OTA

[wispofathing]

Ostensibly they were out busking, but the Overbay sisters were singing to and for as well as with each other.

Bliss was perhaps not a great beauty as her little sister made her sound, but there was something beautiful about her when she was in motion. About thirty in appearance with smile lines, she was taller and more solid than her pixie-like sister, her presence had a quiet, nurturing, steady calm to it that balanced out Curnen’s flitting energy. Her bone straight black hair was braided back, hanging to her waist. Her eyes were green (as one might expect of a fairy), but a normal green that looked blue sometimes depending on what she was wearing.

They passed an actually nice guitar back and forth between them—Curnen’s now, Willy was letting her keep it!—and while the case was open for anyone who cared to show their appreciation, they paid it no real mind even though the crowd was very generous today. This was a reunion and a healing and a prayer. They had not sung together properly since Lyndon Johnson was president.

Which wasn't to say that pragmatism wasn't telling them to turn it into a little something more.

Less often they brought out a violin, and only Curnen played that one. Bliss had brought it with her and it was her intention to leave it here. It had been their daddy's. Curnen was nervous about that, since the man who had raised her hadn’t been her father by blood… but Bliss made the poor thing sound like a dying cat.

But it was their voices that was most important and really entranced. The younger sister had a high, ethereal soprano, the older sister lower and smokier alto, and they knew how to blend these to best effect with a certainty that came from years of experience.

Curnen could keep this up all day, but practicalities had to be tended to. Practicalities like lunch. Bliss volunteered to go in search of something while Curnen continued to play on her own. She scratched inexpertly--which was by human standards still at least passably--at her daddy's violin, remembering how he'd been able to coax goddamn light and shadow from this instrument.

Comments

[yves]

Yves had spent the morning at his storage facility, dropping off a few items and collecting others. While his magic made his home larger than it was, he wasn't a fan of clutter, and often cycled things in and out.

He slowed when he spotted the small fae though. What was her name? Kristen? ...Karen? Candy, perhaps? He honestly couldn't recall. She was interesting though, enough that he slowed to a stop and dropped the loose change from his pocket into the open case.

[wispofathing]

Curnen was in the middle of playing "The Butterfly," taking it at a slower pace than she might have liked and not quite getting to how effervescently lively and free the piece was supposed to be in her attempts to get the fingering just right, but her joy in playing made up a lot of the difference.

Still, when she saw someone stop--she knew him, the doctor--she grinned wide. "Aw, ain't you kind," she said, genuinely meaning it. She appreciated all gestures.

[yves]

"I'm really not," he assured her, not threatening or unkind, just a mild statement of truth. "You play quite well though."

[wispofathing]

The grin widened further. "Now that's how I know you're kind, because I know for damn sure that I'm rusty." It wasn't arguing with Yves so much as self-deprecation.

[yves]

The fae wrinkled his nose at being called 'kind'.

"You're hardly a master, just better than some," he assured her.

[wispofathing]

Curnen laughed at that, glad to get a reaction out of someone holding himself aloof. "That's fair. Reckon I got a lot of practice ahead of me if I want to get anywhere near really worth listening to."

She finished the song with a little flourish and lowered the violin. "Even then, my baby cousin Page will probably still fiddle circles around me."

[yves]

Yves only hummed at that, clearly not terribly interested in hearing about the girl's extended family.

"Surely busking isn't your profession of choice though. Wouldn't you rather be- I don't know, a studio musician or something?"

[wispofathing]

That was a question she really should have been used to by now, and in large part she was. But Curnen was used to hearing it from, well, humans, who almost never understood what motivated her. From a fae the question was a bit more distressing and unease flickered in Curnen's dark eyes. "I tried that road once. It didn't go so well for me."

[yves]

Oh, now that was interesting.

"No? How so?" he asked.

[leloupnoir]

Akeem was just walking back towards the shop with a bag of the best falafels in London (by his standards), when he glanced across the street at the busker, just in case... And there she was, scratching away at a violin. She clearly had potential, but it wasn't quite there yet.

That didn't stop him from crossing the street to go and listen to her, dropping some change in her case as the song drew to an end. He'd been smiling as he listened to her, and he smiled at her when she stopped, but made no move to step closer or start a conversation, in case she wasn't done playing.

[wispofathing]

Curnen had been concentrating hard on her fingering to make sure she got it just right, and as such hadn't really noticed any particulars about her audience until she came to the end of the piece she was playing and lowered the violin. She beamed like a kid when she saw Akeem.

"Hope that wasn't terrible," she said, almost shy.

[leloupnoir]

"It wasn't terrible at all," Akeem told her honestly, a small, benevolent smile on his lips. Her joy was infectious and it sparkled in his own eyes.

[wispofathing]

Curnen ducked her head, pleased. "I am rusty, though. It's been... a long time since I picked up a violin."

[leloupnoir]

"At least there's an easy way to remedy that," Akeem answered. "Are you done with this set?" he asked, glancing around at the dwindling crowd. "And in the mood for a hot drink of some sort?"

He did not know how resistant Fae were to the cold, but surely playing by this weather could not help.

[wispofathing]

In truth, Curnen didn't feel the cold much, and certainly not in London where what they called cold Curnen called hilarious. The weather seemed to hover around the forties during the day, that was a fucking heatwave in Tennessee winter. "I'd love to, but Bliss'd be fussed if I disappeared before she gets back," she said, glancing in the direction her sister had gone.

[leloupnoir]

"Bliss?" Akeem echoed curiously, although he wouldn't be fussed himself if Curnen did not satiate his curiosity. Whoever Bliss might be, she was Curnen's business, and none of his.

[wispofathing]

"My sister," Curnen explained with a sheepish duck of her head. "Couldn't quite connect for Christmas, but it's better'n nothing."

[sunsongs]

Coby hadn't had to go around the corner to where he could see to recognize that soprano, and he stopped where he was, picking out the two voices blending together from the sounds of busy city around them, to just listen and enjoy for awhile. Once he got there, he'd be tempted to chat, and the world – or this small part of it – needed music like they were making, so he could wait.

Then the singing stopped, replaced by a violin. Not a match for Màire, but not bad by any definition, and Coby made the turn onto the street where they were busking, smiling when he saw Curnen bent over the fiddle, but curious there was no sign of the alto he'd heard. He tossed some change into the case on his way to lean against the wall near her where they could talk easily if she wanted, and he could listen if not.

[wispofathing]

Curnen was doing her best to play "The Butterfly," though she couldn't take it nearly as fast as she wanted to if she wanted to do anything like, oh, hit the right notes. But she was clearly enjoying herself in the process even if her playing couldn't be called anything special.

She lowered the violin when she finished and only then did she spot Coby. She grinned wide. "It's a work in progress."

[sunsongs]

"It's meant to put your own spin on." Most folk tunes were, and Curnen, from what Coby had seen, was as amazing at that sort of improvisation as she was anything else she tried music speaking. "I don't see anybody saying you can't play it at the tempo for you, and change it up once you feel like it.

"Did you ever that story, that Steve Martin learned to play banjo by cranking his record player down to 16rpm and tuning his instrument to match to play along with the music? Then once his muscles knew what they were doing, speeding things up to normal was easy."

[wispofathing]

Curnen flinched at the mention of banjo, then she roughly pushed that aside and smiled at him. "Sounds like something to try anyway. I haven't touched a violin in..." she snorted a soft laugh at herself. She didn't want to think about the actual length of time. "Years."

[sunsongs]

"You don't look old enough to say things like that." She barely looked like she wasn't jailbait, which Coby tried not to think about too often, but she didn't feel that young, and with some of the other people he'd met since coming to London and what he knew about himself...selves...self, he wondered sometimes if maybe she wasn't.

[wispofathing]

"I'm not so young as I look," Curnen promised him, her lips curling in a little smile that could only be described as wicked.

[sunsongs]

"Good thing too," he said with a wink.

"But I'm starting to feel like there are no normal people in London. And when it's somebody from California saying that..."

[wispofathing]

"There's no normal people anywhere," Curnen countered with a shrug, knowing what he meant and feigning ignorance anyway. "Only people you just don't know that well yet."

Which... was still true. Most people were fucking weird if you bothered to get to know them.