fandomtownies | Groovy Tunes; Tuesday [06/09].

Tisarwat must have caught some sort of bug over the weekend, which only provided another example of how poorly suited she felt to this planet as a whole.

Although, really, if she was honest with herself, she wasn't exactly well-suited for space travel, either, considering how many times she'd almost gotten sick in a null-g suit or a capsule.

What she was suited for, though, as much as she hated to admit it these days, was sitting behind a counter with a mug of tea, not doing much except for the most rote and repeatative of administrative tasks or handling with occasional customer transation here and there. And that's what she was doing, now that she was feeling a little bit better, trying not to think abou the fact that she'd probably be doing this, but back home and in some official beaurocratic capacity, if it weren't for everything that happened...

And there were some days when she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

That Tisarwat, she realized, would have only been thinking about what she'd be doing for the weekend as she smiled and handed a customer a small bag of CDs and guitar picks. This Tisarwat was thinking she really, really needed to do something that weekend...as long as the planet didn't get in her way and give her another fun little bug to deal with instead.

Groovy Tunes is open!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Lucille had visited the music store when she was still a student, looking for some sheet music. Instruments had been too expensive and she hadn't needed a piano anyway, since she had the one at the school all to herself.

A piano might still be too expensive, but at least she should find out. She entered, stopping just inside the door to glance around the room.

And so few people seemed to come into the store (except the one with the beard and the glasses who always seemed to come in intent to talk to Tisarwat for at least an hour about the superior sound quality of vinyl, which she did not understand and was fairly certain she didn't want to understand) that Tisarwat's attention immediately lifted up toward the door and she snapped into employee mode with a warm smile that was even slightly genuine just for the excitement of it all.

Because that was what was considered exicitement these days. That Tisarwat loved it; this Tisarwat? Not so much.

"Hi," she called out from the counter, "welcome to Groovy Tunes. Let me know if you need help finding anything."

"I'm looking for a piano," Lucille said. "If you still sell those. I haven't been here in a while."

"We do,"said Tosarwat, gesturing, before coming around the counter. "I'll show you."

Not that they were hard to miss, since they were pianos, but it wasn't like Tisarwat was doing .uch else, and it would be nice to talk to someone new. As long as she didn't want to talk about how pianos were superior to keyboards for hours, anyway.

"I'm Tisarwat, by the way," she offered, as she lead the way. "You said you've been here before?"

"I used to be a student," Lucille said with a tiny smiled. "I went home but decided to come back. I couldn't bring my piano though, it's too used to the damp."

"Tisarwat. I haven't heard that name before. Are you from some other world, or from the future?"

Imagine, being able to go home and coming back. A look of open envy and longing flashed across Tisarwat's face for a moment before it became something softer, more amused.

"Both," she said, "in a way. I think? It's a place known as the Radch, a whole galactic empire, so it was pretty strange when I showed up here and hardly anyone had heard of it.

She considered Lucille a little more closely now. "I used to be a student here, too," she offered. "Just graduated this last semester, actually. What's your name?"

"Lucille Sharpe."

She walked over to the pianos.

"I'm from Earth. Cumberland, England, 1890. Do you know much about Earth?"

Was Tisarwat a girl? a boy? She couldn't tell, and it was a little annoying, since asking was a bit rude. Of course, she didn't need to know. He? She? was hopefully just going to sell her a piano.

If she'd had any idea of what Lucille was thinking, she'd continue being utterly baffled about why any of that should even matter...

"I haven't been here long," she answered, almost apologetically, "and it's a fairly vast planet, culturally and diversely, so I don't know as much as I'd like, but I'm always learning. England is in Europe, though, across the ocean. I'd love to visit some time. I hear they have an interesting culture of tea."

And that was like a bell sounding in her head. Her eyes widened.

"Tea!" she said. "Would you like some tea? I'm sorry, I should have offered earlier, when you came in, but I'm not used to this kind of work, and most people don't take it, anyway."

"Most people here prefer coffee," Lucille said. "I've never learnt to appreciate and I'm not going to try. A cup of tea would be lovely, thank you."

"Oh, coffee is terrible!" Tisarwat openly, almost eagerly admitted, with a sort of relieved laugh to hear someone else express similar sentiments, and now couldn't help but immediately like Lucille. "I tried to be open-minded and give it a try, but I just don't understand it at all, especially when this planet does have some excellent teas. I am biased, though. Tea is a very big deal where I'm from.

"Hold on," she said, "all my things for tea is back at the counter, but while I pour you a cup, you can start looking at the pianos."

"You should visit England," Lucille said. "Or some country where they are grown, like China, India or Japan."

She ran her fingers across the keys of one of the pianos, then sat down and began to play.

The tea wasn't very far away, of course, but Tisarwat may have taken her time pouring it to delay returning, so she could hear more of the song. She could really only put it off for so long, though, especially since it wouldn't do to have it start getting cold in transport.

"That's beautiful," she finally said, returning, smiling as she offered out the cup with a clear reluctance to interrupt her. "You're very good." Not that she really knew that much about music, but she felt there was sort of a general agreement on when it was good. "Have you been playing for long?"

"Thank you."

For the tea and for the compliment. She took a sip.

"Since I was a child. Clandestinely, when my parents were away."

"Were they away a lot?" Tisarwat asked, who sipped her own tea, because of course she'd gotten herself a cup while she was at it, too, and this was much nicer to listening to rants about vinyl. "Even if they were, though, you must have a tremendous talent, to have picked that up on your own only in snatches of time here and there."

"Our house is very remote, and in my time travelling isn't as fast as it is here. Whenever they were going somewhere, they stayed away for weeks."

She smiled into her teacup.

"They weren't missed. And I had a lot of time to practice while my brother was coming up with inventions. The tea is very nice."

Groovy Tunes; Tuesday [06/09].

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject