st_oneswidow: (Singing)
st_oneswidow ([personal profile] st_oneswidow) wrote in [community profile] strangetrip2017-10-15 11:01 am

[GP/EP] Check-in Day

Curnen had been at the inn for nearly six weeks, and in that time she'd had her good days and her bad. Most of the time she remembered to walk upright and speak clearly, and on the best days she remembered songs. Not many, and often with a line or two she had to fudge, and she still couldn't play worth a damn, but she was slowly remembering words to standards she'd known for longer than most of the people around her had been alive.

It was time to try again.

In the lobby and the bar she knew that for the fifteenth the welcoming committee was getting into place to set any newcomers straight on the workings of the Madonna Inn. She too was getting into place, but for a very different reason.

Perched on the roof, Curnen lifted her head to the sky and began to sing.

I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger
A-traveling through this world of woe
But there's no sickness, toil or danger
In that bright land to which I go


This time she felt the magic take hold as the song lifted up and floated out on the wind, calling out to Rob. She knew that at least some people here would sense what she was doing, would know what she was, but she didn't care. Not enough. While she still had not told anyone about her true nature, she was sure at least a couple had guessed. And there was so much less incentive here to do so. She was surrounded by wizards and beings who like herself were not human at all.

So she sang, her voice bright and clear like a bell. A beacon.
st_rummer: (radio in my head)

tag Curnen

[personal profile] st_rummer 2017-10-15 07:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Coby was used to losing time. Sometimes he woke to the mother of all hangovers with no clear idea what he'd gotten up to the night before. Those times, he kind of felt like he deserved it and just hoped the fun had been worth it. Other times, he suddenly became aware, to find himself in strange surroundings with zero clue where he was, how he'd gotten there, or how much time had passed, with no explanation except his fucked up brain playing tricks.

The last thing he remembered was grabbing his gear out of the back of Brion's van, telling him he'd see him a few months, the chill fog of a midwinter London night wrapping around him and seeping into his coat. Then he was warm, eyes adjusting to bright sun, a gentle breeze carrying scents that called up memories of childhood, but with the weight of two gig bags still pulling on his shoulders.

Well, shit.

Okay, there were a couple of options. He was hallucinating. He'd lost himself again and hopped a flight back to California in a fugue. Or... magic? After the past year or so in London, he wasn't ruling out anything just yet. Coby dug his phone out of a pocket, glad to see it still had most of a charge, less impressed it had no bars. He walked a little ways along the road in the middle of nowhere, watching the phone for any sort of signal. No luck, but there were buildings up ahead. Peeling off his coat, he shoved it through the straps of his keyboard bag and started in that direction.

He was close enough to see the parking lot when he heard a clear soprano, a familiar soprano almost calling to him, a beacon. He sped up, following the sound of her voice, scanning the area around until... There. On the roof.

Coby's smile lit up like a sunny day, and he joined in as the song near its end.

I'm going there to see my father
I'm going there no more to roam
I'm just a-going over Jordan
I'm just a-going over home


"You don't know how glad I am to hear your voice, butterfly."
st_rummer: (take what you need)

Re: tag Curnen

[personal profile] st_rummer 2017-10-15 08:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Coby didn't worry about her falling. Curnen had wings. If it hadn't meant putting down his gear, he might've flown up to join her. But not knowing where he was or how they got here, he wasn't quite ready to do that yet.

"You and me both. We're a long way from London. Not quite as long a way from Cloud County, but far enough. Is this more weird magic shit or something?"
st_rummer: (chloe bowed her head)

Re: tag Curnen

[personal profile] st_rummer 2017-10-15 11:16 pm (UTC)(link)
"Stuck? What the-" Before Coby had time to try to wrap his head around the idea, he was already sending up a prayer to Anael, who'd come when he could. He always came when Coby prayed to him, sometimes it just took a little while.

"But how? Why?" Coby shook his head. He and Curnen had been through some weird shit, and London had been all kinds of messed up. But at least maybe since she was here and said it was magic, it wasn't that his brain weasels had run amok.

This time.
st_rummer: (take what you need)

Re: tag Curnen

[personal profile] st_rummer 2017-10-16 03:00 am (UTC)(link)
Coby leaned into the touch, his hand coming up to rest over hers so he could press a kiss to the inside of her wrist, an easy intimacy between two people who'd been much more.

"It's all good, songbird. The really weird shit always wears off in a few days. In the meantime, I can't say I'm complaining about being somewhere that feels this close to home."
st_rummer: (chloe bowed her head)

Re: tag Curnen

[personal profile] st_rummer 2017-10-16 03:33 am (UTC)(link)
Could she be... No way. They were careful.

With a knuckle under her chin, Coby tipped her head up so she could look into his eyes. "Hey. Seriously, it's all right. You can't tell me anything I'm going to think less of you for, and if it's not that kind of tell me something, we'll deal."
st_rummer: (radio in my head)

Re: tag Curnen

[personal profile] st_rummer 2017-10-16 07:36 pm (UTC)(link)
"Usually it's me who doesn't know someone who knows me," Coby said gently. He'd always hated seeing her upset.

"But if you don't know me, then you wouldn't know that already, or remember we've talked about how we both know what it's like, losing yourself."

Coby straightened his spine, letting the change in posture put more space between them without him actually moving away. He offered his hand. "Hi. I'm Coby. As far as I remember, we met in London, when I just had to stop and listen to a pretty girl singing on a street corner." He couldn't match the purity of Curnen's voice, so he didn't try, but they'd always gotten to know each other best through music, and begin at the beginning, so he offered the first song he heard her sing:

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."
st_rummer: (ballad of denim boy and grey girl)

Re: tag Curnen

[personal profile] st_rummer 2017-10-17 06:40 pm (UTC)(link)
"Hey," the word drew out soft and slow. "Easy now, butterfly." It's all good.

"Good thing I didn't show up empty-handed." He hitched the bags higher on his shoulders. "You were remembering when we met, but it's a work in progress, right? And 'as the crow flies' doesn't work with memories. Never has for me. But get the music going, things will get clearer."

A thought came to Coby then, and he chewed the corner of his mouth deciding whether to ask, and how. If she didn't remember, there were things she maybe didn't need him telling her right away. "How were things back home, the last you remember?"
st_rummer: (Default)

Re: tag Curnen

[personal profile] st_rummer 2017-10-19 12:16 am (UTC)(link)
It should probably have been disconcerting, that reminder Curnen was other, but seeing that flash of who and what she was, and that she'd shown it to him based only on his word he knew her, felt good.

"That was... I don't know, weeks before we met, at least. And months since. But yeah, you told me about taking his singing voice. I can't imagine an asshole who deserved it more."
st_rummer: (cover me in gold)

Re: tag Curnen

[personal profile] st_rummer 2017-10-19 07:45 pm (UTC)(link)
"Any time," Coby assured her with a grin.

"So. Stuck?"
st_rummer: (radio in my head)

Re: tag Curnen

[personal profile] st_rummer 2017-10-23 07:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Okay, that was unexpected. But so was everything since he grabbed his shit from Brion's van. So he had a room. Wouldn't be the first time there'd been some bigger purpose behind events in his life, whether he could see what it was or not.

"I should maybe see about checking i-" he trailed off mid-thought as another intruded.

"I can't remember, and you were kind of fuzzy about time sometimes. Are The Eagles one of those gaps in your musical education?" He'd had fun once, introducing her to Eric Clapton, before he knew the truth behind why she had those gaps.
st_rummer: (take what you need)

Re: tag Curnen

[personal profile] st_rummer 2017-10-25 06:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Coby gave a little nod. He'd kind of expected that. Besides, "If you knew them, you'd have known why I asked. I can play you the whole thing later, if you want, but...

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face.
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year you can find it here


"There's more that seems to fit, and more I'm really hoping doesn't." But knowing Coby's life... maybe better he didn't think about it that way.

"Candle or not, wanna show me the way?"