OTA

[akatawitch]

The best part of summer was reading things because you wanted to and not because you had an assignment, and Sunny had a lot of catching up to do. Oh, she read a few trashy romance novels during the school year, but that was about all her brain could take. Now she had the time and space for things that required quite a bit more concentration as Greer Gilman's work did.

Even so, it was too easy to lock yourself indoors when it came to books, so she made a point of reading out in public whenever possible. Which was nice. She claimed a spot reading under a tree in the park and let the utter contrast of winter tales carry her away into flights of fancy. So it was too bad when she overheard a piece of conversation between two elderly women shuffling by along the nearby path. She hadn't been trying to listen or anything, it had just floated into awareness.

"The only people I do have problems with are Negros. And I don't know why."

Huh. Usually people were more subtly awful than that. They must be really good friends to say that kind of thing without fear of judgment.

Sunny slipped a hand into her purse and gave her knife a surreptitious twist. "Bring music of my heart," she murmured.

Her heart at the moment seemed to be full of California love. Positively blaring "California Love."

The song seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, and Sunny watched as people looked around for a source that they would not find. Anybody with magic would know at once that no such source would be found, and probably wouldn't have to work that hard to discern that it was her doing.

Sunny however only raised an eyebrow at the proceedings ­­and went back to her book. No one was going to die from five minutes of rap.

Though those women appeared to be trying to shuffle away as fast as they could, and that was a thing of beauty.

Comments

[faizel]

Faizel didn't know the song, but he knew that it had been summoned somehow, and he frowned in confusion- Right up until the moment he noticed Sunny with her book. Suppressing a smile, he made his way over. As usual, he was wearing a mix of wizard and mortal garb, which in this case was a pair of trousers that looked almost like a skirt, paired with a simple button down shirt. Though he wore it so easily that it rarely drew much attention.

"Your doing, I assume?" he smiled as he sat down beside her.

[akatawitch]

Even with her brain trying to wrap around the dense text, Sunny could still feel the moment that someone had caught her out. It wasn't just that someone was looking at her, it was that she'd been attached to the sound. Of course, she tried to pretend that she didn't feel that prickle on the back of her neck and turned a page, looking at it without taking in any of the words.

It wasn't until she heard Faizel's voice that she looked over the top of her book and smiled almost sheepishly. "It might be."

[faizel]

"Any reason?" he asked, smoothing out his trousers as he sat down on the grass. "It's not exactly subtle..."

[akatawitch]

Sunny found herself blushing a little, stupid though that was. "A moment of overheard blatant racism," she said. "So I looked for the blackest thing I could find in retaliation. Which, apparently, was Tupac."

She fidgeted when she admitted, "It was probably not the most mature of reactions."

[faizel]

"Perhaps," Faizel agreed with a laugh. "However, sometimes it's alright to be a little less than mature," he shrugged.

[akatawitch]

Emboldened, Sunny allowed herself to grin. "Even when it results in music that is twenty years out of date and neck deep in a culture war I don't think any of these people get?"

[faizel]

Faizel only shrugged. He knew nothing about this music- Other than it wasn't his personal taste.

"It's just music. It's causing no real harm."

[akatawitch]

"Hate it, huh?" Sunny asked him point blank, but the idea didn't seem to bother her very much. If anything, that only seemed to amuse her more.

[faizel]

"Hate's a strong word," Faizel assured her. "I like to think I have eclectic tastes, but- I have to confess, I wouldn't have listened to this on my own."

[akatawitch]

Sunny waved away the assurance with a little smile, it really didn't bother her. "Tupac Shakur, one of the greats of the 1990s. The lyrics of this one are... well, more about the ongoing conflict of whether the west coast or east coast had better rap music, but his other work? He's one of the ones where you can write essays about how his work is art. He should have continued to be one of the great ones, but I honestly think there's a law of the universe or something that says only terrible, terrible rappers get to live long lives."

[faizel]

"...Right," Faizel replied, clearly not familiar with anything she was speaking of. "I'm afraid I'll have to take your word for it, it's not a topic I know much about or intend to look into," he confessed.

[akatawitch]

Sunny huffed a little laugh, more at herself than at him. She had only begun to geek, but she'd stop. "What sort of music do you like, then?"

[faizel]

"Sounds that help me focus," he admitted. "Some classical, some very calm, um- I suppose what they call electronic music? I have a lot of meditation albums and things of that sort too."

[sunsongs]

Coby knew the song, and it wasn't one he expected to hear out of nowhere as he was walking through the park. He looked around, finding a familiar face but no source for the music.

Not that it mattered, he'd rather see the pretty girl any day.

"Somebody's feeling old school today," he said, waving a hand vaguely in the air to suggest the music as he walked closer to her spot under a tree. "But don't let me bother you if you want to be reading. I just saw you and wanted to say hey."

[akatawitch]

"Nah, I can't concentrate on this book with that kind of sound going," Sunny laughed, admitting her defeat. The read was tough going, but fascinating enough that she didn't much mind. Still, again, no one would die from five minutes of rap and she wasn't about to think of this as a backfire. "It's more language experiment than narrative."

She pulled her bookmark out of the back so she could mark her place and set the text aside. "How're you doing?"

[sunsongs]

Once he knew he wasn't intruding, Coby sat down by her, his legs stretched out in front of him, and leaned back on his hands, his face tipped up toward the English sun. "Surprisingly homesick all the sudden," he answered, laughing softly. "Can't take California out of the boy or something like that. And they say you never forget the music you grew up with."

[akatawitch]

"No, you don't," Sunny agreed, for all that her childhood was more Afrobeat. Even now, Fela Kuti was a security blanket. But she just had to ask, "So'd you actually grow up listening to Tupac, or is it just that 'California Love' made it that far into pop culture consciousness?"

[sunsongs]

That got a laugh. "Did I grow up listening to Tupac? Most of my friends were jealous my parents didn't just let me listen to Tupac, they encouraged it. 'Protest songs for my generation' and all that. I know good stuff when I hear it, even if I'll never be a rapper myself."

'California Love' wasn't usually his favorite, although which one would be changed depending on his mood and what he'd listened to more recently. But today it was a good one.

"How about you, Miss New York to Nigeria? You think West coast's the best coast?"

[akatawitch]

Lousy liberal white folks. "Augh, my parents never let me! They let my brothers, though, because they were older or boys or something. So they smuggled it to me."

Sunny had to pretend to think about that for a moment. "I don't think I can make an informed decision. I spent my formative years on the east coast and I've only ever visited the west."

[sunsongs]

So Sunny'd had the thrill of the forbidden Coby lacked when it came to music. He wasn't jealous exactly, but he kind of wondered what that would've been like sometimes.

"And I'm a Cali white boy who's only visited the east coast." More ways he and Sunny were opposites. "But now we're both bloody Americans in jolly old, so it's all good."

[akatawitch]

Sunny had to burst out laughing at that one. "Colonialism for everyone!"

[sunsongs]

Coby's smile brightened. Sunny had a good laugh, and he liked bringing it out of her. "We claim this land in the memory of Tupac and Biggie?"

[akatawitch]

That made Sunny snort. "Not quite what I meant. When I tell people why I'm here, that's what I tell them. Colonialism. Usually I'm talking about Nigeria. I mean, not like I don't know history, but for whatever reason I don't think of the US in the same way usually. Sun never sets on the former British empire or something."

[sunsongs]

History, and the too often literal headaches it gave him, had never really been Coby's favorite subject. Things got kind of muddled. One more reason he didn't really think about colonialism the way Sunny obviously did, but he felt like he understood what she meant.

He shook his head. "I like my way better."

[akatawitch]

"Your way is much more amusing," Sunny had to agree. "And it sounds so much more classy than 'obnoxiously spreading American culture.'"