(GQ #13) Adventures in Spacepunk

12. Vanishing Tricks

Emil marched out of Space Paisanos with purpose. Carving through crowds, he and Leon had no time to spend on street performers, not until they saw Daphne's face. His eye caught lime green hair up a block and across the street, right where he last saw her band.

He held out a hand. "We should slow down now. Gotta act casual." It took someone else bumping into it to realize Leon wasn't there. "Lunar? Where'd'ja go?"

"You! No phone guy!" A familiar redhead waved him down with Leon in tow.

"I'm the one with no phone." corrected Leon.

"He doesn't have accounts, so it's basically the same thing." The wanna-be ViewTuber from earlier met up with Emil by the curb. "I have got a proposition for you!"

In the gaps between pedestrians, Emil saw Cosmic Royale playing another set. It's not like he could talk to Daphne now. He leaned his shoulder on the wall of a tattoo parlor. "Hit us with it."

"Okay. So. My #RoofJumpChallenge," why did he pronounce the hashtag, "didn't end well. You'd think the Moon having zero gravity meant something!"

"Th... The Moon doesn't have zero gravity."

"I had to step away from stunts for a little while." Aaron continued as if Leon hadn't said anything. "But in the meantime, how do I give my subs the craveable content they deserve? All the other cool stuff requires a bajillion dollars! I can't compete with that! So I came here. And then it hit me."

Emil tapped his foot to the song across the street. "What hit you?"

"Stage magic." Aaron spread his hands out. "One of my brothers got into it, and then our mom had us all pick it up thinking we would get famous. She's my OG subscriber."

"Aww." Emil and Leon reacted at almost the same time.

"And this is where you come in!" He pumped his camera in the air. "I can't do magic one-handed. Normally, my sis would be behind the camera, but" his face hardened, "she's gone now."

The other two shared the same concern. Finally, Emil decided to break the ice. "Like gone gone?"

"No, she's off stacking cash her own way," Aaron waved it off, brightening up, "which gets her out of my hair!" Emil barely caught him grumbling, "Already hogged my OG subscriber. Can't have her stealing any more." He thrusted his camera into Leon's hand. "Here. You can film me while I try to steal your buddy's wallet."

"I don't have my wallet." Emil lifted his hands.

Aaron managed to fit confusion, disgust, and concern into one face. "Then you film us." Concern took over when he placed the camera in Emil's hand. "You do know how to work a camera, right?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Just checking. Let me know when we're on."

Admittedly, it took Emil a little longer than he'd have liked to figure out how to get him and Leon into focus. "You're on."

"What is up, Awesomesauce Nation?" Aaron's hands struck a different pose each second. "Long time, no see! It's your boy, _aaronawesomesauce, and I'm back with my new buddies Summer Solstice–"

"Lunar E-Clipse." corrected Leon.

"Lunar E-Clipse! We'll fix that in post. Tell Awesomesauce Nation who you are."

"Hi, I'm Lunar!" he waved.

"And my man E-Clipssse...?" Aaron needed a thumbs up from Emil to keep going, "is behind the camera. Hope you guys liked my last video! I'm up and walkin' again, but the doc says I gotta take it easy for a while, so no jumps, no parkour, none of that. Instead," he stuck a thumb into Leon's chest, "I'm gonna rob this guy!!"