Circus and Vaudeville

There were some things in human culture that just refused to truly die. They would go underground for a bit, often being forgotten in that time, and then resurface. An example would be large travelling circuses with smaller shows attatched to them. The current iteration of this phenomena had the smaller shows being what the Emperor called vaudeville. One of these circuses was coming to Terra, and the Primarchs were excited.
Angron was looking forward to the strong man, and no one was surprised by this. Angron liked fights, honor, and strength above anything else. Corvus was looking forward to the trapeeze act, it was advertised as people flying without wings. Sanguinius was also looking forward to the trapeeze act. The Lion and Leman were both looking forward to the animal taming act.
"There's going to be one called the 'sphere of death'," Konrad said. He seemed very interested in that one.
"Unless it has been changed that will be people riding bikes in a large metal sphere," the Emperor said. Konrad lost his interest instantly, though Jaghatai seemed to find it. Magnus was more interested in the main vaudeville show that was touring with the circus. They had a magician. There was also a fire eater that Vulkan was interested in. Mortarion also liked the idea of watching someone eat fire.
The day of the performance arrived, the excitement in the residence was nearly palpable. The Emperor was happy that it was a Nova day so that the Primarchs had something to keep them occupied. His own day was very busy, the Mechanicum had just acquired a new Nectrontyr construct that they wanted the Emperor to look at with them.
After school activities went quickly for the Primarchs. They did their homework at the normal time, and then did their chores early so that they wouldn't get in the way. It also kept them busy until it was time to go to the performances.
The circus went over quite well, with one exception. The Primarchs had all gotten frozen treats to eat during the show. Ferrus had something like an ice cream sandwich and some of the cookie part transfered onto his hand. Without thinking, he went to lick the cookie bits off his hand, causing his tongue to get stuck.
"Fuhweh?" Ferrus said, he was a bit embarrassed. Fulgrim turned and raised his eyebrows at Ferrus' situation.
"Is your tongue stuck to your hand?" Fulgrim asked, trying not to giggle at his brother. Ferrus nodded. "Father, Ferrus needs some help."
"Hold his wrist, please," the Emperor said from behind Ferrus. They had opted to sit in two rows to keep everyone closer together. Fulgrim did as the Emperor asked, looking unsure of why he was doing it. The Emperor then yanked Ferrus' head back, forcing his tongue to un-stick from his hand.
"Thankth, Fawthewr," Ferrus said, his tongue was painful, but they all knew that it would heal quick enough.

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Magnus practically dragged the group over to where the vaudeville show was performing. He didn't want to miss the magician act. The others were also excited for it. Magnus was looking forward to trying to figure out how the magic was done.

"Remember, if you are picked as a volunteer then you cannot volunteer again," the Emperor said. "Also, do not ruin the show for everyone else."

"Alright, Father," the Primarchs chorused. The magician had several tricks, some of them requiring volunteers. 

"Alright, I need a very brave volunteer for this next trick," the magician said. The Primarchs all shot their hands into the air. The magician looked around, and then picked Vulkan from the group. 

"What's your name?" the magician asked.

"Vulkan," Vulkan answered so the crowd could hear him.

"Alright, Vulkan," the magician said. "I need you to get in this box, please."

"Okay," Vulkan said and carefully got in the box. His feet stuck out from one end of the box with his head out of the other end. The magician then pulled out an old style manual saw. 

"I will now saw our young friend here in half," the magician announced. Corvus squirmed, concerned for his brother. He looked at the set up again, and realized suddenly that the feet sticking out of the one box end were in fact, not Vulkan's feet. He relaxed as he realized how the trick worked. The magician sawed through the box quickly, saying that it wouldn't hurt if he went quickly. Once he was through the box he had two assistants pull the table apart, showing that the box was in two pieces. 

"Now, I will put Vulkan back together again," the magician said.  The assistants set the table back together and he waved a hand over the box, causing it to look whole again. He then had Vulkan get out of the box, in one piece.

"A round of applause for our brave volunteer!" the magician called out as the crowd clapped and cheered. Vulkan then headed back to his seat next to Corvus. 

"How did it feel to be sawn in half?" Mortarion asked. 

"Cramped," Vulkan whispered as he passed. Louder, he said, "Strange."

"It looked like fun," Konrad said. The rest of the vaudeville show went well, though none of the other acts could truly measure up to the magician for the Primarchs. The Emperor found the thing that he was enjoying the most was the reactions of his sons to the various feats and acts of both the circus and vaudeville. He understood how all of it worked, and had even been a circus performer once back in the very early days. When he had gone again, after leaving the circus, he had found it boring and predictable.

"That was fun," Magnus said as the left the performance area for the vaudville. The other Primarchs were nodding, though the Lion and Leman were having a play sword fight with a pair of toy swords that looked much shorter than they were in their hands. 

"Ha!" the Lion said as he disarmed Leman. The toy sword skittered away and Leman chased after it. 

"I'll beat you eventually," Leman said as he returned to the group, toy in hand. 

"Never," the Lion retorted with a smile. They reached the Thunderhawk and returned to the Palace.