum and bass that turned him upside-down, balanced on his hands, blurring, twisting motion that drew an occasional 'ooo' from the ground. A squeal here and there too as when he straightened up, he smiled at the first person he saw in the audience. His smile was radiant, lighting up the entirety of him almost, making a couple of young women fan themselves when he looked away.

Closer to evening, the real show began: Visual poi, with specialized LED rods on the ends of long ropes made streaks of light through the air around him, casting him in shadow or throwing him into sharp relief at intervals in time with the music. A lot of the crowd had turned over, some had left a handful of change or a few dollars in the case of the speaker that had been left out in case anyone felt like doing just that, but there had been one or two familiar faces. People from his classes, people that had watched him before, and sometimes, people that simply stood out. The pale boy perched nearby, for instance. He nearly blended in with the clean white stonework and the pale blue of the sky overhead, but closer to evening he stood out in the crowd, and occasionally, Guy had looked at him, a smile or a tilt of the head the only indication of any sort of interest. It wasn't any different than how he'd interacted with the rest of the crowd, but sometimes, people took all of that as impetus to talk to him.

He did enjoy making friends, and strove to make at least one every time he came out to perform.