Thursday, March 19, 2015

The Night Circus- Part One (Primordium): Chapter Thirteen (Auditory) - Isobel's Done For/First Encounters

This chapter begins with Celia auditioning as an illusionist for Le Cirque des Reves, to the delight of my inner hopeless romantic, because this is the first time Marco and Celia are interacting. Eek!

After a very flamboyant magician is very flamboyantly rejected, Celia's number (23) is called and Marco simply stares at her, experiencing a little inner monologue, the late 1800s version of "Damn, she fine."

"He could tell from across the room that she was lovely, but when she is near enough to look him in the eyes the loveliness- the shape of her face, the contrast of her hair against her skin- evolves into something more.
She is radiant. For a moment, while they look at each other, he cannot remember what he is meant to be doing, or why she is handing him a piece of paper with the number twenty-three written on it in his own handwriting."
(You should really pick your jaw up off the ground before she trips on it.)

He manages to maintain his composure and leads her to the stage.
After she steps forward, he retreats to the front row of seats and opens his notebook.

She goes on stage, Chandresh gets a bit sexist (though it's a little less terrible considering it's the 1800s and he did call her lovely, though that's already been stated).
Removing her jacket in response to his grumblings, Celia answers some questions from Marco (who is pretty flustered), they're surprised by her shitty yet talented father, so on, so on. Come on, Morgenstern. Just get to the magic already.
After Marco asks if she can perform in a crowd, she throws her jacket at Chandresh and Mme. Padva (who apparently was the best judge for this, despite being a magic-less ex-ballerina).
Before it lands, the jacket becomes a raven and flies into the balcony. This isn't a one-time thing either, the jacket-raven actually has a name and is basically a pet. You'd think after it became a raven you wouldn't want to wear it anymore, but apparently that doesn't bother her.

She takes Marco's notebook then and turns it into a dove before handing it back to him. At this point Marco is pretty shell-shocked, so he just takes the notebook and "quickly retreats to his corner."
Mme. Padva and Chandresh are, of course, impressed, and now they start waxing about fitting her in. Mme. Padva mentions the color scheme, and while she talks to Chandresh, Celia changes her gown to black-fading-to-white, and upon further request, changes her hair color to match her raven's feathers.

She gives a cryptic answer about her dead father, and then Chandresh beckons Marco forward, who hasn't gotten over Celia yet:

"...Marco approaches with his notebook, halting a few paces away from Celia, his stare moving from her gown to her hair and back, spending a considerable amount of time in between."

Celia then calls to her jacket-raven, who kamikazes back into a jacket, before putting her gloves back on and leaving.

"'She's perfect,' Chandresh remarks, pulling a cigar from his pocket. 'Absolutely perfect.'
'Yes, sir,' says Marco behind him, the notebook in his hand shaking slightly."

Trying to find a picture to represent my inner hopeless romantic...





There we go.


This chapter ends with the disappointment of the waiting illusionists, all of whom are probably terrible by comparison.

Chapter Fourteen should be out by next Thursday.




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