Debut, OTA - The Hum and the Shiver

[wispofathing]

Curnen couldn’t hear everything people were saying around her, but she could guess well enough what they were on about. Probably given her torn jeans and spaghetti-strap tank top, they were wondering who this ratty little girl was in the midst of a city that was all shine, polish, and culture. Probably wondering what she was, since she was pretty sure she heard someone say "gypsy." Maybe someone who knew a thing or two about music was pointing out that her guitar was on the cheap end of the spectrum.

Maybe it was just her hands. She saw more than a couple of people point at them.

She ignored them, and it didn’t take much to see that it wasn’t her ability to give no fucks that let her do this. Quite the opposite. If she started paying attention to the derision, she was going to crumble and flee the scene. Rather, she threw herself into the tuning of her guitar, doing her best imitation of Bliss, who wouldn’t’ve let any of them rattle her. Who probably really wouldn’t notice. Bliss would have shut them all up with a joke and a beatific smile or something. But...

She didn’t look at anybody, instead turning her face up to the sky and at first allowing her voice to come out in high, mournful keening. Bliss’s voice was low and rough, all grit and smoke on the water. Curnen... well. Her voice didn’t have that kind of obvious sex appeal. When she was little, her family had always said she had a voice like an angel, and that was what it sounded like. The effortless notes rising from her throat were clear and ethereal, the song something she’d picked up from the ren faire circuit.

Abroad as I was walking one evening in the spring
I heard a maid in Bedlam who mournfully did sing
Her chains she rattled on her hands, and thus replied she
"I love my love because I know my love loves me."

The atmosphere changed at once, disdain changing to awe, admiration, and even tears, though Curnen paid no attention to that either. even as the money started making its way into her guitar case. It wasn’t until she took an instrumental break between verses that she allowed herself to look around her and offer a little smile from under her lashes as someone approached to drop a bank note into the pile.

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[winter_wisp]

Winter was always drawn to music, but it was more than the melody that drew him in. There was something familiar, and yet totally different, in the air. He liked different. Different was always exciting.

He'd spent most of his pocket money this week, and hadn't gone busking recently, but he could charm money out of the hands of mortals with little more than a smile, and with his wallet freshly packed with notes, he happily dropped one into her case.

"I like your song," he chirped, "It's pretty."

Philip had come to visit this morning, and was currently riding along in the turned down hood of his hoodie. The budgie peeked out though, and after a moment moved to perch on Winter's shoulder, chirping and bouncing a bit.

"Philip likes it too," the pixie added.

[wispofathing]

Curnen had meant to murmur a thank you with a little smile and leave it at that, but when her eyes met the boy's it took everything in her just to keep her fingers working at the strings without a telltale hiccup. She had met people who looked Tufa but weren't. Rob had been one of them. It was a new experience to meet someone who not only had the blood in spite of not looking like her, but had the true. There wasn't a drop of human in this one.

"Philip's very kind," she said. She tended not to talk much at all while busking; she'd seen too many faces change in one way or another once her accent got easy to identify. Now, though, there was something akin to hope in her eyes. "What d'you play?"

[winter_wisp]

"I play piano. ...Well, keyboard mostly. Pianos are heavy, they can't go a lot of places," Winter replied, rocking back on his heels as he spoke. He was wearing his favourite light-up shoes, and they twinkled as he moved. "I sing too, and sometimes I play pan flute, but they're hard to find in London."

Left alone, Winter would babble on and on, but Philip wasn't in the mood, and gave the pixie's ear a tug. Pulling a face, Winter rubbed his ear as the budgie returned to bouncing.

[wispofathing]

"Ever tried looking online? I mean, I dunno how people can buy an instrument without holdin' it first and seeing how they like it, but--" but Curnen cut herself off when Philip made his displeasure known. She stared at the little bird before she started to giggle.

"Well. Looks like your little friend's mighty opinionated."

[winter_wisp]

"He is rude," Winter said, his tone not scolding or accusatory.

"I'm not allowed to shop online anymore," he added with a slightly wicked little grin.

[wispofathing]

"That right?" she asked, grinning wide. "Whose money'd you waste and what on?"

[toujours_impur]

Sirius wasn't usually one to stop long for a street musician, but the girl's voice was really something, and it had him pausing to listen. Once he'd gotten a good look at her, he was glad he had stopped, for she was as beautiful as she was talented.

He flashed her a warm smile in return as he dropped the note, still missing the satisfying weight and clink of galleons, but he was growing used to living somewhat separated from the world he'd grown up in.

"Your song was almost as lovely as you are," he observed, tilting his head as he looked at her.

[wispofathing]

Oh, shit, this one was pretty. Pretty like her cousin Stoney was pretty, like he knew that he could have anybody who vaguely interested him with a smile and a crooked finger.

Well. Pretty like Stoney used to be, she supposed. Bliss's last email said he'd really let himself go after Berklee Collins stabbed him in the dick last year. Curnen only barely remembered that moment and it had been on the edge of her perception, but knowing Stoney she was pretty sure he'd deserved it.

Curnen lowered her eyes shyly, not used to compliments. She used to get them, at least when Bliss wasn't around, but it had been a long time she'd she'd been anything along the lines of being used to them. "I bet you say that to all the girls," she said mostly in the direction of her feet.

[toujours_impur]

Well, not all of the girls, and not precisely that, so Sirius didn't feel at all bad when he shook his head, then refuted her words aloud, as she wasn't looking at him. It wasn't a lie after all. "No, I'm quite certain you're the only one I've ever said that to," he assured her warmly. "Where did you learn to play?" He himself had dabbled with an electric guitar, mostly to incense his mother, but even with the longevity of a wizard, he doubted he'd ever match her skill or innate talent.

[wispofathing]

That, though, that wasn't much like Stoney at all. He'd have whipped out some innuendo by now rather than ask a question. Hell, she wasn't sure he'd ever asked anybody questions unless they were Rockhouse. Almost without thinking about what she was doing, Curnen started playing an instrumental piece so she could talk, her eyes flicking up. "My sister taught me. Everybody in the family plays something, but she got to me first, I guess."

[leloupnoir]

In a city as full of smells as London, it was difficult to focus on any one scent. It was an added bonus to smoking, making the abundance of smells more tolerable. So when Akeem had stopped to listen to the girl, he hadn't noticed her scent straight away. Her twelve fingers barely had him blink an eye, and he simply enjoyed the music, beautiful and moving in a way busking only enhanced.

When she took a break, he walked closer to drop a note in her case, and only then noticed her scent, because he focused on it. Some sort of Fae, he thought, absolutely unsurprised, and returned her small smile when she looked up at him. "You've got a gift," he told her honestly, and dropped the tenner inside the case.

[wispofathing]

There were no days that Curnen made nothing doing this since eventually the voice of a Tufa would sway somebody to help her out, but there were lucrative days and lean days. Ten from one person, though, that didn't happen all the time.

And while she could always be more... persuasive, she'd resolved (and promised Bliss) that she'd save that for when she was really desperate.

She knew she had a gift, compared to people anyway. She didn't consider herself anything particularly special among her own kind, though, and she grinned like a kid. "And you're real generous. Thanks very much."

[leloupnoir]

"A talent like yours ought to be encouraged," Akeem told her honestly. He wasn't rich by any means, but he made enough money that he could allow himself the odd eccentricity. Between the shop, which he owned, and the classes he taught at university, he earned more than his simple bachelor's life required.

[wispofathing]

The honest urge was to self-deprecate, and Curnen visibly had to bite back to urge to downplay her skills. That was one thing when she was at home, but she couldn't afford to be like that now. Literally.

Her hands automatically switched to an instrumental piece. "Oh, you think I'm good, there's people at home'd make you weep," she said instead.

[leloupnoir]

"I've no doubt about that," Akeem assured her with a small smile. From what few Fae he had met, he would certainly wager as much. "But they're not here, playing for us." Thankfully. Making crowds weep with a song might be taking things a step too far.

[sunsongs]

Coby was drawn in with the first few notes the girl sang, and then recognized the song as one Máire played on a lot of her solo gigs. He hummed along to himself, the hand at his side fingers twitching as they found the chords.

He smiled warmly at her as he dropped a bill onto the pile she was collecting, one musician to another, but didn't interrupt her playing.

[wispofathing]

Curnen's fingering was not like most people's. She'd learned to play from someone with five fingers like most everybody did, but time and discomfort had her adapting what she knew how to do. Rockhouse had never taken much interest in showing her how to handle her extra digits, since stars and stones forbid he ever do anything to help anybody.

That said, she did recognize the sort of fidgeting that was unique to musicians. People who had no idea how to play did air guitar. People who played found themselves figuring out chords or just flat out playing along against their leg.

She grinned, always happy to meet another musician. When this song was over, she switched to something instrumental so she could talk. "You play?"

[sunsongs]

"Long as I can remember," he confirmed, since she was willing to talk. Coby'd been paying more attention to her music than her fingering, so it took him longer than it might've to figure out what was different about it. It reminded him of that movie... what was it. With Uma Thurman. This piece can only be played with twelve fingers or whatever the line was.

"I'd go kinda crazy if I didn't." Well, crazier. If you asked Coby, he was more than just kinda crazy on his good days.

[wispofathing]

I did go crazy.

"That so?" she asked, her eyes momentarily sly. It went away quickly. "You're from the states, ain'tcha? What brought you to this side of the pond?"

[sunsongs]

"California." Coby shrugged. "Needed to get away for awhile. Change your space, change your mood, I guess. And I had a friend from here interested in a home swap, timing was right. I packed up my gear and came to London. What about you? You don't sound like you're from around here either."

[phouka]

The Phouka had heard her from a distance and had come to investigate. Closer, closer, until he could see her as well as hear her. And this close he could smell her. It was familiar but foreign and he was too intrigued to anything but come closer with folded notes to place in her case.

"You sing like a bird, lovely," he said warmly. His eyes were deep and dark, liquid and soft as a doe's. His hair was tied back at the nape of his neck and though it was warm he wore a white shirt with a black and gold waistcoat and a contrasting gold and black coat with tails. Such finery suited him, giving him an air much more regal than he truly was.

[wispofathing]

Now. It wasn't that Curnen had never met tall people. Stoney was a pretty big guy and he knew how to use it. Given the rarity, though, it didn't take away the effect when someone was over a foot taller than she was (many people were at least a little taller, but all the same) and Curnen looked up, and up more. She blinked wide, dark eyes. "Good night."

She ducked her head. That was not what she should have said. For a few reasons.

Bliss had told her that Europe was chancy. Not that Tufa never left home. Bronwyn Hyatt had joined the army and gone to Iraq and all--not to mention those two they'd had to sing out of the community not long before Curnen had been cursed--but that was nowhere near the British Isles where she was all but guaranteed to run into fae. Other fae. Her blood and her being recognized him.

Also it was just a show of really awful manners. "Thank you," she said, mostly in the direction of her feet.

[phouka]

Phouka smiled gently and reached for her chin to lift her gaze again.

"You are quite welcome," he said. "Where do you come from? I know none like you."

[wispofathing]

Well, she could be a baby about it and continue to try to avert her gaze, or she could put on her big girl pants and stop being stupid. Curnen opted for meeting his eyes. "Home's across the ocean, in the United States," she explained without saying those words that were technically true--she had a social security number and stuff--but were not accurate: I'm American.

[phouka]

"Ah! Such a long journey for you. Welcome to London. It s not my home, but my home for now," he smiled. "Do you have lodging? Food? Are you comfortable in this world?" he asked as if it were the most normal of conversations to have.