in which a boring, overworking salesperson falls in love with the weird guy in the subway station who pulled a coin out of their ear,, gender neutral pronouns, anxious reader and modern au! there's not rly much of a plot, just street performer!nikolai bc that brings me so much comfort.
Day 1
Set up. That was Gogol's goal for the day; to set himself up properly in the subway. The station he picked was busy enough to allow for an audience, but not nearly to the overflowing capacity in which there would be so many people that he would get drowned out in the crowd.
Nevertheless, he wasn't one to be hidden so easily. He placed his stool on the ground, brushing his jacket and smoothing it out at he stood on top, clearly his throat and darting his eyes around to make sure all the pieces were in place.
"Gather round, gather round!" he called out, causing a few people to glance at him, then at his clown-like attire, and promptly distance themselves from him as fast as they could. He paid no attention to this. "Look at all of you, heading down the same train everyday to do the same mundane thing. It's boring, it's unfathomable, it digs you into a rut of which you can never escape. Therefore, allow me to spice it up using a bit of... magic."
With his dramatic pause keeping a grand total of 0 people on the edge of their seats, he grandiosely revealed a a marble, rolling down his sleeve and manifesting seemingly from the air into his fingers for all outsiders. Of course, such outsiders had quickly come to the conclusion that he was not worth their precious time, and instead mindlessly scrolled through their phones while waiting for the train.
Gogol was not discouraged; if anything, he was amused at the display of the decay of society. "Notice this marble? Picture it to be all your problems, and watch as I make them disappear."
As said, he shook both his hands, carefully using the abrupt movement to roll down the object into his other sleeve, and grinning widely as he made more jazz hands to indicate that they were indeed empty. Still, not a single person in the crowd was entertained enough by the jester to toss some coins into his hat, laid out on the ground, pathetically empty. He'd just begun, he'd reassure himself. Surely these people were simply too enamored with themselves to give him a single coin.
The evening went on as such, with a few mediocre tricks played and the crowd generally ignoring the man with the pearl white hair. A select few dropped a coin or two into his collection, but that was all.
The trains passed, and so did the time, and soon enough it was 5:00 in the morning already, and he was obligated to leave.
Tomorrow, he decided, he'll do better.
Day 2
He did not, in fact, do any better.
Actually, he had quarreled with a drunk man who seemed to be under the impression that he was his wife. At first, he resisted, hoping that the blabbering man wouldn't slur something that would scare away any givers, but who was he kidding? He didn't exactly have any givers in the first place. The closest thing that had occurred was the wasted individual bumping into a salesperson with a tie who fumbled and nearly dropped their bag.
Glancing up, they'd nervously apologized to anyone and everyone, trying to offer the man some reassurance for having so unceremoniously ramming into him. He'd said, "My wife, I owe her.. so.. much.. money.."
Without a second thought, the curious person with the tie pulled out a bill from their pocket and handed it to them, somehow apologizing with even more ardor than before, if that were possible.
