<div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/hiW13Hj.jpg)<div align="center"><strong>Alizeh Cloudborn</strong> (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=299823.msg14660956#msg14660956)</div></div>Alizeh could scarcely believe her eyes and even less so her ears as Brigitte demonstrated what a truly shameless performer she was! Apparently she put her faith where she walked as the old (literally) saying went! Alizeh was already preparing apologies to hopefully keep them all from being booted out when she heard the thunderous applause. What? That had worked? What a horrible crowd on top of things!<br/><br/>She tried to move towards the back of the line but nobody was having it, and her teeth were nearly chattering with anxiety as she finally got shoved (almost literally) out on the stage. She even staggered the first few steps as if she'd just been pushed, which was not technically true was only because she'd stepped forward quickly to avoid it and ended up stumbling a bit. She was wearing a rather fine dark blue robe that covered her and hung comfortably over her body, length perfect to the floor it disguised that she was wearing heels for one of the first times in her life. Her hair was back in a simple braid, her face covered in heavy stage makeup. Compared to what they'd just seen the crowd was already bored just taking one look at her.<br/><br/>"Hello everyone." She said, wide eyed, obviously terrified, hugging the thick tome of old poetry to her chest. "I'm Alizeh, oh no I mean um, my stage name is uh, Misty, and uh," The crowd prepared to groan.<br/><br/>"I uh, I know everyone is here for a good time and here to be entertained. So uh, with that in mind I uh, I want to apologize for that last act." She began sincerely. Laughs. There were laughs. Why were there laughs? Poor Alizeh didn't realize the crowd didn't possibly think she could be serious and were now assuming her wide eyed innocence was part of the show.<br/><br/>"Well, ah, alright," she said, looking even more confused now. "So um, this stage provided so many great costumes, and uh, so many other things, but uh, I still need something they didn't provide uh, which is uh, I need uh an assistant."<br/><br/>"Get the last girl back out!" A member of the audience shouted.<br/><br/>"No no not her!!" Alizeh said so quickly and with such genuine horror that the crowd burst out laughing again. Alizeh was even more confused this time. Why was that funny?<br/><br/>"I'll help you out sweet thing!" A man in a top hot and fancy coat called out. A cheer went up from the crowd. Obviously he was well known.<br/><br/>"Oh, great thank you, please, please come up thank you!" Alizeh said, twisting her body in thanks and relief, joining the crowd in applauding the cheery man who came up and happily waved to the audience.<br/><br/>"Wow thank you so much for helping me! Especially after everything that's happened. What did you think of that last act?" She asked nervously.<br/><br/>"Loved it!" The man said, raising his glass to the cheer of the crowd.<br/><br/>"Oh, well then I'm sorry I should have been more clear," Alizeh stepped forward and addressed the audience again. "I need an assistant who can read."<br/><br/>The crowd guffawed, including the man who had just been called illiterate.<br/><br/>"Oh she got you good Professor!" A voice called from the crowd.<br/><br/>"Professor!" Alizeh nearly turned red, gasping as she clasped her fingers over her mouth. "Oh I'm so sorry!" She squealed. The crowd ate it up, a few muttered "oh she's good." Nobody really believing this poor girl couldn't know who one of the most frequent audience members was. "Professor!" Alizeh suddenly said brightly, as if she'd just figured out what that word meant. "Oh, oh you're perfect!" She said, finally for the first time ceasing her tight clutching of the book to her chest.<br/><br/>"Oh, I'm sorry," She said, realizing that she'd clutched it so tightly the corner had become lodged in a pocket of her robe. "Oh here." She tried to help but somehow made it worse, pulling the robe away from herself as the man took a hold of the book. "Here just tug it." She said, the man obliged and she was tugged with a light shriek into his arms. "Oh I'm so sorry professor!" She stammered, to the hoots of the crowd, pulling back she didn't seem to realize the sash of her robe had come undone and there was a hint that she was wearing something far more interesting underneath visible now.<br/><br/>"That's okay!" The jolly man said, not seeming to have minded Alizeh's squirming curves being rubbed on his fancy jacket at all. "What page?"<br/><br/>"Oh, all of them!" Alizeh said brightly. The crowd groaned. Alizeh blinked, and turned the professor and whispered. Or at least she tried to. The magical amplification of the noise on the stage turned it into a stage whisper. "What's wrong with them?" The crowd chuckled at this. "Okay fine, fine, we'll just skip to the best parts." Alizeh took a few steps away from the professor and composed herself. She held her hands folded in front of herself and closed her eyes, affecting a very calm pose. "Page four hundred and sixteen please."<br/><br/>The professor looked about for some place to sit down his glass, was assisted by a timely stage hand who set out a stool, and then flipped the book open and began to read. "Monologues on the nature of being." The crowd muttered in skepticism. "Picture if you will a clear glade in which an elven maiden has found time to think of herself and the world about her as she ponders the beauty around her." Most of the crowd instantly became bored.<br/><br/>Alizeh then, seemingly in character now as the elf maiden opened her eyes.<br/><br/>"Oh glory of Corellon's grace!" She said in a sing-song voice that is was clear she thought was how actors talked, "How is't the same divine perfection made the ant also made the spiraling towers of Everdeep?" She turned to one side her body dipping that direction as her hands extended as though swaying in a breeze, "The lowly guppie was't seen in the great unknown by the light of your leafy forge and yet," she straightened up far too suddenly, "so was the light of every sky seen by same guppie 'fore both were sprinkled pon our world! Oh what design!" She spoke with great enthusiasm to the largely unenthiastic response of the audience, "What great and grand and mighty design for truly no accident-AHHH!" She had meant to step and begin her thirteen concentric circles about the stage while describing the various stages of creation. Instead, not realizing her robe had come undone, she trod on the now dragging length of her robe and the force of her proud and enthusiastic step had caused a wide rip right up the side where her foot stopped it. The rip went straight up to her waist, revealing a very bare, lightly tanned half-elven leg underneath that the crowd cheered quite loudly for.<br/><br/>Alizeh caught her self on the side table, nearly spilling the professor's drink and stepped about avoiding tripping herself further to the delight of the crowd. This caused the drink to actually jump off the table in a manner that seemed contrived, and Alizeh, never the most dextrous of souls, to stumble for it in a rather comic manner, her robe falling further open to reveal the rather lacy bustier she'd found, actually the most boring option they had as lingerie but the crowd didn't know that, underneath.<br/><br/>She straightened up with a sigh of relief and handed the professor his drink to a round of applause. She was confused for a moment. "Oh my, thank you, and here I didn't think you cared for real poetry!" She gushed, delighted to the crowd, who laughed and cheered now realizing what this act really was. Clearly it was burlesque mockery of old elven art, not actually an inept half-elf nerd accidentally stripping.<br/><br/>"Oh wait til you hear the rest!" She gushed enthusiastically. She scrambled back to her central position, the flesh on her chest behaving quite interestingly to the delight of the crowd as she walked probably too fast in her heels, but being a novice at both heels and bustiers she didn't realize how much of a show that was putting on, she just understood she was getting cheers. "First of the rocks that we all walk upon," she intoned solemnly, "placed there each by name and song for all the love of Corellon, for if he were to rip away..." she paused, the motions of her arms were stymied by the way the sleeves had fallen due to the robe opening and hanging more off her shoulders than her neck. "Rip away..." she repeated struggling to raise her arms again. "Ah, RIP AWAY!" She screamed, tugging so strongly the sleeves of one arm did indeed give way at the stitch and fall to the ground, leaving that long arm bare.<br/><br/>She blushed, but told herself the show must go on. Maybe if she did the other on purpose it would look like it was the act? Yes that was the ticket!<br/><br/>"The land upon which each elf walks than surely would fall," she tried to repeat the rip with her other arm by lifting it violently. It went up perfectly. "Ahem, fall." She repeated, jerking her arm up again. She glared at it as it went smoothly. She glanced about for aid and saw her assistant. She pranced quickly over to him and held out her sleeve and whispered, "hold that tightly, don't let go."<br/><br/>She braced herself and intoned, "into a world of mystery that must reveal," she tugged with all her might and gasped with delight as she found the arm tugging away in the professor's hand. Wait! No! So was the rest of the robe!<br/><br/>"Ahhh!" She let out a shriek and quickly covered up her now rather displayed body, lacy bodice and rather-more-interesting-than-she'd-ever-worn before underwear fully on display as the robe was in tatters in the man's hands.<br/><br/>The crowd went nuts. Alizeh froze. And listened to them cheer. They were cheering! They were cheering for an old poem! Well...if this was what it took.<br/><br/>A whole new set of butterflies in her stomach she slowly stood up straight, arms falling to her hips that cocked without thinking as the crowd waited on baited breath for more. Her voice was now not quite the same pompous sing song as before, it took on a sultry tone. Where it came from she didn't quite know but as she stepped forward she placed her steps within each other, letting her hips swing as she reached up for her hair, "what lies above, below, and so the secrets," she spoke quickly, knowing perhaps that nobody was really listening, but also that it made it more impressive that she could recite classic poems from memory while sexily strutting across the stage, "that shall toss the world about," she had undone hair long white hair from its tight braid and now indeed tossed her head in time with the stanza, "shall whirl like zephyrs in the wind and when the earth does shake," well, this was easy, she added a rather provocative wiggle to her dance that set the crowd cheering anew, "about in fear and dread the coming of the sun, the son shall save the elves a'from the dauntless night, the searing day, with leaves and words and come what may," she strut towards the professor now, pulling a chair from just offstage she beckoned for him to sit as she walked in tight circles around it, "for elf was born of passion and," she whispered in the professor's ear, letting her hands trail over him proactively, "magic the world doth not un'erstand" she leaned over him more blatantly now, a very risque example of 'magic' indeed, "and power, greatness, glory, dreams," she moved in front of him now, letting the crowd know exactly what she looked like bent over from behind, "and 'twill escape!" she said the word brightly as she straightened up and stepped away primly form the professor just as he was reaching for her, "the world's dark schemes!" The crowd cheered her 'escape' as she strutted once more towards the center of the stage, arms raised as the crowd laughed and cheered the brazen act.<br/><br/>Well, she thought. This is my one chance to probably say this to so many people who are actually listening. She continued speaking quickly, her mastery of the old elven ode impressive to those few in the audience who knew it, even if they'd also recognized she had skipped several dozen pages to the finale. She bent over to start, wiggling her hips back and forth in slow circles as she slowly raised her arms to the sky. Each word delivered with passion and great care as if she was trusting them with her favorite thing as she put herself and her body on display.<br/><br/>"Great light above and so the dark<br/>The dreary thoughts and so the spark<br/>The land that feeds the storms that kill<br/>The blood that flows the iron will<br/>Beauty, everchanging form<br/>Ugly, wretched, hellcursed worm<br/>All made from seeds of one design<br/>The bounty of an endless mind<br/>In cozy sun and when rain pours, enjoy it all"<br/><br/>She smiled as she looked from one end of the crowd to the next, savoring for a moment that she had them in her hand. Sure, they were more transfixed on the way her body had wiggled up and down during that delivery than the words. Most of them. But if that's what it took, well, the words said it all.<br/><br/>"The world is yours."<br/><br/>She put one ankle behind the other and nimbly dipped in a old elvish style, made rather enticing by the outfit she wasn't wearing, blew a few kisses to the crowd, turned to bow to her assistant, prancing to him to quickly favor him with a kiss on his cheek that left a rather large red mark as if to apologize for all she'd put him through, pulled him up for a bow, and then and quickly pranced off the stage.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Performance 20</div><div class="spoiler_body">Roll Result: Alizeh rolled: 1d20, adding 5 to the total<br/>Comment: Cha + Performance<br/>Result: 15,<br/>Total: 20</div></div><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Acrobatics 15</div><div class="spoiler_body">Roll Result: Alizeh rolled: 1d20, adding 2 to the total<br/>Comment: Dex + Acrobatics<br/>Result: 13,<br/>Total: 15</div></div><br/><br/><br/>She felt like she might faint. But the crowd was cheering. They hadn't liked it nearly as much as the act they'd seen before of course, but hey, they hadn't booed her off stage. She wiped her brow, smearing the stage makeup horribly and slumped over in the nearest chair, feeling the pressure that had been building up finally bursting she breathed a huge sigh of relief and looked like she might cry for a moment.<br/><br/>"I did it." She whispered. "Oh thank you Mystara." She clutched at a symbol that wasn't there, and then looked up into a night sky that was blocked by ceilings. "Thank you." She whispered again.