[GP/EP] Check-in Day

[st_igmatized]

It was a musical day at the Madonna Inn, both inside and out. Curnen had taken her usual place up on the roof and was singing charms to the sky to keep any wanderers from getting lost (though that part of it was not immediately obvious). Unrelated to that, Sunny was on the dance floor in the bar, summoning songs of her own with her knife to keep her moving before she went to do her shift at the library later. It was one of those days where if she thought about it too hard she’d start thinking about that empty bed in her shitty room and the person she most wanted to be there.

This of course eventually seeped into her magic. She knew better. Maybe she’d even wanted that to happen.

Because just once, between different pop hits and dance beats came a rather unexpected French love song. She sighed and rolled her eyes, but the exasperation didn’t last. Before the lyrics started up she was waltzing. By herself and not caring how it might have looked. And for those three and a half minutes, she dared let herself hope for the slimmest chance that Orlu might come through that door.

She didn’t let herself hope too hard, though. There was admitting to feeling things and there was setting yourself up for certain disappointment. She’d lived too long with disappointment to do that to herself.

Comments

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_igmatized]

"Oh, yes." Her smile was mischievous. "Nothing is quite as beautiful as the whitest of white people trying to figure out where 'California Love' is coming from."

Sunny brightened at this news. "That sounds like fun." Several people at the inn, herself included, could manipulate fire but only very crudely compared to anything Jag could do.

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_artandstoke]

Jag smiled at her reaction, emboldened enough by it to move straight on to what he'd meant to ask her. "You think you could play some music for it? I don't know how your spell works. Can you pick what you play?"

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_igmatized]

"I can summon songs of my choice, yes. Though the first thing I learned to do was summon whatever spoke to whoever I was casting for in that moment." It was how the sappy song had slipped in there, because in the midst of everything the music of Sunny's heart had been something about the man she missed.

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_artandstoke]

"Wait, so you can - you can play something you've never even heard?" Jag asked, because that sounded even better than he'd imagined.

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_igmatized]

Sunny smiled and nodded. "If it's music that you've heard, yes."

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_artandstoke]

"That's bloody amazing," Jag said, with genuine wonder. "Wow. Even better than I hoped!"

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_igmatized]

Sunny ducked her head, feeling suddenly shy. "Did you have your heart set on something in particular?"

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_artandstoke]

"I'll need to have a think," Jag admitted. "I didn't reckon I'd have this much choice."

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_igmatized]

"We could find out what's on your mind right now..." Sunny offered, holding up her knife.

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_artandstoke]

"You're not going to cut me, are you?" Jag asked with raised eyebrows. He had to check. That knife looked dead sharp.

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_igmatized]

Sunny shook her head. "It's not for cutting flesh. Though if you trust me, I can demonstrate why."

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_artandstoke]

That sounded too intriguing for Jag to resist. He smirked at her, eyes glinting with interest. "Please."

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_igmatized]

Sunny nodded and came closer. "Your left hand then, please. Just a prick, promise."

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_artandstoke]

Jag didn't hesitate, and held his hand out to her.

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_igmatized]

Sunny took his hand in hers and pressed the tip of the blade into the tip of Jag's middle finger. It didn't take much pressure at all, the knife was indeed very sharp. She pulled the knife away and held up her own left hand.

In the same spot on her own finger, a bright bead of blood welled up from an identical prick. "Any damage I do to another living creature with this knife is done to me."

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_artandstoke]

"Shite for a weapon," he remarked, and sucked on his fingertip for a second. "Reckon that's the point?"

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_igmatized]

"Yes," Sunny said, muttering a word to get rid of that drop of blood on her blade before she put her finger in her mouth as well. She'd clean the knife properly later. "It's really more of a very sharp magic wand than a weapon."

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_artandstoke]

"Very sharp," Jag confirmed with a half smile. "But yeah, we can try and see what's in my heart right now."

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_igmatized]

Sunny smiled at that and cut the air with quick slashes of her knife. She held out her empty hand as if catching something--which she was, but invisible to the eye it wasn't much worth explaining--and spoke. "Bring music of Jag's heart."

She had no control over what arrived with the use of this spell. It could be music she knew, it might not be. She'd have to find out.

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_artandstoke]

Accordion began playing, joined by other folk instruments, and Jag chuckled as he recognised the tune they'd often sung (bellowed, shouted along to), back with the circus. "Didn't expect that."

The homesickness hit him like a slap in the face when the band began singing, and he swallowed against it, blinking his eyes a couple of times to dismiss the sting of tears. "Not what I had in mind for the show, but it's nice to hear." It was, despite the sharp swell of longing for his family. His family he might never see again.

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_igmatized]

Immediately, Sunny's face fell. "Should I make it stop?"

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_artandstoke]

"No, no! Don't, please don't," Jag said immediately, holding a hand out towards her. "It really is nice to hear."

Heartbreaking as well, but he was living with the alternate version of the woman he loved.

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_igmatized]

Sunny hesitated, but she nodded and lowered her knife and let the song play through without further comment.

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_artandstoke]

"Cheers," he said with a small smile, eyes only glinting a little suspiciously, most tears effectively blinked back. He let the song wash over him, and added, "Nice memories, you know?" Very, very nice memories.

Re: Jag - Closed to Sunny

[st_igmatized]

"Yeah, I do," Sunny agreed. Even if these days pretty much all memories reminded them of all the things they'd been forcibly ripped away from. She couldn't listen to Fela Kuti without thinking of her dad, and she even missed him. She would never admit that.