The roar of the crowd. The gasps. The cheers. As a Busker, you have grown to love these sounds. Let the GlitterKids think they're important, you'll be around long after they've faded away. You took your name from twentieth century street performers, but you owe just as much to the circus and vaudville.
        The corps have cracked down and made your performances illegal in an attempt to curb non-sanctioned entertainment. These days, it's much more difficult to take your act to the public; now, you take the public to the hidden corners where you can perform. Often these corners are cramped, but with a spark of magic, a touch of danger, and a sprinkle of laughter, you keep your audience enthralled, and that's what being a Busker is all about.

What you look like
        While not perfroming, your clothing tends to be loud and colorful. Most of your goboys consider their outfits to be a form of advertisement. You try to attract attention wherever you go. Occasionally, your appearence gets you into trouble with the authorities for being distracting or disturbing. But, this encourages you, since it proves you caught everyone's eye.
        When performing, your costumes depend on your style. Almost anything goes; turbans, tuxedos, floppy shoes, vests, stripes, plaids, swirls, lab coats, and even Viking helmets are common.You will keep yourself and your equipment clean, no matter how hard you work. After all, the audience didn't come to watch a dirty kid with dirty props. They came for the glitter and spark, and that's what you want to give them. Not to mention the number of mistakes that could happen without well maintained equipment.

Subculture
        The audience. Everything in Busker subculture revolves around the stage and the audience in front of it. Very few Buskers will go out on stage with a trick they haven't perfected, so practicing and training takes the lion's share of your time. You spend the remainder promoting the shows. Advertising is a very delicate operation, because you want a large audience, but you don't want the cops or MegaViolents crashing in. Usually,you use yogang grapevines and drop boxes on the Net. Surprisingly, performing amounts to very little of your time, but it's those moments in front of the roaring crowd that you live for.
        Usually, there is some place that the yogang has taken for its own. An abandoned warehouse is effective, a nondescript house acceptable, and a theater or club ideal. No matter what area a Busker group has taken over, they always divide it into two parts, public and restricted. the public section is where you perform. The restricted section is where you practice. Those Busker groups, called houses, with a large amout of magicians will even seperate the restricted area into private zones to afford the performers' secrecy.
        Leadership in the houses is very loose. There's usually a leader elected by popular vote, but they don't have much power. Instead, they act more as a way to streamline the day-to-day operations, advertising, and training. Likewise, membership is also very fluid. Houses swap members often. Usually, it's an attempt to form a more balanced show, but sometimes it's because of special skills or contacts the member has.
        Many juves dream of life as a Busker, but that doesn't mean your life is easy. Every member is expected to help train anyone who needs to learn. this means helping them to understand the finer points of timing. or showing them the correct way to palm a card. As any illusion oriented Busker will tell you, training does not mean giving away all your secrets. The house expects every member to come up with their own style, perferably one that will keep the audience awake. Some Buskers take their style very seriously and will physically defend it against any perceived attacker. This happens when a rookie forms a style that seems reminiscent or satiric of another Busker's, but it doesn't happen often.

Belonging
        Getting into the Buskers was one of the most difficult things you've ever done. Sometimes, a member drags in a friends as an assistant, buy you weren't so lucky. You practiced your axt for years. When at last you thought you were ready, you went on stage an showed them what you had. The entire house watched, evaluating, judging. While your performance wasn't perfect, it did meet thier high standards. Even though they say the spark, you still weren't in. It was only after your first performance, when they saw the audience's enthusiasm that they admitted you. You were still a rookie, but you were a Busker.
        While getting into the Buskers is difficult, getting kicked out is easy. Of course, if you sell out to the corps, they'll expel you., but there are many other ways to win removal. If you start stealing other member's acts, you're on your way out. If you harm anyone through a direct result of your act, the house can remove you for recklessness or gross incompetence. Just as the popular vote of applause decides the quality of a performance, whether to expel someone takes a majority vote. If someone is expelled, they are cut off from training, equipment, assistance, stage time, advertising, and even entry into performances. Usually, harassment (physical and verbal) follows the ex-Busker. With time, the group might re-admit a dismissed Busker, but it takes an almost unanimous vote. not too many make it back.

Allies and Enemies
        Your closest allies are the Facers, who are performers in their own way, and the Vidiots, who give you exposure. But you consider almost any juve in the audience a friend. Usually, the BeaverBrats, Moshers, BoardPunks, and GoGangers make the best spectators. You despise the MegaViolents who tend to destroy your performances and throw off your rehersals. You also dislike the GoldenKids and GlitterKids, both of which consider you low class; you'll try to mess up these two yogangs whenever you get the chance. 

Slang
Juiced in: On stage
Barnum: Excellent
House: A group of Buskers
Hit the Floods: To be out of your league
Chilled: Terrible
HookHolder: An enemy
A Shave: An excellent performance
Creases: GlitterKids and GoldenKids

Yogang Skill: STAGECRAFT (Ref)
        What you do on stage isn't just a matter of luck and natural talent. It also takes years of practice. The only reason it looks easy, is because you make it look easy. Every day you learn more tricks, better methods, and practice them until your muscles act on their own. This allows you to weild control over your audience by making pratfalls (Easy), swallowing swords and fire (Difficult), and juggling almost any object you can throw (StageCraft + 2 items, Average).

Using your StageCraft skill

• Ventriloquism isn't dead yet, although some say it is sickly. You can throw your voice. (Difficulty varies with distance)
• It took a while, but since death defiance always packs them in, you learned escape routines. You may use your StageCraft instead of ThiefStuff or JockStuff to break out of most simple bonds.
• You thought magic would be a nice addition to your act, so you learned all you could about close up conjuring. You may use StageCraft instead of ThiefStuff for palming and picking pockets.
• Finally, you wanted to scare the bejeesus out of that one assistant, so you took up knife throwing. You may use StageCraft instead of StreetFighting or JockStuff when using a knife or hatchet.

If you're a Busker,
1) Tell me your name, age, and sex.
2) Describe yourself.
3) Apart from your v-trodes, pick 5 things that you are carrying

• 7 throwing knives
• seltzer bottle
• ventriloquist dummy
• 8 juggling balls
• 15 playbills
• fake sword
• hooked cane
• 5 InstaLite torches